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__label__cc	0.628788	0.371212	sysadmin August 6, 2020 2 min read The origin of playing cards has become a great debate in the modern era, because what has been recorded in history is the Europeans who first introduced it. However, there are historical records that show that Europeans discovered them on the way, while playing cards required a printing process. Printing on paper / cloth media at that time could only be done in China or Korea, long before Europeans could do it. The origin of the 4 symbols on playing cards is also unique: hearts, diamonds, spades, curls Type 4 forms were first recognized in the Middle East. The 4 forms include coins, cups, swords and sticks. These shapes eventually evolved over time: coins became diamonds, cups representing “love” became hearts, swords became spades and sticks became curly. The faces on the French deck are named and made to resemble historical figures. The king of hearts is Charlemagne, the king of diamonds is Julius Caesar, the king of curls is Alexander the Great and the king of spades is King David of the Bible. Playing cards is the most popular playing tool in France. Because they involved faces and numbers in their card designs, playing cards began to be used as a fortune-telling tool. In addition, since ancient times, the game of forming buildings out of playing cards has been very popular. In 1992, for the first time, someone set a world record for the builder of the tallest card building. In ancient Europe, playing cards were used as one of the largest tax contributor products because of their popularity. The facts and history of playing cards that have been mentioned are playing cards with original designs, not those that already have various designs including movie or anime characters Previous 3 types of work in casinos that are popular in general Next Facts of Being a Casino Dealer	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line1
__label__cc	0.663123	0.336877	Bill Gates is trying to dim the sun \| January 01, 2021 09:40 AM Bill Gates is reportedly worth $118 billion. At least one estimate judges his worth to be $129 billion. Either way, the man has leisure, cash, and a penchant for making everything his plaything. This might explain why he is funding an Icarian experiment to block out the sunshine. With the help of Gates’s greenbacks, Harvard scientists are attempting to determine whether they can dim sunlight to cool down planet Earth. The administrators of SCoPEx, or Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment, plan to test their sun-reflecting, particle-spraying balloon in Sweden in 2021, sans particle expulsion. The aim: “SCoPEx is a scientific experiment to advance understanding of stratospheric aerosols that could be relevant to solar geoengineering.” Run for your lives. “It is not a test of solar geoengineering per se,” reads a summary. “Instead, it will observe how particles interact with one another, with the background stratospheric air, and with solar and infrared radiation.” The underlying assumption, so it seems, is that the sun is doing something wrong. Fervent climate meliorists think up some wild ideas, but this one is next-level. Remember when the sun was appreciated, even worshiped, as the sustainer of life that it is? Or, at least, do you remember reading about it? “The law, say the gardeners, is the sun,” W.H. Auden wrote. Now, the sun is viewed as an existential threat. People object to this experiment for different reasons. One Swedish greenie told Reuters that it could create the impression that continuing use of fossil fuels is possible. Presumably, that would only happen if the chalk dust works. (The scientists plan on using calcium carbonate.) Another says that it violates a U.N. global moratorium on geoengineering. Still others suggest it will shift global rain patterns. This is from Science’s Paul Voosen: “Unlike sulfates, which can lead to ozone loss, calcium carbonate is not particularly reactive. But because it does not exist naturally in the stratosphere, models for its behavior are uncertain.” Voosen refers to David Keith, one of the SCoPEx scientists, who also told Reuters, “‘There is a long history of people doing research on things that were socially unpopular at the time that we now see as important,’ he said, such as birth control.” That’s a peculiar example and a peculiar justification for his sci-fi methods. But don’t mind Keith. Don't mind SCoPEx or Gates. They just want to do what climatism insists we must never, ever do in manipulating the environment. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/bill-gates-is-trying-to-dim-the-sun	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line3
__label__cc	0.74523	0.25477	Hackers Threaten to Dump Insurance Files Related to 9/11 Attacks Posted on December 31, 2018 by BitShare On Monday, New Year’s Eve, a hacker group announced it had breached a law firm handling cases related to the September 11 attacks, and threatened to publicly release a large cache of related internal files unless their ransom demands were met. The news is the latest public extortion attempt from the group known as The Dark Overlord, which has previously targeted a production studio working for Netflix, as well as a host of medical centres and private businesses across the United States. The announcement also signals a slight evolution in The Dark Overlord’s strategy, which has expanded on leveraging the media to exert pressure on victims, to now distributing its threats and stolen data in a wider fashion. In its announcement published on Pastebin, The Dark Overlord points to several different insurers and legal firms, claiming specifically that it hacked Hiscox Syndicates Ltd, Lloyds of London, and Silverstein Properties. “Hiscox Syndicates Ltd and Lloyds of London are some of the biggest insurers on the planet insuring everything from the smallest policies to some of the largest policies on the planet, and who even insured structures such as the World Trade Centers,” the announcement reads. It is unclear what exact files the group has stolen, but it is trying to capitalize on conspiracy theories around the 9/11 attacks. “We’ll be providing many answers about 9.11 conspiracies through our 18.000 secret documents leak,” the group tweeted on Monday. Got a tip? You can contact this reporter securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com. A spokesperson for the Hiscox Group confirmed to Motherboard that the hackers had breached a law firm that advised the company, and likely stolen files related to litigation around the 9/11 attacks. “The law firm’s systems are not connected to Hiscox’s IT infrastructure and Hiscox’s own systems were unaffected by this incident. One of the cases the law firm handled for Hiscox and other insurers related to litigation arising from the events of 9/11, and we believe that information relating to this was stolen during that breach,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “Once Hiscox was informed of the law firm’s data breach, it took action and informed policyholders as required. We will continue to work with law enforcement in both the UK and US on this matter,” they added. Lloyds of London did not respond to a request for comment. The hacking group published a small set of letters, emails and other documents that mention various law firms, as well as the Transport Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Aviation Administration (The TSA could not provide a statement in time for publication, and the FAA told Motherboard in an email it was investigating.) Those documents themselves appear to be fairly innocuous, but the group says it may release more. In its extortion note, The Dark Overlord included a link for a 10GB archive of files it allegedly stole. The group also provided a link to this archive to Motherboard before publishing its announcement. The cache is encrypted, but the hackers are threatening to release the relevant decryption keys, unlocking different sets of files at a time, unless the victims pay the hackers an undisclosed ransom fee in Bitcoin. “Pay the fuck up, or we’re going to bury you with this. If you continue to fail us, we’ll escalate these releases by releasing the keys, each time a Layer is opened, a new wave of liability will fall upon you,” the extortion note reads. The Dark Overlord is also claiming to be offering to sell the data on a dark web hacking forum, and is attempting to blackmail individuals who may be included in the documents themselves. “If you’re one of the dozens of solicitor firms who was involved in the litigation, a politician who was involved in the case, a law enforcement agency who was involved in the investigations, a property management firm, an investment bank, a client of a client, a reference of a reference, a global insurer, or whoever else, you’re welcome to contact our e-mail below and make a request to formally have your documents and materials withdrawn from any eventual public release of the materials. However, you’ll be paying us,” the group’s post reads. As The Dark Overlord’s announcement notes, the breach itself was previously reported in vague terms by a specialist legal publication, and Hiscox Group pointed Motherboard to the firm’s own April 2018 announcement of a data breach. “Hiscox recently learned of an information security incident affecting a specialist law firm in the US that provided advice to Hiscox or its policyholders on some of its US commercial liability insurance claims. The incident involved illegal access to information stored on the law firm’s server, which may have included information relating to up to 1,500 of Hiscox’s US-based commercial insurance policyholders,” that earlier announcement reads. Subscribe to our new cybersecurity podcast, CYBER. What I Learned By Talking to 201 iPhone Case Factories Elon Musk says Tesla Model 3 car will debut this week, with quick ramp-up ahead Clouds under the sea: Microsoft deploys its Project Natick data center off the coast of Scotland The CIA ‘Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny’ It Has Documents on Satoshi Nakamoto RIP Koko, the Kitten-Loving Gorilla Who Communicated With Humans This entry was posted in News and tagged tech. Bookmark the permalink. ← Leaked Documents Show How Instagram Polices Stories Phillip Frost Agrees to Settle Riot Blockchain Related Case for $5.5 Million → Cure.fit acquires AI body tracker Onyx to enable two-way workout videos Recently Trending BitShare Archives Select Month January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 September 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 October 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 December 2012 September 2012 July 2012 March 2012 May 2011 October 2010 hello@bitshare.cm BitShare.cm \| Go Up ↑	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line5
__label__wiki	0.767177	0.767177	Aero Vodochody 145 / Ae-45 Aero Vodochody Super Aero 145 Super Aero 145 Development began 1946 and was accomplished by the technical designers Jiři Bouzek, Ondřej Němec and František Vik. The design bears a superficial resemblance, viewed nose-on, to the German Siebel Si 204 which, among other German aircraft like the Messerschmitt Bf 109, were produced in Czechoslovakia while under German occupation. The prototype (registered OK-BCA) flew for the first time on 21 July 1947 and the second, registered OK-CDA, one year later. Flight testing ran without incidents and the type was released for series production in 1948. The model number of "45" was not a continuation of Aero's pre-war numeration scheme, but a reference to the 4/5 seats in the aircraft. The Aero 45 had a sleek, teardrop-shaped fuselage, with a rounded, extensively-glazed nose affording excellent visibility. It had a low wing on which the engine nacelles were mounted, and a conventional tail. The main undercarriage was retractable but the tailwheel was fixed. Ae-45 prototypes were widely advertised abroad. In August 1949 Jan Anderle won the Norton Griffiths Race in Great Britain (Ae-45 registration OK-DCL). They also set several international records. As a result, apart from Eastern Bloc countries, the plane was also bought by Italy and Switzerland. On 10–11 August 1958 Dr. Pier Paolo Brielli flew an Italian Ae-45 3000 kilometers from South America to Dakar across the southern Atlantic (as the first Czechoslovak-built aircraft). In 1981 Jon Svensen flew Ae-45S (390 sold) from Europe to the USA. Ae-45S Super Tourer This type was used in Czechoslovakia and was exported to the People's Republic of China, East Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union and Switzerland. Hungary was a major customer, where the aircraft was known as the Kócsag (Hungarian: "Egret"). Aero Vodochody produced the aircraft in 1947–1951, after which the Let Kunovice rolled out these planes until 1961. In 1958 the Ae-45S became the first Czechoslovak plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It was the first product of the nation's postwar aviation industry and proved a great success, with many of the 590 produced being exported. Among operators were Interflug (4), Hungarian Police and Hungarian Air Ambulance Service, LOT Polish Airlines operated three Ae-45 in 1952–1957, Polish Air Ambulance Service operated Ae-45 and Ae-145, Aeroflot, Aeroclub Ajdovščina, Vietnam Civil Aviation Department – later as Vietnam Civil Aviation (now Vietnam Airlines), East German Air Force, Hungarian Air Force, Romanian Air Force, and Czechoslovakian National Security Guard. The Czechoslovak Air Force operated aircraft under designation K-75, for liaison purpose, and the Indian Air Force operated a single aircraft gifted by the Czech government In the People's Republic of China the People's Liberation Army Air Force operated license-built Suingari-1 variant. The Vietnam People's Air Force operated three Ae-45 from 1956 (acquired from China). irst production version built in Aero factory. 200 built between 1948 and 1951. Aero 45S "Super Aero" Improved variant produced by Let in Kunovice factory, among others with better navigational equipment. 228 aircraft built between 1954 and 1959. Aero 145 Version with engines changed to supercharged Motorlet (Walter) M332 Produced later as Avia M332s. This version was developed and built by Let Engines: 2 × Avia M 332-III, 100 kW (140 hp) each Propellers: 2-bladed Type V410, electrically-operated metal 4-position variable-pitch Propeller diameter: 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) Wingspan: 12.25 m (40 ft 2 in) Wing area: 17.1 sq.m (184 sq ft) Airfoil: Aero No.58-64 Length: 7.77 m (25 ft 6 in) Height: 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) Empty weight: 960 kg (2,116 lb) Gross weight: 1,500 kg (3,307 lb) Max takeoff weight: 1,600 kg (3,527 lb) (full fuel) Fuel capacity: 324 l (86 US gal; 71 imp gal) Maximum speed: 282 km/h (175 mph, 152 kn) at 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) AUW Cruise speed: 250 km/h (160 mph, 130 kn) at 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) AUW Range: 1,700 km (1,100 mi, 920 nmi) Service ceiling one engine out: 2,200 kg (4,900 lb) Rate of climb: 5 m/s (980 ft/min) Wing loading: 87.8 kg/sq.m (18.0 lb/sq ft) Power/mass: 9.5 kg/kW (15.7 lb/hp) Take-off run to 15 m (49 ft): 460 m (1,510 ft) Capacity: 3-4 pax Sungari-1 Chinese unlicensed copy of the Aero Ae 45S, produced from 1958.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line8
__label__wiki	0.561822	0.561822	pantone earth green November 11, 2020 General [71], Harlequin is a pure spectral color at approximately 552 nanometers on the visible spectrum when plotted on the CIE chromaticity diagram. The first recorded use of malachite green as a color name in English was in the 1200s (exact year uncertain).[58]. Pantone Farbe Des Jahres der letzten zehn Jahre. PANTONE 13 … Displayed at right is the color bright mint. The first use of mantis as a color name in English was when it was included as one of the colors on the Xona.com color list, promulgated in 2001. Its complementary color is magenta. [40], The first recorded use of tea green as a color name in English was in 1858.[41]. Seit mehr als 30 Jahren ist Pantone vertrauensvoller Partner für Modedesigner und deren Produktionspartner. My mum used to give me a Haliborange pill every morning when I was a kid, and they were the inspiration for the cover text of Sideburn #11 which is on it's way to the printers. [81] Another name for this color is English green. Bei Lackbeschichtungen steht das Suffix TPG für „Textile Paper Green“. [32], Shamrock green is a tone of green that represents the color of shamrocks, a symbol of Ireland. [76], Bottle green is a color in Prismacolor marker and pencil sets. Inspired by materials themselves, the textures of nature are merged with elements of decomposition and experimentation. Displayed on the right is the color bright green. GO green was the color used for the brand of GO Transit, the regional commuter service in the Greater Toronto Area. Friendly and joyful, an optimistic yellow offering the promise of a sunny day. A stirring blue hue that awakens a vision of Paris in the springtime. The first use of English green as a synonym for Brunswick green was in 1923.[82]. Bright green is a bright shade of green. If you want to keep your designs in vogue, weâve selected some top items from Envato Elements featuring the stunning color trends that Pantone have predicted to pop this fall... Mint green evokes a sense calm, freshness and lightness. The May birthstone is emerald. [30] However, modern colors marketed under this name are usually a blend of other pigments, commonly with a basis of Phthalocyanine Green G.[31] Sap green paint was frequently used on Bob Ross's TV show, The Joy of Painting. In a celebration of organic matter, designers and artists striving to become one with the ways of nature are learning all they can reap from earth’s biodiversity. Chip Replacement Pages \| Coated & Uncoated - SOLID CHIPS Coated, Pantone LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Inc. © Pantone LLC, 2020. Between 1967 and 2013, the brand and color that has adorned each of its train, buses, and other property generally remained unchanged. Green takes up a large portion of the CIE chromaticity diagram because it is in the central area of human color perception. To the right is the color dark pastel green. Pantone 2015 Dusk Blue. It is also the color of a wild asparagus plant blowing in the wind of the 1949 classic film Sands of Iwo Jima. It is a representation of the color of brewed green tea, i.e., the color of the hot green tea after the green tea leaves have been brewed in boiling water. [78] Another name for this color is Bangladesh green. The first recorded use of laurel green as a name of a color in the English language was in 1705. Along with anchoring earth tones, exuberant pops of vibrant colors also appear throughout the collections. Raw materials reflect the beauty of nature’s natural state. The color defined as green in the CMYK color system used in printing, also known as pigment green, is the tone of green that is achieved by mixing process (printer's) cyan and process (printer's) yellow in equal proportions. The color displayed in the color box above (color sample #136 on the ISCC-NBS color list) matches the color called, Color names that clash between X11 and HTML/CSS, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, flag of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, "W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords", "Retsof online version of ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names - Aa through Az", "SVG Color Keywords, CSS3 Color Module, W3C Candidate Recommendation 14 May 2003", "Color Conversion Tool set to hex code of color #BFFF00 (Lime)", ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Mint Leaf (color sample #140), "Dark moss green / #4a5d23 Hex Color Code", "California Code, Government Code – GOV § 420", "Tea green / Caparol 28/11 / #d0f0c0 Hex Color Code", "Pot growers thrive in Northern California: Cash crop now accounts for two-thirds of Mendocino County economy", "Pigments through the Ages - History - Emerald green", "Emerald Green or Paris Green, the Deadly Regency Pigment", "The History of Green Dye Is a History of Death", "Tintbooks – Get Accurate CMYK Color Results For Your Printing Projects", "Pantone TPX Pantone Color Finder—Type the word "Green" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the color will appear. It is based on the approved color specifications to be used for the seal of the university. ... PANTONE 18-1631 TCX Earth Red. Spanish green is the color that is called "verde" (the Spanish word for "green") in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm. Coral, described by Pantone , as “ the more approachable and softer orange ”, has embraced 2011 in a rather big way. The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color # green C, EC, HC, PC, U, or UP—green.[64]. The color indicated is only approximate as the colors of printing inks may vary. Green (Crayola) Green (Crayola) Color coordinates; Hex triplet #1CAC78: sRGB B (r, g, b) (28, 172, 120) CMYK H (c, m, y, k) (84, 0, 30, 32) HSV (h, s, v) (158°, 84%, 68%) Source: Crayola [citation … The three additive primaries in the RGB color system are the three colors of light chosen such as to provide the maximum range of colors that are capable of being represented on a computer or television set. If web developers are using green on a university website, they are encouraged to use Castleton green. Pantone is on a roll this year. Inspiration mariage champêtre douceur - pantone corail - @croquezlapomme #fairepart #mariage #croquezlapomme. [116], The first recorded use of rifle green as a color name in English was in 1858.[117]. 0 171 132 HEX/HTML. It is also one of the school colors of Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago, the other being old gold. Der PANTONE FASHION, HOME + INTERIORS Passport ist eine tragbare Referenz aller 2.310 PANTONE FASHION, HOME + INTERIORS Farben, inklusive 210 neue Farben, für Designer, Produktionsleiter und Koloristen auf dem Sprung. Pantone's 2017 Spring Colors are kale, hazelnut, lapis blue, niagara, primrose yellow, greenery, flame, island paradise, pink yarrow, and pale dogwood. Another name for this color is green W3C or office green. Seattle is sometimes referred to as the Emerald City, because its abundant rainfall creates lush vegetation. Wenn Sie immer noch mit dem TPX-System arbeiten, sollten Sie unbedingt ein Upgrade auf das TPG-System vornehmen. Previously, rifle green uniforms had been issued to Hiram Berdan's elite 1st and 2nd United States Sharpshooters during the American Civil War. [10], Forest green refers to a green color said to resemble the color of the trees and other plants in a forest. Hunter green is a color that is a representation of the color worn by hunters in the 19th century. Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. 6. Pantone Swatches Color Swatches Pantone Colour Palettes Pantone Color Colour Pallete Colour Schemes Pantone Green Pantone 2015 Use E Abuse. Another name for this color is artichoke green. The natural color system is a color system based on the four unique hues or psychological primary colors red, yellow, green, and blue. Aus folgenden Gründen verlassen sich so viele auf Pantone: Pantone ist der globale standard. It is displayed on the right. A different shade of green has been designated as "dark green (X11)" for certain computer uses. The color defined as green in the NCS or Natural Color System is shown at right (NCS 2060-G). [55] The source of this color is the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955), a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps, now on the Internet—see sample of the color Persian green (color sample #159) displayed on indicated web page: Type the words "Rifle green" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the color will appear. PANTONE CANVAS is a place to share creativity and inspiration. Similarly, it can mean anything multicolored or prismatic, such as opals or other precious gems which are highly variegated in color and hue. The official color was chosen based on the traditional darker Spartan green found on the original university varsity letter jackets and marching band jackets. The first recorded use of myrtle green as a color name in English was in 1835.[26]. [121] The term appears to refer to the medium shade of green worn by most regiments of the Imperial Russian Army from 1700 to 1914. [48] It was notorious for causing deaths due to it being a popular color used for wallpaper. The first recorded use of jungle green as a name of a color in the English language was in 1926.[13]. A different color, also called Brunswick green, was the color for passenger locomotives of the grouping and then the nationalized British Railways. It is said to represent tranquility to many people, bringing to mind feelings of wellness and peace of mind. Hooker's green takes its name from botanical artist William Hooker (1779–1832) who first created it particularly for illustrating leaves.[54]. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a green or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. The Munsell colors displayed are only approximate as they have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB gamut. Get in on the fun and download your free copy.” Every year, we eagerly anticipate Pantone's Color of the Year, as well as their seasons…. Pastel colors are typically associated with warmth, flowers and Spring. Green-yellow is a mixture of the colors green and yellow. The X11 color green is somewhat similar to bright green, with a hex triplet of #00FF00, compared to bright green's triplet of #66FF00. The purpose of the CMYK color system is to provide the maximum possible gamut of color reproducible in printing. The use of the term as a color name occurred at least as far back as March 1911 when it appeared in the Boston Globe and newspapers across the country as the new color of fashion.[107]. In the U.S. armed forces, the green beret may be worn only by soldiers awarded the Special Forces Tab, signifying they have been qualified as special forces soldiers. Meet the Makers: Envato Authors On the Creatives Who Inspire Them, Meet the Makers: Our Authorsâ Creative Journeys with Envato. Â© 2020 Envato Pty Ltd. In July 2013, GO Transit updated its look to a two-tone color scheme.[95]. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five primary colors—red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Free UK / EU / US Shipping over £100 / €120 / $150, British 'summer' weather is getting to my bones, time for some sun drugs to feed my pasty complexion. 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__label__wiki	0.821249	0.821249	Catholic schools most disproportionally diverse in Country More than one in five black children now attend a Catholic school. That’s according to the latest research which shows the Catholic Church to be the most ethnically diverse provider of education in the country. With roughly 10% of schools, the Catholic Church is the second largest provider of education in the country. However, this tenth of provision now educates more than fifth of all black pupils in the country. The figures, which are part of the annual Catholic Education Service’s Schools Census, also reveal the extent the Catholic Church is helping to integrate Eastern European migrants with British society, as almost one in five pupils from minority white backgrounds go to a Catholic school. Across the board, Catholic schools educate 21% more pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to other schools. Statistics also show that ethnic minority pupils in Catholic secondary schools perform better at GCSE than the national average. Paul Barber, Director of the Catholic Education Service commented: “For another year running, Catholic schools are the most ethnically diverse in the country. “What’s more, Catholic schools are not just more diverse but disproportionally more so. The fact that a tenth of all schools educates a fifth of certain ethnic minorities is an incredible achievement. “With Catholicism being a largely immigrant faith in England, Catholic schools have a strong track record of taking in children from a wide range of ethnic minorities and producing well-educated, open minded, citizens. “It is very easy for secularist campaigners to claim that religious ethos schools are divisive and segregate communities but the evidence for this simply doesn’t back this up.” There are more than 2200 Catholic Schools in England and Wales. The Catholic sector is the second largest provider of education and currently educates 852,321 pupils. There are a total of 307,663 ethnic minority pupils in Catholic schools (36.1% of pupils). One in seven ethnic minority pupils in England and Wales attend a Catholic school Read 6476 times Last modified on Friday, 02 December 2016 11:41 More in this category: « Parents overwhelmingly favour acts of collective worship in Catholic schools Catholic Schools' Census 2016 »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line15
__label__cc	0.619681	0.380319	This blog explores a range of topics, issues, people, and organizations of all sorts related to the design, development, management and leadership of work organizations that love their people and seek to live in harmony with nature. What Do We Mean by Organizational Learning What Do We Mean by Organizational Learning? There are, of course, many commentaries and books written on exactly this subject; so, I do not consider mine to be definitive in any way. But, I want to address seven subjects that have been on my mind me regarding the field: 1. The exhausting thrill of multiple perspectives 2. A simple model of learning 3. The centrality of feedback and the forces that oppose it 4. The power of vision and hope 5. The complexity introduced by various units of analysis 6. Whole system sight 7. Post-materialism and the future of Organizational Learning The Exhausting Thrill of Multiple Perspectives It is a gross understatement to describe organizational learning is an interdisciplinary field. When I file my yearly tax return, my accountant regularly complains about the items I include as business expenses that enhance my practice: Neo and Trinity CPA: How could going to see first run The Matrix possibly be a business expense?! MS: Well, it’s got a lot of great stuff about futurism which is always great to talk about with clients. It presents an incredible hero myth in the person of Neo and his crew, which is key to understanding what it takes to be a leader. It’s got betrayal because one of the team members doesn’t get his needs met, which points up the need for better recruitment processes and the criticality of getting to know your teammates. I could go on. CPA: Okay, okay. But Keanu Reeves, I mean, come on! MS: Actually, he’s quite good in the role, and both he and Carrie-Anne Moss kill in leather! The way I look at it, virtually anything and everything is grist for the mill of organizational learning. OL is a field of boundless curiosity about socio-technical systems. The hard sciences, the social sciences, management science, the “dismal science” of economics, the humanities, architecture, urban planning, ethnic studies, poly sci, philosophy….you got an “-ology”, there’s a role for it to play in that beautiful and somewhat chaotic field of OL! And that is totally as it should be! Let 3,863,452 flowers bloom! The disciplines that contribute to the understanding of how and what those human systems called organizations learn are probably as multifaceted as the human project itself. Even though there are a number of commonalities and essential patterns to organizational life, (e.g., gathering inputs, through-putting input, and outputting product and services), there have been all kinds of systems over the course of human history, and they have done a heck of a lot of different things. Lee Bolman Specialization does present a problem to the field, however. It is relatively easy to find plenty to do in a relatively small cubbyhole and end up thinking that you’ve found the magic key to the kingdom of deep understanding of everything. Nobody since Leonardo has gotten to take that big a bite of the Tree of Knowledge. Thought leaders like Peter Senge, Lee Bolman and Terry Deal have done a big favor to the field by classifying various sorts of inquiries into categories that help us orient our research and our work as practitioners. Reframing Organizations, The Fifth Discipline and The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook are something guides that everyone should pack before lighting out into the OL territory. Without a map of the whole, it’s pretty easy to get lost in the particulars. (You might want to bring a copy of Peter Drucker’s Management along too.) A Simple Model of Learning Given the number of tributaries feeding into the sea of organizational learning, it does seem to me that those of us attempting to set a course ought to be able to describe what we mean by OL in pretty straightforward terms. The framework developed by Don Schön and Chris Argyris in their masterwork, Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective, has served me well. They looked at learning as an perpetual cycle of action. Þ Discover where learning needs to occur. The need could be simple [How to redraw a graphic for a training program to make it more understandable] or overwhelming [How bringing about an end to war].. Þ Invent an experiment that might respond to the need that’s been discovered. Þ Produce and test the experiment in circumstances where it will have results. Chris Argyris Þ Generalize the results to extract learnings that can be applied in a range of circumstances: Was it easier or harder to use the training exercise after redrawing the graphic? Did disarmament make war less likely? Þ Completing the loop, generalization leads to new discoveries. There are wheels within wheels in this learning cycle. The more one engages in each of these practices the better one gets at it. Don Schön Organizational learning in Argyris and Schön’s framework, results from people skilled in “collaborative inquiry”, i.e., the ability to know less and listen more especially when dealing with emotional stressful topics surrounded by ambiguity. Collaborative inquiry comes from consistent and intentional attention to the Discover —> Invent —> Produce —> Generalize learning cycle. The more widely this competency is distributed among the actors in a system, the greater the organizational learning. The point: it is useful to see learning as a cyclical process. To paraphrase an old dictum, even if practice in learning doesn’t make perfect, paying close attention to your practice moves actors and organizations in that direction. Gregory Bateson referred to this sort of learning from practice as “deutero-learning”. By that he meant learning what the context is within which one is acting so that one is able to act in an increasingly more effective fashion. Bateson uses a trained porpoise that comes to understand his wider context as an example. At first, the porpoise learns that responding to a whistle in a water tank will result in getting fed a fish. But, then, the porpoise discovers that there is no whistle, and flaps his tail in annoyance and a bit of confusion. And, lo and behold, this results in getting fed. Then, the porpoise comes to see that neither responding to a whistle nor flapping a tail will necessarily result in getting fed, but other, new behaviors will. And, ultimately, the porpoise realizes that it’s not a specific behavior that will result in getting fed but behavior that neither the trainer nor the audience has ever seen before that results in the reward. Innovation is rewarded. The porpoise has “learned to learn”. Children go through deutero-learning within the context of their family. They learn what the culture of the family is and what it expects of them. In some families, the children are supposed to be funny, and the more inventive the humor is supposed to be in a family, the more a child is likely to become a comedian or to suffer insecurity because he or she didn’t pass the family’s test. In other families, children are expected to be physically adventurous, and, if they’re not, they’re disdained. In some, the context that must be understood is about religiosity. And so on.[1] Organizations face a similar sort of contextual learning challenge, and the more they become a recognizable brand, the greater the learning requirements: Apple is known to be a highly innovative company. It goes through one quarter where it doesn’t introduce a new product and the price of its stock falls 25%. Greenpeace has earned a reputation as an aggressive defender of the environment. When the organization implements some numbskulls idea of trampling all over the Plains of Nazca in as a massive ad for the organization, its supporters are horrified and its detractors delighted. Coke wants to be seen as a fun drink, but it’s becoming clear that sugary sodas are a primary contributor to increasing rates of diabetes and obesity. Not fun. In each of these instances (and in countless others) the context demands that the organization understand and respond to requirements that may be ambiguous, hard to determine, and rapidly changing. Organizations and systems of all sorts must contend with contextual requirements as well. The United States advertises itself as the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” Inspiring words that leave the country susceptible to derision whenever it doesn’t live up to its high sounding principles. China’s Communist Party presents itself as the “vanguard of the proletariat”, but it looks pretty ridiculous when the top 1% of the vanguard turn out to be exceedingly corrupt. The bigger the game a system wants to play, the harder the hill it has to climb. Argyris and Schön encourage systems to play big games, but point out that the less a system knows about itself, the less it studies itself, the more vulnerable it becomes to losing its way. A family may think of itself as deeply loving, but if it doesn’t notice the occasions where family members aren’t very generous or courteous with each other, it can end up moving farther and farther away from its ambitions for itself. Ditto for any and every other unit of social system analysis (team, division, organization, industry, community, etc.) Double Loop learning is an antidote to being on automatic as a system. Such learning requires the constant consideration of the why a system is doing what it’s doing and reflection on how well it’s doing it. Here’s a graphic from LeadershipNow.com on the topic: Single-loop learning is common. Objectives are set and they are met or missed. Lots of common strategies designed to improve results derive from single-loop learning. Prices are cut, expenses are cut; marketing and R&D budgets are increased, etc.. Double-loop learning is much rarer. It entails attention to contexts and how they are changing. For example, globalization and the resistance to it are two of the strongest forces coursing around the planet today. Cultures are slamming into each other. Assumptions about how the world work and how it ought to work are under great stress. A great deal is up for grabs. The double-loop learning agenda is full, and, yet, it is hard to do -- both because there is so much to learn and because systems practiced in learning are so uncommon. Organizational learning is double loop learning. The Centrality of Feedback to Double Loop Learning An Action/Feedback cycle is the key element distinguishing single and double loop learning but this kind of learning seems to be relatively rare. What are the forces opposing it? To answer this, we need to observe and analyze two feedback features of every human system: structure and agency. Structure refers to the policies, procedures, protocols and institutions that facilitate feedback. Many organizations that systematically collect data for quality improvement and process analysis have some of the ingredients for good feedback activities already in place. The entire quality movement is designed and intended to produce organizational learning. But, in the context of Wall Street’s attention to quarterly earnings and the glare of media attention on organizations that are in motion, frequently there isn’t enough time to analyze mountains of information, understand their meaning, assess the implications and implement change. For example, let’s take the issue of privacy and social media: Facebook, Google, Instagram and other outlets have repeatedly upset privacy advocates. Hell, Facebook was created as a result of Zuckerberg’s deliberate violation of the privacy of a woman who rejected his advances. All of these organizations are engaged in probes and corrective measures regarding privacy. Google wants to provide us with street views of every corner of the planet, no matter how remote, but it agrees to blur out the faces of every person that might appear in its footage (subsequent to a bunch of lawsuits). The National Security Agency and other intelligence organs in the US and elsewhere want access to information that Facebook, Apple and other networks keep private, but the companies are fighting tooth and nail to keep governments from gaining access that they are or will be using for targeting advertising to their users. The situation is in flux. And yet, there is an absence of thoughtful conversation at a mass communications level on the dilemmas surrounding privacy. Yes, elites are engaged in these conversations at academic centers and in thoughtful media convesations, but the billion plus people who are using Facebook aren’t actually engaged in a dialog about what privacy ought to look like in the 21st century. At present, there are no structures that can facilitate reflection in an intentional fashion. Of course, the “market” is a structure, and it’s enough for a lot of folks, but its not really set up to generate learning such as this. The market is dominated by what is exciting, popular and profitable at the moment, regardless of whether it’s a good idea from a longer-term perspective. Structures that support such learning are difficult to imagine. Putting the topic in a double-loop learning context, what privacy is, where is came from and where it is going are examples of underlying assumptions that aren't really being explored. Whether Robert Durst murdered a bunch of people and what price he’ll pay for it if he did, that is being thoroughly explored. What act of insanity will be committed next by ISIS, that is being investigated. The opinion of anyone and everyone on the teams that will be part of the Sweet Sixteen, that is the focus of a massive communication structure. Is Hillary Clinton too old to be President, this inquiring minds want to know, but what is going to happen to privacy…too complicated. Agency has to do with the choices made by organizations (and the individuals and groups that act as their representatives) regarding the content of feedback channels and how feedback is expressed. Unfortunately, there is a lot of data to demonstrate that most of us tighten up and protect ourselves in emotionally tense feedback situations. Argyris described this communications posture as a network of automatic defensive routines that happen beneath the level of full self-awareness. While this is not the setting to go into great detail regarding Argyris’ view of interpersonal and organizational dynamics, a quote from Strategy, Change and Defensive Routines provides a look into his critical perception of many, if not most, organizational communication processes: We are programmed to deal with other’s or organizational defensive routines by bypassing them and acting as if we are not. The others tend to collude because the bypassing behavior is usually seen as being thoughtful and civilized; no one will be embarrassed. The collusion is reinforced by the culture of the organization as well as the larger culture in which the organization exists. That is, one set of defensive loops reinforces each other. The next set of defensive loops is related to the professionals who are supposed to help clients overcome the defensive routines. Management consultants (internal or external) often use the same bypass routines when they deal with threat. Thus, professionals collude in creating another defensive loop. In other words, most of us don’t like to get bad news, and a lot of us don’t like delivering it either. We hide critical information because we’ve been highly trained to experience that as painful, impolite, inappropriate, and/or immature. This is a profound dilemma: organizational learning requires feedback and the discussion of valid data, but doing so evokes defensiveness and polarization that makes organizational learning difficult or impossible. So, what we get are half-measures where a little learning happens, but everyone agrees it’s “not nearly as rich as it would have been if only so-and-so would be willing to listen to some honest feedback.” Alternatively, we get escalating polarization as folks who disagree with each other dig in and (sometimes literally) throw grenades at their opponents. Bottom line, structure and agency combine to yield low learning in a multiplicity of situations… Þ from frozen O-rings that many Morton-Thiokol engineers knew were a big problem before Challenger blew up Þ to an Iraqi invasion based on demonstrably false information about uranium cake Þ to violent predators being released from prison into society even though there is no doubt that they will harm others again Þ to parents continuing to deprecated their kids even though that clearly constitutes bad parenting Þ to traffic jams that happen as regularly as clockwork Þ to bankers repeatedly violating the same laws against insider trading and facilitating tax evasion that they’ve already been fined for several times previously. At present, in many situations, we have neither the communication structures nor the human will to engage in the feedback processes we need to achieve organizational learning. Maybe I should end this thought piece right here and put my head in a plastic bag! The Power of Vision and Hope Fortunately, when I look at all of the social and scientific innovation happening across the world and at all the positive, generous and kind people doing all manner of projects, I am saved from the swamp of pessimism. When a person or a collective of people confront something or someone that they are truly passionate about, that they truly believe in, they are willing to move past the boundaries created by defensiveness and the limitations of existing communication structures and step up to honesty and new opportunities. I have seen this many times in my own life and in my observation of others. Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs returns repeatedly to Jobs’ ability to “distort the reality field” of people with whom he interacted. He showed them that things they didn’t think were possible were, in fact, very much realizable, as long as one could “think different”. This ability to remake the eyes with which one and others see the world strikes me as a fundamental ingredient of visionary leadership. There are a lot of people individually, collectively and organizationally telling their truths. Sometimes the truths people tell are in direct opposition to each other. In philosophy, these juxtaposed truths are called antinomies, a contradiction between two apparently equally valid principles or between inferences correctly drawn from such principles. For example, “Welfare state saves millions of lives” versus “Welfare state enslaves millions into a life of dependency.” Both positions have strong and articulate adherents. When I listen closely and with something like an open mind to each view, I get a headache! But, that’s beside the point. When people and organizations argue persuasively for and against a multitude of ideas, products and services, they sway others, they incline others to do more than they might have thought themselves capable of doing, more than they were actually capable of doing. Love, vision, idealism, and hope impel and compel people and organizations to transcend the constraints of structure and conformity. If the channels aren’t there to facilitate communication on critical topics, people will build them, even in places like Israel and Palestine where acrimony and suspicion are the rule rather than the exception. If you really believe in someone or some institution, if you love someone, you’ll take a hard lesson from him, her or it. If you think that the product or service you’re working on will make a difference that matters, you’ll go through hell to see it through. If you have to become simultaneously psychologically tougher and more sensitive to have a relationship with another person, another group, another organization, a new public to achieve a highly desired goal or state of being, you can. You must. Organizational Learning’s Unit of Analysis A unit of analysis refers to the scope of the system or organization that is supposed to be engaged in a learning process. The more complex a system, the bigger its learning challenge. Its vision must be highly compelling and its structures for integration have to work very well. Assume a simple system, a small business employing 30 people supplying a fairly specific service, e.g., a dental office in a bedroom community owned by two male dentists who are also relatives. Its learning requirements are neither trivial nor massive. Here are a few of the learning needs that such an organization might face: • Its personnel must be professional in both their technical skills and in the quality of their interaction with patients. • Its tracking and record keeping systems must be efficient. • Its leadership must assure quality communication between hygienists, assistants and administrative staff members. • Attention must be paid to new clinical developments and technological advances (e.g., the role remote monitoring and the internet of everything will play in dentistry). • The community being served should be well understood and the outreach campaign to establish and maintain relations with that community should be well thought-through and maintained. • A succession plan involving the right parties needs to be thought through. • The dynamics of each owner’s family life will affect the enterprise and, therefore, need close consideration. Within the practice, there are several potential units of analysis: • Each of the dentists: what is their curiosity about themselves as clinicians and as a leader of a practice/business? • The dentists as partners: how open are they with each other about issues in the practice? How skilled are they at engaging in conversations that open their partnership up to learning rather than polarization? • Each of the staff functions (i.e., hygienists, assistants, administration): What are their expectations for their own development as professionals • Each of the functions in their relationships with the owners: How well do the players do at empathizing with the challenges that each position in the system faces? • Each of the functions in their relationships with one another: How well do they do at identifying inefficiencies and inadequacies in their relations with each other and in fixing those problems themselves • The interaction of all of the internal players with patients • Various patient groupings (e.g., children, teenagers, middle-aged adults, elderly) • The practice’s interaction with its community or communities Considering these units of analysis from a double loop learning perspective, one might want to know: What is the quality of learning happening in each of these domains and in the system as a totality? What are the structures that support learning? How much inquiry and openness is expressed in the conversations between the players in the system? Is the system as a totality united by an overarching vision of service and professionalism that is actually manifested in practice through the identification of gaps between the vision and present outcomes in a spirit of joint inquiry? This brief and incomplete excursion into the world of dental practice is only meant to highlight the complexity of what it means to establish a learning organization. Imagine the challenge of achieving the ambition of double-loop learning in a huge system like a multinational corporation, a state government, an international agency, etc.. Of course, the more complicated the system, the stronger one would expect the mechanisms for organizational memory, feedback and learning to be. Data collection and processing protocols would probably be codified and routinized, for example. Staff meetings and data analysis sessions would be commonplace and regularly scheduled. Management consultants would be running around improving systems and offering insightful suggestions. But, ultimately, we are still looking at human beings and their level of engagement with the systems they are part of, their willingness and their ability to reflect together on past events and future possibilities, their openness to the ideas and perspectives of others, their curiosity about their internal processes and their behavior together, etc.. So, the more complex the system, the larger the unit of analysis and the more challenging the job of comprehending and/or improving the nature of organizational learning. If one expects a system of 100,000 to operate as an effective, focused learning entity, the job of assessing how it’s doing is a daunting one. Whole System Sight Yet, very large systems do learn. Francis Fukuyama’s most recent book, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy, describes six interrelated elements of all political systems that need to work together well in order for a state to be successful, i.e., deliver high quality goods and services to its citizens and residents who manifest their happiness in being part of a state by high levels of social engagement. Very briefly, these are: Economic growth, i.e., that there is some degree of dependable economic robustness and security Social Mobilization, i.e., that the members of a social system participate in activities related to the functioning of that system Idea/Legitimacy, i.e., that people within a society believe in something that makes the functioning of the state legitimate The State itself, i.e., the workings of the governing institutions The Rule of Law, i.e., the extent to which everyone in a society is subject to the same set of rules that have been codified Democracy, i.e., the degree to which there is public participation in the structuring of the state. Fukuyama asserts that learning and development have clearly occurred in the last three of these factors, State, Rule of Law, and Democracy. Both in this volume and its companion, The Origins of Political Order, Fukuyama describes many, many centuries of experimentation that make a system mature or immature and demonstrates how the strength or weakness of Economic Growth, Social Mobilization and Ideas/Legitimacy impact the particular ways in which the other elements unfold and vice-versa. In other words, the elements of the system of political order interact in ways that reinforce learning and productivity or chaos and poverty. It’s beyond the scope of this note to address the richness of Fukuyama’s argument (other than to say that it’s a great book, in my opinion), but I do want to note one point that he makes repeatedly about the development of the State, which is relevant to the question of learning in highly complex systems. He makes it very clear that a professionally trained and competent bureaucracy is critical to the success of states. The people who work at the IRS have to know how to add and subtract! More seriously, government and administrations of all sorts need to be based on meritocracy and well-considered standards of practice. This was absolutely not always the case and, in many places today, the qualifications of bureaucratic personnel remain anything but professional. For example, prior to the Progressive Era and innovations by the two Roosevelt presidents in particular, the Federal bureaucracy in the United States was almost completely a “clientistic” operation, i.e., political machines promised people jobs in governmental departments in exchange for the delivery of votes. This began to change in the US in the late 1800s, in part because of the effectiveness of German bureaucracy. The German state, which was still significantly autocratic, delivered in ways that the US did not. The US had to learn to change the operation of its Federal bureaucracies, which happened as a result of extensive legislative analysis and debate. The decisions that improved the functioning of the agencies of the American state strengthened both the Rule of Law and the Democracies of both society, while supporting Economic Growth, Social Mobilization, and Ideas/Legitimacy. Fukuyama is one of a large, but pretty rarified, group of observers and commentators who think in whole system terms. STRATFOR’s George Friedman with his geographically based view of geo-politics is one. Jared Diamond’s comparison of learning processes in longitudinal versus latitudinal continents is another. Marx is a significant figure in a fairly long line of systems thinkers who map the evolution of economic systems by looking at the forces that alter the locus of power between different classes of actors. Peter Senge’s presentation of system archetypes provides a very powerful analytical framework for looking at organizational blind spots at a whole system level, such as the automatic tendency to over-invest chronically in existing business lines while systematically ignoring new developments. The firm Anika Savage and I created, Art of the Future has presented its own way of thinking about how whole systems operate in our book Life Sustaining Organizations — A Design Guide, which concentrates on the rigor and robustness of an organization’s approach to anticipating the future. Our thesis is that the more open-minded an organization is about the diverse pathways to alternative futures, the better job it will do at recruiting and keeping creative talent who will function well in a range of scenarios. We have described a whole systems approach to considering future possibilities and “interrogating” these possibilities for actions to take in the present. Barry Oshry, the designer of simulations that have constituted a database for his research over the last 40+ years, offers another powerful way of seeing entire systems at both the organizational and societal levels. Barry Oshry According to Oshry, organizations can be stripped down to a basic four-player model: Tops, who have overall responsibility for the functioning of the organization Bottom, who do specific work within the organization and report to others Middles, who manage some of the Bottoms and report to the Tops Customers and other members of the organizational environment, who depend on the organizations goods and services for what they want to do and/or need the organization to function in particular ways Oshry points out people existing in each of these organizational positions face a particular set of vulnerabilities and opportunities. Inattention to the vulnerabilities is characteristic of organizations on automatic, which don’t do well over time. Understanding the vulnerabilities and paying conscious attention to their management is characteristic of organizations that value partnership and learning. It is a powerful and simple way to understand complex organizational dynamics. Oshry’s whole systems thinking also includes a way of assessing the vulnerabilities and “robustness” of a system based its management of two dialectal axes[2]: The Integration/Differentiation axis concerns the degree to which a system coheres around a set of principles or a mission versus the degree to which it is subdivided into different parts or power centers pursuing their own objectives.[3] The Individuation/Homogenization axis refers to the degree to which a system encourages self-expression at a multiplicity of levels versus the degree to which it requires uniformity in behavior.[4] These axes are like a gyroscope for systems: if any one node gets overweighted even slightly the whole system can start to destabilize and tip over. A robust system is one in which there is enough balance between these poles to tolerate a wide range of different behaviors and impulses without faltering. I’ve found it very useful to have this model of what a whole learning system should look like. Obviously, these comments about seeing the whole system are impressionistic and meant only to highlight the importance of holistic thinking for the advocate or assessor of organizational learning. The agent of organizational learning needs to have a full repertoire of frameworks for seeing whole systems. This is extremely helpful in assessing whether an organization as a totality is learning, what kind of learning it’s doing and how it is accomplishing it. There are so many perspectives to work with in this field. Like I said, organizational learning is exhausting fun! What the Disappearance of the Bottom Line Means for Organizational Learning To achieve its full promise, I believe that the field of organizational learning must embrace a post-materialist vision of the future. What does that mean and why do I say it is so? I believe that humanity is standing on the edge of at least two great oceans of change and mystery that must be seen and addressed for our species to move forward. Both expanses of the emerging future require us to give up certain mental models and defensive patterns. A Trash Mountain in Mumbai One concerns the dialectic between the global environmental crisis and the need to adopt technologies that can transcend our present limitations and to develop a deeper practice of conservation on a global basis. Virtually every day innovations are being developed that could revolutionize patterns of energy consumption, transportation, pollution, and waste of resources. And, every day, most things remain pretty much the same. New technologies aren’t adopted. Most current models of the “good life” continue to emphasize material success and consumerism. Those whose lives would be upended by a shift away from the status quo understandably deny the need for change and remain in power in many if not most political arenas. There is a very real chance that we are not only burning up the planet by over-consuming its resources and underinvesting in paths forward, but we are also risking an endless sea of war as millions of armed people are driven to the wall by poverty and hopelessness. The maturity advised in 1 Corinthians is relevant: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Our species and our planet are dealing with a variety of pressing crises. It is the responsibility of organizational learning as a field to embrace the challenge of these big, messy, wicked problems. Of course, it is pleasant to have nice things and a comfortable lifestyle, but organizational learning professionals should resist the blandishments of material success for their own sake, if they take us away from our roles as agents of inquiry and learning. Too much of the energy of organizational learning practitioners is devoted to supporting a political-economic system that has no ultimate objective beyond making a small group of people very rich and another larger group of people relatively comfortable.[5] In my opinion, that kind of collusion with the status quo misses the point of the field: we are supposed to see and work with the new context, the wider whole. The times require, if not heroic action, then at least a life lived, at least partially, in concert with the seriousness of the era. The paths toward a sustainable future are clearly marked. We have to be part of the leadership that starts walking down them. While the first of the great challenges requires learning in the face of resource limits and the need to invest in long-term solutions, the second compels us to confront infinity. Both our planet and our individual consciousnesses have become pilgrims in unfathomable and uncharted oceans of the unknown. At a planetary level, we have discovered that we are on Spaceship Earth and in the last fifty years we have begun actively to probe the vastness of space and time that our forbearers could only dream of or explore theoretically. At the level of our own being, physics is demonstrating that our assumptions about the nature of reality itself are only that, assumptions that are increasingly up for grabs. Certainly, there is and will be an interaction between the discoveries that are occurring in inner and outer space. It takes a highly developed degree of curiosity, imagination and openness even to begin to think about engaging infinity as a fact, not as a mental construct. The films Interstellar and Contact offer some sense of what it means to be the new person who can see emerging new truths. I can only begin to speculate on the consequences of what is emerging in the science of the universe and the study of the self on the practice of organizational learning, but I know that they are profound. They require a future mind that unifies science and wonder. A new era is unfolding, one that seems to necessitate both retrenchment and expansion simultaneously. The discipline of organizational learning has a great deal to offer those undertaking this adventure. The horizon is vast; let us move toward it. [1] For a fuller discussion of Bateson’s ideas on levels of learning see his work directly in publications such as Steps toward and Ecology of the Mind or Guide to Emergent Learning by Marilyn Darling, Heidi Sparkes Guber and Jillaine Smith. [2] For a more detailed description of Oshry’s thinking see his work directly, e.g., Seeing Systems, or my “The Power of Position: A Diagnostic Model” in Organization Development: A Jossey-Bass Reader, 2006. [3] Think of General Electric’s Works Equation: “We have a relentless drive to invent things that matter: innovations that build, power, move and help cure the world. We make things that very few in the world can, but that everyone needs. This is a source of pride. To our employees and customers, it defines GE.” versus the fact that the company has been identified as the fourth largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States and has been repeatedly fined and criticized for causing environmental damage. Obviously, there are occasions where the company isn’t working together as a unit in service of its high-minded mission. [4] Think of a creative arts high school in which one might observe scores of individual fashion statements daily versus a parochial school requiring a specific uniform. [5] For a thorough, data-based assessment of trends in inequality and their consequences, see Thomas Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century, Harvard University Press, 2014. Posted by Michael Sales and Anika Savage at 5:12 PM No comments: About Art of the Future Michael Sales and Anika Savage Art of the Future is a strategy firm that supports anticipatory leaders as they guide their organizations from practices that have worked for them in the past into the ways of being and acting that will succeed in the future. We focus on the design of life-sustaining organizations that respect and support their people, their own integrity and their environment. Structural Dynamics is a strategic learning approach that anticipatory leaders can use to lead their organizations into the future. Structural Dynamics combines the creativity of scenario planning with systems thinking and analysis. Our experience and expertise derives from sixty years of combined practice in leadership and consulting positions in organizations across many sectors of economic activity. This blog is a periodic reflection on an eclectic set of topics related to life-sustaining organizations, the future of work and systemic thinking. Useful Information Sources Association for Strategic Planning berkman center for internet and society - Google Search BusinessWeek Online -- Can the Angry Birds Keep Flying? - Rovio Mobile Oy has to convince investors it has staying power, as it rolls out new games and a movie Center for Strategic and International Studies consultaglobal Daniel Pink Pinkcast 4. Advice from Bob Sutton: Do people leave encounters with you with more energy or less? - LINKS: Rob Cross’s research: What Creates Energy in Organizations? \| Charged Up: Managing the Energy That Drives Innovation. Bob Sutton’s last 3 books: Sca... Design World Online Economic Perspectives from Kansas City EETimes.com EETimes.com \| Electronics Industry News for EEs & Engineering Managers Endless Knots Advice to Hillary; thankfully never sent #imwithher - I have six things in common with Hillary. Both our husbands studied at Oxford where each lived at 46 Leckford Road, a house mine originally rented (and mov... Environment News Service Foreign Affairs - Home Future Survey Futurists' Blogs Updates From Marvel's Eternals, DC's Peacemaker, and More - Lloyd Kaufman is full of praise for the upcoming remake of The Toxic Avenger. The new Batwoman faces a familiar foe in new footage from season two. Ian... John Borthwick's blog The betaworks 2015 book - I wrote several essays for the betaworks 2015 book and posted three of them online. Here’s a quick summary and links to the three. A critique of artificia... Johnson School at Cornell University - Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ) Humans could move to this floating asteroid belt colony in the next 15 years, astrophysicist says - A new paper proposes building a 'megasatellite' of human habitats around the dwarf planet Ceres. MintLife Blog \| Personal Finance News & Advice Monocle: A briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design Nanowerk Nanotechnology News Navigation by atom - Coming to a vehicle near you - Instruments normally found in physics labs are making their way into everyday applications. Scientists have greatly expanded these instruments' capabilities. Mice given dasatinib-quercitin lived 36% longer and in better health - Mayo Clinic anti-aging researcher James Kirkland published about a drug combination that can slow and reverse senescent cells in mice. A leukemia drug dasa... NYT > NYTimes.com Home Trump’s 1776 Commission Critiques Liberalism in Report Derided by Historians - The report charges that Americans are being indoctrinated with a false narrative of the nation’s founding and identity, including the role of slavery in it... Organizational Behavior Teaching Society Organizational Dynamics - Elsevier Philip Greenspun's Weblog Should we hire Guatemalans to guard the U.S. Capitol? - My friends on Facebook are delirious with joy that Washington, D.C. is being closed off to ordinary people and that more 26,000 U.S. military troops are ... Political Risk Explored New Address - You'll be redirected shortly to our new address: www.ipoliticalrisk.com. Please update your bookmarks. Thanks! re: The Auditors My take on the latest at the PCAOB and KPMG - In Episode 449 of the FCPA Compliance Report, I spoke with Tom Fox to discuss the current status of the KPMG defendants and what their conduct means for th... Singularity Hub A Language AI Is Accurately Predicting Covid-19 “Escape” Mutations - [image: COVID-19 coronavirus DeepMind AI] For all their simplicity, viruses are sneaky little life forces. Take SARS-Cov-2, the virus behind Covid-19. Chall... Microsoft Joins $2 Billion Deal With GM To Roll Out Self-Driving Cars - Microsoft is joining GM, Honda and others in a $2 billion investment round in Cruise to help commercialize its self-driving cars. The deal bumps Cruise's v... Society for Organizational Learning The Economist: Correspondent's diary The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science The Systems Thinker Newsletter The Wilson Quarterly : Twitter / rww Wired Top Stories The Ongoing Collapse of the World's Aquifers - When humans over-exploit underground water supplies, the ground collapses like a huge empty water bottles. It's called subsidence, and it could affect 1.6 ... www.techcast.org/	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line17
__label__cc	0.681865	0.318135	Opa's iPod One of the recent jobs I worked on was making an image for a poster for an exhibition in a museum called De Dubbelde Palmboom. De Dubbelde Palmboom is a museum especially for children. It's situated in an old warehouse in Delfshaven, a small harbour in the city of Rotterdam. This might be of special interest to those descended from the Pilgrim Fathers. Delfshaven was actually the starting point of the voyage of the Pilgrims to the New World. They set sail to Southampton on board of the Speedwell in 1620. In Southampton they boarded on the Mayflower and the rest of the story is all too well known. Well, that's enough history class for now! The exhibition in De Dubbelde Palmboom is called Opa's iPod (Grandad's iPod) and is all about apparatus which are familiar to today's grandparents, but most likely unknown to the youth. This exhibition give these ignorent young brats the oppurtunity to observe and even experience those wonderful devices of yesteryear. The children can play with the first Atari computergames, listen to the radio (with broadcasts dating from various decades), send morse codes and they can even have a go at an old fashioned telephone switchboard. There's also a grammophone player on which the youngsters can spin some records, although I have to say - being a passionate record collector myself - the record collection of the museum is not much to go for. I guess that won't bother the youth of today in the least though. Unnecessary to say that the exhibition will be lots of fun for kids and probably their parents and grandparents too. I think it's also great fun to combine a drawing with a photograph and so I was very pleased the museum asked me to do something like that for the exhibition. These pictures are going to be used for promotional purposes. That's it for now, dear blogfriends. Next time something quite different! Batmobile part 1 Some of the visitors of my website and this blog will recognize my name from the record sleeves I did for the Dutch rockabilly trio Batmobile. I did those sleeves many many years ago and, as you can imagine, I have improved myself quite considerably over the years. Although the record sleeves of Batmobile are not representive for the work I make nowadays, I thought it would be a nice idea to open this weblog with the six album covers I've made in their good ol' vinyl years. Mind you, those three geezers gave me my first real paid assignment way back in 1985 and gave me the oppurtunity to make a little name for myself, whilst hopping along on Batmobile's road to world fame. Batmobile's debut album was released in 1985. The original artwork was stolen from the archives from the record company by an ex-employee and sold to someone else. I don't know who has the original artwork nowadays, but I know who stole it. Shame on you!!! "Bambooland”, Batmobile's second album, was issued in 1986. I'd made seperate working drawings for each colour, but they were so complicated that the printer preferred to use the colour sketch I made to make the colour seperations clear. Luckily I did a good job on a very detailed sketch, but I still had to learn a lot about technical requirements for a printer. Ah well, that's the price you have to pay being self educated. You learn while you're doing it. I used a black and white postcard for inspiration on the “Amazons From Outer Space” album from 1989. Alas, I don't have the postcard anymore and I forgot which British village or town was pictured on the postcard. Nevertheless, the shop of J. Sowden, fish salesman and fruiterer, did - or even so still does - really exist! Unfortunately, the original artwork of this album also mysteriously disappeared. If anybody happens to know where the original is now, I would appreciate it if that person could inform me of its whereabouts. I hope it didn't end up in a trashcan. I spend many, many hours working on this album cover! When I made the sleeve of “Batmobile is Dynamite” in 1990, I was very much inspired by a Dutch cartoonist duo known as Windig and De Jong. Be sure to learn more about these ever so funny men on this weblog in the future. The figure with the chef's cap on the right might seem a bit perculiar for those not familiar with Dutch folklore. However, those who are well acquainted with our folklore will immediately recognize Flipje, a character trademark of a Dutch brand of jam. I notice now that I made a few slight mistakes in the detailling. The original Flipje has curly orange coloured hair and his hands are made out of leaves. I guess I couldn't find a picture of the little fellow at that time and had to do it all from memory. The cat on the album cover is in fact my dear beloved pet named Ora, who sadly passed away in 1992. The sleeve of “Sex Starved”, also from 1990, is made in a period when I experimented with a much more expressive style. I tried it for a few years, but in the end I concluded that it wasn't my cup of tea after all and returned to a clean cut cheerful style, which suits me much better. Again the original artwork dissappeared without a trace, so if you can give me any clue ...? With the making of “Hard Hammer Hits” in 1992 I got some help from a befriended graphic designer. With his help I was able to live up to all the specific requirements of the printer and the result was excactly as I hoped it would be. Please note that the explicit photographs of certain parts of the human body on the back of the album cover were not my idea. You have to thank the sophisticated gentlemen of Batmobile themselves for that. One might notice that the front sleeve is much influenced by the work of Preston Blair, probably best known for his work for Walt Disney Productions. I'd bought an instructional book for animation by his hand. Although I never made an animation, I can tell you that I sure have learned a lot studying the book over and over again. Preston Blair died in 1995, so he will never read this blog. Nevertheless, I sure would like to thank Mr. Blair for sharing his knowledge and craftsmanship.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line18
__label__cc	0.508853	0.491147	clanul nebunaticilor de alaturi trilulilu fantastic way! What good luck!.. remarkable, very valuable phrase mine very interesting.. Bajora The powers of a company as set forth in the Third Schedule to the Companies Act, shall apply to the Company 5. The liability of the members is limited 6. The share capital of the Company is RM2,,,/ Adopted by- divided into 10,,, ordinary shares of RM each. The change came inthe form of a new section inserted into the Companies Act , namely, section 67A. Section 67A, which came into for~e on I September , allows public companies to purchase its own shares under certain circumstances. The Company Act of was made to govern and administer formation of companies and their functioning. This act gives any person(s) the right to form any type of company or corporate organization. Section 67 companies act 1965 malaysia [Dealing by a company in its own shares, etc. (COMPANIES ACT (REVISED - ) - ACT ) (1) Except as is otherwise expressly provided by this Act no company shall give, whether directly or indirectly and whether by means of a loan, guarantee or the provision of security or otherwise, any financial assistance for the purpose of or in connection. Names of companies. Section Change of name. Section Omission of "Berhad" in name of charitable and other companies. Section Registration of unlimited company as limited, etc. Section Change from public to private and from private to public company. Section Default in complying with requirements as to private companies. Section LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act COMPANIES ACT ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS PART I PRELIMINARY Section 1. Short title 2. (Omitted) 3. Repeals 4. Interpretation 5. Definition of subsidiary and holding company 5A. Definition of ultimate holding company 5B. Definition of wholly-owned subsidiary 6. When corporations deemed to be related to each other 6A. Home Malaysia Law Acts Malaysian Companies Act, Section 51 to of Malaysian Companies Act, This page deals with the Section 51 to of Malaysian Companies Act, Section Requirements as to statements in lieu of prospectus Section Dealing by a company in its own shares, etc. Section 67A: Purchase by a company of. The powers of a company as set forth in the Third Schedule to the Companies Act, shall apply to the Company 5. The liability of the members is limited 6. The share capital of the Company is RM2,,,/ Adopted by- divided into 10,,, ordinary shares of RM each. The change came inthe form of a new section inserted into the Companies Act , namely, section 67A. Section 67A, which came into for~e on I September , allows public companies to purchase its own shares under certain circumstances. Section of the Companies Act provides statutory relief for an aggrieved member of a company in case of oppression. Federal Court maintains wide scope of Companies Act in. Companies Act (Revised ) (part 3) (5) If default is made in complying with the provisions of this section relating to the lodging with the Registrar of the statement in the prescribed form, the company and every officer of the company who is in default shall be guilty of an offence against this Act. The Company Act of was made to govern and administer formation of companies and their functioning. This act gives any person(s) the right to form any type of company or corporate organization. \| AMENDMENTS TO THE COMPANIES ACT (ACT ) By: Shahfeezal Mohd Nor Associate Corporate Commercial Practice Group + INTRODUCTION. The Companies (Amendment) Bill passed by Parliament on the 23rd of May brings about significant changes to the corporate governance framework in Malaysia.] Section 67 companies act 1965 malaysia (1) Except as is otherwise expressly provided by this Act no company shall give, whether directly or indirectly and whether by means of a loan, guarantee or the provision of security or otherwise, any financial assistance for the purpose of or in connection with a purchase or subscription made or to be made by any person of or for any shares in the company or, where the company is a subsidiary. LAWS OF MALAYSIA ACT COMPANIES ACT (REVISED - ) Incorporating latest amendment - Act A / First enacted: (Act No. 79 of ) Date of coming into operation: [Throughout Malaysia 15 April , P.U. /] Reprinted: First Reprint , Second Reprint , Third Reprint Revised up to. THE COMPANIES ACT, MALAYSIA _____ PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED BY SHARES _____ MEMORANDUM And ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION Of SUNWAY CONSTRUCTION GROUP BERHAD (Company No. W) Incorporated on the 10th day of September LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act COMPANIES ACT ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS PART I PRELIMINARY Section 1. Short title 2. (Omitted) 3. Repeals 4. Interpretation 5. Definition of subsidiary and holding company 5A. Definition of ultimate holding company 5B. Definition of wholly-owned subsidiary 6. When corporations deemed to be related to each other 6A. This page deals with the Section 51 to of Malaysian Companies Act, Section Requirements as to statements in lieu of prospectus; Section Restrictions on commencement of business in certain circumstances; Section Restriction on varying contracts referred to in prospectus, etc. The Company Act of was made to govern and administer formation of companies and their functioning. This act gives any person(s) the right to form any type of company or corporate organization. The law inMalaysia relating to the subject of companies dealing in its own shares is found insection 67 ofthe Malaysian Companies Act, The general prohibition which is contained in section 67(1) of the Companies Act (the Act), states as follows: Except as is otherwise expres ly provided by this Act no company shall give, whether. Companies Act (Revised ) (part 3) Companies (b) the consent of a person is required under section 45 to the issue of the prospectus and he either has not given that consent or has withdrawn it before the issue of the prospectus. The 23 separate amendments the Companies (Amendment) Act seek to amend the Companies Act ("Act ") in the following manner: 1. Clause 2 of the Companies (Amendment) Act seeks to amend section 11A of Act to allow a statutory declaration to be filed or lodged with the Registrar electronically and to empower the Registrar. Every Company having a share capital is required by section of The Companies Act, to prepare an annual return, which must be made up to the date of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company in the year, or a date not later than 14th day after the date of the AGM. SSM e-Info Services is an Internet based service to provide search and purchase of registered company (ROC) and business (ROB) information online. This is an alternative to over the counter transactions. Everybody can access this service with Internet connection using online payment such as Prepaid, Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX). Structure. The Companies Act , in its current form (15 August ), consists of 12 Parts containing sections and 10 schedules (including 36 amendments). Changes to the Companies Act There are many major changes to the Companies Act during the Companies (Amendment) Act which came into force in 15th of August year The amendments falls into a few categories which involve the: Directors and officers (Section , S, SA, SB, SC, SE, S). Reform in the Malaysian Corporate Landscape Share Capital and Capital Maintenance No-Par Value Regime The current Companies Act requires Malaysian companies to issue shares with a par value or nominal value. The Act (Section 74) introduces the no-par value regime where shares of a company shall have no par or nominal value. Companies (Amendment) 3 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act A COMPANIES (AMENDMENT) ACT An Act to amend the Companies Act [] ENACTED by the Parliament of Malaysia as follows: Short title and commencement 1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Companies (Amendment) Act (2) This Act comes into operation on a date to be appointed. What is treasury shares? Explain the requirement under Section 67A, Companies Act for share repurchase. Did Bina Power Bhd repurchase their shares during the year and how many? What is the accounting method used by the company to account for share repurchase? 4. However, Section 67A (1) of Companies Act (Malaysia) provides that a public company with share capital can buy its own shares. So, section 67A (1) has made an exception to section 67(1) of Companies Act. A company cannot provide financial assistance to any person to buy shares in the company. Section 66 ( reduction in share capital ) of the companies act 2013 Artmoney pro v7 34-16, on verra nekfeu instrumental music, gjuha angleze per te gjithe adobe, talking tom cat for nokia c203, another episode 8 vostfr, visual cert exam software crack, river whyless bandcamp er, adobe air android apk, peter cornelius best of, hilang child soundcloud music 0 thoughts on “Section 67 companies act 1965 malaysia”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line19
__label__cc	0.659302	0.340698	Search by topic / by country Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt Texts & Charters - CADTM International Books, DVD, brochures All the articles In February 1953 the allied powers cancelled part of Germany’s debt. What about Greece? 24 February 2019 by Eric Toussaint , Hervé Nathan The following interview of Eric Toussaint by the French weekly Marianne was first published in February 2015. It remains just as relevant in 2019 on the anniversary of the London Agreement on German External Debts of 27 February 1953 which enabled Germany to benefit from the cancellation of more than 60% of its debt. Many Greeks still claim that they should receive war reparations from Germany as well as repayment of the debt that the Nazi régime contracted with the Bank of Greece in 1941. Eric Toussaint interviewed by Herve Nathan, of the French weekly Marianne Marianne. When it came to power, the SYRIZA party referred to the cancellation of German debts in the context of the London agreement some sixty-two years ago (27 February 1953). We were reminded that the Federal Republic might owe huge amounts to Greece… Can you explain? Eric Toussaint. Actually there are two different kinds of debt. The first is the result of the war loan bonds that the Nazi occupiers forced on the Greek government between 1941 and 1944, some 476 million Reichmarks (the German money of the time) making Greece pay the cost of its occupation. This loan has never been repaid. With a moderate interest Interest An amount paid in remuneration of an investment or received by a lender. Interest is calculated on the amount of the capital invested or borrowed, the duration of the operation and the rate that has been set. rate of about 3% a year this debt, the repayment of which has been requested by several Greek governments, would amount to €12 to €15 billion today, which may be compared to the €15 billion that Berlin agreed to loan to Greece at an interest rate of 4.5% as part of the first memorandum in 2010. Today the German government is Greece’s creditor for €15 billion [and vice versa]. On the other hand the Federal Republic of Germany did not have to pay for war damages to countries that were occupied by the 3rd Reich. Along with Poland and the USSR, Greece was one of the countries that suffered the most, much more than France, Belgium or the Netherlands. If we add up the 1941 war loan and war damages Germany owes between €100 and €200 billion to Greece, between one or two thirds of Greece’s current public debt… This is huge indeed, and we may wonder to what extent Greek people are aware of this German debt. Greece never formally relinquished its right on this debt. During the 1953 London conference on the German debt, compensations for WWII war damages were left to be settled in peace treaties between Germany and the countries that had won the war, and because of the Cold War with the Soviet bloc they never materialized. In 1981, when Greece joined the European Community (now the European Union), the government, led by PASOK didn’t raise the issue, since the country benefited from substantial European structural funding. But the 2010 crisis and the very harsh conditions enforced by lenders including Frau Merkel’s Germany have brought the issue back into the political limelight! Greece has thus been treated very differently from the Federal Republic of Germany… Indeed. During the London conference The young Federal Republic’s creditors examined debts accumulated by Germany since the 1920s (including those that were to stand for WWI compensations as enforced by the Versailles treaty) and those contracted between 1945 and 1953. Signatories, i.e. Western allies (the US, France, the UK...) not only reduced West Germany’s debt (interests and capital) by 62.5%, but they also created the conditions that permitted the country to recover as rapidly as possible. Repayments were not to exceed 5% of export revenues, interest rates Interest rates When A lends money to B, B repays the amount lent by A (the capital) as well as a supplementary sum known as interest, so that A has an interest in agreeing to this financial operation. The interest is determined by the interest rate, which may be high or low. To take a very simple example: if A borrows 100 million dollars for 10 years at a fixed interest rate of 5%, the first year he will repay a tenth of the capital initially borrowed (10 million dollars) plus 5% of the capital owed, i.e. 5 million dollars, that is a total of 15 million dollars. In the second year, he will again repay 10% of the capital borrowed, but the 5% now only applies to the remaining 90 million dollars still due, i.e. 4.5 million dollars, or a total of 14.5 million dollars. And so on, until the tenth year when he will repay the last 10 million dollars, plus 5% of that remaining 10 million dollars, i.e. 0.5 million dollars, giving a total of 10.5 million dollars. Over 10 years, the total amount repaid will come to 127.5 million dollars. The repayment of the capital is not usually made in equal instalments. In the initial years, the repayment concerns mainly the interest, and the proportion of capital repaid increases over the years. In this case, if repayments are stopped, the capital still due is higher… The nominal interest rate is the rate at which the loan is contracted. The real interest rate is the nominal rate reduced by the rate of inflation. were between 0.5% and 5%, and the public debt could be partly repaid with German money (deutschemark), which was of little value for international transactions at the time. It meant that creditor countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the US) could only use those revenues to buy German goods. In this way they contributed to the fast recovery of German corporations such as Thyssen, Siemens, IG Farben…, those very corporations who had helped the Nazi war effort in the first place. The German debt served to develop the export market for the country. Finally creditors’ disputes were to be taken to German courts. All the opposite of what the EU, the ECB ECB European Central Bank The European Central Bank is a European institution based in Frankfurt, founded in 1998, to which the countries of the Eurozone have transferred their monetary powers. Its official role is to ensure price stability by combating inflation within that Zone. Its three decision-making organs (the Executive Board, the Governing Council and the General Council) are composed of governors of the central banks of the member states and/or recognized specialists. According to its statutes, it is politically ‘independent’ but it is directly influenced by the world of finance. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/html/index.en.html and the IMF IMF International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates. When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments. As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change). The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%). The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries. http://imf.org imposed on Greece. Sure, but the London agreement was part of a wider legal and ideological context, to assure Western Europe’s economic recovery … Germany had to be reconstructed as fast as possible as a bulwark against the Soviet bloc. The means were found to help allied countries, France, Belgium and the UK also had US debts cancelled and $13 billion were granted as part of the Marshall Plan Marshall Plan A programme of economic reconstruction proposed in 1947 by the US State Secretary, George C. Marshall. With a budget of 12.5 billion dollars (more than 80 billion dollars in current terms) composed of donations and long-term loans, the Marshall Plan enabled 16 countries (notably France, the UK, Italy and the Scandinavian countries) to finance their reconstruction after the Second World War. assistance (worth about $100 billion today), including $1.5 billion for Germany ($10 billion today). This gesture resulted from considerations developed by the Roosevelt administration before Europe was liberated on the advisability of awarding loans or grants. The US had decided for grants so as not to compel European countries to export their goods to the US in order to obtain the dollars they needed to repay their debts. This was a generous decision, but actually a protectionist measure. US companies would not have to compete with European goods in their home markets. Grants on the other hand would make it possible for them to sell their machine tools, assembly lines, or farming equipment to West Europeans, thus maintaining full employment in the US, as had been the case since 1942. The choice proved favourable to all until the mid-1950s. The lesson to be drawn from that era is that prosperity has to be shared. Is this what is called a virtuous circle? Exactly. Lessons had been drawn from the terrible mistakes of the Versailles Treaty and of the policies in the 1920s, as shown by John M. Keynes. It was also a time of regulation. In 1944 the IMF was created to supervise the stability of monetary exchanges and control capital flows; the World Bank World Bank WB The World Bank was founded as part of the new international monetary system set up at Bretton Woods in 1944. Its capital is provided by member states’ contributions and loans on the international money markets. It financed public and private projects in Third World and East European countries. It consists of several closely associated institutions, among which : 1. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 189 members in 2017), which provides loans in productive sectors such as farming or energy ; 2. The International Development Association (IDA, 159 members in 1997), which provides less advanced countries with long-term loans (35-40 years) at very low interest (1%) ; 3. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides both loan and equity finance for business ventures in developing countries. As Third World Debt gets worse, the World Bank (along with the IMF) tends to adopt a macro-economic perspective. For instance, it enforces adjustment policies that are intended to balance heavily indebted countries’ payments. The World Bank advises those countries that have to undergo the IMF’s therapy on such matters as how to reduce budget deficits, round up savings, enduce foreign investors to settle within their borders, or free prices and exchange rates. was to finance economies that had to start anew. This would result in the boom decades after 1945, thirty years of economic growth and full employment in the Western world, while the EU today is caught in a downward spiral because of its restrictive policies, its insistence on fiscal balance Balance End of year statement of a company’s assets (what the company possesses) and liabilities (what it owes). In other words, the assets provide information about how the funds collected by the company have been used; and the liabilities, about the origins of those funds. , lower and lower wages, the irrevocability of debts, and because it comforts stronger economies at the expense of weaker ones. But why do the Germans cling to these policies when their failure is so obvious? Angela Merkel clings to this absurd logic because she considers that Europe, with Germany at its hub, must be more competitive than the US, China or any other emergent country (Russia, Brazil, India). She has one objective: take wages to even lower levels and reduce more workers to poverty, in and outside Germany. Matteo Renzi in Italy and François Hollande in France do not challenge this position. They actually duplicate the Harz reforms that were the undoing of the German social model from 2003-2005. In Italy with the Law on Labour, and in France with the ‘Macron’ law, they just demand less fiscal efforts. However, is it a good thing for the SYRIZA leaders, who wish to negociate with the EU, to bring up Second World War issues? Isn’t it like telling them: you must pay for your past mistakes? German people are not responsible for the Nazi regime. There is is no ‘collective debt’ of the Germans’. On the other hand it is unacceptable that Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble should present their demands on the Greeks as “generous”. With the Greek crisis the cost of Germany’s 10 year government bonds fell from 3.4% in 2010 to 0.4% in 2014. This 75% cut allowed Germany to save €63 billion, because the markets did not want to take any more risks and rushed to buy ‘Bunds’. This is also true for France. The German government, the ECB, or the IMF, whose Managing Director Christine Lagarde claims that debts have to be paid, manipulate public opinion. Michel Sapin has the same discourse. Citizens have to be mobilized so as to keep Greece on its knees. Conservative leaders want to defeat Tsipras so as to prevent the Spanish people from electing Podemos at the end of the year. Economists falsify history when they claim that the euro crisis started because of Greece. Greece was indeed the weaker link but it was the euro zone that had been badly designed in the first place. From the moment the euro was introduced significant money transfers from countries of the North to countries of the South (Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain) were replaced by loans from major banks in the big countries (Germany, France, Italy…) to countries at the periphery. Banks grabbed mortgages and thus blew up the speculative bubble Speculative bubble An economic, financial or speculative bubble is formed when the level of trading-prices on a market (financial assets market, currency-exchange market, property market, raw materials market, etc.) settles well above the intrinsic (or fundamental) financial value of the goods or assets being exchanged. In such a situation, prices diverge from the usual economic valuation under the influence of buyers’ beliefs. until it exploded. In 2012 the Greek debt was restructured and bank loans were replaced by loans from governments, i.e. from taxpayers. And this money - €240 billion – was used to repay the financial institutions in the North… Translated by Mike Krolikowski and Christine Pagnoulle is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France. He is the author of Debt System (Haymarket books, Chicago, 2019), Bankocracy (2015); The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man (2014); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012 (see here), etc. See his bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Toussaint He co-authored World debt figures 2015 with Pierre Gottiniaux, Daniel Munevar and Antonio Sanabria (2015); and with Damien Millet Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank: Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers, Monthly Review Books, New York, 2010. He was the scientific coordinator of the Greek Truth Commission on Public Debt from April 2015 to November 2015. Other articles in English by Eric Toussaint (544) Series: Adverse International and Local Conditions for Sub-Saharan Africa (Part 3) The China Factor 22 October 2019, by Eric Toussaint , Patrick Bond , Ishmael Lesufi , Lisa Thompson Global Economic Volatility and Socio Political Reactions Swiss Franc Mortgages: Illegitimate and Illegal 8 October 2019, by Eric Toussaint South African Special Economic Zones : History of Limited Successes 8 October 2019, by Eric Toussaint , Patrick Bond , Ishmael Lesufi , Lisa Thompson Yanis Varoufakis’s Account of the Greek Crisis: a Self-Incrimination Tsipras and Varoufakis advance towards final capitulation The Credit Crunch is Back and the Federal Reserve Panics on an Ocean of Debt 25 September 2019, by Eric Toussaint The Banking Sector and the Global Crisis Nicaragua 1979-2019 18 July 2019, by Eric Toussaint , Nathan Legrand In the debt system, it’s the people that lose out 5 July 2019, by Eric Toussaint , Cristina Quintavalla , Vittorio Lovera , DIRE - news agency ReCommonsEurope: Manifesto for a New Popular Internationalism in Europe 26 May 2019, by Eric Toussaint , Esther Vivas , Catherine Samary , Costas Lapavitsas , Stathis Kouvelakis , Tijana Okic , Nathan Legrand , Alexis Cukier , Jeanne Chevalier , Yayo Herrero Hervé Nathan Debt in Northern countries David Graeber discusses Strike the Debt and Detroit 3 September 2020 - CADTM, David Graeber, Jonas Nunes de Carvalho Capitulating to adults 31 May 2020 - Michael Roberts A book that reads almost like a thriller 11 May 2020 - Philippe Poutou The Greek tragedy: Act Three 27 April 2020 - Michael Roberts The Varoufakis-Tsipras line was doomed to fail from the word ’Go’ 2 January 2020 - Eric Toussaint Why the 1953 cancellation of German debt won’t be reproduced for Greece and Developing Countries 27 March 2020 - Eric Toussaint Climate change and imperialism: what connects the Amazon fires and the EU-Mercosur agreement? 2 October 2019 - Aleksandar Matković 6 November 2017 - Ende Gelände How Europe cancelled Germany’s debt in 1953 27 February 2017 - Jubilee Debt Campaign The Debt Reduction Germany Received in 1952 (and 1990) 5 March 2015 - Oscar Ugarteche Galarza CADTM rejoices the united anti-fascist mobilization in Athens on 7 October 2020 and the judgement against the neo-nazi Golden Dawn party 7 October 2020 - CADTM International Golden Dawn Τrial: They are not innocent! 29 September 2020 - Collective Solidarity to Refugees of Moria Lessons in what not to do 30 July 2020 - Costas Lapavitsas Olivier Bonfond : Eric Toussaint’s latest publication, Capitulation entre adultes, Grèce 2015: une alternative était possible is a “must read” for everybody 30 June 2020 - Olivier Bonfond Subscribing to newsletter-en	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line20
__label__cc	0.710887	0.289113	Blue Maven Law Buying and Selling Small Businesses General Business Law Services New Company Formation Blogs Brian Follows Brian's Blog Why You Should Review Your Important Contracts Before You Sell Your Business by: Brian Rogers April 15, 2014 April 14, 2014 Due Diligence A company’s key contracts represent a valuable business asset. Thus, it’s crucial that the contracts remain in force as a business changes hands from the seller to the buyer when the business is sold. As I’ve written elsewhere on this blog, the sale of a small business is usually structured as either an equity sale or an asset sale. In an equity sale, the buyer purchases the equity from the owner(s) of the company being sold (commonly referred to as the target company) — stock in the case of a corporation and membership interests in the case of a limited liability company. The business is transferred to the new owners, corporate or limited liability company entity and all, and the target becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of the buyer. There is no change in the status of the target entity itself, and its contracts, assets, and liabilities remain with the entity. In an asset sale, specified assets are transferred from the target company to the buyer, while the corporate or limited liability company entity remains in place and continues to be owned by its equity holders. The assets transferred might be all or substantially all of the target’s assets, or they might be more limited in scope. Similarly, some or all of the target’s liabilities might be transferred to the buyer or retained by the target company, although most of the liabilities often stay with the target. The contracts of the target company are transferred to the buyer by assigning the contracts to the buyer. Anti-assignment and change of control provisions It’s common for commercial contracts, leases, and other agreements to include anti-assignment provisions, which prohibit assigning the contract. Of course, this is exactly what you do in order to transfer the contracts to the buyer in an asset sale. In addition, bank credit agreements, distribution agreements, and other contracts often contain change of control provisions. A change of control is what takes place when a deal is structured as an equity sale. So whether you structure the deal as an asset sale or an equity sale, the sale of the business could be a breach of a target’s important contracts — which is not a good situation. That’s why it’s important for the buyer and seller to review the target’s important contracts early in the transaction process to determine whether such provisions exist. Anti-assignment provisions In an asset sale the target’s contracts are transferred to the buyer by means of assigning the contracts to the buyer. The default rule is generally that a party to a contract has the right to assign the agreement to a third party (although the assigning party remains liable to the counter-party under the agreement). However, contracting parties often want to have the right to control who they do business with, so they include a clause in their contracts that prohibits the counter-party from assigning its rights or delegating its duties under the contract absent prior written consent. These provisions pose a problem in the context of an asset sale. Because the target doesn’t have the right to assign a contract containing an anti-assignment clause absent its counter-party’s agreement to permit the assignment, the target is dependent on the counter-party’s willingness to agree to the assignment. The failure to obtain consent to assign a material agreement could jeopardize the transaction as the buyer is likely to refuse to close if it won’t receive the benefit of a contract that is important to the business. The process of obtaining consents can be time-consuming and should be started at the earliest practical moment. It’s not unusual for a counter-party to extract some value in exchange for agreeing to the assignment. Sometimes the counter-party is somewhat opportunistic and sees a chance for a windfall. In other cases, the need for the target to obtain consent for assignment is an opportunity for relief from a disadvantageous agreement. In such cases where the contract is advantageous to the target (e.g., if the target is able to purchase products from a supplier at prices below market under a long-term supply agreement because it locked in low prices and the market prices have subsequently risen), the counter-party will often be unwilling to consent to the assignment of the agreement absent concessions. The need for obtaining consents from counter-parties is often obviated in the context of an equity sale, because equity sales don’t require the assignment of contracts to the buyer. In an equity sale the target’s assets, including its contracts, are not transferred to the buyer; rather, the entire corporate or limited liability company shell is transferred to the buyer with its assets and liabilities remaining intact. Sometimes the only way to accomplish a transaction is to structure it as an equity sale if it’s not possible to obtain consent to assign a crucial contract. Change of control provisions The target’s material contracts should be reviewed early in the process even when the transaction is structured as an equity sale, because change of control provisions, which have the same effect as anti-assignment provisions, are triggered by an equity sale. Such provisions are common in contracts where the counter-party requires a great deal of control over who its does business with. Change of control provisions are common in credit agreements, where the borrower’s financial wherewithal is crucial to the lender; commercial leases, where the tenant’s financial stability is an important aspect of its ability to pay rent over the course of the lease; and distribution agreements, where a manufacturer is dependent upon the skills of current ownership and management to distribute its products in a particular territory. Material contracts that contain change of control provisions require the parties to deal with the counter-party to the contract because the provisions will be implicated in both asset sales and equity sales. Due diligence implications of anti-assignment and change of control provisions Sellers should review their important contracts for anti-assignment and change of control provisions before taking their company to market. If an important contract contains such a provision and the counter-party is not willing to agree to the transaction on reasonable terms, the deal will look much different — and less attractive — to the buyer. It’s good to know early in the process that there’s a problem so the seller can plan accordingly, and so it can devise a strategy for overcoming the challenge. Buyers should review the target’s material contracts to identify anti-assignment and change of control provisions as part of their due diligence efforts. It would be imprudent to hand over the purchase consideration when the buyer would not have the benefit of one or more crucial contracts. Whether a transaction is structured as an asset sale or an equity sale, the buyer and seller should pay close attention to anti-assignment and change of control restrictions in the target company’s important contracts. Failure to do so could delay or endanger the closing of the transaction or even leave the buyer with less of the business than expected. That’s a recipe for trouble. Image credit: Shutterstock. Image may not be copied or downloaded. Tags: anti-assignment, change of control, contracts Brian Rogers is the founder of Blue Maven Law, LLC, a law firm that focuses on small business mergers and acquisitions as well as advising small businesses on legal issues. A contracts aficionado, Brian publishes theContractsGuy blog and frequently gives presentations on mergers and acquisitions, contracts, and other business and legal topics. Brian was named by Small Business Monthly in 2014 to its list of 100 St. Louisans to know to succeed in business and was recognized by the newspaper each year from 2015 through 2018 as a top M&A adviser. TwitterFacebookLinkedInGoogle+ Hootsuite — Resource of the Week Docracy — Resource of the Week How to Title a Vehicle in Missouri When you purchase a business via an asset sale, you must transfer the assets from the seller’s company to your new company. Many of the business’s assets can be transferred using a general bill of Summary of SBA 7(a) Loan Rules SBA loans can be a great way to finance a small business acquisition. Like most government programs, SBA loan programs have plenty of rules. In this post, I summarize the highlights of the rules for Missouri Business Entity Search — Resource of the Week If you’re looking for business entity information about a Missouri company, the secretary of state’s website is a great place to start. The website has a great search tool for finding information Receive Blog Updates Via Email Acquisition Financing anti-assignment apps asset sale business entity search change of control confidentiality contingent consideration contracts Docracy due diligence earnout email tips environmental liabilities Feedly Hootsuite how to Instapaper legal resources liens limited liability limited liability company LinkedIn LLC missouri secretary of state negligence paying for a business Personal Resource Test resources RSS SBA 7(a) loan SBA acquisition financing SBA fees SBA loan application SBA loan eligibility security seller financing Shake social media sole proprietorship stock sale tax clearance taxes Twitter vehicles vehicle title © 2014 Blue Maven Law, LLC. All rights reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line24
__label__wiki	0.857421	0.857421	Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (Redirected from Otto the Great) "Otto I" redirects here. For other uses, see Otto I (disambiguation). Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (German: Otto der Große, Italian: Ottone il Grande), was German king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973.[b] He was the oldest son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda. Otto the Great Depiction of Otto I on his seal in 968 Holy Roman Emperor 2 February 962 – 7 May 973 2 February 962[1] Old St. Peter's Basilica, Rome Berengar of Friuli King of Italy 25 December 961 – 7 May 973 10 October 951[a] Berengar II King of Germany (East Francia) 2 July 936 – 7 May 973 7 August 936 Aachen Cathedral Henry the Fowler Bernard I 23 November 912 possibly Wallhausen, East Francia[2] 7 May 973(973-05-07) (aged 60) Memleben, Holy Roman Empire Eadgyth of England (930–946) Adelaide of Italy (951–973) William, Archbishop of Mainz Liutgarde of Saxony Liudolf, Duke of Swabia Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor Ottonian Signum manus Otto inherited the Duchy of Saxony and the kingship of the Germans upon his father's death in 936. He continued his father's work of unifying all German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king's powers at the expense of the aristocracy. Through strategic marriages and personal appointments, Otto installed members of his family in the kingdom's most important duchies. This reduced the various dukes, who had previously been co-equals with the king, to royal subjects under his authority. Otto transformed the Roman Catholic Church in Germany to strengthen royal authority and subjected its clergy to his personal control. After putting down a brief civil war among the rebellious duchies, Otto defeated the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, thus ending the Hungarian invasions of Western Europe.[3] The victory against the pagan Magyars earned Otto a reputation as a savior of Christendom and secured his hold over the kingdom. By 961, Otto had conquered the Kingdom of Italy. The patronage of Otto and his immediate successors facilitated a so-called "Ottonian Renaissance" of arts and architecture. Following the example of Charlemagne's coronation as "Emperor of the Romans" in 800, Otto was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962 by Pope John XII in Rome. Otto's later years were marked by conflicts with the papacy and struggles to stabilize his rule over Italy. Reigning from Rome, Otto sought to improve relations with the Byzantine Empire, which opposed his claim to emperorship and his realm's further expansion to the south. To resolve this conflict, the Byzantine princess Theophanu married his son Otto II in April 972. Otto finally returned to Germany in August 972 and died at Memleben in May 973. Otto II succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor. 2 Heir apparent 3 Reign as king 3.1 Coronation 3.2 Rebellion of the dukes 3.3 War in France 3.4 Consolidation of power 3.5 Foreign relations 3.5.2 Burgundy 3.5.3 Bohemia 3.5.4 Byzantine Empire 3.6 Slavic Wars 4 Expansion into Italy 4.1 Disputed Italian throne 4.2 First Italian Expedition 4.3 Aftermath 5 Relations with the Catholic Church 6 Liudolf's Civil War 6.1 Rebellion against Otto 6.2 End of the rebellion 7 Hungarian invasions 8 Reign as emperor 8.1 Second Italian Expedition and imperial coronation 8.2 Papal politics 8.3 Third Italian Expedition 8.4 Reign from Rome 9 Final years and death 10 Family and children 11.1 Ottonian Renaissance 11.2 Modern world 12 Ancestry 15 Bibliography 15.1 Primary sources 16.1 In German Early life and familyEdit Otto was born on 23 November 912, the oldest son of the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Fowler and his second wife Matilda, the daughter of Dietrich of Ringelheim, a Saxon count in Westphalia.[4] Henry had previously married Hatheburg of Merseburg, also a daughter of a Saxon count, in 906, but this marriage was annulled, probably in 909 after she had given birth to Henry's first son and Otto's half-brother Thankmar.[5] Otto had four full siblings: Hedwig, Gerberga, Henry and Bruno.[4] BackgroundEdit On 23 December 918, Conrad I, King of East Francia and Duke of Franconia, died.[6] According to the Res gestae saxonicae by the Saxon chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Conrad persuaded his younger brother Eberhard of Franconia, the presumptive heir, to offer the crown of East Francia to Otto's father Henry.[7] Although Conrad and Henry had been at odds with one another since 912, Henry had not openly opposed the king since 915. Furthermore, Conrad's repeated battles with German dukes, most recently with Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria, and Burchard II, Duke of Swabia, had weakened the position and resources of the Conradines.[8] After several months of hesitation, Eberhard and the other Frankish and Saxon nobles elected Henry as king at the Imperial Diet of Fritzlar in May 919. For the first time, a Saxon instead of a Frank reigned over the kingdom.[9] Burchard II of Swabia soon swore fealty to the new king,[10] but Arnulf of Bavaria did not recognize Henry's position. According to the Annales iuvavenses, Arnulf was elected king by the Bavarians in opposition to Henry, but his "reign" was short-lived; Henry defeated him in two campaigns. In 921, Henry besieged Arnulf's residence at Ratisbon (Regensburg) and forced him into submission. Arnulf had to accept Henry's sovereignty; Bavaria retained some autonomy and the right to invest bishops in the Bavarian church.[11] Heir apparentEdit 12th-century stained glass depiction of Otto I, Strasbourg Cathedral Otto first gained experience as a military commander when the German kingdom fought against Wendish tribes on its eastern border. While campaigning against the Wends/West Slavs in 929, Otto's illegitimate son William, the future Archbishop of Mainz, was born to a captive Wendish noblewoman.[12] With Henry's dominion over the entire kingdom secured by 929, the king probably began to prepare his succession over the kingdom. No written evidence for his arrangements is extant, but during this time Otto is first called king (Latin: rex) in a document of the Abbey of Reichenau.[13] While Henry consolidated power within Germany, he also prepared for an alliance with Anglo-Saxon England by finding a bride for Otto. Association with another royal house would give Henry additional legitimacy and strengthen the bonds between the two Saxon kingdoms. To seal the alliance, King Æthelstan of England sent Henry two of his half-sisters, so he could choose the one which best pleased him.[14] Henry selected Eadgyth as Otto's bride and the two were married in 930.[6] Several years later, shortly before Henry's death, an Imperial Diet at Erfurt formally ratified the king's succession arrangements. Some of his estates and treasures were to be distributed among Thankmar, Henry, and Bruno.[15] But departing from customary Carolingian inheritance, the king designated Otto as the sole heir apparent without a prior formal election by the various dukes.[16] Reign as kingEdit CoronationEdit Side view of the Throne of Charlemagne at Aachen Cathedral, where Otto was crowned King of Germany in 936 Henry died from the effects of a cerebral stroke on 2 July 936 at his palace, the Kaiserpfalz in Memleben, and was buried at Quedlinburg Abbey.[17] At the time of his death, all of the various German tribes were united in a single realm. At the age of almost 24, Otto assumed his father's position as Duke of Saxony and King of Germany. His coronation was held on 7 August 936 in Charlemagne's former capital of Aachen, where Otto was anointed and crowned by Hildebert, the Archbishop of Mainz.[18] Though he was a Saxon by birth, Otto appeared at the coronation in Frankish dress in an attempt to demonstrate his sovereignty over the Duchy of Lotharingia and his role as true successor to Charlemagne, whose last heirs in East Francia had died out in 911.[19] According to Widukind of Corvey, Otto had the four other dukes of the kingdom (from the duchies of Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria and Lorraine) act as his personal attendants at the coronation banquet: Arnulf I of Bavaria as marshal (or stablemaster), Herman I, Duke of Swabia as cupbearer, Eberhard of Franconia as steward (or seneschal) and Gilbert of Lorraine as Chamberlain.[c][20] By performing this traditional service, the dukes signaled cooperation with the new king, and clearly showed their submission to his reign.[19] Despite his peaceful transition, the royal family was not harmonious during his early reign. Otto's younger brother Henry also claimed the throne, contrary to his father's wishes. According to her biography, Vita Mathildis reginae posterior, their mother had favored Henry as king: in contrast to Otto, Henry had been "born in the purple" during his father's reign and shared his name.[21] Otto also faced internal opposition from various local aristocrats. In 936, Otto appointed Hermann Billung as Margrave, granting him authority over a march north of the Elbe River between the Limes Saxoniae and Peene Rivers. As military governor, Hermann extracted tribute from the Polabian Slavs inhabiting the area and often fought against the Western Slavic tribes of the Lutici, Obotrites, and Wagri. Hermann's appointment angered his brother, Count Wichmann the Elder. As the elder and wealthier of the two, Wichmann believed his claim to the office was superior to his brother's. Additionally, Wichmann was related by marriage to the dowager queen Matilda.[22] In 937, Otto further offended the nobility through his appointment of Gero to succeed his older brother Siegfried as Count and Margrave of a vast border region around Merseburg that abutted the Wends on the lower Saale. His decision frustrated Thankmar, Otto's half-brother and Siegfried's cousin, who felt that he held a greater right to the appointment.[23] Rebellion of the dukesEdit Central Europe, 919–1125. The Kingdom of Germany included the duchies of Saxony (yellow), Franconia (blue), Bavaria (green), Swabia (orange) and Lorraine (pink left). Various dukes rebelled against Otto's rule in 937 and again in 939. Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria, died in 937 and was succeeded by his son Eberhard. The new duke quickly came into conflict with Otto, as Eberhard opposed the king's sovereignty over Bavaria under the peace treaty between King Henry and Arnulf. Refusing to recognize Otto's supremacy, Eberhard rebelled against the king. In two campaigns in the spring and fall of 938, Otto defeated and exiled Eberhard from the kingdom and stripped him of his titles. In his place, Otto appointed Eberhard's uncle Berthold, a count in the March of Carinthia, as the new Duke of Bavaria on the condition that Berthold would recognize Otto as the sole authority to appoint bishops and to administer royal property within the duchy.[24] At the same time, Otto had to settle a dispute between Bruning, a Saxon noble, and Duke Eberhard of Franconia, the brother of the former king Conrad I of Germany. After the rise of a Saxon to kingship, Bruning, a local lord with possessions in the borderland between Franconia and Saxony, refused to swear fealty to any non-Saxon ruler. Eberhard attacked Bruning's Helmern castle near Peckelsheim, killed all of its inhabitants and burned it down. The king called the feuding parties to his court at Magdeburg, where Eberhard was ordered to pay a fine, and his lieutenants were sentenced to carry dead dogs in public, which was considered a particularly shameful punishment.[25] Infuriated with Otto's actions, Eberhard joined Otto's half-brother Thankmar, Count Wichmann, and Archbishop Frederick of Mainz and rebelled against the king in 938.[26] Duke Herman I of Swabia, one of Otto's closest advisors, warned him of the rebellion and the king moved quickly to put down the revolt. Wichmann was soon reconciled with Otto and joined the king's forces against his former allies. Otto besieged Thankmar at Eresburg and had him killed at the altar of the Church of St. Peter. Following their defeats, Eberhard and Frederick sought reconciliation with the king. Otto pardoned both after a brief exile in Hildesheim and restored them to their former positions.[27] War in FranceEdit Shortly after his reconciliation, Eberhard planned a second rebellion against Otto. He promised to assist Otto's younger brother Henry in claiming the throne and recruited Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine, to join the rebellion. Gilbert was married to Otto's sister Gerberga of Saxony, but had sworn fealty to King Louis IV of West Francia. Otto exiled Henry from East Francia, and he fled to the court of King Louis. The West Frankish king, in hopes of regaining dominion over Lorraine once again, joined forces with Henry and Gilbert. In response, Otto allied with Louis's chief antagonist, Hugh the Great, Count of Paris, and husband of Otto's sister Hedwige.[28] Henry captured Merseburg and planned to join Gilbert in Lorraine, but Otto besieged them at Chevremont near Liège. Before he could defeat them, he was forced to abandon the siege and moved against Louis, who had seized Verdun. Otto subsequently drove Louis back to his capital at Laon.[citation needed] While Otto gained some initial victories against the rebels, he was unable to capture the conspirators and end the rebellion. Archbishop Frederick sought to mediate a peace between the combatants, but Otto rejected his proposal. Under Otto's direction, Duke Herman of Swabia led an army against the conspirators into Franconia and Lorraine. Otto recruited allies from the Duchy of Alsace who crossed the Rhine River and surprised Eberhard and Gilbert at the Battle of Andernach on 2 October 939. Otto's forces claimed an overwhelming victory: Eberhard was killed in battle, and Gilbert drowned in the Rhine while attempting to escape. Left alone to face his brother, Henry submitted to Otto and the rebellion ended. With Eberhard dead, Otto assumed direct rule over the Duchy of Franconia and dissolved it into smaller counties and bishoprics accountable directly to him. The same year, Otto made peace with Louis IV, whereby Louis recognized his suzerainty over Lorraine. In return, Otto withdrew his army and arranged for his sister Gerberga (the widow of Gilbert) to marry Louis IV.[citation needed] In 940, Otto and Henry were reconciled through the efforts of their mother. Henry returned to East Francia, and Otto appointed him as the new Duke of Lorraine to succeed Gilbert. Henry had not dropped his ambitions for the German throne and initiated another conspiracy against his older brother. With the assistance of Archbishop Frederick of Mainz, Henry planned to have Otto assassinated on Easter Day, 941, at Quedlinburg Abbey. Otto discovered the plot and had the conspirators arrested and imprisoned at Ingelheim. The king later released and pardoned both men only after they publicly performed penance on Christmas Day that same year.[citation needed] Consolidation of powerEdit This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The decade between 941 and 951 was marked by Otto's exercise of undisputed domestic power. Through the subordination of the dukes under his authority, Otto asserted his power to make decisions without their prior agreement. He deliberately ignored the claims and ranks of the nobility, who wanted dynastic succession in the assignment of office, by freely appointing individuals of his choice to the kingdom's offices. Loyalty to Otto, not lineage, was the pathway towards advancement under his rule. His mother Matilda disapproved of this policy and was accused by Otto's royal advisers of undermining his authority. After Otto briefly exiled her to her Westphalian manors at Enger in 947, Matilda was brought back to court at the urging of his wife Eadgyth. The nobility found it difficult to adapt to Otto, as the kingdom had never before followed individual succession to the throne. Whereas tradition dictated that all the sons of the former king were to receive a portion of the kingdom, Henry's succession plan placed Otto at the head of a united kingdom at the expense of his brothers. Otto's authoritarian style was in stark contrast to that of his father. Henry had purposely waived Church anointment at coronation as a symbol of his election by his people and governing his kingdom on the basis of "friendship pacts" (Latin: amicitia). Henry regarded the kingdom as a confederation of duchies and saw himself as a first among equals. Instead of seeking to administer the kingdom through royal representatives, as Charlemagne had done, Henry allowed the dukes to maintain complete internal control of their holdings as long as his superior status was recognized. Otto, on the other hand, had accepted Church anointment and regarded his kingdom as a feudal monarchy with himself holding the "divine right" to rule it. He reigned without concern for the internal hierarchy of the various kingdoms' noble families. This new policy ensured Otto's position as undisputed master of the kingdom. Members of his family and other aristocrats who rebelled against Otto were forced to confess their guilt publicly and unconditionally surrender to him, hoping for a pardon from their king. For nobles and other high-ranking officials, Otto's punishments were typically mild and the punished were usually restored to a position of authority afterwards. His brother Henry rebelled twice and was pardoned twice after his surrenders. He was even appointed Duke of Lorraine and later Duke of Bavaria. Rebellious commoners were treated far more harshly; Otto usually had them executed.[29] Otto continued to reward loyal vassals for their service throughout his tenure as king. Although appointments were still gained and held at his discretion, they were increasingly intertwined with dynastic politics. Where Henry relied upon "friendship pacts", Otto relied upon family ties. Otto refused to accept uncrowned rulers as his equal. Under Otto, the integration of important vassals took place through marriage connections. King Louis IV of France had married Otto's sister Gerberga in 939, and Otto's son Liudolf had married Ida, the daughter of Hermann I, Duke of Swabia, in 947. The former dynastically tied the royal house of West Francia to that of East Francia, and the latter secured his son's succession to the Duchy of Swabia, as Hermann had no sons. Otto's plans came to fruition when, in 950, Liudolf became Duke of Swabia, and in 954 Otto's nephew Lothair of France became King of France. In 944, Otto appointed Conrad the Red as Duke of Lorraine and brought him into his extended family through his marriage to Otto's daughter Liutgarde in 947. A Salian Frank by birth, Conrad was a nephew of former king Conrad I of Germany. Following the death of Otto's uncle Berthold, Duke of Bavaria, in 947, Otto satisfied his brother Henry's ambition through his marriage to Judith, Duchess of Bavaria, daughter of Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria, and appointed him as the new Duke of Bavaria in 948. This arrangement finally achieved peace between the brothers, as Henry thereafter abandoned his claims to the throne. Through his familial ties to the dukes, Otto had strengthened the sovereignty of the crown and the overall cohesiveness of the kingdom.[30] On 29 January 946, Eadgyth died suddenly at the age of 35, and Otto buried his wife in the Cathedral of Magdeburg.[31] The union had lasted sixteen years and produced two children; with Eadgyth's death, Otto began to make arrangements for his succession. Like his father before him, Otto intended to transfer sole rule of the kingdom to his son Liudolf upon his death. Otto called together all leading figures of the kingdom and had them swear an oath of allegiance to Liudolf, thereby promising to recognize his sole claim to the throne as Otto's heir apparent.[32] Foreign relationsEdit FranceEdit The West Frankish kings had lost considerable royal power after internal struggles with their aristocracy, but still asserted their authority over the Duchy of Lorraine, a territory also claimed by East Francia. The German king was supported by Louis IV's chief domestic rival, Hugh the Great. Louis IV's second attempt to reign over Lorraine in 940 was based on his asserted claim to be the rightful Duke of Lorraine due to his marriage to Gerberga of Saxony, Otto's sister and the widow of Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine. Otto did not recognize Louis IV's claim and appointed his brother Henry as duke instead. In the following years, both sides tried to increase their influence in Lorraine, but the duchy remained a part of Otto's kingdom. Despite their rivalry, Louis IV and Hugh were both tied to Otto's family through marriage bonds. Otto intervened for peace in 942 and announced a formal reconciliation between the two. As a part of the deal, Hugh was to perform an act of submission to Louis IV, and in return Louis IV was to waive any claims to Lorraine. After a short period of peace, the West Frankish kingdom fell into another crisis in 946. Normans captured Louis IV and handed him over to Hugh, who released the King only on condition of the surrender of the fortress of Laon. At the urging of his sister Gerberga, Otto invaded France on behalf of Louis IV, but his armies were not strong enough to take the key cities of Laon, Reims, and Paris. After three months, Otto finally lifted the siege without defeating Hugh, but managed to depose Hugh of Vermandois from his position as Archbishop of Reims, restoring Artald of Reims to his former office.[33] To settle the issue of control over the Archdiocese of Reims, Otto called for a synod at Ingelheim on 7 June 948.[34] The assembly was attended by more than 30 bishops, including all the archbishops of Germany[35] - a demonstration of Otto's strong position in East and West Francia alike. The synod confirmed Otto's appointment of Artald as Archbishop of Reims, and Hugh was admonished to respect his king's royal authority. But it was not until 950 that the powerful vassal accepted Louis IV as king; the opponents were not fully reconciled until March 953.[36] Otto gave the control of West Frankish affairs to his son-in-law Conrad the Red and later Bruno the Great, together with Otto's sisters Gerberga and Hadwig who were regents for their sons King Lothar and Duke Hugh. Early Ottonian rulers received feudal commendations and decided on royal and episcopal succession disputes in the western kingdom. Bruno intervened militarily in West Francia in 958, as well as against the Reginarids in Lotharingia. However, this Ottonian hegemony was personalistic rather than institutional, and quickly disappeared after the accession of Hugh Capet in 987.[37] BurgundyEdit Otto continued the peaceful relationship between Germany and the Kingdom of Burgundy initiated by his father. King Rudolf II of Burgundy had previously married Bertha of Swabia, the daughter of one of Henry's chief advisers, in 922. Burgundy was originally a part of Middle Francia, the central portion of Charlemagne's empire prior to its division under the Treaty of Verdun in 843. On 11 July 937, Rudolf II died and Hugh of Provence, the King of Italy and Rudolf II's chief domestic opponent, claimed the Burgundian throne. Otto intervened in the succession and with his support, Rudolf II's son, Conrad of Burgundy, was able to secure the throne. Burgundy had become an integral, but formally independent, part of Otto's sphere of influence and remained at peace with Germany during his reign.[38] BohemiaEdit Boleslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, assumed the Bohemian throne in 935. The next year, following the death of Otto's father, King Henry the Fowler, Boleslaus stopped paying tribute to the German Kingdom (East Francia) in violation of the peace treaty Henry had established with Boleslaus' brother and predecessor, Wenceslaus I. Boleslaus attacked an ally of the Saxons in northwest Bohemia in 936 and defeated two of Otto's armies from Thuringia and Merseburg. After this initial large-scale invasion of Bohemia, hostilities were pursued, mainly in the form of border raids. The war was not concluded until 950, when Otto besieged a castle owned by Boleslaus' son. Boleslaus decided to sign a peace treaty, promising to resume payment of tribute.[39] Boleslaus became Otto's ally, and his Bohemian force helped the German army against the common Magyar threat at the Lech river in 955.[40] Later he went on to crush an uprising of two Slavic dukes (Stoigniew and Nako) in Mecklenburg, probably to ensure the spread of Bohemian estates to the east.[41][42] Byzantine EmpireEdit During his early reign, Otto fostered close relations with Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, who ruled over the Byzantine Empire from 913 until his death in 959; East Francia and Byzantium sent several ambassadors to one another. Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, a medieval chronicler, records: "After this [Gilbert's defeat in 939], legates from the Greeks [Byzantines] twice brought gifts from their emperor to our king, both rulers being in a state of concord."[43] It was during this time that Otto first tried to link himself to the Eastern Empire through marriage negotiations.[44] Slavic WarsEdit As Otto was finalizing actions to suppress his brother's rebellion in 939, the Slavs on the Elbe River revolted against German rule. Having been subdued by Otto's father in 928, the Slavs saw Henry's rebellion as an opportunity to regain their independence.[45] Otto's lieutenant in east Saxony, Count Gero of Merseburg, was charged with the subjugation of the pagan Polabian Slavs. According to Widukind, Gero invited about thirty Slavic chieftains to a banquet; after the feast his soldiers attacked and massacred the unsuspecting drunken guests.[46] The Slavs demanded revenge and marched against Gero with an enormous army. Otto agreed to a brief truce with his rebellious brother Henry and moved to support Gero. After fierce fighting, their combined forces were able to repel the advancing Slavs; Otto then returned west to subdue his brother's rebellion.[45] In 941, Gero initiated another plot to subdue the Slavs. He recruited a captive Slav named Tugumir, a Hevelli chieftain, to his cause. Gero promised to support him in claiming the Hevellian throne, if Tugumir would later recognize Otto as his overlord. Tugumir agreed and returned to the Slavs. Due to Gero's massacre, few Slavic chieftains remained, and the Slavs quickly proclaimed Tugumir as their prince. Upon assuming the throne, Tugumir murdered his chief rival and proclaimed his loyalty to Otto, incorporating his territory into the German kingdom. Otto granted Tugumir the title of "duke" and allowed Tugumir to rule his people, subject to Otto's suzerainty, in the same manner as the German dukes.[47] After the coup by Gero and Tugumir, the Slavic federation broke apart. In control of the key Hevelli stronghold of Brandenburg, Gero was able to attack and defeat the divided Slavic tribes. Otto and his successors extended their control into Eastern Europe through military colonization and the establishment of churches.[48] Expansion into ItalyEdit Disputed Italian throneEdit Upon the death of Emperor Charles the Fat in 888, the empire of Charlemagne was divided into several territories: East Francia, West Francia, the kingdoms of Lower and Upper Burgundy, and the Kingdom of Italy, with each of the realms being ruled by its own king. Though the pope in Rome continued to invest the kings of Italy as "emperors" to rule Charlemagne's empire, these "Italian emperors" never exercised any authority north of the Alps. When Berengar I of Italy was assassinated in 924, the last nominal heir to Charlemagne was dead and the imperial title was left unclaimed.[49] Statues of Otto I, right, and Adelaide in Meissen Cathedral. Otto and Adelaide were married after his annexation of Italy. King Rudolf II of Upper Burgundy and Hugh, Count of Provence, the effective ruler of Lower Burgundy, competed to gain dominion over Italy. In 926, Hugh defeated Rudolf, established de facto control over the Italian peninsula and was crowned as King of Italy.[50] His son Lothair was elevated to co-ruler in 931.[51] Hugh and Rudolf II eventually concluded a peace treaty in 933; four years later Lothair was betrothed to Rudolf's infant daughter Adelaide.[52] In 940, Berengar II, Margrave of Ivrea, a grandson of former King Berengar I, led a revolt of Italian nobles against his uncle Hugh. Forewarned by Lothair, Hugh exiled Berengar II from Italy, and the margrave fled to the protection of Otto's court in 941. In 945, Berengar II returned and defeated Hugh with the support of the Italian nobility. Hugh abdicated in favor of his son and retired to Provence; Berengar II made terms with Lothair and established himself as the decisive power behind the throne. Lothair married the sixteen-year-old Adelaide in 947 and became nominal king when Hugh died on 10 April 948, but Berengar II continued to hold power as mayor of the palace or viceroy.[53][54] Lothair's brief "reign" came to an end with his death on 22 November 950, and Berengar II was crowned king on 15 December, with his son Adalbert of Italy as co-ruler.[55] Failing to receive widespread support, Berengar II attempted to legitimize his reign and tried to force Adelaide, the respective daughter, daughter-in-law and widow of the last three Italian kings, into marriage with Adalbert. Adelaide fiercely refused and was imprisoned by Berengar II at Garda Lake. With the help of Count Adalbert Atto of Canossa, she managed to escape from imprisonment. Besieged by Berengar II in Canossa, Adelaide sent an emissary across the Alps seeking Otto's protection and marriage. A marriage to Adelaide would have strengthened the king's position to claim the Italian throne and ultimately the emperorship. Knowing of her great beauty and immense wealth, Otto accepted Adelaide's marriage proposal and prepared for an expedition into Italy. First Italian ExpeditionEdit In the early summer of 951, before his father marched across the Alps, Otto's son Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, invaded Lombardy in northern Italy.[56][d] The exact reasons for Liudolf's action are unclear, and historians have proposed several possible motives. Liudolf may have tried to help Adelaide, a distant relative of Liudolf's wife Ida, or he intended to strengthen his position within the royal family. The young heir was also competing with his uncle, Duke Henry of Bavaria, both in German affairs and Northern Italy.[57] While Liudolf was preparing his expedition, Henry influenced the Italian aristocrats not to join Liudolf's campaign.[56] When Liudolf arrived in Lombardy, he found no support and was unable to sustain his troops. His army was near destruction until Otto's troops crossed the Alps. The king reluctantly received Liudolf's forces into his command, angry at his son for his independent actions. The Iron Crown of the Lombards was passed to Otto in 951 during his first Italian campaign. Otto and Liudolf arrived in northern Italy in September 951 without opposition from Berengar II. As they descended into the Po River valley, the Italian nobles and clergy withdrew their support for Berengar and provided aid to Otto and his advancing army. Recognizing his weakened position, Berengar II fled from his capital in Pavia. When Otto arrived at Pavia on 23 September 951, the city willingly opened its gate to the German king. In accordance with Lombard tradition, Otto was crowned with the Iron Crown of the Lombards on 10 October. Like Charlemagne before him, Otto was now concurrent King of Germany and King of Italy. Otto sent a message to his brother Henry in Bavaria to escort his bride from Canossa to Pavia, where the two married.[58] Soon after his father's marriage in Pavia, Liudolf left Italy and returned to Swabia. Archbishop Frederick of Mainz, the Primate of Germany and Otto's long-time domestic rival, also returned to Germany alongside Liudolf. Disturbances in northern Germany forced Otto to return with the majority of his army back across the Alps in 952. Otto did leave a small portion of his army behind in Italy and appointed his son-in-law Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, as his regent and tasked him with subduing Berengar II.[59] AftermathEdit In a weak military position with few troops, Otto's regent in Italy attempted a diplomatic solution and opened peace negotiations with Berengar II. Conrad recognized that a military confrontation would impose great costs upon Germany, both in manpower and in treasure. At a time when the kingdom was facing invasions from the north by the Danes and from the east by the Slavs and Hungarians, all available resources were required north of the Alps. Conrad believed that a client state relationship with Italy would be in Germany's best interest. He offered a peace treaty in which Berengar II would remain King of Italy on the condition that he recognized Otto as his overlord. Berengar II agreed and the pair traveled north to meet with Otto to seal the agreement.[60] Manuscript depiction (c. 1200) of Otto accepting the surrender of Berengar II of Italy. The headline reads Otto I Theutonicorum rex ("Otto the First, King of the Germans"). Conrad's treaty was met with disdain by Adelaide and Henry. Though Adelaide was Burgundian by birth, she was raised as an Italian. Her father Rudolf II of Burgundy was briefly king of Italy prior to being deposed and she herself had briefly been queen of Italy until her husband Lothair II of Italy's death. Berengar II imprisoned her when she refused to marry his son, Adalbert of Italy. Henry had other reasons to disapprove of the peace treaty. As Duke of Bavaria, he controlled territory on the northern side of the German-Italian border. Henry had hope that, with Berengar II being deposed, his own fiefdom would be greatly expanded by incorporating territory south of the Alps. Conrad and Henry were already not on good terms, and the proposed treaty drove the two dukes further apart. Adelaide and Henry conspired together to persuade Otto to reject Conrad's treaty.[61] Conrad and Berengar II arrived at Magdeburg to meet Otto, but had to wait three days before an audience was granted. This was a humiliating offense for the man Otto had named his regent.[62] Though Adelaide and Henry urged the treaty's immediate rejection, Otto referred the issue to an Imperial Diet for further debate. Appearing before the Diet in August 952 in Augsburg, Berengar II and his son Adalbert were forced to swear fealty to Otto as his vassals. In return, Otto granted Berengar II Italy as his fiefdom and restored the title "King of Italy" to him. The Italian king had to pay an enormous annual tribute and was required to cede the Duchy of Friuli south of the Alps. Otto reorganized this area into the March of Verona and put it under Henry's control as reward for his loyalty. The Duchy of Bavaria therefore grew to become the most powerful domain in Germany.[63] Relations with the Catholic ChurchEdit Main article: Imperial Church System Further information: Catholic Church in Germany A medieval king investing a bishop with the symbols of office. Otto centralized his control over Germany through the investiture of bishops and abbots. Beginning in the late 940s, Otto rearranged interior policies by utilizing the offices of the Catholic Church as tools of royal administration, thereby setting the course for the Ottonian Imperial Church System. With regard to his "divine right" to rule he viewed himself as the protector of the Church. A key element of administratve reorganisation was the installment of celibate clerics in secular offices, chiefly bishops and abbots, at the expense of the hereditary secular nobility. Otto sought to establish a non-hereditary counter-balance to the fiercely independent and powerful royal princes. He granted land and bestowed the title of Prince of the Empire (Reichsfürst) to appointed bishops and abbots. Hereditary claims were thus avoided as after death the offices fell back upon the crown. Historian Norman Cantor concludes: "Under these conditions clerical election became a mere formality in the Ottonian empire, and the king filled up the ranks of the episcopate with his own relatives and with his loyal chancery clerks, who were also appointed to head the great German monasteries."[64][65][66] The most prominent member of this blended royal-ecclesiastical service was his own brother Bruno the Great, Otto's Chancellor since 940, who was appointed Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lorraine in 953. Other important religious officials within Otto's government included Archbishop William of Mainz (Otto's illegitimate son), Archbishop Adaldag of Bremen, and Hadamar, the Abbot of Fulda. Otto endowed the bishoprics and abbeys of his kingdom with numerous gifts, including land and royal prerogatives, such as the power to levy taxes and to maintain an army. Over these Church lands, secular authorities had neither the power of taxation nor legal jurisdiction. This raised the Church above the various dukes and committed its clerics to serve as the king's personal vassals. In order to support the Church, Otto made tithing mandatory for all inhabitants of Germany. Otto granted the various bishops and abbots of the kingdom the rank of count as well as the legal rights of counts within their territory. Because Otto personally appointed all bishops and abbots, these reforms strengthened his central authority, and the upper ranks of the German Church functioned in some respect as an arm of the royal bureaucracy. Otto routinely appointed his personal court chaplains to bishoprics throughout the kingdom. While attached to the royal court, the chaplains would perform the work of the government through services to the royal chancery. After years within the royal court, Otto would reward their service with promotion to a diocese. Liudolf's Civil WarEdit Rebellion against OttoEdit With the humiliating failure of his Italian campaign and Otto's marriage to Adelaide, Liudolf became estranged from his father and planned a rebellion. On Christmas Day 951, he held a grand feast at Saalfeld that was attended by many important figures from across the kingdom, most notably Archbishop Frederick of Mainz, the Primate of Germany.[62] Liudolf was able to recruit his brother-in-law Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, to his rebellion. As Otto's regent in Italy, Conrad had negotiated a peace agreement and an alliance with Berengar II and believed that Otto would confirm this treaty. Instead of an ally, Berengar II was made Otto's subject and his kingdom was subsequently reduced. Conrad felt betrayed and insulted over Otto's decision, especially with the additional empowerment of Henry. Conrad and Liudolf viewed Otto as being controlled by his foreign-born wife and power-hungry brother and resolved to free the kingdom from their domination.[67] In winter 952, Adelaide gave birth to a son, whom she named Henry after her brother-in-law and the child's grandfather, Henry the Fowler. Rumors spread that Otto had been persuaded by his wife and brother to propose this child as his heir instead of Liudolf.[68] For many German nobles, this rumor represented Otto's final transformation from a policy focused on Germany to an Italian-centered one. The idea that Otto would ask them to revoke the succession rights of Liudolf prompted many nobles into open rebellion. Liudolf and Conrad first led the nobles against Henry, the Duke of Bavaria, in spring 953. Henry was unpopular with the Bavarians due to his Saxon heritage, and his vassals quickly rebelled against him.[69] Word of the rebellion reached Otto at Ingelheim. In order to secure his position, he traveled to his stronghold at Mainz. The city was also the seat of Archbishop Frederick of Mainz, who acted as mediator between Otto and the rebels. Recorded details of the meeting or the negotiated treaty do not exist, but Otto soon left Mainz with a peace treaty favorable to the conspirators, most likely confirming Liudolf as heir apparent and approving Conrad's original agreement with Berengar II. These terms rendered the treaty incompatible with the wishes of Adelaide and Henry. When Otto returned to Saxony, Adelaide and Henry persuaded the king to void the treaty. Convening the Imperial Diet at Fritzlar, Otto declared Liudolf and Conrad as outlaws in absentia.[70] The king reasserted his desires for dominion over Italy and to claim the imperial title. He sent emissaries to the Duchy of Lorraine and stirred the local nobles against Conrad's rule. The duke was a Salian Frank by birth and unpopular with the people of Lorraine, so they pledged their support to Otto. Otto's actions at the Diet provoked the people of Swabia and Franconia into rebellion. After initial defeats by Otto, Liudolf and Conrad fell back to their headquarters in Mainz. In July 953, Otto and his army laid siege to the city, supported by Henry's army from Bavaria. After two months of siege, the city had not fallen and rebellions against Otto's rule grew stronger in southern Germany. Faced with these challenges, Otto opened peace negotiations with Liudolf and Conrad. Bruno the Great, Otto's youngest brother and royal chancellor since 940, accompanied his older brothers and oversaw the arrangements for the negotiations. As the newly appointed Archbishop of Cologne, Bruno was eager to end the civil war in Lorraine, which was in his ecclesiastical territory. The rebels demanded ratification of the treaty they had previously agreed to with Otto, but Henry's provocation during the meeting caused the negotiations to break down.[71] Conrad and Liudolf left the meeting to continue the civil war. Angered by their actions, Otto stripped both men of their duchies of Swabia and Lorraine, and appointed his brother Bruno as the new Duke of Lorraine. While on campaign with Otto, Henry appointed the Bavarian Count Palatine, Arnulf II, to govern his duchy in his absence. Arnulf II was a son of Arnulf the Bad, whom Henry had previously displaced as duke, and he sought revenge: he deserted Henry and joined the rebellion against Otto. Lifting the siege of Mainz, Otto and Henry marched south to regain control over Bavaria. Without the support of the local nobles, their plan failed and they were forced to retreat to Saxony.[72] The duchies of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia were in open civil war against the King, and even in his native Duchy of Saxony revolts began to spread. By the end of 953, the civil war was threatening to depose Otto and permanently end his claims to be Charlemagne's successor. End of the rebellionEdit In early 954, Margrave Hermann Billung, Otto's long-time loyal vassal in Saxony, was facing increased Slavic movements in the east. Taking advantage of the German civil war, the Slavs raided deeper and deeper into the adjacent border areas. Meanwhile, the Hungarians began extensive raids into Southern Germany. Though Liudolf and Conrad prepared defenses against the invasions in their territories, the Hungarians devastated Bavaria and Franconia. On Palm Sunday, 954, Liudolf held a great feast at Worms and invited the Hungarian chieftains to join him. There, he presented the invaders with gifts of gold and silver.[73] Otto's brother Henry soon spread rumors that Conrad and Liudolf had invited the Hungarians into Germany in hopes of using them against Otto. Public opinion quickly turned against the rebels in these duchies. With this change in opinion and the death of his wife Liutgarde, Otto's only daughter, Conrad began peace negotiations with Otto, which were eventually joined by Liudolf and Archbishop Frederick.[74] A truce was declared, and Otto called a meeting of the Imperial Diet on 15 June 954 at Langenzenn. Before the assembly convened, Conrad and Frederick were reconciled with Otto. At the Diet, tensions flared up again when Henry accused his nephew Liudolf of conspiring with the Hungarians. Though Conrad and Frederick implored the enraged Liudolf to seek peace, Liudolf left the meeting determined to continue the civil war.[75] Liudolf, with his lieutenant Arnulf II (the effective ruler of Bavaria), took his army south towards Regensburg in Bavaria, quickly followed by Otto. The armies met at Nuremberg and engaged in a deadly, though not decisive, battle. Liudolf retreated to Regensburg, where he was besieged by Otto. Though Otto's army was unable to break through the city walls, starvation set in within the city after two months of siege. Liudolf sent a message to Otto seeking to open peace negotiations; the king demanded unconditional surrender, which Liudolf refused.[76] After Arnulf II had been killed in continuous fighting, Liudolf fled from Bavaria for his domain of Swabia, quickly followed by Otto's army. The adversaries met at Illertissen near the Swabian-Bavarian border and opened negotiations. Liudolf and Otto called a truce until an Imperial Diet could be assembled to ratify the peace. The king forgave his son all transgressions and Liudolf agreed to accept any punishment his father felt appropriate.[77] Soon after this peace agreement, the aging and sick Archbishop Frederick died in October 954. With the surrender of Liudolf, the rebellion had been put down throughout Germany except in Bavaria. Otto convened the Imperial Diet in December 954 at Arnstadt. Before the assembled nobles of the kingdom, Liudolf and Conrad declared their fealty to Otto and yielded control over all the territories that their armies still occupied. Though Otto did not restore their former ducal titles to them, he did allow them to retain their private estates. The Diet ratified Otto's actions: Liudolf was promised regency over Italy and command of an army to depose Berengar II Conrad was promised military command against the Hungarians Burchard III, son of former Swabian Duke Burchard II, was appointed Duke of Swabia (Liudolf's former duchy) Bruno remained as new Duke of Lorraine (Conrad's former duchy) Henry was confirmed as Duke of Bavaria Otto's oldest son William was appointed Archbishop of Mainz and Primate of Germany Otto retained direct rule over the Duchy of Saxony and over the territories of the former Duchy of Franconia The king's measures in December 954 finally brought an end to the two-year-long civil war. Liudolf's rebellion, though temporarily weakening Otto's position, ultimately strengthened it as absolute ruler of Germany. Hungarian invasionsEdit Main articles: Hungarian invasions of Europe and Battle of Lechfeld Europe shortly after Otto's reign. The Hungarians (orange), located to the east of Otto's realm (blue), invaded Germany in 954 and 955. The Hungarians (Magyars) invaded Otto's domain as part of the larger Hungarian invasions of Europe and ravaged much of Southern Germany during Liudolf's civil war. Though Otto had installed the Margraves Hermann Billung and Gero on his kingdom's northern and northeastern borders, the Principality of Hungary to the southeast was a permanent threat to German security. The Hungarians took advantage of the kingdom's civil war and invaded the Duchy of Bavaria in spring 954. Though Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, and Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, had successfully prevented the Hungarians from invading their own territories in the west, the invaders managed to reach the Rhine River, sacking much of Bavaria and Franconia in the process. The Hungarians, encouraged by their successful raids, began another invasion into Germany in the spring of 955. Otto's army, now unhindered by civil war, was able to defeat the invasion, and soon the Hungarians sent an ambassador to seek peace with Otto. The ambassador proved to be a decoy: Otto's brother Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, sent word to Otto that the Hungarians had crossed into his territory from the southeast. The main Hungarian army had camped along the Lech River and besieged Augsburg. While the city was defended by Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, Otto assembled his army and marched south to face the Hungarians.[78] Otto and his army fought the Hungarian force on 10 August 955 at the Battle of Lechfeld. Under Otto's command were Burchard III, Duke of Swabia and Bohemian troops of Duke Boleslaus I. Though outnumbered nearly two to one, Otto was determined to push the Hungarian forces out of his territory. According to Widukind of Corvey, Otto "pitched his camp in the territory of the city of Augsburg and joined there the forces of Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, who was himself lying mortally ill nearby, and by Duke Conrad with a large following of Franconian knights. Conrad's unexpected arrival encouraged the warriors so much that they wished to attack the enemy immediately."[79] A 1457 illustration of the Battle of Lechfeld in Sigmund Meisterlin's codex about the history of Nuremberg The Hungarians crossed the river and immediately attacked the Bohemians, followed by the Swabians under Burchard. Confusing the defenders with a rain of arrows, they plundered the baggage train and made many captives. As Otto received word of the attack, he ordered Conrad to relieve his rear units with a counter-attack. Upon the successful completion of his mission, Conrad returned to the main forces and the King launched an immediate assault. Despite a volley of arrows, Otto's army smashed into the Hungarian lines and was able to fight them in hand-to-hand combat, giving the traditionally nomadic warriors no room to use their preferred shoot-and-run tactics; the Hungarians suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat in disorder.[80][e] According to Widukind of Corvey, Otto was proclaimed Father of the Fatherland and Emperor at the following victory celebration.[f] While the battle was not a crushing defeat for the Hungarians, as Otto was not able to chase the fleeing army into Hungarian lands, the battle ended nearly 100 years of Hungarian invasions into Western Europe.[82] While Otto was fighting the Hungarians with his main army deployed in Southern Germany, the Obotrite Slavs in the north were in a state of insurrection. Count Wichmann the Younger, still Otto's opponent over the King's refusal to grant Wichmann the title of Margrave in 936, marauded through the lands of the Obotrites in the Billung March, causing the followers of Slavic Prince Nako to revolt. The Obotrites invaded Saxony in the fall of 955, killing the men of arms-bearing age and carrying off the women and children into slavery. In the aftermath of the Battle of Lechfeld, Otto rushed to the north and pressed far into their territory. A Slav embassy offered to pay annual tribute in return for being allowed self-government under German overlordship instead of direct German rule.[83] Otto refused, and the two sides met on 16 October at the Battle of Recknitz. Otto's forces gained a decisive victory; after the battle, hundreds of captured Slavs were executed.[84] Celebrations for Otto's victory over the pagan Hungarians and Slavs were held in churches across the kingdom, with bishops attributing the victory to divine intervention and as proof of Otto's "divine right" to rule. The battles of Lechfeld and Recknitz mark a turning point in Otto's reign. The victories over Hungarians and Slavs sealed his hold on power over Germany, with the duchies firmly under royal authority. From 955 on, Otto would not experience another rebellion against his rule and as a result was able to further consolidate his position throughout Central Europe. Otto's son-in-law, Conrad, the former Duke of Lorraine, was killed in the Battle of Lechfeld and the king's brother Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, was mortally wounded, dying a few months later on 1 November of that year. With Henry's death, Otto appointed his four-year-old nephew Henry II, to succeed his father as duke, with his mother Judith of Bavaria as his regent. Otto appointed Liudolf in 956 as the commander of an expedition against King Berengar II of Italy, but he soon died of fever on 6 September 957. Archbishop William buried his half-brother at St. Alban's Abbey near Mainz.[85] The deaths of Henry, Liudolf, and Conrad took from Otto the three most prominent members of his royal family, including his heir apparent. Additionally, his first two sons from his marriage to Adelaide of Italy, Henry and Bruno, had both died in early childhood by 957.[68][86] Otto's third son by Adelaide, the two-year-old Otto, became the kingdom's new heir apparent.[87] Reign as emperorEdit Second Italian Expedition and imperial coronationEdit The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. Otto was crowned as Emperor on February 2, 962 by Pope John XII. Liudolf's death in the fall of 957 deprived Otto of both an heir and a commander of his expedition against King Berengar II of Italy.[85] Beginning with the unfavorable peace treaty signed in 952 in which he became Otto's vassal, Berengar II had always been a rebellious subordinate. With the death of Liudolf and Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, and with Otto campaigning in northern Germany, Berengar II attacked the March of Verona in 958, which Otto had stripped from his control under the 952 treaty, and besieged Count Adalbert Atto of Canossa there. Berengar II's forces also attacked the Papal States and the city of Rome under Pope John XII. In autumn 960, with Italy in political turmoil, the Pope sent word to Otto seeking his aid against Berengar II. Several other influential Italian leaders arrived at Otto's court with similar appeals, including the Archbishop of Milan, the bishops of Como and Novara, and Margrave Otbert of Milan.[88] After the Pope agreed to crown him as Emperor, Otto assembled his army to march upon Italy. In preparation for his second Italian campaign and the imperial coronation, Otto planned his kingdom's future. At the Imperial Diet at Worms in May 961, Otto named his six-year-old son Otto II as heir apparent and co-ruler, and had him crowned at Aachen Cathedral on 26 May 961.[89] Otto II was anointed by the Archbishops Bruno I of Cologne, William of Mainz, and Henry I of Trier. The King instituted a separate chancery to issue diplomas in his heir's name,[90] and appointed his brother Bruno and illegitimate son William as Otto II's co-regents in Germany.[91] Otto's army descended into northern Italy in August 961 through the Brenner Pass at Trento. The German king moved towards Pavia, the former Lombard capital of Italy, where he celebrated Christmas and assumed the title King of Italy for himself. Berengar II's armies retreated to their strongholds in order to avoid battle with Otto, allowing him to advance southward unopposed. Otto reached Rome on 31 January 962; three days later, he was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII at Old St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope also anointed Otto's wife Adelaide of Italy, who had accompanied Otto on his Italian campaign, as empress. With Otto's coronation as emperor, the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy were unified into a common realm, later called the Holy Roman Empire.[92] Papal politicsEdit On 12 February 962, Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII called a synod in Rome to finalize their relationship. At the synod, Pope John XII approved Otto's long-desired Archdiocese of Magdeburg.[93] The Emperor had planned the establishment of the archdiocese to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Lechfeld over the Hungarians and to further convert the local Slavs to Christianity. The Pope named the former royal monastery of St. Maurice as provisional center of the new archdiocese, and called upon the German archbishops for support.[94] Replica of the Magdeburger Reiter, an equestrian monument traditionally regarded as a portrait of Otto I (Magdeburg, original c. 1240) The following day, Otto and John XII ratified the Diploma Ottonianum, confirming John XII as the spiritual head of the Church and Otto as its secular protector. In the Diploma, Otto acknowledged the earlier Donation of Pepin of 754 between Pepin the Short, King of the Franks and Pope Stephen II. Otto recognized John XII's secular control over the Papal States, and expanded the Pope's domain by the Exarchate of Ravenna, the Duchy of Spoleto, the Duchy of Benevento and several smaller possessions. Despite this confirmed claim, Otto never ceded real control over those additional territories. The Diploma granted the clergy and people of Rome the exclusive right to elect the pontiff. The pope-elect was required to issue an oath of allegiance to the emperor before his confirmation as pope.[95] With the Diploma signed, the new Emperor marched against Berengar II to reconquer Italy. Being besieged at San Leo, Berengar II surrendered in 963. Upon the successful completion of Otto's campaign, John XII began to fear the Emperor's rising power in Italy and opened negotiations with Berengar II's son, Adalbert of Italy to depose Otto. The Pope also sent envoys to the Hungarians and the Byzantine Empire to join him and Adalbert in an alliance against the Emperor. Otto discovered the Pope's plot and, after defeating and imprisoning Berengar II, marched on Rome. John XII fled from Rome, and Otto, upon his arrival in Rome, summoned a council and deposed John XII as Pope, appointing Leo VIII as his successor.[96] Otto released most of his army to return to Germany by the end of 963, confident his rule in Italy and within Rome was secure. The Roman populace, however, considered Leo VIII, a layman with no former ecclesiastical training, unacceptable as Pope. In February 964, the Roman people forced Leo VIII to flee the city. In his absence, Leo VIII was deposed and John XII was restored to the chair of St. Peter. When John XII died suddenly in May 964, the Romans elected Pope Benedict V as his successor. Upon hearing of the Romans’ actions, Otto mobilized new troops and marched on Rome. After laying siege to the city in June 964, Otto compelled the Romans to accept his appointee Leo VIII as Pope and exiled Benedict V.[97] Third Italian ExpeditionEdit Contemporary image of Otto I, lower left, in one of the Magdeburg Ivories. Otto presents Magdeburg Cathedral to Christ and Saints, and is depicted smaller than them as a sign of humility. Otto returned to Germany in January 965, believing his affairs in Italy had been settled.[98] On 20 May 965, the Emperor's long-serving lieutenant on the eastern front, Margrave Gero, died and left a vast march stretching from the Billung March in the north to the Duchy of Bohemia in the south. Otto divided this territory into five separate smaller marches, each ruled by a margrave: the Northern March under Dietrich of Haldensleben, the Eastern March under Odo I, the March of Meissen under Wigbert, the March of Merseburg under Günther, and the March of Zeitz under Wigger I.[99] Peace in Italy, however, would not last long. Adalbert, the son of the deposed King Berengar II of Italy, rebelled against Otto's rule over the Kingdom of Italy. Otto dispatched Burchard III of Swabia, one of his closest advisors, to crush the rebellion. Burchard III met Adalbert at the Battle of the Po on 25 June 966, defeating the rebels and restoring Italy to Ottonian control. Pope Leo VIII died on 1 March 965, leaving the chair of St. Peter vacant. The Church elected, with Otto's approval, John XIII as new Pope in October 965. John XIII's arrogant behavior and foreign backing soon made him disliked among the local population. In December of the same year, he was taken into custody by the Roman people but was able to escape a few weeks later. Following the Pope's request for help, the Emperor prepared his army for a third expedition into Italy.[100] In August 966 at Worms, Otto announced his arrangements for the government of Germany in his absence. Otto's illegitimate son Archbishop William of Mainz would serve as his regent over all of Germany, while Otto's trusted lieutenant, Margrave Hermann Billung, would be his personal administrator over the Duchy of Saxony. With preparations completed, Otto left his heir in William's custody and led his army into northern Italy via Strasbourg and Chur.[101] Reign from RomeEdit Italy around 1000, shortly after Otto's reign. Otto's expansion campaigns brought northern and central Italy into the Holy Roman Empire. Upon Otto's arrival in Italy, John XIII was restored to his papal throne in mid-November 966 without opposition by the people. Otto captured the twelve leaders of the rebel militia, which had deposed and imprisoned the Pope, and had them hanged.[102] Taking up permanent residence at Rome, the Emperor travelled, accompanied by the Pope, to Ravenna to celebrate Easter in 967. A following synod confirmed Magdeburg's disputed status as a new archdiocese with equal rights to the established German archdioceses.[103] With his matters arranged in northern Italy, the Emperor continued to expand his realm to the south. Since February 967, the Prince of Benevento, Lombard Pandolf Ironhead, had accepted Otto as his overlord and received Spoleto and Camerino as fiefdom. This decision caused conflict with the Byzantine Empire, which claimed sovereignty over the principalities of southern Italy. The eastern Empire also objected to Otto's use of the title Emperor, believing only the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas was the true successor of the ancient Roman Empire.[104] The Byzantines opened peace talks with Otto, despite his expansive policy in their sphere of influence. Otto desired both an imperial princess as a bride for his son and successor Otto II as well as the legitimacy and prestige of a connection between the Ottonian dynasty in the West and the Macedonian dynasty in the East. In order to further his dynastic plans, and in preparation for his son's marriage, Otto returned to Rome in the winter of 967 where he had Otto II crowned co-Emperor by Pope John XIII on Christmas Day 967.[105] Although Otto II was now nominal co-ruler, he exercised no real authority until the death of his father.[106] In the following years, both empires sought to strengthen their influence in southern Italy with several campaigns. In 969, John I Tzimiskes assassinated and succeeded Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros in a military revolt.[107] Finally recognizing Otto's imperial title, the new eastern emperor sent his niece Theophanu to Rome in 972, and she married Otto II on 14 April 972.[108] As part of this rapprochement, the conflict over southern Italy was finally resolved: the Byzantine Empire accepted Otto's dominion over the principalities of Capua, Benevento and Salerno; in return the German Emperor retreated from the Byzantine possessions in Apulia and Calabria.[108] Final years and deathEdit Grave of Otto I in Magdeburg With his son's wedding completed and peace with the Byzantine Empire concluded, Otto led the imperial family back to Germany in August 972.[93] In the spring of 973, the Emperor visited Saxony and celebrated Palm Sunday in Magdeburg. At the same ceremony the previous year, Margrave Hermann Billung, Otto's trusted lieutenant and personal administrator over Saxony during his years in Italy, had been received like a king by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg – a gesture of protest against the Emperor's prolonged absence from Germany.[109] Celebrating Easter with a great assembly in Quedlinburg, Emperor Otto was the most powerful man in Europe.[110] According to Thietmar of Merseburg, Otto received "the dukes Miesco [of Poland] and Boleslav [of Bohemia], and legates from the Greeks [Byzantium], the Beneventans [Rome], Magyars, Bulgars, Danes and Slavs".[111] Ambassadors from England and Muslim Spain arrived later the same year.[111] To mark the Rogation Days, Otto travelled to his palace at Memleben, the place where his father had died 37 years earlier. While there, Otto became seriously ill with fever and, after receiving his last sacraments, died on 7 May 973 at the age of 60.[112] The transition of power to his seventeen-year-old son Otto II was seamless. On 8 May 973, the lords of the Empire confirmed Otto II as their new ruler. Otto II arranged for a magnificent thirty-day funeral, in which his father was buried beside his first wife Eadgyth in Magdeburg Cathedral.[113] Family and childrenEdit Main article: Ottonian dynasty German royal dynasties Ottonian dynasty Otto III Ottonian dynasty family tree Family tree of the German monarchs Category:Ottonian dynasty Preceded by Conradine dynasty Followed by Salian dynasty Although never Emperor, Otto's father Henry I the Fowler is considered the founder of the Ottonian dynasty. In relation to the other members of his dynasty, Otto I was the son of Henry I, father of Otto II, grandfather of Otto III, and great-uncle to Henry II. The Ottonians would rule Germany (later the Holy Roman Empire) for over a century from 919 until 1024. Otto had two wives and at least seven children, one of which was illegitimate.[114] With an unidentified Slavic woman: William (929 – 2 March 968) – Archbishop of Mainz from 17 December 954 until death[115] With Eadgyth of England, daughter of King Edward the Elder:[116] Liudolf (930 – 6 September 957) – Duke of Swabia from 950 to 954, Otto's expected successor from 947 until death[117] Liutgarde (932[118]–953) – married Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, in 947[119] With Adelaide of Italy, daughter of King Rudolf II of Burgundy:[120] Henry (952–954)[68] Bruno (probably 954–957)[86] Matilda (954–999) – Abbess of Quedlinburg from 966 until death[121] Otto II (955 – 7 December 983) – Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until death[87] Ottonian RenaissanceEdit Main article: Ottonian Renaissance See also: Ottonian art and Ottonian architecture Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire commemorative coin A limited renaissance of the arts and architecture in the second half of the 10th century depended on the court patronage of Otto and his immediate successors. The "Ottonian Renaissance" was manifest in some revived cathedral schools, such as that of Bruno I, Archbishop of Cologne, and in the production of illuminated manuscripts, the major art form of the age, from a handful of elite scriptoria, such as that at Quedlinburg Abbey, founded by Otto in 936. Extant manuscripts of this era are the Diploma Ottonianum, the Marriage Charter of Empress Theophanu, and the Gero Codex, an evangeliary drawn up around 969 for Archbishop Gero.[122] The Imperial abbeys and the Imperial courts became centers of religious and spiritual life; prestigious convents like Gandersheim and Quedlinburg were led by women of the royal family.[123] Modern worldEdit Otto I was selected as the main motif for a high value commemorative coin, the €100 Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire commemorative coin, issued in 2008 by the Austrian Mint. The obverse shows the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. The reverse shows Emperor Otto I with Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in the background, where his coronation took place.[124] Among others, three exhibitions in Magdeburg, opening in 2001, 2006 and 2012, have documented Otto's life and his influence on medieval European history.[125] AncestryEdit Ancestors of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor[86][114] 8. Liudolf, Duke of Saxony 4. Otto I, Duke of Saxony 9. Oda Billung 2. Henry I of Germany 10. probably Henry of Franconia 5. Hedwiga 11. unknown 1. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor 6. Dietrich, count in Westphalia 13. Matilda, Abbess of Herford 3. Matilda 7. Reinhild ^ Berengar II ruled from 952 to 961 as "King of Italy" but as Otto's vassal. ^ The precise terms King of the Germans and Holy Roman Empire were not in common use until, respectively, the 11th and the 12th centuries. ^ Widukind of Corvey, Res gestae saxonicae (in Latin) Book 2, chapter 2: "...; duces vero ministrabant. Lothariorum dux Isilberhtus, ad cuius potestatem locus ille pertinebat, omnia procurabat; Evurhardus mensae preerat, Herimannus Franco pincernis, Arnulfus equestri ordini et eligendis locandisque castris preerat; Sigifridus vero, Saxonum optimus et a rege secundus, gener quondam regis, tunc vero affinitate coniunctus, eo tempore procurabat Saxoniam, ne qua hostium interim irruptio accidisset, nutriensque iuniorem Heinricum secum tenuit." Bibliotheca Augustana. ^ From his stronghold in Swabia, located just north of the Alps, Liudolf was in closer proximity to the Italian border than his father in Saxony. ^ During the following days scattered parts of the Hungarian army were repeatedly attacked from nearby villages and castles; a second Bohemian force under Duke Boleslaus I was able to intercept and defeat them.[81] ^ Widukind of Corvey, Res gestae saxonicae (in Latin) Book 3, chapter 49: "De triumpho regis. Triumpho celebri rex factus gloriosus ab exercitu pater patriae imperatorque appellatus est; ..." Bibliotheca Augustana. ^ Heather 2014, p. 281. ^ Freund, Stephan (2013). Wallhausen – Geburtsort Ottos des Großen, Aufenthaltsort deutscher Könige und Kaiser (in German). Schnell und Steiner. ISBN 978-3-7954-2680-4. ^ Reuter 1991, p. 254. ^ a b Keller 2008, p. 26. ^ Keller 2008, pp. 24, 26. ^ a b Reuter 1991, p. 319. ^ Becher 2012, pp. 73–79. ^ Reuter 1991, pp. 137–139. ^ Schutz 2010, p. 45. ^ Beumann 2000, p. 42. ^ Becher 2012, p. 97. ^ Bernhardt 1993, p. 3. ^ Arnold 1997, p. 136. ^ Keller & Althoff 2008, pp. 145–146. ^ a b Schutz 2010, p. 43. ^ Vita Mathildis reginae posterior, chapter 9. ^ Keller & Althoff 2008, p. 158. ^ Becher 2012, pp. 123–124. ^ Holland, Tom (2009). Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom. Abacus. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-349-11972-4. ^ Gwatkin et al. 1922, p. 189. ^ Keller 2008, pp. 36, 55–56. ^ Becher 2012, p. 158. ^ McKitterick, Rosamond (1983). The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians. Addison-Wesley Longman. p. 317. ISBN 978-0-582-49005-5. ^ Timothy Reuter (2014). Germany in the Early Middle Ages c. 800-1056. Routledge. pp. 168, 265–266. ISBN 1317872398. ^ Barraclough 1946, p. 37. ^ Ruckser, David. "Boleslav I (the Cruel) – c. 935-c. 972" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2013. ^ "Boje polabských Slovanů za nezávislost v letech 928 – 955" (in Czech). E-středověk.cz. Archived from the original on 22 April 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2013. ^ "Boleslav I." (in Czech). leccos.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2013. ^ Thietmar, Chronicon Thietmari Merseburgensis, II.34. ^ Hoffmann, Tobias (2009). Althoff, Gerd; Keller, Hagen; Meier, Christel (eds.). "Diplomatie in der Krise. Liutprand von Cremona am Hofe Nikephoros II. Phokas". Frühmittelalterliche Studien (in German). Walter de Gruyter (published 2010). 43: 121. ISBN 978-3-11-020794-1. ^ a b Becher 2012, p. 133. ^ Zimmermann 2010, pp. 713–714. ^ Arnold 1997, p. 83. ^ Beumann 2000, pp. 66–67. ^ a b Keller & Althoff 2008, p. 186. ^ Zimmermann 2010, p. 735. ^ Cantor 1994, p. 213. ^ Timothy Reuter (25 March 2011). "The 'Imperial Church System' of the Ottonian and Salian Rulers: a Reconsideration". Cambridge Org. Retrieved 27 January 2020. ^ Horst Fuhrmann (9 October 1986). Germany in the High Middle Ages: C.1050-1200. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31980-5. ^ a b c Keller & Althoff 2008, p. 193. ^ Keller 2008, pp. 42–43. ^ "Otto I Defeats the Hungarians". A Source Book for Medieval History. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1907. Archived from the original on 10 December 2004. Retrieved 30 June 2012. ^ Bóna, István (2000). "A kalandozó magyarság veresége. A Lech-mezei csata valós szerepe" (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2011. ^ Thompson 1928, p. 489. ^ a b c Baldwin, Stewart. "Otto the Great". Medieval Genealogy. Retrieved 26 September 2014. ^ a b Seibert, Hubertus (1998). Otto II. NDB Volume 19 (in German). Historische Kommission, BAdW. pp. 660–662. ^ Althoff 2013, p. 114. ^ Luttwak, Edward (2009). The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. Harvard University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-674-03519-5. ^ McBrien 2000, p. 159. ^ Duckett 1968, p. 90. ^ Collins 2010, p. 413. ^ a b Althoff, Gerd (1998). Otto I. der Große. NDB Volume 19 (in German). Historische Kommission, BAdW. pp. 656–660. ISBN 978-3-428-00200-9. ^ Uhlirz, Karl (1898). Wilhelm. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German). Historische Kommission, BAdW. pp. 115–117. ^ Poole 1911, p. 313. ^ Schnith, Karl (1985). Liudolf. NDB Volume 14 (in German). Historische Kommission, BAdW. pp. 717 f. ^ Reuter 1991, pp. 154, 337. ^ Holböck 2002, p. 127. ^ Freise, Eckhard (1990). Mathilde. NDB Volume 16 (in German). Historische Kommission, BAdW. pp. 376–378. ^ Bernhardt 1993, pp. 138–161. ^ "100 Euro gold coin – The Crown of the Holy Roman Empire". Austrian Mint. Retrieved 30 March 2013. ^ Germany.info (17 September 2012). "Major Exhibit on German King and Emperor Otto I in Magdeburg". German Missions in the United States. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2014. BibliographyEdit Althoff, Gerd (2013). Die Ottonen: Königsherrschaft ohne Staat (in German) (3rd ed.). Kohlhammer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-17-022443-8. Arnold, Benjamin (1997). Medieval Germany , 500–1300 A Political Interpretation. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-61091-6. Barraclough, Geoffrey (1946). The Origins of Modern Germany. Basil Blackwell. – via Questia (subscription required) Becher, Matthias (2012). Otto der Große (in German). C.H.Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-63061-3. Bernhardt, John W. (1993). Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936–1075. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52183-3. Beumann, Helmut (2000). Die Ottonen (in German) (5th ed.). Kohlhammer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-17-016473-4. Cantor, Norman F. (1994). The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-092553-6. Collins, Roger (2010). Early Medieval Europe 300–1000 (3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-00673-7. Duckett, Eleanor Shipley (1968). Death and Life in the Tenth Century. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-06172-3. Gwatkin, H. M.; Whitney, J. P.; Tanner, J. R.; Previté-Orton, C. W., eds. (1922). The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-04534-6. Heather, Peter (2014). The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-936852-5. Holböck, Ferdinand (2002). Married Saints and Blesseds: Through the Centuries. Ignatius Press. Keller, Hagen (2008). Die Ottonen (in German) (4th ed.). C.H.Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-44746-4. Keller, Hagen; Althoff, Gerd (2008). Die Zeit der späten Karolinger und der Ottonen: 888–1024. Gebhardt Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte Band 3 (in German). Klett-Cotta. ISBN 978-3-608-60003-2. McBrien, Richard P. (2000). Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to Benedict XVI. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-087807-8. Poole, Reginald L. (April 1911). "Burgundian Notes". The English Historical Review. 26 (102): 310–317. doi:10.1093/ehr/xxvi.cii.310. Reuter, Timothy (1991). Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. Addison Wesley Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-49034-5. Schutz, Herbert (2010). The Medieval Empire in Central Europe: Dynastic Continuity in the Post-Carolingian Frankish Realm, 900–1300. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 41–70. ISBN 978-1-4438-1966-4. Thompson, James Westfall (1928). Feudal Germany (2 vols.). University of Chicago Press. – via Questia (subscription required) Zimmermann, Wilhelm (2010) [1st. pub. 1877]. A Popular History of Germany: From the Earliest Period to the Present Day, Volume II. Henry J. Johnson. ISBN 978-1-145-40896-8. Primary sourcesEdit Arnulf of Milan (1072–1077). "Liber gestorum recentium" (PDF). In Zey, Claudia (ed.). Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH). Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi. Vol. 67 (1994). Translated by W. North. Hahnsche Buchhandlung. ISBN 978-3-7752-5388-8. Thietmar of Merseburg (1012–1018). "Chronicon Thietmari Merseburgensis". In Warner, David A. (ed.). Ottonian Germany. The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg (2001). Translated by David A. Warner. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4926-2. Vita Mathildis reginae posterior (c. 1003, written for Matilda's great-grandson Henry II), ed. Bernd Schütte. Die Lebensbeschreibungen der Königin Mathilde. MGH SS rer. Germ. in usum scholarum 66. Hannover, 1994. 143–202. Edition by Georg Heinrich Pertz. MGH SS 4: 282–302; tr. in Sean Gilsdorf, Queenship and Sanctity, 88–127. Digital MGH archive. Bachrach, David (2009). "Exercise of royal power in early medieval Europe: the case of Otto the Great 936–73". Early Medieval Europe. Wiley-Blackwell. 17 (4): 389–419. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0254.2009.00283.x. Gallagher, John Joseph (1938). Church and state in Germany under Otto the Great (936–973). Catholic University of America. OCLC 3235092. Hill, Boyd H., Jr. (1972). Medieval Monarchy in Action: The German Empire from Henry I to Henry IV. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0-389-04652-3. Howorth, H. H. (1880). "The Spread of the Slaves. Part III. The Northern Serbs or Sorabians and the Obodriti". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 9: 181–232. doi:10.2307/2841974. JSTOR 2841974. (subscription required) Lasko, Peter (1995). Ars Sacra: 800–1200. Yale University Press. chapter 9. ISBN 978-0-300-06048-5. Menzel, Wolfgang (2011) [1st. pub. 1871]. The History of Germany: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time Vol. I. Bell & Daldy. ISBN 978-1-178-77378-1. – via Questia (subscription required) Reuter, Timothy, ed. (2000). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 3, c.900–c.1024. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139055727. In GermanEdit Althoff, Gerd; Keller, Hagen (1985). Heinrich I. und Otto der Grosse: Neubeginn auf karolingischem Erbe. Muster-Schmidt. ISBN 978-3-7881-0122-0. Hiller, Helmut (1980). Otto der Große und seine Zeit. List. ISBN 978-3-471-77847-0. Laudage, Johannes (2001). Otto der Große: (912–973). Eine Biographie. Friedrich Pustet. ISBN 978-3-7917-1750-0. Schneidmüller, Bernd (2003). Schneidmüller, Bernd; Weinfurter, Stefan (eds.). Otto I. Die deutschen Herrscher des Mittelalters. Historische Porträts von Heinrich I bis Maximilian I (919–1519). C.H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-50958-2. Wies, Ernst W. (1998). Otto der Große. Kämpfer und Beter (3rd ed.). Bechtle. ISBN 978-3-7628-0483-3. Zeller, Bernhard (2006). Liudolfinger als fränkische Könige? Überlegungen zur sogenannten Continuatio Reginonis. Corradini, Richard: Text & identities in the early middle ages, Denkschriften , 344. Band. Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters vol. 12. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse. pp. 137–151. ISBN 978-3-7001-3747-4. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Otto I.. "Charter given by Emperor Otto for the monastery Hilwartshausen showing the Emperor's seal, 12.2.960". Collections of the "Lichtbildarchiv älterer Originalurkunden". Philipp University of Marburg. "Guest-Access" and further information. Literature by and about Otto I. in the German National Library catalogue Urkunde Ottos I. für Stift Geseke, 25. Juni 958, "digitalised image". Photograph Archive of Old Original Documents (Lichtbildarchiv älterer Originalurkunden). University of Marburg. House of Otto Born: November 23, 912 Died: May 7, 973 Title last held by Berengar Holy Roman Emperor with Otto II (967–973) Succeeded by Berengar II King of Italy Henry I King of Germany with Otto II (961–973) 936–973 Succeeded by Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Otto_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor&oldid=999729308"	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line31
__label__cc	0.574543	0.425457	Spying & Spies in the USA (merged thread) Thread: Spying & Spies in the USA (merged thread) sgmgrumpy Ft Leavenworth Kansas Marine took files as part of spy ring Marine Gunnery Sgt. Gary Maziarz said patriotism motivated him to join a spy ring, smuggle secret files from Camp Pendleton and give them to law enforcement officers for anti-terrorism work in Southern California. The case is an intelligence nightmare, said defense analysts briefed on it. They also said it unmasks the military's growing role in post-Sept. 11 domestic security and confirms that U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda is active in the United States. “It gives operational security people brain cooties to think about an incident like this,” said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank that focuses on emerging security concerns. SteveMetz Originally Posted by sgmgrumpy "Brain cooties"? Technical terms like that really confuse me. What's next--a strategic wet willie? I don't agree with what the Gunny did, nor the folks that received this classified information, but the article would have us believe the Marine gave it to Buck Fin Laden via US LEOs. Talk about opening a can of worms. While they should be punished, are we really holding information back from Law Enforcement ? Do we as a nation expect those to cover our six with no information while our military are abroad fighting ? The whole story stinks Echo'd in London There is a case in London, where a career Special Branch / Counter Terrorist detective retired and returned as a civilian employee in the same area. He was identified as having "leaked" a sensitive document to the press, for reasons as yet unknown and rumour suggests he'd "leaked" before. Yes, different to the California case referred to, but it happens. The balance between the 'need to know' and the 'need to share' remains. A point well made in the Colin Cramphorn lecture, in early 2007, by Peter Clarke, the UK police national co-ordinator for terrorism investigations. How is secret information on a live threat communicated downwards to the officer on the street? Link to lecture Here is the link to the lecture: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/ima...images/252.pdf slapout9 Originally Posted by Stan Sad to say they are This even happens within the LE community. It turns into a jurisdiction nightmare. The issue is, as has been proved a thousand times in a thousand different jurisdictions, is that these "leakages" of information are invariably eventually abused by those in power. And for those who think I am a bleeding heart Liberal, I must add that it doesn't matter which party is in power. The basic issue is that Administrations will use threats regarding "security" to justify any and all intrusions, and this issue is at least 400 years old, it was recognised in the British Common Law as well as the American Constitution. To put it another way, are you happy to perhaps see Hilary Clinton trolling through your email and sharing details with LEO's? Sad to see it being revisited, but there you go..... Changes in Espionage by Americans 1947-2007 Northrop Grumman Technical Services, 13 Mar 08: Changes in Espionage by Americans: 1947-2007 This report documents changes and trends in American espionage since 1990. Its subjects are American citizens. Unlike two earlier reports in this series, individuals are compared across three groups based on when they began espionage activities. The three groups are defined as between 1947 and 1979, 1980 and 1989, and 1990 and 2007. The subset of cases that began since 2000 is given additional study. Findings include: since 1990 offenders are more likely to be naturalized citizens, and to have foreign attachments, connections, and ties. Their espionage is more likely to be motivated by divided loyalties. Twice as many American espionage offenders since 1990 have been civilians than members of the military, fewer held Top Secret while more held Secret clearances, and 37% had no security clearance giving them access to classified information. Two thirds of American spies since 1990 have volunteered. Since 1990, spying has not paid well: 80% of spies received no payment for espionage, and since 2000 it appears no one was paid. Six of the 11 most recent cases have involved terrorists, either as recipients of information, by persons working with accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or in protest against treatment of detainees there. Many recent spies relied on computers, electronic information retrieval and storage, and the Internet. The current espionage statutes have to stretch to cover recent cases that reflect the context of global terrorism..... Complete 113 page report at the link. A new style of turncoat: These days, spying for America's enemies is less about money and more about ideology, By James Bamford. Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2008. Today's spy, according to the Pentagon study, is far more likely to use the Internet to contact foreign governments or terrorists and volunteer his services, as if signing up for Facebook. "Since 1990, the use of embassies has decreased," the study says, "while more individuals have chosen a new communications innovation: 13% of volunteers since 1990 turned to the Internet, including seven of the 11 most recent cases since 2000 that used the Internet to initiate offers of espionage." Obviously, post-Cold War spies are finding new governments -- and groups -- to spy for. FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen, who passed secrets to Russia for more than two decades, until he was caught in 2001, may be the last of a dying breed. The country of choice for 87% of American spies during the Cold War was the Soviet Union, but by the 1990s that figure had dropped to just 15%. The focus of spies has now mostly shifted east. The percentage who work on behalf of Asian and Southeast Asian countries has risen from 5% in the 1950s and 1960s to 12% in the 1970s and 1980s, and to 26% since 1990. Cuba, with so many exiles in Florida, has also become a key recipient of American secrets. Al Qaeda has made significant inroads as well -- with one American having stolen and passed classified documents and other materials to aides of Osama bin Laden, and four others known to have tried to spy for the organization or other terrorist groups since the mid-1980s. Vic Bout inside the noose that is my tie Outsourcing Intelligence Collection Why take the risk, when it's so much more lucrative here: http://www.thespywhobilledme.com/ "THIS is my boomstick!" Originally Posted by Vic Bout Did you read her novel Vic? Naw, there was something off-putting about the whole black leather jacket, Berlin wall symbology of her blog photo. I prefer my spies ala Ian Fleming....high heels, poisoned lip stick... Last edited by davidbfpo; 02-27-2018 at 06:44 PM. Reason: x5 posts; 8,919v before merging shark11 spy ring? This whole thing stinks....sounds like the Gunny and his cronies who include a few colonels really thought they were doing something very patriotic but I would like to know what this Gunny was doing for the Marines of I MEF downrange in Iraq he should have been doing intelligence work for. I'm glad this ring of clowns was caught but I wonder how many people in the U.S. are passing controlled material to people other than LEO's. Calling this case a spy ring is a bit extreme. I don't know if spying involves passing information to the same government.... this is more of a security violation than anything else. Maybe the Posse Comitatus act wasn’t such a bad idea after all. SWJED Funny thing.... ... for anyone who might think the Gunny as a "uber-patriot", his downfall was the discovery of a cache of war loot he had stolen. Hiding from the Dreaded Burrito Gang Official resigns over alleged spy ring Important note : CIA has hissy fits over independents. WASHINGTON (AP) — A man accused of running an illegal contractor spy ring in Afghanistan has resigned from the Air Force, still maintaining his innocence, and still facing possible criminal charges. Two investigations continue in a case that has tested the definition of what contractors are allowed to do in war zones. Air Force civilian employee Michael Furlong, together with his boss, Mark Johnson, resigned in July after the Air Force inspector general told the men they'd face official censure for how they ran an information gathering network in Afghanistan. Tampa-based International Media Ventures (IMV) shut its doors, turned radioactive by association with the investigations, even as high-ranking Pentagon officials praised IMV's work gathering social and civil data to map Afghan society — work that is now being carried out by another contractor. Another one of the firms involved, Strategic Influence Alternatives, went back to the business of protecting corporate executives overseas. Clarridge is now shopping his human-intelligence networking skills to other foreign intelligence agencies, and to U.S. agencies like the FBI, the defense officials say. Clarridge would not comment for this story. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...f43ae05ecf9b3b Last edited by davidbfpo; 02-27-2018 at 06:39 PM. Reason: 7176v before merging A scrimmage in a Border Station A canter down some dark defile Two thousand pounds of education Drops to a ten-rupee jezail http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg Va. man allegedly worked for Syrian intelligence McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A Syrian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen has been indicted on charges of spying on U.S. activists opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and providing intelligence to that country's intelligence agents. According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Mohamad Soueid (SWAYD) of Leesburg, Va., was arrested Tuesday and charged with conspiring to act in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign government. Soueid was scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Wednesday afternoon. http://news.yahoo.com/va-man-alleged...3Rpb25z;_ylv=3 VA man charged for working for Syrian intelligence A naturalized US citizen was arrested in Northern Virginia yesterday, and later charged in Federal court on accusations that he gathered information on anti-Al Assad regime activists within the United States. Additionally, the criminal compliant against him also cites an allegation that he even made a trip to Syria recently and met with President Al-Assad himself. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...g.html?hpid=z4 Strange accusations. I didn't know that such things could be crimes in a "free" country. The article doesn't even mention any money transfer. In fact, even if he DID get money for it I'd be at a loss to name any German law that he'd have violated if it happened in Germany. Indictment, Press Release and ... Really ? Here is the US v Soueid indictment; and the DoJ Press Release explaining it (snip of what crimes are charged): Soueid, aka “Alex Soueid” or “Anas Alswaid,” a Syrian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was charged by a federal grand jury on Oct. 5, 2011, in a six-count indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia. Soueid is charged with conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Syrian government in the United States without notifying the Attorney General as required by law; two counts of providing false statements on a firearms purchase form; and two counts of providing false statements to federal law enforcement. As this is an indictment released by DoJ in the wake of "Fast and Furious", I do take to heart the obligatory disclaimer at the Press Release's end: The public is reminded that an indictment contains mere allegations and that a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The crimes charged are not based on "new laws" - nor, on any novel interpretations of old laws (from the indictment): Count 1 - 18 U.S.C. § 371: Conspiracy to Act in the United States as an Agent of a Foreign Government Count 2 - 18 U.S.C. § 951: Acting in the United States as an Agent of a Foreign Government Count 3 - 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6): Material False Statement on a Firearms Purchase Application Count 4 - 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(1)(A): False Statement on a Firearms Purchase Application Counts 5 and 6 -18 U.S.C. § 1001: False Statements Whether the evidence will back up the indictment's factual allegations remains to be seen. This seems a probably questionable statement: from Fuchs Strange accusations. ....I'd be at a loss to name any German law that he'd have violated if it happened in Germany. but it's not worth for me an email to Germany to find out. Since when has our government started taking these crimes seriously? Cough, cough – Jane Harman, AIPAC, Steve Rosen, Keith Weissman, Michael Ledeen, Doug Feith, & many more – cough Refugees, Migrants and helping (Merged Thread) By Jedburgh in forum NGO & Humanitarian Matters Blackwater (Merged thread) By SWJED in forum PMCs and Entrepreneurs Drugs & US Law Enforcement (2006-2017) By SWJED in forum Americas The David Kilcullen Collection (merged thread) By Fabius Maximus in forum Doctrine & TTPs Gaza, Israel & Rockets (merged thread) By AdamG in forum Middle East espionage, intelligence, spies, spying, usa	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line32
__label__wiki	0.577993	0.577993	mangrove conservation project We use cookies to analyse how visitors use our website and to help us provide the best possible experience for users. Protecting the nature we all rely on for food, fresh water and livelihoods, © Conservation International/photo by Tim Noviello. It's time we stop overlooking them. About See All. Mangroves serve as “nurseries” for numerous species, sheltering them from predators and currents. Unsustainable aquaculture — primarily shrimp farming — is driving large-scale clearing of mangroves. Objectives of the project. Coordinated in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund and Wetlands International, the GMA has set the ambitious goal of expanding the global mangrove habitat by 20 percent by A key part of these efforts is improving access to high-quality scientific data. which helps researchers develop best practices for producing and sharing data while centralizing global, high-quality carbon data in a Coastal Carbon Atlas. The three freshwater pools used for drinking, bathing and recreation will be renovated, and a Special Management Area will be established to protect mangroves and coral reefs. Apply by: Frifay 29th May, 2020 by 1630hrs Apply to: hresources@wwftz.org Download. Prices from $295. The mangrove assessment will give the participants a better idea of the appropriate rehabilitation strategy needed and guide them in re-defining their conservation and management plans. In brief Nestled in Central America on the Caribbean coast between Mexico and Guatemala, Belize lies at the centre of the Mesoamerican "biodiversity hotspot". carbon ecosystems, build a global network for blue carbon science and develop a resource of country and region-specific expertise. The project, called Tahiry Honko, which means ‘preserving mangroves’ in the local Vezo dialect, promotes locally led conservation, reforestation and sustainable use of over 1,200 hectares of mangroves, alongside initiatives for building alternative livelihoods, including sea cucumber and seaweed farming and mangrove beekeeping. An original story by Blue Venture.The Tahiry Honko project is helping to tackle climate breakdown and build community resilience by restoring and protecting mangrove forests.A celebration at the heart of a protected mangrove forest in Madagascar this week marked the formal inauguration of the world’s largest mangrove carbon conservation project. Human well-being in the coastal tropics is closely linked to the fate of mangrove and coastal wetlands. Mangrove Action Project (MAP) is a US-based nonprofit which collaborates with individuals and organizations at all levels to preserve, conserve, and restore our world’s mangrove forests. Home › Project › Mangroves. 0976731333.093751118. The following are the major objectives of the proposed project: Increase mangrove forest cover by plantation, conservation, rehabilitation and regeneration of degraded mangrove forest in the Port Qasim Area on land owned by SSGC; conservation of mangrove forest genetic resources a training manual edited by sanjay v. deshmukh and v. balaji m.s. Through the Blue Carbon Initiative ‘s Policy Working Group, Conservation International is helping to connect science and policymaking. Our ambition In brief Nestled in Central America on the Caribbean coast between Mexico and Guatemala, Belize lies at the centre of the Mesoamerican "biodiversity hotspot". It was an idea that took shape when Leo, our Creative Director and keen photographer, was living in South-East Asia and became fascinated with mangroves.Looking more closely, it became clear just how incredibly diverse these habitats were: not just in appearance, but in functionality. See more of Mangrove Conservation Project on Facebook. Through the BCI’s scientific working group, we’re helping to coordinate an agenda for blue carbon research, produce information that supports projects in blue And by selling carbon offsets, the initiative will use the carbon value generated through the conservation and restoration of the Cispata mangroves to contribute to a long-term sustainable financing strategy for the region. include and champion blue carbon in their national climate plans. 971 people like this. Emily PidgeonVice President, Ocean Science and Innovation, Jennifer HowardSenior Director, Blue Climate Program. Help to conserve the beautiful marine and forest reserves of Belize, and help to enhance the research and protection of these pristine ecosystems. Belize Mangrove Conservation Project. Best Practices and Lessons Learned from a Community-based Conservation Project. 2030. Mangroves protect coastal communities by buffering storm surges. Partly as a result of these efforts, Australia, Pakistan, Colombia, Seychelles, Fiji and Indonesia committed to Mangroves provide a vital buffer against storm surges caused by cyclones and are an important part of the coastal ecosystem. Now, coastal development, unsustainable aquaculture and sea-level rise pose unprecedented threats to these fragile ecosystems. These include improved coastal defenses, health, tourism and fisheries food security. Make your tax-deductible gift today. an initial mangrove damage and recovery assessment in their areas. the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as country-level plans for climate change mitigation. External: As Mangrove Conservation Project Executant, work with Partners in Tanzania, WIO region and WWF Mangrove Network and international thematic leads in various project interventions. TOTAL. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. It will also help develop a new approach to valuing the carbon potential of mangroves and provide a model for other blue carbon initiatives in Colombia and around the world. The loss of mangrove forests worldwide is slowing, except in Asia, where there’s been a massive increase in deforestation over the past 30 years. The project, called Tahiry Honko, which means ‘preserving mangroves’ in the local Vezo dialect, promotes locally led conservation, reforestation and sustainable use of over 1,200 hectares of mangroves, alongside initiatives for building alternative livelihoods, including sea cucumber and seaweed farming and mangrove beekeeping. What’s next for the alliance In addition to expanding mangrove habitat 20% by 2030, the Global Mangrove Alliance will also aim to catalyze $10 billion in investments to help improve the resilience of coastal communities and improve the wellbeing of an additional 10 million people through restoration and conservation projects. Not Now. The participants then proceeded to the rehabilitation site to witness first-hand how ingenious collaborative efforts could overcome environmental and organizational challenges. They are considered one of the most productive and biologically complex ecosystems on Earth. We're proud to be recognized as a financially accountable and transparent organization. Currently, there are 35 mangrove conservation areas in China, which are managed by central or local governments (Chen et al., 2009). Mangroves could well be our last line of defense against climate change. Conduct scientific baseline data surveys of reef areas, mapping the sea grass beds and mangrove fringes of the region. Mangrove restoration: Offering 2-for-1 solutions to climate change Mangroves: Green coastal guardians This project is part of the International Climate Initiative . and other blue carbon ecosystems. Mangroves range from shrubs to trees—some only a modest 3 meters (10 feet) tall, while others grow to a towering 40 meters (131 feet) or higher. Mangrove forests are some of the world’s most valuable coastal ecosystems—and they’re being destroyed at an alarming rate. The mangrove ecosystem is amongst the worlds richest in terms of its biodiversity. Madagascar Mangrove Conservation Project. MANGROVES . The animation illustrates the growing importance of mangroves to the health of the planet and our future. A project on mangrove conservation and restoration in Gazi Bay on the Kenyan coast is turning heads: It’s the world’s first conservation project to link mangrove forests to the global carbon market.. The mangroves have been afforded protection under Category I of the CRZ (Coastal Zone Regulation 1991). Furthermore, 90 % of the marine organisms spend part of their life in this ecosystem and 80 % of the global fish catches are dependent on mangroves. On July 26, we’ll celebrate International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem and take the opportunity to highlight why mangrove forests are some of the most valuable ecosystems on our planet. Accordingly, the project will design and construct shoreline protection structures to stabilize the coastline. The project "Mitigation, Adaptation through Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods in Indonesia's Peat and Mangrove Ecosystems" is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Sri Lanka Mangrove Conservation Project FINANCES. © 2020 WWF - World Wide Fund For Nature© 1986 Panda Symbol WWF – World Wide Fund For Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund)® “WWF” is a WWF Registered Trademark Creative Commons license. Although conservation has become important since then, there are still no proposals for the full protection or active management for mangrove areas, in particular the involvement of youth. Protecting and restoring quite possibly the most important ecosystem on Earth. The project will protect all 21,782 acres (8,815 hectares) of Sri Lanka’s existing mangrove forests by providing alternative job training and microloans to approximately 12,000 impoverished women who live in 1,500 small communities adjacent to the nation’s mangrove […] In Guyana, almost 90% of the population lives on the coast and are subject to the benefits that healthy mangroves provide. A huge 210-acre mangrove restoration project on Marco Island is scheduled to begin in April, according to Project Manager Corey Anderson for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Mangroves are of great ecological importance and socio-economic significance as a hub for tropical marine biotope. You may want to think twice before ordering the "surf and turf special." or. Mangroves are a key piece of how we address climate change. However, losses of mangrove habitat of more than 50% have been recorded in some parts of the world, and these losses are largely … Project Budget Summary (in USD) DESCRIPTION YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 YEAR 4 YEAR 5. Prices from US$295. Through science, policy and partnerships, Conservation International works to protect mangroves around the world. & Summary guide > Roots from rubble: on Philippine coasts, rebuilding nature’s barriers to stormier seas > Green-Gray storm shelters: Fusing nature and engineering to safeguard communities > Guidelines on enrichment planting of mangroves and beach forest for biodiversity conservation and coastal resiliency Therefore, mangrove conservation in China plays an important role in biodiversity conservation of the world's mangrove forests. Watch Queue Queue The map aims to stimulate commitment among decision-makers and investors for mangrove ecosystem restoration on a landscape scale. Mangrove conservation the latest project at Forest City aimed at protecting the area’s ecological and environmental balance. Get the latest updates on our work delivered to your inbox. 35% of the world’s mangroves have been lost since 1980. The result , after the guests Nursery mangrove leave the nursery in fishing communities trapang sangke for 2 days was the number 603 children 's activities , guests are truly commendable , they work hard with the community . Check out the work that Frontier Belize is doing in order to preserve this ecosystem for local people and wildlife. Background . Mangrove Conservation Project Executant. Mangrove conservation would benefit from understanding the complex interrelationships between social and natural systems. Mangroves are ecologically and economically important intertidal coastal forests. The mangroves are also one of the world’s richest storehouses of biological and genetic diversity. Conservation International. The Sri Lanka Mangrove Conservation Project is the largest and most far-reaching single initiative in Seacology’s history. “The project which envisages the planting of mangroves in several lagoon areas will be launched to coincide with the first anniversary of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure in office,” said Marine Environment Protection Authority Chairperson Attorney-at-Law Dharshani Lahandapura. Mangrove conservation needs local participation, holistic solutions, appropriate policy, effective enforcement of rules and laws, and our passion to preserve this glorious and valuable ecosystem. Mangrove Action Project (MAP) is a small team of dedicated, passionate and experienced mangrove workers and conservationists. The Reef Doctor Honko Project is committed to reversing the degradation of mangrove forest ecosystems in the Bay of Ranobe. In partnership with Apple, Conservation International has launched a new project to address these threats, one that will conserve and restore 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) of mangrove forests while an estimated 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere throughout the project’s lifespan. Carbon stored in the plants and soil of coastal marine ecosystems is often referred to as “blue carbon,” and mangrove forests are some of the richest ecosystems for blue carbon on Earth. The mangrove forests can create livelihoods and can support a surplus for firewood and other natural resources. Mikoko Project: Conservation & Resilience of Kenya's Mangrove Forests The Mikoko Project is a 2-year project whose main objective is to restore and conserve mangrove forests in Kenya to improve socioeconomic well-being and ensure environmental sustainability especially in … MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIRED • University degree, preferably at Master’s level in forestry, and natural resource conservation In Cispata, Colombia, on the northern edge of the country’s Caribbean coast, mangroves line the banks of the Sinú River, providing protection from storms, habitat for fisheries and a wealth of wildlife. Posted on 18 May 2020. A term you might never have heard of has immense importance for curbing climate change. In 2017, a pilot study to determine best technologies for assessment of the microbiome, CO2, EDCs (Glyphosate, metals) and microbial transgene-based insecticides (Bacillus thuringiensis, Bt) in agricultural soil and sediment of mangroves and adjacent shrimp ponds, for conservation of selected mangrove … Conservation International’s project is the first in the world to fully quantify blue carbon credits in both trees and soil, and will be a model for scaling carbon sequestration in global mangrove ecosystems and curbing emissions caused by deforestation in these areas. At the 2019 UNFCCC conference of parties (COP 25) in Madrid, we introduced guidance that helps countries incorporate The Mangrove Action Project Photography Contest celebrates World Mangrove Day on July 26, 2020. Few organizations or associations besides the Ministry of Environment initiates any project related to the mangrove conservation. The carbon footprint of a steak and shrimp dinner — were it to come from shrimp farms and pasture formerly occupied by mangroves — is the same as driving a small car across the continental United States. The mangrove ecosystem is amongst the worlds richest in terms of its biodiversity. Conservation International co-founded the Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA), a commitment from the international community to reverse the loss of critically important mangrove habitats worldwide. The project supports the efforts of Khlong Pittaya Longkorn (Bangkok) Primary School in promoting itself as a model school in mangrove conservation and environmental protection in Southeast Asia. It also supports rehabilitation of other forests throughout Myanmar. Watch Queue Queue. (I accept), Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and nature. Mangrove Action Project is delighted to share the output from our photo-competition with UNESCO to illustrate the beauty of mangroves. Mangrove conservation the latest project at Forest City aimed at protecting the area’s ecological and environmental balance. mangroves and other blue carbon sources into their Nationally Determined Contributions for climate mitigation under the Paris Agreement. Environmental science and conservation news. Connect With Us 5, Sahakar Bhavan, 1st Floor, LBS Road, Narayan Nagar, Ghatkopar (W), Mumbai - 400086 +022 25122422, 022 25122423 debi@cat.org.in Create New Account. Community See All. It builds on the success of a similar project in Gazi, a community just a few kilometres north, which has been trading mangrove carbon credits on the Voluntary Carbon Market since 2012. Help to conserve the beautiful marine and forest reserves of Belize, and help to enhance the research and protection of these pristine ecosystems. and restoring the world’s coastal marine ecosystems, including mangroves. The project aims to involve the local communities in protecting this vast area of mangrove forests. In 2014, several members of the conservation group decided to form an apiculture group to generate alternative income from the honey products, with technical training and assistance from Mangrove Action Project. sediment when undertaking mangrove conservation and restoration. This project can be an example of a community outreach program in Cambodia since no conservation or management activities were undertaken in the country during Khmer Rouge Regime (1975 1979). The project includes establishing environmental and conservation areas, expanding the mangrove forest area, re-growing mangrove plants and capacity building for local residents to participate in the projects. Coastal Road project: BMC deposits entire marine biodiversity fund to state-run Mangrove Foundation The foundation received Rs 175.33 crore as funds required for the conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity, as per specific conditions under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance for the multi-crore coastal road project. Mangrove forests store up to 10x more carbon per hectare than forests on land. Seacology, a nonprofit environmental conservation organization, is helping Sri Lanka become the first nation in history to preserve and replant all of its mangrove forests.. As a result, Sri Lanka is on a path to be a model for other countries wishing to build conservation capacity and economic prosperity in communities where healthy mangroves are most critical – small fishing villages. An original story by Blue Venture.The Tahiry Honko project is helping to tackle climate breakdown and build community resilience by restoring and protecting mangrove forests.A celebration at the heart of a protected mangrove forest in Madagascar this week marked the formal inauguration of the world’s largest mangrove carbon conservation project. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. In 2017, the project propagated 703,800 mangrove seedlings; More than 7,900 women and young people have been trained in mangrove conservation and 2,893 have received microloans to create or expand sustainable businesses and foster financial stability. The project supports the efforts of Khlong Pittaya Longkorn (Bangkok) Primary School in promoting itself as a model school in mangrove conservation and environmental protection in Southeast Asia. A total of 3000 mangrove plants will be replanted in the area of Anaiwasala in the Kalpitiya divisional secretariat and the Anaiwasala grama niladhari area, as part of Arinma Holding’s commitment and support to “upscale livelihoods and biodiversity through community mobilisation and lagoon restoration in the Anaiwasala area in Kalpitiya” project implemented by Green Movement […] Mangrove Action Project is delighted to share the output from our photo-competition with UNESCO to illustrate the beauty of mangroves. A huge 210-acre mangrove restoration project on Marco Island is scheduled to begin in April, according to Project Manager Corey Anderson for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. an experimental mangrove rehabilitation project in a heavily eroded coastal site using an improvised breakwater system. Conservation International is an active partner in the Global Mangrove Alliance, an organization of technical experts, policy makers and non-governmental organizations dedicated to promoting mangrove conservation and regrowth. You are here: Home 1 / Projects 2 / Conservation 3 / Mangroves. Mangroves support food security for coastal communities who eat and sell fish, clams and crabs. PDF 57 KB. Although conservation has become important since then, there are still no proposals for the full protection or active management for mangrove areas, in particular the involvement of youth. Abstract . The Conservation Action Trust is a registered non-profit organization formed to protect the environment, particularly forests and wildlife. Coastal Carbon Research Coordination Network. Section 2 sets the objectives and frame of the rapid assessment tool. We collaborate with individuals and organisations at all levels to encourage sustainable restoration and conservation of our world’s mangrove forests. Discover, monitor and assess the huge variety of Madagascar's exotic and rare species as you trek through remote regions of this hugely exciting island with Frontier-Madagascar. Dining out? In partnership with Apple, Conservation International has launched a new project to address these threats, one that will conserve and restore 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) of mangrove forests while an estimated 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere throughout the project’s lifespan. ToR Mangrove PE. 2019. Demarcation of mangrove forests 27,154 27,154 — — — 54,308 Setting up community cooperatives for mangrove conservation and job training 90,000 90,000 90,000 90,000 90,000 450,000 5,000 square meters that have been eroded away by the ocean will be reclaimed through the planting of mangroves. Mangrove Conservation Project Executant Tanzania, © 1986 Panda Symbol WWF – World Wide Fund For Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund). View our Cookie Policy. The project dubbed T he Fruit Farm Creek Mangrove Restoration is being funded by a federal grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service for fish habitat recovery from Hurricane Irma. Community Organization Mangrove Swamps are threatened habitats throughout the world. When mangroves are degraded or destroyed, their carbon is released as carbon dioxide and contributes to global climate change. In recent years, however, these salt-loving trees have come under threat from agricultural expansion, unsustainable tourism and increased logging. Day 4: The group visited another community-based mangrove eco-park project in Ibajay, Aklan. Mangrove forests are unique habitats and home to a wide variety of marine and terrestrial organisms. External: As Mangrove Conservation Project Executant, work with Partners in Tanzania, WIO region and WWF Mangrove Network and international thematic leads in various project interventions. Prices from US$295. Log In. The aim of Frontier-Fiji Mangroves Conservation Project is to better understand the marine resources of the island of Beqa. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever recorded, slammed into the Philippines in November 2013, two weeks before the U.N. climate talks in Warsaw. The project raises money by selling carbon credits to people and organizations eager to reduce their carbon footprint, through the Scottish charity ACES. The typhoon’s devastation — 6,000 dead, millions displaced — loomed over the talks, a signal of the growing ferocity of storms that climate... Forgotten forests carry not only the power to save the communities who depend upon it for their livelihoods but also to save all of us. Mangrove Action Project (MAP) is a small team of dedicated, passionate and experienced mangrove workers and conservationists. Here’s how: Conservation International, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO lead the Blue Carbon Initative (BCI), a global collaboration focused on mitigating climate change by conserving Mangrove forests provide critical services around the globe to both human populations and the ecosystems they occupy. They are also entitled protection under the prevailing forest conservation regime, the Maharashtra Private Forest Act 1975, the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and the Maharashtra Felling of Trees (Regulation) Act 1964. Sea-level rise threatens to drown mangroves in the United States, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere this century. The aim of Frontier-Fiji Mangroves Conservation Project is to better understand the marine resources of the island of Beqa. We are also working with our partners to help countries meet their climate goals. We collaborate with individuals and organisations at all levels to encourage sustainable restoration and conservation of our world’s mangrove forests. At the same time they are one of the most productive and most threatened ecosystems on the Earth. The Policy Working Group’s efforts have led the inclusion of blue carbon in international agreements like The project is being implemented by the Marine Environmental Protection Authority under the supervision of Urban Development, Coast Conservation, Waste Disposal and Public Sanitation State Minister Dr. Nalaka Godahewa and Secretary to the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing Sirinimal Perera. Belize Mangrove Conservation Project. This video is unavailable. So, it is an effective project for the region if local people can play a key role in the mangrove conservation project. Mangrove … Mangrove Conservation Project Executant Tanzania. Fiji Mangrove Conservation Project . But they're under threat. WWF has been working around the world on mangrove conservation and restoration efforts for decades, from coastal mangrove conservation in the Galapagos Islands and Indonesia to mangrove restoration efforts in Pakistan. In brief The Fijian archipelago lies scattered lazily in the achingly blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, bathed in the radiant antipodean sunlight. At Conservation International, we're committed to protecting nature in all its forms — for the benefit of everyone on Earth. IUCN and The Nature Conservancy are producing a global map with cutting edge analysis on the potential for, and challenges to, mangrove restoration. Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and nature. The project raises money by selling carbon credits to people and organizations eager to reduce their carbon footprint, through the Scottish charity ACES. The conference is an important event that will allow us to share not only a space for the most recent innovations and trends in knowledge but also for rich exchanges of experiences and learning on challenges encountered and the way forward for regional coordination in coastal and mangrove management and conservation. Mangroves provide a vital buffer against storm surges caused by cyclones and are an important part of the coastal ecosystem. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of the Discovery Coast and Abrolhos Shelf, Brazil, Climate change vulnerability assessment of the Verde Island Passage, Philippines, Guide to Including Nature in Nationally Determined Contributions, Indicators to measure the climate change adaptation outcomes of ecosystem-based adaptation, Guidelines for designing, implementing and monitoring Ecosystem-based adaptation interventions, Nature-based transformative adaptation — a practical handbook, Constructing theories of change for ecosystem-based adaptation projects, Adapting to a changing climate — a community manual, Adapting to a changing climate — training guide. It also works with the scientific working group to determine what insights can help ensure the better protection of mangroves Prices from $295. Mangrove Conservation Project. MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIRED • University degree, preferably at Master’s level in forestry, and natural resource conservation and management; • Minimum of 3 years working experience in … The project dubbed T he Fruit Farm Creek Mangrove Restoration is being funded by a federal grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service for fish habitat recovery from Hurricane Irma. A project on mangrove conservation and restoration in Gazi Bay on the Kenyan coast is turning heads: It’s the world’s first conservation project to link mangrove forests to the global carbon market.. swaminathan research foundation centre for research on sustainable agricultural and rural development (crsard), madras, india international tropical timber organisation 975 people follow this. We’ve lost 50% of the world’s mangroves just in the past half century, and if current trends continue, the remaining mangroves could be gone within the next 100 years. 971 likes. Together with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and other partners, the BCI created the Coastal Carbon Research Coordination Network, A short look at Mangroves against the storm. Best Hand Cream For Wrinkles And Dryness, Bakers Cocoa Powder Recipes, Jeff Beck -truth Songs, San Diego Crisis House List, Quality In Healthcare Ppt, Performance Evaluation Methods Ppt, Cell Phone Clipart, Animals Eating Other Animals Is Called, Laughing Kookaburra Lifespan, All About Me Infant Sheet, mangrove conservation project 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line34
__label__wiki	0.863672	0.863672	Saturday, December 23, 2006 1 Justin Timberlake - Video - Rock Your Body This is the song that catapulted Justin Timberlake into mega-star status. "Rock Your Body" was released in 2003 and rose to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It's also the song he was singing at Super Bowl XXXVIII and during the famous "wardrobe malfunction." Justin's going on a multi-city concert tour. You can get tickets with a click here. Here's the video: Monday, November 13, 2006 2 James Bond "Casino Royale" Behind The Scenes Video I found this cool video of behind the scenes work for Casino Royale on YouTube. In it you see the human side of Bond, as Daniel Craig takes a moment to comment on the progress of the movie, and give some quick qips. James Bond "Casino Royale" Trailer Video - BBC Gives Rave Review Of New Bond I just found this article by the BBC which is a review of the new movie Casino Royale, the 21st movie in the James Bond series, which has seen each actor, save for two (George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton) go on to super stardom, or in the case of Pierce Brosnan, solidify his super star status. Paul Arendt, the review writer, reports that Craig is not just a good Bond, he's a great Bond. We'll all know starting this Friday, November 17th. The new bond is Daniel Craig -- and he's blond. This minor difference does nothing to diminish the quality of Bond or the film, according to the BCC. Here's the review, and the movie preview below: Saturday, November 04, 2006 0 Libby Chansky For "The Bachelorette" I met Libby Chansky at the Stanford Athletics Hall Of Fame Dinner on Friday, November 3rd. She and I were part of a large group there to celebrate the induction of my good friend Michael Dotterer, who remains the only two-sport player to receive four letters in Stanford history. Libby wants to be the bachelorette on "The Bachelorette" and to that end, we took this quick video. It's kind of a teaser. For more info contact info@sportsbusinesssims.com Wednesday, November 01, 2006 0 Rolling Stones Classic Song "Miss You" Video and Lyrics This amazing song is almost 30 years old, yet it is still as new as tommorrow's sunrise. It's a classic and yet one more example of why the Rolling Stones are the kings of rock. It's rythmic, soulful, and yet guitar-dominated. Ive been holding out so long Ive been sleeping all alone Lord I miss you Ive been hanging on the phone I want to kiss you Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh Oooh oooh oooh Oooh oooh oooh oooh Well, Ive been haunted in my sleep Youve been starring in my dreams Ive been waiting in the hall Been waiting on your call When the phone rings Its just some friends of mine that say, Hey, whats the matter man? Were gonna come around at twelve With some puerto rican girls that are just dyin to meet you. Were gonna bring a case of wine Hey, lets go mess and fool around You know, like we used to Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah Aaah aaah aaah aaah Oh everybody waits so long Oh baby why you wait so long Wont you come on! come on! Ive been walking in central park Singing after dark People think Im crazy Ive been stumbling on my feet Shuffling through the street Asking people, whats the matter with you boy? Sometimes I want to say to myself Sometimes I say I wont miss you child I guess Im lying to myself Its just you and no one else Lord I wont miss you child Youve been blotting out my mind Fooling on my time No, I wont miss you, baby, yeah Lord, I miss you child Sunday, October 29, 2006 0 Wonder Woman: Joss Whedon May Be Rewriting The Script For The Movie Wow, it's been since May that Wonder Woman Director Josh Whedon's finished the script for the Wonder Woman movie that he and Matrix enabler Joel Silver want to produce, and there's still no star selected. My feeling is that he's rewriting it, and still has not created something that meets Warner Brother's standards. Why do I write this? Because Whedon reports that he was to meet Warner execs around August 29th, and now it's October. Late October. So it's logical to assume that he's got some rewriting to do. I also still get the impression that he's not real into the job. He seems to be mailing it in at this point, and with too many other projects to occupy his time and passion. I hope Warner Bros shapes up this ship. Tuesday, October 24, 2006 0 Kevin Federline Parties in Vegas; Britney Spears Angry - Enquirer K-Fed in action... Unlike the O.J. Simpson story, I do believe this one. They're a very young couple, and too inexperienced to be good parents in my view. But we will see. No turning back, eh? BRITNEY FUMES AS K-FED GETS SLEAZY IN VEGAS By MICHAEL GLYNN - ENQUIRER What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas — just ask a furious Britney Spears. She's set to spear hubby Kevin Federline after he spent a wild weekend in Sin City — partying with his buddies and assorted beauties, insiders told The ENQUIRER. "Britney feels outraged and betrayed," confided a close source. "Only three weeks after she gave birth to their new baby, Kevin vamoosed to Vegas with his buddies, who spent hours with young girls in his hotel suite. "When Kevin returned to their Malibu home, Britney gave him the cold shoulder and then they had a terrible fight. It ended with Kevin staying over at a buddy's house." Pick up this week's issue of The ENQUIRER to read all about it! O. J. Simpson Denies Book Deal and Confession I saw this in the National Enquirer: OJ CONFESSES IN TELL-ALL BOOK O.J. Simpson confesses to the bloody slaughter of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her pal Ron Goldman – and reveals he had an accomplice at the scene--in a bombshell new book! Eleven years after Simpson was acquitted of the Murder of the Century, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that O.J. is being paid $3.5 million to describe the brutal knife attack blow-by-blow. "Only that kind of money could have tempted O.J. to finally tell the truth," a West Coast source familiar with the top-secret book project told The ENQUIRER. In the book, "he describes how he grabbed a knife from a man who accompanied him to Nicole’s home -- and moments later found himself covered in blood and looking down on the bodies of Nicole and Ron," said the source. With its publication only weeks away, the tell-all blockbuster has remained the most explosive secret in publishing -- until now. In its early chapters, O.J. paints a vivid picture of his life with Nicole and details their bitter divorce amid her affairs. Finally, the disgraced Hall of Famer gets to June 12, 1994 – the night of the infamous double murder. "O.J. prefaces these key pages by almost half-heartedly claiming this part of the book is hypothetical," said the source. "But I don’t think anyone is going to be convinced of that." Because of "double jeopardy" laws, legal experts say O.J.'s confession will not likely lead to any legal trouble for him. The book's working title is "If I Did It." But Simpson's account of the slayings is so chillingly realistic that it leaves no doubt it is a confession of what really happened. ...and I could not believe it. So I searched for his name and found this in the SF Chronicle.. O.J. Simpson Denies Book Confession Former sports star and actor O.J. Simpson has slammed reports he is to be paid around $3.5 million for "admitting" to the killing of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman in a sensational new book. A U.S. publication reported the star plans to publish his autobiography in which he will describe how he would have killed his ex-wife and Goldman, in an allegedly fictional manner. They were stabbed to death in 1994 and Simpson stood trial for the murders. He was found not guilty. But Simpson's lawyer Yale Galanter denies the rumor. He tells the New York Daily News, "(Simpson) is not writing a book. We haven't been paid 35 cents, much less $3.5 million. "If anyone comes out with such a book, I'll go on every talk show and call it crap." Whatever is going on, it's clear that someone out there can't just leave O.J. alone. That's sad. He was acquitted in the criminal trial and the civil trial left out so much evidence it was a joke. Atlanta Falcons Tickets Exchange - Buy or Sell Falcons Tickets You can buy or sell Atlanta Falcons Ticketswith "Atlanta Falcons" Get tickets to all of the Falcons action, with Michael Vick and Warrick Dunn heading an explosive offense. Rolling Stones Coming To Oakland November 5th - Video The Rolling Stones are coming to Oakland, November 5th. You can get tickets at http://www.stones-concert-tickets.com. Here's a preview of what the conert will look like: Saturday, September 30, 2006 0 Kendra Wilkinson From "The Girls Next Door - Video and Bio Most recently linked with Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Terrell Owens, Kendra Wilkinson's Q-Rating has certainly exploded with the airing of the new show "The Girls Next Door," featuring Playboy Mogul Hugh Hefner and three Playboy Playmates. Kendra Wilkinson (born June 12, 1985 in San Diego, California) is a model and television personality best known as one of the three live-in girlfriends of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and a co-star of the E! reality television series The Girls Next Door. She met Hefner at his 78th birthday party in April 2004, where she had been hired to be one of the "painted girls" (being completely nude except for painted-on accessories). She is a self-proclaimed tomboy, noteworthy for being a sports fan and athlete. One of her trademarks on the program is her constant exercising. Her stated career goal is to become a massage therapist or sports announcer. As of December 2005, she has become a regular "blogger" columnist at the website of the Philadelphia Eagles. Her mother, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, used to be one of the professional cheerleaders for the team. She appeared in the Playboy Special Editions Sexy 100 for 2006. Here's a video of Kendra Wilkinson in the show Girls Next Door. Note that she specifically points to Terrell Owens "81" jersey with the Philadelphia Eagles. Wednesday, September 27, 2006 0 Superdome - Green Day and U2 In Video Green Day -- from the SF Bay Area -- and U2 played to a great crowd to kickoff the return of the New Orleans Saints to the Superdome to play the Atlanta Falcons. Labels: concert, green day, music, new orleans, saints, superdome, U2 Tuesday, September 19, 2006 0 Selma Blair Caught In Argument With Ex-Hubby - Enquirer Man, I didn't know Selma Blair was even married until now! Where have I been? I've got to admit she's got the simple combination West Cost / Midwest girl-next-door look down to a fine science. I guess her now-ex-hubby Ahmet Zappa (think son of the late and lengendary rocker Frank Zappa) thought so too, because he married her in 2004. I only became aware of Selma via the movie "Cruel Intentions" -- one of my favorites. In the movie, which also features now coupled Ryan Philippe and Reese Witherspoon, Blair became very well-known for this kiss: Well she's not going to be kissing on Zappa anytime soon because they had a nasty argument in a parking lot, which ended with her screeching off in her car after he walked off. She's on the market and free to give a kiss like the one above to some deserving guy -- this time! Suri Cruise Rumored Not To Be Tom Cruise's Baby - Enquirer The Enquirer reports that the much celebrated baby of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes is not the product of whatever sexual intercourse the couple had. This news was covered in several other online media publications like Gawker and Perezhilton.com and led to speculation regarding who the father may be. Some pointed to old Holmes flame Chris Klein as the father because of the similarity in the shape of their eyes. But regardless of who the real father may be, it's certainly clear that Suri is the child of Tom and Katie now. Pamela Sue Anderson and Courtney Love Roasted This a totally funny video of both Pamela Sue Anderson and Courtney Love being roasted on the Comedy Central program. Monday, August 28, 2006 0 Rolling Stones In Concert In Boston - Video The Rolling Stones come to Boston September 20th; you can get tickets here, and see the video for "Paint It Black" below: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 0 Tom Cruise Dumps Paramount So Paramount Dumps Tom Cruise The buzz is all around that Paramount dumped Tom Cruise, but if you read the fine print to the story, it was the other way around. It seems that Paramount reacted childishly to Cruise and Paula Wagner's decision to seek other movie financing. I don't know what they expect to accomplish, other than making a good deal for Cruise and some other organization just by proving his ability to draw headlines. Tuesday, August 22, 2006 0 "Snakes On A Plane" Launches Samuel L. Jackson Into Cult Status First it was "Pulp Fiction" and now, after a long layoff from cult moves, Samuel L. Jackson ups his cult status stock with the hit "Snakes On A Plane." Now I haven't seen the movie -- yet. But I will. What fascinates me the most is the Internet-based viral marketing this movie's tapped. Wow. Take a look at this blogger's post, where Samuel L. Jackson's pictured cussing about -- what else? -- Snakes on A Plane. Here's a video interview of people who are going to see the movie: Friday, August 18, 2006 0 Banarama - Cruel Summer Video This is one of my all time favorite songs. I never tire of hearing it, and it's still hard to believe it's 23 years old. But Banarama's still going strong; their most recent album's called "Drama." The Rolling Stones On The Mike Douglas Show This is vintage video footage of the Rolling Stones on The Mike Douglas Show. Black Velvet - YouTube Video With Alannah Myles If you thought the timeless rock song Black Velvet was a product of The Wilson Sisters -- as I did -- you're flar wrong. The amazing voice behind this classic is of none other than Alannah Myles. Take a look and give a listen here: Here are the lyrics (according to Songfacts, it's about Elvis Presley, but I thought it was refering to black men in the South, or an African American man she knew -- wishful thinking): Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high Mama's dancin' with baby on her shoulder The sun is settin' like molasses in the sky The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for Black velvet and that little boy's smile Black velvet with that slow southern style A new religion that'll bring ya to your knees Black velvet if you please Up in Memphis the music's like a heatwave White lightening, bound to drive you wild Mama's baby's in the heart of every school girl "Love me tender" leaves 'em cryin' in the aisle The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true Every word of every song that he sang was for you In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could you do? (Solo) If you please, if you please, if you please Bruno Kirby Of "When Harry Met Sally" Dies at 57 This report by Niki Finne makes you understand how short and precious our lives are. Click on the link to read it. Here's an except below: From AP: Bruno Kirby, the veteran character actor who co-starred in When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers has died at age 57 in Los Angeles from complications related to leukemia, according to a statement today from his wife, Lynn Sellers. He had recently been diagnosed with the disease. "We are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support we have received from Bruno's fans and colleagues who have admired and respected his work over the past 30 years," his wife said. "Bruno's spirit will continue to live on not only in his rich body of film and television work but also through the lives of individuals he has touched throughout his life." Thursday, July 27, 2006 0 `N Sync's Lance Bass Says He is Gay - San Jose Mercury News What's interesting about this is fans wondered if Bass was gay as far back as 2001, and yet he denied it at the time `N Sync's Lance Bass says he is gay - July 26,2006 - San Jose Mercury News Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a ``very stable'' relationship with a reality show star. Bass, who formed 'N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn't earlier disclose his sexuality because he didn't want to affect the group's popularity. ``I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything,'' he tells the magazine. 'N Sync is known for a string of hits including ``Bye Bye Bye'' and ``It's Gonna Be Me.'' The band went on hiatus in 2002. Bass has also found headlines for undertaking astronaut training and failing to raise money for a trip into space. Bass says he wondered if his coming out could prompt ``the end of 'N Sync.'' He explains, ``So I had that weight on me of like, `Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it's bad.' So I just never did.'' The singer says he's in a ``very stable'' relationship with 32-year-old actor Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner of season four of CBS' ``Amazing Race.'' Bass and Fatone, 29, are developing a sitcom pilot inspired by the screwball comedy ``The Odd Couple,'' in which his character will be gay. ``The thing is, I'm not ashamed -- that's the one thing I want to say,'' Bass says. ``I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I've been my whole life. I'm just happy.'' Here's Lance Bass at The Sundance Film Festival: Sunday, July 02, 2006 0 Wonder Woman Movie Director Josh Whedon's Reported Script Trouble Scaring The Heck Out Of Wonder Woman Fans Recently Wonder Woman Movie Director Josh Whedon did an interview where he said he found the script he's writing -- repeat, he's writing -- troubling. This bit of news sent Wonder Woman fans at Ultimate Wonder into a frenzy, with many fearing that the movie would be just terrible -- if it ever was made. In this video below, Whedon' talks about his approach to the Wonder Woman Movie script. Thursday, June 29, 2006 0 Spiderman 3 Teaser Trailer - The Real Trailer of Spiderman, Sandman, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, and The Black Uniform This seems to be the plotline fot the film, and it's followed by the actual trailer itself. This is the real-deal, as there's a "fake" running around YouTube. The third installment in the highly sucessful movie series -- I think it's one of the best in film history -- adds "Prmary Colors" Adrian Lester to the cast, and making him the first African American to hold a lead role in the series. Here's the rumored plot: Plot: Third film in the highly successful "Spider-Man" series sees several new villains and a new woman enter Peter Parker's life. With his secret now revealed to both Mary Jane and Harry, Peter must face the consequences of his actions and his new life together with Mary Jane as they finally form a relationship. Yet their newfound open display of love has yielded some unfortunate results, not the least of which is Peter's upset boss determined to make his life hell for causing his son emotional distress. Not helping is a young investigative reporter named Eddie Brock who Jameson has hired to find out why Mary Jane dumped his son for Peter - what's Parker's secrets? At the same time an escaped prisoner hiding out on a remote beach is caught in a dreadful accident and finds himself turned into a shape-shifting sand creature. Peter's investigations into the past of this 'Sandman' (Thoman Haden Church from "Sideways" pictured) brings him in contact with two very different things that will inevitably alter his life. The first a young woman named Gwen Stacy, daughter of the city's new police chief who is developing a soft spot for Peter. The other, a black substance from an accident scene which 'merges' with Peter's costume and gives him new found abilities. Things come to a head however when Harry Osborn, determined to take revenge against Peter for his father's death and now equipped with what he needs to pull it off, teams with The Sandman in a new variation of his father's Green Goblin guise and causes mayhem. In the ensuing chaos lives are lost, including people very close to Peter, whilst the black substance covering his suit separates from him and merges with a distraught Brock to form something else entirely - a creature unlike anything he's ever faced. A 'Venom' that he may not be able to stop. Wednesday, June 28, 2006 1 Star Jones Out Of "View" - Did Sandra Bernhard Cat Fight Push Her Over? The View's ever lovely Star Jones annouced she's quitting ABC's women talk show "The View." But to make matters worse, The View's producer, Barbara Walters said today they've fired her. I don't know the behind the scenes story, but given this racially-coded exchange with Sandra Bernhard which is in the video below -- some call it a cat fight -- it seems race may have played a role and not in the way you think. It seems that Jones' may not have been the right demographic for the suddenly gay-friendly media. What I think happened is that Walters and her staff made some weird read on society and concluded they better get a lesbian voice on their show -- enter Rosie O'Donnell. But exit Jones? Well, some people tend to think in a white - male - centered view, where anyone that's not white or male is considerred a minority, thus the stupid decision to trade one minority -- Jones -- for another -- O'Donnell. Bernhard -- like Rosie -- is also Lesbian, and it's almost certain Lesbian women called for Jones' head after the exchange, and inspite of the fact that it was the acid-tongued Bernhard who opened her mouth too much. (Not to say I disagree with her on the matter of war and women. I mean, the World would be a better place if every woman refused to have sex with a bigot or a warmonger.) It won't matter. O'Donnell's not a draw. The View will sink into oblivion. While it's sinking, look at the video! Tuesday, June 06, 2006 0 Jamie Fox Video On LL Cool J and J-Lo - In Oakland He Talks About His Run-In WIth LL Cool J and Telling J-Lo She Couldn't Sing The Academy Award-winning star of the motion picture "Ray" Jamie Foxx gave a hilarious performance to a sold-out crowd at the Paramount Theater. In this video he talks about how rapper LL Cool J treated him on the set of Oliver Stone's movie "Any Given Sunday" -- leading to a series of altercations -- and that Jennifer Lopez (aka J-Lo) was upset with Foxx because he reportedly said she couldn't sing. A claim he didn't deny in this video. Here's Jamie Foxx: American Idol Tour Video - Kelly Clarkson, Katharine McPhee, and Others Sing Just in time for the American Idol Tour, this video is a compliation of American Idol artists featuring Kelly Clarkson. You can get tickets to The American Idols Tour with a click here. Billy Preston Passed Away - Video With George Harrison Billy Preston -- known for his massive hit "Nothin From Nothin Leaves Nothin" -- passed away today at the age of 59. I remember him most for that song, and was totally unaware of his legal problems as reported by CNN. I prefer to remember his music. Here's a video of a concert he recently performed with George Harrison, and both formerly of The Beatles. New Batwoman is a lesbian - DC Comics Rolls The Dice - CNN Well, she's got great legs! That's all I have to say. New Batwoman is a lesbian Editor: 'We decided to give her a different point of view' Thursday, June 1, 2006; Posted: 8:47 a.m. EDT (12:47 GMT) NEW YORK (AP) -- Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that began this year. The 5-foot-10 superhero comes with flowing red hair, knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit. "We decided to give her a different point of view," explained Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC. "We wanted to make her a more unique personality than others in the Bat-family. That's one of the reasons we went in this direction." (DC Comics, like CNN, is a division of Time Warner.) The original Batwoman was started in 1956, and killed off in 1979. The new character will share the same name as her original alter ego, Kathy Kane. And the new Batwoman arrives with ties to others in the Gotham City world. "She's a socialite from Gotham high society," DiDio said. "She has some past connection with Bruce Wayne. And she's also had a past love affair with one of our lead characters, Renee Montoya." Montoya, in the "52" comic book series, is a former police detective. Wayne, of course, is Batman's true identity -- but he has disappeared, along with Superman and Wonder Woman, leaving Gotham a more dangerous place. The "52" series is a collaboration of four acclaimed writers, with one episode per week for one year. The comics will introduce other diverse characters as the story plays out. "This is not just about having a gay character," DiDio said. "We're trying for overall diversity in the DC universe. We have strong African-American, Hispanic and Asian characters. We're trying to get a better cross-section of our readership and the world." The outing of Batwoman created a furor of opinions on Web sites devoted to DC Comics. Opinions ranged from outrage to approval. Others took a more tongue-in-cheek approach to the announcement. "Wouldn't ugly people as heroes be more groundbreaking?" asked one poster. "You know, 200-pound woman, man with horseshoe hair loss pattern, people with cold sores, etc.?" DiDio asked that people wait until the new Batwoman's appearance in the series before they pass judgment. "You know what? Judge us by the story and character we create," he said. "We are confident that we are telling a great story with a strong, complex character." DiDio spent most of the morning fielding phone calls from media intrigued by the Batwoman reinvention. "It's kind of weird," he said. "We had a feeling it would attract some attention, but we're a little surprised it did this much." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Tuesday, May 30, 2006 0 John Paulus Thinks Clay Aiken Is Gay, and I Don't Care! Really. Why should I give a big deal of concern over what Clay Aiken does in his house? I'm still confused by all this. Who does it help to know this? Well, I guess it's good to know it so you don't have to worry about your girlfriend running off with him, but in this day and age, you never know. The Apprentice 5 Nearlng Close - One Blogger Calls The Two Finalists "Buffoons" With ratings as low as this latest Apprentice has posted, perhaps the best event will be the final show of this season. I'm not excited about the people on the show, and neither are bloggers like this person over at Fresh Inc., who called both Sean and Lee buffoons. While I wouldn't go that far, I do think it's a mistake to focus on young people all the time in casting for the show. Life begins at 40, and Trump and his crew would have a better show and richer exchanges with a more mature audience. Hey, there are hot women over 40, too! The Rolling Stones - The Rain Fell Down - A Great Video Of all of the videos, this is the clearest one by far. It's "The Rain Fell Down" and it's a pretty interesting, if racy, number. I like the guitar play here, as well as the urban colors and dense feel of the production. I've also included the lyrics below the video. Rain Fell Down Lyrics from http://www.sing365.com It was a filthy block of flats Trash was on the floor The stink was in my nose Hinges off the doors She took me in her room All was spick and span Fixed me up a drink Turned down all the lamps And the rain fell down On the cold hard ground And the phone kept ringing And me made sweet love Why do we live in this strange grey town? They build it up and let it all fall down Feel like we're living in a battleground Everybody's jazzed The paint is peeling and the sky's turned brown The bankers are wankers and every Thursday night they just vomit on the ground On the cold grey town And we made sweet love Everybody's dreaming Everybody's scheming Watching the rain fall down She cooked me up some eggs Then she made some tea Kissed me on the cheek Then I turned on her tv It was all the usual crap All the usual sleeze For 10,000 quid Some bimbo spilled the beans Rolling Stones - Paint It Black Video - 1966 The Rolling Stones are captured in this black and white video singing their now iconic hit "Paint it Black." Here's the video, folloed by the lyrics: I see a red door and I want it painted black No colors anymore I want them to turn black I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes. I have to turn my head until my darkness goes I see a line of cars and they're all painted black. With flowers and my love, both never to come back I see people turn their heads and quickly look away. Like a newborn baby it just happens ev'ryday I look inside myself and see my heart is black. I see my red door and it has been painted black Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts. It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue. I could not forsee this thing happening to you If I look hard enough into the setting sun. My love will laugh with me before the morning comes I see a red door and I want it painted black. No colors anymore I want them to turn black I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes. I have to turn my head until my darkness goes Hmm, hmm, hmm... I wanna see it painted black, painted black. Black as night, black as coal. I wanna see the sun, blotted out from the sky I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black. Yeah Saturday, May 27, 2006 0 The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - A Classic Song If you want to feel the cultural impact of the Rolling Stones, just play the video below and give a listen to "Gimme Shelter". You'll come away saying "I know I've listened to that tune tons of times -- in movies, grocery stores, and bars...wow." It's another song from the greatest rock band in the World. The Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb It's amazing to think this single song is as old as me, and it still rocks. The Rolling Stones are a band that comes along perhaps once in a millenium. Artists who bring people together regardless of age, race , or sex. They're still playing "Under My Thumb" -- live. Check out this black and white video for a blast to the past. For more on the Rolling Stones, see Wikipedia with a click here. Sarah McLachlan - Building A Mystery - Almost 10 Years Later, It Still Endures I'm not an expert on the analysis of music, but it's amazing that Sarah McLachlan's "Building a Mystery" has lasted so long beyond its 1997 introduction. I even found an interesting technical analysis of the song. Whatever the reason it is -- to me -- a haunting song about a woman talking about the reasons she both loves and lothes her male lover. Still, it can be quickly turned around to apply to a male thinking of a female lover. I remember playing this song over and over again while driving from Oakland to Pasadena in 1998, and to see a woman I cared about very much, but seemed a little bit distant emotionally. So, at least the song seems to apply in my life -- but that's not the subject here. I think this video helps to communicate her song by simply playing her song. Here's "Building a Mystery" Friday, May 19, 2006 0 Danny Kastner From "The Apprentice 3" Makes Rap Video About Getting Fired By Donald Trump Apparently not over being fired and willing to use his experience to keep his name out there -- why the heck not!? -- Danny Kastner from the third "Apprentice" made this rap video, where he says you can't win the game, if you don't have game. He also uses the video to send some messages to his fellow Apprentice friends. Here's Danny: "King Kong" Blooper Video Reveals Peter Jackson's Humor - and Cast Too! I found this funny four-minute video of out-takes from Peter Jackson's "King Kong." It reveals just how much of the movie was shot using blue and green screens and also how much fun the cast seemed to have doing the film. But the kicker is Andy Sirkis as Kong dancing a kind of gig. Superman Returns - June 6th - Trailer Given the less-than-stellar record of summer "blockbusters" at the box office, the producers of "Superman Returns" should aim for the DVD market ASAP. But if this movie provides the kind of special effects and story balance to rival the X-Men series, maybe the makers of this flick can eat without taking Pepto Bismal. Here's the trailer for "Superman Returns": Clarke Wolfe Wants To Play "Wonder Woman"...So Bad She Made Her Own Video -- And It's Not Bad I ran upon this video in the moment of looking for off-beat material for my blogs. While it may be that, Clarke Wolfe's home-made trailer of her as "Wonder Woman" in the planned movie is nothing short of terrific. No, Clarke's obviously not a female bodybuilder; she needs to add about 30 pounds of muscle. But she's got the Wonder Woman look down. Plus, I give her points for editing; the dialog could use some work, too. But heck, it's a great try and deserves to be seen. Here's Clarke! Black Eyed Peas Concert Tickets - Video: Let's Get It Started! This is one of the best videos produced in my opinion, as it captures what the song's about. "Let's get it started" You can buy or sell "Peas" tickets with a click on the title of this post. Here's the video. Video - Pearl Jam In Concert Performing "Betterman" Just in time for their concert series, Pearl Jam performs "Betterman" in this video. You can get Pearl Jam concert tickets with a click on the tile of this post. Here's Pearl Jam: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 0 Madonna Launches Concert Tour - "Beautiful Stranger" Video Starting at the Forum in Inglewood, Madonna will launch her concert tour. Madonna's simply one of the most popular pop-icons. See her perform in this Austin Powers Video "Beautiful Stranger": Labels: austin powers, madonna, mike myers "Beyond The Call" - Adrian Belic and Michael Dotterer Introduce Adrian's New Film "Beyond The Call" At The Tribeca Film Festival Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the premier of a new film called "Beyond The Call" at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. It's a really good and moving work about three ex-military Americans who travel around the world making sure that food and other resources get right to the people who need it. My friend Michael Dotterer's helping Adrian market the film, and so I thought I'd take a video of Adrian and Michael talking about a documentary that's certainly oscar-material. This is the first of three videos on the movie. Wednesday, April 12, 2006 0 Apprentice 5 Ratings Very Low - Worst In Show's History I saw this in a recent article on Trump's idea to have viewers pick the Apprentice. The reason for the low number is simple: Jack Baeur. "24" is simply too hot to be beat by The Apprentice on Mondays. NBC made a terrible mistake. Now, they're taking a beating in the ratings on Thursdays and Mondays, with no relief in site. ...Unless they move The Apprentice back to Thursday's ASAP. Viewers Hired to Choose "Apprentice" by Gina Serpe - E! Online Mar 30, 2006, 11:50 AM PT Donald Trump is taking a page from Simon Cowell's playbook. The real estate mogul/reality TV star has announced a change in plans over how he'll choose his next Apprentice, allowing viewers to phone in votes on who they believe should be selected as the next mini-Trump. "I'm very anxious to see who the fans choose for their favorite finalist--their decision could have a big effect on my ultimate decision," the Donald said in a statement. But then again, it might not. Unlike American Idol or other audience-dictated reality shows, viewers who cast their vote for one of The Apprentice's burgeoning businesspeople may not get the payoff they're expecting. The contestant who racks up the most votes will not automatically win the coveted apprenticeship--Trump will simply be made aware of the tally before making his final decision. "Over the past four seasons of The Apprentice, Donald Trump has used the final episode to hire candidates with advice only from George and Carolyn," Mark Burnett, the show's creator and exec producer said. "This year we thought it would be interesting to discover what America has to say about the candidates, incorporating our fans and viewers as virtual judges. "While Trump will still be the final arbiter of who he hires, America's feedback is certain to have an impact on his decision." And, NBC hopes, his ratings. Despite Trump's routine boasting of his show's ratings prowess, The Apprentice has dipped to an all-time low viewership, averaging just 9.9 million viewers since the fifth cycle kicked off last month. Last fall, The Apprentice 4 drew in a slightly higher 10.7 million viewers, down about 4 million from the previous installment. (With Martha Stewart's incarnation is long gone as a scapegoat, we're still waiting to see what excuse Trump will offer now to explain away his dismal Nielsen numbers.) Viewers will be able to cast their vote for one of the final two candidates following the penultimate episode of the season via phone or by going online. As in years past, Trump will announce the winner in the live finale, during which he will also be presented with the results of the viewer vote. The finale airs in June. Tuesday, April 11, 2006 0 Pearl Jam Tickets On Sale For All Concert Dates! Pearl Jam's the leader of the grunge movement. Get tickets for all concerts with a click here. Madonna Tickets - Madonna's In Concert In May! Hooray! Madonna, the undisputed Queen of Pop, is in concert, starting at The Forum in Inglewood, just outside of LA on May 21st. Get tickets with a click here. Sandi Thom - Sing On The Webcam, Get Discovered By Sony Records! It Really Happened Webcast singer snapped up by Sony - CNN.com Tuesday, April 4, 2006; Posted: 9:42 a.m. EDT (13:42 GMT) LONDON, England -- A British singer has signed up by a major record label after broadcasting live performances from her living room on the Internet. Sandi Thom, 24, is now on the books of RCA/SonyBMG after signing with the label at her flat on Monday night. She built up a daily audience of more than 100,000 people around the world. Speaking on British television, Sandi said she could not believe what had happened and that her life had "changed dramatically." "I don't think I have quite realized it just yet," she told GMTV. "It has obviously changed for the better. "I have managed to get massive amounts of exposure through using the Internet and that is something that people have struggled to do for years." Several record labels had approached the aspiring star following her Webcasts, which were broadcast on 21 consecutive nights. RCA label director Craig Logan said: "Sandi is a very talented artist with an already unique story. "We're very excited that we're now going to be a part of that story as she develops into a major artist." "King Kong" - DVD Sales Push Film To Fourth Highest Grossing In Universal's History `King Kong' DVD Sets Sales Record - Associated Press Apr 04 4:18 PM US/Eastern It took heat during the holidays for failing to reach the supremo- blockbuster status that many predicted, but "King Kong" can do some supersized chest-thumping now. Released as a single DVD and two-disc set on March 28, the Peter Jackson film logged Universal's best first-week sales in studio history, in six days selling 6.5 million copies for a take of more than $100 million. The previous record-holder was "Meet the Fockers," a studio spokeswoman said. The film's brisk DVD sales add to its worldwide box-office haul of $550 million. Its ticket sales make "King Kong" the fourth highest- grossing film in Universal's history, following "Jurassic Park," "E.T." and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park." Universal Pictures is owned by NBC Universal, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Vivendi Universal. Thursday, March 23, 2006 0 Will Katie Holmes Play Wonder Woman? You never know, but she'd be better than Lohan in my view. Still, Holmes is not the best choice in my view. Wednesday, March 22, 2006 0 Lindsay Lohan Wants To Play Wonder Woman Personally, I'm not hot about the idea. I think a really buffed actress should play her From www.imdb.com: Herbie: Fully Loaded star Lindsay Lohan is desperate to play Wonder Woman in the forthcoming movie version of the comic book superhero. The 19-year-old Freaky Friday actress admits she'd like to showcase her talents outside of kid and teen films, but feels the role would be too fun to turn down. She says, "Wonder Woman would be cool. I'm trying to find roles right now that are different to anything I've done to show my abilities, to show that I have some sort of stretch in me. Because most of the things that I've done so far are aimed at younger girls and are light-hearted." Wonder Woman Script Should Be Finished By Now According to Sci-Fi Wire Not too long ago, I got after Josh Whedon, the writer / director for the new "Wonder Woman" movie, for seemingly dragging his feet on the project. Now, he tells Sci-Fi Wire that it should be finshed by this week. This is what he said: "I'm probably going to turn it in in a few days," Whedon said of his Wonder Woman script. "It's coming along. ... There will be all of the expected stuff. Of course there will be the bracelets; there will be the invisible jet, the lasso, all of that." Whedon likened the character to another one of his creations, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, adding: "It's about girls maturing, a rite of passage, that kind of thing." Whedon said it's too early to speculate on casting for the project. He will be turning the script in to Warner Brothers and hopes to begin production later this year. "Beth's Oscar Party" - A Video Of Our Trip To "The Academy of Friends" Oscar Party in San Francisco For The Academy Awards My great friend Beth Schnitzer throws the best parties. One of them is an annual gathering of friends to watch the Academy Awards, and where this author has served as ballot scorer and three-time first prize winner (in six years!) This year, Beth wanted to try something different, and with that decided to arrange for us to attend the San Francisco Academy of Friends Benefit Party. Held at the Concourse Exhibition Center, this emormous event drew an estimated 2,500 people. It features food and drink from 32 San Francisco Restaurants, an auction, and just plain fun all to raise money to attack AIDS. A good portion of the attendees are Gay (maybe the majority), and so it presents a great slice of San Francisco life. And candidly I write that it's an event everyone should attend at least once and if only to just get over whatever "stuff" they may be dealing with and learn to just plain enjoy people. Everyone's very nice and funny, and if you're a single straight guy like me there's loads of attractive women. But that written, our group was full of beautiful, smart women so there was no real need to go elsewhere. The video I took (which you can see with a click here or on the title of this post and with the QuickTime application) presents Beth at her best: always with a smile, introducing us not just to anyone, but heavy-hitters, energetic, lively, fun, and yet very professional all at the same time. I keep telling her she should run for office, as I think she'd make an excellent San Francisco Supervisor--or Mayor! The video is also a celebration of our friends, including the very talkative and expressive Mr. Abraham (that's me). I don't resist a time to get my face in the video as you're going to see. And even when I'm not in the picture, you can hear my voice and that cacaling laugh of mine. Also, listen for the Oscar picts of our friends. It's interesting to see who picked what and their inflections of confidence that "Brokeback Mountain" was going to take the best picture award. The flick itself has parts where it seems like the camera's on while being carried in a rush. It is. I started to edit out that part but as I watched it, I felt just like I did at the time when the camcoder was on: in a chaotic, fun rush. I know you'll feel the same way! Monday, March 13, 2006 0 San Francisco Station KGO's TalkGuy Ronn Owens Gets Award For "News/Talk Local Personality of the Year" Yep. He was awarded this at the R&R 2006 News/Talk Industry Achievement Awards on March 4, in Washington D.C. Ya know, since I've got the entire press release, and I'm not feeling well, here it is: San Francisco, CA – March 7 2006 – KGO NEWSTALK AM 810 made a clean sweep at the R&R 2006 News/Talk Industry Achievement Awards on March 4, in Washington D.C. KGO Radio was honored with News/Talk Station of the Year, KGO's Ronn Owens was awarded News/Talk Local Personality of the Year, tied with a Los Angles Station and KGO's Jack Swanson was awarded News/Talk Program Director of the Year. Radio and Records Inc. is a radio broadcast industry magazine. Ronn Owens' exceptional interviewing skills have made him one of the best in the business. Ronn recently celebrated 30 years at KGO Radio. Owens' unique style, contemporary approach and wide-ranging knowledge on local, national and international issues has additionally won him the prestigious Marconi Award for Major Market Personality of the Year by the 2003 National Association of Broadcasters, recognizing the most outstanding radio personality in the country. The Ronn Owens Program can be heard 9am-Noon, weekdays on KGO AM 810. Jack Swanson joined KGO Radio in 1979 as News Director. He later became Program Director for eight years maintaining KGO's top-rated status. Jack's second stint at KGO Radio as Program Director began in 1994 and his reign continues today preserving KGO's 107+ consecutive #1 Arbitron surveys. Jack has enjoyed a tremendous run of success and recognition having been voted the #1 Program Director several times by industry organizations and has been the recipient of this R&R award in 2001, 2002 and 2006. As Mickey Luckoff, President and General Manger, accepted the Station of the Year award, he stated, "It is the personnel past and present that makes KGO great. That is why we have won this award 3 times over the past 6 years." The Balboa Theatre in San Francisco Showing All Oscar-Nom Documentary Shorts The Balboa Theatre (www.BalboaMovies.com ) is showing all the Oscar-nominated documentary shorts through Thursday. Our own Dan Krauss and Steve Okazaki will be speaking after select screenings. Through Thursday, March 9: THIS YEAR'S OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT DOCUMENTARIES The rarely seen short documentary category hits the big screen. All 4 nominated shorts on one program. Filmakers in person. Details below. The Mushroom Club -Steve Okazaki examines the terrible personal toll that followed the bombing of Hiroshima 60 years ago; 10 people whose lives were marked by the explosion are profiled. 35min. A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin -Corinne Marrinan and Eric Simonson explore the lasting impact of radio broadcasting legend Norman Corwin's work focusing on his landmark "On a Note of Triumph," which aired on the evening of VE Day. 40min. OSCAR WINNER (2:55), 5:45, 8:35 The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club -Dan Krauss- After shooting an award-winning photograph that captured the full horror of starvation in the Sudan, South African photojournalist Kevin Carter found himself tormented by doubts about the ethical implication of his work. 27 min God Sleeps in Rwanda - Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman - The genocide that devastated Rwanda in 1994 also left in its wake a population that was suddenly 70% female. Five courageous women struggle to rebuild their lives in a society still reeling from its bloody recent history. 30min. (1:40), 4:30, 7:20 Intermission between each pairing. - One admission price for all 4 films. DIRECTORS IN PERSON: Dan Krauss, director of THE DEATH OF KEVIN CARTER will speak Wednesday after the 7:20 showing. Steve Okazaki, director of THE MUSHROOM CLUB, will speak Thursday after 8:35 showing. More information on the nominees: Oscar.com BALBOA THEATRE 3630 Balboa Street at 37th Avenue. http://www.BalboaMovies.com Ang Lee At The Governor's Ball Last Night In this photo from Oscar.org, Ang Lee's spotted with movie producer James Schamus and Schamus' wife. For the 12th year, Wolfgang Puck provided the food for Oscar's major party. What did they have? Well, I got this from the Menu posted online at Oscar.org: Tray Passed Hors d'oeuvres Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone Mini Prime Burgers with Aged Cheddar and Remoulade Warm Gougeres with Potato, Cheese and Herbs Baby Potatoes with Caviar and Chives Steak Tartare in a Black Pepper Parmesan Cone Smoked Salmon Pizza with Dill Creme Fraiche and Caviar Duck Sausage Pizza with Leeks and Spinach Four Cheese Pizza with Tomato and Fresh Basil Antipasto Assortment Marinated Baby Artichokes with Lemon Aioli Tuna Tataki with Sweet Soy Smoked Salmon "Oscar" Matzo with Osetra Caviar Chopped Vegetable Salad Sweet Crab Stuffed Tiny Spanish Peppers Citrus Marinated Shrimp Green and White Asparagus with Prosciutto Celery Root Soup with Fuji Apples and 24k Gold Pan Roasted Organic Chicken with Black Truffle Risotto Oscar's "Sweet Fantasy" Menu Courtesy of Wolfgang Puck 78th Annual Oscar: Ratings Down 10 Percent from 2005 This happened because the most decorated movies were not box office blockbusters. Even King Kong failed to break records, but I attribute that to it's December start. Oscars Ratings Drop 10 Percent From 2005 Associated Press - Mar 06, 08:22 ABC is in for a "Crash" landing in the Oscar ratings. The Academy Awards were down 10 percent from last year's ceremony, based on preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings from the nation's 55 biggest markets. If the full national ratings follow suit later Monday, this year's ceremony will likely be the second least-watched Oscars telecast behind 2003, when "Chicago" won best picture. The ceremony, where "Crash" won a surprise best picture trophy, drew a 27.1 rating and a 40 share. Each rating point is equivalent to 1.1 million homes, while the share indicates that 40 percent of the TVs in use last night were tuned to the awards. Last year's metered markets had a 30.1 rating and 43 share, Nielsen said. The ceremony's central lesson: Play a real person enmeshed in wrenching drama, win an Academy Award. It worked last year for Jamie Foxx in "Ray" and this time around for Reese Witherspoon's portrayal of June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line" and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the glory-hungry writer in "Capote." Sunday's Oscars were anything but predictable, however, as the explosive race drama "Crash" denied "Brokeback Mountain" the best-picture Oscar despite the gay Western love story's front-runner status and its best-director award for Ang Lee. "Crash" Upsets All Predictions for A "Brokeback Mountain" Sweep - Including Mine "Crash" -- Paul Haggis' wonderful film about race relations in LA -- took home the "Best Picture" award at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, upsetting front-runner "Brokeaback Mountain" and shattering all predictions boards, including mine. In part because of this outcome, I scored 20 of 24 correct, missing on "Best Picture", "Cinematography", "Documentary Short", and "Animated Short." But in two of those categories, I picked the front-runner, which missed on both. I think Tom O'Neill of the LA Times called it right when he predicted this awards outcome due to homeophobia in the Academy. More on this, and my good time at the San Francisco Academy of Friends Party, later today. Sunday, March 05, 2006 0 Wonder Woman: If This Variety Article's Any Indication, I May be Right: Whedon's Too Busy for Her See. This article shows that Wonder Woman writer / director Josh Whedon has too much on his plate to give Wonder Woman the time she needs. Yes, he has time given by the exec producers, but he lacks the passion to really get it done. Whedon's a goner for U Universal pacts with 'Buffy' man for spec script By MICHAEL FLEMING - Variety.com - Thursday, Sept 22, 2006 Universal Pictures has paid seven figures for "Goners," a fantasy thriller spec script Joss Whedon wrote and will direct. Film will be produced by Mary Parent and Scott Stuber. The studio premiered Whedon's directorial debut, "Serenity," on Thursday night at Universal City Walk. Pic opens Sept. 30. Whedon was cryptic in describing the project, but the title conveys that it will tread on supernatural turf comparable to his series creations "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the bloodsucker spinoff "Angel." "It's the story of a young woman's journey that involves a great deal of horror and some heroics," he said. "It's certainly darker than 'Serenity,' and there are a lot of left turns along the way. It is something I had in mind for a while, and it just poured out of me when I finished my film." Timing isn't clear, since Whedon is writing to direct "Wonder Woman," the Warner Bros. film based on the DC Comics heroine. That may take some time, as Whedon started his script from scratch. "I was given license to purely make it my own and yet she is already an iconic Amazon princess," Whedon said. " 'Goners' has some similarities, but the heroines could not be more different, and the story is a bit more intimate and less complicated than 'Wonder Woman.' " Whedon, who began his career writing features "Speed" and "Toy Story," shuttered his TV operation this year to focus on features. He will continue to spend the majority of his time with bigscreen fare but acknowledged he has been toying with a TV project that would continue the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" universe, focusing on Spike, the punk-haired vampire played by James Marsters. Whedon's challenge is to figure a way to do it and be able to keep directing movies. "Directing a film was as exciting and daunting as it was supposed to be," said the CAA-repped Whedon. "I learned a lot on 'Serenity' and hope I hid that from the audience." "Wonder Woman" Writer / Director Josh Whedon Still Working on Script After One Year This is an excerpt from the interview from Empire, which can be read with a click on the title post. It's the only part that mentions Wonder Woman, but when I combine it with other comments of his I've seen, it reads as if he's got his time divided between the Amazon Princess and other tasks, which doesn't make for a good story. I'm concerned that he's not really committed to the project. How about Goners and Wonder Woman? Can you tell us more about those? Not a whole lot. I am still writing Wonder Woman. It is very awesome but incredibly unfinished, but I should be finishing that in a little while and then I’ll have a better idea of which film is actually going into production. But I can tell you that the film will be about introducing you to Wonder Woman. She'll be wearing the outfit and there will be the bracelets, the golden lasso and Greek gods. She comes from a civilisation where she's rather perfect, so she's the opposite to Buffy in many ways, but she's going through an adolescent rite of passage because she's new to the world. 2006 Independent Spirit Awards uplifts 'Brokeback' Western nabs feature, helmer prizes By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK - Variety.com Ang Lee and his oater romance "Brokeback Mountain" rode off with the top ribbons at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, while tyro director Paul Haggis' "Crash" took best first feature. Although Focus Features' "Brokeback" scored as best feature and best director, the wealth was spread among a quartet of films. Receiving two awards each were "Brokeback," Lionsgate's "Crash," Sony Pictures Classics' "Capote" and the Weinstein Co.'s "Transamerica." Indie Spirits, administered by Film Independent and held at a beachside tent in Santa Monica, came just one day before the Academy Awards, where the same pics were set to compete in an awards year dominated by smaller indie titles. "Transamerica" star Felicity Huffman picked up the Indie Spirit for best female lead for her portrayal of a male transsexual about to become a woman. Best male lead went to much-honored "Capote" star Philip Seymour Hoffman for his portrayal of Truman Capote. The other "Capote" Indie Spirit went to scribe Dan Futterman for best screenplay. Award for best first screenplay went to Duncan Tucker for "Transamerica." Matt Dillon won the award for best supporting male for his role as a racist cop in "Crash," while "Junebug" star Amy Adams was recognized as supporting actress for her role as a Chicago art dealer who visits her new in-laws in North Carolina. Pic was distribbed by Sony Classics. Another awards favorite this season, helmer George Clooney's "Good Night, And Good Luck." picked up one Indie Spirit award, for Robert Elswit's cinematography. Warner Independent Pictures' "Paradise Now," the Palestinian film directed by Hany Abu-Assad, won best foreign film. Director Alex Gibney's "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," from Magnolia Pictures, was voted best documentary. The John Cassavetes Award, which recognizes the best feature made for under $500,000, went to writer-director Mora Stephens "Conventioneers" from Cinema Libre Studios. Stephens co-wrote the screenplay with Joel Viertel, who produced the film. Sony Pictures Classics nabbed three Indie Spirit Awards, the most of any distrib. Focus, Lionsgate, TWC and Warner Independent each took two. "Brokeback" producers are Diana Ossana and James Schamus. "Crash" producers are Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle, Bob Yari, Mark R. Harris, Bobby Moresco and Haggis. "Brokeback Mountain" Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain" Dan Futterman, "Capote" BEST FIRST FEATURE "Crash," Paul Haggis BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY Duncan Tucker, "Transamerica" JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (for the Best Feature made for under $500,000) "Conventioneers" BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE Amy Adams, "Junebug" BEST SUPPORTING MALE Matt Dillon, "Crash" BEST FEMALE LEAD Felicity Huffman, "Transamerica" BEST MALE LEAD Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote" Robert Elswit, "Good Night, and Good Luck" "Paradise Now" "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" AMC/AMERICAN EXPRESS PRODUCERS AWARD Caroline Baron, "Capote" and "Monsoon Wedding" IFC/ACURA SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana, "Cavite" TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD Ian Olds and Garrett Scott, "Occupation: Dreamland" INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD WINNERS BY DISTRIBUTOR Cinema Libre Studio 1 Focus Features 2 Lionsgate Films 2 Magnolia 1 Sony Pictures Classics 3 Warner Independent Pictures 2 The Weinstein Company 2 What Will Halle Berry Wear at The Oscars? Well I hope it's a repeat of this dress! Wow, what an eye-popper! I'd like to carry that train. We will see tommorrow night. Transvestite King Kong billboard attacks L.A. From www.upi.com LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- An underground global movement called the "Guerrilla Girls" has rankled Oscar officials with a billboard of a transvestite King Kong in Los Angeles. The billboard -- near the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars will be handed out next Sunday -- depicts Kong wearing a dress and makeup holding an Oscar statuette, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. The sign -- which cost $4,500 a month -- reads: "Unchain the Women Director. Women directed only 7 percent of the top 200 films of 2005," and "No woman director has ever won the Oscar. Only 3 have been nominated." The sign was created and funded by 13 women's organizations, including Women in Film and the Fund for Women Artists. The "Guerrilla Girls" have been around more than 20 years, pushing the worldwide entertainment industry to be more female-friendly, the newspaper said. The latest attempt to ruffle feathers at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences drew a terse, "No comment," the Times reported, noting that the Oscar in the billboard is a trademarked image. "King Kong" DVD Release March 28th 2006 I can't wait for this one, and I'm not kidding. I still think "King Kong" was unfairly snubbed by the Academy in the nominations process. Time will prove that it's one of the best movies ever made. The only massive error was releasing it in December, rather than in August, thus drawing summer box office traffic. "King Kong" Set To Sweep Sony Empire Awards From: www.news.com.au KING Kong is set to sweep the board at this year's Empire awards - after receiving five nominations. After being snubbed by the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the Bafta's, the remake of the 1933 monster movie has been nominated for a host of top honours, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor. Pride and Prejudice, Crash, and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit also faired well with four nominations each. The Best Actor category will be a fight between Matt Dillon for his performance in Crash, Batman Begins' star Christian Bale, Johnny Depp for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Viggo Mortensen in the critically acclaimed A History Of Violence. Similarly, the Best Actress category will be an equally tough choice between Dillon's Bafta-winning Crash co-star Thandie Newton, Pride and Prejudice's Keira Knightley, Renee Zellweger for her role in Cinderella Man, Hilary Swank for turn in Million Dollar Baby and King Kong star Naomi Watts. The Sony Ericsson Empire Awards - which will be presented by British comedian Bill Bailey - will take place at the Hilton London Metropole on March 13. Full list of Sony Ericsson Empire Awards nominees: Leo Gregory (Stoned) Kelly Reilly (Mrs. Henderson Presents/Pride & Prejudice) Georgie Henley (Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe) James McAvoy (Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe) Nathan Fillion (Serenity) Sony Ericsson Scene of the Year Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit - The Dogfight War Of The Worlds - Arrival of the First Tripod The Descent - First Attack of the Crawlers Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith - Birth of Vader Crash - The Car Rescue The Wedding Crashers The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse Team America: World Police Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Best Thriller The Constant Gardener Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang Best Horror The Skeleton Key Land Of The Dead Best Sci-fi/Fantasy Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith Steven Spielberg - War Of The Worlds Peter Jackson - King Kong Christopher Nolan - Batman Begins Ron Howard - Cinderella Man Nick Park and Steve Box - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit Joe Wright - Pride & Prejudice Christian Bale - Batman Begins Johnny Depp - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Andy Serkis - King Kong Matt Dillon - Crash Viggo Mortensen - A History of Violence Naomi Watts - King Kong Keira Knightley - Pride & Prejudice Thandie Newton - Crash Renee Zellweger - Cinderella Man Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby Best British Movie Saturday, March 04, 2006 0 Hilary Swank - What Will She Wear This Time? As the 78th Annual Academy Awards approach, the question I have is what will Hilary Swank wear? All I can say is last year, she was totally hot in this blue body fitting dress. I'll bet she got so many date offers it screwed up her marriage to Chad Lowe. Note to Chad: you're still friends; be the dog! Go after that bone! James Bond "Casino Royale" Trailer Video - BBC Giv... Rolling Stones Classic Song "Miss You" Video and L... Wonder Woman: Joss Whedon May Be Rewriting The Scr... Kevin Federline Parties in Vegas; Britney Spears A... Atlanta Falcons Tickets Exchange - Buy or Sell Fal... Kendra Wilkinson From "The Girls Next Door - Video... Selma Blair Caught In Argument With Ex-Hubby - Enq... Suri Cruise Rumored Not To Be Tom Cruise's Baby - ... Tom Cruise Dumps Paramount So Paramount Dumps Tom ... "Snakes On A Plane" Launches Samuel L. Jackson Int... `N Sync's Lance Bass Says He is Gay - San Jose Mer... Wonder Woman Movie Director Josh Whedon's Reported... Spiderman 3 Teaser Trailer - The Real Trailer of S... Star Jones Out Of "View" - Did Sandra Bernhard Cat... Jamie Fox Video On LL Cool J and J-Lo - In Oakland... American Idol Tour Video - Kelly Clarkson, Kathari... Billy Preston Passed Away - Video With George Harr... New Batwoman is a lesbian - DC Comics Rolls The Di... John Paulus Thinks Clay Aiken Is Gay, and I Don't ... The Apprentice 5 Nearlng Close - One Blogger Calls... The Rolling Stones - The Rain Fell Down - A Great ... Sarah McLachlan - Building A Mystery - Almost 10 Y... Danny Kastner From "The Apprentice 3" Makes Rap Vi... "King Kong" Blooper Video Reveals Peter Jackson's ... Clarke Wolfe Wants To Play "Wonder Woman"...So Bad... Black Eyed Peas Concert Tickets - Video: Let's Get... Madonna Launches Concert Tour - "Beautiful Strange... "Beyond The Call" - Adrian Belic and Michael Dotte... Apprentice 5 Ratings Very Low - Worst In Show's Hi... Madonna Tickets - Madonna's In Concert In May! Ho... Sandi Thom - Sing On The Webcam, Get Discovered By... "King Kong" - DVD Sales Push Film To Fourth Highes... Wonder Woman Script Should Be Finished By Now Acco... "Beth's Oscar Party" - A Video Of Our Trip To "The... San Francisco Station KGO's TalkGuy Ronn Owens Get... The Balboa Theatre in San Francisco Showing All Os... "Crash" Upsets All Predictions for A "Brokeback Mo... Wonder Woman: If This Variety Article's Any Indica... "Wonder Woman" Writer / Director Josh Whedon Still...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line44
__label__wiki	0.703675	0.703675	Russia’s largest lottery distributor Stoloto pursues esports audience EPICENTER CS:GO Stoloto, the largest distributor of lotteries in Russia (part of S8 Capital holding), and the tournament organizer Epic Esports Events (part of ESforce Holding), have signed a partnership agreement. Stoloto is going to support EPICENTER, the upcoming international tournament in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive set to take place on October 22–28. Stoloto explains the decision by the need to rejuvenate its audience. Albert Usmanov, head of digital marketing for C8 Capital, said: “In the next 2–3 years we are planning to “reboot” the perception of lotteries as entertainment for older generations and to show that they can be a source of drive and enjoyment for young people as well”. Stoloto chose to partner with ESforce, the largest esports holding in the CIS and the leader of computer sports in Russia. The upcoming EPICENTER tournament is going to gather the world’s best esports squads who will compete for the prize pool of $300,000. Stoloto will give away more than 100 prizes on-site. Guests who will buy a lottery ticket at the stoloto.ru website will also receive a chance to win a trip to an international Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament in Europe. ESforce representative Irina Dorokhina said: “Strategic partnership with ESforce Holding helps Stoloto present their products to a new audience and also globally changes the positioning of the brand. It is rare for an esports sponsorship. I am glad to see a company draw inspiration from its target audience and change itself in accordance to it”. Stoloto will also be updating game mechanics of their projects and platforms. “The young audience does not deem the current structure and gameplay of lotteries modern,” clarifies Varvara Basanovich, head of operational marketing for Stoloto, “We consider changing the format to make lotteries more appealing to the youth. One of the aspects we are focused on is gamification of our lotteries”. According to PayPal and SuperData, Russia’s esports market is the largest one in EMEA. Both companies expect it to reach $45 million in volume and continue growing in 2019. According to the research center NAFI, there are about 12 million active esports fans who watch tournaments regularly and follow their teams. Working with this audience is a progressive answer of Stoloto to the changing realities of the market. The company plans to invest in gaming further, develop their product offering for video games and esports enthusiasts. Sport24.ru, owned by Armen Sarkisyan’s S8 capital, will be covering esports starting from EPICENTER. Stoloto is the biggest distributor of state lotteries in Russia. The network exceeds 60,000 points of distribution in all regions of Russian Federation and features the country’s only lottery internet supermarket: www.stoloto.ru. All lotteries are organized by Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Sports. S8 Capital is a multi-profile holding specializing in creating and developing high tech products and services. It has been operating for more than 25 years, successfully developing unique industry competencies and also developing, introducing and distributing innovative technologies in retail, finance, telecommunication, ecommerce and digital media. The company is in the process of diversifying its business portfolio and is preparing to launch an innovative IT platform. Founder and shareholder of S8 Capital is the Russian businessman Armen Sarkisyan. Epic Esports Events specializes in organizing international competitions, and was the organizer for the EPICENTER Dota 2 and CS:GO tournaments held in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2016–18. Over 24 million viewers around the world followed the first EPICENTER: Moscow tournament. At Europe’s leading EuBEA awards in 2016, that tournament got the prize for the best event in Europe in the Live Entertainment industry. EPICENTER XL in Dota 2 was held in 2018 and became the most watched Major tournament of Dota Pro Circuit 2017/2018. The tournament was hosted with support of Valve, the developer of the game. ESforce Holding is one of the world’s largest esports organizations, and the leader in electronic sports in Russia. The holding company integrates all key areas of the esports business, from organizing international tournaments and professional content creation to publishing and advertising activities. ESforce owns over 220 popular online resources with a combined audience of 12 million followers and 114 million annual unique visitors, which provide a 90-percent reach to esports broadcast viewers in Russia and the CIS, as well as access to a significant share of relevant international audiences. In 2018, the holding became part of the largest technology company in Russia, Mail.Ru Group.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line45
__label__cc	0.669753	0.330247	Debate: Abortion Revision as of 23:53, 8 January 2010 (edit) Questy (Talk \| contribs) ← Previous diff Current revision (21:53, 8 October 2011) (edit) Myclob (Talk \| contribs) (→No) ===Background and context === ===Background and context === [[Image:March for Women's Lives.jpg\|right\|300px]] [[Image:March for Women's Lives.jpg\|right\|300px]] - The issue of abortion is one of the most contentious, and emotive dilemmas faced by modern societies. The question is whether one should allow the termination of a child whilst it is in its mother’s womb. For some, the question is even more fundamental: at what stage is the foetus in the womb to be regarded as a child? At conception? At birth? Or, maybe somewhere between. The battle-lines are drawn between strict, religious (‘pro-life’) arguments (that it is never permissible), and those (‘pro-choice’) that emphasise the mother’s right to choose as the primary concern. Whilst abortion has been accepted by the American state since the land-mark Roe vs. Wade case in the early 1970s, this is by no means a reflection of universal agreement – either international or within America itself – as many Western countries still have considerable restrictions on abortion. For example, the Irish position has softened only recently, and the Catholic Church steadfastly refuses to change its resolutely pro-life stance in the face of criticism from Women’s and other lobby-groups. + The issue of abortion is one of the most contentious, and emotive dilemmas faced by modern societies. The question is whether one should allow the termination of a pregnancy. For some, the question is even more fundamental: at what stage is the embryo or fetus in the uterus to be regarded as a child? At fertilization? At birth? Or, maybe somewhere between. The battle-lines are drawn between strict, religious (‘pro-life’) arguments (that it is never permissible), and those (‘pro-choice’) that emphasise the woman’s right to choose as the primary concern. While abortion has been legal in America since the land-mark Roe vs. Wade case in the early 1970s, this is by no means a reflection of universal agreement – either international or within America itself – as many Western countries still have considerable restrictions on abortion. For example, the Irish position has softened only recently, and the Catholic Church steadfastly refuses to change its resolutely pro-life stance in the face of criticism from Women’s and other lobby-groups. [[Image:Save Roe protesters.jpg\|left\|300px]] [[Image:Save Roe protesters.jpg\|left\|300px]] - The abortion debate revolves around a number of questions. Does a woman have a right to her body that the fetus cannot take away? Does this right mean that a woman has a right to "unplug" from the fetus? Or, does the fetus have a right to life that is binding on the woman and her body and that outweighs any rights held by the mother, requiring the mother to give birth? Is a fetus only a fetus or is it "life" and a person that deserves rights and protections? Does "human life" begin at conception or at birth? Is destroying a fetus akin to "killing a human" or murder? + The abortion debate revolves around a number of questions. Does a woman have a right to her body that the fetus cannot take away? Does this right mean that a woman has a right to "unplug" from the fetus? Or, does the fetus have a right to life that is binding on the woman and her body and that outweighs any rights held by the woman, requiring her to give birth? Is a fetus only a fetus or is it a person that deserves rights and protections? Does "human life" begin at conception or at birth? Is destroying a fetus akin to "killing a human" or murder? - What about the father? What rights does the father have over a fetus? If a mother seeks an abortion, can a father that wants "life" for his child defend it? And, what if the mother wants to give birth to her child, while the father desires an abortion? What say does the father have? Is this, therefore, simply a question of the woman's rights, or the father's rights as well? + What about the biological father? What rights does he have over a fetus? If the woman seeks an abortion, can he prevent it? And, what if she wants to give birth to a child, while he does not want it to happen? What say does he have? Is this, therefore, simply a question of the woman's rights, or the man's rights as well? Is a woman responsible for actions and behavior that may lead to an unwanted pregnancy, making her responsible for the fetus even if it is "unwanted"? Are there circumstances in which a woman cannot be said to be responsible for her own impregnation, such as failed contraception or rape? Can this justify an abortion? Is a woman responsible for actions and behavior that may lead to an unwanted pregnancy, making her responsible for the fetus even if it is "unwanted"? Are there circumstances in which a woman cannot be said to be responsible for her own impregnation, such as failed contraception or rape? Can this justify an abortion? - Is abortion an issue that is subjectively moral/immoral, so should be reserved to individual judgement (not state law)? Must opponents simply tolerate the practice? Or, is the scale of abortions world-wide too large to ignore, and does this scale give cause to a ban? + Is abortion an issue that is subjectively moral/immoral, so should be reserved to individual judgement (not law)? Must opponents simply tolerate the practice? Or, is the scale of abortions world-wide too large to ignore, and does this scale give cause to a ban? - Is abortion an important way for young women to ensure that their futures are not "destroyed"? Is it an important part of ensuring that women can have sex comfortably and without worry? Is child-rearing more fulfilling than many women tend to believe? Is it wrong to consider "quality of life" issues here? Is the "sanctity of life" more important than "quality of life"? Does abortion result in psychological disorders or depression? Does it increase the chances of cancer? What about during emergencies in which the risks of giving birth are very high for a woman? Should she be forced to endure these risks, or can an abortion be appropriate in these circumstances? + Is abortion an important way for young women to ensure that their futures are not destroyed? Is it an important part of ensuring that women can have sex comfortably and without worry? Is child-rearing more fulfilling than many women tend to believe? Is it wrong to consider "quality of life" issues here? Is the "sanctity of life" more important than "quality of life"? Does abortion result in psychological disorders or depression? Does it increase the chances of cancer? What about during emergencies in which the risks of giving birth are very high for a woman? Should she be forced to endure these risks, or can an abortion be appropriate in these circumstances? [[Image:Fetus.jpg\|right\|300px]] [[Image:Fetus.jpg\|right\|300px]] Does abortion generally empower women with an important choice regarding their bodies? Or, does it demean them, possibly by opening them to sexual exploitation by men. Does abortion generally empower women with an important choice regarding their bodies? Or, does it demean them, possibly by opening them to sexual exploitation by men. - + === Woman's rights: Does a woman have a right to her body that includes a right to abortion? === - ===Could laws curtailing abortion have effective penalties and what would they be? === + - \|width="45%" bgcolor="#FFFAE0" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| + \|WRITE SUBQUESTION BETWEEN "=== ===" width="45%" bgcolor="#FFFAE0" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| - ====Pro==== + ====Yes==== + # [[Giving rights to unborn children takes rights away from mothers]]. + # [[Argument: Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right\| Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right]]. + # [[Argument: Women must control their bodies or risk becoming servants of the fetus\| Women must control their bodies or risk becoming servants of the fetus]]. + # [[Argument: Opponents can object to abortions, but must tolerate the choice\| Opponents can object to abortions, but must tolerate the choice]]. + # [[Argument: Denying abortion rights forces maternity on women (state rape)\| Denying abortion rights forces maternity on women (state rape)]]. + # [[A woman has the sole right to decide to seek an abortion]]. + # [[Argument: Abortion is the woman's choice, not the father's\| Abortion is the woman's choice, not the father's]] + # [[The mother's life is more valuable than the fetus]]. + # [[If women can't be trusted with "choice", how can they be trusted with children]]? - '''[[Argument: Yes, Laws might offer effective financial support, training and penalty provisions. ]]''' Presuming there was consensus on when most abortions would be discouraged, e.g. 12 weeks, law could provide a variety of incentives and penalties to discourage abortions after that point, particularly later-term abortion. For example, adoption agencies provide financial support to women who might otherwise be seeking an abortion. The focus must be on the medical professionals that conduct the abortion and mostly through financial penalties. Depending on how late the abortion, the "penalty" might range from requiring an individual to attend mandatory training on birth control, somewhat like going to driver's training for a speeding ticket, community service, including counseling other at-risk groups of women. Financial penalties and jail time are reserved for abortion parents who participate in later term abortions. + \|WRITE CONTENT FOR THE "YES" BOX ABOVE THIS CODE width="45%" bgcolor="#F2FAFB" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top: 0.5em;"\| + # [[We need to respect the rights of unborn children]]. + # [[Children who are born deserve full human rights]]. [[It is illogical to give full human rights to babies, but no human rights to fetuses]]. It would be more logical to give rights to fetuses progressively over time. Embryonic life should not be used for vanity industry. + # Sure the right of the mother should be taken into account, but so should the child. To ignore one is wrong. Women are used to only being one person. But to pretend that women cannot become two people, is to ignore nature. It may feel safe for a woman to ignore nature, if she doesn't want to grow up, but society or parents need to prepare her for becoming responsible enough to avoid duplicating, unless she wants to. People are allowed to create life, but they are not allowed to subtract. + # If men don't have the right to use their bodies to harm others, then neither should women. It is unfair that women have to carry more of a burden of carrying for children, but just because life is unfair, does not give women, in a day of birth control, the right to kill their babies. Men don't have a right to their bodies that allows them to kill babies. Men have the right to move their hands. Men have the right to kick. Men have the right to hire doctors. But men do not have a right to hire doctors to kill their children, if the mother wants to keep the baby. + # The "dialysis" analogy is invalid; pregnancy is unique''' One of the most famous arguments against abortion is the "dialysis analogy" put forward by Judith Jarvis in 1971. It compares abortion to a situation in which a healthy woman (the mother by analogy) is attached to a dying patient (the fetus by analogy) in order to keep the dying patient alive. The concept is that the dying person does not have a right to the woman's body, and that the woman has a right to "unplug" (abort) even if it means the death of the other person. The problem with the analogy is many fold: 1. A woman and a fetus have a special relationship that is incomparable to that between a woman and a stranger or even a relative. There is a special biological drive inside the mother to keep the baby alive and a dependency by the baby on the mother. The mother, therefore, has a special responsibility to keep her child alive and not abort; 2. A woman often gives a form of tacit approval to the existence of a fetus in her womb: the act of engaging in sexual behavior; 3. abortion directly kills the embryo and does not merely "unplug" and let it die. These are critical differences that invalidate a classic, central argument for abortion. + '''Parents must "control their bodies" or else risk being a servant of their children? Rights sometimes come with Responsibilities.''' Let's take the roof off the argument that claims that a person (and their body) has unlimited "rights not to be enslaved" as a consequence of being a parent, which was almost always the result of their of their own action (not "controlling their body," use of contraceptives, etc.) and yet their fetus/child has no rights for care. If the principle of "enslavement" were true would it not extend to the care of a new born or older child? A new-born depends on it's mother's body and breast milk for the same nutrition and similar if not greater nurturing available to him/her in the womb. Can a mother, father or caretaker morally or legally neglect or "unplug" the child from nutrition and care on the "enslavement" argument? No. Does one have greater personal rights by virtue of "their body," or can a parent provide care without "their body?" No. Can we protest that "forcing a parent to continue being a parent subjugates them to the child? Of course not. The child has a right to care from it's parents or legal guardians and they have a responsibility to care for him or her. - \|width="45%" bgcolor="#F2FAFB" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| + '''[[Argument: The right to choice/privacy (abortion) does not override the right to life\| The right to choice/privacy (abortion) does not override the right to life]]''' ''Jesse Jackson, U.S. civil rights activist, now in favor of legal abortion, in National Right to Life News, (January, 1977)'' - "There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of [a] higher order than the right to life ... that was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned." Thus, even if a woman has a right to her body and to "choice", this right is overridden by the fetus's right to life. And, what could be more important than life? All other rights, including the mother’s right to choice, surely stem from a prior right to life; if you have no right to any life, then how do you have a right to an autonomous one? The woman may ordinarily have a reasonable right to control her own body, but this does not confer on her the entirely separate (and insupportable) right to decide whether another human lives or dies. - ====Con==== + - \|- + '''Women should be held responsible for behavior leading to impregnation.''' If one does not want to have a baby, they should not have sex, or they should take extreme precaution when having sex. Sex is not a game. It is a serious matter of reproduction and life. If a woman plays with it and becomes pregnant, she should be held responsible to carry out the birth of her child. And, it should be noted that the responsibility could end at child-birth, with it being possible to put a child up for adoption. The consequences of an unwanted pregnancy need not be major, but they must be born by the mother and father. - \|colspan="2" width="45%" bgcolor="#F2F2F2" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| + - ==='''Presuming that some or most abortions should be discouraged, is 3 months a good cut-off?'''=== + '''[[Argument:A woman's rights are not the only rights that need to be respected in abortion\|A woman's rights are not the only rights that need to be respected in abortion]]:''' Of course, human-rights should be respected, but it is never the case that a person has a right to make a decision with no reference to the rights and wishes of others. There are two primary rights that must be considered in addition to the rights of the woman. First, the father has some rights over the fetus. Second, the fetus itself may have some rights. The point is merely that the woman's interests and rights cannot be the only ones under consideration. + '''[[Argument: The scale of abortions makes state intervention compelling\| The scale of abortions makes state intervention compelling]]''' Some argue that abortion is an individual moral choice that the state should not get involved with. Yet, when an individual moral choice is practiced on a massive scale, it becomes a concern for broader society and government as well. - \|- + '''[[Argument: Under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would adopt a pro-life social contract\| Under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would adopt a pro-life social contract]]''' The "veil of ignorance" is a notion put forward by liberal philosopher John Rawls. This idea relates to the social contract people would adopt if they were effectively unborn spirits under a "veil of ignorance" regarding where they would "end-up" in life. The conclusion is that everyone would adopt a social contract that hedges against poor outcomes if they get the "short-end of the stick". Abortion could be considered the "shortest stick" (death - no life at all), so it is likely that, under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would would adopt a pro-life social contract. It is notable that this social contract theory is tenant of liberal thought, and yet liberals are most supportive of abortion. There may be an inconsistency there. - \|width="45%" bgcolor="#FFFAE0" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| + - ====Pro==== + - '''[[Argument: if there is to be common ground or compromise, it may be in fixing the point during pregnancy which there is consensus that abortions should be limited. ]]''' For this one, let's temporarily put aside the two extremes of "unlimited abortion on demand" and "all abortions must be illegal", + * Birth control is easy to obtain. - '''[[Argument: Any cut-off certainly shouldn't be any later than 3 months:]]''' While one might better give the benefit of the doubt to important question of "when does life begin" to conception, by 12 weeks we have sufficient development in the fetus/baby to have a very developed and recognizable human baby form with movement, and we have heart beat and brain waves. These two, pulse and brain activity are measurements for whether one is "alive" even as an adult. So while abortion might remain legal prior to 3 months, after 12 weeks abortion should definitely be strongly discouraged or unlawful (with some minor, legitimate exceptions perhaps). There should be no exceptions for states, or vagueness about "medical necessity." + - '''[[Argument:A woman should certainly should be aware of their pregnancy and can a perform an abortion prior to 3 months.]]''' To hold to a right much beyond that date is extreme and irresponsible. + - \|width="45%" bgcolor="#F2FAFB" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| + - \|colspan="2" width="45%" bgcolor="#F2F2F2" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| + \|WRITE CONTENT FOR THE "NO" BOX ABOVE THIS CODE colspan="2" width="45%" bgcolor="#F2F2F2" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top: 0.5em ;"\| ===Fetus rights: Is it wrong to assign rights to the fetus? Is it not a person? === ===Fetus rights: Is it wrong to assign rights to the fetus? Is it not a person? === - '''[[Argument: A fetus cannot have a right to a woman's body to sustain its life\| A fetus cannot have a right to a woman's body to sustain its life]]''' No individual has rights over another individual. Therefore, a fetus cannot be said to have an inviolable right to a woman's body and sustenance from that body. A woman can, therefore, decide to deprive the fetus of the usage of her body (abortion). + '''[[Argument: A fetus cannot have a right to a woman's body to sustain its life\| A fetus cannot have a right to a woman's body to sustain its life]]''' [[No individual has rights over another individual]]. Therefore, a fetus cannot be said to have an inviolable right to a woman's body and sustenance from that body. A woman can, therefore, decide to deprive the fetus of the usage of her body (abortion). '''[[Argument: A fetus is no more a human than an acorn is a tree\| A fetus is no more a human than an acorn is a tree]]''' ''Judith Jarvis Thomson. "A Defense of Abortion". Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971).'' - "Most opposition to abortion relies on the premise that the fetus is a human being, a person, from the moment of conception. The premise is argued for, but, as I think, not well. Take, for example, the most common argument. We are asked to notice that the development of a human being from conception through birth into childhood is continuous; then it is said that to draw a line, to choose a point in this development and say "before this point the thing is not a person, after this point it is a person" is to make an arbitrary choice, a choice for which in the nature of things no good reason can be given. It is concluded that the fetus is or anyway that we had better say it is, a person from the moment of conception. But this conclusion does not follow. Similar things might be said about the development of an acorn into an oak trees, and it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that we had better say they are...A newly fertilized ovum, a newly implanted clump of cells, is no more a person than an acorn is an oak tree." '''[[Argument: A fetus is no more a human than an acorn is a tree\| A fetus is no more a human than an acorn is a tree]]''' ''Judith Jarvis Thomson. "A Defense of Abortion". Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971).'' - "Most opposition to abortion relies on the premise that the fetus is a human being, a person, from the moment of conception. The premise is argued for, but, as I think, not well. Take, for example, the most common argument. We are asked to notice that the development of a human being from conception through birth into childhood is continuous; then it is said that to draw a line, to choose a point in this development and say "before this point the thing is not a person, after this point it is a person" is to make an arbitrary choice, a choice for which in the nature of things no good reason can be given. It is concluded that the fetus is or anyway that we had better say it is, a person from the moment of conception. But this conclusion does not follow. Similar things might be said about the development of an acorn into an oak trees, and it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that we had better say they are...A newly fertilized ovum, a newly implanted clump of cells, is no more a person than an acorn is an oak tree." '''The fetus causes physical pain; the woman has a right to self-defense.''' The fetus causes sickness, discomfort, and and extreme pain to a woman during her pregnancy and labor. It is, therefore, justifiable for a woman to pursue an abortion in self-defense. '''The fetus causes physical pain; the woman has a right to self-defense.''' The fetus causes sickness, discomfort, and and extreme pain to a woman during her pregnancy and labor. It is, therefore, justifiable for a woman to pursue an abortion in self-defense. - '''The ''potential'' of the fetus to become a person is not the ''actual''.''' ''Ayn Rand'' - "Never mind the vicious nonsense of claiming that an embryo has a 'right to life.' A piece of protoplasm has no rights -— and no life in the human sense of the term. One may argue about the later stages of a pregnancy, but the essential issue concerns only the first three months. To equate a potential with an actual, is vicious; to advocate the sacrifice of the latter to the former, is unspeakable." + '''[[Argument: Potential of fetus to become a person is not sufficient\| Potential of fetus to become a person is not sufficient]]''' ''Ayn Rand'' - "Never mind the vicious nonsense of claiming that an embryo has a 'right to life.' A piece of protoplasm has no rights -— and no life in the human sense of the term. One may argue about the later stages of a pregnancy, but the essential issue concerns only the first three months. To equate a potential with an actual, is vicious; to advocate the sacrifice of the latter to the former, is unspeakable." '''[[Argument: If a fetus had a right to life, abortionists would be subject to murder charges\| If a fetus had a right to life, abortionists would be subject to murder charges]]''' While abortionists claim that fetuses should have a right to life, they would never go so far as to charge abortionists with murder. Yet, this is what would be required if we gave fetuses a right to life. Therefore, there is a fundamental inconsistency in this position. '''[[Argument: If a fetus had a right to life, abortionists would be subject to murder charges\| If a fetus had a right to life, abortionists would be subject to murder charges]]''' While abortionists claim that fetuses should have a right to life, they would never go so far as to charge abortionists with murder. Yet, this is what would be required if we gave fetuses a right to life. Therefore, there is a fundamental inconsistency in this position. \|WRITE CONTENT FOR THE "YES" BOX ABOVE THIS CODE width="45%" bgcolor="#F2FAFB" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top: 0.5em;"\| \|WRITE CONTENT FOR THE "YES" BOX ABOVE THIS CODE width="45%" bgcolor="#F2FAFB" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top: 0.5em;"\| + '''[[Argument: Human life and a right to life begin at conception; abortion is murder\| Human life and a right to life begin at conception; abortion is murder]]''' Human life is continuum of growth that starts at conception, not at birth. The DNA that makes a person who they are is first mixed at conception upon the male sperm entering the female egg. This is when the genetic building blocks of a person are "conceived" and built upon. The person, therefore, begins at conception. Killing the fetus, thus, destroys a growing person and can be considered murder. Ronald Reagan, quoted in the New York Times on September 22,1980 "I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born." - '''[[Argument: Human life and a right to life begin at conception; abortion is murder\| Human life and a right to life begin at conception; abortion is murder]]''' Human life is continuum of growth that starts at conception, not at birth. The DNA that makes a person who they are is first mixed at conception upon the male sperm entering the female egg. This is when the genetic building blocks of a person are "conceived" and built upon. The person, therefore, begins at conception. Killing the fetus, thus, destroys a growing person and can be considered murder. + '''[[Argument: Life is an individual right, not a privilege, for unborn humans\| Life is an individual right, not a privilege, for unborn humans]]''' ''Mother Teresa, in her amicus brief filed before the U.S. Supreme Court in the cases of Loce v. New Jersey and Krail et al. v. New Jersey in February 1994'' - "Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign... you must weep that your own government, at present, seems blind to this truth."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] - '''Life is an individual right, not a privilege, for unborn humans''' ''Mother Teresa, in her amicus brief filed before the U.S. Supreme Court in the cases of Loce v. New Jersey and Krail et al. v. New Jersey in February 1994'' - "Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign... you must weep that your own government, at present, seems blind to this truth."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''[[Argument: A fetus is uniquely capable of becoming a person; deserves rights\| A fetus is uniquely capable of becoming a person; deserves rights]]''' It is unquestionable that the fetus, at whatever stage of development, will inevitably develop the traits of a full-grown human person. It will also inevitably accumulate all of the rights that you yourself have. If we deprive the unborn of life via abortions, however, they will be deprived of all of this potential and future rights. This is why extending a right to life is of utmost importance; the future of the unborn depends on it. - '''[[Argument: A fetus is uniquely capable of becoming a person; deserves rights\| A fetus is uniquely capable of becoming a person; deserves rights]]''' It is unquestionable that the fetus, at whatever stage of development, will inevitably develop the traits of a full-grown human person. It will also inevitably accumulate all of the rights that you yourself have. If we deprive the unborn of life via abortions, however, they will be deprived of all of this potential and future rights. This is why extending a right to life is of utmost importance; the future of the unborn depends on it. + '''No one argues that an acorn or even an animal fetus has a “sanctity” or rights.''' No, human beings are in an entirely different class. We are called not to murder human life, not acorns. It's not the stage of development, it's the precious value of humans. Abortionists focus only on the early stage of development and ignore the specialness and reverence we should have for even a tiny (but growing) human life. A living, developing human fetus by definition IS a human life. - '''[[Argument: Wanted fetuses are beloved "babies"; unwanted ones are "tissue" (inconsistent)\| Wanted fetuses are beloved "babies"; unwanted ones are "tissue" (inconsistent)]]''' ''Naomi Wolf, feminist author and advocate of legal abortion, in "Our Bodies, Our Souls", The New Republic (October 15, 1995)'' - "Wanted fetuses are charming, complex, REM-dreaming little beings whose profile on the sonogram looks just like Daddy, but unwanted ones are mere 'uterine material'?"[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''If these criteria for being a "person" are valid then killing infants is justifiable.''' Infants also lack self motivation, self-awareness, rationality, autonomy, and the ability to converse on a variety of subjects. + '''[[Argument: Wanted fetuses are "babies"; unwanted ones are "tissue" (inconsistent)\| Wanted fetuses are beloved "babies"; unwanted ones are "tissue" (inconsistent)]]''' ''Naomi Wolf, feminist author and advocate of legal abortion, in "Our Bodies, Our Souls", The New Republic (October 15, 1995)'' - "Wanted fetuses are charming, complex, REM-dreaming little beings whose profile on the sonogram looks just like Daddy, but unwanted ones are mere 'uterine material'?"[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''Women can only be "pregnant" with a "child" not merely a "fetus"''' This is similar to the above argument. The point is that pregnancy can only be called pregnancy and that you can only be pregnant with a "child". Nobody would ever say, "I'm pregnant with a fetus". Therefore, fetuses should be considered "unborn children" with correlating rights. '''Women can only be "pregnant" with a "child" not merely a "fetus"''' This is similar to the above argument. The point is that pregnancy can only be called pregnancy and that you can only be pregnant with a "child". Nobody would ever say, "I'm pregnant with a fetus". Therefore, fetuses should be considered "unborn children" with correlating rights. '''Abortion deprives a fetus of an entire human future:''' Some argue that abortion is wrong because it deprives the embryo of a valuable future. Indeed, killing any human being is wrong because it deprives the victim of a valuable future: any experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that they would have enjoyed. Abortion is particularly egregious because it deprives a fetus of ''all'' experiences as a human being. '''Abortion deprives a fetus of an entire human future:''' Some argue that abortion is wrong because it deprives the embryo of a valuable future. Indeed, killing any human being is wrong because it deprives the victim of a valuable future: any experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that they would have enjoyed. Abortion is particularly egregious because it deprives a fetus of ''all'' experiences as a human being. - '''[[Argument: The unborn are voiceless and should be protected against abortion\| The unborn are voiceless and should be protected against abortion]]''' ''Ronald Reagan. New York Times. September 22nd. 1980'' - "I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born."[http://www.quotegarden.com/abortion.html] In other words, the unborn would all be against abortion, but, of course, they can't express their opinion as for/against abortion. It is important to protect such a voiceless minority in society. + '''[[Argument: The unborn are voiceless/vulnerable and should be protected from abortion\| The unborn are voiceless and should be protected against abortion]]''' ''Ronald Reagan. New York Times. September 22nd. 1980'' - "I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born."[http://www.quotegarden.com/abortion.html] In other words, the unborn would all be against abortion, but, of course, they can't express their opinion as for/against abortion. It is important to protect such a voiceless minority in society. '''That the fetus may do harm to the mother cannot justify destroying it.''' Even when born, a child can inflict much more physical pain on the mother than he can on the womb, his destruction is still illegal. '''That the fetus may do harm to the mother cannot justify destroying it.''' Even when born, a child can inflict much more physical pain on the mother than he can on the womb, his destruction is still illegal. '''[[Argument: Fetuses are conscious in the womb and suffer during abortions\| Fetuses are conscious in the womb and suffer during abortions]]''' Unborn babies have a certain level of consciousness in the womb. This is partly why mothers sometimes walk around with earphones on their stomachs. Irrespective of the level of consciousness of unborn babies, their central nervous system certainly affords them the ability to feel pain and suffer. For these reasons, they should not be aborted. '''[[Argument: Fetuses are conscious in the womb and suffer during abortions\| Fetuses are conscious in the womb and suffer during abortions]]''' Unborn babies have a certain level of consciousness in the womb. This is partly why mothers sometimes walk around with earphones on their stomachs. Irrespective of the level of consciousness of unborn babies, their central nervous system certainly affords them the ability to feel pain and suffer. For these reasons, they should not be aborted. - \|WRITE CONTENT FOR THE "NO" BOX ABOVE THIS CODE colspan="2" width="45%" bgcolor="#F2F2F2" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top: 0.5em ;"\| - === Woman's rights: Does a woman have a right to her body that includes a right to abortion? === - \|WRITE SUBQUESTION BETWEEN "=== ===" width="45%" bgcolor="#FFFAE0" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| - '''[[Argument: Women must control their bodies or risk becoming servants of the fetus\| Women must control their bodies or risk becoming servants of the fetus]]''' Forcing a woman to continue an unwanted pregnancy subjugates a woman to the fetus. Under no circumstances should a woman's right to control her own body be curtailed in this way. Or, in other words, a fetus cannot be said to have rights to a woman's body that enslave the woman and her body in the relationship. This argument is encapsulated in what is known as the '''"dialysis analogy"''', put forward by Judith Jarvis in "A defense of abortion". The argument is that, an individual that hypothetically lives off of another woman's body does not have a right to continue to utilize that woman's body as a kind of "dialysis machine". The woman has a right to "unplug". In the same sense, a woman has the right to "unplug" her body from the fetus, which depends on the woman's body to live, but which does not have rights over the woman's body for its continued existence. - '''[[Argument: Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right\| Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right]]''' There are many things that are seen as immoral by some people, but which must, nevertheless, be upheld as a right. As is argued above, the fetus has no absolute right to the woman's body, and therefore the woman has a right to "unplug" (abort). This is the case no matter how "wrong" we might believe the act of "unplugging" and killing the fetus to be. - '''[[Argument: Opponents can object to abortions, but must tolerate the choice\| Opponents can object to abortions, but must tolerate the choice]]''' Opponents of abortion may have a strong moral case and belief against abortion. Yet, their beliefs are not shared by all. They must tolerate a woman's right to have an abortion, even if they believe the act to be morally wrong. The best that opponents can hope for is to convince women that it is immoral, but to ask for the illegalization of abortion would be to wrongly deny that abortion is a ''right''. - '''[[Argument: Denying abortion rights forces maternity on women (state rape)\| Denying abortion rights forces maternity on women (state rape)]]''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey Edward Abbey] , an American author - "Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State."[http://www.quotegarden.com/abortion.html] - '''A woman has the sole right to decide to seek an abortion.''' A woman carries a child during pregnancy and undergoes child-birth. No-one else carries the child for her; it will be her responsibility alone, and thus she should have the sole right to decide. These are important events in a woman’s life, and if she does not want to go through the full nine months and subsequent birth, then she should have the right to choose not to do so. There are few – if any – other cases where something with such profound consequences is forced upon a human being against her/his will. - '''[[Argument: Abortion is the woman's choice, not the father's\| Abortion is the woman's choice, not the father's]]''' The Father should be told that the woman is having an abortion but until he carries and gives birth to his own baby then it is not his choice to tell the woman that she has to keep and give a painful birth to this fetus. - '''The mother's life is more valuable than the fetus.''' What makes the mothers life more important is that she is a full-grown adult and has the ability to make more children. - '''Women can reproduce new children with equal value to the aborted.''' The potential of any given child is unimportant in the context of it being possible, after an abortion, for a mother to reproduce many more children. Who is to say that a particular child has any more potential than the next? This argument is strengthened by the fact that women and couples typically aim to produce a certain number of children. Even if they abort a child (they'll still aim to produce the same number), so the quantity of newborns and potential is not diminished by the existence of abortion. - '''If women can't be trusted with "choice", how can they be trusted with children?''' It is important that society trust in women and individuals to make the right moral choices. In regard to abortion, if women can't be trusted to make the right choice, how can they be trusted with children? - \|WRITE CONTENT FOR THE "YES" BOX ABOVE THIS CODE width="45%" bgcolor="#F2FAFB" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top: 0.5em;"\| - '''The "dialysis" analogy is invalid; pregnancy is unique''' One of the most famous arguments against abortion is the "dialysis analogy" put forward by Judith Jarvis in 1971. It compares abortion to a situation in which a healthy woman (the mother by analogy) is attached to a dying patient (the fetus by analogy) in order to keep the dying patient alive. The concept is that the dying person does not have a right to the woman's body, and that the woman has a right to "unplug" (abort) even if it means the death of the other person. The problem with the analogy is many fold: 1. A woman and a fetus have a special relationship that is incomparable to that between a woman and a stranger or even a relative. There is a special biological drive inside the mother to keep the baby alive and a dependency by the baby on the mother. The mother, therefore, has a special responsibility to keep her child alive and not abort; 2. A woman often gives a form of tacit approval to the existence of a fetus in her womb: the act of engaging in sexual behavior; 3. abortion directly kills the embryo and does not merely "unplug" and let it die. These are critical differences that invalidate a classic, central argument for abortion. - '''Parents must "control their bodies" or else risk being a servant of their children? Rights sometimes come with Responsibilities.''' Let's take the roof off the argument that claims that a person (and their body) has unlimited "rights not to be enslaved" as a consequence of being a parent, which was almost always the result of their of their own action (not "controlling their body," use of contraceptives, etc.) and yet their fetus/child has no rights for care. If the principle of "enslavement" were true would it not extend to the care of a new born or older child? A new-born depends on it's mother's body and breast milk for the same nutrition and similar if not greater nurturing available to him/her in the womb. Can a mother, father or caretaker morally or legally neglect or "unplug" the child from nutrition and care on the "enslavement" argument? No. Does one have greater personal rights by virtue of "their body," or can a parent provide care without "their body?" No. Can we protest that "forcing a parent to continue being a parent subjugates them to the child? Of course not. The child has a right to care from it's parents or legal guardians and they have a responsibility to care for him or her. - '''[[Argument: The right to choice/privacy (abortion) does not override the right to life\| The right to choice/privacy (abortion) does not override the right to life]]''' ''Jesse Jackson, U.S. civil rights activist, now in favor of legal abortion, in National Right to Life News, (January, 1977)'' - "There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of [a] higher order than the right to life ... that was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned." Thus, even if a woman has a right to her body and to "choice", this right is overridden by the fetus's right to life. And, what could be more important than life? All other rights, including the mother’s right to choice, surely stem from a prior right to life; if you have no right to any life, then how do you have a right to an autonomous one? The woman may ordinarily have a reasonable right to control her own body, but this does not confer on her the entirely separate (and insupportable) right to decide whether another human lives or dies. - '''Women should be held responsible for behavior leading to impregnation.''' If one does not want to have a baby, they should not have sex, or they should take extreme precaution when having sex. Sex is not a game. It is a serious matter of reproduction and life. If a woman plays with it and becomes pregnant, she should be held responsible to carry out the birth of her child. And, it should be noted that the responsibility could end at child-birth, with it being possible to put a child up for adoption. The consequences of an unwanted pregnancy need not be major, but they must be born by the mother and father. - '''[[Argument:A woman's rights are not the only rights that need to be respected in abortion\|A woman's rights are not the only rights that need to be respected in abortion]]:''' Of course, human-rights should be respected, but it is never the case that a person has a right to make a decision with no reference to the rights and wishes of others. There are two primary rights that must be considered in addition to the rights of the woman. First, the father has some rights over the fetus. Second, the fetus itself may have some rights. The point is merely that the woman's interests and rights cannot be the only ones under consideration. - '''[[Argument: The scale of abortions makes state intervention compelling\| The scale of abortions makes state intervention compelling]]''' Some argue that abortion is an individual moral choice that the state should not get involved with. Yet, when an individual moral choice is practiced on a massive scale, it becomes a concern for broader society and government as well. - '''[[Argument: Under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would adopt a pro-life social contract\| Under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would adopt a pro-life social contract]]''' The "veil of ignorance" is a notion put forward by liberal philosopher John Rawls. This idea relates to the social contract people would adopt if they were effectively unborn spirits under a "veil of ignorance" regarding where they would "end-up" in life. The conclusion is that everyone would adopt a social contract that hedges against poor outcomes if they get the "short-end of the stick". Abortion could be considered the "shortest stick" (death - no life at all), so it is likely that, under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would would adopt a pro-life social contract. It is notable that this social contract theory is tenant of liberal thought, and yet liberals are most supportive of abortion. There may be an inconsistency there. \|width="45%" bgcolor="#FFFAE0" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| \|width="45%" bgcolor="#FFFAE0" style="border:1px solid #BAC5FD;padding:.4em;padding-top:0.5em;"\| '''[[Argument: Even if abortions "kill life", it can be justified as upholding a woman's life\| Even if abortions "kill life", it can be justified as upholding a woman's life]]''' Even if a fetus is considered a "baby" or human life, abortions can still be justified. The "baby" is still not a citizen with rights, while it is in the womb. In this case, the woman's right to choose outweighs considerations of the life of the fetus. The life of the woman takes precedent over the life of the fetus. This is pro-life (pro-the-life-of-the-woman) and so respects the dignity of life. '''[[Argument: Even if abortions "kill life", it can be justified as upholding a woman's life\| Even if abortions "kill life", it can be justified as upholding a woman's life]]''' Even if a fetus is considered a "baby" or human life, abortions can still be justified. The "baby" is still not a citizen with rights, while it is in the womb. In this case, the woman's right to choose outweighs considerations of the life of the fetus. The life of the woman takes precedent over the life of the fetus. This is pro-life (pro-the-life-of-the-woman) and so respects the dignity of life. '''There is no inviolable "right to life" in abortion and other cases.''' It is clear that the notion of "the right to life" can sometimes be violated for certain ends. This is the case in sending soldiers to war. So as in abortion, it can be justified to kill a fetus under certain circumstances. '''There is no inviolable "right to life" in abortion and other cases.''' It is clear that the notion of "the right to life" can sometimes be violated for certain ends. This is the case in sending soldiers to war. So as in abortion, it can be justified to kill a fetus under certain circumstances. - '''It is hypocritical to protect fetuses but send men to die in war.''' ''Rick Claro'' - "George W. Bush will protect your unborn fetus, then send your grown child to die in war."[http://www.quotegarden.com/abortion.html] This is a common argument that undermines the notion of "the sanctity of life" and the notion that it is "inviolable". Clearly, in war, humans frequently justify killing other human beings. + '''[[Argument: Hypocritical to protect fetuses, but casually wage war\| Hypocritical to protect fetuses, but casually wage war]]''' ''Rick Claro'' - "George W. Bush will protect your unborn fetus, then send your grown child to die in war."[http://www.quotegarden.com/abortion.html] This is a common argument that undermines the notion of "the sanctity of life" and the notion that it is "inviolable". Clearly, in war, humans frequently justify killing other human beings. '''In a free society, abortion is truly a matter of personal belief.''' The issue of abortion debates the question of whether or not the unborn child is a human being, or at what point it becomes so. This question cannot be answered for the collective body of society, rather should be answered by the individual based on personal and religious beliefs. If an individual believes that an unborn child is a human being, then the "right to life" term can be justified by that individual for their own personal choice. If an individual believes that the unborn child is not a human being, then there is no justification for laws to prohibiting an abortion. Therefore It should be argued that this is an issue for the individual; that an individual seeking an abortion has their own responsibility to be informed thoroughly about the matter, but should never be forced to agree or disagree. '''In a free society, abortion is truly a matter of personal belief.''' The issue of abortion debates the question of whether or not the unborn child is a human being, or at what point it becomes so. This question cannot be answered for the collective body of society, rather should be answered by the individual based on personal and religious beliefs. If an individual believes that an unborn child is a human being, then the "right to life" term can be justified by that individual for their own personal choice. If an individual believes that the unborn child is not a human being, then there is no justification for laws to prohibiting an abortion. Therefore It should be argued that this is an issue for the individual; that an individual seeking an abortion has their own responsibility to be informed thoroughly about the matter, but should never be forced to agree or disagree. '''[[Argument: Abortion generally devalues the dignity we assign to life\| Abortion generally devalues the dignity we assign to life]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984'' - "We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life—the unborn—without diminishing the value of all human life."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Abortion generally devalues the dignity we assign to life\| Abortion generally devalues the dignity we assign to life]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984'' - "We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life—the unborn—without diminishing the value of all human life."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] - '''Abortion sets precedent of valuing some humans less than others.''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", ''Human Life Review'', Spring 1984.'' - "Regrettably, we live at a time when some persons do not value all human life. They want to pick and choose which individuals have value."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''[[Argument: Abortion sets precedent of valuing some humans less than others\| Abortion sets precedent of valuing some humans less than others]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", ''Human Life Review'', Spring 1984.'' - "Regrettably, we live at a time when some persons do not value all human life. They want to pick and choose which individuals have value."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''No one argues that an acorn or even an animal fetus has a “sanctity” or rights.''' No, human beings are entirely different class. We are called not to murder human life, not acorns. Abortionists focus only on stage development and ignore the specialness and reverence we should have for even a tiny (but growing) human life. '''[[Argument: Uncertainty over whether fetuses are "life" should halt abortions\| Uncertainty over whether fetuses are "life" should halt abortions]].''' There are strong arguments in favor of fetuses being life from conception and some strong arguments against. At a minimum, uncertainty about the "truth" should cause us to place a moratorium on abortions until we figure it out. '''[[Argument: Uncertainty over whether fetuses are "life" should halt abortions\| Uncertainty over whether fetuses are "life" should halt abortions]].''' There are strong arguments in favor of fetuses being life from conception and some strong arguments against. At a minimum, uncertainty about the "truth" should cause us to place a moratorium on abortions until we figure it out. - '''Human life is a continuum that does not start and stop at conception.''' ''George Carlin, comedian'' - "People say 'life begins at conception.' I say life began about a billion years ago and it's a continuous process."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] Therefore, you can't call a fetus something other than life; it is part of the long continuum of human life and must be fully respected as such. + '''[[Argument: Human life is continuum; doesn't start/stop at conception\| Human life is continuum; doesn't start/stop at conception]]''' ''George Carlin, comedian'' - "People say 'life begins at conception.' I say life began about a billion years ago and it's a continuous process."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] Therefore, you can't call a fetus something other than life; it is part of the long continuum of human life and must be fully respected as such. '''[[Argument: Abortions encourage infanticide\| Abortions encourage infanticide]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984.'' - "Late-term abortions, especially when the baby survives, but is then killed by starvation, neglect, or suffocation, show once again the link between abortion and infanticide. The time to stop both is now."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Abortions encourage infanticide\| Abortions encourage infanticide]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984.'' - "Late-term abortions, especially when the baby survives, but is then killed by starvation, neglect, or suffocation, show once again the link between abortion and infanticide. The time to stop both is now."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''Killing helpless fetus is incomparable to death of willing soldier.''' How can you compare an unborn baby to the willing beings that fight in wars they have choosen the fate of going to war and the know of the harsh consquenses that may follow. A baby on the other hand is born into the world if permitted not of their own free will but of the mother's decision to abort or have the child. '''Killing helpless fetus is incomparable to death of willing soldier.''' How can you compare an unborn baby to the willing beings that fight in wars they have choosen the fate of going to war and the know of the harsh consquenses that may follow. A baby on the other hand is born into the world if permitted not of their own free will but of the mother's decision to abort or have the child. '''"Back alley" abortions are more frequent when abortion is illegal.''' Back-alley abortions are abortions performed illegally on the "black-market" when abortion is generally illegal. Back-alley abortions are less regulated and more likely to result in the death or harming of the mother. '''"Back alley" abortions are more frequent when abortion is illegal.''' Back-alley abortions are abortions performed illegally on the "black-market" when abortion is generally illegal. Back-alley abortions are less regulated and more likely to result in the death or harming of the mother. - '''Legal abortions are much safer than black-market abortions.''' ''Mary Calderone, founder of SIECUS and medical director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, "Illegal abortion as a public health problem," American Journal of Public Health, July 1960'' - "90% of illegal abortions are being done by physicians. Call them what you will, abortionists or anything else, they are still physicians, trained as such; . . . They must do a pretty good job if the death rate is as low as it is . . . Abortion, whether therapeutic or illegal, is in the main no longer dangerous, because it is being done well by physicians."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''[[Argument: Legal abortions safer than black market abortions\| Legal abortions safer than black market abortions]]''' ''Mary Calderone, founder of SIECUS and medical director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, "Illegal abortion as a public health problem," American Journal of Public Health, July 1960'' - "90% of illegal abortions are being done by physicians. Call them what you will, abortionists or anything else, they are still physicians, trained as such; . . . They must do a pretty good job if the death rate is as low as it is . . . Abortion, whether therapeutic or illegal, is in the main no longer dangerous, because it is being done well by physicians."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Abortion does not negatively affect a woman's sexual functions]]''' A study conducted at University of Copenhagen has shown legal abortion is associated with few adverse effects on sexual function among women in Denmark. '''[[Abortion does not negatively affect a woman's sexual functions]]''' A study conducted at University of Copenhagen has shown legal abortion is associated with few adverse effects on sexual function among women in Denmark. '''Abortion is no more risky or harmful than ordinary birth.''' While abortion has it's risks, it's important that we compare it against the alternative, which is going through with giving birth. This probably entails just as many risks, if not more, as an abortion. '''Abortion is no more risky or harmful than ordinary birth.''' While abortion has it's risks, it's important that we compare it against the alternative, which is going through with giving birth. This probably entails just as many risks, if not more, as an abortion. '''[[Argument: Abortions are very risky and hazardous to the women\| Abortions are very risky and hazardous to the women]]''' ''Warren Hern, abortion practitioner and author of ''Abortion Practice'' (1990), the textbook most widely used in the United States to teach abortion to medical personnel'' - "In medical practice, there are few surgical procedures given so little attention and so underrated in its potential hazard as abortion." '''[[Argument: Abortions are very risky and hazardous to the women\| Abortions are very risky and hazardous to the women]]''' ''Warren Hern, abortion practitioner and author of ''Abortion Practice'' (1990), the textbook most widely used in the United States to teach abortion to medical personnel'' - "In medical practice, there are few surgical procedures given so little attention and so underrated in its potential hazard as abortion." '''Abortions are emotionally and psychologically unsafe.''' If by 'safe' you mean that a woman can survive, then the answer is possibly. A woman can have even multiple abortions and live through each. But if by 'safe' you mean that she will experience no physical, emotional, or psychological harm, then the answer is no. She will spend the rest of her life dealing with the myriad of consequences of the abortion by constantly shoving the rattling skeletons back into the closet. And will daily seek expiation, or seek to justify herself. In any case, none of these leaves a woman 'safe'. '''Abortions are emotionally and psychologically unsafe.''' If by 'safe' you mean that a woman can survive, then the answer is possibly. A woman can have even multiple abortions and live through each. But if by 'safe' you mean that she will experience no physical, emotional, or psychological harm, then the answer is no. She will spend the rest of her life dealing with the myriad of consequences of the abortion by constantly shoving the rattling skeletons back into the closet. And will daily seek expiation, or seek to justify herself. In any case, none of these leaves a woman 'safe'. '''[[Argument: Abortion allows women to become better people without a child\| Abortion allows women to become better people without a child]]''' ''Rachel Kramer Bussel, "I'm Pro-Choice and I Fuck", Village Voice, January 13, 2006'' - "I'm pro-choice because I couldn't fully enjoy sex were I consumed with worry about the potential consequences. I'm pro-choice for all my friends who've had abortions and gone on to do great things, who are better women for being childless (for now). I'm pro-choice for the new moms and dads I know who were able to actively choose to become parents. I'm pro-choice for all those babies... born knowing they're 100 percent loved and wanted."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Abortion allows women to become better people without a child\| Abortion allows women to become better people without a child]]''' ''Rachel Kramer Bussel, "I'm Pro-Choice and I Fuck", Village Voice, January 13, 2006'' - "I'm pro-choice because I couldn't fully enjoy sex were I consumed with worry about the potential consequences. I'm pro-choice for all my friends who've had abortions and gone on to do great things, who are better women for being childless (for now). I'm pro-choice for the new moms and dads I know who were able to actively choose to become parents. I'm pro-choice for all those babies... born knowing they're 100 percent loved and wanted."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: No woman "wants" an abortion; it is only the least bad alternative\| No woman "wants" an abortion; it is only the least bad alternative]]''' Women do not "want" abortions. They find themselves in a position in which abortion is the less bad between bad alternatives. This argument is important in explaining that abortion is not about a malicious desire to "kill babies" or even to express their right to choose; it is about allowing women to make the best choice that they can. '''[[Argument: No woman "wants" an abortion; it is only the least bad alternative\| No woman "wants" an abortion; it is only the least bad alternative]]''' Women do not "want" abortions. They find themselves in a position in which abortion is the less bad between bad alternatives. This argument is important in explaining that abortion is not about a malicious desire to "kill babies" or even to express their right to choose; it is about allowing women to make the best choice that they can. '''[[Argument: Abortion advocates wrongly value "quality of life" over "sanctity of life"\| Abortion advocates wrongly value "quality of life" over "sanctity of life"]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984'' - "As a nation, we must choose between the sanctity of life ethic and the 'quality of life' ethic. I have no trouble identifying the answer our nation has always given to this basic question, and the answer that I hope and pray it will give in the future."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Abortion advocates wrongly value "quality of life" over "sanctity of life"\| Abortion advocates wrongly value "quality of life" over "sanctity of life"]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984'' - "As a nation, we must choose between the sanctity of life ethic and the 'quality of life' ethic. I have no trouble identifying the answer our nation has always given to this basic question, and the answer that I hope and pray it will give in the future."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Child-rearing is a beautiful, natural process, not a burden\| Child-rearing is a beautiful, natural process, not a burden]]''' ''Victoria Woodhull, first woman to run for U.S. President, member of the Equal Rights Party, in Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly (September 23, 1871).'' - "Child-bearing is not a disease, but a beautiful office of nature. But to our faded-out, sickly, exhausted type of women, it is a fearful ordeal. Nearly every child born is an unwelcome guest. Abortion is the choice of evils for such women."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Child-rearing is a beautiful, natural process, not a burden\| Child-rearing is a beautiful, natural process, not a burden]]''' ''Victoria Woodhull, first woman to run for U.S. President, member of the Equal Rights Party, in Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly (September 23, 1871).'' - "Child-bearing is not a disease, but a beautiful office of nature. But to our faded-out, sickly, exhausted type of women, it is a fearful ordeal. Nearly every child born is an unwelcome guest. Abortion is the choice of evils for such women."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] - '''On abortion, the issue is when love, not life, begins''' ''Robert Casey, former Governor of Pennsylvania'' - "When we look to the unborn child, the real issue is not when life begins, but when love begins."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] The point is, since we should be capable of loving a fetus (a human being in the making), we should subsequently provide that being with rights and protections. It matters not what we call the unborn child (a "baby", "human", "life"); as long as we love it, we should protect it. And, an attitude and life-style of love and acceptance is superior to an attitude and life-style of fear and regret. + '''[[Argument: On abortion the issue is when love not life begins\| On abortion the issue is when love not life begins]]''' ''Robert Casey, former Governor of Pennsylvania'' - "When we look to the unborn child, the real issue is not when life begins, but when love begins."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] The point is, since we should be capable of loving a fetus (a human being in the making), we should subsequently provide that being with rights and protections. It matters not what we call the unborn child (a "baby", "human", "life"); as long as we love it, we should protect it. And, an attitude and life-style of love and acceptance is superior to an attitude and life-style of fear and regret. '''[[Argument: Abortion worsens parenting by devaluing the parent-child relationship\| Abortion worsens parenting by devaluing the parent-child relationship]]''' If an unborn child is seen as expendable, the parent comes to believe that their relationship with the unborn child is conditional and non-binding. During child-rearing, this philosophy can be very damaging for the quality of parenting. '''[[Argument: Abortion worsens parenting by devaluing the parent-child relationship\| Abortion worsens parenting by devaluing the parent-child relationship]]''' If an unborn child is seen as expendable, the parent comes to believe that their relationship with the unborn child is conditional and non-binding. During child-rearing, this philosophy can be very damaging for the quality of parenting. + '''Child protection.''' Many pregnant women who want to undergo abortion were physically and sexually abused and thus they do not wish a child became a party to such abuses. Most women would like to protect their child or potential child from enduring the suffering to which they themselves are exposed - and if this is not possible, these women would go for an abortion. - Many pregnant women are physically and sexually abused and do not wish for a child or fetus to become a party to such abuses. Some women would like to protect a child or potential child from enduring the suffering to which they themselves are exposed. + ====No==== - ====Pro==== + '''The child's life is being taken away.''' His or her life is gone before he or she has gotten a chance to live. That is the ultimate injustice, hazard. ===Depression: Are women usually content with a past decision to abort?=== ===Depression: Are women usually content with a past decision to abort?=== '''[[Argument: Risk-taking and disorders lead to abortions; not the opposite\| Risk-taking and disorders lead to abortions; not the opposite]]''' This argument is partly a response to studies that claim that there is a correlation between abortion and mental disorders. The point is that this might be true, but the causality of this correlation must be determined. It may be that those with existing mental disorders are more likely to take risks that lead to the need for abortion, and that this is the explanation for the correlation, rather than that abortion leads to mental disorders. '''[[Argument: Risk-taking and disorders lead to abortions; not the opposite\| Risk-taking and disorders lead to abortions; not the opposite]]''' This argument is partly a response to studies that claim that there is a correlation between abortion and mental disorders. The point is that this might be true, but the causality of this correlation must be determined. It may be that those with existing mental disorders are more likely to take risks that lead to the need for abortion, and that this is the explanation for the correlation, rather than that abortion leads to mental disorders. - + '''[[Argument: Abortion often leads to regret, depression, mental illness\| Abortion often leads to regret, depression, and even mental illness]]''' ''Carol Everett'' - “The product, abortion, is skillfully marketed and sold to the woman at the crisis time in her life. She buys the product, finds it defective and wants to return it for a refund. But, it's too late.”[http://thinkexist.com/quotations/abortion/] These feelings of regret often lead to depression and sometimes to a condition known as '''"post-abortion syndrome".''' - '''[[Argument: Abortion often leads to regret, depression, and even mental illness\| Abortion often leads to regret, depression, and even mental illness]]''' ''Carol Everett'' - “The product, abortion, is skillfully marketed and sold to the woman at the crisis time in her life. She buys the product, finds it defective and wants to return it for a refund. But, it's too late.”[http://thinkexist.com/quotations/abortion/] These feelings of regret often lead to depression and sometimes to a condition known as '''"post-abortion syndrome".''' + '''Alcoholism and drug-use are common after abortions.''' There are many reports of woman falling into not only depression, but spates of alcoholism and drug-use after having abortions. '''Alcoholism and drug-use are common after abortions.''' There are many reports of woman falling into not only depression, but spates of alcoholism and drug-use after having abortions. '''[[Argument: The lives of women have been destroyed by abortion, not enhanced\| The lives of women have been destroyed by abortion, not enhanced]]''' ''Norma McCorvey, the anonymous litigant known as "Jane Roe" in the landmark abortion case, Roe vs. Wade in her book Won by Love (June 17, 2003)'' - "One of my most important activities is that I am involved, together with Sandra Cano of Doe vs. Bolton, in the efforts of the Texas Justice Foundation (and other groups) to work for the reversal of the Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton decisions. The approach we are taking is to show that the lives and rights of women have not been advanced or enhanced, but rather destroyed, by abortion-on-demand. We are collecting affidavits from women who have been harmed by abortion, from women who are convinced that authentic feminism is pro-life, and from professionals who know that Roe has weakened the moral fabric of the legal and medical professions."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: The lives of women have been destroyed by abortion, not enhanced\| The lives of women have been destroyed by abortion, not enhanced]]''' ''Norma McCorvey, the anonymous litigant known as "Jane Roe" in the landmark abortion case, Roe vs. Wade in her book Won by Love (June 17, 2003)'' - "One of my most important activities is that I am involved, together with Sandra Cano of Doe vs. Bolton, in the efforts of the Texas Justice Foundation (and other groups) to work for the reversal of the Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton decisions. The approach we are taking is to show that the lives and rights of women have not been advanced or enhanced, but rather destroyed, by abortion-on-demand. We are collecting affidavits from women who have been harmed by abortion, from women who are convinced that authentic feminism is pro-life, and from professionals who know that Roe has weakened the moral fabric of the legal and medical professions."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''Adoption can be as emotionally damaging as abortion.''' Giving up a child for adoption can be just as emotionally damaging as having an abortion. It is, therefore, not necessarily easier on the mother. '''Adoption can be as emotionally damaging as abortion.''' Giving up a child for adoption can be just as emotionally damaging as having an abortion. It is, therefore, not necessarily easier on the mother. '''[[Argument: "Unwanted" children can be adopted; abortion is unnecessary\| "Unwanted" children can be adopted; abortion is unnecessary]]''' ''Mother Teresa of Calcutta quotes (Albanian born Indian Missionary and Founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. 1910-1997)'' - "These concerns (for orphan children in India and elsewhere in the world) are very good, but often these same people are not concerned with the millions that are killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today, Abortion...For the pregnant women who don't want their children, give them to me."[http://thinkexist.com/quotations/abortion/] '''[[Argument: "Unwanted" children can be adopted; abortion is unnecessary\| "Unwanted" children can be adopted; abortion is unnecessary]]''' ''Mother Teresa of Calcutta quotes (Albanian born Indian Missionary and Founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. 1910-1997)'' - "These concerns (for orphan children in India and elsewhere in the world) are very good, but often these same people are not concerned with the millions that are killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today, Abortion...For the pregnant women who don't want their children, give them to me."[http://thinkexist.com/quotations/abortion/] - '''Support can be provided to women that don't want or can't handle a child.''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", ''Human Life Review'', Spring 1984.'' - "As we continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, we must also continue to lay the groundwork for a society in which abortion is not the accepted answer to unwanted pregnancy. Pro-life people have already taken heroic steps, often at great personal sacrifice, to provide for unwed mothers."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''[[Argument: Support can be given to women who can't support a child\| Support can be given to women who can't support a child]]''' ''Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", ''Human Life Review'', Spring 1984.'' - "As we continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, we must also continue to lay the groundwork for a society in which abortion is not the accepted answer to unwanted pregnancy. Pro-life people have already taken heroic steps, often at great personal sacrifice, to provide for unwed mothers."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Abortion is not a just response to social problems facing the unborn\| Abortion is not a just response to social problems facing the unborn]]''' If a child is likely to face social difficulties, this is absolutely no reason to seek an abortion. The notion that a child will be unhappy due to these conditions or will have no chances of success is ludicrous. It is easy to find examples of poor and neglected children that have grown up to become thriving, successful, and happy adults. In any case, if social problems are the concern, these problems should be addressed; abortion is a terrible band-aid. Saying that a child would encounter social problems during his or her development is not the same as saying that he or she is better off dead. '''[[Argument: Abortion is not a just response to social problems facing the unborn\| Abortion is not a just response to social problems facing the unborn]]''' If a child is likely to face social difficulties, this is absolutely no reason to seek an abortion. The notion that a child will be unhappy due to these conditions or will have no chances of success is ludicrous. It is easy to find examples of poor and neglected children that have grown up to become thriving, successful, and happy adults. In any case, if social problems are the concern, these problems should be addressed; abortion is a terrible band-aid. Saying that a child would encounter social problems during his or her development is not the same as saying that he or she is better off dead. - '''Abortions are mostly sought when birth control fails.''' ''Clayton H. McCracken, director of Inter Mountain Planned Parenthood, Fall 2000'' - "Most of the patients come to our abortion clinic as a result of failure of a birth control method, or a failure of our system to provide birth control."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''[[Argument: Abortions are mostly sought when birth control fails\| Abortions are mostly sought when birth control fails]]''' ''Clayton H. McCracken, director of Inter Mountain Planned Parenthood, Fall 2000'' - "Most of the patients come to our abortion clinic as a result of failure of a birth control method, or a failure of our system to provide birth control."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: Abortion is just when birth control fails (involuntary impregnation)\| Abortion is just when birth control fails (involuntary impregnation)]]''' If a woman does not voluntarily choose to seek a pregnancy, it is impossible for a fetus to have any claim over the woman's body. Only when the woman participates voluntarily in creating a life, does she open the door to any responsibilities to the fetus or to any rights that the fetus may have over the mother. If a pregnancy is a result of an accident (the failure of birth control), it cannot be called voluntary. Therefore, the fetus cannot be said to have any rights over the mother's body, and abortion can be said to be justified. '''[[Argument: Abortion is just when birth control fails (involuntary impregnation)\| Abortion is just when birth control fails (involuntary impregnation)]]''' If a woman does not voluntarily choose to seek a pregnancy, it is impossible for a fetus to have any claim over the woman's body. Only when the woman participates voluntarily in creating a life, does she open the door to any responsibilities to the fetus or to any rights that the fetus may have over the mother. If a pregnancy is a result of an accident (the failure of birth control), it cannot be called voluntary. Therefore, the fetus cannot be said to have any rights over the mother's body, and abortion can be said to be justified. - ===Crime: Does abortion help reduce crime?=== + ===Racial equality: Is abortion important to maintaining racial equality?=== - '''Abortion is more likely to wipe out the bad than the good.''' This argument is based on the premise that poverty and conditions conducive to crime often correlate to those that seek abortions. Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics makes this argument. He contends that the 1973 Roe. v. Wade legalization of abortions led to the fall in crime rates in the 80s and 90s across the United States. The period of declining crime, he says, correlated to the period when those that were aborted might have otherwise become criminals in society as a result of their circumstances. + - + '''Poor women are disproportionately deprived choice when abortion is illegal.''' Poor woman are most susceptible to circumstances in which abortion is necessary. If abortion is illegal, therefore, this socio-economic group will be disproportionately affected. - '''[[Argument: It is wrong to consider abortion a tool in crime prevention\| It is wrong to consider abortion a tool in crime prevention]]''' ''Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, from the essay Where Have All the Criminals Gone? Want to understand what made the crime rate drop in the 1990s? Look back to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973'' - "To discover that abortion was one of the greatest crime-lowering factors in American history is, needless to say, jarring. It feels less Darwinian than Swiftian; it calls to mind a long ago dart attributed to G. K. Chesterton: when there aren’t enough hats to go around, the problem isn’t solved by lopping off some heads. The crime drop was, in the language of economists, an 'unintended benefit' of legalized abortion. But one need not oppose abortion on moral or religious grounds to feel shaken by the notion of a private sadness being converted into a public good."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] + '''[[Argument: Abortion disproportionately affects the African American community\| Abortion disproportionately affects the African American community]]''' + '''[[Argument: Abortion ban may harm poor, but does not change case against it\| Abortion ban may harm poor, but does not change case against it]]''' ''Kristin Luker, Dubious Conceptions (1996)'' - "..The fact that only poor women are denied reproductive freedom when abortions are illegal is unpersuasive to those who oppose abortion on moral grounds." - ===Racial equality: Is abortion important to maintaining racial equality?=== + ===Crime: Does abortion help reduce crime?=== - '''Poor women are disproportionately deprived choice when abortion is illegal.''' Poor woman are most susceptible to circumstances in which abortion is necessary. If abortion is illegal, therefore, this socio-economic group will be disproportionately affected. + '''Abortion is more likely to wipe out the bad than the good.''' This argument is based on the premise that poverty and conditions conducive to crime often correlate to those that seek abortions. Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics makes this argument. He contends that the 1973 Roe. v. Wade legalization of abortions led to the fall in crime rates in the 80s and 90s across the United States. The period of declining crime, he says, correlated to the period when those that were aborted might have otherwise become criminals in society as a result of their circumstances. - '''[[Argument: Abortion disproportionately affects the African American community\| Abortion disproportionately affects the African American community]]''' + '''[[Argument: It is wrong to consider abortion a tool in crime prevention\| It is wrong to consider abortion a tool in crime prevention]]''' ''Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, from the essay Where Have All the Criminals Gone? Want to understand what made the crime rate drop in the 1990s? Look back to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973'' - "To discover that abortion was one of the greatest crime-lowering factors in American history is, needless to say, jarring. It feels less Darwinian than Swiftian; it calls to mind a long ago dart attributed to G. K. Chesterton: when there aren’t enough hats to go around, the problem isn’t solved by lopping off some heads. The crime drop was, in the language of economists, an 'unintended benefit' of legalized abortion. But one need not oppose abortion on moral or religious grounds to feel shaken by the notion of a private sadness being converted into a public good."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] - '''That abortions may harm poor women does not affect principal case against it.''' ''Kristin Luker, Dubious Conceptions (1996)'' - "..The fact that only poor women are denied reproductive freedom when abortions are illegal is unpersuasive to those who oppose abortion on moral grounds." + '''[[Argument:Abortion forestalls the potential societal contributions of a human being\| Abortion forestalls the potential societal contributions of a human being]]''' It may even wipe out the life of an individual that could have resolved, for example, the Middle East crisis or cured cancer. '''[[Argument:Abortion forestalls the potential societal contributions of a human being\| Abortion forestalls the potential societal contributions of a human being]]''' It may even wipe out the life of an individual that could have resolved, for example, the Middle East crisis or cured cancer. Abortions are often chosen by minors or young adults with immature judgment: Abortions are often chosen by minors or young adults with immature judgment: - '''Abortion undermines the dignity of life, promotes violence.''' ''Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Missionary and Founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979.'' - "If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people to not kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want."[http://thinkexist.com/quotations/abortion/] + + '''[[Argument: Abortion undermines the dignity of life, promotes violence\| Abortion undermines the dignity of life, promotes violence]]''' ''Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Missionary and Founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979.'' - "If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people to not kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want."[http://thinkexist.com/quotations/abortion/] '''[[Argument: The US Constitution does not explicitly confer a right to abortion\| The US Constitution does not explicitly confer a right to abortion]]''' ''Byron White, U.S. Supreme Court, one of two dissenters in Roe v. Wade, (January 22, 1973)'' - "I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the court's judgment. The court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] '''[[Argument: The US Constitution does not explicitly confer a right to abortion\| The US Constitution does not explicitly confer a right to abortion]]''' ''Byron White, U.S. Supreme Court, one of two dissenters in Roe v. Wade, (January 22, 1973)'' - "I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the court's judgment. The court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes."[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abortion] - '''[[Argument: The Declaration of Independence states we have a right to Life (Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness). ]]''' One of the intentions of our founding documents, in describing our inalienable rights in liberty, is that a one person or group of people cannot exercise tyrannical power to take Life away from another person or group of persons. + '''The Declaration of Independence states we have a right to Life (Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness).''' One of the intentions of our founding documents, in describing our inalienable rights in liberty, is that a one person or group of people cannot exercise tyrannical power to take Life away from another person or group of persons. The WISH List The WISH List Zero Population Growth Zero Population Growth + Emily's List Ultimate Pro-Life Resource Page Ultimate Pro-Life Resource Page Women and Children First Women and Children First - + Democrats for Life of America ==See also== ==See also== - [[Debate: Parental consent for abortions]] + [[Debate: Parental consent for underage abortions]] - [[Debate: Abortion on the basis of physical deformity]] + [[Debate: Abortion for physical deformities]] + [[Debate: 3-month limit on abortions]] + [[Debate: Partial-birth abortion]] ==External links== ==External links== [http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/should-abortion-be-legal Opposing Views: Should Abortion Be Legal?] *[http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/should-abortion-be-legal Opposing Views: Should Abortion Be Legal?] Should abortions of any kind be permitted? The issue of abortion is one of the most contentious, and emotive dilemmas faced by modern societies. The question is whether one should allow the termination of a pregnancy. For some, the question is even more fundamental: at what stage is the embryo or fetus in the uterus to be regarded as a child? At fertilization? At birth? Or, maybe somewhere between. The battle-lines are drawn between strict, religious (‘pro-life’) arguments (that it is never permissible), and those (‘pro-choice’) that emphasise the woman’s right to choose as the primary concern. While abortion has been legal in America since the land-mark Roe vs. Wade case in the early 1970s, this is by no means a reflection of universal agreement – either international or within America itself – as many Western countries still have considerable restrictions on abortion. For example, the Irish position has softened only recently, and the Catholic Church steadfastly refuses to change its resolutely pro-life stance in the face of criticism from Women’s and other lobby-groups. The abortion debate revolves around a number of questions. Does a woman have a right to her body that the fetus cannot take away? Does this right mean that a woman has a right to "unplug" from the fetus? Or, does the fetus have a right to life that is binding on the woman and her body and that outweighs any rights held by the woman, requiring her to give birth? Is a fetus only a fetus or is it a person that deserves rights and protections? Does "human life" begin at conception or at birth? Is destroying a fetus akin to "killing a human" or murder? What about the biological father? What rights does he have over a fetus? If the woman seeks an abortion, can he prevent it? And, what if she wants to give birth to a child, while he does not want it to happen? What say does he have? Is this, therefore, simply a question of the woman's rights, or the man's rights as well? Is a woman responsible for actions and behavior that may lead to an unwanted pregnancy, making her responsible for the fetus even if it is "unwanted"? Are there circumstances in which a woman cannot be said to be responsible for her own impregnation, such as failed contraception or rape? Can this justify an abortion? Is abortion an issue that is subjectively moral/immoral, so should be reserved to individual judgement (not law)? Must opponents simply tolerate the practice? Or, is the scale of abortions world-wide too large to ignore, and does this scale give cause to a ban? Is abortion an important way for young women to ensure that their futures are not destroyed? Is it an important part of ensuring that women can have sex comfortably and without worry? Is child-rearing more fulfilling than many women tend to believe? Is it wrong to consider "quality of life" issues here? Is the "sanctity of life" more important than "quality of life"? Does abortion result in psychological disorders or depression? Does it increase the chances of cancer? What about during emergencies in which the risks of giving birth are very high for a woman? Should she be forced to endure these risks, or can an abortion be appropriate in these circumstances? Does abortion generally empower women with an important choice regarding their bodies? Or, does it demean them, possibly by opening them to sexual exploitation by men. Are there viable alternatives to abortion such as adoption? Does the option of adoption invalidate all concerns regarding raising a child? Are there concerns regarding the safety of child-birth that make the possibility of putting a child up for adoption risky? Is abortion itself risky? How do the risks of abortion compare to the risks of child-birth? Does the illegalization of abortion merely push women to seek "back alley" abortions, which are less safe? Is it impossible to enforce any ban on abortions? Does this matter? Is abortion merely a new form of birth control that is being exploited by women, and which allows them (and their partner) to act recklessly in their sexual behavior? Is it better to abort a child that will be unwanted or neglected by its parent? Is this good for children that would, perhaps, suffer, and possibly good for society that would suffer from their presence (crime)? Or is it wrong to base decisions regarding abortion (life and death) on merely whether a baby is wanted? Are the social problems that will confront a baby irrelevant or inappropriate to consider? Can/should they be addressed by other means than abortion? These and other questions frame the complicated abortion debate, which continues to be highly contentious, with massive support on both sides internationally. Other background resources Wikipedia: Abortion 1. Should abortions of any kind be permitted? \| 3. Woman's rights: Does a woman have a right to her body that includes a right to abortion? \| \| \| \| 4. Fetus rights: Is it wrong to assign rights to the fetus? Is it not a person? \| \| \| \| 5. Dignity of life: Does abortion uphold the "dignity of life"? \| \| \| \| 6. Safety: Are abortions safe? What about legal versus illegal abortions? \| \| \| \| 7. Life-style: Does abortion improve the ability of women to live life how they want? \| \| \| \| 8. Child-hazards: Is abortion a means of avoiding hazards for child? \| \| \| \| 9. Depression: Are women usually content with a past decision to abort? \| \| \| \| 10. Unwanted/adoption: Is abortion OK in dealing with "unwanted" children? Vs. adoption? \| \| \| \| 11. Emergency: Is abortion justified in order to save the life of a mother? \| \| \| \| 12. Rape: Should instances of impregnation through rape justify abortion? \| \| \| \| 13. Exploitation: Does abortion protect or expose women to sexist/sexual exploitation? \| \| \| \| 14. Birth control: Is abortion an important safety net to birth control? Is it an alternative? \| \| \| \| 15. Child disability: Is abortion justified when an unborn child suffers a disability? \| \| \| \| 16. Viability: Is viability a good cut-off point for abortion? \| \| \| \| 17. Enforcement: Would a ban on abortion be unenforceable? \| \| \| \| 18. Doctors: Are the doctors that perform abortions OK with their act? \| \| \| \| 19. And death penalty: How can people be anti-abortion but pro death penalty? \| \| \| \| 20. Eugenics: Is it wrong to equate abortion with Eugenics? \| \| \| \| 21. Racial equality: Is abortion important to maintaining racial equality? \| \| \| \| 22. Crime: Does abortion help reduce crime? \| \| \| \| 23. Activism: What are the arguments for and against certain activist-styles in this debate? \| \| \| \| 24. Social: What are some of the other pro/con social utility/cost arguments? \| \| \| \| 25. Faiths: Where do the various faiths generally stand on the issue? \| \| \| \| 26. US Constitution: Is abortion consistent with the US constitution? \| \| \| \| 27. Historic opinion: Has abortion been supported historically? \| \| \| \| 28. Internationally: Where do country policies stand in this debate? \| \| \| \| 29. Pro/con organizations \| \| \| \| 30. Public opinion: Where do publics stand on this issue? \| \| \| \| 31. Pro/con videos \| \| \| \| 32. Pro/con resources \| \| \| \| Woman's rights: Does a woman have a right to her body that includes a right to abortion? Giving rights to unborn children takes rights away from mothers. Abortion may be immoral, but it is still a woman's right. Women must control their bodies or risk becoming servants of the fetus. Opponents can object to abortions, but must tolerate the choice. Denying abortion rights forces maternity on women (state rape). A woman has the sole right to decide to seek an abortion. Abortion is the woman's choice, not the father's The mother's life is more valuable than the fetus. If women can't be trusted with "choice", how can they be trusted with children? We need to respect the rights of unborn children. Children who are born deserve full human rights. It is illogical to give full human rights to babies, but no human rights to fetuses. It would be more logical to give rights to fetuses progressively over time. Embryonic life should not be used for vanity industry. Sure the right of the mother should be taken into account, but so should the child. To ignore one is wrong. Women are used to only being one person. But to pretend that women cannot become two people, is to ignore nature. It may feel safe for a woman to ignore nature, if she doesn't want to grow up, but society or parents need to prepare her for becoming responsible enough to avoid duplicating, unless she wants to. People are allowed to create life, but they are not allowed to subtract. If men don't have the right to use their bodies to harm others, then neither should women. It is unfair that women have to carry more of a burden of carrying for children, but just because life is unfair, does not give women, in a day of birth control, the right to kill their babies. Men don't have a right to their bodies that allows them to kill babies. Men have the right to move their hands. Men have the right to kick. Men have the right to hire doctors. But men do not have a right to hire doctors to kill their children, if the mother wants to keep the baby. The "dialysis" analogy is invalid; pregnancy is unique One of the most famous arguments against abortion is the "dialysis analogy" put forward by Judith Jarvis in 1971. It compares abortion to a situation in which a healthy woman (the mother by analogy) is attached to a dying patient (the fetus by analogy) in order to keep the dying patient alive. The concept is that the dying person does not have a right to the woman's body, and that the woman has a right to "unplug" (abort) even if it means the death of the other person. The problem with the analogy is many fold: 1. A woman and a fetus have a special relationship that is incomparable to that between a woman and a stranger or even a relative. There is a special biological drive inside the mother to keep the baby alive and a dependency by the baby on the mother. The mother, therefore, has a special responsibility to keep her child alive and not abort; 2. A woman often gives a form of tacit approval to the existence of a fetus in her womb: the act of engaging in sexual behavior; 3. abortion directly kills the embryo and does not merely "unplug" and let it die. These are critical differences that invalidate a classic, central argument for abortion. Parents must "control their bodies" or else risk being a servant of their children? Rights sometimes come with Responsibilities. Let's take the roof off the argument that claims that a person (and their body) has unlimited "rights not to be enslaved" as a consequence of being a parent, which was almost always the result of their of their own action (not "controlling their body," use of contraceptives, etc.) and yet their fetus/child has no rights for care. If the principle of "enslavement" were true would it not extend to the care of a new born or older child? A new-born depends on it's mother's body and breast milk for the same nutrition and similar if not greater nurturing available to him/her in the womb. Can a mother, father or caretaker morally or legally neglect or "unplug" the child from nutrition and care on the "enslavement" argument? No. Does one have greater personal rights by virtue of "their body," or can a parent provide care without "their body?" No. Can we protest that "forcing a parent to continue being a parent subjugates them to the child? Of course not. The child has a right to care from it's parents or legal guardians and they have a responsibility to care for him or her. The right to choice/privacy (abortion) does not override the right to life Jesse Jackson, U.S. civil rights activist, now in favor of legal abortion, in National Right to Life News, (January, 1977) - "There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of [a] higher order than the right to life ... that was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned." Thus, even if a woman has a right to her body and to "choice", this right is overridden by the fetus's right to life. And, what could be more important than life? All other rights, including the mother’s right to choice, surely stem from a prior right to life; if you have no right to any life, then how do you have a right to an autonomous one? The woman may ordinarily have a reasonable right to control her own body, but this does not confer on her the entirely separate (and insupportable) right to decide whether another human lives or dies. Women should be held responsible for behavior leading to impregnation. If one does not want to have a baby, they should not have sex, or they should take extreme precaution when having sex. Sex is not a game. It is a serious matter of reproduction and life. If a woman plays with it and becomes pregnant, she should be held responsible to carry out the birth of her child. And, it should be noted that the responsibility could end at child-birth, with it being possible to put a child up for adoption. The consequences of an unwanted pregnancy need not be major, but they must be born by the mother and father. A woman's rights are not the only rights that need to be respected in abortion: Of course, human-rights should be respected, but it is never the case that a person has a right to make a decision with no reference to the rights and wishes of others. There are two primary rights that must be considered in addition to the rights of the woman. First, the father has some rights over the fetus. Second, the fetus itself may have some rights. The point is merely that the woman's interests and rights cannot be the only ones under consideration. The scale of abortions makes state intervention compelling Some argue that abortion is an individual moral choice that the state should not get involved with. Yet, when an individual moral choice is practiced on a massive scale, it becomes a concern for broader society and government as well. Under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would adopt a pro-life social contract The "veil of ignorance" is a notion put forward by liberal philosopher John Rawls. This idea relates to the social contract people would adopt if they were effectively unborn spirits under a "veil of ignorance" regarding where they would "end-up" in life. The conclusion is that everyone would adopt a social contract that hedges against poor outcomes if they get the "short-end of the stick". Abortion could be considered the "shortest stick" (death - no life at all), so it is likely that, under a "veil of ignorance", the unborn would would adopt a pro-life social contract. It is notable that this social contract theory is tenant of liberal thought, and yet liberals are most supportive of abortion. There may be an inconsistency there. Birth control is easy to obtain. Fetus rights: Is it wrong to assign rights to the fetus? Is it not a person? A fetus cannot have a right to a woman's body to sustain its life No individual has rights over another individual. Therefore, a fetus cannot be said to have an inviolable right to a woman's body and sustenance from that body. A woman can, therefore, decide to deprive the fetus of the usage of her body (abortion). A fetus is no more a human than an acorn is a tree Judith Jarvis Thomson. "A Defense of Abortion". Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971). - "Most opposition to abortion relies on the premise that the fetus is a human being, a person, from the moment of conception. The premise is argued for, but, as I think, not well. Take, for example, the most common argument. We are asked to notice that the development of a human being from conception through birth into childhood is continuous; then it is said that to draw a line, to choose a point in this development and say "before this point the thing is not a person, after this point it is a person" is to make an arbitrary choice, a choice for which in the nature of things no good reason can be given. It is concluded that the fetus is or anyway that we had better say it is, a person from the moment of conception. But this conclusion does not follow. Similar things might be said about the development of an acorn into an oak trees, and it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that we had better say they are...A newly fertilized ovum, a newly implanted clump of cells, is no more a person than an acorn is an oak tree." A fetus is not a "person" so can't have rights protecting it from abortion: Is terminating a fetus, which can neither feel emotions nor be conscious of its own "existence," really be considered equivalent to killing a "person?" Some define personhood (qualifying for rights) through a set of criteria. A being need not exhibit every criterion to qualify as a person, but failure to exhibit most is proposed as disqualification. One list includes consciousness (at least the capacity to feel pain), reasoning, self motivation, the ability to communicate on many possible topics, and self-awareness. Lists like this are intended to help someone be able to objectively distinguish between a biological human and a person. An embryo is not a person because it satisfies only one criterion, namely consciousness (and this only after it becomes susceptible to pain). Other sets of criteria conclude that an embryo lacks personhood (and a right to life) because it lacks self-consciousness, rationality, and autonomy. These lists diverge over precisely which features confer a right to life, but tend to propose that they are developed psychological features not found in embryos. The fetus causes physical pain; the woman has a right to self-defense. The fetus causes sickness, discomfort, and and extreme pain to a woman during her pregnancy and labor. It is, therefore, justifiable for a woman to pursue an abortion in self-defense. Potential of fetus to become a person is not sufficient Ayn Rand - "Never mind the vicious nonsense of claiming that an embryo has a 'right to life.' A piece of protoplasm has no rights -— and no life in the human sense of the term. One may argue about the later stages of a pregnancy, but the essential issue concerns only the first three months. To equate a potential with an actual, is vicious; to advocate the sacrifice of the latter to the former, is unspeakable." If a fetus had a right to life, abortionists would be subject to murder charges While abortionists claim that fetuses should have a right to life, they would never go so far as to charge abortionists with murder. Yet, this is what would be required if we gave fetuses a right to life. Therefore, there is a fundamental inconsistency in this position. Human life and a right to life begin at conception; abortion is murder Human life is continuum of growth that starts at conception, not at birth. The DNA that makes a person who they are is first mixed at conception upon the male sperm entering the female egg. This is when the genetic building blocks of a person are "conceived" and built upon. The person, therefore, begins at conception. Killing the fetus, thus, destroys a growing person and can be considered murder. Ronald Reagan, quoted in the New York Times on September 22,1980 "I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born." Life is an individual right, not a privilege, for unborn humans Mother Teresa, in her amicus brief filed before the U.S. Supreme Court in the cases of Loce v. New Jersey and Krail et al. v. New Jersey in February 1994 - "Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign... you must weep that your own government, at present, seems blind to this truth."[1] A fetus is uniquely capable of becoming a person; deserves rights It is unquestionable that the fetus, at whatever stage of development, will inevitably develop the traits of a full-grown human person. It will also inevitably accumulate all of the rights that you yourself have. If we deprive the unborn of life via abortions, however, they will be deprived of all of this potential and future rights. This is why extending a right to life is of utmost importance; the future of the unborn depends on it. No one argues that an acorn or even an animal fetus has a “sanctity” or rights. No, human beings are in an entirely different class. We are called not to murder human life, not acorns. It's not the stage of development, it's the precious value of humans. Abortionists focus only on the early stage of development and ignore the specialness and reverence we should have for even a tiny (but growing) human life. A living, developing human fetus by definition IS a human life. If these criteria for being a "person" are valid then killing infants is justifiable. Infants also lack self motivation, self-awareness, rationality, autonomy, and the ability to converse on a variety of subjects. Wanted fetuses are beloved "babies"; unwanted ones are "tissue" (inconsistent) Naomi Wolf, feminist author and advocate of legal abortion, in "Our Bodies, Our Souls", The New Republic (October 15, 1995) - "Wanted fetuses are charming, complex, REM-dreaming little beings whose profile on the sonogram looks just like Daddy, but unwanted ones are mere 'uterine material'?"[2] Women can only be "pregnant" with a "child" not merely a "fetus" This is similar to the above argument. The point is that pregnancy can only be called pregnancy and that you can only be pregnant with a "child". Nobody would ever say, "I'm pregnant with a fetus". Therefore, fetuses should be considered "unborn children" with correlating rights. Fetuses, as dependents, do have some rights over their mother's body The mother-fetus relationship is unlike any other relationship between individuals. The fetus is, without choice or by chance, dependent on its mother for sustenance and life. The mother has unique responsibilities toward the fetus in this relationship, and so, yes, a fetus has some unique rights over its mother. Pro-abortionists dehumanize "fetuses" to get away with murder Frederica Matthewes-Green, "Personhood of the Unborn", on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, (January 21, 1998) - "When we question whether someone is a person, it is because we want to kill him. We do this with our enemies in wartime, or with anyone we would like to enslave or exploit. Before we can feel comfortable treating others this way, we have to expel them from the human community. But there's just no logical reason to expel the unborn."[3] Abortion deprives a fetus of an entire human future: Some argue that abortion is wrong because it deprives the embryo of a valuable future. Indeed, killing any human being is wrong because it deprives the victim of a valuable future: any experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that they would have enjoyed. Abortion is particularly egregious because it deprives a fetus of all experiences as a human being. The unborn are voiceless and should be protected against abortion Ronald Reagan. New York Times. September 22nd. 1980 - "I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born."[4] In other words, the unborn would all be against abortion, but, of course, they can't express their opinion as for/against abortion. It is important to protect such a voiceless minority in society. That the fetus may do harm to the mother cannot justify destroying it. Even when born, a child can inflict much more physical pain on the mother than he can on the womb, his destruction is still illegal. It is wrong to kill fetuses on the basis that they can't think/feel. On "the fetus cant think argument": Animal abuse, suicide and even cutting down a tree are frequently illegal on the basis that these things have some value and should not be destroyed, killed, or treated inhumanely. It has little to do with the degree of consciousness attained by a creature. If the destruction of any species with a significant value is illegal, what makes abortion any different? Fetuses are conscious in the womb and suffer during abortions Unborn babies have a certain level of consciousness in the womb. This is partly why mothers sometimes walk around with earphones on their stomachs. Irrespective of the level of consciousness of unborn babies, their central nervous system certainly affords them the ability to feel pain and suffer. For these reasons, they should not be aborted. Dignity of life: Does abortion uphold the "dignity of life"? Even if abortions "kill life", it can be justified as upholding a woman's life Even if a fetus is considered a "baby" or human life, abortions can still be justified. The "baby" is still not a citizen with rights, while it is in the womb. In this case, the woman's right to choose outweighs considerations of the life of the fetus. The life of the woman takes precedent over the life of the fetus. This is pro-life (pro-the-life-of-the-woman) and so respects the dignity of life. There is no inviolable "right to life" in abortion and other cases. It is clear that the notion of "the right to life" can sometimes be violated for certain ends. This is the case in sending soldiers to war. So as in abortion, it can be justified to kill a fetus under certain circumstances. Hypocritical to protect fetuses, but casually wage war Rick Claro - "George W. Bush will protect your unborn fetus, then send your grown child to die in war."[5] This is a common argument that undermines the notion of "the sanctity of life" and the notion that it is "inviolable". Clearly, in war, humans frequently justify killing other human beings. In a free society, abortion is truly a matter of personal belief. The issue of abortion debates the question of whether or not the unborn child is a human being, or at what point it becomes so. This question cannot be answered for the collective body of society, rather should be answered by the individual based on personal and religious beliefs. If an individual believes that an unborn child is a human being, then the "right to life" term can be justified by that individual for their own personal choice. If an individual believes that the unborn child is not a human being, then there is no justification for laws to prohibiting an abortion. Therefore It should be argued that this is an issue for the individual; that an individual seeking an abortion has their own responsibility to be informed thoroughly about the matter, but should never be forced to agree or disagree. Abortion generally devalues the dignity we assign to life Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984 - "We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life—the unborn—without diminishing the value of all human life."[6] Abortion sets precedent of valuing some humans less than others Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984. - "Regrettably, we live at a time when some persons do not value all human life. They want to pick and choose which individuals have value."[7] No one argues that an acorn or even an animal fetus has a “sanctity” or rights. No, human beings are entirely different class. We are called not to murder human life, not acorns. Abortionists focus only on stage development and ignore the specialness and reverence we should have for even a tiny (but growing) human life. Uncertainty over whether fetuses are "life" should halt abortions. There are strong arguments in favor of fetuses being life from conception and some strong arguments against. At a minimum, uncertainty about the "truth" should cause us to place a moratorium on abortions until we figure it out. Human life is continuum; doesn't start/stop at conception George Carlin, comedian - "People say 'life begins at conception.' I say life began about a billion years ago and it's a continuous process."[8] Therefore, you can't call a fetus something other than life; it is part of the long continuum of human life and must be fully respected as such. Abortions encourage infanticide Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984. - "Late-term abortions, especially when the baby survives, but is then killed by starvation, neglect, or suffocation, show once again the link between abortion and infanticide. The time to stop both is now."[9] Abortion is murder just as infanticide is murder It cannot be said that the abortion of a nine-month-old fetus is much different than the killing of a three day old baby. Neither then can much difference be given to aborting a nine-month-old fetus and a month-old fetus. If infanticide is murder, so too must be abortion. Killing helpless fetus is incomparable to death of willing soldier. How can you compare an unborn baby to the willing beings that fight in wars they have choosen the fate of going to war and the know of the harsh consquenses that may follow. A baby on the other hand is born into the world if permitted not of their own free will but of the mother's decision to abort or have the child. Safety: Are abortions safe? What about legal versus illegal abortions? "Back alley" abortions are more frequent when abortion is illegal. Back-alley abortions are abortions performed illegally on the "black-market" when abortion is generally illegal. Back-alley abortions are less regulated and more likely to result in the death or harming of the mother. Legal abortions safer than black market abortions Mary Calderone, founder of SIECUS and medical director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, "Illegal abortion as a public health problem," American Journal of Public Health, July 1960 - "90% of illegal abortions are being done by physicians. Call them what you will, abortionists or anything else, they are still physicians, trained as such; . . . They must do a pretty good job if the death rate is as low as it is . . . Abortion, whether therapeutic or illegal, is in the main no longer dangerous, because it is being done well by physicians."[10] Abortion does not negatively affect a woman's sexual functions A study conducted at University of Copenhagen has shown legal abortion is associated with few adverse effects on sexual function among women in Denmark. Abortion is no more risky or harmful than ordinary birth. While abortion has it's risks, it's important that we compare it against the alternative, which is going through with giving birth. This probably entails just as many risks, if not more, as an abortion. Abortions are very risky and hazardous to the women Warren Hern, abortion practitioner and author of Abortion Practice (1990), the textbook most widely used in the United States to teach abortion to medical personnel - "In medical practice, there are few surgical procedures given so little attention and so underrated in its potential hazard as abortion." Preventing "back alley" abortions are no reason to legalize abortion. That the illegality of abortion may lead to back-alley abortions is not a reason to legalize abortion. This argument has nothing to do with the core moral principles underlying the debate (regarding life and rights), so should not be considered. Abortions are emotionally and psychologically unsafe. If by 'safe' you mean that a woman can survive, then the answer is possibly. A woman can have even multiple abortions and live through each. But if by 'safe' you mean that she will experience no physical, emotional, or psychological harm, then the answer is no. She will spend the rest of her life dealing with the myriad of consequences of the abortion by constantly shoving the rattling skeletons back into the closet. And will daily seek expiation, or seek to justify herself. In any case, none of these leaves a woman 'safe'. Life-style: Does abortion improve the ability of women to live life how they want? Abortion allows women to become better people without a child Rachel Kramer Bussel, "I'm Pro-Choice and I Fuck", Village Voice, January 13, 2006 - "I'm pro-choice because I couldn't fully enjoy sex were I consumed with worry about the potential consequences. I'm pro-choice for all my friends who've had abortions and gone on to do great things, who are better women for being childless (for now). I'm pro-choice for the new moms and dads I know who were able to actively choose to become parents. I'm pro-choice for all those babies... born knowing they're 100 percent loved and wanted."[11] Abortion allows women to have sex comfortably without fear of pregnancy Rachel Kramer Bussel, "I'm Pro-Choice and I Fuck", Village Voice, January 13, 2006 - "I'm pro-choice because I couldn't fully enjoy sex were I consumed with worry about the potential consequences."[12] No woman "wants" an abortion; it is only the least bad alternative Women do not "want" abortions. They find themselves in a position in which abortion is the less bad between bad alternatives. This argument is important in explaining that abortion is not about a malicious desire to "kill babies" or even to express their right to choose; it is about allowing women to make the best choice that they can. Abortion advocates wrongly value "quality of life" over "sanctity of life" Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984 - "As a nation, we must choose between the sanctity of life ethic and the 'quality of life' ethic. I have no trouble identifying the answer our nation has always given to this basic question, and the answer that I hope and pray it will give in the future."[13] Child-rearing is a beautiful, natural process, not a burden Victoria Woodhull, first woman to run for U.S. President, member of the Equal Rights Party, in Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly (September 23, 1871). - "Child-bearing is not a disease, but a beautiful office of nature. But to our faded-out, sickly, exhausted type of women, it is a fearful ordeal. Nearly every child born is an unwelcome guest. Abortion is the choice of evils for such women."[14] On abortion the issue is when love not life begins Robert Casey, former Governor of Pennsylvania - "When we look to the unborn child, the real issue is not when life begins, but when love begins."[15] The point is, since we should be capable of loving a fetus (a human being in the making), we should subsequently provide that being with rights and protections. It matters not what we call the unborn child (a "baby", "human", "life"); as long as we love it, we should protect it. And, an attitude and life-style of love and acceptance is superior to an attitude and life-style of fear and regret. Abortion worsens parenting by devaluing the parent-child relationship If an unborn child is seen as expendable, the parent comes to believe that their relationship with the unborn child is conditional and non-binding. During child-rearing, this philosophy can be very damaging for the quality of parenting. Child-hazards: Is abortion a means of avoiding hazards for child? Child protection. Many pregnant women who want to undergo abortion were physically and sexually abused and thus they do not wish a child became a party to such abuses. Most women would like to protect their child or potential child from enduring the suffering to which they themselves are exposed - and if this is not possible, these women would go for an abortion. The child's life is being taken away. His or her life is gone before he or she has gotten a chance to live. That is the ultimate injustice, hazard. Depression: Are women usually content with a past decision to abort? Post-abortion syndrome is not a medically recognized syndrome: The American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association do not recognize PAS. It is better to regret not having a child than regret having one It is clear that abortion is a choice between evils. Therefore, the question is not whether a woman will regret having an abortion; she will. The reason abortion is justified is that a woman will sometimes regret having a child more than she will regret having an abortion. Abortion is sometimes justified as the better choice between evils. Many women are disturbed by their abortions but remain pro-choice Rosemary Candelario, director of Massachusetts Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, September 2001 - "I think the fear in the [abortion rights] movement is if we admit abortion is hard for some women, then we're admitting that it's wrong, which is totally not the case. I've heard from women who are having problems dealing with their abortion who are still ardently pro-choice."[16] Abortion may have a positive or neutral impact on the emotions of the women Multiple studies find a positive or neutral correlation between abortion and mental and emotional health. Risk-taking and disorders lead to abortions; not the opposite This argument is partly a response to studies that claim that there is a correlation between abortion and mental disorders. The point is that this might be true, but the causality of this correlation must be determined. It may be that those with existing mental disorders are more likely to take risks that lead to the need for abortion, and that this is the explanation for the correlation, rather than that abortion leads to mental disorders. Abortion often leads to regret, depression, and even mental illness Carol Everett - “The product, abortion, is skillfully marketed and sold to the woman at the crisis time in her life. She buys the product, finds it defective and wants to return it for a refund. But, it's too late.”[17] These feelings of regret often lead to depression and sometimes to a condition known as "post-abortion syndrome". Alcoholism and drug-use are common after abortions. There are many reports of woman falling into not only depression, but spates of alcoholism and drug-use after having abortions. Fewer women would have abortions if they knew what they were doing Bernard Nathanson, former abortion doctor turned pro-life, in his book Aborting America, 1979 - "Fewer women would have abortions if wombs had windows."[18] After the abortion, women are confronted with a much more profound sense of the reality of what they have done and what they have lost. This often triggers depression. The lives of women have been destroyed by abortion, not enhanced Norma McCorvey, the anonymous litigant known as "Jane Roe" in the landmark abortion case, Roe vs. Wade in her book Won by Love (June 17, 2003) - "One of my most important activities is that I am involved, together with Sandra Cano of Doe vs. Bolton, in the efforts of the Texas Justice Foundation (and other groups) to work for the reversal of the Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton decisions. The approach we are taking is to show that the lives and rights of women have not been advanced or enhanced, but rather destroyed, by abortion-on-demand. We are collecting affidavits from women who have been harmed by abortion, from women who are convinced that authentic feminism is pro-life, and from professionals who know that Roe has weakened the moral fabric of the legal and medical professions."[19] Unwanted/adoption: Is abortion OK in dealing with "unwanted" children? Vs. adoption? It is better to seek abortion than neglect a born child It is unfair to give birth to a child that will be neglected, underfed, under-educated, and that will likely lead an unfulfilling life. It is also better for society for fetuses to be aborted that are brought up poor and neglected. Not only will the child suffer, but society will suffer when that child develops a higher attraction to crime, welfare, etc. Adoption is too risky making it a poor alternative to abortion Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (1984) - "Having a baby and giving it up for adoption, as pro-life people advocate, is not seen by most pro-choice people as a moral solution to the abortion problem. To transform a fetus into a baby and then send it out into a world where the parents can have no assurance that it will be well-loved and cared for is, for pro-choice people, the height of moral irresponsibility."[20] Adoption does not spare a women the pains/risks of childbirth. One of the main reasons that an abortion makes sense is that it spares women of the pains and risks of child-birth. Adoption does not spare women of these pains and risks, and so fails to address a central rationale underlying abortion. Adoption can be as emotionally damaging as abortion. Giving up a child for adoption can be just as emotionally damaging as having an abortion. It is, therefore, not necessarily easier on the mother. Unborn life should never depend on whether it is "wanted" Graciela Olivarez, Chicana civil rights and anti-poverty activist, 1972 - "The poor cry out for justice and equality, and we respond with legalized abortion. I believe that in a society that permits the life of even one individual to be dependent on whether that life is ‘wanted’ or not, all its citizens stand in danger...We do not have equal opportunities. Abortion is a cruel way out."[21] "Unwanted" children can be adopted; abortion is unnecessary Mother Teresa of Calcutta quotes (Albanian born Indian Missionary and Founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. 1910-1997) - "These concerns (for orphan children in India and elsewhere in the world) are very good, but often these same people are not concerned with the millions that are killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today, Abortion...For the pregnant women who don't want their children, give them to me."[22] Support can be given to women who can't support a child Ronald Reagan, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation", Human Life Review, Spring 1984. - "As we continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, we must also continue to lay the groundwork for a society in which abortion is not the accepted answer to unwanted pregnancy. Pro-life people have already taken heroic steps, often at great personal sacrifice, to provide for unwed mothers."[23] Abortion is not a just response to social problems facing the unborn If a child is likely to face social difficulties, this is absolutely no reason to seek an abortion. The notion that a child will be unhappy due to these conditions or will have no chances of success is ludicrous. It is easy to find examples of poor and neglected children that have grown up to become thriving, successful, and happy adults. In any case, if social problems are the concern, these problems should be addressed; abortion is a terrible band-aid. Saying that a child would encounter social problems during his or her development is not the same as saying that he or she is better off dead. Abortion deprives couples that want to adopt of a potential child. There are many infertile couples around the world or people that would simply like to adopt children. Abortion deprives these people of a child. A woman must bear the pain/risks of birth; the life of the fetus is worth it. If the woman was the only consideration in abortions, than it might make sense for them to avoid the pain of child-birth. But, her interests are not the only ones in play. The life of the fetus is very important as well. Preserving the life of the fetus is worth the risks and pains incurred by the woman in child-birth. Emergency: Is abortion justified in order to save the life of a mother? It is just for a mother to abort a fetus to save herself In such cases of medical emergency and in the interest of saving a women's life, surely it is permissible to abort the fetus. To argue otherwise would be to uphold the rights of the unborn over the living, which is wrongheaded and immoral. Legal abortion protects women with serious illnesses that are vulnerable. Tens of thousands of women have heart disease, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes, and other illnesses that are made worse by childbearing. Legal abortion helps women avert these unavoidable risks to their health and lives. If abortion in self-defense is OK, a fetus cannot have a general right to life Opponents of abortion often argue that a fetus has an inviolable right to life. Yet, it is easy to demonstrate that this is not the case. It is always permissible to take a life in self-defense. This principle can be applied to abortion. And, importantly, it also demonstrates that there is no such thing as an "inviolable right to life". There are always conditional exceptions. So, if we can show that the conditions are appropriate (even beyond self-defense), an abortion can be justified, even if it is "killing". A child should not be killed to save a mother: Whilst these are different circumstances, and such medical emergencies are tragic, it is by no means obvious that the abortion is to be performed. The ‘mother vs. child’ dilemma is one which defies solution, and aborting to preserve one of the lives sets a dangerous precedent that it is acceptable to kill a person in order to save another. This is a clear, and unpalatable, case of treating a human-being as a means to an end. Abortions under "trying circumstances" are the exception not the rule Most abortions are performed entirely voluntarily by women that have the means to raise a child, but simply don't want to. While emergency abortions or abortions under trying circumstances such as rape are held out as reasons to continue to have abortions, they are infrequent and serve more to provide cover for voluntarily "life-style" abortions. This is wrong. Letting a woman die is better than directly killing an unborn baby There is a difference between letting a woman die from the presence of a fetus and the process of giving birth and actively killing a fetus. One is "letting die", the other is "killing". The distinction is important, and is a good reason to oppose abortion even during special emergencies. Rape: Should instances of impregnation through rape justify abortion? Abortion must be justified in cases of impregnation by rape Woman, and in some cases girls, who have been raped should not have to suffer the additional torment of being pregnant with the product of that ordeal. To force a woman to produce a living, constant reminder of that act is unfair on both mother and child. Rape is an arbitrary exception; abortion must be available in all pregnancies. Many opponents of abortion allow for abortion in instances of rape. But, this assigns rights arbitrarily to the unborn "bastard child" as compared to an ordinarily-conceived child. It confers lower rights on the unborn "bastard child". This is wrong. The solution, though, cannot be to ban abortions even in cases of rape. Instead, the solution is to legalize all forms of abortion. Abortion prevents victims of rape from becoming unready mothers\| In cases where the rape victims cannot afford or is not ready to have a child, abortion can do both the victim and the unborn baby a favour. There are cases where school students are impregnated through rape. Pregnancy itself is a constant reminder of the sexual assault their underwent and might cause emotional instability, which will affect their studies, and subsequently their future. Moreover pregnancy might even affect the health and growth of the young girls. Besides, babies born to unready mothers are likely to be neglected or would not be able to enjoy what other children have, be it due to financial reasons or the unwillingness of the mothers to bring up the "unwanted children". Rape does not qualify abortion; it is not the child's fault; abortion is still murder. Denying someone life because of the circumstances of their conception is unfair. They had no say in these circumstances, and were, instead, simply given life. It does not matter what the conditions of this life were. It is still wrong to kill life, particularly an unborn baby. A rape victim can put their baby up for adoption. Why can't a rape victim put their child up for adoption? Isn't this an adequate resolution to the problem? The only reason it might not be an adequate resolution are the risks and pains of child-birth and perhaps the difficulty of separating from the child. But, these objections are easily dealt with. First, maintaining the life of a fetus is worth the pains and risks that it might cause the mother. Second, there is no difference in separating from an unborn child (abortion) as compared to a born child (adoption). Having an abortion is just as wrong as the rape itself. The child has a right to life just as much as that woman had the right to not be raped. Her rights were violated by the rapist. Aborting the child would be violating the child's right to life. I certainly feel deeply for anyone in such a position, but that doesn't mean I would sympathize with them enough to believe they have the right to then cause harm to another. A woman's body is required to produce life, therefore an unborn child has no other option then to rely on her, no matter the reason for conception. The rapist made a choice based on his own selfish feelings and beliefs in what he was entitled to, isn't that exactly what happens when we allow abortion as a "choice?" Exploitation: Does abortion protect or expose women to sexist/sexual exploitation? If women (not men) are solely burdened by pregnancy, they must have a choice. Men are dominant in their ability to impregnate a woman, but carry no responsibilities afterward. If woman carry the entire burden of pregnancy, they must have a choice. Opposition to abortion is based largely on sexism toward women Florynce R. Kennedy, 1973 - "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."[24] It is odd to defend the dignity of a fetus over a child-rearer There is a peculiar double standard being applied by opponents of abortion. The dignity of the fetus is glorified, while the dignity of the child-rearer is seemingly ignored and even trampled. This is particularly concerning when more men appear to support abortion than woman; it appears that men are more willing to trample the child-bearer (a woman) than the child. Abortion fails to liberate women as intended Instead of freeing women, abortion places women in a new prison of regret and torment. Abortion opens the door to the sexual exploitation of women The existence of abortion gives men a little more of a safeguard against unintentionally impregnating a woman. As a result, men will be more aggressive in their sexual exploitation of women. Rejecting abortion and going through with pregnancies empowers women Patricia Heaton, Emmy-winning actress, Washington Times, (April 14, 2005) - "The early feminists found abortion to be the ultimate exploitation of women. [Women had to] become men to compete. We bought into that. We're smarter today. It's more empowering to go through with your pregnancy."[25] Birth control: Is abortion an important safety net to birth control? Is it an alternative? Abortions are mostly sought when birth control fails Clayton H. McCracken, director of Inter Mountain Planned Parenthood, Fall 2000 - "Most of the patients come to our abortion clinic as a result of failure of a birth control method, or a failure of our system to provide birth control."[26] Abortion is just when birth control fails (involuntary impregnation) If a woman does not voluntarily choose to seek a pregnancy, it is impossible for a fetus to have any claim over the woman's body. Only when the woman participates voluntarily in creating a life, does she open the door to any responsibilities to the fetus or to any rights that the fetus may have over the mother. If a pregnancy is a result of an accident (the failure of birth control), it cannot be called voluntary. Therefore, the fetus cannot be said to have any rights over the mother's body, and abortion can be said to be justified. Abortion is wrongly sought as an alternative form of birth control Kristin Luker, Taking Chances: Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept (1975) - "In short, there are no empirical grounds for assuming that women have an à priori preference for contraception over abortion."[27] In other words, women see abortion as a suitable alternative to birth control. Abortion shouldn't be a form of birth control when other forms are readily available. With contraception being so effective, unwanted pregnancies are typically a result of irresponsible sexual behavior. Such irresponsible behavior does not deserve an exit from an unwanted pregnancy through abortion. Child disability: Is abortion justified when an unborn child suffers a disability? Abortion is justified when the fetus is certain to suffer and die from a disability: Finally, due to advances in medical technology it is possible to determine during pregnancy whether the child will be disabled. In cases of severe disability, in which the child would have a very short, very painful and tragic life, it is surely the right course of action to allow the parents to choose a termination. This avoids both the suffering of the parents and of the child. What right does anyone have to deprive another of life on the grounds that they deem that life as not worth living? This arrogant and sinister presumption is impossible to justify, given that many people with disabilities lead fulfilling lives. What disabilities would be regarded as the water-shed between life and termination? The practise of eugenics is roundly condemned by all civilised countries. The fact that a child is likely to have a short life does not justify further shortening it: When you see someone who has very little, do you take away all he has? The short life expectancy of a disabled child does not justify his deliberate killing! Viability: Is viability a good cut-off point for abortion? Viability is a good cut-off for when abortion is appropriate or not. Anthony Kennedy, U.S. Supreme Court, speaking for the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) (joint opinion coauthored with Justices Souter and O’Connor) - "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life....[P]eople have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail…. We conclude the line should be drawn at viability, so that, before that time, the woman has a right to choose to terminate her pregnancy....[T]here is no line other than viability which is more workable. To be sure, as we have said, there may be some medical developments that affect the precise point of viability, but this is an imprecision within tolerable limits....A husband has no enforceable right to require a wife to advise him before she exercises her personal choices."[28] A line on "viability" is arbitrary; from conception humans are always increasingly "viable" It is faulty to claim that a fetus can achieve "viability", where it becomes an independent creature and worthy of some rights. Humans are always increasing in their independence and ability to survive. In modernity, children cannot survive on their own into their teens. Enforcement: Would a ban on abortion be unenforceable? A ban on abortion presents practical problems of enforcement: Enforcing an abortion ban would require a quite degrading and inhumane treatment of those women who wished to have their foetus terminated. Moreover, if pregnant women traveled abroad, they would be able to have an abortion in a country where it was legal. Either the state takes the draconian measure of restricting freedom of movement, or it must admit that its law is unworkable in practice and abolish it. The ‘third way’ of tacitly accepting foreign terminations would render hypocritical the much-vaunted belief in the sanctity of life. In addition, the demand for abortions will always exist; making abortion illegal, will simply drive it underground and into conditions where the health and safety of the woman might be put at risk. Difficulties of enforcement should not diminish the principles of the law: Many laws have difficulties pertaining to implementation, but these do not diminish the strength of the principle behind them: people will kill other people, regardless of your legislating against it, but it does not follow that you shouldn’t legislate against it. Doctors: Are the doctors that perform abortions OK with their act? Doctors that have difficulty performing abortions still acknowledge its importance. Many people have trouble with parts of their profession. A general, for instance, has trouble sending his troops to their death, but typically acknowledges the need for this to occur in certain instance. Abortion doctors, similarly, might be challenged by the process of an abortion (and even believe that they are "killing" the fetus), but nevertheless acknowledge the need for abortions and so are comfortable with their profession. The difficulty doctors experience in performing abortions, therefore, is not an argument against abortions. Doctors that perform abortions are often emotionally damaged Anonymous abortion doctor, quoted by Jack Hitt in "Who Will Do Abortions Here?", New York Times Magazine, January 18, 1998 - "[Doing abortions] can make you feel bad ... No matter how pro-choice you are, it makes you feel low."[29] The Hippocratic oath forbids doctors from performing abortions Hippocratic Oath, attributed to the school of Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” circa 400 B.C. - "I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion."[30] And death penalty: How can people be anti-abortion but pro death penalty? It is contradictory to oppose abortion while supporting capital punishment. Loesje, Dutch Fictional character "Active and International girl", b.1983 - “How can anyone be against abortion but for the death penalty”[31] An abortion kills innocents; capital punishment kills the guilty There is no contradiction between opposing abortions and supporting capital punishment, as many conservatives do. An abortion involves killing an innocent fetus, whereas capital punishment involves killing a guilty, terrible human being. One involves killing an unborn baby with the potential to contribute positively to society, the other kills a human being that has demonstrated themselves unfit to live in society. The real inconsistency is in supporting abortion while opposing capital punishment. Eugenics: Is it wrong to equate abortion with Eugenics? The reproductive rights movement has no genocidal drive: No serious proponents of abortion are out to kill all embryos. Furthermore, it is an insult to the memory of the alive and conscious human beings murdered by the Nazis to equate them with embryos for anti-abortion propaganda. Abortion is a form of eugenics and mass murder Norman Haire, letter to the editor, Birth Control Review, (July, 1930) - "For those who cannot be educated, sterilization or legalized abortion seems to be the only remedy, for we certainly do not want such stupid people to pollute the race with stupid offspring. The defective conditions of life call urgently for improvement."[32] Racial equality: Is abortion important to maintaining racial equality? Poor women are disproportionately deprived choice when abortion is illegal. Poor woman are most susceptible to circumstances in which abortion is necessary. If abortion is illegal, therefore, this socio-economic group will be disproportionately affected. Abortion disproportionately affects the African American community Abortion ban may harm poor, but does not change case against it Kristin Luker, Dubious Conceptions (1996) - "..The fact that only poor women are denied reproductive freedom when abortions are illegal is unpersuasive to those who oppose abortion on moral grounds." Crime: Does abortion help reduce crime? Abortion is more likely to wipe out the bad than the good. This argument is based on the premise that poverty and conditions conducive to crime often correlate to those that seek abortions. Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics makes this argument. He contends that the 1973 Roe. v. Wade legalization of abortions led to the fall in crime rates in the 80s and 90s across the United States. The period of declining crime, he says, correlated to the period when those that were aborted might have otherwise become criminals in society as a result of their circumstances. It is wrong to consider abortion a tool in crime prevention Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, from the essay Where Have All the Criminals Gone? Want to understand what made the crime rate drop in the 1990s? Look back to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 - "To discover that abortion was one of the greatest crime-lowering factors in American history is, needless to say, jarring. It feels less Darwinian than Swiftian; it calls to mind a long ago dart attributed to G. K. Chesterton: when there aren’t enough hats to go around, the problem isn’t solved by lopping off some heads. The crime drop was, in the language of economists, an 'unintended benefit' of legalized abortion. But one need not oppose abortion on moral or religious grounds to feel shaken by the notion of a private sadness being converted into a public good."[33] Activism: What are the arguments for and against certain activist-styles in this debate? Pro-life militant groups act violently in opposition to abortion. Many pro-life activists act violently in opposition to abortion. There are many examples of the bombing of Planned Parenthood abortion clinics and the harassment of abortion workers. This is wrong, and undermines the case against abortion. Pro-lifers are justified in showing gruesome images of abortions. These images reflect the reality of what is being done with abortions. They are, therefore, appropriate to show, lest we believe that it is better for women to be ignorant of the reality when they are confronted with the choice of having an abortion. Social: What are some of the other pro/con social utility/cost arguments? Abortion might forestall the potential birth of another Hitler. This is a counter-argument to the notion that abortion could have wiped out some of the greatest social contributors in history; it also could have wiped out some of the worst individuals in history. If a fetus was defined as a "person", the legal shifts would be too dramatic No abortions would be permitted for any reason, including rape or incest. Each miscarriage would have to be investigated. The legal consequences of such an amendment would be massive. Anti-abortion activists love babies but deprive poor children Abortion is important to reducing over-population globally Illegalizing abortion will lead to more children having children. Every child should be a wanted child Abortion forestalls the potential societal contributions of a human being It may even wipe out the life of an individual that could have resolved, for example, the Middle East crisis or cured cancer. Abortions are often chosen by minors or young adults with immature judgment: Abortion undermines the dignity of life, promotes violence Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Missionary and Founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. - "If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people to not kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want."[34] Faiths: Where do the various faiths generally stand on the issue? Judaism holds that life begins at birth and abortion is not murder God exists in the unborn as in the born Christian leaders throughout history have been opposed to abortion Christianity holds that a human life is a human life and taking a human life that does not pose an imminent threat to yours is wrong, outside of legitimate war and capital punishment. Judaism and the Torah uphold life against abortion US Constitution: Is abortion consistent with the US constitution? The right to abort does not depend on its explicit constitutional provision Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued Roe v. Wade, "A Delicate Decision", Westchester County Weekly, (January 22, 1998) - "The word 'privacy' does not appear in the Constitution. Then again, neither does 'travel.' But if you were to ask any American, 'Do you have the right to travel where and when you like?' they'd say 'yes.' And the Supreme Court has upheld this right." The US Constitution does not explicitly confer a right to abortion Byron White, U.S. Supreme Court, one of two dissenters in Roe v. Wade, (January 22, 1973) - "I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the court's judgment. The court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes."[35] The Declaration of Independence states we have a right to Life (Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness). One of the intentions of our founding documents, in describing our inalienable rights in liberty, is that a one person or group of people cannot exercise tyrannical power to take Life away from another person or group of persons. Historic opinion: Has abortion been supported historically? Pro-choice uphold democratic principles of free choice. America was founded upon the principles of freedom of religion. As a fetus cannot exist independently from its mother, it is the woman's extremely personal decision that must remain between herself,and her higher power. Just as churches cannot be forced to marry homosexuals, other citizens cannot determine what is indeed a religious decision on the part of a female. Abortion has been opposed by important figures throughout history Synod of Ancyra canon XXI, circa 314 - "Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees."[36] Abortion has a tenuous history of support in the USA Internationally: Where do country policies stand in this debate? Canada allows for abortions on demand. In Nicaragua abortions are always illegal. Pro/con organizations Abortion Access Project California Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League Catholics for a Free Choice List - Pro-Choice Women's PAC National Abortion Federation NARAL: Pro-Choice America National Organization for Women (NOW): Abortion Physicians for Reproductive Choice & Health Population Council Pro-Choice Libertarians Refuse & Resist: Abortion on Demand & Without Apology! Republicans for Choice Republican Pro-Choice Coalition Voters For Choice The WISH List Zero Population Growth Catholics United for Life Jews for Life LifeLinks National Coalition for Life and Peace Pro-Life America Republican National Coalition for Life Reformers for Life Assembly Roe v Wade.org Ultimate Pro-Life Resource Page Women and Children First Democrats for Life of America Public opinion: Where do publics stand on this issue? The majority of Americans oppose abortions Pro/con videos "Pro Choice". Posted on YouTube December 12th, 2006. What Does It Mean to be "Pro-Choice?". December 18th, 2007.[37] "Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer on abortion rights". Posted on YouTube December 12th, 2007. "Pro-Life / Pro-Choice: you NEED to see this". Posted on YouTube March 31, 2007[38] "Pro-Life Anti-Abortion Video - 4D Proof Abortion is Murder"[39] "Abortion -This is a Suction Abortion" Posted on YouTube March 29th, 2008.[40] "Kayla - I found out I was pregnant". Posted on YouTube, May 23rd, 2007.[41] "Barb's ProChoice Testimony - Silent No More". Posted on YouTube on May 18th, 2007 "Choosing Life For Her Baby - A Pro-life, Anti-Abortion Video". Posted on YouTube April 19th, 2007 "Pro-life Anti-Abortion Video: Development of the Unborn Baby". Posted on YouTube July 27th, 2009 Pro/con resources Murray, John Courtney. "Contraception, and the 'Liberal Catholic' Justification for Abortion". The Church and the Liberal Tradition. [this article needs to be read and quotes drawn from it] Thomson, Judith Jarvis . "A Defense of Abortion". Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971). Debate: Parental consent for underage abortions Debate: Abortion for physical deformities Debate: 3-month limit on abortions Debate: Partial-birth abortion Opposing Views: Should Abortion Be Legal? Opposing Views: When Does Life Begin? Retrieved from "http://dbp.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_Abortion" Categories: 2008 US presidential elections \| Politics \| Abortion \| Morality \| Religion \| Individual rights \| Reproduction \| Reproductive rights \| Sex \| Life and death \| US politics \| Law \| Constitutional law \| US Supreme Court \| Family \| Parenting This page was last modified 21:53, 8 October 2011.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line46
__label__wiki	0.783435	0.783435	Star Wars: The Force Awakens Image Gallery Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a 2015 American epic space opera film directed, co-produced, and co-written by J. J. Abrams. The seventh installment in the main Star Wars film series, it stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver,Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyongo, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, andMax von Sydow Produced by Lucasfilm and Abrams Bad Robot Productions and distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The Force Awakens is set approximately 30 years after Return of the Jedi (1983), and follows Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron's fight with the Resistance, led by veterans of the Rebel Alliance, against Kylo Ren and the First Order, descended from the Galactic Empire. The Force Awakens is the first film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy announced after Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012. Star Wars creator George Lucas served as creative consultant during the film's early production stages. Filming began in April 2014 in Abu Dhabi and Iceland, with principal photography also taking place in Ireland and Pinewood Studios in England. In May 2013, it was confirmed that Episode VII would be filmed in the United Kingdom. Representatives from Lucasfilm met with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborneto agree to produce Episode VII in the UK. Casting began around August 2013, with Abrams meeting with potential actors for script readings and screen tests. Daisy Ridley was chosen for the film by February 2014, and by the end of that month a deal had been worked out with Driver, who was able to work around his Girls schedule. On April 29, 2014, the cast was announced with a photo of the first table read of the script at Pinewood Studios near London. The Force Awakens premiered in Los Angeles on December 14, 2015, and was released on December 18, 2015, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D. Critics compared it favorably to the original trilogy, praising its action sequences, characters, acting, special effects, musical score and emotional drama. The film's opening weekend broke several box office records in North America, making the biggest worldwide opening in theaters. Post a FREE Classified Advertisement Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website. Union Minister Shripad Naik injured in car accident, wife and close aide die Strides Pharma Science arm gets USFDA nod for HIV treatment medicine 'Strong, courageous, determined': PM Modi greets soldiers on Army Day 2021 HCL Technologies dips 2% on profit booking post December quarter results The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) National Highways Authority of India GMR Group IDEA Cellular Limited Mercedes Benz India Limited Mahindra India Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Mercedes-benz-gla-class-200-cdi-spo Ashok Leyland Dost Top 10 Richest People 2017- Forbes IndiaCatalog.com IndiaCatalog.com is a website brought to you by Portland Technologies to provide directory of Indian websites, News, City Guides and profiles of Indian Businesses. Portland Technologies also provides IT solutions for Small and Medium Businesses in India. India Web Directory Global Web Directory FREE India Classifieds Submit a Site Plot #37, Ramnagar Gundu, Hyderabad - 500 044 service@indiacatalog.com © Copyright: IndiaCatalog.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line49
__label__wiki	0.764458	0.764458	HDFC merger with HDFC Bank makes sense in long run: Aditya Puri Monday, December 15, 2014 l Source: PTI HDFC Bank chief says there are some regulatory issues which need to be resolved to make merger more beneficial. Top private sector lender HDFC Bank has said a merger with parent HDFC makes sense in long-run, but there is no proposal on the table and regulatory clarity is required to make such a deal “more beneficial”. A possible merger between HDFC Bank and housing finance giant HDFC Ltd has been talked about for a long period and such a transaction can create the country’s second largest financial sector institution after state-run State Bank of India. Currently, HDFC Bank is the second largest lender in the private sector, although it ranks on the top in terms of market valuation ahead of its competitor ICICI Bank. “Both in the view of HDFC and HDFC Bank, the merger in the long-run makes sense... But there is no proposal on the table at the moment,” HDFC Bank chief Aditya Puri told PTI in an interview here. “We have been saying the same thing about the merger for the past 20 years,” he added. Puri, who has been managing director of HDFC Bank for more than 20 years, said that “there are some regulatory issues which need to be resolved to make the merger more beneficial.” While the talks of a possible merger between HDFC Bank and HDFC Ltd keep surfacing from time to time, the Reserve Bank of India’s move in July this year to allow banks to access long-term funding through bonds for infrastructure funding and affordable housing re-ignited such speculations. Puri, who has led mergers of Times Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab with HDFC Bank, acknowledged that infrastructure bond issuance heightens the case for a merger with HDFC Ltd. “There are some regulatory issues which need to be resolved to make the merger more beneficial. Partly, it has been resolved with the issuance of the circular on infra bonds, but there are a few more issues which we are in discussions with the regulators,” he said. Following a Union budget announcement, RBI has put in place a new set of norms for infrastructure loans to allow these advances to be funded through long-term bonds. The banks do not need to set aside reserve requirements on these loans. After the RBI issued these norms, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh had said that the boards of HDFC Bank and HDFC have not considered a merger, but they may look into it at an appropriate time “if it is necessary and beneficial to both entities”. HDFC’s vice-chairman and CEO Keki Mistry has also said previously that a merger was possible ‘theoretically’ and it could be done at an appropriate time. The two entities have a combined loan book size of Rs.5 trillion and assets of Rs.8 trillion. In terms of market capitalization, HDFC group ranks second after Tatas and ahead of Reliance Industries group at close to Rs.4 trillion. Next Article Tribute: Jayalalitha's love for the classical artsMonday, February 20, 2017 Branch Collection Manager - Kolkata Company: RELIANCE COMMERCIAL FINANCE LIMITED Company: Quess Corp (Magna Infotech) Urgent Opening for Loan Sales in SMC (Delhi) Company: SMC Global Securities Ltd Importance of team building - Everyone achieves more Monday, December 15, 2014 Team building is a very important aspect of any organization. This video will help you understand the power of a team and how everyone achieves more when in a team. Read More	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line50
__label__wiki	0.527085	0.527085	LAURA ROWE VOORHIS By Roger KirkpatrickApril 3, 2018Current Services Laura Rowe Voorhis, 56, of Washington Court House, Ohio, passed away on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, at the Cleveland Clinic after a short battle with cancer. She was born June 22, 1961, in Youngstown, Ohio, to William and Jeanette Turner Rowe. Laura was a 1979 graduate of Boardman High School. Pursuing a career as a science educator, she attended Minot State University, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Education with honors in 1987. In 1997, she proceeded to gain a Master of Science in Education with honors from Miami University. She began her professional career teaching biology at Boardman High School in 1987. From 1988 to 1992, she taught physical and earth science for the Wichita Public School System. For the past 25 years was a biology and chemistry teacher for Washington City Schools in Washington Court House, covering a wide range of subjects including biology, zoology, forensic science, consumer chemistry and environmental science. Laura was an active member of her community in the arts and sciences. She was a devoted music lover, a fan of Martin guitars, and a booster of live music and community arts. With a passion for promoting girls’ interest in science, she served on the scholarship committee of the Washington Court House Chapter of the American Association of University Women. She was preceded in death by her father, William Rowe, in 1987. Laura is survived by her husband, Mark Voorhis; her mother, Jeanette Rowe and a sister, Stephanie Rowe. A private service was held on Monday, April 2, 2018, at the Davis-Becker Funeral Home in Boardman, Ohio for her immediate family and friends. A celebration of life service, followed by a visitation and time of fellowship, will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 14, 2018, in Liberty Hall at Washington High School with Mell Wickensimer, director of visitation at the Grace United Methodist Church, officiating. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, or other expressions of condolence, friends consider contributing to the AAUW Laura Voorhis Memorial Scholarship in her honor. Gifts may be directed to AAUW, c/o Rose Merkowitz, 1383 Courtney Drive, Washington Court House, OH 43160. Local arrangements are under the direction of the Kirkpatrick Funeral Home in Washington Court House. Twilene Cunningham says: Mark and family, so sorry to hear of your wife’s passing. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Twilene Cunningham (AMES) RUTH W. COE	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line55
__label__cc	0.675443	0.324557	Women Can (Finally) Fly! Photo via www.wsjusa.com On Tuesday, Lindsay Van, Sarah Hendrickson and Jessica Jerome make history. They will compete in the first ever Olympic Women's Ski Jumping event. Unbelievable as it may seem, Ski Jumping has been a men's-only event since the Winter Olympics began in 1924. Women were not allowed to compete. I first learned about this gender inequality in 2006 while I was researching for my book, THE FINNISH LINE, about a ski-jumping American exchange student who trains on the hills in Lahti, Finland. It never crossed my mind when I began writing that book that my character would have no hope of competing in the Olympics because of her gender. Who would have thought it possible in this century? The Olympics in Turino, Italy were in full swing. I tuned in to watch the women's ski jumpers, only to realize that there were none. I contacted the good folks at Women's Ski Jump USA, who were kind enough to help me not only with my understanding of the sport and training involved, but of their struggles for inclusion in the Olympic Games. (You can read more about this fight on the wsjusa website.) I was living in Japan at that time, and had the opportunity to meet Lindsay Van and Jessica Jerome a little bit later when they came to compete in Zao. I was also able to watch them train that summer in Park City, Utah. I was, and continue to be completely in awe not only of their talent, but also of their poise and grace. Even in the face of denial over and over again by the International Olympics Committee.* Finally, in the spring of 2011, the IOC announced that a women's event would be added to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. And last week, Lindsay Van, Sarah Hendrickson and Jessica Jerome walked into the stadium at opening ceremonies as Olympic competitors. I'm so happy for them, and proud of women ski jumpers everywhere who fought long and hard for this day to come. I'll be cheering for them extra loud tomorrow! (I should add that another favorite is from Japan, where I find myself once again, so even though my heart belongs to Lindsay, Sarah, and Jessica, I will also be cheering for Sara Takanashi. But in my way of thinking, no matter who medals, everyone has won.) *The reasons the IOC gave for the exclusion ranged from offensively sexist ("women shouldn't jump because it can damage their ovaries") to blatantly untrue ("the sport lacks universality" - even though women's ski jumping had more competitors from more countries competing at the highest level than several other women's Olympic sports.) They have earned every eye roll you can give them, but we're staying positive this year, yeah? So yay, IOC, for finally seeing the light!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line57
__label__wiki	1.00001	1.00001	Ch 3, Page 23 2nd Jan 2020, 2:54 PM in Chapter Three: Hearts Be Troubled Comic Strips 01 Chapter One: From The Top Comic Strips 02 Chapter Two: But a Number Comic Strips 03 Chapter Three: Hearts Be Troubled Ch 3, Page 1 Ch 3, Page 2 Ch 3, Page 3 Ch 3, Page 4 Ch 3, Page 5 Ch 3, Page 6 Ch 3, Page 7 Ch 3, Page 8 Ch 3, Page 9 Ch 3, Page 10 Ch 3, Page 11 Ch 3, Page 12 Ch 3, Page 13 Ch 3, Page 14 Ch 3, Page 15 Ch 3, Page 16 Ch 3, Page 17 Ch 3, Page 18 Ch 3, Page 19 Ch 3, Page 20 Ch 3, Page 21 Ch 3, Page 22 Ch 3, Page 23 Ch 3, Page 24 Ch 3, Page 25 Ch 3, Page 26 Ch 3, Page 27 Ch 3, Page 28 Ch 3, Page 29 Ch 3, Page 30 Ch 3, Page 31 Ch 3, Page 32 Ch 3, Page 33 Ch 3, Page 34 Ch 3, Page 35 Ch 3, Page 36 Ch 3, Page 37 Ch 3, Page 38 Ch 3, Page 39 Ch 3, Page 40 Ch 3, Page 41 Ch 3, Page 42 Ch 3, Page 43 Ch 3, Page 44 Ch 3, Page 45 Ch 3, Page 46 Ch 3, Page 47 Ch 3, Page 48 Ch 3, Page 49 Ch 3, Page 50 Ch 3, Page 51 Ch 3, Page 52 Ch 3, Page 53 Ch 3, Page 54 Ch 3, Page 55 Ch 3, Page 56 Ch 3, Page 57 Ch 3, Page 58 Ch 3, Page 59 Ch 3, Page 60 Ch 3, Page 61 Ch 3, Page 62 Ch 3, Page 63 Comic Strips 04 Chapter Four: Start Your Engines Comic Strips 05 Comic Profile Hosted by ComicFury © 2019 - 2021 Comic author	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line59
__label__cc	0.652687	0.347313	Amazing Movie Review – The Illusionist: Prepare to be amazed! Posted in Amazing Movie Reviews, February 2011 Issue By Perry Chen, Movie Review Columnist Do you believe in magic? Do you remember how you felt when you saw a magic trick for the first time? Were you astounded? Have you ever wondered what a magician’s life is really like? That is the story behind The Illusionist, an excitingly animated feature film by French animation director Sylvain Chomet, about the disappearing art of amusement, was recently nominated for an Oscar. You can view The Illusionist website with a full animated preview at: http://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/ The main character, an old, curious, skillful, and good-natured magician, is based on Jacques Tati, the screenwriter, and also famous actor, comedian, director, and mime. With many more successful enterprises coming out in the late 1950’s, such as Rock musicians and dancers, the magician and many other old entertainers, like puppeteers and clowns, are slowly being pushed to the brink of extinction, as they were fighting a losing battle. Searching for an audience for his profession, the magician meets Alice, a charming maid, who looks as if she is barely a teenager, working at a hotel. When he performs a magic trick for her, she believes that he can create anything out of nothing. After following him to Edinburgh in Scotland though, she gets vainer, feeding off the magician’s money to satisfy her needs. The poor magician has to toil hard over second jobs as a painter, a clothing shop promoter, and even as a car washer (which he got fired in all of them), to buy expensive gifts for the girl, since he has such fatherly love for her and does not want to disappoint her. Alice doesn’t seem to understand that he cannot make something from nothing in real life. The magician and Alice slowly drift apart, fueled by her vanity and newfound love as she grows older. The Magician has a companion and main attraction to a younger audience, a very mischievous white rabbit who enjoys biting people who put their hand too close to his cage. The rabbit always struggles furiously when the magician stuffs him into his top hat. He acts very “un-rabbit like,” as if he is rabid (rabid rabbit!). The magician is always scrambling after the rabbit as he escapes after each show! He adds a lot of humor to the film, making it more light-hearted. The kids will love the rabbit! I loved this magical film and gave it 4.5 star fish. It is “Perrific!” The Illusionist is gorgeously animated, especially the illuminated night streets of Edinburg, and the beautiful scenes in nature, in particular, a scene of a duck flapping off from a lake when a train passes by. Many other scenes are stunning, and the story is enchanting. The magician’s magic looks so real. I also recommend you see the film Mon Oncle, starring Tati, a film that really helped enrich my understanding about Tati. It was recommended by Scott Marks, another San Diego film critic featured on KPBS Film Club and a good friend of ours. Mon Oncle incorporated a lot of physical comedy. After watching this film, you can really see all the similarities between Tati in Mon Oncle and the magician in The Illusionist, such as the fact that they are both silent types, they are curious and have the spirit of professionals, but the hearts of children, they have a stiff legged walk, and their pants are too short. There is actually a scene in The Illusionist where the magician walks into a theater and Mon Oncle is playing inside. The music was delightful and light-hearted. It was very similar to the music in Mon Oncle. Both films have little dialogue. The story has a lot of humor in it. Besides the hilarious scenes of the rabbit, another funny scene is one with the lead singers of The Britoons, an early rock and roll band. My mom and I were overcome with laughter, when the lead musician (Billy) squirms on the floor of the stage, in front of hysterical, screaming fans, refusing to leave the stage when his time is up, forcing the eager magician following him to wait for hours. I actually had a variation for a critical scene in the film, which my mom actually liked better. In that scene, the magician is on a train and sees a little girl looking for a pencil she was using for a drawing. He finds her very short pencil and gives it back to her. In my variation, he does a magic trick in which he takes his own pencil, which is longer and gives it to her, so when she grabs her short pencil she gets a long one! I thought this would give the film more magic and power. This film is a bit spiritual and I think adults will probably appreciate it more than kids. But I want to challenge children to watch it and discuss it with their parents, as The Illusionist is among the three Oscar-nominated animation features this year and included in our “Amazing Kids Perrific Oscar Picks” contest. Kids can learn a lot from this film which is different from most other animation films. Today, the art of magic is flourishing. Many people create astounding tricks, and even children are in the magic business. If you don’t believe me, watch the film Make Believe, a moving documentary about a group of talented young magicians going for an annual international magic competition in the magic industry. My mom and I saw it at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year and met the filmmakers and star magicians in the film. I am glad magic is alive and well nowadays! The Illusionist is about fatherly love, loss, and the disappearing art of amusement. Magicians may not exist, but magic definitely does. Copyright 2011 by Perry S. Chen Perry Chen is a 10-year-old film & entertainment critic, artist, and animator. He is the resident film critic for Amazing Kids and also writes for Animation World Network, San Diego Union Tribune and San Diego Entertainer. He has been featured on CBS, NPR, Variety, and The Young Icons TV show. His website: http://www.perryspreviews.com.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line63
__label__wiki	0.753392	0.753392	Is intersectionality just another form of identity politics? - Feminist Fightback Feminist Fightback take a class-based look at intersectionality and identity politics. This paper was written by two members of Feminist Fightback but draws heavily upon discussions within the wider collective. It reflects ‘thought in process’ rather than a final or united ‘position’, and was first circulated for discussion at the Plan C ‘Fast Forward’ event in September 2014. Feminist Fightback has for many years described itself as seeking to practice an ‘intersectional’ form of feminism, whereby we argue that the struggle for gender liberation must take account of, and join with, struggles against all other forms of oppression and exploitation around the axis of class, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism etc. We began to use ‘intersectional’ in place of ‘socialist feminist’ in about 2007-8 because we felt that the latter term implied an interest in gender and class but did not give due emphasis to race. We continued to be inspired by a variety of Marxist and class-struggle anarchist currents, and we did not feel these to be in contradiction to a commitment to intersectionality. Over the last year, however, intersectionality has been critiqued in both the mainstream media and on the Left as nothing more than a sophisticated version of identity politics, which is seen to undermine class struggle. We have considered these critiques and sought to clarify for ourselves whether we think that ‘intersectional feminism’ is still a useful term to describe the politics of Feminist Fightback. As we will argue below, we think that it is incorrect to elide intersectionality with identity politics. In fact, when intersectionality theory was first formulated by Black feminists it was specifically intended to be both a critique of and an alternative to identity politics. What we continue to debate, however, is whether the term has now acquired a new set of meanings from those with which it was originally imbued, and therefore if it can be ‘reclaimed’. We also differ as to whether intersectionality can be described as a political practice, or if it is simply an analytical perspective. The debate has also helped us to clarify our understanding (and disagreements) over how exactly we think capitalism functions, and how it both reproduces and benefits from patriarchy and white supremacy etc. A Brief History of Intersectionality The term ‘intersectionality’ was first coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1990 and was developed by Patricia Hill Collins in a publication that same year. Crenshaw was a US legal scholar frustrated at the failure of anti-discrimination law, which developed to address either racism or sexism. As Crenshaw pointed out, it therefore failed to respond to the experiences of those with ‘intersecting’ identities, particularly Black women. However, the ideas of intersectionality had already been developed (without the term itself being used) from the 1970s onwards by Black feminists such as Angela Davis in Women, Race, Class (1981) and the Combahee River Collective. Black feminism has always been important to theories of intersectionality precisely because women of colour have no choice but to attend to the intersections of race and gender when struggling against their particular experience of oppression and exploitation. Intersectional ideas can also be traced back to socialist-feminist, materialist feminist and feminist marxist analyses of the 1970s and 80s, which sought to theorise the relationship between gender and class. (And obviously Black feminism and socialist-feminisms are not two separate traditions, but have often critically overlapped). Perhaps the most well -known statement of interlocking oppressions is bell hooks’ description of our political system as an ‘imperialist, white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.’ We therefore want to emphasise that intersectionality emerged through a critique of identity politics. Firstly, this occurred through its attack on the notion of particular aspects of identity as fixed and coherent. Essentialist understandings of identity were evident within many forms of radical and liberal feminism which proposed to unite women around a falsely universalist identity of ‘womanhood’, and also in some anti-racist movements which failed to attend to how women of colour experienced racism differently from the Black male subject. In showing how the experience of individuals was made up of a variety of intersecting oppressions (e.g. Black women experienced a distinctively gendered form of racism and a racialised form of sexism) intersectionality theory by definition destabilised simplistic and essentialist conceptualisations of identity. Secondly, intersectionality theory re-focused attention upon systems and structures rather than on the identity of the individual. Individuals might stand at the ‘crossroads’ of various intersecting oppressions, but early proponents of intersectionality clearly stated that this theory was about how oppressions were inextricably intertwined at a structural level. Intersectionality, Identity Politics and their Critics It is this recognition of how systems of oppression and exploitation do not simply sit alongside each other but are mutually constituted, that Feminist Fightback has found most useful in intersectionality theory. We would argue that capitalism, as an economic system of exploitation, does not sit on top of, or in parallel to, pre-existing, separate systems of oppression such as patriarchy and racism etc. Rather, we maintain that as capitalism developed historically it depended upon and reproduced racism, patriarchy and heteronormativity etc. While it is true that at certain points in time capitalism also undermined feudal and patriarchal hierarchies, it is impossible to point to any significant development within capitalism which has not been made possible either by generating new forms of oppression or benefiting from old ones. For example, imperial expansion in the nineteenth century was justified by and re-inscribed racism, while the rise of industrial capitalism was dependent upon the confinement of women in the private sphere to perform the necessary reproductive labour unwaged. The form taken by capitalism in these historical moments was therefore determined by the other forms of oppression that it utilised, and likewise distinctively capitalist forms of racism and patriarchy were generated. That class exploitation under capitalism is mutually constituted by other intersecting oppressions is not merely a point of historical or theoretical interest. The insights revealed by intersectionality theory are crucial to both our ability to understand how capitalism works at a day-to-day level, and also how to struggle against it. Take the example of the undocumented migrant women cleaning offices in the City: her work is low paid because it has been historically defined as women’s work, and her employers can get away with poverty wages partly because her ‘illegal’ status makes it much harder for her to organise with other workers. Any successful ‘class struggle’ involving such workers must also struggle against border controls and the stigmatisation of reproductive labour as less valuable than work that has been gendered as male, in order to be effective. An intersectional approach in this context is not about making class struggle more ‘politically correct’, but about making it more likely to succeed. For this reason we have been confused by critiques of intersectionality that have attacked it as distracting from and/or undermining class struggle. Julie Burchill’s denunciations of intersectionality in the Guardian (2012) and the Spectator (2014) might have been more easily dismissed as another ‘political correctness gone mad’ tirade, had they not revealed the extent to which the term ‘intersectionality’ had become common currency in the Left/liberal mainstream as well as bearing a strong resemblance to more ‘serious’ critiques being made by the libertarian/Marxist Left. Perhaps the most widely read and cited of these was Mark Fisher’s ‘Exiting the Vampire Castle’ (2013), which, like Burchill, blamed a ‘po-faced’ and ‘moralistic’ obsession with racism, sexism and heteronormativity not just for distracting us from class struggle, but as mounting a direct obstacle to it. Far more thoughtful critiques have also come from Eve Mitchell and Michael Rectenwald, both of which make a powerful case for the need to come together around our capacity to labour, and the shared experience of having this labour exploited under capitalism, rather than around essentialist notions of identity. However, both Mitchell and Rectenwald treat intersectionality as nothing more than particularly sophisticated form of identity politics; rather than judging it according to the professed aims of its early theorists who conceived of intersectionality theory as a way to analyse capitalism and make resistance more effective. This elision of intersectionality with identity politics reflects, we think, something more significant than simply a failure to have thoroughly read the work of its early theorists. In order to explore it further, we need to define what is meant by identity politics. The term is most frequently used as shorthand to describe the feminist/anti-racist/gay liberation movements that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in a moment when the more traditional Left and trade union politics fell into decline in the West. Identity politics are therefore commonly seen to have emerged in response to a ‘failure’ of class struggle, but what does this mean? Many, including Rectenwald, have argued that identity politics rushed to fill the vacuum left by the Marxist Left and the labour movement, implying that, for want of something better, people turned to identity politics in a moment of defeat. What such an analysis conveniently ignores, however, is that the ‘failure’ of the Left during this period was in part due to its incapacity to understand and reach out to the diverse groups that made up the working class. Women, Black and Queer workers turned to feminism, antiracism and gay liberation, not because they couldn’t find a trade union or a Marxist group to join, but because existing forms of politics (predicated upon the white male subject) failed to respond to their needs as workers. Of course, there were many complex reasons why worker militancy went into retreat from the 1970s onwards, but the notion that this was due to all those selfish, feminist and gays preoccupied with their identitarian agenda is ridiculous. The rich, multiple and various currents of feminist/anti-racist/Queer politics that have emerged over the last forty years or so should not be viewed as a threat to class struggle, but, to the contrary, as a way to make struggles around class and labour at the point of production more effective, more widespread and more powerful. It is important, therefore, not to confuse a very particular manifestation of ‘equality’ politics – that seek merely to fight for the individual rights of women, or people of colour within the existing capitalist system – with those movements which, in taking account of differences within the working class, have ultimately sought to make class struggle better. Intersectionality, we think, needs to be acknowledged as such. Putting Intersectionality into Practice in Feminist Fightback The question of whether intersectionality can be transformed into a political practice, rather than just a frame of analysis, continues to be debated within Feminist Fightback. We conclude this paper by outlining a few of the ways in which intersectionality has informed aspects of our politics and activism over the last 8 years. Needless to say, our claim to practice intersectional feminism remains aspirational and we do not wish to imply that we have by any means achieved this goal 100 per cent! In 2008 we made a decision to stop referring to ‘abortion rights’ to describe our pro-choice politics and instead use the phrase ‘reproductive freedom’. In doing so, we drew upon critiques of mainstream pro-choice politics made by Black feminists in the United States and some socialist-feminists in Britain in the 1980s. They had argued that framing the issue solely in terms of access to legal abortion ignored the fact that real choice for the majority of women depended not simply upon legal rights but also whether they could afford to raise a child. Moreover, while white middle-class women have tended historically to be pressured into having children, Black and working-class women have often been prevented from reproducing. To demand real ‘choice’ and reproductive freedom, it was therefore necessary to demand, alongside the right to abortion, a free and publicly funded health service and decent child and a single-parent benefits, for example. Extend Abortion Rights to Northern Ireland These more wide-ranging demands had already been part of the propaganda for a torch-lit march Feminist Fightback had organised in 2007 to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 Act that first legalised abortion in Britain. They also continued to inform the work we did in 2008-10 opposing first Private Members Bills to reduce the time limit on abortion and later our opposition to similar attempts attached to the Human Fertilisation and Embryologies Act of 2010. Now, this campaign was by no means carried out perfectly and we made a lot of mistakes. Yet we think it is fair to say that many of the challenges we faced in attempting to intervene in the wider pro-choice movement were due to the ‘intersectional’ nature of our demands. For example, the campaign organisation Abortion Rights refused to support our torch-lit march in 2007 and also rejected motions we brought to its Annual General Meeting in 2009. Their reason for this was that they were a single issue campaign, which sought support from a broad political spectrum, and therefore our demands around welfare rights and the health service merely muddied the waters. We think this raises interesting issues with regards to the wider question of the kinds of political practices a feminist movement might find most effective. Within the mainstream feminism, at least, we identify a tendency towards simple messages and single issue campaigns which often seek redress from the state through legislation and/or policy change. But the intersectional approach we sought to practice could not be reduced to straightforward model of legal reform. Feminist Fightback has also intervened in debates about sex work and made alliances with sex worker rights activists. Here, and intersectional approach has been crucial in enabling us to assert that sex work as an income generating activity (whereby sex workers, like all workers, are selling not their bodies but there power to labour), while remaining alert to the ways in which sex work is variously patriarchal, racist and classed. So, for example, the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) foreground the gendered nature of sex work and draw attention to inadequate welfare provisions for single mothers. The X:Talk, which organises peer-led English classes for migrants sex workers, have likewise insisted on understanding, and organising in a way relevant to, the relationship between UK borders and sex work. In solidarity with these activists, then, we have in recent years joined the Red Umbrella block on the Reclaim the Night (RTN) marches in London. Along with sex worker rights activists we have criticised RTN for its narrow, individualistic conception of violence, and for developing a close relationship with the police, manifest in the fact that the march has been sponsored by the police, and in 2009 the organisers saw no problem with asking the police to interrogate the Red Umbrella contingent on arrival. Drawing on our own experiences, as well as writings of Black feminists and sex worker rights activists, it is clear that the police cannot be relied upon to protect the interests of women, and especially those of Black, working-class women and sex workers. Joining the RTN march, then, our intention has been to highlight the need for a broader, systemic conceptualisation or violence against women. As in the case of our campaigning around ‘reproductive freedom’, Feminist Fightback has experienced challenges in attempting to practice intersectional politics around sex work. Along with being policed by other feminists, we have been labelled as defending the sex industry because of our solidarity with sex workers rights activists. Again, the simple messages and binaries around which much contemporary activism continues to be organised, have proved resistant to pressing and intersectional analysis into practice. Some Not Very Conclusive Remarks In this paper we have discussed the shifting meaning of the term intersectionality and contrasted its contemporary mainstream deployment as a form of identity politics, to the way in which we sought to define it in Feminist Fightback when we adopted the term to describe our politics in 2007. As a collective we are presently in some discussion about the continuing usefulness of the term and have by no means reached a consensus upon it. We would be very interested to hear your views on whether you think it continues to be a useful way to describe and inform an anticapitalist, ‘militant’ feminist Praxis. We have also, in this paper, attempted to reflect upon some of the ways in which we tried to put into such an hourly to into practice and the obstacles we face. We would also be extremely interested to hear of other people’s similar experiences: – Email feminist.fightback@gmail.com. – Find Feminist Fightback’s avatar ‘Sylvie Pankhurst’ on Facebook. – Join our Facebook Group. – Tweet us your ideas. From http://www.feministfightback.org.uk/is-intersectionality-just-another-form-of-identity-politics/ Sep 6 2015 14:14 Feminist Fightback Spikymike The Angry Workers group make another useful contribution to the discussion opened up here with a slightly different approach and conclusion in terms of their own practice; https://libcom.org/blog/limits-intersectionality-angryworkers-book-revie... The libcom library contains nearly 20,000 articles. If it's your first time on the site, or you're looking for something specific, it can be difficult to know where to start. Luckily, there's a range of ways you can filter the library content to suit your needs, from casual browsing to researching a particular topic. Click here for the guide. If you have an ebook reader or a Kindle, check out our guide to using ebook readers with libcom.org. If you'd like to upload content to the library which is in line with the aims of the site or will otherwise be of interest to libcom users, please check out our guides to submitting library/history articles and tagging articles. If you're not sure if something is appropriate for the library, please ask in the feedback and content forum. If you don't have permissions to post content yet, just request it here. Communist Headache journal Lose jobs now: ask me how! Ireland, nationalism and imperialism, the myths exploded, 1972-1992 - Subversion Buela, Juana Rouco 1889-1969 Why Blackadder Goes Forth could have been a lot funnier	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line67
__label__wiki	0.819307	0.819307	July 2016 News - Naval Forces, Defense Industry, Navy Technology, Maritime Security Video: USS Coronado (LCS 4) Launches Harpoon Anti-ship Missile for the 1st Time Posted On Thursday, 21 July 2016 09:09 USS Coronado (LCS 4), an Independence-class littoral combat ship, launched a Harpoon Block 1C anti-ship missile during RIMPAC 2016, the world's largest international maritime exercise current taking place off Hawai. Raytheon, Kongsberg to build Naval Strike Missiles and launchers in United States Fincantieri Lays Keel of New LSS – Logistic Support Ship for Italian Navy Chinese Navy (PLAN) Commissioned its Fourth Type 052D Kunming-class Destroyer "Yinchuan" Successful Thales Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) firing from Aselsan MILAS turret PLAN Conducted Major Naval Drills Involving close to 100 Vessels & Units in South China Sea Posted On Wednesday, 20 July 2016 17:05 Our colleagues from Eastpendulum are reporting that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy) conducted large scale naval drills in the South China Sea. The naval exercise involved close to 100 vessels, submarine, aircraft from the PLAN air force and coastal defense (land based) units during 4 days (between July 7 and 11, 2016). Spanish MoD Approved the Critical Design Review on Navantia S-80 Submarine An expert panel of the Spanish Ministry of Defense has approved the Critical Design Review (CDR) of S-80 class diesel-electric submarines (SSK) being built by Navantia shipyard in Cartagena. This is a major step for the future of the program since the submarine re-design is now validated and frozen and the programme can transition back to production. 1st Project 955A SSBN Knyaz Vladimir & 1st Project 885M SSGN Kazan to join Russia’s Navy in 2018 The Project 955A Borei-A class nuclear-powered submarine Knyaz Vladimir and the Project 885M Yasen-M class nuclear-powered submarine Kazan will join Russia’s Navy in 2018 or one year later than planned, a source in the defense and industrial sector told TASS. Video: German Navy’s First F125 Frigate Baden-Württemberg in Sea Trials The German Navy (Deutsche Marine) released a nice video showing the first F125 frigate conducting sea trials off the coast of Denmark. Viewers can see the “Baden-Württemberg” being put through several maneuvers (high speed turns, man-overboard maneuver) to verify the control of the ship. The crew consisting of German Navy sailors and civilian engineers are also testing systems onboard such as the TRS-4D radar system. Russian Navy Slava-class Cruiser Varyag (Project 1164 Atlant) hits coastal target in live-firing drills Russia’s Project 1164 missile cruiser Varyag has used the P-1000 Vulkan system to hit a coastal target at the Kura practice range in Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Eastern Military District’s press office said. Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship USS Jackson (LCS 6) Completes Full Ship Shock Trials In June, the U.S. Navy began conducting Full Ship Shock Trials (FSST) for the Independence variant Littoral Combat Ship USS Jackson (LCS 6) off the coast of Florida. The purpose of FSST is to validate the operational survivability of new construction ships after exposure to underwater shock. Three tests were scheduled for the ship and each test was conducted with a 10,000-pound explosive charge. Rosatom’s subsidiary makes innovative nuclear fuel for Project 22220 icebreaker Arktika The Machine-Building Plant, a subsidiary of the TVEL Fuel Company within Russia’s nuclear power corporation Rosatom, has manufactured the first batch of fuel elements for the reactor core of the Project 22220 versatile nuclear-powered icebreaker, the TVEL Company’s press office said. U.S. Navy Awards General Dynamics $19 Million for Virginia Payload Module Development Posted On Tuesday, 19 July 2016 17:27 General Dynamics Electric Boat has been awarded an $18.9 million contract modification for the continued development of the Virginia Payload Module (VPM). Electric Boat is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. Russian Navy Hopes to get its 1st Project 22350 Frigate Admiral Gorshkov in November 2016 The Project 22350 lead frigate Admiral Gorshkov is planned to be delivered to Russia’s Navy in November 2016, Chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Armament Department Lieutenant-General Anatoly Gulyayev said on the single military hardware acceptance day. British parliament votes to renew UK's continuous at sea nuclear deterrent The House of Commons has backed the renewal of the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system by 472 votes to 117. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon welcomes decision to renew the UK's continuous at sea deterrent. Russian Navy receives 47 Kalibr cruise missiles, 72 surface-to-air missiles in earlier 2016 The Russian Navy has taken delivery of almost 50 Kalibr (NATO reporting name: SS-N-27 Sizzler) cruise missiles, 72 surface-to-air missiles and a Gamma-S1M radar during the first six months of the year, Russian Armed Forces Chief of Armament Anatoly Gulyayev said on the Common Military Equipment Acceptance Day. Hyundai Heavy Industries to Supply Ice Capable Tanker to Royal New Zealand Navy Posted On Monday, 18 July 2016 10:28 New Zealand's Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee announced that Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea won a contract to build and deliver a new tanker for the Royal New Zealand Navy. The tanker will be ice-strengthened for Antarctic operations, winterised, and will be the largest vessel ever operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy. Video: SINKEX of Decommissioned USS Thach (FFG 43) Frigate during RIMPAC 2016 Live fire from ships and aircraft participating in the Rim of the Pacific 2016 exercise sank the decommissioned USS Thach (FFG 43) at 7:25 p.m. July 14, 2016 in waters 15,000 feet deep, 55 nautical miles north of Kauai, Hawaii. Units from Australia, the Republic of Korea and the U.S. participated in the sinking exercise (SINKEX), which provided them the opportunity to gain proficiency in tactics, targeting and live firing against a surface target at sea. UK MoD Confirmed Procurement of Nine P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft The Ministry of Defence has confirmed the deal to purchase nine P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The new aircraft, which will be based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, will play a vital role in protecting the UK’s nuclear deterrent and the UK’s two new aircraft carriers. They will also be able to locate and track hostile submarines, and will enhance the UK’s maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) capability... Admiral Christophe Prazuck is the new Chief of the French Navy Posted On Saturday, 16 July 2016 12:14 Admiral Christophe Prazuck was appointed as the new Marine Nationale's Chief of Navy (CEMM for chef d’état-major de la marine - chief of staff of the navy) during a ceremony wich took place on July 12, 2016 aboard aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Admiral Prazuck succeeds to Admiral Rogel who held this position for the past 5 years and has launched a major transformation of the French Navy with the plan "Horizon Marine 2025". China's 7th & 8th Type 903A Fleet Replenishment Oilers Commissioned Into PLAN South Sea Fleet The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy) commissioned two Type 903A Fleet Replenishement Oilers on July 15 2016 with China's South Sea Fleet. A commissioning, naming and flag-presenting ceremony was held solemnly at the Zhanjiang naval base in South China’s Guangdong province for the new vessels: Honghu (hull number 963) and Luomahu (hull number 964). Third and Last Chinese-Built C28A Corvette Delivered to the Algerian Navy The third and last C28A Corvette on order for the Algerian Navy has been delivered by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a wholly owned subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC, the largest shipbuilding group in China). Algeria signed a contract with China Shipbuilding Trading Co (CSTC) for construction of three C28A corvettes in March 2012. US Navy Awards Raytheon Contract for Production of AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II Missiles The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Company a $291 million contract award for production of the AIM-9X Sidewinder® missile, one of the most advanced infrared-tracking, short-range, air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles in the world. The contract is for All Up Round Tactical Full Rate Production Lot 16 of the Block II missiles for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army and the governments of Japan, Norway and Taiwan. Polish Navy First Kormoran II-class Mine Countermeasures Vessel Started Sea Trials Remontowa Shipbuilding started sea trials of ORP Kormoran, the Polish Navy new generation mine countermeasures vessel (MCMV) (Kormoran II programme). The vessel is designed by Remontowa shipbuilding (Gdanska Stocznia "Remontowa" im. J. Pilsudskiego S.A.) based in Gdansk. Network-Enabled Standoff Weapon JSOW C-1 Ready for US Navy Fleet Raytheon Company and the U.S. Navy have completed all operational tests for the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) C-1 making this newest variant of the guided glide weapon ready for US Navy fleet release and declaration of Initial Operational Capability. Admiral Valter Girardelli is the new Chief of the Italian Navy The handover/takeover ceremony took place on July 12, 2016 between Vice Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi (outgoing) and Vice Admiral Valter Girardelli (upcoming). Following a wreath laying at the Altar of the Homeland and accompanied by the performance of the Italian Navy Band, the Chief of Navy handover ceremony was held in the presence of the Italian Defence Minister, senator Roberta Pinotti, the Defence Chief of Staff, General Claudio Graziano, the Minister of the Interior... First sale for ECA Group's Mine Counter Measure unmanned systems with TOWSCA & SEASCAN ECA Group was recently awarded a new export contract for the delivery of three Mine Counter Measure unmanned systems. This contract, around 10M€, includes the supply of three INSPECTOR Mk2 Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV). Tu-142MR planes to be upgraded as part of advanced submarine communications development Russia's Naval Forces' Tu-142MR (NATO reporting name: Bear-J) VLF-band radio communications relay aircraft derived from the Tu-142M long-range antisubmarine warfare aircraft, will be upgraded as part of the development of a sophisticated submarine communication system, according to the Izvestia daily. Rheinmetall to supply Royal Canadian Navy with decoy ammunition for the next thirty years At the recent CANSEC show in May 2016 in Canada, the Canadian government and ammunition suppliers Rheinmetall and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems–Canada signed a licence agreement to produce Omnitrap decoy ammunition for the Canadian Navy. Worth a mid-range eight-figure euro amount over the course of its thirty-year lifetime, the contract encompasses the supply of core components by Rheinmetall for Omnitrap decoy ammunition... Russia offers construction of Project 23000E Storm nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Indian Navy Russia has offered the Indian Navy to build a Project 23000E Storm-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a source in the Indian Ministry of Defense told the Defense News weekly. According to the source, the offer was made during the visit of a Russian delegation to India several days ago.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line71
__label__cc	0.596433	0.403567	State spends $1M to boost safety at trail, track c... State spends $1M to boost safety at trail, track crossings Posted by News New Mexico on Sunday, September 28, 2014 From the Santa Fe New Mexican - Cyclist Josh Napier squeezed his brakes and slowed to stop as lights flashed and bells rang near the intersection of the Rail Runner and the Rail Trail at Zia Road on Friday afternoon. For Napier, a visitor from Charlotte, N.C., the bells and lights were enough to alert him of an approaching train. But those safety measures didn’t prevent the deaths of two bicycle riders who were struck and killed by Rail Runner trains at crossings in Santa Fe earlier this year. Now the state Department of Transportation plans to spend nearly $1 million on safety gates, flashing lights and other improvements aimed at further protecting both pedestrians and cyclists. Last week, crews began installing the new equipment. As Napier waited for the train to pass by Friday, black plastic bags still covered the new lights mounted on a steel pole. In April, Suzanne LeBeau, 60, of Santa Fe was cycling along Zia Road when she rode her bike past warning lights and ringing bells and into the front of a train. She died at the scene. Less than two months later, Joseph Salazar, 41, was struck by the Rail Runner when he rode in front of a train on St. Michael’s Drive. He, too, seemed oblivious to the warning signals, according to video of the accident. The Transportation Department initially responded to their concerns in August by stationing flaggers at major crossings to warn pedestrians and cyclists, and the trains were forced to slow down. According to a recent Legislative Finance Committee newsletter, the changes added seven to 10 minutes of travel time for each train trip, which might have been the cause of a reported drop in ridership. It is unclear if the new safety equipment will alleviate the delays. The $975,000 worth of improvements are being funded by the Federal Highway Administration. More	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line72
__label__wiki	0.567685	0.567685	Race Vehicle Team Honda Racing Off-Road Finds Success in a Brutal 2020 Vegas to Reno Race Once again, the Honda Off-Road Factory race team met the brutal challenges of desert racing head-on in the 24th annual Best In The Desert Vegas to Reno, against a record-breaking field of entries. The team’s well-prepped Baja Ridgeline and Talons faced a variety of challenges over the race course’s 514 miles. Jeff Proctor and Patrick Daily shared driving duties in the No. 7209 Ridgeline, with Evan Weller and Michael Loomis navigating. The truck qualified P1 in the limited race classes, but that didn’t mean clean air. The team started behind the 6100 class and fought their dust. “It was one of those never-ending days of racing.” says Team Principal and Ridgeline starting driver, Jeff Proctor, “We had a fight to the finish in the Baja Ridgeline. We chased a few gremlins, but our team never gave-up. It was a race with all the desert variables in play. If it wasn’t the 100 miles of talcum powder like silt, it was vapor lock from the desert heat, or the super slick mud in the last 75 miles of the race. I’m so proud of our team. In typical Team Honda style, we rose to meet all the challenges. At the end of the race we finished P2, only 21* minutes behind the winner after almost two hours of downtime.” It was a tale of two Talons for the No. 2933, piloted by Eliott Watson and the No. 2994, driven by Christopher Polvoorde. Watson was out around RM 200, while Polvoorde finished the race. By luck of a draw to determine start order, both started towards the back of the class. In the first 100 miles, they had the pace to pass and move up as many as 14 positions. Watson’s Talon encountered a “freak” mechanical issue that all the testing and prep wouldn’t have solved. According to Proctor, “It’s a simple fix, and part of the fun of new race builds.” Watson recounts, “It was great to be back behind the wheel of the Talon this weekend. Although, the end result doesn’t show it, I felt that we had a really strong run going with no mistakes and making passes early on in the race. With all of the silt, rocks, and heat of the day that we had to deal with, we showed that the Talons are capable to run up in the front of the pack of UTVs in demanding conditions. Now it’s time to focus on getting the Talons ready for Baja for the first time.” “Right off the start I saw a few opportunities and started picking off cars.” Polvoorde recalls his race day, “The dust was really bad, so any chance to get by someone, you had to take it. Once we got a solid track position I just cruised and started clicking off miles. Next thing we knew, we were third physically after starting 25th. Unfortunately at RM 290 we had a mechanical to deal with and we were down for about 2 hours. The team worked hard to get us back on course and we finished. Overall it was great to see see how fast these cars were without even pushing hard.” The No. 2994 Talon finished the grueling race in P12* with a time of 15:37:51. Jeff Proctor sums up the Talons’ race, “Vegas to Reno goes down as a success for the Talons. All the hard work paid off and we showed up – on-pace and on-point, as a team dedicated to the finish, no matter the adversity. A couple easy remedies and we’re ready for the next race.” Up next for the Ridgeline and Talons is the SCORE Baja 500, starting in San Felipe, Baja, Mexico on September 26th. For additional info on the Honda Ridgeline Off-road team go to: http://www.hondaoff-road.com/ or HondaOffRoadRacing on Facebook, Instagram: @HondaOffRoadRacing or Jeff Proctor on Personal Instagram: @proctor_race. Copyright Honda Off Road Racing - 2021	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line73
__label__cc	0.53923	0.46077	Stories Photos Everything SpeakOut comment Stories from Wednesday, November 4, 2009 Ethel Gibson (Obituary ~ 11/04/09) SIKESTON -- Ethel Marie Gibson passed away from this life on Oct. 31, 2009, at her home in Sikeston. Funeral arrangements are with the Ponder Funeral Home. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... Don Crouch (Obituary ~ 11/04/09) DEXTER -- Don Mack Crouch, 72, died Nov. 2, 2009, at his home in Dexter. Funeral arrangements are with the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... Betty Edgar (Obituary ~ 11/04/09) PORTAGEVILLE -- Betty L. Edgar, 76, died Nov. 3, 2009, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at DeLisle Funeral Home of Portageville Robbie Rollins (Obituary ~ 11/04/09) CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Robert "Robbie" Rollins, 48 years of age, was called to his Heavenly Father Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009. Funeral arrangements are with the Ford and Sons Funeral Home. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... John Harper (Obituary ~ 11/04/09) SIKESTON -- John F. Harper, 70, died Nov. 2, 2009, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements are with the Blanchard Funeral Chapel For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... Bill Maddox (Obituary ~ 11/04/09) DUDLEY -- William LeRoy "Bill" Maddox, 69, died Nov. 2, 2009, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements are with the Watkins and Sons Funeral Home. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition.... Larry Wayne Doll (Obituary ~ 11/04/09) DEXTER - Larry Wayne Doll, 61, died Nov. 2, 2009, at his residence in Dexter. Funeral arrangements are with the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... Recipes remembered (Local News ~ 11/04/09) Betty Hearnes signs a copy of her new book, "Missouri Sesquicentennial History & Cookbook," Tuesday at Susie's Bake Shoppe in Sikeston. The book is "a history and a cookbook," according to Hearnes, a state legislator from 1979-1989 and Missouri's first lady from 1965-1973. ... State wants counties to spend more while cutting funding (Local News ~ 11/04/09) BENTON -- State officials are again asking counties to spend additional money while simultaneously cutting funding. For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... Tiny Touch: 10th-year program offers advice to young mothers (Local News ~ 11/04/09) EAST PRAIRIE -- For new mother Brittany Helms, having the Tiny Touch program available to her is making all the difference when it comes to caring for her 1-month-old son, Carson. For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... Morley OKs tax (Local News ~ 11/04/09) BENTON -- Voters in Morley approved a sales tax to fund improvements of maintenance and construction of city streets during Tuesday's election. The measure will impose a sales tax of one-half of one percent for the purpose of funding capital improvements which may include the retirement of debt under previously authorized bonded indebtedness... Bulldog day (Local News ~ 11/04/09) Sikeston Mayor Pro Tem Mike Bohannon reads a proclamation to the Sikeston Bulldogs football team on Tuesday afternoon following the Bulldogs' practice. Bohannon, Sikeston Mayor Jerry Pullen, right, and the council voted Monday to honor SHS's district title and perfect regular season... SHS geared up for Raiders (High School Sports ~ 11/04/09) SIKESTON -- The undefeated Sikeston Bulldogs will host their first state playoff game in 14 years tonight, as the North County Raiders come to town for a Class 4 Regional showdown. The Bulldogs (10-0) closed out their undefeated regular season last Thursday with a 37-20 win over the Farmington Black Knights, while the Raiders (3-7) rolled Windsor 43-8 in a mud-soaked contest to earn the playoff berth... Lady Rams ready for state (High School Sports ~ 11/04/09) KANSAS CITY -- They will have one more shot. One more chance to avenge last season's state championship loss from the very team that gave it to them. A second place finish in last year's Class 2 state tournament just wasn't good enough for the Scott City Lady Rams and they can't wait to go head-to-head with the team that took their first place trophy... Dream season is reality (Sports Column ~ 11/04/09) As much as I'd like to talk about nothing but the Yankees this week, who lead the World Series 3-2 as I type this, there's something much more important in the world of sports at the moment -- the Sikeston Bulldogs' football team. What a phenomenal season and to be sitting at 10-0 heading into the first week of playoffs is something that probably nobody thought was possible heading into week one... Wilson wins final tourney (Outdoors ~ 11/04/09) KENLAKE MARINA, Ky. -- The Bootheel Bassbusters held their ninth and final tournament of the year on October 17 and 18 on Kentucky Lake. The event was a trailer tournament with the weigh-in at KenLake Marina. For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition... Browse other days © 2021 Standard Democrat · Sikeston, Missouri Site Index · Contact Us · Media Partners · Back to top	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line78
__label__cc	0.576742	0.423258	Reversing your liver damage Our liver is a sensitive organ. Here's how to take care of it. By Steve Diogo Substance abuse takes a toll on the body as well as the mind and spirit. As the organ tasked with stripping toxins from the blood, the liver of a heavy drinker or drug user undoubtedly has seen some rough times. Many people in recovery and their livers need some serious tender loving care. Except in the most extreme cases of alcoholic cirrhosis, liver damage can be reversed—or at least stabilized—according to physicians and natural-health practitioners. Weighing in at just around three pounds, the liver filters circulating blood and secretes bile into the small intestine to help digest fats and make them ready for the body to use. It also regulates blood clotting and can mobilize a chemical and cellular arsenal for self-protection. It is the liver’s unique ability to regenerate itself that makes it so amenable to repair. Experts agree that armed with information, guidance and a commitment to lifestyle changes, you can take charge of your body and be on your way to a healthy, toxin-free liver. If you have stopped abusing alcohol or drugs, you have taken the first major step in arresting the damage, says Alejandro Fernandez, an acupuncturist, naturopathic practitioner and owner of the Art of Natural Healing in River Forrest, Ill. He has seen improvement through the use of cleansing and nutritional supplements—even in patients with hepatitis B and C. “The liver is the body’s filter that keeps the blood clean,” Fernandez says. “When the liver is overwhelmed by poison, the first step is to stop ingesting the poison. Then we can begin cleansing the liver through natural herbs and nutrients.” In addition to kick-starting the physical rehabilitation, cleansing the liver can play a major role in overall recovery as well, Fernandez says. “The sooner we can remove the toxins and addictive substances from the liver, the sooner the cravings can dissipate and the easier recovery can be,” he says. There are numerous liver cleansing techniques, some as simple as drinking more water and others as extreme as coffee enemas. Debra Alsvig-Einhaus, a massage therapist and nutritional consultant in Ottawa, Ill., urges her clients to avoid extreme measures. “There’s a lot of disconcerting information on the internet,” Alsvig-Einhaus says. “If you are already dealing with a compromised system, you don’t want to throw something at the body that it’s not going to be able to handle.” The most effective cures, she says, are usually the simplest. “Most people really don’t realize how effective simple changes like drinking lots of pure, clean water and eating the right food can be.” And it’s not just alternative healthcare practitioners who emphasize the power of nutrition in revitalizing the liver. In an article for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, physician and University of California-San Francisco medical professor Jacquelyn J. Maher writes, “Aggressive nutritional support is recommended for all patients with alcoholic liver disease.” Particularly important, she says, is the use of antioxidants to counteract the free radicals that can threaten even a healthy liver. Many berries, fruits, spices, nuts and grains contain high levels of antioxidants. Alsvig-Einhaus recommends juicing as one of the best ways to deliver the antioxidants your liver needs to restore its cells. Beyond simple nutritional changes, Alsvig-Einhaus is a proponent of active probiotics, which help boost the body’s immune system and empower the digestive system. Probiotics replace the good bacteria stripped from our systems by what she calls “a lifetime of overusing antibiotics.” Yogurt is the most commonly available probiotic, but Alsvig-Einhaus says the cultures in regular store-bought yogurt are very weak, and she encourages seeking the advice of a nutritional expert to get safe, high-quality products. Like all aspects of recovery, liver restoration is best done with help. It’s best to consult an expert, especially when it comes to nutritional supplements and herbal remedies. “With nutritional supplements you have to be very, very careful,” says Troy Spurrill, a chiropractor and practitioner in functional medicine in Eagan, Minn. “Most supplements on their own will not cause damage if they’re clean and you’re taking them within the recommended daily allowance. But when you start combining them with medications, it becomes a whole different story.” He suggests monitoring dosages of both herbs and medications over time. “Once you start stabilizing the body through nutrition, the need for medication often decreases.” For example, Spurrill explains that some people with liver damage who are on high-blood-pressure medication may find the need for medication decreases as the liver heals. “Our cells are essentially replaced every seven years,” says Spurill, “so whatever you’re eating and however you’re taking care of yourself, if you can hit that seven-year mark, you’ve got new cells to work with.” This is Your Liver on Alcohol You liver’s job: To combat naturally occurring toxins. What excessive drinking does: Even one night of heavy drinking can leave fatty deposits in the liver, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Years of alcohol abuse cause major trouble—from alcoholic hepatitis (occurring in up to half of all heavy drinkers) to cirrhosis, usually fatal and found in about 15 to 30 percent of heavy drinkers. Stages of liver damage: From “Exploring Alcohol’s Effects on Liver Function,” Jacquelyn J. Maher, M.D. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol Research and Health, VOL. 21, NO. 1, 1997 Fatty Liver: Some degree of fat deposited in the liver occurs in most heavy drinkers. It is reversible and not believed to lead to more serious damage. Alcoholic Hepatitis: Scar tissue replaces healthy tissue. Symptoms may include fever, jaundice and abdominal pain. This condition, which occurs in 50 percent of heavy drinkers, can be fatal but may be reversible with abstinence. Alcoholic Cirrhosis: The most advanced form of liver disease, diagnosed in 15 to 30 percent of heavy drinkers, is characterized by extensive fibrosis that stiffens blood vessels and distorts the internal structure of the liver. This often leads to the malfunction of other organs such as the brain and kidneys. It usually is fatal but can stabilize with abstinence. Is it time to rehab your diet? Supercharge your body with super foods. Five herbs to cleanse your liver:	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line82
__label__wiki	0.701827	0.701827	PICA Netherlands Artists / Bands Australia, Canada, North & South America Available Tour Dates Hit-Tracks Top 100 Terug naar Australia, Canada, North & South America Big Rude Jake A history buff as well as a music lover, Canadian Jake Hiebert was drawn to the jazz tradition for its passion and sensuality. He lamented the rise of the stuffy ‘jazz intellectual’ and dreamed up a plan to bring jazz back to its streetwise, rough hewn roots. Jake’s stage persona evoked strident passion and longing as he performed his jazz and blues influenced compositions in venues across Canada finding kindred spirits who appreciated his dream of a “Bawdy House Jazz” revival. Around this time, he became known as Father of the ‘Swing Punk’ sound. Big Rude Jake is a lyricist, songwriter, singer, musician, bandleader and history buff with a diverse array of influences. Noted for his skill as a blues shouter and raconteur, Big Rude Jake is especially drawn to the roots of American music. You’ll hear blues, jazz, swing, rockabilly, jump, gospel, folk and fingerpicking ragtime guitar. Add a sharp wit, a little cabaret and some punk attitude, and you’ve got Big Rude Jake. Upon completion of his 4th album in 2001 (LFDJ), BRJ took a protracted hiatus from the recording industry. The decision to ‘disappear’ was made during recovery from a car accident which prevented him from touring the new record. It served him well. During those years, he went back to playing solo guitar, enjoying the chance to focus on the ragtime fingerpicking style he’d studied under Mose Scarlett. He still played live, both solo and as a band leader, but used a pseudonym, shaking off the ‘big suit party animal’ persona of recent years. It left many uncertain of his whereabouts. Big Rude Jake’s return to the recording side of the music business was marked by the release of Quicksand in 2009 – yet another departure, inspired by Americana, Ragtime, Roots, Gospel and Folk. The enthusiastically crowd-funded live album, LIVE AND OUT LOUD, launched October 3rd, 2012. It’s Jake’s 6th official release. Numbers 7 and 8 were not far behind. Rockabilly band, Tennessee Voodoo Coupe’s 2nd album launched at Viva Las Vegas 2013. The release of Blue Mercury Coupe’s 6 piece retro punk recording followed just a few weeks later. On the horizon? A solo or duet album… he hasn’t decided yet… Music Agency P.I.C.A. is working together with James M. Walker from Road Dog Music Group. Steppin' Out Under the Moon St. Annie Out on the Front Stoop Preacher's Got a Brother (Live) Music in the Street Let's Kill All The Rock Stars - Big Rude Jake © 2021 PICA Netherlands.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line87
__label__wiki	0.939243	0.939243	Robert Barnard James Herbert John Sandford biography John Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling novelist John Roswell Camp. Camp was born on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He received a B.A. in American History and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Iowa. Camp worked for the Miami Herald from 1971 to 1978. In 1978 he moved to Minneapolis and started working for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press as a features reporter before becoming a daily columnist at the newspaper in 1980. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1980, for a series of stories on Native American culture. In 1986 he won the Pulitzer for Non-Deadline Feature Writing for a series of stories collectively titled "Life on the Land: An American Farm Family". The series, written during the midwest farm crisis, followed a typical southwest Minnesota farm family through the course of a full year. He stopped writing full-time for the Pioneer Press in 1989, although he didn't stop entirely until the next year. In 1989 Camp wrote two novels that would become the first books of his two best-selling series. Both novels, The Fool's Run of the Kidd series and Rules of Prey of the Prey series, were accepted and due to be published three months apart. The Fool's Run was published under the name "John Camp", but the publisher asked Camp to provide a pseudonym for Rules of Prey so it was published under the name "John Sandford". After the Prey series proved to be more popular, with its charismatic protagonist Lucas Davenport, The Fool's Run and all of its subsequent sequels have been published under the "Sandford" name. In 2007 Sandford started a third series featuring Virgil Flowers, who previously was a supporting character in Invisible Prey.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line95
__label__cc	0.575624	0.424376	Home » #CheyenneWheels4Charity News Eye-Candy for a Cause – Over $300,000 raised for Local Charities Shortgo Posted On December 20, 2019 Midas of Cheyenne employees and several local businesses partner to turn ordinary vehicles into extraordinary eye-candy, all for a good cause. Founded in 2013 by Midas co-owner Nick Dodgson, Wheels for Charity has raised more than $300,000 for local charities. The program customizes and restores vintage cars, raffles off the completed vehicles and gives all the funds raised to local nonprofits. Dodgson calls himself more of the Wheels for Charity mascot and refuses to take credit for the program. “A common misconception is that we make money on the projects, but we don’t,” Dodgson said. “Even Halladay Motors donates the paint and bodywork. One hundred percent of the ticket sales go to the selected charities.” Dodgson likes the challenge of transforming the ordinary, or in the case of this year’s project, a broken-down, rusted 1942 Ford. The classic was found in pieces outside of Cheyenne and donated by Bryce Blanton, owner of Tom the Tireman. Underneath the original steel body, the classic Coupe now has a fuel-injected V8 engine, custom chassis, new transmission, front suspension and disc brakes, and a rear axle with 4.10 gears. The Midas team, along with other local businesses, have spent more than 3,000 hours restoring the Coupe. The transformation took about two years. Midas senior technician Chris Webster said spending his days off fixing the car is well worth it, and he feels a great sense of accomplishment. “I believe in the causes that we do this for, especially supporting efforts against domestic violence,” he added. Extra flair on this bright purple Coupe includes tiny purple lights, providing an extra glow to its undercarriage, wheels and dash. Its headlights also glow a multitude of colors, including purple, all controlled by a phone app. In addition to more than two years of work, Webster and Bruce Mcallister, the master Midas technician, spent their time off for a solid month in the shop finalizing the details, particularly on the interior, before the big reveal. Bruce Mcallister explained his involvement this way: “I like working on cars, and I like helping people even more.” Once the build is complete, the vehicle is raffled off, and all proceeds from the raffle tickets are donated to three local nonprofits. This year’s nonprofits are Safehouse Services, Wyoming Business Advocates and K9s for Mobility. Wheels for Charity has been a great opportunity to get out in the community and educate people about K9s 4 Mobility assistance dogs and how they make a difference in the lives of people who have a physical disability, said Michelle Woerner, CEO of K9s 4 Mobility. All donations help K9s 4 Mobility train and place these specifically trained dogs with someone who wants to become more independent, she added. Dale Steenbergen, president and CEO of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce, called the program a success. “I am humbled by the Wheels for Charity project. Year after year, thousands of man hours are donated, hundreds of thousands of dollars are donated to wonderful causes in our community.” The charities rotate every couple of years, and are chosen by the entire Midas team. The program has also helped Habitat for Humanity, Needs Inc., the Cheyenne Family YMCA, and programs at the Chamber like the Military Affairs Committee and the Wyoming Wranglers. Safehouse will always be one of the recipients, because that is why Midas started this program. “One of my technicians tragically lost a stepdaughter to domestic violence back in 2013,” Dodgson explained. “Obviously, the whole store was deeply affected by this, and we wanted to raise awareness and funds.” Through the previous vehicle raffles, Safehouse has received $88,000 that has been used for the shelter and the residents. Safehouse is honored that Wheels for Charity has chosen it to be a recipient of this amazing fundraiser, said Carla Thurin, Safehouse Services executive director. The program is more about raising awareness than funds, Dodgson explained. “The vehicle is the eye-candy that starts the conversation with the nonprofit sitting behind the table. Hopefully, by the time the conversation ends, you are buying a $25 ticket to support their work. The chance of winning a cool car is second.” The winner of the Wheels for Charity raffle will be pulled during the ball drop ceremony on New Years Eve in the Depot Plaza. Less than two weeks remain to purchase a ticket and support local charities! Get yours today. FULL STORY PURCHASE A TICKET Story courtesy of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle Pathways Innovation Center Students Hand-craft Cutting Boards for Charity	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line99
__label__cc	0.627229	0.372771	Meetings Of Minds Documentary "All in all the film was magnificently received. It is the perfect coronation of the whole project… We had so many positive comments and so much praise for it all, that I feel we really have a great product in hand, film and exhibition working so well together…. Thankyou for being such a good and crucial partner in this magnificent project. " Marina Wallace, curator, Artakt Caribbean Child Development films "Natasha produced and directed a series of 10 short films for DMI which aimed to improve child-rearing behaviours in the Caribbean region. She did a superb job - efficient, fast and fun to work with. She had creative ideas which were original, challenging to achieve yet which she pulled off with ease. Highly recommended." Roy Head, Managing Director, Development Media International "When you're in need of a film maker that won't let you down AND delivers great creativity, then Natasha is someone that you should have on speed dial! Natasha's agency - The Bespoke Film Company – is bursting with creative thinking and strategic clout all backed up with an infectious enthusiasm for the films they develop. I have worked with Natasha on a number of campaigns and each of the films she has produced has become an important part of the UNEP portfolio. For a recent conference 3 films were selected for the UNEP audiovisual booth and she directed all of them! Our most recent project together - the International Year of the Forest UNEP campaign - has subsequently been dubbed in 3 languages and screened at every possible opportunity during big international conferences around the world. Natasha took the production onto a new level by getting Sir David Attenborough on board, and we couldn't be more pleased with the results. I couldn't recommend The Bespoke Film Company highly enough to anyone." Isabelle Pierrard, Communication Specialist at United Nations Environment Programme CLICK HERE to view case study > Branching out for a green economy impact of the production in terms of exposure and media reach. The Task: The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Forests (IYF) and invited Governments, the United Nations system, NGO's, and the private sector to raise awareness about the role of forests in creating a sustainable future for the next generation. We developed a short animated film narrated by Sir David Attenborough to raise awareness of the issues and serve as a call to action. The film was targeted at Government Leaders, Potential Donors, the General Public and Media for maximum spread. We also produced a series of Public Service Announcements (PSA's) for International Broadcast featuring celebrities relevant to the different territories. A social media campaign was deployed to promote the film via the web to reach as wide an audience as possible. Since it was launched during UNEP's Governing Council in Nairobi in February 2011, "Branching out for a Green Economy" has been dubbed or sub-titled in Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and French by external organizations at their cost. In total - the English version has had 30,678 viewings online through either UNEP's website, YouTube and Vimeo. (Data 1st September 2011). Furthermore, the film was broadcast on Nation TV in Kenya during their Breakfast Show on 09th March 2011, on NDTV in India, on Xinhua in China, in Argentina, in other countries throughout South America, and the Department of Environment from the Fiji Island Government has requested broadcast quality tapes of the film to run it on their National Television. In addition, the film was placed on Gulf Air and Qatar Airlines pre-boarding and landing videos for the whole month of June, it was picked up and promoted by The Guardian Newspaper and The Independent in the UK, by LCI in France and by 26 news wires around the world. The film is also gaining momentum with requests for screenings at festivals including The Biodiversity Film Festival in India, the annual Environmental Conference Communicate in Bristol, the 14° CinemAmbiente in Italy and the International Environment Film Festival in Paris. "Natasha has demonstrated an extremely high level of organisation, creativity, capability across a range of film formats and editorial skill. She has also delivered work of excellent quality within a tight time frame. Therefore I can highly recommend Natasha as a freelance film producer or the services she provides though her company the Bespoke Film Company." Nick Rance, Manager Environmental Projects, TVE "Natasha is an outstanding film-maker…. She has enormous visual flair, intelligence, drive, energy and a switched on sense of humour plus first-class knowledge of arts and culture. Natasha was instrumental in getting the Culture Show"launched, building the brand and forging a strong team ethos. " Edward Morgan Exec Producer, The Culture Show BBC "Google are extremely tough clients to please and have exceptionally high standards, especially for this event. Each of the films had to literally initiate the ‘thought path’ for each session of the forum – all of them about a new, complex and relatively undefined area. Natasha created six excellent films – stylistically carefully crafted to each of the sessions. She managed all the research, wrote the scripts sourced the talent, directed the shoots and directed the edits. The end result was fantastic, on time and on budget and the working process was smooth and very enjoyable. I would highly recommend her for any corporate, broadcast or scripting film/video projects. " David Ball, Brand Fuel, Google Zeitgeist Conference JCoSS "Thank you to you and your team for producing the JCOSS film for us which I think has turned out extremely well… we look forward to using the film the market the school. Thank you for all your time and patience listening to our various comments." Lisa Ronson, Heron International	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line105
__label__wiki	0.672624	0.672624	710 Study San Rafael Neighborhood Posts To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net Groups sue EPA over smog in air basin http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/11/01/47780/groups-sue-epa-over-smog-in-air-basin/ By Jed Kim, November 1, 2014 LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 25: Surface street traffic corsses above the US 101 freeway on April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. The nation's second largest city, Los Angeles, has again been ranked the worst in the nation for ozone pollution and fourth for particulates by the American Lung Association in it's annual air quality report card. Ozone is a component of smog that forms when sunlight reacts with hydrocarbon and nitrous oxide emissions. Particulates pollution includes substances like dust and soot. The end of October marks the end of the smog season in Southern California. By some standards, this year was an improvement over the recent ones, with 2014 coming in with the second fewest ozone exceedance days in the past 20 years. Despite that, persistent high levels of ozone in the region led four health and environmental groups to file a lawsuit on Friday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to take stronger steps to reduce the pollution. The plaintiffs include Communities for a Better Environment, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, Sierra Club, and Natural Resources Defense Council. “Health groups and environmental groups are getting increasingly frustrated with these plans and their inability to clean the air,” said Adrian Martinez, staff attorney for Earthjustice, which is representing three of the plaintiffs. Martinez said that the EPA failed to protect local residents in September when it approved a smog reduction plan submitted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. He said that the plan doesn’t provide enough concrete steps to achieve reductions in ozone and other smog precursors. “It just doesn’t really show us how we’re going to get to cleaner air in the region,” Martinez said. At the heart of the lawsuit is a perceived loophole in the Clean Air Act that allows for areas considered to be in extreme non-attainment with acceptable pollution levels to credit untapped new technology with future reductions. Martinez said that consideration allows too much leeway when it comes to actual planning. He said the plaintiffs’ goal is to make the EPA obtain a new reduction plan from the AQMD. “If the groups are successful, it will be a major victory for clean air, because it will finally force the region to show how it’s going to bring cleaner air for everyone,” Martinez said. AQMD officials said that 40 percent of planned reductions to ozone levels have been attributed to future technologies. However, they said many of the technologies are actually being developed or implemented. “The technology is there. Some new technologies are on the horizon, but it’s a question of how you can actually implement as well,” said Joe Cassmassi, planning and rules manager with the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “Look and see how many hybrid vehicles are on the road right now relative to what it was four or five years ago, and then how many of those are now zero-emission electric vehicles. These are the type of technologies that we identified in our 2007 and 2012 plans – that we were looking for greater and more abundant penetration into the market.” Cassmassi said that major steps have already been taken to reduce ozone pollution in the air basin. “We’ve got the strictest rules for stationary sources in the world. There’s nobody that has more strict rules or regulations than we do. We have an exemplary enforcement group that goes out and monitors all of our sources,” Cassmassi said. Why A Subway-Building Binge Could Transform L.A.'s... The Economic Case for a National Per-Mile Driving Fee Will Free Public Transit Get Americans to Voting B... Why Should You Be a Voice For Public Transit? Fourth Study Finds Traffic Pollution May Cause Autism Biking, the 710, and development: Your candidates ... Great Cities Don’t Have Much Traffic, But They Do ... The Week in Livable Streets Events	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line108
__label__wiki	0.731122	0.731122	UK GUARDIAN ARTICLE: 1991 Photographer's Kuwait Experiences 'If their tools had caused a single spark, the surging oil would have ignited' Interview by Leo Benedictus The Guardian, Thursday 28 May 2009 Sebastião Salgado's best shot: 'Sometimes they sat down and cried' ... Canadian firefighters in Kuwait battle to seal an oil well. Photograph: Sebastiao Salgado/Amazonas Images/nbpictures I was in Kuwait in 1991. The first Gulf war had just finished, but the oil wells were still burning. To get into the country, I had to go to Saudi Arabia and hire a four-wheel drive the colour of the sand - because that was the colour of the US army vehicles. Then, to cross the border, someone told me to find a card in the same sort of colours as a US army ID card and wave it upside-down. Nobody stopped me, and I got through. What was incredible inside Kuwait was the sense of being in this huge theatre the size of the planet, with these oil wells burning all around. Sometimes you would go two or three days without any sunlight getting through the vast clouds of black smoke, then suddenly the sky would open. It was also quite dangerous. There were unexploded cluster bombs in the sand. A journalist and a photographer were killed when a slick of oil ignited as they crossed it. This photograph comes from a series of pictures I made with a group of specialist firefighters from Canada, who were trying to deal with a blazing oil well. Putting out the fire took days and days, but that wasn't the biggest problem, even though they then had to light another smaller fire, so that a lake of oil did not accumulate around them. It was capping the well, for these guys, that was hell. Saddam Hussein's men had used a large number of explosives, leaving the wellhead badly deformed. Because Kuwait is at the lowest point of a vast Middle Eastern oil field, the pressure was enormous, pushing the oil out with a noise like a 747's engines. Everything was completely black. You couldn't hear anyone speak. It was an incredibly dangerous place to work, because the oil was very light, much like the fuel in cars - so it catches fire very quickly, and its smell is very strong. At one point, one of the Canadians got too close, inhaled too much gas, and fell down unconscious. Meanwhile, as these guys worked away with their tools and instruments, they knew that if they touched metal against metal hard enough to create a spark, a fire would have engulfed them. As I was photographing, we did sometimes have a kind of explosion, as gas burst up through the well, but it did not ignite. The firefighters were making a lot of money, of course, but the work was so tiring and so tough that a few times I saw some of them just sit down and cry. Working in the middle of all this was extraordinary. One of my lenses got warped by the heat, so I was left with just two: a 35mm and a 60mm. This obliged me to stay very close to these guys the whole time. As a result, I was covered in oil, and felt so involved with the danger, the environment, the strange beauty and the hard work that was happening in front of me. The only way I could keep going was to carry a two-litre tank of petrol and a roll of kitchen paper inside my photo bag. I would put some petrol on the kitchen roll, clean my hands, the lens and the back of the camera, then go in again. Eventually, I felt part of the team, working with them for many days. We all became very close. I work on stories rather than individual pictures. But for me, this one picture was special: it's an incredible shot of two guys trying to cap a well. They are completely covered in oil and one of them is standing like a statue that has become black over time. It reminds me of those images you see from the first world war, in the grey light of Verdun. The moment I took it, I knew it would be good. At the same time, I was very afraid. My mouth was dry. That evening, when I got back to my hotel in Kuwait City, I found my jaw was tense and my gums were in pain from gritting my teeth all day long. But I had to be there to take these pictures. I knew I was witnessing powerful, extraordinary things that would not happen again. Born: Aimorés, Brazil, 1944. Studied: "I am a former economist. I never went to photography school to learn photography." Inspirations: "Bill Brandt was an incredible photographer. The many different studies he did in England - miners, nudes, life during the second world war - were important to me." High point: "When I was starting out, when I put aside my career as an economist. I looked at every book, went to every show, did my first stories, developed my first films. A fabulous time." Pet hate: "Photography has become a small world with so many jealous people. You do a story and then a lot of people try to do the same thing." PUBLISHED NEWS: Dr. Kenny De Meirleir Announces He has Revealed the True Nature of ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) Published at ProHealth today: At 11:00 AM London time on May 28, 2009, ME/CFS researcher Dr. Kenny De Meirleir, MD, PhD, spoke at a press conference unveiling his team's groundbreaking findings regarding the illness called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). The presentation covered the team's conclusions regarding the complex mechanisms of ME/CFS pathogenesis, a diagnostic test, and directions for therapeutic strategies. (Dr. De Meirleir, a Belgian scientist known for his cutting edge ME/CFS research, is a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels and Director of HIMMUNITAS Foundation Brussels.) FOLLOWING ARE: • A link to slides used in the press conference (accompanying script to come soon, perhaps in a presentation Dr. De Meirlier will give Friday, May 29 at Invest in ME’s International ME/CFS Conference in London) • The preliminary draft abstract of an upcoming journal article by the De Meirleir research team (“Research on Extremely Disabled M.E. Patients Reveals the True Nature of the Disorder”) SLIDES USED IN PRESS CONFERENCE To view the slides Dr. De Meirleir used in his press conference, go to http://www.mefmaction.net/Portals/0/docs//CFSDeMeirleir.pdf. ABSTRACT OF UPCOMING JOURNAL ARTICLE – Preliminary Draft The De Meirleir research team will also publish a journal article on their work. The following draft was disseminated via the CO-CURE listserv May 28 by ME research reporter Jan van Roijen (j.van.roijen@CHELLO.NL). Research on Extremely Disabled M.E. Patients Reveals the True Nature of the Disorder By Kenny De Meirleir(1), Chris Roelant(2), Marc Fremont(2), Kristin Metzger(2), Henry Butt(3) (1) Vrije Universiteit Brussel & HIMMUNITAS foundation, Brussels, Belgium (2) Protea Biopharma, Brussels, Belgium (3) Bioscreen & Bio 21, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia In this study we compared totally bedridden patients (Karnofski score 20-30) with less ill ME patients (Karnofski score 60-70), family controls, contact controls and non-contact controls. EBV, HHV6 and Borna virus titers were not different in the three groups. Plasma LPS distinguished the groups, with the highest values in the bedridden patients. LPS [lipopolysaccharide] is a strong activator of the immune system, and high plasma concentrations suggest a hyperpermeable gut. There are many possible causes for this, but a lack of 'local' energy production is one of them. In a separate study (In Vivo, in press) we observed intestinal overgrowth of Gram positive D/L lactate-producing bacteria which are also known to produce H2S [hydrogen sulfide] in presence of certain heavy metals as a survival defense mechanism. We therefore hypothesized that the urine of the bedridden ME patients would contain more H2S derived metabolites than the less ill and the controls. Using a proprietary simple color change urine test this hypothesis was confirmed. In the extremely ill, urine added to the yellow color reagent immediately turns dark blue, whereas in the less ill the reaction is slower and in the controls no reaction occurs. Being a potent neurotoxin, H2S induces photophobia, intolerance to noise, mitochondrial dysfunction by inhibition of cytochrome oxidase, and depresses the cellular immune system and induces neutropenia and low numbers of CD8+ lymphocytes. Its effects, at least in part explain the clinical condition of the severely disabled ME patients. Furthermore the effects of the bacterial H2S induces increased ROS production by the liver and retaining of heavy metals particularly mercury in the body. The latter is also neurotoxic, induces apoptosis, and interferes with the aerobic metabolism. Chronic increased production of H2S by intestinal bacteria leads to build-up of mercury in the body as proven by a Zn DTPA/DMPS challenge test. Finally in 20% of the ME patients (in the severely ill) we found, using a special luminescence technique, aberrant prions which also interfere with the energy metabolism. These patients have gone on to develop A.P.D. (aberrant prion disease – patent pending). These aberrant prions give rise to a transmissible disorder. 10% of the A.P.D. patients have very high prion counts in their saliva and can directly transmit it to others. APD patients can transmit these proteins via blood and likely also through sexual contact which then can give rise to slowly developing aberrant prion disease. In a separate experiment 40 healthy blood donors were screened for A.P.D. One individual tested very positive, indicating that apparently healthy individuals can already be carriers and that blood transfusion carries the risk of transmitting A.P.D. In conclusion, ME is a disorder which is caused by increased endogenous H2S production. For the latter many factors can be present. Because of the effects of H2S in the body a chain of events will develop which have more and more negative effects on the aerobic metabolism and depression of the immune system leading to more and more infections and reactivation of endogenous viruses. In its final stage aberrant transmissible prions develop which put the patients in a total energy depleted state. Labels: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Neurological Disorders ARMY NEWS SERVICE ARTICLE: Researchers narrow Gulf War Syndrome causes By Kyle Hodges WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 27, 2009) -- Research completed and analyzed over the past year has narrowed the underlying causes of Gulf War Syndrome to three factors. For 18 years, researchers struggled to pinpoint the causes of Gulf War Syndrome and its wide-ranging symptoms. Then last year, a group of researchers under the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program narrowed the primary causes to three: chemical nerve agents, pesticides, and the use of Pyridostigmine Bromide pills. A report titled Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans was released by the Department of Veteran's Affairs in November 2008, consolidating all research on the syndrome to date. "There is definitely something different that has happened to servicemembers during the Gulf War as opposed to what is happening to Soldiers now," said retired Col. Melissa Forsythe, program manager of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. "Today's Soldiers don't exhibit any of the same symptoms," Forsythe said. "We're talking about the same geographical region. So what happened to these servicemembers in 1990-91 that's not happening now? That's really the central question." Chemical nerve agents, PB, and many of the pesticides to which Gulf War veterans were exposed belong to a class of chemicals called Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. These chemicals inactivate the enzyme Acetylcholinesterase, which is essential for breaking down the neurotransmitter chemical acetylcholine - a chemical which affects numerous bodily functions, according to the report. Forsythe believes a mixture of the three items above in combination with vaccines given to Gulf War servicemembers can't be ruled out as a possible cause for Gulf War Syndrome. The acute symptoms of excess exposure to Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors results in increased salivation and respiratory secretions, nausea, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, excess sweating, increased heart rate, and blood pressure. Other side effects can include muscle twitching, cramps, weakness, tremors, paralysis, fatigue, mental confusion, headache, poor concentration, and general weakness. At sufficient doses, exposure to Acetylcholinesterase inhibiting chemicals can result in respiratory arrest and death. Many of these side effects coincide with those of GWS. Typically, Gulf War veterans exhibit a number of symptoms including chronic headaches, widespread diffused pain that moves to different parts of the body, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, cognitive difficulties, skin rashes, and respiratory problems, said Forsythe. Because of the wide range of symptoms, a diagnosis of GWS could be likened to finding a needle in a haystack, Forsythe said. There is no one test that will yield a definitive diagnosis for this illness that affects 25-32 percent of Gulf War veterans, she said, adding that the only way to diagnose the disease is to eliminate all other diseases with similar symptoms. Today's GWS research focuses primarily on diagnosis and treatment rather than a single cure. Studies focusing on the physical differences between ill and healthy Gulf War veterans may make a diagnosis easier and provide a much needed legitimacy to the illness. "At first, servicemembers were told that the illness was all in their heads. So now, it's very validating for those servicemembers to see that there are real physical differences between themselves and the Gulf War Veterans that are not ill," said Forsythe. Other GWS studies by the CDMRP include: research looking into the over-the-counter herbal supplement Co-enzyme Q10; the drug methylpristine, which may help with cognitive problems; and plans to look at self medications that Gulf War veterans have used and whether or not those were effective. Acupuncture is also being looked at for possible funding. Currently, the only relief for GWS sufferers is to prescribe treatments for their individual symptoms, said Forsythe. Unfortunately, record keeping practices during the Gulf War were not equal to today's standards, said Forsythe. Records on the use of Pyridostigmine Bromide and pesticides in theatre are virtually nonexistent. PB had been approved, since 1955, for treatment of myasthenia gravis, a muscular disease. During the Gulf War, PB was not licensed for protection against chemical nerve agents by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but it was authorized by the FDA to be released to Soldiers in combat as an "investigational new drug" as a nerve agent pretreatment. PB is now FDA approved as an effective pretreatment exclusively for the nerve agent soman and it is still issued to Soldiers for that purpose. Pesticides are still used in theater, however, only a handful of those pesticides linked to GWS in the report are still in the Department of Defense's pest control inventory. "Research is not necessarily fast, but is our best route in terms of helping people," said Forsythe. We know that people are out there suffering and they're trying to find their own remedies for symptoms. So our program, being focused on improving the diagnosis and treatments, is trying to get at the two prongs that can best serve those veterans who are ill." Labels: Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, Gulf War research, treatments Research Shows Elevated Disease Rates in Gulf War Veterans Written by Anthony Hardie, 91outcomes (91outcomes.blogspot.com) -- Recent news stories highlighted a 2005 study by Dr. Han Kang that showed significantly increased rates of unexplained multi-symptom illness among deployed veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. However, several other studies by Dr. Kang and other researchers have also had significant findings for 1991 Gulf War veterans, including the following (follow the links for the cited study): Elevated rates of testicular cancer Increased deaths due to Brain cancer; Increased rates of Chronic Multisymptom Illness (CMI); Increased rates of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease); Experiencing Clusters of neurological symptoms; Increased rates of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS); 6 subgroups among those with Fatigue Syndrome (FS): fatigue, pain, infectious, gastrointestinal, respiratory, and neurologic/mood/fatigue Increased rates of post-war hospitalization; Increased rates of depression and anxiety; Increased rates of death by motor vehicle accident. Additionally, another important 2005 study by Dr. Kang and her research team had findings that "contradict the prevailing notion that perceived exposure to chemical warfare agents should be considered an important cause of morbidity [illness and disease] among Gulf War veterans." Veterans of the 1991 Gulf War have been too ill, and for too long already. Effective treatments for the underlying illness have yet to be found or implemented. Change is needed -- desperately. Labels: brain cancer, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, chronic pain, Gulf War Illness, Gulf War research, Gulf War veterans, testicular cancer VA Official Recycles Testimony While Nothing Changes at VA for ill Gulf War Veterans (91outcomes.blogspot.com) -- In a stunning discovery reported here at 91outcomes first, Dr. Lawrence Deyton, Chief Public Health and Environmental Hazards Officer in the Veterans Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recycled large portions of his Congressional testimony this week from testimony he gave to Congress nearly two years ago, on July 26, 2007. This week's May 19th, 2009 hearing was a critical review by the powerful House Veterans' Affairs Committtee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, entitled Gulf War Illness Research: Is Enough Being Done? Despite appearing with two other highly paid VA bureaucrats -- including Mark Brown, who not surprisingly also appeared with Deyton at the July 2007 Congressional hearing -- no one at VA apparently wanted to bother with writing much new for Deyton's testimony except filler justification on VA's traditional and by law reliance on the Institute of Medicine "for independent and credible reviews." Whole paragraphs from the 2007 testimony were recyled into Deyton's testimony on Tuesday. From countless veterans' accounts, there are literally thousands of employees within VA dedicated to the VA's mission of serving those have borne the battle and their loved ones, particularly at the VA medical centers and clinics across the country. Yet, it is no wonder that VA health care providers have no new treatments to offer the 175,000 to 210,000 ill Gulf War veterans when the the callous indifference of VA officials in Washington like Lawrence Deyton can't even find new words to describe his work unit's lack of new findings that might help these ill veterans. Ironically, one of the new statments in the closing comments of Deyton's testimony this week was, "VA is an evolving organization that operates in a rapidly changing environment." Apparently that didn't apply to his own testimony, indicative of the lack of change of his work unit during the last two decades, which is still without treatments, answers, or information for ill Gulf War veterans, their health care providers, and their families. Labels: Gulf War Illness, Gulf War research, Gulf War Syndrome, Gulf War veteran, VA MAY 19TH CONGRESSIONAL HEARING -- Little Change Yet for Ill Gulf War Veterans, Federal Officials (91outcomes.blogspot.com) -- Army veteran Paul Sullivan of San Antonio, Texas gave perhaps the clearest answer to the question posed by Tuesday’s Congressional hearing, Gulf War Illness Research: Is Enough Being Done? “As an ill Gulf War veteran who has worked on this issue for 17 years both inside and outside government, the answer is no,” testified Sullivan, Executive Director of Veterans for Common Sense, former Executive Director and co-founder of the National Gulf War Resource Center, and a former VA employee in VA's Data Management Office. “In the past, we have seen service-related illnesses ignored, misunderstood, or swept under the rug,” said Subcommittee Chairman Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) in his opening statement. Rick Weidman, a Vietnam veteran and Government Relations Director for Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), added: “In regard to Gulf War Illness, VA has known the basic outline as to what was wrong with up to 200, 000 of those who served in the Gulf for a decade. Yet they continue to drag their feet in addressing the justifiable compensation requests of these veterans, and to give them the runaround on medical care.” Weidman, a longstanding veterans’ advocate, continued in his testimony, “One has to ask, what is wrong with this institution (VA) that it would treat the men and women who are literally its very reason for existing in such a high-handed and disrespectful manner, even in the face of consistent scientific advice and good judgment?” Dr. Roberta White, Ph.D., who has been researching Gulf War veterans’ illnesses since 1993, stated for the record that her team found not only low rates of PTSD among ill veterans, but also “systematic relationships,” between, “self-reported exposures to pesticides and to nerve gas agents and health complaints in specific body systems.” This early research was later validated by other research efforts. White’s team also found decreased white matter in the brains of ill Gulf War veterans, cognitive and neuropsychological deficits not explained by psychiatric diagnoses, and that ill Gulf War veterans’ health complaints remained stable and without improvement over time – no surprise to ill Gulf War veterans. White is the current scientific director of the Congressionally chartered Federal Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses. Army veteran Jim Bunker of Topeka, Kan., courageously told the Congressional investigators in his halting voice of his current Gulf War illness symptoms, which are typical for literally tens of thousands Gulf War veterans: Numbness, weakness, and/or tingling in arms and legs Gastric reflux disease Mouth sores and skin peeling from roof of mouth Later in the hearing, when federal agency officials implied there was nothing wrong with Gulf War veterans, one Congressman pointedly asked, “What about Bunker?” Bunker had become a visible symbol of what has been and continues to be wrong with between 175,000 and 210,000 veterans from among the 696,842 who served in the 1991 Gulf War. Meanwhile, a CIA official testified regarding the 1991 Gulf War theater of operations chemical agent releases known to the agency. He failed to mention incidents known to the Pentagon or described by veterans to Congress in Congressional hearings over the past two decades, relying purely on what CIA “knew”. He showed little knowledge of ground conditions, during which chemical alarms – when used – continuously went off. He failed to mention chemical agent releases and exposures known to veterans and some within the Pentagon at the time that occurred in al Jubayl and Ra’s al-Mishab, chemical minefields in southeastern Kuwait, blister agent releases that caused the rapid Iraqi evacuation of a unit’s bunker complex in north-eastern Kuwait, and countless others like the incident Bunker described that personally affected him. VA, predictably, recycled old testimony from a previous Congressional hearing, suggesting that VA has done everything possible to help Gulf War veterans, who do not suffer from a “unique illness.” Predictably, Dr. Lawrence Deyton stated that VA would wait until 2010 for an Institute of Medicine (IOM) review of the November 2008 report of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses. The RAC’s findings were covered in detail by Dr. Lea Steele, Ph.D., of the University of Kansas, who passionately and compassionately presented the report’s findings during the Hearing. Steele echoed the report’s findings in her prepared testimony: Oddly, in his testimony the Department of Defense official claimed credit for funding recent research years focused on treatments for ill Gulf War veterans – an irony given DoD’s enduring opposition to the funding as DoD officials have reportedly made clear to House Defense Appropriations staffers. Due to powerful support from Gulf War veterans' advocates, Congress has provided annual funding to DoD anyway, and it falls under the well-run Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) based at Ft. Detrick, Maryland. The Congressional funding has been provided with clear instructions to DoD on its possible uses, with requirements to focus on treatments and prohibitions against more unneeded DoD research on stress and psychological causes for ill Gulf War veterans’ all too real array of symptom clusters. In short, veterans and science are in full agreement that the Gulf War’s veritable toxic soup made between 175,000 and 210,000 Gulf War veterans ill with chronic, multi-symptom illness, that their illnesses have not improved over time, and that effective treatments still do not exist – in large part due to long-term failures by the federal agencies charged with caring for ensuring the well-being of these veterans. And the federal response? CIA officials are still blindly and wrongly claiming there were few or no chemical releases that reached Gulf War troops, DoD officials are overly proud of the “lessons learned” from the Gulf War while Gulf War veterans continue to suffer, and the same low-level VA officials providing the same recycled testimony are still implying or outright stating that everything that could be done for Gulf War veterans was and is being done. Tell that to Jim Bunker as he, like tens of thousands of other ill Gulf War veterans, struggles with walking, sleeping, and communicating. All might be well safe with the Beltway in the Land of Washington. But all is certainly not well for the 175,000 to 210,000 Gulf War veterans who still continue to suffer the lingering, untreated outcomes of their Gulf War service. Change is needed – desperately. [Watch the Hearing via Multimedia Link now] “A renewed federal research commitment is needed to identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness, improve understanding of this condition, and address other priority Gulf War health issues. Adequate funding and appropriate program management is required to achieve the critical objectives of improving the health of Gulf War veterans and preventing similar problems in future deployments. As noted by the Committee this is a national obligation, made especially urgent by the many years that Gulf War veterans have waited for answers and assistance.” Labels: 1991 Gulf War, CIA, Congressional hearing, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, DoD, Gulf War Illness, Gulf War research, Pentagon, VA AIR FORCE TIMES: Groups disagree about Gulf War illness research By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer, Air Force Times Posted : Thursday May 21, 2009 7:59:28 EDT The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs say an Institute of Medicine study shows there is no Gulf War “syndrome,” and that there is nothing unique about the symptoms 1 in 4 Desert Storm veterans suffer. But the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness say that not only is there a series of symptoms that make up a definable illness, they know what caused that illness. Those opposing views were on full display May 19 in the first of three congressional hearings about Gulf War Illness. “We do believe that Gulf War illnesses are real — but there is no unique set of symptoms,” said Craig Postlewaite, deputy director of force readiness and health assurance under the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. He based that view on the IOM study that concluded veterans’ symptoms vary too much to be seen as unique and recommended no more epidemiological studies. “We feel like their assessment is complete,” Postlewaite told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ subcommittee on oversight and investigations. The Gulf War advisory committee disagreed. “They have the same types and patterns of excess symptoms,” Lea Steele, immediate past scientific director of the committee, told lawmakers. “Our review provides a clear conclusion.” She said the research shows that veterans who took the most pyridostigmine bromide — anti-nerve-agent pills — and used the most insect repellent, including flea collars, were most likely to suffer from the cluster of symptoms of known as Gulf War illness. Victims of the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo as well as animal studies produced the same cluster of symptoms, she said. The pills, pesticides and nerve agent are similar chemicals, so it appears that troops essentially overdosed. “Clearly, we need to get the research right,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. “And the need to get it right is urgent.” James Bunker, who served as an artillery officer in the war, provided an example of why. Bunker had a history of rushing through high school in three years, a great love of chess and an aptitude for math. But during the hearing, he stumbled over words and a piece of paper in his hands shook as he read his testimony. He no longer plays chess because he lacks the cognitive ability to plan out his moves. After deploying with the 5th Field Artillery Regiment, he said his unit’s chemical alarms sounded. Soon after, he developed breathing problems, muscle twitches, leg cramps, vomiting and convulsing. He was given an antidote for nerve agent and sent home to a hospital. Now, he has nerve problems in his right leg and has lost the use of his right arm. He suffers headaches, cognitive dysfunction, gastric reflux disease, fibromyalgia, mouth sores, skin rashes and sinusitis. “It’s hard to live a life where you can be talking to someone normally one minute and the next you can’t make a sentence to save your life,” Bunker said. “Often, VA tells me this is all in my head or it’s depression.” Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said sick veterans want to know why they’re sick, where they can get treatment, and that their healthcare and benefits will be paid for by the country that sent them to war. “VA should publicly recognize our illnesses,” he said. Sullivan asked that VA be investigated to see if the IOM study was properly conducted. Congress mandated that study, but VA limited its scope to exclude animal studies and research where exposure dosage was unknown. That defines much of the available research; no one kept track of how much anti-nerve agent troops took or measured the amount of sarin they were exposed to when the military blew up a massive Iraqi chemical depot just after the 1991 war, making it impossible to document exposure dosages. In its work, the Gulf War illness advisory committee did include animal studies and research where the dosage was unknown. Steele said about half of troops who deployed for the 1991 war took anti-nerve agent pills and used personal pesticides such as DEET, and were also exposed to sarin. “We have no indication that any of them experienced any acute symptoms of exposure,” Postlewaite said. “What about Bunker?” asked Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn. “As you know, there are many reasons for seizures,” Postlewaite said, noting that current troops would again be given anti-nerve agent pills if battlefield commanders determined a need for them. Sullivan also asked for training so VA doctors would be familiar with Gulf War illness — and that they be told it’s not a mental health condition. Richard Weidman, executive director for policy and government affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America, asked that the government keep track of where current service members are located in the combat zones, and that VA include in their medical records a query of where veterans were located when they were deployed. As it stands, there’s no way to look for patterns, he said. For example, if 30 veterans who all served in Baghdad develop brain cancer, VA would have no way to know whether this was a group that might have been exposed to a particular toxin. “This is nuts,” Weidman said. In one medical unit, he said, seven out of 150 people developed multiple sclerosis after serving in Desert Storm. “It’s astronomical. It doesn’t happen by chance.” And it’s almost impossible to spot if no one keeps track of who served where, he said. “If you don’t have the stats, you don’t have a problem,” Weidman said, implying that VA doesn’t want to know if there’s a problem. “We have been and continue to be very concerned about these veterans’ health issues,” insisted Lawrence Deyton, chief public health and environmental hazards officer for VA’s Veterans Health Administration. Deyton said Gulf War veterans experience symptoms at a rate 25 percent higher than veterans of that era who did not deploy. But he acknowledged that VA could do better and said new VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has begin efforts to develop a simpler procedure for veterans to quickly and easily get benefits for service-connected ailments. Congress decided to hold the series of hearings because of the new reports from the IOM and the research advisory committee, as well as the change in VA leadership. Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs oversight and investigations panel, said many questions still need to be answered. In the end, Mitchell said, “We still don’t know how to respond to Gulf War veterans who ask: ‘Why am I sick? Will I get well again?’ ” CHAIRMAN BOB FILNER HOUSE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS VA Unresponsive to Questions, Needs of Gulf War Veterans Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, May 19, 2009, the House Veterans’ Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, led by Chairman Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), conducted the first of a series of hearings on Gulf War Illness research. The hearing provided a review of the history of the research that has been conducted on Gulf War Illness, examined the methodology used by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to determine possible exposure to toxins and pesticides, and focused on the ongoing challenges veterans face as a result of their service in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. “It has been almost 19 years since the United States deployed some 700,000 service members to the Gulf in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm,” said Chairman Mitchell. “When these troops returned home, some reported symptoms that were believed to be related to their service. Still today, these same veterans are looking for answers about proper medical treatment and the benefits that they bravely earned. While we hear about numerous studies and millions of dollars spent on Gulf War Illness research, many questions remain unanswered. Today, we will attempt to establish an understanding of the research that has been conducted – and the actions that have been taken – in relation to Gulf War Illness.” According to Congressional testimony, VA had concerns that returning veterans might have certain unique health problems including respiratory effects from exposure to the intense oil fire smoke even before the 1991 Gulf War cease-fire. During the summer of 1993, U.S. troops’ exposure to chemical warfare (CW) agents first became an issue. The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) concluded that no troops had been exposed for two reasons: there were no forward-deployed CW agent munitions, and plumes of CW agents released from the bombing that destroyed the chemical facilities could not have reached the troops. This conclusion was maintained until June 1996, when DoD publicly acknowledged that U.S. troops had destroyed stockpiles of chemical munitions at Khamisiyah after the war. In 1998, Congress passed legislation, the Persian Gulf War Veterans Act of 1998 and the Veterans Programs Enhancement Act of 1998, which directed the VA Secretary to seek to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review and evaluate the available scientific evidence regarding associations between illnesses and exposure to toxic agents, environmental or wartime hazards, or preventive medicines or vaccines to which service members may have been exposed during service in the Persian Gulf during the Persian Gulf War. Congress directed the NAS to identify agents, hazards, medicines, and vaccines to which service members may have been exposed during the Persian Gulf War. Between January 1, 2000 and September 12, 2006, NAS issued four reports on health effects of various toxins, chemical warfare agents, and insecticides. Each report concluded that the available evidence did not warrant a presumption of service connection for any disease discussed in the report. The fifth report, released October 16, 2006, reviewed published, peer-reviewed scientific and medical literature on long-term health effects from infectious diseases associated with Southwest Asia. VA is currently drafting a proposed rule to establish presumptive service connection for nine infectious diseases discussed in the report and providing guidance regarding long-term health effects associated with those diseases. It was determined, however, that the scientific evidence in the report does not warrant a presumption of service connection for any illnesses caused by these diseases or agents. Veterans raised a number of concerns at the hearing, mostly based on lack of information, outreach, and resources available from the VA. Veterans reported frustration that there is no formal Gulf War I Registry, no service-connected benefits for maladies, inadequate research to determine the cause of illness, no formal recognition by the VA of Gulf War Illness, and a lack of epidemiological tools in use to further track effects of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield. Recommendations from witnesses included increasing the VA research budget, formal recognition by DoD and VA of Gulf War Illness, access to disability benefits, and an end to the perceived secrecy that surrounds research findings, treatments, and new information. Also discussed was the immediate need to implement an electronic medical health record that fully incorporates the veteran’s military record. Rick Weidman of Vietnam Veterans of America testified, “VA needs to move quickly to modify the Computerized Patient Records System (CPRS) or VISTA, to incorporate a military history that will include branch of service, periods of service, places assigned and when, military occupational specialties, and notes on what happened to the individual that may be of note. This also needs to be searchable on a nationwide basis, so that if an individual has an unusual medical condition, then the physician can search and find out if others who served in their unit at the same time have the same or similar conditions. This would be an invaluable epidemiologic tool that could/would point VA in the direction of where there needs to be research that is directed where there are obviously problems. You may ask why they never did this before? Well, we have come to the inescapable conclusion that they never did it because they did not want the information. As the cost to make this change to the CPRS is really minimal, we can come up with no other explanation that makes any sense whatsoever.” “If Gulf War veterans have been harmed by their service to their country, we must ensure they are taken care of through presumptive service connection for that illness,” said Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “I support President Obama’s call to develop joint electronic medical records that contain military records. Not only is this information sharing between the DoD and VA imperative to more accurately treat maladies and service connected injuries, it will allow the VA to refocus its efforts and direct care to its wounded warriors. It is time for the VA to compassionately and immediately serve its clients.” Subsequent hearings on this issue will take a multi-level view of the methodology and conclusions of Gulf War Illness research, how the review of information was compiled, and why certain methods were employed. Labels: Congressional hearing, Gulf War Illness, Gulf War research, Gulf War veteran, IOM, VA (91outcomes.blogspot.com) -- Journalist Ted Roelofs had an excellent article in today's Grand Rapids Press about Michigan's state budget cuts to funding for claims service officers. Tucked down at the bottom was a reference to western Michigan Gulf War veteran Don Harp, for whom it took 15 years to "win" his disability claim from the VA. According to the article, the Army veteran's claim was for "combat injuries, a closed-head injury, and Gulf War Syndrome." For countless Gulf War veterans of the 1991 Gulf War and the service officers who have sought to assist them, VA's repeated denials of Gulf War veterans' claims has all too often been the norm rather than an exception. The most current VA report on Gulf War veterans (Aug. 2007, pp. 7-8) shows that out of 696,842 veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, an astronomical 40 percent (278,149) filed claims for VA service-connected disability -- highlighting just how many Gulf War veterans have been significantly affected by their military service. Veterans claims service officers have long known that filing for undiagnosed illnesses for Gulf War veterans is next to impossible to have approved. Even still, VA shows 12,788 claims filed by 1991 Gulf War veterans for undiagnosed illnesses, with only 26 percent (3,280) of those approved -- meaning 74 percent were denied! The Grand Rapids article noted that Harp was among the veterans planning to protest the State's budget cuts that included a $1 million cut to funding for the state's 11 veterans service organizations that provide assistance to Michigan's veterans filing disability claims with the VA. While Michigan's cuts are deeply disappointing and politically questionable, some underlying questions remain for the federal government, including Congress and the new Obama Administration. First, for veterans like Harp, where is the outreach been that VA repeatedly told Congress it has been conducting? The U.S. Senate perenially introduces legislation (S. 315 in the current Congress) that would define outreach for the VA and require VA to fiscally account for what it spends on outreach as a line item -- only to have VA officials protest that such legislation is unneccesary, and that VA is already conducting it. Certainly that's not true for Mr. Harp and the other 74 percent of Gulf War veterans claiming undiagnosed illnesses following their Gulf War service. Second, where is the claims assistance that VA supposedly provides, as required by law under the Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000? Why did it take 15 years for this veteran to get his claim approved? Third, what is VA doing to alleviate the fiscal burden on States and Counties that cause nearly every State and the Counties in about half the states to have to provide service officers to assist their veterans? Most veterans likely have no idea that with the exception of State Veterans Homes and Cemeteries, the benefits, programs, and services provided to them by their States, Counties, and veterans service organizations -- including assistance with VA claims -- is done without a dime of federal support. Only the federal government creates veterans. So, why is it then left to the States, Counties, and innumerable Veterans Service Organizations to help veterans fight VA to get their claims approved (like the unnamed Catholic War Veterans service officer hometown hero who helped Harp)? This valiant Vietnam and Gulf War veteran was given the final word in the Grand Rapids article: "Without these people, guys like me would have been shafted. If we have to hire attorneys, we are going to get shafted big time," Harp said. Finally, the real story is that Gulf War veterans like Harp are still unable to receive effective treatments for Gulf War Syndrome. A November 2008 federal government report finally recognized that, "Gulf War illness is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time." (p.17) Yet, despite years of effort by the Gulf War veteran community seeking effective treatment from VA, the report also noted: who, the article noted, had to wait "Substantial federal Gulf War research funding has been used for studies that have little or no relevance to the health of Gulf War veterans, and for research on stress and psychiatric illness....[and] overall federal funding for Gulf War research has declined dramatically since 2001.... "A renewed federal research commitment is needed to identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness and address other priority Gulf War health issues. Adequate funding is required to achieve the critical objectives of improving the health of Gulf War veterans and preventing similar problems in future deployments. This is a national obligation, made especially urgent by the many years that Gulf War veterans have waited for answers and assistance." (p.2) Change is needed for our nation's Gulf War veterans -- desperately. Labels: 1991 Gulf War, Claims, Gulf War Illness, Gulf War Syndrome, Gulf War veteran, Outreach, service officers, VA	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line109
__label__wiki	0.563848	0.563848	Asheville Citizen-Times John W. Bardo, who guided Western Carolina University through a period of unprecedented growth in student enrollment, campus construction and academic stature during 15 years as the institution’s 10th chief executive officer, announced Monday, Oct. 11, he will leave his position as chancellor next summer. Bardo, chancellor at WCU since 1995, informed the campus community of his decision to retire from the post effective July 1, 2011, in a series of conversations with key administrators and a message to faculty and staff. Upon his retirement as chancellor, he will begin a year of research leave before taking a new role at WCU as a faculty member. Bardo, 61, said he decided now is the time to step down as chancellor so the university can be better positioned for the next leap forward in its development. “It cannot be lost on even the most casual observer that this university is poised for another major breakout in quality and impact on the people of the state,” he said.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line111
__label__wiki	0.823742	0.823742	ALBERT JONES Click here to listen to On Our Feet Again on the service of your choice. On Our Feet Again EP by Albert Jones On Our Feet Again is the latest ep from British songwriter, Albert Jones. The ep covers feelings of apathy and frustration, love and forgiveness. In an increasingly polarised world Albert is looking forward with hope, learning and the capacity for change. Albert’s singles have been played on BBC Radio 2 by Dermot O’Leary, BBC 6 Music by Tom Robinson and across the BBC Introducing network. His music has been streamed more than 100,000 times Worldwide. More recently his song See You When You Get There was featured as part of BBC Introducing at Glastonbury. Last year he completed a hugely successful tour of Brazil, where he played the biggest blues festival in Latin America, The Mississippi Delta Blues Festival. Named the muse of the festival, he headlined the folk stage to a packed arena of eager fans. Albert is releasing two singles this Spring, followed by an ep. Later in the year he will be touring the UK, Europe and returning to Brazil. “The velvet tones of Albert Jones.” Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music “hushed vocals and lazy, twinkling guitar lines weave together to create a little capsule of happiness.” Max Pilley, Fresh On The Net “Albert Jones makes music seem effortless. Smooth, laid back and incredibly listenable. When he performs live he’s a dream. One of my favorite artists” Adam Crowther, BBC Introducing/BBC Upload	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line113
__label__wiki	0.890306	0.890306	return to program notes homepage NOTE: These program notes are published here for patrons of the the Madison Symphony Orchestra and other interested readers. Any other use is forbidden without specific permission from the author. Madison Symphony Orchestra Program Notes April 12-13-14, 2019 93rd Season / Subscription Concert No.7 Michael Allsen Click here to download a "printable" (large-print) version of these notes. This concert begins with Mozart’s brilliant “Prague” symphony. The Madison Symphony Orchestra then welcomes pianist Marc-André Hamelin, who makes his Madison debut with two contrasting works: Strauss’s flashy Burleske, and the Jazz-inflected Concerto in G Major by Ravel. Rounding off the program is Debussy’s La Mer—a colorful, impressionistic seascape painted by this great French composer. Symphony No.38 in D Major, K.504 (“Prague”) Mozart completed the symphony on December 6, 1786, it was first performed in Prague on January 19, 1787. We have played it twice at these concerts, in 1981 and 1994. Duration 26:00. In the late 1780s, Mozart and his music were meeting only limited success in his adopted home town of Vienna. The last few years of his life in the Austrian capital were marked by financial setbacks, family problems, and illness. His four visits to Prague during period were true bright spot in an otherwise gloomy period. His first visit was in January of 1787, just a month after the Prague premiere of his opera Le Nozze de Figaro. This production of Figaro was an unparalleled hit and Mozart was invited to visit to conduct the opera and to perform. When he and his wife Constanze arrived in Prague on January 11, they were welcomed by the most important musical patrons of the city. Mozart found that Prague audiences couldn’t get enough of him or of his music, as he wrote to friend in Vienna: “Here, they talk about nothing, they play nothing, sing nothing, whistle nothing but Figaro; they go to no opera but Figaro and forever Figaro.” Mozart’s “Grand Musical Academy” on January 19—a benefit concert arranged by his Prague friends—was every bit as much of a hit. He had brought with him the score of the just-completed D Major symphony, in hopes that he could have it played. The concert began with a half-hour piano improvisation by Mozart and included the new symphony, which was a particular sensation. Mozart was extremely pleased by the performance, which employed an orchestra of the best musicians in the Bohemian capital, a group that was apparently better disciplined and more attentive than Vienna orchestras he was used to 1eading. (He later wrote “My orchestra is in Prague, and my Prague people understand me.”) We have a remarkable account of this concert written by an admiring Bohemian musician. Franz Xaver Niemetschek, who described the effect of the new symphony: “[Mozart’s symphonies] are true masterpieces of instrumental composition, full of unexpected transitions, and have élan and a fiery momentum, so that they immediately incline the soul to expect something sublime. This is especially true of the great symphony in D Major, which is still a favorite in Prague, even though it has probably been heard a hundred times.” What is now known as the “Prague” symphony is richly orchestrated, and calls for skillful playing, particularly from the woodwinds. There is also a depth to this music, particularly in the way that Mozart develops his material, that points to what is to come in the great final trilogy of symphonies he would compose in 1788. The opening movement begins—rather uncharacteristically for Mozart—with a long slow introduction (Adagio). In the middle of this section, Mozart turns rather abruptly from Major to minor, heightening the sense of operatic drama. When he finally slides back into Major it sets up a sense of expectation, fulfilled at the appearance of the energetic beginning of the Allegro, set in sonata form. Several writers have commented upon the uncanny resemblance between the main theme and the opening of the overture to his final opera, The Magic Flute (1791), and the exposition provides a wealth of additional thematic ideas, often with surprising harmonic twists. Mozart then proceeds to one of his longest and most intense development sections. The way in which he carefully developed and combined thematic material in this section apparently the result of quite a bit a bit of careful labor—Mozart’s surviving sketches for this section show him experimenting with various permutations and combinations of his themes. None of this work shows through in the seemingly effortless grace of his development section, however. A conventional recapitulation gives way to a lengthy coda that reinforces the comic-opera flavor of this movement. The operatic character of this symphony continues in the beautifully songlike Andante. Set in a gently rocking 6/8 meter, this movement alternates between a pair of lyrical, and quite chromatic themes, which Mozart develops with an eye for drama. While the reigning mood is serene, there are frequent darker passages with turns towards the minor key. The movement is also notable for its contrapuntal intensity, a hallmark of his late style. Mozart breaks with tradition by abandoning the Minuet that usually stands as the third movement, moving instead directly to the finale (Presto). It begins with a bit of self-quotation that must have tickled his Prague audience: the opening theme bears an unmistakable resemblance to “Aprite presto,” the hilarious duet between Susanna and Cherubino in Act II of Figaro. This irrepressible melody is merely the first of several lively ideas he explores in this movement, which calls for brilliant playing from woodwinds and strings. Again there are occasional turns to the minor, but in this exuberant movement, the effect is wry and good-humored, rather than tragic. Burleske Strauss composed Burleske in 1885-86. The first public performance of the work was in Eisenach, on June 21, 1890, with pianist Eugen D’Albert. Our previous performances of the work were in 2007 with Per Tengstrand and in 2015 with Emanuel Ax. Duration 22:00. Burleske is among Strauss’s early compositions, marking the end of his musical apprenticeship. When he was still a teenager, Strauss wrote his first orchestral pieces for the Wild Gung’l (roughly, “the wild gang”), an amateur orchestra his father conducted in Munich. In 1883, he came to the attention of the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, whose Meiningen court orchestra was possibly the finest ensemble in Europe at that time. Bülow promoted the teenager by performing and commissioning works by Strauss, and eventually naming him an assistant conductor. It was during these heady times that the young composer completed an ambitious Scherzo in D minor for piano and orchestra. In the spring of 1886, Strauss played and conducted a test-run of the new piece with the Meiningen orchestra, and was thoroughly disappointed. He later wrote to Bülow that: “...given an outstanding (!) pianist, and a first-rate (!) conductor, perhaps the whole thing will not turn out to be the unalloyed nonsense I took it for after the first rehearsal. After the first run-through, I was totally discouraged...” For his part, Bülow was not particularly encouraging, describing the work as “unplayable” after looking through the score. The Scherzo was promptly buried, and didn’t reemerge until Strauss showed the score to the pianist Eugen D’Albert, a disciple of Liszt, four years later. D’Albert was taken with the work and offered to play the premiere. Though he seems to have remained a bit ambivalent about the piece (he never, for example, assigned it an opus number), Strauss undertook some revisions to his 1886 score. D’Albert premiered the work, now retitled Burleske, in June 1890. While it has never ranked among the most popular works in the Romantic solo piano repertoire, Burleske is still played today: a brilliant showpiece for the pianist, and a work of youthful exuberance by Strauss. Though Strauss avoided calling this a “piano concerto”—Burleske translates as “mockery” or “farce”—the whole piece is structured very much like a vastly-extended concerto first movement. There are tongue-in-cheek touches however. Much of the basic thematic material is laid out in the opening bars, not by the piano or orchestra, but in a brusque timpani solo. The piano enters abruptly with a strident version of this idea. This theme works itself to a rather quiet conclusion, and then the piano introduces a second idea in lilting waltz rhythm. The development of these themes is carried equally by the orchestra and the solo part. There is a rather literal recapitulation of the opening section, broken up by two extended solo cadenzas, before the piece ends with a surprisingly subdued coda. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G Major This concerto was composed between 1929 and 1931. The premiere was given in Paris, on January 13, 1932, with Ravel’s student Marguerite Long as soloist. It has been performed twice previously at these concerts by Grant Johannesen in 1987 and by Philippe Bianconi in 2001. Duration 23:00. Though Ravel had apparently made sketches for a G Major piano concerto as early as 1911, the direct inspiration for completing the concerto can be traced to a highly successful American tour in 1927-1929. Though he eventually returned to Paris, Ravel was seriously considering a long-term tour in the United States as a pianist and conductor. The G Major concerto was probably intended to serve as a solo vehicle for Ravel himself, but when he completed the work he found that he had apparently created something that was beyond his talents as a pianist! (The task of premiering the work fell to his protégé Marguerite Long.) He was actually working on two piano concertos at the same time—from 1930-1932, he was also working on the D Major concerto for left hand alone, a commission for pianist Paul Wittgenstein (a virtuoso who lost his right arm during the first world war). Despite the fact that they were produced simultaneously, the two pieces are strikingly different in character. The D Major concerto is a densely-textured work of almost heavy-handed virtuosity, while the G Major is a light and happy piece that attempts to create an equal balance between soloist and orchestra. (Ravel originally considered titling the work Divertissement—a reflection of its light style.) Both concertos show strong Jazz influence—Ravel was fascinated by this American idiom—but these effects are used in a much more facile and humorous way in the G Major concerto. Ravel’s views on the concerto are best summed up in a contemporary interview, where he described it as “...a concerto in the most exact sense of the term, one that is written in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. I believe that the music of a concerto can be cheerful and brilliant, and that it need not pretend to depths nor aim at dramatic effects.” The work is laid out in the mold of a Mozart concerto, in three movements. The opening movement (Allegramente) is set in sonata form. The main theme is a quirky, offbeat melody carried first by the piccolo and then by the trumpet, as the piano provides a showy accompaniment of arpeggios and glissandi. The second theme, presented by the piano, is a sleepy Spanish-flavored melody, accompanied by Jazz-inflected “blue notes” from the woodwinds. True to Classical form, he presents a brief development and slightly reworked recapitulation of the main themes. The piano has a flashy cadenza just before the close of the movement. The second movement (Adagio assai) begins with a dramatic rhythmic effect in the piano: the right hand melody is in 3/4, while the left-hand accompaniment is in 6/8. This figure continues throughout, adding a note of uneasiness to what is otherwise a quiet and atmospheric movement. This tension is not relieved until the last two measures, when the pianist’s left hand finally gives in, and joins the melody in 3/4. In keeping with the “Mozartian” character of the concerto, the last movement (Presto) is a rollicking rondo in 6/8. This is the most clearly “Jazzy” of the three movements, but it also provides a showcase for the soloist, as everything flashes by at blazing speed. La Mer (“The Sea”) La Mer was composed between 1903 and 1905. The premiere took place on October 15, 1905 at the Concerts Lamoureux in Paris. It has been performed five times previously at these concerts between 1967 and 2013. Duration 25:00. The Impressionist painters loved water. Its reflective and refractive qualities—its ability to sparkle or to take on the colors around it—were attractive and useful to these painters concerned with light and subtle shadings of color. Water plays a central role in hundreds of Impressionist works, such as Renoir’s The Siene at Asnières, Cézanne’s Lake at Annecy, or dozens of works by Monet, from his early seaside pictures to his late series of water lilies. Though Debussy clearly hated the term “Impressionism” as much as the painters, he had similar artistic concerns, and it is hardly surprising that much of his music is based on his impressions of water in different states. A few of the more famous examples are works for piano such as Jeux d’eau (literally: “games of water”) and Le cathédrale engloutie (“The sunken cathedral”), the “fountain scene” from the second act of his opera Pelléas et Melisande , and, of course, La Mer (“The Sea”) In these, and many other works, Debussy’s multicolored harmonic palette and his freedom from strictly-defined musical forms help to portray the sometimes glittering, sometimes swirling, sometimes murky, always inconstant nature of water. In composing La Mer, Debussy drew his inspiration directly from the sea: specifically the English Channel. He began work on the piece in 1903, but in 1905, he traveled to Eastbourne, a seaside town on the southern coast of England, to finish the score. Writing to his publisher from Eastbourne, Debussy noted: “This place is peaceful and charming. The sea rolls itself with a correctness that is truly Britannic... But what a place in which to work! No noise, no pianos (except for those delicious mechanical pianos), no musicians talking about painting, no painters talking about music...” The first performance, at the Paris Concerts Lamoureaux later that year, caused a furor, and received some extremely nasty reviews. Although La Mer was indeed revolutionary in sound, part of the blame for its bad reception with the Paris critics may have lain with indignation over Debussy’s own sarcastic and combative writings about music, and with the public scandal surrounding the composer’s marital troubles. La Mer’s early career continued on the same rocky course: performances in Paris, London, and Boston and New York over the next three years were scarcely better-received than the first. One Boston reviewer’s reactions are typical: “We clung like a drowning man to a few fragments of the tonal wreck, a bit of theme here, a comprehensible figure there, but finally this muted-horn sea overwhelmed us.” The work gained public acceptance only after Debussy’s death, and has since become one of his most well-known orchestral works. La Mer is laid out in three sections, each of which is given a descriptive title. However, this music is not “programmatic” in the traditional sense: Debussy subtitled the work Three Symphonic Sketches, suggesting that the sections portray only the vaguest notions of visual images. The opening section, titled De l’aube à midi sur la mer (“From dawn to noon at sea”), begins quietly with fragments of melody in the woodwinds, above muted strings. The central portion is constantly in motion, flowing from one brief impression to the next, and the first section ends with a recollection of the sea’s depth and power. The second section, Jeux de vagues (“Games of the waves”) is in some sense a dance, although it is a chaotic and playful dance of complex and shifting rhythms, and unexpected changes of orchestral color. The concluding section is titled Dialogue du vent et de la mer (“Dialogue of the wind and the sea”). There are several subtle references to material from the opening section, and broader presentation of a few melodies. The scoring is much denser than in the previous sections: full orchestra much of the time. If the word “bombastic” can be used anywhere in description of Debussy’s music, it is in this section of La Mer, where the sea is squalling and wild. program notes ©2018 by J. Michael Allsen	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line115
__label__wiki	0.54167	0.54167	Tag: amazon fires [EN] The win-win situation hidden behind the Amazonia fires – part 1 How agribusiness and the financial markets profit from the devastation of the world’s largest tropical forest Text and photos: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil With his feet upon the ashes where once the forest existed, the Pajé (Shaman) Isaka Huni Kuin expresses his profound sadness. “They do not know the medicine that exists inside the forest. They think it is useless, that it is only woods, but it is extremely valuable. From there, we get our hardwoods from which we construct our homes. When one of our children is sick, I know how to treat them, I know which medicine I have to look for. It is our pharmacy that is alive. If they finish off the forest, the wealth of knowledge that I have ceases with it; all of this fire makes me so very sad.” Pajé Isaka lost his live pharmacy. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil On August 22 in a few hours, the flames blazed and burned the five hectares of forest, which corresponds to 50% of the total area of the Cultural Center of the Huwã Karu Yuxibu. Since October 2018, the Cacique Mapu family, Isaka’s son, has made this territory home for relatives that have come to the city to study and also a space to propagate the medicine of the Huni Kuin People, located 50kms from the center of Rio Branco city, capital of Acre State. The Pajé Isaka, 80 years old, was eating lunch with his family when his wife heard the crack of the leaves burning. They started running with their machetes to try to impede the fire´s onrush upon the forest, but they were unsuccessful. With the arrival of the firefighters, they were able to save their homes. The orchards of papaya, banana, açai and other plants were consumed by the fire. The armadillos, turtles and monkeys were also affected. They burnt the forest that was once the Huni Kuin’s pharmacy. Arson is suspected, an act that put at risk the life of Pajé Isaka and his family. For Isaka, it was an act of malice. About 250 kms from there, now in Amazonas State, in the Boca de Acre municipality, the Apurinã People´s forest also burned. On August 13, the Day of the Fire, 600 hectares of the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory were razed. In the Apurinãs´ territory, the fire is more than just malice, it is one of the many steps in a well-articulated process of land grabbing of federal lands. The Cacique Antonio Jose condemns this scheme that, in the Legal Amazonia, not only affects their territory but also impacts diverse indigenous Peoples and federal lands overall. Through a cycle of destruction and profit, the invaders deforest, sell the precious woods, set the rest of the forest on fire, fence it off, begin to raise cattle in the enclosed area, sell the meat and then finally plant soybeans, corn or rice. And if that were not enough, the agribusiness sector that profits from the international market still even has the opportunity to continue profiting with environmental campaigns where they purport to be “saving” the Amazonia. On the Acre roads, it is common to see tractor trailers loaded with gigantic trunks of wood. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil The Apurinã Caciques’ fight against land grabbing and in favour of the demarcation of their territories There were 45,256 fires detected by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in the Amazonia from January to August 2019. 20% of the fires took place in public forests that still have not been designated as having a specific category: national parks, reserves or indigenous territories, among them, Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory. On August 13, the Day of the Fire, as denounced by Cacique Antonio Jose, a group of land grabbers burned 600 hectares that have been claimed by the Apurinãs. Cacique Antonio Jose opens the gate which offers access to the Val Paraiso Indigneous Territory. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil After we have passed through the fifth gate, we are finally near the entrance to the forest of the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory, on the banks of the Retiro Stream. The Cacique Kaxuqui gets off his motorcycle; he is Antonio Jose’s cousin and partner in the fight to regain their lands. Antonio invites us to get out of the car because they would like to talk. On the one side of the fence is us and on the other innumerable heads of cattle, which cover the five lots that we have just crossed through. The Caciques explain to us what they see here. “They devastated our land, things that we have been preserving for the last 100 years, where our grandfather, our great-grandfather and uncles were born,” decries Kaxuqui, 58 year-old. Antonio Jose continues: I am 54 years old, and I have never left here. These people, those who claim to be the owner of this land where we are standing right now, they are not from here no, they are descendants of the Portuguese. And we who are indigenous, who have lived here forever, which we have proven, we are here without our right to the land”. Cacique Kaxuqui and Antonio Jose denounce the land grabbing of indigenous land (in Portuguese). The Apurinãs have demanded the demarcation of the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory since 1991. The process is in the hands of FUNAI (National Indigenous Foundation). The Indigenous People has been waiting for years for the completion of the studies to identify and delimit the area, where 46 people, consisting of seven families, live. In the beginning of the process, the Apurinãs had lodged a claim for 57 thousand hectares. Even though the area was under judicial review, their lands were invaded, forests were felled, transformed into fields and eventually became cattle ranches. Recently, they decreased the demarcation request to only 26 thousand hectares in order to facilitate the process. “We made an agreement with the plantation owners. What are fields is theirs and what is forest is ours. However, they continue to invade and bore the forest”, declares Antonio Jose. Bore is the verb that the Apurinãs use to describe the action taken by those who raze the forest. “It is not for lack of information, we have everything documented. IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), the Attorney General and the Legalize Land Agency are all aware that this here was claimed by us while there was still forest, when it was still intact. Only this forest exists now, that in front of us on the banks of the stream, because we have been trying to preserve it from 1991 until the present. For Lindomar Dias, from the Indigenous Missionary Council, these articulations of invading territories have happened for a long time. In the case of the First Nations, since forever. “Effectively, Brazil was born, as a country, plundering and robbing territory from the First Nations. And it treats these peoples as though they were not native Peoples. They treat them as though they were foreigners, when in actuality they are the owners. They have acquired their right to possession not by purchasing the land but by living there, melding with it, merging with it.” For Dercy Teles, a traditional rubber tree tapper from the Xapuri municipality, whom we also listened to while traveling in Acre, the attacks are movements of extinction of populations that depend upon the forest. “For those who do not produce for capitalism’s development, there is no interest in their existence on this land,” she sustains. Outraged, the Caciques point in the direction of each deforested or grabbed area. Antonio Jose names each individual who is responsible. “Joaquim felled 500 hectares for 2 thousand reals, and another 500 for another 2 thousand reals and sold them to Brana. This is on the other side of the Preto Stream, within the area we have legally demanded. All of this, they know is Indigenous Territory. And now the owner is Brana, some guy from Rio Branco city. Bezinho deforested 392 hectares of the Riachão plantation, alongside the Cruzeiro plantation, on the banks of Preto Stream, which is also part of our claim. Junior do Betão has already purchased it. We have all of this registered on our map”. Blatantly illegal cattle livestock on federal lands On the cattle pastures, the remains of trees denounce the prior fires. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil There are many names on the tip of his tongue, each one connected to another. Some are responsible for having entered and cut the trees. Other for land grabbing, enclosing them and filing some ‘documents’. When the “ripple” arrives, as Antonio Jose refers to the buzz to invade land, others come and buy them up. And then the place cattle on the land, it is the most common business in the region. According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics), Boca do Acre has the second largest cattle herd in Amazonas State. It comes in second to its neighbor, Labrea. Together, the two have 510 thousand heads of cattle, 38% of the Amazonas’ cattle population. That is 6.4 heads per inhabitant. This cattle’s principal destination is the Frizam/Agropam meat processing factory in Boca do Acre. According to research by Idesam (Institute of Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon) in 2013, the slaughterhouse is responsible for 31.3% of the total meat processing in Amazonas state. Boca do Acre forms part of the Deforestation Arc, the region where the agriculture frontier advances upon the Amazonia’s primary forest. There are 372 areas embargoed by IBAMA in this municipality. This occurs when the inspector shows that a rancher deforested an area without prior approval or did not respect the legal reserve required on his or her private property. With an embargoed ranch, cattle ranching is prohibited. Cattle livestock occupies 80% of the deforested areas of Legal Amazonia, according to a 2015 report by the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office of the Federal Attorney General. Almost 40% of Brazil’s 215 million heads of cattle graze in the Amazon region. The roads from Rio Branco to Boca do Acre have been taken over by cattle ranches. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil In Boca do Acre, even though there is a significant number of embargoed properties, Frizam/Agropam’s movement has not depleted in recent years. This happens because those cattle ranches that have been legally cited arrive with false documentation. The animals are registered as originating from ranches that have not been prohibited from commercialising. According to the meat processing factory, nothing can be done to audit this fraud. It just so happens that Frizam/Agropam has as one of its principal shareholders the Amazonian cattle rancher, Jose Lopes, who owns nine embargoed ranches in Boca do Acre. According to the journalist, Leonildo Rosas from Blog do Rosas, Jose Lopes is the biggest cattle rancher, owner of more than hundred thousand heads of cattle. The “king of cattle”, as he is known locally, has been the treasurer of electoral campaigns and public funding and has strong influence over the growth of his meat empire. Lopes worked on the campaigns for Senator Eduardo Braga (PMDB) and for the Acre governor, Omar Aziz (PSD). He also worked on the campaign for the state governor’s campaign, Amazonino Mendes (PFL), who governed the State from 1999 to 2002. During that time period, in 2000, CIAMA (Amazonas State Development Company), a publicly-owned business, which has as one of its objectives the promotion of environmental development in the State, invested more than 14 million reals in the meat processing plant, Frisam/Agropam. As a result, CIAMA became one of four shareholders in the business. And it does not stop there: in the memorandum of the Frisam/Agropa’s Annual General Meeting on 06/03/2013, to which Amazonia Real had access, it shows that the factory has four shareholders: in addition to Jose Lopes and CIAMA, the list includes Jose Lopes Junior and Alessandra Lopes. “”These last two, Jose Lopes’ children, have in their name the land with cattle, fences and gates that we passed through upon entering Apurinã People’s Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory. Jose Lopes registered a property that came from my grandfather, I was in Bom Lugar and would come all the way to here to fish in the Poção do Arroz”, remembers Antonio Jose. “It was good for fishing. In 2010, Lopes registered this area as the Porão do Arroz and became the owner. It was us who opened this up, and Kaxuqui’s grandfather lived on the riverside. Here we have been living for so many years and nobody recognizes us”. Kaxuqui adds on: “We never sold a piece of land. Quite the opposite, we want to live here, give this right to our children and our grandchildren. What we want is what is ours. All we want is that they respect our culture, our rights and our way of living. We do not want ranches, nor cattle, once we are recognized, we do not need to be a rancher”. Cacique Antonio Jose requests the demarcation of his People’s land. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil From 2013 IBAMA data, the fines for environmental crimes issued in the name of Jose Lopes added up to more than 3 million reals, resulting from the destruction of 955.14 hectares of primary forest in the Legal Amazonia. Recently, the cattle rancher was arrested in three Federal Police operations. In May 2018, in the Ojuara operation, he was accused by the Federal Attorney General of being involved in environmental crimes, along with another 21 suspects. They are accused of invading federal land, ordering deforestation and contracting Military Police agents to protect the machinery and the deforested areas. Among the accusations, a false IBAMA proceedings from Acre in September 2017 was used to alert the ranchers regarding a national operation for the following month. During that time, the IBAMA superintendent, Carlos Gadelha, was also accused by the Federal Attorney General’s Office of having created fake companies to offer administrative and legal defenses for illegal individuals who deforest in the south of Amazonas State, against his own entity’s, IBAMA actions. On June 25 th, , Jose Lopes was released upon bail by the judge Monica Sifuentes, from the Federal District Court, who had substituted pretrial detention for temporary measures permitting his release while awaiting trial. He was once again arrested in the Maus Caminhos operation, where he was accused of receiving 1 million reals in bribes from the Dr. Mouhamad Moustafa, who was indicted as the leader of a criminal organization that diverted resources from the Amazonas state through the Novo Caminhos Institute. In addition to these accusations, the cattle rancher has been accused of environmental crimes in illegal timber commercialisation detected during the Arquimedes operation. “This character is arrested and he still keeps every right of raising cattle and selling it, on Federal Land. And he continues to deforest and orders others to do so. And here we are preserving our land and we have no right to our land”, vents Antonio Jose. To top it off, a large part of the beef that is processed by Frizam/Agropam is not even enjoyed by the region’s population. Factory workers reveal that every month more than 20 tractor trailers leave the factory for foreign destinations. China, Japan, the USA are a few of the countries mentioned. “Here in Amazonas State, we do not eat the bull’s beef, only the cow. The young bulls, all of the fine meat, is exported. All of this cattle that causes so much prejudice here in Amazonas State is not even for consumption by the people of Amazonas. But yes by foreigners who end up supplying the resource for this deforestation”, protests Cacique Antonio Jose. The majority of cattle slaughtered in Boca do Acre is meat that is exported. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil Jose Lopes and his family is only one of the surnames that the Apurinãs resist against. There are various others. The dispute is unfair, in addition to the ranchers, the Apurinãs also confront the State’s omission. It may be through the denial of basic rights, such as health, energy, education – one of that factors that causes relatives to not remain in the forest. It may be due to the public agencies’ ineffectiveness in impeding and fining the land invaders. It may be because of those who wrongfully use the State to promote their discourse. Or those who use their discourse to become part of the State. This is not only the case of President Jair Bolsonaro but also the case of Francisco Sales de França, known as Mapara. He is a Boca do Acre council member who is a land grabber and has deforested the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory. He ordered the deforestation of trees in 2017 and 2018. According to Antonio Jose, 200 hectares have been deforested by Mapara. He acknowledges his action. “He is fortified by his being a council member”. Cacique Kaxuqui in front of the homes in the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil On August 19 th , the Cacique Apurinã recorded videos of condemnation on the banks of the Preto Stream. On the other side of the water, there is the noise of the chainsaw and trees falling. Antonio Jose narrates, “You can hear the buzzing of his chainsaw, I just wanted to be able to show this to the Attorney General, to FUNAI, just to show how the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory’s forest is being destroyed”. According to the Cacique, the largest fell of the year in the Indigenous Territory was 600 hectares and was encouraged by the Boca do Acre council member. Mapara was elected based on his campaign promise to legalise invaded lands, such as Val Paraiso. “Everybody knows that the council member does not have the legal authority to legalise federal lands,” rebuts Antonio Jose. But we also know that discourses can mold legality. Our intention in visiting the Apurinãs, in addition to listening to the Caciques and showing solidarity, was to also register this “boring” of the 600 hectares. The following day, we would depart at sunrise. Before lying down in the recently hung hammocks, Antonio Jose grabs the folder that he carried with him. In it, sheets of recent satellite images of the area claimed by the Apurinãs. He gets closer to the kerosene lamp with the maps in his hands. Cacique Antonio Jose begins to describe the locality and how many hectares were deforested in the last year, repeating the gesture from hours before, near the fence. This time he points at the deforestation on the map. He also indicates, furiously, who is responsible for each “boring”. There are now thousands of hectares felled inside of the 26 thousand hectares demanded by the Apurinãs. The recent exploration map of the Apurinã Indigenous land. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil INPE is the map’s source of information, elaborated with FUNAI’s assistance. On the wall of the OPIAJBAM (Organization of the Apurinã and Jamamadi Indigenous Peoples of Boca do Acre), the office where we meet Antonio Jose, maps hang on the wall showing signs from a recent course. The Apurinã and Jamamadi are studying how to use a cartography software, with the objective of being able to create the maps themselves. Cartography is a tool in the struggle for their land rights and also against deforestation. It is important to remember that when the issue of forest fires came to light, President Bolsonaro demonstrated how his government would deal with science by firing the INPE director, Ricardo Galvão, on August 2nd. When a study was released demonstrating an increase in fires in Amazonia (68% in relation to July 2018), Bolsonaro declared that the Institute may be at the service of some NGO and that the damage must be incorrect. Following Ricardo’s refuting Bolsonaro’s declarations, he was dismissed from his position. His removal was startling for the scientific world and for those who work on the situation of fires in Amazonia. Some days later, when asked about his dismissing Galvão, he responded, “I do not ask, I give orders”. Illegal timber commercialisation The next day we start out on our three hour hike. Our destination: the 600 hectares burned down on the Day of the Fire, August 13 th . In three places in the forest, we found gallon bottles of gasoline and burnt oil used in chainsaws. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil Various time we traverse the stream, we pass through places that are now fields and those that are still within the forest. In the middle of the trail, we rest upon what remains of a trunk of cedar, recently sawed down. Antonio Jose states: “on August 19 th we passed through here to see that they had felled the 600 hectares and that over there was still intact”. According to the Cacique, the loggers enter in pristine jungle, cut it down, remove the hardwoods – such as cedar and itauba. Then the loggers cut down the rest of the forest on top of the trunks, “they do this so we cannot see what type of trees they have removed”. In the following year, they will burn with the intention of clearing the area and taking advantage of the remaining trunks. After that, they start to lay the pastures for cattle raising. “This is the model that they use to invade and grab indigenous territories that we protect. Here for example, five days ago, everything had been cut down, and even with IBAMA here in Boca do Acre, they still continue cutting down”, denounces the Cacique. Trees that have recently been cut not but not yet removed from the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil The lumber that leaves this area is cut with chainsaws in summertime, according to Antonio Jose. In wintertime, the loggers enter on the stream in barges, load it up and embark, carrying it to the Boca do Acre port at sunset. Then, as the Cacique describes the process, the criminals have a scheme to load the timber in a container on a tractor trailer that travels to Rio Branco city during the nighttime. The cargo goes on the road as though it were whatever type of freight. In the Acre capital, this wood is referred to as “heated up”. This expression is used to describe timber that has been stamped as though it originated from the Acre forestry management system. “This is how they do the removal of the indigenous timber for exportation from the indigenous territory and federal lands. All the lumber that is removed from Amazonas is illegal”. What remains of the trees cut down in the middle of the forest within the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil The Transacrean lumber mill is one of the principal destinations for the trunks that are managed in AC-90. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil Cacique Antonio Jose and Kaxuqui in one of the fields burnt that we went through on our trek. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil Traversing the Retiro Stream in direction of the razing. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil Following Antonio Jose’s description, we continue through the jungle, hearing in the background the chainsaw’s roaring. We walk a little further and, with great difficulty, the felling of the forest becomes a complicated barrier to cross, we finally arrived at the burned area. As in the Huni Kuin Indigenous Territory, where there once was green, now only ashes appear. Black trunks have fallen. Standing and sawed trunks are also charred. Some small bushes resisted the fire and the thick forest vegetation that has been felled makes it difficult to see the horizon. However, if one climbs on top of a stump, viewing from one side to another, you cannot see a tree canopy still standing in the immediate area. A tract of destruction. Antonio Jose condemns this: “They paid others for the burning, and then take up their role, following up with the removal of the logs and planting grass and raising cattle. In this manner, they grab the federal lands located in the Amazonia. Here in Boca do Acre it works this way. Nobody has INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agricultural Reform) documentation for a settlement. Everybody grabs the land, everyone says its theirs. They get loans, register in the Rural Environmental Land Registry and become the owners”. The Caciques speak indignantly, focused on their opportunity to denounce this reality. Cacique Antonio Jose looks over the destruction of the 600 hectares of forest. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil As much as seen on the highway for the Huni Kuin (Highway AC-90, the Transacreana) as for the Apuinã (BR-317) and for the Xapuri (also BR-317), it is poignant the extension of cattle ranches. Where once was jungle is now pastures. An immensity of grass. Some Brazil nut trees are still standing, trees protected by the law. Some of these are splendid and still alive. While others are dead, annihilated slowly but surely by the numerous fires to which they have been exposed. They are still standing, even though they are dead, and can resist for years. Cacique Kaxuqui sitting on one of the Brazil nut trees that once offered sustenance. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil In this last 600 hectares that were razed on the Val Paraiso Indigenous Territory, none of these trees escaped. According to Antonio Jose and Kaxuqui, more than 150 specimens were destroyed. Sitting on the what remains of a trunk that has not yet been removed, Kaxuqui tells us how the Apurinãs would collect 500 cans of Brazil nut on that site. “This here was a Brazil nut tree that we would harvest our sustenance for our family. And now here she is burnt. This here will not come back to this land. The land that we once preserved, that land that we needed is now like this, destroyed by ranchers”, laments Kaxuqui. A Brazil nut tree fossil is a sad monument to the forest that once existed here. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil On the highway, we see carcasses being eaten by the vultures, logs with diverse metered diameters on top of tractor trailers. We hear about the threats that the Caciques confront. In the meanwhile, the Brazil nut trees, charred by fire are a symbol, the most melancholic monument of the destruction that ravages these territories. On the AC-90, the Transacrean highway, many trucks filled with logs can be found on the road. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil The Apurinãs resist, fenced in by the henchmen, ranchers and the international market’s rapacious stare. Kaxuqui has already received offers to leave the area. Upon rejecting them, a drone flew for days in and around his home in the forest. Antonio Jose has had his home burned down once, and he is not returned there since. “I am threatened, I am frowned upon for defending my land. I no longer live as I once did. In the city, I am looked upon as if I were evil for the people, bad for the world. I do not understand this”, I have lived here in the same place for 54 years, but respect is not the case. “I was born here in Bananal, I continue to live and defend the same land. Those who I consider my good friends are 50 years old or older. These youngsters, 20-35 years old believe that I am hindering development. Because they want to be here to cut it all down, making money. This is not what we want, we want that everybody grows while also respecting the rights of all”. I have already requested from the 6th Federal Chamber of Brasilia a police escort, which has been granted. But the local police do not have a large enough officer reserve to respond to the demand. They suggested that I leave the area. “There is no way I can leave here, all of my knowledge is here”. Antonio Jose and Kaxuqui show the maps they use to analyse the increase in the fires and land grabbing. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil What is happening to the Apurinãs is not an isolated case. On the contrary, it is a systematic attack against Indigenous Peoples and their territories throughout the Amazonia and all of Brazil. On the offensive, there are distinct protagonists. There are those who are at the forefront, the direct exploration, through land invasions, logging extraction, cattle raising and, even, mining. As has been demonstrated in the narrative above. And then there are those in the background, those who finance these crimes. For example, European countries demonstrated in defense of the Amazonia during the recent fires, but it is an entire continent that has been buying meat and timber from these deforested areas for years. JBS and Marfig, corporations with an international profile in animal protein production, the principal meat exporters from Brazil to Europe, purchase their meat from these illegal ranchers. In 2018, the Reporter Brasil wrote an article on the sale of illegal timber to Denmark. Seven of the principal retail construction stores were unaware of the origin of the Brazilian timber that they were selling. On the AC-90, known as the Transacrean Highway, cattle graze upon ashes. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Friends of the Earth Brazil The authors of these attacks are or have political representatives. Starting with Brazil’s president, Bolsonaro stated, during his campaign, that he would not demarcate not even 1cm of indigenous territory. The president’s brother works with the so-called ‘ruralists’ to impede, together with government representatives, the demarcations. The demarcation process, now with Bolsonaro in power, is being threatened to be transferred to the Federal Department of Agriculture, where the ‘ruralists’ rule. A similar proposal, Proposed Decree 215, is in the Congress, suggesting that the final decision should lay with the Congress regarding the consolidation of indigenous territories, a Congress where currently the largest and most powerful caucus is that of the ‘ruralists’. This caucus, called the Agrilivestock Parliamentary Front, is also a lobbying group financially supported by agribusiness associations and corporations, and has 257 members, including federal deputies and senators. On July 4th, Bolsonaro declared, in a meeting with these politicians: “This government is yours”. As another example of this attack, the Congress recently proposed the Proposed Decree 343, which would declare that FUNAI could be granted to the power to liberate up to 50% of indigenous territories to ‘ruralists’, prospectors and other sectors without prior consultation with the traditional communities who reside there. In this list of protagonists, we must not forget Rede Globo, the largest news and television network in Brazil, that promotes for the last two years as its main advertisement during prime time and political campaigns the following: “Agribusiness is technical, it is popular, it is everything”. There has been a publicity campaign where it glorifies and presents false information about Brazilian agribusiness, claiming for example that the majority of our food comes from agribusiness. This is a lie. The majority of Brazilian food supply is provided by family agriculture. In addition to these advertisements, Rede Globo decides what is or is not at stake in a system of promiscuity with enormous agribusiness sectors, businesses and sectors that historically attack the Peoples of Brazil. Below are a few examples of what indigenous and traditional Peoples confront in Brazil. Here, some experiences of actual physical violence against the Peoples, are just a few of the violent incidents that have occurred in only the last couple days of September: – Reoccupation by the Guarani Mbya of Ponto do Arado (Indigenous People from Rio Grande do Sul) suffers gunfire attack, the second this year; – FUNAI Indigenous collaborator is assassinated in Amazonas state; – Men claiming to be police attack the Guaranis (Indigenous People) in Terra de Areia, Rio Grande do Sul; – Mbya Guarani receive threats by armed men in the Guadjayvi Indigenous Territory in Charqueadas RS, an Indigenous Territory directly impacted by the proposed Copelmi-Guaiba Mining project. These attacks are historical and perpetuating, and are also more complex than they appear at first glance. Read on the second part of the story “The win-win situation hidden behind the Amazonia fires: how much are preservation and ‘green’ capitalism false solutions worth?”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line116
__label__wiki	0.732358	0.732358	Draco Rosa Add to my Calendar map-Draco Rosa Get Directions Print This Event Draco Cornelius Rosa, also known as Robi Draco Rosa, Draco Rosa or simply Draco, is a multiple-time Grammy and Latin Grammy winning American-born Puerto Rican musician, singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, record producer and entrepreneur.Rosa originally garnered fame as a member of boy band Menudo in the 1980s. After leaving the band he moved to Brazil where he released two albums, achieving mainstream success. Afterwards he moved to California and formed the band Maggie's Dream, which split after only one album, allowing him to resume his solo career. The singer and composer has released several studio and experimental albums, and has composed/produced multiple songs for major artists.In 1996 he released the critically acclaimed Latin alternative rock album Vagabundo produced by Phil Manzanera, just before helping launch Ricky Martin's musical career into a new global setting with the album "Vuelve". Rosa wrote and produced various of Martin's hit singles including "Maria", "Living la Vida Loca", "La Copa de la Vida", "She Bangs",among many others.In April 2011, Rosa was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. This kept Rosa in a hiatus for a few years until his return in March 2012, when he started recording his award winning album "Vida" along side artists such as Juan Luis Guerra, Rubn Blades, Enrique Bunbury among others. In December 2012, he was declared cancer-free. After a very successful "Vida" tour in 2013, on December 9, 2013, his cancer had relapsed and was later overcome, becoming cancer free once again after a second (alogenic) bone marrow transplant.Taking some time off to ground himself in his native Puerto Rico, Draco took advantage of this new awakening to write "El Secreto de La Vida A Base de Plantas" , with friend and renown nutritionist Nina Niessen. The book became an Amazon.com Top Seller in 2015, and a must read in Alterna Where:Music Box, 1337 India Street, San Diego, California, United States, 92101 Ticket Price:$37 adv/$42 day of show	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line117
__label__wiki	0.72133	0.72133	Lee H. Wallach, M.S.W., M.P.A. BACK TO PARTNERS Lee Wallach, M.S.W., M.P.A. As both a business and non-profit leader Lee H. Wallach is active in his community. He is currently the CEO of Community Assets Consulting; a firm specializing in assisting Israeli, International, and U.S. environmental technology companies with business in California and the U.S. CAC additionally specializes in developing, coordinating and implementing the sustainability efforts of large U.S. firms. He is also concurrently the President of Lazarus Renewables LLC, a company focused on the development of renewable projects such as utility and commercial scale solar, wind, and other sources of clean energy. He was formerly the Senior Business Development Consultant to Tecnospot Solar USA, Inc., the leading Italian global solar company. Finally, for almost ten years he lead the U.S. business development and external affairs activities of one of the most successful and largest utility scale solar technology companies, Solel Solar Systems Ltd. resulting in almost 500 MW of contracted solar. Solel’s technology powers a large portion of the world's solar. He is a founding board member and President of Faith2Green, the umbrella over the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life of Southern California (CoejlSC) and the Interfaith Environmental Council (IEC). He has been an appointee to the State Committee of Bar Examiners for 10 years, on the board of the Los Angeles Sustainable Business Council, and has served on the boards of the National Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), as a founder of the Large-Scale Solar Association. Additionally he served on the Los Angeles Business Council’s Sustainability Committee, the Western Governors Association Renewable Energy Task Force and the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters. In recent years Lee Wallach has assisted environmental companies in obtaining over $4 billion in sales and hundreds of contracted MW’s. He has been instrumental in shaping U.S. solar policy, including California Governor Schwarzenegger’s, “Million Solar Rooftop Initiative” and “Global Warming” bills. He authored and facilitated the signing of a renewable-energy R&D cooperation agreement between California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Israeli Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. He has written over a dozen solar and environmental bills at the federal and state level. He recently assisted in the creation of the Green Building Program for the City of Los Angeles and is active in the city efforts to attract green sector business to the city. President Bill Clinton has joined forces with Lee and faith2green.com to stop global warming and support the opening of the Israel office to further Israeli environmental companies sales and technology in the U.S. In addition, Wallach holds executive and board member positions with Children Uniting Nations, the state Jewish Public Affairs Council and Charity Finders Corp. Previously Wallach served as Executive Director for Days of Dialogue, the California Israel Chamber of Commerce, as the Director of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation’s Commission on Urban Affairs, Board member of USC Hillel Foundation, a member of the California State Budget Advisory Committee, 40th District and as a delegate to the World Zionist Congress through the Green Zionist Alliance. Formerly at the University of Southern California, Wallach served as director for USC’s Graduate Student Community programs and as a field representative for the Office of Civic and Community Relations. He represented the University on University Trustee Committees, USC Board of Governors, and Governor Wilson’s Interim Commission on California Service. He has earned numerous honors including several city citations and county awards for public service, and was named Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. Wallach was honored by the Coalition for Clean Air for his environmental accomplishments and contributions. He is often interviewed by the print media on his activities and has been a featured commentator on many national radio and television shows such as National Public Radio and KCET’s Life and Times. Wallach holds a Master’s in Public Administration, (M.P.A.), and a Master’s in Social Work, (M.S.W.), from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor’s degree in Child Mental Health from California State University Northridge. He has two children -- Benjamin, 12, and Sarah, 9.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line121
__label__cc	0.588531	0.411469	Computer Technology News IBM preps for 2021 business split as enterprise hybrid cloud push gathers pace IBM preps for 2021 business split as enterprise hybrid cloud push gathers pace IBM will split its business into two separate, public traded businesses by the end of 2021, with one focused on tapping into the growing demand for hybrid cloud services from enterprises while the other prioritises the delivery of managed infrastructure services. The tech giant confirmed the move in statement, where it claimed the measure would help “accelerate its hybrid cloud growth strategy”, while also serving to drive up the value these separate entities can deliver to their clients and shareholders overall. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the company is “laser-focused” on tapping into the “$1tn hybrid cloud opportunity” as enterprises accelerate their plans to move to the cloud. “Client buying needs for application and infrastructure services are diverging, while adoption of our hybrid cloud platform is accelerating,” he said. “Now is the right time to create two market-leading companies focused on what they do best.” The century-old IBM brand will be retained by the hybrid cloud-focused entity, while the trading name of the other company to be formed as a result of this split is set to be decided – but will be referred to as “NewCo” for now. “NewCo will have greater agility to design, run and modernise the infrastructure of the world’s most important organisations,” said Krishna. “Both companies will be on an improved growth trajectory with greater ability to partner and capture new opportunities – creating value for clients and shareholders.” IBM executive chairman Ginni Rometty said splitting the company in two will position Big Blue better for the “new era of hybrid cloud”, which is a process it has been in the throes of for several years now. As referenced by Rometty, work on this front has markedly accelerated in the wake of IBM’s $34bn acquisition of open source cloud firm Red Hat in 2018, which has enabled the firm to position its off-premise offerings as more open and less proprietary than those of its competitors. “Our multi-year transformation created the foundation for the open hybrid cloud platform, which we then accelerated with the acquisition of Red Hat,” she said. “At the same time, our managed infrastructure services business has established itself as the industry leader, with unrivalled expertise in complex and mission-critical infrastructure work. “As two independent companies, IBM and NewCo will capitalise on their respective strengths,” said Rometty. “IBM will accelerate clients’ digital transformation journeys, and NewCo will accelerate clients’ infrastructure modernisation efforts. This focus will result in greater value, increased innovation and faster execution for our clients.” Financial perspective From a financial perspective, spinning off its managed infrastructure business means IBM will no longer be a company where more than half of its revenue is generated by services, but instead one where the majority of its income is derived from “high-value” cloud software and solutions, the company said in a statement. “IBM will also have more than 50% of its portfolio in recurring revenues,” the statement continued. IBM also alludes to a potential streamlining of its business in the future, on the back of this business split, with the company making reference to its plans to “simplify and optimise” its operations geographically and from a go-to-market perspective. “IBM is also continuing to consolidate its shared services. This simplified and focused operating model will support accelerated innovation for the hybrid cloud, and provide more flexibility to increase investment in growth areas. The result will be an enhanced financial profile with a clear trajectory for improved revenue and profit growth,” the statement added. It also goes on to claim that, at the time of its formation, NewCo will “immediately” become the “world’s leading managed infrastructure services provider”, with a customer base of more than 4,600 clients across 115 countries, including more than 75% of the Fortune 100. IBM’s cloud endeavours have been the bright spot in its most recent run of financial results, with the company reporting a 5.4% year-on-year downturn in overall revenue to $18.1bn during its second quarter of 2020, while its cloud business achieved 30% revenue growth to $6.3bn. In response to the news of its proposed business split, IBM’s share price rose 7% . Learning The Secrets About Resorts Comparing Hotels Before Booking One There are now a number of hotel websites that allow you to easily book a […] Tips To Remember When Buying an Internal Hard Drive No matter how robust your computer or laptop may be, its […] Bloomberg Technology (@expertise) On Twitter Inexpensive skilled and technical training for at present’s job market. I will briefly touch on 1 and a couple of, […] NGD’s mega-colocation campus in Wales acquired by Vantage Data Centers Newport, Wales-based hyperscale datacentre operator Next Generation Data (NGD) has sold its supersized campus for an undisclosed sum, it has […] The UK switches on to mobile contact tracing NCSC relaunches SME security guide with home working focus	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line123
__label__wiki	0.540093	0.540093	Roughin’ It Road Trip Summer Workshop 2016 focuses on storytelling Virtual Winter Conference ATPI Online Contest Site ATPI Top Program Award ATPI Top Video Program Award Rising Star Portfolio Contest Hal Fulgham Memorial Scholarship Sharon Jacobus Memorial Scholarship Self-Portrait Contest Texas Imagemaker Team Virtual Winter Conference Contests Digital Submission Instructions Join ATPI Members-Only Resources About ATPI Contact ATPI Star of Texas Award The Best of Texas High School Photography Posted in /By Mark Murray Protected: 2021 ATPI Winter Conference Registration 2021 ATPI Winter Conference Fees Welcome to the registration system for the ATPI Winter Conference. Please follow these instructions to complete Part One of registration: Enter the number of teachers and students you are registering. If you are selecting group options, only put “1” in the quantity field. 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On the next screen select “Proceed to Registration” and answer the questions. Proceed to payment options at the bottom of the screen. ATPI Membershipshow details +hide details - $20.00 (USD) Quantity 0 1 2 3 4 5 Membership in the Association of Texas Photography Instructors is by school year. ATPI Membership $20.00 (USD) Goes On Sale: September 8, 2019 2:25 pm Sales End: June 30, 2021 11:55 pm July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 8:00 am to 5:00 pm 76 unlimited 94 unlimited TAJE Membershipshow details +hide details - $40.00 (USD) Quantity 0 1 2 3 4 5 Annual membership in the Texas Association of Journalism Educators. TAJE Membership $40.00 (USD) SIPA Membershipshow details +hide details - $30.00 (USD) Quantity 0 1 2 3 4 5 Annual membership in the Southern Interscholastic Press Association. SIPA Membership $30.00 (USD) July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 8:00 am to 5:00 pm 0 unlimited 94 unlimited JEA Membershipshow details +hide details - $65.00 (USD) Quantity 0 1 2 3 4 5 Annual membership in the Journalism Education Association. JEA Membership $65.00 (USD) TPS Membershipshow details +hide details - $40.00 (USD) Quantity 0 1 2 3 4 5 Membership in the Texas Photographic Society TPS Membership $40.00 (USD) Welcome to the new registration system for the ATPI Winter Conference. Please follow these instructions to complete Part One of registration: Enter the number of teachers, students and speakers you are registering. Enter the number of students in individual and team contests. Enter the number of environmental self portrait entries. ATPI Virtual Winter Conference Early Bird RegistrationATPI Virtual Winter Conference Early Bird RegistrationThe deadline for early bird registration for the 2021 Winter Conference. ATPI on Twitter Check out all the details at https://t.co/u3UM7xAY7z. And don’t forget that 15 students and their teachers will be… https://t.co/YCwKdD0YiT about 21 hours ago And you don’t have to be in Texas to join us this year! Take advantage of our volume discounts for five, ten, twent… https://t.co/YMgeBs4wns about 21 hours ago Still trying to decide if you want to attend the virtual Winter Conference? The first 500 teachers and students tha… https://t.co/oqdMkrKpZk about 21 hours ago Congratulations to @mziegler1 for being named the 2020 H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year by… https://t.co/6nwshphz68 01:48:40 PM January 15, 2021 @ATPI All content copyrighted by the Association of Texas Photography Instructors.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line127
__label__cc	0.626681	0.373319	Aviara Oaks Elementary Gets Chicken Pox by The Editors on May 30, 2013 The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency is reporting that five children and one adult have come down with Chicken Pox. As you might expect the four of the children had not been properly immunized, yet one who was still came down with Chicken Pox. Here’s what the health professionals have to say: “Chickenpox is a preventable disease,” said Eric McDonald, M.D., M.P.H., county deputy public health officer. “By having their children immunized with the recommended two doses of the vaccine, parents can help their children avoid chickenpox and prevent it from spreading to others.” . . There have been eight cases of chickenpox reported in San Diego County so far in 2013. Chickenpox is not reportable to the County Public Health Department unless it occurs in an outbreak or results in a hospitalization or death. A nice little reminder to make sure your kids are immunized. For the official word from the San Diego HHSA follow the jump. Bike To Work Day In Carlsbadistan The City of Carlsbadistan sprinted full speed into supporting National Bike To Work Day on Friday, May 17, 2013 with five pit stops located throughout the city. How did we know the City was involved? We saw the pit stops while riding our bike to work. Apparently, there were 90 Bike To Work pit stops (click the link to see them all) located through out San Diego County. If you’re reading this now and you didn’t ride your bike to work, then you missed it. But don’t let that stop you from riding your bike to work next week. 3 On 3 Basketball At Carlsbad’s Westfield Mall by The Editors on May 8, 2013 On Saturday July 13, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM Carlsbad’s Westfield Mall parking lot will be turned into a huge outdoor three on three basketball tournament for boys grades 3 through 12 thanks to the City of Carlsbad. To play, you need get your team registered while there is still time. Five grade divisions will be offered: 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th, 7th and 8th, 9th and 10th, and 11th and 12th. Grades are determined by school year 2012-2013. Online registration may only be completed by a parent of a child from the team, or a team member who is 18 years of age or older. It costs $125 per team. For more information please call: (760) 434-2971 or follow the jump for more information. Carlsbad Music Festival’s Village Music Walk The Carlsbad Music Festival is looking for a few musicians shoe would like to participate in the festival’s Village Music Walk on the evening of Friday, June 21, 2013. The June Village Music Walk is a FREE community event that will feature a full evening of 30+ performances of adventurous music of all kinds in intimate venues around Carlsbad Village. The Village Music Walk is a regular and popular feature of the September Carlsbad Music Festival, and this year we are additionally presenting it as a standalone event in June. Venues range from the Foundry at New Village Arts to Spin Records to Magee Park to the old train station. With over 30 concerts to choose from over the evening, a Music Walk attendee can choose their own pathway through the music and the Village. For more information, click the link to follow the jump. [click to continue…] The Alga Norte Skatepark In Good Hands Carlsbad’s last public skateboard park had some issues from the very beginning. While fun to roll, it never has had much flow and some of the sections were just plain wrong. Thankfully, that won’t be the case with the new Alga Norte Skatepark thanks to the involvement of former pro skateboarder Kanten Russell, according to a story in the U-T San Deigo. Earlier this week, Russell walked the construction site at one of his projects, a 25,000 square-foot facility being built as part of Alga Norte Community Park in Carlsbad. It’s scheduled to open in September, he said. . . Carlsbad is where the first modern skatepark went up in 1976 — it no longer exists — and Russell sees the new one as paying homage to that history while making its own mark as a “crown jewel.” . . “I’ve done public meetings all across the country to talk about various projects, and every time I show anybody a picture of this park they say, ‘Where is this again and when will it open?’ They will definitely be flying in for this.” We can’t wait. . . [Link: U-T San Diego] Volunteers Lend A Hand In Barrio Carlsbad Big thanks to the volunteers who helped spruce up the historic Barrio area of downtown Carlsbad at the City of Carlsbad’s Spring Fiesta on April 27, 2013. Volunteer efforts included assisting residents with spring cleaning and home repair projects, followed by a neighborhood block party. And here they are from left to right: Ron Chappell, Natalie Swauger, Lexi Hamilton, Cassandra Del Castillo, Lindsey Marsolais, Lizzy Tribby, Bridgette Chappell, Dai Logan, and Beth Carlson. Nice work! La Costa Film Festival Coming This Fall Carlsbad will get a taste of fine films this fall with the launch of the La Costa Film Festival held October 24-27, 2013 at the La Costa Spa and Resort, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter. Festival founders Michael and Ruby Callihan say the festival will help raise money for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Carlsbad. The Opening Night Gala will feature an open-air screening at the La Costa Resort and Spa. Additional screenings will take place at La Costa Cinepolis Theaters, as well as the Ruby G. Schulman Theater at the Carlsbad Dove Library. . . The festival will feature a special competition focusing on sports-themed films as well as a shorts competition for local high schools. . . “We have been amazed by how many people living around La Costa have Hollywood connections,” said festival co-founder Ruby Callihan. “So, when we began to share our dream, they all said, ‘yes, let’s bring Hollywood to the beach!’” The festival is currently accepting submissions and will until the deadline of June 15, 2013. For more information, click the link. [Link: Hollywood Reporter] Ghost Bike Placed On El Camino Real Friends of Eric Ringdahl, the cyclist who was hit and killed while riding his bike Sunday morning, April 23, 2013 have placed a ghost bike near the site of the collision, according to a story in the UT San Diego. Ringdahl’s friends and members of the local bicycling community put up the ghost bike, said family friend Elizabeth Sugarman. About 15 people turned out Saturday to leave flowers, photos and share a quiet moment to honor Ringdahl at the roadside remembrance. They are sad to see, however, ghost bikes are a constant reminder to both motorists and cyclists that we all need to share the road. [Link: UT San Diego]	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line130
__label__wiki	0.679445	0.679445	Low Hanging Lights shine bright at their EP release event By Stephanie Beatson Jul 9, 2014 One of the best parts about meeting and interviewing bands is that I get to meet and interact with really great people. Almost without exception, all of the musicians I have met over the years have been hard working, humble and appreciative people and I really respect that. The gentlemen who make up Toronto band Low Hanging Lights are no exception. While setting up the interview, they kindly offered me a place to stay for the night in case I didn’t want to make the drive back home late at night. When I met them in person, they were just as welcoming. Before we get into the interview, let me introduce the band. Low Hanging Lights formed in early 2011 following a solo album that singer/songwriter Alex Grantham released. After many line-up changes, the band has found the right mix with Grantham on guitar/vocals, Ian Boos on bass/vocals and drummer Aaron Bennett on drums/vocals. Funny story about how Grantham and Boos originally hooked up. Both grew up in Paris, a small Ontario town about an hour and a half from Toronto. After Grantham released his solo album, there was a feature piece in a local Paris newspaper which Boos’s mother read, and suggested to Boos that he contact Grantham so they could play music together. Boos had also recently moved to Toronto, so he contacted Grantham and they started jamming, originally with Boos on drums. It became apparent that Boos was more inclined to play bass, so they decided to bring on a new drummer. Enter Bennett. The band first released an EP titled Small Talk. The show I attended on June 28 was a launch for their latest release, titled Insulated Picnic Bag. Insulated Picnic Bag by Low Hanging Lights Within the music, their small-town roots and love of folk music can be heard alongside influences and experiences picked up since moving to the big city. As for their musical influences, they’re huge Nirvana fans, enjoying the distortion and noise aspects that have crept more and more into their latest repertoire. These little outbursts of noise are injected, like moments of chaos that eventually sleep when their momentum fades out. There’s punk in there too, with the way they move onstage and also that they don’t seem to strive for “perfection” (think over-production) when performing or recording, preferring something of a raw, emotive sound. Lyrics are of the utmost importance and are a driving force for Grantham, who does most of the songwriting. The lyrics are thoughtful and a main focus. It’s this interesting blend that give Low Hanging Lights their unique sound. Since settling into their charismatic three-piece group, the music has become less folky and more direct, highlighting punk and rock elements. They also strive for a visual component, and brought a friend they affectionately call “Michael Jackson Jr.” who danced along to their set and had some killer moves. “Undress and fall into arms, you were completed the day you were born. Undress and fall into arms, remove your face” are some poignant lyrics in ‘A Sharp Minor Suicide’, the song on their website that is most similar to their more recent output, with a noise outro to finish an indie-rock song which emphasizes lyrics. The song was composed after Grantham read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. He is voicing his distaste for arrogance and reaffirming his belief that everyone has flaws, and on a fundamental level, we’re all the same. “Everyone should be full of doubt, apprehension, skepticism and curiosity.” Following their energetic and intense set at The Press Club, the band and I sat and discussed their music, lyrics and much more. Stephanie Beatson: How has being in Toronto affected your songwriting? Alex Grantham: Most of my songs were written when I lived back home. I’ve often thought that there’s a freedom from responsibility when you’re living in the house you grew up in. You don’t have to be the grown-up which gives you freedom to create. Now that I’m a busy dude trying to scrape by in Toronto, it’s sometimes hard to sit down and write songs, but I do it. The songs are different because they’re informed by where I live now. Aaron Bennett: I grew up in a small town too and I think the difference is the level of artistic license that you can take in a big city is way more. There’s more people trying different things. You can meet so many more musicians, artists, filmmakers and share a common bond. It’s inspiring. Ian Boos: I can literally walk down the street and see some of my favourite bands. Last night I saw Beck. It’s so inspiring having that access. In a bigger-picture sense, some of Alex’s earlier songs might have been a little simpler but since moving to the city, you can hear there’s more chaos in the music now. I think bands are taken in by their scenery. Grantham: One of my favourite things about being in this band is that I feel we have so much room to grow. I feel like we haven’t tapped into the full potential of what we could be. We’re getting more aggressive and realizing what works for us and our musical personalities. You never want to feel like you’re at a dead-end with a band. Bennett: The city allows that growth as well. There are more venues here. Where do you draw your songwriting influences from? Grantham: I’m usually more liable to write a new song when I’m in a place of emotional vulnerability. I went through a really bad break-up about a year ago and I got an entire album out of it. Whenever I’m in a place of emotional turmoil is when I write more, which is probably true for a lot of people. It’s so hard to write a happy song! [Laughs]. Bennett: We were talking about this the other day. For me, I think a song has to be really genuine and people relate to it when it’s genuine. When you write a happy song, it’s hard to make it not campy. A song that evokes darker feelings is easier to relate to. You can almost make that connection instantly. For myself, if I were to write a song, it would have to have those real elements. Boos: When Alex is writing a song from the bottom of his heart, that’s the way we play it. Bennett: What drew me to this band were the lyrics. They’re really thought out. That’s what made me want to work with them. I connected with the music and I think other people do too. You guys have an obvious punk influence, and to me the biggest thing about punk is the attitude and often the lyrics and music take a backseat to the attitude. In your music, lyrics are the driving force. How do you manage to get the two seemingly opposing traits to work in tandem? Grantham: As a songwriter, I’ve been very much influenced by Bob Dylan and many others from the ’70s. Their lyrics were very confessional and emotional. To me, the best thing about punk — and you talked about attitude — is it’s non-conformist, it’s skepticism, it’s anti-authority. It’s questioning what’s laid before you and I think you can do that in an intellectual way like Dylan did. When you do it that way, it’s not some bush-league thing, it’s a higher intellectual pursuit. I read a lot of philosophy when I was in my early twenties and it had a profound impact on me. I read a book called The Outsider by Colin Wilson, Straw Dogs by John Gray and those books touched me because they’re intellectual and they’re punk inspired. If I could equate that to music, that was punkish because it was anti-conformist but it was done in an elegant and intelligent way and I respect that. Sometimes punk music can be a bit crass and stupid, and I hate it when punk music is demeaned like that because I think the higher goal of punk is more noble. Do you have any closing words you’d like to share? Boos: We want to be theatrical, we want to play well and we want to give it all we have. That’s what we do and it’s true to our hearts. We believe in it. We believe in the lyrics, we believe in the songs and I think that if we get a chance, we’re going to take it. Grantham: If you can afford a grande latte at Starbucks, you can afford to see a really good musical act in Toronto. Next time you go out, consider that for every one established act, there are twenty up-and-coming who are doing amazing shows. Find the smaller clubs; Press Club, Not My Dog, Rancho Relaxo, Silver Dollar… any of these small bars. If you want to see original music in Toronto, all you have to do is take the initiative and pay a $5 cover, the cost of a cup of coffee. Bennett: Whatever you do — whether it be art, film, music — always do it with integrity. Never compromise. Do what you feel is best and someone will like it. If you’re doing what you love, that will last far beyond a flash-in-the-pan band or movie that comes along. Longevity is important. Often today, artistry in music is lost. When you see independent bands trying to do something new or different, give it a chance and support them. The guys dressed up in suits for their show to mimic their dress in this video for ‘Solitary City Man Death’. Photos by Stephanie Beatson InterviewLow Hanging LightsMusicNXNEToronto Previous storyCommune in the 21st century: The real struggle in Ukraine Next storyPretty Archie take their folk/bluegrass to NXNE Stephanie Beatson http://www.ambersings.com is a Toronto based musician and writer who studied the Canadian music industry during her graduate work at York University. While working on her master's degree, her interests led her to research many facets of the industry including CanCon, grant programs like FACTOR and other institutions like CRIA, as well as to study and interview many indie artists and industry personnel from various parts of Canada. Cinema L’Amour Hits the Road By Dorian May 17, 2012 May 21, 2012 Album Review: Annie Becker’s Beez Neez By Caile Donaldson May 20, 2011 May 25, 2011 Crhymes at NXNE Get Twisted NXNE: Odonis Odonis & Joey Bada$$ By Cassie Doubleday Jun 26, 2013 Jun 26, 2013 Indie all the way, baby! An interview with singer-songwriter Al Grantham - Forget The Box – Dec 18, 2014–15:07 […] few months ago I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing members of Toronto indie rock band Low Hanging Lights following the release of their EP Insulated […]	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line134
__label__cc	0.695463	0.304537	18 Aug '12 06:38:32 AM 'All his yearning… was for living, an unaffected person, in his home.' You hardly need to be Nietzsche to be struck by how Greek (still, in the fourth century) Athanasius' life of St. Antony is: the introduction addresses a community of monks who want to outdo another one in their askesis of virtue. A bit further on: 'Even toward those of his own age he was not contentious, with the sole exception of his desire that he appear to be second to none of them in moral improvements'. 17 Aug '12 10:50:27 PM (Nietzsche employs it in a noticeably concentrated way in the latter half of book III of The Gay Science, referring to other aspects of human beings by talking about their bodies, parts of their bodies, conditions or productions of their bodies, in around fifty different aphorisms: faces, tongues and mouths, voices, hands, stomachs, whole bodies, and illnesses of them. The bodily lexicon stands out especially in contrast to passages about self and others in earlier books, like chapters 6, 7, and 9 of Human, All Too Human I, where the remarks are formally just as concise and sequentially sustained, but not lexically selective in that way.) An aphorist's ploy: embody ideas in words about bodies. To give a lazy argument, you wave your hands; a lazy performance, your arms. Being attracted to the idea of performativity is not the same thing as knowing how to put on a performance. It's not even a start at knowing how to put on a performance. The diarist observing his times: 'Reading the newspapers on Jan. 2, 1941, for example, Orwell made this observation: “The word ‘blitz’ now used everywhere to mean any kind of attack on anything. Cf. ‘strafe’ in the last war. ‘Blitz’ is not yet used as a verb, a development I am expecting.” In his very next entry, a few weeks later, he wrote, without further comment: “The Daily Express has used ‘blitz’ as a verb.”' A fragment of the inarticulate aspects of listening to, e.g., Mutilation Rites: over time, but before full familiarity, one learns more and more to say to oneself, 'this is the one where…' - without completing the ellipsis. 'Shall I allow myself to be forever tossed about by the specious arguments of the eloquent whose opinions, which they preach and which they are so keen for others to accept, I am not even sure are their own? Their passions, which determine their opinions and their interest in making people believe this or that, make it impossible to discover what they themselves believe. Can one look for good faith in the leaders of parties? Their philosophy is for others; I need one for myself.'	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line135
__label__cc	0.648229	0.351771	The 2004 election pre-pre-pre-game show Ah, the 2004 election. I have no idea where it’s going. It’s kind of like watching two shitty teams in the Super Bowl. Who’s going to lose more? I would like to think that if W. keeps on the same track he’s been on, his competition has to basically not whore/dope it up, and W. will hand the seat over to the Democrats. Last night, the cowboy in chief told the nation he wants $87 billion (on top of the $79 billion already spent) to rebuild Iraq. “We will do whatever is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom, and to make our nation more secure,” Bush said. You’d think for $79 billion, we’d already have something that resembled one of those three agenda items. However, there has been zero evidence that this invasion was tied into the “war on terror”, the liberated are attacking their liberators, and last I heard, the only thing to come out of our homeland security was the Gestapo inspiring Patriot Act. Persian Gulf 1 cost us $9 billion. It looks like PG Redux is going to run us 18 times that, and only $20 billion of the new scratch is going to actually rebuilding the Iraq. And before I go off on that rant, how much money has Jr. asked Congress to rebuild this country? Last Friday, when a lot of people (the White House especially) were about to make happy fist kabobs over the turnaround of the economy, the Dept. of Labor peed in everyone’s Cheerios when it announced that 93,000 jobs were actually lost in August. This marks the longest stretch (22 months) of jobless growth since World War II, bringing the total to (drum roll please) 1 million jobs lost since November 2001. That said, let’s look at Bush Sr. At the top of 1992, the thought that anyone could beat his reelection campaign was laughable. He was still sailing on PG1. He had one of the highest ratings ever. Then people realized the man of the people had never seen a barcode scanner at a grocery store. Then our attention turned to his attention on domestic affairs. Turns out there wasn’t any domestic attention. Actually that’s not true. They built their platform on the concept that everyone domestically who didn’t conform to the 1950’s idea of the nuclear family unit was an immoral heathen, right up there with homos and darkies – probably not the best idea in a nation that (back then) was batting .500 on divorces. Now, we have the new [sic] Bush. He followed the same plan – laughed at the environment, laughed at North Korea, and landed U.S. GI’s on Iraqi soil. Hell, he even finished what the old man started. He routed Saddam Hussein. And, just like the old man, he left too much time on the clock. The party’s over, the smoke’s lifted, the hangover is hanging over us, and we’re wondering what the hell we were celebrating in the first place. Turns out, the Bushes know how to party, but they don’t know when or how to leave one. We’re still in Iraq. Why? Probably the same reason we went in the first place, and that reason is…? While you’re chewing on that one, lest we forget the battle is far from won. The Democrats have to get their heads out of their rectums and find someone who doesn’t look like they’ve had their head up their rectum (e.g. Mondale, Dukakis.) And when I say look, I literally mean look. If all the options are in fact available, I promise you can pick the Democratic primary right now, just on that shallow, potentially educated, hick “charisma” that we love in our leaders. If I had to guess right now, I’d say Dean. I haven’t even heard the guy speak (Graham is the only one that I’ve heard speak). Last week, I saw a picture of all the (current) candidates, and Dean looked like the one that creeped me out the least. So, if I had to bet now, I’d say Dean pulls the Democratic primary. Unless of course, a late horse comes into the gate. His name doesn’t rhyme with bore by coincidence. However, whether he shows up depends on how badly both parties do between now and, let’s say, February. As for the election, no one apparently knows where anyone lies yet. According to pollsters Zogby International, Bush’s positive performance rating dropped: 54% of likely voters rated Bush’s job performance as fair or poor. A Time/CNN poll showed that 63% of Americans believe going into Iraq was the right policy and 71% said the U.S. has done a good job since major fighting ended. A good job at what, I don’t know. I’m just quoting what was quoted to me by someone who quoted it from the sources. BTW, when was the last time you were polled by a major national polling group regarding a national, political or government issue? The Worst Piece of Shit Excuse for a Human in American Government Crist v. Scott 6 thoughts on “The 2004 election pre-pre-pre-game show” maxmatahari on Sep. 8, 2003 at 8:20 am said: I think those polls are only conducted in Washington DC mensrooms to people getting sucked off by pre-op transsexual hookers. “Excuse me, sir” {Shlurp-schlurp}”Uh, yeah, what?” “Do you think that the American army is doing a good job in the gulf?” {Shlurp-schlurp}”Er, yeah, good job, sure, uh-huh.” “Thank you, sir. Say, is that a hooker with a penis down there?” {Shlurp-schlurp}”I said GOOD JOB!” maladr1n on Sep. 8, 2003 at 8:50 am said: The real trick is honestly going to be to find someone who isn’t a bitch-boy to special interest groups, lobbyists and corporations. I’m also REALLY starting to point big fucking fingers at the media. I’ve had it with thos4e bastards. I start to feel like Kinneson at times, I start wanting to jump up and down and scream “Auh-AUUUUUUH! I get pissed Goddammit!” And I think it’s starting to effect my play-reading. Things like The Exonerated, We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay, and The Madness of George Dubya start to top my lists … Shawn on Sep. 8, 2003 at 8:56 am said: The fundamental problem is that you’re not going to find anyone (who can win) who won’t be the bitch of special interests. It’s a money issue. The winner of almost every major election, probably in the past 20 years, has raised more money than the competition. If I remember right, W. set another record for campaign money during the last election. That money comes from special interests, usually the same ones, regardless of the party. It’s basically a membership to be on a strong-arm committee. That’s one of about a thousand reasons why Nader wasn’t even allowed to be in the same room as the Gore/Bush debate, much less particpate in it. Nader told the special interests (those whose dicks he didn’t want to fellate) to fuck off. I know this. And it’s disgusting. Am I being too much of an idealist to think that’s NOT what the founding fathers had in mind? And we wank on and on incessantly about keeping democracy free blahblahcakes but there’s NOTHING fucking free about our form of Democracy. They don’t even give out campaign materials anymore. You have to pay for them. What’s the difference in being strongarmed politically by a money and media (which is also about money) machine (nice landing on the aircraft carrier, Dubya) or by a military thug at polling place? Either way is about control. Hell, we’ve even proved that who people vote for doesn’t mean shit if you have the right people in your pocket. And for the record, I’ve never been polled about anything to do with America. I do however gets calls about what radio stations i listen to. Fucking ClearChannel found out where I live I guess … I know for a fucking fact that this in NOT what the founding fathers had in mind. In fact, and this is how deeply rooted I am in Jeffersonian ideals, the reason that I’m registered Independent is because there is explicitly nothing arranging the formation of parties (faction) in the Constitution. The founding fathers were mostly against it, basically because the problem that has evolved here was already evident in European governments. Not only are we a few parties shy by comparison with just about every other democracy on the planet, but we’re not really supposed to have political parties anyway! jamesx on Sep. 8, 2003 at 10:25 am said: Personally, I think polls are a sham. They sure aren’t asking me. I saw Dean speak in Virginia, and I’m going to the University of MD campus tonight to see him again. I really think he’s the guy to get that idiot shyster and his junta out of the White House. Wesley Clark might enter the race too. That’d be cool, unless it split the voter base that is currently excited about Dean. Maybe a Dean/Clark ticket? That would be too cool. BTW, according to USA Today (McPaper), the US has lost 3 million jobs since 2000, not 1. Check out the article. What I'm Checking Out	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line139
__label__wiki	0.927539	0.927539	It is up to the Tamil public, civil society and the Tamil diaspora to keep tabs to ensure the TNA remains true to the mandate given by the voters JS Tissainayagam. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) performed exceptionally well in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election on August 17. But as it prepares to negotiate with the new government on behalf of its Tamil electorate on a political settlement, accountability and demilitarisation, it is up to the Tamil public, civil society and the Tamil diaspora to keep tabs to ensure the TNA remains true to the mandate given by the voters. Elections to parliament followed a presidential election on January 8, which saw the shock defeat of the corrupt and violent presidency of Mahinda Rajapakse. The new president, Maithripala Sirisena, who came at the head of a coalition which the TNA helped place in power, pledged to work towards restoring democracy and good governance through a 100-day programme. Last week’s parliamentary election was a referendum on the 100-day reform programme. However, the focus of parties contesting Tamil-dominated northern and eastern Sri Lanka was in stark contrast to party interest in the Sinhala-dominated parts of the country. In the Northern and Eastern provinces, the main campaign debate was between the TNA and the Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF). It concentrated on a federal constitution based on the right to self-determination for a political settlement, and for accountability for mass atrocities against Tamil civilians during the civil war that ended in May 2009. The contest in the Sinhala south was mainly between Rajapakse’s United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG), led by Ranil Wickremesinghe. While both the UNFGG and UPFA had many differences, they categorically rejected the TNA and TNPF’s demands for both a federal constitution and international accountability. Thus it was a deeply divided Sri Lankan polity with entrenched prejudices that went to the polls. Of the 225 parliamentary seats up for grabs, the UNFGG secured 106 (just short of a simple majority, but expected to form the government), the UPFA 95 and the TNA was third with 16, with other parties taking the residue. While Tamils demonstrated their support to the TNA at the election, its failure to deliver on many needs of the Tamil electorate during the seven months of the Sirisena government has left its electorate worried. This is visible in at least three important areas of Tamil life. First are the families of the disappeared. Disappearances of Tamil civilians had been taking place even before large-scale armed combat war began in the 1980s: some were abducted by unknown people, while others were arrested by the police and military. None of them were seen by their families again. But disappearances following arrest crossed a threshold in May 2009. As hostilities wound down in the country’s civil war, around 300,000 people crossed from LTTE-controlled areas into government territory. Some of them were LTTE cadres others were civilians. They had to all register with the Sri Lanka military after crossing. In the weeks and months that followed an unknown number – said to be in the thousands – disappeared. They were taken by the military ostensibly for questioning. When they did not return, their families believed they were being held incommunicado in Sri Lankan prisons. In the following months these families began a mostly futile search for their loved ones. Families searching for their missing loved ones hoped that the Sirisena government that was placed in office by Tamil votes mobilised by the TNA would help bring their children back. But they were sorely disappointed. The indifference of the government to the disappeared is summed up in the words of Wickremesinghe, who told a New York Times interviewer, “‘there are people who are missing whose names are not found anywhere,’ which, he said, means they either “are not among the living, or they left the country. That’s all.’” Some families of the disappeared at least have got the message that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government does not care. But unable to avenge themselves on the government, they expressed their outrage at the Tamil parties, including the TNA. On the eve of the election at a protest, they said, “[t]hat they would not vote for anyone in this election or in any election until their missing loved ones were returned to them or they received news about them, the protesters condemned both the previous government and the present government.” The second group of Tamils who have been disappointed with the TNA are those who believed that despite the TNA helping Sirisena to become president, it had failed to protect them from continuing human rights abuses. Their expectation of this from a political party and not the police is understandable because in the past the police have been a force of oppression of the Tamils, rather than an agency to enforce law and order. The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), headed the South African jurist Yasmin Sooka, details many harrowing cases in its July 2015 report . The report said, “organised abductions, torture and sexual violence by the security forces have continued long after the change of government and as recently as July 2015.” The third group that entertains disappointment with the TNA is those who demand an international investigation for what the United Nations terms war crimes and crimes against humanity. The demand for an international investigation and trial before an international tribunal seemed possible when the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in May 2014 for a report one year later. While the presentation of the report has been now postponed to September, media organisations highlighted a leaked document where the UN’s Office in New York pre-empts action in September and outlines plans to set up a purely domestic inquiry into human rights violations. Tamils – especially the victims – have consistently rejected anything other than a full-fledged international mechanism for the investigation and trial of the perpetrators. A survey by the British NGO Sri Lanka Campaign for Truth and Justice of the survivors that had outlined the merits/demerits of different models for seeking justice for war crimes concluded that there was “clear support for an international and clear understanding that this mechanism had to be established by the United Nations.” In the face of this, the TNA manifesto’s ambivalence on supporting an international mechanism to deliver justice for the victims provoked much irritation within the Tamil polity. The manifesto asked for “[a]scertainment of the truth … Truth, justice, reparation and the guarantee of non-recurrence … being comprehensively addressed so as to ensure permanent and genuine reconciliation between the different peoples on the basis of justice and equality.” The uproar this statement provoked had the TNA scrambling to reassure the voters that it stood unreservedly for an international investigation. In the light of these developments, it is now up to the Tamil voters, Tamil civil society – especially organisations such as the Tamil Civil Society Forum – and the Tamil diaspora to keep the TNA accountable and not deviate from its policy statements declared before elections. There are at least two areas where they should be vigilant. The TNA has had a tendency to act in the past as a gatekeeper between the Tamil people and the world outside – be it with Sri Lanka’s central government institutions or the international community. As such, it sees its role as keeping the northern and eastern Sri Lanka stable and quiet, while procuring for the Tamil public its needs. For instance, it is only a few TNA parliamentarians and provincial councillors who have been personally involved in grassroots-level organisation around issues such as returning private land occupied by the military in northern Sri Lanka while other leaders (unless canvassing for votes) remain aloof. When it comes to protests on disappearances, the TNA generally leaves civil society organisations to support the families of missing persons. A well-documented example of this was British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Jaffna during the November 2013 Commonwealth Summit. Rather than take Cameron to the place where families of the disappeared were gathered, thereby giving the survivors an opportunity to air their grievances to a powerful actor who could take their message to the international community, the TNA leadership chose to escort him away – a move that was later criticised by commentators. The Tamil public and civil society have to temper the TNA’s tendency to have a patron-client relationship with its voters and keep reminding the party that it derives its power and legitimacy only from the people it represents. The Tamil public has to also hold the TNA to the promise of pursuing international justice for mass atrocities. There are persuasive arguments that have been put forward that models other than an international investigation will be more expedient to establish. However, in the face of mounting criticism from its electorate the TNA pledged before the election to support an international mechanism and going back on it would be a horrendous betrayal. What the Tamils expected from the TNA after May 2009 was unique. While legally it had to function as a political party within the Sri Lankan system, the Tamils expected the TNA to also negotiate with the Sri Lanka government as an elected representative of a people – of a nation if you may. Up to now the TNA has not played that role well. But with the TNA’s remarkable electoral victory emasculating other Tamil political parties, it is now left to the Tamil public, civil society and diaspora to be check on the TNA to compel it to stay on the straight and narrow. (Asian Correspondence) Another Election with No Solution to the Tamil Issue? Verdict for Progressive Change A bone of contention Dec 27, 2020 eyeadmin	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line140
__label__wiki	0.904479	0.904479	Failte Dublin Famine Tour Irish Civil War New Irish Independence Drama Available On Your Android TV Box Irish Civil War / By Jon Netflix have finally released the long awaited TV series known as “Rebellion”. It is based on the real life events of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland in which several thousands freedom fighters took on the might of the British Empire. Each episode is approximately 50 minutes long and there is 6 episodes in season 1. I must say as a history buff I was a little disappointed in the TV series. It does not really capture the scale or the significance of the 1916 rising and instead portrays it as a small band of outcasts fighting for a cause nobody else seems interested in. Not Historically Accurate: Whatever your thoughts are on the rising you must agree it was one of the most significant events in Irish history and was certainly more than just a small band of what appears to be children and a few adults in the TV series Resistance. That said it is still worth a watch but mainly because surprisingly there is not many TV series about this period in Irish history which I find deeply disappointing. Also you will recognise most of this cast from the TV series Love/Hate which for some reason is not available on Netflix but it is available on other apps from your android TV box for those of you that have one. If you don’t have one we highly recommend them from androidtvboxes.ie as we got one of them last year and it has almost every TV series on it! For anyone interested in a more accurate picture of the 1916 rising the film Michael Collins is still the best portrayal of the event both historically and from an entertainment standpoint. Of course this was a big budget movie but still Rebellion just didn’t do it for me and looked like a low budget project. Again this is just my opinion as it does have a 7/10 rating on IMDB but again as a history buff I just didn’t like how the events were portrayed. Let me know what you guys think..maybe I am too harsh! Internationals in the Irish Civil War A part of Scottish life for 200 years, Scotland’s Irish community has also been part of the global Irish diaspora during that time. As such it has played a role in the transnational movements associated with the campaigns for various forms of Irish independence. This was vividly illustrated during the 1916 Rising when Volunteers travelled from the west of Scotland to join the rebellion. This article is a short history of the revolutionary involvement of those members of the Scottish unit of the Irish Volunteers who fought in Dublin in 1916. What follows below is a short history of the revolutionary involvement of those members of the Scottish unit of the Irish Volunteers who fought in Dublin in 1916, through the guerrilla campaign by the Irish Republican Army [IRA] against the British from 1919-21 and during the Irish Civil War that followed the split in the IRA over the Treaty with the British government.[2] These sixteen are a small proportion of the roughly 250 Irish Volunteers in Scotland in 1916. This latter figure rose to around 2,500 by the time of Truce between the Republicans and the British in 1921.[3] According to Gerard Noonan roughly 250 members of the Scottish Brigade of the IRA fought in the Irish Civil War on the pro-Treaty side and five died. While roughly 50 fought on the Republican side.[4] Of course, these figures are dwarfed by the numbers who fought in the Great War. Elaine Mac Farland states that 30,000 Glaswegian Catholics were in the British armed forces in 1916.[5] While Géraldine Vaughan quotes a figure of 15,000 Irish Catholics from Scotland for 1915, that is before conscription had been introduced.[6] Given that around a fifth of these men had joined Irish Regiments, and that these regiments were heavily involved in British efforts to supress the Rising, it is possible that there were more Glaswegian Catholics voluntarily fighting for the British than against them in Dublin in 1916. Stephen Coyle lists three Crown Forces fatalities of the fighting with Glasgow addresses.[7] Irish Boards.ie Histroy Forum Copyright © 2021 HAI Ireland \| Powered by Astra	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line145
__label__cc	0.619129	0.380871	All Photos by Alex Westcott. If you’re trying to identify your delinquent neighbor at the end of the street who has not yet disposed of their Christmas tree laid out oblong against the curb or put away any of their holiday decorations then there’s at least a 25% chance that Walt Disney World is the […] The post A Quick Holiday Jaunt to Disney’s Animal Kingdom appeared first on easyWDW. All Photos by Alex Westcott. If you’re trying to identify your delinquent neighbor at the end of the street who has not yet disposed of their Christmas tree laid out oblong against the curb or put away any of their holiday decorations then there’s at least a 25% chance that Walt Disney World is the culprit. Usually, Disney keeps most of the decorations up through marathon weekend, ostensibly to give those willing to pay $275+ to run the streets of Florida arbitrarily an opportunity to see something that isn’t related to Hanes t-shirts or apple juice squeezes. Of course, all of the races were “virtual” this year. On one hand, I’m trying to be more honest in 2021. On the other hand, I’m sure everyone I interact with will be interested in hearing about my 26.2-mile journey, and the many sacrifices I had to make to reach that milestone, so I’m not sure where to go with that one. I wear the medal either way. The decoration continuum actually plays against us for once. Usually, I’d have to trash a Magic Kingdom rope drop series because I didn’t get around to writing about it until after the pumpkins and fall colors had long been replaced by festive reindeer and candlesticks. I do actually have that post in the coffer. And I might just post the pictures. But I guess we will just enjoy one more day of decorations. You’d have to think they would be able to find the person who knows how to condense everything down into little storable boxes by now. Or someone who knows someone who knows someone on the condensing side of the of the box operation. Or maybe they will be able to find a person who knows where the holiday decoration facilities/storage are located. The Imagineer The Zach Riddley can use his big blue flashlight from the Epcot pylons fountain to help in the search. It’s around there somewhere, buddy. There is exactly one hero and you are apparently it. Just about everything is a little wonky these days. If we can celebrate Halloween from August 13th, then Christmas through January 15th makes a similar amount of sense. Most years, Christmas sort of gets the short end of the stick with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party running from around August 14th through as late as November 1st or 2nd. So maybe we are just seeing a level playing field this year. Or maybe there is a lot more holiday merchandise to try to move than expected. Nothing says, “buy me weird light up plant statuettes in Pandora” than an inviting wreath. Maybe the yuletide marketing was more subliminal than I expected considering I’m currently surrounded by eight weird light up plant statuettes from Pandora, none of which I want, and none of which will change color no matter how many times I beg Siri, Alexa, Google, or a variety of Chinese knockoffs to make them anything but blue. We’ll check out Discovery Island and the decorations as we take a right towards DinoLand: When you are an industry titan such as myself, you have the ability to send your ummmmmmmm…”paid interns” to check out the likes of some of these drinks that will kill most of those of us 35+. Since Washington State didn’t make it to a bowl game this year, I’m surprised Disney is offering their signature drink – apple alcohol mixed with cinnamon apple alcohol. On the plus side, it’s usually good news for the pocketbook and worse news for everyone around you when all of the ingredients are booze. Animal Kingdom is largely back to its usual quick service operating schedule with the busy holiday season behind us. If you’re planning on trying one of the “off-the-beaten path” quick services, then you probably want to make sure it will be operating during your visit. For example, Harambe Market is opening Saturday, Sunday, and Monday during this week, then closing on Tuesday and Wednesday. We’ve discussed Disney “artificially” increasing capacity by opening larger venues that people may not actually intend to visit for any substantial amount of time, but also gives Disney a rational excuse to sell another ticket before they announce they’re running at closer to a maximum of 40% of capacity at next month’s earnings call. For Animal Kingdom, you have two very good, very convenient quick service options: Flame Tree Barbecue Satu’li Canteen One of those should get you through the day without consequence, but sometimes on theme park day, you just want a nasty theme park hamburger. And that’s okay. As always, enter the Restaurantosaurus, which looks to be open every day from 10:30am to 5pm whether you want it to be or not: The ‘Osaurus has probably improved in recent memory, bringing over Columbia Harbour House’s Fried Shrimp and sticking with their very good Green Goddess Dressing on the various Cobbs Salads. I think these are “literally” the only two quick service entrees at Animal Kingdom that we don’t have recent pictures of, here with the 11.49 “Impossible Spicy Southwestern Burger – Plant-based Burger Patty, ‘Pepper Jack’, Chipotle Sauce, Lettuce, and Tomato.” Only the cheese arrives in air quotes, so we may be in luck. This is one of the more delicate of the veggie burgers. It doesn’t taste like your typical Impossible patty; it enjoyed a milder “meat” flavor with the cheese and sauce providing a tiny, distanced pepper jack kick. As is often the case, arugula dominated the palate. You can always try to sling some the lettuce at the other bloggers, but somehow Testa’s algorithm guarantees that you’ll be hit in the face harder and more times than you’ve ever been before, but the arugula fight is still a 1/10 since there were more serious salad shootouts among finer gentlemen in Tuscany in the early 1700s. You can’t argue science. In my experience, Disney going with Impossible and Beyond on the vegetarian/vegan front has been a smart move, and most times when you see those sausages or burgers offered, they are pretty decent. Of course, you can’t load up at the fixin’s bar at the moment, but you can ask cast for additional condiments and they’ll see what they can do. It’s otherwise your basic Disney World vegan burger. Thoughts and prayers. Satu’li Canteen’s Tofu option may be more attractive. And Flame Tree also offers their Vegan Hot Link that packs more of a punch. But if the group is headed to Restauratntosaurus, as thousands do every day, it’s nice to see a couple decent vegetarian options. And also options just about everywhere else. The $9 Restaurantosaurus “Cobb Salad – Fresh Greens, Cucumbers, Tomato, Hard-boiled Egg, Bacon, Blue Cheese, and Green Goddess Dressing” is also $11 with chicken. It’s a solid, fresh, light choice and quite a bit of salad for nine bucks, but you’ll have to do some work mixing it up before going to town because the dressing typically goes in first way down low. Fortunately, the House-made Green Goddess Dressing brings a garlic and herb flavor that mellows out the many components of the salad, particularly the hefty sprinkle of blue cheese on top. Back outside at Chester and Hester’s Dino-Surprised-We’ve-Still-Got-Ya, which you would think they would just move to the hole in Epcot in Future World since it would blend in so nicely, you’ll find that it’s typically easier to purchase tickets for the various carnival games, almost all of which now sport prizes specifically themed to the Land. Of course, we would be remiss not to hop on TriceraTop Spin. Ten minutes there is on the lengthy side, even if it’s actually just five, if that. Any amount of time is a worthwhile investment to experience the excitement of flying on a dinosaur that probably didn’t catch a whole lot of wind while waddling around back in the Cretaceous times. Going into TriceraTop roofless will also prepare you for the upcoming 12 mph jaunt through a certain extinction. It was a busier holiday week during their visit, which means the line for DINOSAUR does start down here at 1:23pm. At least we can see the walkway up to the attraction from this particular angle far off to the right. I don’t think you could see it from the back of the line. Maybe if you turned your head. Also not good. The queue then winds its way around the outskirts of Restaurantosaurus. And then filters through the regular queue with 80 minutes posted, which is about as long as the wait gets. Here’s the long chart of wait times for DINOSAUR: Larger: Here. Interestingly(?), DINOSAUR was one of the first rides where Disney made modifications to both the loading area and the vehicle. But I have never seen them put anyone in the middle with my own eyes. We should see a more substantial drop in waits at Expedition Everest, where we know they’ve been loading every row as the trains barrel down one after the other. Here’s a graph of the same data: The average looks to go up and down with the weekends and the overall crowd flow, but unless the ride makes it through the weekend with relatively short waits, it’s likely business as usual. You can see how the back of the first row has the divider, but no guests are routinely seated in the middle row. This setup is pretty standard – just two in the front row and two in back, which is a third of the vehicle’s capacity. These pairs would ordinarily be placed in the same row, at least if it was prior to March of this year. With just the one middle barrier, it’s possible that parties of five or more are put in the back two rows, since rows two and three would be traveling together regardless. Then the on-ride reflection from the plastic. We’ll take a look at some last-minute holiday stuff, check out Pandora at night, and see how wait times are stacking up so far in the new year as we move along. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/a-quick-holiday-jaunt-to-disneys-animal-kingdom/feed/ 0 A Quick Holiday Goodbye to Epcot with Updated Construction //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/a-quick-holiday-goodbye-to-epcot-with-updated-construction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-quick-holiday-goodbye-to-epcot-with-updated-construction //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/a-quick-holiday-goodbye-to-epcot-with-updated-construction/#respond Thu, 14 Jan 2021 23:32:32 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=25000 Most photos by Alex Westcott with the exception of a few of the nighttime shots of Spaceship Earth with the fountain out from behind the “progress walls.” The post ends with more recent construction photos from mid-January that I took myself, if you can believe that. It was a festive year at Epcot, all things […] The post A Quick Holiday Goodbye to Epcot with Updated Construction appeared first on easyWDW. Most photos by Alex Westcott with the exception of a few of the nighttime shots of Spaceship Earth with the fountain out from behind the “progress walls.” The post ends with more recent construction photos from mid-January that I took myself, if you can believe that. It was a festive year at Epcot, all things considered. The various character cavalcades were made all the more festive around World Showcase. Wintery characters like Anna and Elsa made their way around the promenade often throughout the day. They’ve since moved the Frozen characters to a sort of selfie station area in Norway as Disney has now returned to the more generic lineup of characters. Horseback is the only way to travel around these Festivals. The Christmas decorations actually continue to linger for the most part, even as the Festival of the Arts has taken over. While the cavalcades are unlikely to continue after the traditional meet and greets return, they’re certainly an easy way for far more guests to see and briefly interact with the characters. Even if it’s at a distance. Hopefully this will be the one and only year we discuss these sorts of things as we return to some semblance of normalcy in the coming months. At Epcot, it was relatively easy to see most of the characters without needing to stand in long lines. Minnie was in plain sight in the gazebo. Mickey was in the lobby of the Pixar and Disney Short Film Festival. Joy, Wreck-It Ralph, and Vanellope were all there in the Imagination Pavilion exit area. That was less true at most of the other Parks, where meeting Mickey typically took about 45 minutes thanks to FastPass+. He was in Festival of Fantasy, of course, but the briefer cavalcades that run more often give people more of an opportunity. Minnie’s smile here is the exact same one I have when a Festival booth menu is the same as last year. I just look at it longingly. Any interaction whatsoever with Santa would ordinarily take 20 minutes to an hour or more as he and Mrs. Clause took up residence to the right of the American Adventure building. The carriage and wave are less personal than sitting on Santa’s lap after waiting in line for an hour, but you could always try to rush him and let you know what all you want for Christmas is Super Nintendo World. Wherever they build it in the states. It seemed like Disney has been upping the characters available for distanced meets, which is nice. They could have cut the characters entirely, and probably not lost much if anything in terms of admission, but they opted to keep rolling them out. It certainly makes Disney “feel” more like Disney. They really didn’t skimp out on the entertainment too much, with additional characters frequently appearing. These ladies are setting the course for Santa. While the holiday are on their way out, I don’t think we would have seen Joy wearing a wreath of Christmas lights if she were meeting in her usual indoor spot in the Imagination Pavilion. It’s not exactly the Disneyland model of the characters mingling with guests more freely…since they’re not mingling whatsoever…it’s literally exactly the opposite of that…but it wasn’t something that Disney necessarily needed to do, or announced that they would. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to see what they’ve done over the last few months and am legitimately surprised they not only kept it up, but ramped it up. While we’ll over here, we’ll take a holiday ride on Living with the Land: Living with the Land may be my favorite of the holiday overlays, but I’ve always been partial to foliage. As I’m sure you saw, even Figment received a little extra holiday cheer this year. Rocking the holiday sweater. Since he’s not wearing pants, we can assume he has a Zoom meeting coming up. Probably with me. Every fanboy’s reaction to the new article of clothing. I’m sure you’ll be able to buy your own sweater for $79.99 next year, probably made with whatever the scratchiest material in the world is. It wouldn’t surprise me if Disney made the sweater out of 100% pine needles. shopDisney (the ‘s’) is lowercase isn’t going to get it to you anyway, so it may not matter if it’s made of gold. I don’t think we’re expecting to see too many changes inside the Seas Pavilion since our last visit, but there might be a hat with a slightly different font or something in the gift shop: The Seas used to quietly stay open through Park close, even if the number of interactive exhibits and what not was reduced in the early evening. Living with the Land, the video upstairs, and the Imagination Pavilion would historically close at 7pm, unless evening Extra Magic Hours were scheduled, in which case the rides would continue to operate for everyone up until 9pm, and then exclusively for those eligible for EMH typically from 9pm to 11pm. These days, just about everything in Future World is open through close. That’s still usually the same number of hours – 11am to 9pm instead of 9am to 7pm – but it “feels” like there’s more opportunity since you’ll likely have other priorities earlier in the day and can then visit The Seas and other locations with virtually nobody else around. Both Mariachi Cobre and the Voices of Liberty continue to perform during Festival of the Arts at the American Gardens Theater in the United States Pavilion. There is a little less Christmas and a little more “Lion King” now in January. We’ll take a look at some of the festivities: I have tried this mating technique a couple of times with what some may define as “mixed success,” while others prefer the term “complete failure.” The theater has plenty of capacity for anyone to find comfortable seats for either show: Personally, if the performers couldn’t safely play through the Candlelight Processional, you would have thought my slam poetry about rising fountain beverage pricing would have been a better filler than another rendition of “Santa Baby.” I’m chalking the scheduling fluke up to the fact that I didn’t go to the audition, but I think my track record speaks for itself. Christmas decorations were probably toned down a little bit overall this year, but there was still plenty to see: Or we at least have proof that there were a few decorations in France, if nothing else. As we’ve discussed recently, they’ve began filling every row on Frozen Ever After, basically doubling its capacity and halving waits. Here’s our simple two-bar chart of what waits looked like before and after the change: If you missed it, and would like to spend about 20 minutes unearthing the secret that doubling capacity lowers waits, at least until Disney raises capacity to offset the increases, you can check out “Walt Disney World Starts Filling Every Row on Attractions Among the Heaviest Christmas Crowds of the Year.” The good news being that Frozen waits are now about half of what they had been. The ride used to average about 80 minutes in the month leading up to the change. Now we’re under 40 minutes. We can see if that trend has continued into January: Considering I probably wouldn’t bring the point up again if the website’s hypothesis no longer reflected reality, but you can see waits are much lower, particularly after much of the Christmas crowd level on the 2nd and 3rd of January. On weekdays so far in early January, the overall average has come in around 30 minutes, if that. The attraction actually experienced one of its worst days ever, at least so far as its operation is concerned, on the 8th. It was only up at the end of the night, when the cool temperatures had already pushed a lot of people home. Waits to enter the Mexico Pavilion and then eventually make it down the ramp inside remain in the afternoon most days, particularly on the weekends. You’ll likely want to head over there after your headliner choice. The wait to get inside is typically five to twenty minutes to enter and then you can take your time inside so everyone else ends up waiting longer. It’s sort of like the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs meet and greet during something like Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, if anybody remembers that thing. If you’re going to wait longer than you’d like for the opportunity to do something, you’re only going to take longer to complete the operation yourself. If you wait 2+ hours to meet the Dwarfs, you’re going to get a picture with every conceivable mixture of group members. And that’s why the wait is as long as it is. Once you enter the actual queue for Gran Fiesta Tour, the wait is posted at five to ten minutes, even if people are waiting an hour to get inside to enter the queue. Sometimes you have to bring your own Donald. We’ll let Alex walk us out, only to head back in ourselves: And with that, the Festival of the Holidays ends, with the 7-day Festival moratorium holding the Festival of the Holidays off until January 8th. All things considered, Epcot/EPCOT did just about everything they could for the holidays given the present conditions. We all missed the holiday performers, Candlelight Processional, and special holiday entertainment, but there wasn’t much of an opportunity to pull the majority of it off safely. Hopefully none of this will be an issue next year and we can order our 4-ounce beers from the Yukon booth without having to try to yell “the little cup of the Ale Gâteau Forêt-Noire” through a felt mask, ideally at a charming French Canadian cast member instead of Chad from Colorado. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with you, Chad. We’ll take a look at wait times from January 8th, 2021, the first day of the Festival of the Arts, while we’re here: Larger: //i2.wp.com/easywdw.com/reports16/epcot_january_8_2020.jpg As previously mentioned, Frozen was down almost all day, putting some pressure on other attractions. But the 25-minute overall average wait is just two minutes shy of what we experienced on Christmas Day, and the same as this past Monday, when waits were significantly higher at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. The Frozen downtime makes just about everyone who was trying to decide whether to go there or Test Track headed to the sim track first since there was no other reasonable choice. Higher early waits at Test Track lead to higher waits at Mission: SPACE, as the simulator isn’t ready for an influx of astronauts that early. Who is though? It also looks like Test Track went down at the very end of the night, which means you wouldn’t be able to get in line last thing. The website’s overarching advice is to do Test Track first if it’s operating and you arrive early enough, which is typically about an hour before official Park open these days. Otherwise, one of Disney’s least-reliable attractions is liable to be closed for technical difficulties later, and you won’t be able to ride last thing, as you wouldn’t have been able to on this particular day. I’m, not sure what, if any, compensation Disney would give you if you calmly passed along your disappointment about not being able to experience Frozen. If you’re visiting the Park on a second day, they may offer a set of the equivalent of FastPasses. Of course, they can’t exactly do that for everybody. And with the ride closed completely most of the day, nobody really spent time waiting in the actual queue, so Disney may not be feeling quite as generous. But you can always ask, and with the way Disney funnels guests out of the Park, you’re probably passing by Guest Services anyway. One side note: If you ever need to talk to Guest Relations, you want to de-blogger yourself as much as possible. This means leaving cameras and any external phone chargers with another family member. Showing up in no shorts is better than arriving in cargos, so take those off beforehand, whether you’re wearing anything underneath or not. No bucket hats. If you’re wearing a fisherman’s shirt, make sure you at least have some hooks or bait in view. Carrying an actual fish with you is always better as they’ll want you to be on your way as soon as possible, and are far more likely to capitulate to your demands, at least in my experience. I wouldn’t say no to a guy holding a fresh bass that is obviously about to be blackened as a Festival Favorite. We’ll change gears slightly as we focus on what’s happening now, even as the majority of the Christmas decorations are still up around the Park. The walls down at the front of the Park, for the most part, make for a huge improvement in the arrival experience. You’ll still need to take the right towards Future World West/Soarin’/Seas/Imagination or a left for Frozen/Test Track/General Confusion after passing Spaceship Earth, and pass through a corridor. But the opening of the front of the Park is much more welcoming than the giant walls we had seen for about five months. This is where you’ll take the right towards The Seas with Spaceship Earth directly above us. You can see how gutted these buildings are. We should be looking at what used to be the Art of Disney? Soon it will just be a large area for activities. If you hadn’t visited before the walls came down up front, you may not appreciate just how nice it is to enter the Park now. Back up in World Showcase, the Jammitors don’t even chase you down in their truck, but it certainly feels like they do with these omnipresent ovens that double as some sort of drum. I guess if you hit just about anything it makes noise. I grab my La Fin Du Monde from the Canada Cart and sprint in whichever direction seems to make less sense. Granted, I don’t move very fast these days, so a new jammity set inevitably begins before I’m out of range. I usually joke that after I’m unable to walk, which will be in 6-8 weeks if Chef Mickey’s keeps changing the colors of sprinkles on its waffles, I will just ride in the scooter and the pictures will be about six inches lower. Talk about a fresh perspective. Much wider: Here. The barges for the upcoming HarMONious show are a major discussion point. There will be four on the water that look like this and then the gigantic ring of water barge coming in as well. Eventually, they’ll work as a fountain show, potentially blocking views even more. The “rumor” is that the barges will be out there all day, rather than being driven in from backstage in the late afternoon. Since I’m rude, I made this: (artist rendering) maybe five barges won’t be so bad pic.twitter.com/FpoVS7oViF — josh (@easywdw) January 12, 2021 Hopefully there will be a way to “hide” the barges in certain spots around World Showcase, even if water seems to be the answer to everything. Use it while you’ve got it, I suppose. The barges should be equipped with a number of lighting elements and arms that I’m assuming point to the exit so you can get out of there sooner rather than later. Personally, I found the whole avant garde musical score and history of the world told through the seldom shooting of fireworks during IllumiNations a little too cerebral. Hopefully HarMONIoUs is just Aladdin, since Morocco needs all the help they can get. In case you’re keeping track at home, the large hole in the middle of the Park is still there with almost everything inside these (progress) walls gutted. Something I will always wonder is if they would have gone through with this project of tearing down the middle of Future World if they weren’t partway through before the March closures. Electric Umbrella isn’t exactly Commander’s Palace, but there is something to say for the theme park hamburger on theme park day. Sometimes you just want to feel bad about yourself or enjoy the comforts of a piece of meat that may or may not arrive in bags by the thousand. Temporary Mouse Gear retains an evening line just to head inside and shop, even with mobile order designed to speed things up. You shouldn’t run into one earlier in the afternoon. And there are still a lot of stores. Heavy façade work continues outside the future home of Cosmic Rewind, where apparently the Home Depot was having a sale on plywood when they were out in the van buying the fountains for the Moana walk-through. We will say goodbye to the decorations at Animal Kingdom and then see if we can get half way through the Festival reviews before it ends. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/a-quick-holiday-goodbye-to-epcot-with-updated-construction/feed/ 0 Walt Disney World Christmas Crowds About What You Would Expect Given Capacity Constraints //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-christmas-crowds-about-what-you-would-expect-given-capacity-constraints/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=walt-disney-world-christmas-crowds-about-what-you-would-expect-given-capacity-constraints //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-christmas-crowds-about-what-you-would-expect-given-capacity-constraints/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2021 20:09:01 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24996 Earlier this week, the website published a post titled, Walt Disney World Starts Filling Every Row on Attractions Among the Heaviest Christmas Crowds of the Year. We took a look at a number of attractions where Disney recently began seating guests in every row, even on vehicles where they’ve made no safety modifications. Considering the […] The post Walt Disney World Christmas Crowds About What You Would Expect Given Capacity Constraints appeared first on easyWDW. Earlier this week, the website published a post titled, Walt Disney World Starts Filling Every Row on Attractions Among the Heaviest Christmas Crowds of the Year. We took a look at a number of attractions where Disney recently began seating guests in every row, even on vehicles where they’ve made no safety modifications. Considering the lengths they’ve gone through to modify some vehicles, it seems at best a bit arbitrary that someone would wake up on December 10th and decide that every row on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Slinky Dog Dash, and others can now be filled, while it was previously unsafe to do so from the middle of July until then. The capacity changes do create a bit of a wrinkle in our collected wait times over the last several months, as it’s no longer an apples to apples comparison at a number of attractions with double capacity. Attendance continues to go up, even if wait times at several attractions are down. Here’s our simple chart of average waits before and after Disney installed the barriers on Runaway Railway and began filling every row: Lower wait times at Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway after Disney installed the barriers aren’t indicative of lower attendance or decreased interest. More people can simply ride per hour, and with attendance still severely limited by the Park Pass system, wait times haven’t “recovered” from what they were as recently as early November when the average wait was routinely above 80 minutes. But while Christmas Week wait times may not offer any earth-shattering revelations, they’re still worth taking a look at, as they should represent peak waits given current attraction and Park Pass capacity limits. For most the part, Christmas Day will actually have some of the shortest waits of the week at most of the Parks, but other days during the season see some of the highest waits of the year. Another wrinkle, and one that I didn’t focus on in the capacity-changing post, is that Park Hopping is back as of January 1st, 2021. Disney made that announcement back on November 20th: The ability for a ticketholder to Park Hop is based on available capacity at the subsequent Park that they’re paying more money to visit via the Park Hopper add-on, so it makes sense that Disney would be in a hurry to figure out how to increase capacity at its Parks without actually having to spend much money on adding anything new. Dispatching every Slinky and rock ‘n’ limo with every row filled costs the company nothing, but basically doubles those attractions’ capacities, among others. Considering the Studios is the Park with the least number of Park Passes distributed per day, and the lowest attraction capacity overall, it makes sense that Disney began making modifications heading into the holiday season, knowing that they would continue to need that capacity even after attendance waned early in the new year. After all, if thousands of people decide that they want to Park Hop to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon, and they’re denied because the Park is “full,” they’re probably going to want their money back. We’ll see if we can figure out how much of an impact Park Hopping is having on wait times in a subsequent post, after we’ve collected a little more data. For now, we’ll take a look at the wait times that we did see over the holidays and whether or not they were still the highest realized so far this year, as they historically are, even as we see attraction capacity increase. Let’s start with a look at Magic Kingdom’s average waits since the end of September with Christmas itself highlighted in festive green. I may not know the actual names of the Skellington family members, but I do know Christmas and green go together: The results may actually be a little surprising. Magic Kingdom’s average wait on Christmas day was below the 28.6-minute average for the 14-week period, the lowest of the week, and nearly half of the average of the Tuesday prior. It happened to be unseasonably cold on Christmas Day, but you wouldn’t think the low temperatures would be enough to keep people who have already locked into paying some of the highest prices of the year from staying back at their resort for too long. Looking over all of the Fridays in the chart above, there’s only one with a lower average, and it’s within a few seconds of Christmas back in the middle of November. In other words, Christmas was basically the best day to visit Magic Kingdom in the last 3+ months. I would guess most people didn’t have that on their bingo boards to start 2020. Interestingly, it was about 30 degrees hotter the day before, but that didn’t seem to drive crowds much higher. Here’s the chart for Christmas 2020: There are some longer wait times there in the middle of the day, but nothing like you would expect from Christmas, even with morning low temperatures in the 40s. The hours are longer than they have been most days since the Park reopened, but not long enough that they would distribute crowds quite this well. The fact that “it’s a small world” is posting a 60-minute wait at noon – the second longest in the Park – is probably why we’re seeing those barriers on the backs of the rows being tested at that Magic Kingdom boat ride first. Here’s a look at the chart for Tuesday three days prior, when the average looks to be in the top 1% of wait times since reopening, and over 60% higher than the waits we saw on Christmas day: The high temperature on December 27th was 16 degrees higher – sunny and about 70 degrees instead of 55, which would make the day more attractive. But with the Park Pass system and the natural holiday demand, there was not a lot of availability to switch around your Park Pass days that week even if you wanted to, and Christmas at Magic Kingdom was one of the first December Park Pass sellouts. But temperatures were even higher on December 24th, with a high of 82 degrees, and the 30.2-minute average was still barely higher than the overall average of 28.6 minutes for the 14-week period. Looking over the last six weeks, I see over 60 days with longer waits than Christmas. This past Monday saw an average wait of 40 minutes, or a 60%+ increase over the Christmas holiday. Let’s take a look at that chart to see if there are any irregularities that would result in higher waits: Nothing specific necessarily stands out, outside of the fact that wait times are considerably longer across the board. This may go back to our staffing discussion, where Disney is poised and ready to combat capacity holiday crowds. But with the Park Pass system, they know just about exactly how many people are going to be present on any given day, and they knew both Christmas and January 4th were largely unavailable under the Park Pass system. It’s possible that they wanted this Christmas to look good in an effort to bring back holiday crowds paying the highest prices of the year in late December of next year, but most people have no idea what crowds or wait times at Disney World look like on any given day, so it seems unlikely that any such effort would be successful. This past year and now into this year is such an anomaly that we’ll basically throw the data out once things return to “normal” and the Park Pass system is potentially phased out earlier than expected this year. But the fact that crowds and waits are this unpredictable doesn’t stop the various websites from trying desperately to drive traffic to their sites via their crowd calendars. Here’s WDW Prep School’s in January: They’ve got January 4th as a “5/10” crowd level, despite the average wait being in the top 1% of wait times since the Park reopened in July. That would make it a 10 out of 10. January 3rd, where the site has the crowd level as a 10 out of 10, saw waits that were about 25% shorter. You could probably throw darts and come away with a more accurate calendar. Worse, the site specifically tells people not to go on Thursday, when waits were considerably lower, and then recommends the Monday with much higher waits. It’s objectively terrible, inaccurate advice. Then they’ve got Christmas and the days surrounding it as a “10/10:” Christmas Day actually saw the second-lowest average wait in the last month, which would be a far cry from a 10/10 crowd level. So I would say that didn’t go very well. You’re really doing a disservice to your readership by disseminating information that is completely inaccurate. If you based your itinerary for your $5,000+ vacation based on these perceived, made-up crowd levels, you’d end up visiting the Parks on some of the worst days possible. To call the poor advice “dangerous” is probably a bit dramatic, but you’d probably be a little annoyed if you could have been waiting in ten-minute lines instead of sixty-minute lines, when your “expert” predicted the exact opposite. WDW Prep School tried to get you to pay for their information for a while before realizing that nobody would. TouringPlans still charges for the privilege. This is what they have for January 4th: Obviously, any wait times prior to the March closures are irrelevant moving forward if you’re trying to identify dates in the future with the lowest crowds or wait times. That seems like it should be the ultimate goal. People are planning for the future, and can’t teleport to the past, so only what’s happening now is relevant. They did at least cop to the fact that wait times were one level higher than the prediction that probably changed 32 times over the course of 2020, but a wait time in the top 1% since the Parks reopened would be the definition of a 10 out of a 10. Otherwise, you just have a scale that goes from 1 to 4. You would have to adjust the numbers for what the crowd levels mean, and continue to adjust them as capacities at attractions change. They are apparently not doing that, and instead comparing the current waits to those from earlier in the year, and many years past, when there were no masks or capacity limits. It was a completely different time that is now completely irrelevant moving forward. You could make the argument that the scale shouldn’t change so people can compare waits with past trips. But with so many changes in how you go about your day with no FastPass+, scheduled parades, stage shows, character meets, etc. going on, telling your paying subscribers that one of the busiest days since reopening is also a below-average crowd level, really isn’t helping anyone plan. They would get all of the crowd predictions wrong even if they did change their scales, so it sort of doesn’t matter what they do. But not letting your paying subscribers know that they are in for one of the busiest days of the year by assigning it a “3” doesn’t help anyone. But it didn’t take much to figure out January 4th would be busy with local schools still out and lower-tier Passholders being able to visit for the first time after a couple weeks of blockouts. Of course, the next question is what Christmas would look like without all of the current nonsense. Here’s a chart of Christmas Day usually looks like: Obviously, about a million things were different back in 2019, and the preceding years, but the 62-minute average, even with longer hours and much lower waits in the evening as people waited “patiently” in the Hub for the New Year’s Eve Fireworks, is indicative of the ordinary holiday demand. The 62-minute average is easily higher than this year’s ~25 minute average and higher than any other day in 2020. Had you gone this year, waits would have been far less than half, but you probably would have wanted to bring a jacket and there were no festivities to speak of. Bringing back this year’s Magic Kingdom chart one more time: The averages for the week of December 20th and 27th ended up being the longest of the year at an average of a combined 34.9 minutes. But the average wait for the preceding four weeks was 30.0 minutes, or just 14% less. So in that respect, the Park Pass system “worked” to curtail crowds and keep wait times reasonable. Had you been able to go earlier in December, you would have saved a lot of money, and not missed out on any of the usual bonuses of Christmas Week, like Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade, the holiday fireworks, and various stage shows, special character outfits, and other things that take over around Christmas. Epcot: One of these days I will make the long chart for Epcot, but rest assured we have them for the other Parks. Here’s Epcot’s chart for Christmas Day of this year: The 27-minute average wait is below-average for the last month and lower than most weekends over the last 12+ weeks. So the people didn’t head there either. Here’s what a regular Christmas looks like: That’s about 63% higher with triple digit waits at both Frozen and Test Track with Soarin’ hitting around 90 minutes for most of the day. This year, we didn’t see any triple digit waits, and Frozen peaked at 50 minutes with an average of just 25. Thank those newly-installed barriers. Here’s Epcot on January 4th, since we checked it out for Magic Kingdom: We don’t see the same bump as we saw at Magic Kingdom, with the 25-minute average just about the same as the 27-minute average from Christmas. That’s the main reason why I neglected to start a long daily average wait chart for Epcot. The expectation was that any day would be just about like any other, and your touring plan really isn’t going to change regardless of the day you visit. We do see higher waits on most weekends than we saw on Christmas or on January 4th. That may be less true with Frozen’s wait basically going down to 30-50 minutes from 60-90 minutes. We’ll probably start a chart once the Ratatouille ride opens to track how that’s going. Then I can have a fresh chart and the previous data will be irrelevant given new crowd flow and the excitement over one new, solitary attraction. Here’s Hollywood Studios: Our Hollywood Studios chart isn’t exactly useless, but the numbers aren’t necessarily representative of crowds, with Disney increasing the capacities of several prominent attractions over the last couple of months, and specifically around December 10th. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was also down in its entirety each of the last few days that make up this chart, which decreases the Park’s overall attraction capacity with a similar number of people looking for one of an already-limited number of things to do. That’s going to push up wait times elsewhere and is the main reason for why we’ve seen 50+ minute averages over the last few days. Like Magic Kingdom, the Studios saw its lowest averages of Christmas Week on Christmas Day and the Saturday following. Even with the capacity increase at several attractions, the 48.2-minute average for the week of December 27th is highest yet, even if it’s skewed slightly with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster closed on two of the days at the end of the week. It will be interesting to see if waits normalize around 45 minutes again, signaling another significant capacity increase with the demand to match, or if there’s more variance from week to week. Here’s the Christmas chart from this year: For once, the people who paid the most actually got to enjoy some of the shortest waits. Things remain pretty rough from 10am through 6pm, but it seems pretty clear that the cold temperatures were enough to turn people back, even with 5-minute waits at Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway in the last hour of operation, both before and after the brief spurt of downtime, people neglected to head out. Bring a hat. Here’s the chart for January 4th, with the 51.6-minute average only bested by the Saturday prior: The 26.8% increase on January 4th over Christmas is relatively sizable, but also largely due to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster’s downtime. But even then, the 89-second coaster’s 41-minute average on Christmas is considerably less than it had been for about 90% of the time since the Park reopened. You can thank Disney now filling every row for those lower wait times. With so many changes at the Studios, there aren’t too many grand conclusions to come to other than to say things will be changing in the future. With Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster now operating, we’ll have even more numbers with asterisks next to them for the rest of the week. We’ll finish up with Animal Kingdom: Animal Kingdom is historically the least-crowded theme park on holidays, though it had done its best in 2019 to up its game with live holiday character performers, special Tree of Life projections, and new decorations, among other things. Most of the decorations were up this year, along with the projection shows, but the performers were obviously not out, as they weren’t at Epcot and the other Parks. Considering the low Christmas wait times that we’ve seen so far, Animal Kingdom’s 21.1-minute average, more than ten minutes below the average for the 14-week period, doesn’t come as a surprise. The 16.1-minute average on the Thursday is surprising, as we have to go back to a weekday in September to find an average that low, but it’s clear that the cold kept people away from Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom in particular, which is how it’s been for years. Just two days before the 16.1-minute average, we have an average of 45.9 minutes, which is among the highest that the Park has seen since reopening. Conclusion: Bundle up early and go take advantage of lower waits at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom on colder days. Also like Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom saw a big bump on January 4th, with a wait that was more than double Christmas, at 40.4 minutes. There isn’t another weekday during a non-holiday week that gets close to that number. About 30 minutes is as high as the average typically gets. We’ll take a look at the Christmas chart to round things out: There isn’t anything too surprising here, but it’s worth noting that they’re now seating guests in every row on Expedition Everest and on every seat on Flight of Passage, which helps to reduce waits there. Previously, a row was left between parties on Everest and Flight of Passage left a seat empty between every group. Na’vi River Journey is apparently still one group per boat, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they decide the backs are high enough that they can start filling both rows there. From our Christmas chart, River Journey’s 41-minute average is the highest in the Park, making it “the most popular ride” at Animal Kingdom based on its wait time, which is longer than Flight of Passage and on this particular day, over 2.5 times Expedition Everest. I’m not sure how many people have had the joy of the big outdoor drop on Everest when it’s 42 degrees out, but it “feels” like it’s around -42 degrees. Here are the wait times from Christmas 2017 for comparison: Had you visited three years ago, the average wait for Flight of Passage was 202 minutes, or more than three hours, with a peak wait of 270 minutes, which is 4.5 hours. This year, the peak wait was 55 minutes, with an average that was almost 170 minutes shorter. There aren’t too many things that I would pick in 2020 over 2017, but the morning wait for Flight of Passage would make that (short) list. Here’s January 4th of this year for comparison: Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if the 40+ minute averages are the “new normal,” or a combination of lower-tier Passholder blockouts ending, local schools being out of session for one final day, another quiet capacity increase, and warmer weather. We’ll certainly know more as we move through the month with Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend and Presidents Day coming up in the near-term. So ultimately, what are our takeaways from this Christmas? The cold morning temperatures caused a sizable number of people to stay back at their resorts into the late morning. Some number of Passholders with Park Pass reservations likely stayed home altogether. The Park Pass system also caps attendance at a pre-determined number of people whether they show up or not. Obviously, people canceling their Park Passes open them up for others to book, but it may be rare that a Passholder would remember or bother to click the buttons to complete the process. So cold weather, combined with limited attendance via the Park Pass system, largely kept holiday crowds in check. I guess I can say I hope that isn’t true this year? My opinion may be different 191 minutes into a Flight of Passage wait. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-christmas-crowds-about-what-you-would-expect-given-capacity-constraints/feed/ 2 Walt Disney World Starts Filling Every Row on Attractions Among the Heaviest Christmas Crowds of the Year //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-increases-capacity-christmas-crowds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=walt-disney-world-increases-capacity-christmas-crowds //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-increases-capacity-christmas-crowds/#comments Sun, 03 Jan 2021 22:46:43 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24989 We’ve been interested in keeping tabs on how and when Walt Disney World increases and decreases the capacities of its various attractions since the theme parks reopened in July. The majority of our touring strategy relies on identifying which rides build waits fastest. We visit them first whenever we’re able to arrive early enough to […] The post Walt Disney World Starts Filling Every Row on Attractions Among the Heaviest Christmas Crowds of the Year appeared first on easyWDW. We’ve been interested in keeping tabs on how and when Walt Disney World increases and decreases the capacities of its various attractions since the theme parks reopened in July. The majority of our touring strategy relies on identifying which rides build waits fastest. We visit them first whenever we’re able to arrive early enough to take advantage of those shorter waits. Then, we pinpoint the next set of rides where waits will begin to rise, and ideally arrive at those attractions just before appreciable waits materialize at each. That way, we’ve minimized waits as much as possible without starting the day at Alien Swirling Saucers. Attraction waits are largely dependent on capacity, or how many people can ride per hour. If Disney increases capacity at some attractions, and not others, then our priorities and how we move about our day will likely change, as waits drop at the attractions with the new, heftier capacities, and either stay the same or rise at attractions where capacity remains unwavering. “Popularity” also enters the equation, as people inevitably rush to the newest attractions, those that they’ve seen or heard have high waits, or (most commonly) where most other people are heading first. Disney has made a number of moves over the last six weeks, and particularly during the last three, to increase capacity at certain attractions. Propensity to travel to Walt Disney World will (ideally?) increase heading into the new year, and Disney will want to be ready to meet that demand as best they can. Or, they can at least rationalize selling more tickets and open up more Park Pass spots with additional seats now available on the likes of Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. This post will primarily focus on what’s going on at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as it remains the trickiest Park to tour with the short hours, limited number of attractions, and the whole Rise of the Resistance boarding group thing. Since there will be more words and charts than either of us would like in this post already, we’ll take a closer look at the other Parks as we go about fresh touring days there, but I’ll bring up a couple examples at the end to show how much of an impact simply filling every row on a boat ride can have on wait times. One of the best examples of Disney increasing capacity via vehicle modification is Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Disney installed plastic barriers and started loading every row in each train back on November 17th, 2020. By filling every row, instead of about half on each train, you’ve effectively doubled the number of people who can ride per hour. Not all of our charts will be this long, but we can clearly see how much shorter wait times became starting on November 17th: The chart is color-coded, so average waits for the day of 60 minutes and below are in green, 61 to 75 minutes should be in yellow, and anything above that is red. Waits dropped about 30 minutes overnight, from the 16th to the 17th, and we haven’t seen an average wait for the day above 60 minutes since Disney increased the capacity in November. Prior to the plastic installation, the average was above 60 minutes every single day. Below is the same data presented in a different way. What is basically the first half of the chart shows the daily averages before the plastic, and then then second half shows how much waits decreased once Disney filled more rows: We can pretty easily visualize how much shorter waits have been at the Railway from November 17th onward. And finally, here’s one more chart with just two columns showing the overall average wait before and after the capacity change: That’s a 36-minute drop in the average wait, or a 45% change, from November 17th through the end of 2020. So even factoring in some of the heaviest crowds of the year over the last week or so, we still see significantly shorter waits. It makes sense given the fact that capacity has basically doubled, but it’s also important that we’re able to identify that fact and make touring strategy changes based on it. Obviously, one question is whether waits at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are dropping across the board, somewhat independently of any fresh capacity increases at any single attraction. Waits could be down about a half hour over the last six weeks everywhere for all we know. Fortunately, Disney never really modified the loading procedures for Toy Story Mania. From day one back in July, Disney loaded every row of every vehicle, even when the people on the two sides were from different parties. The ride’s hourly capacity hasn’t changed in the ~5.5 months since the Park reopened, barring technical trouble. This should offer a pretty good baseline for how the Studios’ waits have evolved over the last few months, and the ride’s waits are just about as close to a “control” as we’re going to find for our ongoing analysis. If waits at Toy Story Mania drop in tandem with the other attractions, then we can probably blame a lack of demand on the falling waits rather than potential capacity increases. Here’s a look at posted waits at Toy Story Mania for the same dates as the Railway: We could probably do some color-coding based on standard deviations, correlation coefficients, or something else fancy-sounding, but we’d be liable to come away with exactly the wrong conclusions. Instead, we’ll take a look at the same two charts that we used for the Runaway Railway to see if waits dropped in tandem with Disney’s newest ride beginning in the middle of July: The overall average wait at Toy Story Mania is a pretty consistent ~28 minutes, with some peaks here and there largely due to track downtime reducing the ride’s capacity for a couple of hours on some dates. The last week has seen some higher waits with Disney potentially increasing the number of Park Passes at the same time they’re increasing attraction capacities, but we certainly don’t see the same mid-November drop that we experienced at the Railway. That makes sense since the Toy Story attraction saw no change in capacity and there’s no evidence that the Studios is having any difficulty continuing to sell out of Park Passes. Below is a two-column chart showing the average wait at Toy Story Mania before and after Disney made the change at Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway: Even with the majority of the major holidays occurring after the capacity increase at the Railway in November, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, posted waits are basically stagnant, and actually dropped in the final six weeks of the year. All of those later dates would be after the Railway capacity increase. Let’s take a look at Slinky Dog Dash, which just recently began filling every row on each Slinky, despite no vehicle modifications. We saw Disney install the plastic barriers in the loading area a couple of months ago, which “felt” like an indication that some sort of modification to the poor Slinky vehicles was in the works. My darkest days may have been when they removed the poor guy’s swirly tail, lest it fly off and knock the Totchos out of some poor tourist’s hands who already couldn’t find a table to sit down at after ordering from one of the two registers at Woody’s Lunch Box. I guess since we started with long charts, we’ll stick to them. Here’s Slinky since October 1st, 2020: More recently, Disney began increasing the capacities of other attractions by filling every row, even if no changes to the vehicle were made. Slinky started “practicing” loading the entire dog on the 10th, and went full tilt on the 11th. Between Disney’s Hollywood Studios reopening on July 15th, and the day before Disney made the capacity change, Slinky’s average for the day was under 60 minutes just seven times in about 90 days, or about 7.7% of time. Between December 9th and 30th, the average wait was under 60 minutes 13 times, or on 59% of days. That means the average was under an hour 600% more often. Those later December dates obviously include Christmas Week, when the Park would be a sellout every day, even if Disney allotted more Park Passes and sold more tickets. Here’s the wavy chart for before and after the capacity change: The drop isn’t nearly as significant as what we saw at the Runaway Railway for a few reasons. Obviously, most of the dates where Slinky saw the capacity increase were among the most in-demand of the year. Disney has also replenished Park Passes more often throughout December, meaning there were more people in the Park already to fill those newly-available seats. Disney didn’t increase the distribution of Park Passes quite as quickly after the Railway modification. Ultimately, Disney’s goal is likely to increase the number of tickets they sell each day, and the number of Park Passes they allot, to bring the waits back up to their previous highs. We’ll see how often that occurs now that we’re headed into a a slightly less-crowded period. For the sake of continuity, here are the two columns for Slinky showing the average wait before and after the capacity increase: Of course, the goofy thing about “statistics” is that we can manipulate the data to further just about any narrative we want, without doing anything inherently unscrupulous. Transparency is one reason why I offer the raw data for the two of you who will actually look over the long wait time charts. Here, I’ve simply started the y-axis at 54 minutes. The “After” wait looks like it’s dropped by more than half at first glance, even if the drop is really about nine minutes, or less than ten-percent. Here’s the exact same information with the y-axis starting at zero: The decrease in wait times is still there, but it “feels” a lot less pronounced than the previous chart, because it is. Nonetheless, we do see a drop in waits, even if most of the “After” dates are from the busy holiday season. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how often we hit those higher “Before” averages. Based on the fact that waits haven’t really “recovered” at Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway yet, Disney has at least shown some restraint in how many people they’re allowing in at the moment. If it was thousands more, we would see Railway waits climb back to 60, 70, and eventually 80+ minutes. Moving on to Sunset Boulevard, Disney continues to try to increase capacity at Tower of Terror, without a whole lot of luck. There is only so much you can do with a spooky elevator tower. But with Disney filling every row on most roller coasters, even without modifications to the ride vehicles, it’s possible that what they’ve deemed “safe” has laxed quite a bit since August or September. Here’s the long Tower of Terror chart: And the accompanying graph: We certainly aren’t seeing a drop in wait times here, no pun intended. If anything, it looks like they’ve really only gone up since the end of November. We haven’t seen any meaningful increase in capacity here. Tower of Terror is obviously indoors, compared to most of the other roller coasters that are largely outdoors. I may not need to point this out, but I am not a virologist. If people wear their masks appropriately, even being indoors together like this in relatively close quarters, it may be “safe.” On the other hand, the speed of the drops on these sorts of thrill rides naturally pull a lot of masks down due to speed and that pesky gravitational pull. I’ve struggled to keep my mask up during a number of the faster drops – Expedition Everest and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster come to mind. But if Disney elects not to increase the capacity at Tower by filling every row, or can’t find a viable solution to fill the middle row that makes people “feel” safe, increasing attendance could have a major impact on attractions where capacity isn’t increased in tandem. Tower of Terror could very well be the ride with the highest average wait moving forward. Time will tell. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is another ride where Disney recently began filling every row. It’s also the attraction where that fact makes me the most wary. It’s indoors, people’s masks have a tendency to fall down, and you’re only a few inches from the group in front of you. Officially, according to the CDC: COVID-19 is primarily transmitted from person-to-person through respiratory droplets. These droplets are released when someone with COVID-19 sneezes, coughs, or talks. Infectious droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs. Disney’s somewhat official reply is that the backs of the seats on these roller coasters are high enough to decrease the opportunity for that transmission. But beyond the obvious screamers in front of you, and the many droplets that come with that, you’d have to think that there are a lot of unsavory particles in that room. As far as the vehicles are concerned, nothing has changed since the Park reopened in July. Disney may be tapping into people being tired of the whole thing. A lot of people would rather wait 30 minutes than 60 minutes and take their chances over the course of the 89-second ride. “COVID on a roller coaster” isn’t a major departure from the original lyric. Here’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in a long graph: It looks like Disney began filling every row on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster on the 9th of December, which is right around the same date as Slinky Dog. Prior to December 9th, the day’s average was under 40 minutes just three times. After December 9th, we saw the daily average fall below 40 minutes seven times, or more than twice as often in a much shorter span with many busier days. Here’s a look at the two-column chart for before and after the capacity change: Since December 20th, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster only posted an average daily wait above 52 minutes twice, and both days the average was that high due to significant downtime. Prior to the December 9th capacity increase, the day’s average was above 52 minutes on 29 occasions. That’s a lot more and includes a lot less-crowded days. You would expect the period from December 24th to December 31st to see the highest waits of the year. Here’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster during that time period. It may not be the best example with the downtime on the 30th and 31st, but we’re here, so it’s the example we’re using: The average on the 30th is due to the fact that the ride only operated for an hour. Technical trouble continued into December 31st. And the ride has actually been down in its entirety for the last three days. Nonetheless, Christmas week waits pale in comparison to what we saw in October, where the average every day was above 50 minutes: Such is life when you’re basically running the ride at half-capacity. As we assess wait times, it’s impossible to have a true “control” given so many different things can go wrong with attractions, affecting their wait times. Nonetheless, Disney has seated every alien at Swirling Saucers since the Park reopened, meaning the intended capacity hasn’t changed since July. We can see if there was a drop in waits from mid-December through the end of the month there: And the answer looks to be no. Below, I’ve created a chart showing the average wait for Saucers before and after the capacity increase at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster: So with no change in capacity at Saucers, the wait went up 15% at Saucers, at the same time it went down 15% at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Here’s a different look at the Tower of Terror chart, with the date where we suspect Disney increased capacity at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Slinky Dog around December 10th shooting up in red: As we can see, waits continue to climb there for the most part. Most of the spikes earlier in the year are due to downtime, whether just one elevator is operating or the whole thing is down for an hour or two. PHOTOS: Plastic Dividers Added to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Multiple Parties Now Grouped Together//t.co/U5N9WUmyGI pic.twitter.com/eOf1XCLOsd — WDW News Today (@WDWNT) December 23, 2020 I didn’t think it was possible to modify the cockpits at Smugglers Run to load more than one group in each, but apparently Disney has installed plastic there, too. You’ll spend about five minutes pressing buttons in the Falcon. Currently, at least the test cockpit looks to be configured so parties of up to four are able to occupy the two pilot and gunner seats, while groups of up to two are relegated to the engineer role in the back. Previously, a party of anywhere from one lonely blogger to up to six bloggers who all actually hate each other would have occupied the same cockpit, so the ride’s capacity would have been anywhere from about 17% to up to 100% based on each individual party size. I don’t think too many cockpits are yet outfitted with the new layout/plastic barriers, so if Disney moves forward with it, it could be a few weeks until we see a demonstrable change in waits. Here’s a look at December, anyway: And if we can verify that at least some of the cockpits were retrofitted with the plastic as early as the 23rd, we can take a look at our two columns of averages before and after that date: So we’re not seeing much of a change there quite yet. It may be several weeks as Disney sees how things go and ultimately decides if they want to outfit every cockpit using the new configuration or not. But at least as far as the Studios is concerned, we’re seeing some major changes in capacities at certain attractions, effectively doubling the capacity at the following: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance: From mid- to late-October Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – From the middle of November Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster: From the middle of December Slinky Dog Dash: From the middle of December Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run: Tests began in late December These rides remain operating at limited capacities: These rides have operated at basically full capacity from the start: We’ll see if more changes come to Star Tours and Tower of Terror. And then there’s a few shows where we still see three empty seats left open for up to four guests to sit per section: Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy MuppetVision 3D Vacation Fun – An Original Animated Short with Mickey & Minnie Walt Disney Presents Frozen Sing-Along So we’re still in “wait and see mode” as the holidays don’t historically offer much insight into “normal” crowds. That’s different this year with the Park Pass system limiting the number of guests who can visit on any given day. One assumption could be that Disney filled every row around the holidays to help meet higher demand, but it seems unlikely that they would go back to selling fewer tickets if the demand is there and people are comfortable enough with the situation. We’ll continue to monitor what Disney is up to and reassess our touring strategy as necessary. Of course, there is now a new wrinkle with the potential to Park Hop after 2pm, which will have some effect on wait times as new guests arrive in the afternoon. We’ll have to give that a few weeks to see if the number of people leaving the Parks to visit another basically makes it a wash, or if people are flooding into the Studios after not being able to reserve a Park Pass there originally. If Disney keeps Epcot open until 9pm most days moving forward, I’d expect to see people headed in that direction as well. This post already has more graphs and charts than I’d like, but the increase in capacity by filling every row isn’t relegated to the Studios: PHOTOS, VIDEO: Plexiglass Dividers Testing on Boats at “it’s a small world” in the Magic Kingdom//t.co/ZtsHIr6NZm pic.twitter.com/D6k72YFVbL If you’ve read one of these posts about wait times over the last ~six months, you’ve probably seen me mention that “it’s a small world” and Pirates of the Caribbean have seen longer average waits than Peter Pan’s Flight since the Parks reopened. That’s another example of where Disney continued to fill every pirate ship on Peter Pan, while only filling about half the rows on the water rides. If we see these barriers installed on boat attractions across property, and every row can be filled on Pirates or small world, then that may be good news from a wait time standpoint as the attraction capacity is now doubled. But I think we can be pretty sure that Disney is looking to sell more tickets, as they’re already discounting heavily to local Floridians for inexpensive theme park tickets good for the next few months. So two rows may open up, but there are going to be more people there to fill them. As promised, these changes in capacity are not relegated to the Studios. Frozen Ever After at Epcot recently began filling every row. Here’s that chart from October on: It’s pretty clear when Disney introduced the boats with the barriers, as waits dropped by over half from December 17th to December 18th. Over Christmas, we even saw average waits in the low 20 minutes. Here’s the two-column breakdown of before and after the capacity increase: As you would expect, doubling the capacity on what is now getting to be an attraction that a lot of people have experienced had a major impact on wait times. The average went from over 71 minutes to under 40 minutes basically overnight. That’s a drop of 47% and most of those post-barrier waits were around the holidays, when crowds would be elevated. Just to make sure that there was no sudden drop in interest at Epcot, we’ll take a look at Soarin’, where no major modifications to capacity have taken place in the last few months: That’s the last long chart. But if you’ve visited in the last few months, you may find some interest in seeing how your visit lined up with other dates. Or it might just be a lot of scrolling. Here’s the two column-chart for Soarin’ average both before and after the Frozen capacity increase: So while Frozen’s waits almost dropped in half with the capacity increase, waits at Soarin’ rose over ten minutes, or more than 30% over the same time period. So we can pretty definitively say that the drop in waits at attractions that now see higher capacities aren’t due to a sudden drop in holiday crowds or interest. So what does it all mean? We’ll need to make some changes to our approach based on the changing wait times and capacities. For several months, we prioritized the Runaway Railway first because its average wait was the highest at the Park. Since that is no longer the case, we’ll need to make some adjustments. Smugglers Run was looking to be the new highest-priority, but if they increase capacity there, as ugly and disorienting as the plastic around the seats might be, then we’ll need to reconsider that as well. The other thing is that Disney is not going to keep the attendance caps/Park Pass allotment the same as early November levels moving forward. That will end up changing wait times again as attendance rises. If they aren’t able to figure anything out to increase capacity at Tower of Terror – where the ride typically plummets with about seven out of ten seats empty, we’ll need to devise a plan where we either start or end the day there, even if that’s a far cry from how we’ve historically toured. Last month, we waited here, closer to the entrance to Fantasmic than the Twilight Zone, for Tower of Terror at 5pm, at the same time the Railway’s actual wait would have been under a half hour. We would have been better off switching the two, beginning with Tower and waiting less for the Railway here. But there’s only so much you can foresee on the first or second day of a major change like that. It also remains to be seen what kinds of complaints Disney receives over the new procedures, and if it’s cause enough to go back to the way things were at some attractions. Holiday demand was higher, and we saw longer hours to also help boost attendance, but it doesn’t take a lot of people to fill the Studios’ Park Pass allotment with its limited overall capacity, even on a random Tuesday in January. We’ll continue to monitor wait times, and see what sorts of bends and weaves we need to make to stay ahead of the crowds and also visit the attractions when waits are lower, even if the strategies end up being a lot different than how we would have gone about our day back in 2019. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-increases-capacity-christmas-crowds/feed/ 3 Epcot December 2020 Update //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/epcot-december-2020-update/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=epcot-december-2020-update //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/epcot-december-2020-update/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2020 19:19:46 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24984 All photos by Alex Westcott Since it’s apparently still there, we’ll take a walk around Epcot/EPCOT to see what is or isn’t going on. It’s artsy because it’s tilted. The (Taste of) Festival of the Holidays continues through the 31st, despite the printed literature indicating a December 30th end. Ordinarily, what used to be called […] The post Epcot December 2020 Update appeared first on easyWDW. All photos by Alex Westcott Since it’s apparently still there, we’ll take a walk around Epcot/EPCOT to see what is or isn’t going on. It’s artsy because it’s tilted. The (Taste of) Festival of the Holidays continues through the 31st, despite the printed literature indicating a December 30th end. Ordinarily, what used to be called Holidays Around the World and is now the Festival of the Holidays would end on December 30th, and Epcot would see its busiest day of the year on December 31st, with the exclusive fireworks and countdown to midnight luring thousands of local visitors on top of the heaviest attendance from outside the state. None of that will be happening this year, though you may not notice with the giant barge in the middle of the lagoon blocking most of the sightlines anyway. What’s across the water will always be a surprise now. Maybe they will put multiple Pavilions on a giant turntable and flip through them throughout the day. At 2pm, you’re in Caracas. At 4pm, you’re standing in the same spot, but now surrounded by St. Petersburg. Considering they haven’t actually added a new Pavilion in checks watch* 32 years, the turntable thing is probably not in the works. We probably won’t get a single new Pavilion after years of “rumors” about Brazil, Puerto Rico, and others having interest. At the risk of losing what little credibility I have left, it took a couple of years of visiting Epcot before I could usually remember if Italy came before or after Germany. I suppose it’s always both depending on the direction you’re walking. Wait times have been relatively reasonable at Epcot over the last month at the same time they’ve climbed higher at the other Parks. Here’s a look at Saturday’s chart: With Saturdays being the busiest day of the week at Epcot, on average, this looks pretty good. It does remain slightly odd that Disney is willing to keep Epcot open until 10pm this time of year, at the same time the Studios continues to struggle with its much earlier 7pm closes. You can chalk it up to beer sales and capacity continuing to make the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow more profitable later in the night, but a lot of people are pounding Michelob Ultras an hour into the day over in Hollywood. You can’t really blame them as they stand in an extended queue outside for Muppet*Vision at 10:45am. Here’s a look at waits there on the same day: The average wait across the attractions is 60% higher at the Studios on the same date, even on Epcot’s busiest day of the week, and one the Studios’ less crowded days. Waiting 40 minutes per attraction across ten attractions at the Studios will cost you 2.5 hours longer in line than getting in ten lines at Epcot, on average. But Disney rarely budges on the Studios’ standard 10am to 7pm day. Even the 9am opens that we see now around the holidays are an unusually early start to the day. Unfortunately, our older data is somewhat useless with Disney constantly making changes to capacity and operations. Waits appear lower at the Studios than they might have a couple of weeks ago, but that’s largely due to the fact that they now load every row on Slinky Dog and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which almost doubles capacity on those attractions and reduces wait times by about 40%. As Disney increases the number of Park Passes they allocate with to coincide with the capacity increase, waits will inevitably go up as there are more people to fill those newly-available seats. We will have to rearrange our attraction priorities based on the differing capacities causing waits that are quite different than the FastPass+ days prior to the March closure. Modifications to increase the number of people in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon probably aren’t possible and they haven’t been able to figure out how to increase the capacity of the elevators on Tower of Terror as most fall with about a third of the potential seats full. Those two rides now see longer waits than Slinky Dog or Runaway Railway. That would have very much not been true most days five weeks ago. Both Slinky and the Railway averaged more than 80 minutes before the capacity increases. Now, the Railway’s average is almost half of Smugglers Run, rather than the 20 minutes longer that we would have seen as recently as the middle of November. On the Epcot front, Frozen used to average more than 70 minutes most days, but waits there have dropped in half with Disney evidently filling every row on the boat ride. That puts Test Track back on top as the clear priority. Even Soarin’ had a longer average than Frozen on Saturday, which I don’t think has happened since the Park reopened in July. So we’re still very much in flux. As far as touring strategy goes, we probably don’t need to change our approach at Epcot too much. Doing Test Track first continues to make the most sense if you arrive an hour before the Park is officially scheduled to open and quickly scoot over there. Otherwise, riding last thing will result in the lowest wait possible. And you won’t spend that 30 to 50 minutes in line when you could be doing something else with the Park open. Like try to look around the barge. Over at Frozen, with 35 minutes posted most of the day, the actual wait is likely closer to 25. So there’s now much more opportunity to get over there and not suffer a 70+ minute wait, even earlier in the day. Of course, that will change if Disney increases Park Pass allocation and the demand is there to fill a lot more spots. We’ll hop onboard while we’re here since Spaceship Earth is posting five minutes. It turned out to be about two: We still haven’t received word on when the announced overhaul of Spaceship Earth will begin. Or if it will at all. Disney first announced that the refurbishment would start in late May of this year and continue for about 18 to 24 months. Disney may have realized that Guardians of the Galaxy and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure will be enough to drive interest without needing to spend the money to switch things up around here. Spaceship Earth is fine as is as far as I’m concerned, and they would really need Spaceship Earth open alongside Guardians to help gobble up what will be a big increase in demand. We may simply see new narration. The future is apparently in plywood as Disney basically tore down the Ellen’s Energy Adventure building without actually removing the framework. Nothing instills confidence quite like colored duct tape indicating which pieces of metal are most likely to buckle under the weight of the roof. The ride track is is reportedly ready to go inside with cast being pulled from other positions for vehicle testing in the near future. There’s obviously a lot of work to be done with the façade and interior effects. Disney has not publicly acknowledged the potential existence of the PLAY! Pavilion in months as far as I know. Considering it’s basically an elaborate setup for character meets, and there are no traditional character meets currently available, it may make some sense that they don’t have a lot to say about something that they’re also not sure when it will open or what it will ultimately look like when it does. But you’ll have Test Track, Mission: SPACE, and Guardians all in the vicinity, which are all Disney thrill rides that some younger kids will either be too short to experience or not want to ride. Disney needs somewhere close by for the tykes. But nobody has seen inside what is slated to become the PLAY! building, while Disney has made multiple updates with pictures inside the Guardians and Remy buildings. If they’re not going to do the Festival Center over the now-flattened Fountain View Starbucks/Character Spot, they may move it permanently back to the old Wonders of Life Pavilion and send the characters back out around the Park. Then again, we may still see a detailed announcement and there’s just 19 more Star Wars stories set within The Mandalorian timeline coming to Disney+ that they still need to announce first. More low crowds as we look towards Mission: SPACE and what should be the entrance to Space 220 beyond the walls on the right. I really think they should go with a countdown, so we know how close the restaurant is to opening. It’s even themed to a rocket launch. Space 217….Space 216….the restaurant was supposed to be open at this time last year, but ran into a multitude of problems, including their head chef leaving. He probably made the mistake of visiting the Italy booth during one of the Festivals and seeing what Patina, who will eventually operate the restaurant, typically microwaves and serves guests for $10. I would go to Las Vegas too. Even if it was to be the Executive Chef of an Arby’s. Epcot is probably the easiest Park to tour at the moment with the limited number of priorities. You’ll still need to dedicate two days to visiting to spend much time in the World Showcase and experience all of the attractions there and in Future World. We recently went through the motions and “did everything” in one day with shorter hours and higher waits. You can find the end of that series here, which will link you all the way back to the start of the day and walk you through how you want to go about things. The basic strategy is to spend the beginning of the day in World Showcase, where crowds are lower earlier in the day. Then move down to Future World in the late afternoon when the crowds will begin to naturally migrate up to World Showcase. If you start with Test Track and then head into World Showcase on the Canada side, the wait for Frozen may even be short enough by the time you arrive that the wait will be around 20 minutes to experience it. I’d wait the time rather than having to trudge back at some point. It would be easier/more-streamlined to start the day at Frozen, but Test Track is so unreliable that you’ll probably want to ride it first if you arrive in time to experience a short wait and it’s actually operating first thing, which is far from a guarantee. I probably wouldn’t try to race up to Frozen immediately after Test Track, because the line may already be longer than it will be for most of the day, but it’s more viable now with the increased capacity. Speaking of Test Track’s downtime at open, we can take a look at the wait time chart from the last month to see how often it happens: With the variable opening times, it’s more difficult to pinpoint which days saw downtime first thing. But it looks like a pretty solid month of operation, even if the ride did go down at some point during the day on 22 of the last 31 days or so. It looks like the ride was down within 15 minutes of Park opening on three days, or a little less than 10% of the time. Uptime at the end of the night also looks good. And all three of the days where the ride either didn’t open with the Park or closed shortly after happened over a five day span at the end of November. So there was something going on that Disney fixed. Also remember that the wait time chart doesn’t capture the shorter waits when the Park is open earlier than advertised. On the busiest of days, which would be around now, I’d expect to see the parking lot open an hour early. On busier days, it’s usually 45 minutes early. On less busy days, the Park usually lets the first guests inside around 30 minutes before open. Most of the major rides should be open and the waits will be shorter than the longer waits of the day that you see in the first cell of each chart. Construction/demolition continues around the hole in the middle of Future World as the proposed Festival Center has been downgraded to an “area.” There are fewer walls around, at least, as these restrooms recently reopened near Test Track: It certainly looks like a (pink) retro version of the future. If you can’t have the George Jetson aesthetic at least we can take you back to the ’70s. A lot of people probably thought they were in the future during that time for one reason or another. The Moana “Journey Through Water” walkthrough attraction is officially still happening. There probably won’t be a whole lot to it, but it may depend on what Home Depot has in stock in the garden section whenever they get over there. They’ll have to do something with the space they’ve created by clearing the Innoventions buildings, particularly if a multi-story Festival Center doesn’t materialize. You would think you could put on a pretty classy, pretty expensive dessert party up on the roof of the proposed building that would pay for the construction in short order. A spread of hors d’oeuvres and sparkling wine would be $125 a night, easy. But the building may be too far back or the sightlines weren’t what they were expecting. If Disney does end up downgrading the Festival Center plans significantly, the walls should come down that much sooner. Walls should be almost completely down in the front of the Park in the next few days with the fountain just about complete in front of Spaceship Earth. The walls here to the left of Temporary Mouse Gear should be around for a couple of years as Disney rebuilds Original MouseGear and freshens Electric Umbrella up, potentially to a new concept, in addition to building a permanent spot for Starbucks and whatever else they end up fitting in here. For the foreseeable future, you’ll still be routed around Spaceship Earth either via the left walkway towards Test Track or the right walkway towards The Seas as you enter from the main entrance. But at least you won’t be walking around walls immediately after stepping foot in the Park and dodging them for the first several hundred feet. It wasn’t exactly the warmest welcome. In the next Part, we’ll check out some subtle and not so subtle overlays in the Imagination and Land Pavilions and see what’s happening in World Showcase. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/epcot-december-2020-update/feed/ 3 Walt Disney World Wait Times and News for 12/18/2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-wait-times-and-news-for-12-18-2020/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=walt-disney-world-wait-times-and-news-for-12-18-2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-wait-times-and-news-for-12-18-2020/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2020 18:09:49 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24980 You can pull up the previous update here. Hopefully we will get caught up and stay caught up on the news and waits this time around, unlike the last eight times around. The website is sort of like that delinquent father on every Hallmark Christmas movie. We don’t necessarily mean to screw everything up, we just […] The post Walt Disney World Wait Times and News for 12/18/2020 appeared first on easyWDW. You can pull up the previous update here. Hopefully we will get caught up and stay caught up on the news and waits this time around, unlike the last eight times around. The website is sort of like that delinquent father on every Hallmark Christmas movie. We don’t necessarily mean to screw everything up, we just follow the script they hand us. The only Imagineer that Disney both publicly acknowledges and didn’t force out during the recent purge has posted a few photos of how water works. He is right. They are big on Plexiglass acrylic sheeting at the moment. And if there’s one thing Disney has figured out in the vicinity of Spaceship Earth, it’s water streaming down from the rafters, whether the deluge is planned or not. If I ever have to get a real job and they ask me what I find inspiring, I think I’ll just whisper mysteriously, “stone….shadow…” By the end of the year they say,. the fountain from Home Depot will be fully operational. I’m just looking forward to being able to fill up my $30 Star Wars Refillable Mug with Epcot water that is $10 more than the $20 Refillable Mug just because it has Star Wars characters on it instead of whatever those other Disney ones are. One does wonder if Remy and Mickey entered into a cage match which rodent would come out on top. I have a sickening feeling that it would be Mickey and he’d scream, “WHO’S NEXT?” after dismantling our Parisian friend in about four seconds immediately after. He may be inquiring about future acquisitions rather than opponents, though. Speaking of water, or a lack thereof, Disney has moved the barges into the middle of the Lagoon. Here they will sit throughout the day, unlike the previous fireworks launches, which Disney brought out around 4pm. I’m sure the water fountain thing will improve things slightly, but you wonder if they won’t pull the tugboat out of retirement and try to hide these things the best they can elsewhere. While you’re probably more likely to be assaulted by your average Disney YouTuber than your prototypical clown, Disney finally convalesced to years of complaints and replaced the clown at the end of the Luna Park Pool slide at the BoardWalk Inn with a Mickey and Friends mural of sorts. WDWMAGIC has pictures of what you can expect to find on your next visit. People can’t handle a friendly clown at the end of a water slide, but Winnie the Pooh has been carrying a red balloon and telling kids they can float too, all the while not wearing pants, for years. The (Taste of) EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival will return next year from March 3rd through July 5th. If the Israeli Space Security Chief is right and we really have been talking to the aliens for years, I bet they think “EPCOT” is synonymous with festival. There’s no Coachella Festival on Jupiter. Just the Coachella Epcot. The July 5th end is nearly a month later than usual. It does give them a day to switch over Citrus Blossom to…Citrus Blossom at least. Disney’s Riviera Resort, vaguely themed to the very distant Caribbean side of Western Europe, turned a year old this week. I’ve scheduled my review for mid-2021. Like Disney, I can’t commit to a season, month, or date, and the year is subject to change too. The Electrical Water Pageant will return to Seven Seas Lagoon on December 20th. The schedule looks to be about the same as before, though the “underwater world of mystery” has me intrigued since I’ve only seen the overwater part. It will be interesting to see what it means for the walkway to and from the Grand Floridian and how quickly they can open and close the bridge. Hopefully it’s quick enough that I won’t have to remove my manacle, switch my cane to my other hand, and ask the young lad at the station in a condescending tone if I’m going to have to join the peasants headed to the parking lot on the lowly monorail just to get back to the Flagship Resort. The El Mercado de Coronado Food Court at the Coronado Springs Resort and Basketball Courts has reopened. You can pull up the current hours and menu here. It’s heavy on the “Grab and Go” aspect as you’ll gather from the dinner menu. Disney values the return of Disney Programs. We look forward to sharing more updates as they come. pic.twitter.com/36BD6bdCVM — Disney Programs (@DisneyInterns) December 16, 2020 Like any megacorporation in the hellscape that is 2020, Disney took to Twitter to announce that their free labor program still has no restart date. Should your 19-year-old “future humanitarian” wish to learn how to cook French fries under the tutelage of someone who has been baking Ore Idas at 2am every Saturday for the last 17 years, you’re welcome to send them my way now. Just so long as they pay me more than they make in rent and then spend any leftover money paying me more for whatever they can scavenge from around my apartment. Assuming any of us survive the rush to get a PS5 this year, Disney has a new offer available beginning January 5th: More details are available here. Typically, the room discounts will save you more money, but it depends on your room type, party size, etc. Run the numbers on the various discounts that will come out throughout the year. Package pickup will return to the theme parks for the holidays, though delivery to the various resorts will remain unavailable. From December 20th, 2020, through January 2nd, 2021, guests can send items bound for eBay to the Chamber of Commerce in Magic Kingdom Park, Gateway Gifts at EPCOT, Oscar’s Super Service at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and in the vicinity of Guest Services at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Much to my own dismay, Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort will now reopen on March 22, 2021, which is about six weeks later than the original reopening date of February 9, 2021. I just want to know what it feels like to sleep in a bed again, even if it’s this tilted. Disney’s Beach Club Resort will reopen May 30, 2021. (Maybe?) Disney’s Wilderness Lodge will reopen on June 6, 2021. (Probably?) Those are Disney’s official dates, but at least half of those openings have been delayed. Since the DVC wings have been open since June, you’d think they’d hit the targets. Beginning December 20th, 2020, Disney will change the release times for boarding groups for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance from 7am and 2pm to 7am and 1pm. This shouldn’t have too much of an adverse effect on anyone, but it does potentially give those unable to score a spot on the ride more of an opportunity to Park Hop elsewhere before the influx of people begin arriving at 2pm beginning early next year. I have a lot of tips on securing a boarding group in this post. Just replace “2pm” with “1pm” in your brain. Disney has taken over the Morocco Pavilion from the original operators. I’d keep an eye on what happens to Restaurant Marrakesh, which remains closed. I’m roughly as tall as Jafar and love Baklava, so you just may see me switch roles. Spice Road Table remains the only operating eatery in Morocco outside of the dessert and beer kiosk outside. The menu is back to focusing on small plates, with no full entrees currently on the menu. You can pull up the entirety of it here. Spice Road is probably the most under-appreciated stop at Walt Disney World. I could tell you this every day and nobody would go. Whether Disney gets that across to anybody without adding Abu and Genie remains to be seen. Beginning with guests arriving on January 1st, 2021, complimentary MagicBands will no longer be offered to guests. Disney sent out an email reminding them. Amusingly, “For Disney Resort hotel room entry, Theme Park entry, and charging purchases to your hotel room with a valid credit card, you may use a Key To The World Card provided at the Front Desk.” Your phone should theoretically open your resort room via the Disney World app, but I think we all know how well that usually goes. Disney also offers the opportunity to purchase a MagicBand prior to your arrival. Who thought 2020 would end with us rolling back to 2012 with Key to the World cards? Contactless except for the contact part. Chances are that you’re not headed to Walt Disney World over the next three weeks, and if you are, you’re probably not bound for Harambe Market at Animal Kingdom or Lotus Blossom Cafe at Epcot. But if you are, they have variable operating hours. You can pull up Lotus Blossom here and Harambe Market here. Then change the calendar to the day of your planned visit on the right. Harambe Market typically operates on Saturdays and Sundays, while Lotus Blossom is open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. That schedule should return in the middle of January. Today’s Waits Animal Kingdom: We begin with our usual chart of Animal Kingdom’s average daily wait from the last 12 weeks: With the full chart since reopening available here. I’m sure there are still people out there who will sell you information about what day of the week is best to visit Animal Kingdom, but it’s pretty clear that it doesn’t matter, at least so long as you avoid Saturday and Sunday, when Passholders are going to help fill all the Parks. Average waits on weekdays are within two minutes of each other with variances due to holidays, attraction downtime, and other factors out of our control with nothing specific driving anyone to Animal Kingdom on any particular day, outside of the longer operating hours on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. And Friday remains the day to visit if you’d like to see Animal Kingdom’s nighttime lighting package, which is particularly spectacular during the holiday season, but always is inside Pandora. Here’s today’s chart: Friday’s average was also the lowest for that day of the week in a month. Bring a jacket if it’s going to be cold and keep in mind that Florida “feels” about ten degrees colder than most other places. We see particularly low waits in the last hour thanks to what the state would consider a dire freeze. Wisconsin is playing kickball in Discovery Island in shorts and tank tops. While I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, they must have installed the plastic barriers in between each row on Frozen Ever After, effectively doubling its capacity and dropping waits by more than half. Waits elsewhere remain reasonable for the most part with a day featuring what are now unusually long hours. The priorities look worse because we don’t pick up the lower wait times when the Park actually opens closer to 10:15am, but you’d have an opportunity to hit at least one major ride without much trouble with a 10:10am arrival. The bad news is that Disney is going to start letting more people into the Park and we’ll see waits rise along with it now that Frozen is moving through twice as many people. Hollywood Studios: The last 12 weeks: Full chart. Our averages were already thrown for a loop when Disney started filling every row on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, after installing barriers behind each row, in turn reducing wait times there by about 40%. That was enough to drive each day’s average wait down by about five minutes. It’s not like the last four or five weeks actually saw lower attendance. But now they’re also filling every row on roller coasters that don’t have barriers, including Slinky Dog Dash and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Even so, today’s average is the longest that we’ve seen in some time. While the Studios routinely ran out of Park Passes, it also offered the fewest to begin with. So even if capacity at a few attractions doubles, waits won’t go down if Disney simply lets that many more people into the Park to fill the seats. Assuming the demand is there, of course. We’ll continue to see how things shake out as Disney continues to make a lot of changes. The curious thing will be when the rides with the lowest capacities become the priorities. As far as the best day of the week to visit, the weekends remain your best bet as the Park is the most likely to sell out every day of the week, making attendance similar every day. As far as the averages from the last few months, they’re typically higher earlier in the week. Here’s the day’s chart: Larger. Tower of Terror and Smugglers Run now top the list of highest waits at the Park, as those are the rides that are currently among the least-modified. Smugglers is still limited to one party per cockpit and only about eight seats on each Tower elevator can be filled. The average for Slinky is a solid half hour lower than it has been and the Railway had a good day too. We also see a better distribution of crowds with the 9am open. Still, you’re looking at waiting 40 to 50 minutes just about everywhere from 9:30am through 5:30pm. And as we know, you can’t be everywhere in that final hour. The full chart. It looks like average waits have normalized around 29 minutes over the last couple of weeks. Thanksgiving remains the busiest week yet, but only by about a minute and a half compared to the busiest week in October. And within about four minutes of the last couple weeks. If Saturday’s average is the same as last week’s, this week’s average would be 29.2 minutes, which is in line with the last few weeks. Saturdays remain the busiest day of the week to visit, but not by a wide margin compared to Friday or Monday. As has been true for years, Wednesday is always your best bet. Or at the moment, whenever it’s going to be coldest. Here’s the chart for Friday: The 29.9-minute average is just about 2.5 minutes longer than the average for the past few months, and the higher number is due largely to the morning downtime at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. If morning lows are in the 50s or below, don’t be surprised if your favorite outdoor roller coaster takes a little longer to get warmed up. Pirates and small world continue to see longer waits than Peter Pan’s Flight with the whole indoor boat ride capacity thing. This is a pretty average day. Current Disney Park Pass Availability You’ll want to pull up Disney’s calendar to see what they’re saying is available. As always, if you’re actually ready to book something, go directly through that process, as the online calendar doesn’t update in real time. The rest of the month runs the gamut of availability with all Parks available over the first four days leading up to Christmas. From the 24th on, Magic Kingdom is currently only available on the 28th, along with Epcot. On the other hand, Animal Kingdom still has availability on that Sunday the 27th, when waits there are typically longest. Looking into January: Magic Kingdom and the Studios are unavailable on the 1st, while just the Studios is unavailable on the 2nd. Disney replenished the rest of the month and may do so again on those first couple of days before the month is up. Availability should be wide open for the rest of the year. Here’s Passholders in January: Passholders see better availability for the rest of the month than you might expect with lower-tier Passes largely blocked out. Disney replenished Passholder availability in January as well. Currently, Hollywood Studios is unavailable on the 3rd and 4th, while Animal Kingdom is somehow the only Park without availability on the 9th. Magic Kingdom on October 1st remains the only other date with no current availability. Operating Schedule Changes: Disney typically makes their changes on Friday afternoons. You can always pull up Disney’s official calendar here. Here’s what we’ve got this week: Friday, January 1st, 2021: Animal Kingdom hours extended to 8am to 6pm from 9am to 5pm Hollywood Studios hours extended to 9am to 7pm from 10am to 7pm Magic Kingdom hours extended to 8am to 9pm from 9am to 7pm Saturday, January 2nd, 2021: Sunday, January 3rd, 2021: Epcot hours extended to 11am to 9pm from 11am to 8pm Monday, January 4th, 2021: Tuesday, January 5th, 2021: Wednesday, January 6th, 2021: Thursday, January 7th, 2021: Friday, January 8th, 2021: Saturday, January 9th, 2021: Disney also added hours through March 6th, 2021 that match the first couple months of the year. They will almost certainly be extended: Animal Kingdom: 9am to 5pm Epcot: 11am to 7pm Hollywood Studios: 10am to 7pm Magic Kingdom: 9am to 6pm Interesting Menu Changes There are lots. You can try to make sense of the file here. We’ll try to keep a more watchful eye. And hopefully stay more caught up. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/walt-disney-world-wait-times-and-news-for-12-18-2020/feed/ 5 Review: World ShowPlace Booths at Epcot Festival of the Holidays 2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/review-world-showplace-booths-at-epcot-festival-of-the-holidays-2020/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=review-world-showplace-booths-at-epcot-festival-of-the-holidays-2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/review-world-showplace-booths-at-epcot-festival-of-the-holidays-2020/#respond Tue, 15 Dec 2020 22:42:10 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24976 We continue from Yukon. The World ShowPlace, in between the Canada and United Kingdom Pavilions, is host to three individual “booths,” in addition to entertainment, a store, and the new home of the Gingerbread Capital City that used to be hidden back in the corner of the lobby area inside The American Adventure. We’ll take […] The post Review: World ShowPlace Booths at Epcot Festival of the Holidays 2020 appeared first on easyWDW. We continue from Yukon. The World ShowPlace, in between the Canada and United Kingdom Pavilions, is host to three individual “booths,” in addition to entertainment, a store, and the new home of the Gingerbread Capital City that used to be hidden back in the corner of the lobby area inside The American Adventure. We’ll take a look at the food options first and then see what else is going on in there. You may need to move quickly through here should three gentlemen come out to The Mill Stage to play the oven. If you visited the ShowPlace for this year’s (A Taste of) EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, then you’ll recognize the basic setup in here. You’ll find individual lines for each of the kitchens with the stage just about in the middle of the area set up for a variety of entertainment. There are quite a few tables available, making this a good stop during inclement weather. But it also won’t be an original idea as a lot of people head in from the rain and/or the cold. During most of the year, this is a nice respite from the heat. But 2020 does still have a couple more weeks up its sleeve. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see another 95-degree day and a hurricane move through before the year is up. We’ll start with Festival Favorites: The name may bring more oomph than “random assortment of dishes that didn’t fit in elsewhere this year.” At least in the last ten years, they’ve never even served Bass at a Festival. The menu mentions the booth where the dish was supposedly offered, but that was catfish rather than bass. I still hesitate to quote the grocery store price of any particular product, but you would expect to see a higher price tag on the bass, making the catfish more attractive on Disney’s side. Of course, Vietnamese catfish is what Yorkshire Fish in the UK Pavilion serves in their Fish and Chips, so there may be some redundancy there. Blackened Bass, White Cheddar Grits, and Okra with Tomato and Onion Stew— $7 You’ll have to bear with me on these pictures as it’s dark inside the ShowPlace and using a Christmas Tree as background bokeh turned out to be more distracting than pretty. Despite never appearing on a menu in this form, the Bass turned out to be one of our favorite dishes at the Festival. The fish reminded me more of the Ghost-Pepper Dusted Tilapia that may have been last seen at the 2014 Flower and Garden Festival. That means it’s spicier than the menu probably indicates. The fish brings the appropriate crispy sear with a delicate, flaky interior. I think the Bass holds up better than the Tilapia or the Catfish, but the paprika flavor does dominate the fish more than you might expect. Underneath, the creamy White Cheddar Grits offer a solid, if slightly fine consistency for a sharp cheesy base. If the fish is spicier than you’d like on its own, the Tomato and Onion Stew does a nice job of taming it alongside a couple bites of Fried Okra that will taste best when they’re hot and crispy. The dish is probably a dollar overpriced, even by Disney standards, but it is a favorite after all. Taste: 9/10 Duck Confit and Dumplings with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Fig Reduction — $8 The Duck was another…favorite as well. The portion is significant and the meat is tender and juicy as it almost falls right off the bone underneath the sweet, plum-like glaze and crispy skin. The Brussels Sprouts on the side were roasted nicely, but a little on the bland side compared to the bolder flavors of the main components. These remain two of the best dishes at the entire Festival, though they’d set you back a combined $15 and be significantly less food than an entrée from most major quick services. Then again, you could say that about most anything served at the various Festivals. And obviously, just about everything here is greatly elevated. You may as well key in on the tastier ones that you probably can’t prepare easily at home. Gingerbread Cookie — $2.50 The Gingerbread Cookie is about what you would expect from something purchased at the store in a plastic container alongside 11 other gingerbread friends. The cookie is just fine – it’s soft with the ginger, cinnamon, and molasses flavors potentially a little more muted than you might expect. I would have preferred a little more chew. If you’re rocking the Cookie Stroll, then you’re probably picking one of these guys up, but otherwise, I’d put the money towards the cake back at the Yukon or the Bundt Cake coming up. Coquito: Tropical Eggnog — $4.25 served without the booze or $10 with Bacardi Gold Dark Rum. This coconut-based drink is heavier on the cinnamon and cloves than it probably looks, with vanilla and condensed milk dominating the palate. The cups remain small for the money and holds about four ounces total, leaving little room for the rum or much else. But the flavors are festive and the drink is creamy and easy to drink. We liked it, though it doesn’t really pair well with either of the two main dishes offered here. It would help the gingerbread go down as it’s on the dry side. Frozen S’mores – $4.50 served without the booze or $11 with bottom shelf vodka I didn’t care for the texture of the whipped milk, which is kind of foamy and yucky (in my opinion). There’s only a subtle chocolate flavor amid the whipped mess, which is just topped with a handful of marshmallows and a bland graham cracker this year. You might have a better experience. In my experience, adding the vodka makes for an even foamier mess, but those who enjoy foamy milk chocolate drinks more than I are in business. We’ll check out Holiday Hearth next: It’s quite the assortment. We have everything nicely bundled up here for the most part. Red Velvet Mini Bundt Cake – $4 This is a smarter buy than most of the various cookies. I’m not usually very wild about red velvet anything, with all of the food coloring going on, but it works here with the sweet, moist cake serving as a nice base for even sweeter cream cheese frosting on top and then a festive spread of sugary delight on top of that. The price point and portion size make this an attractive proposition, but it’s quite sweet on its own. You might pair it with our favorite fish to help relieve some of the spice over there and eat the sugar here. Salted Caramel Spaceship Earth Cookie – $5.25 The cookie comes packaged, which may make it a prime candidate to put in your fanny pack for the ride home. The novelty factor is probably playing the biggest role here – they’ve basically just given two circular cookies legs and put some sticky caramel in between them. But the sugar crystals add a nice crispy, texture and they even threw on more sugar with the holly on top. There are better desserts available, but the cookie is pretty hefty, pretty sweet, pretty precious, and probably best shared. Snowball Cookies – $4 It would be funny if they added a sticker with the year on it to every dish so that we would be obligated to reorder everything every year. Or just take the sticker off. And then you would know. These Cookies are packaged up even better than the Spaceship Earth cookie, but there isn’t anything particularly “Disney” about them. Even the logo doesn’t mention Epcot. The cookies are fresh and flavorful and there are quite a few of the soft, buttery, nutty concoctions covered in powdered sugar stuffed into the generic jar. By all accounts, it’s a lot of cookie for the money considering we’re used to paying $2.5 0for just one. These are obviously smaller than the standard cookie, but there has to be a dozen of them in there for just $1.50 more than the gingerbread person. If you’re looking for something less sweet, but rather generic, these would fit the bill. They might also double as something you can throw at bloggers and then easily recollect. Peppermint Bark – $6.25 That is definitely a bag of average peppermint bark. It’s hard to say how much of this was put together at the last minute, but some unique packaging would certainly go a long way to making some of these more generic items compelling. The bark was more fragile than most, basically caving in on itself with each passing bite. The flavor profile is exactly what you would expect with the white chocolate and peppermint. You could certainly grab a bag if you were dying to have peppermint bark at that exact moment, but Costco does it better and the box is about three pounds. Stollen: Holiday Fruit Cake – $4.25 This must be it. Again, it’s packaged nicely if you want to take it on the go, but most people are probably after items that they’re planning on consuming on the premises. There’s really nothing special about this fruit cake either. it’s dry, light on the fruit, and heavy on the powdered sugar. It’s “just fine,” and a better value than most of the cookies, but I’m not sure who would find this a compelling purchase at Epcot. Maybe if it was in the shape of Living with the Land or something. Like the whole ride. Mouse Crunch – $6.50 This is basically the Caramel Apple Popcorn from the Food and Wine Festival served in a holiday bag alongside chocolate-covered pretzels and M&M’s. At least the last part will eventually be themed well to Disney Springs. This is perfectly skippable in my estimation. The popcorn tastes stale and there’s nothing unique about the other additions. Gingerbread Milkshake – $4.50 served without the booze or $11 with bottom shelf vodka This one is actually pretty tasty, though it’s probably more ideal on a warmer afternoon than at the end of the night. The drink is creamy and thick, while still remaining easily drinkable. The addition of the gingerbread cookie is a nice touch and the Pinnacle Vodka mixes in better with the Shake, helping to reduce its chocolaty richness and adding a light flavor of marshmallow. Hot Cocoa – $3.50 served without the booze or $11 with peppermint schnapps. That is indeed what watery, instant hot cocoa in a small plastic cup with a tiny handle looks like. If you can figure out how to microwave water and add a packet of Nestle Hot Cocoa, and have the ability to confidently purchase some schnapps at the liquor store, then you could recreate this at home without too much trouble. I think the Gingerbread Shake is more compelling, though this may potentially be a better choice if it’s cold and you’re headed back outside. It won’t last long, typically making the Joffrey’s coffee stand just outside the ShowPlace a lot more bang for your money. I always forget to take a picture of one menu. Apparently this year, it’s Prost! The emphasis is theirs. Here’s what’s on the menu: Charcuterie and Cheese Plate — $6.50 Beverages: M.I.A. Beer Company White Christmas IPA, Doral, FL — 6oz. $4.50 / 12oz. $8.50 3 Daughters Brewing 70 Degree Winter Weizen, St. Petersburg, FL — 6oz. $4.50 / 12oz. $8.50 Playlalinda Brewing Co. Gingerblonde House Ale, Titusville, FL — 6oz. $4.50 / 12oz. $8.50 Ciderboys Mad Bark Apple Cinnamon Hard Cider, Stevens Point, WI — 6oz. $4.50 / 12oz. $8.50 3 Daughters Brewing Blueberry Peppercorn Hard Cider, St. Petersburg, FL — 6oz. $4.50 / 12oz. $8.50 Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards 1911 Honey Crisp Hard Cider, Lafayette, NY — 6oz. $4.50 / 12oz. $8.50 The small Charcuterie and Cheese Plate is reminiscent of what they served at the Appleseed Orchard during Food and Wine, this time with a lot more cracker than anything else. If there was about three times as much of the few cheeses and meats, then this would be a much better value. As it stands, you could nibble on things a bit while enjoying a drink, but I think the small size of each portion comes through in the picture. It’s certainly skippable, but grabbing one probably wouldn’t be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make, either. The Beers There are no flights this year, but you can still put one together yourself, two-at-a-time, with the six-ounce pours. I like the White Christmas IPA the most, but you’ll want to head in whichever direction sounds tastiest. Overall, they were right about the Festival Favorites with two of the better items at the Festival offered there. They may be in luck with improved facilities inside the ShowPlace, compared to the small outdoor booths where they have to cram in however much equipment they can. The Bundt Cake and Gingerbread Milkshake also stand out. The World ShowPlace is also home to the Gingerbread Capital this year: You can also look forward to a variety of musical performers throughout the day. Joyful! returns in this new location after performing on a stage in what is now the hole in the middle of Future World. There are some nice backgrounds for photos inside, but it is dark: And you’ll find most of the Festival merchandise just inside the door on the left: That’s the World ShowPlace. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/review-world-showplace-booths-at-epcot-festival-of-the-holidays-2020/feed/ 0 Late Morning Touring at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Winter 2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/late-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom-winter-2020/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=late-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom-winter-2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/late-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom-winter-2020/#respond Mon, 14 Dec 2020 19:37:22 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24972 A very easy touring day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom continues from Parts One and Two. So far, this is what we’ve accomplished with our arrival at temperature check at 7:20am: Flight of Passage: 7:35am – 8:02am Na’vi River Journey: 8:05am – 8:24am Kilimanjaro Safaris: 8:39am – 9:08am Kali River Rapids: 9:16am – 9:36am Expedition Everest: […] The post Late Morning Touring at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Winter 2020 appeared first on easyWDW. A very easy touring day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom continues from Parts One and Two. So far, this is what we’ve accomplished with our arrival at temperature check at 7:20am: Flight of Passage: 7:35am – 8:02am Na’vi River Journey: 8:05am – 8:24am Kilimanjaro Safaris: 8:39am – 9:08am Kali River Rapids: 9:16am – 9:36am Expedition Everest: 9:39am – 9:54am That’s five, sometimes lengthy attractions, completed in under two official Park hours. Our waits have averaged just a couple of minutes for the most part, even after moving purposefully slowly to Flight of Passage and Kilimanjaro Safaris as we enjoyed the decorations in the morning glow. Everest hit triple-digit waits over the previous weekend, in large part due to excessive downtime. After it reoepend late in the day and people hurried over to ride, you can bet these markers leading to the attraction’s entrance will quickly fill. They stretch back to DinoLand. At some point, they may have to move a line into what used to be the stands for Rivers of Light. I’m not sure if it would be more or less comfortable to slide down the benches and then be led to the attraction once you could basically walk on it versus moving very slowly somewhere closer to the ride. The line for Flight of Passage now goes back and into the theater for Festival of the Lion King. Talk about a wild time. Crowds won’t be a problem today as we head to DinoLand for TriceraTop Spin and DINOSAUR: TriceraTop Spin took about five minutes total in there somewhere. DINOSAUR is posting five minutes at 10:15am. That’s unusually short for this time of day. We can take a look at posted waits here from the last month or so. This was supposed to go up on the 9th, so the last day we see on the chart is the 8th: The average wait at 10:15am is 21 minutes, before the countdown to extinction arrives at a 40-minute average at 11:45am. You may notice that the averages are typically lower on weekdays, even with the shorter operating hours. On busier days with later closes, the ride is typically a walk-on to close out the day, though capacity reductions can come into play as well. Most people will want to spend their last hour in Pandora, getting in line for Na’vi River Journey with about an hour to close, followed by Flight of Passage. If DINO is posting a wait that’s longer than you’d like, returning two hours to close should mean a short wait most of the time. But you can also see how forgiving it is in the morning, with five minutes typically posted during at least the first two hours of official operation. With the Park typically opening 30 to 45 minutes before the stated time, you’ll have even more of an opportunity to get there in time to potentially re-ride it without much of a wait if you’d like. We’ll be able to walk right on: Disney installed plastic barriers behind the second row in each vehicle, but doesn’t fill it as far as I’ve seen. We were onboard about five minutes after getting in line: It’s now 10:26am, which means our total experience time was just 11 minutes, which may be the shortest of all time (of all time). The pre-show is just more queue, so we saved a couple of minutes with Dr. Seeker doing his thing off-camera. Hopefully you will survive your roofless trek into a storm of asteroids in about as much time. And we’ve made it through all the rides before 10:30am. We could extend our day by walking Maharajah Jungle Trek and Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, in addition to the paths around the Tree of Life. There’s the “Feathered Friends in Flight” show in the UP! theater in Asia. We’re due for lunch at some point. We could head out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch for Affection Section and The Animation Experience, along with riding the Wildlife Express both ways. There’s also Wilderness Explorers and It’s Tough To Be A Bug. But with Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo the Musical, and Rivers of Light all dark, that’s at least 2.5 hours slashed off the day. The Boneyard Playground remains closed for obvious reasons. But DinoLand is decorated nicely for the holidays as we head out via Discovery Island: We’ll return to Animal Kingdom for an afternoon arrival, probably after a couple more (A Taste of) EPCOT Festival of the Holidays reviews. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/late-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom-winter-2020/feed/ 0 Easy Morning Touring at Disney’s Animal Kingdom //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/easy-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=easy-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/easy-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2020 21:12:26 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24970 An unusually easy day of touring continues at Disney’s Animal Kingdom from Part One, where we visited Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey in Pandora. Most of our early success was due to the 8am official open, and the fact that people actually began entering the Park right around 7:15am. The previous post also […] The post Easy Morning Touring at Disney’s Animal Kingdom appeared first on easyWDW. An unusually easy day of touring continues at Disney’s Animal Kingdom from Part One, where we visited Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey in Pandora. Most of our early success was due to the 8am official open, and the fact that people actually began entering the Park right around 7:15am. The previous post also outlines what to expect from the various arrival experiences and the best ways to arrive at the Parks as early as possible. Unfortunately(?), I managed to pick the least crowded day to visit over the past few weeks, and because of that, there isn’t a whole lot of touring strategy involved as we make our way around. But it may be reassuring that touring isn’t always a difficult proposition after trying to figure out the Studios again in an assortment of long lines. Usually, we prefer a slightly above-average number of people in the Park to better show off the importance of our bobs and weaves and how much longer we would have waited if we had gone about things in a less efficient way. We’ll now basically make a circle around the Park hitting the rides in order. With no big rush to Kilimanjaro Safaris, we have a couple of minutes to watch the otters. If you are behind schedule, Kilimanjaro Safaris is another attraction that you’ll want to save for after lunch, when waits are typically lower than the second and third hour of operation. Heading to Expedition Everest is viable for late arrivals and DinoLand would be even more forgiving. Not that there is a whole lot going on over there at the moment. The Park has been much busier lately. I have never seen these markers on the ground on the left occupied with my own eyes, but they must be for Kilimanjaro Safaris, which is already using extended queue that was almost never previously needed. Obviously, a big part of the appearance of longer lines is the six feet between parties, but there would have to be a lot of people snaking around for these to be necessary all the way past Tusker House. Of course, the markers could also be leading to a popcorn stand. I don’t get to play tourist very often, but it’s always a joy to ask people in Fantasyland what the line they’re standing in is for, and then be surprised when the answer is Space Mountain. We’ll continue on to Safaris: You’ll find a new narrator on the overhead monitors with a script that focuses more on how to behave during the experience than on the poaching aspect from our dear and beloved Wilson. I just want to save Little Red one last time. We got in line at 8:39am and were on our way at 8:44am: We were back out front at 9:08am, for a total experience time of 29 minutes, which is just about as short as possible. Harambe Market is now open on Saturdays and Sundays, opening from either 10:30am or 11am depending on the day and closing at 3pm. You can pull up the exact hours and the menu here. Satu’li Canteen and Flame Tree Barbecue likely remain better meal candidates, but its operation both allows Disney to admit more guests on the weekends and at least gives some of them another option for lunch. We’ll continue on to Kali River Rapids in Asia, largely unencumbered: Not that you wanted to go there anyway, but the quick service arm of Yak & Yeti no longer serves breakfast on weekdays. Kali River Rapids was posted at 15 minutes at 9:16am. The actual wait should be about that many seconds, if that. We’ll put our stuff in a locker and head on in: Kali will only be open for a couple of more weeks, closing at the end of the day on Saturday, January 2nd, 2021, and reopening on Friday, April 2nd, 2021. Given cooler temperatures, there is little demand for Kali. But with most of the effects off, along with the majority of the sprayers, you likely won’t get too wet at the moment. You probably still wouldn’t find me on there when it’s 55 degrees out, or as we call it in Florida, a statewide emergency. Kali took exactly 20 minutes as we basically walked right on after winding around the lengthy queue and collecting our precious bloggerpacks. We’ll continue to Expedition Everest: Everest is another roller coaster where they’ve put up plastic barriers in between each row at load, which seems to indicate that they would like to find a way to add some kind of barrier in between rows on the trains in order to fill them and increase capacity. We haven’t yet seen barriers added to any ride vehicle that moves particularly fast. On a largely outdoor roller coaster, it’s hard to say how much risk there would be even without physical barriers, but you’re more likely to run into some screamers on a coaster than something slower like the Runaway Railway. The masks would ideally block the spread Disney may end up waiting until it’s “safe” to load every row without any vehicle modifications, but keep the barriers up in the loading areas for additional time to make people “feel” safer when they’re stationary. We were onboard in about ten minutes, after seeing 15 minutes posted when we got in line at 9:39am: We were back out front at 9:54am, for a total experience time of 15 minutes, and a posted wait that’s now 25 minutes. The actual wait is probably up to about 15 minutes if we wanted to ride again. Since we’re a little picture-heavy, we’ll move on to DinoLand in the next post. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/easy-morning-touring-at-disneys-animal-kingdom/feed/ 3 Disney’s Animal Kingdom 8am Rope Drop to Avatar Flight of Passage Winter 2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/disneys-animal-kingdom-8am-rope-drop-to-avatar-flight-of-passage-winter-2020/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=disneys-animal-kingdom-8am-rope-drop-to-avatar-flight-of-passage-winter-2020 //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/disneys-animal-kingdom-8am-rope-drop-to-avatar-flight-of-passage-winter-2020/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2020 19:47:15 +0000 //www.dodas.cn/easy/?p=24968 We’re headed out to Disney’s Animal Kingdom bright and early to try to take advantage of an early 8am open. I’m hoping to beat the rush to Avatar – Flight of Passage this time around. On our last attempt, with a 9am open, things didn’t go so well. Despite arriving before the parking lot even […] The post Disney’s Animal Kingdom 8am Rope Drop to Avatar Flight of Passage Winter 2020 appeared first on easyWDW. We’re headed out to Disney’s Animal Kingdom bright and early to try to take advantage of an early 8am open. I’m hoping to beat the rush to Avatar – Flight of Passage this time around. On our last attempt, with a 9am open, things didn’t go so well. Despite arriving before the parking lot even opened, and being among the first 20 cars to park, we still ended up waiting almost an hour for Flight of Passage. The only way that would be possible is if a lot of Disney resort guests arriving on buses got there first. Theoretically, the parking lots are supposed to open at the same time as the first buses from the Disney resorts arrive. This typically gives a slight advantage to those lucky enough to be on one of those first buses, but there aren’t typically too many of guests on each bus with physical-distancing measures in place, and you’ve got relatively few buses on the road heading to any one Park early in the morning with the reduced fleet. As far as the best way to arrive at each Park is concerned: Animal Kingdom: Drop-off from the auto plaza/parking lot, likely via Uber or Lyft. The drop-off area is closer than anyone will park, which puts you at an advantage over all of them. You could check the bus stop and the bus arrival time to see if you’re early enough to save the money on the trip and take the Disney bus instead. Those arriving on the first Disney buses will be the first to enter the Park. But you’ll have to be pretty lucky to be on one, more often than not. Uber/Lyft gives you more control and will be a better bet, on average. The parking lot typically opens 30 to 45 minutes before Park open. Pandora is usually open. Epcot: International Gateway from the Crescent Lake area, which includes the BoardWalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Swan, and Dolphin Resorts. Beach Club is the closest resort to the entrance. You’ll have the least trouble parking or getting dropped off with a confirmed breakfast reservation. With Epcot opening at 11am or 12pm most days, that can be an even later morning than Hollywood Studios. Guests entering from the International Gateway have always had an advantage at Frozen, because it’s closer, but they typically have an advantage at Test Track and Soarin’ because they’ll be able to walk over before the vast majority of other guests have an opportunity to park or walk over from the buses and then on to the attractions. Epcot typically opens 30 to 45 minutes early. Frozen, Test Track, and Soarin’ are typically operating. Hollywood Studios: The same as Epcot, with the exception that the BoardWalk is closest. I have more information on this type of arrival and why it’s so beneficial in The Best Way to Rope Drop Disney’s Hollywood Studios. All major rides should be operating. Hollywood Studios typically opens 40 to 50 minutes early. Magic Kingdom: Walking from the Contemporary or Grand Floridian. Accessing those resorts is the same gig as the Crescent Lake area. The second best way is to be dropped off at the Transportation and Ticket Center. You’ll be allowed to line up before the parking lot opens and be able to get to the Express Monorail over to the Park faster. Magic Kingdom typically opens 30 to 50 minutes early. The headliners are typically open if they’re ready, including Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Big Thunder Mountain. Like most things related to Disney operations, things don’t always go exactly as intended. Sometimes, there is some amount of communication breakdown between the person who gives the go ahead to open the auto plaza and the person poised to let the first guests through temperature check. That delay can cause guests arriving via Disney buses or parking themselves at a disadvantage. Obviously, if the parking lot opens before more than a handful of guests arrive on Disney buses, most of those relying on Disney transportation will be at a disadvantage as they’ll have no hope of beating those driving themselves or getting dropped off. The reverse is also true if many more buses arrive before word gets over to the auto plaza that it’s time to open. That’s why it’s best to take your fate into your own hands by walking over when possible. Animal Kingdom is the one Park where it’s not. Whether you want to spend the ~$12 for a likely drop-off advantage is up to you. There’s always the chance that you’ll pick the “wrong” method of transportation on any given day, but the best we can probably do is what’s most likely to succeed. I’d shoot for arriving 45 minutes before Park open for Animal Kingdom. At worst, you’ll spend ten to fifteen minutes sitting there waiting for the parking lot to open. Disney has been opening up the parking lots and delivering guests from its resorts earlier and earlier in the morning over the previous few weeks. On our last visit with the 9am open, the parking lot opened 30 minutes before official Park open, and a lot of Disney buses had arrived before we did. This time, they were already letting people through before 7:15am as just a few Disney buses rolled up with each carrying just a handful of guests. I’m headed towards temperature check from the drop-off area at 7:20am. If I was parking and walking over, it’d be about five minutes later. That’s less significant with the 8am open and fewer people arriving this early. With a 9am open, a five-minute delay can mean hundreds more people in front of you at Flight of Passage, as it did on our previous visit. That’s a big part of why we like the earlier opens. They’re much more forgiving. I was held at temperature check for just a minute as they waited for the first wave of people to scan their tickets and head in. There may be a hundred people ahead of me, if that. We had been celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Lion King for what “felt like” about ten years, but Disney finally switched the photo op out in front of the entrance to match the holiday overlay that we saw Disney add to Discovery Island last year. At the moment, Animal Kingdom will open at 8am every day through December 19th. From the 20th to the 31st, the opening moves to 7am, before returning to 9am beginning on January 1st. It’s incredibly likely that Disney will extend the hours on January 1st and 2nd. There’s also the possibility that they’ll make the 8am opens that we saw from July 11th through the first week in September, when demand was much lower, the norm moving forward. We should at least see 8am opens on most Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays to begin the new year. Earlier opens are always beneficial for those able to take advantage of the extended hours. Not a whole lot of people want to be on their way to a theme park before 7am “on vacation.” But you probably want to wait 2+ hours for Flight of Passage even less, which is probably also worth adding to the equation. Animal Kingdom wait times have recently taken off. Here’s the daily average since the Parks reopened: We didn’t see the average wait hit 20+ minutes for 36 days. And even then, the average dropped back into the single digits the following week. We then saw our first 30+ minute average exactly a month later, in September. A full five weeks later, the Park hit 40+ minutes for the first time in the middle of October. Then over Thanksgiving, we saw the first 50+ minute average. It’s not tremendously surprising to see Thanksgiving Week with the longest weekly average, but it may be surprising to see that the average wait this past Saturday was 47.1 minutes, or longer than five out of the seven days comprising the holiday week. Sunday, December 6th’s average of 51.5 minutes is the longest yet. With Disney increasing capacity by about 40% about nine weeks ago, the numbers check out. The long waits over this past weekend are a little surpring, but with cooling temperatures and limited opportunities to see the Park after dark, Passholders boost crowds significantly. From our recent wait times post, you may remember that this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday had no availability for Passholders at any Park. Combined with an increasing number of other guests, waits are going to be a lot rougher. Somewhat interestingly, the hours are longer on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at the moment, with the Park open from 8am to 8pm, instead of the 8am to 5pm weekday hours. Waits are still typically longer on those weekend days. Here’s the wait time chart for this past Sunday, when the Park posted its longest waits yet: Expedition Everest’s extended morning downtime is the obvious culprit for some of the longer waits, but “105 minutes for DINOSAUR,” and “limited capacity,” may not fit cleanly into the same sentence. While the hours are obviously extended, it certainly “feels” like the number of people they let in also increases substantially. We’re usually concerned about an average wait of 60+ minutes at Hollywood Studios as “feeling” long, but Animal Kingdom hits 70+ minutes at noon. The fact that fewer people are interested in riding Kali River Rapids, which will go offline early next year for its annual refurbishment, during cooler temperatures, combined with Kilimanjaro Safaris still closing at 5pm, don’t help either. Even at 9:30am, you’re looking at an average wait above 40 minutes. TouringPlans had the day as a 2/10. It’s more comparable to last Thanksgiving when there was no capacity limit. Unfortunately(?), we’re going to have to return to experience some of those nuttier waits ourselves. It’s going to be smooth sailing on the day of our visit. Too smooth, really. In fact, there are so few people coming in that we can take a look at the decorations around Discovery Island without much concern that it’s going to affect our wait: ’re already paying to park at the resort and/or the cost of transportation is rolled into your room rate. Some number of people also remain a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. You can always go with a Mears Taxi or something, but then you may really be taking your life into your own hands, at double the cost. Fortunately, there’s really only one audible you need to call if you fall behind – and it’s whether or not to go to Flight of Passage first. If for whatever reason there are hundreds, or potentially even thousands, of other people around you as you head inside, visit Flight of Passage last thing at night. Even on this past Sunday, when Flight posted 75+ minutes basically all day, and triple digit waits for almost four hours, the posted wait still dropped to 35 minutes to end the night. And the actual wait was probably about half that. If you can’t or don’t want to stay that late, then you’ll simply want to get in line for Flight as late in the day as possible. Here’s posted waits at Flight of Passage over the last month or so: My color-coding job along the bottom doesn’t do a whole lot to highlight lower waits at the end of the night because the closing times vary so much. But if you look at the days when the Park closes at 17:00, or 5pm, waits are typically much shorter than earlier in the day. Overall, the longest waits run from 15 minutes after Park open through 12:45pm. While there may not be a huge difference between waiting 63 minutes at 3pm ,and 78 minutes at 9:15am, waiting that long that early in the day will only put you at each subsequent attraction that much later in the day. With waits typically climbing through the afternoon as more people arrive, you’ll end up waiting longer everywhere all morning and afternoon. By skipping Flight of Passage first, you’re basically skipping ahead of your itinerary by at least 25 minutes. Instead, visit Na’vi River Journey and Kilimanjaro Safaris first. Then get in line for Flight last thing if you can, or as late in the day as possible. You’ll save hours in line overall. Of course, it does remain to be seen what effect Park Hopping has on afternoon and evening waits. I’m not too concerned about Animal Kingdom, which has historically emptied even when Park Hopping was not only available, but also much cheaper. Disney tried to add entertainment to keep people around, including the nighttime ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris and Rivers of Light, but both are out, at least as far as the original offerings go. Those markers on the left are for Na’vi River Journey, while the ones on the right are for Flight of Passage. You don’t want to see how far back the line has to wind around for these markers to be needed, but they would be necessary with a 70+ minute wait for Na’vi or 120+ minute wait for Flight. If things look like this as you head into Pandora, then you’re more than fine. We’ll take our usual right. Those heading to Na’vi would continue straight on the left. We have an opportunity to enjoy the view. And then continue on our way. While we haven’t been in much of a hurry so far, just a few minutes can make a big difference. A lot of people have caught up as I turn back around. We’re still about a half hour away from official Park open. About two people are headed for Na’vi River Journey. Screaming “SIVAKO” didn’t seem to sway their decision. I doubt it will help my court case either. One problem with our wait time charts is that they don’t capture anything before the Parks actually open. At the Studios, virtually all of the rides will be operating 45 minutes before Park open. At Animal Kingdom, it’s usually just Pandora. The charts would look a little less scary with some shorter wait times to start things off, but Disney probably doesn’t want people stranded at its resorts, waiting for a bus, to see that the rides are already open at the Park they’re trying to get to. Back before March, Disney typically pushed waits to the app as soon as the attractions opened. At 7:34am, we have 15 minutes posted and Flight is already operating. And we’ll just about be able to walk on: We were in the pre-show 13 minutes after first entering the line, and back out front at 8:02am. That’s a total experience time of just 27 minutes. This 20-minute posted wait will change to 45 minutes in about five seconds. Since we made it through Flight of Passage so quickly, we’ll have an opportunity to visit with a short wait Na’vi right after. If you were to arrive closer to 8am, this is likely where you’d want to start the day. At 8:04am, or just four minutes after the Park officially opened, we’re headed into the attraction with the Park’s second-longest average wait. It’s currently posted at five minutes: We were on-board in eleven minutes, so our wait was over twice what was posted. Instead of boarding, I threw a thousand dollars on the ground and left. Or I took this picture of the boat, where it looks like Disney isn’t looking to make any modifications to accommodate a separate party in the back row. Big plastic barriers would certainly damage the aesthetic more than on something like Rise of the Resistance, or even Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Once you enter the tunnel of screens, and it somehow becomes nighttime, they may be less of an issue. As it stands, a party of anywhere between one and eight will get their own boat. It does make for a much more pleasant experience, at the high cost of lower capacity and longer waits. We’ll head through: Na’vi River Journey took exactly 20 minutes with a queue that is now extending back towards the Land’s entrance. Unlike our recent series at Hollywood Studios, I won’t be able to threaten long waits and heavy crowds throughout the morning. I tried to go on a busier Friday. But sometimes the best laid plans don’t work out. At 8:29am, I’ve already made it through Animal Kingdom’s two newest attractions. It’s still taken a little over an hour since I arrived. You’ll want to budget that much time even if things go well. But I think we’ll be okay. ]]> //www.dodas.cn/easy/blog/disneys-animal-kingdom-8am-rope-drop-to-avatar-flight-of-passage-winter-2020/feed/ 5	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line149
__label__wiki	0.661744	0.661744	DoubleDeClutch.com The Right Stuff, The Wrong Way Designer Gear The 2020 Rétromobile will prove to be even more special than normal, it actually took place! Months have passed under the pandemic cloud and the distant rumbles currently being experienced do not give any assurance that we will return to normal, or what passes for that state in 2020, any time soon. So let’s take the opportunity to have a look back at the annual Parisian automotive festival. For the best part of a century Bertone were princes of the motoring world, their distinctive style seen on many important cars. A changing business landscape could not be accommodated and the organisation filed for bankruptcy in 2014, the end of the road. They had accumulated a collection of their work and this was eventually taken over ‘for the nation’ by Automotoclub Storico Italiano. The cars are usually on public display at the Volandia Museum located at Milan’s Malpensa Airport. For the Rétromobile a small selection was allowed out of Italy for our general appreciation. The Volvo Tundra was the work of Marcello Gandini, Bertone’s lead designer for most of the ’60s and ’70s. The concept was based on a Volvo 343, the idea was to generate more business, Bertone having worked on 264TE and 262C, but the concept was rejected by the Swedes. Several design elements would later appear on the Citroën BX. The MPV movement in Europe was in its early stages when Bertone unveiled this unusual concept at the 1988 Turin Motor Show. It featured gull-wing doors hinged at the centre of the windscreen to admit the driver and front passenger, those in the rear would have to use a conventional sliding door, the machine certainly attracted attention. Only able to carry five people the Genesis was already behind the likes of the Renault Espace that could accommodate seven. Perhaps the maddest feature of the exercise was that it was powered by a 5.2 litre V12 Lamborghini engine, normally found in the rear of a Countach. As one authority on Lamborghini’s history, Richard Dredge, put it. “After all, it may have looked great and pushed the the design boundaries but how was anybody ever going to make any money building a people carrier with a V12 engine?” The same vein of crazy what-if thinking that brought forth the Genesis also produced the BMW Pickster. It was based on an E39 BMW 528 with a 3.2-liter straight-six from the M3 to power the pick up truck concept. BMW resisted the temptation to take the Pickster and run with it, about the only section of the market that they have not tried to access. In 1971 Bertone tried to interest Suzuki in an innovative amphibious vehicle, that became known as the Suzuki Go. Gandini was the designer. “I was inspired by the increasingly rubber inflatable dinghy boats.” The two-seater could also accommodate a snow bike or motorcycle in its flat loading bay. It was powered by a three-cylinder Suzuki 750 engine that drove the rear wheels. The Go was intended to float and would be powered on water by clamping an outboard motor to the tailgate. The tyres were designed to go off-road and handle dirt tracks and snow with ease. At the same time that Gandini was working on the Suzuki Go he also gave his attention to a development of the Citroën GS, to be known as the Camargue. Launched at the 1970 Paris Motor Show the Citroën GS was technologically advanced for the time, both aerodynamically and mechanically. It had features such as power-assisted disk brakes, front and rear, rarely seen in a car in that market segment. The hydro-pneumatic suspension had been developed since it first appeared on the DS range, giving both a comfortable ride and excellent road-holding. This translated into sales and awards including European Car of The Year. CEO Nuccio Bertone asked Citroën for a car to play with, the French were happy to supply one and Gandini got to work. Unusually for a Bertone creation there was an absence of sharp edges, more softly curvaceous than angular. The 2+2-seater Camargue coupé was dressed in a metallic champagne colour and was an instant sensation when it was revealed at the 1972 Geneva Motor Show. Citroën also featured the Camargue as its prize exhibit on its trade stand at that year’s Le Mans 24 hours, causing speculation that they were seriously considering the concept for production. However, events overtook Citroën as the cost of developing the new SM and other products seriously overran and it was the same story with their investment in Maserati. The alliance with Fiat, who had acquired a substantial stake in the French company from Michelin, did not work out as planned. Another expensive, ill-judged initiative, designing and building thirsty, but powerful, rotary engines with NSU, was torpedoed by the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent oil crisis. Fiat sold their share of Citroën back to Michelin who were on a long term strategy of divesting themselves of any holdings in motor manufacturers. Citroën’s failure to have a product in the profitable middle range of cars in the European market meant there were no reserves to fall back on, they were bankrupt. The solution to these conflicting issues was facilitated by the French government and Michelin, Citroën was taken over by Peugeot, and was saved from destruction. Peugeot had no time for niche products such as the Camargue and the attractive concept passed into history, very much a case of what might have been. Just over a decade later Bertone and Citroën came up with the Zabrus, based on a BX 4TC. Another 2+2 concept with dramatic scissor doors and a funky interior. Powered by a 2.2 litre turbocharged 4-cylinder engine that drove all four wheels, both a legacy of Citroën’s recent rally program. The Zarbus did not fit with the product strategy of the time and was not implemented. Various styling elements did appear on the later XM and Xantia models. The foundation for the Bertone Ramarro, named after a local lizard, was the recently launched Corvette C4, indeed the car used to create the concept was the chassis that introduced Europeans to the new Vette at the 1983 Geneva Motor Show. Working round the clock Bertone were able to spring the concept on the Americans at the Los Angeles Auto Show. One of the aims of the concept was to celebrate the Bertone brand, the stylist behind so many familiar cars. The Vette’s radiator and air conditioning system were shifted to the rear to allow a more aerodynamic front profile. Another big change from the production car were the doors which were long, consequently their opening arc was very wide. So the designers decided to change them and the doors slid forward which created another set of problems to be solved. The Ramarro toured round the globe attending motor shows and was a success with both the general public and the media. It received the Turin-based magazine, Auto&Design, 1985 Car Design Award for its “bold ideas,” which gave “the Chevrolet Corvette an entirely new personality.” The Autobianchi A112 Runabout dates back to 1969 and was another Gandini design. It was an attempt to convince Fiat that they should consider a mid-engined layout for their budget performance car. This followed a path that had been established by Matra, Lotus and VW-Porsche in the final years of the ’60s. Taking many design cues from the world of speedboats the Runabout was very popular with press and public alike when unveiled at the Turin Motor Show. This helped to convince the Fiat management and the result was the Fiat X1/9, a best selling sportscar. The Ferrari 308 GT4 was a major departure from Maranello’s normal protocols. It was the first Ferrari mid-engined 2+2 and the first to be powered by a transverse mounted V8 engine. Even a casual glance would reveal that this was not the customary collaboration between Ferrari and Pininfarina, it had Bertone and Gandini’s fingerprints all over the coachwork, looking more like a Lamborghini than a Ferrari. Although sales were better than the 246 Dino it replaced, the 308 GT4 was never loved in the way that most of Maranello’s finest are. It was no surprise to see Pininfarina back at the drawing board for the successor, the 308 GTB. Bertone continued to manufacturer the 308 GT4 bodies but it was clear that there would be no future business with Ferrari, as the two organisations had a widely differing sense of styling. Gandini expressed it succinctly. “I did not see much point in designing a Ferrari concept that looked like a Ferrari, as the designers at Pininfarina and others were very much capable of doing so. If we had to do a concept on a Ferrari base, I believed that we needed to look at something that would be radically different to that what would be expected.” At the 1976 Turin Motor Show Gandini and Bertone revealed their solution as to how the future smaller Ferrari should look, the Ferrari Rainbow was their answer. Angular and aggressive , it was unlikely to ever find favour with Maranello but perhaps that was the intention. One innovation that Ferrari eventually followed was the retractable targa top roof that would fold down behind the rear seats, it was an ingenious way of having both a coupé and a spider in the same car. John Brooks, July 2020 This entry was posted in Notes from the Cellar and tagged Autobianchi A112 Runabout, Bertone, Bertone Ramarro, BMW Pickster, Citroën Camargue, Citroën Zabrus, Ferrari 308GT Rainbow, Lamborghini Genesis, Marcello Gandini, Suzuki Go, Volvo Tundra on July 31, 2020 by John Brooks. Edging the Lawns Time to leave the Concours of Elegance behind. Here is a final glance back to a glorious three days. In month or so we will reassemble in the shadow of Hampton Court palace. There will be much to enjoy together, a feeling that has been in rather short supply during a good part of 2020. So, let’s look forward to September 4-6 and put the band back together. This entry was posted in Notes from the Cellar and tagged Concours of Elegance, Hampton Court Palace on July 30, 2020 by John Brooks. The influence of Italy on the automobile has been immense, particularly in the performance and style areas. So, when considering the the rich tapestry of cars on display at an event like the Concours of Elegance, it pays dividends to seek out the Italian element and give it the due attention it deserves. Within minutes of entering the Great Fountain Garden I stumbled across two Italian classics, this Lamborghini Diablo, the answer from Sant’Agata Bolognese to the Ferrari F40. At this point in time Lamborghini had just been acquired by Chrysler, the deal was done the day after the first Diablo prototype ran. Thirty years on and the Diablo still creates an impact when encountered. The same can be said of the Pagani Zonda, perhaps even more so, given the rarity of the beast. Just around 150 examples are thought to have emerged from the factory at San Cesario sul Panaro. This is located in the mechanically fertile territory between Modena and Bologna, not far from Lamborghini’s factory. A complete contrast is the 1907 Diatto A Clément, it being the only known survivor of this model. It was the result of a partnership between the Turin coachbulider, Diatto, and French entrepreneur, Adolphe Clément-Bayard who was involved in the design of bicycles, tyres, aeroplanes as well as cars. He was a pioneer in motor sport entering three cars in the 1906 French Grand Prix, held near Le Mans, generally agreed to be the first Grand Prix. His son, Albert, finished third in the race but was killed in a crash during practice for the same event in 1907. Bang up to date is this salute to the past. In 1959 the Shah of Persia ordered a very special Maserati, a development of the 3500 GT, with a larger V8-engine to power it and various bespoke features to distinguish it from lesser mortals’ cars ; it was the quickest GT of the time. Fast forward seventy years and Touring was modifying a Maserati once more. The Touring Superleggera Sciàdipersia (Shah of Persia) Cabriolet was the result. Based on a current Maserati GranCabrio, the Sciàdipersia is a throwback to the days when a manufacturer would supply a chassis and powertrain, then a coachbuilder would style and fit out the car to the customer’s individual specification. This Ferrari 500 Mondial is a Series I car that was bodied by Scaglietti on drawings made by Dino Ferrari, one of five such examples. It was purchased from the factory by Guido Petracchi who entered it in the 1955 Ethiopian Grand Prix which he won. It was later displayed in the Italian pavilion at the Silver Jubilee Fair of Addis Ababa. It had another outing at the Cote de Asmara race in 1956, where it took overall victory with Gaetano Barone behind the wheel. Two further victories came shortly after, but then the car was put into long-term storage in Ethiopia. In 1970, car collector and dealer Colin Crabbe was on vacation in Asmara, Ethiopia, when a local led him to a small lock-up containing the totally original 500 Mondial – Crabbe bought it on the spot. Another striking Italian is this Bugatti EB110…………..I looked at this episode in Bugatti history a while back HERE This elegant 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 C SS Zagato has a proper race pedigree, being owned from new by Jo Bonnier, who would go on to have a successful career in F1 and endurance racing. In the three races that he started with the Alfa he would take class honours each time, winning the 1955 Swedish Grand Prix outright. 1949 was a most significant year for Ferrari. Victories in the Mille Miglia and both the 24-hours of Le Mans and Spa established Ferrari at the very summit of endurance competition. Amazingly these two 166 MM Barchettas achieved the three triumphs and both were at Hampton Court for our appreciation. Chassis #0010M was entered in the 1949 Mille Miglia but there is some dispute as to whether it was the Felice Bonetto and Carpani car that finished second overall after leading to Rome. Some sources declare it was the Piero Taruffi and Sergio Nicolini car that retired with a broken transmission at Ravenna. It was then sold to Luigi Chinetti who entered it at Le Mans for Jean Lucas and ‘Ferret’ (Pierre Dreyfus). All went well for the pair till it got dark on the Saturday evening. Dreyfus overturned 166 MM, without injury, at White House Corner, their race was over. A few weeks later the Ferrari was entered in the Spa 24 Hours with Chinetti and Lucas on driving duties. At the halfway point they assumed the lead and were cruising towards an easy victory till drama hit in the very final stages of the race. Motor Sport described the scene. “Louveau’s Delage had motored faultlessly, so that it really looked as if the Le Mans maladies had been cured. Then, after some 23 1/2 hours, oil began to stream from the engine. Louveau went on gingerly to his pit, intending to wait and coast over the line after Chinetti had been flagged the winner. Reminded that this would disqualify him, he set off, almost at a walking pace, to complete his last lap in the stricken Delage. Meanwhile, Chinetti, doubtless a trifle weary, came on to the oil patch flung by Louveau’s sick car at Hallowell Corner. The Ferrari slid out of control, knocked down a woman spectator and hit a house. Shaken but still irrepressible, Chinetti leapt out, rendered the unfortunate woman first-aid, got in again and drove slowly to his pit. There the leading Ferrari was hastily examined and then sent out to limp round for the two more laps necessary to win the race.“ Only one car has won both the Mille Miglia and the Le Mans 24 Hours, a feat that can never be equalled. This Ferrari 166 MM is that car, chassis 0008M, and it was also at the Concours of Elegance. In April 1949 Clemente Biondetti and Ettore Salani gave Ferrari its second win on the Italian road racing classic, after Biondetti had won the previous year. Lord Selsdon purchased the car and invited Luigi Chinetti, already a two-time winner, to drive with him the 1949 Le Mans 24 hours, the first post-war running of the event. Chinetti kept in touch with the faster Delahayes for the first quarter of the race. Then the Ferrari was delayed allowing the other 166 MM, featured above, to grab the lead. That car had an accident and one of the Delahayes struck problems, allowing the Ferrari to build a lead during the brief hours of darkness at La Sarthe. Motor Sport’s correspondent followed the race closely. “The crowd on the balcony clapped — at 4.26 a.m., mark you! — as Selsdon took over the leading Ferrari from Chinetti, who had driven the car continuously up , to this point.“ The Ferrari kept its lead over the faster Delahaye as it encountered fewer problems and spent less time in the pits. Then Delahaye retired and the Ferrari came under pressure from Louveau’s Delage. Then came the next twist in the race. “Came drama! Louveau brought the Delage in in dire trouble, but went on. Shortly afterwards Chinetti was stationary at his pit, with Louveau in again. On his first stop the plugs had been replaced, water added, and the rear wheels changed, so we knew, now, that something more serious was amiss. The work was good, calm, but half-an-hour was lost while extensive work was done on the engine, concluding with more new plugs — as with Gérard’s Delage, too much oil seemed to be getting “upstairs.” The Ferrari left first, but it, too, lost much time, work apparently being done on the front of the chassis, necessitating attempted removal of a headlamp.“ The race ground on to the finish as it usually does at Le Mans. Chinetti had to be helped from the Ferrari after spending more than 22 hours behind the wheel, a truly heroic performance. The Italian, who now lived in the United States, had scored his third victory in the great race. Selsdon and Chinetti received their trophies from Vincent Auriol, sixteenth President of the French Republic, the first time that the head of state had attended the race; it would be twenty-three years before a French President returned. The Italians at the Concours of Elegance provided a rich and sumptuous confection for those lucky enough to attend, roll on 2020! This entry was posted in Notes from the Cellar and tagged 1907 Diatto A Clément, 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 C SS Zagato, Bugatti EB110, Concours of Elegance, Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta, Ferrari 500 Mondial, Hampton Court Palace, Lamborghini Diablo, Luigi Chinetti, Pagani Zonda, Touring Superleggera Sciàdipersia Cabriolet on July 29, 2020 by John Brooks. Henry’s Back Yard There are a few events in the course of a year that fall into the ‘must attend’ category, for example Rétromobile. The Concours of Elegance, now resident at Hampton Court Palace, is certainly also in that rarefied class, missing it would be a serious reverse. The setting is majestic and the atmosphere informal, a gentle gathering of motoring enthusiasts, lucky enough to have some great cars to consider and appreciate. A number of factors have meant that my look at the 2019 show was not completed at the time but better late than never. 1919 saw the birth of a marque that was to become synonymous with the Le Mans 24 Hours in the race’s earliest days. Here are two legendary Bentleys; on the left, ‘Old Number Three’ and on the right ‘Old Number One’, both of these Speed Six model raced at Le Mans in 1930 with very different outcomes. ‘Old Number Three’ was disputing the lead in the early stages of the race in the hands of Sammy Davies. After twenty laps he handed over to co-driver, Clive Dunfee, who proceed to crash the car on his opening lap, forcing retirement. ‘Old Number One’ had triumphed at Le Mans in 1929 when driven by Woolf Barnato and Tim Birkin. Barnato was back in 1930, partnered this time by Glen Kidston, and he repeated his victory, his third in a row. ‘Old Number One’ had also made history being the first car to score a second win at La Sarthe, only three others have matched this feat in almost a century of competition. At the other end of the story is the Bentley State Limousine, first presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in 2002. Only two were built and both are in the Royal Mews. On each of the three days of the concours a different set of car clubs bring their amazing cars to add to the already rich mix. This 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental is good example of the fine vehicles that grace the Great Fountain Garden during the show. This 1936 Stout Scarab is pure Art Deco and is credited with being the world’s first production mini-van. As the Scarab carried a price tag of $5,000 only nine were constructed. Stunning in its simplicity this 1957 Porsche 356A Speedster was a particular favourite of mine. The concours is also a chance to catch up with old friends, such as Gregor Fisken, here at the wheel of a Jaguar D-Type. This Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was also celebrating its centenary, being one of 25 Rolls-Royces owned by Lt.-General His Highness the Maharaja Sir Bhupindra Singh of Patiala. Complete with a rack for four shotguns it won the Best in Show award voted for by the owners of the participating cars. The Concours of Elegance is scheduled to happen 4-6 September, let’s hope that it does go ahead, we could all do with the lift. More from Hampton Court later. This entry was posted in Notes from the Cellar and tagged 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental, 1936 Stout Scarab, 1957 Porsche 356A Speedster, Bentley State Limousine, Concours of Elegance, Hampton Court Palace, Jaguar D-Type, Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost on July 28, 2020 by John Brooks. Going up West The London Classic Car Show sneaked in just under the lock-down deadline on its sixth running. The previous couple of events at the ExCel, down in London’s Docklands, felt as if the affair had lost focus or run out of steam after a very promising beginning. A reboot was necessary and the organisers headed west, destination Kensington Olympia. By all reports this seems to have done the trick and there was a new spark to the show. Our resident man with a camera in hand took the opportunity to record proceedings, judge for yourself. This entry was posted in The Focal Point and tagged London Classic Car Show, Simon Hildrew on July 27, 2020 by John Brooks. A lawn, a palace, sunshine and cars………what’s not to like? To say that we have been living in strange times would something of a gross understatement. The weirdness is set to continue as the pandemic, pending economic catastrophe, widespread civil unrest and US Presidential elections scrap with each other in the doom and gloom stakes, all screeching for our attention. Maybe the escape route from this turbulence is to retreat into better days and reflect on our general good fortune. A final look back at Salon Privé is as good a remedy as any, so here goes. Encountering a Fiat 8V is always a welcome sensation, they are all special but this one is particularly note worthy. It was one of three lightweight alloy models built specially by the factory for the 1953 Mille Miglia. In a top class field with works entries from Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lancia and Maserati, the “Otto Vu” performed well, finishing eighteenth overall and sixth in class. It ran again in the Mille Miglia the following year but was forced to retire. In ’55 it scored an excellent thirteenth overall in the Targa Florio, second in class. In 1956 the car was acquired by future Ferrari Grand Prix star, Lorenzo Bandini. Bang up to date is the Brabham BT 62 which was to make a competition debut in the hands of David Brabham and Will Power a month or so later. DDC had Simon Hildrew on hand to bring this gallery. Is there a collective noun for a bunch of Paganis? A power? A performance? A pulchritude? Whatever it is there was an impressive line up of Zondas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the supercar. Reflected glory? Maybe that’s as good as it gets for me. And now for something completely different…..to quote the release……This Rolls-Royce is an imposing open touring-bodied 1912 Silver Ghost, coachbuilt by Barker & Co. of London and fitted with an elaborate Taj Mahal nameplate for its Indian Raj client; the Maharaja of Nabha. This distinctive Silver Ghost has a unique place in Rolls-Royce history, it being the only surviving pre-1914 Indian trials car, with its authentic engine and chassis still carrying its original bodywork. Salon Privé is not only a concours d’elegance but is a neat platform for those trying to launch something new in the motoring universe. The Jannarelly Design-1 is typical of the genre, a touch of re-inventing the wheel, literally. It is a Cobra for the second Roaring Twenties, perhaps with a little less venom, but in the right hands would surely be grin inducing. This 1953 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith with coachwork by Hooper & Co. was used at the wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco & Grace Kelly in 1956 and still is the epitome of ’50s style. This Delahaye Type 145 is nicknamed ‘Million-Franc’. The Prix du Million being a one million franc prize offered in 1937 by the French Government to encourage French motor car manufacturers to take on and beat the Germans, who were then dominating motor racing. On August 27th 1937, René Dreyfus drove this Type 145 for 200 kilometers in a record one hour, twenty-one minutes, 49 1/2 seconds, which amounted an average speed of 91.3 miles per hour on the banked L’autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry. This was enough to grab the prize, and the headlines. The following year Dreyfuss scored a memorable victory in the Delahaye at the Pau Grand Prix, besting the Mercedes-Benz of Caracciola/Lang; it was a most popular win with the patriotic French crowd. 1900bhp and €2 million, the numbers are all extreme, perhaps the Pininfarina Battista will prosper in these straightened times but, somehow I doubt it. Four electric motors, one at each corner propel the carbon fibre hyper car to 60 mph in around two seconds………..not for me I think…………… Back to the concours stage and this 1935 Avions Voisin C-25 Aérodyne, a glorious fusion of aerodynamics, Art Deco and cutting edge engineering. The price tag of 88,000 French Francs during a time of financial crisis ensured that the striking car was not a commercial success and only six were built. The sumptuous profile of the 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 GS Fastback Coupé by Figoni is outstanding, no wonder it took the Best in Show against some very stiff opposition. First owned by a Mr Fayolle, the ‘Zipper King’ of France, the car found its way to Los Angeles and then was stored in obscurity for 47 years. Subsequently it has been lovingly restored to its original configuration as it left the coachbuilders, it is art on wheels……….. The 2020 Salon Privé is scheduled to happen at Blenheim Palace on 23-26 September, fingers are to be kept firmly crossed. This entry was posted in Notes from the Cellar and tagged ‘Million-Franc’, 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, 1935 Avions Voisin C-25 Aérodyne, 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 GS Fastback Coupé by Figoni, 1953 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, Blenheim Palace, Brabham BT62, Delahaye Type 145, Fiat 8V, Jannarelly Design-1, Pagani, Pininfarina Battista, Salon Privé on July 26, 2020 by John Brooks. Cavallino Rampante at Blenheim Palace Concours come in all shapes and sizes, at the top end there is one sure fire method of judging the event, what are the Ferraris like? Some may disagree with my approach but I find the higher the level of Maranello’s finest, generally the better the show. So how did Salon Privé rate last September? The answer is simple, first rate. I had missed the event for a couple of years, but I was truly impressed with the organisers’ achievement in maintaining such a high standard of exhibits on the lawns. A good example of the rarefied level is this exquisite 250 GT Ellena dating back to ’58. Originally a Pinin Farina design, Mario-Felice Boano took over building the cars while Farina had a new factory constructed. He subsequently headed off to Fiat, and handed responsibility for upgrading the 250 GT to his son-in-law, Ezio Ellena. Some of the Corrozzeria Ellena examples had a raised roof line, all had bigger brakes and a steering system from ZF. This elegant coupé is a ‘matching numbers’ example as it was reunited with the original engine in 2013. A complete contrast is this F40 LM, developed from the road car by Michelotto with Maranello’s blessing. The car was raced in North America by an all-star line up of drivers for its five IMSA GT events. Ecurie Pozzi employed no less a bunch of aces than Jean-Louis Schlesser, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Olivier Grouillard, Jacques Lafitte, Hurley Haywood and Michel Ferté in its ’90 campaign. A few years down the line and the F40 LM was developed into the fearsome GTE versions that spiced up the BPR and provided the F1 GTR with proper opposition. The palatial backdrop for this 250 GT Europa Vignale Coupé is most appropriate. Originally ordered by the Belgian Princess Liliane de Rethy, second wife of King Leopold III, a passionate Ferrari enthusiast. It was the final Ferrari chassis to be given a body by Vignale and is very distinct from the Pinin Farina examples of this model. There is an unusual inclined opening in the dash board, something of a mystery. However, by a stroke of luck a bottle of Veuve Clicquot can be accommodated, though how it is to be kept chilled is not clear. A rare gem from the mid-60s is this 500 Superfast, one of just 36 examples built. The list of owners of these fabulous machines could have come straight from the gossip columns of William Hickey or Nigel Dempster: the Aga Khan, Peter Sellers, Gunther Sachs and the Shah of Persia to name but a few; all very important figures at the time, now more Ozymandias-like in our enlightened Twitter age…………. The 500 Superfast has been described as ‘the ultimate in front-engined Ferraris for those who like the Rolls-Royce touch with their performance cars.’, they were the last of their breed. I am an unashamed fan of the 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, with its elegant proportions and fantastic record in competition. This example finished third overall on its debut in the ’60 Paris 1000kms held at Montlhéry. Driven by Jo Schlesser and André Simon in Paris, it went on to win the GT class in that year’s Tour de Corse with Mrs Schlesser accompanying her husband. Ferrari, despite the ramped-up production levels in the modern era, remains a fairly exclusive brand, the likes of me are unlikely to trouble the Ferrari Owners’ Club. As Orwell put it so sagely, “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. So it is with Ferraris, this 365 California Spider is part of an ultra-exclusive group, just 14 examples were built in the mid-60s. The flowing Pininfarina design and angular rear set it apart from its contemporaries. Almost the last word in exclusivity on planet Ferrari are these two 342 America models, this one the coupé. And this one is a cabriolet. Just three of each variety were specially built, the car above is the only one with bodywork from Carrozzeria Vignale. The coupé on the lawn at Salon Privé first appeared at the ’53 Geneva Salon. Both cars have spent most of their lives in the USA. The 2019 edition of Salon Privé comfortably passed the Ferrari Test in a very stylish manner. We must hope that in the troubled times that 2020 is enduring the show will go on. This entry was posted in Notes from the Cellar and tagged Blenheim Palace, Ferrari, Ferrari 250 GT Ellena, Ferrari 250 GT Europa Vignale Coupé, Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione, Ferrari 342 America, Ferrari 365 California Spider, Ferrari 500 Superfast, Ferrari F40 LM, Salon Privé on July 25, 2020 by John Brooks. 2020 will go down in history as a pivotal year, like 1914 or 1939, virtually everything will change in how we conduct our lives in the future. Motorsport will be no exception to this rule, events will be run without spectators, e-sports will assume greater importance, we will have to adapt or wither away. In my humble opinion whole sections of the sport that we take for granted may disappear or be severely diminished, the lack of money will see to that. The days of big budget factory campaigns are gone, almost certainly forever. All things must pass……….. One area that will surely survive is the historic scene. Evidence of this was to be found at Brands Hatch a week or so back. The HSCC Super Prix demonstrated the depth and commitment of the historic fraternity; great cars and great racing at the fabulous Brands Hatch circuit. Proof, if any were needed, that this storm will dissipate one day. Simon Hildrew was to be found trackside, cameras in hand, to record this celebration of speed and grace. This entry was posted in The Focal Point and tagged Brands Hatch, HSCC Super Prix, Simon Hildrew on July 24, 2020 by John Brooks. Not Seeking Closure My Big Year – The Prologue Hampton Court Highlights Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness Brands Hatch Mastery Tom Nelson on Not Seeking Closure John Brooks on Not Seeking Closure John Brooks on About Leigh Greenham on About Bridgehampton Guy Creeksider From A Continental Correspondent From A Special Correspondent Kensington Gore My Big Year Notes from the Cellar Oh Dear….. Race Reflections Rare and Interesting The Big Figure The Blink of An Eye The Deep North West The Golden State Correspondent The Social Pages Trumpet Blowing Vue de l'autre côté de la Manche	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line150
__label__wiki	0.630769	0.630769	Is the Islamic State Impacting Egypt? Posted by Jack Smith \| Sep 8, 2014 \| Arab Spring, Bible prophecy, Egypt, ISIS \| 0 \| Former Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi Exclusive: Islamic State guides Egyptian militants, expanding its influence Cairo, Friday, September 5, 2014 (Reuters) – Islamic State, fighting to redraw the map of the Middle East, has been coaching Egypt’s most dangerous militant group, complicating efforts to stabilize the biggest Arab nation. Confirmation that Islamic Sate, currently the most successful of the region’s jihadi groups, is extending its influence to Egypt will sound alarm bells in Cairo, where the authorities are already facing a security challenge from home-grown militants. A senior commander from the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, [a Sunni Salafi jihadist group] which has killed hundreds of members of the Egyptian security forces over the last year, said Islamic State has provided instructions on how to operate more effectively.((Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis was designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department on 9 April 2014, as well as by the government of the United Kingdom on 7 April 2014.)) … Ansar recently said it had beheaded four Egyptians, accusing them of providing Israel with intelligence for an air strike that killed three of its fighters. Four headless corpses were found in the Sinai Peninsula. It was the first time that any decapitations had been made public in Egypt, a strategic U.S. ally which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the Suez Canal, a key global shipping route. … The Ansar commander, who said his group had contacted Islamic State for advice, described the beheadings as a clear message that anyone cooperating with the group’s enemies would face a similar fate. “The beheadings had a purpose,” he said. (Read more) Imagine how quickly the remnants of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood would align with ISIS? Even if they don’t agree with ISIS’ use of brutal violence or of Caliph Ibrahim’s legitimacy as caliph, I really don’t think that will matter. After all, Muhammad Mursi, the former Egyptian president, removed from office by General Abdel al-Sisi and still in confinement, would hardly have to be talked into supporting ISIS in getting himself out of jail. Consider this prophecy: Daniel 11:42-43 (NASB) Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. “But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels. If you think about it there are so many disenfranchised Muslims all over the Middle East, it is quite literally fertile breeding ground for the Islamic State. The monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the political instability of Egypt and other Middle East countries, many of which have Arab Spring fresh on their minds, make the reach of the Islamic State much greater than the geographies of Iraq and Syria. I do not think the Islamic State is even near to being corralled, whether coalition forces join President Obama or not. PreviousEbola timeline is chilling. How many deaths before contained? NextObama’s War Strategy Against the “JV Terrorists” of Islamic State President Abbas “Claims” Jesus in Christmas Eve Speech Mainline Christian Denomination Praying to Allah? First Ebola case diagnosed in Texas Astonishing…Well Researched…Compelling (Review of Islam the Cloak of Antichrist)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line155
__label__cc	0.583557	0.416443	Music industry advice Tag Archives: publishers Music Business Contacts: Music Business Registry connects artists, managers, publishers, producers & Posted on October 24, 2020 by dhian “The difference between success and failure is information,” notes Ritch Esra, and he should know. Along with his partner, Stephen Trumbull, Esra is a leading part of the number one most-reliable source of information on “who’s who” and “who does what” in the music business. Best of all, they can tell you where everybody is located. FIVE VOLUMES OF DATA. The Music Business Registry (http://www.musicregistry.com) publishes five directories: the “A&R Registry,” the “Music Publisher Registry,” the “Music Business Attorney Registry” the “Film and Television Music Guide,” and the “Record Producer and Recording Engineer Directory.” For many in the business, these are indispensable reference works. “The directories give everyone vital, accurate and the most up-to-date information they need to contact the entire A&R, music publishing, legal and film/TV music communities,” Esra states. From comparing notes with dozens of professionals in all of these areas of expertise, I can tell you that no one disputes his claim. More than one music industry executive has told me that the Music Business Registry publications are worth their weight in platinum. Tess Taylor, president of NARIP (National Association of Record Industry Professionals), says “I couldn’t get through one day without the directories from the Music Business Registry. These publications are the finest in the business.” Each directory tells you how to reach industry professionals by regular mail, e-mail, direct dial telephone and fax. The books provide each person’s exact title, street address, the name of their assistant and the styles of music in which each executive specializes. Web sites are also included. UPDATES? YOU WANT UPDATES? The world of the A&R executive is exciting but ever-changing. Which is to say, there’s a lot of turnover in this part of the industry. So much turnover, in fact, that the A&R Registry is completely updated and reprinted every eight weeks, whereas the publisher volume is biannual and the other books come out yearly. NEED A PRODUCER? HERE ARE 1,700 OF THEM! Created in partnership with RPM Direct, the “Record Producer & Recording Engineer Directory” presents 1,700 of today’s leading Record Producers, Recording Engineers & Remixers throughout the US, Canada and Europe in every genre of music. Included in the book are: (1) Complete contact information for every Producer, Remixer & Recording Engineer along with a list of their credits. (2) Producer/Engineer/Remixer Management Companies including a complete staff listing as well as full client rosters. (3) A Complete Index to easily locate any producer. (4) Several Interviews and articles with today’s leading Producers & Engineers. No wonder you can find the Music Business Registry’s publications in the offices of top record company executives, music publishers, artist managers, agents, music attorneys, recording artists, studios and other music business professionals everywhere from Los Angeles to London, New York to Nashville, Chicago to Copenhagen, Toronto to Tokyo, Stockholm to Sydney and Minneapolis to Munich. YOUR SEARCH BEGINS HERE. The Music Business Registry is located at 7510 Sunset Blvd #1041, Los Angeles, CA 90046-3400. Phone: 800-377-7411 or 818-995-7458. Fax: 800-228-9411 or 818-995-7459. E-mail: [email protected]. Posted in Uncategorized \| Tagged amp, Artists, Business, connects, Contacts, managers, Music, music industry, producers, publishers, Registry Archives Select Month November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 Why Do Rappers And Singers Choose To Buy Rap Beats Online? 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__label__wiki	0.959815	0.959815	The quiet and classy leader of the team, Smith is starting his sixth consecutive season in the yellow and blue. A courteous player and person, Smith is endowed with an incredible understanding of the game, he is a winner with excellent shooting skills from mid-range and from downtown, as well as an outstanding rebounder and defensive player. Smith came to Maccabi in the summer of 2011, after being chosen two years running to the All-Eurocup First Team (with Greek club Panellinios and with Benetton Treviso of Italy). He was impressive even in his first season, and excelled in the amazing quarterfinal series against Panathinaikos, in which he contributed an average of 13.2 points and 8 rebounds. The following season he averaged 11.5 points per game and was chosen the Euroleague MVP for the month of March 2013. During the 2014 season, Smith was one of the cornerstones in Maccabi’s fantastic run up to the claiming of the Euroleague title, with 9.9 points and 5.6 rebounds. He was one of the standouts in the Final against Real Madrid with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Last season (2015) Smith posted the best numbers of his career so far – 15 points and 6.1 rebounds in the Euroleague - in which he led Maccabi in minutes, points, rebounds, and index. Devin was selected that season to the All-Israeli League First Team, and to the All-Euroleague Second Team; he also passed the 1,000 career point mark in both the Euroleague and the Israeli League. Smith is the only player in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s history to win the Euroleague MVP of the month twice, in March 2013 and December 2014. He has also been named MVP of the Israeli Cup Final twice (2013 and 2015). As of today, Smith has won with Maccabi 4 Israeli Cups, 2 Israeli Championships, 1 Adriatic League Championship, and 1 Euroleague Championship. The most seasons played with Maccabi Tel Aviv by a foreign player currently stands at 6, and belongs to both Nikola Vujcic and the late Kevin Magee. If Devin completes the contract he signed with Maccabi (for 3 seasons), he will break that record with a total of 7 seasons in the yellow and blue. Game shirt of Devin Smith Euroleague Israel League Israeli Cup League Cup Winner League Andrew Goudelock Victor Rudd D.J. Seeley Tomer Zalmanson Nimrod Levi Gal Mekel Nave Ben Shemen Amit Ebo Colton Iverson Quincy Miller	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line166
__label__wiki	0.797168	0.797168	M4s are promoted as Champions This Saturday our Men’s 4’s played top-of-the-table Surbiton on the Sand pitch in a winner-takes-LHL Division 4-title head-to-head. A close first half ended with Southgate just on top at 2-1 and the Surbiton side getting a little cross with each other! Some great movement, pin-point passing, delightful skills and clinical finishing saw the 4s put a further four goals past Surbiton to secure a massive 6-1 win and the League Title with a game still to play. Played 19, Won 17, Drew 1 and Lost 1. Goals for (so far) 94, Goals Against 25. Congratulations to all that have been involved this season. Alex Jones (as well as his goalkeeping duties) took over as Captain and has lead the team from the back! His performances in goal have been magnificent – the 4s have kept more clean sheets than any other team in the Club. The new Captain allowed the previous skipper – Matt Hawkins – to concentrate on his own game – this proved successful and Matt has had his best season at the Club as evidenced by his outstanding performance against Surbiton on Saturday. Alex Burns slotted in as Vice-Captain and centre midfield talisman. He also was team recruiter getting brothers Rory Burns and Freddie Burns to join the Club, secure their places and become key to the success of the team – the three of them became known as The Burns Unit! Ben Keeble was solid and reliable playing the sweeper role. His regular forays up the pitch with the ball barely under control but somehow get past players is quite a sight to behold. Other new Club members this season all fitted together in this 4s team that only started the season with 5 regulars from the previous campaign. Will Cherry playing at attacking right back always fooled the opposition with his left foot/right foot dummy which was responsible for setting up many goals. Grant Hancock has been an ever-sold, safe and vocal performer at Centre Back and such a crucial member of the team having lost Carl Morris from last season. Nathan de Ruwe – our Belgium striker has brought European style hockey the Men’s 4s and with his characteristically wrong blue shorts has ruined many a Saturday for opposing defenders. Alex Gibson has been another success story – returning to the Club in his 20s after last played at Southgate as a young teenager, Alex has been tireless all season in midfield and has made the game look so simple. In addition to the influx of new players, we have some well-known players who have been playing in others teams for most of their lives – Ollie Plummer is one such example. Ollie has had a strong season, chucking pin-point aerials that have caused havoc for the opposition and, at times, his own team it has to be said! Of course, we cannot forget Chris Kastelik or simply “Lik” – in the games he has played the goal count is considerably more. His finishing must be the best in the league and he has done it again this season with great success – clinical. And then there are the “Juniors”. It doesn’t sound like the right collective to use as they are playing the Men’s game and competing like-for-like but young, junior members of the Club they are. Rob Gill started the season the 4s but very quickly showed he could play higher and moved and stayed up in the 3s. Archie Brown played some lovely games for the 4s and was rewarded with some games up in the 3s as well. Kyal Shukla had a really solid first half of the season, showed great strength and commitment and has been a fixture of the 3s since Christmas. Rajan Shukla has shown such skill all season to the point where defenders have made themselves look inadequate in response – the Surbiton game on Saturday emphasised this point. Freddie Shiret and grown as a competitor by playing in the 4s this season (he doesn’t need to grow any more in height!); when available he has been a natural pick and played a key role throughout. Then, more recently we have seen Barney Collier (U15 year group) and Tom Davies come up through the 3As proving ground and shown themselves to be comfortable playing at this level. Barney with his skill and energy has added a little something extra to the team in the past four or five games and has got on the scoresheet virtually every week. Tom proved that he was ready for the jump too and his game against Surbiton showed just how far he has come this season under the Coaching of Sam Marchant and the Stewardship of Nigel Knight. CONGRATULATIONS to our Men’s 4s and all that have been involved in supporting, transporting, coaching and playing – now let’s see them go on to win the Play-Offs	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line176
__label__wiki	0.933323	0.933323	Biden Melts Down After Reporter Asks About His Son's Dirty Dealings Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden didn't react positively to a devastating Senate report that was released on Wednesday detailing his son Hunter's dirty dealings while good old Joe was Obama's vice president. In a response to a reporter's question on revelations that Biden the younger received money from the wife of a former mayor of Moscow and that he sent money to people connected to human sex trafficking, lunchbucket Joe melted down.Help Us TAKE DOWN The Liberal Media With Our TRUMP News Mobile App!* It's understandable that Biden is a bit sensitive about the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) and the Committee on Finance report. Via The Daily Wire: The report outlined the following key findings from the investigation: In early 2015 the former Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, George Kent, raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. Kent’s concerns went unaddressed, and in September 2016, he emphasized in an email to his colleagues, “Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.” In October 2015, senior State Department official Amos Hochstein raised concerns with Vice President Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. Although Kent believed that Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board was awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine, the Committees are only aware of two individuals — Kent and former U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein — who raised concerns to Vice President Joe Biden (Hochstein) or his staff (Kent). The awkwardness for Obama administration officials continued well past his presidency. Former Secretary of State John Kerry had knowledge of Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board, but when asked about it at a town hall event in Nashua, N.H. on Dec. 8, 2019, Kerry falsely said, “I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No.” Evidence to the contrary is detailed in Section V. Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland testified that confronting oligarchs would send an anticorruption message in Ukraine. Kent told the Committees that Zlochevsky was an “odious oligarch.” However, in December 2015, instead of following U.S. objectives of confronting oligarchs, Vice President Biden’s staff advised him to avoid commenting on Zlochevsky and recommended he say, “I’m not going to get into naming names or accusing individuals.” Hunter Biden was serving on Burisma’s board (supposedly consulting on corporate governance and transparency) when Zlochevsky allegedly paid a $7 million bribe to officials serving under Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to “shut the case against Zlochevsky.” Kent testified that this bribe occurred in December 2014 (seven months after Hunter joined Burisma’s board), and, after learning about it, he and the Resident Legal Advisor reported this allegation to the FBI. Hunter Biden was a U.S. Secret Service protectee from Jan. 29, 2009 to July 8, 2014. A day before his last trip as a protectee, Time published an article describing Burisma’s ramped up lobbying efforts to U.S. officials and Hunter’s involvement in Burisma’s board. Before ending his protective detail, Hunter Biden received Secret Service protection on trips to multiple foreign locations, including Moscow, Beijing, Doha, Paris, Seoul, Manila, Tokyo, Mexico City, Milan, Florence, Shanghai, Geneva, London, Dublin, Munich, Berlin, Bogota, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, Hong Kong, Taipei, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Johannesburg, Brussels, Madrid, Mumbai and Lake Como. Andrii Telizhenko, the Democrats’ personification of Russian disinformation, met with Obama administration officials, including Elisabeth Zentos, a member of Obama’s National Security Council, at least 10 times. A Democrat lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies, contracted with Telizhenko from 2016 to 2017 and continued to request his assistance as recent as the summer of 2019. A recent news article detailed other extensive contacts between Telizhenko and Obama administration officials. In addition to the over $4 million paid by Burisma for Hunter Biden’s and Archer’s board memberships, Hunter Biden, his family, and Archer received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds. Archer received $142,300 from Kenges Rakishev of Kazakhstan, purportedly for a car, the same day Vice President Joe Biden appeared with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk and addressed Ukrainian legislators in Kyiv regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea. Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. Hunter Biden opened a bank account with Gongwen Dong to fund a $100,000 global spending spree with James Biden and Sara Biden. Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People’s Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow. Hunter Biden paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and who appear to be linked to an “Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.” The report also stated that the investigation found that the Obama administration “knew that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine.” *Get your Patriotic face masks with FREE SHIPPING today* The exploits of Hunter Biden are already legendary with the heir to the family dynasty being booted out of the Navy after testing positive for cocaine, having his personal information revealed in the hack of adultery clearinghouse Ashley Madison – he blamed Russia – and an ugly divorce which revealed sordid tales of drugs and hookers. He also wasted no time in rushing to hop into the sack with his dead brother’s widow after Beau Biden tragically died of brain cancer. He also recently settled a paternity suit that could have been problematic to Biden’s campaign. The kicker? The woman who was suing him alleges that he was boinking her while he was engaged in his torrid and tawdry affair with his sister-in-law; talk about a triple-dipper! Then there are the drugs – lots of them. According to a Page Six report, Hunter Biden was suspected to have smoked crack with strippers at a bar near the White House. Workers at Archibald’s, located about three blocks north of the White House, said Biden was a regular there, with two bartenders and a security worker all instantly recognizing his photo and one worker identifying him by name. Security worker Ranko Petrovic said Biden — the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner to challenge President Trump next year — would routinely hole up in a VIP room and drink during his visits. Although Petrovic said the club “had no issue with him,” former Archibald’s managing partner James Ritter said one occasion in late 2018 was marred by a “suspicion of drug use.” “There was a smell of burning Styrofoam in the VIP room. We told him nothing illegal can go on here,” Ritter said. Biden's reaction to the reporter's question has almost certainly gotten President Trump's attention and look for him to goad lunchpail Joe into a spectacular meltdown on national television during next week's debate. God knows that Hunter Biden has given him plenty of material to work with.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line179
__label__cc	0.532004	0.467996	Top 5 Movie Guide: Jude Law Posted by Unknown on February 06, 2013 For the latest edition of the Top 5 Movie Guide, thanks to this weekend's "Side Effects", we decided to take a look at some of our favorite Jude Law films. Born and raised in London, Law got his start in acting at age 15. He attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but eventually dropped out to pursue a full-time acting gig, working for the National Youth Music Theatre. He worked for the company until 1995, when a musical on Broadway, "Indiscretions", stole his attention and even earned him a Tony nomination for his work. From there he dabbled in a variety of small television roles until landing a couple of big breaks in the late 90's. After appearing in successful films "Gattaca" (1997) and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999), he had arrived as a Hollywood actor. He followed up both performances with equally strong roles in "Enemy at the Gates" (2001) and "Road to Perdition" (2002), making him one of the more intriguing young actors coming out of the U.K. at the time. Law, who has been nominated for two Academy Awards for his work in the films "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Could Mountain", has maintained impressive success in his continued acting career. And with his work recently as Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes films alongside Robert Downey, Jr., for the first time in his career, he's a major blockbuster success (both films have out-grossed any of his previous films by roughly $100MM in the theaters). Finally, before we dig in, we wanted to take this time to introduce our newest contributor to this post, Tracy Allison. I know things have been a bit sporadic recently with this post's membership, but there is hope here that we have finally found a fifth member that can provide consistent, insightful contributions. Besides the fact that she provides a slightly different perspective on film than the rest of us, she is a welcomed female addition to the crew that fills a much needed voice for the site. And for those of you concerned about this direction, do not worry. To answer the only pressing question that we know you all have, yes, she does love Star Wars. If all goes well, we'll stick with this group of five moving forward. Hopefully you'll enjoy her opinions as much as we do. Hit the jump for her first list, along with some thoughts from the rest of us! Alex Schopp - Jude Law is never an actor that comes to mind when thinking about some of my favorites, but when reviewing his filmography I realized that he's taken on very few roles which I dislike, and appeared in a variety of films that overall I like quite a bit. He still might not be one of my favorites, but the guy is consistent. 1. Gattaca (1997) This sci-fi flick does not get the attention it deserves! I loved this movie when I was younger, and I still consider it a staple of my sci-fi movie collection today. It's a brilliant look at dystopian society and the extremization of the same class issues we've dealt with in this country since its birth. Also, I dig the visual style in this film. 2. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) I re-watched this film recently and it was so much more powerful than I originally remembered. Again, we're looking at another dystopian sci-fi future of sorts (I'm a sucker for those themes), this time bringing a few more robots into the mix. This has an ending that will sit in the gut of your stomach, and if you don't feel something with it then you're not watching movies right. 3. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) A very unsettling film about a couple of characters with some major issues. Matt Damon and Jude Law play perfectly off of each other, and both provide performances to where you're not sure if you want/should root for or against them. And while I'm not finding great words to describe it, the film has a great overall style that I find pretty unique. 4. Cold Mountain (2003) I'm not sure why I enjoy this film quite so much, but I just do. There's a lot of great scenery, and solid supporting performances by a handful of quality actors. I love Kidman and Zellweger's team-up, as they both become very strong women fending for themselves for so long. While the film is long and dense at times, I feel like it's also very easy for me to turn on and enjoy. A great rainy Sunday afternoon watch. 5. Contagion (2011) Very new, I know. And I don't actually even like Law's character in this very much - but I know I'm not supposed to; there's always gotta be that guy during any crisis that tries to profit and illicit panic. Overall, I just loved the film though. Great cast, great vibe, great soundtrack. Ben Foutch - I don't have any problems with Law as an actor, but I'm not completely in love with his filmography. Having said that, I still enjoy the following films: 1. Road to Perdition (2002) I'm a sucker for this type of story. Besides the fact that it is an expertly crafted thriller, Law gives a strong performance with facial expressions and body language that say more than words ever can. This is an example of thought provoking sci-fi done right and often gets overlooked for more of the action-packed variety. 3. eXistenZ (1999) Most of Cronenberg's work definitely straddles the line of watchability, and this one isn't an exception. There are certainly flaws, but the effective setup/payoff is well worth its shortcomings. If you're a fan of the surreal side of Cronenberg, than this is a must-see. 4. Closer (2004) I enjoy dramas that aren't sugar coated, and believe me when I say there isn't anything sweet about this one. It gives credence to the saying that love is complicated. 5. Enemy at the Gates (2001) If you're a history buff, it might be best to stay away from this one. Regardless of the inaccuracies, it's a tense and enjoyable flick. Derek Clem - Out of all of his movies, I think this is the one I've seen the most. It's a really easy watch. The whole idea of turning a soldier into propaganda is interesting territory. Law adds such a creepy vibe to this movie. Once Nolan started his Batman franchise I was really hoping he'd cast Jude Law to play The Riddler similar to this. This is probably my favorite movie on this list. Jude Law plays quite the convincing robot. 4. Could Mountain (2003) I just love using this as a background movie. If you pay attention it'll get you all sad and depressed, but if you just look at the pretty colors, cinematography, and listen to the music, you have a nice Autumn day on your hands. This might be my second favorite movie on this list. Jude Law isn't necessarily what you walk away from this movie remembering. It's the look. It has such a sharp visual style. I love that whole deco-future look it has going for itself. Nathan Hinds - Jude Law should be a bigger name than he is. If only he'd played The Riddler in a Nolan Batman film. The guy is downright terrifying in this movie. This gets better every time I watch it. 3. Sherlock Holmes (2009) This is a great "Sunday afternoon" movie as Alex like's to say. Was not into this movie the first time I saw it, now I love it. 5. Repo Men (2010) I liked the style of this film, and thought it was a easy watch. Tracy Allison - Matt Damon’s screen time may outweigh that of Jude Law’s in this film, but that didn't seem to hinder my latent admiration of Law’s portrayal of the young, spoiled expatriate. In my opinion, this was a near perfect depiction of charisma, selfishness, and self-involvement. He shines most as he grows more and more suspicious of Damon’s character, teasing him mercilessly, thereby setting off a chain reaction of events that impacts each character from that point on. While certainly not an uplifting story, Jude Law fits in well with this eclectic, yet well matched group of actors. In a scene between Law and Julia Roberts that will never leave my mind, he painfully resists kissing her even though he so wants to. The look on his face is a mixture of desire, contempt, and restraint. His vulnerability in this film is the draw for me here and he’s obsessive in such a real way. This depiction of a dysfunctional love quadrangle garnered great performances from each actor. In the "The Talented Mr. Ripley", Jude Law is the victim of identity theft, but in "Gattaca", he proves to be a willing participant. Law’s character is introduced essentially as a ‘perfect human specimen’ save for one flaw – he is paralyzed from the waist down. You can almost feel his internal struggle throughout this thoughtful science fiction film, thanks to his brooding, haunting eyes. His eyes made him unpredictable throughout the movie, and I was never sure what his angle was, what he was involved in, or how he would end up. 4. Alfie (2004) The movie itself doesn't hold up amazingly well for me, but Jude Law’s character in it does. This role seems like it was written for him. He shines in this remake as a playboy that you can’t help feeling for as his life turns to shambles. His transformation from the carefree, charismatic lothario into an emotional loner is what makes this movie worth seeing. 5. I Heart Huckabees (2004) Jude Law’s character in "I Heart Huckabees" is a pandering corporate man who eventually meets his match in that of Jason Schwartzman’s character. As the movie progresses, his exquisite breakdown culminates in the comedy laden understanding of two previously opposing forces in that of Jason and Jude. There we have it, folks. Thirteen total films mentioned this week, so more than enough variety to go around. Eight films appeared on more than one list, and four different films earned a number one pick. We'll start with the most represented film though, which was "Gattaca", appearing on four of the five lists and grabbing one first-place vote. This early sci-fi film is well detailed in the above writings, and was arguably the film that launched Law's career. The entire cast in this one is great, and if you like your sci-fi films to work in a slow simmer, then this is the flick for you. Two different films appeared on three lists: "Road to Perdition" and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence". "Road to Perdition", by the way, was the only film to earn multiple top picks this week, scoring two. Both are quality films, with "Road to Perdition" being the more distinguished film of the two; but if you like Steven Spielberg science fiction, then you're going to want to give A.I. a viewing as well. Rounding things out, that leaves five films which hit on two lists apiece: "The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Enemy at the Gates", "Cold Mountain", "Closer", and "Contagion". There's too much here to note in detail, but there is good reason why each of these films appeared on multiple lists. Each of these should be included in your early rounds of viewing, as you sift your way through Law's filmography. There's a lot of great stuff in this small block alone that should include something appeasing to fans of most any genre. As always, we hope that each of these selections helps you to expand your knowledge and appreciation of some of the best films that Jude Law has provided over the years, and guides you to better and more enjoyable all-around viewing experiences. Top 5 Movie Guide	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line183
__label__wiki	0.75472	0.75472	Call of Duty: Roads to Victory PSP / Reviews / by Graham Russell / Call of Duty: Roads to Victory is the obligatory PSP port of the series, which has hit most consoles at least twice since its debut in 2003. At this point, most people know what to expect: a standard World War II-based military shooter with a dark, dismal look and solid gameplay. This version is no exception. The game’s three campaigns allow players to fight with the Americans, Canadians and British, though there isn’t really a story. The control scheme on the PSP is adequate considering the lack of an extra analog stick, with the implementation of an auto-aim function. At times this makes the game too easy, while at others it’s extremely buggy – it’s literally hit-or-miss. To compensate for this simpler control scheme, Activision and Amaze Entertainment have dumbed-down the A.I., though they might have taken it too far. The game’s look is standard for the series: gray and brown. It sets the atmosphere fine, but there are times when higher contrast might help to see enemies and things more clearly. It’s a stylistic decision, but it does trade gameplay for authenticity. The multiplayer is fun, though there’s no online play. For a game like Call of Duty, this seems like a mistake. Regardless, the ad hoc modes are the standards: Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and King of the Hill are here, and they’re decent. There’s nothing that sets this apart from other games, though. It seems like Roads to Victory was an afterthought of sorts. The story, voice acting and campaigns just aren’t captivating or exciting. It’s solid, but there’s no real selling point here. Ultimately, the game’s 14-mission main campaign is just too short to pay full price for, but it wouldn’t be a bad pickup when available on the cheap.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line186
__label__cc	0.556988	0.443012	Category: varnelis.net On Natural Philosophies Recently, a friend mentioned that she believed “natural philosophies” would become more popular in this decade. I responded by pointing out that AUDC’s Blue Monday is subtitled Stories of Absurd Realties and Natural Philosophies. Here is an excerpt from the introduction that gets to the point of what a natural philosophy is and why we employed it. We are certainly attracted by Deleuze and Guattari’s organizational logics and Hardt and Negri’s tales of Empire as well as Baudrillard’s theories of totalized consumption of the sign and the system of objects, Žižek’s fictionalization of the real, and Jameson’s dissection of late capitalism. These are fascinating explanatory frameworks, but, scandalously, they don’t add up. To weave a coherent whole out of them would be sheer madness. So how to proceed? During our research into the evolution of art, science, and philosophy we found that these fields were once much more intimately related than they had been in the last century. Prior to the Enlightenment and the development of the scientific method, science was dominated by natural philosophy, a method of studying nature and the physical universe through observation rather than through experimentation. Virtually all contemporary forms of science developed out of natural philosophy, but unlike more modern scientists, natural philosophers like Galileo felt no need to test their ideas in a practical way. On the contrary, they observed the world to derive philosophical conclusions. Taken together, these didn’t necessarily add up. But the lack of metanarrative for natural philosophy is not an obstacle for us, instead it is a strength. Natural philosophy flourished from the 12th century to the 17th and with it did cabinets of curiosities, sometimes entire rooms, sometimes quite literally elaborate cabinets, filled with strange and wondrous things. These first museums collected seemingly disparate objects of fascination in a specific architectural setting, assigning to each item a place in a larger network of meaning created by the room as a whole. In the cabinet each object would be a macrocosm of the larger world, illustrating the wonder of its divine artifice. Together however, their affinities would become apparent and a syncretic vision of the unity of all things would emerge, as the words Athanasius Kircher inscribed on the ceiling of his museum suggested: “Whosoever perceives the chain that binds the world below to the world above will know the mysteries of nature and achieve miracles.” For the natural philosopher, the cabinet of curiosities possessed a reflexive quality: it was both an exhibition and a source of wonder, a system the natural philosopher built to instruct others but also to coax himself into further thought.[i] This book, like our web site or an AUDC installation, is a cabinet of curiosities, consisting of a series of conditions that AUDC observes in order to speculate on them in the manner of natural philosophy, extrapolating not theories that could then be applied to architecture but rather philosophies to explain the world. The result is neither the relativist pluralism nor a single monist philosophy, but rather a set of multiple philosophies that almost add up, but being situationally derived, don’t quite. [i] Patrick Mauries, Cabinets of Curiosities (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2002), 25-26. Some further sources on cabinets of curiosities are Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998) and Giorgio Agamben, “The Cabinet of Wonder” in The Man Without Content (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 28-39. Posted in varnelis.netLeave a comment On Art and Social Distance What of art in this plague year? With our isolation compounded by unprecedented political polarization, is there any hope of exploring the commonality of shared experience through art? As many of us head into our lockdown again, we are all too aware that the implementation of “social distancing” has produced a transformation in our society, unprecedented within our lifetimes; how might art reflect on such processes? Consider the term “social distancing.” This peculiar phrase is currently being used to refer to physical separation between individuals in order to reduce exposure to viruses, but prior to this year it had a long history in sociology, referring to social separation among individuals and groups. Like many sociological concepts, social distancing originates with the foundational writings of sociologist Georg Simmel. In his 1903 “The Metropolis and Mental Life,” Simmel describes the growing distance between individuals as a consequence of modernization and the spatial condition of the city: This mental attitude of metropolitans toward one another we may designate, from a formal point of view, as reserve. If so many inner reactions were responses to the continuous external contacts with innumerable people as are those in the small town, where one knows almost everybody one meets and where one has a positive relation to almost everyone, one would be completely atomized internally and come to an unimaginable psychic state. Social distance, then, develops when physical distance is not possible and serves as a means of protecting the psyche. Nor is it done alone. On the contrary, social distance is frequently experienced communally: modern individuals flock with others of their kind and, in doing so, experience distance from those outside the group, those that they perceive as unlike themselves. For Simmel, the stranger is both near and far from us: close enough to provoke anxiety yet isolated and therefore unknown. Hence, this sociological explanation would lead us to understand racism as a product of social distance. Racism, it follows, is not so much a prejudiced encounter with individuals at distant remove, but rather a violent misperception of individuals in close proximity. The increasing polarization of American politics between the “woke folx” and the “deplorables” is further evidence of this, with both groups existing as a defense against a dangerous Other while providing a mechanism for reinforcing their member’s shattered identities. With the dominance of contemporary life by social media, the wounded self becomes a reposting machine for social media outrages as a means for the self to affirming its identity and existence through repetition, much as in a liturgical response. But being based entirely on the external threat of an Othered group, the result is a malfunction of social distance as psychic defense. Not only does political discourse grind to a halt, the self fails to develop as an individual. Facing increasing reliance on social media for human connection leads us toward a feedback loop of dopaminergic rewards for positive social stimuli and, like a chimpanzee in a lab cage punching buttons for cocaine-laced biscuits, we are led closer toward the “unimaginable psychic state” of the completely atomized dividual. This sociological concept of social distance initially appears quite different from pandemic quarantine. And yet, it’s no coincidence that political and racial tensions have risen to a fifty-year high in the United States: the social distancing of quarantine and the social distancing of the modern city share similarities. The chance encounters of the street, the park, and the pub have largely ended. Endless Zoom meetings with one’s co-workers or classmates reinforces positions in class structures. Reading the news about groups that egregiously flaunt restrictions angers us and sets us against them. Our isolation leads us to become more addicted to social media and as social media algorithms highlight our posts to those people who “liked” our previous posts, we condition ourselves to the rush of “likes,” of feedback from those people who already give us feedback——creating a false sense of belonging and an experience of growing distance from those unlike ourselves. So, then, back to the original question I posed: is there any hope of exploring the commonality of shared experience through art? Early telematic art offers a direction for us. Forty years ago Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, working as the Mobile Image group, created a series of projects entitled “Aesthetic Research in Telecommunications,” both anticipating and surpassing the videoconferencing that has come to be identified with life under quarantine. In Satellite Arts: A Space With No Boundaries (1977), they connected dancers located three thousand miles apart via low-latency satellite links. Although at times the dancers interacted on split screens, as we might see friends interacting on Zoom or Facetime, Galloway and Rabinowitz also composited them together on the screen visible to the audience, thereby creating a third, virtual space. In Hole in Space (1980), they created wormholes to bring together people from opposite coasts. Unlike our screen-based videoconferencing, Hole in Space employed life-size screens displayed in public spaces (Los Angeles’s Century City Shopping Center and New York’s Lincoln Center respectively). Deliberately unadvertised, Hole in Space was as they put it, “a social situation with no rules,” a new condition that, as a documentary of the work shows, was profoundly moving to the people who participated. In a third project, the Electronic Cafe of 1984, they connected five restaurants—in Korean, Hispanic, African-American, and beach communities—with video equipment and drawing tablets so that individuals in one venue (including artists-in-residence) could exchange ideas and images with unknown individuals in another. Throughout, Galloway and Rabinowitz approached electronic technology as a means of overcoming both physical distance and the social distance between individuals. It’s possible to imagine what a new telematic art might look like today, outside of the confines of conventional videoconferencing. For example, already yin 2004, AUDC (myself and Robert Sumrell) proposed creating guerrilla versions of the Hole in Space cartable in a backpack that could be deployed at random throughout a network of cities. At the time we wrote: Windows on the World is a formulary for a new urbanism that alleviates boredom with the city and encourages communication in public, rather than private settings. It facilitates open, spontaneous, and democratic exchanges between groups while requiring no special skills to operate. Participants share both their differences and similarities through direct interaction, replacing the myth of global hegemony and projected stereotypes with personal experience. Windows on the World remaps our cities to create a telematic dérive. Guy Debord’s map “the Naked City” is now a map of the world. Each portal becomes what the Situationists called a plaque tournante, a center, a place of exchange, a site where ambiance dominates and planners’ power to control our lives is disrupted. People can wander from portal to portal within their city, experiencing and constructing different situations. Windows on the World changes the experience people have not only of the world, but of their city. Like the Situationist dérive, Windows on the World operates outside of commerce and planning. There is no advertisement. The project is at its strongest when it is by chance. Some portals are temporary, even hidden. Others are improbable, or not easy to access. In a back alley in Prague, shaded by a Northern exposure, is a portal to a zoo in Sao Paolo. From a dangerous street in the Bronx, a door opens onto the Champs-Elysees. Another portal, in Zurich, looks out onto a busy railroad yard in Rotterdam. Sixteen years have passed and the widespread adoption of social media during that time has led us to confuse the public and the private. We invite our friends and even strangers into our living rooms and our bedrooms. Formality has fallen away as suit and dress have given way to sweatpants and leggings. But there is no comfort to these forms of sociality or dress. Instead, we understand ourselves to always be on display, to have to perform at all times to receive our dopamine rush both for social interaction and for work, which is ever more subject to bureaucratic projects like “agile frameworks” and “total quality management” offering micro-rewards and micro-punishments for meaningless tasks completed. With this new search for (over) stimulus, there is every chance that a project like Windows on the World will fail as individuals provoke each other like chimps in separate cages at a zoo (or as humans do on Chatroulette). But thinking through how social connections and an appeal to a universal human connection might be made today—however obliquely—is an imperative task for art and technology. Work in this vein certainly does not always need to provide an affirmative alternative space. Returning to my own work at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2016, the Perkūnas project aims to make us sonically aware of the social distancing produced by network culture. Visually, this structure is both abstract—a simple architectural form—and a harbinger from another world, hence the name Perkūnas [the Lithuanian name for (the God of) Thunder]. Built of large ventilation ducting commonly found (and heard) in art museums and other large public structures, Perkūnas’s role isn’t to condition the air in the environment, rather it is to produce sound in accordance with the number of Wi-Fi enabled devices in the room. A microprocessor monitors the space for active Wi-Fi-enabled electronic gadgets, increasing or decreasing the amount of air flowing through the duct and hence, the amount of noise in the room based on the number of gadgets. If there are no gadgets present or if everyone’s Wi-Fi is disabled, the duct makes little or no sound. With a couple of gadgets, it make a louder sound. The more gadgets, the more sound. Our ability to communicate verbally is directly affected by the amount of gadgets. If we leave our gadgets behind or turn them off, Perkūnas stays quiet. But people don’t read wall text, they look at their phones, distracted by whatever algorithm is guiding them along their day and Perkūnas howls at them, their distraction drowning out their ability to communicate verbally. Perkūnas doesn’t bring people together, but it suggests one direction for an art that can speak frankly to us about our social media-obsessed world without resorting to parody or false political promises about participation. Finding new ways for art to negotiate the space between social media and social distancing is a task at hand. Art Strike is Over After the election of the Tyrant, a strange thing happened to me. I found my drive to make art and to write about culture evaporate. This didn’t happened all at once and, for a time, I kept up a certain level of production, but I noticed my disdain for these activities rising. Somehow, producing for a failed culture seemed wrong. Instead, as I’ve chronicled here, I turned inward, taking on a variety of projects at our house, but also turning to radical gardening with native plants as a process of healing a small piece of land much damaged by human disturbance (notably construction of this property forty years ago) together with the violence of contemporary landscaping. It’s been incredibly valuable to practice radical gardening but it’s also a matter of temporal displacement: the work I have done won’t be visible for years to come: it’s an investment in a better future, optimism that this nightmare would end. As for art, I continued research as a kind of secret activity, but I’ve definitely felt the need to retreat. At some point, I decided that I’d consciously go on an unannounced art strike while the Tyrant was in office. I couldn’t find a way to return to work that has been, at its basis, a sustained inquiry into how we behave to each other in the public realm. I’ve talked to a few friends about this and apparently this isn’t uncommon at all. Even if I don’t expect the political polarization crippling the US and the world to stop, with the Tyrant in his twilight, playing golf as performance art and flailing aimlessly about, there’s no question that a certain weight is gone. The world is still damaged, but it’s easier to sleep at night again, there’s room again to breath. If there’s another lockdown—and there should be—I’ll be here, taking notes and experimenting. Writing and research are both in the works and you’ll be seeing evidence soon. Architecture and Rage Posted on 18 June 2020 18 July 2020 This month of rage has been building for a while: the last few weeks, the last three years, are nothing new, neither for the country nor for myself. A tyrant sits on his throne, spreading his bigotry and inciting hatred. Black men and women are dying in the streets, killed by not so much by individual crooked cops as by a malignant system central to the disciplinary society that underlies our government. Nothing new here. That’s not a way of ducking the issue, that is the issue. What follows is a highly personal account that I am set out to write to underscore just how deeply fucked up the discipline of architecture is. Over thirty years ago, on August 6, 1988 I witnessed the peaceful Tompkins Square Protest against neighborhood gentrification turn into a police riot after cops charged the crowd wielding batons. Police claimed that bricks and bottles were thrown, but I was there, they lied. Cops lie, it’s a fact that my father—a conservative and fan of Ronald Reagan—taught me years before that. The cops charged us. We ran. As we inched our way back to the scene, I watched a young black man in dreadlocks being held by two cops on horses as they hit him over and over with their batons. I was fairly far away and I gauged the scene. I yelled at them and gestured obscenely, hoping they would chase me, giving the man some relief. I figured I’d duck into a storefront. Had they come after me, I am sure it would have been bloody, but they didn’t. They continued beating him. Later, the police would be charged with over a hundred counts of police brutality. Only two officers were actually found guilty of any wrongdoing and only one—conveniently for the NYPD, a woman—was dismissed. I turned 21 that year and I was in New York because I was supposed to go to Columbia for graduate school in architecture, but after three days I’d had enough and I quit, going back to Cornell to do a doctorate in the history of architecture. But these two moments aren’t random bits of biography, the first led to the second. I’d majored in history of architecture for two years at Cornell and as part of that, I took design studio as well. As was the goal of that curriculum, design studio taught me more than anything else during those two years. It seemed to me that there was something fundamentally wrong with the formalist system of education as it was taught at Cornell, where I studied, as well as at so many others schools, including Columbia. I tried to find out what was behind this system and, since the first project we worked on was the Nine Square Grid, I eventually traced it to a book that was curiously missing from Cornell’s Fine Arts Library and could only be found via interlibrary loan, the 1971 MoMA catalog, The Education of an Architect: a Point of View, which chronicled the teaching of John Hejduk at Cooper Union as well as the book that every student seemed to hide in their desks like a pornographic magazine, the 1975 Five Architects, which presented the work of Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk, and Richard Meier. These books were to be read furtively since they suggested that reading, not learning through drawing, might be possible and that the system of education then being employed, which presented itself as timeless, might itself have a history. I found it difficult, almost impossible, to square these books—filled with formal games and an architecture that defied materiality—with the real political revolution of the 1960s. How could they co-exist in the same milieu? But clearly, it was there, in his preface to Five Architects, Arthur Drexler, Director of Architecture and Design at MoMA, stated “An alternative to political romance is to be an architect, for those who actually have the necessary talent for architecture.” In 1988, bound for architecture school, I witnessed the violence in the streets and a month later, decided that it was not the time for me to go to architecture school. I wasn’t just interested in understanding the way architecture repressed politics, I needed to understand it. Against all advice, I chose to try to understand the very educational system that I detested. As I did so, I ran across two curious articles in, of all places, Spy Magazine. Spy, edited by Kurt Andersen, was this wild, satirical magazine that mercilessly targeted the celebrity class, most notably the “short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump,” who remembered that slight well enough that he tweeted about it in 2015 when Charlie Hebdo‘s offices were attacked. The first was a 1991 article by John Brodie, “Master Philip and the Boys.” Brodie examined how Philip Johnson wielded power and influence in architecture and how he gathered “the Kids,” a boys’ club of formalist architects around himself (curiously enough, this included three of the five members of the New York Five plus Robert Stern and Frank Gehry). The second was the late Michael Sorkin’s 1988 article, “Where was Philip?” (thanks, Trump, you fucking fuck, for dragging your feet on effective measures against the COVID-19 virus and thereby killing Michael Sorkin, much better a man than you or your awful children will ever be). Using primary sources, Sorkin uncovered how the very same Philip Johnson tried to create a fascist party in the United States, going so far as to accompany the Nazis on the blitzkreig into Poland, singing the invading army’s praises in (what we now call fake) news articles for extreme Right-wing publications. This led to that again: I realized these three phenomena—a formalist architectural education, an aged architect who gathered power around himself, and the largely-supressed Nazi past of that architect—were not distinct, but were all aspects of the same system. I spent three years writing a dissertation exploring how contemporary architecture was fundamentally based on a process of spectactularization—of stripping politics from history for the purposes of an illiberal politics of form. I was writing in the aftermath of the scandals about Paul de Man’s collaborationist writing and I was naïve enough to believe that the academy would take my work to heart and examine itself. Matters had already changed by the time I filed my dissertation when Franz Schulze’s published his biography of Johnson. I hadn’t known Schulze was writing the biography, or even doing research into Johnson’s fascist period until right before publication, so his work hardly impacted mine, apart from some last minute revisions. Schulze’s book was a bizarre and offensive combination of pinkwashing—Johnson loved the boys in their black boots and hot uniforms so it was all ok—and old school outing (Johnson was gay! he was gay, imagine the scandal!). Schulze, who demonstrated no interest in critical thought, either didn’t have the capacity to make the connection between the postwar whitewashing of Johnson’s Nazi past and the concomitant removal of both Left and Right politics from modern architecture or more likely, chose to ignore it. These were the same things: they both served power, privilege, and a Nietzschean drive to form at all costs. If Schulze didn’t draw this connection, I would soon find out that the academy didn’t want to hear it. I published two articles from my dissertation in the Journal of Architectural Education. Editor Diane Ghirardo greatly supported this work, as did the peer reviews I received. The first article was “We Cannot Not Know History,” in which I examined on Johnson’s Nazi past and the attempts to repress it. This immediately got me in hot water with the JAE’s parent organization, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Whether the directorate was interested in killing the article because—as they claimed—it opened the organization to libel lawsuits or whether they hoped to kill it because the article hit too close to home is up to you to decide. The second article was “The Education of the Innocent Eye.” My exploration of the formalist system of architectural education was damning as well—after all, I concluded, “An initial exposure to architecture through the absolute system of the visual language of architecture clearly puts materialist questions second. Beam, column, wall, compression, shear, and rotation take precedence, and history, theory, gender, race, and class take a backseat.” This time, quashing the article wasn’t in the cards and I won Best Article of the Year from the JAE. But I’d already found that not only was architecture not willing to tackle the questions I’d raised, my dissertation topic was, on the contrary, an impediment to a career in the academy. Granted, it was the recession, but I spent two years unable to find employment until Margaret Crawford gave me a chance to teach history and theory of architecture at SCI_Arc. Even then, my work was received with suspicion by virtually all of the design faculty there and many of would have gladly curried favor with Johnson if given the opportunity. In the end, upon becoming Director, Eric Moss asked me in an accusatory tone what I was hoping to gain from writing this sort of thing. No great surprise, it was well known that he was a wannabe Kid. He made it clear I was unwelcome in his regime and his leadership style (so clearly prefiguring Trump’s presidency in its vulgarity and absolutism) were such that I didn’t want to work for him in any event. In the meantime, I’d hoped to publish my dissertation in book form. Theory was rapidly falling out of fashion and there weren’t many takers for my work on architecture education. What still shocked me was how reluctant publishers were to publish my material on Johnson. Encouraged by some colleagues (notably Mike Davis), I put together a proposal to publish my work on Johnson together with the texts he wrote back in the 1930s. Unfortunately, these publishers had no interest in helping architecture confront itself. One asked, like Moss, “what I hoped to gain from all this.” (I started posting these articles in 2017 but the silence sapped my spirit…I’ll try again another day and see if there is any greater interest this time). I taught as a visiting faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for a term under the late, brilliant and gentle Detlef Mertins, but work there was only temporary. Clearly it wouldn’t have been possible for me to stay in the history of architecture—my work was too dangerous for a powerful figure in that program, friends confided in me (I suspected having a non-anglo-saxon name was also a problem for this fellow… as it has been in so many places throughout my life)—and that was the last time I was a full-time member of a history of architecture faculty in the US. I reinvented myself: if my dissertation had been around social networks, I now looked to theorize the impact of digital networks on cities and forged a career in that field. I managed to land a position in the laboratory research wing of the architecture school at Columbia that lasted well over a decade until it was eliminated by a new Dean seeking to cut costs. Even so, it was clear at Columbia that my presence as a historian was deeply questionable, not to be publicly acknowledged and I was never asked to be part of that faculty. Architecture still can’t stomach critique, this is clear to me. I’m out of teaching, likely for good. I knew that this work was too dangerous for architecture and I had a backup plan for funding that paid off at just about the same time that the labs were shut down at Columbia so now I can work on other projects that interest me more. I’m much happier without the phony leftism of the university, of faculty who pretend to be Marxists, but whose real goal is defending their own turf and the system. I have a lot of (political) gardening to do, I need to make some art, and look over a translation of one of my texts, but along the way, I intend to go back to some of these projects and post material from them on this site. Let’s see if there’s any interest this time. I’m not confident about it. Native Plant Podcasts Posted on 15 May 2020 15 May 2020 Learning about native plants requires some effort, but that education itself can be deeply pleasurable—not only do you learn what to grow on your property and how to grow it, you learn about the landscape around you, uncovering the natural wonders already here and the invasive thugs that threaten the national park you are creating in your back yard. There are so many gorgeous, beautiful books out there. I find myself fatally drawn to them. Where will these go? I suppose one day I will remove the architecture books from a shelf in my office and put them in the basement or maybe sell them. It’d be for the best. While I garden, I like to listen to talk shows of some kind. In the late afternoon, I listen to the Julie Mason show on SiriusXM POTUS to get a hype-free sense of what is going on Washington, but in mornings I like to listen to podcasts and about half of the podcasts I listen to are about plants. This may seem counter-intuitive since, of course, there are no visuals, but if you are gardening or, for that matter, going for a jog, you can educate yourself on North American native plants. Here’s a list of some of the best. I’ve posted each podcast’s web site, but if you listen in the Apple Podcast application on your iPhone, you can just search for the names of the podcasts and subscribe to them directly there. In Defense of Plants The first podcast isn’t entirely about native plants, since its focus is global. Ph.D. candidate Matt Candeias is an enthusiastic guide to the world of botany and his obsession with plants is infectious. There aren’t many better ways to get excited about plants. Matt finds weird and wonderful topics, insightful guests from the world of botanical research, and is a top-notch interviewer. Matt also maintains a blog at www.indefenseofplants.com A Way to Garden with Margaret Roach Margaret Roach has decades of gardening experience and is one of America’s most loved writers about gardening. Margaret’s podcast usually consists of an interview with a noted authority on matters such as composting, milkweed, attracting birds butterflies, native plants, as well as food and many other topics. Not all topics are native-plant oriented, but that’s fine too. She often teams up with Ken Druse to discuss topical themes and answer questions. While the rest of these podcasts are useful sources of information, Margaret’s podcast—as well as the excellent (and newly revised) book the podcast is named after—is particularly informative for gardeners. I have learned a huge amount from Margaret (and Ken) and am grateful whenever I hear her. Margaret also maintains a blog at her site. I won’t mention it separately since I ‘m really only covering actively maintained podcasts here, but the archives of Ken’s Real Dirt podcast are full of useful information for gardeners as well. Wild Plant Culture I’m happy to call Jared Rosenbaum a friend. He and his wife Rachel Mackow own and operate Wild Ridge Plants, a farm in western New Jersey where they grow beautiful New Jersey native plants. Jared recently started the Wild Plant Culture podcasts in which he conducts long-form interviews with noted authorities in the field, such as Leslie Sauer, ecological restoration practitioner and author of The Once and Future Forest or permaculture expert Dale Hendricks. Jared’s blog is here. The Field Guides Here is a podcast ideal for people stuck in their apartments in the city. Hear the sound of crunching leaves as Bill Michalek and Steve Fleck (aka Bill and Steve) walk through the woods while discussing an aspect of the natural world, generally in western New York State. Like Matt Candieas, they both have science backgrounds so they research peer-reviewed literature for the podcasts, which often leads to their underscoring just how much more science there is left to do on the natural world. One thing that I particularly love is that they generally contextualize whatever topic they are talking about within human culture as well. The Field Guides isn’t very oriented toward growing plants but rather urges you to get out into the woods and hike and that’s a very cool spin. The Native Plant Podcast Mike Berkeley of Growild Native Plant Nursery and landscape designer John Magee host the native plant podcast, interviewing horticulturists, designers, botanists, and other individuals in the field. I found the discussions with Larry Weaner and Thomas Rainer particularly important in my thinking. The Native Plant Podcast hosts are based in Tennessee and the mid-Atlantic area and I am often jealous of how much richer their areas are in native plant resources compared this plant-impoverished area of northeastern New Jersey (which doesn’t have a single nursery with a large selection of native plants…even Jared and Rachel’s nursery is over an hour away!). Native Plants, Healthy Planet Fran Chismar and Tom Knezick, the owners of the wholesale Pinelands Nursery in Southern New Jersey run this new podcast which has a specific mission of highlighting the work non-profit organizations are doing to restore habitats and bring back native plants, focussing on the New Jersey area. [I took all the photographs in this piece at the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s magnificent Apshawa Preserve in October 2019] Posted in gardening, varnelis.netLeave a comment Art and Gardening in the Time of Crisis I know what I should be doing. I should be working on the Netlab book, much delayed since, no matter how important it is to recapitulate a decade of intense work, it’s more exciting to look at the future than the past. I should be working on developing new art, my main project for the year. I had a series of residencies lined up, but at this point it appears that the only one that will take place is the week I spent this past February, at Signal Culture, the successor to the Experimental Television Center. There, in the midst of a snowy New York town, I managed to bootstrap the code for Perkūnas to drive my video synthesis rig. Here is a proof of concept video. Now what this is, why it matters, and what I actually do with it, is another story. Inspired by the Wobbulator at Signal Culture, I managed to obtain a Vectrex gaming console and had it modded to handle control voltages. This, too, proved productive, here is another experiment. But just what do I do with all this? That was the point of this year’s investigations. My daughter had a few days off school so we went to the city to tour colleges and then the shut down we’ve all experienced. For me, the first few weeks were especially hard. We lost Michael Sorkin to the virus and then Bill Menking (as well as my first teaching assistant, the brilliant Mark Skiles) to cancer. Deep dark accelerationism. I needed to take a break. This is my first day back in the studio. In the meantime, I’ve been spending my time in quarantine continuing gardening as a practice, establishing a native plant community on my property. I think it’s time to start writing more about this, create some kind of presence for it on my site. I’ve written about it a little before, but this hardly gives an idea of how important it has become as practice. After living in the middle of Los Angeles, when I returned to New York in 2006, I found that I couldn’t afford to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn and since my job at Columbia was on the west side of Manhattan and my wife’s was in Nyack, NY, we wound up settling in the relatively nice town of Montclair, New Jersey. We waited out the real estate market until it collapsed and were able to find a house that could accommodate our whole family as well as my studio for less than the price of a one-bedroom apartment in the city. With it came 1/2 acre of land and—although I’d worked with the Center for Land Use Interpretation and done a lot of research on the impact of humans on the landscape—I found myself rather ignorant of my own property, never having given enough thought to what a domestic landscape might constitute. I looked at this land—steeply sloped and partially wooded—and I wondered why it was so ugly, so unlike the wooded area Berkshires that I’d grown up in. I was shocked by the hard, clay-like red soil (it’s actually more silt than clay), which clumped together when wet but was so difficult to dig in when it was dry. Soon the twin disasters of the 2011 Halloween nor’easter and Hurricane Sandy destroyed enough of the trees on the property that I needed to rethink what I’d do here. I knew one thing, I wasn’t very interested in what passes for landscape architecture today. Reshaping the land extensively isn’t interesting to me. I’ve done some of it, adding some dry-stacked stone retaining walls throughout the property, but I’m more interested in gardening as a radical practice. My first impulse was to grow food. I was good with that, but misguided souls who refuse to let hunting take place in this area have created a massive, deeply unhealthy overpopulation of deer and any food crops are eaten by ravenous hordes the moment they are planted in the ground. If food wasn’t an option, I started browsing the town library for gardening books until I ran across the beautifully illustrated and written American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest by Rick Darke. Darke’s photographs depict a beautiful, ever-changing natural world that we have largely wiped out. But rather than lament it, Darke suggests that we can take action to restore the North American woodland and outlines our native trees, shrubs, flowers, and ferns in great detail. I also picked up Ken Druse’s The New Shade Garden: Creating a Lush Oasis in the Age of Climate Change, which helped guide me through this journey. Druse makes the argument that, by providing cooling shade to humans and the buildings they live in, by cooling the earth itself, and by sequestering carbon shade, gardens are critical tools in our fight against climate change. My journey began there, but only with my retirement from teaching in 2018 have I had the time to really invest in the garden. Now, with the coronavirus forcing me to abandon the projects and residencies that I’d planned for this year, I’ve turned, with renewed energy, to the woodland landscape around my house. [Rue Anemone, Anemonella thalictroides, by an emerging Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum Pedatum] So this is a distraction, or is it? If you are lucky enough to have some land, now is a good time to re-think it. Thoughtless architectural and landscaping practices have undone our environment, but it is possible to create more ecological communities that require far less money and effort to keep up while benefiting the environment. In a damaged world, doing something positive for the environment in our immediate vicinity can be a means of self-care as well as a means of repairing the Earth. Homeowners, collectively, need to rethink what our patches of the Earth are. Employ landscape architects and landscape designers if you want, but then take it on as a gardening practice of your own. Unless we radically democratize gardening as a practice, we won’t get this done. The first thing to do is to furlough the landscapers, with their gas-powered leaf-blowers, lawn mowers, chain saws and pesticides. Their job is to keep your property “neat as a pin, ugly as sin.” (quote attributed to Pat Sutton). Save money, get rid of them. Since they use devices that produce huge amounts of noise and pollution and don’t wear protective equipment, you are doing them a favor in the long run anyway. Plus, if you get rid of landscapes that demand constant attention and shift to landscapes that evolve themselves, you will reduce the labor necessary to maintain your property. Instead of a lawn kept green artificially with toxic chemicals (Roundup, for example, is widely believed to cause a variety of horrific illnesses) plus a few badly-manicured bushes from Home Depot that copiously spread their barbed offspring everywhere, why not take seriously wildlife ecologist Doug Tallamy’s wild idea that your yard can be a fragment of a national park? Not only is that an incredibly seductive idea, the reality is that if we add up the 45 million acres of lawn in the United States, we get a state the size of Washington. If, as Tallamy suggests, we get rid of half that lawn and convert it into native landscape, we’d have a homegrown national park the size of Maine.* Now, imagine that as a positive step coming out of this crisis. It’s not a matter of talent, it’s a matter of experimentation, and a little bit of reading. Native plants don’t require excessive efforts. Choose the right plant for the right site, plant in cool weather (usually), water in the first week throughout and when it’s dry for a spell during the first year until roots establish. Some plants will die, most will survive. There are plenty of guides available online, so I won’t go over it. What we do lack in the native plant movement is enough thinking about design. I’ll be back with another post later this week addressing ways of thinking about native plants, design, and time. [A non-native dwarf Japanese red maple that was here when I bought the property with a host of native plants now planted against it, together with a dry-stacked retaining wall that we built. Hanging up a new bird feeder (not visible here) and the construction of dry stack stone walls last year has led to a boom of adorable chipmunks who frolic merrily around our property]. I am fully aware that some people make the argument that an argument in favor of native plants and against invasive foreign species is much like the nativist, anti-immigrant politics. To be blunt, this is a dumb position. I started writing a response but as it grew, I decided it deserves to be a post of its own. For now, if you hold this position, stop because trust me, the scientific facts are against you and I will be deploying them. I am taking a break from email and social media for a few days but more likely for a week. With all of the death around us and the moron in the White House, it’s just too much. If I owe you anything, sorry, I need to protect my mental health more. The 2010s in Review (The Decade of Shit) Posted on 12 February 2020 12 February 2020 So this post is late, what do you expect from the 2010s? Ten years ago Time Magazine dubbed the 2000s the “worst decade ever,” but in retrospect that was such a carefree time, wasn’t it? Even the end-of-the-decade collapse seemed full of possibility, promising a truly cataclysmic civilizational implosion if nothing else. In contrast, the 2010s weren’t just another failed decade, they were the decade of shit. All the hype and excitement led us to a universal dissatisfaction. Left, Right, and Center, we’re all pissed off about where we are and not enthusiastic at all about where we’re going. Even the proponents of doom are disappointed. The whole ZeroHedge crowd has been left trying to cover their short positions as the economy lurches onward and the doomers are facing expiration deadlines on their MREs as they wait for TEOFTWAWKI. Now sure, this year we’ve already had firestorms the size of Austria ravaging Australia, a rain of rockets in Baghdad, Ukrainian jetliners getting shot out of the sky, a deadly pandemic in China caused by people eating creatures that they really shouldn’t, and the failure of the Senate to uphold the rule of law, but the banality of it all is crushing. While the Dark Mountain set drinks wine around a campfire, gets henna tattoos, and sings along to songs about the end of nature, for the rest of us, it’s just an exhausting, daily slog through the unrelentingly alarming headlines. We finish the decade with network culture in its last days. Back in 2010, when I was working in earnest on a book on network culture, I made the following prediction: “Toward the end of the decade, there will be signs of the end of network culture. It’ll have had a good run of 30 years: the length of one generation. It’s at that stage that everything solid will melt into air again, but just how, I have no idea.” Well now we know how. All the giddy delirium about the network and globalization is gone. We’ve got our always-on links to the net in our hands all the time, we’ve got our digital economy, and with it all we’ve have entered a period of stark cultural decline. It’s an empty time, devoid of cultural monuments. Name one consequential building of this past decade, one! Well, there is this great project by architect Valdas Ozarinskas (who didn’t make it through the decade), a massive dark summation of our failures. But culture’s not doing well. The easy appeal to dopamine receptors provided by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, and YouTube has undone our ability to focus. This is the golden age of cat videos, nothing more. Any sustained thought is gone and bottom up efforts have dissipated. A decade ago, my blogging comrades and I were plotting how to take over architectural discourse. But this amounted to nothing. Those blogs, and many others, have been silenced, absorbed into garbage sites like Medium, Facebook, Forbes, and BusinessInsider or just left in whatever state they were in, circa 2014, as their creators went on to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or just premature (or belated?) fin-de-siècle ennui. Podcasts are the one flourishing outpost of real DIY content on the Internet, perhaps because they distract from the world around us, but in all other respects the DIY ethic is on the wane. The most interesting publication of the 2000s, Make Magazine, went under in 2019, at least temporarily. Kickstarter is the metaphor for the decade: a lot of promises, a lot of crap that we’ve thrown away, a lot of outright lies, and a feeling of dread that somehow we’ll be sucked into its maw and participate again. But its not just banality, as Bruce Sterling points out at his State of the World 2020 at the Well, we were always too optimistic about what bottom-up efforts could do. Network culture gave birth to the vilest of viral propaganda, some of it from state actors, some of it genuinely home grown. In Bruce’s words, “Our efforts had evolved an ecosystem for distribution of weaponized memes.” Network culture didn’t usher in a new world of Free! Open Access! Networked Culture!, rather it ushered in the first phase of the Jackpot. That’s a phrase I used often these days, lifted from William Gibson’s 2014 The Peripheral, one of a handful of genuinely insightful cultural artifacts from the last decade (note that William Gibson’s Twitter name is @GreatDismal). The Jackpot refers—not so cheerily—to the end for some 80% of the world’s population, rich and poor, developed and undeveloped (largely the former in each pair). Time for a lengthy quote from Gibson: No comets crashing, nothing you could really call a nuclear war. Just everything else, tangled in the changing climate: droughts, water shortages, crop failures, honeybees gone like they almost were now, collapse of other keystone species, every last alpha predator gone, antibiotics doing even less than they already did, diseases that were never quite the one big pandemic but big enough to be historic events in themselves. And all of it around people: how people were, how many of them there were, how they’d changed things just by being there. … But science … had been the wild card, the twist. With everything stumbling deeper into a ditch of shit, history itself become a slaughterhouse, science had started popping. Not all at once, no one big heroic thing, but there were cleaner, cheaper energy sources, more effective ways to get carbon out of the air, new drugs that did what antibiotics had done before…. Ways to print food that required much less in the way of actual food to begin with. So everything, however deeply fucked in general, was lit increasingly by the new, by things that made people blink and sit up, but then the rest of it would just go on, deeper into the ditch. A progress accompanied by constant violence, he said, by sufferings unimaginable. … None of that … had necessarily been as bad for very rich people. The richest had gotten richer, there being fewer to own whatever there was. Constant crisis bad provided constant opportunity. … At the deepest point of everything going to shit, population radically reduced, the survivors saw less carbon being dumped into the system, with what was still being produced being eaten by those towers they’d built… And seeing that, for them, the survivors, was like seeing the bullet dodged.. Now amidst modernization, two World Wars, massive pollution, and unprecedented environmental cataclysms such as Minamata bay, Chernobyl, or Bhopal, the twentieth century was hardly a cakewalk and when it comes down to it the salinization of the Fertile Crescent is likely our real original sin (won’t someone start a green Church around this as the fall from grace?). But the Jackpot officially began on 9 November 2016, a day that reminded many of us of the outrage followed by the blank numbness that we experienced on 9/11. A new emergency was declared by never-Trump neoliberals, anti-Trump leftists, and, outraged by all the outrage, the pro-Trump neoreactionaries and neo-Nazis who had stocked up on guns in case HRC was elected and then had nothing to do. There would be no turning back now. The horrifying truth underlying the Jackpot is that it isn’t just an accident. We used to think that global inequality was based on structural poverty, but now it’s becoming clear that automation will ensure that vast numbers of people are no longer needed. Couple that with climate change and you have the Jackpot. Entire swathes of the world—Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen—have already been rendered nearly uninhabitable by drought and continual war waged by the United States, Iran, Russia, and their proxies for strategic purposes. Trump’s America is full of individuals who have no future whatsoever and, with self-driving vehicles on the way, millions of truck and taxi drivers are about to find themselves as in demand as coal miners in West Virginia. Moreover, even as we continue to belch out carbon at an unprecedented rate, it’s only a matter of time before jobs in the fossil fuel and traditional automotive industries disappear as well. New jobs will appear, of course, but there will be far fewer of those and the idea of teaching coding to coalminers proved not to be that sound. The newly disenfranchised have little to lose: the cracks are showing. It’s not that the containment can only last so long, it’s already breaking everywhere. We can see the collapse of the Paris Accords not just as a deliberate step further into dark acceleration, it’s a lizard-like reaction to the Jackpot, part of a new strategy, national government as survivalist retreat. Sure, the Trump administration is largely composed of knuckle-dragging defectives, but we can discern a strategy if we look carefully enough: rather than making sacrifices to survive the Jackpot, they will do what they can to get the biggest piece of the pie for themselves and their cronies in the colossal redistribution of wealth it represents. And don’t get your hopes up about a socialist revolution in the next round of elections. My academic leftie friends impute way too much to old Frankfurt School notions of ideology: the reason Trump and his cohort of populists have been elected isn’t because the poor have been duped and only need to see the way, it’s because they know there’s no hope for them. There’s no standing in solidarity behind a neo-socialist boomer, they all know that’s not going to work and if they’re going out, they’re going to drag down the elites with them. Americans elected this grinning, Adderall-abusing droog and will most likely do so again, just like the rest of the populists rising to power worldwide. In the words of Joseph de Maistre’s (and Julie Mason’s) words, “every nation gets the government it deserves.” Who better than the “King of Debt” to show us that the Jackpot is here? If anything, not only has the Left failed to come up with a convincing counter-argument, it’s gone down the entirely wrong route with identity politics, which has all but taken over not just Left politics but also the academy and museums. Identity politics isn’t-anti-Trump, it’s high Trump, embracing the idea that the Jackpot has started and the next step is to redivide the pot in favor of your tribe. In the art world and the academy, it teams with an exhausted neoliberalism looking for an alibi while it also helps sell culture to a new generation of oligarchs even as it further exacerbates the rampant tribalism in our society. Steve Bannon understood it well, if the Left fights on the basis of identity politics, his Right wing identity politics wins every time. But for many on the woke Left, this is hardly a problem: a Trumpian government gives their screaming more legitimacy and feeds their fevered dreams of revolution. Against the rise of identity politics on the Left and Right, the Center is left floundering. Neoliberalism is exhausted, its most appropriate cultural manifestation being is overtourism. As the decade started, I repeatedly tried to launch a major research project on the phenomenon in the academy, but the project fell on deaf ears. I wasn’t surprised. Universities are just like travel: there is an appearance of diversity and difference, but it’s a generalized sameness, a gray nothing in which you won’t ever encounter anything new, just another Starbucks serving poor quality beans over-roasted beans so that you can’t tell what they are and some screaming about how special the place is. My sense is that if there’s to be any kind of hope in the next decade to get out of what Bruce Sterling appropriately calls “the New Dark,” it’s going to be to achieve the impossible: throw out identity politics (left and right) and turn back toward a grand project—what academics used to criticize as a “metanarrative”—that most of us can get behind. As this decade showed, there’s little question that this is climate change and toxins in the environment. Here’s where the Jackpot has its upside: the deaths of billions of humans pales in comparison to the species-cide we are undertaking to species left and right. Have you listened for the dawn chorus of birds lately? A hundred years from now the biggest news of this decade may be that this is when Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring became real as birds and pollinators died off in massive numbers. Here on the Northeast seaboard, we’ve bid goodbye to the ash tree and are watching for beech leaf disease, white pine needle disease, sudden oak death, and hoping the spotted lanternfly doesn’t cross the Delaware. It seems like the only place nature really thrives anymore isn’t in national parks, it’s in radiation exclusion zones. But dead birds and trees don’t matter much to the average person who doesn’t have anywhere to shop besides the Dollar General Store and hasn’t seen fresh vegetables in years. The key is probably going to be luck, bad luck (and what is the Jackpot about if it’s not luck?). Maybe, just maybe if a series of truly awful major environmental cataclysms hit the key countries involved in carbon production—the US, China, India, Canada—they might, be alarmed enough to do something about it. We aren’t talking about a category 5 hurricane hitting New York City. Nobody will care about that, we are talking flattening a good portion of Florida and the Southeast, plus a good bit of Texas, maybe a good Dust Bowl 2.0 coupled with massive flooding in the Midwest then doing that five or six times over worldwide in the space of a couple of years. That’s a horrible, terrible thing, but if luck isn’t with us and it doesn’t happen, what are our chances of avoiding much worse conditions? And even if it does, will we be too late to turn back the clock? *Never finished because a publisher botched the project to the point I quit working on it in disgust. But you can read an early essay (circa 2006) on network culture here. My Dear Berlin Wall This weekend marks the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and, to commemorate, I thought it would be appropriate to post this chapter from Blue Monday, which Robert Sumrell and I published a decade ago as AUDC. On June 17, 1979, Eija-Riita Eklöf, a Swedish woman, married the Berlin Wall at Groß-Ziethener Straße, taking Wall Winther Berliner-Mauer as her name. The final piece of heroic modernist architecture, the Berlin Wall was constructed just as the movement’s Utopian political ambitions had begun to wane. By then, with the eastward spread of modernism during the Khrushchev years, the ideological distinctiveness of modernity had come to an end, making East-West, modern–antimodern harder to distinguish. Still, the architects of the Berlin Wall hoped it would change society. For a while, it did just that. After the close of World War II, Berlin was a microcosm of Germany. Both city and country were cut into four occupation zones, each overseen by a commander-in-chief from one of the four Allied powers, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As the geopolitical tide continued to shift in the years after the war, tensions escalated between the Soviets and the Western allies. By the time of the Berlin Blockade of 1948-1949, it became clear that the three allied segments of Berlin would become “West Berlin,” an enclave of the Federal Republic of Germany (or “West Germany”) while the Soviet-controlled sector would become “East Berlin,” associated with the German Democratic Republic (or “East Germany”). Responding to the blockade crisis, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, and the United States promised mutual military defense through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. In 1955, West Germany joined NATO and, in response, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact with Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. East Germany joined one year later as two events cemented the division of the world. The first was the Suez Crisis in which the United States, fearing thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union, forced France and Britain to withdraw from the Suez Canal, a critical piece of infrastructure they had occupied earlier that year to prevent Egypt from nationalizing it. The second was the Hungarian Revolution, crushed by Soviet tanks as the West watched. With the refusal of the Soviet Union and the United States to enter into direct confrontation, it became clear that the world, Europe, Germany, and Berlin had been divided into spheres of influence controlled by the superpowers. The superpowers fought the Cold War through their display of achievements in science, propaganda, and accumulation. Berlin became the prime place for the two competing rivals to showcase their material culture. In the East, the Stalinallée, designed by architects Hartmann, Henselmann, Hopp, Leucht, Paulick and Souradny, was a nearly 2km long, 89m wide boulevard, lined with eight-story Socialist Classicist buildings. Inside these vast structures, workers enjoyed luxurious apartments, shops, and restaurants. In response, West Berlin held the Interbau exhibit in 1957, assembling the masters of modern architecture including Alvar Aalto, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Johannes van den Broek and Jaap Bakema, Egon Eiermann, and Pierre Vago to build a model modernist community of housing blocks in a park in the Hansaviertel quarter. Nor was the battle of lifestyle between East and West limited to architecture. Soviet communism followed capitalism to focus on industrial productivity and expansion within a newly global market. While the United States exported its products—and eventually outsourced its production—throughout the world, the Soviets used COMECON, the economic equivalent of the Warsaw Pact, to eliminate trade barriers among communist countries. Each country produced objects to represent its superior quality of life, validating each system not only to its own citizens, but also to each other and to the rest of the world. The importance of material culture in the Cold War is underscored by the 1959 Nixon-Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate,” played out between the two powers in a demonstration kitchen at a model house during the American National Exhibit in Moscow. At the impromptu debate, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev expressed his disgust at the heavily automated kitchen and asked if there was a machine that “puts food into the mouth and pushes it down.” U. S. Vice President Richard Nixon responded, “Would it not be better to compete in the relative merits of washing machines than in the strength of rockets? ” A Cold War battle was fought through house wares.(1) The climax of the battle came in Berlin. In the divided city, half a million people would go back and forth each day between East and West. Westerners would shop in East Berlin where products, subsidized by the East Bloc, were cheap. Easterners would shop in the Western sector where fetish items such as seamless nylons and tropical fruits could be found. Overall, however, the flow was westward. The rate of defection was unstoppable: between 1949 and 1961 some 2.5 million East Germaners left for the West, primarily through Berlin. But just as destructive was the mass flight of subsidized objects westward, a migration that pushed the inefficient communist system to collapse. Khrushchev had won the debate: cheap goods from the East were more desirable, but the cost to the system was unacceptable. By this time, production and accumulation in the East Bloc had became goals in and of themselves, devoid of logic and use, no longer tied to the basic needs of the economy. In 1961, Khrushchev launched the Third Economic Program to increase the Soviet Union’s production of industrial goods at all costs. During a meeting that year, COMECON decided that the flow of people and products had to be stopped. On August 13, 1961 the border was sealed with a barrier constructed by East German troops. The result was a city divided in two without regard for prior form or use. Over time, the Berlin Wall evolved from barbed wire fences (1961-1965) to a concrete wall (1965-1975), until it reached its full maturity in 1975. The final form would be not one but two Walls, each constructed from 45,000 3.6 meter high by 1.5 meter wide sections of reinforced concrete, each weighing 2.75 tons, separated by a no-man’s-land as wide as 91 meters. The Wall was capped by a smooth pipe, making it difficult to scale and was accompanied by fences, trenches, and barbed wire as well as over 300 watchtowers and thirty bunkers. (2) With its Utopian aspiration to change society, the Wall was the last product of heroic modernism. It succeeded in changing society, but as with most modernist products, not in the way its builders intended. East Berlin, open to the larger body of the East Bloc, withered, becoming little more than a vacation wonderland for the Politburo élite of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact and a playground for spies of both camps. Cut off, West Berlin thrived. By providing a datum line for Berlin, the Wall gave meaning to the lives of its inhabitants. In recognition of this, Joseph Beuys proposed that the Wall should be made taller by 5cm for “aesthetic purposes.” (3) As the Wall was being constructed in Berlin, Situationists in Paris and elsewhere were advocating for radical changes in cities as a means of preserving urban life. For them, the aesthetics of modernism and the forces of modernity were destroying urbanity itself. During this period working-class Paris was being emptied out, its inhabitants sent by the government to an artificial modernist city in the suburbs while an equally artificial cultural capital for tourists and industry was created in the cleaned-up center. Led by Guy Debord, the Situationists hoped to recapture the city by creating varied ambiances and environments and strategies providing opportunities for stimulation and chance drift. When Situationist architect Constant Nieuwenhuys deployed the floating transparent layers of his New Babylon to augment the existing city with unique, flexible and transient spaces Debord condemned the project, arguing that the existing city was already almost perfect. Only minor modifications, were necessary, such as adding light switches to street lights so that they could be turned on and off at will and allowing people to wander in subways after they were shut off at night. In his 1972 thesis at the Architectural Association, entitled “Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture,” Rem Koolhaas found a way of reconciling modernism with Situationism through the figure of the Wall. Suggesting that the Wall might be exported to London and made to encircle it, Koolhaas writes, “The inhabitants of this architecture, those strong enough to love it, would become its Voluntary Prisoners, ecstatic in the freedom of their architectural confines.” Inside, life would be “a continuous state of ornamental frenzy and decorative delirium, an overdose of symbols.” Although officially proposing a way of making London more interesting, Koolhaas’s thesis is really a set of observations about the already existing condition of the real Wall. (4) In choosing to encircle London with the Wall, Koolhaas recognized that it was not only the last great product of modernism, it was the last work of heavy architecture. Already in 1966, in his introduction to 40 Under 40, Robert Stern observed that an increasingly dematerialized “cardboard architecture” was “the order of the day” in the United States while in England, architects such as Archigram were proposing barrier-less technological utopias.(5) Built of concrete, the wall was solid, weighty. It hearkened back to the days of the medieval city walls, which were not only defensive but attempted to organize and contain a world progressively more interconnected through communications and trade. Walls acted as concentrators, defining places in which early capitalism and urbanity could be found and intensifying both. So long as the modes of communication remained physical and the methods of making and trading goods were slow, nations retained their authority and autonomy through architectural solidity. The destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is concurrent with the pervasive and irreversible spread of Empire and the end of heavy architecture. Effectively, the Wall fell by accident. During 1989, mass demonstrations in East Germany led to the resignation of East German leader Erich Honecker. Soon, border restrictions between neighboring nations were lifted and the new government decided to allow East Berliners to apply for visas to visit West Germany. On November 9, 1989, East German Minister of Propaganda Günter Schabowski accidentally unleashed the Wall’s destruction. Shortly before a televised press conference, the Minister was handed a note outlining new travel regulations between East and West Berlin. Having recently returned from vacation, Schabowski did not have a good grasp on the enormity of the demonstrations in East Berlin or on the policy being outlined in the note. He decided to read the note aloud at the end of his speech, including a section stating that free travel would be allowed across the border. Not knowing how to properly answer questions as to when these new regulations would come into effect, he simply responded, “As far as I know effective immediately, right now.” Tens of thousands of people crowded the checkpoints at the Wall and demanded entry, overwhelming border guards. Unwilling to massacre the crowds, the guards yielded, effectively ending the Wall’s power. (6) The Schabowski mis-speak points to the underlying reason for the Wall’s collapse: the lack of information flow in the East Bloc. The goals of Khrushchev’s Third Economic Program were finally met by the early 1980s, but by that point the United States was no longer interested in production. For America, the manufacturing of objects proved to be more lucrative when outsourced to the developing world. By sending its production overseas, America assured the success of its ideology in the global sphere while concentrating on the production of the virtual. Having spent itself on production of objects, as well as on more bluntly applied foreign aid, the Soviet Union collapsed. Manuel Castells observes that, “in the 1980s the Soviet Union produced substantially more than the US in a number of heavy industrial sectors: it produced 80 percent more steel, 78 percent more cement, 42 percent more oil, 55 percent more fertilizer, twice as much pig iron, and five times as many tractors.” The problem, he concludes, was that material culture no longer mattered. The PC revolution was completely counter to the Soviet Union’s centralization while photocopy machines were in the hands of the KGB. (7) With the Wall gone, and with it the division between East and West undone, the world is permeated by flows of information. Physical borders no longer hold back the flow of an immaterial capital. Indeed, soon after the Wall fell, the European Union set about in earnest to do away with borders between individual nation states. But through it all, the Wall has had no greater fan than Wall Winther Berliner-Mauer. In her view, the Wall allowed peace to be maintained between East and West. As soldiers looked over the Wall to the other side, they saw men just like themselves, with families they loved and wanted to protect. In this way, the Wall created a bond between men who would otherwise be faceless enemies. But Berliner-Mauer’s love for the Wall is far from abstract. For her, objects aren’t inert but rather can possess souls and become individuals to fall in love with. Berliner-Mauer sees the Wall as a noble being and says she is erotically attracted to his horizontal lines and sheer presence. While Berliner-Mauer is in a seemingly extreme, sexual relationship with the object of her desire, our animistic belief in objects is widespread across society. Adults and children alike confide in stuffed animals, yell at traffic signs, and stroke their sports cars all the time. Many people choose to love objects over their friends, their spouses, or themselves. Berliner-Mauer understands that the role of objects in our lives has changed. Objects are no longer tools that stand in to do work for us, or surrogates for normal human activities. Objects have come into their own, and as such we have formed new kinds of relationships with them that do not have a precedent in human interaction. The Wall is a loving presence in her life, and she loves it in return. Faced with the tragedy of the Wall’s destruction, Berliner-Mauer created a technique she calls “Temporal Displacement” to fix her mind permanently in the period during which the Wall existed, even at the cost of creating new memories. (8) For Berliner-Mauer, marrying the Wall is a last means to preserve the clarity of modernism and the effectiveness of architecture as a solid and heavy means of organization. To love the Berlin Wall is to dream of holding onto the simple, clear disciplinary regime of order and punishment that came before we were all complicit within the system. In today’s society of control, as Gilles Deleuze writes, we don’t need enclosures any more. Instead, we live in a world of endless modulations, internalizing control in order to direct ourselves instead of being directed.(9) After the fall of the Wall and the end of enclosures, even evil itself, Jean Baudrillard observes, loses its identity and spreads evenly through culture. An Other space is gone from the world. North Korea and Cuba are mere leftovers, relegated to tourism. There is nowhere to defect to: without the Wall, we must all face our own complicity in the system.(10) (1) Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 10-12. (2) Thomas Flemming, The Berlin Wall: Division of a City (Berlin: be.bra Verlag, 2000), 75. (3) Irving Sandler, Art of the Postmodern Era (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998), 110. (4) Rem Koolhaas, S, M, L, XL (New York: Monacelli, 1995), 2-21. (5) Robert A.M. Stern, ed., 40 Under 40: An Exhibition of Young Talent in Architecture (New York: The Architectural League of New York, 1966), vii. (6) Angela Stent, Russia and Germany Reborn: Unification, the Soviet Collapse, and the New Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 94-96. (7) Manuel Castells, End of Millennium, Second Edition (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2000), 26-27, See also the entire chapter on “The Crisis of Industrial Statism and the Collapse of the Soviet Union,” 5-67. (8) http://www.berlinermauer.se (note from 2019: Eija-Riitta Eklöf-Berliner-Mauer died in 2015 and this site is now some kind of spam site) (9) Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” October, Vol. 59 (Winter 1992), 3-7. (10) Jean Baudrillard, “The Thawing of the East,” The Illusion of the End (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1994), 28-33. On Gardening Posted on 11 July 2019 13 July 2019 “If it is true that the next renaissance of human culture will be the reconstruction of the natural world in our cities and suburbs, then it will be the designers, not the politicians, who will lead this revolution. And plants will be at the center of it all.” —Thomas Rainer, Planting in a Post-Wild World. It’s true, I’ve disappeared. It’s time to admit it. Architecture and academics have become boring. There are no new buildings of consequence and academics are plumbing the depths of irrelevance. Star worship killed both. Few people who knew me in academics knew about my secret life, investing and managing real estate (anyone who ever took my Network City course should have received some good lessons on that) and that panned out well enough that I don’t have to prostitute myself for low-paying academic jobs anymore for the “experience” and “exposure.” There are many things I should do with this freedom: chiefly, proposals for art and museum installations, writing, and my book on the first decade of the Netlab. I am slowly working on all of these, but I found a new secret life, something else that has absorbed me thoroughly, something that I want to do: gardening. Forget the term “landscape,” a holdover from the days when men wore cargo shorts and baggy T-shirts. Landscape implies finding an earth mover and puttering about with it, treating a plot of land as if it were a building, terracing it without regard to whatever might be living there. Periodically, claims will be made about clever schemes for land reclamation or water filtration but inevitably these will go awry since the designer will have given little thought for the plants and even less for the structure of the soil. Landscape needs a broad area to take into view, which necessitates clear cutting and large expanses, not the minute detail of gardening. Landscape suggests something for a public to view, not something productive for a household. Worst of all, around here, “landscapers” are illiterate madmen with gas-powered leaf blowers, whose sole job is to redistribute wealth into their pockets while driving me out of my goddamned skull. I saw one the other day, “Stone Age Landscapers.” Like something out of a Robert Smithson narrative, the name says it all. Early April, Toadshade Trillium (Trillium sessile) is surrounded by fiddlehead ferns and debris. Gardening is something altogether different. I embrace the amateur nature of the term, its lack of regard for academics and high art. These things don’t matter anymore. We all know this. But sticking your hands into the dirt every day does. Growing things for a particular area that you know well does. It’s not something you hire someone else to do, it’s something you do yourself. Gardening is a massive investment of time. Learning plants takes time. When I started I didn’t know Virginia Creeper from poison ivy and took the advice of a friend who suggested we pull it up too. What a mistake, only now is it coming back to cover bare spots. Plants take time, a lot of time. You don’t just put them in the ground and walk away. By their nature, they grow and they grow slowly. One reason I plunged headlong into gardening is that I realized that the temporal nature of the project meant anything I did now would only start paying off years later. There are things I am doing now that won’t have real impact for a decade or two. After three years of intense gardening, I am only beginning to understand how a half acre garden on the periphery of New York City can be radical in its own way. This hit home to me last night. Notwithstanding their previously dwindling populations, the fireflies came back in force this year. My sixteen year old daughter and I sat on the chairs in our back yard, amidst all the things that I had planted, and delighted in them. Planting pine trees, letting debris in the woody area of the property rot and offering unmown micro-meadows seems to have done the trick. A native Mountain Laurel (Kalmia Latifolia) bloomed in early May this year. My goal is to build a contemporary suburban pleasure garden, a place to restore some measure of peace to my family, friends, and myself even in a world gone mad. Logic is gone, we held its funeral years ago. In its stead is the raw anger of Brett Kavanaugh on one side and “woke” folk on the other racing each other in a doomsday death spiral. I have little time for that here, where I have gone, just as Diocletian turned to tending his cabbages after retiring from Emperor. My garden is a spiritual place, far from any church and its tired old songs. It stems from an earth-centric spirituality, a celebration of the cycle of life in its raucous abundance, drawing from warring pagan forces of soil, sun, and rain, not of some angry, white-bearded man-god better suited to faraway desert lands barren of living things. I have learned a lot about botany and horticulture, but I have also learned that these things have limits. I am after the deep connection with the living that science denies too often. I have embraced the native plants that belong to this place, this town of Montclair, New Jersey, but I haven’t embraced the native plant movement and its assumption of original sin, guilt, and the rejection of pleasure. It’s merely more Protestantism in disguise and I read to much Nietzsche in college to revel in guilt. I don’t want to fill my yard with a patch of weedy-looking things. I am not pretending that I will restore a long-vanished landscape, nor do I assume to be primarily working for the pollinators or wildlife (although I did think about the fireflies a bit). Rather, I see such benefits as byproducts, just as habitat destruction and the spread of invasive species have been byproducts of recent landscape design. We can design byproducts into our plans, think about the side effects we want even as we create something for ourselves. With this in mind, my plants are grouped in terms of the native plant communities indigenous to this place—meadows, woods, moist, dry, sun, and shade—along with a small grouping of native and non-native plants that traditionally have been identified with restorative properties (a “physick garden”) and a few food-bearing plants (sadly, the lack of controls on deer make my dream of a self-sustaining lifestyle difficult here). A non-native in my “physick garden,” Borage (Borago officinalis), which makes for an excellent addition to cocktails and is possibly the failure that I lament the most this season. The four foot tall plant fell over and died this week, its lower stem rotten, the victim of too much water early in the season. I set out to make this garden as a personal project, but I’ve begun to think that it may be more than that, that this project could eventually serve as a model for a new suburban landscape. There is so much land here we could turn to our advantage and yet most of it is a green desert, bereft of both biological diversity and visual appeal. A painful aspect of learning what can be achieved with gardening is that it opens your eyes to the ugliness of most properties. Sad houses are bracketed by sadder yards, at best a forlorn tree or two sits in an unused front lawn, some tired mop-headed hydrangea compete with invasive barberry and euonymous amidst a sea of black-painted “mulch,” all of which telegraphs nothing more than the property owner’s laziness. The lack of intentionality boggles the mind, as does the poverty of it all. Early May and our Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) has lost most of its flowers, carpeting the ground around it up by Highland Avenue. It is July now and the ferns and grasses near it have come in thick. In the last three years, I have planted some thirty-eight trees on this 1/2 acre, all but three of which have been native (two are apple trees and one is a Norway spruce that my daughter received on arbor day at her school). These species——Carolina Silverbells, White Pines, Magnolias, Paw-Paws, Eastern Cypresses, American Hazelnuts, Redbuds, American Dogwoods, and so on——are a mix of understory and canopy trees, nestled in amidst the tulip-beech-oak canopy that defines the edges of this property. I spray religiously with Deer Out, a non-toxic mix of cayenne peppers, peppermint and eggs and that seems to have largely discouraged the ravenous deer in this suburb. I have let many seedlings thrive where they fall, helping in reforestation. I have planted dozens upon dozens of bushes, at least fifteen native rhododendrons alone. Native perennials now dot my yard, with woodland ephemerals tucked wherever I can find a place for them and ferns——relics from the Carboniferous period when giant dragonflies the size of hawks flew about——by the hundreds. Even a few lycopods, perhaps the most alien and oldest form of land plants, have managed to find homes here. Where before there had been mulch or bare ground, now something grows. Still, the property eagerly absorbs as many plantings as I can throw at it. A recent haul. Two carts of native plants purchased on June 25th from the Bowman Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, PA. It would be lovely to find natives from sources closer to home, but there are no nurseries that grow from local stock any closer and the price is right. But my race against time this summer has run out. It’s too hot and dry to plant more for now. I’ll have to wait until fall, weed out the invasive plants that infest my land, products of criminal nurserymen and heedless neighbors, and work on my other projects. Perhaps I’ll even blog from time to time, or work on my book and the other things. Soon enough, fall will come, and with her cooler nights and, I hope, quenching rains, another planting season will come.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line187
__label__wiki	0.83232	0.83232	Vietnam accelerates disbursement of ODA capital Ha Noi, Nov. 21 (VNA) -- The whole country disbursed USD 1.25 billion from ODA capital sources in the first nine months of 2000, raising the total of disbursed ODA capital from 1993 to USD 7.6 billion. ODA disbursement has seen a remarkable progress in recent years. If disbursed ODA capital was USD 2.775 billion in the 1993-1996 period or only 33 percent of the pledged capital, the rate of disbursed ODA capital has been raised to 60 percent since 1997 with USD 1 billion in 1997, USD 1.24 billion in 1998 and USD 1.35 billion in 1999. "A Sandy life" wins special prize at France int'l film festival Nov. 24 (VNA) -- Vietnamese feature film "Doi Cat" (A Sandy Life) won the special prize of the International Film Festival held in Amiens, France, from Nov. 10-19. Among 21 nominees, including 11 feature films and 10 documentaries, the organizing board awarded the gold prize for a Spanish film and the special prize for "Doi Cat". This is the first time Viet Nam attended the festival, during which 300 feature and documentary films were screened. Vietnam calls for more assistance to malnutrition control program Ha Noi, Nov. 22 (VNA) -- The Ministry of Public Health has called on international donors to contribute 40 percent to its 2001-2005 child malnutrition programme worth VND 311.36 billion (USD 22.24 million). The ministry elaborated that domestic sources could only meet nearly 60 percent of the programme's financial demands, therefore international donors were called upon to make up the remainder. Vietnam attend informal ASEAN foreign and economic meetings Nov. 23 (VNA) -- Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien and Trade Minister Vu Khoan attended the informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the informal ASEAN Economic Minister (AEM) Meeting, respectively, in Singapore on Nov. 23. At the informal AMM, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien and Foreign Ministers of other ASEAN member countries heard the ASEAN's Eminent Persons Group (EPG) reporting on ASEAN Vision 2020 and the contents of the ASEAN+Japan Consultation Meeting on the Ha Noi Plan of Action. Viet Nam's tourism sector attracted 5 billion foreign investment Ha Noi, Nov. 23 (VNA) -- Viet Nam's tourism sector has so far attracted 157 foreign-invested projects with a combined capital of more than USD 5 billion, according to the Tourism Administration. Most of projects have set up hotel and travel services. Japan has emerged as the biggest investor in the sector, with 20 hotel projects having a combined capital of USD 434 million. The runner-up is the Republic of Korea, with five projects capitalized at USD 192 million. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai attends informal summit of ASEAN Ha Noi, Nov. 23 (VNA) -- Prime Minister Phan Van Khai arrived in Singapore today, Nov. 23, to attend the fourth informal summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He is accompanied by Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien, Trade Minister Vu Khoan, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Tam Chien, Deputy Finance Minister Le Thi Bang Tam, and Deputy Director of the Government Office Van Trong Ly. Foreign organizations provide humanitarian aid to Vietnam Nov. 20 (VNA) -- * World Vision Pledges USD 181,000 to Da Nang City The World Vision has pledged USD 181,000 to projects on eyes care, street children and household economic development in the central city of Da Nang from 2001-2003. The project on community-based eyes care will receive USD 25,000 while the project to help street children will be provided with USD 6,000. The USD 150,000 project to develop household economy will be carried out in four mountainous communes in Hoa Vang district. Vietnam supports increase in membership of UN Security Council Nov. 17 (VNA) -- Viet Nam strongly supports the increase in both permanent and non-permanent categories of the membership of the United Nations Security Council, Ambassador Nguyen Thanh Chau, Vietnamese Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has said. Mr. Chau expressed Viet Nam's support for the reform and expansion of the Security Council at the 55th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York on Nov. 16. Australia - funded medical boat to help flood areas Ha Noi, Nov. 15 (VNA) -- A medical boat built with fund from the Australian Government was launched in the Mekong delta province of Dong Thap today, Nov. 15, after three months of building. The boat, built at a cost of VND 684 million, including USD 34,000 (equivalent to VND 479 million) in aid from the Australian Government, will provide medical services to more than 100,000 people in remote areas of Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds). Vietnam called on ASEAN members to push for more investment Nov. 15 (VNA) -- Prior to the eighth Summit of APEC, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Manh Cam has called on ASEAN member countries to jointly push for more investment from developed countries for sustainable development of the whole Asian-Pacific region.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line189
__label__wiki	0.833276	0.833276	Matches 201 to 250 of 12158 Notes Linked to 201 The Frederick News, April 22, 1963 Services were held today at 2 p.m. for Shirley E. Alger, Jefferson County assessor for 22 years, who died Friday night at Charles Town General Hospital. Born in Lury, Va., February 26, 1903, he was a son of Hubert and Lora Burner Alger, Ranson. Surviving with his parents are his wife, Mrs. Nona Virts Snyder Alger, at home; one son, Shirley Knott Alger, Baltimore, Md.; one stepson, five sisters and seven brothers including Jesse A. Alger, Frederick. Shirley Eldon Alger 202 Star Democrat, The (Easton, MD) - Thursday, January 8, 2015 Deceased Name: Shirley K. Alger ST. MICHAELS - Mr. Shirley Knott Alger died at the Stella Mans Hospice Center on Sunday, January 4, 2015 after a sudden illness. He was born on September 15, 1927 in Charles Town, West Virginia and was the son of Shirley Eldon Alger and Mary "Kenna" Knott Alger Travell. He graduated from Charles Town High School ('46); enlisted in the Marines and later attended the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated from Shepherd College with a degree in English. He received his Masters in Public School Administration from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA and was a dissertation shy of his PhD from Cornell University. Mr. Alger was an officer in the U.S. Navy on active duty and later retired from the Naval Reserves as a Lieutenant Commander. He married Jane Tilghman Howard Alger on March 7, 1953. They eventually settled in Baltimore, MD and Mr. Alger went to work for Social Security as a Systems Analyst, retiring in 1993. He was the administrator of the Knott Nursing Home when his mother became unable to do so for herself. He married Ruth Matthews Eglseder on November 6, 1993. He was an avid hunter and fisherman, having returned from South Dakota this past October from pheasant hunting. He enjoyed numerous club activities, including having been a Mason and Past Master of his lodge, Mt. Moriah, a member and president for several terms of the St. George's Society, a member of Ducks Unlimited, and the Izaak Walton League. He was a member and past president of the Loch Raven Skeet and Trap Club, He was the winner of the Maryland Skeet Championship. Mr. Alger was an active member of the Second Presbyterian Church, having served a Deacon, Elder and Treasurer. He was also a member of St. Andrew's Christian Community in Roland Park. Shirley K. alger Mr. Alger was preceded in death by his parents and first wife of forty years, Jane Howard Alger in 1993. He is survived by his second wife of 21 years, Ruth Matthews Alger, two daughters, Jane D. Jshrnan and her husband, Michael of Shepherdstown, WV; Susan A. Worley and her husband, Lawrence of Perry Hall, MD, his stepsons, Dr. Ludwig J. Eglseder III, John M. Eglseder, Scott W. Eglseder, and Kurt W. Eglseder and their families; his grandson, Gary Pfeffer Jr. of Bel Air, MD, his granddaughter, Heather Ishman Duncan and her husband Michael of Shepherdstown, WV and his great-granddaughter, Lillian Grace Duncan. Friends may call at the St. Andrews Christian Community, 5802 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21210 on Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. at which time a Memorial Service will be held in the Sanctuary. Interment private. Memorial contributions may be made to Shepherd University Scholarship Fund. Arrangements by the familyowned Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home, Inc. www.mwfuneralhome.com. Shirley Knott Alger 203 Mr. Rodney "Rod" Clark Allder, II, 63 of Frederick, Maryland, passed away Wednesday, December 19, 2012, at his home, due to an extended illness. He was the husband of Linda A. Allder. They celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary on November 23, 2012. Rod was born April 5, 1949 in Round Hill, Virginia. He was the son of Dorothy Allder of Winchester, VA and the late Rodney Clark Allder. Mr. Allder attended Loudon Valley High School and was a volunteer Fire Fighter at Hamilton & Round Hill Fire Department in Loudon County, Va. He retired from Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company, after 30 years of service and was a Verizon Pioneer. Rod was an avid golfer and developed many close relationships while working at Glade Valley Golf Club, Beaver Creek Golf Club, and Maple Run Golf Course. He always looked forward to golf trips to Fayetteville, NC and Ocean City, MD. In the late 80's and early 90's he volunteered his services to Walkersville High School Football program by filming all the away and home football games. He could always be counted on to aide/assist in any way he could, be it home improvements, gardening, cutting/splitting fire wood or car maintenance. He especially enjoyed sitting in his recliner watching NASCAR races on television. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons Jason Allder and wife Jennifer Anne and Jeff Allen and wife Brenda Michele, grandchildren Kourtney Nicole Allder, Kyle Allen Allder, Aleah Rose Allder, Lauryn Olivia Allder, Brayton Clark Allder, Cole James Allder, siblings Kevin Allder and wife Patty and Elizabeth Stickman and husband Wayne, Brother-in-law James A. Broadhurst, Jr., sister-in-law Shirley Cady and husband Phillip D. of State College, Pa.. Numerous nieces and nephews also survive. He was predeceased by a sister-in-law Deborah J. Hurley. Service time is pending. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Walkersville High School Football Program, c/o WHS Athletic Boosters, Coach Joe Polce, 81 Frederick Street, Walkersville, MD 21793. Arrangements by Stauffer Funeral Home P.A. and Stauffer Crematory Inc., Frederick Rodney Clark Allder, II 204 The Chariton Leader, December 5, 1961 Ayler J. Allen was born Nov. 24, 1873, the son of Tandy and Joanna Van Nice Allen, on the family farm east of Russell. He passed away at Chariton on Nov. 29, 1961, after a brief illness. He attended the LaGrange and Russell schools until he was 17 years old, then entered Highland Park college in Des Moines. After two years, he bagan teaching school, first two years at Dickerville country school at a starting salary of $25 per month, then for three terms in Mills county. He returned to college, graduating from Highland Park in August, 1898. He was assistant principal at Fontanelle high school for a year, then returned to farming. On October 2, 1901, he was married to Mabel Werts, and they celebrated their 60th anniversary this fall. They established their home on his parent's farm. Five children were born of whom Elizabeth, Hubert, Roger and Philip survive, Thurman having died in infancy. With the exception of ten years on another farm nearer Russell, and two years in Fairfield where he was a partner in a farm supply store, they lived on the home farm which has been in the family since it was homesteaded in 1852, retiring and moving to Russell in 1943. He was a life-long member of the Presbyterian church, first of the LaGrange Cumberland Presbyterian church, then of the Russell church. He was always an active and devoted member, superintendant of the Sunday school, a teacher for many years, and an elder of the church for more than 50 years. He is survived by his wife, four children, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Of his 11 brothers and sisters, only one survives, Charles E. Allen of Portland, Oregon. Funeral services were held at the Russell United Presbyterian church at 2:00 p.m. on Dec. 1, 1961. The Rev. John A. Orange conducted the service, and burial was in Russell cemetery. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------From the book: The John Jackson and Esther Ann Werts Family History, compiled by Philip W. Allen, 1994 Alymer Jay Allen was the tenth child of Tandy and Joanna Allen. He was born in 1873 on his father s farm in Cedar Township, near LaGrange in Lucas County, Iowa. By the time he was born, his oldest sister, Carrie, was teaching the local one-room rural school. She and sister Gertrude, having attended college, influenced Alymer to obtain an education and he graduated from Highland Park College in Des Moines, Iowa in 1898 with a major in Science. For three years he taught in Iowa schools, serving as principal at Fontanelle High School one year. In 1899 Alymer returned to farm the home place so that his father , Tandy, could retire to Russell. In October of that year Alymer and Mabel Werts were married. She was born June 7, 1875 at Russell, IA, eleventh child of John Jackson and Esther Ann Werts. Mabel attended rural school at Ragtown and later completed a course at Parsons Conservatory of Music in Fairfield, IA. She was an excellent pianist and taught piano to private pupils in Russell until her marriage on October 2, 1901 in Russell. After their marriage, Aylmer and Mabel stayed on the Allen farm for only a year before purchasing their own farm a mile from Russell on the State Road (US 34) near Russell Corner where they built a new home in 1910. Aylmer specialized in breeding Chester White hogs, selling them as breeding stock over several states. He showed them at county and stated fairs for several years. In 1916 they sold their farm and purchased the Allen family place from his father, moving on it in 1917. The farm house, first constructed by his father in 1868 before Alymer was born, was remolded and enlarged in 1922. Mabel performed the traditional farm homemaker tasks of washing clothing using a washboard; making soap using homemade lye and animal fats; ironing with sad irons; cooking over an iron range fueled with sticks of wood; churning butter; canning vegetables, fruit, and beef; cleaning with dustcloth, mop, broom and beating rugs; sewing her own clothing and mending the family clothing; patching knees and darning socks; and many other tasks. There was rarely time for rest but they found time for music, reading, and occasional games with the children who were always encouraged to learn. Also, every morning before breakfast without fail, regardless of whatever else the day might bring, they gathered the entire family for a few minutes of Bible reading and prayer. These activities and the memory of them have had considerable influence in the later lives of their children. Alymer studied accounting by correspondence. In 1927, he rented out the farm and moved his family to Fairfield where their oldest son, Hubert, was attending college. Alymer went into partnership with L. H. Alexander operating an agricultural feed and supply business, but the Great Depression soon led him to sell out and he returned to the farm in 1930. The business experience was costly, and with depressed farm income it took more than a decade of hard work to pay all debts. Returning to the farm, Mabel and Alymer worked, scrimped, and sacrificed through the bad years of the 1930s putting their sons through college. In 1943 the Allens moved to Russell, leaving the farm to an operator on a share basis. However, Alymer never completely severed his attachment to the family farm, spending hours nearly every day of his retired life back there, mending fences, pulling weeds, and otherwise helping to maintain its value. The farm remained in the Allen family until it was sold in 1977, 124 years after it was homesteaded by Tandy Allen in 1853. Five original land certificates, signed by President Franklin Pierce, are still in the possession of the family. Both Alymer and Mabel were religious people and were active in the Presbyterian Church. He served as Ruling Elder for at least 30 years and as an Iowa delegate to Presbyterian General Assembly at Indianapolis, IN, in 1923.He was on the Session of the Russell Church continuously for more than 25 years. Mabel taught Sunday Scholl and was active in Missionary and Ladies Aid Societies. Alymer also served as Russell Town Clerk in the early 1950 s, helping to bring a water system to the community. For a number of years, he was President of the Lucas County Sunday School Association. In retirement, the Allens lived across the street from the Russell Community School where their sons had attended high school. Alymer died Nov. 29, 1961 at Chariton, and Mabel lived on in poor health in the Willits Home for elderly women in Chariton and in her daughter Elizabeths home in Des Moines until her death Feb. 17, 1973 in her 98th year. Alymer and Mabel are buried, together with many others of both their families, in Russell Cemetery. Aylmer Jay Allen 205 Obituary: Las Vegas Daily Optic, July 11, 1894. Clarence, infant son of Charles W. Allen, postmaster of Las Vegas, N.M., Lila Allen, his wife, aged four months and twenty-three days, died this morning of cholera infantum. Clarence Allen 206 Cloetilla Rogers, 87, of Rinard, IL died at 8:17 AM Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at Flora Gardens Care Center in Flora. She was born March 14, 1921 in Louisville, IL to Hiram Dellas & Itha (Fitzgerald) Allen. She married Roy Rogers on April 21, 1940 in Kentucky. She was formerly employed at Rinard Grade School, AMF in Olney, International Shoe in Flora, and Four Sisters in Flora and most recently provided in home care. She was a member of Bloom Bapist Church and was a past member of Rinard Home Extension. Cloe enjoyed flowers, flower gardens, quilting and sewing. She made a famous lemon pie that everyone enjoyed but never gave out the recipe. She is survived by her husband: Roy Rogers; daughter: Shirley Jean Reid & husband Jerry; grandson-in-law: Steve Curry; great-grandson: Justin Curry; brother: Robert Allen; sister: Roberta Allen; several nieces and nephews also survive. She was preceded in death by her parents, an infant son, a granddaughter (Rhonda Curry), five brothers (Leonard, Lyndell, Lloyd, Ianthus and Levon Allen), three sisters (Delours Greenwood, Cleora Dawkins and Dantzell Foster). Graveside services will be held at 10:30 AM Friday, May 16, 2008 at Zif Cemetery, Clay City. Memorials may be made to the Diabetes Foundation. Frank & Bright Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Cloetilla Allen 207 Des Moines Register, May 19, 2001 Elizabeth (Allen) Harling, age 98, born 5 Sep 1902 near Russell, Iowa, to Aylmer and Mabel Allen died 15 May 2001 at her home in Des Moines, Iowa. Memorial service to be 2:00 PM Sunday, May 20, at the Central Presbyterian Church in Des MOines. Mortuary is Hamilton Funeral Home. Elizabeth was found unconscious on the floor of her apartment in Heather Manor Retirement Home in Des Moines about 6 AM Monday morning. She had attended church on Mothers day but did not answer phone calls from her sons at 4 and 5 oclock that afternoon. Cat scan showed massive stroke, blood throughout her brain. She had asked that her body be given to Univ of Iowa Medical School, so she was put on life support until her sons could arrive (from N. Car. and Ariz). Bob arrived Tuesday afternoon and had her taken off support. She died a couple of hours later. Elizabeth Allen 208 Bakersfield Californian, October 12, 2006 George Q. Allen Aug. 16, 1914 - Oct. 3, 2006 Memorial Mass will be celebrated at St. Francis Church, 900 H St., on Friday, October 13, 2006, at 9 a.m., graveside will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Park. The celebrant will be Father Craig Harrison. George was a resident of Bakersfied for over 60 years. In 1997 he and our mother moved to Fresno, California. He was preceded in death in 2004 by his wife of 68 years, Louise "Elsie" Allen; grandson, David Dutton ( 1996); and infant great-granddaughter, Ashleigh Dutton (1997). He was the loving father of Barbara E. Dutton and husband, Jim, Judy G. Allen, Charlotte A. Curtis and husband, Leonard. He was the grandfather of Richard Allen Dutton and wife, Jenny, Shelly Marquez and husband, Steve, Tammy Turner, Victor Bedrosian and wife, Sophia, Earl Curtis, Jenny Dunning and husband, Brian, Julie Scerra and husband, Dominic. There are 17 great-grandchildren. George Q. Allen 209 Obituary, Lincoln Journal, August 29, 1997 Bowden -- Glenna M., 94, Lincoln, died Thursday (8/28/97). Retired teacher, Pekin, Ill. Survivors: daughters, Mary Merri- tt, Lincoln, Betty Sholl, Fairfax, Va.; stepsons, Dr. Wayne Bowden, Diamond Bar, Calif., Paul Merlin, Hesperia, Calif., David Bowden, Tennessee; brothers, Jesse Allen, St. Petersburg, Fla., Jed Allen, Portland, Ore., Carl Allen, Croghan, N.Y., Joe Allen, Lincoln; sisters, brother-in-law, Mary Eunice Rohlfing, Paxton, Ill., Jean and Floyd Birkey, Horseshoe Bend, Ark.; four grandchildren; seven great-grandchil- dren; seven stepgrandchildren. Services: 11 a.m. Tuesday, Howe & Yockey Funeral Home, Shelbyville, Ill. Mt. Zion Cemetery, Shelbyville. Memorials to Greenville College, Greenville, Ill. Butherus, Maser & Love Funeral Home, 4040 A St. Glenna Marie Allen 210 The Morning Journal, August 24, 2005 ELYRIA -- Hubert W. Allen, 98, of Elyria, died Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005, at Elyria United Methodist Village. He was born Oct. 8, 1906, in Lucas County, Iowa, grew up on a farm and moved to Elyria in 1947 from Illinois. He graduated from Parsons College, received a master's degree in physics at the University of Maine and did postgraduate work in physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Allen was employed in the University of Vermont physics department. During World War II, he taught radio mechanics for the U.S. Air Force at Scott Field Air Force Base in Illinois. In 1947, he moved to Elyria from Belleville, Ill., and was a research physicist engineer at NASA Lewis Research Center until retiring in 1970. He worked on the fuel system for the Mercury Space Program at NASA. He was a member of First Congregational United Church of Christ, Elyria, and served on the board of deacons and board of benevolence. He volunteered with the Meals On Wheels program until he was 96 and while living at High Point in the Park in Elyria, he kept the nature trail clear. He enjoyed music, gardening and working on his computer. Survivors include his daughter, Carolyn Dean of Canfield; brother, Philip W. Allen of Las Vegas, Nev.; and seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Lillian B., in 1994; son, Steven R. Allen, in 2001; sister, Elizabeth Harling; and brother, Roger Allen. Friends may call Thursday, 5 to 8 p.m., at Dicken Funeral Home, 323 Middle Ave., Elyria, where services will be Friday at 11 a.m. The Rev. Benjamin Griffin and the Rev. Beth McKee will officiate. Burial will be in Brookdale Cemetery, Carlisle Township. Memorial contributions may be made to First Congregational United Church of Christ, 330 Third St., Elyria, OH 44035. Hubert Werts Allen 211 Lucy M. Barnes lived in Sonora three years after moving here from Southern California. She worked 27 years as a secretary for Los Angeles Unified School District. Mrs. Barnes was a lifelong member of the Church of the Nazarene. She loved to knit, sew, crochet, play guitar and sing. She also enjoyed the outdoors and camping. Mrs. Barnes is survived by two sons, John Barnes and Bill Barnes, both of Sonora; 12 grandchildren; nine great grandchildren; and five great-great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Ellaura Zulyevic, in 1991. Lucy M. Allen 212 Hometown Journal L. Ianthus Allen, of Louisville, IL, died January 7, 2006, at flora Pavilion Nursing Center. Mr. Allen was born June 3, 1925 in Louisville, the son of H. D. and Itha Fitzgerald Allen. He married Edith May Brooks May 7, 1961 in Sailor Springs and she preceded him in death on March 17, 1989. He was an area farmer, and a member of Bethel Christian Church and Illinois Farm bureau. Survivors include a son, Lyle I. Allen II of Louisville; two brothers, Robert and V. L. "Friday" Allen; two sisters Cloetilla Rogers and Roberta Allen; and several nieces and nephews. Preceding him in death were his parents; wife; three brothers, Lindel, Leonard, and Lloyd Allen; three sisters Cleora Dawkins, Deloris Greenwood, and Dantzel Foster. Private graveside services were held at Christian Home Cemetery in rural Louisville. Frank and Bright Funeral Home was in charge. Memorials to Clay County Cancer Support Group or Bethel Christian Church. Lyle Ianthus Allen 213 Casey County News, September 21, 2010 Millard L. Allen of Liberty died Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 at the Casey County Hospital. He was 90. Born in Casey County on May 15, 1920, he was the son of the late Elish and Josie Allen. He was a U.S. Army veteran, retired from Columbia Gulf, and a member of the Liberty Volunteer Fire Department and Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Survivors include his wife, Alene Ewing Allen; four daughters, Carolyn (and Ralph) Kearney of Cox Creek, Wanda VanWeelden of Ohio, Jeanie (and David) Allen of Liberty and Dottie (and Gerald) Wethington of Liberty; two sons, Jerry (and Shellie) Allen and Terry (and Vickie) Allen, both of Liberty; 17 grandchildren; 33 great-grandchildren; 13 great-great-grandchildren; and many friends. In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by a grandchild. Funeral service was Sept. 18 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church by Rev. Patrick Dolan. Burial was at St. Bernard Cemetery with military honors by the Casey County Funeral Squad. Pallbearers were Jerry and Terry Allen, Tyler Allen, Tom Franklin, and Randy and Roger Kearney. Honorary pallbearers were Gerald Wethington, Doug Hicks, Tony Franklin, James Kearney, William Shoopman, Mark Wesley and Tommy Weddle. Millard L. Allen 214 Obituary, Canton Repository, October 6, 1904 Mucy Allen 215 The News Gazette, February 11, 1974 Gassville, Ark - Othel A Allen, 72, Gassville, Ark., formerly of Champaign, died about 8:30 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 9, 1974) at Mountain Home, Ark. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Mittendorf Chapel, Champaign, with Floyd Kelly officiating. Burial will be in Grandview Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. at the funeral home. Mr Allen was born July 18, 1901 at Louisville, Ill., a son of Archibald J. and Elizabeth Sutton Allen. He married Velma C. Wilson, Sept. 15, 1923, at Clinton. She died Dec. 14, 1951. He married Daisydene Underwood April 11, 1953 at Findlay. She survives. Survivors also include a son, Wendell, 1106 W Washington, C; a daughter Mrs. Rose E. Warner, Mahomet; eight grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren and a brother, Frank, Salem. He was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers, and two sister. He had been a general contractor in the Champaign-Urbana area before his retirement. He lived in the area for 38 years before moving to Arkansas in November, 1972. He belonged to Carpenters Local 44 and built the West Side Church of Christ, 1501 W. Park, C., where he was a member. Othel Archibald Allen 216 Legacy.com Philip Wymer Allen, age 96, a long-time resident of Las Vegas, passed away June 27, 2015, in Pleasant Hill, Calif. He was born Aug. 3, 1918, at a farm near Russell, Iowa, the son of Alymer and Mabel Werts Allen. He graduated in 1940 from Parsons College, undertaking graduate studies in physics at Iowa State College and in meteorology at University of Chicago and UCLA. During World War II, he served as a major in the U.S. Army Air Corps, both teaching meteorology to officers and service in Italy. In May 1946, he married Jean Luers Ford in Des Moines, Iowa, and they moved to a new home in Queens Village, New York City. He forecasted weather at LaGuardia Airport for transatlantic aviation for three years then transferred to Washington, D.C., where he supervised atmospheric research for the detection of foreign nuclear explosions, detecting the first USSR nuclear test in August 1949. He became supervising meteorologist at the National Meteorological Center in Washington, D.C. for three years before being assigned to the Nevada Test Site. As head of the Weather and Fallout Prediction Unit from 1956 to 1972, he provided weather and fallout predictions for nuclear tests in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Mississippi, and Alaska. In 1972, he transferred to St. Louis, where he organized and directed the Environmental Protection Agency's Regional Air Pollution Study until 1974. Philip worked as a meteorological consultant for the next 10 years, lecturing at various tertiary institutions and for government agencies. Philip was an elder in the Presbyterian church and, with his wife, Jean, served for several years on the boards and as skipper of the Presbyterian Mariners, a couples' social organization of their church. He volunteered for the Clark County Health District Hospice and at the newly established National Atomic Testing Museum. In his later years, he researched and wrote extensively about family history. His autobiography is on file at the UNLV Oral History Department and in the Clark County Library. His wife, of 67 years, preceded him in death June 12, 2013. Following her death, Philip moved to Pleasant Hill to be nearer to his son. The last of 70 older first cousins and four siblings, Philip is survived by his son, Douglas of Orinda, Calif.; daughter, Deborah Eagles of Adelaide, South Australia; five grandchildren, Corinne, Peter, Ruth, Elizabeth and Miriam; and nine great grandchildren. Inurnment of ashes will be conducted privately at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Veterans Memorial Drive in Boulder City. Philip Wymer Allen 217 Effingham Daily News Robert L. Allen Sr., 80, of Iola died at 11:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, 2008, at St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital, Effingham. Mr. Allen was born June 7, 1928, in rural Louisville, the son of Hiram Dellace and Itha (Fitzgerald) Allen. He married Jacqueline Herrick Feb. 14, 1954, in Iola, and she preceded him in death Sept. 19, 1998. He later married Deloris (Hirtzel) Hoeffliger Oct. 7, 2000, in Watson. Mr. Allen was a farmer and Korean War veteran. He was a member of Watson Baptist Church, where he served on various church committees, including the finance committee. Mr. Allen was a 20-plus-year member of Clay County Board, serving 18 years as chairman, and was past member and chief of Iola Volunteer Fire Department. He was a member of Clay County Housing Authority, Clay County Hospital board and Edgewood American Legion. Robert enjoyed quail hunting, picking blackberries, hunting mushrooms and after his retirement, growing strawberries. Survivors include his wife; daughter, Denise Hall; son, R. Lee Allen; grandson, Harris Allen; stepchildren; twin sister, Roberta Allen; five stepgrandchildren; and three stepgreat-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents; first wife, Jacqueline; five brothers, Lyndell, Lloyd, Leonard, Ianthus and Friday; four sisters, Cleora Dawkins, Clotilla Rogers, Delores Greenwood and Dantzell Foster; and stepdaughter, Deana Rodewald. The funeral was held at Frank and Bright Funeral Home, Flora, with the Rev. Kent Robinson officiating. Burial with military honors was in Iola Cemetery. Memorials to Watson Baptist Church Building Fund or the American Cancer Society. Robert L. Allen, Sr. 218 Roberta Lynell Allen, 80, of Louisville died at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, at Flora Healthcare Center. Miss Allen was born June 7, 1928, in Clay County, the daughter of Hiram Dellace and Itha (Fitzgerald) Allen. She was a former worker at International Shoe Factory, Flora, and a member of Wabash Baptist Church, Louisville. Survivors include her brother-in-law, Leland Roy Rogers; sister-in-law, Deloros Allen; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; special friend, Leo Dios Frost; brothers, David Lyndell Allen, Alvin Leonard Allen, Lloyd Archibald Allen, Lyle Ianthus Allen, Varlon LaVon "Friday" Allen, Robert Lee Allen (her twin); and sisters, Cleora Dawkins, Delorus Greenwood, Dantzell Foster and Clotille Rogers. The funeral was held at Neal Funeral Home, Louisville, with Brother Carroll Ross officiating. Burial was in Moore Cemetery, rural Louisville. home. Memorials may be made to Clay County Hospice. Roberta Lynell Allen 219 Greenville News, February 26, 2002 Roger Aylmer Allen died in Greenville, S.C., early Sunday, Feb. 24, 2002, at the age of 89. Born April 16, 1912, near Russell, Iowa, he was the son of Aylmer and Mabel (Werts) Allen. His wife of 61 years, Margueritte (Augustine), preceded him in death in August 1995. He is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth Ann Langston, of Pawleys Island, S.C.; a son, Frederick Roger Allen, of Raleigh, N.C.; brothers, Hubert of Elyria, Ohio, and Phillip of Las Vegas, Nev.; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Memorial services will be 11 a.m., Wednesday at Westminster Presbyterian Church of Greenville. Graveside services will be Thursday at Lewinsville Presbyterian Church in McLean, Va., near where the family had lived for 45 years. With an M.S. degree in physics from the University of Maine and additional postgraduate work, and teaching at Pennsylvania State College and MIT, Mr. Allen was a research meteorologist at the headquarters of the U.S. Weather Bureau, mostly in Washington, D.C., for 34 years. He provided weather studies and reports to the Pentagon during World War II, including overseeing the preparation and publication of several decades of historical weather data for the Northern Hemisphere. He published in professional journals and books many of his own scientific studies of long- and short-range weather forecasting technology. He advised weather forecasters nationwide on improved prediction methods. He was awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for his work on statistical weather prediction and in promoting probability forecasting. He was an active member of the American Meteorological Society and had been chairman of the D.C. Chapter. Roger was always active in the education of his children, including the PTA and committees, and in the Presbyterian Church, where he directed and sang in choirs, and was an ordained elder. In the 1950s, he began a hobby of tape-recording classical music and built a reputation in the Washington area for very high quality recordings of choral, organ and orchestral music, including performances at Kennedy Center and Washington National Cathedral. After retirement in 1970, he and Margueritte operated their own recording business and for several years exclusively recorded concerts of the Washington Bach Consort, including a concert tour of Europe. They moved in 1985 to Swansgate in Greenville, joining Westminster Presbyterian Church, for which he designed and installed the church's sound system. They also provided support for SSSH, a group for the hard-of-hearing, for which they received national recognition. Wednesday, the family will receive friends in the Church Lounge after the service. In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorials be sent to Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2310 Augusta Road, Greenville, SC 29605. - The Mackey Mortuary, Century Drive. Roger Aylmer Allen 220 News Gazette, October 23, 2008 Rose Elaine Warner, 84, passed away at 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, October 21, 2008, at the Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, Champaign Co., Illinois. Mrs. Warner was born on October. 11, 1924, in Decatur, Macon Co., Illinois. She was the daughter of Othel A. and Velma C. Wilson Allen. She married Flavel Warner on October 4, 1942, in Monroe, Missouri. He preceded her in death on February 24, 1997. She is survived by three sons, Lowell E. Warner, David A. (Edwina) Warner and Kevin P. Warner, one daughter, Jean A. Holliday, four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and one brother, Wendell (Lois J.) Allen. She was also preceded in death by her parents. Mrs. Warner was a staff secretary for McKinley Health Services from 1967 to 1982. She was a member of the Philo Road Church of Christ, an avid reader and enjoyed working Crossword and Word Find puzzles. Rose Elaine Allen 221 Richmond Times Dispatch, February 17, 1924 A telegram was received Friday night by Frederick S. Valentine from Mrs. Nell S. Skinker, of Los Angeles, Cal., announcing the death there of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Rose Allen Skinker, of this city. Mrs. Skinker was the widow of Major Charles R. Skinker, a prominent citizen and well-known Confederate soldier. She was born at the old Allen mansion, Twelfth and Broad Streets, January 13, 1845, and was the daughter of the late Joseph Allen, for many years clerk of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, and his wife, Mary Ann Stetson. Mrs. Skinker was one of the founders, and for many years one of the board of managers of the Retreat for the Sick. She was also for many years a member of the Hollywood Memorial Association, and was identified with much charitable and religious work of this city. She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Frederick S. Valentine, and her grandchildren, Mrs. Thomas W. Ellett, Frederick S. Valentine, Jr., Charles Skinker Valentine, of this city, and Rose L. Skinker, of Los Angeles, and her sister, Mrs. Florence L. Wheat, of Berryville, Clarke County. Rose Lesslie Allen 222 The Nelson Gazette, Thursday, August 17, 1939 Taylor Allen, son of Job and Mary Allen, was born in Logan county (sic), Illinois, October 9, 1867, and departed this life August 8, 1939, at Sheridan, Wyoming at the age of 71 years, 9 months and 29 days. He came to Nebraska with his parents in 1872, they locating one mile south of the present town of Oak. He grew to manhood on the farm and on June 19, 1900, was united in marriage to Minnie Joy of this place who preceded him in death September 27, 1900. He was united in marriage to Ida May Davis December 21, 1904, and they resided in Oak and vicinity until 1913, when they moved to Sheridan, Wyo. She preceded him in death May 30, 1919. He resided in Sheridan and vicinity until his death. He leaves to mourn his departure six sisters and one brother, one brother, Job, having died in infancy. The survivors are: Mrs. Eliza Ellsworth, North Platte; Samuel Allen, Mrs. Annie Cox and Mrs. Addie Dudley of Sheridan, Wyo.; Mrs Minnie Washington, Oak; Mrs. Grace Neer, Neodesha, Kansas; and Mrs. Ollie Taylor of Starbuck, Washington; several nieces and nephews and a host of friends. Funeral services were held Friday afternoon at 3:30 at the Methodist church (sic) in Oak, Rev. V.R. Daniels officiating. Interment was made in Oak cemetery (sic). The pall bearers were Gene and Ralph Follmer, Ray and Jim Moore, John Scroggin and Mike Buresh. Taylor Allen 223 Hays Daily News, The (KS) - January 3, 2008 Deceased Name: Thelma L. Wertz Thelma L. Wertz, 96, Quinter, died Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2008, at Trego County-Lemke Memorial Hospital Long Term Care, WaKeeney. She was born Feb. 25, 1911, in Quinter to Perry and Piner (Ely) Allen. She was a 1931 graduate of Quinter High School and received a teaching certificate. She married Howard L. Wertz on Sept. 27, 1936. He preceded her in death June 7, 1995. She was a homemaker. Survivors include two daughters, Judy Berg, WaKeeney, and Kathy Bugbee, Louisburg; seven grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a son, Larry Wertz, and a grandson. Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Church of the Brethren, Quinter; burial in Baker Township Cemetery, Quinter. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. today at Schmitt Funeral Home, Quinter. Memorials are suggested to Gove County Medical Center Long Term Care or Trego County-Lemke Memorial Hospital Long Term Care in care of the funeral home. Thelma Lucrecia Allen 224 Jul 17, 1963 The Courier Journal, March 26, 2006 HEADDEN TRACI A., 42, of Louisville, passed away Saturday, March 25, 2006. She was preceded in death by her father, Jesse Albert Allen; and her sister, Teri Faye Allen. She is survived by her husband, James E. Headden; her mother, Beverly Allen; one sister, Cheryl Kuprion (Joe); one son, Joshua Headden; two daughters, Rhonda Stratton (Clinton) and Kimberly Hennessy (Paul); four grandchildren, Danielle, Clinton Jr., Meghan and Kelsey; her beloved Gizmo and Rambo; and numerous aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Her funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday at the Heady-Hardy Funeral Home, 7710 Dixie Highway. Burial will follow in the Bethany Memorial Cemetery. Visitation will be held from noon -8 p.m. on Monday, and from 10 a.m. until services on Tuesday. Because of Traci's generosity, she donated her vital organs to the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to KODA, WHAS Crusade for Children or the St. Judes Childrens foundation. Traci Annette Allen Friday Allen, 75, of Louisville, died April 11, 2006, at his home. Mr. Allen was born Jan. 21, 1931 in Clay County, the son of Hairm Dallas and itha Fitzgerald Allen. He married Betty Jane Allen Feb. 25, 1950 and she preceded him in death on Dec. 16, 2002. He was a farmer and driver for Kincaid Oil in Louisville. He was a member of the Louisville Christian Church. Survivors include two sons, Ron and Dennis Allen; a brother, Robert Allen; two sisters, Roberta Allen and Cloetilla Rogers; four grandchildren; one step-grandchild and six great-grandchildren. Preceding him in death were his parents and wife. Funeral services were held at Neal Funeral Home in Louisville with burial in Moore's Cemetery (Christian Home). Memorials to Louisville Christian Church. Varlen L. Allen 226 Clarence Ray Alloway infant son of Mr. James & Mrs. J. L. Alloway was born in Burwell, Nebraska, August 12, 1927, and departed this life September 29, 1927, at the age of six weeks six days. He was a bright an promising child and was already a member of the Cradle Roll, of the Methodist Sunday School. He was sick only 24 hours, so he did not have to suffer long. The funeral was conducted by Rev. W. W. Gettys, Pastor of the M. E. Church, from the parents home Friday, afternoon September 30, 1927. Burial was made in the Cottonwood Cemetery, Burwell, Nebraska. Clarence Ray Alloway 227 Grand Island Independent, January 8, 2006 Norval Dean Alloway, 74, formerly of Burwell, died Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006, at the Grand Island Veterans Home. A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Hitchcock Funeral Home in Burwell. The Rev. Rolly Salts will officiate. Burial of the cremains will be in Cottonwood Cemetery in Burwell. Mr. Alloway was born Nov. 29, 1931, in Burwell to James and Flora (McGill) Alloway. Survivors of the immediate family include a brother and sister-in-law, Lyle and Ruth Alloway of Burwell, and a sister, Margaret Ardath Kusek of Burwell. Norval Dean Alloway 228 Fayetteville Observer Times, March 30, 1989 Mrs. Myrtle F. Mullins, 78, of 1429 Paisley Ave., Fayetteville, died Wednesday. Graveside services will be conducted Friday at 10 a.m. at Cumberland Memorial Gardens by the Rev. Joe Gerald, directed by Reeves Funeral Home. Surviving are her son William Mullins of Fayetteville; sister Gertie Abbott of Harlan, Ky.; and four grandchildren. Myrtle Florabelle Allred 229 Obituary from the Loudoun-Times Mirror: Royal Burton Allyn, 51, a former U.S. Navy employee and resident of Purcellville, died Aug. 25 in Loudoun Memorial Hospital after a long illness. Mr. Allyn was a budget analyst with U.S. Navy Communications and had finished 30 years of government service when he retired two and a half years ago because of ill health. A native of Oswego, N.Y., he was a veteran of World War II, having served with Gen. George Patton's Third Army in the Battle of the Bulge in Germany. He was a member of Bethany United Methodist Church, Veterans of Foreign War Pos 1177 of Leesburg, American Legion Post 293 of which he was a past commander, the Forty and Eight fraternal organization, and the Izaak Walton League. Mr. Allyn was the son of Mrs. Hazel Trenary Allyn of Purcellville and of the late Royal B. Allyn. Surviving with his mother are his wife, Celeste Fields Allyn, and a son, Royal B. Allyn Jr. who is with the U.S. Navy in Virginia Beach. The Rev. Lupton T. Simpson of North Fork conducted the service Aug. 27 at the Hall Funeral Home in Purcellville. Interment was in Hillsboro Cemetery. Pallbearers were Charles Buxton, Charles Newlin, Shirley Trussel, George J. Legner, Joseph K. Weakley, and John Haske. Royal Burton Allyn 230 Margaret Virginia Alsop Hackley, age 88, of Luray, Va. died Friday, Jan. 16, 2004, at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital. Mrs. Hackley was born Sept. 23, 1915, in Prospect, Va., and was the daughter of the late Joseph French Alsop and Margaret Crawley Alsop. She was a homemaker. On March 15, 1942, she married Alexander Erwin Hackley, who preceded her in death March 18, 1995. She is survived by a son, Frederick Erwin Hackley of Baton Rouge, La., two daughter, Margaret K. Hackley of Princeton, Ill. and Joyce A. Fiusto of Edinburg and seven grandchildren, Mary Hackley of New Hanes Myers of Louisana, Charles Carmen and Carl Carmen both of Illinois, Lou Giusto and Ian Giusto both of Georgia and Nick Giusto of Virginia. In addition to her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by a son, Thomas Alsop Hackley. Burial at Beahm's Chapel Cemetery in Luray. Margaret Virginia Alsop 231 Roanoke Times, The (VA) - Monday, May 30, 2011 Idamae Altfather Powell (Lt. Col. USAF, Retd), 85, of Roanoke, died Saturday, May 28, 2011. She was a 1942 graduate of Caroline High School, a 1946 graduate of Delaware Hospital School of Nursing, and attended Troy State in Alabama for 2 years. From 1946 to 1956, she traveled as a Registered Nurse in the Epidemic Polio Program with the American Red Cross and the March of Dimes. She was in the United States Air Force from October 1956 until October 1976, with 6 years in foreign service. She was a world traveler, walked and hiked part of the Appalachian Trail and collected dolls. she was also a charter member of the Women's Memorial in Washington, DC. She was predeceased by her parents, Malissa and John Altfather, three brothers, Nevil, Harry, and Harold Altfather, and two sisters, Ruth A. Gibson and Malinda Altfather. Surviving is her husband of 39 years, Robert L. Powell; several nieces and nephews; five stepchildren; and several stepgrandchildren; and stepgreat-grandchildren; one sister, Catherine A. Trice; and a brother, Kenneth W. Altfather. A private service will be held at a later date. Arrangements by Oakey's South chapel, 540-989-3131. Idamae Altfather 232 Virginian-Pilot, The (Norfolk, VA) - Sunday, September 20, 2009 VIRGINIA BEACH - Irene A. Korte passed away peacefully Sept. 17, 2009, surrounded by her loving family. She was 89. A native of New Haven, Mo., she grew up dreaming of becoming a music teacher, being a piano soloist with a symphony orchestra, and marrying Don Korte, the love of her life, whom she met at age 3. She achieved all of her dreams. She graduated from Lindenwood College for Women with a bachelor's of music degree, and received a master's of education from The College of William and Mary. She also studied piano, organ and voice. Mrs. Korte touched many lives, teaching music for 31 years at Alanton, John B. Dey and Oceana elementary schools in Virginia Beach, retiring in 1983. She also taught classes for The College of William and Mary and Old Dominion University. In addition to being a dedicated educator, she was also a talented vocalist and musician. Among her many accomplishments, she appeared with the Norfolk Symphony as one of two piano soloists at the first Pops concert in 1953. She wed Don Korte in 1945 and enjoyed 63 happy, wonderful years of marriage to him. A resident of Virginia Beach's Alanton neighborhood for nearly 50 years, Mrs. Korte was very active in her community. She was a member of and held offices in many organizations including the North Alanton Civic League, Princess Anne Woman's Club, Scherzo Music Club, and Virginia Federation of Music clubs. She was also active at First Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, where she was organist and choir director for many years. A proud, devoted wife, mother and grandmother, Mrs. Korte was preceded in death by her loving husband, Don, and grandson, Jack Korte. She is survived by her four children and their spouses, Don W. Korte Jr. and wife Mary of Mequon, Wis., Martha Korte Brantley and husband Allen, George F. Korte and wife Holly, John J. Korte and wife Judy, all of Virginia Beach; grandchildren, Don W. Korte III of West Allis, Wis., Christine Brantley, Kyle Korte and wife Mollie, Kurt Korte, Kendall Korte, Ben Korte and Elizabeth Korte; and great- granddaughter, Lindsey Brantley, all of Virginia Beach. Visitation will be Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home, Great Neck Chapel. The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, at First Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach, followed by a reception at the church and private burial. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Korte Family Scholarship, c/o Virginia Beach Education Foundation, 2512 George Mason Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23456. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.hollomon-brown.com. Irene Altheide 233 Roanoke Times, May 16, 2013 Violet Altice Light, 91, of Roanoke passed away on Thursday, May 16, 2013. She was a member of Shenandoah Baptist Church. Violet was a LPN and worked until she was 85. She started working at the Nursery at Roanoke Memorial Hospital and worked at Catawba Hospital, the City Nursing Home and retired from the Roanoke Methodist Home. She was preceded in death by her husband, Herman C. Light; parents, Gracie and Pete Altice; five brothers and two sisters. Violet is survived by three daughters and sons-in-law, Wanda and Lawrence Hinchee, Joyce and Joe Davis, Janice and Don Pinkard; seven grandchildren, Beverly, Sherry, Barry, Amy, Heidi, Derek, Brandon; fifteen great-grandchildren, Justin, Holly, Claire, Rachel, Jack, Mychel, Myles, Mason, Kelsey, Ady, Jude, Benjamin, Riley, Hunter, Marley; one great-great grandchildren, Dillon. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at Oakey's North Chapel with Rev. Robert Alderman officiating. Interment will follow in Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens. Violet Elizabeth Altice 234 Brand Ida May. 96, of Angola, died July 3, 2009 at Northern Lakes Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Angola. She was a member of the Quincy, Mich. OES. She was born Nov. 3, 1912 in Ligonier to Alonzo and Grace (Wenner) Altimus. She married Kenneth Brand on Nov. 14, 1931. He died April 29, 1988. Surviving are a son, Richard Brand of Greenbush, Mich. a daughter and son-in-law, Janis and Ronald Funnell of Angola; and a sister, Virginia Smith of Sturgis, Mich. She was also preceded in death by a brother and 3 sisters. Services Tuesday at Weicht Funeral Home, Angola. Burial, Woodland Cemetery, Wolcottville. Ida May Altimus 235 THELMA J. BRAND?tab??tab? THELMA J. BRAND age 99 of Sturgis Michigan died Friday May 26, 2006 at Thurston Woods Village in Sturgis. She was born January 4, 1907 in LaGrange County, Indiana a daughter to the late Alonzo & Grace (Wenner) Altimus. Thelma had resided in the Sturgis area since 1944 coming from Wolcottville, Indiana where she and her husband had owned and operated a restaurant. Following many years of employment Thelma retired from the Kirsch Company in Sturgis. On October 27, 1927 she married William Arthur Brand in Wolcottville, Indiana. He died April 25, 1964. Thelma enjoyed flowers especially roses, sewing and jigsaw puzzles. She is survived by 1 Daughter, Phyllis Harmon of Sturgis, 1 Daughter-In-Law, Nancy Brand of Sturgis, 4 Grandchildren, Michael & Sheri Harmon of Elizabethtown, KY, Linda & Ed Taylor of Sturgis, Jean & Dan Barnell of Sturgis and William Brand of Sturgis, 7 Great Grandchildren, 4 Great Great Grandchildren, 2 Sisters, Virginia Smith of Topeka, IN and Ida May Brand of Angola, IN and several nieces and nephews. Her parents, husband, 1 Son, Robert Brand, 1 brother, Willie Altimus and 2 sisters, Marjorie Kaiser and Mildred Ross and 1 great great grandson preceded her in death. The family will receive friends from 3:00-6:00 P.M. Tuesday at the Rosenberg-Schipper Funeral Home of Sturgis. Funeral services celebrating the life of Thelma Brand will be held at 2:00 P.M. Wednesday at the funeral home. The Rev. Chris Knight of the Sturgis Missionary Church will officiate. A graveside committal will follow the service at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Sturgis. The family suggests those wishing to make a memorial donation in Mrs. Brand's memory consider the American Cancer Society. Thelma J. Altimus 236 South Bend Tribune (IN) - Friday, July 3, 1998 Deceased Name: Willie T. Altimus June 4, 1905-July 2, 1998 KENDALLVILLE--Willie T. Altimus, 93, of 1802 Dowling St., formerly of Wolcottville, died Thursday in McCray Hospital. Survivors include four sisters, Thelma Brand of Sturgis, Mildred Ross of Dayton, Ohio, Ida May Brand of Angola, Ind., and Virginia Smith of Topeka. Services will be at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Frurip-May Funeral Home, LaGrange, where friends may call after 2 p.m. Sunday, and a Masonic service will be held at 5 p.m. Willie T. Altimus 237 State, Columbia, South Carolina, December 26, 1972 Newberry - Dr. John A. Aman, 73, retired Newberry College professor, died in his home Monday. Dr. Aman was born in Hyattsville, Md., a son of the late Frank Andrew and Ester Grubb Aman. He was educated in Maryland and District of Columbia public schools and graduated from George Washington University, receiving his Ph. D. in 1935 and his B. D. degree from the Lutheran theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa. He was head professor of economics and business administration at Newberry College prior to his retirement in 1968. He was a lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Army during World War II, serving as chaplain. Surviving is a brother, Walter F. Aman of Hollidaysburg, pa. Services will be at 3 p.m Tuesday in Whitaker Funeral Home with burial in Newberry Memorial Gardens. Dr. John Andrew Aman 238 Herald Mail, February 28, 2007 MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Donna Jean Wolford, 79, of Martinsburg, died Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007, at City Hospital. Born Nov. 24, 1927, in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., she was the daughter of the late George O. Ambrose and Mary Jane Frederick Ambrose. She was a 1947 graduate of Berkeley Springs High School. She retired in 1961 from Old National Bank. She was a member of Calvary United Methodist Church, where she was a member and secretary of the Fidelis Class. She was a volunteer of Meals on Wheels, leader of Shawnee Girl Scout Council, a Girl Scout leader trainer, a member of Order of the Eastern Star Chapter 77 of Berkeley Springs and a volunteer of Berkeley Senior Services, among other organizations. She was awarded the Governor's Award for Volunteering in 2001 and 2002, and had been elected Volunteer of the Year. She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Theo W. "Ted" Wolford; one daughter, Kathy McIntyre of Martinsburg; one sister, Mary V. Michael of Martinsburg; and nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by four sisters, Ruth Lindsey, Betty Graham, Eleanor Fellers and Anna Blondel; and seven brothers, James Ambrose, Edward Ambrose, Robert Ambrose, Kenneth Ambrose, Fred Ambrose, Richard Ambrose and William Ambrose. Services will be Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Calvary United Methodist Church. The Rev. Al Clipp will officiate. Burial will be in Rosedale Cemetery. The family will receive friends Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Brown Funeral Home, Martinsburg. Donna Jean Ambrose 239 Frederick News Post, October 22, 2010 Mrs. Lauretta Pearl Nutter, 90, of Knoxville, passed away Friday, Oct. 15, 2010, at Citizens Nursing Home. Pearl was the wife of the late Luther Nutter and the late Walton "Pete" Gosnell. Born Nov. 13, 1919, she was the daughter of the late George and Lena Ambrose. Pearl was an active member of New Hope United Methodist Church, formerly the New York Hill United Methodist Church in Brunswick. She enjoyed gardening, Sunday dinners and anything that involved her 16 great-grandchildren. She is survived by her daughter, Lauretta Kay Tucker and husband, Jerome William; stepchildren, Bob Nutter and wife, Peg, Luther Nutter Jr. and wife, SukCha, Sandra Dean and husband, Don, and Brenda Smith and husband, Jim; a grandson, Keith Tucker and wife, Amy; a granddaughter, Leah Price and husband, Mike; stepgrandchildren, Aaron Nutter and wife, Christina, Robbie Nutter and wife, Audrey, Lea Sue McGill and husband, Dave, Tina Lee Conner and husband, Jamie, Linda Bowman and Brenda Bowman; her great-grandchildren, Noah and Nicholas Tucker, and Brooke and Blaine Price; and stepgreat-grandchildren, Destiny, Ember, Cayden, Lucas, Kylie, Peyton, Avery, Brayden, Sabrina, Regina, Safire and Aiden. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Dixie Jarrett; and her six brothers and sisters. She will also be warmly remembered by several nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25, at Stauffer Funeral Home, 1100 N. Maple Ave., Brunswick. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, at New Hope United Methodist Church, 7 S. Maryland Ave., Brunswick. Pastor Katie Bishop and the Rev. Noni Sigler will officiate. Interment will be in Park Heights Cemetery, Bruns-wick. Memorial contribution may be made to New Hope United Methodist Church, 7 S. Maryland Ave., Brunswick, MD 21716. Lauretta Pearl Ambrose 240 Frederick Post, May 7, 1993 Mr. Raymond Nelson Ambrose, 77, of 806 Knoxville Road, Knoxville, died Thursday, May 6, at Frederick Memorial Hospital. Born June 25, 1915, in Great Capon, W. Va., he was a son of the late Samuel and Annie Allmong Ambrose. He was a retired supervisor at Dulles Airport. He was a veteran of World War II, serving with the U.S. Army. He was a member of the Bethany Lutheran Church, Brunswick. He was also a member of the Steadman-Keenan Post 96, American Legion, Brunswick; the Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell Basha of China-Burma India Veterans Association; ant the China Burma India National Association. He was an active baseball player in Frederick County, Morgan County, W. Va., and Loudoun County, Va. Details appeared in "Ripley's Believe it or Not." Surviving are his wife, Evelyn Gosnell Ambrose, at home; one son, William Nelson Ambrose, at home; one daughter, Iris Jean Johnson of Hagerstown; two sisters, Willa Hanlon and Anna Lee Roley, both of Berkley Springs, W. Va; and one granddaughter. Raymond Nelson Ambrose 241 Frederick Post, March 24, 1951 Two Brunswick airmen are aboard a C-124 Air Force transport plane missing on a flight from Maine to England, the Strategic Air Command Headquarters in Omaha, Neb., informed their parents Friday evening. Among the 53 persons aboard the transport are: Sgt. George W. Ambrose, Jr., 21 son of George W. and Laura Ambrose of 501 Ninth Avenue, Brunswick. Cpl. Sterling L. Ambrose, 19, son of Mrs. Rosie Ambrose Weller, of 115 Ninth Avenue, Brunswick. Sgt. Ambrose, better known as "Bunky" has been in the Army Air Forces about two years. He was stationed in New Mexico, Texas and Mississippi before being assigned to the C-124 that left Limestone, Maine on Thursday for Mildenhall Air Base in Suffolk, England. Its radio was last heard about 1 o'clock Friday morning 800 miles southwest of Ireland. Cpl Ambrose has been in the service since his graduation from Brunswick High School in 1948. He is a stepson of William Weller, Brunswick radio shop proprietor. George Ambrose was a member of the 1947 Brunswick High School graduation class. Families of the two service men were notified between 4 and 5 o'clock Friday afternoon. Body was never recovered. A memory marker was placed in the cemetery. Sterling Lee Own Ambrose, Jr. 242 Frederick Post, August 30, 1940 FUNERAL SERVICES FOR WRECK VICTIM ? Rites for Stirling L. Ambrose, Brunswick Railroad Brakeman, Largely Attended -- Funeral services for Stirling L. Ambrose, Brunswick railroad brakeman, who was killed in a freight wreck near Sykesville Sunday night, were held Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock at New York Hill Methodist church, conducted by Rev. J.W. Webb, pastor. The Brunswick Aerie Fraternal order of Eagles conducted ritualistic services at the grave and provided the pallbearers, William Haller, Ralph Thomas, Harry Hill, Wade Spring, James Painter, Raymond Frock. The services were largely attended and there were many floral offerings. Interment Park Heights cemetery. C.H. Feete and Son, funeral directors. Stirling Lee Owen Ambrose, Sr. 243 Frederick Post, November 2, 1996 Mr. William "Butch" Nelson Ambrose, 47, of 806 Knoxville Rd., Knoxville, died Friday, Nov. 1, at Frederick Memorial Hospital. Born Feb. 7, 1949, in Frederick, he was a son of Evelyn Gosnell Ambrose and the late Raymond Nelson Ambrose. Surviving in addition to his mother are a stepsister, Iris Jean Johnson of Hagerstown; an aunt and uncle, Tootie and Howard Gosnell of Lovettsville, VA. Interment was in the Reformed Cemetery, Knoxville. William Nelson Ambrose 244 Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) - Tuesday, October 31, 1995 Deceased Name: PAUL R. AMENT, 83, WELDER, FABRICATOR Paul R. Ament, 83, of 1037 Letort Road, Creswell, died unexpectedly Sunday evening at home. He was under the care of a doctor. A lifelong resident of Manor Township, he was the husband of Mildred K. Senft Ament. They observed their 61st anniversary on April 22. A welder, machinist and fabricator, he worked for Turkey Hill Dairy Inc., Conestoga, for 25 years before retiring in 1978. He was a member of Bethany Evangelical Congregational Church, Creswell, and a council member of the board of LeTourneau College, Longview, Texas. Born in Manor Township, he was a son of the late Daniel K. and Edith M. Mann Ament. Surviving besides his wife are two sons, John L., husband of Julie Ament of Conestoga, and Glenn R., husband of Connie Ament of Creswell; three daughters, F. Jeanne Frey of Millersville, Phyllis A., wife of George F. Morris III of Cedarville, Ohio, and Judith A., wife of T. Stephen Price of Red Lion; eight grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; four stepgrandchildren; and eight stepgreat-grandchildren. Paul R. Ament 245 Coshocton Tribune, November 28, 2012 COSHOCTON: Annie Sunafrank Moore, 96, of Coshocton, Ohio, passed away at Autumn Extended Care Facility on Monday, November 26, 2012. She was born on February 22, 1916, in Coshocton County, Ohio, the daughter of the late Thurman Leroy and Mamie (Rivers) Amore. During World War ll, she worked at Jones Metal in West Lafayette, Ohio, and then was employed at General Electric in Coshocton, Ohio, retiring after 29 years of service. She was a member of Park United Methodist Church, and was very proud of her two trips to the Holy Land. Most of all she loved her family, and enjoyed baking for them. She also enjoyed the Holiday's, especially Christmas. On December 23, 1933, she married Clarence Sunafrank, who passed away on September 9, 1953, and on October 28, 1955, she married George Moore, who passed away on July 7, 1993. Annie is survived by her daughters, Linda (Dick) Graham, with whom she lived with for the past three years, Jeanie (John) Hammond; her brother, Leo (Chris) Amore of McArthur, Ohio; five granddaughters; three grandsons; and several great and great-great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by six sisters, Ethel Angle, Lilly Green, Sophia Donley, Mary Maple, Lewanda Capple, Isabelle Simmons; five brothers, Wesley, Thurman, Arthur, Everett, and Virgil Amore; her grandson, John Hammond Jr.; her granddaughter, Beatrice Jonard; her infant son, Buddy Sunafrank; her daughter, Catherine Angle; two infant grandchildren; and three infant great grandchildren. A funeral service will be held in the Chapel of Given Dawson Funeral Home, 186 Park Ave., Coshocton, Ohio, on Thursday, November 29, 2012, at Noon, with Pastor Clarence Easterday officiating. Burial will follow in Fairfield Cemetery in West Lafayette, Ohio. The family will receive friends and neighbors at the funeral home on Thursday, from 10am until Noon. For those who wish contributions may be made to the . or to Park United Methodist Church. An online memorial is located at www.given-dawsonfuneralhome.com Annie Amore 246 Coshocton Tribune, December 16, 1977 Pvt. Arthur Amore of Camp Blanding, Fla., son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Amore, 241 S. Fifth was found dead in his bed, asphyxiated by fumes from a gas stove which heated the trailer house in which he and his family lived. His wife, Bertha, was found unconscious and their month old baby, Priscilla, seemed unaffected. The mother and child were taken to the hospital and reported recovering. Arthur W. Amore 247 Nansfield Newspaper Bervil Amore, 81, of 215 S. 15th St., Coshocton, Ohio died Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996, at 11:10 P.M. at 215 South 15th St., Coshocton, OH. Born April 14, 1915 in Coshocton, Ohio to Lloyd and Ella (House) Amore (both deceased). On August 10, 1934, he was married to Eva Swigert who preceded him in death on August 10, 1979. On July 31, 1983, he married Ramona (Lillibridge) Swigert who survives. Survivors: Wife: Mrs. Bervil E. (Ramona) Amore, 215 S. 15th St., Coschocton, O.; Son: William Vernon Amore and wife Shelby, Crestline, O.; Daughter: Nancy Eberts and husband Jack, Mansfield, O.; 2 step-sons: Steve Vernon Swigert and wife Pam, Coshocton, Ohio, Michael L. Swigert, Coshocton, O; 2 step-daughters: Linda L. Barker and husband Benjamin, Greenville, O, Cathy E. Hail and husband Lee, Coshocton, O., Elaine Dawson and husband Larry, Coshocton, O; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; 3 brothers: Norman Amore and wife Mae, Fort Myers, Fla, Eugene Amore and wife Bernice (this is incorrect), Colorado, Paul Amore, Las Vegas, Nevada; 2 sisters: Gertrude Shackelford, Zanesville, O, Marie Quirk, Sandusky, O.; several nieces and nephews. Preceded in death by: 1 brother: Gail Amore Memorial services: Will be held at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, at the Burt Ave. Wesleyan Church, Coshocton, OH. Interment: Burial of the ashes will be in Mansfield Cemetery Bervil Ellwood Amore 248 Cleveland Press Clarence W. Amore, beloved husband of Mary (Traxley), dear father of Theodore W. of Columbus and Harold (deceased), stepfather of Raymond Traxier, grandfather and great-grandfather. Services at the Broadview Heights Friend Church, 8645 Avery Rd., Wednesday, June 6, at 1:30 P.M. Friends received at The Faulhaber Funeral Home, 7915 Braodview Rd., At Sprague, Tuesday 2-5 And 7-9 P.M. Clarence Wesley Amore 249 Coshocton Tribune, December 2, 2014 COSHOCTON: Edwin R. Amore, 75, of Coshocton passed away November 30, 2014 at Autumn Healthcare of Coshocton. He was born in Coshocton on September 28, 1939 to the late Bernard and Ruth (Dusenberry) Amore. Edwin worked on Pew Farms and General Electric for over 30 years before retiring. He loved golfing and spending time with his family. Edwin is survived by his wife, Irma (Bloom) Amore whom he married November 4, 1961; five children, Roger (Donna) Amore of North Carolina, Nancy Amore of Warsaw, Clifford Amore of Coshocton, Karen (Shawn) Rogan of Fresno, and Mark (Christina) Amore of Coshocton; brothers, Dale (Alice) Amore of Coshocton, Glenn Amore of Virginia, and Gary (Pat) Amore of Cleveland; 12 grandchildren; one great-grandchild. Along with his parents he is preceded in death by his aunt, Grace Snow; and grandparents, Clifford (Bernice) Dusenberry. Friends may call at The Miller Funeral Home, 639 Main St., Coshocton Thursday December 4, 2014 from 5:00 PM-7:00 PM and one hour prior to the funeral service on Friday at 11:00 AM at the church. Funeral services for Edwin will be held at the Coshocton Church of the Nazarene, 1058 Orange St., Coshocton on Friday at 11:00 AM with Pastor Dave Boots officiating. Interment will follow at Coshocton County Memory Gardens. Edwin Roger Amore 250 Eugene James Amore was the 7th child of Lloyd and Ella (House) Amore. As the youngest (living) child of the family, he truly was the baby of the bunch. He inherited a paper route from his brothers; played trumpet in the Salvation Army band; played the steel guitar; and was a Golden Gloves boxer. Gene's first job was for his Uncle John House, and he used the money earned to buy his first car - a 1929 Chevy. In November 1939 fresh out of high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. In 1942, he was stationed at Rejkavik, Iceland. From 1953-1955 Gene was station at Tachikawa AFB in Japan as well as from 1957-1958. While living in Japan, Gene liked to fly and kept his pilot's license active into the 1970s. He retired from the US Air Force as a MSgt in 1960 at Tyndall AFB in Panama City, Florida. Following retirement, he moved to Beavercreek, Ohio where he worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Civil Service. After his divorce from Mary Johnson Amore, he married Dorothy "Dottie" Thackston Helman in Reno, NV and moved to Florida where they lived until Dottie's death in 1990. A year later, he married Florence Smith Butcher in Reno, NV. They lived in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arkansas and then back to Florida where Florence passed away in March 2003. Later that same year, Gene married for the fourth time. The couple traveled to see family members several times. On October 12, 2015 Gene had a stroke and then developed pneumonia. He was at Tri-County Nursing Home when he passed away of natural causes on Dec. 3, 2015. Surviving him are his wife, two daughters, 2 stepdaughters, 2 stepsons, 7 grandchildren, 7 great-grandchildren, 1 great-great-grandson, numerous step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, 3 sisters, 4 brothers, and a son. Eugene James Amore	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line192
__label__wiki	0.889752	0.889752	2013 – A painting by Fernand Leger owned by Madonna sold for $7.2 million 2014 – 2014 Polar Music Prize named Chuck Berry was named as one of the laureates. 2014 – Polar Music named Chuck Berry as one of the 2014 Prize laureates. 2015 – B.B. King’s 3 of 11 children lost their bid to control of his affairs. Dave’s Soapbox: May 2012: Rick Nelson Beatles Quiz “Rock and Roll or Rockabilly, which came first?” Feb. 2012 Elvis Grammys: March 2012 Ed’s Whole Note! – April American Idol – One voted off (Top 7) American Idol – Top 7 Finalists – One voted off – NOT American Idol – Top Seven – (again) American Idol – Finalist Compete – Top 5 American Idol – Performance Show – The Finale – Top 2 American Idol – Performance Show – Top 3 American Idol – Results Show – Top 3 American Idol – The Winner Announced American Idol – Top 7 Levon Helm… Rare Talent is missed The Voice – Semi-Final Eliminations The Voice – Semi-Final Performances The Voice – Final Performances The Voice – Quarter-Final Performances The Voice – Quarter-Final Performances – Live Eliminations The Voice – The Finale The Voice – Live Eliminations The Voice – Quarter Final Performances Stu’s Corner: Feb. 4th (Meet Joe Robinson) Glass Onion PR Press Releases Grammies/Emmy 2011 Noble PR Press Releases The Recording Acadamy 2013 Know it! Advocacy Day for Music Makers Copyright… What to know! Government Censorship Gear, Merchandise & Stuff Gear & Stuff Links 2001 – Jazz tenor saxophonist Harold Land dies in … Posted on 12:30 pm by admin 2001 – Jazz tenor saxophonist Harold Land dies in Los Angeles after a stroke. He is 73. Land gained prominence in 1954 when he joined a quintet led by trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach. For many performers, working with a string section is a long-held dream. The lush backdrop warmly supports an instrumentalist or a singer, setting the stage for emotional, often unforgettable performances. Listen to orchestral albums by such greats as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, and Johnny Hodges, and the beauty and feeling that arise from these situations is soon appreciated. A Lazy Afternoon is a stellar contribution to this genre. Here, the consummate tenor saxophone artistry of Harold Land, easily one of jazz’s premier improvisers, meets the sumptuous string orchestrations of Ray Ellis, who is best recalled for Lady in Satin, a 1958 session for Columbia Records for which he wrote gorgeous string backdrops for Holiday. A Lazy Afternoon features ear-pleasing renditions of such evergreens as “You Go To My Head,” “Invitation,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “Nature Boy,” “In A Sentimental Mood,” “Wave,” and the title track, “Lazy Afternoon.” Land and the string and orchestral palette are accompanied by the ace rhythm team of Billy Higgins (drums), William Henderson (piano), and James Leary (bass). The tenor saxophonist, who will always be remembered for his scintillating performances with the masterful quintet led by trumpeter Brown and drummer Max Roach in the mid-50’s and with the internationally acclaimed quintet he co-led with Bobby Hutcherson in the late ’60s and early ’70s, fits superbly into the context. He employs his rugged, individualistic style and his trademark expressive tone, mixing compelling melody readings with alluring improvisations. For years, Land had wanted to do an album with strings, having been touched by recordings by Parker and Brown, as well as by Lady in Satin. And his appearances with Tony Bennett in the late ’60s and ’70s also flamed his desire for a string album. Then, he’d join the singer, mostly in Las Vegas, but occasionally on tours of Latin America, serving as the star soloist with the full orchestra that backed Bennett and reaching audiences that might not have otherwise known of his work. “Those appearances were always memorable and helped foster the desire in my soul to make an album with strings,” says Land. A Lazy Afternoon came to fruition when a story on Land, written by Jason Fine in Option magazine, told of his wish to make a string album. Postcards A&R Director Ralph Simon read the story, liked the idea and, being another fan of Lady in Satin, tracked down Land and then Ellis, both of whom live in Southern California. Both principals, who had never worked together prior to A Lazy Afternoon, were enthusiastic about the collaboration. “Harold is a beautiful guy, and laid-back, and he plays that way,” says Ellis. “The album feels real good to me.” “Ray’s beautiful writing was so tasteful and romantic — that’s a good word,” says Land. “The album worked out the way I wanted. With the turbulent state of affairs in this country, as well as the world, I would hope this album would manifest a little peaceful feeling, a positive effect, to all who hear it, as opposed to the negativity we are bombarded with every day. That feeling of peace is something I have been trying to express through music for a long time and, hopefully, this album will be a continuance of that effort.” The saxophonist and the arranger have lived fulfilling artistic lives. Land, born in Houston and raised in San Diego, moved to Los Angeles in the early ’50s. In 1954, he joined the famed Brown-Roach quintet, with which he toured the United States and recorded several albums for EmArcy (all of which are available as reissue CDs). After two years with the ensemble, Land felt the need to be closer to his family, which was in Los Angeles, and so he returned and has resided there ever since. Land recalled the mid-to-late ’50s, when LA was teeming with jazz. “That was a very healthy period here,” says the tenorman. “A lot of clubs around the city had a six-night-a-week policy, and most musicians were working.” He soon began to establish himself as one of the most singular and powerful of jazzmen, making albums with bassists Red Mitchell and Curtis Counce and then, in 1958, making his 12” LP debut (he had recorded four selections in 1949 that were released by Savoy). Harold in the Land of Jazz was issued on Contemporary Records, and was followed a year later by The Fox, on HiFi Jazz (available as a Contemporary Records reissue), which many consider his best early recording. He also began performing with Gerald Wilson’s orchestra, and with pianists Hampton Hawes and Carl Perkins, becoming an essential cog in the wheel of Los Angeles jazz. Nonetheless, the saxophonist didn’t really get much exposure outside LA until he formed a quintet with vibist Bobby Hutcherson in the late ’60s. The band recorded for Blue Note and toured the US and Europe. “There were a lot of similar things that Bobby and I responded to emotionally and musically,” Land says. Also during the ’60s, Land, like so many saxophonists, became enamored with John Coltrane, and he found that both his smooth sound and his approach to improvising changed during this period. “John definitely inspired me with his intense spirit, and I usually say that spirit moved me so much that I became a little more intense in my own musical presentation,” says Land. “At the same time, I was trying to maintain a certain individuality that I hope I have managed to do.” In the late ’70s and ’80s, Land joined the Timeless All-Stars, which also included Higgins, Hutcherson, Cedar Walton (piano), and Curtis Fuller (trombone). In and around performances with the Timeless band, Land fronted fine quintets that featured trumpeters Blue Mitchell (their Mapenzi, on Concord Jazz, is a classic) and Oscar Brashear (documented on Xocia’s Dance on Muse). Land remains one of the most impressive and deep improvisers in jazz. As is said in the Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, “Land is a fine musician who has not received the fame he deserves.” Ellis, a Philadelphia native, was originally a tenor saxophonist who taught himself to write while serving in the Army band during World War II. His first commercial charts were crafted in the mid-’50s for pop singers such as the Four Lads (“Moments to Remember,” “Standing on the Corner” — both Billboard Top 10 pop chart hits) and Johnny Mathis (“That Certain Smile,” “Wild Is the Wind”). Later, during his tenures at Columbia, MGM, and RCA Records, he wrote arrangements for hit records by Connie Francis (“Where the Boys Are”), Bobby Darin (“Splish Splash”), Clyde McPhatter (“Lover’s Question”), Brook Benton (“It’s Just a Matter of Time”), and Tony Bennett (“Firefly”). “I think I was a success because I figured out how to write what the producers wanted,” he says. But the biggest record of Ellis’s career is the timeless Lady in Satin, on which Holiday sang such torch songs as “You’ve Changed” and “Violets for Your Furs.” “Billie picked the tunes and they were all stories of unrequited love — the story of her life,” Ellis recalls. The recording, done in three sessions at Columbia’s then-fabled 30th street studios in New York, was mostly a series of first takes. Her raw talent and emotional quality were astounding, and really moved Ellis. “It was great,” he says of her ability to give the songs meaning. And the album has held up, he feels. “It still sounds contemporary, and people keep calling me because of it,” says Ellis, who has also scored for television, including a theme for NBC’s “Today” show which has run from the ’70s into the ’90s. Now, Ellis has written the kind of arrangements that have moved Land to deliver powerful performances. It seems clear that people will be talking about, and listening to, A Lazy Afternoon for years to come as well. Harold Land Discography (as a leader) Grooveyard (Contemporary) 1958 Harold in the Land of Jazz (Contemporary/OJC) 1958 The Fox (HiFi Jazz/OJC) 1959 Eastward Ho! Harold Land in New York Jazzland (OJC) 1960 Westcoast Blues! Jazzland (OJC) 1960 Hear Ye! Harold Land Quintet with Red Mitchell (Atlantic) 1961 The Peacemaker (Cadet) 1967 Take Aim (Blue Note) 1969 Jazz Impressions of Folk Music (Imperial) 1971 A New Shade of Blue (Mainstream) 1971 Choma (To Burn) (Mainstream) 1971 Damisi (Mainstream) 1977 Total Eclipse (with Bobby Hutcherson) (Blue Note) Mapenzi (Concord Jazz) 1977 Xocia’s Dance (Muse) 1981 A Lazy Afternoon (Postcards) 1995 Promised Land (Audiophoric) 2001 Person Harold Land Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts 2000s, Agents & Lawyers, Albums/Singles that Rock, Billboard charts, Bio, Chart Toppers, Classic, Composers & Songwriters, Deaths, General, Gold, Industry, Other Awards/Honors, Platinum, Producers, Rock n Roll Hall of Fame (honoured diety), Sax, Something Missing, TV, Movies, Radio, Internet, & itunes Tags: album, America, appearance, army, Artist, artists, atntic, Audience, Band, bass, Bassist, Best, Billboard, billy, Blues, born, Brown, burn, burns, California, CD, CDs, chart, Charts, Classic, Club, Columbia, Commercial, country, day, debut, dies, director, Dream, drummer, effects, Europe, fame, family, Fan, fans, fine, first, Fox, Good, Hearing, Help, hit, hits, Holiday, houst issued, Jazz, John, La, life, live, Lo, love, Manager, Music, Musician, NBC, on, Orchestra, Original, Oscar, perform, Philadelphia, Piano, play, pop, Premier, premiere, Producer, Producers, producing, RCA, Record, recording, Records, release, released, return, rights, same, Saxophone, session, Singer, Singers, Song, songs, soul, stage, star, Stills, story, stroke, Strokes, Studio, Success, talent, thing, Time, title, Top, Tops, tour, tracks, Trademark, trumpet, Unforgettable, Vegas, war, Who, wild, Wind, world, Year, York Help Stu in his battle with Cancer! 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Happy Bday Eddie Van Halen Cool Articles What Happened to Rock N’ Roll? Cool Rock links Audio Eclecticism in the 60s Camp Chaos Guitar Hero Community site! Rock ‘n’ Roll Timeline Rock Band, The game Rock Music Time line SchoolHouse Rock Lyrics This Day In Rock Merchandise AntiMusic Day in Rock BlabberMouth Dream Door Nutsie PlayGrind Rock n’ Roll Hall of fame Museum Rock Star Gallery KISS, and their personal army! Artist direct music.aol.com Pay Play Music Industry links ASCAP – The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers BMI – Broadcast Music, Inc. Bradley's School of Music Legends Masterclass Rock Bassists of note Ariane Cap Flea(Red Hot Chile Peppers) Ross Valory Rock Drummers of note Carl Palmer Clive Bunker(Jethro Tull) John Bonham Rock Guitarists of Note! Doug Doppler Rock Keyboardists of note Jonathan Cain Nicky Hopkins Rock Singers of Note Elvis Presley (The King) Grace Slick Rod DeGeorge Stu Sweatman THIS DAY IN ROCK .com Visitors since Jan. 1, 2008 Over 30 thousand page views per month. © Copyright 2008 - 2020 THIS DAY IN ROCK thisdayinrock.com is a history of Rock n Roll! \| Designed by: Design By A Pro (Website Design) For social networking safety tips for parents and youth Visit: www.OnGuardOnline.gov All Materials related directly to Artists, such as Lyrics, are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All Materials are provided for educational purposes only , If you like an artist or song, please support them by buying their relative CD, MP3, itune, song, movie or related streams and available sources! This Day in Rock History... ROCKS!.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line198
__label__wiki	0.612828	0.612828	NASA, partners launch virtual hackathon to develop COVID-19 solutions The U.S. space agency National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are inviting coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to participate in a virtual hackathon May 30-31 dedicated to putting open data to work in developing solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the global Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge, participants from around the world will create virtual teams that – during a 48-hour period – will use Earth observation data to propose solutions to COVID-19-related challenges ranging from studying the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and its spread to the impact the disease is having on the Earth system. Registration for this challenge opens in mid-May. "There’s a tremendous need for our collective ingenuity right now," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. "I can’t imagine a more worthy focus than COVID-19 on which to direct the energy and enthusiasm from around the world with the Space Apps Challenge that always generates such amazing solutions." The unique capabilities of NASA and its partner space agencies in the areas of science and technology enable them to lend a hand during this global crisis. Since the start of the global outbreak, Earth science specialists from each agency have been exploring ways to use unique Earth observation data to aid understanding of the interplay of the Earth system – on global to local scales – with aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak, including, potentially, our ability to combat it. The hackathon will also examine the human and economic response to the virus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_quOKBRJKs ESA will contribute data from the Sentinel missions (Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-5P) in the context of the European Copernicus program, led by the European Commission, along with data from Third Party contributing Missions, with a focus on assessing the impact on climate change and greenhouse gases, as well as impacts on the economic sector. ESA also is contributing Earth observation experts for the selection of the competition winners and the artificial-intelligence-powered EuroDataCube. "EuroDatacube will enable the best ideas to be scaled up to a global level," said Josef Aschbacher, director of Earth Observation Programmes at ESA. "The pandemic crisis has a worldwide impact, therefore international cooperation and sharing of data and expertise with partners like NASA and JAXA seems the most suitable approach." JAXA is making Earth observing data available from its satellite missions, including ALOS-2, GOSAT, GOSAT-2, GCOM-C, GCOM-W, and GPM/DPR. "JAXA welcomes the opportunity to be part of the hackathon," said JAXA Vice President Terada Koji. "I believe the trilateral cooperation among ESA, NASA and JAXA is important to demonstrate how Earth observation can support global efforts in combating this unprecedented challenge." Space Apps is an international hackathon that takes place in cities around the world. Since 2012, teams have engaged with NASA's free and open data to address real-world problems on Earth and in space. The COVID-19 Challenge will be the program’s first global virtual hackathon. Space Apps 2019 included more than 29,000 participants at 225 events in 71 countries, developing more than 2,000 hackathon solutions over the course of one weekend. Pinoy developers used NASA's free and open data to solve real-world problems on Earth and space. Many Filipinos participated in this annual hackathon since 2016. Recently, a dengue mapping forecasting system was developed by data scientists from CirroLytix using satellite and climate data with the goal of addressing the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. This web application, called Project AEDES won globally for the best use of data. "Earth observation data has the potential to be used in fighting epidemics and outbreaks threatening humanity nowadays, as well as to analyze its socio-economic impact," according to software developer Michael Lance M. Domagas, who led the Philippine hackathon in collaboration with De La Salle University, PLDT, Department of Science and Technology, United Nations Development Programme, and the U.S. embassy. The very first Philippine winner used citizen science and environmental data to develop a smartphone application informing fishermen the right time to catch fish. ISDApp is currently being incubated at Animo Labs. Space Apps is a NASA-led initiative organized globally in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub and SecondMuse. The next annual Space Apps Challenge is scheduled for October 2-4. Registration opens May 12. https://covid19.spaceappschallenge.org/ #SpaceApps #SpaceAppsPH How To Become A Successful Webcam Model What kind of benefits we have with bitxt bitcoin s... Enchanted Kingdom Takes Part in the Call for ‘Baya... NASA, partners launch virtual hackathon to develop... "Upstart 10 for 10’ online mini-concert fundraiser... Shutdown during Lockdown: Cease and Desist Order o... New Hitachi Vantara Virtual Storage Platform Drast... The bestseller books of New Zealand of this decade	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line200
__label__cc	0.607206	0.392794	BLK Cosmetics Limited Edition Bridal Collection I've been meaning to write a review about some of the most talked about beauty products that were all launched late last year ever since it came out but because I was very busy during the holiday season I wasn't able to do it but now that I'm finally back, expect some reviews regarding those must-try products. Anyway, I'll make a review about the recently launched beauty line of Anne Curtis - one of the most influential celebrities in the Philippines. If you don't know who she is, Anne Curtis is a Filipino - Australian actress, TV host and top endorser in the country. And just last September of 2017 she also entered the business world and launched her very own cosmetic line - BLK Cosmetics with an "uncomplicated beauty" as her brand's tagline. And for this review, I'll start off with Anne's Bridal Collection set lipsticks that she released on her wedding day. The Limited Edition Bridal Collection was launched on the day of her wedding last November 12, 2017. She has two lipstick shades from the bridal collection: "I Do" and "Mon Amour." I wasn't able to grab the Bridal Box Set which is in a dainty purple box that cost Php 598.00 because it got sold-out really fast but I was able to get it in store separately for Php 349.00 each. I totally love the packaging of the bridal collection, it's very classy and elegant looking lipsticks that it looks very sosyal for its price to be honest. It comes in white and black boxes, Mon Amour is in the black box and I Do is in the white one. Once you opened it, the lipstick comes in a very cute glass-like case with her name in the gold tube. The collection comes in two shades. I Do (right side) is a nude pink and described as the "inspired by sweet surrenders and fresh beginnings." while Mon Amour (left side), on the other hand, is red. It is a sensual, color of glamour and like Anne showed us, it's great for post-ceremony partying. Both lipsticks are kiss-proof and claim to non-drying. Very pigmented. Creamy and glides easily. The packaging looks classy and elegant. Kissproof. Cruelty-free. What's Not Too creamy (Well, for me at least because I'm so used to matte lipsticks). Do not stay long so you need to re-apply after eating or drinking. Since this is a limited-edition collection of BLK cosmetics you can't get these lipsticks anymore but you can always get Anne's cosmetic line BLK in all leading SM Beauty Sections, Watson's, Zalora, BeautyMNL and through the official website. Well, it's not really bad considering its very affordable price, color pigmentation and the packaging but it's just didn't match my preference regarding the formulation. Since I'm very used to putting matte lipsticks the creaminess of this product bothers me because while I was wearing it, I can really feel that I have something on my lips, it's uncomfortable for me that I feel like I was always waiting for it to dry. It's just my preference but I love the lipstick and will wear it still. I do recommend this product to those people who have dry lips and doesn't like matte drying formulation. How about you, have you tried any of the BLK Cosmetics products? Do you like it or not? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Tags : Beauty Bali Travel Guide For First Timer	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line203
__label__wiki	0.642295	0.642295	Students get the chance to shop around June 2, 2008 12:00 am by Amy Mariani A new Florida law will give students more time to make an informed decision when buying textbooks. As of July 1, the Florida Legislature will require all state universities and community colleges to inform their students of what textbooks they need at least 30 days before of the first day of classes. The University has until March 1, 2009 to implement policies that will adhere to this law. Some are unsure, however, if the University will be able to uphold to this new law. Grace McQueen, general manager of the USF Bookstore, said she is not sure if professors will get their textbook lists in before the 30-day mark. Senior Vice Provost Dwayne Smith, however, said professors in the past have been urged to get their textbooks lists in as early as possible. For previous fall semesters, professors were requested to hand textbook lists in to the University before mid-April. “For most professors, the 30-day issue does not pose a problem,” he said. Smith said he hopes there is an exception written into the law that allows flexibility for late-forming classes. “There are cases where it’s not possible to get it in 30 days in advance,” he said. The law does not, however, stipulate any exceptions. Supporters of the new law said it gives students the chance to get textbooks at a cheaper rate by comparing prices. “When you have that information and are about to shop around, the free market delivers the best price,” said Florida Student Association (FSA) Executive Director Chris Krampert, who lobbied for the bill in Tallahassee. Krampert said he thinks the extra time to compare prices will eventually lower the cost of textbooks at campus bookstores. “Students are forced to buy that book at the campus bookstore for that price,” he said. “When you have competition, it will lower the price.” Student Government (SG) President Gregory Morgan agrees with Krampert’s outlook. “This gives students the opportunity to shop for affordable textbooks,” Morgan said. McQueen said the new law will probably not impact the bookstore much. “Competition has been out there for a while,” she said. McQueen explained that not only does the bookstore compete with online venues such as amazon.com, but also with local stores such as Gray’s College Bookstore. The Textbook Affordability Bill, which put this law into place, was passed by the Florida Legislature at the end of April and signed by Gov. Charlie Crist May 28. The bill was a response to findings about textbook and higher education prices by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (USGAO). Congress determined that “textbooks are an essential part of a comprehensive and high-quality postsecondary education” and asked the USGAO to determine the change in textbook prices and why they have changed. In July 2005, the USGAO found that textbooks increased at twice the rate of inflation, but they fall short when compared to tuition increases. “Increasing at an average of 6 percent per year, textbook prices nearly tripled from December 1986 to December 2004, while tuition and fees increased by 240 percent and overall inflation was 72 percent,” the report stated. Using this information, Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, filed the bill in January to address these concerns for Florida schools. The bill also imposes other textbook restrictions on state universities. It must be assured by the professor or academic department that all items in a bundle pack, such as textbooks, workbooks and CDs wrapped together, will actually be used. Also, instructors must evaluate to what extent a new edition of a book differs from the old to see if it’s worth it for students to buy the new, typically more expensive, edition.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line206
__label__wiki	0.508504	0.508504	Newest Dog Breeds You've Probably Never Heard Of Sarah Burns Last Updated: March 13, 2020 5:58 pm Every year, the American Kennel Club, the country’s purebred dog registry, considers new breeds to add to its index. It’s a rigorous vetting process as the AKC has stringent eligibility requirements for full recognition. Among these, the prospective breed must have a demonstrated U.S. following — that is, there must be a national club with at least 100 members. There also must be a substantial population in the country of at least 300 dogs of the same breed and all with a three-generation pedigree. There are geographic requirements, too. The breed must be found in at least 20 states. Other considerations include observations by AKC field staff, competitions, and specialty shows. The process often takes years. These requirements largely explain why the AKC has recognized only 31 new breeds since 2010. Some of the breeds, such as the Xoloitzcuintli, are ancient and little changed over millennia but perhaps only recently introduced to this country. Other breeds, such as the Dogo Argentino, were created in the 20th century. The most recent additions to the AKC registry — two new breeds have already been recognized this year — are a cosmopolitan bunch: one originated in Argentina (the first breed from that country to be recognized), two in France, one in the Middle East by way of Italy, one in the Netherlands, and one in West Africa. Interestingly, all were used for hunting and/or retrieving game. Many people first get their dogs when they are just puppies and form bonds that last a lifetime. While they would perhaps never say it out loud, some dog owners may privately wish their puppy would never grow up — these are 20 dogs that stay puppies the longest. To identify the newest dog breeds, 24/7 Tempo reviewed the dog breeds recognized as registrable in the last 10 years by the American Kennel Club. Information about the breed group and life expectancy is from the AKC. Click here to see the newest dog breeds you’ve probably never heard of Read more: Special Report, Animals 39 Most Famous Bunnies of All Time 44 Most Exotic Animals People Keep as Pets 50 Longest Living Animals in the World How Many Wild Tigers Are Left Around the World?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line210
__label__wiki	0.846299	0.846299	Home UK England Leeds United condemned over Myanmar football tour Leeds United condemned over Myanmar football tour Leeds United Football Club has sparked controversy over its announcement of a pre-season tour of Myanmar at the beginning of May. The tour would be sponsored by AYA bank, which is owned by Myanmar tycoon Zaw Zaw who is currently blacklisted by the US for his close ties to the Myanmar military which has been committing atrocities against Rohingya Muslims. Zaw Zaw is also said to be a close ally of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and is known to be the biggest funder in the re-building of Rakhine state after the devastating genocide. The club has been urged to scrap the trip, which has been condemned as “morally corrupt” by shadow sports minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan. Reacting to the pressure to cancel the trip from fans and non-fans alike, Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani published an open letter on the Leeds United website defending the move. Andrea Radrizzani. He said: “I have spent over 10 years living in Asia and Myanmar is a country I have visited on many occasions. I am aware of the serious issues within the country, but I also know that it is a beautiful place filled with incredibly warm and welcoming people. It is somewhere very close to my heart. “I also want to be clear that I am active in the Southeast Asia region with ongoing business practices that provide jobs and help to develop the local sports and media sectors. I have similar goals for Myanmar, along with many other British businesses that trade with and operate in the country presently. “Football is extremely popular in Myanmar and I believe the game we all love has the power to help developing nations by bringing people together, especially young people. That is why I wanted to take the team on a post-season tour to play matches and run coaching clinics with children from the area.” However, his letter was followed by a string of tweets by Labour Shadow Ministers and Leeds MPs Richard Burgon and Fabian Hamilton, Liberal Democrat Lord Newby and Conservative MEP Amjad Bashir, all of them calling the tour to be cancelled. The Rohingya community in Bradford, who are the biggest Rohingya community in Europe, have also called for the tour to be cancelled and asked meet Andrea Radrizzani. The club has subsequently not made any further comment on the matter. MPACUK spokesperson, Imran Shah, which has launched a campaign on the matter, said: “There is no dispute on what is happening in Myanmar. The whole world has called it nothing less then ethnic cleansing. The regime would welcome such a move to cover for devastation they have caused to the Rohingya people. “Leeds United should be mindful of this and least should not be working with someone like Zaw Zaw is known to be working with people complicit to the genocide. We are urging people to lobby and pressure Leeds United, and remind them that profit does not come before humanity.” MPACUK Previous articleVIDEO: Qatari businessman speaks to Dutch newspaper about FBI torture in the U.S. Next articleVIDEO: Imam in Chennai city brutally attacked by Hindu mob	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line211
__label__wiki	0.888773	0.888773	Home UK London Central Mosque says it will hold event with pro-Israel group at... London Central Mosque says it will hold event with pro-Israel group at later date Mosques remain well attended in secular Britain London Central Mosque has denied that it cancelled an event with the pro-Israel Board of Deputies of British Jews and says it will hold it at a later date. Eyebrows were raised last week when the Board of Deputies, a proudly Zionist organisation, announced that it would no longer be holding an event on January 30 at the mosque called “A Warning for Humanity,” which was due to focus on the dire situation of the Uyghur Muslims in China. The cancellation came after a letter of complaint was sent to London Central Mosque by several British Muslim institutions which said that the Board actively supports the Israeli government that is involved in human rights abuses, colonisation, apartheid policies and disregard for UN Resolutions. But in an email to media organisations seen by 5Pillars, the mosque (also known as Regent’s Park Mosque) said its media department had not even received the letter. The mosque said: “We have not cancelled the event but postponed it to a later date and also talked to the Board of Deputies about supporting a similar event on Islamophobia and Antisemitism.” It said there were a number of reasons for cancelling the event. “We are a very active community centre and have many events on a weekly/daily basis and could not accommodate this event on that date.” Board of Deputies President Marie van Der Zyl The mosque added: “The Centre has worked tirelessly to represent the wider Muslim community and engage with all community stakeholders to develop a stronger and more cohesive society. Any form of hate to any member of the community no matter what religion or creed is a crime against the whole of humanity.” However, despite London Central Mosque’s statement 5Pillars has confirmed that the letter of complaint was indeed sent. Sources have also confirmed that the mosque initially cancelled the event due to “internal and external pressure.” London Central Mosque has a long history of engaging with pro-Israel organisations. Its construction was funded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of whom have a policy of engaging with Israel at a low-profile level. It is run by the Saudi diplomat Ahmad Dubayan. The Board of Deputies tweeted last week that the Uyghur meeting would now take place on the same date at the House of Commons. There was no mention of London Central Mosque in the tweet although the mosque says it is still considering attending. The World Uyghur Congress is also due to participate in the event as well as the government’s adviser on Islamophobia, Qari Asim. Meanwhile, MPACUK has launched a campaign to stop Qari Asim from attending the event. “The BoD (Board of Deputies) been at the forefront of campaigning to stop the showcasing of a pro-Palestinian film, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) events across 30 Universities in the UK, and has put pressure on Universities, such as UCL, to take disciplinary action against students protesting against Israel,” MAPCUK said. “Their senior members have been seen sharing platforms with the extreme, right-wing Zionist group, Jewish Defence League and share their public anti-BDS stance. “Discussing the oppression of Uyghur Muslims is extremely important but why does Imam Qari Asim have to share a platform with, and give legitimacy to, a pro-Israel organisation like the BoD, that legitimises the oppression of Palestinians? Does he support the propaganda and work of the Board of Deputies?” Qari Asim has not commented on the campaign so far. Board of Deputies of British Jews London Central Mosque Regents Park Mosque Previous articleSonny Bill Williams refuses to wear betting firm logo on his Super League kit Next articleInternational Court of Justice orders Myanmar to prevent genocide against Rohingya	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line212
__label__wiki	0.721263	0.721263	Breaking • Calne • Wukthire Three people have been arrested over fake Calne victims page 4F47E5D6 CCC6 4B82 BFA8 C3736B6AC358 Officers are investigating a suspected fraud relating to an online donation page set up to raise money in memory of four young men from Calne who died in a collision earlier this year. The GoFundMe page, which was titled “Jordan, Corey, Matt, Ryan Memorial”, was launched following the collision on the A4 Derry Hill back in August. Four young men, Ryan Nelson, 20, Corey Owen, 19, Matthew Parke, 19, and Jordan Rawlings, 20, all sadly died in the crash. We are investigating concerns that this fundraising page, which was not set up by any of the four families, was fraudulent and are now trying to trace everyone who donated money as we believe they may have been victims of crime. Three people have been arrested as part of our ongoing investigation. On 22/10 officers from Wiltshire Police travelled to the Northamptonshire area and arrested a 32-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of fraud by false representation. Yesterday (02/12) officers returned to the same area and arrested a 36-year-old man on suspicion of fraud by false representation. Due to the fact that during our visit a large quantity of Class A drugs was discovered at the suspect’s property, he was also arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs. All three have been released under investigation while our enquiries are ongoing. Inspector James Brain, from the Chippenham Area Community Policing Team, said: “The collision back in August was truly devastating for the local community in Calne and I know many people will have seen this fundraising page as an opportunity to show how much they cared and to ensure that a lasting memorial to the four young men was created for the town. “I understand that people may be feeling upset and angry about this news, but I want to reassure everyone that we are carrying out detailed enquiries to understand exactly what has happened with regards to this donation page.” Anyone who donated money to this specific GoFundMe page should call Wiltshire Police on 101, quoting crime reference 54200119835. Please let us know your name, address, phone number and how much money you donated. Four people trapped inside Collapsed Silo in Avonmouth after a large explosion A former London bus driver has been sentenced for making indecent images of children	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line215
__label__wiki	0.658613	0.658613	Trump Agrees With WHO On Face Mask Wearing President Donald Trump on Friday recommended that Americans cover their faces with masks when outdoors to avoid contracting coronavirus. The advice came on Friday with over 275,000 Americans infected by the virus and 7,067 killed over. However, Trump said he would not wear the mask himself. The decision was a policy U-turn for the country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also breached World Health Organisation guideline about the precautionary measures people can take to avoid contracting the deadly virus. The volte-face followed growing scientific research suggesting their widespread use can stem the spread of the coronavirus. “It’s going to be really a voluntary thing,” Trump said. “You don’t have to do it and I’m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it and that’s okay.” The about-face was widely expected after senior health officials told reporters the scientific evidence had evolved. Speaking to Fox News on Friday, Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, cited “recent information that the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing.” Read Also: Coronavirus: Death Toll In Germany Hits Over 1,000 Days earlier, the CDC’s Robert Redfield said up to a quarter of people who are infected may be asymptomatic. Taken together, the developments represent powerful arguments in favour of the widespread use of facial coverings. Previously, the advice given by CDC and WHO was that masks should only be used by sick people and their caregivers. The new recommendations are in line with those made by France’s National Academy of Medicine on Friday, and by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio a day earlier. The city has seen almost 1,000 of the US’s nearly 7,000 deaths. But the message was undermined by the fact that none of the officials present at Friday’s briefing were following it. Trump said he would not be wearing one “as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, it somehow, I don’t see it for myself.” coronavirus:, President Donald Trump	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line218
__label__cc	0.604442	0.395558	AfriQtalk Diaspora Media. PR. Branding. Event Management. Trade & investment Promotions Tag Archives: Boxing Undefeated Nigerian Superstar – Gifted Cole Gifted Cole Chiori, is an undefeated professional boxer based in the United States- originally from Nigeria. Gifted is a welterweight fighter, with a current record of 11-0. He has fought professionally In Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and the United States. His last bout, was internationally televised by Super Sports from Accra, Ghana, and was attended by President John Mahama, and over 25,000 spectators. The fight was stopped in the 6th round, as his opponent could not continue. Gifted won the official Intercontinental WBF Title by way of knockout on November 9, 2013, against German opponent Tom Reiche. The self- promoted event in Atlanta, was graced by thousands of his Nigerian supporters and dignitaries from all over the United States. He has earned the respect and admiration of fans all around the world, and continues to entertain them with his unique style of fighting. Chiori was also honored by the Minister of Works Honorable Arc Mike Onolememen at the prestigious ‘Face Award USA’ for Sports Athlete of the Year in Atlanta, GA, and has many U.S. based Nigerian fans who greatly support his efforts. Gifted is currently training to fight his next opponent this July in Australia and plans to promote several more fights before the end of the year in the United States, and possibly in Nigeria. He sees the potential for the growth of boxing as a major source of entertainment, and has his eyes set on bringing boxing back to Nigeria in a big way. His campaign to ‘Bring Vegas to Nigeria’, will require stakeholders that share in his vision to make Nigeria a desirable location to breed and promote elite professional boxing. Gifted is proud to continuously provide guidance for less fortunate youth through his charity work in Nigeria. He has single- handedly funded and promoted boxing clinics and tournaments for at risk youth, and does his part to provide them with the necessary equipment and facilities to sharpen their skills in boxing. Many of the participants are being groomed by Chiori’s team for a career in boxing, with hopes of bringing them to train and fight in America in the form of an exchange program. Chiori is looking forward to partner with anyone who shares in his vision, and welcomes all support. For more info about Cole contact us at afriqtalk57@yahoo.com or visit our contact page. This entry was posted in Everyone and tagged Africa, afriqtalk, Boxing, Entertainment, Facebook, Nigeria, USA on March 26, 2015 by Contributor. AfriQtalk F.A.C.E MUSIC COUNT DOWN # ONE VIDEO OF THE WEEK. youtu.be/Ecl8Aod0Tl0 youtu.be/Ecl8Aod0Tl0 1 year ago Follow @AfriQtalk	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line220
__label__cc	0.554373	0.445627	AcademicJobsOnline.org New Employer Registered Employers Duke University, Biomedical Engineering Position ID: Duke-BME-POSTDOCASSOC8919 [#14221] Position Title: Postdoctoral Associate Position Type: Non-regular rank faculty Position Location: Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States [map] Subject Area: Biomedical Engineering / Medical Imaging Appl Deadline: 2019/12/31 11:59PM finished (2019/08/09, finished 2020/07/05, listed until 2020/02/09) * this position has been closed and new applications are no longer being accepted. * Postdoctoral Associate Opportunities at Duke Vision and Image Processing Laboratory Immediate opening at Duke University Biomedical Engineering Department for a postdoc interested in interdisciplinary applications of image analysis and computer vision with emphasis on applications in medical imaging. NOTE: Applicants are encouraged to submit their application as soon as possible. Postdoc will be supervised by Prof. Sina Farsiu (http://people.duke.edu/~sf59/ ) .The candidate must have a demonstrated strong background in image processing as evidenced by publication of papers in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. Programming skill in MATLAB/Python is required. GPU, C++, or mobile app programming experience is a plus but not mandatory. PhD in EE, BME, or CS. Experience in ophthalmic sciences, optical coherence tomography, adaptive optics is desired but not necessary. Projects can be chosen based on the interests and background of the individual candidate. The position will remain open until filled. The position will remain open until filled. Interested candidates should submit their CV in PDF format including link to Google Scholar webpage. Duke is committed to encouraging and sustaining work and learning environments that are free from harassment and prohibited discrimination. Duke prohibits discrimination and harassment in the administration of both its employment and educational policies. Duke University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, genetic information, gender, gender expression, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Duke also makes good faith efforts to recruit, hire, and promote qualified women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. Duke University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas-an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values. Application Materials Required: Submit the following item online at this website to complete your application: And anything else requested in the position description. Further Info: http://people.duke.edu/~sf59/ http://www.bme.duke.edu © 2021 AcademicJobsOnline.Org. All Rights Reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line221
__label__wiki	0.991872	0.991872	Top 5 Lee Brice Songs Riane Konc Getty Images for iHeartMedia Lee Brice has released four albums with Curb Records, each one as good as the last. The country singer has seen five of his 15 singles reach No. 1, and he's closing in on a sixth chart-topper: "I Hope You're Happy Now," his duet with Carly Pearce. The Boot's picks for the Top 5 Lee Brice songs run the gamut from songs that broke records to songs that might break your heart. Read on to see if your favorite is on the list! "Boy" From 'Lee Brice' (2017) Brice and his wife Sara welcomed their third child, a baby girl, in 2017, but his single from that year, "Boy," is for his two sons. The artist began playing the song live before releasing it as a single, prompting fans to hold up photos of their sons -- and prompting Brice to realize how lucky he was to have two beautiful, healthy boys at home. "I would break down onstage," he tells The Boot. Nicolle Galyon and Jon Nite co-wrote "Boy." The song landed in the Top 20 (No. 3) at country radio. "[T]hat song reminded me of my daddy. And now, as a daddy, I realize how hard he was trying to teach me things that he wanted me to learn for me, not for him," Brice reflects. "So now I’m trying to teach my kids, and they aren’t listening to me. They don’t know that I’m trying to help -- [that] it’s all about them. So the connection between my daddy and myself, and now myself and my sons, that is what makes “Boy,” the song, so special." "Hard to Love" From 'Hard 2 Love' (2012) “Hard to Love” was Brice’s second single from his Hard 2 Love album, and his second No. 1 hit on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. The song finds Brice listing his flaws -- he's insensitive, he's got a short fuse, he drinks too much -- and then wondering why someone “like a Sunday morning / Full of grace and full of Jesus” would love him. We applaud his honesty. "Love Like Crazy" From 'Love Like Crazy' (2010) The first single from his album of the same name, “Love Like Crazy” is one of Brice’s biggest hits so far. The song tells the story of a man who has been called “crazy” for the choices he’s made throughout his life: getting married at 17, raising a family of eight on $67 a week, quitting his job for an unlikely startup. Things worked out, though: The man sold his company to Microsoft and has been married to his wife for 58 years. Things also worked out well for Brice with this song: “Love Like Crazy” broke the record for longest chart run in the Hot Country Songs chart's history. It also earned ACM Awards nominations for Single Record of the Year and Song of the Year. "I Don't Dance" From 'I Don't Dance' (2014) Seemingly tailor-made to be played during first dances at weddings, “I Don’t Dance” features a narrator who claims that he once thought that he would “never settle down” … until he met the right person. “No, I don’t dance,” Brice sings. “But here I am, spinning you around and around in circles.” For its straightforward tough guy-meets-true love sentimentality, “I Don’t Dance” won the ACM Awards trophy for Single Record of the Year. "I Drive Your Truck" With a title like “I Drive Your Truck,” listeners might expect a macho-country song centered on nothing more than how cool a pickup is. This song, however, is anything but. Co-written by Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington and Jimmy Yeary, “I Drive Your Truck” is a heartbreaking ballad, featuring a narrator who drives his late brother’s truck to feel close to him. The lyrically rich song is based in reality: Its co-writers were inspired to write it after hearing the story of Paul Monti, a father who lost his 18-year-old son to the war in Afghanistan and coped with his death by driving his late son’s truck. Which Lee Brice Song Is Your Favorite? Did your favorite of Brice's songs make our Top 5 list? Share your pick for Brice's best tune in the comments section below! NEXT: Top 5 Jerrod Niemann Songs Source: Top 5 Lee Brice Songs Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Lee Brice	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line225
__label__wiki	0.963399	0.963399	ERROR: type should be string, got "https://apnews.com/article/technology-public-health-los-angeles-coronavirus-pandemic-california-d8783e532753652f437c446b0acbd0d0\nHelp arrives for California hospitals short on oxygen\nAssociated PressJanuary 3, 2021 GMT\nLOS ANGELES (AP) — Hospitals struggling to provide enough oxygen for the sickest coronavirus patients in the Los Angeles area began to receive help on Saturday when U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews arrived to update their oxygen delivery systems.\nThe collaboration comes as the six aging hospitals struggle to maintain oxygen pressure while treating an unprecedented number of patients with respiratory issues. Besides the shortage of oxygen, the hospitals were having difficulty keeping up with demand for oxygen tanks for discharged patients to take home.\nSome COVID-19 patients can require 10 times as much oxygen as a normal patient.\nCalifornia started the new year on Friday by reporting a record 585 coronavirus deaths in a single day. The state Department of Public Health on Saturday reported another 386 deaths and more than than 53,341 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 2.3 million.\nA total of 26,357 people have died from the virus in California, making it the third state to exceed 25,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, behind New York with nearly 38,000 deaths and Texas with more than 27,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.\nMore than 20,000 people were hospitalized as of Saturday with COVID-19; 4,500 of them were in intensive care, according to state records.\nThe southern half of the state has seen the worst effects, from the agricultural San Joaquin Valley to the Mexico border. Hospitals are swamped with patients and intensive care units don’t have any more beds for COVID-19 patients. Makeshift wards are being set up in tents, arenas, classrooms and conference rooms.\nAmbulances were being forced to wait in bays as long as eight hours before they could transfer patients inside hospitals — and in some cases, doctors were treating patients inside ambulances, said Cathy Chidester, director of the county’s Emergency Medical Services Agency.\nMeanwhile, refrigerated trucks were on standby, ready to store the dead and mortuaries are turning away bereaved families because they’re running out of space.\nMore than 7,600 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, which has a fourth of the state’s population of nearly 40 million but has seen 40% of its virus deaths. LA County on Friday reported 20,414 new confirmed virus cases, indicating a spike in cases after the Christmas holiday."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line229
__label__cc	0.607226	0.392774	Arthur Magazine ARTHUR BLOG ARCHIVES ARTHUR BLOG ARCHIVES Select Month March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 November 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 BULL TONGUE 35 LINKS RECENT PRESS CLIPS ABOUT ARTHUR Tag Archives for public enemies Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — ERRICO MALATESTA July 22– ERRICO MALATESTA An Italian communist-anarchist who promoted revolution through direct action, land seizure & the general strike. Born with great wealth, he spent all of it on radical causes until he was buried in a pauper’s grave. He organized numerous demonstrations, radical newspapers, & workers’ insurrections in Europe & Argentina despite constant exile & arrest. Frequently escaped execution & often traveled in disguise. “Not whether we accomplish anarchism today, tomorrow, or within ten centuries, but that we walk towards anarchism today, tomorrow, and always.” JULY 22, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS Spoonerisms Day. Festival of Boredom and Reveries. ALSO ON JULY 22 IN HISTORY… 1927 — Social theorist Albert Meister born, Basel, Switzerland. 1932 — Anarcho-communist theorist Errico Malatesta dies, Rome, Italy. 1934 — John Dillinger shot and killed outside Biograph theater, Chicago. 1946 —Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 90 Brits. Adapted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective July 22, 2009 by Jay Babcock Categories: SAINTS, Uncategorized \| Tags: anarcho-communism, Israel, italian anarchism, john dillinger, libcom, malatesta, public enemies, revolution, spoonerisms \| Leave a comment	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line231
__label__wiki	0.51751	0.51751	Sofia Oxenham Sofia Oxenham Biography Facts of Sofia Oxenham $200 thousand View more / View Less Facts of Sofia Oxenham Sofia Oxenham is a rising actress who is widely known for playing supporting roles in the television series like Poldark, Grantchester, and Cursed. The actress, with incredible acting skills, has won the hearts of many. How Old Is Sofia? Sofia is a rising star and has only worked in a couple of projects. So, her exact birth details, zodiac sign, and nationality are not known. However, as per sources, she belongs to white ethnicity. Likewise, Sofia did not reveal anything about her parents, siblings, educational background, early life, family life, and childhood. Is She Dating Anyone? As mentioned above, Sofia is extremely secretive when it comes to her personal life. Till the date, she has not appeared in any interviews or any events to discuss her personal life. CAPTION: Sofia Oxenham maintains a low-key profile SOURCE: Height Zone Similarly, Sofia has around 2165 followers as of August 2020. She has posted sixteen times and has posted everything related to her professional career. For now, Sofia is reported to be single. She might be focusing on her professional career. The rising actress started her acting career in 2014 appearing in television series, Grantchester, as Lottie. In the following year, she portrayed he role of Tess Tregidden in the historical drama television series, Poldark. For now, she is on the headlines for appearing as Eydis in the television series, Cursed. Besides this, the actress has once appeared in the television show, This Morning, last year, 2019. The rising actress, who has around six appearances under her name, has not disclosed the exact figure of her net worth. Her main source of income is her acting profession, along with endorsement deals and commercial deals. However, as of 2020, some gossip mongers reported that Sofia Oxenham’s net worth is estimated to be around $200 thousand. SEE: Katherine Langford, Lily Newmark, Emily Coates, and Sophie Harkness!!!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line232
__label__cc	0.745006	0.254994	Alice's WanderLand A multi-media account of my travels through life Fawn Hill Terror as Fashion HBO is running a new documentary entitled “Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington.” Hetherington was a photojournalist who spent almost his entire adult life photographing war and conflict. He died in Libya in 2011. NPR has an excellent summary of the documentary as well as many of Hetherington’s pictures . That’s one of his photos to the left. The film is well worth your time. Much of it focuses on a documentary by Hetherington and writer/producer Sebastian Junge called “Restrepo.” It was nominated for an Academy Award. The team embedded themselves for almost a year with a U.S. Army unit on the remote frontline in Afganistan, creating an intimacy that few war correspondents have been able to equal. An example of that intimacy can be seen in some surprisingly powerful pictures of soldiers engaged in the act of sleep. These simple pictures of soldiers in deep slumber are as good as it gets in photography. At one point in the HBO documentary Junge talks about the future that Hetherington never had. Junge states that Hetherington was looking for a new project at the time of his death and that the photographer was absorbed with “the self referential idea about war in which soldiers in war see themselves in ways that are informed by the images of other soldiers in war and there is a conscious cycle of imitation going on.” Perhaps it was because I saw this documentary in the same week as the Boston Marathon Bombing that I have focused so intently on those words and have found myself thinking about war and terror as fashion. Even though there was much about the Boston event that was unique it seemed, at least to me, that it was just the latest in a long line of “self referential” events that are “informed by the images of other[s]” and that there is a “conscious cycle of imitation going on.” It is an almost perfect description of fashion. The relentlessly looping pictures of the Tsarnaev brothers only served to underscore this thought. There’s Tamerlan, the older brother, business like in his dark glasses, dark jacket, black cap pulled low and, of course, the black backpack. He is not unlike the photos we saw of the 9/11 terrorists calmly making their way through “security” on their way to transform airliners into modern day kamikaze planes. And then there is Dzhokhar, suspect #2, so young and cocky in his swagger with the backwards baseball cap and backpack full of pain and death slung cavalierly across one shoulder. We have all seen hundreds of Dzhokars on the streets in our hometown or on the nightly news with its video from Beirut, Damascus, or Bangkok. The Tsarnaev brothers were perfectly normal, nothing “out of the ordinary” young men. You could “photoshop” either one of them off of Bolyston Street and place them on almost any street in the world and our reaction would be the same — these two would blend in almost anywhere. Similarly Hetherington’s pictures seem to capture the “average” young warrior (men and women) who are startlingly familiar. Too bad he didn’t have a chance to act on that idea for a new project. Thankfully we still have the presence of Sebastian Junge who produced a heart rendering, thought provoking tribute to his friend in the HBO documentary. The film is filled with quotes and ideas that kept rumbling through my head in the past few days, so much so that it sent me back to HBO On Demand so I could re-watch certain sections of the documentary again. At one point there is an interview with another frontline journalist, James Brabazon, who talks about his grandfather’s experiences serving in India during World War II. “War,” the old man told Brabazon, “is the only opportunity that men have in society to love each other unconditionally.” That statement seems so sorrowful and yet, for so many, it is true. Surely it was unconditional love that we saw in the face of Dzhokar following his brother into the history books as they prepared to manufacture hell on Bolyston Street and utterly alter the lives of so many innocent people. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There was also unconditional love in the bright, wide-eyed smile of an 8-year old holding a simple message, “No more hurting people.” For those who wish for a sign — whether it be from Allah or Jesus Christ — they need look no further. ☙ The Simple Hat Pin	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line243
__label__cc	0.734273	0.265727	testing statistical hypotheses solutions Ans: False Response: See section 9.4 Testing Hypotheses about a Proportion Difficulty: Easy Learning Objective: 9.4: Reach a statistical conclusion in hypothesis testing problems about a population proportion using the z statistic. In Hypothesis testing, if the significance value of the test is greater than the predetermined significance level, then we accept the null hypothesis. For testing H 0 ：µ = µ 0, H A: µ > µ 0, we reject H 0 for high values of the sample mean X-bar. During these sessions, students can get answers to introduction to the problem, background of study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, and theoretical framework. If the between-group variance is large enough that there is little or no overlap between groups, then your statistical test will reflect that by showing a low p-value. Questions may also involve title searches, literature review, synthesis of findings, gap and critique of research. Two-tailed test: When the given statistics hypothesis assumes a less than or greater than value, it is called the two-tailed test. We won’t here comment on the long history of the book which is recounted in Lehmann (1997) When conducting a hypothesis test is on a population proportion the value of q is defined as p + 1. And in most cases, your cutoff for refuting the null hypothesis will be 0.05 – that is, when there is a less than 5% chance that you would see these results if the null hypothesis were true. The critical region is the values of the test statistic for which we reject the null hypothesis. Let X distributed according to P ; 2 and let T su cient for . In hypothesis testing, the normal curve that shows the critical region is called the alpha region. Hypothesis Testing [WWW Document]. A step-by-step guide to hypothesis testing, Decide whether the null hypothesis is supported or refuted. Please create a new list with a new name; move some items to a new or existing list; or delete some items. If the significance value is less than the predetermined value, then we should reject the null hypothesis. The Third Edition of Testing Statistical Hypotheses brings it into consonance with the Second Edition of its companion volume on point estimation (Lehmann and Casella, 1998) to which we shall refer as TPE2. by Published on Where To Download Testing Statistical Hypotheses Lehmann Solutions Hypothesis Testing - Statistics Solutions This is an account of the life of the author's book Testing Statistical Hypotheses, its genesis, philosophy, reception and publishing history.There is also some discussion of the position of hypothesis testing … Testing statistical hypotheses : worked solutions (Book, 1987) [WorldCat.org] Your list has reached the maximum number of items. Hypothesis testing or significance testingis a method for testing a claim or hypothesis about a parameter in a population, using data measured in a sample. (We will not address APA style, grammar, headings, etc. Springer, New York Schervish M 1995 Theory of Statistics. testing statistical hypotheses worked solutions are a good way to achieve details about operating certainproducts. The alternate hypothesis is usually your initial hypothesis that predicts a relationship between variables. When sample sizes are small, as is often the case in practice, the Central Limit Theorem does not apply. The idea of significance tests Simple hypothesis testing CCSS.Math: HSS.IC.A.2 Based on the outcome of your statistical test, you will have to decide whether your null hypothesis is supported or refuted. However, when presenting research results in academic papers we rarely talk this way. To test this hypothesis, you restate it as: Ho: Men are, on average, not taller than women. Scribbr editors not only correct grammar and spelling mistakes, but also strengthen your writing by making sure your paper is free of vague language, redundant words and awkward phrasing. Your choice of statistical test will be based on the type of data you collected. Null hypothesis is denoted by; H0: μ1 = μ2, which shows that there is no difference between the two population means. Estimation of accuracy in testing. Testing Statistical Hypotheses In statistical hypothesis testing, the basic problem is to decide whether or not to reject a statement about the distribution of a random variable. (The standard error of the mean "SE Mean", calculated by dividing the standard deviation 10.31 by the square root of n = 25, is 2.06). You want to test whether there is a relationship between gender and height. To test differences in average height between men and women, your sample should have an equal proportion of men and women, and cover a variety of socio-economic classes and any other variables that might influence average height. If ˚(X) is any test of a hypothesis concerning , then (T) given by (t) = E[˚(X) jT = t] is a test depending on T only and its power is identical with that of ˚(X). It is a statistical inference method so, in the end of the test, you'll draw a conclusion — you'll infer something — about the characteristics of what you're comparing. In our comparison of mean height between men and women we found an average difference of 14.3cm and a p-value of 0.002; therefore, we can refute the null hypothesis that men are not taller than women and conclude that there is likely a difference in height between men and women. We won’t here comment on the long history of the book … These are superficial differences; you can see that they mean the same thing. Your request to send this item has been completed. In testing statistical hypotheses, which of the following statements is FALSE? There are a variety of statistical tests available, but they are all based on the comparison of within-group variance (how spread out the data is within a category) versus between-group variance (how different the categories are from one another). They are hypothesis that are stated in such a way that they may be evaluated by appropriate statistical techniques. If you are interested in help with the research design or nature of the study, please register for the methodology drop-in by clicking here). There are 5 main steps in hypothesis testing: Though the specific details might vary, the procedure you will use when testing a hypothesis will always follow some version of these steps. Decide whether the null hypothesis is supported or refuted. Type I error is denoted by alpha. H 0: The null hypothesis: It is a statement about the population that either is believed to be true or is used to put forth an argument unless it can be shown to be incorrect beyond a reasonable doubt. In Hypothesis testing, if the significance value of the test is greater than the predetermined significance level, then we accept the null hypothesis. A political scientist wants to prove that a candidate is currently carrying more than 60% of the vote in the state. Questions may also involve title searches, literature review, synthesis of findings, gap and critique of research. The mean daily return of the sample is 0.1% and the standard deviation is 0.30%. Solution for QUESTION 7 At-test is used to test the null hypotheses Ho:µ = 100. The Third Edition of Testing Statistical Hypotheses brings it into consonance with the Second Edition of its companion volume on point estimation (Lehmann and Casella, 1998) to which we shall refer as TPE2. There are two hypotheses involved in hypothesis testing. Definition of Statistical hypothesis. Hypothesis testing was introduced by Ronald Fisher, Jerzy Neyman, Karl Pearson and Pearson’s son, Egon Pearson. If you are interested in help with the research design or nature of the study, please register for the methodology drop-in by clicking, Meet confidentially with a Dissertation Expert about your project. The p-value is 0.002. This means it is likely that any difference you measure between groups is due to chance. The level of significance is the probability of type I error. However, due to the chance factor, it shows a relationship between the variables. This test gives you: Your t-test shows an average height of 175.4 cm for men and an average height of 161.7 cm for women, with an estimate of the true difference ranging from 10.2cm to infinity. Let us try to understand the concept of hypothesis testing with the help of an example. Alternatively, if there is high within-group variance and low between-group variance, then your statistical test will reflect that with a high p-value. It is most often used by scientists to test specific predictions, called hypotheses, that arise from theories. For a statistical test to be valid, it is important to perform sampling and collect data in a way that is designed to test your hypothesis. virus inside their computer. The statistical validity of the tests was insured by the Central Limit Theorem, with essentially no assumptions on the distribution of the population. Access the answers to hundreds of Statistical hypothesis testing questions that are explained in a way that's easy for you to understand. In this case, the null hypothesis which the researcher would like to reject is that the mean daily return for the portfolio is zero. In the results section you should give a brief summary of the data and a summary of the results of your statistical test (for example, the estimated difference between group means and associated p-value). (We will not address APA style, grammar, headings, etc. Based on the type of data you collected, you perform a one-tailed t-test to test whether men are in fact taller than women. P3.9 from Lehmann, Romano, Testing Statistical Hypotheses. If your null hypothesis was refuted, this result is interpreted as being consistent with your alternate hypothesis. The results of hypothesis testing will be presented in the results and discussion sections of your research paper. Intellectus allows you to conduct and interpret your analysis in minutes. If H 0 is rejected, the statistical conclusion is that the alternative hypothesis H a is true. This is because hypothesis testing is not designed to prove or disprove anything. Call us at 727-442-4290 (M-F 9am-5pm ET). The null Revised on The actual test begins by considering two hypotheses.They are called the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis.These hypotheses contain opposing viewpoints. Foundations of Hypothesis Testing The Null and Alternative Hypotheses In statistical hypothesis testing there are two mutually exclusive hypotheses. Alternative hypothesis H₁: μ > 170 The output tells us that the average Brinell hardness of the n = 25 pieces of ductile iron was 172.52 with a standard deviation of 10.31. The test statistic is equal to the sum of the rankings of the negative data values. Hypothesis testing is a statistical method that is used in making statistical decisions using experimental data. For example, assume that a radio station selects the music it plays based on the assumption that the average age of its listening audience is 30 years. 26. This means it is unlikely that the differences between these groups came about by chance. The hypothesis can … September 25, 2020. Collect data. These decisions include deciding if we should accept the null hypothesis or if we should reject the null hypothesis. an estimate of the difference in average height between the two groups. You might notice that we don’t say that we accept or reject the alternate hypothesis. Every test in hypothesis testing produces the significance value for that particular test. You should also consider your scope (Worldwide? In most cases you will use the p-value generated by your statistical test to guide your decision. For example, if we want to see the degree of relationship between two stock prices and the significance value of the correlation coefficient is greater than the predetermined significance level, then we can accept the null hypothesis and conclude that there was no relationship between the two stock prices. After developing your initial research hypothesis (the prediction that you want to investigate), it is important to restate it as a null (Ho) and alternate (Ha) hypothesis so that you can test it mathematically. So to do this we're going to set up two hypotheses. Type II errors: When we accept the null hypothesis but it is false. Rebecca Bevans. November 8, 2019 We're going to say, one, the first hypothesis is we're going to call it the null hypothesis, and that is that the drug has no effect on response time. Sal walks through an example about a neurologist testing the effect of a drug to discuss hypothesis testing and p-values. Retrieved from https://www.statisticssolutions.com/academic-solutions/resources/directory-of-statistical-analyses/hypothesis-testing/. If your data are not representative, then you cannot make statistical inferences about the population you are interested in. https://www.statisticssolutions.com/academic-solutions/resources/directory-of-statistical-analyses/hypothesis-testing/. The null hypothesis, denoted 0 (read “H-naught”), and the alternative hypothesis, denoted (read “H-a”). The short descriptions of existing basic methods of statistical hypotheses testing in relation to different CBM are examined in Chapter One. Research Question and Hypothesis Development, Conduct and Interpret a Sequential One-Way Discriminant Analysis, Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) Regression Analysis, During these sessions, students can get answers to introduction to the problem, background of study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, and theoretical framework. The formulations and solutions of conventional (unconstrained) and new (constrained) Bayesian problems of hypotheses testing are described in Chapter Two. Learn how to perform hypothesis testing with this easy to follow statistics video. 25. A potential data source in this case might be census data, since it includes data from a variety of regions and social classes and is available for many countries around the world. We provide testing statistical hypotheses Significance-based hypothesis testing is the most common framework for statistical hypothesis testing. Hypothesis Testing is basically an assumption that we make about the population parameter. Where To Download Testing Statistical Hypotheses Lehmann Solutions Hypothesis Testing - Statistics Solutions This is an account of the life of the author's book Testing Statistical Hypotheses, its genesis, philosophy, reception and publishing history.There is also some discussion of the position (2013). We will solve the following hypothesis tests for a one-population problem using the template to be designed. The $p$-value of a test of hypotheses for which the test statistic has Student’s $t$-distribution can be computed using statistical software, but it is impractical to do so using tables, since that would require $30$ tables analogous to Figure 7.1.5, … 63. The Many products that you buy can be obtained using instruction manuals. In Hypothesis testing, the normal curve that shows the acceptance region is called the beta region. Don't see the date/time you want? You will probably be asked to do this in your statistics assignments. Ha: Men are, on average, taller than women. Null hypothesisH. Previous hypotheses testing for population means was described in the case of large samples. It is only designed to test whether a pattern we measure could have arisen by chance. Alternative hypothesis: Contrary to the null hypothesis, the alternative hypothesis shows that observations are the result of a real effect. A random sample of 25 values gave a sample mean X = 110 and a sample standard… If the value of the test statistic TS is equal to t, then the p value is. 100% accuracy is not possible for accepting or rejecting a hypothesis, so we therefore select a level of significance that is usually 5%. 1-beta is called power of the analysis. One-tailed test: When the given statistical hypothesis is one value like H0: μ1 = μ2, it is called the one-tailed test. In statistical analysis, we have to make decisions about the hypothesis. Get help with your Statistical hypothesis testing homework. The hypothesis-testing procedure involves using sample data to determine whether or not H 0 can be rejected. The third step is to compute the test statistic and the probability value. If we reject the null hypothesis based on our research (i.e., we find that it is unlikely that the pattern arose by chance), then we can say our test lends support to our hypothesis. solutions for testing statistical hypotheses lehmann is open in our digital library an online entrance to it is set as public suitably you can download it instantly. Suppose we want to know that the mean return from a portfolio over a 200 day period is greater than zero. Annals of Statistics 20: 490–509 Lehmann E L 1986 Testing Statistical Hypotheses, 2nd edn. In the formal language of hypothesis testing, we talk about refuting or accepting the null hypothesis. These decisions include deciding if we should accept the null hypothesis or if we should reject the null hypothesis. Hypothesis Testing. Power: Usually known as the probability of correctly accepting the null hypothesis. Level of significance: Refers to the degree of significance in which we accept or reject the null-hypothesis. p value = 2 Min ( P { TS ≤ t }, P { TS ≥ t }) where the probabilities are to be computed under the assumption that the null hypothesis is true. We found a difference in average height between men and women of 14.3cm, with a p-value of 0.002, consistent with our hypothesis that there is a difference in height between men and women. This step of the hypothesis … Solutions For Testing Statistical Hypotheses Lehmann related files: c96bb9d2f1a1b9b868ce9b01b728c12a Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) 1 / 1 Testing Statistical Hypotheses Worked Solutions We present you this proper as competently as simple way to acquire those all. The statement must be expressible in terms of membership in a well-deﬁned class. But if the pattern does not pass our decision rule, meaning that it could have arisen by chance, then we say the test is inconsistent with our hypothesis. Type I error: When we reject the null hypothesis, although that hypothesis was true. In your analysis of the difference in average height between men and women, you find that the. Here, our hypotheses are: H 0: Defendant is not guilty (innocent) H A: Defendant is guilty; In statistics, we always assume the null hypothesis is true. In the discussion, you can discuss whether your initial hypothesis was supported or refuted. For one country?) An alternative framework for statistical hypothesis testing is to specify a set of statistical models, one for each candidate hypothesis, and then use model selection techniques to … Springer, New York G. Casella and R. L. Berger Hypothesis Testing: Methodology and Limitations Hypothesis tests are part of the basic methodological The null hypothesis, in this case, is a two-t… Click the link below to create a free account, and get started analyzing your data now! In this method, we test some hypothesis by determining the likelihood that a sample statistic could have been selected, if the hypothesis regarding the population parameter were true. Type II errors are denoted by beta. Every test in hypothesis testing produces the significance value for that particular test. The null hypothesis is a prediction of no relationship between the variables you are interested in. In statistical analysis, we have to make decisions about the hypothesis. Instead, we go back to our alternate hypothesis (in this case, the hypothesis that men are on average taller than women) and state whether the result of our test was consistent or inconsistent with the alternate hypothesis. Hypothesis testing is a formal procedure for investigating our ideas about the world using statistics. Hypothesis Tests, or Statistical Hypothesis Testing, is a technique used to compare two datasets, or a sample from a dataset. Our digital library saves in fused countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to … Please click the checkbox on the left to verify that you are a not a bot. To Reference this Page: Statistics Solutions. Solution: Null hypothesis: Null hypothesis is a statistical hypothesis that assumes that the observation is due to a chance factor. For a statistical test to be valid, it is important to perform sampling and collect data in … In the practice of statistics, we make our initial assumption when we state our two competing hypotheses -- the null hypothesis (H 0) and the alternative hypothesis (H A). Based on your knowledge of human physiology, you formulate a hypothesis that men are, on average, taller than women. Learning Objective: 9.3: Reach a statistical conclusion in hypothesis testing problems about a population mean with an unknown population standard deviation using the t statistic. 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__label__cc	0.504712	0.495288	California Public Utilities Commission Biography “The PUC is committed to the environment and the use of renewable power. California has the most ambitious renewable goals in the country. In the Energy Action Plan, the Commission set a goal of requiring the utilities to obtain 20 percent of their power from renewables sources by 2010 (Senate Bill 107 codified this goal in state law). Utilities are making progress toward attaining this target and the PUC is now identifying the steps necessary to meet even higher goals beyond 2010, such as the governor’s goal of 33 percent of electricity sales by 2020.” “PUC’s Energy Leadership,” www.cpuc.ca.gov (accessed July 2, 2009) “The CPUC regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies, in addition to authorizing video franchises. Our five Governor-appointed Commissioners, as well as our staff, are dedicated to ensuring that consumers have safe, reliable utility service at reasonable rates, protecting against fraud, and promoting the health of California’s economy. The CPUC plays a key role in making California a national and international leader on a number of clean energy related initiatives and policies designed to benefit consumers, the environment, and the economy. The CPUC is also at the forefront of communications issues and has developed a Consumer Protection Initiative to empower consumers and prevent fraud in the rapidly changing telecommunications industry. On this website you’ll find information about these initiatives and the many other efforts underway at the CPUC.” “About Us,” www.cpuc.ca.gov (accessed July 2, 2009) “The California Public Utilities Commission serves the public interest by protecting consumers and ensuring the provision of safe, reliable utility service and infrastructure at reasonable rates, with a commitment to environmental enhancement and a healthy California economy. We regulate utility services, stimulate innovation, and promote competitive markets, where possible, in the communications, energy, transportation, and water industries.” “CPUC Mission,” www.cpuc.ca.gov (accessed July 2, 2009) ProCon.org. (2009, July 31). California Public Utilities Commission. Retrieved from https://alternativeenergy.procon.org/source-biographies/california-public-utilities-commission/ ProCon.org, "California Public Utilities Commission," ProCon.org. last modified July 31, 2009. https://alternativeenergy.procon.org/source-biographies/california-public-utilities-commission/. ProCon.org, "California Public Utilities Commission." ProCon.org. 31 July 2009, alternativeenergy.procon.org/source-biographies/california-public-utilities-commission/ ProCon.org. "California Public Utilities Commission." ProCon.org. Last modified on July 31, 2009. Accessed January 19, 2021. https://alternativeenergy.procon.org/source-biographies/california-public-utilities-commission/	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line246
__label__cc	0.588131	0.411869	14 Nov The Global Warming Inquisition and the Suppression of “Skeptic” Heresy Posted at 19:03h in More Issues by Tom DeWeese Imagine living in a world where no one is allowed to think independent thoughts or take independent actions. Only pre-approved human response would be acceptable. To break the rule and engage in forbidden thought would result in terrible retribution, perhaps leading literally to ones destruction. That’s the kind of world apparently desired by the global warming Chicken Littles. It seems they are prepared to do anything to achieve it. Case in point is an outrageous letter to ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson on October 27, 2006. The letter was sent by two United States Senators, Olympia Snowe (R-MA), and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). The letter derides Exxon for helping to fund global warming “deniers,” (a term the global warming crowd is using more and more these days to try to draw a parallel with those who deny the Holocaust). Said the letter, “We are convinced that ExxonMobil’s longstanding support of a small cadre of global climate change skeptics, and those skeptics access to and influence on government policymakers, have made it increasingly difficult for the United States to demonstrate the moral clarity it needs across all facets of its diplomacy.” The letter goes on to say, “ExxonMobil and its partners in denial have manufactured controversy, sown doubt, and impeded progress with strategies all-too reminiscent of those used by the tobacco industry for so many years.” The mention of the tobacco industry is not just a randomly chosen analogy. It’s a heavy-handed threat that Exxon could face the same massive government attack on its very existence if it doesn’t play ball. Threats of wind fall profits taxes and increased regulations being just a couple of the weapons in the government’s arsenal. The letter concludes, saying, “We would recommend that ExxonMobil publicly acknowledge both the reality of climate change and the role of humans in causing or exacerbating it. Second, ExxonMobil should repudiate its climate change denial campaign…” As incredible as the letter may seem to free thinkers and Constitutionalists, one must pause to understand the “new think” being foisted on our society. In the August, 2006 issue of The DeWeese Report, (Vol.12, Issue 7), I reported on the root of the new edicts on thinking, called “globally acceptable truth.” This is not just an Ivory Tower intellectual exercise. Those who practice it believe the only way we can have a well-ordered society is for everyone to think and act in unison. Those who break the rules and think for themselves or take action contrary to the “consensus” are simply causing havoc on all of their well-laid plans. Again, as I reported in August, this incredible idea is not just the silly ravings of a few lunatics. It is being accepted as the proper focus for major policy matters as they emanate from Congress and are parroted by the news media. The main source of such thinking seems to come from the Eden Institute, operating out of New York and with close ties to the UN. The official use of globally acceptable truth is best described in a letter to the Eden Institute from Robert Muller, Assistant Secretary General of the UN. He wrote, “I am referring to the need to establish a body of objective, globally acceptable information to serve as a foundation for global education…Its (Eden Project) formula for identifying universally acceptable objective data is truly unique. It achieves this distinction by establishing a global standard for inquiry.” Translation: We will decide what is truth and all new information or scientific discovery will be judged on whether it matches this “globally acceptable” truth. The last time human kind was strapped into such a mental straight jacket was during the Inquisition of the Dark Ages. The period was called the Dark Ages because it was an era of ignorance, superstition and social chaos and repression. Anyone caught questioning the doctrine or power of the church was labeled a heretic and found his or her way to the rack or into the middle of a fire while tied to a stake. The church, of course, was practicing its own brand of globally acceptable truth. Today, the new heretics to the religion of global warming are those who question whether scientific facts support the dire warnings that are screaming from the newspaper headlines and from environmental groups’ press releases. In fact, there is no better example for the practice of globally acceptable truth than the global warming crowd. The letter to ExxonMobile from Rockefeller and Snowe is but one example of the dire tactics being used to stifle any debate on the subject. Just recently, the Attorney General of California filed suit against the world’s three biggest care manufacturers for their complicity in creating CO2 emissions. As part of the discovery for the suit, the Attorney General demanded copies of any correspondence between the automakers and so-called “skeptics” of climate change. Message: you can’t even talk to these people! 2006 has seen the church of global warming go into near panic at any sign of heretical behavior. It’s absolutely incredible to see such panic, considering the global warming mantra is near universal. There are over 12,000 environmental groups in the country controlling over $20 billion in assets, all unified in spreading the climate change gospel. On top of their vast holdings, many of those same groups receive federal grants for “studies” and “reports” on their climate change findings. More grants, in the billions of dollars, are going to scientists willing to join the church and help substantiate the mantra in their “research.” Added to that substantial fire power is a willing news media which offers magazine cover photos of melting ice caps; and the efforts of the movie and television industry which lets no opportunity get by without some reference to global warming. Al Gore’s own documentary has been in theaters around the nation for months. He is the guest on talk shows nearly every week. The global warming message is literally everywhere. It indoctrinates our children in the classroom. It flows from the advertising messages of corporations, in their corporate social responsible ad to sell their environmentally-responsible products (for which research and development was probably paid for with federal tax dollars). Huge numbers of Hollywood stars and international political leaders have endorsed the mantra of the church of global warming. Billions and billions of dollars are being spent to influence literally every corner of the earth to accept global warming as a fact. Countering this massive onslaught of globally acceptable climate change “truth” is a tiny, dedicated band of scientists, political leaders and non-profits that are seeking the real “truth.” Their assets are literally in the low millions of dollars – simply a drop in the bucket when compared to the war chest of the climate change church. They don’t have the medias attention. They don’t have the ability to issue massive grants. Hollywood certainly isn’t making movies to promote the “skeptics” point of view. And the federal government isn’t allowing the contrary opinions in many classrooms. So, with so much incredible fire power covering every possible exit, one must ask the logical question: why are the climate change crowd so scared of a few renegade groups and their measly few million dollars? The fact is, the “skeptics” are having such an impact on the debate because they are telling the truth. The Church of Global Warming is wrong! As George Orwell once wrote: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” There is no greater hero in the revolution for climate change truth than Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He has truly demonstrated the power one honest individual can wield. Earlier this year (2006) Sen. Inhofe gave two explosive speeches on the floor of the Senate in which he attacked and exposed the unfounded claims and scare tactics being employed by the Global Warming crowd. The speeches were literally unprecedented in the decades-long climate change debate. And their effect was like a lightening bolt. Almost immediately some scientists began coming out of hiding to side with the Senator. On December 6th, just as the Rockefeller/Snowe letter was being exposed across the Internet, Inhofe held a hearing on Capitol Hill exposing the “alarmist media.” Said Inhofe, “Rather than focus on the hard science of global warming, the media has instead become advocates for hyping scientifically unfounded climate alarmism.” His attacks have already forced 60 Minutes, CNN and other major media to at least give lip service to the “skeptic” point of view. More importantly, the Senator’s efforts are putting the Global Warming crowd into near cardiac arrest. It is important to not that the so-called “Skeptics” include Dr. Daniel Schrag of Harvard; Claude Allegre, one of the most decorated French geophysicists; Dr. Richard Lindzen, professor of Atmospheric Sciences, MIT; Dr. Patrick Michaels, University of Virginia: Dr. Fred Singer; Professor Bob Carter, geologist at James Cook University, Australia; 85 scientists and climate experts who signed the 1995 Leipzeg Declaration which called drastic climate controls “ill-advised, lacking credible support from the underlying science; 17,000 scientists and leaders involved in climate study who signed a petition issued by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine saying there is no evidence green house gasses cause global warming; and the 4,000 scientists and leaders from around the world, including 70 Nobel Prize winners, who signed the Heidelberg Appeal calling greenhouse global warming theories “highly uncertainly scientific theories.” These are but a few of the highly qualified “skeptics” deride by Jay Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe and Al Gore whom, they say, should not be given a voice on the issue. There are lots of lies surrounding the Global Warming mantra. The biggest one claims there is “consensus” among scientists that human-caused global warming is a fact. There is no such consensus. Human survival demands that we listen to the “Skeptics” before they are burned at the stake by suppositious brutes like Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line249
__label__wiki	0.564933	0.564933	Hope College's Student Newspaper Campus and Beyond The Ranchor Humans of Hope ‘F the world, no consequences’ is back and better than ever Katy Smith Many cultural phenomena came out of the 1990s, so much so that much of the 2010s was spent chasing after ’90s nostalgia. There was something about that decade that so many people in our nation want to hold onto. The phrase “times were simpler” might help explain why this is so. If there is one thing from the ’90s that our society hasn’t quite held onto, it is the phenomenon that I will dub, “F the world, no consequences.” In short, this is the angsty view of the world that is inherently self-focused and makes decisions without considering the possible consequences to yourself or others. Due to this, in the media and overall culture among young people, an anti-work, struggle-to-survive mindset was born. As Millennials matured and Gen Z was born, this mindset was all but entirely erased. In its place, Elle Woods and the Common Application came together to push a college-educated and hard-working culture. According to the Department of Education, in 2017, 20.4 million students attended colleges and universities across the country. To compare, in 1995 only 8.7 million students were enrolled in a college or university. Two pieces of media, Jonathan Larson’s rock opera “RENT” and Ben Stiller’s directorial debut “Reality Bites,” best emulate this “F the world, no consequences” phenomenon. “RENT” is a ’90s reimagining of Puccini’s classical opera “La Boheme” that deals with themes involving the AIDS epidemic and the life of the modern bohemian in New York’s Alphabet City. The opening number of the same name follows main characters Mark Cohen and Roger Davis as they struggle to stay warm in the loft apartment they squat in. By the end of the song, the company comes to the lyrical conclusion that, “We’re not gonna pay / Last year’s rent / This year’s rent / Next year’s rent.” Cohen is an aspiring filmmaker and Davis an AIDS-diagnosed musician. It is clear with Davis’s illness and Cohen’s recent breakup that the audience is meant to pity the men. After all, they are suffering, poor and have no work. Cohen and Davis have an ex-friend named Benny Coffin III who has recently married rich. With his newfound money, he longs to open a cyber arts studio in the building where many homeless people are squatting. He offers both men full-paying jobs at his studio, as well as free housing at the loft they are currently squatting in. Instead of declining for moral reasons regarding the homelessness issue, the men believe that Coffin is now a corporate sellout and is infringing upon their superior bohemian lifestyle. This is what I mean by “F the world, no consequences.” The feature film “Reality Bites” has plot points similar to “RENT.” In “Reality Bites,” the recent valedictorian graduate Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder) is struggling to find her way in the professional world. She works for a PBS-adjacent television network as a production assistant. On the side, she works on shooting and editing her slice-of-life titular documentary. Similarly, Cohen in “RENT” records much of the events of the play for his documentary. Both fictional films are plot devices to showcase both the beautiful and ordinary aspects of their “F the world, no consequences” lifestyles. Pierce ends up dating Michael Grates (Ben Stiller), who works at an MTV-adjacent network. He watches her documentary and thinks it’s brilliant, so he offers to show it to his higher-ups at MTV. Meanwhile, Cohen gets a job at Buzzline, where he is doing creative work. It is unclear whether he becomes akin to a camera operator or some other media job. He earned said job with footage of a protest he originally took for his documentary. After Pierce surrenders her documentary for MTV, they edit a trailer together for a possible television event. The proposed work isn’t what Pierce envisioned for her film and, instead of working with the network, she simply pulls her work from them altogether. This causes a breakup between her and Grates. Later, in Act II of the musical, Cohen ends up quitting his position at Buzzline, as he thought his time spent working this “corporate position” was prohibiting him from focusing on his documentary. Once again, Cohen is broke by choice. None of this is to discourage the sustained integrity of a work of art. Pierce is justified in her disappointment with how the trailer for her independent project turned out. However, is she justified in going so far as to estrange herself and her project from the network altogether? The same can be said for Cohen’s situation. Not all artists can be tied down, especially when independent projects can be successful, given the right amount of luck and dedication. However, is he justified in quitting his job to continue his financial suffering for the gain of his film? Both Pierce and Cohen’s storylines work to explain what exactly I mean by “F the world, no consequences.” I’m not saying this concept is inherently bad. The idea of the modern-day bohemian, while not altogether true to the original concept of the lifestyle, is not inherently bad. I would argue that the counterculture that was derived from it in the 2000s and ’10s isn’t inherently good either. In fact, one of the most fascinating concepts present in “F the world, no consequences” is the aversion to the wealthy. In TikTok trends and viral tweets, it is becoming more and more apparent that Generation Z is reinventing this mindset. The first example of this is the desire for simple living and the dislike for the upper class. With popular sayings like “eat the rich,” Gen Z is reinventing the “F the world, no consequences” lifestyle. However, unlike Pierce and Cohen, Generation Z seems to recognize that actions do most certainly have consequences, ones that can affect entire groups of people. For example, members of this youngest generation, in the most general sense, don’t allow themselves to sit with their suffering. Their suffering is not what fuels their art, like Cohen and Pierce. Instead, the ways that they respond to that suffering push them to make art—not just make art, but propel change in the world around them. While “Reality Bites” and “RENT” were happening around the AIDS epidemic, one could argue that neither say all that much about the issue at all. Yes, characters in each struggle with the virus, but nobody stands up to do anything about the systemic injustices surrounding AIDS treatment and LGBT+ inequality during that time. Gen Z, on the other hand, has come together to propel the Black Lives Matter movement forward and vote in the recent election. They’ve taken “F the world, no consequences,” and molded it into “F the world, let’s change it.” They have harvested the ’90s serial angsty attitude and used it for social and individual gain. While ’90s nostalgia is fortunately becoming less and less relevant, let’s hold onto the framework given to us by our Generation X and Millennial counterparts. “F the world, let’s change it,” is something to be proud of. It is something we should not abandon. About Katy Smith Katy Smith (‘23) is a communications major, theatre and writing minor at Hope. Her passions lie in the arts, specifically playwriting, poetry, performing, and any music that makes you feel wanderlust. She is so honored to be the Anchor’s Arts Editor! She strives to give Hope’s wonderful arts programs the platform they deserve. Student poetry: Lend a Jacket This is America: Protest music through the ages It’s about time: Going back to the theaters '‘F the world, no consequences’ is back and better than ever' has no comments Find out more below! View @AnchorNews’s profile on Facebook View @HopeAnchorNews’s profile on Twitter View @hopecollegeanchor’s profile on Instagram Subscribe to the Anchor 257 Columbia Ave, Holland, MI 49423 anchor@hope.edu The Anchor is a product of student effort and is funded through the Hope College Student Activities Fund. The opinions expressed on the Voices page are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of The Anchor. One year subscriptions to The Anchor are available for $45. The Anchor reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line250
__label__wiki	0.538104	0.538104	COVID-19, The China Inquiries Did China Know? Do you think China knew of the virus, before reporting to the World Health Organization (WHO)? That’s the first question I would ask, before anything else. SARS-CoV-2, or what we know now as COVID-19, wasn’t identified even though there were cases of patients being ill with “pneumonia-like symptoms”. According to a WHO report published to (Cluster of Pneumonia Cases in China) their website, they claim that China had already identified the a novel virus that causes pneumonia like symptoms, yet not as severe as the MERS or SARS strand of coronaviruses. On January 3rd, China was already looking into 27 cases of this viral infection, that China rumoured to be another outbreak of SARS, and in the central city of Wuhan, 44 cases that have already been reported. In addition to these cases, China had reported cases of an unknown pneumonia like virus before, on December 31st. Come January 5th of this year, the reoccurrence of a SARS outbreak was ruled out. On January 7th, China had announced the identification of a new virus, named 2019-nCoV, belonging to the corona virus family. Yet, on January 11th, China had recorded its first death from the virus, a 61 year old man who visited a seafood market. This is where these events get tricky for me, on January 13th there was a case reported in Thailand, outside of China. The case in Thailand would mark the first one that was outside of China. On January 17th a second death from the disease was reported in Wuhan, and the US announced that it would start screening passengers from that city. Authorities in the US, Nepal, France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan also had confirmed cases in the following days. January 20th, China reports a third death and more than 200 new infections, with case outside the Hubei province including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. A Chinese expert, Zhong Nanshan, had confirmed that human to human transmission is possible to China Central Television (CCTV) state broadcaster, even after Wuhan authorities maintained that there was no clear evidence to support human-to-human transmission and that the virus is “preventable and controllable” (Dr. Zhog Nanshan on COVID-19 – CNN I’ve never been to Lunar New Year celebrations in China, even though my good friend urges me that it’s a good time, it occurs on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar (between 21 January and 20 February). This year It had landed on Saturday, January 25th. (Al Jazeera Timeline of COVID-19 Spread Did China have more than enough information to at least issue a statement to the public before millions of people gathered to celebrate? They should have, even when the WHO issued a state menr on January 22nd there was evidence of human-to-human transmission, instead of waiting until January 30th, where the Chinese President, Xi Jinping warned the public of a virus lurking among them, yet based on reports obtained by The Associated Press and retrospective infection data estimates, there were already 3000 people infected. The decision to delay warning of the virus, the critical point to birthing the global pandemic, the Lunar New Year celebration was our event horizon. How does the WHO issue a statement report that gives a risk assessment for China as very high and high at the global level, why did they wait until this point? (WHO Timeline of COVID-19 Events) If you’re still not convinced that there are problems with the Government of China, take the Chinese whistleblower, Dr. Li Wenliang The Chinese doctor tried to warn other medics through a group chat of a new SARS like illness in early December. Authorities had punished Dr. Wenliang for rumour spreading, along with 8 others had been detained for the same accusation, although Li was not clearly implicated in those. The Chinese Government knew, at least some parts of the government had substantial amount information not to at least issue a warning, yet, there’s a slight catch. The original thought that the virus couldn’t be transmitted human to human. Yet Li Wenliang contracted the virus a week after being released, being diagnosed at the end of January and then ultimately met his demise in early February. It was noted that the officials wrongfully punished Dr. Wenliang, by the Chinese Communist Party’s internal anti-corruption body and the country’s largest anti-corruption agency, Li had not disrupted the public order, yet the findings he reported were not verified before sending it and the findings were “not consistent with the actual situation at the time”. “They don’t like to tell the truth” says Dr. Zhong Nanshan, speaking of the Government in China. Zhong Nanshan, the Chinese government’s senior medical adviser whom reported to CCTV that human-to-human transmission was possible, said to CNN in an exclusive interview on May 16th, that official in Wuhan had surpressed key details about the magnitude of the initial outrbreaks in early December. There was information of the virus spreading since early December, of last year. But since that time little was done about it. Do you feel that China is living up to their end of the bargain? The Chinese government has a lot to answer for, and there needs to be an inquiry soon, before China tries to cover up their mistake or pretend like nothing happened. This is a governance problem, whether it be China the country or just individual cities or provinces. So much could have been done, yet wasn’t, China could have acted sooner, we didn’t have to kill 336, 000 people and disrupt the lives of the world just to test our responses to a pandemic. Previous Post Testing Push, Contact Tracing App, Data Sharing a Must Next Post Ontario Falling Backwards, Liberals and Conservatives Caught, CECRA Program Opens	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line251
__label__wiki	0.982598	0.982598	You are here: Home › Smokies named Southern League organization of the year Smokies named Southern League organization of the year By Kevin Reichard on September 5, 2014 in Minor-League Baseball, News Nice honor for an organization on the rise: The Tennessee Smokies were awarded the Class AA Southern League’s 2014 Don Mincher Organization of the Year Award, as voted on by the league’s general managers. The franchise is also the circuit’s nomination for Minor League Baseball’s John H. Johnson President’s Award, which the Smokies also won in 2011. The league’s Organization of the Year award is named after the late Don Mincher, who served as the Southern League’s President for 12 years from 2000 through 2011. It is awarded following the completion of each season to the Southern League club demonstrated as the circuit’s most complete baseball franchise. “It is an honor to be selected by our peers to receive the 2014 Don Mincher Organization of the Year Award,” said Team President Doug Kirchhofer. “This award is a testament to the vision and support of our new owners Randy and Jenny Boyd, as well as the hard work and dedication of our full-time and part-time employees.” “It’s great to see the hard work of our fantastic staff be recognized,” added Smokies Owner Randy Boyd. “This would not have been possible without them, the support of our local city and county government, and some of the best baseball fans in the country.” In a banner year under the first full season of new team owners Randy and Jenny Boyd, the Smokies set new franchise records for total and average attendance in a single season, while improving an already strong fan experience. The team welcomed a total of 283,038 guests into Smokies Stadium this season in 69 openings, besting the previous top mark of 268,033 set in 2002, and also saw a 15% increase in attendance from last season. In addition, the Smokies opened a new exciting premium seating area “Calhoun’s At The Yard,” combining a unique view with an East Tennessee barbeque flair in Calhoun’s, while also enhancing the club’s suite level and expanding Homer the Hound’s Kids Play Area. The club also introduced successful new daily promotions such as Tail Waggin’ Tuesday and All-You-Can-Eat Wednesday. Midway through the season, Tennessee and its parent club, the Chicago Cubs also agreed to an extension of their player development contract, lengthening the two teams’ partnership through the 2018 season. At the end of that agreement, the Smokies will have been affiliated with the Cubs for 12 seasons, which would mark the second-longest such stretch in franchise history. Tennessee was affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays for 23 seasons between 1980 through 2002. The Smokies previously were honored by the Southern League with the 2011 Organization of the Year, and would subsequently be selected as the winner of Minor League Baseball’s John H. Johnson President’s Award, given to the top Minor League Baseball franchise in a pool of 160 possible clubs. Tennessee is the only Southern League franchise to have won Minor League Baseball’s top honor dating back to 1974. Development arrives at Arvest Ballpark class aa, don mincher, doug kirchhofer, minor league baseball, organization of the year, randy boyd, smokies stadium, southern league, tennessee smokies Chicago unveils $6.5M in new spending on youth baseball facilities Quincy Gems sold to local group	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line253
__label__wiki	0.886737	0.886737	Saudi Arabia Acknowledges Defeat in Yemen – Starts to Sue for Peace Two weeks ago we wrote that war on Yemen will soon end. The Saudis lost their ally, they lost the war and would have to sue for peace. They are now doing so. But they fighting in Yemen will continue until that country finds a new balance. Today (August 29, 2019) the United Arab Emirates airforce bombed the Yemeni proxy forces of its ‘ally’ Saudi Arabia: Yemen’s internationally recognized government accused the Emirati air force of attacking its troops Thursday as they were heading to the key southern port city of Aden to fight separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. The airstrikes killed at least 30 government forces, a Yemeni commander said. Col. Mohamed al-Oban, a commander of the government’s special forces in Abyan province, said the troops were on the road, headed from Abyan toward Aden on Thursday, when the strikes took place, killing at least 30. At least six raids were carried out by Emirati warplanes around the temporary capital, according to government military sources who asked to remain anonymous. Southern separatist forces under the Southern Transitional Council and supported by the UAE hold Aden. Between 1967 and 1990 south Yemen, then named the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, was separated from the mountainous north. After uniting with north Yemen the south became neglected even though its eastern desert holds most of the country’s hydrocarbon resources. Since 2015 the coalition of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with U.S. and British help, waged war against the Houthi in northern Yemen. The coalition is now falling apart. Both countries claimed to fight against the Houthi, which control the capital Sanaa, in support of the internationally recognized ‘legitimate’ government under ‘President’ Hadi. But both countries had from the very beginning more egoistic war aims. The Wahhabi Saudis want a Yemeni government that is not controlled by the Zaydi-Shia Houthi with whom they fought dozens of wars over two provinces that Saudi Arabia once annexed. They also want to control Yemen’s oil and a pipeline from the Saudi oil region to a harbor in Yemen. It would help Saudi oil exports to avoid the Iran controlled Strait of Hormuz. The UAE is big into the port business. It wants to control the strategic port of Aden and other Yemeni harbors on the southern coast. As it has no direct border with Yemen it largely does not care who controls the rest of Yemen. The UAE leader Mohammad bin Zayed (MbZ) is not an absolute king. He is the son of the Emir of Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates that form the UAE. His aggressive foreign policy, with military engagement in Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Libya, has come under critic of the rulers of the other emirates. Wars are expensive and bad for regular business. MbZ’s alliance with the Saudi clown prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) was seen as dangerous. While the Saudis would like the U.S. to wage war on Iran, the UAE, and especially Dubai, would become a casualty of such a war. In June the emirs decided to change cause. The UAE retreated from active war in Yemen and started to make nice with Iran. It hoped that the southern separatists it had trained would keep Aden under control and continue to do the UAE’s bidding. The Saudis and the ‘legitimate government’ under Hadi they control do not want to condone that. The Saudis are extremely angry that the UAE changed course: But this month, at his Mecca palace, Saudi King Salman took the unusual step of expressing “extreme irritation” with the UAE, his closest Arab partner, according to sources familiar with the matter.The comment appears to be evidence of a fissure in the alliance, which is led in practice by the king’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), and the UAE de facto ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (MbZ). The king’s annoyance was voiced in a conversation on Aug. 11 with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, head of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, according to two Yemeni sources and one other briefed on the meeting. Hadi’s forces in Aden had just been routed by troops supported by the UAE, as nominal allies in the country’s south turned on each other in a power struggle. The Saudis must end the war against the Houthi that was launched at the behest of its clown prince. The war cost the Saudis an enormous amount of money even as they are still losing it. Only yesterday 25 of their forces were killed in a Houthi ambush. With the help of Iran the Houthi acquired long range missiles and drones and they now use them in volleys that reach deep into the Saudi’s land: Beginning on Aug. 24, the Houthis said its forces conducted two drone strikes on the King Khaled airbase in Khamis Mushayt and the Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia. A day later, another round of drone strikes were reported on both targets.On the same day, ten Badr-1 ballistic missiles were reportedly fired into Saudi’s Jizan city. However, Saudi officials reported that the country’s air defense systems shot down six ballistic missiles. The officials did not confirm if more missiles were included in the barrage. On Aug. 26, another ballistic missile, the newly-announced Nakal missile, was reportedly fired at Saudi troops near Najran. Later in the day, another round of drones were reportedly intercepted near the King Khaled airbase in Khamis Mushayt. As drones were hitting the King Khaled airbase, a separate attack was purportedly occurring near Riyadh with the new Samad-3 suicide drones. If confirmed, this marks the second time Houthi drones have hit the Saudi capital. The first was a reported strike on an Aramco facility near the capital last month. On Aug. 27, the Houthis showcased another newly-announced ballistic missile, the Qasem-1, by allegedly hitting Saudi troops positioned near the Yemeni border in Najran. Another drone was intercepted and destroyed by Saudi forces over Khamis Mushayt as well. And yesterday a new cruise missile, the Quds-1, was launched towards the Abha airport. Though, Saudi officials stated that the missile was intercepted and destroyed. The Saudi king must have recognized that he has no longer any chance to ever win the war. It seems that he asked the Trump administration to work out an agreement with the Houthi: The Trump administration is preparing to initiate negotiations with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in an effort to bring the four-year civil war in Yemen to an end, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.The effort is reportedly aimed at convincing Saudi Arabia to take part in secret talks with the rebels in Oman to help broker a cease-fire in the conflict, which has emerged as a front line in the regional proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran. The brother of the clown prince came to Washington to prepare for the talks: Prince Khalid met with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Wednesday and discussed “U.S. support for a negotiated resolution between the Republic of Yemen government” and a breakaway group known as the Southern Transitional Council, according to a statement from State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. The Hadi government is irrelevant. The Southern Transitional Council will demand independence from the north. The Houthi will demand to control the north and reparations for the war the Saudis waged against them. North Yemen’s infrastructure is largely destroyed. It will cost several dozens of billions to rebuild what the five year long Saudi air war destroyed. As the Houthi can continue to harass the Saudis at will, even in their capital, their is no way out for the Saudis but to pay whatever the Houthi demand. It was the clown prince Mohammad bin Salman who launched the war in Yemen soon after he came to power. It was supposed to defeat the Houthi within a few weeks. Five years later and after at least a $100 billions was spent on it, the Saudis lost the war. Will the King hold his son responsible for the large loss of money and face that he caused? By b Source: Moon of Alabama Saudi Rushes to Improve Its Image in Advance of G20 and Biden The Yemen Civil War Arms Bonanza U.S. War Crimes in Yemen: Stop Looking the Other Way Yemen: When will its Miseries and Agonies End? Give Peace a Chance: Saudi Arabia and the UAE Jostle for Position in War-Ravaged Countries for Contracts Is Trump Kicking the Saudis to the Curb the Beginning of Something Not Terrible? Yemen Ceasefire Between Houthis and Saudi-Backed Forces Takes New Turn Can the UAE's Coup Attempts in Libya and Yemen Succeed? The Restoration of Self-Rule in South Yemen Is the Next Step Towards Independence The Endgame Begins In Yemen’s War Saudi ArabiaUAEYemen Behind Israel’s Bombing in Iraq’s Heartland New Delhi’s Man in Moscow Is Right, Russia and India Are Global Partners	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line255
__label__cc	0.633438	0.366562	The World Economic Forum (WEF) Knows Best – The Post-Covid “Great Global Reset” The World Economic Forum (WEF) has just made a grandiose discovery and declared (21 July 2020) under the alarming title “This is now the world’s greatest threat – and it’s not coronavirus”. The superb discovery is listed as “Affluence is the biggest threat to our world, according to a new scientific report.” (See this). This “shocking and revealing news” is the “main conclusions of a team of scientists from Australia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, who have warned that tackling overconsumption has to become a priority. Their report, titled Scientists’ Warning on Affluence, explains that “affluence is the driver of environmental and social impacts, and therefore, true sustainability calls for significant lifestyle changes, rather than hoping that more efficient use of resources will be enough.” So as to better understand the context of the WEF statement, lets backtrack a bit. On June 3, 2020, WEF founder and executive chairman, Klaus Schwab, presented what the WEF and all the elites and oligarchs behind it call The Great Reset: “The world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions… Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.” According to author Matthew Ehret-Kump, the gathering included elites from “the IMF, World Bank, UK, USA, corporate and banking sector” all looking “to take advantage of COVID-19 to shut down and “reset” the world economy under a new operating system entitled the Green New Deal.” Gary Barnett writes on July 16, 2020 “…This is the most dangerous time in the history of man. The seriousness of this plot cannot be underestimated. It is not due to any threat of conventional war or nuclear decimation, it is based on the fact that this is a psychological war waged by psychopaths against all mankind, and it is being advanced by a small group of monsters that have taken control of the minds of the masses through long-term indoctrination and policies meant to breed dependency.” “Fear is the new weapon of mass destruction, not because it is legitimate, but because the people have lost all will to be free, have lost all ability to think, and seek shelter and comfort as a collective herd only capable of existence in a society that is based on totalitarian rule.” “Longing for freedom without the courage to claim it, is a meaningless endeavor, as any real demand by the masses would leave the governing elite naked and afraid. All that is necessary to achieve liberty is to want it, and this alone can defeat tyranny.” Gary Barnett also quotes from “The Politics of Obedience” by Étienne de la Boétie: “He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you.” Well, the WEF finally got it right. Affluence and all that creates affluence and ever bigger affluence, widens the gap, rich-poor – and creates abject poverty, misery, famine and death. According to the World Food Program (WFP), without covid, every year some 9 million people die from famine or hunger-related diseases. The WFP projects the number of people facing acute food insecurity (IPC/CH 3 or worse) stands to rise to 265 million in 2020, up by 130 million from the 135 million in 2019, as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19 (see this). Many – too many – of these people may die. Death by famine is murder, according to Jean Ziegler, Swiss activist and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. The WEF calls for a Great Reset. Yes, a Reset is needed, but not WEF-style. A Reset people-style is more what can save Mother Earth and all her sentient beings, including humanity. A Reset could start with a global Debt Jubilee (debt forgiveness), so that people who can no longer pay their rent, their mortgages because due to a Deep Dark State elite-made covid-crisis they have lost their jobs, their income, their entire livelihood – debt forgiveness, so that this ever-growing segment of people will be able to keep their shelter and hopefully their sanity. The WEF calls for “lifestyle changes”, but fails to explain what it means, and who has to change their lifestyle – the rich or the poor? While the WEF preaches for the Great Global Reset, more justice, more environmental protection, capitalism for “stakeholders”, rather than just for shareholders – RT reports that due to the covid-depression, unemployment and poverty, in the US alone, 28 million home evictions loom. And that’s probably just the beginning. Compare this with the 10 million of the 2008 / 2009 also man-made crisis. There are currently about half a million people homeless in the US. The European Union (EU) doesn’t publish these figures, but they may be at least as high and likely higher. At the same time there are 1.5 million apartments empty in the US – about three times as many as there are homeless. Add to this the 28 million homes that may become empty in the coming months. The 2008 crisis may be an indication. It took the banks many years to sell the 10 million “vacated” homes – and many are still not sold and rot on the rotten free market. In the bottomless depression of this covid-disaster it is even unlikelier that the banks will sell their brutally confiscated loot. How does that fit Mr. Schwab’s, the WEF’s narrative? If the WEF was serious with the grandiose Reset for more justice, they would put the money where their mouth is – and generate the funds necessary to help the jobless to keep their homes, bail them out, or ask for a government supported debt and rent forgiveness, for all who are unemployed, with a temporary basic income of, say US$ 2,000 / month, for as long as it takes to put the economy back to work. “Temporary” – because a permanent basic income creates dependence, enslaves, and discourages the capitalist system even further from creating jobs, and use instead Artificial Intelligence (AI). This would cost a fraction from what the FED has already spent to bail out banks and financial institutions – according to the WaPo of 15 April 2020 (see this), more than 6 trillion. In the meantime, and since mid-April, with the looming increase in corporate and banking failures, this figure may have doubled or tripled. But so what. It’s just fiat money, new debt, never to be paid back. Under this wicket principle of bailing out the rich, the FED could easily throw in another, say, 5 trillion and bail out the poor, take away a big portion of their misery, with, say a US$ 2,000 monthly minimum income for several years. Now more than ever, QE (Quantitative Easing) is of the order. Until the economy can walk again. This, in the medium to long term, would pay back by a multiple in terms of benefits to the US macro-economy. People without anxiety, without fear, would be productive and could help in reshaping the covid-destroyed economy. By the way, this principle of bailing out the poor applies to every capitalist country, where the first to suffer are the poor, the job-dependent people. It might also apply in developing countries, where often up to 70% of the economy is made up of the informal sector, paying the unemployed a minimum wage, regardless whether they had a contractual work arrangement or not. Though, it doesn’t look like Mr. Schwab, alias the WEF, has this kind of justice is mind. The amassing of extreme affluence is only possible because the west is living in a turbo-capitalist system, or in a neoliberalist scheme which is slowly but surely turning into a form of economic neo-fascism with the political consequences that will likely follow. As an example, in the two months from mid-March to mid-May 2020 – so far the worst corona crisis months, when the world was basically shut down, when unemployment and accompanying misery and famine soared to proportions never known in mankind’s history – the billionaires in the US have added another 434 billion dollars to their wealth. Again, yes, the WEF has got it right – even saying that this has to change; the world needs a better-balanced socioeconomic system and needs to do more to protect the environment and Mother Earth altogether. Of course. Nice words. But what’s the WEF’s agenda behind the words? A legitimate question: What is the WEF and who is behind the WEF? – What makes the WEF so omni-powerful? The WEF was created in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a German engineer and economist. As of this day, he is at the helm of this powerful club of the rich. The WEF was created and is as of this day an NGO. It was founded as a European Management Forum, with Headquarters in Cologny, a lush suburb of Geneva, Switzerland. Its legal status is a foundation, a mere NGO (see this). The WEF has absolutely no legal international status or role – for example, as the United Nations does – that would allow the WEF to issue edicts and rules to the world on how it should be run and behave, let alone exert control over the world’s population and decide over the fate of some 7.8 billion people (UN est. 2020 population). Yet, that’s precisely what the WEF pretends to do – and that already for at least two or three decades. And most of the western leaders – and many non-westerners of the 193 UN members – accept the WEF as a World Authority on economic policy and political thinking. They put the WEF’s authority above that of the United Nations. Why? – Does anybody ever ask how an NGO, the WEF, assumes for itself the power to stand above the UN, above every nation in the world and dictates as a proxy for its corporate-finance-military complex membership, basically who is to live and who is to die, by imposing a globalized economic system that has brought only abject misery to the majority of people? – And will continue to do so, if we don’t stop it. Similar statements could be made about the G7 and the G20 – they are not even NGOs, but merely clubs of the self-declared richest and most powerful nations in the world. They too, not unlike the WEF which works hand-in-hand with the Great “Gs”, have taken over the role of the UN – to make world economic and political policy. They pretend to call the shots over war and peace. In their elitist capitalist interest, of course. Not in the interest of the people. This is totally illegitimate and extremely dangerous. Now, who is behind the WEF? Who are the members and players of the WEF? They are the cream of the crop of the elite, they are the very Affluent the WEF claims are the problem, they are those who they pretend have to ‘adjust’ so that the world can continue functioning – in a “sustainable” way. – “Sustainable”, the omni-present term everywhere, overused and abused, exactly by those who chastise the world of living in unsustainable ways. They are corporate and financial magnates, former and present politicians, Hollywood personalities – and more. They are the front window of the Deep Dark State. They are the ones, attempting to introduce the “New Green Deal”, a deviation from the current consumption based economy, to an economy based on “green” capitalism; electric cars (largely based on hydrocarbon-produced electricity), and GMO-based bio (sic) agriculture, “clean” Artificial Intelligence (AI), “green cities”, where workers (not yet wiped out by AI) cannot afford to live – and more of that sort of thing. A Green Agenda is good propaganda. It sells easily to the populace, who doesn’t ask any questions. Do we all grasp it? – The WEF – a little NGO of a suburb of Geneva, Switzerland – acts above the UN – and has been doing so for a while. And We, The People, let it happen. We protest a bit every January when the WEF clan meets in the luxurious resort of Davos, Switzerland, to tell us what’s up their sleeves for the future of mankind and for the world. But that’s all. Then they go “home” and disappear behind the curtain again for a year, or so we believe, and then appear again with new ideas and rules and ways to impose behavior for the 99.999% of the people of the world. And, again, this little rich NGO, without any international legal status, keeps acting like God, way above and beyond the United Nations, which, in turn, was created by nations of the world to arbitrate over conflicts for peace. Doing nothing against the WEF, letting it be and taking ever more power, means as much as accepting heir rule – it means approving of its illegitimate status as a supreme world authority. It seems that’s what we have been doing, lately – to the detriment of the world economy, harming the social fabric of our multicultural world, as imperfect as it may be – but it has a legitimate existence. Now that existence has been shred to pieces – yes, largely by the WEF and its cohorts and cronies, WHO, the Johns Hopkins University School of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They are behind the corona disaster. Event 201 is the last testimony to this effect. They are supported by a myriad of other world scene actors, and extended arms of the affluent oligarchs and institutions, who pretend to rule the world, the IMF, World Bank, FED, the globe’s pharma imperia, private banking and financial institutions, i.e. Wall Street and its international affiliates, and not to forget the world’s war industrial complex. The Global Destruction that the WEF now wants to fix by a Global Reset, WEF style, has been – and is being caused – by an invisible enemy, a virus, a corona virus, the same that is at the base of most flue outbreaks. The western media trumpet messages of corona fear 24 x 7 into our brains, so it must be true. But, it ain’t true at all. The corona pandemic, what is now called COVID-19, had been carefully planned, probably for decades, at least since the 2010 Rockefeller Report, which outlines the first phase of this global destruction that we are experiencing now “The Lockstep Scenario” (p. 18 of the 2010 Rockefeller Report). The Event 201 was the last and final important exercise, a corona pandemic simulation and its consequences – 65 million deaths in 18 months and a devastated stock market, bankruptcies no end – was the “dry run” before the outbreak, first in China, and a few weeks later throughout the world. This event was co-sponsored by the WEF, the Bill Gates Foundation and the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. A number of today’s key actors in maintaining the momentum afloat – also called the Fear Indoctrination – were also present at Event 201, such as WHO, UNICEF, the IMF, the World Bank – and representatives from various UN agencies. The UN is fully complicit in this criminal and genocidal endeavor. It shows that the UN has no teeth; a world body created after WWII, …. “The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights” (see this). This just shows that that the WEF, a little NGO, has more power than the UN, and has in fact coopeted the UN and many of its agencies to follow the dictate of the elitist oligarchs, or the Dark Deep State – that stand behind the WEF. Why do we allow it? This Great Global Reset that the WEF predicts and plans, is of course driven by another agenda than the “Good of The World”. These self-nominated masters of the universe, some of the very same affluent people the WEF claims are the biggest risk for humanity, are now turning around and giving away their riches so that there will be a better equilibrium in the distribution of Mother Earth’s wealth, more justice, more respect for human rights, less consumerism and – an absolute protection of the environment and of unrenewable resources? – Not likely. To the contrary, as has already been proven. The planned collapse of the world economy has created unfathomable misery by bankruptcies mostly of small and medium enterprises, to be gobbled up by large corporations – and by syphoning off what was left of the social safety nets in the Global North as well as the Global South. Another enormous shift of resources from the bottom to the top – as testified by the 434 billion dollars additional riches of US billionaires (see above) – and this does not include the sum of additional billionaire-wealth around the globe. Having said that affluence is the biggest threat to the world, without going into any details, the WEF argues that “true sustainability will only be achieved through drastic lifestyle changes” and calls “for a great reset of capitalism in the wake of the pandemic.” An excerpt from “In the Stranglehold of the Untruth”, by Gerd Reuther, Rubikon News – (translated from German) – may put the WEF’s agenda in yet another perspective: “A “pandemic“ of overwhelming false-positive test results, mask obligation without an increase of infection risk, Covid “mass-outbreaks” without sick people, gigantic money transfers without compensation. Corona made possible what no counter reformation or counter information was able to achieve. How many Covid-deaths did you know personally? Probably not many. In the meantime, however, almost everyone knows someone who went crazy. Societies have bypassed the planet on the way to the abyss.” We can only speculate what the Great Reset could mean for the world’s citizens. Let’s give it a try. This is what the affluent oligarchs through their corporate, finance, pharma and military affiliation, may intend to impose on the “big masses below them”. To achieve the WEF’s Great Global Reset, number one is maintaining or increasing the cadence of the ongoing false fear propaganda and lies, as described above by Gerd Reuther in Rubikon.News. This has to be a relentless effort and should not be a problem, as all western Anglo-American propaganda and news outlets and their other-languages affiliates are fully coopted. Another one or more lockdowns with masks and social distancing, confinement, to further diminishing human contact through isolation; a “masked society” loses self-esteem, the fear and anxiety lower people’s immune system, making them vulnerable to all kinds of diseases, especially the mask obligation which has people breathe their own highly toxic CO2 –anything exceeding the level of 1,000 ppm CO2 is above tolerance – wearing a mask may increase inhaling CO2 to a rate of 10,000 ppm, or higher (see this). Less consumerism, through extreme austerity, low-wage work, gigantic unemployment to continue, causing insecurity, anxieties and fear for survival, thus, preparing the populace’s mindset for more manipulation, more enslavement – and desperately waiting for THE VACCINE. Replacing the fruit of work, namely wages for proud labor, by a universal basic income (UBI), creating a dependence on the system and demolishing human work and what’s left of self-esteem. The WEF also calls for “stakeholder capitalism”. Anybody knows what it means? Google describes it as follows: “Stakeholder capitalism is a system in which corporations are oriented to serve the interests of all their stakeholders. … Under this system, a company’s purpose is to create long-term value and not to maximize profits and enhance shareholder value at the cost of other stakeholder groups.” In other words, this would be a drastic and welcome change from the neoliberal corporate shareholder capitalism, if by “other stakeholder groups” the common consumer is meant. Highly unlikely. – More likely is that long-term benefits (profits) should accumulate more equally to shareholders, as every shareholder is also a stakeholder. But not every stakeholder is a shareholder. Consumers, common people, are left behind. And finally, there is a strong drive to reduce the world population; Bill Gates is one of the key drivers and has said so openly on various occasions. One of his most flagrant admissions is his TED Talk in 2010, “Innovating to Zero”, in California, where he says nonchalantly, “if we are doing a real good job, we may be able to reduce “the world population by 10% to 15% – see this. This eugenics agenda fits the WEF agenda perfectly. Less people, fewer resources. Those that remain, can be more abundantly shared among the beautiful and powerful. To close this essay on the WEF’s Great Global Reset, let me repeat the quote from “The Politics of Obedience” by Étienne de la Boétie: “He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you.” By Peter Koenig Source: Global Research The 2020 Worldwide Corona Crisis: Destroying Civil Society, Engineered Economic Depression, Global Coup d'État and the "Great Reset" Global Destruction, The COVID-19 Lockdown: Economic and Social Impacts The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the “Jobs Reset Summit”- A New Outrage in Disguise For Whom the Bell Tolls: The State of Planet Earth at Year’s End 2020 Keynes’ Sleight of Hand: From Fabian Eugenicist to World Government High Priest Guinea Pigs United DPRK’s Battle against Novel Coronavirus The GSK - Pfizer Multibillion Dollar Global Vaccine Monopoly The Year in Which Comforting American Myths Were Ravaged Sputnik V Is the Antidote To, Not Russia's Weapon of, Hybrid War in Ukraine COVID-19EconomyEvent 201WEF Military Escalation in the Middle East: Is Israel Planning a Multi-Front War ... The Sordid History of Scam Science Panics	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line256
__label__wiki	0.772422	0.772422	Bay of Pigs Gold Veteran Ring, Inscribed 2506, with F.B.M Inside Estimate: $800 - $1,000 Bay of Pigs Gold Veteran Ring, Inscribed 2506, with F.B.M. Inside Bay of Pigs Veteran awarded ring from the historical failed mission in 1961. The solid gold ring is stamped "Brigada De Asalto / Giron 17 Abril". The sides of the ring are stamped "Cuba", and "Dios", "Patria" (homeland). The center of the ring is stamped "2506", for Brigade 2506, the troop of Cuban exiles who were responsible for carrying out the amphibious assault at the Bay of Pigs. The ring is about 1" x .75", and weighs 15 grams, representing approximately .53 ounces. With one ounce of gold valued at over $1800, just the gold value of the ring alone is over $950. *Note: This ring has not been tested. It is likely 18k and could be 14k thus lowering the melt value but we all know the historical value is PRICELESS. Provenance: From the collection of Ron Hoskins, assassinologist. The Bay of Pigs was a failed operation on the coast of Cuba in 1961 led by Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. Covertly financed and directed by the U.S. government, the operation took place at the height of the Cold War, and its failure led to major shifts in international relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union. What appeared as a simple mission, was originally to be set into motion with a series of air strikes to take out Castro's defenses first. Then, a brigade of 1,500 Cuban expats would land in Cuba's Bay of Pigs, storm the beach, and spark an overthrow of the Castro regime. The battle was a monumental defeat for the Cuban exiles who anticipated more assistance from the United States. These men landed in Cuba with a rifle, a pistol and a dagger and no food, as they were given the expectation that the entire operation would be over before dinner. However, the horror of the event can be understood through the eyes of one of the survivors from Brigade 2506, who parachuted into Cuba only to find that all the planned support had failed. The events described below were experienced from one of the paratroopers from Brigade 2506, and the CIA-backed force of Cuban exiles that invaded the Bay of Pigs in 1961. This ring is believed to be owned by one of the members of this brigade: On April 17, 1961, just as dawn reached Cuba, the Brigade had parachuted into Cuba as a part of the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Brigade 2506, named after the membership number of a fighter who died training for the mission, was a force of about 1,400 when it came ashore on the Cuban sands and/or dropped into the swamps. It was an ambitious cabal of Americans and Cubans put together to take the country back from Castro and the communists and restore a U.S.-friendly government and a democracy. Many of the exiles in Brigade 2506 that April had owned farms and businesses in Cuba, or they were sons of landowners and business owners. Many had backed Castro’s guerilla fight against Batista only to see Fidel and Raul Castro turn hard left to Marxism and a partnership with the Soviet Union. The CIA decided to lead a revolution against the revolutionaries, and President Dwight Eisenhower approved a budget for the operation in August of 1960. Conducted three months after the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs Invasion failed miserably. The CIA, which trained the exiles in Guatemala and promised a supply of arms, was forced to abandon the 1,400 “invaders” almost immediately as they came ashore. Adlai Stevenson told Kennedy he would resign if the U.S. supported the invasion with bombing of Castro’s military. Kennedy ordered the U.S. military to back down after the initial bombing runs at Cuba. The general belief is that the Bay of Pigs failed and Cuba was lost because of decisive mistakes by the CIA. Martin Elena, the commander of the 2506, was relieved of his command in Guatemala by the CIA as the troops trained for the invasion. The men lost a trusted commander. Then, to make matters worse, three weeks before the Bay of Pigs, the CIA withdrew support for the anti-Castro guerrillas in the mountains. The guerillas were surrounded by Castro’s army and were whittled down little by little and were of no use by April 17. The main landing force for the Bay of Pigs sailed away from Nicaragua the night of April 16, 1961, without Elena and without established support from the guerrillas. Men climbed off ships at the Bay of Pigs in the early morning of April 17. Others were in the airborne phase of four parachute drops. The plan was for the airborne invaders to keep Castro’s army from getting to the beach to disrupt the landing. Members of the brigade recall approaching the Cuban coast on a C-46 transport plane the morning of the invasion, and the sunshine illuminated the bright blue-green water washing onto white beaches. When the red light came on over his head, the signal to jump, they had no hesitation. This was for Cuba. This was for their families. Che Guevara, the revolutionary warlord who was idolized internationally, had crushed freedom of speech. Fidel Castro plundered still more freedoms. The Castros and Che had to go. The team leapt from the plane at a mere 900 feet. As the parachuters floated to the ground, they could see Castro’s militia running away under the billowing chutes of the invaders. Castro’s militia were farm workers who had been handed guns and ordered to fight the imperialist invaders. This communist defensive force, northeast of the Bay of Pigs, scattered into the swamps. To the paratroopers, it just looked like practice out there, with nothing unexpected. The paratroopers had been trained by veterans of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. They were skilled, and now emboldened, when the Castro militia fled. But they had no clue as to the disaster unfolding on the beach of the Bay of Pigs. The U.S. warplanes that were supposed to suppress Castro’s militia and strafe his tanks abandoned the attack. The supply ships of the invaders were sunk by Castro’s three planes. A U.S. destroyer that was supposed to offer protection floated a mile offshore without firing one shell. The 1,200 Cubans who had landed at the beach to fight Castro were isolated and had no element of surprise, and no means of resupply. Castro, the head of the armed forces, was bringing 60,000 militia from the northwest right down on top of the unlucky on the beach. The troopers were landing with only a rifle, a dagger and a .45-caliber pistol. They did not even land with food because this incursion was supposed to be over by dinner, or at least lunch the next day. They expected to pick up Castro defectors and build a swarm of counter-revolutionaries on the way to Havana. That first day, the squad made their way toward the first objective, but it was on the third day on the ground, that the first hint something had gone horribly wrong with the plan emerged. Where Castro’s militias had previously scattered under the parachutes, there were now emboldened swarms of militiamen. They covered the roads, and they had tanks. This was when things dramatically took a turn for the worse. Firefights broke out with the militias and the team ducked in and out of the cover of the swamp brush. Soon, the invaders were scattered in the swamp, three here, four there. They dodged in and out of the trees and tall swamp grass. They were eating leaves now because this surely was not going to be over by dinner. On the 10th day, Brigade 2506 was down to three men in the muck of the swamps. The thick, moist air made it impossible not to cough. They would cough and then hear 50 yards away in the bog another cough, then another, and then another. They stayed hidden in the thick brush because Castro now had helicopters combing the swamp. Many moved cautiously from abandoned hut to abandoned hut. The militia, he says, had hauled off the owners of many huts, accusing them of helping the invaders. They ran out of chlorine tablets to purify the swamp water. And they had no food. It was only a matter of time before they were captured. Many had been rounded up in the preceding days and carted off as prisoners. There were 114 exiles killed by the Cuban militia before the force surrendered. The unlucky, the really unlucky, tried to make a desperate escape in a 20-foot sailboat on Day 3 of the invasion. Twenty-two men found the boat and set sail from the Bay of Pigs hoping to make the U.S. mainland, but they became stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. Ten men were alive on the boat when a freighter rescued them. The captured were paraded in front of international media in Havana in a sports coliseum, jailed and described as “imperialist” tools of the U.S. Fidel Castro had decided executions would be poor public relations for his fledgling revolution. The new leader of Cuba fed more than a thousand prisoners in the Sport Palace to show off his humanity. Many others in Cuba were being dragged into the streets and shot, some by Che Guevara himself, who wasn’t even Cuban, just Marxist, an Argentine partner of the Castros. Executions were done off in the shadows, away from the glare of international media. Anti-Castro plotters were lined up and shot, including two Americans who worked inside Cuba for the CIA, he says. Finally, in October 1962, the American government began to acknowledge its moral obligation. There was a spotlight on Cuba now and some in the U.S. felt a moral obligation to free the captured members of Brigade 2506. The U.S. started clandestine diplomatic maneuvers to rescue the 1,200 exiles. This ring was for a veteran of this clandestine operation, proudly emblazoned with #2506	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line259
__label__cc	0.648101	0.351899	I Wrote This Book About You by Ann Garvin \| Jul 24, 2016 \| Love, life, & Living, Writing and Publishing \| 0 comments I wrote this book about you. Well, here’s how it goes with my new book I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around. I’m holding the book and a person next to me reads the title and laughs. Then as if I’ve caught them doing something embarrassing like thinking something not so nice about someone in their life they look at me and say, “What is this about?” I say, “It’s about a radio therapist whose mother has Alzheimer’s and she is alone in caring for her and her sister’s colicky newborn. Her life just unravels underneath her while she tries to solve a mystery hidden in her families past. They nod interested. Then they squint their eyes and say, “But, who is this about?”1 I say, “The character Tig Monohan who was also in my last book The Dog year. She’s sassy and sure of herself until she’s not.” They nod again, like I’m just not hearing them. They try a new tact. “What gave you the idea for this book?” “Sometimes, I just want to be able to call someone and get some help with the unfairness of life. Like, I just want to call the universe and have them weigh in and give me a hand. So I wrote a radio therapist who does just that. People call in and tell their story and she decides if what is happening is fair or not. Like Judge Judy without the yelling or law involved “Ahhhh they say,” as if now we’re getting somewhere. “So, what do you think is unfair? Who do you want to tattle on and get help with.” I know what they want. They want me to tell them who the title is about. Like when Carly Simon sang, You’re so vain. People still want to know, who is so vain. Who?? I know what they want. They want me to tell them who the title is about. Like when Carly Simon sang, You’re so vain. The truth is, it’s not about any one person in particular. It’s about everyone in general. It’s about this woman who is trying to figure out her relationships. Yes that’s me, but it’s also everyone I know. It’s about a woman who is a caregiver and can’t always decide when enough is enough. Me again, and I’m thinking you too. It’s about a woman with Alzheimer’s who kept secrets, her daughter who also had a lock and key on her life, and a therapist who has to untangle everything to figure out why she thinks everything is funny and a little bit sad. a woman with Alzheimer’s who kept secrets, her daughter who also had a lock and key on her life, I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around is about all of us trying to figure out the people we love. I hope you like it and if you do, let me know. If not, well, maybe you can sit over there and wait to tell me when I’m not around. ☺ First published in part here.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line262
__label__wiki	0.698584	0.698584	Madrid Masters 2010: Ah well. I feel slightly better after sleeping, but the thought of food still makes me want to puke. Anyway, I didn't intend to watch the match at all, but I found myself waking up at 2 AM and checking my phone to see Wei Chuen's updates on the match. Found out that Nadal took the first set; also found out that Nadal was smacking winners all over the place. He then said it was 1-all second set and they both kept breaking each other. I tried to go back to sleep. I couldn't. Got up to watch the second set. Was hoping Roger would force a third, but a bad bounce at match point in the second set tie-break cost him the match. Can't say I'm not disappointed, but simultaneously, can't say I'm overly crushed, too. I can easily think of 2 or 3 losses that depressed me more than this one - Australian Open 09, US Open 09 (though that was tempered by the fact that I liked Del Pot), his stupid losses to Murray towards the end of the 2008 season. Roger's had a really shit spring season; this time last week I was wondering if he could even make the final of Madrid. His clay court season didn't actually start until, arguably, Madrid - his early exit in Rome and his WTF loss to Montanes in Estoril certainly didn't help much in the match play department. And yet, there he was, facing Rafael Nadal in a final. Nadal is a monster on clay, and he went into the match without losing a single match on clay. Before the match started I knew that Roger wasn't going to win because of his severe lack of match practice; I knew that he wasn't ready to take on Nadal yet. Despite his magnificent victory over the same opponent on the same stage last year, this year, he didn't have the advantage of making it to the semi-final of Rome and playing a few matches in Monte-Carlo. And yet, he kept it close throughout. At least, that was the case in the second set. When he was broken to give Nadal a 3-2 lead I wanted him to just lose it there and then so that I could be put out of my misery and go back to bed; but when he fought his way back into the match and played so well to give himself three break points and eventually converting the third, I was reminded again of why I love watching this man. I love watching him win - there's no doubt about that. He makes winning look easy, like an entitlement, and he does it so effortlessly and gracefully and beautifully. But there's something equally compelling in watching him in tough situations, watching him dig deep and pull himself out of losing situations, watching him try beyond his capabilities in that moment to give himself chances. Watching him is almost poetic. Watching him struggle to win would be enough to move me to tears if I weren't so damn invested in the only acceptable outcome - a Federer victory. And so I still hate it when he has to play Nadal - not just on clay, but at all. And it's just unfortunate for him that most of their meetings have been on clay, Nadal's best surface, and that there are a grand total of zero Masters tournaments on grass, Roger's best surface (and hard court). I think Roger definitely hung in there in spirit. He wanted to win, and he tried his best to win. I think he played well, all things considered - stupid lung infection post-Australian Open which disrupted his training schedule, pathetic losses to lesser players at the start of the clay court season, and an all-around rustiness caused by lack of match practice. Over the course of the tournament I could see his game coming together, see him regaining his form; but it wasn't enough to give him the win against an opponent who makes his bed on clay and has utterly dominated the season. I was actually quite surprised by Roger's seeming lack of game plan. I thought he would play like he did last year - throwing in drop shots, his amazing backhand slice, attacking at the net, attacking Nadal's forehand, to disrupt Nadal's rhythm and keep him guessing. Instead, Roger seemed content to hang around the baseline and let Nadal dictate the points. He seemed eager to embrace the Nadal challenge to his backhand head-on regardless of whether he could actually hang in there. His backhand held up somewhat; I've seen it broken down a lot worse, most notably by Murray at the end of the 2008 season. He played some amzing cross-court shots from his backhand, but also couldn't control his backhand return of serve on crucial points. But above all else, I wish he'd mixed it up even more. Too little drop shots, and his approach shots were sadly laughable. He simply cannot beat Nadal from the baseline, but that's actually okay because he has more variety of shots at his disposal than Nadal has and a complete game whereas Nadal's all about power baseline tennis. Going by his sheer talent alone, he shouldn't be constantly losing to Nadal, and I really think he shouldn't have lost this match. But all things in perspective. It was a miracle he made it to the final, and he looks on his way to peaking at the right moment, for the French Open. In fact, I'd gladly take this defeat if it means he'd defend his title in Roland Garros. If he was partly testing out the waters and seeing where his game is really at with this match, then I'm happy that he still kept it close despite all the factors working against him. I always, ALWAYS hate to see him lose, but if it means paving the way to better things, especially after a craptastic season, then I'm fine with that. Tags: madrid masters, rafael nadal, roger federer, tennis, wei chuen It's been a few days since my last entry and I am happy to say that I am still very much in love with the George Ezra album. My favourite song seems… When I went around telling people that I was going to fail the multiple choice component of the QLTS, I was being completely honest and not at all…	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line264
__label__wiki	0.806153	0.806153	13 Virginia Republican Senators Stand Like a Stone Wall against Gay Marriage David Boaz In 2006, 57 percent of Virginia voters voted to add an amendment to the state constitution to ban gay marriage. There was of course no same‐sex marriage law in Virginia at the time; and in a state with a Republican legislature and judges appointed by that legislature, there was no prospect of change. But conservatives still insisted that the threat was so severe that a ban must be added to the constitution. Virginia’s marriage ban was more sweeping than in other states. Lawyers at the firm of Arnold and Porter issued a 71‐page analysis of the amendment which concluded that the amendment could be interpreted by Virginia courts to invalidate rights and protections currently provided to unmarried couples under domestic violence laws, block private companies from providing employee benefits to domestic partners, and prevent the courts from enforcing child custody and visitation rights, as well as end‐of‐life arrangements, such as wills, trusts and advance medical directives, executed by unmarried couples. The firm went on to say: “This exceedingly broad and untested language is the most expansive such proposal ever to have been put before the voters of any state.” Nevertheless, the voters approved the amendment. In a few years attitudes had changed. Polls in 2012, just six years later, found that Virginians supported gay marriage by 9 points. But a constitutional amendment is hard to change when attitudes change. Then in 2015 the Supreme Court struck down bans on gay marriage, requiring all states to perform and recognize the marriages of same‐sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of opposite‐sex couples. Virginia’s constitutional provision was thus unconstitutional and unenforceable. (In fact, the Virginia ban had ended on October 6, 2014, when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Virginia’s law.) In 2016 and 2018, Virginia state senator Adam Ebbin introduced legislation to take the ban on same‐sex marriage out of the state code. Republican majorities blocked the bills. And this week, in 2020, almost six years after the law was declared unconstitutional and unenforceable, and two months after Democrats took control of the legislature, the Virginia Senate passed Senator Ebbin’s bill by a vote of 25 to 13. Five Republicans joined the majority. Two, including the minority leader, did not vote. But 13 Republican senators, to use a hallowed Virginia phrase, stood like a stone wall against reality and voted no. The bill is expected to pass the now‐Democratic House of Delegates and be signed by the governor. Source: https://www.cato.org/blog/13-virginia-republican-senators-stand-stone-wall-against-gay-marriage God's Word - Exodus (7-9)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line267
__label__wiki	0.545784	0.545784	Biden's Choice To Head Health and Human Services Is a Lawsuit-Happy Government Nanny Monday, December 7, 2020 14:01 President-elect Joe Biden has selected a California big-government authoritarian nanny state fan to run the Department of Health and Human Services, a warning sign for anybody who wishes to manage his own medical affairs and life choices. On Sunday, multiple outlets reported that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was being tapped to lead the agency. The Washington Post diplomatically described Becerra as an “unorthodox” choice. He was a member of Congress before becoming attorney general. He does not have a background in health management. He has degrees in economics and law. Becerra, though, does have a lengthy history of believing that the power of government is the solution to all that ails you, whether you like it or not. He’s a big believer in “Medicare for All,” a complete government takeover of medical coverage via single-payer health care. Biden differentiated himself from other presidential candidates by resisting the call to nationalize health insurance. Becerra’s nomination will most likely give fuel to anybody arguing that the Democratic Party is being pulled leftward, but he has said that he would support preserving and bolstering the Affordable Care Act, which is Biden’s plan. Becerra is probably best known to anybody outside of California for the state’s many, many lawsuits against President Donald Trump’s administration—more than 100 of them—for everything from changes in policy on immigration, to environmental issues, to, yes, the administration’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act. Certainly, a number of those lawsuits are about protecting the rights of people in California, but others were actually to stop the Trump administration from deregulating and reducing the power and scope of the federal government. Becerra fought to protect net neutrality rules that were overturned by the Federal Communications Commission. He fought the State Department when it loosened rules to allow for 3D-printed guns. His record within the state of California shows that Becerra is very happy to use the nanny state power of government to control what you do with your body and property. In November, his office filed a brief in support of a California bill banning the sales of flavored tobacco. Even though California has legalized marijuana farming and consumption, his office still brags about crackdowns on illegal grow operations against those who try to bypass the state’s extremely oppressive and expensive regulations. He supported and fought to force companies like Uber and Lyft to classify their freelance drivers as employees, even against the workers’ own desires, and even if it resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs. He was thwarted by the passage of Proposition 22 by voters in November. And he shares his predecessor Kamala Harris’s fondness of conflating prostitution busts with fighting alleged nonconsensual “sex trafficking.“ But one of Becerra’s dumbest brags provides the best insight into how he might run America’s largest health agency. In 2017, Becerra’s office won a $300,000 legal settlement from Gatorade because of a mobile game that he argued slandered the good name of water. Gatorade had distributed a free mobile game featuring sprinter Usain Bolt. As part of the game, players were encouraged to run through Gatorade logos and avoid patches of water. Becerra actually accused the company of engaging in “false advertising” and trying to convince impressionable children and teens that water is bad for them. This is how stupid Becerra thinks people are. It seems like such a little and petty thing, and it is. That’s the problem. It is an indication of a person who has very little respect for people’s individual health choices, other than for abortion. He’s very pro-choice and his office has consistently taken legal actions to defend abortion access, even supporting challenges against anti-abortion regulations in other states. Beyond abortion, though, Becerra’s record is one with very little respect for individual life choices when government nannies think they know better. And worse, he sees the courts as a proper mechanism for controlling those choices with arrests or fines and penalties. Source: https://reason.com/2020/12/07/bidens-choice-to-head-health-and-human-services-is-a-lawsuit-happy-government-nanny/ God's Word - Exodus (13-15)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line268
__label__cc	0.749564	0.250436	Guns Saving Lives Bearing Arms Against Domestic Violence Guns, Gear, & Training NRA-ILA New Philly City Council Addressing Gun Violence The Right Way Posted at 10:00 am on January 6, 2020 by Tom Knighton Last year, I wrote a good bit about the antics of Pittsburg Mayor Bill Peduto and his efforts to violate state law by passing a local-level assault weapon ban. It was immediately challenged in court and isn’t really expected to prevail. All that will happen is Peduto wasting taxpayer money in order to make sure his fellow Democrats know he has the right thoughts on guns. However, Philadelphia now has a new city council who also needs to address gun violence. Philly isn’t exactly a safe city, all things considered, so it’s not overly surprising that this would be a new focus for the newly-elected officials. The differences between them and Pittsburgh, however, are substantial. After all, they understand the rules and look to address the problem from the right direction. Lawmakers also said reducing gun violence is a priority, after 2019 had the highest total of killings in the city since 2007. But there’s little legislating Council can do on gun control due to state laws that preempt local gun laws. Parker said Council can act to stem gun violence by addressing poverty and encouraging job growth. “Give folks access to opportunity, and I guarantee you that we will begin to make some strides,” she said. Clarke said Council looks forward to working with newly appointed Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw. Ms. Parker is dead on with her assessment. As has been noted previously, violence within a city is generally confined to a small handful of people. These people tend to be focused in poorer sections of a city. Increased economic opportunity provides people an alternative to the criminal lifestyle that spurs so much of the violence. The impact of economic development on violence cannot really be overstated. However, I also hope the city council in Philadelphia will look at additional efforts to target the specific groups that create so much of the violence. That’s a key part as well. Offering them job opportunities while also warning of dire repercussions if they continue with their criminal ways provides both a carrot and a stick approach that has been shown to actually work to reduce violence. What’s important here, though, is that there’s no talk of gun control. While Pennsylvania has a preemption law, Pittsburgh’s effort to challenge it in such a way might have opened the door for more communities to try similar stunts. Philly’s decision to not do so is important as they’re the other large city in the state. Had they ignored the law, others might have done so. Instead, they’re going to play by the rules and address the real causes of violence. Personally, I want to applaud them for doing so. Gun control is something of an “easy out.” No, it doesn’t do anything, but it’s the easy path to make it look like you’re doing something to address the problem. It doesn’t require the real work that combatting violence actually requires. Gun control is less effective than slapping a band-aid over a sucking chest wound. Philly may not actually get that, but they do get there their authority ends, and I’ll take that. Recommended Bearing Arms Video: Tags: Gun ControlGunsPhiladelphiaPittsburghroots of violence Author's Bio: Tom Knighton Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He also puts out a daily newsletter of non-Second Amendment stories at https://tomknighton.substack.com/ More posts from Tom Knighton Baltimore Gun Control Activist Killed While Visiting Housing Project A Lobby Day Message To Virginia Gun Owners Boebert Sued After Blocking Critic On Social Media A Look At Biden’s Potential Executive Orders On Gun Control Copyright BearingArms.com/Salem Media. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line271
__label__cc	0.528133	0.471867	Vince Staples Bio, Age, Height, Career, Personal Life, Net Worth Tags: A$AP RockyBigBakBlack Panthercutthroat boyzDef Jamrapper Profession: Singers/Bands Date of birth: Jul 02, 1993 Net worth: 4 Million Birth Place: Long Beach, CA Height (m): 1.75 Religion: Christianity Vince Staples is an American rapper and a songwriter who is famous for being part of the hip hop trio, “Cutthroat Boyz”. Staples is best known for his albums Big Fish Theory and Summertime. For such a young personality, Vince has not taken long to establish himself in the music industry. He still has a long road ahead of him and at this current rate, Staples is heading to be one of the best in the industry. Unlike most rappers, Vince is not about being flashy, he is here to bring a revolution with his music. People often refer to him as the “anti-rapper” of this age, but if you look at the work he is doing, he is far from what people call him and is better than most. Let us now get to know a bit more about him, shall we? https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo8MADRHAw5/ Vince Staples: Early Life and Education Vince Jamal Staples was born on the 2nd of July, 1993, in Compton, California. He did not have the easiest of starts to life. Growing up, he was part of a large and poor family. Vince grew up alongside 5 siblings and was the youngest of them all. Sadly, one of his sisters passed away in recent years and the family has had to deal with all sort of tragedies. His family, for the most part, were all involved in gangsterism in a way or the other. When his parents got divorced, his father got sent to jail for a crime that he committed. https://www.instagram.com/p/BphwdP_H6ue/ Vinces’ mom, however, wanted to give her children a better life. Seeking that, they all relocated to North Long Beach, California. It was there that Vince went to study in the first grade. Moreover, he has gone on to attend many different high schools as schools would often kick him out for various troubles. Whilst studying at the Mayfair High School, he was framed for stealing a phone. Despite all the trouble that he getting himself into, Vince was extremely smart as a kid. He had a passion for politics, writing and, current world affairs. He was also an amazing basketball player but his aspirations to join a college was not successful. Vince Staples: Career Vince began his journey into music in 2010 when he became friends with Dijon Samo. The two then met with the members of the “Odd Future” later that same year. The group let Staples feature his voice on some of their tracks. However, the group split up but this gave birth to a new friendship between Vince and Earl. Staples later met the veteran manager Corey Smyth who wanted him to take music seriously. Thanks to Smyth, he was even able to get a recording deal with Def Jam. Next, Staples reconnected with his mate Earn who made him see Mac Miller. Then the two began using Miller’s work on their mixtape, “Stolen Youth”. This then was exactly the breakthrough that Vince had been waiting for. Later in 2014, he released his first EP “Hell Can Wait”with the same recording studio. Ever since, he has been rising in the American music industry. Moreover, Vince has gone on to feature with the likes on A$AP Rocky. To add to the tally, his track BagBak was used for the trailer of the Marvel Studios, “Black Panther.” Vince Staples: Personal Life Now looking into the personal life of this famous rapper, he has gone on to date a lot of women. On an interview with the online magazine, Noisey, he revealed that he has been with 8 women in total. Moreover, the interview was on February of 2016, so it is pretty sure that Vince has dated a lot more women as of 2019. https://www.instagram.com/p/BnDAsKXHf05/ He was once in a relationship with his friend from middle school. The two even lived together in his house in Orange County. However, sadly for Vince, when he returned from a tour in 2015, she had taken all her stuff and left him a goodbye note. Apart from his love life, Vince also contributes to society with many different charity programmes. He gave a significant amount of money to the Long Beach YMCA Program to teach young kids the required skills to succeed in the entertainment industry. Vince Staples: Net Worth For such a young artist, Vince has been able to establish himself in the industry as one of the most promising rappers in recent years. Looking at the background that he came from, Vince has done tremendously well to get to where he is today. Moreover, unlike many rappers, he is never about showing off with gold chains and cars. Despite having all the money that he could have ever imagined, Vince still remains humble and thankful. According to reports, the young rapper has a net worth of $4 million and the figures are sure to grow in the years to come. Staples is also pretty active on social media platforms. He likes to share some aspects of his life with his fans and is extremely popular. You can also go follow him on Instagram where he goes by the handle @vincestaples and has over 705k followers. Anna Hutchison Bio, Age, Height, Career, Personal Life, Net WorthNatalia Dyer Bio, Profession, Personal Life, Dating, Net Worth	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line274
__label__wiki	0.903544	0.903544	Home Industries Real Estate Want talent? Where’s your office? Want talent? Where’s your office? Alex Zank Last updated on June 18th, 2019 at 04:10 pm It was just over two years ago that Bader Rutter moved from Brookfield into its new downtown Milwaukee office space. The marketing firm made the decision to move from the Bishop’s Woods office park into a brand new mixed-use development located along the Milwaukee River at the former Laacke & Joys site, 1433 N. Water St. Company executives say now that they’ve been in their new offices a while, they have become ad hoc advisors to a number of other companies also looking to join them in downtown Milwaukee. Of course, they said, they love to share their experiences and give advice to those firms. “There’s no question that the location has allowed us to achieve our vision,” Greg Nickerson, Bader Rutter chairman, said of the choice to move downtown. “Without the river, without the street, without being on the first three floors, we couldn’t have pulled off what we wanted to.” And what was it, exactly, that they wanted to pull off? Selecting a location that would, among other things, serve as a way to help the company recruit talented workers and keep them there. Bader Rutter is just one of a number of companies that have in recent years decided to relocate their offices closer to the heart of the city. Although the explanations for each move vary by company, the objective of hiring the best workers is a common refrain. Who’s moving? The companies that have recently chosen to move either their headquarters or regional offices downtown include: Real estate developer Hammes Co. is putting the final touches on a new five-story headquarters building at the corner of North Water and East Knapp streets, where it occupies 34,000 square feet over two floors and is leasing the remaining space to other office tenants WageWorks Inc., a California-based administrator of consumer-directed benefits, in 2018 moved its area offices from Mequon into the top two floors of the CityCenter at 735, renovating 35,000 square feet of office space at the building at 735 N. Water St. Janesville-based contractor J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc. last year relocated its Brookfield office to the Milwaukee Fortress Building, just north of Schlitz Park near downtown, moving its 40 to 50 employees into roughly 13,000 square feet on the first floor of the recently redeveloped building. Bader Rutter chairman Greg Nickerson and CEO Jeff Young in the café of the company’s downtown headquarters. Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has moved its Milwaukee offices from Honey Creek Corporate Center on the city’s west side to Schlitz Park, where the group’s 200-plus area employees take up 14,650 square feet of space. Kansas City-based engineering firm HNTB Corp. this summer will move its Milwaukee office from the Park Place office park on Milwaukee’s far northwest side into a 25,000-square-foot space in the Two-Fifty building at 250 E. Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee-based engineering firm GRAEF-USA Inc. is planning to move its headquarters out of Honey Creek and into a brand-new, 35,000-square-foot space on the third floor of The Avenue mixed-use development at North Old World Third Street and West Wisconsin Avenue sometime in late 2019. Rexnord Corp. plans to move operations into the office complex at 105-111 W. Michigan St., according to sources. The company has not publicly confirmed its interest in the building, nor has it detailed how much space it would be leasing or how many employees would move into the office. The building was recently purchased by 111 Michigan Partners LLC and is undergoing renovations. A number of these companies have identified the need to attract and retain skilled workers as a key reason for selecting a new office downtown. Mark Kaminski, vice president of HNTB, said it was in the “top tier of elements we considered” when seeking out a new office space. “We want to make sure we’re offering (employees) an exciting location to work, an exciting location to stay,” Kaminski said. Choosing a location that inspires Steve Pape, principal and office broker at Founders 3 Real Estate Services LLC, said over the past five years, he has seen more companies view their offices as a recruitment tool. “Companies are recognizing the days of employees spending 10 to 20 years with the same company are few and far between,” he said. With a healthy economy, people are no longer hard-pressed to find a job. U.S. unemployment is at 3.6%, and in Wisconsin the unemployment rate is just under 3%. Those low unemployment rates indicate a tough market for companies to find employees. Some industries, especially those that require a workforce with highly specified skillsets, are having an even more difficult time than others in finding enough qualified employees. Lori Rosenthal, vice president and principal with GRAEF, said her firm has gotten creative in bringing in enough talented workers, such as acquiring smaller firms and bringing in an entire group of new employees, rather than one at a time. The company also views its new office space at The Avenue as an important part of those efforts. “We see The Avenue not as primarily a decision for where we are now, but The Avenue is a decision for what we think our future employees are going to be about and want,” Rosenthal said. “So, it’s also part of that employee package and experience that we think is important for recruitment and retention.” Bader Rutter’s open concept, loft-style lobby. A fireplace is tucked beneath the stairs at Bader Rutter. A breakout room and patio face the Milwaukee River Walk at Bader Rutter. The Avenue development represents the reimagining of the former Shops of Grand Avenue just west of the Milwaukee River. The project will dramatically shrink the size of retail space at the mall to offer a larger mix of uses, including 190,000 square feet of office space; the 3rd Street Market Hall, a 21-tenant, 35,000-square-foot food hall on the ground floor; and the 52-unit Plankinton Clover apartment complex. It will also offer amenities such as a fitness club, an event center and a tenant lounge. Tony Janowiec, co-owner of The Avenue, said the decision to add office space at The Avenue development came after the project team evaluated both what could feasibly be done with the building and what was needed in the market. He said there was particularly a clear need in the downtown area for large-format office space on a single level. “We evaluated the intersection of what we felt there was demand for in the market, plus what areas of the building could actually be used for other than the historical retail use,” he said. The Avenue checked a lot of GRAEF’s boxes in what the firm was looking for, such as the ability to house all employees on a single floor, easy access to the freeway, ample parking and a cheaper overall price than what they were paying – which was in part achieved by shrinking the square footage the firm was leasing. One thing that set it apart, though, was all the energy surrounding it. “To be honest, there just was a lot of buzz after being through The Avenue,” Rosenthal said. “The space, when we saw it, looked like it did when it was shuttered. … But still, you could see the beauty of this raw space and everybody just came back very excited.” John Kissinger, president and chief executive officer of GRAEF, said when the firm was first pitched The Avenue as an office location, he didn’t think much about it. Now, he knows the firm made the correct choice to move downtown, given the number of competing firms that have announced they would do the same in recent months. “The Avenue really sold us on their vision, the vision of transforming this old mall into an office,” he said. Similar to GRAEF, Bader Rutter executives were attracted to downtown due to its energy, as well as the promise of new developments such as the Fiserv Forum. Jeff Young, president and CEO of Bader Rutter, said this was a “tipping factor” in making their choice. “As we were pondering staying out west, we would look at sites, then we would come down here and look at sites,” he said. “Greg and I would talk and we’d go, ‘We’re sort of deluding ourselves if we somehow could create the energy that you could get down here — we’re on the river, we’re on Water Street — that we could recreate that energy in the ’burbs.’ … There really was no comparison.” Nickerson said it’s important that his company and others attract talent from beyond the Milwaukee area, including nearby urban areas like the Twin Cities and even the coastal U.S. This benefits not only the company but the entire Milwaukee community, as it draws in more talented employees that otherwise wouldn’t be here. The company’s new office has helped in those efforts. Bader Rutter noted it has seen a 40% increase in traditional applications – such as through its electronic system as opposed to things like word-of-mouth and referrals – between 2016, when it was located in Brookfield, and 2018. At HNTB, Kaminski said his firm started out the office hunt by looking at over a dozen places throughout the city. “It wasn’t too long before the properties and assets we were looking at, all the top ones were (in) the downtown area,” he said. The Two-Fifty building attracted HNTB with access to nearby transportation and transit networks, such as bus lines, The Hop streetcar system and the interstate. Its proximity to the Milwaukee Public Market in the Historic Third Ward, restaurants and the Fiserv Forum and related entertainment offerings also played a role. “For us, we wanted to make sure from an accessibility standpoint that whatever location we chose was easy to access for both our employees and our clients,” he said. Kaminski was careful to point out that the firm’s decision to move isn’t a reaction to the challenge of finding enough talented workers. Rather, HNTB views its new office as a tool to continue its success in attracting and retaining employees. Urbanization on the upswing Bill Bonifas, executive vice president and office broker at CBRE’s Milwaukee office, said like any broader trend, the shifting of companies from the suburbs to downtown (and vice versa) seem to have their own lifecycle. He noted that when he first started in the business, most of the office market was focused downtown. What began the overall movement to the suburbs, he said, were the freeways that were built around the 1960s. The interstate system allowed people to quickly travel to the far reaches of the metro area, and it meant companies did not have to settle for older, vertical buildings with smaller floor plates. A rendering of GRAEF’s new headquarters office space, overlooking the 3rd Street Market Hall, at The Avenue in downtown Milwaukee. Courtesy Kubala Washatko Architects “A lot of these were built when they had to go vertical due to transportation issues,” Bonifas said. “So it was embracing the modern, going to the suburbs and taking the freeways, which was this new and exciting thing.” Bonifas said the larger buildings and cheap development costs drove “millions of square feet” to the suburbs. But now, the migration back toward urban environments is occurring due to a number of factors. Bonifas said the younger generations typically have more of a taste for urban areas, perhaps because more of them have been exposed through their personal experiences or through traveling. Then there was the apartment boom, which brought more people toward the city’s center – again, with many of them being younger. Bonifas pinpoints the start of office users moving back downtown around 2003, with Roundy’s Inc. moving from Pewaukee to 875 E. Wisconsin Ave. and bringing with it about 500 employees. Then in 2007, ManpowerGroup moved about 900 employees from Glendale to its new headquarters at Schlitz Park. “It’s more exciting and vibrant for most employees, so I think we’re going to continue to see this trend in the future,” Bonifas said of downtown. More offices on the horizon The recently renovated Two-Fifty building, located at 250 E. Wisconsin Ave., recently added HNTB as a tenant. As more companies look toward downtown, they will have more choices for new office spaces. For instance, Milwaukee-based Irgens Partners LLC is securing tenants for the new BMO Tower under construction at the corner of North Water and East Wells streets. The 25-story glass office building is expected to be finished at the end of this year. Accounting for the leases that have already been announced, about 160,000 square feet of the roughly 360,700 square feet of office space is still available in the tower. Milwaukee developer J. Jeffers & Co. plans to build an 11-story office building, called The Huron Building, at 511 N. Broadway downtown. The building will be anchored by the Husch Blackwell law firm’s Milwaukee office. However, additional developments promise to add hundreds of thousands of square feet of additional office space on the west side of the Milwaukee River. This includes The Avenue project, though that space is likely to fill quickly, according to the project developers. Janowiec said once GRAEF moves into its offices there will technically be about 115,000 square feet of office space available. But, he added, about 80% of that space has potential tenants at some stage of the letter of intent process. Janowiec said he’s spoken with a range of possible tenants, including a creative firm, a marketing firm and a national coworking firm. “It’s really quite a diverse array of businesses that we’re negotiating with,” he said. The Milwaukee Bucks also recently unveiled conceptual plans for the remaining developable sites of its eight-block Deer District. Centered around the new Fiserv Forum arena, the area already includes developments such as an entertainment block, the team’s training center with an attached clinic, a parking structure and an in-progress apartment complex. The remaining undeveloped blocks are envisioned to include a mix of uses, such as retail, residential, hospitality and, of course, offices. In fact, marketing brochures depict 242,500 square feet of office space for the block north of the arena and east of the parking structure. The new office development could be completed by April 2021, depending on preleasing activity. Gauging the market The new Hammes Co. headquarters building, located at the northeast corner of North Water and East Knapp streets. By the estimation of Brandon Frankel, market analyst with CoStar Group Inc., the downtown market is performing well relative to what’s typical for the area. Specifically for the downtown east area, which includes the primary central business district of downtown Milwaukee, office vacancies are at about 8.5%, he said. This rate “would be healthy by almost every standard, but especially healthy that downtown east averages 9.8% historically,” Frankel said. Class A office space vacancies are at 10.7% in the downtown east submarket, a little higher than all office space in the market, he added. This, said Frankel, is primarily because of the new construction activity in the area, such as the 833 East building at 833 E. Michigan St. and the upcoming BMO Tower. Rent growth, meanwhile, has softened after a strong five-year period. From 2013 through the end of 2017, rent growth in the downtown east submarket was never below 1.3%, with the market historically seeing about 1.5% growth per year. In 2018, however, the market saw less than 1% rent growth. With that in mind, Frankel said the development community in Milwaukee appears to have done a nice job balancing new supply with expected demand. However, one other thing to be aware of, he said, is that job growth among office users in the downtown east submarket was negative in 2018. This is not a positive sign for future office absorption rates, since it directly correlates with office-using job growth. Beyond location To be sure, the new glass towers downtown turn a lot of heads. But many of the recent moves – Jacobs Engineering leasing space at the redeveloped Schlitz Park, HNTB moving into the renovated Two-Fifty and GRAEF committing to a redeveloped former shopping mall – involve buildings that have been recently updated or converted into Class A office space, Pape said. With such buildings, companies can enjoy lower rental costs. Parking also often plays an important role, as is the case with GRAEF. Location is certainly important when companies consider an office space that will win over employees, but it’s not the only thing, Pape said. The most important aspect, in fact, may be the amenities that the building and surrounding area offer workers. Pape said he sees more office buildings that are beginning to offer things like coffee bars, tenant lounges, fitness centers and coworking spaces. These provide workers with the opportunity to “vary their work environment outside of their four walls.” This means downtown isn’t the only place that can offer an office environment that serves as a means to attract talented employees. Pape said good examples of amenity-rich office environments outside of downtown include Summit Place office complex in West Allis (the end result of a $50 million transformation of a former Allis-Chalmers site in 2004) and the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa, which boasts tenants like GE Healthcare and Fujifilm, as well as young startup companies. Even so, he said it’s clear many younger workers are seeking out a job that has them working in “cool, urban environments.” This gives downtown an advantage in the location decision-making process as companies are factoring in everything from rental costs to building amenities to location. Beyond that, attracting talent still remains just one factor in choosing the right office environment. Bonifas said he views the urbanization of office spaces as one of several key trends in the office market. Among the other important trends is that companies are seeking out offices that have an interesting aesthetic, meaning design is more important than ever. “It’s a look and feel that elevates and is aesthetically interesting, however defined by the people,” such as the choice between concrete floors or interesting carpet patterns, he said. As a result of this emphasis, the cost of tenant improvements is on the rise. Similarly, companies are placing more emphasis on office views and natural light. They are also more sensitive to environmental issues than in the past, and seek out environmentally friendly buildings with LEED certification. Beyond the office itself, companies are now placing more emphasis on technology, Bonifas said. Employers, he said, want their people to be able to work from places other than just their desks, whether that be in collaboration areas, from home or even at a coffee shop. Making the change When discussing Bader Rutter’s move with other companies, Nickerson and Young said they get a lot of questions about how they handled everything from managing the transition to making sure employees were on board. Nickerson said some employees expressed concerns about working downtown at first, ranging from parking, to the commute, to potential crime. What Nickerson and Young said they can tell others, though, is that they can count on one hand the number of people they lost directly due to the move downtown. And now, Bader Rutter is seeing employees more interested and engaged in the community than they had been in the suburbs, they said. Bader Rutter is also seeing more opportunities to form meaningful relationships with area organizations and universities. “There’s not an absolute formula that you can plug into this (decision),” Nickerson said. “Ultimately you’re going to go with your gut telling you that if you look at all these things, that this is right for your business. Because it is a big investment of time, energy and most cases, dollars, but also there’s a disruption to the business.” In the two years since making the move downtown, Nickerson said he has not looked back and regretted the decision. Alex Zank covers commercial and residential real estate for BizTimes. Alex previously worked for Farm Equipment magazine and also covered statewide construction news at The Daily Reporter. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he studied journalism, political science and economics. Having grown up in rural western Wisconsin, Alex loves all things outdoors, including camping, hiking, four-wheeling and hunting.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line275
__label__wiki	0.680539	0.680539	Agricultural media Magazines / Blogs Futuristic Farming Has Arrived with Weeding Robots Thread starter Modern Farmer For sustainable farmers, hand-weeding can be laborious, backbreaking work and can cost upwards of $300 an acre in labor costs. A French startup called Naïo Technologies is hoping to solve this problem with the first autonomous electric-powered weeding robots for commercial farms. These futuristic robots may look like something out of Star Wars, but they’re here now, weeding row crops and vineyards with their spinning fingers that can cover up to ten acres a day. The Toulouse, France-based AgTech startup was founded in 2011 by two robotics engineers, Gaëtan Séverac and Aymeric Barthes. The company has developed three different types of autonomous weeding robots: Oz, designed for market gardens and small farms; Dino, for large-scale vegetable crops; and Ted, for vineyards. “Our weeding robots respect both the environment and man,” Anouck Lefebvre, a Naio Technologies spokesperson, says. “They provide a solution to tackle farmworker shortages, reduce the strenuous physical workload of hand weeding, and limit the use of chemical weed killers.” The company currently has about 150 robots in use in Europe, Canada, and Japan. Last year, Naio Technologies began testing its autonomous weeding robots in the US, at 15 different commercial farms mainly in Salinas, Santa Maria, and Davis, California. Dino has been used on a variety of crops—including lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, cabbage, pepper, and celery—and in various soil conditions, according to Simon Belin, an experimental engineer at Naio Technologies, who has been testing the robots in the US. The company recently received an influx of $15.5 million in funding to continue its investment in research and development and to push into the US market, according to Lefebvre. Naio Technologies plans to open a center in California later this year to “store and maintain our robots” and “market the robots to new customers,” she tells Modern Farmer. There are some other ag robots on the market focused on weed control, such as Ecorobotix AVO, Franklin Robotics’ Tertill, and FarmWise Labs’ version. Naio Technologies’ robots don’t use chemicals, are large enough for commercial use, and aren’t powered by diesel, Lefebvre says. Here’s how they work according to Belin: The farmer creates a map of each bed the robot needs to weed using its GPS system, uploads it into Dino through a USB key, puts the robot in front of the first bed and Dino does the rest. The Dino can go for between six and eight hours, depending on soil conditions and how many of the machine’s tools are in use at one time. The batteries require about eight hours to recharge, but Naio’s engineers are working on speeding up the recharging time. According to Belin, the growers and farm managers he’s worked with in the US on research and development have been “happy to help us” and are “pretty impressed by the autonomous part of the machine.” “You just let the machine go, and it cultivates the field,” Dylan Bognuda, a production engineer for Betteravia Farms, which grows vegetables on 9,000 acres in Santa Maria, California, and in Yuma, Arizona, told the website The Counter. Bognuda was surprised by how smoothly Dino ran, unlike some other robots he’d tried. The Dino costs about $220,000, but the company prefers to rent out its robots, working hand-in-hand with farmers to address their specific needs, and it can also advise farmers on financing options, according to the company. Naio Technologies expects the Dino will be available for purchase in the US later this year. Beyond weeding, the company has developed its navigation system to be standardized for any off-road robot, so it could be used for a variety of crop types and jobs, according to Lefebvre. “This makes our robots a solid base for precision farming,” she says. One question that always looms when discussing robots involves the loss of jobs. Lefebvre’s response is that there’s a farmworker shortage in both Europe and the US, so it’s a bit of a moot point. “It’s really complicated today to find farm labor in Europe and in the US,” she says. “Naïo Technologies has been created to answer this problem and to allow farmers to reduce their physical workload to free up time for other tasks.” Lefebvre believes that, within ten years, there will be robots in every agricultural field in Europe and North America. “We recognize that the challenge is very ambitious, but we are convinced that we can meet it alongside our partners and stakeholders,” she says. “Our goal is to ensure the ecological and social transition to sustainable agriculture.” The post Futuristic Farming Has Arrived with Weeding Robots appeared first on Modern Farmer.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line278
__label__cc	0.591294	0.408706	News and Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Technology Legal Issues ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW News and Analysis of AI Tech Legal Issues EU’s New Plan for Regulating Artificial Intelligence: What US Companies Should Know By Brian Higgins 1 Comment on EU’s New Plan for Regulating Artificial Intelligence: What US Companies Should Know On February 19, 2020, the European Union Commission issued a plan for regulating high-risk artificial intelligence (AI) technologies developed or deployed in the EU. Calling it a “White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: a European Approach to Excellence and Trust,” the plan was published along with a companion “European Strategy for Data” and follows an earlier “AI Strategy” (2018) and AI-specific ethical guidelines (April 2019). In addition to presenting a framework for regulating “AI applications” in the EU, the Commission’s plan focuses on creating and organizing an ecosystem, encouraging cooperation among member states and institutions, creating infrastructure changes, and providing for investment in AI. It also includes a special focus on data generation efforts related to the development and use of “European AI” in EU member countries. Although the regulatory framework is not yet enforceable (the EU is accepting public comments on its plan through May 19, 2020), the plan’s proposals are a big step toward issuance of targeted AI-specific regulations that predictably will impact businesses both within and outside the EU, just as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) impacted US-based companies following the GDPR’s implementation in 2018. “Today we are presenting our ambition to shape Europe’s digital future. It covers everything from cybersecurity to critical infrastructures, digital education to skills, democracy to media. I want that digital Europe reflects the best of Europe – open, fair, diverse, democratic, and confident.” —Ursula von der Leyen, The President of the EU Commission (Feb. 19, 2020) Below is a summary of aspects of the Commission’s plan that may impact US companies the most. Risks-Focused Regulations The EU’s plan for regulating AI technologies involves focusing on “high-risk” AI application having the greatest impact on the EU and its values, taking into account both the sector of the economy and the intended uses for the application. Under the plan, high-risk AI applications are those identified in sectors of high impact, such as healthcare, transportation, energy, and portions of the public sector (services); those that produce legal or other similarly “significant effects” on individual and corporate rights; those that pose risks of injury, death, or significant material or immaterial damage; and those that produce effects that cannot reasonably be avoided by individuals or legal entities. Examples of high-risk applications include those that impact worker and consumer rights. Remote biometric monitoring (e.g., facial recognition) and other “intrusive surveillance technologies,” the Commission says, would always be classified as high-risk use cases. Those in favor of risk-based approaches to regulating AI say it can provide the transparency, trustworthiness, and explainability that regulators and the public seek. A risk-based approach requires companies to closely scrutinize of every phase of AI system development, deployment, and post-deployment. For instance, evaluating cumulative risk could require a review of individual risks associated with selecting datasets, cleaning/processing data, selecting a model architecture, training a model, conducting accuracy evaluations, deploying the model, forecasting impacts and possible unexpected uses, and monitoring performance and impacts. Comprehensive risk analysis often require a significant initial and ongoing investment of time and money. A challenge in any sort of risk analysis is setting acceptable standards, i.e., the number of bad outcomes that would be acceptable relative to a population. Although the EU’s plan does not establish specific regulations for high-risk applications, it does suggest standards and criteria that could be establish for such things as training data, record- and data-keeping (what and for how long), information to be provided (to facilitate transparency), robustness and accuracy (to promote trustworthiness), human oversight (human-in-the-loop to avoid autonomy and adverse effects if left unchecked), and specific requirements for particular AI applications, such as those used for purposes of remote biometric identification. The plan hints at what the scope of those standards and criteria might look like. In the case of training data, for example, future regulations could require datasets to be sufficiently broad and cover all relevant intended use scenarios for a trained model, and that do not result in applications that discriminate, and those that protect privacy. In the case of record-keeping, future regulations could require maintaining for a period of time datasets used in model development, and information about programming methodologies chosen (information that may need to be provided to regulators). In the case of providing information, future regulations could require notice to consumers when an AI system is being used. In the case of robustness, future regulations could impose a reproducibility requirement. In the case of human oversight, future regulations could require varying levels of intervention, from human review of the output of an AI system before it impacts others to real-time monitoring so that a human can intervene when necessary. Many US companies already regularly perform risk analysis as part of normal business operations, for example as part of their financial reporting obligations under US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. Companies that are not subject to SEC rules likely follow generally recommended good business practices that include some aspect of assessing risk. Even so, US companies operating in EU countries should consider whether their AI applications might be classified as high-risk under the EU’s plan and whether their AI applications might be classified as having an impact in one of the targeted sectors, and plan accordingly. Apportioning Responsibility for Compliance, Liability, Compliance, and Enforcement The Commission’s plan suggests that the burden of regulation should be on the actors who are best placed to address potential risks, meaning some regulations could apply to AI system developers and other regulations could burden so-called “deployers” of the technology. Thus, a US-based company that develops an AI application and deploys it in the EU could face regulations applicable to development, deployment, and use of an AI technology. To ensure compliance, the Commission may rely on conformity risk assessments performed by regulators prior to an AI application being used in the EU, which would be part of a process to verify and ensure that some of its mandatory requirements applicable to high-risk AI applications are being met. Compliance may also be assessed in other ways, including verifying the data used for training an AI model, assessing the relevant programming and training methodologies used, and evaluating processes and techniques used to build, test and validate AI systems, all of which could require US companies to disclose confidential information (the Commission’s plan addresses procedures to safeguard trade secrets). Of particular note to US companies, when a conformity assessment shows that an AI system does not meet applicable requirements, the identified shortcomings will need to be remedied, and could require a US company to re-train its model “in the EU in such a way as to ensure that all applicable requirements are met.” “Our society is generating a huge wave of industrial and public data, which will transform the way we produce, consume and live. I want European businesses and our many SMEs to access this data and create value for Europeans – including by developing Artificial Intelligence applications. Europe has everything it takes to lead the ‘big data’ race, and preserve its technological sovereignty, industrial leadership and economic competitiveness to the benefit of European consumers.” —Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market (Feb. 19, 2020) A Transformational Data Shift? A major emphasis of the Commission’s plan (and companion data strategy) involves improving access to data, the foundation of any AI endeavor. As the Commission’s White Paper notes, the volume of data being produced each year is expected to reach 175 zettabytes (175 x 10^21 bytes) in 2025 (citing an IDC Report, 2018). At current rates of data generation, two years from now there will be more information on Earth than there has been from the dawn of human history to the present. (A. Zegart, 2020). Much of that data, the Commission suggests, does not reflect the culture and diversity of the EU, especially in the areas of facial recognition. Thus, US companies with access to large datasets that include records better representing the EU could be well-positioned to leverage their data and AI-based models in the EU, and also potentially reduce regulatory liability risks. On the other hand, US companies that deploy AI models in the EU built on what many consider to be US-centric dataset that may not reflect the diversity of EU member populations may face heightened scrutiny under the new regulations. The Commission’s plan also makes clear that without sufficient and appropriate datasets, its efforts to build a competitive AI ecosystem may be stymied. Its solution is to build cooperation among EU members and harness the “enormous volume of new data yet to be generated.” A lot of that new data, says the Commission, will be less about people and more about processes. By most accounts, the significant recent advances in AI and the surge in uses for AI-based products and services–led by US and Chinese tech companies–can be traced back to successful efforts to accumulate large datasets containing information about human activities. The EU sees the future shifting toward more industrial data. According to the Commission’s data strategy, “the increasing volume of non-personal industrial data and public data in Europe, combined with technological change in how the data is stored and processed, will constitute a potential source of growth and innovation that should be tapped.” In fact, the Commission says this shift “constitutes an opportunity for Europe to position itself at the forefront of the data and AI transformation.” Time will tell whether a shift in focus from behavioral (or human-centric data) to industrial process data (which could lead to better efficiencies and thus lower cost goods) will actually transform the AI industry inside or even outside the EU, where regulations on behavioral data are not as strong as they are in the EU (or do not exist at all). “We want every citizen, every employee, every business to stand a fair chance to reap the benefits of digitalisation. Whether that means driving more safely or polluting less thanks to connected cars; or even saving lives with AI-driven medical imagery that allows doctors to detect diseases earlier than ever before.” —Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age (Feb. 19, 2020) The Race for AI Dominance Intensifies? The Commission’s White Paper expresses a desire to “increase Europe’s technological sovereignty in key enabling technologies and infrastructures for the data economy.” To reach its goals, the plan says member states “must act as one and define its own way…to promote the development and deployment of AI.” It also references “European AI” as something distinguishable over AI systems developed elsewhere. The formation of an AI ecosystem in Europe focused on creating European AI, built on industrial process data that reflects EU member values, along with imposing strict regulations on actors outside the EU, including on US companies making AI systems that are used in the EU, could help EU member countries compete alongside the US and China. On the other hand, the same efforts could prompt a number of different responses by regulated actors and their governments outside the EU, depending on how restrictive or competitive they view the Commission’s approach and how it effects their own efforts to seek dominance over the AI industry. Artificial Intelligence, Risk Disclosures, and a New SEC Materiality Test A Look Into the Future of AI Governance Eliminating Structural Bias in Data-Based Technologies: A Path Forward 1 thought on “EU’s New Plan for Regulating Artificial Intelligence: What US Companies Should Know” Pingback: A Look Into the Future of AI Governance \| ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW Archives Select Month December 2020 November 2020 July 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 AI and IP For AI Businesses For Legal Practitioners Read All Articles (List) Copyright © 2021 Brian Wm. Higgins. All rights reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line279
__label__wiki	0.576183	0.576183	Montreal Black Friday Shoppers Camp Out in Folding Chairs November 27, 2020, 5:07 p.m. Black Friday shoppers lined the block, some sitting in folding chairs, in Montreal, Canada, on November 27, video shows. Local news reports said some shoppers camped out overnight despite cold weather and the threats posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Video filmed by local resident @tommyboxeo shows people lined up and in folding chairs on Saint-Catherine Street in Montreal, Quebec. Credit: @tommyboxeo via Storyful OTTAWA — Canadian wholesale sales grew for the seventh consecutive month in November to hit a record high, while manufacturing sales fell for the month. Manufacturing sales dropped 0.6 per cent to $53.7 billion in November, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday. CIBC senior economist Royce Mendes said factory sales took a breather in November, but he added that the decline seemed to have been narrowly driven by a few categories, noting that only five of 21 industries saw lower sales for the month. "Declines were most prevalent in the auto and aerospace sectors," Mendes wrote in a brief report. "Lower prices for lumber and wood products also pulled down sales of wood products, which have been benefiting recently from strong demand for building." The data provided a snapshot of the economy for November, however the increased restrictions to slow the spread of the pandemic in some provinces since then are expected to have taken a deeper toll on the economy. "Since November, restrictions have increased in provinces with the largest manufacturing centers, pointing to further subdued performances going forward," TD Bank economist Omar Abdelrahman wrote. "Although manufacturing was deemed essential by all provinces, the sector will face headwinds from the drop in domestic demand seen elsewhere in the economy." The transportation equipment industry fell 9.1 per cent to $8.9 billion in November, while aerospace production fell 23.8 per cent to $1.2 billion and motor vehicle sales slipped 5.7 per cent to $4.3 billion. Wood product manufacturing sales fell 4.1 per cent to $3.3 billion in November on lower sales in the sawmills and wood preservation industry. Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.6 per cent. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada said Tuesday wholesale sales rose 0.7 per cent to an all-time high of $67.4 billion as five of seven subsectors reported stronger sales. The gains were led by the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector and the building material and supplies subsector. The machinery, equipment and supplies group rose 2.8 per cent to $14.3 billion, while building material and supplies rose 1.1 per cent to $10.2 billion. Wholesale trade in volume terms rose 0.9 per cent in November. The data for November came ahead of the Bank of Canada's interest rate decision and monetary policy report on Wednesday. The central bank is widely expected to keep its key interest on hold at 0.25 per cent. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2021. The Canadian Press	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line282
__label__cc	0.650649	0.349351	IRS Financial Management: Has There Been Any Improvement? : Hearing Before ... De United States, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology I might also add that this last year we verified IRS had completed 17 of our recommendations, which was up. If you recall, in the March hearing it was 13. They believe they have other recommendations completed and we are in the process of verifying that in the 1996 audit. But I think the vision in the revenue area still needs work. Mr. HORN. Have you been through this type of experience with other Federal agencies where GAO has established a relationship of, one, going in and looking, making some recommendations, then sitting down with them as to how, based on what you have seen in the private sector, public sector, these could be implemented? Is there any other agency where you have had that similar relationship? Mr. DODARO. Oh, yes. Mr. HORN. What are they? Mr. DODARO. We have had—well, for example, in the Government corporations area we had responsibility for auditing the Resolution Trust Corporation. We just completed our last audit as that organization has gone out of business and transferred those responsibilities to FDIC. We worked with RTC from the standpoint-in the beginning we were at the point we are at IRS of having disclaimers and eventually working with them, fixing their control problems, putting in good systems and discipline. We were able to have a clean opinion on RTC. The same with the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Over a number of years we were able to work with them as well. We have been working with FDIC for a number of years. In the Government corporations we have had the requirement for a financial audit in place for a number of years and GAO has had that responsibility, so we worked very closely, and it takes a number of years but, with concerted effort, it can be done. We have also started now with the CFO requirements. We were working with the Customs Service initially for a couple of years. We have turned that audit over now to the Treasury Inspector General, but we are still providing some technical assistance. We did early audits in trying to work with the Education Department in the student loan insurance area. We have started, as we have talked in this committee, over at the Defense Department. I cannot report the same progress there. Mr. HORN. You have not found the $25 billion yet? Mr. DODARO. No, no. Mr. HORN. That they tell me isn't stolen, but they cannot find it. Mr. DODARO. Well, and it keeps changing. But we have examples, clearly, in the Government corporation areas and in some of the Federal agencies where, working over time and there are examples of other agencies where the IG's are doing the same thing. Mr. HORN. OK, so you have had that experience. Now, what I want to know is what were the keys to success in those other agencies? Are there similar factors in IRS and if IRS does not have them, what is it that they are lacking that these other agencies have had to make the transition a success? Mr. DODARO. The critical factors of success, in my opinion, are, No. 1, having a detailed action plan that is credible, has very explicit milestones, and can be used to track progress both on the part of the managers within the agency as well as the Congress. In the early years, as I mentioned in my statement, I was very troubled by the fact that IRS, I believe, underestimated the severity of their problems and underestimated what it was going to take to fix the problems in the correct manner. And even when we were doing the audit for fiscal year 1994, I wrote a letter to the commissioner, basically saying that I was concerned that we did not have a plan in place. It was not until early spring in this past year where we have gotten a plan was developed and we have worked with IRS to refine that plan. So I think for the first time we have a credible plan to address some of the issues, albeit some of them still short term, but at least it is progress and I think we are moving in the right direction. Mr. HORN. OK, and has IRS fixed the responsibility for implementation on that plan on one person or how are they administering it? Mr. DODARO. Basically, responsibility rests with the Chief Financial Officer, the CFO, Tony Musick. One area that I am a little concerned about is that Tony has to deal with other people in the IRS to get some of the changes put in place. For example, while the CFO has total responsibility over the administrative accounting operations, that person does not have responsibility over the revenue accounting function. Now, we at GAO made a recommendation over the years to give more responsibility for revenue accounting to the Chief Financial Officer. Mr. HORN. Yes, but whose choice is that? When Congress said, "Establish a Chief Financial Officer,” they did not say, "you simply handle supervision of administrative accounting but if you have another type of accounting, such as revenue accounting, sorry, you do not handle that?” Aren't we holding them responsible for all fiscal matters within that agency? Mr. DODARO. Yes, and the legislation was not as specific on this point. We do have a little bit of an unusual situation at IRS in that you have large custodial, governmentwide responsibilities there for revenue collection as well as internally. And there is no one organizational solution. The biggest problem is that the revenue accounting systems were not developed with sufficient input from the financial people at IRS so that they have good controls in place and could be used for financial reporting purposes. Revenue systems were largely developed by people who have responsibility for processing the tax returns and they were more interested in making sure that refunds got out quickly and they could track physically the returns as they come through the system. Mr. HOLLOWAY. And just to amplify on what he said, I think that is a very important nuance that really needs to be looked at in the context of the tax system modernization effort, because as they move to redesign their data bases I think it is important that one of the functional requirements that need to be looked at and considered and incorporated are the financial accounting and reporting needs. A lot of emphasis, much like in times past when they developed those, has been placed on trying to enhance customer service and improve production, which are all very important things that need to be considered, but I think, likewise, as they go to develop whatever the new data base is going to look like, consideration needs to be given to some of the dilemmas that they are confronted with from a financial reporting and accounting perspective. Mr. DODARO. Mr. Chairman, I think this is the second critical success factor. One is having a plan. The other factor is making it happen and making it reality and having follow-through. Followthrough has been a problem at IRS. It is largely still functionally aligned and a lot of people have different responsibilities for different areas. Fixing some of their financial problems and their systems problems requires a broader approach in the organization and, as you well know from the jobs that you have had over the years, that is the hardest part, is to get a large organization to work together. And Tony is going to need help from other parts of IRS, and this is where the role of the Deputy Commissioner and the Commissioner becomes important in that they need to followup and if things are not getting done, they either need to realign responsibilities or make it clear and directed to people that they need to cooperate with him to bring this to closure. The third factor that I think is important, success factor, is continual congressional oversight. I mentioned the RTC earlier. One of the comments, as we were testifying years ago on RTC and why they could not get a clean opinion, and at the same time Congress was being asked to increase appropriations to bail out the savings and loan problems and giving those to the RTC, one congressional member said, “Why should we give the RTC any additional money if they cannnot account for the appropriations that we have given them before?” Congress put a lot of pressure to get the RTC cleaned up, because they were concerned with the difficulties that were ensuing by pumping a lot of money into the RTC to clean up the S&L crisis. So continual congressional pressure, having follow-through by the agency managers in doing their job, and all rooted in a very good detailed plan, are the three keys of success. Mr. HORN. Now, do you see in the CFO-Deputy CommissionerCommissioner relationship at IRS anything different than you see in other agencies as to the CFO's reporting? Is there something unique in IRS? In other words, are they taking it seriously at top management, of which the CFO is part? Mr. DODARO. I think they are definitely committed to trying to fix the problem, but I think they need to exercise more discipline at the top. The same issue, I have made the same point about their tax system modernization program. Basically, IRS was allowing a lot of functional areas—you know, they are a large decentralized organization, the districts, the regions, the different functional areas, whether you are talking about processing returns or collecting revenue, were pretty much autonomous—and I think there still needs to be more of a cohesive management structure developed at the top of the IRS to integrate the CFO, to bring the new chief information officer that they have in place into that, and to make it a cohesive team with an overall architecture or blueprint for bringing about these reforms. They are not quite there yet, in my opinion. Mr. HORN. And we will pursue that with the Chief Financial Officer when we get to it. My last part of this series of questions is the degree to which money, additional authority, et cetera, are involved here. How much can be done under existing appropriations? Does IRS have the authority to move money around, reprogramming authority, within the agency, and do they have their own revenue sources they can tap for modernization or does that have to be a congressional appropriation? Mr. DODARO. Most of the money, and I will ask Greg to add on to this, to run IRS' operations, including the modernization program, come from appropriated funds of the Congress. Actually, in our last tax system modernization report we issued in June we recommended that since the IRS had so many management and technical weaknesses in their capability to manage that program, that the funding be restricted and limited to tax system modernization, to only critical operation and maintenance problems, building their capability in small projects. The IRS does have some reprogramming authority,I will ask Greg to talk about that-but the funding for their systems efforts comes from appropriations, the large bulk of it, and not from any other independent sources. Mr. HORN. And they have spent the money we have appropriated when we have directed it for systems on systems? Because we have a few agencies, and IRS was one of them, that used the money simply to hire more people and did not follow Congress' direction. Mr. DODARO. Yes, well, one of the problems we have had and we reported on in our financial audits was the inability to track the cost of the tax system modernization effort. We have had some problems exactly pinning that down in those areas and, also, not only what goes for new development under tax system modernization versus what is operation and maintenance of your existing systems—sometimes that goes back and forth as well. So we are trying to, as part of our audits, tie down how that money is actually expended. Mr. HORN. OK, Mr. Holloway, do you want to comment on reprogramming, then Mr. Davis will take over. Mr. HOLLOWAY. I think in the case of reprogramming, I think IRS has the capacity to reprogram as any other Federal agency would in terms of moving money around, but I think the context of your question, if I recall, dealt more with the impact of that with the presumption of adding more money to help cure the problems and fix the issues. In the end, and I just wanted to amplify one of the things that Mr. Dodaro said, that it strikes me that one of the things that is going to be critical, while certainly the responsibility rests with the CFO, I have to reiterate the criticality of complete institutional support. No CFO, in the private sector or the public sector, will be able to effectively do their job if they do not have full and unwaivering support at the top that provokes support and cooperation throughout the organization. Mr. HORN. Does your experience with IRS lead you to believe they have the support at the top? Mr. HOLLOWAY. My experience at IRS leads me to believe that from a full institutional perspective I am not sure that the breadth of support that needs to be there to always, at a priority level, push things through has always been present and consistent. Now, if that is a function of the top or just the difficulty of managing a large bureaucracy, I do not know. Mr. HORN. Well, that is certainly my impression, and when you look at who gets appointed commissioner, with all due respect to the fine talents they bring as tax lawyers, or whatever, they have never run anything. They have never run any large agency. What we need in a couple of these places are people that are skilled managers that can pull people together, can focus on the plan and, as you say, hold goals to know when we have achieved it and can back up a CFO who needs the help of some egomaniac that is parallel in the organization to him or her, as the case may be. Mr. HOLLOWAY. I think you are exactly right in that interpretation, that that is what is necessary. Mr. HORN. Well, Mr. Davis, the gentleman from Virginia. Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Dodaro, let me ask you, if you were auditing an agency's financial statements and had to report on whether the agency was or was not in compliance with the applicable Federal accounting standards and Federal financial management systems requirements, would you be able to do so? Mr. DODARO. Yes, I believe so. I mean, we in the Federal Government now, through a joint arrangement with OMB, GAO, and the Treasury Department, have set up a Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board and they have recommended new accounting standards for the Federal Government, which become effective in the next couple of years. There are also some systems requirements that have been put in place. I think it would require, perhaps, some interpretations and help, as anything does in an area that is complicated like that, but Mr. DAVIS. But there is enough specific guidance when you take a look at the OMB circulars and the publications issued by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program and so on to enable an auditor to make that determination? Mr. DODARO. Yes, I believe it is a good starting point. I think there would be additional issues that we would have to discuss but I think the foundation, augmented by the new accounting standards that are being issued, I think that helps it quite a bit. Mr. DAVIS. I think Mr. Horn got at this, but in your opinion do you think the Department of the Treasury and the IRS have developed an effective plan for implementing the Government Management Reform Act requirements in terms of the plan? Mr. DODARO. Most of our focus to date has been at the IRS level. We are beginning a look at the Treasury Department level. I think they have begun planning on this effort. We are now looking at the Bureau of Public Debt and Treasury's Financial Management Service for the first time and we are developing opinions along those lines. I think they are beginning to focus on it, but I do believe that	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line284
__label__cc	0.559059	0.440941	Pobierz wersję ePub Obrazy na stronie E-book – BEZPŁATNY Second Advent Library, Tom 5 : to Byzantium, and honored it with his own name calling it Constantinople. After the death of Con.stantine, which happened A. D. 337, the Roman empire was divided between the three sons of Constantine. Constantius inherited the eastern di- vision, and possessed his father's throne, in Constantinople. Constantine and Constans inherited the western empire. The Greek kingdom had again become an independent government under Constantius. But, A. D. 353, his two brothers both being dead, the whole empire came into his hands, and the Roman empire was again united. But, A. D. 356, the Huns, a barbarous nation, invaded the Roman empire and established themselves in Hungary.' This event was followed by the establishment, between 356 and 483, of nine other independent kingdoms within the Roman empire. But, during all this time, the eastern or Greek empire, as it was called, remained entire and independent. This was not the first time of the Greek kingdom's independence after Alexander's death ; nor the last ; but the latter. The first time was after the death of Alexander, until conquered by the Romans. The latter time, from the death of Constantine to the Ottoman conquest. The last time, partially, since the Greek revolution, but principally yet in the future, after the fall of the Ottoman power. It was this Greek empire which became the promoter of the Papal usurpations, from the days of Constantine, when he first removed the seat of empire to the east, until the days of Justinian, when, A. D. 534, he constituted the Bishop of Rome head of all the churches, and, 538, conquered Rome and established the pope in his see. It was in this way the little Papal horn came out of the Greek empire, one of the four horns of the goat, in the LATTER time of their kingdom. The power of this Papal horn became “mighty, but not by his own power.” 1. The greatness of the Pope, as an ecclesiastical power, was con. ferred on him by the Greek emperor, Justinian. 2. The same emperor conquered the Ostrogoths to make way for the Pope. 3. He defended him against his enemies after he possessed Rome. 4. Pepin, king of France, in 755, conquered the Exarchote of Ravenna and conferred it on the Pope in perpetual sovereignty ; thus constituting, him a temporal prince. Other acts of assistance might be brought forward to almost any extent; but the foregoing are deemed sufficient to prove and illustrate the point, that the Roman Pontiff did not become mighty by his own power, but by the power of others. “He waxed exceeding great, toward the east, toward the south, and toward the pleasant land." The crusades established the Papal power in all Syria, and part of Asia Minor, and even erected the banner of the cross on Mount Zion. And where has not the Papal power been felt ? “He magnified himself, even to the host of heaven,” &c. He assumed to be the sole church of God. “He cast down some of the host, and of the stars, and stamped on them." He persecuted the saints, and trod them in the dust.“ He magni fied himself even to the Prince of the host." He assumed to be the Vicegerent of Jesus Christ, and to possess and exercise the prerogatives of the Son of God. “By him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.” “By him the daily ;" the word sacrifice not being in the original. This term is of frequent occurrence in the book of Daniel, and it will be necessary to ascertain its true meaning. What then did the anti-christian or Papal abomination remove to make way for itself? What was it that let or hindered until he was taken out of the way? I answer, Paganism. For, although the empire was nominally Christian most of the time from the days of Constantine, yet Paganism continued to maintain itself in Rome, and Pagan sacrifices were offered there until the conversion of the Ostrogoths to Christianity, about A. D. 508, since which time we have no account of any public Pagan sacrifices being offered in the city of Rome. “ The place of Paganism's sanctuary" was then cast down, and in its place a new system of idolatry was set up, viz., the worship of saints and images. So that these Pagan conquerors, when they embraced the Christian religion, only exchanged one system of idolatry for another. But by the fall of Paganism, the way began to open for the establishment of the Papal pretensions. “ An host was given him against the daily sacrifice, by reason of transgression.” The ener. gies of the church were directed by the aspiring pontiffs against Pagan institutions, and to bring the Pagans over to the Christian faith. “ And it cast down truth to the ground, and it practised and prospered.” The Papal power trampled on the word of God, corrupted all the doctrines of the gospel, imposed on men's consciences burdens, heavy and intolerable to be borne ; persecuted and put to death all who would not submit to the yoke. Thus far the prophetic emblems. And from them we learn that the little horn in this vision is the same as in the former, the Papal power. And from the 25th verse, we learn that he is to have the same end. “ He shall stand up against the Prince of princes ; but he shall be broken without hand.” He shall be destroyed without human intervention, by Divine power. He shall be slain and given to the burning flame. He shall be destroyed by the brightness of the Lord's coming, &c. THE TIME WHEN THE SANCTUARY SHALL BE CLEANSED. “ Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot ? And he said unto me, Unto 2300 days ; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” It seems there were two great systems of abomination which were to afflict the church ; "the daily, and the transgression of desolation :" Pa. gan worship, and Papal superstition and oppression. The inquiry arose, how long shall these oppressive influences be permitted to defile and afflict the church? For that the sanctuary means the church, is evident from Heb. viii. 1, 2. " We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” The church, then, is the true sanctuary, of which Christ is the High Priest. In this sanctuary the tares and the wheat are to grow together until the harvest at the end of the world, and then be separated by the angels. Matt. xiii. The sanctuary will be cleansed, then, when the man of sin is destroyed, at “ the day of the Lord,” or when the little horn, Daniel 7th chapter, "is slain and given to the burning flame;" or when he is broken without hand.” But the sanctuary is to be cleansed at the end of 2300 days, or evenings and mornings. When those days are to begin, and what is the length of a day, are the two points to be settled. On these two points the chapter affords no information. It must, therefore, be sought elsewhere. At the close of the vision, after the explanation of it by the angel, Daniel informs us, verse 27th, “ And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick certain days; afterwards I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Here we have the testimony of the prophet that, although the vision had been explained, yet there were parts of it yet obscure. But all had been explained to him, except the two points under consideration : the nature of the time, and its commencement. Accordingly, in the next chapter we have a key to these points. After the prayer of Daniel and his confession of sin, we are told, chapter ix. 20, “ And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the « PoprzedniaDalej »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line285
__label__cc	0.664582	0.335418	Virtual Events Archive Live from Books & Books Archive Become a Friend of Books & Books! Virtual Book Clubs Virtual School Book Fairs Special Inquiries © Copyright Books & Books « Contemporary Cuban Literature Circle: Meet Reina Maria Rodriguez! Carla Zaplana » Joshua A. Douglas Books & Books in Coral Gables 265 Aragon Ave Coral Gables, FL 33134 United States + Google Map An expert on US election law presents an encouraging assessment of current efforts to make our voting system more accessible, reliable, and effective. In contrast to the anxiety surrounding our voting system, with stories about voter suppression and manipulation, there are actually quite a few positive initiatives toward voting rights reform. Professor Joshua A. Douglas, an expert on our electoral system, examines these encouraging developments in this inspiring book about how regular Americans are working to take back their democracy, one community at a time. Told through the narratives of those working on positive voting rights reforms, Douglas includes chapters on expanding voter eligibility, easing voter registration rules, making voting more convenient, and more. RSVP HERE FOR FREE BUY THE BOOK HERE JOSHUA A. DOUGLAS is a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law. His most recent scholarship focuses on the constitutional right to vote, with an emphasis on state constitutions, as well as the various laws, rules, and judicial decisions impacting election administration. He has also written extensively on election law procedure. He is a coauthor of an election-law case book and a coeditor of Election Law Stories, which tells the behind-the-scenes stories of the major cases in the field. In addition, his media commentaries have appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, CNN, Reuters, the Washington Post, Politico, the Atlantic, Huffington Post, and Slate, among other outlets, and he has been quoted in major newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He appeared live on CNN on Election Day 2016. Copyright © 2019 \| Books & Books \| All rights reserved. Your Locally-Owned Independent Bookseller	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line286
__label__cc	0.624743	0.375257	Consultant (Non-practising) Stuart trained in Yorkshire and qualified in 1967. He became a partner in a west end firm in 1970 specialising in litigation for the Musicians Union in the course of which he acted as an advocate in an 85 day Performing Rights Tribunal hearing. In 1993 he joined a well known Fleet Street firm dealing with general litigation and in 1998 became Litigation Partner in a Holborn entertainment firm which in 2008 merged and moved to the West End. Stuart ‘retired’ in 2010 but has recently returned to legal practice as a Consultant. Stuart’s experience is varied encompassing commercial disputes, arbitrations, employment law, defamation, property, family disputes, wills and probate contentious and non contentious and personal injury claims. He has been involved in a number of high profile matters including Privy Council Appeals Partnership disputes. He was a Legal Services Commission chairman and is an occasional adjudicator. His extramural interests include rugby (both codes), golf, tennis, cricket, walking and amateur operatics. Email Stuart Killen	cc/2021-04/en_head_0023.json.gz/line287

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