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Richard Rohr: Constantinianism: A Changing Religion
Much of what Jesus taught seems to have been followed closely during the first several hundred years after his death and resurrection. As long as Jesus’ followers were on the bottom and the edge of empire, as long as they shared the rejected and betrayed status of Jesus, they could grasp his teaching more readily. Values like nonparticipation in war, simple living, inclusivity, and love of enemies could be more easily understood when Christians were gathering secretly in the catacombs, when their faith was untouched by empire, rationalization, and compromise.
.. The last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ended in 311 CE. In 313, Constantine (c. 272-337) legalized Christianity. It became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380. After this structural change, Christianity increasingly accepted, and even defended, the dominant social order, especially concerning money and war. Morality became individualized and largely focused on sexuality. The church slowly lost its free and alternative vantage point. Texts written in the hundred years preceding 313 show it was unthinkable that a Christian would fight in the army, as the army was killing Christians. By the year 400, the entire army had become Christian, and they were now killing the “pagans.”
Before 313, the church was on the bottom of society, which is the privileged vantage point for understanding the liberating power of Gospel for both the individual and for society. Within the space of a few decades, the church moved from the bottom to the top, literally from the catacombs to the basilicas. The Roman basilicas were large buildings for court and other public assembly, and they became Christian worship spaces.
.. When the Christian church became the established religion of the empire, it started reading the Gospel from the position of maintaining power and social order instead of experiencing the profound power of powerlessness that Jesus revealed. In a sense, Christianity almost became a different religion!
The failing Roman Empire needed an emperor, and Jesus was used to fill the power gap. In effect, we Christians took Jesus out of the Trinity and made him into God on a throne. An imperial system needs law and order and clear belonging systems more than it wants mercy, meekness, or transformation. Much of Jesus’ teaching about simple living, nonviolence, inclusivity, and love of enemies became incomprehensible. Relationship—the shape of God as Trinity—was no longer as important. Christianity’s view of God changed: the Father became angry and distant, Jesus was reduced to an organizing principle, and for all practical and dynamic purposes, the Holy Spirit was forgotten.
Source: cac.org
Tags: angry, angry-god, anti-war, constantinianism, inclusive-of-religious-believers, individualism, non-violence, power, richard-rohr, sexuality, simple-living, sinners-in-the-hands-of-an-angry-god, social-order
Republican or Conservative, You Have to Choose
Conservatives said we agree with the general effort but think you’ve got human nature wrong. There never was such a thing as an autonomous, free individual who could gather with others to create order. Rather, individuals emerge out of families, communities, faiths, neighborhoods and nations. The order comes first. Individual freedom is an artifact of that order.
.. “The question of which comes first, liberty or order, was to divide liberals from conservatives for the next 200 years.”
.. The practical upshot is that conservatives have always placed tremendous emphasis on the sacred space where individuals are formed. This space is populated by institutions like the family, religion, the local community, the local culture, the arts, the schools, literature and the manners that govern everyday life.
.. Over the centuries conservatives have resisted anything that threatened this sacred space. First it was the abstract ideology of the French Revolution, the idea that society could be reorganized from the top down. Then it was industrialization. Conservatives like John Ruskin and later T. S. Eliot arose to preserve culture from the soulless pragmatism of the machine age.
.. Then it was the state. In their different ways, communists, fascists, social democrats and liberals tried to use the state to perform many functions previously done by the family, local civic organizations and the other players in the sacred space.
.. Conservatives fought big government not because they hated the state, per se, but because they loved the sacred space.
.. They both fizzled because over the last 30 years the parties of the right drifted from conservatism. The Republican Party became the party of market fundamentalism.
Market fundamentalism is an inhumane philosophy that makes economic growth society’s prime value and leaves people atomized and unattached. Republican voters eventually rejected market fundamentalism and went for the tribalism of Donald Trump because at least he gave them a sense of social belonging. At least he understood that there’s a social order under threat.
The problem is he doesn’t base his belonging on the bonds of affection conservatives hold dear. He doesn’t respect and obey those institutions, traditions and values that form morally decent individuals.
.. His tribalism is the evil twin of community. It is based on hatred, us/them thinking, conspiracy-mongering and distrust. It creates belonging, but on vicious grounds.
.. In 2018, the primary threat to the sacred order is no longer the state. It is a radical individualism that leads to vicious tribalism.
.. At his essence Trump is an assault on the sacred order that conservatives hold dear — the habits and institutions that cultivate sympathy, honesty, faithfulness and friendship.
.. You can’t do that rethinking if you are imprisoned in a partisan mind-set or if you dismiss half of Americans because they are on the “other team.”
Source: www.nytimes.com
Tags: anti-trump, belonging, big-government, community, conservatism, conspiracy, david-brooks, distrust, faithfulness, formation, french-revolution, friendship, honesty, individualism, industrialization, order, partisanship, sympathy, vicious
If There’s a Red Wave Election in 2018, This Will Be Why
Republicans have long criticized Democrats for dividing the country into competing grievance groups. Some now realize that the Republican analogue has been to divide the country into radically autonomous individuals based on a cartoonish misreading of libertarianism that replaces the free markets and free minds of Friedrich Hayek with the greed and hubris of Gordon Gekko. But that is changing quickly. There is a renewed emphasis on addressing America and Americans as a community characterized by fraternal bonds and mutual responsibility — what Lincoln called the “mystic chords of memory.”
.. If Republicans really want to win, then their pronouns must be we, us and our, and they have to make sure that the people who hear them know that they are included in we, us and our.
Tags: american-greatness, christopher-buskirk, division, friedrich-hayek, gordon-gekko, individualism, pronouns-we-us
Why Do Conservatives Hate Identity Politics So Much?
Conservatives have always viewed the quest for equality as a zero-sum game.
While John Adams was away at the Second Continental Congress, his wife Abigail was concerned he would forget about her. Not literally, of course, but in the nation’s new code of laws. So she wrote him a letter and advised him to “remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” She warned, “Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the husbands.”
For conservatives like Brooks and Sullivan, the quest for equality is a zero-sum game. Incorporating “those who previously had no standing” into the “parameters of public speech” necessitates a removal of freedom from those who were already being heard. A more inclusive society will inevitably water down the influence of their white, male worldview. I understand their unease with this development—up to a point. It’s hard to hear honest critiques of a world that has disproportionately benefitted people like you. It calls into question the legitimacy of your success. This is what Brooks is trying to articulate when he writes:
Identity politics takes individual merit out of the moral center of our system and asserts that group is, Goldberg says, “an immutable category, a permanent tribe.”
Defenders of an unjust status quo know they can’t just say, “Hey, look, society currently suits me super-well, so let’s not change it.” So they portray the enfranchisement of subordinated groups as attacks on individual relationships, too.
Brooks and Sullivan are merely carrying on this conservative conviction, which made an otherwise brilliant founding father fear the “despotism” of free women more than a political system which excluded the majority of its citizens.
Source: civicskunk.works
Tags: conservatives, equality, gender, history, identity-politics, individualism, john-adams, tribalism, zero-sum
Delusions of Kanye
For decades, the essential failure of conservative outreach to African-Americans has been the insistence that the right just want to treat black Americans as individuals — a fine-sounding idea, except that white America has never found a way to treat its former slaves that way, making black identity politics not an indulgence but a matter of survival.
To this failure Trump has added an exclamation point. He has been shrewder than libertarian conservatives in recognizing that individualism is not enough, that the right needs a politics of solidarity. But his appeals to solidarity have often been racially exclusive in exactly the ways an African-American skeptic of conservatism would have predicted.
.. You don’t want to take down every Confederate statue or dethrone slave-owning founders? Okay: What monuments to the slave or Jim Crow experience will you enthusiastically support? What more capacious retellings of history, with black heroes instead of sentimentalized Confederates, are you willing to endorse?
.. You don’t want the federal government interfering with local law enforcement? Okay: Then when black people are obviously victims of local institutions, are you willing to elevate and defend them, to make them a cause célèbre, to act as if their concerns are yours as well?
.. If you’re telling African-Americans that their current political leadership is failing them, don’t package that message with the exaggerations about “urban” voter fraud that too many Republicans have propagated. If you want people to consider joining your coalition, act like you want to compete for their vote, not just discourage them from voting.
Tags: birtherism, identity-politics, individualism, kanye-west, racism, ross-douthat
The Rush to Condemn Jordan Peterson as Racist
his critics on the left say Peterson, who dares attack their views of gender and white guilt, is one step removed from a white supremacist or similar to notable fascists.
.. Mishra points to Peterson’s affinity for “the great myths and religious stories of the past” as a sign that he shares an intellectual kinship with Richard Wagner, who “became notorious for using myth to regenerate the volk and stoke hatred of the aliens — largely Jews — who he thought polluted the pure community rooted in blood and soil.”
.. Peggy McIntosh, a Harvard graduate and professor of women’s studies, was one of the first to publish on white privilege. She wrote in a 1988 paper
.. Being white not only benefited her group, she argued, it oppressed other races, as evidenced by the fact, for example, that she could “talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to [her] race.” Such privilege, she argues, “simply confers dominance, gives permission to control.” She alludes to the notion of hierarchy as oppressive but then offers no solution, except to urge white people to feel guilty.
.. Peterson mocked this paper last year during a lecture for the University of British Columbia Free Speech Club. He said McIntosh’s list of 46 privileges enjoyed by white people could apply to different groups of people in different countries, which means that privilege doesn’t have anything to do with being white or even with race but with being wealthy or being the majority.
.. “It turns out we don’t fit into one group, any of us, we fit into multiple groups and it’s not obvious at all which groups should be of paramount importance,” he said, noting that people can be divided by race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, intelligence, personality, etc. The individual is the most important entity, he argued.
.. Still, Peterson doesn’t let anyone off the hook. He acknowledges that those who enjoy wealth today have come by it largely as a consequence of “historical catastrophe” — a reality that should motivate you to “work to deserve” these privileges, which will in turn make the world a better place for everyone.
Source: www.nationalreview.com
Tags: anti-semetic, group-identity, identity-politics, individualism, jordan-peterson, peggy-mcintosh, richard-wagner, white-guilt, white-privilege, white-supremacy
A Renaissance on the Right
Liberal individualism doesn’t produce the sort of virtuous, self-restrained people that are required to sustain it.
.. But about 300 years ago something that he calls “the Miracle” happened. It was a shift in attitude. For thousands of years, societies divided people into permanent categories of race or caste. But, Goldberg writes, “the Miracle ushered in a philosophy that says each person is to be judged and respected on account of their own merits, not the class or caste of their ancestors.”
.. Tribalism was always there, lurking under the surface. It returns now as identity politics, which is reactionary reversion to the pre-modern world.
.. Identity politics warriors claim they are fighting for social justice, but really it’s just the same old thing, Goldberg argues, a mass mobilization to gain power for the tribe.
Earlier movements wanted America to live up to its ideals. Today’s identitarians doubt the liberal project itself.
.. The central tension in his book is between Locke, who emerges as a rational, calm, pipe-smoking economist, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who emerges as a wild-haired, passionately resentful rock star. The liberal order emerges from the individualism of Locke and is threatened by group consciousness and romantic resentments of Rousseau.
But America is both rational and romantic, both Locke and Rousseau.
.. The core problem today is not tribalism. It’s excessive individualism
Excessive individualism has left us distrustful and alone — naked Lockeans. When people are naked and alone they revert to tribe. Tribalism is the end product of excessive individualism.
.. Gratitude is too weak a glue to hold a diverse nation together. Renewal will come through the communitarians on the right and the left, who seek ways to improve relationships on a household, local and national level.
Tags: communitarian, identity-politics, individualism, individualism-excessive, jean-jacques-rousseau, liberal-individualism-isnt-self-sustaining, locke, pre-modern-reversion, rational, romantic, self-restraint, tribalism
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Stingers Wednesday game postponed
April 17, 2007 - National Indoor Football League (NIFL) - Columbia Stingers News Release
Columbia, S.C., (April 17, 2007) - The Columbia Stingers vs. Ft. Myers Tarpons scheduled for Wednesday, April 18 has been moved to a later date to be determined. The Stingers are currently working with The National Indoor Football League to set a new time for the game.
Tickets purchased for this game can be exchanged for any other regular season game at the Colonial Center box office.
The next Stingers home game is scheduled for Saturday, April 21 at 7:00pm.
National Indoor Football League Stories from April 17, 2007
Stingers Wednesday game postponed - Columbia Stingers
Other Recent Columbia Stingers Stories
Letter from General Manager Bobby Jackson
Stingers forced to cancel game, make changes
Stingers to play Saturday
Stingers Start Practice
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Australia’s Youngest-Ever Senator To Introduce Bill To Lower Voting Age To 16
By Alex Bruce-Smith
A new bill set to be introduced by the Greens next month could see 16 and 17-year-old Australians allowed to vote if they wished, as young people become more democratically engaged than ever.
Introduced by 23-year-old Senator Jordon Steele-John – who became the youngest ever Senator in Australia after being appointed to fill the gap left by Scott Ludlam – the bill would see the voting age in Australia lowered to 16-years-old.
“In the last few years we’ve seen a surge of young people making their voices heard about the issues that matter to them,” said Steele-John, pointing to 2017’s marriage equality debate as a prime example.
“It’s time the Australian political establishment stopped locking young people out; we care deeply about our future and the world around us and yet don’t get a seat at the table.
“It’s frustrating to me that young people aged 16 can work full time, drive cars, pay taxes, make choices about medical treatment and about their own bodies yet can’t vote or elect the people who make decisions affecting them.
“Lowering the voting age to 16 represents an exciting chance to reinvigorate the way we teach civics education by bringing democratic participation into the classroom in a whole new way.”
This Bill would see 16 and 17-year-olds given a “grace period” of engaging in politics, with no penalty notices given if they choose not to vote.
It would also see teens as young as 14 and 15 added to the electoral roll in preparation for their ability to vote upon turning 16.
And while there’s the obvious incentive for the Greens that young people typically lean left while casting their vote (and according to the 2016 Census, there were 1.4 million Aussies aged between 15 and 19), there’s also the fact that some young people feel completely shut out of politics as it stands.
Australia’s peak body for youth affairs – the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC) – has been calling for a debate on this exact issue for years.
“Politicians think in terms of voters. Lowering the voting age will add more than half a million young people aged 16 and 17 to the electoral roll and give politicians an incentive to consider how the decisions they are making every day affect young people and their futures,” said AYAC chair Katie Acheson.
“We know that the younger people are when they first vote, the more likely they are to continue voting throughout their lives; including them at an earlier age as part of our national conversation and political process can only increase their civic engagement and understanding of Australian society and their place within it.”
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten also declared in 2015 that the voting age should be lowered to 16, saying that young people deserved the right the shape our laws and policies.
“My message to the Liberal party is let’s trust our young people because they’re the people who are going to have to deal with the decisions that we’re making right now,” he told the New South Wales Young Labor conference.
New Zealand flirted with the idea of lowering the voting age to 16 back in 2007, when former Aotearoa New Zealand Greens MP Sue Bradford introduced a private member’s bill. The discussion was brought up again by the Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft earlier this year in response to low voter turnout in the 18–29 year age group (voting is not compulsory).
Opponents in New Zealand argue that young people lack the maturity, life experience, civic knowledge and independence to vote, arguing that they’re too heavily influenced by their parents or teachers.
But as The Conversation pointed out, that argument isn’t exactly consistent with New Zealand’s inclusive electoral system, which allows other groups who may be heavily influenced (such as religious groups being influenced by religious leaders, or people with cognitive disabilities being influenced by their carers) to vote regardless.
Around the world, we’re seeing a trend in voting ages coming down. In the last decade, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, some states in Germany and a canton in Switzerland all lowered the voting age to 16, while Indonesia and South Sudan allow 17-year-olds to vote. In the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, 16 and 17-year-olds jumped on their right to vote (a first in British politics), with three-quarters of the population doing so. And in the United States – where several states have considered bills to lower the voting age – we’re seeing teenagers take on Congress over gun reform with the #NeverAgain movement, despite most of them not yet being able to vote.
“Whether it’s in Australia or New Zealand, young people are proving their right to be included in the democratic process,” said Kiwi greens MP Chloë Swarbrick today, supporting Steele-John’s bill.
“This reform is just another example of how the Green movement is committed to realising the rights of our generation.”
Steele-John is set to introduce the bill in the Senate next month to be debated on June 18.
Image: AAP / Lukas Coch
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Dakota Meyer
Sgt. Dakota Meyer was born and raised in Columbia, Kentucky and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 2006. A school-trained sniper and highly skilled Marine infantryman, Sgt. Meyer deployed to Iraq in 2007 for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom during 2009–10. In 2011, he was awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government, for his service in the Battle of Ganjgal.
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Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 54F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..
Mostly cloudy. Low 38F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.
Area football roundup
Paxton News Bureau
GCT falls on
last-minute TDPARAGOULD — Clarksville’s Jacob Buckner scored on a 12-yard run with 21 seconds left in the game and the Panthers kicked the extra point to defeat Greene County Tech 21-20 in the Class 5A state playoffs.
Both teams scored in the final 90 seconds of the game. GCT (6-5) took a 20-14 lead on David Williams’ 1-yard run with 1:16 remaining, but the Golden Eagles were unable to get the snap down for the extra point to be kicked.
A 29-yard kickoff return and a facemask penalty on the next play put Clarksville (4-6) on the GCT 24 with 56 seconds remaining. The Panthers scored three plays later and the Eagles were unable to answer.
GCT took a 7-0 lead on Williams’ 44-yard touchdown run with 6:15 left in the first quarter. The Eagles were stopped on downs at the Panthers’ 26 with 5:24 left in the second quarter and the Panthers tied the game on Broderick Robinson’s 47-yard touchdown run at the 2:13 mark.
Clarksville took a 14-7 lead on Arthur Alvarez’s 2-yard run with 5:05 left in the third quarter. GCT tied the game on the first play of the fourth quarter after Christian Barber threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Storm Harris.
Lake Village nips Walnut RidgeLAKE VILLAGE — Lake Village held off Walnut Ridge for a 21-14 victory Friday night in the Class 3A state football playoffs.
The Beavers (3-5) will visit Hoxie (9-0) for a first-round game next Friday.
Walnut Ridge (2-8) scored first on Blane Wade’s 2-yard run with 7:31 left in the first quarter. Parker Carmack kicked the extra point.
Lake Village tied the game later in the first quarter, but the Bobcats regained the lead when Wade scored on a 14-yard run with 3:40 left in the second quarter. The game was tied 14-14 at halftime after the Beavers returned an interception for a touchdown with seven seconds left in the half.
A touchdown with one second left in the third quarter gave Lake Village its first lead at 21-14. Walnut Ridge lost a fumble at the Beavers’ 20-yard line with four minutes to play.
Wade finished with 146 yards on 25 carries, while Mari Thomas added 87 yards on 26 carries for the Bobcats.
King, Lewis power TrumannTRUMANN — Rian King and Milton Lewis combined for 179 yards rushing and five touchdowns Friday night as Trumann pounded Heber Springs 43-14 in the Class 4A state football playoffs.
The Wildcats (6-5) will travel to Malvern (5-5) next Friday.
King finished with 104 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries, while Lewis added 75 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. Gavin Morgan finished with 75 yards and a touchdown on six carries.
Trumann took a 7-0 lead on King’s 2-yard touchdown run with 5:13 left in the first quarter. Lewis reached the end zone on a 7-yard run four seconds into the second quarter to make it 14-0.
After a Heber Springs (2-9) touchdown, Lewis scored on a 14-yard run with 1:56 left in the half to give the Wildcats a 20-6 halftime lead.
King scored on a 46-yard run at the 9:43 mark of the third quarter and Connor McClain added the two-point conversion to give Trumann a 28-6 lead.
King scored on a 9-yard run with 10:49 left in the game. Heber Springs scored before Morgan scored on a 46-yard run, followed by Lewis’ two-point conversion to set the final score with 8:26 left in the game.
Paragould Daily Press
Police make arrests for battery, child endangerment, forgery
Police make 2 felony arrests
Court accepts pleas in drug, false report cases
McCain: DWI mobilization, bar restrictions helped deter DWI
Work begins on solar panel farm
HLC approves BRTC's additional locations
AMMC: COVID-19 spread continues in county
WBU receives gift from First National Bank of Lawrence County
Regular session begins with COVID-19 precautions
Next round of COVID-19 vaccines available Monday
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Palace pageantry: why and how you should see the Changing of the Guard
By David -
So many visitors to London are attracted to the UK capital for the pomp and pageantry its enduring association with the British Royal family lends it. Aside from the obvious buildings and monuments (Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Nelson’s Column and numerous other statues), one of the major historical experiences with a strong Royal flavour that anyone can indulge in – and do so daily and for free! – is the Changing of the Guard.
The once-a-day switchover of Her Majesty The Queen’s mounted guards in front of Buckingham Palace, it’s a ceremony that draws crowds every morning for its tradition, colour and sense of occasion. It features the Queen’s official troop of Guards, which can be seen at different times of the day at Horse Guards on Whitehall, itself the official main entrance to both St. James’s Palace and Buckingham Palace (dating back to a time when The Mall, which effectively connects the two buildings, didn’t exist). With guards based at both palaces, one group of them from Horse Guards replaces the other at Buckingham Palace, hence the Changing of the Guard.
Usually provided by the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR), the Guard alternates its members each day between Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. However, when the HCMR’saway for summer training, it’s instead filled by the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. Thenumberof Guard members alters too. When The Queen’s in residence it’s made up of an officer, a corporal-major carrying the standard, two non-commissioned officers, a trumpeter and 11 troopers; alternatively when she’s not in Buckingham Palace, the Guard’s reduced to two non-commissioned officers and 10 troopers.
But how will you, a London-visiting commoner, be able to tell if The Queen’s in residence or not? Well, it’s best to check which flag it is that’sflying on the roof of Buckingham Palace. If it’s the Union Flag (the Union Jack), she won’t be; if it’s the Royal Standard she’ll be in.
Now, to experience the ceremony properly, as opposed to pressing yourself up against the railings of Buckingham Palace and catching very little of the action due to alimited view, it’s best to start where the thing itself begins – at the entrance of St. James’s Palace (on Marlborough Road). Trust me, wherever you might be staying in or around London – even if it’s an executive stay in Heathrow– this is a rarely (properly) seen event and one to brag about when you return home. First, you’ll want to check the official scheduleso you’ll know what regiment you’ll actually be observing – and whether it comprises a military band or not.
The advantage of starting at St. James’s Palace is that you can witness the whole ceremony from its start – and then walk alongside the troops as they march from here for the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Indeed, because you’ll be approaching the Palace with the Guards as opposed to waiting for them there with the gathered throng, you won’t be caught up in the middle of the crowd and be able to work out the best vantage point to watch the ceremony culminate.
The climax itself, then,consists of the ‘new Guard’ coming face to face with the ‘old Guard’ and the senior officer of the former shaking hands and exchanging words with his opposite number from the New Guard, then proceeding into the Palace as the rest of the Guard fully ‘changes’, the two troupes swapping roles.
However, that’s not all. Should you head back to St. James’s Palace – where you’ll have started from – you can experience more pageantry as you watch the troops switch here too. And because there’ll be far fewer people about, you should get the chance to have your photo taken next to a guard for that priceless social media-boast-worthy moment. Who would turn down that opportunity on a trip to London, honestly?
This blogger certainly hopes this post has been of use filling you in about all things Changing the Guard and how best to enjoy the unique yet daily event, but if you’d like to be actually guided through the experience on the day, then your best bet is to sign up to a specialised tour – for instance, this tour is among those that come highly recommended. Just click on the link and see for yourself.
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PATRICK COMERFORD: an online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
Meet me in Lichfield
Thinking about 1916
Limerick Cathedrals and Churches
Visiting Synagogues
A forgotten synagogue on
Princelet Street, London,
and the missing caretaker
No 19 Princelet Street, first built as Huguenot weaver’s house, also housed Princelet Street Synagogue for almost a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)
Patrick Comerford
Princelet Street in the East End of London was first known as Prince’s Street. Originally it was just 100 metres (300) ft long, running from Wilkes Street at the west to Brick Lane at the east. It is parallel to the east end of Hanbury Street to the north, and Fournier Street to the south.
Today, Princelet Street stretches for another 170 metres (500 ft) east of Brick Lane, along what was originally known as Booth Street. The synagogue building is at No 19 on the north side of Princelet Street, half-way between Wilkes Street and Brick Lane.
The story of Princelet Street and Spitalfields in general is one of immigration. From Huguenots to Irish and Jews to Bengalis, a wide variety of people have made the street their home and left traces or relics of their lives here.
The Huguenots were French Calvinists who fled persecution in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Many were weavers, and the rooflines of some of these houses still have attic rooms with wide windows first designed to flood the interiors with light. These Huguenot refugees and weavers set up their weaving looms in houses in the Spitalfields area.
Huguenot weavers and their families built the houses on Princelet Street in the first decades of the 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)
No 19 Princelet Street was built in 1718 and is believed to be the oldest house on the street. By 1719, this was the home of Peter Abraham Ogier, a Huguenot silk merchant. The bobbin on the wall depicts that it was once the premises of a Huguenot weaver.
In time, other poor weaver families followed the Ogier family. Gradually they assimilated with the local population and by the end of the 19th century the Huguenots had virtually disappeared as a distinct cultural minority.
Later, 19 Princelet Street was home to Irish and Polish immigrants. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, the former Huguenot houses on Princelet Street became the homes of large Jewish families, with each family living in one or two rooms each.
The family home at No 19 changed dramatically in 1869, when a group of Polish Jews formed the Loyal United Friends’ Friendly Society and leased the house with hard-earned financial contributions from the local community and built their own small synagogue in the back garden of the house.
Prince’s Street Synagogue opened in 1870. It was long and narrow, with a women’s gallery on the first floor, and delicately-coloured tinted glass in the skylight. This shul was typical of the many small Orthodox synagogues in the East End that depended on donations from wealthy patrons. They held cheap or free marriage ceremonies for poor couples who could not afford the fees charged by the United Synagogue.
At the end of the 19th century another group of refugees fleeing persecution arrived in these streets. Many were fleeing pogroms in the Russian empire following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881.
This was one of the congregations that attended the meeting of 16 October 1887 to form the Federation of Synagogues, and it became one of the original federated synagogues on 6 November 1887.
The roof was so dilapidated by 1891 that Lewis Solomon (1848-1928), architect to the Federation of Synagogues and a former apprentice and later clerk of works in the office of http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2018/04/the-wyatt-family-of-weeford-lichfield.html (1820-1877), declared the building unsafe.
But the building was soon refurbished and redecorated, and the synagogue was re-opened in 1893 by Sir Samuel Montagu. Later, Lewis Solomon also redesigned the Congregation of Jacob Synagogue on Commercial Road.
The United Friends Synagogue or Fashion Street synagogue, in New Court, Fashion Street, amalgamated with the Prince’s Street synagogue in 1898.
The street was known as Prince’s Street until 1916, and with the change of name the synagogue became Princelet Street Synagogue.
Princelet Street Synagogue was at the heart of resistance to Moseley’s march through Cable Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)
A basement was created downstairs, below the synagogue. This community space hosted antifascist meetings in the 1930s, including meetings to plan the ‘Battle of Cable Street’ and resistance to the march Oswald Moseley’s blackshirts in 1936.
Princelet Street synagogue finally closed its doors in the 1963, when the congregation merged with Bethnal Green Synagogue.
For two decades, the synagogue was forgotten, and David Rodinsky, a reclusive Jewish scholar, continued to live in lodgings in the attic or top floor of the premises as a much-forgotten caretaker. He seems to have disappeared from memory along with the forgotten and neglected synagogue.
When the Spitalfields Housing Trust bought No 19 in 1983, along with neighbouring No 17, the new owners were astonished when they turned the key and found the forgotten synagogue much decayed but intact.
The caretaker was missing, but his room in the attic was filled with books, papers, gramophone records and atlases, the table was set for dinner, there was a half-finished cup of tea, a pot of porridge was on the stove, and there was an unmade bed.
The evidence showed that the missing caretaker knew at least 15 languages, many of them dead, and had a strong interest in the Kabbalah. There was an A-Z marked with obscure journeys into the London suburbs, and scraps of paper and sweet wrappers were covered with indecipherable scribblings in many languages.
But where was David Rodinsky?
The mystery of David Rodinsky and where he had disappeared to quickly became folklore in Spitalfields and the East End. In their book, Rodinsky’s Room, Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair,tell the story of their search for David Rodinsky.
Perhaps, as Ian Sinclair points out, there are shades of the Golem myth here. But Rodinsky had died in March 1969, at the age of 44, in the Long Grove Asylum in Surrey and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Waltham Abbey.
When Rachel Lichtenstein found his grave, she said Kaddish for David Rodinsky.
No 19 Princelet Street is now home to the Museum of Immigration and Diversity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)
No 19 Princelet Street is now the home of the Museum of Immigration and Diversity. This is Europe’s first museum of immigration and it is a unique cultural institution.
The synagogue still covers the back garden, but due to its fragile condition it is rarely open to visitors, although group visits may be booked in advance. It is looked after by the Spitalfields Centre charity and is a Grade II* listed building on English Heritage’s ‘Buildings at Risk’ register.
The house next door at 17 Princelet Street is the birthplace of Miriam Moses (1886-1965), who became the first woman mayor of Stepney in 1931 and the first Jewish woman mayor in Britain. A blue plaque says:
Miriam Moses OBE JP, social reformer and first woman mayor of Stepney 1931-1932, was born here in 1886.
Miriam Moses was a Labour politician and a heroine among local people in the East End. She founded the Brady Girls’ Club that aided the children of impoverished East End Jews. The club gave food, clothing, recreation and education to those in need and was funded by wealthy ‘West End’ Jews.
Miriam Moses was also involved with the Jewish section of the Children’s Country Holiday Fund, a charity providing holidays to children who would otherwise never have seen an open field. She famously never left the East End during the Blitz in World War II.
Meanwhile, Princelet Street and its environs have become increasingly gentrified. Most of the Huguenot houses have been restored and some of them are the homes of artists and writers.
The plaque to Miriam Moses at 17 Princelet Street Synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)
Posted by Patrick Comerford at 18:30
Labels: Architecture, East End, Judaism, Local History, London, Museums, Spitalfields, Synagogues, Wyatt
Prize-winning blog
‘Highly Commended’ in the ‘Blog’ category in the communications awards at the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, 2013; Runner-up, 2010; Winner, 2009; Runner-up, 2008
A forgotten synagogue on Princelet Street, London,...
Praying through Lent with USPG (14): 10 March 2020
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BSc (Hons) Computer Science Alumni
MASS – Nominated for Sports Society of the Year 2017
Facebook Digital Marketing Associate
Today I graduated with from the University of Leicester, with a degree in BSc (Hons) Computer Science.
The University of Leicester is a public research university based in Leicester, England.
The university has established itself as a leading research-led university and has been named University of the Year of 2008 by the Times Higher Education. It was ranked 13th among all British universities by The Guardian in 2014. The University of Leicester is also the only university ever to have won a Times Higher Education award in seven consecutive years. In 2016, the university ranked 24th in the The Complete University Guide and 32nd in the The Guardian.
Modules include:
Study Skills and Professional Practice
Discrete Structures
Data Structure and Development Environments
Databases and Web Applications
User Interfaces and HCI
Software Engineering and System Development
Automata, Languages and Computation
Software Project Management and Professionalism
Software Engineering Project
Multimedia and Computer Graphics
Operating Systems, Networks and Distributed Systems
Software Measurement and Quality Assurance
Big Data and Predictive Analytics
Cryptography and Internet Security
Third Year Computer Science Project
University of Leicester Website: https://le.ac.uk
Copyright © 2020 | Insane Tech Ltd
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IR35: the basics, and expected changes to the rules IR35: the basics, and expected changes to the rules
IR35: the basics, and expected changes to the rules
Out-Law Guide | 19 Jun 2019 | 3:26 pm | 4 min. read
When engaging with contractors and off-payroll workers it is common that a business will engage with an individual through a company referred to as a personal service company (PSC) rather than directly with the individual on a self-employed basis.
New tax rules are being introduced that will make businesses liable for determining the tax status of contractors who work through PSCs. The changes to the rules known as IR35 are being introduced from April 2020 and will create significant cost and compliance challenges for businesses which rely heavily on a flexible workforce. This guide provides an overview of the current rules and the proposals for change.
Background – the use of PSCs
Commonly, a PSC is a company where there is only one employee/office holder and the purpose of the PSC is to supply that individual's services to a business. The fee for those services is then paid by the business to the PSC.
Using a PSC can be beneficial to the individual contractor for a number of reasons, including that the individual is protected by the limited liability status of a company. The individual can also achieve tax savings, by having more flexibility regarding how profits are withdrawn from the company.
Many businesses have encouraged the use of PSCs when engaging contractors, since they provide increased flexibility, particularly where a business operates in a sector with fluctuating labour demands. Engaging with individuals through PSCs can also create significant HR costs savings to businesses, since those individuals would not gain employment rights, such as an entitlement to sickness and holiday pay.
The use of PSCs also generates tax savings for businesses. Currently, a private sector business which contracts with a PSC does not deduct tax under the Pay As You Earn System (PAYE) from payments made to the PSC, and importantly, does not have to pay employer's national insurance contributions (NICs). Employer's NICs are currently payable at 13.8% so engaging contractors through a PSC can result in a significant tax saving on a business's payroll costs.
However, the IR35 rules require that employment taxes and NICs be paid in respect of a person who provides services through a PSC if that person would have been regarded as an employee of the engaging business if it had engaged directly with the business.
When does IR35 apply?
Broadly, the IR35 rules will only apply where there would have been an employment relationship between the engaging business and the individual if the individual had engaged directly with the business, rather than through the PSC. The IR35 rules do not apply where there is a genuine self-employment/consultant relationship.
When a business engages with contractors through PSCs, it will be exposed to significant tax risks and businesses need to start taking action to prepare for this.
There is no precise legal test to determine whether an individual is an employee; rather the test has been developed through court decisions and is based on a number of factors. HMRC has also developed guidance on when it considers an employment relationship exists. The Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) Tool may also be useful when trying to establish whether a contactor would be considered to be an employee. However, HMRC has acknowledged that the CEST tool is limited and fails to give the correct answer in 15% of cases. CEST is currently being reformed as part of HMRC's preparations for the IR35 changes being introduced in April 2020.
IR35 also applies where an individual is engaged through a company to provide services to a client and the individual would have been regarded as the holder of an office with the client if the individual had been engaged directly. For example, IR35 would apply to PSCs providing the services of an individual as a director of the client, including a non-executive director.
How the IR35 rules work
Currently, where a private sector business engages a contractor through a PSC, liability to decide whether IR35 applies and to pay any employment taxes rests with the PSC.
This is in contrast to the public sector, where following changes to the rules in April 2017, public authorities and other public sector engagers are now responsible for determining whether the IR35 rules apply and accounting for tax and NICs if the contractor would have been regarded as an employee if the PSC had not been used.
Proposals for change - what we can expect?
At the autumn Budget in October 2018 the government confirmed that it would extend the changes to IR35 in the public sector to the private sector from April 2020. HMRC has confirmed that small businesses will be exempt from the changes, and that the reforms will not operate retrospectively.
Consequently, once the new regime is introduced, the engaging business (known as the end-client) will be liable for determining employment tax status and whether the IR35 rules apply. Where an engagement falls within IR35, the liability to operate PAYE and pay employers' NICs will sit with the entity that pays the PSC (the "fee payer"). In more complex supply chains this entity is likely to be an agency. However, under the current proposals, if the fee payer fails to pay tax due under IR35, liability for any outstanding amount will shift back to the end-client. Ultimately, therefore, the risk of non-compliance sits with the end-client. This approach will be consistent with the changes already introduced in the public sector.
What should businesses be doing now?
The consultation outlines four actions that businesses should take now to prepare for the reforms. These include: identifying and reviewing "current engagements with intermediaries", including personal service companies (PSCs) and labour supply agencies, and putting in place "comprehensive" processes to determine the employment status of contractors. HMRC also recommends that businesses should start reviewing internal systems such as payroll software, process maps, HR and on-boarding policies to see if they need to make any changes.
By including a section in the consultation outlining the actions businesses should take to prepare for the reforms, HMRC has issued a clear warning to businesses not to wait until April 2020 to respond. Businesses can expect HMRC to begin robustly reviewing compliance as soon as the new rules become law.
In the first instance, a business needs to identify how many PSCs it engages and which areas of the business are engaging PSCs. Once a business has identified its PSC population, it needs to undertake a comprehensive risk assessment to establish its exposure to IR35 and to review whether changes need to be made to HR and procurement processes when engaging with contractors through PSCs.
Embarking on this compliance exercise as quickly as possible is going to be crucial for businesses in sectors where there is heavy reliance on a flexible workforce and large numbers of contractors are likely to be engaged through PSCs.
Follow Employment Tax
+44 (0)121 623 8699 [email protected]
Penny Simmons
AI in Financial Services
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Rob Pruitt: Stronger Together (2020)
AUD$2100.00 CAD$2000.00 €1300.00 £1150.00 T1500.00 USD$1500.00
Print: Archival Pigment Print on Hemp Paper
Size: 508 x 406 mm (20 x 16 in)
In his aptly titled limited edition, Stronger Together, Pruitt employs a harmonious grouping of his beloved pandas against an abstract landscape of black and white. The pandas here serve as a universal symbol of unity–inspiring community and a way forward in times when equality for all and environmental protection are at stake. Known for his self-described "populist" works imbued with powerful messages, Pruitt states, "To me, 'stronger together' means being there for one another...it's a message of solidarity that resonates with the social times, but maybe the title should be: Stronger Together, But Six Feet Apart?"
Each print from the edition of 50 is signed, numbered and printed on Hahnemühle Natural Line Hemp paper, hand-selected by the artist. Proceeds from this sale support Public Art Fund's mission to bring compelling contemporary art to New York City's public spaces 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Now more than ever, public art—always free and accessible—is one of the safest and only ways for most New Yorkers to experience culture in their daily lives. Learn more about current and upcoming exhibitions at PublicArtFund.org.
Artist, crafter, and cultural anthropologist - Rob Pruitt navigates the depths and the shallows of the contemporary visual world. His varied projects include painted glittery canvases of panda bears, an eBay Flea Market benefiting various charities, creating the art world's own Hollywood-style awards ceremony, and for the better half of a decade, Instagramming a daily calendar of personal and public events. Pruitt has won many admirers for his use of diverse media and D.I.Y. techniques, which bring an outsider spirit to works that always deliver a message. Over the last 30 years, Pruitt's influential practice has been met with both critical and popular success.
His work has been shown internationally since the early 1990's, at venues including the Tate Modern, Kunstahlle Zürich, MoCA Detroit, and the Aspen Art Museum. In 2011, the Public Art Fund installed Pruitt's Andy Monument, a chrome-plated, seven-foot-tall statue of Andy Warhol, near Union Square.
Marcel Dzama: The Illumination of the sisters of paradise (2020)
Genesis Tramaine: Black Woman University (2020)
AUD$1400.00 CAD$1300.00 €900.00 £750.00 T1000.00 USD$1000.00
Eric Fischl: Mix and Match (2020)
Cecily Brown: All the Nightmares Came Today (2012/2019)
Great Women Artists Portfolio (2019)
AUD$12200.00 CAD$11700.00 €7600.00 £6750.00 T9000.00 USD$9000.00
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Tackling inequality in the 21st century – the challenges and potential solutions
Kanni Wignaraja (The Philippine Star) - December 12, 2019 - 12:00am
Waves of protests have exploded around the world with people demonstrating against a range of problems, demanding an end to corruption, pushing for action on climate change, and pressing for personal freedom.
The anger of the demonstrators has caught governments off guard. Asia and the Pacific, the world’s most dynamic and diverse region, has reflected those protests.
The events of this year – and how they came to pass – are a distillation of the intertwined challenges that will come to define the 21st century: climate crisis, automation, and inequality.
People are increasingly taking to the streets because they feel that economic and political structures are rigged against them, and that their voices are not being heard.
These grievances underpin the core analysis of UNDP’s new Human Development Report, which presents decision makers with the choice to overturn deep-rooted systemic drivers of inequality. In doing so, there is the opportunity to simultaneously eliminate extreme deprivation, while equipping people to live with dignity, manage the risks of global warming, and benefit from artificial intelligence and robotics.
Inequality is not inevitable, but it will get harder to correct humanity’s current self-destructive trajectory if we go about business as usual.
People in low human development countries are missing out on opportunities needed to get ahead, such as a university education, and even the most basic human needs are still not being met for many. About 58 percent of people in low human development countries do not have even a primary education, and as high as about 97 percent do not have tertiary education.
The odds are stacked, in a range of ways, along the lines of gender, ethnicity, class and sexual orientation – to name but a few. Women represent the largest systematically disadvantaged group worldwide and are facing a backlash to empowerment. The 2019 Human Development Report shows 90 percent of men and 86 percent of women worldwide hold some form of bias against a gender-equal world. Additionally, the more power is at stake, the higher the resistance, with a woman facing more intense opposition in running for office than voting.
These statistics speak to just one of many pervasive and pernicious inequalities that exist in the world and are driving frustration and resentment. But with the scale and scope of the challenges mapped out, how do we respond?
For starters, a relatively low national income is no excuse for inaction. Countries with fewer resources at their disposal might take inspiration from Ethiopia, which has rolled out pre-primary education across the country, securing a double win by facilitating early childhood development and freeing up mothers’ time, so they can join the workforce if they choose.
In Asia and the Pacific, a wide range of countries with a broad assortment of health systems and incomes – ranging from Bangladesh, to Indonesia, to Thailand and Vietnam – have worked to either create or expand universal health coverage programmes. Thailand’s universal health coverage scheme, implemented in 2001, spread to all provinces the following year, and reached 98 percent of the population a decade later.
China is leading progress in digital connectivity in the region, followed by big countries like India and Indonesia. In the Philippines, a Free Public Access Program is expanding connectivity through the country, and in Thailand the government is extending connectivity to 4,000 villages.
Looking to expand opportunity and fight poverty, I am proud to say that UNDP will continue its work in the areas of climate change, governance, and poverty and inequality. For instance, in Nepal, a micro-enterprise development programme has created over 140,000 micro-entrepreneurs, of which 70 percent are women. The programme has also contributed to providing direct and indirect employment to over half a million people.
UNDP has also set up 60 Accelerator Labs, 10 in the Asia Pacific region, that will help governments in the region meet development priorities faster, with the aim of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2019 HDR is bold in saying that redressing inequalities in human development in the 21st century is possible – provided we act now, before imbalances in economic power translate into entrenched political dominance. As the drivers of inequality are deeply embedded in societies, economies, and political structures, we require solutions that go beyond the market.
Countries will not be able to beat inequality on their own, however. As with the climate crisis, collective action is an essential part of the solution. For example, international collaboration will be required to tackle tax evasion and prevent a race to the bottom on corporate taxes and environmental standards. Moreover, new standards need to be developed to ensure that new generations of digital firms make markets more efficient, satisfy labour regulations, and pay their fair share of taxes.
On gender, policies should seek to change social norms and eliminate discrimination through education, awareness and changing incentives, so that everyone benefits from the latest technologies. UNDP hopes to see more measures like free broadband and electronic medical records, to micro-target those left furthest behind.
We in UNDP stand ready to support governments across the Asia Pacific region to make the difficult choices needed to provide all citizens – now and in the future – with a fair and dignified life, powered by technology, shielded from prejudice, and protected from an increasingly unforgiving climate.
(Kanni Wignaraja is the Assistant Secretary General and Assistant Administrator of the UNDP, and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific)
TACKLING INEQUALITY WAVES
Pfft Pax Americana?
HINDSIGHT - By F. Sionil Jose | January 18, 2021 - 12:00am
Sometime back, I posited that the three major faults of the United States are Racism, Wastefulness and Smugness.
SKETCHES - By Ana Marie Pamintuan | January 18, 2021 - 12:00am
With the Duterte administration still bent on procuring the Sinovac COVID shots, it must move to overcome public resistance to China-made vaccines.
The welcome spoiler
CTALK - By Cito Beltran | January 18, 2021 - 12:00am
The decision of Pfizer to offer their COVID-19 vaccine at non-profit prices just like AstraZeneca is the sort of spoiler we all love.
The worst sales rep for Chinese vaccines
POSTSCRIPT - By Federico D. Pascual Jr. | January 17, 2021 - 12:00am
It has been noticed that the more President Duterte shows a preference for Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, the stiffer public resistance becomes to being inoculated with those drugs. It’s an interesting marketing...
Vaccines as basic commodity
COMMONSENSE - By Marichu A. Villanueva | January 18, 2021 - 12:00am
As the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic continues to remain a global public health threat, “vaccination passports” would soon be issued.
China vaccine: How costly as a solution?
The report yesterday that the Philippines is getting “all vaccines that China can spare” left an impression that the administration is bent on delivering Filipinos to the Chinese vaccine-makers, and there...
FIRST PERSON - By Alex Magno | January 19, 2021 - 12:00am
As the clock ticks inexorably towards the inauguration of the Biden presidency, the US Capitol resembles a heavily fortified combat post.
Of rules and rulers
TOWARDS JUSTICE - By Emmeline Aglipay-Villar | January 19, 2021 - 12:00am
The chaotic events that occurred last Jan. 6 in the very seat of power of the United States of America were horrifying to behold.
A closer China-Phl partnership in the new era
DIPLOMATIC POUCH - By Huang Xilian | January 19, 2021 - 12:00am
On 14 April 2020, at the height of the Philippines’ battle against COVID-19, a “Goodwill Flight” chartered from China fully loaded with anti-pandemic supplies landed at the Ninoy Aquino International...
Is the crucial role of the FDA compromised?
AS A MATTER OF FACT - By Sara Soliven De Guzman | January 18, 2021 - 12:00am
The Food and Drug Administration has a very crucial role to play in the coming days, weeks and months as COVID-19 vaccines begin to enter the country.
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England > Oxfordshire > Woolstone
Pictures of Woolstone
a Picturesque Village in the county of Oxfordshire
Take a picture tour of Woolstone...
About Woolstone
Once part of the county of Berkshire, the village of Woolstone sits at the foot of the Berkshire Downs in the Vale of White Horse, and is an old spring line settlement, with a group of springs to the south, in the chalk escarpment less than half a mile away which collectively are known as Woolstone Wells.
The village church of All Saints was built around 1195, and is of chalk and clunch, with stone quoins. It is a Grade II listed building.
The Domesday Book of 1086 records the name as Olvricestone, and throughout the ages it varied and evolved to what it is now, with the origins of the name deriving from Old English and means "Wulfric's tūn". Tūn is an Old English word for "fence" that came to mean "enclosure" or "homestead".
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Interesting & Historical Facts about Woolstone
Woolstone has a 17th-century timber-framed public house, the White Horse Inn
Woolstone facts | Oxfordshire facts
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High school sports roundup
Mar 9, 2018 at 11:13 AM Mar 9, 2018 at 11:13 AM
FROM THURSDAY
ATHENS ACADEMY 1, WHITE COUNTY 0: At Slaughter Field, Riley Friesen scored the game’s only goal off an assist from Greer Moseley as the Spartans improved to 5-1. Athens Academy will host Georgia Military College at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20.
PRINCE AVENUE CHRISTIAN 5, MONSIGNOR DONOVAN 1: At Bogart, the Wolverines stayed unbeaten at 6-0 while handing the Rams their first loss of the season. Madison Britt tallied four goals for Prince Avenue Christian. Alondra Ortega scored Monsignor Donovan’s only goal. The Wolverines will host Towns County at 5 p.m. Monday. The Rams will play at John Milledge Academy on Tuesday, March 20.
MONSIGNOR DONOVAN 2, PRINCE AVENUE CHRISTIAN 0: At Bogart, the Rams improved to 3-2 as Will Auslander accounted for both of the game’s goals. Monsignor Donovan will play Tuesday, March 20 at John Milledge Academy.
EAST JACKSON 11, JOHNSON 0 (five innings): At Commerce, senior Luke Hadden tossed a no-hitter with six strikeouts and one walk as the Eagles won their second consecutive game and improved to 8-5 as the approach Region 8-3A play. Hadden helped his own cause at the plate with two hits and two RBIs. Also contributing to the 11-hit attack was Josh Compton, who went 3-for-3 with two RBIs, Ethan Daniel (two hits, one RBI) and Brian Puckett (two hits, one RBI). East Jackson was set to open region play with a doubleheader Friday at Monroe Area. The two teams will meet again at 5 p.m. Tuesday at East Jackson.
NORTH OCONEE 12, CLARKE CENTRAL 2: At Weathersby Field, the Titans won their fifth consecutive game while handing the Gladiators their fourth consecutive loss. Three North Oconee pitchers teamed up to limit Clarke Central to but three hits. Bubba Chandler started and got the win with three innings, three hits, one run (unearned) and one walk. Dylan Wilhelm worked middle relief with two innings, one run (unearned), three walks and four strikeouts. Chandler White closed with two innings of hitless work with one strikeout. Dom Hughes led the Titans’ offense with two hits (including a home run), two runs and four RBIs. Kumar Rocker added two hits and one RBI and Ryland Laird had two hits and two runs. For Clarke Central, Evan Lehmann had one hit and one RBI, Ben Gillespie had one walk and one run and Stephen Cofer and Isaac Ward had one hit each. North Oconee (8-2-1) was set to host Providence Christian on Friday and will play at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Walnut Grove. The Gladiators (2-7) were set to host Elbert County on Friday and will play at Cedar Shoals at Wednesday.
OGLETHORPE COUNTY 9, COMMERCE 8 (six innings): At Lexington, eventual winning pitcher Dante Marnell drove in Eli Mattox with the game winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Patriots defeated the Tigers and improved to 6-4. Mattox also hit a home run and had two RBIs. Will Bowman had two hits, including a home run, three runs and one RBI, Ben Beasley had one hit, one run and one RBI and Jake Grantham added two hits and one RBI for Oglethorpe County, which posted nine hits and scored four runs in its first at-bat. With 1/3 of an inning’s work, Marnell earned the pitching victory. Tucker Malooch hit a home run for Commerce and also had another hit, two runs and two RBIs. Ty Davis had one hit, one run and one RBI and Evan Davis contributed a hit. The Patriots were set to begin Region 8-2A play with a doubleheader Friday at Rabun County and they’ll play at 5 p.m. Monday at Social Circle. The Tigers (6-6) were set to play a home-and-home series with Banks County on Friday (at Commerce) and Saturday (at Homer).
WINDER-BARROW WINS TWICE: At the Lakepoint Sports Complex, the Bulldoggs improved to 6-4 with victories over Westlake (8-7) and Mountain Brook, Ala. (4-1). Against Westlake, Winder-Barrow recorded eight hits and pitchers Brady House and Hunter Marsh held off the Lions’ nine hit attack. House pitched four innings with six hits, four runs and five strikeouts and Marsh, who got credit for the victory in relief, pitched the final three innings with three runs, three hits and three strikeouts. Marsh also had a home run and double, with two runs and three RBIs. Jackson Melton had two hits and one RBI and Lance Sikes had two hits, one run and one RBI. Against Mountain Brook, Austin Lockridge got the victory on the mound, pitching 6 2/3 innings with six hits, one run, three walks and eight strikeouts. Jackson Shook struck out the only batter he faced in the seventh inning. At the plate, Trace Jeffers had one hit and two runs, Sam Darling had two hits and two RBIs and Sikes had three hits, two runs and one RBI. The Bulldoggs will host Norcross at 7 p.m. Thursday at Cool Ray Field.
ST. FRANCIS 8, ATHENS ACADEMY 7 (eight innings): At Cool Ray Field in Lawrenceville, St. Francis scored in the bottom of the eighth inning to hand the Spartans their first loss of the season. Athens Academy had 12 hits and was led by Charlie King (two hits, two RBIs), Charlie Kahlstorf (three hits, one run, one RBI), Palmer Bush (one hit, one run, one RBI) and Avi Patel (two hits, two runs, one RBI). Jack Thomas took the loss in relief, pitching 4 1/3 innings and allowing five hits, four runs (three earned) and one walk to go with eight strikeouts. The Spartans (7-1) will play at 1 p.m. Saturday at Benedictine.
— Compiled by Chris Starrs
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Heroes Project: Steven Martin
On June 24, 2020, the ONU Board of Trustees endorsed the University’s COVID-19 safety plan for resuming in-person education for fall semester 2020. The plan was developed by incorporating the informed efforts of several work groups and special teams, leadership reviews undertaken over several weeks, and helpful suggestions during a campus comment period. The plan was reviewed and fine-tuned throughout the summer to ensure continued compliance with guidance from federal and state governments and the local health department. This fall, ONU executed its implementation plan derived from the work done over the summer. Students, faculty and staff have worked tirelessly over the past seven months to ensure that the health, safety and well-being of every member of the ONU community remains our top priority. These are their stories.
As dean of Ohio Northern University’s Raabe College of Pharmacy, Dr. Steven Martin is charged with preparing future generations of pharmacists to be skilled, knowledgeable and versatile. Pharmacists are the most accessible and most frequently visited health care professionals worldwide, and ONU has always put a premium on training pharmacy students to handle a wide variety of patient needs.
This year, Martin put into practice the very kind of versatility ONU pharmacists are known for when ONU President Dan DiBiasio tasked him with leading the University’s COVID-19 testing program. A viable testing program would be necessary for the administration to even consider a return to in-person instruction this fall, so Martin had to quickly change gears from seeing to the end of an academic year disrupted by a pandemic, to laying the groundwork for an on-campus testing program for a campus of 3,000 people in mere weeks.
Work began in April with the formation of the ONU COVID-19 Task Force testing team. The team studied the available literature about COVID testing, learned about the various tests available and examined public health responses to previous pandemics. The team created a recommendation for the president and leadership to consider for the safe start of fall classes that included testing all students, faculty and staff prior to the start of fall classes, and an ongoing weekly surveillance program to identify covert COVID cases on campus.
“We met in early May to begin discussions on testing needs, including who, when, where, how, and how often. Classes began in August, and that was the first hurdle: preparing to test students as they returned back to campus. Then we put in place an ongoing surveillance program for the remainder of the semester,” says Martin.
To hear Martin describe it, it sounds like a routine day at the office. The reality was far from routine. For one thing, the University needed to test all fall athletes and marching band members first. This cohort of students typically arrives earlier than the rest of the student body to prepare for their respective seasons. This meant no gradual ramp-up for the testing program. Martin and his team would have to be ready to go at the outset with testing capacity for more than 650 students and staff.
ONU screened roughly 20 different testing providers and test options, weighing them on availability, cost and lag time from test to result. Test availability was a notable challenge, as early in the pandemic there were only a few testing facilities that had received emergency use authorization from the FDA. ONU ultimately contracted with a diagnostics company out of southeastern Michigan to provide baseline testing for all early arriving students.
“Luck had a lot to do with us getting started on the right foot,” says Martin. “I reached out to many people and followed the leads that each one gave me. That’s really how I came across the diagnostics company in Michigan that helped us early on, as well as the broker who was able to provide the first point-of-care testing supplies, the wholesaler who was able to provide additional POC supplies, and the company assisting us with home COVID testing.”
Luck may have played a role in the start of ONU’s testing program, but what kept it going throughout the semester was sheer determination and effort from ONU students, faculty and staff. After the initial baseline testing was completed, ONU’s on-campus surveillance program began with randomized testing of employees and students conducted by ONU HealthWise each week. These test results were recorded on a public dashboard on www.onu.edu to keep the campus community and public at large abreast of the impact of the pandemic on campus. As the semester came to a close, the team developed take-home testing kits for students to self-administer before returning to campus in January.
“We’ve just had a great outpouring of volunteerism from our ONU HealthWise and faculty pharmacists, and from our students and residents. They recognize the public health needs of our campus and have figured out a way to make testing and COVID management a priority,” says Martin.
The testing program has been one of the pillars of the University’s COVID-19 response this fall. It provided the data the administration needed to make decisions as the semester wore on. From the very start of the strategic planning around a safe return to in-person instruction this fall, ONU looked to draw upon its strengths to battle the pandemic, chief among them the Raabe College of Pharmacy. ONU HealthWise and the ONU HealthWise Pharmacy have been involved in providing health testing services for several years and have had some experience with working with the campus on flu vaccinations, health screenings and rural health clinics throughout Hardin County. They had the experience, knowledge and skill to handle the extra needs of an extraordinary year, and the leadership of a dean who also just happens to be an infectious disease specialist.
“I believe our students want to be on campus in classrooms and laboratories, on stage, on the field or on the court,” says Martin. “To make that happen they have been willing to give up some liberties and follow public health directives, such as avoiding large gatherings, wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing. They are doing their part, and I’m just so happy that we were able to do ours.”
The ONU testing team is comprised of Martin; Harold Schueler, assistant professor of forensic Biology; Dennis De Luca, associate professor of biological sciences; Lisa Walden, director of the medical laboratory science program; Karen Schroeder, director of health services; Ross Kauffman, director of public health; and Mike Rush, director of ONU HealthWise and pharmacy residency programs.
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Why News Matters Now –
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Historic Content
The Sports Report: Manny Pacquiao is a champion again
21 July 2019 21 July 2019 / By admin
Howdy, my name is Houston Mitchell and let’s get right to the sports news.
Manny Pacquiao is 40. Keith Thurman is 30. But Pacquiao looked like the younger man in the ring Saturday as he earned a split decision over Thurman to win a share of the welterweight title (and I’d like to know what fight the judge who gave the decision to Thurman was watching. Pacquiao won the fight easily.)
The win puts Pacquiao in line for a shot at the winner of the Errol Spence Jr.-Shawn Porter fight on Sept 28 at Staples Center.
Pacquiao knocked Thurman down in the first round. Judge Dave Moretti scored it 115-112 for Pacquiao. Tim Cheatham had it 115-112 for Pacquiao. Glenn Feldman had it 114-113 for Thurman. On the Los Angeles Times card, it was 116-111 for Pacquiao.
“It was fun,’’ Pacquiao said. “I think I will fight next year. I will go back to the Philippines and work and then make a decision. I hope to be at that fight on Sept. 28.”
Thurman gave credit to Pacquiao.
“I wish I had a little bit more output to go toe to toe,’’ Thurman said. “I felt like he was getting a little bit tired, but he did have experience in the ring. My conditioning and my output was just behind Manny Pacquiao’s. I would love the rematch. You get blessings and lessons. Tonight, was a blessing and a lesson. Thank you everybody, and thank you Manny Pacquiao.’’
Sam Farmer is in Northern Ireland to cover the British Open. Here’s an excerpt from his report on Saturday’s third round:
“Under slate-gray skies, with a passionate crowd cheering his every swing, Irishman Shane Lowry found something Saturday that no one else could:
“Daylight. Glorious daylight.
“Lowry distanced himself from the field by shooting a 63 in the third round of the British Open. He masterfully worked his way around Royal Portrush with eight birdies and no bogeys.
“With the giddy home crowd serenading him by belting out the soccer anthem “Ole, Ole Ole,” Lowry nearly drained his shamrock-stamped ball on 18 for his fourth birdie in a row. He missed his long putt by an inch. Still, the gallery roared.
“Goosebump golf at its finest.
“Honestly, that’s the most incredible day I’ve ever had on the golf course,” said Lowry, 32, bearded and beaming. “I honestly can’t explain what it was like.”
“As they walked off the 17th tee, Lowry said caddie Brian “Bo” Martin told him: “`We might never have a day like this on the golf course again. So let’s enjoy this next half hour. You know what I mean?’ And that’s what I did. The crowd was incredible. I just can’t believe what it was like.”
“So crackling was the energy, it felt like the stretch run on a championship Sunday. But it was a Saturday, and Lowry’s work is far from done. He’s at 16 under and leads second-place Tommy Fleetwood by four strokes. Two shots behind Fleetwood is American J.B. Holmes, who has miles of ground to make up despite three rounds in the 60s.
“Four shots is a lot, but certainly not insurmountable. Lowry got an excruciating reminder of that three years ago in the U.S. Open at Oakmont. He had a four-shot lead heading into the final round before sputtering to a six-over 76 on Sunday, as Dustin Johnson blew past him for the win.
“I think I learned a few things that day about playing in the final round of a major with a lead, that you need to hang in until the very last minute,” said Lowry, who missed the cut at the previous four British Opens. “You never know what can happen. And I’m going to do the same tomorrow.
“That’s a long time ago,” he continued, later noting he’s a father now. “I don’t think I’m a much different golfer, but I feel like I’m a different person. I think that’s what will help me tomorrow.”
“Fleetwood presents a daunting challenge. He has shot one stroke better each day — 68, 67, 66 — and he too is hunting for his first major win.
““If you had said at the start of today, at the start of the week, at the start of the year, you’re going into the last round, whether I’m four back, five back, it doesn’t matter, I’m in the last group Sunday at The Open and playing with Shane, and the majority of the crowd might not be with you, I would have said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine,’ ” Fleetwood said. “I’m looking forward to it, to be honest with you. It’s going to be another chapter in my career, no matter what happens. And it’s going to be a very special day.”
“The Sunday forecast is frightening and could cause chaos: rain all afternoon with the possibility of wind gusts up to 40 mph. The R&A moved the start times up an hour in hopes of avoiding the worst of the weather.
“Look, I know tomorrow’s going to be a difficult day,” said Lowry, who’s from Clara, Ireland, a four-hour drive south. “I know there’s some bad weather coming in. But I’m in a good position, and I just have to do what I’ve been doing all year, and hit the reset button tonight, and go out there and shoot as good a score as I can tomorrow.”
Do you think the Dodgers will win the World Series this year? Vote in our poll by clicking here, or email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. Results will be revealed Monday.
Your favorite sports moment
What is your favorite all-time L.A. sports moment? Click here to tell me what it is and why, and I’ll start running them in future newsletters. And yes, if your favorite moment is about the Angels or Ducks or a team just outside of L.A., I’ll count that too. And the moment doesn’t have to have happened in L.A., just needs to involve an area team.
Today’s moment comes from Jim Bendat of Los Angeles:
“My favorite L.A. moment took place on March 22, 1968 when our city hosted the NCAA Final Four for the first time. I had been following the tournament since 1956 when I was seven years old, and when it was announced that the event would be coming here, I urged my father to try to get tickets. We entered the lottery, and we scored two tickets. It hardly mattered that we were upstairs in the very last row. We were going, and I was excited!
“The feature game of the semifinals that night was UCLA vs. Houston. The Cougars, led by Elvin Hayes, had ended the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak just two months earlier. The buildup to that rematch was huge. Tickets were scarce, and the game was blacked out in Los Angeles. I felt so lucky to have a ticket, and I was particularly fortunate that the Final Four was during my college spring break.
“UCLA’s performance that night was one for the ages. Lew Alcindor and the Bruins slaughtered previously undefeated Houston, 101-69, and could have won by even more if Coach John Wooden hadn’t cleared the bench. The crowd at the L.A. Sports Arena that night was as loud as any I’ve ever experienced. I came home exhilarated and exhausted, but I had to pick myself right back up for the championship game the very next night against North Carolina – another easy win for that great UCLA team, in what was the last year the national semifinals and title game were played on consecutive nights.
“A great memory, and I’m glad I got to share it with my dad.”
Column: Sports can’t be the fantasy world we use to avoid reality…. Column: Golden age of L.A. sports is being fueled by star-studded rivalries…. Mike Trout accents four-run rally in ninth inning in Angels’ win over Mariners…. Andrew Heaney’s injury further exposes Angels’ pitching depth problems…. Would Dodgers part with two top prospects to bolster the bullpen?… Fernando Valenzuela officially becomes a ‘Legend of Dodger Baseball’…. Dodgers defeat Marlins, 10-6…. Dodgers broadcasters Orel Hershiser and Joe Davis became fast friends…. Kelli DiMuro is leaving Chaminade to become women’s basketball coach at Cal Lutheran…. Catalina Cruiser shows new tricks by winning San Diego Handicap…. Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter hype their fight with verbal jabs…. Short-handed Sparks rally late but fall at the finish to Liberty…. Russell White is leaving Crespi to become basketball coach at Cal Lutheran…. Column: Giants are best example of National League mediocrity making trade market murky
Other newsletters
We also have other newsletters you can subscribe to for free. They are emailed to you and we don’t sell your name to other companies, so no spam from us. They are:
Our Dodgers newsletter, written by me. Subscribe here.
Lakers newsletter, written by Tania Ganguli. Subscribe here.
Horse racing newsletter, written by John Cherwa. Subscribe here.
Soccer newsletter, written by Kevin Baxter. Subscribe here.
Today’s local major sports schedule
Miami at Dodgers, 1 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570
Angels at Seattle, 1 p.m., FSW, AM 830
Born on this date
1930: Golfer Gene Littler
1949: Baseball player Al Hrabosky
1951: NBA player Doug Collins
1951: NBA player Slick Watts
1961: NFL player Henry Ellard
1968: Soccer player Brandi Chastain
1979: WNBA player Tamika Catchings
1980: Baseball player CC Sabathia
1985: NBA player Von Wafer
1967: Baseball player Jimmie Foxx, 59
2010: Baseball player/manager Ralph Houk, 90
Fernando Valenzuela’s “Legends of Dodger Baseball” ceremony before Saturday’s game. Watch it here.
That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email us here. If you want to subscribe, click here.
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Siemens Gamesa to build India’s first hybrid wind-solar farm
Siemens Gamesa has been commissioned to move forward with the coupling of a newly constructed 28.8 MW solar facility to an existing 50 MW wind farm, the company’s first and a noteworthy development for India’s solar market.
September 26, 2017 Frederic Brown
Fortum has reiterated its commitment to the Indian solar market.
Photo: Governo de Pernambuco
India’s first large-scale commercial wind-solar hybrid project has been approved for Siemens Gamesa, a German-Spanish joint venture operating in the clean energy space.
The project will involve the construction of a 28.8 MW solar facility connected to an already operational 50 MW wind farm, located in the Indian state of Karnataka. This is the company’s first attempt at this type of project, illustrating a mindset that has begun to explore business opportunities that have potential added value for their customers.
Ramesh Kymal, CEO of Siemens Gamesa's onshore business in India, said: “We are truly proud to be rolling out this new hybrid solution on a commercial scale. With a market potential of around 15 GW in India, our customers are increasingly interested in this type of integrated renewable system.”
The design, engineering and commissioning of the new solar plant, alongside the supply of PV inverters made by Gamesa Electric, will be handled by Siemens. The hybridization of the existing wind farm, which will be equipped with Siemens Gamesa turbines, will also be handled by the German company. Lo
The project is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2017.
More articles from Frederic Brown
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NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations report to the president of NBC News, Noah Oppenheim.NBC News aired the first, regularly scheduled news program in American broadcast television history on February 21, 1940. The group's broadcasts are produced and aired from 30 Rockefeller Center, NBC's headquarters in New York City. The division presides over America's number-one-rated newscast, NBC Nightly News, and the longest-running television series in American history, Meet The Press, the Sunday morning program of newsmakers interviews. NBC News also offers 70 years of rare historic footage from the NBCUniversal Archives online.
Complete biography of NBC News »
The polls today show you with a sizable national lead, a lead in a lot of the states that are critical in the Electoral College, i wonder, where do you think the race stands at this moment? What keeps you up at night as you look ahead? And can you maintain this advantage without campaigning in a traditional way, especially this fall when voters begin to really tune in?
– NBC News
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Who said: "Love the life you live. Live the life you love."?
A. Bob Marley
B. Marilyn Monroe
C. Socrates
D. Estee Lauder
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info@rgvsol.com
Advantages and Limitations of Radar Speed Measurement Tools
Radar has already been a part of our lives since it was first used as a military tool in the 1940s. Radar systems are now being used for navigation, specifically in location and positioning. It is also being used to measure the speed of moving objects.
Radar, in the form of handheld or stationed radar guns, are accurate enough at measuring speed and are now the basis of law enforcement when it comes to implementing the speed limit. These speed measurement applications have been expanded to include baseball pitches and tennis serves, and also to track the speed of football players on a sprint.
Suppliers of radar equipment like Stalker radar guns understand the importance of giving accurate data as these will be used as the basis for the coaches to develop the right strategies for their players.
Advantages of Using Radar
Radar can easily penetrate optical obstructions such as clouds, snow, mist, and fog. This is because radar uses signals that are impervious to hindrances such as those mentioned. The measurements are still accurate and the data collected will still be useful.
Rubber and plastic are considered insulators, and they hinder the conduction of heat. But radar signals also have the capacity to penetrate these insulators. Radar can still accurately receive the signals and acquire the data needed to give an accurate assessment.
With these advantages, radar can fulfil its purpose despite the presence of perceived challenges like insulators, clouds and fog. Because it is based on radio waves, it can accurately detect the exact position of an object. Radar uses a transmitter that also emits electromagnetic pulses and measures its return to determine the exact position. This data is used to calculate the distance, whether it is in the air, land, or sea.
Limitations of Using Radar
Radar may be an advanced and reliable system, but it is not without any limitation or deficiency. Police who have used radar guns on a daily basis have noted the following limitations.
For the speed radars that are mounted and unmanned, they note that there might be a margin of errors in accuracy when the radar is exposed to certain conditions. Since radars base the speed reading of the target with the strongest echo, it may be inaccurate for smaller vehicles.
In dense traffic, the readings of radar might be slightly errant, but the idea is that in dense traffic, there is a low likelihood of any vehicle to break the speed limit, so this limitation does not really bother the law enforcement officials.
Police also note that when a vehicle is changing speeds too fast or too often, radar systems have difficulty with their readings. Radar’s ideal situation is measuring objects traveling at a constant speed, which is not often the case.
Radar is not a foolproof system, but it is functional and accurate enough for the current systems that we have. There will be technological breakthroughs in the future that can either improve radar or replace it with an even more accurate system.
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Don’t walk through life just playing football. Don’t walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone’s life, that’s the ultimate vision, that’s the ultimate goal – bottom line. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone’s life.
Bowling for Beginners: Things You Need to Know
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Four Benefits That Teens Can Get From Playing Sports
Briana Larson November 24, 2020
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Budget Year 2012-2013 Discussions Begin in North Rockland
By dskriloff on February 9, 2012 Comments
BY MICHAEL CAHILL AND JESSICA DOWNER
Review of North Rockland Central School District Board meeting, February 7
The School Board of the North Rockland Central School District met Tuesday evening to discuss progress with the district’s ongoing transformation and begin laying the groundwork for the 2012 – 2013 budget.
The meeting started on a musical note in the auditorium of North Rockland High School as 6th graders from Willow Grove Middle School presented the board and attendees with a full band rendition of the song “Majestica” from American composer Brian Balmages.
After no opening comments from the public, Superintendent of Schools Ileana Eckert gave a presentation updating the board on the ongoing transformation of the school district. Eckert’s presentation detailed new administrative appointments and positions within the North Rockland Central School District (NRCSD). The changes in positions were the same as those detailed in a recent edition of the Rockland County Times and can still be seen on the paper’s website.
Eckert concluded the presentation saying that the strength of the program changes called for by the transformation depends on the budget for next year. Continuing to hold the floor, Eckert narrated a presentation about the district’s budget situation for the academic year 2012-2013.
Eckert was criticial of Governor Cuomo’s comment that New York is number one in spending and number 38 in graduation, which she stated is misleading. She displayed other indicators of New York’s overall competitiveness, such as the state’s strong number of high achievers.
Eckert said it is difficult to keep school budgets down in New York State because of “151 unfunded mandates” many of which don’t do students any good, as well as special education requirements above and beyond federal mandates. “All we ask of Albany is that they don’t give us any more unfunded mandates. If you require something else of schools, make sure you do the financial analysis behind and that you fund what ever else you’re asking us to do.”
She said the federal program Race to the Top has been a waste of time for North Rockland and other districts, as its caused NRCSD to spend close to $1 million, while only bringing back $250,000 or so in funding.
Graduation rates in the North Rockland district are something to be proud of Eckert, said. Her statistics showed double-digit percentage gains in NRCSD high school graduation rates for all demographics since 2002. According to Eckert’s statistics, black students had improved from a 60 percent to 85 percent graduation rate, almost even with the white rate of 91 percent, itself increased 10 points from 81 percent. Hispanic students still were lagging behind, with about two out of every three Hispanic students graduating high school.
Board members Mary Romano and James Kraus then discussed meeting with New York State Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski and the Albany Budget Committee to talk about the unique budget situation for NRCSD. The NRCSD is still feeling the effects of the 2006 settlement with the Mirant Corporation. Around $11 to $12 million a year has been coming out of the district’s budget to pay for the settlement since then. An estimated $11 million is expected to come out of this year’s budget. Romano emphasized the receptiveness of the Zebrowski and the budget committee to the district’s situation. The board plans to meet again with them again in March.
The new tax levy cap was also briefly discussed. Eckert expressed doubt about the district’s long-term well being with the tax cap. She said due to the tax cap it would be a struggle to create a budget that does not require touching student programs. She also said that due to dealing with the Mirant lawsuit for many years, the district does have an advantage in a certain sense, because the board has already been struggling and cutting back long before the economic crisis that hit all the districts in the county.
Eckert’s presentation reviewed efforts by the district to save taxpayer money. Reduction of staff alone has saved the district $32.5 million over five years, she said. This combined with the elimination of certain programs, and adjustments to employee benefits have saved an additional $1 million.
Due to exemptions, the district will able to have a 2.9 percent increase on their tax levy this year, but Eckert said that she does not know how the district will be able to stay under the cap three or four years from now. “It’s sad to say but budgeting cannot be long range in New York,” said Eckert.
The meeting continued on with the approval of a tenure recommendation for elementary school teacher Lindsay Osberg, programs and upcoming and past events going on around the district, tax refunds, student activity accounts, the proclamation for National School Counseling Week, Extra Duty assignment changes, and the retirements of Marlene Silverman, Eileen Bernstein, and Luz Dubois.
The board mentioned several upcoming events in the district:
‘Dancing with the Teachers’ event at Fieldstone Secondary School to benefit Stand Up To Cancer. Admission $10
For more information email: dancingwiththeteachers@yahoo.com
– 3/2 – 3/3/2012 & 3/9 – 3/10/2012
7:30 p.m. 3/2, 3/3, 3/9
2:30 p.m. 3/10
North Rockland High School presents ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’. Tickets $12 for general admission. $10 for students and senior citizens. For more information call: 845-942-3300 ext. 4954
Also mentioned is that North Rockland High School’s Academy of Finance will be helping local residents prepare their tax returns on Wednesdays in March from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The school board approved the retirements of several teachers leaving the district in June 2012. The board then turned to the remaining items on the agenda requiring action, including the approval of tax refunds for towns in the district. All items were all passed unanimously 5 – 0.
North Rockland, north rockland high school, rockland county
Budget Year 2012-2013 Discussions Begin in North Rockland added by dskriloff on February 9, 2012
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The Unloved, Part 9: "Transcendence"
Scout Tafoya August 06, 2014
Scout Tafoya's video series "The Unloved" has already reached into all corners of the cinematic room with pieces on well-known bombs like "Ishtar," recent disasters like "John Carter," and even auteur misfired like "Pola X." This month, Tafoya turns to a film that was just released on Blu-ray and DVD after a disappointing run in theaters earlier this year, Wally Pfister's directorial debut, "Transcendence." Critics and audiences were brutal to the film in theaters. Now that it's available on the home market, Tafoya argues for a reappraisal.
The Unloved - Transcendence from RogerEbert.com on Vimeo.
Scout Tafoya
Scout Tafoya is a critic and filmmaker who writes for and edits the arts blog Apocalypse Now and directs both feature length and short films.
Film About A Father Who
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Wide Sargasso Sea
Roger Ebert May 07, 1993
She is a beautiful woman who lives caught in a web of superstition and fear, on an island in the sun. He is a rakish, handsome young man from England, out to visit his friends and perhaps make his fortune. A marriage is arranged between them - a marriage no less attractive because she is the mistress of a great estate. At first love is the only thing that matters. Then shadows begin to fall, caused by their own weaknesses, and also by the black magic of voodoo.
This is the sort of story outline you might expect to find on the back of a paperback romance novel, one of those books with a heaving bosom on the cover, and a dark tower with a light in one window. But the Gothic tradition has inspired all sorts of writers, perhaps because it provides a shortcut to our deepest yearnings and fears, and this is in fact the plot of Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel by Jean Rhys, the British author whose reputation continues to hold strong among those lonely few who actually read good fiction, instead of simply buying it.
Rhys got the idea for her novel from Jane Eyre, the novel by Charlotte Bronte - or perhaps she got it from the classic 1943 movie with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles (intoning, from a great height in a very deep voice, "You are a strange girl, Jane Eyre"). Both novel and movie contain the same mystery, although not much is made of it: Who was the first Mrs. Rochester? Rochester is, of course, the brooding, possibly evil, undeniably attractive man who finally marries Jane Eyre, after sending her into fits of trepidation by his very presence. True to the Gothic tradition, he first appears menacing and dangerous, towering over her in fact and especially in her imagination. Only in the end does he consent to fulfill her romantic longings. And all the time, lurking beneath the surface of the story, is the offstage presence of the first wife, the woman he married in the Caribbean, the woman nobody ever speaks about.
"Wide Sargasso Sea" tells her story. The movie ends some time before the events in "Jane Eyre" begin. The first Mrs. Rochester, we learn, is named Antoinette Cosway (Karina Lombard). She is a beautiful, sultry, high-spirited young mulatto woman of the islands, living on a plantation she has inherited, running it with slaves and ancient family retainers, including the sinister Christophene (Claudia Robinson), whose visions and warnings are inspired by voodoo.
When Rochester (Nathaniel Parker) arrives from Europe, he is ignorant of the island ways, but he has a certain charm and she finds him funny. One of the film's best scenes has her laughing merrily, after he literally passes out while meeting her for the first time.
He seems innocent, and harmless enough. She likes him.
At first their romance is simple and ideal, based on physical attraction and the exuberance of being young. Later, after they marry, things begin to change. He is not so nice, and not so simple.
And although she is strong, the laws and customs of the time give all the power to men, so that he owns her as effectively as if she, too, were a slave. Gradually, worn down by his betrayal and the sly mind games he plays (and perhaps the victim of voodoo), she goes subtly mad.
"Wide Sargasso Sea" was directed by John Duigan, an Australian director not familiar to me until I saw "Flirting," one of the best films of 1992. That was a film about a romance between two kids at boarding schools. This film, so different, shows him once again able to find the right tone for his material, so that scenes work not simply because they are technically right, but because they feel right. He is particularly forthright about the eroticism in his story; the film has been rated NC-17, which will hurt its box office chances, but it needs its frankness to deal with the powerful erotic drives that are just beneath the surface of its mannered society.
I have rarely seen a film that more effectively conveyed the climate it takes place in; the island is sunny and humid, the nights warm and damp, and sweat is allowed to glisten on the skins of the actors, instead of being mopped up and dusted down by the makeup artists. The hothouse atmosphere permeates every scene, creating an unhealthy climate in which young love is perverted, promises become lies, and jealousy is the strongest emotion.
There have been a lot of books and movies continuing or extending popular stories; I even saw a book the other day claiming to tell what happened to Huck Finn after Mark Twain's book left off.
The Rhys novel and this film, however, hardly need "Jane Eyre" in order to exist. The story is complete in itself - sad, haunted, inevitable.
Minari
Wide Sargasso Sea (1993)
Rated NC-17
Karina Lombard as Antoinette Cosway
Rachel Ward as Annette Cosway
Michael York as Paul Mason
Nathaniel Parker as Rochester
John Duigan
Based On The Novel by
Jean Rhys
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RunBlogRun
Jenn Stuczynski Where Does She go from Here? , by Larry Eder, release by USATF
By Larry Eder on February 23, 2009 5:50 PM | 0 Comments
My first appreciation of the fact that Jenn Stuczynski was a pole vault goddess when she cleared 4.88 meters ( that is sixteen feet) at the Reebok Grand Prix, New York in 2007. I first recognized that she was a champion, when after the nightmare in Osaka, where everything went wrong, in her first World Outdoor, Stuczynski regrouped, and ended up with the silver medal in Beijing, one year later. True champions rise from the memories of bad experiences, and Jenn Stuczynski, in her short career, has experienced both the highs and lows of being an elite athlete.
The pole vault is track & field's answer to five card stud. A successful vaulter must have huge physical talents: however, her mental talents must be just as dominating!
Yelena Isinbayeva is such an example. It is not only her dominating physicality that puts her ahead of all of the other women vaulters, it is her mental toughness and her ability to totally dominate tactically the event. Isinbayeva's new coaching relationship with Vitaly Petrov, the former coach of Sergei Bubka, took two years for her to reach her next level--she is confident, and she is looking for competition. I believe that competition will come from Jenn Stuczynski.
Stuczysnki can be that good, someday. And someday is not far off. Her absolute gamble for everything at the U.S. Olympic Trials showed that: on the last attempt, she either made it or was off the team. After she made, it, she upped her American record! I remember watching her gamble all on one jump, in conditions that were, chancy at best. That is what a champion athlete does, and does, and does.
In a recent conversation with an elite sports psychologist, I was told that in any Olympic final, there are three, perhaps five, athletes who might possess all of the skill sets to become an Olympic champion. That makes a lot of sense, on many levels.
In the pole vault, on the women's side, Isinbayeva and Stuczysnski are the two most dominant vaulters ( apologies to Svetlana Feofanova) in this time period. Look at Stacy Dragila, the Joan Benoit Samuelson of the women's pole vault, a women who trail blazed for the pole vault before many of the young women vaulting now knew the event existed. The class she shows, and the mental toughness that she shows, overcoming several surgeries, to continue to improve in 2009, is not only inspiring, it is an example of what elite athletes at all levels need to be dominating factors in their events.
In the pole vault, on the women's side, Isinbayeva and Stuczynski are the two most dominant vaulters ( apologies to Svetlana Feofanova) in this time period. Look at Stacy Dragila, the Joan Benoit Samuelson of the women's pole vault, a women who trail blazed for the pole vault before many of the young women vaulting now knew the event existed. The class she shows, and the mental toughness that she shows, overcoming several surgeries, to continue to improve in 2009, is not only inspiring, it is an example of what elite athletes at all levels need to be dominating factors in their events.
At the recent Reebok BIG meeting, Rick Suhr, coachi of Jenn Stucyznski, noted that Jenn is reaching the workout levels where she can make those dreams of a world record a reality. Ms. Isinbayeva is not going to make it easy for her. But, then, my friend, that is why track & field is a sport. In the pole vault, like all of athletics, it is all about the competition!
USATF Release: The Royal Highness of the Women's Pole Vault, Jenn Stucznyski,
by Jill Geer, USATF
Her Royal "Highness", Jenn Stuczynski, looks for another national title
BOSTON - The reigning Royal Highness of the women's pole vault, Jenn Stuczynski won her first career national title at the 2005 USA Indoor Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center. In Boston this weekend at the 2009 edition of the meet, she's looking for her fourth indoor national title, seventh national title overall and possibly another American record at what has proven to be one of her favorite venues.
She's also looking for an Indoor Visa Championship to go along with the outdoor overall Visa Championship she won in 2008. She likely will enter the meet atop the Visa Championship Series point standings, with 1,197 points.
When Stucyznski won the women's vault at the 2005 USA Indoor Championships with a clearance of 4.35m/14-3.25, her coach had to tell announcers who she was and how to pronounce her name. (It's Stuh-ZINN-ski). A basketball player at tiny Roberts Wesleyan college in Rochester, N.Y., the nearly 6-foot-tall Stuczynski was discovered by vaulting coach Rick Suhr, whose enclave of vaulters in upstate New York was famous for practicing in an unheated Quonset hut.
Since then, she has become a household name not just in women's vaulting, but in all of track and field. Now 27 years old, Stuczynski rose quickly through the ranks of her event, winning the 2006 USA Outdoor title and the 2007 USA Indoor and Outdoor crowns. She broke out from the shadow of pioneering women's pole vault icon Stacy Dragila when she broke Dragila's American record outdoors in 2007, topping out at 4.88 meters, which converts to 16 feet even.
In 2008, Stuczynski got her season off to a great start by winning the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain. She continued to make American records outdoors a way of life, breaking her own record at the adidas Track Classic in Carson, California (4.90m/16-0.75) and improving it to 4.92m/16-01.75 at the Olympic Trials.
It was at the Olympic Trials that Stuczynski's Olympic dreams stood on the precipice. By the time she took her first jump of the competition, at 4.60m/15-1.25, only two other athletes remained. Stuczynski missed her first two attempts at the height, and if she missed her third, there would be no Beijing. She not only cleared it, but went on to break her American record. Her clearance made her the #2 vaulter of all time, behind only world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia, and gave her the women's outdoor Visa Championship.
In Beijing, she cemented her status by taking the silver medal with a clearance of 4.80m/15-9, behind Isinbayeva's gold-medal, world-record jump of 5.05m/16-6.75, continuing an exciting rivalry in women's track and field and introducing Stuczynski to a new level of stress-management.
"You have to go through the Trials and you have to qualify, first, in the U.S., and that's stressful," Stuczynski recalled earlier this year. "As you know, I was on my third attempt at the opening height (at the Olympic Trials). I almost had a chance of not going. Then you go to the Olympics and the whole experience is mind-blowing. Until you've been in it, you really don't understand it."
Stuczynski understands winning, and her 2009 indoor season is off to a great start, winning all three Visa Championship Series meets - the 102nd Millrose Games, Reebok Boston Indoor Games and Tyson Invitational. She has taken attempts at American-record heights at all three meets, and at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games at "The Reggie," she finally took the indoor AR from Dragila by clearing 4.82m/15-9.75.
Yet even the most dominant American of the last three seasons has to overcome doubts on the runway. "I didn't know if I was going to do well," she said after her indoor American record. "I didn't have a feeling about it going into this meet. It was a big question mark. I think it was a relief. It's a mental game you play with yourself. I've tried this so many times (to break the record) and I wanted to make it today."
At the USA Indoor Championships, Stuczynski will face a field that includes the resurgent Dragila, who at age 37 is competing in her final season. Dragila has been second to Stuczynski at each Visa championship Series meet in 2009, including a jump of 4.61m/15-1.5 at Millrose.
But if Stuczynski is on form, there is no American who can catch her.
Now the question is: how high can she go?
** *
For more information about the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships or to purchase tickets, log onto www.visachampionshipseries.com or www.usatf.org. For questions regarding tickets, please call (317) 713-4680. USATF welcomes you to purchase tickets with your Visa Card. Visa is the only credit card accepted by USATF.
For more on the sport, please click on http://www.american-trackandfield.com
Larry Eder
Bio: Larry Eder has had a 44 year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub 4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Track & Field to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself."
Website: https://www.runblogrun.com
Twitter: @RunBlogRun
Instagram: @RunBlogRun
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RunBlogRun
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-eder-5497253
IAAF,
Track & Field,
USATF
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From: Williton (ST077411)
To: Carhampton (ST011425)
Via: Watchet, Blue Anchor
Distance: 6.4 miles (10.3 km)
Meets: A39, B3190, A39
Former Number(s): B3189, B3190
B3191 Williton - Carhampton
The B3191 is one of the shorter B-roads in West Somerset, basically running along the coast parallel to the A39 to serve the town and old port of Watchet.
We start at a T-junction in Williton, where the A39 turns ninety degrees to head south down Fore Street. The B3191 heads north, surprisingly up North Street. We then get priority at the fork, going left into North Road and so past Danesfield Secondary School and out into the countryside. However, it doesn't last long as soon we are running between the houses of Five Bells.
B3191, Watchet. Old & New
We then reach a T-junction on the B3190 and turn right. The number of this next section of road is debatable. Prior to 1935 the Williton to Five Bells road was the B3189 and so the Five Bells to Watchet road was incontrovertibly the B3190. However, with the extension of the B3191 eastwards to Williton it would make sense for the middle section of road to take that number as well. The fingerpost at the Five Bells junction states the road into Watchet is the B3190 but the modern sign by the railway bridge in Watchet claims the same road is B3191. Maps are non-committal, giving either number or none.
The road, whatever its number, heads north through St Decumans, with the parish church standing proud on the hill to the left. The road now drops down into Watchet proper, with the sprawling mass of the paper mill off to the left. Another TOTSO, with the unclassified road ahead leading to Doniford, sees us turning left over the railway bridge and then swinging right , briefly alongside the West Somerset Railway and then left into the town centre. Swain Street is the main shopping street, and it is narrow with some parked cars; it leads to the harbour. From the harbour, we're definitely on the B3191; this is the road's original eastern end where it met end-on with the B3190.
When the road turns sharp left into Market Street and past the museum, a glimpse of the marina in the old harbour can be had to the right. It is well worth stopping and exploring if you have time. Well, you have, otherwise you'd be on the A39! The road continues, westwards now, with houses along both sides. It is hard to believe that those on the right back straight onto the sea wall. Soon houses give way to caravan parks, and the road starts to climb up the hill.
A few bends take us in land, then more caravan parks, scattered between open fields, and we drop back down to the shore at Blue Anchor. Here the road runs right along the shore, with plenty of parking (you will probably need to stop to see over the sea wall) and often an ice cream van through the summer months. After about half a mile, we swing inland, crossing the WSR at a level crossing. To the right, are old railway carriages converted to 'camping coaches', and preserving a near-century-old tradition. It is now just a short run, along a twisty hedge-lined lane to Carhampton and the A39 once more. Looking at the map/aerial photography, you have to wonder if the road once ran through the churchyard (the B3191 never did), making a much straighter route to the westbound A39.
Carhampton Cross
A39 • A396 • A399 • B3188 • B3189 • B3190 • B3222 • B3223 • B3224 • B3225 • B3227 • B3234 • B3358 • Porlock Toll Road • Worthy Toll Road
Roads which start and finish on the same road
Somerset Council
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Mitt "doesn't get" the auto bailout
Romney calls himself "a son of Detroit." The mayor of nearby Lansing, Virg Bernero, calls him "a son of something"
By Edward McClelland
Lansing, Mich., Mayor Virg Bernero (AP/Al Goldis)
In 2009, Virg Bernero earned the nickname “America’s Angriest Mayor” after a series of quarrelsome debates about the auto bailout with free-market absolutists on Fox News.
The mayor of Lansing, Mich., where General Motors opened two new auto plants during the 2000s, Bernero startled Lego-haired Fox anchorman Gregg Jarrett with a rant questioning why the United Auto Workers -- including Bernero’s father, an octogenarian GM retiree -- were asked to sacrifice wages and benefits while Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers received billions in TARP money.
“I gotta say, in all honesty, I was a little offended by your question, ‘Have the unions given up enough? Has the working man given up enough?’” Bernero shouted, before Jarrett even asked him a question. “My question is, ‘Has Wall Street given up enough, for the billions they have taken?’ I gotta tell ya, I am sick and tired of the double standard: one standard for Washington and Wall Street, another standard for the working people in this country. It always comes down to, in order to be more competitive, we gotta take it out of the hide of the working person.”
Bernero’s tightly wound populism came not so much from anger as from fear -- fear that Lansing, which had already lost its signature brand, the Oldsmobile, was about to lose its entire manufacturing base, and the 6,000 union jobs that went with it. Shutting down Lansing’s auto plants might have made Bernero’s city a sister in misery to Flint, 50 miles up Interstate 69, which went from having one of the highest per-capita incomes in the United States to the highest murder rate after GM eliminated 90 percent of its automaking jobs. To prevent that from happening, Bernero founded the Mayors Automotive Coalition, bringing together mayors from the Rust Belt, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas, to lobby Congress for a federal bailout of GM and Chrysler. (One of its members, former Youngstown, Ohio, Mayor Jay Williams, is now deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.)
While Bernero and his fellow mayors were pleading with senators for money, Mitt Romney wrote a New York Times Op-Ed titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” Romney predicted that “if General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.”
GM, Ford and Chrysler got the bailout, and the American automotive industry is still here. Lansing’s Grand River Assembly, down to a single shift during the recession, recently hired 600 new workers to build the Cadillac ATS, a compact sedan Esquire says “may be the most important domestic car since the Model T.”
During Monday’s foreign policy debate, President Obama told Romney, “If we had taken your advice, Governor Romney, about our auto industry, we’d be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China.”
“I’m a son of Detroit,” replied Romney, whose father, George Romney, was president of American Motors from 1954 to 1962. “I was born in Detroit. My dad was head of a car company. I like American cars. And I would do nothing to hurt the U.S. auto industry. My plan to get the industry on its feet when it was in real trouble was not to start writing checks. It was President Bush that wrote the first checks. I disagree with that. I said they need — these companies need to go through a managed bankruptcy. And in that process, they can get government help and government guarantees, but they need to go through bankruptcy to get rid of excess cost and the debt burden that they’d — they’d built up.”
Salon asked Mayor Bernero what would have happened to the American auto industry -- and to Lansing -- if Mitt Romney had been president in 2008 or 2009.
What was your reaction when you read Mitt Romney’s Op-Ed in 2008?
It was stunning. It was basically pouring water on a drowning man. It was not helpful. It was an absolute punch in the jaw, a slap in the face. I was stunned, in particular, because somebody who claims to understand the auto industry, whose father -- frankly, the apple has fallen far from the tree, because I think George Romney would have gotten it, like George Bush got it. I think George Romney was through and through a manufacturing guy and a car guy, while Mitt is more of a finance guy, more of a Wall Street guy, and that’s fundamentally a huge problem with our economy, that Wall Street has put itself at the middle of the economy, a paper economy. They don’t get manufacturing. They have no appreciation for manufacturing, and their view is, "Send it overseas." They think it’s inevitable that it goes overseas, and they’ve hastened the decline of this country.
If there had been no government intervention, and the auto companies had been allowed to go bankrupt without any help from the government, what would the consequences have been for Lansing in particular and for the auto industry in general?
I shudder to think what it would be. Believe me, it was as much fear as anything motivating me to organize the Mayor’s Automotive Coalition. When the whole thing was going down, we weren’t sure at all that Bush was going to do the right thing. It would have been absolutely devastating to Lansing and Michigan, and I think to the Midwest. I think it could have very well plunged the country into a depression, because of the magic of manufacturing, because of the ripple effect, the supply chain. It would have been devastating. I think it would potentially have affected Ford Motor Co. as well. Thank God that not one, but two presidents had the wisdom to see the consequences coming and thank God neither of them was Mitt Romney, because he fundamentally didn’t get it.
Romney said during the debate that the company could have gone through a managed bankruptcy without a government bailout. Why was government intervention necessary?
That, again, demonstrates how little he knows, how out of touch he is. Take yourself back to that time and remember that the finance industry had seized up. There was no money, there was no credit available, so how would the restructuring have taken place? Without the massive investment by the federal government -- the federal government in essence stepped in and acted as the bank, and that was vital, and that was really because Wall Street had seized everything up, because of the disaster that they brought on with all of their shenanigans and the crap that they pulled. It would have been liquidation. Nobody was willing to invest. It had to be the U.S. government. It had to be the U.S. taxpayer, through the U.S. government investing, just like when the U.S. government invested in Chrysler, and saved Chrysler, and that was a great investment that was paid back, and this one will be paid back, but it had to take that managed, structured government intervention that nobody else was willing to do. His buddies in finance couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. That’s part of the mirage and the myth he spreads, because oh, he believes in the invisible hand or whatever, capitalism, would have taken care of it. The invisible hand would have come in and chopped up those companies, liquidated them. Would my three plants here in Lansing be operational? Hard to say. I can’t imagine it. I think they would have been chopped up. I think we would have been obliterated.
One of the points that Romney did make in his Op-Ed was that the wage and the benefit structure of the American auto industry had to come down to where Honda and Nissan and Toyota were at. How much of the resistance to a bailout do you think had to do with punishing the unions?
I’ve heard that again and again from Republicans, so I think that was a key part of his agenda. I noticed when opposition comes up, when I really drill down, when I hear people bashing the rescue, a lot of times when these are right-wingers, they talk about, “Oh, it’s nothing more than protecting the union.” There’s a lot of resentment. I’m biased, because my dad’s a GM retiree. He has a modest pension. He worked there for 23 years. I find it ironic. People talk about unions like they’re such a big part of the problem. Right now, unions are at a low ebb. When they were at their highest point, in terms of number of unionization, this country, in terms of GDP and equality of distribution, strength of the middle class, was at its zenith. How can we say that the unions, when they’re at the lowest point in their history, “They’ve gone too far, they’re too powerful, they’re the problem”?
What would Lansing be like without General Motors, without auto plants?
It would be poorer. Even though we’ve gone from 30,000 people to 5,000 or 6,000 now. Those are still high-paying good jobs, which again, you’ve got the suppliers. So the actual number of jobs impacted by GM -- I don’t have the actual number. It’s got to be tens of thousands.
How does it change the nature of a community when you lose your manufacturing base?
When I see other communities, it just appears devastating to families. It’s like an economic tsunami. When I read the New York Times, and I read about these towns where the biggest factories have left, when you lose thousands of jobs, and the spillover effect, the devastation. Those families, those are kids that go to school, that need tennis shoes and clothes, I mean, grocery stores, restaurants, you name it. We’ve seen some of that from the plants that GM has closed, and we’re fortunate enough to have new ones that have arisen. And part of it is the hope. Right now, we’ve too many people unemployed, probably in the 9 percent range, but there’s hope. This is what’s hard to gauge. GM being there, being up and running, the smokestacks working, and the line running, and the new cars coming out, there’s something about that. There is a hope that it gives. We run a mobile food pantry once a month, and we go to different churches. I always show up there and I try to give ’em a little pep talk. And whenever I mention GM going strong, and whenever I mention the Cadillac ATS, the new luxury car that’s going to compete worldwide, those folks practically give me a standing ovation. They are excited. Even though they don’t work at GM, most all of them know somebody who does, and some of them, of course, are hoping one day to work at GM.
There certainly wasn’t time to go over Romney’s Op-Ed point by point during the debate.
I thought the president did a great job, but I wish the he’d had a chance to talk about it [more], because Romney was saying, "Oh, I was for it. That’s exactly what I was calling for." Uh, no. You were against the government investment. The government investment, it just so happens, was the freaking linchpin, because without it, nobody was willing to invest.
Did you hear the “son of Detroit” line?
He’s a son of something.
Edward McClelland
Edward McClelland is the author of "Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland." Follow him on Twitter at @tedmcclelland.
MORE FROM Edward McClelland
Auto Bailout Auto Industry Detroit Lansing Mi Mitt Romney Virg Bernero
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When a Person Is Neither XX nor XY: A Q&A with Geneticist Eric Vilain
Eric Vilain discusses the biology and politics of mixed-sex individuals, arguing that terms such as "hermaphrodite" and "intersex" are vague and hurtful.
By Sally Lehrman on May 30, 2007
About one in 4,500 babies show ambiguous genitalia at birth, such as a clitoris that looks like a penis, or vice versa. For the Insights story, "Going Beyond X and Y," appearing in the June 2007 issue of Scientific American, Sally Lehrman talked with noted geneticist Eric Vilain of the University of California, Los Angeles, about the biology of sex determination, gender identity and the psychology and politics behind both. Here is an expanded interview.
When did you first discover your interest in intersex individuals and the biology of sex development?
I started in Paris as a medical student, and my first assignment was to a unit of pediatric endocrinology in a Paris hospital, and it was the center of reference for all of France for babies born with ambiguous genitals. And I was actually literally shocked by the way decisions were made on these patients. I felt it didn't rely on solid scientific evidence. I mean, I'm a scientist, I'm a big believer of you can't just do things without being supported by evidence. In this case it was more like people would say it was just common sense—if the clitoris sticks out this much, you have to fix it. Or if the penis is really too small, it has to be bigger. Otherwise what life is this child going to have? And you know, I was never convinced by common sense. I kept asking, "How do you know?" There was no good answer to that.
There were a lot of patients and it was always the same discussions. And it was mainly about clitoral reduction.
So there were sexual politics there, too?
Yes. I was reading at the time this book by Michel Foucault. He has book that's called Herculine Barbin. He basically tells the story of this girl who clearly has a large clitoris. She goes and gets sexually aroused as she sleeps in the bed of other girls, as it was normal for girls to do. She goes to this religious institution for girls until eventually someone finds out, and then it's a big scandal. She becomes a pariah, and she ends up committing suicide. I was reading that, I was pretty young, I was like 18.
Defining normality has always been an obsession of mine. How do you define what's abnormal versus normal? I guess it's the philosophical roots of the French educational system.
But why choose to study intersex questions for the rest of your career?
My scientific inclination was excited by this because not only was it understanding a rare condition that makes people different, all of these social aspects, but also it has scientific implications in the basic biology of developing male or female. Always in biology, you want to look at the exception to understand the general. So understanding intersex individuals makes us understand how typical males and typical females do develop.
So what has your research overall been able to say about sex development?
We've identified new molecular mechanisms of sex determination. In particular we've discovered genes, such as WNT4, that's female-specific and not present in males, and that's sort of shifted the paradigm of making a male as just activation of a bunch of male genes. In fact it's probably more complicated. What we've shown is that making a male, yes, is activating some male genes, but it's also inhibiting some antimale genes. It's a much more complex network, a delicate dance between pro-male and antimale molecules. And these antimale molecules may be pro-female, though that's harder to prove.
It sounds as if you are describing a shift from the prevailing view that female development is a default molecular pathway to active pro-male and antimale pathways. Are there also pro-female and antifemale pathways?
Modern sex determination started at the end of the 1940s—1947—when the French physiologist Alfred Jost said it's the testis that is determining sex. Having a testis determines maleness, not having a testis determines femaleness. The ovary is not sex-determining. It will not influence the development of the external genitalia. Now in 1959 when the karyotype of Klinefelter [a male who is XXY] and Turner [a female who has one X] syndromes was discovered, it became clear that in humans it was the presence or the absence of the Y chromosome that's sex determining. Because all Klinefelters that have a Y are male, whereas Turners, who have no Y, are females. So it's not a dosage or the number of X's, it's really the presence or absence of the Y.
So if you combine those two paradigms, you end up having a molecular basis that's likely to be a factor, a gene, that's a testis-determining factor, and that's the sex-determining gene. So the field based on that is really oriented towards findingtestis-determining factors. What we discovered, though, was not just pro-testis determining factors. There are a number of factors that are there, like WNT4, like DAX1, whose function is to counterbalance the male pathway.
Why are genes such as WNT4 and others necessary for sex development?
I don't know why it's necessary, but if they're doing this then probably they're here to do some fine-tuning at the molecular level. But these antimale genes may be responsible for the development of the ovary. And WNT4 is likely to be such a factor. It's an ovarian marker now, we know. But if you have an excess of WNT4, too much WNT4 in an XY, you're going to feminize the XY individual.
Is the conceptual framework for sex determination changing, then, because of these discoveries?
I think the frame has slightly changed in the sense that even though it's still considered that the ovary is the default pathway, it's not seen as the passive pathway. It's still "default" in the sense that if you don't have the Y chromosome, if you don't haveSRY, the ovary will develop. [SRY, or sex-determining region Y, encodes the so-called testis determining factor.] That's probably the new thing in the past 10 years, that there are genes that are essential to make a functioning ovary. That really has changed, and WNT4 is one of the reasons for it.
What do you feel are your group's most important contributions to the sex biology field so far?
The two things that we contributed was, one, to find the genes that are antimale, and reframing the view of the female pathway from passive to active. And the second thing is in the brain. We're the first ones to show that there were genes involved in brain sexual differentiation, making the brain either male or female, that were active completely independently from hormones. Those were probably our two main contributions.
Do you think this difference in gene expression in the brain explains anything about gender identity?
About identity, it says nothing [yet]. It might say something. So those genes are differentially expressed between males and females early during development. They're certainly good candidates to look at to be influencing gender identity, but they're just goodcandidates.
At a recent international meeting to discuss management of people with genital and gonadal abnormalities, you successfully pushed for a change in nomenclature. Instead of using terms such as "hermaphrodite" or even "intersex," you recommended that the field use specific diagnoses under the term, "disorders of sex development." Why did you and other geneticists feel a nomenclature change was necessary?
For the past 15 to 16 years now, there really has been an explosion in the genetic knowledge of sex determination. And the question being, how can we translate this genetic knowledge into clinical practice? So we said maybe we should have a fresh approach to this.
The initial agenda was to have a nomenclature that was robust but flexible enough to incorporate new genetic knowledge. Then we realized there were other problems that were in fact not really genetic, but that genetics could actually answer them. Ultimately individuals who are intersex will each have their diagnosis with a genetic name. It's not going to be some big, all-encompassing category, like "male hermaphrodites." And that's much more scientific, it's much more individualized, if you will. It's much more medical.
How did the conference participants respond to the proposal?
The majority of health care professionals were very happy with it. There were some, there was a conservative side that said, "Why change something that was working?" There was significant minority dissent that was saying, "Why do we care?" Because it was working, for us it's an intellectual frame that has worked. So it required a little bit of education, saying, you know, it's important not only because it's more precise and it's more scientific, but also the patients would benefit from it by removing the word "hermaphrodite" and so forth. About the change to disorders of sex development, there was no issue at all in the group.
Why is the medical emphasis of this new term problematic for some?
The one piece in the nomenclature that remains highly controversial is the replacement of "intersex" with "disorders of sex development." And I'll say a few things about that. One is that intersex was big. Sometimes we wouldn't know who to include and who not to include.
"Intersex" was vague and "disorders of sex development" at least is a very medical definition, so we know exactly what we're talking about. For instance, if there are chromosomal abnormalities, if you have a patient who is missing one X chromosome—Turner syndrome—or having an extra X—Klinefelter's syndrome—both those, now wedo include them in "disorders of sexual development." They're not ambiguous. They do belong in this large category of people with "medical problems," quote-unquote, of the reproductive system. So intersex was vague, DSD is not vague.
What were some of the social issues you were trying to address?
There was another issue with the old nomenclature, which was the actual word, "hermaphrodite." "Hermaphrodite" was perceived by adult intersex individuals as demeaning. It also had some sexual connotation that would attract a flurry of people who have all sorts of fetishes, and so the intersex community really wanted to get rid of the term.
Cheryl Chase, executive director of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), said she has been promoting a nomenclature change for some time. Why?
People like Cheryl would say intersex issues are not issues of gender identity, they are just issues of quality of life—whether early genital surgery was performed appropriately or not, and that's really what has impaired our quality of life. She and others at ISNA do support the change because of an interesting side effect—because it becomes a very medicalized definition, the medical science should apply. It should apply strongly. That means it's not as if now we're talking about something that's not a disorder, that is just a normal variant, a condition. If it's just a condition that's a normal condition, then there is no need for medical attention.
So basically my point of view is really, let's separate the political from the medical, the science. There's a whole psychology to this, you know, the surgeons often are under the impression that there is this tiny, vocal minority of activists who just want to destroy their work.
Intersex individuals are really distinct from, for instance, the gay and lesbian community that does not have any a priori medical issue, there is no difference in the development of any of the organs, or they don't need to see a doctor when they're a newborn. I think it's quite different. Sure, some intersex are gay or lesbians, but not all are.
Why was it necessary for intersex individuals to take an activist stance at one time?
Because otherwise nothing would have changed in the practice. Otherwise this consensus conference would just not have happened. It was really in response to activism. They put the problem on the table and it required, it really forced the medical community to address an issue that was rare enough not to be addressed.
Some have called the new term a political setback, because it pathologizes what could be seen as normal human variation.
First of all, we can call normal variants everything; we can call cancer a normal variant. Of course, it kills you in the end, but it is a normal variant. We can play with words like that, but for practical purposes these "normal variants" have a lot of health risks that require lots of visits to the doctor for a bunch of issues that intersex patients have: fertility issues, cancer issues (the testis inside the body can increase the risk of cancer), sexual health issues. So if you're to start going to the doctor a lot for your condition, you can call it a normal variant, but that's not really useful. You're calling it a normal variant for political purposes. I'm calling it a disorder because I want all the rules and the wisdom of modern medical practices to be applied to the intersex field. I don't want intersex to be an exception: To say, "Um, you know, it's not really a disease," so therefore [physicians] can do whatever they want. That's what has been driving this field, people saying, well, you know, we can experiment, it's a normal variant.
There has been considerable controversy over whether surgeons should immediately make a decision about an infant's sex and quickly correct ambiguous genitalia. The consensus statement seems to promote a more cautious approach to surgery, while still assigning gender rapidly. What is your view?
I'm saying intervene [with surgery] only if you've proven that intervention is actually of benefit to the patient. Not of benefit to the parent. Because you know that surgery is used a lot to help the parent psychologically. It's a quick fix, if you will. The child looks different, it's very distressing for everyone, and one way to make it go away is just to make the kid look like everyone else. And that's really psychological help for the parents. But that should not be a parameter for surgery. We're talking about psychological distress to the parents, and that should be treated appropriately by a psychologist or psychiatrist, but not by surgery of the child.
Do you think this consensus statement will change the common practice of performing sex-assignment surgery early on?
(laughing) Well, yes. See, the consensus statement is a house of cards. You build it once, and there's no one that really inhabits it; it can be destroyed. They're not guidelines. I think it will change, but it will require some additional work. One of the things I think should happen next is to have a few leading clinics actually apply all the consensus recommendations and then do studies showing whether they actually impact the health and the well-being of the patient. It's not easy to do, because some of the recommendations require money. Like saying, "We need a psychologist"—that's easier said than done. There's no funding for having a psychologist in all these clinics. So I think it will influence some things. For instance, the nomenclature will change. I get a lot of phone calls and e-mails from authors of major textbooks, they're going to change. Also from editors of journals who publish articles about intersex, so that's going to change. But will that change the general outcome of patients? I don't know. I hope so. I think it's a step in the right direction.
Many physicians and geneticists look at intersex simply as a medical condition that should be addressed. You seem to take patients' social and political concerns very seriously, too. Why?
I've always been interested in the fact that medicine is very normative, and reductionist—it reduces people to their pathologies….'' Medicine should be in the business of making people as a whole better, rather than just curing the disease. And anyway, I'm not the only one saying that. Actually, I always use cancer as an example. A lot of cancer doctors are very well aware of this. They're offering options that sometimes do not include treatment just because they're aware of the fact that the treatment would ruin the quality of life so much that it's just not worth it.
How do you handle working in a field that is so volatile socially and politically? Everything that you do, people jump on and make claims about sexuality or gender.
I interpret everything conservatively. You have to not make the mistake of overinterpreting anything. That's my way of trying to navigate that. You also have to be aware of the social sensibilities. You can't just have an autistic approach to it and say, I'm just going to ignore it completely. If you're aware of the social sensibilities, and if you don't overinterpret your data, you're in good shape.
How do you stay aware and informed?
Being part of ISNA is one way [as a member of its medical advisory board]. It forces me to listen to what the patients have to say, which is really not part of the medical culture, at least in this field. The way to assess the well-being of a patient is to really listen to what the patient has to say.
Sally Lehrman
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Going beyond X and Y
June 1, 2007 — Sally Lehrman
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CITMA and CIPA state only Supreme Court should depart from retained EU case law
The Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) and the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) have published their response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on the UK courts and tribunals’ departure from retained EU case law.
In the consultation, the Ministry of Justice asked the question: do you consider that the power to depart from retained EU case law should be extended to other courts and tribunals beyond the UK Supreme Court and High Court of Justiciary?
CITMA and CIPA believe that the power to depart from retained EU case law should be confined to the Supreme Court, and should be used ‘sparingly’ rather than extended to other courts and tribunals within the UK. The response indicated the body of case law developed over the years is reasonably stable and well supported by industry. Departing from retained case law risks, and even invites, increased uncertainty. Moreover, the well-established mechanism for effecting significant change in the law is for the UK Parliament (as sovereign) to legislate and for the UK courts to interpret that legislation. In the event that Parliament is of the view that domestic laws should depart from EU law, it can and should legislate.
In Intellectual Property (IP) law, EU case law has been particularly significant, and well-developed in several areas, including in trade mark law, in supplementary protection certificates in patent law and, to a lesser extent, in copyright and design law. UK trade mark law comprises a large body of CJEU decisions built up over 30 years. The decisions are interlinked and create a shared and reasonably stable understanding of how trade mark law is applied. It is also often difficult in practice to distinguish between binding UK and binding EU case law in this area. To depart from the latter without having an unpredictable impact on the former would contribute to uncertainty.
The Institutes further argue that extending the power to the Court of Appeal and equivalent level courts would “increase the number of appeals in IP infringement cases” and “unsuccessful parties would have a greater opportunity to appeal the basis of the underlying case law.” In addition, “if the Court of Appeal were to have the powers but not the High Court, that would raise the question as to the standard for an appeal.” Further, the Institutes state that “decisions by all courts and tribunals would result in piecemeal changes to law, which would potentially lead to uncertainty and inconsistency.”
The consultation questionnaire with CITMA and CIPA’s responses is available here.
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Home > Academics > KSOM > Economics/Finance Department >
Economics and Finance Department
We prepare students for leadership roles in the 21st century global economy. Students gain a solid foundation in economics and finance that is rooted in the Jesuit tradition of social responsibility and ethics. This background is essential for navigating a business world in constant evolution.
Faculty News:
Drs. Petsas and Cai research collaboration titled "Corporate events, return synchronicity and price efficiency" resulted in a publication at the Journal of Economic Asymmetries. The paper is available at: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1aHaF63L7HYgQF
Dr. Scahill is a regular contributor to Wall Street Journal Weekly Review. For more information about the contributors, please click here: https://education.wsj.com/professorcontributor/
Dr. John Kallianiotis's new book is now available:
Political History and Economic Policy of the Greek Civilizer Alexander the Great, Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishers, July 2020, ISBN: 978-1-53618-072-5.
https://novapublishers.com/shop/political-history-and-economic-policy-of-the-greek-civilizer-alexander-the-great/
Dr. Cai's paper titled "The Whack-A-Mole Game: Tobin Taxes and Trading Frenzy" has been accepted by the Review of Financial Studies.
How We Stand Out:
Accredited by AACSB International. The Kania School of Management is among fewer than 5 percent of business schools worldwide hold this prestigious distinction.
Nationally and internationally acclaimed. Princeton Review has listed Kania among the Best Business Schools for the past 5 years. In 2008, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked the MBA program among the top 15 nationally in general management. U.S. News and World Report also recognizes the Kania School among its list of best business schools.
Jesuit education. The goals of the department reflect our Jesuit values of social responsibility and giving back to others. Scranton economics and finance graduates are well-rounded and thoughtful contributors to society with a strong commitment to ethical business practices.
Alperin Financial Center. Students obtain hands-on experience with stock and foreign-currency markets. This state-of-the-art center simulates a trading floor, complete with: an electronic ticker displaying data feeds directly from Wall Street, monitors displaying up-to-the-minute financial news, 12 Bloomberg terminals, and computing hardware and software that facilitate sophisticated analyses of equities and currencies.
Did you know? More students from the Economics and Finance Department have received the prestigious McGowan Scholarship than students from all the other business departments combined.
B.S. Economics - The major in Economics equips students with the training and background needed to assume responsible, decision-making positions in the financial sector, industries and government service. It is especially appropriate for students intending graduate studies in Economics or careers in law.
B.S. Finance - Finance majors learn how to make financial decisions for organizations. Course work covers such topics as investments, portfolio management, and fixed income securities and markets. The department offers two tracks within the Finance major: Financial Services and Corporate Finance.
B.S. International Business - An interdisciplinary program, drawing on all areas of business, with a particular focus on international trade, multinational corporations, and foreign direct investment.
Combined BS/MBA in Finance - This program provides Kania School of Management students the opportunity to complete a combined bachelor's degree and MBA in a five year period.
Meet Our Faculty:
The Economics and Finance Department at the University of Scranton has a long-standing tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship.
Students gain an international perspective of finance and economics, which is essential for doing business in today’s global economy. Our faculty is comprised of leaders from around the world. Their impressive academic credentials include:
University of Calcutta
University of Punjab, Pakistan
Yerevan State University, Armenia
Delhi School of Economics, University of India
Renmin University of China
Iordanis Petsas
Professor of Economics, Chair
B.A., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
M.A., Ph.D., University of Florida
Aram Balagyozyan
Associate Professor of Economics
B.S., Yerevan State University
Ph.D., The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York
Jinghan Cai
B.A., Renmin University of China
Ph.D., City University of Hong Kong
Ph.D., Boston College
Satyajit Ghosh
Professor of Economics
B.A., Presidency College, India
M.A., University of Calcutta
M.A., Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo
John Kallianiotis
M.A., M.Ph., Ph.D., City University of New York
Hong Nguyen
B.S., State University of New York at Brockport
M.A., Ph.D., Binghamton University
Christos Pargianas
M.A., University of Macedonia
M.A, Brown University
Ph.D., Brown University
Murli Rajan
John Ruddy
Assistant Professor of Finance
B.S. The University of Scranton
M.B.A. The George Washington University
D.P.S. Pace University
Edward Scahill
B.S., St. Bonaventure University
Susan Trussler
B.Sc., London School of Economics
M.S., Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University
A.P.C., New York University
Inside the Classroom:
Students appreciate our warm culture of cura personalis – or care of the whole person – in the Jesuit tradition. Faculty members are accessible and available to students on a routine basis through a generous open door policy. Students discover a strong sense of community at Scranton and mentoring relationships with faculty.
We offer small classes and personal attention from faculty who have years experience both in industry and the classroom. And we complement that with internships, research opportunities and hands-on experience with industry standard finance technologies.
In addition, faculty members like Aram Balagyozyan take advantage of events like meetings of the Federal Reserve to bring students to the trading floor to observe in person how the market reacts to major changes.
Student Research:
Scranton undergraduate students have the unique opportunity to participate in faculty-mentored research. One example is an Assessment on Research in International Finance, Exchange Rate, and EU with Dr. John Kallianiotis. By participating in this research, students gain skills in data analysis and learn how to prepare material for publication.
Our dedicated faculty and staff are committed to preparing students to succeed in whatever career path they choose. For some, that means business or law school. Other graduates begin their career in industry, including prestigious Wall Street firms.
Scranton alumni are employed by:
AXA Financial
Pershing Securities
Prudential Asset Management
Full Time Faculty and Staff
Part Time Faculty
Henry George Program
Omicron Delta Epsilon (ODE)
The Kania School of Management
Brennan Hall 400
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#EachforEqual is the theme for International Women's Day 2020. Here's what you should know.
Chelsey CoxUSA TODAY
Gender equality is good for the economy – and that is the message forganizers of International Women's Day 2020 hope to trumpet on Sunday.
“Equality is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue,” the International Women's Day website says.
Gender parity in government, workplaces, health care, sports and media coverage is achievable through collective action, organizers say. They hope this year’s theme, #EachforEqual, will inspire others to challenge biases, question stereotypes and celebrate the achievements of women around the world.
From a festival in Berlin, to a marathon in Indonesia or an economic empowerment event in Washington, D.C., each corner of the globe will mark the day in its own unique way.
What is International Women’s Day?
The day recognizes the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women globally, and is a call to action for gender parity. Starting in 1911, International Women’s Day has been observed for more than a century. No government, corporation, organization or media entity can claim sole credit.
How is the day celebrated?
There are events listed in 21 countries on the official website. Any organizer is invited to publish a new event. Rallies, marches, marathons, panel discussions and beer tastings are just some of the activities. Organizers wanting to plan their own celebrations are welcome to helpful resources on the website.
How can I find events close to me?
You can search by city and country on the International Women's Day events page. Some cities are sponsoring multiple events.
What are some examples of events?
The International Association of Women NYC chapter will host a High Tea Reception at The View of the World for High Tea. A portion of the registration fee will be donated to the Girl Scouts of the United States.
A Women in Leadership Luncheon and Book Discussion will occur at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business alumni in Atlanta. Come prepared to discuss "Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office" by Lois Frankel.
Events are scheduled all afternoon March 9 at Cascadia Garlington Health Center in Portland, Oregon. Reflections and discussions, a dance performance and a documentary showing are planned.
Among events overseas: Vancouver will host a "Strong Women, Strong Music 2020" music concert series, an arts-focused showcase and panel, at the University of British Columbia Arts & Culture District as well as a free webinar on Collective Individualism in Action hosted by Social Root Consulting. An encore presentation of The Women's Adventure Film Tour will be presented in Sydney, Australia. The tour is a collection of short films spotlighting extreme athletes who are women.
What is the history of International Women's Day?
The leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, Clara Zetkin, suggested a celebration in every country on the same day for women to "press for their demands." This Women's Day was first observed on March 19, 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Campaigns across Europe against WWI inspired women in other countries to adopt International Women's Day.
The date of observance moved to March 8 in 1913. The United Nations celebrated International Women's Day for the first time in 1975 and started the tradition of an annual theme in 1996, according to the official website.
How can I celebrate International Women's Day on social media?
Organizers are asking supporters to "strike the #EachforEqual pose" in selfies. "Post your #IWD2020 message on social media with your 'hands out' equal pose for a strong call-to-action for others to support #EachforEqual also," the website says.
Are events only held for one day?
The #EachforEqual campaign runs all year long, according to the website.
Is there an International Men's Day?
International Men's Day is observed annually in more than 80 countries on Nov. 19. The month of November, which includes the Movember fundraiser for men's health and International Children's Day, is "important for the masculine soul," the official website says.
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Soch Writing سوچو سمجھو لکھو
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Is abortion legal in Pakistan?
Lack of clarity has made life difficult—and dangerous—for millions of women
By Zuha Siddiqui 13 February 2020
SAMAN WAS 21when she found out she was two months pregnant. She told her sister, her mother and her partner at the time. Her mother swiftly made arrangements: the next day, after dusk, she drove Saman to an informal abortion clinic on the outskirts of Islamabad and paid Rs50,000 for the procedure. “I remember lying on the operating table, yelling,” Saman told me over the phone. “Two nurses held me back as they administered anaesthesia.”
“Pakistan has an annual abortion rate of 50 per 1,000 women, the highest in South Asia and one of the highest in world.”
The procedure was short: not more than 45 minutes, typical for a dilation and curettage. Its associated risks are high: infection, excessive bleeding and subsequent cramps. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends it as a last resort, when no other methods are available. Seven years later, the trauma is still fresh in Saman’s head. “I try not to think about it too much,” she said. “I remember needles, being in pain, blood pooling near my legs, cramps lasting forever. I couldn’t open my eyes properly for weeks.” She received no post-op care and never spoke of the abortion ever again. It was almost as if it never happened.
For the same procedure, Fatima paid nearly double at a private hospital in Lahore. “I was very lucky to be able to afford the abortion without having it impact by life in a hugely negative way. I went to a very well-respected gynaecologist and hospital—and though I was scared, I didn’t feel unsafe or as if they were incapable.” Even so, before the procedure, a nurse shamed her for rejecting ‘God’s blessing.’
Pakistan has an annual abortion rate of 50 per 1,000 women, according to a 2012 survey, the highest in South Asia and one of the highest in world. (A previous study estimated a rate of 27 per 1000 women in 2002.) Although Pakistani women are clearly seeking abortions, medical practitioners often refuse to perform them or do so only in secret—in general, both seekers and providers of abortions tend to believe the procedure is against religion or Pakistani law, or both. When I asked Saman, for instance, why she didn’t go to a proper hospital when faced with an unwanted pregnancy, she said she didn’t know a legal abortion was even a possibility. As it turns out, it can be.
IN PAKISTAN, UNTILjust over two decades ago, induced abortion was permissible only for the purpose of saving a woman’s life. The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) largely draws from the colonial Indian Penal Code of 1860. But in 1997, an additional clause was added to Chapter XVI, Section 338 of the PPC: induced abortion is also permissible ‘before the limbs or organs of the baby have been formed’ for the purpose of ‘necessary treatment’. This stipulation, regarding limbs and organs is based on Islamic law, which states that induced abortion is permitted until the ‘quickening’ of the foetus—up to 20 weeks gestation, according to Pakistani medical practice. Induced abortions that fall outside these conditions may be punished with prison sentences ranging from three to ten years but, according to lawyer Sarah Malkani, there have been no cases of incarceration for abortion-related offences.
“Necessary treatment” is not defined in the PPC, however, and the law does not specify situations when a woman would “need” an abortion, leaving it up to service providers and medical professionals to interpret the clause as they please. “I think people who want to encourage abortions would encourage service providers to interpret it broadly, to mean not just the physical health of a woman, but also her emotional and mental health,” said Malkani, adding that, “depending on where a woman falls within the legal exception, doctors should be a providing abortions, and all wards in government hospitals should have abortion facilities.”
Source: Abortion law in Muslim-majority countries: an overview of the Islamic discourse with policy implications, Health Policy and Planning, Volume 29, Issue 4, July 2014 https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czt040
At his clinic in Karachi, Dr Shershah Syed routinely administers abortions free of charge, and regardless of marital status. He often receives cases of rape, marital abuse, and severe mental distress. “Practically speaking, abortion laws in our country are very liberal—they’re allowing doctors like myself to perform an essential service,” he says. “But the problem is our gynaecologists and obstetricians: they allow religious beliefs and bakwas to cloud their judgement when they say abortions are kufr, and they don’t acknowledge their patients’ plight.”
According to public health physician Dr Xaher Gul, a gynaecologist who refuses to administer an abortion in Pakistan is violating both the Hippocratic Oath and Standard 26 of the national abortion guidelines which states that healthcare providers have a right to conscientious refusal, but cannot impede or deny access or information about lawful abortion services to patients, delaying care and placing their health and life at risk.
“Pakistan is a unique country,” he added. “Our laws around abortion are liberal and yet every six hours a woman dies because of abortion-related complications. Doctors are pushing women towards threat.” According to him, patriarchy and paternalism within the medical fraternity impede access and endanger lives. “A woman seeking an abortion is automatically assumed to be of bad character.”
Outside Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, one of Karachi’s largest public health facilities, Dr Gul once saw a woman murdered by a member of her family. “She was begging the gynaecologist for an abortion and the doctor swore at her, told her to go die at home. And then she got shot.”
FARHAT SULTANA SUPERVISES127 Lady Health Workers in Karachi’s Baldia Town and has referred several women seeking abortions in her neighbourhood to local government hospitals. Invariably, her referrals are sent back home, where they attempt to self-induce by consuming large amounts of commonly available drugs. “It wrecks their bodies,” she says. She sees a hundred such cases every two months—women who have overdosed on over-the counter medication to induce abortions and end up suffering from complications, including incomplete abortions, excessive bleeding and sepsis, gangrene and internal organ injuries.
Sources: Guttmacher Institute. Adding It Up: Costs and Benefits of Meeting the Contraceptive and Maternal and Newborn Health Needs of Women in Pakistan, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2019, https://www.guttmacher.org/ report/adding-it-up-meeting-contraceptive-mnh-needs-pakistan.
According to gynaecologist Dr Saadia Ahsan Pal, many doctors who refuse to perform abortions then deal with the same patients after the women attempt to induce one at home. “One of my colleagues refused to administer an abortion for a patient,” she recalled. “The patient later asked my colleague if she would be willing to deal with her post-abortion complications, in the event that she induced an abortion at home.”
In addition to high rates of abortion, Pakistan also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in South Asia. Nearly one in five women are likely to develop complications during childbirth, and roughly six per cent of all maternal deaths in Pakistan—according to statistics from 2007—stemmed from unsafe abortions. It is worth noting these numbers are most likely grossly underreported; data is only collected from women who approach health facilities with post-abortion complications.
“I lied about being pregnant with a rapist’s child because she wouldn’t have been willing to perform the abortion if I told her it was consensual sex that bore this.”
In March 2018, the Ministry of National Health Services published a 32-page pamphlet listing guidelines for safe abortion practices and post-abortion care. According to the pamphlet, all women and girls have the right to high-quality safe, comprehensive uterine evacuation care and healthcare providers must provide high-quality care while protecting the human rights of their clients, including right to privacy and confidentiality, information, dignity and autonomy.
For the most part, however, these guidelines exist only on paper. “I was two and a half months pregnant and no one was willing to perform an abortion,” 20-year-old Maha told me. “Finally, a nurse at the hospital where I got my ultrasound suggested a doctor at another hospital.” When Maha approached her, the doctor kept asking how she’d gotten pregnant. “I lied about being pregnant with a rapist’s child because she wouldn’t have been willing to perform the abortion if I told her it was consensual sex that bore this.”
GYNAECOLOGIST DR AZRAAhsan thinks the reluctance to perform abortions stems partly from ignorance—lots of doctors don’t know abortion is conditionally legal in the country. “No law that governs abortions is ever taught in medical schools, and doctors aren’t sensitised to it at all.”
“But the fundamental question,” Dr Syed asks, “is what are we teaching our doctors?” Abortion is a procedure barely taught or talked about in public medical colleges across Pakistan, and only briefly mentioned during medical forensics classes as a criminal act. “If we don’t change our curricula, medical schools in Pakistan will continue to produce glorified quacks, and women will keep dying.”
Zahra recently graduated from a five-year MBBS programme at a public medical college in Karachi, and is about to begin her medical internship on the gynaecology track. In her last year of medical school, she and her peers were shown how to assemble and disassemble a manual vacuum aspirator. This is a plastic syringe with a cannula that sucks pregnancy tissue out of the uterus, a procedure commonly used to perform first trimester abortions and considered much safer than the invasive dilation and curettage. “We had never seen the strange looking syringe before, and they told us manual vacuum aspirators aren’t available at local government hospitals, so we pretty much forgot about them,” she said.
Zahra says she was taught nothing about the legal status of abortions in the country. In fact, she didn’t know about Article 338 of the PPC—and the ‘necessary treatment’ provision—until December last year, months after graduation, when she heard comedian Shehzad Ghias in conversation with public health specialist Dr Muhammad Moiz on a local podcast. In it, Dr Moiz reels of a distressing list of methods used by desperate women to induce abortions. A perturbed Ghias tries to stop him. “We don’t want to give people ideas,” he says, but Dr Moiz persists: “Women need to know these methods are harmful.”
THE THIRD TIME34-year-old Aisha needed an abortion, she went to a local pharmacy in Karachi, instead of one of the city’s few clinics where abortions are administered under qualified medical supervision. Her last experience at a clinic had been particularly harrowing. “The doctor shamed me for destroying my uterus and my body, and said I needed to be more careful,” she said. “It was humiliating; I was too ashamed to go back again.”
At the pharmacy, Aisha asked for ST Mom, one of the local brand names for misoprostol, an anti-ulcer medicine that can induce an abortion for a pregnancy up to ten weeks along. In American clinics, misoprostol is prescribed along with mifepristone—a more effective and less invasive combination with a success rate of nearly 98 per cent if used within the first ten weeks of pregnancy. The combination is considered the safest way to terminate a pregnancy; in fact, in 2005, the WHO decided there was sufficient scientific evidence to strike the caveat stipulating the medications only be taken under close medical supervision. But because mifepristone is specifically a registered abortion drug, it is not available in Pakistan, or in other countries with restrictive abortion laws—despite being on the WHO’s essential medicines list.
“In Pakistan, where only 30 per cent of fertile-age women use modern contraceptives, abortion is often a primary family planning measure.”
Used alone—without mifepristone—misoprostol has a significantly lower later of inducing an abortion in the first trimester: between 65 and 75 per cent. “I thought it had worked,” Aisha told me. Bleeding and uterine contractions usually start within thirty minutes of the first dose, but the bleeding doesn’t always imply the abortion has occurred. In Aisha’s case, it hadn’t.
Aisha’s cramps persisted over several days and, the following month, she bled so profusely she had to be hospitalised. At the hospital, out of fear of being sent back or being refused treatment for attempt an abortion at home, Aisha did not tell her doctors the truth. “I told them I had misused my birth control pills by accident,” she said.
Limited abortion access does not mean women don’t access abortions. Indeed, in Pakistan, where only 30 per cent of fertile-age women use modern contraceptives, according to a 2017 United Nations report, abortion is often used as a primary family planning measure. While the typical profile of a woman seeking an abortion in Pakistan is a middle-aged married woman, with three or more children, all women seek abortions, says Dr Moiz, and their needs must be centred. “At the end of the day, abortion is an essential service. This needs to be a core topic when you’re studying public health or community medicine and if you want to be a gynaecologist or obstetrician, you must be feminist and you must be pro-choice. Otherwise, what’s the point?” ￭
ZUHA SIDDIQUIis assistant editor at Soch Writing.
Visuals by MARIUM ALI.
*Some names have been changed to protect privacy.
Correction: A previous version of the Abortion law in Muslim-majority countries infographic did not include the seventh abortion right i.e. Abortion available upon request.
Is piddarshahi a feminine noun?
On sisterhood, solidarity and the sacrifices made to organise and attend Aurat March
Comrade: A lament, a love letter
What does it mean to be a comrade today? What unfulfilled desire, what future promise, does it hold?
Where are students supposed to live?
Last year’s CDA action against hostels exposed a paradox: Education is a priority. But are students?
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The Importance of Radio for PNG’s COVID-19 School Response
Staff in the Lae studios of the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea.
Source: Jacqueline Ferguson/AusAID/Flickr
By Fredrick Guande
Thursday, 18 June 2020 07:27 AM
Primary and secondary schools in Papua New Guinea (PNG) resumed operations more than a month ago after the State of Emergency (SOE) Controller lifted the temporary closure. Resuming classes in the midst of a countrywide SOE is no easy feat.
The fears of COVID-19 infection, spread and casualty haunt students, staff (both academic and non-academic), parents and other stakeholder groups. The pandemic has altered the normal school life. Many learning institutions operate in partial mode. This has adverse spillover effects on most of the daily educational activities. Learning times are reduced and rescheduled. Lessons are delivered in condensed formats.
Lack of additional facilities, such as buildings, libraries and reliable broadband internet access, makes it difficult for teachers to make alternative arrangements to adequately accommodate the learning needs of all students. Hence, the quality of teaching and learning, as well as students’ knowledge acquisition and skills development, are on the verge of being compromised.
The availability of supportive facilities such as effective school internet networks and affordable broadband internet in other countries has enabled teachers and students to maintain active engagement in online teaching and learning throughout the lockdown period. That is not the case for students in PNG due to the unavailability of such important support services in schools throughout the country.
Currently, with no vaccine to cure COVID-19, the world, including PNG and its educational institutions, will have to learn to live with the pandemic for a while. Maintaining social distancing and personal hygiene are crucial requirements in this new norm. Therefore, educational and political leaders should now plan on how to complete the 2020 school year, and continue beyond, with COVID-19. Two key areas to address in this planning are outlined below.
First, school leaders (principals and school boards) should work in collaboration with political leaders at both provincial and national levels to ensure that adequate facilities like classrooms, lecture halls, libraries, toilets, shower rooms and water taps are made available in schools.
International friends of PNG such as Australia and New Zealand should recognise these needs and provide counterpart funding to complement the government’s efforts. This would facilitate effective maintenance of the required social distancing and daily personal hygiene to prevent infection and spread of the virus in schools.
Second, the usefulness of online teaching and learning in crisis situations, such as the current pandemic, is unquestionable. Effective, accessible and affordable online teaching and learning platforms provide the pathway for schools to mitigate the disruptions caused by COVID-19 and complete the 2020 academic year successfully.
The need for PNG schools to have reliable broadband internet networks is long overdue. However, linking hundreds of primary and secondary schools scattered throughout the country online is not feasible now or in the foreseeable future considering PNG’s current financial situation.
An alternative arrangement worth consideration is for provinces to deliver lessons via radio airwaves. Currently, most provincial radio stations are not operational due to a host of issues such as lack of funding and poor management. The national government should work with the provincial governments of all 22 provinces to address these issues and revive their provincial radio stations and networks so that primary and secondary schools can broadcast learning programs. This would also be useful for communicating public health messages and countering misinformation.
This used to work well in the 1980s and 1990s. Sam Basil, the current National Planning and Monitoring Minister, in his previous capacity as the Minister for Communication, Information and Technology and Energy, launched a national project in 2017 to rehabilitate all the provincial radio stations, but this was left unaccomplished due to the change in government.
Now is the opportune time for the government to relaunch this project. Again, diplomatic friends of PNG and donor agencies should recognise the practicability of this facility and provide counterpart funding to facilitate its re-establishment.
Radio broadcast offers the only viable option for the National Department of Education to provide digital education to students in PNG. The education department should work in consultation with the National Broadcasting Corporation, provincial radio stations and provincial education departments to ensure that local radio stations are operational and learning programs are available for dissemination.
Having such arrangements in place will enable schools throughout the country to continue teaching and learning safely in the event of a positive case and suspension of classes, and thus complete the 2020 school year successfully and continue beyond.
This article appeared first on Devpolicy Blog (www.devpolicy.org), from the Development Policy Centre at The Australian National University. It is part of the #COVID-19 and the Pacific series.
Fredrick Guande is a lecturer at Divine Word University’s St. Benedict’s Campus, Wewak.
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Planning for the development of all three SFU campuses (Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver) has taken on a growing importance for the University as growth and needs change in all locations and available space becomes more difficult to source.
To ensure that the University makes the best use of limited land resources and that new building development and expansion fits within an overall plan, the Campus Planning department is constantly involved in a variety of planning processes.
Campus Planning staff also work closely with the SFU Community Trust in assessing future plans for expansion of the Burnaby Mountain UniverCity Community. Smart growth, and transportation planning ensure the development of the Burnaby Mountain community is coordinated with university plans and infrastructure.
An ambitious plan for constructing new facilities and renewing existing ones while enhancing accessibility for Aboriginal and First Nations people.
A joint plan done in conjunction with the City of Burnaby to help plan for University and non-University related uses on Burnaby Mountain.
Campus Development Plan
This updated document aims to continue the award-winning architectural vision begun in the 1960s when SFU first opened.
The Stormwater Management Strategy which is a 3-Phase approach which addresses the questions: what do you have, what do you want, and how will you get there?
Starting with an architectural jewel
SFU’s original campus in Burnaby designed by Arthur Erickson has been hailed as “an architectural jewel” and many of Erickson's organizing concepts continue to be integrated into the Burnaby campus site design and development guidelines still today.
The Burnaby campus was awarded a prestigious Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Prix du XXe siècle (20th century prize).
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SIUE’s New Cougar Cupboard Offers Free Food, Hygiene Products and More
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville wants its students and campus community focused on achieving educational excellence, not worrying about where or how they can access food and important hygiene products.
That’s why the Kimmel Student Involvement Center has opened the doors to the University’s new Cougar Cupboard food pantry in the Morris University Center.
“Food scarcity is a problem that isn’t necessarily at the forefront when people think about issues surrounding college students,” said Stephanie Bargiel, a Kimmel Student Involvement Center graduate assistant in charge of the Cougar Cupboard, and a biological sciences master’s student. “I’m elated that SIUE administrators, faculty and staff collaborated to make this progressive initiative possible for our students.”
The Cougar Cupboard is run entirely on donations, and is open to active students, faculty and staff with a valid SIUE ID on Tuesdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and Wednesdays from 3-7 p.m.
Its shelves are stocked with canned goods, pasta, rice, peanut butter and other food items, as well as hygiene care products. The Cupboard also provides information on off-campus resources such as Madison County Transit, SIUE’s WE CARE Clinic, the SIU School of Dental Medicine and other local food pantries.
Cougar Cupboard patrons receive enough food for each family member residing in their household to eat for approximately three days.
“What I love about the mission of the Cougar Cupboard food pantry is its focus on enhancing students’ educational experience,” said Sarah Laux, PhD, associate director of the Kimmel Student Involvement Center. “If a student is hungry or their basic needs are not being met, they’re not going to live up to their full potential as a student.”
“By having these resources available to them at no cost, hopefully they will not have to worry about how to get their next meal,” she continued. “Instead, they can focus on why they’re at SIUE. They’re here to develop personally and academically, and graduate and go on to achieve great things.”
For more information on the Cougar Cupboard food pantry, visit siue.edu/kimmel/community/CougarCupboard.
Photo: SIUE’s new Cougar Cupboard food pantry.
Video: https://youtu.be/NjQIQM9p8ZU
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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is authorized to operate as a postsecondary educational institution by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
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Regular Music - Regular Music
Regular Music were early instigators of the UK post-systems movement whose work straddles the spheres of rock, minimalism and post-punk. The band was formed in 1980 by composer/performers Helen Ottaway, Jeremy Peyton Jones and Andrew Poppy who met at Goldsmiths College in SE London where they studied music in the 1970s. Rather than wait for commissions they looked to models such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman who formed their own ensembles to play their music. The first Regular Music concerts took place at the ACME Gallery in Covent Garden on 20 and 21 June 1980. On the programme were works by Poppy and Peyton Jones as well as works by Morton Feldman, English Experimental composer John Lewis, Phillip Glass and Maurizio Kagel and among the performers were flautist/saxophonist Geoff Warren, violinist Alex Kolkowski, tuba player Dave Powell and pianist Alex Maguire all of whom were fellow ex-students from Goldsmiths or Royal Holloway College. Other gigs followed at theatres and art galleries in London and Nottingham, and then in 1982 Poppy left the band and joined The Lost Jockey, a larger band with a similar ethos, and Regular Music were joined by composer/pianist Jonathan Parry. By now they were performing music written exclusively by band members, mostly Parry and Peyton Jones but including works by violist Maria Lamburn and reeds player Geoff Warren. In a significant move the band was joined in 1983 by rock drummer Charles Hayward, electric guitarist Bron Szerszynski and vocalist Mary Phillips and settled into its eventual amplified line-up of saxes, tuba, voice, keyboards, strings, drums and guitar found on this album. By this time violinist Mark Emerson had been replaced by Jocelyn Pook, and Geoff Warren on reeds by Sarah Homer. In 1984 there was an Arts Council tour of the UK and the band collaborated with video artist Steve Littman to make the large-scale music/video piece ‘The Long Search for the Necessary Tool’. Later that year they were approached by Geoff Travis at Rough Trade to make this album. Performances in 1985 included The Bloomsbury Festival, the Almeida Theatre and Musique de Traverse in Reims. The band’s final performance was at the first MIMI festival in St Remy de Provence in July 1986. Following a period of writing new material the band was relaunched by Peyton Jones as Regular Music II in 1991 with a similar lineup plus the addition of singers Melanie Pappenheim, Sarah Stowe, Mike Henry and Lindsay Benson. First time ever on CD!
Full tracklist: 1. Idyllic Rhythms 2. Hyppolyte And Aricie 3. The Fourth Door (Dub) 4. Neapolitan Sixth (Part 1) 5. Neapolitan Sixth (Part 3) 6. The Third Dream 7. The Fourth Door.
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Chapter 773 (AB 2341 Villines)
Effective September 29, 2006
This act, effective September 29, 2006 as a tax levy, amended California law relating to the filing requirements of a terminating or merging corporation, limited liability company and limited liability partnership. This act:
Eliminates the requirement of a terminating corporation, limited liability company or limited liability partnership to obtain a Tax Clearance Certificate from the Franchise Tax Board. This act also requires the termination document filed with the Secretary of State to include a statement that the final franchise tax return, as described by § 23332 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, has been or will be filed with the Franchise Tax Board as required under Part 10.2 (commencing with § 18401) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. Updated forms are available on our Form, Samples & Fees webpage;
Eliminates the requirement of a merging corporation, limited liability company or limited liability partnership to obtain a Tax Clearance Certificate from the Franchise Tax Board;
Adds a new provision that all domestic stock corporations that have filed a Certificate of Dissolution without a Tax Clearance Certificate ("conditionally dissolved") shall be finally dissolved as of the date of filing of the Certificate of Dissolution if a Tax Clearance Certificate has not been issued as of the effective date of the Act; and
Allows entities to avoid the minimum franchise tax or annual tax for the current taxable year if 1) the entity files a final tax return; 2) the entity does not conduct any business after the end of the preceding taxable year; and 3) within 12 months of the filing date of the final tax return, the entity files appropriate paperwork with the California Secretary of State to terminate the entity.
Questions regarding franchise tax requirements must be directed to the Franchise Tax Board, or call the Franchise Tax Board at (800) 852–5711 (from within the U.S.) or (916) 845–6500 (from outside the U.S.).
Chapter 426 (AB 2914 Leno)
This act extends the sunset date of January 1, 2007 on licensed architects' ability to organize as limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to January 1, 2012. This act provides that, on and after January 1, 2008, the total aggregate limit of liability under the policy or policies of insurance or the amount of security for those partnerships providing architectural services with 5 or fewer licensed persons shall be $1,000,000, and for partnerships with more than 5 licensees, shall be an additional $100,000 for each additional licensee, up to the $5,000,000 maximum. This act also incorporates additional changes to § 16101 of the Corporations Code, proposed by AB 339.
This act established the Uniform Limited Partnership Act of 2008 (the Act of 2008), which provides the organization and governing provisions for a domestic (California) limited partnership (LP) and foreign (out–of–state or out–of–country) LP. Limited partnerships filed prior to January 1, 2008 will continue to be governed under the Uniform Limited Partnership Act and the California Revised Limited Partnership Act, unless the limited partnership elects to be governed by the new act or until January 1, 2010 when the Act of 2008 will govern all limited partnerships. The Act of 2008 can be found in the California Corporations Code commencing with § 15900.
Chapter 324 (AB 2588 Runner)
This act requires the Secretary of State to reinstate a terminated business entity to active status upon a court finding that factual representations in support of the termination document are materially false or the submission of the termination document for filing with the Secretary of State is fraudulent or upon other grounds warranting reinstatement. As defined by this bill, the term "termination document" means: "the certificate or other document required by the Corporations Code that is the last certificate or document filed with the Secretary of State to effect the final dissolution, surrender, or cancellation of the business entity." The Secretary of State shall notify the Franchise Tax Board of the reinstatement of the business entity.
Chapter 57 (SB 1183 Ackerman)
This act eliminates a two–year sunset provision for a filed amendment to articles of incorporation that imposes a "supermajority vote." This act also provides that a foreign corporation shall not be considered to be transacting intrastate business merely because of its status as an owner of various types of interests in business entities, which are transacting intrastate business.
Chapter 605 (AB 630 Chu)
This act requires the Secretary of State to conduct background checks on immigration consultants and to disqualify those who have been convicted of a felony, certain misdemeanor offenses, or who have failed to disclose certain arrests or convictions on a form filed with the Secretary of State. The background check is required for every person engaged in the business or acting in the capacity of an immigration consultant who was bonded and qualified as such on or before December 31, 2006 and from all new immigration consultants. This act requires that the photograph of the immigration consultant who has complied with all requirements be posted on the Secretary of State’s website. This act also requires the Secretary of State to issue a cease and desist order to a person who fails to comply with the bonding requirements of the law or who does not satisfactorily pass the back ground check and to notify the Attorney General of the person’s noncompliance.
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Pasta Evangelists acquired by Barilla
PAI Partners to acquire Addo Food Group and Winterbotham Darby to create a leading UK Chilled Food platform
Wessanen to acquire Little Lunch
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On 14th January, our client Pasta Evangelists, a UK-based specialist in D2C fresh, artisan pasta and sauces, was acquired by Barilla, the world’s leading pasta company. Founded in 2016, Pasta Evangelists has grown very quickly since its inception thanks to its disruptive ‘omnichannel’ approach, supplying consumers directly via its own website and dark kitchens, as well as serving retailers across …
On 15th October, it was announced that Wessanen and the shareholders of Little Lunch have signed an agreement for the purchase of 100% of the business. Founded in 2014, Little Lunch has developed into the market leader in the German market for organic soup. Over the years, the range has grown and now also includes meal makers and sauces. All …
Partnership agreement between Unilever and Aviko Rixona for development of manufacturing facility in Stavenhagen, Germany
On 25th September 2020, our client, Unilever, announced it is seeking a strategic partnership for the development of its manufacturing facility in Stavenhagen, Germany with Aviko Rixona, the leading producer of dehydrated potato granules and potato flakes, a subsidiary of Royal Cosun, an international agro-industrial cooperative dedicated to the manufacturing of plant-based solutions for food, feed and non-food applications and …
Partnership agreement between Unilever and Menz & Gasser for development of manufacturing facility in Sanguinetto, Italy
On 26th November 2019, our client, Unilever, announced it has reached a partnership agreement for the development of its manufacturing facility in Sanguinetto, Italy with Menz & Gasser, the Italian manufacturer of jams and semi-processed products. The agreement involves the acquisition by Menz & Gasser of the production plant and the expansion of production through a long-term supply contract guaranteed …
Sale of TRS Foods to Exponent Private Equity
On 25th November 2019, the sale of our client TRS Foods (“TRS”) to Exponent Private Equity was completed. TRS, founded in 1959 by TR Suterwalla, and since 1972 owned and managed by his five sons, is a leading manufacturer and distributor of South Asian ethnic foods which are sold under the TRS brand in the UK and internationally. The TRS …
Sale of Matthew Walker to Valeo Foods Group
On 10th October, our client 2 Sisters Food Group reached an agreement for the sale of its Matthew Walker Christmas puddings business to Valeo Foods Group, an Irish producer of branded grocery products backed by CapVest. Based at Heanor, Derbyshire, Matthew Walker is the world’s oldest Christmas pudding maker with 120 years’ heritage. The business’s highly experienced team, unique capabilities …
Sale of Chicken Tonight to Zwanenberg
On 16th September 2019 our client, Unilever, announced the sale of the Chicken Tonight brand to the Zwanenberg Food Group. Debora van der Zee, Marketing Director Unilever, said “Chicken Tonight is a recognisable and well-loved brand that has been a fixture in Dutch supermarkets for decades. Zwanenberg has been producing the product since 2017 and given the widening of their …
Sale of Belazu Ingredient Company to William Jackson Food Group
On 27th November 2018, the William Jackson Food Group announced the acquisition of our client, Belazu Ingredient Company (“Belazu”) from George Bennell, Adam Wells, Charlie Hodges and other members of the management team. Headquartered in London, Belazu employs around 160 people and supplies fine dining restaurants, casual dining chains, major retailers and leading UK food manufacturers with premium, authentic Mediterranean …
Kiddylicious acquired by Lotus Bakeries
On 26th July 2018, Lotus Bakeries (“Lotus”) announced the acquisition of our client, Kiddylicious, the innovative British food company that creates delicious, nutritious, portion-controlled snacks and meals for growing babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers. Founded by Sally Preston in 2009, Kiddylicious is the fastest growing brand in the UK baby food market and has become a must-stock brand for all major …
William Jackson sells Aunt Bessie’s to Nomad Foods
Our client, William Jackson & Son Limited, today announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell Aunt Bessie’s Limited to Nomad Foods Limited, the leading frozen foods company, for approximately £210 million. Aunt Bessie’s is a leading frozen food company in the UK where it manufactures, distributes and sells a range of branded frozen food products. The Aunt …
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Native Hawaiians among those hardest hit by COVID-19
By Timothy Hurley thurley@staradvertiser.com
No ethnic group has been hit harder by the coronavirus pandemic than Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. That became clear in Hawaii this summer when the state Department of Health began separating out ethnic COVID-19 data.
But it was not a surprise to some.
“We know that there are disparities in Native Hawaiian health across the board. Based on reports that were coming out from the CDC, we knew those who were vulnerable were populations like Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders,” said Kuhio Lewis, president and CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. “So we knew we had to do something.”
What emerged was a group of 10 ethnic and cultural organizations that galvanized to try to stop the spread of the virus in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.
Called the NHPI Collective COVID-19 Awareness and Prevention Campaign, the hui led by Kamehameha Schools, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs began to take a cultural approach to its mission of promoting safety and wellness amid the pandemic.
Members of the collective also include The Queen’s Health Systems, Papa Ola Lokahi, Queen Lili‘uokalani Trust, King Lunalilo Trust and Home, Partners in Development Foundation, Kawaiaha‘o Church and We Are Oceania.
But even with their efforts, the NHPI community continues to be disproportionately affected by the disease. Recent Health Department data show that Pacific Islanders still account for the majority of COVID-19 cases, with nearly 30% of the cases, even though they make up only 4% of the population. Native Hawaiians represent the third-highest pool of COVID-19 positive patients with 17% of the cases to date.
The problem isn’t confined to Hawaii. According to the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander COVID-19 Data Policy Lab at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the ethnic group is experiencing some of the highest coronavirus rates of any racial and ethnic group across the nation.
The problem itself is largely hidden from view, according to the UCLA lab, because fewer than 20 states separate out COVID-19 data for NHPIs.
What is known is that the NHPI community ranks first among ethnic groups most affected in 70% of those states, including Hawaii, California, Arkansas, Washington, Oregon and Utah. In Los Angeles County alone, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are seeing rates of infection up to five times that of white people, according to the UCLA lab.
The problem, experts say, is driven in part because the NHPI community generally experiences high rates of chronic diseases, including diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease, obesity and asthma.
In addition, many in this diverse group have fewer financial resources, live in large, multigenerational households in densely populated neighborhoods and work in essential jobs, placing them at significantly higher risk for COVID-19.
In Hawaii the Micronesian community has been hit especially hard.
“We have seen many deaths in our families,” said Jocelyn Howard, a Chuukese who is program director of We Are Oceania.
But she can also see behavior and attitudes beginning to change, with some in the Micronesian community avoiding funerals and other culturally significant gatherings that are usually well attended.
“When you talk about it, it’s easy,” Howard said of the social distancing required to stay safe. “But when you practice it, it’s hard — when you show up at the home and you cannot hug your auntie and you cannot stay in the way it’s supposed to be done. You leave your family feeling empty.”
In August, when virus numbers were spiking in Hawaii, representatives of the NHPI cultural groups came together to work toward a cohesive voice.
“We realized we need to do this through a cultural lens,” said Kau‘i Burgess, director of community and government relations at Kamehameha Schools. “As island communities, our people and our cultures share similar values and practices, so we are working together to effect change throughout Hawaii — for our keiki, for our kupuna and for all the people of Hawaii.”
So far, the collective, among other things, has worked to stop the spread of the virus in the NHPI population by:
>> Launching a campaign aimed at encouraging a focus on health and well- being, through the leadership of dozens of kumu hula.
>> Creating public service announcements featuring key community leaders.
>> Providing and directing people to resources like free COVID-19 testing, food distributions and financial support.
While the virus in Hawaii has subsided from the levels seen this summer, the group is not letting its guard down.
“That’s been our biggest fear, that people are going to relax, think the battle is over and then start going back to normal, which would be a dangerous thing at this point,” said Mehana Hind, OHA community engagement director.
Hind said inspiration for the effort comes from their Hawaiian ancestors who survived a period in the late 1700s and during the 1800s when diseases were rampant in the islands.
The population of Native Hawaiians declined from 200,000 (or as many as 1 million by some estimates) down to 40,000 at the time of the overthrow of Queen Lili‘uokalani in 1893.
“Those 40,000, we are their descendents,” Hind said.
“We can speak to the smart choices that Lili‘u made — for instance, to shut the harbors down when there was an outbreak of smallpox in Honolulu to make sure it didn’t get to the neighbor islands,” she said.
But they can also learn from mistakes, Hind said, including that of a woman with smallpox who knew she was dying and gathered her family around her one last time — only to pass the fatal disease to her family members.
“The overarching message is, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have been dealing with pandemics for generations,” Lewis said. “And so as we look forward in this pandemic upon us now, we lean on the ike, or knowledge, of our kupuna to tell us we can’t take anything for granted. We have to come together and do our part as leaders in the community to protect our people.”
With COVID-19 raging on the mainland and tourism opening in Hawaii, the threat of the virus remains very real. The coalition is now urging the NHPI community to get a flu shot and observe Thanksgiving without gathering in the usual way.
Dr. Gerard Akaka, vice president of Native Hawaiian affairs and clinical support at The Queen’s Health Systems, said that if the virus and the flu take hold at the same time, Hawaii’s hospitals could be overwhelmed.
“We are at war and COVID-19 is the enemy. We have to change the way we do things and share aloha in a different way,” he said.
Hawaii Real Estate Sales: Oct. 19 – Oct. 23, 2020
Column: Reevaluate your network to meet your business goals
Flash flood watch, high surf warning covers most Hawaiian islands
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WSMI Presents Karen Brodkin, Carolyn Peck at CSVS
By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Director of Production
Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 8:55 am
SVG’s Women’s Sports Media Initiative, a networking group that aims to enhance the role of women in creation, production, and distribution of sports content, traveled to Atlanta last week for the College Sports Video Summit.
On June 6, more than 30 women representing university organizations, athletic departments, networks, and vendors gathered at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel to hear from Karen Brodkin, EVP of business and legal affairs for Fox Sports Media Group.
Brodkin oversees all business affairs and related legal matters on behalf of Fox Sports Media Group and its wide array of multiplatform sports assets distributed through TV, digital, mobile, Web, and broadband. Since joining Fox Sports in 1998, she has been instrumental in completing deals ranging from complex media-rights acquisitions to production, programming, and talent agreements.
Speaking to an audience of women ranging from students to fellow executives, Brodkin detailed her own experience in the sports industry. She spoke about forging relationships, developing trust, and maintaining it over time. Women, she said, know how to form thriving relationships and should channel this innate ability into their professional lives; after all, at the end of the day, it matters with whom you’re doing business.
Brodkin, who has a 4-year-old son, praised women who balance professional and personal responsibilities and called her decision to be a mother and follow her career “profoundly rewarding.”
On June 7, WSMI presented ESPN analyst Carolyn Peck, the Day 2 Keynote Speaker. Peck has been an analyst for both college and professional basketball since 2001, contributing to studio shows and games across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNEWS.
One of the most successful and accomplished figures in women’s basketball, Peck began her keynote address by paying tribute to another successful and recognizable woman in sports media: Jayne Kennedy, a sportscaster on The NFL Today in 1978.
“I loved her,” said Peck. “When I first saw her come on TV, not only was she beautiful, [but] she was smart; she could hang talking NFL football. I said, ‘I want to do that.’ And so you think about when you’re a little kid, what you want to be when you grow up; I wanted to be Jayne Kennedy.”
After playing basketball at Vanderbilt from 1985 to 1988, Peck served as an assistant coach for the University of Kentucky (1995-96), the University of Tennessee (1993-95), and USA Basketball (1997 and 2004). She considers her time at Tennessee, serving under legendary head coach Pat Summitt, instrumental to her future career in sports media.
“What I learned from Pat was invaluable, especially when it came to coaching but also when it came to marketing and using the media,” Peck explained. “The one thing that Pat Summitt always said is that Tennessee will be the standard that everybody else will measure themselves to. She always welcomed in the media. Whenever the television wanted to mike her in the locker room, she would do it. She would have them coming in, and she was as real then as if the cameras weren’t there. She understood. She got it. The lifeline of your program is recruiting. Well, who can better recruit for you than television?”
Peck won the 1999 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship as head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers, becoming the first African-American coach in women’s basketball to do so, before transitioning to the professional ranks and, eventually, to television. She has contributed as a game and studio analyst for ESPN’s coverage of the WNBA and women’s college basketball, including the NCAA tournament.
Concluding her keynote address, Peck left the audience with a piece of her parents’ advice that has proved true in her life.
“You’re only discriminated against if you choose to be,” she said. “So, if you hold it against yourself and say, well, because I’m a woman I can’t do it, you’re holding yourself back. If there’s something that you want to do, if you don’t try it, you got no shot. But if you do, you just might get to where you want to be.”
SVG sponsors WSMI meetings, lunch-and-learns, and speaker events on a quarterly basis nationwide, with members invited to listen, learn, exchange ideas and best practices, and meet other women in the industry.
For more information on the Women’s Sports Media Initiative, e-mail WSMI Associate Director Karen Hogan at karen@sportsvideo.org.
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A rescue that touches our hearts
It’s not often that we write stories on a sensitive topic such as this, but there’s a recent rescue that we felt we had to talk about.
We’re not going to say when or where it happened, or who was involved – that’s not important.
But we are going to share the events that unfolded because this is a story that touches our hearts in so many ways – we simply had to share it with you.
This rescue was more than just helping a man out of the water. It was also about helping him out of the delicate situation he was in.
A volunteer Surf Lifeguard had taken the day off work and was at home when his phone alerted him to a person in trouble in the water at a beach just moments away.
“I put some gear in my car and shot down to the beach. I thought it would be a stock standard rescue.”
When the Surf Lifeguard got to the beach some members of the public waved him down and pointed to a person bobbing in the water about 200 metres off shore. The Surf Lifeguard stripped down to his underwear, grabbed a rescue tube and went in.
He swam out to the patient, who refused the Surf Lifeguard’s assistance.
“I told him I was there to help him, but he said he didn’t want my help, he didn’t want any help.”
The concerned Surf Lifeguard read between the lines and wondered if the man was suicidal.
“I just started talking to him. I just hung out with him. I kept telling him I was there to help.
“It was about 10 minutes of general conversation while we were floating out on the water.”
The Surf Lifeguard found out the man’s age and that he had a young child with a birthday coming up soon.
“I encouraged him to think about his child, and to keep going for his child.”
The man was very emotional throughout the encounter, often crying.
“He was bobbing down under the water a few times. I gently grabbed him by the hand or the arm to pull him back up.
“I didn’t want to get too close in case he pulled me down too.
“I think I finally convinced him to come in after talking about how much his child needs him, and offering him my hand to shake, and reminding him that I was just there to help.”
The man became concerned about the people watching from the beach, so the Surf Lifeguard told him to ignore everyone else and focus on heading to a part of the beach where nobody else was.
“I could see we had drifted several hundred metres and were slightly further in from a small swell pushing us in.”
The pair were walking out of the shallows just as more Surf Lifeguards, the police and a rescue helicopter arrived.
The Surf Lifeguards left the patient in the care of police and the rescue helicopter crew.
“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” the Surf Lifeguard says.
We think this rescue is outstanding – after all this wasn’t your typical rescue – our guys aren’t trained counsellors. Members of the public often don’t realise this type of situation is something our volunteers might deal with.
To the Surf Lifeguard concerned, you know who you are, and you know what you’ve done. Thank you.
From Surf Life Saving New Zealand, to everyone on the front line - thank you for what you do to keep people safe and help them get home.
Need help? Know someone who does?
WHERE TO GET HELP:
If you are worried about your or someone else's mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call police immediately on 111.
Or if you need to talk to someone else:
LIFELINE 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP) (available 24/7)
SUICIDE CRISIS HELPLINE: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
YOUTHLINE: 0800 376 633
KIDSLINE: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7)
WHATSUP: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm)
DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757 or TEXT 4202
<END>
Photo: Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash
Melanie Louden
Media and Communications Manager
Surf Life Saving NZ
melanie.louden@surflifesaving.co.nz
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Ancestral DNA Starting your Family Tree
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Sloss
SDB Popularity Ranking: 7968
Last name: Sloss
First recorded in the modern spelling in the late 17th century as either Sloss or Slose, the name is derived from the medieval German "Schloss" meaning "a Lock" and is probably the metonymic for a Lock Maker. It may also be a topographical name for one who resided by or at a Castle (also Schloss), but it is most likely that the original "English" name holders were Lock Makers. As Schloss, the surname is recorded heraldically in Prussia. The Coat of Arms being three Silver new moons on a Gold field, c.1680. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Garett Gloss. which was dated 1698 (Baptised) St. Botolph without Aldgate, London. during the reign of King William III, of Orange and England, 1689 - 1704. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2017
Surname scroll for: Sloss
Enjoy this name printed onto our colourful scroll, printed in Olde English script. An ideal gift.
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Thomas W. Paterson
University of Wisconsin, School of Law (J.D. magna cum laude, Order of the Coif)
University of Wisconsin, College of Agriculture (Ph.D., Agricultural Economics, Dissertation, “Legal Economic Analyses of Competition in the United States Food System;” M.A., Agricultural Economics, with distinction)
Texas A&M University (B.S. Agricultural Economics, summa cum laude)
Judicial Clerk, The Honorable Thomas Gibbs Gee, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Solving real problems for real people is why I’m a trial lawyer. Solving these problems successfully is why my clients come back again and again.
“Tom Paterson is absolutely one of the best and the brightest in his field. His insight, patience, diplomacy, honesty, intelligence, creativity, candor and diligent professionalism reflect well on him and on me, as my in-house clients have often congratulated me for finding the right lawyer for the job.”
Janice Hartrick, Former General Counsel, Seagull Energy
I began working with Janice Hartrick in 1991, when she was at Seagull Energy. I worked with her and her colleagues on 18 separate matters, successfully defending and protecting them against millions of dollars in potential exposure.
“Tom Paterson is smart and creative. From day one, he takes the initiative and drives his cases to success. He provides good judgment, wise counsel and consistently good results.”
Ray Albrecht, Former Head of Litigation, Enterprise Products
I began working with Ray Albrecht of Enterprise Products in 2004. I worked with him and his colleagues on dozens of matters involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
“I have repeatedly hired Tom Paterson to resolve complex, commercial disputes. He is always prepared. His counsel is strategic. Tom consistently delivers.”
David Castro, Former Chief Legal Counsel, Hess Corporation
David Castro hired me in 2011 to work on a matter in the Eagle Ford. We resolved it. Since then I have worked with Hess on multiple matters valued at hundreds of millions of dollars in the Utica, the Bakken and in the deep water Gulf of Mexico.
“As a practicing lawyer for 35 years and the former GC of a large public corporation, I have provided legal services and also hired and worked with many lawyers. I retained Tom for a personal legal matter and found him to be an exemplar of the legal profession. Tom is smart, prepared, creative, and responsive. He was dedicated to my best interests. He listened, counselled, and collaborated with me on approach and acceptable outcomes. Tom spotted the relevant issues and efficiently coordinated needed experts to provide the best representation, both in terms of dispute resolutions and costs. He demonstrated integrity, civility, and determination that were foundational to effective advocacy and timely resolution. While I was a client with a very small legal matter, Tom treated me like I was his most important priority.”
Gayla Thal, Former SVP-Law & GC, Union Pacific Railroad Co., Inc.
My objective with any legal dispute I take on is simple: keep as much money in my client’s pocket as possible. Over 35 years of successfully litigating and trying cases has made me keenly aware of the fact that there are times when it is in my client’s best interest to take their case through trial and appeal and there are times when another deposition or another skirmish isn’t worth the cost. I am straightforward with clients about which route I recommend. This is true whether the client is the plaintiff or the defendant, both of whom I have a proven history of representing effectively.
At the onset of any case, I immediately become an expert on the facts and the law. If the matter can be resolved early, without filing it or incurring extensive expenses associated with litigation, I pursue that route. Thinking creatively and acting swiftly can be critical – a fact I proved when I resolved a dispute for Dixie Pipeline within two months, from filing to completing trial. Another example of this is when I resolved a matter in six weeks that had been lingering for more than 30 years. In that case, we told the defendant that its leases would be cancelled if the jury agreed with us on our contract allegations – the defendant promptly settled.
For close to three decades, I have represented E&P companies, gas processors, mid-stream companies and royalty owners in disputes, often against major, integrated companies. My knowledge and experience in this area is vast. I have tried cases spanning the entire energy chain and involving disputes over contracts, public and private royalty owner lawsuits, and industry consolidation, realignment, and energy-related antitrust matters.
More broadly, my experience includes issues relating to the obligation to develop leases, claims of environmental and other damage, audit disputes, disputes over joint accounting procedures under COPAS, drilling disputes, preferential-purchase-right claims, claims arising under gas gathering, processing and gas balancing agreements, rights to seismic and other geologic data, litigation over farmout and AMI agreements and the right to revoke acceptance of oilfield goods under the UCC. The lawsuits I have handled have given me substantial experience with issues arising from oil and gas exploration and production and mid-stream operations
This is all a natural fit for someone who grew up near mining communities in the Southwest. My Ph.D. in applied economics with a heavy emphasis on empirical research enables me to undertake large, complex cases requiring extensive expert discovery and testimony.
It is not just clients who have recognized my legal talents. I have been recognized by several leading legal publications for my litigation successes. Most recently, I was ranked by Chambers U.S. as a “Recognized Practitioner” in Energy: Natural Resources, Texas. I was also named a “Recommended Lawyer” by The Legal 500 in Energy Litigation – Oil and Gas.
I’ve told you why I’m a trial lawyer, how I work my cases, and why my clients keep returning. If you have a problem, I’m available to discuss it and candidly assess whether I can help you resolve it. I’ll tell you straight if I can help or refer you to someone else if I can’t. Contact me at (713) 653-7815 or tpaterson@susmangodfrey.com.
MULTIPLE MATTERS ON BEHALF OF HESS CORPORATION
Represented Hess Ohio Resources in a suit brought by a mineral lessor in Jefferson County, Ohio, who claimed that the oil and gas lease he signed in 2008 terminated in 2010. After a bench trial, the Court ruled for Hess in a complete victory.
Represented Hess Ohio Resources in two suits brought by oil and gas lessors with property in Ohio. The lessors claimed that their oil and gas leases, which they signed in 2006, had terminated after a five-year primary term. I was retained to persuade the two federal district courts in Ohio to reconsider their rulings that the leases had terminated. The Sixth Circuit agreed with our position that the leases had two consecutive five-year primary terms and the leases had not terminated at the end of the first five-year term.
Represented Hess Corporation in resolving three separate disputes involving leasehold interests valued at over $1 billion in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, leaseholds with a joint venture partner in the Utica Shale in Ohio, and contract and fraud claims relating to a billion dollar sale of leasehold assets in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota.
Defended Hess Corporation against Jack Grynberg’s claims involving a net profits agreement on oil and gas interests in Mississippi’s Tallahala field. The plaintiff filed suit in Colorado federal court, and soon after, a related action was filed against Hess in Mississippi state court. The Colorado court dismissed Grynberg’s claims against Hess on procedural grounds. The Mississippi court granted summary judgment on claims against Hess and other claims were settled on terms favorable to Hess.
MULTIPLE MATTERS ON BEHALF OF ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS PARTNERS L.P.
Defended Enterprise Products against Marathon’s claims of breach of contract, fraud, and conspiracy concerning the dedication of natural gas processing rights for gas produced from the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. I persuaded the arbitrator to dismiss nearly all of Marathon’s claims on summary judgment, including Marathon’s $45 million consequential damages claim and numerous breach of contract and fraud claims. The case settled the case on highly favorable terms.
Represented Enterprise Products Operating LLC and Mid-America Pipeline Company, LLC as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Flint Hills Resources, L.P., a subsidiary of Koch Industries. The dispute, valued at $30 million arose in connection with a natural gas liquids storage and purchase agreement between Enterprise and Flint Hills. The case settled on confidential terms.
Represented Enterprise Products Operating L.P. in a dispute with Sunoco Pipeline over who was entitled to purchase approximately $70 million in stock in Dixie Pipeline Company. After five weeks of discovery and a two-day bench trial, the court found for Enterprise on all issues.
Represented Enterprise Field Services in a declaratory judgment action over long-term gas gathering agreements in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. Also defended Enterprise Field Services in multiple forums against ConocoPhillips’ allegations of state antitrust and regulatory violations relating to those gas gathering agreements
Secured a summary judgment win for EP Energy E&P against Fairfield Industries, Inc. on Fairfield’s breach-of-contract claims in a multi-million dollar seismic data licensing dispute. This case remains on appeal.
Represented a mid-stream company in an expedited arbitration against a joint-venture partner on one of its pipelines. The arbitration involved claims that the joint-venture partner breached its fiduciary duties by refusing to agree to increase throughput on the pipeline to return it to its nameplate capacity under the parties’ operating agreement. After limited document and oral discovery, the case settled favorably for our client.
Successfully represented Apache Corp. in major litigation against Concho Resources Inc. regarding the exercise of preferential purchase rights on hundreds of millions of dollars of oil and gas assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico.
Represented Jonah Gas Gathering Co. in a declaratory judgment action against Williams Field Services on Williams’ claims that Jonah breached an interconnect agreement to deliver gas to a Williams gas processing plant in Wyoming. Williams moved to dismiss that case against Jonah (a Texas resident) based on forum non conveniens. I successfully defeated Williams’ motion in the trial court, and subsequently defeated Williams’ mandamus petitions in the Fourteenth Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court.
Represented Apache Corp. against Virginia Power Energy Marketing, Inc. and Dominion Resources, Inc. in a dispute related to the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the natural gas production and pipeline infrastructure along the Gulf Coast. The trial court granted Apache’s motion for summary judgment and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ROYALTY OWNER LAWSUITS
As co-lead counsel for the class, secured settlement checks totaling more than $18.9 million for over 4,300 royalty and overriding royalty owners across the United States who sued ConocoPhillips for alleged underpayment of royalty due on natural gas liquids produced from the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico and processed at the New Blanco Plant near Bloomfield, New Mexico.
As co-lead counsel to the class, secured a settlement valued at $12 million (of which $3.5 million was awarded as attorneys fees) in a class action lawsuit on behalf of a class of royalty owners who leased mineral rights to Oxy USA Inc. for the production of carbon dioxide from the Bravo Dome Carbon Dioxide Unit in northeastern New Mexico. Oxy also agreed to change how it calculates plaintiffs’ royalty on a going-forward basis.
Served as co-lead counsel to the New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands in its dispute against Oxy USA Inc. over the proper payment of royalties to it for CO2 from the Bravo Dome Unit, the New Mexico. Oxy agreed to pay $11.8 million in cash and use a new royalty formula that ties CO2 value to the price of oil, eliminates post-production deductions and reduces transportation expenses. The Court awarded $1.4 million in attorneys’ fees.
OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CASES
Represented American Central Gas Companies in an arbitration in connection with its antitrust claims. During a two-week binding arbitration — less than two months after being ordered to arbitration — I proved that defendants, Union Pacific Resources and Duke Energy Field Services, had monopolized the market for natural gas processing in Panola County, Texas.
Represented Unocal in an antitrust lawsuit challenging the a hostile takeover attempt by Mesa Petroleum.
Represented Hunt Petroleum Corporation executives in connection with a suit by a great-grandson of H.L. Hunt who claimed breaches of fiduciary duty and fraud against the trustees of the trusts that owned Hunt Petroleum Corporation. During the pendency of the case, XTO purchased Hunt Petroleum. This case settled.
Represented defendants in an action alleging breach of natural gas gathering contract. Settled during preliminary injunction hearing.
Defended True Oil and subsidiaries against claims of tortious interference with contract in Honduras, tortious interference with prospective business relationships with the Government of Honduras, and seismic trespass in Honduras. Plaintiffs claimed damages exceeding $100 million. The court dismissed the seismic trespass claim and entered partial summary judgment on certain interference claims. The jury verdict was for True Oil on all remaining claims.
Represented Toolpushers on its claim concerning defective pipe. The case settled.
Represented Black Hills on its claim for breach of contract and declaratory judgment in connection with indemnification provisions in a Master Services Agreement. The case settled.
Defended Toolpushers in action seeking $6.5 million in damages for alleged breach of warranty concerning casing fittings used in a well in the Gulf of Mexico. The Court granted Toolpushers’ motion for summary judgment.
Represented plaintiffs in an action for breach of contract to deliver seismic data in connection with a stock purchase. The case settled after discovery closed.
Took over the defense and representation of Seagull Energy in several of their ongoing high stakes litigation matters including
mineral owners’ actions to terminate oil and gas leases due to alleged nonproduction by Seagull’s predecessor. The cases settled.
an action alleging repudiation of contract. Plaintiffs sought damages exceeding $90,000,000. The case settled on confidential terms after filing pretrial order.
an action alleging breach of indemnification provisions in a stock purchase agreement. Settled after filing pretrial order.
action for declaratory judgment concerning gas transportation agreements. The case settled.
Represented Enserch Exploration in an action for breach of contract over Enserch’s right to use a semi-submersible drilling rig. The case settled on confidential terms after a hearing on Enserch Exploration’s application for a temporary restraining order.
“Recognized Practitioner – Texas, Energy: Natural Resources”, Chambers U.S., 2017 & 2018
Recommended Lawyer, Energy Litigation Gas & Oil, The Legal 500, (Legal 500), 2017 – 2019
“Texas Super Lawyer”, Law & Politics Magazine (Thomson Reuters), 2004-2019
Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating (Martindale-Hubbell)
Life Fellow — Texas Bar Foundation
Fellow — Houston Bar Foundation
Distinguished Alumni Lecturer in Agricultural Economics, University of Wisconsin
Quality of Research Discovery Award, American Agricultural Economics Association
Rudder Award (Outstanding Graduate), Texas A&M University
Outstanding Conservation Rancher of the Year for Southwestern New Mexico
New Mexico Tree Farmer of the Year
“The Wallow Fire: 30, 000 Acres and 50 Miles of Fence Later,” UNM Law School (Fall 2011)
“The Wallow Fire: Implications of Catastrophic Fire on Management, Use and Enjoyment of Our Natural Resources,” New Mexico Bar Association, Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Section (Summer 2011 CLE)
“What are the Lawyer’s Ethical Obligations When Agendas Collide?” New Mexico Bar Association, Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Section (Winter 2010 CLE)
“Professionalism in the Face of Passionate Conflict,” New Mexico Bar Association, Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Section (Winter 2010 CLE)
“New Mexico’s Natural Resources and Its Threatened and Endangered Species: When Agendas Collide,” New Mexico Bar Association, Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Section (Summer 2010 CLE)
“Developments in Royalty Class Actions,” 56th Annual Oil and Gas Law Program, Institute for Energy Law of The Center for American and International Law (formerly The Southwestern Legal Foundation) (2005)
“Multidisciplinary Practice-What It Is and What It Might Mean In The Oil Patch,” 51st Annual Institute on Oil And Gas Law and Taxation, Southwestern Legal Foundation, Ch.9S (2000)
“The Effects of Monsanto, Matsushita and Sharp on the Plaintiff’s Incentive to Sue,” 23 Conn. L. Rev. 333 (1991)
“The Sunkist Case: A Study in Legal – Economic Analysis” (1987)
“Sherman Section 2 Monopolization for Agricultural Marketing Cooperatives,”60 Tulane L. Rev. 955 (1986)
“State Sales-Below-Cost Laws: Evidence from the Grocery Trade,” 62 J. Retailing 166 (1986)
“Policies to Promote Competition,” in The Organization and Performance of the U. S. Food System (1986)
Admitted to practice in Texas, New Mexico and before the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Texas, the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District of Texas and the District of New Mexico
State Bar of New Mexico
Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law Section for the State Bar of New Mexico, Board of Directors, 2008-present, Chair 2011
Texas and Houston Bar Associations, 1985 – present
CLE speaker, Texas and New Mexico
American Bar Association, 1985 – present
American Agricultural Economics Association, 1980 – present
Spur Ranch Cattle Co. LLC, 500 head commercial cow – calf operation on 116,000 acres in New Mexico and Arizona, Member
Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association, Member
New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, Member of Board of Directors
BOARD AND PUBLIC SERVICE
College of Agriculture Development Council, Texas A&M University
Ministry to Muslims, Vice-Chairman
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Susman Godfrey Obtains $1.4 Billion Settlement in Toyota Unintended Acceleration Class Action
Toyota Motor Corporation has agreed to pay benefits worth up to $1.4 billion to settle multi-district class action litigation pending in federal court in Santa Ana, California. In the litigation, plaintiffs asserted claims for economic losses associated with unintended acceleration problems reported in certain Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles. The settlement includes $250 million for vehicle owners who sold their cars during a specified period, another $250 million for vehicle owners whose vehicles are not eligible for a brake-override system, and an expanded customer support program for current vehicle owners, among other benefits.
United States District Judge James V. Selna, who is presiding over the litigation, appointed Marc M. Seltzer of Susman Godfrey L.L.P. to serve as one of plaintiffs’ Co-Lead Counsel for the Class plaintiffs in litigation. Working together with our other Co-Lead Counsel, we were able to achieve this historic settlement.
On December 28, 2012, the Court granted preliminary approval to the settlement. A fairness hearing is scheduled for June 14, 2013, on plaintiffs’ application for final approval of the settlement.
Further information about the settlement is available at www.toyotaelsettlement.com. Class members should check the settlement website regularly for updates and further details regarding the litigation.
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ESG opportunities for growth will proliferate for asset managers in 2021
The importance of ESG was already on an upward curve, but this has been accelerated further by Covid-19, triggering greater awareness of the impact of social responsibility. Fund managers need to recognise the societal change now to avoid being left behind.
Social change often comes from a crisis, and it is undeniable that the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed stakeholder expectations of how companies should behave. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles have been pushed to the forefront of decision-making for investors and fund managers. Some firms may see this as a challenge, but our expert panel discussed how this can and should, be turned to a business’ advantage in our recent webinar, ‘The new opportunities of ESG’.
Watch the on-demand webinar now
Today’s end investor puts ESG at the heart of decision making
The ESG landscape is ever-changing, but the transformation we have seen this year is exceptionally rapid. “We’ve seen some very profound societal shifts in 2020,” explained Matt Claxton, Global Head of Corporate Solutions at Apex Group, referencing the COVID-19 pandemic and several concurrent social justice movements.
Within this context, the average end investor, customer and employee is more politically, socially, and environmentally aware than ever before, and it is little wonder that this influences their investment decisions. “The end investor is much more interested in where their pension fund and where their savings ended up being allocated to,” described expert panelist Deborah Gilshan, an Independent Adviser in Investment Stewardship and ESG.
The demographic of an end investor has also changed. “There’s a generational and a gender shift in the wealth that’s being put into capital markets,” said Gilshan, “I think that will also shift expectations about institutional investors and what they do on behalf of the people who invest.”
“ESG is no longer a “nice to have”, summarised Andrew Pitts-Tucker, Managing Director at Apex ESG Ratings, “this is absolutely essential.”
Societal issues have been pushed to the top of the agenda
“One of the good things to have come out of COVID is that it has put societal issues in the boardroom,” stated Dineshi Ramesh, Director of Specialist Delivery at Board Intelligence.
“For quite a few years the “S” has been silent in ESG,” agreed Aleen Gulvanessian, Head of Boards and Governance at Eversheds Sutherland. Companies and stakeholders have long been aware of their environmental impact and the financial opportunities and risks associated with it but, for many, this was the extent of their ESG integration. Now, Gulvanessian added, “the “S” is firmly on the map.”
Companies with an existing societal focus, or those that have quickly developed one, have seen great success in 2020. “The clever companies shifted their direction in advertising from being about their product to being, first and foremost, about care of people, of society,” said Gulvanessian. “Anyone who just concentrated on profit at that time would have been pilloried.”
Use data to drive action
Data has, for some time, been one of the biggest challenges to ESG integration, made up of questions around what data is needed, how it can be sourced and how it can be used. But Pitts-Tucker shared his view that we are reaching a turning point, stating, “we’re starting to enter an age of consolidation where there has previously been complication.”
“The primary question we get asked,” he said, “is how can we turn that data into positive action?” In answer, he continued, “Transparency is step number one here. If you’re collecting that data, then you can start to put an action plan in place to disrupt or go out and create positive action.”
Approach reporting as an opportunity
Our panel discussed the implications of Section 172 of the Companies Act in some detail. While this is not new legislation, there is a new requirement as of January 2019 for companies to report on their community and environmental impact.
Instead of treating this with apprehension, Gulvanessian urged that “if people can really apply those Section 172 factors to their business in an imaginative way and tell their story, it’s a great PR document.2
Make ESG universal
Far from being something that is led by, or exclusive to, the board, ESG should be a concern for every employee, and our panel had several useful ideas to make this happen.
“I think there’s a real place for employees on boards,” suggested Gulvanessian. “It’s definitely a two-way conversation,” Pitts-Tucker agreed. Gilshan also highlighted the importance of leadership by example, proposing that “the CEO has a huge role to play in connecting to the wider workforce.”
“Keep it simple but make it pervasive,” advised Ramesh. She suggested that businesses” land on five things that are really important to achieve” that can be communicated strongly, enforced thoroughly and monitored closely. “It is more powerful than having 50 things that only ten people monitor,” she added.
ESG will be central to success in 2021
No one can deny that the next year will be a very difficult time for many businesses. “A lot of boards are shaping their agenda for 2021 and are prioritising ESG, but also survival,” said Ramesh.
Fortunately, our panel had numerous valuable suggestions to take advantage of the opportunities of ESG and use this to drive not only value preservation, but progress to help economics build back stronger
Take the lead and collaborate
Ramesh highlighted that to adapt to the transformation in our society, companies will need to consider a radically different way of working. “Some of the problems that need to be solved cannot be done by one company alone. You need to collaborate with your community, with society, with competitors, and with the blessing of your investors.”
Ramesh also shared the idea of ‘growing the pie’, credited to Professor Alex Edmans of the London Business School. “Rather than imagining that there is a finite amount of value that we can create in a certain sector or market, actually grow that pie, so that even though your slice of it might shrink (because your business needs to contract), the opportunity has increased.”
“It’s the people who put their hands up and say, “we’re going to drive this, do you want to join in?” that are going to prevail,” she concluded.
Talk to us about ESG
If your business needs assistance responding to the increased reporting requirements of ESG or wants to use data to disrupt and drive change, Apex Group can help. The enhanced insights offered by our pioneering ESG Ratings and Advisory services can help you understand and improve the performance of your business, align with international standards and create positive action.
With 45 offices around the world, our global team offers a comprehensive range of services to asset managers, capital markets, corporates, private clients and family offices. To learn more, contact us today.
Private Clients and Family Office
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Democracy in America Politics and Policy
If democracy is to be saved in Britain and America, it must change
by Alain Catzeflis | @alaincatzeflis | @alain_catzeflis
The English-speaking nations on both sides of the Atlantic are disunited. Great swathes of voters feel disenfranchised, alienated from each other and their leaders. A political culture held up as a paragon of the democratic ideal is creaking at the seams.
Democracy has to change if it is to be saved. The reasons for the decline are complex and varied: changing demographics; globalisation; inequality among many others.
Four, long bumpy years of Donald Trump in the White House have left America badly shaken. Pretending that Joe Biden’s victory is proof that the system works, and all will now be well, is wishful thinking.
On this side of the pond Brexit has cleaved Britain in half, leaving a gaping wound that will take a generation to heal and threatens the integrity of the Union. Pretending that this has settled the issue is equally short-sighted.
The US has escaped by the skin of its teeth. Liberal democracies and those who favour the rule of law can breathe a little easier. The degenerate Trump presidency will end. Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the US with the first female, African-American Vice President at his side.
This breathing space gives America a chance to begin the slow haul back to decency, reason and dependability. But we should take nothing for granted.
If the storming of the Capitol was intended to wrest control of the US government it was as inept as it was deplorable. That it failed was no thanks to those who watch over America. It was a shocking failure of intelligence – to say the least – by the FBI and the Department of Homeland security. But this insurrection is not over, not by a long chalk.
The insurgents who stormed the inner sanctum of American democracy, like an angry host seeking retribution for an America they feel has been stolen from them, were small in number. But their roots run deep and broad. They are merely the outliers. Their full-throated rage and aggrieved sense of patriotism – about who they are and what real Americans stands for – is shared to varying degrees by millions of their compatriots.
Perhaps more astonishing than the painted shaman in his buffalo head-dress storming the Capitol, was the mumsy, middle-aged figure from North Carolina who quietly intoned she had joined in the revolution” to protect freedom and democracy.
When things get really fractious in America the itch to rebel against or even secede from the Union becomes overwhelming. Talk of a second civil war and secession has been fuelled by Trump and his Alt-right acolytes whose idea of change is to blow things up without much idea about what to put in its place.
But Trump is not the cause. He did not light the fire. He is merely an accelerator that encourages the urge towards American disintegration that lies dormant until it resurfaces.
The desire to secede is as old and American as apple pie. Last December, shortly after the Supreme Court rejected Texas’s demand that Biden’s win in four key states should be overturned, the Lone Star state’s Republican Party chairman issued a furious statement. Perhaps,” he said, “law-abiding states should bond together and form a union of states that will abide by the constitution.”
America is not on the verge of break-up. The benefits of togetherness are too great. But it is deeply divided. Perhaps irrevocably so.
It would be surprising if we did not see the rise of a new, Trumpist party that gives voice to the alienation felt by many, and perhaps more episodes like the storming of the Capitol.
Secession is a powerful idea not confined to the US, as Brexit and the rise of Scottish nationalism demonstrate. Storming out of a relationship that isn’t working is what human beings do. Language becomes so poisonous that understanding and accommodation no longer seem possible. As it is with individuals, so it becomes with collectives.
Judges who hand down decisions we don’t like become enemies of the people”. Political opponents are no longer adversaries. They are traitors. We don’t just disagree with them. We loathe them. Britain feels inhibited in the European Union, so it leaves. Brussels is the enemy”.
The Scots feel under-appreciated, so the campaign for independence ratchets up. Liberalism is a socialist conspiracy intended to impose its beliefs on others. The 24-hour news cycle, Twitter, Facebook, Parler amplify this inchoate rage.
Perhaps the most entrenched fault line in America is race. Movements like Black Lives Matter challenge not only endemic racism, but also the self-image of those who regard the assertion as a slur on America, their America. The same doctrine of states’ rights that protected segregation back then is held up as a justification for white supremacy today.
In his magisterial Letter from a Birmingham Jail written on April 16, 1963, the black civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, speaks powerfully of man’s inescapable network of mutuality”. We are,” he tells the warring factions of the movement, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly…Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” Yet this message still only resonates with half of Americans.
King was the leader of a prolonged and disruptive civil disobedience movement with a specific goal. But his words have a deep relevance today. We have made a world where the collapse of trust, as I have argued, has become contagious. This is not helped by a political culture which discourages plurality.
In Britain, the last time a British government was elected with more than 50 per cent of the popular vote was 1931 (the Tory-dominated National Government led by Ramsay MacDonald). Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by some margin, but lost the Electoral College. Political engagement in the US and Britain is low compared to Germany or France. I don’t do politics” is becoming a familiar mantra on the doorstep.
The US already has a highly participative political system. President-elect Biden’s challenge is to find themes around which enough Americans can unite. Britain, on the other hand, is starved of ways in which the citizen can exercise real sovereignty. After all, isn’t that the true definition of democracy?
It isn’t that there’s not enough politics. Arguably there’s too much. But it’s the wrong sort, in the wrong place and in the hands of too few people.
The sidelining of parliamentary select committees, emasculating of local government, slapping down of civil servants, the rise of the SPAD and the corporate lobbyist and, recently, packing the unelected second chamber with cronies are all symptoms of a deep malaise.
Relying on a top-heavy, party political system to achieve economic stability, social progress and smooth transitions of power is like hoping that a 19th-century steam engine can carry you as far and as fast as a bullet train.
Vesting power in a handful of people at the centre, chosen in turn by a tiny minority from just one of two or three political parties, seems faintly absurd in the 21st century. When public debate is so democratic it seems odd that democracy itself is not.
The pandemic has shown us, if we didn’t know already, that local solutions are often the best way to solve local issues. The centre must now find ways of sharing power. Constitutional reform and a new compact between the citizen and the state are the prerequisites.
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democracy pandemic reform US
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30.Dec.2020 . 9 min read
For the last decade or so, I’ve made a hobby of compiling a year-end best films list. But as with so many things in 2020, the way we watch movies was upended by coronavirus.
Major titles scheduled for release this year were delayed to 2021—or beyond—and even the most passionate fans of the in-theater experience were relegated to our couches at home, juggling an ever-expanding pantheon of streaming services in pursuit of the best entertainment options.
For better or worse, that changes things. What works on the big screen doesn’t always work on your television or—God forbid—your smartphone. And with so many platforms competing for our eyeballs and subscription dollars, it’s easy for good work to fall through the cracks.
What follows, then, is my attempt to honor this bizarre year in film through a list of 10 double-headers. Ranked by order of necessity, this list pairs each of 2020’s best movies with an additional title for anyone looking for extra recommendations.
10. Tenet
As one of only a handful of major theatrical releases this year, Christopher Nolan’s latest film faced daunting expectations and delivered something of a mixed bag. More time is needed to see whether at-home viewers will embrace the often confusing and at-times incomprehensible thriller, but there’s no question the movie delivers on bombast and spectacle, rewarding viewers equipped in one form or another with the largest screens and most dynamic sound systems.
Your mileage will certainly vary. And while the time-jumping shenanigans are dazzling at first sight, it requires multiple viewings that I’m not sure the film earns to make real heads or tails of them. But at minimum, think of Tenet as the classic roller coaster at the amusement park that you have to ride at least once. Rather than pick nits, dim the lights, sit back and enjoy the ride.
Pair it with: Da 5 Bloods
The first of Netflix’s big swings of 2020 (more on that later), Spike Lee’s film follows four Black veterans-of-a-certain-age who return to Vietnam to find the remains of a fellow soldier— played in flashbacks by the late Chadwick Boseman—and the horde of stolen gold they hid before his death. It runs a touch long at 2.5 hours, but features an excellent cast with ensemble chemistry and a contemplative plot punctuated with action.
9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Writer-director Eliza Hittman’s film about two teenage girls who go to New York City for an abortion is an impeccable piece of show-don’t-tell storytelling. The film’s leads, Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder, feel like lightning in a bottle and manage to convey volumes through very little dialogue, particularly in the gutting scene from which the movie derives its name.
This is a heavy film, and undeniably political in its depiction of women’s healthcare. But it also shows real people facing real-world problems, and does so with heartbreaking humanity.
Pair it with: On the Rocks
After Never Rarely Sometimes Always, you’ll need something a little on the lighter side. Enter On the Rocks, part of Apple TV’s first cohort of streaming films. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, the movie pairs Bill Murray and Rashida Jones as a father-daughter pair who make a romp out of Jones’ character’s nascent suspicions of her husband’s (Marlon Wayans) infidelity.
At 96 minutes it’s a quick, winning dramedy that averages on the lighter side of the scale and features an extremely watchable cast.
8. Bacurau
This is by far the most violent double-header on this list so discretion advised. I also must acknowledge a personal bias for Bacurau, as I lived in Pernambuco—the rural, northeast Brazilian state where the film is set—for a time. But effectively everyone in Utah either lived in Brazil or knows someone who did, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The film follows a tight-knit community that, following the death of the town matriarch, has to defend itself from adversarial forces. That’s the best I can think of for a synopsis, as Bacurau truly defies description. It’s funny, it’s scary, it’s quite bloody, and it is very, very Brazilian. Pois é.
Pair it with: The Hunt
Initially planned for release 2019, The Hunt is *that* movie that got bumped to a plague slot due to controversy over its plot, which sees a group of liberal elites literally capturing rural conservatives to hunt them for sport.
Now to be clear, this film is quintessentially satirical, in a way that its sight-unseen detractors on the political right might have thought about before tilting at windmills. But nevertheless, this movie is now available to be seen and it is an absolute riot that will play into your expectations and jettison them in amazing, awful ways.
7. The Trial of the Chicago 7
Another of this year’s Netflix slate is the latest drama from writer-director Aaron Sorkin, which mixes the courtroom sparring of A Few Good Men with the righteous fury of The West Wing to tell the story of a group of men prosecuted for protesting the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Sorkin’s film starts in the middle of the story, with the so-called Chicago 7 facing their first days in court. From there we move in two directions, following the progression of the trial and pairing testimony with flashbacks to the days-long demonstrations near the convention, which turned violent in the face of an unrelenting police response. It’s a neat trick, as Sorkin doles out context and clues to both the on-screen jury and the audience in tandem, while exploring a corner of the late 60s that doesn’t seem so long ago.
Pair it with: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Forty years earlier in another version of Chicago, Ma Rainey—the real-life “Mother of the Blues”—was taking a break from touring to cut a record, or so says this film from director George C. Wolfe and adapted from the August Wilson play of the same name.
If you didn’t know going in that this was based on a play, you would after about one minute of watching the film, which wears its stage roots with pride. It works, with scenes that function like mini-plays, and lengthy monologues that ask its cast to really go for it — notably Chadwick Boseman (in his final role) as a gifted trumpet player working against odds for his big break, and Viola Davis as a woman who knows the rarity of her success and is fighting to keep it.
6. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
If you’re familiar with Charlie Kaufman’s work (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Anomalisa) you’ll have a fair sense of what you’re in for. If you’re not familiar with his work, lean into the surrealism.
The film follows a young woman (Jessie Buckley) traveling with her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) to his parent’s farm. We hear her doubts about the relationship via narration, and we follow her down the rabbit hole as her mind’s confusion and dissonance play out on screen. Or at least I think that’s what happens?
Pair it with: First Cow
A story of the Wild Wild West that sees a camp cook landing in Oregon and teaming up with a Chinese immigrant to get rich by stealing milk and selling cake. It’s a simple, beautiful film that rewards patience.
5. Boys State
A remarkable documentary (and Sundance Film Festival selection) embedded in a single cohort of the Texas Boys State, a massive extracurricular program for high school-aged youth that sees participants divided into partisan factions and tasked with forming and running a simulation government.
Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss excel at capturing the broader moods of the event alongside the individual routes of their film’s primary subjects. The result functions as a time capsule of popular U.S. politics in the twenty-twenties, with all its passions and scorched-earth savagery, trickled down through the nation’s newest batch of young adults.
Pair it with: Transhood
What Boys State does with children in one time and place, Transhood does with the passage of five years. The film rotates through the lives of four trans youth of varying ages and their families in Kansas City, checking in year after year as circumstances take them in different directions. As an audience, you’re a fly on the wall to the agonies of puberty, break-ups, step-parents and other childhood pains, but all with the added layer of transition and the toll that takes on a person and the people around them.
4. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
It is simply astounding what Sacha Baron Cohen has pulled off as a professional prank, and in his second film as the character Borat, he combines his talents with that of breakout Maria Bakalova for an exponential result.
Yes, many of the film’s major set pieces have been unavoidably spoiled by their inherent newsworthiness (Here’s lookin’ at you, Rudy!), but I assure you, no matter how much you’ve heard there is still plenty to see and be shocked by.
Pair it with: The Gentlemen
Dropped unceremoniously on January 24 just before we all retreated to our homes for months, Guy Ritchie’s crime thriller about an American weed king in London (Matthew McConaughey) who just wants to retire in peace didn’t get a fair shake. Stacked with a cast of “Oh-Hey-That-Guy” actors orbiting an against-type Hugh Grant, Ritchie puts together a zippy gangland rumpus that indulges in style and whimsy.
3. Bill & Ted Face the Music
This movie rocks and it made me cry. No way? YES WAY, TED!
Decades after their initial adventure through time, the Wild Stallions have failed to produce a song that unites all mankind. This, of course, threatens to tear apart the space-time continuum and destroy reality as we know it. Thus, a middle-aged Bill and Ted are once again compelled to rock out with their clocks out, racing to save the universe with the help of their daughters Billy and Thea.
B&T 3 is wall-to-wall infectious optimism. And after this year it’s nice to remember that people are mostly OK, and if we could all just be excellent to each other it really could fix the world.
Pair it with: Palm Springs
Elsewhere in time travel stories, Palm Springs sees Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti caught in a Groundhog Day-style time loop after meeting at a wedding. The movie has the requisite fun with the reset button before settling into something with a little more on its mind, while making sure not to take itself too seriously.
2. Mank
The big Netflix movie this year, and an undeniable awards contender. Mank introduces us to Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman), a hard-drinking prestige writer slumming it in Hollywood and having a ball until he falls on hard times and is picked by Orson Wells to write what will become Citizen Cane.
We know that Mank will ultimately write one of the titles on Movie Mount Rushmore, but to do that he has to mine his personal life for material, specifically his relationship with William Randolph Hearst, the American titan on whom Charles Cane is overtly based.
It’s candy for movie fans. Director David Fincher opts for black-and-white, nodding to imagery from Citizen Cane and evoking the look and feel of a classic Hollywood film. Fincher’s father wrote the screenplay for Mank and the director has talked about how it has been on his mind for years. His work here is excellent, as are the performances of Oldman and Amanda Seyfried.
Pair it with: Tesla
My colleague Ben Winslow caught this at Sundance and didn’t care for it. I was late for that same screening and had to wait until it landed on Hulu and I respectfully disagree.
But, I admit, this movie is not for everybody. It’s a biopic of Nikola Tesla—known to history as Thomas Edison’s rival in the race to electrify the world—but is presented in a nontraditional format that sees actors standing in front of obvious backdrops in lieu of location shooting and Tesla and Edison shoving ice cream cones in each others’ faces before a narrator on a laptop explains anachronistically that nobody knows how things really went down.
It works because Tesla is a little odd and among the runners-up of history, for whom greater creative leeway is permitted, if not necessary. And it’s one more rung in the Tesla v. Edison ladder (see also: The Prestige, Family Guy, etc.) that I have a soft spot for.
The movie leans into its limitations by stating clearly what is known and what is speculation — capturing the spirit of Tesla, who insisted on looking for a different way of doing things.
1. Lovers Rock
All five of director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe collection are worth watching, but the second film, Lovers Rock, is magic. A flowing camera drops the viewer into the middle of a house party in 1980’s West London, weaving on and off the dance floor to capture the essence of a group of people thrust together in a small space.
This film is sensory, and watching it is the closest thing you’ll get this year to the feel of a dance party (unless you’re a reckless BYU student, I suppose). McQueen boxes you in so you can smell, hear, and taste the party, carried along by a hypnotic, nearly-ceaseless soundtrack that peaks during perhaps the single best scene of the year. Would that I could have seen this in a theater.
Pair it with: The Sound of Metal
Writer-director Darius Marder’s film about a heavy-metal drummer losing his hearing does remarkable things with sound, approximating deafness to a remarkable and at times visceral degree. But along with the film’s audio wizardry is the outstanding performance of Riz Ahmed, who channels rage, despair and pain, often wordlessly, as his character adapts to and struggles to reconcile with his new way of living.
Benjamin Wood is a writer whose work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The Salt Lake Tribune, and City Weekly. He's also a biker, ukulele player, and cinephile. Find him on Twitter and at bjaminwood.com.
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History Museum on the Square
Entry 5 of 6
This is a contributing entry for History Museum on the Square and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.
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Wild Bill Hickok and the American West Gallery
The legendary Wild Bill Hickok was a gunfighter, scout, lawman, and gambler. He is known in Springfield for his infamous shoot-out on the public square, which is believed to be the first recorded "wild west" style shoot-out. Wild West shoot-outs are classified as informal and personal encounters as opposed to gentlemanly duels. Hickok came to the Springfield area during the Civil War. After the Civil War, he worked as a lawman in Springfield; although, Hickok was also very well known for his gambling and hot temper. One man that Hickok came into contact with was Davis K. Tutt, who ended up at odds with Hickok in July of 1865.
Wild Bill Hickok and the American West
Can you shoot like Wild Bill?
Case with items representing the shoot-out on the Springfield Square.
Tutt and Hickok were playing a poker at the Lyon House Hotel on South Street. Though they had been friendly to some degree in the past, there was tension between them. Tutt was coaching and funding Hickok’s opponents, trying to bankrupt him. Then Tutt started calling in debts that Hickok owed him. Hickok paid some of the debts but grew angry as Tutt continued listing off alleged debts. After Hickok’s refusal to make further payments, Tutt took Hickok’s prized golden pocket watch to keep as collateral. Hickok demanded that Tutt return the watch and threatened to kill Tutt if he ever saw him wearing it.
The next day, Hickok found Tutt on the Square wearing the watch. Wild Bill entered the Square from South Street and Tutt came in at the northwest corner. Both men stopped to face each other, around 75 yards apart. Witnesses claim that Tutt was the first to make the draw, but Hickok was the one to make the first shot and Tutt fell dead on the courthouse steps. Hickok turned himself in and, after a three-day trial by jury, he was found not guilty of manslaughter because the jury could not determine which man was the aggressor.
The History Museum offers a Shoot out Experience that offers visitors the opportunity to test their aim and see if they can shoot like Wild Bill Hickok. Inside of the circular room is a 360 degree painting of what the public square would have looked like during the 1860s. A target appears on one side of the room and moves to the simulated distance and location of Wild Bill's shot and give you three chances to hit the bulls-eye.
Also in the gallery is a display case of items associated with Wild Bill during the shootout's time.
Gold Pocket Watch, Chain & Fob - A handsome pocket watch similar to this Waltham model led to the 1865 shoot-out. Wearing Hickok's watch onto Springfield's Public Square proved fatal for Davis Tutt.
Colt Army Revolver - Hickok preferred the .36 Caliber Navy Colt for its accuracy and light weight, but for power at greater distances, this .44 Caliber Army Colt may have been his pistol of choice. Some witnesses and experts suggest he carried a pistol like this one on the fateful day, but the truth may never be known.
Playing Cards - These playing cards may have been the type used in 1865. Early playing cards depicted only the suit and the value without numbers or letters for quick identification.
Poker Chips - Colorful poker chips like these would have been on the gambling tables around Springfield at the time of Hickok's encounter with Davis Tutt. Made a bone or ivory and decorated with dyes, they were much thinner than chips used today.
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Home > Criminal
SENTENCING - Possession of prohibited or restricted weapon or ammunition
Thursday, January 02, 2020 @ 8:28 AM
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R. v. Holdsworth, [2019] A.J. No. 1514
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Appeal by 39-year-old Holdsworth from his conviction and sentence in relation to 13 firearms offences, including storing firearms in an unsafe manner and possession of firearms without a licence. The appellant was fined $75 on each count, as well as a victim fine surcharge of $100 on each count, for a total fine of $2,275. The appellant kept several firearms and ammunition on a farm property jointly owned with his father. The appellant and his father did not live on the property but regularly visited it. On the day of the incident, the father knew the appellant was upset and asked Stevens to check in on him at the farm. Stevens found the appellant, who had been drinking, sitting in the farmhouse crying with a shotgun in arm’s reach. The appellant’s father also called 911. The police emergency response team was contacted. The appellant, after refusing to speak with police, eventually came out of his home after several hours and was apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to the hospital. The police executed a search warrant of the farmhouse and found several unloaded firearms and ammunition. The trial judge found the appellant’s Charter rights had not been violated. The appellant did not have a previous criminal record.
HELD: Appeal dismissed. The power the police exercised when they entered the appellant’s property without a warrant was directly related to protecting the life of an individual pursuant to the common law. The trial judge was correct in finding the appellant’s ss. 7 and 8 Charter rights were not violated by the manner of entry onto the property and the nature and scope of the police presence. The ITO was not materially and fatally flawed. The trial judge did not err in finding the search warrant was validly granted. He did not err in finding the Mental Health Act applied and authorized the appellant’s arrest and detention. The appellant’s apprehension under the Mental Health act constituted exceptional circumstances that justified the postponement of the opportunity to exercise his right to counsel. The trial judge correctly found the appellant was in constructive or joint possession of the firearms. He did not err in convicting the appellant on the storage counts. The sentence was appropriate for the offender and the offences. Sentence: $2,275 fine -- Criminal Code, ss. 86(2), 91(1).
R. v. Holdsworth, [2019] A.J. No. 1514, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, S.N. Mandziuk J., November 8, 2019. Digest No. TLD-December302019002
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Marriott hotel plan technology centered hotel for Blackpitts area
By Jessica Keller | February 22, 2017.
Plans for Tenters pub Facade.
Sitework has begun for a whopping €40 million modern hotel build on the site of Tenters pub on Mill Street in Dublin’s Liberties area.
The Marriott Hotel Company are the main backers for the development, but billionaire tycoon Denis O’Brien has been reported to have invested millions.
The hotel, being developed with the name ‘Aloft Hotel’, is set to have 202 bedrooms and Marriott has revealed that there would be two retail units on the ground floor.
The seven story building will include a terrace on the top floor, along with a large meeting room and rooftop terrace.
The fancy new accommodation will also contain a gym for fitness fanatics.
The hotel is aimed at iPhone and Android users, as Marriott plan for an advanced use of technology. The well-known room key will no longer be used, with the visitor needing an app to get access to their room.
The Tenters pub facade underwent a condition survey in 2016 which revealed that due to severe water damage, rotting had set in and a multitude of the ceilings and floors had collapsed.
The damage to the building also resulted in cracking on the facade and the band of cement around the roof falling off. Due to the rot, the current window frames and wood will have to be removed and replaced with stronger materials.
The proposal for the site released last year states that the current familiar facade of the building, built in the 1960s and ‘70s, will be replaced by a replica.
It reads: “Due to the safety issues it would have to be demolished, but the new build will replicate the facade.”
“Due to structural issues arising from further investigations, it is now proposed, in the interest of safety, to demolish the facade facing Mill Street and Blackpitts and replace same with a replica facade to match existing.” The facade is still standing at the time of writing.
An Taisce, the National Trust of Ireland, had opposed the development on the site.
In opposition to the application, a spokesperson said last year: “Having regard to the lack of the information on the existing structure in this regard and the desirability of maintaining, repairing and securing the existing historic elevations at this prominent corner site, it is recommended that the proposed development is refused permission.”
This comment was made in June 2016 and the condition survey came out in August. The information and photographic evidence were supplied and the proposal was approved.
The project is being headed by BAM Property Ltd and is expected to be complete by spring 2018.
Halloween event guide
Paul McGrath mural pops up in Inchicore
60 new jobs in Dublin with new Biopharmeceutical company
Jessica Keller
https://www.theliberty.ie/author/jessica-keller/
Dublin City Council grant permission for hotel in The Coombe
Robert Emmet Community Development Project takes a look at ‘After the Future’ on Culture Night
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A Country We Fought Over, the One Worth Fighting For
Photograph by Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images
GETTYSBURG, Pa. — There’s a lot of America to see here, even at night, as we roll south toward two political conventions, both of which will be held in the states of the old Confederacy, and one of which will meet for the purpose of renominating a black man, which probably will shake the shadows.
A red, hot sliver of a moon had slipped behind the ridges, and night completely enfolded the landscape. Standing on the old battlefield here at midnight, in the dark with the fog starting to roll in around the rail fences and the monuments scattered in the field that loomed shadowy all around, this is an interesting activity for anyone with an active imagination. I stood for a long time under the statue of General John Buford, the old horse cavalryman who got here first on that weekend in July almost a 150 years ago, the man who surveyed the hills and the long, sloping ridges of this place and thought to himself, This is a place to put an army; this is a place to fight a battle. So he and his men stood right here, stacking up the Confederates for long hours on that first day, hanging on until infantry support arrived. (The infantry was led by General John Reynolds, the Pennsylvanian who would be killed during the initial engagement. His statue is behind Buford’s, black and looming in the night.) By the end of it, even having had to abandon the town, the Union line had formed its “fish hook” on the high ground south of where I was standing until, eventually, out of high hubris or molten ambition, Robert E. Lee threw his army at it on the third day and watched it smash itself into a bloody spray like waves against rocks. All of that happened here, somewhere out there in the dark and the mist, the gray marble statues now moving like ghosts whenever the lights of a car come pouring down Route 30.
The trip through Pennsylvania and Virginia along Route 81 is a sojourn down a long strip of heavily memorialized scar tissue. You pass not far from Antietam and Harper’s Ferry. You go directly through Winchester, which changed hands more than practically any other town in the war, the place that Phil Sheridan finally used it as a base from which he could burn the Shenandoah Valley down. You get to see all of this because a guy who retired to live just down Route 30 from Buford’s statue, a former general from another war named Dwight Eisenhower, decided that America needed to buy itself an interstate highway system, and that’s what he had the country do, because it was one country and that’s what it needed.
But at midnight, with everything in shadows and fog, on a night suddenly gone moonless, this is a good place to count the cost of the argument that comes from the other direction. In this campaign, for the very first time in my lifetime, in a dozen different ways, we are re-litigating in an election the issues that were decided in these shrouded hills. It began with Rick Perry, talking about secession and not laughing at all about it. It continued with Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum and Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, the latter of which has gotten rich writing meretricious potboilers about the events that took place in these fields, talking quite proudly about their devotion to state sovereignty and the 10th Amendment. (And you fans of his make no mistake about it. Crazy Uncle Liberty Ron Paul — ! — would have been rooting the other way here 150 years ago.) This impassioned rhetoric, and the deeply held belief in a philosophy so steeped in blood and disunion, has its present manifestation in the fact that the Republican ticket is committed to the notion that there simply is no such thing as a political commonwealth. We are a universe of individual entrepreneurs, revolving in our own orbits, our every success a small bit of revolution against the dead hand of The Government, a fundamental disavowal of the basic fact that The Government is, in fact, us. Of all the obtuse denialism that is marbled through Republican politics these days — denial of science, denial of the empirical, denial of simple economics — this is the denialism that has the longest and most poisonous history.
American conservatism has been playing footsie with polite sedition for going on four decades now. In the south, prominent politicians enjoyed the company of the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens until Trent Lott got caught enjoying it too much one night and (very briefly) had to leave the U.S. Senate. Republican congresscritters regularly showed up at meeting of the various militia movements out west. The Republican Party is shot through now with an impulse to disunion that is almost an autonomic reflex at this point. Every solution they can offer has behind it the iron certainty that we are better off as individuals, that the nation best operates as a simple, loose framework within which those individuals can operate, and not as something we create together so that our individual achievements can be rooted in something greater than ourselves. Somewhere out there in the dark, far beyond Buford’s statue, Abraham Lincoln came to this town, the blood still staining the rocks of the Devil’s Den and the long fields over which Pickett charged, and he tried to make that point to a country engaged in the solemn act of disemboweling itself with musket balls and grapeshot. This is what he said:
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Over three days next week, the Republican party, because it can do nothing else anymore, will rise as one in rebuttal. Tuesday night is going to be We Built This night, as though poor old Ike and his highways had nothing to do with your ability to get your widgets to market. They will talk about “freedom” a lot, but not in the sense that Lincoln spoke about it here — as something protected by the willed act of a people to govern themselves. As I said, the old battlefield is an interesting place to be at midnight, with the moon gone down behind the hills and the fog rolling in and the imagination active and roaming through the dark and echoing fields. This, you think, is a place to put an army. This, you think, is a ground to fight on.
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/gettysburg-republicans-12009056#ixzz24cskDPB7
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2012 at 1:18 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Cultural Criticism and Analysis
Humanism, like democracy, is a word that labors under an excess of meaning. It can mean acknowledging the value of human beings, or denying the existence of God.
By Terry Eagleton
Humanism, like democracy, is a word that labors under an excess of meaning. It can mean acknowledging the value of human beings, or denying the existence of God. In Ireland, “humanist” is still sometimes used as a euphemism for “atheist,” in a hangover from the days when Irish atheists were as scandalous and exotic a species as Beverly Hills poststructuralists. Yet there are Christian humanists as well, for whom human beings are valuable precisely because they are an image of God. So not all humanism is secular.
Nor do all those who deny the existence of God install humanity in His place. Nietzsche thought this was just to replace one idol with another. For him, the death of God also spelled the death of Man. Hitler believed in neither God nor humanity, and the same was probably true of Frank Sinatra. Some humanists believe there is a yawning chasm between humanity and the rest of Nature, without necessarily claiming that humanity should reign sovereign over the world around it. Harder-nosed humanists, by contrast, believe that badgers and centipedes were provided for our use and enjoyment, rather like fluffy dressing gowns in posh hotels, and that the phrase “animal rights” is a logical absurdity. Humanism here means something like “human supremacism.” But not all humanists are supremacists, just as not all animal lovers prefer animals to human beings, except for the English.
Humanism can mean a belief in an essential human nature, or the view that this nature is essentially positive. But you can sign on for the first without endorsing the second. Not all humanists are starry-eyed about humanity, as these essays by Edward Said make clear. For some, humanism means primarily a cultural movement associated with the European Renaissance, while for others it suggests a method of sociological analysis that allots priority to structures rather than individuals. Sociological antihumanists, however, are not always gratuitously nasty to defenseless little old men whom they chance upon in the street. Spinoza, who was renowned as a saint among philosophers for his gentleness and compassion, was also a full-blooded determinist for whom human beings were mere functions of natural laws. So he was an ethical humanist but a theoretical antihumanist. Some uses of “humanism” are too fuzzy, and some are too technical.
One should not look to Edward Said’s posthumously collected lectures in Humanism and Democratic Criticism to sort out this semantic mess. As a card-carrying humanist, Said is remarkably casual in these pages about just what humanism amounts to. At one point he describes it as “the achievement of form by human will and agency,” hardly the most lucid of definitions. What he is after in these illuminating lectures is what one might call a reconstructed or self-critical humanism–one that retains its belief in human value and in the great artistic works that embody it, but which has shed the elitism and exclusivism with which literary humanism is currently bound up. We would still read Dante and Proust, but we would also extend the very meaning of humanism in order to “excavate the silences, the world of memory, of itinerant, barely surviving groups, the places of exclusion and invisibility.” In this way, Said the cultivated middle-class academic converges with Said the courageous champion of the oppressed.
It is, in fact, so sensible a suggestion that it is almost bound to fall on deaf ears. It would, for example, spell the end of the conflict within English departments between the wrinkled Old Fogeys who perversely insist on reaping quiet pleasure from Jane Austen, and the Bright Young Things down the corridor who write only on masturbation and body piercing. Since this would take the thrill out of literary studies, Said’s even-handed proposal is bound to be ignored. It would also spell the end of a fair amount of English comic fiction, which thrives on American academic absurdity. Said mentions a new thought-crime known as “readism,” which apparently means reading too closely. I myself have always regarded reading literary works as a positive obstacle to understanding them, and find I can produce my most convincing critical essays on books I have never even opened.
Extracting a “good” humanism from a “bad” one is not perhaps quite as simple an operation as Said makes it seem. George Steiner pointed long ago to the curious, rather chilling paradox by which, in the great humanist tradition, the most generous-spirited of values have been interwoven with the most haughtily authoritarian ones. (Some might see Steiner’s own work as a case in point.) There is something about a heady affirmation of the human that tends to be blind to human frailty and ordinariness. In idealizing humanity, it can only rub its nose in how dismally far short of the ideal it falls. It can resonate with what Said aptly terms “a tone of mean-spirited rejection.”
This book is not among the most eminent of Said’s products. It is less intellectually high-powered than usual, no doubt in part because he was ill when he produced it. Yet it is also more typical of his extraordinary blend of radicalism and judiciousness than Orientalism, his most celebrated work. He detests Western imperialism but sees no need to apologize for teaching Conrad or Flaubert. He listens with vigilant attentiveness to emerging voices, yet rightly rejects the pious dogma that only members of a sidelined group can be permitted to speak on its behalf. He is a paid-up cosmopolitan but is irritated by “a lazy or laissez-faire feel-good multiculturalism.” He reminds right-wing Eurocentric humanists in the mold of the late Allan Bloom that Italian Renaissance humanism had its roots in the Muslim colleges of the Mediterranean, while maintaining an unswerving commitment to what he calls a “collective human history.”
It is perhaps a limitation of this little book that in comparison with, say, Said’s writings on Palestine, there is not much in it with which good-hearted, middle-of-the-road liberals might disagree. This is always an error to be avoided as stringently as possible. If Said can sometimes sound like a liberal humanist, he can at times sound rather more discomfortingly like a radical humanist; but he never sounds much like a socialist humanist, in the style of Raymond Williams or E.P. Thompson. Like both these thinkers, however, he never really takes issue with the suspiciously sanguine aspects of humanism. Is there something in a generous faith in human capacities that is also callow and repressive? Does humanism thrive on a certain well-groomed blindness to our apparently inexhaustible ability to be morally obscene? Can any radicalism that has not gazed upon this dreadful Gorgon be anything other than skin-deep? These lectures do not hold the answer to such questions, but they are a poignant reminder that reasonableness and partisanship are not always the enemies that some leftists seem to think they are.
Whatever the occasional thinness of this book, there is no doubt that Said was an old-fashioned humanist in all the finest senses of the phrase. If he fought for the extension of the literary canon to groups and peoples it had shunned, it was not, in his view, a canon to be callowly derided. He did not see the need to choose between Jane Austen and Chinua Achebe. “I am not just interested in Palestinian themes in American literature,” he remarks in a recent volume of interviews, Power, Politics, and Culture–something that set him apart from those Marxists who are interested only in novels about coal miners. He saw his own postcolonial inquiries as extending the work of great European humanists like Erich Auerbach, drawing upon their scrupulousness and erudition for new political ends. Nor did he accept the patronizing line that any novel produced in the postcolonial world is bound to be a masterpiece.
As Power, Politics, and Culture makes clear, Said’s concern was justice, not identity. He was more interested in emancipating the dispossessed than in celebrating the body or floating the signifier. As a major architect of modern cultural theory, he was profoundly out of sympathy with most of its cerebral convolutions, which he correctly saw as for the most part a symptom of political displacement and despair. He was distinctly nervous of orthodoxies and almost physically pained by rigid doctrinal systems. He was allergic to mealy-mouthed pieties of both right and left. The idea of obedience to a discipline struck him as mildly revolting. If he detested Zionism, he also called Saddam Hussein a pig, a fascist and a murderer. Now that American academia has become even more blandly emulsive and conflict-free in the self-censoring aftermath of 9/11, his admirable candor and abrasiveness are already beginning to sound like the remote echo of another world.
Terry EagletonTerry Eagleton is professor of cultural theory at the University of Manchester, Britain. His forthcoming book, The Meaning of Life (Oxford), will be published in March.
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Ungood Fellas
February 7, 2000 Issue
The last decade of the twentieth century was not a happy one for the Mafia.
By George De Stefano
The last decade of the twentieth century was not a happy one for the Mafia. During the nineties both the United States and Italy made remarkable strides in curbing organized crime, imprisoning gangsters and dismantling their business interests. Though it would be premature to declare either the Italian or the American Mafia dead, both have been wounded, the latter perhaps mortally. But if the Mafia is a shadow of its former self, you’d hardly know it from pop culture. In fact, media images of La Cosa Nostra seem to be proliferating in direct proportion to the decline of organized crime. Not since Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather reinvented the gangster genre in the early seventies have there been so many wiseguys on screen. The past year brought the films Analyze This and Mickey Blue Eyes, and with i fratelli Weinstein, Harvey and Bob, having acquired the rights to the late Mario Puzo’s final novel, Omertà, for their Miramax Films, there’s at least one other high-profile Mafia movie on the way. Another may well be the fourth installment of Coppola’s Godfather saga. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Leonardo Di Caprio and Andy Garcia (Al Pacino’s nephew in Godfather III) are keen to sign on to the project, pending a suitable script.
On television, gangsters with Italian surnames have been a surefire audience draw, from the days of The Untouchables to contemporary cop shows like NYPD Blue. A very partial list of recent programs includes the network miniseries The Last Don and Bella Mafia, as well as biopics about John Gotti and his turncoat lieutenant Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, and, on Showtime cable, an absurdly hagiographic one about Joseph Bonanno produced by his son, Bill. But no mob-themed show has generated the critical accolades and viewer enthusiasm accorded The Sopranos, the Emmy Award-winning HBO comedy-drama that has become the cable network’s most-watched series, its recent second-season premiere attended by an avalanche of hype.
Moving from The Sopranos‘ suburban New Jersey turf to Palermo, HBO last fall premiered Excellent Cadavers, a feature- film adaptation of Alexander Stille’s 1995 book about the anti-Mafia campaign launched by two courageous Sicilian magistrates. Why is Italian-American (and Italian) organized crime such a mainstay of American pop culture, and do these images reflect the reality of the Mafia? And does the persistence of the Mafioso as a pop-culture archetype constitute ethnic defamation of Italian-Americans?
That many of today’s depictions of the American Mafia are in the comic mode–The Sopranos, Analyze This, Mickey Blue Eyes, the parody Mafia!–is possible only because organized crime is much less fearsome than in its heyday. Both The Sopranos and Analyze This feature Mafiosi on the verge of a nervous breakdown, their psychological crackups reflecting the disarray of their criminal enterprises under the pressure of law enforcement and the breaking of omertà, the code of silence, by gangsters who’d rather sing than serve time. V. Zucconi, a commentator for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, analyzed this development in an article titled “America: The Decline of the Godfather.” Zucconi claims that in the United States the Mafia survives mainly in its pop-culture representations, and that while it used to generate fear, today it is a source of humor. He says that in America one can observe “the funeral of the dying Mafia,” an outcome he hopes one day will occur also in Italy. Is Zucconi overoptimistic?
Criminologist James Jacobs reaches a similar conclusion in his study Gotham Unbound: How New York City was Liberated from the Clutches of Cosa Nostra (NYU Press). Organized-crime-control strategies “have achieved significant success in purging Cosa Nostra from the city’s social, economic, and political life,” he writes. Gangsters in New York, and also in other large and small cities, are losing their foothold in the labor and industrial rackets that have been the source of their power and influence; and there is a dearth of younger, rising stars to replace aging or incarcerated leaders. The decline, says Jacobs, has been so marked that “Cosa Nostra’s survival into the next millennium…can be seriously doubted.” It’s a different story in Italy. The Sicilian Mafia’s economic might, its alliances with politicians and indifferent law enforcement enabled it to grow so powerful that it threatened Italy’s status as a modern nation. As Alexander Stille observed in Excellent Cadavers, the war against the Mafia in Sicily is not a local problem of law and order but the struggle for national unity and democracy in Italy. HBO’s film based on Stille’s book promised to tell that story, but, at barely ninety minutes, it ended up too compressed to offer more than a skim on the events he reported and analyzed so compellingly. Talk about missed opportunities: Instead of the Z-like political thriller it could have been, Cadavers is a rather routine policier.
In the eighties, Mafia killings accelerated as ambitious upstarts from Corleone (a real place, Godfather fans) challenged the Palermo old guard for the control of organized crime. The body count included not only Mafiosi but also police officials, magistrates and politicians, who came to be called, with fine Sicilian mordancy, excellent cadavers. Two magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, began to pursue the Mafia with unprecedented persistence. Their efforts culminated in the historic “maxi-trials,” which resulted in the imprisonment of hundreds of Sicily’s most powerful gangsters.
The Mafia, of course, retaliated, assassinating Falcone in May 1992 and, two months later, Borsellino. The murders, however, ignited the simmering rage of Sicilians against the Mafia and the officials who protected it. The government was forced to respond, and the subsequent crackdown resulted in the arrest of numerous Mafiosi and connected businessmen and politicians.
Italians overwhelmingly regard Mafiosi as the other; they do not identify or empathize with criminals, nor do they feel that portrayals of organized crime in movies, television and other media tar them with the brush of criminality. Many Italian-Americans, however, regard the seemingly endless stream of Mafia movies and TV shows as a defamatory assault. In mid-January a coalition of seven Italian-American organizations issued a joint statement condemning The Sopranos for “defaming and assassinating the cultural character” of Americans of Italian descent.
It’s undeniable that the dominant pop-culture images of Italian-Americans have been the mobster and the related, anti- working class stereotype of the boorish gavone. But there are important differences between these skewed portrayals and other forms of ethnic stereotyping. If the Mafia has been conflated with Sicilian/Italian culture, it’s in large part because Italian-American filmmakers and writers have so expertly blended the two. Coppola’s memorable and authentic depiction of an Italian-American wedding in The Godfather comes to mind. The Sopranos, created by veteran TV writer David Chase (né De Cesare), similarly gets many details right about nouveau riche suburban Italian-Americans, the eponymous mob family’s noncriminal neighbors.
The Sopranos cleverly acknowledges Italian-American indignation over Mafia stereotyping only to try to co-opt it. In an episode from the show’s first season, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony Soprano’s psychiatrist, and her family have a lively dinnertime debate about the persistence of the mob image. The scene ends with the Melfis toasting the “20 million Italian Americans” who have nothing to do with organized crime. But Jennifer also mocks her ex-husband, an ethnic activist, for being more concerned about “rehabilitating Connie Francis’s reputation” than with ethnic cleansing. The line neatly skewers the tunnel vision of conservative Italian-Americans who ignore forms of bias and social injustice that don’t affect them. But it also poses a false dichotomy: caring passionately about the image of one’s group need not preclude a broader perspective. At other times, the show suggests that Tony, a murderous criminal, is an Italian-American everyman. He’s aware of his people’s history–he informs his daughter that the telephone was invented not by Alexander Graham Bell but by Antonio Meucci–and he’s depicted as more honest and vital than his snooty neighbors, or, as he calls them, the “Wonder-Bread wops.”
The Mafia has become the paradigmatic pop-culture expression of Italian-American ethnicity for several reasons: the aura of glamour, sometimes tragic, surrounding the movie mobster, exemplified by Coppola’s Corleones; the gangster genre’s embodiment of the violent half of “kiss kiss, bang bang,” Pauline Kael’s famous distillation of the essential preoccupations of American movies; and, perhaps most important, the enduring appeal of the outlaw–the guy who, in a technocratic, impersonal society, has the personal power to reward friends, and, more important, whack enemies. Although real Mafiosi are venal and violent, films and TV too often have presented them far more sympathetically than they deserve–The Sopranos is just the latest case in point.
Italian-Americans, whose forebears fled la miseria, the crushing poverty of Southern Italy and Sicily, in numbers so vast that their departure has been likened to a hemorrhage, constitute one of the United States’ largest ethnic groups. An Italian-American film critic and author told me some years ago that it was “selfish” of our paesani to complain about Mafia stereotyping given their largely successful pursuit of the American Dream and the more onerous discrimination faced by other minorities. He also insisted that most Americans are smart enough to realize that gangsters constitute only a tiny minority of the Italian-American population.
But it is dismaying–no, infuriating–to see one’s group depicted so consistently in such distorted fashion. Unlike racist stereotyping of blacks, portrayals of Italian-American criminality don’t reflect or reinforce Italian-American exclusion from American society and its opportunities. (Faced with a threatened NAACP boycott, both the NBC and ABC networks recently agreed to increase the hiring of blacks, Latinos and Asians, in front of and behind the TV cameras.) The pervasiveness of these images, however, does affect the perception of Italian-Americans by others. Surveys indicate that many Americans believe that most Italian-Americans are in some way “connected” and that Italian immigrants created organized crime in the United States, even though the Irish, Germans and others got there first.
Besides fostering such attitudes, the Mafia mystique also serves to obscure other, more interesting and no less dramatic aspects of the Italian-American experience. In 1997 the City University of New York hosted a conference on “The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism.” Scholars discussed the immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti (executed by the US government), other major figures like the labor organizer Carlo Tresca, the New York City Congressman Vito Marcantonio and such icons of sixties activism as civil rights advocate Father James Groppi and Mario Savio of the Berkeley Free Speech movement. The conference also highlighted unsung men and women who were labor militants, anti-Fascist organizers and politically engaged writers and artists.
Besides such efforts to recover and understand the radical past, there has been a surge of cultural production and activism among Italian-Americans. In recent years the American-Italian Historical Association, a national organization of academics and grassroots scholars, has held conferences on such hot-button topics as multiculturalism and race relations. Fieri, an association of young Italian-American professionals, last year commemorated the life and work of Vito Marcantonio–an amazing choice given the far less controversial figures they could have honored. The New York-based Italian-American Writers Association and journals such as Voices in Italian Americana (VIA) and The Italian American Review promote and publish fiction, poetry and critical essays by writers whose vision of italianità flouts the pop-culture clichés. Italo-American gays and lesbians have come out with Hey, Paisan!, a new anthology, and Fuori!, a folio of essays published by VIA. Actor/playwright Frank Ingrasciotta’s Blood Type: Ragu, currently enjoying a successful run at the Belmont Italian American Theater in the Bronx (several of whose productions have moved to Off Broadway), offers an exploration of Sicilian-American identity and culture free of goombahs with guns.
Ethnicity remains a powerful and contentious force in American life, and popular culture should illumine its workings. Italian-Americans who want to promote more diverse depictions might not only protest Hollywood film studios and TV production companies. They might put some of the onus on Italian-American creative talents who have built careers on the Mafia. And they could also support the alternative, community-level work being done. Other stories from Italo-America can and should be told.
George De StefanoGeorge De Stefano writes for a variety of publications, primarily on cultural, Italian-American and gay rights issues.
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Locked down in Libya: One refugee’s reflections on conflict and COVID-19
‘For migrants and refugees like me, the virus hasn’t changed that much.’
Hassan Zakariya Omer
Sudanese refugee who fled violence in the Nuba Mountains and now lives in Tripoli, Libya
A group of migrants wait in the east of Tripoli after their boat capsized and they were rescued by the Libyan coast guard, on 26 July 2019. (Ayman al-Sahili/REUTERS)
I’m writing this on my phone, from a room in the Libyan capital that I share with seven other refugees. Inside my building, there has been no electricity for several days. We don’t have any running water. Outside, there is a war and a global pandemic.
Tripoli is nothing like the place I grew up, in Sudan’s South Kordofan province. In my Nuba Mountains hometown of Lagawa, the air always smelled fresh, and my primary school held classes under a baobab tree. Our food was homegrown.
In Libya, I live about six kilometres from a front line. I hear rockets whistling overhead, and I smell the dust that gets thrown up into the air whenever the fighting that has been going on for a year now kicks off.
The calm that I remember didn’t last in Lagawa. Fighting broke out between the army and rebels in 2011, when I was 20, and my home was shelled. Two of my brothers and a cousin were killed. There were mass arrests based on tribe, and executions. I ran to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where I thought I would be safe and could attend university, where I wanted to study medicine, or maybe political science. But there I found a country ruled by force, where I was discriminated against because of where I came from. I could not speak freely, and I was not free.
I wasn’t planning on becoming a refugee, nor was I hoping to cross the Mediterranean and put my life in danger. Instead, I tried to get a visa to leave Sudan, but was refused at every turn. Eventually, I followed the journey that so many young people from sub-Saharan Africa make to Libya. I found myself here in 2018. It took time, but last year I managed to register as an asylum seeker.
So here I am, at 28, working at a grocery store for the limited hours it is open because of COVID-19, in the middle of a war. As of 29 April, there are 61 confirmed cases and two deaths in the country. Libyans are panicking about the virus, and buying everything they can. There are lots of rumours spreading about it, and nobody really knows what’s true.
But for migrants and refugees like me, the virus hasn’t changed that much. Fear has always been a constant, and life has never been secure. We have become used to uncertainty, unsure if we will have somewhere to sleep at night or not. I now understand why people try to cross the sea, but I have lost many friends to the Mediterranean and for me it’s a last resort. I’m still waiting to see if the UN will be able to help me start a new life somewhere else.
I’m not sure if things are worse for me now that the coronavirus is here. I’ve been through much scarier times, both in Sudan and in Libya. When the fighting first erupted last April, I was stuck with other refugees and one Libyan family for 23 days in the middle of clashes in the south of Tripoli. We couldn’t escape and had very little food. We were under siege, drinking bad water. Nobody could rescue us, but eventually we made it out on our own.
“I’m not sure if things are worse for me now that the coronavirus is here. I’ve been through much scarier times, both in Sudan and in Libya.”
That time was far more frightening than anything I’m dealing with now. Of course I don’t want to get the coronavirus, but it doesn’t feel like there is much I can do.
During the day, my roommates and I try to keep away from each other, chatting from a distance. But at night there isn’t much we can do, given that we sleep in such close quarters. It is so hard to find affordable accommodation in Tripoli that we don’t have any other options.
Some people thought that the coronavirus would bring people together. But that hasn’t happened. It hasn’t stopped the war, not when there is power and money at stake.
There is one place in Tripoli that makes me feel at peace: a church downtown. I volunteer there, helping the woman who runs it communicate with other migrants and refugees who go there for help. I fight for their rights. But for now, because of the restrictions on movement, I can’t even go there.
In my years fleeing home, I’ve found that while I can count on some NGOs and international organisations for basic assistance, for the most part I have to find my own way. Life for me is a constant struggle. That was true before the pandemic, and it will be true after.
Subscribe to our coronavirus newsletter to stay up to date with our coverage
Central African conflict, aid worker deaths, and an election in Uganda
8 January 2021 8 Jan 2021
COVID-19 sees more expectant Colombian mothers turn to traditional help
‘We go to the most difficult parts, where the doctors cannot go.’
How COVID-19 made it harder to find safety in the EU
‘Across the board, capacity for asylum registration and procedures has been negatively affected.’
World leaders can still avert famine in Yemen. Here’s how…
‘Yemen is not starving. It is being starved.’
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Trump extends China tariff deadline
President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would extend a deadline to escalate tariffs on Chinese imports, citing progress in trade negotiations, the Associated Press reported.
In comments to the nation’s governors Trump said the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement would benefit farmers.
According to a White House transcript, Trump said he wanted to “thank every governor here today who is supporting our new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — the USMCA. I’ve long said that NAFTA is the worst trade deal that any country has ever signed. It emptied us out. We had a surplus with Mexico and Canada, and we went to $130 billion trade deficit with the combination of Mexico and Canada. And this deal will bring it back.”
“We’re opening it up to farmers. We’re opening Canada, as an example — and Mexico — to farmers. They were closed. It was a closed shop. They had all sorts of non-monetary trade barriers. And they had monetary trade barriers. They were charging, for certain agricultural products, an almost 300 percent tariff. Nobody ever talked about it. Nobody ever knew about it. And I’d go up to Wisconsin and the farmers would say, ‘Sir, we can’t compete. They’re charging us 287 percent, to be exact.’ I said, ‘You got to be kidding.’
And we did something about it.”
“So the USMCA is very important. It will help our dairy farmers in Wisconsin; our wine makers in Oregon and Washington and California; our autoworkers in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and all over; and dozens of other states, and ranchers and farmers and growers and manufacturers from coast to coast. It’s a very, very comprehensive deal. It’s a deal that nobody thought we’d be able to get approved.
“I was able to get it approved, to be honest with you, by using tariffs. I was putting very substantial tariffs — or was getting ready to — on Canada, who was very tough to negotiate. You know, we think of ‘Oh, Canada.’ Well, ‘Oh, Canada’ is tough. They’re tough.
“And I said, ‘Look, you know, you’re either going to do this or we’re going to put 20, 25 percent tariffs on your cars that you ship in here by the millions.”
–The Hagstrom Report
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Board index Other Projects and Games Transport Unlimited
TTS , transport tycoon clone
Post by Hyronymus » 16 Oct 2003 09:22
I think it's easy to call a project 'not according Open Source' if it isn't your project and you aren't experiencing problems that keep you from publishing the source code already. It's been qualified as if TBOT and his friend aren't willing to follow the Open Source definition. In reality there is a fine line between not willing to and not being able to. I don't think you can distinguish between those two if you haven't met that fine line once yourself (not necessairily with programming btw). Amen
Prof. Frink
Location: Broadstone, Dorset
Contact Prof. Frink
Post by Prof. Frink » 16 Oct 2003 09:31
I don't care how it's done as long as it's done well.
If the programmers feel that they are doing well on their own, they should keep it closed-source (is that the right term?) to stop other people making suggestions that they don't want or making some code in a different style to the rest and confusing the main programmers.
If they're having problems, open-source may be better as you have more testers and people who can come at the problem from a different angle.
From their website, it sounds like they're doing well on their own, so they should keep it that way unless they have a problem that they get stuck on.
I'm not a programmer, this is just me applying 'logic' and 'common sense'.
Downloads Wiki Links
ChrisCF
Transport Empire Developer
Location: Over there --->
Post by ChrisCF » 16 Oct 2003 13:13
Prof. Frink wrote: If the programmers feel that they are doing well on their own, they should keep it closed-source (is that the right term?) to stop other people making suggestions that they don't want or making some code in a different style to the rest and confusing the main programmers.
That's the kind of attitude that causes nothing but problems (SiS anyone?).
Open source isn't supposed to be a lifeline for projects that hit a wall (that would be a pretty lame cop-out). It's supposed to reduce problems, not get around them. All the "reasons" people seem to have given in defence of closed projects in this thread are poor attempts at making excuses.
The usual excuses:
"Someone can just use our code and claim it as their own."
No they can't. No OSI-approved licences permit this, since it would allow people to close an open project.
"Other people may write code that we don't understand, and doesn't fit our style of coding."
There is never an excuse for not having an open standard.
"We want to retain some control over our code."
There are ways of doing this while still keeping to open source ideology. CVS is one example. Maintaining a "control" package and taking patches against that is another.
"Oh, we're getting on fine by ourselves. There's probably nothing here we can't do."
Many hands make light work. It's an old proverb, and proven fact. Look at TTDPatch. How far behind current progress would Josef be if he were still working alone?
"We don't want you having this. Go start your own."
That attitude is both wasteful and selfish. It is an incredible waste of time and effort to have to duplicate someone else's work, and rather selfish of those people to insist that others have to go to that trouble.
Bugzilla available for use - PM for details.
Post by Arathorn » 16 Oct 2003 13:31
Bla bla bla. If I make a project I make a project my way, if you make a project you do that your way and if TBOT is working on a project he can do it the way he likes.
What are you talking about? Where is your authority over their project?
Post by krtaylor » 16 Oct 2003 14:45
Well, they promised one day everyone can have the source and do as they like with it. Though of course I hope that we will all cooperate and contribute to a better, more fully developed game, rather than going off in ten totally different directions.
TBOT
Route Supervisor
Location: The Codecave
Post by TBOT » 16 Oct 2003 15:59
ChrisCF wrote: The usual excuses:
Yes they can, none of the licenses allows us to sue them in any way because we can't prove they used OUR code.
Rule 1 in programming, never use code that you don't understand, because you can't fix bugs in it.
Secondly, how would you like if we had to turn down 90% of the submissions because there is no clear standard of coding now. Releasing the source now would be a dead-stab for the project.
Even when TTS will become open-source there won't be an open-submission CVS. All extensions would have to go through us, as a sort of quality control, to keep the code bug-free.
At this moment many hands would take up all our time to explain people how to use the code, and correcting mistakes in submitted code. I guess even the core of TTDPatch wasn't open-source in the beginning.
We could have decided to keep the project secret for the time we developed the core engines (which we're doing at this moment). We could have made it public when the source was ready to be used. We could, but we didn't, because we need motivation from other people. If we didn't make this public the project would have been dead already.
(Thanks to everybody for your support up to now, I hope you will be more gratefull about our work)
GO COMPLAIN TO CHRIS SAWYER THEN!
Besides all this, I think you should respect us for putting all this time and effort into this project. Come to think of it, the time I took to write this, wasted at least 10 minutes which I could have spent coding.
krtaylor wrote: ..., rather than going off in ten totally different directions.
Releasing the source now would do just that.
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein
TBOT wrote: I guess even the core of TTDPatch wasn't open-source in the beginning.
TTDPatch manual wrote: Josef is the main author of TTDPatch. He started the project in 1996 and made it public in May 1999
For what it's worth, as a keen observer of open-source projects and a project manager of various types and methods, I agree with the position of the TTSD team. I'm sure we'll all agree that Linux is the model of an open source project. Well, Linus Torvalds kept control over what went into Linux for a long time, until it was stable and well regarded. He still has a great degree of control over exactly what goes into the reference version. An open-source project is not a free-for-all, there needs to be some guiding control.
What the TTSD team is proposing makes perfect sense to me, and I am completely satisfied with it. Of course we'd love to get it done sooner, and more people working on it would be great, but until the main engine is done, they are probably right that it would take more time to explain how the code works than would be gained by additional coders. When the main engine is done and working, then that is the time to release it, with documentation on how it works, so people can go on and do the various pieces of an operating game withough having to go into the actual engine code.
Location: Stompetoren, the Netherlands
Contact Bart
Post by Bart » 16 Oct 2003 16:41
Couldn't agree more. Don't forget: open-source doens't need to mean it should be available as soon as the first bytes of a program are ready. The main function of open-source is that you create a reasonable working, or at least beta version of a program, with solid rules for programming (the main engine), and people can review the source code, and fix problems, and add features, which are in line with the original program. Open-source is far from public property. It's still the creators' property. The same goes for designs for example. I can sell a design to someone, but the design is still mine, and if someone want to alter it, he should first ask my permission. Similar situation... That's my vision on this issue...
[url=CALLTO://Sgreehder] [/url]
As I see it, you have our full support except for one person who feels otherwise. Nothing wrong with that. Please continue with our best wishes and eager anticipation.
To change the heading of this conversation, a few minutes ago I had a conversation with Bas.
We have decided to redo the code we have at the moment in C++, opposed to C with which we program now.
We are beginning to run into some limitations and very ambiguous code. We think C++ will sort those problems, and besides that it will make the engine far more extensible, and also easier to extend.
A little downside is that we have to learn some C++ code structures (class definitions etc.), luckily I already learn Java at my study, which will help us quite a lot.
I don't suppose you could do it in Java? I know Java but that's it...
java knows similar structures as seen in C++. Wise decision though, as C++ is much more common these days, and has some advantages over C...
I'm not recommending you change, really, Java runs kinda slow on Windows systems which is what we all use for gaming. It's good for servers though but that's a different story.
I don't know much about Java, but can it run complete games, including all the things we see in TT? With fullscreen DirectDraw and similar things. I always Java can't do much more then this:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tr ... index.html
You're talking about a Java applet, which is more limited. Java proper is a full fledged programming language that can do everything any other language can. However, I'm not arguing that it is the right language for TTD. Java's advantage is its cross-platform portability. That isn't really important for TTD, and C/C++ is more efficient in hardware use because it compiles native. Plus there's a long history of coding games in C so there may be various code elements that can be borrowed from elsewhere; Java is younger, particularly in the gaming field, so there wouldn't be as much available.
Uhmmm, why are you argueing about java? I said we were going to redo it in C++ and that for the object orientation my knowledge of java might become handy...
I'm not making any argument at all, just discussing things and trying to answer Bart's question. As far as I am concerned, TBOT, your plans are perfectly sensible.
Location: Phrae, Thailand
Post by Gil » 17 Oct 2003 03:41
Guys guys!!!
Damn, I made the OP hoping to get some support and interest in the project, but it seems everyone is either bitching about it or arguing amongst themselves about better ways of doing it. Sorry TBOT
Could I suggest we try to bring a more positive attitude to the thread? Maybe even some appreciation for two guys working their arses off to try and create a better version of a game we all love??
spaceman-spiff
Contact spaceman-spiff
Post by spaceman-spiff » 17 Oct 2003 06:25
Good idea, let's hope they succeed and hold on
Return to “Transport Unlimited”
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Trump Renews China Tariff Threats Ahead Of G20 Summit
The comments to the Wall Street Journal come as he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of this week’s G20 summit.
The tariffs would be raised from 10 to 25 percent on USD 200 billion worth of goods.
Trump also said he would hit the rest of China’s imports to the US with tariffs if talks did not go well.
The US president said it was “highly unlikely” that he would agree to Beijing’s request to hold off on the planned tariff rise, the newspaper said.
If negotiations were unsuccessful, Trump said he would act on a previous threat to target additional Chinese goods with tariffs.
“If we do not make a deal, then I’m going to put the USD 267billion additional on,” Trump was also quoted as saying. That additional amount would be targeted with a tariff of 10 percent or 25 percent, he told.He said Apple iPhones and laptop computers imported from China could also be subject to tariffs.
In a war, always keeps your opponent guessing. That’s the first rule of negotiation. And the more publicly you can declare your position, the better.
That is exactly how you should read President Trump’s comments to the Wall Street Journal about going ahead with fresh China tariffs if Beijing doesn’t play ball.
This is classic Trumpism. Show strength so you can scare your opponent into doing what you want. But the Chinese aren’t like anyone the president has dealt with before.
Trump’s upcoming meeting with President Xi at the G20 was meant to help dissipate tensions between the two sides. But with these comments, President Trump has left very little room for China to walk away from the table with a deal and save face: something Beijing will need to do to satisfy its domestic audience.
So it’s highly unlikely we will get a successful deal between the two at the G20 – and that means the rest of us will be the poorer for it.
Trump launched a trade war with China this year, which has seen the US hit about half of all Chinese imports into the US with tariffs.
China has retaliated but has less room to maneuver as the US buys much more from China than it exports there.
Analysts say failure by the US and China to find common ground at the G20 could lead to a deterioration in the trade war, which is already hurting industries, and poses risks to the global economy.
“It is deeply disappointing the president wants to undermine his opportunity to create meaningful progress before the discussions even begin,” said Jose Castaneda, spokesperson for the US-based Information Technology Industry Council.
The US president has signaled he wants to continue with this “short-sighted” trade war despite “the pain” Americans have felt as a result of tariffs, Castaneda said.
“Imposing a new round of tariffs would cause a shock that will reverberate across America and the globe,” he said.― BBC
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Long Beach PEG Adopts JVC ProHD Cameras
By Deborah D McAdams 10 July 2013
WAYNE, N.J. – JVC announced that Long Beach Public Access Digital Network, which produces local programming for residents of Long Beach, Calif., has opened a new HD studio anchored by three JVC GY-HM790 ProHD cameras. After almost four years without public access television in the city, the new channel was launched last August with six JVC GY-HM150 compact handheld camcorders. PADNET unveiled its new studio on May 2.
Long Beach had been without public access television since early 2009, when California law no longer required cable companies to provide a studio and staff to produce it. PADNET was established through the efforts of the Long Beach Community Action Partnership, a nonprofit organization that supports low-income individuals and families and had already established a youth-based digital media arts program. The Partnership successfully applied for a two-year grant through the Long Beach Community Foundation from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to cover operational costs, matching the city’s PEG funds for capital purchases.
Today, PADNET is cablecast throughout the city via Charter Communications and Verizon FiOS, and maintains 24/7 live streaming at www.padnet.tv. It is also working to raise its own operational funds.
The channel has a staff of three, all with production backgrounds, but the vast majority of original content is produced by members and interns who have been certified to operate the equipment. Programs cover a variety of topics—including music, religion, fashion, and local politics and nonprofits—as well as coverage of community events. PADNET remains focused on the “public” component of PEG; education and government channels are operated by other entities. Future plans include establishing satellite production offices across the city’s nine council districts with additional JVC cameras.
Paired with Canon lenses, the JVC GY-HM790 HD cameras have full studio configurations. Two cameras are mounted on Vinten pedestals along with prompters, while the third camera is positioned on a Vinten tripod with wheels. The new facility also features an all-new control room and lighting grid. The choice of JVC cameras in the new studio was designed to provide an easy transition from the JVC camcorders used in the field.
PADNET uses Final Cut Pro for editing, and the GY-HM150’s native file recording saves producers from spending time transcoding footage. Mastramico said the GY-HM150s have been well received by producers, who supply their own SDHC memory cards for recording footage in the field.
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Ty Frost
Ty can be heard presenting mornings on Sydney's smooth 95.3 and Melbourne's smooth 91.5, 9am to 1pm weekdays.
Sydney's smooth 95.3 is currently the #1 FM station in Sydney with Ty's morning shift also #1 FM. Melbourne's smooth 91.5 currently #2 FM overall in Melbourne with Ty's morning show also #2 FM.
Source: GfK Media Research, Survey #6, 2020.
Ty has worked in the radio industry for over 25 years. Being the son of radio announcer, Ian Marshman, his passion for radio was fuelled from a very young age. Ty got his start in radio in December 1993, as an announcer on the regional stations 3SH Swan Hill and Wangaratta’s 3NE.
In September 1995 he joined Nova Entertainment as an announcer on B104.9 in Albury located on the border of New South Wales and Victoira. There he broadcast into 11 markets across three states through the Star FM radio network.
He moved to Melbourne in December 2001 to take up a digital publishing position and casual announcer during the launch of Nova 100. By 2010 Ty was setting the direction for online content for Nova Entertainment, later becoming the Digital Technical and Production Director for the company.
If you ever need to relax, simply tune in 9am weekdays on FM in Sydney or Melbourne and via smooth's streaming services available at www.smoothfm.com.au and streaming applications on iPhone and Android.
Thanks for sending Ty a note!
Leave Ty a note
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PG | Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family
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Ive been waiting for this movie to come to Toronto-Canada for about a year now. Please make this happen soon.!!!!!!!!!
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! SHOW THIS IN CANADA. I HAD TO FLY ALL THE WAY OUT OF A COUNTRY TO SEE THIS.
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“A vague staging of mozart's dark comedy”
ReviewsMay 31, 2019Garsington, Wormsley
George Hall writes widely on opera and has contributed regularly to The Stage since 2000. He has also contributed to such publications as T...
George Hall writes widely on opera and has contributed regularly to The Stage since 2000. He has also contributed to such publications as The New Penguin Opera Guide and the Oxford Companion to Music
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MEGABYTE YOUR TONGUE
English’s global dominance under threat as new tech will let you can speak to anyone without learning foreign language
Best-selling author Gaston Dorren has delved into why certain languages have taken over the world in his new book, Babel
Updated: 28 Jan 2019, 19:31
ENGLISH holds a special status among the world’s dialects, but its global dominance could be under threat, says a language expert.
Gaston Dorren, a best-selling author, has warned that new technology – which lets people speak to anyone without learning a foreign language – could be English’s undoing.
Author Gaston Dorren says the English language has been successful - but not because it's easy to learnCredit: Alamy
Language expert Gaston Dorren on why all people should learn to speak something other than their mother tongue
He told news.com.au: “We will at some point have devices that translate our speech into any major language.
“We’re not quite there yet and it may take longer than the boffins think, for language is more complex than they give it credit for.”
Dorren dubs this major language breakthrough the “Babel Chip” – meaning we will be able to speak to almost anyone in the world without having to learn foreign languages.
He explained: “[Learning languages] will still be valuable for all sorts of cultural and psychological reasons, but the majority won’t bother.
“So it’s not Mandarin or any other language that is likely to become the undoing of English – it’s technology.”
Dorren said that English was now the closest thing we have to a global tongue, and people were unlikely to discard it .
"GLOBISH" FORM OF ENGLISH
However, he believes it could “evolve”, and gradually become more simplistic, through the creation of a so-called “Globish” form of English.
Globish is defined as a simplified form of Anglo-American English, used as a worldwide “lingua franca” – a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.
Dorren added: “It’s also possible that native spoken English will diverge into separate regional languages, such as American, British and Strine [Australian-English] alongside Globish.
“But, I don’t expect the world to embrace a whole new language, and certainly not Mandarin.”
The author says that English has been successful not because it’s easy to learn, but because English speakers have dominated the world both economically and culturally for the best part of a century.
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He added: “English is certainly somewhat easier to learn than other languages, but it’s not nearly as easy as native speakers tend to think, nor does this characteristic account for its current dominance.”
Dorren said this dominance could be explained in just four letters: UK, US.
“The British Empire was the largest the world ever saw, and it spread the language to those areas that were [initially] settled by British people – Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, crucially, the US.
“Then, in recent decades, when American economic, cultural, political and military predominance coincided with globalisation, English became the default language in practically all domains of global communication, from cinema and pop music to science and civil aviation.”
A version of this article first appeared on news.com.au
English is still the world's most spoken language (chart shows speaking in millions)Credit: Gaston Dorren
Dorren's new book Around the World in 20 Languages is available to buy nowCredit: Profile Books
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Compulsory helmets under review for all cyclists on British roads
Graeme Paton, Transport Correspondent
Friday November 24 2017, 12.01am, The Times
Consultation will consider whether helmets and high-visibility vests should be mandatory
OLI SCARFF/GETTY
Cyclists could be made to wear helmets for the first time in a review of bike safety.
A government consultation in the new year will consider whether helmets and high-visibility vests should be mandatory on British roads, the transport minister Jesse Norman said.
The move comes after the release of figures showing that more than 100 cyclists were killed on British roads last year. A further 3,397 were seriously injured, a 5 per cent increase in 12 months.
Any attempt to make helmets compulsory will be resisted by many cycling groups who claim that it would deter people from taking to the road. In Australia, where cyclists can be fined up to £180 for not wearing a helmet, there has been a drop in cycling.
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Album Review: Lianne La Havas – “Lianne La Havas”
Thomas Holton July 27, 2020
I’m pretty sure that years in the music world work like dog years. You disappear for twelve months and everything seems to have changed. It’s a given then that five years is an eternity. Rewind back to 2015 and Fetty Wap and Silento were in a heated race to see who would take over the world. If you looked more carefully, you’d also see British singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas release her second album, Blood. The follow-up to this album was five years of studio silence, finally broken with the release of this new self-titled follow-up, one whose sparse presentation allows Lianne’s voice to take precedence in her most focused project to date.
As Lianne has said in interviews, this is the first of her albums that has a real story to it. The story, spelled out in the form of a sentence, is one we’ve heard before. Infatuation leads to love leads to complications leads to collapse leads to a lesson learned. Yet, this story never gets old to us, especially when it’s told through a narrator like Lianne, whose comforting voice is somehow equally like a warm hug and a cold glass of water. Lianne La Havas sounds like a CD that would be in your mom’s car, in the best way possible. Even the first name Lianne seems to fit this aesthetic – I think of iced tea for some reason.
“Read My Mind” sees Lianne finding joy and mindfulness in the initial stages of a new fling, fully aware of the irrationality of a line like, “Could make a baby tonight/Throw my life away, oh I’ll die another day.” She’s able to project a genuine, wholesome excitement through lines like these and not resort to SahBabii levels of creative horny.
“Green Papaya” is when Lianne begins to long for something more than a physical connection, singing of her desire for “real love,” of which she’s fully aware the unsexiness. In the album’s first half, each of these new stages is fleshed out in its own song, and each feels truly distinct from the other lyrically, even if for the most part the folk-inspired soul production remains in similar territory. She doesn’t give more weight to any one stage of the journey, appreciating each part of it for what it is. With five years to create and reflect, this level-headedness gives the album a sense of balance and emotional maturity.
“Paper Thin” may be the most intimate track on the album, the lyrics focusing on Lianne’s attempt to tiptoe her way through to an emotionally damaged person. Lianne’s raspy delivery in the chorus is incredibly powerful, and mirrors her uncertainty toward how she’ll find a way to make this work. An ethereal interlude separates the album emotionally into halves, bringing more and more strife to Lianne in the second half as this budding relationship decays.
Side B also brings the long-awaited studio version of her cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes,” which she’s performed during her live sets for years. On standout track “Courage,” Lianne is insulated inside a nest of swirling guitars as she laments her feelings of loneliness. She feels removed of her agency, painting courage as something outside of herself, something that can only be lucked into.
Lianne makes an interesting choice in framing the album between two versions of the album’s lead single, “Bittersweet.” Sandwiched together, this choice shows the cyclical nature of love, the steps repeated with each new person. Even though the album’s production isn’t the most diverse, it’s hardly one-note. “Seven Times” has the most R&B influence out of any other track, and finds a unique groove through some great, layered percussion.
I know that it’s foolish and arguably ill-advised to feel like you know an artist you have never met, but it’s still fun to do so. In looking at Lianne’s interviews, lyrics, and general disposition, a word pops to my mind that she and her music fall under. Lovely. This album is just very lovely, and it’s full of gratitude for the past, as messy as it may sometimes be. It doesn’t reinvent any wheels, it’s just very, very lovely.
Lianne La Havas – "Lianne La Havas"
Tags folk music lianne la havas Soul Music
Thomas Holton
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UCF News | Stories of Impact + Innovation | Orlando, FL
Monday, January 18, 2021 63ºF Fair
Colleges & Campus News
UCF Unveils New Smart Grid Lab
By Kimberly J. Lewis | February 10, 2016
A new engineering laboratory that enhances the University of Central Florida’s leading role in modernizing and sustaining the nation’s power grid is opening this week, in concert with the national DistribuTECH conference in Orlando of 12,000 grid engineers and energy leaders.
The 660-square-foot Smart Grid lab, located in the Harris Engineering Center on UCF’s main campus, will provide a real-world environment and hands-on experience using advanced technology – real-time digital simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, power system protection and more – for research faculty and about 220 students per year.
“The lab will enable us to perform advanced smart grid research, develop curriculum and course offerings, partner with utility companies on their research and development projects, and collaborate with other universities,” said Zhihua Qu, chair, UCF Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The new Smart Grid lab will be connected to power sources on campus, such as solar arrays and an on-campus power plant. The Smart Grid lab at UCF is the latest development in a national, multi-partner consortium that Qu leads, known as “FEEDER,” or the Foundations for Engineering Education for Distributed Energy Resources.
FEEDER launched in 2013 with an initial grant of $3.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy that brought together eight universities, eight utilities, 11 industry partners and two national labs. It has grown to more than 50 partners – located nationwide from the east coast to California and as far as Hawaii.
The partners are upgrading and sustaining the power grid though research, and by educating the current grid workforce, and recruiting and educating the future workforce.
“Our nation relies on a vital, robust power grid that integrates renewable energy sources to maintain basic societal and economic needs. But the current infrastructure needs to be upgraded with advanced ‘smart’ technology, and the current grid workforce needs to learn the technology,” Qu said. “What’s more, it’s critical that our nation’s engineering schools recruit students to the field to ensure an adequate supply of smart grid engineers in the years to come.”
UCF is one of the nation’s largest producers of engineers, and its expertise in electrical and computer engineering makes UCF an ideal leader for the project.
Researchers in FEEDER are analyzing the infrastructure inside the current grid to find ways to enhance its capacity and make it more efficient. They are also exploring ways to safely and efficiently process the amount of fluctuating energy currently fed into the grid from an increasing number of small, decentralized power producers, many of which generate power from renewable sources such as wind and solar farms. They are also envisioning and designing potentially new and better ways of integrating renewables.
On the education front, the intent is for FEEDER universities to educate the nation’s current and future smart grid workforce by working together to develop and deploy updated, shared curricula, guest lectures and workforce training activities.
FEEDER aims to attract and educate more students to become future power engineers, to address real-world research and development challenges, to train existing workforce and speed up technology transfers, and to realize smart grid implementation.
Research and Education in Renewable Energy Systems at UCF
UCF’s many power and energy resources provide hundreds of electrical and computer engineering students hands-on, real-world smart-grid experience that will help them in their careers.
UCF’s Florida Solar Energy Center, also part of the FEEDER effort, has numerous research projects underway, including a study of the impact that the nation’s increasing number of electric vehicles on the road will have on the power grid.
And last fall, the university announced a faculty research cluster to bring together and recruit multi-disciplinary experts to advance power systems science. The Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES) cluster, also led by Qu, will facilitate collaborative research in the deployment and integration of renewable energy resources, and provide innovative solutions that make electricity grids self-organizing, efficient and resilient.
UCF is committed to green initiatives and supports the Climate Action Plan, an ambitious guide that the university is taking to become climate neutral by 2050.
Qu is a nationally renowned expert in distributed control and optimization of smart grids. In 2009, he was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his scientific contributions in electrical and computer engineering. He joined UCF’s faculty in 1990, and was named chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2011. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The DistribuTECH conference, Feb. 9-11, at Orange County Convention Center, will also feature some work produced by UCF engineering students. Five research posters created by 10 UCF electrical and computer engineering students will be presented at the conference, and more than 40 students will attend along with Qu.
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2018-12-27: Ford GT40 Mk II and Audi R8 return to Le Mans and new Reiter Engineering Xymera ...
One of the highlights this year was to see the actual 1966 Le Mans winning Ford GT40 Mk II return to France and race in the Le Mans Classic. The last time we saw the ex-Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon on track at Le Mans was in 2006 and then it was only demonstrated. Since then, it has changed hands, and was comprehensively restored. In addition to racing at Le Mans, the American enthusiast owner also demonstrated GT40P/1046 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Another great racing car that starred at Le Mans was this Audi R8. Strictly speaking this did not constitute as a return as this particular chassis was not raced in period. Now privately owned, '606' is actively raced and we also snapped it in action during the Spa Six Hours later in the year.
Today, German racing car specialist Reiter Engineering revealed a teaser video of the all-new Xymera. No further details were released but it looks like the car may be a mix of the KTM and Lamborghini race cars Reiter is very familiar with.
2018-12-21: Our fondest memory from 2018 ...
Travelling all over the world to capture car events means we are spoilt for choice for fond memories. What stands out this year, though, were the handful of parade laps with the Eagle Mark 1 during the Goodwood Revival with Derek Bell and Jackie Stewart behind the wheel. What made these laps so special was that the car was alone on the track and this allowed us to not only enjoy the sight of the best looking Grand Prix car of all time but also the sound of the glorious Weslake V12 in the back of the Eagle. The reason for these laps was the passing of the great Dan Gurney earlier in the year. A true racing legend and brilliant engineer, Gurney used this particular car to win the Belgian Grand Prix in 1967. This was just one of the many highlights in the American's career that included successes as a driver but also as a constructor. With the fabulous Mark 1 Eagle and the win at Spa all of his talents were combined, making it one of our all time favourite cars.
We would also like to take this opportunity to wish you, our loyal readers, happy holidays and all the best for the new years.
2018-12-19: New entry level Boxster and Cayman, new John Cooper Works and retro Continental ...
Porsche have introduced a hardcore 'T' or Touring version of the 718 Cayman and 718 Boxster models. Based on the entry-level, four-cylinder engined 718s, the Touring features larger wheels, a lowered chassis and lockable rear differential. As part of the Sport Chrono package, the cars can also be equipped with active drivetrain mounts, which improve the driving dynamics without affecting comfort on rough roads.
MINI, meanwhile, have launched the updated versions of the range-topping John Cooper Works in hatchback and convertible variants. They feature a 231hp version of the four-cylinder turbocharged engine, which is mated as standard to a six-speed manual gearbox, while an eight-speed automatic is available as an option. The new John Cooper Works will make its global debut at the upcoming NAIAS in Detroit.
American luxury manufacturer Lincoln will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the legendary Continental model in great style with the limited Coach Door edition of the Continental. Only 80 examples will be built of the lengthened model that crucially features 'suicide' or 'coach' doors. Popular on many classic luxury cars, they were also fitted to the formidable Continentals of the early 1960s. The Coach Door Continental is reportedly priced at around $100,000.
2018-12-17: Great Group 5 silhouette racers from Porsche, Ferrari and Corvette ...
During the second half of the 1970s, manufacturers exploited the relatively lenient Group 5 regulations to the full extent, creating fantastic production based 'silhouette' racers. The dominant force of the era was the Porsche 935 that was derived from the 911 Turbo. It takes a trained eye to discover the shape of the original road car but underneath the massively flared arches and slant-nose, the racer still retains some of the original metalwork. In historic racing the 935s produced for customers are regularly campaigned but at the Le Mans Classic this very rare ex-works 935 from 1977 returned to the track. Raced only once in period, it has been fully restored by Freisinger Motorsport and was raced at Le Mans by factory driver Romain Dumas.
Among the Porsches' rivals was the Ferrari 512 BB LM, which looks even further departed from its road-going equivalent. It was not able to match the Porsches on outright pace and was left to pick up the scraps. The featured example was campaigned at Le Mans twice and earlier this year starred at the Goodwood Members' Meeting, where Group 5 cars took centre stage.
Also in action at Goodwood in March, and a very rare sight on this side of the Atlantic was one of the Greenwood IMSA Corvettes. Built by John Greenwood and further developed by Bob Riley, these wide-body, big-block engined machines were among the fastest of all the Group 5 cars, particularly in a straight line. The Greenwood Corvette highlighted today spent most of its life in North America but has more recently been acquired by a Swedish enthusiast, who demonstrated it at Goodwood and raced at the Spa Classic in 2018.
2018-12-14: Ferrari Friday with great examples that starred this year ...
In our ongoing look back at the 2018 season, it is today time to highlight several Ferraris that starred this year. The most recent of them is the Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello. Built and raced by Prodrive for the privateer Care Racing team during the early 2000s, these cars brought Ferrari back to the forefront of GT racing. They were hugely successful and eventually inspired Ferrari to officially return to GT racing, where they are still at the forefront. Unusually, all cars were retained by Care Racing for several years but now they are slowly being sold off. We already shot several of the cars in period and now also captured three examples in action at the Le Mans Classsic and Spa Six Hours this year.
Among the star cars at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix were a pair of Ferrari 312 B3s fielded by German specialist Mario Linke. Both chassis 010 and 012 were driven with great verve and former Audi works racer Marco Werner managed to place 'his' example third in his race.
One of the genuine Ferraris that raced at the Goodwood Revival was this fabulous 250 GT SWB Comp/61. Built for the 1961 season, it is one of the ultimate specification SWBs before Ferrari stepped up to the 250 GTO. The featured example was sold in period to a Swedish racing driver, who won the Mille Miglia rally. It is today raced at select events by the current German owners as can be seen in our gallery.
2018-12-12: 2018 Auction season highlights and new Automobili Pininfarina hypercar named ...
With last weekend's RM Sotheby's The Petersen Automotive Museum sale the 2018 auction season has come to a close. Our list of 25 top sellers is topped by the record breaking 250 GTO sold by RM at Monterey for just over $48 million. The Ferrari 290 MM that topped the this weekend's sale at the Petersen museum with $22 million also makes the top three. It slots in at a joint second with the mighty Duesenberg SSJ that found a new owner at the Gooding Pebble Beach Auctions in August. The most expensive car sold at a European auction in 2018 is this Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. Raced in period by Jim Clark and one of just three 'super-lightweight' cars, it was sold by Bonhams at their Goodwood Festival of Speed sale for just over $13.3 million.
Due to be one of the absolute stars of the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, the upcoming, all-electric Automobili Pininfarina hypercar will be named the Battista. Powered by four electric motors, good for a combined 1,900 bhp, it will be limited to just 150 examples worldwide and priced at $2 - 2.5 million.
2018-12-10: McLaren Monday with all-new 720S Spider, M6B and F1 GTR ...
Over the weekend, McLaren revealed the Spider version of the highly acclaimed 720S. Compared to the Coupe launched last year, the new Spider is only 4% heavier and retains the same torsional rigidity without additional strengthening thanks to the carbon-fibre composite chassis shared by both versions of the 720S. The Spider features a foldaway carbon-fibre roof, which can be fitted with an optional glass panel. Carried over from the Coupe is the 720hp version of the bespoke twin-turbo V8 engine. The 720S Spider is available to order immediately and is priced at �237,000 before taxes, which is close to �30,000 more than the Coupe.
To mark the occasion, we have also taken a renewed look at two McLarens we saw in action this year. The earliest is one of the M6B customer Can-Am cars built for the 1968. These were based on the all-conquering M6As raced by the works team the year before. Ordered new by Jo Bonnier, the example highlighted today was somewhat unusual in that it was raced in Europe first and then shipped to North America to race in the Can-Am. Chassis 50-15 was recently re-patriated and is now raced in its original, five-litre configuration with considerable success in the Masters Sports Car Racing championship.
One of the highlights of the year was the Global Endurance Legends demo in the build to the Le Mans Classic as this brought some rarely seen machines back out to the track. Among them was this McLaren F1 GTR. In period, it was raced only in Japan and still wears the striking Team Lark colours to this day.
2018-12-06: Five great Group C and GTP cars we saw in action this year ...
For many enthusiasts the Group C and GTP era is considered the golden hour of sports car racing. Fortunately, these cars are still raced today and this year there was also a Group C and GTP support race at the Le Mans Classic.
Today we take a look at five machines that had not been raced for quite some time. The most spectacular of these was this Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis. It was raced to two World Championship victories in period and after a spell in England has now been repatriated to France. For this season, chassis EV16 was prepared by specialists Equipe Europe using engines developed by Oreca.
Porsche was the leading manufacturer in Group C. In addition to the cars built by the factory, cars from other companies also used Porsche engines. Among them was this Cougar C26S built by Yves Courage. It was raced in the guise presented today at Le Mans in 1991 but chassis chassis C02-02 actually dates back to 1983. In the intermittent period, the car was continuously updated to the latest specifications. It raced at Le Mans no fewer than six times. Porsche also allowed others to build complete cars following the 962's design. One of these is this 962 BM, which was one of eight built by hugely successful privateer Brun Motorsport. It was raced at Le Mans in 1989 and 1990, and more recently formed part of the formidable Historic Porsche Collection. Now in new ownership, 962-003BM returned to the track.
Another car not seen racing for many years is this Jaguar XJR-12 that originally competed at Le Mans in 1991 where it placed fourth overall. The following year, J12-C-891 finished second at Sebring.
One of the most interesting cars to return to racing is this Spice SE89P. It was raced originally by Jim Miller of Pratt & Miller fame and as such helped in the development of the mighty Intrepid racing car. Used into the 1991 season, SE89P-003 sports the same works livery as the Intrepids raced later in the year.
2018-12-03: Porsche 917 returned to the track, the Maharajahs' Vauxhall and Bentley ...
As we have entered the final month of 2018, it is time to start looking back at the many highlights of the year. One of the most spectacular was certainly this Porsche 917 K. Chassis 008 was originally one of the works cars and was raced at Le Mans in 1969, where it led for 18 hours. It was subsequently used for the famous test at Zeltweg where the Kurz or Short tail version of the 917 design was created with the help of the John Wyer Automotive team. Although it served as a Gulf JWA spare but it was not raced again and was eventually dismantled. The frame was later sold to Freisinger and built up to a complete car again. Not seen for many, many years, the rebuilt car finally resurfaced this year and was shown at the Le Mans Classic and raced at the more recent Imola Classic.
This weekend, Bonhams staged their annual flagship Bond Street Sale at the company's headquarters. Topped by the ex-Graf Albrecht von Goertz BMW 507, the results were disappointing. One car that more than lived up to the expectations was this Vauxhall 30/98 OE Velox Tourer. Originally sold to the Maharajah of Jammy and Kashmir, it now found a new owner for GBP 437,000, which was well above the top estimate.
Another car originally owned by Indian royalty currently available is this striking Bentley Speed Six Mulliner Sportsman's Saloon. Its first owner was the Maharajah of Jaipur and remained in India until 1937. In 2012, it was shown at Pebble Beach as part of a display of cars owned by Indian royalty, where it placed second in class and won two special awards. Chassis LR2778 is currently being offered by RM Sotheby's private treaty department.
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Agents for Change
360º Experience
Suburbia on Display
Art Exhibit Tackles Stereotypes of Suburban Life
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FRED DE SAM LAZARO, NewsHour Correspondent: From the heart of urban Minneapolis, the Walker Art Center is tackling the stereotype about suburbs, that of a colorless, design-free zone.
TRACY MYERS, Curator: I grew up in suburbia and escaped as soon as I possibly could. And so it required a certain amount of effort to maintain a kind of objective or non-judgmental stance. But through this exhibition, you know, I have sort of rethought my assumptions.
ANDREW BLAUVELT, Curator: The idea of the American suburb is constantly changing, although the paradox is that it seems to stay static in most peoples’ minds. Most people tend to have a post-World War II, what we call a sitcom suburb image in their head of what constitutes suburbia.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What curators Andrew Blauvelt and Tracy Myers try to show is the rich variety in today’s suburbia. The exhibit, called “Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes,” features drawings, sculpture, photography, and multimedia platforms, inevitably inspiring comment not just about the art, but about suburbia itself.
They offer glimpses of McMansions in outer suburbs, tract homes in what once were cornfields, and the residential settings in California’s San Fernando Valley, where the majority of adult films are shot.
ANDREW BLAUVELT: How do you begin to represent diversity in the suburb? You’re reliant upon artists, because that’s what we do, and that tends to be more poetic than it is didactic.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Among the works on display are those of Laura Migliorino, a community college photography professor who lives in a bungalow in Minneapolis. After years of commuting 20 miles outside the city, she began to get curious about the places in between.
LAURA MIGLIORINO, Artist: I work in a suburb and I would never live there. And I thought, ‘Well, who lives here?’ And, you know, I was biased. And I just thought, ‘Well, you know who lives here, you know, people like Tim Pawlenty, that’s who lives here.’
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The governor of Minnesota?
LAURA MIGLIORINO: The governor — yes, the governor of Minnesota to me was the archetypal suburbanite. He was white; he was middle-class; he was evangelical Christian Republican.
And then I was just asking myself some harder questions. I don’t want anyone to paint all Italians in the same way or all gay people in the same way. And so that’s how this started. I just started looking around.
It’s so massively uniform, and, I mean, I do feel like I’m in the twilight zone right now.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Behind the uniform architecture, she found anything but uniform demographics: same-sex couples, single-parent households, and a diversity of immigrants. She portrays them in their environs with a distinct style and technique.
LAURA MIGLIORINO: You have the portraits of the people. And then I overlay them with five, six, seven layers of imagery.
So I have the portrait of the family, and that’s one layer, but then I overlay other subdivisions, depending on composition, color, tonality, design, traffic, and even farmland.
Suburbs as the American dream
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Curator Blauvelt says the suburbs have become the face of America that would-be Americans aspire to from distant lands.
ANDREW BLAUVELT: Today, the suburbia is the first choice for immigrants, which is vastly different than, say, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, where the city core was the first stopping point for most immigrants.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Here, an American suburb lives in a complex symbiosis with its international twin in a piece called “Cross-Border Suburbia.” It’s depicted in this diagrammatic work by San Diego architect Teddy Cruz.
ANDREW BLAUVELT: What he’s looking at is literally the waste of America’s old suburbs being used and recycled into what he would call the housing, the emergency housing of Tijuana.
And then, from the opposite direction, he’s looking at the influences from Mexico to the United States, and specifically, of course, both legal and illegal immigration, and then occupation and habitation of San Diego’s suburbs by different cultures.
So this is not exactly an architecture about aesthetics, although I think it’s beautiful; it’s really more about an architecture of process.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The images of Tijuana show comfortable mixed use, in sharp contrast to the strict zoning that has dictated how Americans, particularly suburbanites, shop: in strip malls and shopping centers.
That retail experience is another focus of the exhibit, including this look back at a high point of suburban retail building design from the ’70s.
VIDEO SPEAKER: I don’t even know what’s inside, so I’m going to go in and look.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: These film images highlight an attempt by the defunct retailer Best Products to set some of its stores apart, to brand itself with buildings that were themselves sculpture.
TRACY MYERS: If you watch the film, you’ll see people say, looking up at it, like, they’re sort of worried about the building falling down or the facade with the bricks cascading down the front of the building.
I love the fact that he commissioned a group of people who were committed to bringing art out of the museum into the world of everyday people, into peoples’ everyday lives.
Documenting suburbia’s poverty
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Today, big box retailers are the norm in the suburbs, with very little by way of distinctive design.
But, again, uniform architecture has not meant uniform economics. Seven percent of malls and big boxes are abandoned, according to one study. Their re-use is depicted in numerous ways here, reinforcing the idea of diversity in the suburbs.
TRACY MYERS: For example, the photograph by Julie Christensen of a big box that’s been converted to an office for Head Start, Head Start was initiated as a program for the urban poor.
And so what that tells us about suburbia is that now there’s poverty in suburbia, and there might always have been, but now somebody’s documenting it. Somebody’s capturing it.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Other artists have thrived alongside, or inside, the successful big box stores, where the displays include the candid photographs of Brian Ulrich and the sculptures of Stefanie Nagorka in the aisles of Home Depot.
TRACY MYERS: Initially, it was sort of guerilla art. She would kind of go in and build these things without permission. Then she started photographing them.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: These sculptures are now acclaimed after their humble beginnings.
ANDREW BLAUVELT: I think it shouldn’t have been too surprising, because artists have always drawn inspiration from the world around them.
New architectural designs
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And, he says, even architects are now engaging with suburban design.
ANDREW BLAUVELT: A lot of architects aren’t primarily in the design lead when it comes to developing new aspects of suburbia. In those cases, we’re looking at kind of retrofit solutions to existing suburban problems.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: There’s one provocative example envisioned in this speculative work by the New York architectural firm LTL. It integrates housing and shopping. Housing is placed on the roofs of big box stores on vast tracks of land. Adjacent big boxes are adapted for use as libraries, schools, and community centers.
It’s a take-off on the so-called smart growth policies some cities have adapted to reduce energy use and to increase human interaction.
TRACY MYERS: Very often, urbanites in general and people in my field in particular are very derisive of suburbia. And what LTL did was sort of take as a given this condition of horizontality and, rather than trying to sort of eradicate it, neutralize it, or otherwise dismiss it, treated it as an opportunity for a new kind of suburban development.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It may be a timely opportunity, with gasoline at $4 a gallon, but whether and how such radical shifts catch on remains to be seen in what’s likely to remain an enduring automotive culture, itself abundantly displayed in this exhibit.
“Worlds Away” moves to the Carnegie Heinz Architectural Design Center in Pittsburgh when it ends its Minneapolis run. It will live on in a companion 600-page catalog.
Examining Stereotypes
An art exhibit at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis aims to examine stereotypes tied to life in the suburbs and shows the work of artists and architects influenced by the slew of social issues outside of cities.
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Lock’s Quest
Lock’s Quest is an Action, Real-time Strategy, Tower Defense, Single and Multiplayer video game developed by 5th Cell and published by THQ. The game takes place in the fantasy Kingdom, which is built using an unknown substance as a Source… read more
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What are best Lock’s Quest Alternatives for iOS?
31 13 13 21 6 12 1 6 6 1 2 5 1 2 10
#1 Bloons TD 5
Bloons TD 5 is an Awesome, Action, Strategy, Tower-Defense, Co-op, and Single-player video game developed and published by Ninja Kiwi. The game lets the player select the towers, select his favorite upgrades, hire special Agents, and destroy all the balloons in this tower defense video game.
The game consists of various levels and allows the player to earn lots of money by completing the levels and spend to purchase upgrades and other stuff. It includes multiple powerful agents and lets the player unlock them with his earned money and team-up with his friends in co-op mode to play a game together.
It offers exciting gameplay that the player has never played before. Engage himself in defense experience and fight against vicious enemies, complete all challenging missions, and earn money to advance through it. Bloons TD 5 includes core features such as Cool new Towers, Ten Special Agents, up to 40 Tracks, Ten Special Missions, Achievements, and more.
#2 CastleStorm
CastleStorm is an Addictive, Tower-Defense, and Strategy game with strong Action-RPG, Fantasy, Destruction, Action, Co-op, Single, and Multiplayer Elements. The game offers exciting gameplay developed and published by Zen Studios.
It takes place in the fantasy world of CastleStorm and allows you to explore it and reveal its secrets. According to the story, two powerful factions, such as the northern Viking land and the southern Kingdom, are fighting for an unknown reason.
Due to battle and needless destruction, the goddess of peace wept, and her tears fell in the form of 2 gems, one of them is red, and the other is blue. The red gem kept by the King of Northern Viking land while the leader of the southern Kingdom took the blue one.
The game lets you get into the role of the protagonist and fight against other factions and eliminate all the members. The game consists of various modes such as Story Campaign, Solo, Co-op Mode, and others. It includes core features such as Upgradeable Weapons, Eight Playable Characters, Excellent Voice, Addictive Gameplay, and more.
#3 Plants vs Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies is an Action, Tower Defense, Single-player and Multiplayer video game developed and published by PopCap Games. In the game, you can assume the role of the protagonist, and your main task is to stop zombies from entering your home and eating your brain.
To stop hordes of zombies, you must place various sorts of fungi and plants, each one has unique defensive and offensive capabilities. In the game, each level contains five to six lanes, and zombies will only move toward your house alone via only one lane.
The game consists of various levels, and each level has its playing style. You can use Wall-nuts, peashooters, cherry bombs, and others to confuse, slow down, and weaken twenty-six types of zombies before they reach your home’s door. You have limited seeds and greens, so play carefully and stop zombies.
To make the game more interesting, it includes obstacles like a sunset, creeping fog, a swimming pool, and others. Plants vs. Zombies include core features such as 14 Classes, more than 100 playable Characters, Longer Fight, up to 50 Levels, Coin Packs, Dynamic Sounds, Addictive Gameplay, Stunning Visuals, Challenging Levels and more.
#4 Oil Rush
Oil Rush is an Action, Real-time Strategy, Tower-Defense, Single and Multiplayer video game created and published by Unigine Corp. The game takes place in a flooded post-apocalyptic environment, and the story revolves around the protagonist fighting against enemies to take over the last remaining oil reserves.
The game lets the player assume the role of the protagonist named Kevin, who is a recent graduated and serviceman following his father, who has died. The commander ordered the protagonist to suppress a rebel faction called The Raiders, who is trying to take hold of all oil rigs.
It comes with a combination of tower defense and strategy elements and allows the player to defend and attack oil rigs with the use of deadly weapons, towers, and more. The player must fight against hordes of enemies and other attack units to defeat them and earn experience points to save the last oil reserves.
Oil Rush includes core features, such as Dynamic Sounds, Fifteen Maps to Explore, Multiplayer Mode, Sixteen Challenging Missions, Massive Battle, Furious Enemies, and more. With the best mechanics, addictive gameplay, and best visuals, Oil Rush is the best game to play and enjoy.
#5 Fieldrunners
Fieldrunners is an Engaging, Strategy, Action, Tower-Defense, and Single-player video game created and published by Subatomic Studios LLC. The game takes place in the world of Fieldrunners and allows the player to protect his base and fight against enemies.
The game consists of three different types of gameplay, such as Classes, Endless, and Extended. In Classic Mode, there are specific rounds in which the player must defend his castle against hundreds of enemies. During the gameplay, the player can place his towers anywhere to stop enemies from destroying his bases and can use various sorts of weapons to kill them.
It consists of multiple levels, and the player must complete each one at any cost. It includes two new towers, such as Flame Tower and Mortal Tower. The game becomes more difficult as the player progresses.
It lets the player earn points and upgrade his towers, weapons, and others. Fieldrunners includes core features such as Eight Original Maps, Ten Devastating Weapons, different Buildings, and more.
#6 Kingdom Rush
Kingdom Rush is a Challenging Tower-Defense video game available to play on multiple platforms. The game mixes the elements of Strategy, Action, Tactical, and Single-player developed and published by Ironhide Games Studio.
It offers an exciting story and lets you a chance to become a hero. Get ready to assume the role of the warrior and go on an epic adventure to defend your Kingdom against trolls, wizards, devils, and orcs. The game takes place in the fantasy world consists of forests, wastelands, and mountains.
Use a massive variety of towers and spells and command the army to fight against vicious creatures and defeat them to win. You can unlock other levels by progressing through the game. Score the highest points and unlock mighty towers, spells, and troops.
The game plays from an isometric view and includes exciting features that you enjoy. Over 50 Achievements, Extra Modes, Tactical Skills, 12 Stages, 12 Heros, two mini-campaign, etc. are the key features of the Kingdom Rush.
#7 Defender II
Defender II is a Strategy, Tower-Defense and Single-player video game developed by DroidHen. It is another game in the series of Defender that offers lots of new features and upgrades that makes the game more interesting and enjoyable. According to the gameplay, various waves of monsters are attacking his castle to destroy, and the game allows the player use his abilities and power to kill all the monsters in order to save his castle. The game offers different kinds of towers such as magic towers and fire towers etc. and each tower of the game has its own unique attack. It is an excellent game that offers fast-paced gameplay to immerse himself deep into the brilliant game world. Defender II includes key features such as different kinds of powerful monsters, upgrades two different modes, powerful attacks, drag and drop spell icon and much more. With enhanced game mechanics, well-written storyline and improved visual details. Defender II is an excellent game to play and enjoy.
#8 Fieldrunners 2
Fieldrunners 2 is an Action, Tower-Defense, and Single-player video game by Subatomic Studios. It is a sequel to the original title, Fieldrunners, that offers more than twenty-five levels with four different zones and themes.
Before starting each level, the player can choose three different types of wasteful items and six different kinds of weapons that the player can use in battle. The gameplay is almost the same as another tower-defense game in which the player can pick a tower and slap it down on his area, wait for enemies to start, and earn more rewards in the shape of experience point to unlock more towers.
Once the enemy reaches the hub, the player will lose the level. After completing a few stages, the game becomes more complicated because of the wave and speed of the enemy increase. Fieldrunners 2 offers the most prominent features, such as a massive range of towers, different modes, various kinds of enemies, and much more. The game provides excellent game mechanics, quite engaging gameplay, dynamic background music, and brilliant graphics details.
#9 CastleStorm: Free to Siege
CastleStorm: Free to Siege is a Fantasy-based, Strategy, Combat, Single and Multiplayer video game developed and published by Zen Studios. It is a sequel to the original game of CastleStorm that offers lots of new features and upgrades that makes the game more interesting and enjoyable. The game offers various nations choose one of them and get into the game world where the ultimate task of the player creates his castle and storm his powerful enemies. It also allows the player to create defense around his castle, train his force and get an attack on the enemy creatures in order to expand his area just like a previous installment. The game includes most prominent features such as various quest, four different campaigns, eight playable characters, upgrades, magical spell and different weapons, etc. CastleStorm: Free to Siege offers improved visual details, enhanced game mechanics, simple controls and enjoyable soundtrack.
#10 GemCraft
GemCraft is a Real-time Strategy, Tower-Defense, Fantasy-based, Puzzle, and Single-player video game developed by Game in a Bottle and published by Armor Games. It is another installment in the series of GemCraft that offers almost similar gameplay with lots of new features and upgrades.
In this game, the players have limited gems, and he needs to combine and put the towers to defend his castle. It has a variety of different gems, and each produces different effects such as triple damage, splash damage, and damage over time, etc.
During the gameplay, the player life bar, and energy represented by the same statistic. It allows the player to purchase new towers, gems, traps, and trenches with mana. There are multiple levels, and each progress level offers tough gameplay than the last one.
GemCraft includes key features such as combine gems, lots of upgrades, lots of new chapters, three difficulties, seven modes, and four different worlds, etc. The game offers great mechanics, beautiful graphics, and addictive gameplay.
#11 Castle Defense
Castle Defense is an Adventure-based, Strategy, Combat, Fantasy-based, Single and Multiplayer video game by Elite Games. In this game, the ultimate task of the player is to create his kingdom with the dominant force and attack opposing realms to become the world power.
It allows the player to command the massive army and face different kinds of enemy creatures, including orcs. The game offers three different options, such as paladin, wizard and barbarian as his warrior and deploys them to the battlefield.
With modern weapons, the player can kill enemies for points. Castle Defense allows the player to create the defense around his area to protect against the enemies and another player. It offers lots of challenging modes, such as battle mode, arena mode, and missions, etc.
The game includes core features, such as 100+ levels, more than 20 different kinds of powerful monsters, 12 powerful towers, and three unique warriors, etc. Castle Defense offers immersive gameplay, quite stunning visual fantastic game mechanics.
#12 Castle Creeps TD
Castle Creeps TD is a Fantasy-based, Strategy, Tower-Defense, Single, and Online Multiplayer video game by Outplay Entertainment Ltd. Take on the role of a hero who leads his force to start his adventurer. In the game, the game requires the player to create the defense to save his kingdom from the enemies.
The game takes place in a stunning environment that is full of different kinds of enemy creatures that will destroy the player’s kingdom. At the beginning of the game, it allows the player to create defense around this area, produce more units, and expand military troops. After creating the massive fighting force, it will enable the player to get an attack on the enemy kingdom and capture all units and buildings to expand his area.
The player has a few resources when the player starts the game, but after the progress, it allows the player to unlock new towers and other items that will help the player during the gameplay. Completely free to play, lots of heroes, various maps, regular update, ultimate tower controls, and fast-paced battle system are the core features of the game. Castle Creeps TD offers immersive and quite addictive gameplay, a well-written storyline, and excellent visual details.
#13 Trolls vs Vikings
Trolls vs Vikings is a Strategy, Tower-Defense, Single and Multiplayer video game developed and published by Megapop Games. It is one of the best games like Plants vs Zombies that offers similar gameplay with lots of new features and upgrades. In this game, the ultimate task of the player is exploring an amazing and fantasy world an epic battle between Trolls, Vikings and the Nordic Gods rages. Choose his side and get into the game world to save this area, collect coins, unlock new powers and defeat all the enemy creatures to progress. The game feature more than 130 levels and each new level offers more challenging gameplay of the last one. Trolls vs Vikings includes core features such as collect power-ups, upgrades, unlock new towers and daily missions etc. The game offers impressive game mechanics, smooth controls and beautiful visual details.
More About Lock’s Quest
Lock’s Quest is an Action, Real-time Strategy, Tower Defense, Single and Multiplayer video game developed by 5th Cell and published by THQ. The game takes place in the fantasy Kingdom, which is built using an unknown substance as a Source. The Archineers (the builder of his kingdom) study the unknown source to understand its properties.
As the story advances, Agonius (the great builder) discovers a remarkable feature of the anonymous source. According to the story, your world is threatened by the mechanical army, which destroyed almost everything. After the village falls in their wrath, there is only one hope, which is a young boy named Lock. Your primary task is to survive the oncoming invasion and save your world from devastation.
You must use skills to build towers, walls, traps, weapons, and other defenses and find the rare artifacts. Lock’s Quest includes core features such as Build Mode, Battle Mode, Collect Scrap, 100 different Arenas, Challenge Friends and battle against other Kingdom, and more. With the superb mechanics, addictive gameplay, brilliant visuals, and exciting story, Lock’s Quest is the best game to play and enjoy.
Multiplayer Single Player Top Down Tower Defense
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Lux Delux
Lux Delux is a Turn-based Strategy, Puzzle, Board, Single and Multiplayer video game developed by Sillysoft Games. The game offers similar gameplay of the popular game of Risk. More than six-player play at the same time any unfilled spot in the game if filled by bots or AI… read more
PuzzleStrategy
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What are best Lux Delux Alternatives for Xbox 360?
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#1 Battle vs Chess
Battle vs. Chess is a fantastic Board video game by Targem Games. Chess is one of the most popular strategy board games in which two players play against each other. The gameplay of the match is almost the same, just like Chess, but the Battle vs. Chess offers the magical game world with animated fantasy characters.
In this competition, the player can command his role to move, and the only task of the player captures all the aspects of his opponent player to win the game. The game offers more than six different environments. Each one has its unique presentation features and landscape.
Battle vs. Chess includes core features such as more than 30 single players’ missions, interactive 3D characters, beat-em-up Fight, and different events, etc. With immersive and quite addictive gameplay, objective storyline, enhanced game mechanics, incredible soundtracks, and Ultra HD visual details. Battle vs. Chess is one of the best Chess game to play and enjoy.
#2 Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a Board, Puzzle, Single-player and Multiplayer video game by Brain Games. It offers turn-based combat that takes place on the tile-based map, in which the player can create a landscape by placing the right tiles with fields, cities, and sanctuaries. The player requires to deploy his followers across the map strategically as Knight monkey to earn points.
To win the game, the player has to obtain the highest score. It allows the player to play against artificial intelligence or other players in both online and offline mode. Carcassonne offers various landscapes, and each one offers a new experience which makes the game more enjoyable. Different Modes, a free add-on, and pleasant background music are the most prominent features of the game. Carcassonne is a fantastic board game to play and enjoy.
More About Lux Delux
Lux Delux is a Turn-based Strategy, Puzzle, Board, Single and Multiplayer video game developed by Sillysoft Games. The game offers similar gameplay of the popular game of Risk. More than six-player play at the same time any unfilled spot in the game if filled by bots or AI. The game offers over the nine-hundred map, and each map gives different shape, size, and difficulty. In this game, the ultimate task of the player defeats all the opponent player in order to achieve the victory. If the player wants to win the game, the player must need both luck and skills because the game gets more challenging after the progress. The game includes core features such as Ranking, different Modes, Map editor, special Attacks, and well-programmed Artificial Intelligence, etc. With enhanced game mechanics, exciting gameplay and 3D visual details. Do try it out, Lux Delux is one of the best game to play as enjoy.
3D Board Multiplayer PVP Single Player Skill
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Syberia 3 is an Adventure-based, Point and Click, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed by Microids and published by Anuman. It is a third major installment in the series of Syberia that contains steampunk elements and follows the story of American lawyer Kate Walker… read more
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What are best Syberia 3 Alternatives for PC?
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#1 Still Life
Still Life is a Point and Click, Adventure, Horror, Detective, and Single-player video game created and published by Microids. The game takes place in Chicago and lets you assume the role of the FBI Special Agent named Victoria McPherson.
The protagonist is a female character, and her primary task is to investigate a series of brutal murders in 2004. The story starts when the protagonist is visiting her father on the occasion of Christmas and discovers a notebook that related to her grandfather, who is a private detective named Gustav McPherson.
She was shocked to learn that her grandfather was a member of a team that investigated a similar series of murders in the 1920s. The game consists of challenging puzzles and played from a third-person view.
It includes core features such as Speaking Characters, Compelling Story, Challenging Puzzles, Detailed Environment, amazing Soundtracks, etc. With the addictive gameplay, brilliant mechanics, and stunning visuals, Still Life is a fantastic game to play and enjoy.
#2 Post Mortem
Post Mortem is an Adventure, Point, and Click, Puzzle, Exploration, and Single-player video game developed MC2 and published by Microids. The game lets the player get into the role of the private detective named Gustav McPherson, who grew up in New York and working in Paris.
The player can play the game from a first-person perspective and can control the character using a mouse. It consists of challenging puzzles and includes different cursors that appear over a different portion of the screen and show what will happen when it clicks.
The player must solve a series of brutal murders and uncover mysteries to advance. According to the story, some vicious murderers threaten New York City. To secure the City, the Police Department hires a private detective to solve the pending cases.
The player uses a notebook and everything written in it. Post Mortem includes core features such as Intriguing Characters, Detailed and Realistic Environment, Creative Puzzles, Adventure, and more.
#3 Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is an Adventure video game with strong Point and Click, and Puzzle elements. The game lets you get into the role of the protagonist, who is a female.
The story of the game focuses on three main characters, such as April Ryan, Zoe Castillo, and Kian Alvane, who live in Parallel Universe, Arcadia. In the game, you can assume the role of Zoe, and the story revolves around his effort to investigate the disappearance of her ex-boyfriend.
April fights against the Evil Empire of Azadim, while Kian, an Adazi Soldier, is sent to kill April. The game offers exciting gameplay and lets you immerse yourself in the third-person perspective and exploration gameplay experience.
You must investigate the cases, collect and combine items, explore different locations, and solve puzzles. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey includes most prominent features such as Three Playable Characters, Three Worlds, NPCs, Exciting Characters, Thrilling Storyline, Challenging Puzzles, and more.
#4 Paradise
Paradise is a Point and Click, Puzzle, Adventure, and Single-player video game developed by White Birds Production and published by Ubisoft. The game offers similar gameplay to Syberia, Amerzone, and Sinking Island.
It provides you with traditional point-and -lick gameplay that plays from a third-person perspective. The game takes place in the fictional African Country and lets you take on the role of a young woman named Ann Smith, who is the daughter of King Rodon.
According to the story, the protagonist, Ann is in Europe, where she receives a piece of news that her father is severely ill. She decided to go to her father’s home to see him, and suddenly her aircraft is shot down by some rebels.
When she awakes after a deep sleep, she lost her memory, her identity, or what she is doing in fictional Africa. The game consists of challenging puzzles and lets you complete each one by collecting items, exploring the game world, and interacting with objects.
#5 Myst
Myst is an Adventure, Classic Point and Click, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed and published by Cyan Worlds. The player assumes the role of the Stranger, the protagonist who uses a book to travel across the island.
In the game world, he must explore the land, interact with objects, find and combines items, solve challenging puzzles, and explore another world called Aes. It offers multiple ending depending on the action the player takes. The game provides the interactive world and allows the player to play from the first-person perspective.
Complete a series of challenging puzzles, earn points, and use them to unlock additional content. With the superb exciting story, addictive and quite engaging gameplay, brilliant mechanics, and stunning visuals, Myst is the best game as compared to other point and click games.
#6 Sinking Island
Sinking Island is an Adventure game with Point and Click, Puzzle, and Single-player elements. The game offers similar gameplay to Syberia and Amerzone.
The story revolves around the death of a Millionaire known as Walter Jones. The game puts you in the role of Jack Norm, who is a police officer. Your main goal is to investigate the case of Jack Norm, collect and combines clues and items, solve the puzzles, and uncover the mystery.
The game takes place on the fictional island owned by the millionaire Walter Jones. It consists of two different modes, such as Time Mode and Adventure Mode. The game lets you explore different scenes, solve mysteries, and earn points to unlock additional content to have fun.
The game offers you a chance to show off your detective skills and solves murder cases to impress your friends. Sinking Island includes core features such as Classic Adventure, different Modes, Interrogate each of ten Suspects, and more. Try it out, and you’ll surely enjoy it.
#7 Broken Age
Broken Age is an Adventure, Point and Click, Puzzle, and Single-player video game developed and published by Double Fine Productions. The game offers exciting gameplay, and the story revolves around two characters named Vella Tartine, who is a young woman, and Shay Volta, who is a man.
The game puts you on an epic adventure and lets you investigate various cases, collect clues, and solve challenging puzzles. Both teenagers are suffering from a similar situation but in multiple worlds. The game allows you to freely switch between their worlds and stories and help them to take control over their lives.
The mighty monster threatens the village of Villa. Battle against vicious monsters will test the fighting skills and rewards you with points for rescuing villagers. The game offers exciting gameplay, in which you must follow the story, solve the problems, and enjoy both stories and gameplay.
Broken Age includes core features such as Point and Click Gameplay, Exciting Characters, Third-person view, Challenging Puzzles, and more.
#8 Day of the Tentacle
Day of the Tentacle is an exciting game that offers the combination of Adventure, Puzzle, Point and Click, Time Travel, and Single-player elements. The game revolves around the protagonist and his efforts to stop Dr. Fred, who mutated into the purple tentacle to take over the world.
The game lets you assume the role of Trio, and your main objective is to explore different periods of history, collect clues, and solve challenging puzzles. You can directly control the character across the game world by clicking with the mouse.
To interact with objects, you can select a set of commands on the screen, such as to talk, pick up, use, and more. The antagonist plans to resolve the problem by slaying people and his harmless. You can travel across the world through time machines and discover ancient things.
Unlock other characters by completing puzzles after that you can easily switch between different avatars. Explore the game world, fight against Dr. Fred, solve complex problems, and immerse yourself in Point and Click gameplay. With the best mechanics, addictive and quite engaging gameplay, brilliant visuals, and exciting story, Day of the Tentacle is the beautiful game to play and enjoy.
#9 The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is an amazing, Adventure, Point and Click, Third-person Perspective, Puzzle, and Single-player video game created and published by LucasArts. The game offers a twisty plot and lets you lead a native hero named Guybrush Threepwood.
It takes place in Money Island and allows you to search the fabled secret of this Island. You must explore the game world, find artifacts, and become the most infamous pirate, win the heart of a leader, and fight against ghost pirates.
The game offers a set of challenging puzzles that you must complete by exploring, collecting, and combining the clues to progress in the game. The plot embarks you on a thrilling adventure that chills your bones.
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition offers the most prominent features such as Daring Adventure, Replicability, Exciting Characters, different Scenes, and more. With the fantastic story, challenging tasks, addictive gameplay, and detailed graphics, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is the best game to play and enjoy.
#10 Return to Mysterious Island
Return to Mysterious Island is an addictive, Adventure, Point-and-click, Puzzle, and Single-player video game created by Kheops Studio and published by Microids. The plot revolves around a strong woman named Mina.
According to the story, the woman traps in a tremendous storm and finds herself alone on the shores of a un-inhabitant Island. The game offers exciting gameplay and takes place on a mysterious Island. You can control the woman to explore the world and will find rare artifacts, new technologies, living spaces, and other species left behind by people who came before you.
In the game, your objective is to create a shelter, craft items, and polish your survival skills. There is a ghost of Captain Nemo in uncharted Island who increase your troubles. Explore the game world, complete challenging puzzles, and solve the mystery of the Island.
#11 Kelvin and the Infamous Machine
Kelvin and the Infamous Machine is an Adventure, Point and Click, Time Travel, Puzzle, and Single-player video game created and published by Blyts. The game lets you assume the role of the protagonist, a research assistant of Dr. Edwin, who is a tacky scientist. The life of Lupin completely changes when he invents the time machine that is the resolution in the community of scientists. The Lupin goes to the past through a time machine and wants to know about history’s greatest genius.
You assume the role of Kelvin, and your main task is to repair the time machine along with your assistance named Lise to back to your present time. The game consists of challenging puzzles and lets you complete them to progress in the game. It includes core features such as Classic Point and Click Gameplay, Detailed Graphics, Fifty-Six Quirky, Animated Characters, Wacky Puzzles, Original Sounds, and more.
#12 The Journey Down: Chapter Two
The Journey Down: Chapter Two is an Adventure, Episodic Puzzle, and Single-player Point-and-Click video game developed by SkyGlobin. The game takes place in the fictional world and lets you get into the role of the protagonist named St. Armando.
The main objective is to find your father by following his footsteps with Lina and Kito. During your search, you discover a dark conspiracy fate of the Captain Kaonandodo. The game embarks you on a brain testing adventure and allows you immerse yourself in classic point and click gameplay.
In the second chapter, you will find yourself in the custody of pirates, and your task is to run to save your life. The game consists of challenging puzzles and lets you complete them to progress.
The Journey Down: Chapter Two includes vital features such as Intriguing Adventures, Tons of Hand-crafted Environments, Animated Characters, detailed Graphics, and more.
#13 That Dragon, Cancer
That Dragon, Cancer is an Adventure video game developed and published by Numinous Games. It offers a combination of Puzzle, Exploration, First-person Perspective, and Single-player elements. The game mainly focuses on a six-month-old child who has terminal cancer and has a short time to live.
The game is specially designed to highlight the importance of living in the form of point-and-click adventure, putting the player in the role of the protagonist’s parents, who has a concise time to live. The game deals with exploration from a first or third-person perspective through various obstacles scenes focused on Green Experience.
The player can get into the role of Joel’s Parents named Amy and Ryan. The player can interact with other characters to make specific options similar to those people who had to face. Explore the game world, avoid obstacles, and immerse yourself in point and click experience. With addictive gameplay, detailed graphics, and heart-touching story, That Dragon, Cancer is the beautiful game as compared to other Point and Click games.
#14 Dreamfall Chapters
Dreamfall Chapters is an Adventure, Puzzle, Point-and-Click, and Single-player video game developed and published by Red Thread Games. The game offers episodic gameplay with exploration, third-person, and character interaction elements.
The game takes place in two parallel worlds, such as Stark and Arcadia. Chapters of the game take place in 2220 CE, and the story follows the protagonist, named Zoe Castillo. A 3D environment lets you explore the world freely to earn rewards and unearth secrets.
You can control the character using mouse and WASD keys. The gameplay mainly focuses on exploring, interacting with objects, and solving puzzles. During the gameplay, you must collect and combine clues by exploring the environment, solve challenging tasks to reveal the mysteries of the parallel world.
Dreamfall Chapters include core features, such as Fictional Universe, a series of Puzzles, Exciting Characters, and more. With addictive gameplay, brilliant mechanics, and a superb story, Dreamfall Chapters is a beautiful game to play and enjoy.
#15 Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments offer Adventure, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, and Single-player gameplay developed by Frogwares. The game lets the player assume the role of the protagonist named Sherlock Holmes and dive into the exciting world.
It lets you solve six varied and thrilling murder cases with the use of your impressive talents as a private detective. Different situations will put the player in challenging scenarios, such as Missing Persons, Murders, Numerous Investigation, and Spectacular Thefts.
You, as a detective, must investigate the cases, locate and combine clues, analyze things, examine the suspects, and catch the culprit. The game includes six different murder cases, including The Fate of Black Peter, The Riddle on the Rails, The Blood Bath, and more.
Explore the game world, interrogate cases, complete complex puzzles to arrest the criminal, and interact with objects. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments include core features such as Criminal Cases, Detective, Thrilling Environment, Multiple Ending, and more.
#16 The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island offers another addictive game named The Secret of Monkey Island is a Puzzle, Point and Click and Single-player video game. The game takes place in the version of the Caribbean, where the player can assume the role of a pirate named Guybrush Threepwood. In this game, the ultimate task of the player explores the different island and solve various puzzles to progress.
The game offers a third-person view and allows the player to explore the game world, interact with the environment, choose different commands, and collect items that will help the player to solve the puzzle. The game offers various levels, and each level of the game provides more complex gameplay of the last one.
It includes prominent features such as NPCs, unique characters, Upgrades, simple controls, and various locations, etc. The Secret of Monkey Island offers enhanced game mechanics, content-rich story plot, dynamic background music, and brilliant graphics details. Do try it out, you’ll be amazed at all the things in these exciting games.
#17 Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel
Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel is an Adventure-based, Puzzle, Point and Click, Exploration, and Single-player video game created by Her Interactive and published by DreamCatcher. It is an eight major game in the series of Nancy Drew in which the player can take the first-person view, which can freely move in the fictional game world and solve the puzzle.
According to the story of the game Paula Santos, an owner of an amusement park, has asked Nancy to help him because different mysterious things are happening at Paula’s park. The game offers two distinct gameplay modes, such as Junior Mode and Senior Mode, and each mode of the match contains a verity of levels. It offers open-world gameplay and allows the player to move in the fictional game world freely, interact with the objects, collect hints, and try to solve the puzzle to progress.
The game is based on the book of the same title, The Haunted Carousel. Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel includes prominent features such as new Characters, Upgrades, Unlockable Achievements, different Objects and lots of other things, etc. The game offers enhanced game mechanics, quite addictive gameplay, a content-rich story plot, and brilliant visual details.
#18 Nancy Drew: The Final Scene
Her Interactive introduce another game in the series of Nancy Drew named as Nancy Drew: The Final Scene is an Adventure-based, Puzzle, Point and Click and Single-player video game. The game is available to play on Microsoft Windows platform only. The gameplay of the match is almost same in which the player can take on the first-person view in the fictional game world, explore different locations, collect clues and solve various mysterious in order to progress. The game offers two different types of gameplay Junior and Senior, each mode of the game offers different difficulty of levels. According to the story of the competition, Nancy Drew and her friend Maya are at in the Royal Theater for the premiere if the new movie, Maya is set to interview the heroine of the film, but the Maya is kidnaped into the dressing room. The game allows the player to start his journey to find out her best friend. Nancy Drew: The Final Scene offers quite addictive gameplay, content rich story plot, enhanced game mechanics and beautiful visual details. It is one of the best game as compared to the other Nancy Drew video games.
#19 Clock Tower
Clock Tower is an Adventure-based, Horror, Survival, Point and Click and Single-player video game developed and published by Human Entertainment. The story of the game follows orphan Jennifer Simpson after the family of Barrows adopts her along with the other girls. One day the Jennifer see that the antagonist Scissorman killed the children. In this game, the main task of the player explores the whole Barrows mansion and find the way where she escapes. During the gameplay, the player must evade Scissorman, interact with the different objects, collect items and solve numbers of the puzzle to progress. It allows the player to control a cursor to direct as the main character and give commands such as investigating the objects. The player cannot use any kind of weapons against the antagonist. Clock Tower includes key features such as find hiding spots, large dark game world, different modes and various ending, etc. The game offers quite addictive gameplay, well-written storyline, dynamic background music and brilliant graphics details.
#20 Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria is an Interactive Movie, Adventure-based, Point and Click and Single-player video game developed and published by Sierra On-Line. The game tells the story of Adrienne Delaney, a writer who moves into the remote mansion with his husband and finds herself terrorized by ghostly forces. In this competition, the player can control an Adrienne Delaney who is able to freely move in the massive game world, interact with the different objects and solve numbers of mysteries in order to progress. In this competition, the player can use a mouse and perform a certain action such as look, pick up items, use resources and walk. During the gameplay, the player can watch various movie scenes that make the game more exciting and challenging. Phantasmagoria offers most prominent features such as different levels, different movie scenes, different modes, unique characters and much more. With quite addictive gameplay, well-written storyline and beautiful graphics details. Phantasmagoria is an excellent game as compared to the other same genres.
#21 The Bunker
The Bunker is an Adventure-based, Puzzle, Horror, Point and Click and Single-player video game developed and published by Wales Interactive that was released on PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows and OS X, etc. In this game the player can take control of a protagonist named as John and the main task of the player is follow the daily routine of John, guide around the bunkers to venture into the different forgotten areas, solve secrets and recover his memories in order to progress. The player can live-action footage through the game in which the player can control John with the only cursor. It is an excellent game that offers exciting gameplay to immersive gameplay to immerse himself deep into the brilliant game world. The Bunker offers content rich story plot, simple controls, and excellent graphics details. Do try it out, you’ll be amazed at all the things in the exciting game.
#22 Anna
Anna is an Adventure-based, First-person Exploration, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed by Dreampainters Software and published by Kalypso Media. The game challenge the play to explore horror game world, find clues and solve different mysteries related to the player character’s dark past. The actor’s behavior cannot determine the mental health of the character, change the location and explain new secrets to lead the new endings. The gameplay of the game offers a verity of missions, and each mission of the game offers a more complex area to explore. Anna includes core features such as unlock new locations, simple interface, different character, collect clues, unique puzzle and much more. With fantastic game mechanics, quite engaging gameplay, well-written storyline and beautiful visual details. Anna is an excellent game as compared to the other same genres.
#23 Doors
Doors is a Single-player, Adventure-based, Puzzle, and Horror video game created and published by Calvin Weibel. It is a first-person logic video game where the main task of the player is to explore the strange world to find bacon.
The game is designed for those players who want to play hard-core logic puzzle games. It allows the player to use his logic to determine where the player will go. During the gameplay, the player needs to be careful when he is trying to choose the door. Doors offer quite addictive gameplay, smooth controls, and brilliant graphics details.
#24 Escape from Monkey Island
Escape from Monkey Island is a Graphics Adventure, Point and Click, Puzzle, and Single-player video game developed and published by LucasArts. It is a fourth major game in the series of Monkey Island that offers a 3D environment, upgrades, new storyline, and features, etc. It is an excellent game which consists of a conversation with non-player characters and puzzle solving experience. In this competition, the player can take on the role of a protagonist named as Guybrush Threepwood who is able to freely explore the stunning game world, interact with NPCs, takes various objectives and try to solve various mysteries in order to progress. The gameplay of the game consists of the series of levels, and each level of the game offers more complex and mind twisting puzzle to complete. Escape from Monkey Island includes core features such as exploration, large 3D maps, various characters and much more. The game offers content rich story plot, simple controls, and beautiful visual details.
#25 Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
Her Interactive introduce eleventh major installment the series of Nancy Drew named as Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor with a new storyline. In this game, Nancy Drew travels to the United Kingdom to visit his neighbor’s daughter Linda Penvellyn. Linda living in Blackmoor Manor a historic mansion. A mysterious malady keeps Linda secreted behind thick bed curtains. The game offers the first-person view in the fictional environment where the player can explore the different locations, interact with the non-player characters, take clues and try to solve the mysteries in order to progress. There are two different levels of gameplay such as Junior and Senior Detective; each offers the different complexity of levels, mysteries, and hints just like previous games. Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor offers improved visual details, enhanced game mechanics, and quite impressive gameplay. It is one of the best Point and Clicks video game with the exciting storyline as compared to its other installments.
#26 Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out is a Graphic-Adventure, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed and published by Sierra On-Line. All the event of the previous installment are forgotten, and once again Larry is single and starts his journey to capture various attractive women. In this game, the player can take on the role of a Larry who finds himself into a television show called Stallions and win a weekend tour at the Spa Resort, Naturally and La Costa Lotta some beautiful ladies are just dreaming about the cool, handsome man just like a Larry. The game focuses on a dialog with the women and puzzle solving experience. It also offers traditional inventory system that allows the player to collect numbers of the item and try to solve the puzzles in order to progress. The game offers most prominent features such as various collect objects, upgrades, different locations, non-player characters and much more. Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out offers excellent game mechanics, quite impressive gameplay, simple controls and beautiful SVGA graphics.
#27 Lost Horizon
Lost Horizon is a Historical, Adventure-based, Point and Click, Puzzle and Single-player video game created by Animation Arts and published by Deep Silver. The game allows the player to take on the role of a Fenton Paddock a dismissed British Army officer in 1936 who start his adventure to find his missing friend named as Kim Wuang. The game offers different kinds of puzzles such as collect item, exploration, dialog, and machine puzzle, etc. and the player is able to solve the puzzle in various ways, and especially machine puzzle consists of two different levels. During the gameplay, the player can combine different collectible item and join them together to solve the puzzle. Lost Horizon offers key features such as unique character, interact with the nom-player characters, multiple puzzles, upgrades, and the massive game world. The game offers quite addictive gameplay, enjoyable background music, easy to play and beautiful visual details.
#28 Syberia
Syberia is an Adventure, Point and Click, Female Protagonist, Hidden Object, and Single-player video game developed and published by Microids. The game revolves around the protagonist named Kate Walker and his attempts to wrap up a sale of her firm and travel around Russia and Europe.
The game offers a third-person perspective and lets the player solve different puzzles and follow the story to proceed. According to the story, the protagonist, who is an American Lawyer sent to a village to take over a toy factory.
After reaching there, she comes to know that who owned the factory has died. The game offers exciting gameplay and lets the player explore the world, uncover mysteries, take over a toy factory, solve puzzles, and earn points to unlock the additional content.
Syberia includes core features such as Gripping Script, 3D Environment, Creative Puzzles, and more. With the thrilling story, engaging and wholly immersive gameplay, brilliant mechanics, and dynamic sounds, Syberia is the best game to play and enjoy.
#29 Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse
Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse is another installment in the series of Nancy Drew by Her Interactive. The gameplay of the game is similar to its previous game in which the player can take the first-person view and allows the player to explore the massive fictional game world, solve the various mysteries through the interrogation of the suspect and discover clues, etc. The game offers simple point and clicks interface just like previous that allows the player to click on the object to take them. It has two different levels such as senior and junior, and each level of the game offers different puzzles to solve. During the gameplay, the player is able to freely explore the indoor and outdoor locations to find the clues and solve the problems. In each stage, the player has limited hints that will help the player in during the gameplay. Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse features an addictive storyline, improved visual details, and enjoyable background music.
#30 Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is a 3D, Action-Adventure, Detective, Third-person, Mystery-Solving and Single-player video game developed by Frogwares and published by Bigben Interactive. In this game, the player can take on the role of a private detective who can number of puzzles in order to progress. The gameplay of the game is similar to the other deceive games in which the player can explore the different indoor and outdoor environment, interact with the non-player characters and objects, collect clues and try to solve the mystery. Once the player can collect enough clues, it allows the player to add to the deduction board to link pieces of clues. The player had a full tree of deduction when it connected all the clues together. There are numbers of mysteries in the game, and each mystery of the game offers more challenging gameplay of the last one. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter includes core features such as free explore multiple cities, horror environment combat system, communicate with the non-player characters and upgrade, etc. The game offers fantastic game mechanics, immersive and quite engaging gameplay, a dynamic soundtrack and brilliant visual details.
#31 Nancy Drew: The Shattered Medallion
Nancy Drew: The Shattered Medallion is an Adventure-based, Point and Click, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed and published by Her Interactive. It is a 30th installment in the series of Nancy Drew that offers new storyline with improved gameplay. According to the gameplay, the Nancy Drew and her friend named as George Fayne end up winning a spot on a reality TV show known as Pacific Run in New Zealand, in which all the participants complete challenges to get all the pieces of the medallion. The eccentric Sonny Joon has stolen all the production of the show that is rise out of the control as a certain participant are being ideal and dangerous tasks being assigned. In during the challenge, George and Nancy are seriously injured, and her other friend Bess Marvin can step in take her place. In this game, the player can investigate the incident of her injury as well as why Sonny charges the show production. In this game, the player can take the first-person view and allows the player to solve all the mystery to progress. It has two different levels such as Armature and Master, each mode of the game offers different difficulty to solve. Nancy Drew: The Shattered Medallion features enhanced game mechanics, content rich story plot, beautiful visual details and addictive gameplay.
#32 Anna – Extended Edition
Anna – Extended Edition is an Action-Adventure, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed by Dreampainters Software and published by Kalypso Media. It is an Extended Edition of the most popular puzzle horror game of Anna that takes place in the abandoned sawmill nestled high in the Italian mountain where the player can assume the role of a protagonist who starts his adventure to uncover the horrific clues and solve a variety of puzzles related to his character’s past. This new edition of the game offers more environment, more hour of gameplay, lots of new features, upgrades, new puzzles and improved interface in order to deliver the more exciting experience. After completing numbers of puzzles the game also allows the player to unlock new locations with more puzzles to solve. Anna – Extended Edition offers enhanced game mechanics, smooth controls, and improved visual details. Do try it out, you’re a true fan of Anna video game.
#33 Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego is an Adventure, Detective, Puzzle Education, and Single-player video game developed and published by Broderbund Software Inc. In this game, the player can take on the role of a detective who starts his adventure against Carmen Sandiego, a master thief who leads by the criminal organization V.I.L.E.
The organization stealing the world treasures without a trace to perform some illegal activities. It is an addictive adventure game that allows the player to make it a personal mission to foil the organization’s plans. The game tests the player’s knowledge about geography and general culture about multiple countries.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego consists of numerous missions, and each mission starts with a treasure stolen by enemies and the player must fly to that location to capture. In each task, the player has a limited amount of time to collect information and find clues to progress.
The process will repeat until the villain found or time gets expired. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego features a content-rich storyline, great mechanics, and brilliant visual details.
#34 The Longest Journey
The Longest Journey is an Adventure, Point and Click, Female Protagonist, and Single-player video game developed and published by Funcom. The game offers a mixture of Puzzle, Exploration, and Sci-fi elements and lets the player get into the role of the protagonist, who is a female.
It embarks you on an epic adventure where you can interact with objects to solve challenging puzzles. The game takes place in the Universe of Magic conquered by enemies and vicious creatures.
You as April Ryan living in Stark and your main objective is to travel between two worlds and restore their balance. The protagonist shifts to Arcadia after sleeping and meets the White Dragon, who recognizes her as heroin.
The game consists of challenging levels and lets you complete and earn points that you can use to unlock additional content. The Longest Journey offers core features such as up to Seventy Characters, Dynamic Sounds, Third-person Perspective, and more. The Longest Journey is the best Adventure, Point, and Click game to play and enjoy.
#35 Clock Tower: The First Fear
Clock Tower: The First Fear is an Adventure-based, Horror, Survival, Point and Click, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed and published by Human Entertainment. It is an updated version of the original game of Clock Tower that offers similar storyline with enhanced gameplay. The story of the game follows a girl named as Jennifer Simpson, she is adopted by the Barrow family along with the other girls. With the start of Scissorman, the game’s antagonist, one of the other girls is killed. In this game, the player plays as Jennifer who must explore the arrows Mansion in order to find a way to go back. Just like the main title it offers simple point and click interface and allows the player to use his cursor to control the Jennifer directly. During the gameplay, the player explores the different rooms of the massive Mansion, and in each room, the player must collect all the information and objects that will help the player to progress. Clock Tower: The First Fear feature enhanced game mechanics, smooth controls and improved visual details. If you really like Horror, Survival Point and Click games than do try it out.
More About Syberia 3
Syberia 3 is an Adventure-based, Point and Click, Puzzle and Single-player video game developed by Microids and published by Anuman. It is a third major installment in the series of Syberia that contains steampunk elements and follows the story of American lawyer Kate Walker. The game takes place on the island of Syberia where the player can assume the role of a Kate Walker who finds herself on the makeshift boat rescued by the people. After escaping from her familiar enemies, she decided that to help the Youkols people to find their lost temple. The gameplay of the game is almost same just like the previous installment in which the player can take a third-person view and allows the player to move in the game world freely, explore the indoor and outdoor environment, interact with the non-player characters and objects and solve numbers of mysteries in order to progress. Syberia 3 includes core features such a new game world, lots of upgrades, improved skills, and realistic environment, etc. The game offers enhanced game mechanics, immersive and quite addictive gameplay, well-written storyline and brilliant graphics details.
3D Exploration Fantasy NPC Open World Point and Click Single Player Skill
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The Survivor: Rusty Forest
The Survivor: Rusty Forest is an Action-Adventure, First-person, Survivor and Single-player video game developed and published by Starship Studios. According to the story of the game an unknown virus has destroyed the humanity and the player are one of the few that are survived… read more
ActionAdventureStrategy
What are best The Survivor: Rusty Forest Alternatives for Xbox 360?
43 18 18 30 4 17 2 3 5 5 6 1 1 6
#1 CastleMiner
CastleMiner is an Entertaining, Action, First-person Perspective, Sandbox, Building, Exploration, Single and Multiplayer video game developed and published DigitalDNA Games. The game offers a combination of Fast-paced and block-building elements and is available to play on the Xbox platform only.
There are six different sorts of worlds, such as Coastal, flatland, Lagoon, Classic, Desert, and Artic. The player has to explore the massive world to build different types of structures that he imagines with a wide variety of colorful blocks. He can dig into the land to create some impressive buildings and other structures.
CastleMiner features more than two-hundred blocks to use during the gameplay. The goal of the player is to create his virtual world in CastleMiner and play with his online avatar and more than 15 fellows. Hunt the treasure, create a team with players and build the worlds together.
Save the world from enemies, other players, and complete all the objectives. The game includes core features such as Exciting World, Exploration, Building, Create a Base, Defend the World, and more. With immersive gameplay, brilliant mechanics, and superb visuals, CastleMiner is the best game to play and enjoy.
#2 Terraria
Terraria is an Action-Adventure, 2D, Crafting, Survival, platform, Co-op, Single and Multiplayer video game developed and published by Re-Logic. The game offers a combination of exploration, building, Sandbox, and combat elements and lets the player immerse himself in construction experience.
The game takes place in the procedurally generated world and lets the player start playing the game with three primary tools, including a sword for combat, a pickaxe for mining, and an ax for woodcutting.
Gather resources, explore underground caves, craft various items, fight against enemies (Demon Eyes, Zombies, and other creatures), complete objectives, and earn experience points. The player can use different sorts of weapons such as bows, swords, magic spells, guns, and other threats.
Interact with other players, enjoy side-scroll elements, complete challenging levels, and use points to unlock additional weapons and other things. With superb mechanics, addictive gameplay, stunning visuals, and excellent sounds, Terraria offer similar gameplay like Minecraft.
#3 Discovery
Discovery combines the elements of Exploration, Crafting, First-person Perspective, Sandbox, and City-Building Simulation. Minecraft inspires the game, and it takes place in a fully destructible world made up of blocks.
The player can create and destroy everything present in the game world using different tools and equipment. In the world, the player can develop villages, mountains, cities, houses, or can dig under the earth. Explore the game world, discovers new blocks, gather resources, and go wild with creativity.
The game includes a set of blocks, and each has its unique properties. Using blocks, the player can build everything and can share it with his friends. It contains different weather, day/night cycles, and realistic shadows and light. The player can interact with NPCs, buy different animals, and can create shelter for them.
As the player progresses, the game unlocks other aspects. Discovery offers core features such as Realistic World, Open Environment, Giant Blocks, brilliant Music, and more. With addictive gameplay. Superb mechanics, and impressive graphics, Discovery is the best game to play and enjoy.
Minecraft is a marvelous, Sandbox, Survival, Building, Single and Multiplayer video game developed and published by Mojang. The game takes place in 3D procedurally generated world and lets the player construct buildings, craft items, and explore the massive world of the game.
The player must collect resources, and fight against enemies with his crafted items and weapons. It includes various modes such as Survival Mode, Creation Mode, Adventure Mode, and others. In Survival Mode, the player must collect resources to build the world and maintain his health bar.
In Creation Mode, the player has unlimited resources that are enough to create a massive city. The player can play various custom maps by others in Adventure Mode. The game revolves around placing and breaking blocks. It includes multiple materials such as Ores, Lava, Dirt, Stone, Tree Trunks, and more.
The player can move freely around the world and can place any object at a fixed location. Minecraft includes core features such as Buildings, several Modes, Exploration, Crafting, Enemies, FPS, and more.
#5 Minecraft: Story Mode – A Telltale Games Series
Minecraft: Story Mode – A Telltale Games Series is an Episodic, Graphic-Adventure, Point and Click, Puzzle and Single-player video game by Telltale Games Mojang. The game is based on the most popular and most selling sandbox video game of Minecraft in which the player control Jesse who starts his journey with his friends to save his world. The game released numbers of the episode in which the player can collect items, solve series of puzzles, interact with the NPCs through conversation tree to explore the story and determine what to do next. It also offers combat elements that allow the player to battle with the enemy creatures uses crafted weapons. Just like the original Minecraft video game it also allows the player to create builds and tools with the help of collected items. The game includes core features such as character customization option, lots of upgrades, multiple modes and unlockable achievements, etc. Minecraft: Story Mode – A Telltale Games Series offer enhanced mechanics and beautiful 3D visual details.
More About The Survivor: Rusty Forest
The Survivor: Rusty Forest is an Action-Adventure, First-person, Survivor and Single-player video game developed and published by Starship Studios. According to the story of the game an unknown virus has destroyed the humanity and the player are one of the few that are survived. In this game the ultimate task of the player is fight for his life. It offers open-world environment and allows the player to freely move in the massive game world, collect items and craft numbers of things that will help the player in during the gameplay. During the gameplay the player can combat against the powerful bloodthirsty zombie creatures that will try to kill the player. The game also allows the player to ride a car to navigate the other locations, create his own house and hunt animals to survive. The Survivor: Rusty Forest offers most prominent features such as randomly generated game world, collect items, tools, crafting option inventory, both day and night cycle and stealth element etc. The game offers superb game controls and setting, fantastic game mechanics, well-written storyline and brilliant visual details.
2D Combat Exploration First-Person Open World Single Player Skill Survival
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© 2021 Unknown World
The Unfinished Obelisk
by Unknown World
The granite quarries located along the Nile, in the city of Aswan, supplied some of the finest quality stones for the construction of temples, sculptures and monuments in ancient Egypt. The famous Cleopatra’s Needle, now located in London, as well as several structures in the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and at Giza were constructed from stones quarried in Aswan.
In the northern region of Aswan’s stone quarries lies an Unfinished Obelisk, resting on its side. It was supposed to be the tallest and the largest obelisk ever erected in Ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, the obelisk was never completed. While carving, cracks began to appear in the granite causing the project to be abandoned. Because the carvers had carved it directly out of the bedrock, it can be found exactly where it was 3,500 years ago—its bottom side still attached to the bedrock.
It is believed that the obelisk was constructed and abandoned during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC. The obelisk was commissioned perhaps to complement the Lateran Obelisk which originally stood at Karnak Temple in Egypt but was later taken to Rome by the Romans. If completed, it would have stood approximately 137 feet, and would have been the heaviest obelisk ever erected in Ancient Egypt.
The unfinished obelisk offers unusual insights into ancient Egyptian stone-working techniques, as the scratches made by the workers’ tools can still be seen clearly on its rock surface. Some ocher-colored lines were also found on the surface, which were probably drawn to mark the places where the workers were supposed to carve out the granite. Archeologists believe that the Ancient Egyptians used small balls of Dolerite, which is a type of rock harder than granite, to cut through the rock. Once the sides were cut down into the rock, the obelisk had to be separated from the bedrock. For this, they dug small cavities in the body of the rock along the line of desired detachment and those cavities were filled with wood spikes. The wood was then thoroughly wetted with water until it expanded causing the rock to crack along the drawn lines and finally got detached from its base.
The entire quarry is now an open museum and arranged to preserve these structures as archaeological treasures of the country.
H/T: Amusing Planet
AbandonedAncientballscausingcitycracksdoleriteEgyptfoundGizagranitelocatedlondonnorthernobeliskplacesPyramidsrockromesculpturesseveralsmallstonestonesstructuresTempletemplesunfinishedusedwaterworkersyears
Published by Unknown World
Hello, my name is Mike! I am the founder of Unknown World, aiming to bring as much information about our planet to one place for everyone to see!
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Grassroots women’s organization makes a powerful impact with its project in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
Actions pour la Réinsertion Sociale de la Femme (ARSF) is an organization, based in South Kivu, focused on community development and women’s participation in decision-making. Its project, entitled “Socio-economic reinsertion of women in Mushinga to consolidate peace in the Walungu Territory (South Kivu Province)“ is funded through the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and receives technical support from UN Women. Small group brainstorming session during the...
UN Women Cameroon Builds capacities of protection actors to prevent GBV
Douala, December 21-24, 2020. As part of the Project: “ Prevention and response to the spread of COVID-19 among women and girls in the South-West region of Cameroon ”, UN Women and Association de Lutte Contre les Violences Faites aux Femmes (ALVF) organized December 21-24, 2020 a training of protection actors, targeting Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and host communities living in the Wouri Division. This capacity building workshop, which brought together...
Empowering women and girls affected by Boko Haram conflict in Cameroon
Yaounde, December 16 th , 2020. UN Women Cameroon, have been granted support from the Catalunya Agency of Cooperation and Development, to implement the project " Protecting and empowering women and girls affected by Boko Haram conflict in Cameroon ". An official launching ceremony was organized on December 16 th , 2020 with the presence of the representatives of the Spainish Ambassador in Cameroon, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family, the Ministry of Justice, the State Secretary...
Participatory visual methods trainings in Cameroon
Second Chance Education Project (SCE) five project sites (Ngam Refugee Camp, Minawao Refugee Camp, Mora, Mokolo and Bertoua) 16-25 November 2020 . Online learning portal through blended and independent learning opportunities is one of the two modalities through which Second Chance Education Project (SCE) is delivered to develop a global blueprint for providing women who dropped out of school with pathways into livelihoods, employment and leadership positions. SCE Online learning portal...
UN Women and UNDP support health workers in acquiring new skills on the human rights-based approach to responding to HIV and AIDS control
40 participants, 23 women and 17 men, zone chiefs, community health workers and civil society organizations took part from 08 to 10 December 2020 in the capacity building workshop on the human-based approach to service delivery in the response to HIV/AIDS, that was held at the PESSI Hotel in Bafoussam. It was organized by Cameroon youths Students Forum for Peace with the technical and financial support of UN Women and UNDP. The main objective was to improve knowledge on the set of health...
UN Women Cameroon Country Office Newsletter Q3 2020
We are happy to share with you the Q3 2020 UN Women Cameroon Country Office Newsletter. UN Women Cameroon Country Office pursued the implementation of its COVID-19 Response Plan tailored to reach the most left behind women and girls to alleviate the pandemic consequences and to build resilience around the C19 sanitary value chain. Projects have been implemented to foster women economic empowerment, with sister agencies support UNICEF and UNDP . Support have been provided to...
Second Chance Education and Vocational Learning Project in Cameroon
Minawao Refugee camp, Photo credit UN Women Cameroon Since 2018, UN Women’s Second Chance Education Project Program has been leveraging partnerships, holistic approaches and innovative technology to break current trends, and provide a comprehensive solution for marginalized young women in conflict affected areas in Cameroon. In this light, a total number of 1000 women and girls (refugees, IDPs and host population) who are school dropout were identified together with...
Congolese NGOs continue to commit to the protection of women and humanitarian action
In the regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo most affected by humanitarian crises, eleven local NGOs and consortia of organizations have recently launched projects which have been financed by the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Action Fund (WPHF), including seven projects which have received funding through the WPHF and Spotlight Initiative partnership. The projects, selected following the Fund's second call for proposals, will receive a total of $1,660,309.91 USD between them, and...
Official Launch of the 16 days campaign in Cameroon
Yaounde, November 25th, 2020, Hotel de ville : Organized by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family in partnership with UN Women Cameroon with the support of the Federal Republic of Germany , more than 400 people, including local authorities, development partners, civil Society, organizations and young people, attended the official launch of the 14th edition of the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence on Women and Girls campaign. This campaign, which contributes...
End of 11th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
On 18 November 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) and the Congolese Minister of Health declared the end of the 11 th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), nearly six months after the first cases were reported in Equateur Province, a north-western region at the border with Republic of Congo. The outbreak took place in communities scattered across dense rain forests as well as crowded urban areas, creating logistical challenges. The response to the 11 th Ebola outbreak...
UN-SWAP 2.0 entity performance results 2019
2019 marked the second year of reporting against the expanded and enhanced UN-SWAP 2.0 accountability framework on gender mainstreaming in the UN system. Sixty-eight UN entities, which make up 94 per cent of the UN system, reported against this framework in 2019.
UN-SWAP results
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2020
Please enter text for UN-SWAP results
Government of Nigeria and UN Women Jointly Launch Generation Equality Campaign in Nigeria
Other dignitaries at the launch included the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare; Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas; Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU), Ms. Hanna Tetteh; Assistant Administrator, Director, Regional Bureau for Africa, United...
Second Chance Education Project in Cameroon
Second Chance Education (SCE) Project leverages partnerships, holistic approach and innovative technology to break current trends, and provide a comprehensive solution for marginalized women and young women. In this Light, SCE Project was launched in Cameroon by UN Women on 27 th of May 2019 and later proceeded with the training and provision of Kits from the 10 th of July 2019 to 1340 women and girls including 500 beneficiaries of farming activity. These beneficiaries (refugees; IDPs and host...
Towards an end to sexual harassment: The urgency and nature of change in the era of #MeToo
This publication intends to support policy makers, employers, and activists by sharing UN Women’s work on this topic and offering new guidance on policy and practice on sexual harassment.
Global digital consultation: Voices and perspectives of civil society on the gendered dimensions of violent extremism and counterterrorism responses – Outcome report
Date: Monday, November 9, 2020
This report was produced by UN Women following the global digital consultation on the gendered dimensions of violent extremism and counterterrorism responses (25 May – 5 July 2020), organized on behalf of the Gender Working Group of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact. It reflects the views expressed by civil society participants in the consultation, and it was presented to Member States ahead of the 7th UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy revision, 2021.
Heads of Missions and Agencies in Liberia to attend high-level meeting on the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security
The high-level meeting will be held as part of the activities organized by the Government of Liberia to celebrate the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, a landmark resolution that was adopted on 31 October 2000 to affirm the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction. In 2009, Liberia became one of the first countries to implement the UN SCR 1325 by developing the...
Insights on organizational effectiveness and efficiency: A meta-synthesis of UN Women evaluations
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2020
This meta-synthesis brings together evidence from evaluations of UN Women’s organizational effectiveness and efficiency outputs. In addition to highlighting progress, the synthesis captures commonly identified drivers of change in the form of good practices and innovation, as well as impediments.
25 years after Beijing: A review of the UN system’s support for the implementation of the Platform for Action, 2014–2019
This report is a first-of-its-kind initiative of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE), the single largest network of gender focal points in the UN system. It presents a critical stocktaking of 51 UN entities’ support to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2014–2019.
Humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction: 2019 annual report
Date: Friday, September 4, 2020
This report details key results UN Women achieved in 2019 in collaboration with UN and civil society partners. Looking ahead, the report also sketches out the steps UN Women has taken to ensure that it remains fit-for-purpose to prepare and respond to increasingly complex and protracted crises that cut across conflicts and disasters.
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Lori Loughlin's Daughters Are 'Devastated' She's Going to Jail After Finally Pleading Guilty to Charges
Lori Loughlin’s Daughters Are ‘Devastated’ She’s Going to Jail After Finally Pleading Guilty to Charges
By Mark Baker / May 22, 2020
Yesterday, we reported that Lori Loughlin had finally agreed to plead guilty to the charges against her in the college admissions scandal, taking a deal that includes her spending two months in prison. Now, it’s been revealed that Loughlin’s two daughters are having a hard time dealing with the fact that both their parents are heading to prison, as their father Mossimo Giannulli is set to plead guilty and spend five months behind bars.
An insider told Us Weekly that 21 year-old Isabella Giannulli and her 20 year-old influencer sister Olivia Jade Giannulli are “devastated” by the realization that both their parents are going to be locked up.
“Olivia and Bella were devastated when Lori and Mossimo told them they were pleading guilty,” the source said. “The girls have been spending a lot of time at their parents’ house recently, and they are becoming much more of a tight-knit family.”
The insider went on to add that while the prospect of Loughlin and Giannulli going to prison is devastating to the sisters, the young women are relieved that this humiliating scandal will finally be over.
“The girls have been on so many ups and downs that they were happy it was going to be over, but [they] fear for their mom going to jail,” the source said.
Loughlin and Giannulli were accused of paying $500,000 in bribe money to have both sisters admitted to the University of Southern California as members of the crew team, even though neither girl had ever rowed before. They spent over a year fighting the charges, claiming that they had not known the money was a bribe and instead thought it was a legitimate donation to the school, before throwing in the towel this week.
“Loughlin will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while Giannulli will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to honest services wire and mail fraud,” Fox News reported.
“Under the plea agreements filed today, these defendants will serve prison terms reflecting their respective roles in a conspiracy to corrupt the college admissions process and which are consistent with prior sentences in this case,” United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said in a statement on Thursday. “We will continue to pursue accountability for undermining the integrity of college admissions.”
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ACTING IN MUSICALS
by James Venhaus, The Theatre Lesson Plan Exchange
Materials needed: lyrics or libretto from an obscure or less popular musical.
Objective: To teach the importance of acting in the musical theater, and to provide a method of interpreting song lyrics.
Method: This lesson plan evolved as a result of a student who said to me, "I'm going to be in musicals, and I don't have to learn how to act!" In order to emphasize that acting is an essential part of performing in a musical. (as essential as singing or dancing.)
Type out the lyrics from a song from an obscure or lesser known musical. ("Argument" from Chess works well) Preferably a duet with lyrics that don't rhyme, or lyrics that can be "acted" as a scene. Type them in "dialogue style". Assign the scene to the students and DON'T tell the students that they are performing a song. Treat this scene just as you would any acting scene. After the students have rehearsed and performed the scene, then play the song that they unknowingly performed.
This emphasizes that "real" acting must be done even when performing a song. Songs with strong emotional lyrics work well, and I have had students tell me that this "trick" changed their approach to performing musical theatre.
The Creative Personality
Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, published on July 01, 1
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Trial & Error! The 5 Craziest "Not Guilty" Verdicts Of The VIBE Era
July 6, 2011 - 4:59 pm by Chris Yuscavage TWITTER
The Case: People of the State of California Vs. Orenthal James Simpson
The Outcome: After the media-branded "Trial of the Century," O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend Ronald Goldman in October 1995.
The Outrage: Though this trial went way deeper than just "guilty" or "not guilty," there's no denying that the not guilty verdict that was rendered sparked a ton or controversy back in '95—even more controversy than this current Casey Anthony case is generating. After the prosecution appeared to bury O.J. underneath his jail cell with everything from his blood at the scene of the crime to Nicole Brown's blood on his clothing to blood on the inside of his infamous Bronco, he still managed to beat the case. And people are still talking about it today.
Not Guilty 1
The Case: People of the State of New York Vs. Gescard Isnora, Marc Cooper, and Michael Oliver The Outcome: Back in April 2008, Oliver, Isnora, and Cooper—the three NYPD police officers accused of shooting and killing NYC resident Sean Bell in November 2006 on the night before his wedding—were found not guilty on eight separate charges. The Outrage: Immediately after the not guilty verdict was rendered, Bell's friends and family as well as those Bell supporters who had gathered at the Queens Supreme Court stormed out of the courthouse and chanted "Murderers!" and "Guilty!" The decision also inspired a wave of support from the hip-hop community, who expressed outrage over the role that police brutality played in Bell's death through songs.
The Case: People of the State of Illinois Vs. Robert Kelly The Outcome: After prosecutors waited more than six years to get their chance to take Kells to trial on child pornography charges—stemming from a videotape that was found in his possession in 2003 that allegedly showed him having sex with an underage girl—the R&B singer was found not guilty in June 2008 because jurors could not clearly identify him or the girl on the tape. The Outrage: For the most part, the huge lapse in time between the original police findings and the outcome of the trial softened the blow. But shortly after the trial, several jurors admitted that they did think it was Kelly on the tape, which only made the verdict that much more outrageous.
The Case: People of the State of California Vs. Robert Blake The Outcome: Despite the fact that two men testified against the actor and said that he tried to hire them to murder his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley in 2002, Blake was found not guilty of the crime in March 2005. The Outrage: While some of Blake's fans actually celebrated his acquittal at the last restaurant that Blake and Bakley ate at before the murder, the Los Angeles DA called the jurors "incredibly stupid" after the case. Blake was later ordered to pay Bakley's three children $30 million after a civil suit and that same DA vowed to issue an appeal in the criminal case as a result of it.
The Case: People of the State of California Vs. Johannes Mehserle The Outcome: After Mehserle was brought up on involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder, and voluntary manslaughter charges after shooting and killing Oscar Grant on a Bay Area Rapid Transit platform on New Year's Day 2009, the BART officer was found not guilty of the more serious charges in July 2010. The Outrage: Like the Sean Bell case, Oscar Grant's murder sparked a ton of controversy, so when Mehserle was found not guilty of murder, a handful of riots broke out in Oakland. The controversy kicked up again recently when he was released from prison in June after serving out just a portion of the two-year sentence he earned after being found guilty on the involuntary manslaughter charges. Crazy, to say the least.
casey anthony,
not guilty,
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© 2021 Vibe Media, LLC. All rights reserved. VIBE is a registered trademark of Vibe Media, LLC.
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Updated: a day ago
Victor Luca, 12-Jan-20.
During the local body elections of 2019, I made a 2nd bridge for Whakatāne part of my election campaign platform.
Letters to the Editor, Whakatāne Beacon 7-Aug-19
Man of action standing for mayor
It was pleasing to read on Friday that Dr Victor Luca is to stand for mayor. It was pleasing to read of him being a man of action. Why has the need for a second bridge quietly disappeared from Whakatāne District Council’s agenda? The heavy flow of the river in flood brings a lot of logs that build up on the bridge piles. We were told a few years ago that when traffic reached a certain level, investigations would start. Traffic levels are way up and no discussion. Residents in Landing Road extension were told at a council meeting before the last election that the roundabout block was temporary, then that the time frame was being extended until the Taneatua bridge was being repaired, then we were told that the council was to investigate a temporary barrier or lights for the approximately two hours a day when traffic was heaviest.
At a council meeting we were told a slipway would be put in before Christmas to give access to Hinemoa Street. Then this was delayed but to be completed before the end of that financial year. Two engineers came out to plan it. Nothing happened. Council did have a dubious Facebook survey. The present situation has put extra traffic pressure on Victoria and James streets and then at times King Street is blocked up to the Kope round about.
Cars and sometimes trucks still turn from Hinemoa Street to the Landing Road Extension confused as how to go to town. Pre-Christmas traffic into town blocks movement from the Kope roundabout and out across the bridge. At present there is obviously no forward planning. Just short-term measures and then hope that people will forget or it will just go away.
Maurice Eddy
Whakatane District Council Manager Transport Martin Taylor responds
The council is very much aware that the volume of traffic moving through Whakatāne township each day is increasing year on year. In 2016 the council changed the configuration of the Landing Road roundabout by the bridge, and this saw a significant improvement in congestion levels coming into town.
Since then a business case has been developed and recently submitted to the New Zealand Transport Agency, seeking funding for the next stage of work which is the progression of a traffic study. This study will look at vehicle movements in and through the town and will identify the most cost-effective roading improvements to improve traffic flows. It is expected that this body of work will identify options for a more permanent solution to the Landing Road roundabout intersection as one of the first improvement projects to be undertaken. The matter of a second bridge crossing into town will also be included in the scope of the traffic study. The council anticipates that NZTA funding for the traffic study will be approved in September/October this year, and following this, tenders will be called for the work. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will be reported back by May 2020.
Dr Victor Luca – Mayoral Candidate 2019
This letter is a response to letters by Maurice Eddy and Martin Taylor (Manager Transport, WDC) published in the Beacon on Wednesday 7th of August 2019 concerning a possible second bridge for Whakatāne.
As a man of science I try to resist the temptation to weigh into arguments without being in possession of the facts. Therefore, in an attempt to get clarity regarding the Landing Road bridge situation I have been perusing Annual Plans (AP) and Long Term Plans (LTP) available on the Whakatāne District Council (WDC) web site.
First a bit of history for relative newcomers to the district. Funding for the original bridge in Whakatāne was awarded in 1907 and work was completed in 1911. The bridge crossed at Otamakaokao and into Bridge Street. It took just over 50 years for that original bridge to be replaced by the Landing Road Bridge that was completed in 1961. Another 50 years or so have now passed and a new bridge is well overdue.
The earliest AP on the WDC web site appears to be the AP of 2008-2009. However, despite my best efforts I have found it difficult to trace the chain of events that led to the present confusing situation. A traffic flow study was commissioned in 2008 in which a bridge location was proposed to the south of the town and options for access analyzed. A new bridge was promised in the 2010-2011 AP and then not mentioned at all in any subsequent APs. The Long Term Council Community Plan of 2009-2019 in a table entitled “What we are going to do” states “Second bridge over the Whakatane River (provisional funding indication only - project feasibility still to be developed)” and puts the price tag at $25,500,000.
The LTP 2012-2022 mentions the possibility of another traffic study and states that “This study will identify the options and potential projects that would help to provide a high level of road access security and will specifically consider the need for a second bridge over the Whakatāne River”. I presume that this is the study to which Taylor is referring. Curiously, there is no mention of a second bridge in the LTP of 2015-2025. The most recent LTP of 2018-2028 essentially rules out the new bridge project but leaves the door open to reconsideration at some unspecified time in the distant future (refer to P 95).
My analysis suggests although the WDC has undoubtedly had the best intentions, its communications and series of plans that have been put into the public domain have sown the seeds for plenty of confusion as indicated by the letters of 7th of August. Aside from the fact that reduced traffic flows pose an ever increasing inconvenience to rate payers, I consider the existence of a second bridge a matter of absolute priority, not for traffic reasons, but for public safety reason. Although I understand the need for more studies and the writing of business plans to justify these more up-to-date studies as mentioned in Taylor’s letter, I think there is a need to go to Wellington and petition the powers that be in person for funds for a second bridge using public safety arguments. First however, a cogent and precise statement of the councils thinking regarding a second bridge would go a long way toward eliminating confusion.
Whakatāne Drinking Water
Landing Road Bridge Whakatāne: Basic Facts & History
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Where to from here with Infectious Diseases?
Victor Luca, 12-Jun-20.
The Beacon 17-Jun-20
The COVID-19 pandemic has given us a baptism of fire in infectious disease and pandemics and how they can take and upend lives. Yet infectious disease pandemics are nothing new; they have plagued human civilizations for thousands of years. Over the millennia, we have had more than just the odd close shave with infectious diseases.
In New Zealand, thanks to relatively prompt and concerted action by our government, we have come out of the COVID-19 pandemic relatively unscathed, at least in terms of direct physical health impacts. Personally, I would have put us into lockdown as soon as it became obvious that we were dealing with a pandemic involving a novel influenza virus to which the population, in general, had no immunity. However, the “small window of opportunity” that Jacinda mentioned when she announced the lockdown thankfully has turned out to have been enough.
Below is a table of the more important pandemics that we know about.
Most of the pandemics in the table are caused by zoonotic viruses meaning that they are viruses that are transmitted between animals and humans.
You may be surprised to know that although infectious diseases have been with us for a long time, they weren’t always with us. Infectious diseases emerged about 10,000 years ago when there were less than five million humans on the planet. The question arises therefore, from where did infectious diseases emerge?
In the figure below are shown just some of the common zoonotic infectious diseases and the animals from which they came.
The main thing to notice from the figure is that most of the animals you see are those that have been domesticated by us humans. When we brought animals into the barnyard, they brought their diseases with them.
If we look at the history of pandemics in the table we should also note that they are coming with increasing frequency. As the human population grows exponentially and we increasingly encroach on animal habitats and come into closer contact with them, and as we intensify farming practices, then the chances increase that animal virus reservoirs will cause us increasing problems. Chinese wet markets where live and butchered animals are sold in open settings are not the places to be if you want to avoid zoonotic diseases.
Climate change will also cause increasing problems because as warming occurs vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and Zika that are transmitted by mosquitos will become more prevalent in places that previously never had them.
What has made COVID-19 so problematic? My answer to this question centers on its combination of transmissibility or infectiousness and clinical severity, or the fatality rate. In a previous article I made the case that in addition to contact and droplet transmission modes, airborne transmission could be an important mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. It is now well recognized that aerosols produced by coughing, sneezing, breathing or even speaking are important in the transmission of diseases such as Influenza, Chickenpox, Measles, Smallpox and Tuberculosis. Aerosols are very small liquid droplets carrying virus particles that can float in the air for up to 30 minutes and travel large distances.
The virus particles responsible for these diseases are similar in size to the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19. Simple physical-chemical principles suggest that a similar transmission mechanism would also be important for COVID-19.
Given continued growth of human populations, consumption, waste generation and the intensity of farming practices all over the world, there is a high probability that the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the only pandemic to which the present generation we will be subjected. Yes, we in New Zealand came out of COVID-19 relatively unscathed in terms of the loss of life, but we may not be so lucky when the next inevitable pandemic hits.
Although there were plenty of warnings that a global pandemic would hit soon or later, almost all global healthcare systems were caught unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. Even first-world countries with sophisticated public healthcare systems like Italy, France and the UK were unprepared for the ferocity of the spread of COVID-19. Deficiencies and inequities in the private US healthcare system are still playing out and it remains to be seen where it ends in terms of the ultimate death count. Make no mistake, had strong countermeasures not been mounted by most countries the number of fatalities would have been astronomical.
As far as infectious diseases go COVID-19 has only moderate lethality and transmissibility and is probably most comparable to the 1957 influenza pandemic that killed upwards of one million people. Countermeasures such as social-distancing have done a good job of limiting the numbers of COVID-19 deaths compared to what they might have been in the absence of such draconian measured.
Measles has a far higher transmissibility than COVID-19. It is much more easily spread from human-to-human and smallpox is far more lethal. I dread to think how we would cope were a virus to evolve that had the transmissibility of measles combined with the lethality of small-pox. It is my opinion that were COVID-19 been allowed to propagate unchecked, a more virulent strain might have evolved. We should not therefore be complacent.
When something like a pandemic hits we begin to understand the value of a properly functioning and well prepared healthcare system. That is, one that prioritizes health outcomes over economics. In NZ we have a public healthcare system and economic rationalization has caused privatization of parts of the system. Economic rationalization provides strong disincentives for redundancies and the stockpiling of equipment such as ventilators and consumables such as PPE. We must change this mentality if we are to be better prepared for what undoubtedly will be coming down the pike in the future.
We know that we can expect more pandemics because as the world population grows, and there is an increasing need to feed more people, farming intensification will increase and animals will come under increasing stress and be more susceptible to disease. Factory farming practices that have been adopted to feed increasing populations are perfect places for viruses to thrive. In such high density environments viruses will have bigger reservoirs in which to vary and multiply and certain mutations will be able to better express themselves and reach threshold values.
In addition to pandemics due to viruses and bacteria we should also keep a close watch on those diseases that are attributed to pathogens known as prions. Unlike a virus which consists of nucleic acid genome enveloped in a protein sheath, a prion is a proteinaceous infectious particle consisting of protein having no genetic material. The term prion was a term first used to describe the mysterious infectious agent supposedly responsible for several neurodegenerative diseases found in mammals, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), kuru and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker (GSS) disease in humans. In animals prions are thought to be responsible for the condition known as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). A common prion disease in cattle is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more dramatically known as mad cow disease. Fortunately, thus far, none of these prion-based diseases have caused pandemics, that we know of.
Get ready folks this is not the end of pandemics but merely the beginning. And let’s not forget climate change which represents perhaps the most important global existential threat of all. In this case also, we have missed the opportunity to act pre-emptively. But we must act now or forever hold our peace.
Animal infected with CWD. Source: Team Surra Outdoors
The Virtues of Face Masks in the Fight Against COVID
COVID-19: Does Dose Make the Poison?
On COVID-19 Vaccines
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comic-book movies Sept. 10, 2015
Zack Snyder: Batman and Superman Will Outlast the Superhero-Movie Bubble — Ant-Man, Not So Much
By Nate Jones
Batman v Superman.
Recently, many observers have begun to speculate on the inevitable end of the superhero genre’s current box-office dominance. All things must pass, dust in the wind, etc. Zack Snyder, director of the upcoming Batman v Superman, knows this, but in his heart, he hopes that the film’s heroes will be remembered long after the current wave of comic-book movies subsides. In an interview with The Daily Beast, he expressed a worldview we might as well call DC exceptionalism: “I feel like Batman and Superman are transcendent of superhero movies in a way, because they’re Batman and Superman. They’re not just, like, the flavor of the week Ant-Man — not to be mean, but whatever it is. What is the next Blank Man?” Yeesh, more like Zack Snide–r.
comic-book movies
Snyder: Batman and Superman Will Outlast Bubble
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In ad, lawmaker vows to carry her Glock around D.C. and on Hill
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado with other freshman Republicans who assembled for a photo at the Capitol on Monday. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Meagan Flynn
Morning Mix reporter
Jan. 4, 2021 at 10:00 p.m. UTC
One of the newest members of Congress, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), has kicked off the session with a viral digital ad proclaiming her right to carry a Glock on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and in the streets of Washington.
Boebert, the gun-toting owner of a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colo., released the video Sunday amid efforts by some Democrats to ban members of Congress from carrying guns on the grounds of the Capitol. On Monday, those efforts appeared poised to fail.
“Even though I now work in one of the most liberal cities in America, I refused to give up my rights, especially my Second Amendment rights,” Boebert, who defeated Scott R. Tipton in the Republican primary, says in the ad. “I will carry my firearm in D.C. and in Congress.”
The ad begins with Boebert strapping a Glock to her hip before appearing to embark on a walk through Capitol Hill, near federal buildings and through alleys. Although the neighborhood is one of the city’s safest, she cites rising violent crime among the reasons she wants to be armed.
“I walk to my office each morning by myself,” Boebert says. “So as a five-foot-tall, 100-pound woman I choose to protect myself legally, because I am my best security.”
Boebert also accuses D.C. residents of not understanding “how we live in real America” — echoing the rhetoric of anti-statehood Republicans who have suggested that people who live in the nation’s capital are somehow separate from the rest of the United States.
A record number of Republican women were elected to Congress in 2020. Here are some of their stories. (The Washington Post)
A spokesman for Boebert said she was not carrying the gun throughout the video shoot, despite the opening scene. D.C. gun laws do not recognize concealed-carry licenses from other states, and nonresidents must register firearms with D.C. police.
A 1967 regulation exempts members of Congress from a federal law banning firearms on the Capitol grounds.
“Congresswoman Boebert is a fierce advocate for the Second Amendment, as such will comply with all applicable firearm laws and regulations,” spokesman Ben Goldey said.
Asked about the ad on Monday, acting D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III said Boebert would have to follow applicable laws if she wanted to carry a firearm on city streets, and would be subjected to the same penalties as anyone else if she does not.
“There are no exceptions in the District of Columbia,” Contee said. “We plan to reach out to the congresswoman’s office to make sure that she is aware of what the laws of the District of Columbia are, what the restrictions are.”
Democrats supportive of the efforts to ban guns on the Capitol grounds slammed Boebert’s ad on Monday. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said that “as a lifelong Washingtonian I would object that this is somehow one of the most dangerous places in America.”
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting member of Congress, said Boebert’s comments suggesting that D.C. was not “real America” were “an insult to the residents of the District of Columbia who were part of the United States before most states, including her state.”
Rep. Jared Huffman of California, who has led efforts among Democrats to ban guns on the grounds, called the ad “catnip to the gun-hugging donor class.”
“That kind of grandstanding is clearly what this is about,” Huffman said. “It’s not about safety.”
Boebert campaigned as an ardent gun rights supporter and ally of President Trump, and employees at her restaurant openly carry firearms. She has pledged to join in the Republican effort to object to presidential electors on Wednesday — an effort that has divided the party. Boebert also flirted with support for QAnon, the baseless far-right conspiracy theory, before later distancing herself.
Shortly after the November election, she reportedly inquired with the U.S. Capitol Police about the rules for carrying guns on the grounds.
Weeks later, Democrats led by Huffman asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to amend gun regulations in a House Rules package to prohibit members of Congress from carrying firearms. Huffman spearheaded a similar effort in 2018, without success.
Boebert, in turn, led more than 80 Republicans in asking Pelosi and McCarthy to leave the 1967 regulations in place. While Democrats have said that they don’t take issue with fellow lawmakers carrying guns elsewhere in the District, Republicans noted that banning guns on the grounds would make it difficult to carry a gun on their way to work.
“If Members can’t carry on Capitol grounds, they can’t protect themselves in D.C. while making their way to and from their offices to perform their official duties,” the lawmakers wrote. “The ‘last-mile’ transition of self-protection is critical.”
Gun regulations were not addressed in the House Rules package under consideration Monday. Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, said the speaker supports banning guns on the Capitol grounds but thought the regulations should be amended through the Capitol Police Board.
The board includes the chief of the Capitol Police, the architect of the Capitol and sergeants-at-Arms in the House and Senate. A spokesman for House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving said he was unavailable to answer questions; the other officials could not immediately be reached.
The 1967 law prohibiting the public from carrying guns on Capitol grounds was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) after race riots — back when “the Capitol was lightly guarded and White members of Congress were terrified about the Black Panthers charging into their offices,” as Huffman put it.
Regulations created by the police board days later exempted members of Congress from the law but still prohibited them from carrying firearms in either legislative chamber.
Huffman described the regulations as “woefully inadequate” because they contain no provisions on how to safely store guns in members’ offices. Lawmakers don’t have to seek Capitol Police permission, so it’s unknown how many members carry firearms on the grounds.
“Even the minimum guide rails are enforced on the loosest of honor systems,” he said.
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Skip to main content Opinions Editorial Board Global Opinions The Opinions Essay D.C., Md. & Va. Opinions Cartoons Cape Up Post Opinión Video Letters
Don’t kill the deer in Rock Creek Park
By Jay Kirkpatrick and
Allen Rutberg
As two scientists with extensive experience using fertility treatments to control wildlife populations, we want to set the record straight regarding whether the National Park Service needs to begin killing the white-tailed deer that live in Rock Creek Park — a small patch of nature in our nation’s capital. Our analysis of the data convinces us that any such measures to reduce the deer population in this park would be premature and unnecessary.
To begin with, the Park Service’s own data do not show a deer population crisis. According to the agency, deer numbers have fluctuated between 50 and 90 deer per square mile since 2000; higher densities can be found in places in Maryland and Virginia. But more to the point, the Park Service’s data show that Rock Creek’s deer population has remained stable for 10 years, and some densities in recent years are actually below those of earlier years. As the Park Service also acknowledges, the telltale sign of a serious deer overpopulation problem — a “browse line” indicating that deer have eaten most of the vegetation within their reach — has not been detected in the park. The deer themselves are in good condition. They are not starving.
But even if there were a problem in this park, there are far more humane — and effective — ways to control urban deer populations than killing, which can increase reproductive success within the remaining herd and create room for deer from neighboring areas to move into. As the authors of many peer-reviewed scientific studies on this issue, we know that fertility control is, over the long term, a more effective and publicly acceptable way to deal with urban deer problems. One fertility-control vaccine, porcine zona pellucida (PZP) — which can be administered by shooting the animal with a dart — is safe for deer and for predators, scavengers and any humans who happen to consume venison from a treated deer; it is a natural protein that degrades in the deer’s body after injection, and if eaten, it is destroyed in digestion.
The Park Service is quite familiar with PZP (which the Science and Conservation Center manufactures and makes available at or below cost for noncommercial wildlife and zoo research and wild-horse management applications). This vaccine has already been used effectively to help tackle wildlife management challenges on at least four Park Service properties. PZP has reduced urban white-tailed deer numbers at Fire Island National Seashore in New York; controlled wild horse populations at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina; and slowed growth of the Tule elk population at Point Reyes National Seashore in California. And it has been used since 1994 to limit white-tailed deer conflicts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg.
The more recently developed contraceptive agent GonaCon — which can last for several years — has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for use in free-roaming deer. Although it must be administered to the animal by hand, this is no more labor-intensive (and certainly is more humane) than lethal control by trapping deer and killing them with a bolt gun, which is built into the Park Service’s reduction plan (which also calls for shooting deer with guns and arrows).
There is no reason to believe that the successful use of fertility control at NIST, Fire Island and elsewhere could not be duplicated in Rock Creek Park. On the other hand, if the Park Service starts killing deer immediately to reduce the population, it will make the humane approach of fertility control that much harder in the future. These deer — which have never been hunted in the 120-year history of this park — will become fearful of humans once the shooting begins, making it much more difficult to approach deer closely. In fact, we know of no published reports describing control of an urban deer population by shooting animals first and then administering contraceptives later. Yet this is currently the plan for Rock Creek Park.
While the National Park Service may want to take more immediate action for a range of political reasons, we see no legitimate scientific justification for resorting to lethal control of this closely observed urban deer population. Neither do we see any reason why fertility control could not be attempted to gradually reduce the deer in Rock Creek Park to address any perceived overpopulation.
Having worked closely with the Park Service for many years on similar wildlife problems, we find it painfully ironic that the same agency that for so long occupied the leading edge of nonlethal wildlife control should resist such a prudent and logical application. Because of its location in the heart of our nation’s capital, Rock Creek Park “serves as an ambassador for the national park idea,” in the words of the Park Service itself. That ideal should encompass humane wildlife management.
The writers are, respectively, director of the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Mont., and director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at the Tufts-Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.
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Photo by Boris Zaretsky Photography
Lisa McEvoy
Teachers Are Getting Schooled on Retirement
403(b) plans are failing teachers. A handful of advisors and technology companies want to undo the damage and bring low-cost fiduciary plans to K-12 educators.
Diana Britton | Mar 06, 2020
Lisa McEvoy, a teacher in the Shoreham-Wading River School District on Long Island, N.Y., was 24 years old when she walked into the teachers’ lunchroom and saw a gentleman sitting at a table with a stack of papers. He was a representative from AXA Equitable (recently rebranded Equitable), a life insurance company. He said he had an easy way for her to save for her retirement beyond her pension.
She opened up a 403(b) account that very day, with an annuity as the underlying investment; she doesn’t recall having any discussion about fees, although she did notice a $30 administrative charge on her statements.
Related: Editor's Letter: March 2020
“My impression was that that’s what I was being charged,” McEvoy says. “There was not any indication or transparency at all about all the other fees in there. I was just proud of myself that at 24, I was putting more money away. I felt like that was a good thing.”
Years later, she would learn that AXA was charging her 2.5% annually for the annuity that came with a long lockup period. She was married to a school guidance counselor, who had also opened up a 403(b) with AXA, and they had both ramped up their contributions. By 2019, they had saved about $75,000 in the two accounts; they contributed about $4,400 that year—and paid close to $2,000 in fees to AXA.
“AXA was costing us almost half of what we were contributing to do business, and we had no idea,” she says.
“We felt like we had been scammed. We felt like we had been taken advantage of because we’re not in the financial industry. We are in the education field, and we just kind of trusted that we wouldn’t have been getting as screwed over. It wasn’t that they were in particularly bad investments, but whatever we were putting in, it was just going right out to the AXA advisor’s pocket.”
To be sure, the fractured nature of the market, where contracts are sold to individuals and the invested sums are often relatively modest, makes it an expensive one to service. A spokesperson for Equitable said their goal was to provide teachers with choices that match their circumstances. “We believe in choice, providing individualized advice and a wide range of investment options so clients can make the right decisions for themselves and their families. For many, the guaranteed income, downside protection and death benefit that an annuity can provide is the best path to meet their goals.”
McEvoy’s story is a common one among educators. The K-12 403(b) plan system is broken, dominated by high-fee products pushed by high-commission sales agents, primarily from insurance companies. These brokers may appeal to well-meaning administrators to get themselves invited into teachers’ lounges, lunchrooms or even classrooms to pitch the investment products.
But it’s the way these plans escape regulatory scrutiny that makes nefarious sales practices possible. Private schools, not-for-profit hospitals and not-for-profit universities 403(b)s are covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), so they enjoy the same investor protections that regulate 401(k) plans.
Public K-12 school retirement plans fall outside the ERISA spotlight. There are some minimum requirements to keep the plans in compliance. But observers say too often a district turns the plan over to a third-party administrator that makes pay-to-play arrangements with financial firms to put their investments on the list of options—many of them annuities from insurance firms.
“The rules are set up that the school districts, if they don’t have to take on the responsibility of vetting or protecting their employees, then a lot of times they don’t,” said Steve Holman, principal at Vanguard and head of Vanguard Retirement Plan Access. “The vast majority of those options that are available are filled with annuities, and they’re high cost plans.”
Teachers are notoriously underpaid, the money they can put into a retirement plan does not necessarily create the scale that can drive down costs and few school districts would claim to have the resources to act as a financial fiduciary plan sponsor. But Holman says that compounds the problem; the tragedy is the people open to exploitation are those we hold responsible for educating our children.
“We’re kind of lambs to the slaughter,” McEvoy says. “Most people go into education not because they have a huge extensive background in financial literacy, but more because we want to give back and work with children. This does not go on in the 401(k) world.”
Teachers need access to quality financial advice, and observers say the market is starting to open up for fee-based, fiduciary advisors. Some record-keepers are building platforms that allow advisors to more easily manage 403(b) assets and bring in better investment options. Some financial planners, such as Ritholtz Wealth Management’s Tony Isola, are already carving out a niche serving teachers. Perhaps most worrisome for entrenched providers is that low-cost fund giant Vanguard is starting to push into the space.
The Land That Time Forgot
Isola, an advisor who heads the 403(b) division at Ritholtz Wealth Management in Stony Brook, N.Y., was a teacher for 20 years before starting his own RIA. In all that time the 403(b) system hasn’t evolved much at all, he says.
“Think of how the world has changed in just 20 years, and then think of this,” he says. “It’s the land that time forgot.”
The plans are still dominated by annuities with high fees and long-term contracts. According to Isola, some 70% of non-ERISA 403(b) assets are in annuities, with an average fee of around 2%.
When Pittsburgh-based teacher Adam Holy signed up with AXA in 2006, he got locked into a 12-year variable annuity contract with a 5% surrender charge without, he says, knowledge of the fees or the lockup period. It also had fees of about 3%, which were buried deep in a 172-page prospectus.
“Trying to break it down individually was like trying to crack Da Vinci’s code,” Holy says.
“The ‘financial advisors’ from these 403(b) vendors, that are mostly insurance companies, are preying on teachers’ innocence in terms of coming into our lunchrooms or our classrooms on our prep periods to take advantage of teachers’ retirements, and they’re tapping into your nest egg by these high fees and high commissions,” Holy said.
He brought up the high fees to his teachers union, and asked if they could get some low-cost options, like Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price or TIAA, and at first, the union was hesitant to help. But after recruiting other members to help push back, the union has started to listen.
“They have finally brought in some experts to evaluate our current options,” Holy said.
Scott Dauenhauer, a fee-only advisor with Meridian Wealth Management in Murrieta, Calif., decided to focus his practice on public school employees after being “appalled” by the tactics an annuity salesman used on his wife, a teacher in Newport Beach, Calif.
Dauenhauer said the broker claimed to represent the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the state pension system. That was just a way to get in front of her, he says. Every single vendor on her list of investment choices was an insurance company.
Shortly after, his wife’s colleague asked him to review her 403(b). She had been sold an equity indexed annuity, with an 18-year surrender period and 20% surrender charge. She was promised 10%-12% returns on her investment, he says, which immediately set off alarm bells for the advisor.
“She was not going to get a good return in this policy,” he says. “It was toxic, and this policy should never be sold to anybody.”
Dauenhauer soon learned that the practice was commonplace and decided it was an area where he could make a real difference.
“I said, ‘I’m going to be a fiduciary planner for teachers, and I’m going to work to get better investment options for them and help them get into those better investment options.’”
When a teacher approaches Dauenhauer with their 403(b) plan, the first thing he does is review every product they have. Surprisingly, a lot of these teachers have multiple accounts. One couple he works with, for instance, had 16 accounts between the two of them. He got them out of five or six variable annuity accounts with fees in excess of 3%.
For most of the accounts he comes across, if they’re in California, he’ll put them into CalSTRS’ 403(b), a low-cost option, or move the money to a Vanguard or Fidelity fund.
Dauenhauer does not dismiss all annuities. Some have redeeming qualities, in particular the decade-old ones that have attractive minimum income benefit features, and for retirement savers with moderate income, they can make a lot of sense. But he found those were far more the exception than the rule in teachers’ portfolios.
Ripe for Disruption
The 401(k) space under ERISA is tightly regulated with a complex web of laws that keeps many business conflicts and abuses out of the system. And the government just recently enacted the SECURE Act, a bipartisan reform of the retirement system and defined contributions plans. But little in the legislation addressed the 403(b) space.
To be sure, some regulators have recently begun to look at the issues. The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched campaigns to educate teachers on their options, and they are investigating the sales and disclosure practices at companies that administer and sell retirement plans to teachers, including AIG unit Valic, according to published reports.
The New York State Department of Financial Services has also reportedly sent letters to major insurers asking about their annuity sales practices in the 403(b) market.
A handful of states are stepping up with alternatives for their teachers, including California, North Carolina and Arizona.
California’s state-sponsored 403(b) product, called Pension2, launched in 1994, has no commissions, no front- and back-end load fees, no surrender charges and no liquidity restrictions on benefit withdrawals. It does include annuities along with other investment options, but Dauenhauer said the programs are an attempt to bring ERISA-like retirement plans to the teachers.
But in the few states with similar programs, schools aren’t required to use them, and when they do, it’s usually one of several options on the menu for participants.
Competition may change the market faster than the regulators. Low-cost fund giant Vanguard is making a strategic effort to focus on the 403(b) space through a partnership with Newport Group, a plan record-keeper. Vanguard’s 403(b) business now has $11.3 billion in assets under management, with 11,000 plans and about 130,000 participants. Vanguard’s Holman has plans to grow that further.
“This is a segment that is just ripe for disruption; the gravy train has been going on for far too long,” he says.
Vanguard also plans to work with 403(b) advocacy groups, such as 403bwise.org, and financial advisors, like Dauenhauer and a handful of others, who recognize that the K-12 segment has been exploited for years.
“Reform has to come from both a regulatory standpoint and a competitive standpoint,” says Holman. “In the near term, my team, my group is focused on how do we really build awareness and get the word out that there are options, there are low cost options available to the vast majority of the public school employees and have people start voting with their fees. I think that will trigger a competitive response.”
One thing the entrenched players have going for them is elaborate distribution systems needed to get to individual teachers one at a time, one of the reasons for the plan’s high fees, Holman adds. That’s not Vanguard’s strategy.
Instead, it will identify the top third-party administrators that work with school districts and broach a partnership with them.
“The new Vanguard-Newport offer has capabilities and services that is a nice complement to the financial guidance that they can get from these advisors,” Holman says. “That could be a scalable way for us to get out there, to have that broad reach, if we can find enough advisors we’re aligned with.”
Many advisors are initially turned off because they see a complex space, a “riddle wrapped in an enigma,” Dauenhauer says.
His mission is to correct those assumptions and demystify the space. He is guiding other fiduciary advisors on how to work with teachers, putting out a lot of content around the topic and helping others see the opportunities.
A Mission to Modernize the 403(b) Market
Another factor holding advisors back is that the fee-based model doesn’t work with most of the current vendors selling products to teachers. The advisor can guide a teacher toward a Vanguard or Fidelity option, but they won’t be able to service the account.
A handful of technology platforms and record-keepers see that as an opportunity.
Aspire launched a 403(b) vendor option in 2007-2008 and now is in over 6,000 school districts across the country. The company has built an open-architecture platform that can be white-labeled by advisors, who can layer on their compensation as they negotiate with the client.
But distribution is a challenge because, unlike annuity providers, Aspire is not sending salesmen into school lunchrooms. They’re slowly building up a presence through word of mouth and partnering with administrators, said Matt Drummond, national sales director of individual accounts.
FPS Group in Centennial, Colo., has built the Investment Provider XChange (IPX), a modernized record-keeping and trust and custody platform that allows fee-based and fee-only advisors to build their own portfolios within these school plans. Managing Director James Olson likens it to an Envestnet for 403(b)s, because there are third-party strategists available and a fund portal, as well as the ability for advisors to create their own investment program—participants can even self-direct their own account.
“I've been on a mission to modernize the 403(b) market for at least a decade, if not longer,” Olson said. “I think the narrative is changing in the space for the better.”
IPX is currently in more than 3,000 plans around the country and has $32 billion in assets under administration, Olson says.
The goal is to create a structure using technology to get access into the plans for RIAs and product manufacturers, Olson said. “[IPX is] very customizable using an open architecture background … it brings your brand, your fees, and your construct of your product into the platform that you use with your participants.”
As for McEvoy, her district now uses Aspire, so she has access to Vanguard funds for 60 basis points through the platform; she’s also paying her advisor, Dina Isola (Tony’s wife), a fee to manage the account and provide financial advice. But, “it’s all transparent, and now I’m able to see exactly what’s coming out,” McEvoy says.
TAGS: Client Relations
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Nobody knows where mysterious drone swarms are coming from
Business Insider By Irene Jiang
Something strange has been happening in Eastern Colorado at night.
Since the week of Christmas, giant drones measuring up to six feet across have been spotted in the sky at night, sometimes in swarms as large as 30. The Denver Post first reported these mysterious drone sightings in Northeast Colorado on Dec. 23, 2019. Since then, sightings have spanned six counties across Colorado and Nebraska.
Phillips County Sheriff Thomas Elliot had no answer for where the drones come from or who they belong to, but he has a rough grasp on their flying habits. “They’ve been doing a grid search, a grid pattern,” he told the Denver Post. “They fly one square and then they fly another square.”
The drones, estimated to have six-foot wingspans, have been flying over Phillips and Yuma counties every night for about the last week, Elliott said. Each night, at least 17 drones appear at around 7:00 pm and disappear at around 10:00 pm, staying 200-300 feet in the air.
(Sorasak)
The Federal Aviation Agency told the Post it had no idea where the drones came from. Spokespeople for the Air Force, Drug Enforcement Administration, and US Army Forces Command all said that the drones did not belong to their organizations.
As the airspace in which the drones are flying is relatively ungoverned, there are no regulations requiring the drone operators to identify themselves. However, Elliott said that the drones do not appear to be malicious.
The Post spoke to commercial photographer and drone pilot Vic Moss, who said that the drones appear to be searching or mapping out the area. Moss said that drones often fly at night for crop examination purposes. It’s also possible that the drones belong to one of several drone companies based in Colorado, which may be testing out new technologies.
In the meantime, Moss urges residents not to shoot down the drones as they are highly flammable.
“It becomes a self-generating fire that burns until it burns itself out,” he told the Post. “If you shoot a drone down over your house and it lands on your house, you might not have a house in 45 minutes.”
This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.
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6 dos and don’ts you need to know to become a better marksman
Eric Milzarski By Irene Jiang
Rifle marksmanship is one of the handful of skills that everyone in the military needs to master. It doesn’t matter if you’re an infantryman, a special operator, or an admin clerk in the Reserves, everyone needs to master the fundamentals of marksmanship.
Being well-versed in marksmanship is what makes all of America’s warfighters, without exception, deadly in combat. If that wasn’t enough of an incentive, it’s also the one badge that every troop, service-wide, wears to signify their combat prowess. The marksmanship badge holds enough weight that a young private with expert could easily flex on a senior NCO with just a pizza box.
These fundamentals can be applied to stress shoots, too.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Elvis Umanzor)
Don’t: overthink it
There are just four things (outside of the obvious safety concerns) to worry about while you’re firing a weapon. These four basic components are drilled into every Army recruit’s head while at basic and they’ve been incorporated into marching cadences: steady, aim, breathe, fire. This should be your mental checklist before you take a shot.
Are you and the weapon in a steady position? Are the sights properly aligned to ensure accuracy? Are you breathing normally and timing your shots accordingly? Is your finger comfortably aligned with your trigger so you can pull it straight back?
Hey, man. It’s cheap, you can practice the fundamentals of marksmanship, and it’s fun.
(Screengrab via YouTube / ThePinballCompany)
Do: practice as much as you can
There are countless drills that you can do if your armorer lets you draw your weapon. For example, there’s the famous “washer and dime” drill. You can test how well you’re following the 4 fundamentals mentioned above by placing a single washer or dime on the barrel of an unloaded rifle. If your stance is good, your aiming isn’t jerky, your breathing is regular, and your trigger squeeze is solid, the balancing dime shouldn’t fall when you pull the trigger.
In the absence of your rifle, as odd as it sounds, you can still get some “range” time at your local arcade. If you spend your entire attention on the four fundamentals, playing some coin-operated shooter video game can be great practice. You’ll have to worry less about aiming, though — those machines are almost always misaligned.
Spend a little extra time getting everything just right.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jericho Crutcher)
Don’t: rush zeroing
No two people will have the same sight picture, so you need to zero your almost nearly every time. Even something as slight as adjusting where you place your cheek against the buttstock will readjust the sight picture.
Even if you’ve spent the entire afternoon getting everything to surgeon-level precision, do it again. Endure whatever asschewing you’ll get from higher ups and belittlement from your peers because you’re not hurrying along.
The only terrible part of the day is having to police call the ammo.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Tiffany Edwards)
Do: relax
Firing a weapon is meditative for some people. Leave your stresses and worries at the bleachers because, right now, it’s just you and your firearm. In that brief moment when the range safety calls your lane hot, all you need to think about is hitting the target.
Don’t be intimidated by your weapon. You’re almost certainly safe if you’re on the opposite side of the barrel. There will be a bit of a kick when you fire — that’s normal. If you start anticipating the kick, you’re going to screw up all the four fundamentals because you’ll be more worried about how your weapon nudges your shoulder.
Enjoy the fact that you’re not spending your own money on ammunition or range time. If you miss a target, who cares? Don’t waste ammo trying to shoot that target a second time. The Army’s rifle qualification is 40 targets with 40 rounds. If you fire and the target doesn’t go down, don’t spend two more rounds trying to hit it or else you just screwed yourself out of two more potential hits.
Hate to sound like that guy, but someone else can and will take care of it. Don’t stress.
(U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Peter Lewis)
Don’t: panic if your weapon jams
There’re plenty of different ways that your weapon might act up, preventing you from putting more rounds down range. The easiest fix is simply slapping the bottom of your lowest-bidder magazine to ensure that the next round enters the chamber.
If it’s something that takes more than a few seconds to fix yourself, simply clear your weapon and place it on the sandbags. Explain what happened to the nearest range safety officer and you’ll probably get another crack at qualifications next round.
There is a method to the madness. If your NCO is having you clean them days or weeks after the range (and you already cleaned them then), they’re just looking for busy work.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Margo Wright)
Do: clean your weapon afterwords
There’s a very good reason that they tell you to clean every single crevice of your rifle every time. A rifle is made up of many tiny, precise mechanisms that need to be perfectly clean and in order to avoid any kind of malfunction. A small carbon build-up can wreck the chamber of a rifle worse than any kind of mud.
On the bright side, while you’re taking your weapon apart and cleaning it thoroughly, you’ll grow a deeper understanding of how these little parts all work in relation to one another. Before you know it, you’ll think of your rifle as an extension of your body.
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US destroyer fires flares at Iranian attack boat
WATM Partners By Irene Jiang
A U.S. Navy destroyer had a close encounter with an Iranian vessel Monday, just two days before a crucial Iranian presidential election.
An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vessel came within 1,000 meters of the USS Mahan, forcing it to fire flares toward the IRGC vessel after attempting to turn away from it, according to the Associated Press. The encounter is the latest of the Navy’s close encounters with Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf, coming two days before Iran’s radical conservative faction attempts to retake the presidency.
“[The] Mahan made several attempts to contact the Iranian vessel by bridge-to-bridge radio, issuing warning messages and twice sounding the internationally recognized danger signal of five short blasts with the ship’s whistle, as well as deploying a flare to determine the Iranian vessel’s intentions,” Lt. Ian McConnaughey, a 5th Fleet spokesman, told the AP in a statement Wednesday.
Iran’s leading conservative candidate, Ebrahim Raisi, is the supposed favorite of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority over the IRGC. It is unclear if the two events are related, but the timing of the event is telling. The IRGC’s provocation could be an attempt to exhibit the hardline faction’s strength against the U.S.
The Mahan had a previous encounter with Iranian vessels in January, at which time it was forced to fire warning shots at two patrol boats.
The IRGC has drastically increased its encounters with U.S. vessels in the Persian Gulf. Many of the encounters occur near the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel through which 33 percent of the world’s oil passes. The U.S. Navy recorded 35 “unsafe and/or unprofessional” encounters with the IRGC in 2016, up from 23 in 2015. Seven such instances have been recorded in 2017, including Monday’s incident.
5 things Marine Corps recruits complain about at boot camp
Paul Szoldra By Irene Jiang
Posted On July 01, 2019 15:05:41
Marine Corps boot camp is a slice of hell that turns civilians into modern-day Marines.
With constant physical training, screaming drill instructors, and so much close-order drill recruits eventually have dreams about it, spending 12 weeks at boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina or San Diego, California can be difficult for most young people.
Having stepped off a bus and onto the yellow footprints at Parris Island on Sep. 3, 2002, one of those young people was me. While in hindsight, boot camp really wasn’t that bad, I thought then that it was the worst thing ever. While writing this post, I thought I would speak in general terms, but since my mother kept all my correspondence home, I figured I would go straight to the source: my original — and now-hilarious-to-read — letters back home.
Drill instructors are the worst.
Having a crazy person with veins popping out of their neck scream in your face and run around a barracks throwing stuff can be quite a shock to someone who was a civilian a week prior. Although I later learned to greatly respect my DI’s, I didn’t really like them at the beginning, as my first letter home showed.
“Our DI’s are complete motherf—king a–holes. There’s no other way to describe them,” I wrote, before including a great example: “Today they sprayed shaving cream and toothpaste ALL OVER the head and we had to clean it up. Yesterday, threw out all of our gear, had to change the racks, and sh– was flying.”
Photo: Cpl. Octavia Davis
My recruiter totally lied to me.
It’s a running joke in the Marine Corps (and the greater military, really) that your recruiter probably lied to you. Maybe they didn’t lie to you per se, but they were selective with what they told you. One of my favorites was that “if I didn’t like my job as infantry, I could change it in two years.” That’s one of those not-totally-a-lie-but-far-fetched-truths.
In my initial letter, I took issue with my recruiters for telling me that drill instructors don’t ever get physical. Most of the time they won’t touch you, but that’s not exactly all the time.
“Oh, by the way, recruiters are lying bastards. They [the drill instructors] scream, swear a lot, and choke/push on a daily basis,” I wrote. (It was day three and I was of course exaggerating).
Mail takes forever to get there.
Getting mail at boot camp is a wonderful respite from the daily grind at boot camp, but letters are notoriously slow to arrive. In my letters home, I complained about mail being slow often, since I’d ask questions in my letters then get a response of answers and more questions from home, well after I was through that specific event in the training cycle.
“Sometimes I write more letters than everyone back home and I have way less time to do it,” I wrote in one letter.
The other recruits were terrible.
I’m sure they said the same thing about me. Put 60-80 people from completely different backgrounds and various regions of the United States and you’re probably going to have tension. Add drill instructors into the mix constantly stressing you out and it’s guaranteed.
Then of course, there’s the issue of the “recruit crud,” the nickname for the sickness that inevitably comes from being in such close proximity with all these different people.
Throughout my letters home, I complain of other recruits not yelling loud enough or running fast enough. “They don’t sound off and we are getting in trouble all the time,” I wrote. No doubt I was just echoing what the drill instructor has given us as a reason for why he was bringing us to the dreaded “pit.”
Getting “pitted” is the worst five minutes of your life.
Marine boot camp has two unique features constantly looming in the back of a recruit’s mind: the “pit” and the quarterdeck. The quarterdeck for recruits is the place at the front of the squad bay where they are taken and given “incentive training,” or I.T. — a nice term for pushups, jumping jacks, running-in-place, etc — for a few minutes if they do something wrong.
But for those times when it’s not just an individual problem — and more of a full platoon one — drill instructors take them to sand pits usually located near the barracks for platoon IT. Think of them as the giant sandboxes you played in as a kid, except this one isn’t fun. For extra fun, DI’s may play a game of “around the world,” where the platoon is run from one pit to another.
5 of the most annoying misconceptions about Marine boot camp
Army practicing to take down enemy aircraft in Europe
The US military is shifting its focus toward preparing for great-power conflict, and on the ground in Europe, where heightened tensions with Russia have a number of countries worried about renewed conflict.
That includes new attention to short-range air-defense — a capability needed against an adversary that could deploy ground-attack aircraft, especially helicopters, and contest control of the air during a conflict.
Between late November and mid-December 2018, Battery C of the 1st Battalion, 174th Air Defense Artillery Regiment from the Ohio National Guard maneuvered across southeast Germany to practice shooting down enemy aircraft.
US soldiers from Battery C, 1-174 Air Defense Artillery Regiment conduct an after-action review during Combined Resolve XI at Hohenfels Training Area, Dec. 7, 2018.
(US Army photo by Charles Rosemond)
The unit worked with 5,500 troops from 16 countries during the first phase of Combined Resolve XI, a biannual US-led exercise aimed at making US forces more lethal and improving the ability of Allied militaries to work together.
At Hohenfels training area, soldiers from Battery C engaged simulated enemy aircraft with their Avenger weapons systems, which are vehicle-mounted short-range air-defense systems that fire Stinger missiles.
The unit outmanuevered opposition forces, according to an Army release, taking out 15 simulated enemy aircraft with the Avengers and Stingers.
Battery C also protected eight assets that their command unit, the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team from the 1st Cavalry Division, deemed “critical.”
An Air Defense Artillery Humvee-mounted Avenger weapons system from Battery C, 1-174 Air Defense Artillery Regiment during Combined Resolve XI at Hohenfels Training Area, December 7, 2018.
Capt. Christopher Vasquez, the commander of Battery C who acted as brigade air-defense officer for the exercise, linked his unit’s performance to its experience with armor like that used by the 1st ABCT.
“It’s given us some insight into how they fight, and how they operate,” Vasquez said. “The type of unit we are attached to dictates how we establish our air defense plan, so if we don’t understand how tanks maneuver, how they emplace, then we can’t effectively do our job.”
The second phase of the exercise, which will include live-fire drills, will take place from January 13 to January 25, 2019, at nearby Grafenwoehr training area, where Battery C is deployed.
A Bradley fighting vehicle provides security for Battery C, 1-174 Air Defense Artillery Regiment during Combined Resolve XI at Hohenfels Training Area, Dec. 7, 2018.
Reestablishing air defense in Europe
The unit arrived in Europe in 2018 to provide air-defense support to US European Command under the European Deterrence Initiative, which covers Operation Atlantic Resolve.
During Operation Atlantic Resolve, the US Army has rotated units through Europe to reassure allies concerned about a more aggressive Russia, particularly after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and incursion in Ukraine.
Air Defense Artillery units like the 1-174th were for a long time embedded in Army divisions, but the service began deactivating them in the early 2000s, as planners believed the Air Force would be able to maintain air superiority and mitigate threats from enemy aircraft.
But the Army found in 2016 that it had an air-defense-capability gap. Since then it has been trying to correct the shortfall.
An FIM-92 Stinger missile fired from an Army Avenger at Eglin Air Force Base, April 20, 2017.
(US Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.)
US soldiers in Europe have also been relearning air-defense skills that were deemphasized after the threat of a ground war waned with the end Cold War.
In January 2018, for the first time in 15 years, the US Army in Europe started training with Stingers, which have gained new value as a light antiaircraft weapon as unmanned aerial systems proliferate.
Operation Atlantic Resolve rotations have included National Guard units with Avenger defense systems to provide air-defense support on the continent. (The Army is also overhauling Avengers that were mothballed until a new air-defense system is ready.)
The service also recently reactivated the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment in southern Germany, making it the first permanent air-defense artillery unit in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
The battalion, composed of five Stinger-equipped batteries, returned important short-range air-defense abilities to Europe, said Col. David Shank, head of 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, of which the unit is part.
“Not only is this a great day for United States Army Europe and the growth of lethal capability here,” Shank said at the activation ceremony. “It is a tremendous step forward for the Air Defense Enterprise.”
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US Navy now accepting pitches for the world’s largest drone warship
Alex Hollings By Irene Jiang
The United States military has relied on drone aircraft for years, but to date, few other automated platforms have made their way into America’s warfighting apparatus — that is, until recently anyway. After achieving a number of successes with their new 132-foot submarine-hunting robot warship the Sea Hunter, the Navy is ready to pony up some serious cash for a full-sized drone warship, and the concept could turn the idea of Naval warfare on its head.
Earlier this month, the Navy called on the shipbuilding industry to offer up its best takes on their Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) ship concept, and they mean business. According to Navy officials, they want to have ten of these drone warships sailing within the next five years. The premise behind the concept is a simple one: by developing drone ships that can do what the Navy refers to as “3-D” work (the stuff that’s Dull, Dirty, or Dangerous) they’ll be freeing up manned vessels for more complex tasks.
The Navy expects these ships to be between 200 and 300 feet long with about 2,000 tons of water displacement, making them around half to two-thirds the size of an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, potentially landing in the light frigate classification. To that end, the Navy has already requested $400 million in the 2020 budget for construction of the first two vessels for the purposes of research and development.
The Sea Hunter, a Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV)
US Navy Photo
In order to manage a variety of tasks, the Navy wants its robot warship to be modular, making it easier to add or remove mission-specific equipment for different sets of circumstances.
“The LUSV will be a high-endurance, reconfigurable ship able to accommodate various payloads for unmanned missions to augment the Navy’s manned surface force,” The Navy wrote in their solicitation.
“With a large payload capacity, the LUSV will be designed to conduct a variety of warfare operations independently or in conjunction with manned surface combatants.”
The Navy also requires that the vessel be capable of operating with a crew on board for certain missions. That capability, in conjunction with a modular design, would allow the Navy to use LUSV’s in more complex missions that require direct human supervision simply by installing the necessary components and providing the vessel with a crew.
The solicitation included no requests for weapons systems, but that doesn’t mean the LUSV would be worthless in a fight. The modular design would allow the Navy to equip the vessel with different weapons systems for different operations, or leave them off entirely during missions that don’t require any offensive or defensive capabilities.
Swapping drone ships in for monotonous work could free up the Navy’s fleet of manned vessels for more important tasks.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth Abbate)
By equipping these ships with modular vertical launch systems, for instance, a fleet of LUSVs could enhance the Navy’s existing fleet of destroyers and cruisers in a number of combat operations, and eventually, they could even be equipped with the ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, allowing them to bolster or even replace destroyers currently tasked with steaming around in defensive patterns amid concerns about North Korean or Chinese ballistic missile attack.
Like the Sea Hunter, the LUSV represents little more than the Navy dipping its toe in the proverbial drone waters, but if successful, it could revolutionize how the Navy approaches warfare. Manning a ship remains one of the largest expenses associated with maintaining a combatant fleet. Capable drone ships could allow the Navy to bolster its numbers with minimal cost, tasking automated vessels with the monotonous or dangerous work and leaving the manned ships to the more complex tasks.
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Veterans and songwriters will come together for live PBS taping in Nashville
VAntage Point By Irene Jiang
Award-winning songwriters, veterans, and service members will come together to share music at the Songwriting With Soldiers concert on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, at Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium.
The concert will feature musicians performing original songs shared by nonprofit organization Songwriting With Soldiers. Performers include Bonnie Bishop, Gary Burr, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Radney Foster, Mary Gauthier, James House, Will Kimbrough, Georgia Middleman, Gary Nicholson, Maia Sharp and Darden Smith.
Their songs have been recorded by the likes of Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Cher, Kelly Clarkson, Emmylou Harris, Fleetwood Mac, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, John Prine and Ringo Starr.
“This performance shines a light on two important things – the power of music to help us connect, and the need to listen to today’s veterans and military families. These are the war stories of our times, and they have much to teach us,” said Songwriting With Soldiers co-founder Mary Judd.
Photo courtesy of Stacy Powell.
Many veterans struggle with reintegration. Songwriting With Soldiers holds weekend retreats across the country, pairing service members with professional songwriters to craft songs about their experiences in combat and coming home. The creative songwriting process is life-changing for participants as it offers a unique outlet to tell their stories, rebuild trust, release pain and forge new bonds.
The one-hour television special, “Songwriting With Soldiers,” will premiere nationally in prime time on PBS on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, at 10 p.m. (check local listings).
The program, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, will be taped for national broadcast on PBS this fall.
Tickets are on sale now for to the general public and are free to active military, veterans and their families. Tickets are available only at www.songwritingwithsoldiers.org/pbsconcert/.
This collaboration of Songwriting With Soldiers, PBS and WCTE Upper Cumberland PBS is produced by Todd Jarrell Productions and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) with additional underwriting from Sweetwater Music Instruments and Pro Audio.
The information contained on this page is provided only as general information. The inclusion of links on this page does not imply endorsement or support of any of the linked information, services, products, or providers.
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US troops are laying miles of razor wire on the border
By the end of the day on Oct. 5, 2018, there were more than 5,000 active-duty troops deployed to the US-Mexico border, where they are laying razor wire in preparation for the arrival of migrant caravans consisting of potentially thousands of people from across Latin America.
There are roughly 2,700 active-duty troops in Texas, 1,200 in Arizona and 1,100 in California, the Department of Defense revealed Oct. 5, 2018. These figures are in addition to the more than 2,000 National Guard troops that were deployed to the border in April 2018.
(US Air Force photo by Airman First Class Daniel A. Hernandez)
As many as 8,000 troops, if not more depending on operational demands, could eventually be deployed to the border in support of Operation Faithful Patriot
(U.S. Air Force photo by SrA Alexandra Minor)
“Barbed wire looks like it’s going to be very effective, too, with soldiers standing in front of it,” Trump, who considers the approaching caravans an “invasion” said at a rally in Cleveland on Oct. 5, 2018.
Source: ABC News
“There is no plan for US military forces to be involved in the actual mission of denying people entry to the United States,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford told reporters Oct. 5, 2018, “There is no plan for the soldiers to come in contact with immigrants or to reinforce the Department of Homeland Security as they are conducting their mission. We are providing enabling capability.”
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This lifting cue has all the life advice you’d find in a Clint Eastwood movie
Michael Gregory By Irene Jiang
I can speak with 90% certainty that in the 1997 classic song tubthumping when Chumbawamba said “I get knocked down, but I get up again.” they were talking about gravity.
This a-hole is literally doing everything in its power all day every day to keep us down. It’s like having a SNCO that wants you to fail just because he doesn’t like your nearly-longer-than-standards-permits haircut.
Today we are talking about how to make gravity your bitch. We might even uncover how to get one step ahead of that E-7 that wants your chevrons.
The concept of straight bar path is about to blow your mind.
[instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BsY5-ThgBWq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link expand=1]Pulse Physiotherapy on Instagram: “B A R P A T H ↕️ . The shortest distance between 2 points is in a straight line… ? . ✅ Hitting your knees on the way up or down during…”
How a straight bar path undermines gravity
When lifting weights, you aren’t actually lifting weights. You are overcoming gravity’s effect on the objects you are moving AKA the weights.
Our perception of gravity’s effect on a weight changes based on how inline the weight is with the muscles we are using to move the weight.
When the barbell holding the weights is perfectly inline with our balance point and the muscles we are using, the weight only feels as heavy as it actually is.
When the barbell is not inline with our balance point and muscle mass, the weight feels heavier than it actually is. It feels as if it is being pulled away from us by gravity.
[instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BtvxNkwB2Iy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link expand=1]Eugen Loki on Instagram: “⭕️CORRECT SQUAT BAR PATH⭕️ – A lot of people have the idea that if you don’t have a perfectly vertical bar path, your squat is inefficient.…”
The further from center mass, the heavier the weight feels.
Moving with a straight bar path is our best attempt to prevent gravity from pulling the weight away from us.
The straighter the path, the less extra resistance we have to overcome.
This is why form is so important in the barbell lifts. Poor form doesn’t only increase the risk of potential injury, it also makes the weight feel heavier than it actually is.
The bench press requires a curved bar path for the benefit of our shoulder health, not because we want to give into gravity’s force.
(@pheasyque via Instagram)
Straight Bar Path and Neuromuscular connection
Nearly all of the strength gains an individual experiences in the first 6-8 weeks of lifting is due to these two things.
You become more efficient at lifting. Your bar path becomes straight in your search for the path of least resistance. Also, the connections between your muscles and your brain become stronger and more efficient to ensure that straight bar path on every rep.
Sometimes straightest bar path is just to shut up and color…
(Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Katie Schultz)
How you can use this to your advantage when dealing with higher ranks
We squat and deadlift to fulfill a higher purpose, to get stronger. We utilize the straightest bar path possible so we can move the most weight possible so that we can become stronger faster.
Likewise, we serve to fulfill a higher purpose. In order to fulfill that purpose, whatever it may be for you, we must work with superiors that make our lives difficult.
There is a straight bar path equivalent here. Dealing with gravity is the easiest when we only push vertically directly against it, not on an angle. Dealing with a stubborn boss is easiest when you find the path of least resistance as well.
Maybe that means getting the hardest part of your job done when they are at lunch.
Life is like the back squat; difficult while forcing growth.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Danny Gonzalez/Released)
Maybe it means only reporting to them when they absolutely need to be informed.
Maybe it simply means always responding in a respectful manner, even if you don’t necessarily feel respect for them.
I know that sounds like some bologna advice. Imagine a scenario in which you get ripped into every time you neglect a salute or to say “Sir/Ma’am.” That ass tearing might take 10-15 minutes out of your day and make you feel butt-hurt for the rest of the day, which in turn will make you worse at your job and perpetuate more sessions of getting chewed out.
That’s inefficiency at its worst.
By finding the “straight bar path” for each person that outranks you, you can fulfill your purpose with the least resistance possible. There will still be resistance, don’t get me wrong, but that’s why we join. To overcome that which we previously thought insurmountable.
We all experience resistance to different degrees. It is always an opportunity to overcome, never a reason to quit.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Kalie Frantz)
A friend of mine recently said something to the effect of:
Life is like a video game, if you’re going in a direction with no bad guys, you’re going the wrong direction. The purpose of the game is to kill bad guys.
The same goes for life. Resistance should exist, whether it be gravity and a barbell or a particularly difficult job. We are here to overcome that resistance with the straightest bar path possible and get stronger as a result.
Work smarter, so you can be harder.
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Airman seeks to rejoin pararescue team despite loss of leg
Department of Defense By Irene Jiang
Staff Sgt. August O’Neil, Air Force Wounded Warrior, and fellow pararescueman and Wounded Warrior, Staff Sgt. Nick Robillard, prepare to deliver the Care Beyond Duty flag during the opening ceremony of the 2016 U.S. Air Force Trials at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Feb. 26, 2016. | U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Taylor Curry
In July 2011, Air Force Staff Sgt. August O’Neill, a pararescueman, was sent to rescue a group of Marines pinned down in Afghanistan when enemy insurgents opened fire on his team’s helicopter.
A round bounced off the helicopter’s door, tearing through both of O’Neill’s lower legs and critically wounding his left, resulting in 20 surgeries over the next three-and-a-half years as doctors tried to save the limb.
O’Neill finally told doctors to remove his left leg last year, but he remains determined to continue his career as a pararescueman.
Determined to Resume Career
“I haven’t looked back since,” said O’Neill, who’s training with the 342nd Training Squadron here, as he prepares to requalify for assignment to a pararescue team.
“I knew I wasn’t done doing this job,” he added.
Pararescue isn’t an easy job for any airman, let alone one who’s had their leg amputated just above the knee, but O’Neill believes he’s still up to the task.
“There are going to be issues that come up here and there,” O’Neill said. “But I’m sure I’ll make it back on a team. Just like anybody who hasn’t been in their job for a long time … I basically need to make sure everybody else knows that I’m capable of doing the job, and … I need to make sure I haven’t lost anything that I need.”
Pararescumen serve in one of the most physically demanding fields in the armed forces, with the journey from basic training to joining an operational unit spanning almost two years, according to the technical training course guide.
Seeking a ‘New Normal’
O’Neill said he isn’t expecting any special treatment as he trains over the next few months to demonstrate his mission readiness.
Wounded warriors and Air Force pararescuemen Staff Sgt. August O’Neill, right, and Staff Sgt. Nick Robillard pose for a portrait with the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program flag at the 2016 U.S. Air Force Trials at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Feb. 26, 2016. | Air Force photo by Senior Airman Taylor Curry
“I wouldn’t want to do this job if I couldn’t meet the same qualifications as everybody else, because that would put the people on my team at risk,” he explained. “You’re only as strong as your weakest member, so if I can’t keep up with them, that means they’re carrying me and that’s not something that I want.”
Living with a prosthetic is a minor annoyance in terms of his daily routine, O’Neill said. He doesn’t sleep with the leg on, for example, so he has to hop to the bathroom or the refrigerator when he wakes in the middle of the night.
“It’s just finding a ‘new normal’ for all the things I was able to do with two legs before,” he explained. “I’ve just been finding ways to get everything done.”
That minor annoyance turns into a bigger challenge during pararescue training, where O’Neill will have to depend on his ingenuity and adaptability to meet the other demands to the job.
“Anything from picking up a patient — where I can’t just roll down on a knee and lift them up — I have to find a different way to brace myself to get people up and move out,” he noted. “Everything is challenging, but it’s just a matter of finding out how to do it.”
As if navigating this “new normal” wasn’t enough, O’Neill said his training has been grueling.
“It’s tough mentally and physically,” he said. “You aren’t pushed to your limit — you’re pushed beyond that — to the limits that the instructors know you can reach. There are so many qualifications that you need to keep up with that you … can’t do so without being mentally prepared.”
One thing, at least, hasn’t changed for O’Neill since returning from his injury.
“I don’t like running,” he chuckled. “I’ve never been a distance runner and after four years of not running … that’s still difficult, but I can still run. It’s not as pretty as it was before, but I’m able to at least get the job done.”
US nuclear subs Hartford and Connecticut surfaced in the Arctic
US Navy By Irene Jiang
Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Hartford (SSN 768) and Seawolf-class fast attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) both surfaced in the Arctic Circle March 10, 2018, during the multinational maritime Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2018 in the Arctic Circle north of Alaska.
Both fast-attack submarines, as well the UK Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant (S91), are participating in the biennial exercise in the Arctic to train and validate the warfighting capabilities of submarines in extreme cold-water conditions.
Also read: Why the US has a base 695 miles north of the Arctic Circle
“From a military, geographic, and scientific perspective, the Arctic Ocean is truly unique, and remains one of the most challenging ocean environments on earth,” said Rear Admiral James Pitts, commander, Undersea Warfighting Development Center (UWDC).
(Photo by U.S. Navy Mass Communication 2nd Class Micheal H. Lee)
ICEX provides the U.S. Submarine Force and partners from the Royal Navy an opportunity to test combat and weapons systems, sonar systems, communications, and navigation systems in a challenging operational environment. The unique acoustic undersea environment is further compounded by the presence of a contoured, reflective ice canopy when submerged.
Related: The Coast Guard warns that Russia is moving in on the Arctic
According to Pitts, operating in the Arctic ice alters methods and practices by which submarines operate, communicate and navigate.
“We must constantly train together with our submarine units and partners to remain proficient in this hemisphere,” Pitts said. “Having both submarines on the surface is clear demonstration of our proficiency in the Arctic.”
In recent years, the Arctic has been used as a transit route for submarines. The most recent ICEX was conducted in 2016 with USS Hampton (SSN 767) and USS Hartford (SSN 768).
The first Arctic under-ice operations by submarines were done in 1947-49. On Aug. 1, 1947, the diesel submarine USS Boarfish (SS-327), with Arctic Submarine Laboratory’s founder, Dr. Waldo Lyon, onboard serving as an Ice Pilot, conducted the first under-ice transit of an ice floe in the Chukchi Sea.
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In 1958, the nuclear-powered USS Nautilus made the first crossing of the Arctic Ocean beneath the pack ice. The first Arctic surfacing was done by USS Skate (SSN 578) in March 1959. USS Sargo was the first submarine to conduct a winter Bering Strait transit in 1960.
The units participating in the exercise are supported by a temporary ice camp on a moving ice floe approximately 150 miles off the coast of the northern slope of Alaska in international waters. The ice camp, administered by the Arctic Submarine Laboratory (ASL), is a remote Arctic drifting ice station, built on multi-year sea-ice especially for ICEX that is logistically supported with contract aircraft from Deadhorse, Alaska. The ice camp will be de-established once the exercise is over.
Starbucks is hiring 10,000 refugees – starting with interpreters for US troops
Blake Stilwell By Irene Jiang
Executive orders to bar the entry of refugees from several Middle Eastern nations caused quite a stir over the weekend. The order restricts immigration from seven countries, suspends all refugee admission for 120 days, and bans all Syrian refugees indefinitely.
Starbucks employees in South Mumbai, India.
A few prominent corporate brands got creamed when their responses to the ban didn’t meet the expectations of the outraged protesters who poured into airport terminals all over the country. Others accidentally tapped the anger of the social media conservatives. One of the latter is the coffee giant Starbucks.
Related: A brief history of coffee in the US military
Anger at Starbucks Coffee boiled over when CEO Howard Schultz announced they would hire 10,000 refugees in countries where the company operates. Schultz sweetened the deal by adding that their first priority would be to hire those refugees who served as interpreters for American troops on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“There are more than 65 million citizens of the world recognized as refugees by the United Nations,” Schultz wrote in a company-wide letter to the coffee chain’s employees. “And we are developing plans to hire 10,000 of them over five years in the 75 countries around the world where Starbucks does business. And we will start this effort here in the U.S. by making the initial focus of our hiring efforts on those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in the various countries where our military has asked for such support.”
Conservatives on Twitter and Facebook accuse the company of being steeped in liberal ideology. This isn’t the first time Starbucks found itself in hot water with the #TCOT. Starbuck’s holiday cup designs drew ire in 2015 on the grounds that it filtered out typical Christmas imagery (like snowflakes and snowmen) in its design.
The next year, Starbuck released green cups to promote unity during a divisive 2016 election season. The company was accusing of liberal brainwashing. Each time a half-hearted boycott movement percolated around the brand on social media but didn’t reflect in the stores’ sales.
The chain’s dedication to hiring refugees who served with U.S. troops is consistent with the brand’s dedication to hiring American military veterans and assisting in the transition of military personnel into civilian life. The company dedicated its Starbucks College Achievement Plan to allow employee veterans (and their spouses) to earn a bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University online with full tuition reimbursement.
The 5 biggest stories around the military right now (July 30 edition)
Ward Carroll By Irene Jiang
Here’s the current stuff you need to know about:
Ex-Navy SEAL alleges anti-gay bullying by CIA workers
China Stages Huge Military Drills in South China Sea
Dismantling military’s transgender ban to begin Monday
DoD to Congress: Iran Deal or No, Military Options Open
Turkish military says three soldiers killed in PKK attack in the southeast
Now: 4 of the weirdest things the Nazis ever did
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Early warning signs emerge for GOP after US Capitol riots
House ready to impeach Trump as security concerns grow
By MARC LEVY, THOMAS BEAUMONT and NICHOLAS RICCARDI | January 12, 2021 at 9:12 AM EST - Updated January 12 at 1:22 PM
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Since last week’s deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, about 225 Republicans logged in to the election office in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to change their party registration. Ethan Demme was one of them.
“Ever since they started denying the election result, I kind of knew it was heading this way,” said Demme, the county’s former Republican Party chairman who has opposed President Donald Trump and is now an independent. “If they kept going, I knew there’s no way I can keep going. But if you’ve been a Republican all your life, it’s hard to jump out of a big boat and into a little boat.”
Officials are seeing similar scenes unfold elsewhere.
In Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 192 people have changed their party registration since the Jan. 6 riot. Only 13 switched to the GOP — the other 179 changed to Democrat, independent or a third party, according to Bethany Salzarulo, the director of the bureau of elections.
In Linn County, Iowa, home to Cedar Rapids, more than four dozen voters dropped their Republican Party affiliations in the 48 hours after the Capitol attack. They mostly switched to no party, elections commissioner Joel Miller said, though a small number took the highly unusual step of cancelling their registrations altogether.
The party switching pales in comparison to the more than 74 million people who voted for Trump in November. And it’s unclear whether they’re united in their motivations. Some may be rejecting politics altogether while others may be leaving a Republican Party they fear will be less loyal to Trump.
But they offer an early sign of the volatility ahead for the GOP as the party braces for political fallout of the riots that Trump incited.
House giving VP ultimatum before impeachment proceedings begin
“I do think there’s a palpable shift, from knee-jerk defense of the president to ‘wow, that was a bridge too far,’” said Kirk Adams, the former Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives.
Adams said he knew several people, including once-solid Trump supporters, who are switching their registrations. He said it may be weeks or months before the full impact of the insurrection is clear.
“Minds are being changed,” he said. “But you can’t go overnight from ‘I think the president’s right and the election is being stolen’ to ‘I guess he was wrong about everything.’”
Party registration doesn’t always preview how voters will actually cast their ballots, especially when the next major national elections are nearly two years away. But party leaders across the country are expressing concern that the riots could have a lasting impact.
The GOP cannot afford any slippage in its ranks after an election that, even with record-breaking Republican turnout, saw them lose control of both the presidency and the U.S. Senate.
“Increasingly I’ve looked at my party in this state and our numbers are dwindling,” said Gary Eichelberger, a commissioner in suburban Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. “If we narrow the base of the party, we are going to lose this county.”
Republicans in Washington are approaching the moment with caution, denouncing the insurrection and providing scant defense of Trump. But so far, few have joined Democratic calls for the president’s impeachment and immediate removal.
Just two Senate Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, have called on Trump to resign.
Multiple GOP officials said there was some unease about the party’s direction at the RNC winter meeting on Amelia Island, Florida, which took place a few days after the attack. Serious conversations are underway at the committee to conduct a comprehensive look at the 2020 election results to determine what the party did wrong and how to better appeal to voters, according to Henry Barbour, a RNC member from Mississippi.
But Trump still has a pull on swaths of the GOP base.
A Quinnipiac Poll released on Monday found roughly three-quarters of Republicans believe Trump’s false statements that there was widespread voter fraud in November’s election, which is what triggered the attack on the Capitol after Trump urged a crowd of supporters to go to Congress as it was set to certify the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
Overall 7 in 10 Republicans approved of Trump’s performance as president, compared to 89% in Quinnipiac’s December poll.
“When you love President Trump, you love President Trump,” said Michele Fiore, an RNC committeewoman from Nevada. “With all of our hearts, we support him. We know he did not create the chaos that happened in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6.”
Rae Chornenky, who stepped down as chair of the Maricopa County Republican Party in Arizona shortly after the election amid a power struggle with those in the state party claiming widespread election fraud, said she thinks the president still has a hammerlock on the party’s grass roots.
“They just believe it was a stolen election, and they’re not going to back off that position,” Chornenky said. “He’ll be the driving force” of the GOP for years to come, Chornenky predicted of Trump.
The 2022 midterm elections may provide a test of that. Former Rep. Ryan Costello is strongly considering a run for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat as a Republican. A longtime Trump critic, he sees the time as ripe for an explicitly anti-Trump GOP candidate.
“We need people willing to lose races, lose political campaigns, over this,” Costello said. “We need campaigns about the cleansing of the party. Sometimes it’s not possible to dance around landmines. Sometimes, you’ve just got to jump in there.”
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Riccardi from Denver. Associated Press writers Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Hannah Fingerhut in Washington; Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; Steve Peoples in New York; and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
The New Mexico county official was arrested on charges of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol.
NHCS parents and students rally for kids to go back to school
New Hanover county students along with their parents held a rally to show support in favor of moving to plan A.
Russell Clark
Thief steals car with 4-year-old inside, drives back to return boy, scold mother
KPTV Staff
Published 12:17 AM at 12:17 AM
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Agenda Speakers
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Investing in Your Employees
With the Focus on You program in place, learners are taking an active role in choosing their development path, and time spent learning has exploded.
increase in the average number of training hours per person
team members selected a job title in the system within 90 days
How to Differentiate Through Learning
Divisional Vice President,
PSAV
“In our industry, technical people like to claim certification on their resumes, but no one in the industry had really defined what that was. With our certification platform, we've led our industry to define and create skillset matrices for these certifications and include the external validation that was missing.”
When PSAV, a global leader in event experiences, grew more than three times its original size over a very short period, they found themselves with more than 14,000 skilled professionals spread across 2,100 global locations. When it came to learning and development, different locations operated independently, much of it instructor-led. The team knew it was time to unify the learning culture and create a standard.
If that wasn’t enough to take on, the CEO of PSAV challenged the Learning and Development team to create a program that could elevate the talent in such a way that it would differentiate the company within its industry.
What they set out to build was extraordinary: a program that recognized that team members are the company brand. Thus, Focus on You was born with a mission to be an invaluable partner to their employees on their career journeys. Rolled out so that every single team member, including part–timers, had access to the systems that support it, Focus on You is an integrated talent management strategy that spans culture, rewards, development and career.
The cultural aspects are focused on the company’s core values. The development part of the program includes five academies and more than 10,000 new or updated learning activities. The career portion of the program is powered by a skill set matrix that has a comprehensive listing of the skills needed for every role and role-based development guides that lay out training plans. Those training plans are organized for each employee. They include certifications for many disciplines, all linked to a career–pathing tool that helps employees find the training that aligns with their desired career aspirations. And finally, the rewards program focuses on the pay, benefits and well-being of the employees.
Many of PSAV’s employees are technically savvy workers. They aspire to acquire certifications for the sake of their resume, but in the event production industry, there was no governance over certifications. PSAV took matters into its own hands and worked to build certification programs that are validated externally, so when a PSAV technician has a certification, it means something and it is industry–recognized. These certifications are public in the labor scheduling tool that customers use, so when they select a person with a certification, it reinforces its importance.
In the end, the program has had outstanding results. Not only has PSAV seen the learning culture become considerably more proactive, but the company has also seen a remarkable impact on its customers, evidenced by exceptional increases in NPS scores.
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Commentary OpinionTHE NEOCONS
War with Iran would become 'Trump's war'
Pat Buchanan identifies usual suspects pushing for military action against Tehran
By Patrick J. Buchanan
President Donald Trump cannot want war with Iran.
Such a war, no matter how long, would be fought in and around the Persian Gulf, through which a third of the world's seaborne oil travels. It could trigger a worldwide recession and imperil Trump's reelection.
It would widen the "forever war," which Trump said he would end, to a nation of 80 million people, three times as large as Iraq. It would become the defining issue of his presidency, as the Iraq War became the defining issue of George W. Bush's presidency.
And if war comes now, it would be known as "Trump's War."
For it was Trump who pulled us out of the Iran nuclear deal, though, according to U.N. inspectors and the other signatories – Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China – Tehran was complying with its terms.
Trump's repudiation of the treaty was followed by his reimposition of sanctions and a policy of maximum pressure. This was followed by the designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a "terrorist" organization.
Then came the threats of U.S. secondary sanctions on nations, some of them friends and allies, that continued to buy oil from Iran.
U.S. policy has been to squeeze Iran's economy until the regime buckles to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's 12 demands, including an end to Tehran's support of its allies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Sunday, Pompeo said Iran was behind the attacks on the tankers in the Gulf of Oman and that Tehran instigated an attack that injured four U.S. soldiers in Kabul, though the Taliban claimed responsibility.
The war hawks are back.
"This unprovoked attack on commercial shipping warrants retaliatory military strikes," said Sen. Tom Cotton on Sunday.
But as Trump does not want war with Iran, Iran does not want war with us. Tehran has denied any role in the tanker attacks, helped put out the fire on one tanker and accused its enemies of "false flag" attacks to instigate a war.
If the Revolutionary Guard, which answers to the ayatollah, did attach explosives to the hull of the tankers, it was most likely to send a direct message: If our exports are halted by U.S. sanctions, the oil exports of the Saudis and Gulf Arabs can be made to experience similar problems.
Yet if the president and the ayatollah do not want war, who does?
Not the Germans or Japanese, both of whom are asking for more proof that Iran instigated the tanker attacks. Japan's prime minster was meeting with the ayatollah when the attacks occurred, and one of the tankers was a Japanese vessel.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal Monday were Ray Takeyh and Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a neocon nest funded by Paul Singer and Sheldon Adelson.
In a piece titled, "America Can Face Down a Fragile Iran," the pair make the case that Trump should squeeze the Iranian regime relentlessly and not fear a military clash, and a war with Iran would be a cakewalk.
"Iran is in no shape for a prolonged confrontation with the U.S. The regime is in a politically precarious position. The sullen Iranian middle class has given up on the possibility of reform or prosperity. The lower classes, once tethered to the regime by the expansive welfare state, have also grown disloyal. The intelligentsia no longer believes that faith and freedom can be harmonized. And the youth have become the regime's most unrelenting critics.
"Iran's fragile theocracy can't absorb a massive external shock. That's why Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has, for the most part, adhered to the JCPOA (the nuclear pact) and why he is likely angling for negotiation over confrontation with the Great Satan."
This depiction of Iran's political crisis and economic decline invites a question: If the Tehran regime is so fragile and the Iranian people are so alienated, why not avoid a war and wait for the regime's collapse?
Trump seems to have several options:
Negotiate with the Tehran regime for some tolerable detente.
Refuse to negotiate and await the regime's collapse, in which case the president must be prepared for Iranian actions that raise the cost of choking that nation to death.
Strike militarily, as Cotton urges, and accept the war that follows, if Iran chooses to fight rather than be humiliated and capitulate to Pompeo's demands.
One recalls: Saddam Hussein accepted war with the United States in 1991 rather than yield to Bush I's demand he get his army out of Kuwait.
Who wants a U.S. war with Iran?
Primarily the same people who goaded us into wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen, and who oppose every effort of Trump's to extricate us from those wars.
Should they succeed in Iran, it is hard to see how we will ever be able to extricate our country from this blood-soaked region that holds no vital strategic interest save oil, and America, thanks to fracking, has become independent of that.
Pat Buchanan was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the Reform Party's candidate in 2000. He is also a founder and editor of The American Conservative. Buchanan served three presidents in the White House, was a founding panelist of three national TV shows, and is the author of 11 books. His latest book is "Nixon's White House Wars."
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© Chris Linder
Sustaining earth and human systems in a time of urgency.
Woodwell Climate Research Center advances scientific discovery and solutions to address the world’s climate challenges. Originally founded as the Woods Hole Research Center in 1985, our world-leading research and education helps individuals, communities, and nations understand the realities of climate change, recognize the impact it is having everywhere on our planet, and embrace the urgent action needed to safeguard the future of life on Earth.
Left: Woodwell Climate researchers have worked with local scientists for over a decade to monitor water quality along the Congo River.
A collaborative approach to comprehensive solutions.
Woodwell Climate Research Center is an organization of highly respected researchers who work with a worldwide network of partners to understand and combat climate change. Our experts have vast experience in the field, collecting data firsthand and generating knowledge about Earth’s most consequential ecosystems.
Collaboration is critical to our research and the impact it has in the world. That’s why we cultivate partnerships at every level, across continents and fields of study—from international organizations and national governments to public and private institutions, as well as local communities and indigenous peoples.
Sharing our knowledge between researchers, global partners, decisionmakers, and the public, we work to turn knowledge into action and far-reaching impact.
WE’VE FOCUSED ON CLIMATE CHANGE SINCE 1985.
Above: Installing a flux tower to measure and relay real-time data about carbon uptake by plants and emissions from plants and soils, including from thawing permafrost.
Beginning a dialogue
Woodwell Climate Research Center was originally founded as Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) by the renowned ecologist Dr. George Woodwell in 1985, when climate change was just entering public discourse. The organization was established to put the insights of climate science into the hands of global decision makers. Since then, our researchers and dedicated staff have worked to advance understanding and urge meaningful action at the local, national, and international levels.
Above: Collecting water samples from a tributary of the Congo River.
Pursuing knowledge and communicating our findings to the public and the policy community, we have developed a decades-long legacy of leadership in climate science, policy, and education.
Our scientists helped to launch the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, and have contributed to every annual assessment report that has followed. In 2007, Woodwell scientists shared the Nobel Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, while two Woodwell Climate Research Center presidents, Philip B. Duffy, Ph.D. and John Holdren, Ph.D. served in White House science advisory positions. For the last four years, Woodwell was named the top climate change think tank in the world by the International Center for Climate Governance.
Above: Preparing soil samples for analysis.
Three and a half decades since our founding, it seems the world is finally opening its eyes to the mounting crisis of climate change.
In 2020, to better guide policy and decision makers around the world in facing these urgent realities, Woods Hole Research Center became Woodwell Climate Research Center—not only to honor our founder and one of the foremost scientific voices of our time, but to more clearly embody who we are: a group of scientists and a global network of partners singularly devoted to finding societal-scale solutions to the imminent threat of climate change.
Now more than ever before, we are resolved in that pursuit—to bring decades of expertise, discovery, and science-based answers to bear so that, together, we might solve the greatest challenge of our time.
Donations play an important role in securing the future of Woodwell Climate Research Center’s work—and help safeguard the health of our planet for generations to come.
Contribute to a Brighter Future
The time for urgent, informed action is now.
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ADB approves $33m loan for Dhaka MRT Line 5 project in Bangladesh
WCN Editorial Team 28 Nov 2019 ASIA TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide a loan of $33.26m for a project to design the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line 5 (Southern Route) in Bangladesh.
ADB said that the traffic volume in the Bangladeshi capital city exceeds road capacity by 20% on an average during peak hours and is claimed to exceed more than 100% on particular stretches in central areas, causing economic loss and lowering its livability standards.
The project readiness financing will help to carry out detailed feasibility studies, engineering design and procurement documentation to prepare for the 17.4km line, which will connect Gabtoli and Dasherkandi Stations in Dhaka.
The bank said that measures for climate and natural disaster resilience, and integrate features for women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities will also be included in the project design.
Advanced technology such as automated ticketing and fare collection systems with an integrated database for operations management will also be included in the system.
The Government of Bangladesh will contribute $11.3m for the total cost of the project readiness financing of $44.5m, which is due for completion by the end of 2023.
ADB South Asia principal transport specialist Kanzo Nakai said: “A high quality and high capacity public transport system requires huge financial resources and operational management capacity.
“ADB is one of the development partners responding to government requests for assistance in preparing and operationalizing the crucially important MRT system.”
The actual Line 5 project is estimated to cost nearly $2.5bn and financing for the project will be considered by ADB, the financial institution stated.
Considered to be one of the three high-priority lines in the capital to be completed by 2030, the planned MRT Line 5 is expected to serve as one of the city’s few east-west corridors to offer connections with other MRT and bus rapid transit lines going north-south.
The project construction will include nearly 13km underground with 12 stations, while the remaining section will be elevated with four stations.
Image: ADB to provide project feasibility financing for Dhaka metro project. Photo: Courtesy of Caro Sodar/Pixabay
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HCC-VCCL JV wins contracts worth $32m from Northeast Frontier Railway
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You are here: Home / News / Wisconsin House delegation getting back to work
Wisconsin House delegation getting back to work
January 6, 2015 By Bob Hague
Congress gets back to work this week, with a new majority, and new expectations of getting things done, according to Wisconsin Republican, Representative Paul Ryan of Janesville. “What concerns me is, we’ve got a new Congress that I think is going to be more productive. And we’re going to pass bills that I would argue are very common sense, middle of the road, moderate bills focused on job creation and creating a healthier economy and more jobs for Americans, and all the president has to do is sign this bills and moderate a bit,” said Ryan.
Representative Ron Kind said with the economy moving forward, congress needs to work together and not derail the economy with gridlock. Kind hopes his colleagues got the message from voters in November to work together. “They expect their elected representatives to act like grownups, to get together, talk to each other and work hard to get things done and find some common ground” said the La Crosse Democrat, adding that he’s hoping to work with on the House Ways and Means Committee to find ways to fund the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure.
But Ryan said much of the focus will be on President Barack Obama. “Is he going to try to pick fights with Congress and move to the left for political reasons, or is he going to try to get a few things done? The only person who can answer this question is President Obama.”
The Wisconsin congressional delegation will have a new member – former state Senator Glenn Grothman. “I don’t know much about Representative-elect Grothman,” said Kind. “I’ve known of him in the state legislature. I know he was a bit of a rebel . . . but we’ve had a tradition within the Wisconsin delegation that when there are things that impact the state directly we rally, and we try to work together regardless of party affiliation.”
In addition to Grothman, Kind and Ryan, Wisconsin’s House delegation includes Democrats Mark Pocan of Madison and Gwen Moore of Milwaukee, and Republicans Sean Duffy of Weston, Reid Ribble of Sherwood and Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls.
WRJN & WRDN contributed to this report
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You are here: Home / News / Walker calls McCain an “American hero”
Walker calls McCain an “American hero”
July 19, 2015 By Andrew Beckett
Gov. Scott Walker in Iowa (Photo: Asya Akca)
On the campaign trail in Iowa this weekend, Governor Scott Walker came to the defense of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), after Donald Trump questioned the former presidential nominee’s status as a war hero.
Speaking at a conservative forum in Iowa on Saturday, Trump said McCain is “a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
Trump’s criticism of the former GOP presidential nominee came after McCain raised questions about Trump’s own candidacy. McCain said previously that Trump had “fired up the crazies” with comments about immigrants during a recent rally in Phoenix, Arizona.
Governor Walker, who launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination last week, told a crowd in Sioux City, Iowa this weekend “somebody else raised a question about John McCain today. I’m not going to comment on his policies. I just want to say something unequivocally – John McCain is an American war hero.”
Speaking with reporters later, Walker said “We talk every day about the men and women who wear the uniform – someone like John McCain and many others like him who I have met across the country are indeed American heroes…to me, if someone goes after someone personally like that, I’m going to denounce that.”
Walker had previously said he would not talk about other Republican candidates on the campaign trail, but felt compelled to comment after the personal attack on McCain.
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You are here: Home / News / Ryan on school shooting: don’t ‘roll the conversation into taking away citizens’ rights’
Ryan on school shooting: don’t ‘roll the conversation into taking away citizens’ rights’
February 15, 2018 By Bob Hague
House Speaker Paul Ryan says the latest school shooting should not lead to taking away gun rights. On an Indianapolis radio station, the Janesville Republican was asked about Wednesday’s shooting, that left 17 dead at a Florida high school.
“It’s just a horrific, horrific, horrible, horrible shooting,” Ryan said on WIBC Thursday morning. “I think we need to pray. Out hearts go out to these victims.”
Ryan told host Tony Katz that in the wake of last year’s church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, the House voted to close gaps in reporting to the federal background-check system — although he said the U.S. Senate has not yet acted on that.
“So it’s not as if nothing has been done to enforce the laws we have on the books, and make sure that bad people who aren’t supposed to get guns don’t get guns,” Ryan said. “But I don’t that means you then roll the conversation into taking away citizens’ rights. Obviously this conversation typically goes there. Right now, I just think we need to take a breath and collect the facts.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks special issue spending, Ryan received more than $171,000 from the National Rifle Association during the 2016 election cycle.
On Thursday, a Florida judge orders the 19-year-old man who is a suspect in the deadly shooting rampage at a Parkland high school to be held without bond on 17 counts of murder.
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Marchers discuss political issues raised by Sydney protest
The WSWS spoke to public sector workers who rallied in Sydney yesterday to fight the New South Wales (NSW) government’s budget cuts and industrial legislation.
Cherie, a cleaner at Sutherland Hospital, said “all these government policies are pulling everything down” that workers had fought for over sixty years. “It’s happening all around the world, when you look at all the trouble in Europe and Italy and France,” she said.
The cleaner described the impact of years of budget cuts on the public hospital system. “In health, you go into a hospital you could wait five or six hours before a doctor can see you, or you even get a bed. It is getting to the point where people are going to die waiting in hospitals, like the little boy with appendicitis who died at Liverpool Hospital recently.”
Cherie said she did not understand how the financial markets worked, or why governments, both Labor and Liberal, accepted their dictates. “I know things are getting a lot harder for families and the next generation. I have grandchildren, and I would like to see them grow up to get decent education and jobs. If we keep going backwards that won’t happen.”
Cherie’s brother had worked in the Wollongong steelworks, where BlueScope Steel had just announced 1,100 retrenchments. “The BlueScope sackings are terrible. Those workers were given just a few months’ notice. Where are they going to find work in Wollongong? Where are the training courses to get new jobs?”
Warwick, a Sydney Ferries worker, denounced the privatisation of the ferry service, but pointed out that both Labor and Liberal governments pursued the same agenda. “If we lose staff, the safety of Sydney ferries will be jeopardised seriously. Down at the waterfront we have heard from the unions that there are wage cuts and cuts to conditions planned. These days it doesn’t matter what side of politics we’re up against, we’ll still have to use the same united front of workers. You can’t rely on what faction of government is in power to help workers—Labor or Liberal. They are the same.”
Walter, 57, who works for the Road Transport Authority, expressed concern over the conditions workers face in other countries. “How does it happen that in Thailand or Malaysia, or wherever else the designer brand products are made, they pay workers minimal [wages] then bring the stuff here and sell it for massive profits?
“These people are being paid a pittance and if they stand up and argue about it they get smashed! Well it’s no different here—every time you go on a protest they threaten to sue you or fine you. Look at the Teachers Federation. The government uses exactly the same umpire [the Industrial Relations Commission] it wants to get rid of to take the Teachers Federation to court and fine them $20,000 for taking the day off.”
Walter was disgusted that workers were being made to pay for the bailouts of the banks and financial institutions in 2008-09. “With the amount of money this country is bringing in with this mining boom we shouldn’t have to have these cuts. We should have the best hospitals and schools in the world! We’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of Americans lose their jobs over this, but no American or European bankers have gone to jail, no government ministers, no one from the big end of town. They brought in a series of measures—did their wages or conditions get cut? No! But everyone else’s did.”
Jasmine, who has recently become a high school geography, history and commerce teacher, objected to the federal Labor government’s standardised NAPLAN testing regime, as well as the O’Farrell government’s cuts.
“The cuts make becoming a teacher a profession you don’t want to go into. But it is the same with the Labor government’s NAPLAN testing. NAPLAN is there to regulate how much money will go into education. It will not help us teach better or help young people learn better. It turns children into a commodity. We are following in the steps of the US in terms of the similar regulation and cutting of spending on education. It is scary. I would like to think Labor would be different but it’s difficult to stand here today and think there would be any difference if Labor were in government.”
Noah, a university education student, said: “I’m here today because I believe in teachers’ rights. The teachers I work with have told me what’s involved in the government’s attacks. I’ve come to Australia from Canada because I want to work in public schools. I’m doing an internship, working in schools without pay. The public system should be maintained, it shouldn’t be privatised.”
Noah was surprised that Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s NAPLAN and MySchool scheme was calculated to push parents to transfer their children to private schools. “I wouldn’t have thought the Labor Party would be doing that; it sounds more like the Liberals. That’s very disappointing.”
Nicole, a school support worker, said: “We are upset about the 2.5 percent pay cap because school staff are already on low incomes. They work six hours a day and can’t do any overtime.” She added that many school staff spent years in temporary positions, unable to get permanency. The public sector job cuts were “disgusting … as a system the services are just not going to be there … We’ll all be disadvantaged, whether we work for the public sector or not.”
Nicole had been a Labor supporter but believed that “they aren’t what they used to be. The only way to stay strong is through the unions. Labor has lost sight of what they were initially there for. I think it’s a problem with all politicians; the point is to keep fighting regardless of who’s in government.”
Lennie, a teacher, said she was at the rally because “as a teacher my foremost concern is ensuring education for all.” She said wage cutting would send the best teachers into private schools. “We’re basically setting up two classes of schools in our society where we’re going to have to pay for education.”
Asked whether this would continue to happen under a Labor government, Lennie said: “I don’t think that at this point it would change anything. I think we were coming down this path anyway prior to this. We can see this with our federal government as well—there really is no difference between the two. We’re being driven in the same direction.”
Andrew, a Technical and Further Education teacher, said: “Our working hours have been increased from 30 to 35 hours a week, which means that we don't have time to do research, or to prepare. Our time is consumed by teaching, and administrative work.
“The system is all about user-pays—we pay a lot of money in taxes, but we don’t get it back from the government. The executives who caused the economic crisis are not being punished. We are the ones that suffer, and pay for the crisis that they caused. Everything is about money making—it’s not about people, or their future. It’s all about shareholders benefits.
“I’ve lost faith in both parties—I think they’re the same. Labor is supposed to be a representative of the workers, but they don’t seem to be doing that…That’s why they lost the election. But the O’Farrell government is even worse—all they are concerned about is cutting public sector jobs.
Jay, a university student, said: “I’m here at the protest today because I absolutely agree that workers have to stand in solidarity with each other to prevent cuts in living conditions. I’ve heard that this is the largest protest in two decades but I’d also say that the political climate seems to be one where we are trying to get rid of the Liberal Party but we’re not as staunchly critical of the Labor Party as we should be.
“There’s no real difference between Labor and Liberal. They’re both in favour of austerity and we should be challenging them both. It’s relatively easy for the unions to call a rally against the Liberals because they are so closely linked to Labor. If Labor was in government I doubt they would call a rally to oppose them.”
Global class struggleAustraliaAsia and the Pacific
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New political turmoil over post of Australian foreign minister
James Cogan
For the second time in the space of a week, the question of who holds the position of Australian foreign minister has been engulfed in controversy, plunging the Labor government into another public crisis.
On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Julia Gillard offered a vacant Senate seat and the post of foreign minister to the retired New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr. But Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan soon called Carr and withdrew the offer, just as Carr was preparing to fly to Canberra to announce he was joining the federal government.
These bizarre events unfolded just hours after Gillard had defeated a leadership challenge by Kevin Rudd, the man she ousted as prime minister in a political coup in June 2010 and who had resigned as foreign minister on February 22. Following Gillard’s victory, Senator Mark Arbib, one of the main organisers of Rudd’s removal, announced his unexpected resignation, creating the vacant seat that was offered to Carr.
Immediately after the leadership ballot, all sides proclaimed that the party would now unite to defeat the Liberal-National opposition at the next election. Gillard held a press conference to project her new political persona as a strong confident leader. All of this was rapidly undone by the divisions over the Carr appointment, exacerbated by Gillard’s evasive denials of what had occurred.
On Tuesday morning, Gillard emphatically declared that the contents of an Australian article detailing her previous day’s discussions with Carr were “completely untrue.” In parliament, however, Anthony Albanese, a senior Labor minister, who had supported Rudd, went on record to assert that Carr had been invited to serve as foreign minister. Gillard, well aware that any politician caught lying to parliament should resign, refused to repeat her categorical denial in answer to opposition questioning.
Gillard’s position has only worsened. According to the Australian, Bob Carr answered “Yes” when directly asked by the newspaper on Tuesday afternoon if he had been offered the vacant Senate seat and the foreign ministry. Carr modified that statement later in the day, but Labor leaks confirm that Gillard made the offer. The Australian was told the offer was reversed after two of her most prominent cabinet supporters, former Labor leader Simon Crean and Defence Minister Stephen Smith, declared Carr’s appointment was unacceptable, as Smith wanted the job.
The entire affair underscores Gillard’s tenuous hold on the prime ministership. On Monday, after defeating Rudd 71 votes to 31 in the Labor parliamentary caucus, she declared she had the “strong” support of her colleagues. A day later, she had what Geoff Kitney of the Australian Financial Review described as “arguably her worst day in parliament” since becoming Labor leader. “The Carr affair,” he wrote, “has left an unholy new political mess, of which she is the main victim.”
Gillard has been exposed as little more than a pawn in the hands of others, changing her views and carrying out actions at their instruction.
The abrupt reversal of Gillard’s offer to Carr is reminiscent of the anti-democratic events of June 2010, when she was chosen by inner party factional bosses to oust Rudd as prime minister in an unprecedented political coup. According to statements by Rudd last week, he and Gillard had agreed on the evening of June 23, 2010 that no challenge to his leadership would take place for four months. Ten minutes later, she re-entered his office and declared that a leadership challenge would be launched the next day. As the WSWS asked on February 28, “with whom did she speak when she left Rudd’s office? What was said to her to make her change her mind”?
The same questions arise over her plan to install Bob Carr as foreign minister. What was said, and by whom, that led to Swan’s phone call retracting Gillard’s offer?
In the Australian media, the Carr affair is being presented, like the Gillard-Rudd rivalry, as simply a matter of personalities. But it is no more credible to claim that the Carr appointment was blocked by Smith’s ambitions than to maintain that Gillard ousted Rudd in 2010 over his dysfunctional leadership style. Gillard has the sole prerogative to choose cabinet, but, according to the media script, her choice for foreign minister was overridden by her most prominent supporters for purely personal reasons.
The emphasis on personality conflicts serves to obscure the foreign policy issues that were central to the 2010 coup and have only sharpened in the subsequent 20 months. The Australian ruling class confronts a fundamental dilemma arising from the mounting tensions between its longstanding strategic ally, the United States, and China, now Australia’s largest trading partner.
Rudd, while completely committed to the US alliance, had sought to ameliorate tensions by encouraging Washington to accommodate Chinese geopolitical interests. The Obama administration is not seeking an accommodation with China. It has been intensifying diplomatic and strategic pressure throughout the region to undermine what it regards as a potential rival for influence.
Rudd was ousted by a handful of factional heavyweights with close connections to Washington. Mark Arbib, who was exposed by WikiLeaks as a “protected source” of the American embassy, played a pivotal role. On becoming prime minister, Gillard immediately fell into line with the Obama administration. Last November, during President Obama’s visit to Canberra, she announced that US Marines would be based in Darwin and Australia air and naval bases would be opened to the US military.
As Gillard has admitted publicly, however, foreign policy is not her forte. That has been revealed in the Carr appointment. While he is strongly committed to the Australia-US alliance, Carr’s positions, as revealed in his blogs, are even more out of sync with the Obama administration than Rudd’s.
Following the Obama-Gillard announcement last November, Carr blogged: “The more thoughtful American policy would be to accept a growing Chinese role in the Pacific and to negotiate the terms and conditions that surround it… It is patently in this country’s national interest to see in the Pacific a peaceful accommodation between the US and China… As for American military on Australian soil, they should never be permanently here. That would reduce Australia to a mere Okinawa. Nothing wrong with rotating them or with ship visits, nuclear armed or not. That is what an alliance means. A treaty partner we are, unapologetically, not an aircraft carrier.”
On December 1, Carr wrote: “Do we have as our goal a peaceful accommodation between the aspirations of China and the national interests of the US? Why did we allow the announcement about Marines rotating in the Northern Territory to be made in association with the US President’s strange speech attacking China? Who makes these foreign policy decisions and what discussion is there?... The government looks like it has blundered into siding with the Americans in their clumsy lurch towards containment of China.”
There is a common thread to these events, from the 2010 coup through to the reversal of the offer to Carr. The upheaval inside the Labor Party—the country’s oldest political party—reflects the acute dilemma of Australian imperialism, due to its political and military alignment with the US and its growing economic dependence on China. The political crisis will only worsen in the coming period as US-China tensions intensify.
World NewsAustraliaAsia and the Pacific
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: How to Change Difficulty
If you want to know how to change the difficulty in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, in this article we will tell you how to do it.
What is Assassin's Creed Valhalla about.
It is the latest installment in the popular open world historical fiction series developed by Ubisoft. In this new installment you will have to immerse yourself in the role of a Viking named Eivor and explore England in search of treasures, resources and new lands to claim as territory for his clan. At one point in the game, things will get beyond incredibly complicated, so knowing how to change the difficulty will be invaluable.
How to change the difficulty in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
The first thing to know about changing the difficulty in Assassin's Creed Valhalla is that the game has several difficulty settings that will allow you to tailor the experience to your own needs and play style.
To change the settings you will have to go to the menu with the touch panel on PS4 or the button on Xbox One> move left on the d-pad to access the appropriate options menu> Options> Game> and at the bottom they will be the following difficulty settings:
Combat Difficulty:
Skald (easy).
Vikingr (default).
Berserkr (difficult).
Drengr (very difficult).
This difficulty is quite clear, the higher the setting, the tougher the enemies and the more damage you will receive.
Stealth:
Apprentice (Easy).
Assassin (default).
Assassin Master (difficult).
This setting determines how easily and quickly enemies can detect you, notwithstanding the Assassination Guarantee setting that will allow you to take out all enemies with a single shot if active. But if it is off you will be able to shoot most of the normal enemies.
Exploration:
Adventurer (easy).
Explorer (default).
Pioneer (difficult).
This is the default setting, which will allow you to see different colored orbs on the HUD and map when you are close. Note that the HUD will be much more minimal and it may be more difficult to discover items of interest in the open world.
That's all you have to know about how to change the difficulty in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, we hope that our guide has been as useful as possible and that now that the game is over and starting you can adapt the difficulty of the game to your needs and way of playing. game.
PlayStation 4 PS4, PlayStation 5 PS5, Xbox One, Xbox series x, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows PC
Action role-playing RPG
Ubisoft, PlayStation Store, Uplay, Microsoft, Epic Games Store, Stadia
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Melania Trump defends the Donald in interview and misstates his ban on Muslims
Melania Trump, the Slovenian-born ex-model and wife of the GOP front-runner for president, spoke publicly this morning.
While many spouses of candidates eschew the spotlight, the wife of the very vocal Donald Trump has remained nearly mute throughout his campaign, opening up for some of her first comments following his win in South Carolina Saturday.
After her husband’s win in Nevada Tuesday night, Melania Trump told MSNBC in an interview that she doesn’t think her husband insulted Mexicans by characterizing them as rapists and that she just might disagree with the Donald’s foul language on the trail.
“I don’t feel he insulted the Mexicans,” Melania Trump said. “He said illegal immigrants. He didn’t talk about everybody.”
When asked about her own immigration status (she moved to the U.S. in 1996), Melania stressed that she went through the proper channels: “I follow the law. I follow a law the way it was supposed to be.”
While parenting her son has largely kept her off the campaign trail, Melania said she reads all the news “from A to Z.” She did not, apparently, read Trump’s quote from December calling for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.
“It’s not for all the Muslims,” Melania said. “We need to screen them, who’s coming to the country.”
Actually, it is for all the Muslims. Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” So, no screening.
Maybe her misunderstanding was a Freudian slip indicating she disagrees with the particulars of Trump’s ban? They have their differences, she noted.
“Do I agree with him all the time with him? No, I don’t,” she said when asked about Trump’s cursing during speeches. “And I tell him that. I tell him my opinions. I tell him what I think. Sometimes he listens, sometimes he don’t.”
If Trump becomes president, Melania Trump would be the second first lady born outside the U.S., and the first since John Quincy Adam’s wife Louisa, a Brit.
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Pic(k) of the Week: Mr. PBR
An appropriately hirsute Pabst Blue Ribbon man is beer-bedecked (also appropriately) during a baseball game at AT&T Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the home field of the Chattanooga Lookouts, on 28 April 2016.
The Chattanooga Lookouts are a minor league baseball team, founded in 1932. In 2015, the team affiliated with the Minnesota Twins, a Major League team that, as the 1901–1960 edition of the Washington (D.C.) Senators, spent the longest period as the Lookouts' parent team.
About Pabst
Pabst Brewing Company was founded in 1844 as the Best Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frederick Pabst, son-in-law of the brewery owner, would later join the brewery staff and eventually take control. After stewarding it into becoming the largest brewery in the country, [Pabst renamed the brewery eponymously] in 1889. [...] During the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, Pabst finished 0.3 points ahead of Anheuser-Busch] for its brews. The brewery responded by placing a blue ribbon on its packaging, something that remains to this day.
— The Oxford Companion to Beer: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Once the third largest brewing company in the United States, Pabst ceased all brewing operations in the mid-1990s. Since then, under several owners, Pabst has contracted with other breweries to produce its beers, as well as many 'legacy' American beers, such as Schlitz. In 2014, the company was purchased by a San Francisco–based private equity firm.
Although sales of PBR (as Pabst Blue Ribbon is popularly known) are now declining, the beer, inexpensively-priced, experienced an ironic renaiassance among so-called 'hipsters,' during the the aughts and early teens, for a perceived anti-corporate ethic.
Is that 'beer' lip balm PBR Man is holding? He looks a bit thirsty without a beer in hand.
-----more-----
Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as the subject.
Photos taken for YFGF. Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.
For more from YFGF:
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Labels: baseball, beer history, Pic(k) of the Week, sports
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New French school pitched as a boon for the broader community
A future francophone high school in Riverdale would contain a theatre and other spaces available to all Yukoners, according to an official from the French school board.
Myles Dolphin
Executive director Marc Champagne presented conceptual plans of what a new school could potentially look like at the board’s annual general meeting last week.
It would include classrooms, a library, a theatre space for over 200 people and offices for Association franco-yukonnaise staff.
The idea of combining a high school with a community centre has been floating around since 2007, said Champagne, the year the school board first proposed a new high school.
One of the main messages from last week’s meeting is that this project has the potential to be a real benefit to the city, not just the francophone community.
“There would be user agreements with the Yukon government and the city, and all of those facilities would be available for the benefit of the wider community. The idea is to maximize what we’re doing for the high school and integrate community needs.”
Sylvie Painchaud, president of Ecole Emilie Tremblay’s parent’s committee, said she agreed the building would bring a lot to the city.
“Whitehorse needs that kind of venue,” she said.
“This is a resource that we will be very happy to share with the whole community. If our kids are francophone, I never forget that 75 per cent have an anglophone parent.
“That is good thinking about sharing, instead of splitting.”
The school board and Yukon government have been mired in a court battle over the plans since 2009, when the board sued the government, saying that negotiations for a new school were going nowhere.
In 2011, the Supreme Court of the Yukon ordered the territorial government to build a new high school for francophones within two years.
In February 2014, however, the Yukon Court of Appeal found that ruling may have appeared biased because the judge had been governor of the Alberta group La Fondation franco-albertaine.
The French school board subsequently asked the Supreme Court of Canada to hear its case against the Yukon government.
After Canada’s top court ruled a new trial would be needed to sort out the long-running legal battle, both sides decided to try to resolve their differences out of court.
In May this year, the school board picked the site of Riverdale’s skate park for a future high school among three options presented by the Yukon government. If built, it would be the sixth school in Riverdale.
No timeline has been set for the construction of the school, but a newly-created construction committee has indicated it would like to see it completed by the fall of 2018, in time for the start of that school year.
A number of caveats remain before ground is even broken at Riverdale’s skate park.
The board needs to apply and obtain funding from Canadian Heritage to help cover the costs of the project. It also needs to apply for a development permit to the City of Whitehorse.
Education Minister Doug Graham has committed to building the school, but hasn’t formally announced it would be built in Riverdale, nor has he talked about a completion date.
Much has also been said about the potential increase in traffic that would come from adding another school to Riverdale.
Champagne said the construction committee would find solutions for that issue. One of them, he said, may involve staggering the opening times for the schools in the area.
“The traffic issue there isn’t about capacity, it’s about timing,” he said.
“There are a lot of sound, pedagogical reasons for delaying the start of the high school day. A lot of districts throughout North America have done that because studies have shown that teens experience something like jet lag in the morning, making it more difficult for them.
“If you start the high schools at 9 or 9:15 a.m. you could spread traffic out in the morning so it’s not so congested.”
At last week’s meeting, Champagne said he also brought up a stop-gap solution for high school students at Academie Parhelie.
As it stands, students and staff are running out of room at the school. The lack of space has created a ripple effect at the school, which, through overcrowding, has lost the use of its art, music and home economics classrooms.
The Grade 7-8 class now occupies those rooms. The portables, meanwhile, are used by the Grade 9-10 and 11-12 classes.
Two options have been identified by the board: to move the students to a wing at Porter Creek Secondary School, or to add a third portable at Ecole Emilie Tremblay.
Parents of those students have long complained about the situation, while enrolment at the school has risen steadily over the years.
There are currently 241 students registered at the school, from Kindergarten to Grade 12, up from 224 last year.
Ten years ago, there were only 112 students registered. But despite the growing number of elementary school students, the number of high school students has flatlined in recent years.
Painchaud said it’s a telltale sign that something needs to give.
“The reason why we need to do something now is because parents whose children are at the elementary school are considering sending their kids elsewhere once they get to Grade 9,” she said in January, after sending a stern letter to the French school board about the dangers of going another year without finding adequate space for the high school students.
Contact Myles Dolphin at
myles@yukon-news.com
High school headbangers seek to revive heavy metal scene
How to vote in the upcoming federal election
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Andrew Liddle
12:14 PM 28th July 2020
The Fat Cat At Kelham Island. Where History Was Made
So here I am standing reverentially before the famous Fat Cat in the wonderfully revived industrial area of Sheffield, Kelham Island. It’s a couple of years since I was here last but it hasn’t changed and the impact is still exhilarating, still sublime. No similarly unprepossessing building in the world could have this effect on the beer lover.
It’s a hot day and I order without hesitation or thought a pint of their flagship Pale Rider, a CAMRA Supreme Champion Beer of Britain award winner. A nice strength at just over 5 per cent ABV, it has a distinctly refreshing taste of citrus and fruity hops. The medium-carbonation is right for a hot day. The medium off-white head had practically gone before I find a seat in a tight corner. I’m pleased to learn that Prince Charles has been known to request a pint of it when he’s in these parts and the heir to the throne instantly goes up in my estimation.
This is my kind of a pub and you might say it’s where it all started back in the 1990s at a time that the idea of a brewing revolution was in the air, germinated by CAMRA, and beer drinkers were increasingly revolting against the keg stuff that the big brewing chains tried to pass off as real ale.
Outwardly a small brick-built pub dating from the mid-1850s but surprisingly roomy inside, it was originally called ‘The Alma’. Put up for auction in 1981, it was purchased by Dave Wickett and Bruce Bentley who opened it under the new name on 21st August, 1981, a historic date, if you like. Their declared aim was to provide an alternative to the pubs owned by the big breweries.
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Originally, they bought in outstanding ales from all parts of the country but in 1990 founded Kelham Island Brewery to produce their own, siting the building in the beer garden. The first brew was in September, another historic date, making them the first new independent brewery in Sheffield in almost 100 years.
Equipment purchased from the recently closed Oxford Brewery facilitated a full mash brewing of around 10 brewers’ barrels a week. In order to cope with demand, a purpose-built brewery was eventually constructed a short distance along the road, the original brewhouse becoming the visitors’ centre. In March 1999, the new brewery opened with a capacity increased to 50 brewers’ barrels.
It’s hardly a coincidence that since their establishment, all four of Sheffield’s large breweries have closed: Whitbread went in 1993, Hope & Anchor shut its door in 1994 and Stones Brewery and Wards Brewery both closed in 1999. By 2008 and with real ale taking off on a grand scale, Kelham Island Brewery was again updated doubling in size, giving it a capacity of a 100 brewers’ barrels.
I am speaking to Dave’s son, Ed, who took over in 2012. He waves away my tributes and says modestly: ‘Look, we’re extremely proud of our roots and our reputation but we realise we have no divine right to continued success. We work very hard to make sure every beer we produce is up to the highest standard – and to keep up with trends which are ever changing.’
An example of innovation is the craft lager which they are currently working on, always looking to cater for the broadest range of tastes by increasing their core range which at present includes Easy Rider, Kelham Best, Pride Of Sheffield and Riders On The Storm. ‘Tom Arnold, our Head Brewer, is always trying to put into practice ideas that I come up with and which we eventually concoct between ourselves.’
Driven Men
I ask about his father and he tells me he was not just a pioneer for brewing and for Kelham Island but a great boon to the industry in general. ‘He was an entrepreneur with a tremendous drive behind him. If he wanted to do something, he’d do it.’
Driven men can sometimes be a little hard to keep up with, I prompt. ‘Yes, he could be slightly aggressive, I suppose, but he was fair and generous and he would do anything for anybody.’ He smiles. ‘But I was on the end of a good few tongue lashings, I can tell you, if I didn’t come up to scratch.’
Does he take after his father? ‘In some ways yes, but he was a massive academic, a great student of economics.’ He gives it some thought. ‘I’m not like that. I’m more practical. I have to get involved, hands-on.’
Back to the Pale Rider, itself. It’s one of the finest pale ales you’ll ever come by, an aesthetically appealing pale golden amber, exuding its own pleasant distinctive aroma of malted caramel and fruity hops. The notes on the palate are at once delicate and fruity but crisp and zesty. A strong hint of hops gradually introduces itself subtly to give a flavour which is full and bitter-sweet and far more pleasingly complex than the majority of pale ales.
It’s truly a legend, sold and enjoyed all over the world but it won’t taste better than here in this tiny pub, at Kelham island, consumed in the company of the son of the great man who delivered a mortal blow to the big chains, put the Whitbread tankards and Watney red barrels in their place – anywhere but here!
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Full House Committee on Veterans Affairs marks up H.R. 1769, the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015
Vietnam Veterans of America - Legislative Update
H.R. 1769, the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015, will be marked up on February 25, 2016 by the full House Committee on Veterans Affairs in room 334 Cannon House Office building at 10:30 am.
Cora Launches Organic Tampons To Fight Dangerous Toxins In Female Hygiene Products
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eilenezimmerman/2016/02/24/a-tampon-that-isnt-wrapped-up-in-pink/#747e8cc17457
The average American woman uses more than 16,000 tampons in her lifetime and one thing they continue to be wary of is the amount of dioxins in tampons. Dioxins are thought to be caused by the bleaching processes involved in creating the fabric of tampons, usually cotton, rayon or blends of the two. According to the FDA, at one time bleaching wood pulp was a potential source of very small amounts of dioxin in tampons, but that bleaching method is no longer used. The kind of bleaching that is used now, known as elemental chlorine-free bleaching, is thought to eliminate the dioxin problem. The FDA says if it does release any, it’s at extremely low levels—levels it says do not present a health risk.
But another potential health problem, Toxic Shock Syndrome, might be caused by the use of synthetic materials in tampons. TSS surfaced in 1978, and it is a complication of a bacterial infection that can happen from wearing a tampon for too long, especially a large size tampon. It was thought to have been largely eliminated but in 2012 the model Lauren Wasser nearly died from it, and had to have a leg amputated. Her family is suing Kimberly-Clark Corporation, which manufactures the tampons that allowed bacteria to flourish and Wasser to become sick with TSS. The family believes the use of synthetic materials in the tampon put Lauren at risk and puts other women at risk too
BREAKING NEWS: Blue water sailor wins agent orange benefits
http://www.obsentinel.com/opinion/veterans-post-blue-water-sailor-wins-agent-orange-benefits/article_5a3da2de-da39-11e5-a8b1-df5a32785d58.html
It took six years and an aggressive attorney, but a Blue Water Sailor has finally been given full benefits for Agent Orange exposure.
When the sailor first applied in 2010 for benefits for ischemic heart disease due to AO exposure, the response was typical: The VA said no because he’d been on a carrier out at sea. He continued to appeal. And appeal. And appeal.
The VA finally told him to either go away or go to court. Naturally he chose court and got an attorney. The VA was ordered to take another look at the facts and finally decided that 100 percent disability for ischemic heart disease due to AO exposure was appropriate, backdated to when symptoms first appeared, many years earlier.
If you were on a ship near Vietnam, the questions to consider are: If you were assigned to a ship and were flown out to it, where had the plane been? Was the plane contaminated and bringing AO every time it landed on a carrier? Did you unload cargo from those planes or work on them? Did the ship ever bring on fresh fruits and vegetables? Did the ship ever dock? Did it take on water for distillation inside the 12-mile limit? Did your mail and supplies sit on the runway near the AO storage area in Da Nang?
Meanwhile, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act (HR-969) was recently introduced in the House of Representatives. The legislation will give AO presumptives to sailors and Marines who served in offshore waters of Vietnam.
If you’re fighting the VA, go online to The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program [www.vetsprobono.org]. You can hook up with a specially trained attorney – for free – who will take your case. You’ll pay nothing unless you win back entitlement.
Give 'blue water veterans' health coverage they need, deserve
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/article/20160223/OPINION/160229893
Last week, Rep. Joe Courtney(D), (CT-2), called for congressional action to help so-called blue water Navy veterans — those who served in territorial waters overseas during the Vietnam War, and who may suffer illnesses linked to exposure to Agent Orange.
That these veterans lack full Veterans Administration coverage for these illnesses is a national disgrace, and Congress can and should act swiftly to remedy the situation.
The VA presumes that any veteran who served on land or in Vietnam’s inland waters was exposed toAgent Orange, the toxic herbicide used for a decade during the war. Those veterans are compensated for any of a bevy of illnesses associated with and presumed linked to exposure, including diabetes, cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
Blue water vets, however, are excluded; the VA maintains there is no scientific basis or legal justification to cover them. But advocates say Agent Orange — which contains dioxin, a potent toxin — ran off into the sea where it was sucked up and distilled by Navy vessels and used for drinking, bathing and laundry. The distillation process only concentrated the dioxin.
The Agent Orange Act of 1991 originally covered blue water veterans, but the VA changed its interpretation in 2002 to exclude them. That decision withstood a 2008 court challenge, and in April, an appeals court ordered the VA to review the policy. But earlier this month, the administration announced it had decided to maintain its policy limiting blue water veterans’ coverage.
One of the bases of the VA’s position is a 2011 Institute of Medicine report which did not find sufficient evidence to support extending presumption of exposure to the offshore Navy vets. Incidentally, that report also identified plausible pathways by which Agent Orange could have traveled to sea and into ships’ distillation systems.
In other words, there isn’t a scientific guarantee that blue water veterans were exposed to Agent Orange, but there a credible possibility. In our view, when it comes to veterans’ well-being, the VA ought to be erring on the side of caution — not excluding some because absolute scientific certainty isn’t there.
Those who served the country in the armed forces deserve the benefit of the doubt.
That’s our opinion. What’s yours? Email letters@norwichbulletin.com.
A word from our sponsor...
Blue Water Navy bill (H.R. 969) held up in VAC
http://middlesborodailynews.com/opinion/columns/7473/blue-water-navy-held-up
Congress House Bill HR-969 and Senate Bill S.681, both Bills titled The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Agent Orange Act. These bills are held up in the Veterans Affairs Committee because no dollar amount has been assigned, the cost to provide proper VA benefits, without a dollar amount assigned to these bills nothing will happen to provide VA benefits to veterans who are sick from Agent Orange exposure.
At this writing there are 301 members of Congress in favor of passage and 37 members of Senate in favor. This is well over the numbers of both Houses needed to send the bills to the floor for a vote. This cannot happen without a dollar amount assigned. The VA is attempting to stop passage of these bills. The VA’s job and obligation is to help veterans in need, not hinder their obligation as set forth by law. The committees of both legislative Houses may have to appeal to the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. to stop the VA from blocking any action in getting these bills an acceptable dollar amount. Once this can happen, these bills will go for a vote.
America is a free and sovereign Nation. As such we take on none selfless obligations to help other countries in need. This is well and good, it is a part of what America is about. However, what about our veterans who fight the battles to keep America free? Many come home sick and broken in need of help. When it comes to special veteran groups like the Blue Water Navy, Vietnam, the VA does not recognize them. A legislative bill must be passed to force the VA to care for this group of war veterans.
Toxic ‘hot spot’ near Arcata could impact projects
http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20160219/toxic-hot-spot-near-arcata-could-impact-projects
Chemical leftovers from Humboldt County’s once booming timber industry could create costly delays for two Arcata projects near its marsh and wildlife sanctuary.
One project seeks to construct a dog park at the old Little Lake Industries lumber mill site on South I Street. The other would reuse dredged soils from the bay to create a buffer to protect city properties from sea level rise.
However, recent tests of Humboldt Bay sediment along the marsh found a “hot spot” of harmful compounds known as dioxins, according to Humboldt Baykeeper Director Jennifer Kalt. Dioxins are found in a wood preservative once used by many of the nearly 100 mill sites near Humboldt Bay, which had either spilled or had been dumped into the bay over the decades, Kalt said.
“It was so toxic that it was restricted in the late 1980s,” Kalt said. “It’s only allowed now to be used on power poles.”
USET Passes Resolution in Support of Toxic Research Act
http://www.vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/index.html#Groups
On February 11, the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc., (USET)—comprised of 26 federally-recognized Tribal Nation members--passed a resolution in support of S.901 and H.R.1769, the Toxic Exposure Research Act, reported Stephen Bowers of the Seminole Tribe of Florida who serves as the chair of the USET Veterans Affairs Committee. “This means our USET Legislative Affairs staff will now start calling congressman and senators to get on board with helping to pass the two bills,” said Bowers, who also serves as liaison to the Florida Governor’s Council on Indian Affairs; as VVA National Minority Affairs Vice Chair for Native Americans; as president of VVA Chapter 23; and as president of the American Indian Veterans Memorial Initiative.
View the groups in support of H.R.1759 and S. 901
IOM Panel: Stop Searching for Links between Toxic Exposures & Gulf War Illnesses
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/health-care/2016/02/11/panel-va-stop-studying-causes-gulf-war-illnesses-focus-treatment/80225672/
A scientific panel has concluded that the Veterans Affairs Department should stop searching for links between environmental exposures in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and veterans’ illnesses and instead focus on monitoring and treating those who have health problems related to deploying 25 years ago.
In a report released Thursday, Institute of Medicine researchers said Gulf War veterans are at increased risk for developing some physical and psychological health conditions like post-traumatic stress, anxiety, Gulf War illness and chronic fatigue syndrome, but other diseases like cancer, respiratory illnesses and most neurodegenerative conditions do not appear to occur at higher rates in these former troops.
Without concrete information on each Gulf War veteran’s exposure and the unlikely prospect of ever having the data, VA should focus instead on following this group as members age and treat illnesses that develop, panelists said.
According to the report, the federal government has spent more than $500 million since 1994 to study Gulf War veterans' health but “there has been little substantial progress in our overall understanding of the health effects” from the 1990-1991 deployments.
Thus, “without definitive and verifiable individual veteran exposure information, further studies to determine cause-and-effect relationships between Gulf War exposures and health conditions in Gulf War veterans should not be undertaken,” wrote the panel of researchers, including experts in environmental health, epidemiology and medicine.
Future research, they added, should focus on personalized care for veterans, follow-up assessments and treatment.
The panel's top recommendation also said VA should thoroughly study the “mind-body” connection of disease.
"Any future studies of Gulf War illness should recognize the connections and complex relationships between brain and physical functioning and should not exclude any aspect of the illness with regard to improving its diagnosis and treatment,” panelists noted.
The new report has outraged advocates for veterans who suffer from illnesses stemming from their service in the 1990-1991 operation.
They argue the report reflects a bias among the panel toward VA and panelists were selective in choosing which studies they reviewed for the study, "Gulf War and Health, Volume 10: Update of Health Effects of Serving in the Gulf War, 2016."
EPA Directs Additional Safety Measures for San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/83ddf70854df3fae85257f5c0077e6c5?OpenDocument
DALLAS – (Feb. 17, 2016) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new safety requirements for the temporary armored cap at the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site in Harris County, Texas. EPA has directed both International Paper and Industrial Maintenance Corporation, the potentially responsible parties (PRPs) for the San Jacinto Waste Pits Superfund site in Harris County, to add 24 hour/7 day a week surveillance and warning buoys around the perimeter of the site boundaries. Inspection protocol requirements will be expanded and double the frequency of required underwater inspections from semi-annual to quarterly. In addition, EPA has instructed the PRPs to conduct additional environmental sampling from the temporary armored cap, sediments, surface water and groundwater. On February 16, the PRPs confirmed their intent to address each of EPA’s directives. In December 2015, EPA’s inspection dive team discovered an area of possible damage to the temporary armored cap. Visual dive operations found displacement in the stone cover of the protective cap but could not fully delineate the damaged area or the full extent of damage to the protective cap. Pursuant to EPA’s direction and oversight, the PRPs delineated a damaged portion of the rock layer measuring 25’ by 22’ (surface area). The precise cause of the damage to the cap is unknown and under investigation. The EPA has employed the assistance of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to further investigate the possible causes of the damage.
What Lessons Can Vietnam teach Okinawa about U.S. Military Dioxin?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/what-lessons-can-vietnam-teach-okinawa-about-u-s-military-dioxin/5507309
In December 2015, Urasoe City pledged to conduct a survey of former base employees to ascertain the extent of contamination at Camp Kinser, a 2.7 square kilometer US Marine Corps supply base located in the city.1 Urasoe’s director of planning, Shimoji Setsuo, announced that the municipality would work with prefectural authorities to carry out the investigation and he would also request funding from the national government. This is believed to be the first time that such a large-scale survey of former base workers has been launched in Japan.
Triggering Urasoe’s decision were Pentagon documents released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) revealing serious contamination at Camp Kinser.2 According to the reports, military supplies returned during the Vietnam War leaked substances including dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and insecticides within the base, killing marine life. Subsequent clean-up attempts were so ineffective that U.S. authorities worried that civilian workers may have been poisoned in the 1980s and, as late as 1990, they expressed concern that toxic hotspots remained within the installation.
Following the FOIA release, United States Forces Japan (USFJ) attempted to allay worries about ongoing contamination at Camp Kinser. Spokesperson Tiffany Carter told The Japan Times that “levels of contamination pose no immediate health hazard,” but she refused to provide up-to-date environmental data to support her assurances. Asked whether USFJ would cooperate with Urasoe’s survey, Carter replied that they had not been contacted by city authorities. She also ruled out health checks for past and present Camp Kinser military personnel.3
Last year, suspicions that Camp Kinser remains contaminated were heightened when wildlife captured by Japanese scientists near the base was found to contain high levels of PCBs and the banned insecticide DDT.4
Gulf War Newsletter - Winter 2016
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/publications/gulf-war/gulf-war-winter-2016/index.asp
Gulf War Remembered—VA Employees and Veterans Reflect on Experiences
To mark the 25th anniversary of the start of Operation Desert Storm, VA wants to remember and honor those who served by sharing reflections on the war from VA employees—many of whom are also Gulf War Veterans.
Health of Gulf War and Gulf War Era Veterans
The results of a recent survey on the physical and mental health of Gulf War and Gulf War Era Veterans indicate that more than 20 years after the war, Veterans who were deployed continue to report poorer health than Veterans who did not deploy.
Research Spotlight: Can Light Therapy Help the Brain?
Researchers at the VA Boston Healthcare System are testing the effects of light therapy on brain function in Veterans with Gulf War Illness.
- See more at: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/publications/gulf-war/gulf-war-winter-2016/index.asp#sthash.CExabHpj.dpufMORE
The Agent Orange of this Generation
http://iava.org/blogs/creative-spotlight-the-agent-orange-of-this-generation/
In The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers, Joseph Hickman, a former U.S. Marine and Army sergeant gives a stunning expose of the ongoing health disaster created by the open-air burn pits on military bases throughout Afghanistan and Iraq, calling them the Agent Orange scandal of of our day.
Open air burn pits were created to dispose of trash accumulated on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan since the onset of the wars. It is estimated that each service member accumulated nine pounds of trash per day.
Fetal Dioxin Exposure Seen to Increase Risk of LUTS Development in Adult Mice
http://bphnews.com/2016/02/17/early-tcdd-exposure-risk-for-luts-development-in-adult-mice/
A study published in the journal Toxicological Sciences found that exposure to the common environmental pollutant 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) increased the risk of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) related to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in genetically susceptible mice.
TCDD, often referred to simply as dioxin, is one of the most widely spread environmental toxins. It is present in drinking water and, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stems in large part from backyard burning of waste as well as from manufacturing and refining processes. The chemical is highly toxic and only slowly eliminated from the body, so that exposure to even the low amounts found in the environment are potentially dangerous for human health. The half-life of TCDD in humans is 7–11 years, and experimental animals exposed to higher levels have a delayed or incomplete prostate development. The chemical also increases cancer risk.
Evidence for a fetal origin of prostatic disease is beginning to emerge. To test whether genetically susceptible mice would develop more severe LUTS following TCDD exposure, University of Wisconsin researchers used a mouse with mutations predisposing it to prostate hyperplasia. Pregnant mice received one single dose of TCDD that was low enough not to cause a disruption in prostate development, but high enough to remain in the mice pups throughout weaning.
When male mice were adult, some were also exposed to higher levels of testosterone and estradiol in doses that are known to cause urinary disturbance in mice, and were then allowed to live for four more months. According to the report — titled “In utero and Lactational TCDD Exposure Increases Susceptibility to Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction in Adulthood“ — the mice that were exposed to TCDD alone had a reduced voiding pressure. Otherwise, TCDD exposure had little effect on the lower urinary tract anatomy or function.
Ex-Freedom Industries Owner Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail, $20,000 Fine
http://wvpublic.org/post/ex-freedom-industries-owner-sentenced-30-days-jail-20000-fine
A former executive of a chemical storage facility in West Virginia has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and order to pay a $20,000 fine. The charges stemmed a January 2014 chemical spill that left some 300,000 area residents without water for days.
Former Freedom Industries owner Dennis Farrell will serve time for federal pollution violations.
Four other ex-Freedom officials have been sentenced to probation and ordered to pay fines.
Ex-company President Gary Southern is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
Federal prosecutors brought the case against the company and its top executives after an estimated 7,500 gallons of a coal cleaning chemical leaked from storage tanks and into the Elk River.
The company filed for bankruptcy eight days after the spill. It’s been fined $900,000, although a federal judge said that fine was symbolic due to outstanding debts.
Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Still Poorly Understood: Report
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_157210.html
VA-sponsored study says people should be monitored for ALS, cancer and other diseases that take years to develop
Scientists and doctors still lack good insight into Gulf War illness and other health problems plaguing U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, a new report says.
More than $500 million in U.S. government-funded research on Gulf War veterans was conducted between 1994 and 2014, producing many results. But there has been little overall progress in understanding the health effects of serving in that war, according to an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee.
Echoing conclusions of a 2010 IOM report, the new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-sponsored study said Gulf War veterans appear to be at increased risk for Gulf War illness, chronic fatigue syndrome, digestive disorders, and such mental health conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and substance abuse.
The review of available scientific and medical literature also found evidence of a link between Gulf War deployment and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), fibromyalgia, chronic pain and sexual problems.
While ALS -- also called Lou Gehrig's disease -- was the only neurologic disease for which there was evidence of an association with Gulf War service, veterans of that war are still young in terms of the development of degenerative brain diseases.
Therefore, the IOM committee said the VA should continue to monitor Gulf War veterans for degenerative brain diseases that take a long time to develop, such as ALS, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
There was not enough information to determine whether Gulf War veterans are at added risk for cancer, but the committee said the VA should continue to assess cancer rates among these veterans.
Evidence for Gulf War illness has increased in recent years, but there has been little improvement in understanding the disease or how to treat or manage it. A debilitating disorder, its symptoms include fatigue, joint and muscle pain, headaches, concentration and memory difficulties, gastrointestinal problems and skin rashes.
Self-reported Agent Orange exposure higher among veterans with thyroid cancer
http://www.healio.com/endocrinology/thyroid/news/online/%7B5c4460cd-6d97-4f93-b028-a4b941454d88%7D/self-reported-agent-orange-exposure-higher-among-veterans-with-thyroid-cancer
Self-reported Agent Orange exposure was more prevalent among patients with thyroid cancer compared with the overall national Veterans Affairs patient population, study results show.
Angela M. Leung, MD, MSc, assistant professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, and colleagues evaluated data from all U.S. Veterans Health Administration health care sites from October 1999 to 2013 to determine the characteristics of patients with thyroid cancer in relation to Agent Orange exposure. Overall, 19,592 patients with thyroid cancer were included in the study.
During the study period, the prevalence rates of thyroid cancer among veterans was 0.09% for women and 0.098% for men.
Compared with the non-exposed veteran population (6.2%), more veterans self-reported Agent Orange exposure (10%; P < .0001). A history of ionizing radiation was reported by 0.54% of patients with thyroid cancer.
“The study, as the first epidemiologic assessment of thyroid cancer among veterans at the national level, utilizes the [Veterans Health Administration’s] single integrated medical record system and suggests that Agent Orange should be further studied in relationship to thyroid cancer,” the researchers wrote. “Additional research regarding the strength and consistency of this association may lead to a better understanding of the potential relationship between Agent Orange exposure and thyroid cancer within this population.”
Biomonitoring of selected persistent organic pollutants (PCDD/Fs, PCBs and PBDEs) in Finnish and Russian terrestrial and aquatic animal species
7thSpace
The Finnish and Russian animal species (semi-domesticated reindeer, Finnish wild moose, Baltic grey seal and Baltic herring) samples were biomonitored in terrestrial and aquatic environments for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs).
Results: Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) was clearly the most contaminated species. The mean PBDE concentration in grey seal was 115 ng/g fat, and the highest WHO-PCDD/F-PCB-TEQ (toxic equivalent set by WHO) was 327 pg/g fat.
In Finnish, reindeer WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ varied from 0.92 pg/g fat in muscle to 90.8 pg/g fat in liver. WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ in moose liver samples was in the range of 0.7–4.26 pg/g fat, and WHO-PCB-TEQ in the range of 0.42–3.34 pg/g fat.
Overall moose had clearly lower PCDD/F and DL-PCB concentrations in their liver than reindeer.
Conclusions: Terrestrial animals generally had low POP concentrations, but in reindeer liver dioxin levels were quite high. All Finnish and Russian reindeer liver samples exceeded the EU maximum level 8 for PCDD/Fs (10 pg/g fat), which is currently set for bovine animals.
Compensation for Exposure to Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune
http://benefits.va.gov/compensation/claims-postservice-exposures-camp_lejeune_water.asp
In the early 1980s at the Marine Corps Base in Lejeune, NC, it was discovered that two on-base water-supply systems were contaminated with the volatile organic compounds trichloroethylene (TCE), a metal degreaser, and perchloroethylene (PCE), a dry cleaning agent. Benzene, vinyl chloride, and other compounds were also found to be contaminating the water-supply systems. The water systems were contaminated from August 1953 through December 1987.
There is limited and suggestive evidence of an association between certain diseases and the chemical compounds found at Camp Lejeune during the period of contamination. VA will consider disability compensation claims based on exposure to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune on a case-by-case basis.
You must be a Veteran who was discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.
You must have served at Camp Lejeune during the period of contamination (August 1953 through 1987)
You must have a current disease and a medical opinion that states the disease is a result of exposure to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune
Normally, VA will initiate a VA medical examination and request an opinion regarding the relationship of the disease to Camp Lejeune service.
Evidence Requirements
The evidence must show you served at Camp Lejeune during the period of contamination (August 1953 through December 1987)
The evidence must show you have a current disease and include a medical opinion indicating the disease is a result of exposure to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
Apply online using eBenefits OR
Work with an accredited representative or agent OR
Go to a VA regional office and have a VA employee assist you. You can find your regional office on our Facility Locator page.
For more information on how to apply and for tips on making sure your claim is ready to be processed by VA, visit our How to Apply page.
Health benefits for 15 conditions may be available for Veterans and family members who served on active duty or resided at Camp Lejeune for 30 days or more between Jan. 1, 1957, and Dec. 31, 1987.
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Self-reported Agent Orange exposure higher among v...
Biomonitoring of selected persistent organic pollu...
Compensation for Exposure to Contaminated Drinking...
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China History
One Hundred Years of Revolution
On October 10, 1911, the Xinhai Revolution began. By February, the Empire of the Great Qing had fallen.
The Xinhai Revolution lead to the birth of the Chinese KMT, which had as its goal That a government of the People, by the People, and for the People, shall be Established in China.
It also lead to the disintegration of the Chinese state on multiple occasions, and probably a hundred million civilian deaths.
The century of the Chinese Revolution is now over.
It probably should have never begun.
← Review of “Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West,” by William Cronon
Remembering →
China economics
China: Past, Present, and Future
Books History
Impressions of “Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone,” by Satya Nadella with Greg Shaw and Jill Tracie Nichols
Impressions of “Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation,” by Blake Harris
7 thoughts on “One Hundred Years of Revolution”
Lexington Green says:
It’s been a bad century for China.
May God have mercy on them, and grant them s happier next hundred years.
Larry Dunbar says:
Really? China should not have revolted against imperialists? I can see how people like you fear the destruction of a corporate structure, but why would the Chinese want to return to Dynasties? Or do you believe the society that was created because of the revolution is now the incumbent force that needs to be dealt with, as a structure, and not as a revolutionary force? In other words, you’re just against revolution, not communism as such, as expressed in the corporate structure now in place in China? You do realize that you would be one of the first to go, if the world was dominated by the Chinese?
tdaxp says:
The imperialists the Xinhai Revolution was fought against were the Manchus, the Qing Dynasty, and specifically the Aisin Gioro Clan.
The Qing were hardly democrats, but then the Communists aren’t either. 100 million lives is a high price to pay when the largest change is the nature of foreign direct investment in China (a guided-market approach based in Beijing v. a guided-market approach distributed among coastal centers with foreign backers).
Lex,
+1 (or in Hebrew, “Amen”)
James formerly at Cross Strait Times says:
I personally have been much more sympathetic to the Hundred Days’ Reform. A successful Wuxu Reform probably would have enabled a slower and more stable transition. Its results, however, probably would not be too dissimilar to your post on if a KMT-ruled China would look like India today.
Likewise, I guess the chance of a successful Hundred Days’ Reform were probably pretty small, even if Cixi and Yuan Shikai hadn’t been factors.
The Meiji Restoration could succeed because the Japanese did not think that learning from other countries was beneath them (they were always learning from others, China first, and then the West), and because Japan under the shoguns was not centralized to the degree which stopped progress.
China, on the other hand, had always been the center of its universe, and power was centralized in the staunchly anti-modernization imperial court. Accepting that China could learn anything from foreigners probably would have been impossible without the very real threats of dynastic collapse and national dismemberment that finally did the Qing in.
A truly fascinating comment, as you can tell by the amount of time it took me to digest it!
China historically has been open to accepting technology from barbarians, and has often been the technologically weaker power throughout its history. [1] So I think instead of seeing the collapse of the Qing as typical of Chinese history, the manner in which it collapsed (surrounded by hostile ‘barbarians’ on all fronts who it was incapable of learning from or coopting) was the anomaly.
I think the timing of the collapse of the Qing, along with the rise of nationalism around the world, is not a coincidence. The Xinhai Revolution may have been China’s first race war.
An echo of the same dynamic can now be found in Syria. The Manchu (Alawite) ruling elite knows exactly what the Han (Arab) majority has in store for them, and their only hope of buying them off over time first requires a military victory over a restive population in the short term. I wonder if they can pull it off.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/China-Marches-West-Conquest-Central/dp/067401684X
Thank you for the compliment! It’s also been taking me some time to think of a response. Your mention of Syria made me think that, through the distance of time, perhaps I’ve over-romanticized the Qing instead of seeing it for the corrupt and tyrannical regime that it was. Of course, they did not have the technology to be as bloodthirsty as Assad’s regime today, although Cixi’s relationship with the Boxers makes me wonder what means she would use to stay in power.
It seems I haven’t been giving Ancient China enough credit when it comes to accepting foreign ideas. I’ll have to check out China Marches West.
Another point where China might’ve been able to stave off internal chaos would be if Yuan Shikai had not crowned himself emperor and only been president for life. Sure, Sun Yat-sen would still hate Yuan for being a dictator, but if Yuan had believed in the republic, I think he would have become something like an earlier version Chiang Kai-shek on Taiwan – someone who secured the country for the future while leaving a controversial authoritarian legacy.
Of course, for this to be possible, Yuan would’ve have to have been a different person.
Excellent comment!
The most dangerous time for a decaying government is when it realizes its mistakes, correctly observes the world, and begins reforms. The France of Louis XVI was more liberal and modern than that of Louis V — the Libya of 200s was more liberal and modern than that of the 1980s — the China of 1988 was more liberl and modern than the China of 1978.
Reform raises expectations and exposes to the people how weak the government was to begin with.
Before all that, though, the Boxer Rebellion strikes me as the same anti-elite, anti-intellectual, anti-foreign, anti-modern, pro-Leader wave of rioting that later on was called the Cultural Revolution.
Yuan strikes me as a figure similar to Putin — a tactical genius and a strategic idiot. Both could brilliantly maneuver for worthless prizes, but none had much idea to do once those were won, except look around for another worthless prize. Both men were product of the systems they spent their career ones — both Yuan and Putin were members of the operational elite who were kept purposefully blind to the strategic consequences of their work.
One wonders how the story of the recent decade would have been different if the Chechens had a leader as tireless and ambitious as Sun…
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Burundi: Power-sharing (Dis)agreements
Alexandre W. Raffoul and Réginas Ndayiragije
alexandre.raffoul@pcr.uu.se
Alexandre Raffoul is PhD student at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and Associate Researcher at swisspeace. His research focuses on ethnic conflict, power-sharing, and peace negotiations.
Reginas.Ndayiragije@uantwerpen.be
Réginas Ndayiragije is a teaching assistant and PhD student at the Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp, Belgium. His research interests are power-sharing, peacebuilding, and transitional justice.
Ahead of the 2020 elections in Burundi, this contribution reviews the tumultuous trajectory of power-sharing in the country. From the signing of the Arusha Accord in 2000, power-sharing remained the object of persistent contestation between political rivals, leading to continuous transformations in both the institutions and the practice of power-sharing in the country. This paper traces these power-struggles and institutional evolutions throughout three periods during which Burundian power-sharing was negotiated (1998-2005), contested (2005-2015), and reshaped (2015-2020). The conclusion highlights some implications of this year’s elections for the future of power-sharing in Burundi.
Burundi’s fourth cycle of post-conflict elections will be held between 20th May and 24th August 2020. Following a profound electoral crisis in 2015 and the adoption of a new Constitution in 2018, these elections stand out as the latest development in a series of power reconfigurations that have marked the dynamic of power-sharing in Burundi.
After more than ten years of civil war, decades of ethnic domination by the Tutsi minority (14%) over the Hutu majority (85%), and recurring waves of inter-ethnic violence, power-sharing aimed to deliver ‘security for the minority and democracy for the majority’ (Nindorera, 2019: 21). The complex institutional set up adopted in the 2000 Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement and enshrined in the 2005 post-conflict Constitution combined provisions for power-sharing between both political parties and ethnic groups.
Power-sharing between political parties was provided by a National Assembly elected with a proportional representation (PR) electoral system; a coalition government where ministerial portfolios were distributed proportionally between the parties obtaining more than 5% of the votes; two vice-presidents from different political parties; and qualified majorities (2/3 for the adoption of ordinary laws and 4/5 for constitutional amendments).
Ethnic power-sharing was provided for by ethnic quotas in the National Assembly and in the Government (60% Hutu/40% Tutsi), in the Senate and the Armed Forces (50%/50%), and in the local administration (67%/33%); as well as ethnic distribution requirements on closed party lists for legislative elections, where a maximum of two out of three subsequent candidates could belong to the same ethnic category. Some of the above-mentioned provisions also have implications in terms of ethnic power-sharing: the two vice-presidents must have different ethnic identities, and – seen in conjunction with ethnic quotas – the qualified majorities create a de facto veto power for the Tutsi (Vandeginste, 2015a).
While this institutional set up has prevented conflict relapse in the country for the last twenty years, it has remained continuously contested in the post-war history of Burundi. Changing power configurations led to continuous changes in both the institutions and the practice of power-sharing in the country. The case of Burundi therefore illustrates the difficulty in identifying a unidirectional causal link between political institutions and conflict; rather, it suggests that evolving configurations of power lead to transformations in both the performance and the shape of power-sharing institutions over time.
This contribution traces these power-struggles, evolving controversies, and institutional transformations throughout three periods during which power-sharing was negotiated (1998-2005), contested (2005-2015), and reshaped (2015-2020) in Burundi. The conclusion highlights some implications of this year’s elections for the future of power-sharing in the country.
Negotiating Power-sharing (1998-2005)
The institutional architecture described above was the result of not one, but a series of agreements between political rivals in the country, starting with the Arusha Accord (2000) and ending with the post-conflict Constitution (2005). While it rapidly became clear that some form of power-sharing would be necessary to address the causes of Burundi’s civil war, the debates on the exact shape of these institutions proved extremely contentious.
The seeds of the controversy lay in the Arusha agreement (2000), which remained contested by virtually all political contenders at the moment of its adoption (Kazoviyo, 2017). The agreement was mostly negotiated between the two main parties of the time, the Tutsi-dominated Uprona (Union for National Progress) and the Hutu-dominated Frodebu (Front for Democracy in Burundi). However, the agreement was weakened by the lack of inclusion of some of the most powerful factions of the Hutu rebel groups, the CNDD-FDD (National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the defence of Democracy) and Palipehutu-FNL (National Forces of Liberation). Moreover, many Tutsi parties expressed ‘formal reservations’ to an agreement that they felt pressured to sign (Francis and Tieku, 2011).
The agreement’s survival through a rocky transition period owed much to the continuous diplomatic effort of regional heads of states. Regionally mediated ceasefire agreements (including the 2003 Global Ceasefire Agreement) brought the CNDD-FDD within the institutional framework negotiated in Arusha. South African mediation was also instrumental in supporting the post-conflict constitution-making process (notably through the 2004 Pretoria Agreement). Intra-ethnic power-struggles also played a role in securing the buy-in of the parties, as each of them was mindful not to create a political vacuum that could be filled by political rivals.
The bulk of contention was the design of power-sharing institutions. Many Tutsi parties remained unsatisfied with the electoral system. Fearing the migration of Tutsi candidates to Hutu-dominated parties, they favoured an electoral system where seats were allocated based on ‘politico-ethnic’ affiliations (Nindorera, 2019). On the other side, some Hutu parties rejected the system of ethnic quotas that they perceived as ‘as an overrepresentation of the ethnic minority at the expense of the majority ethnic group’ (Rufyikiri, 2017).
Conflict relapse was avoided, but progress in the negotiations relied heavily on external pressures, and the process largely failed to bring about a solid national consensus around power-sharing institutions. While the 2005 Constitution received the support of a large majority of the population in its ratification referendum (92%), many Tutsi parties campaigned against it and some Hutu parties maintained an ambiguous discourse regarding power-sharing (Bentley and Southall, 2005).
Although commentators praised the 2005 elections as the successful end to the transition period, many of the controversies regarding power-sharing remained unsettled and would re-emerge in the post-transition period.
Contesting Power-sharing (2005-2015)
The 2005 elections resulted in a largely renewed political landscape. As a result of institutional requirements and electoral incentives, most parties had become multi-ethnic, leading to an unprecedented depoliticization of ethnicity (Raffoul, 2020). The CNDD-FDD’s good electoral results – almost 60% of the votes – placed it in a favourable position, without however allowing it to rule alone. The Uprona and the Frodebu were weakened, but maintained a ‘blocking minority’ resulting from the system of qualified majorities.
The focus of the controversy moved from ethnic power-sharing to power-sharing between political parties. Indeed, most parties could accommodate ethnic quotas by integrating candidates from other ethnic categories within their ranks. However, the practice of joint-rule between former enemies proved more difficult than anticipated. A former rebel group who had only recently transformed into a political party, the CNDD-FDD, struggled to find the spirit of compromise necessary to share power effectively with political rivals (Burihabwa and Curtis, 2019). On their side, junior government coalition partners continued to act as if they were in opposition, adding to CNDD-FDD’s frustration with power-sharing.
This new line of contestation led to a quick deterioration in the quality of the cooperation between political parties. A first crisis erupted with the formation of the first post-conflict government. While ethnic quotas were respected, the Uprona and Frodebu were not attributed all the ministerial portfolios they were due, some being instead allocated to smaller parties that had not reached the 5% threshold. The move was interpreted as an attempt by the CNDD-FDD to weaken its main political contenders. Amid worsening relationships between political rivals, the parliament was paralysed for months in 2007 and 2008.
Despite its dissatisfaction with some of the power-sharing provisions inscribed in the 2005 Constitution, the ruling party was unable to formally amend it due to the qualified majorities, as proven by an unsuccessful constitutional revision attempt in 2014. Faced with this limitation, the CNDD-FDD used a series of more subtle strategies to progressively erode the foundation of power-sharing, including:
(1) The appointment of its supporters to key positions of power (e.g. the Constitutional Court and the National Independent Electoral Commission) (International Crisis Group, 2006);
(2) The displacement of power from the central government to decentralised institutions that are not covered by power-sharing dispositions (e.g. municipal and provincial directorates of some ministries) or to informal institutions that are controlled by the party (e.g. the CNDD-FDD’s army and police general officers, or the Imbonerakure, the party’s youth wing) (McCulloch and Vandeginste, 2019, Nkurunziza, 2019);
(3) A strategy of Nyakurisation, namely the splitting of opposition parties and co-optation of their wings proving most favourable to the regime;
(4) The widespread use of intimidation of opposition parties and defectors within its own ranks, which led to the boycott of the 2010 and 2015 elections by most opposition parties.
In many ways, the multidimensional electoral crisis sparked by the controversial candidacy of President Pierre Nkurunziza to a third mandate in 2015 represented the culmination of the dynamics observed in this period.
Reshaping Power-sharing (2015-2020)
The electoral results of the contested 2015 elections confirmed the marginalization of the UPRONA and the ever-increasing hegemony of the CNDD-FDD. Moreover, a new political player, the Amizero y’Abarundi independent coalition, made its way in the Burundian political arena.
Initially, Amizero y’Abarundi was a coalition comprising independent candidates from FNL and Uprona, who had in common their eviction from their respective political parties for being less friendly with the ruling party. Opposing Nkurunziza’s decision to run for his third term in office, Amizero Abarundi, like many other opposition parties, boycotted the election. However, out of strategy or unintentional omission, they did not withdraw their files, making their lists available to voters, and allowing them to secure thirty seats in parliament and five ministerial positions. While all former FNL candidates accepted to take their seats, most of their Tutsi counterparts from Uprona did not. This created a situation where Tutsi members appointed in state institutions were predominantly handpicked by Hutu-dominated political entities (Vandeginste, 2015b).
This new power configuration increased the CNDD-FDD’s margin of manoeuvre to modify the Constitution. As the 2015 crisis had impinged on the (international) legitimacy of state institutions, the CNDD-FDD changed its strategies by resorting to the mobilization of the Burundian population at large. The ruling party initiated a so-called ‘internal dialogue’, focusing on the revision of the Constitution. The debate mainly opposed two parties who did not participate in the Arusha negotiations: the CNDD-FDD and the CNL (National Freedom Council), a new political party ruled by Agathon Rwasa, the former leader of Palipehutu-FNL. On the other hand, the strongest defenders of the Arusha institutional framework remained excluded from the talks. Bypassing the parliament, the process culminated with a constitutional referendum through which the new constitution was approved by over 73% of the voters (Niyonkuru and Ndayiragije, 2019).
In many ways, this new constitution formalizes a situation that had been established de facto between 2005 and 2015. In particular, it eliminates a series of dispositions relative to power-sharing between political parties. Most importantly, the provisions providing for a compulsory coalition government and for the qualified majorities are abolished. The new constitution maintains one vice-president of a different party and ethnic group than the president, but its powers becomes mostly ceremonial. On the other hand, a position of Prime Minister is created, without political or ethnic affiliation requirement. The provisions for ethnic power-sharing remain largely untouched, but the new constitution creates a soft sunset clause by providing for a re-evaluation of the ethnic quotas in political, legislative, and judicial institutions in five years’ time (Vandeginste, 2020).
Conclusion: What Next?
What does this imply for the future of power-sharing in Burundi? Throughout the history of the adoption and implementation of the power-sharing in Burundi, it has been clear that the functionality of power-sharing has been contingent on the prevailing power balance. In the period that elapsed since the conclusion of the peace negotiations, the Arusha Accord became the reference point for most domestic and international actors. Yet, its future will largely depend on the goodwill of the 2020 election winner.
Indeed, from the point of view of power-sharing between political parties, the 2018 constitution turns its back on the consensus-based governance enshrined in the Arusha Accord. Without provisions for a compulsory coalition, the next government could be formed entirely by one party – unless the election winner decides otherwise. The abolition of qualified majorities will also weaken the opposition by eliminating some of the veto points (Vandeginste, 2020).
While ethnic power-sharing remains in effect at the moment, the likelihood of the lifting of ethnic quotas after the review process in five years seems high, as the winner of the upcoming election is likely to be one of the former Hutu rebel groups. Even if ethnic quotas were to be maintained, the new constitution gives more power to the electoral winner and the accommodation of non-dominant groups becomes more uncertain. This may increase the feeling of insecurity and the political grievances of ethnic minorities in the country – a phenomenon that could create a recruitment base for the rebel groups that have (unsuccessfully) attempted to challenge the ruling party since 2005.
Regional and international actors played an important role in the process of adoption and implementation of power-sharing in Burundi, but have proven divided and unwilling to act decisively during the 2015 crisis (International Crisis Group, 2019). Their attitude, as well as the attitude of the new president towards the international community, will also be an important factor determining the future direction taken by power-sharing in Burundi.
Suggested Citation: Raffoul, A. W and Ndayiragije, R. 2020. ‘Burundi: Power-sharing (Dis)agreements‘. 50 Shades of Federalism. Available at:
BENTLEY, K. A. & SOUTHALL, R. 2005. An African Peace Process. Mandela, South Africa and Burundi, Cape Town: HSRC Press.
BURIHABWA, N. Z. & CURTIS, D. E. 2019. The Limits of Resistance Ideologies? The CNDD-FDD and the Legacies of Governance in Burundi. Government & Opposition, 54, 559-583.
FRANCIS, D. & TIEKU, T. K. 2011. The AU and the search for Peace and Reconciliation in Burundi and Comoros, Geneva: Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre).
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP 2006. Burundi: Democracy and Peace at Risk. Africa Report N°120. Nairobi/Brussels: International Crisis Group.
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP 2019. Running Out of Options in Burundi. Africa Report N° 278. Nairobi/Brussels: International Crisis Group.
KAZOVIYO, G. 2017. Entre rejet catégorique et soutien ferme de l’Accord d’Arusha: analyse de discours politiques burundais. Working paper 2017.10. Antwerpen: Institute of Development Policy.
MCCULLOCH, A. & VANDEGINSTE, S. J. D. 2019. Veto power and power-sharing: insights from Burundi (2000–2018). Democratization, 26(7), 1176-1193.
NINDORERA, W. P. 2019. Interactions between peacemaking and constitution-making processes in Burundi. A stabilizing or a crisis factor? Berlin: Berghof Foundation.
NIYONKURU, R. C. & NDAYIRAGIJE, R. 2019. Burundi. In: REYNTJENS, F. (ed.) Political Chronicles of the African Great Lakes Region 2018. Brussels: University Press Antwerp.
NKURUNZIZA, A. 2019. Burundi: Le dessous des cartes, Bujumbura: Editions Iwacu.
RAFFOUL, A. W. 2020. The Politics of Association: Power-Sharing and the Depoliticization of Ethnicity in Post-War Burundi. Ethnopolitics, 19(1), 1-18.
RUFYIKIRI, G. 2017. The Post-wartime Trajectory of CNDD-FDD Party in Burundi: A Facade Transformation of Rebel Movement to Political Party. Civil Wars, 19, 220-248.
VANDEGINSTE, S. 2015a. Arusha at 15: reflections on power-sharing, peace and transition in Burundi. Antwerpen. Discussion paper 2015.01. Antwerpen: Institute of Development Policy.
VANDEGINSTE, S. 2015b. Burundi’s electoral crisis–back to power-sharing politics as usual? African Affairs, 114, 624-636.
VANDEGINSTE, S. 2020. Burundi’s institutional landscape after the 2020 elections. Africa Policy Brief No. 30. Brussels: Egmont Royal Instute for International Relations.
On the history of Burundi:
LEMARCHAND, R. 1996. Burundi: Ethnic conflict and genocide, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
On the peace and constitution-making processes:
On the ambiguous attitude of the CNDD-FDD towards power-sharing:
On the ambiguous use of ethnic quotas:
VANDEGINSTE, S. 2019. Ethnic Quotas and Foreign NGOs in Burundi: Shrinking Civic Space Framed as Affirmative Action. Africa Spectrum, 1-20.
On the post-2020 institutional landscape:
Tags: Burundi, Conflict Resolution, Elections, Ethnic, Power sharing
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Blog Yogyakarta Principles
The Yogyakarta Principles on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Marking ten years of SOGI jurisprudence
0 Comment blog, Yogyakarta Principles, YP+10
Geneva Director at ARC International
Arvind Narrain works on advocacy for LGBTI rights at the international level. As ARC’s Director of Research and Practice he is currently involved in advocacy at the Human Rights Council and in advocacy around the Yogyakarta Principles. As a lawyer he has been involved with litigation and advocacy around the anti sodomy law in India.
Latest posts by Arvind Narrain (see all)
This article has been expanded. Please read it here.
On the 26 of November, 2016 we will mark an important landmark in the history of SOGI jurisprudence. It was on this day ten years ago that a group of 29 experts from around the world gathered in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta to formulate and adopt a set of 29 principles of international law as it applied to questions of sexual orientation and gender identity. The 29 principles are a restatement of existing international law which spans core civil and political rights like the freedom of movement and assembly and the right to conscience as well as core socio-economic rights such as the right to education and the right to work.
The 29 Experts authored what has come to be known as the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law to sexual orientation and gender identity. There principles are the origin point for what is today referred to as Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) jurisprudence in international law. Some of the key contributions of the Yogyakarta Principles to the struggle for dignity of LGBTI people worldwide are as under*.
Emphasizing the Universality of rights
The philosophy underlying the Yogyakarta Principles is to be found in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) which states that, ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.’ Principle 1 of the Yogyakarta Principles restates Article 1 of the UDHR and applies it to the question of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Principle 1 states
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Human beings of all sexual orientations and gender identities are entitled to the full enjoyment of all human rights.
The conceptual task which the Yogyakarta Principles undertakes is to make explicit the implicit norm of human rights law, namely the norm of universality. This is the unifying thread underlying all the principles. Each principle clarifies that the protection guaranteed by international human rights law is to all persons regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Placing sexual orientation and gender identity on the same plane
While the phrase SOGI is now well established, its important to acknowledge its parentage in Yogyakarta. Before the Yogyakarta Principles were formulated, the only concept known to international law was sexual orientation. Right from the Toonen decision of the Human Rights Committee in 1991 to the aborted Brazil resolution at the Human Rights Council in 2003 the language used was sexual orientation. The Experts at Yogyakarta took the legal equivalent of a leap in the dark when they included gender identity as well and gave birth to the new acronym SOGI. Gender identity founds its way into the principles due to the sustained advocacy by LGBT advocates from the global south for whom the inclusion of gender identity was a non negotiable article of faith. The Yogyakarta formulation was picked up by the Human Rights Council in its three resolutions in 2011, 2014 and 2016 and today the concept of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity as co equal markers of discrimination has became established within the UN system.
Providing definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity
Surprising as it is, none of the legal decisions which preceded the Yogyakarta principles be it the Toonen decision or the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights or the decisions of the US Supreme Court, actually ventured into the terrain of defining what sexual orientation or gender identity was. We owe it to the experts at Yogyakarta for providing a legal definition which would prove an invaluable contribution. Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation as defined in the Yogyakarta principles has been quoted verbatim in judicial decisions, policy documents and used extensively by activists. The definitions which are a heavily cited part of the principles are as follows :
Sexual orientation is understood to refer to each person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender.
Gender identity is understood to refer to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means) and other expressions of gender, including dress, speech and mannerisms.
The definition of gender identity provided by the Yogyakarta Principles has made its way back into national jurisdictions as seen by the NALSA v UOI decision on transgender rights by the Indian Supreme Court as well as the Argentinian Gender Identity Law, both of which cite the gender identity definition from the Yogyakarta Principles verbatim.
The importance of the definition of gender identity in the Principles lies in its inclusive nature. A close reading indicates that gender identity includes both those who choose to ‘modify bodily appearance or function’ so as to align the body with a ‘deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender’ as well as those who do not ‘modify’ their body but choose to express their gender through ‘dress, speech and mannerisms’. Thus technically it includes both the concepts of gender identity and gender expression in its rubric.
Developing the right to recognition before the law
Principle 3 of the Yogyakarta Principles provides for recognition before the law.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities shall enjoy legal capacity in all aspects of life. Each person’s self-defined sexual orientation and gender identity is integral to their personality and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity and freedom…
This principle emerged in international human rights law out of the struggle against the racist Nazi ideology whereby Jews were stripped of legal identity and citizenship and rendered non-citizens with no rights. The innovation which principle 3 introduces is to take the right to recognition before the law and apply it to the specific context of gender identity and sexual orientation. From the point of view of transgender people around the world, this is a central axis of struggle. Legal systems around the world routinely deny transgender persons legal recognition in the gender of their choice. Transgender people are rendered ‘rightless’ due to the inability of the legal system to recognise the fundamental right of transgender people to choose one’s gender.
Principle 3 has since then found its way into the domestic legislations of Argentina, Ireland and Malta all of which recognize the right to choose one’s gender.
Moving beyond zonal privacy
Principle 6 enshrines the right to privacy.
Everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, is entitled to the enjoyment of privacy without arbitrary or unlawful interference, including with regard to their family, home or correspondence as well as to protection from unlawful attacks on their honour and reputation. The right to privacy ordinarily includes the choice to disclose or not to disclose information relating to one’s sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as decisions and choices regarding both one’s own body and consensual sexual and other relations with others.
The right to privacy is normally seen as the right not to be interrupted in the peaceful enjoyment of one’s home. The Yogyakarta principles go beyond this understanding and crystallize a notion of privacy as including ‘decisions and choices regarding both one’s own body and consensual sexual and other relations with others’. What principle 6 does is take privacy beyond the notion of ‘zonal privacy’ to also include ‘decisional privacy’ and ‘relational privacy’. Thus when we say that anti sodomy laws violate the right to privacy, we are not asserting the patriarchal understanding that a ‘mans home is his castle’ (i.e. the untrammelled right to do what we want in the zone of the home) but asserting that forming intimate ties with others of the same sex is a part of ‘relational privacy’ and ‘decisional privacy’. The jurisprudence on privacy in principle 6 links privacy through the notion of ‘decisional and relational privacy’ to the conceptual framework provided by ‘dignity’ and ‘autonomy’.
The broad understanding of privacy as embodied in principle 6 found an expression in the decision of the Delhi High Court in Naz Foundation v NCR Delhi in 2009 which decriminalised same sex relations in India and understood privacy as moving beyond the zonal to include relational and decision aspects. One hopes that future decisions on constitutional challenges to anti sodomy laws will reflect the broad understanding of privacy as embodied in Principle 6.
Addressing the need for protection from medical abuse
Principle 18 addresses another possible violator of rights i.e. the medical profession. Principle 18 states
No person may be forced to undergo any form of medical or psychological treatment, procedure, testing, or be confined to a medical facility, based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Notwithstanding any classifications to the contrary, a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity are not, in and of themselves, medical conditions and are not to be treated, cured or suppressed.
While the law, state and society are key violators of rights on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, principle 18 draws attention to the role of medicine and the medical establishment. One of the sources of violation is the World Health Organisation (WHO) authored International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) under which both gender identity and ‘ego dystonic sexual orientation’ are psychological disorders and hence conditions to be cured. This in turn is responsible for aversion therapy, hormonal therapy and other forms of invasive medical procedures all of which are ‘treatments’ for changing one’s sexual orientation. As far as the pathologisation of gender identity is concerned, transgender advocates have argued that while consensual medical intervention is necessary it should not be under a rubric, which pathologises gender identity.
As far as SOGI jurisprudence has travelled, there is still long way to go. We need to keep invoking the core idea, universality, whenever LGBTI persons human rights are violated.
While the use of the principles to combat both violence and discrimination is important we should also remember that the principles were formulated 10 years ago. These ten years have witnessed the exponential growth of SOGI jurisprudence and concepts which were unknown at that time are today finding their way into legislation and policy.
One example would be the use of the term sex characteristics by the Gender Identity, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act, in Malta, to conceptualize the basis on which intersex infants are subjected to medically unnecessary intervention. The rights of trans sex workers and the rights of LGBT refugees which are often ignored may require specific elaboration within the framework of the established principles.
There is a need to both reanimate the principles and to fill in its gaps so that Yogyakarta Principles continue to be the beating heart of SOGI jurisprudence in the years to come.
*This article elaborates on some of the themes articulated by PoojaPatel and Arvind Narrain in the piece you can read here.
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Despite claims of pro-Prop. 208 campaign, small businesses must still pay income taxes
Garrick Taylor
Confounding small business advocates and tax policy experts, Proposition 208 proponents this week trotted out a bizarre claim, saying, “it’s legally impossible for any business to be taxed under Proposition 208,” and “under Proposition 208, small business owners will not pay one cent more in additional taxes.”
Arizona small business advocates and tax experts confirmed that small businesses must still pay their income taxes regardless of whether Proposition 208 passes in November. What remains in question is whether their top income tax rate will remain 4.5% or increase by 77.7% to a new 8% rate.
The 8% rate would vault Arizona into the top-10 nationally of states with the highest income tax rates.
“Despite what the initiative’s proponents might say, small businesses do pay taxes, and if Proposition 208 passes we’ll be paying a lot more,” Arizona Small Business Association CEO Jess Roman said. “In fact, under Prop. 208 large corporations will pay at a significantly lower top tax rate than Arizona small businesses. Proposition 208 looms as a major threat to the future competitiveness of Arizona’s small business environment.”
Arizona Tax Research Association Senior Research Analyst Sean McCarthy said the difference in top income tax rates comes down to whether a business files on the individual income tax code or the corporate code.
“This isn’t complicated. This is basic tax policy 101,” McCarthy said. “Arizona corporations are subject to a 4.9% corporate income tax rate. Small businesses, including S corps, limited liability companies (LLCs), partnerships, and sole proprietorships, are pass-through entities and pay taxes on the individual income tax code. Proposition 208 proposes to raise the top individual income tax rate to 8%, which means some small businesses owners will pay a higher tax rate than large corporations.”
Of the taxpayers impacted by the largest permanent tax increase in Arizona history, more than 50% will be small business owners. [source]
The proponents’ television ads have yet to disclose that Proposition 208 will dramatically raise income taxes, and the campaign continues to ignore that the tax increase will pummel small businesses in the middle of a pandemic that has sent shockwaves through Arizona and the nation’s economy.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and we need them to thrive, especially if we’re going to emerge from this pandemic-induced slowdown sooner rather than later,” Roman said. “As we celebrate National Small Business Week, Arizonans can support small business by voting NO on Proposition 208.”
https://prescottenews.com/index.php/2020/09/24/despite-claims-of-pro-pro...
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