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Home New Mexico History New Mexico Ghost Towns White Oaks
New Mexico Destinations
New Mexico History
The Liveliest Town in the New Mexico Territory
The Discovery of Gold
The boom and bust of mining in the late 1800s gave rise to numerous tent cities and mining towns across New Mexico, including White Oaks, a gold mining town located twelve miles northeast of Carrizozo. White Oaks was known as one of the liveliest towns in the New Mexico territory in the 1880s. It was an amalgamation of commerce, culture and cattle rustling.
A man named John Wilson, allegedly an escapee from a Texas prison, discovered gold in the Jicarilla Mountains in 1879. Wilson had no interest in lingering to mine for gold so he told two friends, Jack Winters and Harry Baxter. This was the Old West’s version of winning the lottery. They were ecstatic. Wilson moved on, leaving his find to his friends.
Baxter and Winters established two claims, the Homestake Mine and the South Homestake Mine. Both mines were profitable. After a few years of mining, Baxter and Winters sold their claims for $300,000 each. Later, the mountain associated with those claims was named after Baxter.
Boom Town
Word of a rich vein of gold spread rapidly across the territory. Miners arrived daily, eager to strike it rich. Virtually overnight the mining camp became a tent city, with a post office and a newspaper established by 1880. The community was named after the white oaks that surrounded a nearby spring. A stage line was established quickly, linking White Oaks to Fort Stanton, Roswell and other settlements in the region.
With enormous wealth flowing out of the mines, the town grew rapidly throughout the 1880s. It became the second largest town in the territory behind Santa Fe within a few years, with notable differences in architecture and demographic. Whereas Santa Fe’s history is tied to Spanish colonialism and Puebloan influence, with plazas and adobe, White Oaks was settled after the Mexican American war, with a population of Anglo miners and settlers streaming in from the east. Homes were built with pitched roofs instead of the traditional flat roofs of the southwest, including a couple of magnificent Victorian homes that attest to the wealth of that bygone era.
Cultural Hub of Southeastern New Mexico
White Oaks school house
The 1880 U.S. census reflected a population of about eight hundred. The population tripled by 1890, reaching a peak of 2,500. During its heyday, White Oaks sustained fifty businesses, including four newspapers, two hotels, three churches, a sawmill, a bank, an opera house, livery stables, drama clubs, literary societies, as well as the obligatory saloons, brothels, and gambling houses. It was quite the cultural hub in an otherwise rough and rugged region, attracting ranchers, miners, lawyers and outlaws. There were so many legal disputes over claims in the 1880s that the number of lawyers was almost equal to the number of miners. Later, legal disputes played a role in the demise of the town as litigation over mining claims became commonplace and costly in the 1890s.
White Oak’s culture and wealth was reflected in its architecture. On the main street into town, White Oaks Avenue, the Exchange Bank Building, also known as the Hewett Building, still stands, though it is a shadow of its former glory. The stone façade was stripped decades ago to build a private residence. North of the bank, a large two-story schoolhouse remains. The school is much larger than most of the one room or two room schools found in early frontier town. There are four large classrooms, two upstairs and two downstairs. Just beyond the school, the Gumm family, who owned the sawmills and a woodworking factory, built a large wooden Victorian.
Hoyle’s Folly
In 1887, Watt Hoyle, one of the owners of the Old Abe Mine, the largest, most profitable mine in White Oaks, built a magnificent two-story Victorian brick home for his fiancée south of main street. The home cost between $40,000 and $70,000, an exorbitant amount at that time. By comparison White Oak’s impressive schoolhouse only cost $10,000. However, his fiancée never arrived. She wrote him a “Dear Watt” letter letting him know that she wasn’t coming to White Oaks. The mansion, with its stately gables and widow’s walk encircling a sharply pitched roof, became known as “Hoyle’s folly.” Hoyle lived in the house with his older brother and his wife until he sold the home in the 1890’s and moved to Denver. The Hoyle house and Gumm house are similar, because the Gumms used the floorplan from the Hoyle house…in reverse.
With its brothels and casinos, White Oaks was like a resort town on the frontier, attracting notable personalities from the Old West, including Pat Garrett, Shotgun John Collins, and the infamous William H. Bonney (aka Billy the Kid). With the prevalence of ranching in Lincoln county in the late 1800s, the town became a haven for cattle rustlers.
Billy the Kid visited White Oaks several times during his brief life, often involving run ins with the law. He hung out with a group of roughnecks that frequently stole cattle from ranches around White Oaks.
In November, 1880, after venturing into White Oaks to sell stolen cattle and to steal supplies, Billy and his friends were run out of town, with a posse of thirty men in pursuit. The chase culiminated in a standoff. Deputy Sheriff Jim Carlyle was killed while trying to negotiate with the fugitives and a reward was placed on Billy the Kid’s head. However, after a newspaper in Las Vegas published an account of the standoff, referencing Billy as the leader of a gang of outlaws, Billy wrote a letter to Governor Lew Wallace offering his version of the encounter.
Billy claimed that he and his friends were in a ranch house when a posse, led by Deputy Carlyle, surrounded it. Deputy Carlyle entered the house alone, demanding they surrender. Billy asked to see a warrant for their arrest and Carlyle admitted that he didn’t have one. Billy refused to surrender and he ordered Carlyle to remain in the house to keep the posse from attacking. The posse sent Billy a note demanding Carlyle’s release and threatening to kill Billy’s friend, Mr. Greathouse. One of Carlyle’s posse fired a shot at the house and Carlyle tried to jump out the window to escape. Unfortunately, his posse shot and killed him; however, Billy and his friends escaped unscathed in the melee.
Pat Garrett, who later killed Billy, was the sheriff of Lincoln County in the early 1880s. The day that Billy escaped from the Lincoln County jail in 1881, he was in White Oaks buying lumber to build a scaffold to hang him.
Madame Varnish
Like most mining towns, there were numerous saloons and brothels capitalizing on the gold extracted from the nearby mountains. In White Oaks that stretch of town was called “Hogtown.” Bars, casinos, and dance halls lined the road.
The most famous faro dealer in the casinos of White Oaks was Belle La Mar, aka Madame Varnish. Originally from Missouri, La Mar made a fortune in White Oaks, a mining camp dominated by men hungry for female companionship. She established the Little Casino Saloon, where she dealt faro, roulette and poker. A lot of the gold extracted from the mines around town ended up in her pockets. She earned her nickname because the miners said she was as “slick as varnish.” Though many miners lost their hard-earned gold gambling with Belle, her saloon was the most popular in town. The Star Saloon and Opera House were also popular establishments amongst the miners.
Susan McSween Barber
Another notable resident of White Oaks was Susan McSween Barber, widow of Alexander McSween, who was killed during the Lincoln County War. She had moved to Lincoln with her husband in 1875. He initially worked for James J. Dolan. Dolan had a monopoly on dry good and cattle in Lincoln County, the largest county in the country at that time. He had exclusive contracts with the military forts in the region, controlled most of the banks, and knew the judges personally.
Dolan acquired cattle from rustlers, but there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it. Lincoln County was essentially his personal fiefdom. He had the government contracts and a monopoly on merchandise and financing for farmers and ranchers. Dolan and his allies were aggressive towards anyone who dared to compete with him personally or professionally. His faction became known as “The House.”
Lincoln County War
When Englishman John Tunstall arrived in Lincoln and opened a competing store in 1876 with the backing of John Chisum. Alexander McSween quit Dolan’s operation and became Tunstall’s business partner. Conflict erupted immediately, with both sides rallying law men, business men and outlaws to support their cause. Dolan’s allies ambushed and murdered Tunstall in February, 1878. Several of Tunstall’s cowhands witnessed the murder, including Richard Brewer and Billy the Kid.
Tunstall’s employees, friends and allies formed a group known as the Regulators to avenge his murder. Sheriff Brady died in a shootout with a group of Regulators that included Billy the Kid in April, 1878. A 5-day shootout occurred between the two factions. On the final day Alexander McSween attempted to surrender. Despite being unarmed, he was shot and killed.
Susan McSween hired an attorney to press charges and to assist in negotiations with Governor Lew Wallace to procure amnesty for the Regulators. Due to the corruption in the territory at the time, she was unsuccessful and all of the participants, including Dolan, were acquitted or escaped. Susan received financial help from John Tunstall’s family in England and served as the executor of his estate.
She remarried George Barber in 1880. He had worked for John Chisum, the famous cattle man responsible for the Chisum trail. Chisum gave them 40 cattle as a wedding gift. Susan later divorced Barber, she took over 1158 acres of land bordering the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, the Three Rivers Ranch, southwest of White Oaks. By 1890 she had over 5000 head of cattle. By 1895 her ranch holdings were some of the largest in the territory. Between the cattle and a small vein of silver on her property she became extremely wealthy. She sold her ranch and moved to White Oaks in 1902, where she remained until her death in 1931.
Mining Accidents
By 1885, most of the unsavory characters had left White Oaks or had been chased out of town. The rowdy mining camp became a community of (mostly) law-abiding citizens; however, tragedy struck in July, 1891. A fire broke out at the South Homestake Mine, killing two miners. Mining continued at both the Homestake Mines for an additional 5 years until the vein gave out in 1890.
At the time, White Oaks was home to about two thousand people. Though there were other mining operations, including the Robert E. Lee, the Smuggler, the Rita, Lady Godive, Little Mack, Silver Cliff, Miners Cabin and other small, individual claims, but none of them generated the wealth of the Homestake Mines. The community was totally reliant on ore extraction. Fortunately, it was saved when another mine, called the “Old Abe” was developed. The Old Abe was the most profitable mine in White Oak’s brief history, employing forty men and boosting the town’s population to its peak of 2,500
A fire in the Old Abe Mine claimed 8 lives in March, 1895; however, the mining continued until the early 1900s when the market for precious metals began to decline. In 1907 the gold market collapsed, wiping out most of the gold mining towns in the region. White Oaks, with a burgeoning business district, might have survived the collapse were it not for the arrogance and greed of local merchants and lawyers.
45-50 tons of gold ore was extracted daily from the mines around White Oaks. Collectively the mines yielded $20 million dollars of gold and other minerals.
Rebuffing the Railroad
In the late 1890s the Santa Fe and the El Paso-Northeastern railroads planned to extend the railroad to White Oaks. Prominent businessmen in town attempted to charge outrageous prices for right-of-way. They were convinced that the companies would engage in a bidding war for the honor of laying track through their community. They overestimated their power and influence in the region, blind to the impact the railroad would have on the town’s fate. The El Paso and Northeastern line was built 12 miles west of town, through Carrizozo. When the mining production waned and the gold market collapsed, the population of White Oaks dissipated. By 1910 there were about 200 residents remaining.
White Oaks is still home to a small handful of residents. In 1970, White Oaks was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. Many of the original buildings are still intact, including Brown’s Store, the Hoyle House, the Gumm house, the school and several smaller homes. One of the old saloons is still open: The No ScumAllowed Saloon, named one of American Cowboy Magazine’s “Best Cowboy Bars in the West.” Based on observation this saloon is more popular with bikers than cowboys these days.
If you decide to visit White Oaks, consider stopping at the Cedarvale Cemetery to pay your respects to several people who were an important part of New Mexico history, including John Wilson, one of the original discoverers of the gold strike, and William C. McDonald, once a White Oaks surveyor and later the first New Mexico governor after statehood. Susan McSween Barber is also buried there, though they misspelled her name on the gravestone.
There are additional ghost towns in the area. An unpaved forest road leads northwest out of White Oaks. The circuitous dirt road weaves through the mountains, passing through the ghost towns of Jicarillo and Ancho. The road is well maintained and can be traversed in most vehicles.
Other things to see nearby
Valley of Fires
Three Rivers Petroglyphs
Previous articleCorrales
Next articleHighway 4 | Jemez Mountains
Billy the Kid Scenic Byway
Fort Union
Pie Town
Taos Pueblo PowWow Taos Pueblo Buffalo Grounds Taos, New Mexico 87571
12jul(jul 12)10:00 am14(jul 14)10:00 pmTaos Pueblo PowWow10:00 am - 10:00 pm (14) MST Taos, New Mexico 87571
The Taos Pueblo community is very proud that this widely attended event has achieved this very significant milestone of 32 years in existence. There are only a handful of pow
The Taos Pueblo community is very proud that this widely attended event has achieved this very significant milestone of 32 years in existence. There are only a handful of pow wow’s in the United States that have reached this mark. Members of Indian tribes throughout the country gather in Taos to compete in traditional dance competitions. Crafts booths and food vendors ring the pow wow circle during the three-day event.
The dance competition for women and men is divided by age group and dance style. For men these include the traditional, fancy, grass, and most recently, chicken dances. For women the styles include traditional, fancy shawl, and jingle dress dances. The “traditional” dance style can sometimes be separated or combined into a Northern and Southern dance style. Age categories include: Golden, Adult, Teens, Juniors, and sometimes Tiny Tots.
What is a PowWow?
A powwow is a gathering of Indian Nations in a common circle of friendship. Indian Country is made up of many tribal nations, bands, villages, and pueblos, each with their own traditional tribal beliefs and practices. A powwow is the common fiber which draws Indian people together. It is a time for sharing with old friends and making new friends; a time for singing and dancing. It is also a time for trading — trading craft goods and trading songs.
Originally, Indian tribes held celebrations to commemorate successful hunts or harvests. Many tribes had ceremonial dances to prepare for war and to celebrate victories. The old tribal War Dance as it was known and is still called today, evolved over the last four or five decades into a contemporary social dance and the pow wow into a social gathering and celebration time.
A powwow usually begins with a Grand Entry of the dancers. All participants dance into the circle in their respective categories, led into the arena by a tribal elder or veteran carrying a staff of eagle feathers. The eagle feather staff is the universal symbol and “flag” of Indian people throughout North America. When all dancers are in the circle in their respective categories, a flag song or the national anthem of the Indian people is sung, followed by an invocation by a tribal elder. Then the dance begins with intertribal dancing. This is a time when all dancers, competing or not, can “strut their stuff” displaying their best dancing abilities.
Excerpted from AROUND THE DRUM, by Richard Archuleta, Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo Pow Wow Schedule (Subject to Change)
12 noon Gates & Arts & Crafts and Food Booths Open
2 pm Dance & Drum Contest Registration Opens
7 pm GRAND ENTRY
8 pm Dance Competition Begins
Gates & Arts & Crafts and Food Booths Open at 10 am
10 am-2 pm Dance & Drum Contest Registration
10 am-12 noon Gourd Dancing
12:30 pm Drum Roll Call
1 pm-5 pm Dance Competition Begins; Intertribal Dancing
5 pm Supper Break
6:30 pm Drum Roll Call
8 pm Dance Competition Begins, Intertribal Dancing
10 am Gates & Arts & Crafts and Food Booths Open
2 pm Final Dance Competitions, Intertribal Dancing
6 pm ANNOUNCEMENT OF CONTEST WINNERS
Taos Pueblo Pow Wow Dance Contest Categories
All Adult Categories: 1ST $500 2ND $400 3RD $300
Teen Categories (13-17)
1ST $400 2ND: $300 3RD $200
Boys: Traditional, Grass, Fancy
Girls Traditional, Jingle, Fancy
Junior Categories (6-12)
Tiny Tots 5 & UNDER (Friday & Saturday)
Drum Contest Categories:
Northern Drum: 1st $3000 2nd $2000 3rd $1000
Southern Drum: 1st $3000 2nd $2000 3rd $1000
Points are awarded Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Sessions
Dance and Drum Contest Information
Registration for all categories will open Friday noon and Saturday @ 10am.
Registration closes @ 2pm on Saturday, no exceptions!
Lost or stolen wristbands will not be replaced. A secured wristband is required for entry into the pow wow grounds.
One free wristband will be given per dancer; a maximum of twelve wristbands will be given per drum group.
Any additional family members or friends are required to pay an entry fee.
Please bring your own chairs. Canopies cannot be set up behind or under the arbor. Please keep arbor area clear of trash.
Any decisions of the Arena Directors & Pow-Wow Contest Committee are final.
When: July12-14, 2019
Where: Taos Pueblo Pow Wow Grounds
Admission Fees (includes camera/video fee)
$15 per person/per day; 2 day pass $20; 3 day pass $25
Admission & camera fees are separate for both Taos Pueblo and the Taos Pueblo Pow Wow.
*No refunds due to weather. CASH ONLY, No personal checks.
Taos Pueblo Buffalo Grounds, Taos, NM 87571
Drive north on Hwy 64 for 1-1/2 miles. Turn right on Ben Romero Road (just past Overland Sheepskin) and proceed to the parking lot.
Parking is located directly west of the pow wow grounds. There is no fee for parking. Handicapped parking is located near the main entrance to the grounds. We apologize that we cannot allow handicapped parking or drop offs within the pow wow grounds. Parking areas are not lit so we strongly advise to bring a flashlight.
Gates open to visitors at 10am on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday. The Pow-Wow ends approxmiately at 10pm on Saturday & Sunday; 6pm on Sunday.
Taos Pueblo Pow Wow Seating
Since there is no permanent seating under the arbor, visitors are advised to bring their own chairs. Please allow room for drums under the arbor. We apologize that we cannot allow canopies outside or inside the arbor.
The Taos Pueblo Pow Wow is a family friendly event. No drugs or alcohol are permitted. Pets are not allowed within the pow wow grounds. Pets are allowed within the campground area but must be kept on a leash at all times.
Camping and RVs
Camp sites are available to visitors to the pow wow for a fee of $25 in specially designated areas. Please pay camping fee when you pay your admission fee. Taos Pueblo tribal members, dancers, and drum groups are exempt. Taos Pueblo tribal members have established camp sites that are inherited east of the arena. For those not camping, there are local hotels nearby. (see details below)
Camp areas are considered “primitive” with no electricity or sewage.
Camp fires are allowed only in fire rings and grills.
Please keep campsites out of designated roadways and the pow wow arena.
The Taos Pueblo Pow Wow Committee reserves the right to move campsites to ensure the safety of campers and ease congestion.
Parking monitors, tribal police, and security will monitor camping areas with frequency.
Pets are allowed in the campground area ONLY and must be kept on a leash.
Fireworks are prohibited by order of the Taos Pueblo WarChief’s Office.
All campers are encouraged to leave their campsites clean. This includes the removal of all trash and any arbors made of brush before departure.
**Showers are available at High Altitude Fitness ( formerly known as Northside Health & Fitness Center) (575.751.1242), 1307 Paseo del Pueblo Sur (half a mile south of the pow wow grounds) for $8. Hours are Friday 5pm – 9pm; and Saturday and Sunday 8am – 8pm. – Bring your own towels!!
RECREATIONAL VEHICLES (RV)
While we will do welcome RV’s, we cannot supply hookups to electricity, water, and sewage. All RV’s will be escorted to the designated RV parking area by a TPPW Traffic Monitor. The Traffic Monitor Supervisor has the right to move RV’s out of certain areas to reduce congestion.
Facilities for RV’s are available at:
Taos Montebello RV Park (575.751.0774)
Located 2 miles west of the TPPW Grounds on US Hwy 64
About the Taos Pueblo / tu-tah (our village)
For many years now, visitors have been coming to Taos Pueblo for both an educational and cultural experience. As the most influential and historical of all pueblos in New Mexico, inspiration is drawn from its architectural distinction and the beauty of its lush valleys. Rising an impressive 5 stories from the base of picturesque Taos Mountain, Taos Pueblo’s earthen form is the inspiration for what is now known as Southwestern architecture. As one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States, Taos Pueblo is a National Historic Landmark and was inducted into the World Heritage Society by UNESCO in 1992 for its cultural value.
12 (Friday) 10:00 am - 14 (Sunday) 10:00 pm MST
Taos Pueblo Buffalo Grounds
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Home > News > Translation > A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce made a statement on the White Paper on "China's position on Sino-US Economic and Trade consultations" issued by the US side.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce made a statement on the White Paper on "China's position on Sino-US Economic and Trade consultations" issued by the US side.
Translation 10:16:42PM Jun 04, 2019 Source:CCTV News
SMM Network News:
Some media asked: on 3 June, the Office of the US Trade Representative and the US Treasury issued a statement on the white paper "China's position on Sino-US Economic and Trade consultations" issued by the Chinese side. How does China comment on this?
A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said: in defiance of multilateral trade rules, the US side frequently adopted unilateralism and protectionist measures on the grounds of trade deficit to provoke Sino-US economic and trade frictions. At the same time, it is a typical act of trade hegemonism to attempt to impose its own interests on China in the Sino-US economic and trade consultations. The responsibility lies entirely with the US side for causing damage to China, the United States and the world. The Chinese side believes that the US trade deficit with China is affected by a variety of objective factors and is the result of the role of the market. The US side has benefited greatly from Sino-US trade, and the theory of "suffering losses" is completely untenable.
Since taking office, the current US government has ignored global interests, adhered to the "United States first", defied international responsibilities and obligations, wantonly used government forces to suppress enterprises in other countries, and disrupted the global industrial chain and supply chain. It is self-evident who does not respect international rules and who adopts an "unfair" approach.
The Chinese side has always held the greatest patience and sincerity to promote Sino-US economic and trade consultations, which has been elaborated in the White Paper "China's position on Sino-US Economic and Trade consultations." It is completely nonsense for the US side to accuse the Chinese side of "driving backwards" in the consultations. In the course of consultations, it is common practice for trade negotiations to propose changes and adjustments to the content of the text and related expressions. The US Government has repeatedly adjusted the relevant demands in the past 10 rounds of negotiations, but it has casually accused the Chinese side of "driving backwards", nothing more than splashing dirty water, which is unacceptable to the Chinese side.
China has always believed that the differences and frictions between the two sides in the field of economy and trade need to be resolved through dialogue and consultation. However, consultations are based on principles and need to be based on mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. Such negotiations will not succeed if one party does not respect the sovereignty and core interests of the other and wants to pressure the other to make concessions in order to achieve an outcome that is only in its own interests. It is hoped that the US side will abandon its erroneous practices, move in the opposite direction with the Chinese side, manage differences, strengthen cooperation, and jointly safeguard the healthy and stable development of Sino-US economic and trade relations in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.
Key Words: Ministry of Commerce Sino-US Economic and Trade consultation White Paper
Ministry of Commerce: China will not crack down on discrimination against any foreign-funded enterprises
Joint document issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce to encourage foreign investment in the photovoltaic industry
Ministry of Commerce: Brazil does not take interim measures against our Roller Anti-dumping case
Ministry of Commerce: a marked rebound in Automobile consumption in June will study measures to further promote consumption
The Ministry of Commerce responded to the inclusion of five Chinese enterprises in the "entity list" by the United States
[important] Ministry of Commerce: implement important instructions to prepare for the G20 summit
Ministry of Commerce: 30 vegetable prices accelerate fall Pork prices stabilize
Ministry of Commerce: China's total trade in services increased by 4.1 per cent from January to April compared with the same period last year.
Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce: the current spread of unilateralism and protectionism has a serious impact on the multilateral trading system
Standard-Grade Copper
High-Grade Copper
Guixi copper
Low-quality copper
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Yale Program Offers REMEDY to Poorer Nations’ Need for Medical Supplies
Once a week in the basement of Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH), Yale junior Sameer Gupta sorts through medical and surgical supplies and packs them for transport overseas.
It’s not the most glamorous job, says Gupta, but it gives him an “unparalleled opportunity” to play a role in helping to reduce two pressing global issues: healthcare inequality and environmental waste.
Gupta is a volunteer for Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World (REMEDY), a non-profit organization that was started 17 years ago by Yale anesthesiologist Dr. William Rosenblatt to collect surplus medical supplies and send them to places where they are sorely needed.
The REMEDY Program
(requires Flash Player)
Photographs by Michael Marsland
Since its founding, REMEDY has donated to developing countries more than 50 tons of medical supplies from YNHH that otherwise would have been discarded as waste. These materials include unopened sterile gloves, sutures, drapes, surgical gowns, syringes, bandages, catheters and sponges — all recovered from the hospital’s operating rooms. Due to legal concerns and U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations, the items are considered “unsterile” and therefore cannot be used again in this country. In addition, about 30% of the material donated is brand new.
“Every year, we collect $200,000 to $300,000 worth of medical and surgical materials from YNHH alone,” says Rosenblatt, professor of anesthesiology and otolaryngeal surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. “These are clean, perfectly good supplies that are needed desperately by health care personnel in other parts of the world. REMEDY donates them to U.S.-based charitable organizations, which then distribute them where they are needed. This allows hospital staff and student volunteers to participate together in a worthy cause. At the same time, we achieve an environmental benefit by keeping all of this solid waste out of our landfills. It’s a solution in which everybody wins.”
Rosenblatt founded REMEDY early in his career at Yale after participating in several medical mission trips to Latin and South America, where he observed a stark contrast between the scarcity of supplies in these regions and the abundance of them at home.
“As an anesthesiologist, I’m very observant of what is going on in an operating room,” the Yale professor says. “Here, I was seeing lots of unused materials going to waste. In contrast, in Peru I saw things being used over and over again. There, a medical student would store latex gloves in his textbook and use them until they broke, cleaning them between uses with an antiseptic solution.
“Similarly, in places like Honduras and Peru, I saw a lot of material being jerry-rigged for another purpose,” Rosenblatt continues. “A broken latex glove, for example, might be cut up and used as a drain for an incision. While at home, a suture thread would be thrown away after a piece of it was used, there the doctors would save the thread, using it on other patients until the last bit was gone.”
Rosenblatt learned that some YNHH doctors and nurses were individually collecting unused materials to donate, but there was no system-wide program in place for the collection and distribution of those supplies. In 1990, he asked the entire nursing staff to collect unused materials from operating rooms. REMEDY was established the following year, when Rosenblatt and a small group of volunteers began sorting and sterilizing the surplus items and shipping them to Interplast, an organization of doctors and other health care professionals who, at that time, provided free surgery for children and adults in Latin America.
“Eventually, Interplast told us that it could only use materials specific to plastic surgery, so REMEDY teamed with the New Haven/León, Nicaragua Sister City Project. At one point, we were supplying 40% of the disposable materials for the main hospital in León, which served 180,000 people. It was phenomenal,” says Rosenblatt.
REMEDY now has partnerships with a variety of U.S. charitable organizations, which ship and distribute the hospital supplies overseas. In addition, many Yale undergraduate and graduate students take some of the collected materials to countries they visit when they travel overseas.
“A tremendous number of Yale students now travel overseas, and we’re able to send many of them with a container of medical supplies that are badly needed in the countries they visit,” Rosenblatt says. “At the medical school, for example, one resident in internal medicine travels to Kampala, Uganda, each month as part of the Yale/Johnson & Johnson Physician Scholars in International Health program. Every couple of months, medical students go to Kampala. Each student travels with the gift of a container of supplies specially customized for the hospital there.”
To date, approximately 40 containers of medical materials have been transported by students to Uganda. Rosenblatt says that in some of the developing countries, well over half of the supplies REMEDY donates have been used within the first two months of their receipt.
Not long after REMEDY started, Rosenblatt and a colleague, Yale anesthesiology professor David Silverman, published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association documenting the organization’s impact. The article generated wide interest from staff members at hospitals across the United States who wished to replicate the program at their institutions. In response, Rosenblatt began teaching about and promoting nationwide the recovery and donation of surplus medical supplies.
“We changed our focus from simply being a collection agency to becoming a teaching agency,” says the Yale professor, who in 1996 was awarded a $50,000 Rolex Award for Enterprise for his humanitarian work. “We created a free, comprehensive teaching packet that helps other hospitals start a standardized recovery program based on the REMEDY model at YNHH. Today, more than 600 hospitals team with charity organizations to donate supplies.”
REMEDY has also benefitted some local non-profit organizations, which repurpose some of the collected materials that are not sent abroad. The Eli Whitney Museum, for example, is grateful to receive plastic operating-room trays that its students and visitors use to hold supplies or use as a sturdy base as they build trains, boats and other creations using small parts.
About 10 years ago, Rosenblatt established the REMEDY program Med-Eq, an online service that connects donors of medical equipment and supplies with registered non-profits and charities.
A group of about a half-dozen student volunteers allows REMEDY to continue its mission at a time when maintaining appropriate financial support for the organization is a challenge, says Rosenblatt, who both organizes and participates in half-marathons, pie-baking events and other sponsor-driven activities to raise money for the organization. (See related story, below.)
“Some of our volunteers are students who are interested in medicine or in working for international NGOs,” the Yale physician says. “Their commitment has been tremendous.”
Gupta, who is majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology and anthropology, says he has been able to take part in several different facets of REMEDY.
“I primarily help sort medical supplies from YNHH weekly, but sorting these supplies has also taken me far from the hospital basement,” says the undergraduate. “I have delivered these medical supplies to a Haitian farming community in the Dominican Republic and have also arranged for supplies to be sent to clinics in India and Liberia. After witnessing struggling clinics abroad, I know the life-saving differences that the REMEDY resources can make. It was personally satisfying for me to help arrange for some of the medical supplies to be donated to a community in which my grandfather lives in India.”
Gupta says he has also been inspired by Rosenblatt’s “resolve and ingenuity” in tackling important problems.
“I am learning about the tremendous and unnecessary global disparities in resources that can be mitigated by thoughtful solutions,” he says. “Each glove, catheter, syringe or other basic medical good that I place into a shipment box reminds me of the tremendous need abroad that is only matched by the tremendous waste at home. REMEDY has inspired me to seek simple but eloquent solutions to pressing global issues. It has shown me that we do not always have to tackle problems independently, but sometimes a solution for one issue can help resolve another.”
Rosenblatt says his dream is to have all of the approximately 8,000 hospitals in the United States participating in a medical supplies recovery effort to improve the wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. He is continually reaching out to them to promote that goal.
“I’m a lifelong believer that if you do something to help someone, eventually it comes back to you,” he says.
— By Susan Gonzalez
Support needed to continue mission
Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World (REMEDY) struggles to continue its mission of providing surplus medical supplies to developing countries at a time when many charitable organizations are challenged by the failing economy.
Dr. William Rosenblatt, the founder of REMEDY and a Yale anesthesiologist, says that without new financial support, the organization will be unable to promote and assist medical supply recovery programs at other hospitals. REMEDY will continue its collection of supplies at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
“We’d like to continue to have an influence nationwide, but our ability to do that depends on the financial support of donors,” Rosenblatt says. “That component of our program is very much in danger.”
Donations to REMEDY can be at made at the organization’s website at www.remedyinc.org.
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Two art alumni join forces to create special installation for City-Wide Open Studios
By Brita Belli
Marion Belanger ’90 M.F.A. and Martha Lewis ’93 M.F.A. had traveled in the same New Haven art circles for years, but it wasn’t until both applied to create an installation for the New Haven Agricultural Experiment Station that the two decided to join forces.
An agency that analyzes soil and tests ticks for Lyme disease might seem an unlikely venue for art, but when the building was set to be renovated it triggered the city’s Percent for Art ordinance, which requires that 1% of construction costs for all new or renovated municipal buildings be allocated toward commissioned work.
A photograph by Marion Belanger ’90 M.F.A. for the show “The Underneath” at Yale West Campus Oct. 26-28.
Both Belanger and Lewis were finalists and decided to collaborate on a permanent artwork called “Roots & Wings,” which draws from the station’s photographs of specimens and historic objects. “We’ve been going through their archives on plant pathology and etymology,” says Belanger. Many of these images are beautiful, the artists say, but inaccessible to the public. Their installation — which will include specimens, bespoke wallpaper, and framed prints — will allow these hidden archives to be seen.
It was a short leap from this collaboration to a commissioned work called “The Underneath” that the two artists are presenting as part of City-Wide Open Studios on Oct. 26-28 at Yale West Campus. All artists participating in this Alternative Space Weekend were asked to create work that addresses the theme “Wellbeing.” Images of root studies at the agricultural experiment station led them to consider soil and roots as the focus of a more ambitious site-specific work that incorporates photos, video, and other elements.
“One of my neighbors was building a structure and had an excavator and could access the underneath,” says Belanger. The result is a series of black-and-white images of the living layers beneath the earth’s surface, the dense tangle of roots against the dark, contoured soil.
“Life underneath allows the aboveground to happen,” says Lewis. “We think of dirt in terms of decay and darkness and death, but it is also healthy and nourishing.”
The shared work will include quoted text, a video showing compost in transformation, and live earth. “This will be improvisational by nature,” Lewis says, adding that she likes working with a specific site — in this case a room formerly used by Yale School of Nursing — and incorporating existing elements like window shades and drop-down light fixtures.
Belanger is a cultural landscape photographer who often turns her camera lens on boundaries — in the Florida Everglades, or at the edges of the North American tectonic plates. Photographing the latter, which was the focus of both an exhibit and a related book titled “Rift/Fault,” took her to cities like Hollister and Daly City, California, both impacted by underlying faults, and to Heimaey, Iceland, where volcanic ash has destroyed more than 400 homes.
“This is not a political or economic boundary,” Belanger says. “It can’t be controlled.” Many of these images have a dramatic, desolate quality, and the artist notes that landscape work by its nature serves as a commentary on the ailing state of the environment. “All landscapes today are political,” she says.
Since graduating from Yale, she’s met regularly with a group of five women photographers who graduated from Yale School of Art in the late 1980s. They call their group the Birthday Club as they’ve structured their meetings around five-year birthday milestones. “The art world is so heavily male dominated,” Belanger says. “Over the years, we’ve really supported each other.”
Martha Lewis ’93 M.F.A. will continue work on a quilt that’s been a lifelong project at the Eli Whitney Barn Oct. 13 and 14.
Lewis weaves elements of science, text, mathematics, abstract shapes, time, and mortality into her art. She was recently a year-long artist-in-residence at the Yale Quantum Institute, where she presented three-dimensional drawings based on math and string theory. For the past three years, she has created an installation for the Eli Whitney Museum Barn, a 200-year old spacious wood barn that has served as the backdrop for artists’ imaginings during City-Wide Open Studios. Last year, her installation emerged from her work at the Quantum Institute — utilizing magnetic core memory and video projection along with thick woven strands like a giant loom. This year, she is doing something more personal, piecing together a quilt that has been a life project she’s never found the time to complete. She’s calling it “Inhabited Constellation — a Quilted Pantheon.”
The quilt-in-progress features an embroidered swatch from her grandmother that was once part of her baby blanket, and embroidery her mother did from one of Lewis’ childhood drawings. There are the artist’s first embroidery attempts at age 8, and more elaborate designs done later, many of them featuring mythological creatures. The fabric, too, has meaning, says the artist: It comes from an ex-boyfriend’s shirt, a childhood smock dress, a scarf from her father, a denim jumpsuit. Lewis is inviting the public to join her at the Whitney Barn in a quilting bee noon- 6 p.m. Oct. 13-14, to sit and knit, sew, or crochet, and examine the vintage sewing supplies she’ll have on display from her own family history. “I like the idea of spending the weekend in the barn, sewing and talking to people about handwork and mythology,” Lewis says.
“Inhabited Constellation — A Quilted Pantheon,” by Martha Lewis
Oct. 13 & 14, noon-6 p.m., Eli Whitney Barn, 920 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Other exhibiting artists include: Susan Clinard, Alexis Brown, Dave Coon, Maura Galante, Clymenza Hawkins, Briah Luckey, Kiara Matos, Sara McGrimley. Special musical performance Saturday at 2 p.m. by the Secret Bunker Stringband. Green Leaf food truck serves Persian food both days. Details on “Inhabited Constellation” are here.
“The Underneath,” by Martha Lewis and Marion Belanger
Oct.26-28, noon-6 p.m., West Campus, 137-141 Frontage Rd., Orange. Details on “The Underneath” are here.
In CWOS, Yale affiliates will show art at sites including West Campus
Yale faculty member and other alumni win MacArthur Fellowships
Bug love: Alumna Aly Moore is getting more people to eat insects
Brita Belli: brita.belli@yale.edu, 203-804-1911
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Data offer new clues about why stars explode – ScienceDaily
Home https://server7.kproxy.com/servlet/redirect.srv/sruj/smyrwpoii/p2/ Sport https://server7.kproxy.com/servlet/redirect.srv/sruj/smyrwpoii/p2/ NASCAR's Jimmie Johnson completes Boston Marathon less than two days after Cup Series race
NASCAR's Jimmie Johnson completes Boston Marathon less than two days after Cup Series race
Seven-time NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson finished the Boston Marathon on Monday in 3:09:07 a day and a half after coming in 1
2th at the Richmond Cup Series race.
Johnson wore number 4848 as a tip of the hat to his car number – 48 – and finished his 40- to 44-year-old age group in 641st place.
The 43-year-old tweeted afterward that it "was the most challenging thing I've ever done. "
Johnson was hoping to break 3 hours, but said he was pleased with the result.
" I wanted to race it, so I went out with a heart rate and time in mind. I came up a little short, but still to do that well, still to be that low in the threes, I'm really happy with it, "NASCAR.com reported him saying.
Johnson had previously completed a 70.3-mile triathlon and has his sights set on entering the 140.6-mile Ironman Triathlon one day. He often responds to alleged fans on Twitter who tell him that he should concentrate on driving, given the decline in his on-track performance in recent years.
He could not care less about them on Monday as American distance running great Meb Keflezighi placed a finisher's medal around his neck.
"This was so cool," he tweeted.
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Home > News Releases > Plattsburgh Student Named to President's List at Berkeley College
Plattsburgh Student Named to President's List at Berkeley College
Feb 2, 2016 8:02:00 AM Comms Team
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016 Contact: Ilene Greenfield
PLATTSBURGH STUDENT NAMED TO
Marcia Briquer of Plattsburgh in Clinton County, NY, has been named to the President’s List at Berkeley College for the Fall 2015 Quarter.
“I am so proud of these students for their hard work,” said Michael J. Smith, President of Berkeley College. “The contributions of these high achievers make Berkeley College shine.”
A leader in providing career-focused education since 1931, Berkeley College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and enrolls approximately 8,300 students – including more than 700 international students – in its Baccalaureate and Associate degree and Certificate programs. Students can study in more than 20 career fields. Berkeley College is comprised of the Larry L. Luing School of Business, the School of Professional Studies, the School of Health Studies and the School of Liberal Arts. The School of Graduate Studies offers a Master of Business Administration degree in Management online and in Woodland Park, NJ.
Berkeley College has three New York locations – Midtown Manhattan, Brooklyn and White Plains. In New Jersey there are six locations – Clifton, Dover, Newark, Paramus, Woodbridge and Woodland Park. Berkeley College Online® serves a global population. In January 2016, U.S. News & World Report named Berkeley College one of the Best Colleges for Online Bachelor’s Degrees for the third consecutive year. The website address iswww.BerkeleyCollege.edu.
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Simone Manuel latest Olympic swimmer to win Honda Cup
Associated PressJun 26, 2018, 6:21 AM EDT
LOS ANGELES — Olympic champion swimmer Simone Manuel of Stanford won the Honda Cup on Monday night for collegiate woman athlete of the year.
It’s the second time Stanford has had back-to-back winners. Katie Ledecky, Manuel’s Olympic and collegiate teammate, won last year. Swimmer Tara Kirk won the award in 2004, followed by volleyball player Ogonna Nnamani the next year.
Manuel is the fourth straight Olympic gold medalist to take the Honda Cup after Missy Franklin, Breanna Stewart and Ledecky. Other Olympic champion swimmers to earn the award included Tracy Caulkins (twice), Mary T. Meagher, Jill Sterkel and Cristina Teuscher.
Manuel, of Sugar Land, Texas, received the trophy at the Galen Center on the Southern California campus.
She became the first black woman to win an individual Olympic swimming title in Rio, where Manuel also won another gold and two silvers.
She finished her collegiate career with six American records and seven NCAA records and was a member of two NCAA championship teams and two Pac-12 Conference title squads. Manuel won 14 NCAA titles over her career, including six at this year’s championships.
In the classroom, Manuel was a two-time Pac-12 Academic honoree and a CoSIDA first-team Academic All-American as a communications major.
Manuel, track and field star Maggie Ewen of Arizona State and basketball star A’ja Wilson of South Carolina were the top three finalists from a field of 12. They were selected in voting by nearly 1,000 NCAA member schools.
MORE: Katie Ledecky announces swimsuit sponsor
Wow. So honored and humbled to stand alongside the best of the best in college athletics. What an empowering weekend recognizing 15 hardworking, resilient, and inspiring women. Thank you so much to @CWSA_HondaCup!! pic.twitter.com/0PwfbLSVOm
— Simone Manuel (@simone_manuel) June 26, 2018
Tags: Honda Cup, olympics, Simone Manuel, Stanford, Stanford Cardinal, swimming, simone manuel
Katie Ledecky turns pro
By Nick ZaccardiMar 26, 2018, 2:00 PM EDT
Katie Ledecky is turning professional, forgoing her final two years of eligibility at Stanford ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ledecky made the announcement Monday at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., near her hometown of Bethesda, Md.
“This gives me some time before 2020 to focus in on really getting all the pieces in place,” said Ledecky, adding that she will continue to train and study at Stanford, where she lives with five other swimmers. “It’s a decision that I didn’t make just this last week. It’s something that over the last few months I’ve been discussing.”
The five-time Olympic champion capped her second NCAA Championships with a win by 28 seconds in the 1,650-yard freestyle on her 21st birthday on March 17.
Ledecky said Stanford coach Greg Meehan recommended she turn pro now.
“This is the right time for this transition,” Meehan said in a press release.
Ledecky took a gap year between graduating high school at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in 2015 and the Rio Olympics, where she won the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyles and anchored the winning 4x200m free relay.
Ledecky moved to Stanford later in summer 2016 and swam two seasons for the Cardinal, winning eight NCAA titles in nine finals between her freshman and sophomore years.
Ledecky said she was “maybe a little off my goals” at her second NCAAs two weeks ago, when she won the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyles convincingly but did not break her American records.
The major meets this summer are the U.S. Championships in late July in Irvine, Calif., and the Pan Pacific Championships in late August in Tokyo. Those two meets are the qualifiers for the 2019 World Championships in South Korea.
Another five-time Olympic champion, Missy Franklin, also turned pro after two NCAA seasons (at Stanford’s rival California). Franklin did so one year before the Olympics in 2015, while Ledecky has two full seasons before the Tokyo Games.
Ledecky could duplicate her Rio Olympic program while adding a new Olympic event — women’s 1500m free — in 2020.
“Now, every time I get up on the blocks, I’m racing the current world-record holder in that event, because I’m racing myself,” she said.
Ledecky has never swum a non-freestyle event at nationals or a major international meet, but she entered the 400-yard individual medley at NCAAs two weeks ago (and finished second behind a teammate who broke Ledecky’s American record). Ledecky said she does not plan to add the 400m IM to her major-meet schedule as a pro.
“I think I’ll continue to compete in them [at smaller meets] and train IM because it’s good for my freestyle, but I don’t think long-term,” she said. “Who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind and pursue it a little further, but I have my hands full with the freestyle events.”
MORE: Rio Olympic breaststroke gold medalist retires
Tags: Katie Ledecky, olympics, Stanford, Stanford Cardinal, swimming, Katie Ledecky
Katie Ledecky wins by 28 seconds on 21st birthday to close NCAAs
By Nick ZaccardiMar 17, 2018, 11:59 PM EDT
Katie Ledecky capped her second NCAA Championships with a win by 28 seconds in the 1,650-yard freestyle on her 21st birthday Saturday.
It may have been her final college meet. Ledecky did not commit to returning for her junior season at Stanford, rather than turning pro, in a press conference after the Cardinal repeated as team champions in Columbus, Ohio.
“I have a final exam on Monday,” Ledecky said. “That’s about as far into the future I’m looking.”
Full meet results are here.
Last year, Ledecky lapped all but one swimmer through 1,000 yards of the 1650 final and won by 21.19 seconds in 15:07.70.
On Saturday, Ledecky clocked 15:07.57. Her American record from earlier this season is 15:03.31 — 21.04 seconds faster than anybody else all-time.
Earlier this week, Ledecky anchored Stanford to an 800 freestyle relay title and won the 500 free by a record margin of more than eight seconds.
Then on Friday, teammate Ella Eastin beat Ledecky by 3.69 seconds in the 400 individual medley, an event that Ledecky never swims on the major international level. Eastin broke Ledecky’s NCAA record by 1.93 seconds.
“I think this is the best birthday party I’ll probably ever have,” Ledecky said on ESPNU. “It’s a long and grueling week. … This is the most fun I’ve ever had at a meet.”
Ledecky said she was “maybe a little off my goals” for the week. She did not break any of her American records in the convincing wins. Still, Ledecky finished the meet with eight NCAA titles in nine career NCAA Championships finals.
“I’m pretty hard on myself,” Ledecky said. “I set some pretty high goals. So if I fall a little short it’s not the end of the world. … I’m never really satisfied. If I was, I should retire.”
Also Saturday, quadruple Rio Olympic medalist Simone Manuel finished her Stanford career by winning the 100 freestyle in the second-fastest time ever — 45.65 and .09 off her American record.
Olympic and world champion Lilly King of Indiana broke her second American record of the meet, winning the 200 breast in 2:02.60 and lowering her mark by .58.
Cal’s Kathleen Baker, the Rio 100m back silver medalist, broke the 200-yard backstroke American record in winning in 1:47.30.
The NCAA Men’s Championships, featuring Caeleb Dressel and Joseph Schooling, are next week.
Tags: Katie Ledecky, NCAA Swimming Championships, olympics, Stanford, Stanford Cardinal, swimming, Katie Ledecky
Simone Manuel latest Olympic swimmer to win Honda Cup June 26, 2018 6:21 am Katie Ledecky turns pro March 26, 2018 2:00 pm Katie Ledecky wins by 28 seconds on 21st birthday to close NCAAs March 17, 2018 11:59 pm Katie Ledecky beaten in NCAA Championships individual medley March 16, 2018 6:13 pm Katie Ledecky routs field, wins another NCAA title March 15, 2018 6:45 pm Katie Ledecky now 6-for-6 at NCAA Champs with opening relay win March 14, 2018 6:50 pm Katie Ledecky mixes up schedule for her second NCAA Championships March 13, 2018 4:09 pm Katie Ledecky wins race by 54 seconds, breaks record November 18, 2017 6:59 pm Study shows which colleges produce most U.S. Olympians September 21, 2017 3:28 pm Katie Ledecky first freshman to win Honda Cup in 35 years June 27, 2017 8:05 am Katie Ledecky laps all but one swimmer to win NCAA title March 18, 2017 7:16 pm Katie Ledecky races to tie in NCAA Champs 200-yard freestyle March 17, 2017 7:10 pm Katie Ledecky wins first individual NCAA title with American record in final teen race March 16, 2017 6:34 pm Katie Ledecky helps shatter American record in NCAA Champs debut March 15, 2017 6:41 pm Katie Ledecky beaten by Simone Manuel, still sets two personal bests in 25 minutes February 24, 2017 10:13 pm Katie Ledecky’s latest American record faster than Ryan Lochte at same age February 24, 2017 9:01 am Katie Ledecky breaks pool record, then does it again 6 minutes later February 13, 2017 9:31 am Katie Ledecky wins 2 races by combined 48 seconds January 30, 2017 12:30 pm Katie Ledecky talks college life on Today Show (video) November 21, 2016 10:57 am Katie Ledecky wins race by 1 minute, shatters NCAA, American records November 20, 2016 4:31 pm Simone Manuel snaps Katie Ledecky’s historic winning streak November 19, 2016 9:58 pm Katie Ledecky breaks another NCAA, American record November 18, 2016 7:01 pm Katie Ledecky laps everybody, shatters her first NCAA record (video) November 14, 2016 3:51 pm Katie Ledecky breaks 2 pool records in Stanford home debut October 20, 2016 6:28 pm Katie Ledecky makes Stanford debut October 14, 2016 7:07 pm Stanford, winners of most Rio medals, honors Olympians October 10, 2016 11:02 am Katie Ledecky makes her college choice May 15, 2014 11:05 am Elizabeth Price: I never really planned on going to Rio April 29, 2014 4:45 pm Elizabeth Price retires from U.S. National Gymnastics Team April 24, 2014 12:42 pm
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Ariel Silverstone
External Data Protection Officer and Managing Director
Data Protectors
Ariel Silverstone, External Data Protection Officer and Managing Director at Data Protectors (both in the US and the EU), has been addressing business information privacy, security and risk challenges for over 20 years. He is a pioneer in information security and strategy: as a designer of information privacy and security processes and policies to address the most demanding challenges in the field, business risk, and management solutions.
Previously, he was the Vice President for Security Strategy, Privacy and Trust at GoDaddy, the largest web hosting and registrar in world; contributed to the Cloud Computing security strategy for Microsoft Azure and was the chief trusted security advisor to Cisco’s largest customers.
Mr. Silverstone led the information security efforts for a number of companies including Expedia, Travelport and Symantec. He is a sought-after speaker at industry events such as the RSA security conference and the CIO 100 in IT forum. He has authored and contributed to more than 20 books, several high-profile research papers, dozens of magazines, electronic publications including articles in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, CSO Magazine, ComputerWorld and other leading publications. Mr. Silverstone has also been awarded several US Patents.
201 D, Level 2
New this year for retailers! The NRF Cybersecurity Workshop, powered by PwC and the Aspen Institute’s Cybersecurity and Technology program, will provide an opportunity for retail sector CISOs and other senior leaders to engage... Read more
Protecting Data and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
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Kevin Ach
Vice President, Risk Assurance
EPIC Integrated Risk Solutions
Kevin Ach is global leader in the loss prevention industry with over 18 years of experience in retail operations, supply chain, internal audit, and international operations. As the Vice President, Risk Assurance for EPIC Integrated Risk Solutions, Kevin assists organizations in risk mitigation, process improvements, and operational efficiencies in the areas of Risk Management, Cybersecurity, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Internal Audit, and Loss Prevention.
Prior to joining EPIC, Kevin was the Senior Director of Retail Loss Prevention and Safety for Office Depot Inc., overseeing loss prevention and safety activities for over 1,500 retail stores. Kevin has also held varying management positions in supply chain, international retail operations, B2B, and internal audit during his career. Prior to joining Office Depot, Kevin worked for Arthur Andersen as an Information Systems consultant in Houston, TX.
Kevin has been actively engaged in the loss prevention industry as a speaker on numerous occasions at National Retail Federation conferences. He has also been an active member of the Loss Prevention Research Council and was a key player in the creation of an industry mentoring program for loss prevention practitioners.
Kevin earned his B.S. degree in Systems Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and proudly served our country for four years as an Officer in the US Army’s Signal Corps branch. Kevin is a Board Member of the West Point Society of the Palm Beaches. He holds the LPC certification through the Loss Prevention Foundation. Kevin currently resides in Boynton Beach, FL, with his wife and four children.
204 B, Level 2
Executive Afternoon (invitation only)
Specifically designed for senior level loss prevention and asset protection professionals, Executive Afternoon offers interactive discussion, expert insights and takeaways, and exclusive peer-to-peer networking. The program considers topics that... Read more
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What your doctor doesn’t tell you
February 5, 2012 | 5:00am
What doesn’t heal you just might kill you
‘The overall failure rate of CPR is 93% to 99%. Why? because it’s almost impossible to bring someone back from the dead. It is the rare person who is only ‘mostly dead’ and can be saved.’ (
Stents don’t stop heart attacks (AP)
When you walk into your doctor’s office with a health complaint, you likely have two expectations: 1. There is something out there that can help you, and 2. Your doctor knows what that something is.
Unfortunately, much of the time neither of those things is true.
In recent years, physicians have been slowly admitting that they don’t hold all the answers and that some of the dearest sacred cows in medicine — mammography, CPR, antibiotics — don’t work as well as we expect.
In a few recent books and articles, prominent physicians have been letting the public in on the biggest popular medical misconceptions. But most doctors — for fear of being sued or losing business — still don’t want you to know their dirty little secrets.
So, we’ll tell you instead. Here are eight things your doctor doesn’t want you to know:
1 Doctors don’t know everything
“Somewhere in the range of 85% of what we do, we don’t have adequate science to speak with certainty,” says Dr. David Newman, associate professor of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and author of“Hippocrates’ Shadow: Secrets from the House of Medicine” (Scribner).
“It’s a strange scenario where I want my patients to have confidence in me, so there’s an element of play-acting that goes on to instill confidence,” he says.
That play-acting boxes doctors into a corner, preventing them from admitting when they don’t know something. And quite often they don’t.
“It’s going to be 500 years before we have the knowledge we need to base most of our decisions on high-quality science,” Newman says.
Of course, those 500 years of high-quality science will come with a body count. In “Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science” (Picador), Dr. Atul Gawande writes that many of medicine’s shiniest new technologies take practice to perfect, but few physicians ever admit when they’re still getting the hang of something.
“Do we ever tell patients that because we are still new at something, their risks will inevitably be higher, and that they’d likely do better with others who are more experienced?” he writes. “Given the stakes, who in their right mind would agree to be practiced upon?”
Even in the hands of experienced physicians, there is really no such thing as a “standard of care” because in very few instances is there a proven, carved-in-stone “right” way to treat a patient: In a national survey, 95% of physicians said doctors vary in how they would treat identical patients.
In fact, many tests and prescriptions are ordered simply to give patients the impression that their doctor is doing something, anything to help them. In the same survey, 42% of doctors admitted their patients received too many pills, tests and procedures. Why? Among the reasons cited, fear of being sued for not “doing enough” topped the list, according to the survey published in September in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
“People still cling to the modern vision of more treatments being better,” Newman says.
2 What doesn’t heal you just might kill you
This adherence to myth is particularly true for antibiotics. Patients with everything from earaches to sinus infections demand antibiotics from their doctors, and their doctors are only too willing to write them prescriptions. But antibiotics only work on bacterial infections — earaches, most sore throats and sinus troubles are caused by viruses.
Doctors prescribe antibiotics anyway because patients demand them. Patients demand them because they think they work. The truth is, virus infections last about seven to 10 days; and on average people visit their doctors three to seven days from the beginning of their symptoms.
“In most cases, then, the illness is about to abate regardless of whether or not antibiotics are taken,” Newman writes. “But patient belief in the power of antibiotics is reinforced by the coincidence of their feeling better just days, or even hours, after the first antibiotic dose.”
Much has been written about how our cultural overdose of antibiotics has lead to more antibiotic-resistant strains of disease. Equally disturbing, and not as well explained by doctors or pharmacists filling those amoxicillin canisters, is the fact that antibiotics are not harmless.
Each year, tens of thousands of people develop Clostridium difficile infections, which can cause a life-threatening inflammation of the colon and is directly linked to antibiotics.
According to the CDC, cases of C. diff, as it’s commonly called, doubled between 2000 and 2005, and deaths from the disease have risen sharply over the last decade.
“We have lead people to believe that antibiotics are helpful for everything,” Newman says. “It’s not something that they can step away from effectively.”
3 CPR doesn’t work
There likely has never been a hospital drama in the history of television that didn’t include a heroic resuscitation scene. But patients fare far better on TV than in reality.
“According to large reviews and major studies, the overall failure rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, ranges from 93% to 99%,” writes Newman.
The reason is simple: People receiving CPR are dead, and for the most people, death is irreversible. The vast majority of people who experience cardiac arrest were not healthy before their hearts stopped beating and they stopped breathing. They likely suffered through a debilitating disease like cancer or else had a long-standing medical condition that has weakened their body and brought them to their death.
It is the rare person, whom Newman dubs “the healthy dead” — shades of “The Princess Bride” — for whom CPR can work. Someone, for instance, who develops a sudden and mysterious electrical “storm” in the heart known as ventricular fibrillation could benefit from CPR and defibrillation. For everyone else, instead of a return to the land of the living, CPR leaves recipients with bruised chests and broken ribs — and every bit as dead as they had been before the chest compressions started.
“These low percentages mean that in the overwhelming majority of resuscitative efforts, people die,” writes Stefan Timmermans in “Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR.”
“Still . . . we invest millions of dollars in a sprawling emergency-system infrastructure to create the expectation that with resuscitative care every death may be averted.”
4 Most back surgeries are unnecessary
Nearly 750,000 people a year suffer spinal-compression fractures that cause severe back pain, and doctors perform 600,000 surgeries to treat these fractures annually. Unfortunately, recent studies have found that those surgeries don’t work.
Vertebroplasty, a common back surgery, involves sticking an X-ray-guided needle into the patient’s back and injecting a glue-like substance into the fractured vertebra to serve as a kind of internal cast.
Researchers in Australia randomized two groups of patients, giving one group vertebroplasty. The other group received a “sham procedure,” meant to give the illusion that they underwent back surgery.
They found no significant difference between the two groups, according to the study, published in 2009 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Science actually has no cure for back pain and most neurosurgeons don’t believe that back surgery will actually help patients, doctors say.
In his book, Newman writes that when he asked a neurosurgeon why he performed back surgery if he knew it didn’t work, “he shrugged, ‘It’s good practice.’ ”
5 Stents don’t stop heart attacks
Studies have found cardiac stents are no more effective than drugs and lifestyle changes in preventing heart attacks, but Medicare spends $1.6 billion on the most common stents annually.
Some studies have shown that stents provide short-term relief of chest pain, but up to 30% of patients receiving stents don’t suffer from chest pain.
So these patients are exposed to the risks of implantation — including kidney damage caused by the dyes used to implant the stents — without any benefit at all.
“According to the best data, there is no chance that those stents are going to save [patients’] lives and prevent heart attacks in the future. This has been known for years,” Newman says.
But the procedure is still popular because doctors and patients really, really want it to work.
“Part of it is the pantomime. Doctors want them to work, patients want them to work. This is a case where our vision of disease doesn’t always align with what the research shows,” he says.
6 Better insurance doesn’t necessarily mean better care
Everyone from politicians to physicians have been railing against the disparity in health-care access between the rich and the poor.
Less often discussed, however, is the concept of “medical gluttony.” Well-heeled, well-insured patients don’t just have access to better care, they have access to more care. Maybe, even, too much care.
In his book “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America” (St. Martin’s Press), out this week, Dr. Otis Webb Brawley says the flip side of some people getting too little care is that others get “excessive and illogical care.” Doctors, hospitals and drug companies looking to cash in on expensive treatments and screenings sometimes overlook scientific data in favor of profit.
“The inappropriate use and overuse of medical treatment,is not just adding unnecessary cost to health care. It can actually be harmful to the individual,” Brawley writes.
Brawley tells the story of a breast-cancer patient who, in the mid-1990s, received high-dose radiation and a bone-marrow transplant. At the time, women were clamoring for this regimen, even suing their insurance companies to receive the treatment. At least 12 states passed laws requiring insurance companies to pay for it. But no scientific evidence suggested such treatment would work.
The woman received the treatment. Three years later, studies revealed that, oops, it wasn’t an appropriate treatment for breast cancer, after all. After nearly a year of hospitalization and several near brushes with death, the woman Brawley wrote about died in hospice care.
“She got the transplant because she was insured and doctors could convert her suffering into cash,” Brawley writes. “Maybe her original doctor simply failed to ask the fundamental questions . . . Maybe the money helped cloud his judgment.”
7 Stress tests don’t say much
Stress tests are designed for people who have symptoms of heart disease, but doctors often use them as a screening test for people who don’t have symptoms but are worried about their risk.
For those people, the accuracy of the test is remarkably low. But stress tests are cheap, they are reimbursable and they are in high demand. So often doctors order them, knowing that they really aren’t much of a diagnostic tool.
People with coronary artery disease can expect to survive four or more years if they can stay on a treadmill for 12 or more minutes. But Dr. Todd Miller, who published a critique of the test in 2008, said a number of factors — not just heart health — determine how long a person can remain on a treadmill.
“When a middle-age couch potato is done in after only three minutes on the treadmill, you scratch your head,” Miller said. “Is this heart disease or just deconditioning?”
8 The myth of early detection
The body’s immune system has a remarkable way of attacking everything from the common cold to, yes, cancer cells. Left untreated, many cancers will succumb to the immune system without a person ever knowing about it.
But if someone receives a diagnosis of cancer, they are likely to be subjected to a battery of drugs, radiation and surgeries that, at best, were unnecessary and at worst could be deadly.
Oncologists say that in certain cases, such as cervical cancer, early detection is absolutely a life-saver. But in others, such as lung and prostate cancers, if we “catch” a cancer early, we run the risk of treating a cancer that would have “gone away” on its own.
A decade ago, Quebec and Germany set up massive screening programs for neuroblastomas, the second-most common type of childhood tumor. But researchers found that children died from neuroblastomas at exactly the same rates whether they were screened or not. All three of the deaths in the screened group died from treatment, either from chemotherapy or from surgical complications. The results lead to the shuttering of neuroblastoma screenings and called into question the usefulness of screenings in general.
Recent studies suggest that as many as one in three breast cancers diagnosed by mammogram would not cause death or symptoms.
“Screening for cancer may lead to earlier detection of lethal cancers but also detects harmless ones,” writes Karsten Juhl Jorgensen and Peter C. Gotzsche in a recent study published in the British Medical Journal.
According to their research, mammography lead to one breast cancer death avoided for every 10 women overdiagnosed.
In the case of prostate-cancer screening, false-positive rates are so high that a New England Journal of Medicine study found that 48 men would have to undergo unnecessary treatment — subjecting them to bowel, bladder and sexual dysfunction — to save the life of one man who actually had the disease.
“I look at that deal, and I say that’s a bad deal,” Dartmouth Medical School Professor Dr. H. Gilbert Welch told reporters after the study came out in 2009.
In his new book, “Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health” (Beacon Press), out last month, Welch cautions doctors and patients alike to take a “less is more” approach to health.
“Overdiagnosis is the biggest problem posed by modern medicine,” he writes. “We must view the dogma of early diagnosis more skeptically. I realize that may be a really tough paradigm shift . . . But sometimes scientific paradigms simply need to change.”
History turns a page
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Ford GT Documentary Episode 3 Released
May 12th, 2016 – Courtesy of Ford Performance – When Ford Motor Company unveiled the all-new Ford GT, the automotive world was surprised, even shocked, that no information had leaked out. Now it’s lifting the curtain in a five-part video series called “The Return.”
Ford’s passion is for making the most innovative, cutting-edge vehicles on the road. That’s what inspired them to design and build the newest Ford GT.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the Ford GT’s first win at the Le Mans 24 Hours by returning to the iconic race was a daring move for a company ready to showcase its newest advances in Ford EcoBoost, aerodynamics and lightweighting in one vehicle.
“The Ford GT is a showcase that will help drive even more advanced technologies into our vehicle lineup,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman, Ford Motor Company. “We are using it not only to see what is possible, but also to help write the next chapter in our racing history and our future production.”
When Ford designed the all-new Ford GT, it sought to strike the perfect balance between everyday driver comfort and enjoyment – and what would be demanded of a supercar competing on the global sports car racing stage. What was coveted on the street would also need to be competitive on the track.
“This project is one that’s very close to the heart of who we are at Ford and Ford Performance,” said Raj Nair, executive vice president, Ford Global Product Development, and chief technical officer. “It represents the very best of what we do; that same spirit that drove the innovation behind the first Ford GT still drives us today. We’re not after short-term success – our eyes are on the long-term gain having a halo product that is this exciting can do for us, both in offering a new chapter in the Ford GT legend for fans and behind the scenes in engineering.”
“The Return” features Ford, Nair and Dave Pericak, director, Global Ford Performance, and shows both the development of the Ford GT and its adventures on the race track racing around the world in both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (North America) and FIA World Endurance Championship (global).
“We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but we have a long way to go,” Pericak said. “Every time we race the Ford GT, we learn something. Our ultimate goal is the return to Le Mans.”
Five episodes started on March 17:
Episode 1: “The Return: The Decision” – Bill Ford, Raj Nair and Dave Pericak discuss what it will take to be successful with the all-new Ford GT.
Episode 2: “The Cutting Edge” – Ford GT represents the best and newest technology Ford has to offer – elements that will benefit the full product lineup.
Episode 3: “Let’s Race” – Tells the story of the Ford GT’s racing debut at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Episode 4: “A Driver’s Perspective” – Tells the story from the drivers’ point of view, from what it was like to be selected to competing at the Le Mans 24 Hours. (Coming soon).
Episode 5: “The Road to Le Mans” – The race to the starting line comes to a close at last at the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours. (Coming soon).
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'Nanoimprinting' technique makes it possible to fabricate visible-light-bending metamaterials at unprecedented scales
by RIKEN
Figure 1: Illustration of an array of gold split-ring resonators in a silica substrate. Credit: 2013 Takuo Tanaka, RIKEN Metamaterials Laboratory
Artificial materials containing arrays of metal nanostructures can interact with light in useful and interesting ways. One of the most interesting possible uses of such 'metamaterials' is to bend light around objects, rendering them invisible. However, metamaterials usually only interact with light over a very narrow range of wavelengths—typically long wavelengths far beyond those visible to the human eye.
Takuo Tanaka from the RIKEN Metamaterials Laboratory, in collaboration with Shoichi Kubo and colleagues at Tohoku University, has now demonstrated a scalable fabrication method that greatly eases the production of metamaterials that can interact with light at visible wavelengths.
Tanaka and his team created a silica-based metamaterial containing an array of split-ring resonators—thin gold rings with two small breaks at the top and bottom (Fig. 1). A similar design previously proved successful when used at longer wavelengths in the microwave region. In principle, modifying the structure to function at visible wavelengths only requires the resonators to be made smaller to match the shorter wavelengths of visible light. However, the features required for such visible-light metamaterials are below 100 nanometers in size. Metamaterials are commonly fabricated by electron-beam lithography, which involves using a beam of electrons to draw out each resonator one at a time. This process is painstakingly slow, particularly for the production of the millions of small features needed to create a visible-light metamaterial of a practical size.
Instead, the researchers fabricated their structures through a process known as nanoimprint lithography. This technique involves transferring a master mold of the desired design onto a thin polymer film and then using standard metallization techniques to recreate the pattern in gold. In this way, the team was able to create split rings approximately 212 nanometers across and 54 nanometers high.
Tanaka and his colleagues demonstrated that their metamaterial magnetically interacts with red light. More important, however, is the scalability of their fabrication technique. Whereas techniques such as electron-beam lithography are limited to producing arrays of just several hundred square micrometers in area, Tanaka and his co-workers managed to create an array of 360 million split-ring resonators across a 5-millimeter square using their nanoimprint technique. "This is, to the best of our knowledge, the world's largest two-dimensional split-ring resonator array metamaterial for visible light," explains Tanaka. "Our next step will be to create much larger metamaterials, to make them three dimensional, and to reduce the operation wavelength."
Chemically assembled metamaterials may lead to superlenses
More information: Tomioka, T., Kubo, S., Nakagawa, M., Hoga, M. & Tanaka, T. Split-ring resonators interacting with a magnetic field at visible frequencies, Applied Physics Letters 103, 071104 (2013). dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4818666
Journal information: Applied Physics Letters
Provided by RIKEN
Citation: 'Nanoimprinting' technique makes it possible to fabricate visible-light-bending metamaterials at unprecedented scales (2013, October 11) retrieved 17 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2013-10-nanoimprinting-technique-fabricate-visible-light-bending-metamaterials.html
Engineers' new metamaterial doubles up on invisibility (w/ Video)
Bending light with better precision
Organic chemistry: Leading light waves astray
Theory and practice key to optimized broadband, low-loss optical metamaterials
Scientists Create Light-Bending Nanoparticles
Coupled exploration of light and matter
SLAC makes 'electron camera,' a world-class tool for ultrafast science, available to scientists worldwide
On the way to printable organic light emitting diodes
MEMS-in-the-lens architecture for laser scanning microscopy
Light-sensing system could show distant galaxies in unprecedented detail
Micro ring resonator has highest silicon carbide quality factor to date
AlexN
They still probably have to use EBL to make the mold (although I couldn't find in the article which process they actually used)
pauljpease
That's not a big problem since you only have to make the mold once. The only problem with EBL is that it is very slow to make large quantities.
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12 Jul Of Statelessness, Detention Camps and Deportations: India and the “National Register of Citizens” in Assam
12.07.19 | 1 Comment
While much of the world is aghast and transfixed by the migrant detention camps in the U.S., there is another dire human rights and humanitarian crisis brewing and about to reach its zenith in the Indian state of Assam on 31 July 2019. A legal process is underway – updating the “National Register of Citizens” – that threatens to dispossess over 2 million individuals, leaving them stateless and without a remedy.
In brief, and over simplifying perhaps, Assam – which borders Bangladesh and Bhutan, as well as other states in the Indian union – has a historically fraught relationship with the Indian state, linked to complex questions of borders, ethnic identity, cross-border migration and minority rights. With colonial roots, and extending to India post-partition, political Assamese nationalism has been a source of constant tension, spilling into violence such as the 1983 Nellie massacre. Eventually, the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 formalized much of the discourse around ‘foreigners’ and what to do about them. (For a condensed timeline of the question of citizenship in Assam, see here).
The issue has been on the back-burner for years, morphing and eventually revived in the past decade to harness a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia. The plan in motion is to formalize a ‘register of citizens’ and those left off the register may be declared foreigners, subject to deportation. The deadline for this final list looms large and is set to be released on 31 July 2019.
Kafkaesque legal process
The aim of the exercise is simple. Prove your citizenship – the onus is on the individual to get on the citizens list – and if you don’t, the state will remove those that are suspect, fall out of the categories that can apply, or who do not have the means to prove that they are citizens. An amendment to the Citizenship Act by virtue of the Assam Accord means that those who are on the 1951 census, and those who migrated between 1966 and 1971 may be considered citizens, but those after 24 March 1971 are to be considered foreigners, subject to deportation.
At the heart of all this of course is a Kafkaesque maze of legality for people to navigate, many without resources and without the wherewithal to prove that they belong on the list. The basis of inclusion on the register is to prove links to the 1951 census, the electoral roll, or proof of familial links – all opaque processes, and complicated by due to lack of adequate documentation for many.
Even more problematic is that this procedure has been blessed by the Supreme Court of India, and even prodded along. In addition to intervening directly in the case, the troubling role of the court includes stepping in for the executive at times, taking away remedies, as well as approving dubious methods of verification of citizenship, all under the cloak of confidentiality. For an excellent analysis of the troubled role of India’s apex court in this NRC process, see here. In another piece that pulls no punches, a senior lawyer at the Indian Supreme Court refers to the role of the court as a “prelude to ethnic cleansing”.
The Supreme Court specified a timeline for completion of the list that culminates on 31 July 2019. After this date, when the final list is released, all those whose names are not on the list will be suspected ‘foreigners’ and will have to appear at ‘Foreigners Tribunals’. Failure to prove nationality before these tribunals will result in deportation (to where, no one knows!). Furthermore, there are multiple challenges regarding the establishment and functioning of these tribunals – including the lack of adequately trained judges. But even more disturbing are the skewed incentives, where declaring more individuals foreigners seems to be a key performance indicator of the adjudicators. Another of the multiple flaws in the procedure is the ability of third parties to object to the inclusion of names on the list – initiating yet another set of opaque bureaucratic procedures. Furthermore, those excluded from the NRC will have a period of sixty days to appeal.
Also, suspected individuals are already being detained in camps – whose appalling conditions are well documented. At a recent hearing before the Supreme Court of India in the case of Harsh Mander v Union of India,important legal questions of indefinite detention and the conditions in the camps were raised. The hearings before the court however became an exhortation to the government to do more to deport individuals. For more on the hearings, see here.
The above are but a few of the problematic legal questions that have arisen, as a result of the NRC process.
Multiple violations of international law
There is a slew of international law obligations that are being violated here. While it is honestly difficult to even know where to start, a document that comes to mind is the joint letter to the Indian government from the Vice-chair of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary detentions, and the Special Rapporteurs on Minority Rights, on Racism and Xenophobia, on Freedom of Expression, and on Freedom of Religion.
The Annex to the letter lists obligations under international human rights law that India needs to adhere to, by virtue of its ratification of international conventions. These include obligations under the ICCPR – Art. 12 relating to minority rights, and Art. 19 relating to the right to receive information as part of democratic processes; fairness of the hearings to be in compliance with Art. 9 & 10 of the UDHR, and Art. 9 & 14 of the ICCPR; racial discrimination per ICERD, including Arts. 1, 2, 5 (on nationality) and Art. 6. The annex further refers to the issue of statelessness brought up by the Special Rapporteur on Minority Rights.
In particular, I would emphasize the flawed procedures, including the burden of proof being placed on the individual, the lack of adequate legal representation, the lack of appropriate judicial processes, as well as the ability of others to file objections, as falling foul of the ICCPR.
Furthermore, the conditions of detention are reprehensible. Many of those detained have been held for over 2 years and in appalling conditions. These would violate multiple obligations including under the ICCPR, CRC, CEDAW, CPRD and the CERD conventions.
On the question of statelessness and nationality, there are a few strands to unpack. One aspect relates to the right to citizenship, and the obligation of states not to create conditions of statelessness – such as emphasized by the 1954 and 1961 Conventions on Statelessness (which India is not a party to). However, many of the rights enshrined fall within the rubric of international human rights treaties, as detailed above, and which India is a party to.
Another aspect of international law relates to those who are refugees, and to whom the customary international law norm of non-refoulement would apply. I would approach this with care, and not argue non-refoulement solely, given most of the claims are in fact from long term residents, who are not claiming refugee status. Sole reliance on this aspect of international legal protection may lead to the inference that all those left off the NRC are indeed foreigners, with or without claims for refugee status.
Incalculable consequences
There are stories every day of individuals excluded from the NRC list – an army veteran, the winner of a significant national arts award, and of people committing suicide at being excluded.
In this state sponsored process that is going to create stateless people, the danger of instability and violence cannot be ruled out. I have previously written about the International Criminal Court deportation case between Myanmar and Bangladesh – and the implications in relation to any instances of mass atrocities resulting from this exercise in Assam. It is also now abundantly clear that there are murmurings now of adapting this exercise to other states – that have no international borders or history of migration – in the guise of xenophobia. Politicians in at least three other states – so far – are espousing the Assam NRC example as a model.
The cost of human misery of this exercise is unimaginable. As is the degree of inhumanity in propelling forward what is possibly the largest exercise in creating conditions of statelessness ever. A dubious distinction indeed.
Asia-Pacific, Featured, General, International Human Rights Law
The First Decade | Verfassungsblog
[…] PRIYA PILLAI draws our attention to a barely noticed humanitarian and constitutional disaster of inconceivable proportions, the stripping of some 2 million people in the Indian state of Assam of their citizenship. […]
Priya Pillai
Priya Pillai is an international lawyer, consulting in the areas of international justice, transitional justice, and human rights. She has extensive legal experience at international and domestic institutions.
Twitter: @pillaipriy
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DR. DANIEL ROTHBART
Daniel Rothbart is professor of conflict analysis and resolution at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University. Professor Rothbart specializes in identity-based conflicts, ethics and conflict, civilians in war, and the Darfur region of Sudan. In addition to serving as director of the program on ethics and conflict at his home institution, he currently chairs the Sudan Task Group, an organization that seeks to build long-term peace in this East African country. His academic writings have led to more than forty articles and book chapters in scholarly journals and volumes. His recent publications in conflict analysis and resolution include the following books: Identity, Morality, and Threat: Studies in Violent Conflict (co-edited), Why They Die: Civilian Devastation in Violent Conflict (co-authored), Civilians and Modern War: Armed Conflict and the Ideology of Violence, (co-edited), and Violent Conflict and Peacebuilding: The Continuing Crisis in Darfur, (co-authored). He is currently exploring the power of moral emotions—shame, humiliation, dignity, pride—as central to protracted conflicts or to their resolution. After earning his Ph. D. in philosophy of science from Washington University, St. Louis, Dr. Rothbart was a visiting research scholar at Linacre College, Oxford, at Dartmouth College, and at University of Cambridge.
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NANCY LINDBORG
Nancy Lindborg has served, since February 2015, as President of the United States Institute of Peace, an independent institution founded by Congress to provide practical solutions for preventing and resolving violent conflict around the world. Ms. Lindborg has spent most of her career working in fragile and conflict affected regions around the world. Prior to joining USIP, she served as the assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) at USAID. From 2010 through early 2015, Ms. Lindborg led USAID teams focused on building resilience and democracy, managing and mitigating conflict and providing urgent humanitarian assistance. Ms. Lindborg led DCHA teams in response to the ongoing Syria Crisis, the droughts in Sahel and Horn of Africa, the Arab Spring, the Ebola response and numerous other global crises. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Lindborg was president of Mercy Corps, where she spent 14 years helping to grow the organization into a globally respected organization known for innovative programs in the most challenging environments. She started her international career working overseas in Kazakhstan and Nepal. Ms. Lindborg has held a number of leadership and board positions including serving as co-president of the Board of Directors for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition; co-founder and board member of the National Committee on North Korea; and chair of the Sphere Management Committee. She is a member of Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a B.A and M.A. in English Literature from Stanford University and an M.A. in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
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The Simpsons - Songs In The Key Of Springfield
Phil Hartman (1948 - 1998) died fifteen years ago today.
I remember in detail when and where I first heard about his death. I was working for a financial services corporation in Irving, Texas, doing a stint in the collections department after being part of the corporate staff, doing work on the commercial lending side, for my first year with the firm. The collections group was located about two miles from the main headquarters building where I used to work, in a location close by Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. Most of the folks there had worked there together a long time and were a pretty tight-knit group, so there was a lot of grumbling and resentment when I, the young hotshot from Corporate, arrived there to assume a job that at least half a dozen people there felt they deserved more. Needless to say, my first couple of weeks there were not fun.
But gradually, most of the people there began to warm up to me. An important tool that worked in my favor was that, as a former corporate exec, I had been granted and was allowed to keep my unlimited Internet access. Back in those days, I guess the company's thought was that if everyone had Internet access, all that employees would do was spend all workday screwing around surfing the Web (heh - that never happens nowadays, does it?). So Web privileges were parsed out only to a fortunate few, mostly senior executives - and, for some reason, me. This came in handy in my new position that March, during the annual NCAA basketball tournament, when I was able to provide up-to-the-minute scores of tourney games to the multitude of hoops fanatics (and office pool participants) there. And I wasn't stingy about occasionally letting someone into my office to use Yahoo! It's always little gestures like that, I've found, that turn people around.
I was sitting in my office on that early morning in late May, taking a break and checking out the news, when I came across the initial headline: "Phil Hartman Dead", with no further details offered at that time. It was such an unlikely, unexpected, out-of-the-blue story that my mind initially dismissed it as one of those wild, unsubstantiated rumors that used to pop up as "news" in the early days of web reporting. It was when the second headline popped up a few minutes later with the news of his death that I began to take it more seriously. It took a while for the details to emerge; as in all murder cases, the circumstances were not pretty:
Apparently he and his wife Brynn had been having marital difficulties, a lot of which stemmed from Brynn's seething jealousy over her husband's success in light of her own failed acting career (well, that along with her rampant booze and drug problems - it seemed that she had a long-standing reputation in the industry and community as a total whack-job). After another of their many domestic spats that evening, Phil's wife went out and remained out into the wee hours, slamming tequila shooters and snorting coke at a nearby bar. She came back home at around 3 a.m., and without ceremony shot her husband to death point-blank while he slept in their bed. Brynn then fled to a friend's house (leaving behind her two small children, who were asleep in the home during this entire incident), telling him about the shooting and promptly falling asleep on the guy's couch. Initially, her friend didn't believe her story, but after finding the gun in her purse, he began to have second thoughts. Brynn woke up about three hours later and dragged the guy over to her house, were he found Phil's body and immediately called 911. By the time the cops arrived, Brynn had locked herself in the bedroom with her husband's corpse. Before they could break the door down, she had shot herself in the head with a second gun.
It was shocking news - so much so that I got up and left my office in a daze, and stumbled over to the first person I could find to tell them the news. They were just as shocked. It just didn't seem possible that something like this could happen to a star of his caliber. At that point in 1998, Hartman's career was reaching a peak. He was about to begin his fifth season as the lead on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio. And through the late '90's he starred in a series of films, including Houseguest, Sgt. Bilko and Jingle All The Way, most of which were poorly received critically but financial successes at the box office.
But, of course, Hartman's greatest success during the 1990s came from his many guest appearances on The Simpsons, and the list of classic characters he left behind - Lyle Lanley (one of the greatest musical performances in Simpsons history - the "Monorail Song"):
Incompetent attorney Lionel Hutz (this is a weird color-free video, but still good):
And of course, the immortal washed-up actor Troy McClure:
Saturday Night Live, the show that made him famous, did a tribute show in his honor that aired on June 13th, 1998, a couple of weeks after his death, showing clips from Hartman's six-year residency on the program. They replayed some of his classics: Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, The Anal Retentive Chef, Bill Clinton at McDonalds, etc. One of the last things they played on that show was the following clip, "Love Is A Dream", directed by Tom Schiller. Jan Hooks, Phil's co-star in this short, presented the piece, and couldn't stop crying as she did so. After watching it, neither could I - in light of his passing, it is a perfect tribute, but it is devastating:
In a lot of ways, Phil Hartman's comedic work was sort of smarmy and overly broad, but it still had widespread appeal. While he was never a big favorite with the critics, Hartman had fans of all ages, and to a man, everyone who knew of him was genuinely shocked and saddened by his death. His friends in the industry knew him as a hard-working, 'normal' guy, seemingly unaffected by his fame and the trappings associated with it, and they were just as stunned as the rest of the public. As Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly magazine wrote, in a column soon after the news broke, Hartman was "the last person you'd expect to read about in lurid headlines in your morning paper . . . a decidedly regular guy, beloved by everyone he worked with."
The Simpsons was still going somewhat strong in the spring of 1998, the end of the show's eighth season. And there were plenty of good and excellent individual episodes to come in the program's future seasons. But I think that if you had to select the single point in time where The Simpsons moved from being classic, 'must-see' TV and started becoming standard, run-of-the-mill fare (or even worse), the loss of Phil Hartman's voice and characterizations is as good a place as any to mark the beginning of the decline.
A year earlier, Rhino released Songs In The Key of Springfield, a compilation of some of the best musical bits from the show's first seven years. There's some great stuff on here: the entire "Oh, Streetcar!" musical episode (including the song ripping New Orleans that angered residents of that city); Tito Puente's outstanding (and authentic) mambo number "Senor Burns"; Beverly D'Angelo (as Lurleen Lumpkin) and her superb country number "Your Wife Don't Understand You". But my favorite part of this disc is from the "A Fish Called Selma" episode, with the now-classic Troy McClure musical version of Planet Of The Apes:
Frankly, as good as the selections are on this album, there's not enough Phil Hartman on it. And the public seemed to agree - this disc only made it to #103 on the Billboard Hot 200, significantly below its predecessor, the multi-platinum Top 5 smash The Simpsons Sing The Blues. Still, this is an excellent overview of some of the great music that went into the show during the early part of its history.
So, here it is for you to hear for yourself - Songs In The Key Of Springfield, released by Rhino Records on March 18th, 1997. Enjoy, and while you listen, recall all of the great and hilarious Simpsons moments brought to you by the late, lamented Phil Hartman. And, as always, let me know what you think.
Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link ASAP:
Posted by HFM at 12:01 AM 4 comments:
Labels: 1997, Phil Hartman, Rhino Records, Soundtrack, The Simpsons, Various Artists
The B-52's - Mesopotamia ("David Byrne Mixes")
“When someone reaches middle age, people he knows begin to get put in charge of things, and knowing what he knows about the people who are being put in charge of things scares the hell out of him.”
― Calvin Trillin, With All Disrespect
I've been watching the current Senate campaign in nearby Massachusetts (for the seat of former Senator and current Secretary of State John Kerry) with more than my usual bit of interest in all things political. I actually have a personal connection to this contest - I know the Republican candidate, Gabriel Gomez. He was my classmate at the Naval Academy, and in the same company with many of my old Annapolis friends. I can't say that I know him well, but we're familiar enough to recognize and call one another by name in a crowd of people. It's sort of strange, seeing a guy who you knew in your younger days, the same sort of hell-raisin', hard-drinkin', tom-cattin' partier you once were, now presenting himself as a solid citizen and vying for high elective office. Although I can't say that I support his cause or agree with most of his positions, I wish him well in his endeavors.
I don't know how many of you out there are familiar with the works of Calvin Trillin, the writer and humorist, but if you haven't checked him out, I heartily suggest you do. He has a very dry, witty, gentle, self-depreciating sense of humor . I heard him in a radio interview last year, discussing his then-latest book Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff (a book that went on to win last year's coveted Thurber Prize for American Humor). During the interview, Trillin brought up the topic I've quoted above, about the people we know and have grown up with now reaching the age where they're being put in charge of things, and how weird that seems. It was a pretty funny bit, with Trillin making reference to the kids he grew up with, known for eating worms or wetting their pants in elementary school, now serving as college presidents, elected officials and other respected authorities.
I can relate to that already, looking back not just on the recent Senate candidate acquaintance, but also on the lives of many of my old elementary and secondary school friends. Back in high school, one of my best buddies and I had an ongoing (and definitely non-PC) gag that poked fun at the mentally disabled. So what is his profession now? He's a senior administrator for residential communities that provide care and independence to people with Down's Syndrome and other developmental disabilities, a cause that he's devoted his life to. In another case, I went to school in California with two brothers who did such crazy, dangerous stuff to and with one another (jumping off of roofs into pools, crashing bikes head on, etc.) that I seriously thought they were congenitally insane. Today, one is a respected corporate attorney in the Bay Area, while the other is a renowned chemical engineer. So, it just goes to show you that the attitudes and actions on display in someone's early life are no harbinger of things to come.
All of which brings me to a phone call I received a few weeks ago, from my old friend Camob . . .
I've mentioned him a couple of times here in this blog. He lives way out on the West Coast, in San Diego, so we don't get together very much - I think the last time I actually saw him was in 2009. But we've always kept in contact through phone conversations and emails, maintaining a friendship and connection that goes back more than thirty years, all the way back to when we were young pups living next door to one another in a dingy old dormitory in Newport, Rhode Island.
He's a lot like me, in that most of his musical loves and sensibilities were formed back when we were in prep school and college. Camob was well into the New Wave long before he came to Newport, and was a champion of bands of that ilk that hailed from his home state of California. For instance, I remember when L.A. natives The Go-Go's dropped their hit debut LP Beauty and The Beat in the summer of 1981; you would have thought that Camob owned stock in I.R.S. Records, the way he talked up that band and that disc to anyone who would listen! He knew a lot about SoCal bands like Sparks and the Surf Punks, groups that I had only a passing acquaintance with. But as I mentioned in a previous post, the thing that made us instant friends early on was the discovery that we were both huge Devo fanatics. During off hours, we would sometimes hang out in his room, listening to his cassette copy of New Traditionalists (released the month after the Go-Go's album, in August 1981) . . . or more often than not, he and I would march up and down the halls with our parade rifles, mock-serious, as "Devo Corporate Anthem" (off of Duty Now For The Future) blasted out of his room and James, his older, more worldly roommate, looked on at us with an air of bemusement (ah, the things we did when we were young!).
I was the one who turned Camob on to The B-52's, my favorite band at the time. I was stunned that he was unfamiliar with their music up to that point . . . but he was a fast learner. By Christmas of 1981, he was a full-fledged fan - leading up to our epic journey to Providence that winter to catch them live at the Performing Arts Center (click that link above for the full story).
Although decades have now passed and we are much older, Camob remains a committed fan of both Devo and more especially The B-52's. He never misses an opportunity to see them play when they are in his area, which is fairly often. I've seen the Bee-Fives about 7 or 8 times in my life; I figure that, over the years, Camob has paid to see them at least 25 times all told, and has been to no less than a score of Spudboy concerts. Just before the holidays last year, during one of our phone conversations, he suggested that I keep an eye on the mails, as he was sending a package my way. I thought that was a bit odd, since he and I are not in the habit of sending each other Christmas gifts every year. I tried to pry out of him what it could be, without luck. But after a day or two, I sort of forgot about it. A few days later, however, a box with my name on it arrived at my door. I recalled that it was from him, but I had no idea what it could be. I tore the box open, and laughed hysterically as I found this inside:
A joke gift, but one from the heart, and a reminder and acknowledgement of our old days together.
A couple of years ago, I was browsing around the Web, and came across a site describing a recently remixed version of The B-52's song "Mesopotamia". So I started looking around for it, but instead stumbled upon a site that had what was purported to be the "original mix" of the Mesopotamia EP - the mix reportedly done by David Byrne that was mostly shelved after he and the band had disagreements regarding the album project (which was why Mesopotamia was released as a 6-song mini-album, instead of The B-52's third full-fledged studio album). From what I read, this "Byrne mix" was included only on early copies of the EP released in England, which were immediately pulled in favor of the version that most people are familiar with. But a couple of the English copies remained at large, and the guy running the site got his hands on one of them.
I practically levitated out of my seat as I read this. Mesopotamia has long been one of my favorite B-52's albums, but to this day it holds a mixed reputation among the band's aficionados. The EP marked a substantial change in the musical direction of the band. On this record, The B-52's moved away from the more 'basic', good-time, straight-ahead party rock sound of their first two albums (The B-52's and Wild Planet) into something somewhat darker, denser, more polyrhythmic and layered. Many fans and critics were horrified by this shift - I can recall one savage review from back then that contained the line "The B-52's tried to take the 'p' out of 'party', and failed." As a result, Mesopotamia peaked on the U.S. Billboard charts significantly lower than its predecessor, the Top 20 hit Wild Planet. This EP definitely put the brakes on The B-52's momentum, and it took them years to recover.
The full story behind the aborted Mesopotamia sessions has never been fully told. From what I understand, the disagreements between David Byrne and the Bee-Fives stemmed from two things. First, it was the sound itself, which was a radical departure from what the band was known for; the B-52's (and the label) were understandably nervous about so drastic a move away from what by then was considered a 'signature' sound for the group. It seemed to them that Byrne was trying to act like a bush-league Brian Eno, and mold the band into a hybrid afro-worldbeat version of what Talking Heads had been doing under Eno's production during that time (Fear Of Music/Remain In Light/Speaking In Tongues).
In addition, Byrne was producing his first full-scale solo work, the musical score for the Twyla Tharp Broadway dance project, The Catherine Wheel. He was working full-bore on that during the day and producing/mixing the B-52's stuff at night (again, trying to be a little Eno). But unlike his mentor, Byrne obviously couldn't handle the stress/effort involved in helming two big projects at once, and one of them began to suffer. Guess which one? So between the changed sound and Byrne's inattention, they collectively decided to part ways, and scrap the full album sessions.
The problem the label had with aborting the album was that it screwed up their release plans; there was supposed to be a full-blown B-52s album on the shelves in 1981. So Warner Bros. quickly slapped together the Party Mix! remix EP for release in July 1981, buying time for themselves and the band while they tried to figure out what to do with the unfinished songs and mixes left by Byrne.
The result was chaos. Island, Warner's distributor in the UK, rushed the pressing of the overseas Mesopotamia discs for release in January 1982 - somehow including unfinished, unedited demos of some tracks, instead of the fully produced songs. So, you see - the heralded so-called "David Byrne original EP mixes" are actually nothing more than a music label's huge fuckup.
Even with all of that, they're still interesting. Three of the songs on this "Mesopotamia - David Byrne Mix" (screw it - for the sake of simplicity, let's just keep calling it that) - "Deep Sleep", the title cut, and "Nip It In The Bud" are essentially identical to what I'd heard for all these years. But there were significant differences in the other three songs/demos:
"Loveland" - the 'David Byrne mix' is 8:24 minutes long, almost a full three and a half minutes longer than the "regular" version. It's also much 'dryer' than the familiar version; that is, there is no reverb or echo added to Kate's voice in this version of the song. Still, it's pretty good.
"Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can" - This alternate version is a full minute and a half longer than the familiar version. I'd always sort-of liked the 'regular' version, but I always felt that, like "Nip It In The Bud", it could have been improved on. I discovered that, in this case, I was wrong. The 'David Byrne version', while longer, simply has too much going on within it - a lot of annoying sound effects and horn fanfares that intrude upon and ultimately diminish the song. I frankly prefer the version I've always listened to all these years to this one.
"Cake" - The hands-down highlight of the 'Byrne mixes'. This version is two minutes longer than the familiar version. In this one, the song is slightly sped up from the 'norm', and overall it's a LOT funkier (in a cool Bootsy Collins, Speaking In Tongues-era Talking Heads fashion) and better put together than the released version. You don't notice the extended length of it; it's THAT good, and should have been the one to have gone on the official EP.
All in all, it was pretty exciting hearing these alternate versions. Despite its critics, I'd always liked Mesopotamia - regardless of the fact that, even at its debut, it had a sort of unfinished, half-assed feel to it. And I knew from my conversations with Camob that he liked the EP as well. So I quickly forwarded him a copy, and soon afterwards received the following response:
"Really appreciate you sending this along. As we have discussed before, I always loved Mesopotamia like you did and I always felt it got shorted by everyone but the true fans. I was never a big fan of "Throw That Beat........" or "Deep Sleep", Loved "Mesopotamia", "Cake", really liked "Nip it in the Bud" and "Loveland". And you are right on with your comments, this version of "Cake" should have been the one they included on the EP."
That's my boy Camob - always on my wavelength!
Camob graduated from Annapolis a year ahead of me, and spent all of his active duty Navy time in the Pacific Fleet. He left active duty back in the mid-90s and found a niche in the professional placement field, eventually opening up his own successful business. But he maintained his Navy connection and continued his military advancement as a reserve naval officer; as a reservist, it seemed that he was more 'active' than he was when he was actually in the regular Navy, with regular deployments to hot spots around the world.
So back to that phone call . . .
Camob called to tell me some outstanding news that he's just received - he had been selected for flag rank - my boy was going to be made an Admiral! I couldn't believe it!
. . . And yet, I could believe it. People who don't know him well might dismiss him - but Camob has worked his ass off all his life to achieve success, both in business and in the military, and has never let adversity or naysayers deter him from where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do on this planet. I have been lucky enough to see all of his facets throughout his life - from the beer-bong wielding, concert-attending, poker playing boon compadre and dependable wingman, to the dedicated family man, savvy business professional and 'watertight' military commander. He's not just one or another of those things - all those experiences and attitudes from across the years are what molded him into the man he is today.
So I don't expect him to change much, now that he's got gold stars on his lapels. He'll probably still chuckle over our email exchanges (some of the funniest things I've ever written and read have come through the banter and correspondence Camob and I have engaged in, off and on, for over thirty years now). He will undoubtedly be the first Flag Officer in U.S. history who's once owned (and worn) a plastic Devo "New Traditionalist Pomp" hairdo . . . one who's served more hours of disciplinary marching and room restriction at USNA than perhaps any other admiral . . . one who knows and appreciates who Lene Lovich, Jane Wiedlin and Susan Dallion are . . . a man who never missed an episode of The Facts Of Life when it was on, and who once nursed a years-long crush on one of the TV show's girls (I'll let you guess
which one) . . . and one who spent much more time laughing and having fun in school and in life than in sweating over things, politicking and glad-handing his way to high rank. I'm afraid to say that there are more than a few top officers out there who greased their way along with that sort of "brownnoser" attitude (and I can personally name more than one . . .) - Camob is NOT one of those officers.
As such . . . well, with my buddy making Admiral, I sort of feel like Henry Hill and Jimmy "The Gent" Conway felt in Goodfellas, when they heard that Tommy DeVito was going to be a 'made man' in the Mafia - "With Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made." With Camob, it's like, finally, the right man, one of our own, a guy I've known and liked for forever and can relate to, made it. And I couldn't be happier.
(of course, in Goodfellas, this happened . . .
. . . so maybe that's not such the best analogy to use in this case . . . but I digress . . .)
So, with all of this, I have to say that in this instance I can't agree with Trillin's assessment of 'friends in high places". Knowing that Camob is now one of the folks "in charge of things" doesn't scare the hell out of me; quite the opposite - it makes me smile, knowing that, at least in this case, justice prevailed, things are in the right hands, and all is good and proper in the world. Congratulations to my old and dear friend!
So, in honor of the new RADM (USNR) Camob, here's The B-52's Mesopotamia EP, containing the alternate demo versions, released erroneously by Island Records in the United Kingdom on January 27th, 1982. Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.
Posted by HFM at 10:44 AM 64 comments:
Labels: 1982, Athens, David Byrne, Island Records, New Wave, The B-52s, Warner Brothers
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The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
Discovery Channel is running a summer series entitled “Curiosity.” It is a forum for celebrity types to discuss their views on something about which they are curious. The initial program aired August 7, 2011 featuring famed physicist, Stephen Hawking asking, “Does God Exist?”
Anyone who recognizes Hawking’s name knows where he stands on the question. “Curiosity” gave him a television opportunity to discuss his views and why he holds them.
I watched the program with great curiosity to see how he would or could encapsulate a lifetime of work into a one-hour tv program. The program was designed (as are most) to reach a general audience whose education level was at least the eighth grade. The biggest and most difficult word used was “infinitesimally,” which goes quite beyond the average eighth-grade level of understanding.
He followed a logical course of continually asking, “Where, then, did that originate?” as he took us back through time to the beginning. That is ultimately the question that thinkers seek to answer. Those who follow a religious path answer with “God.” Those who do not believe in God answer with the current scientific explanation, “Big Bang.”
Hawking’s explanation of how the Big Bang occurred leaves much to be desired. His logical progressions are filled with major assumptions. This master of quantum physics made quantum leaps in logic that left me wondering if he had ever studied even the rudiments of logic.
His premise is that “laws can be understood by the human mind, and these laws tell us whether we need a god.”
The beginning of his presentation was a masterful deception designed to equate himself with other great scientists such as Aristarchus and Galileo. By association, he used his victim status of being persecuted by the church for his views as similar to the persecution of Galileo. It follows that since the church persecuted Galileo and he was later proven to be correct, then since the church has persecuted me, I must be correct. Subtle. Effective.
It appears that he has taken his great mind to argue against very weak religious views. Before he begins presenting his major assumptions, he makes one subtle assumption about God’s purpose. After his premise statement, his argument is that God’s purpose is only to set and reset natural law, but natural laws are universal and need no governance. Therefore, God is not necessary.
When he discusses black holes, we are led through a series of major assumptions that are posed as facts, but only after presenting some commonly known “facts” about black holes. Black holes are the result of extremely massive stars imploding upon themselves. (We have accepted that as fact, though no one has ever seen a star implode.) Nothing exists within black holes. (Though no one has ever gone into one to see. Just because we cannot see something, does not mean it doesn’t exist.) Time ceases within a black hole. (That has got to be a major assumption.)
We know, understand, and accept that scientific advances are made because of theories and propositions. No problem. But, please do not attempt to present a theory as a fact.
He states that it only takes three things to make a universe: matter, energy and space. Then Hawking brings in Einstein’s E=Mc², to show that only two ingredients are necessary: space and energy.
And, following the reasoning, he asks once again, “Where did space and energy come from?”
“We now know that space and energy were created by the Big Bang.”
Really? We know that? How? Were you there?
No, sir. You might theorize, postulate, propose, or assume that; but you do not KNOW that.
Hawking then follows with yet another assumption: “We know the universe was incredibly small.” This assumption is that the universe has always existed, which is similar to Carl Sagan’s assumptive statement: “The cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, and all that ever will be.”
Returning to the black holes, he states that these phenomena reveal “how the universe created itself.”
(In 1976, Hawking demonstrated under the rules of quantum physics that black holes begin to evaporate away taking all their information with them. But now, according to his latest revision (2004), Hawking argues that eventually some of the information about the black hole can be determined from what it emits.)
I realize that most of what I have presented so far can be reasonably argued against, expecially by those who have more knowledge and experience with these aspects of science. However, there was one glaring fallacy presented that even the weakest of minds could grasp.
In his initial explanation of black holes, Hawking stated that they were “massive” having come from massive stars much larger than our sun. Then, as he traced our knowledge backward to the beginning of time, and asked the question of where it all began, he boldly declared, “an infinitesimally small black hole.” The obvious contradiction should be more than most people can tolerate.
Mr. Hawking concluded, “We now know where the universe came from, and we are quite pleased with ourselves for having obtained this knowledge.”
Posted in Got Questions?. Tags: black holes, creation, curiosity, god, Hawking, universe. 1 Comment »
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New Friends New Life 14th Annual Luncheon Elaine Wittmann, Patricia Daniel, Stephanie Oliver, Denise Priewe, Laura Singer
New Friends New Life’s 14th Annual Luncheon on May 10 at the OMNI Dallas Hotel, raised over $1.06 million toward the work of the nonprofit, which restores and empowers formerly trafficked and sexually exploited women, teens, and children. Honorary luncheon chairs were Gail and Dr. R. Gerald Turner and luncheon chairs were Lisa Cooley and Tanya Foster. Joe Ehrmann, co-founder of the NFL Foundation-funded InSideOut Initiative and a former NFL Pro Bowl athlete, named by Parade Magazine as “The Most Important Coach in America” for his work empowering youth – a critical component to ending sex trafficking and exploitation – was keynote speaker. Singer Songwriter Gayle Arbuckle provided a moving song, which inspired 1,060 guests to be the change needed to help prevent a crime that enslaves young American girls at an average age of 13. David Pughes, Interim Chief, Dallas Police Department, gave the invocation and Shelly Slater directed the audience’s attention to the screens for the debut of a thought-provoking video portraying the scenario and thoughts of a young girl trapped in the life of sex trafficking.
Chris Kleinert, chair of the New Friends New Life Men’s Advocacy Group Board, was joined by Jeremy Hodge, a student at Parish Episcopal School, to honor four ProtectHer award recipients – international, national, state, and local partners in the organization’s advocacy and prevention efforts to eradicate sex trafficking and exploitation: INTERNATIONAL HONOREE: Airline Ambassadors International, the first-time international recipient, holds training sessions in airports around the world teaching all airline personnel the key warning signs of trafficking. Flight attendant Shelia Fedrick, who gained national recognition this year for rescuing a young girl on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco, was honored along with Airline Ambassadors International founder Nancy Rivard. NATIONAL HONOREE: U.S. Senator Rob Portman is the founder and co-chair of the Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking and has authored five federal anti-trafficking laws since 2012. STATE HONOREE: Governor Greg Abbott’s Child Sex Trafficking Team (CCST), which in 2016, changed the landscape of Texas’ fight against the horrific crime that is child sex trafficking. LOCAL HONOREE: Parish Episcopal School, piloted the New Friends New Life Men’s Advocacy Group’s manKINDness Project® High School Program, a 60-minute interactive learning experience teaching the next generation how to identify and execute healthy relationships with women and stop the cycle of sex trafficking. Jeremy Hodge was a member of the Parish team – the first to pilot the manKINDness Project Curriculum. Hodge told the audience that one of the most powerful things he learned was how society’s attitudes toward women and girls influence sex trafficking and exploitation. He wants to change that and feels that the program should be in every school in the nation.
Throughout the ballroom young men in a variety of colorful high school football jerseys represented five different teams from Berkner, Lake Highlands, Parish, Pierce, and Richardson High Schools. Each school has participated in New Friend New Life’s manKINDness® Project curriculum for high school athletes in an effort to engage in dialogue about respect for young women and themselves.
“New Friends New Life has made great strides this past year through our Men’s Advocacy Group’s manKINDness Project® High School Program, a 60-minute interactive learning experience tailored to teen boys which aligns perfectly with Joe Ehrmann’s message to youth,” said Kelly Cruse, executive director, New Friends New Life. “Joe’s motivational message supports our philosophy that we must be proactive to create a long-term impact on this horrific and widespread industry.”
Mike Doocy, Fox 4 anchor and member of the Men’s Advocacy Group Board, took the stage to introduce keynote speaker Joe Ehrmann. He told the audience “while Joe Ehrmann gained notoriety due to his superior athletic acumen of the football field, he became a legend due to the investment he has made in the lives of men and young boys.”
Ehrmann captivated the crowd and encouraged the audience to work to understand “our own moral responsibility” relating it to New Friends New Life’s message, “Not our children, not our city.” “We must create better citizens and contribute to our communities if we are going to eradicate this. Whenever you have empathy and can turn it into action that equals compassion which produces moral courage.” He continued to say that apathy and indifference are our two greatest problems and encouraged the audience to step out of their comfort zones and have “our own personal transformation so that we can help transform others.” Ehrmann now devotes his life to teaching young men a whole new meaning of masculinity. “Being a man means emphasizing relationships and having a cause bigger than yourself. It means accepting responsibility and leading courageously. It means that empathy, integrity, and living a life of service to others – all are more important than points on a scoreboard.”
Ehrmann’s NFL Foundation-funded InSideOut Initiative is a blueprint for systemic change, transforming the current “win-at-all-costs” sports culture into one that defines and promotes sports as a human growth experience.
Serving approximately 1,000 women, teens, and children annually, New Friends New Life provides holistic services for victims of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation including access to education, job training, interim financial assistance, mental health counseling, and spiritual support. By partnering with law enforcement, corporate sponsors, community organizations, and individual donors and volunteers, New Friends New Life helps to provide legal assistance, medical services, budget counseling, job-readiness training, and educational opportunities. The nonprofit’s High Risk and Trafficked Teen Girls Program offers abuse recovery groups for adolescents, teaching girls, ages 12 to 17, how to recognize and ultimately recover from abuse. The program is an intervention effort to help girls avoid a lifetime of exploitation as human trafficking victims.
Media Sponsors were The Dallas Morning News and WFAA.
Four recipients – international, national, state and local – to be honored at May 10 Luncheon, featuring Joe Ehrmann New Friends New Life (NFNL), a...
Awards, Berkner, Cooley, Crime, Ehrmann, Episcopal, Foster, Friends, Fundraiser, High, Highlands, Lake, Life, New, Parish, Pearce, Richardson, Schools, Sex, Trafficking, Turner, Youths
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New Friends New Life Lisa Cooley, Lauryn Gayle, Anne Davidson
Four recipients – international, national, state and local – to be honored at May 10 Luncheon, featuring Joe Ehrmann
New Friends New Life (NFNL), a nonprofit that restores and empowers formerly trafficked teen girls and sexually exploited women and children, has announced its 2017 ProtectHer Award recipients. Airline Ambassadors International, United States Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, Governor Greg Abbott’s Child Sex Trafficking Team and Parish Episcopal School will be honored at the May 10 New Friends New Life Luncheon, 11:30 a.m., at the OMNI Dallas Hotel, for their visionary guidance and leadership in protecting the rights of women and girls. The luncheon, featuring Joe Ehrmann as headliner, is chaired by Lisa Cooley and Tanya Foster and Honorary Co-Chairs Gail and Dr. R. Gerald Turner.
“New Friends New Life is thrilled to honor these international, national, state, and local partners in our advocacy and prevention efforts to eradicate sex trafficking and exploitation,” said Kelly Cruse, executive director, New Friends New Life. “We are thrilled to add an international recipient for the first time this year. The dedication of each of these recipients to this crime has saved lives. By working together, we will continue to safeguard the rights of women and girls who are at-risk or have already suffered the degradation and trauma of sex trafficking and exploitation.”
Airline Ambassadors International, the first-time international ProtectHer recipient, holds training sessions in airports around the world teaching airline personnel the key warning signs of trafficking. Once these signs are identified, flight attendants notify pilots, who notify ground crews to have police waiting at the gates upon arrival, saving the lives of children and young women.
“Perpetrators are trafficking 800,000 victims across international borders every year and are moving them frequently to keep them powerless,” said Nancy Rivard, president, Airline Ambassadors International. “If you estimate that every flight attendant sees 4,000 people a month, that’s well over 2 million that will be scanned as a result of those who have been trained thus far. Whether a CEO of an airline, a flight attendant, a pilot…each wants to do the right thing, and we are teaching them how to recognize it, report it, and save the life of a child.”
National ProtectHer honoree U.S. Senator Rob Portman is the founder and co-chair of the Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking and has authored five federal anti-trafficking laws since 2012: Bringing Missing Children Home Act; Child Sex Trafficking Data and Response Act; Combat Human Trafficking Act; End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act; and Child Sex Trafficking Amendment Signed Into Law As Part of Violence Against Women Act. Additionally, he works to combat illegal online marketplaces for sex, including an investigation into how sex traffickers use websites like Backpage.com – which is headquartered in Dallas. He has not only received praise from human rights organizations, but Congress unanimously passed Senator Portman’s resolution to require Backpage.com to submit documents relevant to his 18-month investigation of online sex trafficking. As a result, the CEO of Backpage.com now faces 2 years in prison.
The 2017 state ProtectHer honoree is Governor Greg Abbott’s Child Sex Trafficking Team (CCST), which in 2016, changed the landscape of Texas’ fight against the horrific crime that is child sex trafficking. CCST began a study of the scope of child sex trafficking in Texas and identified gaps in victims’ services and law enforcement response along with best practice solutions to fill those gaps. Additionally, CCST expanded existing therapeutic and trauma-informed services for victims of trafficking and trained law enforcement and the child welfare system on identifying and addressing child exploitation.
“In just one year, our Child Sex Trafficking Team has provided invaluable training and technical assistance to law enforcement, child protection services, juvenile justice and community and faith-based organizations tasked with combatting child sex trafficking,” said Governor Abbott. “I am grateful to New Friends New Life for their recognition of CSTT’s hard work, but there is much more to be done. I look forward to building on the success of this past year and continuing in our efforts to prevent and combat sex trafficking in the State of Texas.”
The 2017 local ProtectHer honoree, Parish Episcopal School, piloted the New Friends New Life Men’s Advocacy Group’s manKINDness Project© High School Program, a 60-minute interactive learning experience tailored to teen boys. Through candid conversations about value and respect, the learning objectives for the young men who complete the program are three-fold: learn the power of words and how thoughts influence behaviors and actions; examine ties between respect for women and girls and socialization of sex trafficking and exploitation where nightly in Dallas alone, 400 teen girls are trafficked, and identify solutions in school and community that demonstrate positive, healthy attitudes toward girls and women and themselves.
Parish Episcopal School Former Head Football Coach and Men’s Advocacy Group Member Scott Nady stated, “I’m in charge of 60 boys every fall, and I want to do the most I can to help them understand the issue, what starts the problem, and the chain of events that leads a young lady into this situation. If every coach in North Texas received this challenge, think of the army of men trained to help eradicate this problem. I challenge other coaches to come on board to help train the next generation to identify and execute healthy relationships with women and stop the cycle of sex trafficking.”
The international, national, state and local ProtectHer Awards will be recognized at the May 10 New Friends New Life 14th Annual Luncheon by the New Friends New Life’s Men’s Advocacy Group Board, formed in 2015, to mobilize men to take action against sex trafficking and exploitation by raising public awareness, legal advocacy, and corporate engagement.
“These awards recognize people who are effecting change – they are the catalysts making things happen to improve the lives of trafficked and exploited women and girls,” said Chris Kleinert, CEO and President of Hunt Consolidated Investments and Chair of New Friends New Life’s Men's Advocacy Group Board. “It is our hope these awards will inspire and motivate other people to stand up and join us in this important fight.”
“All of our ProtectHer Award recipients are playing a key role in helping us move Texas closer to a no-tolerance zone for those who prey upon our children,” Cruse added. “Our women and girls are not for sale.”
Tickets for the 14th Annual luncheon available from $250; sponsorships are also available. For more information, visit www.newfriendsnewlife.org or call (214)965-0935.
New Friends New Life’s 14 th Annual Luncheon on May 10 at the OMNI Dallas Hotel, raised over $1.06 million toward the work of the nonprofit, which restores and...
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Make America Rock Again: A Night in Review
Written by Dwayne Hoover
Above: Trapt singer Chris Taylor Brown. Below: Trapt bassist Pete Charell. Photos: Dwayne Hoover
Like every other September in West Michigan, autumn is rapidly approaching, once again relieving us of all that summer has to offer (like scorching temperatures and relaxing vacations). And as students start making their way back to the cliques and classrooms, especially in a college-heavy city like Kalamazoo, one also notices an upsurge in the local music scene.
But my very first post-Labor Day concert of 2016, on one particularly mild Sunday evening, was not at a small bar or club, enjoying some of the talented indie rock or folk bands Kalamazoo has to offer. Nay, I found my way instead to Wings Event Center for the Make America Rock Again tour, boasting an all-star, hard-rocking lineup with Trapt, Saliva, Saving Abel, Alien Ant Farm and more.
To say this show was impressive because of the lineup would perhaps miss the point of why I attended. Sure, the bill included bands that collectively have sold more than 14 million albums, many of which have gone Gold and Platinum. But I didn't go because any of their albums are what’s popping in and out of my car's CD player (Yes. I still have one of those. Experiencing an album is objectively better than listening to a playlist on shuffle), because well, it's not. I went for the experience.
And to be sure, “The Tour that Trumps Them All” was an experience. As soon as I stepped out of my vehicle, I was greeted by the sounds of camaraderie and pre-gaming, and fans eager to fill their night with ass-stomping rock and a level of intoxication best left at home. The latter happened perhaps more quickly than the former. That could be thanks to all the extra drinks at the VIP Pre-Show Barbecue, or, more likely, backseat pre-boozing in the parking lot. Regardless, while the doors opened at 6:30 p.m., stumblers and slurrers began to surface as early as 7 p.m.
There was an expected and prevalent America theme visually throughout the night, with our beloved stars and stripes adorning everything from guitars to shirts to thongs. Which was fitting, given the group of notable bands putting on the show. It truly was a celebration of American hard rock at its finest.
Many of the groups on stage that night have been around for quite some time, and accordingly, the setlists were full of old favorites (much to the crowd’s delight). But some new material was part of the act as well, with several of the bands supporting recent releases. Trapt, for example, put out their newest record, DNA, just this past August. The album was an independent endeavor funded by an Indiegogo campaign, in which the band solicited not only donations, but also thoughts and ideas on the album's lyrical content. It was an effort to connect with fans on a more personal level.
Should you have the opportunity to catch the Make America Rock Again tour on one of its future stops elsewhere in the country, don’t pass it up. It's like a nighttime mini-festival of in-your-face rock music that's a hell of a lot of fun.
And keep your eyes on Wings Event Center as they ramp up their concert offerings. October will bring country artist Kip Moore to the stage, as well as the electronic music festival Haunted Fest.
Published in On Tour
More in this category: « Frank Turner Takes the Stage (Again) at Bell’s Brewery A Night in Review: Kanye West at Van Andel »
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The African (AU) human rights agenda : the panacea to the problem of non-compliance with human rights norms in Africa?
Ayinla, Abiola R.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/984
"The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one provides the context in which the study is set, the focus and objectives of the study, its significance, and other preliminary issues including the hypothesis and literature survey. Chapter two first seeks to briefly portray the current state of human rights in Africa. In the second part, history and development of the African Union is traced, within the context of its predecessor - the OAU. Its third part extracts and analyses the specific human rights content of the AU Constitutionve Act and other relevant provisions, both independently and collectively; while its fourth part progresses to examine the conribution of the AU to human rights so far, by gauging and scrutinizing the human rights content of its summits. The fifth and final part scrutinizes the implications of the linkage of human rights to development and hence, its re-conceptualisation or otherwise, in Africa. Chapter three seeks to examine the extant implications of the AU human rights agenda on the existing human rights protection framework. First, it provides a brief overview of the existing regional human rights protection system, while its second part elucidates the human rights enforcement mechanisms that have been developed under the African Charter system. Its third part seeks to examine the problem of enforcement of, and non-compliance with human rights in Africa, with a view to understanding the problem, and forging a way forward. Its fourth part looks at the relationship between the AU and the existing human rights institutions within the context of the AU Constituve Act, while its concluding part addresses the latent risk of proliferation and redundancy that might attend the proposed creation of more human rights-oriented institutions under the AU/NEPAD; proposing rationalization of the same and the fusion of compatible mandates, with the view of avoiding unnecessary and expensive duplications. Chapter four seeks to present the probable picture of the fusion of the emerging and existing frameworks. Its first part sets out to describe, as well as explicate the justifications for the proposed human rights enforcement framework under the AU, citing models. Its second part seeks to explore the potentialities of trade as veritable tool of sanction within the proposed structure, while its concluding part seeks to do the same in relation to the device of peer pressure. The fifth and final chapter of the study seeks to draw some conclusions and further give recommendations on how the proposed hybrid framework can be achieved, while emphasizing the importance of such synergy as a feasible solution of the problem of human rights enforcement in Africa." -- Chapter 1.
Prepared under the supervision of Prof. J. Oloka-Onyango, Faculty of Law, Makerere University
Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2003.
Name: ayinla_ar_1.pdf
Theses and Dissertations (Centre for Human Rights) 578
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Lethal Injection
Guantánamo Bay
Drones & Assassinations
Secret Prisons
Florida considers joining Iran and North Korea in use of firing squad
A Florida State Representative is calling for the introduction of death by firing squad to avoid legal challenges to the use of lethal injection in executions.
State Rep. Brad Drake has filed a bill “providing that a death sentence shall be executed by electrocution or firing squad.” He says the idea came to him in a waffle house, after discussing a Florida prisoner’s challenges to his lethal injection on the grounds it would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Rep. Drake has argued “let’s end the debate […] We still have Old Sparky. And if that doesn’t suit the criminal, then we will provide them a .45 caliber lead cocktail instead.” He also reportedly said that “if it were up to me we would just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge and be done with it” — although his bill does not currently contain provision for this method. Regimes that currently kill their own citizens by firing squad include Iran, North Korea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the US state of Utah.States that have rejected capital punishment altogether include Albania, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote D’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niue, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome And Principe, Senegal, Serbia (including Kosovo), Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu and Venezuela. Maya Foa, investigator for legal action charity Reprieve, said:
“What this does highlight is that there is no humane way to execute a person.There is a widespread myth that executions by lethal injection are less painful than other ostensibly ‘barbaric’ methods. But medical professionals and the pharmaceutical industry are now joining forces to debunk this. The clinical veil that has hidden the true nature of executions is being torn aside and the reality revealed; capital punishment is not a medical procedure, it’s murder: enter the firing squad.” ENDS Notes to editors 1. Rep. Drakes’ bill http://richmedia.onset.freedom.com/nwfdn/lsxkld-12deathpenalty.pdf And comments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/brad-drake-florida-death-penalty_n_1007540.html http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/bill-44369-drake-lethal.html2. World Day Against the Death Penalty 2011 focused on execution as cruel and unusual punishment.
3. Recently, over 90 doctors from the US, Canada, Europe and India successfully petitioned pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck to take action to stop its drug pentobarbital being used in lethal injections. Pentobarbital was not designed for use in surgical anaesthesia, and both medical experts and the manufacturer agree that use in executions could cause agonising pain and suffering. Executions using pentobarbital have failed properly to anaesthetize prisoners, leading to severe and prolonged agony. An eyewitness from the Associated Press has described the “thrashing, jerking death of Roy Willard Blankenship” during which “his eyes never closed”. The full text of Dr David Waisel’s affidavit on Roy Blankenship’s inadequate anaesthesia can be found on Reprieve’s website. 4. Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA. Reprieve’s current casework involves representing 15 prisoners in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, assisting over 70 prisoners facing the death penalty around the world, and conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of ‘ghost prisoners’ in the so-called ‘war on terror.’ 5. Reprieve’s Stop Lethal Injection Project investigates the use of lethal injection in the USA.
Exposing the myth of the “humane execution”
Muhammed al-Qawli
Looking to help others who have lost family US drone strikes
Noor Khan
Father killed along with 40 tribal elders in drone strike
London EC3P 3BZ
info@reprieve.org.uk
© 2019 Reprieve. Registered charity (No. 1114900). Charity web design by Fat Beehive
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U.S. Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health
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RTCD Home > Division of Biomedical Research Workforce (DBRW) > DBRW Staff
P. Kay Lund, PhD, Director of Division of Biomedical Research Workforce
Dr. Lund joined NIH in 2015 after a career in academia including appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was an exemplary teacher and mentor. Dr. Lund has mentored large numbers of biomedical researchers from undergraduate students to faculty including PhD, MD, and DVM scientists. Dr. Lund has published widely in her scientific discipline, has written articles about broadening definitions of career outcomes for PhD scientists and has received awards for mentoring, advancement of women, and research. Since joining NIH, she has focused on and contributed to programs and policies to enhance training, career development, and diversity of the biomedical research and clinician scientist workforce.
Lisa Evans, JD, Scientific Workforce Diversity Officer
Prior to coming to the NIH, Ms. Evans served as the External Compliance Manager for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and as the lead Civil Rights Analyst on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Evans received her BA in Political Science and Black Studies from Amherst College, and her JD from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Charles Evans Hughes Fellow and an Earl Warren Legal Scholar. Ms. Evans entered the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), through the highly competitive Attorney General's Honors Program in 1994. She was a litigator in the Educational Opportunities Litigation Section for six years, brought the first linguistic access case in the Civil Rights Division, and worked on the trial team that integrated The Citadel, the formerly all-male military academy in South Carolina. Ms. Evans also represented DOJ on an Executive Branch task force on affirmative action in education and provided advice to sister agencies.
Pritty Joshi, PhD, Health Science Policy Analyst
Pritty Joshi completed her undergraduate studies in genetics at Texas A&M University and received a PhD in genetics and molecular biology from Emory University. She joined NIH in 2011 as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Cancer Institute, where she served as the policy liaison for The Cancer Genome Atlas Program Office. In 2013, she joined the Office of Extramural Research (OER) where she oversaw evaluations of trans-NIH policies and co-coordinated the office’s responses to inquiries from the Department of Health and Human Services and Congress. She recently joined DBRW and hopes to utilize her experience in data analysis, evaluation, and communication to inform the development and implementation of policies that address the needs of the biomedical research workforce.
Shoshana Kahana, PhD, Training Policy Program Officer
Dr. Shoshana Kahana joined the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce (DBRW) in OER as the Training Policy Program Officer in 2017. Since 2008 Dr. Kahana worked at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) where she was a Health Scientist Administrator and most recently, Acting Deputy Branch Chief. At NIDA, Dr. Kahana managed an extensive grant portfolio, with a focus on treatment development and health services research. She has considerable expertise in program planning and evaluation and recent involvement in the NIH Next Generation Researcher Initiative. Dr. Kahana has a leadership role in program and policy aspects of research training and research career development and contributes to the evaluation of NIH policies and programs to grow and sustain the biomedical research workforce.
Kristen Kirkham, Program Specialist
Ms. Kirkham is a Program Specialist in the Office of Extramural Research (OER). She has been at the NIH since October 2003 getting her start with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) Animal Program Division. While at the NHLBI, she provided office management and program support to the Animal Program Director, the NHLBI Murine Phenotyping Core, and Large & Small Animal Surgery Cores, supporting a staff of 20+ until February 2016. She started a detail within OER in October 2016 and came aboard as a full-time employee in February 2016. Her position with OER is to provide program support to the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce and the Division of Special Programs.
Jennifer Sutton, MS, Extramural Program Policy and Evaluation Officer
Since joining the NIH in 2000, Ms. Sutton has held positions at the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and served as the Acting Director of the NIH Office of Evaluation. Earlier in her career, Ms. Sutton was a study director at the National Academy of Sciences, where she oversaw an NIH-sponsored study of the biomedical and behavioral research workforce. Prior positions also included the Association of American Medical Colleges, where she focused on research policy issues of interest to medical schools and their faculty. Ms. Sutton is the author of a number of papers on the research workforce, and her work has been recognized by several NIH Director’s Awards. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University, where she received a master’s degree in health policy from the School of Public Health and studied science policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
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Ever wonder where the Apostles ended up?
H/t Marks Shea:
28th April 2013 - 5th Sunday of Easter - "Love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another"
On this weeks programme we continue our focus on Vocations. Last weekend was Good Shepherd Sunday, this week we have an interview sharing the story of life's discernment, we have our regular gospel reflection, some liturgical odds and ends as well as some local notices.
As we have mentioned over a few weeks, next week May 5th Br Columba OSB from Glenstal will join us on the programme to discuss the Benedictine life. The following week May 12th, SS102fm is delighted that Bishop Brendán Leahy will join us on the programme to reflect on his own life journey and to share his hopes and vision for the diocese of Limerick as he joins in the journey of the Pilgrim People of God in our diocese.
You can listen to this weeks programmes podcast HERE.
Discerning a path in life
John Casey receiving his B.Divinity (Hons)
from Archbishop Bernard Longley
As part of our ongoing vocation theme, we welcome back to the programme John Casey, a parish catechist in Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. George, Enfield, London. John was recently on the programme to speak to us about the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), but today he shares with us some of his own vocation story. From an early age John was drawn towards priesthood and spent his later teenage years and early twenties discerning a vocation with missionary orders. Through prayer and reflection John discerned that he needed more life experience before going forward for the priesthood if that was to be his vocation, but the sense of call and vocation never left him. John shares his experience of discernment and how he tries to respond to God's call each day in his life through his work, as a parish catechist and through his studies with Maryvale Institute.
You can listen to John's interview excerpted from the programme HERE.
Gospel - John 13:31-35
"When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going you cannot come.' A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Judas had hardly left the upper-room and had gone out into the night when Jesus delivers His spiritual testament to his disciples, announcing his departure to the Father as the essential precondition for the glorification of God and of the Son of Man. Soon after this farewell discourse, Jesus will no longer be with His disciples. Not that He wants to abandon them or leave them to themselves. It is because they will have to change, from being accustomed to His physical presence, to faith in His unseen presence. It is also to bring to life that presence of Jesus through the practice of a new commandment: by loving one another as He has loved us. The love of the disciples of Jesus for one another is the guarantee and the manifestation of that permanent presence of the Risen One among His own (and remember that all the baptised are disciples [followers] of Jesus). It is the mutual love of Christians for one another that characterises the Christian.
Tertullian reported that Roman used to exclaim of the Christians: “See how they love one another!” Charity, which is the love of God above all else, and the love of one’s neighbour for God’s sake, makes Christian’s Christ’s perfect followers. Charity is one of the theological virtues received at Baptism. When practiced (i.e. when used and developed), it is a gift that brings us closer to God and perfects us.
It is traditional in the Church that on the 5th and 6th Sundays of the Easter season, the gospel readings are taken from the long discourse which St John tells us Jesus had with the apostles at the Last Supper, and which is recounted from chapter 13:31 to the end of chapter 17. This is very deep teaching, so you must make a special effort to experience that it is also down-to-earth, and helps you to understand your own life.
Blue Eyed Ennis
Liturgical Odds and Ends
Liturgy of the Hours - Week 1
Saints of the Weeks
April 29th - St Catherine of Siena OP (Virgin & Doctor of the Church)
April 30th - St Pius V (Pope). It is also May Eve - a reminder of the tradition of farmers to bless their crops and fields with Holy Water (often Easter Water) as summer begins the day after.
May 1st - St Joseph the Worker (May Day)
May 2nd - St Athanasius of Alexandria (bishop & Doctor of the Church)
May 3rd - St Philip & St James the Lesser (Apostles) - First Friday
May 4th - St Conleth (bishop)
Popes Intentions for May
General Intention – The Administrators of Justice: That those who administer justice will always act with integrity and upright conscience.
Mission Intention – Seminarians: That seminarians, especially from mission churches, may always be pastors according to the heart of Christ, fully devoted to the proclamation of the Gospel.
Healing of Silent Memories: - is a ceremony for the naming of babies/children who have died as a result of miscarriage, stillbirth or sudden infant death syndrome. The ceremony contains a beautiful ritual of naming which recognises in a fuller way the child’s place in the family and in the community. The family takes home a Certificate of Naming and the community also cherishes the name in a beautiful book created for that purpose and held in a place of reverence. The family also take home a special candle which has been used during the naming service. Those who have taken part in the past have spoken of the healing effect of this on their sense of loss and pain and have experienced some peace. As well as being a naming ceremony it is also a renewal of our remembrance and inclusion of children named in previous years. For this reason we encourage families who have participated in the past to come and participate again. Their presence is also a great support for those who are coming for the first time. The invitation to come and participate is not confined to members of this parish community, but is open to all who wish to come, whatever their faith or wherever they live. The ceremony takes place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Newcastle West on Wednesday, May 1st at 8.00pm.
Medjugorje 2013: - The West Limerick Medjugorje prayer group is organizing a pilgrimage to Medjugorje for a week from July 27th to August 3rd. We fly out from Dublin airport with Marian Pilgrimages. Spiritual Director: Fr. Richard Keane C.C. The cost for the week B/B and evening dinner is € 659 ex Dublin. While there we will experience three days of the youth festival, joining over 50,000 young people from more than 60 countries in a truly unforgettable celebration. Contact Mary Keating (069-60375) or Paddy Geary (087-6247672).
13-Day Holy Land Pilgrimage 2013: - Walk in the Footsteps of our Lord from October 23rd to November 4th 2013. Spiritual Director: Fr. Damien Ryan. Half board Accommodation and including all Airport Taxes Ex Dublin - €1,500 P.P.S. Early booking is essential as there are only limited places. For further Details contact Tom O’ Dwyer: 087-2701311 or Sile: 086-8590394.
Labels: Blessed Virgin Mary, BVM, Mary, Maryvale Institute, vocations
Catholic Ireland: Past, Present and Future - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin
In what could be seen as a wide ranging analysis of the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin gave a wide ranging, thought provoking address at the Fordham Centre of Religion and Culture in New York on 24th April.
While it gives some good insights into the position and challenges of the church in Ireland in 2013 and how it got into this situation, Archbishop Martin once again poses many thought provoking questions but fails to proffer a vision or response to some of the questions raised - which could be said to be one of the faults of the man who heads the largest archdiocese in the country.
However, the address is well worth a read.
The Russo Family Lecture
Speaking Notes of Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin
Fordham Centre of Religion and Culture,
“Ireland has changed and Ireland is changing. The other evening I was at a lecture in the Italian Embassy in Dublin about Ireland in renaissance times. I was struck by two quotes chosen by the lecturer. The first was from Pope Pius II, Piccolomini, written in 1458 looking at the situation of Europe at the time. He concluded his three sentences on Ireland writing: “since nothing worth remembering took place there during the period we write about, we hurry on to matters Spanish”. I can tell you, much worth remembering and much that we would prefer not to remember has taken place in the Ireland of recent times.
The second quote was from Petrarch who, in the latter part of the 12th century, noted about Ireland: “in one year you will hardly hear it thunder once. No thunderbolts cause terror here, no lightening ever strikes”. That quote should make anyone who still had lingering doubts recognise that climate change is a reality!
I entered the seminary in Dublin in October 1962 just one week before the opening of Vatican II. The winter of 1962/63 was one of the bleakest winters for decades and our seminary was a very cold place in more ways than one. My memory of the seminary is of a building and a routine, a discipline and a way of life which seemed to have been like that for decades. Even to someone who was not a revolutionary, it all seemed so out of touch with the world from which I had just come, and in which my friends were thriving. But you were not supposed to think that way. Things were to be done as they had always been done. The Catholic Church was unchanging, but that was about to change.
For years now people looked to Ireland as a vibrant and sustainable model for strong economic growth. Countries were told to follow the Irish example. Today the economic situation of Ireland is full of uncertainties, precisely at a moment when confidence and trust are urgently needed. On the other hand, for decades Ireland was looked on as one of the world’s most deeply and stably Catholic countries and today Ireland finds itself along with other parts of Europe being classified as “post-Catholic”.
I would issue here my first warning. Everyone has his or her own definition of “post-Catholic”. You can only fully define post-Catholic in terms of the Catholicism that has been displaced. Irish Catholicism has its own unique history and culture. Renewal in the Irish Church will not come simply from imported plans and programmes. Renewal must be home-grown. You must understand where Irish Catholicism is coming from.
Ireland does of course share the same currents of secularization with other counties of the Western world and thus shares many of the same challenges. There are specific challenges within Europe; there are specific challenges which are common to the English-speaking world. There is however a danger that people think that because Ireland is an English-speaking country it can be put into the same category as the United States and Great Britain.
Year of Faith - Irish Dominican Credo Series - II "I believe in one God, the Father almighty"
In this second episode of their series on the Nicene Creed the Irish Dominican students look at the very first article: "I believe in one God, the Father almighty". Dr. Carole Brown joins them this week to give some new insights.
Labels: Creed, Dominicans, Year of Faith
Vocation Stories - Follow me - Diocese of Peoria, Illinois
Labels: Vocation Sunday, vocations
Vocation Sunday - Ask Jesus what he wants from you - Pope Francis Regina Caeli
From Vatican Radio:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Fourth Sunday of Easter is characterized by the Gospel of the Good Shepherd - in the tenth chapter of St. John – which we read every year. Today’s passage contains these words of Jesus: " My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one"(10.27 to 30).These four verses contain Jesus’ entire message, the core of His Gospel: He calls us to participate in His relationship with the Father, and this is eternal life.
Jesus wants to establish a relationship with his friends that is a reflection of His relationship with the Father, a relationship of mutual belonging in full trust, in intimate communion. To express this deep understanding, this relationship of friendship Jesus uses the image of the shepherd with his sheep: he calls them, and they know his voice, they respond to his call and follow him. How beautiful this parable is! The mystery of the voice is suggestive: from our mother's womb we learn to recognize her voice and that of our father, from the tone of a voice we perceive love or disdain, affection or coldness. The voice of Jesus is unique! If we learn to distinguish it, He guides us on the path of life, a path that goes beyond the abyss of death.
But at a certain point Jesus, referring to his sheep, says: "My Father, who has given them to me..." (Jn 10,29). This is very important, it is a profound mystery, that is not easy to understand: if I feel attracted to Jesus, if his voice warms my heart, it is thanks to God the Father, who has put in me the desire of love, of truth, life, beauty ... and Jesus is all this to the full! This helps us to understand the mystery of vocation, particularly the call to a special consecration. Sometimes Jesus calls us, invites us to follow him, but maybe we don’t realize that it is Him, just like young Samuel. There are many young people today, here in the square. There are many of you! So many of you young people present today in the square!
I would like to ask you: have you sometimes heard the voice of the Lord which through a desire, a certain restlessness, invites you to follow Him more closely? Have you heard it? I can’t hear you…there you are! Have you had any desire to be apostles of Jesus? Youth must spend itself for high ideals. Do you think so? Do you agree? Ask Jesus what he wants from you and be brave! Be brave, ask Him!!! Behind and before every vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life, is always the strong and intense prayer of someone: a grandmother, a grandfather, a mother, a father, a community ... That's why Jesus said, "Pray the Lord of the harvest - that is, God the Father - to send out laborers into his harvest" (Mt 9:38). The vocations are born in prayer and from prayer, and only in prayer can they persevere and bear fruit. I like to underline this today, the "World Day of Prayer for Vocations." We pray especially for the new priests of the Diocese of Rome, whom I had the joy of ordaining this morning. And we invoke the intercession of Mary. Today there were 10 young men who have said "yes" to Jesus and were ordained priests this morning ... This is beautiful! Let us invoke the intercession of Mary who is the woman who said "yes." Mary said "yes," all her life! She has learned to recognize the voice of Jesus since she bore him in her womb. Mary, Our Mother, help us to know better the voice of Jesus and follow it, to walk the path of life!
Thank you so much for your greeting, but let us also proclaim Jesus loudly... Let us all pray together to the Virgin Mary.
Labels: Francis I, Vocation Sunday, vocations
21st April 2013 - 4th Sunday of Easter - Day of Prayer for Vocations (Good Shepherd Sunday)
This week we mark Vocation Sunday when the universal church prays for labourers to be sent into the vineyard of the Lord. We have a few thoughts on last weeks celebration for the diocese in the ordination of our new bishop as well as our regular reflection on the gospel of the day as well as some liturgical odds and ends.
This weeks programme podcast is available HERE.
Ordination of Bishop Brendan Leahy
Please check our our various posts, links and photos for the ordination of Limerick's new bishop:
Limerick Diocesan website
Limerick Leader
"I now feel I am a Limerick man! Limerick is beautiful. I’ll have to start wearing the Limerick colours! I am proud to be bishop of this great diocese with such an ancient history. As a diocese we want to do our part to make all of Limerick even greater, as I believe and hope we do, day in, day out, in countless communities of faith and love in parishes, religious orders, communities and movements, schools, hospitals and social initiatives. In so many ways, people are replying positively to Jesus’ question: “do you love me?” Today let’s renew our love of him even more; let’s bridge to make Limerick even more beautiful, so that others will come and see Jesus living among us.”
One of the great things about the celebration was the music and song through out the celebration and it is not for nothing that Shannon-siders have a reputation for music and singing! The recessional hymn was Now Thank We all Our God and while we may not have been up to the standard of the Morman Tabernacle Choir below, it will give you some idea of the celebration.
Day of Prayer for Vocations - "Vocations as a sign of hope founded in faith"
Today is the day set aside to pray for vocations. On SS102fm that vocation isnt just for priesthood and religious life as we all have a specific vocation arising out of our baptism. but this day is set aside as a particular day of prayer for those vocations. Below are excerpts of the text of the popes message for Vocations Sunday.
"....this day of worldwide prayer to God the Father, asking him to continue to send workers for his Church (cf. Mt 9:38).....The problem of having a sufficient number of priests is the precise and inescapable indicator of the vitality of faith and love of individual parish and diocesan communities, and the evidence of the moral health of Christian families. Wherever numerous vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are to be found, that is where people are living the Gospel with generosity”
Hope is the expectation of something positive in the future, yet at the same time it must sustain our present existence, which is often marked by dissatisfaction and failures. On what is our hope founded?
At every moment, especially the most difficult ones, the Lord’s faithfulness is always the authentic driving force of salvation history....
God never abandons us and he remains true to his word. For that reason, in every situation, whether positive or negative, we can nourish a firm hope and pray with the psalmist: “Only in God can my soul find rest; my hope comes from him” (Ps 62:6)
......what exactly is God’s faithfulness, to which we adhere with unwavering hope? It is his love!....this love, fully manifested in Jesus Christ, engages with our existence and demands a response in terms of what each individual wants to do with his or her life, and what he or she is prepared to offer in order to live it to the full. The love of God sometimes follows paths one could never have imagined, but it always reaches those who are willing to be found.....This deep, demanding love, which penetrates well below the surface, gives us courage; it gives us hope in our life’s journey and in our future; it makes us trust in ourselves, in history and in other people.......so today the risen Jesus walks along the streets of our life and sees us immersed in our activities, with all our desires and our needs. In the midst of our everyday circumstances he continues to speak to us; he calls us to live our life with him, for only he is capable of satisfying our thirst for hope. He lives now among the community of disciples that is the Church, and still today calls people to follow him. The call can come at any moment. Today too, Jesus continues to say, “Come, follow me” (Mk 10:21). Accepting his invitation means no longer choosing our own path. Following him means immersing our own will in the will of Jesus, truly giving him priority, giving him pride of place in every area of our lives: in the family, at work, in our personal interests, in ourselves
Vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life are born out of the experience of a personal encounter with Christ......This process, which enables us to respond positively to God’s call, is possible in Christian communities where the faith is lived intensely, where generous witness is given of adherence to the Gospel, where there is a strong sense of mission which leads people to make the total gift of self for the Kingdom of God.
Dear young people, do not be afraid to follow him and to walk the demanding and courageous paths of charity and generous commitment! In that way you will be happy to serve, you will be witnesses of a joy that the world cannot give, you will be living flames of an infinite and eternal love, you will learn to “give an account of the hope that is within you” (1 Pt 3:15)!"
Pope Benedict XVI's text of full message for the Day of Prayer HERE.
Resources for Vocation Sunday from the Vocation Directors of Ireland available HERE.
Vocations Ireland website
Irish Vocation Stories
Explore Away - exploreAway: an opportunity for young, single, men and women between the ages of 21-40, who are interested in exploring religious life in a reflective and prayerful environment. If you are discerning your way in life you are invited to join the team over five weekends to experience and explore where God may be calling you.
Limerick Diocese Vocation Information available HERE.
SS102fm posts and podcasts on Vocations including various priests and religious sharing their stories can be viewed HERE.
God knows me and calls me by my name.…
God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission—I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for His purposes…
I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection
between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth
in my own place, while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments
and serve Him in my calling.
Therefore I will trust Him.
Whatever, wherever I am,
I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;
In perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him;
If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be
necessary causes of some great end,
which is quite beyond us.
He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life,
He may shorten it;
He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends,
He may throw me among strangers,
He may make me feel desolate,
make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—
still He knows what He is about.…
Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—
I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used.
Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Meditations and Devotions, "Meditations on Christian Doctrine,"
"Hope in God—Creator", March 7, 1848
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
In a season of thanksgiving, in a time of change, what wonderful consoling and healing words:
"No one shall snatch you out of Gods hands"
We are in the arms of a shepherd
who cares for us, who holds us, who never forgets us.
Jesus, may we have the confidence
and peace to rest in your love.
May we be witnesses to your love this week,
so that all can know this joy in their lives.
Divine Office - Psalter Week 4
22nd April - St Abel McAedh
23rd April - St George (martyr) Patron saint of England
24th April - St Fidelis of Sigmaringen
25th April - St Mark the Evangelist
26th April - Our Lady of Good Counsel
27th April - St Asicus
The notices we called out on this weeks programme are available HERE.
Labels: Limerick Diocese, Vocation Sunday, vocations
Vocation Stories - Five Paths to Priesthood - Dominican Friars
Regina Caeli - Palestrina Boys Choir
Labels: Easter
Vocation Stories - Bishop Donal McKeown, auxiiary bishop of Down & Connor
Vocation Voices is a new video series from the Bishops’ Council for Vocations to promote vocations to the priesthood. The videos include priests from around the country reflection on their own personal vocation story and their priestly ministry. The videos will be available to view over the coming weeks on www.catholicbishops.ie.
All the interviewees responded to two questions:
When did you realise you had a vocation and how did you respond?
Would you recommend the life of a priest to others?
The first interviewee is Bishop Donal McKeown, Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor.
Vocation Stories - Here I am Lord - VocationsIreland.ie
QoTD - The Church is not a babysitter - Pope Francis
The Church cannot be merely “a babysitter who takes care of the child just to get him to sleep”. If she were this, hers would be a “slumbering church”. Whoever knows Jesus has the strength and the courage to proclaim him. And whoever has received baptism has the strength to walk, to go forward, to evangelize and “when we do this the Church becomes a mother who generates children” capable of bring Christ to the world.
“Let us ask the Lord,” he concluded, “for the grace to become baptized persons who are brave and sure that the Holy Spirit who is in us, received at baptism, always moves us to proclaim Jesus Christ with our life, our testimony and even with our words”.
Labels: Vatican Radio
Year of Faith - Credo Series from the Irish Dominican Students - No I: Credo
A video series on the Creed has been launched by the students of the Irish Dominican friars in Dublin. The thirteen-part series of 30-minute videos was prepared in interview format and features a discussion on all the parts of the Creed which we say at Mass on Sundays and major feastdays.
The interviewees will include both Dominican friars and lay people. The first in the series discusses the first word "Credo" (I believe) and where the Creed itself came from with Fr Joseph Dineen OP.
Vocation Stories - Fr Paddy - A Young Man on a Mission - RTE Documentary on One - 2011
For Fr. Paddy Byrne, life is busy. His ministry is spread across three churches, encompassing masses, funerals, weddings, baptisms and day-to-day pastoral care. On top of that, he is chaplain in four schools, writes a weekly column in the local newspaper, and a blog on the parish website.
As the youngest priest in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlinn, Fr. Paddy sees no real sign of ordinations coming after him. There are only fifteen priests in the diocese under the age of forty-five. In the next five years approximately twenty priests are going to retire, which means that in five years time it's likely that there will only be sixty priests to serve fifty parishes in a population of over 250,000 people.
As clergy numbers continue to diminish, Fr. Paddy shares his vision on how the church will survive into the future. 'The work is increasing and the number of priests on the ground is decreasing. The challenge at all times is to renew and to listen to the mood of the spirit, and the spirit is challenging lay people to take leadership in the church.'
Having been ordained ten years ago, his whole priesthood has been in the milieu of scandal in the Catholic Church. While he feels disconnected from the 'official church', he is happy and fulfilled by his life in the 'local church' and the parish that he serves.
Being a young priest can be lonely, particularly at weddings. "I love celebrating a wedding, but I find it very difficult walking into the hotel on your own, looking around and wondering if there is anyone there I know. After the meal the music starts and you'd love to be able to go out and dance, but not having a woman with you to do that. I think it's a lonely moment walking out of every wedding and it reminds me of the cross of celibacy."
We get an insight into what it's like to be a priest on the ground as we follow Fr. Paddy going about his daily work in the vibrant parish of Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow. He talks about being called to the priesthood, his faith, his frustration with the leadership of the Church, celibacy, and his role as a priest in the community.
Listen to Fr Paddy's story HERE.
Vocation Stories - Pope John Paul II's vocation story
Vocation Stories - Limerick priests reflect on vocation and their vocation stories with SS102fm
The World Day of Prayer for Vocations or Vocations Sunday will be celebrated on Sunday 21 April 2013. The theme chosen for 2013 is: “Vocations as a sign of hope founded in faith”.
This is the 50th World Day of Prayer for Vocations and it also coincides with the Year of Faith, which is marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. While the Council was sitting, Pope Paul VI instituted the World Day of Prayer for Vocations which is a worldwide day of prayer to God, asking him to continue to send workers for his Church (cf. Mt 9:38)
When he published the message for Vocations Sunday 2013 in October last year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said “Vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life are born out of the experience of a personal encounter with Christ, out of sincere and confident dialogue with him, so as to enter into his will. It is necessary, therefore, to grow in the experience of faith, understood as a profound relationship with Jesus, as inner attentiveness to his voice which is heard deep within us. This process, which enables us to respond positively to God’s call, is possible in Christian communities where the faith is lived intensely, where generous witness is given of adherence to the Gospel, where there is a strong sense of mission which leads people to make the total gift of self for the Kingdom of God, nourished by recourse to the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and by a fervent life of prayer. This latter ‘must on the one hand be something very personal, an encounter between my intimate self and God, the living God. On the other hand it must be constantly guided and enlightened by the great prayers of the Church and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches us again and again how to pray properly.’ (Spe Salvi, 34).”
Reflection on vocation by Fr Chris O'Donnell
Fr Frank Duhig - Vocation story
Fr Noel Kirwin - Vocation story
Fr John O'Shea - Vocation story
April 16th - St Bernadette Soubirous - the Seer of Lourdes
Today is the feast day of the Seer of Lourdes, St Bernadette Soubirous. She is best known for her Marian apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at a cave-grotto in Massabielle where the apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858. She would later receive recognition when the lady who appeared to her identified herself as the Immaculate Conception.
You can read more about Bernadette here. You can read more about Lourdes HERE and click on the webcam at the Grotto HERE and place your petition HERE.
Limerick has a long tradition of pilgrimage to Lourdes each year in June and already it is one of the dates pencilled in for our new bishop. So today is a good day to reflect on the message of Lourdes and the devotion of people to the Madonna of Lourdes.
Fr James Martin SJ has a short video based around his book "My Lives with the Saints" which gives a lovely reflection for the day.
Labels: Lourdes, Our Lady of Lourdes
Address of Bishop Brendán Leahy at the conclusion of his episcopal ordination - 14th April 2013
Limerick Diocese website has some wonderful photos as well as links to the homilies and addresses given on the occasion of the ordination of our new bishop. Below is the address by Bishop Brendán at the end of the ceremony.
Bishop Brendan Leahy's address at the Conclusion of the Episcopal Ordination Ceremony, St. John’s Cathedral, Limerick
Today has been a wonderful celebration. It is simply impossible to thank adequately everyone who should be thanked. Firstly, I would like to thank each of you for coming. You can only imagine how much work has gone into every little detail of what we have seen, heard, touched and experienced today. I’m sure Jesus will say to all concerned: “you do it to me” and he will respond in the way he knows best to each one. Everything has been done with good cheer and so God must be pleased because he loves a cheerful giver.
I want to express my gratitude for all that has been achieved in this diocese over many years under my predecessor Bishop Donal Murray whom I greet warmly. I want also to say "thanks" for all that has been done in these recent three years by the administrator Fr. Tony Mullins, along with Fr. Paul Finnerty, Fr. Eamonn Fitzgibbon and so many of the diocesan offices, agencies and, especially, the clergy. So now, I and all of us together are beginning again. A new chapter in our diocesan history is opening. I’ll share one or two thoughts on that.
The other day I was eavesdropping on a conversation, one that you too have overheard many times. One person was saying to the other: “I will give you the keys” but then added “I’ll build”.... You might guess the conversation I’m referring to – it was the one between Jesus and Peter that we find in the Gospel. Jesus says to Peter,“on this rock I will build my church” . For me personally as I set out as Bishop of Limerick you can’t imagine what a relief it is to hear Jesus say: “I will build”! He has promised he’ll do his part. If Jesus builds, what have we to do? Our part is to let Jesus build his Church by our love for one another, giving our contribution so that he can work through us renewing the world we live in. Where should we start? I was struck recently by the words of Pope Francis when he says: “start from the outskirts”. Each of us has regions that are “outskirts” – people who are different from us or who we find hard to get on with; groups that we dislike because they have different views than ours; areas that we simply ignore, causes that we know are right but feel lazy about getting involved in. It’s with trust in Jesus who builds, that we can give our reply to the great question put to Peter in the Gospel: “Do you love me?” “Do you love?” It’s the most profound question in life. In today’s Gospel we have heard an invitation to love “more” and in this way build the Church; and that also means to love more those who are on the outskirts, broken and marginalised. I know that many will say “but I am only hanging on in faith by my fingernails”. For some it is really difficult to believe. A fellow Irishman, Bono, wrote a song some years ago now. Its words ran something like this: “I have climbed highest mountains; I have run through the fields; Only to be with you, Only to be with you; I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls, These city walls, Only to be with you; But I still haven't found what I'm looking for”. I don’t know what Bono had in mind but these words can be applied to the situation many find themselves in with regard to faith. Moments of difficulty are written into the Christian journey of faith. How many saints and exemplary men and women throughout the centuries have told us about shadowy moments they lived through. We can think of the Irish woman and martyr, Margaret Ball, Teresa of Lisieux, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the philosopher, Simon Weil, the young Jewish woman, Etty Hillesum, the recently beatified teenager, Chiara Luce Badano... We can only imagine how much Mary, Jesus’ mother, went through many trials of faith along her journey.
Darkness in our faith journey can affect us individually but also as a group, as a community, as a Church. We know only too well of how many innocent people suffer terrible darkness because of clerical abuse. I want to make their pain my own and seek forgiveness seventy times seven. It is a deep wound also for all of us. I have been greatly consoled in getting to know how much has been done in the diocese in the area of child safeguarding. I am deeply indebted to the high professionalism of the many lay men and women involved in our diocesan structures in this regard as in many areas of the diocese. It was good to read the observation made in the Audit by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland that the diocese of Limerick has robust measures in place in the area of child safeguarding and protection.
We know from the Christian spiritual tradition that trials in the life of faith can be a prelude to a new dawn of light and love. Perhaps we can draw inspiration from another conversation Jesus had, this time with Philip in John’s Gospel. In reply to Philip who asked him to show us God the Father, Jesus says: “to those who love me I will reveal myself” and so we will discover God. In other words, love has eyes. Love gives light. To those of us hanging on by our fingernails, we are invited to hang on in there, and keep on loving, looking around for those “outskirt” people, areas and projects that we can reach out to in love. Jesus said: “Whatever you do to the least you do to me”. If we love those on the outskirts – and these can be people close to us too, like members of our family, or work colleagues, Jesus promises we will have light. He repeated this often - he would give light to those who go outside themselves to love him in the least, in the poor, in the neighbour, in the wounded: “those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them” (Jn 14:20).
I want to thank the whole diocese, parishes and religious communities for the great outpouring of prayer to the Holy Spirit for me and the diocese in recent months. I thank especially the young people and their teachers for their daily prayers. I am greatly humbled by all the encouragement that has surrounded me in these days and weeks.
I now feel I am a Limerick man! Limerick is beautiful. I’ll have to start wearing the Limerick colours! I am proud to be bishop of this great diocese with such an ancient history. As a diocese we want to do our part also today to make all of Limerick even greater, as I believe and hope we do, day in, day out, in countless communities of faith and love in parishes, religious orders, communities and movements, schools, hospitals and social initiatives. In so many ways, people are replying positively to Jesus’ question: “do you love me?” Today let’s renew our love of him even more; let’s bridge to make Limerick even more beautiful, so that others will come and see Jesus living among us.”
Labels: Bishop Brendan Leahy, iCatholic, Limerick Diocese
Habemus Episcopum VI - Limerick Has Its Bishop!!! (And SS102fm has its 1000th blog post!)
The SS102fm team were privileged to attend the ordination today of our new bishop, Brendán Leahy. We will blog and share various photos, thoughts etc over the next few days but to give you a flavour of the day please see the press release below from the Limerick Diocesan Website and to our new bishop Brendán - Ad Multos Annos!!!!!
And to all the team at St John's Cathedral and the entire diocesan team including Fr Tony Mullins and Fr Paul Finnerty, well done on organising a joyous, inclusive, community celebration. Truly, "this day was made by the Lord, let us rejoice and be glad!!"
Fr Brendan Leahy ordained as the 47th Bishop of Limerick at St. John’s Cathedral
Bishop Leahy speaks of great need to connect with marginalised and broken
The Diocese of Limerick was today at one in celebration for the ordination of Brendan Leahy as its 47th bishop and first to be ordained since 1974.
The ordination at St. John’s Cathedral was attended by over 1,200 guests. Chief Celebrant was Archbishop of Cashel & Emly Dermot Clifford and his co-consecrators were Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and Fr Tony Mullins, who has served as Limerick Diocese Administrator since December 2009 and who delivered today’s Homily. Also attending were Cardinal Sean Brady and Cardinal Desmond Connell.
Up to 15 Bishops and over 200 priests were present for the the ordination, along with representatives of parishes across the diocese and friends and family of Bishop Leahy. Pride of place at the celebration was for Fr Brendan’s 91 year-old father Maurice, who taught in Athea, Co. Limerick in the 1940s. Also present were Bishop Leahy’s sisters Máire and Treasa, his brother Tom and sister-in-law Marjorie.
Among the congregation also were were Oireachtas representatives from the Diocese,including cabinet ministers Michael Noonan and Jan O’Sullivan, Mayor of Limerick Gerry McLoughlin, Cathaoirleach of Limerick County Councill Jerome Scanlan and their fellow Limerick councillors. President Michael D. Higgins and An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD,were represented by their Aide de Comp Col Brendan McAndrew and Comdt Michael Treacy respectively.
Also present were Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe Trevor Williams and representatives of other Christian Communities, including Church of Ireland Dean of Limerick and Rector of Limerick City Parish Rev. Sandra Pragnel; Superintendent Minister of the Adare and Ballingrane Methodist Circuit Rev. Liz Hewitt; Rev. Vicki Lynch of the United Methodist Presbyterian Congregation; Rev. Godfrey O'Donnell, Romanian Orthodox Church of Ireland and President of the Irish Council of Churches; and Mrs. Gillian Kingston,Lay Leader of the Methodist Church in Ireland.
The Irish Times - Bishop Brendan Leahy lies prone as he is ordained by Archbishop of Cashel and Emily Dermot Clifford at St John’s Cathedral in Limerick. Photograph: Kieran Clancy
Bishop Leahy became the first Bishop in Ireland and eighth in the world to be ordained under the papacy of Pope Francis. He succeeds Bishop Donal Murray, who retired as Bishop in December 2009.
In addition to the 1,200 plus guests in St. John’s for the congregation, hundreds more gathered outside, with many more again packing into the adjacent community centre where the celebration was streamed live on a big screen via a web-link. The ordination was also streamed live across the worldwide web on the diocese’s own website www.limerickdiocese.org, while local radio station Limerick’s Live95FM streamed the entire celebration on its website.
Addressing the congregation at the end of the celebration, the newly ordained Bishop Leahy said that he and all in the Diocese are at the beginning of a new chapter in which there is a great need to reach out to the marginalised and broken in society. “Where should we start? I was struck recently by the words of Pope Francis when he said ‘start from the outskirts’. Each of us has regions that are ‘outskirts’ – people who are different from us or who we find hard to get on with; groups that we dislike because they have different views than ours; areas that we simply ignore, causes that we know are right but feel lazy about getting involved in. “In today’s Gospel we have heard an invitation to love “more” and in this way build the Church; and that also means to love more those who are on the outskirts, broken and marginalised. “I know that many will say ‘but I am only hanging on in faith by my fingernails’. For some it is really difficult to believe. A fellow Irishman, Bono, wrote a song some years ago now. Its words ran something like this: ‘I have climbed highest mountains; I have run through the fields; Only to be with you, Only to be with you; I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls, These city walls, Only to be with you; But I still haven't found what I'm looking for’. “I don’t know what Bono had in mind but these words can be applied to the situation many find themselves in with regard to faith. Moments of difficulty are written into the Christian journey of faith. How many saints and exemplary men and women throughout the centuries have told us about shadowy moments they lived through.
We can think of the Irish woman and martyr, Margaret Ball, Teresa of Lisieux, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the philosopher, Simon Weil, the young Jewish woman, Etty Hillesum, the recently beatified teenager, Chiara Luce Badano... We can only imagine how much Mary, Jesus’ mother, went through many trials of faith along her journey.”
Prayer of consecration over Bishop Brendan
Bishop Leahy also spoke of the Church’s need to seek forgiveness for its own sins,particularly in relation to clerical abuse. “Darkness in our faith journey can affect us individually but also as a group, as a community, as a Church. We know only too well of how many innocent people suffer terrible darkness because of clerical abuse. I want to make their pain my own and seek forgiveness seventy times seven. It is a deep wound also for all of us.
“I have been greatly consoled in getting to know how much has been done in the diocese in the area of child safeguarding. I am deeply indebted to the high professionalism of the many lay men and women involved in our diocesan structures in this regard as in many areas of the diocese. It was good to read the observation made in the Audit by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland that the diocese of Limerick has robust measures in place in the area of child safeguarding and protection."
“We know from the Christian spiritual tradition that trials in the life of faith can be a prelude to a new dawn of light and love.”
Bishop Leahy also thanked the people of the diocese, not least the young, for their support in helping him prepare for his ordination. “I want to thank the whole diocese, parishes and religious communities for the great outpouring of prayer to the Holy Spirit for me and the diocese in recent months. I thank especially the young people and their teachers for their daily prayers. I am greatly humbled by all the encouragement that has surrounded me in these days and weeks."
"I now feel I am a Limerick man! Limerick is beautiful. I’ll have to start wearing the Limerick colours! I am proud to be bishop of this great diocese with such an ancient history. As a diocese we want to do our part also today to make all of Limerick even greater, as I believe and hope we do, day in, day out, in countless communities of faith and love in parishes, religious orders, communities and movements, schools, hospitals and social initiatives. In so many ways, people are replying positively to Jesus’ question: ‘do you love me?’ Today let’s renew our love of him even more; let’s bridge to make Limerick even more beautiful, so that others will come and see Jesus living among us.”
Labels: Bishop Brendan Leahy, Limerick Diocese
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Alleluia!! Alleluia!!
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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.1088/0305-4470/36/23/318
Title: Phase-transition-like behaviour of quantum games
Authors: Du, J.
Li, H.
Xu, X.
Zhou, X.
Han, R.
Issue Date: 13-Jun-2003
Citation: Du, J., Li, H., Xu, X., Zhou, X., Han, R. (2003-06-13). Phase-transition-like behaviour of quantum games. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 36 (23) : 6551-6562. ScholarBank@NUS Repository. https://doi.org/10.1088/0305-4470/36/23/318
Abstract: The discontinuous dependence of the properties of a quantum game on its entanglement has been shown to be very much like phase transitions viewed in the entanglement-payoff diagram (J Du et al 2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 137902). In this paper we investigate such phase-transition-like behaviour of quantum games, by suggesting a method which would help to illuminate the origin of such a kind of behaviour. For the particular case of the generalized Prisoners' Dilemma, we find that, for different settings of the numerical values in the payoff table, even though the classical game behaves the same, the quantum game exhibits different and interesting phase-transition-like behaviour.
Source Title: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General
DOI: 10.1088/0305-4470/36/23/318
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Home » Policy & Political Action » Position Statements
Position Statement: Healthy Energy Solutions for Ontario
RNAO Position Statement: Healthy Energy Solutions for Ontario
September 23, 2011 - Approved by RNAO Board of Directors
March 3, 2012 FINAL - Approved by RNAO Board of Directors
On December 12, 2011, Canada faced international criticism when it walked away from the Kyoto Protocol, becoming the first and only country to totally repudiate the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases that cause climate change. On January 18, 2012, US President Barack Obama reaffirmed his decision not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline that is proposed to carry Alberta tar sands oil to US markets. On the same day, the Gitxsan joined 60 other Aboriginal groups across British Columbia that were fighting Enbridge’s proposed $5.5 billion Gateway pipeline designed to carry tar sands oil to be shipped to Chinese markets. In October, 2011, Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development revealed that the actual environmental impacts of tar sands development was largely unknown. This was the debate raging across international and provincial borders and likely to loom large in elections at every level for years to come.
A similar energy conflict divides communities in Ontario, just as political but not as much in the international eye as in Alberta, BC and the mid-west. Underlying the stated outcomes of energy security, sustainable development and air and water protection are the more pervasive agendas of money, power and not-in-my-backyard “nimby-ism”. It is in this context that the RNAO has developed a balanced healthy energy policy for Ontario that recognizes both that electricity generation and transmission are important economic drivers and that the environment is a critical determinant of health.
RNAO strongly supports an electricity system in Ontario that is safe, reliable, equitable and environmentally sustainable; one that supports community-sustaining ‘green’ jobs, one that does not pollute the air, leave a legacy of toxic waste and bankrupt Ontario residents and businesses. Healthy public policy demands aggressive conservation and energy efficiency targets and phasing out Ontario’s dependence on dirty coal and other fossil fuels.
RNAO’s vision of a clean, healthy energy future is balanced and comprehensive and includes the following recommended elements:
1. Reduced consumption through conservation and energy efficiency;
2. Increased reliance on renewable energy such as community-based, appropriately located and scaled water, wind, solar and bioenergy. Provided new developments are subject to robust environmental assessments, including assurances of appropriate siting, setbacks, scale and community involvement, a moratorium on renewable energy is not supported on the current evidence;
3. Strategic use of natural gas to meet peak needs until renewable power is on-line and ensure all new natural gas-supplied electricity is highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP);
4. Cancellation of plans for construction of new risky and expensive nuclear power plants; and,
5. Immediate closure of all remaining coal plants, keeping them on emergency standby until permanent closure in 2014 and only operating them if there is no other option to keep the lights on.
Like all Ontarians, registered nurses have become increasingly concerned about the impact of poor air quality and toxins in our environment on conditions such as asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, allergies and many other health problems. Ontario’s coal-fired electricity generators are among the largest emitters of pollutants in the province and alone contributed to over 300 deaths in 2010 and about 158,000 minor conditions, such as asthma attacks. In addition to the health costs, the coal plants constitute one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. It is crucial that clean, green energy solutions be found – starting with conservation and energy efficiency - to end Ontario’s dependence on dirty coal.
In Creating Vibrant Communities: RNAO’s Challenge to Ontario’s Political Parties, 2011 Provincial Election, the RNAO strongly urged political parties to commit to closing all the remaining coal plants by 2012, keeping them on emergency standby until the 2014 date to which the government has committed for final closure. This continues to be the RNAO position. In addition, the RNAO called for the cancellation of plans to construct new nuclear plants in the province.
RNAO welcomed the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 and the government’s commitment to creating new jobs by expanding clean, green sources of energy such as wind, water, solar, biomass and biogas. These, combined with significant investments in conservation programs would go far in cutting the province’s dependence on dirty coal, improving air quality and reducing the greenhouse gases that are a major cause of dangerous climate change. Wind, in particular, when properly sited and scaled, has huge potential to deliver clean, plentiful and affordable power. It is estimated that wind will meet at least 20 per cent of Canada’s power needs by 2025, up from the current one per cent. With this rapid growth, however, comes controversy. Forceful claims of adverse health effects of wind turbines are met by equally forceful arguments of their safety. Community control and ownership of wind turbine developments have done much in other jurisdictions to encourage their spread and acceptance by the public. Ontario would do well to consider the lessons learned in those other jurisdictions.
Health, Environment and Equity
Evidence of the connection between the environment and health is well established. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that environmental factors account for 24 per cent of the world’s burden of disease and 23 per cent of all deaths. Environment is estimated to play a larger part in some conditions, such as asthma (44 per cent). Climate change itself affects human health, by contributing to extreme weather events, killer heat waves, poor air quality, and vector-, rodent-, food- and water -borne diseases. By fighting global warming, we are not merely protecting the environment – we are protecting the health of Ontarians. Creating vibrant communities means building healthier environments through cleaner air and water; creating good green jobs on a base of equity and environmental sustainability; getting serious about climate change; and reducing toxic substances and other pollutants in the environment, in our workplaces, in our consumer products, and in our food and water.
As the principle of environmental justice reminds us, the costs of environmental damage and climate change are disproportionately borne by lower income people. This is particularly true at the global level with climate change; it is the most vulnerable people in developing countries that are at greatest risk of inequity. These are the people who did the least to cause global warming. Human-generated greenhouse gases that further global warming are likely to exacerbate droughts in sub-Saharan Africa and threaten a “catastrophic reversal in human development.” When developing a safe, green, comprehensive long-term energy plan for Ontario it is critical that the solutions include local communities and not negatively impact our most vulnerable populations, particularly Aboriginal people.
Supply – Keeping the Lights On
In Renewable is Doable: Ontario’s Green Energy Plan 2.0, the Pembina Institute and Greenpeace Canada conclude that we have the opportunity to replace Ontario’s aging nuclear plants not with new nuclear stations, but with the range of safe, clean energy options that are increasingly available to us. With demand having fallen each of the last four years (part of which undoubtedly has been due to the recession), coal being phased out by 2014 (if not sooner), renewable energy sources producing more than originally expected, and the natural gas capacity that ensures the lights stay on during the transition already in place, now is the time to develop a 21st century energy plan, not one that is rooted in the practices of the past century. It is this visionary, yet achievable, approach that the RNAO strongly supports. In fact, failure to move in this direction would make Ontario an outlier jurisdiction. As the United Nations reported in 2008, for the first time global investment in clean, renewable energy exceeded new nuclear, coal and natural gas combined, a trend that was even more pronounced in 2009.
Integrated Power Supply Plan
The government’s proposed Integrated Power Supply Plan (IPSP) set the course of energy policy in Ontario for the 20- year period 2010 to 2030. Implementing the Minister of Energy’s announcement on November 23, 2010 - Ontario’s Long Term Energy Plan: Building Our Clean Energy Future - the IPSP charted a balanced supply mix that aimed to be reliable, modern, clean, cost-effective and building on the gains achieved through the Green Energy Act and Green Economy Act, 2009.
Enactment of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 affirmed the government’s commitment to creating new jobs by expanding clean, green sources of energy such as wind, water, solar, biomass and biogas. In fact, the government credits the Act for attracting more than $16 billion in private sector investment to Ontario and creating a projected 50,000 clean energy jobs by the end of 2012.
In the draft IPSP, the government articulated the following policy goals:
• produce electricity from particular energy sources and generation technologies;
• increase generation capacity from alternative and renewable energy sources;
• phase out polluting coal-fired generation facilities by 2014; and,
• develop and implement conservation measures.
While the RNAO supports a diverse energy mix, some sources of generation are cleaner and better for the health of Ontarians while others, notably nuclear and coal, pose unacceptable risks.
Underlying the government’s long-term energy plan is the assumption that demand for power will grow moderately, about 15 per cent, between 2010 and 2030. This assumption should be questioned.
Energy consumption has been dropping steadily since 2005, before the recession. According to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), whose mandate includes system reliability throughout Canada, the U.S. and parts of Mexico, demand for electricity will continue to drop an average 0.7 per cent annually until 2018. This 9.5 per cent reduction in demand would be the equivalent of about three nuclear reactors, thereby questioning whether Ontario needs to build new nuclear power plants in the first place.
Given the enormous cost and long-term economic, environmental and safety consequences of nuclear power, the government should revisit its demand assumptions. With strategic investments in conservation programs, expansion of combined heat and power (CHP), modernization of industrial structure and greater energy efficiency, experience so far this century has been a slight decline, not modest increase, in demand for electricity in Ontario.
Aggressive Conservation Targets
Conservation is promoted as a priority by the government as it committed in the Integrated Power Supply Plan to increase the conservation target to 7,100 megawatts (MW) and reduce overall demand by 28 terawatt-hours (TWh) by 2030. This is in addition to the more than 1,700 MW of reduced demand since 2005 that represents, according to the Ministry of Energy, the equivalent of taking more than 500,000 homes off the grid.
Until now, however, it is clear that conservation has not been the priority it should be. In 2010, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) reported reducing demand by 430 MW, yet contracted for 13,409 MW of electricity supply. Calculations by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance illustrate that the OPA’s payments for energy efficiency are 78 to 89 per cent lower than the cost of new nuclear power supply. If Ontario is serious about building a “culture of conservation”, the playing field must be much more level.
As the Ontario Clean Air Alliance points out, Ontario’s demand for electricity has dropped by seven per cent since 2006, but our usage of electricity per person continues to be 35 per cent higher than our neighbours in New York State. Clearly there is much room for improvement. Rather than basing its electricity plan on massive increases to supply (63 per cent higher generation in 2030 than in 2010), the government must focus on greatly enhancing conservation efforts to cut waste and improve energy efficiency.
Commit to Phase Out Coal NOW
In 2007, the Ontario government enacted a regulation requiring all remaining coal-fired electricity generation in the province to end by December 31, 2014. During the 2011 provincial election, all the major political parties agreed that the time has come to phase out coal-fired electricity generation.
Many groups, including the RNAO, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), the Lung Association, Asthma Society and the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) are advocating to end the burning of coal immediately and not wait until 2014. Coal plants can be placed on standby reserve and only operated when there is no other option to keep the lights on.
Coal plants release harmful particulate matter, lead and mercury into the air we breathe and are responsible for thousands of tonnes of climate change-causing greenhouse gases. Pollution from generating electricity using coal is considered to have contributed to over 300 deaths in Ontario in 2010, 440 hospital admissions, 522 emergency room visits and 158,000 minor illnesses such as asthma attacks. In fact, the end of coal would represent the equivalent of taking seven million cars off the road.
While evidence of the health dangers of coal is overwhelming, the economic costs, particularly in times of austerity, are unsustainable. Ministry of Energy numbers put Ontario’s health and environmental costs of coal at three billion dollars annually. According to the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation, an agency of the provincial government, has paid $865 million to Ontario Power Generation since January 2009 to compensate for the operating losses of its four coal plants.
With the closure of two coal units at Nanticoke in December, 2011, a total of ten coal units have already closed in Ontario, representing a reduction of coal-fired generation by more than 70 per cent from 2003 levels. Two additional units in Thunder Bay will be converted to gas and potentially biomass, the Atikokan unit will be converted to biomass by 2013 and, finally, the remaining units at Nanticoke and Lambton will be permanently closed by the end of 2014 according to the government’s plan. A decision is expected to be made in 2012 as to whether some or all of the remaining coal units at Nanticoke and Lambton will be converted to natural gas during a transitional period. That would help save jobs in those communities and also reduce reliance on such risky sources of generation as nuclear in ensuring overall system reliability while waiting for cleaner, renewable energy sources to come on-line.
As for whether some coal-generated electricity is needed between now and the end of 2014 to prepare for the peak periods in winter and summer, an analysis by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, finds that Ontario’s coal-free generation capacity is currently about 29 per cent higher than the forecasted peak demand during the summer of 2012 and 35 per cent greater than the peak demand that is forecast in 2014. Even if it is found necessary to keep some of the coal capacity on “standby reserve” until the permanent closure of the coal plants in 2014, the OCAA argues that there is no reason for the coal plants to be operated at even a minimal level in the interim pending an emergency or a need to support grid stability.
Ontarians understand and support the need to phase out Ontario’s reliance on coal-fired electricity According to a poll conducted by Strategic Communications Inc. in November, 2010, two-thirds of Ontarians support closing the province’s coal plants and 75 per cent recognize that coal is more harmful than wind power as a source of electricity.
New Nuclear Too Risky and Expensive
Nuclear power may not emit air pollutants during “production” of electricity, but in fact nuclear power is neither emissions-free nor clean. As a recent study points out, there is no safe level of radiation exposure – any amount of exposure to ionizing radiation is too much and is harmful.
Further, the health risks associated with nuclear power arise at all stages of the nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining and refining, to the fission process in nuclear reactors and radioactive releases into the air and water, to the legacy of radioactive waste that we leave for our grandchildren and future generations.
As RNAO noted in a submission on the acceptable level of the radionuclide tritium in Ontario’s drinking water, “Ontario’s and Canada’s heavy water nuclear reactors have been known to release large amounts of tritium due to their design. Depending upon the comparator, heavy water reactors have been estimated to release from over 20 times to over 100 times as much tritium per unit of energy produced (compared to pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors respectively). By one estimate, major Canadian nuclear facilities release amounts of tritium equaling about ten per cent of natural production of tritium in the Northern hemisphere. The majority of the releases come from Ontario reactors, and the impact is greatest near nuclear facilities.”
While there are relatively few Canadian studies on the deleterious effects of low levels of radiation on health, there is evidence linking increased prevalence of leukemia in children and living near nuclear facilities. Higher rates of congenital abnormalities have also been documented. A 2008 German study showed a statistically significant relationship between risk of leukemia and living within ten kilometres of a nuclear plant with consistent results across all 16 nuclear power plants in Germany.
Ontario now has safe and clean alternatives to the unacceptable health risks of nuclear power. It is time to invoke the precautionary principle and reject plans to build new nuclear power plants in the province..
There are other reasons to end new nuclear construction projects in Ontario. Nuclear power is prohibitively expensive. This is crucially important in an era when the government is scrambling to cut its huge deficit, and when its own Drummond Commission called for real per capita cuts in spending amounting to a massive 16.2 per cent of program spending.
While the government itself is budgeting $33 billion for its nuclear plans, which alone would elbow out other more cost-efficient investments, the track record of nuclear projects is not impressive. Every nuclear project in Ontario has gone considerably over-budget, on average about 2.5 times. Ontarians concerned about their rising hydro bills are still paying for the huge cost overruns from reactors built decades ago. Compare nuclear plants, where there is no protection for consumers, with renewable energy where Ontario’s feed-in tariff guarantees that only the cost of electricity generated is passed along to Ontarians and the cost of overruns and unforeseen liabilities is borne by the developer.
Natural gas plays a strategic role in the Ministry’s draft long-term energy plan largely thanks to its ability to supply local and reliable electricity quickly. While the government envisions natural gas bridging until nuclear generators have been modernized as well as until energy from renewable sources is on-line, natural gas would also allow coal to be phased out more quickly and energy needs to be met without building expensive and unnecessary new nuclear power plants. Natural gas is a fossil fuel and not a long-term solution, but it remains more flexible, adaptable to changing energy needs, and better able to meet peak needs in these days of unpredictable winters and summers.
It also offers considerable health advantages over coal. According to the US EPA, “Compared to the average air emissions from coal-fired generation, natural gas produces half as much carbon dioxide, less than a third as much nitrogen oxides, and one percent as much sulfur oxides at the power plant.”
Nuclear power, on the other hand, with its long term planning cycle and enormous costs is woefully incapable of adapting to changing demands and is ill-suited to be the cornerstone of the overall system as is currently envisioned in the plan.
The 2007 IPSP had originally forecast the need for three new natural gas plants in Ontario, including ones in the Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge area and one in the southwest GTA. However, the current draft plan revises this forecast to one plant, using transmission improvements to meet power needs in the southwest GTA.
Aggressive targets must be adopted for energy efficient supply such as combined heat and power (CHP). By simultaneously producing heat and electricity from the same molecules of natural gas, CHP provides energy efficiency of 80 to 90 per cent. Many hospitals (for example London Health Sciences Centre, Sudbury Regional Hospital, Kingston General Hospital) and other facilities, such as the University of Toronto and Pearson International Airport already employ combined heat and power.
Under the government’s long-term plan, it is recognized that combined heat and power is an energy-efficient source of power and the Ontario Power Authority is directed to develop a standard offer program for projects under 20 MW. Combined heat and power costs less than one third the cost of new nuclear and the potential supply of CHP is greater than 11,000 MW.
Combined heat and power is cleaner and safer than most other sources and should play a more prominent role in the overall diversity of power sources in Ontario.
Clean Renewable Energy Solutions
Ontario is proposing a target of 10,700 MW by 2018 from wind, solar and bio renewable energy. This would include continuing such clean energy programs as the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) and microFIT that encourage businesses to build and supply clean energy and homeowners to produce clean energy and connect to the grid. Under the long-term energy plan, renewable sources would provide Ontario with 15 per cent of its electricity supply by 2030, compared to about three per cent today.
Following the 2011 provincial election when green energy and the Feed-In Tariff in particular were major political issues, the newly appointed Minister of Energy, Chris Bentley, announced a review of the FIT program. While the Feed-In Tariff was intended to be reviewed every two years in any event, the announcement triggered uncertainty in the sector and it remains to be seen whether rapid growth in renewable energy in Ontario will continue at the same pace.
Thanks largely to the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, Ontario is acknowledged to be a leader in North America in development of renewable energy, with actual production of electricity from wind, solar and biomass significantly exceeding what was projected in the 2007 Integrated Power Supply Plan.
Of the renewable options, wind is touted as having huge potential to deliver clean, plentiful and affordable power. In Canada, it is estimated that wind will meet at least 20 per cent of the country’s power needs by 2025, up from the current 1.1 per cent. As of late 2010, there were a total of 690 wind turbines in Ontario. Both wind and solar energy developments can be expected to come under greater public scrutiny to ensure they are properly sited and scaled as the industry continues to grow.
A wind farm is a collection of wind turbines, each a large tower with rotating blades that uses wind to generate electricity. Turbines are separated from each other by several hundred metres, meaning that a large wind farm can cover an area of tens of square kilometres.
Noise from wind turbines consists of the aerodynamic noise or swishing sound caused by blades passing through the air, and mechanical noise created by the operation of mechanical elements of the drive-train. Impact of this noise reduces as distance from the turbines increases, hence the importance of appropriate siting. Noise from the blades also increases with wind speed.
Opponents of wind turbines are demanding a moratorium on all further development pending a full health study of their health impacts, and to restore community control over local wind initiatives.
Complaints attributed to proximity to turbines include chronic sleeplessness and sleep disturbance, dizziness, headaches, stress, hypertension, concentration problems, annoyance, tinnitus and reduced quality of life, particularly among residents living within two kilometres.
At this time, the predominance of expert opinion, though, is that a general moratorium or “time out” is not necessary or supported by the evidence. Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health acknowledges that some people living near wind turbines may report symptoms such as headaches and sleep disturbance, but in a comprehensive review of existing scientific evidence, Dr. Arlene King found no causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects at common residential setbacks.
The Chatham-Kent public health unit concludes that as long as the Ministry of Environment guidelines for location criteria of wind turbines are followed, the impacts on local residents are “negligible”: “Although opposition to wind farms on aesthetic grounds is a legitimate point of view, opposition to wind farms on the basis of potential adverse health consequences is not justified by the evidence.”
That is not to say that changes are unnecessary. Government and renewable energy companies must do more to fully engage communities as partners in future developments. As with any development project that potentially impacts communities and the environment, environmental assessments must be robust with timely and proper consultation with local communities. Communities must be full partners in ensuring siting and setback decisions meet local needs. Dr. Arlene King, Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health suggests that community engagement at the very outset of planning for wind turbines and indeed any renewable energy development is important and may help address health concerns. Such a process will help to mitigate potential risks to health such as sound, low frequency sound, ice formation and shadow flicker.
The health effects of wind turbines have been extensively studied, and further studies are ongoing. The RNAO looks forward to reviewing and evaluating new information on both wind and other energy sources such as solar as it becomes available.
In her review of the health impacts of wind turbines, the Chief Medical Officer of Health suggested that fairness and equity concerns may influence attitudes towards wind farms and allegations about effects on health. There is a danger that wind energy becomes perceived as an elitist, urban concern that is trampling rural communities, including Aboriginal communities, and the rural way of life. This becomes manifest in the feeling of loss of control and local democracy and resentment of wind turbines being imposed on them without adequate consultation. As Dr. King recommends, equity and fairness need to be considered as the government moves ahead with renewable energy developments.
The RNAO will continue to work with the government to build an electricity system in Ontario that is safe, reliable, equitable and environmentally sustainable; one that does due diligence when evaluating different energy mix, respects local decision-making, and does not pollute the air and leave a legacy of toxic waste. Not only is such a system possible, it is necessary and is the only option for a clean, healthy, environmentally sustainable future.
To view full text and references for RNAO's Position Statement: Healthy Energy Solutions for Ontario.
Position Statement
Environmental determinants of health
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RodinYounessi
Rodin Younessi Was One of the Only Americans to Compete in the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series
February 20, 2019 | Rodin Younessi | Rodin Younessi
Motorsports enthusiast and celebrated racecar driver Rodin Younessi has enjoyed many driving privileges in his racing career. Among other accolades, Mr. Younessi’s team was selected to compete in the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series competition, making him one of only a handful of Americans announced for their 2013 racing calendar.
Rodin Younessi has pursued a passion for motorsports for years, racing cars and motorcycles since an early age and eventually purchasing a series of high-volume dealerships. He’s competed in a range of elite races around the world and was selected as one of the only Americans to compete in the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series.
The Blancpain Endurance race of 2013 was the third season of the Endurance Series and took place from April 14 to September 22. The international race began in Monza, Italy and ended months later in Nurburgring, Germany but featured other locations along the way (such as Silverstone and Paul Ricard, among others). It featured five rounds in total, with each race lasting around three hours––excluding the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the 1000 km Nürburgring events).
Leading his own team, Rodin Younessi entered the Endurance Series through MRS (Molitor Racing Systems) as the operating team. Molitor Racing Systems also announced drivers like Brazilian Carlos Kray and Austrian Philipp Eng for the season’s lineup. Together, Rodin Younessi and his teammates shared the wheel of a McLaren MP4-12C GT3, though none of them were strangers to high performance, luxury-class sports cars. Mr. Younessi was the only American driver of the entire series to compete in a McLaren.
Younessi became acquainted with endurance racing after competing at the 8th Edition Dunlop 24hr of Dubai. In the Dunlop race, he drove the MRS McLaren MP4-12C GT3 and gained critical experience with the motorsports brand. Before that, though, Rodin Younessi privately tested the vehicle at Hockenheimring in Germany and used the factory race simulator at the McLaren Technology Center in the UK to prepare himself for the upcoming races.
“I was able to compete in the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 at 24hr of Dubai a few months ago, and was very impressed with the car’s performance,” said Rodin Younessi before the 2013 Endurance Series kicked off. “I anticipate good results with my teammates.”
Rodin Younessi was always involved in motorsports growing up, gaining significant experience first with motorcycle competitions and eventually racing open-wheel and sports cars. In his career, he’s competed in the USF2000 National Championship in the series’ National Class as well as the F2000 Championship Series. He also raced in a Performance Tech Prototype Challenge Car at the 2012 ALMS Grand Prix of Baltimore. He formed his own competing team in 2012 (called Younessi Racing) to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights and has successfully advanced his racing career ever since.
Rodin YounessiRodin Younessi FloridaRodin Younessi Palm Beach
Rodin Younessi Supports Local Communities by Hosting Charity Events and Donating Dealership Vehicles
Rodin Younessi Pilots Specialty Racing Vehicles in Various Renowned Competitions
Motorsports Legend Rodin Younessi Competed in Le Mans 24-Hour Race Behind the Wheel of an ORECA 03
Team Owner Rodin Younessi Competed in the Prestigious 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series
Rodin Younessi Assembled Professional Racing Team Ahead of Firestone Indy Lights Series
Rodin Younessi
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A History of the British Pound
Posted on January 5, 2017 June 18, 2018 by RothkoResearch
In today’s article, we provide a recap of the history of the British Pound. According to the yearly BIS Foreign Exchange Turnover published in April 2016, the British pound is part of the G10 currencies and is the fourth most ‘traded’ currency with a daily average of 649 billion Dollars. Its percentage share of average daily turnover stands at 12.8%, and its two main ‘counterparties’ are the US Dollar ($470bn) and the Euro ($100bn).
Note that the exchange rate $/£ [or USD/GBP] is also called Cable, a term that derives from the advent of the telegraph in the mid-1800s. Transactions between the British pound and the US Dollar were executed via a Transatlantic Cable, and the first exchange rate was published in The Times on August 10th 1866.
This article will be split in two parts; the first one [briefly] retraces the origin and the history of Sterling until the End of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, and the second part explains the trends and reversals of Cable in addition to stating what I believe were the main drivers of the currency pair (from 1971 to today).
I. Origin and History of the Sterling pound between the mid-700s and the end of the Bretton Woods system (1971)
A. Quick history recap
Considered to be the oldest living currency in the world, the pound is 1,200 years old and was born in the latter half of the 8th Century, when silver pennies were the main currency in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. The name [Sterling] pound (or Livre sterling in French) comes from the Latin word Libra Pondo, which means pound weight.
Back in the 8th century, 240 silver pennies represented one pound of weight and it was not until 1489 (under Henry VII) that appeared higher denominated coins with the first pound coin. Then, paper notes began to circulate after the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694, the world’s second oldest central bank (after the Sveriges Riksbank, the Swedish central bank). The Bank of England started as a ‘private company’ with the immediate purpose of raising funds for King William III’s war against France (issuing notes in return for deposits).
Even though there is an infinite amount of [inspiring] work on the Bank of England and the British currency, I am going to move directly to the 19th century when the British pound became the world’s reserve currency for a century after the Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in June 1815 (Foreign Exchange Reserves, Image 1). Great Britain arose as the leading exporter of manufactured goods and services and the largest importer of food and industrial raw materials. Between the mid-1800s and the outbreak of WWI in 1914, 60 percent of the global trade was invoices and settled in British pound (B. Eichengreen, 2005). London became the world’s financial capital in the late 19th century and the export of capital was a major based for the British economy until 1914. As foreign governments were seeking to borrow in sterling, British financial institutions established branches in the colonies and colonial banks opened offices in London. In 1913, Sterling’s share in the Official Foreign Exchange Assets stood at 48%, above Francs (31%) and Marks (15%) according to Lindert’s calculation (1969).
B. WWI outbreak and its consequence on the UK (and Sterling)
Although the US economy surpassed the British economy in size [in real terms] in 1872 (Gheary-Kamis, 1990), the important switch occurred in the early 1910s:
the US became an net creditor while the became a net debtor
and more importantly, the Federal Reserve was established in 1913 (December 23rd), with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act
At the outbreak of WWI, the gold standard was suspended and restrictions were placed on the export of gold, which obviously had a negative impact on the British pound (vis-à-vis the US Dollar) as we can see it on Chart 2a. Prior to and during most of the 19th century, one pound was roughly worth 5 US Dollar (Chart 2b), with some ‘turbulence’ in 1860s due to the American Civil War.
Severe inflation (20%+), lack of demand, a high unemployment rate (above 10%) in addition to a 25-percent drop in economic output between 1918 and 1921 launched the Great Depression in United Kingdom at the end of WWI, which last for two decades. The pound first plummeted from $4.70 to $3.50 during that 3-year period before swinging back to its prewar levels (at $4.87).
C. ‘In between’ the Two Wars
The pound ‘rebound’ in the early 1920s (Chart 2a) could be explained by the political desire to maintain the value of Sterling at a ‘high’ rate (i.e. prewar levels) to give Britain an [economic] successful image to the rest of the World. In order achieve that, the UK had to run contractionary fiscal and monetary policy (Image 2a), which increased interest rate differentials (i.e. attracted savings in Britain) and pushed the UK inflation rate below the US one. As the US inflation rate was already very low at that time, the UK was experiencing deflation at that time (Image 2b).
Then, in 1925, Britain re-adopted a form of Gold Standard where the exchange rate was determined by the relative values of gold in the two countries, with a fixing at 4.86 US Dollar per unit of Pound. This Gold Standard ‘return’ was considered to be disastrous (Churchill’s biggest mistake as he was serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer at that time), as it resulted in persistent deflation, high unemployment rate that led to the General Miners’ Strike of 1926. The UK was stuck in the debt vicious spiral; running a contractionary fiscal and monetary policy during a deflationary recession was increasing both the amount of UK debt in real terms and its burden (high interest rate increased the cost of borrowing). This led to a Balance of Payments issue, and led to a run on the pound. On the top of that, the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression put the British economy under intense pressure, which eventually came off the Gold Standard in September of 1931. In the year that followed, the British pound dropped to lower lows to around 3.25 against the US Dollar. However, as Barry Eichengreen noted in his paper Fetters of Gold and Paper, countries that came off the Gold Standard early (i.e. UK) did better [or less worse] than the countries that remained on it for longer (i.e. US). After a 3-year [1930-1932] pronounced deflationary period in the US (Image 3), rapidly rising prices in the summer of 1933 (after the US went eventually off the gold standard on June 5th 1933) eased the ‘strain’ on other countries and kicked off the dollar depreciation. The British pound rapidly recovered its losses and surged to a new high of $5 by 1934 (Chart 2a). The pound remained afloat and oscillated at around $5 until 1939 and the outbreak of WWII. This depreciation (which brought back the British pound to its low of 3.25 against the greenback) was mainly due to uncertainty around the outcome of the war, as fundamentals were expected to deteriorate very quickly (output collapse, a rise in inflation) indebting the British economy even more.
D. World War II and Bretton Woods period
In 1940, an agreement between the US and UK pegged the pound to the greenback at a rate of $4.03 per unit of pound. This exchange rate remained fixed during WWII and was maintained at the start of the Bretton Woods system (Chart 2a). British emerged from WWII with an unprecedented debt of nearly 250 percent as a share of GDP (most of it owned to the US) with ‘strong’ currency, a [much] less dominant market in terms of competitiveness and a degrading balance of payments (Hirsch, 1965). Despite the soft-loan agreement (a 3.75 billion-dollar loan to the UK by the US negotiated by JM Keynes at a low 2% interest rate with repayment over fifty years) to support British overseas expenditure post WWII, the British pound remained under intense pressure. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps eventually announced a 30-percent pound devaluation from $4.03 to $2.80 in September 1949.
However, the devaluation was not enough as the following two decades were characterised by persistent balance of payment problems and led to the Sterling crisis of 1964-1967. The UK was forced to seek assistance from the Bank of International Settlement and the IMF more than once. Despite persistent current account deficits and a deteriorating balance of payments in 1964-1965 (Image 4), UK officials didn’t react (i.e. devalue) as they argued that devaluation would severely strain Britain’s relations with other countries when the main holders of sterling would begin to withdraw their balances from London and also threaten the international monetary system (Bordo & al., 2009). The pound weakness persisted in 1966 and 1967, covered by lines of credit received by other central banks (i.e. swaps with the NY Fed) and the IMF. But the government eventually ceded and PM Harold Wilson announced that the pound would be devalued from $2.80 to $2.40 on Saturday 18 November 1967. It then remained at that level until end of Bretton Woods.
II. The trends and reversals of Cable since the End of the Bretton Wood System in 1971
Note that all the periods and important events are marked in Chart 1 (see end of article).
A. The Nixon 1971 Shock and Smithsonian Agreements (1971 – 1973)
In addition to signing the Smithsonian agreement at the December 1971 G10 meeting, where the US pledged to peg the dollar at $38 an ounce (instead of $35 during BW) with 2.25% trading bands (instead of 1 percent), the UK also agreed to appreciate their currency against the US Dollar. The pound was worth $2.65 by the end of the first quarter 1972.
B. 1973 – 1976: a rough start
However, it did not take too long for troubles to ‘come back’ in the UK and the pound experienced a series of speculative attacks in the mid-1970s. Cable hit a low of $1.5875 in the last quarter of 1976 and the UK had to call the IMF to counter persistent runs on Sterling. This loan was followed by a series of austerity measures, which helped reduce inflation and improve the economic activity, hence boosting the pound in the second half of the 1970s.
C. 1976 – 1980: US inflation and the Dollar depreciation
The positive UK-US carry trade due to low interest rate run by the Fed in the mid-1970s (as a response to the post first-oil shock recession) gave birth to a four-year shining period for Cable, which recovered by 54% to hit a high of $2.45 in the last quarter of 1980.
D. The V shape of the 1980s
I like to describe the 1980s as a V-shape curve for Cable as there were two major trends during that period. As a result of the second oil shock caused by the Shah revolution in Iran in 1979, oil prices doubled in the following year leading to a sharp increase in inflation in the US in 1979-1980 (peaked at 15% in the first quarter of 1980). In order to reign in the double-digit inflation, Fed chairman Volcker reacted immediately by orchestrating a series of interest rate hikes that levitated the Fed Funds target rate from 10% to nearly 20%. Even though the dramatic increase in interest rates caused a painful recession and a surge in unemployment rate (11%) in the US, it eventually led to international capital inflows as high [real] interest rates became attractive to foreign investment. What followed was a severe appreciation of the US dollar vis-à-vis the major currencies; Cable lost more than half of its value and hit a historical low of $1.0520 in the first quarter of 1985 (Chart 1). This Dollar Rise under the Reagan administration was a problem for the US economy as the current account fell into substantial and persistent deficit (Image 5a). In addition, the US was also running large budget deficit of 5%+ during the same period (Image 5b), which put the country in a twin deficits anomaly and caused considerable difficulties for the American industry (i.e. car producers, engineering and tech companies…).
Therefore, in order to re-boost the US economy, the Plaza Agreement was signed in New York on September 22nd 1985 and France, Japan, West Germany and the United Kingdom agreed to depreciate the US Dollar by intervening in the currency markets. This decision created a secular change in the financial market and immediately reversed the 5-year bull momentum on the US Dollar. The Pound reacted and appreciated roughly 80 percent in the following three years. I am not sure if the [financial] sentence ‘Don’t fight the central banks’ came from this decade, but I think it is a good example to show you how much effect a central bank cohort move can have on the market.
E. 1988 – 1992: the volatile period
We saw a consolidation between 1988 and 1989 to $1.51 after Margaret Thatcher’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lawson decided to unofficially peg the British pound to the German Mark (UK wasn’t in the Exchange Rate Mechanism yet (Image 8, green period). This caused inflation, a credit bubble and a property boom that eventually crashed in 1989-1990 followed by a recession.
Cable started to recover in the first quarter of 1990 as the interest rate differential increased preference for the British pound (Chart 3). In the middle of 1989, the Federal Reserve began to run a loose monetary policy in order to boost the US economy weakened by the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Fed’s chair Alan Greenspan decreased the Fed Funds rate from 9.75% in March 1989 to 3% in September 1992 to boost productivity (Chart 3). Cable double topped at [perfect] resistance $2.00, a first time in Q1 1991 and a second time in Q3 1992.
It is also important to note that during that time, the Conservative government (Third Thatcher ministry) decided to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism on October 8th 1990 (Image 8, grey period), with the pound set at DM2.95.
16 September 1992: Black Wednesday and ERM exit (Source: Inside the House of Money)
Also called [another] Sterling crisis, the British government was forced to withdraw the Pound Sterling from the ERM on that day, sending the pound into a free fall. Cable tumbled by 30% from [Q3 92] peak to [Q1 93] trough. But what really happened then?
As we mentioned before, the UK tardily joined the ERM in 1990 at a central parity rate of DM2.95 and a trading range band of +/- 6 percent. The exchange rate was arguable judge too strong by many economists at that time, therefore the overvalued currency in addition to high interest rates and falling house prices led the country into a recession in 1991. It became difficult for UK officials to maintain the value of the Pound at around its target against the Deutsch Mark. Meanwhile, Germany was suffering inflationary effects from the 1989-1990 Unification, which led to high interest rates. Therefore, despite a recession, the UK was ‘forced’ to keep interest rates high (10% in September) to maintain the currency regime. Speculation began and global macro traders (i.e. Soros) increasingly sold pounds against the Deutsche Mark. To discourage speculation, UK Chancellor Lamont increased rates to 12% on September 16th with a promise to raise them again to 15%. However, traders continued to sell British pounds, as they knew that increasing rates to defend a currency during a recession is an unsustainable policy.
Eventually, on 16 September 1992, the UK government announced that it would no longer defend the trading band and withdrew the pound of the ERM system. The pound lost 15 percent of its value against the DM in the following weeks and traded as low as DM2.16 in 1995.
Even though we usually do our analysis of a specific currency vis-à-vis the US Dollar, I thought it was important to mention the presence of the Deutsch Mark as it explained Cable’s depreciation in 1992 and 1993.
F. 1993 – 1998: the Dull period with shy Sterling Gains
After the ERM exit, it was dull period for the USD/GBP, Cable oscillated around $1.60 with a shy little upward trend (i.e. shy GBP gains) helped by the small interest rate differentials and a series of trade balance surpluses. It looks like the $1.70 psychological resistance was hard to break between 1996 and 1998 and the Pound traded within a ‘tight’ 10-figure range during these years.
One important event during that period was that the Monetary Policy Committee was given operational responsibility for setting interest rates in 1997 with one [only] mandate: maintain a 2-percent inflation rate in the long run. Traditionally, the Treasury set interest rates.
G. 1999 – 2002: The Sterling Depreciation
As we saw for the Euro (and the Yen at a lesser extent), the turn of the century was marked by a Dollar appreciation between 1999 and 2002. Cable lost a bit of steam during that period and spent a lot of time flirting with the $1.40 support in 2000 and 2001 (it even hit a low of $1.37 in Q2 2001). I have not found any supportive literature to explain this downward bias, but it is not absurd to assume that some of the dollar strength came from a surge in the equity market capitalization in the US – with the Tech Boom – and potentially a higher productivity than in the United Kingdom.
H. The 2002 – 2008 GBP appreciation (or US Dollar depreciation)
The US Dollar started to tumble in late 2001 / early 2002, which was the beginning of a 6-year bull period for Cable. The exchange rate went north 50% and reached a high of $2.11 in the last quarter of 2007 (with a small consolidation in 2005). The (inflation-adjusted) trade-weighted dollar exchange rate (i.e. see REER) steadily depreciated, falling by roughly 25 percent (Image 6). During that period, US was printing persistent twin deficits: Current Account deficits print a high of 6 percent in 2006 (Image 7a) while Budget deficits were ranging between 2 and 3.5 percent as a share of GDP (Image 7b). In addition, the Fed decreased interest rates to 1.75% after the 9/11 attacks and then to 1 percent in 2003, helping the government to roll its debt at lower costs and finance the Iraq War (total cost to the United States was at 3 trillion USD according to Stiglitz and Bilmes, 2010).
I. 2008: Financial Crisis and the Risk-Off aversion
The British pound saw a massive depreciation in 2008 due to the risk-off sentiment and the sudden demand for Dollars; Cable tumbled 36%+ from [Q4 2007] peak of $2.11 to [Q1 2009] trough of $1.35. In the early 21th century, Sterling had lost its reserve currency for a long time, so when asset prices took a massive hit in 2007-2008 the pound did too. The two currencies that acted as ‘strong’ safe-havens were the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen. This raised an interesting debate on whether countries should have huge amount of debt (denominated in their local currency) in order to have a currency that acts as a safe-haven in harsh period. When you think about it, the two safe-havens are the currencies of the two most indebted nations ($20tr for the US and $11tr for Japan, as of today).
The UK was sharply impacted by the crisis; to give you an idea, the pound’s [36-percent] fall vis-à-vis the US Dollar wasn’t even enough to make up for weakening foreign demand. It took the country’s economy 6 years to come back to its pre-crisis level (summer 2014, ONS), with a debt-to-GDP ratio that soared from 51% in 2008 to 89% in 2014.
Bank of England’s answer: Like many other central banks, the BoE slashed rates from 5 percent in the beginning of 2008 to 0.5% in Q1 2009 (the lowest since the BoE establishment in 1694). In addition, the Bank of England press the QE bottom like in the US and created £375bn of new money between 2009 and 2012.
The series of measures adopted by central bankers brought back interest in the Sterling pound, considered to be ‘cheap’ or undervalued relative to its peers. Cable regained 50% of its value in three quarters and hit a high of $1.71 during the third quarter of 2009; however, the recovery wasn’t very long as the Sovereign debt crisis emerged in Europe (at that time is was Greece) and impacted the British economy (and its currency) as well.
J. 2011 – summer 2013: the other dull period
Bizarrely, the British pound wasn’t affected too much during the [second] EZ sovereign debt crisis between Q3 2011 and mid-2012. For almost two-and-a-half years, Cable traded around $1.50-$1.60 with pressure on the downside in the beginning of 2013. The pressure came after it lost its top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 on expectations that growth would ‘remain sluggish over the next few years’. At that time, traders were starting to predict that Cable would retest its 1.40-1.4250 support range as the Pound was clearly not a hot currency in the beginning of 2013. In addition, investors were also starting to look at the Euro’s momentum after the buy-on-dips that followed Draghi’s ‘Whatever it takes’ in July 2012.
Despite the UK weakness, the British pound didn’t fall to further levels as it was ‘saved’ by a dovish Fed and a US Dollar in the coma. In the last quarter of 2012, Bernanke announced a further round of QE with monthly purchases totalling $85bn (of Treasuries and MBS) in order to boost productivity. This prevented the British pound of depreciating too much and raise interest in the cheap Euro at that time.
K. August 2013: New BoE Governor Mark Carney took office and the Pound experienced a fantastic year
In the summer of 2013, Marc Carney left the Bank of Canada to take over Mervyn King’s place as the new Governor of the Bank of England. Then, what followed was a series of good news and positive fundamentals in the UK; the British pound switched from the no-interest status to traders’ favourite currency (with the Euro, there were the market’s Darlings). Cable soared from its $1.48 lows to hit a 6-year high of $1.72 with market participants pricing in a sooner interest rate hike. Cable’s good driver of that one-year bull period was the increase in implied rates [looking at the short-sterling futures contract]. Moreover, Britain was the fastest-growing major economy in 2014, printing an annual growth of 2.9% (surpassing the US and its 2.4%).
L. Summer 2014: the Dollar wake-up and the start of a Bear currency market for the Pound
As I already wrote it in a previous post on the UK, the last positive words on the British economy came out of Carney’s mouth during a speech he gave at the Mansion House on June 12th 2014 (the same night of the kick-start of the World Cup in Brazil). He said that the UK was on a positive momentum (i.e. fundamentals were good) and hinted that the Bank of England may rise rates sooner than the market expected. At that time, I remember that the futures market was pricing in a 25bps hike by the end of Q4 2014.
However, everything vanished a few weeks later and more and more participants were starting to notice that the British pound was showing signs of ‘fatigue’ and that a consolidation was coming. In addition, May 2014 was also the announcement of the ‘Euro’s Death’ and that the single currency expected depreciation may spur an overall Dollar strength. And it happened… According to the DXY index, the Dollar strengthen by 25 percent against its main trading partners between July 2014 and March 2015. Cable tumbled from a $1.72 to $1.4635 during that same period.
In early 2015, most of the market participants was pricing in another 15 to 20 percent increase in the Dollar on expectations of the Fed starting a tightening cycle (taking the two previous Dollar Rally that we described earlier as empirical data: the Reagan Rally in the beginning of the 1980s and the Clinton Rally that occurred in the late 1990s).
2016: The Brexit effect and monetary policy divergence
After a brief pause in 2015 as the Fed halted its tightening cycle [due to the sharp sell-off that occurred in the beginning of 2016], Cable continued its bear market against the US Dollar in 2016 on speculation of a Brexit Yes vote first (in favour of leaving the EU), and then on the concretisation of the Yes vote (52% in favour of Brexit) following the referendum held on June 23rd. The pound traded below the 1.20 level against the greenback after the announcement, its lowest level in 21 years, and remains currently under pressure as Brexit uncertainty will continue until Article 50 gets triggered.
BoE answers to Brexit
After four years of status quo [and hints of potential rate hikes], the Bank of England announced a new round of QE in August last year targeting £60bn of monthly purchases (of which £10bn of corporate debt) and cut its Official Bank rate by 25bps to 0.25%. With the Fed now [seriously] reconsidering starting a tightening cycle after a first hike last month and three potential rate increase in 2017 (DotPlot Gradual Path), the monetary policy divergence between the US and UK and the political uncertainty in Europe (and UK) will weigh on the pound in the near future.
Chart 1. GBPUSD historical monthly candlesticks since 1971 (Source: Bloomberg)
Chart 2a. Cable historical rate 1915 – 2013
Chart 2b. Cable historical rate since 1791
Chart 3. UK Official Bank Rate (Red Line) versus US Fed Funds Rate (White Line)
Image 1. Reserve currency status (Source: JP Morgan)
Image 2a. UK Budget deficit in the 1920s (Source: ONS)
Image 2b. UK Inflation Rate in the 1920s (Source: ONS)
Image 2c. UK Unemployment Rate in the 1920s (Source: ONS)
Image 3. US Annual Inflation in 1930-1939 (Source: BLS)
Image 4. UK Current Account in the 1960s (Source: Trading Economics)
Image 5a. US Current Account in the 1980s (Source: Trading Economics)
Image 5b. US Budget Deficits in the 1980s (Source: Trading Economics)
Image 6. US Dollar REER (Source: OECD)
Image 8. Exchange-rate regimes for EU members starting 1979 (Source: Wikipedia)
Tagged Black Wednesday, BoE, Bretton Woods, Brexit, Cable, Carney, carry trade, ERM, Financial Crisis, Foreign Exchange Reserves, History of Currencies, Pound, QE, Soros, Sterling, US Dollar3 Comments
Retracing the US Dollar Q4 rise…
Posted on January 2, 2017 May 10, 2018 by RothkoResearch
An important topic that has been making the headline over the past few weeks is the new surge of the US Dollar (vis-à-vis the major currencies) in the last quarter of 2016. Since its Obama Rise peak that occurred in mid-March 2015 (after a 25% appreciation), the US Dollar has been ranging against most of the major currencies (except the British pound due to political uncertainty and post-Brexit effect in June, and more recently the Mexican peso). The main reason for that long period of stagnation, in my opinion, was a shift in expectations of monetary policy in the US. After the Fed stepped out of the Bond Market (on October 28th 2014), market’s participants have been mainly focusing on the short-end of the curve, questioning themselves if the Fed was going to start a tightening monetary policy cycle. We saw a hike in December 2015 (25bps), which was immediately halted due to the market sell-off that followed afterwards (13% drawdown in US equities, 20% in Europe and Japan…). Therefore, the implied probability of a second hike in 2016 crashed, which was confirmed by the 7 FOMC meetings that followed (i.e. status quo).
Then, interest in the US Dollar started to emerge again in Q4 2016; the greenback experienced a 8%+ appreciation between October 1st and its December high of 13.65 (28th) according to the DXY index (Chart 1). There are a number of explanations to that recent surge: market was gradually pricing in a rate hike for the December meeting, political uncertainty rising in Europe or Infinite QE in Japan to protect the yield curve. All these stories make sense to explain the Dollar appreciation, therefore let’s retrace the important events that occurred in the last quarter of 2016.
Chart 1. US Dollar index in 2015-2016 (Source: Bloomberg)
Higher inflation and a positive post-Trump effect
First of all, the rebound in oil prices relieved pressure on energy-related companies [that have been falling one by one, applying to Chapter 11 bankruptcy] and had a positive effect on expected inflation. The price of a barrel has doubled since its February’s low of $26 and is currently trading slightly below $54 (Chart 2, red line) and obviously relieved US policymakers’ inflation anxiety. The 5Y5Y inflation swap forward (Chart 2, white line) stands now at 2.42%, higher than the 1.80% recorded last June. As a consequence, US long-term yields followed the move and the 10-year Treasury yield surged from a low of 1.36% reached in July last year to 2.44% today. With the unemployment rate below 5% and a Q3 GDP growth of 3.5% (annual QoQ), it seems inflation had been the main concern of the Fed’s officials in order to start tightening [again].
Therefore, on December 14th, US policymakers decide to raise the federal funds rate by 25bps to 0.5%-0.75% [and the discount rate from 1% to 1.25%], repeating a gradual policy path plan with three potential hikes in 2017. Even though it was considered to be the most ‘priced in’ hike of any Fed meeting ever, it pushed the implied rates to the upside with the current OIS (Chart 3, purple line) trading almost 1 percent above the OIS at the September meeting (Chart 3, red line). This change in implied rates was reflected in the Dollar appreciation.
Chart 2. US inflation overlaid with Oil Prices and US 10-year yield (Source: Bloomberg)
Chart 3. Fed’s dot plot and implied rates (Source: Bloomberg)
We were not very surprised when the Fed officials announced the rate hike, however we were wondering if we would have seen such optimism if equity markets ‘followed’ the global bond sell-off after the election (Trump effect). The positive US equity market reaction to Trump’s victory also comforted US policymakers for the December’s hike; we strongly believe that the decision would have been much harder if they had to deal with a sudden equity sell-off. Instead, the SP500 reached new record highs (2,277) last months.
One explanation of this development is based on investors’ expectation of an expansionary fiscal policy that will boost economic growth and inflation in the future, which are usually positive news for equities and negative news for bonds in theory (see Four Quadrants matrix – image 1).
Image 1. The ‘Four Quadrants’ framework (Source: Gavekal Research)
2. Political uncertainty rising in Europe, the rigger of many ‘forgotten’ problems
A popular trade that was running in the last quarter of 2016 was to be long the Italian-German 10-year spread ahead of the Italian referendum that occurred on December 4th. Market was pricing a potential rejection (55% chance), leading to an increase in political uncertainty in Europe, rising spreads between periphery and core and weakening the Euro.
If we look at Chart 4, we can see that the spike in the Italian 10-year yield (Chart 4, white line) could explain the Euro weakness (hence, USD strength). While the 10-year yield increased from 1.20% to 2.20% in two months (October and November), EURUSD (Chart 4, red line, inverted) went down 7 figures and reached a new low of 1.0350 post-referendum (59.1% of voters rejected the reform bill, which was followed immediately by PM Renzi’s resignation).
Even though yields have been decreasing over the past month (the 10-year now standing at 1.73%), political uncertainty could be the trigger of the two ‘delayed’ and ‘forgotten’ issues [or Black Swans] in Europe: the weak banking system and the Sovereign debt crisis. Not only Italy (in this case) cannot survive with higher yields (the country has 2.34 trillion EUR of outstanding debt – 132.6% of GDP – which needs to be rolled with low yields), but a sell-off in equities will increase the percentage of NPLs and potentially forced their banks to bail-in their depositors. The failure of Monte Paschi di Siena’s plan to raise 5-billion euros in capital from the market was ‘solved’ by a Nationalization (the bank’s third bailout). It was announced that the government will own at least 75% of the common equity after the bank is nationalized, a rescue that will cost the Italian government (i.e. taxpayers) about 6.6bn Euros according to the ECB (4.6bn Euros are needed to meet capital requirements and 2bn Euros to compensate the retail bondholders).
Therefore, We strongly believe that we will hear other similar stories in the year to come, as Italy is not the only country facing non-performing loans (NPLs) issues that affect the banking sector. Therefore, political uncertainty in Europe will weigh on the single currency and increase investors’ interest to the US Dollar.
Chart 4. Italian 10-year yield versus EURUSD (inv.) (Source: Bloomberg)
3. The weakness in the Japanese Yen
In Japan, the BoJ introduced the ‘Yield Control’ operation in order to stabilize the steepness of the JGB yield curve, offering to buy an unlimited amount of debt at fixed yields to prevent a significant surge in rates. This is kind of a puzzle, as Japan Officials cannot afford higher yields [as many indebted developed nations], however too-low yields impact revenues of the banking system and the pension / mutual funds.
We don’t think the particular surge in USDJPY was explained by this new ‘BoJ Operation’ and We prefer to say that the Yen depreciation was a result of a Risk-on effect post-US election result in addition to the recent spike in US yields. USDJPY (Chart 5, candlesticks) trades above 117 and equities (Chart 5, red line) are above the 19,000 level for the first time since September 2015; and you can see how the increase in US yields (Chart 5, blue line) is ‘responsible’ to the Yen weakness.
The question now is to know if the late Q4 Yen weakness will persist in early 2017, with USDJPY pair attracting more and more momentum investors looking to hit the 125 resistance. We know historically that the [positive] trend on the USDJPY can halt [and reverse] very quickly if investors are suddenly skeptical about the global macro situation (Fed delaying its 2017 hike path, China liquidity issues or rising yields in peripheral European countries). On the top of that, if market starts to price in inflation in 2017, will the BoJ be able to counter a JGB tantrum and keep the 10-year JGB yield at around 0%?
One important thing about this recent Yen weakness though is that it allows the Japanese government to buy time in order to implement new reforms and increase productivity. If you remember well, Abe stated in September 2015 his 20% increase in Japan GDP in the medium term (increase from 500tr to 600tr Yen in 5 years).
Chart 5. USDJPY, Nikkei 225 and US 10-year yield (Source: Bloomberg)
4. The Chinese Yuan devaluation
Another currency that has been making the headlines is the Chinese Yuan. Over the past year, the Chinese Yuan has shed roughly 7 percent of its value against the greenback (Chart 6, USDCNY in candlesticks). At the same FX reserves (Chart 6, blue line) have been shrinking; reserves plunged by $69.1bn to $3.05tr in November (most in 10 months), bringing the reduction in the stockpile to almost USD 1tr from a record $4 trillion reach in June 2014. As Horseman Capital noted in their article on China (Is China running out of money?), if FX reserves continue to plummet and the PBoC wants to maintain control of the exchange rate, Chinese officials will face some difficult choices. One option would be to raise interest rates (the benchmark one-year lending rate stands currently at 4.35%) in order to reduce outflows and attract interest in the Yuan (high interest rate differential vs. the other countries). This would have a negative effect on the country’s growth outlook, which is already concerning the developed economies due to the high levels of corporate debt and overheated property markets. Another option would be to reduce the holding of deposits by cutting the reserve requirement rate (RRR) which stands currently at 17%. We can see in Chart 7 that the Asset-Liabilities spread (represented by Foreign Currency Assets and Deposits from Other banks) has narrowed drastically over the past year, therefore cutting the reserve rates for banks could be a temporary solution for the PBoC. The problem of the second option is that it will continue to weaken the Chinese Yuan vis-à-vis the US Dollar, which could increase political tensions between US and China.
Interestingly, an asset that has [sort-of] tracked the USDCNY move this year is the Bitcoin (Chart 6, red line) , which raised from $400 in January last year to over $1,000 today. The cryptocurrency was described as the ‘good’ instrument to circumvent capital control in China in periods of large capital outflows like today. Like gold, Bitcoin is readily available in China and can be sold for foreign currencies without problems and therefore have attracted a lot of buyers over the past year.
Chart 6. USDCNY, Bitcoin and Chinese FX reserves (Source: Bloomberg)
Chart 7. PBoC Balance Sheet (Source: Horseman Capital)
To conclude, there are several factors explaining the US Dollar strength in the last quarter of 2016, and it looks like the trend should continue in early 2017 (extreme monetary policy divergence to persist in 2017, black swan events coming from Europe, difficulties of Chinese officials to deal with the capital outflows…). However its trend cannot persist indefinitely as we know that it will eventually have negative effect on the US economy in the long term. For instance, we know that a strong dollar hurts US companies’ earnings, which is already a problem if we look at the 12-month forward earnings (Chart 8, green line). In addition, if long-term interest rates increase persistently in the future (breaking through the 3-percent level seen in the 2013 taper tantrum), the US could face a budget crisis: how is the government going to fund its budget deficit [which is expected to grow over USD 1 trillion again under Trump presidency] if China and other central banks are liquidating US Paper at record pace?
Chart 8. SP500 overlaid with 12-month forward earnings (Source: Bloomberg)
Tagged 5Y5Y forward swap rate, European Banking system, Fed, FOMC, inflation, monetary policy, Monte Paschi, Oil Prices, Political Uncertainty, S&P500, Trump, US Dollar, US YieldsLeave a comment
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Ron has several books to his name. You can click the titles below to read more information and purchase his books:
S6, Then and Now.
The River Loxley.
Ron Clayton’s Hillsborough and Beyond.
Ron Clayton – Since 1952
Ron Clayton is a Professional Sheffielder, Wit and Raconteur and Local Historian (a phrase he hates). Being the son of a fishmonger and being allergic to fish himself he spent 37 misspent years in HM Home Civil Service before escaping in 2010.
With an Honours Degree in History from the University Of Sheffield, a ready wit, a penchant for speaking his mind and 59 years of Sheffield life running through him like the name in a stick of seaside rock he is a well known local speaker on subjects as wide ranging as Famous Sheffield Toilets to Sheffield’s Lost Castle.
Ron working with Radio Sheffield.
Over the years he’s been a regular on BBC Radio Sheffield, contributor to Sheffield Environment Weeks walks and a sometimes ascerbic but humorous regular correspondent to the Sheffield Press. Until recently he produced the Calling Time Feature on Sheffield Public Houses for the Sheffield Star Newspaper. Author of three books on Sheffield local history he’s been the subject of several features in the Sheffield Star and Telegraph.He recently broadcast an item on BBC Radio 4 on Sheffield’s WW2 Women of Steel from Kelham Island Museum Ron’s played the ghost of villainous Sam Garvin of the infamous Park Brigade gang, Friar Tuck, as Robin Hood was born in Loxley Sheffield and Cardinal Wolsey. These performances will never win him an Oscar but have seen him acclaimed as a proper Sheffield barmpot.
Ron in full swing during, “Blitz Walk – Operation Crucible”. Part of the 70th anniversary commemorations.
Currently he’s the leading campaigner for the opening up of the remains of Sheffield Castle when the Castle Market is demolished ans shown below presenting a computer generated reconstruction of the Castle gateway [courtesy of the University Of Sheffield] to the Lord Mayor of Sheffield , Councillor Sylvia Dunckley.
Ron meeting the Lord Mayor.
Ron’s Talks and Walks on and around Sheffield are not only educational but entertaining.
Ron in the Local Media
Ron: “It’s not the steel city, it’s the student city.”
By Charlotte Wilson
Ron Clayton, 63, a Sheffield historian, is fulfilling his lost childhood by taking students on historical tours of the steel city.
Ron was born with bronchitis, and as a result his parents had to move from Hillsborough to Wadsley to get to higher ground, away from the pollution that was so heavily thick in the 50s and 60s.
Ron struggled with his bronchitis and as a result he couldn’t always keep up with the other kids, particularly during PE classes.
“I just didn’t have the lungs for it. It definitely held me back, I missed out on much of my primary education and I missed out socially as well.”
Ron’s school photo aged 10, before he was home schooled. Credit – Ron Clayton.
“I didn’t get to go to Christmas parties at primary school and I had to get home tutored. So I definitely missed out on a lot as a child. In a way, I still feel like a big kid.”
Ron says that he missed out socially while growing up and that it took him a long time to find his passion for history.
“My mum wanted to wrap me up in cotton wool so I was quite naïve about life. I went on to work in the civil service but I’m still trying to find my passion, and that’s why I took more of an interest in history.”
Ron takes students on tours around Sheffield and teaches them about the history of the steel city.
“It’s not the steel city anymore, it’s the student city, and that’s not a bad thing. I don’t have any kids so if I can pass on something to the students of the city, then I’ll feel quite accomplished.”
Wadsley is often referred to as Wisewood. Ron wants to bring the Wadsley identity back to Sheffield and he is bringing to light the Wadsley Arts Festival being held in June at Wadsley Church, as well as the PictureSheffield website where Ron has an archive of Wadsley.
Above content comes from https://humansofsheffield.com/2016/02/18/ron/
The oldest remaining domestic building in Sheffield located in the ponds area of the river Sheaf from whence Sheffield gets its name. A mysterious but high status building dating from c1500 and at one time situated in Sheffield’s medieval deer park amid oak and walnut trees. Its original purpose is shrouded in mystery, it was once claimed to be the lodge for Sheffield Castle or its laundry but now regarded as a probable banqueting hall. Reputedly haunted and with a secret tunnel to the Manor Lodge. Very atmospheric after dark.
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Sara Cotterall, Faculty of Graduate Research, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Cotterall, S. (2019). Space, place and autonomy in language learning by Garold Murray and Terry Lamb. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 10(2), 212-216.
Download paginated PDF version
Over the years, I have come to appreciate the publication of each new Garold Murray book for obliging me to engage with innovative ideas in the field. Murray’s most recent collaboration with Terry Lamb is no exception. In this collection, the editors have trained their gaze on space and place – phenomena so very ordinary and ubiquitous that many of us may never have reflected on the role they play in learning. Each of the book’s 15 chapters explores, in very different ways, the processes by which spaces are transformed into places for language learning or teaching. According to Carter, Donald and Squires (1993, ix) – “place is a space to which meaning is ascribed”. Think of your favourite café, the spot in your home you go to when you want to read, or the area in the yoga room where you like to place your mat. According to Murray and Lamb, autonomy is a key element in the process of transforming a space into a place.
How, you ask, does this relate to language learning? Initially, language learning was almost exclusively associated with classrooms. Once researchers recognised that different classroom environments impacted learning differently, context came to be accepted as an important variable in language learning. Next, researchers started to explore language learning settings other than the classroom, exploring self-access centres, distance language learning and study abroad experiences. But this book challenges such classifications and poses the broader question – what role do space and place play in language learning?
Several of the book’s chapters were originally presented at a Symposium on Space, Place and Autonomy in Language Learning convened by Murray and Lamb at the 2014 AILA Congress in Brisbane, Australia. Encouraged by the strong interest in their theme, the editors sent out a second call for papers following the Symposium and were reportedly inundated with submissions. Clearly space and place as an object of research in language learning is an idea that has come of age.
To call the collection eclectic would be an understatement. The chapters are organised under four headings – Urban spaces, Teacher education spaces, Classroom spaces and beyond and Institutional spaces – but not all of them appear to belong where they have been allocated. For instance, while Naoko, the language learner at the centre of Beverly-Anne Carter’s chapter, was enrolled in a teacher education course when she produced her language learning history, her narrative says much more about the role of space and place in her language learning trajectory than in her life as a teacher. On reflection, however, any attempt to categorise these contributions is likely to be challenging since the boundaries between places are fluid and, at times, irrelevant in learners’ learning.
Given the scope of the collection, the editors’ introductory chapter is a useful starting point. They suggest that a focus on space and place directs us into metaphorical, geographical, physical and virtual spaces, each with particular affordances. Chapters in the first section explore urban spaces from diverse perspectives including the plurilingual nature of contemporary cities (Lamb and Vodicka), the role of emotion in transforming physical and virtual spaces into language learning opportunities (White and Bown), the identification and construction of foreign language learning spaces in contemporary Hong Kong (Chik) and the exploitation of linguistic landscapes as a potential learning/teaching resource (Wilton and Ludwig). However, it is Balçikanli’s chapter which resonates most with me, as he explores the way that a café in Istanbul is transformed into a place where Turkish learners gather to use and learn English. His chapter begins by referencing a conference paper by Xuesong (Andy) Gao which reported on the language learning taking place in an “English Corner” – a phenomenon familiar to any English teacher who has spent time in China. In both cases the researchers explore the magic which enabled native speakers of Turkish and Chinese respectively to turn an unremarkable local space into a place that afforded them the motivation and discipline to interact with each other in English.
The three chapters in the section on Teacher Education have little in common. Whereas Kuure examines the multiple “attention spaces” her learners need to manage while designing a learning project for children, Carter highlights Naoko’s navigation of space and place in her lifelong learning of English, including her efforts to re-claim her identity as a Japanese speaker on returning to Japan. Jimenez Raya and Vieira’s chapter explores the metaphorical space inhabited by the language teachers they worked with as they reflected on pedagogical possibilities in their teaching. The participants were encouraged to adopt case methodology as they explored the “interspace between reality and ideals” in their professional practice and considered the feasibility of effecting change in their teaching routines and procedures.
The fourth section – entitled Classroom spaces and beyond – includes one of the saddest chapters I have ever read. da Silva Reis’ account of a language class in a juvenile detention centre in Brazil illustrates how the meanings ascribed to a place by external authorities can constrain learners’ ability to express their autonomy. In a much more conventional setting, Kocatepe reports on the way a group of Emirati learners in the UAE use humour to appropriate the discursive classroom space and make their voices heard. The chapter by Hafner and Miller, however, invites us to leave the classroom beyond and explore the virtual spaces participants in their English for Science course constructed as they worked on their learning projects. I particularly enjoyed reading about the learners’ strategy of repeatedly rehearsing the scripts for their video voiceovers – a thoroughly authentic and useful language task.
The concluding section, which focuses on Institutional spaces, opens with a chapter by Hobbs and Dofs, who remind the reader of the importance of adhering to sound pedagogical and ethical principles when making decisions about institutional learning spaces. Murray, Fujishima and Uzuka’s chapter provides an institutional counterpoint to Balçikanli’s chapter, focusing on the practices that encourage or inhibit learners’ entry to social learning spaces. The second chapter in this section, by Magno e Silva, provides an inspiring account of what can happen when learners are encouraged to explore the idea that classrooms are not the only place where language learning might occur. Her chapter investigates how nested systems – the students, the Autonomous Learning Support Base (BA3) and the TEFL programme in which the learners were enrolled – interact in ways that result in expanding “the students’ learning geography”. One of the four transformative projects she describes involved a visiting English Teaching Assistant establishing a gospel choir run with the support of the BA3. The choir members met weekly to rehearse, learned about gospel singing and its history and role in African American culture and eventually performed at three different venues. Benefits reported by the learners included enhancing their awareness of cultural values and their appreciation of the rhythm of language, as well as becoming more comfortable speaking English.
Until I reached the last chapter of the book, I was struggling to see what united the different contributions. However, in their Conclusion Murray and Lamb adopt the lens of complexity thinking to argue that place is an actor and a dynamic force in any learning context which has the power to provoke total restructuring of any learning system. They argue that complex systems theory offers a useful theorisation of the way that space and place operate in language learning. There is much to like about this conceptualisation. It is open-ended, multiple and dynamic. It can therefore account for similar behaviours resulting in very different outcomes, as in White and Bown’s account of Russian learner Natalia’s negative language learning experience in the metro and positive experience in the park. In Natalia’s language learning system, the different reactions of her two native Russian interlocutors provoked different emotional reactions on her part.
This book includes something for everyone. It offers accounts of and reflections on research, as well as suggestions for practice. As such, it will appeal to classroom language teachers, language teacher educators, teacher trainees, self-access centre advisers and managers, distance language teachers and language researchers. After reading this book, I have decided to re-read Larsen-Freeman and Cameron’s (2008) book – Complex systems and applied linguistics – to gain a richer understanding of this conceptualisation. It has also made me reflect on the role of space and place in my weekly writing sessions with PhD candidates. During the last couple of weeks, I’ve produced several drafts of this review while sitting in the university café alongside other members of the Shut Up and Write group. Since January, we have established certain ways of interacting with each other, welcoming new members and occupying and appropriating this part of the larger public space. In fact, by gathering around the same table each week and supporting each other’s efforts to write, we have ascribed this part of the café with our meanings, transforming it from a space to our place.
This review originally appeared in the newsletter of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy SIG Independence, 74, 2018.
Larsen-Freeman, D. & Cameron. L. (2008). Complex systems and applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Notes on the Reviewer
Sara Cotterall is a former convenor of the AILA Research Network on Learner Autonomy in Language Learning (1986-2002) who has taught at universities in Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East. Her research has included studies of language learner beliefs, learner autonomy, academic writing and, most recently, doctoral education. Sara is currently the Doctoral Development Coordinator at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Title: Space, Place and Autonomy in Language Learning
Editors: Garold Murray, Terry Lamb
Date published: 22 November, 2017
Publisher: Routledge, London, UK
Formats: Hardback, paperback, ebook
Cost (paperback): $49.95
More information: https://www.routledge.com/Space-Place-and-Autonomy-in-Language-Learning-1st-Edition/Murray-Lamb/p/book/9781138656727
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Home » About Us » Press Release
ASERL and WRLC Create Scholars Trust
Vast Archive and Enhanced Delivery Serves Libraries in Southeast & Mid-Atlantic States
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) and the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC) have signed an agreement to create “Scholars Trust.” The Trust will combine the contents of their respective shared print journal collections under a single retention and access agreement. As a result, the combined title list exceeds 8,000 journal titles and more than 300,000 volumes, making Scholars Trust one of the largest shared print journal repositoriesin the United States. In conjunction with the formation of Scholars Trust, WRLC and ASERL libraries have agreed to extend reciprocal priority Inter-Library Loan (ILL) services across the group.
“We are thrilled to join forces in partnership with ASERL to make Scholars Trust a reality,” commented Mark Jacobs, Executive Director of the WRLC. “Through informal conversations, it became clear that we shared the same goals and long-term needs for the programs each consortium had under development. It made good sense to combine our efforts into Scholars Trust. The priority ILL service agreement isicing on the cake.”
“ASERL and WRLC are distinct organizations providing many unique and valuable services to their member libraries,” added Lynn Sutton, President of ASERL and Dean of Libraries at Wake Forest University. “These partnerships are wonderful examples of a new level of cooperation among libraries to provide cost-effective service to our users and also meet the operational needs of libraries in a rapidly changing environment.”
The Scholars Trust agreement requires the archived materials to be held until at least December 31, 2035, possibly longer. The materials archived by WRLC are housed in a central facility in suburban Maryland. The materials being archived by ASERL members are held at various locations across the Southeast. A large majority of the print archive contents is readily available online from many sources, so the need to access the archived items is expected to be quite low.
“Today’s library users expect access to content anytime and anywhere,” noted John Burger, ASERL’s Executive Director. “The libraries in ASERL and WRLC are continually expanding ways to deliver content to users quickly and easily. Scholars Trustis a fail-safe means of providing content when a researcher needs an original printed journal – an ‘artifact,’ if you will – should the digital surrogate be somehow insufficient for their needs, or not be available.”
About ASERL
Founded in 1956, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries is the largest regional research library cooperative in the country, with 40 members in 11 states. ASERL operates numerous projects designed to foster a high standard of library excellence through interinstitutional resource sharing and other collaborative efforts. By working together, ASERL members provide and maintain top quality resources and services for the students, faculty, and citizens of their respective communities. More information about ASERL can be found at www.aserl.org.
About WRLC
The Washington Research Library Consortium was established in 1987 to support and enhance the library and information services of universities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Today, the WRLC enables the success of learning and scholarship among its nine partner universities by creating coordinated collections, creating a robust infrastructure for discovery and access, ensuring the long-term preservation of physical and digital information resources and sharing expertise. Learn more about the WRLC at www.wrlc.org.
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SCO Family of Services Honors Iconic Child Welfare Advocate Sister Paulette LoMonaco
April 22, 2019 / SCO News
SCO Family of Services supporters and staff gathered to honor long-time child welfare advocate, Sr. Paulette LoMonaco, at SCO’s first annual “Speakeasy Soiree” at the Mutual of America Building in New York City. Sr. Paulette, who recently retired as Executive Director of Good Shepherd Services, is the longest serving member of SCO Family of Service’s Board of Directors. She first joined SCO’s Board in 1979, and has been a major source of inspiration and leadership throughout her tenure.
The focus of the Speakeasy-themed event was “Unlocking Potential through Early Childhood Education” and was emceed by comedian, Chuck Nice, with moving remarks by Pamelita Romero, a mother of three young children who have benefited from SCO’s home- and center-based early childhood programs at SCO’s FirstStepNYC in Brownsville, Brooklyn. In March, Nice visited the state-of-the-art early education center that provides high quality early education services and parenting support to pregnant women and families with children ages six weeks to five years old. Nice said he was impressed by the program and proud to participate in the event.
SCO extends its gratitude to the sponsors, supporters, and volunteers who made the event a success. The Speakeasy Soiree was hosted by underwriting sponsor Mutual of America. This year’s leading sponsors included Cynthia and Lee Vance, Jessica and Michael O’Mary; The Colonial Hotel, LLC, Family Center Associates, and Thirdview, LLC; Kelly and David Williams; Conway, Farrell, Curtain & Kelly, PC; Morrison & Foerster Foundation; Mary Pat Thornton and Cormac McEnery; and Sandra Pinnavaia and Guy Moszkowski.
“SCO Family of Services is pleased to recognize the service and commitment of Sr. Paulette LoMonaco, who has been an indispensable asset for SCO in growing and adapting our programs to better serve New York’s children and families. We are also grateful to the evening’s supporters, sponsors, and corporate champions at Mutual of America for their continued support of our mission.”
– Keith Little, Executive Director, SCO Family of Services
“Mutual of America is honored that SCO Family of Services has placed its trust in us since 1980 to manage its retirement plans and serve thousands of their employees on their journey to and during retirement. We are also proud to support the important programs and services SCO provides to strengthen families and communities across New York City and Long Island. We look forward to continuing to grow this relationship for many years.”
– John R. Greed, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mutual of America
Facebook album.
young adults served by SCO are in college this academic year
participants in our Young Adult Workforce Program at Rikers Island completed our program to become licensed drivers to improve their employability
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Legend Chet DeVore passes away
Tags: Chet DeVore, Chula Vista, Chula Vista High, obituary, Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, Presbyterian Church, San Diego High School Coaching Legends Committee, San Diego Union-Tribune, Southwestern College
Longtime coach, teacher and administrator Chet DeVore passed away on January 7. He was 92.
A longtime fixture in the South Bay, Mr. DeVore was a part of the Chula Vista High staff when the school opened in 1947 and was a highly successful football coach there. Mr. DeVore later served as Southwestern College president and was the founding commissioner of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, according to an obituary on the San Diego Union-Tribune website.
Mr. DeVore, a San Diego State graduate, was also a highly decorated combat veteran, and was honored with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
A founding member of the San Diego High School Coaching Legends Committee, Mr. DeVore was honored as part of the inaugural class of Legends in 1999.
Services for Chet were on Monday, January 10, 2011, at Chula Vista Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, the family is suggesting a donation to the Chester S. DeVore Scholarship at Southwestern College, Office of the President, 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910.
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« FB: Elrod leaving Rancho Bernardo
FB: Calvin Chr. gets new coach »
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Amadeus Regucera, Artistic Production Director
Amadeus Regucera has worked as a composer, performer, and producer of new music since completing his doctorate in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley.
As Production Director of UC Berkeley’s Eco Ensemble and Production and Operations Manager of the University of California, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Amadeus has produced a variety of large scale and portrait concerts, composer residencies and special projects. Amadeus has devoted his career to the creation of contemporary music and to the production of events and concerts that bring this music to audiences worldwide.
Amadeus specializes in contemporary chamber and orchestral music. His own compositions have been performed internationally at ManiFeste, the Festival Musica, Voix Nouvelles (France), the Resonant Bodies Festival and the SONiC Festival (New York), the Havana Festival of Contemporary Music as part of the American Composers Forum artist delegation, the Hong Kong Modern Academy, the International Summer Courses in Darmstadt, Germany, the Impuls Academy (Austria), June in Buffalo, and the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts. Groups such as Ensemble Linea, JACK string quartet, Ensemble Intercontemporain, EXAUDI vocal ensemble, Ensemble Pamplemousse, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Duo Cortona have performed his music.
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Principled Immigration Reform
By Celeste Kennel-Shank
In the past decade, more than 2,000 people have died crossing the Mexican-U.S. border, according to the Tucson-based No More Deaths coalition. In an effort to decrease the number of deaths, the coalition has developed faith-based principles to guide immigration reform, which include demilitarizing the border patrol, legalizing residency for many migrant workers, and reunifying immigrant families. Forty-three Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy have endorsed the principles, which show how “people of faith share a common tradition of welcoming strangers and helping those in need,” Tucson’s Catholic Bishop Gerald Kicanas told Sojourners. “All faith starts with the dignity of each person and the right to live in dignity.”
The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 also addresses border policies. The act—introduced in both houses of Congress—aims to balance earned legalization for workers and unification of families with strict border control and international cooperation to stop illegal immigration.
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Wisecracking mercenary Deadpool battles the evil a
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King T’Challa returns home from America to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country’s new leader. However, T’Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne by factions within his own country as well as without. Using powers reserved to Wakandan kings, T’Challa assumes the Black Panther mantel […]
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The film stars Libuse Safrankova as the title character, a young woman who is put upon by her stepmother and stepsisters. The film employs a twist, though, when a handsome prince comes knocking. Cinderella does not simply fall into the prince’s arms. In this version, he must actively pursue the young woman who is a […]
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Romance
Country: Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, East Germany
The lifelong friendship between Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker is put to the ultimate test when the two ace fighter pilots become entangled in a love triangle with beautiful Naval nurse Evelyn Johnson. But the rivalry between the friends-turned-foes is immediately put on hold when they find themselves at the center of Japan’s devastating attack […]
Genre: Action, Drama, History, Romance, War
The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps
The hilarity begins when professor Sherman Klump finds romance with fellow DNA specialist, Denise Gaines, and discovers a brilliant formula that reverses aging. But Sherman’s thin and obnoxious alter ego, Buddy Love, wants out…and a big piece of the action. And when Buddy gets loose, things get seriously nutty.
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
After her father dies, a young woman returns to her Yorkshire village for the first time in 15 years to claim the family farm she believes is hers.
Sunday’s Illness
Annabel is a successful businesswoman with a wealthy husband. At a reception in her villa she meets a woman, a member of the catering staff who has been hired for the evening. This woman is none other than her own daughter Chiara, whom she had left over thirty years ago. Chiara was just eight years […]
Plum Kettle, ghost-writer for the editor of one of New York’s hottest fashion magazines, struggles with self-image and sets out on a wildly complicated road to self-acceptance. At the same time, everyone is buzzing over news reports about men, accused of sexual abuse and assault, who are disappearing and meeting untimely, violent deaths.
Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it’s a little more complicated: he’s yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online.
Halloween II
After failing to kill stubborn survivor Laurie and taking a bullet or six from former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael Myers has followed Laurie to the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, where she’s been admitted for Myers’ attempt on her life. The institution proves to be particularly suited to serial killers, however, as Myers cuts, stabs and […]
In a futuristic world where the polar ice caps have melted and made Earth a liquid planet, a beautiful barmaid rescues a mutant seafarer from a floating island prison. They escape, along with her young charge, Enola, and sail off aboard his ship. But the trio soon becomes the target of a menacing pirate who […]
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The Perfect Score
Six high school seniors decide to break into the Princeton Testing Center so they can steal the answers to their upcoming SAT tests and all get perfect scores.
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Country: Germany, United States of America, USA
IMDb: 10
Follow the men and women who keep the citizens of New Orleans safe during the night. Ride along with the police officers, the firefighters, and the paramedics as they tackle the evils of the night.
Genre: Documentary, Reality, Reality-TV
Glam Masters
Beauty influencers are put through themed challenges to see who has what it takes to become the next big name in beauty.
Genre: Reality, Reality-TV
Some Girls is a British comedy series written by Bernadette Davis that airs on BBC Three. The show stars Adelayo Adedayo, Mandeep Dhillon, Alice Felgate, Natasha Jonas, Dolly Wells, Colin Salmon, Jassa Ahluwalia and Franz Drameh. It debuted on 6 November 2012 and the first series ran for six episodes. BBC Three announced at the […]
The $100,000 Pyramid
In $100,000 Pyramid, contestants are in teams of two. The goal of the game is to help your partner guess an answer, by listing items that would be included in said answer, or synonymous. For instance, if the answer is “Things That Bounce”, clues would be “Po-Go Sticks”, “Kangaroos”, “Basketballs”, etc. To add to the […]
Genre: Game-Show, Talk
The Nature of Things is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on November 6, 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it. The program was one of the first to explore environmental issues, such as clear-cut logging. The series is named after […]
Tahsin is head of the Korludag family, his wealth and great influence in society makes him feared and respected by everyone. There isn’t a place or person in town that he does not control. Tahsin has two children; his son Korhan is a big disappointment to his father, but Sühan, his smart and beautiful daughter, […]
Deluded Simon Porter, dreams of becoming a doctor – but he has to start from the bottom and be a porter. His plan? Work his way up to be the best porter the NHS has ever seen.
Gucci Mane & Keyshia Ka’oir: The Mane Event
Follows the twists and turns of the hip-hop power couple as they work to blend their families and defy the odds as they set to prepare for the most extravagant celebrity wedding of the year.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical
Hot Streets
An FBI agent, his partner, his niece and her cowardly dog investigate supernatural phenomena.
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Line of Seperation
After the fall of the Third Reich, the small town of Tannbach is cruelly divided between East and West regimes and the town’s inhabitants suffer the consequences. A gripping historical drama exploring the devastating effects decades of conflict had on communities from the end of the Second War War to the fall of the Berlin […]
Country: Czech Republic, Germany
After Trek
The ultimate weekly forum for Star Trek fans with in-depth discussions and recaps of the latest Star Trek: Discovery episode.
Genre: Talk-Show
Kicking & Screaming
A competition series that teams 10 expert survivalists with pampered partners to face the toughest challenges of their lives.
Genre: Game-Show, Reality, Reality-TV
I’m Poppy
Auburn Reed is determined to put her challenging past behind her and get her future on track. Now in her mid-twenties and struggling to fund her custody battle for her only son, she stumbles upon the art studio of the talented and charming artist, Owen Gentry. The two wrestle with their developing romance and the […]
The lives of two half-sisters and their drawing master get caught up in a deadly conspiracy revolving around a mentally ill woman dressed all in white.
Liza on Demand
LIZA ON DEMAND is a half-hour, single camera comedy that follows the chaotic misadventures of Liza, a young woman in Los Angeles who is trying to make a career out of juggling various gig economy jobs — for lack of a better idea of what to do with her life. Meanwhile, Liza’s best friends and […]
Nirvanna the Band the Show
Two lifelong best friends and roommates are planning the greatest musical act in the history of the modern world.
Dancing on Ice is a British television show presented by Phillip Schofield and Christine Bleakley, in which celebrities and their professional partners figure skate in front of a panel of judges. The format, devised by LWT and Granada Television, has been a prime-time hit in eight different countries, including Italy and Chile. In Australia, where […]
Genre: Family, Reality-TV
Food Unwrapped
The food and science series that travels the world to explore the industry secrets behind our favourite produce, industry secrets, and how foods are really made.
A Very Country Wedding
In this sequel to A Very Country Christmas, Zane and Jeannette’s wedding is delayed due to Zane’s crazy tour schedule and the two must overcome paparazzi and rumors to find their way back together.
Move Over, Darling
Three years into their loving marriage, with two infant daughters at home in Los Angeles, Nicholas Arden and Ellen Wagstaff Arden are on a plane that goes down in the South Pacific. Although most passengers manage to survive the incident, Ellen presumably perishes when swept off her lifeboat, her body never recovered. Fast forward five […]
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
The 5th film in the original Godzilla franchise marked a turning point in the series. Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra must put aside their quarrelsome ways to become allies and defend earth from 3 headed Dragon King Ghidorah.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Genre: Biography, Documentary
A searing portrait of war and prejudice, ‘Only the Brave’ takes you on a haunting journey into the hearts and minds of the forgotten heroes of WWII – the Japanese-American 100th/442nd.
Genre: Drama, War
This is a story about a common man who has extraordinary events in his mundane life. The film depicts the protagonist’s turns of events in three eras, three seasons, three nights, in the same city, as told with reverse chronology.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: China, France, Taiwan, USA
A woman moves into a retirement community and starts a cheerleading squad with her fellow residents.
Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity
Lovely and resourceful Daria and Tisa escape a space gulag only to crash land on a nearby world where a guy in tight pants named Zed is playing The Most Dangerous Game. Zed turns the girls and another guest loose in his jungle preserve to serve as the prey in a mad hunt. Armed only […]
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A horror movie/buddy comedy about Joey and his undead friend Bart who comes back from the dead as a revenant: an articulate zombie that needs to drink blood to arrest the decomposition of his body.
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Strange Tales from Appalachia
Appalachian filmmakers join together to produce three horrifying, suspenseful, and strange tales. In “Pretty Girl”, a young woman escapes a maniac kidnapper by fleeing into the Appalachian wilderness. Aided by a group of friendly hikers, she must escape the woods or face her darkest fears. “Man Vs Ghost” is the story of an over-the-top host […]
Dovlatov
Dovlatov charts six days in the life of brilliant, ironic writer who saw far beyond the rigid limits of 70s Soviet Russia. Sergei Dovlatov fought to preserve his own talent and decency with poet and writer Joseph Brodsky while watching his artist friends get crushed by the iron-willed state machinery.
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Poland, Russia, Serbia
A Model Kidnapping
She was looking to model. She found evil instead.
While struggling to save her father during a Category 5 hurricane, a young woman finds herself trapped inside a flooding house and fighting for her life against Florida’s most savage and feared predators.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror, Thriller
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin V – Clash at Loum
Universal Century 0079. Humanity has turned even space itself into a battlefield, and the Principality of Zeon forces advance after wiping out half the world’s population by carrying out the Operation British (colony drop). In response, the Earth Federation Forces mobilize their overwhelming fighting strength to regain the advantage. The complex intrigues of the Zabi […]
Genre: Action, Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi, War
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin VI – Rise of the Red Comet
The episode will focus on the young Zeon ace Char Aznable earning his “Red Comet” nom de guerre, as well as the beginnings of the Federation’s “Project V” weapons project that will eventually birth the RX-78-2 Gundam.
Furious after getting rejected by a famous dangdut singer Elena, Dirga resorts to using black magic “Jaran Goyang” from his aunt in order to get her love.
The Circle
A street artist and his estranged son reconnect as a result of their common interest, art.
Genre: Drama, Short
Lou and her best friend Chantal plan to get out of their isolated, run-down town and move to a city far, far away. When Chantal’s unstable and possessive ex violates her during a night of partying, the girls decide to exact their revenge on him through a night of vandalism and debauchery.
Summer Night
In a small town, a young, tight-knit group of friends fall in and out of love over the course of one intoxicating, music-filled summer night.
Christmas Camp
To get a big promotion, Hayley, an advertising executive who specializes in social media and all things hip, must land a toy company that is all about traditional Christmas as an account.
Genre: Drama, Family, Romance
Wentworth 7×8
Wentworth 7×8 - Season 7
The 100 6×10
The 100 6×10 - Season 6
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Archer 10×6
Divorce 3×3
Divorce 3×3 - Season 3
American Dad! 16×14
American Dad! 16×14 - Season 16
Westside 5×5
Westside 5×5 - Season 5
Big Brother 21×9
Big Brother 21×9 - Season 21
So You Think You Can Dance 16×6
So You Think You Can Dance 16×6 - Season 16
Genre: Game-Show, Music, Reality, Reality-TV
Love & Hip Hop Atlanta 8×18
Love & Hip Hop Atlanta 8×18 - Season 8
The Bachelorette 15×10
The Bachelorette 15×10 - Season 15
Genre: Drama, Game-Show, Reality, Reality-TV, Romance
Top Gear 27×5
Top Gear 27×5 - Season 27
Genre: Comedy, Documentary, Talk-Show
MasterChef Australia 11×56
MasterChef Australia 11×56 - Season 11
Love Island 5×42
Love Island 5×42 - Season 5
Genre: Reality, Reality-TV, Romance
Mike Tyson Mysteries 4×6
Mike Tyson Mysteries 4×6 - Season 4
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Days of Our Lives 54×205
EPS205
Days of Our Lives 54×205 - Season 54
Genre: Drama, Romance, Soap
Poldark 5×1
Poldark 5×1 - Season 5
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
The Bold and the Beautiful 32×207
The Bold and the Beautiful 32×207 - Season 32
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Chasing Great
Chasing Great is an insightful portrayal that weaves Richie McCaw’s life story into his final season as an All Black, revealing the determination and mental toughness of an international sporting legend who still sees himself as an ‘ordinary guy’ from small town New Zealand.
Genre : Biography, Documentary, Drama, Sport
Actors : Aston Bentham, Ben Brown, Briea Bentham, Casia Bentham, Charlotte Brewer, Kaleb Bentham, Maddison Brogan, Michelle Bentham, Rick Bentham, Stuart Barnes, Tom Benge
Director : Justin Pemberton, Michelle Walshe
Heaven’s Door
Julie Taylor has a problem how to cope with a pending divorce, find meaningful employment, live with her mother’s constant advice and raise her two children. In their small rural town it isn’t so much what people say as what they believe. And since the death of her father her no-holds-barred mother has been leaning more toward the belief that angels and heaven is right here with them. Unseen but as real as this world.
Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era — like Ernest Hemingway and his friends — has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a bridge in a cave.
Genre: Adventure, Drama, History, Romance, War
Seeking Dolly Parton
When Charlie and her girlfriend Cerina decide to have a baby together, the idea of using Cerina’s ex-boyfriend Josh as the live-in donor turns an easy on-paper idea into a much more challenging event.
Embrace follows body image activist Taryn Brumfitt’s crusade as she explores the global issue of body loathing, inspiring us to change the way we feel about ourselves and think about our bodies.
Country: Australia, Canada, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, UK, USA
Once upon a time in North India, two killers – Dev (Ranveer Singh) and Tutu (Ali Zafar) – roamed free. Abandoned when young and vulnerable, Bhaiyaji (Govinda) gave them shelter and… nurtured them to kill! All is normal in their lives until destiny throws free-spirited Disha (Parineeti Chopra) into the mix. What follows is a game of defiance, deception and love.
Genre: Action, Drama, Romance
City of Vultures
Inside of an impoverished community in Chicago, Illinois, an ex-convicted felon, “Marcus Julian” returns from prison after eight years incarcerated. A product of a failed family structure, Marcus, like so many others in his community, functioned under a “street-code” of savagery. The “Gangster Disciples” governed the territories, and as a former outstanding member he lived in ongoing regret of the mob-related acts that led him to prison.
Studio Sex
A stripper at the club Studio Six is murdered. A political scandal takes off when the Minister of Commerce appears to have been at the club. He resigns – but only to hide an even bigger secret.
Dance Party, USA
Jessica and Gus, two apathetic teenagers, drift aimlessly from one day to the next until they meet each other. They make a tenuous and fleeting connection when Gus confides in Jessica about his dark past.
A father, who can’t keep his promises, dies in a car accident. One year later, he returns as a snowman, who has the final chance to put things right with his son before he is gone forever.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy
The film is a sequel to Tanu Weds Manu (2011), in which stars Kangana Ranaut (Tanu) and R. Madhavan (Manu) reprise their roles from the original. Tanu and Manu’s marriage collapses. What happens when Manu meets Tanu’s lookalike Kusum – and when Tanu returns? Kangana Ranaut also portrays the additional role of a Haryanvi athlete Kusum in the film.
The Wackness
Set in New York City in the sweltering summer, The Wackness tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist. Things get more complicated when he falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctors daughter. This is a coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, music and what it takes to be a man.
Paris in the 1920s. Marguerite Dumont is a wealthy woman with a passion for music and the opera. For years, she has performed regularly for a circle of guests. But Marguerite sings tragically out of tune and no one has ever told her. Her husband and her close friends have always encouraged her in her illusions. Things become very complicated the day she gets it into her head to perform in front of a genuine public, at the Opera.
Country: Belgium, Czech Republic, France
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
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Kaththi
Kathiresan aka Kaththi, a criminal, escapes from the Kolkata prison and comes to Chennai, where he comes across his doppelganger Jeevanandham, fighting for his life after being shot at by unknown men. Kathir decides to pass off as Jeeva and make away with a lump sum amount but once he realizes who Jeeva really is, Kathir turns a crusader.
Genre : Action, Drama
Actors : A.R. Murugadoss, Elisabeth P. Carpenter, Joseph Vijay, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Rupesh Gupta, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Sathish, Sudip Mukherjee, Tamiko Brownlee, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Veera Santhanam
Director : A.R. Murugadoss
Keywords: Khaki Aur Khiladi Нож
A Woman for All Men
A wealthy businessman takes on a pretty young wife – with deadly results.
Kansas City Confidential
A down-on-his-luck ex-GI finds himself framed for an armored car robbery. When he’s finally released for lack of evidence–after having been beaten up and tortured by the police–he sets out to discover who set him up, and why. The trail leads him into Mexico and a web of hired killers and corrupt cops.
An African-American model on a film shoot in Ghana is transported into the body of a slave on a Southern plantation.
Country: Burkina Faso, Germany, Ghana, UK, USA
Gintama: The Movie
Odd Jobs Gin has taken on a lot of odd work in the past, and when you’re a Jack of All Trades agency based in a feudal Japan that’s been conquered and colonized by aliens, the term “Odd Jobs” means REALLY ODD jobs. But when some more than slightly suspicious secrets from the shadows of Gintoki Sakata’s somewhat shady former samurai past and a new pair of odd jobs collide, the action is bound to get so wild and demented that only a feature film will do it justice!
Genre: Action, Animation, Comedy, History, Sci-Fi
Good Bye Lenin!
An affectionate and refreshing East/West-Germany comedy about a boy who’s mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell and when she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happen (since she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.
Country: France, Poland, UK, USA
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, War
No More Shall We Part
Genre: Drama, Short, Western
Reflections of Evil
Julie, a teen who died from a PCP overdose in the early ’70s searches from beyond the grave for her younger brother Bob who now in the ’90s is an obese watch seller suffering with sucrose intolerance.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Claire is under the grip of a mysterious new cult called Faults. Desperate to be reunited with their daughter, Claire’s parents recruit one of the world’s foremost experts on mind control, Ansel Roth.
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
The Bleeding House
The Smiths — a family with a secret past — are visited by a sweet-talking southern gentleman who is looking for small town humanity. But they’ll soon find out that kindness towards strangers is not always rewarded, and the secretive stranger will find redemption does not always come easy.
Hotori no Sakuko
3 years on from hospitalité, Kiki Sugino and Koji Fukada are back again with this socially-conscious film about a 18-year-old girl in-between adolescence and adulthood who spends a summer in a valley and enjoys romance. Sakuko, a 18-year-old girl studying for her university entrance exams, decides to accompany her aunt Mikie on a trip to a seaside town. There she befriends Takashi, a refugee from Fukushima who has dropped out of high school and works at a motel run by Ukichi, a friend of Mikie. In-between childhood and adulthood, Sakuko starts to understand the difficulties of becoming an adult.
Broken Side of Time
Over a million women have modeling portfolios online. BROKEN SIDE OF TIME is the story of Dolce, one of the models who’ve made a career of it. But now 30, and tired of competing with 18-year-olds, Dolce realizes what makes her feel most alive is also killing her. Before starting a new career behind the camera, she embarks on a long road trip home, shooting with her favorite photographers one last time, and shedding her lifestyle-acquired vices along the way. Combing real photoshoots shot cinéma vérité-style with a narrative based on some very real-life adventures in front of the lens, BROKEN SIDE OF TIME is a dark, sexual glimpse into a world never before captured in a film. A world where any woman can play the role of a model, and any man can be a photographer, and where even the best of them must consider whether the fame and money is worth the cost.
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Tag Archives: Patrik Bartosch
Communication – The Cardigans
Some songs don’t make sense as fan favourites only. They feel like they should belong to, be known and loved by, the widest possible audience. Probably every music fan has a list of songs like that.*
It’s one thing when such a song is by a band of indie heroes whose music is scruffy and raw, and would need to be significantly polished up to become acceptable to the mainstream. However good they are, there’s a reason why Turn On the News is known only to Husker Du fans and Unsatisfied only to Replacements fans, but even my dad would recognise Soul Asylum’s Runaway Train were Ken Bruce to play it tomorrow. There’s a reason why Rod Stewart’s readings of I Don’t Want to Talk About It and Downtown Train were hits but the Crazy Horse and Tom Waits originals weren’t. But I can’t really understand how Communication by the Cardigans wasn’t a huge hit.
The Cardigans’ discography is spottiness incarnate. Lovefool is enduringly perfect (it’s the bassline. Dear lord, that bassline); My Favourite Game is enduringly regrettable. Every album has some great moments (even Gran Turismo had Erase/Rewind), but all of their albums have clunkers and a bulk of material that’s neither really here nor there.
But Communication – from 2003’s Long Gone Before Daylight – is different. Communication wasn’t the typical indie-with-strings ballady thing you got from a lot of that era’s bands, and neither was it particularly rootsy, although much of Long Gone Before Daylight was – the drums, for example, sound 2003 (clipped and somewhat like samples), not 1973.
The record is beautifully arranged. The band are cast in supporting textural roles, other than guitarist and principle songwriter Peter Svensson, whose prominent riff features in the intro, after the first chorus and in the outro, and who gets to play rather a nice harmonised solo**. Other than that, the most notable performance by a band member is Bengt Lagerberg’s drumming, which has nice Bonham-inflected kick drum work (the influence of Bonham’s Kashmir beat is evident in those semi-quavers), but isn’t in the least bit bombastic. He could have turned this song into a power ballad but wisely chose not to, playing with Hot Rods for a smaller sound. The band merely provide the frame for Patrik Bartosch’s string arrangement – only really getting big and prominent in the final chorus, but otherwise nicely supportive to the mood and atmosphere of the song – and Persson’s vocal.
Which is where a song like Communication succeeds or fails. Her voice pushed to the very front of the mix and left relatively dry and exposed, Persson sings Communication like it’s the most important thing she’s ever had to say, and her performance is moving and feels very true. It’s what gets her over a couple of slightly awkward lines (whatever they may mean to us, Persson’s delivery insists that her words are meaningful to her), and gives such force when the band plays its two huge arrangemental aces: the triplet downbeats of “I’m talking and talking” in the final chorus and that magical moment when Persson sings “And I hold a record for being patient” while drummer Lagerberg plays the song’s most live-sounding fill and the song seems suspended in mid-air for a second until the rest of the band comes back in.
It’s a glorious moment. It’s a big moment, in some ways too big for a song that no one really heard when it came out.
Songs have long lives these days, and can return to the charts or enter them for the first time decades after release, were they suddenly to find mass relevance. Maybe some music supervisor will use Communication to score a particularly emotional scene in a TV show or film and the song will find the wider audience it’s not had up to now. Until then it remains, I suspect, treasured by the band’s deep fans.
*I’ll give you some of mine: Jellyfish’s The King is Half-Undressed, Big Star’s The Ballad of El Goodo, Sparklehorse’s Some Day I Will Treat You Good, No Need to Worry by the Folk Implosion
**Svensson has a profitable sideline these days as a writer, guitarist and producer for hire. Look for him among the credits on records by The Weeknd, Ariana Grande and Ellie Goulding.
This entry was posted in Music and tagged 2000s, Ariana Grande, arrangement, ballads, Bengt Lagerberg, Big Star, Communication, Crazy Horse, Downtown Train, Drums, Ellie Goulding, Erase/Rewind, Folk Implosion, Gran Turismo, Hüsker Dü, I Don't Want to Talk About It, Jellyfish, Long Gone Before Daylight, Lovefool, My Favourite Game, Nina Persson, No Need to Worry, Patrik Bartosch, Peter Svensson, production, Rod Stewart, Runaway Train, Some Day I Will Treat You Good, Soul Asylum, sound recording, Sound recording and reproduction, Sparklehorse, string arrangement, The Ballad of El Goodo, The Cardigans, The King is Half-Undressed, The Replacements, The Weeknd, Tom Waits, triplets, Turn on the News, Unsatisfied on April 30, 2016 by rossjpalmer.
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Tag Archives: SSL desk
Foo Fighters at 20
Gee, I got old. Twentieth anniversaries of records I bought as a teenage will start coming thick and fast now. Some I’ll write about fondly; others I might listen to and wonder what the hell I saw in this music. But, and this I can guarantee, it’ll be with a where-did-the-time-go bewilderment.
So Foo Fighters, then. Nowadays the acceptable face of mainstream rock and professional nice guy, albeit one with enough self-regard to deem the fact that he’s making a new record worthy of an 8-part HBO series full of slo-mo shots of the band walking purposefully, Dave Grohl didn’t always have quite such an assured position in the world.
In 1995, still processing Kurt Cobain’s death, Grohl didn’t know how to proceed (I assume anyone reading this knows Grohl played drums in Nirvana, right? OK, sorry. Of course). Like many musicians who go through a trauma, for a while he didn’t want to hear music, let alone play it. It reminded him of everything that had happened. And while he’d made good money from Nirvana and could afford to live quietly, take his time and see what came his way, he was still only 26, had a lot of working years ahead of him and not much idea of how to fill them.
Eventually, as the pain subsided into an ache, Grohl decided to treat himself to a week in a 24-track studio, Robert Lang’s, not far from where he lived in Seattle. If Lang’s isn’t the biggest name in studioland, with a Studer A827 tape machine and an SSL E series desk, it was still a major facility, so it was no small present Grohl was giving himself. Nonetheless, essentially he was just doing a more hi-fi version of something he’d done a few years before in 1992, when he recorded a collection of songs by himself and gave them to some friends in Virginia to release on their cassette label, Simple Machines. Pocketwatch, which has since been endlessly bootlegged, came out under the pseudonym Late! (Groh’s exclamation mark). He was planning to do the same thing again: release it under a band name, keep his own name off the sleeve and let the album find whatever audience it could.
Working with him as co-producer was Barrett Jones, his former drum tech in Nirvana. He and Grohl made the record in six days, with Grohl switching from one instrument to the next for each song, before moving on to the next one, burning through four songs a day. Jones has said since that he felt the album he and Grohl were making could be a big deal, but both were perhaps still naïve about the industry at that point and didn’t foresee the reaction his work would get among the big LA labels when they got wind of it (a process accelerated by Eddie Vedder playing a couple of songs on a radio show he hosted). Grohl was effectively able to name his own price (his own price being that he be allowed to start out small), with the labels confident that any release by a former member of Nirvana would pay for itself many times over. Grohl conceded to having the album remixed by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock (who would later work on another old favourite of mine, Elliott Smith’s XO)
Somewhere over the next 10 years, the group slowly became one of the biggest in the world, and even now Grohl can turn out a strong single or two on each record, but I checked out a long time back.I find the sound of his albums, with the exceptions of the debut and 1999’s vintagey There is Nothing Left to Lose, extremely sonically fatiguing. The worst offenders, The Colour & the Shape and One by One, are essentially unlistenable, with the massed overdubs of guitars forcing the drums to occupy ever smaller real estate, until they no longer retain any of the shape of a real-life drum performance. This is crucial to a good-sounding, good-feeling, rock record (the Butch Vig-produced Wasting Light is a partial exception to this trend; it sounds, well, OK). And Grohl’s grandiosity and general unwillingness to challenge his audience has resulted in a lot of play-it-safe soundalike songs.
But I remain hugely fond of his debut, so distinct from the rest of the group’s music that it’s really the work of a different artist. The medium-fi recording, noticeably lacking in low end and bass guitar, is hugely charming, Grohl’s drum performances have room to breathe, and the material whether goofy (Weenie Beenie, Wattershed, This is a Call) or otherwise (Exhausted, I’ll Stick Around) is strong, and benefits from the low-key vibe. Each song sounds better in the context of all the others. It’s a great collection of songs; later Grohl records have striven to be a collection of great songs. Much harder to do the latter well. You couldn’t make this record better by adding or subtracting anything.
I should admit, too, that at 13 I found the idea that one man did all this by himself (playing the drums! and the bass! and the guitars! and singing it! and writing all the songs!) to be hugely inspiring.
Foo Fighters, 1995
My own one-man-band stuff (not recorded in a 24-track studio):
This entry was posted in Music and tagged 1990s, alternative rock, Barrett Jones, Butch Vig, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, Elliott Smith, Exhausted, Foo Fighters, foo fighters twentieth anniversary, grunge, HBO, I'll Stick Around, Kurt Cobain, Late!, Nirvana, Nothing Left to Lose, One by One, one-man band, Pocketwatch, Rob Schnapf, Robert Lang's, Simple Machines, Sonic Highways, SSL desk, Studer tape machine, This is a Call, Tom Rothrock, Wasting Light, Wattershed, Weenie Beenie, XO on June 27, 2015 by rossjpalmer.
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Inquiries (Commissions of Inquiry) Rules
as at 17 Jul 2019
SL 215/2009
2 Application of provisions on competence and compellability in Evidence Act
3 Allowances for attendance
Current version as at 17 Jul 2019
Inquiries Act
(Chapter 139A, Section 15)
G.N. No. S 215/2009
(31st May 2010)
[1st June 2009]
1. These Rules may be cited as the Inquiries (Commissions of Inquiry) Rules.
Application of provisions on competence and compellability in Evidence Act
2. Sections 120 to 136 of the Evidence Act (Cap. 97) shall, with the necessary modifications, apply to proceedings before a commission of inquiry.
Allowances for attendance
3.—(1) An application for an award under paragraph 1(7) of the Schedule to the Act (referred to in this rule as an award) shall —
(a) be in such form as the commission of inquiry may require; and
(b) be submitted to the secretary of the commission of inquiry or, if there is no secretary, to the commission of inquiry not later than 2 months after the accrual of the claim or such longer period as the commission may instruct.
(2) In assessing the sum for an award, the commission of inquiry or the person nominated by the commission of inquiry to undertake the assessment, as the case may be, shall apply the Criminal Procedure Code (Witnesses’ Allowances) Rules (Cap. 68, R 1) (referred to in this rule as the relevant Rules), with the necessary modifications, to persons attending proceedings before a commission of inquiry as the relevant Rules apply to a witness attending proceedings in a court.
(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2) —
(a) references in the relevant Rules to the authorising officer shall be taken as a reference to the person nominated by the commission of inquiry to undertake the assessment or, if the commission of inquiry has not made such a nomination, the commission of inquiry; and
(b) references in the relevant Rules to an expert witness assisting the court shall be taken as a reference to an expert witness, assessor, interpreter or other person engaged to provide assistance to the commission of inquiry.
(4) The commission of inquiry shall give to the applicant written notice of the sum assessed.
(5) Any person who is dissatisfied with an assessment of the sum payable to him made by a person nominated by the commission of inquiry to undertake the assessment may apply for the assessment to be reviewed by the commission of inquiry, which decision shall be final.
(6) An application for review made under paragraph (5) shall —
(b) be submitted to the secretary of the commission of inquiry or, if there is no secretary, to the commission of inquiry not later than 14 days after the date of receipt of the written notice referred to in paragraph (4) or such longer period as the commission may instruct.
(7) No award shall be given under paragraph 1(7) of the Schedule to the Act in respect of any allowance or work done for which the appointing authority has agreed to pay the person concerned any remuneration or expenses under paragraph 14 of the Schedule to the Act.
(8) This rule shall apply subject to section 14 of the Act.
[G.N. No. S 215/2009]
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Boeing 737 skids into Florida river on landing
A passenger plane has slid off a runway in the US state of Florida, ending up in a river after landing during a thunderstorm.
None of the 143 people on board the Boeing 737 were seriously hurt.
The chartered aircraft, operated by Miami Air International, had flown from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to a military base in city of Jacksonville .
Passengers say it landed heavily during the storm, skidding into the nearby St John’s River.
At least 20 people were treated for minor injuries.
Passenger Cheryl Bormann told the CNN TV network of the “terrifying” moment the plane slid off the runway late on Friday.
“The plane literally hit the ground and bounced – it was clear the pilot did not have total control of the plane, it bounced again,” she said.
“We were in the water. We couldn’t tell where we were, whether it was a river or an ocean,” she said, adding that she could smell jet fuel leaking into the river.
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Essays on a thousand acres
The A thousand acres is one of the most popular assignments among students' documents. If you are stuck with writing or missing ideas, scroll down and find inspiration in the best samples. A thousand acres is quite a rare and popular topic for writing an essay, but it certainly is in our database.
500 essays on "A thousand acres"
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Examples List on A Thousand Acres
Research for Midwestern Literature
Professor Date Abstract The northwest seems to be dominating the literary space in American literature since this is the region that has produced novels and novelists that have received much attention in the literary world. Even the south seems to be doing well with the likes of Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor…
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The traditional family values include love and respect for parents, as well as for all members of the family”. The above comment depicts the situation of the American…
Concepts of Madness in Literature
This essay defines madness in the plot line and the universal theme of madness in “King Lear” by William Shakespeare and “A Thousand Acres” by Jane Smiley. According to the research, King Lear and Larry Cook show the concept of madness and how it develops by carrying a double mind. …
This essay analyses that Stanley Park was formed as a result of the evolution of the forest and the corresponding urban space over numerous years but not as a form the landscape architect. The underlying manmade structures in the Stanley Park were constructed between 1911 and 1937…
Biden As The Best Choice For President
Currently, one of the most popular videos in the political genre is the montage of all the Democratic candidates for President. The paper "Biden As The Best Choice For President" discusses Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the most qualified candidate to be President of the United States…
Land Acquisitions in India
Running Head: LAND ACQUISITIONS IN INDIA Land acquisitions in India Throughout the emergence of mankind, people have tried efficiently to bring a balance between the rights of an individual and the power, often a coercive power, of the State…
1. Compare and contrast the main theories of international expansion by means of examples from global organisations present in your case studies or other sources, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these theories.
According to Richardson (2007), there are four main theories of international trade…
With reference to relevant academic and trade sources, explain the provision of your topic within your chosen destination and suggest how it may develop in the future
The scenes of picturesque locations shown in a movie attract tourists, the audiences notice while watching movies. Be it filming The Hobbit in the New Zealand, or the…
5,792,324 cubic inches/min to cubic yard per hour. One yard is equivalent to thirty six inches and one hour is equivalent to sixty minutes. Therefore, to convert cubic inches into cubic yard = 5,792,324/363 = 124.15. Then, convert minutes into hours by dividing the value by…
History of Washington State Wine industry and it's global future
The late 1970s the industry had merely four thousand acres of vineyards and about 20 wineries. However as time has passed presently the industry has over five hundred and fifty…
The African American experience in colonial and antebellum North America
In the 16th Century, Slavery was rampant, and slaves were sourced from African Kingdoms of West Africa and taken to the United States to work in the Spanish and Portuguese farms. Slaves were denied their rights and handled like animals. The Ships that arrived in the United…
American History Research Paper (Tobacco)
Tobacco was introduced in Virginia in 1611 by John Rolfe, who being an “ardent smoker” made a decision to experiment with growing tobacco in a place known as Jamestown. Tobacco, in 1565, had first been introduced…
Aftermath: The Remnants of War
He is an ex-senior editor for Outside magazine, and is a regular provider for such periodicals namely the NYT Magazine, the New Yorker, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Men’s Journal…
Public Administration;managing sustainable communities. Midterm exam
The Garden City idea meant to put in place a completely functioning group of people into a compacted, self-financing and effortlessly replicable design. The…
Diversity in American Society
It refers to the respect and appreciation of differences in gender, age, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and education. America is a nation of immigrants that encompasses…
Its proximity to tourist attractions, large populations of local Latin Americans and Europeans makes is one of the largest airline hubs in the United…
Saguaro National Park
Arizona is considered a natural ‘amusement park’ in America. Every corner of the state is full of fun and adventure – there are dude ranches, museums and wildlife parks, lakes, an attractive selection of Old West towns, mines, zoos, among other attractions (Arizonaguide.com, 1)…
Racial and Ethnic Matter
Drawing the Color Lines – Questions 1. How is it that you see America being prone to the involvement of slavery? America’s involvement of slavery was a direct result of the difficulties and desperation experienced by the first white settlers in the country…
Describe the evolution of American policies and the actions taken toward Native Americans between 1816 and 1830. Could the trans-Appalachian interior have been settled in any other fashion by American settlers Why or Why not
Despite colonization and oppression, they have remained true to their traditional customs and traditions. At present, the US federal government recognizes the sovereignty and capacity for self-determination and…
The environmental and economic effects of local coal mining
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Organizational Development Tables of Contents Overview of the Case 3 SWOT Analysis 4 Implication of the SWOT Analysis 4 Marinas Strategy 5 Marina’s Organization 5 Keltner’s List of Actions 6 Recommendations 6 Bibliography 8 Overview of the Case The term organizational development can be defined as the process of improving the organization’s vision, process of learning, problem solving and empowerment with the help of an ongoing and collaborative management of the organizational culture…
The History of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India
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Black Exodus of 1879
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BOMBING (BRITTAIN/SPAIGHT) ANALYSIS
During the start of the first war, there was unexpected and a mysterious way in which Hulse the truce arrived in which he received an order to step up firearms against forces of…
Prerequisites and Consequences of Global Warming
This paper 'Prerequisites and Consequences of Global Warming" focuses on the fact that many natural phenomena that used to be moderate in terms of frequency and severity are taking a new twist. Wildfires are becoming more common, heat waves are rising dangerously, droughts are becoming severe. …
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DAVID AUGUSTUS – RAF – 1941
Augustus entered the School in September 1933. He gained the Oxford School Certificate in July 1939 and was still at school for the first seven months of the war. He contributed an article to the 1939 Sower entitled “London on the eve of war”.
In March 1940, he entered the firm of Messrs Peters at Slough, but he was impatient to fit himself to serve his country in a more active way, and after a short stay with that firm he enlisted in the Royal Air Force. He entered on his training with the greatest keenness and gained his “wings” at the early age of 18 years 9 months and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant Pilot. At about this time he made a flight over the School. He met his death while engaged on intensive operational training on fighters some weeks before his 19th birthday.
“Gussy”, as he was popularly known among his schoolfellows, took a very active part in the general life of the School, was a prefect and a patrol leader in Hyde Scout Troop. He was a keen swimmer and gained the Bronze Medallion of the Royal Life
Saving Society in 1938.
His death at such an early age came as a great shock to the School, where there are many boys who remember him intimately.
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Professor Sujatha Fernandes
Project opportunities with Professor Sujatha Fernandes
Sociology and Social Policy
About Professor Sujatha Fernandes
Fernandes combines social theory and political economy with in-depth engaged, ethnography of global social movements. She specializes in themes of neoliberalism, state theory, global black culture, storytelling, and migrant labor, with an area focus on the Americas.
Sujatha Fernandes is a Professor of Political Economy and Sociology at the University of Sydney, which she joined in 2016. Previously she was a Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Before this, she was a Wilson-Cotsen Fellow at Princeton University’s Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts (2003 – 2006). She has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago.
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Crunch ink Mormina for 2015-16
July 1, 2015 theahl
The Syracuse Crunch have signed defenseman Joey Mormina to an American Hockey League contract for the 2015-16 season.
Mormina, 33, appeared in 54 games with the Crunch during the 2014-15 season, notching 19 points (four goals, 15 assists) along with 70 penalty minutes.
During 620 career AHL games with Manchester, Albany, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Adirondack and Syracuse, the Montreal, Que., native has tallied 31 goals and 114 assists for 145 points, along with a plus-38 rating and 777 penalty minutes.
Mormina has also skated in 69 Calder Cup Playoff games, notching two goals and eight assists.
He has skated in one career NHL contest, making his debut with the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 14, 2008, against Pittsburgh.
Mormina was selected in the sixth round, 193rd overall, by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
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Here's How Bernie Sanders Explained Democratic Socialism
Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks about combating ISIS and democratic socialism at Georgetown University November 19, 2015 in Washington, D.C.
Mark Wilson—Getty Images
Updated: February 20, 2019 9:13 AM ET | Originally published: November 19, 2015
In attempt to widen the appeal of his brand of democratic socialism, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday tied himself to the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt and called for far-reaching social programs to reduce income inequality.
For Sanders, the often rambling speech at Georgetown University was an opportunity to demystify the moniker of “socialist,” one which has enthused his supporters and repelled his skeptics.
“When I use the world socialist–and I know some people aren’t comfortable about it—I’m saying that it is imperative,” Sanders said, that we “create a government that works for all and not just the few.”
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Democratic socialism, Sanders said, is not tied to any Marxist belief or the abolition of capitalism. “I don’t believe government should own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal,” he said.
Sanders use of the term “democratic socialist” has been both a weakness and a strength. He refused in the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas to call himself a capitalist, calling it a “casino” system, but has insisted he would not overturn the free market.
Rather, Sanders says, he wants to implement broad-based reforms, including free tuition at public universities, campaign finance reform and single-payer healthcare. “My vision its not just making modest changes around the edge,” Sanders said.
Roosevelt, one of the brightest stars in the liberal firmament, has often been invoked by the Democrats on the campaign trail this year. Hillary Clinton launched her campaign on Roosevelt Island and spoke to Roosevelt’s 1941 “Four Freedoms” State of the Union address. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley discusses the admiration his family had for Roosevelt.
Sanders’ promise to fulfill Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights, which set economic security and independence as a national imperative, is intended to appeal to Democratic primary voters.
“By the way, almost everything (Roosevelt) proposed was called ‘socialist,'” Sanders said, listing Social Security, the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, job programs, collective bargaining and the 40-hour work week as examples of accomplishments that “economic royalists” called “socialistic.”
Sanders plan would cost trillions of dollars over a ten-year period, and he has said he would raise taxes on the wealthy in order to pay for much of it. In addition to single-payer healthcare of the kind in Canada and European countries, Sanders calls for paid family leave for new mothers and a complete overhaul of election financing.
Sanders also abruptly delved into foreign policy at the end of his speech, saying the United States needs to lead a coalition to destroy ISIS and that Muslim allies in the Middle East have to step up their support.
Hillary Clinton has criticized Sanders for saying he would raise income taxes on the middle class in order to pay for single-payer healthcare. But Sanders has said his plan would greatly reduce financial burdens for families.
“Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy,” Sanders said.
Read Next: A Small New York City Island Gets Ready for Hillary Clinton
See Bernie Sanders' Career in Photographs
Bernie Sanders (R), member of the steering committee, stands next to George Beadle, University of Chicago president, who is speaking at a Committee On Racial Equality meeting on housing sit-ins. 1962.
Special Collections Research Center/University of Chicago Library
A photo taken on July 22, 2015 of Bernie Sanders and his son is seen in an old clip from an alternative newspaper called the Vermont Freeman in Burlington, VT.
The Washington Post/Getty Images
Bernie Sanders in his office after winning his first election as the mayor of Burlington, Vt. on Sept. 15, 1981.
Donna Light—AP
Bernie Sanders, right, greeted voters at a Burlington polling place on March 1, 1983 in Burlington, Vt.
Bernie Sanders and his campaign celebrating after his mayoral re-election circa 1983 in Burlington, Vt.
Courtesy of Bernie Sanders Campaign
Bernie Sanders recording his singing in a studio Nov. 20, 1987 in Burlington, Vt.
Toby Talbot—AP
Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane O'Meara in Washington circa 1991.
Bernie Sanders, James Jeffords and Patrick Leahy toast to the passing of the Northeast Dairy Compact on June 14, 2006 in Montpelier, Vt.
Bernie Sanders officially announces his candidacy for U.S. Senate on May 19, 2006, at the Unitarian Church in Burlington, Vt.
Alden Pelett—AP
Bernie Sanders and the other members of the Vermont Congressional delegation at the annual lighting of U.S. Capitol Christmas on Dec. 5, 2007 in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks during a rally in support of Social Security with Sen. Tom Harkin and Bernie Sanders on March 28, 2011 in Washington.
Rep. Steve Cohen and Bernie Sanders attend a rally near the reflection pool, held by 350.org to protest the amount of money members of Congress receive from the fossil fuel industry on Jan. 24, 2012.
Tom Williams—Getty Images
Bernie Sanders at the signing ceremony of Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act on Aug. 7, 2014 in Belvoir, Va.
Bernie Sanders waits to speak at a rally to advocate for an increase in pay to $15 USD per hour, as part of a "Fight for $15" labor effort on April 22, 2015 in Washington.
Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images
Bernie Sanders shakes Colleen Green's hand as he leaves a town hall meeting on May 11, 2015. in Charlottesville, Va.
Jay Paul— Reuters
Bernie Sanders kisses his wife, Jane O'Meara, before officially announcing his candidacy for the U.S. presidency during an event at Waterfront Park May 26, 2015 in Burlington, Vt.
Win McNamee—Getty Images
Bernie Sanders delivers remarks at a town meeting at the South Church May 27, 2015 in Portsmouth, N.H.
Bernie Sanders speaks during a news conference to discuss legislation to restore pension guarantees for thousands of retired union workers on June 18, 2015 in Washington.
Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images
Bernie Sanders kisses his wife Jane O'Meara during a campaign event on Aug. 10, 2015 in Los Angeles.
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Bernie Sanders speaks to a primarily Latino audience during a campaign stop at the Muscatine Boxing Club on Sept. 4, 2015 in Muscatine, Iowa.
Bernie Sanders and Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, listen to a prayer during a Liberty University Convocation on Sept. 14, 2015 in Lynchburg, Va.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, right, and his wife Jane O’Meara, wave to the crowd as he is announced onstage to speak to supporters during a campaign rally on Sept. 14, 2015 in Manassas, Va.
Cliff Owen—AP
Bernie Sanders joins Cornell William Brooks in a march with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on Sept. 15, 2015 from Selma, Ala. to Washington.
Correction, Feb. 20 2019
A photo caption in the original version of this story misstated the party for which Bernie Sanders sought the 2016 presidential nomination. It was the Democratic Party, not the Republican Party.
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Book Review- A Civil Campaign
April 6, 2018 April 22, 2018 / Kim @ Traveling in Books
A Civil Campaign (Vorkosigan Saga, Chronological #12)
By Lois McMaster Bujold
From Goodreads: Miles Vorkosigan has a problem: unrequited love for the beautiful widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson, violently allergic to marriage after her first exposure. If a frontal assault won’t do, Miles thinks, try subterfuge. He has a cunning plan… Lord Mark Vorkosigan, Miles’ brother, also has a problem: his love has just become unrequited again. But he has a cunning plan… Lord Ivan Vorpatril, Miles’ cousin, has a problem: unrequited love in general. But he too has a cunning plan…
A complex story, as the various members of Miles’ family attempt to find their one true love, and a measure of destiny. This against a background of domestic political squabbles and an earnest attempt at capitalist enterprise.
(Warning, may contain spoilers for the Vorkosigan Saga)
I’ve seen A Civil Campaign described as a comedy of biology… and manners, and it’s true. There’s something almost Shakesperean or Austenian about it, what with the miscommunications, domestic quibbles, and the plotting win one’s true love- assuming that Shakespeare or Austen ever could have dreamed of setting a story on a faraway planet, involved clones, genetically engineered insects, a somewhat-mad scientist, and conflicts between old-fashioned and interplanetary cultural ideals.
Miles is in love. After the events of the previous book, Komarr, his heart belongs altogether to Ekaterin Vorsoisson, who does not know this, and wouldn’t want his affections even if she did know. Her last marriage was a disaster, and she has no wish to let history repeat itself, no matter how many wealthy and available Vor lords show up on her doorstep. So Miles plots to win her heart before anyone else can snatch her up. If only he’d paid attention to his classic romantic comedies, he might realize that his little plan might not be the best of ideas.
Meanwhile, family and friends are coming back from across the Nexus to attend the emperor’s wedding. Love is in the air, and no one’s quite sure what to do about it.
As often as I rolled my eyes while reading this, as I think back on it I like it more and more. There are no space battles here, but there are politics to be had– a district count isn’t who he thought he was, and the ‘backwards’ court of Barrayar suddenly has to deal with galactic mores when a transgender noble seeks his new birthright. Miles is, of course, in the thick of that, too.
Add in a well-intentioned but ill-conceived plan from Ivan, a questionable dinner party at the Vorkosigan mansion, and some dangerous rumors, and it’s a wonder that anyone makes it to the emperor’s wedding at all!
A Civil Campaign was not what I expected, and though I could have done with fewer bugs, I’ve decided that I was thoroughly charmed by this book. It’s far different from the rest of the Vorkosigan Saga, but that makes it all the more compelling. And this is coming from a reader who does not care for romances. It’s the details that make this book for me– Cordelia’s advice, a passionate letter with a traditional wax seal, Aral’s advice, and a very public proposal are my personal favorites.
I’m sure some readers will see A Civil Campaign as one of the least interesting books in the Vorkosigan Saga, and I can see why. It lacks the danger and derring-do of the earlier volumes, but a series– especially a scifi or fantasy series– that repeats the same thing over and over and over again quickly grows dull. Sure, you could skip A Civil Campaign, find a summary online, and continue on to the next book just fine, but you would miss the fine qualities that make up this book. It’s not just a romantic caper, in the end. It is a book about the myriad forms of love and honor.
A Civil Campaign, book review, Ekaterin Vorsoisson, Lois McMaster Bujold, Miles Vorkosigan, Science Fiction, science fiction novel, Vorkosigan Saga
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How the Winter Break Will Effect English Football
After years of discussion, the Football Association announced midway through 2018 that there would be a winter break in the English game, starting during the 19/20 season. However, just what effect will this have upon clubs, players and broadcasters?
Av: By James Fuller
- Spond
Last modified: 2019-01-04T14:25:32.0000000Z
In what is a major victory for the FA, English football has announced plans to introduce a winter break starting during the 19/20 season, which will take place before the next European Championship. Despite the formal details having yet to be finalised, it is understood that all Premier League and Football League clubs have agreed to have a break from competitive action between January and the beginning of February.
Many parties have been pushing for a winter break for a long time, believing that the English national team is hindered as a result of not having one. Fatigue has often been an excuse for the disappointing performances of the Three Lions during many major international tournaments, with the latest plans set to shake up the schedule of the domestic campaign.
Unlike other European nations, the proposed break will not occur during the busy festive period, mainly due to opposition from major broadcasters and supporters, with clubs instead stopping competitive action for two weeks during January and February. The likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have suggested in the past that the demand for teams to play as many as four games over the Christmas period is senseless, however it is one of the most popular times of the season for fans.
A break featuring a total of 13 days off has been proposed, with the FA Cup fifth round being played in midweek, while one round of the Premier League will be played across two weekends, with five fixtures on each.
How will this effect clubs?
Premier League sides are unlikely to feel any significant impact from the break in terms of finance, with clubs still receiving significant amounts of money from major broadcasting deals. However, lower league club may well feel the pinch, as they rely much more heavily upon gate receipts during the season.
Clubs will be free to decide upon how they wish to spend their time off, with warm-weather training camps likely to be the choice for many. However, money-making tours of the Far East or US are not likely to go down so well.
How will it effect the players?
Players are likely to receive both physical and mental rewards off the back of the break, with the Premier League especially know as being one of the most intense and demanding competitions in the game. It is hoped that English international players will have more energy left in the tank when going into season-ending tournaments.
How will it effect broadcasters?
With the current broadcasting deal expiring in 2019, with some of the major names in television likely to be involved in negotiations over the new contract, which is expected to significantly go beyond the current £5.14bn deal. As a result, broadcasters are unlikely to be majorly concerned over the impact of the forthcoming winter break.
How Wearable Technology is Changing Sport
Technology has long played a significant role in sport, however the emergence of wearable technology has also now started to have a major impact on the development of players. Let’s take a look this can now aid coaches at all levels.
How to Defend with 10 Players
The entire outlook of a match can potentially change in just a single moment, which includes one team losing a player due to either injury or a red card. As a result, many coaches are now teaching their team how to deal with such a situation. So, just what is the most effective way to still earn a positive result when being at such as disadvantage?
Why Warming Up is So Important
Manchester United recently suffered injuries to three key players during the first half of their Premier League clash against rivals Liverpool, leading to questions regarding fitness and preparation. So, just why is warming up before training and matches so important for players?
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Archive for the tag “feminism”
“Don’t listen to me,” Gloria Steinem told the two 15-year-old girls. “Listen to yourselves.” A packed-to-the-rafters Benaroya Hall erupted in applause, as it did dozens of times on Sunday night. But there was something about those girls. They were all of us. We have all been fifteen and remember well that panicked thought: who am I? Who will I be? Who do I deserve to be? That the two of them stood together at the microphone, because standing alone would have been too scary, made it all the more poignant. How far in advance did they plan which one of them would ask the question—what advice do you have for teenaged girls?—and which one of them would stand with her for support?
Gloria Steinem was in Seattle to promote her new memoir, My Life on the Road. In an evening presented by Hedgebrook, the Whidbey Island retreat for women writers where she wrote much of her book over several summers, Steinem was interviewed by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, the best-selling memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Strayed was funny and lively and made it clear from the beginning that she was as awed by Steinem as the rest of us. But it was Gloria’s night. I hope she doesn’t mind if I call her Gloria. I don’t believe she will. As she quipped at one point during the evening, “We women aren’t generally so attached to our last names, are we?”
When Gloria and Cheryl walked on stage, I felt as if my spine had just been plugged into a sizzling charger. My eyes started to glisten. My throat tightened. My heart did a little step-dance. I apologize for how trite this all may sound, but I am trying hard to describe how I really, truly felt at that moment, because I don’t feel that way very often. Thanks to my broadcast journalist past, I’m not instantly impressed by famous people. But Gloria is different. Gloria is personal. She changed my life. She changed my mother’s life, my friends’ lives, my daughter’s life. She changed the life of every woman, whether they know it or not. Does this sound over-the-top? I would argue that it is not. Not at all. Gloria Steinem is 81 years old (last year, when she turned 80, I discovered that she and my mother share the same birthday and I wrote a tribute to the two of them), and her life work has been to change the way we perceive women. In my lifetime, the change has been profound and global. For example, the small businesswomen I’ve met in places like Peru, India, Thailand: Gloria helped me to see them differently; to fully appreciate their strength and resilience. Or take Sahar, the Seattle-based nonprofit that is building schools for girls in Afghanistan: thanks to Gloria, the world understands how essential such work is.
“Women get more radical with age,” Gloria said in response to a question about why there weren’t more very young feminist spokeswomen. Yes we do, because we get impatient. All our lives, we are told: be patient. The world is changing. Hang on! But then when you look up one day and realize your daughter is facing way too many of the same hurdles you faced—and then some, if she lives in the wrong state and might wish to do something as radical as visit a Planned Parenthood clinic—you think: enough patience already. I’m done.
When I was a newly minted college graduate in 1978, the personnel director at a major publisher told me that “all our young women start as secretaries and our young men start as sales reps.” And so my first job title, post-college, was secretary. That is why Gloria Steinem moves me in a way perhaps no other public figure ever will. She understood then, and she understands now: equal treatment for all—regardless of gender, race, age or any other consideration—is not political. It is a basic human right.
Please check out our Kickstarter page for Zona Intangible, our film set in Peru and now in post-production. Watch the trailer. Consider a donation. Our deadline is November 24. Thank you!
Posted in feminism, human rights, memoir, midlife, writing and tagged Benaroya Hall, Cheryl Strayed, equal rights, feminism, Gloria Steinem, Hedgebrook, memoir
Happy Birthday, Gloria Steinem
Happy Birthday, Gloria Steinem. If you are what eighty looks like, then there is hope in this world. And it is high time I thanked you for a few things.
First: Six years ago, for two weeks of my life, you gave me courage to get out of bed. It was April 2008. A cold April: frost every day, even a few snow flurries. Every morning, I huddled under the covers in my cottage at Hedgebrook, the Whidbey Island retreat for women writers, reading your brilliant book of essays, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.
You have to understand, Gloria: I did not deserve to be at Hedgebrook, because I was not a real writer. Documentary filmmaker, occasional journalist, effective public affairs bloviator—you could call me all of the above. But writer? What was Hedgebrook thinking, giving me a cottage for two weeks on the basis of a script I’d written for a doc film about Alzheimer’s disease?
It was you who gave me courage to get over myself, get out of bed and start writing. Your honesty—about being a Playboy bunny, about your mother’s mental illness, about being a woman—inspired me to write honestly. Your voice—frank, funny, humble, confident—inspired me to try out my own.
I was writing about my mother, too. Or trying to. Her birthday is also March 25th. She would have been 83 today, had Alzheimer’s not marked her and claimed her far too young: at 74, after nearly two decades of relentless assault.
Even though my mother was just a few years older than you, Gloria, her life could not have been more different than yours. Six children. Divorced twice, widowed once. But the work you did in the sixties and seventies? Gloria, you changed my mother’s life. You gave her courage.
She may not have openly acknowledged the debt. She may have thought that it was all about her own pluck and stamina. But after my parents divorced and my mother went back to college at 38, what she was doing was taking charge of her life in a way that you and your colleagues in the women’s movement had made possible. Who knows? A few years earlier, she might have accepted alimony or gone back to work as a secretary. Instead, she fulfilled her long-deferred dream of studying English and becoming a teacher. Instead, she exemplified for her impressionable daughters the women’s movement—your movement—in action. Feminist rhetoric was reality, not theory, at our house.
So I thank you, Gloria, for being who you were at the end of the 1960s. And I thank you for being who you were, to me, as I lapped up your book at Hedgebrook on those frosty mornings in 2008. I knew you too had spent time at Hedgebrook (and would continue to come for several summers). Which meant that you too knew the power of a cottage and privacy all day followed by good food and conversation in the evenings.
And now, on this your 80th birthday, which is also my mother’s birthday, it gives me great joy to tell you that the memoir I started scribbling at Hedgebrook, inspired by you, is going to be published in September by She Writes Press. It’s called Her Beautiful Brain.
And here’s a remarkable thought: in your lifetime, Gloria, we have gone from a world where it was quite acceptable to believe that all women’s brains were actually inferior to men’s to a world in which we women know our brains are beautiful. You helped us get there. You helped me get there. So did my beautiful, brainy mom. Happy Birthday to both of you.
Only a few spots left in my non-credit, no stress Memoir Writer’s Workshop at Seattle Central Community College. This is a new class for writers who feel ready to write 5-7 pages a week. Six Monday nights, starting April 7.
The Restless Nest is on the radio every Tuesday morning at 7:45 a.m. on KBCS.fm; 91.3 in the Seattle area. Podcasts available.
Posted in brain, dementia, memoir, midlife, politics, women's rights, writing and tagged Alzheimer's, feminism, Gloria Steinem, Hedgebrook, women's rights
Raised to Please
We are raised to please. We are raised to attract. We are raised to decorate, divert and delight. We are raised to invite attention, not to seek it. To never, ever risk rejection.
And when I say we, of whom do I speak? It must be a group known to include me. Might it be… people over 50? Seattleites? Speakers of English?
Of course not. You know who I’m talking about. Women.
And what, you might ask, is so wrong with being raised to please?
Nothing at all, if you are born and remain a lovely-to-look-at, ornamental sort of a woman. Nothing at all, if ornamenting the world brings you great joy.
But what if what you long to do is build tall buildings? Play basketball? Conduct high-risk scientific research? Or—in my case—write? And in order to achieve that writing dream, you have to lob your precious words out into the world so they can be rejected over and over and over again until at last, you get lucky and what you’ve written is accepted and printed? Briefly, you are filled with joy—until your freshly published words are actually read. And not everyone likes them. And you want to die because you have displeased a few people.
Men, on the other hand, are raised to risk rejection or die trying. They’re raised to understand for every ten girls they ask out, one might say yes and hey, that’s great! They grow up understanding they won’t get a good job unless they apply for 100. They learn young: licking wounds is wasting time.
Meanwhile, women grow up learning: don’t ask for what you want. Be patient, pretty, good, do everything right—and someone, someday, will read your mind.
Am I oversimplifying? Sure. But take a look at the annual count by the literary nonprofit VIDA of female versus male writers published in prestigious magazines—Atlantic, New Yorker, Harpers, etcetera. Diet-sized wedges of each pie chart represent articles written by women. I don’t think the problem is that women don’t write great nonfiction. Or they don’t think their writing is good enough. I think women writers don’t submit their work because they fear rejection. Or, like me, they’ve been rejected half a dozen times and they can’t stand the pain.
As a longtime documentary filmmaker, I’ve been rejected by film festivals dozens of times. But here’s the difference: I make films with my husband. Somehow, that helps, because even though I feel every rejection as a personal rejection of me, he knows how to move on and he tugs me along with him. Writing nonfiction for print publications is a newer pursuit for me and I’m flying solo.
My writer friend Isla is the one who got me thinking about this Curse of the Good Girl who internalizes early the paramount importance of pleasing. Isla is 20 years younger than I am. My daughter, 22 and a working journalist, gets it too.
The VIDA count is a vivid reminder, to writers like Isla, my daughter and me, that there’s more at stake here than our self-esteem. We need to keep submitting our work, and we need to get really good at handling rejection, because collectively, we still have a lot of catching up to do.
Posted in midlife, politics, women's rights and tagged feminism, self-esteem, VIDA count, women's rights, writing
Across the Fence
Just as we have Mad Men to thank for reminding us of how casually men in power exuded sexism, racism, classism, anti-semitism and homophobia fifty years ago, now we have Rush Limbaugh to thank for reminding us: we still have a lot of work to do. But I’m thankful to Limbaugh. Really. Because that outrageous statement he made weeks ago—“If we’re gonna pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want you to post the videos online so we can all watch”—well, it’s just not going away. And that may be bad for his show’s ad revenues, but in terms of getting people talking? It is good. Tricky, risky, sometimes inflammatory. But good.
Have you seen that MoveOn ad in which five women repeat, simply and straight to the camera, Limbaugh’s notorious words, along with several statements by Rick Santorum and other conservatives regarding contraception? It’s in my email inbox and I expect it’ll show up a few more times, right along with the news about how our state’s proposed budget calls for cuts in funding for contraception and counseling. Also in the in-box: my friend Liza Bean’s insightful blog post about why conservative women believe liberal women don’t like them.
There’s a conversation going on here. People are talking across the fence. The MoveOn ad is getting buzz not just on MSNBC, but on Fox News, where two Republican commentators, both women, tried in vain to explain to Bill O’Reilly why this all matters: why women across the political spectrum reacted with revulsion to, for example, Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s statement that “a woman impregnated thru rape should accept that horribly created gift. The gift of human life.”
Meanwhile, liberal blogger Liza and her conservative mom are finally having that long-avoided conversation about Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin. Liza’s mom thinks liberal women only want to see liberal women succeed in politics, even though they pay lip service to the notion of diverse views. Liza concedes she may be on to something.
I have to agree. I will never forget the chill I felt when I saw Sarah Palin on TV for the first time, standing next to John McCain, commanding the stage with absolute confidence.
“She’s got the magic,” I thought. “My God, McCain’s going to win and then she’ll run and win and she’ll be our Margaret Thatcher!”
I’ve never been so relieved to be so wrong. And yet what stayed with me were the conversations I had with Republican women who were thrilled by her: by the thought of a woman whose views they shared zooming up the political ladder the way Palin did in 2008.
Ultimately, I believe Palin was a polarizer of women, not a uniter. She did not talk across the fence in 2008, nor has she since, in her role as a TV commentator.
What’s going on now is different. Limbaugh, Santorum and the Virginia and Texas state lawmakers who recently enacted mandatory pre-abortion ultrasounds went so far with their intrusive and offensive words that women, whether they call themselves pro-choice or pro-life, had to respond. Had to at least try to talk, like Liza and her mom.
Just as, fifty years ago, women began to look around the Mad Men world and say: excuse me, guys, but what about us? They didn’t all say it in the same way or for the same reasons. But the conversations began. At the water cooler, over martinis or milk and cookies. Sometimes, across fences: still the hardest place for us to talk.
Posted in politics, Uncategorized, women's rights and tagged bill o reilly, contraceptives, current-events, feminism, MoveOn, politics, Rush Limbaugh, women's rights
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HBCU Football
7 HBCU football coaches fired or resign
Jay Walker: ‘Some of the institutions have not provided these coaches the resources needed to win’
Up Next From HBCU
Alabama A&M head coach James Spady during a game against Vanderbilt, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. Spady is one of seven football coaches from HBCUs that have either resigned or been fired this year. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
By Mark W. Wright @Wright_One
With the success of first-year Howard University football coach Mike London, the need to win — and win relatively soon — has become a thing, prompting some historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to pivot and search for their guy to take them to the next level.
“To be fair, most of these coaches’ contracts were up,” said ESPN college football analyst Jay Walker. “[James] Spady was up, [Monte] Coleman was up, Alex Wood [at Florida A&M] was up. Some of the changes are justifiable, but I also believe that some of the institutions have not provided these coaches the resources needed to win.
“If you want to use Howard as an example, the biggest change there was that Mike had the benefit of the school making a commitment to the program from the very top, something I’d like to see more institutions do,” Walker said of Howard, which finished third in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference at 7-4 (6-2 in conference) behind emerging quarterback Caylin Newton. “At the very least, these schools owe that to these coaches and to the student-athletes.”
HBCU COACHES MOVING ON
Rick Comegy: Mississippi Valley State fired Comegy after four seasons and a 6-38 record, including 2-9 this year. He previously coached in the conference for eight seasons at Jackson State, where he compiled a record of 55-35.
Monte Coleman: Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Coleman part ways after 10 seasons. The Super Bowl-winning former linebacker with the Washington Redskins was 40-70 overall, including 2-9 this season.
Kenny Carter: Delaware State’s Carter was fired after going 3-30 over three seasons, including 2-9 this year. It’s a particularly tough time for the Hornets, who also dismissed athletic director Skip Perkins.
Brian Jenkins: Alabama State coach Jenkins was dismissed five games into the season and four days after Quinton Ross took over as the school’s new president. Jenkins was in his third season at Alabama State, where he finished with a record of 10-17 (8-12 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference).
Connell Maynor: Maynor resigned two days after Hampton finished a 6-5 season (5-3 in the MEAC) with a 20-17 victory over rival Howard. In four seasons, Maynor had a 20-25 record, including two winning seasons.
James Spady: Alabama A&M fired Spady after he went 15-30 in four seasons, including 4-7 this year. Under his tenure, the Bulldogs went 13-21 in SWAC games.
Alex Wood: After three seasons at Florida A&M, Wood’s contract, which was set to expire at the end of December, was not renewed. He had a 8-25 record, including 3-8 this season, and the Rattlers lost to rival Bethune-Cookman in the Florida Classic for the seventh consecutive season.
Born in the UK and raised in Jamaica, Mark W. Wright is a writer and director of special projects at The Undefeated. A quick glance at his work and it’s safe to assume that soccer – and coverage of Historically Black Colleges and Universities – are among his passions.
This Story Tagged: Alabama A&M Bulldogs Alabama State Hornets Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions Delaware State Hornets Florida A&M Rattlers … View All Florida A&M University Hampton University HBCU Football Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils
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Home News Emefiele’s Re-appointment As CBN Governor Is A Masterstroke – BMO
Emefiele’s Re-appointment As CBN Governor Is A Masterstroke – BMO
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele
President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to re-appoint Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is a masterstroke that will further stabilise the economy, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) said Tuesday, adding that the manner the markets and analysts responded positively to the news of a second five-year term for the CBN governor is an indication of the correctness of the decision.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that the positive comments that trailed the decision showed that the President did not make a mistake in extending Emefiele’s tenure at Nigeria’s apex monetary authority.
“President Buhari came into office about a year into Emefiele’s tenure as CBN Governor, and though he could have found a reason to ease him out of office after inheriting an economy that was near comatose, he gave the former Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank the opportunity to prove himself.
“And as if the leash that was holding him back was removed when the All Progressives Congress (APC) came on board in 2015, the CBN Governor spear-headed a number of initiatives to put the country on a path of sustainable economic growth after it momentarily slipped into economic recession.
“So by handing Emefiele a second term, the President has shown that what matters to him is performance, not ethnic or religious consideration, contrary to the picture that opposition elements had painted to undiscerning Nigerians over the years, and also in the run-up to the 2019 elections.
“We are not surprised at the deluge of commendations from respected economists and financial analysts because we know President Buhari as an individual that considers capacity to perform and that is why he takes his time before taking decisions,” it said.
On what Emefiele did to deserve re-appointment, the pro-Buhari group pointed at the success story of the Anchors Borrowers Programme as one of the CBN’s major milestones under his watch.
This, it said, paved the way for the agricultural revolution that has since led to the reduction in rice import and has put Nigeria on the path of self-sustenance in rice production.
The group added: “After years of almost total dependence on imported rice from Thailand, the country now has hundreds of thousands of rice farmers who have benefitted from CBN support in terms of cash and farm inputs.
“At the last count, the programme has since 2015 disbursed N174.4bn to 902,518 farmers through 19 financial institutions and has created 2.8 million and 8.4 million direct and indirect jobs respectively.
“The CBN also introduced the Real Sector Support fund; a facility meant to provide cheap funding at not more than nine per cent interest rate to new projects in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
“And like many analysts, we acknowledge that the Bank’s decision to stop importers of 41 items from having access to foreign currencies went a long way in shoring up the value of the Naira at a time the currency was threatening to go as high as 700 to a dollar. Also, the country’s foreign reserve under Emefiele’s watch has risen progressively, compared to the pre-Buhari era when it was on a regular decline.
“We at BMO recognise that the Bank’s monetary policies have also ensured that inflation has been relatively tamed and we dare say that now that it is down to 11.25% as at March 2019, and 11.23 projected for April, Nigeria could have a single digit inflation rate in a matter of months.”
The group expressed hope that Emefiele would repay President Buhari’s good gesture by doing far more than he has done in the last five years.
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Juggernauting, Part 1
There are a handful of films that, for whatever reason, I’m intensely attracted to. I spend years trying to track down as much material relating to them as I possibly can. The Juggernaut (Vitagraph, 1915) is one of those films. This post is the first of what will probably be a short and sporadically updated series I’ve decided to call “Juggernauting” detailing the present state of my obsession.
The Juggernaut — “a story of modern life” about greed, corruption, betrayal, and retribution (and a full-scale train wreck!) — was one of the biggest films of 1915. In terms of box office receipts, only The Birth of a Nation was more successful. It played to sold-out houses for weeks on end in its first run, and was re-released twice, in 1917 and 1920.
Today, The Juggernaut only partially survives. Some time ago, I made a reconstruction using the intact fifth part, a fragment of the fourth part, and several production stills from the other three parts. I was rather pleased with it, and to date, the DVD has been one of our top-ten sellers. It’s outdated now. I’ve got many more stills, I’ve got an exhibitor’s handbook that details every scene and quotes many of the titles (previously, I knew the story in outline, but had to make “educated guesses” about the specifics), and the most exciting development of all, I’ve obtained a complete copy of the second part.
The 2012 reconstruction ran for almost 30 minutes exactly. I haven’t begun another yet — I’m still in what I call the “amassing stage” — but I now have 31 minutes of actual footage from the film alone, never mind all the stills I have to use in recreating missing scenes. For the next reconstruction (let’s tentatively call it the 2016 version), I anticipate a new running time of around 50 minutes, which is not far off the film’s original length of 65 minutes.
Posted in Juggernauting
Tags: Juggernauting
A Severe Test (Solax, 1913)
Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché
Starring Marian Swayne and Vinnie Burns
Daisy (Marian Swayne) and Frank (Vinnie Burns) have been married for a year. Daisy begins to notice that Frank doesn’t seem to be showing her the same degree of affection he did when they were newlyweds. To test his love, she fakes her own death. She writes to her friend Ella to explain her plan, and to Frank, she writes a teary suicide note, but she accidentally mixes up the letters and the envelopes — Frank get’s the explanation and Ella gets the suicide note.
Frank decides to play along. At the pier where Daisy met her supposed watery death, Frank is all smiles and flings her discarded coat and suitcase into the lake. Daisy — watching from the sidelines — is hurt and declares that she’ll never live with that “brute” again. But Frank isn’t finished: he has a wedding announcement printed for him and a fictional girl named Lucy Smith. It was only supposed to be a card, but it’s accidentally published in the newspaper. When Daisy reads it, her pain turns to fury. She looks up a real Lucy Smith in the phone book and sets off to “scratch her eyes out”.
Frank is also searching for Lucy, to apologize for the announcement. Frank and Daisy meet at the Smiths’ house, where they discover that Lucy is actually the fat, black cook (she’s a white person in blackface, and I’m fairly certain she’s also a man in drag). Laughs all around as Frank and Daisy reconcile.
The print of A Severe Test (1913) in our collection is perhaps the only one in existence. At least, no archive has a copy, I’m not personally aware of any in private hands besides our own, and, in the past 15 years, I’ve never seen another print turn up on the market. I reticent to label any film “lost” — in the past, you’ll notice I usually hedge my bets with “presumed lost” — but others aren’t so hopeful.
Alison McMahan, one of the foremost scholars on Alice Guy, lists the film as “not extant” in her 2013 article on Women Film Pioneers Project. We’d held our print for nearly a decade by that point, and it had been readily available on video for two or three years. A simple search on Google or YouTube would have revealed it, or you could check the distributors listed on IMDb to see if it had been recently released. I don’t mean to call out McMahan specifically here; I just want to comment on this tunnel vision that pervades the work of most film historians — where if a film doesn’t exist in a major archive, then it doesn’t exist at all. Around 40 years ago, Anthony Slide said that 75% of the silent era was lost. Even he would later admit that this was a bit sensationalized — an off-the-cuff remark without any real data behind it but nevertheless a good sound bite — but damned if that comment didn’t have legs. It seems to be near gospel nowadays. Sometimes I’ve even heard it claimed 85% or 95% of pre-1930 cinema is lost. I take a more optimistic view. There’s a great deal more out there if you’re willing to take your academic blinders off to see it.
As I said, we’ve released Severe on video before (IMDb says it was back in 2011, but by my records, the DVD came out in 2010 — the downloadable may have been 2011), but that transfer is… let’s say it’s looking long in the tooth. It’s in need of a re-do anyway, amd since there’s been some interest in it lately for use in an upcoming Alice Guy documentary, there’s no better time than the present.
The print is physically in very good shape, but the picture is exceedingly dark. The levels can be adjusted easily enough, but brightening alone is a poor fix. When the shadows are too dark, brightening them doesn’t reveal more detail in the picture, it only brings out a noisy gray blob. What we need is an image with an extremely high dynamic range, where there’s enough information to work with even in the darkest areas. And we can do that by merging several scans under varying intensity lights, but oh boy, does it take time. Our film scanner can usually capture a frame in 15 to 30 seconds. To get the quality we need for a decent transfer of Severe, it took upwards of 2 minutes. Keep in mind, there are over 15,000 frames to scan.
For example, here’s a frame grab from the old transfer:
The pier is probably rough wood, but as it is, it just looks like murky gray streaked with black. Daisy’s lower body vanishes into the darkness — where does her dress end and the pier begin? What’s going on in the distance, beyond the water?
And here’s the same frame in the new transfer:
The most remarkable improvement is the pier. Now we can see each board and even begin to get an impression of the texture of the wood. There’s a clear boundary between Daisy’s dress and the board she’s sitting on, and now we can see that there’s a valise in the foreground. Across the water, there appears to be a wooded hill dotted with several houses. Overall, it’s still much darker than the original release would have been, but at least now the image is clear enough to distinguish everything that’s in it.
And now it comes to what I think of the film: it’s just awful. It doesn’t do enough with the swapped envelopes gimmick. There could have been a whole B-plot built around Ella believing Daisy to be dead to offset Frank’s scheme, but instead, she finds out the truth from Frank almost immediately and for the rest of the film they’re in cahoots for some reason. And the “joke” they play on Daisy is just too mean-spirited to be funny. The cinematography is pretty good, I’ll give it that, and I liked Marian Swayne’s performance well enough, but I did not enjoy watching this film at all.
My rating: I don’t like it.
Posted in Don't like it, Reviews
Tags: 1913, Alice Guy-Blaché, Marian Swayne, Solax, Vinnie Burns
Lady Godiva (Vitagraph, 1911)
Lad y Godiva (Vitagraph, 1911)
Directed by J. Stuart Blackton
Starring Julia Swayne Gordon
Like The Victoria Cross (1912), which I’ve written about before, Lady Godiva (1911) is another example of that short-lived genre known at Vitagraph as the Quality Film. Elsewhere, they were termed variously De-Luxe Films or High-Art Films, but we might allow Vitagraph naming rights as they were the chief producers of the genre. Also like The Victoria Cross, Lady Godiva is based on two culturally revered subjects: history (or at least legend) and poetry (Tennyson in both films).
Lady Godiva (Julia Swayne Gordon) is the wife of Earl Leofric (Robert Gaillard), who has imposed a ruinous new tax on his townspeople that threatens to drive them to starvation. She begs he lift the tax, but the Earl’s heart is “as rough as Esau’s hand” and he’ll only agree to do so on the condition that she ride naked through town.
Warned by a herald of her approach, all the townspeople go inside and shut their windows, except for “one low churl” (Harold Wilson) who watches through a peephole. As she passes, he’s blinded by the sight — “his eyes were shrivell’d into darkness”.
The task complete, she returns to the Earl, who repeals the tax, and so Lady Godiva’s fame becomes “everlasting”.
All of the titles are “quotes” from Tennyson’s poem Godiva. I scare-quote the word because, while the text is presented as direct excerpts, it’s awfully mangled. That’s not at all unexpected. The target audience for Quality Films was not well educated and probably didn’t have a firm grasp of English. They may know of Shakespeare or Tennyson, but it’s highly unlikely that they ever read either. Their familiarity with the great English poets came mostly from places like postcards illustrating famous lines, which were often condensed for space and modified to be both more stand-alone and also to be more marketable — to be able to serve as an advertisement for some product or other. For the Quality Film producers, when the choice came down to a quote that’s right or a quote that’s familiar, one always erred on the side of familiarity. There are some common misquotes persisting today that, while they didn’t originate in early film, early film helped to cement in popular culture — lines like “Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well”.
The set is the same Ye Olde England lot that can be seen in several Vitagraph films from this period, consisting of three half-timbered building façades and a painted backdrop. They vary the angles and move around the set dressing from scene to scene to make it appear larger than it is. There’s attention to detail shown in matching the painted shadows to the actual ones, and in keeping the actors from casting shadows on the backdrop. I don’t recognize the castle (or the gate of the castle, rather — that’s all we see). It may have been built specially. I count about sixteen extras, which reasonably fills out the crowd scenes. One of them is Kate Price, who’s pretty easy to spot. Clara Kimball Young is apparently in there, too, but I couldn’t pinpoint her.
The nude ride is as absolutely sexless as can be, and not only because of the bodystocking and strategically placed hair. Julia Swayne Gordon plays Godiva as you might a saint. But the moral of the story is to not be a Peeping Tom — indeed, the Lady Godiva legend is the origin of the term Peeping Tom. You might recognize Tom — or Harold Wilson — as Silverstein from The Awakening of Bianca (1912). His performance here is kind of the same, only now his handwringing is meant to suggest lasciviousness, and in Bianca, it was meant to look Jewish.
Quality Films are interesting in an abstract, film history kind of way, but can often be on the dull side. The Victoria Cross had the saving grace of an exciting battle scene and the novel conceit of the binoculars, which served the practical purpose of masking the small number of extras, but also looked cool and gave Edith Storey some welcome screentime. In comparison, Lady Godiva doesn’t have much going for it. I didn’t dislike it, but it’s just sort there and it feels all its length.
Tags: 1911, J. Stuart Blackton, Julia Swayne Gordon, Vitagraph
The Borrowed Flat (American, 1911)
Directed by Allan Dwan (maybe?)
Starring J. Warren Kerrigan
A true chamber drama, in the sense that it takes place entirely on a single set with a principle cast of just two players. Further, the whole film appears to have been done in one continuous take (there are actually a few cuts, but most are masked by title cards and the one that isn’t is so seamless that I had to step over it frame-by-frame to find it).
Percy Pigeon (J. Warren Kerrigan) arrives home to find a “Kick Me” sign on his back — it’s April Fool’s day, the calendar reveals. He’s expecting his aunt to visit later and, as he hopes to be well remembered in her will, he wants to make a good impression. This involves replacing the artwork on the walls with signs reading “Love Your Relatives” and “What is Home Without an Aunt?”
Bobby, Percy’s friend, appears and asks to borrow his apartment to meet his fiancée. Percy agrees. Bobby writes to Dolly to come at once and they’ll be married right away, then leaves to get dressed. Once he’s gone, Percy decides to play a joke of his own. He takes Bobby’s letter and readdresses it to Bridget O’Rafferty, their washerwoman. Later, when Bobby is waiting in the apartment alone, Bridget shows up ready to get hitched and isn’t eager to take ‘no’ for an answer.
After Bridget’s exit (pushed out the window), Bobby notices the letter from Percy’s aunt on the table and, returning tit for tat, takes a dress and wig from the closet (why does Percy have these?) and impersonates her. Percy is surprised. It seems like there should be more to the ending, but the original end card is intact on my print and it runs all of its advertised 420 feet, so I don’t think anything is missing. It just very abruptly stops with Percy on the floor searching for a dropped ring (?) while Bobby as Auntie stands over him.
Technically speaking, this is not an advanced film (aside from that impressively concealed cut while Bobby is fiddling with the latch on the trunk), but even if the technique wasn’t pioneering, the story is well enough presented. “It fulfills its purpose”, to quote Moving Picture World. They didn’t seem to care for it much. While all the other films got a paragraph synopsis, The Borrowed Flat has just “A comedy presenting what happened in a borrowed flat”. I wouldn’t be so dismissive, though. I personally found it entertaining.
Tags: 1911, Allan Dwan, American, J. Warren Kerrigan
The Man Hunt (Selig?, 1915?)
Starring Tom Mix
Lionel Strongheart (Tom Mix) is out on a hunting vacation in the hills. He stumbles across a couple of moonshiners — Joe and Jeff — who shoot him. When they discover he’s just a hapless tourist, they take him back to their cabin where Nellie nurses him to health. Nellie is Joe’s daughter and Jeff is in love with her, although she turns down his marriage proposal. Joe promises to plead his partner’s case, but that’s sidetracked when Sheriff Jim comes with a warrant for Jeff’s arrest. Meanwhile, Nellie and Lionel have fallen in love and decide to marry.
There’s something about this film that doesn’t sit right with me. Several things, actually: it doesn’t look or play like the sort of films Tom Mix was making at Selig in 1915; I can find no release notices for a Selig film by the name “Man Hunt” — not in that year or at any other date — nor any newspaper ads or reviews; it looks most natural at around 22fps and not the 16-18fps Selig films usually run at; Mix looks noticeably older than he does in, say, Sage Brush Tom (1915), which I happened to watch immediately before running The Man Hunt; and the plot is awfully intricate for the film’s run time, and it strikes me as an abridgement of a longer work.
What I have is a 16mm print released by Castle Films — I’m not sure when, but the edge code of the film stock dates it to 1964. The titles are replacements. It names Tom Mix (and him alone), but it doesn’t suggest that it’s a Selig production or that it was originally released in 1915. The only place I can find making those claims is IMDb, and IMDb is… not exactly the most reliable resource.
I don’t think it is a 1915 Selig one-reeler. I think it’s probably a cut-down of one of Mix’s later Fox releases, either feature length or at least two or three reels long, and that “The Man Hunt” is simply the title Castle assigned it and not what it was originally called. Now I could be wrong, but that’s my impression. With that said, I can’t really criticize the film’s abruptness, pacing issues, or its weak character development — as what’s here may not be representative of what might have been intended.
So what can I say? Well, I can say that none of the cast is acting with even the slightest conviction. It’s good that the film tells us that Jeff is in love with Nellie, or that Nellie doesn’t care for the man, or that her father inexplicably does — because none of that comes across otherwise. The titular manhunt, which is introduced dramatically with “THE MAN HUNT IS ON!”, is an oddly sedate affair. The sheriff and I suppose deputy ride slowly up to the still and simply slip the handcuffs on Jeff without any real struggle or urgency and the film just fizzles out afterward. Father’s involvement with the moonshining operation seems to be forgotten, as does the attempted murder.
What’s here isn’t good, and I can’t imagine what isn’t here was very good either. In short…
Tags: 1915, Selig, Tom Mix
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English Nationals July 18
English Summer National Championships
The 50-week long swimming year came to an exciting conclusion for Berkhamsted Swimming Club with the week-long English Summer National Championships at the iconic Ponds Forge facility in Sheffield. With four swimmers representing the club in 5 events, it was a week that built to an exciting climax alongside Tring SC’s Sam Pye-Finch.
James Chennells began the week with the 200m Freestyle. By now an experienced competitor at this level following his debut in 2017 he knew what to expect. The English Championship take 20 swimmers in each age group for each stroke and distance with very little separating the first seeds from the 20th seeds.
James was seeded 14th going in a was well aware that only a pb would see him in with a chance of making the top 10 for the evening final. After a solid first 50m in 27.19 he consolidated his position to halfway in 56.93 with good skills round the walls and a strong stroke. As tiredness hit with just over 50m to go his stroke started to shorten as he tried to pick up the pace and he touched in 1:58.54 a pb by almost ¾ of a second and placed him 11th, just one place and just 2/10ths away from that elusive place in the final. This swim improved his own club open record from May.
Ella Nijkamp was next up in the 50m backstroke. Making her debut at Nationals at the age of 13 following a superb victory in the East Region champs at the beginning of the summer, she was understandably nervous ahead of her race. In the event, she posted her second fastest ever 50m backstroke with 32.45 and might be ruing her finish, which she said was not up to her normal standard as she too just missed out on a final, placing 12th overall in the 13 years age group, but she should be exceptionally happy with her first race at Nationals.
The last 3 events for the Club’s athletes all happened on the Saturday. With Ismail Rahim & Zac Patel lining up alongside Sam Pye-Finch in the 50m Fly and James Chennells up again in the middle distance 400m Freestyle.
The flyers were first up with Sam, also in his first nationals and a ‘year young’ in the 13/14 age group which is a great success in itself, in the first heat of the event. Sam got off the blocks well and hit the finish 1/10th of a second inside his old pb with 28.59 and finished 13th overall.
15 year old Ish Rahim was yet another first timer and anxious to do well following Regional Champs where he felt he did not do himself justice. A good underwater phase off the block saw him in about 5th place at half way. Once into his full stride however, he ploughed through the field and touched home in 27.05, chopping just over 0.3 seconds from his best and placed 2nd, with a wait to see if he had made the final.
Zac Patel was in his second year at Nationals and waited confidently for his own race 3 heats later. His weakness has been his starts and finishes and he felt his start here left room for improvement but, like Ish he showed strength of character to move through the field in the second half of the race to hit his own pb of 26.56 with a well spotted finish and another anxious wait.
When the results went up both Ish & Zac had made their respective finals as 5th & 7th fastest and went away to prepare for their finals.
James gives his all in training and deserves everything he achieves at the longer distances. In his 400m Free he had a slightly slower reaction to the starting signal than is usual for him but paced his race exceptionally well. 5th at 50m in 28.45 he maintained that to the end of the first 100m in 1:00.61 as the leaders created a gap to him and the others. As he gradually built the middle part of his race he was in 3rd with 50m to go where, with a storming last length he hit the front in the last 5m to take his heat in a 3 second pb and new club record of 4:14.15 which is also quicker than his short course best as well as an Open Club Record, his second of the week. Unfortunately for him he placed 11th again, missing yet another final by just 2/10ths of a second but he, again, should be delighted with his level of performances in his GCSE year.
Onto the 50m Fly finals, Ish went first and, although recording 27.10, which would still have been a pb if not for his morning swim placed 9th and felt a slightly deep and too long underwater phase at the start had cost him breakout speed which is crucial in such a short distance event. He was nevertheless delighted to have made a final in his debut at Nationals and is determined to improve on this in 2019.
Zac by contrast shortened his own underwater at the start and used the increased speed at the surface to swiftly move down the pool, spot his finish perfectly and move up a place to 6th in yet another pb of 26.34 which is also an Open Club Record.
So, at the conclusion of the meet, the Club’s swimmers had achieved a total of 7 races (including the 2 finals) 3 Club records and 5 personal best swims, a 6th, a 9th, 2 x 11th and a 12th places at English Nationals, in total, the best ever consolidated set of results in the Club’s 5 years existence with promise of more to come next year.
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Theresa May fails the London Terror test
Russia bringing heavy Sarmat ICBM into service by 2021
When a British Prime Minister three days before a general election faces a call to resign, and the opposition leader who makes the call is not heaped with ridicule by the whole country and the media, then something for that Prime Minister has gone seriously wrong. That is the situation Theresa May faces today.
The proximate cause is the London terror attack, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn criticising Prime Minister for cutting police numbers whilst Home Secretary despite the rising threat from ISIS, and claiming that this has exposed Britain to terrorist attacks.
There is a basis of fact in this claim. Former Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Theresa May Home Secretary after he won the British general election in May 2010, and she remained Home Secretary until she succeeded David Cameron as Prime Minister in July 2016. Between September 2010 and September 2016 – ie. during the period when Theresa May was Home Secretary – total police numbers in Britain fell by 13%, with around a third of the decrease accounted for by police officers authorised to carry firearms.
Whether this reduction in police numbers has any bearing on the ISIS terror attacks in Manchester and London is another matter. Proving that those terror attacks would not have happened if police numbers had not been cut is impossible. In that light of that, to imply that Theresa May is somehow response for the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London because as Home Secretary she cut police numbers is more than a little farfetched.
However in elections perception is all. A strong and self-confident Prime Minister would have come out fighting, denying that there has been any slackening of vigilance in the face of the threat from ISIS, and saying that the fall in police numbers was the direct result of the financial retrenchment forced on the Conservative government by the financial mismanagement of the previous Labour government.
Theresa May is not that sort of Prime Minister, as her response to Jeremy Corbyn’s attack shows. Before discussing that, I would however say that it is quite incredible to me that on an issue relating to terrorism Jeremy Corbyn – someone who in the past has opposed terror laws and has spoken of the need to talk to groups like Hamas and the IRA – should have Theresa May on the run.
Part of the explanation is Theresa May’s failure to rise to the challenge of the London terror attack. Where someone like Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair knew how to find the right words in the face of this sort of crisis, saying things which simultaneously conveyed a sense of authority and of emotional warmth, Theresa May’s peevish “enough is enough” sounds too obviously like a soundbite, and like her previous “Brexit means Brexit” comes over as banal and empty.
That exposed Theresa May to Jeremy Corbyn’s attack on the question of police numbers. It was at this point however that things went most disastrously wrong.
Those who think me partial about this might care to consider the account of her response given by a journalist for the Daily Telegraph, Britain’s most staunchly Conservative newspaper
A strong leader, of course, has no fear of tackling tough questions head-on. Six times journalists asked her about the cuts made to police numbers while she was Home Secretary; each time, she skipped lightly away from the subject, saying that budgets had been “protected since 2015” (she started as Home Secretary in 2010).
Not only did she fail in her response to the questions about police numbers. She also failed dismally when questioned about US President Trump’s attacks on London mayor Sadiq Khan
Globalists never give up. Rory Stewart emerges as latest foil to Boris & Brexit (Video)
Four times journalists asked her whether she’d take Donald Trump to task for wildly misrepresenting Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack. The first three times, she said simply that Mr Khan was “doing a good job”, but didn’t criticise Trump. The fourth time, she still didn’t criticise Trump, but said it would be “wrong” to say Mr Khan was doing a bad job. That, it seemed, was as far as she dared to go.
On the subject of President Trump’s criticisms of Sadiq Khan, Theresa May had a clear choice: back Trump or Sadiq Khan. In the middle of a general election, with Sadiq Khan a popular mayor of London, a city where the opinion polls show the Conservatives struggling, and with the British electorate hostile to Donald Trump, that ought to have been a no-brainer.
After all it is not as if Trump himself held back whilst a candidate from making criticisms of others, and there would have been plenty of time to patch things up with Trump once the election was out of the way. Instead Theresa May once again dithered, and came out looking as if Trump has her in his pocket.
If contrary to most expectations Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party win the general election on Thursday it will not be because the British electorate were panicked by ISIS into voting for them.
It will because of something the London terror attack has once more exposed: Theresa May is simply not up to the job of being Prime Minister of Britain.
Britain Jeremy Corbyn Theresa May London terror attack
Turkey’s stance on Qatar
RussiaFeed, News, Politics
Trump fires back at “very stupid” UK Ambassador & “foolish” Theresa May (Video)
Pro-EU forces within UK civil service attack Jeremy Corbyn (Video)
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Top U.S. General makes three stunning admissions about the Middle East
Edward Snowden fires off two tweets criticizing Facebook and its spy program
The head of the U.S. military’s Central Command made some stunning admissions about the present geo-political situation in the Middle East, during a Congressional testimony, that will go largely unnoticed in much of the mainstream media.
Assad has won
Iran deal should stand
Saudi Arabia uses American weapons without accountability in Yemen
Via Haartz…
The top U.S. general in the Middle East testified before Congress on Tuesday and dropped several bombshells: from signaled support for the Iran nuclear deal, admitting the U.S. does not know what Saudi Arabia does with its bombs in Yemen and that Assad has won the Syrian Civil War.
U.S. Army General Joseph Votel said the Iran agreement, which President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from, has played an important role in addressing Iran’s nuclear program.
“The JCPOA addresses one of the principle threats that we deal with from Iran, so if the JCPOA goes away, then we will have to have another way to deal with their nuclear weapons program,” said U.S. Army General Joseph Votel. JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is the formal name of the accord reached with Iran in July 2015 in Vienna.
Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the accord between Tehran and six world powers unless Congress and European allies help “fix” it with a follow-up pact. Trump does not like the deal’s limited duration, among other things.
Votel is head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East and Central Asia, including Iran. He was speaking to a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the same day that Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after a series of public rifts over policy, including Iran.
Tillerson had joined Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in pressing a skeptical Trump to stick with the agreement with Iran.
“There would be some concern (in the region), I think, about how we intended to address that particular threat if it was not being addressed through the JCPOA. … Right now, I think it is in our interest” to stay in the deal, Votel said.
When a lawmaker asked whether he agreed with Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford’s position on the deal,Votel said: “Yes, I share their position.”
Mattis said late last year that the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it was proven Tehran was not complying or that the agreement was not in the U.S. national interest.
A collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would be a “great loss,” the United Nations atomic watchdog’s chief warned Trump recently, giving a wide-ranging defense of the accord.
Iran has stayed within the deal’s restrictions since Trump took office but has fired diplomatic warning shots at Washington in recent weeks. It said on Monday that it could rapidly enrich uranium to a higher degree of purity if the deal collapsed.
Votel also discussed the situation in Syria at the hearing.
During the Syrian army’s offensive in eastern Ghouta, more than 1,100 civilians have died. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russia and Iran, say they are targeting “terrorist” groups shelling the capital.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned on Monday that Washington “remains prepared to act if we must,” if the U.N. Security Council failed to act on Syria.
Votel said the best way to deter Russia, which backs Assad, was through political and diplomatic channels.
“Certainly if there are other things that are considered, you know, we will do what we are told. … (But) I don’t recommend that at this particular point,” Votel said, in an apparent to reference to military options.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was too strong to say that with Russia and Iran’s help, Assad had “won” the civil war in Syria.
Latest, News, Eurasia, America
Iran overplays its hand by 10-day nuke threat
“I do not think that is too strong of a statement,” Votel said.
Graham also asked if the United States’ policy on Syria was still to seek the removal of Assad from power.
“I don’t know that that’s our particular policy at this particular point. Our focus remains on the defeat of ISIS,” Votel said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
In a stunning exchange with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, Votel admitted that Centcom doesn’t know when U.S. fuel and munitions are used in Yemen.
“General Votel, does CENTCOM track the purpose of the missions it is refueling? In other words, where a U.S.-refueled aircraft is going, what targets it strikes, and the result of the mission?” Warren asked.
“Senator, we do not,” Votel replied.
The Senator followed up, citing reports that U.S. munitions have been used against civilians in Yemen, she asked, “General Votel, when you receive reports like this from credible media organizations or outside observers, is CENTCOM able to tell if U.S. fuel or U.S. munitions were used in that strike?”
“No, senator, I don’t believe we are,” he replied.
Showing surprise at the general’s response, Warren concluded, “We need to be clear about this: Saudi Arabia’s the one receiving American weapons and American support. And that means we bear some responsibility here. And that means we need to hold our partners and our allies accountable for how those resources are used,” she said.
Saudi Arabia Syria Iran Joseph Votel
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Iran v. Trump Enters the Next Stage
US Naval Coalition in Gulf – a Provocation Too Far
Oil tanker war between UK and Iran reaches dangerous level (Video)
US Power is Waning
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Then We Came to the End: A Novel
By Joshua Ferris
ToB Crowns a Champion
C. Max Magee
For those who missed it, Tom McCarthy’s Remainder faced Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in the final. The winner was crowned here. If you’ve got a little time to spare, I encourage you to read all of the judge’s decisions and the accompanying “booth” commentaries from Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner, as I found them to be quite entertaining. Incidentally, I would have liked to have seen Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End, Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke, and/or Roberto Bolano’s The Savage Detectives, if only to read more people’s thoughts on them, but it’s hard to complain about such a fun enterprise.Bonus Links:Andrew’s review of Remainder.Junot Diaz participates in our Year in Reading.Joshua Ferris participates in our Year in Reading.Garth’s review of Tree of SmokeGarth on Bolano
The Little Bookstore That Could
I’m pleased to report that Freebird Books & Goods, the terminal stop on our “Walking Tour of New York’s Independent Booksellers,” has reopened its doors. With its packed wooden shelves, comfortable chairs, creaky floors, selection of fine teas, and breathtaking view of Manhattan, Freebird has been my favorite used bookstore since I first moved in around the corner three years ago. I’m not alone in my enthusiasm; guest-blogging at The Elegant Variation earlier this year, Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End, wrote of “a palpable feeling that you’re in a place where books, no matter how old, are alive and well.”Premature nostalgia afflicted me and many of my neighbors when we heard that owners Rachel London and Samantha Citrin were moving on to other endeavors. But it turns out that Freebird is in good hands. New owner Peter Miller is a bibliophile and all-around nice guy. He’s dedicated to building on the traditions of the store, while introducing new amenities to draw in new customers.One such innovation is the Freebird blog, where Mr. Miller’s been posting images of (and commentary on) the wonderful oddities he’s come across in his journey through the stacks. Lively events and a renewed liquor license (coming soon, I’m told), should further burnish the store’s reputation. As Mr. Ferris put it, “It’s the kind of place that reminds you why you read.” So if you’re in New York this holiday season, hop the F train to Bergen and make your way down to the waterfront…and be reminded!
A Year in Reading: Joshua Ferris
Joshua Ferris’ debut novel, Then We Came to the End – one of The Millions’ Most Anticipated Books of 2007 – was a finalist for this year’s National Book Award. It’s due out in paperback this spring. Mr. Ferris’ shorter fiction has appeared in the Best New American Voices series and the New Stories from the South series, and in The Iowa Review and Prairie Schooner. He lives in Brooklyn.The Ambassadors by Henry James is every bit as melancholy and masterful as it is exasperating and windy. You need one determined machete to make it through and at times the style is so overwrought and unnecessarily filigreed that I nearly gave up. But James is fiction’s paradigm for the satisfaction of fighting the good fight, as by the end of The Ambassadors the entire world has been hauled into that thicket. I chose The Ambassadors as opposed to the other James I read this year because its subject is one of my favorites: life not lived to its fullest, squandered life, the search for how best to live. I also read Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays for the first time, a gift from my friend Ravi, for which I’ll always been thankful. And Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones, the collection that includes “An Orange Line Train to Ballston,” a story as deeply affecting as any I’ve encountered.More from A Year in Reading 2007
Notable Articles, Year in Reading
A Year in Reading 2007
C. Max Magee | 6
This time of year there is a media stampede for lists. They are seemingly suddenly everywhere, sprouting like an odd breed of December weed. In a competition to write the first draft of our cultural history, all of our “bests” are assigned, duly praised once more, and then archived as the slate is cleared for another year. That fresh feeling you get on January 1, that is the false notion that you no longer have to think about all those things that happened a year ago, that you can start building your new lists for the new year.But books, unlike most forms of media, are consumed in a different way. The tyranny of the new does not hold as much sway with these oldest of old media. New books are not forced upon us quite so strenuously as are new music and new movies. The reading choices available to us are almost too broad to fathom. And so we pick here and there from the shelves, reading a book from centuries ago and then one that came out ten years ago. The “10 Best Books of 2007” seems so small next to that.But with so many millions of books to choose from, where can we go to find what to read?If somebody hasn’t already coined this phrase, I’ll go ahead and take credit for it: A lucky reader is one surrounded by many other readers. And what better way to end a long year than to sit (virtually) with a few dozen trusted fellow readers to hear about the very best book (or books) they read all year, regardless of publication date.And so we at The Millions are very pleased to bring you our 2007 Year in Reading, in which we offer just that. For the month of December, enjoy hearing about what a number of notable readers read (and loved) this year. We hope you’ve all had a great Year in Reading and that 2008 will offer more of the same.The 2007 Year in Reading contributors are listed below. As we post their contributions, their names will turn into links, so you can bookmark this page to follow the series from here, or you can just load up the main page for more new Year in Reading posts appearing at the top every day. Stay tuned because additional names may be added to the list below.Languagehat of LanguagehatSarah Weinman of Confessions of an Idiosyncratic MindJoshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the EndBen Ehrenreich, author of The SuitorsLydia Millet, author of Oh Pure and Radiant HeartArthur Phillips, author of Prague and The EgyptologistPorochista Khakpour author of Sons and Other Flammable ObjectsHamilton Leithauser, lead singer of The WalkmenMatthew Sharpe, author of JamestownAmanda Eyre Ward, author of Forgive Me and How to be LostLauren Groff, author of The Monsters of TempletonJoshua Henkin, author of MatrimonyBuzz Poole, managing editor at Mark Batty PublisherBen Dolnick, author of ZoologyElizabeth Crane, author of When the Messenger Is Hot and All This Heavenly GloryMeghan O’Rourke, author of Halflife, literary editor SlateAndrew Saikali of The MillionsEdan Lepucki of The MillionsDavid Gutowski of largehearted boyMark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation, author of Harry, RevisedCarolyn Kellogg of Pinky’s PaperhausPeter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh GirlZachary Lazar, author of SwayMatt Ruff, author of Bad MonkeysAlex Rose, author of The Musical IllusionistJames Hynes, author of The Lecturer’s Tale and Kings of Infinite SpaceMartha Southgate, author of Third Girl From The LeftJunot Díaz, author of The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoRudolph Delson, author of Maynard and JennicaRosecrans Baldwin, founding editor of The Morning NewsBonny Wolf author of Talking With My Mouth Full and NPR correspondentBret Anthony Johnston, author of Corpus ChristiJoshilyn Jackson, author of Gods in Alabama and Between, GeorgiaElif Batuman, n+1 and New Yorker contributorRichard Lange, author of Dead BoysSara Ivry, editor at NextbookScott Esposito of Conversational ReadingEd Champion of Return of the ReluctantDavid Leavitt, author of The Indian ClerkRoy Kesey, author of All OverLiz Moore, author of The Words of Every SongYannick Murphy, author of Signed, Mata Hari and Here They ComeSam Sacks, editor at Open LettersTed Heller, author of Slab RatBookdwarf of BookdwarfJess Row, author of The Train to Lo WuMarshall N. Klimasewiski, author of The Cottagers and TyrantsBrian Morton author of Breakable YouEli Gottlieb, author of Now You See HimDan Kois, editor of Vulture, New York magazine’s arts and culture blog.Robert Englund, actorGarth Risk Hallberg, A Field Guide to the North American Family: An Illustrated Novella, contributor to The Millions
The Notables
This year’s New York Times Notable Books of the Year is out. At 100 titles, the list is more of a catalog of the noteworthy than a distinction. Looking at the fiction, it appears that some of these books crossed our radar as well:The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perotta: A most anticipated book.After Dark by Haruki Murakami: Ben’s review.Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo: A most anticipated book.The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: A most anticipated book.Exit Ghost by Philip Roth: A most anticipated book.Falling Man by Don Delillo: Tempering Expectations for the Great 9/11 NovelThe Gathering by Anne Enright: Underdog Enright Lands the 2007 BookerHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling: Harry Potter is Dead, Long Live Harry Potter; Top Potter Town Gets Prize, Boy-Wizard Bragging Rights; Professor Trelawney Examines Her Tea Leaves; A Potter Post Mortem; A History of MagicHouse of Meetings by Martin Amis: A most anticipated book.In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar: The Booker shortlistKnots by Nuruddin Farah: A most anticipated book.Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard: National Book Award FinalistOn Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan: Booker shortlistThe Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid: Booker shortlistRemainder by Tom McCarthy: Andrew’s reviewSavage Detectives by Roberto Bolano: A most anticipated book; Why Bolano MattersThen We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris: A most anticipated bookTree of Smoke by Denis Johnson: Garth’s reviewTwenty Grand by Rebecca Curtis: Emily’s reviewVarieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis: National Book Award FinalistWhat is the What by Dave Eggers: Garth’s review.The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon: Max’s review; Garth’s review.
2007 National Book Award Finalists Announced
This year’s National Book Award finalists have been announced. In the fiction category, the big name is Denis Johnson, who immediately becomes the presumptive favorite for his novel Tree of Smoke. Joshua Ferris, meanwhile, makes a splash with his debut effort Then We Came to the End. And in the nonfiction category, let’s not ignore “The Hitch.” Not making the cut are notable novelists like Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, Jane Smiley, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Don Delillo, Junot Diaz, and Richard Russo. Here’s a list of the finalists in all four categories with bonus links and excerpts where available:Fiction:Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (excerpts)Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis (briefly noted)Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (excerpt, a favorite of TEV’s, a “most anticipated” book)Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (excerpt, a “most anticipated” book)Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard (excerpt, Apparently, Shepard’s publisher forgot to submit his books for NBA consideration in 2004)Nonfiction:Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat (excerpt)God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens (excerpt, Atheism Hits the Bestseller ListUnruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton (excerpt)Ralph Ellison: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad (excerpt)Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner (excerpt)Poetry:Magnetic North by Linda Gregerson (excerpt)Time and Materials by Robert Hass (poem)The House on Boulevard St. by David Kirby (excerpt, Kirby’s colorful website)Old Heart by Stanley Plumly (excerpt)Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006 by Ellen Bryant Voigt (poem)Young People’s Literature:The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (excerpt)Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic, Book One by Kathleen Duey (excerpt)Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin (excerpt)The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (excerpt)Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr (author blog)
Monday Links
A new issue of The Quarterly Conversation has arrived, featuring an essay on Wizard of the Crow by QC creator Scott and a review of William T. Vollmann’s Poor People from Dave Munger. Lots of other good reviews in there too.Also via Scott, Political Theory Daily Review, a dense and daily collection of linksIn a Newsweek sidebar accompanying an excerpt of his book The American Religion, Harold Bloom names his “five most important books.” The most recent one to appear on the list? A tie, more or less, between Don Quixote and the complete works of Shakespeare. Bloom was also asked to admit to an important book he hadn’t read. His answer: “I cannot think of a major work I have not ingested.” That’s a lot of pages to store in one’s belly. (via Stephen)Good week for Mark Sarvas, first he announces that he’s sold his novel and now he’s off on his honeymoon. Filling in at TEV is Joshua Ferris, author of the much praised Then We Came to the End.And finally, a Baltimore Sun review had me intrigued by a new squirm-inducing non-fiction book by a former crime scene investigator for the Baltimore County police. Dana Kollmann’s book Never Suck a Dead Man’s Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI gives a real-life look at a profession recently glamorized by TV show “CSI” and its many offshoots. Krall, however, describes a job both more boring and more odious than the one described on TV, but she does so with “dark humor,” which I’d imagine the job requires. The book’s title, for example, “comes from a story that involves a dead man, his hand and her attempts to get fingerprints on a freezing cold day.” Yikes.
Lists, Notable Articles
The Most Anticipated Books of 2007
C. Max Magee | 18
As I did in 2005 and 2006, I’ve decided to open this year looking ahead to some of the exciting or intriguing titles that we’ll be talking about over the next few months.Possibly the biggest literary arrival of this young year will be that of Norman Mailer’s The Castle in the Forest later this month. Unfortunately for some fans, the book is not the long hoped for sequel to Harlot’s Ghost, a book that Mailer abandoned for this one, according to an interview. With this effort Mailer treads into charged territory, chronicling the early life of Adolf Hitler from the point of view of the devil or something like it. The curious can read an excerpt of the book that appeared in the January issue of Esquire.Also coming right around the corner is House of Meetings by Martin Amis. The book came out in the UK in September where John Banville in The Independent named it a “Book of the Year.” The reviews have been generally good. The Observer called it a “compact tour de force.” The Guardian was slightly more skeptical saying that the book is “an attempt to compress the past 60 years of Russian history into 200 pages, delivered as the monologue of someone whose name we’re never told; an ambitious plan, held together by the sound of a voice.”Also this month, Paul Auster’s latest book Travels in the Scriptorium comes out. It sounds like another inscrutable, postmodern tale from Auster, this time starring a protagonist named Mr. Blank. In this case, Auster’s inward looking tendencies are amplified as the book references many of his previous works. At both Condalmo and Strange Horizons, this particular Auster experiment has been deemed less successful.Louis Begley, author of About Schmidt, has Matters of Honor coming out this month. It starts with three unlikely roommates at Harvard in the 1950s and goes on to trace how the diverging outcomes of their lives came to be. If that sounds like a tired old tale, PW makes the same observation but then brushes it aside: “It’s a story covered by everyone from Cheever to Roth, but Begley finds new and wonderful nuances within it.”Colum McCann’s fourth novel Zoli will hit shelves soon. The book is named for a Roma (or Gypsy) woman in Slovakia who we follow from her harrowing childhood during World War II to her becoming something of local literary celebrity. Through it all, however, she is unable to escape what her heritage signifies in her Communist bloc country. The book has been out for several months in Ireland and the UK where The Guardian hailed McCann’s “near pitch-perfect control of character and narrative.” For those who want a taste, a pdf excerpt from the book is available.Another big name with a new book out this year is Jane Smiley, whose Ten Days in the Hills arrives in February. Hills is being billed as Smiley’s “LA Novel” (note that Jonathan Lethem’s “LA Novel” arrives in March). PW sums it all up rather well: “Smiley delivers a delightful, subtly observant sendup of Tinseltown folly, yet she treats her characters, their concern with compelling surfaces and their perpetual quest to capture reality through artifice, with warmth and seriousness. In their shallowness, she finds a kind of profundity.” On the other hand, I’m not convinced that the world needs another literary look at the Hollywood-caricature side of LA.February will also see the arrival of Daniel Alarcon’s Lost City Radio. This is Alarcon’s first novel, following his collection of stories, War by Candlelight, which was a finalist for the 2006 PEN Hemingway Award. Alarcon likely came to many readers’ attention in 2003, when his story “City of Clowns” was featured in the New Yorker debut fiction issue. This new book scored a blurb from Edward P. Jones – “Mr. Alarcon, like the best storytellers, reveals to us that the world we have secreted in our hearts spins in a bigger universe with other hearts just as good and just as bad as our own.” – always a good sign.Also in February, a new book will arrive from Nuruddin Farah, quite likely the best known Somali novelist and the winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1998. Knots is about Cambara, a Somalian woman who has emigrated to Canada, where a crisis sends her on a journey back to Somalia. Farah is known for his strong female protagonists and this book appears to be no exception. Knots gets a glowing review from PW – “Despite its heavy subject, joy suffuses the novel” – and Farah will likely continue to be discussed as a potential Nobel winner.It would be strange to read a book by Jonathan Lethem that wasn’t deeply rooted in his hometown of Brooklyn, but readers will get that chance in March when You Don’t Love Me Yet arrives. The book is set in Los Angeles, but, while Fortress of Solitude had some amusing LA moments set in the office of a Hollywood agent, this new book concerns itself with the city’s grungier east side neighborhoods, home to a star-crossed indie rock band whose members are classic LA misfits. Early accounts at PW and this bookseller’s blog have found the book to be funny and entertaining but not up to par with the author’s earlier efforts.If you’ll indulge me in allowing a little non-fiction to sneak into this post, please note that William T. Vollmann has a new book coming out in March called Poor People, a rather slim tome, weighing in it at just 464 pages. This is the book that Vollmann mentioned when Ed and Scott saw him read back in spring 2005. From Scott’s post: “Vollman is currently working on a book about the experiences of poor people in different countries. He says he asks everyone why they think they are poor, and the answers greatly vary. He says most of the Thais told him it’s because they were bad in a previous life. Most of the Mexicans he spoke to told him it was because the rich stole from them.”A book by Columbian writer Laura Restrepo will hit American shores in March. Delirium was originally written in 2004 and follows the life of a struggling literature professor who must investigate what has caused his wife to go insane. The book bears an impressive array of blurbs befitting a writer of Restrepo’s stature (if not here, then overseas), including raves from Jose Saramago, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Harold Bloom, and Vikram Seth.We’ll also see a new novel from Kurt Andersen co-founder of the influential magazine Spy and host of the public radio show Studio 360. Heyday is set in the mid-19th century and it follows an immigrant, recently arrived on bustling American shores, who falls in with a group heading west, lured by the California Gold Rush. Random House calls the book “an enthralling, old-fashioned yarn interwoven with a bracingly modern novel of ideas.” A short story about two of the book’s main characters appeared in Metropolis in 2003.Debut novelist Joshua Ferris already has a backer in Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation, who says Then We Came To The End is “a humane and affecting book.” Mark also included the novel in his contribution to the Year in Reading series where he said that this “hilarious and gorgeously written novel might just change [his] mind about MFAs.” Of course, Mark is fully aware that we all might not share his particular tastes, so he convinced publisher Little, Brown to let him publish the book’s first chapter at TEV, where you can now check it out for yourself.Orange Prize winner Lionel Shriver also has a new book coming in March, The Post-Birthday World. PW describes as “impressive if exhausting” this novel that explores what might have been if its children’s book illustrator protagonist had given into temptation and pursued an affair. Following the success of Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and the subsequent re-release of her back catalog, The Post-Birthday World marks her first new effort since hitting the literary big time.The Savage Detectives, originally published in 1998 by the late Roberto Bolano, will arrive in April. The book has already appeared in other languages, which is how Francois of Tabula Rasa came to read it. he shared his reactions with us as a part of the Year in Reading series: “Pure bliss! In turn coming-of-age story, roman noir, literary quest, this is a real tour de force, reminiscent of Julio Cortazar and Jack Kerouac while remaining deeply original. Bolano passed away in 2003. He was fifty years old, and I just can’t help thinking about what else might have been coming from him.” New Directions, meanwhile, will publish a translation of Bolano’s novella Amulet in January.There’s not much available yet on Dani Shapiro’s new book arriving in April. Buzz Girl notes that Black and White is “about mothers and daughters set in New York and Maine.” The book follows Shapiro’s well received 2003 book Family History.The biggest literary month of 2007 might be May which will start with the much anticipated, much delayed publication of Michael Chabon’s new novel, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Chabon’s first full-length adult novel since The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a thriller set in an imaginary world inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s short-lived plan during WWII to create a Jewish homeland in Alaska, rather than the Middle East. Sounds interesting, no? We’ve been following this book for quite some time now, as it was originally set to be released nearly a year ago. But Chabon put the brakes on the project when he decided it was moving along too fast.Yet another big name author with a new book out this year is Haruki Murakami, whose book After Dark hits shelves in May. The book was originally published in Japan in 2004, and has already been translated into some other languages, including Dutch. In keeping with the title, the novel tracks a number of nocturnal characters who dwell in Tokyo and have the sorts of encounters that tend to occur in the wee hours of the morning. Murakami’s typical melding of dream and reality will be familiar to readers of this new novel as well. Still, I join Scott Esposito in hoping that Murakami breaks new ground with this new book.Also in May: the arrival of Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. Not much available on this one yet, save a stray synopsis or two. The novel begins with a family on a farm in northern California in the 1970s and moves to the casinos of Nevada, at which point a “traumatic event” breaks the family apart. The pieces are put back together in the novel’s second part, which takes place “in the stark landscape of south-central France.” Like I said, not much to go on just yet.Susanna Moore, best known for her novel In the Cut, has a new book coming out in May. The Big Girls is based on Moore’s experience teaching writing in a federal prison in New York, and one early look at the novel found it to be, as one might expect, fairly disturbing. It’ll be interesting to see other opinions of what sounds like a very emotionally charged book.The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins will arrive in June. Wiggins’ last book, Evidence of Things Unseen, was a National Book Award finalist in 2003. This new book is a historical novel about the Old West photographer Edward Curtis.I’ll close the list with two additional non-fiction books that I’m particularly looking forward to. Pete Dexter has a collection of his old newspaper columns coming out called Paper Trails: True Stories of Confusion, Mindless Violence, and Forbidden Desires, a Surprising Number of Which Are Not About Marriage. A number of the columns are from his time in Philadelphia, which should be of particular interest for me, since the city is now my home. In addition, I’ve always felt that the old school newspaperman’s sensibility that Dexter brings to his fiction is one of his most appealing qualities as a writer, so I’m looking forward to getting the opportunity to delve into the pure stuff, as it were. Another journalist whose new collection is, for me, hotly anticipated is Ryszard Kapuscinski. Kapuscinski is a Polish writer who, to me, is unsurpassed in his chronicling of the so-called Third World and its forgotten wars and struggles. I don’t yet know what his latest, Travels with Herodotus, will cover, but I know I’ll be reading it.While long, this list is by no means exhaustive, so please use the comments to share what you’re looking forward to reading in 2007.
A Year in Reading: The Elegant Variation
Mark Sarvas | 8
Mark Sarvas, proprietor of The Elegant Variation, takes some time to share the books he read in 2006 that he found, shall we say, most to his liking. First off, the more I think about it, the less I care for the whole “Best of” formulation. It offends me on a number of levels, not the least of which is by the assumption that one has read enough of what’s on offer in a year to be able to decide what’s “Best”. (And this is no knock on this inestimable blog; rather, it’s a systemic crankiness that’s afflicting me this year.) So I’m going to come instead from the perspective of “My Favorites of the Year,” which seems more inherently more defensible. (And, in an open note to newspaper editors everywhere, why not opt for the more modest construction “Editor’s Choice” or “Editor’s Favorite”? It seems preferable to the untenably pompous “Best of” declarations that have becomede rigeur.)OK. End of my mini-rant. A list, in alphabetical order, of books thatstruck me as being of particular note in 2006:Amphigorey Again by Edward Gorey: What will probably be the last collection from a master.Black Swan Green: David Mitchell proves he can do “human” as well as “clever” with a breakthrough novel.Christine Falls: It will only be available in the US next year, but John Banville’s first thriller as Benjamin Black is drawing deserved praise forits UK release.Dead Fish Museum by Charles D’Ambrosio: The best short story collection we’ve read in years. Breathtaking.The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas: Flawed but exuberant, it’s a Foucault’s Pendulum for the iPod generation.Everything that Rises: Lawrence Weschler’s brilliant John Berger-esque collection of essays on unlikely visual convergences.Fun Home by Alison Bechdel: The graphic novel that finally won me over to the form.The Lost: Daniel Mendelsohn’s brilliantly written memoir answers those who ask if there’s anything left to write about the Holocaust.The Mystery Guest by Gregoire Bouillier, translated by Lorin Stein: A delicious Gallic treat, depicting the party from hell and explaining what every man should know about turtleneck sweaters.Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris: OK, this one is a cheat – it’s not out until March of next year but this hilarious and gorgeously written novel might just change my mind about MFAs.Ticknor by Sheila Heti: If there’s a favorite of the year, this bitter comedy of envy and failure would be the one.Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon: It’s not from this year but I only just caught up with it and can see what the fuss was about.Thanks Mark!
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Tag Archives: Tweeple Film Awards
Pic source: UTV Spotboy
Power… this one thing that is more abused in our country than it is used for what it’s meant for. From politicians to traffic cops to telephone linemen to the relatives of a bureaucrat; everybody is somebody in our country. The film, No One Killed Jessica opens with the same thought, albeit about the city of Delhi. Delhi, where no one killed Jessica Lall and no one killed Aarushi Talwar. Is it the city or is it the people or is it the system? Director, Raj Kumar Gupta’s second film after the very well made Aamir (2008) tries to ask the same question. No One Killed Jessica is a great attempt at making a hard hitting and brave film based on a real life incident that shook the nation’s conscience. I say a great attempt as the film makes a point but beyond the emotion, it falls short of achieving cinematic excellence.
The film opens with a spectacular credits sequence with the sensational ‘Dilli Dilli…’ track that sets the tone of the film. In fact, the music by Amit Trivedi with Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics is the film’s one of the biggest strengths. Talking about strengths, the film’s leading ladies, Vidya Balan and Rani Mukerji shine as Sabrina Lall and Meera Gaity, a journalist with striking similarities to NDTV’s Barkha Dutt, respectively. The first half of the film belongs to Vidya who sensitively portrays a girl in her twenties who is vulnerable and at the same time determined to get justice for her sister’s murder. Rani makes a powerful comeback with a fiery character and once again shows what a powerhouse of talent she is. I only wish that she was made to scream a little less. Rajesh Sharma as the chief investigative officer on the Jessica Lall murder case also deserves a special mention; he is believable as a frustrated cop.
With a powerful subject, good performances and a superb soundtrack, No One Killed Jessica could have been an outstanding film. However, the film is not consistent and has its fabulous and dull moments. The film really moves you but also drags in parts; some of the court sequences actually make you cringe due to the way they are shot with extreme close-ups. The film could have been fifteen minutes shorter for a much more impactful narrative (screenplay – Raj Kumar Gupta; editing – Aarti Bajaj). Having said that, hats off to the director and the producers, UTV Spotboy for making a relevant film like this. It is the right time for Hindi cinema to experiment and present real or realistic stories on screen; no matter if it doesn’t have a hero, people will come to watch as I saw today in a packed theatre. I recommend watching No One Killed Jessica once for the subject matter and the great performances by the cast.
My rating: * * * Three stars on five
A note for fellow film lovers: If you are tired of film awards that are not merit based, it is time to take the decision in your hands. Presenting the Tweeple Film Awards! Truly democratic awards that are ‘Of the People’, ‘By the People’ and ‘For the People’, to honour the most deserving in Hindi Cinema 2010. It’s a movement started by film buffs on Twitter to counter the nonsense that ‘Bollywood’ film awards are.
Follow Tweeple Film Awards on Twitter: www.twitter.com/twi_fi_awards and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/twifiawards. You can also email on twifiawards@gmail.com
By Shrey Khetarpal Posted in Hindi Movie Reviews Tagged Amit Trivedi, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Barkha Dutt, Delhi, Dilli, Drama, Jessica Lall, Justice, Media, Myra Karn, NDTV, Political Thriller, Raj Kumar Gupta, Rajesh Sharma, Rani Mukerji, Rani Mukherjee, realistic cinema, Tweeple Film Awards, twifi, UTV Spotboy, Vidya Balan
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Home→News→Geminids 2017: how to watch one of the best meteor showers of the year
Geminids 2017: how to watch one of the best meteor showers of the year
We on Earth get to take in the wonder of a meteor shower typically when our planet passes through the trail of a comet. The bits of rock and debris burn up when they hit Earth’s dense atmosphere, and streak across the sky.
But the Geminid meteor show — which will reach its peak Wednesday night and early Thursday morning — is not typical.
If you go outside Wednesday night and watch, you’ll be seeing bits of debris from an asteroid named 3200 Phaethon burn up in the night sky.
The asteroid is small — just 3 miles wide — and rocky. It also behaves much more like a comet than an asteroid.
While asteroid orbits tend to be more round, 3200 Phaethon has a highly elliptical orbit like a comet. But more importantly for the meteor shower, 3200 Phaethon is a rare asteroid that forms a tail.
This is likely due to its orbit, which brings it very close to the sun (in Greek mythology, Phaethon is the son of Helios, the sun god). The heat of the sun fractures the rock and creates the trail of debris that the Earth is about to barrel through. For this reason, 3200 Phaethon is sometimes referred to as a “rock comet.”
What’s more, those asteroid bits are denser than typical meteor kindling, which means they move more slowly across the sky as they burn. They also tend to be a bit brighter than the typical meteor. “The brightest often break up into numerous luminous fragments that follow similar paths across the sky,” the Royal Observatory Greenwich explains in its guide to the night sky.
All of this makes the Geminids “the best and most reliable of the annual meteor showers,” usually producing around 120 meteors an hour at peak, NASA notes.
And Wednesday night should be especially good for viewing: The moon will be a thin, waning crescent that won’t rise until 3:30 am and will only give off off dim light that shouldn’t obscure the meteors.
The constellation Gemini — out of which the Geminids appear to radiate — will rise in the Northeast in the early evening, and then by midnight, will be nearly directly overhead in the Southwestern sky, before setting in the West around daybreak. When Gemini is nearly overhead all you have to do to spot these meteors is look up (a star-spotting app like SkyGuide is helpful for knowing exactly where to look and when where you live). You should be able to see some meteors in the early evening hours after dark, but the most meteors will be visible from midnight to 4 am, NASA explains.
“The Geminids will be the best shower this year,” Bill Cooke, a NASA meteor scientist, said in a press release.
It should be a great show. Don’t miss it!
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Amy Zuckerman, accused of threatening to shoot a reporter, arrested again
Norman Miller Daily News Staff @Norman_MillerMW
Jan 4, 2019 at 6:39 PM Jan 4, 2019 at 6:39 PM
WRENTHAM – The woman accused of telling a GateHouse Media reporter last year that she was going to shoot him is once again accused of violating the conditions of her release.
Westfield Police arrested Amy Zuckerman, 64, on Thursday after a Wrentham District Court judge issued a warrant at the request of the district attorney’s office and the Wrentham court probation department.
Authorities say Zuckerman, or someone on her behalf, sent a letter to someone who works at GateHouse Media, which owns several papers in the state. The letter violated Zuckerman’s terms of pretrial release because a judge ordered Zuckerman, or someone on her behalf, to contact any media organization.
Zuckerman appeared in Westfield District Court on Friday. She was released without bail and ordered to go to Wrentham District Court on Monday for a hearing.
Zuckerman is charged with threatening to commit a crime for an incident that occurred in July.
Authorities say Zuckerman emailed a threat to a reporter who worked at the office of the Walpole Times. The email included two threats of shooting the reporter through a large window that faces the street.
Reporters and editors worked on seven weekly papers in the Walpole office. The papers, along with the Daily News, are all owned by GateHouse Media Inc. The office has since closed, and the reporter who was allegedly threatened has left the company.
Authorities say Zuckerman sent the email after the reporter asked to be removed from an email list on which Zuckerman had included him, but which had nothing to do with his area of coverage.
Zuckerman was initially ordered held without bail after a Wrentham District Court judge ruled she was a danger to the public after a hearing. A Norfolk Superior Court judge later ruled that Zuckerman could be released on several conditions, including wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet, not to contact any media agencies and to not use the internet.
This is at least the third time Zuckerman has been accused of violating the terms of her release. On Aug. 7, the day after she was released, she allegedly had someone contact a media agency on her behalf. She was arrested, but later released.
On Dec. 18, Zuckerman turned herself in to Belchertown District Court after she found out that Wrentham District Court had issued a warrant for her arrest. She is alleged to have used the internet.
David Traub, a spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney’s office, would not specify what the violation was for.
However, a friend of Zuckerman said he is responsible for the violation. In an email to the Daily News, Kevin Collins of Amherst said he sent a copy of Zuckerman’s book, “2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow’s Kids,” directly from Amazon.com to the Norfolk district attorney’s office and Zuckerman had no knowledge of the book being sent.
“Amy is a good person who has devoted her entire career to helping others with journalism and I wanted them to see that Amy is not a bad person,” Collins wrote in one of several emails sent to the Daily News.
Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date crime news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MilleMW or on Facebook at facebok.com/NormanMillerCrime.
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The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World
M. R. O'Connor
At once far flung and intimate, a fascinating look at how finding our way make us human.
"A marvel of storytelling." —Kirkus (Starred Review)
In this compelling narrative, O'Connor seeks out neuroscientists, anthropologists and master navigators to understand how navigation ultimately gave us our humanity. Biologists have been trying to solve the mystery of how organisms have the ability to migrate and orient with such precision—especially since our own adventurous ancestors spread across the world without maps or instruments. O'Connor goes to the Arctic, the Australian bush and the South Pacific to talk to masters of their environment who seek to preserve their traditions at a time when anyone can use a GPS to navigate.
O’Connor explores the neurological basis of spatial orientation within the hippocampus. Without it, people inhabit a dream state, becoming amnesiacs incapable of finding their way, recalling the past, or imagining the future. Studies have shown that the more we exercise our cognitive mapping skills, the greater the grey matter and health of our hippocampus. O'Connor talks to scientists studying how atrophy in the hippocampus is associated with afflictions such as impaired memory, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, depression and PTSD.
Wayfinding is a captivating book that charts how our species' profound capacity for exploration, memory and storytelling results in topophilia, the love of place.
"O'Connor talked to just the right people in just the right places, … More…
"O'Connor talked to just the right people in just the right places, and her narrative is a marvel of storytelling on its own merits, erudite but lightly worn. There are many reasons why people should make efforts to improve their geographical literacy, and O'Connor hits on many in this excellent book—devouring it makes for a good start." —Kirkus Reviews
THE LAST ROADLESS PLACE
It took five years of planning and fifty-six days of sailing for British privateer Martin Frobisher to “discover” Baffin Island in the Arctic in 1576. Propelled by jet fuel in a Boeing 737, it took me...
Praise for Wayfinding
"Sounds a clarion call for us to put down the smartphone, step outside, and experience our surroundings in the way ancient humans did – before we lose the ability altogether." —Sydney Morning Herald
"O’Connor’s coverage of the cognitive map theory—one of the most eminent theories in the field—is deep and broad. General audiences and experts in navigation and cognition will likely learn something new here." —Science Magazine
"O'Connor looks at not only how mastering navigation is integral to the human race, but also how cognitive mapping skills are actually good for our health. To do this, she travels the Arctic, the Australian bush and the South Pacific — no GPS required." —Bustle, "9 Travel Books That Will Seriously Spark Your Summer Wanderlust"
"[A] rich exploration...For readers curious about nature, science, the human brain, and how we navigate the world." —Library Journal
"O'Connor talked to just the right people in just the right places, and her narrative is a marvel of storytelling on its own merits, erudite but lightly worn. There are many reasons why people should make efforts to improve their geographical literacy, and O'Connor hits on many in this excellent book—devouring it makes for a good start." —Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"Rich and multifaceted...O’Connor brings her subjects to life in a delightful manner." —Publishers Weekly
"In this lyrical look at both our small, shining planet and the unexpected science of how we navigate… More…
"In this lyrical look at both our small, shining planet and the unexpected science of how we navigate it, M.R. O'Connor reminds us that exploration is journey and understanding, that we sometimes best see the world and ourselves while standing on a path less taken." —Deborah Blum, author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
"This revelatory book has the qualities of a grand adventure. M. R. O’Connor leads readers out into the world to discover something deep within themselves. Treat yourself to Wayfinding.” —Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows and The Glass Cage
“An insightful examination of the human mind and navigation. O’Connor weaves together different disciplines of science in an accessible way which makes for an engaging read from start to finish.” —Mary A. van Balgooy, executive director, Society of Woman Geographers
"I thoroughly enjoyed this deep and absorbing investigation. Fascinating." —Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator
M.R. O'CONNOR’s reporting has appeared in Foreign Policy, Slate, The Atlantic, Nautilus and The New Yorker. Her work has received support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 2016 she was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. She is the author of Resurrection Science. A graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, she lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
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– Christian schools for troubled youth and therapeutic boarding schools for teens.
Darrow School
Home » New York » Darrow School
New Lebanon, NY
Rural area
$54,700 / $31,200 (day)
Darrow School (New York)
Darrow School is a private coed school in New Lebanon, New York. New Lebanon is a rural area in Columbia County, where you will find 3 other private schools. Unlike most schools, however, Darrow School offers students room and board. In terms of religious orientation, Darrow School is a nonsectarian school.
The academic school years lasts 214 calendar days and each day students spend 7 hours in class. In 2011, 95% of the graduating senior class went on to 4-year colleges.
31.0 full-time equivalent teachers are on staff to educate the student body of 114 students in grades 9-12. That’s a student-teacher ratio of 3.68. We look more closely at students and teachers in several charts below.
110 Darrow Rd, New Lebanon, New York 12125
http://www.darrowschool.org/
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Should you need help finding low cost boarding schools, military schools, boarding schools or reform schools, please let us know. Directory of boarding schools in America, including: finishing schools, military schools, prep schools, preparatory schools, boys ranches, private secondary schools, private high schools, all-girls boarding schools or all-boys boarding schools, military academies, arts schools, specialty schools, alternative schools, therapeutic boarding schools, emotional growth schools, wilderness therapy schools, residential treatment centers, and Christian boarding schools. A boarding school is a school at which most or all of the students live during the part of the year.
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The Rip Chords
Home/ The Rip Chords
Sep 28, 2018 webteamArtists1960s, pop, R, rock
The Rip Chords are a California Group.Their songs tell stories of hot rods, the surf and boys and girls in love. When you think of California in the 60’s, you think of The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and The Rip Chords. No wonder. In 1964 “Cashbox” reported that“Hey Little Cobra” was #2 with a bullet (#1 was “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and #3 was “She Loves You”, but The Rip Chords forgive The Beatles. In fact, they perform a few of their songs in concert!)
The Rip Chords twice toured with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars, appeared in “16 Magazine”, “Tiger Beat”, and more teen magazines of the 60’s. They made a beach movie that starred Rachel Welch and co-starred Gary Lewis and the Playboys and The Righteous Brothers.
Fashion designers of this century have once again discovered “California Chic”. From New York to Los Angeles to London and to Paris, fashionable people are once again wearing Hawaiian shirts and puka shells. Well, The Rip Chords never stopped! The band takes the stage in surf board and hot rod decorated shirts, white jeans and sneakers. And then they rock. And they rock. And they rock… until they tear the house down!
The boys open their show with a couple of tunes by their colleagues The Beach Boys, then rip into a couple of their own hit recordings. Then they present hauntingly accurate versions of hit songs by some of their 60’s contemporaries. And then more hot rod hits. Some show. You just don’t hear live five-part harmony like this much anymore. And the band rocks hard. Makes you sweat. Audiences seem to have to stand up and dance.
Original Rip Chord Richie Rotkin is proud of his band. So proud, in fact, that he can’t stand still. He’s in the audience, on the speaker monitors, rocking with the bass player, boogying with the drummer. Thirty-six years later and the man is still a rock and roll animal. Pride does that to a man.
Experience The Rip Chords live in concert, and you’ll see why. They rock!
BOOK THE RIP CHORDS
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May 21, 2013 2:14PM PT
Dennis Lehane to Write ‘Travis McGee’ for Fox
Peter Chernin is on board to produce
CREDIT: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Fox has tapped “Shutter Island” author Dennis Lehane to pen the script for World War II drama “Travis McGee.”
Peter Chernin and Amy Robinson will produce. THR broke the news.
Leonardo DiCaprio was once attached and his involvement is still being worked out. Mark Boal and David James Kelly are some of the other writers to work on the script in recent years.
Based on the book “Deep Blue Good-by,” the novel was part of 21 book series focusing on Travis Magee who is the central character in a series of mysteries by John D. McDonald. They are classic sleuth novels, set it Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Though this is Lehane’s second time writing a script it is the first time he has penned one that isn’t based off his own material. He previously wrote the Fox Searchlight pic “Animal Rescue” which is based on a short story he wrote.
Lehane is repped Amy Schiffman at IPG.
Book-to-movie
Dicaprio
IPG Media
Leondardo DiCaprio
Travis McGee
Berlin-based international sales agent Films Boutique has picked up psychological thriller “Instinct,” starring Carice van Houten, Emmy nominated on Tuesday for “Game of Thrones,” and Marwan Kenzari, recently seen in Guy Ritchie’s “Aladdin.” “Instinct” has its world premiere on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival next month. “Instinct,” the directorial debut of Halina [...]
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August 27, 2018 4:55AM PT
‘Flow’ Creators Discuss Their Sanfic Chilean Competition Winner
The film, a fortunate byproduct of a young married couple’s vacation to India, was selected as the best domestic offering at this year’s fest
By Jamie Lang
Jamie Lang
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CREDIT: Maracela Santibañez
SANTIAGO, Chile — Director Nicolas Molina’s latest documentary “Flow” came into the Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic) with plenty of buzz off its official selection and world premiere at this year’s Sheffield Doc Fest, and left with the event’s best picture award for a Chilean film.
“Flow” parallels the geographical and cultural significance of India and Chile’s most important rivers, the Ganges and the Biobío. The film follows each river, starting at their sources, and works its way down through the mountains and the small villages they’ve spawned, eventually passing through major metropolitan areas and emptying into the sea.
It’s a film as much about contrasting a number of vastly different cultures, as it is about demonstrating universal human behaviors and attitudes on opposite sides of the world.
Alongside Molina the entire time has been his producer and wife Marcela Santibañez, who handled sound as well. The film came to be as something of an accident, when the two were on vacation in India and became enamored with the people and customs they witnessed there.
The couple are now preparing to screen the film at next month’s Docs Barcelona Valparaíso festival, and are currently looking for other festival participation. The win at Sanfic is sure to help secure further attention.
Chilean distribution is being handled by Bruno Bettati at Jirafa Distribución, with the film’s domestic premiere scheduled for March 26 of next year.
At Sanfic Molina and Santibañez talked with Variety about the film and its unexpected origin.
Where did the idea for “Flow” come from?
Santibañez: The motivation to make “Flow” was pure love of adventure and making movies. In 2015 Nico and I had the opportunity to take a long trip through India. In the village of Mukhawa, the first village on the Ganges River in the Himalayas, we noticed a similarity to the inhabitants of the foothills of Chile. The structure of this mountain range and the way it lived gave us the strength to make a film, and changed the purpose of that trip. For two months we documented the Ganges from its source in the Gangotri glacier, to its mouth in the Bay of Bengal; Nico with the camera and me handling sound.
After returning to Chile, we set out to replicate the same exploratory process, through a transcendental river in the culture and history of our country: the. We spent another month traveling this region, just the two of us and our equipment.
What did you learn while making this film that surprised you?
Molina: There were two kinds of learning: one at the content level and another at the production level. With content, we learned a lot about both civilizations in a very intimate way. We learned to interact with very diverse people, who opened the doors to their homes and allowed us to access very intimate worlds. It was a very rich experience on a human level, which allowed us to know both territories on a very personal level. At production level, we learned what it is to make a movie with minimum resources. We didn’t have any financing, and being such a personal film it was often difficult for us to get support. But we learned to overcome this and advance the film anyway. The beauty of this process is that the project became very intimate, very personal, and allowed us to have enormous creative freedom.
What was your experience or knowledge of these two rivers before you started filming?
Molina: Before filming the movie we didn’t know much about either river. With the Ganges we knew its importance from books we’d read, or friends who had visited. But it was our first time there, so the filming also reflects the discovery we were experiencing ourselves. Everything was new for us, and I think that search and surprise to see a place for the first time, somehow also translates to the screen. With the Biobio, it was similar.
Who is your intended audience for “Flow”? What do you hope they take away from the experience?
Molina: I believe that “Flow” will appeal to a more cinephile audience that is willing to enjoy a new experience in the cinema. People who have seen it have described it as a meditative film, and I think that definition does well. It’s like an experience, a sensory journey. It’s not a difficult film; in fact it’s the other way around. I think it’s a pretty entertaining and somewhat light film. It is full of humor, music and beautiful landscapes. Which is why I really think it’s a movie to relax and enjoy.
SANFIC
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Read Next: Film News Roundup: 'Apollo 11' Re-Release Set for Moon Landing Anniversary
April 17, 2019 11:30AM PT
Lucasfilm Considering ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ Project
CREDIT: BioWare
Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy recently confirmed the production company is thinking about developing something related to BioWare’s classic role-playing game “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.”
“Knights of the Old Republic, a lot of fans want to see that, is there any development of that?” MTV reporter Josh Horowitz asked Kennedy during Star Wars Celebration last weekend.
“You know, we talk about that all the time,” Kennedy said. “Yes, we are developing something to look at. Right now, I have no idea where things might fall, but we have to be careful that there is a cadence to Star Wars that doesn’t start to feel like too much. We don’t have a crystal ball, you know, we tried a little bit with ‘Solo’ to see if we could do two movies a year and whether or not there really was an opportunity for that, and we felt that’s not going to work. So, we back off of that a little bit. But it doesn’t mean we don’t think about lots of different stories, because that’s the exciting thing about this universe.”
#Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy talked to us about the future of #StarWars – including a Knights of the Old Republic movie and female filmmakers taking the helm, as well as Palpatine’s surprise return in the trailer for @StarWars #EpisodeIX pic.twitter.com/HCjEhdlRv7
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) April 16, 2019
“Knights of the Old Republic” was first published by LucasArts in 2003 and is widely considered one of the best role-playing games of all time. It takes place about 4,000 years before the founding of the Galactic Empire. A Sith Lord named Darth Malak has unleashed an armada against the Republic, and the player is a Jedi tasked with stopping him. A sequel developed by Obsidian Entertainment released in 2004. Both are still available today on PC in places like Steam and GOG.com, as well as on iOS and Android.
If a “KotOR” project is going on at Lucasfilm, it’s likely in the very early stages, or it might just be a pitch, judging by Kennedy’s vague comments. But, it’s also worth noting that director Rian Johnson and “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are planning new “Star Wars” trilogies. While Johnson has already confirmed his trilogy won’t involve the Old Republic, no one knows when or where Benioff and Weiss’ project will take place.
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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
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Judas Priest Frontman Working on his Autobiography
Judas Priest opened the show at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheater at Freedom Hill on August 24.
Weekdays 8 p.m. - Midnight
WCSX Contributor March 8th
When a band’s been around for 50 years, you can be sure its members have more than a few interesting stories to tell. Such is the case with Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford. who says his autobiography has been “rattling around in my head forever.” And now he’s ready to share it with the world.
“I think Judas Priest has had a very interesting life,” Halford says. “We’ve certainly got some stories to tell. We’ve certainly had a lot of incidents on the road, that’s for sure.”
But who would play the iconic singer should the book be given the Freddy Mercury/Queen treatment on the big screen? “I haven’t got a clue,” Halford says. “I thought Rami [Malek] did a fantastic job of Freddie’s persona, charisma. But I’m sure there’s another actor out there who could get the leather and whips and chains on.”
WCSX
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Few Ontario students currently enrolled in e-learning courses: report
Updated: April 8, 2019 7:33 AM EDT
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)
TORONTO — Just 5% of students on average per high school in Ontario are currently enrolled in online courses, and some have trouble learning so independently, says a report released Monday.
The People for Education report on technology in schools comes shortly after the provincial government announced that all high school students will have to take four e-learning credits — out of the 30 credits needed for a diploma — starting in 2020-21.
The education advocacy group’s survey found that at least some students are enrolled in e-learning in 87% of schools, though in those schools, only about 5% of students are taking those courses.
“For us, that huge gap to go from 5% of students to 100% of students in two years is a pretty daunting task, so the first question is: what is the educational purpose of this and if there is an educational purpose, what are we doing to make sure that’s supported?” said Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education.
Online skills are important in this age of technology, but making this move won’t be simple, she said.
“(Principals) also report that students are keen to sign up for e-learning courses, but at times struggle with the self-discipline these courses require,” the report said. “While it is useful to expose all students to online learning, research has shown that the lowest achieving students consistently perform worse in online courses than in face-to-face classes.”
Education Minister Lisa Thompson has trumpeted the move to e-learning, saying teachers and parents are excited about her plan.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson unveils changes to the school system on Friday, March 15, 2019 in Toronto. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun)
“Do you know there are school boards across this province that lead by example, and their students are embracing online learning?” she said in the legislature. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s rural Ontario, northern Ontario or urban Ontario; teachers and boards are leading the way.”
Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board, which has schools in both suburban and rural areas, wrote to the minister recently with concerns about the education changes. Board chair Shannon Binder expressed concerns over increasing class sizes, but also online classes.
“While we already offer e-learning courses, we know that in many areas of our school board students are unable to access reliable internet service and/or transportation to an accessible location,” she wrote. “The e-learning environment is not appropriate for all students.”
The Peel District School Board also urged Thompson to consult on the idea and reconsider it.
“The board is concerned that students who live in poverty may not have the devices and/or technology necessary to access e-learning,” chair Stan Cameron wrote. “Will the ministry offer supports that ensure these students and families who are marginalized are able to fully participate in e-learning in a manner that is equitable and inclusive?”
The government is expanding broadband, to try to ensure all students have access to reliable and fast internet at school by 2021-22.
PCs unveil Ontario’s new sex-ed curriculum, raise high school class sizes
LILLEY: Ford says teachers at war with his government
Ontario’s auditor general has found that students don’t have equal access to technology such as tablets or laptops, and principals reported to the People for Education survey that technology is often purchased through school fundraising.
The report found that 68% of elementary schools and 22% of secondary schools fundraise for technology, but it is more challenging in low-income neighbourhoods. About 85% of elementary schools in high-income neighbourhoods fundraise for technology, compared to 54% in low-income neighbourhoods, the report said.
People for Education received 1,254 responses from elementary and secondary schools in 70 of the 72 publicly funded school boards.
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Inaugural scholarship for women in international business
Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb today announced the establishment of the Beryl Wilson Austrade Scholarship for Women in International Business.
Beryl Wilson was the first woman to be appointed as an Australian trade commissioner, in 1963.
On the 50th anniversary of her appointment as Trade Commissioner to Los Angeles, Austrade has founded a scholarship recognising Beryl Wilson's achievement. It will be awarded to a female student enrolled full-time in international business studies.
"At a time when women were struggling to be recognised, Beryl Wilson was able to break through the barriers and achieve her career aspirations," Mr Robb said.
"She provided a strong role model to inspire other women to serve their country as Trade Commissioners."
Today, women are responsible for overseeing trade diplomacy at some of Austrade's key overseas offices including Washington, Toronto, New Delhi, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow and Guangzhou.
Beryl Wilson's career included postings in San Francisco, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and London. She also served as Deputy Director within the then Department of Trade and Industry, parts of which later formed the Australian Trade Commission.
"The scholarship recognises the contribution of women to Australia's international trade, but hopefully it will also encourage more women to consider a career in international business," Mr Robb said.
To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must be Australian citizens, be enrolled full-time in the final year of a master's degree by coursework in international business or a master of business administration with an international business specialisation and have Asian language competency.
Austrade will award one scholarship per year valued at $40,000. The scholarship can be used for course fees, study materials and other related expenses.
The successful applicant will have the opportunity to participate in the Women in Global Business Program, a joint Australian, State and Territory Government initiative which aims to increase the number of women in international trade.
The scholarship will be promoted through Universities Australia, the peak body representing Australia's 39 universities.
For more information on the scholarship and application details, visit www.austrade.gov.au/beryl-wilson-scholarship
Pages - Inaugural scholarship for women in international business
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Trailer Park ninja
Throwing Stars, Horror Stars, & Trailer Ninja Wars
Blonde Hairy Super Ninja Enters “The Octagon”.
Posted on December 12, 2013 by skintaster
The Octagon (1980)
It’s about time I reviewed a Chuck Norris film. The whole idea for “Trailer Park Ninja” stems from the goofy white guy martial arts ninja craze that was happening in the early 80’s. I remember it as being a sleazy combination of lingering 70’s macho male culture embraced by burned out stoner kids who were discovering “Ninja” movies.
You could go to any flea market back then and buy cheap, and usually dangerously low quality “throwing stars” and nunchucks, and it seemed like every 14 year-old guy I knew had a few laying around. I knew a couple of different teenage boys that happened to live in the same trailer park, that were really into this ninja thing. Also Ozzy Osbourne and weed, although I’m not sure how all of that worked into their ninja lifestyle.
Anyway, “The Octagon” seemed to have been one of the more influential movies for that strange ninja stoner culture, as well as 80’s ninja movies in general. I hadn’t seen this Chuck Norris epic in decades, but recently found it on Netflix and decided to check it out.
Chuck is a retired Karate champ, and is hired by a wealthy woman that is having trouble with attacks by ninjas. Presumably, this was a common problem for the wealthy back then (if it wasn’t, it should have been). The plot is needlessly involved. I mean, it’s an early 80’s action film about ninjas, and there are tons of plot holes which a simpler plot would have made less obvious, but it manages to (mostly) move along at a decent pace.
In any case, there are flashbacks to Chuck Norris’s childhood (he always plays a character in his movies, but I can never think of him as anyone but Chuck Norris), where he’s shown training as a martial artist alongside his obviously evil half brother, and it’s revealed that the two become lifelong enemies fighting over a prized sword. None of this matters, it just explains why Chuck Norris somehow has an evil Asian half brother that’s training a paramilitary group of mercenaries and ninjas somewhere in Central America.
I know, makes complete sense right? The mercenaries training at this ninja camp cover most evil categories of bad guys that were common to the 1970’s, and the ninja camp is their training ground, because it somehow makes sense that being sneaky like a ninja, and being able to stick a throwing star in the back of someone’s head are valuable life skills for a villain to learn.
And that’s about all anyone needs to know. Essentially, the plot is an unlikely series of events designed to get an unwilling Chuck Norris to find the training camp and beat a bunch of ninja ass.
Along the way, we’re treated to some mild R-rated sideboob nudity, a few scenes where people are dispatched with ninja stars or swords, and a whole slew of ninja dudes that look like they were the template for the G.I. Joe Cobra Commander.
I don’t think I’m spoiling much to reveal that Chuck wins in the end.
So is “The Octagon” entertaining? It’s not completely boring, but it’s not as great as I remember. Another case of a film that could’ve been improved with more nudity and violence, as the absence of those things makes you actually have to pay attention to the plot, which is goofy as Hell.
“The Octagon” is cheesy and silly as any early 80’s action film that you are likely to find. The numerous scenes where we hear Chuck Norris’s thoughts in the form of narration are a good example. Rather than just have him speaking, someone decided to was a good idea to apply a weird sounding echo effect on his voice, and that corny attention to detail is evident in nearly every scene. “The Octagon” could easily have worked as parody if it had come later in the Ninja Movie cycle.
Yet through it all, Chuck Norris exudes a certain charm that’s hard to place. He has a strange soft spoken voice, and a scary scary mustache. He might be the hairiest blonde man I’ve ever seen, but the fucker is suave, no denying that. I can see why aspiring tough guys loved his films so much. I’m surprised that he hasn’t been embraced as an icon in butch gay circles. But I better be careful, Chuck Norris might track me down and thoroughly kick my ass for saying that.
It’s also interesting to watch this film, as well as many of the action films made in America during that era, because the martial arts scenes look so “tame” compared to the fight scenes most of us are accustomed to nowadays. They just don’t move as fast, and the punches don’t look like they hurt as much as something out of a Jackie Chan film. It’s doubtful that an action film of this style would fly today, though I’m sure a lot of flea market throwing stars got bought by aspiring “ninjas” back in the early 80’s as a result of this film.
“The Octagon” is fun and adequately entertaining, if not the classic it’s rumored to be. For someone wanting to watch a vintage Chuck Norris film, I’d suggest “Lone Wolf McQuade.” It’s a lot better.
I’d give “The Octagon” 6 ninja stars out of 10, and 7 if you really enjoy old 80’s ninja movies.
The Media, Body Image, & The War on Pubic Hair… Fashion Evil.
Recently, I encountered a discussion where a female “plus-sized” model was being discussed, and the conversation drifted into the subject of what society believes is attractive in a female. It was suggested that the projected ideal of feminine beauty is a limited one, and that it is pushed by a patriarchal structure that allows men to subjugate women to a specific standard of beauty.
I will admit that this idea struck me as odd. I visualized a frightening villain’s lair on a mountain, where a small cabal of evil old men got together and decided how to keep women in their place this year, hatching a nefarious plot to decide what the rest of us will find attractive in a woman.
That unlikely scenario is merely the one that formed in my mind (I do that, my mind tends to move towards the weird end of things) but if I look toward existing social factors and their history, it is impossible to entirely dismiss the idea of paternalistic forces that have long existed to subject women to cultural rules. It is clear that many men still fear female sexuality unless it is corralled in ways that benefit themselves.
The massive and continual influence of Abrahamic religions throughout the world and in this country illustrates this. Those religions have always exerted an enormous, perhaps THE most enormous, social control mechanisms in the US.
Until rather recently, it was almost unheard of for a person to not claim affiliation with a mainstream religion, and even those that quietly disbelieved were still influenced by social customs derived from paternalistic religious tradition.
Still, I feel that the accepted view of feminine beauty is not the result exclusively of paternalistic forces. It is true that by suppressing and controlling female sexuality, one of the reactions to that suppression is an increase in the objectification of the female body. The very act of a woman showing a little skin is still transgressive and can stir emotion in cultures where women are encouraged or forced to cover themselves or dress modestly.
But this isn’t intended as some argument that women aren’t subjugated to paternalistic forces intended to control them. I think that it’s obvious that women are often treated badly in our culture when they step too far out of line. No, they usually aren’t killed like they might be in some particularly shitty regions of the world, but the non-compliant woman does face pressure and backlash that a male might not.
I would argue that the social rule book that seeks to control women, to make them behave, also seeks to a lesser degree to control men that transgress, but I’m not suggesting that there aren’t sexist forces bent on controlling women. There are so many factors that affect gender issues in this country, that you could fill books discussing them. People have, and continue to do so, and I don’t intend to do that here. Instead, this is meant to explore a few points that I think affect a set ideal of feminine beauty as much or more than living in an inherent paternalistic culture.
The only thing I will offer to suggest that this isn’t purely a one-sided phenomena is that men are also guided by many of the same societal forces that women are. I mention this not as a way to suggest that men have it “just as bad” as women, or to draw a direct comparison, but merely to point out that both genders are subjected to social pressure involving appearance.
Men and women both tend to cultivate an appearance that they think will be attractive to potential mates. Look at the current trend of young guys with giant beards. Think that would be happening if enough women were repulsed by having sex with bearded guys? I guarantee that there would be a stampede to the razor aisle the moment guys realized that having a big ass beard wasn’t gong to help them get laid anymore, and might actually prevent it.
There is a popular Internet meme that shows a photo of Marilyn Monroe, and makes the point that she is an enduring sex symbol and was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, but would now be considered “fat” by modern standards. And a casual look at sex symbols from the past 70 or 80 years will show that many of them were much bigger, much curvier, than most sex symbols from the last decade or two. And are those women still considered “beautiful”? I think most people would agree that they were. So what happened?
It’s estimated that the average dress size for an American woman is currently a size 14, so why are we bombarded with images presenting that as a “plus size,” while the models and celebrities that are usually promoted as attractive are much much smaller? What changed?
One of the reasons that popular ideas of beauty have moved away from the larger, more curvy ideal of the female body is simple. Marketing.
We have increasingly as a culture had our very idea of what we “are” marketed to us. And increasingly, what is being marketed is an unattainable ideal of beauty.
In the distant past, being fat and pasty was the ideal of beauty. Only those individuals wealthy enough to avoid manual labor and to have a surplus of food were able to stay pale and grow fat. It was a display of power and prosperity.
Look at the very different way society regards overweight people today. Being fat is often associated with people of a lower income, and many people consider an overweight person to suffer from a lack of self control, or other unattractive personality traits.
Why the shift in perception?
It has to do with changes in our society. It is much easier for a person that has accumulated a certain level of wealth and social status to eat healthy foods, and to tailor their lifestyle to activities like attending a gym. When you’re working two lousy low-paid menial jobs, things like expensive health food and a gym membership are potentially out of reach. When an individual busts their ass doing landscaping or some other menial job just to survive, the idea of spending their money to perform additional physical exertion might seem crazy to them.
In short, being poor doesn’t make pursuing a high societal standard of beauty an easy choice. Dental care and a high level of fitness are not luxuries everyone can afford. Being fat is thus no longer associated with wealth, but with poverty, and is not attractive to most people anymore.
The attainment of an idealized form is constantly promoted by our media as the goal we should all chase, and that’s increasingly aimed at both genders. Men are often fed the same message that women were traditionally bombarded with, that in order to be happy and of value, that they must fit a certain physical standard. It is true that an ugly man with power and money still has an advantage over an unattractive female with a similar level of power and money, but that sexist inequality is slowly changing, and I think it’s largely because of how the media markets to us all.
And what does this kind of saturated marketing achieve?
It basically places value on that which is difficult or impossible to obtain.
Look at it this way. Most people can save up and buy some form of car, but only a small minority of us are ever going to be able to afford a Lamborghini. The luxury brand is valued because of it’s exclusivity, and that applies to any item that people perceive to be obtainable by only a small minority of individuals.
Technological changes have brought into play several forces that affect this. First, the Internet has made it common for many of us to be presented with an almost constant reinforcement of unrealistic beauty. The culture of celebrity worship has never been stronger.
The media has also pushed an old fantasy, but in new ways. The idea that if someone is pretty enough, all they have to do is get the attention of the right person, and instant stardom will surely follow. Witness the new crop of “celebrities” that have become famous by a leaked sex tape, or the incredibly popular talent show format of dreck like “American Idol.” Seemingly anyone that’s good looking or popular enough can become a huge star overnight. It’s a revision of the old “Starlet being discovered walking down Hollywood Boulevard” stories from decades ago.
At the same time, technology has made unreal, actually unreal, depictions of beauty commonplace. We’ve all seen recent examples of airbrushed, or more likely “Photoshopped” models on magazine covers or websites, and this has become more and more popular over the last two decades.
When reality of body image becomes “inconvenient”, technology continues to rescue us, and to feed us a new view of human beauty. The problem is obvious. When that artificial standard starts to become the ideal that people actually compare themselves to, what are the social implications of that unreality?
Women have always been unfairly judged and valued for their physical appearance, and now they’re increasingly being told to alter themselves to better match increasingly unrealistic body images. Why? Money of course. There’s not much to be had marketing the concept that it’s acceptable to be an average looking person, but plenty to be made promoting an impossible ideal of beauty.
Look at the plastic surgery industry. Increasingly, average people turn to various procedures to better meet that increasingly high ideal. There is a well publicized case of a woman that started out pretty enough, but decided that she wanted to look as close as she could to a Barbie Doll. Enter the surgeons, hundreds of thousands of dollars exchanged, and her appearance also completely altered. What sounds like a science fiction story is viewed by many as a success.
I will mention another trend that has sprung up over the last twenty years ago – THE WAR ON PUBIC HAIR.
Yes, and what a hairy war it is. I came of age in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. At that time, most women I encountered did not shave everything off.
Even a casual perusal of any nudie magazine or pornographic film up to about the early 90’s proves that as a society we weren’t previously hung up on women having pubic hair. To most people, the idea that it would soon be normal for a large percentage of adult females to shave everything, would have seemed like a strange direction for our culture to go.
This trend seemed to gain momentum from a media push towards a more standardized and plastic view of female beauty. About the same time that regular women seemed to break out the razors for a more complete body shave, I noticed that, in mainstream porn like Playboy Magazine, the photo editors were adding a synthetic gloss over the models, reducing the obviousness of any pubic hair, and making their whole bodies look unnaturally toned, shiny, and poreless. The level of artifice was suddenly very high, higher than even Playboy had pushed it before.
Since then, I’ve encountered numerous men and (this strikes me as somehow sad) women that think any female that doesn’t shave everything is “gross.” That opinion seems so weird and unsexy to me. By all means, shave whatever you want, but when people start projecting their own hang-ups on others, that’s a weird way to think.
Yet one thing these trends HAVE achieved is to have made us all, but particularly women, subject to a new physical standard, that is farther away from anything naturally achievable by most humans. And of course, since most of us weren’t born with this unreal look already in place, there are lots and lots of businesses that would love to charge us for the service of altering ourselves to better fit that mold.
It’s probably easier feed women the fantasy that if they can just lose another dress size they’ll be afforded the honor of being able to buy something that will make them more attractive than it is to just make the same dress for larger women. It’s a way of reinforcing their insecurities for profit.
If those same clothes were marketed to women of all sizes, then the exclusivity would be diminished. It’s a way of ensuring that only the “right” kind of people – mostly wealthy and incredibly (sometimes artificially) fit looking people can wear your clothing line. It’s an elitist way of protecting the “brand” and it seems to work.
So, is all of this some organized patriarchal plot to keep women down? I think there are plenty of ways that our society treats women poorly, and that patriarchal influences are still there, but I think that societal standards of beauty have been modified. Ideals have slowly changed into something less natural, and just as controlling, but for reasons of commerce and profit as much as keeping women in line. Of course, in many cases, it IS men that are pulling our strings and running the businesses that prey on insecurities. I think there is a difference of intent, although the intent is still evil.
Finding new ways for women to hate themselves, then selling them a solution, is a wildly profitable enterprise. We have to ask, what’s the end game? Better yet, what would happen if everyone in the world wised up, all at once?
Struggling Musicians, and the War They Wage.
If you are a struggling musician, there is a constant war that you’re waging.
You may say, war? Are you crazy? I’m a sensitive artist, and my talents will soon be known.
Yeah, good luck with that. The thing is, every musician out there is fighting an uphill battle, whether or not they acknowledge it.
There are a few exceptions, like folks that view their musical pursuits as a hobby, and one that they have no interest in taking beyond their bedroom or home studios. They play for the sheer joy of it, and nothing else. However, even these pure hobbyists can become the enemy of aspiring “serious” musicians under the right circumstances. More on that scenario shortly.
However, the struggle is on many fronts. Most musician types seem to start out with an idealized view of what it’s like to be in a band. After all, we’ve all been fed the same fantasies about being instantly discovered and immediately famous and successful. Sadly, these are almost always fantasies, and one that millions of people have. One look at a “Guitar Center” catalog proves this point. Plenty of cheap entry-level instruments all marketed with “The perfect tool to help launch you to success!” copy.
Every single 13-year old kid whose parents buy one of those entry level guitar and amplifier combo packs thinks he or she is going to be a huge star. We all do at one point or another. Picking up a guitar and learning a few chords is all it takes to create a lifelong passion for playing in some people, and that’s a very special and cool thing.
The reality is that any serious move from playing alone and only for fun into the “joining a band” scenario introduces a player to the war.
First, just finding the right people to play with is enormously difficult. Most people who are in their first few bands are in them because a few friends decided to form one. There’s no real audition process, or networking. Your best friend Jim whose parents gave him a drum set for Christmas last year wants to “jam” with you, and he has a friend that he used to play soccer with, and that guy has a bass. You can all meet at Jim’s house to jam in the garage. Thus are born many first or second, or maybe even third bands. For the most part, they last a short time, until one or more of the members get bored with music or find another hobby. Maybe a few last through high school, or even manage to play a few “shows” in someone’s backyard or garage.
In these situations the war is a minor one. The enemies encountered are likely to be a neighbor that wants your band to turn everything down, or a parent that doesn’t want you to “waste” too much time chasing dreams of being a rock star. There will likely be mild scuffles, and occasional head-butting between your friends/band mates or from the aforementioned concerned parent, but nothing too dire. This is essentially the last time many people will seriously entertain any thoughts of trying to “make it.” Soon, the prospect of college or other pressure from impending adulthood will chase away any fantasy of becoming a successful (generally interpreted as “rich” and “famous”) rock star.
However, for those that continue to harbor dreams of success in a band, the next stage in their war is where things get more intense. This is where most of us are no longer living in the protected environment of a parent’s home. Some have moved on to college and have started a second stage similar to their high school years. They’ve discovered a few of their college buddies play instruments, and the natural next step is to form a band from these alliances. The perks are increased from the high school version, any person in a college band is more potentially fuckable than the same person would be if they weren’t in a band, and college is a strange environment where people are experiencing new things. The goofy Emo band that a guy loved in the 10th grade might start to seem stupid, and suddenly funk might be the edgy sound he longs to create. Most colleges also have venues that cater to students, and some of these will allow bands to play real gigs. Success seems right around the corner!
But there’s a war going on, right? So whose the enemy here? Well, usually it’s your band mates, and the fact that you’re all mostly there to earn a degree and then move on to “real life” where for most people, music is a hobby, not a serious pursuit.
For those that are still interested in that pursuit, but who didn’t go to college, things are perhaps clearer. The reason for that is that along with their musical aspirations, they must also make a living somehow.
I know guys that opted out of music scholarships at prestigious schools because they wanted to pursue their bands full time, basically a nightmare scenario for the concerned parent of a high school kid in a band. Either being young dumb asses or just not caring, they figured it would be a lot cooler to throw away that college experience for what they thought would be the more direct path to rock stardom.
These people often DO form bands, and also alliances with other people in other bands. Local “scenes” tend to develop, because everyone is chasing a similar goal. At their best, these sorts of scenes inspire a lot of creativity, and some truly good bands result. But they also usually create rivalries, which brings us to another aspect of the music war.
Yes, if you’re in an even slightly popular local band, some people will love you and support you. You might become a locally famous scenester, and have a certain amount of local cred. Often this will lead to a relatively comfy day job working at a trendy record shop or music venue. You may even become one with the enemy itself – the local music reviewer (we’ll get back to this).
But you’ll also probably make a few enemies, in some cases with people you have barely interacted with. Other people in shittier or less popular bands will be jealous haters if your band is doing well. Many musicians share a toxic personality trait – low self esteem mixed with a large ego. Any perceived slight is enough to create an imagined enemy. When I was in a semi-high profile local band, people I didn’t even know seemed to hate me because of the band I was in. It was stupid, but is often the norm.
Then there are the venues. More accurately, the people that own and run the venues you’re going to want to play in. The people that own any bar or club are really interested in one thing – making a lot of money, generally from bar sales or the cover they charge for entry. They don’t give a shit if you’re in an awesome new band called “Death Hippie” and the music is genius. If they think that the only people you’re going to bring to their club are your significant others and a handful of good friends, “Death Hippie” isn’t getting the gig, or will get wrangled into some abysmal “pay to play” deal, where the band has to pre-sell a certain number of tickets or ends up paying the club.
In a lot of cities, the only types of bands that clubs want to feature are cover bands, because they tend to bring in enough drunk idiots to make a lot of money. Understandable, but not ideal for any musician or band trying to push their own original songs.
Fortunately, larger cities usually have a handful of venues that will feature bands playing original material, and that will allow new bands the chance to play without too much hassle. These are the types of clubs struggling bands should try to find. Generally, the more of those type there are, the better a town’s live music scene.
In the long run, all bars and clubs are in the business of making money. If your band isn’t going to help them do that, then why should they let you play? It’s not a matter of artistic merit, it’s a matter of economics. It’s also why some bands end almost before they get a chance to play out. There aren’t enough venues with an owner adventurous enough to take a chance on something that might not pack the place.
Another enemy that can destroy a band’s chances at local success is the local music reviewer. Almost any city of a certain size will have a weekly local music and culture paper, or the Internet equivalent. As such, they will also have a number of reviewers going to local shows. All it takes to hurt a developing band is one or two shitastic reviews by one of those people. And bands take this stuff seriously. I used to know a band critic for “The Austin Chronicle” who got occasional death threats from bands she’d given bad reviews to. On the other hand, I’ve also seen cases where some local band that wasn’t great got rave reviews, probably because someone in the band was a pal of the reviewer.
So what’s the best tactic for besting this enemy? Have someone cute in your band fuck them, or better still, gut the reviewer like a fish. That would be my advice. If those aren’t options for you, then I would try to evade the creepy eye of the critic until your band is popular enough that their potential scorn can’t hurt you. But really, just murder those guys. No good music scene needs them.
After one has been pursuing their musical goals for a few years, one of two things usually happens. They may become almost ridiculously positive people. This is not a bad thing, but it’s really a survival strategy. Because if they let the negativity and rejection they’ve faced chasing their dream affect them, they’d probably never leave their bedrooms again.
The other extreme are the shell shocked, battle hardened music veterans. They’ve been in gigging bands for years, and have adopted an “us verses them” attitude. Understandably, it usually is a realistic attitude to have. They’ll generally have a very professional, but jaded way of dealing with everything. No longer caring if their band mates are friends with one another, everything is a business decision, even their haircuts. They’ll sometimes talk about all of the sacrifices they’ve made for their art, but it’s just as honest to say that they didn’t make “sacrifices” so much as decisions, and some of those decisions don’t guarantee success.
A lot of the time, these types of individuals and bands will uproot from whatever not-so-happening scene they currently live in, and flock to places like LA, or wherever the new hotspot for music is. The problem for them is that they soon discover that LOTS of similarly motivated musicians made the same decision, like thousands of cutthroat pirate businessmen following the same trends.
Another huge enemy to the aspiring musician is the acquisition of a significant other. Yes, some manage to score the golden ticket, and actually find a muse that doesn’t want to capture them and then force them to quit doing the things they were attracted to to begin with, but a lot of them don’t. It’s a cliche for a reason.
And it makes sense. Being the boyfriend or girlfriend, or husband or wife of an even slightly successful musician is tough. They’re going to be away from home for long periods of time, and there will be attractive men and women throwing themselves at them. For someone that’s young and still really motivated to chase fame and fortune as a musician, it’s probably best just to avoid serious relationships. Sounds harsh, but it’s true. I’ve seen more band drama caused by an angry significant other than any other cause over the years.
The “war” is a life-long one for many of us. Playing music and being in bands gets in your blood – Almost anyone that’s played a few live shows will know what I’m talking about. The idea of just permanently leaving that behind seems incomprehensible, but maintaining one’s sanity and relationships while trying to go further with musical goals is a tough road to follow.
But it’s the only one some of us CAN follow. Our goals may change, and the ways in which we pursue those goals may change too, but quitting entirely is just not an option.
I always try to remember that haters are going to hate, that fools and creeps will try to tear you down, but in the long run, at the end of your life, you can still say “fuck it, I did something here, and it was worth it.”
But first you have to start murdering all of those troublesome club owners, music critics, and rival bands.
Cheech & Chong – Up in Smoke: Worthy Classic, or Lowbrow Idiocy?
Posted on December 9, 2013 by skintaster
Drug-humor duo Cheech and Chong made their first foray into the movies with this late 70’s flick. Being as the movie seems to have been in permanent rotation on cable and video almost since its release, and is a cult classic, I thought I should check it out. I’ve seen bits and pieces of “Up in Smoke” over the years, but never sat down to watch the whole film.
A bit of disclosure, old Skintaster here doesn’t smoke weed, nor indulge in illegal drugs. My few experiences with various party favors never seemed to be much fun, so a lot of the drug culture that Cheech and Chong base their act on might be better received by someone that rolls with 420 several times a day. Still, one does not necessarily have to be a pirate to enjoy pirate movies, and I like drug based underground comics, so maybe I could find something to love about this film.
“Up in Smoke” concerns the adventures of drug-addled screw ups Pedro De Paca (Cheech), and Anthony “Man” Stoner (Chong). Stoner’s rich parents (who only look ten or fifteen years older than their “son”) threaten Anthony with military school if he doesn’t get a job by the end of the day. His Volkswagen Bug breaks down, and Pedro stops after confusing Anthony for a hitchhiking big-breasted woman, because he’s wearing unconvincing drag to get a ride.
They quickly discover a common bond in their pot habits, and so a friendship is born. I guess this film sort of serves as the pair’s origin story.
The plot ambles on from there. They almost go to jail, continually try to score weed during a citywide pot shortage, are pursued by Norbert the Narc stand-in Sargent Stedenko (Stacy Keach), and enter a battle of the bands at the end. Somewhere in there they encounter several weird druggie women, and are oblivious to the fact that they’re driving a van actually made out of marijuana.
The story is really just a framework for various set pieces to happen. There’s no serious plot development in “Up in Smoke,” It’s really just a set up for Cheech and Chong to do their thing.
So is it funny? It has its moments. I can see why this would probably be a lot more fun if one was in an “enhanced” state of mind though. Pretty much every humorous situation involves lowbrow drug or sex humor, about the kind of thing someone would expect to hear in Junior High. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but it’s not sophisticated humor at all. There’s also occasional lapses into racial stereotyping that I have a feeling many people might not see the humor in. At one point an Asian news woman introduces herself as “Sayonara Sushi” or something equally dumb… I can’t remember… Just for a cheap joke. Now, I’m not super sensitive about that kind of thing, but it wasn’t very funny, and I think some more sensitive viewers might question who thought it was… Of course, sensitive viewers are probably not this film’s target audience anyway.
The movie most reminded me of “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” comix by Gilbert Shelton, although those are more funny. In fact, seeing this film, I was trying to figure out who comes out looking worse – The drug addled protagonists, or the uptight reactionary cops trying to bust them? It’s certainly a good reflection of why I can’t stand to be around burn out stoners for too long.
Curiously, this film had a few sexual situations, but never showed actual nudity, a strange bit of unexpected restraint for a late 70’s film about drugs and counter culture dropouts.
The battle of the bands scenes at the end were interesting. They were shot at “The Rainbow”, and look like the bands were real local punk and new wave acts from the time period. One of the more interesting things about “Up in Smoke” is all of the footage of late 1970’s Los Angeles; the film captures the look of that time and place well.
So does the film deserve its status as a cult classic? I guess it’s not a terrible way to spend an hour and a half. Cheech and Chong have a certain goofy charm that makes the dull parts, and there are quite a few, go by quick enough. I think it still gets a lot of its cred from the notoriety of those two guys more than anything that’s actually great about this film. There are definitely better drug and sex fables from the same time period.
All in all, I’d rate “Up in Smoke” at 6 giant joints out of 10. You could probably bump that number up a little if you’re a chronic pot smoker.
“Rape Squad” – Feminist Exploitation Film, or Proof the 1970’s Were a Special Time?
Rape Squad (1975)
I caught this 70’s rarity on Netflix under the alternate title “Act of Vengeance,” about as generic a title an exploitation film could have. I had seen “Rape Squad” mentioned in reference books about grindhouse and exploitation movies, but had never run across it before. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but this film was much weirder than I was prepared for.
The plot is a fairly simple one. Independent young Linda (Jo Ann Harris) seems to have a good life. She owns a successful food truck, and has a studly casual boyfriend. Everything goes to Hell when she’s raped by a guy wearing a hockey mask that forces her to sing “Jingle Bells” while he assaults her.
When Linda goes to report the rape, she finds that the cops are dismissive and don’t take it seriously, basically claiming that there’s almost no chance they will solve the crime. There’s a whole lot of “You were probably asking for it” kind of dialogue, and Linda’s dickhead boyfriend also shares that opinion.
Worse still, the Jingle Bells rapist has been quite busy, and Linda meets a bunch of his other victims at the police station. Since they realize that the cops are not going to do much other than tell them that they should probably “get over” being raped by the Jingle Bells bastard, and move on with their lives, the women decide to form their own vigilante group to seek vengeance.
They enlist the help of a female karate expert to teach them how to beat the shit out of guys (mostly involving kicking them in the balls), and the newly formed Rape Squad is ready for action.
That’s the plot in a nutshell, and after punishing a series of abusive guys, including a nightclub owner with a reputation for cornering unwilling women at his sleazy 70’s make out pad, and a pimp that’s abusing one of his streetwalkers, the group finally has a nighttime showdown with Jingle Bells in a park.
A lot of the proceedings are formulaic, which is to be expected in a 1970’s exploitation/revenge flick, but the general tone of the movie is pretty yucky. Not because of the fact that rape is one of the central themes, but because of how the material is treated.
It took me awhile to figure out what was so wrong-feeling about this movie, and then I realized what it was. “Rape Squad” has a story with a strong feminist message (unsurprisingly it turns out it was written by a woman), but the material is presented in the same way that any standard exploitation drive in movie of the time would’ve been handled, with lots of gratuitous nudity and objectification going on. It was directed by a man, and any feminist message is buried under a ton of standard exploitation film making, aimed at a primarily male audience.
For instance, the scene where the victims of Jingle Bells form their squad takes place in a sauna, where they’re all chit chatting in the nude. There are a lot of scenes like that.
The film kind of reminds me of Jack Hill’s movies. “Rape Squad” looks a lot like “Switchblade Sisters,” but is not nearly as fun or stylish. Nothing is portrayed in a very realistic manner, and that does provide a slight cushion between the sexist handling of sensitive material.
Pretty much every male in the movie is either patronizing and dismissive, or a total potential rapist sleaze bag. It’s easy to cheer on the vigilante women as they best those guys. But the film suffers from that weird contrast. It wants to have a message, but it also wants to objectify these women in a way that’s not congruent with that message. I’m not offended by women being shown naked in exploitation or horror films, but there’s something creepy about having that nudity presented in a rape scene, and then having the actual rapes treated less seriously than is usual. We’re still meant to ogle the various naked female parts on display, and that’s a major contrast to the way an exploitation film like “Make Them Die Slowly” handled the ugliness of rape.
In any case, the whole film has that disjointed “What were they trying to do here?” feel, and it’s hard to take seriously. It would be like trying to make a family film out of “Hostel.” Some elements just don’t work when combined.
The film also suffers from a lot of the “stupid mistakes” that women always seem to make in these types of movies, like being captured or attacked because their shoe heel breaks, or going off alone when they know the enemy is about. Again, that works against a film that’s supposedly about empowering these women.
On the other hand, “Rape Squad” is certainly not the most offensive 70’s exploitation film I’ve ever watched, and it moves along at a brisk pace. There are enough fun scenes with the vigilantes kicking some 70’s scumbag ass, and I would probably recommend the movie to anyone that likes the revenge formula, and who isn’t REALLY uncomfortable with the subject matter. I won’t apologize for “Rape Squad,” but I won’t champion it either. It’s another to put in the “1970’s were a pretty twisted decade” file – entertaining on a trashy level, but definitely not the empowering story its author might have wanted it to be.
If I gave out ratings, I’d give this one 4 leering bastards out of 10.
Caligula – A Cautionary Tale Involving A List Actors, Historical Drama, And a Whole Lotta Fellatio.
Caligula (1979)
I’m going to admit straight away that I love the famous train wreck that is the movie “Caligula.”
You might be asking yourself “How is that possible? that film is a piece of shit. No one could love it.”
And that opinion would be hard to argue with, but I’m going to try to anyway. It’s true, “Caligula” is a total mess, but it’s a fun mess to behold if you’re in the right mood.
I’m sure on paper, “Caligula” sounded like it was destined to be a great cinematic classic. The cast is chock full of A List talent, a few of which were, and are, considered some of the best thespians in the world. With Malcolm McDowell in the title role, and a supporting cast including Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren, and John Gielgud, I’m sure this movie seemed like a sure thing. Then came the pornographers. Wait, what? (more on that shortly.)
“Caligula” also had the benefit of being scripted by famous writer Gore Vidal, who developed the story from an unproduced TV mini series by Roberto Rossellini. When Vidal and Rossellini were unable to find anyone to fund the movie, Vidal made the ultimately terrible decision to approach Penthouse Magazine kingpin Bob Guccione.
What had been originally intended as a modest and realistic historical piece was transformed into a lurid spectacle by Guccione, who eagerly agreed to produce the film if is tone became more over the top, and if a lot more sex and nudity was added. Vidal and Rossellini jumped at the opportunity, perhaps out of desperation, or believing that the increased bankroll might benefit the final production.
After attempts to lure established mainstream directors like John Huston into the project, Guccione brought in Tinto Brass, a relatively new director best known at the time for his controversial Nazi Sexploitation film “Salon Kitty.” Production for “Caligula” began in Rome in 1976, and experienced trouble from the get-go. Vidal and Brass apparently hated one another, and original lead Maria Schneider dropped out after being troubled with the level of sexual content and nudity. The were also problems completing the film’s elaborate sets, which were designed by art director Danilo Danati. So basically, almost no one involved with the film was getting along very well. The original script was frequently altered or improvised on, and it shows in the final cut.
Add to the already messy production about six minutes of hardcore porn shot by Guccione, and edited into the film (it’s telling that during the graphic and real sex scenes, none of the principal actors are ever in the shot) and you have an almost unwatchable and offensive “epic.”
The plot? Well, it’s supposed to cover the rise to power and downfall of Rome’s famously eccentric Emperor Caligula, and it covers a lot of the stories I’ve heard in the past. He was romantically involved with his sister, maybe his horse, forced the wives and daughters of high ranking officials to be prostitutes, and so on and so on. In the end, he’s killed of course, no real spoiler there.
Some of the acting is great, with some of these A-listers putting in good performances. Malcolm McDowell attacks his role of the mad emperor with gusto, and while it’s not his greatest role, often stepping into some serious overacting territory, it works for a character like Caligula. Most of the supporting cast with speaking parts is adequate, and there are throngs of extras, whose job seems to mostly be to stand around naked. They do that well enough. Most of the sets look like sets, and are infused with a sheen of slimy artifice. They look like they were created for an ambitious fantasy film more than anything approaching realism. Basically, “Caligula” works as a series of really horrific set pieces, more than as a cohesive narrative. The film slows down in numerous places just to roll out some atrocity for us to stare at – beheadings, forced sodomy, rapes, very little time goes by without something horrible happening to someone on screen. For what it’s worth, these scenes do possess a certain amount of style, and Malcolm McDowell grants a certain manic silliness to all of it. It’s easy to be offended, but hard to take very seriously, a strange balance indeed.
Then there’s the porn. “Caligula” has almost constant nudity throughout, and a lot of simulated and unsimulated sex and perversion on display. Every once in a while, an ordinary scene will turn a corner, and the viewer will get a brief glimpse of someone sucking cock. It’s jarring and weird.
There are also a few set pieces that are essentially showcases for pornographic sex acts. Weirdly enough, Guccione seems to have had no problem showing lots of cunnilingus and fellatio, but very little graphic intercourse. I mention this because it’s a strange juxtaposition, watching a five minute scene with multiple people giving or receiving oral sex, but in the same shot there are people that are supposed to be fucking, and it looks like it’s faked. There are two or three brief shots that look like real intercourse is happening, but I always wonder why Guccione didn’t show more of that. I mean, he already took the film into X-Rated territory, why not go the distance?
As noted before, none of the major actors are shown in these porno scenes, for the obvious reasons. The dirty stuff was filmed later, then edited in. Again, I wonder why? Was Guccione trying to make sure “Caligula” would receive a limited release? It took three years to complete, did he even care anymore at that point? Was cocaine just way better back then? So many questions, so few answers.
Despite a large budget, and high end legitimate actors, “Caligula” often looks and feels cheap. It has the same qualities that a lot of Italian exploitation films from the late 70’s had – a certain cheapness that is compensated for (or attempted to be) by being transgressive, showing more sex and violence than Hollywood ever would have.
I’ve seen interviews with Malcolm McDowell, and he HATES “Caligula.” Really, who can blame him? I’m sure a lot of the better actors in that film weren’t pleased to have their performances bookended by scenes of guys ejaculating on women’s boobs, or a dwarf getting his cock sucked. In the case of Malcolm McDowell, “Caligula” seems to have been a turning point, where afterwards the good roles just weren’t coming along as often.
Now, me? I find all of it pretty fascinating to watch. Not much is handled very well. The sets are ambitious, but still look fake, all of the naked people are kind of boring after a few minutes, and the only thing propelling the movie along is the steady stream of sex and violence. The movie also runs far too long. I’ve always thought that a pretty good 90-minute exploitation film could be culled from the uncut version. But I find it all interesting, like a cautionary tale of how a movie could just go so terribly wrong, how so many high level actors could find themselves in such a turd, and how one should never ever let a guy like Bob Guccione have any creative control over their movie unless they want scenes of dwarves getting blown spliced into their historical epic.
So obviously, “Caligula” is a terrible movie by any objective criteria. But while a bit long and boring, it can still manage to shock and entertain someone that’s expecting it to be bad. I don’t give out ratings, but if I did, I’d give “Caligula” five fellated dwarves out of ten.
Why Fear Gay People or Equal Rights?
There is no reason for modern people to hate, fear, or persecute gay people.
That’s my thesis statement for this little rant post.
For years, I have heard arguments (almost invariably really weak arguments) that homosexuality is a blight on our society, and that by allowing gays the same rights as heterosexuals, and by fighting against continuing discrimination, somehow civilization will crumble, and there will be people fucking in the streets.
Those arguments often hinge on religious beliefs, so let’s get that one out of the way first.
Here’s the deal. Religious people (and that covers a lot of ground, but since the majority of religious people in America still self-identify as Christians, I’ll address them, although this can apply to many faiths): Quite simply, if you believe in any God and a hierarchy of holy beings, and you guide your opinions and life choices based on that belief, then you must accept that, to anyone that doesn’t believe the same things as you, some, maybe all, of the things you believe sound like fairy tales.
I am not an atheist, and I do not particularly like the completely close-minded, smart assed atheists that seem to often dominate conversations about the value of objective fact verses faith. It should be noted, that while those people often drown out the more reasonable, or at least less abrasive voices among atheists, they are not representative of all of them.
Still, even to a person who is open to the concept of religious belief as a guide for moral decision making, not all religions believe the same things. If I decided that I believed in a giant magic rabbit that granted wishes as long as I listened to Led Zeppelin albums day in and day out, most people might not believe that. If after a great deal of time, my Magic Bunny Zeppelin religion gained millions of followers, many people might do like most of us in this country. We’d show quiet respect for the weird belief systems of others, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else.
And that’s important, because “quiet respect” is vastly different than “actually believing” what someone else does. Respect also works as a two way street. It’s impossible to respect a person with a belief system you find odd or unbelievable if they don’t extend that same respect in return.
So most of us are content to live in a modern society where it’s understood that not everyone shares the same religious beliefs, or any belief at all, but where we are respectful enough to allow people to worship as they please as long as no one is getting hurt. There’s a balance at work.
But that respect quickly erodes when someone expects the rest of us to conduct our lives in accordance with their religious tradition. I’m sure most Christians would be displeased if say, the local Wiccans expected everyone to go “skyclad” on Tuesday because their religion demanded it.
My point here is not to beat up on Christians or other religious people, and it’s not my intention to ridicule anyone. It’s to point out that what might make total sense to a religious person within the bounds of their own belief system may be completely weird or unbelievable to other folks. It’s not fair or acceptable to expect others to live their lives by someone else’s belief system. Our society has managed to bang out various laws and traditions that seem acceptable, or at least tolerable to most of us. Sure, friction arises often enough, but there aren’t violent wars on America’s streets over religious disagreements for the most part.
So, the “Gays are bad because the Bible or Koran (or whatever) says they are,” doesn’t hold a lot of water. It certainly isn’t a good argument for discrimination against gays, unless we also want to enforce other religious laws that have become inconvenient to most modern civilizations.
Besides, in the case of Jesus, he said absolutely nothing damning gays. That stuff all belongs to the Old Testament along with other things most of us have decided isn’t a good fit for a civilized society. I like to think that the Jesus of the New Testament taught a lesson of inclusiveness and forgiveness, not exclusion and hate. Just my interpretation, but I don’t know how so many of Jesus’s followers get the opposite message.
So, if we set aside religious opposition to gays based on ancient rule books, what’s left?
Well, there’s the argument that gays being allowed to marry (a way of society acknowledging their relationships as valid) will somehow undermine the structure of our civilization and open the floodgates to all sorts of truly deviant behavior. I don’t understand how this slippery slope argument is supposed to be compelling. At one time it was socially unacceptable for women to wear pants, and the fact that it’s now normal for women to wear pants didn’t snowball into some indecent trend where people go naked from the waist down on casual Friday.
I’ve heard arguments that if gays can marry, then what will stop people from marrying their dogs? Well, first of all, very few sane people want to marry animals. Secondly, since the animal can’t agree to get married, that argument doesn’t really work on a logical level. The fact that society has loosened its grip on certain things over the years does not mean that a significant number of people are going to push the envelope of acceptable behavior into ridiculous extremes if homosexuals are allowed the same basic rights and freedoms as heterosexuals.
Another angle of this argument that’s used often is to point out the more extreme elements of Pride Parades – men walking around almost naked, as if that proves that allowing gay marriage would compel nearly-naked leather men to hang out everywhere in public, dongs-a-flopping. I can say with great resolve that this is unlikely to happen. For one thing, a Pride Parade is not indicative of the average behavior most gays are going to engage in normally. It’s a Pride Parade – a celebratory moment, that sometimes trends towards the extreme. The guys walking down the street during the parade wearing a banana hammock? Probably work straight (see what I did there?) jobs and have more or less normal-looking lives most of the time.
Then there’s the simple “It’s not natural” responses, intended to cast homosexuality as an abnormal condition or sexual perversion, and in doing so, trying to paint it negatively in the way that we might Peeping Toms. Basically no reliable sources back that view up anymore. Homosexuality might not always have had this status, but it is certainly a normal part of the human condition, and one that has been with us since the very beginning. Often, the people that push the “It’s not normal” opinion, claim that homosexuality is a choice. I find that line of reasoning to be ludicrous, and for a simple reason. What heterosexual has ever made the choice to be straight? Because I don’t ever remember being presented with a “choice.” I suddenly started noticing girls, and realizing that they stirred certain feelings in me. There was never some moment where I chose them over guys. And to the heterosexuals that believe in this “choice” concept, I have to ask. Did you ever consider sucking cocks or touching other dudes? Ever consider man-on-man sex as a viable option? Because if they didn’t, how can they say that gay people chose to be gay? Sexual orientation seems to be something most people are born with, one way or the other. For that matter, if sexual orientation is a choice, why would anyone choose a lifestyle that’s likely to cause them great discrimination and possible danger from those that will hate them? The answer to this is simple. There is no choice involved.
This same lame argument also frames equality for gays as somehow being detrimental to children – that somehow having society regard homosexuality as a normal lifestyle will turn straight kids gay. How this transformation is supposed to take place I have no idea, and I reject it for the same reasons that I reject that “choosing to be gay” scenario. Straight people are going to be straight, and gay people are going to be gay. There may be some shades of grey in there somewhere, but eventually a person generally settles into one camp or the other. Being taught that it’s OK to be gay isn’t in any way going to convince a straight kid to become a homosexual. The fact is that a proven detriment to children is growing up gay in a society where that lifestyle is persecuted. This fact is certainly borne out by the disturbingly high rate of suicide among gay kids.
Finally, the arguments against granting gays equal rights just come down to some weird hatred or distrust of gay people. I’ve heard folks state that the idea of gay sex repulses them, for instance. Fair enough, the idea of it isn’t my cup of tea either, but here’s the deal – granting equality to gays doesn’t mean that straight people have to watch them fuck. Here’s a secret – I don’t want to see MOST people have sex. Even people we think would look awesome having sex, probably really don’t. The average American looks pretty horrid these days. Look around. Do you want to see most of your neighbors pumping away at each other, flopping around and huffing sweatily while they get their jollies? Me either.
Gays probably are equally repulsed by the idea of straight sex, so it works both ways. Society has decided that most of us don’t want to see other people fucking, and has passed laws to keep that from happening, so just because Jack and Bill decide to get married doesn’t mean that we have to watch their bedroom activities.
I guess my point is that it doesn’t matter who other consenting adults want to fuck, it doesn’t in any way affect me, or any of us. The best neighbors I ever had were a gay couple. They had a nice house and yard, rarely talked to me other than waving hello, and never had the cops called to their house – something a few of the straight couples on my street could not claim.
Oh, and I never had to watch them do it.
I think that among some straight men, part of their dislike of gays stems from some stupid feeling that gay men want them. I’ve dealt with a few pushy gay guys that hit on me over the years, but I’ve dealt with a lot more pushy straight women doing the same thing. For most guys, I think they need a better sense of perspective. Are they knee deep in females that want to fuck them? No? Then what makes them think all gay men want to?
Finally, there’s the old argument that “Marriage has always been between a man and a woman,” and that by altering this unwavering LAW OF MARRIAGE, society will crumble. Again, some people must think that all it would take to destroy civilization is a good dose of the Gay, and that’s a pretty troubling realization.
But has marriage always been defined as a bond between a man and a woman? The answer is no. Polygamy has been, and is still practiced throughout the world, and same sex unions which were recognized by society were practiced in antiquity, going back as far as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Same sex marriages are not a new thing.
When it comes down to it, there really is no valid argument for why one group of consenting adults should accept second class citizenship or discrimination simply because a large number of people are uncomfortable with their lifestyle. There are lots of people living lives that I would hate to live myself, but which I fully accept as OK for them. In the final analysis, nothing that other adults do within the confines of their own relationship or bedroom affects me negatively, and I bet that’s the case for most of us. The idea that it’s still acceptable to treat homosexuals abusively, or to demand that they accept less than the rest of us simply because we’re uncomfortable with their existence, is a blight on our society. In the long run, treating each other fairly and with respect does not erode civilization or our personal religious beliefs, it actually builds the bonds that form civilization, and still allows for our differences.
There is no real way use logic to prove that hatred or discrimination is somehow good. In fact, the interesting thing in attempting to do so is that logic will actually prove the opposite is true. Hatred is not a virtue, and it is a killer of the human spirit.
My New Year’s Resolution.
Beware the Shrill Condemnation of the Holiday Police.
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Media Monitor
Trusting the Media’s Anonymous Sources
by Cliff Kincaid on July 20, 2004
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http://www.aim.org/mp3/2004/07/20.mp3
Those in the media devoted to journalism ethics occasionally decry the use of anonymous sources in stories. But that caution was thrown out the window when the Big Media breathlessly jumped on and hyped a book critical of U.S. Iraq policy.
Taking the use of anonymous sources to a ridiculous extreme, the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and ABC World News Tonight all aired interviews with an “anonymous” alleged CIA officer critical of the Iraq war. We never saw his face, only shadows. His name, “anonymous,” was on his new book, “Imperial Hubris.” Reporters didn’t mention it, but the interviews were clearly designed to be a preemptive strike on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is releasing a 400-page report critical of the CIA for its handling of a wide range of intelligence matters.
The orchestrated interviews are one more example of how the media concoct “scandals” to undermine the Bush administration. But using someone under the cover of “anonymous” was both absurd and unethical. In the interview of anonymous by NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell, this alleged CIA officer sounded like left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore, suggesting U.S. foreign policy is driven by oil and that the U.S. has an anti-Arab bias.
He told Mitchell: “I think the substantial amount of polling that’s been done by the Pew Trust and by other very reputable pollsters in the Islamic world indicate that most of the Islamic world believes they know exactly what we’re up to, and that’s to deny the Palestinians a country, to make sure that oil flows at prices that may seem outrageous to the American consumer, but are not market prices in the Islamist’s eyes, supporting Russia against Chechnya.” This is nonsense, of course. Bush has articulated a vision of a Palestinian state, the so-called “two-state solution” of Israel and Palestine, irritating some supporters of Israel in the process.
On CBS News, David Martin identified him as “a serving CIA officer who has spent two decades working in the agency’s counter terrorism center and once headed the unit assigned to track Osama bin Laden.” But on ABC’s World News Tonight, Jake Tapper reported, “Within the intelligence community, ‘Anonymous’ has both supporters and detractors. His detractors note he was removed from the hunt for bin Laden, perhaps freeing up his time to write a book.” He was removed obviously because the hunt was a failure.
Douglas Jehl of the New York Times wrote a story about the book, as did Walter Pincus of the Washington Post. Neither reporter mentioned that the officer has a track record of failure in counter-terrorism. The Times reported, “Former intelligence officials identified the officer to The Times and noted that he was an overt employee of the C.I.A., but an intelligence official asked that his full name not be published because it could make him a target of Al Qaeda.” A target of al Qaeda? The terrorists owe him a debt for failing to bag their boss bin Laden. Still, the American people can’t be told his name and we are supposed to treat him as an expert. We are supposed to trust him and his media backers. Can media bias get any worse than this?
Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.
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In ‘Princess Kaguya,’ a wondrous parable about what matters
AP, ap@associatedpress.com
By Kenneth Turan
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” is a marvel of Japanese animation, a hand-drawn, painterly epic that submerges us in a world of beauty. While almost everything about it bespeaks its origins in a culture very different from the West, the delicacy and grace of its sublime imagery create an impact that couldn’t be stronger.
This feature is the first work in 14 years by venerable 78-year-old Isao Takahata, the co-founder, along with the great Hayao Miyazaki, of Studio Ghibli. Takahata has had this film, a parable about what matters in life and what does not, on his mind for 55 years, and its antecedents go back further. Much further.
“Princess Kaguya” is based on a 10th-century Japanese folk tale, “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” that is considered perhaps that country’s oldest surviving narrative. Which is why so much about this film, from its cultural references to its leisurely 2 hour and 17 minute pacing, takes us on a journey to a different time and place.
Given those folk tale origins, “Princess Kaguya” not surprisingly begins with that hard-working bamboo cutter chopping away in the forest he lives in. Suddenly he spies a bright light emanating from a stalk and, drawing near, sees a tiny, fully formed and carefully dressed individual inside, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.
The woodcutter brings this miniature being home to his wife, and it promptly turns into a conventional-looking baby girl. “This is strange,” the bamboo cutter says, and that is not the half of it.
For almost everything about this new creature turns out to be magical, including the speed with which she grows.
This strange girl turns out to be something of a wood sprite, a wild child of nature who finds her greatest pleasure running through the outdoors with the neighborhood gang headed by handsome Sutemaru. Still, even at her happiest, an air of unexplained melancholy hangs over her, a sensibility the film itself shares.
As in many folk tales, the good is fated not to last. One day the bamboo cutter makes another epic discovery in the woods, a bamboo stalk filled with gold, a find that leads him to assume that the gods are mandating a very different life for his charge. She must, he decides, become a wealthy princess in the capital, but even with untold wealth that transition proves problematic.
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”
Starring the voices of Chloe Grace Moretz, James Caan and Mary Steenburgen. Directed by Isao Takahata.
Rated PG for thematic elements, violent action, partial nudity. Check listings for theaters. 2 hours, 17 minutes.
Bottom line: A marvel of Japanese animation that submerges us in a world of beauty
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Mom envisions kids playing on front porch, outside
Lori Johnston, For the AJC
Kid-Friendly Living
Ericka Lusuli studied the neighborhoods she and husband Evans saw during their search, picturing where their kids would play. Now, with 16-month-old twins Ezra and Emme, they’re delighted with the Powder Springs community they chose for their first home.
The priority
Ericka remembers telling their agent, Martha Chanaberry with Harry Norman, Realtors, they wanted these attributes: a suburban location, a good school district and a family community. There was one more thing: “I wanted to be in a home that had enough yard for a garden, for dogs and for a play area for the kids,” said Ericka, 41, a stay-at-home mom. “That’s what I told Martha. That’s exactly what she found us.”
They had to weigh this home against other choices, particularly another house that fit all their needs except for having a spacious fenced backyard. They put a bid on that house, but didn’t get it. When she saw the Powder Springs home, it had a fence for dogs, but it was the front porch that won over Ericka.
“I kept envisioning things in the future, just sitting on the porch with my grandmother and my kids,” she said. “It had a real southern feel to it, a real comforting feel to it.”
Another comforting sight to Ericka was the Country Lake neighborhood’s family appeal. “When you go into a subdivision and you can hear screaming and kids running and kicking balls, it’s a family neighborhood,” she said. “I grew up and my husband grew up in a neighborhood where there were a lot of kids and we played outside a lot. We wanted that also for our children.”
A three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home built in 1986 in Powder Springs. Country Lake also is close to Evans’ job at Kennesaw State University. In addition to the master, one bedroom was a guest room and another was an office. When they learned they were having twins, they combined the office with one guestroom and made the other guest room into the nursery. The nursery had to be decorated to fit both a boy and girl, so Ericka said she searched for what seemed like thousands of images on Google for paint color and decorating ideas. Now, the nursery has striped off-white and kiwi color walls.
The lifestyle
The home’s downstairs layout has worked out well, especially as the children have moved out of the baby stage. “Now that they’re walking and running everywhere, they can run throughout the kitchen, the living room and the dining room. It’s easy for the children to get around without any stumbling,” Ericka said. “It’s easy for them to get from room to room.” The children also play on the front porch, which has the rocking chairs she envisioned.
Consider whether the neighborhood is convenient for regular activities. The Lusulis' home is convenient for outings such as story time at the Powder Springs Library, Gymboree (music, art and other classes) and their church, McEachern Memorial United Methodist. “These are things that I didn’t even anticipate really,” she said. “Everything that I need to do with them is close by.”
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Cooper Hefner, (left) said in an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter" that he is "embarrassed" about a 1990 Playboy cover of Donald Trump.
Cooper Hefner, son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, ‘embarrassed’ about Trump cover
Kelcie Willis, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
LOS ANGELES —
Cooper Hefner, the son of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, is speaking out about President Donald Trump, saying he is “embarrassed” the magazine had him on a cover.
In a profile interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises reflects on the direction he wants to take the publication, including returning the adult men’s magazine to nude photos.
In October 2015, Playboy announced it would no longer publish naked photos, but the decision was reversed by Hefner in February.
“I’ll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake,” he said in a statement on Twitter at the time. “Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn’t a problem. Today we’re taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are.”
“Nudity hadn't been the problem -- it was how it’d been presented,” Hefner told THR.
At one point, Hefner says that although Trump is a fan of his father, the Hefners do not feel the same way.
“We don’t respect the guy,” he told THR. “There’s a personal embarrassment because Trump is somebody who has been on our cover.”
Although he does not want to be associated with his father’s reputation as a playboy, THR reported that the two have “deeply felt progressive politics.”
“I’m a liberal, and I have a real issue with the conservative side feeling like they own the military,” he said. Hefner joined the California State Military Reserve in January and his father served in the U.S. Army in from 1944 to 1946.
Hefner expanded on his thoughts on Trump in a Twitter thread Thursday.
“Why am I embarrassed about this cover? Because we promote a philosophy that encourages ALL individuals to choose the life they want to live,”’ he said. “If the 1990 team at Playboy would have known Trump’s platform than the President would have never found his way onto our cover. But hindsight is 20/20 and the fight on the intellectual battlefield and for what really makes America great rages on.”
Why am I embarrassed about this cover? Because we promote a philosophy that encourages ALL individuals to choose the life they want to live. pic.twitter.com/jNGmgWuSrk
— Cooper Hefner (@cooperhefner) August 24, 2017
If the 1990 team at Playboy would have known Trump's platform than the President would have never found his way onto our cover.
-But hindsight is 20/20 and the fight on the intellectual battlefield and for what really makes America great rages on.
Hefner said that he will aim to maintain freedom of expression within the publication.
“As long as I’m at Playboy we will be on that battlefield, on the right side of history, fighting for freedom of expression and choice.”
-And as long as I'm at @Playboy we will be on that battlefield, on the right side of history, fighting for freedom of expression and choice.
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Hawks have a laugh before thrashing Rockets
Michael Cunningham, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HOUSTON -- Hawks players had a few laughs at coach Mike Woodson’s expense in their Toyota Center locker room before facing the Rockets on Monday night.
But once the laughter subsided and the ball tipped, the Hawks were all business in defeating the Rockets 102-95.
The Hawks won their third straight game and eighth of 10 to take a one-game lead over the Magic at the top of the Southeast Division. The Hawks improved to 11-9 on the road by snapping a 10-game losing streak at Houston, where they hadn’t won since Feb. 25, 1999.
“We’re growing as a basketball team,” Woodson said. “It’s nice to see because we’ve had games here where we were not within 30.”
Facing a tough and scrappy opponent at the opening of a taxing four-game stretch, the Hawks overpowered the Rockets with their talent on offense and teamwork on defense. The Hawks took control with a 12-0 run in the second quarter and never let the Rockets get closer than six in the second half.
“We are one of the elite teams in the league when we play up to our ability,” said Hawks guard Joe Johnson.
Before the game, they were a fun-loving team. The players noticed something looked a bit different about their coach: Woodson’s eyebrows were shaved.
There was some chatter and nervous laughter among players until forward Josh Smith finally said what everyone else was thinking: What happened?
“I think everyone else was afraid to ask,” Smith said.
As his players doubled over in laughter, Woodson kept a straight face and refused to explain. Later, Smith affixed some Velcro eyebrows to Woodson’s face, and that’s how the coach appeared for the pregame meeting.
When asked for the story behind the eyebrows, Woodson wasn't divulging anything.
“They got me doing all kinds of crazy stuff. There is no story. It’s just a win.”
It’s still unclear exactly why Woodson’s eyebrows were missing -- theories ranged from Woodson shaving them off at his barber’s suggestion to his losing a bet on the Vikings in the NFC Championship game -- but Smith said the effect of Woodson’s new look was to relax the team before an important game.
“We wanted to have a happy-go-lucky atmosphere,” Smith said.
The Hawks play at San Antonio on Wednesday night. They return to Philips Arena on Friday to face Boston, which is a half-game ahead for No. 2 in the Eastern Conference, before playing at Orlando on Saturday.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Hawks have more than twice as many victories as defeats this late in the season for the first time since 1996-97, when they finished 57-24. ... Hawks center Al Horford needed six stitches to close a gash opened by Houston’s Chuck Hayes in the first quarter. He returned to the game in the second quarter.
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Inside Washington’s top-rated defense
Sean Frye, Diehards
Quick, guess which college football powerhouse has the nation’s top-ranked total defense.
Alabama! Nope, they’re second this year, giving up 244 yards per game.
Georgia, the top-ranked team in the College Football Playoff rankings — wrong again.
It’s not Michigan (third), TCU (seventh), Wisconsin (sixth) or Ohio State (21st). In fact, it’s the Washington Huskies who have given up the fewest yards per game (241) of any team in college football.
NCAA Total Defense YPG
TCU 284
Mississippi St. 289
Sen Diego St. 295
— DieHards (@DieHards) November 6, 2017
“We’re a big believer in, football’s not that complicated. There’s a lot of nuance and detail that goes into what we do, but at the end of the day it’s about striking blocks, getting off blocks, tackling, covering,” UW defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski said, per the Associated Press. “We try to keep it that simple with our guys so they can play fast. And then the carry over schematically — we have some change-ups here and there so offenses can’t dial us up. But at the end of the day, it’s fundamental football.”
College football has evolved into an offensive showcase. Oklahoma, the nation’s top-ranked offense, averages 608 yards (!) per game. 66 teams nationwide average 400 or more yards per contest.
Offenses nationwide have become so prolific, Washington head coach Chris Petersen had to jokingly explain to his team what a fullback was in preparation for his team’s matchup against Stanford on Saturday.
“I would like to play (against) something we’ve seen a whole bunch of where you get those carry over reps,” Petersen said, per Business Insider. “There’s a lot of stuff (Stanford does) we haven’t seen anything like that, so we got to be able to get lined up correctly and play a fullback. We explained what a fullback is to our defense today. They were very intrigued.”
To get an idea of just how dominant Washington’s defense is, consider this — only two teams in the entire country, Kent State and UTEP, average fewer yards offensively than the Huskies give up. That means every FBS team Washington has faced this season has been held below its average offensively.
Want to go even more micro than a single game? Washington coughs up just 3.71 yards per play. UTEP’s offense averages 3.83, and that’s the lowest mark of any team in the country.
That may be thanks to Kwiatkowski, whom his players refer to with a term of endearment.
“I think he’s kind of a little bit of an evil genius,” linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven said. “He spends so much time in the film room seeing what they’re doing and every week he comes out with some new scheme we haven’t seen, some little tweak we’re going to do that gives us an edge you’re not going to get from another coach.”
The Huskies are the Pac-12’s most viable CFP contender, and they seem content on letting its defense carry them to a possible championship.
The post Inside Washington’s top-rated defense appeared first on Diehards.
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Join the US-China Strong Foundation & Perfect World for the Youth Leadership Symposium from July 30 – August 3, 2018!
Company Background:
The US-China Strong (USCS) Foundation’s mission is to strengthen American capacity to understand China through Mandarin language learning, study in China, and other programs.
The Foundation engages U.S. and Chinese government, business, and academic communities to expand the number and diversity of Americans studying abroad in China and learning Mandarin. We invest in strategic partnerships at the state and local levels and empower student ambassadors to promote the Foundation’s mission at the grassroots level. USCS enjoys the strong support of U.S. and Chinese private and public sector partners.
US-China Strong leads campaigns that focus on supporting the full spectrum of American youth, spanning from our youngest students through young professionals entering China-related careers.
Youth Leadership Symposium Background:
Perfect World (PW), a world-renowned Chinese gaming company and USCS supporter, is sponsoring a group of 30 English-speaking undergraduate students from The University of Electronic Science and Technology of China to travel to the U.S. for a three-week program to develop leadership qualities and immerse themselves in American culture. The students will be visiting Maryland, Washington, D.C. and New York. During their second week in the U.S., USCS will host these students and lead a week-long series of diverse activities, which will include the participation of American students. These activities include attending conferences with leading U.S. government and business representatives, iconic D.C. official events such as a tour of The Capitol, and leadership development workshops. Events include, but are not limited to, the following activities:*
Dinner Reception with the Education Minister Counselor
Executive Leadership Seminar hosted by Gideon Culman, founder of K Street Coaching
Keynote Speeches by leading government and business representatives
Crisis Simulation Module hosted by Johns Hopkins University
Tour of the U.S. Capitol
Team-building community service project
Quintessential 1940s American Swing Dancing at the Jam Cellar
Nationals vs Reds baseball game at Nationals Park
Tour of iconic D.C. museums such as The Museum of American History and The African American Heritage Museum
US-China strong is seeking friendly and engaging American delegates to welcome Chinese students to D.C. No prior knowledge of China or Mandarin is needed. Accepted students are required to attend all 18 planned events spanning the 5-day Symposium; exceptions will be made for emergency situations.
Registration is free, and all events and meals are included!
Currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate student
U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident
To apply, please send a resume, cover letter, and unofficial transcript to garcia@uschinastrong.org by July 16. Applicants will be selected on a rolling basis.
*Please note that events are subject to change by the planning committee.
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Explore Napa Valley
10Best Romantic Things to Do in Napa Valley
10Best Spots for Your Napa Valley Sightseeing List – Wine Not Required
10Best Things To Do in Napa Valley- Wine Not Always Required
10 Best Wineries and Vineyards to Sip and Swirl in Napa Valley
10 Best Places to Find Calm (and a Killer Massage) in Napa
Napa Valley Travel Guide
Attraction Slideshow: Parks in Napa Valley
Sugarloaf Ridge State Park
Salt Point State Park
Photo courtesy of ((brian))
Jack London State Historic Park
Sonoma Coast State Beach
Stillwater Cove Regional Park
Kruse Rhododendron State Reserve
Austin Creek State Recreation Area
Photo courtesy of Austin Creek State Recreation Area
Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve
Annadel State Park
Bothe-Napa Valley State Park
Settled by the Wappo Indians, this site became a state park in 1964 and is now a popular destination for hiking, camping, picnicking, and horseback riding. Twenty-five miles of trails wind through a diverse array of trees and wildflowers; some even afford scenic views of the surrounding mountainscape. Foxes, raccoons, and deer have been sighted in the park, especially near Sonoma Creek, whose headwaters are within the park's boundaries. Call ahead for camping and horseback riding reservations and for park hours.
Salt Point grants visitors the full beauty of the Sonoma Coast, from dramatic bluffs that tower over crashing waves to sandy beach coves where birds and furry critters gather to sun and play. On the ridge above the coast is a pygmy forest and prairie area that's home to wild pigs, coyotes, blacktail deer, and weasels. In the fall, experienced mushroom collectors hunt for tasty chanterelles and king boletes. The waters off Salt Point are prime for red abalone diving (but only experienced divers should attempt the treacherous waters). An extensive network of hiking and horseback riding trails can be found, and picnic and camping facilities are available.
Named in honor of the California-born writer and adventurer, Jack London SHP sits about 20 minutes north of downtown Sonoma. In 1905, London moved into a stone cottage in the current park and, subsequently, wrote scores of books, short stories, and articles. At the home, which still stands today, visitors can learn about the man who wrote such American classics as "White Fang" and "Call of the Wild." A pathway leads from the cottage to a lake, an old bathhouse, and to tree-covered hills that offer spectacular views of the Valley of the Moon.
This beautiful, 17-mile stretch of shoreline, perhaps one of Northern California's most picturesque, is noteworthy for its rugged crags and secluded coves. From the Russian River to Bodega Head, visitors find that the rugged cliffs afford unparalleled photo opportunities of tidal pools, reefs, headlands, and natural arches that rest hundreds of feet below. Bodega Head, a rock outcropping that extends into the Pacific, is regarded as one of the area's best whale-watching perches.
Visitors to Sonoma may have a difficult time believing how close they are to the Pacific Ocean �– in fact, the rugged Northern California coastline is less than 20 miles from downtown Guerneville. One of the county's premier parks, Stillwater Cove allows visitors to take full advantage of the dramatic Sonoma shore with easy beach access, hand-launch boat facilities, and the appealing prospect of tide-pooling, fishing, and diving in good waters. Restrooms and designated campsites are available.
About 20 miles north of Jenner, this 300-plus-acre nature reserve is home to a wide variety of flora, including tanoaks, Douglas firs, grand firs, ferns, wild flowers, and, of course, rhododendrons. Indeed, each spring, the park's namesake plants explode in brilliant shades of pink. Five miles of trails traverse the picturesque terrain, leading hikers past stands of Pacific wax myrtle, California huckleberry, and small evergreen shrubs known as salal. Best time to see the "rhodies" is usually around Mother's Day.
This rugged coastal forest, connected to Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve, boasts a fascinating variety of plant and animal life. Its relative isolation makes it popular with outdoor enthusiasts, who enjoy leisurely afternoons exploring miles-long trails. Majestic Marble Mine Ridge provides a dramatic backdrop, towering over awe-inspiring redwood forests, grassy meadows speckled with buttercups and poppies, and tranquil Bull Frog Pond. Historic Pond Farm Pottery, once the home and workshop of artist Marguerite Wildenhain, is also located in the park. Overnight camping is $15/night.
Just a hop and a skip north of Guerneville is Armstrong Redwoods Reserve, a primeval forest protected since the 1870s, when Colonel James Armstrong decided to preserve part of California's legendary redwood forests. Today, visitors benefit from Armstrong's foresight, as proven by the 310-foot tall Parson Jones Redwood and the 1400-year-old Colonel Armstrong Tree. The park covers some 800 acres, and much of it is accessible by trails that crisscross the park. A designated picnic area just off the main road features grills, tables, and restrooms.
This 5000-acre park offers 30-plus miles of hiking trails and fire roads, a network that leads hikers under a dense canopy of Douglas firs, over rolling hills and green meadows, and past a cornucopia of buttercups, poppies, and mule ears. Anglers can try their luck fishing for bluegill and bass in Lake Ilsanjo. The park offers a pristine refuge from traffic, crowds, and the rigors of work and is considered by area biologists to be one of the state's finest (and last) examples of northern oak woodlands.
One of Napa Valley's more tranquil places to spend an afternoon, this state park features more than 10 miles of hiking trails, designated camping areas, picnic facilities, and swimming areas. The park's natural beauty is highlighted by Ritchey Canyon, where hikers can follow a trickling creek past lush fern beds to romantic waterside picnic spots.
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Avoiding Addiction Relapse with Medication
Drug addiction is a concern in many countries across the globe; particularly in the USA. In many cases, addicts fear recovery because they are frightened of an addiction relapse. This is not a valid reason to avoid recovery as by prolonging drug use the affected individual is putting him/herself at an increased risk of developing drug-related health problems.
In the United States, they have come up with an innovative way to stop their prisoners from sneaking drugs into prison; by providing opioid addicts with an injection to ‘stop their cravings’. This is one way they are looking to help with the addiction issues currently rampant in their prisons.
‘I See How Much Better Life Is’
Many of the addicted prisoners are insisting that their lives have been changed by their monthly dose of Vivitrol. Christopher Wolf is one man who has served time in prison and was ordered to go through treatment for his heroin addiction – the judge suggested he try Vivitrol. Just three months after first trying Vivitrol, Christopher is off the drugs and now works as a full-time cook. He says he would recommend Vivitrol to anyone. “I don’t have cravings. I see how much better life is. It gets better really fast,” he explained.
Couldn’t Design Something Better
The drug is administered via injection, the effects of which last for four weeks. It does not come cheap, though, with each shot costing as much as $1,000. Those backing the use of Vivitrol say it works out cheaper when compared to the costs associated with sending someone to prison because of an offence related to this person’s addiction. David Farabee, who leads a Vivitrol study in a New Mexico jail, said, “You couldn’t design something better for the criminal justice system. There’s been pushback with other medications, people saying, ‘We’re just changing one drug for another’. That argument goes out the window when you’re talking about a blocker like Vivitrol.”
No Overdoses After One Year
In a study conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 300 offenders were chosen at random to receive either doses of Vivitrol or counselling and referral to a treatment programme. After just six months, the Vivitrol group had a much lower rate of relapse at just 43% compared to 64% for the counselling group. One year after the treatment, there had been no overdoses amongst the Vivitrol group; however, there were seven, including three deaths, in the other group.
Must Be More Cautious
Legal director of the Legal Action Centre, Sally Friedman, is currently looking for a test case to present to authorities. She said, “Treatment should be offered from the moment they are brought into the system.” While Andrew Kolodny, senior scientist at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, said that physicians are finding they must be more cautious about pharmaceutical company marketing. “When the drug company sends someone in to give them (prisoners) a talk and buy them pizza, they think they’re getting a scientific lecture,” he explained.
Dr Joseph Garbely of Caron Treatment Centres, based in Pennsylvania, who supports the idea of medication-assisted treatment, said “There’s widespread agreement that counselling support groups and treatment for underlying problems such as depression are crucial for Vivitrol patients. The disease of addiction is a cunning, baffling and powerful one and you need all hands on deck.”
What Is Addiction Relapse?
Addiction relapse is something recovering addicts fear, with many of these convinced that it will be an extremely unpleasant experience; in some cases, they are right. Relapse occurs when an addict tries to overcome their addiction but falls back into old habits and starts using again. This can often result in the affected person feeling like a ‘hopeless case’ or a failure; however, this is not true.
Many addicts will experience a relapse during their recovery, and it does not make them a failure. If you relapse, the best thing to do is learn from it and make sure there is more support the next time you try to overcome your addiction.
Overcoming Your Addiction
It can be quite stressful when it comes to overcoming an addiction; many people do not know where to begin. If you or a loved one is suffering from an addiction and you are unsure where to start, contact us here at Addiction Helper. Our goal is to ensure that you overcome your addiction and are comfortable and happy along the way. Our dedicated counsellors will make you feel at ease straight away. If you would like more information, or indeed if you have any enquiries, do not hesitate to contact us today and we will be more than happy to help.
Source: ‘Life gets better really fast’: Drug addict prisoners reveal how their lives have been turned around by a $1,000 monthly injection that removes their cravings (Daily Mail)
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The ‘Rainbow Theatre Incident’ as told by Howard Kaylan
Posted on December 10, 2013 by Aaron B. Pryor
Up at noon on Friday, but I didn’t leave the hotel until 2 p.m. Something felt wrong – it really did. There was a very uncomfortable sound check at the Rainbow and I was bombarded with ticket requests for a show that had been sold out for months. It was a bullshit day punctuated by a cheap Greek dinner. The first of the Rainbow shows was at 7. Again, it was the encore — something about that damned encore.
We had finished our first set, which went amazingly well, considering the alien guitars and drums we were forced to use. The audience loved it and I did too. We had already taken our group bow and I was happily leaving the stage, feeling fulfilled and exonerated. As I reached the wings, I heard the audience suddenly stop applauding and gasp as one. There was a shocked silence in the Rainbow. I ran back to the stage, but I couldn’t see anybody. Band and roadies were standing on the apron at the edge of the platform and gazing down into the darkness of the orchestra pit below. I ran over to see what the lack of commotion was all about. It sure didn’t sound good.
There, at the bottom of the pit, lay Frank Zappa. He was unconscious and silent, his twisted body fallen below in the shape of some anatomical swastika. His arms and legs were bent at bizarre angles and I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. Humans aren’t supposed to bend like that. There was no reason to believe that Frank Zappa was still alive.
This had been a very deliberate act. It seems that an audience member named Trevor Howell, who was very, very high indeed either a) didn’t feel as if he had gotten his money’s worth or b), more likely, was responding to his girlfriend articulating her crush on Frank at the end of the concert. For whatever reason, this maniac jumped onto the stage just as Frank, his back to the audience, was placing his guitar in its stand. He pushed Frank in such a way that he first hit his head on the wall of the orchestra pit before falling to its bottom. We all thought Frank was dead.
Howell tried to get away, but the audience restrained him and brought him to the front of the theater.
Here, official accounts vary. But I was there, and I know. Before Howell was delivered to the local authorities, Herb Cohen personally beat the shit out of him. Newspaper stories through out the years have attributed this beating to angry roadies, but in fact, it was Cousin Herb who took control of an out-of-control situation. We were ushered out of the theater and back to the hotel before anyone with authority could tell us anything. Sure, why tell the band anyway?”- From the book “Shell Shocked” by Howard Kaylan
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Alan Aghabegian
Almara Sepanian
Andrew Haling
Kevin Ghazery
Uber / Lyft Accidents
Since she was 14, Almara knew she would become an attorney. With the support and guidance of her parents, Almara became a first-generation college graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After college, Almara joined Aghabegian & Associates, PC as a legal assistant and gained extensive experience in personal injury litigation.
While attending Southwestern Law School, Almara was placed on the Dean’s List and was twice awarded the Dean’s Merit Scholarship. She also won Best Brief in the Southwestern Intramural Moot Court Competition and joined both the Moot Court team and Law Review. Almara and her Moot Court teammates won Best Brief and Semi-Finalist Team in both the regional and international rounds of the Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition, which was held in Oxford, England. Almara also was a judicial extern for the Honorable Andrew J. Wistrich, Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court, Central District of California. Her article, “Cleaning House with Rule 41(b): An Empirical Analysis of the Multi-Factor Tests for Involuntary Dismissals,” was recently published in Southwestern Law Review.
Since becoming an associate at Aghabegian & Associates, PC, Almara has been honing her advocacy skills and learning from some of the best personal injury attorneys. With a passion for client advocacy, Almara strives to seek justice for her clients who have been seriously injured. Her practice focuses on all aspects of personal injury, including catastrophic injuries, car accidents, bicycle accidents, slip and falls, and pedestrian incidents. With every case, Almara strives to make a difference in her clients’ lives by securing a favorable outcome and the justice they deserve.
Aside from her legal experience, Almara has personal experience navigating the aftermath of a catastrophic injury, as her cousin suffered a severe brain injury in a car crash a number of years ago. She has lived through the initial news that a loved one is in critical condition and may not survive, the months-long hospitalization, the grueling road to recovery, and the day-to-day struggle to do basic tasks, like putting on clothes. Almara understands the real-life impact that catastrophic injuries have not only on victims but on their family members as well. She can relate to her clients’ family members in a way that most other attorneys can’t. This experience was a major reason why Almara decided to pursue a career in personal injury law, and it has helped her achieve significant results for the firm’s injured clients.
In her spare time, Almara loves playing fantasy football, traveling, and hanging out with her friends, family, and Siberian husky, Thunder. She is also an avid New England Patriots fan.
“Cleaning House with Rule 41(b): An Empirical Analysis of the Multi-Factor Tests for Involuntary Dismissals,” 44 SW. L. REV. 411 (2014), available at https://www.swlaw.edu/media/2966.
Southwestern Law School: J.D.
University of California, Santa Barbara: B.A., Political Science; minor in History
Bar Admissions & Licensed Jurisdictions
Dean’s Merit Award Scholarship for Academic Excellence
CALI Excellence for the Future Awards
Best Brief, Southwestern Law School Intramural Moot Court Competition
Best Brief, Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition
Semi-Finalist Team, Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition
Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles
American Association of Justice
Because each case is personal, our clients can rely on our team of attorneys and support staff to listen intently to their issues and strategize to meet their unique goals.
Why Hire Aghabegian & Associates
$100+ Million Recovered for the Injured
You Do Not Pay Unless We Win
Over Three Decades of Combined Experience
You'll Get Personalized Attention
Aggressive Legal Representation
Give us a call at (818) 350-8870 or fill out the form below to request your free consultation to discuss your options.
Glendale Personal Injury Attorney © 2019 All Rights Reserved.
500 N Brand Blvd, Suite 1270, Glendale, CA 91203
[Map + Directions]
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FaithVatican Dispatch
Pakistani Christians fear violence after Asia Bibi’s blasphemy death sentence is overturned
Gerard O’Connell October 31, 2018
Men protest in Lahore, Pakistan, Oct. 31, after the Supreme Court acquitted Asia Bibi, a Christian accused of blasphemy. (CNS photo/Rahat Dar, EPA)
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a 47-year-old Pakistani Catholic and mother of five children who has been in prison since 2009 and was sentenced to death in November 2010 on charges of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed. She has always denied the charges and protested her innocence.
Pakistan’s Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, assisted by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan, announced the verdict on Oct. 31. The chief justice read out the ruling and said Asia Bibi can be released immediately from the prison near Lahore, where she has been on death row for eight years.
“I can’t believe what I am hearing. Will I go out now? Will they let me out, really?” Agence France Presse quoted Asia Bibi saying by phone.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Catholic mother of five.
Her husband, Ashiq Masih, expressed his family’s joy after the landmark verdict. “We are very happy. This is wonderful news. We thank God very much that he’s heard our prayers and the prayers of so many people,” he said, according to humanitarian group Aid to the Church in Need.
It was a courageous decision by the Pakistani judges, who issued their verdict notwithstanding strong protests earlier this month, led by the extremist Islamic group Tehreek-e-Labaik, that called for Asia Bibi to be hanged for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with a Muslim farmworker. The protests started when it became known that the Supreme Court was reviewing her case. On Oct. 8, the court reserved its judgment on the blasphemy charge against her and barred electronic and print media from covering the case until it had announced its decision.
Asia Bibi was the first woman to be condemned to death in Pakistan for blasphemy. Her death sentence was suspended in July 2015, but she has remained imprisoned in solitary confinement until today’s verdict. Her release has not yet been confirmed.
It was a courageous decision by the Pakistani judges, who issued their verdict notwithstanding strong protests by an extremist Islamic group.
In a statement issued after the verdict, Samson Salamat, the Christian chairman of the interreligious Rawadari Tehreek (Movement for Tolerance) said, “This is a highly tense and threatening situation for religious minorities, especially for Pakistani Christians, and there is fear of persecution of Christians and attacks on their churches and other properties.” UCANews, the main Catholic news agency in Asia, reported his statement.
Mr. Salamat called on the government of Pakistan and the Supreme Court “to take notice of the threats made by [Tehreek-e-Labaik leader] Khadim Rizvi and his group prior to the announcement of the Asia Bibi verdict” and appealed “for a ban of Tehreek-e-Labaik, and all similar extremist groups who are involved in hate speech and use religion as a tool to promote violence in society.”
On behalf of his movement, Mr. Salamat also called on the government and law enforcement agencies “to beef up security and ensure the deployment of military troops to safeguard the lives and property of religious minorities, especially the Christian community.”
“There is fear of persecution of Christians and attacks on their churches and other properties.”
Mr. Rizvi, the leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, recently warned the judges, the government and local as well as international nongovernmental organizations of “dire” consequences if Asia Bibi was set free, UCANews reported. It said he also threatened Saiful Malook, the lawyer representing Asia Bibi in court. Mr. Rizvi announced that his movement would “hold massive protests and not let the government function if it releases Asia Bibi to appease the United States.”
Asia Bibi’s case gained enormous international attention, with over 400,000 people worldwide signing a petition for her release. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI called for the charges against Asia Bibi to be dropped.
Pope Francis was among those who prayed and worked for Asia Bibi’s release. Earlier this year, the pope met her husband and daughter, Eisham Ashiq. He told Asia Bibi’s daughter, “I often think of your mother, and I pray for her.” He praised her as “a martyr” of our times.
Pope Francis praised Asia Bibi as “a martyr” of our times.
Ms. Ashiq told the pope, “When I met my mother before departing [from Pakistan], she asked me to give you a kiss.” She then embraced and kissed Francis.
When Mr. Masih, Asia Bibi’s husband, met Francis in the emotional encounter in the pope’s private library in the Vatican that morning, he said, “Holy Father, I ask you to pray, united in Christ, for my wife and for all the persecuted Christians.”
Christians are a tiny minority in Pakistan, a country of 200 million people, “estimated at three to four million faithful, and about half of them, at most around two million, are Catholic,” Cardinal Joseph Coutts, the archbishop of Karachi and the second cardinal in the history of Pakistan, told America on Oct. 26. He emphasized that Pakistan “is not an Islamic state, like Saudi Arabia. We’re a modern democracy and have just elected a new government two months ago, and we have freedom of religion.” But, he acknowledged, there are “extremist elements in the country.”
He described Asia Bibi’s case “as very complicated because of the extremism in the country” and noted that “even the government has to play it very carefully, very cautiously.” He recalled that the Supreme Court judge who had been originally assigned to hear the case “recused himself” because he feared the extremist groups. But subsequently, he said, the chief justice announced that he himself would hear her case.
Australian priest: Asia Bibi decision sets legal precedent in Pakistan
Pakistanis hopeful as Pope Francis elevates country’s second-ever cardinal
Naila Inayat - Religion News Service
Pope Francis prays with victims of religious persecution
Gerard O’Connell
The cardinal said: “There have already been protests, and it’s very easy to incite the crowds when they [the extremist leaders and imams] claim that ‘our faith is in danger, Islam is in danger,’ and say, ‘We have to ensure order because we are doing the will of Allah.’ And they blame people like the judges from preventing this and so incite the people.”
As late as last Friday, Cardinal Coutts told America he “could not predict what would happen” but insisted that “it is important to pray.” He recalled that Pope Francis and very many people across the world are praying for her release. “There is a lot of support in the country, too, for her release,” he said. “There is support from many right-minded people in Pakistan; not everybody is screaming for blood.”
The Pakistani cardinal said, “We pray that justice may be done and that, if she is freed, and when she is freed, there may not be a violent reaction from the extremists.”
The BBC reported, hours after the verdict, that the court decision “has set off violent protests by hardliners who support strong blasphemy laws,” and demonstrations are being held in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan. It said the Red Zone in the capital Islamabad, where the Supreme Court in located, has been sealed off by police.
Great news.
Now if she can just escape the Islamic lunatics who want to kill her in the name of their ‘prophet’.
More: Asia / Criminal Justice / Religious Freedom
Gerard O’Connell is America’s Vatican correspondent.
@gerryorome
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Ringo Starr Has Been Knighted
John Stillwell - WPA Pool, Getty Images
Ringo Starr is now officially Sir Richard Starkey.
Less than three months after the honor was announced, the Beatles drummer received his knighthood from Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, at a ceremony earlier today at Buckingham Palace.
"I'll be wearing it at breakfast," Starr told the BBC about the medal he was given. And even with all the money and fame he's achieved in his career, he said that formal acknowledgment from the royal family "means a lot, actually. It means recognition for the things we’ve done, musically and in life. So I was really pleased to accept this award.” He added that it was "way up there" with all the other awards he's received over the decades.
Yui Mok - PA Images, Getty Images
You can watch video below.
Starr said that he and Paul McCartney had dinner in Los Angeles together, where McCartney, who was knighted in 1997, gave his former bandmate a bit of advice on getting through the ceremony: "He said, 'Keep smiling.'"
Back in 1965, all four Beatles received MBEs from Queen Elizabeth II for their contributions to British culture, a move that was met with protest from several previous recipients who returned their medals in protest. Starr was the only one in attendance at his knighting, and he admitted that he was "a bit shaky on my own."
Starr also refuted the long-running story that John Lennon told about the Beatles being so nervous at their ceremony that they went into the bathroom and smoked marijuana. George Harrison later said that it was just tobacco, but Starr said that it never happened. "I know. Who said that?" he asked, laughing. "I don't know. I'm not keeping that rumor going."
Rock Stars Who Have Been Knighted
Next: Top 10 Ringo Starr Beatles Songs
Source: Ringo Starr Has Been Knighted
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ArchDaily Interviews
Sam Jacob & Wouter Vanstiphout on Curating "A Clockwork Jerusalem"
by James Taylor-Foster
The Mound. Image © James Taylor-Foster
The British Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale takes the large scale projects of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s and explores the "mature flowering of British Modernism at the moment it was at its most socially, politically and architecturally ambitious but also the moment that witnessed its collapse." The exhibition tells the story of how British modernity emerged out of an unlikely combination of interests and how "these modern visions continue to create our physical and imaginative landscapes." To those who know the UK's architectural heritage, this cultural and social history is delivered in a way which feels strangely familiar, whilst uncovering fascinating hidden histories of British modernity that continue to resonate in the 21st century.
We caught up with Sam Jacob, co-founder of FAT Architecture (of which this exhibition is their final project), and Wouter Vanstiphout, partner at Rotterdam-based Crimson Architectural Historians, outside the British Pavilion to discuss the ideas behind, and significance of, A Clockwork Jerusalem.
© James Taylor-Foster
Sam Jacob (FAT) & Wouter Vanstiphout (Crimson Architectural Historians). Image © Jonathan Root
AD: What is this exhibition all about and what is the meaning of the title, ‘A Clockwork Jerusalem’?
WV: ‘Clockwork’ derives from A Clockwork Orange, a famous dystopian film by Stanley Kubrick that used the [then] brand new Thamesmead development in London as a backdrop. ‘Jerusalem’ - a new Jerusalem as featured in the poem by William Blake, introduces the source code of modernity in England due to the moral outrage with the industrial city, out of which came the plea and ambition to build a ‘new Jerusalem’ on “England’s green and pleasant land.”
© Nico Saieh
AD: The exhibition is an interesting collaboration between a Dutch historian and a British architect. How has this influenced the curation of the show?
SJ: We thought it was simply a really important thing to do. The concept of a national pavilion is a strange idea in the first place; in the 21st century world the idea of the ‘state’ is a confusing thing anyway so, to work with Wouter and Crimson was a way of evading a certain kind of parochialism that often invades a national pavilion. It also draws on a long history that we have - we worked together ten or so years ago when Crimson were essentially our clients in a satellite town of Rotterdam for a park and cultural centre.
The show, therefore, is a kind of retreading of many the discussions we’ve had about the role of architecture and planning in society; here we’re telling the story of the theory behind it and why it is significant. As much as it’s a show about history that uses history, it’s really an argument for what architecture and planning can and should be.
A Clockwork Splash. Image © FAT Architecture / Sam Jacob
AD: For a British person the exhibition it can seem very familiar and for a foreigner looking around it uncovers a kind of hidden history. Would you agree with that?
WV: As a foreigner and someone who’s been involved in making this exhibition I think that the British sometimes tend to underestimate the global impact of their own cultural references. For example, we showed around Aurélie Filippetti, the French Minister of Culture, who saw Joy Division in Hulme and said how much of a fan she was of them! Sam guided the curator of the Korean Pavilion around and he mentioned how much of a fan his mother was of Cliff Richard. Also in the painting tradition, the landscape tradition and, indeed, the planning tradition. In Holland - a country hugely associated with planning and modern architecture - we have always seen Britain as the land of where planning originates. Britain should not think of itself as so parochial because it isn’t. A lot of the references in the exhibition are extremely British but they have a mass audience out there.
'Joy Division' - Hulme, Manchester, 6 January 1979. Image © Kevin Cummins
AD: As you walk in you see an enormous mound of earth with a pink staircase leading up to it. Could you explain this installation?
SJ: Over the course of the research that we undertook it became apparent that the strange, perhaps unique feature of British architecture, is the mound. The mound that we’ve constructed here is a mound which is every mound: the mound of neolithic Britain, the giant earthworks of Silbury Hill, part of the landscape of Stonehenge and Avebury and so on, but it’s also the mound of Arnold Circus in the Boundary Estate (London) - one of the world’s first social housing projects where the ruins of one of the most notorious slums were piled up to create the park. This was the centre for a new idea for how you might be able to house people in London, which is also linked to the famous mound at the centre of Robin Hood Gardens, the project by Alison and Peter Smithson, which is scheduled for demolition sometime in the very near future. In fact, some of the earth in the mound we’ve constructed here, comes from Robin Hood Gardens.
The mound is representative of a certain kind of feature but it’s also a provocation; it’s also something which represents a burial mound (a kind of end) but, at the same time, the construction site - the place where things can begin. We feel that it’s an incredible symbolic gesture to place this huge mound of earth in the centre of the British Pavilion. It’s also perhaps ‘unarchitecture’: a state either before or after architecture. It has a kind of destabilising quality.
Social Housing Manisty Street, London / Alison & Peter Smithson, 1963. Image © James Taylor-Foster
AD: You could say that Britain is heading towards a planning crisis. How do you think the research that you’ve undertaken to curate this pavilion might inform or influence this?
WV: We think it might inform it in two ways. Firstly, there seems to be a consensus that Britain is not a country of planners, nor modern architecture, nor social housing. These are apparently all foreign concepts that Britain has rejected and that they don’t really need; “Britain is a country of rugged individualists!” What we’re trying to do here is to not just say “that’s not true because here are some British plans”, but to show how the planning itself is so deeply and broadly embedded in the entire fabric of British culture. Not just in the state institutions, not just in the architectural offices, not just in the architecture magazines or the schools, but also in strange anarchic Christian communities, in Rastafarian reggae bands’ album covers, in stenographer’s and failed farmers like Ebenezer Howard (who comes up with most radical planning concept of the whole twentieth century). It goes much deeper - it’s actually part of the collective spirit of Britain to plan (meaning the collective ambition to change the world into a better place).
Secondly, we hope it will fire up that imagination again and to broaden the scope of planners and architects. Not play to the people who want to restore public housing or brutalist architecture but to say that we should fire up that broad collective imagination and open up people’s eyes and the profession much more in order to gather all that energy and creativity and reformulate ideas for what England could become.
Electric Pastoral. Image © FAT Architecture / Sam Jacob
AD: This is FAT’s last project. Is this show in a way a culmination of FAT’s approach to architecture?
SJ: It’s a fantastic way to end. It’s a beautiful place to do it at the Venice Biennale and it’s an incredibly public way to end rather than dying in a toilet in Pennsylvania Station or being led away by the bailiffs! We’re retelling a story of British modernism which is, in some senses, a justification for everything we’ve done. It explains not only why we did the things we did but also why we were right and why everyone else was wrong; why what we did was absolutely inevitable as the product of an entire culture. It’s a provocation to everyone else by saying that British architectural culture, which has had to work quite hard to restore people’s faith, has reduced itself to simply a professional act of good detailing. We’ve always felt that that’s absolutely wrong and has always caused a problem.
We were causing a fuss about things that other people might prefer to be left to sweat under the carpet. What we’ve tried to do is lift up the carpet and get all of the dust out because we think that that dirt is exactly the stuff that makes architecture important, interesting and relevant. For us to be able to write history as the final project seems entirely appropriate. If there is any legacy that FAT will leave, this exhibition is a great way to justify that legacy.
Watch our interview with Sam Jacob from the 2012 Venice Biennale here.
A Clockwork Jerusalem will be available to visit as part of the 2014 Venice Biennale alongside the other national pavilions between the 7th June and the 23rd November 2014. Check out ArchDaily's comprehensive coverage of the Biennale here.
This interview took place in collaboration with Mies. TV. Follow their alternative coverage of the 2014 Venice Biennale here.
James Taylor-Foster
News Interviews Cultural Architecture Museums & Exhibit Pavillion Venice Biennale 2014VeniceSam JacobWouter VanstiphoutFATCrimson Architectural HistoriansRotterdamLondonModernismGreat BritainUKItalyAD InterviewsInterviewAlison and Peter SmithsonMies. UKMies. TVRobin Hood GardensStanley KubrickManchesterThe Netherlands
Cite: James Taylor-Foster. "Sam Jacob & Wouter Vanstiphout on Curating "A Clockwork Jerusalem"" 18 Jun 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/517501/interview-sam-jacob-and-wouter-vanstiphout-curators-of-a-clockwork-jerusalem-at-the-2014-venice-biennale/> ISSN 0719-8884
More interviews from our YouTube Channel
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This Treetop Retreat Is a Modern-Design Lover's Dream
Zoë Sessums
Charles Zana Receives One of France's Most Prestigious Honors
Madeleine Luckel
How Do I Handle Long Lead Times and an Impatient Client?
Laura and George W. Bush’s House in Texas
Tour George W. Bush’s house in Crawford, once known as the Western White House, and see how the former president and first lady tailored their 1,600-acre retreat
Mitchell Owens
Peter Vitale
Laura and George W. Bush at the ranch.
This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of Architectural Digest.
Central Texas, especially that sweet spot halfway between Dallas and Austin where small swaths of the legendary old prairies remain, is an earthly paradise. Blowsy live oaks spread their heavy limbs beneath cloud-spattered skies, while creeks and rivers—most prominently the meandering Brazos—ripple alongside gently rolling pastures gilded with waving grasses. These natural glories are precisely what led Laura and George W. Bush to choose the area for their Prairie Chapel Ranch, the home they completed in 2001, just after he became the 43rd president of the United States. Occupying some 1,600 acres near the flyspeck town of Crawford, about 25 miles west of Waco, the property is anchored by a strong but relatively modest house that quietly honors its location.
During the eight years Mr. Bush was in office, the ranch served as the Western White House and welcomed numerous heads of state—from Russian president Vladimir Putin to Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz—some of whom were coaxed to join the leader of the free world as he raced along the property’s 40-mile network of bike trails. And, of course, there are the well-known stories of the president spending his vacations clearing brush, often in searing heat, sometimes encouraging aides to join him.
These days the Bushes live in Dallas, also home to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which opened last year on the campus of Southern Methodist University. But they regularly make the trip south to Crawford, where the former president is just as likely to be found handling a fishing rod or paintbrush as he is a chain saw. The ranch remains an essential getaway for the couple, a place to unwind and spend time with their daughters, Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, as well as Jenna’s family, and to entertain close friends like Deedie and Rusty Rose, prominent cultural leaders in Dallas.
In fact, it was Deedie Rose who helped the Bushes find their architect, David Heymann, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture. "Deedie and Rusty love the way David sites buildings," says Mrs. Bush, relaxing on a shady terrace that overlooks a shimmering lake where her husband often casts lines for bass. (The largest caught to date, the former president reports, was a ten-pounder.) "So when we bought this property, Deedie told me, ‘I have your architect,’ and, of course," she jokes, with a slightly arched eyebrow, "I always do what Deedie says." (Rose was a member of the committee that selected Robert A.M. Stern to design the Bush center.)
The former first lady notes that when she was growing up in Midland, Texas, her father built spec houses—"one story and low to the ground, a style you saw a lot in the ’50s and ’60s." She and Mr. Bush had a similar type of house in mind for Crawford, mainly, she explains, "because we wanted the house to fit into the landscape." And she means fit literally. Heymann’s design carefully nestled a single-level, three-bedroom limestone structure and an adjacent two-suite guesthouse into an almost imperceptible rise amid an existing grove of live oaks and cedar elms.
Wrapped by deep roof overhangs—some up to ten feet wide—that serve to deflect the region’s broiling sunlight and torrential downpours, the dwelling features tall windows that add a romantic transparency to its unpretentious countenance. "We wanted to see and enjoy the beauty as much as possible," says Mr. Bush. To answer the couple’s desire for indoor-outdoor living, many of the windows are also doors that open to covered terraces and walks, buffalo-grass lawns, and the tree-shaded swimming pool. When the doors are flung wide, the home becomes a veritable pavilion, capturing passing breezes and filled with birdsong. The configuration also reduces the need for internal corridors—often the Bushes navigate the place by strolling out one door and in through another. "It’s slightly motel-ish, but we love that," Mrs. Bush says lightheartedly.
Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush flowers brighten the grounds of Prairie Chapel Ranch, Laura and George W. Bush’s house in Crawford, Texas; architect David Heymann conceived the house, Kenneth Blasingame Design oversaw the interiors, and the landscaping was done with Michael Williams.
The former first lady worked closely on the project with Heymann, who found her to be a highly perceptive accomplice. "She has a lot of experience from seeing the carefully organized houses that her dad built, and she has a very, very good eye," he says. Early in the construction process Mrs. Bush pointed out that the masons’ work on the Texas Lueders limestone that clads the exterior (and some interior) walls of the home was absolutely perfect—and thoroughly wrong. The Bushes wanted to have a subtly rustic, handcrafted look, and Heymann had deliberately chosen to use the so-called rough-back pieces that were traditionally thrown away in the trimming process rather than smoothly finished blocks. "We had to take away their levels," the architect recalls, adding that the stone was relaid the old-fashioned, slightly irregular way, with taut string and appraising eyes.
An advocate of sustainable design, Heymann incorporated into the compound a number of green features, including a geothermal energy system for heating and cooling. Rainwater runs off the house’s standing-seam metal roof and into a gravel-filled moat, where it filters into a 42,000-gallon cistern concealed beneath the rear terrace and is recycled to irrigate the lawns.
Indoors, the rooms showcase an easygoing multicultural mix, overseen by Fort Worth–based decorator Kenneth Blasingame, the Bushes’ go-to aesthete for nearly three decades. "Every house in Texas should have something from Mexico, because it’s such a part of our culture," says Blasingame, who has worked on the couple’s homes as well as rooms in both the White House and the Bush center. At the Crawford dwelling, the designer arranged flower-painted Mexican wood plates known as bateas–two inherited from the former first lady’s maternal grandmother—in the breakfast area, above an antique Philadelphia cabinet the Bushes brought back from a trip to Maine. In the living room, sculptures by Pamela Nelson, a Dallas artist and close friend of Mrs. Bush’s, and a santo painting by El Paso talent Manuel Acosta join a leather-top partners desk that belonged to Prescott Bush, the former president’s grandfather and a onetime U.S. senator. (A gift to the elder Bush from his employer Brown Brothers Harriman, the desk now usually sports an in-progress jigsaw puzzle by Elms, a Maine company whose hand-cut wood creations are a Bush family tradition.) And the couple owns a number of carpets—including the one in the study—made by Arzu Studio Hope, which trains and employs underprivileged Afghan women.
"Mrs. Bush and I describe working together as a painterly process, talking about things, layering, evolving," says Blasingame, adding playfully, "That probably inspired the president." It’s a respectfully tongue-in-cheek reference to Mr. Bush’s much-publicized foray into painting. A selection of his portraits of world leaders were exhibited earlier this year at his presidential center, and several other works are displayed in the house’s study, among them a likeness of Barney, one of the family’s late Scottish terriers. A few of his landscapes—expressive ranch vistas and tree studies—are propped in the breezeway. Referring to one of the latter canvases, Mrs. Bush remarks, "It reminds me of a Fairfield Porter."
It’s not hard to understand how the former president would draw inspiration from the natural setting, and the couple has made sure the home’s immediate grounds are in sync aesthetically and ecologically with the surrounding land. Plantings emphasize native species, especially polychrome patches of wildflowers that are strewn around the property like Oriental carpets. Though the former first lady appreciates hydrangeas and other refined species, "out in West Texas, where I grew up, your best choices were the ones that stayed alive [without a lot of care]," she explains. Hence the ranch’s radiant sweeps of resilient red-and-yellow firewheels, white prickly poppies (Mrs. Bush calls them "hot-weather dudes") with chiffonlike petals and alarming thorns, and Texas bluebonnets, the official state flower. Working with native-plant expert Michael Williams, she has been bringing back some of the prairie that impressed artist John Woodhouse Audubon in the 1840s, when he came to Texas in search of armadillos, hares, field mice, large-tailed skunks, and other regional creatures he and his celebrated father, John James Audubon, could paint. (Reproductions of some of the resulting works are displayed in a guest room.) "Mike will hay that field," Mrs. Bush says, gesturing to one recently restored section, "and then use the seed" to establish prairies on other parts of the property.
The former president is just as much of a native-plant enthusiast. On a 90-acre tree farm at the ranch, he cultivates thousands of live oaks, burr oaks, bald cypresses, and other hardy species that he sells to landscape architects and the like—though his wife affectionately observes, "I think I’m his best customer." In fact, she may place an order for a dozen or so live oaks to create an artful grove near the house, just one more dose of indigenous green in this quintessential stretch of Texas countryside.
Related: See More Celebrity Homes in AD
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Paul McClean Discusses His Signature Design Moves at L.A. Book Signing
Mackenzie Moore
Fawn Galli Glams Up a FiDi Apartment to Better Match Its Hyper-Fashionable Owners
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Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom crudely photoshops ANSWER sign for campaign ad
posted by Answer Coalition | 273pt
By Richard Becker,
West Coast Coordinator of ANSWER
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom released a campaign video “California Won’t Back Down” -- now being watched all over TV and social media -- that pictures an ANSWER Coalition sign with our organization’s name crudely photoshopped out. The sign has a slogan against President Trump’s racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ and pro-war policies, and Newsom is attempting in this ad to position himself as a steadfast opponent of the Trump administration.
Our organization knows Newsom well, back to his days as San Francisco’s mayor where he became nationally known for the temporary legalization of same-sex marriage, but at the same time functioned as a spokesperson for the city’s corporate elite. Against the city’s grassroots organizations of poor and working people, Newsom pushed out-of-control gentrification (which has devastated longstanding Black, Latino and immigrant communities), denied the endemic racism in the SFPD and promoted the privatization of city services. We find it laughable that such a figure would now function as a leader in the battle against the Trump Agenda.
Since the day after the election, the Democratic Party establishment has attempted to funnel and co-opt all the grassroots energy to fight the Trump Administration. They have artificially inserted themselves at the front of protests, given militant-sounding speeches and now stolen the imagery of the in-the-streets movement for their own electoral purposes. Just last year, the DNC photoshopped a poster of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in a campaign ad in similar fashion. The Democratic leaders want to have a progressive movement as a backdrop for their own careers while literally erasing that radical and anti-capitalist organizers who often lead it on the ground.
People who want to fight back must recognize that the Democratic establishment, once in power, is so tied to corporate power that they end up cooperating, collaborating with and appeasing the far-right. On the issues of war and foreign policy in particular — around which ANSWER principally organizes — the Democratic Party has even staked out positions considerably more militaristic and confrontational than Trump. On domestic issues, Senate Democrats were willing to give Trump his disgusting wall in a cynical deal. This is not “resistance” at all.
We condemn Newsom’s crude attempt to co-opt our sign in his campaign ad. The only silver lining to him removing our name is that it saves us from having to clarify that we have no association with his phony "resistance", pro-corporate campaign.
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How mechanized transport came to the Cariboo
Esther Darlington MacDonald's account of teamster Clarence Stephenson and the IT Stage.
by Esther Darlington MacDonald
Clarence Stephenson was one of the earliest teamsters on the Old Cariboo Road. As the stagecoaches gave way to mechanized transport, Clarence and his brother-in-law, Norman Glover of Ashcroft, bought a Dodge sedan and called it the IT Stage, or Interior Transportation Company.
As the late Jack Glover, a teamster himself, and son of Norman, tells it, “They jitneyed their way into the transportation industry.”
A jitney, for those who are not familiar with the word, is a taxi. The driver approached the passengers as they came off the trains, offering to take them up the Cariboo Road as far north as Prince George. It didn’t take long for Clarence and Norman to realize that it would become a lucrative business. There was no other means of transport after all. And most people in the 1920s and 30s didn’t own cars. The Pacific Great Eastern Railway had come into the country after the first World War, but this line went through Clinton, a good 40-odd miles from Ashcroft, and connections weren’t that reliable. A traveler might find himself waiting for hours, even a full day, at the small station house on the ridge high above Clinton. So it made a lot of sense to get into the IT Stage vehicle at Ashcroft if you were heading north any distance.
It was a big day in Ashcroft when the IT added five new Studebakers “straight from the factory”. People of the town gathered around the station to look over the handsome new vehicles, like they do today when vintage vehicles are driven into Ashcroft and Cache Creek at Graffiti Days. You might think Clarence and Norman were taking their chances, making such a sizeable investment. But the two men knew that they were on to something big. The demand was immediate, and the passenger trains came in like clockwork every few hours. In those days, trains stopped at every whistle stop, picking up passengers say, from Whitecourt, Alberta, to Prince George. People boarded the trains with loads of groceries and other supplies and they were dropped off where required. Those smoke belching steam driven locomotives chugged across the Cariboo, the uniformed conductors taking the tickets as passengers tucked themselves into wicker or horsehair seats.
But Stephenson and Glover weren’t the only teamsters on the Cariboo Road. In the early 1920s, the late Thelma Haddock of Ashcroft, and later, of Walhachin, was interviewed by the writer. She told me that she drove a 1916 Buick sedan taxi right up until the mid 20s. At that time, mechanized transport had to compete with horses on the Cariboo Road, and the vehicles had to wait to let the horse and wagons go by before proceeding. Maybe, horses, like pedestrians on city streets, had the right of way in those days. Thelma said she was often times precariously perched on the side of the road.
The IT hauled express freight as well as passengers. All mail was hauled free of charge. (How times have changed!) And the pick up of these letters was kind of tricky. Jack Glover recalled that people would stick their letters on the end of a willow, and the stage would come by without stopping, plucking the letter off the stake and putting it into a canvas bag. Jack admitted, if it was snowing or raining, the mail might be a little soggy. You couldn’t be too fussy in those days about things like that.
The Studebakers were used throughout the winter, except when snows became too heavy and high to travel through. And it seems, old timers told the writer, that there was more snow then, and winters were definitely much colder than they are today. Still, our improvising pioneer teamsters clamped runners on the car wheels to get through the snow. From Ashcroft, the IT went to Williams Lake, and another driver would take passengers to Likely, B.C., then, a thriving mining town.
Clarence Stephenson didn’t drive the regular stage. He drove a special sedan that catered to the travelling salesmen. These salesmen were frequent travellers, taking orders for all kinds of merchandise from not only individuals, but from hotel keepers, merchants, clothing stores and restaurants. Clarence drove these salesmen all the way to the Chilcotin. Getting into the Chilcotin country in those days was an excruciatingly difficult exercise. The territory was so isolated, and the ranches and the odd general store so far between. A major breakdown was always a possibility. When Clarence left for the Chilcotin he’d be gone for about two weeks.
Described by the late Julia Stephenson, Clarence was a tall, handsome man with dark eyes. She was smitten while she was living with her family at Soda Creek, then a hub of river boat transportation. The village held hotels, school, a flour mill, and several hundred residents. But Clarence was driving a horse driven stage when Julia caught sight of him. The couple married some years later in November of 1920.
The roads weren’t “highways” by any means back then. And in winter, “They were just skating rinks,” Jack Glover told the writer in 1980, when she interviewed Jack, Julia and Jimmy Strand about transportation on the Cariboo Road. The good old buffalo robe and the hot water bottle and a few hot bricks helped keep travellers tucked in and warm enough to keep from being frostbitten. And, Jack had to add, the buffalo robe could always serve in a pinch when needed for traction on a particularly icy spot. The mufflers on the vehicles were lost with monotonous regularity, Jack recalls, and some times, a piece of straight pipe was a substitute. (O! those improvisational pioneers!)
The pioneer teamsters remembered grimly that the Road north of Margeurite, B.C. at Alexandria Flats, between Soda Creek and Quesnel, was a mire of thick gumbo mud. Another treacherous spot was “Hogsback” overlooking the Soda Creek canyon. This road is still in use and overlooks the Fraser River. In that period between the First World War and even up to the 1940s, an era hovering between horse drawn transport and mechanized, the challenge was doubled by the passing of cattle and horses over the road.
Sometimes it wasn’t just the condition of the roads and the animals that posed the hazards for the IT drivers, it was the passengers. The late Jimmy Strand, an IT Stage driver for many years, recalls a Chinese gentleman who became car sick, and instead of opening a window, opened the door and fell out and injured his head. Jimmy took the injured passenger to the hospital in Williams Lake.
Liquor, that all important commodity was definitely a popular stage item.
“We used to take orders from every rancher on the road,” recalled Jimmy. “There was no liquor available from Ashcroft to Williams Lake in those days. They would give you the order and pay you on delivery.”
In the case of one well known rancher, now departed this life, but in our history books, Jimmy was asked to “Just leave the bottle in the barn”, lest his good woman spot its delivery.
Naturally, vehicles broke down pretty frequently with roads being in the rough condition especially in the spring, which is referred in the Cariboo as “Break Up”. A broken axle was the most usual problem. So the IT Stage packed what Jack Glover called, “Axles with bearings” and when an axle broke, a new one was installed, “Just like you pack a spare tire in your car today.”
The Lac La Hache plateau was the worst for drifting snow, the pioneer teamsters recalled. Drivers “punched their way” through the drifts, by backing up, and taking a run at the drift. Little by little, they made it through. Glover recalls that Lac La Hache could have a temperature of 60 below. The IT sedans were all equipped with heaters, a hot water type from the engine under the front seat. The back seat passengers suffered some discomfort, no doubt. The drivers shuddered when scantily clad ladies boarded the stage, clad in attire more suitable for a coastal winter than a Cariboo one.
In 1937, the IT purchased a fleet of DeSotos and the old Studebakers were put to rest. And, at the height of the depression the company also used five passenger Ford vehicles.
The vehicles were serviced by Norman Glover. The garage was situated at the corner of First Avenue and Railway Street, became a favourite hangout where the fellows would sit around the stove and talk, probably about the adventures on the Road.
Clarence Stephenson passed on in 1955, and Norman too, in 1966. Both men had retired some years earlier. The IT Stage was sold to Greyhound Bus Lines in 1943. Greyhound used the DeSotos until 1945. The cars were then sold to the CPR and shipped to Hope. After the Second World War, the stages were replaced by busses. Thus ended the pioneer era of the first mechanized transport vehicles on the Old Cariboo Road.
Strawberries and tea
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Director’s vlog series: Transforming content transforms your audience
How ATPCO shifted attendance to its annual global conference along with our brand perception, as explained by Director of Marketing, Beth Taylor.
Welcome to the second entry in our director's vlog series, where we interview some of the top people at ATPCO for insights on industry topics we’re all thinking about.
This interview with Beth Taylor, the Director of Marketing and Communications, describes the questions we asked ourselves as we shifted content to reach 50% more executives at our premier annual industry event.
Welcome back! Julie Yi here again with another episode in the director's vlog series. Today we have Beth Taylor, Director of Marketing and Communications, to share the story about ATPCO's recent transformation.
Hi! Excited to be here.
So as the director of marketing and communications, can you describe your journey of ATPCO's recent transformation of the global conference?
Sure. So I came into ATPCO roughly two years ago, right when we had finished our global conference for that year, and we embarked on a series of transformations across the company, both looking at our brand, looking at our value to the industry, and then that ultimately came to fruition in a complete rebrand that was announced at the following year's global conference, which we renamed to Elevate in 2017.
So, Elevate 2017, and then this past Elevate 2018, have been the first two conferences in which we've really expanded the way that we talk about ATPCO and our value. So we're not just talking about products, we're talking about ideas and we're really transitioning and asserting ourselves as leaders in the next generation of distribution.
Some of the things that we've looked at as we've evolved the conference is how do we talk at a higher level so that we're engaging the right audiences within each of our customer—our airline customers and our channel customers—to make sure that they're equipped with us as a valued partner in what they're doing to achieve their commercial goals.
So you just talked about fresh content being the biggest focus on evolving the conference. Can you give us an example of what some of the ideas were?
Yeah, so you know—at least in the last two years—we've gone, like I said, from talking about product to ideas and really driving market conversation. In the last two years, and even this last year, you know, we're really focused on like big-ticket topics like, what does the future of airline retailing look like? What does the future of NDC look like, and the future of distribution? What is our role in helping the market get to there faster? What is the future of dynamic offer creation and dynamic pricing?
All of these topics are really coming together in our main day of Elevate and the days following to allow our customers to kind of see what the market's doing across the globe, and also expose some of the channel partners and the longer tail of it—the ecosystem—like technology providers, startups, etc. We're really probably the only platform in the industry that still serves as a very neutral platform for an event like this, which allows people to come to the event, know that they're gonna have unparalleled reach, they're gonna have a seat at the table with people from every level.
It's been interesting since we've kind of transitioned content to be bigger, broader, more forward-looking, we've seen a dramatic change in the attendees of the event. So in the last year, even, our attendance is 40 percent director level and above. We've increased the executive attendance by half, so 52% increase in executive attendance year-over-year. It's pretty unheard of, but it shows just how quickly we're moving, and that people have kind of tuned in and are jumping on board.
Great, so going off of that, what would you say were the biggest highlights from Elevate 2018?
By far, there were a few like really big highlights and the first one we had the Routehappy CEO Bob Albert on stage with the big three US carriers talking about their vision for the future of airline retailing. Very rarely do you see carriers come together on stage—for many various reasons—to present a unified goal for the industry to move faster, to be able to help provide their offer to consumers in a better way.
I thought the other interesting part of that—so that's big carrier discussion—the next like most important or the most highly rated session was our Bridge Labs Showcase, which is all about the startup ecosystem and kind of those new ideas, new innovators that have a really great idea and ATPCO serves to kind of give them mentorship, expertise, access to test data, so that our airline customers and our channel customers know that they've been vetted and they can kind of pick and choose some of these new ideas on our stage.
So before we end, I just wanted to ask if you had any other exciting news you wanted to share, or anything else that, you know...
Yeah, I mean, before we end, I guess what's on the top of my mind is, you know, as part of our transformation a year ago, we acquired Routehappy, which was the leader in their field with kind of leapfrogging the way the industry looks at rich content, amenity data, ticket attributes. We acquired them February first, 2018, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how ATPCO and Routehappy work more closely together and the value that creates for our customers.
You know, we've already started integrating a number of things, but really, like, it's once you hit that stride with both leaders working together, with teams working together, with our customers coming together—because ATPCO traditionally has spoken to one area of the airline, Routehappy in another area, like I said, you know, we're working on bringing bridges so that people can get things done more quickly.
So I'm really excited to see how that mixture of kind of entrenched expertise and history with fare, fare-related data and pricing data can come together with shopping data and kind of this new age of retailing. There's just so much under the covers there and there's a lot to look forward to as we move into 2019.
Great! Well, thank you so much for joining us today and be sure to tune in next time for the next episode in the director's vlog series.
Don't miss out - secure your spot at Elevate 2019 this October!
By Beth Taylor
Beth is focused on the strategic management and development of complex, data-driven business and marketing programs of global scope. With 14+ years of experience across the airline industry, high tech, consulting, and finance, she is driven by tech, disruption, and people who work together to effect positive change.
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The AXELOS Blog
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Home > News > 2017 Brings a major update to PRINCE2
2017 brings a major update to PRINCE2®: equipping professionals for project success in a swiftly-evolving world
Best Practice, Certification, Methodologies, PRINCE2, Project management, Training
PRINCE2, the world’s most-practised method for project management, has undergone a major update, its first since 2009. Long recognized globally for delivering successful projects, PRINCE2 is the method of choice for over a million certified practitioners worldwide. The updated guidance, due for release in mid-2017, will place a strong emphasis on the scalability and flexibility of the method and on how best to tailor it to the complexity and specific requirements of a project.
In fact, the philosophy and practice of tailoring permeates the entire PRINCE2 2017 update As a result, the method will respond reliably to the demands of today’s project management environment and its imperatives for versatility and agility. Now anyone with a project to manage, even if he or she is not a full-time Project Manager, will find PRINCE2 even easier to adapt to the needs of any organization and the project in hand.
The updated PRINCE2 guidance, Managing Successful Projects, will initially be available in English, with other languages to follow in due course. It has been developed in close consultation with over 100 project management professionals from the widest possible range of sectors and cultures, including PRINCE2 Practitioners, academics and organizations from across the world. The update has been shaped by their real-life experience of successfully applying the method, and of rising to professional challenges as technology changes the game, the expectations of customers and stakeholders grow, and it becomes imperative to achieve more with less financial outlay.
Peter Hepworth, Chief Executive Officer of AXELOS said:
“Time and again we hear that the only constant in the world is change, and PRINCE2 is evolving to respond to changes in business practice. At the same time, the key elements of PRINCE2 remain a constant: rooted in the realities of working life and as relevant as they ever were. The method’s strength, derives from decades of best practice in project management across diverse organizations and industries.
“As always, this latest evolution of PRINCE2 consolidates a wealth of real-life experience gained by the worldwide AXELOS-accredited community. This means that it can be trusted to provide practical, authoritative and relevant guidance, which enables anyone with a project to manage to get the best out of PRINCE2 and to achieve success for themselves and their organization.”
PRINCE2: meeting the changing demands of project management
The update has been prompted by evolutions in business practice over the last decade. It reaffirms the validity of PRINCE2’s approach while responding to the shifting demands of today’s environment; half (50%) of organizations globally, and 80% of PRINCE2-certified Practitioners, acknowledge the value of working in an agile way.1
In a survey of 2,400 professionals, 88% of PRINCE2 practitioners said that the certification had aided their career progression and was valuable in their current role (85%). The survey also found that a wide variety of professionals were applying the method, from full-time project managers (32%), IT (18%) and management consultants (15%), to a growing number of C-suite directors (6%)1 The survey shows that project management skills are becoming essential to any professional’s armoury, and this is recognized in the updated PRINCE2 guidance. Flexibility has always been a key factor in the success of PRINCE2, and the updated method now gives further guidance which can be applied by anyone who has a project to manage, regardless of their job title.
Updated PRINCE2 Guidance and examinations
Business professionals familiar with PRINCE2 will notice that the update is characterized by an enhanced emphasis on:
tailoring PRINCE2 to the needs of organizations and project environments
the principles that underpin the PRINCE2 method
clarifying the link between the themes and principles
the restructuring of the themes guidance to accommodate specific examples of tailoring
the practical application of guidance, with updated diagrams, examples, hints and tips.
Updated PRINCE2 in English
The English version of the updated guidance, Managing Successful Projects will be available in mid-2017, closely followed by the new versions of the Foundation and Practitioner exams in English.
From the launch of the updated exams, and until the end of 2017, candidates may take either the existing or updated English version of any PRINCE2 examination. From January 2018, all Foundation and Practitioner exams in English will be based on the updated version of PRINCE2.
Updated PRINCE2 in additional languages
The roll-out schedule for the book/exams in other languages will be announced in late 2017. The versions currently in preparation are: Dutch, German, Polish, French, Danish, Norwegian and Italian.
For holders of current certification
Current PRINCE2 Practitioner certificates will remain valid until the end of their five-year period and Practitioners will remain eligible to join AXELOS’s PRINCE2 Membership programme.
See our PRINCE2 2017 Update page for more information and FAQs
Online survey of 2,400 business professionals, conducted by AXELOS between 22 February and 7 March 2016.
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All Toddler Behaviour and habits Daily care Development Fun learning Health Nutrition Penelope Leach on toddlers Photos Potty training
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How to cope with a toddler and a new baby
Managing your toddler
When should we tell our toddler there's going to be a new baby?
What else should we do to prepare her for the new baby?
How can we cope around the birth?
How will we manage in the early days and weeks?
If you're pregnant and already have a toddler, the chances are you're already having sleepless nights about how your older child is going to be affected by the new arrival -- and also, how on earth you're going to cope with yet another little person's needs to juggle. Try not to worry too much -- remember that, this time around, you'll be an expert where the baby is concerned. But it's worth thinking through a few key issues beforehand.
In a nutshell, not too early. Seven or eight months' time is light years away for a 20-month-old -- you might as well tell her about something that will happen when she's 21.
On the other hand, toddlers are amazingly astute -- so your ballooning body will catch her eye at some point, and that will probably prove a good moment to spill the beans. Tell her there's a new baby growing inside -- let her pat your bump gently and say hi to the baby if she wants to. She might enjoy coming along to an antenatal appointment and listening to your baby's heartbeat, too.
Once you've told her there's a baby on the way, mention it frequently but don't go overboard with details or too much information -- the truth is that your toddler will only have an inkling of what's in store because no small child can really understand the difference a baby makes until after the birth, and even then probably not for quite some time.
One of the most important things to do is to cherish the time when there's just you and her, because life will be different -- at least for a while -- and it's worth making the most of the one-to-one relationship you have at the moment. On the other hand, you need to make sure she'll be happy with the people who will look after her around the time the baby is being born, so take opportunities to give her time with her grandparents, aunts and uncles and close friends who will be lined up to help.
It's hard for a toddler to understand what a new baby is all about, but one good way to prepare is by looking through your photo albums and talking about when she was tiny. Explain that the new baby will be like this too, and that he or she will get bigger and do more things, just as she has done. Don't tell your toddler that the new baby will be "a friend for you" because, for the first year or so at least, this is unlikely to be the case -- indeed, from her point of view the newcomer is more likely to be a hindrance before she becomes an ally.
Read our article on sibling rivalry for more ideas on preparing your toddler for a new baby.
Even if you're having a homebirth, and certainly if you're going to hospital, you'll need a list of family and friends who are willing to look after your toddler when you go into labour. Make sure you keep a list of their mobile phone numbers with you at all times so you can alert them as early as possible to the fact that you'll soon be calling on their services -- and brief them carefully about how much you want them to say about the baby's arrival, sex etc. For example, if your husband wants to be the person who tells them about a new brother or sister, don't let nenek get in first.
The first meeting is often seen as a crucial litmus test of the sibling relationship, but most people believe it has little bearing on the long-term. All the same, you want to get it right. Try to make sure the baby is in the cot when your toddler makes her entrance, so your arms are still there to cuddle her, and so you can explore the newborn together.
You and your toddler may both feel a bit tearful about being apart if you're in hospital for a few days, for example if you have a caesarean section. It's easier for you both to cope if your toddler is in the continual care of your husband, another relative or close friend. Many dads say that they really bonded with their toddler at the time when their second baby was born. Have a few little treats lined up to give your toddler in hospital when she visits and to ease her time at home without you.
It will be hard at times, but it won't be impossible. Here are our top tips on how to cope.
Prepare as much as possible beforehand. Cook and freeze meals while you're still pregnant so you've a good supply of nutritious food to see you all through the early days after the birth. This is especially important if you have decided to do without any confinement help.
Don't be too proud to accept offers of help -- and don't be afraid to suggest really useful things friends could do, such as taking your toddler for an outing.
Lower your expectations of how the house will look during the first few weeks. You've got a lot on your plate, and it doesn't really matter if the dusting doesn't get done or you have to wear un-ironed clothes for a few days. Even if you have a live-in maid, the new baby has disrupted the routine of the entire household, so don't expect things to run as smoothly as they did before - at least in the initial week.
As soon as you can, try to get out for at least a short walk every day -- it's amazing what a boost it is to get out of doors.
Make your toddler aware from the very start that the baby is interested in her, is watching her and loves her. Say things like, "She's following your game with her eyes" and "She's very interested in what you're doing".
Involve her in games with the baby from the earliest days, and always tell your toddler how much you value her help and assistance with helping at bathtime and so on.
Written by Joanna Moorhead, a UK journalist and author specialising in birth and parenting. She has four daughters, the youngest of whom was born in 2002. Adapted for BabyCenter Malaysia.
Inginkah anda membaca artikel ini dalam versi Bahasa?
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Danny Baker says he is no 'downbeat racist wretch' after BBC sacking
Danny Baker speaking at his London home after he was fired by BBC Radio 5 Live for tweeting a joke about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's son using a picture of a monkey.
Press Association Reporter
Broadcaster Danny Baker insisted he was no "downbeat racist wretch" after he was sacked for tweeting a joke about the Duke and Duchess Of Sussex's son featuring a picture of a chimpanzee.
The motormouth DJ was axed from BBC Radio 5 Live for what his bosses said was a "serious error of judgment".
Baker, 61, who has been sacked from the station before, blasted his bosses for their handling of the controversy and said he was trying to make a point about class.
The DJ had tweeted a black and white image showing a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee, which he captioned: "Royal baby leaves hospital".
The tweet came on the same day Harry and Meghan, whose mother is African American, posed with their new arrival, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
Following a backlash and accusations of racism, he deleted the post and apologised.
Baker claimed ignorance saying: "My go-to photo when any posh people have a baby is this absurd chimpanzee in a top hat leaving the hospital".
And he added: "I didn't know which of our royal princesses had given birth."
Speaking to journalists outside his London home, he said it was "weasely for the BBC to chuck us under the bus".
READ MORE: Danny Baker sacked by BBC for Harry and Meghan baby joke
He revealed that he ended his "lecture" from his bosses "with two very old fashioned Anglo-Saxon words".
Baker, also known as a scriptwriter for his friend Chris Evans, added: "I don't think they would have done it to some university-type people who've been at Radio 4 for a long time."
He said the accusations were "absurd, grotesque", adding: "You'd have to have a diseased mind (to have done it)."
Lottery grant boost for St Annes karate club
Wearing a Fez, Baker told reporters outside his home: "You would have thought I'd had a shave and put something else on. I look like the downbeat racist wretch they all think I am."
But he said of his sacking: "It's not as if I'd lost the breakfast show at Virgin Radio or something."
Baker alerted fans to his sacking when he tweeted "just got fired from BBC 5 Live" before the BBC had made a statement.
"The call to fire me from @bbc5live was a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity," he wrote.
"Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah. Literally threw me under the bus. Could hear the suits knees knocking."
BBC Radio 5 Live previously dropped Baker's soccer phone-in show in 1997 when the broadcaster's news chief Tony Hall, now the corporation's director general, said he had crossed "the line between being humorous and controversial and being insulting".
His BBC London 94.9 show was also axed in 2012, days before he was due to be inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame.
The DJ has been unafraid to publicly criticise his BBC bosses, calling them "pinheaded weasels".
The broadcaster, who hosted a weekly show on 5 Live, made his name as a journalist on the punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue before going on to work at NME and launching a career in TV and radio.
He denied bullying campmates in 2016 when he was the first in the series to get the boot from I'm A Celebrity.
In an email to staff on Thursday morning, 5 Live controller Jonathan Wall wrote: "I have just spoken to Danny Baker and let him know that he will no longer be presenting his weekly show with us.
"Danny made a serious error of judgment on social media last night and it goes against the values we live and breathe on this radio station.
"Danny has been a brilliant broadcaster for us and I want to thank him for his work with us on Saturday mornings over the last few years."
Baker is currently in the midst of his Good Time Charlie's Back live tour, and he is still expected to perform for audiences throughout May and June, including on Sunday at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham.
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Move to add year to Baltimore mayor, council terms faces fight
By By Luke Broadwater and The Baltimore Sun
Baltimore activists say they're launching a campaign to vote down a change to the city charter that would push local elections back one year — effectively giving MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeand others an extra year in office.
"Once voters realize they're adding an extra year for themselves, they're going to vote it down," said Hassan Giordano, who — along with civil rights leader Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, members of the League of Women Voters and State Del. Jill Carter — is heading the Baltimore Election Group.
Giordano, the group's chairman, said members will make the issue the center of a heated political campaign and will stress the City Council's recent vote against shifting funding toward endangered rec centers to community groups. "The community associations are up in arms," he said. "There's no way in the world we're giving them five years."
The City Council approved the change to the city's charter last week, and Rawlings-Blake says she intends to sign the bill granting the election year change, putting it on the November ballot for a vote — but there's a catch.
The Maryland General Assembly has already passed a bill giving city officials an extra year, and the Maryland attorney general's office says no matter what voters decide, the state legislation would likely trump voters' decision.
If city voters approve the change, it would make city and state law consistent. If it is rejected, that could set up a conflict that Assistant Attorney General Sandy Brantley believes the state would win.
"If the voters reject the amendment, we don't think the legislation would be nullified," said Brantley. "It would stand."
Brantley noted, however, that there has been no official attorney general's opinion on the matter; her office could still weigh in with further clarification.
In April, the General Assembly approved moving city elections to the presidential cycle instead of the gubernatorial cycle — which is two years earlier.
Supporters said the measure, which moves the next citywide election to November 2016, could boost turnout and save money.
The nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services said the change will save the city $3.7 million in the 2016 election because it won't have to run its own vote. The state would save about $270,000.
Rawlings-Blake's spokesman, Ryan O'Doherty, said the move is meant to bolster voter turnout, which was historically low last year.
"Aligning the city cycle with the presidential cycle, as was recently approved by the General Assembly, saves taxpayer money and could increase voter turnout in city elections going forward," he said. "Some may support keeping the status quo, the mayor certainly doesn't."
He noted that in 1999 city voters approved changing to a presidential cycle, but the General Assembly refused to move the primary, which led the city to eventually abandon the change.
The shift means that Rawlings-Blake and Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young— who came into their positions after Mayor Sheila Dixon's resignation and served two years before being elected — will hold office for seven years, while only having to win one election.
[Most read] His shift ending, a Baltimore police supervisor led 2 officers into active shooting scene at methadone clinic »
The Baltimore Election Change Coalition, a group of community and civil rights organizations, had advocated for a change that would put city officials up for election during the gubernatorial cycle like other Maryland jurisdictions. They said moving to that cycle would also save money, without granting elected officials an extra year.
Millie Tyssowski, the group's president and a member of the new coalition, said her group studied voter turnout for the past 20 years and found Baltimoreans cast more ballots in the governor's race than the presidential race. She said representatives from the mayor's office were the only speakers in favor of the presidential cycle before the General Assembly.
Even if the vote carries no legal weight, Tyssowski said a defeat at the polls could be a symbolic rebuke of the change — enough to convince the General Assembly to change course.
"The hope is it would be a symbol to the Maryland General Assembly to rescind what they did this year," she said.
luke.broadwater@baltsun.com
Crime, Law and Justice
Bernard C. Young
Andy Harris says Trump could’ve meant ‘go back to the district’ in tweets; president says no, he meant...
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Senate approves 'fiscal cliff' deal, sends it to House
By By Lisa Mascaro , Kathleen Hennessey , Michael A. Memoli and John Fritze and Tribune Newspapers
Jan 01, 2013 | 2:38 AM
| WASHINGTON —
Hours before a midnight deadline Monday, the White House reached a tentative deal with Congress to stop an enormous tax hike for all but the wealthiest households and to postpone for two months tough decisions on how to cut federal spending.
After a rare holiday session that lasted through the New Year's Eve celebration and two hours into New Year's Day, the Senate voted, 89 to 8, to approve the proposal. Republican leaders in the House had balked at holding a vote in the dark of night, but are expected to bring the bill up later Tuesday.
The House, where GOP lawmakers have been resistant to voting for a tax increase, will now determine whether the nation's plunge off the fiscal cliff is halted. As long as Congress is seen to be working toward a solution, no dire economic fallout is expected from the delay.
The deal would represent a milestone for Republicans, whose anti-tax stance has defined the party since then-President George H.W. Bush in 1990 broke his promise not to raise taxes. Republicans have not supported an effort to increase income taxes since then.
It also would be a concession for Democrats who backed away from President Obama's popular campaign pledge that he would ask households earning more than $250,000 to pay more in taxes. Under the deal with Republicans, taxes will increase only on households earning more than $450,000.
The deep automatic spending cuts scheduled to begin Wednesday — the other part of the "fiscal cliff" — would be pushed back just long enough to ensure that the partisan budget battles marking Obama's first term will also punctuate the beginning of his second. Negotiations over the cuts were expected to be rolled into talks about extending the nation's debt ceiling, a prospect Democrats promised to resist.
For Maryland, the Senate proposal would, for now, avoid potentially harmful spending cuts known as sequestration, but it would require lawmakers to revisit the issue in a few months — prolonging the uncertainty federal contractors and government employees in the state have been dealing with all year.
Asked about the possibility of a two-month delay of sequestration — an idea that arose Monday — Sen. Ben Cardin said it would be better than facing the cuts right now, but that kicking the nation's fiscal problems off to the next Congress, which begins Thursday, is far from ideal.
"I'm disappointed," the Maryland Democrat said in an interview. "We've already been impacted by the potential for sequestration. … A two-month extension is better than hitting a wall — but it's still bad news."
The $110 billion in cuts called for would be particularly painful in Maryland, given its proximity to Washington. Maryland is home to nearly 300,000 federal workers. Social Security, the National Institutes of Health and the National Security Agency are among the many agencies based in the state.
Private government contractors in Maryland, meanwhile, were awarded about $27 billion in work last year — among the highest per capita in the nation.
Gov. Martin O'Malley said congressional delay is complicating his administration's decision-making as it heads into the 2013 session of the General Assembly next week.
"It certainly casts a much greater degree of uncertainty over our planning," said O'Malley, a Democrat.
If the budget issues are not quickly resolved, O'Malley said, the state may have to increase the amount of money it allocates to its Rainy Day Fund — raising it above the 5 percent of the state's budget that is recommended by bond rating agencies.
O'Malley, who blamed the difficulty in reaching a deal on congressional Republicans, said Maryland and its neighbors are especially vulnerable to the defense and domestic budget cuts that would come with sequestration.
"Our region — Maryland and Virginia and D.C. — certainly stand to suffer greater harm than other regions of the country because of the federal presence and federal installations of health and security," he said.
The normally festive time of year fell serious Monday as details of the deal emerged. Vice President Joe Biden, who brokered the deal in marathon sessions with Mitch McConnell, the Senate's Republican minority leader, was dispatched to the Capitol for an intense 90-minute session with Democrats.
Going off the so-called cliff may not be as disastrous as once envisioned, if lawmakers quickly pass legislation to fix it. And it could also have political benefits.
Pushing the votes to Tuesday accomplished a political back flip that would be particularly advantageous for anti-tax Republicans and has been discussed for months.
With the existing tax rates expiring at midnight Monday, Tuesday ushered in the new higher rates. If Congress acted Tuesday, the votes would be to lower tax rates on wealthier Americans, rather than raise them.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the House, noted that tax breaks and spending cuts could be dealt with retroactively once an agreement is struck. Washington has frequently done that in the past few years.
"Sequestration will be harmful to Maryland, but it will also be harmful to the country, which is why I think it's so important that we act," the Southern Maryland lawmaker said in an interview. "If we don't take care of sequestration in the next few hours, then there's no doubt that it will be a subject [dealt with] immediately" in the new year.
McConnell and Biden had been in close contact all day after having worked past midnight Sunday and then resumed again early Monday morning to craft the deal.
The minority leader convened Republican senators behind closed doors at dinner time, and many emerged optimistic that a deal was at hand.
"Hope springs eternal around here, even though it gets a little sticky at times," said Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican. Boehner similarly convened his troops in a basement office beneath the Rotunda.
One result became increasingly clear: With many issues still unresolved, Washington was poised to continue the partisan budget battles that have defined Obama's first term well into this year.
Under the proposed deal, more than $660 billion in revenue would be raised — far less than the $1.6 trillion Obama first sought in new revenue when he still hoped for a large deficit-reduction package.
The agreement would set the top tax rates at 39.6 percent for income above $450,000 for households and $400,000 for individuals.
Tax rates on investment income would also rise for those higher-income households, from the historic low 15 percent rate on capital gains and dividends to 20 percent. The president had wanted to tax dividends at the same rate as ordinary income.
About 2 million out-of-work Americans would benefit, if the deal is approved, from a one-year extension of long-term unemployment benefits, which expired over the weekend.
One area that hewed closer to Democratic priorities was Obama's proposal to reinstate limits on how much upper-income households can benefit from personal exemption tax credits and itemized deductions. Those limits, in place before the George W. Bush-era tax cuts began in 2001, were done away with over the past decade.
The agreement under consideration would reduce those deductions for households earning more than $250,000. That would lead to higher effective taxes on those households without an increase in their tax rates, which Republicans had resisted.
Other tax credits established under Obama's economic recovery program would also be extended for five more years. That provision is a nod to Democratic calls for more stimulus spending to help the economy and for adjustments to the tax code to help those with more modest incomes.
Those credits include a $2,500 tax credit for college students and additional credits that allow cash refunds even if no tax is owed for those with children and family incomes below $45,000.
The deal also includes a permanent fix for the Alternative Minimum Tax, a part of the tax code that was established decades ago to ensure high-income earners pay at least a minimum amount of tax, rather than substantially eliminate their liability with extensive deductions. But it increasingly snares middle-class families because it was never indexed to inflation. Congress must fix the Alternative Minimum Tax issue every year, a problem that would be finally resolved with Monday's deal.
Even with these thorny tax issues all but settled, the mandatory budget cuts that would start to reduce federal spending Wednesday remained a sticking point until late Monday.
The sequestration cuts slice across defense and domestic programs and had been set as a last-ditch trigger designed to spur negotiations for a broader budget deal after an earlier deficit-reduction effort failed.
Talks focused on postponing the cuts for two months, but offsetting the $24 billion that would not be saved. The White House and Republicans eventually settled on a mix of revenue increases and spending cuts.
Postponing the automatic cuts for two months, as the Republicans wanted, all but ensures the budget battles will continue. Democrats had hoped to postpone that reckoning for a year to keep Obama's second term from beginning with a repeat of past tumultuous budget battles.
Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser contributed to this article.
lisa.mascaro@latimes.com
kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com
michael.memoli@latimes.com
john.fritze@baltsun.com
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Jarrod Scott Saltalamacchia
(Salty)
Bats Both, Throws Right
Height 6' 4", Weight 195 lb.
High School Royal Palm Beach High School
Debut May 2, 2007
Final Game September 29, 2018
Born May 2, 1985 in West Palm Beach, FL USA
Jarrod Saltalamacchia made history in 2007 when he made his major league debut. Having 14 letters in his last name, he had the longest surname in MLB history, breaking the mark of 13 shared by 15 players: Gene DeMontreville, Ossee Schreckengost, Lou Schiappacasse, Lee DeMontreville, Bonnie Hollingsworth, Bill Knickerbocker, Al Hollingsworth, Ken Raffensberger, Austin Knickerbocker, Kirk Dressendorfer, William Van Landingham, Todd Hollandsworth, Steve Wojciechowski, Tim Spooneybarger and John Van Benschoten. The old record had stood since the 19th Century.
In the 2001 World Youth Championship, he hit .316/?/.474 as the main catcher for the Gold Medal-winning USA. Saltalamacchia hit .348 as a high school senior. He was chosen by the Atlanta Braves with the 36th pick in the 1st round of the 2003 amateur draft, a supplemental pick for the loss of Mike Remlinger to free agency. Jarrod was signed by scout Alex Morales for a $950,000 bonus. In 2003, he hit .239/.382/.396 for the GCL Braves and .214/.267/.286 in 9 games with the Danville Braves. In the Gulf Coast League, he led catchers with 35 assists, but also with eight errors. Baseball America rated him the #3 prospect in the GCL.
In 2004, Jarrod played for the Rome Braves and hit .272/.348/.437. Baseball America ranked him as the #7 prospect in the South Atlantic League and also as the 7th-best catching prospect in baseball, between Kelly Shoppach and Russell Martin.
Saltalamacchia had his best minor league season yet in 2005, hitting .314/.394/.519 for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. He hit 19 home runs and 35 doubles, the most in the Braves minor league chain. Baseball America named him the top catcher in the minor leagues and the top prospect in the Carolina League, ahead of Anibal Sanchez and Nick Markakis. He made the Carolina League All-Star team, having finished third in average and led in intentional walks (11). He followed up by hitting .565 in 23 AB for the Peoria Javelinas of the Arizona Fall League.
The prospect struggled in 2006, only hitting .230/.353/.380 for the Mississippi Braves. Baseball America still rated him the #10 prospect in the Southern League between Sanchez and Miguel Montero. In the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympics, he backed up Kurt Suzuki at catcher while also serving as the team's primary DH. He batted .250/.368/.406.
Saltalamacchia started 2007 with a .309/.404/.617 line with 18 runs in 22 games for Mississippi. When Atlanta's top two catchers, Brian McCann and Brayan Pena, were both injured by swung bats on May 1, Saltalamacchia was called up to be Atlanta's backstop.
In his first game with Atlanta, Jarrod went 0 for 2 with a walk and a time hit by pitch on his 22nd birthday. In his first MLB at-bat, he flew out to Aaron Rowand against Freddy Garcia. When Pena returned, Saltalamacchia remained on the roster, with the team releasing Craig Wilson. To get him some playing time, Atlanta also used him at first in lieu of Scott Thorman. Saltalamacchia hit .284/.333/.411 in 47 games for the Braves. He was then involved in the big trade deadline deal, getting sent to the Texas Rangers with Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Beau Jones in exchange for Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay. Saltalamacchia played a key role within a month, in the highest-scoring game in American League history, on August 22nd, as Texas scored 30 times against the Baltimore Orioles. Saltalamacchia scored five of those runs, drove in seven and hit two homers to lead the offense. He spent most of 2008 and 2009 with the Rangers, getting into 61 and 84 games, and hitting .253 and .233. The Rangers were disappointed with his offensive output, however, and sent him back to the minors in 2010, then on July 31st traded him to the Boston Red Sox for three minor leaguers. He ended up playing only 12 games between the Rangers and Red Sox that year, hitting only .167.
However, Boston had big plans for Saltalamacchia, with long-time starting catcher Jason Varitek obviously nearing the end of the line. Salty was the starter with Varitek the back-up in 2011, and he played a career-high 103 games, hitting only .235 but with 23 doubles and 16 homers. Varitek retired after the season, and Jarrod then played 121 games in 2012, with similar results: a low batting average (.222) but good power for a catcher (17 doubles and 25 homers). However the Sox had a terrible season, finishing in last place, and were not ready to commit to Saltalamacchia over the long run, especially as his defense and handling of pitchers was considered below average. Given a very good defender as a back-up in the person of veteran David Ross, he had his best season in 2013 however, hitting .273 with 40 doubles and 14 homers, scoring 68 runs and driving in 65 as the Sox bounced back to win the AL East title. Playing in the postseason for the first time, he went 3 for 10 in the ALDS, but them slumped to .188 in the ALCS. Things continued to go badly in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. After Ross started Game 1, he went hitless in the next two games, both of which the Red Sox lost, and both times largely because of defensive lapses on his part: in Game 2, he was charged with an error when he dropped a throw from LF Jonny Gomes that allowed the winning run to score in the 7th; in Game 3, he made an ill-advised throw in the 9th, trying to retire Jon Jay at third base, starting a string of events that led to Jay scoring the winning run on an obstruction call a few moments later. Manager John Farrell replaced him with Ross in Game 4, and the back-up caught the next three games which the Sox all won to clinch the title. In fact, that was the end for Salty as a member of the Red Sox: on December 3rd, he signed a three-year free agent contract with the Miami Marlins, worth $21 million.
Jarrod was the starting catcher for the Marlins in 2014, playing 114 games and hitting .220 with 11 homers and 44 RBIs. In 2015, however, he played only 9 games for the Fish before he was released on May 5th. he was then picked up by the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he played 70 games but had only 171 at-bats. He was productive when he did play, however, hitting .254 with 8 homers and 23 RBIs (he had hit one homer and had one RBI for the Marlins as well). In 2016, he signed with the Detroit Tigers, with the clear indication that he would only serve as a back-up to young James McCann. He messed with those plans a bit with a great month of April, when he hit 6 homers and drove in 15 runs in 17 games, but his playing time diminished after that hit streak and he ended up with 92 games and a poor .171 batting average, although he did hit 12 homers and drive in 38 runs. Now no longer looking for a starting job, in January of 2017 he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays to serve as a back-up for Russell Martin. However, that plan did not last long, as he started the year 1 for 25 in his first 10 games and was handed his release on May 4th - ironically less than a week before Martin had to go on the disabled list because of a shoulder injury. He decided to retire and accepted a job as an analyst with NESN.
Well after the opening of spring training in 2018, however, he decided to put his retirement on hold and signed a minor league deal with Detroit. He saw an opportunity because the Tigers had only two catchers with major league experience in James McCann and John Hicks, and as a result were looking to add some organizational depth at the position. He did make it back to the big leagues for 5 games in September, during which he went 0 for 7. He then announced his retirement - this time for good, presumably - the following February.
His long surname, referenced earlier, is Italian and means "jump over" (salta) "the thicket" (la macchia), though la macchia can be translated to "the spot" as well.
Sources: 2002-2007 Baseball Almanacs, MILB.com, IBAF website
20-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2012)
Won a World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2013
Jarrod Saltalamacchia on mlb.com
Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=Jarrod_Saltalamacchia&oldid=1076837"
Record Holders
USA National Team Players
USA Youth National Team Players
Birthday Debuts
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$1,000 Credit towards a future Player Development event – Caden Jones (Douglas & Kristen Jones) Arroyo Grande HS (Arroyo Grande, CA)
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Homeless college idea to expand Jump to media player An innovative college for homeless people in London has been so successful in its first year the idea is now being copied in other parts of the country.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-24186449/london-s-recovery-college-for-the-homeless-expands-to-other-areas
Birmingham 'a homeless hotspot' Jump to media player Birmingham has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country, fresh figures have shown.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-23975064/fresh-figures-show-birmingham-is-homeless-hotspot
Homeless Roma gypsies urged to leave Jump to media player Police and immigration officers have broken up a camp set-up in central London's Marble Arch by a group of Roma gypsies and urged them to leave the country.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-23379922/homeless-roma-gypsies-urged-to-leave-london
London's Recovery College for the homeless expands to other areas
An innovative college for homeless people in London has been so successful, the idea is now being copied in other parts of the country.
The Recovery College was set up by the charity St Mungo's one year ago and it has helped more than 600 homeless students take 60 different courses, ranging from maths to bicycle repair.
More than 60 students have gone onto further education and second college is to open in Bristol.
BBC London's Emilia Papadopoulos speaks to student David Lawrence and St Mungo's Andy Williams.
Go to next video: Birmingham 'a homeless hotspot'
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Dorset selected
Man arrested in Weymouth Asda gunfire probe
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-44887344
Image copyright Google
Image caption Following reports of gunfire armed officers searched Marsh Road, which runs next to Asda in Weymouth
A sixth person has been arrested by police investigating reports of gunfire near a supermarket in Weymouth.
Shots were reported on 22 May shortly before 18:00 BST in Marsh Road, next to an Asda store.
Four men and a woman were arrested on offences including attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and assisting an offender. Another man has been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Police said the firearm used could have been an air weapon.
The force said no injuries were reported following the gunfire.
A 54-year-old Weymouth man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and released while inquiries continue.
A 32-year-old man from Portland was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. He was released while inquiries continue.
Two men, aged 19 and 20 from Northamptonshire, were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent. Both have been released on bail.
A 21-year-old woman from Northamptonshire was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and released under investigation.
A 47-year-old man from Weymouth has been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and has been released while inquiries continue.
Four arrested in Weymouth Asda gunfire probe
Murder conspiracy arrest over Weymouth Asda gunfire reports
Dorset Police
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IWF World Championships 2019
Dates: 16-Sep-2019 to 25-Sep-2019
Location: PATTAYA | THAILAND
The World Weightlifting Championships is an event organised by International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The first competition, held in March 1891, was won by Edward Lawrence Levy of England
Best Websites for Bitcoin Betting on the IWF World Championships
About the IWF World Championships
The World Weightlifting Championships for Men have existed since 1891 and the World Weightlifting Championships for Women since 1987. The organisation and control of the event is the responsibility of the International Weightlifting Federation.
Frequency of the event
The World Championships have been held annually since 1937, with the suspension of the competitions between 1939 and 1945 due to the Second World War. Only in the years of the Summer Olympics are there generally no World Championships. The women’s competitions introduced in 1987 were an exception until they were finally included in the Olympic programme in 2000. At the six games between 1964 and 1984, the Olympic weightlifting competitions had simultaneous World Championship status.
While the number of weight classes among men was successively increased from three to ten between 1913 and 1977, the number of classes was reduced again in 1998. This was in view of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Sydney, where women’s weightlifting was to celebrate its premiere. Currently, men compete in eight and women in seven different weight classes.
Moderate World Championship kick-off for German weightlifters
The eleven-member German team has to settle for a 24th place at the start of the Weightlifting World Championships in the Turkmen capital Aschchabad.
Junior Vice World Champion Jon Luke Mau from Schwedt came in the weight class up to 61 kilograms to 256 (snatch 112/blow 144) kilograms in the total. The 20-year-old sports soldier has just completed his basic training with the German Armed Forces and was only able to train at a reduced level. At the U20 World Championships in Tashkent four months ago, he managed 278 kilos in the total.
Simon Brandhuber from Roding managed 306 kilograms in the 67-kilo class (snatch 146/kick 160). In the snatch he set a personal best with 146 kilos. His placement will only be decided after the A-group competition on Sunday. Vice European Champion Robert Joachim disappointed in the 73-kilo category. The 31-year-old mastered 304 (133/171) kilos. His best performance in the old 69-kilo limit is 317 (141/176) kilograms. In his class, too, the medal finale will not take place until Sunday.
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President Michel Martelly, his prime minister and a Cabinet member who oversees labor conditions signed the 12.5 percent increase into law. It took effect Thursday, and The Associated Press obtained a copy of the decree from the office of the national gazette on Monday, the first day it was available.
The law says the workers will now earn about $5.11 per eight-hour workday. It falls far short of the equivalent of $11.36 per workday that protesting garment workers have demanded.
Last year's inflation rate in Haiti was 3.2 percent.
The clothing factories have been in Haiti for decades. Initially the plants made baseballs, but they now turn out T-shirts for major North American retailers. About two-thirds of the country's 10 million people lack formal employment, and the garment industry is among the few formal sources of income.
Parliament last approved a raise in the minimum wage in 2009. That increased the daily rate from about $1.50 to around $4.50 over three years.
It also established a separate minimum wage for garment workers who can earn as much as $6.81 daily if they meet production quotas. But labor groups say the quotas are too high for workers to realistically meet in a regular workday.
The U.S.-based Worker Rights Consortium said in an October report that Haitian workers receive an average of 32 percent less than what they should. An earlier report said that all of Haiti's 24 garment factories failed to pay workers even the minimum wage.
"It means a modest increase, and it was a lot less than what the workers were asking for," Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, said by telephone.
Haiti's garment sector insists its factories comply with labor laws and says the country's minimum wage is higher than in places like Pakistan, India and Mexico.
The new decree says people who work in service jobs in banks, supermarkets and elsewhere will earn about $5.90 daily. Construction workers and security guards will earn about $5.45.
BET Global News - Your source for Black news from around the world, including international politics, health and human rights, the latest celebrity news and more. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
Get ready for the BET Experience, featuring Mary J. Blige, Maxwell, Jill Scott, A$AP Rocky, Rick Ross and many more. Click here for more details and info on how to purchase tickets.
(Photo: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
Written by Trenton Daniel, Associated Press
Michelle Obama Hilariously Breaks Down Why Melania Trump's Inauguration Gift Exchange Appeared So Awkward
The former FLOTUS also explained to Ellen Degeneres how Barack stepped in and saved the day.
This 13-Year-Old Cheerleader Serving Some Serious Sassy Face Is Taking Over Twitter As Everyone's New Favorite Meme
"When my teacher asks me a question thinking I'm not paying attention, but I get it right."
Man Films Racist Old Navy Encounter Where Store Managers Accused Him Of Stealing The Jacket He Wore To The Store
James Conley III says the employees never apologized after they realized their mistake.
Get Your news Fix
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Aqueduct in Caesarea
There were at least two cities named Caesarea in the first century A.D. The first one was was located near the springs that fed the Jordan river and was visited by Jesus and his disciples (Matthew 16:13). It was the place where the apostle Peter declared the Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah of mankind (see Luke 9).
The other city, named Caesarea Maritima, can be found on the shores of the Mediterranean. It is where the prophet Agabus prophesied (Acts 21:10) that Paul would be arrested and the place where the the apostle was left to languish in prison for more than two years. This Caesarea was also where a Roman Centurion named Cornelius lived and became the first non-Jewish convert to Christianity (Acts 10).
Caesarea Maritima was built around 25 to 13 B.C. and named by Herod the Great in honor of Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. Jewish historian Josephus wrote about the building and completion of the city. In 13 B.C. it became the Roman civilian and military capital of Judea and the official residence of Roman procurators (governors) such as Pontius Pilate and Antonius Felix.
Apostle Paul Bible Study
When did the apostle write his epistles?
How did Paul use sarcasm for correction?
At the end of his third journey the apostle Paul travels to Jerusalem. After arriving in the city he goes to the temple with four Jewish converts (Acts 21:23 - 26). Jews from Asia, assuming he brought Gentiles into a Temple area where they were not allowed, cause a riot.
Roman troops soon arrive to arrest him (which saves him from a certain death). Paul is soon escorted out of the city by Roman soldiers when one of his relatives discovers a murder plot against him. It is in Caesarea Maritima, which is roughly 60 miles from Jerusalem, that Roman governor Felix will hear the case against Paul made by the Jews.
And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and put themselves under a curse, declaring that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. And there were more than forty who had made this conspiracy . . .
But the son of Paul's sister heard of their plan to lie in wait; and he came and entered inside the fortress and reported it to Paul. And Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the chief captain, for he has something to report to him." . . .
Then the chief captain dismissed the young man, having charged him to tell no one those things that he had reported to him. And he called two certain centurions and said, "Prepare two hundred soldiers, and seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen for the third hour of the night, that they may go as far as Caesarea.
And have beasts of burden ready, that they may set Paul on them, and may carry him safely through to Felix the governor." (Acts 23:12 - 13, 16 - 17, 22 - 24, HBFV)
The Jews, before Felix in Caesarea, accuse apostle Paul of various crimes which they cannot prove (Acts 25:7). Governor Felix, in spite of his innocence, keeps Paul a prisoner in the hope that a BRIBE will be offered to secure his release (Acts 24:26 - 27).
Felix, to facilitate the possibility of a bribe, gives Paul liberties in Caesarea such as not being bound and the right to have people visit him or provide for his needs. A bribe, however, never comes. Paul is kept a prisoner under Felix from early Summer 58 A.D. to early Autumn 60 A.D. until Festus is named the new governor.
It is before Festus that Paul, as a Roman citizen, requests in Caesarea that his case be heard by Caesar himself. His request is granted and he is taken to Rome by a Centurion. His travel to Rome is considered his fourth missionary journey.
Cities visited by Paul
Antioch - Assos
Athens - Berea
Caesarea - Corinth - Damascus
Ephesus - Malta - Miletus
Neapolis - Philippi
Rome - Sidon - Tarsus
Thessalonica - Troas - Tyre
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