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Entomology & Nematology News
UC News about Entomology and Nematology.
Innovative Research: How Elvira de Lange Is Targeting Spider Mites in Strawberry Fields
Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Chemical ecologist Elvira Simone de Lange, a postdoctoral researcher in the Christian Nansen lab, has just received a grant to study spider mites in strawberry fields. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
DAVIS—Spider mites, a major pest in California's strawberry fields, may have met their match.
Chemical ecologist Elvira Simone de Lange, a postdoctoral researcher in the Christian Nansen lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has received a three-year $249,878 federal grant that involves using drones to detect the early infestation of spider mites, and then targeting the pests with biocontrol agents.
The grant is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program.
Her research project, "Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-Guided Releases of Predatory Mites for Management of Spider Mites in Strawberry," aims to identify “very subtle differences in reflectance of the strawberry canopy, indicating spider mite-induced stress,” she said. “Releasing predatory mites in these spider mite hotspots will increase their efficacy as biocontrol agents, enhancing sustainability of spider mite management practices in strawberry.”
In her successfully funded proposal, she noted that “Farmers are requesting in-depth testing of how UAS can be integrated successfully into strawberry production to improve management practices.” UAS, or drones, can monitor large areas in a short period of time. California produces 88 percent of the nation's strawberries, with an annual value of approximately $2.6 billion.
Twospotted spider mite, a pest. (Photo by Elvira de Lange)
“Little is known about the spatio-temporal dynamics of spider mites in strawberry, and consequently, about the optimal timing to release predatory mites, their natural enemies,” de Lange wrote in the proposal. Predatory mites are widely used in the strawberry industry, but they may succumb within days in the absence of prey. “With this study, a collaboration between scientists, extension experts, and commercial growers, we will demonstrate that airborne remote sensing can be used to detect spider mite hotspots and therefore pinpoint when and where predatory mite releases are needed.”
The three-year project, now underway through March 2020, also explores the use of drones as a novel, effective way of distributing the predatory mites.
The grant also calls for educational outreach programs, with hands-on workshops and lectures on spider mite sampling at grower and agriculture professional meetings throughout the California strawberry growing region. Growers outside this area will be reached through publications in trade journals and other grower media.
This predatory mite is a biocontrol agent of spider mites. (Photo by Elvira de Lange)
In addition, de Lange will organize a panel discussion on the potential of UAS in strawberry management and beyond. “Both the educational outreach and research outcomes are easily transferable to strawberry growing regions elsewhere, and could be expanded to include monitoring for other pests and pathogens,” she said, adding that the project will enhance efficacy of biocontrol agents and reduce dependence on miticides, enhancing sustainability of spider mite management practices in strawberry.”
Multiple species of spider mites infest the state's strawberry fields. The twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, an annual pest of strawberries in all growing regions, is the predominant species in strawberries grown on the Central Coast, according to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program's Pest Management Guidelines (PMG), written by lead author and IPM specialist Frank Zalom, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The mites suck plant juices. The damage can result in decreased fruit size and yield. Mite-feeding symptoms include dense webbing, and dry, brittle and discolored leaves.
“Twospotted spider mite feeding is particularly damaging during the first two to five months following transplanting in late summer or fall,” according to the PMG.
A native of The Netherlands, de Lange joined the Nansen lab in March 2016. She received her bachelor's degree in biology, and her master's degree in plant biology from Utrecht University, The Netherlands. She earned her doctorate in chemical ecology from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Her first postdoctoral position was at Rutgers University, New Jersey, where she worked on insect resistance in cranberries.
Overall, she hopes her research meshing chemical ecology, entomology, plant-arthropod interactions and biological control in the fields of integrated pest management and precision agriculture solutions, will “lead to the development of novel, sustainable pest management practices.”
Chemical ecologist Elvira de Lange in strawberry field in Lompoc, Calif. (Photo by Keshav Singh)
A drone flying over a strawberry field in Lompoc, Calif. (Photo by Elvira de Lange)
Tags: biological control (5), Christian Nansen (30), drones (2), Elvira de Lange (2), spider mites (1), strawberry fields (2), UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (293)
Memorial Set Nov. 1 at Putah Creek Lodge for Les Ehler
Les Ehler
The family of Dr. Lester Ervin “Les” Ehler, UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology who died Sept. 2 at age 70 in Vacaville, has scheduled a memorial for 4 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 1 in the Putah Creek Lodge, UC Davis campus.
A noted entomologist and biological control specialist, Dr. Ehler was the first biological control specialist on campus and was known as the “quintessential biological control researcher.
"Dr. Ehler had a remarkable career at UC Davis,” said Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “In his research he built upon fundamental investigations in integrated pest management (IPM) to provide practical biological control for many different systems. Les was both a national leader in the discipline of biological control, and an outstanding citizen of the department and university.”
For four decades Dr. Ehler championed the use of natural enemies to control agricultural pests and warned of the dangers of pesticides.
he co-edited the 1990 book, Critical Issues in Biological Control and served four years as president and four years as past president of the International Organization for Biological Control. He also chaired the Entomological Society of America's Biological Control Section.
Born Jan. 6, 1946 in Lubbock County, Texas and reared on a family farm near the small town of Idalou, Les Ehler received his bachelor's degree in entomology from Texas Tech University, and his doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley. He joined the UC Davis faculty in 1973 as an assistant professor, advancing in 1985 to professor of entomology and entomologist in the UC Davis Experiment Station. He retired as an emeritus professor in 2008.
Coordinating the memorial is his son, Brian Ehler of Susanville, assisted by close friend and colleague Harry Kaya, emeritus professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The lodge is located off Garrod Drive. For more information, contact Brian Ehler at brian_ehler@yahoo.com or Harry Kaya at hkkaya@ucdavis.edu. (Visitor parking lot)
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology posted a tribute to Dr. Ehler at http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=22031
Tags: biological control (5), Les Ehler (2), memorial (2), Putah Creek Lodge (2), UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (293)
Lester Ehler: 1946-2016
Published on: September 6, 2016
Noted entomologist and biological control specialist Lester Ervin “Les” Ehler, UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology, died Friday, Sept. 2, in Vacaville. A resident of Leisure Town, a retirement community in Vacaville, he was 70.
Dr. Ehler, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 1973 and retired in January 2008, was the first biological control specialist on campus and was known as the “quintessential biological control researcher.”
For four decades he championed the use of natural enemies to control agricultural pests and warned of the dangers of pesticides.
Dr. Ehler co-edited the 1990 book, Critical Issues in Biological Control and served four years as president and four years as past president of the International Organization for Biological Control. He also chaired the Entomological Society of America's Biological Control Section.
At UC Davis, Dr. Ehler battled pests such as obscure scale and aphids on oaks, stink bugs on tomato, aphids on sugar beet and white fir, and beet armyworm on alfalfa and sugar beet. His expertise ranges from the theory and practice of biological control to the ecology and management of insects and mites in natural, agricultural and urban environments.
“Les was a meticulous researcher and an excellent applied field ecologist,” said colleague and close friend Extension entomologist Larry Godfrey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Entomology. “When he took on a research project, you were confident the project would be conducted well and all aspects of the system considered. He made major contributions to our understanding of stink bug ecology and biological control of stink bugs. Les was also excellent at transferring his knowledge via classroom teaching.”
Professor Les Ehler with a sturgeon he caught in 2007, a year before he retired. (Photo courtesy of Larry Godfrey)
In a feature story written in January 2008, Dr. Ehler was quoted as saying: “When biocontrol is successful, it's permanent. Pesticides are no longer needed. You can get complete success with biological control, but it must be very specific to the pest to eliminate unwanted environmental effects."
In the late 1990s, Dr. Ehler discovered that pill bugs, also known as roly-poly bugs, prey on the eggs of stink bugs. Up to then, most entomologists classified pill bugs as strictly vegetarians. Stink bugs, major agricultural pests, suck the juices from legume and brassica seeds and fruit of other crops.
In the early 1980s, Dr. Ehler led the Davis team that documented the environmental impact of malathion-bait sprays used to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly. The organophosphate was credited with killing the medfly, but also beneficial insects such as honey bees, and natural enemies of various insect pests.
In one study, Dr. Ehler assessed the non-target effects of malathion in the Bay Area. His studies in Woodside, a San Mateo County community on the San Francisco Peninsula, revealed that populations of a native gall midge exploded 90 times the normal level. Ehler compared the gall midge population in Woodside -- where planes sprayed up to 24 malathion applications -- to the untouched Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve near Stanford University. The gall midge is a gnatlike insect pest that lays its eggs in plants; the burrowing larvae form galls.
Dr. Ehler also helped organic farmers solve problems. He designed a stink bug management program for Yolo County organic farmer Robert Ramming of Pacific Star Gardens after learning of the stink bug invasion in his tomato fields.
“The stink bugs were overwintering in his backyard and in the spring, emerging to dine on mustard and then tomatoes,” Dr. Ehler noted in the feature story. “Stink bugs don't seem to prefer tomatoes — they like mustard and wild radish — but when these hosts were plowed under and no longer available, the bugs went for the tomatoes.” Solution: Don't cut the mustard. Plow it under only when the stink bugs aren't a threat to the tomatoes — that is, before they develop wings and disperse.
Quotes from the January 2008 feature story:
Yolo County organic farmer Robert Ramming of Pacific Star Gardens: “Les determined what stink bugs prefer, their habitat and where they were overwintering. “We planted a five-foot strip of ‘trap' or ‘bribe' crops (mustard and wild radish) around the tomato fields and got rid of 90 percent of the stink bugs.”
Rachael Long, a UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Yolo, Solano, Sacramento counties: “I greatly admire Les for his contributions to IPM that have helped us better understand the biology of some of our major agricultural pests and how to manage them. Les is one of those extraordinary field researchers with a broad knowledge of entomology that make him a great resource for information. In collaborating with Les on various projects I have a much better understanding on how landscapes impact IPM in cropping systems which I believe will help conservation efforts and improve pest control in our agricultural systems.”
Chemical ecologist Walter Leal, then professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology: “Les began teaching biocontrol classes for our department in 1974, drawing hundreds of students. He was trained in the 1960s by the founders of integrated pest management (IPM) and he advocated biological control methods as an important IPM pest control strategy. His work led to a better understanding of how predators and parasites can control pests without pesticides.”
Entomologist Michael Parrella, then associate dean of agricultural sciences in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences: “Les was the first faculty member hired in the Department of Entomology to teach and advance the science and practice of biological control. Trained in classical biological control at UC Berkeley, he was the heart and soul of biological control at UC Davis, and worked in many biological systems from tomatoes to urban landscapes. For many years, Les maintained his own USDA-certified quarantine laboratory which allowed him to work with biological control agents from all over the world. He was a meticulous researcher who maintained a ‘hands-on' approach with all the projects done in his laboratory and he trained many students who are now leaders in the field of biological control around the world.”
Emeritus professor Harry Kaya of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology said of his close friend and colleague:
"Les and I overlapped as graduate students at UC Berkeley and I have known him for over 45 years. We were reunited as faculty members at UC Davis when I joined the department in 1976. Les was the quintessential entomologist specializing in classical biological control. His research was always thorough and complete and others have commented on his many contributions to the discipline. We co-taught a class on biological control for many years; he covered the theory and application of parasitoids and predators and I did the lectures on pathogens. Les made sure that the students understood the basis for the theoretical aspects of biological control and their application in the field. In the laboratory portion of the class, he took the students into the field to show them biological control agents in action and developed a useful pictorial handout for identifying the common parasitoids and predators found in California. Even in retirement, he assisted farmers in dealing with the stink bug problems in tomatoes."
"Les was the most organized person that I know. Everything in his research lab and office and home had a place and was neatly and logically organized," Kaya noted. "A few years before he retired, he had a plan on what he wanted to do and purchased a fishing boat. The first time we went out, it was clearly a case of the blind leading the blind. We lost more fishing gear without getting a single bite. Les did not see this as a setback, but as a learning experience. He went fishing with professional guides, learned from them, and became an excellent fisherman. He not only took me but many others fishing for striped bass in the Delta, salmon and striped bass in the Sacramento River, and trout, bass, and kokanee at Lake Berryessa."
"I have lost a good friend and colleague. I will miss the many entomological and other stories and his sense of humor we shared on our fishing trips."
Born Jan. 6, 1946 in Lubbock County, Texas and reared on a family farm near the small town of Idalou, Les Ehler received his bachelor's degree in entomology from Texas Tech University, and his doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley. He joined UC Davis in 1973 as an assistant professor, advancing in 1985 to professor of entomology and entomologist in the UC Davis Experiment Station. Dr. Ehler was an avid fisherman and enjoyed fishing, particularly for sturgeon and salmon.
He is survived by his son Brian of Susanville, Calif., and daughter Mary Ehler Yung and husband, Eric, of Sacramento, and granddaughters Emma Yung and Georgiana Grace Yung. He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Joseph, and sister Loretta. He is survived by brothers Eugene (Mary) of Denton, TX, Howard (Rita) of Midland, TX and sisters Jan Chapman (Carl) of Houston, TX and Amy Willingham of Irving, TX. He is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.
Emeritus professor Les Ehler, an avid fisherman, posed for this photo in 2008. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Professor Les Ehler enjoying a day of fishing. This photo, provided by colleague Larry Godfrey, was taken in 2007, a year before he retired.
Tags: biological control (5), fishing (2), integrated pest management (7), IPM (4), Larry Godfrey (14), Les Ehler (2), Steve Nadler (23), stink bugs (1), UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (293)
Dave Gillespie: 'Biological Control in the Face of Climate Change'
Dave Gillespie will speak on "Biological Control in the Face of Climate Change" on Jan. 15.
DAVIS--Dave Gillespie, senior research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), British Columbia (Research Centre, Agassiz) will speak on "Biological Control in the Face of Climate Change" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 15 in 122 Briggs Hall.
His seminar is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. Host is Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the department.
Gillespie's abstract: "The phenomenon of global climate change (GCC) is likely to have a dominant impact on agriculture, food supply and food security in the coming decades. The two dominant GCC trends – increased carbon dioxide concentrations, and increased average annual temperatures, will cause changes in how and where crop plants grow. However, because arthropods are mostly cold-blooded, the underlying effect of GCC on average temperature and temperature ranges within growing seasons is likely to be of greater importance for IPM in agriculture. Biological control of pest insects by arthropod natural enemies is an integral part of IPM. The benefits derived from biological control (increased yields and reduced pest numbers) are governed by the principles of population and community ecology. Relationships between species in biological control, such as prey-predator dynamics, competition and trophic cascades are driven in part by rates of growth and movement of the component species, which are in turn governed in part by temperature."
"This seminar presentation will summarize some recent work on the effects of extreme temperatures on an experimental biological control community. I will conclude by presenting some preliminary results from work-in-progress which places the effects of extreme temperatures in the context of the two key GCC trends: carbon dioxide and average growing season temperature."
Gillespie says he's primarily an insect ecologist and biological control scientist. "For over 30 years the focus of my research has been the development and introduction of biological control agents and biological control systems for use in Canadian greenhouse crops. Many of the predators and parasitoids that I have developed as biological control agents are currently produced and sold in Canada, and are used extensively to replace insecticide use in greenhouse and other crops. The principles of population and community ecology are used to develop approaches to limit insect population growth in order to reduce or eliminate insecticide applications while maintaining productivity, crop quality and profitability. The results help to develop IPM systems in crops, and improve worker and environmental health."
His current research projects entail classical biological control programs for pests of canola and other cole crops; development of life table models for spotted wing drosophila; surveys of egg parasitoids of Pentatomidae; and development of an improved understanding of the effects of extreme temperature events and other climate change factors biological control communities. This last work led to participation in a report on the effects of climate change on invertebrate genetic resources in Agriculture for the FAO."
Gillespie also is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University where he has co-supervised numerous master's degree and Ph.D. students. He served on supervisory committees for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students at Cornell University, University of British Columbia, and the University of Windsor. His contributions have been recognized by an honorary membership in the International Organization for Biological Control (2012), an AAFC Gold Harvest Award (2011), by a lifetime achievement award from the Professional Pest Management Association of British Columbia (2011), and an Award of Excellence from Association of Natural Biological Control Producers (2003)
Assistant professor Brian Johnson is coordinating the winter quarter seminars. Plans call for recording the seminars for later posting on UCTV.
List of 2014 Winter Quarter Seminars
Tags: biological control (5), Dave Gillespie (1)
George Heimpel Seminar: Biological Control Using Aphid Parasitoids
George Heimpel
DAVIS--Professor George Heimpel of the University of Minnesota's Department of Entomology, who received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1995, will speak on “Specificity and the Process of Biological Control Using Aphid Parasitoids" on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology noonhour seminar.
His seminar is from 4:10 to 5 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. His host is Professor Jay Rosenheim, his former major professor. (Editor's note: This is a time change due to midwest storms delaying his flight)
An abstract of Heimpel's talk:
"Over the past 25 years or so, importation ('classical') biological control of arthropod pests has undergone a paradigm shift in which emphasis has shifted from an exclusive focus on efficacy to a focus on the actual and potential risks of biological control introductions. Host specificity testing is the cornerstone of risk assessment in this new paradigm, and only highly specialized agents are currently approved for release."
"Here, I describe the process of importation biological control of an invasive agricultural pest in the North-Central U.S. - the Asian soybean aphid. Numerous parasitoid species were imported from Asia as potential biological control agents and I focus on 5 species for which host-specificity testing was done. Each of these five species tells a different story in terms of host-specificity, the potential for biological control efficacy, and actual success of field releases. Together, these case studies illustrate some potential relationships between safety and efficacy in biological control, and the importance of various traits in mediating safety and efficacy of biological control agents."
Born in Germany, Heimpel grew up mainly in California. He received his bachelor’s degree in conservation and resource studies in 1988 from UC Berkeley; his master's degree in 1991 in entomology and applied ecology from the University of Delaware; and his doctorate in 1995 from UC Davis, where he was advised by Jay Rosenheim. Heimpel then spent two years as a USDA post-doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin in Mike Strand’s lab.
At the University of Minnesota, Heimpel focuses his research in the fields of biological control and parasitoid ecology. Most of this work has been done in agricultural settings, and has included investigations of sugar-feeding by parasitoids in the field and implications for conservation biological control, biological control of soybean aphid and genetics of sex determination in parasitic hymenoptera. More recent projects have incorporated a conservation focus however, including investigations of an invasive fly species in the Galapagos Islands. Heimpel teaches biological control and insect behavior.
On his website, Heimpel says: “Most of the projects in my lab focus on host-parasitoid interactions and biological control. Investigations range from genetics to community ecology with an emphasis on behavioral, population and evolutionary ecology of parasitoids within the context of biological control. Current projects include classical and conservation biological control of the soybean aphid in the United States, classical biological control of a parasite of Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos Islands, and classical biological control of the imported cabbageworm in the United States.”
“More generally, interests in the lab focus on aspects of host specificity in parasitoids, indirect interactions in natural and agricultural systems, sex determination in parasitoid wasps, evolution of parasitoid reproductive strategies, and ecosystem services (biological control) associated with biofuel cropping systems.”
Plans call for the seminar to be recorded for later posting on UCTV. Coordinating the fall seminars are assistant professors Brian Johnson and Joanna Chiu.
Heimpel's recent publications include:
Hopper, K. R., S. M. Prager, and G. E. Heimpel. 2013. Is parasitoid acceptance of different host species dynamic? Functional Ecology 27:1201-1211.
Heimpel, G. E., Y. Yang, J. Hill, and D. W. Ragsdale. 2013. Environmental consequences of invasive species: greenhouse gas emissions of insecticide use and the role of biological control in reducing emissions. PLoS One 8:e72293.
Wulff, J. A., K. Buckman, K. Wu, G. E. Heimpel, and J. A. White. 2013. The endosymbiont Arsenophonus is widespread in soybean aphid, Aphis glycines, but does not provide protection against parasitoids or a fungal pathogen. PLoS One 8:e62145.
Chacon, J. M., M. K. Asplen, and G. E. Heimpel. 2012. Combined effects of host-plant resistance and intraguild predation on the soybean aphid parasitoid Binodoxys communis in the field. Biological Control 60:16-25.
de Boer, J. G., B. Kuijper, G. E. Heimpel, and L. W. Beukeboom. 2012. Sex determination meltdown upon biological control introduction of the parasitoid Cotesia rubecula? Evolutionary Applications 5:444-454.
Desneux, N., R. Blahnik, C. J. Delebeque, and G. E. Heimpel. 2012. Host phylogeny and specialisation in parasitoids. Ecology Letters 15:453-460.
Tags: aphid parasitoids (1), biological control (5), George Heimpel (1)
Department's Winter Quarter Seminars Announced
UC Davis Postdoctoral Researcher Charlie Nicholson Wins Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest
Arnold Menke's Publication on Wasps Shares UC Davis Spotlight
COVID-19 Symposium to Include Information on Vaccines
UC Davis Part of Newly Established UC Network to Strengthen Bee Health, Crop Pollination
Les was a friend and colleague and...
Professor Ehler challenged myself...
Thank you for sharing your...
I was a graduate student in Agric...
Yes, open to all!
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (293)
Lynn Kimsey (95)
Bohart Museum of Entomology (94)
Bruce Hammock (85)
Entomological Society of America (51)
Rachael Freeman Long: Les was a friend and colleague and...
Andrew Mason Sutherland: Professor Ehler challenged myself...
Jodi Azulai: Thank you for sharing your...
Benito O. de Lumen: I was a graduate student in Agric...
• UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology • Lynn Kimsey • Bohart Museum of Entomology • Bruce Hammock • Entomological Society of America • UC Davis • Neal Williams • Diane Ullman • Frank Zalom • Tabatha Yang • honey bees • Walter Leal • Christian Nansen • Eric Mussen • James R. Carey
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Streaming music is failing to meet industry needs says Strategy Analytics
Buddy Iahn | January 7, 2015 | Industry, Tech
Taylor Swift’s recent move to leave Spotify has intensified the debate around the impact of streaming on the music industry. A new report — Will Royalty Crisis Defeat the Music Streaming Industry — found that despite continuous growth in adoption of music streaming services, current players are having difficulty turning music streaming into profit.
“Technology is evolving and changing the way consumers discover, listen to, share, and interact with music, but it is also a significant factor in the decline of music industry revenues. Many artists feel they are under compensated by streaming services, but as currently structured the underlying economics won’t support higher royalty payments by these service, particularly for free ad-supported services” noted Leika Kawasaki, Digital Media Strategies (DMS) Analyst and author of this report. “As a result, we may never see the same levels of spending on music as we did a decade ago”.
Key findings from the report include:
* Despite significant growth in revenue and a lower net loss, Spotify average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) has actually declined for both subscription and advertising. Monthly subscription ARPU in 2013 was down 2%, while monthly advertising ARPU was down 37% from 2012.
* Most companies benefit from economies of scale; however, Pandora and Spotify’s content acquisition costs increase in parallel with subscriber growth, preventing them from getting ahead of the cost curve.
* Pandora earns the vast majority of its revenue from advertising (82%), whereas Spotify earns the majority of its revenue from subscriptions (91%).
Strategy Analytics predicts that overall global recorded music revenue declined 1%, from $22.8 billion in 2013 to $22.5 billion in 2014, as digital music growth failed to offset losses in packaged music revenues. Streaming music (subscription and ad-supported) accounted for about half of digital music revenue in 2014, up 14% year-over-year.
“The industry must increase music streaming services ad revenue while simultaneously transitioning users to paid services” comments Kawasaki. “With too many competitors already in the space, music-centric companies are facing growing competition from tech giants that have a distinct advantage in terms of leveraging their vast product ecosystems to drive growth in the music space. Current music-centric services may not be able to overcome inefficiencies in music streaming economics and increased competition. As a result, we very well may soon be seeing changes in the balance of power.”
Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success.
Apple Music announces exclusive holiday-themed programming
Vinyl demand continues record growth on heels of Record Store Day 2015
PS Audio launches Octave Records
T Bone Burnett calls for DMCA reform with new video
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“When Prosecutor Meets Defendant: Moving from Retribution to Reconciliation.”
For several years, Preston Shipp served as an appellate prosecutor in the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. While serving as a religious volunteer and teaching college classes in Tennessee prisons, he became good friends with many people who were incarcerated, one of whom he had actually prosecuted. These relationships caused Preston to wake up to the many injustices that are present in the American system of mass incarceration. Preston felt increasing conflict between his faith in Jesus, who was executed as a criminal, and his role as a prosecutor, which required him to argue for the punishment of people he did not know. Unable to serve two masters, Preston left his career as an appellate prosecutor in 2008. Since then, he has taught in universities and churches, lectured at conferences, and written about the urgent needs for criminal justice reform, a shift in how we regard imprisoned people, and a new vision of justice that seeks healing, transformation, and reconciliation, not merely the infliction of suffering. Preston’s conversion from prosecutor to criminal justice reform advocate has left him convinced that his salvation is bound up with that of his friends behind bars. Preston lives in Nashville with his wife Sherisse and their three children, Lila Joy, Ruby Faith, and Levi.
And the Criminals with Him: Essays in Honor of Will D. Campbell and All the Reconciled, (Wipf & Stock, 2012). Several of the essays included in the collection were written by people who are incarcerated. It also includes two essays by Preston Shipp.
Book description: In 1972, Will Campbell published an issue of the Committee of Southern Churchmen’s journal, Katallagete, to shed light on the US prison system. None could anticipate how the system would expand exponentially in the next four decades. Today, the US operates the world’s largest prison system, incarcerating nearly 1 in every 100 American adults. How did this expansion happen? What is the human toll of this retributive system? How might “ambassadors of reconciliation” respond to such a punitive institution? Replicating the firsthand nature of Will Campbell’s original Katallagete collection, twenty new essays pull back the veil on today’s prison-industrial complex. The plea throughout this collection is not for some better, more progressive institution to exact justice. Rather, the invitation is to hear from voices of experience how the system functions, listen to what the institution does to those locked in its cells, consider what an execution involves, and, most importantly, contemplate the scandalous call to be in reconciled community with those whom society discards and the system silences. Our story is that there are neither good nor bad people, neither felon nor free world. We are all one.
“I don’t know of any other book like it, which provides insight from people who have been directly affected by the arcane criminal justice policies of the last four decades. These are the scapegoats, and it’s so important that we hear their stories.” ~ Preston Shipp
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The 'Great Reset' is an elitist attempt to enact global socialism
The Great Reset would use the blunt force trauma of the pandemic to force the world to reshape according to socialist dictates.
Libby Emmons Brooklyn, NY
November 16, 2020 11:12 PM 4 mins reading
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Ever wondered what all the social justice positions would look like if rolled into one comprehensive social engineering document? That's the Great Reset, spearheaded by the World Economic Forum. The WEF wants to use the blunt force trauma of the pandemic to force the world to reshape according to socialist dictates.
The coronavirus crisis has been used as a reason to put together a social justice wish list that would be enacted by multi-national and governments to tackle everything from climate change to corporate equity.
The idea is that this global pandemic should be used to quickly and swiftly change multiple structures and systems across society, and that it shouldn't be done through a democratic process, but through the invention and imagination of those who would wrest control simply due to their power, wealth, and access to resources.
They write "this initiative will offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons."
The message is that "...the Great Reset initiative has a set of dimensions to build a new social contract that honours the dignity of every human being." But in fact, it focuses on a top down approach to solving global problems in a way that focuses on group outcomes and has nothing to do with individual liberty or self-determination.
Reimagining capitalism
Guidance instructs governments and companies to "reimagine capitalism" to adhere to the tenets of a vague value system that is based in nothing but achieving specific outcomes, without concern for how they would be achieved. It's Machavelian to be sure, an ends-justifies-the-means scenario. Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum, claims that the best way forward is for governments and corporations to work together, as they have been on COVID vaccine research. He cites this example, saying that there was "strong cooperation between governments and business to secure the funds needed."
"Looking forward," he said, "such virtuous instincts can become a feature of our economic systems rather than a rare exception." His vision is for the most powerful entities in society, those both elected and the unelected corporate entities, work together to restructure the world's economic system.
No more fossil fuels
No more coal, oil, or fossil fuels should be used under this Great Reset. Under this new plan, all energy production should be moved to solar, wind, and renewables. The method for this is not market demand, but force of will from the top down, and nuclear energy, despite its being clean and incredibly powerful, is excluded.
The exclusion of nuclear has more to do with the baby boomer generation advocating so strongly against nuclear that it has been entirely discounted as the next great breakthrough in energy production. This opposition was not based in facts about nuclear energy, but blind fear and moral repugnance due to the atomic age.
Solar and wind do not have the efficiency of fossil fuels, or of nuclear, but they are believed to be moral, whereas nuclear and fossil fuels are not. The push, by Greta Thunberg, the Democrats in the US House of Representatives, as well as others, for a "green new deal," for the shuttering of progress in the name of a values driven push to new, untested forms of energy, it is feelings first, facts second.
Corporate diversity
The Great Reset wants social justice in the executive suite. What that means is hire more black people for executive positions, and pay them more, and give them more raises. It's a call for affirmative action at the highest levels of corporate structures, where merit should first and foremost be the driving force behind advancement. Writing in Time, Darren Walker said that advancement for managers should be tied to their promotions of people based on race.
More than just advocating for people to be hired and advanced based on race, there are a host of other criteria to consider to reset corporate practices, including wage dictates from the bottom to the top. And corporations are asked to advocate for a tax code that favours more taxes, defunding police, socialized medicine, government housing, and universal basic income. For Walker, shareholder concerns and the funds in their pockets ought not be of issue at all. "...if what you're changing in your corporate practices doesn't affect your bottom line, you're not doing enough."
"Five months into a pandemic that has shuttered the economy, Canada is subsidizing wages at 75% of full salary, while Americans are left to queue at food banks, wondering whether the next unemployment check will be their last," Walker writes, not noting the major problem this is posing in Canada. The country is going broke, and Conservative leaders have shown that at this point, Canadians are getting paid to not work, and that when they have the choice between working and earning v. not working and still earning, they opt for the latter.
Increase global debt and create a massive welfare state
Mariana Mazzucato imagines looking back at 2020 from three years on, and reveals what it took for the world to get on stable footing once this Great Reset was enacted. She imagines the remaking of 100 cities across Europe to be carbon-neutral and the forking over of masses of "funds to implement strong strategies for addressing climate change, reducing the digital divide and strengthening health systems." The US does the same. Everything the people could possibly want becomes funded by government. In this scenario, companies get huge bailouts in exchange for running their businesses the way the progressive governments want them to, as do local governments capitulate their rights and purviews to the federal level.
Each scenario posed by those thinkers, corporate heads, and government officials who helm the concept of the Great Reset have to do with radical transformations of society and culture that are implemented not per the will of the people, but by those elites that control the means of communication, money and business. They want everyone on the globe to fall in line with their preferred way of life. The Great Reset is based in a set of values that comprise a new religion.
This new religion is one where we worship ourselves and draw our morality not from dictates about how we ought treat each other as individuals, but on what is perceived to be the best group outcome. Doing what's best for the group at the exclusion of individual's wishes leads directly to tyranny. That is something that capitalism, hand-in-hand with democracy and advancements in energy production has moved away from.
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Doctor are Deliberately Killing Corona Patients for Money – Kokab Norani [Video]
Khalid Talat
Another controversial statement has been made about the coronavirus and this time from a religious figure. Religious leader Kakab Noorani has claimed that doctors are deliberately killing Coronavirus patients because of donations. In a speech, Kokab Noorani said that people do not need to go to any hospital, but it is necessary to take all precautionary measures to avoid this deadly virus.
Addressing worshipers at a mosque in Karachi, Kokab Noorani said, “Doctors in hospitals are testing every patient’s corona and then putting everyone on ventilators. Then the patient is not even able to return home, and it’s only because doctors are getting paid to kill patients, they won’t even let your family see you.”
He added that the vaccines that the Jews are developing for the coronavirus will help control our minds. Jews are putting a microchip in the vaccine that can control the human brain, whoever uses the vaccine once, will lose the ability to think for himself. Kokab Noorani added that the Jews also intend to replace the traditional currency with digital currency such as bitcoins to control the world so that people around the world can be monitored.
Related Topics:corona pakistanCoronaViruscoronavirus pakistan doctorsdoctors killing patients
The Muslim world is at a new turning point in history. The distance between Arabia and Israel seems to be closing. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince have met. The US Secretary of State was also present at the meeting in Saudi Arabia. The world media is shouting at this meeting. If this news is true then it is a great development in world politics. The UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan have already joined Israel. What color will this friendship with Israel bring to the Arabs? Why are the Arab countries so anxious to embrace yesterday’s enemy? Will Pak-Israel anger last forever?
ALSO READ: Two Factors that are Blocking the Way of Resolving Palestine Issue
While the new global political development is a source of joy for the minority, it is also a source of unhappiness for the majority. Questions about recent developments also need to be answered. Experts say the meeting took place and that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived in a private jet with the Mossad chief. He met secretly with the Saudi Crown Prince. The problem is that the results of the recent US election have upset many countries, including Saudi Arabia. After Biden’s victory, Saudi Arabia fears what the new US president will do. Saudi Arabia wants the support of the Israeli lobby in the United States. Saudi Arabia has extended a hand of friendship to both Turkey and Israel. Saudi Arabia does not want its relations with the United States to rupture. Will Saudi Arabia’s efforts work?
The first is that US foreign policy has implications. Four Muslim countries were destroyed by US foreign policy. Libya was devastated by Obama and Hillary. Had it not been for Russia and Hezbollah behind Assad in Syria, it would have been like Libya. The situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is also in front of everyone. The situation in Afghanistan and Iraq hurt the United States. Trump has not started new wars. Biden is under the influence of former US President Barack Obama. They are “dense” like them. Such people are dangerous. This threat is making the world restless.
ALSO READ: What is Pakistan’s Stance Regarding Recognizing Israel state?
Iran has also linked Biden’s victory to goodwill. Iran hopes sanctions will be eased. Trade routes to Europe will open for Iran. Pakistan will also benefit from easing sanctions on Iran. Pakistan’s goods will go to Iran and Iran’s goods will come to Pakistan. Saudi Arabia wants to curb Iran’s influence in the region. If anyone can look Israel in the eye, it is Iran and Turkey. Saudi Arabia will not be made of Iran. It is said that the enemy of the enemy is the friend, Saudi Arabia is also going to sacrifice its long-standing policy under the same policy.
The question is, when Pakistan’s friends are raising the bar of love and friendship with Israel, will Pakistan lag behind in this race? Will Pak-Israel anger last forever? Prime Minister Imran Khan’s position on Palestine is the position of the nation, in which he said that our policy on relations with Israel is the same as that of the founder of Pakistan. The founders of Pakistan have always rejected relations with Israel. He used to say, “This is a dagger inserted in the heart of the Ummah. This is an illegitimate state which Pakistan will never recognize.”
ALSO READ: CPEC & Chabahar Paving the Way for China’s Supremacy in the Region
Our position cannot be linked to the position of the Arab League or the OIC. Our position is based on the position of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam. If Pakistan backs away from the Palestinian policy, it will deviate from the Kashmir policy. Pakistan is a non-Arab country that has taken part in two wars against Israel. Pakistan’s policy is clear and cannot be changed. But our Prime Minister is second to none in changing his stance on every issue. As soon as the news of the Saudi Crown Prince’s meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister came, a certain group in Pakistan was deployed to form a consensus to recognize Israel.
A lobby of specialized intellectuals and journalists has begun work on the “Acceptable” mission. The government has started throwing leaves through social media. The past shows that our Prime Minister jumps to great heights, in this case too. If that happened then his followers would accept it as a blessing.
Ali Raza
After an illegal action of scrapping the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, India is now adamant to take the Kashmir issue off the agenda of the UNSC, terminating the hopes of the sovereignty of oppressed people in the disputed territory. Pakistan jogged India’s memory that Kashmir can not be removed from the agenda of the united nations security council (UNSC), which was determined to solving this dispute between Pakistan and India according to the desires of the Kashmiri people. Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, while answering to the Indian move, said “Indian spokespersons either deceiving themselves or pulling the wool in their public eyes that they will get Kashmir out of the security council’s agenda”.
He said, “it will never happen”. He further brought to the light that the security council’s agenda was set in agreement with the established rules and procedures and could only be modified by a consensus of the members of the council and can not be altered unilaterally by a single member state.
ALSO READ: Reasons and Background of Recent Indo-China Border Conflicts
As the 75th session of the UN general assembly is to begin in New York later this month, it goes without saying that Pakistan will raise its voice and bring the miseries of the Kashmiri people to the mind of the world community to call for justice in the valley. India asked the UN to detach Kashmir from its agenda to refrain Pakistan from raising it at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly. India backing its move, in response to the report of the security council for 2019, complaining that Pakistan “keeps shoving for debate on an obsolete agenda thing in the council”.
Pakistan has raised the issue inside the council three times with the support of china since the illegal annexation of the valley. India’s argument that why it should be removed from the agenda of the council is hollow from the facts. As the UNSC does not acknowledge the Indian claim and treats the territory as an unsolved dispute. Furthermore, it has deployed its military observers on both sides of the Loc. Diplomatic sources told that India has been seeking for a long time to bring out the “Pakistan-India Question” from the agenda of UNSC. In spite of India’s long efforts, it has fallen through in its aim incessantly.
ALSO READ: Nepal-India Territorial Conflict Explained: Facts & Background
One UN diplomate called the Indian claim as “weird” as he told the reality of removing any agenda item. He said, “it could be only possible if a dispute was solved or the consensus decision of the council”. However, the Jammu and Kashmir issue is not settled yet, rather, illegally annexed by the Indian state inspired by the Hindutva ideology of RSS, a Hindu extremist organization.
The ultimate goal of the Security Council, an important part of the UN, is to ensure international peace and stability, which calls for the list of unresolved issues of its agenda and can’t be removed even if one member state wishes to remove.
From the time, Kashmir issue was inscribed in its agenda, till today 16 resolutions are passed by the UN on Jammu and Kashmir. The illegal annexation of Jammu and Kashmir by fascist India was considered in its agenda “The Pakistan-India Question” on 16 August. The deployment of UNMOGIP was approved under the same agenda.
ALSO READ: Indo-China Conflict & the Role of America
UNMGOIP remains deployed in disputed territory between Pakistan and India, another confirmation that the dispute is still on the agenda of the security council. It checks and reports ceasefire infringements along the LOC in Kashmir, allowing the UNSC to stick to their guns. The military observers are present in disputed territory and violations are reported to the UNSC and the UNHQ. This proof unveils that this dispute is under the active consideration of the council and is not obsolete in any way.
As we all are apprised of the rack and ruin brought about by the inclement monsoon season in the metropolitan city of Pakistan, Karachi. The people of Karachi have been compelled to face severe losses in the wake of rain floods engulfed approximately the whole city. Despite severe losses due to the rain that has inflicted upon the people, one positive development has been witnessed as the masses are incensed with the management and administration of Karachi and the sense of raising their voices this time for the amelioration of the shambolic city is developed. Who is held responsible for the administrative fiasco in Karachi?
The city has not seen major development at the hands of ruling parties instead of the Musharraf era in which, under the watch of Mayor Karachi Mustafa Kamal, the city was leading ahead in the whole South Asian region in terms of development and progressive work. It is not wrong to say that the development Lahore has witnessed in 2013-2014, Karachi was enjoying in 2005, as ill-luck would have it, no further up-gradation in the city has seen till to date. Unfortunately, due to incompetence and politics, the financial hub of Pakistan and one of the largest cities in the world are enjoying the serendipity of trash. Due to power politics between PPP and MQM, the city is lagging in development and the masses are enduring a very difficult situation.
ALSO READ: Worst Condition of Karachi, Who is Responsible? Petition in Sindh High Court
Much to the sufferings of people, Karachi deserves a comprehensive and practicable solution to all the problems faced by the people. So, they can finally take a sigh of relief.
The concept of ‘Karachi a separate province’, as it is surfacing on social media and the minds of people, is utterly non-viable because it clashes the vested interest of the political parties and the administrative problems solely lie with the people not with the parties, and they will never allow laying their hands off of the hen who lay golden eggs as the slogan ‘Marso Marso Sindh Na Deso’ will start airing.
Although, if Karachi is made a separate administrative unit, to much extent, the management problems can be eradicated. But again the problem is the same.
The most viable and workable solution for the administrative fiasco in Karachi as well as for all the metropolitan cities is to develop ‘Local Body Structure’ as it is already established in major big cities of the world. For instance, London has its local body structure spearheading by mayor Sadiq khan who is responsible for all the issues occurring in the city, including sewage problems, transport, sanitation, policymaking, public safety, and water supply management.
We are still bound to the inherited ancient structure from the British and they moved to the new one local body structure in which the mayor is directly elected by the people and bestowed by a full-fledged authority to run the city’s affairs properly.
On the other hand in Pakistan, commissioners and deputy commissioners control all affairs of the city. At the time of crisis, people are blowing hot and cold to whom they go for their complaints, either go to chief ministries, the federal government, or powerless mayors. The masses should be directed to one person responsible for the city’s administration. Unfortunately, in Pakistan MNA’s are doing the work of pavement of streets and the concrete meant of roads which is highly contrary to their work as they are responsible for making laws in the national assembly.
The local body system set up in 2013 was hamstrung and completely failed as the powers were not devolved to the lower level of the institutions. We often saw the mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar crying for funds and imploring to the provincial government for funds to take the tasks to completion in the city. After the 18th amendment, the power and authority were given to provinces but the devolution of power to grass root level is not assured.
Karachi is plunged in a quagmire of different power holders like the Army handling some institutions, MNA’s of the ruling party, and the mayor of Karachi. As I aforementioned, who is held responsible for the failure, and people should know whose neck they are going to hold in time of crisis.
It is the need of the hour to make different administrative units to run this country efficiently and effectively as the administration becomes plain sailing. Our neighbor country India has nearly 36 administrative units, America has approximately 50 states and our brother country turkey has 81 provinces. So, by seeing these example its desideratum becomes quite evident.
All Compulsory and Optional Subjects – Download Free Books/Articles for CSS/PMS//NTS/NAB Exams (Update Regularly)
80+ Most Important Essays & Articles (All in One)
Global Power Dynamics and Pakistan’s Foreign Policy
The Muslim world is at a new turning point in history. The distance between Arabia and Israel seems to be...
After an illegal action of scrapping the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, India is now adamant to take the...
As we all are apprised of the rack and ruin brought about by the inclement monsoon season in the metropolitan...
Why Shouldn’t Pakistan Accept Israel?
Israel is a completely illegitimate state and was created by occupying Muslim territories. The blood of millions of Muslims was...
Nexus of Terrorist Organizations in Afghanistan – Security High Alert in Pakistan
Officials from India’s intelligence agency RAW and Afghanistan’s intelligence agency NDS have held meetings with the TTP and other banned...
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Gov. El-Rufai Pledges Equal Opportunity To All In Kaduna
Kaduna – Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State has pledged to offer quality service to the people irrespective of historical, ethnic or religious orientation.
El-Rufai made the pledge in Kafanchan, shortly after the endorsement of a peace declaration by 29 communities in five local government areas of the state.
The Kafanchan Peace Declaration was at the instance of Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD). “We recognize everyone as a citizen of Kaduna state and in accessing social services, have no regard for his or her historical, ethnic and religious orientation.
“ We as a government are pursuing an investment strategy anchored on our conviction that the private sector is the engine of job creation and growth. “We are investing in human capital so that our people can have the training to pick the jobs the private sector is creating,“ the governor said.
He stressed the belief of the administration that the life, property and well-being of every person living in the state “are not only sacred but a burden of responsibility.
“We will therefore continue to pursue policies that exhibit equal concern for every person living in Kaduna state.
“Policies that unite and integrate our people, educate their children free of charge, provide all affordable healthcare and engender an environment for job creation, gender empowerment and overall societal progress.
“Today is a landmark day for peace. I am delighted to be here to witness and receive the Kafanchan Peace Declaration.
“This declaration is an emphatic statement by our communities in Southern Kaduna of their commitment to peace, and their choice of dialogue and non-violence in resolving differences.” El-Rufai said commended communities and leaders of Sanga, Kachia, Kaura, Zangon Kataf and Jema’a LGAs for “choosing dialogue over blows.“
“I am glad to see 29 ethnic communities headed by 32 chairs from these five LGAs, many of who have been involved in conflict in the past, sitting here as one.” The Governor assured of the state government commitment to end impunity and ensure that perpetrators of ethno-religious violence were prosecuted.
He said government would not allow specialists in hate speech, “who use derogatory words against others, who mobilize division acting in the mistaken belief that their bread is buttered where there is strife and turmoil to go free. “We are opposed to the perpetuation of ‘no-go zones’ in any of our communities, and will instead promote integration in schools and residents. “
He stressed that the government is committed to fairness in promoting investments, jobs and infrastructure across the state.
NAN report, that the Kafanchan peace accord wants the state government to create a body that would promote peace and reconciliation amongst communities and prosecute perpetrators of violence.
“The excerpts recommend that both indigenes and settlers should consider the compensation of all affected persons and to address past wrongs, drawing on the wisdom and expertise of traditional conflicts resolution mechanisms.
“Pubic apology , we represent some of the communities from the five (5) LGAs ,Sanga, Kachia, Kaura, Zangon Kataf and Jema’a cannot in ourselves , deliver reconciliation, “Many of us belong to generation that remembers when Kaduna was a peaceful place in which ethnic and religious communities co-existed peacefully.
“We want to go back to that Kaduna in which there is an end to violent conflicts and issues are resolved amicably.
“To achieve this, we want to be the first to say to each other that we have wronged each other and are sorry for the suffering that each of our communities has contributed to and has suffered from.
“The excerpts from Kafanchan peace declaration further called on the government to develop adequate infrastructures in the existing grazing reserves and reactivate the farmers marketing boards to carter for the needs of farmers.
“Government should take effective security measures in girls’ schools to protect female students from abduction, harm and violence.
“Government should also take specific measure to reduce violence by organizing educational courses and campaigns to raise awareness on sexual violence against women.“
Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau participated at the event, which was supported by the Canadian Government, CAN and JNI. 5 0 0 0 (Vanguard)
http://www.twitter.com/@RNNetwork1
March 24, 2016 Ike A. Offor
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215 New York City Captions and Quotes to Love the City of Dreamers
If you are looking for New York City captions, you are in the right place. This is the ultimate list of NYC captions for Instagram, including funny New York city quotes and short quotes about New York. If you are dreaming of traveling to New York City or you want captions for New York pictures – you got it covered.
New York is one huge city that draws dreamers and hustlers from all around the world – No matter from which part of the world, people come to NYC city with dreams in their eyes, and their brain filled with goals – Whether you are one of the hustler trying to find your foot in the city or you are a traveler wanting to get lost in the glamour of Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, and swanky Manhattan – you can virtually explore the city of dreams through these epic quotes about New York City.
Grab a latte and get started to enjoy these New York city captions.
NEW YORK CITY CAPTIONS FOR INSTAGRAM
NEW YORK CITY TRAVEL CAPTIONS
FUNNY NEW YORK CAPTIONS
SHORT NEW YORK QUOTES
QUIRKY NYC CAPTIONS FOR INSTAGRAM
QUOTES ABOUT NEW YORKERS
QUOTES ABOUT NEW YORK CULTURE AND HISTORY
LONG NEW YORK CAPTIONS FOR INSTAGRAM
NEW YORK PUNS AND JOKES
Below is the list of New York City captions and New York quotes for Instagram. Whether you are exploring New York or you have moved to the city and looking for the right words to capture your emotions and thoughts, I am sure these NYC Instagram captions will take care of these things for you.
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” – Tom Wolfe
“I was in love with New York. I do not mean ‘love’ in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and never loves anyone quite that way again.” –Joan Didion
“A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.” – Le Corbusier
“Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you.” – Taylor Swift
“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.” -Simone De Beauvoir
“New York is the biggest collection of villages in the world.” -Alistair Cooke
“I get out of the taxi and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards: New York.” – Milos Forman
“As for New York City, it is a place apart. There is not its match in any other country in the world.” -Pearl S. Buck
“New York is appalling, fantastically charmless, and elaborately dire.” -Henry James
Best New York City Captions
Don’t enjoy these catchy NYC Instagram captions alone. Share them with your friends and on social media too.
“I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, ‘There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.’” – Robert De Niro
“I’m going to show you the real New York – witty, smart, and international – like any metropolis. Tell me this: where in Europe can you find old Hungary, old Russia, old France, old Italy? In Europe you’re trying to copy America, you’re almost American. But here you’ll find Europeans who immigrated a hundred years ago – and we haven’t spoiled them. Oh, Gio! You must see why I love New York. Because the whole world’s in New York.” – Oriana Fallaci
“Concrete jungle where dreams are made, oh, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York.” – Jay-Z
“This is the city of dreamers and time and again it’s the place where the greatest dream of all, the American dream, has been tested and has triumphed.” – Michael Bloomberg
“As for New York City, it is a place apart. There is not its match in any other country in the world.” – Pearls S. Buck
These Instagram captions for NYC are perfect to go with your latest weekend trip pictures that you can share along with your New York hashtags.
“People never forget 2 things: their first love and their first day in New York City.” – Kirk
“London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful.” – Dorothy Parker
“In order to love New York you have to hate it too. It’s like a love affair – you don’t hunger for it till it’s out of reach, and when you’ve had your fill, you need to separate. When you return, some of it is unfamiliar, but, oh my god, the beauty of it.” – Connie Eisenstat
“I didn’t know the city at all, but I was so happy to be in New York I cried. I was so excited.” – Greta Gerwig
“Things always change and New York teaches you that.” – Richard Hell
“It is a miracle that New York works at all. The whole thing is implausible.” – E.B. White
“Once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.” – John Steinbeck
“Pull up the shades so I can see New York. I don’t want to go home in the dark.” – O. Henry
“New York was the only place in America where a person could actually live a halfway livable life.” – John Green
These are some of the deep and moving New York Instagram captions that best describe New York’s character – from its relentless to intimidating shades, among the many hues it wears.
“New York provides a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.” – E. B. White
“There’s nothing like the feeling of being in Times Square for New Year’s Eve.” – Kimberly Guilfoyle
“I wake up every morning and say to myself, ‘Well, I’m still in New York. Thank you, God.” – Ed Koch
“New York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly find a typical American.” – Djuna Barnes
“New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village – the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up.” – E.B. White
“The great city of New York wields more of the destinies of this great nation than five times the population of any other portion of the country.” – Malcolm S. Forbes
“That was New York; a whole cacophony of sounds and tastes that all somehow came together to form something beautiful.” – Aishabella Sheikh
“If you’re greedy for life, that’s what New York is all about. If you’re trying to get as much as you can every day, this city is the place to be.” – Pam Nelson
Let’s agree that every traveler has this city up high on their bucket list, no matter where they are from or how old. New York, London, Rome, Paris, Tokyo – see this list of the top metropolitan cities in the world here? All those fueled by wanderlust dreams of spending at least a weekend in this stunning city if not more.
For now, keep your dreams alive, and also the travel plans. Meanwhile, check out these New York City captions to virtual travel there.
Also look for some New York skyline captions for Instagram, because we all know that the skyline of NYC is one of the most beautiful in the world, which will enchant you no matter if you are a fan of concrete jungles or skyscrapers or not!
“Sometimes, from beyond the skyscrapers, the cry of a tugboat finds you in your insomnia, and you remember that this desert of iron and cement is an island.” – Albert Camus
“Curtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city drags itself awake on subway straps; and I, an alarm, awake as a rumor of war, lie stretching into dawn, unasked and unheeded.” – Maya Angelou
“I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.” – Nora Ephron
“When I’m in New York, I just want to walk down the street and feel this thing, like I’m in a movie.” – Ryan Adams
“The wanderer in Manhattan must go forth with a certain innocence because New York is best seen with innocent eyes.” – Pete Hamill
The below list of New York city captions also covers a few central park quotes, Brooklyn bridge quotes, and also New York song quotes.
“L.A., it’s nice, but I think of sunshine and people on rollerblades eating sushi. New York, I think of nighttime, I think of Times Square and Broadway and nightlife and the city that never sleeps.” – Jimmy Fallon
“It’s pretty cliched, but Times Square is just incredible. You really feel like you’re in the capital of the world.” – Timothy F. Cahill
“Whenever spring comes to New York I can’t stand the suggestion of the land that comes blowing over the river from New Jersey and I’ve got to go. So I went.” – Jack Kerouac
“If I had to choose a single destination where I’d be held captive for the rest of my time in New York, I’d choose the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” – Tim Gunn
“New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it: Once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.” – John Steinbeck
“Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.” – Angela Carter
“New York is large, glamorous, easy-going, kindly, and incurious, but above all, it is a crucible – because it is large enough to be incurious.” -Ford Madox Ford
“Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams. Baby, I’m from New York, a concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There’s nothing you can’t do. Now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you. Hear it for New York, New York, New York.” – Alicia Keys
“New York – that unnatural city where everyone is an exile, none more so than the American.” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“In terms of theatre, there’s not a more supportive theatre community than in New York. It’s really kind of a real thrill to go there. I mean, don’t forget, I’m a boy from the suburbs of Sydney, so getting to New York is a huge, huge thrill.” – Hugh Jackman
“My favourite place is Central Park because you never know what you’re going to find there. I also like that when I look out the windows of surrounding hotels, it seems like I’m looking out over a forest.” – Haley Joel Osment
“The city is an amusement park: Everything is concrete, it’s full of tourists, and food vendors line the sidewalks. It’s like living in a casino: The lights never dim, there’s an incessant din of bells and horns, and there’s always someone, somewhere, crying in a bathroom.,” – Jane Borden
These New York travel quotes and different sayings about New York city will make you begin dreaming about going to this city for sure.
“In New York, the opportunities for learning, and acquiring a culture that shall not come out of the ruins, but belongs to life, are probably greater than anywhere else in the world.” – Thomas Wolfe
“I think New York has evolved in my work just the way the city has.” – Paul Auster
“Everything in New York is a photograph. All the things that are supposed to be dirty or rough or unrefined are the most beautiful things. Garbage cans at the ends of alleyways look like they’ve been up all night talking with each other. “ – Ann-Marie MacDonald
New York City Captions
“I love short trips to New York; to me, it is the finest three-day town on earth.” James Cameron
“I can’t with any conscience argue for New York with anyone. It’s like Calcutta. But I love the city in an emotional, irrational way, like loving your mother or your father even though they are drunk or a thief. I’ve loved the city my whole life – to me, it’s like a great woman.” – Woody Allen
“It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.” – Agatha Christie
“I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. There’s something very sensuous about it – overripe as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.” – Gatsby
“I’m bound to say that New York’s a topping place to be exiled in. Everybody was awfully good to me, and there seemed to be plenty of things going on, and I’m a wealthy bird, so everything was fine.” – P. G. Wodehouse
“New York had all the iridescence of the beginning of the world. The returning troops marched up Fifth Avenue and girls were instinctively drawn East and North toward them — this was the greatest nation and there was a gala in the air.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“And New York is the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban nights is like the night there. Squares after squares of flame, set up and cut into the aether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.” – Ezra Pound
“New York walking doesn’t exercise: it’s a continually showing make-your-own movie.” – Roy Blount Jr
“There is more sophistication and less sense in New York than anywhere else on the globe.” – Elbert Hubbard
“The most unusual and surrealistic place in New York City is Central Park.” – Christ
“Sometimes I feel like my only friend in the city I live in is beautiful Brooklyn.” – Mos Def
“I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. Particularly when one can’t see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need?” – Ayn Rand
“I don’t like cities. But I like New York. Other places make me feel like a dork.” – Madonna
“There is no place like it, no place with an atom of its glory, pride, and exultancy. It lays its hand upon a man’s bowels; he grows drunk with ecstasy; he grows young and full of glory, he feels that he can never die.” -Walt Whitman
“Quiet is definitely not how I would describe New York, but if I go outside of the front door, I see the beautiful Central Park, so it’s a nice place to be.” – Petra Kvitová
“That’s my favourite place in the world, so far, that I’ve seen. I haven’t travelled much, but I don’t think I’ll find anything to replace Brooklyn.” – Marilyn Monroe
“When I was younger, I had wanted to be at the very center of all the action in New York, but I slowly came to realize that there is no one center. The center is everywhere – wherever people are living out their lives. It’s a city with a million centers.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
“I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it’s happening.” – John Lennon
“Coming to New York from the muted mistiness of London, as I regularly do, is like traveling from a monochrome antique shop to a technicolor bazaar.” – Kenneth Tynan
“Living in California adds ten years to a man’s life. And those extra ten years I’d like to spend in New York.” – Harry Ruby
“The Central Park Zoo is a little gem in the middle of the city. Its penguin exhibit is terrific and the seals are a permanent centre of attraction for children.” – Newt Gingrich
“I knew that I needed to quiet my mind; lucky for me, there is no place to quiet your mind like the northernmost edge of Manhattan’s Times Square.” – Ellie Kemper
“New York is a work of art in and of itself. It’s a masterpiece that shouldn’t make sense, yet somehow, it does.” – Jacqueline E. Smith
“The most wonderful street in the universe is Broadway. It is a world within itself. High and low, rich and poor, pass along at a rate peculiar to New York, and positively bewildering to a stranger.” – Frank Rich
“I once started out to walk around the world but ended up in Brooklyn, that Bridge was too much for me.” – Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“You could grow up in the city where history was made and still miss it all.” – Jonathan Lethem
“Sometimes to walk in shaded parts of Manhattan is to be inserted into a Magritte: the street is night while the sky is the day.” – Joseph O’Neill
“The thing that always attracted me to New York was the sense of being in a place where a lot of people had a lot of stories not unlike mine.” – Salman Rushdie
“She leaned back in her chair, watching the sunrise as if it were a private performance intended just for her. And for a moment it felt that way: as if the sun was showing off for her benefit, reminding her how wonderful it was to be young and alive and in New York.” – Katharine McGee
“At night, the streets become rhythmical perspectives of glowing dotted lines, reflections hung upon them in the streets as the wistaria hangs its violet racemes on its trellis. The buildings are shimmering verticality, a gossamer veil, a festive scene-prop hanging there against the black sky to dazzle, entertain, amaze.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
“Something’s always happening here. If you’re bored in New York, it’s your own fault.” – Myrna Loy
“A city is not gauged by its length and width, but by the broadness of its vision and the height of its dreams.” – Herb Caen
“Empire” isn’t just about New York. It’s about hope. No matter where we’re from, we all want the opportunity to work hard and breathe life into our ambitions.” – Alicia Keys
“NY 101. It’ll rob you and cheat you. It’ll take your friends and turn them on you. It’ll kick your ass and break your heart. But then it’ll pick you up again, make you feel so totally alive and untouchable. It’s the center of the world, it’s the best place in the world, and once it’s in your heart it’ll never leave you.” – Ryan Kelly
If you want to laugh about the city, how about these funny New York City captions. Whether it is the sex and the city quotes about New York by Sarah or funny quotes about New York city from songs, this is the best list of funny quotes about NYC.
“New York City is all about sex. People getting it, people trying to get it, people who can’t get it. No wonder the city never sleeps. It’s too busy trying to get laid.” – Sex and the City
“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies.” – You’ve Got Mail
“New York City has finally hired women to pick up the garbage, which makes sense to me, since, as I’ve discovered, a good bit of being a woman consists of picking up garbage.” – Anna Quindlen
“When you’re in New York City, always keep your money and other valuables in a safe place, such as Switzerland.” – Dave Barry
“New York – The city where the people from Oshkosh look at the people from Dubuque in the next theater seats and say “These New Yorkers don’t dress any better than we do.” – Robert Benchley
“If you live in New York, even if you’re Catholic, you’re Jewish.” – Lennie Bruce
“New York is a different country. Maybe it ought to have a separate government. Everybody thinks differently, they just don’t know what the hell the rest of the United States is.” – Henry Ford
Multiply your laughter by sharing these funny New York quotes and funny New York sayings with your friends and family too.
“There’s something so romantic about being broke in New York. You gotta do it. You have to live there once without any money, and then you have to live there when you have money. Let me tell you, of the two, the latter is far better.” – Amy Poehler
“Brooklyn was like Philadelphia made better by its proximity to Manhattan.” – Jonathan Franzen
“New York is my Lourdes, where I go for spiritual refreshment – a place where you’re least likely to be bitten by a wild goat.” – Brendan Behan
“Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines.” – David Letterman
“New York is a six reel movie, with the film running backward, sideways, cross-ways, but never in sequence. Nobody seems to be moving anywhere, but is in an awful hurry to get somewhere.” – William Henry.
“When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York and only 72 in Los Angeles.” – Neil Simon
“When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.” – Fran Lebowitz
“Manhattan is an accumulation of possible disasters that never happen.” – Ed Koch
“To people from ‘Brooklyn-Brooklyn,’ North Brooklyn is really just South Queens.” – Cat Agonis
These are some of my favorite New York city captions that make me smile every time I read them.
“On my first day in New York a guy asked me if I knew where Central Park was. When I told him I didn’t, he said, ‘Do you mind if I mug you here?” – Paul Merton
“I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.” – Rick Riordan
“An interesting thing about New York City is that the subways run through the sewers.” – Garrison Keillor
“A New York doctor has finished a five-year study of what smells have the biggest effect on New Yorkers. The smell New Yorkers like the most – Vanilla. The smell New Yorkers like the least – New Jersey.” – Jay Leno
Best funny NYC quotes
“I don’t mourn the old, romantic, dirty Times Square, although it was more unique.” – Lee Ranaldo
“I knew I couldn’t live in America and I wasn’t ready to move to Europe so I moved to an island off the coast of America – New York City.” – Spalding Gray
“New Yorkers like to boast that if you can survive in New York, you can survive anywhere. But if you can survive anywhere, why live in New York?” – Edward Abbey
“If there were a god of New York, it would be the Greek Hermes, the Roman’s Mercury. He embodies New York qualities: the quick exchange, the fastness of language and style, craftiness, the mixing of people, and the crossing of borders, imagination.” – James Hillman
Another of the many sex and the city quotes about NYC below.
“New York is definitely haunted. Old lovers, ex-boyfriends, anyone you have unresolved issues with you is bound to run into again and again until you resolve them.” – Sex and the City
Some more funny New York city quotes to keep the giggles coming in. You can also find some amazing and funny central park captions too.
“New York was a city where you could be frozen to death in the midst of a busy street and nobody would notice.” – Bob Dylan
“The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.” – Douglas Adams
“My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad; but New York City?”- Henny Youngman
“Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.” – Johnny Carson
“It’ll be a great place if they ever finish it.” – O. Henry
“On a New York subway, you get fined for spitting, but you can throw up for nothing.” – Lewis Grizzard
“New York, the nation’s thyroid gland.” – Christopher Morley
“If one is looking for cultural testosterone and raging off-the-wall competition in the world of communications, Manhattan was and is home plate.” Brock Yates
“If you circle above Central Park at night in a helicopter, you’re looking down at the most expensive real estate in the world. It’s the American Monopoly board.” – Ridley Scott
“The flag of New York City should be someone with four bags opening a door with their shoulder.” – Alex Baze
“When I had a look at the lights of Broadway by night, I said to my American friends: What a glorious garden of wonders this would be, to any who was lucky enough to be unable to read.” – G.K. Chesterton
“If one is looking for cultural testosterone and raging off-the-wall competition in the world of communications, Manhattan was and is home plate.” – Brock Yates
“The only people who can afford to be artists in New York are rich.” – Frances Ha
“New York may be the city that never sleeps, but it sure does sleep around.” – Brian Bendis
“The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, ‘Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.’ She’s got a baseball bat and yelling, ‘You want a piece of me?’” – Robin William
“For in that city New York there is neurosis in the air which the inhabitants mistake for energy.” – Evelyn Waugh
“New York is an exciting town where something is happening all the time, most of it unsolved.” – Johnny Carson
More hilarious moments for you because we got a few more New York funny quotes.
“There’s no room for amateurs, even in crossing the streets.” – George Segal
“I love New York City. The reason I live in New York City is that it’s the loudest city on the planet Earth. It’s so loud I never have to listen to any of the shit that’s going on in my own head. It’s really loud. They literally have guys come with jackhammers and they drill the streets and just leave cones in front of your apartment; you don’t even know why. Garbage men come; they don’t pick up the garbage, they just bang the cans together.” – Lewis Black
“New York is a six-reel movie, with the film running backward, sideways, cross-ways, but never in sequence. Nobody seems to be going anywhere, but is it an awful hurry to get there.” – William Henry McMasters
“Central Park is the grandiose symbol of the front yard each child in New York hasn’t got.” – Robert Benchley
“I always heard people in New York never get to know their neighbours.” – Breakfast At Tiffany’s
“New York has a trip-hammer vitality that drives you insane with restlessness if you have no inner stabilizer.” – Henry Miller
“A middle finger is more New York than a corporate ambush. I bleed for my hometown, and I’d die for my fans.” – Lady Gaga
“I have a wonderful make-up crew. They’re the same people restoring the Statue of Liberty.” – Bob Hope
“New York is the only city in the world where you can get run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.” – Russell Baker
“I moved to New York City for my health. I’m paranoid and it was the only place where my fears were justified.” – Anita Weiss
If you love these hilarious New York City captions, let us know in the comments below.
“In New York, most people don’t have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway. That’s why there are so many subway murders; no one has a car.” – George Carlin
“New York is a sucked orange” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I had enough electricity in my booty to jump-start the whole of New York City.” – Colum McCann
“A car is useless in New York, essential everywhere else. The same with good manners.” – Mignon McLaughlin
Below are some of the famous Instagram quotes for NYC. These are short and sweet, perfect if you are looking for a few amazing short quotes about New York
“New York is the only real city-city.” – Truman Capote
In New York, auditioning for the future.
“Each man reads his own meaning into New York.” – Meyer Berger
“New York City is a tourist trap I don’t mind being in.”
“Give me such shows — give me the streets of Manhattan!” – Walt Whitman
A New York Minute.
“You haven’t lived until you died in New York.” – Alexander Woollcott
Once upon a time in New York.
New York is always a good idea.
“The whole of New York is rebuilt about once in ten years.” – Philip Hone
Late nights, bright lights
I miss New York. Take me home.” – Sex and the City
These New York city captions are best if you want some New York caption for Instagram pics from your trip.
“How can you be organized when you’re in Times Square?” – Mary-Kate Olsen
Dear New York, I’ll never get over you.
“For me, New York is comfortable, not strange.” – Karl Lagerfeld
“Skyscraper National Park.” – Kurt Vonnegut
Let the city set you free.
“New York is like a disco but without the music.” – Elaine
“The most powerful visual in America today is actually the Statue of Liberty.” – Frank Luntz
Instagram quotes for New York
New York is not a city – it’s a world.
Uptown things and downtown dreams!
“I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps.” – Frank Sinatra
“If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting.” – Peter Shaffer
More short New York quotes that are perfect New York city captions for Instagram that will attract a lot of hearts.
I left my heart in New York City.
London is a mystery, NYC is an explanation.
“One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
You can leave New York, but it will never leave you.
“New York to me means the world.” – Donna Karan
“It’s a city where everybody mutinies but no one deserts.” – Harry Hershfield
Well, would you look at the Times?
“New York is a diamond iceberg floating in river water.” – Truman Capote
I love New York.
“When you leave New York you ain’t going anywhere.” – Jimmy Breslin
“If you follow your heart just right, it will get you to New York City.”
“In New York, you’ve got to have all the luck.” – Charles Bukowski
“There’s no place like Times Square.”
“Make your mark in New York and you are a made man.” – Mark Twain
“Everybody ought to have a Lower East Side in their life.” – Irving Berlin
“The glamour of it all! New York! America!” – Charlie Chaplin
“Enjoying every New York minute.”
I heart New York
“Happiness is holding tickets that say, New York.”
Feel free to use these New York quotes on Instagram with your loved ones.
“Good morning New York City!”
“I went to New York to be born again.” – Kurt Vonnegut
Summer nights and city lights.
Give my regards to Broadway
Below New York city captions are perfect if you are looking for some sassy New York city Instagram quotes or clever New York city Instagram captions.
“New York State of mind.”
Hustle like a New Yorker
This is the only city with a special flair.
“Hello, New York, you’re looking beautiful today! How do you always manage to look beautiful always?”
“Meet me in New York.”
Hello, NYC, your night is a firefighter in my heart.
First Timers Square
Somewhere between living and dreaming, there’s New York.
New York City is my goal
I am having an affair with New York.
“I fell in love. His name is New York”
“Forever a city girl.”
“Welcome to the concrete jungle.”
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps.
Share these best Instagram captions for New York with your friends.
“Meet me in Times Square.”
All you need is love and skylines.
“Only in New York.”
“I’d rather be in New York.”
I’m in New York – the city of dreams.
“Anything is possible. This is New York.”
What better than these classy New York city captions for New York pic quotes, right?
“I’m just a little apple in the Big Apple.”
Anything Can Happen in a New York Minute!
“I want Times Square”
Taking a bite out of the Big Apple
The list of the quotes about New York state or the city can not be complete without referencing its fierce, determined, and ambitious dwellers – the New Yorkers.
If you want to know what’s being a New Yorker is like, go straight to check out these New York city captions about its residents.
“As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night.” – Dorothy Parker
“I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.” – Truman Capote
“The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” – John Updike
“My favorite thing about New York is the people because I think they’re misunderstood. I don’t think people realize how kind New York people are.” – Bill Murray
“Being a New Yorker grounds you in every way. Before you walk out of the house, you can dress in the nicest clothes and be whoever you think you are, but when you’re on those streets, you’re just in the school of fish.” – Awkafina
“By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience – if they did, they would live elsewhere.” – E.B. White
“People in New York love having roof parties.” – Todd Barry
“I don’t like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I’m from New York. I will kill to get what I need.” – Lady Gaga
“I came to New York to be a fine artist – that was my ambition.” – David Byrne
“I love that about New York: You just dress the way you want to dress and feel really comfortable because nobody is judging. You can just be yourself, and it’s perfectly normal.” – Henrik Lundquist
“One’s life and passion may be elsewhere, but New York is where you prove if what you think in theory makes sense in life.” – Miuccia Prada
“Critics in New York are made by their dislikes, not by their enthusiasm.” – Irwin Shaw
“Every true New Yorker believes with all his heart that when a New Yorker is tired of New York, he is tired of life.” – Robert Moses
Some more New York city captions that shows how life in the city can be.
“I think NYC definitely had something to do with my figuring out my life path.” – T Cooper
“New Yorkers are born all over the country, and then they come to New York City and it hits them: Oh, that’s who I am.” – Delia Ephron
“Most people are in New York because they need evidence—in large quantities—of human expressiveness, and they need it not now and then, but every day. That is what they need. Those who go off to the manageable cities can do without; those who come to New York cannot.” – Vivian Gornick
“If you want to become a real New Yorker, there’s only one rule: You have to believe New York is, has been, and always will be the greatest city on earth. The center of the universe.” – Ellen R. Shapiro
“New York is strange in the summer. Life goes on as usual but it’s not, it’s like everyone is just pretending as if everyone has been cast as the star in a movie about their life, so they’re one step removed from it. And then in September it all gets normal again.” – Peter Cameron
“This is the city, and I am one of the citizens. Whatever interests the rest interests me.” – Walt Whitman
“I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they’ve ever questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn’t know, because I won’t ever dare ask that question.” – Dylan Thomas
“More than anything else New York is a city of superlatives, a place where the best, the brightest, the biggest is the norm.” – Marilyn J. Appleberg
“People go to LA to “find themselves”; they come to New York to become someone new.” – Lindsey Kelk
“New York is made up of millions of different people, and they all come here looking for something.” – Lindsey Kelk
“Cut off as I am, it is inevitable that I should sometimes feel like a shadow walking in a shadowy world. When this happens I ask to be taken to New York City. Always I return home weary but I have the comforting certainty that mankind is real flesh and I myself am not a dream.” – Helen Keller
“New York now leads the world’s great cities in the number of people around whom you shouldn’t make a sudden move.” – Davit Letterman
“True New Yorkers do not really seek information about the outside world. They feel that if anything is not in New York it is not likely to be interesting.” – Jimmy Breslin
“New York is the capital, the national headquarters of homelessness. No one feels he belongs here.” – Gerald Stanley Lee
“While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.” – Raquel Cepeda
The culture in New York city is global, with people all around the world moving in and out every day. In fact, it is one of the largest cities in the world with the highest floating population.
Thanks to its cosmopolitan culture, the culture, traditions, and beliefs of this city have been constantly changing, evolving, and being shaped by millions of its residents and visitors.
Below is the list of New York city captions about its history and culture. If you want to get to know the city truly, beyond its skyscrapers and parks, dive into these quotes on New York City, which also includes some quotes about the central park, Brooklyn captions, and quotes about Manhattan – the swanky neighborhood of New York.
“I think you know that when an American stays away from New York too long something happens to him. Perhaps he becomes a little provincial, a little dead and afraid.” – Sherwood Anderson
“New York means so much to people. If you’re inclined to leave the nest, New York is where most people think they have to go, and it’s been that way since the first skyscraper. – Griffin Dunne
“Whoever is born in New York is ill-equipped to deal with any other city: all other cities seem, at best, a mistake, and, at worst, a fraud. No other city is so spitefully incoherent.” – James Baldwin
“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.” – E B White
“It is often said that New York is a city for only the very rich and the very poor. It is less often said that New York is also a city for only the very young.” – Joan Didion
“I was superstitious. Today was a Monday. I was born on Monday. It was a good day to arrive in New York City. No one expected me. Everything awaited me.” – Patti Smith
“New York is a city that plays hard to get. You want me? You better work for it. I love the dirt combined with the adventure, the endless exploring, the surprising specificity that you can find, and, of course, the mind-boggling stream of humans.” – Rony Vardi
“In Hollywood, actors learn to act from watching television. In New York, people learn to act by walking down the street.” – Sidney Lumet
“New York City is one of the greatest places on the planet. You have the best in food, art, theatre, and definitely people-watching.”– Matt Bomer
Below quotes on NYC include a few NYC quotes on life and also moving to New York quotes. Feel free to use these New York city captions as picture captions.
“In Boston, they ask, how much does he know? In New York, how much is the worth? In Philadelphia, who were his parents?” – Mark Twain
“In the country, there are a few chances of sudden rejuvenation–a shift in weather, perhaps, or something arriving in the mail. But in New York the chances are endless. ” – E.B. White
“New York, you are an Egypt! But an Egypt turned inside out. For she erected pyramids of slavery to death, and you erect pyramids of democracy with the vertical organ-pipes of your skyscrapers all meeting at the point of infinity of liberty!” – Salvador Dali
“It’s autumn in New York that brings the promise of new love. Autumn in New York is often mingled with pain. Dreamers with empty hands may sigh for exotic lands; It’s autumn in New York; It’s good to live it again.” Billie Day
“I grew up in New York State, not New York City, which is what everyone thinks when you say “New York.” – Amber Smith
“Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book – and does.” – Groucho Marx
“It couldn’t have happened anywhere but in little old New York.” – O Henry
“New York City is where specks of dust aspire randomly with all their cunning to become grains of sand.” – David B. Lentz
“I think New York is not the cultural center of America, but the business and administrative center of American culture.” – Saul Bellow
“It was never built for the comfort and happiness of its citizens but to astonish the world.” – Susan Ertz
“New York is a great monument to the power of money and greed a race for rent.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
“The thing that impressed me then as now about New York was sharp, and at the same time immense, contrast it showed between the dull and the shrewd, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant – the strong, or those who ultimately dominated, were so very strong, and the weak so very, very weak – and so very, very many.” – Theodore Dreiser
“I returned to Brooklyn because it’s closest to my heart, and I have history here, which I wanted to share with my children. Let’s face it, the world has changed everywhere, but NYC is still the biggest melting pot in the world. The diversity in culture is unmatched.” – Debi Mazar
“The only real advantage of New York is that all its inhabitants ascend to heaven right after their deaths, having served their full term in hell right on Manhattan Island.” – Barnard Bulletin
“Some of us claim that New York City is the capital of the country, indeed the capital of the world. Now that may be a bit much for those who don’t come from New York, but clearly, we are an important city for reasons of our cultural advances.” – David Dinkins
“New York, what could I say? For a French guy—a Parisian guy—New York is perfectly exotic, and at the same time, you feel at home. It’s very French and very American. It’s all of the great musicians like Steve Reich and Lou Reed. For me, this is New York.” – Christian Malazzai
“In Rome, I am weighed down by a lack of momentum, the inertia of a spent civilization. In New York, I feel plugged into a strong alternating current of hope and despair.” – Ted Morgan
“Manhattan in the morning is a living stream of Purpose; everyone’s got a place to be and a problem on their mind. That doesn’t mean it’s an unfriendly place — just busy and preoccupied. Personally, I love it. I’m a social creature but there are times and places you just don’t want to do more than grunt at your fellow human being.” – Laura Anne Gilman
“Like a rat in a cage, pulling minimum wage. New York, I love you, but you’re bringing me down.” – LCD Soundsystem
“In New York City, one suicide in ten is attributed to a lack of storage space.” – Judith Stone
“A great many people go after success simply for the shiny prizes it brings. And nowhere is it pursued more ardently than in the city of New York.” – Stephen Birmingham
“New York is at once cosmopolitan and parochial, a compendium of sentimental certainties. It is, in fact, the most sentimental of the world’s great cities – in its self-congratulation a kind of San Francisco of the East.” – John Gregory Dunne
“Everybody comes from somewhere else. Everyone’s got a Polish grandmother, some kind of metamorphosis in their family circumstances. That’s a very big thing – the experience of not living where you started. It changes you in all kinds of ways.” – Salman Rushdie
“When I came to New York as a writer, I was taken with the idea that you’re only getting in on bridges and ferries and through tunnels. The idea behind ‘Takedown’ is that it would be very hard to get out.”– Brad Thor
“Each neighborhood of the city appeared to be made of a different substance, each seemed to have different air pressure, a different psychic weight: the bright lights and shuttered shops, the housing projects and luxury hotels, the fire escapes and city parks.” – Teju Cole
“In New York, the sky is bluer, and the grass is greener, and the girls are prettier, and the steaks are thicker, and the buildings are higher, and the streets are wider, and the air is finer than the sky, or the grass, or the girls, or the steaks, or the air of any place else in the world.” – Edna Ferber
“Well,’ I said, ‘Paris is old, is many centuries. You feel, in Paris, all the time gone by. That isn’t what you feel in New York — ’He was smiling. I stopped. ‘What do you feel in New York?’ he asked. ‘Perhaps you feel,’ I told him, ‘all the time to come. There’s such power there, everything is in such movement. You can’t help wondering—I can’t help wondering—what it will all be like—many years from now.” – James Baldwin
“The lusts of the flesh can be gratified anywhere; it is not this sort of license that distinguishes New York. It is rather, the lust of the total ego for recognition, even for eminence. More than elsewhere, everybody here wants to be somebody.” – Sydney J. Harris
“I just want to go through Central Park and watch folks passing by. Spend the whole day watching people. I miss that.” – Barack Obama
“You don’t come to live here unless the delusion of a reality shaped around your own desires isn’t a strong aspect of your personality. ‘A reality shaped around your own desires’ —there is something sociopathic in that ambition.” – Zadie Smith
“You can do what you like, sir, but I’ll tell you this. New York is the true capital of America. Every New Yorker knows it, and by God, we always shall.” – Edward Rutherfurd
“Unlike Rome, New York has never learned the art of growing old by playing on all its pasts. Its present invents itself, from hour to hour, in the act of throwing away its previous accomplishments and challenging the future.” – Michel de Certeau
“The place smelled of fairgrounds, of lazy crowds, of nights when you stayed out because you couldn’t go to bed, and it smelled like New York, of its calm and brutal indifference.” – Georges Simenon
“If a newspaper prints a sex crime, it’s smut, but when The New York Times prints it, it’s a sociological study.” – Adolph S. Ochs
“And the truth is, Henry loves the store. Loves the smell of books, and the steady weight of them on shelves, the presence of old titles and the arrival of new ones, and the fact that in a city like New York, there will always be readers.” – V.E. Schwab
Below is the list of New York City captions if you need to captions for New York pictures to be detailed. These are words of writers, travelers, celebrities, and famous New York movie quotes that give best glimpses into the heart of this gorgeous city.
“New York remains what it has always been: a city of ebb and flow, a city of constant shifts of population and economics, a city of virtually no rest. It is harsh, dirty, and dangerous, it is whimsical and fanciful, it is beautiful and soaring – it is not one or another of these things but all of them, all at once, and to fail to accept this paradox is to deny the reality of city existence.” – Paul Goldberger
“New York City is the most fatally fascinating thing in America. She sits like a great witch at the gate of the country, showing her alluring white face and hiding her crooked hands and feet under the folds of her wide garments – constantly enticing thousands from far within, and tempting those who come from across the seas to go no farther. And all these become the victims of her caprice. Some she at once crushes beneath her cruel feet; others she condemns to a fate like that of galley slaves; a few she flavors and fondles, riding them high on the bubbles of fortune; then with a sudden breath she blows the bubbles out and laughs mockingly as she watches them fall.” – James Weldon Johnson
“I remember walking across Sixty-second Street one twilight that first spring, or the second spring, they were all alike for a while. I was late to meet someone but I stopped at Lexington Avenue and bought a peach and stood on the corner eating it and knew that I had come out out of the West and reached the mirage. I could taste the peach and feel the soft air blowing from a subway grating on my legs and I could smell lilac and garbage and expensive perfume and I knew that it would cost something sooner or later—because I did not belong there, did not come from there—but when you are twenty-two or twenty-three, you figure that later you will have a high emotional balance, and be able to pay whatever it costs. I still believed in possibilities then, still had the sense, so peculiar to New York, that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month.” – Joan Didion
“New York is cold, glittering, malign. The buildings dominate. There is a sort of atomic frenzy to the activity going on. The more furious space, the more diminished the spirit. A constant ferment, but it might just as well be going in a test tube. Nobody knows what it’s all about. Nobody directs energy. Stupendous. Bizarre. Baffling. A tremendous reactive urge, but absolutely uncoordinated.” – Henry Miller.
Share these NYC quotes about life as captions for Instagram pictures too.
“There was so much here, so much color and taste and light and motion. So much pain and so much hope. The city was ugly and beautiful at once, and it was always changing, always reintroducing itself to you; you couldn’t look away even for a moment, or you might miss the New York of today, which would be different from tomorrow’s New York and next week’s New York.” – Katharine McGee
“The city was different back then–poor and crumbling–kept alive only by the gritty determination and steely cynicism of its occupants. But underneath the dirt was the apple-cheeked optimism of possibility, and while she worked, the whole city seemed to throb along with her.” – Candace Bushnell
“All the animals come out at night — whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take ’em to Harlem. I don’t care. Make no difference to me. It does to some. Some won’t even take spooks. Don’t make any difference to me.” – Travis Bickle
“Over the great bridge, with sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city has seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“She has become a wicked and wild bitch in her old age has Manhattan, but there is still no sensation in the world quite like walking her sidewalks. Great surges of energy sweep all around you; the air fizzes like champagne, while always there is a nervous edge of fear and whispered distant promises of sudden violence.” – Tom Davies
“New York has an energy that takes root inside of you. Even a transplant like me gets to know the different boroughs, like they’re living, breathing organisms. There’s nowhere else like it. The city becomes a character in your life, a love you can’t take out of you. The mysteriously human element about this place can make you fall in love and break your heart at the same time.” – Renee Carlino
“He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion. No, make that: He romanticized it all out of proportion. Yes. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.” – Manhattan
“New York has a thousand universes in it that don’t always connect but we do all walk the same streets, hear the same sirens, ride the same subways, see the same headlines in the Post, read the same writings on the walls. That shared landscape gets inside of all of us and, in some small way, unites us, makes us think we know each other even when we don’t.” – Jay Z
A few more long New York City captions that beautifully describe moving into NYC, living there, and experience life in this big city.
“There’s an old saying about life in the two cities: That you should live in New York, but leave before you become hard, and live in California, but leave before you become soft. Speaking physically, this is bullshit: Humans are much better off being in shape than turning to jelly.” – Jake Dobkin
“My advice for aspiring writers is to go to New York. And if you can’t go to New York, go to the place that represents New York to you, where the standards for writing are high, there are other people who share your dreams and where you can talk, talk, talk about your interests.” – Walter Kirn
“One good thing about New York is that most people function daily while in a low-grade depression. It’s not like if you’re in Los Angeles, where everyone’s so actively working on cheerfulness and mental and physical health that if they sense you’re down, they shun you. Also, all that sunshine is a cruel joke when you’re depressed. In New York, even in your misery, you feel like you belong.” – Mindy Kaling
“In New York City people spend ten years making something amazing happen, something that captures the essence of an idea so perfectly that suddenly the world becomes ten times clearer. It’s beautiful and it’s powerful and someone devoted a huge piece of their life to it. It’s just that there are a lot of people doing a lot of amazing things, so eventually, you get a little jaded.” – Hank Green
After an exhaustive list of the amazing New York City captions, it’s time to wrap up with some New York city puns, including NYC tourist puns, and puns about travel in New York.
Enjoy these New York puns by sharing them as NYC quotes for FB.
In winter, New York makes a great frost impression
Times Square heals all wounds
I’d really lake to live by Central Park
Stop Yankeeng my chain.
It’s hip to be in Times Square.
A trip to NYC can be very taxing on your wallet
The sky’s the limit.
I think I was made to line in New York
We’re all out of Stock
I’m so happy we MET
After sightseeing all day, I’m Central Parking myself down for the rest of the night.
Someone tell Gossip Girl I’m here right now.
Times Square’s so bright, I need to wear shades
Central Park always perks me up
In winter, NYC is the city of tights
I’m not happy, but I’m not Madison
They really dropped the ball this year.
The East Coast is the Best Toast
That’s a wrap for the best New York City Captions you can find. Hope you found your travel inspiration through these New York captions.
If you have any NYC captions, share them in the comments below.
PIN NEW YORK CITY CAPTIONS TO READ LATER
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On this day in black history: Michael Jackson takes home 8 Grammys, ‘Porgy and Bess’ opens on Broadway and more
Black History Month: The Undefeated edition Feb. 28
Up Next From The Uplift
Michael Jackson with Quincy Jones shown at the Grammy Awards at Shrine Auditorium, Feb. 28, 1984 in Los Angeles. Jackson won total of Eight Grammys. AP Photo/Doug Pizac/Saxon
By Maya A. Jones @mjay615
1704 — Elias Neau, a Frenchman, opens school for black students
Elias Neau, a Frenchman who worked as a cabin boy and a sailor in his early life, was always willing to lend a helping hand. But Neau was especially inspired to help enslaved communities after being captured by a French privateer near Jamaica in 1692 while out to sea. After being transferred to Marseille, France, for not renouncing his faith — where he wrote letters to his wife, prayers, poems and hymns to pass time — Neau landed himself in solitary confinement, where he remained for six months. He was released from prison six years later.
Learning from his experiences, Neau returned to New York and immediately noticed that slaves had no real direction or instruction in religion. Neau began dedicating his time to teaching slaves, and by 1704, he successfully began homeschooling students several times a week. Shortly afterward, Neau’s school expanded, becoming the first school for slaves in New York City.
1879 — Blacks flee political and economic exploitation in the South
Kansas became the land of promise for African-Americans, both free and enslaved, who sought educational, political and economic opportunities in the 1860s and 1870s. Although slavery still existed in surrounding areas, Kansas seemed to be a much better option than the tumultuous climate for African-Americans in the South.
Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, a runaway slave from Tennessee who sheltered escaped slaves once he was free, noted the conditions African-Americans were subjected to in the South and eyed Kansas. Singleton enlisted the help of Columbus Johnson, who helped Singleton circulate posters across the South that explained their plans. The withdrawal of federal troops from the South in 1877 — the end of the Reconstruction Era – caused the “Great Exodus” to peak in 1879. By then, at least 50,000 blacks, known as Exodusters, sought freedom in Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois with the help of Singleton, who became known as the father of the Black Exodus.
1932 — Automatic gear shift, directional signals invented
Richard Spikes, an auto enthusiast and industry innovator, received a patent for the automatic gear shift for cars, as well as directional signals. In 1962, while losing his vision, Spikes continued to work on creating the automatic safety brake for cars. All of Spikes’ creations are still essential parts used in cars today.
1943 — Porgy and Bess opens on Broadway with Anne Brown
Porgy and Bess opened on Broadway with Anne Brown and Todd Duncan in starring roles.
1948 — First martyrs in Ghanaian independence
Sgt. Cornelius Frederick Adjetey, a member of the 81st and 82nd divisions of the West African Frontier Force, became the first martyr for national independence of Ghana while on a peaceful march.
Adjetey, along with unarmed ex-servicemen, began their journey from Accra, Ghana’s capital, to meet with the governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Gerald Creasy, to air their grievances and present a petition in regard to ending service entitlements that had not been received. Creasy dismissed the men, ordering them to leave. After the ex-servicemen refused to leave without a resolution, Creasy ordered police to open fire, instantly killing Adjetey and his cohorts. The killings were investigated, but not before causing general disorder and disturbances in Accra.
1984 — Michael Jackson wins eight Grammys
It was a night to remember for musician and entertainer Michael Jackson after taking home eight Grammy Awards for his best selling-album, Thriller. The album, which produced seven top 10 singles after its 1982 release, swept several categories, including best male R&B vocal performance for Billie Jean, best R&B song for Billie Jean, best male rock vocal performance for Beat It, best male pop vocal performance for Thriller, best video album for Thriller, best recording for children (Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson) for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, record of the year for Beat It and album of the year for Thriller. The album broke all sales records to date, and remains one of the top-grossing albums of all time.
1990 — Philip Emeagwali wins the Nobel Prize of computing
Philip Emeagwali, known as the “Bill Gates of Africa,” was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize, which his considered the Nobel Prize of computing, for solving one of the 20 most difficult problems in the computing field.
If it were not for Emeagwali’s determination, his success may not have been guaranteed. Forced to drop out of school at age 14 because his father could no longer afford tuition, Emeagwali continued his education at home, doing his best to keep up with what his peers were learning. As part of his mental exercise routine, Emeagwali would run through 100 math problems, solving them all within one hour. At 17 years old, Emeagwali received a full scholarship to Oregon State University, where he studied mathematics before earning three other degrees from the University of Michigan and George Washington University.
In 1989, Emeagwali captured the attention of the most renowned professionals after using 65,000 processors to invent a computer that performed computations at 3.1 billion calculations per second, the world’s fastest computer at the time.
Maya Jones is an associate editor at The Undefeated. She is a native New Orleanian who enjoys long walks down Frenchmen Street and romantic dates to Saints games.
This Story Tagged: Daily Uplift Michael Jackson Black History Month Grammy Awards Porgy and Bess
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5 days trip
15 days trip
Things you can’t miss
In the suitcase
Morocco Culture
Celebrations and important dates
Morocco has lots of celebrations and traditions. There are the religious ones, the national ones, the moussem or peregrination and the festivals and local celebrations that are related to agriculture. Any of them is a perfect opportunity for travellers to get to know the essence of Morocco.
As the majority of Muslim countries, the most important celebrations in Morocco are religious. The Muslim calendar is based on the motion of the moon and the Muslim year lasts 354 days, instead of 365. This means that every year their months are two weeks before ours, and that’s why the Festival of Lamb, the Ramadan or the Birthday of the Prophet change every year in our calendar. On the other hand, national holidays, like Independence Day (November 18th) or the European ones, like Labour Day (May the 1st) are based on Sun calendar.
Tradition is really important for Moroccans and it’s a huge honour to be able to keep the traditions and habits as their grandparents. That’s why they celebrate almost as their ancestors did centuries ago. Families gather together around the table, they bring presents, and dress with traditional clothes (djellaba for men and Kaftan for women), they go out and honour Allah.
However, nowadays Morocco has opened to new traditions and influences. Their religious celebrations are held at the same time as a variety of festivals, like music ones (like the Jazz Festival in Rabat or Gnaoua Music festival), cinema (national, African and European), performances and cultural events from other countries. These are specially held in Rabat, Marrakech and Casablanca.
Furthermore, Moroccans also pay tribute to nature- as their country has many natural wonders- and they consider that the blossoming of almond trees or the cherry season has to be celebrated. Dates related to agriculture and farming are also important and often celebrated. For example, the Honey Festival or the Moussem of Roses and they want to show their gratitude to God for its work.
It’s probable that you will be able to experience these celebrations when you travel there, and it will be a perfect opportunity to get to know the real Morocco.
Famous celebrations
Ben Aïssa Moussem (Meknès)
This festival brings together the Aïssawa Brotherhood in the Sidi ben Aïssa mausoleum, who was the founder of this belief. Peregrines coming from all country sleep in huge tents around Merknès for several days, during the Birthday of the Prophet. The festival activities include music and mystic dancing, processions and horse shows.
Almond tree festival
Tafroute is a small town located in the south of Atlas Mountains that, once a year, becomes the centre of attention in Morocco. It takes place at the end of February, when almond trees bloom in the Ameln Valley and its people celebrate with concerts, street markets, folkloric dancing and street performances.
Jardin’Art in Marrakesh
The Jardin’Art is an ode to nature that takes place once a year in April, headed by the Queen. There are several events related to botany and flora. Besides never-ending gardens, flower shows and activities, you can find live music, traditional dancing and craftwork.
Rose Festival (Kelaa M’Gouna)
May is the month of roses in Morocco, at least in Kelaa M’Gouna, an oasis in the Valley of M’Goun River, known for cultivation of Damask Rose. The celebration lasts three days, and it commemorates collecting of the rose with a shower of petals, Berber music, chants and the traditional dance of Ahwash.
Mawazine Festival in Rabat
A macro-festival of music takes place in the capital city. It has the support of the King although it is a secular event that has an occidental character. Every spring two million people meet in the Mawazine to see performances of some of the most famous artist around the world like Christina Aguilera, Shakira, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez or Pitbull.
Gnaoua World Music Festival
Hundreds of artists take part in the most important traditional music festival of the country, which takes place the last week of June. Gnaoua World Music Festival started as a modest meeting point between foreign artists and mystical Gnaoua, and nowadays is an extraordinary music festival.
Sefrou Cherry Festival
It takes place in Sefrou, a town near Fez and it was registered as World Intangible Heritage in 2012 by UNESCO. The festivity takes place at the beginning of June, and it shows parades, reginal dancing, and the election of the Cherry Queen, a beauty contest where women from all the country participate.
Festival of World Sacred Music
This musical and spiritual event takes place in the oldest Moroccan town: Fez. The festival transforms the millenary Place of Bab Boujloud and the palace of Bab Makina into luxurious places. The festival is like a journey to different regions and ethnic communities, in the last years there has been an introduction to flamenco and youthful music.
This festival is actually a contest that is seen as a platform for young Maroccan musics and also from other parts of Africa who want to be known. The Boulevard has also become the mouthpiece of the Nayda Movement, the young Moroccan revolution whose flag is rap and national hip-hop.
National Popular Arts Festival of Marrakesh
It is registered as World Human Heritage by UNESCO and it is a massive event that spreads all over the city. The most beautiful corners of Marrakesh are full of music, dancing and colour, such as the El Badi Palace, or Le Village. The festival takes place every July since 1959 and its goal is to show and enjoy cultural heritage of the country.
Asilah Arts Festival
Every summer, the town of Asilah become a big open canvas where painters from all around the world make colourful murals on its walls. During the celebration you can also enjoy live concerts, theatre, art activities both for adults and children and equestrian performances.
Alegria Music Festival of Chefchaouen
For more than a decade the Blue City has celebrated a meeting between musicians that takes place every year. The Moroccan rhythms get mixed with the Latin, flamenco and African ones. In the Alegria Festival is not difficult to see artist from Cuba, Lebanon or Cape Verde neither the top Spanish flamenco dancers. You can also find photography expositions, young talents contests, traditional fashion shows and craftwork markets.
Essaouira’s Andalousia-Atlantic festival
Known as a multicultural celebration, this even has been taking place every October in Essaouira for more than ten years. Its goal is to promote Andalusian heritage of Morocco. Besides the Al-Andalus music, you can also see some dancing, craftwork, gastronomy and literature.
Marrakesh Biennial
Morocco also opens its doors to contemporary art, whose artists have the chance to show their last artwork in this Biennial. Every two years in October, you can see all types of artistic offers inside and outside, such as art performances, video-art, art installations and artistic pieces.
Marrakesh International Film Festival
In contrast to millenary celebrations, Morocco also invests on modern festivals like the International Film one, which takes place every year since 2000, sometime between November and December and has become an important cultural meeting.
The Ramadan
The Festival of Sacrifice
See image gallery
The most important date for the religious believers in Morocco is the Ramadan, which takes place in the ninth month of Islamic calendar. During 30 days men and women purify themselves through fasting and other practises- such as abstention- from sunrise to sunset.
Eid Al-Adha, or The Festival of Sacrifice
The sacrifice feast takes place in the last month of the Muslim calendar, a festivity that commemorates Abraham’s sacrifice. It’s the most important celebration after Ramadan, and it lasts two days, although preparations begin weeks before. In these days people go shopping, like here before Christmas. The only difference is that in Morocco there will be lambs in towns ready to be sacrificed at the same day.
Mawlid, Birth of the Prophet
The same way as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, Muslims commemorate the Mahoma’s and it takes place on the 12th day of the third month and also the night before. In Morocco it’s traditional to wear formal clothes, to spend the day with family and friends, to pray, to read poetry, and have a special meal. The night before, the mosques get enlightened and people sing and recite on a very moving celebration.
Eid Al-Fitr, or the Festival of Breaking of the Fat
When the ninth month of the Muslim calendar ends, the Ramadan also finishes and the Islamic community celebrates that event during the first three days of the following month (el Shawwal). They wear new clothes (the men where white as a symbol of purity), they have lunch with family, they pray and the children get presents. The traditional greeting is “Eid Mubarak” which means Blessed Eid.
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<< Previous TITLE 12 / CHAPTER 13 / SUBCHAPTER V / § 1731a Next >>
12 USC 1731a: Penalties Text contains those laws in effect on January 17, 2021
From Title 12-BANKS AND BANKINGCHAPTER 13-NATIONAL HOUSINGSUBCHAPTER V-MISCELLANEOUS
Jump To: Source CreditReferences In TextPrior ProvisionsAmendmentsEffective Date
§1731a. Penalties
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary is authorized to refuse the benefits of participation (either directly as an insured lender or as a borrower, or indirectly as a builder, contractor, or dealer, or salesman or sales agent for a builder, contractor or dealer) under subchapter I, II, VI, VII, VIII, IX–B, or X of this chapter to any person or firm (including but not limited to any individual, partnership, association, trust, or corporation) if the Secretary has determined that such person or firm (1) has knowingly or willfully violated any provision of this chapter or of title III of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, as amended, or of chapter 37 of title 38, or of any regulation issued by the Secretary under this chapter or by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs under said title III, or chapter 37, or (2) has, in connection with any construction, alteration, repair or improvement work financed with assistance under this chapter or under said title III, or chapter 37, or in connection with contracts or financing relating to such work, violated any Federal or State penal statute, or (3) has failed materially to properly carry out contractual obligations with respect to the completion of construction, alteration, repair, or improvement work financed with assistance under this chapter or under title III of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, as amended, or of chapter 37 of title 38. Before any such determination is made any person or firm with respect to whom such a determination is proposed shall be notified in writing by the Secretary and shall be entitled, upon making a written request to the Secretary, to a written notice specifying charges in reasonable detail and an opportunity to be heard and to be represented by counsel. Determinations made by the Secretary under this section shall be based on the preponderance of the evidence. For the purposes of compliance with this section the Secretary's notice of a proposed determination under this section shall be considered to have been received by the interested person or firm if the notice is properly mailed to the last known address of such person or firm.
(June 27, 1934, ch. 847, title V, §512, as added Aug. 2, 1954, ch. 649, title I, §132, 68 Stat. 610 ; amended Pub. L. 85–857, §13(h), Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1265 ; Pub. L. 86–372, title I, §119, Sept. 23, 1959, 73 Stat. 665 ; Pub. L. 89–754, title X, §1020(e), Nov. 3, 1966, 80 Stat. 1296 ; Pub. L. 90–19, §1(a)(3), (4), May 25, 1967, 81 Stat. 17 ; Pub. L. 98–479, title II, §204(a)(17), Oct. 17, 1984, 98 Stat. 2232 ; Pub. L. 101–235, title I, §133(d)(3), Dec. 15, 1989, 103 Stat. 2027 ; Pub. L. 102–54, §13(d)(2)(B), June 13, 1991, 105 Stat. 274 .)
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, as amended, referred to in text, is act June 22, 1944, ch. 268, 58 Stat. 284 , as amended. Title III of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 was classified generally to subchapter II (§694 et seq.) of chapter 11C of former Title 38, Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief, and was repealed by section 14(87) of Pub. L. 85–857, Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1273 , the first section of which reenacted title III of such Act as chapter 37 (§1801 [now 3701] et seq.) of Title 38, Veterans' Benefits.
A prior section 512 of act of June 27, 1934, related to offenses and penalties, and was classified to section 1731 of this title, prior to repeal by act June 25, 1948, ch. 645, §21, 62 Stat. 862 , eff. Sept. 1, 1948. See note under section 1731.
1991-Pub. L. 102–54 substituted "Secretary of Veterans Affairs" for "Administrator of Veterans' Affairs".
1989-Pub. L. 101–235 struck out reference to subchapter IX–A after reference to subchapter VIII.
1984-Pub. L. 98–479 substituted "Penalties" for "Denial of benefits in cases of abuses; determination by Secretary; notice and hearing" in section catchline.
1967-Pub. L. 90–16 substituted "Secretary" for "Commissioner" wherever appearing, and "Secretary's" for "Commissioner's".
1966-Pub. L. 89–754 inserted references to subchapters IX–A and IX–B of this chapter.
1959-Pub. L. 86–372 provided that for purposes of compliance with this section the Commissioner's notice of a proposed determination under this section shall be considered to have been received by the interested person or firm if the notice is properly mailed to the last known address of such person or firm.
1958-Pub. L. 85–857 inserted references to chapter 37 of title 38.
Amendment by Pub. L. 85–857 effective Jan. 1, 1959, see section 2 of Pub. L. 85–857, set out as an Effective Date note preceding part I of Title 38, Veterans' Benefits.
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Tag Archives: Churchill
What’s wrong with a stiff upper lip?
The East End of London during the Bitz. The woman on the right lived in the bombed building opposite. Their food was cooked on a campfire in the basement.
Victors or victims? These thoughts came to me when I chanced upon these words in a book I’d written some time ago.
“I’ve been re-reading Robert Massie’s ‘Dreadnought’ very slowly, trying to take in and remember all the detail. As I worked my way through all the biographical stuff on the various late Victorian and Edwardian English statesmen of the period, I began to notice a rather surprising pattern – which was not repeated in the biographies of their German counterparts.
“It began with an account of the great Lord Salisbury’s childhood, and how he survived his mother’s death before he was ten and the indifference and hostility of his father who thought he was hopeless. Then there was his brilliant and equally successful nephew, Arthur Balfour, who also became prime minister like his uncle. Balfour’s father died when he was seven, and his highly-strung mother Blanche struggled to bring up a large family alone.
“ Herbert Asquith, another prime minister of that time, grew up in an impoverished solo parent home after his father died when he was eight, of a twisted intestine after a village cricket match. My favourite statesman of the period, Sir Edward Grey (“ the lights are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime”), was also fatherless by the age of eight, while Admiral Jackie Fisher, the great mover and shaker of the navy, was sent back from Ceylon at the age of six, never to see his father again, who died when he was sixteen, and Fisher was an adult before seeing his indigent and disinterested mother again.
“Winston Churchill’s childhood was famously deprived, brought up by his nanny, deprived of her when sent to boarding school at eight, and writing letters begging his parents to come and see him – they never did. On one occasion his mother, a famous beauty, returned his letter after reading one page. She required him to write to her in French, and she told him his French was so appalling, she had no intention of reading any further. The emotional deprivation and abuse he suffered is legendary, yet not he, nor any of the others, ever made excuses that the challenges of their childhoods interfered with living a useful constructive life. They lived lives full of achievement, unhampered by chips on their shoulders, theories of deprivation and emotional maladjustment or of feeling victim.
“It was much the same with an earlier hero, the great philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury, who among many other causes, stopped the employment of children as young as five in coal mines. He also opened Ragged Schools for slum children, opposed vivisection, and stopped climbing boys being sent up hot sooty chimneys from the age of five onwards, (small boys, because only small boys could squeeze up the chimneys to clean them).
“Like Churchill, he too was neglected and emotionally deprived by his hostile parents, and the only love he received as a child was also from his nanny, Maria Mills, who died when he was nine. Then there was wonderful William Wilberforce, orphaned at nine when his father died, and a year later sent to live with relatives. These men also endured dreadful years at bullying, inhumane schools.
“Yet in spite of all the angst we hear now, about children of single parents being handicapped in the so-called race of life, these people all achieved great things, and apart from Balfour, who never married, all had loving marriages too. Was it because the communities they grew up in were united by values, principles and religion? They also all believed in a Divine Source to sustain them, and perhaps just as important, their sole parent usually had no money worries, so that they were properly educated and thus equipped to make their way.”
During the years I was a solo parent, I was constantly coming up against the stereotype of one parent children being handicapped or deprived, which caused me much heart-ache. This lasted until my son’s teacher, a solo parent herself, asserted that many of the children in her class came from dysfunctional two-parent families, and that loved children with a sane intelligent mother were the lucky ones. I took her at her word.
One of the common features of these men and others, was that they were the possessors of that much maligned British stiff upper lip. I may even have possessed one myself. Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone, was always in my mind, as I navigated disasters that sometimes felt overwhelming.
When I was at boarding school, several of my friends has been passengers on the troopship Empire Windrush when it caught fire in the Mediterranean and sank. They only referred to it in terms of having lost all their clothes and possessions. Recently I Googled the Windrush, and found several newsreels about the disaster. On them is recorded the amazing behaviour of all the women and children as well as the military wounded and servicemen from Korea.
The electricity was affected by the fire, so the life boats couldn’t be lowered and were eventually dropped into the sea. Neither could the intercom work, so all the passengers had to be awakened at 6.30 and they climbed off the ship into the life boats in their dressing gowns and pyjamas.
I watched moving newsreels of mothers holding their babies, children holding the hands of toddlers, all in their night clothes, climbing off a rescue ship which conveyed them to Tangiers. They walked in a quiet orderly procession along the dock, no tears, no hysterics, just calmly disciplined. No panic, no fuss, just that wonderful stiff upper lip as all ages coped efficiently and courageously. This was the story my school friends had omitted to tell when they mentioned in a matter of fact way that they’d lost all their possessions when their ship caught fire on their way home from the East.
That same stiff upper lip was what carried my parent’s generation through the second world war, living through perils and dangers, deprivation and destruction. The bombing, sleeplessness from air-raids, invasion fears, stern rationing, black outs, no petrol for travel, working in factories, on the land, in the army and the navy and air force in horrendous conditions, families traumatised by years of separation and sometimes death in battle, or at sea, or in the air, and the nightmares and undiagnosed PTSD, all had to be endured and survived.
No tranquillisers, anti-depressants, therapists or other emotional support were available. Cigarettes were the nearest thing! They didn’t see themselves as victims, both civilians and servicemen just stoically soldiered on for six years until they achieved victory.
It was another Edwardian, Captain Scott of the Antarctic who famously gave voice to the stoicism and courage which is disguised by that stiff upper lip. Once a hero, then derided by revisionist historians, he has had his reputation restored to heroic status recently, by the advances of science.
Researchers and modern scientists have discovered that when the dog teams with food failed to rendezvous in spite of Scott’s written orders, his party were abandoned in the ten-day Antarctic winter blizzard. Scott and his men perished in a blizzard which was a once in a thousand-year event and the cold was colder than anyone had ever experienced, – 40 degrees Fahrenheit, too cold for human beings to survive in.
As he lay dying in his snow bound tent, the others already dead, Captain Scott wrote the immortal words in which he took full responsibility for their fate – never complaining, never making excuses, never wallowing in self-pity.
He didn’t see himself as a victim. Instead he wrote: “We took risks, we knew we took them: things have come out against us and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined to do our best to the last”.
The difference between being a victor or a victim is simply a change of perspective. When we can accept that the choices we made, have brought us to this point (and some believe that these choices were made before we returned to this plane of existence), we can see the events of our lives from a different perspective.
We can choose to see our lives through a different lens. The quickest way to shift from the misery of self-pity and victim-hood, to the freedom of accepting responsibility, is to begin to feel grateful for our life, the highs and the lows, knowing there is a point or a purpose to all challenges. We may not see them straight away but when we look back, we see there are no accidents and no mis-steps. We can see that all our actions and decisions have led us to this point.
English House and Garden magazine editor, Sue Crewe began keeping a daily gratitude diary after a period of heartbreak in her life. Every day she listed five things. Some years later she wrote:
‘The most transformative revelation is the power of gratitude itself: it takes up so much room that everything coercive and depressing is squeezed to the margins. It seems to push out resentment, fear, envy, self-pity and all the other ugly sentiments that bring you down, leaving room for serenity, contentment and optimism to take up residence.’
What a glorious way to live life.
Food for threadbare gourmets
Potatoes without butter are not the same… mashed potatoes, potatoes baked in their jackets, potatoes baked in cream, new potatoes anointed with melted butter… what is a potato without butter or cream?
The answer is potatoes cooked the way I’ve discovered! Simply cube them, peeled or unpeeled -not too small, about three-quarters of an inch squarish. Boil them till soft but still firm. Drain, and tip flour over them. Put the lid back on the pan, and toss the potatoes in the flour before frying batches in hot oil. When crisp, drain them on kitchen paper as you tackle each batch, and keep them warm. They end up crisp outside and soft inside. Serve these delicious crisp morsels with sea-salt, and chicken, sausages or whatever takes your fancy.
P.S. For an extraordinary story of courage and stiff upper lip, GP Cox’s blog today, about Mrs Ruby Boye in the Pacific War takes some beating.
Filed under cookery/recipes, happiness, history, life and death, Thoughts on writing and life, Uncategorized, world war two
Tagged as antarctic, Captain Scott, Churchill, courage, Empire Windrush, food, gratitude, stiff upper lip, world war two
The truth about Dunkirk
Dunkirk is a word that probably means something to some Britons these days, and very little to the rest of the world. But to people of my generation the word conjures up a tragic and magic moment in British history that means courage and fortitude and dignity which transformed defeat into something shining and inspirational.
These thoughts, of course, were triggered by watching the film of that name. I’d read the rave reviews by historians I’d thought were knowledgeable, and laughed with the rest of the world with the American critic who enjoyed the film, apart from commenting that there no women or people of colour portrayed in this epic retreat from the French port of Dunkerque.
Well, there were plenty of women in the Forces at that moment but not overseas on active service. All women between eighteen and forty were called up for service, unless they had children. They had freed men up for fighting by doing all the jobs men used to do – working as drivers, cooks, clerks, interpreters, cipher clerks, aircraft plotters, signals operators, radar operators, working at ammunition depots, firing Ack-Ack guns – anti-aircraft guns – Mary, Churchill’s daughter manned such a post in Hyde Park, shooting at Goering’s planes. Women worked in munitions factories, factories, on the land, and were nurses, Red Cross workers, and did many other vital jobs.
And yes, there were no blacks in the army either… once the Lord Chief Justice Lord Mansfield made his historic ruling in 1772 that any slaves arriving in the country automatically became free men, few negroes came to England for the next century or more. The fourteen thousand or so black slaves already there, now intermarried with the English, so that the ethnicity of their descendants was not obvious in the society in which they were born.
With no slave trade allowed in England, and the Royal Navy maintaining a permanent squadron patrolling the seas for sixty years to try to stamp out the infamous traffic in people – at a cost of 22,000 sailors’ lives as they fought with traders, and millions of taxpayer’s pounds – people of African descent had disappeared by 1940. The Africans rescued by the navy, chained to each other in the bowels of slave ships in horrendous conditions, were taken to Sierra Leone where an African king had sold a strip of land to the British for the purpose of re-settling them. Plenty of ‘diversity’ in the UK now, but that didn’t start until the emigration of West Indians to England in the early nineteen fifties.
So, no women or people of colour– no ‘diversity’- as the young American critic had called it. But I had other misgivings as I watched this much- praised epic.
The ‘ornery’ Brits sailing their tiny boats across the Channel to save their fellow men were the stars in this film! The chap and his son in their fair isle pullovers and polo ribbed sweater moved me to tears… the sheer ordinariness, and utter decency and lack of pretentiousness of them, their deep in- the- bone goodness, and their amazing kindness, forbearance and understanding of the rescued shell – shocked nut- case – in spite of his shocking actions – were so typical of their time and class….
But some things bugged me. Anyone who’s served in the army knows that every ten men in a regiment are a section and they have a corporal to look after them. Three sections make a platoon, who have a sergeant and a second lieutenant to look after them. Three platoons means nine corporals, three sergeants and three lieutenants. Three platoons make up a company with a captain and a company sergeant major to look after them, plus all the adjutants, 2/i/c’s (second in command) plus colonel of the regiment, etc.
There was no trace of all these chaps who actually were the ones who kept the lines in order, going forward over the sandy dunes to the rescue ships, and who, importantly, kept up their men’s morale. Not to mention the staff of all the generals in an army of 300,000 (those numbers were not obvious on the beach in the film either – it was packed to the gills in real life)
Alan Brooke was there, Montgomery was there, Lord Gort, C-in-C was there, and a host of others. Most poignant of all, and what would have made a wonderful moment of film, was General Harold Alexander, who was commanding the last troops on the beach. When everyone had gone, he travelled along the shoreline in a small motor boat at two am in the morning, with a loud hailer, calling out to check if there was anyone left. Few historians ever mention this revealing moment of character.
These people, I felt didn’t get their rightful due, and the order and dignity and courage of the retreat would probably not have happened if they hadn’t done their duty…
The navy didn’t get its due either -there were over four hundred Navy ships shuttling to and fro, and on the worst day, seven out of ten navy ships taking on troops were sunk at the Mole… my partner noticed there seemed to be only three ships used over and over again in the film… being a navy man himself ! Funny they didn’t do some skilled computer generated imagery to make it look more realistic ….
Nit picking, perhaps, but I felt the film was somewhat one dimensional because of these omissions… Kenneth Branagh made a wonderful character, which I felt owed much to Kenneth More in ‘The Longest Day ‘, who played the Beachmaster on one of the British beaches on D-Day… with his bull dog!!!.
There are so many stories about this time in history that now are lost, and have never been recorded by historians. Reading Francis Partridge’s autobiographical ‘A Pacifist’s War’, I discovered one of the most intriguing and little- known stories about the real Dunkirk. Her brother- in- law was the officer in charge of everyone landing at Dover and siphoning wounded and dead and living to their destinations. He told her he realised that so many troops had brought rescued dogs with them, that he organised a dogs’ cage on the beach where each dog was given labels and addresses before going to quarantine and then being sent to their owners!! Such a typical story of British soldiers… reminding me of all the pi- dogs, as they were called, that my father’s tank regiment rescued and adopted in the desert in North Africa.
And then there was the story my brother’s general used to tell at Guest Nights in the officers’ mess. The general had been a young second lieutenant at Dunkirk, and when he’d got his men stowed away safely on a passenger ferry, he staggered up to the bar, absolutely exhausted, and put his elbows on the counter, his head between his hands, and asked the barman who was busily polishing glasses with bombs going off, ships sinking all around them, if there was any chance of a drink. To which the barman replied righteously: “Good gracious, no sir – we’re still within the three -mile limit “!!
Another little- known book told me of a father who woke in the night dreaming of his son. A very rich man, he donned his clothes, and drove off in his Rolls- Royce to the bewilderment of his wife. Abandoning the expensive car at a port, he wangled his way determinedly on a rescue ship returning to pick up more men at Dunkirk. Once at Dunkirk he strode off over the beaches, up into the town and onto the outskirts. On the side of a road, he found a mangled motor bike and his dead son – a dispatch rider – beside it, as he had seen in his dream. Somehow, in a daze he made his way back to England, a changed man.
These are the stories that fascinate me, stories of truth and courage and heartbreak and fortitude. They are stories which have now almost disappeared as those men have now disappeared too. Some will have been handed on by word of mouth to children as bored probably, as I was, in my ignorant, arrogant salad days when my father tried to tell me something of his long war. They are not stories telling of brave deeds in battle, but accounts of how people survived and coped and rose above terrible circumstances in terrible times. That famous, much derided stiff upper lip often saved them.
And the lesson of Dunkirk was that even when all seems lost, imagination, courage and determination can still save the day, even if it meant having to decide then, in Churchill’s words, to: ‘fight on the seas and oceans ….
we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender’.
Those simple powerful words were a turning point in the history of the free world and western civilisation… this is a small thank you to those men who made that history.
A grass widower for supper, so I needed not a grand show-off turn, but something tasty and welcoming and above all simple. I prefer not cooking at night these days. I found an old recipe I’d forgotten about and have no idea where I found it.
Rice and chicken, but all cooked together. I fried an onion and garlic until soft, and spread them in the bottom of a shallow casserole with plenty of butter. Add a cup of long grain rice, and two cups of hot chicken stock, salt and pepper. Cover and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Score skinless chicken thighs with a mix of chopped garlic, ginger and grated lemon, and add the chicken to the rice, fluffing it up. At this point I add some more knobs of butter to the rice. Bake for another twenty to twenty- five minutes, adding hot water if the rice needs it.
Served with salad, this is an easy satisfying dish. Pudding was the ersatz rum babas from a previous recipe. It went down a treat.. rum puddings never seem to fail!
Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony. Paul Coelho
Filed under animals/pets, army, british soldiers, cookery/recipes, films, history, life and death, military history, slavery, Thoughts on writing and life, uncategorised, Uncategorized, world war two
Tagged as Churchill, courage, dogs, Dunkirk, food, history, Paul Coelho, slavery, world war two
Netflix-The Crown-The truth about the Royals?
Once upon a time, as all good fairy tales start (does anyone tell them nowadays?) I was commissioned to write a book about the Royals who had visited this country (New Zealand). They were many, beginning with the first Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria’s second son, and continuing with today’s crop of Royals, including Charles and Diana.
Though I was only given five months in which to write this masterpiece, (I deduced that someone fitter than I had dropped out of the project at the last minute) I couldn’t resist doing a mass of quite unnecessary research, which meant that in the end I was reduced to writing from seven am in the morning to seven pm at night.
I was already well placed to write this book, though when I received the phone call from the publishers asking if I would a write a book for them, my flippant reply – ‘as long as it’s not a book on engineering…’ – did not endear me to the humour-less editor I worked with.
But years before, in idle moments in the magazine office I worked in, I had found a tome on Queen Mary. It was written by James Pope-Hennessey, who was what the Royal family call “a safe pair of hands”, meaning they were prepared to talk to him, open the archives, let him read letters and trust him not to say anything derogatory. His book started me off on all the other Royal biographies long before writing my book. Thus, Harold Nicolson writing his matching tome on George V, Queen Mary’s husband, was also considered a ‘safe’ pair.
So Pope-Hennessey for example, refrained from telling us that Queen Mary was a famous kleptomaniac. And well-placed gossip has it that after her death, her grand-daughter, this Queen and daughter in law, Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, had to make a number of embarrassing visits to stately homes around England in order to return various items of value to their rightful owners.
I am not a ‘safe ‘pair of hands, but I am a ‘truthful’ one, and was therefore quite bothered when watching Netflix’s work of fiction masquerading as fact. So much so that when I read they were hoping for a congratulatory phone call from the palace, I laughed out loud… I don’t think they should hold their breath. I don’t think the Queen would appreciate seeing her handsome intelligent, hard-working husband portrayed as a temperamental, insensitive, adolescent lout.
He once wrote, in a resigned letter to the film and stage star Pat Kirkwood, with whom he was accused of having an extra-marital affair: ‘Invasion of privacy, invention and false quotations are the bane of our existence.’ The facts in this case were that Baron the photographer, was Pat Kirkwood’s boyfriend and he took Philip to meet her after her show. They spent the night dining, dancing and ended up in Baron’s flat having scrambled eggs for breakfast. (more on this later)
Philip’s ancestry was much more royal than the Queen’s (she was only half royal, her mother simply being an aristocrat) and he was as accustomed to princes and palaces as she was. He had experienced the discipline of the navy since he was a teenager, and had a gallant war record, so he would never have shirked his Royal duties in the adolescent way Netflix writers portrayed… but back to him in the next blog.
There’s so much to say that I just have to take it in chronological order. Eileen Atkins does a peerless job at portraying Queen Mary, but lots of fictional scenes there too… on the other hand, they missed a wonderful true moment of the real Queen Mary advancing on the prime minister, Mr Baldwin during the Abdication crisis, wringing her hands, and exclaiming in a distraught and un-queenly fashion quite unlike her – “Here’s a pretty kettle of fish!”.
The subject of this remark, her son and son of her husband, George V, who had said: “The boy will ruin himself in twelve months,” was the new King Edward. (He did it in eight months.) Alex Jennings who plays him- and who played Prince Charles memorably in the film ‘The Queen’ – portrays a much stronger and slightly more likeable character than the real flaky king and prince.
Private secretary Sir Tommy Lascelles – played with great veracity in the film – had resigned from his service when he was Prince of Wales, appalled by the Prince’s louche and reckless way of life, woman-ising, drinking, and neglecting his duties. Now the reluctant new King Edward inherited the reluctant Lascelles from George V who had re-employed Lascelles, and the carelessness and irresponsibility of Edward were even more marked now, to the dismay of everyone close to him, not just his private secretary.
Government officials began censoring the documents they sent to him for signature in the red boxes for example, after state papers and documents were returned with wine-stains and finger marks, and it was rumoured that they were being passed around the social set partying around his desk – Mrs Simpson among them. It’s notable that in all the years of this Queen’s reign she has never shown the contents of the red boxes to her trustworthy husband.
It was strident, social-climbing, twice married Mrs Simpson who is credited with links to Ribbentrop, the infamous German ambassador hanged at the Nuremburg Trials and influencing Edward in his notorious pro-Nazi views. She was also famous for flaunting around London the wonderful jewels the besotted Edward showered upon her, and which caused so much gossip at the time. (There were people who felt a statue should be raised in her honour, they were so thankful to her for being instrumental in getting rid of a king who would probably have brought down the throne.)
Unlike the Netflix version, the ex-king was never short of money – he was in fact, a very rich man, having amassed a fortune from the Duchy of Cornwall all the time he was Prince of Wales, (like the present holder of the title) and sold Balmoral and Sandringham to his rather more cash-strapped brother, the reluctant new King. Once on the loose, married to the woman he loved, the now Duke of Windsor set the pattern of endless socialising he and the Duchess became famous for.He also gallivanted off to see Hitler, who planned to re-instate him, and went on record as saying that the Duchess of Windsor ‘would have made a good queen’ – nuf’ said.
I won’t go into their disloyal war record, which began with the Duke (who had been given the rank of general) deserting without leave his military post in Paris when the Germans were arriving, without even letting their devoted, but unpaid staff know. On the other hand, they arranged for the Germans to guard their Paris apartments, which the Germans did, sealing and protecting them throughout the war… the Windsor’s were probably the only people in the whole of Europe whose home and possessions were intact after the war.
Windsor never had cosy little breakfasts discussing helpful tips on kingship with the present Queen, a la the Crown and Netflix. Apart from his visit to England for George VI ‘s funeral, she didn’t meet him until 1965 when he came to England for a visit, and then in ‘67. Finally, on a state visit to Paris in 1972, she took tea with him.
Sir Tommy’s Lascelles diaries are an invaluable record of much of this time, witty, irascible, authoritative, erudite, in the know… and almost family. In the photo of his daughter’s wedding in ‘45, the whole Royal family (what he termed a ‘pride of Royals’) were there, from Queen Mary and the King, down to Princess Margaret – with Townsend in the background.
The good looking and elegant Townsend he termed: ‘a devilish bad equerry’. Among other true-to-life portraits was his picture of Churchill dining at Buckingham Palace the night news from Alamein was hoped for. At last, unable to wait any longer, the Prime Minister excused himself and went off and telephoned his office.
He returned with Lascelles, ambling down the golden corridor singing ‘with little evidence of musical talent’ in Lascelles’ acid account: ‘Roll out the barrel’ with gusto, to the astonishment of the footmen standing to attention. This story, as with so many other references to Churchill dining at the palace, gives the lie to the ridiculous scene of the Prime Minister refusing to sit before his new sovereign with all the daft waffling about not sitting in her presence.
He’d sat in her presence and that of his previous sovereign, plenty of times over the last eight or more years, and had known Elizabeth more or less for most of her life, remarking favourably on her appearance when she was two and taking time out from running the war and the country in 1941, to send her red roses on her fifteenth birthday.
I can’t resist writing in my next blog about the skewed facts and in-accuracies about George VI and his daughters – Princess Margaret and the present Queen – and the truth about Prince Philip. The same writer who wrote the successful West-end play and film called ‘The Audience’, about the Queen and her prime ministers, wrote this series.
I walked out of that film after half an hour, in spite of Helen Mirren, as I found it painful watching so many imaginative reconstructions then! So no wonder I find this series hard to swallow. I know it’s meant to be entertainment but the facts are just as entertaining as the fiction being served up… and the fiction seems rather hurtful to some of the characters.
“More to come”, as we used to write at the bottom of each page of a story in the newsroom before the days of computers ended hand delivered copy! As a journalist for most of my life, facts matter. Concocting a good story is not my line…
It seems appropriate to share a recipe with a Royal theme, so the first version of this dish known as Coronation Chicken was created for the Queen’s coronation. This version by Lady Maclean is the one I prefer.
Taking enough cold cooked chicken for four, stir it into a mix of good mayonnaise, curry power, golden syrup and cream to make a creamy consistency, and deliciously tangy and sweet taste.
The key is the cold rice which is served with it. Make a good vinaigrette dressing with a teaspoonful each of Dijon mustard, and sugar, plus plenty of black pepper. Defrost a cupful or more of green peas, and soak them in boiling water until soft.
Do the same with a good handful of sultanas. In a frying pan quickly toast a generous cupful of slivered almonds (watch them – they burn quickly). Finely chop a generous handful of parsley, and just before serving, mix all these ingredients with the rice.
This poem was written by fifteen -year- old Minnie Haskell, and George VI recited it in his 1939 Christmas speech, the first Christmas of the war. The Queen, who was 13 at the time, gave it to him, she had found it in a privately printed book of poetry….
THE GATE OF THE YEAR
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
Filed under cookery/recipes, great days, history, Queen Elizabeth, Royals, royalty, Thoughts on writing and life, uncategorised, Uncategorized
Tagged as Churchill, duke of windsor, net-flix, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, royals, truth, wallis simpson
I stumbled on a quote from Winston Churchill at the beginning of the chapter of a book I was reading. He was talking to the boys of Harrow, his old school, just after the Battle of Britain… the leader of the free world with his back against the wall, found time to talk to schoolboys in the middle of a World War when his capital city was being pounded in the Blitz…
He said: “Do not let us speak of darker days, let us rather speak of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are the greatest days our country has ever lived.” (I can just hear him growling through his speech impediment and his false teeth)
Those words made me think of those sterner days, and what stern days we have all lived through since the end of the long peace from Waterloo to the First World War.
My ancestors lived peaceful lives between the downfall of one warlord – Napoleon in 1815, and the attack of another warlord – the Kaiser in 1914.
But things changed for them then, as for everyone, and my family would be a microcosm of that change. My grandfather fought at Gallipoli of tragic memories, my great- uncle was one of eight hundred men who ‘went down, “as my grandmother would say – in the Vanguard, when it exploded and sank in 1917.
My step-grandfather was one of the 60,000 men killed or wounded on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in June 1916, when he was shot as he stepped out in the first line after the whistle blew to advance in the early morning sunshine. Unlike that heart-stopping last scene in ‘Blackadder goes forth’, they didn’t run, but stepped out to a measured pace, and were mown down by machine guns raking along the long lines of men moving across the grass as they walked into the ‘jaws of death’….
These were peaceful men, called up from their homes and villages to fight for their country and for peace – they thought – unlike the highly trained aggressive army of martial men which faced them. They had actually thought that the Battle of the Somme would end the carnage.
The next generation faced the sterner days of another warlord, Hitler. My father escaped from France a fortnight after Dunkirk, and then spent the rest of the war as a famed Desert Rat, escaping from the siege of Tobruk, fighting across North Africa and then up through Italy. After the war he was stationed at Belsen, the concentration camp where I joined him to live with him for the first time since he had left when I was ten months old.
His brother served with the Long Range Desert Group which fought behind the German lines in North Africa waging guerrilla war. Captured, and ending up in prisoner of war camp in Italy, he escaped and hid and starved in the mountains, until rejoining the Allied Armies as they fought their way up Italy. My only other uncle manned anti –invasion posts around England before becoming part of the liberation forces in Europe. He listened in horror as they drove away to the sound of gun-shots after handing over Russian PoW’s back to the Soviets, who shot them all, there and then. My former father- in- law, a padre, landed on the beaches of Normandy and was so badly wounded that he lived with the after- effects for the rest of his life.
My first memory was of watching the Battle of Britain – not that I knew it was – I just saw white crosses diving across the sky and puffs of white. I was looking for dogs, since I heard the adults saying there’s another dog-fight. That summer has remained in the memory of those who lived through it – even me at two – as being one of unforgettable beauty. Historian Sir Arthur Bryant wrote of England then: “The light that beat down on her meadows, shining with emerald loveliness, was scarcely of this world… the streets of her cities, soon to be torn and shattered, were bathed in a calm serene sunshine…”
Later, I cowered in bed hearing the dreadful wail of the air- raid sirens, trailed downstairs in my night clothes to crouch in the air-raid shelter, listened for the planes overheard, saw with terror the flames in the red sky, and the next morning gathered up shrapnel in the garden and once, stood on the edge of a huge bomb crater, marvelling. And finally traversed bombed- out Germany on the train to Belsen.
I spent much of the rest of my childhood living in army camps around the world, hearing the sound of reveille across the fields where the soldiers lived in barracks, and drifting off to sleep to the haunting strains of the Last Post.
Inevitably I joined the army, as did both my brothers, who saw service in Aden, Borneo, Germany, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar… and as my first child was born, my army husband was posted at twenty four hours notice to a sudden outbreak of warfare in Cyprus. I came out of the labour ward to find a telegram: “Gone to Cyprus”. So my daughter felt the effects of war as soon as she came into this world and didn’t meet her father until she was six months old. Later her father served in Hong Kong and Germany and Northern Ireland.
My grandchildren are the fifth generation and the first not to feel the effects of war. They‘re aware of violence – who could not be after the world-wide shock at the attacks on the World Trade Centre. But like other children of the West, they seem to see their future and their challenges differently. Unlike the children of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, my fortunate grandchildren have known only peace, and tucked away in the farthest corner of the globe, they have optimism. They do not see these days as stern ones, though the children in war-torn Middle East must do. They do not see the anxieties that older people agonise over, pollution, dwindling food supplies, over-population, melting ice-caps, ravaged oceans…
They see instead the solutions. One grandson, having gained a degree in philosophy, transferred his search for truth to science, and from first deciding to tackle world hunger by experimenting with growing food from the spores of mushrooms ( I’m sure I’ve hopelessly oversimplified that ) he’s now embarked on a project to discover new forms of anti-biotics, and combat disease.
The other youngsters all have a serene belief that science, and creative understanding will solve the problems that loom so large for older generations. They’re not worried! I find that’s magic. Is this because they live in this peaceful place in the Antipodes, or do all young people have this calm belief in the future?
A friend told us that she had always loudly proclaimed at home that it is selfish and self-indulgent to have a child and bring another soul into this troubled world. She told us with great joy, that her fifteen year old grandson said he didn’t agree. “Life is a gift” this wonderful boy told her. Hearing that wisdom was a gift to us oldies.
Hearing that made me feel too, we can all rest easy. Young people know where they’re going, and know what they can do. Though we hear of mayhem and misery every day, if we oldies step back from it, avoid reading the stuff that make us sad (young people don’t seem to read newspapers! ), we can remember to be as positive and imaginative as that young generation.
And maybe too, to bowdlerise Churchill’s words – these are the greatest days our world has ever lived, when consciousness takes the leap into other dimensions of unity and peace. Christopher Fry wrote that: “Affairs are now soul size,” and that we are ready to:” take the longest stride of soul men ever took.”
This is what we can feel in the hearts of this generation that does not want war and dissension – the domain of the grey tired thinking of politicians of old. Young people want peace and hope and they deserve it as they face the new challenges that baffle older people. “Young people”, as a friend once wrote in Latin, in a card to me, “are the hope and salvation of the world”. And they need all our loving support and belief in them, as they take that long stride of soul into a future we oldies cannot even imagine.
I had some dainty ham sandwiches left over from a little gathering. Rather than waste them I had them for supper. I whipped up an egg with salt and pepper and a soupcon of milk, and poured it onto a plate. I dipped the sandwiches in on both sides, and the egg mixture glued them together. Fried in a little butter, they were delicious. And no waste!
Close your eyes and you will see the truth,
Be still and you will move forward on the tide of the spirit,
Be gentle and you will need no strength,
Be patient and you will achieve all things,
Be humble and you will remain entire.
Taoist meditation
Filed under army, battle of somme, consciousness, cookery/recipes, family, great days, history, human potential, life and death, life/style, military history, peace, spiritual, The Sound of Water, Thoughts on writing and life, uncategorised, world war one, world war two
Tagged as Christoher Fry, Churchill, Consciousness, Dunkirk, food, hitler, hope, Napoleon, Somme, spiritual, Tobruk, world war one, world war two
A Much Maligned Hero
If there is a list of less than attractive characteristics, my hero is on that list – alcoholic, psychopath, megalomaniac, autistic, faults and addictions, these labels are all heaped upon his well-known head.
He didn’t have an easy start in life – his American mother, a famous society beauty was too busy socialising to spend any time with him, or visit him at school; while his father was too busy with his brilliant career, and finally too embittered by his terminal illness to have any time for him at all, and never once visited him when he was packed off to boarding school at seven. His mother required him to write to her in French and frequently returned his letters unread, saying his French was so appalling that she had no intention of reading them. The wounds and scars from beatings on his back, administered by a sadistic head master between the ages of seven and nine, finally convinced his parents to send him to another school.
The one person who loved him was his nanny. He loved her until the day she died, and was with her at her death-bed. At his schools, he was unpunctual and unconventional, and no-one had a good word to say for him. He failed his military exams, and when he finally made it into Sandhurst was broken-hearted that his father had died before seeing that at last he had succeeded in achieving something. Because his father had died young, he always felt that he would too, and since he always felt that he had come into the world to fulfill some great purpose, he felt he didn’t have a lot of time, and had to hurry!
He had a brief and brilliant military career, earning medals and commendations, and took part in the last great cavalry charge in history at Omdurman against sixty thousand dervishes. Leaving the army he became a newspaper correspondent, and while reporting on the Boer War was captured and had a famous escape, which brought him to the notice of the world. Back in England he went into politics like his father, and having by then educated himself with massive reading programmes, and developed a great gift for words and oratory, he was very successful. In the First World War he unfairly took the blame for the disaster at Gallipoli, though he was merely one of a group of people who’d been behind the scheme, there being no scope for dictatorship by second ranking politicians in the English constitution.
His career apparently ruined, he went and fought in the front line on the Western Front. After the war, returning to politics with some success, he was then vilified and disliked by most people, because he warned about the inevitable war with Germany all through the thirties. While in politics, he had worked for an old age pension for every-one and for better working hours for men and women. With an intelligent powerful wife like Clementine, he supported votes for women, but not the methods of the Suffragettes, especially after one militant feminist tried to push him under a train, and his wife only just pulled him back in time. During this time in the wilderness he supported his family by writing and lecturing.
When war was declared in 1939, no-one in politics really wanted him, from the King down, in spite of him having been proved right about Hitler and the dangers of appeasement. But the people did, and he became prime minster at the time of the greatest danger England or the world had ever faced.
For the next two years, Winston Churchill held the free world together. He not only united his country in the face of fighting a war they could well lose, against a foe whose brutality and inhumanity had already been demonstrated all over a devastated Europe, but he sustained the people in all the defeated countries. They risked their lives to listen secretly to his speeches on their radios, knowing that if they were discovered they would be shot.
“There goes the British Empire”, the American Ambassador heard a workman say as Churchill conducted him around the smoking ruins of a city hit by the Luftwaffe the night before. He was there to report to President Roosevelt on whether he thought the British were going to be able to stand up to Hitler. When the US finally came into the war when Japan attacked them, Churchill knew that with America’s might they could win the war, however long it took. But for two years he alone bore the whole burden of the war on his shoulders, and people waited to hear his speeches to raise their spirits and inspire them to hope even in such hopeless circumstances.
When night after night, London and all England’s other great cities were bombed, its citizens sometimes buried in mass graves, as in Coventry, and irreplaceable architecture, homes and churches destroyed, Churchill’s words kept the nation and the free world going.
People who worked with him were devoted to him. He was very affectionate and treated his staff like his family, inviting them to share all his family meals when they came to stay every weekend, while Churchill worked – usually until 3am. They were part of the family, playing cards, croquet and going for walks. He had a wicked wit. When Lady Astor said to him at dinner, “If I was your wife, I’d put cyanide in your coffee,” he famously replied, “If you were my wife I’d drink it”. When Bernard Shaw sent him a ticket for the first night of Pygmalion, writing : “Bring a friend if you have one”, Churchill replied: “ Cannot make first night, but will come to second, if you have one”. He described an opponent (fairly accurately) as ‘a modest little man, but then he has much to be modest about!’
His capacity for work was prodigious as was his eye for detail … he sent a memo to the top navy, army and air force men telling them to give dignified names to operations, saying if a mother heard that her son had been killed in a battle with a silly name like ‘Operation bunny hop’, it would diminish the dignity of her dead child. He began every memo to his staff: “ Pray… could you …etc.” He cared about people, and was devoted to his wife and family after his miserable childhood. He was a talented painter as well as writer, who won the Nobel prize for literature for his four volume series ‘The History of The English Speaking Peoples.’
He was often inconsiderate and sometimes arrogant, but never mis-used power, his proudest boast being that he was the servant of Parliament and the English people who elected him. And when his party lost the election as the war was ending – in spite of the love the people had for him – he told every-one that they had to respect the will of the people.
And in old age he could still laugh at himself … when a nervous MP whispered to him that his fly buttons were undone, he replied ‘Never fear, the dead bird never leaves the nest.’ His beloved private secretary Sir John Colville said that he never saw him drunk, though champagne and brandy were his favourite tipples. And as for the other labels … I’m sure he’d rebut them with that old English saying; ‘ Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me…’
What a man! I think he’d prefer: What an Englishman! And yet he was deeply proud of his American ancestry too. When his dark- eyed, dark- haired mother died, it was reported that her face bore: “all the hallmarks of a native American inheritance”. His descent from another great Englishman and soldier, John, Duke of Marlborough, was the inspiration for his belief in his destiny … which could be summed up quite briefly – to save the free world.
Hot summer days, and heaps of fresh vegetables – many from the gardens of my lovely neighbours. So today, it’s crudités with that lovely mayonnaise made with my new mixing stick in the last recipe. Fresh batch today with garlic added, making it aoli, to be eaten with hard boiled free range eggs, fresh raw baby carrots, tomatoes warm from the sun, new potatoes from a neighbour’s garden – cooked with fresh mint – cucumber and a jar of artichokes. We’ll start with some sweet corn dripping with hot butter, the corn almost pearly, it’s so fresh … fresh purple plums with that dusty bloom on their skins to end with … a summer feast ….
History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience. The only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.
Extract from his tribute to his old opponent Austen Chamberlain on his death, by Winston S Churchill 1874 -1965 politician, writer, painter, visionary leader
Filed under cookery/recipes, great days, history, humour, life/style, military history, The Sound of Water, Thoughts on writing and life, Uncategorized, village life, world war one, world war two
Tagged as America, Boer War, Churchill, England, food, heroes, London, Omdurman, Second Boer War, Winston Churchill, World War I
animals/pets army birds bloggers books british soldiers colonial life consciousness cookery/recipes culture environment family food great days happiness history humour life/style life and death literature love philosophy spiritual sustainability The Sound of Water Thoughts on writing and life uncategorised Uncategorized village life world war two
A life-changing accident
Truth does matter
Small Happinesses
Not angels or saints – Women
valeriedavies · Author of The Sound of Water and other books
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Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary
Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary is in the Rajsamand District of Rajasthan state in western India and surrounds the Kumbhalgarh fortress and covers an area of 578 km2 (223 sq mi). The sanctuary extends across the Aravalli Range, covering parts of Rajsamand, Udaipur, and Pali districts, ranging from 500 to 1,300 metres (1,600 to 4,300 ft) elevation.
It takes name after the impressive historic fort of Kumbhalgarh, which come into view over the Park. It is 578 km2 (223 sq mi) in area and at an altitude of 500 to 1,300 metres (1,600 to 4,300 ft). It is home to a very large variety of wildlife, some of which are highly endangered species. The wild life includes wolf, leopards, sloth bear, hyena, jackal, jungle cat, sambhar, nilgai, chausingha (the four horned antelope), chinkara and hare. The bird life at Kumbhalgarh is also gratifying. The normally shy and untrusting grey jungle fowl can be spotted here. Peacocks and Doves can be sighted regularly feeding on grains scattered by the jungle guards. Bird like the red spur owls, Parakeets, golden Oriole, grey Pigeons, Bulbul, Dove and white breasted kingfisher can also be seen near the water holes. Kumbhalgarh’s natural beauty is attracting many tourists and especially for its accessibility from Udaipur, which is 100 km from here. Foot tracking and horse safari organised by local tour operators are proving to be very popular. A typical safari route enters the sanctuary from the Kumbhalgarh Fort and cutting across the sanctuary it reaches Ghanerao, and then borders an old abandoned road. On this road, one can sight Chinkaras, Neelgais, four horned Antelope and many birds.
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For Devon Parfait ’22, future chief of Louisiana Native American tribe, geosciences is personal
Ronan O'Connor
As future chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, located in Louisiana, Devon Parfait ’22 regularly contemplates problems facing his tribal community such as coastal land loss, low educational attainment and low economic opportunity.
“Tribal communities down south are dealing with so much right now,” he said.
As a student at the College, Parfait is studying one of the largest problems challenging his tribal community in Louisiana — disproportionate effects of coastal land loss. In his own research, he is working to quantify these disproportionate effects. He found that Louisiana loses about 0.3 percent of land per year, but his specific community loses 0.7 percent of their land per year, more than double the general statistic.
Devon Parfait ’22 said that geosciences is a tool to advocate for his tribe, a way to tell the world, “hey, we’re here and there are problems here,” he said. (Photo courtesy of Devon Parfait.)
Parfait will face serious challenges when he steps into the role as chief but he said that the chief selection process was relatively relaxed. He would often talk and spend time with the current chief, with whom he shares family ties.
“The night that I was chosen we just had really good conversations. Me, as this young kid, and this adult, we would have conversations about the tribe and the world and her experience. I was just such a curious kid,” Parfait said. “In that moment, she thought, ‘Man, maybe this guy can do something. Maybe this guy can fulfill this role.’”
Because of his role as future chief, being a student at the College has a special meaning for Parfait.
“It’s just amazing that I can go to school and learn and develop my brain and also do something that helps the tribes,” Parfait said. “I am just really grateful that Williams was able to give me an opportunity to do this research and give me some kind of platform to advocate for it.”
The opportunity to study at the College was a long and complicated journey that started on the bayou in southern Louisiana.
“We lived right on the bayou,” he said. “My grandpa had a shrimp boat. One of my favorite memories is when we would catch other things besides shrimp. Sometimes we would catch puffer fish. It was my favorite thing to give the fish a kiss and blow in it and it would blow up and we just threw it back in the water.”
In 2005, during Parfait’s second-grade year, his family was forced to evacuate to Texas when Hurricane Rita hit his community. “When the storm came, our house was completely flooded. There was mold all over everything,” Parfait said. “The shrimp boat that my grandpa had was broken in half in the bayou. My family lost everything in that storm.”
Because of the storm, Parfait and his family moved north to an area near Lake Pontchartrain, La., where they stayed for a few years before moving again to Marrero, a suburb of New Orleans. After that, Parfait’s family continued to move around, which meant he had to switch schools multiple times.
“I moved around a lot,” he said. “I feel I was very unfortunate, in a way, but also very fortunate because I got to live with so many different kinds of people. I feel like it was great for my overall worldview.”
While Parfait has been able to engage academically at the College, that was not the case when he was growing up.
“I learned more from YouTube than I did from my high school,” Parfait said. “I remember going into math class and I would just put my head on the desk and go to sleep. My teacher would try to wake me up but by the end of the semester, she would just slide the worksheet under my arm.”
After high school, Parfait took a semester off. “That was probably the best thing I could have done,” he said. “I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go and I just really needed some time to be with myself, be in the world, work, and just live life a little.”
After the semester off, Parfait enrolled in Delgado Community College in New Orleans, where he studied for three semesters. Parfait’s introduction to Williams came when he travelled to Seattle to attend a conference on behalf of his tribe. He met Rónadh Cox, professor of geology and mineralogy at Williams, along with other Williams students.
(Photo courtesy of Devon Parfait.)
“I ended up really enjoying the geosciences conference and loving all of these Williams students who had great personalities and seemed so smart,” Parfait said. “I was like, ‘Man, I want to be one of these Williams students. They seem really cool.’”
Cox took Parfait under her wing and helped him strengthen his application to Williams. Parfait began studying for the ACT, improving his grades, and gathering recommendation letters from his professors — all to have his application rejected by the College.
Rather than dwell on the rejection, Parfait applied for the Williams-Mystic Program at Cox’s suggestion. He was accepted. “It was the most transformative experience of my life,” Parfait said of his experience at Williams-Mystic. “It really took me from being this non-academic person and trained me to be academic and engage with the world in interdisciplinary ways.”
After finishing Williams Mystic, Parfait was determined to get into the College, so he and Cox came up with a plan. That spring, Parfait was able to enroll in classes and get on the meal plan at the College through a program normally for local high school students. While Cox was on leave that semester, Parfait stayed at her house with her husband. Parfait said that one of his chores included “taking care of her guinea pigs.”
Parfait’s second application to Williams was accepted, and ever since his matriculation, his interest in geosciences and its application to coastal land loss in Louisiana has grown. “I was just really grateful that Williams was able to give me that opportunity to do this research and give me some kind of platform to advocate for it,” Parfait said.
To Cox, Parfait’s acceptance came as no surprise. “He’s a very impressive, very interesting young man,” Cox said of Parfait. “He’s got a fire.”
Parfait has potential plans to attend graduate school but doesn’t want to commit to anything just yet.
“For me, I think about what education I can give myself to perform the best at this role of chief because I see the current chief and all of the weight on her shoulders and the problems she deals with now,” Parfait said. “I’m doing so much science in my undergrad degree, understanding the science of coastal land loss and the problems in Louisiana, and then going to law school could enable me to tussle with the government and have that same language and be able to move things forward on my own.”
Parfait is currently working on building a commission to bridge the gap between Native American communities and the U.S. government. He said he wants there to be “some sort of accountability and communication between the tribes and state government agencies on housing, education, and the coastal masterplan.”
In the future, Parfait and Cox plan to continue their research into coastal land loss and how it affects five specific regions in southern Louisiana.
“We have it constrained to quantify the land loss rates over a 20 or 30 year period for each of these five regions and compare them to the land loss rates for the region as a whole,” Cox said. “The very specific end goal is to produce a rigorous, well documented study demonstrating the disparities between Native American Louisianans and other southern Louisianans in terms of their exposure to land loss.”
Parfait has committed himself to advocating for his Native American tribe. “A lot of people don’t even know that Native Americans are in Louisiana, much less that they’re experiencing all of these problems with coastal land loss and climate change and environmental justice and so on,” he said. “So, advocacy is the biggest thing that I do, just telling the world that ‘hey, we’re here and there are problems here.’”
Ronan O'Connor,
This semester in Williams history
One in Two Thousand: Ryan Savarie ’23
Williams Undergraduate Research Journal aims to share interdisciplinary work
In virtual format, annual ‘Rein-Pet’ Parade marches on
Spotlight on Research: Anjuli Raza Kolb examines history of calling Islamism a ‘virus,’ ‘contagion’
Ephs share stories from staffing campaigns in battleground states
Packing up and saying goodbye: A dorm-room photo series
This Week in Williams History: Malaria drugs, ‘manly toiletries’ and Ralph Nader
Intent to enroll: How six students are making their decision for the spring
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See This Magical Christmas Light Display in North Waterboro That Brings the North Pole to Maine
Sean McKenna
Tamara Kiernan via Facebook
Wish you could visit Santa at the North Pole?
Don't worry, there's a house in Maine that will make you feel like you've been there.
It all goes down at 74 Mayfair Way in North Waterboro: A magical Christmas light display with thousands of lights just waiting for you to visit. And music, too!
Here's a Facebook video of some of the display in the snow:
While this has been an annual tradition for what has been deemed the North Waterboro Pole, there was some concern that the pandemic would prevent it from happening.
Thankfully, COVID couldn't stop the show from going on, but there were some alterations to this year's version because of it.
While their Facebook page mentioned holding off on some new additions and interactions (hopefully for 2021!) and there wouldn't be a regular walkthrough, there would still be plenty to see from the front road.
In fact, even more of the display was pushed to the front so it could be seen for people driving by.
And they did note that you can "certainly wander the driveway if you'd like."
The light show is FREE, and the lights will be on 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. right through Christmas.
Just make sure you aren't being a Grinch and blocking the neighbors driveways in order to check out this display.
And aside from the incredible light show, they have a donation box for the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital. Now that's showing some goodwill and Christmas spirit!
Jeff and Julie, the couple who put on this light display are hoping to be at 100 percent for 2021, so make sure to enjoy this 2020 version and fingers crossed for next year.
If you're looking for something to do before Christmas, there's still time to check it out! It's the perfect way to close out 2020 on a positive note.
10 Best Christmas Light Displays in Maine
Categories: Articles, Newsletter
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Hague Amusement Park, Jackson, 1890s-1923
sugarmakr, ebay
Hague Park (now called Vandercook Lake Park, south of Jackson) was an extraordinary amusement park that had its beginnings in the 1890s.
It featured arcade games, ball games, hot air balloon rides, bowling, carousel, dancing, giant water slide, roller coaster, roller skating, steamboat rides and much, much more. It was a wonderful place to go in southern & mid-Michigan for a grand time...and then...it was gone. But if you look REAL hard, you're able to find a few leftover Hague Park artifacts that are still around.
Where did it go?
In 1923, a fire broke out and spread from building to building, destroying seven buildings in all. Calls to the Jackson Fire Department were to no avail, as the park officials were told the park was out of the fire department's jurisdiction. No help came.
It's a sad tale and we can only imagine what would've happened to the place if it hadn't burned. But it's a fascinating journey for anyone from Michigan who's interested in our history.
Wish I coulda been around back then to enjoy the park...at least we can enjoy all the pictures below of what the park once was like…take a look and check ‘em out!
HAGUE PARK 1
HAGUE PARK 10
Filed Under: michigan history, michigan roadtrip, roadside michigan
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Bulls Hot After OT Loss
by: Bob Vorwald
Posted: Mar 18, 2013 / 11:06 PM CDT / Updated: Mar 20, 2013 / 01:07 PM CDT
In ending a losing streak, the Bulls’ showed balance from the lineup to the bench
DALLAS - One thing that Bulls' fans have been used to early in the season is a lot of scoring from two of their players - Zach LaVine and Coby White.
The former is fourth in the NBA in scoring with 28.3 points per game while the latter has been putting up 17.7 per contest. They've led the way for the team that's held their own all season long, but have mostly been on the wrong end of the score.
Blowout loss to Iowa continues frustrating stretch for Northwestern
by Larry Hawley / Jan 17, 2021
EVANSTON - For about 13 minutes they were able to go toe-to-toe with the team many regard as the best in the Big Ten conference.
Ryan Greer's free throw with 7:57 left to go in the first half tied Northwestern with fifth-ranked Iowa at Welsh Ryan Arena as the Wildcats went back-and-forth with the talented team.
That means they won't be allowed to leave their hotel rooms or practice for 14 days, creating a two-speed preparation period for the tournament. Other players in less rigorous quarantine will be allowed to practice for five hours daily.
Dog and goat serving as mayor raise money to renovate Vermont playground
Coronavirus / 1 hour ago
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Former priest speaks out against..
Former priest speaks out against Catholic celibacy
Catholic ChurchcelibacyPaul HeagartyPriestsRoyal Commission into Child sex abuse
A former Catholic priest has hit out at celibacy within the Catholic church following the end of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse.
The five year, $342-million commission handed down its recommendations last week, including the idea of voluntary celibacy for Australian clergy and laws making it a criminal offence for failing to report abuse revealed in confession.
Former priest Paul Hegarty has spoken out today, telling Chris Smith the ancient Catholic tradition of celibacy forced him to leave the church.
“It turned out being celibate wasn’t a match for me, so I’m now a family man with a wife and two lovely daughters.
“For most of us, it’s not a match.
Mr Hegarty says he’s disappointed with the church’s response to the commission’s findings, not believing they will change compulsory abstinence.
“There are all sorts of reasons and I think the dominant one has to do with protecting the prestige of celibacy in the clerics because it does create a certain mystique.
“I grew up listening to it as the priest is someone who made a great sacrifice for the sake of God and the community.”
Click PLAY below for the full interview
AustraliaLawNews
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Panneau de la commune de La Baleine - France
Expert Maestro
Pascal Moulin
Copyright: Pascal Moulin
Tags: la baleine
Christian Obel
Classroom in Maschevo
Perspektiva 360
Karlskirche Vienna
Assaf Spiegler
Abandoned Gas Station, McLean, Texas
Milan Rademakers
Leaning Tower of Pisa and Cathedral at Sunset
More About France
The World : Europe : France
France is affectionately referred to as "the Hexagon" for its overall shape.French history goes back to the Gauls, a Celtic tribe which inhabited the area circa 300BC until being conquered by Julius Caesar.The Franks were the first tribe to adopt Catholic Christianity after the Roman Empire collapsed. France became an independent location in the Treaty of Verdun in (843 AD), which divided up Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire into several portions.The French monarchy reached its zenith during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who stood for seventy-two years as the Monarch of all Monarchs. His palace of Versailles and its Hall of Mirrors are a splendid treasure-trove of Baroque art.The French Revolution ended the rule of the monarchy with the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!" On July 14th, 1789 angry mobs stormed La Bastille prison and began the Revolution in which Louis XVI, his wife Marie-Antoinette and thousands of others met the guillotine.One decade after the revolution, Napolean Bonaparte seized control of the Republic and named himself Emperor. His armies conquered most of Europe and his Napoleonic Code became a lasting legal foundation for concepts of personal status and property.During the period of colonization France controlled the largest empire in the world, second only to Britain.France is one of the founding members of the European Union and the United Nations, as well as one of the nuclear armed nations of the world.Text by Steve Smith.
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Russian Women Struggle to Survive Domestic Violence
By: Mariya Rasner | October 2, 2009
MOSCOW (WOMENSENEWS)–“He’s successful, earns a good salary, so he thinks he has a special entitlement,” says Anna Kazakova, a 30-year-old journalist, referring to her husband of five years. “He owns me and has a right to beat me. And I am supposed to worship him.”
Kazakova’s just decided it’s enough. “He can eat his money and beat somebody else,” she says of her forthcoming divorce.
Every fourth family in Russia experiences some form of domestic violence, with 82 percent of such crimes being committed by husbands, according to government statistics. Each year, about 14,000 women die at the hands of their husbands or intimate partners. In the United States, by comparison, this number stands at about 1,200, according to the 2001 Bureau of Justice Statistics Report. Russia’s population is 144 million; the U.S. population is 293 million.
“The number of women dying every year at the hands of their husbands and partners in the Russian Federation is roughly equal to the number of all soldiers who died in the 10-year war of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan,” says Natalya Abubikirova, executive director of the Russian Association of Crisis Centers. The Moscow-based umbrella organization of 32 groups advocates for women’s rights and seeks to raise awareness to prevent discrimination and violence against women.
In 1995 the United Nations adopted the so-called Beijing Declaration Platform for Action to raise the status of women and promote gender equality. There has been some response here with a handful of shelters opening throughout the country and public awareness campaigns beginning to have some effect. Compared to other industrialized nations, however, resources and information remains scant.
Moreover, 10 years later, many women here still play a servile household role, women’s rights activists in the country say.
“We’ve had a case when the husband broke his wife’s jaw just because an omelet she served him was white,” says Alexandra Kraeva, coordinator of the Russian Association of Crisis Centers. “She covered the omelet while cooking it, so it turned white, that’s all. In another family, the wife was left with a broken tooth and a cut brow. She gave her husband soup that wasn’t hot enough.”
Women’s rights groups in major Russian cities operate hot lines for battered women and collect cases and statistical information. Yet, efforts to systematize data are complicated by the shame many Russian women feel in making their family troubles public.
“Women must be very strong to say ‘no’ even to an unhappy marriage,” one victim told the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human rights organization. “They often fear that people will look down on them for failing to build a family. Many women suffer through beatings in silence to preserve a social status of a happily married woman.”
While Kazakova’s batterings may be borne by many wives, her decision to seek a divorce is unusual.
Divorce is not stigmatized in Russia, but being alone is. There is a general pressure to get married as soon as possible, and as a result many women marry men they hardly know. If these women change their minds about their marriage or if they face domestic violence, they often don’t have an opportunity to divorce because of financial dependence on their husbands.
In a 2003 Ministry of the Interior report that polled victims of domestic violence, 76 percent of the women said they had suffered from abuse for a long time before reporting it to the police or making it public in some other way. The report lists some of the common reasons given by the women: “Didn’t believe that the law enforcement would help,” “Was afraid of revenge,” “Was afraid of losing housing, had nowhere to go,” “Was afraid of public scorn,” “Didn’t want to leave the kids without a father.”
Another 2003 study found that most Russian women blame themselves for being beaten or abused by their husbands. In cases of domestic conflict that ends with violence, women are not likely to seek outside help. Rather, they will keep the problem inside the family and consider themselves at fault.
Charges Against Russian Law Enforcement
In 1997 the New York-based Human Rights Watch charged Russian law enforcement with not adequately investigating and prosecuting domestic-violence charges and failing an international human rights obligation.
Since then, Russia in 2001 adopted a national plan for promoting women’s rights, which spelled out measures to protect women’s health and to improve their access to economic opportunity. The government has also formulated a so-called Gender Strategy to ensure equal rights and opportunities for men and women.
Responding to a U.N. questionnaire on its implementation of the Beijing Platform, the government said in 2004 that “the problem of violence against women is viewed in society as a violation of human rights requiring the intervention of the state.”
The government’s commitment to women’s rights, however, was undermined last year by the parliament’s failure to pass a bill on domestic violence.
In 2004, the Kremlin also abolished the inter-governmental commission set up in 1996 to promote gender equality and women’s rights.
Also in 2004, Amnesty International reported that perpetrators of domestic violence “were rarely brought to justice, in part as a result of the reluctance of the police to intervene in what they perceived as a private manner.”
Courts in Russia have provided little encouragement to women hoping for help there.
In one case recorded by the Moscow-based crisis center ANNA, the husband of a young female pianist broke all of her fingers in a jealous rage. The court found him guilty of causing slight physical damage and gave him a suspended sentence. For the woman, however, the incident was more than “slight harm.” It ended her career, according to the center.
“Men who beat or rape their wives or commit other acts of violence in the family are unlikely to face prosecution in the Russian Federation,” according to a 2003 Amnesty International report. “Many victims seeking to prosecute their abusers face indifference or neglect at the hands of the police and the courts. The police often fail to register such cases properly and to conduct thorough investigations; the criminal justice system often denies the victims their right to justice.”
Women also perpetrate domestic violence, but 9 out of 10 use violence against their husbands in response to being attacked, the Ministry of the Interior has reported.
“One time I snapped at my husband,” says Kazakova, the journalist. “He was going to hit me, and all of a sudden everything inside me exploded. I grabbed a kitchen knife and started chasing him around the apartment. He actually had to cut his arm hoping that a sight of blood would cool me down. Still, I beat him pretty bad; he had several cuts and a black eye. I didn’t know what I was doing; it was like a defense reaction.”
Mariya Rasner is a Ukrainian-born journalist working in Moscow while permanently residing in Fairfax, Va. She has worked for Internews Network and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Three Women on Short List to Take Over Helm at the U.N.
By: Alana Chloe Esposito | March 16, 2016
And this time the selection process is under greater scrutiny. For the first time member states may nominate candidates to act as the U.N.’s de facto spokesperson and leader. In April they will have a chance to ask the candidates questions over three days of informal dialogues.
Global Water Goal Met; Now Let’s Push Sanitation
By: Lisa Schechtman | March 14, 2012
The UN’s target for access to drinking water was reached ahead of time. Great news for girls and women, but Lisa Schechtman is still watching the off-target goal of improved sanitation. What’s the point of water if we can’t keep it clean?
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New York’s Paid Family Leave Policy Faces Uncertain Stardom
It is being hailed as the most progressive state policy so far, going further than New Jersey, California and Rhode Island in various respects. But its showcase potential won’t be tested until the program gets going in 2018.
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Our School > General Information > Working Papers
Applying for a Work Permit
Work permit applications (PDE-4565) can be downloaded. Please email Mrs. Miklautz at helenmiklautz@abington.k12.pa.us for more information and direction on obtaining working papers during the school closure.
On Oct. 24, 2012, Governor Tom Corbett signed into law Act 151 of 2012 which took effect on Jan. 22, 2013 resulting in changes to Pennsylvania’s existing Child Labor Law. You can access the new Child Labor Act and an Abstract of the Child Labor Act Hours Provisions on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s website at:
http://www.dli.pa.gov/Individuals/Labor-Management-Relations/llc/child-labor/Pages/default.aspx
Under the new Child Labor Law, there will only be one work permit rather than three. The new work permit will apply to all minors age 14 through 17 and can be used for more than one employer. The permit will certify that the holder personally appeared before the issuing officer, that all papers required by law have been examined and approved, and that all requirements for issuance have been fulfilled. The work permit must be signed by the holder in the presence of the issuing office. The issuing officer cannot issue a work permit until they have examined and verified the following papers which verify age: an official document of the commonwealth or if not an official Commonwealth document, an attested transcript of a birth certificate, a certified baptismal certificate, a passport, a certified documentary record or the signed statement of a physician stating that after examination they believe the minor to be of proper age.
Minors who currently possess a valid work permit may continue to utilize that Permit to work. Minors, who possess a vacation certificate and desire to work for another employer, may obtain a new work permit from the issuing officer in their school district. All minors who possess either an old or new work permit must follow the new rules regarding employment.
Under the new Child Labor Law, neither the employer nor a physician will need to sign an application for a work permit. The new law does require that an applicant’s parent or legal guardian sign an application for a work permit.
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Leisure Services
On view: September 8, 2020
BOUNDLESS features works by Don Chambers, Derek Faust, Katherine McCullough, Alex McClay and Paula Reynaldi. New above Artist Talk with Paula Reynaldi.
"We are living in a time when most of our society has acknowledged we can do better than this. We are questioning collective memories and histories, and toppling monuments that reflect stories we no longer want to honor. We are re-examining previous notions of gender and discovering multiple universes occurring simultaneously. We are all urged to imagine a different (perfect?) world. The artists in Boundless share their visions of possibilities by looking at the past with a new perspective, repurposing ordinary materials to create magic, or moving beyond prescribed arbitrary borders. These artists examine preconceived notions of memory, place, and language, and provide a sense of hope. Our current circumstances demand that we rethink every aspect of how we exist. When we cannot continue to move forward as usual, we must call into question every aspect of how we live. We are living in a time that is Boundless." - Beth Sale, Curator
Don Chambers’ investigations of memory and decay take a multitude of forms. Verses is a series of black-out poetry explorations in which Chambers uses white paint to eliminate all but a few words from the pages of a large old manuscript: the Bible. Many Southerners can relate to the desire to re-examine this text, and to the search for new meaning, lightness, and joy within its pages. With the title of another of his series Cryptomnesia, the artist refers to a condition in which someone forgets they have previously seen or heard something and thinks erroneously that they have invented the idea. For these artworks, he collects vintage photographs, cuts them into strips, and collages them into weavings exposing the handwritten notation on the backsides. In this way, he honors memory and calls on nostalgia while freeing the viewer from the particulars. Metal is often used to build futuristic objects like skyscrapers and cars. Chambers utilizes found metal pieces in an entirely different way. Encouraging the rusting process over paper, Chambers incorporates the rust into his paintings and drawings in his Lowerings series. Once again, Chambers is taking a strong valuable material linked with permanence and an immovable presence and repurposing it, essentially erasing its past and denying the most likely future in favor of boundless possibilities. The titles for paintings are from Verses poems.
In his series “Where” Derek Faust utilizes found road debris such as broken glass and displaced car parts to create assemblages fraught with anxiety. Faust draws on the viewer’s own memories and desires as unseen essential components of these artworks. Beach scenes are incorporated in various ways (a discarded license plate is stacked on a shelf and a lost sun shield hangs on the wall) combining the allure of freedom and relaxation experienced on a vacation with the danger of a car crash on the voyage, intertwining fear and longing all found on the road. The many underlying metaphors in Derek’s “Where” series include the unknown potential the mystery, of leaving where you are to get where you want to be.
Alex McClay utilizes a variety of unusual materials, such as emergency blankets, surveyor’s tape, boundary marking flags, and hot pink mason line, to explore various aspects of communication. With a history of bookmaking, McClay regularly inserts text into her work, such as the kimono fashioned from the shiny silver of an emergency blanket with the words “IF ONLY” repeated as a pattern. (On first view, the glimmering garment seems glamorous, almost frivolous, until the recognition of the material used transforms the object into a contemplation on trauma. In her artist statement, McClay refers to this material as “a tool in a survivor’s kit.”) In her most recent work, McClay cuts text into boundary-marking flags, to highlight the way we use language to establish boundaries. McClay writes in her artist statement that these boundaries “simultaneously constrain us and set us free.” McClay’s most recent works are baskets woven with hot pink mason line, which is typically used by masons to mark boundaries of their stonework. McClay draws on this typical use to highlight the boundaries of inner body and external world.
Katherine McCullough creates abstract images with a skilled hand and a designer’s eye for color, evoking a sense of open space. She often blocks out or paints over large areas of an artwork, giving the viewer the freeing feeling of a freshly de-cluttered closet, keeping only what is absolutely loved, cherished, and necessary. The work she shares in BOUNDLESS moves beyond the confines of a rectangular support. Swaths of color, drawn lines and blocked forms, along with subtle gestures, such as a bundle of painted wood, defy expectations and assert themselves off the canvas and onto the wall. McCullough is invested in her process, as is evident in the hand-painted ribbon of braided wire used in Roomy. The fragility of these components is meaningful. She writes in her artist statement “This work focuses on the part we humans cobble together seeking hope – those rare, fragile certainties. Each collection of material is evidence of making, perhaps reflecting the way we carry our beliefs around with us, solid yet shimmering around the edges, a confident pebble in the pocket of uncertainty.”
Paula Reynaldi creates organic shapes from masking tape. Both the forms, which often resemble honeycombs, and the material are familiar. However, the scale and the presentation are novel, innovative, and startling. By transforming common masking tape into organic forms, Reynaldi’s work subtly suggests alternate realities, parallel universes perhaps. She provides viewers with glimpses of possibilities hidden in plain sight. Her latest work includes the use of theatrical lighting, evoking otherworldly locations. Reynaldi often expands her art practice beyond the studio and gallery setting. Several of her projects have taken place outdoors, in the relatively wild settings of the Birchmore Trail at Memorial Park and Lake Herrick. Nestling her creations in these natural environments, Reynaldi is simultaneously highlighting the former single-use aspect of the material and offering a new life, allowing masking tape to serve an atypical role as art material and a beloved ephemeral object, rather than a tool or device implemented to adhere an asset to another surface. Reynaldi writes in her artist statement “beauty and a pattern of creation reside in all materials.”
BOUNDLESS will be on view in the Upper Atrium and South Gallery.
As we navigate through these unusual times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we recommend visiting our website, social media or calling the Arts Center, for further information regarding procedures for visiting the galleries. Please note gallery hours and numbers of visitors at one time are subject to change and will follow CDC guidelines.
For more information, please call 706 613 3623. Please visit us at accgov.com/lyndonhouse or on Facebook and Instagram.
Pictured: Top: Derek Faust, Lower, Alex McClay
BOUNDLESS artist bios
Don Chambers, a long-time Athens resident, is well-known as a musician, both as a solo-performing artist and for his former band GOAT. He studied art at UGA, earning an MFA. Chambers teaches at the University of Georgia, Athens Technical College, and Common Good Atlanta.
Derek Faust is a visual artist living and working in Athens, Georgia. He received his MFA from Georgia State University and BFA from the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Faust’s work has been exhibited nationally at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, ATHICA, MINT, Solcumb Gallery (TN), and the Herberger Institute for Design and Arts (AZ).
Faust’s studio practice ranges widely and is often inspired from places and objects found through his travels and daily life. The versatile use of materials and processes in his work allows him to create ever changing situations and assemblages. Faust is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Doppler Projects, an experimental curatorial collective that responds to spaces, art and concepts with uniquely curated exhibitions.
Alex McClay is a third year MFA candidate in Studio Art in the School of Art at the University of Georgia. She received her BFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in photography and sculpture from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio in 2014. She was a Core Fellow at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina from 2016-2018, where she studied printmaking, book arts and papermaking. McClay’s work takes many forms; including fine press limited edition books, art publications, textiles, videos, and installations. Through narrative, text, material, and the body, McClay’s work questions the power dynamics present in our most intimate and vulnerable spaces.
Katherine McCullough received her MFA in Visual Art from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011 and her BFA from the University of Georgia in Painting in 2009. She has exhibited in both solo and group shows at various venues in St. Louis. Since returning to Athens in 2014, she has exhibited locally at Trio Contemporary, KA Artist Shop and Gallery, and was selected to show in the Lyndon House Juried Shows in 2016 (recipient of Merit Award) and 2017. McCullough participated in a residency at The Luminary (St. Louis) in 2011 and later co-founded and operated Enamel, an experimental artist-run space and gallery in St. Louis from 2012 to 2013.
Paula Reynaldi was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied music. She is a sculptor, installation artist and art educator based in Athens, Georgia. She has exhibited her work in galleries in Athens, Atlanta, Ohio and Buenos Aires, and has done installations on trails in the woods and other public spaces. She was awarded a juror-selected winner prize in the 2019 Gathered biennial exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and selected for its Georgia Artists of Hispanic/Latinx Origin in 2020.
Waterfall Plot: by Andrew Zawacki
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Little Brother and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
Little Brother Library Binding – 13 April 2010
Cory Doctorow (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Cory Doctorow Page
Library Binding, 13 April 2010
$11.99 Read with Our Free App
Marcus, a.k.a "w1n5t0n," is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works-and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school's intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they're mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
Releases January 22, 2021. Pre-order Ready Player Two now with Pre-order Price Guarantee.
Start reading Little Brother on your Kindle in under a minute.
Publisher : Perfection Learning (13 April 2010)
Library Binding : 429 pages
Reading age : 14 - 17 years
Dimensions : 13.72 x 3.3 x 20.83 cm
Best Sellers Rank: 565,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
7,976 in Science Fiction for Young Adults
"A wonderful, important book...I'd recommend "Little Brother" over pretty much any book I've read this year, and I'd want to get it into the hands of as many smart thirteen-year-olds, male and female, as I can. Because I think it'll change lives. Because some kids, maybe just a few, won't be the same after they've read it. Maybe they'll change politically, maybe technologically. Maybe it'll just be the first book they loved or that spoke to their inner geek. Maybe they'll want to argue about it and disagree with it. Maybe they'll want to open their computer and see what's in there. I don't know. It made me want to be thirteen again "right now," and reading it for the first time." --Neil Gaiman, author of "Sandman" and "American Gods" on "Little Brother"
"A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion." --Scott Westerfeld, author of "Uglies," "Pretties," and "Specials," on "Little Brother"
"A worthy younger sibling to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary." --Brian K. Vaughan, author of the graphic novel "Y: The Last Man" on "Little Brother"
"A tale of struggle familiar to any teenager, about those moments when you choose what your life is going to mean." --Steven Gould, author of "Jumper," on "Little Brother"
"A believable and frightening tale of a near-future San Francisco ... Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions... within a tautly crafted fictional framework." -"Publishers Weekly" starred review on Little Brother ("Featured in "PW" Children's e-newsletter)"
"Readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution ... Buy multiple copies; thisbook will be h4wt (that's 'hot, ' for the nonhackers)." -"Booklist" starred review on Little Brother ("Selected as a "Booklist" "Review of the Day")"
"Marcus is a wonderfully developed character: hyperaware of his surroundings, trying to redress past wrongs, and rebelling against authority ... Raising pertinent questions and fostering discussion, this techno-thriller is an outstanding first purchase." -"School Library Journal "starred review on Little Brother
""Little Brother" is generally awesome in the more vernacular sense: It's pretty freaking cool ... a fluid, instantly ingratiating fiction writer ... he's also terrific at finding the human aura shimmering around technology." -"The Los Angeles Times "on Little Brother
"Scarily realistic...Action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophile's civil protest." --Andrew "bunnie" Huang, author of "Hacking the Xbox," on "Little Brother"
"The right book at the right time from the right author--and, not entirely coincidentally, Cory Doctorow's best novel yet." --John Scalzi, bestselling author of "Old Man's War," on "Little Brother"
"I was completely hooked in the first few minutes. Great work." --Mitch Kapor, inventor of Lotus 1-2-3 and co-founder of the EFF, on "Little Brother""
"Little Brother is a brilliant novel with a bold argument: hackers and gamers might just be our country's best hope for the future." --Jane McGonigal, designer of the alternate-reality game I Love Bees on "Little Brother"
""Little Brother" sounds an optimistic warning. It extrapolates from current events to remind us of the ever-growing threats to liberty. But it also notes thatliberty ultimately resides in our individual attitudes and actions. In our increasingly authoritarian world, I especially hope that teenagers and young adults will read it--and then persuade their peers, parents and teachers to follow suit." --Dan Gillmor, technology journalist, author of "We the Media" on "Little Brother"
"It's about growing up in the near future where things have kept going on the way they've been going, and it's about hacking as a habit of mind, but mostly it's about growing up and changing and looking at the world and asking what you can do about that. The teenage voice is pitch-perfect. I couldn't put it down, and I loved it." --Jo Walton, author of "Farthing" on "Little Brother"
"Read this book. You'll learn a great deal about computer security, surveillance and how to counter it, and the risk of trading off freedom for 'security.' And you'll have fun doing it." --Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media on" Little Brother"
"I know many science fiction writers engaged in the cyber-world, but Cory Doctorow is a native...We should all hope and trust that our culture has the guts and moxie to follow this guy. He's got a lot to tell us." --Bruce Sterling
"Cory Doctorow doesn't just write about the future--I think he lives there." --Kelly Link, author of "Stranger Things Happen"
"Doctorow throws off cool ideas the way champagne generates bubbles...[he] definitely has the goods." --"San Francisco"" Chronicle"
"Doctorow is one of sci-fi's most exciting young writers." --"Cargo Magazine"
"A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion." --Scott Westerfeld, author of "Uglies," "Pretties," and "Specials," on "Little Brother
"A worthy younger sibling to Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four," Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary." --Brian K. Vaughan, author of the graphic novel "Y: The Last Man"
"A tale of struggle familiar to any teenager, about those moments when you choose what your life is going to mean." --Steven Gould, author of "Jumper," on "Little Brother
"Scarily realistic...Action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophile's civil protest." --Andrew "bunnie" Huang, author of "Hacking the Xbox," on "Little Brother
"The right book at the right time from the right author--and, not entirely coincidentally, Cory Doctorow's best novel yet." --John Scalzi, bestselling author of "Old Man's War," on "Little Brother
"I was completely hooked in the first few minutes. Great work." --Mitch Kapor, inventor of Lotus 1-2-3 and co-founder of the EFF, on "Little Brother"
""Little Brother "is a brilliant novel with a bold argument: hackers and gamers might just be our country's best hope for the future." --Jane McGonigal, designer of the alternate-reality game I Love Bees
Top review from Australia
5.0 out of 5 stars It - sucked in and had to read
Wow I couldn’t put it down- communication the new way- dangerous stuff to, a saving grace in the right hands- security wright and wrong, relationships and throughout young people with believes and morals - a must read
Rob_not_Bob
4.0 out of 5 stars A Story for Our Times
This is said to be a YA book – a book for young adults. Although I am far from being a young adult (I am in my late 60s) I found this to be an interesting, sometimes gripping, and often entertaining read. I agree with others’ comments about this book sometimes skirting the boundary of being overly didactic in relation to information technology, but that can be forgiven, since the uses and abuses of information technology are central to the story. Cory Doctorow is deeply concerned about protecting the rights of human beings to privacy from the overreach of the state. This is very much a subject for our times, and I think he succeeds in giving the reader a lively, fictional treatment of that subject. I am looking forward to reading his other books, which I believe also explore this issue.
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding... and beyond scary
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2017
Reading this book within the context of the overt manipulation of alt-facts and the utter disregard of hard won freedoms was a scary experience. The ease with which Marcus and his friends were removed and subjected to imprisonment and torture - in the middle of San Francisco - was a chilling reminder of how fragile freedom is in 2017 USA. No less so in Europe, where lies become the norm and those in politics don't even bother to excuse them any more. A really brilliant novel that everyone should read.
StephanieIsReading
3.0 out of 5 stars Scarily plausible, raising interesting questions about terrorism and rebellion
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 December 2013
I have to confess that I've never read Nineteen Eighty-Four - though I obviously recognised the allusion to it in the title of Little Brother - and most of my expectations come from the other dystopian novels for young adults that I've read recently. I don't think I was quite as taken by this one as I have been by some of the others, but it's an interesting book I'd definitely recommend to the right audience.
At the start of Little Brother, San Francisco is hit by a terrorist attack reminiscent of the 9/11 attacks on New York. The novel follows Marcus, a teenager who - along with three friends - is in the wrong place at the wrong time in the aftermath of the attack and is arrested and interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security. On his release he learns that one of his friends has not been set free, and is horrified by the extent to which the DHS has taken control of San Francisco. So begins his rebellion against a surveillance state which has taken anti-terror measures to the point of abusing basic human rights.
Marcus' rebellion is technological. He's already a bit of a whizz-kid, easily tricking the relatively light-weight surveillance systems in place at his school and enjoying the benefits of unsanctioned networks used by teenagers across the city. But in post-attack San Francisco, the playing field has changed and Marcus has to up his game. Refusing to accept that treating every citizen as a potential terrorist is a reasonable response to the attack, Marcus sets up an underground network to communicate with similarly-minded peers and finds himself at the head of an increasingly powerful movement against the DHS and the police state.
What do I like about Little Brother? It's set in an unspecified year in the near-future and it's very, unsettlingly, plausible in its depiction of society. It's not a huge stretch of the imagination to picture a world where the lines between state security and personal freedom or privacy become blurred. And where much recent dystopian fiction brings in elements of fantasy, Little Brother is firmly rooted in reality. I didn't appreciate this whilst reading it, but postscripts at the end explain that all the technology, hacking and cryptography techniques used in the novel are completely authentic and impeccably researched.
I also liked the presentation of the `enemy' - primarily the DHS, but more broadly most of the adult population of San Francisco. Little Brother is told from a teenage perspective, and on the whole the adult villains are a faceless mass, defined by their uniforms and badges - almost caricatures. It seemed to me that this could be a technique designed to encourage any reader (regardless of age) to see things from the point of view of young adults who feel their privacy and freedom are unjustly jeopardised: it reminded me of E.T., in which the faces of adults (particularly the `bad guys') are rarely shown and the filming is done in such a way as to give the viewer the same perspective as Elliott.
What don't I like about Little Brother? I didn't find it an easy read, given it's aimed at the young adult market. Cory Doctorow takes the time to explain each new piece of technology or technique, which meant everything more or less made sense. But I still found the constant references to hacking terminology and so on quite hard-going. And I also didn't particularly like Marcus. I know this is kind of the point: the novel forces you to question Marcus' motives and at what point rebellion against counter-terrorism starts to stray into cyber-terrorism territory. But even aside from this, I found him hard to warm to. I don't think I was every really fully on his side. Then again, maybe this is an age thing - Marcus and his peers are fairly resolute in their belief that anyone over 25 can't understand their position and therefore can't be trusted.
I really found Little Brother interesting and thought-provoking, although I'm not sure I'd read it again. I am, however, going to give it to my own little brother, who's firmly in the target audience and who I think will really enjoy it, and look forward to the conversations it prompts.
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down
This book hits just about every note of concern you can have once you start thinking about the repercussions of modern surveillance states, combining it with little intros on the techniques and technologies being used so you don't get lost in the terminology.
It's fast paced, chilling, with dramatic ups and downs - and it's scarily believable.
If you've ever struggled with "I've nothing to hide; why should I worry?" when pervasive surveillance discussions come up, read this.
4.0 out of 5 stars CD spins a brilliant morality-tale
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 June 2013
About Cory Doctorow's 'Little Bro.', his prose is intelligent, and his style is suave. He tells in witty, conversational tones a technically astute tale of one man's, Marcus Yallow the main prot., and his few friends', virtual battle against the powers-that-be, including his school headmaster Mr. Benson, and in particular the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) who are running his area of California, San Francisco (Frisco), like it's a police state. The catalyst for this battle is an arrest and kidnapping by some members of the DHS, which are like a military division of the American state police force, and the ensuing revenge and retribution upon his release and upon learning that they have since the terrorist bombing for which Marcus and his friends were wrongfully arrested now stepped up security and are watching his every move. Armed with only an Xbox, computer hardware, some technical knowledge that only top hackers seem to possess, and a handful of friends, particularly his newfound love Ange, Marcus embarks upon a crusading counterintelligence project against the powers-that-invade-our-privacy using a sophisticated clandestine network of fellow believers known simply as Xnet, which inevitably is discovered as active in the community and consequently becomes newsfodder, affording its users the press-opportunity they both fear and need. The story goes on to describe how he and his loyal supporters attempt, through passive-aggressive exposure on Xnet of the DHS's activities, to discredit the DHS as a viable institution for the defence of American values. The story also concentrates on Marcus's relationships with his schoolteachers, his parents and various other people around town such as the Turkish cafe-owner, some of whom sympathise with his plight, some who don't. His relationships and dialogue are all encapsulated within the context of his propounding his point of view about freedom from authoritarian tyranny as well as from terrorism, and there being a balance. The author states both sides of the argument succintly here, while obviously siding with the main prot used as his mouthpiece.
I have been reading this book avidly every day, but from the very first page I was totally hooked. I was greatly impressed with this young author's ability to literally 'tell a gripping tale' that actually requires a lot of computechknowhow, and I personally am convinced that Cory is a computer whizzkid. It is not only the intelligence with which the story is told, but also the humour and wit: I was literally chuckling out loud like a cat merry on Whiskas(R) and milk laced with brandy all the the way through.
As if to answer a prediction of Cory's I read elsewhere, I found myself going to Kindle(R) to buy this after first downloading it for free from Books in My Phone, booksinmyphone.com, searching for a good science-fiction book to download onto my mobile phone while at my Mum's. I discovered Cory Doctorow by accident, an author I'd not heard of before, and after reading a small review praising 'Little Brother' downloaded it from that site with a view to just sampling some SF for free; but, as I said before, I was immediately hooked. As soon as I read his Preface and Introduction, I knew I liked this author and was looking forward to starting the novel. I wasn't disappointed. Like an aperitif, I found, in the introduction to the mobile version, his style to be entirely lucid and readable. What's more, I seemed to have fulfilled one of his predictions which said that those who download his books for free due to the Creative Commons DRM-free license agreement between Doctorow and his publishing-house were likely to next go and buy a copy. He mentioned print, but I bought a Kindle copy for only £4 for ease of reading and immediate access. I also didn't want the print copy because I already have too many books on my shelves taking up space, otherwise I would have bought a print copy as suggested. I'm sure I'm doing the author a favour, anyway, by buying on Kindle and plugging its worth here, despite the fact that I disagree that more copies in print will sell if you can download it for free, as we live in a digital age now, and sadly I fear that it may not be a profitable business move on the part of Cory Doctorow and his publishers. On the other hand, his principle is correct that you should be able to give away a copy of a book, or lend it, regardless of whether it is print'n'paper format or electronic. But in the case of digital, you can copy it that way as many times as you like (as in multiple copies), and although it's a weighless economy, it could be like piracy hurting the publishing industry and author to whom the credit in the form of royalties is due. I do agree with Doctorow's take on freedom of speech and assumed innocence/freedom from suspicion where concerns random stop-and-search procedures (in other words, it can be summed up in the term 'rites of passage'); and I also believe in his principle that if you own a book it should be entirely at your disposal as your property and not held by DRM-control, but where concerns the price being nothing under the Creative Commons standard, I really think this book deserves to be downloaded for more than just free. Perhaps if Cory was selling each initial download for a small sum, AND then allowing it to be shared as he believes it should be, it would be fairer on him and his work than if you could initially download it for nothing, but it just exemplifies the generosity of some authors who are happy to see their books - and their message - read and circulated widely.
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Small business lending SBA
BofA offers emergency loans to borrowers first, freezing out depositors
By Kevin Wack April 03, 2020, 2:01 p.m. EDT 4 Min Read
In the initial hours of a government-backed emergency loan program, Bank of America accepted applications only from its existing small-business borrowers, shutting out customers that have checking accounts but not loans.
The narrow rules angered ineligible small business customers, and by Saturday morning BofA had loosened its criteria. Customers that had small business checking accounts as of mid-February, but no credit products, can now apply for relief as long as they do not have a borrowing relationship with another bank.
On Friday, the Charlotte, N.C., company's eligibility criteria froze many small businesses out of a $349 billion program that is meant to provide relief from the economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
If other banks adopt Bank of America’s initial approach, the number of small businesses that are eligible to apply for loans in the program’s early days will shrink even further. Many small-business owners are concerned that if they cannot apply for relief soon, they will not receive funding because the program operates on a first-come, first-served basis, and application volume is expected to be enormous.
“If you borrow with another bank, please, go back and work with them,” BofA CEO Brian Moynihan said Friday.
BofA Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan said in a CNBC interview on Friday that the bank has 1 million business customers with borrowing relationships, and that its first priority is getting those customers through the system. The bank said that small-business customers will qualify to apply if they have a corporate credit card or another business borrowing product at BofA.
Moynihan said that Bank of America is encouraging business customers that have lending relationships with other banks to apply through those institutions.
“If you borrow with another bank, please, go back and work with them,” Moynihan said. “They’re your core bank, and they know you the best and can process you the fastest.”
CORONAVIRUS IMPACT: ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
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Don’t lose sight of what matters most: The customer
But Moynihan did not address what recourse exists for small businesses that do not rely on credit at all.
In a video posted to Twitter on Friday morning, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., expressed outrage that big banks are putting “crazy restrictions” on eligibility for the funds. He did not mention Bank of America of any other bank by name.
“Let me just say this as nicely as I possibly can,” Rubio said after recalling the federal assistance that banks received in 2008. “Please don’t be a bunch of jerks, OK? When you needed the country to help you, they did. Now, the country needs you to help them, and we’re paying you to do it. And it’s the government’s money. It’s the taxpayers’ money. So let’s all do our part please.”
The Paycheck Protection Program is part of the $2.3 trillion stimulus package enacted a week ago in response to the coronavirus crisis. The program will provide government-guaranteed small-business loans of up to two and a half times a company’s monthly payroll, which can be fully forgiven if the funds are used payroll and certain other purposes.
Banks and credit unions that take and approve applications will receive 1% interest and processing fees of 1% to 5%.
Program guidance that was released by the Treasury Department on Thursday states that participating banks and credit unions should continue to follow their existing Bank Secrecy Act protocols when making loans under the program to either new or existing customers.
Because of those protocols, and because banks already have information about their customers, they should have an easier time approving applications from those existing clients. But the Treasury guidance does not make a distinction between existing customers that have a lending relationship and those that only have a deposit relationship.
Under the program’s terms, banks have a financial incentive to help their own existing borrowers first, since small businesses that go out of business will be unable to repay their debts.
Bill Halldin, a Bank of America spokesman, said Friday that the bank structured its process in the way that it did in order to speed up approvals.
“That’s why we’re doing this,” Halldin said. “Any suggestion otherwise is wrong.”
BofA is only accepting applications online. The bank received 85,000 applications before 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Halldin said.
Bank of America’s initial decision to exclude small businesses that do not currently borrow from the bank drew outrage from some of the bank’s customers.
“It just seems like competent business owners are being punished for running their businesses well,” said LeeAundra Keany, the founder of a small Los Angeles-based firm that provides training to corporate leaders in public speaking and engaging with the media.
Keany said that she founded her business more than 20 years ago and has been a Bank of America customer for many years, but she does not have a business credit card with the bank.
She also said that four customers have already canceled business with her firm amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is going to be pretty devastating,” Keany said. “We squeaked by in ’08, but that was by the hair of our chinny chin chin.”
Stefan Muehlbauer, the CEO of a Naples, Fla.-based consulting firm, said that his company has also been a Bank of America customer for many years. The firm, which has two full-time employees and does a lot of cross-border business, began making contingency plans for coronavirus some time ago.
“I just didn’t realize that my contingency plan would fall apart, not having a credit card,” Muehlbauer said. “I guess we should have jumped into the great American pastime of collecting credit cards.”
This story has been updated to add the number of applications BofA received before 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday and with new information about how the bank plans to handle applications from customers that do not have borrowing relationships.
This story has been updated again to reflect the changes that BofA made to eligibility criteria following its initial rollout.
Kevin Wack
Staff Writer, American Banker
Small business lending SBA Coronavirus Bank of America Brian Moynihan Law and regulation
Illinois caps interest rates on consumer loans at 36%
It is the 18th state to pass a law imposing rate caps on all consumer loans, including payday and car title loans.
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We consider the various legal forms of social enterprise activities. All these structures require specialist advice, so, if you are considering such a business in the Hertfordshire area we, at Ramm Alexander, can assist you.
A social enterprise entity is a business with primarily social objectives. Any surpluses made are reinvested into the main principle of that entity (or into the community) rather than maximising profit for shareholders. Examples of types of objectives are regeneration of the local environmental area, promoting climate change awareness and training for disadvantaged people. There are various legal forms that should be considered when setting up this type of entity. Which one you choose will depend upon what the social enterprise actually does and the style of management of those running it.
The possible options available are as follows:
Community interest company (CIC)
Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
Co-operative or community benefit society.
A limited company is a separate legal entity from its members and gives them limited liability. A limited company set up with a social purpose needs to set out its objectives, which can also include commercial objectives. There are two choices of limited companies for social enterprise entities: a company limited by shares and a company limited by guarantee. In the case of a company limited by shares, dividends can be paid to the shareholders.
Limited company accounts need to be filed at Companies House and consideration needs to be given as to whether an audit is required.
If the limited company’s objectives are exclusively charitable and for the public benefit, it may also be set up as a charity. Where this is the case the company will need to register with the relevant charity regulator. If it is a charity then it will need to follow the relevant charities legislation (eg Charities Act 2011 in England and Wales) and the charity regulator will require the submission of Annual Returns. In return, however, it will have the benefits of being a charity such as potentially qualifying for a number of tax exemptions and reliefs on income and gains, and on profits for some activities.
Trusts are unincorporated bodies which do not distribute profits. The trust is set up to govern how its assets are to be used, and as such can hold property and other assets for the community. Trustees act on behalf of the community in looking after the assets but it is important to note that the trust does not have its own legal identity. The trustees are therefore liable for the trust’s liabilities.
Trust deeds are set up to protect the trust’s objectives. The trust is able to write an asset lock into its rules in order to secure assets for its intended community.
Like limited companies, trusts can also be charities. The same points which are noted above for charitable limited companies should be considered for charitable trusts.
The simplest form for a social enterprise entity is an unincorporated association. This could be used when a number of individuals come together for a common ‘social’ purpose. There are very few formalities to setting up this way, which is the key advantage. The members can set their own rules and a management committee is elected to run the entity on behalf of any members it may have. Associations are also able to carry out commercial activities.
The problem with the unincorporated association is that it has no separate legal identity. If there are any debts, the members are legally liable to pay those debts down to their last worldly possession. This type of entity is not likely to be suitable if you wish to employ staff, raise finance, take on leases or purchase property, apply for grants or enter into contractual arrangements.
Like limited companies and trusts, unincorporated associations can also be charities. The same points which are noted above for charitable limited companies should be considered for charitable unincorporated associations.
These are specific limited companies that provide benefits to the community. This type of structure was developed due to the lack of legal structures for non-charitable social enterprises. They can be set up as either companies limited by shares or companies limited by guarantee, and thus have the benefits of limited liability. CICs need to be registered and comply with the CIC Regulations. They need to pass the ‘community interest test’ before they can register as CICs. Thus the main difference compared to other companies is that they are operating for the benefit of the community and not for the benefit of shareholders. An existing company can be converted to a CIC, although a CIC cannot hold charitable status.
Like trusts, they have an asset lock which restricts profit distribution in certain circumstances and ensures that the assets are used for the community purpose. On winding up a CIC, all of the assets must be transferred to another similar asset-locked body.
A key advantage of a CIC (rather than a charity) is that the directors of a CIC can be remunerated (charity trustees generally are not remunerated). They are also not as heavily regulated (although are still regulated under a ‘light touch’ regime). They obviously do not have the taxation advantages that charities are entitled to and they have to file a community interest report annually with the CIC regulator (which is made available publicly).
The charity regulators for England and Wales and Scotland have been registering new CIOs/SCIOs (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations) for a number of years. CIOs and SCIOs have benefits similar to a limited company charity. This means that the members and trustees are usually personally safeguarded from the financial liabilities of the charity, and that the charity has its own legal personality which means trustees do not have to take out contracts in their own names. CIOs and SCIOs do not have to register with Companies House, but they do need to register with their relevant charity regulator.
Co-operative or community benefit society
Community benefit societies (BenComs) are incorporated registered societies which operate for the benefit of the community in which they operate. They must be able to demonstrate their social objectives and these must continue to be met. Registration is with the Financial Conduct Authority for an applicable fee which will depend upon its rules.
BenComs are not the same as co-operatives as these operate primarily for the benefit of members. Depending on how they distribute profits and what activities they undertake, co-operatives can also be social enterprise entities.
All of the above social enterprise entity structures require specialist advice so, if you are considering such a business in the Hertfordshire area we, at Ramm Alexander, can assist you. We will be happy to discuss your plans and the most appropriate structure with you. The most appropriate structure will depend on a number of factors, including consideration of taxation implications, the legal entity, regulation and management style.
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Techtronic Industries Plans $100 Million Expansion in Anderson, South Carolina
A Heightened Focus on Reshoring
FDI in Turbulent Times
From NAFTA to the USMCA — A Canadian Perspective
What Does the Future Hold for FDI from Europe?
Techtronic Industries, a Hong Kong-based global leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of quality consumer, professional and industrial products, will invest $100 million to expand its operations in Anderson, South Carolina. The company plans to create 525 jobs over the next several years.
TTI's expansion will include a new 1 million-square-foot manufacturing plant and warehouse to support production and assembly operations. The expansion, which is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022, will also include a reconditioning plant.
"This is a significant step in our continued growth and evolution as a company. This will be a world class manufacturing and warehousing facility, to support our ever-expanding outdoor product and power tool businesses. We certainly appreciate the support of the state of South Carolina and Anderson County to help make it possible for us to continue to invest in facilities, people and innovative products in Anderson,” said Outdoor Products Group President Lee Sowell.
"This investment by TTI in Anderson County is further proof that South Carolina is an important hub for international business. These 525 new jobs will make a big impact in the Palmetto State, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for this great company's continued growth here,” Governor Henry McMaster said.
"Team South Carolina works hard every day to cultivate a pro-business environment so companies like TTI can be successful. Congratulations to this great company on their $100 million investment that will create 525 new jobs for South Carolinians. We look forward to watching them continue to succeed for years to come,” Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt noted.
Founded in 1985, TTI has continuously expanded around the world through organic growth and acquisitions and is a recognized world leader in designing and manufacturing a variety of power tools, outdoor products and accessories for both residential and industrial clients.
"We are truly fortunate to have Techtronic Industries as a partner in our community. Major expansion announcements like this help show the world the degree of trust that several multinational corporations have placed in our local workforce, and I couldn't be more proud than I am today of our county and our people,” noted Anderson County Council District Four Vice Chairman Brett Sanders.
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Love it or loathe it, that novelty 80s Christmas reindeer song still slays
Nick Thomas More Content Now
’Tis the season in the entertainment world when TV channels bombard us with round-the-clock Christmas movies while radio stations across the country add holiday music to their daily playlists. In the latter case, one song has traditionally been considered naughty or nice, depending on who you ask.
Elmo Shropshire didn’t write “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” but he’s been singing it since first hearing the ditty in Lake Tahoe in the late 1970s. In fact, he should be touring the East Coast now, performing it.
“Usually from early November through Christmas I play with a group of fantastic musicians called The Holiday Express,” said Shropshire by phone from, coincidently, Lake Tahoe where he and wife Pam are vacationing. “Normally, I would be playing a hundred shows with anywhere from 300 to 1,000 in the audience.”
The group, which may consist of anywhere from a dozen to some 60 members, also performs at soup kitchens, hospitals, and schools for kids with special needs as it travels across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. where they also distribute food and gifts. But this year the tour was canceled due to the pandemic.
“Playing with this group of talented musicians is the pinnacle of my career, but we’ll hopefully be back to normal next Christmas,” he said.
Shropshire, who turned 84 this year, readily acknowledges that not everyone is a fan of his now-classic Christmas song, but audiences would probably riot if he didn’t perform it live. It is, after all, a triple threat ballad: a catchy tune wrapped around witty - admittedly macabre - lyrics, featuring Shropshire’s distinctive raspy voice.
“I had no musical background or sang before moving out to California in the 60s,” said Shropshire, a graduate of Auburn University’s veterinary college, who opened his own animal clinic just north of San Francisco.
After graduating from Auburn, he worked with horses at racetracks around New York, but moved to the West Coast after a trip to San Francisco where he soon became interested in bluegrass music. He learned to play the banjo and began performing with his first wife, Patsy.
When songwriter Randy Brooks played his reindeer song for the couple when they were all stranded in a Lake Tahoe hotel due to bad weather in 1978, Shropshire knew he wanted to record his own version.
“I just made this funny Christmas recording as a gag and a friend took it to a radio station and they started playing it,” he recalled. “People began calling in to say they loved it, but so did others who hated it. After that first Christmas, I thought that would be the end of it. But every Christmas the stations would play it again. Unbeknownst to me, they were copying the song on cassettes, and radio stations began playing it all over the country in the early 80s.”
Shropshire knew he had a hit. In 1983, he sold his vet clinic and used $30,000 to produce a video of the song with one modification: “Grandma survives in the video!” he said. “And I played grandma and grandpa.”
While the video currently has over 9 million YouTube views, the singer isn’t sure how many copies of the song have sold, given all the formats now available.
“I think it’s over 11 million on vinyl, cassette, and CD with many more digital downloads now, including ringtones on cell phones - something like over 500,000 in the first days when ringtones first became available.”
And yes, the royalties keep coming any time his version is used - in movies, TV shows, and even a plush toy reindeer that plays the song.
While Shropshire has recorded many other songs including various versions of his “grandma” theme - “The Ballot of Grandma,” “Grandma’s Killer Fruitcake” (see www.drelmo.com) - he takes the controversy of the original in his stride.
“It’s just wonderful to have a hit song, even if you only have one,” he says. “I never thought I could still be making a living from it. It’s just one of those things you could never predict.”
And for those of you grinches who still can’t warm up to a Christmas novelty song about a granny taken out by a hit-and-run reindeer, just be grateful her encounter wasn’t with a John Deere.
That really would have been gruesome.
Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 850 newspapers and magazines. See www.getnickt.org.
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Analysis Projects
Tomcar TX Multi-Purpose All-Terrain Vehicle
NBS MANTIS Air Defence Protection System
DRDO Ballistic Missile Defence System
VAB (Vehicule de l’Avant Blinde) Wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicle
The VAB (Vehicule de l'Avant Blinde) front-line armoured vehicle is an infantry corps tactical armoured vehicle produced
12 (driver, commander and 10 fully equipped troops)
Roof Length
Overall Effective Volume
10m³
Rear Compartment Volume
Rear Operating Width
Rear Operating Height
4x4 Unladen Weight, in Running Order
4x4 Combat Weight (maximum options included)
13,600kg
6x6 (Maximum Options Included)
Amphibious Operations
Water jet propulsion system
Turbo-Diesel Engine
Renault MIDR 062045 intercooled
Engine Speed
300hp (219k)
1,200nm at 1,200rpm
Power-to-Maximum-Weight Ratio
21hp/t (6x6) 23hp/t (4x4)
Road Speed
Minimum Speed
Acceleration to 1,000m
Angle of Approach / Departure
Speed on Water
The running gear of the VAB gives exceptional off road mobility.
The VAB has taken part in United Nations peacekeeping missions.
In operations with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Sarajevo, VAB vehicles were hit on several occasions by 7.62mm or higher calibre projectiles but they were never penetrated.
The VAB in desert operation, equipped with an anti-tank missile launcher.
The VAB fitted with the Dragar turret.
The French Army has constantly carried out VAB enhancement programmes.
The Leclerc main battle tank and the VAB during Yonne 97 manoeuvres.
The VAB in amphibious operation.
The VAB (Vehicule de l’Avant Blinde) front-line armoured vehicle is an infantry corps tactical armoured vehicle produced by Nexter Systems (formerly Giat Industries) with headquarters at Versailles in France.
A joint venture company, Satory Military Vehicles, was set up by Giat and Renault Trucks to be responsible for the VAB series and a number of other vehicles including the AMX-10RC and the French Army’s new VBCI wheeled infantry fighting vehicle. In September 2003, it was decided to wind up this company and reorganise relations between the two companies.
“The VAB (Vehicule de l’Avant Blinde) front-line armoured vehicle is an infantry corps tactical armoured vehicle.”
It was determined that Giat would be prime contractor and have responsibility for marketing of the VBCI, the AMX 10P and AMX 10RC. Renault Trucks Defense is prime contractor and has responsibility for marketing of the VAB.
VAB armoured fighting vehicle history
Since 1976, more than 5,000 VABs have been produced in 30 different versions. 376 VABs were used in Operation Desert Storm and VAB has been deployed in United Nations peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Cambodia, Croatia, Lebanon, Rwanda and Somalia.
The VAB has been selected for the armed forces of 15 countries, Brunei, Central African Republic, Cyprus, France, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritius, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The French Army has a fleet of almost 4,000 VAB vehicles.
In May 2008, Renault Trucks Defense awarded a contract to Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace to upgrade French Army VAB armoured personnel carriers with the Protector remote weapon station. Protector is also fitted to the US Army Stryker infantry carrier vehicle and can be armed with either a 0.50-calibre machine gun, 40mm grenade launcher or 7.62mm machine gun. Deliveries are scheduled through to 2016. The VAB vehicles are also to be fitted with full battle management capability.
VAB NG new generation armoured vehicle
The French Army has constantly carried out VAB enhancement programmes. Experience from combat has lead to the implementation of more than 1,100 improvements resulting in the design of the VAB new generation (VAB NG).
The VAB NG has been developed by Renault Trucks and Mecanique Creusot Loire, with Nexter Systems managing the export marketing activities. The VAB NG development programme and demonstration phase are complete and the vehicle is in series production.
The vehicle can be fitted with a selection of weapon systems including a 12.7mm or 25mm Dragar turret, an anti-tank missile launcher turret or a variety of mortar systems.
“More than 5,000 VABs have been produced.”
The 25mm Dragar turret from Alenia and Nexter is equipped with an electrically powered stabilised gun, fitted with thermal sights for night firing. The stabilisation system allows the gunner to maintain aiming accuracy on the move over rough terrain. The firing rate is up to 400 rounds a minute.
Self protection
VAB NG has a steel hull and bullet-proof glazing which provide all-round protection against 7.62mm AP ammunition and the front of the vehicle provides protection against armour piercing rounds.
A splinter-absorbent liner can be fitted in the crew compartment and add-on armour with protection against 14.5mm armour-piercing ammunition can be fitted on the sides. The 180° windscreen and side windows are bullet proof, while the rear window is fitted with armoured shutters. A nuclear, chemical and biological warfare (NBC) protection system is integrated with the air conditioning system.
As well as the nuclear blast qualified armoured steel hull, the vehicle’s protection against mine blast includes add-on floor protection, a robust drive line, and suspension arms with blast energy absorption characteristics.
The tactical mobility of the VAB is the result of a high torque turbo diesel commercial engine, the Renault MIDR 062045 (300hp), a fully automatic gearbox, independent wheel suspension, large size wheels, short wheel-base, on-the-move central tyre inflation system and low ground pressure.
The VAB’s maximum torque at low engine speed, (1,200Nm at 1,200rpm) enables the crossing of difficult obstacles such as gradients, steps and trenches. Maximum road speed is 110km/h and the vehicle has an acceleration 0m-1,000m in 54 seconds.
The VAB is also fully amphibious. The water propulsion is by hydrojets giving a speed of 8.5km/h in water.
“VAB NG has a steel hull and bullet-proof glazing which provide all-round protection against 7.62mm AP ammunition.”
VAB armoured fighting vehicle variants
Versions of VAB armoured fighting vehicle currently being marketed are: amoured personnel carrier for two crew plus ten fully equipped troops; infantry fighting vehicle with 12.7mm or 25mm; DRAGAR turret; command post vehicle; anti-tank missile launcher turret; 81mm mortar carrier; 320mm heavy mortar tractor; ambulance; recovery vehicle fitted with a crane; anti-riot vehicle; and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare (NBC) reconnaissance vehicle.
Optional equipment for the VAB includes self-protection grenade launcher, radio transceiver, intercom system, night driver’s periscope, night vision goggles and Global Positioning System (GPS) system. Various upgrade kits are available for the VAB including the conversion of the 4×4 vehicle into a 6×6.
A middle-axle assembly, comprising roadwheels and independent suspension is fitted and the braking system is adjusted.
Companies Involved
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Nächstbereichschutzsystem (NBS) MANTIS is a very short-range air defence protection system developed for protecting the forward-operating bases of the German…
The Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing a two-tier Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system that provides a…
VT4 (MBT-3000) Main Battle Tank
The VT4 (formerly MBT-3000) main battle tank (MBT) is a third-generation MBT designed and developed by China North Industries Corporation…
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Virtual Solutions, Publications & Events
Wellness Recovery Action Plan
Addictions & Substance Abuse
Behavioral Health Policy, Financing Reform, and Systems Integration
Recovery Supports
AHP in the News
AHP Acquires WRAP and Recovery Books
Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. (AHP) announced the acquisition of WRAP and Recovery Books, as of July 1. The purchase includes 30+ books, manuals, curricula, and other educational products on wellness and recovery, along with the website, mobile app, and eLearning curricula. AHP will work closely with the Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery and Mary Ellen Copeland to insure that anyone who would benefit from WRAP has access to it in whatever way works best for them.
Neal Shifman, AHP President and CEO, said, “We are very excited about this acquisition because AHP and WRAP align in purpose and vision. AHP’s mission focuses on improving systems of care and business operations to help people reach their full potential while WRAP is a self-designed prevention and wellness process that helps people achieve and maintain healthy lives. Both organizations are committed to making change—whether at individual or organizational level—that empowers people to improve their health and wellness.”
AHP Chief Information Officer David Wetherbee, who will lead the transition of operations, added, “While there will be some operational changes during this period, customers can expect uninterrupted service in their product purchase experience and in the flow of WRAP-related news and information.“
For WRAP’s extensive customer base of individuals, teachers, trainers, and organizations, Mary Ellen Copeland has this message, “To some, Mary Ellen Copeland and WRAP are synonymous, but I have never seen it that way. WRAP never belonged to me—it belonged to the courageous people who helped to develop the process and the many who have since taken it and made it their own. I have merely been its shepherd, guiding and shaping WRAP but never changing its very essence. I know that AHP will preserve WRAP’s legacy and the central role it has played in elevating mental health recovery to the national and international stage!”
AHP will continue the work of Ms. Copeland and WRAP, making existing materials available, while planning for product and content expansion. Mr. Shifman said, “At AHP, we couldn’t imagine a more positive vehicle for our commitment to personal recovery, nor a more powerful set of tools for creating a ripple effect of health on larger groups, organizations, and institutions. We look forward to engaging with the WRAP community and doing our best to continue Mary Ellen’s legacy of creativity, innovation, and passion for personal wellness and health.”
If you have questions about the shift in ownership of WRAP and Recovery Books and any related topics, please check the frequently asked questions page or contact us.
Back to "News and Announcements"
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Copyright © 2021 Advocates for Human Potential, Inc.
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Updated 3 July, 2019 - 22:28 ancient-origins
DNA Shows Biblical Philistines Came From Europe
New research on Philistine DNA reveals that the Biblical enemies of the Israelites were newcomers to the region in the 12th century BC. Where did they come from? Their genes suggest Southern Europe.
An international team, led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Leon Levy Expedition, retrieved and analyzed, for the first time, genome-wide data from people who lived during the Bronze and Iron Age (~3,600-2,800 years ago) in the ancient port city of Ashkelon, one of the core Philistine cities during the Iron Age.
The team found that a European derived ancestry was introduced in Ashkelon around the time of the Philistines' estimated arrival, suggesting that ancestors of the Philistines migrated across the Mediterranean, reaching Ashkelon by the early Iron Age. This European related genetic component was subsequently diluted by the local Levantine gene pool over the following centuries, suggesting intensive admixture between local and foreign populations. These genetic results, published in Science Advances , are a critical step toward understanding the long-disputed origins of the Philistines.
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Who were the Philistines?
The Philistines are famous for their appearance in the Hebrew Bible as the arch-enemies of the Israelites. However, the ancient texts tell little about the Philistine origins other than a later memory that the Philistines came from "Caphtor" (a Bronze Age name for Crete; Amos 9:7).
More than a century ago, Egyptologists proposed that a group called the Peleset in texts of the late 12th century BC were the same as the Biblical Philistines. The Egyptians claimed that the Peleset travelled from the "the islands," attacking what is today Cyprus and the Turkish and Syrian coasts, finally attempting to invade Egypt. These hieroglyphic inscriptions were the first indication that the search for the origins of the Philistines should be focused in the late second millennium BC.
Excavation of the Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon. Photographer: Melissa Aja. Courtesy Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon
From 1985-2016, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, a project of the Harvard Semitic Museum, took up the search for the origin of the Philistines at Ashkelon, one of the five "Philistine" cities according to the Hebrew Bible. Led by its founder, the late Lawrence E. Stager, and then by Daniel M. Master, an author of the study and director of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, the team found substantial changes in ways of life during the 12th century BC which they connected to the arrival of the Philistines. Many scholars, however, argued that these cultural changes were merely the result of trade or a local imitation of foreign styles and not the result of a substantial movement of people.
This new study represents the culmination of more than 30 years of archaeological work and of genetic research utilizing state of the art technologies, concluding that the advent of the Philistines in the southern Levant involved a movement of people from the west during the Bronze to Iron Age transition.
Genetic Discontinuity Between the Bronze and Iron Age People of Ashkelon
The researchers successfully recovered genomic data from the remains of 10 individuals who lived in Ashkelon during the Bronze and Iron Age. This data allowed the team to compare the DNA of the Bronze and Iron Age people of Ashkelon to determine how they were related. The researchers found that individuals across all time periods derived most of their ancestry from the local Levantine gene pool, but that individuals who lived in early Iron Age Ashkelon had a European derived ancestral component that was not present in their Bronze Age predecessors.
"This genetic distinction is due to European-related gene flow introduced in Ashkelon during either the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. This timing is in accord with estimates of the Philistines arrival to the coast of the Levant, based on archaeological and textual records," explains Michal Feldman of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, leading author of the study. "While our modelling suggests a southern European gene pool as a plausible source, future sampling could identify more precisely the populations introducing the European-related component to Ashkelon."
Photograph of infant burial at the Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon. Photographer: Ilan Sztulman. Courtesy Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon
Transient Impact of the "European Related" Gene Flow
In analyzing later Iron Age individuals from Ashkelon, the researchers found that the European related component could no longer be traced. "Within no more than two centuries, this genetic footprint introduced during the early Iron Age is no longer detectable and seems to be diluted by a local Levantine related gene pool," states Choongwon Jeong of the Max Planck Institute of the Science of Human History, one of the corresponding authors of the study.
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"While, according to ancient texts, the people of Ashkelon in the first millennium BCE remained 'Philistines' to their neighbors, the distinctiveness of their genetic makeup was no longer clear, perhaps due to intermarriage with Levantine groups around them," notes Master.
"This data begins to fill a temporal gap in the genetic map of the southern Levant," explains Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, senior author of the study. "At the same time, by the zoomed-in comparative analysis of the Ashkelon genetic time transect, we find that the unique cultural features in the early Iron Age are mirrored by a distinct genetic composition of the early Iron Age people ."
Reconstruction of a Philistine House from the 12th Century BC. Artist: Balage Balogh. Courtesy Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon
Top image: A skull from a 10th-9th century BC burial in the excavation of the Philistine cemetery in Ashkelon. New research on Philistine DNA reveals their southern European origins. Source: Tsafrir Abayov/Leon Levy Expedition
This article originated from a press release by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History titled, ‘ Ancient DNA sheds light on the origins of the Biblical Philistines’ .
Source: Michal Feldman, Daniel M. Master, Raffaela A. Bianco, Marta Burri, Philipp W. Stockhammer, Alissa Mittnik, Adam J. Aja, Choongwon Jeong und Johannes Krause: Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines , Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax0061
Israelite
Ancient-Origins
This is the Ancient Origins team, and here is our mission: “To inspire open-minded learning about our past for the betterment of our future through the sharing of research, education, and knowledge”.
At Ancient Origins we believe that one of... Read More
Guillaumé wrote on 4 July, 2019 - 04:10 Permalink
How disgusting it is to dig up a grave and photograph the dead person.
Legal grave robbers.
Leave them in peace!
14 April, 2020 - 23:00 Ed Whelan
Students Unearth Rare Treasures at Lost Biblical City of Ziklag
A team of students working on what may be the long-lost biblical city of Ziklag have uncovered a hoard of rare objects at a site in Israel . Their finds are adding to the body of evidence that the...
Read more about Students Unearth Rare Treasures at Lost Biblical City of Ziklag
13 December, 2016 - 02:05 Cam Rea
Hunting the Lions: A Dead King, and a Collapsing Assyrian Empire – Part I
The fall of Assyria was with a whimper and in no way ended with a bang. Instead, it ended in a slow, agonizing death. Ashurbanipal, Assyria's last great king, ascended the throne only to inherit a...
Read more about Hunting the Lions: A Dead King, and a Collapsing Assyrian Empire – Part I
22 September, 2015 - 14:58 Alicia McDermott
The Sea Peoples were a group of tribes that arose and battled against ancient Mediterranean communities from 1276-1178 BC. At the time the victims of their barrages called them: the Sherden, the...
Read more about Kunulua: Homeland of the Philistine Sea Peoples Finally Found?
8 August, 2015 - 00:25 Robin Whitlock
Massive Gate May Have Been the Entrance to Biblical City of Gath
Archaeologists have discovered the tops of fortified walls and a massive entrance gate in Tel Zafit National Park dating back to the Iron Age and may have been the entrance to the biblical city of...
Read more about Massive Gate May Have Been the Entrance to Biblical City of Gath
20 August, 2013 - 08:02 aprilholloway
Archaeologists discover Assyrian fortifications from a legendary battle
About 3,000 years ago during the Iron Age, the Assyrians were a major power in the Middle East and North Africa. Their military might was terrifying. And now, a new archaeological finding reveals...
Read more about Archaeologists discover Assyrian fortifications from a legendary battle
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You are here: Home / About / Board of Directors / Mitchell Ho, Ph.D.
Mitchell Ho, Ph.D.
Mitchell Ho is a Senior Investigator at the NIH. He is Chief of the Antibody Therapy Section for NCI’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of the NCI Antibody Engineering Program. His research focuses on the role of cell surface glypicans in cancer and develops antibody engineering technologies to create novel therapies.
His contributions to cancer research include:
· Research on the role of glypicans as a new family of cancer antigens and generate antibodies, immunotoxins and CAR T cells targeting GPC1, GPC2 and GPC3 for treating liver cancer and other solid tumors that currently lack effective treatment.
· Discovery of single domain antibodies that are capable of reaching buried functional domains in the receptor/ligand complexes to inhibit cancer signaling.
· Identification of the Wnt functional binding domain in GPC3 providing evidence to support the role of glypicans in regulating cancer development.
· Identification of the MUC16/CA125 functional binding domain in mesothelin. The molecular interaction may play an important role in cancer metastasis.
· Development and optimization of antibody engineering methods including mammalian cell display, humanization of rabbit and mouse antibodies, construction of large phage displayed shark and camel single domain antibody libraries, high-throughput screens of antibodies on cells, and the use of 3D culture for ex vivo antibody drug testing.
He received a B.S. from East China Normal University and a M.A. from San Francisco State University. After working at DNAX Research Institute and Protein Design Labs as a research associate, he moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received a Ph.D. as a NIH/NIDA National Research Service Award pre-doctoral fellow. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Ira Pastan at the NCI.
He has received many honors including the APAO Scientific Achievement Award, NIH DDIR Innovation Award, and NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Award. He is the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry for the FAES Graduate School at the NIH. He also serves as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Chinese Antibody Society and the Editor-in-Chief of Antibody Therapeutics.
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Start-up India Stand-up India Essay for Students and Children in English
May 29, 2020 by Prasanna
Start-up India Stand-up India Essay: Startup India and stand up India are both schemes by the Government to promote better economic growth and development. The systems allow people to do entrepreneurship. Startup India promotes initiatives and new ventures while standing up India promotes entrepreneurship among the scheduled cast and scheduled tribe women.
Long and Short Essays on start-up India Stand-up India for Students and Kids in English
In this article, we have provided a long essay, a brief account, and ten lines on the topic, to help students to write these essays in their examinations. Given below is a long essay composed of 500 words and a brief composition comprising 100-150 words, on the topic, in English.
Long Essay on Start-up India Stand-up India 500 Words in English
Start-up India Stand-up India essays is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.
The start-up India and stand up India schemes have been launched by the Government to inspire and encourage people to start their business ventures. The start-up India scheme grants recognition to eligible companies as start-ups by DPI. This helps the companies to access benefits, secure compliance, and fast-tracking IPR.
The Indian prime minister has first declared the campaign, Mr. Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort, in 2015. The plan of action for this program concentrates on three main areas, handholding, and simplification, funding incentives, and initiatives, partnerships with industries that are relatively new. Under this scheme, a start-up is an industry or venture which was opened ten years ago and had its headquarters in India. Under the start-up India initiative, the Government can launch programs to help Indian Entrepreneurs build mobile start-ups.
The scheme allows a 10,000 crore funding pool to start-up and initiatives. Under the start-up India scheme, there are no inspections for the first three years of the operation. Applying to the program is also beneficial because of freedom from paying the Capital Gain Tax for the first three years. Apart from these benefits, the scheme also promises self-certification compliance, freedom from paying taxes for the first 3 years of the operation, creation of an innovation hub, and building new systems to offer IPR protection to new ventures.
The initiative is vital and beneficial for the youth in both rural and urban areas. Entrepreneurship has become a very successful and widely respected profession in the past few years. Young people often struggle with finding their new start-ups because financial conditions become a problem. Today’s youth has very innovative ideas, and if only they can get a little financial aid from the Government, they will be able to build the best business capitals. Rural youth also get benefits as the scheme gives them the exposure they require.
Stand-up: India is also a scheme that seeks to support entrepreneurship, but the project is more specific as it only applies to SC/ST women. The rural communities of India, especially women of scheduled castes and tribes, have been suppressed for a long time by the so-called superior castes. This initiative supports new ventures devised by the woman of such depressed communities, specifically the SC and ST. The Prime Minister announced the scheme on the 5th of April, 2015. The project extends bank loans ranging between 10 lakh and one crore INR for scheduled tribes and scheduled caste women who seek to build new start-ups outside the agricultural sector.
This is a brilliant and effective way of supporting the development of small scale industries, which helps boost the economy. This scheme also allows women with refinancing options, which means that the plan is also open to those women who have already set up their initiatives but still fall under the category of the start-up in India.
These schemes must help the economic sector and help young people and depressed women become more financially independent.
Short Essay on Start-up India Stand-up India 150 Words in English
Start-up India Stand-up India essay is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
The stand-up India scheme extends a lot of help to women of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Under the program, they can get bank loans of handsome amounts which will be financial aid for them to set up their businesses.
The scheme also educates and teaches women about entrepreneurship, which is essential for running a business. They come to know about registrations that are done online, information related to the scheme, and guidelines about bank usage and terminology. The start-up India scheme also has many benefits. It promotes easy winding up off companies and tax exemption for the first three years. This helps young people to settle down in their business and make more profit.
10 Lines on start-up India Stand-up India Essay in English
The schemes are launched by the Government of India to promote entrepreneurship and financial independence.
The start-up India scheme provides funds and recognition to new initiatives.
This scheme is beneficial in many ways as it provides self-certification compliance and funding.
The scheme also allows tax exemption for the first three years, helping the new settlers make some profit.
The stand-up India scheme is another scheme that promotes entrepreneurship exclusively among scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women.
This scheme helps them to get bank loans and set up their start-ups.
This scheme teaches and educates women about the various technicalities of their business, bank terminology, etc.
Stand up, India provides an opportunity to women belonging to depressed castes to become independent.
Both these schemes are very efficient in creating a country with significant economic developments.
The schemes fuel small scale industries that boost the economy.
FAQ’s on Start-up India Stand-up India Essay
Question 1.
How can I apply to start-up India?
One can access the official website of the start-up India scheme and fill-up the form, make the initial payment, and get a certificate.
It refers to setting up one’s own business and starts up. It is essential for youths who have innovative ideas for business.
What is the requirement for applying to stand up in India
A woman must belong to the scheduled caste or scheduled tribe community to be eligible to apply to this scheme.
What is the eligibility for start-up India?
A start-up must be based in India to be registered in the stand-up India scheme by the Government.
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Highest-Paid Racecar Drivers
Lewis Helfand
Champ Car World Series
Jimmy Vasser
Team: PKV Racing
A modern-day racing legend, Jimmy Vasser broke Al Unser Jr.'s record for 192 consecutive starts in August of 2004. Couple a consistent and durable career like this with 10 career wins, and you see why Vasser is one of only seven drivers to have earned more than $11 million in a career.
Vasser won the 1996 CART Championship and holds records in virtually every statistical category. He is still ranked in the Top 10 in earnings, having earned nearly $300,000 by the fall of 2004.
Bobby Rahal
Team: Rahal Letterman Racing
Bobby Rahal is an owner, so why is he on this list? Because he has crushed nearly every record out there, and the earnings from his racing career still rank him among the all-time best.
Rahal was the first Champ Car World Series driver to earn $1 million in a season (in 1986), and the first to win more than $12 million over a career. He won three PPG CART World Championships, was named driver of the year twice and CART rookie of the year in 1982. Rahal may be retired from driving, but his team keeps on winning and earning him money.
making money at the tracks
Whether in NASCAR, Champ Car World Series, F1, or IRL, there are millions to be earned as a racecar driver. The drivers mentioned above are just a sampling of how much cash is being generated by this sport. Dale Earnhardt Jr., for instance, earned more than $20 million in 2004 — and there are literally dozens of drivers whose career earnings top even that.
Question: Which two NASCAR drivers earned more money in 2004 than Jeff Gordon?
Answer: After 27 starts, both Dale Earnhardt Jr. ($5.7 million) and Matt Kenseth ($5.2 million) are ahead of Jeff Gordon ($5.1 million).
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Top 10: Sports Superstitions
Mohit Arora
Sports are a competitive business, and athletes face a tremendous amount of pressure to always be at their best. Sometimes it’s not enough to just practice and train for hours on end, as players also need to have a mental edge, which often manifests in some strange and nonsensical behaviors and beliefs. Maybe performing the following rituals don’t make an athlete play better, but not adhering to them will certainly make them worse, if only in their own mind.
The Madden curse
In the days before Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox, there was the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, in which athletes and teams that graced the magazine’s cover were doomed to fail immediately thereafter. But times have changed, and now that curse has been replaced by the EA Sports video game franchise, specifically Madden NFL. According to legend, the player on the cover of a Madden NFL game is doomed to suffer a significant injury or perform horribly that very season.
Prime example: Take your pick. Since 1999, every Madden NFL cover boy has been hurt or performed poorly the season of his appearance. Names on that list include Eddie George, Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, Ray Lewis, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, and Shaun Alexander.
In ancient Rome, gladiators were careful to put their dominant foot forward when entering the arena, a practice that, some say, gave us the expression “put your best foot forward.” Since then, athletes in all sports have been tap dancing their way in and around their respective playing surfaces. Whether it’s a rodeo cowboy saddling up with his right foot first or tennis players avoiding stepping on court lines while changing sides, the world’s top athletes have seemingly failed to outgrow their obsession with not stepping on sidewalk cracks.
Prime example: Like many superstitions, the best example can be found on the baseball diamond, where players make sure to avoid stepping on the baselines when entering and exiting the field of play. Probably the most prolific baseball player to adhere to this practice is legendary pitcher Christy Mathewson, who is credited with with saying that a jinx can “make a bad pitcher out of a good one and a blind batter out of a 300 hitter.” Mathewson’s superstitions help earn him 373 career wins and a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The silent treatment
Of all the athletes in all the sports in the world, the weirdest and most ritualistic would have to be baseball pitchers and hockey goaltenders. Both have highly specialized roles on their teams and are thus highly isolated, so give them a break for being a bit flaky. In fact, isolation serves them well: If a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter or a goalie is working on a shut out, the unwritten rule book decrees that you don’t say it, don’t even think about it, and don’t go anywhere near the player working on perfection. Just stay out of his way and be ready to hoist him in the air if all goes well.
Prime example: Every time a pitcher throws a no-hitter or perfect game, you can be sure to see his teammates tripping over one another trying to steer clear of him in the dugout. Nolan Ryan threw the most no-hitters (seven) and Henrik Lundqvist logged a record six shut outs in a season — no one talked to them.
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AthletePromotions » Baseball Celebrities » Ron Gardenhire
Ron Gardenhire Speaker Profile
Manager for the Minnesota Twins
Baseball Celebrities, Coaches
Ron Gardenhire Hiring and Booking Information
Ron Gardenhire Biography
Ron Gardenhire was born October 24, 1957 in Butzbach, Hesse, West Germany and is a manager in Major League Baseball for the Minnesota Twins in the American League. He attended Okmulgee High School in Oklahoma and college at the University of Texas at Austin.
He is six feet tall and, during his baseball career, weighed 175 pounds. He played five seasons of baseball with the New York Mets of the National League from 1981 to 1985. The Mets drafted him in the sixth round of the 1979 amateur draft. In his career, he played shortstop, second base, and third base. During his career, he was often plagued by injuries, especially to his hamstring. Only twice in his career, in 1982 and 1984, did he play over 70 games in the season.
Ron Gardenhire Booking and Hiring Information
Popular baseball players such as a Ron Gardenhire have made the national past time what it is today. The booking agents at AthletePromotions can assist with Ron Gardenhire appearances or speaking engagements from current and retired legends. We have years of experience in booking the boys of summer for autograph signings as well as keynote speeches. Booking a baseball speaker like Ron Gardenhire is not a hard process. Our agents can provide availability, fees and all costs associated in bringing out a successful football star to your next corporate event. Our team will find Ron Gardenhires agent to make this booking happen. A Ron Gardenhire appearance will add energy to your upcoming event and reward employees, customers and clients. Most likely, baseball fans and corporations can find Ron Gardenhire's official website, charity involvement, Twitter account, representation, publicist and management info at www.Ron Gardenhire.com.
>>> Contact Booking Agent to Hire Ron Gardenhire for a Speaking Engagement or Appearance
Videos of Ron Gardenhire Speaking
Recent Ron Gardenhire Blogs
Former Designated Hitter for the New York Yankees
Pitcher for the Detroit Tigers
Former Head Football Coach at Southern Arkansas University
Manager for the Chicago White Sox
Jerry Narron
Bench Coach of the Milwaukee Brewers
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Attitude celebrates 25 years with a triple cover special featuring Colton Haynes, Ben Hunte and Hamed Sinno
A quarter of a decade after the first issue of Attitude hit newsstands, we're celebrating where the community has come from and where it's headed next.
25 years after the first Attitude hit newsstands, we're celebrating a quarter-century of life with a jammed-packed 25th anniversary issue, featuring three special covers showcasing some of the world's most important LGBTQ figures right now: Hollywood actor Colton Haynes, BBC News LGBT Correspondent Ben Hunte, and Mashrou’ Leila frontman Hamed Sinno.
As part of the year long celebration, we take a no-holds-barred look at how far the LGBTQ community has come over the past two and half decades and where we could be heading over the next 25 years.
As part of Atittude’s 25th anniversary issue - available to download and to order globally now - Arrow star Colton Haynes speaks for the first time about his battle with drug and alcohol and addiction, revealing how a dark year which saw him dealing with the death of his mother and a divorce from husband Jeff Leatham left him on the brink of self-destruction.
Colton Haynes, shot by Leigh Keily exclusively for Attitude's 25th birthday issue
Meanwhile, in his first feature interview with a major publication, the BBC's first ever LGBTQ correspondent Ben Hunte reveals his plans for the groundbreaking role, as he sheds light on his own experiences of being outed as a teenager and suffering racism as a black gay man.
Elsewhere, lead singer of Lebanese rock band Mashrou’ Leila, Hamed Sinno, reveals how he's embracing sobriety and flying the flag for the LGBTQ community in the Middle East.
As Attitude releases another landmark issue, editor-in-chief Cliff Joannou says: “Most magazines use their anniversary issues to pat themselves on the back and look retrospectively at past success, and while there might be a time and place for that, we don’t think that’s right now.
Ben Hunte, shot by Francisco Gomez de Villaboa for Attitude's 25th birthday issue
“So, our 25th anniversary issue sees Attitude looking instead to the future, doing what it has always done best, by showcasing the people in the public eye who are helping move the conversation around LGBTQ issues forward.
“Our three cover stars – Colton Haynes, Ben Hunte and Hamed Sinno – represent the diversity and the challenges of our community and encapsulate the moment.”
Attitude’s publisher and owner, Darren Styles OBE, adds: “Given the seismic shift in the media landscape in the past decade, let alone the past quarter of a century, to see Attitude make 25 years in such rude health is a tribute to all of those who have been part of a story that dates back to that first issue of May 1994.
Hamed Sinno, shot by Michelle Helena Janssen and Ade Udoma exclusively for Attitude's 25th anniversary issue
“LGBTQ rights have come so far, heroes have come and gone, governments stood and fallen, and yet here we still are.
“What began as a print magazine is now, by necessity, available for digital download, a flourishing website, active with nearly 1.2 million followers on three major social platforms, the biggest award event of its kind in the world and, most recently, a charitable foundation distributing £200k to LGBTQ causes. My, how we’ve grown.”
Elsewhere in Attitude's 25th anniversary issue, we speak to star of Netflix's The OA, Ian Alexander, about how the young actor is bucking trends for trans performers, and meet Manchester drag queen Anna Phylactic.
Now Apcalypse star Avan Jogia aalso opens up about his role in director Greg Araki's dark yet funny vision of sexuality and identity, and the legendary Roger the Alien from American Dad offers up some timeless life lessons.
Meanwhile, we break out our crystal ball as we predict where the future might be headed for LGBTQ rights, culture and travel, and introduce the new queer vanguard of performers and creators who are set to be the next big things.
That's alongside all your usual news, reviews, fashion, travel and opinion, of course... *blows out our candles*.
Attitude's 25th Anniversary issue is out now.
Buy now and take advantage of our best-ever subscription offers: three issues for £3 in print, 13 issues for £19.99 to download to any device.
attitude25
Ben Hunte
Hamed Sinno
ian alexander
Mashrou’ Leila
Now Apocalypse
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Oct 12, 2019 - Politics & Policy
Beto O'Rourke campaign says it raised $4.5 million in Q3
Beto O'Rourke speaks at CNN's LGBTQ town hall on Oct. 10, 2019. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke's campaign said on Friday that it raised $4.5 million in Q3, which puts the candidate in the bottom rung of 2020 Democrats' fundraising for the quarter.
The state of play: Sen. Bernie Sanders currently leads all 2020 Democrats in Q3 fundraising with $25.3 million, followed by Elizabeth Warren with $24.6 million, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg with $19.1 million. President Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee recently said they raised a whopping $125 million for Q3, setting a new presidential fundraising record.
Where other Democratic candidates stand:
Sen. Bernie Sanders: $25.3 million
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: $24.6 million
Mayor Pete Buttigieg: $19.1 million
Former Vice President Joe Biden: $15.2 million
Sen. Kamala Harris: $11.6 million
Former tech executive Andrew Yang: $10 million
Sen. Cory Booker: $6 million
Author Marianne Williamson: $3 million
Sen. Michael Bennet: $2.1 million
Go deeper: Trump campaign, RNC say they raised record-breaking $125 million in Q3
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Visitors celebrate return to Shangri La Botanical Gardens
Jacob Dick, Staff writer
Nov. 18, 2020 Updated: Nov. 18, 2020 9:59 p.m.
Jeff and Chelsea Smith sit by the Pond of the Blue Moon. Both are excited to be back in the nature center. Jeff missed his daily walks through the gardens. He also volunteers two days a week. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A bench awaits visitors by the Pong of the Blue Moon. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Benches await visitors by the Pond of the Blue Moon. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Jeff and Chelsea Smith are excited to be back in the nature center. Jeff missed his daily walks through the gardens. He also volunteers two days a week. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Paisley, 5, Olivia, and Madi Moody, 6, took a walk through the gardens paying special attention to the pretty flowers. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
This was LeAnn's first time at Shangri La, but Dustin has been coming regularly. They did several laps around the trails and weren't sure if they were going to leave. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Doug and Clair Wene came out to the gardens to get in some exercise. They usually come to introduce visitors to the nature center a couple times a year, but may be coming more often now. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Several of the areas are still closed due to concerns about Covid-19, but they hope to get them open as quickly as possible. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Bob and Gail Batchelor are long-time volunteers at the nature center and it felt so good for them to be back in the place they both love. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Kimberly Richard was so happy to be able to resume her walks through the gardens. "A treadmill just doesn't cut it," she said. Shagri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Paisley, 5, Madi, 6, and Olivia Moody took a walk through the gardens paying special attention to the pretty flowers. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Kimberly Richard was so happy to be able to resume her walks through the gardens. "A treadmill just doesn't cut it," she said. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange reopened to visitors Wednesday, having been closed for the pandemic and repairs after Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 18, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
The greenhouses at the nature center will not be open to the public due to Covid-19 concerns. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Many of the pebble pathways have been replaced with concrete to make it easier for visitors to maneuver on the property. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
The Circle Garden and other pocket garden areas are filled with fall foliage. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Rick Lewandowski, director of the nature center, chats with artist Ryan Farrell who created "Migrator" which was damaged during Hurricane Laura. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
The pocket garden areas are filled with fall foliage to be enjoyed. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A lone pink magnolia blossom brings beautiful color to the garden. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Colorful plants line the pathways waiting for visitors. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Some plants in the nature center like these were uprooted by Hurricane Laura. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Lindsey Nelson, a gardener with the nature center trims one of the trees to prepare for visitors to begin visiting again. Shagri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Lindsey Nelson, a gardener with the nature center trims one of the trees to prepare for visitors to begin visiting again. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Cormorants are nesting in the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Three turtles sit on a log in a pond outside the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
An alligator suns himself in the pond of the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A nesting cormorant brings material across the pond in the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A cormorant sits in a tree in the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A pair of wood ducks swims in the pond of the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
An anhinga dries himself off in the middle of the pond in the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A nesting cormorant flies over the pond in the rookery. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
Damage to some of the trees in the garden from Hurricane Laura should be taken care of by opening day. Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange is scheduled to open to the public on November 18th after being closed due to Covid-19 and damage from Hurricane Laura. Photo made on November 6, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A garden area near the entrance of Shangri La Botanical Gardens on March 14, 2020. Fran Ruchalski/The Enterprise
A mild, sunny day greeted the public’s return to the Shangri La Botanical Gardens in Orange on Wednesday as the nonprofit attraction celebrated its return after months of closure.
The gardens first closed in the early spring as the COVID-19 pandemic triggered restrictions across the state and country, but continued spikes in infections and two hurricanes forced administration to delay its reopening.
After staff completed some initial storm damage cleanup and implemented some safety measures, patrons wasted no time in returning to the gardens’ paths for a reprieve in nature.
Kimberly Richard, a frequenter of the gardens and a nearby resident, said she had to come back as soon as she heard about the opening day.
“It makes me feel so good to be back,” she said during her late-morning walk. “There really is no substitute for walking outside, and there are few places that feel more natural than this.”
Richard wasn’t the only one to take advantage of Shangri La’s return.
A little after 11 a.m., staff member Teri Duos had already greeted 40 guests entering the gardens, half of whom had checked in using the new timed ticketing system.
“We’re of course still accepting walk-ins. We’re not going to turn anyone away,” Duos said. “The ticketing system has just helped us make sure we can maintain social distancing.”
Duos, who normally works in the nature center’s cafe, is one of several staff members who have had to adjust their roles to keep the gardens running smoothly for guests.
Shangri La is a program of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, a private foundation that provides significant resources for the study and enjoyment of art, history, nature and culture in Southeast Texas.
Its role as a part of the Stark Foundation’s mission means that entrance to Shangri La and the educational outreach programs to schools are always free.
But being a nonprofit organization also means that Shangri La normally depends on volunteers to help greet and guide guests during the days it is open to the public.
Volunteers, mostly made up of seniors in the community, haven’t been able to return to their posts because of the potential risks of exposure, which means the gardens will only be able to open between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, at least for the moment.
Along with tackling new challenges, staff member Marlene Cox said workers have spent the time apart from the public installing new walkways and restoring some of the wood canopies that shade the entrance.
Shangri La nets an average of 55,000 to 60,000 guests a year and was on its way to record year based on numbers during its slowest months before the pandemic hit.
The gardens had at least one guest visiting for the first time on Wednesday, along with a veteran returning for the opening day.
Dustin and Leann (last names withheld by request) had driven by Shangri La several times over the months it was closed and often talked about how they should make a trip once it was opened.
Dustin, who grew up going to the gardens, said he knew he had to take Leann for her first visit since they both happened to be off Wednesday.
“It’s not just valuable to the area; I call it essential,” Dustin said. “It makes me wish more people knew about it and took advantage of a place like this being offered for free.”
twitter.com/jd_journalism
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by Rob Shallenberger | Jul 5, 2017 | Vision | 0 comments
One of the most important things that you and I can do as a leader is to create a vision. This is enormously powerful in terms of setting the direction that we should go. This applies by the way, in an organization, a country, a team, within our families and our own lives.
This is Steve Shellenberger with this message today and I’d like to share an experience that I had.
Well, I was given the privilege and honor to be a Memorial Day keynote speaker. As I prepared these thoughts, I reflected, I’d just gone 10 days before and had the chance to be at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence was drafted by members of the 13 colonies and then later, about 11 years later after the Revolutionary War was concluded, they came back together and formed the Constitution of the United States.
It’s really important to think about the vision that they set as they got together initially and concluded, by the way, in July 4, 1776. But just think about how they started this, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights and among those are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” And then, they iterated in the Declaration of Independence all of the violations of this and then they ended by saying this in the Declaration, “And we support this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence and we do mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor.”
Wow, what a vision that was. And this represented the spirit of the colonies and gave them the power to represent and articulate what they felt so important that allowed them to move forward and create a new nation. Well, having the new nation then they needed to come back once again, or what do highly successful leaders do? They set the direction of vision. And so here’s how the Preamble of the Constitution goes as they came back to this very historic Hall again, Independence Hall in Philadelphia. And it says, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, do establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, do provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, do hereby ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Wow, just think, now this’s been almost 250 years and it continues to provide the structure and inspiration for the direction of our country here in the United States. It’s also been an inspiration for countless other countries and millions of people throughout all the world. So this is a great example of one of the things that we do as leaders as we set the vision. It’s enormously powerful, just want to leave that with you today.
This is Steve Shellenberger, reminding you by the way, about additional resources such as the “5 Minute Leadership Makeover” and you can find that in the 5minuteleadershipmakeover.com, great resources. Have a good day.
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Woody Allen Says No Need for Jewish Boycott of Cannes
The American Jewish Congress urged a boycott of the film festival, but U.S. studio execs and stars have not taken heed.
CANNES, France, May 15 (AFP) - Director Woody Allen spoke out Wednesday against a US Jewish group's call for Hollywood stars and powerbrokers to boycott the Cannes Film Festival following a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in France.
The New York-based movie maker also praised France for having overwhelmingly voted against against a far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in presidential elections this month.
"I've never felt that the French people in any way were anti-Semitic. I know a number of French Jewish people who live in France who certainly do not feel this way," he told reporters.
"I don't think a boycott is in order," he said.
The American Jewish Congress had taken out a series of adverts in Los Angeles comparing modern-day France to the World War II-era Vichy regime.
It listed what it said were similarities between 1942 and 2002, including the fire-bombing of synagogues and schools, and attacks on Jews in French streets.
But US studio executives, directors and stars have ignored the group's call to stay away from Cannes.
Allen rejected the claim, also wielded by the Israeli government, that a wave of recent incidents against Jews in France constituted generalised anti-Semitism.
France has Europe's biggest Jewish population, estimated at 700,000, and the largest Muslim population, estimated at five million.
French statistics showed more than 300 anti-Semitic acts were recorded in the first half of April -- corresponding to a new Israeli army invasion of Palestinian territories.
By comparison, there were 200 such incidents for all of 2001.
That violence, and the brief rise of Le Pen -- who once described the Nazi gas chambers as "a detail of history" -- prompted Israel to call for France's Jews to leave the country.
Le Pen lost with less than 20 percent of the vote.
"I think we ought to be very proud of France for the way they acquitted themselves in the last election," Allen said.
Allen was presenting his latest film, "Hollywood Ending", which was to open the Cannes festival in a special out-of-competition screening late Wednesday.
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The literary heritage of Beaconsfield - Enid Blyton to Terry Pratchett
Delightful shrubs provide a leafy backdrop to the model buildings in Bekonscot
MAUREEN MCLEAN
The pretty town has an impressive literary heritage well worth celebrating, editor Jan Raycroft and photographer Maureen McLean discover
Very few towns the size of Beaconsfield can boast so many links with some of Britain’s most prolific authors of the past century or so, with hundreds of millions of their books read across the globe and translated into dozens of languages.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton – the Father Brown novelist better known as GK – for instance, may have been born in Kensington, but it was in Beaconsfield that he was to make his adult home. GK arrived in the town by chance in 1909. He caught a train from Paddington to Slough (which he apparently considered a strange place for trains to visit) and then walked to Beaconsfield with his beloved wife Frances.
The couple agreed that this was the perfect spot to settle, finding a house in Grove Road. While his priest-detective Father Brown was to become part of an extensive series of short stories later compiled into very popular books, there was much more to GK Chesterton. A prolific Fleet Street journalist, he wrote some 4,000 essays during his lifetime, as well as 80 books, poetry and plays. A biography of Charles Dickens revived interest in that author, and his works on St Francis of Assisi and St Thomas Aquinas were particularly well received by both the public and theologians.
Having wrestled with his faith for many years, GK Chesterton converted to Catholicism in the early 1920s. There was no Catholic church in Beaconsfield at the time so he was received into the church in a tatty hall attached to the then Railway Hotel (later to become the less than salubrious Earl of Beaconsfield pub and now the site of Waitrose).
When he died in 1936, GK was buried in the Shepherd’s Lane cemetery. A memorial window to the Chestertons of St Francis of Assisi (Frances died two years after him) can be seen in St Teresa’s Catholic Church in Warwick Road. Their original gravestone was crumbling so is now set in the wall of the church, with a similar replacement marking their resting spot in the cemetery.
Two ladies arrive
A couple of years after GK Chesterton died, two women writers, Alison Uttley and Enid Blyton, would arrive and make their homes in Beaconsfield. They might have been contemporaries and often working in similar genres, but since Uttley is said to have described Blyton as a ‘vulgar, curled woman’ it seems they had little else in common. The pair were once introduced for a snappy, snarling exchange in the local fishmongers, where Blyton told Uttley to look in Smith’s window if she wanted to know about her books.
Here were two ‘difficult’ women who both possessed the skill to take children into magical worlds with their books. Uttley would produce treasures such as The Little Grey Rabbit stories and introduce us to Sam the Pig, while Blyton’s work, from Noddy to the adventures of The Famous Five and The Secret Seven would go on to sell some 600 million copies across the planet.
Although 12 years older than Blyton, Uttley outlived her, dying in 1976. Her Beaconsfield home was named Thackers, after a house in her book A Traveller in Time. Blyton had loved life at Green Hedges, her home there. It was demolished in 1973, five years after her death at 71, with new houses built in what became Blyton Close.
This summer saw the first Enid Blyton Celebration Week in the town, which was a real credit to Kari Dorme of the Beaconsfield Society and her committee organising events, and sponsored by The Frost Partnership.
It included a gala film evening at the National Film and TV School and Noddy Weekend at Bekonscot Model Village. Those at the gala evening included Lucie Nottingham, a former child neighbour of Blyton, who recalled Enid telling her off for being too noisy in the garden. Blyton later included ‘Lucy Loud Voice’ in her 1948 Sunny Stories.
Beaconsfield Library hosted a fun-packed day for children with a Green Hedges Party with food provided by Jungs of Beaconsfield. County Cllr Adrian Busby announced that the County Council Community Leaders Fund would buy new Blyton books for the library.
There are now plans to put up a commemorative plaque to Blyton and hopes that more events will be held. But some people have even bigger ideas, including local TV producer Bob Massie. He’d like to see the Penn Road Town Hall converted to a family attraction celebrating Blyton and bringing more tourists to the town.
His wife Tina runs Knotty Green’s Red Lion pub, the author’s former ‘local’, which has a cosy Enid Blyton Snuggery full of books and original Noddy prints donated by the Enid Blyton Society. See the ‘My Beaconsfield’ Facebook page for links to a petition supporting this use of the town hall.
For Alison Uttley 1948 was a prolific year with publication of Grey Rabbit and the Wandering Hedgehog, John Barleycorn: Twelve Tales of Fairy and Magic, and Sam Pig in Trouble. Blyton was busy too, as Five Go Off to Camp was released. It was also the year when in another Beaconsfield household one Terence David John Pratchett would be born, taking his first steps as Noddy arrived in print.
Today Sir Terry Pratchett OBE is the famed and much loved author of numerous fantasy novels since his first book, The Carpet People, was published in the early 1970s. He attended the John Hampden Grammar School but says his education really came from Beaconsfield Library.
Terry went on to become a sub editor on High Wycombe’s Bucks Free Press newspaper, and the editor of this magazine was a junior reporter there at the time, lucky enough to have the delightful man as a mentor. Since then the Pratchett family have settled in Somerset and he has openly discussed on TV his battle with a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease, raising and donating funds as well as raising the profile of this illness and the need for research.The 40th book in his Discworld Series. Raising Steam, is set to be published on 24 Octobe.
GK CHESTERTON
www.littleflower.co.uk, St Teresa’s Church, Beaconsfield
www.chesterton.org, an American society which believes Chesterton should be raised to sainthood (‘a saint for our time’) because his personal writings had led many people to the Catholic faith
www.beaconsfieldsociety.org.uk, organisers of this year’s highly successful Enid Blyton Week in the town
www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk, a focal point for collectors and enthusiasts
ALISON UTTLEY
www.alisonuttley.co.uk, fascinating site promoting interest in her life and work
www.terrypratchettbooks.com, the man his story, latest news and books
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You are here:Home Call CenterGenesys Cloud Review
By Melissa Pardo-Bunte December 28, 2020 Updated:
Genesys Cloud Review
Genesys Cloud
Genesys Cloud At A Glance
Good: Customer self-service functionality, agents can manage their customer interactions in a single view, text/speech analytics.
Bad: Initial learning curve for new users.
Bottom Line: Contact center solution that accommodates inbound and outbound environments with omnichannel capability.
Genesys Cloud (formerly called PureCloud) is a cloud-based contact center software that helps companies improve the customer experience. Businesses can provide customers with self-service options before referring their issue or question to an agent. Agents can connect with customers in any channel (e.g., phone, email, text or live chat), and supervisors can manage their call center’s performance using the interactive dashboards that display data across all locations or customer channels. Genesys Cloud offers three flexible pricing plans, so companies can scale up or down based on their needs.
The software can connect with Genesys’ PureConnect solution for an unified platform, meaning companies won’t need to manage multiple business systems. PureConnect is built on an open-standard architecture, so it can be customized to meet a contact center’s specific needs, and can be integrated with third-party applications. Genesys Cloud also offers collaboration tools that help teams stay connected and reduce silos.
Additional benefits of Genesys Cloud include:
Self-service and automation features that enhance the customer experience
Intuitive interface with minimal training required
Implementation within days instead of weeks or months
Note that the vendor also offers the Genesys Engage customer experience platform, which is geared toward larger organizations. It’s customizable to a business’s unique needs and helps them personalize the customer journey with features like omichannel capability and artificial intelligence (AI).
Genesys Cloud has many robust features. Here are a few of its key ones.
Voice – Organizations can connect Genesys Cloud with their public telephony network via VoIP, with the option of using their existing phone numbers or voice carrier or purchasing new ones. The vendor offers unlimited inbound and outbound calling within the U.S. at a low per-minute rate, and it provides affordable international distance calling rates.
Inbound – Supervisors can customize their interactive voice response (IVR) and automatic call distribution (ACD) routing processes to give customers a more personalized experience. For example, they can customize the IVR menus so that customers can communicate by voice or by touch-tone buttons. There is also conversational IVR that uses machine learning to recognize speech more naturally.
Call centers can integrate their ACD and IVR features with their customer relationship management (CRM) software or other systems so that calls can be routed seamlessly. The ACD can route all channel communications (phone, email, social media, chat) to the agent based on their skills and availability.
In addition to IVR, companies can create other self-service capabilities, such as a chatbot that asks qualifying questions to website visitors to determine if they need to be routed to an agent.
Outbound – The predictive dialing feature makes calls and then connects the agent when the recipient answers the call. It filters out disconnected numbers or voicemails, increasing the odds of reaching a live person. Users can also create and send personalized notifications to a customer from any channel (e.g., appointment reminders, payment alerts). In addition to predictive dialing, Genesys Cloud has four dial modes: preview (information about contact is presented to agent), progressive (dialing one contact for each available agent), power (analyzes previous call attempts and then waits until agent is available before placing a call) and agentless (automatically responds to live contact or voicemail).
Omnichannel – As mentioned, Genesys Cloud supports customer communications in multiple channels, including email, live chat and social media. Agents use a desktop interface that stores a customer’s profile, interactions and more from multiple sources in a single screen. In turn, they won’t need to access the individual channel and can respond to customers faster.
Workforce optimization – Supervisors can use the workforce optimization tools to manage agents’ performance, such as quality monitoring, multichannel recording and customer feedback. They can also create or modify the agent’s script by using drag-and-drop building and editing tools. There’s a forecasting tool that allows supervisors to plan and budget future scheduling needs (e.g., how many agents they’ll need per shift daily or weekly). And there’s a full-featured scheduling tool, so supervisors can create shift schedules and manage time-off leave and overtime.
Reporting and analytics – Users can create custom reports and dashboards that display real-time metrics, such as wait times, resolution rates and customer satisfaction. They can also compare current versus historical data in a single view and drill down into the data for more details. Marketing and sales teams can track customer journeys and proactively offer promotions or other opportunities to create conversions.
There are also speech analytics and text analytics features that search phone and message interactions for specific keywords, so users can get insights on customers’ needs. Finally, the predictive analytics features combine historical data and business intelligence to find trends and predict future customer behavior.
Genesys Cloud targets sales, marketing and customer service teams in many industries, including health care, education, finance and technology. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below.
Marks & Spencer (M&S)
New clients can sign up for a 30-day free trial and opt to use the self-start resource materials if they don’t need deployment assistance. They can also work with a dedicated Customer Success Manager who will serve as a point of contact both during and after deployment. The implementation process can vary based on a client’s needs, but Genesys boasts that it can deploy the software within days.
The vendor also offers a training portal, Genesys University, that has online or self-paced courses on the software’s various features and customer service best practices. Organizations can purchase an annual learning subscription that includes access to existing training and any new content that’s added throughout the year.
Genesys Cloud integrates with many different third-party applications via its AppFoundry marketing and open API infrastructure, such as CRMs, workforce management systems and business process tools.
Users can submit an online ticket for support, as well as access a resource center that includes webinars, a FAQ section, a community forum and more. Genesys also has an operational status page with live updates on any software outages. In addition, it offers premier success services, such as 24/7 emergency phone support, priority support and Q&A webinars.
There are three pricing plans, which are billed annually.
Genesys Cloud 1 – This plan costs $75 per user, per month and includes speech-enabled IVR, voicebots, inbound voice routing, basic outbound campaigns, unified communication, interaction recording, application integration and reporting features.
Genesys Cloud 2 – This plan costs $110 per user, per month and has all of the features of the Genesys Cloud 1 plan, plus unlimited email and chat routing, IVR and web callback, advanced outbound campaigns, inbound and outbound blending and quality management.
Genesys Cloud 3 – This plan costs $140 per user, per month and has all of the features of the other two plans, plus screen recording and workforce management.
Although the interface doesn’t require much training, Genesys Cloud can be challenging for new users.
Genesys strives to use Experience as a Service to help companies build lasting relationships with their customers. It was founded in 1990 as a computer telephony provider and evolved over the years from a call center software to a customer experience platform with omnichannel and AI capabilities. Genesys holds that it delivers more than 70 billion customer experiences for organizations in over 100 countries.
The company has been consistently named a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant over the years. It also received the Frost & Sullivan’s 2018 North American Contact Center Company of the Year Award and other accolades from esteemed organizations, such as Forrester and Ovum.
Genesys is headquartered in Daly City, CA, and has offices in many other locations, including Canada, Mexico, France, the U.K., China and Australia.
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Better Internet for Kids Policy Map
The Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Map was created to compare and exchange knowledge on policy making and implementation in EU Member States on the themes and recommendations of the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children (or BIK strategy) first set out by the European Commission in May 2012. A first report was published in 2015, while a second report was published in March 2018 to review progress made. This third iteration, published in November 2020, examines the further implementation of the BIK Strategy in 30 European countries, including all EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom.
An executive summary follows, or download the full report.
Findings are organised around three main topics drawn from the Collective Impact approach:
Policy frameworks or the organising principles and long-term goals for policies, guidelines, decisions and other statements made at the national level in the course of putting into practice the BIK Strategy.
Policy making or the general process by which policies are developed within each country, including how coordination and oversight is managed; the extent to which the policy agenda is informed by an evidence base; and whether there are arrangements for young people to be involved in the policy process.
Policy implementation referring to the involvement of the relevant stakeholders in the delivery of initiatives and the spread of activities as envisaged under each of the four pillars of the BIK Strategy.
Policy frameworks
In terms of policy frameworks, all 30 countries in the study have incorporated elements of the BIK Strategy in their public policies. The study finds a high level of awareness of the BIK Strategy with over three quarters, or 23 of the 30 countries, stating that the BIK Strategy has influenced policies in this field. Countries are evenly split between those that have developed and implemented this agenda through specific policies focused on children’s online use and those that address this through their broader policies. Only two countries in the study reported the existence of a single overarching policy framework.
The spread of existent policies covers all four pillars of the BIK Strategy. High-quality online content for children (Pillar 1) is now represented in public policy by all but five countries. In 2018, nearly 40 per cent of European countries lacked any policy in this area.
All countries have policies in place to address digital and media literacy and general awareness raising (Pillar 2), primarily as part of their broader educational policy.
There is a significant increase in policy implementation in the area of tools and regulation for an online safe environment (Pillar 3), while the topic of combating child sexual abuse and exploitation (Pillar 4) is comprehensively addressed by all countries.
Policy making
Policy making relating to children’s online use now involves a complex pattern of cooperation between multiple government ministries, public agencies, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and other stakeholders. Over three quarters of the countries (77 per cent) in the study state that coordination of policy is distributed across more than one ministry, agency or body. This is up from 42 per cent in 2018. In 19 of the 30 countries, 4 to 6 ministries are involved in policy making.
27 of the 30 countries say that there is some form of structured cooperation mechanism in place to facilitate inter-departmental or intra-agency communication. In most countries, government ministries are primarily in charge of the process. This is particularly so in the case of Pillars 1 and 4 of the BIK Strategy, reflecting the more formal role of law and regulation in these domains. In Pillars 2 and 3, there is evidence of greater involvement of other public agencies to lead this coordination process.
There has been a substantial increase in the number of countries reporting the availability of regular data collection that is specifically focused on children’s use of the internet. In 23 of the 30 countries in the study, quantitative surveys specifically focused on children’s use of the internet exist. 24 countries say that evidence collected in national surveys or other types of data collection has influenced the design of public policies. Half of all participating countries report that monitoring and evaluation of policies is in place. Nearly all countries (97 per cent) state that there have been new policy developments regarding children’s online use in the last three years.
Regarding youth participation in policy making, over half, or 17 of the 30 countries, report that children are systematically and directly consulted and informed about policies related to children’s use of the internet. This includes examples such as hearings, consultations and specific surveys designed to elicit their views. One third of countries say that children’s participation is indirect, for example, through the analysis of existing surveys or evidence. However, just one country reports that young people and adults share decision making in this area. In the case of three countries, it is reported that young people are not involved in policy-making processes.
Policy implementation
Pillar 1: High-quality content online for children and young people
Nearly all countries report activities to stimulate the production and visibility of high-quality online content for children. Initiatives to encourage children’s creativity and to promote positive use of the internet are now also in place in all countries. Findings show an increase in each area since 2018, in particular in relation to stimulating the production and visibility of quality online content for children.
Government ministries and Safer Internet Centres take the leading role in the delivery of activities in just under half of countries. A quarter also say that public agencies with BIK responsibility and public service broadcasters also have a leading role in delivery of high-quality online content for children.
Pillar 2: Stepping up awareness and empowerment
28 of the 30 countries have strategies in place to support the teaching of online safety in schools. Informal education about online safety as well as digital and media literacy activities are available in all countries. Five countries report having introduced new initiatives in the last 12 months such as programmes to develop young people’s technical skills, to promote media literacy and critical thinking, and initiatives to challenge radicalisation and hate speech online.
Support for national public awareness-raising campaigns is present in all counties. There has been some progress in the involvement of children in the policy process since 2018 which has increased from 31 per cent to 45 per cent. Mechanisms for reporting content and contacts that may be harmful for children are available in 29 of the 30 countries. Initiatives to support the effective functioning of reporting mechanisms are said to be available in 66 per cent of countries. However, 17 per cent say they are not available and there is no data available in a further 17 per cent.
Safer Internet Centres with government ministries, particularly in the area of education, have the leading role in carrying out activities in this pillar. There is also wide stakeholder involvement in delivering activities in this pillar with NGOs, public service broadcasters, industry and universities/research centres all noted as having a complementary role.
Pillar 3: Creating a safer environment for children online
Three quarters of countries report activities at national level to ensure the implementation of EU legislation on age-appropriate privacy settings. This has increased from 66 per cent in 2018. Awareness-raising activities regarding children’s privacy online are reported as present in 25 countries. All countries bar one state they have activities in place to promote the availability of parental controls.
A significant increase in activity to promote the adoption of age rating and content classification is reported by 23 countries in the study. This is primarily associated with the process of transposing the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) into national legislation. Activities to ensure that legislation regarding online profiling and behavioural advertising is observed to be present in 21 countries, or 69 per cent of the total. This represents a large increase on 2018 which found that 35 per cent had supports in place.
Activities to create a safer environment for children online are shared between government ministries with BIK responsibility and Safer Internet Centres. Public agencies with BIK responsibility have this leading role in just under half of countries.
Pillar 4: Fighting against child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation
Three quarters, or 23 of the 30 countries, report that there are increased resources for law enforcement in the fight against online child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In 8 countries, or 27 per cent, this was newly introduced within the last 12 months. Nearly all countries, 28 of the 30 included in the survey, have activities in place to support the functioning and visibility of hotlines at the national level. Similarly, 28 countries say that there are activities to support improvement of cooperation between hotlines and industry for taking down child sexual abuse material. Findings are broadly in line with 2018, particularly in respect of the functioning of hotlines and supporting improved cooperation with industry.
Government ministries with BIK responsibility are identified as having the leading role in the delivery of this pillar in all but one of the countries. Safer Internet Centres are also described as leading stakeholders in 20 countries, or 67 per cent.
The report concludes with a number of recommendations from the perspective of Collective Impact on further developing the effectiveness and impact of the BIK Strategy.
Download the Third Better Internet for Kids Policy Map report.
Download the Third Better Internet for Kids Policy Map report (November 2020)
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Bicycling: Protect Yourself and Others
October 31, 2018 By Mark Pinnie
In Pennsylvania, biking can be a healthy form of exercise and a smart way to travel but all cycling comes with a certain level of risk. In order to avoid collisions, protect one’s self while on the road, and know when your rights have been infringed upon, it is important to be up-to-date on Pennsylvania’s bicycling laws.
A Bicycle is a Car?
The first, and most important, law to note is that in Pennsylvania, bicycles are considered to be a form of vehicle and that every person riding a bicycle on a roadway is subject to all of the rights and responsibilities applicable to the driver of an automotive vehicle (75 Pa. Cons. Stat. §§102 (2016)). Meaning, that while on a bicycle, you have the same rights as someone driving a car or truck and are subject to the same traffic laws. Therefore, cyclists must stop at stop signs and red lights, signal when turning and travel in the same direction as traffic.
Motor vehicles are allowed to overtake bicycles but they must maintain a distance of four feet from the cyclist when doing so at a careful and judicious speed. Maintaining this four-foot distance is the responsibility of the motorist, not that of the cyclist. Motor vehicles may also overtake bicycles in a no-passing zone in order to avoid excessive delays, but, this must be done with care while maintaining a four-foot distance.
The same amount caution must be taken when moving back in front of a bicycle after passing so as not to cut off the cyclist and cause a collision. Motor vehicles must also exercise caution when parked and opening doors. The door to a motor vehicle can only be opened four feet from the path of a cyclist. Cyclists should also keep at least a four-foot distance when traveling alongside parked cars so as to avoid being “doored,” which can cause serious injury.
Where Can I Ride?
Bicycles are allowed on sidewalks in Pennsylvania but pedestrians have the right-of-way on both sidewalks and bicycle paths. In order to pass a pedestrian, cyclists must give an audible signal as they approach. In addition, there are certain instances when bikes are not allowed on sidewalks. These instances include busy business districts and when there are bicycle-only lanes present. The parking of a bicycle is allowed on a sidewalk and at the curb or edge of the road as long as the bike does not block pedestrian traffic or other vehicles.
While travelling the same direction as the flow of traffic in the street, it is recommended that cyclists ride close to or on the shoulder of the road; however, this is not required by law. Bicyclists in PA may also ride on the right half of the roadway on two-lane roads and in the right travel lane on multi-lane roads. Cyclists may move from the right-hand side of the road when overtaking another vehicle travelling in the same direction, when preparing to make a left turn, and when an obstruction exists that makes it necessary to change lanes or cross the centerline. In addition to these right-side rules, cyclists cannot ride more than two abreast unless paths or lanes are set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles. It should be noted that changing position in a lane quickly can cause an accident. Cars should always be conscious of cyclists, but the same goes for riders when they know they will need to move over.
Helmets are encouraged but not required in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for anyone over the age of 12. If you are not wearing a helmet, it cannot be used against you in a civil suit and you cannot be considered to be contributorily negligent. For those younger than 12, a helmet must be worn when riding a bicycle! This applies for children riding as passengers or riding in attached seats or trailers.
If you are riding a bike between sunset and sunrise, it must be equipped with a front lamp and both rear and side reflectors that are visible from at least 500 feet. In addition, the use of bells or horns is required in certain PA municipalities.
Earphones and headphones are prohibited. No one shall ride a bicycle “while wearing or using one or more headphones or earphones” (75 Pa. Cons. Stat. §§ 3314). While there is a lot of controversy over this point, the basic logic behind the law is that by using headphones, cyclists cannot safely hear the calls of other cyclists or the approach of passing cars. In order to ride safely you must be able to use all of your senses unobscured.
Takeaways:
To allow bicycling to be a fun and convenient means of transportation both drivers and cyclists must adhere to the rules of the road. While on a bike, cyclists should act in a predictable manner with no weaving or running traffic lights. Cars should also then allow bikes the proper amount of space and respect they are due. A failure to adhere to proper safety laws on either operator’s part could result in an irreparable accident.
Filed Under: Bicycle Injuries
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Article Facts & Data Media Additional Info
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American actor
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Dinklage
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Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. He earned a B.A. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. He was a teacher in the Chicago suburbs and Seoul,...
Last Updated: Nov 25, 2020 See Article History
Peter Dinklage, (born June 11, 1969, Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.), American actor who was perhaps best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister, a humane and clever dwarf with a penchant for debauchery, on the HBO television show Game of Thrones (2011–19).
Dinklage was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism caused by an abnormality in the bone-producing cells of the growth plates of long bones such as the femur and the humerus. Possessing an infectious charm, he began acting at an early age, and he attended Bennington College in Vermont. After graduating in 1991, Dinklage and a Bennington classmate moved to Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighbourhood and founded a theatre group modeled on Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The project failed to take off, however, and Dinklage appeared in Off-Broadway productions while working at a variety of day jobs to support himself. He refused to accept parts that typecast him because of his height, and in his first big-screen role, the independent film Living in Oblivion (1995), Dinklage delivers a scathing indictment of Hollywood’s treatment of dwarfs.
A succession of film and TV roles followed, but Dinklage’s true breakthrough came in 2003 with the movie The Station Agent. The role of Finbar McBride, an introverted man who inherits an abandoned train station in Newfoundland, New Jersey, was created by writer and director Tom McCarthy specifically for Dinklage, and the film was the toast of the festival circuit. Dinklage was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, but critical acclaim did not immediately translate into a flood of opportunities as a leading man. Dinklage starred in the short-lived science-fiction TV series Threshold (2005–06) and had a recurring role in the FX series Nip/Tuck (2006) before moving on to such family-friendly films as Underdog (2007) and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).
His profile dramatically increased after the success of the television fantasy epic Game of Thrones, which debuted in 2011. The series, adapted from George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels, depicted a world of graphic sex and violence, in which magic became increasingly prevalent as the story progressed. Within that atmosphere, the political machinations of a handful of characters shaped the fates of entire continents, and though Dinklage as the perceptive and acerbic Tyrion was perhaps the least-likely grandmaster at that game, he excelled at injecting wry humour into the often grim high-stakes setting of Game of Thrones. His nuanced performance garnered accolades from both viewers and critics, and he won a handful of Emmy Awards for best supporting actor in a drama series (2011, 2015, 2018, and 2019) as well as a Golden Globe Award (2012). The series ended in 2019.
Peter Dinklage (as Tyrion Lannister) in a scene from the HBO series Game of Thrones.
© 2013 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Later big-screen roles included the villainous Bolivar Trask in the comic-book blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and a supporting part in the Adam Sandler vehicle Pixels (2015). He then gave voice to the Mighty Eagle in the animated Angry Birds (2016) and its sequel (2019). Dinklage also appeared as Renault in a star-studded cast featuring Melissa McCarthy in The Boss (2016). In the sci-fi mystery Rememory (2017), Dinklage’s character searches for the killer of a man who invented a machine that can extract and record people’s memories. He also had a supporting role in the critically acclaimed drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).
Dinklage later portrayed a survivor of the apocalypse who soon befriends a young woman in I Think We’re Alone Now (2018). He then starred as French actor Hervé Villechaize, known for the TV series Fantasy Island (1977–84), in the biopic My Dinner with Hervé (2018), which aired on the cable network HBO. In 2019 Dinklage appeared as the title character in the musical Cyrano, an Off-Broadway production based on Cyrano de Bergerac. The following year he lent his voice to the animated comedy The Croods: A New Age.
Michael Ray The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
HBO, American cable television company that arguably became the leading premium cable station for its mix of movies and innovative original programming. It was founded in 1972 by Time Inc. The company’s headquarters are located in New York City.…
achondroplasia
Achondroplasia, genetic disorder characterized by an abnormality in the conversion of cartilage into bone. As a consequence, bones that depend on cartilage models for development, particularly long bones such as the femur and humerus, cannot grow. Achondroplasia is the most common cause of dwarfism. In those…
Dwarfism, condition of growth retardation resulting in abnormally short adult stature and caused by a variety of hereditary and metabolic disorders. Traditionally, the term “dwarf” was used to describe individuals with disproportions of body and limb, while “midget” referred to those of reduced stature but normal proportions; today neither word…
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June 11, 1969 (age 51)
Emmy Award (2019)
Golden Globe Award (2012)
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Alexander-Arnold enters Guinness Book of World Records
The 21-year-old has been officially recognised for claiming the most Premier League assists by a defender in one season.
Published: 16 October 2019 - 2.22pm
By Press Association Published: 16 October 2019 - 2.22pm
Football Premier League Liverpool
Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold’s attacking proficiency has earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The 21-year-old has been officially recognised for claiming the most Premier League assists by a defender in a single season after contributing 12 as Jurgen Klopp’s side missed out on a thrilling title race by a point to Manchester City.
“It’s an honour. I’ve always wanted to go forward and help the team to create as many chances as possible,” the England international told liverpoolfc.com.
“It’s obviously down to the lads to put the ball into the back of the net, because football is a team game and without them, the manager and all the support in the background, this record wouldn’t be possible.
“I always used to read (the Guinness World Records book) as a kid because they’re fun to read, to see the different records and what people are up to all around the world.
“It’s an unbelievably proud moment for me and all of my family – and hopefully something that will stand for a few years.”
TAGS Football Premier League Liverpool
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A Man Who Wrote A Book Called 'The Terrorist Whisperer' Will Speak At A Pro-Trump Rally
YouTube/The Terrorist Whisperer
By Chris Tognotti
On Saturday, a massive rally is scheduled to be held on the National Mall, dubbed the "mother of all rallies," or MOAR, by its organizers. It'll be going down on the same day as the much-ballyhooed juggalo rally, which figures to be chock full of Insane Clown Posse fans. As for the MOAR, however, you're likely to see very different sorts of attendees, to say nothing of the speakers involved. For example, you might find yourself wondering: who is Hamody Jasim, the "Mother of all Rallies" speaker who'll be in Washington, D.C., this weekend?
First things first, to get a sense of the likely tone of the rally, it's worth explaining what its somewhat strange title refers to. Namely, it's a clear reference to the so-called "mother of all bombs," the most powerful non-nuclear ordinance in the American military's arsenal. The U.S. dropped a MOAB in Afghanistan back in April, in an attack that reportedly killed dozens of ISIS militants. While the rally does not explicitly brand itself as pro-Trump, its associated rhetoric ― including its promotion of the "America First" slogan ― is highly suggestive.
As for Jasim himself, he's a native of Iraq who enlisted as a recruit with the American-backed, reconstructed Iraqi army after the 2003 invasion and subsequent overthrow of Saddam Hussein. He was reportedly just 17 years old when American soldiers first arrived outside his family's home, and according to NPR, he leapt at the chance to join up.
He ultimately rose to the rank of Sergeant Major, and reportedly became a valuable intelligence asset of the U.S. military. Since then, he's become something of a celebrity in conservative circles, having been a critic of former president Barack Obama's strategy for combating terrorism.
Earlier this year, he told the conservative-leaning news website the Independent Journal Review that he believes Obama bears responsibility for the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
ISIS got the way it is because of a political decision that was made by Obama himself. The entire Iraqi government became corrupted after we left. ... Obama has to take some responsibility for the terribly bad call he made.
In 2015, Jasim released a book detailing his experiences working with the U.S. military during the Iraq war, titled The Terrorist Whisperer: The Story of the Pro-American. It currently boasts a four-and-a-half out of five stars rating on Amazon.
As for the MOAR rally itself, it's been billed by its organizers as "the Woodstock of American rallies," and an all-caps screed near the top of its official website insists that "anyone who would protest this rally" will show themselves to be an enemy of the country.
The website notes Jasim's involvement. He's listed as one of the keynote speakers, alongside 28-year-old California Republican Omar Navarro, who's challenging Maxine Waters for her congressional seat, and Marco Gutierrez, the "Latinos for Trump" founder who's infamously worried about there being "taco trucks on every corner."
Keynote speakers include author Hamody Jasim, Marco Guiterrez founder of Latinos for Trump, and congressional candidate for California Omar Navarro. ... Panel discussions on a number of hot topics are also planned and much will be happening throughout the day and evening. There will be no admission charge for any of the events.
The rally's website also specifically states that it opposes racism, and it's not hard to see why that disclaimer was made. In recent months, far-right and white supremacist rallies of the sort seen in Charlottesville, Virginia last month have generated a lot of attention, and a huge amount of public push-back from anti-racist demonstrators.
The site specifically condemns "racists of all colors and supremacy of all colors," however, mimicking the "both sides" rhetoric Trump himself used in the aftermath of the deadly Charlottesville rally, which left one anti-racist counter-protester dead and many more injured.
The MOAR is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 16, at the northern side of the National Mall.
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Smart City in Indore- A Case Study
Home > Infrastructure Finance > Smart City in Indore- A Case Study
By Gaurav Dwivedi | April 7, 2020
This case study of Smart City projects in Indore (Madhya Pradesh) includes an overview of the idea and the development work behind these projects. It begins with information about the city of Indore and a background of how Smart City Mission (SCM) was conceptualised and then executed through Area Based Development projects and Pan City projects. It briefly talks about the selection of 100 cities in five phases under Smart City Challenge, creation of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) and implementation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for project execution in all Smart Cities across India including in Indore. The four development modes under Smart Cities Mission are also elaborated upon along with the two specific modes which can be observed in Indore. The completed, ongoing and proposed projects are briefly looked at, with a collation of information available in the public domain.
This study looks at the channels through which a mega project like Smart City is financed – namely central and state government funding, funds from convergence schemes, private financing, etc. and the sources of revenue which are being envisaged for profitable returns on these projects -introduction of new charges and increase in taxes, etc. An important consideration in the study is the impact this will have on local communities, the surrounding environment and the natural resources that the population across the city has been dependent on and will be in the future. In the case of Indore in particular, the widespread demolition of private property in the name of Smart City development is a major violation, among others.
The study also provides details and analysis of the legal petition filed by Centre for Environment Protection Research & Development against the Union of India citing the unconstitutional nature of Smart City Indore. It can be seen that the benefits of Smart City Mission will only go to a small percentage of citizens of Indore while the impacts of it will be borne by the larger majority of the population. Issues such as lack of private funding, absence of transparency in the processes and an unfounded statement on the success of Smart City Missions in Indore and other cities is questionable and warrants further study.
The work on this report has been supported by several individuals. We would especially like to express our gratitude towards Shri Anand Mohan Mathur (Senior Advocate and former Advocate General, Government of Madhya Pradesh) for the kind interaction and help in writing this report. Without listing names several individuals and organisations extended support during this study we would like to thank them all. To sum up, it has been quite a learning curve working on this report on smart cities mission in Indore. It has given us insights to look at the mission in other cities across the country. We would continue to document and analyse smart cities in Indore and other cities in the near future.
Indore-Smart-City-Case-StudyDownload
April 7, 2020 at 11:39 am Gaurav Dwivedi Environmental Damage, government of India, indore, PPPs, Smart Cities, Smart Cities Project Infrastructure Finance, Publications Share via:
As a Railway Line Grows, a River in Manipur Is Fighting for Survival
Coal-Ravaged Indian Fishers Take to the Supreme Court
विश्वबैंक जैसे अंतरराष्ट्रीय संगठनों से टकराते जनांदोलन
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Home Visit Environment Birds Australian Raven
The Australian Raven October's bird of the month.
Corvus coronoide
We are all familiar with the “Crows” which are so much a part of our daily lives in the parklands. It would surprise many to know that the crow we see in the park is not in fact a Crow but the Australian Raven. The Australian Raven is often maligned as a mere scavenger on our rubbish, but it is classed among the most intelligent of birds.
Australia has six native species of Corvids, three crows and three ravens, all of which appear very similar and can only be identified by the finer points such as size, call and behavior. For example, a crow can be identified by having white fluff at the base of the feathers, while the raven has grey fluff.
Fortunately, for identification, only the Australian Raven is found in Centennial Park, and Sydney generally. Like all Australian Corvids it is completely black with a stout black bill and a white eye with blue inner ring in the adults. It has feathers on the throat, called hackles, which can give the appearance of a beard, especially when the Raven is calling. Immature Ravens have brown eyes, becoming lighter in colour as they age, and less developed throat hackles, but can be a similar size to adults.
The Australian Raven has been known to eat grain, fruit and our discarded bread and vegetable rubbish, but it is predominantly a carnivore. The bluk of it's diet is from insects, but can be seen eating small reptiles and chicks and eggs from bird nests.
Australian Ravens do not reach maturity until about three years of age and breeding begins from late winter into spring. On average the female will lay up to 5 eggs andincubate tem for 3 weeks.
Australian Ravens are found across the eastern half of Australia, from just below Cape York in Queensland down to Victoria and southern South Australia. A sub-species population occupies the isolated south-west of Western Australia. Strangely, while they are the only corvids in Sydney, they are largely replaced by Torresian Crows in Brisbane, and the Little Raven in Melbourne and Adelaide. It has not made its way across the Bass Strait to Tasmania.
Located in the Parklands:
Australian Ravens are breeding residents in the parklands and can be seen all year. Small flocks can be seen passing over, or gathering around ponds and playing fields looking for picnic leftovers, as well as dead or injured birds or bats. They play an important role in cleaning up the parklands.
To find the residents of the park territories you need to look for Ravens going back and forth to tall trees in the park, either carrying sticks for nesting, or food for nestlings. Despite the size of the birds and their nests, they can be very difficult to locate in the tree.
This information was curated by a team of passionate Centennial Parklands volunteers. Find out more about our volunteer programs here.
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“The best person I ever shot” by Jörg Kyas, Canon Explorer
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“The best person I ever shot is:..” you’ll be surprised by the answer
Jörg Kyas is an advertising, portrait, beauty and fashion photographer.
Starting as a freelance photographer his first jobs were with music companies which took him all over the world to shoot interesting artists. Today, Jörg runs a busy studio in his hometown of Hanover and works for numerous national and international clients. His philosophy is to still use the camera where others start retouching…
So, Jörg who do you have the best memories of shooting?
Of course there are lots of people I have great memories of. But the one that immediately springs to mind is Eric Burdon, the lead singer of The Animals in the 1960s.
I have shot him twice, once in Hannover and the other time in Paris. It was very early in my career and his whole attitude has made a lasting impression.
Why such an impression?
I was very new to professional photography and quite nervous about the whole thing, but I shouldn’t have worried. I was immediately impressed how he took me and the shoot so seriously. He was respectful to me, not just as a photographer but a person, too.
His behaviour was a surprise to me, with his reputation as a rock & roll star, he was so polite.
Is that attitude important to you?
It’s actually important to the outcome. I just told him where to stand, suddenly he had all these ideas of how he should look. All from the same shooting position. He settled my nerves very quickly, as I realised he was treating the shoot as if he was on stage.
© Jörg Kyas
So, he was putting on an act for you?
Exactly, so professional. I didn’t have to give him one instruction. I just stood behind the camera and clicked.
And immediately his personality came out in the shoot, I was delighted with the pictures. And so was he. He wanted one of them to be the cover of his next album. That was a real compliment.
What did you want your pictures to say about Eric?
Here was a man that had lived the full rock & roll lifestyle, made and lost millions, with as many stories to tell. I wanted that to show in the photos. Which is why I shot in black and white, it accentuates the lines on his face, I hope it makes you want to know about him and his life.
For many people in music, including Noel Gallagher, Eric Burdon and his band The Animals are a true inspiration and I like to think you can sense his importance from the pictures.
Is that your preferred format, black and white?
I like to shoot in black and white very much because you can see the life of the person so much more clearly. But there’s not much demand from clients, they want lots of colour and different looks. Shame.
What else is as important?
Yes, get as close as humanly possible. I don’t use lots of different lenses. I like to use only those that force you to get right into the subject’s face and clear everything else out.
The EF 50mm f/1.8 STM is a great lens for that. I think it teaches you to become a good portrait photographer. My approach is to get close to my subject, so I can talk to them, find something in common and make them feel relaxed. You can’t do that so easily when you are 10 metres away.
That was clearly the case with Eric?
You’re right there. He was very comfortable. I think you can tell.
I have two EOS 5D Mark II bodies.
My favourite portrait lenses are the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM and the EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM. Like I say I want to get in really close to my subjects and these lenses make you do that.
I also use the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM.
I have a few flashguns, I have four Speedlite 550EX flashguns and a ST-E2 Speedlite transmitter.
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Home : Poker News : Encore Boston Harbor Makes Up 60 Percent Of Massachusetts Gaming Revenue
Encore Boston Harbor Makes Up 60 Percent Of Massachusetts Gaming Revenue
Newly-Opened Boston-Area Casino Won From Gamblers $48.6 Million In July
by Steve Schult | Published: Aug 19, 2019
In its first full month of operation, Encore Boston Harbor was responsible for about 60 percent of the state’s gaming revenue.
According to numbers released by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, the state’s three casinos generated $81.4 million in revenue throughout July. Encore Boston Harbor pulled in $48.6 million in revenue, making it far and away the most successful of the three casinos after opening in late June.
More than half of Encore’s revenue came from table games, which is the opposite trend of most casinos in the U.S., where slot machines make up the majority of gaming revenue. Encore generated $27.42 million in revenue from table games and another $21.15 million from slot machines.
Plainville Park Casino, which is comprised entirely of slot machines, generated $12.5 million in revenue and was the lowest-earning casino of the bunch.
MGM Springfield, which was in its 12th month of operation, took in $20.4 million, which was one of the worst-performing months in its short history. It won $4.9 million from table games and another $15.5 million from slot machines.
The state garnered $23.4 million in tax revenue from all three casinos. Plainridge Park is taxed at 49 percent of its gross revenue, while the other two full-scale casinos are taxed at 25 percent of gross revenue. Due to the difference in tax rate, Plainridge Park paid $6.14 million in taxes, while MGM paid just shy of $5.1 million. Encore paid $12.14 million.
Last month, in its first eight days of operation, Encore generated $16.8 million in gross revenue.
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Tags: Massachusetts, Encore Boston Harbor, Gaming Revenue
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Photo Credit: Lionsgate
Grew Up… in a small village in Mexico where he engaged in petty theft throughout the town.
Living… in a super modern mansion that gets blown to bits at one point because Santino, head honcho of the organized crime syndicate that John used to work for, takes issue with John’s retirement.
Profession… Wick used to serve in the US Marine Corps, where he learned a code of honor and ethics that he later grapples with when he becomes a hitman. Wick worked for the Continental, a hotel that functions as neutral territory for criminals, and soon gained a reputation as an efficient killer. After meeting his wife Helen, he decides to start a new life and change for the better. Unfortunately, he is soon dragged right back to the world of crime.
Interests… killing, killing, killing. Whenever John Wick isn’t killing, he’s tending to his dogs, seemingly the only thing keeping him sane and – well, maybe “happy” isn’t the right word – let’s just say content. He is adept in martial arts and at using firearms, and knows a thing or two about throwing knives. Not to mention, he loves driving his vintage Mustang around the racetrack. He ends up turning this hobby into, you guessed it, a way to kill his enemies by running them over.
Relationship Status… widowed. His stoic demeanor, murderous rampages, and laconic vocabulary don’t always make him seem like an eligible bachelor. However, his love for dogs, fluency in more languages than a UN Diplomat, and unreal physique would suggest otherwise.
Personality… think the human version of a German Shepherd. Ever since his wife Helen died, Wick has maintained a melancholic and cold-blooded veneer. If someone wrongs him, he mercilessly retaliates against them.
John Wick's popularity ranking on CharacTour is #1055 out of 5,600+ characters. See our top-ranked characters and read their profiles.
After the sudden death of his beloved wife, John Wick receives one last gift from her, a beagle puppy named Daisy, and a note imploring him not to forget how to love. But John's mourning is interrupted when his 1969 Boss Mustang catches the eye of sadistic thug Iosef Tarasov who breaks into his house and steals it, beating John unconscious in the process. Unwittingly, he has just reawakened one of the most brutal assassins the underworld has ever known.
John Wick is forced out of retirement by a former associate looking to seize control of a shadowy international assassins' guild. Bound by a blood oath to aid him, Wick travels to Rome and does battle against some of the world's most dangerous killers.
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Charline Formenty
VISUAL ART & SERVICES
The Shrine of Sympathetic Resonance
If you’re looking at The Shrine of Sympathetic Resonance, you’ll see 40′ tall, 50′ across musical structure with five outer pentagonal chambers, a tower rising up from the center atrium, and over 10,000 musical strings for people to play with.
Inside the space opens up, resembling a small open air cathedral. As you draw near, you see every wall is made from a piano soundboard – including the musical strings, metal harp, and the wooden frame.
In the center of it all is a performance dias. Directly above the stage is a five sided cupola constructed of piano harps and antique windows, below which hangs an elaborate chandelier.
These design elements and materials are echoed in the five intimate chambers that surround the space. Intricate woodworking adorns the dais and chamber floors below, while copper patina and complex rope work accent the roofs.
Lycee Francais de San Francisco
- Dance teacher
- Theater teacher
The Lycée Français de San Francisco is a California independent PK-12 school. The Lycée was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by a group of parents and teachers to provide a French program of education adhering to the highly respected curriculum of France’s national education. There are currently 950+ students registered on three campuses. The Lycée Français de San Francisco is fully accredited by the French government and by the California Association of Independent Schools.
- House Manager and Volunteer Coordinator
The SFJAZZ Center is an all-ages music venue in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, California, that opened in January 2013. It is considered the "first free-standing building in America built for jazz performance and education." It is home to SFJAZZ, a not-for-profit organization that both presents and facilitates jazz education in the San Francisco Bay Area. SFJAZZ has, since 1983, produced the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and since 2004, the SFJAZZ Collective. The SFJAZZ season, in addition to the SFJAZZ-produced San Francisco Jazz Festival and Summer Sessions, includes over 400 performances annually in the San Francisco Bay Area.
International Body Music Festival
- Production manager
The International Body Music Festival was founded in 2008 by Artistic Director Keith Terry, and is a project of Crosspulse, an Oakland-based non-profit arts organization dedicated to the performance, recording and education of cross-cultural rhythmic arts. The IBMF is produced in the San Francisco Bay Area every two years, and by our international partners in the interim years.
Vellai Thamarai
The Vellai Thamarai Association* has built near Puducherry a school that accommodates free of charge, children from an under-privileged community. A global, high quality education is provided: the aim is to prepare children to build their own future so that they will be durably integrated in 21st century India. And to bring along their village community in this movement.
Stern Grove Festival
- House Manager
Established in 1938, the Stern Grove Festival is an admission-free series of performing arts events held during the summer months at Sigmund Stern Grove, a eucalyptus-wooded natural amphitheater on a 33-acre (130,000 m2) site about two miles (3 km) south of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco that ranges from 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard west to 34th Avenue.
Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture
- Event Manager
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture is a nonprofit operating within a Historic Landmark District along the northern waterfront of the San Francisco Bay. Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, FMCAC hosts an ever-evolving rotation of artistic programming for over 1.2 million annual visitors that includes theater and dance performances, art installations, as well as educational and cultural classes. As part of Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture’s commitment to supporting San Francisco’s artistic community, FMCAC provides approximately $2.5 million in annual grants to local arts organizations. These grants allow groups to produce diverse and innovative works at the historic campus.
In addition to the thousands of events that occur each year on campus, FMCAC hosts nearly two dozen nonprofit and arts organizations as permanent residents. These residents receive annual support from FMCAC, allowing them to focus on producing original artistic programming. Current residents include the Pulitzer Prize winning Magic Theatre, City College’s Fort Mason Art Campus, BATS Improv, the SFMOMA Artists Gallery and the internationally acclaimed Greens Restaurant.
City Arts and Lectures
- House Staff
Since 1980, San Francisco-based non-profit City Arts & Lectures has offered unique programs with leading figures in arts and ideas. Each year there are more than fifty lectures and onstage conversations – and a few surprise performances, film tributes, and concerts – with outstanding writers, critics, scientists, performing artists, and cultural figures from around the world. City Arts & Lectures offers the broadest perspectives about ideas and values, the creative process, and how we think about the world we live in.
City Arts & Lectures events are held in the historic Sydney Goldstein Theater (formerly Nourse) in San Francisco’s Performing Arts Center. Programs can be heard via edited and delayed broadcasts on more than 130 public radio stations across the country. Radio broadcasts are co-produced with KQED 88.5 FM in San Francisco.
Theatre of Yugen
- Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Photographer and Marketing Coordinator
Founded in 1978 by Yuriko Doi, Theatre of Yugen is an experimental ensemble dedicated to the pursuit of the intangible essence of yugen (幽玄)—yu (“profound” and “tranquil”) and gen (“mysterious”). With a foundation in Japanese noh drama and kyogen satire—the world’s oldest living style of theatre (over 600 years old)—Yugen creates works of world theatre by crafting original material and exploring dramatic and literary classics.
DCA - Philippe Decouflé
- Communication - Outreach
- Personnal Assistant on Iris (Cirque du Soleil)
- Website maintenance
Philippe Decouflé is a French choreographer, dancer, mime artist, and theatre director. As a child he travelled extensively around Lebanon and Morocco before learning his skills as a teenager at the Annie Fratellini Ecole du Cirque and the Marceau Mime School. While frequenting Parisienne nightclubs he discovered and was attracted to contemporary dance, and he eventually moved to the Centre National de la Danse Contemporaine in Angers to study under choreographer Alwin Nicolais. After briefly working as a solo dancer, he formed the Découflé Company of Arts in Bagnolet in 1983, moving it to a former electrical works in the Parisienne suburb of Saint-Denis in 1995.
He has worked for the Lyon Opera Ballet, and he choreographed the music video for New Order's "True Faith" and Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy". The former won the "Best Music Video" prize at the 1988 BRIT Awards, while his advertisement for Polaroid won a "Silver Lion" prize at the 1989 Venice Film Festival. On the back of these successes, he was selected to choreograph the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1992 Winter Olympics in front of a global television audience of over two billion people, the 50th anniversary Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and a parade for the 2007 Rugby Union World Cup in Saint-Denis in Paris.
Decouflé is the writer and director of the Cirque du Soleil show Iris.
Decouflé is also the director of the Cirque du Soleil show Paramour which debuted in 2016 in New York City. Scenes from Iris were incorporated into Paramour.
The Company remains an independent company, supported since 2016 by the Ministry of Culture as a national and international company and is associate artist to Chaillot - Théâtre National de la Danse until 2020.
Compagnie de la Mine d'Or
Calamity Jane - Lettres à sa fille - 2009
- Avignon Festival Outreach Manager
Calamity Jane, Martha Jane Cannary, a écrit à sa fille Janey qu'elle a confiée à un couple d'adoptants, des lettres qu'elle ne lui envoyait pas. Elle lui raconte son "Ouest", son amour pour Bill Hickok, ses remords, ses exploits, ses mensonges, des lettres d'une extraordinaire vitalité dont les entrelacs de la mise en scène permettent de passer du récit de western (théâtre d'objets et bande son évocatrice) à l'humanité émouvante d'une femme solitaire et affranchie.
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CRN Home
activity — news — Announcements
A new home for the Children's Research Network in the Trinity Research in Childhood Centre, Trinity College Dublin
2019 - A new era for the Children's Research Network
Sustainability is critical to the success of any network. The Atlantic Philanthropies' funding, which has generously supported the Network over the last four years, came to an end in December 2018. Over the previous 18 months, with the assistance of Centre for Effective Services (CES), considerable efforts had been made to sustain the future of the Network. This included seeking funding, building the Network and establishing relationships with organisations. The result of these efforts saw current oversight for the Network move from CES in early 2019 to Trinity Research in Childhood Centre (TRiCC), Trinity College Dublin. This move to TRiCC guarantees the continuation of the Network - and its aims and key activities - into the future.
To facilitate the transition, TRiCC employed Dr Derina Johnson as Research Coordinator, who worked closely with CES and the Network's Advisory Committee to ensure the smooth transfer of the Network to its new home.
A message from Professor Trevor Spratt, Director of Trinity Research in Childhood Centre (TRiCC)
“We were very pleased to be asked to consider the possibility of the Children's Research Network finding a new 'home' within Trinity. As networks grow and mature, forming new partnerships to increase reach and influence becomes a natural part of development.
The Trinity Research in Childhood Centre has similar aims to the Network, in that we seek to bring together researchers working in different disciplines to promote a common endeavour - the production and dissemination of research designed to improve the lives of children on this island and internationally. We believe that this compatibility of aims lays the foundation for the further development of new connections between members of the two networks. As members, drawn from the academic, professional and policy sectors across this island, meet each other and discover commonalities, new synergies will arise providing catalysts for new and exciting projects and initiatives.”
A Thousand Thank Yous!
With this move came some sad goodbyes. At the end of December, David Kenefick completed his tenure as Project Manager but remains very much involved as the newest member of the Network Advisory Committee. Ruth Geraghty remains in CES as Project Specialist, focusing on research data management, evidence curation and open data. She continues to be connected to the Network as an active member. James O’Connor also remains at CES, supporting several projects there. We sincerely thank David, Ruth and James for all their hard work with the Children's Research Network.
Visit the TRiCC website for more information
Go to the Trinity Research in Childhood Centre website
Our Advisory Committee
The Children’s Research Network is hosted by the Trinity Research in Childhood Centre (TRiCC), Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, and receives support from the Department of Child and Youth Affairs as part of What Works (formerly QCBI), funded by the Dormant Accounts fund.
© 2021 Children's Research Network for Ireland and Northern Ireland
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Home » Local News » Pennsylvania to fund research into fracking health dangers
Pennsylvania to fund research into fracking health dangers
Posted on November 23, 2019 by wcednews
Harrisburg, PA (AP) – Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday his administration will spend $3 million on a pair of studies to explore the potential health effects of the natural gas industry, taking action after months of impassioned pleas by the families of pediatric cancer patients who live in the most heavily drilled region of the state.
Dozens of children and young adults have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and other forms of cancer in a four-county area outside Pittsburgh, where energy companies have drilled more than 3,500 wells since 2008.
Ewing has no known environmental cause, and gas industry officials say there is no evidence linking pediatric cancer to drilling. But the families nevertheless suspect that drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the method that energy companies use to extract natural gas from shale rock, played a role. They have been pressing the Wolf administration for an investigation into any possible link between this extremely rare form of bone cancer and shale gas development — and confronted Wolf himself at the Capitol on Monday.
“I want to thank the families that have shared their heartbreaking stories,” the Democratic governor said in a statement Friday. “I understand and support the concerns of parents and desire of community members to learn more about the possible reasons for these cancer cases.”
The research, he said, is meant to address “the concern that there is a relationship between hydraulic fracturing and childhood cancers.”
One study will use existing research that linked natural gas activity to medical conditions like asthma and, applying the same methodology, try to replicate those earlier findings in the population in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The other study will focus specifically on rare childhood cancers, including Ewing sarcoma, with researchers looking at whether these young cancer patients were exposed to fracking more often than a control population.
Each study is projected to last three years. The state is seeking to partner with an academic research institution.
“It is essential to better understand the scientific evidence of public health issues related to hydraulic fracturing. These studies will provide us with a more in-depth understanding of this issue than we have been able to do with the resources at our disposal,” Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s health secretary, said in a statement.
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Home » ABC Entertainment » Citing sanity and security, ‘Star Wars’ star Daisy Ridley won’t Force herself to take fan selfies
Citing sanity and security, ‘Star Wars’ star Daisy Ridley won’t Force herself to take fan selfies
Posted on December 5, 2019 by ABC News
(LONDON) — While taking selfies with fans seems part and parcel of modern-day fame, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker star Daisy Ridley isn’t having it.
In an interview with the Times of London, she admits, “I usually say: “I’m really sorry — not today.”
She explained, “I’m not a big photo taker, and I don’t want everyone to immediately know where I am. I know people share [their selfies] immediately, so I’m very aware of privacy in that way,” she added.
Ridley will make an exception for her younger fans, however. “With kids, they’re not going to put it up somewhere straightaway,” she notes.
Ridley, who famously left social media behind years ago for her own mental health following online harassment, tells the Radio Times she sometimes feels the need to “hide away at home.” She cited as an example having tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show, but staying home instead.
“I was like, ‘Even though people aren’t going to look at me, if anyone does, I’m not in the right frame of mind to deal with that.’ So I didn’t go. It’s a shame, but sometimes you have to listen to what your body is telling you.”
Back in June, Ridley explained to BuzzFeed News that she “cut off” social media “like a Skywalker limb,” adding, “Selena Gomez, she put it better than I did…It’s dangerous.”Ridley added of the technology, “It’s great in that respect for people who are in serious and dire situations to be able to be communicating, but for the most part I think” ‘No, no, no."”
She added: “[W]hen I want to see what my pals are up to, I can just Google it.”
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Blog > Why Inline Editors Are Going Extinct in the Modern CMS World
Why Inline Editors Are Going Extinct in the Modern CMS World
Aug 21, 2019, Brent Heslop
If you’ve ever used (or are currently using) WordPress, Weebly, Squarespace, or a similar out-of-the-box “website builder” then you may already be familiar with inline page editors.
An inline page editor is an interface that allows a content manager to add, edit, and sometimes even format content in place, or “in line,” right on the web page where it lives instead of having to navigate to a different page or section of the website to make changes.
This type of editor enables users to see how their updates appear in the context of the entire page. It can be useful for making quick adjustments or corrections to landing page content and writing blog posts.
Inline page editors are especially attractive to smaller organizations that only produce content for a single website and don’t have the need for a more robust content management and delivery system.
Unfortunately, it’s that same simplicity that makes inline page editors a major roadblock for brands that are trying to modernize and remain competitive in our omnichannel world.
Why Inline Page Editors Are No Longer Enough for Modern Marketers
Today, the internet and internet-enabled devices empower consumers to interact with brands, gather important product information, connect with other consumers, and of course complete purchases on a variety of digital devices and channels that stretch well beyond a single, lonely business website.
In fact, omnichannel content delivery is the new norm.
Just ask the 55 percent of customers who expect information to flow between channels seamlessly—or the third of consumers who already supplement their in-store shopping experience with a connected device.
One year-long study even found that 73 percent of consumers shop in various physical and digital channels.
Omnichannel consumers spend more on average, tend to be more loyal, and are more likely to spread highly-trusted word-of-mouth marketing. When it comes to omnichannel strategy, top-performing businesses enjoy an average retention rate near 90 percent and a 9.5 percent increase in annual revenue every year—in contrast to 33 percent and 3.4 percent respectively in businesses with weak omnichannel efforts.
Moreover, with 75 percent of executives claiming that omnichannel has become essential to their business strategy—it’s safe to say that many of your competitors are likely jumping aboard the omnichannel train, as well.
So where does that leave you? Behind the times, unfortunately, if you’re still relying on an inline page editor and the traditional content management system (CMS) upon which it’s built.
The problem is that, with a traditional CMS (again think WordPress, etc.), content is saved to a built-in database and displayed on a built-in front-end delivery system. Instead of content being structured and labeled in a way that makes it reformattable and reusable, the content and its delivery are locked together. This leaves little opportunity to plug in personalization engines that optimize the messaging for different audiences or allow front-end engineers to enhance the display for different devices.
While there is a time and place for inline page editors, they won’t do anything but hold you back when it comes to creating modern marketing campaigns where you need to create unique, channel- and reader-specific messaging that can be translated, moved, and reused as trends and consumer demands shift on the fly.
But don’t worry—all is not lost. It doesn’t have to be crazy difficult or even all that costly to port over your existing content and replace your outdated inline page editor and website builder with the content management and delivery technology of the future.
Modernize Your Business and Futureproof Your Content with a Headless CMS
Like the simple-to-use yet now underpowered typewriters that came before them, inline page editors will eventually become artifacts of the past when we talk about the evolution of content.
Modern-day marketing requires advanced solutions that don’t just store and display content but allow for its management and manipulation to fit a variety of channels and devices. After all, can an inline page editor truthfully be used to create content that is ready to work with an Alexa app as well as be displayed on an Apple Watch?
No. But a headless CMS can.
A headless CMS sets the stage for a true “write once, publish everywhere” environment by keeping content storage, creation, and display completely separate. Instead of being embedded into the front-end design, content essentially lives in a repository from which developers can call it via application programming interfaces (APIs) to make it available on any device and channel—in any configuration.
That means engineering teams are empowered to build out the best-fit front-end design and capabilities to make content appear flawlessly—whether it’s being served in a mobile app, on a wearable device, or via voice.
And because headless content is modular and decoupled from formatting and programming, marketers can personalize, optimize, and share content to various channels and devices—all without negatively affecting any other content.
With a headless CMS, IT and marketing teams can both work on the same content delivery projects at the same time and content is future-proofed and ready to scale at any time.
If your organization is striving to improve the customer experience—and who isn’t these days?—it’s time to adopt a headless CMS that empowers you to create an omnichannel content strategy.
Contentstack, a pioneer in headless CMS, offers no-training-required content management tools as well as unique, turn-key integrations that empower marketers to work with best-in-class tools (like translators, CRM platforms, and more) and implement game-changing personalization and optimization. Out-of-the-box enterprise-level IT features mean your implementation team gets all the availability, security, scalability, and tools they need without any of the hassles they don’t. And it doesn’t only save you time and trouble. Use our free ROI calculator to see how much money you could save when you make the upgrade to Contentstack.
Headless CMS is the next evolution of content management—the computer to the in-line page editor's typewriter. All you have to do modernize your marketing is create your Contentstack proof of concept today for free.
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Suppliers of Men's & boys' formal wear in Tyne and Wear
Whether you're the groom, the best man, usher or father of the bride, you will want to look your very best on the big day.
Two and three piece suits or tuxedos, or perhaps smart separates; there is a huge range of styles to choose from so that you can look worthy of the occasion.
Some weddings have a specific theme but almost all weddings fall into the categories of formal, casual or trendy (current fashion) so once you have both decided on your theme, go for it!
Here’s some great men's and boys' outfitters based in Tyne and Wear, whom you might want to get in touch with...
Don't forget to mention County Wedding Magazines when contacting a men's and boys' outfitter.
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Master Debonair
Men's & boys' formal wear, Tyne and Wear
Master Debonair make finding the perfect suit for weddings, proms and special occasions a real pleasure.
Appointments can be booked for any date in our newly expanded East Boldon Store with private showroom, complete with beer and snacks, or in our newest Chesterfield store, we're confident you’ll have a first-class styling and fitting experience with us. (Men's & boys' formal wear in Tyne and Wear)
All wedding suppliers in Tyne and Wear:
Men's & boys' formal wear in Tyne and Wear by Town:
Blackhall Mill
Blaydon on Tyne
East Boldon
Houghton Le Spring
North Shields
Rowlands Gill
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What Happens if you are Charged with Being in Custody of a Knife in Public?
On October 30 2018, a man was charged following an incident at Tweed Heads Hospital following reports that he began threatening hospital workers.
According to police, at about 9pm, officers were called to the Powell Street facility, where the 37-year-old was discovered verbally abusing the staff. He also allegedly carried a knife and produced a replica firearm.
Security staff at the hospital were forced to detain the man themselves before officers from the Tweed/Byron Police District arrived at the scene and arrested him.
He was then taken to Tweed Heads Police Station where he was charged with being in custody of a knife in a public place, unauthorised possession of a firearm as well as two counts of stalking/intimate with intent to cause fear of physical or mental harm.
The man was refused bail and appeared before Tweed Heads Local Court the following day.
There were no injuries during the incident.
Union Appeals for Tightened Security at Tweed Heads Hospital Rather than Relying on “Luck”
In the aftermath of the incident, the Health Services Union (HSU) urged for security to be increased and a greater priority at Tweed Heads Hospital.
Speaking of the 37-year-old man’s arrest, the union’s NSW Secretary, Gerard Hayes, said the occurrence underscored the “serious deficiencies in the security arrangements at the hospital”.
“Hospitals must be places where patients, their families and workers can be safe,” Mr Hayes said.
“We urgently need to see more security staff, an increase in the use of CCTV security cameras.”
He also said it was lucky the confrontation ended without anyone getting hurt, however, also expressed that the system cannot merely continue to “rely on luck”.
“We must make sure our hospitals are as safe as possible,” he said.
Northern NSW Local Health District Reassures of Sufficient Security in Place
According to Chief Executive of the Northern NSW Local Health District, Wayne Jones, a full complement of security staff had been rostered on at the time the incident occurred. The staff followed standard protocols in hand with the Emergency Department personnel.
“Across the Northern NSW Local Health District there are 58 full time equivalent security officers and health and security positions, as well as casual staff,” Mr Jones said.
He also reassured that across NSW, a significant investment of $19 million had been placed to improve security in emergency departments at public hospitals.
“The Northern NSW Local Health District has implemented a range of security improvements across the District, including a recent increase in security staff at the Tweed Hospital.
“Over $1.4 million has been invested to ensure appropriate staff have access to personal mobile duress alarms, where they are mandated to wear while on duty.”
In conjunction with the ongoing investment into security staff and apparatus, he highlighted other safety measures in place, including the installation of fixed duress alarms as well as personal duress alarms, Violence Prevention Management Training, de-escalation training for all staff working in high risk areas within smaller facilities, as well as two Safety Culture Coordinators working alongside hospital staff in the Northern NSW Local Health District as part of a comprehensive safety culture initiative.
The Northern NSW Local Health District encompasses 14 hospitals and a variety of community health centres from Tweed Heads to Grafton, an area spanning 20,732 square kilometres.
The District delivers an expansive scope of health services in advanced facilities, with access to both general and specialist services.
The Use and Carriage of Knives in Australia
Knife crime attracts a great deal of community concern.
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, while the use of firearms has declined by more than half since 1990, there has been an upward trend in the use of knives and sharp instruments in recent years.
In the case of homicides, for example, there has been a pronounced change in the apparatus used and knives feature as one of the most commonly used weapons.
Similarly, in incidences of armed robbery, knives also indicate the most commonly used weapon being used against at least half of all victims, regardless of age or gender. In particular, women aged between 40 to 44 years have been noted as victims of robberies where a knife has been used more often than any other age category.
Furthermore, in 2010, the Australian Bureau of Statistics published national data on the use of knives in sexual assault, revealing that approximately one percent of cases between 2001 and 2009 involved knives. Meanwhile, knives were also utilised in seven to 10 percent of kidnapping and abduction cases.
Interestingly, in a survey carried out by the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program, the response to the question, ‘What is your main reason for owning or possessing a knife?” the most common justification given was protection of self-defence.
What Happens if you are Charged with Being in Custody of a Knife in a Public Place in NSW?
In NSW, while being in custody of a knife in a public place is considered a less-serious criminal offence, it can still leave you with a criminal conviction.
A person guilty of a charge of having custody of a knife in a public place or school can face a criminal conviction, penalty of up to $2,200 fine and/or imprisonment of up to 2 years if dealt with by a Magistrate in the Local Court. See section 11C of the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW).
Police Discretion to Issue a ‘Penalty Notice’ instead of ‘Court Attendance Notice’
The charge of having custody of a knife in public is a ‘summary offence’ which can only be dealt with in the Local Court as opposed to the District, Supreme or High Court.
The offence of having custody of a knife in public is an offence that can be dealt with as an alternative by way of a ‘penalty notice’ instead of a ‘court attendance notice’.
A ‘court attendance notice’ issued by police to an accused person will require the person accused of the offence to attend court. If guilty, then he/she can receive a criminal conviction with the above-mentioned maximum penalties.
A ‘penalty notice’ issued by police to an accused person for this offence allows the accused person to simply pay the fine without being required to attend court at all. If the fine is paid, then no criminal conviction is imposed. Payment of the fine will generally not have any consequence of liability or prejudice as a result.
Certain charges and offences allow for a penalty notice to be issued instead of a ‘court attendance notice’.
The amount of fine for a penalty notice for having custody of a knife in public is $550 pursuant to regulation 15 of the Summary Offences Regulation 2015 (NSW).
Under section 29A of the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW), a police officer has the option of issuing a penalty notice (instead of requiring you to attend court) for having custody of a knife in public if:
If appears to the police officer that this offence has been committed; and
It is not desirable to have the case determined in court; and
The person accused has not previously been dealt with for a knife-related offence.
If you given a ‘penalty notice’ for having custody of a knife in public, you may still choose to not pay it by electing to go to court to have the Magistrate in the Local Court decide. If you choose a ‘court election’, you will be required to then attend court and either plead guilty or plead not guilty.
Time Limit of When Police Can Charge You for Having Custody of Knife
The police are not allowed to proceed with a charge against an alleged offender if the charge is laid more than 6 months after the date of the alleged offence of having custody of a knife in public. See section 179 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW).
What is the Law on Having Custody of a Knife in Public?
You will be guilty of a charge of having custody of a knife in public pursuant to section 11C of the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW) if the police can prove each of the following elements of this crime:
You have custody of a knife; and
At that time, you were in a public place or a school.
A ‘public place’ is a place (including water) or part of a premises that’s open to or used by the public. A public place also includes a place where the public that it is open to consists only of a limited class of persons.
A ‘school’ includes a government, registered non-government school within the meaning of the Education act 1990, secular or religious school, pre-school, infant’s school, primary school, secondary school, child-mining centres, land and any building occupied in connection with the conduct of a school. It does not include a building occupied or used solely as a residence or for purposes unconnected with the conduct of such as school or place.
A ‘knife’ includes a knife blade, razor blade or any other blade.
Defences to a Charge of Having Custody of a Knife in Public
A person charged with having custody of a knife in public or school will be ‘not guilty’ if any one of the following defences apply:
(A) Reasonable excuse: an accused person will not be guilty if he/she had custody of the knife for a reasonable excuse, including any of the following ‘reasonable excuses’ expressed in section 11C(2) of the Act:
The accused person had it in his/her custody because it was reasonably necessary in all the circumstances for any of the following reasons:
Genuine religious purposes;
Wearing of an official uniform;
An organised exhibition by knife collectors;
The exhibition of knives for retail or other trade purposes;
Participation in lawful entertainment, recreation or sport;
Preparation or consumption of food or drink;
Lawful pursuit of an occupation, education or training.
The accused person had it in his/her custody because it was reasonably necessary in all the circumstances during travel to or from (or incidental to any of the activities referred to above).
(B) Duress or Necessity.
Importantly, having custody of a knife solely for the purpose of self-defence (or for the defence of another) is not considered a ‘reasonable excuse’ under section 11C(3) of the Act.
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The New Laws on Mental Health in the Criminal Justice System: The Diversionary Pathway
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New NSW Sentencing Penalty Introduced: The New ‘Intensive Corrections Orders’
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Morris Plains man tells N.J.’s history through buildings
Leslie Ruse
@LeslieRuseDR
Writing a book about the 100 oldest buildings in New Jersey forced David Veasey to make some tough choices.
Using the Historic American Buildings Survey and the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, the starting point for researching historic places, Veasey discovered that New Jersey had more than 1,600 sites listed.
“There’s some very interesting buildings still standing. I wrote “New Jersey Then and Now” and driving around the state I came across a lot of these buildings,” said Veasey, who lives in Morris Plains with his wife Dorothy. “There’s a lot of Colonial history here that a lot of people don’t even know about. And that’s what got me started.”
Using color photographs and short write-ups about each property, Veasey’s book “New Jersey’s Colonial Architecture Told in 100 Buildings,” tells the story of New Jersey’s rich and storied history through its many buildings.
The book coincides with the state’s 350th anniversary of its founding on June 24, 1664. The birthday marks the official beginning of the first English settlement in Elizabethtown in 1664.
“I didn’t want to just have houses,” Veasey said. “I wanted to have taverns, churches, work places. There’s even a fire station in there. There’s a lawyer’s office.”
After coordinating the addresses of more than 150 chosen sites, Veasey spent the next three months driving through every corner of New Jersey. Every county is represented by at least one building.
“I probably went to at least 150 and then I whittled them down. Some had changed dramatically and no longer looked the same. For example there’s a church in Burlington that calls itself the oldest church in New Jersey,” said Veasey, who graduated from Drew University and New York University with degrees in political science.
“I went down there and talked to the minister and found they built a new church around the old one. There’s really nothing remaining of the old church that’s visible. So I didn’t include that one.”
Veasey also bypassed using the Dutch House Tavern in Fair Lawn. Although it was built around 1756, the building had been renovated and included new windows and other updates, causing him to leave it out.
“Some I could never find. And a couple places I went to the addresses and the building was clearly torn down and there was a newer house or apartment there. There were a number like that. The difficulty wasn’t in finding the buildings. The difficulty was in deciding which ones to use.”
Veasey took all the photos used in the book, sometimes encountering homeowners who did not want their house photographed, despite historic plaques placed in front of the edifice.
Veasey found the Jones Law Office in Salem City to be of particular interest. Built in 1735 for one of the county’s first attorneys, it’s considered the oldest law office building in the country.
“I thought that was cool that it still exists. Right here in Mendham there’s a couple of good buildings. The General Store, now a local museum. That’s an interesting building and right around the corner from that is a private house which is the old mill itself. That’s also very interesting. And of course, right here in Morris County we have Washington’s Headquarters and the Wick House.”
New Jersey is also home to the oldest log cabin in the United States, Nothnagle Log Cabin, in Gibbstown. Located in the southern part of the state it was built by Swedes in the seventeenth century. In 1988 Queen Silvia of Sweden visited the old house, marking the 350th anniversary of the founding of New Sweden in 1638.
“I think what’s interesting is New Jersey is diverse today but New Jersey has been diverse since its founding. I think the aspects of New Jersey are underappreciated. Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts talk loudly about Colonial and Revolutionary things but actually more happened here. Plus, there’s more diversity of architecture here than there is in any of the other states. But the state does not promote anything about New Jersey history.”
“New Jersey’s Colonial Architecture Told in 100 Buildings” is available at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.
Help the Homeless
This sweet, beautiful, young girl is Sissy Clayton from Eleventh Hour Rescue. She has lots of love to give and she’s not shy about sharing her affection. Unfortunately, her previous owners neglected her and left her behind to fend for herself. She was starving and lost much of her hair due to malnutrition. Today, she has made a full recovery from her past and she is ready to find that special home now. If you have lots of love to give and are willing to receive that love back to you 10 times over, come see what a sweetie Sissy Clayton is. To read more about her, to see all of the adoptable pets and upcoming events, visit www.ehrdogs.org or call 973-664-0865.
Morristown group’s volunteers sworn in
The Honorable Catherine I. Enright, Presiding Family Court Judge of the Morris/Sussex Vicinage swore in 11 volunteers as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). The new volunteers include Miriam Boylan (Rockaway), Kristen Dawson (Rockaway), Sue Enright (Netcong), Jack Marks (Brookside), Matthew Milone (Flanders), Denise Postlethwaite (Morristown), Lisa Scott (Denville), Siobhan Sharkey (Ledgewood) and Cheryl Wallace (Oak Ridge), Mary Jo Saunders (Morristown) and Michelle Bent (Livingston).
Mountain Lakes resident honored
The Lake Drive Foundation for Children Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Mountain Lakes recently recognized Rainer Mimberg of Mountain Lakes for his contributions at their annual “For the Babies Gala.”
Madison Rotary donates to the Y
The Board of the Madison Rotary Club donated $12,000 to the Madison Area YMCA’s Annual Campaign. Diane Mann, President & CEO of the Madison Area YMCA, Deborah Farrar Starker, VP of Madison Rotary and Sharon Kunas, Madison Area YMCA Senior Director of Organization Advancement accepted the donation from Madison Rotary President Camper Bull.
Lovejoy of Riverdale helps raise awareness
Riverdale resident Jalyn Lovejoy raised $570 to say ‘Thank you’ to NewBridge Services so others can get help like she did. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Lovejoy, headed to Centenary College in the fall, made and sold green rainbow loom bracelets.
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Same course, new cast of players at Pinehurst
PINEHURST, N.C. — The sounds at Pinehurst No. 2 were the first indication that the second week of U.S. Open golf would not be exactly the same as the first one.
Players arrived on the first day of practice to hear clanging from workers tearing down half of the grandstands around the 17th and 18th greens. They heard the whoosh of water coming from a hose that watered the greens to keep them softer.
That didn’t make the stage for the U.S. Women’s Open feel any smaller.
“We play good golf courses, but sometimes we don’t play great golf courses,” said Juli Inkster, playing the Women’s Open for the 35th time. “It seems the men play great golf courses week in and week out. I think when we come here, we’re maybe a little more appreciative of playing a great golf course. It’s in fabulous shape. I really didn’t know what to expect, us playing after the men. And it’s turned out great.
“You can’t even tell that the men were here the week before — except for the huge tents and everything.”
The U.S. Women’s Open gets started Thursday in golf’s version of a doubleheader. Just four days after Martin Kaymer won the U.S. Open with the second-lowest score in history (271), it’s the women’s turn.
Everyone from the 53-year-old Inkster to 11-year-old Lucy Li will get a crack on a Donald Ross course fresh on the minds of golf fans who watched the U.S. Open last week.
“Last week with the men, they proved that under par is possible,” defending champion Inbee Park said. “So yeah, we should go out there and try to shoot under par.”
It’s the first time the men and women have competed on the same golf course for a major in back-to-back weeks.
Pinehurst No. 2 will play at 6,649 for the women — just over 900 yards shorter than for the men — though it most likely won’t play as long as the card indicated, just as it didn’t a week ago.
The plan is for the greens to be the same speed, except a lot less firm. Even though a shorter course should allow the women to use the same clubs, the majority do not hit the ball as high or with as much spin.
And then there are the optional extras.
Reg Jones, the senior director of both U.S. Opens, said bleachers around the 18th green that seated 4,077 seats now are big enough for 1,560 fans. Six supplemental concession stands have closed.
The USGA refers to this doubleheader as a celebration of women’s golf. It sounds a bit more like an experiment.
No one is sure what to expect.
Cristie Kerr, who won her U.S. Women’s Open up the road at Pine Needles in 2007, already was concerned about the weed-filled sandy areas that replaced thick rough. Kaymer last week hit a 7-iron from 202 yards out of the scrub area to 5 feet for eagle on No. 5, one of the more pivotal shots of his blowout win.
“The native areas — the ‘stuff’ they were calling it last week — that’s going to play a lot tougher for us than it is for the men,” Kerr said. “We’re hitting longer clubs out of it than the men are. We’re not hitting down on it as much.
“So it plays tougher for us. They wanted us to hit the same clubs into the greens as the men. But I have to tell you, we’re hitting longer clubs into the greens than the men and we don’t spin it as much.”
What will that mean to a sixth-grade girl?
Li has been the biggest attraction this week as the youngest qualifier in U.S. Women’s Open history, and with a chance to become the youngest player to make the cut. Marlene Bauer was 13 when she tied for 14th in the 1947 U.S. Women’s Open in Greensboro.
“The perfect week? I just want to go out there and have fun and play the best I can,” Li said. “And I really don’t care about the outcome.”
The biggest fear was the amount of divots left behind from the men, though that doesn’t appear to be a problem.
“We really feel like we’re well-positioned for a great championship this week,” USGA executive director Mike Davis said.
The biggest concern is making sure the greens don’t get so crusty from temperatures expected to approach 100 degrees that it’s impossible for balls to stay on the green.
As soon as the U.S. Open ended, the maintenance staff applied water to the greens in four-minute cycles, three times a day. It plans to water the greens every night.
“They’ve obviously chucked a lot of waters on the greens since Sunday,” said Laura Davies after her practice round Tuesday. “I didn’t have one shot bounce crazy off the back of the green. I think we all thought that it should have been the other way around — we all felt we should have come here first and then the guys.
“But I think the USGA has got it spot on. Because they have turned the course around … and gone from a Sunday of a U.S. Open to having it play really fair at the moment.
“I’m sure by next Sunday it will be hard and bouncy, and we’re all going to be complaining like we always do.”
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$12K a Day: How White Liberals Profit From Pushing ‘White Privilege’
Jake Dima / @dima_jake / Peter Hasson / @peterjhasson / July 30, 2019
Left-wing academic Robin DiAngelo, who is white, charged the University of Kentucky $12,000 for a two-hour “Racial Justice Keynote and breakout session.” (Photo: noipornpan/Getty Images)
White liberal academics can earn more in a day lecturing about their own “white privilege” than the median black household makes in three months, public records obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation and Census Bureau data show.
Left-wing academic Robin DiAngelo is renowned in social justice circles for crafting the “white privilege checklist” and for coining the term “white fragility.” Listening to her speak comes at a steep price.
DiAngelo, who is white, charged the University of Kentucky $12,000, not counting travel expenses, housing accommodations, and meals, for a two-hour “Racial Justice Keynote and breakout session” in March, according to a copy of the speaking contract obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation through public records requests.
“Dr. DiAngelo’s schedule cannot accommodate phone calls related to services,” the contract states, instructing that all communications be sent via email or through DiAngelo’s assistant. “If phone calls are deemed necessary, they will be charged at a rate of $320 per hour.”
DiAngelo’s fee for the event was more than a quarter of the annual median income for black families, which is just over $40,000, according to U.S. Census data.
The description for the two-hour event said DiAngelo would be talking about her book, “White Fragility: Why Is It So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism?”
Her website defines “white fragility” as “a state in which even a minimal challenge to the white position becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive responses. These responses function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and maintain white control.”
The consulting and keynotes section of DiAngelo’s website says her lectures take an “anti-racist” approach based on ideas.
“Racism is the foundation of Western society; we are socialized into a racial hierarchy,” it says. It also touts her “expertise” in “clearly and accessibly presenting information that is politically and emotionally charged.”
The author is in high demand: DiAngelo’s website says she’s booked through March 2020. Tickets for a half-day workshop she led in San Francisco earlier this month started at $130 for adults and $65 for kids.
DiAngelo’s fee typically runs between $10,000 and $15,000, a city official in Everett, Washington, where DiAngelo keynoted a conference in April, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The city government promoted the conference on its website, but the official said all costs were covered by an outside nonprofit, Communities of Color Coalition. The nonprofit didn’t return The Daily Caller News Foundation’s inquiries.
DiAngelo’s clients include Amazon, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hollywood Writer’s Guild, the YMCA Seattle Public Schools, and the city of Oakland, among others, according to her website.
DiAngelo did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
Left-wing academic Tim Wise, author of the book “White Like Me,” charges handsome speaking fees that rival DiAngelo’s.
A speaker’s booking agency lists Wise’s speaking fee in the $10,000-$20,000 range. Wise told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email that his asking fee is typically limited to $10,000, “unless I am doing multiple events at a venue.”
Wise added that the agency, which receives 25% of his fees, “puts money back into grassroots organizing and leadership development led by individuals and groups of color.”
“So between that, and the fact that they promote an overwhelming share of [people of color] on their roster, my working through them actually helps to amplify the voices of people of color, not just my own,” he said.
The University of Michigan, a taxpayer-funded institution, paid Wise $10,000 to speak at a Martin Luther King Jr. symposium in January, public records show.
“I am brought in, in almost all cases, by people of color on campuses: staff, faculty, or students of color,” Wise told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “They are the ones making the decision to bring me in, and pay me, typically because they surmise (probably quite accurately) that it would be helpful to have a white voice speaking to these issues, rather than having to always do the heavy lifting themselves, or leave it up to folks of color to be the ones educating others about issues of racism.”
“In other words, I am responding to the decision by people of color in most cases to have a white speaker like myself come and add my voice to a conversation they are already leading in most instances,” he said.
In most all of these cases, the schools have also brought in people of color throughout the year to speak to these matters, but feel that it is not pedagogically helpful to give the impression that these are just black and brown folks’ issues, or things about which white folks shouldn’t be speaking out, too.
One can agree or disagree with their thinking on this matter, but at least let’s be clear: It is people of color who are making that call, and I tend to assume they know the climate on their campuses better than I do. If they think I can be helpful, so be it. This is why they request me when they do. It is what they say explicitly to me, and to my agency/organization.
Wise added that “if a school wants to have an event with me and a person of color, perhaps in conversation, that if my fee is normally higher than the other person’s that they must either raise that person’s fee to meet mine, or if they can’t afford that, I will lower mine to meet theirs.”
“Most of the time the people of color with whom I’ve done these actually charge more than me, or the same, so this becomes moot. But it has always been my policy that if the person of color would normally have made less, I insist on leveling the pay structure,” he said.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email [email protected].
Jake Dima
@dima_jake
Jake Dima is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
@peterjhasson
Peter Hasson
Peter J. Hasson is a reporter for The Daily Caller.
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Pistons in the 2010s: Top stories from the past decade
Rod Beard
Detroit News sports writer Rod Beard ranks the most notable events during the past decade for the Pistons:
1. Gores buys the team
Bill Davidson’s widow, Karen, agreed to sell the team for a reported $325 million to billionaire Tom Gores. The deal included the team, The Palace of Auburn Hills and other music venues, an investment that has increased significantly since the 2011 purchase.
2. Return to the city
In 2016, Gores announced the Pistons were moving from The Palace to join the Red Wings at the newly built Little Caesars Arena. That brought all four professional sports teams within a one-mile radius in downtown Detroit. This season, they moved their headquarters and practice facility to Midtown; the Palace is slated to be demolished and redeveloped.
3. Big splash
In January 2018, the Pistons got their best player of the decade, trading with the Los Angeles Clippers for Blake Griffin and his five-year deal worth $171 million. Griffin was an All-NBA selection in 2019 but injuries have limited his production and potential trade value this season.
4. Coaching carousel
Futility brought instability and the Pistons had five coaches in a six-year span: John Kuester (57 wins), Lawrence Frank (54), Maurice Cheeks (21), John Loyer (eight), Stan Van Gundy (152) and Dwane Casey (53 and counting). Only Van Gundy (44 wins in ’16) finished above .500.
5. Changes at the top
Of the six coaches, Van Gundy had the longest tenure (four years), as head coach and team president. He flipped the roster he inherited that won just 29 games in 2014 and got them back to the playoffs, but made risky trades and signings that didn’t pan out.
6. The draft decision
In the 2017 draft, the Pistons had the 12th pick and selected Luke Kennard over Donovan Mitchell. Kennard has become a solid starter this season, but Mitchell has blossomed with the Utah Jazz into one of the best young players in the league.
7. Draft decision II
In 2015, the Pistons were looking to reconstruct the roster under Van Gundy and fill a hole at small forward. They took Arizona’s Stanley Johnson and passed over Kentucky guard Devin Booker, who has become a prolific scorer and foundation for the Phoenix Suns’ rebuild.
8. The big signing
In 2013, the Pistons were looking to make a splash in free agency and signed Josh Smith to a four-year deal for $54 million. Smith was a poor fit to a front line that included Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe. Van Gundy waived Smith the next season and stretched the remainder of the salary over five years, which ends this summer.
9. Maxing on Drummond
After letting Monroe leave in free agency and getting nothing in return, the Pistons decided to build around Drummond, their first-round pick in 2012. At age 22, he signed a five-year deal worth $127 million and remains the longest-tenured Piston, though he can opt out of his deal after this season.
10. Clash with the Cavaliers
In their best season of the decade — 2015-16 — the Pistons had 44 wins, and as the eighth seed faced LeBron James and the Cavs in a tightly contested four-game series, with two losses by single digits. The Cavs continued to win the NBA title, topping the Golden State Warriors in seven games.
Complete decade look-backs
Tigers | Lions | Red Wings | Pistons | UM athletics | MSU athletics
rod.beard@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard
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Historically Low 2014 Voter Turnout - Why?
General election voter turnout for the 2014 midterms was the lowest it's been in any election cycle since World War II, according to the United States Election Project. Just 36.4 percent of the voting-eligible population cast ballots on November 4, 2014.
The last time voter turnout was so low during a midterm cycle was in 1942, when only 33.9 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. Like many, I'm asking the question - why did only 36.4 percent of potential voters bother to vote in the 2014 midterm election? Obviously, those voters didn't have a good enough reason to take the trouble to vote.
Gaining some understanding of why almost two-thirds of potential voters were unmotivated to vote for candidates of any political party is the first step to planning campaign strategy for the 2016 election cycle. A Campaign for America's Future Op-Ed, by Campaign for America's Future Fellow Dave Johnson, perhaps provides a lead in examining the root causes of the historically low 2014 voter turnout - at least on the Democratic Party side. Op-Ed Excerpts:
Democrats were considered the majority party from the time of Roosevelt’s New Deal until the 1980s. All they had to do to win was to get a high enough voter turnout. Democratic operations were more about Get Out The Vote (GOTV) than giving people reasons to vote for Democrats instead of Republicans. They just assumed most people agreed with them – because most people agreed with them. But that time has passed.
In the 1970s corporations and conservatives launched a major marketing push, establishing a network of PR “think tanks” that pushed a neoliberal economic line. Since the mid-1970s Americans have been subjected to a constant drumbeat through all purchasable information channels – even a whole TV network that blasts out right-wing propaganda 24/7/12/365 – all constantly repeating a professionally-crafted propaganda narrative that conservatives and their values are good and “liberals” and their values are bad.
Instead of responding and countering this, most Democratic candidates and officeholders instead tried moving to where their pollsters perceived the pubic to be on an imagined political spectrum. Conservatives pushed the public right, no one responded to the propaganda, Democrats chased the inevitable result. In this environment the country’s politics could only shift rightward – and voters who did not want to vote for “Pepsi-like” candidates to the right of them stopped turning out.
So corporate, neo-liberal policies came to dominate our economy. “Free trade”, anti-union, monopolistic anti-democracy policies have killed wage growth and government programs for regular, working people and regular, working people have responded by turning away from the party that was supposed to be watching out for them.
Dave Dayen sums this up at The Fiscal Times, in “The So-So Society: Democrats Have Forgotten What Made Them Great.” (Click through to see his list of potential solutions Democrats could offer.)
This is not the Democratic Party of your great-grandfather’s New Deal or your grandfather’s Great Society. The takeover of the party by more business-friendly interests — which ironically (or perhaps not) dates back to right around 1973, when wages decoupled from productivity — necessarily impoverishes the imagination around issues of economic security and prosperity.
William Greider drives it home at The Nation, in “How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul: The trouble started when the party abandoned its working-class base.“
Instead of addressing this reality and proposing remedies, the Democrats ran on a cowardly, uninspiring platform: the Republicans are worse than we are. Undoubtedly, that’s true—but so what? The president and his party have no credible solutions to offer. To get serious about inequality and the deteriorating middle class, Democrats would have to undo a lot of the damage their own party has done to the economy over the past thirty years.
As Democrats embraced neoliberal “market solution” arguments and moved away from representing the interests of working-class and middle-class voters, many of those voters had nowhere left to turn and simply stopped voting.
A majority of people can’t stand the Republican party’s policies, its divisiveness and nastiness, its racism and the way it is absolutely and completely owned and operated by the 1 percent – particularly oil companies and Wall Street.
Poll after poll shows the public favoring the policy positions that used to be ascribed to [liberal] Democrats, including taxing the rich and corporations to provide good schools, infrastructure, services and benefits to regular working and middle-class Americans (see PopulistMajority.org). In the 2014 election, Democratic candidates distanced themselves from these popular progressive [liberal] policies, and their own president! The result is many people no longer bother to show up and vote [- Democrat or Republican]. Almost 64 percent of potential voters just stayed home.
In “Who Will Save the Democratic Party From Itself?” Thomas Edsall looks at the bigger picture of whether Democrats can use economic arguments to challenge the party’s current strategy of “identity group" mobilization. The identity group mobilization strategy assumes that turning out single women, the youth vote, and racial and ethnic minorities is more effective than to talking about policy priorities of interest to working-class and middle-class voters - largely identified as recalcitrant white middle and working class voters forever lost to the Republican Party. The problem with Democrats just writing off white middle and working class voters is that they are large portion the 64 percent of the potential voters who didn't vote.
Posted by Michael Handley at 11:42 AM
Charting 2014 Collin County Turnout
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Downsizing the Federal Government
Your Guide to Cutting Federal Spending
Federal Policy Basics
Spending Charts
MagLev: The Idea Whose Time Never Came
Randal O'Toole
Superconducting magnetic levitation is the “next generation of transportation,” says a new rail advocacy group that calls itself The Northeast Maglev (TNEM). The group’s proposed New York-Washington maglev line has received attention from the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun. TNEM’s claims might have seemed valid 80 years ago, when maglev trains were first conceived, but today maglev is just one more superexpensive technology that can’t compete with what we already have.
Superconducting maglev train being tested in Japan. Wikimedia commons photo by Yosemite.
Maglev has all the defects of conventional high-speed rail with the added bonuses of higher costs and greater energy requirements. Unlike automobiles on roads, rails don’t go where you want to go when you want to go there. Compared with planes, even the fastest trains are slow, and modest improvements in airport security would do far more to speed travelers, at a far lower cost, than building expensive new rail infrastructure.
TNEM’s proposal is to use a new maglev technology called electrodynamic suspension using superconducting magnets. Ignoring the gee-whiz terminology, the basic advantage is that it is supposed to be able to go a little faster than previous maglevs, but with the disadvantage that the levitation fails to work at slow speeds so wheels must be added to the carriages.
Japan plans to use this technology to build a line from Tokyo to Osaka that won’t be completed for 14 more years and is estimated to cost $350 million per mile. That compares with Amtrak’s proposal to rebuild the Boston-to-Washington corridor into a true high-speed rail route at a cost of about $250 million per mile. To be fair, Japan’s cost is high partly because they expect to dig tunnels for much of the route. But even TNEM estimates that a Baltimore-Washington segment would cost “somewhere north of $10 billion,” or about the same, per mile, as Amtrak’s plan. Such early estimates are always well below final costs.
Maglev’s advantage over conventional high-speed rail is supposed to be that levitated vehicles can be frictionlessly propelled at high speeds. But that doesn’t mean they are energy-efficient: it takes a lot of energy to levitate a train car full of people. One study by a pro-rail group estimated that maglev would require several times more energy per passenger mile as conventional rail technology and have the least effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Rail advocates point to “successful” high-speed rail lines in Europe and Asia. But one point escapes their attention: high-speed trains have succeeded in capturing passengers away from low-speed trains, but nowhere have they captured significant numbers of passengers from cars or planes.
When Japan opened its first high-speed rail line in 1964, rails accounted for 70 percent of the nation’s passenger travel. Today, it has many more high-speed lines, but rails account for well under 30 percent of passenger travel. Similarly, in 1980, before any high-speed rail had been built in Europe, rails accounted for 8 percent of western European passenger travel. Today, with high-speed trains in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and other countries, rails account for about 6 percent of passenger travel.
The only truly high-speed maglev line in operation connects the Shanghai airport to downtown Shanghai, 19 miles away. Though the train has a top speed of 268 mph, it attracts enough passengers to fill only about 20 percent of its seats because, people say, it doesn’t go where they want to go.
Rail advocates argue that, given travel times to and from airports, high-speed rail can be competitive with air for downtown-to-downtown trips. But most people no longer live or work near downtowns. Given multiple airports around Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities, most people are still going to find air travel faster, not to mention less expensive (unless taxpayers also subsidize rail operating costs). The main people who work downtown today are bankers, lawyers, government bureaucrats, and lobbyists–not exactly the first people you think of when asked who deserves a transportation subsidy from taxpayers.
So if taxpayers spend $117 billion on Amtrak’s plan for high-speed rail between Boston and Washington, or $165 billion on a maglev line over the same route, we can expect that nearly all the passengers on these trains will be people who would have otherwise taken earlier Amtrak trains. To cover operating costs, fares will be so high that only the wealthy will ride the trains: While Megabus charges about $15 to go from New York to Washington, Amtrak currently charges about $150 to ride its Acela over the same route, and that $150 doesn’t pay for the capital or maintenance costs needed to keep the trains running.
Meanwhile, Eric Jaffe at The Atlantic argues that Republicans killed Obama’s high-speed rail plan simply in order to discredit the administration. In fact, Obama’s plan would have been a fiscal disaster, ultimately costing taxpayers close to $1 trillion to provide a disconnected transportation system that few would have used. While the Interstate Highway System, which was entirely self-funded out of gas taxes and other user fees, connects all major urban areas and carries about 20 percent of all passenger travel and more than 10 percent of all freight in the United States, Obama’s high-speed rail system would have been lucky to carry 1 percent of passenger travel.
New transportation technologies are successful when they are faster, more convenient, and less expensive than existing technologies. Maglev and conventional high-speed rail are less convenient than driving, slower than flying, and far more expensive than either. Far being an idea whose time has arrived, they are an idea that has already left the station.
Federal Departments
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The Forest Service
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Refocusing U.S. Defense Strategy
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2010 Health Care Legislation
Terminating the DHS
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Reforming Federal Land Management
Indian Lands and Indian Subsidies
Failures of Unemployment Insurance
Employment and Training Programs
Reforming Labor Union Laws
The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws
Social Security Retirement
Supplemental Security Income
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Other Agencies and Programs
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cedwards@cato.og
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Ponder the multiverse in this clip from 'The Man in the High Castle' season 3
By Nick Hastings October 6, 2017
So far, New York Comic Con has been very kind to fans of Philip K. Dick, the legendary science fiction author whose works inspired popular (and occasionally groundbreaking) films such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and A Scanner Darkly.
In addition to blessing us with the first trailer for upcoming anthology series Electric Dreams, NYCC 2017 marked the debut of our second official look (following a teaser which dropped in January) at The Man in the High Castle‘s third season, in the form of a three-minute clip (viewable above).
In the clip, SS Obergruppenführer John Smith (Rufus Sewell) meets with a Nazi scientist who is overseeing experimentation on a young film courier, Fatima Hassan. The scientist explains to Smith that the woman is a “traveler” — a version of Hassan from an alternate reality within the “multiverse” — and provides evidence for his claim (along with the film reel she was carrying prior to her capture).
The existence of alternate realities is a recurring thread in High Castle, featuring most prominently early in the first season and acting as a catalyst to bring together lead characters. Season two ended with Smith taking command of the Third Reich alongside Heinrich Himmler following a coup which exposed a nefarious plot by Martin Heusmann against Japan; we’re curious to see whether he decides to investigate these “travelers” further, given his newfound power. The film reel taken from the “traveler” could also play a prominent role, especially considering the final scene of season 2, where Smith gains access to the film collection of the late führer.
For those unaware, The Man in the High Castle is a 1962 alternative history novel, in which Dick explores a hypothetical scenario where the Axis powers prevailed in World War II, thus subjecting the United States to the oppressive regimes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Alexa Davalos (Defiance), Rupert Evans (Hellboy [2004]), and Luke Kleintank (Pretty Little Liars) star in the series.
In 2015, we had our first look at Amazon’s television adaptation of the novel at Comic-Con (though it was the San Diego flagship convention). In the years since, the series has become one of the most popular Amazon originals, rivaling acclaimed shows like Transparent in terms of popularity and reputation. Season 3 will arrive sometime in 2018.
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Don’t forget: WandaVision premieres on Disney+ on Friday
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Entropic
David Lyle
Entropic to explore strategic alternatives
Company Updates Financial Guidance for Q3 2014
SAN DIEGO — Entropic (Nasdaq:ENTR), a world leader in semiconductor solutions for the connected home, today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the evaluation of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value.
The Board intends to consider a wide range of alternatives available to the Company. The Company has engaged investment bank Barclays in connection with its efforts.
“Our Board of Directors and management are committed to taking the appropriate steps to enhance value for Entropic shareholders and we have determined that undertaking a thorough and deliberative evaluation of strategic alternatives, with the assistance of financial advisors, is in the best interests of the Company and all of our shareholders,” said Patrick Henry, president and chief executive officer, Entropic. “The entire Entropic team is fully committed to meeting the needs of our OEM customers and service provider partners and we will continue to provide them with industry-leading solutions for connected home entertainment throughout this process.”
There can be no assurance that the Board’s exploration of strategic alternatives will result in a transaction. The Company has not set a timetable for completion of this process and does not intend to disclose further developments unless and until its Board approves a specific action or otherwise concludes the review of strategic alternatives.
Business and Guidance Update
Entropic also announced revised financial guidance for the third quarter of 2014. Due primarily to less seasonal strength than was anticipated in the Company’s Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) Outdoor Unit (ODU) business, and to a lesser degree further weakness in legacy set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) products, Entropic now expects revenue for the third quarter to be approximately $43 million. The Company is making good progress on its previously announced restructuring plan and cost reduction efforts and therefore expects to be on the lower end of its previous guidance for operating expenses. The Company now expects non-GAAP loss per share of approximately $0.15, and GAAP loss per share of approximately $0.28, for the third quarter.
“We will give financial guidance for the fourth quarter on our next earnings call at the end of October, but based on our current forecast, we expect continued softness in the fourth quarter as we are again seeing new product deployment delays,” said David Lyle, chief financial officer, Entropic.
“Although we believe we have executed well on the product development front and have compelling products in the pipeline, delays in service provider product launches and shifts in service provider deployment architectures continue to affect our financial results,” said Mr. Henry. “We have won some key designs, and taken positive steps to lower our break-even and accelerate our path to profitability, but our transition is taking longer than anticipated. We remain focused on executing on the strategic and operational initiatives we announced earlier this year and returning the company to profitability.”
MaxLinear announces Second Quarter 2015 results
Entropic MoCA 1.1 designed into Coship Gateways and Adapters for China
MaxLinear to acquire Entropic
Entropic discontinues set-top box SoC product development
Telefónica chooses Eagle Kingdom for PlayBOX OTT STB
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Home > Events > Mexico > Guanajuato > San Miguel de Allende > Tours > Guided Tours of El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden - January 21, 2021
Guided Tours of El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden - January 21, 2021
Event Category: ToursEvent Tags: Hiking, Natural Wonders, Parks and Gardens, and Recreation
10 to 12 Noon
NATURAL HISTORY TOURS AT THE BOTANICAL GARDEN (en Inglés)
Tour of the Natural History for El Jardin Botanico (English)
Thursdays from 10am to noon; General public: 200 pesos; 100 pesos members
Guided tours to the points of greatest interest in the conservation area, by a trained guide. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting at 10 am. Private tours available by appointment.
Much of San Miguel’s splendor can be discovered in its abundance of man made beauty, but at El Charco del Ingenio, nature is the aesthetic draw. At this more than 170-acre botanical garden set in an ecological preserve, you’ll have the chance to spot wildlife, walk along greenery-lined trails and learn about various species of local cacti. Meanwhile, the San Miguel community often gathers in the garden to watch performances, partake in ceremonies and attend environmental education programs. Recent travelers recommend enjoying a hike through the park, picnicking alongside the waterfalls or spending an evening at a concert in the outdoor amphitheater.
Located just a mile northeast of central San Miguel, El Charco del Ingenio can be reached on foot (it’s about a 30-minute walk from the municipal market) or by taxi. The reserve is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Led by English-speaking guides, two-hour tours of the conservation area operate on Thursdays at 10 a.m.; tours cost 200 MXN. For more information, visit the garden’s website
The Jardín Botánico El Charco del Ingenio, located just outside of town, offers a 220-acre sanctuary for birds and wildlife. Considered a key recreational zone for San Miguel de Allende’s residents, the Jardin’s visitors follow trails that take them past towering cacti, over a canyon and through a wetlands. The Conservatory of Mexican Plants here houses numerous exotic and endangered species. You can also opt to take a tour of the facility, offered every Tuesday.
1 Review on “Guided Tours of El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden - January 21, 2021”
Richard Aspell Guided Tours of El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden November 9, 2020 at 4:56 pm
My sister, a permanent resident, and I ,a snowbird, were the first to go on the guided tour since they were suspended due to the Pandemic. We had a wonderful time with a very knowledgeable and engaging tour guide. Michael is well versed in geology, botany, ornithology, and a fair amount of lepidoptery as well. It was a wonderful tour and I highly recommend it. It’s nice to know more about your neighborhood and who lives there be it animal, mineral, or plant.
Author :El Charco
5 / 5 based on 1 review
Guided Tours of El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden
January 21, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
February 4, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
February 11, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
March 4, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
March 11, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
April 1, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
April 15, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
May 6, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
May 13, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
June 3, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
June 10, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
July 1, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
August 5, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
August 12, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
September 2, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
September 16, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
October 7, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
October 14, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
November 4, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
November 11, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
December 2, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
December 16, 2021 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Category: Tours
Address: Paloma 14
Go to: El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden
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Published: 24th July 2019
Naveen Patnaik approves 5T action plan for better access to Higher Education
The Department will also include a new provision of income criteria in the existing guidelines for distribution of laptops among meritorious students every year
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
With an aim to ensure better service delivery to the public in the Higher Education sector, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik approved 5T action plan for the Higher Education Department.
The 5Ts aim at achieving progress through Transparency, Teamwork, Technology, Time and Transformation. The action plan includes a number of new initiatives including the creation of a 'Mo College' platform in line with State Government's 'Mo School' campaign to allow alumni and other interested individuals contribute to the development of the college.
As per the action plan, the Department will also include a new provision of income criteria in the existing guidelines for distribution of laptops among meritorious students every year. This is to exclude students from well-to-do families availing the scheme's benefit. It will implement a uniform transfer policy for both the teaching and non-teaching staff of government-run higher educational institutions.
The Scholarship Guidelines will be changed and merit list prepared at district as well as block-level to ensure that all meritorious students from local areas get the benefit. A scholarship council will also be formed to maintain transparency in its distribution.
Meanwhile, the universities and colleges have been asked to excel in at least one or two subjects and work towards improving their ranking at the national level to attract more students from across the country and abroad.
The department will also work towards opening career counselling cells and strengthening those which have already been established.
Exposure visit of students and faculties outside the state plan is also in the pipeline. It will also take measures to train and enhance the skill of urban poor students, stated a letter issued by the High Education Department to schools across the State.
As part of the new Mantra of the CM, the Department will monitor attendance of faculties to ensure that they perform 7-hour duty every day. The minimum 75 per cent attendance of students will also be made compulsory for appearing exams from the next academic session.
Education Naveen Patnaik Technology Mo School college Scholarship
This Andhra vet is treating every animal from pythons to leopards on the spot
E-commerce portal Penguin Kart's 'out-of-the-box' products will have you hooked in no time
Institute of Public Enterprise bids farewell to largest batch with ex-ISRO chief Kasturirangan
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Survey Finds Majority of K-3 Teachers Feel Unity With Preschool Educators
By Marva Hinton — May 18, 2018 3 min read
Sometimes there seems to be a disconnect between educators who work with children prior to elementary school and those who teach in the early grades, but new survey results find a strong connection between the two groups.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children, or NAEYC, recently released results from a survey of more than 530 current or recent K-3 teachers. The group also conducted online, in-depth qualitative interviews with 14 K-3 teachers.
On average, two-thirds of the teachers who were surveyed viewed themselves as “early-childhood educators.” The numbers were highest among kindergarten teachers with 93 percent agreeing with that statement, while it dropped to 52 percent among 3rd grade teachers.
Lauren Hogan is NAEYC’s senior director of public policy and advocacy. She also managed the polling for this project.
She recently discussed the findings with us via email and said they show that the perceived divide between these groups is not as wide as many believe.
“My sense from this research is that K-3 teachers want to be attached to and included in ‘early-childhood education’ because they understand that it’s about a child’s development across multiple domains—cognitive, social-emotional, physical, etc.—and they know how much the young kids they work with need and will thrive with that developmentally appropriate approach,” wrote Hogan.
The survey also found that 76 percent of K-3 teachers supported the creation of a unified and aligned system of early-childhood education from birth to age 8.
Hogan said by working together these groups would be able to accomplish a lot because voters view K-12 teachers as trustworthy sources of information.
“If they were to come together more consistently with educators of children 0-5 around a shared message of the critical need to invest in early-childhood education, it would be very powerful indeed,” wrote Hogan.
Those surveyed indicated that a unified and aligned system has several potentially important outcomes such as more developmentally appropriate standards for students (92 percent) and higher wages for teachers (88 percent).
Kindergarten teachers showed the most support for a unified system with 87 percent in favor of it. But that support drops off significantly among 2nd and 3rd grade teachers to 71 and 69 percent respectively.
The survey also questioned the teachers about their thoughts on preparation programs. A small majority (54 percent) thought early-childhood educators should be required to have a four-year degree.
Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed viewed their pre-service training as “excellent” or “pretty good.” Of those who rated their preparation as “excellent,” 35 percent were certain they would stay in the profession. Only 24 percent of those who rated their preparation as “pretty good” said the same, and that number dropped to 21 percent of those who rated their preparation as “only fair/poor.”
Hogan said she found that correlation intriguing and wanted to know if teachers who described their training as excellent were more likely to remain in the profession long-term or if excellent training could influence a teacher’s commitment to the classroom.
“I think we know a lot about how much retention matters—for a teacher’s own quality of teaching, to the relationships they are able to develop with students, to school and community stability—and it’s helpful to think broadly about what we can do, from the start of a career all the way through the end, in order to help great teachers keep teaching,” wrote Hogan.
The survey was conducted by a bipartisan team of researchers including Fairbank, Maslin, Maulin, Mertz & Associates (FM3) and Public Opinion Strategies with support from the Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation.
Image by Getty
Marva Hinton
Early-Childhood Workforce
A version of this news article first appeared in the Early Years blog.
Early Childhood How Two Child-Care Centers Put Competition Aside and Created a Partnership During COVID-19
Charles Dinofrio, November 1, 2020
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Back to E&E News index page.
Harmful algae blooms increase as water warms in the world's major lakes
Erica Rex, E&E correspondent
Published: Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The warming waters of one of central Europe's most popular holiday destinations, Switzerland's Lake Zurich, have created an ideal environment for a population explosion of algae including Planktothrix rubescens, a toxic cyanobacterium. It has the potential to harm humans, animals and the tourism that pumps up the economies of lake districts.
Although harmful algal blooms have been documented for more than a century, recently the number and frequency of cases have drastically increased.
According to research published in leading scientific journals, Lake Zurich is by no means alone. Cyanobacteria now threaten the ecological well-being of some of the world's largest water bodies, including Lake Victoria in Africa, Lake Erie in the United States and Canada, Lake Taihu in China, the Baltic Sea in northern Europe, and the Caspian Sea in west Asia. They've also been found in Lake Kokotel in eastern Siberia, which is next to Lake Baikal, the world's largest, deepest and most ancient freshwater lake. Baikal contains 20 percent of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve.
Chinese pond scum
A researcher scoops up a sample of a potentially harmful algae bloom from a lake in China. Photo by Hans Paerl, courtesy of the University of North Carolina.
Cyanobacteria blooms have been associated with mass fish kills, wildlife mortality, and liver failure and irreversible neurological disease in humans.
Most algae need a lot of phosphorus to live, while others also need nitrogen. There is no better source of phosphorus than untreated sewage. Since the 1970s, local governments in Europe and elsewhere have implemented extensive sewage treatment programs.
A lake restoration program at Lake Zurich effectively eliminated phosphorus-rich pollution caused by sewage and fertilizer runoff from lakeside towns and tourist areas. Once phytoplankton and algae were deprived of a needed nutrient, scientists and hydrologists reasoned, the toxic blooms would be a thing of the past.
For a while, it seemed the lakes were once again going to be clear, safe and attractive to vacationers. But researcher Thomas Posch, a scientist at Lake Zurich's Limnological Station, part of the Institute of Plant Biology at the University of Zurich, discovered that despite decades-long remediation efforts, certain toxic phytoplankton populations are once again on the rise.
Posch has been studying Lake Zurich for more than a decade. He found that increasing average air temperatures and ensuing changes in surface water temperature have provided P. rubescens the ideal conditions to live and bloom in near-epic proportions.
"During the 1940s through the 1950s, all of the lakes in western Europe were affected by raw sewage," Posch said. "Then in the 1970s, we started to treat wastewater. Problem solved." Or, he added, so we thought. His measurements have shown that since 1990, despite the drastic decrease in phosphorus, the whole lake biomass of P. rubescens has been rising. One reason is that P. rubescens doesn't need a lot of phosphorus. It thrives on nitrogen.
"Nitrogen concentrations haven't dwindled much," Posch added. "The chemical mix of the lake now favors P. rubescens."
When circulation dies, algae bloom
Another factor paving the way for the success of P. rubescens is the change in annual lake surface temperature. The greater the temperature gradient between the cold of winter and the warmth of summer, the more lake water mixes in a natural convection current. This cycle has kept algae populations in balance for eons.
As the surface warms after a frozen winter, nutrient-rich, oxygen-depleted water at depths below 100 meters rises to the surface and reoxygenates. Warmer, oxygen-rich water circulates to the bottom, completing the cycle. But as the climate warms, the lake surface stops freezing. Once that happens, the lake waters cease to mix.
Less mixing creates an ideal environment for P. rubescens, which is photosynthetic and thrives between the water's surface and about 70 meters in depth, where sunlight is dim but still penetrates. P. rubescens is perfectly adapted anatomically to handle this environment. It has a gas vesicle that allows it to float at between 70 and 90 meters.
Under higher pressure, though, below 100 meters, the vesicle ruptures and the organism dies. In the past, normal mixing annually rotated these phytoplankton (a larger category of micro-organisms that includes cyanobacteria) below 100 meters, killing them off. Now, they're not always mixed below their survival threshold.
As Posch put it: "Lake surface warming creates a fertilizing effect." The results do not bode well, neither for Lake Zurich nor for many other lakes around the world.
Lake Garda in the southern Alps, part of a chain of deepwater lakes in northern Italy, also has a thriving population of P. rubescens. Nico Salmaso, a researcher at the Limnology and Fresh Water Ecology research group at Fondazione Edmund Mach, an agrarian institution, has studied this lake for many years. He says P. rubescens constitutes 85 percent of the cyanobacterial biomass found in the lake.
The health of Lake Garda and its neighbors in Italy's northern Lake District, including lakes Como, Orta and Maggiore, is the foundation of the area's economy.
"Lake Garda alone brings in over 25 million tourists a year," Salmaso said. And then there is the much larger Lake Como, which also has a seasonal cyanobacterial bloom. Its presence, and the presence of other phytoplankton, makes lake water appear muddy and unappealing.
"All of these lakes were once oligotrophic," Salmaso said, meaning low nutrient concentrations, little plant growth, not supporting life. "The only way to control the cyanobacteria is by controlling the external nutrient load."
A successful remediation effort at Lake Maggiore has restored that lake to near-oligotrophic status. With the help of a huge inflow of money from the European and Italian governments, residents and visitors hope to see the same in Lake Garda.
A toxic legacy
P. rubescens and its close cousins in the algae and phytoplankton world, including several other kinds of cyanobacteria, threaten people in ways that are far more serious than soupy-appearing waters.
"Cyanobacteria produce hepatotoxins as well as neurotoxins," Salmaso said. "There is huge concern at the European level in different [subalpine] lake typologies. In Europe, animals are already dying in certain badly affected lakes. A little cyanotoxin can go a long way, and you don't want that."
Lake Atitlán
Satellite photo of an algae bloom in Guatemala's mile-high Lake Atitlan. Photo courtesy of NASA.
Cyanobacteria are also now suspected to be at the root of major neurological diseases, long thought to be caused by inherited genetic mutation.
In a landmark scientific paper, researcher Paul Cox and his colleagues, now at the Institute for EthnoMedicine in Jackson, Wyo., found that cyanobacteria produce a neurotoxic amino acid known as BMAA. It has been found in the brains of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Epidemiologically speaking, this correlation is hardly far-fetched.
In areas surrounding Lake Mascoma in New Hampshire, researchers mapping new ALS cases found the prevalence of the disease to be 10 to 25 times the normal rate among patients who lived in areas with known cyanobacterial blooms. In southern France, where a substantial cluster of ALS cases has occurred, researchers found high BMAA levels in oysters, a favorite local delicacy, which concentrate the toxin.
Although scientists shy away from ascribing direct causality between particular micro-organisms and a specific cluster of disease outbreaks, it is clear to many observers that climate change is making the world a friendlier place to some organisms that can cause harm. The evidence for a causal effect between cyanobacteria and the incidence of ALS, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease is slowly but surely mounting.
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Andrew Wheeler has some advice for Biden EPA
What will become of Trump's statue garden?
Interior IG launches inquiry into agency's role in Jan. 6 chaos
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📝 MCQ
💡 Basics
Basic Electrical
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Page 19 of 63. Go to page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63
01․ The electric field at a point situated at a distance d from straight charged conductor is
proportional to d.
inversely proportional to d.
inversely proportional to d2.
none of above.
The electric field at a point if the conductor length is infinite is as follows; Hence, the electric field is inversely proportional to distance d.
02․ The presence of an uncharged conductor near a charged one increases the
charge of the charged conductor.
capacity of the charged conductor.
potential of the charged conductor.
all of the above.
The presence of an uncharged conductor near a charged conductor would make a condenser or a capacitor. Whenever, the charge increases then the capacity of the charged conductor would also increase.
03․ Which field is associated with the capacitor?
Magnetic.
Electric.
Both of (A) and (B).
Capacitor has dielectric medium with it. In dielectric medium, there would be a chance to create an electric field.
04․ An equipotential surface is one which has all points at _____________ potential.
different.
none of them.
Equipotential surface means potential is constant everywhere. No work is done to move a charge. The equipotential surface are thus orthogonal to the direction of lines of electric field.
05․ A positive and a negative charged conductor are initially 50 mm apart. When they are moved close together so that they are now only 10 mm apart, the force between them will be
5 times smaller than before.
5 times greater than before.
25 times larger than before.
10 times greater than before.
According to the coulombs law the attraction force between a positive and a negative electric charge is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their center. Here distance is decreased by 5 times, so force would have been decreased by 25 times.
06․ When a dielectric is placed in an electric field the field strength
decreases.
increases.
reduce to zero.
An applied electric field would polarize the material by orienting the dipole moments of polar molecules. This dielectric medium decreases the effective electric field intensity between the plates and it would increase the capacitance of the parallel plate capacitor.
07․ Electric flux is proportional to
potential difference between electrodes.
resistivity of medium.
rate of change of potential difference.
rate of change of current.
We know that the formula for capacitance is C = Q / V, this becomes Q = C × V. Hence, this expression is clearly says that the electric flux or charge ‘Q’ is directly proportional to potential difference ‘V’.
08․ An electric field can deflect
gamma-rays.
x-rays.
alpha particles.
neutrons.
X-rays are EM waves and they would not be deflected by electric field. Neutrons are not charged. Alpha particles are charged. Thus, alpha particles could be deflected by electric field, because only charged particles could interact with electric field.
09․ The unit of electric field intensity is
N / C.
N / Ampere.
F / m.
F/ m2.
Electric field intensity is the force experienced by a unit positive charge by another one charge. Hence, E = F / Q . Therefore, the unit of electric field is Newton per Coulomb.
10․ A 2m long conductor, carries a current of 50 A at a magnetic field of 100 × 10 − 3 T. The force on the conductor is
10 N.
100 N.
1000 N.
10000 N.
The magnetic of the force on the conductor, F in the case of conductor of length l meter arranged at right angles to the magnetic field B tesla and carrying a current I, is given by F = BIL = 100×10-3×50×2 = 10 N.
<<<1718192021>>>
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University of Essex lecturer and ‘giant of political science’ Professor Anthony King dies aged 82
Adam Howlett
Professor Anthony King, from the University of Essex's Department of Government, has died aged 82 - Credit: Archant
Tributes have been paid to ‘giant of political science’ Professor Anthony King - one of the University of Essex’s longest-serving members of staff - who has died at the age of 82.
Government "Founding fathers" - Professor Anthony King from University of Essex on Vimeo.
Professor King, who lectured in Government and politics, joined the university in 1966, just two years after it opened.
Vice-chancellor Professor Anthony Forster said: “An inspirational teacher, a great political thinker and a brilliant writer, Professor King analysed politics in books and on television with incredible intelligence, insight and wit.
“Our thoughts are with his family and his friends, including his many, many former students.”
Broadcaster David Dimbleby, who has hosted the BBC’s general election coverage for the past 40 years, described Professor King as ‘fascinating’.
“It’s very sad news, completely unexpected to me,” he said.
“Tony King was passionate about the way government worked, he was extraordinary.”
Dimbleby, the BBC’s general election coverage anchor for nearly 40 years, added: “He also played a public role. He was on the committee for standards in public life, on a committee on reform of the House of Lords, so he was sort of embedded, in the way we do our politics.
“We used to have lunch every so often in between elections to talk about how things were going and he was always absolutely fascinating.”
Close friend and colleague Professor David Sanders, the UK’s Regius Professor of Political Science, said: “Tony was the intellectual heart of the Department of Government at Essex.
“He was the clearest and most compelling lecturer I have ever observed and the very best writer working in contemporary political science.
“His facility for making complex arguments accessible to audiences of all kinds was unparalleled.
“His personal kindness was immense. I will miss him more than I can say.”
You can pay your tributes to Professor King here.
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IWPR – Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Business As Usual for Kazak Elections
Upheaval in Kyrgyzstan and Belarus not expected to affect the outcome of January 10 polls.
By IWPR Central Asia
Political turbulence elsewhere in the region is unlikely to be replicated in Kazakstan’s upcoming parliamentary elections, according to analysts at an online IWPR and Chatham House panel discussion.
The experts said that upheaval in Kyrgyzstan which brought down the government following disputed October elections, as well as an ongoing uprising against the authoritarian regime in Belarus, had indeed concerned officials in Nur-Sultan.
However, the ruling Nur-Otan party, headed by former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was still expected to win its usual victory in the January 10, 2021 polls.
This may disappoint those who had hoped that current president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who replaced Nazarbayev in 2019, would have allowed a more pluralistic political atmosphere.
But Shalkar Nurseitov, a political analyst based in Almaty, said that Tokayev’s supposed political reforms amounted merely to “cosmetic changes” to existing laws.
These changes were not necessarily more progressive, he continued, noting that an amendment to the law on peaceful assembly that only allowed sanctioned rallies had been widely criticised by human rights experts.
Nurseitov said that not only was the ruling Nur Otan party “the number one political actor in the upcoming elections,” but had also been monopolising the news cycle since the start of the pandemic.
“When the Kazak government started the first lockdown in the middle of March, Nur Otan started the #BizBirgemiz (We are Together) campaign which they framed as support from the party to impoverished people,” he said. “Nazarbayev called some oligarchs and other businesspeople in Kazakstan to join and since then this has been promoted as the main campaign in Kazakhstan to help people in the challenging time of the pandemic.”
As for the elections, only sanctioned opposition parties would be contenders, Nurseitov continued, although they contained a diversity of representation.
“I can say that the upcoming elections in Kazakstan can be called the Nazarbayev-Tokayev regime sanctioned elections, because… currently only sanctioned rallies are allowed, only sanctioned political rivals of Nur Otan are allowed to take part in the elections, and only sanctioned organisations are allowed to conduct opinion polls,” he said. “The main picture here is that Nursultan is very nervous in the upcoming elections because of the upheavals in neighbouring countries and because of the fact that last year many Kazaks went out to the streets after the presidential elections.
“However, in my opinion, this January we will not see many people going out to the streets because there is no political party trying to capitalise on the popular discontent with the government or Nur Otan, so we will not see the scenarios that we saw in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.”
Almaty-based journalist Assem Zhapisheva divided the opposition into three main groups. There were the formal bodies such as Ak Zhol, Adal - formerly Birlik - and the Kazakstan People’s Party. Then there were groups including El Tirege, Uran and a few others which focused on social reforms and economic problems rather than political issues.
The third and smallest group Zhapisheva called “the real opposition” included Janbolat Mamayev’s Democratic party, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan and few others. Their only involvement in the elections would be organising demonstrations on January 10.
“The main question for the Kazak opposition in these elections is to gather people on the streets, because there has never been a prospect that actual opposition groups will be allowed in parliament,” Zhapisheva said.
However, Zhapisheva said that she did not expect mass protests, not least because of a lack of interest in the upcoming elections.
“For people to go to the streets and protest there should be some triggers and in the case of Kazakstan, we have two triggers that usually work,” she continued. The first trigger occurred when Nazarbayev stepped down last spring. The second trigger might be an economic reason. Even if some protests happen, they will be connected to money and not politics.”
Political scientist Daniyar Kussainov said that despite the predicted outcome of the elections, turbulence elsewhere was affecting the government’s approach to the polls.
“What is interesting about these elections is the nervousness of the authorities because of political unrest in post-Soviet countries such as Belarus and Kyrgyzstan,” he continued. “Obviously, Belarus is neighbouring EU countries and the influence of international actors is much greater in Belarus than in Kazakstan. The fact that Kazakstan is being between Russia and China does not put it in a favourable position for the involvement of other international actors.
“Another difference between Belarus and Kazakstan is the absence of an opposition party contesting the upcoming elections in Kazakstan. In Belarus, it was clear that [presidential candidate Svietlana] Tikhanovskaya was the symbol of the opposition and we observed solidarity among the opposition forces, but we do not have a similar situation in Kazakstan.”
As for Kyrgyzstan, Kussainov continued - also due to have elections on January 10 - citizens expectations of political change were fuelled by experience of previous revolutions in 2010 and 2015, as well as a vibrant civil society.
“However, in Kazakstan people do not really see that their actions or protests could lead to significant changes in the political landscape,” he said. “Moreover, Kyrgyzstan is more dependent on international aid, so international organisations and western normative power have more influence on the politics of Kyrgyzstan. Obviously, it is not the same in Kazakstan.”
Article on political situation ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections on 10 January 2021
https://iwpr.net/global-voices/business-usual-kazak-elections-0
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Red 5 Studios CEO denounces consoles and publishers
Justin Olivetti
"Who needs publishers any more? I certainly don't. I couldn't care less about them at this stage," said Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern. In a candid interview with Eurogamer, Kern ripped into both consoles and publisher-led models as relics on their way out the door.
Kern said that the pressure that publishers put on studios are death to the industry, resulting in either "an indie game or... a massive AAA, IP-backed sequel with derivative gameplay." He thinks that there's no middle ground, and it disturbs him how many studios fire staff right after a game launches.
Instead, the man behind Firefall believes that the free-to-play model puts the power back in the hands of the developers who then can concentrate on making games without having to kowtow to the publishers and distributors. "Look at Riot Games and League of Legends. They have more users than World of Warcraft does. That's crazy. And they don't have a publisher," Kern said.
Citing the expense and sluggish reaction of console development, Kern also predicts that mobile and PC gaming are on their way to take over the field. "Something has to change," he concludes. "Consoles, I believe, are dead."
In this article: activision, blizzard, blizzard-entertainment, business-model, console, consoles-are-dead, distributor, distributors, dota, e-sport, esport, eurogamer, f2p, fantasy, firefall, first-person-shooter, fps, free-to-play, interview, league, league-of-legends, lol, mark-kern, mmo-shooter, mmofps, moba, publisher, publishers, pvp, red-5, red-5-studios, riot, riot-games, sci-fi, shooter, war, warcraft, world-of-warcraft, wow
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Prince Charles Shares His First-Ever Instagram Post
Prince Charles just shared his own message on social media.
By Samantha Schnurr Nov 12, 2019 9:54 PMTags
RoyalsCelebritiesPrince CharlesInstagram
Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images
Prince Charles is going digital.
The royals are certainly no strangers to social media. With individual accounts devoted to the family's most famous couples, including the current monarch, the future king, his two sons and their wives, Britain's first family has been making use of the Internet's most beloved platforms for years now.
However, they're not always the people behind the caption. Instead, we can deduce they have people dedicated to running their social media accounts for them, unless it's an instance in which they want to personally share a message. We saw this when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry launched their own Instagram account; their first post featured a quote from the couple in the caption. In March, Queen Elizabeth II signed off on her own first Instagram post in honor of her visit to the Science Museum in London and a letter on display to Prince Albert.
It seems Prince Charles has followed suit because he penned his own first Instagram post, shared on Tuesday ahead of his trip to India this week.
Prince Charles Is Still Ready for the Throne at Age 70
"As I depart for India, on my tenth official visit, I did just want to convey my warmest best wishes to all of you in the Sikh Community in the United Kingdom, and across the Commonwealth, on the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji," he wrote.
"The principles on which Guru Nanak founded the Sikh religion, and which guide your lives to this day, are ones which can inspire us all–hard work, fairness, respect, and selfless service to others. In embodying these values, Sikhs have made the most profound contribution to the life of this country, and continue to do so, in every imaginable field, just as you do in so many other places around the world."
As the royal concluded, "This week, as Sikhs everywhere honor the founder of your faith, my wife and I wanted you to know just how much your community is valued and admired by us all, and that our thoughts are with you at this very special time."
A post shared by Clarence House (@clarencehouse)
As Charles signed off, "HRH The Prince of Wales." While his account has been chronicling his and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall's activity since late 2012, an official welcome to Instagram feels right so...welcome to Instagram, Your Royal Highness!
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HOME » Community » Parroquia San Miguel Arcángel Escazú turns 220 years old
Parroquia San Miguel Arcángel Escazú turns 220 years old
I present a small review of the Parish of San Miguel Arcangel de Escazu that on March 2 fulfills 220 years of parish life
Cantón de Escazú wikipedia In the year 1793, Escazú parish was built without an appropriate church and at the same time lacking the necessary and established implements to be able to function as such.
This began to be built on May 19, 1796, date on which its erection was ordered, with the corresponding implements, be it chalice, vinajera and missal.
Its final finish dates from the year 1799 when it was duly completed thanks to the collaboration and contribution of the neighbors, who contributed sand, stone, lime, wood and taking turns to work without charging a single cent for it, many of the neighbors donated a cart of firewood, coffee, cows, horses and money from the money of before, from that money that is still preserved today as a relic. His works were totally free. The contributions that were not used directly in the construction of the church, as well as the animals, were raffled in the shifts and their product invested in the construction of the temple to San Miguel Arcángel, where the first mass was celebrated on July 18, 1799 .
The tower deteriorated considerably with the strong tremors of the year 1910, as a consequence of the Carthago earthquake. But with the new and very strong earthquakes of the year 1924, it was totally damaged and together with the two angels (one on each side of it, in the south and north points) it had to be demolished and built all of brass, while the two Angels were cleverly rebuilt by Mr. Fletis.
In the parochial administration of the presbyter José Manuel Chacón, period 1959-1962, the tower varied greatly from its primitive and ancient form; the angels disappeared to give place to the placing of the three archangels with Saint Michael at the center of them.
In 1992, the parish priest Walter Howell Castro, doing an inspection on the walls of the temple, removed a layer of plaster that had been placed in some restoration of the church, leaving exposed stone-like ashlars, dating from 1840 ( during the second construction of the building), made of lava sedimented from a volcanic eruption 3 million years ago, as verified by a geologist from the University of Costa Rica.11 In the year of 1999, for the bicentennial of the founding of the church, a remodeling of the facade of the temple was made, adding two towers of 20 meters high, symbolizing the two centuries, with the intention of giving the temple a styloromantic. The towers were made of prefabricated iron, lined with a light coating of cement, and were mounted on solid concrete bases. These towers were later removed and only the bases remained.
Another attraction of the church is the set of the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis, of Spanish Baroque style, brought in 1920 and carved in wood by the Austrian sculptor Ferdinan Stuffleser, being the parish of San Miguel the only one in Latin America that has works of this European artist.
a view of photographs of the past and present
more information visit
Parroquia San Miguel Arcángel Escazú
Churches and Religious Congregations in the West end of San José
Mar 2, 2019 Escazú News
PROGRAM CELEBRATING THE 36TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY THE BOYERO SAN ANTONIO DE ESCAZU2019 DAY OF THE BOYERO SAN ANTONIO DE ESCAZU 36TH ANNIVERSARY
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Tony Scalia, Political Partisan, 12 Years On
My pal Scott Lemieux, who blogs at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, has a piece in the American Prospect about Justice Antonin Scalia's appearance the other night with Piers Morgan in the Larry King Memorial Crypt on CNN. Mr. Justice Short Time is plugging a new book and, as part of having to deal with one of the seven billion-odd people on Earth whom he knows is not as smart as he is, Scalia started rattling on about Bush v. Gore, the case in which he took whatever credibility he ever had as a jurist and used it for skeet practice. Lemieux flags a salient exchange:
SCALIA: Contentious? Well, I guess the one that, you know, created most-most waves of disagreement was Bush v. Gore, OK? That comes up all the time. And my usual response is get over it. MORGAN: Get over the possible corrupting of the American presidential system? MORGAN: Justice Scalia? SCALIA: Look it, I-my court didn't-didn't bring the case into the court. It was brought into the courts by Al Gore. He is the one who wanted courts to decide the question which-when Richard Nixon thought that he had lost the election because of chicanery in Chicago, he chose not to bring it into the courts. But Al Gore wanted the courts to decide it. So the only question in Bush v. Gore was whether the presidency would be decided by the Florida Supreme Court or by the United States Supreme Court. That was the only question, and that's not a hard one. MORGAN: No regrets? SCALIA: Oh, no regrets at all, especially since it's clear that the thing would have ended up the same way anyway. The press did extensive research into what would have happened if what Al Gore wanted done had been done county by county, and he would have lost anyway.
Scott emphasizes the fact that Scalia is clearly wrong about what would have happened "anyway." But there is so much ahistorical gibberish in that answer that there's plenty left over for the rest of us. And it all more clearly emphasizes Lemieux's point that Scalia's role in Bush v. Gore was purely that of a political partisan. If, 12 years after handing the country over to the Avignon Presidency, you're still dealing in cheap talking points that people mustered up in the extended autumn of 2000, you're tipping yourself off rather obviously.
1) Al Gore "Wanted The Courts To Decide": Actually, it was the Republicans who filed the first court case in Florida, and it was the Republicans and Jim Baker who wanted it fast-tracked through the federal court system, even though even some of them thought it was a longshot, because they clearly had no idea what a good Republican Antonin Scalia really was. Scalia, and the rest of the Supreme Court stepped in after Gore had won in the Florida state courts. The idea that Gore wanted "the courts" to decide this in the manner in which the Supreme Court hijacked the case is ludicrous.
2) The Nixon Didn't Go To Court Legend: This was bandied about almost from the start, and it is in a very narrow sense true. Nixon didn't go to court. That was because, in those halcyon days, not even the hardest of hardcore Republicans thought the Supreme Court ever would get involved in something that the Constitution clearly demonstrated was an area in which the states were sovereign. However, Thruston Morton, the Republican National chairman, mounted a nationwide campaign of recounts that went on well into the winter of 1960. Nixon, the noble loser, is a delightful fairy tale that conservatives tell their children at bedtime.
10 Questions for Fox News' (Blond) SCOTUS Reporter
The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker
Antonin Scalia Explains It All
Scalia of Justice
Are You Antonin Scalia ?
Tony Scalia's Retirement Has Started Early
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'Selena: The Series' Boss on Movie Comparisons and Trying to Capture The Icon's 'Spark' (Exclusive)
By Jennifer Drysdale 10:00 AM PST, November 27, 2020
Trying to recreate Selena Quintanilla for Netflix's upcoming Selena: The Series wasn't easy. In fact, writer and executive producer Moisés Zamora says it was an "impossible feat."
"Selena was one of a kind," he tells ET of the Tejano icon, who died in 1995 at just 23 years old. "You know she is going to be impossible to replicate. If we were able to replicate to get her exactly to like what everyone wants, we’d have Selena again -- so it’s such an impossible feat."
So, instead of trying to get lightning to strike twice, the team behind Selena: The Series focused on trying to replicate the most important part of Selena: her essence and energy. They found that in actress Christian Serratos.
"She's so talented," Zamora gushes of the 30-year-old actress, perhaps best known for her role as Rosita on The Walking Dead. "One of the things that Christian does bring to the table is that charm, that spark, that sincerity, that layer of emotion... it's about her energy, her spark, and I think she's got it."
In an interview with ET, Zamora discusses the most challenging aspects of bringing Selena's story to screen, working with the late legend's family, and comparisons between the series and the 1997 film starring Jennifer Lopez.
ET: There's so much anticipation surrounding this series -- do you feel the pressure mounting for this release?
Moises Zamora: It has been such an interesting feeling when it came to creating a series about an iconic, well loved legend. When you’re given such huge responsibility, they’re always anxiety. But I think that what made all the difference for this project is that it has an incredible team that also was passionate about the story and who she represented and what she meant -- what she means for Mexican American Latinos.
I actually do feel more nervous now because it feels so real, because I’m not in the room anymore. I’m not creating this story line. We’re not in the thick of it. It feels like kind of an out-of-body experience. But I'm very proud of the work we did. It was very challenging. We put our best into it, very much of our hearts. I’m happy to finally share it with everyone.
You mentioned the supportive team that you have and obviously you have the support of Selena's family. Her sister Suzette is also producing on the series with you. How important was it throughout this process to have her family's input and support?
Originally when I met with the producer about this particular project, they had already established a relationship with the family and the estate, so I was coming in with a vision that ultimately worked out. It was something that aligned very much with what they wanted -- to focus on the positivity of the inspiration behind her story and their struggle as they achieve the American dream.
From the first time that I pitched that vision, it basically hit their mark. It's a family drama with some lightness to it that hopefully a lot of people would relate to. The family was in love with that vision. Netflix believed in the project, and I interviewed the family and we did a lot of research as well. Everyone worked together to make sure that those details and those moments -- especially the intimate emotional moments that they had and shared with a lot of people -- are portrayed and in the way that they envisioned it as well.
The show is called Selena: The Series, but it focuses a lot on her family. Did Suzette or other family members have any influence on the direction to explore some other storylines within the family, so it's not just focused on Selena?
Yeah, I think that also when I went through my own research, I found out a lot of things about how Selena came to be, and and I think without her family, Selena would have not had the success that she had. Her family believed in her talent and set everything aside, including financial stability, to believe in this dream. Of course [her father] Abraham believed in sort of a second chance at a music dream. Her brother was a producer, her sister was her best friend and the drummer [in her band]. It was all part of that journey, and I think it was really interesting for me to discover that and share that.
I think that was very essential in the making of Selena, really to recapture the fact that like she had her family with her and they gave her the power to be who she was. And then hopefully in the future episodes after this batch, you’ll see that it all comes into play as she became the independent superstar that she is. She had her own fashion line, her boutique. She saw her brand and herself as an artist in a 360, holistic way. She learned that from her family and that was vital.
Did any of her family members have input on their portrayal in the series? It's not all butterflies and rainbows all the time on her rise to stardom, with some tense moments in there -- especially with Abraham.
They had input. I think it's a catch-22 is when you empower your child to become the best version of themselves. [It's difficult] as they come of age, and then suddenly they start making choices that you don’t love.
I did see in an interview Abraham said that it’s really difficult for him to remember her as anything other than his little girl. What parent doesn't relate to that? They grow up and to make decisions and they become their own people and I think that part of her growing up and how she manages those challenges is shown -- and luckily we get to live in those moments a little longer, because we have a TV series.
The movie is so iconic, and feels much more emotional -- probably because it came out so soon after Selena's death. This series feels a bit lighter, it focuses on the family... was it intentional to bring a different tone to this project?
I think it had a lot to do with the research that and also and talking to the family sharing a lot of the moments that they shared with us. Selena was really a sweet, sincere, genuine person. She was really well liked. She was really respected, she was very generous with her time and with her kindness and with her compassion. She was always laughing and joking, and a lot of those moments that you see her being silly are actual things that happened. We wanted to really capture that, especially in the context of a family and traveling together. They didn’t get to have a lot of time on their own to live a normal teenage life, so we wanted to spend a little bit of time living in those moments.
For that reason, it feels like a lighter tone. And also as she grows up and we come to the point where this tragedy happened, I think it's going to be a lot more heartbreaking. To spend so much time in this wonderful place and be a part of this family and then have it all be ripped away from them with this tragedy [will provide a different tone].
The fans are so protective over Selena. Jennifer Lopez's casting in the movie at first faced criticism, but then audiences grew to love her portrayal. There was a little bit of chatter from fans about Christian's casting, with some saying she's too skinny, or doesn't fit with their idea of what Selena should be. What made Christian the right fit, in your mind?
I do remember that time when the choice of Jennifer was not as welcomed, but she did just such an incredible job and she captured her. I love her performance. I really do think Christian is going to win audiences over as well, independently of what people may think of Selena. I think we forget that Selena was one of a kind. You know she is going to be impossible to replicate. If we were able to replicate to get her exactly to like what everyone wants, we’d have Selena again -- so it’s such an impossible feat.
One of the things that Christian does bring to the table is that charm, that spark, that sincerity, that layer of emotion. She’s so talented. And I think that we needed someone to be able to capture Selena's trajectory and growth, from being a teenager with silly dreams to actually being a superstar. And I think Christian captures that so well. She may not be the perfect physical representation of Selena, but I think that it’s about her energy, her spark and I think she’s got it.
The energy makes Selena, but so does the fashion and her stage presence and movement. How did you approach the performances in the show?
We actually just basically looked for every piece of video that was out there. We did a lot of research, and looked at stuff that’s not even available on the internet. The family shared some videos with us, and we found ourselves really excited about bringing that evolution of Selena to the screen.
She started with some questionable hairdos [laughs]. I mean, it was the late '80s. And they were making their own outfits. She was enamored with fashion, and that was really her second dream, and so we wanted to capture that. The Selena that most of us are familiar with in the mainstream, it took a long time to get there and we wanted to make sure that we captured that evolution by being faithful to some of the performances and replicating the outfits as much as possible -- and those moves, of course. They did a phenomenal job staging that and replicating those performances.
And Christian said she worked with a singing coach for this. How much singing in the show is her versus Selena?
Yes. She worked with a coach, but we are excited that we get to use Selena’s voice and music when in those performances. The a cappella part, it's all Christian. Especially when she’s recording or practicing her songs in those little moments, it's all Christian. We were very excited that we were able to use Selena's voice [because] it's hard to replicate that. Cristian is a phenomenal singer, but if you don’t sound like her, you don’t sound like her. And I think fans will appreciate that we used Selena's voice.
Selena: The Series debuts Dec. 4 on Netflix.
Christian Serratos Talks Pressures of Portraying Selena (Exclusive)
Meet the Cast of Netflix's 'Selena: The Series'
'Selena: The Series': First Look at Jesse Posey’s Chris Perez
‘Selena: The Series’: What to Expect From the Pop Star Project
Selena: The Series
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Morrisons Held Vicariously Liable for Rogue Employee's Data Leak
In a workplace context, an employer can be found liable for the acts or omissions of its employees, provided it can be shown that they took place in the course of their employment – i.e. where there is sufficient connection between the employee's position and the wrongful conduct to make it right for the employer to be held responsible.
In the first class action in the UK arising from a data leak (Various Claimants v WM Morrisons Supermarket plc), the High Court has ruled that an employer can be held liable for the criminal actions of a rogue employee in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).
The data in question was leaked by an IT specialist who worked for Morrisons as a senior internal auditor. He bore a grudge against the supermarket chain after an unrelated incident that had resulted in disciplinary action. He had access to the company's personnel files as employees' payroll data was needed for an audit. He later copied details – including names, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers, bank details and salaries – of almost 100,000 of his fellow workers and placed them on a file-sharing website.
Morrisons learned of the leak after a CD containing a copy of the data was sent to three newspapers. Concerned that the leak might expose its staff to fraudulent 'phishing' or identity theft, the company took swift and effective steps to remove the data from the Internet. The perpetrator was subsequently identified and convicted of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the DPA. He was given an eight-year prison sentence.
More than 5,500 of the affected employees lodged damages claims against Morrisons, alleging that it was both directly and indirectly liable for the IT specialist's actions. The company was alleged to have breached its strict duties under the DPA to protect its employees' personal data. Other claims of misuse of personal data and breach of confidence were also pursued.
The Court noted that any system that permits human access to data involves inevitable risks. Morrisons had in place internal checks and had taken appropriate steps to protect the data by limiting access to a few trusted employees. There was no way it could have known of the IT specialist's intentions and there had been no failure to provide adequate and proper controls. The company's sole failing was that it did not have an organised or failsafe system in place for the deletion of data stored on individual workers' computers.
Nevertheless, the Court found Morrisons indirectly – or vicariously – liable for the IT specialist's criminal acts. It had deliberately entrusted him with its payroll data and he had been put in a position where he could handle it and disclose it to third parties. There was a sufficient connection between his job and his wrongful conduct to make it just for the chain to be held liable.
The Court's ruling has opened the way for the claimants to seek compensation. However, in granting Morrisons permission to challenge its decision before the Court of Appeal, the Court noted that the company was itself the primary target and victim of the embittered IT specialist's actions. The result of the case could be viewed as the Court acting as a 'witting instrument of the criminal' in the furtherance of his criminal objectives.
Martin Legg
The General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into effect on 25 May 2018, imposes additional data protection obligations on employers. One significant change is the introduction of the 'accountability principle', whereby data controllers will have a duty to keep records to demonstrate how they comply with the data protection principles – for example by documenting the decisions taken about a processing activity. This will include proving that access to data is restricted to only those personnel necessary and that data is deleted when it is no longer needed. We can assist you in preparing for the changes this will entail.
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CDC Study Shows No Vaccine, Autism Link
Research Focused on Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines
By Salynn Boyles
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
Sept. 13, 2010 -- Exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines in infancy or in the womb is not associated with an increased risk for developing autism, according to a new study from the CDC.
Children in the study who developed autism spectrum disorder (ASD) actually had less exposure to vaccines with the mercury-containing preservative than children who developed normally.
The study is the latest of almost 20 studies to find no link between childhood vaccinations and autism.
It comes seven months after the first study that linked vaccines and autism -- conducted 12 years ago -- was retracted by the journal The Lancet. The U.K. doctor who published the study was banned from practicing medicine.
Cases of autism continue to rise throughout the world. The CDC now estimates that as many as one in 110 children in the U.S. develop ASD, which includes a range of developmental disorders from Asperger's syndrome to severe retardation and almost total social isolation.
CDC Director of Immunization Safety and study researcher Frank DeStefano, MD, MPH, tells WebMD that while the reason some children develop ASD remains a mystery, the focus should now shift to other potential causes.
“I don't think there is much worthwhile to study anymore with regard to thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism,” he says.
The CDC researchers examined records from three managed care organizations (MCOs) to identify 256 children with ASD born between 1994 and 1999 and 752 children without autism matched to cases by age, gender, and MCO.
Exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines was determined using electronic immunization registries and medical charts. Interviews with parents were also conducted to confirm the autism diagnosis and vaccination history.
Researchers also recorded vaccines given to the children's mothers while they were pregnant.
Thimerosal was removed from most vaccines given to infants and children soon after the study participants were born. The one exception is most flu vaccines, which still contain the preservative.
The researchers found no increased risk for autism associated with prenatal exposure or exposure to thimerosal-containing immunizations in infancy or early childhood.
This included children who appeared to be developing normally through infancy into early childhood. About 20% of children with autism have this subtype of the disorder, known as ASD with regression.
The analysis indicated that children with the greatest exposures had slightly lower rates of autism than those who received fewer thimerosal-containing vaccines or none at all.
”This is a very nicely designed and carried out study that should reassure parents,” says pediatrician Margaret C. Fisher, MD, who is medical director of the Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, N.J.
Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence failing to support a link between childhood vaccination and autism, a recent study suggests one in four parents in the U.S. still believe vaccines might cause the developmental disorder.
In the online survey of parents with children and teens, 25% agreed, “some vaccines cause autism in healthy children.” Just over one in 10 parents said they'd refused an immunization for their children that a doctor had recommended.
Fisher tells WebMD she is not too surprised that so many parents still believe vaccines may cause autism despite the lack of scientific evidence to back up the belief.
She chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics' executive committee of the section of infectious diseases.
“I don't think we should expect that the science is going to completely counter what is a largely emotional response,” she says. “We are at a time in this country where there is a general distrust of science. I don't think people distrust their individual doctors, but there is distrust of the medical establishment.”
Parenting/Baby Resources
Symptoms of Ear Infection
ADHD: What Is It?
SOURCES:Price, C. Pediatrics, October 2010; vol 126: pp 656-664.Frank DeStefano, MD, MPH, director,Immunization Safety Office, CDC.Margaret C. Fisher, MD, medical director, Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center; chair of the executive committee, section of infectious diseases, American Academy of Pediatrics.Freed, G. et al. Pediatrics, March 1, 2010, “Parental Vaccine Safety Concerns 2009.”
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Norwich TA soldier's pride at Afghanistan medal ceremony
Published: 4:00 PM May 24, 2010 Updated: 6:15 PM October 10, 2020
A Norwich solider has spoken of his pride after receiving a campaign medal following a gruelling six-month tour of Afghanistan.Private Lance Fielding from Norwich said it took his breath away when he saw the crowds on Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds, at the ceremony yesterday .
A Norwich solider has spoken of his pride after receiving a campaign medal following a gruelling six-month tour of Afghanistan.
Private Lance Fielding from Norwich said it took his breath away when he saw the crowds on Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds, at the ceremony yesterday .
He was among 65 soldiers from the Royal Anglian Regiment which returned from the tour of Afghanistan who were honoured with their campaign medals.
Hundreds of people lined the streets of Bury St Edmunds as the Territorial Army servicemen from the 3rd Battalion - known as the Steelbacks - were awarded medals for Operation Herrick.
'It's wonderful to see how appreciated we are, it really is,' said the 31-year-old IT specialist who also served with 12 platoon.
Private Fielding, who was joined in Bury by his mother and father, Brian and Sylvia, said: 'We are clearly making a difference out there. The locals came to us with lots of information on Taliban movements and where explosives had been laid. All the people want is a peaceful life, to get on with going to school and having a job, and they know our role is to provide that. I'm extremely proud I have been part of that process.
'The local police force is getting stronger and more effective and that is key to securing the country's future.'
Pte Fielding, who was on his second tour of Afghanistan since joining the TA in 2005, said he would go back again to carry on the great work of the Royal Anglians.
Led out by the Royal Anglian band, the 65 men - who all gave up their civilian jobs to serve in Afghanistan - marched out of Abbey Gardens to rousing applause before receiving their medals from Major General Martin Rutledge under a sizzling midday sun.
In front of the soldier's families Maj Gen Rutledge said it was a privilege to award the medals and to see so many people from Bury turning out to show their support.
Addressing the troops, he said: 'As a regular soldier I do this for a living but I am always amazed that you take time out to deploy to Afghanistan without really knowing what might be in store, which only proves you all have a tremendous spirit of adventure. I also salute your families for the support they give you.'
The Steelbacks formed two platoons for their tour of duty.
Thirty one soldiers from 11 Platoon deployed in Kabul to form part of the Force Protection Force, while 34 soldiers from 12 Platoon were deployed with the Household Cavalry Battle Group in Musa Qalah, Helmand Province, to support the Afghan Security Forces.
St Edmundsbury mayor Ian Houlder, who attended the event, said he was proud to be at the ceremony and for the association the town has with the Royal Anglians.
'Phenemonel pride' is how Private Kevin Brailsford from Kesgrave described the moment he was awarded his medal.
'To receive an honour for serving your country is absolutely brilliant and I'm thrilled with the reception we received from the people of Bury today,' he said.
Pte Brailsford, a team leader at Tesco in Martlesham, served with 12 platoon in Musa Qalah, Helmand Province.
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Huddersfield Town fans' bus attacked at Bristol Rovers
A COACH carrying Huddersfield Town fans was attacked as it left the game against Bristol Rovers.
A yob threw a traffic cone at one of the windows following Town’s 2-1 win on Tuesday night.
The window smashed but no-one was hurt in the incident.
Town fan Michael Scott was on the bus at the time.
He said: “We were leaving the ground at about 10pm.
“A lad who must have been about 16 years-old threw a cone at the bus and it just bounced off.
“His mate then decided to join in and picked one up and threw it at the bus and it hit the window.
“Fortunately nowadays the windows are double glazed so the outer pane smashed but the inner one was OK and no-one was hurt.
“There were two drivers on the coach, but by the time one of them had got off, the lads had scarpered.”
The coach was stopped while the glass was cleared from the road before it continued its journey.
Mr Scott said there had not been any other trouble during or after the game.
“Everyone at Bristol had been absolutely magnificent. The supporters were fantastic and there had been no problems.”
Stotts Coaches, which provided the bus, said the matter was not reported to police.
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Home >>Search Speakers >> Peter Guber
Chairman and CEO of the Mandalay Entertainment Group
Former Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Co-owner of four professional sports teams and #1 NYT Bestselling Author
2020 Demo Reel
Peter Guber has spent his entire life blazing his own trail. From movies to music to television to sports, he has seized the opportunity and been a pioneer in businesses and industries that are notoriously difficult. A successful executive and entrepreneur in various industries, he has deep strategic and operational experience with universal application.
Peter’s diverse career encompasses 40 years of experience that has propelled him to success as an executive, entrepreneur, professional sports team owner, and #1 NYT bestselling author. His extraordinary life has been built on sharing a vision and creating the organization to realize that dream.
In his keynotes, Peter shares lessons he has learned from a life at the highest levels of sports and entertainment – revealing tools and processes that inform and ignite the newest leaders in the business community as they strive to make big things happen.
Peter Guber’s career has been fueled by curiosity and personal reinvention. He is Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group. Before Mandalay, Peter was Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Chairman and CEO of Polygram Entertainment, Owner and Co-Founder of Casablanca Record & Filmworks and President of Columbia Pictures. He produced or executive produced (personally or through his companies) films that garnered five Best Picture Academy Award nominations (winning for Rain Man) and box office hits that include The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Batman, Flashdance, The Kids Are All Right and Soul Surfer.
Peter is operating Owner of the three-time NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, an Owner of the six-time National League West Champion, and two-time National League Champion, Los Angeles Dodgers, and an Owner and Executive Chairman of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). He is Co-Executive Chairman of aXiomatic, a broad-based esports and gaming company that owns Team Liquid, a premier esports team. Peter is a Regent of the University of California and has been a professor at UCLA for 40 years.
Peter is a noted author with works including Shootout: Surviving Fame and (Mis)Fortune in Hollywood, which became a 7-year television series on AMC which he hosted. He wrote the cover article for the Harvard Business Review titled, The Four Truths of the Storyteller. His most recent business book, Tell To Win – Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story, became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.
“The most successful companies and leaders must generate new ideas, unleash the creative talent of their people, move innovative thinking throughout their organization, overcome resistance, and have an accelerated time to market that leaves competitors in the dust.”
- Peter Guber
Like it or not, we live in a disruptive world. Whether the disruptor is a competitive organization or customers who are choosing alternative solutions, regardless of how established your business is – you’re vulnerable. Businesses today have two choices: you can either be the disruptor or be disrupted.
The call to action is to be a challenger to your own incumbency, to lead the charge to innovate and transform and add the greatest value to your industry before someone else does.
Winning in today’s business climate of uncertainty, turbulence and disruption requires creating a winning culture that focuses on attitude as much as aptitude, being insatiably curious without being critical, and exceptional communication that overcomes organization resistance and engenders buy-in by all stakeholders. Culture, curiosity and communication have been the three cornerstones that have fueled Peter Guber’s ability to win in diverse industries.
“Perhaps the worst mantra is ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ With the exponential rate of change today, if it ain’t broke, you must be willing, as an incumbent, to break it yourself, because if you don’t, your challenger will. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”
The Power of a Purposeful Story
Peter Guber’s extraordinary life has been about telling the right story at the right time and winning.
The ability to tell a purposeful story well is a highly powerful and vastly underutilized professional business tool. It is indeed the secret sauce that can propel success. Unfortunately, by the time most people have entered business, stories, as professional tools, have been dismissed as too soft and have been replaced by soulless bullet points and forgettable data. Yet, only stories and their telling can create the emotional experiences that make the important information embedded within the story memorable, resonant and actionable.
Today everyone – whether they know it or not – is in the emotional transportation business. More and more, success is won by creating compelling stories that have the power to move partners, shareholders, customers, and employees to action. Simply put – if you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it.
“Purposeful storytelling isn’t show business it’s good business.”
– Peter Guber
Thriving in a Culture of Risk
The rapid changes reshaping business today require leaders who stay ahead of the curve, embrace uncertainty, overcome FEAR (“False Evidence Appearing Real”), and take informed risks by “flying in the red zone” where failure lurks, but a greater opportunity horizon lies. Peter Guber credits much of his tremendous business success to heeding these navigational stakes.
The new “normal” is that the world is volatile, turbulent, and perpetually uncertain. Achieving success in today’s high-consequence, highly uncertain, and rapidly-changing world requires leaders be adept in living and acting out of their comfort zones. In this environment, impatience is a virtue. And, while there are no guarantees, the search for unique opportunities must be constant and never-ending. Organizations must keep a keen eye for incremental change, but leadership must look for exponential opportunities.
Any business attempting to defend their incumbency by playing it safe and sticking to the status quo will quickly find themselves skunked! In today’s marketplace, they must seize change - drive change - to stay in the game.
“The biggest risk in the business world today is taking no risks…you have to take risks”
Champion Cross Country Skier Who's World Changed in an Instant
Bill Looney
Retired 4 Star General and Leadership Speaker
Sales and Profitability Author & Speaker
Robin Crow
John Sitilides
Alpana Singh
First Indian woman and youngest female to become a Master Sommelier
Nicole Lipkin
Organizational Psychologist
Zunaira Munir
General Martin Dempsey
Joint Chiefs of Staff (2011-2015); Chief of Staff
Susan Solovic
Matt Church
Ford Saeks
Business Growth Innovator
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Book Review: 'Rethinking U.S. Election Law' by Steve Mulroy
Drew Penrose
In “Rethinking US Election Law: Unskewing the System,” Steve Mulroy describes the most serious shortcomings in elections to federal office in the United States and how they can be overcome.
Rethinking US Election Law: Unskewing the System. Steve Mulroy. Edward Elgar Publishing. 2019.
Professor Steve Mulroy of the University of Memphis School of Law opens his latest book with a short list of “surprising facts.” In recent elections for each of the three elected bodies of the federal government - president, House of Representatives and Senate - voters clearly favored candidates from one political party, and yet the opposite party came out on top. As Mulroy modestly puts it, “this seems to go against basic assumptions about democracy and majority rule.”
In “Rethinking U.S. Election Law’s” 10 concise chapters, Mulroy unpacks the electoral systems of the United States, laying bare their shortcomings and proposing some imminently sensible reforms to bring our elections back in line with those basic democratic assumptions.
The Electoral College and Senate get a chapter each, while issues and solutions concerning the House of Representatives earn their place in five separate chapters. This reflects FairVote’s own analysis that winner-take-all elections, especially in the House of Representatives, have fundamentally broken our politics, and resolving this problem should be our highest reform priority.
Mulroy also reaches the same conclusions increasingly shared by academics and reform activists alike: because winner-take-all elections are the core of the problem, the solution must be fair representation. He notes two more-incremental approaches: redistricting reform and single-winner ranked choice voting (“instant runoff voting”), and acknowledges that both carry benefits. However, to really “unskew” the system as the subtitle of the book suggests, Mulroy recommends adoption of multi-winner ranked choice voting - which he refers to as single-transferable vote - the same electoral method described in the Fair Representation Act and advocated by FairVote.
Mulroy is no stranger to FairVote. He has been active in promoting ranked choice voting in Memphis, where a whopping 62 percent of voters recently voted to keep the system in their city charter. He has written law review articles promoting the benefits of fair representation voting methods as remedies under the Voting Rights Act. He also consulted with FairVote President and CEO Rob Richie, as well as myself and Chris Hughes, then-staff attorney at Fairvote, when drafting some chapters of Rethinking US Election Law.
Overall, Mulroy’s depth of analysis, carefully thought-out conclusions and overall presentation deserve significant credit. The book is part of a scholarly legal series, including others on contract law, international commercial arbitration and legal reasoning as a few examples, and Mulroy provides deep legal and quantitative analysis.
However, the tone always remains accessible.These are not ivory tower pronouncements by out-of-touch elites, but common sense approaches to promoting the deeply American value of fairness in the political arena.
Illustration by Mikhaila Markham
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Switzerland and Zambia
Living in Zambia
Consulate of Switzerland in Lusaka
All consular services and visa issues are provided by the Regional Consular Centre Southern Africa in Pretoria.
Visa and entry to Switzerland
Travel advice for Zambia
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Financial commitment
The Swiss regional programme in Southern Africa contributes to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability. With its engagement, Switzerland contributes to enhanced food security for smallholder farmers and to the reduction of new HIV infections.
Southern Africa is a region of great contrasts and the most stable region of the continent. Diverging economic growth patterns, high rates of unemployment, weak commodity prices, fiscal strain, increasing debt, and high inflation contribute to a cautious economic outlook for the region. Governance crisis and corruption weaken political structures and linked with widespread inequality lead to violence and insecurity.
Switzerland’s support focuses on two major issues: the reduction of new HIV among young people and enhancing food security for smallholder farmers, by increasing their resilience and improving seeds availability and diversity. Humanitarian aid is provided on an ad hoc basis, in response to specific crises or natural disasters.
Switzerland's support aims to reinforce policy at the national level of seven selected countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and facilitate the development and implementation of regional standards on these different issues.
The SADC is composed of 16 member states (Angola, Botswana, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Its Secretariat is in Botswana. The Swiss regional programme in Southern Africa focusses country interventions on Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Eswatini. Its cooperation office is in Harare. Additional specific country programmes take place in Mozambique and Tanzania, with cooperation offices in Maputo and Dar Es Salam. The DRC, though a member of the SADC, comes under the regional programme for the Great Lakes.
Highlights of the four coming years 2013-2016
The regional programme Southern Africa will combine both instruments of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid.
SDC will improve its articulation of its regional approach with its country offices, the global programmes and UN agencies active in the region and supported by SDC.
In view of the limited means of SDC, the concentration on two out of previously three domains of intervention will increase its efficiency and effectiveness:
Agriculture/Food security: Increased resilience in food security in particular of smallholder farmers in SADC region with a focus on the promotion of a harmonised seed system, post harvest management and Disaster Risk Reduction.
HIV/AIDS: Prevention of HIV/AIDS among young women and men and access to care and support to contribute to the overall goal of reducing HIV/AIDS incidence and vulnerabilities in particular among children and youth.
Governance (equitable, responsible and accountable allocation and use of public resources in the two domains) and gender (agriculture women farmers, vulnerability of women and girls in HIV/AIDS) will be tackled as transversal themes.
In the regional Programme Southern Africa (RPSA) the approach will bring together regional policy interventions and their translation into selected countries where also interventions on the ground and pilots are taking place. The component in Zimbabwe will contribute to the regional objectives in agriculture/food security and HIV/AIDS. Water, as a key component of food and health security, will be also addressed. Part of the flexible budget will be allocated to health or governance issues in a broader perspective depending on the context’s evolution.
Beyond the RPSA, the Global Programme Climate Change will increase its mitigation portfolio focused on South Africa.
Migration officers, lawyers, translators and medical services
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Defense budget offers few details on innovation
Feb 2, 2015 | FEDSCOOP
The Pentagon urged Congress Monday to get behind President Barack Obama’s $534 billion baseline defense budget proposal, warning that any reduction in funding below that request would make the risk to the national defense strategy unmanageable and future modernization all but impossible.
The administration’s budget proposal is nearly $35 billion above the mandatory spending cuts called for under the Budget Control Act of 2011 — known as sequestration. Still, even at that level, officials warned it will be challenging for the department to keep up with current operations while simultaneously trying to recover from more than a decade of war, reorganizing for a strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific region and investing in modern technologies to defeat potential future adversaries.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, who presides over the department’s Defense Innovation Initiative, characterized the budget proposal as the “best balance of ends, ways and means that we could possibly achieve.” The budget presents “manageable” risks to the national defense strategy, as outlined in the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, he said.
“Any reduction in funding below what is in the president’s budget … will make the overall risk to the strategy unmanageable,” Work said. And even at the funding levels in the president’s request, defending the nation against emerging threats and preparing for future technologically sophisticated adversaries “remains extremely challenging,” he said.
“It’s a constant Rubik’s Cube. This is a deferred modernization problem,” Work said. “We have three years of built up demand on modernization that we haven’t been able to get to.”
The high-level breakdown of the fiscal year 2016 Defense budget proposed by President Barack Obama. (Defense Department/White House)
Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. James Winnefeld echoed Work’s warning. “We have little margin left for error or strategic surprise,” Winnefeld said, referring to the military’s ability to respond effectively to unforeseen events or adversary capabilities. “Potential adversaries are eroding our technical advantages.” And unfunded changes to the budget by Congress would be the same as a reduction, ushering in sequester-level funding that would likely force a recasting of the national defense strategy, Winnefeld said.
Budget documents show an increase of $6.3 billion in research, development, testing and evaluation compared to last year. But the proposal offers few details on how much money the Pentagon plans to invest in the Defense Innovation Initiative or what specific programs might be covered. And when reporters pressed Defense Department Comptroller Mike McCord for those details, he offered little in the way of an answer.
While the “budget reflects an increased emphasis on innovation … we have not attempted to put a [dollar] figure on innovation,” McCord said. “It’s not only about money but a way of thinking.”
The funding details that were made available show that the Pentagon plans to invest $5.5 billion for cyber capabilities enhancements and $821 million for additional MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Department of Defense (DOD), Departments, Robert Work
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This Week at Filmhouse
As an independent cinema that - each and every month - simultaneously looks forward to new cinema releases and casts our mind back into cinema history, we often find ourselves trying to trace the arc...
Welcome back, festival friends.
There’s a particular feeling of satisfaction that comes with reprising a film that’s enjoyed success here during Edinburgh International Film Festival – like opening the door and seeing a...
The phrase “blood is thicker than water” has confusing and oft-contested origins, but is still regularly wheeled out to describe the enduring strength of family ties over other allegiances –...
Celebrating Unsung Heroes
New Releases We've got an exciting line up this week here at Filmhouse, beginning with 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute), Robin Campillo's moving and exhilarating new film which follows Paris...
Breaking News at Filmhouse
New Releases New to our screens is the latest from Steven Spielberg, The Post which is based on the unlikely partnership between The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep), and...
Movies with Heart at Filmhouse
New Releases Fresh on to our screens this week is The Shape of Water, a gorgeous new tale by master story teller, Guillermo del Toro. A lonely cleaner working in a secret government facility,...
"Here's Looking At You, Kid"
New Releases We're delighted to have Andrei Zvyagintsev's new 'blisteringly beautiful' new drama Loveless showing at Filmhouse from today, which tells the story of an estranged Russian couple...
A Film-Filled February
New Releases Arriving at Filmhouse from Friday is the fresh new adaptation of R.C. Sheriff's 1928 anti-war play, Journey's End, which takes us into the trenches of World War I with a group of...
Billboards, Boogie Nights and Bold Thrillers
New Releases Flying onto our screens from today is the visually stunning Jupiter's Moon, in which a young immigrant is shot while attempting to illegally cross the Serbian-Hungarian border....
Spectacular Dramas at Filmhouse
New Releases Arriving today is Darkest Hour, a rousing drama from Joe Wright which stars Gary Oldman as the newly-elected British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who is immediately faced...
An Award-Winning Week
New Releases After sweeping up awards in the past week, including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes©, we can't wait to see Three Billboards Outside...
New Year, Same Great Films
New Releases A Happy New Year from everyone at Filmhouse! We're looking forward to another year of great films, a what better way to kick it off than with Hostiles, a violent, ferocious...
Miracle at 88 Lothian Road!
The Gift That Keeps On Giving We're continuing with our festive favourites in the run up to Christmas, with Frank Capra's tear-jerker classic It's a Wonderful Life, which reviews the life of...
Let The Festivities Begin!
The True Gifts of Christmas... We're in the mood for giving here at Filmhouse, so we're bringing you a seasonal selection with traditional classics mixed with some not-so-traditional films...
New Releases Showing from Friday we have the Blade of the Immortal, the 100th feature film from Japanese director Takashi Miike, whilst Menashe follows a Jewish widower who must battle for...
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India has to be a key partner in engaging China from position of strength: Antony Blinken
By: PTI |
Blinken made these comments during a community outreach programme with the Indian-Americans organised by the Biden campaign on the occasion of India's Independence Day on August 15.
If Blinken is tapped by President-elect Biden and confirmed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he would replace Mike Pompeo as the next Secretary of State. (File photo: Reuters)
India and the US face a common challenge in the form of an “increasingly assertive” China and New Delhi has to be a key partner in engaging with Beijing from a position of strength, believes long-time national security and foreign policy expert Antony Blinken, who could be President-elect Joe Biden’s probable pick for the post of the Secretary of State.
Blinken made these comments during a community outreach programme with the Indian-Americans organised by the Biden campaign on the occasion of India’s Independence Day on August 15. He alleged that US President Donald Trump has helped China advance key strategic goals by weakening American alliances, leaving a vacuum in the world for China to fill, and abandoning American values and giving Beijing a green light to trample on democracy in Hong Kong.
Three youths killed in Lawaypora encounter in Jammu and Kashmir last month were involved in militancy: IGP
Indian Embassy in China restricts Republic Day flag hoisting ceremony to staff due to COVID-19 measures
”We have a common challenge which is to deal with an increasingly assertive China across the board, including its aggression toward India at the Line of Actual Control, but also using its economic might to coerce others and to its advantage, ignoring international rules to advance its own interests, asserting unfounded maritime and territorial claims that threaten a freedom of navigation in some of the most important seas in the world,” Blinken told the Indian-Americans during the virtual panel discussion on US-India Relations and Indian Americans in Joe Biden Administration.
India and China are engaged in a bitter stand-off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh since May.
Blinken, who then was the top foreign policy advisor to former vice president Biden, had also referred to the Chinese actions in Hong Kong as repression of the rights of its own people and democracy in the former British colony.
”We have to sort of take a step back and start by putting ourselves in a position of strength from which to engage China so that the relationship moves forward more on our terms, not theirs,” Blinken had said. ”India has to be a key partner in that effort,” Blinken then said.
If Blinken is tapped by President-elect Biden and confirmed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he would replace Mike Pompeo as the next Secretary of State. ”Unfortunately, right now by virtually every key metric. China’s strategic position is stronger and ours is weaker as a result of President Trump’s failed leadership,” he said. More importantly, he alleged that Trump had undermined US democracy.
”In many ways, as we think about dealing with the challenges that China poses, it’s almost less about their strength and more about some of our self-inflicted weaknesses,” he said. ”Put another way, this is really about us in the first instance, the competitiveness of our own economy and workers. The strength of our own democracy and political system, the vibrancy of our own alliances and partnerships. And of course, the assertion of our own values, all of which President Trump has done so much to undermine,” Blinken said.
Relations between Washington and Beijing have spiralled downward since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The two countries have also sparred over trade issues, a new national security law in Hong Kong, restrictions on American journalists, treatment of Uyghurs Muslims and security measures in Tibet.
Responding to a question from Richard Verma, the former US Ambassador to India, who was moderating the panel discussion, Blinken said that Biden as President would be investing in ourselves renewing our democracy, working with our close partners like India, asserting our values, and so engaging China from a position of strength.
”During the Obama-Biden administration, we worked very hard to establish India as a key contributing member of the Indo-Pacific strategy. And that includes India’s role in working with like minded partners to strengthen and uphold a rules-based order in the Indo Pacific, in which no country, including China can threaten its neighbours with impunity,” Blinken said.
”That role needs to extend even beyond the region as vast as it is to the world at large. In a Biden administration we would be an advocate for India to play a leading role in international institutions and that includes helping India get a seat on a reformed United Nations Security Council,” he said. ”We would work together to strengthen India’s defence, and also add its capabilities as a counterterrorism partner,” he added.
A Biden administration will also have no tolerance for terrorism in South Asia, he said in response to another question. ”On the question of terrorism, specifically, we have no tolerance for terrorism, in South Asia or anywhere else: cross border or otherwise,” he said.
Asserting that Biden is a champion of the US-India relations, Blinken had said that the former vice president had a vision for the US-India relations. Referring to a 2006 statement by Biden that by 2020, US and India should be closest friends, Blinken said that that has not happened yet, but Biden will make it a reality.
Former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal was the other panelist at the event in August.
India has to be a key partner in engaging China from position of strength Antony Blinken
1Three youths killed in Lawaypora encounter in Jammu and Kashmir last month were involved in militancy: IGP
2Rafale to feature in Republic Day parade for first time
3Indian Embassy in China restricts Republic Day flag hoisting ceremony to staff due to COVID-19 measures
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Luis Abinader sworn in as Dominican leader; Pompeo attends
Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader, speaks during his swearing-in ceremony while Vice President Raquel PeÒa, left, looks on in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020. (Orlando Barria/Pool photo via AP)
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Luis Rodolfo Abinader was sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic on Sunday in a ceremony attended by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Abinader, a 53-year-old businessman who had never held elected office, was elected to a four-year term on July 5, ending a 16-year run in power by a center-left party. He finished second in the 2016 presidential election.
On Friday, the Trump administration only got support from the Dominican Republic when the 15-member U.N. Security Council resoundingly defeated a U.S. resolution to indefinitely extend the U.N. arms embargo on Iran.
“This election resounds as an example to other nations of the power of democracy and what is possible when countries prioritize the wishes of their people,” Pompeo tweeted after Abinader’s inauguration.
The elections in the Dominican Republic took place as the new coronavirus pandemic was sweeping across the Caribbean nation of some 10.5 million people. Abinader himself had spent weeks before the election in isolation following a positive test for the virus, and the vote itself had been postponed from May due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
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A ride sharing app just for children
DALLAS, TX - Would you use the new ride sharing app Bubbl? It's more than convenient: it's the safest ride around. And it's meant just for children.
For busy parents who want to send someone they can trust to do pick ups and drop offs, there aren't always a lot of options. But what Bubbl is offering could be even safer than riding with Mom and Dad: off-duty and former police officers chauffeuring your child in a camera equipped car.
The cars are all owned and insured by the company, and the system's set up to send text alerts to parents at every stage of the journey.
Said Carrie Jewel, a parent who uses the service, "This has really helped me be able to pre-plan and feel good about who I'm allowing my son to get in the car with."
Each ride is $15, with an extra $5 for every additional student. And it comes with at least one unexpected perk. Jewel's son explained, "It was fun. Not like in the family car with everyone yelling and screaming."
So there's peace of mind for the parents and the child. Who knew there was an app for that? Right now the service is only available in Dallas, but is expecting to expand. Would you use it in your city?
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Black Lives Matter supporter starts North Texas police prayer tour
A Lewisville high school football who believes in the Black Lives Matter movement also said he believes in great police officers. And that's why he's starting an effort to use the power of prayer to link a frustrated community with the police.
Warren Mentis is an avowed member of the Black Lives Matter movement. But with a Facebook page called "Be the Change DFW," he wants to turn protest into prayer.
"It's what the true message of Black Lives Matters is. And I think in the past few weeks, that message has been skewed," said Mentis. "I think when you talk to the majority of people who want to see a change, they don't want to go after cops. They don't want to attack cops. They want to start the dialogue of how we can unite the communities -- black communities and police communities."
Highland village is the second on a five-stop police prayer tour this week that started Monday night at the Lewisville Police Department.
"The message they're putting out there is they want to bridge those gaps and have safer communities," said Lewisville PD Capt. Jesse Hunter.
These communities hit close to home for Mentis, a native North Texan. And he hopes others will see what he's doing and be inspired to pick up where he started.
"I look at some of these videos and the recent killings and I wonder why did they have to die today and when's it going to be me," said Mentis. "But at the same time, I look around and I say not ever cop is like that. The majority of cops want to be good at their job. They want to be involved in their community."
"It makes us tighter. It makes us stronger," said Hunter. "It'll help not only the climate we are experiencing, but it will help us fight crime in the future."
Mentis is encouraging others to join him. On Wednesday, he will go to the Flower Mound Police Department, Thursday to Lake Dallas and Friday to Coppell.
Texas surgeon noticing some post-COVID lungs have more scar tissue than smokers’ lungs
DPS: 1 dead in wrong-way crash on Loop 101 in Glendale
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Libertarian Gary Johnson to never-Trumpers: 'I'm it'
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- He has virtually no money, no strategy to compete in battleground states and no plan to stop talking about his drug use.
Yet with the Republican Party facing the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, Libertarian presidential hopeful Gary Johnson could be a factor in 2016. The former two-term New Mexico governor, a Republican businessman perhaps best known for his yearslong push to legalize marijuana, has a sobering message for a "never-Trump" movement desperately seeking a viable alternative.
"I will be the only third-party candidate on the ballot in all 50 states," Johnson says. "I'm it."
He is not their top choice, and he must first clinch the Libertarian nomination at this weekend's national convention, but the quirky White House hopeful may be the GOP's best, last chance to stop a New York billionaire some fear is destroying the soul of their party.
The Trump haters have struggled to convince other third-party prospects to join the presidential contest. They've courted the likes of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and retired Marine Corps General James Mattis to no avail.
And with ballot access deadlines already starting to pass, some say Johnson is beginning to look like the most legitimate alternative, even if he earned just 1 percent of the national vote in the last presidential contest.
He strengthened his position this week by adding running mate William Weld, a well-respected former Massachusetts governor who raised tens of thousands of dollars for Romney's presidential runs. They represent one of the strongest Libertarian tickets in memory, although would-be supporters are not yet sold.
"To be clear, the reports of the death of the non-Libertarian third-party effort are greatly exaggerated. I understand there are still plenty of irons in the fire," said conservative columnist Quin Hillyer, who has vowed not to support Trump this fall.
"Never Trump means never Trump," Hillyer added. "At the very least it'll be Gary Johnson on the Libertarian ticket."
Johnson's longshot campaign is based in Salt Lake City, home to his most trusted political adviser and in a state where Trump finished a distant third place in March's Republican primary election. The local presence of Johnson's headquarters was a surprise to many Utah state legislators who met with the Libertarian candidate inside the state house last week.
A handful of lawmakers in both parties were receptive.
"Utah understands how dangerous Trump is," said Howard Stephenson, a Republican state senator who had warm words for Johnson. "We're looking for someone to vote for."
Johnson's political strategy is simple.
With just $35,000 in his campaign coffers at the end of March, he doesn't have the money for TV ads, poll-tested messaging, or a paid presence in battleground states where Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton are already beginning to invest resources.
Johnson is instead relying on an intensifying schedule of media appearances to boost his name recognition in an effort to reach the necessary 15 percent threshold to qualify for the presidential debates this fall.
"We cannot go into a battleground state and compete," said Johnson's senior strategist Ron Nielson, citing the high cost of running a campaign in states like Florida or Ohio.
The Johnson campaign will instead focus its resources on cheaper states where libertarians have done well in the past, places like Alaska, maybe New Hampshire, he says.
Yet Trump's Republican critics don't necessarily need to find a candidate who can win. Many are seeking a legitimate protest candidate where they could focus their anti-Trump energy. Should that candidate earn even a few percentage points in key states this fall, it could hurt Trump's chances.
"Gary will be an outlet for millions of Americans who just can't fathom the idea of voting for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump," said Ed Crane, who co-founded the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute and now runs a super PAC he says may support Johnson "down the road."
It's no guarantee, however, that Johnson will earn the Libertarian presidential nomination. He must first beat back aggressive challenges at the party's national convention in Orlando this weekend. Software entrepreneur John McAfee and Libertarian activist Austin Petersen are also seeking the nomination.
Johnson represents a set of policies that do not line up perfectly with Republicans or Libertarians.
He embraces fiscal conservatism, but not to the lengths that some hardline anti-government libertarians would like. He considers himself a liberal on social issues, supporting same-sex marriage and abortion rights. And he supports a non-interventionalist foreign policy that focuses on America's challenges at home.
Many know him best for his repeated calls to legalize drugs.
Johnson largely focuses his energy on marijuana, but also suggests that concern over narcotics such as heroin are exaggerated compared to the impact of alcohol or even smoking cigarettes. He is a regular marijuana user, noting that he most recently took an edible form of the drug three weeks ago.
"I'm one of the 100 million Americans that do this. If that disqualifies me from being president, so be it," he told The Associated Press, adding that he recently purchased the drug legally in Colorado but illegally transported it back to his home in New Mexico.
"Sure, I'm in the tens of thousands of those that are guilty of that phenomenon," he says.
He promises not consume marijuana if elected president, however.
"I think the American people deserve to know that there will be a steady hand," he said. "And I would hope that my history regarding this stuff would bear out the fact that I'm a pretty disciplined cat."
San Tan Valley woman missing since Jan. 11 found alive six days later
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Police: Couple gave daughter to man as thanks
FEASTERVILLE, Pa. (AP/WTXF) -- A couple is accused of child endangerment after police say they gave away their 14-year-old daughter to a man who helped them financially. The friend's charged with sexually assaulting the teen, who had two children with him.
Acting on a tip, police arrested 51-year-old Lee Kaplan Thursday after a surprise visit from Bucks County Child Welfare officials, Investigators found Kaplan at his Feasterville home, along with 12 girls ranging in age from six months to 18 years.
Sources say Kaplan connected with the large Amish family who were about to lose their farm. The parents allegedly offered their oldest daughter, who was 14 at the time, as a gift to Kaplan. The girl, now 18, told police she and Kaplan have a 3-year-old and a six-month-old.
Kaplan's charged with aggravated indecent assault. The girl's father, Daniel Stoltzfus, is charged with conspiracy of statutory sexual assault and children endangerment. Her mother Savilla Stoltzfus is charged endangering the welfare of a child.
They're each being held on $1 million bail. Lawyers weren't listed in court documents.
The other nine children and parents had been staying with Kaplan, as well.
The Stoltzfus's told police the other nine children in the house were theirs.
Lower Southampton Police say they're working with authorities in Lancaster County as well as those connected with the Amish community to find out how all of this happened .
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Tag: French
Culture, Film, Film Festivals, UK and Ireland
How to Be a Good Wife is an enjoyable French comedy with a refreshing comedic performance from Juliette Binoche
What to Watch for the At Home Edition of the French Film Festival UK 2020
Culture, Film, Film Festivals, Lifestyle
This online edition will be available to access from 27 November – 4 December at the French Film Festival’s website.
Proxima – Glasgow Film Festival 2020 – Film Review
26th February 2020 27th February 2020
Proxima is a humane but heart-wrenching story outlining that tension between the life of a parent and that of an astronaut. Proxima is also the opening film for the Glasgow Film Festival
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Unnao custodial death: Delhi HC grants time to CBI for reply on Kuldeep Sengar's appeal against jail term
On 4 March, Sengar, his brother, and five others were convicted for the death of the Unnao victim’s father in judicial custody by a trial court, which sentenced them to 10 years in prison
File image of Kuldeep Singh Sengar. PTI
The Delhi High Court on Monday granted time to the CBI to file a status report on disqualified Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s appeal challenging his conviction and 10-year imprisonment in the custodial death case of the Unnao rape victim’s father.
Justice Anu Malhotra directed the agency to submit its reply within two weeks to the plea and listed the matter for further hearing on 12 January.
The high court on 6 November issued notice to the CBI on Sengar’s appeal against his conviction and jail term and had also asked the agency to respond to his application seeking suspension of the sentence till the pendency of the appeal.
During the hearing, CBI’s counsel sought more time to file the status report saying that the investigating officer of this case is also probing the UP’s Hathras rape case due to which he could not file the reply.
Advocate Kanhaiya Singhal, representing Sengar, submitted that he has a strong case for suspension of sentence and let the CBI file its reply then he would advance his arguments.
Sengar, who was also sentenced to the “remainder of his natural biological life” for raping the minor Unnao girl, was stripped of his membership on 25 February as the lawmaker of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly following his conviction in the rape case.
The father of the rape victim was arrested at the behest of Sengar in the Arms Act and had died in custody on 9 April, 2018 owing to police brutalities in custody.
On 4 March, Sengar, his brother and five others were convicted for the death of the victim’s father in judicial custody by the trial court which on 13 March, sentenced them to 10 years imprisonment.
The trial court had also imposed a fine of ₹10 lakh on Sengar. He has sought setting aside the verdict of the trial court by which he was convicted and sentenced in the case.
In the appeal, he said, It is imperative for a fair trial that the investigating agency, prosecution and witnesses present the true facts before the court and that the court, in turn, must ensure that a free and fair trial.
It said the trial must not only be fair but also remain free from biases and prejudices. It would not be preposterous to submit that in the instant case neither the justice was done nor seen to be done which has certainly shaken the confidence of the public in the entire justice delivery system.
Sengar claimed this case was an offshoot of a long-drawn political rivalry and deep-seated animosity existing between two political factions.
The trial court, which did not hold the accused guilty of murder under the IPC, awarded maximum sentence for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder to convicts under section 304 of the IPC after holding that there was no intention to kill.
It had said “no leniency” can be shown for killing a family’s “sole bread earner.”
The trial court, which sentenced all the convicts to maximum punishment under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and some other offences under the penal laws, also said that the four daughters and a son of the deceased has lost the protective cover of their father.
Besides ten years in prison for culpable homicide, Sengar, his brother, the then in-charge of Makhi Police Station in Unnao Ashok Singh Bhadauria and then sub-inspector KP Singh, Vineet Mishra, Birendra Singh and Shashi Pratap Singh have been also sentenced for other offences.
They were held guilty for the offences of criminal conspiracy, punishment for false evidence, giving false information respecting an offence committed, causing disappearance of evidence of the offence, the false charge of offence made with the intent to injure, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint under the IPC and under the Arms Act.
The court had earlier acquitted other accused, constable Amir Khan, Shailendra Singh, Ram Sharan Singh and Sharadveer Singh, giving them the benefit of doubt in the custodial death case.
Delhi Hc
Kuldeep Singh Sengar Arrest
Kuldeep Singh Sengar Bail
CBI books four of its personnel for taking bribe from bank fraud accused, conducts searches at 14 locations
The CBI booked deputy superintendents of police RK Rishi and RK Sangwan, Inspector Kapil Dhankad, and Steno Samir Kumar Singh. It also searched the premises of Rishi, who is posted at the CBI Academy, Ghaziabad
News & Analysis
Plea in Delhi High Court challenges WhatsApp's privacy policy update
The petition sought directions to the ministry of electronics and information technology to ensure that Whatsapp does not share any user data with Facebook or its associated apps.
'Don't join WhatsApp, it’s voluntary': Delhi HC tells petitioner challenging platform's new privacy policy
The court also said that if the terms and conditions of most mobile apps are read, 'you would be surprised as to what all you are consenting to'. It adjourned the hearing to 25 January
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Brazilian Conglomerate Odebrecht SA Agrees to Record-Setting Settlement in Bribery Case—Firm Set to Pay Up to $4.5 Billion
Home/Corporate Law/Brazilian Conglomerate Odebrecht SA Agrees to Record-Setting Settlement in Bribery Case—Firm Set to Pay Up to $4.5 Billion
December 23, 2016 — In a lengthy statement issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 21, 2016, it was announced that Brazilian construction-industry giant Odebrecht SA (Odebrecht) has admitted to violating anti-bribery and corruption laws in a number of countries and agreed to pay between $2.6 and $4.5 billion in a deal to resolve the charges brought against it in Brazil, Switzerland, and the United States. The settlement marks the largest anticorruption settlement in history.
Aside from the size of the settlement itself, the Odebrecht case marks a watershed moment in the international coordination of bribery and corruption investigations and prosecutions. For the first time, the bulk of the prosecution in an anti-bribery enforcement action emanated not from the U.S. or Europe, but from a part of the world not previously known for the aggressive pursuit of corporations and individuals engaged in corrupt practices.
The corruption at Odebrecht first came to light during “Operation Car Wash” – Brazil’s investigation into corruption at state-owned oil firm Petrobas. Led by Deltan Dallagnol, the head of the Car Wash task force at Brazil’s federal prosecutors’ office, Brazilian authorities managed to extract testimony and evidence from dozens of suspects in the Petrobas case, evidence that led investigators to a much closer examination of Odebrecht. As the pressure and evidence mounted under Operation Car Wash, Odebrecht saw the wisdom of cooperation in the investigation and began negotiating with prosecutors in February 2016.
The investigation uncovered a sprawling graft scheme at Odebrecht – a scheme that evolved over the course of 15 years and spanned three continents. In addition to bribes paid to Peterobas, Odebrecht paid millions to public officials, their representatives, and political parties in order to secure business in a number of countries. Odebrecht even developed a fully-functioning business unit, officially known within Odebrecht as The Division of Structured Operations, but what prosecutors have dubbed “The Division of Bribery,” to handle the scale and volume of bribes and bid-rigging. According to court documents filed by the DOJ, during the course of the scheme, Odebrecht paid nearly $800 million in bribes on more than 100 projects in 12 countries. The company garnered over $3 billion in benefits from the scheme.
While the final settlement amount will be determined following further analysis of Odebrecht’s ability to pay, whatever the total, Brazil is set to receive 80 percent, having led the way in the investigation of Odebrecht’s long-running and convoluted scheme. The U.S. and Switzerland will each receive 10 percent. Also under the plea agreement, Odebrecht is required to continue its cooperation with law enforcement, including any ancillary investigations into individuals who may have engaged in criminal conduct; adopt enhanced compliance procedures; and retain independent compliance monitors for three years.
FisherBroyles’ Corporate Compliance team features a number of experienced lawyers with extensive knowledge in all aspects of the field—the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related anti-corruption statutes, government and internal investigations, compliance programs, and risk assessments, in addition to general counseling and litigation. We welcome your questions. Please contact any of the listed attorneys.
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Fly Gear 3-2
Garth Calitz
News Letter 25 October 2017
Good day all
As we enter stormy summer months with travel plans, although frustrations are inevitable, understand that your safety is paramount. That’s the bottom line and always will be. Please plan accordingly and keep apprised of the Weather situation by visiting the various weather sites available on-line.
Thunderstorms are an airplanes worst enemy. Meteorologically speaking, thunderstorms are a result of the lifting of warm, moist air. As the air rises, it cools condenses into a cloud. As the droplets of water collide with each other, they grow and eventually fall in the form of rain. This rainfall causes downdrafts of air that hit the ground and spread out laterally. Downdrafts pose a large threat to aircraft in the form of wind shear. The rising of air that results in a storm is the result of a lifting force. This force can be the result of a weather front or warm air rising on its own. A cool air mass often results in the most severe thunderstorms, named squall lines. As cool air overtakes a warm air mass, it forces the warm air to rise rapidly into the atmosphere, causing severe storms. Such storms typically grow on a massive scale and move laterally across a region with great speed. Air-mass thunderstorms on the other hand, are a result of rising warm air, typically on a hot summer afternoon. They don’t move laterally like squall lines, but instead form all over the place like popcorn. These storms build and dissipate quickly compared to squall lines. Both types of storms have the ability to grow vertically on a massive scale, often reaching more than 60,000 feet. The rapidly rising air that builds the storms causes severe turbulence, and often spews out hail near the storm.
Please be safe and remember “If there is doubt there is no doubt”
What to do this weekend?
If you find yourself in the Lowveld there is only one place to be The Tops Lowveld Oktoberfest 2017, hosted by the Kishugu Lowveld Airshow planning committee.
If you in the Western Cape Oudsthoorn Areo Club will be hosting a weekend Fly-in, definitely going to be a great one
Kitty Hawk Airfield Club House just outside Pretoria will be hosting a Potjiekos competition on Saturday. Open to the public. Free entrance to general public not entering the competition. Come support a good cause and buy a plate of Potjiekos from the teams that entered!
Cash bar available. All proceeds go to the Turke fund, enabling disabled sports.
We handpicked a few teams already! Contact Theresa to enter
as a team and come and promote your business. R500-00 Per Team
Includes Bag of Charcoal,Vegetables
PRIZES TO BE WON!!!!!
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL!!
Call - Kitty Hawk Aerodrome Restaurant - Theresa - 060 818 7005
People from the Eastern Cape don’t despair , The SACAA and the department of Transport will be holding and Airshow and Career Expo at Mthatha Airport
Wonderboom Airport will be a hive of activity on Sunday when they host their first annual Fly-in as they are literally giving fuel away at ridiculously low prices a very large turnout is expected.
U.S. Exploration Company in Talks to Resume Search for MH370
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was called off in January this year, after the governments of China, Australia and Malaysia had spent as much as $200 million on efforts to solve the incredible mystery, coming up with very few answers as to what happened to the Boeing 777-200ER that vanished on March 8, 2014. Since then, some new evidence has been identified through satellite imagery analysis, but the families of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members are still left with questions.
Last week, Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation announced that it has received and considered proposals from “interested parties” that would like to continue the search for MH370, and Ocean Infinity’s “No Cure No Fee” offer — meaning the company will only collect payment upon discovery of the missing aircraft — has been approved by officials for negotiation. That does not mean, as media outlets previously reported, that the deal is done, which officials were quick to point out.
“The Malaysian Government has yet to ink an agreement with Ocean Infinity for the search of MH370 as widely reported in the media recently,” the DCA clarified in a statement. “Once the negotiation is completed and the terms and conditions have been agreed on with Ocean Infinity, the Malaysian Government will seek agreement from the Governments of Australia and China to proceed with the search of MH370 in the spirit of tripartite cooperation.”
According to a report, Aziz Kaprawi, Malaysia’s deputy transport minister, said Australia already “informally agreed” to the selection of Ocean Infinity’s deal, while “It is still under discussion with China.”
In August, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization provided optimism for resolution with satellite imagery revealing “at least 70 identifiable objects,” 12 of which are “probably man made,” in an area reportedly defined as having a “high probability” as being the location of MH370. That area (as large as 25,000 sq. km) is presumably where Ocean Infinity will pick up.
The company boasts “The world’s most advanced fleet of autonomous vehicles,” or specifically six HUGIN autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) that “are capable of operating in 6,000 m water depth collecting high resolution data at record breaking speeds.” The AUV have the capability to explore deeper areas of the ocean, which could provide a long-awaited breakthrough.
Exciting Finish in Red Bull Air Race World Championship
Japan’s Yoshi Muroya takes home the trophy for the season after intense final round.
Yoshihide “Yoshi” Muroya won the last two Red Bull Air Race competitions of the season to become Masters Class World Champion.
After the last Red Bull Air Race competition for the year ended in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the last one of the Air Gates was deflated, Yoshihide “Yoshi” Muroya stood at the top of the podium as the Masters Class World Champion. Muroya had dropped back in the ranks in the middle of the season with several tough races. But after winning the last two competitions of the season, the Japanese air racer totaled up 74 points, only four points more than second place contestant Martin Sonka from the Czech Republic.
“The race in Indy was very tough,” said Muroya. “With the wind conditions it was so close, anybody could’ve won the World Championship, but we came out on top.” Muroya had a perfect last run, finishing in 1:03:026, beating the Indianapolis track record by more than a second.
American racer Kirby Chambliss had a chance to take home the trophy with two wins in the middle of the race season — Budapest and Kazan. But weak results in the last two competitions put Chambliss barely off the podium, finishing in fourth place with 53 points, three points behind Canadian pilot Pete McLeod. Chambliss had the misfortune of being matched with Muroya in the Round of 8 in Indianapolis, a loss that gave him only one point. Had he been able to get through to the next round, he would have taken home the bronze medal.
Low ceilings and rain ended up cancelling the final race in the Challenger Class, which was won by German pilot Florian Bergér, closely followed by Daniel Ryfa from Sweden and Luke Czepiela from Poland. The first female pilot to race in the Red Bull Air Race, Mélanie Astles from France, stood at the top of the podium in the final race, the results of which were based on the times in the qualifying races. Astles finished fifth overall.
Have a wonderful safe weekend, Happy Landings.
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DSP Group Inc (DSPG) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Transcript
DSPG earnings call for the period ending June 30, 2019.
Motley Fool Transcribers
(MFTranscribers)
Jul 31, 2019 at 4:24AM
Image source: The Motley Fool.
DSP Group Inc (NASDAQ:DSPG)
Q2 2019 Earnings Call
Jul 30, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET
Prepared Remarks
Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's Q2 2019 DSP Group Inc. Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. And I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Ms Tali Chen. Please go ahead.
Tali Chen -- Chief Marketing Officer
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Tali Chen, Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at DSP Group. Welcome to our second quarter 2019 earnings conference call. On today's call, we also have with us Mr. Ofer Elyakim, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Dror Levy, Chief Financial Officer.
Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during this conference call, we will be making forward-looking statements about our financial guidance for the third quarter of 2019; projections for the full year 2019 relating to growth initiatives and our long-term growth cordless business projections, optimism about our engagement pipeline and design wins in growth initiatives and diversity of product offerings within such initiatives, including SmartVoice, Unified Communications and SmartHome; and ramp-up schedules of products incorporating our technologies; and the positive impact on revenue.
We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. For more information about the risks and factors that could affect the forward-looking statements made herein, please refer to the risk factors discussed in our 2018 Form 10-K and other SEC reports we have filed.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Ofer Elyakim, our Chief Executive Officer. Ofer, the floor is yours.
Ofer Elyakim -- Chief Executive Officer and Director
Thank you, Tali. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I hope that you have the opportunity to read our press release, which we distributed earlier today. I would like to begin by reviewing our result for the second quarter, commenting on the progression of our business plan and providing context for our outlook. In a short while, Dror will provide you with detailed comments on our financial results and outlook for the third quarter of 2019.
We are pleased with our second quarter results, which were in line with our guidance on the top line and ahead on operating income and earnings per share. We ended the quarter with total revenues of $29 million, representing an increase of 3% on a sequential basis and a decrease of 5% year-over-year. During the quarter, revenues from growth initiatives reached $17.8 million, representing an increase of 12% year-over-year and comprising 61% of total revenue. This accomplishment was propelled by record results in our SmartVoice segment, which offset the expected weakness in the Unified Communications product line and the temporary slowdown in demand for gateways, which are part of our smartphone product line. SmartVoice revenues grew by 142% year-over-year and by 29% sequentially, reaching record revenues of $5.3 million in the second quarter.
This growth demonstrates the strength and diversity of our product offering in addressing a number of new applications, including cameras, tablets and Smart TV. GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins further expanded by 60 basis points versus the second quarter of 2018 to 49.7% and 50.1%, respectively, and were in line with our guidance. Our gross margin expansion was driven by the transition of the revenue mix from legacy to new. We're absolutely thrilled with customer acceptance of our new technologies and products, as evidenced by the strategic wins we secured across all of our growth initiatives.
The first one is the upcoming launch, which we previously announced in the fourth quarter, of a prominent design win in the Unified Communications space of an IP phone series with a Tier 1 OEM customer. We expect initial commercial shipment of this high-volume design win to commence this quarter and to gradually ramp and contribute in a meaningful way to our 2020 revenues. The second is establishing our SmartVoice technology in a leadership position in 3 promising new market verticals, smart TVs, cameras and tablets, which together accounted for nearly 60% of our SmartVoice revenues.
The third being selected by Orange and a leading North American service provider for the respective IoT offering based on our ULE technology. These strategic wins, along with our exceptional pipeline of design engagements, solidify our success in transitioning ourselves into a growing voice and IoT technology company. These developments further increase our confidence that we are well positioned for a return to sustainable revenue growth and that our growth initiatives are on track to account for approximately 2/3 of our total revenues by year-end.
Now I'd like to move on to the business update by segment, starting with SmartVoice. During the quarter, we generated record revenues of $5.3 million from sales of SmartVoice products, representing a year-over-year increase of 142% and a sequential increase of 29%. We continue to enhance our engagement pipeline and secure design wins for hands-free voice activation in a variety of applications with leading OEMs. These design wins are driving our penetration into this burgeoning market and help us to establish our leadership position in 3 market segments, tablets, cameras and Smart TVs.
Moreover, our team's relentless efforts during the quarter resulted in the following noteworthy achievements. The first one, our 5 new tablet product launches by leading Chinese OEMs during the second quarter. This achievement further strengthens our leadership position in the hands-free voice activation -- activated tablet domain. To date, we have shipped our SmartVoice products to more than 8 dozen different models of hands-free, voice-activated Android tablets.
The second, 3 new innovative devices based on our technologies were certified by Amazon Alexa Voice Services, or AVS, bringing the total number of certified products to 16. All are using DSP's technologies and cover a wide variety of applications, including smart assistance, smart speaker, tablets, modules and even and a new cordless phone. This further underscores the high-quality of our SmartVoice technology and the solid and fruitful partnership we built with the AVS team. Third, a leading OEM launched a far-field, voice-activated smart TV using our SmartVoice solution.
This sets a high bar for TV offerings as Energy Star compliance means the TV may consume no more than 0.5 watts for standard TVs and no more than 3 watts for Internet-connected TVs using Wi-Fi or ethernet when in standby mode. This power limit makes it a serious matter for manufacturers to consider any additional circuitry. As a result, we are particularly pleased that our SmartVoice technology meets the requirements and is compliant with the Energy Star power profile while also providing advanced voice-enabled activation and control.
In meeting these customers' needs, we have opened the door to a whole new customer base requiring similar capabilities. While these wins continue to demonstrate strength and diversity of our SmartVoice franchise, they also underscore our global reach, tightly coupled with design partnership capabilities and our ability to drive down power consumption and bring high-quality and high-performance solutions to market. We believe that our SmartVoice business will continue to be an important growth driver this year, powering a broad array of exciting new applications.
Now moving into the Unified Communications segment. In the second quarter, demand for our Unified Communications products was impacted by an expected near-term weakness. Our second quarter revenues of $8.8 million declined by 10% year-over-year and by 7% on a sequential basis. At the same time, we continued to strengthen our leadership position in the unified communication market and expanded our reach into new customers and product categories. A few notable achievements included Grandstream Communications launched a new carrier-grade line of IP phones and a new long-range IP DECT handset based on our DVF99 and DCX81 voice processors. We saw a successful penetration into the Korean market.
We've seen, our ODM partner, designed a new IP phone that meets the stringent requirements of this market, which has recently been launched by a prominent Korean service provider. Gigaset selected our DVF101 for its Maxwell 4, a professional business phone. We are particularly excited about a major design win we secured earlier this year and reported about in the fourth quarter. This design win is a noteworthy achievement that guarantees our long-term growth in the unified communication business.
However, due to the longer-than-expected ramp, we anticipate that revenues from this product will contribute in a meaningful way only in early 2020. Nevertheless, we do expect initial shipments to commence this quarter, but at a much more gradual ramp than previously expected, consequently, slowing the recovery of our Unified Communications revenues. Nevertheless, we view the weakness this year as temporary impacted by the higher levels of inventories early in the calendar year coupled with macro uncertainties related to global trade tensions, leading to lower levels of capex and IT investments by enterprises.
In summary, while we are disappointed by the weaker demand for our unified communication products, we remain confident that despite the weakness, we are on track for modest revenue growth this year and that our promising design pipeline and product road map positions us well for meaningful revenue growth in the years to come. And now for an update on the home segment, which includes SmartHome and cordless. Turning to our SmartHome product line.
During the second quarter, we generated revenues of $3.6 million, representing a year-over-year decrease of 4% and a sequential decrease of 13%. The SmartHome product line comprises of DECT/ULE SoCs that are integrated in gateways and IoT sensors. We are very pleased with the momentum and solid demand for ULE products. However, during the quarter, we did experience some softness in demand for our DECT/ULE products used in home gateways, mainly due to seasonal factors, and we expect a rebound in the fourth quarter.
We are very excited to share with you a milestone event for our SmartHome business. During the second quarter, we secured a strategic design win with a leading North American service provider that selected our ULE technology for its IoT product offering. This is a direct result of our marketing investments in creating and developing market awareness for ULE in the U.S. We believe that such high-profile selection of ULE by a market leader could have meaningful impact in driving additional adoption of the technology by leading service providers and OEMs.
We are pleased to see ULEs and parallel benefits, including superior range, interference-free spectrum and natural and reliable voice and audio support that are translated into a diverse product offering as evidenced by Motorola launched an innovative, Alexa-enabled voice device, actually the world's first DECT phone that is Amazon Alexa certified, underscoring the unique value proposition of voice user interface coupled with the best-in-class wireless voice technology, thereby, reinventing the home phone experience. The device was launched on Father's Day in the U.S. and is getting solid reviews.
The second is a Japanese OEM that selected DECT/ULE for its wireless speaker offering. This product will leverage the low latency offered by DECT/ULE coupled with full band audio with 48 kilohertz support to stream best-in-class, hi-fi audio over DECT/ULE. The third is a U.S.-based industrial IoT company that selected our DECT/ULE technology for a sensor system for diagnosing machinery conditions. We are optimistic about the design momentum and growth potential of this product category in 2019 on the heels of strong traction for ULE in Europe and now also in the U.S. And now to an update on the cordless phone market.
Our second quarter cordless revenues were in line with our expectations. Cordless revenues declined by 24% year-over-year to $11.3 million and accounted for 39% of second quarter revenues. And now to the outlook. Taking into account forecasts received from customers and our own assessment, we expect our third quarter revenues to be in the range of $30 million to $32 million. The midpoint of this guidance range implies a sequential increase and a modest year-over-year decline.
We expect our growth initiatives to account for 59% to 63% of our overall revenues. To summarize, we're excited by the acceptance of our products and technologies and believe they will solidify our future success, driven by a solid pipeline of design wins with the leading OEMs, which are expected to materialize gradually during the remainder of the year and in a more significant way in 2020.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Dror, our Chief Financial Officer. Dror, the floor is yours.
Dror Levy -- Corporate Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Ofer. I will now review the income statement for the second quarter of 2019 from top to bottom. For each line item, I will provide the U.S. GAAP result as well as the equity-based compensation expenses included in this line item and the expenses related to previous acquisitions. Our revenues for the second quarter of 2019 were $29 million. Gross margin for the quarter was 49.7%. Gross margin for the quarter included equity-based compensation expenses in the amount of $0.1 million. R&D expenses were $8.6 million, including equity-based compensation expenses in the amount of $0.8 million.
Operating expenses for the quarter were $15.7 million, including equity-based compensation expenses in the amount of $1.9 million and amortization of acquired intangible assets in the amount of $0.1 million. Financial income for the quarter was $0.4 million. Financial income for the quarter included $0.2 million of exchange rate differences related to new accounting standards related to long-term leases. These exchange rate differences were excluded from our non-GAAP financials for this quarter.
Income tax benefit for the quarter was $0.4 million and included tax benefit resulting from changes in deferred taxes related to intangible assets and equity-based compensation expenses in the net amount of $0.1 million. Net loss was $0.5 million, including equity-based compensation expenses of $2 million, amortization of intangible assets of $0.1 million, exchange rate differences in the amount of $0.2 million and the tax benefit effect of $0.1 million.
Our non-GAAP net income, excluding these items I've just described, was $1.7 million. GAAP loss per share for the quarter was $0.02. The negative impact of equity-based compensation of EPS was $0.08. The negative impact of the amortization of acquired intangible assets on the EPS was $0.01. The negative impact of the exchange rate differences on the EPS was $0.01, and the positive impact of the deferred taxes was $0.01. Non-GAAP diluted income per share, excluding the items I've just described, was $0.07 for the second quarter. Please see the current report on Form 8-K we filed with the SEC this morning for a full reconciliation of the non-GAAP presentation to the GAAP presentation.
Now turning to the balance sheet. Accounts receivable at the end of the second quarter of 2019 increased to $17.1 million compared to $15.6 million at the end of the first quarter, representing a level of 53 days of sales. Our inventory slightly decreased from $9.3 million at the end of the first quarter to $9.2 million, representing a level of 57 days. Our cash and marketable securities position increased by $1.8 million during the second quarter and were at the level of $121.9 million as of June 30, '19.
Our cash and marketable security position during the quarter was affected by the following: We had $3 million of cash that was provided by operations, $1.9 million of cash was used for purchase of property and equipment, $0.2 million of cash was received from exercise of options by employees and $0.5 million was the increase in market value and amortization of marketable securities. Now I would like to provide you with our projections for the third quarter of 2019. Our third quarter projections, including the impact of equity-based compensation expenses and acquisition-related amortization expenses, are as follows:
Revenues are expected to be in the range of $30 million to $32 million. We expect our gross margin to be in the range of 50% and 51%. R&D expenses are expected to be in the range of $9 million to $10 million, and total operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $15.5 million to $17.5 million. Financial income is expected to be in the range of $0.5 million to $700,000, and we expect the tax benefit of approximately $0.2 million on a non-GAAP basis.
Our shares outstanding are expected to be in the range of 24 million shares to 25 million shares. Our third quarter projections include $0.1 million for amortization of intangible assets. Our third quarter projections also include the following amounts forecasted for equity-based compensation expenses: Cost of goods sold include $0.1 million, R&D expenses include $0.6 million to $0.8 million and operating expenses include $1.7 million to $1.9 million.
Now I would like to open up the line for questions and answers. Operator, please.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Matt Ramsay. Your line is now a little thing.
Josh Buchalter -- Needham & Company -- Analyst
This is Josh Buchalter on behalf of Matt. Congrats on the results in a tough backdrop. So it sounds like there's some solid progress on the ecosystem development in North America with the design win for DECT/ULE. Congratulations because I know it's been a lot of work from the team there. How should we think about sort of the cadence of the revenue opportunity developing, I guess, here and as well at Orange and Deutsche Telekom, given it's been a couple of months since those were announced?
Josh, Thanks for the question. So with respect to SmartHome and DECT/ULE, in particular, with respect to the gateway front, so the SmartHome revenues are basically an aggregate of these 2 items, so ULE that is sold for IoT sensors and the gateway that basically connects that to the network. So as I've said, we've seen some weakness during this quarter. Mainly, I think it's kind of coupled with much better results that we saw in the first quarter. So there's like some seasonal weakness in the second quarter.
As we said, we do expect to see a recovery there in terms of new gateway products that are expected to launch into the fourth quarter of the year. And we believe that we will see more stability starting in the fourth quarter. With respect to DECT/ULE, we basically have now 2 launches. One launch that is now well over kind of 2 years on from the start, this is with Deutsche Telekom, and we actually see that demand has been improving. It's still not at the level that -- where we want it to be, but there are no any issues anymore with overstocking, and all the inventories were depleted.
We're actually seeing more orders. And we're very happy with the pace as of today. In addition, we have Orange that started a soft launch, sometimes in the April, May time frame and is expected to do the kind of the big launch with a lot of kind of media exposure in preparation for the holiday season. So that means really in December time frame. And also, we have very good hopes there. Actually, the application -- the Orange application has been downloaded in tens of thousands and already shipments occurred of a similar amount, only via a soft launch.
What we need to take into account is that these service providers do take a long time until services mature and the subscriber base grows. But once you're in a certain point, I think we see kind of very -- fairly steady demand, and we hope that we're kind of getting there now on DT. With respect to the U.S., so we have been focusing on the U.S. market in marketing and actually trying to leverage all of the success cases that we are bringing from Europe to the U.S. And that has resulted with a very important and significant design win with a leading service provider.
We believe that all of that -- all of these good things will aggregate into our hopes to see a very strong 2020 for SmartHome. We still see a lot of activity also in Europe by additional service providers that are evaluating, trialing, and hopefully, will also launch services using ULE. So in summary, we do believe that we have a very good technology. We do believe that the market is becoming very well aware of it. It started in Europe, it now is happening in the U.S. So we like the momentum.
We definitely want to see revenue growth. We want to see the kind of the sequential increase of that. And I think that we have, today, a much better backlog of projects with fairly significant service providers that all of that should translate into a level shift with respect to kind of the level of the annual revenues next year.
I appreciate all the color. And then, I guess, quickly on SmartVoice, it continues to put up very impressive growth numbers and pick up 3 the design wins in diverse sets of applications. And you've given some stats on smartphone versus non-smartphone exposure today. But I guess, I was wondering which bucket do you see is the larger growth driver, I guess, in the medium to long term? And I guess, if there's any impact on seasonality within that business that we should understand? That would be helpful. Congrats on the results.
Josh, so with respect to SmartVoice. And as you can see from the way the business has been gravitating, we have been focused during the last 3 years, actually, on both customer diversification and also application diversification from battery- to non-battery-operated devices from consumer to nonconsumer. And I think that what we are starting to see is that these objectives are actually also being translated to revenue.
So it's not just design wins, it's also an output of orders and the new products that are embracing the voice as a user interface. And it's not just in smartphones, it's not just in smart speakers, but we're actually seeing some additional silos where the technology is important, relevant and, hopefully, is now radio for prime time. And I think that as we -- as the business will progress, I think that we will see a fairly similar type of market share between the different categories, for sure, the place where you have, the big volume is definitely the products of smartphones and the like, but I believe that this will continue to represent no more than where we are today, 40%.
And I think that we will see, actually, the other devices, so from IoT to the TV segment, which we kind of classify as much more entertainment because it's not just TVs, but it is everything around the TV, in addition, tablets, cameras, and I think we'll see many more type of application and market verticals that will embrace voice user interface and will start to become relevant from the point of view of the revenue opportunity that they could present for us. Today, we have a fairly strong portfolio of the SoCs that can cover this market.
So any device that wants to embrace voice as a user interface, whether we're talking about a battery-operated device, a wearable device that wants to capture a voice user interface, we can do that with a very good performance, up to far-field, a very high-performance criteria, and we expect to see some very interesting devices being launched to the market during the holiday season with our solution to show the robustness and the level of performance that we can achieve using our high-end SoCs, but still, at a fairly low power consumption compared to the competitive landscape.
So I think we're very encouraged by the market take of voice user interface and the fact that it is starting to become the prevailing user interface and it must have activation mechanism in many consumer devices.
The next question comes from the line of Suji Desilva. Your line is now open
Sujeeva Desilva -- Roth Capital Partners, LLC, Research Division -- Senior Research Analys
Oh hello, Congratulations on the progress here. For the revenue guidance of the mid-single-digit sequential growth in 3Q, can you go through what the individual segments are expected to do there?
Suji, so what we've done, I think, from early this year, we've not been providing any granularity with respect to each and every segment. As you can understand, we're still kind of in the low over a small number, so fluctuations and the -- and changes will happen during the course of the quarter. We don't really have like a 100% visibility that we can actually break it up. But I think that we've provided all kinds of the bread crumbs with respect to how each and every product segment is doing.
We highlighted the trend in the unified communications space where we see the weakness in this category ongoing. We believe there's some improvement, but still, the category is weak. We see also from GDP numbers to a lot of other indicators that there is a material slowdown in the capex spending by businesses, especially in the IT front on hardware. So that is definitely holding back a lot of the expansion that we were hoping to see during this year.
However, as you could guess from and understand from our prepared remarks, we're very optimistic about the future. We believe we have in our bag very strong and meaningful wins with a lot of volume inside, very good ASPs that should really drive our products and revenues to growth in the next coming years. And we do believe that the environment that we're seeing today is rather temporary, and we do expect to see a recovery at some point.
Again, we believe that we are well positioned to grow. And despite the setbacks and some of the macro weakness, I think, we're still positioned well to see moderate or small growth this year in fiscal year 2019. With respect to the SmartVoice domain, this is a hyper consumer market where there's a lot of volatility, very fast lead times. There's a lot of focus on Mainland China. So this is a fairly volatile domain. As you can understand, again, here, we're very optimistic. We see a very strong momentum.
We expect a lot of very interesting and innovative product launches based on our SoCs. But again, there is volatility embedded in this market segment. And I think on the SmartHome market, we continue to see some weakness with respect to the home gateway front. However, we do see a very good demand and momentum for ULE. So all together, when we sum all of these, we see that these growth initiatives should comprise between 59% to 63% of our Q3 revenue.
Okay. And also, really the growth is coming from SmartVoice in 3Q, right? Just to kind of take your comments, just to understand them -- summarize them.
Yes. I think that we are -- we should see year-over-year growth in SmartVoice in the third quarter. Correct.
Okay, great. And then my other question is very impressive diversification at SmartVoice outside smartphones. Just want to understand are these direct customer efforts? Are you leveraging partners or distributors? Because you seem to be getting into new categories. I'm wondering how you can continue that. Whether it takes direct efforts to do that?
Sure. So we -- in each of these categories, it's a combination of direct efforts. Whenever we're talking about a large OEM with debt warrants, with a very direct relationship and a direct investment by DSPG. And it's coupled with a lot of smaller vendors that are working through our partners. And working with partners has been one of the most important efforts that we've been pushing so that it's not just going to be all about a direct relationship, but rather we can actually build partnerships, whether it's in the Mainland, in Japan, in other areas in the world where our partners could actually support and ramp, more customers.
And today, we have plenty of partners that are offering strong reference designs or full reference design and modules that basically include beyond just the DSPG element, also other elements and components as well as our software also hosting third-party software. So complete solutions that can cover a wide variety of different applications. So at the end of the day, in our market, it's usually a combination of direct and indirect. For the most part, today, most of our revenues are still coming from direct relationships, but we're seeing more and more also going indirect.
Okay. Last quick question on TVs. I know you're in voice remotes, but it sounds like you're in TV OEMs as well. Do you expect inflection in the attach rate of TV voice activation? Or will that be a slow, gradual, '19, '20, '21 phenomenon?
Yes. So voice-activated TVs, I believe, will become -- and we're talking here about hands-free voice because voice-activated TVs already happened, right? So you either get it through the remote control, you can also get it through the set-top boxes and over-the-top set of box, an streamer. And today, you've also learned that this capability is also now being integrated into high-end TVs. So I think that the hands-free use case is going to become a prevailing use case in the future.
And I think the people that are spending thousands of dollars on a new TV or several hundreds of dollars on a TV set and can buy a smart assistant for less than $100 would expect from the new entertainment system to provide them with the same capabilities. And I think that your ability to search, browse and flip channels and choose your -- or select your content via voice will be a prevailing use case. And I think that we will see that gradually happening through all of these devices, right?
So it's TVs, remotes, remotes streamers, set-top boxes, over-the-top ones. And they're all going to play a role. And probably, at a certain moment, one use case will become the kind of the more dominant one. And maybe it's going to be the TV, maybe it's going to be a portable device, like a remote.
Your next question comes from the line of Jaeson Schmidt. Your line is open.
Jaeson Schmidt -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst
Hey guys thanks for taking my questions, just wanted to start on the Unified Communications segment. I know you guys have some nice launches here this current quarter, but still battling from inventory issues. Do you think the inventory issue will be completed in Q3? Or do you see that bleeding into Q4 as well?
So, Jaeson. Thanks for the questions. So with respect to the inventory situation. So I can tell you that in some customers, inventory has already been fully depleted, and perhaps, we're seeing some signs of replenishment. However, we do see a pretty weak environment with respect to business investment, and we're hearing that from many of our customers. And some of our customers are also public companies, you can also get that from their results. So I believe that this phenomenon today is a lot more skewed toward the health of the business today, which I alluded, and I believe it is more of a temporary factor. And I think that kind of the inventory situation is much improved.
So we do expect to see it back to kind of normality in 2020. Again, since we have a backlog of new design wins that are supposed to go into production, and the first and the prominent one is already starting in the third quarter, again, not a very high volume, but a slow start, but still a ramp of that product, I think we are positioned very well for continued healthy growth in the unified communication market. We do have a very good backlog of these design wins with leading OEMs, and these should go from the design stage to the production stage gradually and help us see more contribution in terms of revenues.
So I think that from kind of the market perspective, situation is soft today. The inventory situation seems to be improving. And the main issue is kind of much more kind of the macro side, I believe it is temporary, and DSPG is positioned well for growth in this market in the years to come. So even taking into account all the setbacks and weakness, we do feel that we are positioned well for a moderate or small revenue growth during this year. And I think that we're positioned well for very strong revenue growth in the years to come, so 2020 and beyond.
Okay. That's really helpful. And congrats on the North American service provider win in the SmartHome segment. Can you help us size that potential opportunity? Should we look at some of these North American potential wins as being comparable in size to what you've seen from Deutsche Telekom and Orange?
Indeed, and perhaps even larger than that.
Okay perfect. Thanks guys.
Your next question comes from the line of Charlie Anderson.
Charlie Anderson -- Analyst
Yeah thanks for taking my questions and congrats, on some of the strategic wins. I wanted to maybe tack on the last question on the North American service provider. Ofer, I wonder if you could maybe just help us understand a little bit about why you won that? Were they using a previous technology? If you could talk about that as a different use case than what they were doing before? Any more color on that would be helpful. And then I've got a follow-up.
Yes. Thanks, Charlie. So the question is around the North American service provider that we announced that is -- that has selected our ULE. And yes, this service provider has been using IoT technologies for short-range wireless communications. And I think that one of kind of the key elements that got them persuaded to switch and adopt ULE was voice, and voice is becoming more and more important for any type of IoT systems, both from the point of view of the ability to control and monitor without having to walk around with any screen to control things, but actually use very simple voice commands, whether they're local or whether they're being kind of translated in the cloud or using all kinds of skills, to voice communications, to listen in to understand environment, to analyze sounds and events.
So voice is becoming the -- one of the key sensors and one of the key ways to leverage and utilize IoT indoors. And I think that once that is happening, ULE becomes a very good option or perhaps the best option, with its interference-free spectrum, with its great range and the real natural support for voice and audio streaming. You also heard in our prepared comments that today we can stream best-in-class full-band audio over the same connection. So any device, any sensor can do all of that using just one connectivity, one radio. And I think that this is a very propelling value proposition for these guys.
That's great. And then as it relates to SmartVoice, obviously, really impressive array of new wins there. I think as we look across the vendor community there, many other vendors in this space are also seeing success broadening their customer base. It seems like it's sort of a rising tide right now. I guess, I'm curious if we fast forward 3, 4 years over, do you feel like this is a multi-vendor environment where you have multiple 20% market share-type players? Or is this more of a winner-take-all market from what you can tell right now?
Sure. Thanks, Charlie. So when we look at the market of SmartVoice. If you were to ask me about smartphones, so for sure, it should be or probably will gravitate toward kind of a winner that kind of prevails and grabs a lot of market share. But when we are looking at a much more diversified market where there is a lot of products from consumer electronics from devices that are sold for $100 to devices that are sold for $10, it's very hard to position a winner that kind of takes it all. I think it will be a fairly fragmented industry. And when I say that, I mean all these devices will have a microprocessor, they will have connectivity, they will have sensing elements, in our case, a microphone.
So I think that the market will stay fragmented. And actually, that is a great opportunity for someone like DSP Group, with our DNA, crafting together a full SoC that will combine the micro control of the DSP, the algorithm, the system design, the connectivity and brings that to market. So we do see a very good and promising opportunity in the voice user interface space where we could actually leverage and integrate a lot more components together and provide kind of the next-generation of our product -- of our product road map to these markets, to these very different verticals.
And I believe that the -- we can play there. We can be very successful in monetizing a lot of these opportunities. And I think that we are also kind of unique in our position, both from the point of view of the low power and our understanding of kind of consumer electronics, our DNA, which is well rooted in voice and audio technologies and the ability to process, to plan to do all of that, in low-power consumption. The next frontier, which is kind of edge, AI. So artificial intelligence that is running locally and being processed locally. And I think that all of that kind of signals that there is a market for us to go after and be -- really create a very nice kind of market segment for us that could help us to achieve and realize the sustainable revenue growth that we've been talking about.
So I think kind of the market is coming to us, to our DNA, our capabilities, and we need to really select the battles that we want to go after, the battles where we can actually prevail and win, where we see that and each player that like us can really kind of grab market share and form a partnership with leading OEMs, where our road map and theirs align. And this is kind of the win-win that we're looking for and going after.
Great. And then just a quick housekeeping, could you maybe just remind us how we should think about Q4 seasonality for the business?
So with respect to Q4. So at this very moment, our visibility into Q4 is not that great. So our kind of backlog or kind of order book is about -- is about 7 to 8 weeks ahead. We do believe though that given the momentum that we're seeing both in SmartVoice, our expectations for recovering SmartHome and some optimism about perhaps better environment in the kind of unified communication domain, we do hope to see a stable kind of Q4. When you look at kind of the comps for last year, that was actually a fairly -- a tough and challenging quarter for us. We did about $26 million. We hope that this year Q4 won't suffer from a seasonal perspective. So when we kind of are looking -- we hope that we will see kind of a more stable seasonal factor built into Q4.
Okay. Right.
[Operator Instructions] No further question at this time. Please, continue.
Thanks, operator. We would like to use this opportunity and update that during the third quarter, DSP Group will participate in Dougherty Institutional Investor Conference on September 5 in Minneapolis and in the third annual Best Ideas Growth Conference on September 12 in New York. Management will be available for group and one-on-one meetings during these conferences. Thank you for dialing in, and we look forward to report to you in the next quarter.
[Operator Closing Remarks]
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Turtles and tortoises are truly some of the most beautiful members of the animal kingdom. There are so many unique things about them that can only really be understood by experiencing them in the flesh. This isn't possible for everyone but luckily, photography and filming are two things we just love to do here. Although the actual beauty or impressiveness of these creatures cannot be fully captured by a camera, we do our very best to bring it to our viewers through our media.
Of course, following any of our social media accounts will really give you a close look into our lives with them, how to care for and protect them and much more. Our Instagram and Facebook accounts are loaded with wonderful photos, quick clips and plenty of facts to go with them. Our YouTube channel features full-length educational episodes that are sure to give you some great ideas or tips. Be sure to follow us and subscribe by clicking the social icons below!
Aside from our own social media accounts, we take part in the community by being active on podcasts and other shows. Chris is a host on theTurtleRoom's very own podcast known as "The Pondcast" which goes live every first Monday night of the month at 7pm EST. The live show can be watched on the GST Facebook page, theTurtleRoom's Facebook page or theTurtleRoom's YouTube page. If you can't be there to see the live show, don't worry because you can still watch later on YouTube or listen to the audio version of each episode on (iTunes | Android | RSS).
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5 Ways The World Fought Back
Sam Worley
Supercomputers are speeding the process of drug discovery, mixed-reality headsets are enabling medical teams to safely examine COVID-19 patients, and new studies have shed light into the immune system’s response to the novel coronavirus. Here’s some hopeful news from the week in medicine.
Supercompute This
With the help of supercomputers, researchers are able to quickly model the binding abilities of scores of drugs that already exist. Image credit: Getty Images. Top image: An NHS doctor at St.Mary’s Hospital speaks with a patient on a COVID-19 ward during the pandemic whilst wearing a Microsoft HoloLens-2. Caption and image credits: Microsoft.
What is it? One bright spot in the midst of the pandemic is that the scientific world has never been as equipped to face such a challenge: From the use of supercomputers to complex mathematical models, researchers have unprecedentedly sophisticated tools at their disposal.
Why does it matter? Primarily, speed. As two researchers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) explain in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists seeking treatments to COVID-19 have focused on the spike protein the coronavirus uses to bind to human cells — and finding drugs that could prevent that binding. With the help of supercomputers, they’re able to quickly model the binding abilities of scores of drugs that already exist; a process of calculation that might once have taken long stretches of time can now be performed in mere days on a machine like ORNL’s Summit, the world’s most powerful supercomputer. As the authors write, “Repurposing existing drugs offers a potentially rapid mechanism to deployment, since the safety profiles are known.”
How does it work? If promising compounds can be identified, scientists can move on to testing on cells, animals and beyond — but the use of massive computing power means they’re not starting from scratch. “None of this guarantees success within any given time frame,” the authors write, “but a combination of rationality, scientific insight, and ingenuity with the most powerful tools available will give us our best shot.” (Elsewhere, researchers are wielding computational firepower against the coronavirus that’s based on “pure mathematics,” reports Scientific American, profiling a French team that’s developed a mathematical model that predicts how the shape of the virus changes after it infects the body, thereby “revealing a new way to find potential drug and vaccine targets.”)
What is it? Medical staff at a London hospital network are using Microsoft HoloLens — the company’s mixed-reality headset — to protect themselves from the coronavirus as they treat patients.
Why does it matter? Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust contains some of London’s busiest hospitals, including Charing Cross Hospital, where — as elsewhere — the highly infectious coronavirus has meant that staff need to limit exposure to patients so that they themselves stay healthy. Using HoloLens, Microsoft says, has led to reductions up to 83% in the amount of time medical staff spend with patients, as well as in the amount of personal protective equipment the hospitals use — early estimates show a drop in PPE usage of up to 700 items per ward per week.
How does it work? With HoloLens, only one doctor — dressed in PPE — has to enter a patient’s room, but can share the encounter via live feed with coworkers watching from a safe distance. As Microsoft explained in a release, “Doctors wearing HoloLens on the COVID-19 wards can hold hands-free Teams video calls with colleagues and experts anywhere in the world. They can receive advice, interacting with the caller and the patient at the same time, while medical notes and X-rays can also be placed alongside the call in the wearer’s field of view.”
Safer Ventilator Sharing
“We hope this approach, which requires off-the-shelf components, can ultimately help patients in extreme need of ventilator support,” said Giovanni Traverso, an MIT professor and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “We recognize that ventilator sharing is not the standard of care, and interventions like this one would only be recommended as a last recourse.” Image credit: The researchers/MIT News.
What is it? Widespread COVID-19 infection has led to a shortage of ventilators in some places. Now a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital has proposed a new way to share ventilators between patients “in emergencies when no other options are available.”
Why does it matter? The Boston team developed a way for doctors to control the flow of air going to each patient on a single ventilator. “We hope this approach, which requires off-the-shelf components, can ultimately help patients in extreme need of ventilator support,” said Giovanni Traverso, an MIT professor and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “We recognize that ventilator sharing is not the standard of care, and interventions like this one would only be recommended as a last recourse.”
How does it work? Traverso and colleagues incorporated flow valves, which “allow you to personalize the flow to each patient based on their needs,” said Shriya Srinivasan, a postdoc at MIT and BWH who’s also the lead author of a new study in Science Translation Medicine describing the system. The parts are normally available in a hospital, and the setup also includes pressure release valves to prevent too much air from entering a patient’s lungs. “We don’t recommend it unless it’s a dire need,” Srinivasan said — but in case the need is dire, the team is seeking emergency use authorization on the system from the FDA.
The T Cell Response
The two studies show that people infected with the coronavirus also harbor T cells that target it. Image credit: Getty Images.
What is it? Two new studies shed light into the role of T cells, an important agent of the immune system, in fighting COVID-19 infection. Science magazine has the rundown.
Why does it matter? T cells are crucial actors in the immune system, but so far their response to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has been unclear. The two studies show that people infected with the coronavirus also harbor T cells that target it, which “bodes well for the development of long-term protective immunity,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University. “These papers are really helpful because they start to define the T cell component of the immune response.”
How does it work? Researchers working on the immune system’s response to COVID have mostly focused on antibodies, which could latch on the coronavirus and prevent it from infecting human cells. T cells have two roles in the body: as “helper” cells and as “killer” cells, which destroy infected cells. In California, a research team found that, in samples tested, all patients who had recovered from mild COVID-19 had helper T cells that recognized SARS-CoV-2, and 70% had killer T cells specific to the virus. Alessandro Sette, co-author of a new paper in Cell, said, “The immune system sees this virus and mounts an effective immune response.”
The ‘Achilles Heel’ Of A Virus
What is it? Scientists at Denmark’s Aarhus University located a potential “Achilles heel” of viruses, including coronaviruses.
Why does it matter? Viruses can cause disease by circumventing or short-circuiting the body’s immune defenses — but how? If the mechanism or mechanisms could be identified, it’d help researchers design treatments. Aarhus’ Søren Riis Paludan, co-author of a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, found one potential avenue that, he said, could “pave the way for new principles for treatment of herpes, influenza and also the coronavirus.”
How does it work? Paludan and colleagues focused on the herpes simplex virus and a cellular protein known as STING, short for “stimulator of interferon genes.” As he explained it, “We found that the herpes simplex virus is capable of inhibiting [STING], which is activated when there is a threat. When STING is inhibited, the body's immune system is also inhibited — the virus thereby puts the brakes on the body's brake, which is supposed to prevent us from becoming ill.” Other viruses, Paludan added, “make use of the same principle,” including the new coronavirus: “This suggests that we have found a common denominator for several types of virus, and that this is probably an important element in the development of treatment.”
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