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Emily Andras Unbroke Wynonna Earp
Genre television is the place for progressive and inclusive shows, and 'Wynonna Earp' is among the best.
Writing and creating strong female characters is kind of Emily Andras’s thing. Anyone who’s been a fan of an Andras project knows her characters and writing are infused with strength, humor, and depth. That’s why when IDW approached Andras with Wynonna Earp (a comic written and created by Beau Smith), it was as if fate had laid a hand.
“I loved the character of Wynonna. She was so witty and funny,” says Andras. “I liked that she was kind of a loose canon, she was a badass, she shot first and asked questions later. I thought that was a female character who we needed to see on television.”
Even more than that, though, the idea of making a supernatural western and upending the genre with a compelling sister relationship at the center was what struck Andras.
“There’s something about the western where traditionally…it’s very patriarchal,” says Andras. “You think about a lot of men running around with guns, there’s a certain brotherhood, a kind of one-upmanship. I was interested in flipping that on its head and making it all women running around, taking each other on, riding that line between good and evil, helping each other, at the same time maybe some of them being in contention, so the idea of sisters really appealed to me.”
With complex and compelling female heroes, a fresh tone, and some of this year’s most positive representation – in the form of a budding relationship between Waverly Earp and Nicole Haught (WayHaught) – Wynonna Earp is something special. Wanting to uncover what makes Wynonna Earp stand out in the current landscape of television, we spoke with Andras about female heroes, sisterly relationships, representation, and why genre is one of the best places to find “badass storytelling.”
How did you go about creating this world and Wynonna’s history for television, and what was different about the story in terms of the comics versus the show?
The comic was an absolute gift. It’s always challenging when you’re adapting from one medium to another, and I can’t say enough about Beau Smith. He’s such a gracious person and just so open-minded about the fact that we were going from one medium to another.
The biggest thing was we needed to build a bigger world for her and needed to back up where she was. In the comics, she’s already a very established agent in the Black Badge Division, she’s an older woman in her late 30’s who’s kicking ass and knows what she’s doing and is really confident, and is very assured of her role in the Black Badge Division.
What were the elements of Wynonna and Waverly Earp that you felt were really important to bring to life?
With Wynonna, it was really critical to me that she was a woman that we, as women, recognize. That sounds so basic and so simple, but I actually don’t think you see a lot of that on television. Someone who tries to be a good person but sometimes fails, maybe looks a certain way but has a lot of self-loathing and a lot of doubt, and someone who has suffered from a really dark past — someone to whom life has not necessarily been kind, and I wanted to give that character a second chance.
She is not necessarily a good person, she has not necessarily made the best choices, and she continues to struggle with her flaws. But at the same time, I didn’t just want to make her some dude’s idea of a broken woman. I wanted her to feel like a real person. The thing I like most about Wynonna is that she is such a mess, she has made so many mistakes, but she continues to try. She continues to try and fight even when she’s terrified, even when she knows she’s made a mistake. That felt like a real hero worth cheering for.
With Waverly, I love the idea of someone who has taken a completely different tack to protect herself. Wynonna’s weapons are humor and supposed cynicism and wit and kind of coldness — on the surface, at least — where Waverly has tried to kill with kindness. She’s always done the “right thing” and what she’s supposed to and she’s always smiling and she’s always nice. I love the idea that that isn’t necessarily who Waverly is deep down, and now, on-screen, we can explore who she really is.
But I also think Wynonna and Waverly not-so-secretly want, on some level, what the other one has. They’re envious of each other. Waverly very deliberately would like to be the heir, she would like to be the hero, she would like to be the one to break the curse, to restore the family name, whereas Wynonna would love to know what it’s like to be liked, to be adored, to not have to fight so hard and guard yourself so much and be despised, and to escape the “bad girl” label she’s been stuck with since she was a teenager.
That’s what makes the sister relationship so complicated but also so delicious. It’s not always one thing or another. You can love and hate someone at the same time, you can want to protect them and be angry at them and that’s what makes those two characters, especially together, feel so genuine.
To what degree was that relationship the foundation of the show?
It was 100 percent the foundation. That is the true romance of the show, for me. That relationship — having that one person in your life who you will fight for to the death, even if they drive you crazy, that person who, on some level, knows you and trusts you, despite everything — is 100 percent the foundation of the show.
Many of the most progressive and inclusive shows right now are genre shows. What is it like to write and create for that audience?
It’s amazing and I never want to leave…Wynonna is such a progressive, insane, imaginative show, it would be hard to go back to doing something more conventional, to be completely honest. I feel like I’ve been so spoiled by the fans and the storytelling. I really have to give the network credit. There was nothing I pitched them this year — from gender issues to sexuality issues to crazy creatures to gore to weird sex stuff — that they said, “That’s too far for us.”
Something that’s now becoming a well-known secret is that for years, genre has been at the forefront of progressive storytelling…Because it involves worlds that are extreme or not quite human, it’s actually the best forum to talk about what it is to be human, what it is to be a woman, what it is to be a man, what it is to be a family.
It speaks to the fact that genre audiences are intelligent. They’re sophisticated, they’re used to big concepts, big shifts in tone, philosophical things, and they’re good with pace. They’re not intimidated by complicated storytelling so there’s so much more room to really examine these interesting issues.
Speaking of progressive storytelling: Has the response to WayHaught surprised you, or was it something that you expected, to some degree?
I love the LGBT community. These are my girls. I showran Lost Girl for a long time, I know how passionate this fanbase is and how important it is for them to see themselves represented on television in a way that is really respectful, and frankly how rare that is…And honestly, once I saw the dailies of the very first scene where Nicole walks into Shorty’s, I knew we had something special. But I’m not going to pretend I haven’t been completely blown away by the response. I could not believe the response that Nicole Haught got in a two-minute scene.
Her name is Nicole Haught, which is pretty funny and pretty wink-y, but I feel like the character’s such a genuine person that I really was so delighted that people embraced the spirit in which it was delivered, which was romantic, interesting and not exploitative. I want you to cheer for this couple, I want you to feel like this feels like a real relationship we’re following, a real romance.
But I also had no idea — remember, this series had been shot in its entirety come January — so given the year that 2016 has been for that community, it’s taken on interesting meaning delivering WayHaught just because 2016 was such a complicated year for female characters and in particular for lesbian characters on television. So I think we’re seeing a lot of response in a more general sense to this last year of television and we arrived at a time when people wanted to just have a nice romance.
I think your dedication to positive and meaningful LGBTQ representation is evident in the way that this story was set up and came about — why was it important to you and what elements of this story did you feel were really important to nail?
It’s honestly always going to be important to me…100 percent that is a community that is not being represented on television in the same way that it does exist and flourish in society right now.
I liked the idea that Waverly was not 12 years old, I liked the idea that whatever is happening to her and wherever she’s going to fall on the LGBT spectrum, that she is in her early 20’s and I’m not sure it has ever occurred to her before that she might be gay or bi or what have you.
There were a couple of other things that were really important to me. I really wanted Nicole to just be a lesbian, full-stop, who just didn’t have a lot of angst about that. I like that Officer Haught knows exactly who she is and what she wants, but at the same time, she’s the furthest thing from predatory. She’s confident, but she’s not aggressive. She’s a lovely, good person who just happens to like girls and really likes being a cop.
One last thing that was important to me and was incredibly important to Dominique [Provost-Chalkley] and Kat [Barrell] is I wanted it to be a real relationship. I wanted it to feel respectful and earned. When you see straight couples on television, not every one of those relationships is the same, and the same is true of queer relationships. Not every lesbian relationship should feel the same. It’s about the people involved, the two women involved and who they are as people, and I feel like conflict and drama should come from who they are as characters.
In Episode 10, we get a hint that this world is a lot bigger than we originally thought. As we approach the end of Season 1 and in a hypothetical Season 2, is that something we’re going to explore?
I certainly hope so. If not this season, I sure hope we have the chance to do that next season. When you’re world-building with such a complicated mythology, we needed to centralize it, so we developed the idea of the 77 revenants of Wyatt Earp’s original outlaws. But in the comics, what makes them so joyful is that there’s this paranormal division fighting and battling all sorts of creatures and I love the idea of the Ghost River Triangle as an area that has a lot of weird, supernatural shit going down and maybe not all of it is bad.
So stay tuned — we definitely hint towards some really interesting revelations about the area as a whole. And yeah, give me a couple more years and I’ll give you some werewolves. Are you just asking for werewolves? Yes. Werewolves.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Home Contributors Home Away from Home: Indians in Indonesia
Home Away from Home: Indians in Indonesia
Indians are not strangers in Indonesia. They have been drawn to Indonesia, – a name derived from the Latin Indus, meaning “India”, and the Greek Nesos, meaning “island”, since the prehistoric era. From the 4th and 5th centuries onward, Indian cultural influences became more visible. Various Indian people settled in Indonesia, mixed and assimilated with the local population.
The first Indian migrants came primarily from Gujarat in India during the first Christian era. This followed the introduction of the Sanskrit language which led to the development of the Kawi language and script. Early trade relations were established between India and the islands of Sumatra, called ‘Swarna Dwipa’ or “the island of gold,” and ‘Java Dwipa’ or “the rice island”.
The influx of Indian settlers continued till the 16th century and this period is historically referred to as the Hindu-Indonesian period. The underlying philosophical concepts introduced since the 5th century by the Brahman priests have had a profound effect in shaping every facet of Indonesian society, till date.
Indians were later brought to Indonesia by the Dutch in the 19th century to work on plantations located around Medan in Sumatra. These included Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, who are now assimilated with the local society over four generations, while still maintaining their cultural traditions.
A second wave of Indian immigrants who made Indonesia their home in the first half of the 20th century were several thousand Sindhi families, when displaced during the India –Pakistan partition. They are mainly engaged in trading and commerce in major cities, including Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Bandung, Solo, Padang, Banda Aceh and Semarang.
Gandhi Seva Loka foundation connects them and also manages the Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School (GMIS) under the leadership of Chairman Suresh G. Vaswani. The Sindhi community is well integrated in Indonesia; regular activities are held at its community center on Jl. Samanhudi, Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta.
The inflow of major Indian investments in Indonesia starting in the late 1970s drew a fresh wave of Indian investors and managers to this wonderful country. This group of entrepreneurs and business professionals has further expanded over the past two decades, and now includes engineers, consultants, chartered accountants, bankers, IT and other professionals. At present, approx 250,000 individuals of Indian descent are found across the Indonesian archipelago.
An association of corporate entities and people having interests in promoting economic and business interest of Indonesia and India – India Indonesia Chamber of Commerce (IndCham), was established in 1977. The current committee under the leadership of Amol Titus, works with government agencies, KADIN and professionals towards knowledge sharing, collaboration and counseling to boost business activities, economic and trade ties.
Image: Indian Chamber of Commerce in IndonesiaBesides advancing their own careers, members of the Indian community — both Indonesian citizens and Indian expatriates — have made significant contributions to their host country in many fields. They have established schools of repute for development of education in the country. Incredible India Education Fair (IIEF) is an initiative by Ravi Makhija to promote Indian Education in Indonesia.
The role is to enhance the educational links between India and Indonesia at various levels – Ministerial, University and High School. “In the past, there were interactions between Sriwijaya University of Indonesia and Nalanda University of India; but somehow these links disappeared in books of history. India is mostly known to Indonesia only for Bollywood, culture and to certain extent—Ramayana and Mahabharata,” said Ravi.
Indians have strong community ties and tend to group functions around religious festivals and events and temples are a great venue for these community events. The Sri Mariamman Temple in Medan and Shiva temple in Jakarta are the most popular. Other temples are the Dewi Mandir, Sai Mandir and Gurudwara in Pasar Baru and Tanjung Priok, as well as the ISKCON Temple in Bogor.
The India Club Jakarta since 1981 represents Indian community at large in Indonesia and organizes a variety of events designed to connect, engage and entertain members. The main focus is to celebrate the rich cultural diversity of India through concerts, performances and three main events organized year, are Holi, Gala Deepawali eve and the Diwali Mela. More details on their website at www.indiaclubjakarta.org
Image: Mrs India Indonesia Beauty Pagent, 2018
In addition are 40 other Indian associations registered with the Indian Embassy, which include the Indian Women’s Association, Indian regional associations, religious and faith-based associations, social and charitable organizations, schools, alumni and chapters of Indian associations.
Over 40 Indian restaurants are found just in Jakarta. Indian Restaurants can also be found in most major cities of Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, Solo and even Semarang. Bali has a growing Indian population and to cater to the taste buds of the tourists, there over a staggering 40 Indian restaurants across Bali. The Indian Embassy has established Cultural Centers in Jakarta and Bali, where Yoga, classical music and dance are taught.
Indians are now are flocking to Indonesia as tourists and this number has risen by 30 percent to 485,000 tourists. You would find a majority of them in Bali, as a wedding and honeymoon destination. This year, Indonesia is aiming at attracting 700,000 tourists from India by cooperating with and encouraging travel agencies to include Indonesia on the itinerary of Indians visiting Malaysia and Singapore.
The most binding element for the Indian Diaspora, a staggering 30 million spread across the world, is no longer just Bollywood or cricket; it is the internet and online social networking sites that connect them to each other and have become the major gateway to India. In a society where family and societal ties are strong and valued, the online space has brought Indians everywhere closer together, making them the most connected people in the world and their voices the most heard.
www.Indoindians.com was launched in the year 2000, is a community initiative by PT Infotech Solutions based in Jakarta. It has a wealth of information on living and working in Indonesia relevant to Indian newcomers to this wonderful country, The site connects, supports and engages the Indian Diaspora in Indonesia as well as people of Indonesia with an interest in India through various online and offline initiatives.
Image: Indoindians Art Exhibition and Charity Auction 2018. Participating artists from left to right are Arun Samak, Vasundara Sur, Sonal Sadarangani, Sulochana Vj, Nisha Gupta, Rashi Sharda, Jyoti Chawla, Vijaya Birla, Suvarna Mantha and Manik Kapoor.
Indonesia is very similar to India with it a large diverse, growing population, where traditional family values and ties are important. The spirit of Bhinneka Tunggal Eka or ‘unity in diversity’ resonates with both cultures and demonstrates tolerance and respect for other religions in both countries. ‘India and Indonesia, two great nations and civilizational siblings, have a lot of kesamaan (similarities)’ says Julia Suryakusuma. Indians like to live in Indonesia.
However, the successes of the Indian community in Indonesia can be attributed to its traditional ethos, its tolerance and hospitality, its educational aptitude and qualifications, and its capacity to harmonize and adapt.
By Poonam Sagar, founder www.indoindians.com
as published in The Jakarta Post special supplement on Wednesday, 30th May
#IndoIndians #IndiansInIndonesia
Ramesh Bang October 11, 2020 At 8:16 am
Really nice narration and felt proud to connect to India Indonesia diaspora.
With Well Wishes,
Ramesh Bang
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MATTHEW TULLY
Matthew Tully: If you didn’t live in Indiana, would you vacation here?
I love Indiana. I do. I love its cities, even the gritty parts of them, and I love driving on the country roads when the cornstalks are peaking in the late summer and early fall. And, yes, even many of Indiana’s suburbs have grown on me over the years.
The state is underrated; I truly believe that. Underrated, that is, by the geniuses on the coasts who sometimes forget there is life, innovation, culture and indoor plumbing here in the middle of the country.
Of course, recent news events — Anthony Weiner’s Hoosier sext partner and the half-naked Indiana dude from the “Duck Dynasty” empire — aren’t exactly helping Indiana paint itself as sophisticated. But it’s a wonderful place.
True statement: I consider Bloomington, with its funky academic vibe, free spirit and environmentalist’s heart, one of the five best places in which I’ve ever spent time. Yep, right up there with the likes of Chicago, Washington, D.C., London and Key West.
True statement: While I have loved the other places that I’ve called home, there’s something unique and personal about Indianapolis. Maybe it’s the small-market/big-town conflict or the laundry list of competing opportunities and obstacles that it faces. I don’t know. I’ve enjoyed other places, but something about Indy has made it the only hometown I’ve ever found myself caring and worrying about — like a parent, almost.
True statement: If I moved to Hawaii tomorrow to take my other dream job — part-time barista at the Maui Starbucks — I’d still come back to Indy to visit. During a perfect weekend trip, I’d go to the Speedway, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and Mama Carolla’s Italian restaurant. I’d take my son to The Children’s Museum, our current home away from home, and then drive up to Carmel to check out whatever latest, greatest idea Mayor Jim Brainard had implemented. I’d also try to hit the Jazz Kitchen and the Phoenix Theatre, two great places I don’t visit enough, and I’d probably leave disappointed that I didn’t get to do everything I wanted to.
True statement: Although I moved away from Indiana for a few years, I’m really glad I’ve spent the bulk of my life as a Hoosier. The state has its flaws — this aversion to change thing has just got to break at some point — but from the Dunes of Northwest Indiana to Brown County to the rolling hills near the Ohio River, it’s a fine place to live, a place with character and soul.
But if you’re not from here, is Indiana also a place to visit for more than, say, a convention or a sporting event? Would anyone from outside the state vacation here?
It’s a question I’ve pondered amid recent talk about Indiana’s tourism efforts. The Indiana Office of Tourism Development announced the launch of an app this week to make it easier to travel the state. A spokesman told me the department is trying to persuade Hoosiers to travel more in their own state and lure out-of-staters to vacation here. Meanwhile, other news outlets report that Indiana, as with so many things, has taken a bargain-basement approach to marketing itself as a vacation destination.
Other states are definitely more aggressive. Illinois sends me travel brochures and emails frequently, and I can’t seem to drive anywhere without seeing a billboard touting Michigan. It clearly works; my wife and I recently made reservations for a trip to the Wolverine State.
That trip underscores Indiana’s tourism challenges. To make the drive to Michigan more tolerable for our toddler, we have looked for a place to stay overnight in Northern Indiana, hoping to find something interesting to do for a few hours while also reducing the amount of time in the car each day. But where to stay? What to do?
My native Lake or Porter counties? Listen, I love Northwest Indiana, but I can go to Applebee’s here. And I hate to say it, but Michigan’s nearby beaches don’t come with views of smokestacks and steel mills.
South Bend? It’s a great town, but a vacation spot?
Indiana is a great place to live — an easygoing state with culture and character. And I’d argue that Indianapolis is a city worthy of a traveler’s long weekend. Central Indiana is without question a wonderful area to, as they say, raise a family. But is Indiana a vacation spot?
Trying to answer that question, I headed to the Barnes & Noble on 86th Street this week and checked out the travel section. Those looking for vacation information have hundreds of books to choose from, with California, Florida and national parks grabbing roughly half of the shelf space. A “Great Lakes region” section, meanwhile, offered guidebooks on Chicago, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
After not seeing anything about Indiana travel, I queried a friendly clerk who guided me to an aisle that included several shelves of books about Indiana. But again, the books summed up Indiana’s tourism challenge. There were picture books and history books, books on nature walks and fishing and bird-watching. But there wasn’t a standard glossy travel book filled with enough options to fill a week’s vacation.
The closest book I found was titled: “Great Indiana Weekends.” I guess that sums it up.
I took the question to Twitter and found almost unanimous agreement from Hoosiers that Indiana is not a place to vacation, unless you live here and want to stay close. One woman said it would be like vacationing in Iowa, which I think goes way too far. But I get it.
You know, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about Chicago, Los Angeles or New York and say something along the lines of, “It’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” I wonder if, for many, the opposite is true of Indiana. If it is, that’s actually quite a compliment.
Reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or on Twitter: @matthewltully.
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100 Medicines and Vaccines in Development for HIV/AIDS
Americas biopharmaceutical research companies are working on 100 new medicines and vaccines to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS and related conditions, according to a new report from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
Although scientists have made phenomenal advances in understanding the disease and have discovered 31 approved medicines used to control the virus in different ways, there is still no cure and no vaccine to prevent transmission. Moreover, the virus has proved its capacity to mutate and become resistant to available treatments, resulting in a constant need for new medicines.
"We have progressed in just a few decades from having no medicines available for HIV/AIDS patients to having highly effective treatments even against multi-drug-resistant forms of the virus," says John Castellani, PhRMAs president and CEO. "We have moved from complicated drug cocktails that needed to be taken around the clock to simple, once-a-day treatments. However, we have not defeated HIV/AIDS, and we cannot afford to become complacent."
Many novel approaches are being taken to stay a step ahead of the disease. For example, a medicine under development is designed to spare healthy cells by attacking only infected cells, and a new class of anti-HIV medicines is intended to prevent the HIV virus from breaking through cell membranes. One vaccine being worked on is administered through a skin patch, while another vaccine in development uses a weakened common cold adenovirus that helps boost the immune system.
More than 1 million Americans are living with HIV infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). New and better treatments have slashed U.S. death rates. Between 1995 and 1997 alone a period when highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) was approved for patients, U.S. death rates fell by 63%. As of 2007, the U.S. death rate from AIDS had fallen by 77 percent compared to 1995 levels. Still, more than 18,000 people with AIDS die each year in the United States, according to the CDC. A more reliable and advanced surveillance system recently led the CDC to increase the estimated number of new cases per year in the U.S. from 40,000 to 56,300.
Of all Americans living with AIDS, 46 percent reside in the South, 29 percent in the Northeast, 20 percent in the West and 11percent in the Midwest, according to recent CDC estimates. The five metropolitan areas with the highest number of reported cases are, in descending order, New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.
Although HIV/AIDS continues to take a terrible toll, a new UNAIDS report revealed heartening news: The rate of new HIV infections has dropped nearly 20 percent over the last decade. "We can say with confidence and conviction that we have broken the trajectory of the AIDS pandemic," says UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibé. Still, an estimated 7,000 people a day worldwide continue to be newly infected a number that could be cut drastically by a vaccine. Currently, American biopharmaceutical research companies have 33 vaccines in development.
Biopharmaceutical companies contributed more than $9.2 billion to improve health care in the developing world from 2007-2009, the latest dates for which data are available, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). Projects included HIV/AIDS clinics, education and prevention programs and initiatives to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the countrys leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, which are devoted to inventing medicines that allow patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. PhRMA companies are leading the way in the search for new cures. PhRMA members alone invested an estimated $45.8 billion in 2009 in discovering and developing new medicines. Industry-wide research and investment reached a record $65.3 billion in 2009.
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Weir Group offloads two renewables units
Weir, which is currently undergoing a £100 million divestment programme, has sold American Hydro Corporation and Spain-based Ynfiniti Engineering Services, which both operated under its flow control division
Pic: DR
Glasgow-based engineering firm Weir Group has sold two of its renewables businesses in deals worth up to £36.7 million.
Weir, which is currently undergoing a £100 million divestment programme, has sold American Hydro Corporation and Spain-based Ynfiniti Engineering Services, which both operated under its flow control division, for an initial consideration of £34.4 million.
The businesses generated combined revenues of £38 million and £1.4 million in operating profit in 2015 year, Weir said.
American Hydro Corporation is an equipment supplier to the water and hydroelectric industries and Ynfiniti provides operation and maintenance services to a range of renewable energy sectors.
Weir said the total consideration for the two businesses will increasing to £36.7 million “subject to certain conditions being satisfied”.
The company also notes in a trading update net debt will be lower than previous guidance as a result of the disposal proceeds and the scrip dividend uptake of new shares issued instead of a cash dividend.
Weir notes trading in April and May was “consistent with the trends seen in Q1 and in-line with expectations”.
Orders for the five months to the end of May were down 15 per cent year-on-year and were down 21 per cent on the previous quarter with orders and revenues in April and May “slightly lower than the prior year”.
Weir said it remains on track to deliver first-half profits ahead of current market expectations but has made no change to the prior full-year guidance as outlined in April.
Shares in Weir Group were up 1.4 per cent on Thursday.
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Home » News » Knights Donate $2 Million for Middle East Refugee Housing
Knights Donate $2 Million for Middle East Refugee Housing
The Knights of Columbus is putting more than $2 million toward new homes for Iraqi and Syrian refugees fleeing violence, and not a moment too soon, said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. “We have tens of thousands of refugees in this area [Northern Iraq] who have been driven from their homes at the point of a gun. Many of them are sleeping outdoors, in hallways, three, four families together in a Christian school. And winter is coming,” Anderson told CNA in a Nov. 20 interview.
“So we have to provide something for them on a more permanent basis because this isn’t going to be solved in the next few months or maybe even in the next few years,” he continued. “What we don’t want to have happen is people being born and dying in huge refugee camps, like what’s happened to the Palestinians, for example. So it’s important that we take some action.”
Construction on the houses “may begin as early as next month,” the Knights of Columbus website noted. More than 100,000 Christians have fled their homes in the Mosul region of Northern Iraq after Islamic State forces drove them out in their summer offensive. Many of the inhabitants had to leave most or all of their belongings behind, and refugees are now living in tents or schools.
The Church has been the sole source of aid to the refugees because the Iraqi government has done nothing, a member of the international aid group Aid to the Church in Need told CNA in October.
With 1.8 million members worldwide, the Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest Catholic fraternal order.
The Knights announced on Nov 19 that they would be donating over $2 million to aid Iraqi and Syrian refugees fleeing violence – and not only to Christians but other religious minorities as well. Permanent homes will be constructed in the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil, which lies in territory controlled by the Kurds in Northern Iraq.
The Knights raised $1.7 million from individual members, local councils and other donations since August, on top of the $1 million the fund began with. Money came along with prayers for the refugees, Anderson said. The fund is still open for public donations.
In addition to house funding, the Knights’ Christian Refugee Relief Fund is giving $200,000 in general aid to the Greek Melkite Catholic Archdiocese of Aleppo, Syria.
Anderson emphasized that Christians have a right to live in the region they have inhabited for thousands of years.
“Those people who want to stay – and you have to remember that these people speak the same language that Jesus spoke – this is a community of faith that was there long before many other communities. They have a right to stay there.”
The Knights’ action is in response to Pope Francis’ call for a “globalization of charity” towards migrants worldwide, Anderson affirmed.
“This is maybe the most glaring example of this crisis. It is – in many other places in the world – my experience has been people like to stay in their homes if they can. People are emigrating because it’s impossible for them to stay in their homeland. So we have to be able to find a way of solving these problems,” he said.
“These new homes are signs of hope that will allow this community to begin to blossom once again,” he stated in a Nov. 19 statement.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/knights-donate-2-million-for-middle-east-refugee-housing-70573/
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Eye on Community
Kamloops Progress
The Connector
Kamloops History: The rich history of St. Joseph's Catholic Church
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, at the west end of Chilcotin Road, was established after the Hudson’s Bay Company had relocated its fort to the west side of the North Thompson River in 1843.
Ken Favrholdt / Kamloops This Week
There is a building on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc reserve that has a remarkable history, spanning almost 175 years on the same location. But it has undergone changes that conceal the long story of its connection with the Tk’emlups people and the region.
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It became the nucleus of the village that grew up around it.
Although the signboard in front of the church today indicates it was originally built about 1870, part of it is actually much older. Its appearance today is how the church was reconstructed in 1900.
When the Tk’emlúps band undertook restoration of the church in the mid-1980s, the remains of a hewn log floor system was discovered within the building, possibly part of the original church erected on the site by the Secwépemc te Tk’emlúps. The first missionaries in the area were the Jesuits in 1843.
Based on other early missions they established, the first church was likely a squared-log building with a simple cross on top.
Three years after the first Jesuits visited, a mission was established at Tk’emlúps. In a letter dated June 1, 1846, Father Nobili wrote: “At the fort of the Sioushwaps, I received a visit from all the Chiefs who congratulated me on my happy arrival amongst them. They raised a great cabin to serve as a church …”
In 1858, the first Oblate missionaries came to British Columbia, now a colony, after spending 11 years prosyletizing in Oregon. Father Jean-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Félix Pandosy was founder of the Okanagan Mission (Kelowna) in 1859, which became the church’s headquarters for the Interior.
Pandosy was an itinerant priest who most certainly visited Kamloops many times, meeting Louis Clexlixqen, known as Petit Louis, the hereditary chief of Tk’emlups, after 1852.
Louis converted to Catholicism in the early 1860s and, about 1866, he became a church chief (an appointment by the Oblates). In 1871, photographer Benjamin Baltzly visited Kamloops as part of the Geological Survey’s exploration for a railway route.
He mentions in his journal that on the Tk’emlúps reserve, “they have a small log church, with mother earth for a floor and logs for seats.” Unfortunately, his well-known photo of the river junction does not clearly show the old church. By 1872 however, the itinerant Father Florimand Gendre reported that Chief Louis had raised the money to build a new church.
It was finally constructed a decade later, in 1882. In 1885, the Oblates moved their headquarters from Okanagan Mission to Kamloops, with Father Jean-Marie Le Jacq in charge.
In 1891, Father Jean-Raphael Le Jeune became the rector of St. Joseph’s Church on the Kamloops reserve. Le Jeune published the Kamloops Wawa (Talk of Kamloops), a popular newspaper, using Duployan shorthand to write Chinook jargon, with his printing press in the back room of the church.
As the congregation grew, a new church was built in 1900. In the November 1900 edition of the Wawa, Le Jeune wrote: “The old log church has been torn down, and a new frame structure put in its place. The dimensions are seventy-five feet from the front door to the bottom of the sanctuary, and there is a transept fifty feet by twenty. The walls are sixteen feet high. The windows are of the Roman style, that is circular heads, five and a half feet wide, and over nine feet high. The services of a good carpenter were secured, and the Indians helped as much as they could; at times there were more than fifty working together.”
The church was opened on the Sunday before Christmas in 1900.
In 1985, the church was completely restored and the majority of 12,265 hours of labour was contributed by Tk’emlups band members.
The bell in the tower, incorporated in the new structure, dates from the earlier church, which explains the inscription: “St. Louis Indian Reservation, Kamloops BC, Pastor Reverend Father Le Jacq, O.M.I., October 1885.” The bell was cast in New York. St. Joseph’s Church shows how a building may conceal its own history, yet reveal more than meets the eye.
Ken Favrholdt is a freelance writer, historical geographer and former curator/archivist of the Kamloops Museum and Archives.
© Kamloops This Week
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Katie Engelhart
I am a writer and documentary film producer, born in Toronto and based in New York. I'm also a National Fellow at New America.
My first book, The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die, will be published on March 2, 2021, by St. Martin's Press (US/Canada) and Atlantic Books (UK/Europe). You can pre-order it here. And get a taste for it here — in this California Sunday article, 'Her Time.'
My most recent project was a months-long investigation into the first COVID outbreak in an American nursing home — and, more broadly, the growth of the for-profit nursing home industry. ('What Happened in Room 10?' California Sunday.)
Previously, I worked as a documentary film correspondent & producer at NBC News. I reported on illegal nursing home evictions, the black market for abortion pills, a controversy over the definition of death, a suspicious Taser death in Texas, an effort to track down brain tissue stolen from Holocaust victims, the financial struggles of Charlottesville rally survivors, a fake royal family in Serbia, fake news in Idaho, and the opening of old secret police archives in Albania — among other subjects. I appeared on The Today Show and NBC Nightly News, and regularly on MSNBC.
Before that, I worked as a foreign correspondent for VICE News, based in London, and a roaming Europe reporter for Maclean's, Canada's largest news magazine. I contributed to news organizations across North America, and won a Canada National Magazine Award for my coverage of Ukraine's Euromaidan revolution. In a former life, I was a graduate student of History and Philosophy at Oxford University, and worked as a researcher for the historian Timothy Garton Ash. This Radiolab podcast and this article — about colonial crimes in Kenya and British government efforts to hush them up — are good examples of my history-focused journalism.
I am represented by Georgina Capel of Georgina Capel Associates (London) and William Callahan of Inkwell Management Literary Agency (NYC).
kmengelhart@gmail.com
© 2020 by Katie Engelhart
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Kent Law School
Kent Law Clinic
Kent Law School ranked 45th in world for law in 2021 THE World University Rankings
By aps42
Kent Law School is ranked 45th in the world for law in today’s 2021Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
The news is a further boost to the Law School’s world-leading reputation for teaching and critical, socio-legal research.
Out of a total of 224 law schools across the globe that met the strict criteria to be ranked, Kent Law School was one of only 12 UK law schools to feature within the top 50.
Within the ranking of 224 institutions, Kent is 25th in the world for ‘international outlook’ and is listed among the top 61 best law schools in the world for research.
The rankings judge research-intensive law schools across five key areas: teaching (the learning environment – 32.7%); research (volume, income and reputation – 30.8%); citations (research influence – 25%); international outlook (staff, students and research – 9%); and industry income (innovation – 2.5%).
In addition to the THE World University Rankings, Kent Law School performs strongly in two other leading global league tables; Kent is ranked among the top 150 law schools in the world in the 2020 Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subject and among the top 200 law schools in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2020.
Kent Law School also maintains a strong and consistent performance in all three major UK league tables, with a top 25 ranking in all three for 2021: 13th in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021 for law; 22nd in The Guardian University Guide 2021 for law; ; and 22nd in The Complete University Guide 2021 for law.
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Challenges, opportunities await energy sector after pandemic disruption
By Ellen Chang
The energy industry is now focusing on balance sheet strength and free cash flow as it prioritizes increasing production growth, which remains challenging. That was one of the strategic messages imparted by Helen Currie, chief economist for ConocoPhillips at a recent AICPA Oil and Gas Conference session.
U.S. exploration and production companies face higher capital costs as investors question whether they want to be exposed to the industry, Currie added. The result is that the cost of obtaining capital "will continue to be higher than pre-COVID for high yield and investment grade companies," she said.
Oil and gas producers have been dealing with challenges spurred by the coronavirus epidemic since early in the year. When demand tanked in the spring as many cities and states entered lockdowns, the stocks of energy companies also fell drastically. Energy giant ExxonMobil, long a blue chip stock, was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in August — leaving Chevron as the only energy company remaining in the index.
For now, energy consumption patterns have shifted, impacting demand forecasts from nine months ago. A large percentage of employees are still working from home, air travel has been reduced drastically, e-commerce sales have risen, and global freight movement has also declined sharply, Currie said during the Nov. 18 online session.
The overall declines in energy demand have been partially mitigated by other pandemic-related factors. Many people have shifted away from taking public transportation and are relying instead on using their personal cars to get to and from work, school, and other activities. As more people shop online, the number of miles driven by delivery trucks increased. The petrochemical industry has also benefited since the number of single-use plastic containers for food has risen since March.
U.S. oil producers remain significant producers but at a smaller scale due to lower demand globally. While demand is growing, it is lower than previous forecasts projected, Currie said. Some oil projects have been deferred but are expected to come online in the future.
"Consumers are responding to the changes in consumption, and it will take a couple years to get back to a sustained 100 million barrels per day," she said, referring to the fact that global demand in 2019 averaged just over 100 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
While oil demand will not recover immediately, a large amount of volatility in crude oil prices will remain in the near term, Currie said.
"We think we are past the worst of things," she said, but still adds that, "it creates a real challenge for management teams."
The Russia/OPEC alliance will have a "growing influence" on the industry and "opens oil markets to greater exposure to geopolitics and market volatility," Currie said.
The need for oil and gas and their products will remain "essential" beyond 2040, based on estimates by the EIA even as the number of renewable energy sources rise and energy companies transition to lower emissions output, she said.
"It is not practical to think they are going to disappear," Currie said. "They are still going to be needed in decades in the future."
ConocoPhillips does not see a "value proposition" for its shareholders to invest in renewables, she said.
But the oil behemoth is focused on being an "environmentally strong operator" and will engage with policymakers, Currie said.
Instead, the company focuses on being a Paris-aligned E&P company with the low cost of supply portfolio, strategy, and balance-sheet strength to stay competitive and return cash to its shareholders through cycles, she said.
In October, the oil company said it adopted the Paris-aligned climate risk framework with an ambition to meet net-zero operational emissions by 2050. ConocoPhillips said it would focus on "more aggressive greenhouse gas emissions intensity targets and actions" since the goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit the rise of global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius. One new goal of the company is to lower its greenhouse gas emissions to 35%–45% by 2030 instead of its earlier 5%–15% goal. The company lowered its methane intensity by almost 65% since 2015.
Technology breakthroughs will help companies and consumers reduce emissions globally, Currie said. Transitioning to other energy sources needs to be conducted in the context of what is best for investors she said.
British Petroleum, the British oil company, has an aggressive plan to lower emissions and rely more on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. The company said in August that it plans to reduce oil and gas production by 40% by 2030, invest more money in low-carbon energy, and add more renewable generating capacity. BP paid $1.1 billion for stakes in two U.S. offshore wind farms owned by Norwegian energy company Equinor this year.
ConocoPhillips acquired Concho Resources, one of the largest unconventional shale producers in the Permian Basin in 2020 in an all-stock transaction. The combined company will have about 23 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources globally, including in the Delaware and Midland basins along with positions in the Eagle Ford and Bakken in the Lower 48 and the Montney in Canada.
— Ellen Chang is a freelance writer in Houston. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Ken Tysiac, (Kenneth.Tysiac@aicpa-cima.com), the JofA's editorial director.
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Majid Dhana & Natalia Michalska confirmed for Look Up at Journeys Festival International, Portsm
Journeys Festival International is excited to bring its high impact outdoor exhibition ‘Look Up’ back to Portsmouth as part of the 2017 festival programme. An outdoor exhibition installed on the exterior of prominent buildings around the city, Look Up provides a unique opportunity for artists engaging with refugee and asylum seeker themes to have their work shown in one of the most visible strands of Journeys Festival International.
Last year, Portsmouth was pleased to receive the work of Nikos Papadopolous, with eye catching Playmobil inspired scenes of refugees and asylum seekers seen on iconic buildings throughout the city. This year the Festival is bringing the work of Natalia Michalska and Majid Dhana, two locally based artists, to the forefront of Portsmouth’s skyline.
Zimbabwean artist and poet Majid Dhana has worked with the British Red Cross in Portsmouth for nearly four years, building relationships with the refugee and asylum seeker community and enabling their stories to be heard through a creative output. Working with support groups like the Young Refugee Project, Majid has developed an artistic practice that puts the struggles and strengths of these communities at its core.
Originally from Poland, Natalia Michalska worked to develop her artistic practice in Munich, before settling in Portsmouth in 2014. Since then Natalia has worked with many of the area’s most vibrant cultural institutions including Aspex Gallery, University of Portsmouth, and Live Art Local. Her practice focuses on storytelling and human relationships on a global level.
Majid and Natalia first came to work together through their love of spoken word and performance. They have since collaborated to create a successful series of workshops engaging with the local refugee and asylum seeker community. For Journeys Festival International Portsmouth, Majid and Natalia will work with their established community network to formulate a series of creative portraits of local refugee and asylum seekers, to be installed across the city for the duration of the festival.
As part of this year’s Look Up, we’re thrilled to announce that both artists have also been offered a 6 week residency and 6 week exhibition with Aspex Gallery, opening on the 19th October featuring a live Q&A with Natalia and Majid. They will also each lead an Art Walk during Journeys Festival International, a chance to hear directly from the artists about their practice. Tony Spencer, Exhibition & Gallery Manager at Aspex Gallery had this to say about the project:
"“Look Up transforms the City of Portsmouth, creating an enriching portrayal and celebration of cultural diversity. The local artists, who exhibit their projects not only make us conscious of the scale and impact of a global refugee crisis, they also remind us of relevant situations concerning those who are displaced and the impact of our compassionate support.”
Find out more information on Majid's work here and visit Natalia's website here.
Journeys Festival Portsmouth runs from 19th – 29th October, with events taking a place across the whole city. See our website: http://www.journeysfestival.com/ for more details of all our upcoming events!
19th Oct – 29th Oct 2017
#JFIPort // @JourneysFest
www.journeysfestival.com
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Jerusalem Post Opinion Columnists
Essay: The demographic race
The situation within a smaller Israel wouldn't be hopeless, but would be if we kept Judea and Samaria.
By Hillel Halkin
hillel halkin 88
(photo credit: )
A paradoxical argument sometimes raised by the opponents of territorial concessions on Israel's part is that the demographic threat to this country's Jewish majority, commonly cited as a powerful reason for ceding territory, is in fact so severe that returning most or all of the areas conquered in 1967 will not help. Even if we do that, the claim is made, our demographic future will be disastrous unless Israel undertakes radical measures, such as stripping its Palestinian residents of their voting rights or pushing for their "transfer" to other countries - and if we are going to have to do such things to survive even after yielding territory, why yield territory at all? Let's do the disenfranchising and transferring that will have to be done anyway, and hold onto all the land that we have. But apart from the feasibility, let alone the morality, of getting rid physically or politically of hundreds of thousands or millions of Palestinian Arabs, the statistics do not quite bear such an analysis out. A quick look at a demographic report released this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Jerusalem shows that the situation within a smaller Israel, while extremely worrisome, would not be hopeless, as it would be if we kept all of Judea and Samaria. Let's first look at the overall figures. The official population of Israel in 2005, including all Jews living on both sides of the 1967 borders and all Arabs living within them plus east Jerusalem, was 6,985,900, of which 76% was Jewish, 20% Arab, and 4% "other." Yet since "other" refers almost exclusively to immigrants from the ex-Soviet Union who are not halachically Jewish, and since these immigrants - socially, culturally and politically - function within Israel's Jewish community, they can for all intents and purposes be considered Jews too. This puts the Jewish population at 80%. (By contrast, the Jewish population of the whole land of Israel west of the Jordan without Gaza is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60%). Now let's consider things historically. Fifty years ago, in 1955, Israel's population was 1,789,100, of which 89% was Jewish and 11% Arab. This would seem to show a slippage of 9% in half a century - but since the 1955 figures did not include the Arabs of east Jerusalem, who today number some 230,000, we have to subtract them to get a better idea of what has happened. Without them, Israel had in 2005 a population that was 83% Jewish, meaning that the slippage has been 6%. The explanation for this of course lies in the far higher Arab birthrate, which more than neutralized the enormous Jewish immigration of these years. In 1955, for example, the Arab birthrate was two-thirds again as high as the Jewish one - 46.4 children born to every 1,000 Israeli Arabs as compared to 27.3 for Israeli Jews. (Figures for the average number of children per family, which is how we generally measures birthrates today, are unavailable for then.) NOW, 6% in half a century may not seem like much, but it is fact a very serious decline, especially when one takes into account that there is unlikely to be massive immigration to Israel from anywhere else in the Diaspora in the next 50 years. Moreover, while the Arab birthrate in Israel has dropped sharply over time, to 33 children per 1,000 inhabitants or four children per family in 2005, so has the Jewish birthrate - to 19.2 per 1,000 and 2.7 per family. The result is that in 2005, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Jewish population accounted for only 73% of births in Israel as compared to 27% for the Arabs. If this trend continues, unbalanced by a surplus of Jewish immigration, the Jewish percentage of Israel's population will continue to shrink inexorably. And it apparently will do so, because it would take 50,000 more Jewish immigrants than emigrants every year to keep it at the 80% level - a figure that doesn't seem remotely attainable in light of the fact that an estimated 30,000 Israelis a year are now emigrating. (In 2004, there were 10,000 more emigrants than immigrants!) WHAT IS the flash point at which a declining majority/minority ratio threatens to plunge a country into severe discord and possibly worse? This of course depends on what majority and what minority we are talking about, and on the relations between them. Belgium has a Flemish/French ratio of 60 to 40, but since these two populations get along reasonably well, no dangers are posed by it. Sri Lanka has a Sinhalese majority of 74% and a Tamil minority of 18% and has been the battleground of a savage civil war for decades. Israel is neither Belgium nor Sri Lanka, but in terms of the intensity of antagonism between Arabs and Jews, and the factors exacerbating it, it is certainly closer to the latter. One can only say that, although we are not at the flash point yet, we are getting nearer all the time. All this is bad news. But there is some better news, too. While the Israeli Arab birthrate is still falling, the Israeli Jewish birthrate has bottomed out and even risen slightly in recent years; if this continues, it will slow the slippage down. And this in turn may give us the time to lower the Arab birthrate even further, until it reaches Jewish levels, which can be done in the same way that birthrates are lowered everywhere: By raising the Israeli Arab standard of living, improving the educational level of Arab women, enabling more of them to enter the job market, etc. In fact the really good news is that by raising living standards not only for Arabs but for Jews as well, we can also make Israel an economically easier and more attractive country to live in, which means more Jewish immigrants and fewer emigrants. (It would probably mean fewer abortions, too, which are currently being performed, the Central Bureau of Statistics tells us, at a rate of nearly 20,000 a year - nearly all of them in the Jewish sector.) All of these things together could just possibly stabilize the situation at a still manageable level - if not at 80/20, than perhaps at 75/25. We are running a race with time and currently losing it. It's not lost yet, however - unless, that is, we decide to add the handicap of Judea and Samaria. In that case, we can stop running right now, because we were beaten long ago.
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2020-10-14 02:55:00 | Wife of Trump’s labor secretary, who was at Barrett Rose Garden event, tests positive for Covid-19
October 14, 2020 - by Dartunorro Clark - Leave a Comment
Trish Scalia, the wife of President Donald Trump’s Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, has tested positive for Covid-19, the Labor Department said Tuesday night.
The agency said in a statement that doctors performed the test Tuesday afternoon. She has “mild symptoms but [is] doing well,” the statement said.
Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, tested negative Friday night, according to the Labor Department. He has experienced no symptoms.
“The Secretary and Mrs. Scalia will follow the advice of health professionals for Trish’s recovery and the health of those around them. For the time being, the Secretary will work from home while continuing to carry out the mission of the Department and the President’s agenda,” the agency said in the statement.
The secretary and his wife attended the Rose Garden ceremony last month where Trump officially nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barrett’s confirmation hearing began this week.
Trish Scalia, in blue, sits behind first lady Melania Trump at Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s introduction as President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee at a White House event on Sept. 26.Al Drago / Redux Pictures file
Scalia sat behind first lady Melania Trump and next to former senior presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway, both of whom have contracted the virus.
Trish Scalia is the latest high-profile person — which includes White House staffers, members of Congress and Trump campaign staff members — to have tested positive for the virus. More than a dozen people connected to the administration, Congress or Trump’s campaign were infected, including the first lady and the president, who has since recovered.
The Trump administration has been sharply criticized for its response to the virus, and public health experts have called the ceremony at the White House a “superspreader” event. The disease, which has shuttered businesses nationwide and sent the economy into a tailspin, has killed more than 200,000 people since the end of February. There have been nearly 8 million confirmed cases in the U.S.
Dartunorro Clark
Dartunorro Clark is a political reporter for NBC News.
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ViennaScapes
Photos and works from Vienna and surrounding areas
Historic Car 2013-06-01 A somewhat more serious shot today. This is the car in which the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were riding when they were assassinated by a gunman in Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914. The car is a Graf & Stift Double Phaeton, 4 cylinder, 28 HP. It is in the Military Museum in Vienna (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum). The consequences of the "shot heard around the world" started the first World War. There was very little light in the room, except single spots - and no daylight. This shot was underexposed at ISO 2000, then the raw shot brightened in Canon DPP, denoised with Topaz DeNoise (I tried Noiseware, but liked Topaz better) and "pepped up" with Color Efex. I had to use my wide angle to get the shot so the max aperture was 5.6. I tried ISO 4000 and ISO 6400, but they were no more detailed - the additional detail was 'eaten' by the additional noise.
District 11 The Gasometer City. Until 1984 this cylindrical buildings were used to store "City" (i.e. coal) gas. They were then converted to housing, shopping complexes, and event centres, using a variety of architects, including the 'leaning apartments' in this view.
District 10 The Japanese Garden as part of the Kurpark Oberlaa. The Japanese garden was the Japanese national entry in the Vienna International Garden Fair of 1974. the Kurpark has several such areas - and was used as background in some of Austria's first silent movies.
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Victoria Police Confirm Use Of Cameras In Public Spaces To Ensure Melburnians Are Sticking to Stage 4 Rules
By Kieran Simpson
Mobile surveillance units are starting to be used in parks and public spaces across Melbourne to remotely track citizens movement.
One of the units has been spotted in a number of parks in the Stonnington area of Melbourne in the last few days, according to The Age.
A Victoria Police spokesman said “The cameras can help to capture and deter breaches of Chief Health Officer directions as well as other crimes and community safety issues. For operational reasons we will not be providing commentary on how many of these units are being used or where and when they are positioned.’’
A spokesman for Stonnington council told The Age “The City of Stonnington and Victoria Police are working in partnership on a number of initiatives to monitor compliance with COVID-19 restrictions as we enter the warmer months, in particular monitoring key public areas where gatherings and social distancing may be an ongoing issue.’’
COVID-19 melbourne victoria Victoria Police
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Killer Robots
Weapon Treaties
‘Islamic State’: Weakened,…
‘Islamic State’: Weakened, but still dangerous
A few years ago, “Islamic State” was a powerful terrorist organization. Today, it has largely gone underground, but it continues to mobilize its followers to launch attacks.
The two women and 12 children the German Foreign Ministry recently got released from the al-Hol prison camp in northern Syria have returned to Germany. It was a humanitarian gesture from the German side. And for the Kurdish autonomous government, it means less of a burden on their security forces.
The camp houses about 64,000 people, most of them from a region once occupied by the “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist organization. Most of the detainees are Syrian and Iraqi citizens, according to a UN report. It says almost 9,500 come from elsewhere, many of them from Europe.
For months, the security authorities have demanded that the numbers in the camp be reduced, warning that numerous inmates still have extremist ideas and pose a potential threat. If these individuals were able to escape during an insurgency, they would immediately rejoin IS or other jihadi groups, they argue.
The IS fighters held in a prison in Hassaka in northeastern Syria face an uncertain future
Weakened but not broken
If potential terrorists managed to rejoin IS, however, they would find an organization that is only a shadow of its former self. The aura of its earlier years is gone; it does not have the organizational or symbolic momentum it had before it was defeated in 2017/18.
IS is significantly weakened compared to five years ago, said Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London. The idea of the “caliphate” proclaimed in 2014 no longer holds any fascination, he told DW, adding that IS is closely monitored, especially in Iraq.
“There is enormous pressure there, which makes it difficult for it to organize itself, to get hold of new weapons and to recruit new members,” Neumann said. “All of this weakens the movement enormously in its countries of origin — Iraq and Syria.”
Lack of funding
Jassim Mohamad, a terrorism researcher who runs the www.europarabct.com website, comes to a similar conclusion.
“Some estimates from inside Iraqi government said that there are about 3,500 fighters in Iraq and perhaps 4,000 fighters in Syria,” he told DW. “If we talk about ISIS in Iraq, there is a significant decline in the size of the organization and the organization’s operations after ISIS lost its strongholds in Syria and Iraq,” he said, using another acronym for IS.
“The operations of ISIS in Iraq and Syria have retreated, and it is no longer able to carry out specific operations,” he added.
IS is trying to obtain weapons, Mohamad said, adding that the information “received from inside Iraqi government reveals that the organization has only light weapons and does not possess medium or heavy weapons.”
“It is expected that ISIS lost its network of relations and financial sources around the world,” he said.
Nice, France: IS is weaker but still present in Europe
‘Small, mobile groups’
If IS decides to carry out specific operations, they are limited, he added, saying they are as a rule carried out by “mobile groups that do not exceed 10 people,” mostly in distant regions or far from cities. Generally, he said, their activities are restricted to rapid actions such as blocking roads or attacking border military sites.
As the group’s financial transactions are also being monitored more closely, its economic capabilities are also very limited, he said, adding that this has led to a decline in IS operations around the world.
New tactics to mobilize supporters
There is no reason to sound the all-clear, however, said Neumann — IS is still active in Europe, although it has changed its tactics. It is currently not in a position to carry out large-scale operations or to rely on members with combat experience as it did a few years ago. Instead, Europe has seen smaller attacks by individuals, including in Paris, Nice, Vienna and Dresden.
“In this way, IS wants to show that it is still present and can still strike,” he said. “It seeks new motives for mobilization, for instance, the debate about the Muhammad cartoons.”
Its recruitment drive is based on simple elements. A few videos with suggestive image sequences and solemn music are often enough to win over followers. This kind of cyber recruitment is even simpler and often more effective than efforts made by schools of Islamic theology and extremist groups often found in the vicinity of mosques, headed by radical preachers. On a digital level, radicalization often goes unnoticed.
War and chaos on the ground in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in 2020
Present in Africa, too
The organization is present especially in West Africa and North Africa, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya, said Jassim Mohamad.
In addition to ideological mobilization, the IS is primarily concerned with expanding smuggling routes to sub-Saharan Africa, he said.
Al-Qaida currently still has a greater influence in the region, Mohamad said, but “overall, however, terrorist activity in West Africa can be expected to increase despite the efforts being made.”
This article was translated from German
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© 2020, Dr.Tianze Zhang. All rights reserved
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MainAll NewsJewish WorldWorld Mum as Iran Says Israel Will Cease to Exist
World Mum as Iran Says Israel Will Cease to Exist
World leaders' silence recalls Nazi era, says ZOA.
Tags: Ali Khamenei Anti-Semitism Iran ZOA Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Hillel Fendel , Sep 18 , 2015 12:27 PM | updated: 12:31 PM
Over a week has gone by since Iranian leaders' vague threats to destroy Israel have become more specific, yet neither U.S. President Barack Obama nor any other major world leader has condemned it.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, tweeted last week that, "Allah willing, Israel will cease to exist within the next 25 years." He added that Iran and/or other jihadist elements would not sit idly by during this period: "Until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists."
In the many press briefings and statements given and issued by State Department and White House spokesmen since then, no mention was made of the threat. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) announced that it is "appalled" that Obama and world leaders "have failed to condemn" the threat – and said it regards this silence as "a diplomatic Kristallnacht."
"We seem to be replaying Kristallnacht, when the world ignored the Germans physically attacking the Jews of Germany in November 1938," the ZOA announced. "Today, we see a diplomatic Kristallnacht as the world ignores the threats of violence and massacre of millions of Jews in the state of Israel."
Just two days later, in a bizarre follow-up, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani posted a message wishing Jews well for Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, which was celebrated this week.
“May our shared Abrahamic roots deepen respect & bring peace & mutual understanding," Rouhani wrote to the people whose nation his boss had just threatened with annihilation.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, "It is remarkable that President Obama and his Administration have utterly failed to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei's statement foreshadowing Israel's demise in the next quarter of a century. This is a deafening silence. In fact, no government anywhere seems to have condemned Khamenei's statement. After the conclusion of the Iranian nuclear deal, the Iranian regime, which has repeatedly threatened to obliterate Israel, looks forward to the day Israel disappears, and no one even regards this as vile enough to merit an official, public response."
"This recalls the ominous period," concluded Klein, "when the Nazis were assaulting Germany's Jews and speaking of the end of the Jews of Europe, as Hitler did in January 1939, and no one condemned it."
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Too Young to Vote, Old Enough to Act: A Brief History of Major Youth-Led Movements
Matthew Green
Thousands of students around the Bay Area participated in school walkouts Wednesday to demand stricter gun laws, part of a nationwide string of student demonstrations spurred by last month's mass shooting at a Florida high school.
It's the latest and most widespread indication that a youth-led movement, initially started by the survivors of the shooting, has taken hold nationally.
Almost immediately after 17 students and faculty were shot to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 14, a group of student survivors turned horrific tragedy into a powerful call to action.
Students took to the streets and the airwaves, demanding local and national officials tighten notoriously loose state and national gun laws that allowed the troubled 19-year-old shooting suspect to so easily purchase a military-style assault rifle.
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Within four days of the shooting, the students had come up with a name for their movement (Never Again), a policy demand (stricter background checks for gun buyers), and a date for a nationwide protest in Washington, D.C. (the March for Our Lives, scheduled for March 24th).
It’s an impressive feat of activism by a notably resilient group of high school students, most too young to vote.
In their coverage of the emerging movement, many news outlets conveyed a sense of surprise that young people would so strongly assert themselves and take leadership on an issue that directly affects them.
But they shouldn’t be.
This is hardly the first time high school students have led the charge in pushing for nationwide reforms. In fact, the nascent Never Again movement follows in a long tradition of middle and high school students who, despite being too young to vote, have helped lead landmark social and political movements. Among the most recent (and often overlooked) examples include the young people on the frontline of the Black Lives Matter movement, Dreamers activists fighting for immigration reform, and the group of American Indian youth who helped spark the Standing Rock movement in South Dakota last winter.
Scroll through this timeline to explore just a handful of the many movements led by young folks, 18 and under, that helped shape the society we live in today. Note that this is far from an exhaustive list, so if we’ve overlooked a major movement that you think deserves inclusion, please let us know!
VIEW FULL-SCREEN VERSION HERE
As University of Oklahoma professor Kathryn Schumaker noted in a recent Washington Post commentary, student protesters have long risked disciplinary action or worse to force the nation to have difficult conversations about the future they stand to inherit.
“Young people often have a greater sense of the possibilities for change than their elders do and less concern about the short-term consequences of seeking long-term reforms,” she writes.
WATCH: PBS Student Reporting Labs on youth reactions to the shooting
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U.S. remembers 9-11 as pandemic changes tribute traditions
FILE – In this May 31, 2018, file photo, visitors to the Flight 93 National Memorial pause at the Wall of Names honoring 40 passengers and crew members of United Flight 93 killed when the hijacked jet crashed at the site during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, near Shanksville, Pa. Families impacted by the terrorist attacks say it’s important for the nation to pause and remember the hijacked-plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001, shaping American policy, perceptions of safety and daily life in places from airports to office buildings. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 8, 2013, file photo, Charlotte Newman, 8, visits the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York. On Sept. 11, 2020, Americans will commemorate 9/11 with tributes that have been altered by coronavirus precautions and woven into the presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
A family member gets emotional at the Tunnel to Towers ceremony, Sept. 11, 2020, in New York. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen will attend the ceremony where the names of nearly 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks will be read by family members. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Americans commemorated 9-11 Friday as a new national crisis — the coronavirus pandemic — reconfigured and divided anniversary ceremonies and a presidential campaign carved a path through the observances.
In New York, victims’ relatives gathered Friday morning for split-screen remembrances, one at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza at the World Trade Center and another on a nearby corner, set up by a separate 9-11-related organization.
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation objected to the memorial’s decision to forgo a longstanding tradition of having relatives read the names of the dead, often adding poignant tributes. Memorial leaders said the change for the 19th anniversary of the attacks was a coronavirus-safety precaution.
Kathy Swift arrived early at the alternative ceremony, wearing a T-shirt honouring her slain brother, Thomas Swift, who worked in finance.
“We still have to remember,” said Swift, 61. “The whole country’s going downhill. It’s one thing after another, and now with the COVID. I’m glad they’re still having this, though.”
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden both planned to go — at different times — to the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Trump is speaking at the morning ceremony, the White House said. Biden planned to pay respects there in the afternoon after attending the observance at the 9-11 memorial in New York, where he and Vice-President Mike Pence greeted each other at ground zero before the ceremony began with the usual tolling of a bell.
Pence was due later at the Tunnel to Towers Foundation ceremony, where he and his wife, Karen, were to read Bible passages.
In short, the anniversary of 9-11 is a complicated occasion in a maelstrom of a year, as the U.S. grapples with a health crisis, searches its soul over racial injustice and prepares to choose a leader to chart a path forward.
Still, 9-11 families say it’s important for the nation to pause and remember the hijacked-plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the trade centre, at the Pentagon in Washington and near Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001, shaping American policy, perceptions of safety and daily life in places from airports to office buildings.
Friday will mark Trump’s second time observing the 9-11 anniversary at the Flight 93 memorial, where he made remarks in 2018. Biden spoke at the memorial’s dedication in 2011, when he was vice-president.
The ground zero ceremony in New York has a longstanding custom of not allowing politicians to speak, though they can attend. Biden did so as vice-president in 2010, and Trump as a candidate in 2016.
Although the candidates will be focused on the commemorations, the political significance of their focus on Shanksville is hard to ignore: Pennsylvania is a must-win state for both. Trump won it by less than a percentage point in 2016.
Around the country, some communities have cancelled9-11 commemorations because of the pandemic, while others are going ahead, sometimes with modifications.
The Pentagon’s observance will be so restricted that not even victims’ families can attend, though small groups can visit the memorial there later in the day.
At the New York memorial, thousands of family members are still invited. But they’ll hear a recording of the names from speakers spread around the vast plaza, a plan that memorial leaders felt would avoid close contact at a stage but still allow families to remember their loved ones at the place where they died.
But some victims’ relatives felt the change robbed the observance of its emotional impact. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation arranged its own, simultaneous ceremony a few blocks away, saying there was no reason that people couldn’t recite names while keeping a safe distance.
The readers stood alone at podiums that were wiped down between each person.
The two organizations also tussled over the Tribute in Light, a pair of powerful beams that shine into the night sky near the trade centre and evoke its fallen twin towers. The 9-11 memorial initially cancelled the display, citing virus-safety concerns for the installation crew. After the Tunnel to Towers Foundation vowed to put up the lights instead, the memorial changed course with help from its chairman, former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Tunnel to Towers, meanwhile, arranged to display single beams for the first time at the Shanksville memorial and the Pentagon.
Over the years, the anniversary also has become a day for volunteering. Because of the pandemic, the 9-11 National Day of Service and Remembrance organization is encouraging people this year to make donations or take other actions that can be accomplished at home.
Karen Matthews And Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press
Trudeau agrees to virtual meeting devoted to federal health transfers to provinces
Check out Canadian Evergreen, a new cannabis publication for adults
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What are you looking for Book "Poor Economics" ? Click "Read Now PDF" / "Download", Get it for FREE, Register 100% Easily. You can read all your books for as long as a month for FREE and will get the latest Books Notifications. SIGN UP NOW!
Poor Economics
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics upend the most common assumptions about how economics works in this gripping and disruptive portrait of how poor people actually live. Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors, answer these questions based on years of field research from around the world. Called "marvelous, rewarding" by the Wall Street Journal, the book offers a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty and an intimate view of life on 99 cents a day. Poor Economics shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.
Author : Abhijit Banerjee
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Handbook Of Field Experiments
Handbook of Field Experiments explains how to conduct experimental research, presents a catalog on what research has uncovered thus far, and describes which areas remain to be explored. The section on methodology will be of particular interest to scholars working with experimental methods. Among substantive findings, contributors report on a body of results in areas from politics, to education, and firm productivity, demonstrating the power of these methods, while shedding light on issues such as robustness and external validity. Separating itself from circumscribed debates of specialists, this volume surpasses in usefulness the many journal articles and narrowly-defined books written by practitioners. Balances methodological insights with analyses of principal findings and suggestions for further research Appeals broadly to social scientists seeking to develop an expertise in field experiments Strives to be analytically rigorous Written in language that is accessible to graduate students and non-specialist economists
Author : Esther Duflo
Economics In The Twenty First Century
Economics has always been nicknamed the “dismal science,” but today the field seems a little more dismal than usual as governments, social movements, and even students complain that the discipline is failing to make sense of the major economic problems of the day. In Economics in the Twenty-First Century, Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson demonstrate how today’s top young economists continue to lead the field in the wrong direction. The recent winners of the John Bates Clark medal, economics’s “baby Nobel,” have won that award for studying important issues such as economic development, income inequality, crime, and health. Examining their research, Chernomas and Hudson show that this work focuses on individual choice, ignores the systematic role of power in the economic system, and leads to solutions that are of limited effectiveness at best and harmful at worst. An accessible summary of the latest debates in economics, Economics in the Twenty-First Century takes on what is missing from mainstream economics, why it matters, and how the discipline can better address the key concerns of our era.
Author : Robert Chernomas
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Exam Prep For Poor Economics
ISBN-13 :
Randomized Control Trials In The Field Of Development
In October 2019, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer jointly won the 51st Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." But what is the exact scope of their experimental method, known as randomized control trials (RCTs)? Which sorts of questions are RCTs able to address and which do they fail to answer? The first of its kind, Randomized Control Trials in the Field of Development: A Critical Perspective provides answers to these questions, explaining how RCTs work, what they can achieve, why they sometimes fail, how they can be improved and why other methods are both useful and necessary. Bringing together leading specialists in the field from a range of backgrounds and disciplines (economics, econometrics, mathematics, statistics, political economy, socioeconomics, anthropology, philosophy, global health, epidemiology, and medicine), it presents a full and coherent picture of the main strengths and weaknesses of RCTs in the field of development. Looking beyond the epistemological, political, and ethical differences underlying many of the disagreements surrounding RCTs, it explores the implementation of RCTs on the ground, outside of their ideal theoretical conditions and reveals some unsuspected uses and effects, their disruptive potential, but also their political uses. The contributions uncover the implicit worldview that many RCTs draw on and disseminate, and probe the gap between the method's narrow scope and its success, while also proposing improvements and alternatives. Without disputing the contribution of RCTs to scientific knowledge, Randomized Control Trials in the Field of Development warns against the potential dangers of their excessive use, arguing that the best use for RCTs is not necessarily that which immediately springs to mind. Written in plain language, this book offers experts and laypeople alike a unique opportunity to come to an informed and reasoned judgement on RCTs and what they can bring to development.
Author : Florent Bédécarrats
Deaths Of Despair And The Future Of Capitalism
"This book documents the decline of white-working class lives over the last half-century and examines the social and economic forces that have slowly made these lives more difficult. Case and Deaton argue that market and political power in the United States have moved away from labor towards capital--as unions have weakened and politics have become more favorable to business, corporations have become more powerful. Consolidation in some American industries, healthcare especially, has brought an increase in monopoly power in some product markets so that it is possible for firms to raise prices above what they would be in a freely competitive market. This, the authors argue, is a major cause of wage stagnation among working-class Americans and has played a substantial role in the increase in deaths of despair. [The authors] offer a way forward, including ideas that, even in our current political situation, may be feasible and improve lives"--
Author : Anne Case
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Changing World Order
From the international bestselling author of Principles and legendary investor Ray Dalio, who has spent half a century studying global markets, The Changing World Order examines history's most turbulent economic and political periods to reveal why the times ahead will likely be radically different from those we've experienced in our lifetimes. A few years ago, renowned investor Ray Dalio began noticing a confluence of political and economic conditions he hadn't encountered before in his fifty-year career. They included large debts and zero or near-zero interest rates in the world's three major reserve currencies; significant wealth, political and values divisions within countries; and emerging conflict between a rising world power (China) and the existing one (US). Seeking to explain the cause-effect relationships behind these conditions, he began a study of analogous historical times and discovered that such combinations of conditions were characteristic of periods of transition, such as the years between 1930 and 1945, in which wealth and power shifted in ways that reshaped the world order. Looking back across five hundred years of history and nine major empires - including the Dutch, the British and the American - The Changing World Order puts into perspective the cycles and forces that have driven the successes and failures of all the world's major countries throughout history. Dalioreveals the timeless and universal dynamics that were behind these shifts, while also offering practical principles for policymakers, business leaders, investors and others operating in this environment.
Author : Ray Dalio
Black Voodoo Economics
Publisher : Harvey Cooper
Poverty In Contemporary Literature
Poverty and inequality have gained a new public presence in the United Kingdom. Literature, and particularly narrative literature, (re-)configures how people think, feel and behave in relation to poverty. This makes the analysis of poverty-themed fiction an important aspect in the new transdisciplinary field of poverty studies.
Author : B. Korte
The Handbook Of Community Practice
The Second Edition of The Handbook of Community Practice is expanded and updated with a major global focus and serves as a comprehensive guidebook of community practice grounded in social justice and human rights. It utilizes community and practice theories and encompasses community development, organizing, planning, social change, policy practice, program development, service coordination, organizational cultural competency, and community-based research in relation to global poverty and community empowerment. This is also the first community practice text to provide combined and in-depth treatment of globalization and international development practice issues—including impacts on communities in the United States and on international development work. The Handbook is grounded in participatory and empowerment practices, including social change, social and economic development, feminist practice, community-collaborative, and engagement in diverse communities. It utilizes the social development perspective and employs analyses of persistent poverty, asset development, policy practice, and community research approaches as well as providing strategies for advocacy and social and legislative action. The handbook consists of forty chapters which challenge readers to examine and assess practice, theory, and research methods. As it expands on models and approaches, delineates emerging issues, and connects policy and practice, the book provides vision and strategies for local to global community practice in the coming decades. The handbook will continue to stand as the central text and reference for comprehensive community practice, and will be useful for years to come as it emphasizes direction for positive change, new developments in community approaches, and focuses attention on globalization, human rights, and social justice. It will continue to be used as a core text for multiple courses within programs, will have long term application for students of community practice, and will provide practitioners with new grounding for development, planning, organizing, and empowerment and social change work.
Author : Marie Weil
Publisher : SAGE Publications
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Finchley - fire at house under refurbishment
https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2016/april/finchley-fire-at-house-under-refurbishment/
Six fire engines and around 35 firefighters were called to a house fire on Arden Road in Finchley, N3 this morning.
The roof and first floor of the semi detached property, which was under refurbishment, was badly damaged by the fire as well as part of the roof of the neighbouring house.
Twelve people left the house which was being renovated before the Brigade arrived and thankfully there were no injuries.
The Brigade was called at 0942 and the fire was under control by 1131. Crews from Finchley, Hendon, Hornsey and West Hampstead fire stations are attending the incident and will remain at the scene damping down. Two aerial ladder platforms were also in use at the scene.
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New Malden - fire in derelict club house
https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2016/july/new-malden-fire-in-derelict-club-house/
Eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters and officers were called to a fire at Motspur Park in New Malden this evening.
The fire has left a disused club house at the sports ground badly damaged and at the height of the blaze smoke could be seen across a wide area.
Station Manager Graeme Hunter who was at the scene said: “When they arrived firefighters were faced with a fire in a two storey, derelict sports clubhouse. The fire affected the building’s ground floor, first floor and roof and our crews worked hard in hot, challenging conditions to get it under control.”
The Brigade was called at 1734 and the fire was under control by 2044. Crews from New Malden, Wimbledon, Sutton, Surbiton, Kingston, Tooting and Croydon fire stations attended the incident. Firefighters will remain at the scene for some time damping down.
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Locke Lord QuickStudy: Draft Legislation Signals Potential Federal Oversight Over Nascent Sports Betting Industry
Locke Lord LLP
Federal sports wagering legislation previewed by Sen. Orrin Hatch after the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) by the U.S. Supreme Court has surfaced. On December 5, 2018, Sen. Hatch’s office began circulating comprehensive proposed legislation on sports wagering. As many in the industry feared, the legislation imposes aggressive federal oversight of sports wagering. Specifically, it purports to require federal approval of state sports wagering programs before they can be implemented. In other words, states may not simply pass laws on sports betting; they must bring the proposed program to the Attorney General, who will determine whether it satisfies certain minimum standards. Even if the state obtains approval, it must be renewed by further application every three years. This framework appears to run afoul of states’ rights.
Other highlights of the legislation include a requirement, in place through 2022, that sports betting operators use official data from sports leagues or their agents to determine the result of a sports wager. The legislation allows for internet sports betting by way of interstate sports wagering compacts entered into among states which have legalized sports betting and Indian tribes. The legislation acknowledges the existing federal excise tax of 0.25% of handle, which has been applied to states which had been grandfathered in to sports betting under PASPA and now applies to additional states that have legalized sports wagering, but such tax revenues will now be specifically earmarked in a fund for sports betting matters. The legislation also creates a “national sports wagering clearinghouse” to, inter alia, manage sports wagering data, disseminate information related to best practices to uphold the integrity of the industry, analyze sports wagering data to identify trends and irregularities, and provide technical assistance to involved parties. The legislation would amend and clarify the Federal Wire Act1 to facilitate some sports betting across state lines.
Ironically, the very same concern that caused the Supreme Court to repeal PASPA appears to have reemerged in this new draft legislation. The primary basis of the challenge to PASPA in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association2 was the anticommandeering doctrine, which reflects the founders’ “decision to withhold from Congress the power to issue orders directly to the States.”3 The Supreme Court held in that the anticommandeering principle could be violated both by prohibiting the repeal of laws and by affirmatively requiring states to take action.4 Since PASPA effectively prohibited New Jersey (and other states) from repealing laws banning sports wagering and/or enacting new laws to that effect, the law was unconstitutional.5 Sen. Hatch’s draft legislation would give the Federal Government the power to tell states what to do with respect to sports betting. Especially for states that already have passed sports wagering legislation, the Attorney General’s disapproval of any portion of a state’s law could run afoul of the anticommandeering principle. Sen. Hatch was one of the drafters of PASPA and may be attempting to reinvigorate it with this legislation.
We expect this draft legislation to be hotly-debated, and likely to spur opposition from key players in the sports betting market. The consensus of the American Gaming Association (AGA) and many in the sports betting industry is that gaming has traditionally been regulated by the states and should not be subject to oversight by the Federal Government. The AGA also has opposed the federal excise tax, which hinders legal sports betting companies from competing with the black market. States that already have legalized sports wagering should be wary of the legislation, as it requires federal approval of existing state law. The sports leagues have spoken out against any regulation that would preclude them from negotiating a fee for the data they provide to companies that offer sports wagering. Several sports leagues have already contracted privately with gaming companies to form exclusive data-sharing partnerships. This legislation would render those agreements obsolete because sports leagues would be required by federal law to provide data to sports betting operators.
With Sen. Hatch’s retirement approaching, it is possible that another senator will take up the mantle for this legislation in the next Congress. Our public policy team in Washington is closely following this issue and is available to provide insight and guidance.
1 18 U.S.C. 1084.
2 Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 138 S.Ct. 1461 (2018).
3 Id. at 1475.
4 Id. at 1481-82.
5 Id.
Jason L. Zanetti
Chair, Federal Policy Group
Public Law & Policy
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The tragic story of Judith Barsi, the young girl who voiced Ducky in The Land Before Time.
Clare Stephens
The following deals with domestic violence, which may be triggering for some readers.
If you were a child in the 1990s, the sound of Ducky’s baby voice from The Land Before Time excitedly saying “yep, yep, yep!” likely gives you a visceral reaction.
She. Was. So. Cute.
The optimistic dinosaur fundamentally misunderstood the concept of tense, using words like ‘finded’, ‘eated’ and ‘scarded’, but it didn’t matter because she was adorable, and had a happy little dinosaur family who loved her.
For the child actor who played Ducky, however, life was a very different story.
From the time she was born, Judith Eva Barsi was trained for Hollywood.
Her mother taught her about “posture and poise and voice,” and when she was five, she was discovered by chance by a camera crew at an ice skating rink. Over the next five years, she appeared in over 70 commercials, and a number of feature films, including Growing Pains, Cheers, Jaws The Revenge, All Dogs Go To Heaven, and The Land Before Time.
Speaking to the LA Times in August 1988, Judith’s agent, Ruth Hansen, said her client was a “bubbly, happy little girl,” whose success was in part due to the fact that she looked much younger than she was. She was small, and at 10 started receiving injections to spur her growth.
Watch Ducky meet Littlefoot in The Land Before Time. Post continues after video.
Video via Universal Pictures
In the previous year, Hansen said, Judith had changed. She was distressed, and had started to pull out her eyelashes, and her cat’s whiskers.
At home, the young girl’s father was angry, and would repeatedly threaten his family, according to sources who spoke to the LA Times.
Judith’s mother had previously gone to police, accusing her partner of physical and verbal abuse, and threats on her life. Many people close to the family said Judith’s father spoke a number of times about killing his wife, while other times saying he would kill his young daughter, leaving his wife behind to suffer.
A neighbour recalled hearing Judith’s mother tell a story about Judith getting a brand new kite, but when she went to play with it, her father “broke it into as many pieces as he could”.
Judith reportedly told family friends she was afraid to go home, because she knew her father wanted to kill her mother.
In May, 1988, Hansen saw for the first time “how bad Judith was”.
The 10-year-old was scheduled for an audition, but started “crying hysterically” and “couldn’t talk”. Hansen, with some insight into Judith’s home life, decided to step in.
She encouraged her client’s mother to take her to a child psychologist, who, Hansen said, concluded that there were “extreme verbal, mental and emotional problems with this child”.
The psychologist reported Judith’s case to Children’s Services, who were told by Judith’s mother, Maria, that she had plans to divorce her husband and move out of the family home.
Judith Barsi on Punky Brewster. Image via NBC.
Maria had started to rent a separate apartment in May, but was yet to entirely move in. While Hansen encouraged the move, Maria told her in June that she wanted to stay in the home for Judith's birthday.
Then, on Monday, July 25, Judith missed an appointment. She was last seen riding her bike in the morning.
After that bike ride, Jozsef Barsi, 55, shot and killed his 48-year-old wife, his 10-year-old daughter, and then himself.
Judith would never get to see the final version of The Land Before Time, or All Dogs Go To Heaven, which were both released after her death. She had previously said that out of all her roles, voicing Ducky had been her favourite.
On her tombstone, Judith's family memorialised her affinity with Ducky, engraving her signature phrase "Yep! Yep! Yep!" below Judith's name.
If you or someone you know is in danger or there is an immediate risk of harm, call 000.
If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.
crime-2
extraordinary-stories
grahampearson78 4 months ago
Judith appeared in a number of American made films and television programmes before her tragic death in 1988.
Ed Doyle 2 years ago
I found a really sad but good documentary video on this poor child and the background of her parents. https://youtu.be/mypbTdwBjwQ
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Organized by the National City Chamber of Commerce
MARIACHI GROUPS
The National City Chamber of Commerce and the University of San Diego invite mariachi students to participate in two days of comprehensive mariachi workshops that include instruction from some of mariachi’s most renowned artists. Classes cover instruction in guitarrón, guitar, violin, vihuela, armonia, harp and voice. Entry fees include lunch for participants on both dates of the workshop.
Submit applications to
mariachi@nationalcitychamber.org
Mariachi Workshop Instructors on March 8-9, 2019 include:
Rigoberto Alfaro,
Rigoberto Alfaro Rodríguez was born in Yurécuaro, Michoacan on November 1, 1934, the fourth of eight children born to mariachi violinist Guadalupe Alfaro and his wife, Esperanza Rodríguez. When he was nine years old, Rioberto’s family moved to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, where they remained for five years. From Nuevo Laredo, they moved to Mexico City, where young Alfaro began his musical career as a guitar player in his father’s group, Mariachi Arandense, an ensemble that worked in the famous Plaza Garibaldi.
Sergio Caratachea,
Violin Master Instructor
Caratache comes from a family of fine mariachi has over 35 years of experience in performing, teaching, directing, composing, and arranging. He is a master violinist, having performed and recorded with multiple artists, including Vicente Fernandez, Joan Sebastian, Luis Miguel, Julio Preciado, Dina Buendia, Pepe Aguilar, and many others. He is a renowned composer in mariachi, having his works premiered by Mariachi Internacional Guadalajara. He currently serves as professor of violin at the "Music Master" of the "Department of Education Jalisco".
Javier Rodriguez,
Trumpet Master Instructor
Born in Tlaltenango, Zacatecas. At the age of eight he began his musical studies. At the age of thirteen, he began to develop his talent as a trumpet player. Two years later he immigrated to the Unites States where he began playing with his uncle in Mariachi Nuevo Zapopan. Shortly after he returned to Mexico to continue his studies at the University of Guadalajara, while studying he was a member of Mariachi Los Toritos de Ramón Ibarra, as well as a member of a versatile orchestra. Throughout the years Mr. Rodriguez was a member of great mariachis such as Mariachi Sol de México and Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano. Now he focuses on recording new music and teaching workshops.
Jonathan Clark,
Mariachi Historian
Jonathan Clark heard mariachi music for the first time as a student at San José State University in 1975, he began accompanying a local ballet folklórico. In 1977, his desire to learn this music led him to Mexico City, where he received invitations to play with groups in Plaza Garibaldi. After Natividad de Santiago, guitarronist with Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, became his mentor, he decided to move to Mexico indefinitely.
Juan Manuel Arpero
Originally from Villagrán Guanajuato. Arpero began his musical studies at the age of six along with his father, Felipe Arpero, within the tradition of the band of his town. He continued his career at the National Conservatory of Music with Felipe León and Jim Thompson. In Los Angeles, California, he completed his studies of technique and musical performance with James Stamp and Rafael Méndez in 1981, as well as the orchestral direction with Jonny Schteschko. Later in 1987, Arpero received the Lira de Oro prize, maximum award that grants the SUTM. In 1988, he founded the Festival "Bandas de Guanajuato,” within the Cervantino International
Festival, which he directed from its creation until 2010, a festival that gave rise to his music training system throughout the state of Guanajuato. He has performed lectures and concerts in Europe, the United States, and most of Latin America.
Maciel Aldo Barboda
Former guitarrista at Mariachi Internacional Guadalajara.
Studied at Escuela Superior Diocesana De Música Sagrada De Guadalajara.
Lives in Guadalajara Jalisco.
From San Lucas Evangelista, Jalisco, Mexico
Rene Mejia
Was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He began his musical studies in the Escuela de Música de Tuxpan,
Jalisco, where he studied solfège, music theory and music history.
Soon after, he returned back to Guadalajara to continue his
studies, including music composition and piano. Rene has contributed his knowledge to many youth music
education programs, including Mariachi Alegría, Mariachi Hacienda, Mariachi del Centro Universitario del Sur de la Universidad de Guadalajara. He has traveled around the world to
countries like Belgium and the U.S. to teach music in workshops dedicated to mariachi, with the association Familias del Mundo (FAMIDO). Rene is also the founder of La Banda Municipal de Zapotiltic, La Orquesta Sinfónica de El Rincón Zapotiltic, La Orquesta Sinfónica de Huescalapa. Zapotiltic, La Orquesta Sinfónica del Centro Universitario del Sur de la Universidad de Guadalajara.
Berna De Santiago
Widely/unanimously regarded as the
most prolific member of one of mariachi music's most distinguished families. Berna was born in the town of
Guachinango, Jalisco, where, like his father, he began playing guitarrón. In the 1950's, his family moved to
Mexico City, where his brother Mario, became the guitarrón player for mariachi Vargas. He did not start to
study guitarrón seriously until after his brother, Natividad, became the new guitarrón player for mariachi
Vargas in 1958. His first major group was mariachi Tolteca de Miguel Martinez, which he performed with
through the late 60's. He then went on to perform with Mariachi Oro y Plata de Pepe Chávez for 16 years, and with Mariachi Águilas de América for 18 years. Following that, he had short stints in various other groups, including Mariachi Mexico de Pepe Villa. His son Enrique, following in his family's footsteps, has been the guitarrón player for mariachi Vargas since 1981.
The workshops will be held on March 6 and 7 at the University of San Diego. The enrollment period ends February 14, 2020. Space is limited. Explore hotel options HERE. Special rates offered at National City Hotels.
©National City Chamber of Commerce
Email for Questions
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The top 10 places to retire
Published: Feb. 25, 2010 at 12:01 a.m. ET
Robert Powell and
Plus two bonus towns for you to consider
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Where do you want to live in retirement? Most folks age in place. But there are those who spend their golden years in dreamy locales. Where are those places?
Well, the 100 most popular retirement towns for 2010 are -- no surprise -- mostly located in the Sun Belt states, according to TopRetirements.com. In fact, 68 of the 100 top positions were occupied by warm-climate towns. Florida dominated the list, taking 23 of the spots, followed by North Carolina (11) and South Carolina (8).
But there are 25 new towns on the list, according to John Brady, editor of the second edition of 100 Best Retirement Towns. Some of the 25 new cities on the list include Boulder, Colo., Eugene Ore., Santa Fe N.M., Chattanooga Tenn., Cheyenne Wyo., Portland, Maine, Smyrna Del., and Cape Coral, Fla.
According to Brady, the 100 most popular retirement towns list is compiled by calculating the 100 towns with the most online visits of the 450 cities reviewed at Topretirements.com. The list is essentially a popularity contest; it reflects the towns that site visitors are the most interested in for retirement.
"One thing is clear," Brady said of the trends he's noticed in this year's list. "The Sun Belt is so dominant because people are interested in retiring to where it's warm." In addition, he said this year's list is dominated by college towns. People are looking for place to retire where they have access to intellectually challenging activities.
That said, the towns with the most online visits include:
Asheville, N.C. Asheville is a long-time favorite, said Brady. Part of its ongoing appeal is its climate (it's mild year round); its location (it's in the Blue Ridge Mountains; there's water everywhere for fishing and boating, and its downtown is walkable and dynamic); its housing stock (there's a wide range of upscale housing opportunities for seniors). What's not so special is that Asheville gets crowded in the summer and overdevelopment is coming.
Sarasota, Fla. According to Brady, Sarasota is the cultural capital of Florida. Part of its appeal is that is has one of Florida's best downtowns, a downtown that includes an impressive array of cultural facilities such as the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. On the downside, there are a lot of tourists and traffic in winter, and summers are hot. Of note, the Ringling Brothers located the winter quarters of their circus in Sarasota.
Prescott, Ariz. An old mining town, Brady says retirees choose this location for its warm climate and interesting setting. The town, which borders the Prescott National Forest, features 525 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and Whiskey Row. On the downside, there are a lot of tourists. At an elevation of 5,400 feet, the winters are colder here than the rest of Arizona. Plus, there are watering restrictions, according to TopRetirements.com.
Paris, Tenn. According to Brady, retirees come to Paris, which is roughly equidistant from Nashville and Memphis, because they like living near one of the largest manmade lakes in the world. "People go there to fish and relax," said Brady of Paris. (By way of background, the city also claims to have the world's largest fish fry.) Plus, Paris has a low cost of living compared with other retirement hot spots. The median sales price of a home here in 2009 was well below $100,000. On the downside, big city amenities are two hours away.
Austin, Texas. Austin is becoming a popular retirement community for a variety of reasons, according to TopRetirements.com. The University of Texas and its array of cultural and other activities is perhaps the biggest draw for Austin, its cosmopolitan and high-tech, quirky soul is another reason. Plus, it has a relatively low cost of living, said Brady. On the downside, the summers are hot and humid and the city might be too big and fast-paced for those seeking peace and quiet.
Green Valley, Ariz. According to Brady, Green Valley, which is 20 miles south of Tuscon, has one of the largest active adult communities in the world. The average age, by the way, is 72. Consider: It has nine golf courses; two recreation centers with over 126,000 square feet of facilities; countless swimming pools and spas; numerous tennis courts, fitness centers, and classes; and every type of crafts and clubs. "There are so many things going on there," he said. "There's something for everyone." On the downside, it's a bit remote. In fact, it's just 40 miles north of the border of Mexico. "... so close that there have been a few scenes with federales and desperados running through Green Valley," reports TopRetirements.com.
Winston-Salem, N.C. Why Winston-Salem is the seventh most visited place on the TopRetirements.com's Web site is a bit of a mystery to Brady. To be sure, there's culture (Reynolda Gardens and the Reynolda House Museum of American Art) and a downtown that features the Wachovia Center. And the cost of living is low ($120,000 is the average home price). But on the downside, Brady's Web site reports that development is proceeding very quickly, with attendant traffic. And some young professionals say there is not enough to do in the Twin Cities. Plus, crime is a concern in Winston-Salem.
Beaufort, S.C. Beaufort is a terrific place to love, not far from Hilton Head and Savannah, said Brady. What's special about this city? It's a charming old town in the Sea Island. It's won tons of awards, including "Best Small Southern Town," "Small Town Arts" and "Best Fishing Town." It has plenty of golf courses. The city has 304 acres designated as a National Historic Landmark. And the winters are mild. What's not so special, according to TopRetirements.com: It can be over run by tourists in season Not for people in the fast lane.
San Diego. To Brady, San Diego has the "most perfect weather in the country." Its scenery, climate (there's only 10 inches of rain on average per year), and lifestyle (the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, Gas Lamp District and Torrey Pines Golf Course) are second to none and appeal to active adults 55+, reports TopRetirements.com. On the downside, it's expensive and the traffic -- well, it is California.
Ft. Myers, Fla. Now that the housing market has crashed, Ft. Myers has become a less expensive place in which to retire. The median selling price at the end of 2009 was $98,000, reports Brady. What else is so special about Ft. Myers? Well, there's the beach, a charming old downtown area, the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford winter estates, world-class shopping. golf and fishing; and something for everybody. Plus, it's the spring training home for Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins. On the downside: Oppressively hot, humid summers; traffic; way too much development, now in a bust cycle; too many strip malls.
According to Brady, there are two other cities/towns that retirees might want to consider from the top 100 list. Those include Portland, Maine, which if you don't mind winters is an up and coming retirement spot, and Smyrna Del., which is a small, former farming town of about 8,000 in north central Delaware midway between Wilmington and the oceanside community of Lewes. The latter town has plenty of active adult communities, beaches and land, and an attractive tax structure.
Learn more about TopRetirement.com's list at this Web site.
Robert Powell is the editor of Retirement Weekly. Learn more about Retirement Weekly at this Web site.
I’m a single mom. I take my kids on trips. My mother says that’s crazy and I should be saving for a house. What do you think?
My husband is a felon and his work plummeted. He did not file a 2019 tax return. Will we get $1,400 stimulus checks under President Biden?
Robert Powell writes about retirement issues. Follow Bob on Twitter: @rjpiii.
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The Robert Machemer Foundation
MACHEMER HISTORY
2020 SCHOLARSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON!
SCHOLARSHIP POLICIES
1. The Robert Machemer Foundation policy regarding scholarship funding is that funds will be directed to a 501(c)(3) institution within the United States to support training in scientific/medical research to improve knowledge of the causes and treatment of vitreoretinal diseases.
2. A Machemer Scholarship will provide one year of support for research training at that institution. With Foundation approval of a letter requesting extension, the project may extend into a second year, however additional funds would not be provided.
3. The trainee will be working in research for a minimum of 15% time.
4. The 501(c)(3) Institutions who fail to comply with the conditions of the scholarship may be ineligible for future funding.
5. Only one scholarship of up to $20,000 will be granted to an institution each year.
CONDITIONS OF SCHOLARSHIP
The following conditions apply to the 501(c)(3) recipient of a Robert Machemer Foundation Scholarship:
A. All funds shall be used solely and exclusively for the purpose of the training and research proposed in the successful application and within the terms of the scholarship.
B. Expenditure of funds for any other purpose requires specific prior written permission from The Robert Machemer Foundation.
C. The award of a Machemer Scholarship is subject to agreement that no part of funds granted by The Robert Machemer Foundation as a charitable entity shall be applied to infrastructure, overhead, or levied “taxes”.
D. A complete account of scholarship funds expended shall be supplied to The Robert Machemer Foundation 12 months after the date of receipt of the grant.
E. The support of The Robert Machemer Foundation must be acknowledged in all publications of work funded wholly or in part by the Foundation.
F. Grantees shall communicate research findings in peer-reviewed literature and in national or international retinal meetings, such as, meetings of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, American Society of Retinal Surgeons or Vail Vitrectomy Meeting .
G. The mentor is responsible for submission of a one-half page summary of research and educational accomplishments in non-technical terms, which can be published by The Robert Machemer Foundation. The report is due at the time of the 12-month report.
H. Machemer Scholarships are subject to objective evaluation and are awarded to a limited number of applicants. This funding is being provided solely for educational purposes. At the close of the academic year, the institution must reconcile Machemer Scholarship funds. Any unused funds must be returned to The Robert Machemer Foundation unless the institution has requested a one-year extension, and has received approval from the Robert Machemer Foundation for this.
I. The Robert Machemer Foundation requires grantee institutions to comply with the ethical research standards of their institution and all pertinent federal, state and local regulations.
J. With respect to intellectual property rights: intellectual property produced by researchers at the 501(c)(3) institution in the course of training or research supported by The Robert Machemer Foundation remains the property of the researcher or institution following published policies of the institution.
K. Should the institution anticipate changes in the scholarship circumstances or situation for reasons including, but not limited to, discontinuation of the program or the participant, The Robert Machemer Foundation must be notified promptly. If forfeiture, temporary suspension, or termination of the grant is desired or warranted by The Robert Machemer Foundation or the institution, a written agreement of the same shall be executed, terminating the agreement. Institution will promptly return any unused funds to The Robert Machemer Foundation at that time.
© 2016 The Robert Machemer Foundation
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About | Agenda | Publications | Litigation | Databases | Events | Donate |
Publications / Viewpoints
Sound Policy in a Time of Divided Government
April 8, 2019 | Font size: 75% 100% 125% 150%
By Michael Van Beek
Policy recommendations for 2019 are available at www.mackinac.org/policy2019.
Michigan’s new bipartisan government is only a few months old, but the political debates are already in full swing. Early spring is tough on pavement, so no surprise, most of the arguing is about how to fund and fix Michigan’s notoriously bad roads. Reforming car insurance, another perennial issue, consumes nearly all the rest of the oxygen available in Lansing. These two issues affect millions of Michiganders and are important in their own right. But don’t let them overshadow other valuable policy reforms that are just as needed.
While debates about road funding rally partisans to their battle fronts, there are plenty of worthwhile reforms that have bipartisan support. The most promising of these is criminal justice reform. A consensus is growing that Michigan is overcriminalized and does not do enough to protect the rights of the accused or help former offenders get their lives back on track. Some reforms to address these concerns include eliminating civil asset forfeiture, raising the age for prosecuting an adult from 17 to 18 and making expunging minor offenses from one’s criminal record automatic, rather than costly and time-consuming.
Another area ripe for reform is government transparency. Shining a light on the inner workings of government doesn’t fix any problems by itself, but it does make identifying such problems a lot easier and discourages bad behavior, to boot. Michigan is one of only two states where not every branch of government is subject to a public records request law. That should be changed by opening the state Legislature and the governor’s office to such a law. On a related note, the state should improve the transparency of its subsidiaries: county and municipal governments. School districts must follow robust transparency reporting laws and so should these other government entities.
In the midst of debates over how much money is needed, where and when, it is refreshing to consider reforms that won’t cost a dime and can improve the lives of many Michiganders. Take the issue of occupational licenses. It used to be that about 5 percent of workers needed a state license to work — doctors, dentists, teachers. Today, it’s about 20 percent and growing. The state needs to rethink this, as occupational licensing laws have been shown to do little to improve public health and safety. But they do raise the cost of becoming a carpenter, cosmologist, and security guard, to name a few occupations. Paying fees, completing courses and passing exams cost too much time and money for many individuals, who are forced to give up on their preferred occupation.
The state should thoroughly analyze these licensing laws and remove ones that do little but make it harder for people to earn a living. Similarly, when a review shows that requiring a license is a good idea, the state should consider expanding the scope of practice for what licensees, such as nurses, are allowed to do.
A final policy area overdue for reform is corporate welfare — all the different programs the state runs to try to nudge the economy forward. This includes handing out grants to certain companies, giving special loans to others or reducing the tax burden on a particular business or industry. There aren’t many things economists agree on, but the futility of these corporate welfare programs is one of them. Decades of economic research show they simply don’t work: They are too small in size to have a meaningful effect, and there are as many misfires as there are successes. Taxpayers would get a much better bang for their buck if this money were redirected elsewhere. Michigan should give up this game and spend the hundreds of millions on roads instead.
These aren’t the only proposals worth keeping an eye on: I’ve got more, but have run out of space. My colleagues at the Mackinac Center and I research and write about policy reforms that lawmakers should consider, and these are some of our top priorities for 2019. For a full listing and broader descriptions of each of these issues, see “Policy Recommendations 2019,” available at www.mackinac.org/policy2019.
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The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonprofit research and educational institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government. Through our research and education programs, we challenge government overreach and advocate for a free-market approach to public policy that frees people to realize their potential and dreams.
Please consider contributing to our work to advance a freer and more prosperous state.
Donate | About | Blog | Pressroom | Publications | Careers | Site Map | Email Signup | Contact
(989) 631-0900 | 140 W. Main Street Midland, MI 48640 P.O. Box 568 | mcpp@mackinac.org | ©2021 Mackinac Center for Public Policy
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Our editorial: The price of Western retreat is instability
The Taliban's resurgence reminds us that the fight isn't over in Afghanistan
By Maclean's January 6, 2016
Afghanistan’s security forces take their position during a clash by Taliban fighters in the highway between Balkh province to Kunduz city, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo, File)
The start of a new year should be a time for optimism and fresh starts. Unfortunately, reality has a depressing habit of intruding, and in places where optimism is already in short supply.
The crisis between Saudi Arabia and Iran, over the execution of a Shia cleric by Saudi Arabia, is a potentially terrifying development for the entire world. An always precarious Middle East is now even less stable. Both Muslim countries are regional military powers and proxy leaders of their respective Sunni and Shia sects with more than a thousand years of hostility between them. As Maclean’s Senior Writer Michael Pet,ou notes, the countries’ recent slide into open antagonism can be traced in part to the United States’ declining influence in the Middle East. And while America’s retreat from the region may be the understandable reaction of a war-weary country led by a domestic-minded President, we mustn’t overlook the long-term impact of the West’s abandonment of international crises to local interests.
Afghanistan provides further evidence of this worrisome trend. Despite a decade-long NATO campaign to rid the country of the Taliban, the group now controls more land area in Afghanistan than at any time since 2001—when it ruled most of the country. A string of Taliban military successes over the past year against the Afghan National Army have left it in command of large swaths of territory. Early estimates suggest 2015 will go down as the bloodiest year on record for civilian casualties and national security forces. An emboldened Taliban has also been targeting Western military advisers and trainers who remain after the main NATO campaign wound down in 2014; last month a Taliban suicide bomber killed six American military personnel at Bagram Air Base near Kabul; this week another massive bomb was triggered in the capital city. Public optimism about the future appears to have collapsed. Only 37 per cent of Afghans think their country is moving in the right direction, according to the latest national survey by the Asia Foundation. This down from 55 per cent the year previous.
To be fair, the situation in Afghanistan is not an all-out rout. Most major cities remain in government hands. While the Afghan National Army has suffered some troubling defeats, it remains a battle-worthy force; its biggest obstacle is a lack of reconnaissance and air power following the cessation of NATO air strikes in 2014. There are even some signs the material well-being of Afghans is improving. The number of households with televisions, for example, grew from 42 per cent in 2011 to 62 last year.
But this fact remains: while the Western world has been fixated on the prime-time barbarity of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and the effect this has had on the Syrian civil war and a massive flood of refugees into Europe, the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan should come as grim news for Canadians. One hundred and fifty-eight Canadian troops and four civilian non-combatants lost their lives, and taxpayers spent $18 billion in an effort to oust the Taliban and stabilize and democratize the country. Now they’re back. Some of the Taliban’s biggest territorial gains have come in the southern provinces of Helmand, as well as Kandahar, where Canada fought its toughest battles. Was it all in vain? Given the new crisis between Iran and Saudi Arabia, what does our legacy in Afghanistan suggest for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s nascent foreign policy?
The biggest and most obvious lesson from Afghanistan is the dangers of leaving a battlefield before your enemy is defeated. Canada ended its combat mission in 2011 when public and political support dropped significantly. But the Taliban persisted, and is now enjoying a renaissance. Applying this lesson elsewhere suggests Trudeau should rethink his campaign promise to bring home Canada’s six CF-18s, currently doing useful work in Iraq and Syria delivering air strikes in support of the Iraqi army and various other military groups fighting Islamic State. If we value end results—as we should—Canada needs to stay in this fight until the job is done. (If and when the jets do come home, Trudeau might want to consider proposing a renewed NATO air campaign in Afghanistan to support the Afghan army in its fight against the Taliban, at least until it’s able to build up its own air power capabilities. This would do much to stem the recent Taliban advances.)
It is in Canada’s best interests to continue the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. A stable region is essential to our own national security. With the world on edge from a potential new threat to stability in the Middle East, there’s no room to allow existing dangers to continue to spiral out of control.
FILED UNDER: Afghanistan Editor's Picks iran Iraq saudi arabia Syria
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Fewer Covid-19 restrictions after Easter?
2020-04-06 Balearic Islands By Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter
Nadia Calviño, Third Vice President & Minister of Economic Affairs & Digital Transformation
06-04-2020Ultima Hora
The Government will decide over the next few days whether it's possible to start de-escalating the coronavirus restrictions after Easter, according to Nadia Calviño, Third Vice President & Minister of Economic Affairs & Digital Transformation.
"During this week we will look at the different indicators and the evolution of the coronavirus and we will listen to expert opinion, then analyse whether it is possible to go to that phase of de-escalation after Easter or whether the restrictions must be maintained," she told La Sexta.
If the restrictions were relaxed, the State of Emergency would stay in place, but people would be allowed to move around more.
Minister Calviño said she has spent weeks collaborating with multidisciplinary experts, businessmen, unions and other economic representatives to prepare for a possible de-escalation, which “could begin as soon as possible” .
Economic recovery is largely dependent on when the transition to normality begins and how it is undertaken and she warned that the impact on the economy may be more significant if the restriction measures are lengthened.
“It is so important to contain the virus's expansion as soon as possible in order to move on to the next phase, which will not be a process in which it will go from zero to one hundred, but which will allow sectors to be reactivated to achieve economic recovery as soon as possible,” she explained.
At the expense of due "prudence" for the time it may take to return to normality, Minister Calviño pointed out that all analysts consider that "economic recovery may be V-shaped, that is, very fast.”
“We must also take into account the dynamic behaviour that the Spanish economy had been showing until February and even mid-March. For this reason it is important to de-escalate the restrictive measures as soon as possible, so that the economy is reactivated," she said.
Coronavirus restrictions lifted after Easter?
Mallorca Coronavirus
Mallorca State of Emergency
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Flights from Siem Reap International Airport to Malta
Home > Malta flights > Siem Reap to Malta flights
Cheap flights and flight deals from Siem Reap to Malta
To book a low-cost flight from Siem Reap to Malta International Airport, Europe, see updated flights and deals from Siem Reap International Airport, and also read useful travel information for Malta simply read below, and count on ‘Siem Reap Flight Deals’ for the best offers on all of your travel booking needs to the Republic of Malta in Europe.
Siem Reap International Airport
Airport Name: Siem Reap International Airport Airport Code: REP Place: Siem Reap
Malta International Airport (MLA)
Airport Name: Malta International Airport, Europe
Place: Republic of Malta in Europe
Airport transfers: Malta Airport taxi transfer. Airport Code: MLA
Runway: Malta Airport has two runways. Runway 13/31 is 3,554m long and 60m wide, and has a system of taxiways that help the aircraft to turn around and get access to Park 9. Runway 05/23 is 2,377m long and 45m wide, and has an 18m parallel taxiway giving it access to aircraft parks 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8, as well as runway 13/31.
Airport baggage handling: A sophisticated baggage screening system is installed at Malta Airport that has the capacity to handle 1,500 pieces of luggage every hour.
How to book your flight: To book a cut-priced flight and travel from Siem Reap International Airport to Republic of Malta in Europe simply go to the above search module, add your dates, the amount of passengers and click.
Flights from Malta International Airport (MLA): If you are already on Malta, and looking to book a budget priced flight ticket from Malta island, you can find last minute flights deals, and book a bargain priced flight ticket from Malta here.
Flight Arrival Video To the Republic of Malta in Europe: If you are interested (?) you can follow the next link and see a video of a flight arriving to the Republic of Malta in Europe. Malta International Airport in Europe flight video.
Tips on how to book a cheap flight ticket from Siem Reap to Malta Republic airport in Europe, read useful travel information for Malta Republic in Europe and what to do, and not to do, while you are on Malta island.
What is the cheapest time to book a bargain priced flight deal from Siem Reap to Malta in Europe?
Book your flight to Malta Republic airport in Europe at least 3 months in advance to find the cheapest flight deals to Malta.
Why is there no flights to Malta from Siem Reap?
If there are no flights below from Siem Reap to Malta Republic in Europe it means that your airport is not International or does not fly to the Republic of Malta. Try adding another larger International airport close to you in the above departure search box and then try searching again.
What is the best days to fly to Malta from Siem Reap?
Check for flights from Siem Reap and fly to Malta on weekdays to avoid weekend flight surcharges.
Are flight prices higher in Malta and Siem Reap national holidays?
Bottom line is 'Yes'. This goes for national holidays in Siem Reap also. Try avoid flying from Siem Reap to the Island of Malta in heavy traffic holidays by booking your flight to Malta before or after any major holidays.
Why is it more expensive to fly to Malta from Siem Reap?
It's more expensive because your airport is not International, does not fly to Malta, or is a very small airport. If this is the case then all flights will re-direct from Siem Reap to another major airport and then onto Malta. Use ‘Malta Flight Deals’ to search all possible flights and travel options at other nearby destination airports to find the lowest fare.
I am flexable with my flight dates. Can I book a flight from Siem Reap to Malta any cheaper?
If you are flexible flying from Siem Reap to Malta with your departure / return dates try to book a one-way flight to Malta on the cheapest day and then search, and then book your return ticket on the cheapest day within a week or even month. We suggest that you clean your PC, mobile or tablet cookies after booking your departure flight due to cookie tracking.
Is there a smoking lounge at Malta International Airport in Europe?
If you are flying from Siem Reap the following are a few Restaurant prices: Pasta dishes: €10-15, Pizza: €8-15 (depending on toppings), Fish/chicken dishes: €13-17, Local wine (Bottle): €10-15, Wine by the glass: €3-5, Soft drinks: €2.00, Pint of local beer (Ċisk): €3.00, Cappuccino: €2.00.
How early should I arrive to Malta International Airport (MLA) or Siem Reap airport before my flight departs?
It is best to arrive at either Malta International Airport or Siem Reap International Airport at least two hours before the departure time of an international flight, and one hour before a domestic one, if any?
Is it safe drink water from the tap on the Republic of Malta?
Where is the best places to watch the sunset on the Republic of Malta in Europe?
Do I need a visa to enter Malta from Siem Reap?
EU and Schengen-area nationals can enter and exit Malta without a visa provided they do not intend to stay for longer than three months. All you will need a current passport, valid for at least 6 months, and a return ticket. You can also arrive with a one-way ticket if you can show immigration that you have another ticket to leave. To read more details about a entry Visa for the Republic of Malta, are not from the EU or simply unsure about arriving from Siem Reap please concult your local Maltese Embassy online.
The beer or larger costs on Malta island in Europe is around 3 EUR, BUT in some bars you can buy a pint can of larger for as little as 1.5 EUR. Nightclubs, and higher end venues can be a lot more. Check out the 'Happy Hour' signs as you walk or drive by. Most bars will have them. I have known people on Malta islan who only track these events and save a load of money. Everyone to his/her/their own right 🙂
Malta Republic in Europe has been inhabited from around 5900 BC, since the arrival of settlers from the island of Sicily. A significant prehistoric Neolithic culture marked by Megalithic structures, which date back to c. 3600 BC, existed on the islands, as evidenced by the temples of Bugibba, Mnajdra, Ggantija and others. The Phoenicians colonised the Republic of Malta between 800–700 BC, bringing their Semitic language and culture. They used the islands as an outpost from which they expanded sea explorations and trade in the Mediterranean until their successors, the Carthaginians, were ousted by the Romans in 216 BC with the help of the Maltese inhabitants, under whom Malta island became a municipium.
Malta became independent on 21 September 1964 (Independence Day). Under its 1964 constitution, Malta island initially retained Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Malta island in Europe, with a Governor-General exercising executive authority on her behalf. On 13 December 1974, (Republic Day) it became a republic within the Commonwealth, with the President as head of state. On 31 March 1979, Malta island saw the withdrawal of the last British troops and the Royal Navy from Malta island. This day is known as Freedom Day and the Republic of Malta declared itself as a neutral and non-aligned state. Malta joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 and joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2008.
Malta achieved its independence as the State of Malta island on 21 September 1964 after intense negotiations with the United Kingdom, led by Maltese Prime Minister George Borġ Olivier. Under its 1964 constitution, Malta island in Europe initially retained Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Malta and thus head of state, with a governor-general exercising executive authority on her behalf. In 1971, the Malta Labour Party led by Dom Mintoff won the general elections, resulting in Malta Republic in Europe declaring itself a republic on 13 December 1974 (Republic Day) within the Commonwealth, with the President as head of state. A defence agreement was signed soon after independence, and after being re-negotiated in 1972, expired on 31 March 1979. Upon its expiry, the British base closed down and all lands formerly controlled by the British on the island were given up to the Maltese government.
It good to know that when you arrive from Siem Reap to Malta in Europe you will not go hungry! Maltese cuisine shows strong Sicilian and English influences as well as influences of Spanish, Maghrebin and Provençal cuisines. A number of regional variations, particularly with regards to Gozo, can be noted as well as seasonal variations associated with the seasonal availability of produce and Christian feasts (such as Lent, Easter and Christmas). Food has been important historically in the development of a national identity in particular the traditional fenkata (i.e., the eating of stewed or fried rabbit). Potatoes are a staple of the Maltese diet as well.
Malta Republic in Europe is a popular tourist destination, with more than 1.6 million tourists per year. Three times more tourists visit than there are residents come through Malta Republic airport in Europe each year. Tourism infrastructure has increased dramatically on The island of Malta over the years, and now hundreds of hotels are present on the island, and even more Malta Studio apartments for sale and rent.
The Republic of Malta in Europe has a Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and hot summers, hotter in the inland areas. Rain occurs mainly in autumn and winter, with summer being generally dry. The average yearly temperature is around 23 °C (73 °F) during the day and 15.5 °C (59.9 °F) at night. In the coldest month – January – the typical maximum temperature ranges from 12 to 18 °C (54 to 64 °F) during the day and minimum 6 to 12 °C (43 to 54 °F) at night. In the warmest month – August – the typical maximum temperature ranges from 28 to 34 °C (82 to 93 °F) during the day and minimum 20 to 24 °C (68 to 75 °F) at night. Amongst all capitals in the continent of Europe, Valletta – the capital of Malta in Europe has the warmest winters, with average temperatures of around 15 to 16 °C (59 to 61 °F) during the day and 9 to 10 °C (48 to 50 °F) at night in the period January–February. In March and December average temperatures are around 17 °C (63 °F) during the day and 11 °C (52 °F) at night.146 Large fluctuations in temperature are rare. Snow is very rare on the island, although various snowfalls have been recorded in the last century, the last one reported in various locations across the Island of Malta in 2014.
Here at ‘Malta Holiday online’ we offer an array of activities, and tours of Malta and Gozo. Once you arrive from Siem Reap there’s nothing wrong with a few peaceful days on the beach, or beside the pool, but you don’t come all the way from Siem Reap to see nothing, and you will get out and have some fun on one of the many activities or tours of the island.
To check on the dates you wish to fly from Siem Reap, or Malta, the flight prices and to book a budget priced flight from Siem Reap to Malta International Airport in Europe just add the departure airport name ( Ex: Siem Reap, Siem Reap International Airport or Malta etc ), the dates and the amount of passengers in the above flight search module and click.
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Flights from Žilina Airport to Malta
Home > Malta flights > Žilina to Malta flights
Cheap flights and flight deals from Žilina to Malta
To book a cheap flight from Žilina to the Republic of Malta airport in Europe, see updated flights and deals from Žilina Airport, and also read useful travel information for Malta simply read below, and count on ‘Žilina Flight Deals’ for the best offers on all of your travel booking needs to Malta island in Europe.
Žilina Airport
Airport Name: Žilina Airport Airport Code: ILZ Place: Žilina
Airport Name: the Republic of Malta airport in Europe
Airport transfers: the Republic of Malta airport taxi transfer. Airport Code: MLA
Runway: Malta Republic airport in Europe has two runways. Runway 13/31 is 3,554m long and 60m wide, and has a system of taxiways that help the aircraft to turn around and get access to Park 9. Runway 05/23 is 2,377m long and 45m wide, and has an 18m parallel taxiway giving it access to aircraft parks 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8, as well as runway 13/31.
Republic of Malta in Europe accommodations: If you have not already booked any accommodation on Malta you can find the best Malta Hotels offering the lowest rates for all sorts of Malta Hotels, Villas, Guesthouses, Hostles and Resorts!
How to book your flight: To book a cheap flight from Žilina Airport to Malta Republic in Europe simply go to the above search module, add your dates, the amount of passengers and click.
Flights from Malta International Airport (MLA): If you are already on Malta, and looking to book a low-priced flight and travel from Malta island in Europe, you can find last minute flights deals, and book a low-priced flight and fly from Malta here.
Flight Arrival Video To Malta in Europe: If you are interested (?) you can follow the next link and see a video of a flight arriving to the Island of Malta. Malta International Airport flight video.
Tips on how to book a budget priced flight and travel from Žilina to Malta International Airport in Europe, read useful travel information for Malta island in Europe and what to do, and not to do, while you are on the Republic of Malta in Europe.
What is the cheapest time to book a cheap flight from Žilina to Malta island?
Why is there no flights to Malta from Žilina?
If there are no flights below from Žilina to the Republic of Malta in Europe it means that your airport is not International or does not fly to the Republic of Malta. Try adding another larger International airport close to you in the above departure search box and then try searching again.
What is the best days to fly to Malta from Žilina?
Check for flights from Žilina and fly to Malta on weekdays to avoid weekend flight surcharges.
Are flight prices higher in Malta and Žilina national holidays?
Bottom line is 'Yes'. This goes for national holidays in Žilina also. Try avoid flying from Žilina to Malta island in heavy traffic holidays by booking your flight to Malta before or after any major holidays.
Why is it more expensive to fly to Malta from Žilina?
It's more expensive because your airport is not International, does not fly to Malta, or is a very small airport. If this is the case then all flights will re-direct from Žilina to another major airport and then onto Malta. Use ‘Malta Flight Deals’ to search all possible flights and travel options at other nearby destination airports to find the lowest fare.
I am flexable with my flight dates. Can I book a cheap flight and travel from Žilina to Malta any cheaper?
If you are flexible flying from Žilina to Malta with your departure / return dates try to book a one-way flight to Malta on the cheapest day and then search, and then book your return ticket on the cheapest day within a week or even month. We suggest that you clean your PC, mobile or tablet cookies after booking your departure flight due to cookie tracking.
Is there a smoking lounge at Malta Republic airport in Europe?
If you are flying from Žilina the following are a few Restaurant prices: Pasta dishes: €10-15, Pizza: €8-15 (depending on toppings), Fish/chicken dishes: €13-17, Local wine (Bottle): €10-15, Wine by the glass: €3-5, Soft drinks: €2.00, Pint of local beer (Ċisk): €3.00, Cappuccino: €2.00.
How early should I arrive to Malta International Airport, Europe or Žilina airport before my flight departs?
It is best to arrive at either Malta International Airport or Žilina Airport at least two hours before the departure time of an international flight, and one hour before a domestic one, if any?
When you arrive to the Republic of Malta on average taxi fares from Malta International Airport are around 25 EUR. Normally Prices vary from 20 to 25 euros per trip for a personal taxi for up to 4 persons, or 6 to 10 euros per person per trip in shared transport in a minivan or taxi stopping at different hotels. The trip will usually take between 20 and 45 minutes depending where you are staying. Our suggestion is to book your taxi at the taxi stands inside Malta Republic airport in Europe. Same cost - less hastle.
Is it safe drink water from the tap on the Island of Malta?
Do I need a visa to enter Malta from Žilina?
EU and Schengen-area nationals can enter and exit Malta without a visa provided they do not intend to stay for longer than three months. All you will need a current passport, valid for at least 6 months, and a return ticket. You can also arrive with a one-way ticket if you can show immigration that you have another ticket to leave. To read more details about a entry Visa for the Republic of Malta, are not from the EU or simply unsure about arriving from Žilina please concult your local Maltese Embassy online.
The beer or larger costs on the Republic of Malta in Europe is around 3 EUR, BUT in some bars you can buy a pint can of larger for as little as 1.5 EUR. Nightclubs, and higher end venues can be a lot more. Check out the 'Happy Hour' signs as you walk or drive by. Most bars will have them. I have known people on Malta islan who only track these events and save a load of money. Everyone to his/her/their own right 🙂
Malta island in Europe has been inhabited from around 5900 BC, since the arrival of settlers from the island of Sicily. A significant prehistoric Neolithic culture marked by Megalithic structures, which date back to c. 3600 BC, existed on the islands, as evidenced by the temples of Bugibba, Mnajdra, Ggantija and others. The Phoenicians colonised the Republic of Malta between 800–700 BC, bringing their Semitic language and culture. They used the islands as an outpost from which they expanded sea explorations and trade in the Mediterranean until their successors, the Carthaginians, were ousted by the Romans in 216 BC with the help of the Maltese inhabitants, under whom Malta island in Europe became a municipium.
Malta became independent on 21 September 1964 (Independence Day). Under its 1964 constitution, the Republic of Malta in Europe initially retained Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of the Island of Malta, with a Governor-General exercising executive authority on her behalf. On 13 December 1974, (Republic Day) it became a republic within the Commonwealth, with the President as head of state. On 31 March 1979, Malta island saw the withdrawal of the last British troops and the Royal Navy from Malta island. This day is known as Freedom Day and the Republic of Malta declared itself as a neutral and non-aligned state. Malta joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 and joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2008.
Malta achieved its independence as the State of Malta in Europe on 21 September 1964 after intense negotiations with the United Kingdom, led by Maltese Prime Minister George Borġ Olivier. Under its 1964 constitution, Malta island initially retained Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Malta and thus head of state, with a governor-general exercising executive authority on her behalf. In 1971, the Malta Labour Party led by Dom Mintoff won the general elections, resulting in the Island of Malta declaring itself a republic on 13 December 1974 (Republic Day) within the Commonwealth, with the President as head of state. A defence agreement was signed soon after independence, and after being re-negotiated in 1972, expired on 31 March 1979. Upon its expiry, the British base closed down and all lands formerly controlled by the British on the island were given up to the Maltese government.
It good to know that when you arrive from Žilina to The Republic of Malta in Europe you will not go hungry! Maltese cuisine shows strong Sicilian and English influences as well as influences of Spanish, Maghrebin and Provençal cuisines. A number of regional variations, particularly with regards to Gozo, can be noted as well as seasonal variations associated with the seasonal availability of produce and Christian feasts (such as Lent, Easter and Christmas). Food has been important historically in the development of a national identity in particular the traditional fenkata (i.e., the eating of stewed or fried rabbit). Potatoes are a staple of the Maltese diet as well.
The Republic of Malta in Europe is a popular tourist destination, with more than 1.6 million tourists per year. Three times more tourists visit than there are residents come through Malta International Airport (MLA) each year. Tourism infrastructure has increased dramatically on Malta in Europe over the years, and now hundreds of hotels are present on the island, and even more Malta flats for sale and rent.
The island of Malta has a Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and hot summers, hotter in the inland areas. Rain occurs mainly in autumn and winter, with summer being generally dry. The average yearly temperature is around 23 °C (73 °F) during the day and 15.5 °C (59.9 °F) at night. In the coldest month – January – the typical maximum temperature ranges from 12 to 18 °C (54 to 64 °F) during the day and minimum 6 to 12 °C (43 to 54 °F) at night. In the warmest month – August – the typical maximum temperature ranges from 28 to 34 °C (82 to 93 °F) during the day and minimum 20 to 24 °C (68 to 75 °F) at night. Amongst all capitals in the continent of Europe, Valletta – the capital of the Republic of Malta in Europe has the warmest winters, with average temperatures of around 15 to 16 °C (59 to 61 °F) during the day and 9 to 10 °C (48 to 50 °F) at night in the period January–February. In March and December average temperatures are around 17 °C (63 °F) during the day and 11 °C (52 °F) at night.146 Large fluctuations in temperature are rare. Snow is very rare on the island, although various snowfalls have been recorded in the last century, the last one reported in various locations across the Island of Malta in 2014.
Here at ‘Malta Holiday online’ we offer an array of activities, and tours of Malta and Gozo. Once you arrive from Žilina there’s nothing wrong with a few peaceful days on the beach, or beside the pool, but you don’t come all the way from Žilina to see nothing, and you will get out and have some fun on one of the many activities or tours of the island.
To check on the dates you wish to fly from Žilina, or Malta, the flight prices and to book a budget priced flight and travel from Žilina to Malta International Airport just add the departure airport name ( Ex: Žilina, Žilina Airport or Malta etc ), the dates and the amount of passengers in the above flight search module and click.
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Mavis Pan
was born in Taiwan where she started taking piano lessons at the age of four, attending the Stella Matutina Girls School, where she was enrolled in the prestigious Specialized Music program. Ms. Pan received rigorous training in piano, voice, music theory, and ear training until the family immigrated to the United States, New Jersey. There she studied privately with Sherry Fan, performed with the high school big band and choir groups, and won “Best Accompanist” at the High School Choral Festival competition in 1996. Upon her high school graduation she gave a debut solo piano recital at Westminster College of the Arts at Rider University.
As an undergraduate, majoring in jazz piano performance at New York University, Ms. Pan studied jazz piano with Don Freeman, Frank Kimbrough, and Peter Malinverni, classical piano with Fabio Gardenal, and jazz vocal with Ann Phillips. She sang with the five times Grammy Award winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, and continued her studies at Columbia University, where she studied conducting and voice with Dino Anagnost while earning a Master’s Degree in Music & Music Education.
Ms. Pan was a finalist in the YPMP/CACA piano competition and has performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s David H Koch, and the Alice Tully Hall and Symphony Space. She has also performed at the Opening Night Gala of the Asian Nights celebration at Shea Stadium.
A composer, pianist, conductor, and vocalist Ms. Pan has performed her own original works, including but not limited to orchestral, choral, jazz, chamber music, and solo instrumental and vocal works across the United States, Europe, Middle East and Asia. She was the composer-in-residence and choir director at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in New York for five years. There she premiered numerous new works with the choir and chamber orchestras. Her choral work, "A Christmas Carol" was recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic Symphony, under the ERM label, available on Amazon.com.
After Ms. Pan made her debut Jazz album “On My Way Home” in 2010, she spent a year in Shanghai performing and teaching. Students from all over China participated in the Jazz Intensive Music Camp in Shanghai, where she served as a Jazz piano instructor and translator for Master Classes. Her second Piano Solo album “Not Alone” was released December of 2016 and was distributed both in U.S.A and China.
Graduating summa cum laude Ms. Pan earned a Master’s degree in Musical Composition from Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music studying under renown contemporary classical composers Tania Leon and Dalit Warshaw. She was given two composition awards, Morton Feldman and Miriam Gideon, by the conservatory and was selected to be on the Dean’s list upon graduation. She has performed and arranged for The Asian Cultural Symphony of the USA under the baton of Mr. Fei Fang. Her latest album “Set for Love”, in collaboration with lyricist David Keyes and produced by Ulysses Owens Jr., is featuring 12 original Jazz love songs and will be released on Valentine's Day 2019 on m iTunes and other major distribution.
In addition to Ms. Pan's musical life, she has also obtained a M.A. degree in Urban Ministry at Westminster Theological Seminary and is currently the choir director at the Church of Grace to Fujianese, Lower Eastside Manhattan.
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William (Will) E. Karle, M.D.
Areas of focus:
Botox injection, Transoral laser microsurgery, Airway reconstruction, Minimally invasive surgery, KTP laser treatment, ...Transnasal esophagoscopy, Laryngectomy, Tracheal stenting, Airway management, Laryngoscopy, Microlaryngoscopy, FEESST, Bronchoalveolar lavage, Esophagoscopy, Laryngeal botulinum injections, Bronchoscopy, Laser vocal cord surgery, Vocal cord injection, Zenker's diverticulectomy, CO-2 laser treatment, Airway stent placement, Thyroplasty, Laryngotracheal reconstruction, Singing voice evaluation, Videolaryngoscopy, Laryngeal reinnervation surgery, Esophageal dilatation, Zenker's diverticulotomy, Tracheal resection, Cricopharyngeal myotomy, Tracheostomy, Cricopharyngeal dysfunction, Hypopharyngeal cancer, Speech disturbance, Vocal cord paralysis, Supraglottic cancer, Dysphagia, Subglottic stenosis, Vocal cord dysfunction, Voice disorder, Vocal cord nodule, Congenital anomaly of the trachea, Tracheostomy dependence, Laryngeal trauma, Laryngeal stenosis, Stridor, Throat cancer, Laryngeal papillomatosis, Vocal cord scarring, Vocal cord cyst, Congenital anomaly of the larynx, Vocal cord paresis, Tracheoesophageal fistula, Laryngeal cancer, Esophageal stricture, Airway obstruction, Zenker's diverticulum, Laryngitis, Tracheal stenosis, Vocal cord polyp
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Jan L. Kasperbauer, M.D.
Transoral robotic surgery, Thyroid cancer, Mouth cancer, Salivary gland tumor, Head and neck cancer, Throat cancer, Sof...t palate cancer
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ORG-20424058
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's dad says his son needs time to 'rest up' from coronavirus
Kim HjelmgaardUSA TODAY
LONDON – Prime Minister Boris Johnson must be allowed to "rest up" before getting back to work after he was moved out of intensive care for coronavirus to a regular hospital ward, the British leader's father said in an interview on Friday.
Johnson's 79-year-old father Stanley said he felt "tremendously grateful obviously on behalf of the family, Boris’s family, my family, family members all over the place, and also, of course, amazingly thankful as well" for his son's improving condition.
"Relief is the right word," he said in a BBC radio interview.
But he warned that his son needed a period of recuperation before returning to work.
"He has to take time. I cannot believe you can walk away from this and get straight back to Downing Street and pick up the reins without a period of readjustment," he said.
Johnson is the first major world leader known to have contracted coronavirus. In a series of video messages he published on social media before he was admitted to the hospital with the illness, Johnson appeared increasingly unwell as he carried on the work of government in isolation at his official residence and office at Downing Street.
In a statement issued on Thursday evening, his office said that Johnson, 55, had been been transferred from an intensive care unit back to the ward "where he will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery."
Johnson is being cared for in St Thomas' Hospital in central London. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26 and still had a cough and fever 10 days later.
He was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, and to its ICU on Monday.
Carrie Symonds, Johnson’s pregnant fiancee, who also suffered a bout of suspected coronavirus, responded to the news of Johnson's improving health on Thursday by posting a child's painting of a rainbow on Twitter alongside a series of clapping emojis to show support for Britain's frontline National Health Service medical workers.
"Great News," President Donald Trump tweeted shortly after Downing Street's Thursday announcement. "Get well Boris!!!
Britain's death toll reached 7,978 as of Thursday, according to Public Health England, an increase of 881 from 24 hours earlier.
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Aaron Hernandez documentaries struggle with the…
Aaron Hernandez documentaries struggle with the ‘why’ of the NFL star’s story
Aaron Hernandez, right, with defense attorney Ronald Sullivan in court on April 14, 2017. He hanged himself in jail five days later. (WHDH-TV, Pool)
Aaron Hernandez was smoking the synthetic drug K2 in the days before his suicide, a fellow inmate told invetigators. (Dominick Reuter/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Aaron Hernandez, 27, the former New England Patriots tight end was sentenced to life behind bars for a 2013 murder and committed suicide in prison on April 19. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
This photo released on Thursday, May 4, 2017, in a report by the Massachusetts Department of Correction shows a Bible open to John 3:16, with the verse marked in blood, found in the cell of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez after he was found hanged in his cell on April 19 at the Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley, Mass. Hernandez was serving a life sentence in the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, who had been dating his fiancee's sister. (Massachusetts Department of Correction via AP)
This photo released on Thursday, May 4, 2017, in a report by the Massachusetts Department of Correction shows a Bible found in the cell of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez after he was found hanged in his cell on April 19 at the Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley, Mass. Hernandez was serving a life sentence in the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, who had been dating his fiancee's sister. (Massachusetts Department of Correction via AP)
DJ Hernandez, right, arrives at a private service for his brother Aaron Hernandez at O'Brien Funeral Home, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Police block the street in front of O'Brien Funeral Home for the funeral of Aaron Hernandez, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts April 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Terri Hernandez, left, stands on the porch of the O'Brien Funeral Home before a private service for her son Aaron Hernandez, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts on April 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Linda Kenney Baden, center, a defense attorney for Aaron Hernandez, arrives with her husband, right, forensic pathologist Michael Baden, for a private service for Hernandez at O'Brien Funeral Home, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, fiancee of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, arrives with their daughter Avielle Janelle Hernandez for a private service for Aaron Hernandez at O'Brien Funeral Home, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
DJ Hernandez, reflected in mirror at right, arrives at a private service for his brother Aaron Hernandez at O'Brien Funeral Home, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts on April 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Police block the street in front of O'Brien Funeral Home for the funeral of Aaron Hernandez, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts on April 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, front, fiancee of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, arrives with their daughter Avielle Janelle Hernandez, Pittsburgh Steeler Center Maurkice Pouncey and his twin brother Mike, and others for a private service for Aaron Hernandez at O’Brien Funeral Home, Monday, April 24, 2017, in Bristol, Conn. The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts on Wednesday. (Jessica Hill/Associated Press)
Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge, of Middlesex & Worcester Districts, speaks to media at the entrance of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, Wednesday, April 19, 2017, in Shirley, Mass. Eldridge spoke about state prison suicide rates in the wake of the news that former NFL star Aaron Hernandez hanged himself in his prison cell. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
A policeman guards an entrance to the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, Wednesday, April 19, 2017, in Shirley, Mass. Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction and just days ago was acquitted of a double murder, died after hanging himself at the prison early Wednesday, Massachusetts prisons officials said. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
In this Dec. 12, 2005 photo, Aaron Hernandez poses for a photo in Bristol, Conn. Hernandez, a former NFL star, who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction and Friday, April 14, 2017, was acquitted of a double murder, died after hanging himself at the prison early Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Massachusetts prisons officials said. (Patrick Raycraft/Hartford Courant via AP)
In this Sept. 13, 2006 photo, Bristol Central tight end Aaron Hernandez runs up the field after a reception in practice in Bristol, Conn. Hernandez, a former NFL star who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction and Friday, April 14, 2017, was acquitted of a double murder, died after hanging himself at the prison early Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Massachusetts prisons officials said. (Bob MacDonnell/Hartford Courant via AP)
In this Sept. 13, 2006 photo, Bristol Central tight end Aaron Hernandez appears in Bristol, Conn. Hernandez, a former NFL star who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction and Friday, April 14, 2017, was acquitted of a double murder, died after hanging himself at the prison early Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Massachusetts prisons officials said. (Bob MacDonnell/Hartford Courant via AP)
Aaron Hernandez was smoking the synthetic drug K2 in the days before his suicide, a fellow inmate told invetigators. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, Pool, File)
In this Wednesday, April 12, 2017, file photo, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, fiancee of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, sits in the courtroom with the couple's daughter during jury deliberations in Hernandez's double-murder trial at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. Hernandez was acquitted of those crimes on Friday, but hanged himself in his prison early Wednesday, April 19, 2017, where he was serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. (Keith Bedford/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool, File)
In this still image from video, Aaron Hernandez, right, listens beside defense attorney Ronald Sullivan, Friday, April 14, 2017, in court in Boston, as he is pronounced not guilty of murder in the 2012 shootings of two men in a drive-by shooting in Boston. (WHDH-TV via AP, Pool)
In this still image from video, Aaron Hernandez, center, is hugged by defense attorney Ronald Sullivan Friday, April 14, 2017, in court in Boston, after being found not guilty of murder in the 2012 shootings of two men in a drive-by shooting in Boston. (WHDH-TV via AP, Pool)
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez wipes tears from his eyes as he stands with defense attorney Ronald Sullivan reacting to his double murder acquittal at Suffolk Superior Court Friday, April 14, 2017 in Boston. Hernandez stood trial for the July 2012 killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado who he encountered in a Boston nightclub. The former NFL player is already serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, Pool)
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez cries as he turns to defense attorney Ronald Sullivan reacting to his double murder acquittal at Suffolk Superior Court Friday, April 14, 2017 in Boston. Hernandez stood trial for the July 2012 killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado who he encountered in a Boston nightclub. The former NFL player is already serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, Pool)
Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, center, the fiancee of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, is comforted as she reacts to Hernandez's double murder acquittal at Suffolk Superior Court Friday, April 14, 2017, in Boston. Hernandez stood trial for the July 2012 killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who he encountered in a Boston nightclub. The former NFL player is already serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, Pool)
Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, center, the fiancee of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, is comforted as she reacts to Hernandez's double murder acquittal at Suffolk Superior Court Friday, April 14, 2017, in Boston. Hernandez stood trial for the July 2012 killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado who he encountered in a Boston nightclub. The former NFL player is already serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, Pool)
In this Friday, April 14, 2017, file photo, Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez turns to look in the direction of the jury as he reacts to his double murder acquittal at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. Hernandez hung himself and was pronounced dead at a Massachusetts hospital early Wednesday, April 19, 2017, according to officials. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, Pool, File)
In this Wednesday, March 15, 2017, file photo, Defendant Aaron Hernandez listens during his double murder trial in Suffolk Superior Court, in Boston. Massachusetts prison officials said Hernandez hanged himself in his cell and pronounced dead at a hospital early Wednesday, April 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, Pool, File)
In this Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, file photo, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez puts on a Super Bowl cap following the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens in Foxborough, Mass. Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction and just days ago was acquitted of a double murder, died after hanging himself in his prison cell Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Massachusetts prisons officials said. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 23, 2013 file photo, former New England Patriots NFL football player Aaron Hernandez's tattooed hands are secured with handcuffs as he arrives for his court appearance at Superior Court in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez is accused of three murders in Massachusetts. Investigators have appealed for information from tattoo artists who inked his right forearm, but won't say which of Hernandez s many tattoos prompted their appeal. (AP Photo/Boston Herald, Matt Stone, Pool, File)
FILE - In this June 27, 2013, file photo, former New England Patriots NFL football player Aaron Hernandez stands during a bail hearing in Superior Court in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez is accused of three murders in Massachusetts. Investigators have appealed for information from tattoo artists who inked his right forearm, but won't say which of Hernandez s many tattoos prompted their appeal. (AP Photo/Boston Herald, Ted Fitzgerald, Pool, File)
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Aaron Hernandez, right, sits besides his attorney Charles Rankin during deliberations in his murder trial, Tuesday, April 14, 2015, at Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez is accused of killing Odin Lloyd in June 2013.
FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2013 file photo, former New England Patriots NFL football player Aaron Hernandez attends a pretrial court hearing in superior court in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez, who already faces a murder charge in a man's shooting death last year, was indicted Thursday, May 15, 2014, on new murder charges in an unrelated 2012 double slaying in Boston, police said. (AP Photo/Brian Snyder, Pool, File)
In this Wednesday, July 24, 2013 file photo, former New England Patriots NFL football tight end Aaron Hernandez appears during a probable cause hearing at Attleboro District Court, in Attleboro, Mass. Hernandez was indicted Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, on a first-degree murder charge in the death of a friend whose bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial park about a mile from the ex-player's home.
FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2013, file photo, former New England Patriots NFL football player Aaron Hernandez, is lead into court in Attleboro, Mass. Hernandez, who has been indicted on a murder charge in the killing of Odin Lloyd, is scheduled to face arraignment in Superior Court Friday, Sept. 6, 2013 in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, File)
In this June 26, 2013, file photo, Aaron Hernandez, left, stands with his attorney, Michael Fee, right, during arraignment in Attleboro District Court in Attleboro, Mass. Since Hernandez was arrested last week in the shooting death of a friend whose body was found a mile away from his home, a portrait has emerged of a man whose life away from the field included frequent connections with police-related incidents that started as long ago as his freshman year at the University of Florida.
This black and white photo taken from former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez's home surveillance system in North Attleborough, Mass., and released in documents by the Attleboro District Court Thursday, July 25, 2013, shows Hernandez holding what authorities said appears to be a gun, shortly after Odin Lloyd was shot to death on June 17. Hernandez pleaded not guilty to murder in Lloyd's death. (AP Photo/Attleboro District Court) AP PROVIDES ACCESS TO THIS HANDOUT PHOTO TO BE USED SOLELY TO ILLUSTRATE NEWS REPORTING OR COMMENTARY ON THE FACTS OR EVENTS DEPICTED IN THIS IMAGE. ARCHIVE OUT; PUBLIC OUT; ONE TIME USE ONLY
This Sept. 5, 2012 file photo shows New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez speaking to reporters in the locker room at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. Hernandez has been taken from his home in handcuffs, Wednesday, June 26, 2013, after a Boston semi-pro football player was found dead in an industrial park a mile from his house. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, left, stands with his attorney Michael Fee, right, during arraignment in Attleboro District Court Wednesday, June 26, in Attleboro, Mass. Hernandez was charged with murdering Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player for the Boston Bandits, whose body was found June 17 in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Mass.
FILE - In this May 29, 2013, file photo, New England Patriots' Aaron Hernandez kneels on the field during NFL football practice in Foxborough, Mass. Hernandez is being sued in South Florida by a man claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after an argument at a strip club. The lawsuit comes as police in New England investigate Hernandez's possible connection to the death of a semipro player. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
In this Sunday Jan. 1, 2012, file photo, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez (81) tries to break free of Buffalo Bills linebacker Chris Kelsay (90) during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Foxborough, Mass. Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction and just days ago was acquitted of a double murder, died after hanging himself in his prison cell Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Massachusetts prisons officials said. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2012 file photo, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez reacts during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass. State and local police spent hours at the home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez on Tuesday June 18, 2013 as another group of officers searched an industrial park about a mile away where a body was discovered the day before. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, left, congratulates Aaron Hernandez after their AFC Championship NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. The Patriots defeated the Ravens 23-20 to win the AFC Championship. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
PUBLISHED: January 16, 2020 at 11:40 a.m. | UPDATED: January 17, 2020 at 7:06 a.m.
CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the photos or video on a mobile device
By Brian Lowry | CNN
The strange case of Aaron Hernandez — the pro football player convicted of murder, before dying by suicide — remains tantalizing enough to have inspired a pair of three-part documentaries this month.
Neither, however, clearly answers the fundamental question: What prompted a young man with seemingly boundless opportunities to throw his life away? What viewers get, instead, are plenty of salacious but conflicting details, which don’t bring us much closer to understanding why.
Netflix’s “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez” makes a more valiant effort to find the truth, at least in terms of probing causes of his behavior. Investigation Discovery follows with “Aaron Hernandez: An ID Murder Mystery,” a more dutiful tick-tock of the criminal trial (its primary sources are journalists who followed the case), complete with the usual cheesy reenactments — a tactic, unfortunately, that “Killer Inside” also employs, just a bit more judiciously.
A star athlete in Bristol, Connecticut, Hernandez grew up with a stern father who also played football, becoming a standout in high school and at Florida before being signed by the New England Patriots.
Small wonder that widespread shock greeted the news in 2013 when Hernandez was charged, and later convicted, in the murder of Odin Lloyd, the 27-year-old boyfriend of his fiancee’s sister, and subsequently accused of a separate double homicide.
With a $40 million NFL contract and an outwardly enviable existence, as a friend says, “None of it made sense.”
Both programs try, mostly in vain, to make sense of it, contemplating a host of potential contributing factors, the most serious being CTE, the brain injury caused by repetitive contact that has plagued many football players.
As “Killer Inside” makes clear, the league’s emphasis on protecting its multibillion-dollar product, as opposed to promoting the health and safety of players, has often impeded a full-throated discussion of the dangers.
Other motivations, however, are also raised, in some respects undermining — or distracting from — that central thesis. They include the assertion — originally detailed in an exhaustive Boston Globe investigative report — that Hernandez was conflicted about his sexuality, with a high school friend and teammate, Dennis SanSoucie, saying (in separate interviews with the programs) that the two had a sexual relationship — something Hernandez was reluctant to admit due to the macho football culture.
Hernandez’s brother, Jonathan, also later spoke about abuse by their father, who died when Aaron was just 16, which resulted in a rift between Aaron and his mother.
In terms of the presentation, the most illuminating wrinkle in “Killer Inside” involves having access to audio of phone calls Hernandez made from prison, providing modest insight about his post-arrest state of mind and relationships with those closest to him.
Aaron Hernandez’s murder conviction reinstated, though he is dead
Aaron Hernandez was smoking K2 before his suicide, inmate told investigators
Aaron Hernandez was suffering from advanced form of CTE; family files suit against NFL
Aaron Hernandez death scene: Bloody messages, circles on his feet
Questions continue to surround the prison life and death of Aaron Hernandez
Aaron Hernandez suicide notes ordered turned over ahead of burial
Aaron Hernandez hangs self days after double murder acquittal
For all that, these overlapping documentaries yield an inconclusive portrait. While there’s a tendency to indict football, at every level, for exploiting young talent, there are so many variables baked into Hernandez’s particular tale as to muddy that message.
The Aaron Hernandez story thus remains a tragedy that has defied, and continues to, simple explanation. While documentaries frequently connect their subjects to larger truths, “Aaron Hernandez” and “Killer Inside” ultimately feel at least as preoccupied, to varying degrees, with wading through its smaller tabloid trappings.
“Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez” and “Aaron Hernandez: An ID Murder Mystery” premiere Jan. 15 and Jan. 20, respectively, on Netflix and Investigation Discovery.
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Interview with Stage of Reality
Hannes - 16. March 2015 27. March 2017
So, I got to interview this band, called “Stage of Reality”. Here’s what we were talking about:
Hello, who am I “talking” with? And who are the other members of “Stage of Reality”?
Hi, I’m Andrea Neri, guitar player and composer of the band. The other members are:
Francesco Marino – voice, Bernardo Nardini – guitars, Marco Polizzi – bass, Daniele Michelacci – drums.
Where comes the name “Stage of Reality” from and how did the band start?
The name Stage of Reality comes from my personal need to create something that could explain my feeling about the world. I think we are living a quite peculiar situation nowadays, we are surrounded by fake things: television, news, politics. Everything can be true or false, so what is the reality? What is not? On stage there’s a representation of the reality, actors and musicians play something, the fake it, they give you their own version.
Stage of Reality means that.
Our band has started on 2013 as a solo project, I wanted to write an album and speak about Pasolini’s idea of television and modern media, I wrote a concept story, then I started to write lyrics and music and then I looked for musicians to join the band and make it happen. We’ve started from the cd production.
What are your influences/inspirations?
My inspirations are artists like Alter Bridge, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Queen, Gun’s and Roses, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple – I got a lot more and I listen to a lot of different music like classical and jazz, but the list would be really too long!!!
You could describe your sound as prog rock / alternative metal. Do you think there’s still enough request for this kinda music?
I like to think about The Breathing Machines as a hard rock/prog/alternative album, someone found it crossover because of the slap bass, the straight drum and the prig guitars. Sincerely I’m not good with music genres.
I think that the request for a kind of music comes from the need to listen to something new, maybe in some countries they don’t like us, but fortunately the world is big enough to find our fans somewhere else.
What do you think about the Italian metal scene?
have you got another question? Ok…. Let’s try to be political correct here. I think we got a lot of good bands, but no one really believes that it would be possible to make money with this kind of music. In Italy the labels care much more about tv than cd’s. They people to make talent shows and who watches talent shows? Of course not metal heads nor hard rock girls!
What are the most beautiful or funniest moments in the history of the band?
Our history is really short right now, but a couple of weeks ago we were having a streaming interview on google plus and we spent twenty minutes trying to figure out how to seat in front of the webcam to allow people to see us playing live an acoustic version of one of our songs… five people with instruments in front of a webcam has been a sort of impossible things and we were like a bunch of cows trying to take a seat!!!!
What are your goals for the future (festivals, cooperations, tours)?
everything you listed! We singed a contract with a manager from Usa and she’s working to give us the appropriate exposure in the States, it seems that over there we are starting to have a very good fan base and we are really happy about it.
Can you live from the music or do you still have “normal” jobs?
No, we all still have “normal” jobs, but we’re working on it!!!
You’re on all big social networks. How important is it to stay in contact with your fans via internet?
Nowadays it’s really important, it allows you to be in touch with people and to check if in other countries they like you or not.
It’s also a good way to let our fans see how the band is moving on
You’re a very progressive band. Do you prefer recording or being on stage?
On stage we are really a rock band, we don’t consider ourselves so progressive, we like to perform and to set venues on fire. On stage you can feel the energy coming from the people attending your show and you can give them back the same energy with your music. There’s nothing better feeling on earth.
Your latest album, which I enjoyed a lot, is a concept album. Which story does it tell?
The Breathing Machines tells a story set in a near future, people aren’t able anymore to feel or to criticize. They live their lives like grey men, people without colors, people who are only able to make basic decisions. Books don’t exist anymore, people use to get information only from tv and social media and there’s no more contradiction because people are no more able to get deep into things, they don’t want to know the truth, they just live their days and every day must be a perfect copy of the previous one, no surprises, no feelings allowed.
But in this future there’s someone who’s is going to reveal the whole world that there’s something we should do to avoid to live like machines, breathing machines, but still machines. We have to wake up and understand that what make s the difference between us and a computer is that we can feel, we can taste, we can use our brain to criticize and to make a better world.
If you would have to choose: Iron Maiden, Dream Theater or Iced Earth?
Iron Maiden of course! Their live shows are awesome and huge!
Are you interested in football? If yes, which teams do you support?
we are definitely not interested in football, I know it sounds strange ’cause we are from Italy but this is it. We’ll work on a Stage of Reality football team anyway, it seems to be cool having a band team!
Something you would like to tell your fans and our followers?
Help us to spread the voice, listen to our music and follow us on the internet ’cause really soon we’ll come to your countries to set some stage on fire!!!
Thank you for the interview and let me know when you’re playing in South Tyrol!
Great! I love South Tyrol, it would be awesome!
Thank you for this opportunity you gave us.
If you wanna check out the band after this awesome interview, make sure to check these links:
Enterprise Earth interview
Thurisaz Interview
From Under Concrete Kings Interview
Metal Utopia’s Top 5 Albums of 2015
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IFAshion podcast
Cultural Appreciation
Marilyn Quarshie
Interview with African Art Gallery Owner Nelly Wandji
Nelly Wandji
Nelly Wandji is the owner and consultant for Nelly Wandji, an art gallery dedicated to showcasing the luxury of African craftsmanship. Located at 93 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, the art gallery is housed in the prestigious neighbourhood of Paris, home to major luxury brands and high-end art galleries. As an African passionate about art, craft and design, Nelly Wandji found an avenue to express her heritage by creating a gallery to showcase the beauty and luxuriousness of African creativity and talent.
Q: Tell me a bit about yourself and what you do?
A: "I am a distribution consultant and creator of the Moonlook, an online international platform that is dedicated to the promotion of creatives on the African continent. I also own a gallery here in Paris where I showcase the work of African creatives through art, fashion and craft. The idea is to show African craftsmanship in a more luxurious way."
Q: How did you get started with what you do?
A: "I got started with what I do through what I would call a revelation. After my studies, I worked for one of the largest jewellery conglomerates as a marketing assistant. I was responsible for looking at the artisans of the luxury division of the group and in charge of the development of the company in France and through out Europe. During one of my trips to Milan, I came across the store of a stylist who had wax print fabric in the window display of her store, that’s when the revelation hit. I realized that there is so much talent and creativity on the African continent and there is a demand for African craftsmanship, but there wasn’t really a way for creatives to connect and share their work on a more international level. So with that realization and through some of my work experiences and connections, I decided leave my job and started an online platform ‘Moon Look’ that would give creatives on the continent the opportunity to share, connect and show their work."
Q: What made you decide to start a gallery?
A: "Well, after launching the online platform, I was also doing a lot of pop up with pieces and designs that I had collected from my travels to Africa. These items were selling very well and that’s when I thought it would be a good idea to have some form of a physical space to showcase these items. A place where people to see, feel and touch the items."
Q: How did you manage to get a space in this location for your gallery?
A: "After almost 8 months of research and searching for a good location in Paris. I was able to come across this location here in the 8th arrondissement. A location that attracts people from all over and is home to many major fashion houses and big art galleries. I wanted a space that would serve the purpose of my vision and this space fit just that with have 3 areas that all serve each other. In the front is the gallery to display art, the back is a cabinet of curiosity where you can find clothes, bags, jewellery and magazines, and downstairs is a sort of showroom and cozy lounge."
Q: How do you find the work to showcase in the gallery?
"I am well known among creatives and through my interactions and word of mouth, I am able to come across work to show. I travel a lot around the continent and attend tradeshows and art shows where I also come across a lot of other creative people who also know other creatives and introduce them to me. So through my network and interactions, that is how I am able to connect with people and get items."
Q: Was this the career path you always imagined to have from a young age? What educational path did you take to get to where you are now other than your working experiences?
A: "Not at all, it’s just something that I realized I had to do because no one was really doing it. I realized there was a need for it and tapped into the market. As far as my education, when I moved to Paris from Cameroon, I studied international trades and specialized in luxury."
Q: How long have you been operating the gallery and what other plans do you have outside of the gallery and your online platform to keep supporting your initiative?
A: "The gallery has been here for two and half, almost 3 years, but I am considering closing the gallery and launching a program for creatives on the continent. I am Pivoting towards an agency that will help consult creatives with how to share their work on a more international scale but also within the continent."
Q: What do you like to do in your spare time when you are not handling the business of owning a gallery?
A: "When I use to have spare time, now I just sleep because I am just too tired. When I used to have spare time, I love visiting galleries, exhibitions, watching movies and travelling; although I already travel a lot for work. I used to also have a band, a jazz band in which I used to sing in, but this was all back when I had spare time."
Q: What type of art do you like?
"I am most attracted to work of material- I love beautiful things. One part of the human being that we don’t highlight enough the capacity to transform material into art, turn something very raw and unpolished into something very beautiful. I love the work and craftsmanship of artisans and fine craft and of course African art. I am also learning to have an appreciation for contemporary art but most importantly, what I love about art is the story that it tells. I want to look at an art piece and really feel connected and understand the story behind the artist behind the piece of art, that is what touches me."
Q: What is the most fulfilling part about what you do?
"To see that every action even if it may seem insignificant at the time can actually impact somebody’s life. I am very strict on the way I see things and it’s a very satisfying feeling knowing that someone can take something from what I say even if it may seem a bit harsh at the time and later on be able to see the value in what they took away from it and how my advise has positively helped them in their endeavours."
Q: What is the most challenging part about what you do?
"Trying to change people’s mind-set in how they perceive African fashion and art. I want them to be able to expand and evolve their perception to understand that African craftsmanship is not just unique, but something of value that can be luxury as well."
Q: What advice would you give someone trying to do what you do?
"Be authentic, don’t follow the crowd, bring your voice, do what seems good from your standpoint, be innovative and bring something new to the table. Every body has something very significant to offer, so don’t be afraid to go for it."
Photo Sources: Jeune Afrique, WANACorp, Sortia Paris, Facebook, Timeout, Nelly Wandji.
#African #Gallery #Art #Paris #Design #Craftsmanship #Creatives #Luxury #France
Follow the Leader, Challenge the Leader:
“I feel like I could get in trouble for saying this” -Anastasios Sofroniou Interview conducted by Carmela Roberts In Vogue, in a book, or on television, Anastasios Sofroniou (Tassos) is among masters
Interview with the Editorial Content Creator & Storyteller Isabelle Hossenlopp
Interview with Fashion Design Student Edgar Artis
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Home Spazio Mondo olympics The 1976 Montreal Olympics
The 1976 Montreal Olympics
Participating countries: 92
Number of participants: 6,084
Sport: 21
Opening Ceremony: July 17, 1976
Closing Ceremony: August 1, 1976
Start of construction: April 1973
Opening: July 17, 1976
Coverage: Kevlar retractable roof
Cost: U.S. $ 1.47 billion
Project: Roger Taillibert
Seats: 68,500 (Olympics)
Olympic Editions
The 1976 Montreal Games are remembered for the high costs incurred and the great performance of athletes in the games. For Mondo this was the first of ten Olympic experiences by the main character.
The realization of a dream
The hosting of the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, was for the Canadian city the realization of a dream that had been shattered in the past more than once. The Canadian city, had applied to host the 1944 Winter Olympics (which was not played due to war) and 1956, and the 1972 summer games. The favor of Montreal’s bid over those of Moscow and Los Angeles, it was the intention on the part of the International Olympic Committee, not to entrust the hosting of the Games to one of the superpowers. This was due to the fear of political backlash, which would occur in the next two editions of the Olympics. Montreal 1976 was the realization of a dream for Mondo and London 2012 celebrates its tenth consecutive Olympics. "Even if in those days things were a little 'different, because there was still the professionalism that we have today. For us the Olympic Games in Montreal, as well as all games in which we participated, was an important experience because it helped us grow as a company from many different points of view, "says Federico Stroppiana, Managing Director of the Mondo Group.
Mondo America
Among other things, Montreal 1976 was the reason for the Italian company to create a Mondo America. You can argue that the adventure of Mondo in North America started around that time, and later developed strategies through various vicissitudes, with the first being in Canada and then into the United States starting in the late '80s. "The initial idea was from the beginning to expand to a much larger and important market such as the U.S. - recalls Federico Stroppiana - but initially it was not easy. Therefore, at the beginning, we worked more in Canada. "Today, Mondo has sales throughout North America and 20% comes from Canada and the rest from the United States. This is due to the references that the Mondo has achieved in the last 20 years, especially when it comes to tracks for athletics, sports in the university sector, where many investments are being made.
How do you become an Official Supplier?
To become an Official Supplier of the Games is very important given the experience and reputation that a company has created over time, not so much by its name, but by the quality of the products it offers. "Consider the Olympic track - explains Federico Stroppiana - As part of the costs for the Games it is not a large expense, because the larger investments are those made for the stadium and other infrastructure. The track, however, is critical to the success of the Olympics. It is the most visible during the entire event and it will host the most important events, including opening and closing ceremonies. On it focuses the attention of all the media and it has maximum visibility on television. If something goes wrong with the Olympic track, the failure would be much more than a mishap in comparison to another sports facility. For this reason, the IOC makes sure that the track at the Olympic Stadium is a quality product and provides the best performances for the athletes. It is better to have a product that athletes already know and are accustomed to because if you chose a new surface you the risk is greater not only in terms of quality, but also in the performance of athletes."
Always look to the future
Although the participation in the Olympics represents, from an economic perspective, a cost for a company, there is no doubt that this is a valuable investment: no sporting event, in fact, can give the same visibility worldwide. For this competition to be chosen as Official Supplier is very strong. "There are so many competitors, so you have to work on time and in depth with the local Olympic Committee - concludes the CEO of the Mondo Group. Each edition of the Games the Committee is different, so you have to start over every time, because even if you can warrant the work done well the last time, it has to do with nations and different people who may not know you. The first meetings with the Brazilian Olympic Committee, for example, has already begun and will become more defined after London 2012. It is work that considerable time must be devoted."
The African protest
The hope that the award of the Olympiad to Montreal could avoid the political disagreements, disappeared when a large group of African countries decided to boycott the Games to protest against Apartheid in South Africa. The boycott was due to refusal of organizers to ban New Zealand, who had played the first few months of rugby on South African soil, to participate in the Olympics. At that time, an embargo was in effect that prohibited South Africa to participate in international sporting events and for other countries to participate in sporting events organized in the African country. In total there were twenty-two nations that joined the boycott. Iraq and Guyana also joined the protest carried out by the Congolese delegation. Some countries (including Morocco, Cameroon and Egypt) joined the protest after the conclusion of the first day of the Games. Only Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire withdrew.
The Olympic Stadium complex
Montreal's Olympic Stadium was designed by French architect Roger Taillibert, who took inspiration from the shapes of plants and animals to draw what is still considered a masterpiece of modern organic architecture. The initial idea was to create the first stadium in the world with a retractable roof. The project involved a 175 meter high tower tilted above the stadium that was supposed to deploy or withdraw coverage depending on the environmental conditions. The complexity of the project, along with a series of strikes, meant that only the basic structure could be completed in time for the Games, while the tower and roof were incomplete. Even under the incomplete tower the Olympic pool and velodrome were built in time. During the Games, the Olympic Stadium hosted several events, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, athletics, football finals of the tournament and team equestrian events.
#Olympics 02 Jan 2012
Barcelona Olympic Stadium 2010
#Olympics 29 Mar 2012
#Olympics 07 Jun 2011
The National Indoor Stadium in Beijing
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you are here: HomeNewsWorld
'Significant' health questions remain about in-person G7 meeting: Canada PM Justin Trudeau
Trump in March cancelled the Group of Seven leaders meeting scheduled for June 10 as the coronavirus outbreak was spreading around the world and international travel was curtailed.
May 27, 2020 / 10:20 PM IST
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that there are still many health-related questions to be answered before he can say whether he will attend a face-to-face G7 meeting that President Donald Trump has said he wants to host.
"There are significant health preoccupations that we have around holding an in-person meeting," Trudeau said in his daily news conference. "Would we then as leaders have to self-isolate when we return, which is right now the rule in Canada?"
White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien said on Sunday that if there were to be an in-person meeting, it would be at the end of June.
But last week Trump said he may seek to revive the idea of a face-to-face meeting because he said it would send a message that the world is getting back to normal.
How does a vaccine work?
A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.
How many types of vaccines are there?
There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.
What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?
Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
‘Happy old man looking forward to a bright future’: Greta Thunberg roasts Donald Trump in his ow...
Trudeau did not rule out going, saying he would consult public health experts and that talks with the Trump administration "are happening in an ongoing and very constructive way."
The border between Canada and the United States, which was shut down to non-essential travel in March, will be closed at least until June 21.
"There's no question that an in-person meetings in an ideal situation are much more effective than virtual meetings. However there are many questions to answer before we can commit to showing up in person," Trudeau said.
French President Emmanuel Macron is open to traveling to the United States for an in-person G7 meeting if the coronavirus pandemic situation allows, an Elysee official said last week.
TAGS: #Canada #coronavirus #Donald Trump #G7 #Justin Trudeau #World News
first published: May 27, 2020 10:10 pm
'Significant' health questions remain about in-person G7 meeting:...
'No time to waste': First POTUS tweet after Joe Biden takes oath as US...
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News + Ideas
Tim Gilbert (PLA, CASp) has been at the forefront of universal design and accessibility since he helped develop the first accessibility checklist integrating the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations with California building codes over 25 years ago. In some ways his landscape architecture career evolved as he did. Early on, as a young father of two, he focused on creating parks, playgrounds, and schools that allowed children of all abilities to play and learn. Then as a self-described “aging baby-boomer”, he worked to make places and policies accessible and usable for all people to promote positive human interaction. Tim is particularly motivated to assist public agencies in expanding their perspective to include people with disabilities and applying inclusive design principles. Regardless of size or complexity, his expertise in access and inclusive design can be applied universally. But Tim emphasizes that what really matters are the policies and environments that emerge—enabling everyone to work, play, travel, and live with as few barriers as possible.
Tim is Director of Universal Design Services.
Email Tim
MIG Publications
MIG Meeting Space
© 2019 MIG, Inc.
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The Air Force Wants to Retire Aging Aircraft. It Will Have to Get Past Congress First
The A-10 Thunderbolt II most notably employs its GAU-8/A 30mm gun system, which produces an iconic sound that ground troops never forget. (US Air Force photo/Kenny Kennemer)
Military.com | By Oriana Pawlyk
For some U.S. Air Force leaders, retiring the A-10 Warthog close-air support aircraft was a simple decision.
Like many of the service's aircraft, the A-10, best known for its iconic Gatling gun designed to shred tanks, was wearing out in 2014 after years of providing cover for ground troops in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. So the service devised a plan to begin phasing it out in 2015.
Retiring the A-10 would have lowered the average age of the service's plane inventory, which was climbing toward 27 years. It would also have freed up funds to invest in new aviation platforms, such as the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, and allowed service maintainers to turn their attention to other planes with a longer expected service life.
But the seemingly logical proposal launched a years-long firestorm when lawmakers, led by former Air Force Col. Martha McSally, rushed to save the beloved plane from mothballs. Years later, the fleet is being refurbished with new wings instead of being sent to the boneyard.
The dramatic A-10 turnaround illustrates how Air Force plans can fail to survive first contact with a Congress with other ideas. And, former officials and experts who spoke with Military.com said, that may be about to happen again.
Related: Air Force to Send More than 100 Planes to Boneyard as it Invests in Future Fighters
The Defense Department's fiscal 2021 budget request calls for the retirement of more than 100 aircraft across a number of platforms, including B-1B Lancer bombers; older-model KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender refuelers; RQ-4 Global Hawk drones; and more than three dozen A-10s.
That would free up some $4.1 billion over the next five years to spend on future technologies and networking the existing fleet to make it more agile and capable. If, that is, Air Force leaders can somehow sell the plan to Congress.
"I feel like I've been to that movie before. And now this is going to be the sequel," said Deborah Lee James, the 23rd secretary of the Air Force. James, who spoke with Military.com this month, led the service between 2013 and 2017, during the A-10 fight.
"The question is, will the sequel have a different outcome? Different end to the story?" she said. "What I don't know is, if behind the scenes as they're preparing to retire aircraft from certain bases, do they have a backfill prepared to go in?"
The Trade-Offs
The Air Force isn't the only service asking Congress to let it dump old platforms.
The Navy failed to convince lawmakers last year that it should retire a carrier, the Harry S. Truman, halfway through its service life. The ship is now headed to the years-long midlife refueling process instead. Army and Marine Corps leaders are also talking about the need to ditch some legacy systems to pay for newer equipment they can use to fight Russia and China.
During the A-10 fight, McSally, an Arizona Republican who was then a U.S. Representative, was joined in her support of the platform by the late Sen. John McCain, also of Arizona; and then-Sen. Kelly Ayotte, whose husband, Joseph Daley, flew A-10s while in the Air National Guard.
With multiple aircraft platforms now facing at least partial retirement, the number of lawmakers with an interest in keeping the planes on the flightline could grow, the analyst said. Plus, it's not explicitly clear which -- and how many -- lawmakers might oppose the Air Force's plan.
"No member of Congress wants to lose, or stand by and silently lose, a fleet of aircraft or a capability from their state or district, which, of course, translates to jobs," James said.
"And just like a defense attorney or a prosecutor, a congressman or senator is going to make his case: to keep what they've got. And boy, it'll sound like, 'How in the world, Air Force, could you be so stupid?'" James said.
FILE -- In this file photo from Dec. 6, 2017, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James speaks to attendees at the Air Force Association's Breakfast Series in Arlington, Virginia. (Joshua L. DeMotts/U.S. Air Force)
Another challenge is selling what the Air Force wants in place of its aging planes: next-generation systems of technology, such as the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), which isn't "iron on the ramp" -- a visible show of warfighting strength.
Air Force leaders want to spend more than $300 million -- more than double last year's enacted funding of $144 million -- on the new ABMS, a state-of-the-art program that focuses on fusing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensor data from around the globe. The service also has to fund ongoing buys of the F-35 Lightning II and KC-46 Pegasus tanker, as well as research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) spending for the upcoming B-21 Long Range Stealth bomber.
The more access lawmakers can get to the rationale behind the Air Force's tough choices, the more likely they may be to compromise, said Heather Wilson, the 24th secretary of the Air Force.
"Be accessible, try to be responsive," she said, adding that transparency matters.
"I understood the frustration of being a member of Congress where you have to wait an hour-and-a-half to ask five minutes of questions. You never get all the stuff you want answered, answered. It can be frustrating. So the best thing that the services can do is meet with those members in advance," she said.
When she arrived at the Pentagon just after James in 2017, Wilson found that, when lawmakers called, her staff would stick to protocols that dictated setting up a meeting, getting the correct documentation in order and observing other bureaucratic procedures.
"Just relax, folks," said Wilson, who served as a U.S. representative for New Mexico between 1998 and 2009. She resigned from her post and departed the Pentagon in May 2019 to take her new position as president of the University of Texas El Paso.
"The member is calling me. How about, if a member of Congress calls, put the call through?" she said in an interview Wednesday. "They know I may not know the answer. They may not [get] the answer they wanted to hear, but at least they deserve an answer."
No Surprises, Less Emotion
James said she now grasps why lawmakers got defensive about the A-10, though she didn't understand the passion surrounding it right away.
"I think the emotion associated with the A-10 did end up surprising a lot of people," she said. "Think about it: You drove whatever your first car was, and you probably don't still have that first car, but I was ready to go onto my next car after I'd had that first car for a certain amount of time.
"Now, I know a car is not a fighter aircraft, but still the emotion associated with the machine surprised me. ... I don't get emotional about equipment. I'm all for going for a better piece of equipment and doubling down on [advocating for] people [instead]."
Of course, more money helps. Military spending has risen each year for the last five years -- from $586 billion in 2015 to $716 billion in 2019, according to The Washington Post. The fiscal 2020 bill, passed in December, gives the military $738 billion. The Air Force makes up 24% of the overall defense budget, Wilson said.
But with the Pentagon and military services cutting billions in "night court" budget sessions, the Air Force still can't afford to get sentimental this time.
"There's been a lot more signaling; the Air Force wasn't allowed to say anything explicit, but Air Force leaders for a couple of months now have been going around warning that they were going to be trading existing systems for future systems -- that there were going to be some significant retirements proposed," said a longtime defense analyst in Washington, D.C.
Officials had been communicating that informally to Capitol Hill well ahead of the budget request, the analyst told Military.com.
"Congress does not react well to surprises."
The Last Successful Fleet Retirement
Aircraft retirement has never been an easy task, especially since the Air Force has much to choose from. It's a byproduct of the service's gilded age of procurement, which came right after the Vietnam War, said Brian Laslie, an Air Force historian who has written two books: "The Air Force Way of War" and "Architect of Air Power."
"[It stems] from the 'We'll never let that happen again' mindset," Laslie said, referencing the devastating losses in airpower over the course of the war, which saw more than 2,000 aircraft destroyed.
After those losses, the Air Force was able to increase its training funding and expedite funds for the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10, KC-10 and F-117 Nighthawk, Laslie said.
So when the service's F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber fleet slowly began to wind down from manned operations following one of its last missions in Desert Storm in 1991, there was a natural backfill of aircraft to take its place, he said.
It may be the last successful retirement of a single, full fleet that the Air Force was able to accomplish, both the analyst and Laslie said.
Perhaps unintentionally, the F-117 became the face of Desert Storm. It then made it easy to pitch the service's next big endeavor: stealth technology.
"The Air Force treated the procurement of its desired force structure after Desert Storm like a roulette table in Las Vegas, and the Air Force bet it all on black," Laslie said. "Meaning, the Air Force put all their money into the concept of low-observable stealth technology, because that was the future of warfare."
As the F-117 -- and later the F-22 Raptor and B-2 Spirit bomber -- became flying demonstrators of stealth technology, lawmakers could appreciate their benefits.
ABMS -- and connected intelligence networks, or a "family of systems" overall -- will not be as easy to sell, argued the analyst.
The U.S. is "going to do something that isn't headquartered in a particular place, that doesn't employ maintainers in a particular place; it's a distributed system. That's a hard sell from a constituent point of view," the analyst said.
"But also, it's a hard sell from a concept point of view. ABMS is still unformed inside the Air Force -- there isn't the final picture of what it looks like," the analyst said. "Parts of it are going to wind up being classified, and it's inherently difficult to make a public argument for a classified system."
Pushing the Story
During her tenure as Air Force secretary, Wilson too was tasked with pitching new ideas, such as interconnected networks, data computing and artificial intelligence. She admitted being a former lawmaker did help her advance the dialogue between the Air Force and Congress, and said she took frequent trips to speak to members.
In one case, she was successful.
FILE -- In this April 9, 2019 file photo, Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson speaks to the 35th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Dalton Williams/U.S. Air Force)
Wilson and Goldfein got lawmakers to think beyond the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft, capable of developing, detecting, locating and tracking moving targets on the ground. Through the fiscal 2019 defense budget, the service officially put to bed the JSTARS recapitalization effort. Instead, the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act granted additional funding for the next-generation ABMS in lieu of a new fleet; as a compromise, the current fleet -- which dates back to the 1990s -- will stick around into the mid-2020s.
Like JSTARS, the other aircraft slated to be cut in the upcoming budget have already been pushed to their limit, hindering how effective they can be.
"It's not really the question of having equipment and using that old equipment," Wilson said.
"It's [about], 'Is it really worth what we're going to have to do to this over old equipment to keep it flying safely?'" she said.
That's also part of the Air Force story, she said. "And that story will be told in dozens and dozens of meetings over the coming months of what the choices were and what they're trying to accomplish."
-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Read more: Sikorsky-Boeing's SB-1 Defiant Helicopter Prototype Impresses Leaders in Flight Demo
Related Topics: Military Headlines Air Force Topics A-10 Thunderbolt II - Warthog Congress
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Home > Legislation > Stoel Rives Opens Office in Washington, D.C.
Stoel Rives Opens Office in Washington, D.C.
By Mike Mills on February 5, 2013 Posted in Legislation
We are pleased to announce that we have opened a satellite office in Washington, D.C. Our new address, effective immediately:
1020 19th Street NW, Suite 375
The new office is headed by firm partner Greg Jenner, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Tax Policy and Tax Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.
Click here to read the press release.
<p>We are pleased to announce that we have opened a satellite office in Washington, D.C. Our new address, effective immediately:</p>
<p>Stoel Rives LLP<br />
1020 19th Street NW, Suite 375<br />
Washington, DC 20036 <br />
Phone: (202) 398-1795 / Fax: (202) 621-6394</p>
<p>The new office is headed by firm partner <a href=”http://www.stoel.com/greg_jenner”>Greg Jenner</a>, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Tax Policy and Tax Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.</p>
<p><a href=”http://www.stoel.com/showrelease.aspx?Show=10022″>Click here</a> to read the press release.</p>
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More on the Fate of Republican Progressives
Jonathan Stein
Below, Clara ponders the fate of moderate Republicans, using Governor Schwarzenegger and his new universal health plan as a way in. I think Arnold’s the best place to start such a discussion, because he’s the only national player in the GOP that, in my opinion, embraces moderation with any authenticity.
Clara argues that the progressive sweep in the 2006 elections should signal a change in fortunes for progressive Republicans. I’m dubious. First off, I don’t think America is any more progressive than it was five years ago; I think midterm voters were weary of George Bush’s mishandling of Iraq and the Republican Congress’ mishandling of its ethical responsibilities, and voted for change. A lot of Republican voters who stayed home and a lot of swing voters who enthusiastically voted Democratic could easily revert to their normal states.
The second reason is that most moderate Republicans, unlike Arnold, don’t seem to see any value in embracing their own progressivism, such as it is. In reality, we’re discussing John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney here. (Let’s pause to note that these three aren’t the GOP’s real moderates: that would be folks like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and the ousted Lincoln Chafee.) Look at their recent actions: John McCain has embraced the leading figures of the Religious Right and denounced his previous support of Roe v. Wade. Mitt Romney is opposing gay marriage even though he’s been very accepting — and even supportive — of gays in the past, and has just declared his support for President Bush’s surge, citing the advice of “Generals, military experts and troops who have served on the ground.” That’s funny, because the Generals, military experts and troops on the ground all think a surge is a bad idea. Romney’s statement probably should have read, “Look, I’ve had my disagreements with George Bush in the past, but now that I’m running for President, I stand with him. I’m a real Republican, okay? I’m willing to support the escalation of an already disastrous war to prove it.” These actions speak for themselves: Republicans believe they have to move rightward to win.
As for Giuliani, he’s got a record he can’t really back away from. He’s long been pro-gay rights, pro-abortion rights, pro-gun control, and pro-immigrant rights. Sure, he’s tough on crime and would inspire all the right emotions on national security, but a Baptist minister once called Giuliani (what with his earlier marriage to his second cousin, his cross dressing, etc.) an “insult to the pro-Christian agenda.” It’s a much tougher road to hoe when you’re a moderate Republican with an interest in actually getting elected as a moderate — and an interest in actually being yourself.
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Home / News / Singapore
What Would YOU Do With 150 Brand New 1997 Chrysler Neons?
Antony Ingram October 3, 2011
Anyone want 150, zero-mile, right-hand drive 1997 Chrysler Neons? No, us neither. But for anyone out there who does, such a thing is actually available right now. The large stock of essentially brand new Neons is being sold in Singapore by Arete Trading Pte Ltd. We've no idea how they've come to acquire such a large stock of 14-year old cars in a variety of different colors, but they've clearly been there a while judging by their dusty grave. Not much is revealed about the cars in the advert, only that they do each have a spare wheel but don't have a stereo system. The Neon was sold under the...
Future Urban Mobility Relies On Real-Time Data Access
The requirements for travel within the urban environment comes under greater pressure with every passing year. We're already past the point at which more than 50 percent of the world's population live in cities rather than rurally, and it's only set to increase. The Future Urban Mobility (FM)...
Antony Ingram July 28, 2011
BMW M Division Opens Dedicated Showroom In Singapore
In what could prove to be the first of many to open in markets where BMW cars are sold, a new showroom dedicated to selling only high-performance BMW M Division cars is about to open its doors for the first time in Singapore. The showroom has been established by Singapore’s Munich Automobiles...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran July 28, 2010
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The CDC vs. Your Property
By Mark Nestmann • September 8, 2020
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), with the support of the Trump administration, announced a nationwide moratorium on evictions through the end of this year. The CDC justified the unprecedented move on the premise that the action is necessary to prevent further COVID-19 spread.
If you’re a cash-strapped renter living paycheck to paycheck, the moratorium probably sounds like good news (although it isn’t, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment). But if you own rental property and are dependent on regular payments from your tenants to pay the building’s mortgage, the moratorium could spell financial disaster. If you evict a tenant in defiance of the CDC’s order, you could be fined $100,000 and face a year in prison. While the deferred rental payments aren’t forgiven, the longer they persist, the more difficult it will be for landlords to collect past due payments.
The CDC claims it has the authority to halt evictions under regulations it issued under the authority of the Public Health Services Act. This law is one of the hundreds enacted by Congress giving the president and the executive branch the authority to make law at the stroke of a pen in the event of an “emergency.”
To be sure, there are a few formalities that tenants need to follow to avoid eviction for non-payment of rent. They must prepare a sworn affidavit declaring they:
Have "used best efforts to obtain all available government assistance for rent or housing”;
Expect to earn less than $99,000 ($198,000 for joint tax filers) in 2020 or did not have to report any income to the IRS in 2019, or received a stimulus check under the CARES Act;
Are "unable to pay the full rent… due to substantial loss of household income … a lay-off, or extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses”;
Are “using best efforts to make timely partial payments that are as close to the full payment as the individual's circumstances may permit"; and
Would likely become homeless in the event of eviction or be forced “to move into and live in close quarters in a new congregate or shared living setting."
The income limits for these provisions to take effect are far higher than Uncle Sam’s poverty guidelines. For 2020, the Department of Health & Human Services determined that a one-person household would need to generate less than $12,760 per year in income to qualify as impoverished. For a two-person household, the threshold is $17,240 per year. For each additional person in the household, the HHS adds $4,480 to these thresholds.
Thus, to qualify for the CDC’s moratorium, a tenant living alone could have an income almost eight times higher than the poverty line. A married couple could have an income more than 11 times higher. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin estimates the moratorium would affect up to 40 million renters.
Moreover, a close reading of the regulation the CDC used to declare a rent moratorium appears to authorize the agency to impose virtually any other restrictions it chooses. All it needs to do is to make an unsupported claim that the action would slow the spread of a contagious disease and that state or local laws are "insufficient" to effectively limit its spread. There’s no minimum standard necessary to demonstrate that the restrictions are reasonable, proportionate, and that state and local measures are truly insufficient.
As well, while the moratorium expires at the end of 2020, regulations issued under the Public Health Services Act need not have an expiration date. Thus, the CDC could conceivably declare that to deter the spread of any disease (even the common cold!), everyone currently living in “close quarters” be given a single-family home to live in. Further, if their incomes are below the CARES Act thresholds, that they be permitted to live in their new homes rent-free until the pandemic subsides.
As Senator Pat Toomey (R.-Penn.) put it, "If the CDC has the authority to force landlords to effectively give away their product for free, I don't know where that ends. Can General Motors be forced to give people cars unless they otherwise crowd into subways? What future administration, what future president, certainly what future Democratic president is going to want to be accused of being less generous than Donald Trump? Are we to expect that the standard response of the government to an economic downturn is an eviction moratorium?”
That’s a valid point. A spokesperson for the Biden campaign has already indicated the Democratic candidate supports the moratorium. His only question is why it took Trump so long to declare it.
Nor is America actually facing an eviction crisis. Indeed, eviction rates have been well below normal since COVID-19 related lockdowns began in March. Data collected by the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), which represents landlords of multifamily apartment buildings, indicates that fewer than one million households are at an imminent risk of eviction.
That number is a lot lower than 40 million. And it only makes sense that landlords wouldn’t want to evict tenants during an economic crisis. And not for altruistic reasons: landlords realize it could be difficult to find new tenants that will pay as much as the old ones. In the meantime, they’ll collect no rent at all.
But there’s an even more important principle at issue here. The CDC’s edict is a direct violation of the “Takings Clause” of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment: “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” The new rule is a “regulatory taking”: a rule that inhibits the owner’s use of their property, without compensation for their losses.
Unfortunately, America’s judiciary doesn’t enforce the takings clause as it’s written. On issues ranging from civil forfeiture to eminent domain, the takings clause gets lip service from the courts, and little else. That’s a tragic omission, because the right to property is foundational to every other right we have. As James Madison, the principal author of the Constitution, put it: “As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.”
And make no mistake, the consequences of the CDC’s rent moratorium will quickly permeate through the economy. Most landlords finance rental properties with borrowed money. Since the CDC hasn’t (yet) declared a moratorium on mortgage payments, landlords still need to make those. If they don’t, the lender can foreclose and seize their properties. Congress imposed a foreclosure moratorium through July 31, which has been extended to the end of 2020 by federal housing agencies. But it applies only to federally backed mortgage loans, which are available only for owner-occupied properties.
In addition, many mortgages are bundled into mortgage-backed securities and gobbled up by hedge funds, pension plans, and insurance companies. As the cash flows from these mortgages dry up, the economic hardship will multiply, setting off a tidal wave of defaults and bankruptcies. The value of rental properties will decline due to the perceived risk of continued and/or future rent moratoriums. Deep-pocketed investors – think hedge funds, which are already snapping up homes – will swoop in to buy distressed properties on the cheap. The concentration of ownership will lead to even less affordable housing for everyone, especially the poorest Americans.
The CDC’s new rules will no doubt be challenged in court by landlords, either based on the Takings Clause or on the theory that the moratorium exceeds the authority delegated to the CDC by Congress. But even if the CDC suspends enforcement of its new rule, or the courts invalidate it, the die has been cast. Americans have once again been shown that their financial obligations can be erased by government diktat. And we’ll all be paying the costs for years to come, in ways we can’t even begin to foresee.
Plan B, anyone?
on evictions through the end of this year. The CDC justified the unprecedented move on the premise that the action is necessary to prevent further COVID-19 spread.
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The management of lower limb arteriovenous grafts in the perioperative period following renal transplantation.
Isaak, Andrej1, 2
Madurska, Marta J1
Stevenson, Karen S1
Gürke, Lorenz2
Kingsmore, David B1, 3
1 Renal and Transplant Surgery, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK.
2 Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland. , (Switzerland)
3 Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK.
Wiley (Blackwell Publishing)
DOI: 10.1111/ctr.13846
Clinical Decision-Making
Delayed Graft Function
Expanded Criteria Donor
Lower Limb Arteriovenous Grafts
The presence of a lower limb arteriovenous graft (LL-AVG) is indicative of a group of complex hemodialysis patients who have precarious long-term vascular access. The aim of this study is to describe our experience of the clinical decisions and interactions between LL-AVG and renal transplantation. The records of 23 patients who received a transplant in the presence of a LL-AVG between 2010 and 2018 were analyzed: firstly, to determine whether patients with a LL-AVG received extended criteria transplants, the implantation procedure, and the management of the LL-AVG in the post-operative period. Seventeen patients (74%) had "end-stage access" and were thus considered for all offer stratified by the kidney donor profile index (KDPI) and donor type (DBD or DCD). In eleven patients (48%), a kidney with a high risk of delayed graft function was transplanted. Same-sided renal transplantation occurred in only 35% of cases, and of these, only one LL-AVG was ligated immediately to improve transplant perfusion. A patient-based approach applied in decision-making on management of the LL-AVG post-transplantation should include (a) the likelihood of delayed graft function, (b) the need for post-operative hemodialysis, (c) the side of proposed transplant compared to the LL-AVG, and (d) local complications. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. This record was last updated on 01/04/2021 and may not reflect the most current and accurate biomedical/scientific data available from NLM. The corresponding record at NLM can be accessed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32096878
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The votes are in: Which mobile data provider is best?
Which mobile data provider is best? (And will you make a switch?)
Which mobile data provider is best?
Find out which carrier gets the most cheers -- and which the most jeers -- from our 2016 survey respondents.
By Preston Gralla
Contributing Editor, Computerworld |
How you rate your mobile data service
Privacy and provider trustworthiness
Unlocked phones or in-store mobile purchases? Not yet
Mobile data use
Plans, contracts and costs
Why you chose your mobile provider
The rankings: Best and worst mobile data providers
Bottom line and what's next
How the survey was conducted and graded
That thing you carry in your pocket may be called a smartphone, but its main purpose isn’t to talk to other people — it’s a tiny computer you use to connect to the internet, get information and find and use apps. So, for the fourth year in a row we’ve gone on a mission to find out which mobile service provider gives you the most comprehensive and reliable data network coverage, the fastest upload and download speeds, and the most bang for the buck.
To do it, we turned to the experts — you and other Computerworld readers. We conducted an 8-week-long online survey this summer asking smartphone users to rate providers in multiple categories: average upload speeds, average download speeds, availability of connection, reliability of connection, performance relative to cost, technical support, selection of phone models, customer service/billing and more.
Survey-takers had five choices for each category: very satisfied, satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, dissatisfied and very dissatisfied. We crunched the numbers from our 485 U.S. respondents and came up with the winners and the losers.
MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch
The vast majority of our survey respondents — 86% — use one of the four most popular U.S. cellular service carriers: 37% use Verizon Wireless, 27% use AT&T, 13% use T-Mobile and 8% use Sprint. Those are the only providers we rated in this story, but we used all survey responses (including those from customers of smaller carriers) when tallying overall satisfaction results, mobile data use and other general statistics. (For detailed information about the survey and how we crunched the numbers, see "How the survey was conducted and graded.")
We asked a lot of other questions as well, such as what activities people use mobile data networks for, how much they pay for their service, if they've unlocked their phones, whether they use their provider’s free video-streaming service, why they chose their mobile provider, if they believe their carrier protects their private data, and more. Armed with that information, we've put together a comprehensive snapshot of mobile data use and satisfaction.
We found, for instance, that even though the world is moving to no-contract plans and it’s easier than ever to move between carriers, few people bother to switch. In addition, for the second year in a row, despite phone-unlocking rules, few people actually unlocked their phones.
We found plenty of surprises as well. So, read on for more — or click here to skip ahead and see which is the best mobile data provider, which the worst, and how the others fared.
Editor's note: For the sake of readability, in the story text that follows we've combined the "very satisfied" and "satisfied" responses into a single "satisfied" percentage, and we've likewise combined the "dissatisfied" and "very dissatisfied" responses into a single "dissatisfied" percentage. To see the full percentage breakdowns, hover over the bars in the "Mobile data services: Overall user satisfaction" chart below.
No one likes to publicly tout how much they love their service provider and its data network, but we found that overall people are extremely satisfied with them. For example, 79% of 2016 respondents are satisfied with the availability of their data connection, up from 70% in 2015 and 62% in 2014. That’s a sign that providers are responding to consumer demand, rather than taking their customers for granted, at least when it comes to data networks.
Source: Computerworld mobile data service survey 2016. Base: 485 respondents.
Let's take a closer look at each category.
Data connection availability and reliability
Smartphones are used more for data than they are for phone calls, and so data network coverage and availability could be the most important feature offered by a wireless carrier. So, we asked people how satisfied they are with their network coverage.
They’re a happy lot. Overall, respondents are extremely satisfied with the availability of their data connection (is the connection there when and where they want it?), with 79% satisfied and only 7% dissatisfied. People are more satisfied with the availability of their data connection than they were when we surveyed them in 2015, when 70% were satisfied and 14% were dissatisfied. And they’re much happier than they were in 2014, when 62% were satisfied and 20% were dissatisfied. Just like last year, Verizon has extremely high satisfaction ratings here, a whopping 87%, up from 81% last year. T-Mobile comes in second, with a 78% rating, well up from its 59% a year ago. AT&T is in third this year with 73% (up from 66% last year), and Sprint comes in fourth, with 69%. But that 69% is a victory of sorts for Sprint, because a year ago its customers were not a happy bunch, with only 48% satisfied and 34% dissatisfied with the availability of their connection.
People are nearly as happy with the reliability of the data connection once it's made (are there dropped connections or streaming interruptions?), with 75% satisfied and 9% dissatisfied. That’s a big jump over 2015 when 65% were satisfied and 14% dissatisfied, and in 2014, when 56% reported themselves as being satisfied and 20% dissatisfied.
As with last year, Verizon is the 2016 winner, with 82% satisfied, followed by T-Mobile with 75% satisfied, Sprint with 72% satisfied, and then AT&T with 67% satisfied. Once again, Sprint may be the happiest of all this year, because its numbers are up dramatically compared to a year ago, when only 46% were satisfied and 33% dissatisfied.
Making and keeping a connection is one thing, but the actual speed of the connection is another entirely. So, we asked how satisfied people are with how fast their data is uploaded and downloaded. Turns out they are not as pleased with their network speed as they are with the availability and reliability of their connections. In fact, there’s little change from last year. This year, 71% of survey respondents say they are satisfied with their download speed and 10% dissatisfied, essentially unchanged from a year ago.
Verizon is the winner in this category as well, with 77% satisfied, followed by T-Mobile with 73% satisfied, Sprint with 69% satisfied, and AT&T with 65% satisfied. T-Mobile won’t be happy with these numbers: Last year it was the leader with 83% of its customers satisfied with download speeds.
As with a year ago, people aren’t as pleased with their upload speeds as with downloads. Sixty-five percent are satisfied and 9% dissatisfied, little changed from last year, when 62% were satisfied and 9% dissatisfied.
T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon are essentially tied in this category, with T-Mobile getting a 70% satisfaction rate and Sprint and Verizon each getting 69%. AT&T lags well behind, with only 58% of customers satisfied with upload speeds. That’s barely up from 53% a year ago. As for Sprint, it once again will be happy with its numbers this year, because a year ago, a mere 51% of its customers were satisfied with upload speeds.
Value and phone selection
People aren’t much happier with the overall value they get from their mobile service provider — that is, their service's performance relative to its cost — than they were last year. Fifty-eight percent are satisfied, and 19% are dissatisfied. A year ago, 55% were satisfied and 24% dissatisfied.
As with a year ago, T-Mobile is clearly the value leader. It has a 71% satisfaction rating value. (Last year it had a 77% rating.) Next is Sprint with 64%, Verizon with 50% and AT&T with 47%.
As for the phone selection category, ratings are slightly down from last year. This year 73% reported themselves as being satisfied with the selection of phones available from their carrier and 7% dissatisfied. A year ago, 78% were satisfied and 6% dissatisfied. Sprint is the big winner here, with 85% satisfied, followed by AT&T at 77%, Verizon at 76% and T-Mobile at 71%. (Only 54% of the smaller carriers’ users in our survey population are satisfied with phone selection.)
Tech support and customer service
More people than not are satisfied with their carrier's technical support this year — 59% are satisfied and only 8% dissatisfied. That continues a gradual upward trend: In 2014 only 48% were satisfied, and 54% were satisfied in 2015.
For the fourth year in a row, T-Mobile wins this category: Seventy-one percent of its customers who took our survey report themselves as satisfied. Verizon has a 61% satisfaction rate, followed by AT&T with 58% and Sprint with 56%.
People are pretty satisfied with their carrier's customer service and billing, with 62% satisfied and 12% dissatisfied, the exact same percentages as last year.
T-Mobile wins here as well, with 70% of its customers satisfied. That's followed by Verizon with 61%, AT&T with 57% and Sprint with 54%.
Mobile providers have a tremendous amount of information about people’s lives, including their locations, contacts, websites they visit, apps they use, and much more. While privacy advocates worry about that, our survey found that users don’t. As in our 2015 survey, most people trust their carrier to properly handle their private data and don’t believe their carrier engages in deceptive business practices.
The trend here is positive: This year 72% of respondents rate their carrier as trustworthy, while 13% rate their carrier as untrustworthy and 15% say they have no opinion. Last year, 69% rated carriers as trustworthy versus 16% untrustworthy, and in 2014, 63% of respondents rated their carriers as trustworthy and 22% considered them untrustworthy.
Even though people rate providers highly for privacy issues, 46% of respondents are more worried now about the privacy of their mobile data than they were a year earlier. (Five percent are less worried and 49% have the same level of concern.) Despite these fears, only 3% say their phone has ever been compromised or hacked.
Not much more than a third of respondents (38%) say they have changed how they use mobile apps or mobile data in the past year because of privacy concerns, while the remaining 62% say they haven't changed their mobile behavior because of privacy fears.
Those who have made changes cite a variety of safety measures, including avoiding untrusted apps and websites (75%); using fingerprint unlock, stronger passcodes or two-factor authentication (73%); avoiding public Wi-Fi (65%); and restricting app permissions including access to location (63%).
Nearly two years ago, in February 2015, regulations went into effect that required carriers to allow customers to unlock their phones if they want to switch carriers. And as long-term contracts fall out of favor, more consumers are buying unsubsidized, unlocked phones that aren't tied to a carrier's contract. So we asked whether people unlock their phones or buy unlocked phones.
The answer is a resounding no: Only 9% of respondents have unlocked their smartphones this year, and only 20% have bought a new unlocked phone.
Each year prognosticators say that in-store purchases made from smartphones using payment services such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal and Samsung Pay will finally hit the big time. So we wanted to see if 2016 would finally be the year mobile payments took off.
It wasn’t. Only 25% of our respondents report making even a single in-store mobile payment. And things don’t look different for next year, because a mere 19% of respondents who haven't tried in-store mobile purchases yet say they plan to do so.
[ Related: Apple Pay at two years: Not much to celebrate (yet) ]
How do you use your mobile data? Is your connection good enough for watching videos – and do you often watch them? Do you connect using 4G or 3G networks? We asked these questions and more in our 2016 survey.
We wondered how much time people spend online with their phones versus other devices, and we found that laptop and desktop computers still rule. Respondents cumulatively spend 60% of their time online with laptops and desktops, 26% of the time on smartphones and 11% of the time on tablets, with the remaining 3% split between gaming consoles and other devices, notably smart TVs and media-streaming devices such as Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku.
When people are using their phones online, 4G networks are the norm, continuing a trend we’ve seen in our last several surveys. Sixty-three percent of respondents connect solely via a 4G connection; 26% connect via 4G or 3G, depending on where they are; and only 4% connect solely on 3G. That compares to 60% connecting solely via 4G in 2015, and 55% in 2014.
With all-you-can-eat data plans no longer dominant, people are careful how long they use their data connections. Only 20% of respondents say they use their data connection for more than an hour a day, 32% use it for between 20 minutes and an hour, 21% use it for between 10 and 20 minutes, and 21% use it for less than 10 minutes. (These numbers don't include the amount of time they use Wi-Fi connections.) These percentages are almost precisely what we found last year.
Thirty-five percent of respondents report using their phones more for business in 2016 than in 2015, for activities such as checking work email, using productivity apps and accessing data in the cloud. Only 12% say they're using their phones less for work. The rest say business use is unchanged. Only 19% of respondents who use their personal smartphone for work are fully or partially compensated for their phone expenses by their employer, and only 34% say their employer has a formal policy regarding the use of smartphones at work.
What do you use your data connection for? Four activities are cited by more than half of respondents: emailing by 65%; web searches and browsing by 63%; GPS navigation and maps by 63%; and getting local data such as weather, business hours and transit info by 57%. Only two other activities reach the 30% mark: reading news with 40% and using social media with 30%.
Only 22% of people are watching more videos than a year ago, and 13% are watching fewer, with 65% saying their video-watching has stayed the same. And only 19% of respondents say they are using their mobile data connection to stream or download video, music, podcasts or books.
Percentages do not add up to 100% because of rounding.
Still, when they watch, they get reasonable data connections: 16% of respondents say their mobile network is always fast enough for watching video, 41% say it's fast enough most of the time, and 14% say it's sometimes fast enough. One percent say it's never fast enough. That’s down from last year, when 24% of respondents said their mobile network was always fast enough, 58% said it was fast enough most of the time, and 18% said it was sometimes fast enough.
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Celebrating this year’s PACME recipients and their commitment to multicultural enrichment
Left to right are Wanda Mitchell, Ph.D., vice president for inclusive excellence; Blue Wooldridge, D.P.A.; Dorothy Fillmore; Nicholas Garcia; Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn, Ph.D., Clarence W. Thomas, Ph.D.; Tania Valencia; Provost Gail Hackett, Ph.D.; and President Michael Rao, Ph.D. Photo by Steven Casanova, University Marketing.
By Patrick Kane
kanepm@vcu.edu
Virginia Commonwealth University honored students, faculty and staff who have helped shape a respectful and inclusive environment on campus during the Presidential Awards for Community Multicultural Enrichment this week.
Blue Wooldridge, D.P.A., a longtime professor in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, was twice honored, receiving the Riese-Melton Award for efforts in cross-cultural communications and being honored as a co-recipient of the faculty award.
“I’m highly honored. Receiving the Riese-Melton Award was completely a surprise,” he said. “It’s great that we work at a university that celebrates these kinds of activities.”
A crowd of about 180 packed the University Student Commons Ballrooms for the awards ceremony and reception.
“We are thankful to so many for the small – as well as significant – things that they do to create an inclusive community for all people,” said Wanda Mitchell, Ph.D., vice president for inclusive excellence. “That’s why we’re here today.”
VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D., called on the university to dig deeper on diversity and inclusion.
“How well do we integrate? How well do we truly leverage each other and the differences that each of us brings to the table?” he said. “We have a lot of work to do on that. I need everyone’s help.”
Rao said the awardees had worked diplomatically to influence their peers on campus and in the community.
“These are people who have stepped forward, stepped out and sometimes put themselves in uncomfortable positions. We need a roomful, we need an institution-full, of people who are completely committed at all of the right times,” the president said.
Blue Wooldridge, D.P.A., with Provost Gail Hackett, Ph.D., and President Michael Rao, Ph.D.
Provost Gail Hackett, Ph.D., led the ceremony’s proceedings.
“Celebrating the PACME awards is such a wonderful occasion each year because it represents something special about VCU and our community,” she said, thanking the award committee for their hard work.
Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn, Ph.D., was first on stage to receive the administrator’s award. Douglas-Glenn directs the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute and serves as an assistant professor in the Wilder School.
“This is not my award alone, but a tribute to everyone at VCU who makes a commitment to causes greater than ourselves, those of us who make it real,” she said.
Charlene Crawley, Ph.D., who nominated Douglas-Glenn, called her “a truly gifted individual who has the ability to engage, connect, promote and transform individuals and organizations under her influence.”
Co-recipients of the faculty awards were Clarence W. Thomas, Ph.D., and Wooldridge. Thomas is an assistant professor in the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture.
“Blue’s record of teaching, research and service speaks volumes about his commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion at VCU and elsewhere,” said nominee Jacqueline Smith-Mason, Ph.D., associate dean of the Honors College.
Thomas thanked many members of his family for attending the ceremony, calling the award a blessing.
“Embrace the reality that’s been staring us in the face all along,” Thomas said. “Let’s not talk to talk, let’s go on and walk the walk in terms of diversity.”
Thomas was nominated by Robertson School Director Hong Cheng, Ph.D., who noted a “decades-long and time-tested” commitment to enhancing diversity.
Multicultural enrichment cannot be real without advocates, leaders and role models.
“Multicultural enrichment cannot be real without advocates, leaders and role models,” Cheng said. “Dr. Thomas is all of them.”
Receiving the staff award was Nicholas Garcia, a doctoral student, instructor and senior undergraduate adviser in the Wilder School. Garcia said he appreciates the many layers of diversity at VCU.
“I’ve changed a lot since 2007, and VCU has been integral to that change,” he said.
“His message to a student is clear, yet empathetic, always offering a solution to whatever challenge that student faces,” said nominator Jill Gordon, Ph.D., associate dean of faculty and academic affairs at the Wilder School.
The audience was left wondering how student recipient Tania Valencia accomplishes so much with only 24 hours a day. Among her many activities and accomplishments was researching and pressing for the upcoming Latino Cultural Achievement Ceremony, said nominator Yolanda Avent, director of multicultural student affairs.
“At VCU we have the opportunity to form bonds with groups of people who reflect our backgrounds, while also learning more from those who are different from us,” Valencia said. “VCU is a home away from home. I’m proud of the inclusiveness that the university can provide to students such as myself.”
Valencia is a senior sociology major and psychology minor in the College of Humanities and Sciences.
Dorothy Fillmore received the President's Inclusive Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award from Rao during the ceremony. Fillmore, only the second recipient of the award, remarked on the big changes in society and on campus since her upbringing in Tennessee.
“VCU’s administrators, faculty, staff and students want to make inclusion real at VCU. We can make more progress, and we can be allies to one another,” she said.
Fillmore called for a campus LGBTQ resource center as a next step.
“For as many students who come to VCU well-adjusted and proud, we still have students who come to VCU afraid,” she said. “We still have faculty and staff who are closeted because of fear.”
Monday’s event included performances by the VCU Black Awakening Choir, art from the Black Art Student Empowerment and fashions from Art180.
For more information, visit http://www.inclusive.vcu.edu/diversity-awards/pacme/.
Subscribe for free to the weekly VCU News email newsletter at http://newsletter.news.vcu.edu/ and receive a selection of stories, videos, photos, news clips and event listings in your inbox every Thursday.
Annual PACME awards honor faculty, staff and students for making VCU more inclusive
From the archives: A window into the African-American experience at VCU and its predecessors
Update on Diversity and Inclusion
Longtime advocate among honorees for inclusive excellence awards
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World Leaders Express Horror at U.S. Capitol Attack
0 0 Thursday, January 7, 2021 Edit this post
BERLIN — As an angry mob stormed the heart of the world’s most powerful democracy, the rest of the world watched the once-unimaginable s...
BERLIN — As an angry mob stormed the heart of the world’s most powerful democracy, the rest of the world watched the once-unimaginable scenes unfolding in Washington with dismay and disbelief — and deep concern about what the turmoil could mean as authoritarian forces gain strength around the globe.
Many of those following live broadcasts of armed rioters forcing their way into the Capitol saw it as a stark and disturbing warning for all the world’s democracies: If this can happen in the United States, it can happen anywhere.
“We currently witness an attack on the very fundaments of democratic structures and institutions,” said Peter Beyer, the German government’s coordinator for trans-Atlantic affairs. “This is not merely a U.S. national issue, but it shakes the world, at least all democracies.”
One by one, officials around the globe responded with the sort of statements previously issued by the United States State Department when political violence consumed other countries.
“These pictures made me angry and sad,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said on Thursday. “I deeply regret that since November, President Trump has not accepted that he lost, and did not do so again yesterday.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia condemned the violence, calling what unfolded inside Congress “very distressing,” while Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand said she and others in her country were “devastated” by the events.
“The right of people to exercise a vote, have their voice heard and then have that decision upheld peacefully should never be undone by a mob,” she wrote on Twitter.
The secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, took the highly unusual step of weighing in on a domestic issue in a member state, writing, “The outcome of this democratic election must be respected.”
Even some of Mr. Trump’s most vocal admirers distanced themselves from the violence that unfolded. Matteo Salvini, the leader of the nationalist League party in Italy, wrote on Twitter, “Violence is never the solution, ever,” while Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India called for an “orderly and peaceful transfer of power.”
The attack on the Capitol — coming less than a day after the Hong Kong police arrested more than 50 democracy activists — was seen as a deep blow to America’s global credibility, making it harder for the United States to hold to account authoritarian leaders around the world who trample on democratic values.
The world’s authoritarian leaders “must be in euphoric and celebratory mood,” wrote Yossi Melman, a writer for Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, mentioning President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, President Xi Jinping of China, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In Cambodia, Sok Eysan, a senator and spokesman for the governing Cambodian People’s Party, cited Mr. Trump’s claim that the U.S. election was tainted when he asked, “If the U.S. has election fraud and corruption, which country is cleaner?”
Many laid the blame directly on the American president.
“This is what happens when you sow hatred,” Stéphane Séjourné, a member of the European Parliament and close ally of President Emmanuel Macron of France, wrote on Twitter. “Let us defend and protect our democracy, because it cannot be taken for granted.”
Chancellor Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany and had welcomed President Trump into office in 2016 by reminding him of the principles of democracy, did not mince her words.
“He stoked uncertainties about the election outcome and that created an atmosphere that made the events of last night possible,” she said.
Charles Santiago, an opposition lawmaker in Malaysia who is also the chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said that Mr. Trump had joined other world leaders “in subverting democracy and the will of the people.” He cited Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.
“The U.S. has lost its moral authority to preach democracy and human rights to other countries,” he said. “It has become part of the problem.”
Marzia Rustami, a women’s rights activist in Afghanistan, read the news about what was happening in the United States as Taliban fighters attacked a military base near her home in the northern city of Kunduz.
“In the United States, I see that the dialogue has given way to chaos,” she said, describing how she heard explosions and gunfire in the distance as she followed the news online. “In my country, it has been like this for 40 years, and now the failure of the United States in this country has made the situation worse for us.”
For many foreign leaders, the scenes in America were also reminders of recent political attacks on democracy at home.
Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, drew a parallel between the storming of the U.S. Capitol and the recent attempt by a far-right German mob to enter the Reichstag, the building that houses Germany’s Parliament.
“Inflammatory words will lead to acts of violence — on the steps of the Reichstag, and now in the Capitol. The contempt for democratic institutions has a devastating effect,” Mr. Maas wrote on Twitter. He added, “The enemies of democracy will be happy about these unbelievable pictures from Washington, D.C.”
And they were.
In Russia, the violence fit neatly into the Kremlin’s propaganda narrative of a crumbling American democracy. Russia’s state-controlled news channel, Rossiya-24, broadcast the chaos in the Capitol on a split screen, one side showing happy Orthodox Christmas festivities in Russia, the other the violent mayhem in Washington. President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela took to state television to lecture his ministers on the virtues of democracy, while Iran’s official state media offered minute-by-minute updates highlighting Mr. Trump’s role in instigating the violence by making false claims about election fraud.
In China, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, pointedly raised American expressions of support for the huge protests that took place in Hong Kong, which at one point included the takeover of the legislature in 2019. She noted a widely criticized statement at the time by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, who said the protests in Hong Kong were “a beautiful sight to behold.”
“You may still remember that at the time, American officials, congressmen and some media — what phrases did they use for Hong Kong?” she said in Beijing on Thursday. “What phrases are they using for America now?”
One of the territory’s beleaguered opposition activists was quick to distinguish the brief takeover in Hong Kong from the storming of Congress.
“Let me be clear, there is no way for anyone to justify what is happening in the States today with what happened in Hong Kong,” Joey Siu wrote on Twitter. “Yes both went inside the legislative chamber but one with determination to sacrifice for defending democracy and one trying to damage it.”
A feeling of schadenfreude surfaced in other parts of the world that had been on the receiving end of advice on good governance from Washington.
“As Africa we call for Americans to respect democracy, to respect rule of law and allow for a peaceful transition to power,” Mmusi Maimane, South Africa’s former leader of the opposition, wrote on Twitter. “Follow the example of great democratic states like South Africa which respect outcomes of elections.”
Amid the expressions of alarm, there were several hopeful voices insisting that this was a last convulsion of the Trump presidency rather than the beginning of the end of Western democracy — and that a Biden presidency would turn things around.
“I trust in the strength of America’s democracy,” tweeted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain. “The new Presidency of@JoeBiden will overcome this time of tension, uniting the American people.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada also struck an optimistic tone in a tweet. “Democracy in the U.S. must be upheld — and it will be,” he wrote.
Others warned that the crisis of democracy went beyond Mr. Trump and that America might take years to repair.
In Germany, where democracy once succumbed to Nazi rule following a volatile decade of marauding far-right militias and failed coups, the images of an armed mob attacking the U.S. seat of national power conjured uneasy echoes of history.
“After our catastrophic failure in the 20th century, we Germans were taught by the U.S. to develop strong democratic institutions,” said Andreas Michaelis, the German ambassador to Britain. “We also learned that democracy is not just about institutions. It is about political culture, too.”
Still, others found dark humor in the day’s events.
The Lebanese-British comedian Karl Sharro drew a winking parallel between Mr. Trump’s encouragement of the Capitol mob with the United States’ history of helping to overthrow other countries’ leaders. “Trump basically imported the US’s foreign policy to the US,” he wrote on Twitter.
Felipe Neto, a popular Brazilian political commentator, took a shot at the United States.
“I’m waiting for the USA to invade the USA so they can ‘re-establish democracy,’” he wrote on Twitter.
Katrin Bennhold reported from Berlin, and Steven Lee Myers from Seoul. Reporting was contributed by Melissa Eddy and Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin; Andrew Higgins and Anton Troianovski from Moscow; Natalie Kitroeff and Oscar Lopez from Mexico City; Aurelien Breeden from Paris; David M. Halbfinger, Isabel Kershner and Adam Rasgon from Jerusalem; Mark Landler, Megan Specia and Benjamin Mueller from London; Ernesto Londoño from Rio de Janeiro; Anatoly Kurmanaev from Caracas, Venezuela; Julie Turkewitz from Bogotá, Colombia; Vivian Yee from Tunis; Jason Horowitz from Rome; Catherine Porter from Toronto; Farnaz Fassihi from New York; Ruth Maclean from Dakar, Senegal; Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Steven Erlanger from Brussels; Austin Ramzy from Hong Kong; Emily Schmall from New Delhi; Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Najim Rahim from Kabul, Afghanistan; Damien Cave from Sydney, Australia; Hannah Beech and Richard C. Paddock from Bangkok; Sun Narin from Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Choe Sang-hun from Seoul; Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue from Tokyo; and Amy Chang Chien from Taipei, Taiwan.
Diplomatic Relations Politics
Newsrust: World Leaders Express Horror at U.S. Capitol Attack
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/06/world/06global-reax/06global-reax-facebookJumbo.jpg
https://www.newsrust.com/2021/01/world-leaders-express-horror-at-us.html
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Canada Supports the Indigenous Tourism Industry Français
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
MEMBERTOU, NS, Dec. 13, 2016 /CNW/ - Indigenous tourism is a key economic driver in generating long-term social and economic benefits for Indigenous people and for all Canadians.
Today, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, announced an investment of $3.15 million for the implementation of a five-year national strategy, the Path Forward 2016‑2021. This includes a contribution from Innovation Science and Economic Development.
The implementation of this strategy over the next few years in order towill support and promote both new and existing Indigenous tourism businesses, enhance product and market readiness, increase the visibility of the Indigenous tourism industry, and facilitate the sharing of best practices within and between regions.
This investment will ensure that Indigenous communities can continue to grow the tourism industry, which is shared and celebrated worldwide, differentiating Canada as a unique tourism destination while respecting and strengthening Indigenous traditions and cultures.
Canada is proud to be a partner in helping building a successful, sustainable and culturally rich Indigenous tourism industry across our country—an industry that is dynamic and prosperous while remaining deeply respectful of Indigenous traditions and values.
"From the Haida Nation, to Wendake, to Waycobah First Nations, Indigenous communities are growing dynamic tourism initiatives and welcoming Canadian and international tourists alike to their traditional territories. In addition to local and regional economic benefits, tourism can also serve as a vehicle promote and share cultural identities, stories, and traditions and help to advance reconciliation with non-indigenous visitors."
The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, M.D., P.C., M.P.
Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs
"Canada's Indigenous cultures and communities are among this country's most unique tourism offerings. The five-year national strategy will help grow Canada's tourism industry and Indigenous-owned businesses, as well as improve our competitiveness as a world-class international tourism destination."
The Honourable Bardish Chagger
Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism
"I want to thank the Government of Canada and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada's support to invest in our industry. Aboriginal tourism continues to grow with greater demand each year and this new investment will support our national strategy entitled The Path Forward 2016-2021. ATAC will be empowered to enhance and support new Aboriginal tourism experiences for future international and domestic visitors. This is an exciting time as we continue to share the Aboriginal culture histories from throughout this beautiful country. Aboriginal tourism is poised to grow, creating new jobs and economic development for Aboriginal people throughout Canada."
Keith Henry
President and CEO, Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada
Indigenous tourism accounts for $2.65 billion in gross economic output, $1.4 billion in national gross domestic product and more than $142 million in taxes to municipal, provincial and federal governments.
The number of Indigenous tourism businesses has also grown from 892 businesses in 2002 to well over 1,500 in 2014.
Direct employment of the Indigenous tourism sector has also increased, from 12,566 people employed in 2002 to an estimated 32,100 people in 2014.
Aboriginal Tourism Association of Canada
Follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.
You can subscribe to receive our news releases and speeches via RSS feeds. For more information or to subscribe, visit www.aandc.gc.ca/subscriptions.
SOURCE Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
For further information: media may contact: Sabrina Williams, Press Secretary, Office of the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, 613-697-8316; INAC Media Relations, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, 819-953-1160
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Northern Shield Announces Private Placement Financing
Northern Shield Resources Inc.
/NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF UNITED STATES SECURITIES LAW./
TSX Venture Exchange - NRN
OTTAWA, March 17, 2016 /CNW/ - Northern Shield Resources Inc. ("Northern" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that Company has arranged a non-brokered private placement offering for aggregate gross proceeds of $300,000 though the offering may be increased to a maximum of $500,000 (the "Offering"). The securities will be offered for sale pursuant to applicable exemptions in certain provinces of Canada.
The units will be offered at a price of $0.03 per unit. Each unit will consist of one common share ("Common Share") of Northern and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant will be exercisable for one Common Share at a price of $0.05 per share for a period of 12 months from the date of closing of the Offering, provided that should the Common Shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") for 20 consecutive trading days at a price equal to or more than $0.10, the Warrants will expire 30 days later. The Company has been granted a discretionary waiver from the $0.05 minimum pricing requirement by the TSXV pursuant to the TSXV Bulletin dated April 7, 2014. A finder's fee may be paid by the Company in connection with the Offering in accordance with the policies of the TSXV.
Northern Shield discovered extensive Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization at Huckleberry last year. Of the 147 samples collected from Huckleberry, 97 assayed greater than 0.3% with an average grade of 1.0% Cu, 0.2% Ni and 0.72 g/t PGE+Au. The copper mineralization found on surface at Huckleberry is indicative of a segregated deposit whereby the copper has separated from the nickel. The discovery of a xenolith hosting nickel-bearing semi-massive sulphides suggests that the nickel-rich portion may lie underneath. The complexity of the geology and segregated nature of the mineralization makes a strong argument for comparison to known Giant Cu-Ni-PGE Ore Deposits.
Northern intends to use the proceeds of the Offering for the execution of its exploration program at the Company's Huckleberry Project and for ongoing general corporate and working capital purposes including: $25,000 auditing and legal fees, $10,000 public company filing fees, $21,000 current liabilities, $95,000 for general and administrative costs $30,000 in marketing the Huckleberry project, $120,000 in mapping and ground exploration at Huckleberry.
The Common Shares and Warrants (and any Common Shares issued upon the exercise of any Warrants) issued to subscribers resident in Canada in the Offering will be subject to a statutory four-month hold period. The Offering is subject to certain closing conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals (including approval of the TSXV) and the completion of required regulatory filings with the TSXV.
This press release does not constitute an offer of the securities of the Company for sale in the United States. The securities of the Company have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, (the "1933 Act") as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the 1933 Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful..
The program at Huckleberry was overseen by Christine Vaillancourt, P. Geo., and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43- 101. Samples were analyzed by ALS Global in Sudbury, Ontario and in Vancouver, BC, for Au, Pt and Pd by Fire Assay with ICPAES finish and base metals by four acid digestion and ICP-AES.
Northern Shield Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company built around its platinum group element (PGE) expertise, which forms the basis of its exploration in eastern Canada.
Forward-Looking Statements Advisory
This news release contains statements concerning the exploration plans, results and potential Cu-Ni-PGE and other mineralization at the Company's southern Labrador Trough properties, geological, and geometrical analyses of the southern Labrador Trough properties and comparisons of the properties to known Cu-Ni-PGE deposits, and other expectations, plans, goals, objectives, assumptions, information or statements about future events, conditions, results of exploration or performance that may constitute forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect.
Although Northern Shield believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking statements because Northern Shield can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements or information are based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by Northern Shield and described in the forward looking statements or information. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks associated with geological, geometrical and geophysical interpretation and analysis, the ability of Northern Shield to obtain financing, equipment, supplies and qualified personnel necessary to carry on exploration and the general risks and uncertainties involved in mineral exploration and analysis.
The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and Northern Shield undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws
SOURCE Northern Shield Resources Inc.
For further information: Northern Shield Resources Inc., Ian Bliss, President and CEO, Tel.: (613) 232-0459, Fax: (613) 232-0760, [email protected]
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‘The Five’ Learn How To Work From Home
By Michael Malone 20 April 2020
Fox News Channel daily show The Five, featuring five co-hosts discussing the news of the day, is built on the banter of its personalities. But in this work-from-home time, the remote talent has to work a bit harder to make the banter happen.
“What makes The Five a success is the chemistry, the back and forth,” said co-host Greg Gutfeld. “It’s what people come to see. If we’re not in the same room, it reduces our ability to read faces and moods.”
Co-host Juan Williams sets up in a van parked in front of his home in Washington, D.C. Co-host Dana Perino is working out of a bedroom in her New Jersey home. Jesse Watters, also a co-host, is in a beach house in New Jersey.
Jesse Watters of 'The Five' has been handling hosting duties from a house at the Jersey Shore.
Gutfeld is actually schlepping to the midtown Manhattan studio each day. He sports a mask heading into and out of the office every day, washes his hands “like a crazy person,” he said, and does not socialize with co-workers.
“I like to go to the office every day,” Gutfeld said. “I really do enjoy leaving the house and going in.”
Executive producer Megan Albano is also working out of the Fox News headquarters.
Keeping Busy at Home
Williams mentioned an “ordinary white van” that pulls up in front of his house each day around 2:30 or 3 p.m. Since late March, he’s been climbing in for the 5 p.m. show.
Williams normally spends Monday-Friday in New York to shoot The Five. In the days after the coronavirus took hold, Williams would go to Fox’s Washington bureau each day. Recently turning 66, he said, “I don’t think there’s any reason for me to have unnecessary exposure.”
Perino has been working from home since March 23. She shoots The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino at 2 p.m., reads to children for the online segment “Story Time with Dana Perino,” shoots The Five at 5 p.m. and records a podcast. She upgraded her house’s WiFi to accommodate both her and her husband working from home.
Some viewers have noticed the train that zooms by near her house, tooting its horn.
“I’ve actually been able to fulfill all of my responsibilities in a pretty seamless way,” Perino said.
Watters began working from home last week. One hitch saw the show start without Watters, who was having WiFi issues. That worked out after a few minutes. Garbage bags are used to keep the sunlight out of the house. Watters got some laughs on the program last week when he revealed his pink shorts along with a suit jacket and tie.
“It’s a beachy vibe, but it works pretty well,” he said of his home studio.
Besides enjoying going to work, Gutfeld noted how pretty much everything works once he gets there. Garbage bags are not needed in the windows at 1211 Avenue of the Americas. “Everything is there, and you know it’s going to work,” he said.
In a nod to social distancing, Albano said the show shot on two floors in mid-March. Today, two control rooms dictate the action.
Much of the public has become accustomed to Zoom meetings and social gatherings since the pandemic took over, and the funky delays that make conversing challenging. Albano calls the remote hosts on The Five “a real-life scenario.”
The hosts deal with a one- to two-second delay that can make the quick quips a bit harder to deliver. “It’s just not as smooth,” Albano said.
Watters described not being able to read body language from home. “Our show is built around banter, around our close proximity on the set,” he said. “With a two-second delay, the quick retorts don’t translate as well.”
Perino, for her part, mentioned “verbal bumper cars” at times taking place.
The awkward pauses aside, Williams said the remote setup and its delays have pushed everyone to be a better listener. “We’re forced to listen to each other more intently,” he said.
More Viewers Tuning in
Ratings for The Five have skyrocketed. The 5 p.m. hour is challenging from those who work 9 to 5, but most of those folks are stuck in their homes. “People are home, and they’re invested in the story,” Albano said. “Hopefully they get some comfort in watching The Five.”
The show averaged 3.87 million total viewers in March, up 53% from March 2019. Daily briefings from President Donald Trump have helped ratings too.
Inconveniences aside, the hosts of The Five said they’re happy to be working with so many layoffs across the country. “We’re incredibly lucky to be working,” said Gutfeld.
They hope they add a bit of levity to viewers’ lives at this trying time. “We try to make everyone else’s lives at home a little less boring,” Gutfeld said.
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Österreich Händler vor Ort
1. Company Information about OneSails International Srl (hereinafter referred to as “OSI”)
The IT infrastructure of this website and the OneSails domain are owned by OneSails International Srl (with registered office in I-37126 Verona (VR), Via Isonzo, 11. VAT: IT 05725110489.
2. Responsible for the content
The responsibility for the contents of the OneSails website is OneSails International Srl with registered office in I-37126 Verona (VR), Via Isonzo, 11. VAT: IT 05725110489 - Registration number Verona Companies Register: 05725110489 - REA No: VR - 389551.
3. Legal liability
The information on this website is provided "as is" and without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including (but not limited to) any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose, or non-infringement of third party rights. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies. In no event shall OSI be liable to any person for any special, indirect or consequential damages relating to this material, unless caused by gross negligence or intentional misconduct. OneSails is not responsible for the contents of websites that are maintained by third parties and therefore waives its liability for any links from this website to other websites. OSI reserves the right to change descriptions, modify, or substitute products (that can be different from country to country) without notice in this website.
© Copyright OneSails International Srl, Verona (Italy). All rights reserved. The text, images, graphics, sound files, animation files, video files, and their arrangement on the OSI websites are all subject to copyright and other intellectual property protection. These objects may not be copied for commercial use or distribution, nor may these objects be modified or reposted to other sites. Some OSI websites may contain images whose copyrights are attributable to third parties.
5. Trademarks
ONE is a trademark of OneSails International Srl. Unless otherwise indicated, all trademarks on this website (including marks, model names, logos, and emblems) are subject to trademark rights of their respective owners.
6. Licences
OSI has sought to achieve an innovative and informative website. However, you also need to understand that OSI must protect its intellectual property, including its patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Accordingly, please appreciate that no licence to use the intellectual property of OSI or the intellectual property of third parties has been granted by this website.
7. Use of social plug-ins
Within the framework of OSI internet site at the domain www.onesails.com, so-called social plug-ins of the social network Facebook Inc. are used. Web page elements are e.g. buttons (so-called “social plug-ins) or integrated content from the providers. The operator of Facebook is Facebook Inc.,1601 Willow Road Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA (“Facebook”). These plug-ins are marked with a Facebook logo. If you activate the inactive Facebook Plug-in on the OSI internet site under the domain www.onesails.com your browser sets up a direct connection to the servers of Facebook. The content of the plug-in is transferred by Facebook directly to your browser and then integrated in the website. The integration of the plug-ins means Facebook receive the information that you have opened the corresponding page of the OSI internet site. If you are logged in to Facebook, Facebook can assign the visit to your Facebook account. As soon as you interact with the plug-ins, for example by clicking the "Like" button, the corresponding information is sent from your browser directly to Facebook and stored there. The purpose and scope of the data acquisition and other processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as your rights and setting options in this respect to protect your private sphere can be found in the data protection information provided by the social media operators (http://www.facebook.com/policy.php) If you do not want Facebook to use our internet site to collect data about you, you must not activate the inactive Facebook Plug-in when visiting the OSI internet site at the domain www.onesails.com.
8. Credits
OneSails web site is designed and developed by DL&A Marketing and Advertising (www.dlea.it)
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OJP Blog
Heroes Honored on Behalf of Missing, Exploited Children
The Department of Justice and the Office of Justice Programs recognized extraordinary individuals and their outstanding work on behalf of missing and exploited children with awards presented yesterday at the annual ceremony for National Missing Children’s Day.
Detective Lorraine Szczepanik of the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, or "ICAC," and Broward Sheriff’s Office, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, received the Attorney General’s Special Commendation for her work in getting three child pornographers behind bars. She is shown here with (left) OJP’s Matt Dummermuth and (right) DOJ’s Ed O’Callaghan.
The awardees—a detective with a state-level task force; two firefighters; and multiple law enforcement officers in two separate jurisdictions—were recognized for getting three child pornographers behind bars; recovering a missing six-year-old; finding two abducted sisters; and bringing a long-time child predator to justice.
The ceremony was organized by OJP’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and held in Washington, DC.
Following opening remarks by Matt Dummermuth, OJP’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan and OJJDP Administrator Caren Harp presented the following awards:
The Attorney General’s Special Commendation, to Detective Lorraine Szczepanik of the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, or “ICAC,” and Broward Sheriff’s Office, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In late 2017, based on two CyberTips, Detective Szczepanik located a child pornography suspect, knocked on his door and talked to him. When he admitted to accessing child pornography on his cell phone, the detective obtained a search warrant that uncovered thousands of images and videos of child pornography on his electronic devices. The pornography included victims as young as infants and toddlers. The State Attorney’s Office charged the man with 12 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of compiling child pornography.
As Detective Szczepanik combed through the suspect’s digital and online communications, she found three additional men with whom he was actively trading child pornography. She located two of them in South Florida. In collaboration with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, the detective obtained search warrants for the two, who confessed and were arrested on the scene. They and the original suspect pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and received long prison sentences followed by sex offender probation.
The Missing Children’s Law Enforcement Award, to Sergeant Darin Bayles; Detectives Bernardo Villegas, Robert Watts (retired) and Kevin Bender; Lieutenant Robert Drawbaugh; and Crime Scene Specialist Kerie McKown, all of the Round Rock, Texas, Police Department; Special Agents Sean Mullen, Jacob Baillie and Andrew Masters of the FBI’s San Antonio, Texas, Field Office; and Ranger Gary Phillips of the Texas Ranger Division, Texas Department of Public Safety.
Officers and agents from several agencies collaborated to find two abducted sisters. They worked day and night during a four-day manhunt to bring the 7- and 14-year-old girls home safely.
Phillips and Baillie found the girls’ mother murdered in her home in Round Rock on New Year’s Eve 2017. The mother’s roommate, who had stolen her car, quickly became a person of interest. They requested an AMBER Alert, and the Round Rock PD held press conferences, released images of the suspect and appeared on a national cable TV program to inform the public.
Investigators uncovered several pieces of evidence that led them to the suspect and the girls, who were unharmed, in Colorado. Authorities extradited the suspect to Texas, where he was indicted on federal kidnapping charges and remains a person of interest in the murder of the girls’ mother.
The Missing Children’s Citizen Award, to Firefighters Aaron Woods and Michael Webb of the Blount County Fire Department, Maryville, Tennessee. On April 23, 2018, at about 6 p.m., a 6-year-old boy wandered into the woods with his dog. The fire department immediately assembled a team of about 100 first responders from several agencies. They began to scour 2,000 acres of rugged, wooded terrain—on foot and by air—near where the child was last seen.
After 15 hours of searching, the department sent in a team of reinforcements led by Woods. Seven hours later, before the descent of another night of cool, and potentially deadly, temperatures, Woods and Webb found the boy, who was blue with cold. They wrapped him in several of the searchers’ jackets and carried him one-and-a-half miles to a medical unit that was standing by. A local hospital released the boy to his grateful family later that night.
The Missing Children’s Child Protection Award, to Detectives Christie Hirota, James Williams and Melinda Gobron of the Sacramento County, California, Sheriff’s Department; Special Agent Scott Schofield of the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office; Investigator George Vasiliou of the California Highway Patrol; and Detective Avis Beery of the Sacramento Police Department.
On March 1, 2018, a citizen reported receiving video footage of a partially clothed young boy from an acquaintance who was also a foster parent. Patrol officers forwarded the case to Detective Hirota of the 20-member Sacramento Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force. The investigation she led found a number of reports of the suspect’s troubling behavior toward young boys in the preceding seven years.
A search of the suspect’s residence uncovered hidden cameras that captured children in compromising positions. Through painstaking examination of seized devices, the task force recovered pornographic images of the suspect’s foster children and his possible abuse of them. Locating them through information in past reports, Detective Hirota interviewed children who said the suspect had sexually abused them. Within 48 hours of receiving the patrol officers’ report, she had the suspect’s current foster child removed from his care. Authorities charged the suspect with producing child pornography and with molesting four children. He faces a possible life sentence.
In addition to its support of National Missing Children’s Day, OJP protects children from abuse and victimization through several funding streams, training and technical assistance, and programs.
Key to these efforts are the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces, which battle technology-facilitated child exploitation nationwide. ICAC investigations have led to the arrests of more than 89,400 individuals—some 9,100 in the last year alone.
In addition, the AMBER Alert program helps recover abducted children—957 at last count. It works through a network of law enforcement and transportation agencies, state partners, and a growing secondary distribution system of Internet providers and wireless carriers. In partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, OJP continues to make this vital public resource more effective and more capable of reaching every community, including those in Indian country.
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NJSACC
What Was An Agreement Made By The Allies At The Potsdam
The Potsdam Agreement was the August 1945 agreement between three World War II allies, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. It was about the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its borders and the entire territory of the European theatre of war. He also looked at the demilitarization of Germany, reparations and the prosecution of war criminals. In addition to the settlement of Germany and Poland, the Potsdam negotiators agreed to the creation of a Council of Foreign Ministers to develop peace agreements with Germany`s former allies on behalf of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China. Conference participants also agreed to revise the 1936 Montreux Convention, which gave Turkey exclusive control of the Strait of Turkey. In addition, the United States, Britain and China issued the “Potsdam Declaration,” which threatened Japan with “immediate and total destruction” if it did not surrender immediately (the Soviet Union did not sign the declaration because it had yet to declared war on Japan). In the statement of the Potsdam conference on Germany, it is stated: “The intention of the Allies is to enable the German people to prepare for a possible reconstruction of their lives on a democratic and peaceful basis.” The four areas of occupation of Germany, designed at the Yalta conference, were created, each to be managed by the commander-in-chief of the Soviet, British, American or French occupation army. Berlin, Vienna and Austria were also divided into four zones of occupation. An allied supervisory board, made up of representatives of the four allies, should deal with issues relating to Germany and Austria as a whole. Their policy was dictated by the “five Ds” decided in Yalta: demilitarization, denatalization, democratization, decentralization and deindustrialization. Each Allied power had to seize repairs to its own areas of occupation, while the Soviet Union was allowed 10 to 15 percent of industrial equipment in western Germany in exchange for agricultural and other natural products in its area. The agreement, which was a communiqué, was not a peace treaty between the peoples, although it created the fait accompli.
It was replaced by the Treaty on the Definitive Regime, signed on 12 September 1990, in accordance with Germany.
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NJSACC · 208 Lenox Avenue, #363 · Westfield, NJ 07090 · 908-789-0259 · sac@njsacc.org
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More than 400 Million Devices are Connected in U.S. Home
More than 400 Million Devices are Connected in U.S. Homes, According to The NPD Group
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, JANUARY 02, 2013 – There are 425 million devices connected to the Internet in U.S. homes, according to a new Connected Intelligence report from global information company, The NPD Group. The Connected Home report found that while computers are still the primary connected device, numerous others are diminishing the computer’s relevance to the broadband content marketplace. This trend is being fueled by devices such as gaming consoles and Blu-ray Disc players adding to the number of Internet connected HDTVs, and the connectivity piped directly to the TV itself. Strong consumer retail sales in developing categories such as tablets and smartphones are also impacting the traditional computer’s share of Internet connected devices.
Installed and Internet Connected Devices
Base: U.S. Internet households
Source: The NPD Group/Connected Intelligence, Connected Home Report
By the end of 2013, a shift towards more screen-sharing across devices is expected. Smaller screens such as the smartphone have the greatest reach now with an estimated 133 million users, with tablets contributing another 31.8 million screens. The development of the shared screen experience, by throwing content from a smaller screen to the TV, is converging device ecosystems and will allow for over-the-top content to become even more prominent on the TV.
“Mobile is adding another dimension powered by screen sharing technologies that allows users to project their tablet or smartphone onto their TV,” said John Buffone, director, NPD’s Connected Intelligence.
“Through 2013, multi-screen and multi-device synergy will lead the growth in the broader connected device market, but only if services consumers desire are delivered in a simplistic manner. In this connected world, content providers and consumer technology OEMs need to determine the optimal mix of services and have them on the right devices.”
Are consumers embracing the ability to access apps on their TVs? Read John’s blog to find out.
More than 4,000 U.S. consumers, age 18 and older were surveyed in the fourth quarter of 2012. The number of installed and internet connected devices includes those that deliver broadband applications such as computers, tablets, smartphones, HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc Players, video game consoles, and streaming media set top boxes. These devices must actually be connected to the Internet not just be Internet capable. Networking devices and others such as routers, modems, mobile hot spots, and pay TV set top boxes were excluded from this analysis. E-readers were also excluded due to the limited content array they offer.
About Connected Intelligence
Connected Intelligence provides competitive intelligence and insight on the rapidly evolving consumer’s connected environment. The service focuses on the three core components of the connected market: the device, the broadband access that provides the connectivity and the content that drives consumer behavior. These three pillars of the connected ecosystem are analyzed through a comprehensive review of what is available, adopted, and consumed by the customer, as well as reviewing how the market will evolve over time and what the various vendors can do to best position themselves in this evolving market. For more information: http://www.connected-intelligence.com. Follow Connected Intelligence on Twitter: @npdci.
65% of Americans and Canadians Play Mobile Games
Hear the Difference: Audio Trends in North America
Mobile Gaming Engagement Explodes
Emerging Tech Categories See Strong Growth As Consumers Seek New Forms of Entertainment
david.riley@npd.com
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WMRE Staff | May 01, 2000
Three cheers for the Indy Marriott's final floor The completion of the top floor of the $103 million Indianapolis Marriott Downtown hotel was met with hoopla recently, as local dignitaries signed the last beam at a pre-opening ceremony. Soon to be the city's largest hotel, the 19-story, 615-room facility is scheduled to open in February 2001.
Amenities of the hotel, which will be connected to the Indiana Convention Center and RCA Dome, include 40,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and a 21,000 sq. ft. ballroom. The hotel also will feature 28 suites, a full-service business center, a health club and an indoor swimming pool.
Licensed by Washington, D.C.-based Marriott International, the hotel is owned by Convention Hotel Partners, Indianapolis.
Ritz not gambling on Las Vegas resort yet Atlanta-based Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and Las Vegas-based Mountain Spa Development have canceled plans to develop a non-gaming resort in northwest Las Vegas.
After about three years of discussions, both sides decided to nix the plans to build a Ritz-Carlton on Mountain Spa property, says Ritz-Carlton spokesperson Shelby Taylor, who was unable to provide details as to why the plans fell through. Although Ritz-Carlton has shelved the development, the company sees Las Vegas as a prime market for one of its luxury hotels, Taylor says. "Certainly, Las Vegas is a market we're very interested in," says Taylor, adding that the company is looking at several possible sites in the city.
Will Smith to open hotel in Philadelphia A $3.5 million purchase of downtown Philadelphia property by actor and entertainer Will Smith and his brother, Harry, will set the stage for a W hotel and other upscale developments. Philadelphia-based Binswanger arranged the purchase.
Treyball Real Estate, the hometown firm owned by the Smith brothers, purchased the NewMarket Glass Pavilion, a 57,000 sq. ft. complex that has been mostly vacant for several years. Located on Front Street between Lombard and Pine Streets in Society Hill, the complex will be redeveloped into a 185-room W hotel, a brand owned by White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Plans also call for 20 condominium units and an upscale restaurant.
Hilton flag flies over Fisherman's Wharf A 234-room Hilton hotel has opened at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. This marks Hilton's second full-service hotel in the city by the bay. Formerly known as the Ramada Plaza, the four-story hotel underwent a $9 million dollar renovation.
The Hilton San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf features nine suites, an outdoor courtyard, a 24-hour fitness center, 3,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, a 1,450 sq. ft. ballroom and a 24-hour business center. Select rooms also offer high-speed Internet access. The hotel is one mile away from the 1,850-room Hilton San Francisco. Operated under a license agreement with Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Hilton Hotel Corp., the new hotel is owned by Wharf Associates, a California general partnership.
Doubletree Hotel takes off near O'Hare Airport A 369-room Doubletree hotel near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in Rosemont, Ill., has officially opened its doors. The 10-story hotel is owned by William Street Hotel Associates LLC and managed by DT Management Inc., a subsidiary of the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Hilton Hotels Corp.
Located at 5460 North River Road, adjacent to the Rosemont Convention Center and one mile from O'Hare Airport, the DoubletreeHotel O'Hare features 13 meeting rooms with 13,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, a self-service business center, an indoor pool and fitness room.
ClubCorp Resorts becomes Pinehurst Co. Taking advantage of the name recognition of its famous golf course, Dallas-based ClubCorp has reformed its ClubCorp Resorts into The Pinehurst Co.
In addition to the Pinehurst golf course resort, which hosted the 1999 U.S. Open Championship, the newly formed Pinehurst Co.'s resorts include Barton Creek in Austin, Texas; Daufuski Island on Daufuski Island, S.C.; and The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va.
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HomeTrouble in testing land – Oxford University blog by Chair of Oxford Academic Health PartnersTrouble in testing land -...
Trouble in testing land – Oxford University blog by Chair of Oxford Academic Health Partners
Professor Sir John Bell explores the challenges of antibody testing for Covid-19, noting that no tests to date have performed well.
The UK government has been creating a testing strategy that is intended to manage all aspects of Covid-19, including PCR tests on swabs from the nose or throat to detect the virus (which is being done in UK super labs in three locations across the country), as well blood testing to detect people who might have had the virus and hence be protected with immunity. These people would be able to go back to work without the fear of being infected again because they are now immune to the disease. This combination will give UK citizens all the information they and the health system need to manage those with the disease by giving access to rapid disease diagnosis and manage the population as a whole to ensure we will not put ourselves or others at risk while the virus is circulating.
Long-term protection to this virus comes from antibodies, small proteins produced by your immune system that attack the virus and neutralise it so it cannot be spread and cannot do any more damage to the person infected. These antibodies emerge during an infection and peak 28 days after the infection. They then remain for months afterwards continuing to provide protection, and the cells that produce them also are available to fight off the infection if it returns. These antibodies see anything foreign (like a virus) and bind to many different parts of the virus. Some antibodies are better than others at providing protection; they are called neutralising antibodies. There is obviously much interest in developing tests that detect these antibodies so that people know they will be safe even if exposed to those with the infection. It may be that many people get this infection without severe symptoms so many may have protection and not know it. Large scale testing is therefore a strategy which will be crucial for getting us back to our normal lives in the coming months. One strand of the government strategy has been to use home testing kits to allow people to test and see whether they have long term immunity and hence can confidently go back to work.
Creating home test kits is, however, not easy. They detect antibodies in blood by capturing these antibodies on virus components held in the test kit. Blood flows from one end to the other, the anti virus antibodies are captured and a signal appears as a line on the test device. This can be read by the person at home or on their mobile phone camera. If there are no antibodies no line appears. There are many challenges to creating accurate tests; hence these tests need to be validated carefully. Other countries such as Spain have already sent tests back because they don’t work. There are 100 or more such tests kits from different suppliers available for identifying Covid-19 antibodies, and it is important that each of these is checked for accuracy before making them available to the public. Crucially it is essential that the test does not tell you are positive for anti-Covid serology when you are not; otherwise you might return to work when you are not immune. Similarly, it is important that the test does not tell you that you are not immune when you actually are.
To validate these tests you need to obtain a range of tools. You need a gold standard test so you know the correct answer and you need sera from patients who have recovered from the virus infection they had approximately 28 days before. You also need blood from people who donated before the epidemic so you know whether you falsely see positive tests when there is no Covid-19 in the sample. For example, there are a number of other coronaviruses circulating that might stimulate antibodies that cross react to Covid-19 proteins. It has taken some time to gather these tools for validation but the UK is now uniquely positioned to evaluate and find the optimal test for this disease. We clearly want to avoid telling people they are immune when they are not, and we want all people who are immune to know accurately so they can get back to work.
Multiple tests have been provided for evaluation, and a range of convalescent sera has been used to determine whether the tests can identify both low and high levels of antibodies. We have been very careful to test using gold standards checked against a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa) of the spike protein and other viral proteins. Sadly, the tests we have looked at to date have not performed well. We see many false negatives (tests where no antibody is detected despite the fact we know it is there) and we also see false positives. None of the tests we have validated would meet the criteria for a good test as agreed with the MHRA. This is not a good result for test suppliers or for us.
Interestingly we are not the only ones who having difficulty identifying commercial tests that work in a home test kit format. The Spanish apparently returned test kits that were not working, and the Germans who are developing their own sensitive kits believe they are three months away from getting these available and validated. Not test has been acclaimed by health authorities as having the necessary characteristics for screening people accurately for protective immunity.
What next? We will of course continue to look for a test that meets the criteria of an acceptable test. There is a point in evaluating these first-generation tests where we need to stop and consider our options. We effectively need an Elisa on a membrane, with the same sensitivity and specificity that can be used at home. That should be achievable, and the government will be working with suppliers both new and old to try and deliver this result so we can scale up antibody testing for the British public. This will take at least a month.
Professor Sir John Bell, GBE, FRS
Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford University
Government Advisor on Life Sciences
COVID 19 Research
Last update: 13th April 2020 at 11:10
Back to Trouble in testing land – Oxford University blog by Chair of Oxford Academic Health Partners
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Xerox Intends to Nominate Full Slate of Directors During HP’s 2020 Annual Meeting
Xerox announced it has provided notice to HP Inc. that it intends to nominate 11 independent candidates to replace HP’s Board of Directors at HP’s 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
John Visentin
The slate to be nominated includes former senior executives from dozens of the world’s leading companies, including Aetna, United Airlines, Hilton Hotels, Novartis, Verizon, and more. The candidates were chosen because of their expertise overseeing and executing significant company transformations and combinations, with demonstrated track records of creating value for shareholders.
“HP shareholders have told us they believe our acquisition proposal will bring tremendous value, which is why we lined up $24 billion in binding financing commitments and a slate of highly qualified director candidates,” said John Visentin, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox. “We believe HP shareholders will be better served by a new slate of independent directors who understand the challenges of operating a global enterprise and appreciate the value that can be created by realizing the synergies of a combination with Xerox.”
Xerox’s Director nominees are:
Betsy Atkins: Betsy Atkins was previously chair and CEO of Clear Standards, a software company acquired by SAP in 2009. She also co-founded Ascend Communications, which was acquired by Lucent Technologies in 1999 for $23 billion. Today, she is chief executive officer of Baja Corporation, a venture capital firm she founded to make seed investments in technology, energy and life sciences companies. Ms. Atkins serves on the Boards of Wynn Resorts and SL Green Realty and previously served on the Boards of Schneider Electric, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HD Supply Holdings and Darden Restaurants, among others. She is a venture capital investor, three-time CEO and expert on corporate governance and board oversight, having written two books on the subject (Be Board Ready: 2 The Secrets to Landing a Board Seat and Being a Great Director and Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons of a Corporate Director).
George Bickerstaff: George Bickerstaff is currently co-founder and managing director of M.M. Dillon & Co., a leading healthcare and technology boutique investment bank. Prior to co-founding M.M. Dillon, he had a successful career as a corporate executive in the technology and healthcare industries, most recently as the Chief Financial Officer of Novartis Pharma AG. He currently serves on the Boards of Axovant Sciences and Innoviva, among others, and previously served on the Board of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Takeda for $5.2 billion in 2017. Mr. Bickerstaff brings financial and operational experience in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and information technology industries, along with expertise in accounting and regulatory matters and insight into the views of shareholders, investors, analysts and others in the financial community.
Carolyn Byrd: Carolyn Byrd is chair and chief executive officer of GlobalTech Financial, which she founded in 2000 after a long career at The Coca-Cola Company. She currently serves on the Board of Regions Financial Corporation and has previously served on the Boards of, among others, Freddie Mac, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and the St. Paul Companies, which merged with Travelers in 2003 to create the second largest business insurer in the U.S. Ms. Byrd has held many positions in which she was responsible for key managerial, strategic, financial and operational decisions. In 2018, she was named one of the “2018 Most Influential Corporate Directors” by WomenInc.
Jeannie Diefenderfer: Jeannie Diefenderfer spent 28 years at Verizon, where, among other things, she led the integration of GTE into Bell Atlantic after GTE was acquired in an allstock deal valued at $52.8 billion. She now advises boards and chief executive officers as founder and chief executive officer of consulting firm courageNpurpose. She currently serves on the Board of Windstream Holdings, is vice chair of the Board of Trustees of Tufts University and is a member of the Workforce Development & Support Advisory Panel at the U.S. National Security Agency, where she advises on workforce development and diversity and inclusion. Ms. Diefenderfer has considerable technology expertise as a senior engineer at Verizon and significant experience integrating complex legacy operations.
Kim Fennebresque: Kim Fennebresque was chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Cowen Group for nine years. Prior to Cowen, he led the Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions departments at UBS and the Investment Banking division at Lazard Freres & Co. He currently serves on the Boards of Ally Financial, BlueLinx Holdings and Albertsons Companies, and he previously served on the boards of several civic organizations, including the TEAK Fellowship and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Finance Committee. Mr. Fennebresque has experience evaluating, negotiating and executing complex mergers and acquisitions and overseeing capital allocation and risk-management matters.
Carol Flaton: Carol Flaton has served as a managing director at AlixPartners, a global consulting firm specializing in restructuring, turnarounds, enterprise improvement and digital consulting. She previously held senior positions at Lazard Freres & Co. and Credit Suisse, among others. Her board experience includes EP Energy Corporation and Jupiter Resources. Ms. Flaton has expertise in banking, finance and restructuring across multiple industries, with a focus on companies undergoing complex transformations.
Matthew Hart: Matthew Hart most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Hilton Hotels until the buyout of Hilton by Blackstone in 2007. He currently serves on the Boards of American Airlines, American Homes 4 Rent and Air Lease Corporation. He previously served on the Boards of U.S. Airways, Kilroy Realty Corporation, and America West Holdings, among others. Mr. Hart brings experience as a senior operating and finance executive for several large global companies including Hilton, Walt Disney and Marriott.
Fred Hochberg: Fred Hochberg was most recently the chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States during the Obama administration. Before entering public service, Mr. Hochberg served as, among other things, president and chief operating officer of Lillian Vernon Corporation, a company he transformed from a small private business into an international, publicly traded corporation. Mr. Hochberg’s tenure as the longest ever serving chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States gives him significant expertise and insight into global trade matters, and his experience leading and modernizing large, complex organizations, both in the government and for-profit spheres, provides him with substantial transformation experience.
Jacob Katz: Jacob Katz was chairman of Grant Thornton, a leading independent audit, tax and advisory firm. He currently serves on the Boards of Jefferies Financial Group and Herc Holdings. Mr. Katz has executive management and leadership skills gained in many leadership roles at Grant Thornton, including as chairman, New York and Northeast Managing Partner, and Global Leader of Financial Services. His experience with various industries during his long tenure with Grant Thornton provides him with knowledge in addressing public company financial and accounting matters.
Nichelle Maynard-Elliott: Nichelle Maynard-Elliott most recently served as executive director of mergers & acquisitions for Praxair, where, among other things, she helped lead Praxair through its $90 billion merger with the Linde Group in 2018. Ms. Maynard-Elliott currently serves on the Board of Element Solutions, a specialty chemicals company. Ms. Maynard-Elliott has a track record of creating shareholder value by employing financial, legal, mergers and acquisitions and business development expertise.
Thomas Sabatino, Jr.: Thomas Sabatino, Jr. most recently served as executive vice president and general counsel of Aetna, where he was also a member of its executive committee. He has held a number of other general counsel and executive leadership positions at global companies, including Hertz, Walgreens, and United Airlines, where he helped lead the company through its merger with Continental Airlines. He is currently on the Board of Teligent, a pharmaceutical company. Mr. Sabatino brings business acumen and legal expertise in corporate governance, crisis management, mergers and acquisitions and complex litigation resolution. Citi is acting as Xerox’s financial advisor, and King & Spalding LLP is providing legal counsel to Xerox. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is providing legal counsel to Xerox’s independent directors.
Source: Xerox
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Packaging Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Packaging Impressions.
Growing Revenue Without Growing Headcount
LLFlex Hires Three Executives for Packaging Segment
Label Industry Notes Passing of Tom Staib (1964-2020), President of DWS Printing Associates
Nosco Announces Plans for New Wisconsin Headquarters Facility
Koenig & Bauer (US/CA) Announces new CEO
The Building Blocks of Process Control
In these unprecedented and uncertain times, SGIA, PIA and the PIA Affiliates, and NAPCO Media are committed to providing the printing and visual communications industries with the most up-to-date resources on the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The staff is here to help you as we all weather this storm together.
COVID-19 on Packaging Impressions
2020 Year-End COVID Relief Legislation: Paycheck Protection Program Summary
Post-COVID Outlook for Labels and Packaging
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Our collaborators – Professor Mark Sculpher
Professor Mark Sculpher is Professor of Health Economics in the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York, and is Director of the Programme on Economic Evaluation and Health Technology Assessment. He has been based at York University since 1997. Between 1988 and 1997, he worked at the Health Economics Research Group at Brunel University; during 1998 he was a visitor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University in Canada.
Mark has worked on economic evaluations of a range of technologies including heart disease and various cancers. He has also contributed to methods in the field, in particular relating to decision analytic modelling and handling uncertainty.
Mark was a member of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Technology Appraisal Committee between 2004 and 2008, the NICE Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee between 2006 and 2009 and currently sits on the NICE Diagnostics Advisory Committee. He chaired NICE's 2004 Task Group on methods guidance for economic evaluation and was a member of the Methods Working Party for the 2008 update of this guidance. He was a member of the Commissioning Board for the UK NHS Health Technology Assessment Programme between 2007 and 2010, and currently participates in the UK NIHR/Medical Research Council’s Methodology Panel. Mark is a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator and is currently President-Elect of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research.
www.york.ac.uk/che/staff/research/mark-sculpher
Principal Investigator: Wider societal benefits (WSBs) of public health interventions
Involvement in the Public Health Research Consortium
For more information on the projects below, please visit Mark Sculpher’s profile page on the Public Health Research Consortium website accessed here.
Member of the PHRC Project Management Group, 2011-
Principal Investigator: Identifying appropriate methods to incorporate concerns about health inequalities into economic evaluations of health care programme
Principal Investigator: The economic evaluation of public health programmes with costs and effects falling outside the NHS and local authority public health budgets
For more information on the Public Health Research Consortium please visit: www.phrc.online
Professor Mark Sculpher
Tel: 01904 321401 (switchboard)
Email: mark.sculpher@york.ac.uk
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7Poetry For Every Occasion7
Death date:
Birth town:
Henry Wadsworth was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets.
Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, and studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on his translation. He died in 1882.
Longfellow predominantly wrote lyric poems which are known for their musicality and which often presented stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses.
Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine, then a district of Massachusetts, and he grew up in what is now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House. His father was a lawyer, and his maternal grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth, was a general in the American Revolutionary War and a Member of Congress. He was named after his mother's brother Henry Wadsworth, a Navy lieutenant who died only three years earlier at the Battle of Tripoli. Young Longfellow was the second of eight children; his siblings were Stephen (1805), Elizabeth (1808), Anne (1810), Alexander (1814), Mary (1816), Ellen (1818), and Samuel (1819).
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was enrolled in a dame school at the age of three and by age six was enrolled at the private Portland Academy. In his years there, he earned a reputation as being very studious and became fluent in Latin. His mother encouraged his enthusiasm for reading and learning, introducing him to Robinson Crusoe and Don Quixote. He printed his first poem – a patriotic and historical four stanza poem called "The Battle of Lovell's Pond" – in the Portland Gazette on November 17, 1820. He stayed at the Portland Academy until the age of fourteen. He spent much of his summers as a child at his grandfather Peleg's farm in the western Maine town of Hiram.
In the fall of 1822, the 15-year old Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, alongside his brother Stephen. His grandfather was a founder of the college and his father was a trustee. There, Longfellow met Nathaniel Hawthorne, who would later become his lifelong friend. He boarded with a clergyman for a time before rooming on the third floor of what is now Maine Hall in 1823. He joined the Peucinian Society, a group of students with Federalist leanings. In his senior year, Longfellow wrote to his father about his aspirations:
I will not disguise it in the least... the fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature, my whole soul burns most ardently after it, and every earthly thought centres in it... I am almost confident in believing, that if I can ever rise in the world it must be by the exercise of my talents in the wide field of literature.
He pursued his literary goals by submitting poetry and prose to various newspapers and magazines, partly due to encouragement from a professor named Thomas Cogswell Upham. Between January 1824 and his graduation in 1825, he had published nearly 40 minor poems. About 24 of them appeared in the short-lived Boston periodical The United States Literary Gazette. When Longfellow graduated from Bowdoin, he was ranked fourth in the class, and had been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He gave the student commencement address.
European Tours and Professorships
After graduating in 1825, he was offered a job as professor of modern languages at his alma mater. The story, possibly apocryphal, is that an influential trustee, Benjamin Orr, had been so impressed by Longfellow's translation of Horace that he was hired under the condition that he travel to Europe to study French, Spanish, and Italian. Whatever the motivation, he began his tour of Europe in May 1826 aboard the ship Cadmus. His time abroad would last three years and cost his father $2,604.24. He traveled to France, Spain, Italy, Germany, back to France, then England before returning to the United States in mid-August 1829. While overseas, he learned French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, mostly without formal instruction. In Madrid, he spent time with Washington Irving and was particularly impressed by the author's work ethic. Irving encouraged the young Longfellow to pursue writing. While in Spain, Longfellow was saddened to learn his favorite sister, Elizabeth, had died of tuberculosis at the age of 20 that May while he was abroad.
On August 27, 1829, he wrote to the president of Bowdoin that he was turning down the professorship because he considered the $600 salary "disproportionate to the duties required". The trustees raised his salary to $800 with an additional $100 to serve as the college's librarian, a post which required one hour of work per day. During his years teaching at the college, he translated textbooks in French, Italian, and Spanish; his first published book was in 1833, a translation of the poetry of medieval Spanish poet Jorge Manrique. He also published a travel book, Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, first published in serial form before a book edition was released in 1835. Shortly after the book's publication, Longfellow attempted to join the literary circle in New York and asked George Pope Morris for an editorial role at one of Morris's publications.
Longfellow considered moving to New York after New York University considered offering him a newly-created professorship of modern languages, though there would be no salary. The professorship was not created and Longfellow agreed to continue teaching at Bowdoin. It may have been joyless work. He wrote, "I hate the sight of pen, ink, and paper... I do not believe that I was born for such a lot. I have aimed higher than this".
On September 14, 1831, Longfellow married Mary Storer Potter, a childhood friend from Portland. The couple settled in Brunswick, though the two were not happy there. Longfellow published several nonfiction and fiction prose pieces inspired by Irving, including "The Indian Summer" and "The Bald Eagle" in 1833.
In December 1834, Longfellow received a letter from Josiah Quincy III, president of Harvard College, offering him the Smith Professorship of Modern Languages position with the stipulation that he spend a year or so abroad. There, he further studied German as well as Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, and Icelandic. In October 1835, during the trip, his wife Mary had a miscarriage about six months into her pregnancy. She did not recover and died after several weeks of illness at the age of 22 on November 29, 1835. Longfellow had her body embalmed immediately and placed into a lead coffin inside an oak coffin which was then shipped to Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston. He was deeply saddened by her death, writing "One thought occupies me night and day... She is dead—She is dead! All day I am weary and sad". Three years later, he was inspired to write the poem "Footsteps of Angels" about her. Several years later, he wrote the poem "Mezzo Cammin" expressed his personal struggles in his middle years.
When he returned to the United States in 1836, Longfellow took up the professorship at Harvard. He was required to live in Cambridge to be close to the campus and rented rooms at the Craigie House in the spring of 1837, now preserved as the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. The home, built in 1759, had once been the headquarters of George Washington during the Siege of Boston beginning in July 1775. Previous boarders also included Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, and Joseph Emerson Worcester. Longfellow began publishing his poetry, including the collection Voices of the Night in 1839. The bulk of Voices of the Night, Longfellow's debut book of poetry, was translations though he also included nine original poems and seven poems he had written as a teenager. Ballads and Other Poems was published shortly thereafter in 1841 and included "The Village Blacksmith" and "The Wreck of the Hesperus", which were instantly popular. Longfellow also became part of the local social scene, creating a group of friends who called themselves the Five of Clubs. Members included Cornelius Conway Felton, George Stillman Hillard, and Charles Sumner, the latter of whom would become Longfellow's closest friend over the next 30 years. As a professor, Longfellow was well liked, though he disliked being "constantly a playmate for boys" rather than "stretching out and grappling with men's minds."
Courtship of Frances Appleton
Longfellow began courting Frances "Fanny" Appleton, the daughter of a wealthy Boston industrialist, Nathan Appleton and sister of Thomas Gold Appleton. At first, she was not interested but Longfellow was determined. In July 1839, he wrote to a friend: "[V]ictory hangs doubtful. The lady says she will not! I say she shall! It is not pride, but the madness of passion". His friend George Stillman Hillard encouraged Longfellow in the pursuit: "I delight to see you keeping up so stout a heart for the resolve to conquer is half the battle in love as well as war". During the courtship, Longfellow frequently walked from Cambridge to the Appleton home in Beacon Hill in Boston by crossing the Boston Bridge. That bridge was replaced in 1906 by a new bridge which was later renamed the Longfellow Bridge.
During his courtship, Longfellow continued writing and, in late 1839, published Hyperion, a book in prose inspired by his trips abroad and his unsuccessful courtship of Fanny Appleton. Amidst this, Longfellow fell into "periods of neurotic depression with moments of panic" and took a six-month leave of absence from Harvard to attend a health spa in the former Marienberg Benedictine Convent at Boppard in Germany. After returning, Longfellow published a play in 1842, The Spanish Student, reflecting his memories from his time in Spain in the 1820s. There was some confusion over its original manuscript. After being printed in Graham's Magazine, its editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold saved the manuscript from the trash. Longfellow was surprised to hear that it had been saved, unusual for a printing office, and asked to borrow it so that he could revise it, forgetting to return it to Griswold. The often vindictive Griswold wrote an angry letter in response.
A small collection, Poems on Slavery, was published in 1842 as Longfellow's first public support of abolitionism. However, as Longfellow himself wrote, the poems were "so mild that even a Slaveholder might read them without losing his appetite for breakfast". A critic for The Dial agreed, calling it "the thinnest of all Mr. Longfellow's thin books; spirited and polished like its forerunners; but the topic would warrant a deeper tone". The New England Anti-Slavery Association, however, was satisfied with the collection enough to reprint it for further distribution.
On May 10, 1843, after seven years, Longfellow received a letter from Fanny Appleton agreeing to marry him and, too restless to take a carriage, walked 90 minutes to meet her at her house. They were married shortly thereafter. Nathan Appleton bought the Craigie House as a wedding present to the pair. Longfellow would live there for the remainder of his life. His love for Fanny is evident in the following lines from Longfellow's only love poem, the sonnet "The Evening Star", which he wrote in October 1845: "O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus! My morning and my evening star of love!" He once attended a ball without her and noted, "The lights seemed dimmer, the music sadder, the flowers fewer, and the women less fair."
He and Fanny had six children: Charles Appleton (1844–1893), Ernest Wadsworth (1845–1921), Fanny (1847–1848), Alice Mary (1850–1928), Edith (1853–1915), and Anne Allegra (1855–1934). Their second-youngest daughter, Edith, married Richard Henry Dana III, son of the popular writer Richard Henry Dana, Jr., author of Two Years Before the Mast. When the younger Fanny was born on April 7, 1847, Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep administered ether as the first obstetric anesthetic in the United States to Fanny Longfellow. A few months later, on November 1, 1847, the poem "Evangeline" was published for the first time. His literary income was increasing considerably: in 1840, he had made $219 from his work but the year 1850 brought him $1,900.
On June 14, 1853, Longfellow held a farewell dinner party at his Cambridge home for his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was preparing to move overseas. Shortly thereafter in 1854, Longfellow retired from Harvard, devoting himself entirely to writing. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws from Harvard in 1859.
Death of Frances
On July 9, 1861, a hot day, Fanny was putting locks of her children's hair into an envelope and attempting to seal it with hot sealing wax while Longfellow took a nap. Her dress suddenly caught fire, though it is unclear exactly how; it may have been burning wax or a lighted candle which fell on her dress. Longfellow, awakened from his nap, rushed to help her and threw a rug over her, though it was too small. He stifled the flames with his body as best he could, but she was already badly burned. Over a half a century later, Longfellow's youngest daughter Annie explained the story differently, claiming that there was no candle or wax but that the fire started from a self-lighting match that had fallen on the floor. In both versions of the story, however, Fanny was taken to her room to recover and a doctor was called. She was in and out of consciousness throughout the night and was administered ether. The next morning, July 10, 1861, she died shortly after 10 o'clock after requesting a cup of coffee. Longfellow, in trying to save her, had burned himself badly enough that he was unable to attend her funeral. His facial injuries caused him to stop shaving, thereafter wearing the beard which has become his trademark.
Devastated by her death, he never fully recovered and occasionally resorted to laudanum and ether to deal with it. He worried he would go insane and begged "not to be sent to an asylum" and noted that he was "inwardly bleeding to death". He expressed his grief in the sonnet "The Cross of Snow" (1879), which he wrote eighteen years later to commemorate her death:
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.
Later Life and Death
Longfellow spent several years translating Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. To aid him in perfecting the translation and reviewing proofs, he invited friends to weekly meetings every Wednesday starting in 1864. The "Dante Club", as it was called, regularly included William Dean Howells, James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton and other occasional guests. The full three-volume translation was published in the spring of 1867, though Longfellow would continue to revise it, and it went through four printings in its first year. By 1868, Longfellow's annual income was over $48,000. In 1874, Samuel Cutler Ward helped him sell the poem "The Hanging of the Crane" to the New York Ledger for $3,000; it was the highest price ever paid for a poem.
During the 1860s, Longfellow supported abolitionism and especially hoped for reconciliation between the northern and southern states after the American Civil War. He wrote in his journal in 1878: "I have only one desire; and that is for harmony, and a frank and honest understanding between North and South". Longfellow, despite his aversion to public speaking, accepted an offer from Joshua Chamberlain to speak at his fiftieth reunion at Bowdoin College; he read the poem "Morituri Salutamus" so quietly that few could hear him. The next year, 1876, he declined an offer to be nominated for the Board of Overseers at Harvard "for reasons very conclusive to my own mind".
On August 22, 1879, a female admirer traveled to Longfellow's house in Cambridge and, unaware to whom she was speaking, asked Longfellow: "Is this the house where Longfellow was born?" Longfellow told her it was not. The visitor then asked if he had died here. "Not yet", he replied. In March 1882, Longfellow went to bed with severe stomach pain. He endured the pain for several days with the help of opium before he died surrounded by family on Friday, March 24, 1882. He had been suffering from peritonitis. At the time of his death, his estate was worth an estimated $356,320. He is buried with both of his wives at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His last few years were spent translating the poetry of Michelangelo; though Longfellow never considered it complete enough to be published during his lifetime, a posthumous edition was collected in 1883. Scholars generally regard the work as autobiographical, reflecting the translator as an aging artist facing his impending death.
Though much of his work is categorized as lyric poetry, Longfellow experimented with many forms, including hexameter and free verse. His published poetry shows great versatility, using anapestic and trochaic forms, blank verse, heroic couplets, ballads and sonnets. Typically, Longfellow would carefully consider the subject of his poetic ideas for a long time before deciding on the right metrical form for it. Much of his work is recognized for its melody-like musicality. As he says, "what a writer asks of his reader is not so much to like as to listen".
As a very private man, Longfellow did not often add autobiographical elements to his poetry. Two notable exceptions are dedicated to the death of members of his family. "Resignation", written as a response to the death of his daughter Fanny in 1848, does not use first-person pronouns and is instead a generalized poem of mourning. The death of his second wife Frances, as biographer Charles Calhoun wrote, deeply affected Longfellow personally but "seemed not to touch his poetry, at least directly". His memorial poem to her, a sonnet called "The Cross of Snow", was not published in his lifetime.
Longfellow often used didacticism in his poetry, though he focused on it less in his later years. Much of his poetry imparts cultural and moral values, particularly focused on promoting life as being more than material pursuits. Longfellow also often used allegory in his work. In "Nature", for example, death is depicted as bedtime for a cranky child. Many of the metaphors he used in his poetry as well as subject matter came from legends, mythology, and literature. He was inspired, for example, by Norse mythology for "The Skeleton in Armor" and by Finnish legends for The Song of Hiawatha. In fact, Longfellow rarely wrote on current subjects and seemed detached from contemporary American concerns. Even so, Longfellow, like many during this period, called for the development of high quality American literature. In Kavanagh, a character says:
We want a national literature commensurate with our mountains and rivers... We want a national epic that shall correspond to the size of the country... We want a national drama in which scope shall be given to our gigantic ideas and to the unparalleled activity of our people... In a word, we want a national literature altogether shaggy and unshorn, that shall shake the earth, like a herd of buffaloes thundering over the prairies.
He was also important as a translator; his translation of Dante became a required possession for those who wanted to be a part of high culture. He also encouraged and supported other translators. In 1845, he published The Poets and Poetry of Europe, an 800-page compilation of translations made by other writers, including many by his friend and colleague Cornelius Conway Felton. Longfellow intended the anthology "to bring together, into a compact and convenient form, as large an amount as possible of those English translations which are scattered through many volumes, and are not accessible to the general reader". In honor of Longfellow's role with translations, Harvard established the Longfellow Institute in 1994, dedicated to literature written in the United States in languages other than English.
In 1874, Longfellow oversaw a 31-volume anthology called Poems of Places, which collected poems representing several geographical locations, including European, Asian, and Arabian countries. Emerson was disappointed and reportedly told Longfellow: "The world is expecting better things of you than this... You are wasting time that should be bestowed upon original production". In preparing the volume, Longfellow hired Katherine Sherwood Bonner as an amanuensis.
Critical Response
Longfellow's early collections, Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems, made him instantly popular. The New-Yorker called him "one of the very few in our time who has successfully aimed in putting poetry to its best and sweetest uses". The Southern Literary Messenger immediately put Longfellow "among the first of our American poets". Poet John Greenleaf Whittier said that Longfellow's poetry illustrated "the careful moulding by which art attains the graceful ease and chaste simplicity of nature". Longfellow's friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. wrote of him as "our chief singer" and one who "wins and warms... kindles, softens, cheers [and] calms the wildest woe and stays the bitterest tears!"
The rapidity with which American readers embraced Longfellow was unparalleled in publishing history in the United States; by 1874, he was earning $3,000 per poem. His popularity spread throughout Europe as well and his poetry was translated during his lifetime into Italian, French, German, and other languages. As scholar Bliss Perry later wrote, Longfellow was so highly praised that criticizing him was a criminal act like "carrying a rifle into a national park". In the last two decades of his life, he often received requests for autographs from strangers, which he always sent. John Greenleaf Whittier suggested it was this massive correspondence that led to Longfellow's death, writing: "My friend Longfellow was driven to death by these incessant demands".
Contemporary writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote to Longfellow in May 1841 of his "fervent admiration which [your] genius has inspired in me" and later called him "unquestionably the best poet in America". However, after Poe's reputation as a critic increased, he publicly accused Longfellow of plagiarism in what has been since termed by Poe biographers as "The Longfellow War". His assessment was that Longfellow was "a determined imitator and a dextrous adapter of the ideas of other people", specifically Alfred, Lord Tennyson. His accusations may have been a publicity stunt to boost readership of the Broadway Journal, for which he was the editor at the time.Longfellow did not respond publicly, but, after Poe's death, he wrote: "The harshness of his criticisms I have never attributed to anything but the irritation of a sensitive nature chafed by some indefinite sense of wrong".
Margaret Fuller judged him "artificial and imitative" and lacking force. Poet Walt Whitman also considered Longfellow an imitator of European forms, though he praised his ability to reach a popular audience as "the expressor of common themes – of the little songs of the masses". He added, "Longfellow was no revolutionarie: never traveled new paths: of course never broke new paths." Lewis Mumford said that Longfellow could be completely removed from the history of literature without much effect. Towards the end of his life, contemporaries considered him more of a children's poet as many of his readers were children. A contemporary reviewer noted in 1848 that Longfellow was creating a "Goody two-shoes kind of literature... slipshod, sentimental stories told in the style of the nursery, beginning in nothing and ending in nothing". A more modern critic said, "Who, except wretched schoolchildren, now reads Longfellow?" A London critic in the London Quarterly Review, however, condemned all American poetry, saying, "with two or three exceptions, there is not a poet of mark in the whole union" but singled out Longfellow as one of those exceptions. As an editor of the Boston Evening Transcript wrote in 1846, "Whatever the miserable envy of trashy criticism may write against Longfellow, one thing is most certain, no American poet is more read".
Longfellow was the most popular poet of his day and is generally regarded as the most distinguished poet the country had produced. As a friend once wrote to him, "no other poet was so fully recognized in his lifetime". Many of his works helped shape the American character and its legacy, particularly with the poem "Paul Revere's Ride". He was such an admired figure in the United States during his life that his 70th birthday in 1877 took on the air of a national holiday, with parades, speeches, and the reading of his poetry.
Over the years, Longfellow's personality has become part of his reputation. He has been presented as a gentle, placid, poetic soul: an image perpetuated by his brother Samuel Longfellow, who wrote an early biography which specifically emphasized these points. As James Russell Lowell said, Longfellow had an "absolute sweetness, simplicity, and modesty". At Longfellow's funeral, his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson called him "a sweet and beautiful soul". In reality, Longfellow's life was much more difficult than was assumed. He suffered from neuralgia, which caused him constant pain, and he also had poor eyesight. He wrote to friend Charles Sumner: "I do not believe anyone can be perfectly well, who has a brain and a heart". He had difficulty coping with the death of his second wife. Longfellow was very quiet, reserved, and private; in later years, he was known for being unsocial and avoided leaving home. He had become one of the first American celebrities and was also popular in Europe. It was reported that 10,000 copies of The Courtship of Miles Standish sold in London in a single day. Children adored him and, when the "spreading chestnut-tree" mentioned in the poem "The Village Blacksmith" was cut down, the children of Cambridge had the tree converted into an armchair which they presented to the poet. In 1884, Longfellow became the first non-British writer for whom a commemorative sculpted bust was placed in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London; he remains the only American poet represented with a bust. More recently, he was honored in March 2007 when the United States Postal Service made a stamp commemorating him. A number of schools are named after him in various states as well. Neil Diamond's 1974 hit song, "Longfellow Serenade", is a reference to the poet. He is a protagonist in Matthew Pearl's murder mystery The Dante Club (2003).
Longfellow's popularity rapidly declined, beginning shortly after his death and into the twentieth century as academics began to appreciate poets like Walt Whitman, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Robert Frost. In the twentieth century, literary scholar Kermit Vanderbilt noted, "Increasingly rare is the scholar who braves ridicule to justify the art of Longfellow's popular rhymings." 20th century poet Lewis Putnam Turco concluded "Longfellow was minor and derivative in every way throughout his career... nothing more than a hack imitator of the English Romantics."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Works:
Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea (Travelogue) (1835)
Hyperion, a Romance (1839)
The Spanish Student. A Play in Three Acts (1843)
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (epic poem) (1847)
Kavanagh: A Tale (1849)
The Golden Legend (poem) (1851)
The Song of Hiawatha (epic poem) (1855)
The New England Tragedies (1868)
The Divine Tragedy (1871)
Christus: A Mystery (1872)
Aftermath (poem) (1873)
The Arrow and the Song (poem)
Poetry Collections
See also Category: Poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Voices of the Night (1839)
Ballads and Other Poems (1841)
Poems on Slavery (1842)
The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems (1845)
Birds of Passage (1845)
The Seaside and the Fireside (1850)
The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems (1858)
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863)
Household Poems (1865)
Flower-de-Luce (1867)
Three Books of Song (1872)
The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems (1875)
Kéramos and Other Poems (1878)
Ultima Thule (1880)
In the Harbor (1882)
Michel Angelo: A Fragment (incomplete; published posthumously)
Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique (Translation from Spanish) (1833)
Dante's Divine Comedy (Translation) (1867)
Poets and Poetry of Europe (Translations) (1844)
The Waif (1845)
Poems of Places (1874)
Poems by this Poet
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Great poet, even greater
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An anti-affirmative action group is trying to erase race from college admissions
Lower court losses for Students For Fair Admissions get legal strategist Edward Blum closer to his ultimate goal: returning to the Supreme Court.
The campus of University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. | Gerry Broome/AP Photo, File
By BIANCA QUILANTAN
12/01/2020 04:30 AM EST
The group behind a sweeping crusade attacking the use of race in college admissions hasn’t won a case yet — and that’s actually good for its cause.
Those lower court losses could carry Students For Fair Admissions’ hopes to ban the use of affirmative action in college admissions to a Supreme Court that may finally have the right combination of justices to vote in their favor.
Legal strategist Edward Blum’s group, which represents about 23,000 students, argues that policies common at U.S. universities put white and Asian American students at a disadvantage. The Supreme Court has allowed colleges to narrowly use race in admissions for decades, but Blum’s group argued in a case against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in November that its race-conscious admissions policy "cynically focuses on diversity at the most superficial level," "gives substantial preferences" to some minorities and "uses race in a mechanical, formulaic way."
"The easiest part of my job as president of Students For Fair Admissions is to convince the majority Americans that the use of race and ethnicity in college admissions is unfair," Blum said in an interview, noting a 2019 Pew Research survey on college admissions that found 73 percent of Americans "say colleges and universities should not consider race or ethnicity when making decisions about student admissions."
Blum's strategy has come a long way since his failed attempt to get the Supreme Court to side with Abigail Fisher, a white female University of Texas at Austin applicant who sued in 2008 after believing she was denied entry at the university because of her race.
With an evolved legal approach, the backing of the Trump administration and a newly cemented conservative majority on the Supreme Court bench, Blum may finally have the pieces he needs to push the court to ban the use of race in admissions altogether.
How all of this shakes out could change the way colleges evaluate applicants.
Colleges may be forced to remove students' names and race and ethnicity checkboxes from their application, and abandon their traditional holistic admissions practices. Education and civil rights groups fear that race-neutral admissions policies will exacerbate inequality for students of color for years to come. A race-blind admissions standard, they say, fails to take into account discrimination and barriers students of color often face.
No students took the stand during trial as part of Students For Fair Admissions’ attack against UNC. Instead, the group represented its thousands of members in the fight without using a jilted student as the face of the battle. Their argument leaned heavily on a statistical model from Duke economics professor Peter Arcidiacono and providing race-neutral alternatives the university could’ve used. A district court decision is expected in coming months.
Blum’s group is similarly suing the University of Texas at Austin again for a third time as well as Harvard, in another case that could be taken up by the Supreme Court next year. He has his sights on Yale, too.
The legal strategy: With a healthy collection of cases, SFFA’s legal machine looks like it doesn't have any plans to stop waging war on universities’ race-conscious admissions practices until the Supreme Court rules in its favor. And without outwardly naming a student as a lead plaintiff, the lawsuits remain timeless. SFFA can keep suing without worry that a case would be tossed for not being able to show harm to a student who may have graduated from college already.
Not using a face also protects students in the group, Blum said.
"In a world in which social media can cancel the life prospects of a student, it is unwise to bring a lawsuit like this with a group of young people whose social reputation and physical safety may be in jeopardy if their identities are revealed," he said. "Harvard understood it, UNC understood it, the judges in those two cases understood it. And I think every every parent who has a 17- or 18-year-old kid applying to college who would endeavor to do something like this would be gravely afraid for their child's identity to be made public."
Civil rights groups have called SFFA’s barrage of lawsuits against universities “an all-out assault on affirmative action,” after defending universities against SFFA for more than a decade.
“SFFA’s chief goal — I mean, it's obvious — they want to eliminate the consideration of race all together,” said David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. The group represented students who testified on UNC’s behalf and others in Harvard’s case.
“They know what the Supreme Court precedent says — yes, you can consider race by meeting the strict scrutiny standards — but they're just seeking an activist U.S. Supreme Court that will revisit this and reverse the precedent that we have had for the last 40-plus years,” he said.
The case against UNC is a lot like Fisher, Hinojosa said. SFFA is alleging the university’s race-conscious admissions policy is not narrowly tailored and it is not using race-neutral alternatives that are available. But, it differs from the case against Harvard, which also includes a claim that the university intentionally discriminates against Asian American applicants.
SFFA is also waging legal battles on multiple fronts, with new allies. The group is targeting private and public schools in the jurisdictions of four different courts of appeals — nearly a third of the appellate courts in the country. And Blum has acquired a powerful ally in the Trump administration’s Justice Department, which has supported the group’s challenge against Harvard and pursued its own litigation in October against Yale University for alleged racial discrimination in its admissions process.
"Students For Fair Admissions has been gratified that the Trump administration has supported our goal," Blum said.
The effect of the presidential transition: The Trump administration has championed race-blind admissions and abandoned Obama-era policies that encouraged universities to consider race. Even after President Donald Trump has left office, the administration’s own battle against Yale using race in admissions could stay alive as it has teed up the lawsuit for SFFA to intervene or even refile it.
DOJ said its legal challenge against Yale was a “result of a multi-year investigation into allegations of illegal discrimination contained in a complaint filed by Asian American groups concerning Yale’s conduct.”
“Illegal race discrimination by colleges and universities must end,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division, when the suit was announced. Dreiband also presented an oral argument on behalf of the group in the Harvard appeal.
But with a Biden administration coming in, SFFA could find itself before the Supreme Court in the Harvard case next year without the backing of the federal government — arguably its strongest supporter.
Education groups are urging Biden to direct the DOJ to abandon SFFA by pulling its support from the Harvard case and to drop the Trump administration’s “unprecedented demand that Yale University cease any consideration of race in its admissions practices.”
What’s next: SFFA is expected to petition to have the Supreme Court hear the Harvard case by mid-April 2021. If the court decides to take up the case, it wouldn’t be heard until the term beginning in October 2021, and there are a variety of outcomes possible.
The high court consistently has ruled that narrowly using race in admissions decisions does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and furthers a compelling interest in educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body. But a university cannot use quotas or racial balancing, and must be able to pass strict scrutiny.
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Even if Biden were to direct the DOJ to ditch SFFA once in the Oval Office, Trump’s imprint on the Supreme Court could be enough to secure a win for the group against Harvard.
Only Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer have ruled in favor of narrowly using race in admissions decisions in the Fisher case. Justice Elena Kagan, who is likely to join Sotomayor and Breyer in a decision, didn't take part in that case and has not had to rule on the legality of race-conscious admissions practices.
Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented against the opinion in Fisher.
Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett have not yet ruled on a case involving race in admissions, but it only takes two of them to side with Roberts, Thomas and Alito to hand SFFA a long-awaited victory.
"Cert petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court come in one size only — slim," Blum said, adding that he hopes the justices take up the case, but that "it is unwise to speculate on what a specific justice will do with an individual case or an individual issue."
Admission,
Civil Rights,
Affirmative Action,
U.S. Supreme Court,
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House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (left) eulogizes Hawaii Rep. Patsy Mink during a memorial service in Honolulu on Oct. 4, 2002, as Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano (right) looks on. | Jean-Marc Bouju/AP Photo
Rep. Patsy Mink succumbs to viral pneumonia, Sept. 28, 2002
By ANDREW GLASS
On Aug. 30, 2002, Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii), was hospitalized in Honolulu's Straub Clinic and Hospital with complications from chickenpox. Her condition steadily worsened, and on this day in 2002 she died of viral pneumonia, at age 74. Mink was a third generation Japanese American.
She is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2007, Central Oahu Regional Park on Oahu was renamed “Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park” in her honor.
Mink's death occurred one week before the 2002 primary election, too late for her name to be removed from the general election ballot. On Nov. 5, 2002, Mink was posthumously reelected to Congress.
During her 12 nonconsecutive terms in the House, Mink, as the first nonwhite woman and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, honed her reputation for being fiercely independent. She pursued a legislative agenda that was often national in scope. “You were not elected to Congress, in my interpretation of things, to represent your district, period,” she once told her colleagues. “You are national legislators.”
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At the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Mink, a Hawaiian delegate, persuaded two-thirds of the party to retain the party’s progressive stance on civil rights.
In honoring her contributions to equal rights, President George W. Bush ordered all flags lowered to half-staff. Congress renamed the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act (which Mink had co-authored) to the “Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.” In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1976, Mink gave up her congressional seat to run for a vacancy in the Senate. After Spark Matsunaga defeated her in a primary, President Jimmy Carter named Mink as assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.
Mink was first elected to Congress in 1965. She returned to the House when she won a special election in 1989.
During her initial tenure in Washington, Mink supported President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs, while becoming a critic of American involvement in the Vietnam War. As a legislator, she sponsored a series of initiatives grouped under the Early Childhood Education Act. She supported the Women’s Education Equity Act and Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments.
During her second stint on the Hill, Mink defended the social welfare programs from the 1960s which later administrations had scaled back. She advocated a universal health care plan, and co-sponsored the Gender Equity Act.
SOURCE: WWW.HISTORY.HOUSE.GOV
This Day In Politics
Presidential Medal Of Freedom
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Why Romney likes No Child Left Behind
By Jeffrey S. Solochek October 30, 2007
SUMMARY: Mitt Romney defends the federal No Child Left Behind Act because he says an earlier version of the legislation worked in Massachusetts.
Fred Thompson had just entered the Republican race for the presidency, and right off the bat started criticizing the No Child Left Behind Act.
"It's not working," the former senator said, adding that he regretted voting for the law.
Conservative talk show host Joe Scarborough had Mitt Romney on his show the next morning and asked the former Massachusetts governor to riff on his newest opponent's comments. Romney looked to his own experience as a guide.
"We had a No Child Left Behind — a similar piece of legislation in our state a number of years ago, well before the federal law. And it's had a big impact here. It's improved schools," he said.
Though it could use some "updates," Romney said, he supports the federal accountability law.
Why? Simple.
He has seen the effects of holding schools accountable through testing and standards in his own state. He refers specifically to his state's landmark 1993 Education Reform Act, which put such measures in place nine years before No Child took effect.
Did the changes have a "big impact," as Romney claimed? Did they truly improve schools?
Consider this: In 1998, just 7 percent of high school sophomores were scoring at the "advanced" level on the state's math exam. By 2007, 41 percent of sophomores could make that claim.
Over the same period, the percentage of sophomores failing the English exam dropped from 28 percent to 6 percent, with corresponding increases in the top ratings.
Then there's this nifty factoid: In 2005 and again in 2007, the state ranked first, or tied for first, in all four test categories, which includes math and reading in fourth and eighth grades. No state had done that before on the widely respected exam commonly called "the nation's report card."
The credit, experts say, goes to the state's longtime emphasis on setting high standards and then testing to determine that students have met those standards.
"In some respects, I would say you can track our success in Massachusetts to the fact that there was this issue of equity in education in the early 1990s," said Matt Militello, an assistant professor of educational policy at the University of Massachusetts.
But then there's the achievement gap.
David Driscoll, the state's education commissioner in 2005, wrote that the state's performance gaps between white, black and Hispanic students remained unchanged since 2003. In 2007, the state's interim commissioner, Jeffrey Nellhaus, noted that while the scores of white students were rising, those of black and Hispanic students were flat.
Robert Costrell, Romney's former chief economist and education adviser, doesn't dispute the gap. But he said that doesn't undo the state's overall improvement.
"The gaps are still quite significant and of great concern. But there absolutely was a closing of those gaps," said Costrell, now a professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas.
Romney, of course, cannot claim the credit for beginning the state's accountability program.
Militello suggests that the former governor can, at best, claim to have been in the right place at the right time to witness the improvements. As the Boston Globe reported, Romney did not get many of his own reforms, such as merit pay for teachers, enacted, because he was thwarted by a Democrat-dominated Legislature that ignored him.
That did not change Romney's commitment to No Child-like initiatives, Costrell said. The governor pressed the state to adopt a science exam, for instance, and worked to ratchet up the passing score on the high school exit exam.
Whether Romney's education agenda was a success or failure depends on whom you ask. But as for the state's upward progress in academic achievement, the numbers don't lie. Students overall improved, though a gap between the races remains.
Massachusetts Department of Education, National Assessment of Educational Progress results.
Massachusetts Department of Education, Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Spring 2007 summary.
Boston Globe, "New Governor To Face Test On Student Achievement," Sept. 5, 2006.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, "Students' Scores Best In Nation: Gap persists in scores of whites, minorities," Oct. 20, 2005.
Interview, Matt Militello, University of Massachusetts assistant professor of educational policy, research and administration.
Interview, Robert Costrell, former Romney education adviser and chief economist.
More by Jeffrey S. Solochek
Florida Stop Common Core Coalition
stated on March 19, 2014 a letter to supporters:
For educational testing, Florida "has chosen a company that has a significant history of promoting identification of the GLBT lifestyle for children as young as seven years old."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • March 24, 2014
Pam Stewart
stated on October 15, 2013 a public hearing in Tampa:
For the state of Florida, "there is not an additional cost with implementation of the Common Core standards."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • October 26, 2013
Public comments at a Common Core hearing
stated on October 15, 2013 Tampa, Fla.:
Teachers were not involved in developing the Common Core State Standards.
Will Weatherford
stated on July 17, 2013 a letter to Education Commissioner Tony Bennett:
New school testing standards "will consume approximately twenty days of testing for elementary, middle and high school students."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • July 22, 2013
Heather Fiorentino
stated on August 7, 2012 a campaign mailer:
As Florida secretary of state, Kurt Browning "allowed 1,800 illegal voters to register in Florida."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • August 9, 2012
stated on March 1, 2012 a press release:
Pasco County "opened 22 new schools over six years to keep pace with growth in student population and implement the class size amendment."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • March 4, 2012
stated on January 6, 2012 a press release:
Pasco County schools have graduation rates "substantially higher than the state average" and dropout rates "below the state average."
stated on December 27, 2007 a TV ad:
Biden was responsible for "ending genocide in Bosnia."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • December 31, 2007
stated on December 12, 2007 a debate in Des Moines, Iowa:
Says he has "the most impressive education record" of the Republican candidates.
stated on October 11, 2007 Plymouth, N.H.:
"Americans spend 100-million hours a year filling out these forms (FAFSA). That is the equivalent of 55,500 full-time jobs."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • November 20, 2007
stated on October 11, 2007 Manchester, N.H.:
The form students fill out to get college financial aid is "longer than the form to get U.S. citizenship."
stated on September 14, 2007 an interview:
"We had a No Child Left Behind — a similar piece of legislation in our state a number of years ago, well before the federal law. And it's had a big impact here. It's improved schools."
stated on September 21, 2007 Des Moines, Iowa.:
"Rural schools enroll 40 percent of American children, but receive only 22 percent of federal education funding."
Rural schools "face the highest dropout rates, the lowest college enrollment rates, have the lowest average teacher salaries..."
By Jeffrey S. Solochek • October 8, 2007
stated on September 13, 2007 a forum hosted by Slate/Yahoo/Huffington Post.:
"Look, I believe in accountability. In 1983, I led the effort in Arkansas to improve our schools."
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Cheverus Stags Fall Athletes of the Year
Jesse Cadigan and Lucia Pompeo are this year's recipients
Jesse Cadigan. Contributed photo.
MALE:
JESSE CADIGAN, Junior-Cross country
Cadigan transferred to Cheverus this fall and faced his share of challenges, but he outraced them all and he saved his best performance for the season’s biggest meet.
Cadigan spent his first two high school seasons running for Massabesic. He was 45th at the Class A state meet as a freshman, then came in 36th as a sophomore.
This season, Cadigan debuted by placing third in a meet against South Portland. He had a first-place individual finish and led the Stags to a team victory over Windham. Cadigan then had to overcome injury and missed a couple of meets before returning to place 11th in the Southwestern Maine Activities Association state qualifier with a time of 17 minutes, 8.95 seconds.
“I felt that my season went pretty well,” Cadigan said. “I put in a lot of work but was injured during a few crucial weeks of training right before regionals, so I did not perform as well as I feel I could have. My goal for next year is definitely to place top 10 at states in cross country.”
Cadigan also runs track and hopes to get under 2-minutes, 5-seconds in the 800.
Jesse Cadigan, Cheverus’ Fall Male Athlete of the Year, made an immediate impact at his new school and it’s likely he’s going to do even bigger things before he graduates.
Coach Nick Denari’s comment: “Jesse was a great contributor for us this year and was the fastest athlete we’ve had in a number of years. Jesse has a level of determination that is second-to-none. He would constantly ask his coaches, ‘What can I do to be better?’ When he suffered an injury during the middle of the season and he was restricted to only cross-training for a couple of weeks, the intensity of his workouts increased as he knew he wanted to come out of the injury in even better shape than he was before. When he returned to running, it didn’t look like he had missed any time at all and he had his best performance of the season at the state qualifier. His coaches are very excited to see what he can do with the next year-and-a-half at Cheverus.”
Prior winners:
2019 Sean Tompkins (football)
2018 Teigan Lindstedt (football)
2017 Luc Dionne (soccer)
2016 Jack Casale (football)
2015 Jake Tomkinson (soccer)
2014 Joe Fitzpatrick (football)
2012 Donald Goodrich (football)
2011 Elliot Maker (soccer)
2010 Peter Gwilym (football)
2008 Jack Terwilliger (cross country)
2007 Galen Munroe (soccer)
2006 Andrew Pochebit (football)
2005 Anthony Ardito (golf)
2004 Max Molleo (soccer)
Lucia Pompeo. Contributed photo.
FEMALE:
LUCIA POMPEO, Senior-Field hockey
Cheverus Offensive Player of the Year
Captain’s Award winner
Pompeo struck fear into the heart of the opposition when she had the ball on her stick, which was a situation that often led to goals scored and thrills for her teammates and coaches.
Pompeo came to field hockey naturally, following in the footsteps of her older sister Sophia (Cheverus Fall Female Athlete of the Year in 2018). Lucia Pompeo joined the Stags varsity as a freshman and made an immediate impact, being named her team’s Rookie of the Year. Pompeo was a first-team league all-star as a junior and this season, despite its limitations due to COVID-19, was one of the most explosive scorers around.
In just eight games, Pompeo scored 18 goals, more than two per game, and she also had four assists.
Highlights included three goals in a season-opening victory over South Portland, two goals and an assist in a win over Falmouth, an overtime game-winning tally against Scarborough, three goals and an assist in a victory over Westbrook, three more goals and another assist in a win over Greely and four goals in a season-ending victory over South Portland.
“We had positive energy,” Pompeo said. “The whole group. We had a good time every practice. We loved playing together. We were just lucky to be (playing), honestly.
“I’m very proud of how much my team has accomplished this year. It was definitely a very different year, but we made the most of it. I’m very sad we couldn’t have made a playoff run, but I’m lucky to have played with such an amazing group of girls my last year at Cheverus. I’m very glad I could play for a program like Cheverus and have a role model like Sophia paving the way. Everyone is very supportive including coaches and teammates. I’m really going to miss it.”
Pompeo, who has also starred for the Stags ice hockey team, will next take her talents to Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, where she plans to play field hockey.
Lucia Pompeo, Cheverus’ Fall Female Athlete of the Year, will be remembered as an unstoppable force of nature when she was racing up the field with the goal in sight. Players with her skill and passion don’t come around often.
Coach Theresa Hendrix’s comment: “Lucia has been a standout and has had a wonderful high school career. Lucia is a player that you don’t want to see as your opponent, but love to watch play. Lucia has been a standout player since her freshman year, even when playing through painful injuries. Her passion for the sport, combined with hard work, shows every time she steps on the field. She was a scoring threat with phenomenal stick skills and determination. While the stats showed how powerful she was in the circle, she was impactful all over the field. Lucia was the leading scorer on the team for the last two years. Even with no playoffs, no end-of-season conference or state awards, Lucia’s spirit was never broken. She was just excited to play. When she put on the uniform, her confidence and love for field hockey lit up and it was shared with those not just on her team but everyone who got the pleasure to watch her compete.”
Lucia Pompeo. File photo.
2019 Emma Gallant (soccer)
2018 Sophia Pompeo (field hockey)
2017 Michaela Jordan (soccer)
2016 Hannah Abbott (field hockey)
2015 Becca Archer (field hockey)
2014 Abby Goodrich (soccer)
2013 Elyse Caiazzo (field hockey)
2012 Staci Swallow (field hockey)
2011 Sarah LaQuerre (field hockey)
2010 Emily Sawchuck (field hockey)
2009 Emily Durgin (cross country)
2008 Bethany Schleh (field hockey)
2007 Elizabeth Somma (soccer)
2006 Elise Roux (soccer)
2005 Meaghan Mingo (soccer)
2004 Lauren Metevier (soccer)
Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.
Falmouth’s standout commits to run in Colorado
Falmouth Yachtsmen Fall Athletes of the Year
cheverus stags, cross country, field hockey
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Home London Travel Guide A quick guide to Westminster and St James
A quick guide to Westminster and St James
The areas of Westminster and St James are two of the most striking parts of England’s historic capital, and visitors can expect to enjoy lots of sightseeing during their stay. Nestled within central London, it’s here that you’ll find many of the key sights which symbolise the city’s past – as well as several nods to the present and London’s future.
Here’s our quick rundown of the things to see the next time you’re in the area.
While it’s today mostly famous for its notable role in numerous royal weddings, there is much more to Westminster Abbey than pomp and circumstance. The abbey has been the site of every royal coronation since William the Conqueror in 1066, and it is also home to the final resting place of some of Britain’s most enduring heroic figures. During your stay at the Park Grand London Paddington, it’s well worth a look at the dazzling architecture for a glimpse at a real London mainstay.
Art plays a major role in the story of London both past and present, and at the Tate Britain, you’ll find a carefully curated selection of artworks from the world’s finest creative talents. Directly overlooking the Thames, it is here that you’ll find artwork which covers more than 500 years of history. First opening in 1897, the Tate also plays host to the prestigious and highly-coveted Turner Prize.
Originally intended as an impermanent structure to mark the new millennium, the London Eye proved such a hit that it remained – and today it’s an iconic part of London’s skyline, as well as one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. While you’re staying at the Park Grand London Paddington, its well worth taking a spin on this enormous Ferris wheel, which provides panoramic views of the city like nowhere else. Each trip takes around 30 minutes to complete, leaving you plenty of time to continue your sightseeing.
With a famed statue dedicated to Lord Nelson at its heart, Trafalgar Square is filled with great sights, including the Trafalgar Square lions which watch over it. The square is surrounded by galleries and great places to eat, and its a regular site of protests and cultural events, so there’s always lots happening in this busy part of the city.
Clarence House
The official Royal Residence of Prince Charles, Clarence House hosts regular tours, perfect for those interested in catching a glimpse of London’s working Royal life. The house was previously home to the Queen mother, and it is a true example of living history in motion.
A London palace built by Lord Burlington, the Royal Academy of Arts is home to London’s foremost art school, as well as hosting a regular program of events and exhibitions where visitors can get up close and personal with the latest work by top local artistic talent while staying in London.
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Eyes on With Cisco's Umi Telepresence
By Nate Ralph
Cisco's Umi Telepresence (that's "you-me") hopes to bring enterprise-level, 1080p video conferencing to your living room. Free video chatting services abound, but Cisco hopes to one-up the competition by providing a superior, high definition experience, right on your living room TV.
The Umi's HD camera sits on top of your television, affixed in place by an adjustable mounting bracket, so thinner HDTVs can get in on the action too. A simple remote control handles placing video calls and navigating the Umi's slick Clover UI, while a set-top box tackles video streaming and audio decoding duties. This box can connect to your home network wirelessly, but there's a good chance you'll want to tether down with an ethernet cable, or risk the pitfalls of a finicky wireless connection.
Once you're up and running, the Umi will stream full-screen 1080p HD video to whomever is on the other end--provided they're equipped with the same hardware. You'll be able to place and receive video calls on Webcam-equipped PCs by way of Google's video chat, but these are limited to 480p video, and won't be fullscreen. Fans of Skype and Apple's iChat are out of luck, for now.
Perhaps the most striking caveat is the price: $599 gets you all of the hardware, but there's also a $25 a month subscription fee. You're getting unlimited Umi video calls, video messaging, and video storage via Umi's cloud service (more on that in a bit), but that's quite a price tag for functionality that's already available for far less--if not entirely free.
Why choose Cisco's Umi over your laptop's Webcam, or a cheap Webcam strapped onto your display? Cisco's banking on delivering an unparalleled user experience. And to be fair, it was fairly impressive. Tapping the Clover button on the remote places a cross-shaped widget onto the top right corner of the TV screen. Contacts are saved onto your umi account. You can choose them directly from the Clover's menu, or dial them directly -- every device is assigned a unique, 6 digit number. You can also enter a Google email address, if you're calling a Google video chat user.
Calling works much like a telephone. Cisco sat us in a faux-living room, and we called a Cisco employee, Lily, at her home. We picked her image from the list of contacts, and after a brief ring or two, the television show we were watching quickly snapped over to the video call. Video quality was clear, though colors--particularly my dark red shirt--appeared a bit oversaturated. But good luck blaming the camera when your mother complains about your washed out clothing. The camera has a fairly dynamic range of control; panning, tilting, and zooming is speedy, and there's a great level of detail. The auto focus functionality was a bit slow, but it worked well enough.
Audio quality was adequate, but not quite stellar. An array of five microphones is built into the face of the camera. I could hear Lily fairly clearly, though she sounded distant. There was also a fair bit of echoing throughout the call. This isn't necessarily the fault of the hardware: Lily was sitting in a cavernous living room, but the background environment is a major point of concern. The device also lacks an input for an external microphone, so you're stuck with the camera's limitations.
While the hardware was on display, the real star of the show is ultimately Umi's cloud service. That $25 a month fee may be steep, but this includes unlimited video storage. If you aren't near your TV or choose to ignore a call, callers will see a video message--much like voicemail, or an answering machine. They'll be able to leave a video message of their own, yammering for as long as they'll like.
You'll be able to view this message the next time you're at your television, or on the web, through umi's web portal. Notifications will also be pushed to mobile devices, so you'll know whenever you have a new message waiting. You can also send video messages of your own, recording HD video with the umi camera and posting clips to sites like Facebook and YouTube, or directly to other umi users.
As it stands, Cisco's Umi has its work cut out for it. While everything sounds impressive on paper, my admittedly limited interaction with the system has left me wondering how it improves upon hardware that's readily available. Webcams are ubiquitous nowadays - good luck getting a laptop or netbook without one. And the latest generation of smartphones (and tablets) are slapping cameras right up on the front.
Skype, iChat, and Google video calls can be made for free. You won't be able to stream these video calls onto your TV without a bit of legwork, but unless you've convinced your family and friends to shell out $600, and cover the subscription fee, they'll be chatting with you on their laptops anyway. The video messaging service has its perks, but your cell phone can likely post a video to YouTube just as well. It might not be in 1080p, but you can probably use the cash you'll save to visit your family in person.
There's sure to be a market for Cisco's Umi Telepresence--broadband-equipped chatty parents are likely going to love this, much to the chagrin of family members who've fled the nest. But while HD video conferencing might be a hit in the business sector--Cisco claims there are 1 million people using their service every day--families with less discretionary funding might not be ready to drop their hard earned money on the novelty of video calls--even if they are on the big screen. Cisco's Umi Telepresence launches on November 14th, but you can preorder yours right now.
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LTE can compete with upstart IoT networks, Verizon says
LTE's huge ecosystem can help create cheap and efficient ways of connecting, the carrier says
By Stephen Lawson
Senior U.S. Correspondent, IDG News Service |
Stephen Lawson
Much of the Internet of Things will run on the same networks that smartphones use, cellular giant Verizon says.
Despite the prospect of new networks that reach farther than cells and let IoT devices communicate for years on one battery charge, many of the power-sipping networked objects to be deployed in the coming years will use LTE and future 5G cellular systems, a Verizon executive said in an interview Wednesday.
Many legacy IoT devices, also called M2M (machine-to-machine), use 2G or 3G networks now. Carriers want to phase those out in the coming years to shift their frequencies over to newer networks.
Verizon wants to be a one-stop shop for IoT, the collection of sensors, wearable devices and networked machines that's now rolling out around the world. It's an important growth opportunity for the carrier, one of the two dominant mobile operators in the U.S., though Verizon says it's got services to offer IoT companies even if they use someone else's network.
The LTE technology that is the bread and butter of Verizon and other cellular carriers is designed primarily for bandwidth-heavy smartphone uses like games, voice calls and videos. Now there are alternatives emerging that are like cellular in some ways but designed specifically for IoT. They're coming from upstarts like SigFox, which builds networks it says are slower but cheaper than LTE.
These LPWANs (low-power, wide-area networks) are tailor made for IoT devices, which typically use only small amounts of data and may have to work untouched for years in remote locations. SigFox, for one, has networks spanning most of France and Spain and plans to cover 10 major U.S. cities by early 2016. The first of those systems, in San Francisco, is now being developed in partnership with city government. Other vendors and industry groups are also pursuing new LPWANs.
Machina Research expects more than 3 billion devices to be connected to LPWANs by 2023.
Verizon says better and cheaper chips from the vast LTE ecosystem, including silicon vendors like Intel and Sequans, will make LTE competitive with LPWANs. So-called Category 0 and Category 1 LTE devices, some of which are already commercially available for use on Verizon's network, will have battery life of one to five years, depending on the application, said Mark Bartolomeo, Verizon's vice president of IoT and connected solutions. The cost of IoT chip modules will fall below US$2 as economies of scale grow, he said.
Early next year, Verizon will roll out a new, more efficient network core just for IoT. It won't have back-end processes that were designed for connecting with smartphones but aren't needed for the new types of devices. This will lower costs and let Verizon scale up its network for the shift from millions to billions of connections, said Mike Lanman, Verizon's senior vice president of enterprise and IoT products.
Those changes, along with the evolution of standards toward the 5G specification expected in 2020, will make LTE well suited to IoT over time.
Stephen Lawson is a senior U.S. correspondent for the IDG News Service based in San Francisco.
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Why and How Big Money Promotes
"White Privilege" Rhetoric
[Related: "Racial Discrimination Against Non-Whites is Rampant and Harms Working Class People of ALL Races"]
[Martin Luther King, Jr. explains how racial discrimination HARMS, NOT BENEFITS, working class whites]
[How the Jim Crow Laws Harmed the Poor Whites in the South]
[Some short explanations: "Is it a 'Privilege' Not to be Discriminated Against?" & True or False: An Injury to One Is an Injury to All?]
[Another author writes "How Anti-White Rhetoric is Fueling White Nationalism"]
["The Trouble with Disparity" by Adolph Reed, Jr. and Walter Benn Michaels shows that class inequality is why most blacks and most whites are poor, and if only racial inequality is abolished there will be "more black, brown, and LGBTQIA+ billionaires," which is NOT the solution to OUR problem.]
Calling Racial Discrimination "White Privilege" Is Like Calling Toxic Sludge "Industrially Produced Compost."
It's not that toxic sludge doesn't exist; of course it exists; ditto racial discrimination against non-white people, which of course exists. What's wrong with calling toxic sludge "industrially produced compost" is that this phrase sends a false message about toxic sludge. The false message is NOT that it doesn't exist; the false message is that it is a good thing, like compost is a good thing.
Likewise, what's wrong with the phrase "white privilege" is that it sends a false message about racial discrimination against non-whites. The false message is NOT that this racial discrimination doesn't exist. The false message is that it is a BENEFIT (the word "privilege" by definition means a benefit)--a good thing!--for ordinary white people. THIS IS A LIE.
The truth is that racial discrimination against non-whites HARMS ordinary white people. This was the great insight of the old labor movement, with its WONDERFUL AND TRUE slogan, that among ordinary people, AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL.
The reason why, among ordinary people, an injury to one is an injury to all is that the PURPOSE of the ruling elite's discrimination against one group (non-white people in the U.S. and different groups of people in other nations, such as non-Jews in Israel/Palestine) is to destroy the solidarity among ALL races (or ethnic groups) of ordinary people so as to prevent them from being able to successfully stand up to and challenge the power of the ruling upper class that oppresses ALL ordinary people. The discrimination against one group more than the others is for the purpose of creating mistrust and resentment and fear between the discriminated-against and not-discriminated-against groups, to thereby destroy their solidarity. This is an INJURY to BOTH groups, not a benefit ("privilege") for the group not discriminated against.
Read about this in "An Injury to One Is an Injury to ALL" and also read the articles it links to under its title, including ones where you can listen to MLK, Jr. explaining this in a speech and also read the text of his speech.
Read below WHY (and how) the Ford and Rockefeller foundations worked hard to make us replace the excellent phrase, "racial discrimination" (against non-white people) which points the accusing finger properly at the institutions or individuals DOING the wrongful discrimination, with the deliberately divisive phrase, "white privilege" which points the accusing finger WRONGLY at ordinary white people just for the "crime" of being white.
The "white privilege" phrase is deliberately divisive because a) it tells non-white people that ordinary white people benefit from racial discrimination against non-whites and therefore they should be mistrusted and feared by non-whites; b) it tells ordinary whites that instead of properly feeling righteous anger at the ruling class for destroying their solidarity with non-white people with whom they share a common enemy, they should instead feel GUILTY for being white, which is an emotion that cripples any truly effective fight against the ruling class; and c) it tells the most oppressed whites--who reject the absurd accusation in the name of "anti-racism" that they are guilty of benefiting from the racial discrimination that the ruling class, not they, initiated and enforce--that anti-racism is really code for anti-white.
This is how the liberal phony "anti-racist" wing of the ruling class works hard to help white nationalist organizations recruit, since their recruiting pitch is that they are about letting whites defend themselves from the attack on them done in the name of "anti-racism."
The History of the New "White Privilege" Phrase
"White privilege" is a relatively new phrase that liberals, progressives and Leftists use instead of the "old fashioned" phrases such as "racial discrimination against non-whites" or "racial inequality." It didn't used to be this way. The phrase was not current during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s against the racist Jim Crow laws. But now the phrase "white privilege" (it gets 960,000 results with Google) is quite prevalent in liberal/Left circles. How come?
The answer is that Big Money wants people to stop referring to "racial discrimination" and refer instead to "white privilege" and so Big Money promotes the use of "white privilege." To demonstrate this I need to do two things: 1) explain why Big Money would have an interest in doing this and 2) show that Big Money is actually promoting the "white privilege" phrase. I'll start with the second, if only because the evidence for it is more obvious.
The Evidence that Big Money Promotes the "White Privilege" Phrase
Fasten your seatbelt here because we’re going to be jumping from one website to another to discover connections that these Big Money folks do not want to make obvious.
The Ford Foundation promotes the use of "white privilege" by funding ("partnering with" to use the NGO jargon) an organization called "The White Privilege Conference." This organization is devoted to making sure that the “white privilege” framework dominates people’s thinking about what used to be called racial discrimination against non-whites. The WPC says of itself:
“The conference is unique in its ability to bring together high school and college students, teachers, university faculty and higher education professionals, nonprofit staff, activists, social workers and counselors, healthcare workers, and members of the spiritual community and corporate arena. Annually, more than 1,500 attend from more than 35 states, Australia, Bermuda, Canada, and Germany.”
If one looks at the organizations that The White Privilege Conference partners with by going to its web page with this information, one sees the Ford Foundation listed as a partner. The Ford Foundation has the best public relations money can buy--literally. But underneath the pretty talk about helping to make a better world for everybody, there is the fact that the Ford Foundation is run by a small number of Trustees, named on their web page.
What kind of people serve as trustees of the Ford Foundation? Some of them are, as we shall see, obvious Big Money individuals. In the case of others the connection to Big Money is not so obvious. For example, let's take a close look at former Chair and currently member of the Board of Trustees--Irene Hirano Inouye. Her bio-sketch says that she is the President of the U.S.-Japan Council. Let's see what the U.S.-Japan Council is all about. Its web page says, in the top "Overview" section:
"The U.S.-Japan Council is a 501(c) 3 non-profit educational organization that contributes to strengthening U.S.-Japan relations by bringing together diverse leadership, engaging stakeholders and exploring issues that benefit communities, businesses and government entities on both sides of the Pacific."
More "pretty talk." So let's look a bit closer. In the second paragraph of the Overview section we read:
“The Council was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Washington, DC with staff in California, Hawaii and Tokyo. In 2012, the U.S.-Japan Council (Japan) was created to support the administration of the TOMODACHI Initiative, and in 2013, it became a Public Interest Corporation (Koeki Zaidan Hojin). The U.S.-Japan Council (Japan) maintains an office in Tokyo, Japan.”
What exactly is the TOMODACHI Initiative that the US-Japan Council was created to support? Going to its web page, it seems that TOMODACHI is about making young people happy--lots of photos of young smiling faces doing fun activities. What's wrong with that? But let's keep looking more closely. On the same page under "What's new?" I saw (back in April of 2013 when I first looked) "Secretary Kerry dialog with TOMODACHI youth" and "Clinton Global Initiative University Fellows to the U.S." On May 28, 2017 this web page asks, “Why do top Japanese and U.S. business leaders support TOMODCHI?” followed by photos of top Japanese business leaders and the logos of its “strategic partners,” which include the logos of Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley and other of the world’s biggest corporations.
Does the involvement of these top corporations and politicians such as John Kerry--who wage unjust wars involving mass murder of innocent people--mean that the TOMODACHI Initiative might be about something other than fun and games for youth? Of course it does! To see this we need to see who’s in charge of the U.S.-Japan Council that established the foundation of the TOMODACHI Initiative.
Its directors are listed in an online file. Laura Winthrop Abott is the Executive Director. She is married to Cmdr. Spencer Abbot who is a member (see its membership roster) of the ultra-elite Council on Foreign Relations (check its membership roster and you will find the members of the ruling class and their loyal servants—Rockefellers and people such as Condoleeza Rice and Bill (“William”) Clinton. People who want a more equal and democratic world, however, are not admitted to the CFR.
TOMODACHI, for some reason, no longer has a website page giving the members of its Advisory Board, but when I looked back in 2013 it consisted of Big Money players par excellence.
On the Advisory Board were Richard Armitage, President, Armitage International, L.L.C.; Takashi Kawamura, Chairman, Hitachi, L.L.D.; Yorihiko Kojima, Chairman and CEO, Mitsubishi Corporation. Also on the board were the Chairman or CEO of other corporations with less well-known (to me) names such as Salesforce.com, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Mitsui & Co. L.T.D., Rakuten, Inc.. These are the people who, as the TOMODACHI web page explained, "provide advice, assistance, and support to help the TOMODACHI Initiative achieve its mission."
The missions that this kind of people supports are missions that make the world safer and more secure for their capitalist Big Money class. Big Money needs, more than anything else, to make sure that the billions of people in the world who want a more equal and democratic world don't develop the solidarity with each other that would enable them to mount a serious threat to the power of Big Money and its enjoyment, at the expense of everybody else, of billion dollar fortunes and privileges and power beyond the dreams of ordinary people.
This kind of people select, as presidents and directors and trustees of organizations they control, individuals whom they trust. They selected Irene Hirano Inouye as president of the organization set up to support the administration of the TOMODACHI Initiative--the U.S.-Japan Council. And the Ford Foundation in turn selected Ms. Inouye to be the past Chair and now member of its Board of Trustees.
In case there is any doubt as to what kind of person sits on the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, its web page tells us that one of its other Trustees is Ursula M. Burns who is the Chair of the Xerox Corporation. Another is J. Clifford Hudson who is chairman, CEO, and president of Sonic Corp (number 297 on the Fortune 500 list.) Another trustee is N. R. Narayana Murthy who is executive chairman of the board of Infosys (an Indian multinational corporation with assets of more than $12 billion.) If you are reading this at a future date compared to May of 2017 (when I updated these links) the details of who is a trustee will probably have changed, but the story will remain the same.
Under the leadership and direction of these Big Money individuals, the Ford Foundation decides to "partner" with The White Privilege Conference. These people understand that promoting “white privilege” rhetoric is in their class interest; it advances their main strategy of social control: divide and rule.
This is just one example of how Big Money promotes "white privilege" as a substitute for "racial discrimination against non-whites" and similar "old fashioned" phrases. The Rockefeller Foundation and others like it do the same thing. One of many illustrations of this is the case of Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D., formerly Associate Director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, whose "informational packet" says:
“McIntosh is the author of many influential articles on curriculum change, women's studies and systems of unearned privilege. She is best known for authoring the groundbreaking article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1989),” which has been instrumental in putting the dimension of privilege into discussions of gender, race and sexuality. Excerpted from McIntosh’s longer piece on white and male privilege - "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies”(1988) - the article has been translated into multiple languages and is read and quoted by multicultural scholars and educators all over the world. The essay set forth the concept of white privilege, a theoretical construct that has since significantly influenced anti-racist theory and practice as well as other activist movements.”
In 1993 Dr. McIntosh had a Rockefeller Foundation Writing Fellowship for her monograph, “Systems of Unearned Overadvantage” (see page 107 of the linked document). Mcintosh has received funding also from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
Clearly Big Money loves "white privilege" rhetoric. The question now is, how come?
Why Does Big Money Promote the "White Privilege" Phrase?
To see why Big Money wants to get people to stop using the phrase "racial discrimination" and start using "white privilege" instead, one needs to do something a bit unpleasant, namely try to look at things from the point of view of the privileged ruling elite. Here's what it looks like:
"I fear being removed from power by a mass movement of ordinary people who are angry at me because I make them suffer in order so that I can enjoy great wealth and privilege. I need these angry people to stop being angry at me and be angry at each other instead. Even better, I want as many of them as possible to like how I run society.
"I know that racist discrimination is a great divide and rule strategy; it makes those discriminated against angry at those not discriminated against, thus destroying solidarity, which is the only thing these people have that can challenge my power over them. But there are risks in using racial discrimination. The people might realize that an injury to one is an injury to all (as discussed here) and unite in solidarity and anger against me. Not good! What to do?
"How about this? Tell the ones not discriminated against (the whites) that that old "injury to one is an injury to all" line is false. Tell them that, actually, an injury to blacks and Hispanics is a benefit--a 'privilege'--for the whites. Perfect! Some whites will say, 'Hey, if discrimination against blacks benefits me, then why should I object to it?' Other whites will say, 'Oh, I feel so guilty benefiting from my white skin privilege.'
"Either way, it's wonderful! The whites who feel guilty will never be a threat to me because guilt never causes people to build a strong movement. Moreover, the whites who feel guilty, because they foolishly think they benefit from racial discrimination, will use their influence with the other whites to persuade them that they actually benefit from racial discrimination and have no reason to oppose it. And the more people (white and non-white both) who think that whites benefit from racist discrimination, the more that non-whites will direct their anger at white working class people, and not against me.
"Problem solved: I'll replace 'racial discrimination' with 'white privilege.' I never liked that old 'racial discrimination' phrase to begin with; it pointed the finger at the person doing the discriminating--me! 'White privilege' is much better--it points the finger at white people instead, people who have nothing to do with implementing the racial discrimination.
"I think I'll have my friends at the Ford Foundation help set up a new organization. What should I call it? I know, 'The White Privilege Conference'--that's the ticket."
What about Tim ("white privilege") Wise?
The article by Tim Wise* about the Boston Marathon bombing, "Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness," is a recent example of the use of "white privilege" rhetoric.
Tim Wise is profoundly wrong. Wise writes, "White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for whites to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening, or threatened with deportation." The lie is in the first five words of this sentence, not in the remaining words.
Whites and others may indeed know that when a heinous crime is committed by a white person the rulers of the U.S. and their mass media will not vilify all whites as they would, say, a Muslim. But calling this a "white privilege" is false. The correct term for this is "racist (or ethnic or religious) discrimination," not "white privilege."
It is not a "privilege" to not be the specific object of racist discrimination. The purpose of racist discrimination--the reason the ruling elite carry it out--is to divide-and-conquer ordinary people of all races, to undermine their cross-racial solidarity, so that they may all (white as well as non-white) be more easily controlled and dominated by the ruling elite. Ordinary white people are HARMED, not benefited, by racist discrimination in this way.
To describe racist discrimination as a "white privilege" amounts to telling whites that they benefit from racist discrimination against non-whites; this is exactly the lie that the ruling class wants white people to believe. This lie aims to refute the profound truth that the labor movement learned many years ago: An injury to one is an injury to all. The more this "white privilege" lie is believed (by whites and non-whites) the more the divide-and-conquer strategy succeeds in creating mutual resentment between whites and non-whites. This is why the ruling class, with its Rockefeller and Ford Foundations (and others) funds the promotion of "white privilege" rhetoric.
The word "privilege," in our English language, can either be used in the sense of a deserved privilege (such as the privilege of a qualified pilot to fly a jet plane or a licensed automobile driver to drive an automobile) or an undeserved (unfair) privilege (for example, people of "royal blood" enjoying special privileges such as enormous wealth and exemption from some laws that apply only to ordinary people.) We all understand that an undeserved privilege is something that should be abolished. So-called "royal" people should not have the privileges of royalty; they should be like everybody else. How does this connect to "white privilege"?
Tim Wise is certainly not saying that "white privilege" is a deserved privilege, is he? ("White privilege" rhetoric is always about how it is an undeserved privilege.) So what then is Tim Wise saying--that "white privilege" should be abolished, that whites should be treated the same as non-whites, that when a white person commits a heinous crime then all whites should be vilified? Tim Wise cannot come right out and say this because it would be too obviously stupid. It would expose the absurdity of his use of the word "privilege" and his substitution of "white privilege" for the correct term, "racial discrimination."
But Tim Wise does in fact want ordinary whites to feel guilty for, and be perceived by non-whites as being guilty of, the racial discrimination that the ruling elite implement. Thus he writes (using "our" to refer to whites) that "white privilege" is "the source of our unearned innocence and the cause of others' unjustified oppression."
The ruling class lie--that whites and non-whites have opposing interests, that whites benefit from (are "privileged" by) the oppression of non-whites, that whites' claim of innocence is "unearned" (i.e., that whites are guilty of the oppression of non-whites)--this lie serves the ruling class equally well whether the people spreading it do so in the name of racism or anti-racism. In fact, the lie is made far more credible (and hence more useful to the ruling class) when it is spread by an "anti-racist" like Tim Wise than by a KKK racist. No matter who says it, it is a racist lie, intended to pit people against each other along race lines. People who promote this lie are thus promoting racism. This includes Tim Wise.
Postscript November 15, 2013. Bruce A. Dixon of Black Agenda Report writes here about how Tim Wise gave his "anti-racist" stamp of approval to a very racist government program (Teach for America, which foists untrained inexerienced novice teachers on urban black public schools):
Tim Wise has made a career as an author and speaker lecturing white Americans on racism. We suppose that's a good thing and that somebody's gotta do it. Mr. Wise is speaking at a major Teach For America event on July 19. How do we reconcile that with a stand against racism? We can't, and unless TFA is gonna pay Mr. Wise to tell them their entire practice and premise is elitist, evil and yes, racist, we're pretty sure he can't reconcile it either.
Postscript January 22, 2015. The Invention of the White Race (volumes 1 and 2) by Theodore W. Allen is an excellent history of how racial discrimination has been used by the capitalist class to dominate the laboring class and specifically how the capitalist class invented the idea of white supremacy and incorporated it into law and practice to dominate not only African-descent workers but also European-descent workers, starting around 1691 and continuing to the present day.
Although Allen uses the phrase "white privilege," he most definitely did not believe that working class whites benefited from racial discrimination. On the contrary, he said that working class whites were harmed by racial discrimination.
Thus Jeffrey B. Perry, the editor of The Invention of the White Race, writes of Allen:
He stressed that "the logic of 'race as a social construct' must be tightened and the focus sharpened" and "the 'white race' must be understood not simply as a social construct [rather than a genetic phenomenon], but as a ruling class social control formation." This position is consistent with Allen's repeated efforts to challenge what he considered to be the two main arguments that undermine and disarm the struggle against white supremacy in the working class: 1) the argument that white supremacism is innate, and 2) the argument that European-American workers benefit from 'white race' privileges and white supremacism, that the privileges are in their class interest. These two arguments, opposed by Allen, are related to two ....[goes on to make another point--J.S.]" (vol. 1, pg. 235)
Allen points out, in one historical context after another, that "white privilege" harmed whites and benefited only the capitalist class. Here are some quotations in his book to that effect:
"If the Virginia laws of 1705 represent ruling class manipulation of the rank-and-file, the inescapable implication seems to be that the social transformation that they expressed--to the system of racial slavery, racial oppression, white supremacy--must not have been in the real interests of the majority of the people, the smallholders, the tenants and laborers, those who did not own bond-laborers." (vol. 2, pg. 253)
"...the gentry could not 'safely ignore the rest of white society' [Allen is quoting the person he is disagreeing with here--J.S.] because their bond-labor system was antithetical to the interests not only of African-American bond-laborers, but also of all the rest of the population that did not own bond-laborers. In their solidarity with the African-American bond-laborers in Bacon's Rebellion, the laboring-class european-American bond-laborers had demonstrated their understanding of their interests, and bond-laborers had had the sympathy of the laboring poor and propertyless free population." (vol 2, pg. 248)
"By shaping the homestead policy as a white-skin privilege, the ruling class had secured the acquiescence of laboring-class whites in the overthrow of black Reconstruction. Now it was time for the bourgeoisie to reveal the other side of its policy on the land question: the power of capital to expropriate a great proportion of the white farmers and cast them--racial privileges and all--into the ranks of the proletariat." (vol 1., pg. 153)
"As one eastern Virginia plantation owners, 'Civis', wrote of most of the poor whites in his area of the country, they had 'little but their complexion to console them for being born into a higher caste.' [Note! This is NOT a typo! --J.S.] Yet that one tie bound them to the plantation owners like hoops of steel, and made them 'always ready to respond to any call of race prejudice [so that they--Allen] voted with the planter, though the economic interests of the two parties of white men were as separate as the poles." [As separate as the poles! --J.S.] (vol 1., pg. 154)
"What was not normal from the standpoint of lowering operating costs was to refuse to hire Negroes as cotton mill operatives, even though the mill owners believed that African-American laborers were perfectly capable of doing the work, and possibly at lower cost...It was altogether rational, however, in terms of the maintenance of bourgeois social control, one more instance of balancing the economic and the social aspects of rulership...More than 90 percent of all African-Americans lived in the South; escape to the west and north, as we have seen in the story of the Exodus of 1879, was effectively cut off for all but the most hardy and lucky of them. Outside the South, industrial employers understood that the white-skin privilege employment policy, when combined with a corresponding racist immigration policy, was on the whole perfectly compatible with profitable operations and that it served their long-range class interests as a preventive against class-consciousness in the North and in the West, no less than in the South...Textile mill wages in the South were not only low relative to those of New England, but absolutely low with reference to their own daily needs...This historic persistence of low wages was not due, however, to the conditions of rural poverty of those tenant farmers and sharecroppers alone, or to the lack of opportunities for other industrial employment. It was bound to perpetuity because of the paralyzing effect of white-supremacism, a barrier that could not be overcome without a facing of the issue. That seems to be the clear conclusion to which the brothers Mitchell were led by their extensive studies in the field. They said: 'Managements have encouraged the maxim that the cotton manufacture is a white man's industry; the implied danger of Negro invasion is supposed to render the operatives glad to hold what they have, rather than reach out for more.'" (vol 1, pps 156-8)
Postscript January 31, 2017: Conservative Breitbart.com had a field day reporting a speech (with a video of it) by a white woman running for Chair of the Democratic National Committee who had swallowed the "white privilege" B.S. so completely that she said the "DNC should train people in 'how to shut their mouths if they're white.'"
* Postscript January 19, 2021: I just discovered that Tim Wise has made videos (like this one) in which he explains explicitly that the ruling upper class has for centuries used racial discrimination against African-Americans to oppress not only the African-Americans but also (what are now called) white working class people in the original North American British colonies and now the United States. Frankly, I don't know what to make of Tim Wise, the person. I only respond to his words; sometimes they stink and sometimes they don't.
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Building an organic dialogue process in Kashmir
A new round of dialogue and political engagement has been launched in Jammu and Kashmir. Despite some boycotts, a large number of stakeholders are involved. This process is taking place at a time of broader tensions in Kashmir Valley where an increasingly radicalised youth and active terrorism threatens to spiral the situation out of control. In this context, can an organic dialogue take root?
Ashima Kaul
The much-awaited ‘dialogue and political engagement by central government of India’ has started in Jammu and Kashmir. After a stressful period of violent protests, the blinding of youth in Kashmir, barbaric killings and lynching’s, hard military offensives on terrorist groups and a financial clamp down on separatists through raids by the National Investigative Agency, once again a new attempt is being explored to broker peace in the state.
However, ground dynamics and the nature of the conflict present the greatest challenge since 1990. This is because the radicalization of young people has found roots in the minds of a large section of Kashmiri youth, and the political endgame envisioned by people of the three regions - including Kashmiri Pandits in exile - presents contrasting and conflicting futures.
Boycotts and mixed perspectives
While the Joint Resistance Leadership, an amalgamation of separatist parties and organizations, has rejected the dialogue offer and boycotted any talks with the interlocutor, Dineshwar Sharma, over 60 delegations across the political and regional spectrum have met him over the course of three rounds of consultations that took place in North and South Kashmir.
There are mixed reactions to the renewed dialogue process. “It is a futile exercise without engaging with the Hurriyat,” said Bilal Bashir Bhat, founder and treasurer of the Jammu and Kashmir Young Journalists Association. According to him, 120 members of the Association had different personal opinions with some wanting to participate in the process; nonetheless, they boycotted the talks. “We held a meeting which was perhaps influenced by the Hurriyat decision. As such we failed to arrive to a consensus in order to go and meet the interlocutor.”
Understandably, it is not easy to publicly go against the “political sentiment and ideology generated by separatists over the years.” However, contrary to the ‘projected perception’, the ground sentiment was in favour of the dialogue and people wanted the Hurriyat to engage with them. Their boycott has disappointed many and the process is now perceived as ‘being reduced to a formality’, a mere ‘token exercise’, ‘buying time’, not being serious or an ‘eye wash’.
"It is not easy to publicly go against the political sentiment and ideology generated by separatists over the years"
“The real core political issue is the Kashmir issue. The delegations that went to meet the interlocutor only presented their personal grievances and issues but not any political issues because none of them have the mandate. Hurriyat draws a popular mandate and has a public influence,” says Bhat. “Therefore, Hurriyat’s participation in the dialogue is a must and the government must think of creative ways to involve them in the process,” Bhat added.
Expressing a different perspective, a local journalist under conditions of anonymity opined that it is a misperception that if the Hurriyat would not participate, a ‘real' political process will not be underway. In a candid conversation with him he continued, “the truth is that the nature of the movement has radically changed over the past decade - more so after the Burhan Wani episode. It is not in the control of the Hurriyat anymore. Its strings and control are elsewhere.”
Clearly, he was referring to the terrorist/jihadi groups that are operational in Kashmir Valley, the ideologues who speak from mosques or the agitated, and the aggressive and emotional youth on the ground leading street violence and agitation. “Whether the Hurriyat participates or not is not relevant. The bigger question is, will its participation really make a difference? If not, then where is the leadership to direct change,” the journalist concluded.
A looming threat fills the vacuum
Indeed, there is a leadership vacuum. The arm-twisting that the government is exercising with the Hurriyat is a political game that many do not understand or connect with. Ordinary people, mothers, workers and college students, daily wage earners or traders, financial or educational institutions, are all more interested in a ‘faith assurance’ from the government that their interests, insecurities and fears will be addressed and protected. In the absence of ‘mutual faith’, separatists and ideological constituencies play on people’s emotions. The government should directly meet the people and listen to them. The only antidote to radicalisation and disconnect is to connect at the grassroots level.
Another challenge for the government is Kashmir’s rather perplexing reality. It is not only about the deepening radicalisation of youth in Kashmir Valley but also how this narrative has emerged as the dominant one. While it is difficult to scale the physical presence of ISIS, it cannot be denied that its ideology has found a home in Kashmir.
However, this alone is not the story of Kashmir. The sad part is that the alternate story is not making the headlines. Hence even when a 23-year-old Sajid Yousaf, founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Youth Alliance and a pro-India voice, reaches out to engage with the interlocutor, the story of a 20-year-old footballer, Majid Khan, from the Sadiqabad colony in the South Kashmir district of Anantnag that has joined Lashkar –e- Taiba, a terrorist organization operating in Jammu and Kashmir, made more headline news and captured the psyche of Kashmiri youth.
"While it is difficult to scale the physical presence of ISIS, it cannot be denied that its ideology has found a home in Kashmir"
The state police fears that youth like Majid could be used as ‘pied pipers’ to lure youth to the ‘jihad factory’ and join the ranks of terrorists waging a war against India. Majid, however, under emotional pressure from his mother’s appeal for him to come back, responded to her and on November 17, 2017, returned to his family through the help of the local state police and the Indian Army.
Social media sites erupted in celebration of ‘Majid’s homecoming’, certainly a win-situation for the government and security forces. But voices who advocate for peace are against violence live in constant fear. “We feel vulnerable for sticking our necks out. The government needs to protect and empower those who are questioning the ideology of Azadi and the violence that is being perpetuated in its name, and resist all separatist politics,” Yousaf said.
A new voice among Kashmiri youth
There is a new youth leadership which seems to be struggling to emerge from the ‘suffocating’ environment of ‘dehshat and siyasat’ (terror and politics). “There is a youth constituency emerging that wants to resolve conflict through discourse and dialogue,” said Touseef Raina, founder of the Global Youth Foundation. He added, “I met the interlocutor to discuss street violence, shutdowns which affect education and businesses, the issue of passports for former stone pelters, the Agenda of Alliance and governance.” Both Yousaf and Raina advocate non-violence and dialogue for the resolution of the conflict. “It is our youth who are dying, hence it is our problem to bring a shift in mindset,” Raina asserted.
"There is a youth constituency emerging that wants to resolve conflict through discourse and dialogue"
“Is enough being done to empower such voices,” added the journalist. “It is extremely difficult. The opportunity has been missed. We have spiraled down. The family-, social-, institutional fabric are in crisis in Kashmir, and there is a deep trust deficit where the use of pellet guns has deeply angered the people.” For young people like Yousaf and Touseef who are struggling to create civic spaces at the peril of personal safety, it is razor’s edge walk. It is between those who should be stopped from indoctrination to such voices and the vulnerabilities that major groundwork needs to be covered by the government in order to ensure a positive result.
The reality on the ground
Scepticism about the sincerity of the dialogue is not only noticeable in Kashmir Valley. Many hold similar concerns and views in Jammu communities, including exiled Kashmiri Pandits. “Jammu’s identity and its place in history as the seat of the Dogra empire since 1947 has been undermined and over-shadowed by the Kashmir-centric populist narrative,” said Manu Khajuria Singh, founder of Voice of Dogra. “The discontent and youth radicalization in Kashmir Valley certainly needs to be addressed, but as far as the ‘Jammu and Kashmir issue’ is concerned, people of Jammu are equal stakeholders to the conflict,” she said ruefully and added, “to the chagrin of the people of both regions, they have been deviously pitched against each other by invoking Islamist and nationalist identities. Hence people in Jammu Kashmir are suspicious about the intent of the dialogue when there has been no groundwork done to create trust between them.”
People do not have trust because for two decades there have been many attempts which have not been followed up or sustained. “People have doubts,” said Professor A. N. Sadhu, an eminent Kashmiri Pandit who is an educator and social activist. While many observers and a large section of the people in Jammu and Kashmir firmly believe that only dialogue and discourse will transform and resolve the conflict, the memory of past initiatives, from the dialogue of the Planning Commission’s chairman K. C. Pant in 2001 to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s roundtables in 2007 and the 2010 appointment of Radha Kumar, Dilip Padgaonkar and M.M. Ansari as interlocutors, have not produced major results. “We feel that no outsider can resolve the conflict within. Only an organic leadership and dialogue will be able to produce results,” Sadhu asserted. Khajuria agrees as well to the internal dialogue approach. “We need to set our house in order, listen to each other and find a solution.”
"People do not have trust because for two decades there have been many attempts which have not been followed up or sustained"
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal in 2017, casualties related to terrorism have escalated to much higher figures than in past years. As of November 2017, there have been 54 civilian deaths and 71 security personnel deaths, and 185 terrorist/militants have been killed in encounters with security forces. The figures, however, do not reveal the social and political dynamics of the conflict. Conflicting perspectives and antagonistic narratives of self-determination fuel identity and justice binaries in Jammu and Kashmir. They require a serious reflection on how to engage at the grassroots-level for a new political space to emerge in the region which addresses these grave polarities. Otherwise, the potential reality is that Kashmir may become a dangerous jihadi den where the borders along the Line of Control continue to be exploited, and the Kashmiri Pandit community continues to live in exile and people in Kashmir Valley face daily violence and live under oppressive draconian laws.
Sadly, there does not seem to be any sense of relief. Will the new dialogue process change anything on ground? Will the new youth leadership strike back through innovative ideas, challenge violent extremism and become a cross–regional chord that pushes the organic dialogue process to take root? It will not only require time but also the wisdom of the government in truly empowering these individuals. This is what will make the difference.
Ashima coordinates the organisation Yakjah in their work in Jammu and Kashmir. An independent journalist by profession, she has an active interest in interfaith dialogue.
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TRAI's recommendations on auction of spectrum
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Simran - April 27, 2012 Comments
TRAI released its recommendations on auction of spectrum on April 23, 2012. The recommendations are in pursuance of the Supreme Court order cancelling 122 telecom licences. The cancellation was ordered on grounds of procedural irregularities and arbitrariness in the first-cum-first-serve policy for allocation of spectrum. The recommendations, if adopted by the Department of Telecommunications, would change various aspects of the present telecom policy, including (a) relationship between a telecom licence and spectrum; (b) procedure for allocation of spectrum; (c) pricing of spectrum; (d) limits on spectrum allocation; and (e) use of spectrum. Relationship between telecom licences and spectrum Previously, under the Telecom Policy 1994 (updated in 1999), spectrum was tied in with telecom licences. Since 2003, licence conditions provided for award of two blocks of 6.2 MHz of spectrum for GSM technology and two blocks of 5 MHz for CDMA technology. As per the government’s decision of January 17, 2008 (as explained in TRAI's consultation paper, see page 3 paragraph 7) additional spectrum would be awarded on the basis of increment in the number of subscribers. Service providers had to pay a licence fee (on obtaining the licence), an annual licence fee and a spectrum usage charge determined on the basis of their adjusted gross revenue.
TRAI has recommended that telecom licences and spectrum should be de-linked. The service provider would thus pay separately for the value of the licence and the spectrum. With this formulation an entity that does not hold a licence, but is eligible to secure one, may also procure spectrum. This would help in avoiding situations where licence holders have to wait to secure spectrum or offer wire line services in the absence of spectrum. Procedure for allocation of spectrum TRAI has recommended that spectrum be auctioned by means of a simultaneous multiple round ascending auction (SMRA). This means that the service providers would bid for spectrum in different blocks simultaneously. In the first round of auction a reserve price (base price) set by the government is used. Reserve price for auction and payment mechanism A reserve price indicates the minimum amount the bidder must pay to win the object. In case it is too low, it may reduce the gains made by the seller and lead to a sub-optimal sale. If it is too high, it may reduce the number of bidders and the probability of the good not being sold. Various countries have adopted a reserve price of 0.5 times the final price. TRAI has recommended that the reserve price should be 0.8 times the expected winning bid. It has also recommended that telecom companies pay 67% to 75% of the final price in installments over 10 years, depending on the spectrum band. TRAI has reasoned that a higher price would reduce the possibility of further sales upon bidders securing spectrum. However, this may lead to fewer bidders and ultimately fewer service providers. It is argued in news reports that this may increase investments to be made by the service providers and eventually an increase in tariffs. Spectrum blocks and caps TRAI has recommended that the spectrum cap should be determined on the basis of market share. A service provider can now secure a maximum of 50% of spectrum assigned in each band in each service area. However, a service provider cannot hold more than 25% of the total spectrum assigned in all the bands across the country. As per the January 2008 decision, additional spectrum could be awarded to telecom companies when they reached incremental slabs of subscribers. This could extend to two blocks of 1 MHz for GSM technology, and two blocks of 1.25 MHz for CDMA, for each slab of subscribers. TRAI has recommended that spectrum should be auctioned in blocks of 1.25 MHz. Each auction would at least offer 5 MHz of spectrum at a time. Smaller blocks would ensure that service providers who are nearing the spectrum cap may secure spectrum without exceeding the cap. However, experts have argued that 1.25 MHz block may be too limited for launching services. Also, TRAI in the recommendation has noted that a minimum of 5 MHz of contiguous spectrum is required to launch efficient services with new technologies. Use of spectrum TRAI has recommended that the use of spectrum should be liberalised. This implies that spectrum should be technology neutral. Telecom companies would now be free to launch services with any technology of their choice.
allocation of spectrum,
auction,
spectrum,
telecom,
MSP and Public Procurement
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Examining urban local governance in India through the case of Bengaluru
Prachi Kaur and Shruti Gupta - December 24, 2020 Comments
Recently, the Karnataka legislature passed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Bill, 2020. BBMP is the municipal corporation of the Greater Bengaluru metropolitan area. The BBMP Act, 2020 seeks to improve decentralisation, ensure public participation, and address certain administrative and structural concerns in Bengaluru. In this blog, we discuss some common issues in urban local governance in India, in the context of Bengaluru’s municipal administration.
The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 provided for the establishment of urban local bodies (ULBs) (including municipal corporations) as institutions of local self-government. It also empowered state governments to devolve certain functions, authority, and power to collect revenue to these bodies, and made periodic elections for them compulsory.
Urban governance is part of the state list under the Constitution. Thus, the administrative framework and regulation of ULBs varies across states. However, experts have highlighted that ULBs across India face similar challenges. For instance, ULBs across the country lack autonomy in city management and several city-level functions are managed by parastatals (managed by and accountable to the state). Several taxation powers have also not been devolved to these bodies, leading to stressed municipal finances. These challenges have led to poor service delivery in cities and also created administrative and governance challenges at the municipal level.
BBMP was established under the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 (KMC Act). The BBMP Act, 2020 replaces provisions of the KMC Act, 1976 in its application to Bengaluru. It adds a new level of zonal committees to the existing three-tier municipal structure in the city, and also gives the Corporation some more taxation powers. Certain common issues in urban local governance in India, with provisions related to them in the BBMP Act, 2020 are given below.
Functional overlap with parastatals for key functions
The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 empowered states to devolve the responsibility of 18 functions including urban planning, regulation of land use, water supply, and slum upgradation to ULBs. However, in most Indian cities including Bengaluru, a majority of these functions are carried out by parastatals. For example, in Bengaluru, the Bengaluru Development Authority is responsible for land regulation and the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board is responsible for slum rehabilitation.
The BBMP Act, 2020 provides the Corporation with the power and responsibility to prepare and implement schemes for the 18 functions provided for in the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992. However, it does not provide clarity if new bodies at the municipal level will be created, or the existing parastatals will continue to perform these functions and if so, whether their accountability will shift from the state to the municipal corporation.
This could create a two-fold challenge in administration. First, if there are multiple agencies performing similar functions, it could lead to a functional overlap, ambiguity, and wastage of resources. Second, and more importantly, the presence of parastatals that are managed by and accountable to the state government leads to an erosion of the ULB’s autonomy. Several experts have highlighted that this lack of autonomy faced by municipal corporations in most Indian cities leads to a challenge in governance, effective service delivery, and development of urban areas.
An Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure (2011) had recommended that activity mapping should be done for the 18 functions. Under this, functions in the exclusive domain of municipalities and those which need to be shared with the state and the central government must be specified. Experts have also recommended that the municipality should be responsible for providing civic amenities in its jurisdiction and if a parastatal exercises a civic function, it should be accountable to the municipality.
Stressed municipal finances
Indian ULBs are amongst the weakest in the world in terms of fiscal autonomy and have limited effective devolution of revenue. They also have limited capacity to raise resources through their own sources of revenue such as property tax. Municipal revenue in India accounts for only one percent of the GDP (2017-18). This leads to a dependence on transfers by the state and central government.
ULBs in states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Haryana are in poor financial condition. This has been attributed to limited powers to raise revenue and levy taxes, and problems in the management of existing resources. For instance, the finances of Bihar’s ULBs were assessed to be poor because of: (i) delays in release of grants, (ii) inadequate devolution of funds, and (iii) delays in revision of tax rates and assessments of landholdings.
In comparison, Karnataka ranks high among Indian states in key indicators for fiscal capacity like collection of property taxes, grants from Central Finance Commissions, and state government transfers. The BBMP Act, 2020 further increases the taxation powers of the Corporation, by allowing it to impose taxes on professions and entertainment.
Experts have recommended that the central government and the respective state government should provide additional funds and facilitate additional funding mechanisms for ULBs to strengthen their finances. The revenue of ULBs can be augmented through measures including assignment of greater powers of taxation to the ULBs by the state government, reforms in land and property-based taxes (such as the use of technology to cover more properties), and issuing of municipal bonds (debt instruments issued by ULBs to finance development projects).
Powers of elected municipal officials
The executive power with state-appointed municipal Commissioners and elected municipal officers differs across states. States like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and cities like Chennai and Hyderabad vest the executive power in the Commissioner. In contrast, the executive power of the Corporation is exercised by a Mayor-in council (consisting of the Mayor and up to 10 elected members of the Corporation) in Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh. This is unlike large metropolitan cities in other countries like New York and London, where elected Mayors are designated as executive heads. Experts have noted that charging Commissioners with executive power diluted the role of the Mayor and violated the spirit of self-governance.
Under the BBMP Act, 2020, both the elected Mayor and the state-appointed Chief Commissioner exercise several executive functions. The Mayor is responsible for approving contracts and preparing the budget estimate for the Corporation. He is also required to discharge all functions assigned to him by the Corporation. On the other hand, executive functions of the Chief Commissioner include: (i) selling or leasing properties owned by the Corporation, and (ii) regulating and issuing instructions regarding public streets.
The Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure (2011) has recommended that the Commissioner should act as a city manager and should be recruited through a transparent search-cum-selection process led by the Mayor. A Model Municipal law, released by the Urban Development Ministry in 2003, provided that the executive power should be exercised by an Empowered Standing Committee consisting of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and seven elected councillors.
Management of staff and human resources
Experts have noted that municipal administration in India suffers from staffing issues which leads to a failure in delivering basic urban services. These include overstaffing of untrained manpower, shortage of qualified technical staff and managerial supervisors, and unwillingness to innovate in methods for service delivery.
The BBMP Act, 2020 provides that the Corporation may make bye-laws for the due performance of duties by its employees. However, it does not mention other aspects of human resource management such as recruitment and promotion. A CAG report (2020) looking at the implementation of the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 in Karnataka has observed that the power to assess municipal staff requirements, recruiting such staff, and determining their pay, transfer and promotion vests with the state government. This is in contrast with the recommendations of several experts who have suggested that municipalities should appoint their personnel to ensure accountability, adequate recruitment, and proper management of staff.
Other states including Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu also allow the state governments to regulate recruitment and staffing for ULBs. In cities like Mumbai, and Coimbatore, and some states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, while the recruitment process is conducted by the respective municipal corporations, the final sanction for hiring staff lies with the state government.
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Anti-Conversion Legislation: Comparison of the UP Ordinances with other state laws
Anoop Ramakrishnan - December 17, 2020 Comments
This blog has been updated on Jan 19, 2021 to also cover the Madhya Pradesh Ordinance which was promulgated earlier in the month. The comparison table has also been revised accordingly.
On November 27, 2020, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated by the state government. This was followed by the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government promulgating the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020, in January 2021. These Ordinances seek to regulate religious conversions and prohibit certain types of religious conversions (including through marriages). The MP Ordinance replaces the MP Dharma Swatantra Adhiniyam, 1968, which previously regulated religious conversions in the state. Few other states, including Haryana and Karnataka, are also planning to introduce a similar law. This blog post looks at existing anti-conversion laws in the country and compares the latest UP and MP Ordinances with these laws.
Anti-conversion laws in India
The Constitution guarantees the freedom to profess, propagate, and practise religion, and allows all religious sections to manage their own affairs in matters of religion; subject to public order, morality, and health. To date, there has been no central legislation restricting or regulating religious conversions. Further, in 2015, the Union Law Ministry stated that Parliament does not have the legislative competence to pass anti-conversion legislation. However, it is to be noted that, since 1954, on multiple occasions, Private Member Bills have been introduced in (but never approved by) the Parliament, to regulate religious conversions.
Over the years, several states have enacted ‘Freedom of Religion’ legislation to restrict religious conversions carried out by force, fraud, or inducements. These are: (i) Odisha (1967), (ii) Madhya Pradesh (1968), (iii) Arunachal Pradesh (1978), (iv) Chhattisgarh (2000 and 2006), (v) Gujarat (2003), (vi) Himachal Pradesh (2006 and 2019), (vii) Jharkhand (2017), and (viii) Uttarakhand (2018). Additionally, the Himachal Pradesh (2019) and Uttarakhand legislations also declare a marriage to be void if it was done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion, or vice-versa. Further, the states of Tamil Nadu (2002) and Rajasthan (2006 and 2008) had also passed similar legislation. However, the Tamil Nadu legislation was repealed in 2006 (after protests by Christian minorities), while in case of Rajasthan, the bills did not receive the Governor’s and President’s assent respectively. Please see Table 2 for a comparison of anti-conversion laws across the country.
In November 2019, citing rising incidents of forced/fraudulent religious conversions, the Uttar Pradesh Law Commission recommended enacting a new law to regulate religious conversions. This led the state government to promulgate the recent Ordinance in 2020. Following UP, the MP government also decided to promulgate an Ordinance in January 2021 to regulate religious conversions. We discuss key features of these ordinances below.
What do the UP and MP Ordinances do?
The MP and UP Ordinances define conversion as renouncing one’s existing religion and adopting another religion. However, both Ordinances exclude re-conversion to immediate previous religion (in UP), and parental religion (in MP) from this definition. Parental religion is the religion to which the individual’s father belonged to, at the time of the individual’s birth. These Ordinances prescribe the procedure for individuals seeking to undergo conversions (in the states of UP and MP) and declare all other forms of conversion (that violate the prescribed procedures) illegal.
Procedure for conversion: Both the Ordinances require: (i) persons wishing to convert to a different religion, and (ii) persons supervising the conversion (religious convertors in UP, and religious priests or persons organising a conversion in MP) to submit an advance declaration of the proposed religious conversion to the District Magistrate (DM). In both states, the individuals seeking to undergo conversion are required to give advance notice of 60 days to the DM. However, in UP, the religious convertors are required to notify one month in advance, whereas in MP, the priests or organisers are also required to notify 60 days in advance. Upon receiving the declarations, the DMs in UP are further required to conduct a police enquiry into the intention, purpose, and cause of the proposed conversion. No such requirement exists in the MP Ordinance, although it mandates the DM’s sanction as a prerequisite for any court to take cognisance of an offence caused by violation of these procedures.
The UP Ordinance also lays down a post-conversion procedure. Post-conversion, within 60 days from the date of conversion, the converted individual is required to submit a declaration (with various personal details) to the DM. The DM will publicly exhibit a copy of the declaration (till the conversion is confirmed) and record any objections to the conversion. The converted individual must then appear before the DM to establish his/her identity, within 21 days of sending the declaration, and confirm the contents of the declaration.
Both the Ordinances also prescribe varying punishments for violation of any procedure prescribed by them, as specified in Table 2.
Prohibition on conversions: Both, the UP and MP Ordinances prohibit conversion of religion through means, such as: (i) force, misrepresentation, undue influence, and allurement, or (ii) fraud, or (iii) marriage. They also prohibit a person from abetting, convincing, and conspiring to such conversions. Further, the Ordinances assign the burden of proof of the lawfulness of religious conversion to: (i) the persons causing or facilitating such conversions, in UP, and (ii) the person accused of causing unlawful conversion, in MP.
Complaints against unlawful conversions: Both Ordinances allow for police complaints, against unlawful religious conversions, to be registered by: (i) the victim of such conversion, (ii) his/her parents or siblings, or (iii) any other person related to them by blood, and marriage or adoption. The MP Ordinance additionally permits persons related by guardianship or custodianship to also register a complaint, provided they take the leave of the court. Further, the MP Ordinance assigns the power to investigate such complaints to police officers of the rank of Sub-Inspector and above.
Marriages involving religious conversion: As per the UP Ordinance, a marriage is liable to be declared null and void, if: (i) it was done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion, or vice-versa, and (ii) the religious conversion was not done as per the procedure specified in the Ordinance. Similarly, the MP Ordinance declares a marriage null and void, if: (i) it was done with an intent to convert a person, and (ii) the conversion took place through any of the prohibited means specified under the Ordinance. Further, the MP Ordinance explicitly provides for punishment (as specified in Table 2) for the concealment of religion for the purpose of marriage.
Right to inheritance and maintenance: The MP Ordinance additionally provides certain safeguards for women and children. It considers children born out of a marriage involving unlawful religious conversion as legitimate and provides for them to have the right to property of only the father (as per the law governing the inheritance of the father). Further, the Ordinance provides for maintenance to be given to: (i) a woman whose marriage is deemed unlawful under the Ordinance, and (ii) her children born out of such a marriage.
Punishment for unlawful conversions: Both the MP and UP Ordinances provide for punishment for causing or facilitating unlawful religious conversion, as specified in Table 1. Also, all offences under both Ordinances are cognisable and non-bailable.
Additionally, under the UP Ordinance, the accused will be liable to pay compensation of up to five lakh rupees to the victim of conversion and repeat offences will attract double the punishment specified for the respective offence. However, under the MP Ordinance, each repeat offence will attract punishment of a fine, and imprisonment between five and 10 years. Further, it provides for the Session Court to try an accused person, at the same trial, for: (i) an offence under this Ordinance, and (ii) also for other offences he has been charged with, under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.
Table 1: Punishments prescribed under the UP and MP Ordinances for offences by individuals for causing/facilitating the conversion
Mass conversion (conversion of two or more persons at the same time)
Term of imprisonment
Fine Amount
Rs 50,000 or more
Rs 1,00,000 or more
Conversion of a minor, woman, or person belonging to SC or ST
Any other conversion
If any of the above three offences are committed by an organisation, under the UP Ordinance, the registration of the organisation is liable to be cancelled and grants or financial aid from the state government is liable to be discontinued. Under the MP Ordinance, only the registration of such organisations is liable to be cancelled.
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News / Reports
Spanish police arrest 9 suspected of plotting attacks in Catalonia
Wednesday, 25 September 2019 8:05 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 25 September 2019 8:05 AM ]
Civil Guard agents are seen at a residential building in Sabadell, during one of several searches ordered by a judge of the Audiencia Nacional Number 6 Central Court, in Barcelona, Spain, on September 23, 2019.
Kusai Kedri
Press TV, Barcelona
Spanish authorities have arrested nine people on suspicion of plotting to carry out attacks in Catalonia on the second anniversary of the region's unilateral referendum on independence.
The nine adults, all members of the so-called Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), a branch of the pro-independence movement, had been monitored by police for the last 18 months. Seven of the suspects have been transferred to Madrid to appear before court while the two others were released on bail.
They stand accused of rebellion, terrorism, and possession of explosive devices, but the defense is denouncing various flaws in the arrest procedure. The Spanish government dismissed the claims and called on all parties to let justice take its course.
The arrests triggered an outcry of protests in Catalonia on the eve of a major Supreme Court verdict against jailed pro-independence leaders. Thousands staged demonstrations across the restive region demanding the release of all prisoners.
The coming days will likely shed more light on many grey areas that surround the case against the nine CDR suspects.In the meantime, the arrests seem to further deepen the divide between Catalans and the rest of Spain.
Spain Catalonia referendum arrestation
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for state democracy
for local democracy
for demographics
Home Page > Too Big To Ignore > Table search > Mahoning County, Ohio profile - 2000 Census
Mahoning County, Ohio
According to the 2000 Census, Mahoning County, Ohio has a population of 257,555 people. Of those, 208,727 (81%) are White, 40,884 (16%) are Black, and 7,640 (3%) are Latino[1]. However, 2,499 (or 1% of the 257,555 people) are not residents by choice but are people in prison.
Even though prisoners cannot participate in the local community, the Census Bureau nevertheless counts them as residents of the county where they are incarcerated.
A more accurate description would not include the prisoners. This would give Mahoning County a population of 255,056 with a demographic that is 82% White, 15% Black, and 3% Latino.
Reported in
Incarcerated
257,555 2,499 255,056
208,727 451 208,276
40,884 1,944 38,940
7,640 86 7,554
[1]The numbers for Whites, Blacks and Latinos may not add up to the total number because we have not included racial groups other than Whites and Blacks and because the Census Bureau considers "Latino" to be an ethnicity, not a race. Most of the people reported as being Latino are also counted as being White or Black.
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Andrew Lill Named Chief Investment Officer for Morningstar Investment Management, Americas
Morningstar, Inc.
CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar Investment Management LLC, a leading provider of discretionary investment management and advisory services, and subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), today announced that Andrew Lill has been appointed chief investment officer for Morningstar Investment Management, Americas. Lill currently serves as chief investment officer for Morningstar Investment Management's Asia-Pacific operations, and as part of a transition plan, will continue to lead this area until Matt Wacher—the newly appointed chief investment officer, Asia-Pacific—joins Morningstar Australia in late January 2019, after which he will shift focus to his role in the United States and Canada.
"We're pleased to have Andrew join our Americas team as chief investment officer and congratulate Matt on being appointed chief investment officer for the Asia-Pacific region," said Daniel Needham, Morningstar Investment Management's president and global chief investment officer. "Since 2014, Andrew has successfully led the Asia-Pacific investment teams and brings more than two decades of experience in investment management, investment consulting and advice, asset allocation, portfolio construction, and related fields to the U.S. and Canadian investment management groups. Adding Andrew to our roster of investment leaders in the Americas is another step toward our goal of building a leading global investment management business."
Lill will be responsible for leading Morningstar Investment Management's investment strategies and teams throughout the United States and Canada, and contributing to Morningstar's global investment management committees, policies, capabilities, and thought leadership. Based in Chicago, he will report to Needham. Wacher will lead the investment team in Asia Pacific, overseeing the investment strategies including the funds and separately managed accounts. Wacher will be based in Sydney and will report to Needham.
"I am looking forward to working with our investment management teams in the Americas to deliver innovative investment solutions for financial advice groups through our managed portfolio solutions, and our long-term institutional clients," Lill said. "With the launch of the Morningstar mutual funds in the United States, we will be well-positioned to offer our clients world class asset allocation and outcome-based solutions while continuing to bring down our clients' investment costs."
Prior to joining Morningstar, Lill worked for AMP Capital Investors as head of investment solutions in the multi-asset group. Previously, he spent seven years with Russell Investment Group as director of consulting, Asia-Pacific, and ultimately as director of investment strategy. Lill holds a master's degree in economics from Cambridge University, England, and is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Actuaries.
About Morningstar's Investment Management group
Morningstar's Investment Management group is a leading provider of discretionary investment management and advisory services. Guided by seven investment principles, the group is committed to focusing on its mission to design portfolios that help investors reach their financial goals. The group's global investment management team works as one to apply its disciplined investment process to all strategies and portfolios, bringing together core capabilities in asset allocation, investment selection, and portfolio construction. This robust process integrates proprietary research and leading investment techniques. As of Sept. 30, 2018, Morningstar's Investment Management group was responsible for more than $207 billion* in assets under advisement and management across North America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.
In addition to advisory services, the group's investment professionals build and manage model portfolios for financial advisors in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa to create strategies that incorporate a wide variety of investment objectives.
*Includes assets under management and advisement for Morningstar Investment Management LLC, Morningstar Investment Services LLC, Morningstar Investment Management Europe Ltd., Morningstar Investment Management Australia Ltd., Ibbotson Associates Japan, Inc., Morningstar Investment Management South Africa (PTY) LTD, and Morningstar Associates, Inc. all of which are subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc. Advisory services listed are provided by one or more of these entities, which are authorized in the appropriate jurisdiction to provide such services.
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $207 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Sept. 30, 2018. The company has operations in 27 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc.
©2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MORN-C
Sarah Wirth, +1 312 244-7358 or [email protected]
SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.
http://www.morningstar.com
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ASICS Rewarded For Sustainability Efforts
ASICS Wins EPA's ENERGY STAR and Announces Plans for New Sustainability Projects
ASICS America
IRVINE, Calif., April 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ASICS America Corporation, a true sport performance brand, has been awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) ENERGY STAR, which signifies that the building performs to the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meets strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA. For the third year in a row, this honor is bestowed upon the brand's Byhalia Distribution Center, located in Byhalia, Mississippi. Certification for the EPA Energy Star is awarded on a yearly basis and is given to commercial buildings that use an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and also release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
"We are taking the initiative to equip our facilities with the latest technology and information to maintain and exceed energy efficiencies," said Jimmy Adames, ASICS Sustainability & Social Responsibility Manager. "Winning this award for the third year in a row is a tremendous honor. We are so proud to be amongst a highly selected group of companies that are working hard to protect the environment, save energy and money."
Additionally, ASICS will remain focused on reducing its carbon footprint through the implementation of new sustainability projects and the amplification of those already set in place.
SOLAR PANEL PROJECT
ASICS plans to continue to reduce its carbon footprint by installing a large solar panel system, totaling 1 MW, at their Byhalia Distribution Center. This solar panel installation will be the largest private system in Mississippi and will provide renewable energy for over 20 percent of the average daily energy consumption at the distribution center. The solar panels used in this project are manufactured by Trina Solar and have a top sustainability rating according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC). The environmental benefits of the system will be significant. The benefits of the system are equivalent to removing nearly 200 automobiles from service, or saving 103,534 gallons of gas annually. ASICS plans to have the solar panels fully functional by the end of the summer.
I:CO
On Earth Day, April 22nd, ASICS will launch a clothing and shoes recycling pilot program with I:Collect (I:CO®), a leading global provider for the collection, reuse and recycling of apparel, footwear and other textiles. Consumers can drop-off any brand of clean, dry clothing and shoes in collection boxes at ten participating ASICS retail locations and receive a reward coupon for 15% off a single item in store. Items collected are sent to an I:CO® recycling facility to find their next best use. Wearable items find new homes as second-hand goods, while un-wearable items are processed to become secondary materials for new products such as cleaning cloths, insulation material and even new clothing. ASICS will donate all proceeds from the pilot program to their philanthropic partner, Girls On The Run. By reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills, this partnership will help renew our planet and communities. Visit www.asics.com/ico to learn more.
Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, meaning "A Sound Mind in a Sound Body," is an old Latin phrase from which ASICS is derived and the fundamental platform on which the brand still stands. The company was founded more than 60 years ago by Kihachiro Onitsuka and is now a leading designer and manufacturer of performance athletic footwear, apparel and accessories. For more information, visit www.asics.com. Follow @ASICSamerica on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for exclusive content and real-time news around ASICS products, events, and elite athletes.
About I:CO
I:CO®, short for I:Collect, is a global solutions provider for apparel and footwear collection, reuse and recycling. Through its innovative retail take-back system and worldwide infrastructure, I:CO aims to keep consumers' used clothing and shoes in a continuous closed loop production cycle where these good can be reprocessed and reused again and again. This reduces waste, preserves resources, and protects the environment. For more information, please visit: www.ico-spirit.com.
SOURCE ASICS America
http://www.asics.com
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Beyond Type 1 and One Drop Partner to Inspire and Empower People With Diabetes
Beyond Type 1 and One Drop join forces to build and empower a worldwide community of people with diabetes through various support programs, platforms, and community efforts
NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Beyond Type 1, a nonprofit organization changing what it means to live with diabetes, and One Drop, a leader in the development of digital therapeutics solutions for diabetes, today announced a partnership designed to connect and empower the global diabetes community. Together, the two companies will collaborate on a year-long series of promotions, events, and campaigns that promote support for people everywhere living with diabetes.
Through this partnership, One Drop will provide broad support for Beyond Type 1's programs and initiatives. Most notably, One Drop will sponsor the TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes online communities, which have provided support and resources to English and Spanish speaking people with diabetes for more than 10 years. Other Beyond Type 1 programs supported by the partnership include: Beyond Type Run 2019, Slipstream Weekends 2020 (in partnership with Connected in Motion), scholarships that will be available through Diabetes Scholars, and other platform and event integrations. Together, the two companies seek to change the conversation surrounding diabetes, removing the stigma and replacing it with encouragement, hope, and support.
People with diabetes spend, on average, just one hour per year discussing diabetes with their doctor. The other 8,759 hours of the year are spent dealing with diabetes alone, navigating real life from one moment to the next. Beyond Type 1 and One Drop will build and support a unified, inspired, and informed global community of people who are all on the same journey, promoting widespread and immediate dissemination of knowledge and experience, and allowing everyone to learn from each other and navigate diabetes better each day.
"Beyond Type 1 and One Drop share a vision for the way that data and technology can improve the lives of those with diabetes. Our two organizations put community first, and believe strongly in improving lives today," said Beyond Type 1 CEO Thom Scher. "Beyond Type 1 is grateful to have One Drop's support."
"There are no limits to what people with diabetes can achieve," said One Drop Founder & CEO, Jeff Dachis. "Beyond Type 1 has built a robust support system for those of us living with diabetes. One Drop is elated to be working together to expand and elevate that support system, and change the way people think and feel about diabetes."
About One Drop
One Drop is a digital health company harnessing the power of mobile computing and data science to transform the lives of people with diabetes worldwide. The One Drop platform brings affordable, accessible diabetes care to everyone with diabetes and a smartphone, as well as their employers, insurers, and health care providers. One Drop's consumer services are available for purchase in-app (iOS and Android) and at getonedrop.com. The One Drop app is available for free download worldwide (iOS and Android). Find more information on helping your organization lower the cost of care, visit https://get.onedrop.today/employer/ or contact [email protected].
About Beyond Type 1
Beyond Type 1 is a nonprofit organization changing what it means to live with diabetes. Through platforms, programs, resources, and grants, Beyond Type 1 is uniting the global diabetes community and providing solutions to improve lives today. Founded in 2015 with a focus on education, advocacy and the path to a cure for Type 1 diabetes, Beyond Type 1 has grown to also include programs for those with Type 2 diabetes. A new model of philanthropy, Beyond Type 1 aims to change what it means to live with chronic illness. For more information, visit beyondtype1.org or follow @beyondtype1 on social media.
Dana Howe, [email protected]
Rachel Sanchez-Madhur, [email protected]
SOURCE Beyond Type 1
http://beyondtype1.org
Beyond Type 2 Celebrates Two Years, Launches New Community...
GetInsulin.org Addresses Immediate Needs of People Struggling to...
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NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock
NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc.
DALLAS, Nov. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. (NYSE: NXRT) ("NXRT") announced today that it has priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of 2,350,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $33 per share, for net proceeds of approximately $74 million, after giving effect to the underwriting discount but before estimated expenses payable by NXRT.
The offering is expected to close on or about November 16, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions. NXRT granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 352,500 shares of its common stock in connection with the offering.
NXRT intends to contribute the net proceeds from the offering to NexPoint Residential Trust Operating Partnership, L.P., its operating partnership, which in turn intends to use the net proceeds to repay the amount outstanding under its $30 million bridge facility and a portion of the amount outstanding under its $60 million credit facility.
Raymond James & Associates, Inc. and Jefferies LLC are acting as joint book running managers for the offering. D.A. Davidson & Co. and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc., are serving as co-managers.
The offering may only be made by means of a prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. Copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, by visiting EDGAR on the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") website at www.sec.gov or from Raymond James & Associates, Inc., 880 Carillon Parkway, St. Petersburg, FL 33716, telephone: (800) 248-8863, email: [email protected]; and Jefferies LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022, telephone: (877) 821-7388, email: [email protected].
The offering is being made pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that was declared effective by the SEC on April 24, 2017. A prospectus supplement relating to the offering has been filed with the SEC. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About NXRT
NexPoint Residential Trust is a publicly traded REIT, with its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NXRT," primarily focused on acquiring, owning and operating well-located middle-income multifamily properties with "value-add" potential in large cities and suburban submarkets of large cities, primarily in the Southeastern and Southwestern United States. NXRT is externally advised by NexPoint Real Estate Advisors, L.P., an affiliate of Highland Capital Management, L.P., a leading global alternative asset manager and an SEC-registered investment adviser.
Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on management's current expectations, assumptions and beliefs. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "may," "should," "intend" and similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the closing of NXRT's offering of common stock and the use of proceeds from the offering. They are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and are encouraged to review the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC for a more complete discussion of the risks and other factors that could affect any forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, NXRT does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.
Marilynn Meek
Financial Relations Board
SOURCE NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc.
http://www.nexpointliving.com
NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and...
NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. to Participate at Nareit's...
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OpenText Enterprise World 2017 Showcases the Future of Digital and Artificial Intelligence
Open Text Corporation
Mark J. Barrenechea and Wayne Gretzky Take the Stage at the Leading Enterprise Information Management Event
WATERLOO, Ontario, April 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenText™ (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX), a global leader in Enterprise Information Management (EIM), today announced its 2017 Enterprise World user conference. The annual event, now in its 19th year, will be held in Toronto, Canada at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from July 11-13, 2017. Featuring keynote addresses from OpenText CEO and CTO Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText President Steve Murphy, OpenText Executive Vice President of Engineering Muhi Majzoub and special guest Wayne Gretzky, the event will provide attendees with a comprehensive view of the digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) trends changing businesses across the globe and the strategies, tactics, and tools to achieve success.
OpenText Enterprise World 2017 delivers an entirely new experience. This year's event features four customized conferences with tracks to meet the individual needs of all attendees:
OpenText User Conference addresses specific uses and applications of the OpenText EIM platform, highlighting Customer Experience Management, Business Network, Enterprise Content Management, Business Process Management, Analytics and Discovery
OpenText Industry Conference identifies and explores the specific trends impacting Financial Services, Life Sciences, Public Sector, Energy and Engineering industries
OpenText Partner and Technology Conference incorporates tracks for traditional OpenText partners, and a brand new symposium for innovative technology companies in their early stages
OpenText Educational Conference offers post-secondary and graduate students a chance to get a head start on their career with mentoring and technical skill sessions
"Digital and AI allow executives to re-think business and fundamentally change go-to-market models, customer journeys, supply chains and how we innovate," said OpenText CEO and CTO Mark J. Barrenechea. "Customers need new technologies to digitize such as OpenText Release 16 and new AI technologies such as OpenText Magellan to automatically advance business. This is a generational shift, and at Enterprise World 2017, we will showcase the technologies and companies that will be the foundation of a digital future driven by insight."
OpenText Enterprise World 2017 welcomes hockey legend Wayne Gretzky on stage for a Fireside Chat with OpenText CEO and CTO Mark Barrenechea. Gretzky is widely considered to be the greatest hockey player of all-time. The legendary player holds or shares 61 NHL records and is the only player in the history of the NHL to have his jersey number retired by all member clubs. Seven months after he retired, Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada, becoming the tenth and final player in Hockey Hall of Fame history to have the mandatory three-year waiting period for enshrinement waived by the Hall's board of directors. Gretzky will discuss his career and what drove him to success.
OpenText Enterprise World provides a platform to interact and discuss the fourth industrial revolution with the organizations at the heart of it, and to help companies understand the digital and AI trends that will define the future of business. Attendees have an opportunity to connect with OpenText executives, industry thought leaders and hundreds of peers at the precipice of the revolution and gain the knowledge to achieve their digital future.
Customers can also join OpenText for hands-on, interactive training sessions (July 8-10, 2017), which will provide detailed instruction from OpenText experts, educators, and developers on OpenText's solutions.
Visit the registration and pricing page for more information about special discounts and group passes and to register for the event.
OpenText enables the digital world, creating a better way for organizations to work with information, on premises or in the cloud. For more information about OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX) visit opentext.com.
OpenText CEO Mark Barrenechea's blog
Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook
Certain statements in this press release may contain words considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities laws. These statements are based on OpenText's current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which the company operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, and the actual outcome may be materially different. OpenText's assumptions, although considered reasonable by the company at the date of this press release, may prove to be inaccurate and consequently its actual results could differ materially from the expectations set out herein. For additional information with respect to risks and other factors which could occur, see OpenText's Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC and other securities regulators. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, OpenText disclaims any intention or obligations to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Copyright ©2017 Open Text. OpenText is a trademark or registered trademark of Open Text. The list of trademarks is not exhaustive of other trademarks. Registered trademarks, product names, company names, brands and service names mentioned herein are property of Open Text. All rights reserved. For more information, visit: http://www.opentext.com/who-we-are/copyright-information .
SOURCE Open Text Corporation
http://www.OpenText.com
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Patriot Coal Recognized for Community Outreach and Education
Patriot Coal Corporation
ST. LOUIS, Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE: PCX) today announced that Apogee Coal in the Logan County complex received the Outreach Award from the National Association of State Land Reclamationists. Apogee was nominated by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in recognition of its outstanding community outreach and educational efforts.
"This award was a result of a number of recent activities at Apogee, including the Buffalo Creek Trout Stocking and an environmental awareness day for local grade school students. This is the fifth reclamation and environmental award Apogee received this year," stated Patriot President and Chief Executive Officer Richard M. Whiting. "I extend my thanks to all our employees at Apogee who participated in these events, helping to make their community a better place to live."
About Patriot Coal
Patriot Coal Corporation is a leading producer and marketer of coal in the eastern United States, with 14 active mining complexes in Appalachia and the Illinois Basin. The Company ships to domestic and international electricity generators, industrial users and metallurgical coal customers, and controls approximately 1.9 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. The Company's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PCX.
SOURCE Patriot Coal Corporation
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Survey Shows Parents Have Big Expectations for The Family Car: Size Matters as Cars Become the New Family Room
CarGurus LLC
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Findings from a parent survey conducted by CarGurus, a leading car research and shopping site, suggest a bigger car could be the key to happier family driving experiences. The survey found that moms and dads shuttling multiple children around in sedans are less satisfied with their cars than those driving larger capacity minivans and SUVs. 21% of sedan owners said their car does not meet their family's needs, while only 7% of both minivan and SUV owners reported dissatisfaction with their cars. Of all the respondents reporting that their current primary car does not meet their families' driving needs, 62% said it's because their car is too small.
It's no wonder vehicle size and cargo space matters so much to today's busy families: they are logging a lot of time on the road and doing a lot of 'living' in their cars. The majority (56%) of parents with middle-school-aged kids report they are driving their kids to and from school or extra-curricular activities at least 5 days per week. One-in-three middle school parents report spending 4 hours or more per week driving their kids around. Cumulatively, that's more than 8 days of driving per year, or the equivalent of two round trips from Boston to San Diego.
The good news for families is all those hours logged on the road presents an opportunity for parents to talk with their kids. Almost half of parents surveyed (45%) said they are most likely to have a conversation with their children about their day while driving in the car as opposed to the dinner table or at their child's bedtime. In addition to conversation, there's a lot more 'family room' activity going in the car, too. The survey found that most parents allow their children to eat in the car (78%), read in the car (73%), use mobile devices to play games or watch media online (70%) and choose the music for the ride (60%).
When families with multiple children were asked which feature would be of primary importance when considering purchasing a family car today, price, safety, cargo capacity and fuel economy ranked the highest out of 12 features. Family-friendly features such entertainment technology and video screens, and convenience features such as an automatic tailgate lift were of least importance to most parents. Resale value was also not a high priority for families with multiple children. This feedback helped inform CarGurus' choices for Best Family Cars for 2016, which can be found here: blog.cargurus.com/2016/09/20/best-family-cars-for-2016
"Parents weigh many important factors when they consider their family car, but it seems that bigger capacity is one of the best indicators for overall satisfaction, especially as kids grow up," said Matt Smith, Editor at CarGurus. "The benefits of more space and improved comfort and convenience features are huge for families, and manufacturers are delivering on these bigger expectations at many budgets and with improved fuel efficiency. Sustained low gas prices also make the super-sized ride a lot more palatable for families."
Methodology:
The CarGurus Family Driving survey gathered online responses from 1,400 parents with children 18 or younger on their family driving behaviors and vehicle needs. To read full results, click: https://cargur.us/bSRfw
Founded in 2007 by Langley Steinert, co-founder of TripAdvisor, CarGurus is a leading online automotive shopping destination focused on bringing transparency and efficiency to the car research and shopping experience. The site uses technology and market data analysis to help millions of automotive shoppers search for cars and quickly identify the best deals from top-rated dealers in their local area. Today, the site serves more than 20 million unique monthly users and more than 15,000 car dealerships with more than 5 million car listings, and ranks #1 among car shopping websites in the U.S. by daily unique visitor traffic. CarGurus also has sites in the UK and Canada.
SOURCE CarGurus LLC
http://www.cargurus.com
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Hip-Hop Was Their Salvation When Their Countries Rejected Their Blackness
via Flickr
Since its infancy, Hip Hop has captured the angst, power, and frustration of young Black people living in poor urban communities from the ‘60s through ‘80s.
Black people and Puerto Ricans rapped about their everyday lives in neighborhoods like the Bronx. Latino rappers Mellow Man Ace, Cypress Hill, Fat Joe, and Kid Frost have all contributed to the success of Hip-Hop.
There’s a saying, “en Cuba, no hay racismo” or “in Cuba, there’s no racism.” Many Latin American countries don’t talk about race or racism publicly, even though racism is as clear as day.
But Hip Hop provides young people with African ancestry power and pride in their Blackness, with lyrics about Black militancy and experiences of racism that speak to their own lives.
Producers mix the Hip Hop elements they know and love, like Cuban rapper Alexey who calls upon the Hip Hop music he heard broadcast from Miami as a child and mixes it with Afro-Cuban and other musical elements from the Diaspora.
Hip Hop is a global phenomenon that originated in this country but has touched the lives of Black people all over the world, including our Latino diasporic family.
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New Nissan Plant Starts Production in Mexico
Nissan Motor has started production at its third vehicle manufacturing plant in Mexico, raising annual output capacity in the country to over 850,000, up 25%.
The US$2bn complex in Aguascalientes, central Mexico, is capable of assembling 175,000 cars annually. It will initially produce Sentra compact sedans which will be shipped to over 20 markets globally.
Nissan Mexico was the first subsidiary to manufacture cars outside Japan though cars had been assembled from kits in various markets before that, usually by independent contractors/importers.
Nissan expects its Mexican subsidiary to play a key role in the company's plan to achieve an 8% global market share by 2016.
The new plant "is aimed at satisfying the high demand for Nissan vehicles produced in Mexico throughout the Americas and beyond," chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn said at the opening ceremony.
The automaker's capacity throughout the Americas will reach 2m units annually once another plant in Brazil starts operation in the first half of 2014.
Nissan said the 19 months from ground breaking to production start was "an all-time industry record". Full capacity will see the plant - official name Aguascalientes 2 - operate for 23 hours a day, six days a week, for 284 days a year. It's starting at 30 cars an hour compared with 65 vehicles output per hour of Aguascalientes 1, four miles away.
The five main buildings total 1,942,491 sq m of construction on a 1,130 acre (460 hectare) lot: stamping, body, paint, T&C (assembly line) and injection & bumpers paint in a 220,000 sq m production centre.
The XL press in the stamping plant is the largest in Latin America. It has capacity of 575 strokes per hour and can produce more than 273,000 parts per month. The plant includes an energy regeneration system to reduce consumption.
The body shop has 190 robots and is 72% automated. The paint plant has a compact line process design, with a three wet paint cabin using water-based technology.
Seven percent of ceiling parts are translucent, allowing for natural light throughout most of the day. A zero-discharge, water treatment recycles water used for internal and landscaping services. A portion of the land was prepared as an environmental reserve, including fertile soil moved during the development process and native plant species. The reserve is being designed for the leisure use of employees and the community.
Nissan claims to have created more than 3,000 new jobs in Aguascalientes and over 9,000 indirect jobs.
Honda Motor and Mazda Motor both have new plants under construction in Mexico and scheduled to start output next spring and in the first quarter of 2014, respectively.
Mazda's will also produce cars on an OEM basis for Toyota.
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Successful Stories of Outsourcing
Best Cases of Outsourcing
Sometimes it comes down to one good decision that can see a business suddenly grow and succeed. Alternatively, a bad decision or missed opportunity can spell disaster.
If you are wondering how your business might benefit from outsourcing, then take a look at the inspirational cases below. It might just prompt you to consider something in your own business that could be improved or done more efficiently by someone else.
There is the mix of companies on the list, including a number of successful startups which took outsourcing decisions very early on.
In each of these cases it wasn’t a quick decision that was made, but a very strategic and deliberate decision, so take some time to read these great business success stories.
Selling primarily fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), Procter & Gamble need to bring a huge amount of new product to market and keep ahead of developments, trends and competitors to maintain their market share.
Given the race they were in, P&G made the decision to outsource some of their research and development activities. They still have about half of their R&D activities outsourced following the phenomenal success.
Outsourcing resulted in a boost to their innovation productivity by 60%, as well as generating over $10 billion in revenue from over 400 new products.
As a growing multi-national company, Unilever has expanded to have operations across over 24 countries. By 2005, it faced a situation where the company was using a variety of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems across its various divisions and countries.
Unilever’s management took the decision to develop a single ERP system for Europe. The project was outsourced to specialist IT firms and directly contributed to around €700 million savings on operational activities annually.
Acer is the world’s second-largest PC manufacturer, which actually runs and a very lean operation of around 7000 employees. Management at the Taiwan-based company took the decision in 2000 to focus on its strengths of branding and marketing and outsourced its manufacturing operations.
This proved a very successful move, as the company was rewarded with faster-growing sales and gains in market share.
Today What’s App is the most ubiquitous messaging app which has displaced traditional SMS communication, allowing easier local and international messaging, chatting and calls. It received an incredible 50 million downloads in its first 3 years since launch.
What’s App was started by two former Yahoo employees, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, and back in 2009. With minimal initial funding (initial seed round was $250,000), they had to keep costs down and utilized developers in Eastern Europe to build the product.
Core development was outsourced to Russia, starting with iPhone developer Igor Solomennikov, who relocated to the US eventually as company’s CIO. By 2012 they had only 30 full-time and 5 part-time staff, mostly focussed on customer support and operations. Only a couple of years later WhatsApp sold to Facebook for a massive $19 billion.
Mark McRae and his 30 companies
Mark McRae is an entrepreneur from the Sunshine Coast in Australia. His has built an empire of more than 30 companies by using the power of outsourcing and accessing global talent. McRae outsourced to various countries, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, the USA, and India.
“Outsourcing can give you access to a dizzying array of highly skilled professionals from all over the world. For example, to produce a professional documentary, I hired a scriptwriter in the USA, film crew from Canada, post-production team in Croatia and editor in Serbia,” says McRae.
It has paid off well, as he generated around $300 million in online and offline income through his multiple businesses and 30 companies.
Alibaba is often now referred to as the Chinese equivalent of eBay. It is now a huge online marketplace, but its initial development was outsourced to US developers. At the time the talent they needed to compete with giants like eBay was to be found in a US company.
A more detailed history of the company can be found in two books: Alibaba: The Inside Story Behind Jack Ma and the Creation of the World’s Biggest Online Marketplace and The House that Jack Ma Built
JM Family Enterprises
JM Family Enterprises is an automotive company with diversified businesses focus on vehicle distribution and processing; financial services and technology products. Forbes magazine ranks JM Family as the 21st largest privately held company in the United States.
The company outsourced all mainframe hardware, software, and operations because mainframe usage leveled off at $8.2 billion. The contracted company was able to immediately optimize operations so that critical internal reports were delivered on time each month.
Ken Yerves, Senior VP explains: “it was the same hardware. The same data. But they were able to gain efficiencies because they knew how to run a mainframe better than we were ever able to.”
GitHub is another example of a technology company where a core functionality of the product was outsourced to a development contractor. GitHub is a popular online tool which people use to host, document, edit and share private code. It has a very active and engaged community, with more than 56 million projects posted.
Founded in 2008 by Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Tom Preston-Werner, the company contracted Scott Chacon as a consultant, who then wrote the backend of Gist, a sharing feature inside GitHub.
From an initial meeting through a Ruby on Rails meetup group, Chacon did well and went on to become CIO of GitHub. As Preston-Werner says: “Always hire someone who is better at something that you are”.
Google is certainly not a name that people would think of when talking about outsourcing, because they are so large and focussed on cultivating their own internal culture. In fact, they have been taking advantage of outsourcing for years.
Google has outsourced work to IT specialists, developers, as well as virtual assistant across many projects they work on. One notable example is when they decided to outsource phone and email support for AdWords to around 1000 reps.
AdWords is one of the company’s top revenue-generating products, and it sought a good ROI for the customer support it was offering.
Feedback from the operation also contributed valuable insight about their advertisers and fostered further product development.
Best Investment Banks to Work for
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John T. Sullivan Jr.
Pee Not Your Pants: Memoirs of a Small-Town Mayor with Big Time Ideas (Paperback)
By John Sullivan Jr
Published: Wavecloud Corporation - April 13th, 2017
This is a story of triumph and tragedy, success and shortfall, and most of all, interesting adventures along the way, told by the former Mayor of Oswego, N.Y. (author of "Forks in the Road"), who has led a diverse and interesting personal and political career as a small town lawyer and politician, rising to the top levels of the state and national political hierarchy.
Forks in the Road: Small Town Lives and Lessons (Paperback)
By John Sullivan
Published: Authorhouse - December 16th, 2015
Growing up in the 1950"s and 60"s in a small upstate NY city, the author has interacted with many of the community's leading lights, and has lots of stories to tell, and reminiscences to share. It could be a book about anywhere USA, and in reading the compendium of columns, the reader will get to know people they don't know, and will feel as if they did know them.
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Delaware Amends Unclaimed Property/Escheat Laws
Escheat of Unclaimed Intangible Property
In general, states may take custody of or assume title to abandoned or unclaimed property through a process commonly referred to as escheat. With respect to tangible property, it has always been the accepted rule that only the state in which such tangible property is physically located may claim such property pursuant to escheat. However, in the case of the escheat of abandoned or unclaimed intangible personal property, several U.S. Supreme Court cases were necessary to establish the priorities of the states over such property. In Texas v. New Jersey, 379 U.S. 674 (1965), the U.S. Supreme Court decided that: (1) the state of the last known address of the owner of the property as it appears on the holder’s records is entitled to escheat the intangible personal property (the “Primary Rule”); and (2) if there is no last known address of the owner appearing on the holder’s records or if that address is located in a state that does not provide for the escheat of intangible property, then the state of the holder’s incorporation may take custody of the intangible property unless and until another state comes forward with a claim pursuant to the Primary Rule (the “Secondary Rule”).
In Delaware v. New York, 507 U.S. 490 (1993), the U.S. Supreme Court declined to alter the Secondary Rule to provide for escheat to the state where the holder’s principal executive offices are located, and instead affirmed that in the case where there is no last known address of the rightful owner of property, such unclaimed property escheats to the state of incorporation of the holder of such property. Because many corporations are incorporated in Delaware and in many cases the holder of abandoned property has no record of the last known address of the rightful owner of the property, the administration of its unclaimed property program is an issue of importance for the State of Delaware by reason of the Secondary Rule.
Enacted in July 2010, 77 Del. Laws, c. 417 (the “Act”) represents a significant development in the area of unclaimed property administration in Delaware. The Act has three main components: (1) changes to the procedures related to the manner in which unclaimed property assessments are prosecuted; (2) a declaration that “uninvoiced payables” will not be considered escheatable property; and (3) provisions related to the State Escheator’s power to use estimation techniques to determine unclaimed property liability.
Establishment of Administrative Procedures for Delaware Unclaimed Property
In Delaware, the unclaimed property program is administered by the Department of Finance. The Act establishes an elective administrative review procedure. Previously, in general, the only recourse that a holder of unclaimed property subject to Delaware’s unclaimed property laws had to challenge an attempted unclaimed property assessment was to file a petition in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware. Pursuant to the Act, such a holder may file a written protest with the Delaware Abandoned Property Audit Manager (the “Audit Manager”) seeking a review of an issued Statement of Findings and Request for Payment. Upon the determination of the Audit Manager, the holder may further appeal such determination to the Delaware Secretary of Finance, who will appoint an independent reviewer to consider the appeal of the Audit Manager’s findings. The Secretary of Finance may adopt or reject the independent reviewer’s determination in whole or in part. Upon the determination by the Secretary of Finance, the holder may appeal such determination to the Court of Chancery. However, the standard of review of such determination shall be limited to whether the Secretary’s determination was supported by substantial evidence on the record.
Uninvoiced Payables Are Not Escheatable Property
In addition to the creation of the administrative review procedures, the Act established new 12 Del. C. § 1211, which provides that “uninvoiced payables” are not considered escheatable property for Delaware unclaimed property purposes. Pursuant to that section, “uninvoiced payables” include: (i) amounts due between merchants from a holder who is a buyer to a creditor who is the seller of goods ordered by the holder in the ordinary course of business when the goods were received and accepted by the holder, but which for any reason were never invoiced by the seller; (ii) the value of goods received by a holder from a seller where the holder’s purchase order for goods and the amount of goods received by the holder do not match; and (iii) the value of unsolicited merchandise delivered to a holder for whom it is intended. However, “uninvoiced payables” do not include accounts payable, accounts receivable or any other type of credit or amount due to the creditor relating to inventory, goods or services. In addition, the new section expressly provides that such new section should not be construed to create a general business-to-business exemption for Delaware unclaimed property purposes.
Provisions Related to the Estimation of Unclaimed Property Liability
Another significant aspect of the Act relates to the use of estimation techniques in calculating a holder’s Delaware unclaimed property. As it is often the case that a company will lack adequate records in order to calculate accurately its unclaimed property liability, it is common to use estimation techniques, sampling and extrapolation in order to calculate such liability. In the Act, the Delaware General Assembly expressly declared that the State Escheator has inherent authority to estimate abandoned and unclaimed property liability when adequate records do not exist to calculate such liability. Furthermore, the Act amended 12 Del. C. § 1155 to provide that where the records of a holder available for the periods under review are insufficient to prepare an unclaimed property report, the State Escheator may require a holder to report and pay to the State of Delaware the amount of unclaimed property that should have been reported that the State Escheator reasonably estimates to be due and owing on the basis of any available records or by any other reasonable method of estimation.
The provisions relating to the new administrative procedures became effective upon enactment on July 23, 2010, with respect to examinations initiated after that date. The provisions related to “uninvoiced payables” became effective upon enactment on July 23, 2010, and for all uncompleted examinations then being conducted and with respect to all then pending litigation pertaining to such subject matter. The provisions related to estimation techniques became effective upon enactment on July 23, 2010.
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A History Of The Wonder Year’s ‘The Upsides’ & ‘Surburbia…’, As Told By Vocalist Dan Campbell
Jack Rogers 5 January 2021 at 15.59
As the band gear up to release a special vinyl boxset, we dive back into the whirlwind that was the release of The Wonder Years' breakout records, courtesy of the man who was at the middle of it all.
For The Wonder Years, the start of the last decade will always be a special period in their career.
The band kicked it off by releasing their second album 'The Upsides' on January 26, 2010, via No Sleep Records, propelling them from part-time pop-punkers to critical acclaim. The months that followed were littered with tour after tour of ever-increasing crowds as well as a signing to Hopeless Records who then reissued the record and pushed the band for a follow-up. That very follow-up was 'Surburbia, I've Given You All And Now I'm Nothing', released on June 14, 2011.
Both albums, despite being slightly different in tone, are now seminal cornerstones of the modern pop-punk scene, telling the continuing story of a group of friends just trying to make their way in a world that wants to stand in their way at every opportunity. Raw, real and brimming with huge slabs of scream-along relatability, they hold a poignant and defining place in so many people's hearts and minds all these years later.
SO, as they prepare to release a special vinyl boxset featuring both records alongside a plethora of b-sides, rare demos and song snippets, we chatted to vocalist Dan Campbell all about what life was like in the band around this period and how they set about creating both records, musically, lyrically and emotionally...
So let’s go back to that period around the writing of ‘The Upsides’? What were the first inklings of what you were going through personally at that time turning into something that you could bring to the band?
“The first thing to think about is that when we were writing ‘The Upsides’ we were at a point where the band wasn’t our job or anything. It was our life in the sense that we loved doing it but we had other obligations. That meant we weren’t writing a record like we do now, where we have to concentrate because it’s our job. It was more a case of, ‘Write a song when you can write a song’. A lot of it came from just jotting down ideas here and there and them not always funnelling towards something. It was just collecting them.
“Most of the ‘Upsides’ writing happened whilst I was living in South Philly and I was going to school pretty far up in North Philly. I was broke as well. I was taking a shit ton of extra credit in school so that I could actually finish and we could go on tour. I was also teaching at an afterschool programme every day, which was really cool and fulfilling for me. So I would wake up at the crack of dawn in the sometimes freezing cold and layer all the way up. I would do bike tights, then long johns, then pants, then a shirt, a thermal and a shell jacket, to pairs of gloves, bandana over my face. I would then trek six miles up to school throughout whatever was there and try to get through a day of classes. Then I would immediately ride out west to do the teaching programme then ride back up to campus to do night classes and then all the way back down Broad Street and getting home in time to microwave something and do some homework. That’s what everyone’s life seems to be in that time period. You’re working hard but you’re just grinding. It was taking a huge toll on me. It felt like every day was so grey and dark and cold and I was so broke. Every now and then I would go and buy this vegan chicken cheesesteak at a vendor and then save half of it so I could get it to last over a couple of days. It’s the stuff that everybody goes through but I think that’s what makes it work. I wasn’t going through these special and undeniably massive hardships. They were the hardships that everybody has to suffer through, and that’s what makes the songs that we ended up writing do what they have done over the years. This is a system that has punished our generation mentally and emotionally and physically.
"So it was the Winter of 2009 leading into Spring of 2010 that this all took place, and you can hear it on the record and hear exactly when a song like ‘Logan Circle’ was written. That’s when a light clicked on. I think it’s that classic seasonal disorder that we are all affected by at points like this. When you wake up before the sun comes up and you ride through snow and ice to get to a bunch of stuff you don’t give a shit about but know you have to do to go further to do the things that you do love. It can be really tough and then when you feel like you’re constantly on the brink of one thing going wrong can be a financial disaster. There’s no safety net. There would be days where I would get a flat tire and I would just weep because I didn’t know where I would get the money to replace it.”
Though it’s those experiences that then were able to inspire you to make something that will always be a physical reminder of what you went through no matter what. And without those experiences, that thing would be very different…
“It was the creating of something that was both useful to me and to others. One of the things that I feel so tied to my happiness is when I’m able to make something that helps people and do something that I feel matters. So there’s creating a song that matters to me but it was pretty instantaneous when we started releasing them that it mattered to other people as well. Just knowing that by creating this thing we lifted someone’s burden, even by just 1%, and did something that was worth doing gave us a feeling of tremendous joy.
“It’s interesting because with a lot of people who were pitching it to before it came out thought that the specific nature of it would hurt the connection. Like, ‘This is too much that’s directly about your life. There’s no ambiguity. People won’t be able to put themselves in this situation’. We actually found the direct opposite was true. The specificity allowed people to say, ‘I’ve very much had a situation like that, but even if I haven’t I can feel the emotion so heavily that I know how that emotion resonates in me’. So maybe your van didn’t break down on New Years outside of Chicago, but you may know what it’s like to be stranded somewhere and think, ‘I don’t think we can afford to fix this and I don’t know what’s next’. That uncertainty. Then there’s the way to flip that around where you’re with the people in your life that you trust most to do this with you and together you’re going to figure something out. Those things put together had the ability to strike a chord.”
So what was it like when you played these songs live?
“I remember when we came over to the UK to play Slam Dunk in May of 2010 and it was just shock and awe. Before that run, I had self-booked or co-booked all of our UK shows with friends. We had done three tours before that. Then we got the Slam Dunk offer and there were no other shows attached to it, so I booked a string of DIY shows. They were really tiny. So we met the person who would end up being our booking agent over here for the next 7/8 years afterwards at that Slam Dunk. We didn’t have anyone before that. We were put on as a favour really and I was just excited to be there. A lot of our friends were playing; a lot of bands I looked up to were playing. So we were waiting to go on stage and somebody from the festival came back and said, ‘ Just so you know, the line is out the door and we are doing it one in, one out. Nobody else came come in, it’s that full’. We all said, ‘Are they waiting for the next band?’”
Was there a point around this when you realised that the band was something you may be able to do full time from there?
“We were really at a precipice in our lives at that moment. We were finishing college and we were about to make this decision where we are going to try this. We knew that had just spent the last four years chasing these degrees and all logic says to go and get a job because you’re in debt. I always say these things to the band and they always get mad at me because it’s such a stupid thing to say, but when we were writing the record I kept on saying, ‘This has to be better than anything else’. If we write a song and we don’t think it’s better than the last EP then we have to throw it out. It just had to be the best thing we had ever done. There was no room mediocrity. So no matter how you feel about the record ten years later, at the time these were the best 12 songs that we could put forward. It was all of our energy, not just on the record but every night that we got on stage and played these songs. Every time you see us play, you’re going to see all of me. I’m going to give you everything I had because we had nothing else. There was nothing else for us and there was nowhere else to go. It’s this or nothing.”
What songs in particular from the record do you get that same rush of energy you had back then from when you play them now?
“The big one is ‘Washington Square Park’. There have been a couple of times across our career where we play that songs, stop everything and the crowd sings, ‘I’m looking for the upsides’, I feel physically blown backwards. There’s a video of us playing it in Boston back in 2012 on what may have been our first real headliners. We were playing a venue, which wasn’t used to shows such as ours and only had bicycle rack as a barrier. When we started that song, the bicycle rack smashed against the stage and all the security had to jump out of the pit. When the crowd hit that line I almost fell over, it was that loud.
The end of ‘All My Friends Are In Bar Bands’ is always special as well. The last time we did it was at the last Bled Fest, where we had the honour of closing it. So when we finished with it all of these different people who were playing as well, like Spanish Love Songs and Koji, flooded on stage. What’s really incredible to me is that the song has almost transcended the generations of the genre. It can be Joe [Taylor] from Knuckle Puck or Corey [Castro] from Free Throw can come up and do it, and the first time they both did they said to me, ‘Dude I used to imagine doing this’. They were in High School when this record came out, so it’s like a really cool torch pass.”
So how did all of this excitement and change lead into the start of ‘Suburbia…’? You really didn’t seem to have a break…
“This might be a really abstract way to describe it, but this is how I see that period. It’s like a watercolour. You put the paint on the page and it just fades into one another. There was never a transition or a moment that it stopped. The thing was that even as we were just releasing ‘The Upsides’ with No Sleep we were talking with Hopeless about them buying the right, acquiring the rights, doing a reissue and getting us right back in the studio to do a follow-up. They had this entire team but they couldn’t work on a record that was already out. That’s not how it works.
“So after putting the record out we jumped on tour and didn’t fucking stop. We toured an obscured amount. ‘The Upsides’ came out in January 2010 and then we were on the road straight through to November. The days off were incredibly slim. Yet even then we were still broke. My wife met me halfway through the cycle of ‘The Upsides’ and she will tell me this now that I looked sick. She was like, ‘I could count all of your ribs. You were so tired and so worn down’. Every night was a night drive. We were shoplifting food. We were hitting these streaks of bad luck all to our own detriment. We were just stupid kids who didn’t know anything about mechanics or anything. We were taking an absolute fucking beating, but it felt like it was building to something. It all just kept on going and then we gradually started to think that we needed to get some ideas for the next record. So the minute we were back home in November we had five or six weeks to put everything together. Then we went to California to record it and then flew to the UK to tour with Good Charlotte. Then once that was done we flew back to California, picked up our van and drove it 3000 miles back to start another tour.”
Those experiences seemed to have a really prominent effect on what the record was about as well though. Red-eye flights and months of being on the road whilst craving the weird comfort of home…
“Yeah, that was the whole thing with ‘Suburbia…’. We were back home. When we put out ‘The Upsides’ and decided that we were all in on this, which also meant that we were too broke for rent. Everything went in storage and then the idea was to be on tour every day that you can because that’s a place to stay. If we can’t be on tour we will sleep on couches and do what we have to do. Sometimes I was sleeping at my buddy Richie’s house, sometimes I was sleeping at my dad’s or my mom’s, and sometimes it was a different friend who had a mattress in the basement. What was weird about it was that we were flip-flopping between two things. We had spent four years away from this place in the city and now we’re all back and everything looks a little different. Then you’re going on tour and it becomes a crazy juxtaposition of what life looks like on the road next to what life looks like alone in this town you grew up in. The way that filters your vision of that place is a lot of where that record came from.”
How did the process of putting the lyrical side of ‘Suburbia…’ together compare to that of ‘The Upsides’?
“‘Suburbia…’ was much more of a treaty on exhaustion. When we were doing ‘The Upsides’, although what I was doing day to day was unfulfilling and tiring, I had this glimmer of hope of doing this other thing. When we were writing ‘Suburbia…’, life was incredibly fulfilling because we were doing the thing that we wanted to do, but we were scraping by and everything was a fight. It was a fight to get through every aspect of it. At that time in the genre, there weren’t a lot of bands like us. It almost felt like the path had closed. We, along with another few bands, had to recut things and make a new way through this to make this a viable reality again. It was a never-ending labour of love. I think that what you see on ‘Suburbia…’ is us working so hard on this thing we love doing but also looking for a place where we can put down all of this weight we had been carrying.”
This album was also a moment where it felt like you had carved out what you wanted the band to sound like initially, but also had a bit more bravery in experimenting with the other styles of music you were passionate about…
“There was this steady goal of not just writing the same record again. We knew we had to create something that was going to push all of this into another space that expands on everything that we have done but without abandoning what we have done as well. It’s a difficult and fine line to walk where you don’t want to stop being who you are but you don’t just want to create the same thing that you’ve been in the past. The other is that I was just such a fan of this sort of music that I knew how easy it as to put out a record that people loved and then put out a record that people fucking hated and be done. I was so determined to not be done, but the sophomore slump is a real fucking thing. Credit to everybody in the band because they are all so amazing, but one of the key differences with ‘Suburbia…’ was that Nick [Steinborn] was in the band and playing the guitar, which was not true of ‘The Upsides’. There was this new voice in the room who hadn’t written songs with us in this way who was bringing in a different perspective.”
Much like with ‘The Upsides’, what are the songs that stick out the most for you now almost a decade on from writing them?
“‘Came Out Swinging’ is the obvious one. The ending is one thing but the beginning is something for me as well. The tension build, which has just served us so well over the years and then the ending of it, is such a moment of catharsis no matter where we play and no matter how many times we do it. There’s something about the three movements that make up the title track ‘Suburbia’, ‘I’ve Given You All’ and ‘And Now I’m Nothing’, as well, which was for me was inspired by bands like The Weakerthans who were dropping breadcrumbs throughout an album. We wanted to have these three songs that were all in the same key and time signature with a similar melody that could exist on their own throughout but also tell you where you are. You can picture the town and picture the people and that was the goal. Then having ‘…And now I’m nothing’ as this standalone closer is something I am most proud of. It’s what makes it a proper record and not just a collection of songs. It was all about taking the risk and knowing that there is no real reward without that.”
Ultimately, how does it feel looking back on these albums as the person you are today?
“I think that as someone who has a little bit of imposter syndrome, I was sure that nobody was going to care about these things in a year. I spent every day of our whole career sure that we were going to put a show on sale tomorrow and nobody was going to buy a ticket and what would be it. I spent that whole around these albums sure that it was going to end any minute and because of that I always thought of us as an underdog. We’re not supposed to be here and this isn’t for us. The way that people are talking about these albums now, where it influenced all of these other bands in the genre and these being seminal records and we are a keystone in the genre now, that never hit us. It never felt like we graduated to that. It always felt like we were trying to hold on or the next thing and hoping that people were going to like it. So this year has really forced us to take a breath. It allows you to take stock and really realise that you made something that people truly care about. It lasted a whole decade and people still want to hear it. It’s still so disconnected from how I’ve looked at the world for so long. It’s just really gratifying and makes you feel that you put yourself into something that had value. That’s what brings me the greatest joy.”
You can pre-order the boxset for yourself from right HERE
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Rock Legends: Super Deluxe Edition CD + DVD Box Set + Exclusive Print
7784976.UNS
Rock Legends’ is a six CD one DVD Super Deluxe Edition that features 99 Tracks in total, 74 of which are unreleased and 83 of which have never been released on CD or streaming. It is simply the ultimate Thin Lizzy boxset.
To celebrate 50 years of Thin Lizzy, Universal are proud to announce the first instalment of an archive release programme that will cover the career of one of the most iconic and respected bands of the 1970s.
Rock Legends’ covers the bands whole career over 6 discs newly mastered by Andy Pearce encompassing a raft of unreleased material including demos, radio sessions, live recordings and rare single edits. The track listing has been compiled by Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham and Lizzy expert Nick Sharp from a collection of newly discovered tapes most of which have never been heard before.
The box is housed in a 10” x 6” slipcase and in addition to the six CDs contains a DVD with the hour long ‘Bad Reputation’ BBC documentary and the band’s legendary performance on the Rod Stewart ‘A Night on the Town’ TV Special from 1976.
The set also contains replicas of the bands tour programmes bound into a hard-backed book, the very sought-after Phil Lynott Poetry books, 4 prints by legendary Lizzy cover artist Jim Fitzpatrick and a book containing quotes by all the members of the band about their experiences playing with Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy. It also has a selection of famous fans such as Slash, Lemmy, Joe Elliot, Geddy Lee, James Hetfield, Ian Gillan, Henry Rollins, Billy Corgan, Bobby Gillespie, Craig Finn, John McEnroe and Pat Cash talking about the band.
More from Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy: Deluxe Reissue
Shades Of A Blue Orphanage: Deluxe Reissue
Vagabonds Of The Western World: Deluxe Reissue
Johnny The Fox
Thunder And Lighting
Essential Thin Lizzy: Triple CD
Triple CD Album
Rock Legends: Super Deluxe Edition CD + DVD Box Set + Exclusive Print [Signed by Scott Gorham]
Bad Reputation: Exclusive Red Vinyl
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The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development was co-founded in February 1987 by Mrs. Rosa Parks and Ms. Elaine Eason Steele, in honor of Raymond Parks (1903 – 1977). It is the living legacy of two individuals who committed their lives to civil and human rights.
Raymond Parks married Rosa McCauley December 18, 1932. He was a barber from Wedowee in Randolph County, Alabama. He had little formal education but a thirst for knowledge and a no nonsense approach to life. He supported his wife’s “Quiet Strength” and encouraged youth to get a good education to support themselves, their families and to eliminate discrimination in this country.
Elaine Eason Steele, met Mrs. Rosa Parks at work in a sewing factory, in the early 1960′s while still a high school student. Following graduation she volunteered to work with Mrs. Parks and help in any meaningful way she could. She became a good friend, like the daughter she never had. Elaine also knew Mrs. Parks wanted to honor Mr. Parks and knew of her love and commitment to youth. In 1987, they began the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development.
The era of legalized racial segregation caused Raymond’s and Rosa’s commitment to first class citizenship for people of color. Self taught with minimal formal education, Raymond was a skilled barber. Rosa, a domestic worker and seamstress, finished high school after her marriage to Raymond. They both encouraged others to register to vote, pool their financial resources, advocate for quality formal education and become involved in community development.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was arrested December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give her seat to a white male passenger on a segregated bus upon the demands of the bus driver. Four days later, December 5, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began and lasted 381 days. Mrs. Parks’ courage catapulted her into world history where she is affectionately referenced as the “Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement.” The boycott also brought world prominence to a young Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
REACH THE INSTITUTE
Rosa Parks Institute for Self Development
general@rosaparks.org
Rosa Parks © 2015 All Rights Reserved . Website By SolutionsPal
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← Covering what’s really important…
MSNBC smackdown… →
Bill, you ignorant slut…
Posted on March 6, 2003 | Comments Off on Bill, you ignorant slut…
I would find the new Clinton/Dole, Dole/Clinton point-counter-point nonsense slated for “60 Minutes” merely amusing if not for this (from the NYT):
Mr. Clinton and Mr. Dole said yesterday that they were looking forward to the opportunity to provide the kind of thoughtful commentary that has been missing from the superheated and often shrill discourse that dominates much of television news. “I see this as an opportunity to try to have a really civil debate that enlightens people on the issues,” Mr. Clinton said.
Mr. Dole said the two men expected to “have some fun” but also get into the issues that are roiling the country. “We have differences,” he said. “We went at each other hard in 1996.”
Enlightening people, exploring the issues, and debating civilly are supposed to take place in two 60-second soundbites? This is an absurd notion that only TV can sell. And consider this:
“60 Minutes” has not used the “Point-Counterpoint” segment regularly since 1979, when its most famous participants, Shana Alexander and James J. Kilpatrick, ended a four-year run. But it was always among the most-talked-about segments of the program, television’s most successful newsmagazine. It even inspired a famous parody, the Dan Aykroyd-Jane Curtin combination on “Saturday Night Live” which always had Mr. Aykroyd referring to Ms. Curtin as “Jane, you ignorant slut.”
In other words, this style of “debate” is so politically and culturally important that we can remember nothing of what Kilpatrick or Alexander said; we remember, instead, that Curtin and Aykroyd made us laugh poking fun at this nonsense. And then this:
The old “Point-Counterpoint” segments were a full minute longer, Mr. [Don] Hewitt [executive producer] said, but he said attention spans had shortened since then.
Pretty soon, we’ll be able to conduct civic debate on TV by hurling single words at each other: “Not!” “To!”
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Nelson Mandela Timeline 1970-1979
16 February, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and 21 others, who were detained under the Suppression of Communism Act, in May 1969, are acquitted. Three are released but others, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, are re-detained and recharged. They are placed in solitary confinement at the Pretoria Central Prison under Section Six of the Terrorism Act.
26 March, The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act No. 26 comes into force. It strips Blacks of their South African citizenship and makes them citizens of one of the homelands or Bantustans irrespective of their actual residence.
24 August, The second trial of the 19 prisoners (including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela) being held under the Terrorism Act begins.
14 September, The 19 prisoners are acquitted and released, but they are served with restriction orders by the Minister of Justice. As part of her banning order, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is placed under house arrest but frequently violates the conditions. As a result, she is arrested and charged on a number of occasions.
16 October, Alfred Nzo submits a letter, on behalf of the ANC, to the United Nations which condemns the announcement by the government of the United Kingdom that it would be resuming arms sales to South Africa’s apartheid government.
November, Mandela was allowed his first visit from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in two years.
Thabo Mbeki is deployed to Lusaka, Zambia where he serves as the assistant secretary of the African National Congress’ (ANC) Revolutionary Council.
January, Steve Biko speaks at the Abe Bailey Institute in Cape Town. In his speech he openly criticises the ANC’s policy of political alliances.
25 August, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi calls for a National Convention of all races in South Africa to decide the country's future political direction. The idea is rejected by John Vorster the Prime Minister but is supported as a constructive proposal by both the opposition United Party (UP) and the Progressive Party (PP).
4 October, The ANC issues a press statement on the idea of a National Convention. While ANC does not reject the idea, it states that a number of pre-conditions have to be met if such a convention is to be ‘genuinely sovereign and democratic’.
28 October, Ahmed Timol, a political activist and member of the banned South African Communist Party (SACP), dies in detention. It is officially confirmed that he died after he plunged from a window on the tenth floor of the John Vorster Square Police Office. The government claimed that he “committed suicide”.
16 December, Oliver Tambo issues a statement on the tenth anniversary of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) calling on South Africans to rededicate themselves to the struggle for liberation.
8 January, The ANC in exile issued its 8 of January Statement.
1 August, J.B. Marks, political activist and trade unionist, suffers a heart attack and dies in Moscow, USSR.
January, A massive strike begins in Durban with over 60 000 workers from 150 factories striking against racial oppression.
May, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Peter Magubane were arrested for communicating with each other. They were prohibited from doing so in terms of their banning orders. Madikizela-Mandela was given a 12 month sentence to be served at the Kroonstad women’s prison, of which she served 6 months.
The government offers to release Mandela on condition he agrees to move to the Transkei, which he refuses. Security police raid the Mandela home and this is followed by an attack by vandals who cut the telephone wires, smashed windows and doors and dumped anti-government leaflets in the yard.
7 December, Robert Resha, political activist and member of the ANC, dies in London.
26 December, A Christmas and New Year message by Oliver Tambo is distributed illegally in South Africa.
Winnie Mandela was chosen as Woman of the Year by British women.
12 February, Boy Mvemve (operating under the name John Dube) is killed by a letter bomb in Lusaka, Zambia while sorting mail with Maxwell Sisulu.
14 May, The trial of ex-political prisoner and SACP veteran Harry Gwala and nine other ANC members starts in Pietermaritzburg.
12 November, The United Nations General Assembly, under the leadership of Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, suspends South Africa due to international opposition to the South African government’s policy of apartheid.
16 December, A tombstone for J.B. Marks is unveiled in the Novodevichye Cemetery, Moscow, which is traditionally reserved for the most prominent figures in Soviet political, academic and cultural life.
8 May, Bram Fischer, member of SACP and political activist, dies of cancer at his brother’s house in Bloemfontein.
March, The ANC’s Revolutionary Council (RC) sends a general directive that all its units should go into action. The RC also sets up a special sub-committee on recruitment and training.
October, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's banning order expires and is not renewed.She attends a welcome meeting in Durban. She is elected to the executive of the Federation of Black Women.
December, An ANC National Executive Committee meeting discusses plans to re-launch MK.
24 May, Soweto pupils reject the Orland Diepkloof School Board’s demand that they return to school after they had walked out in protest against the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction.
13 June, Over 400 students attend a meeting held in Orlando. At the meeting Tsietsi Mashinini, a 19-year-old-leader of a SASM branch, called for a mass demonstration against the use of Afrikaans was called for the following Wednesday, 16 June.
16 June, Tens of thousands of high school students take to the streets to protest against compulsory use of Afrikaans at schools. Police opened fire on marching students, killing thirteen-year old Hector Petersen and at least three others. This begins what becomes known as the Soweto youth uprising. The student uprising spreads to other parts of the country leaving over 1,000 dead, most of who are killed by the police. The Soweto Uprising was a “dramatic climax of the escalating wave of struggles in the first half of the 1970s.”
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is elected to the committee of the Black Parents Association along with Aubrey Mokoena and Nthato Harrison Motlana.This group was formed in reaction the Soweto uprising and acted as a pressure group which intervened in the ongoing conflict. Mass detentions followed the protests. Madikizela-Mandela was one of six executive members of the Federation of Black Women to be detained. She was released and banned again.
8 May, M.P. Naicker is buried in London. To read Dr. Yusuf Dadoo’s tribute, click here and to read Oliver Tambo’s tribute click here.
19 May, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was forced into a domestic exile in Brandfort, Orange Free State. She was also charged with 7 counts of breaking her banning order, 4 for having visitors and 3 for attending gatherings. Black organisations including the Federation of Black Women and Black Parents Association were now banned.
April, An SACP Central Committee meeting is convened in the German Democratic Republic and adopts a document entitled ‘The Way Forward from Soweto’. The Executive Secretariat is dissolved and replaced with the Politburo, consisting of Moses Kotane, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, Moses Mabhida, Joe Slovo and Thabo Mbeki.
15 June, Solomon Mahlangu and Monty Motlaung, two MK cadres are arrested in Goch Street, in Johannesburg.
22-26 August, The World Conference for Action Against Apartheid, organised by the UN and OAU, takes place in Lagos, Nigeria. The conference is attended by representatives of more than 100 governments, organisations and liberation movements. Oliver Tambo makes a speech entitled ‘Crucial Stage in the Struggle for Liberation of Southern Africa’
12 September, Steve Biko dies at the Pretoria prison hospital after being transported in the back of a police van from Port Elizabeth with a brain injury sustained during police beatings in prison.
25 September, Steve Biko’s funeral is attended by diplomats from 13 Western nations. However, police action prevents thousands of mourners from all over the country from attending the funeral.
The UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Africa.
8 January, Anti-apartheid activist and academic, Dr Rick Turner, is assassinated at his home in Durban by members of the South Africa security forces.
2 February, The Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape announces that he will not prosecute any policemen involved in the arrest and detention of Steve Biko.
19 May, Moses Kotane dies in Moscow.
26 May, Moses Kotane is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
18 July, Mandela turned sixty in prison. The United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid called for the occasion to be celebrated worldwide. 10 000 birthday cards from anti-Apartheid activists in Britain are collected and sent but none were delivered to him. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was refused permission to see him and he was allowed only eight birthday messages from friends and family, one of them was from his future deputy president, Thabo Mbeki.
12 September, On the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Steve Biko, police arrest sixteen people including Steve Biko’s brother, his sister and her husband and close friends of the family. No reason is given but police say the arrests are preventive measures covered by the 1977 Internal Security Act.
29 September, Prime Minister B J Vorster resigned after the Muldergate scandal, that involved the misappropriation of public funds. P W Botha took over as Prime Minister.
African trade unions were recognised for the first time under the Industrial Relations Act.
6 April, Solomon Mahlangu, an MK operative is executed when he is hanged in Pretoria. The ANC issues a statement on his execution.
26 June, The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) celebrates 20 years.
29 August, Mandela wrote to Alan Paton to thank him for his contribution to the struggle and to encourage him to continue his work. It was the third attempt Mandela made to try and reach the author.
September, The Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo) holds its inaugural conference.
30-31 October, An Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) delegation claims to have met the ANC in London to establish a co-operative relationship.
5 November, Oliver Tambo, on behalf of the ANC, issues a statement denying any secret meetings between itself and the IFP.
November, The Azanian Students Organisation (Azaso) is formed for tertiary students, whilst the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) is formed for high school students. The Western Cape was hit by a wave of stayaways with broad community support focusing on a wide range of issues.
11 December, Alex Moumbaris, an MK operative, escapes from Pretoria Central Prison along with two other ANC and SACP activists Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee. All were part of the ‘Pretoria Six’.
Produced 04 April 2011
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Weekly E-Book: The Cave of Hypnos
by Charles Noreaster
For this week’s e-book, we’ve chosen Charles W. Bailey’s short volume of early poems.
A librarian by profession, Mr. Bailey is probably best known for his work on Digital Scholarship, where he provides news and commentary on digital copyright, digital curation, digital repositories, open access, scholarly communication, and other digital information issues. Very fashionable, some would say, but he has been working tirelessly in this field since the 1980s–long before there was such a thing as the Creative Commons and well before the Free Software movement was hip. Back in the days of LISTSERVs, his extraordinary Public-Access Computer Systems Forum inspired me and more than a few other people to get involved in the project that would eventually link the Freenet Seattle Community Network and the entire Seattle Public Library system to the brand new World Wide Web.
But more than merely being one of the country’s most celebrated pioneers in digital librarianship, Mr. Bailey is also an accomplished artist. He has made numerous lovely pieces of photo-based digital art, many of them still available on his Flickr feed.
Which brings us to his poetry. In 1973 Mr. Bailey won a Wallace Stevens award for his poetry: second prize, behind the first prize winner, the renowned Charles Stein. Several of the poems for which he won that award are collected in this volume, The Cave of Hypnos.
I’m a big fan of the balance of simplicity and complexity in these poems. They clearly reflect another time in poetry when the influence of Wallace Stevens was still strong yet they are closer to James Wright or H.D. than they are to Stevens: still deeply attached to myth but as a matter of fact rather than an exotic evocation.
In a former life,
I was a fish,
eyes wide,
gulping
meaning.
Now I wait,
a pinpoint
of breath,
a sliver
of infinity.
The poems and the book are short enough that one can easily sample them at leisure. We recommend you do.
Download EPUB version here.
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Spirit of St. Louis: The places and faces that the Rams left behind
As the Rams debuted in Los Angeles, St. Louisans continued to adjust to their new NFL reality as a town without a team. SI visited various places and people around the city searching for answers to a question: What now, St. Louis?
Jacob Feldman
Last Saturday, St. Louis was a sports town. The United Soccer League’s St. Louis FC drew a sellout crowd, furthering the belief that this town may be next in line for an MLS expansion. Fans crowded the bars to watch Missouri hang with Georgia and then stayed to watch the town’s crown-jewel Cardinals top the Giants in the midst of an NL wild card hunt.
But then came Sunday. As the Rams debuted in Los Angeles, St. Louisans continued to adjust to their new NFL reality: a town without a team. SI spent this past weekend roaming the area, searching for answers to a question: What now, St. Louis? Here are some of the places and faces we visited along the way.
NFL Sunday in Los Angeles: Sights, sounds and tacos from the Coliseum
The Dome is planning for a future that won't include the Rams.
Courtesy of Jacob Feldman
The Dome at America’s Center
On Rams gamedays, Kitty Ratcliffe had a unique tradition. The president of St. Louis’s Convention and Visitors Commission, which operated the team’s former home, would arrive early and climb to the upper level of what was then called the Edward Jones Dome (before the financial services outfit ended its sponsorship). From there she would watch as “a bunch of old men in blue jeans and T-shirts or jerseys” gathered outside, waiting for the venue’s gates to open. But last week she climbed to the same heights and was greeted by something else: “Girlfriend groups of 10, 12, 15—just dressed to the nines. They were out to have a ball.” Inside, Beyoncé awaited.
While the women prepared for a wild concert, Ratcliffe reminisced about what she called six years of “craziness,” starting when Stan Kroenke replaced the Frontierre family as majority owner of the Rams, in 2010. Back then Kroenke said, “I’m going to attempt to do everything I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis”—but Ratcliffe could already see the erosion of the relationship between her facility and the team that played in it. “When Stan took over,” she says, “it changed our lives.”
Eight months after Kroenke and company moved to L.A., Ratcliffe is still cleaning up the mess. As she walks around the facility, three men work to remove outdated advertisements, tied to the old team. Torn walls signify the former location of Rams heads. The scoreboard still touts STLOUISRAMS.COM.
From ugly hats to upsets, the biggest stories of Week 2
But while these signs of the past are ripped down around her, Ratcliffe looks to the future. Beyoncé's show is the dome’s first concert in over two years, and it's just the beginning of its post-NFL existence. In the coming months, the venue will host a monster truck rally and a dirt-track stock car race—events that wouldn’t have jibed with the turf laid down for the Rams this time of year. Newly free on Sundays, the dome will have an easier time hosting multi-day events along with the convention center next door. Down the street, bar manager Brian McAfee is banking on those gatherings to make up for the loss of gameday revenues. A full convention schedule, others hope, will make more palatable the $40 million City Hall still owes on the stadium.
Ratcliffe would like to see a few changes made, perhaps better connecting the Dome to the convention halls, but generally she’s defensive about a facility that was consistently maligned by a Rams ownership that was looking to leave. “They tried to make it about this facility not being up to their standards,” she says, “but they were the ones who put a lousy team out there.”
Fans around town echo that sentiment. No one complained about the digs before the Rams turned out 12 straight non-winning seasons, they say. And on Sunday, as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ convention takes place next door, there’s little kvetching about it. While the Rams kicked off in the Los Angeles Coliseum, 1,800 miles away, Hall 3 was packed for the final hour of the Electrical Industry Exposition. Afterward, visitors streamed onto Washington Avenue, where McAfee’s staff was waiting at the Over/Under Bar.
“The bars will all be happy with the IBEW people,” Ratcliffe says. “They were very happy with Beyoncé.”
Matt Litzsinger on the dead patches of grass at Rams park.
Rams Park
Grounds crews love Bermuda grass because when you treat it right it grows sideways, staying nice and low. From the time the Rams moved into their Earth City, Mo., practice facility, in 1996, to the week they departed, earlier this year, Matt Litzsinger cared to the Bermuda grass out back. Now the horizontal growth patterns are wreaking havoc on everything. Tentacles of real grass stretch through the turf field that sits adjacent to its natural counterpart. Elsewhere, large patches of sand and weeds dominate. “That’s where the 15- and 20-yard lines would be,” explains Litzsinger, touring the old grounds. “We’d always redo those parts every year.”
A couple of wild mushrooms have popped up too, not far from where Litzsinger long ago set up a putting green with a PVC flag in the center, 150 yards from the front of his office shed. Rams players and personnel would tee off, and if you hit the cup you made it into the Lid Crew. “Sam Bradford was obsessed with getting it in,” Litzinger recalls. But he never did. Kicker Greg Zuerlein, in fact, remains the only member of the Lid Crew, and unless someone has renovated, his name is still on the wall inside.
The Rams' 9–3 win vs. Seattle may tell us more about the Seahawks
One other feature of Bermuda grass: It goes dormant and turns brown each winter. The dreary expanse that greeted Litzsinger during his final weeks with the Rams only amplified the solemn events going on inside the facility. After the team’s move was officially approved, management went department by department, setting up meetings in which many employees were handed two options: a severance package or a relocation offer.
The team’s head of IT, Bill Consoli, who’d followed the Rams from L.A. to St. Louis in the first place, ultimately decided he couldn’t relocate again. “I’m 52,” he says. “I’m not that 31-year-old, ready for new challenges.” For weeks before his own meeting, assistant trainer James Lomax pondered the future with his wife, Sarah. Eventually, they decided on a number: If the Rams topped it they would follow the team to L.A.; if they didn’t top it, they’d stay. (Meanwhile, Lomax’s oldest daughter, eight-year-old Lucy, asked him one day on their way to school: “Daddy, do we have to go? I love my school and I have my friends here.” All he could say was, “I don’t know.”) Ultimately, right before the combine, Lomax was quoted a number that said Stay. For Litzsinger, he valued the connections he’d made at Rams Park, but they all paled in comparison to his responsibility to his wife, Connie, and their six-year-old daughter, Ellie.
After the Rams skipped town, Bill Consoli found a new doormat.
On Sunday, Lomax was out of town with family members, who are still adjusting to seeing him this time of year. Consoli, still in IT, was packing up his house, preparing to move in with his fiancée. Litzsinger, an entrepeneur at 51, is finally taking Ellie to school and picking her up regularly for the first time in his life. Connie always used to tell him, “You don’t get this time back,” and now he lives that way, too. He remembers nights spent crashing in a Rams player’s apartment, across the street from the facility (or worse: morning wake-ups from coaches who found him passed out in the players’ lounge). He enjoyed his time in the middle of that chaos, but he now knows he loved it “to a fault.” He still talks with his former colleagues; he even stays in touch with Bradford. But he doesn’t regret his decision to stay behind. In fact, in some ways he says the split was “lucky.”
He thought he’d miss the Rams when they left. Instead, he has come to realize just how much he missed while they were right here.
Once a Rams fan, Mike Hamon (left, in jersey) now watches Marcus Mariota and the Titans at Hotshots in St. Louis.
Various bars around town, including the home of St. Louis Titans fans
For Brad Beensen, this all started as a joke between friends. After the Rams announced their departure, Bernsen and his pals texted each other. The gist: I guess we have to pick a new team now. Quickly, though, it developed into an earnest discussion. No one could stomach rooting for any outfit from Chicago. Same for K.C. Bernsen didn’t want to hop on a powerhouse team.
Slowly, consensus formed around ... the Titans. Nissan Stadium was within a day’s drive and the team had several exciting young pieces—plus, Have you been to Nashville!? On a lark, Bernsen created a Twitter account, @StLouisTitans, that now has more than 600 followers (and an Archie Bell-inspired hashtag: #TitanUp). He finds himself overwhelmed by messages, many from Titans fans welcoming him, sending their condolences for losing the Rams. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if the Titans left, many write.
Bernsen’s adopted team has reached out too, offering behind-the-scenes access to him and nearly 40 other fans for a game next month. Meanwhile, the group watches every week at Hotshots. Everyone in the St. Louis Titans crew here knows someone who’s stopped watching the NFL altogether, but Mike Hamon speaks for the group when he says, “That was not an option. I just love betting, fantasy and drinking while watching games too much.”
Week Under Review: Welcome to the world of mediocre quarterbacks in the NFL
It’s a different story in the Hill neighborhood of St. Louis, a tight-knit old Italian community where alderman Joe Vollmer owns the local tavern, Milo’s, catty-corner from the church. Vollmer, 57, and his friends are done with pro football; they’ve canceled their Sunday Ticket packages, rerouted annual football pilgrimages to Baton Rouge instead of Green Bay and, during an American Legion cookout on Sunday, put NASCAR on the television instead of the Rams’ L.A. opener. This marks the third time Vollmer has seen the NFL disrespect St. Louis: first when the Cardinals moved in 1988 and again when the league passed over the potential St. Louis Stallions while expanding to Carolina and Jacksonville, in 1995. He’s had enough.
Meanwhile, Chelsea Osterby is still not sure what she’s going to do. “There’s just a big hole in my heart,” she says. She misses the emotional attachment of fandom but hasn’t found a new team. She’s from Wisconsin but “rooting for Green Bay is a little cliché.” For now, her handful of Rams jerseys—including the one she bought for her cat—gather dust on a shelf in her downtown loft.
Giant Steps of St. Louis
Betty Berger never fancied herself a big football fan, but she is taking the Rams’ departure as hard as anyone. The director of Giant Steps, a local school for children on the autism spectrum, struggles to quantify the team’s impact on her organization. The Rams took community work very seriously—when the team was in St. Louis, the Rams’ front office would shut down once a month (during both the season and the off-season) for a day of service somewhere in the community. The team had at least one and as many as four community events on every off day during the season, and 100% of the roster participated in at least one philanthropic event each year.
Now, Berger has seen fundraising hauls drop from $100,000 when the school held events at Rams Park to one-tenth that now. As a result, staff raises and bonuses are harder to come by this year.
But even that drop does not factor in the playground the Rams built five years ago and the murals they helped paint when the school moved to a new location. “The school had just a blacktop, and it was a pretty sad looking blacktop. We needed something safer,” Berger says. “When they were done it was a whole new building.” Rampage the Ram came by to play with the kids when it all officially opened, and team cheerleaders spiced up so many other events over the years.
Berger feels the absence of all of that now, especially given it comes on top of decreased contributions from Budweiser since being acquired in 2008 and the potential loss of Monsanto as a major partner after its recent merger with Bayer. “The Rams were very good to us,” she says.
The Rams’ relocation leaves their former home free for new, non-football events in the fall.
Jeff Roberson/AP
Andy McCollum
The former Rams center still watches the team, just like the other squads he played for during a 15-year career that included a Super Bowl championship in St. Louis. “You still root for the guys and the coaches, the people you played with and for,” he says, though the number of those players are dwindling with each passing year. As a St. Louis area resident, McCollum was disappointed by the move, obviously, but it did actually provide an opportunity to catch up with his former teammates from the glory years. He texted with fellow “Doughnut Brother” Adam Timmerman on the day the team’s departure was announced and saw several other guys for the first time in a while at the Legends of the Dome flag football game this summer, which served doubly as a fundraiser for the Isaac Bruce Foundation and a chance for fans to say a proper goodbye while honoring soon-to-be Hall of Famer Orlando Pace.
There may be more run-ins down the road as the Rams have invited McCollum and several other alumni to watch a game in L.A. The former center appreciated the gesture but added “I'm not in L.A. very often.” After all, there’s a reason he settled outside of St. Louis when he left the game. These days, he’s more worried about getting some of his six children to their soccer games on time and helping coach the local high school football team, which just lost its starting quarterback to injury. Oh, and if you are wondering: Yes, McCollum had Krispy Kreme for breakfast Sunday.
Wentz's early success is nothing short of remarkable, even vs. lowly Bears, Browns
Dave Peacock
For Peacock, the man who headed St. Louis’s stadium task force, losing the Rams obviously stings. But after a year-plus of hard work and public scrutiny to no avail, he's even more frustrated by the $17 million that went toward pitching a new St. Louis stadium to a league, that in retrospect, hardly seemed interested in the possibility.
“They asked us to take the design farther than we had planned,” Peacock says. “We did that. We delivered construction documents, effectively.” His advice for other cities going through the process in the future? “I would make sure to have, very clear up front in writing, exactly what they are going to be asked for and what’s expected. People will learn from our experience. When you spend $17 million over-delivering relative to what was asked by the league and come up with a $450 million plan and still get told no—You’ve got to be eyes wide open going in.”
“Not seeing any remuneration for the investment the public made in what I think was a very legitimate effort, that’s the only thing that leaves me with a bad taste,” he adds. “Those millions of dollars are very important and could have done a lot of good in St. Louis.”
• MMQB: Sam Bradford’s remarkable story | Jacoby Brissett steps into limelight
KTVI, ‘Home of the Rams’
Most estimates around town peg the percentage of St. Louis Rams fans sticking with the Los Angeles incarnation around 10-20%, with the rest either finding a new team or skipping the NFL entirely. So where does that leave the media members who made their bones talking football in St. Louis? For now, they are playing a lot of wait-and-see. KTVI, the former “Home of the Rams”, aired the game Sunday but said they will remain flexible moving forward in case fans run out of enthusiasm, curiosity, schadenfreude or some combination of the three.
After the team was blown out in the season opener against the 49ers (in a game that drew a solid rating in St. Louis), Bernie Miklasz took some time to laugh at “an abysmal brand of football” on his morning radio show. Following a bounce back win Sunday, he dedicated his first three of 25 league-wide observations to the game. Eventually, he plans to cover the Rams just like any other team, but seeing how emotional people still are over their departure, he knows now is not the time to do so.
“It became easy to kick St. Louis around as a city in turmoil and decline,” Miklasz says. “So I think there’s a sensitivity to how you are perceived, how the Rams left and the way they left, that really hurt people because we are sensitive to that perception that the city is dying and that it’s a complete mess. This only made all of that worse.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch writerJim Thomas, meanwhile, was at the game in Los Angeles after watching Kansas City play San Diego during Week 1. Each Tuesday, he hosts an online chat that has turned into some combination of therapy session and turf war as fans in L.A. send football questions while St. Louis area readers sign in to vent their anger about the whole ordeal. As for Thomas, he misses covering practice on a daily basis and being embedded in an organization. That said, when he was given the chance to pursue a new gig in Southern California that would have afforded him that opportunity, he chose to stay put.
Randy Fauth only sells the pennants of two St. Louis teams in his store now.
Sports Card Dugout
Having run a sports memorabilia shop for nearly three decades, Randy Fauth knows a thing or two about mementos. And he thinks fans are going to regret giving up theirs from the Rams’ glory years.
“All these people that want to get rid of Torry Holt jerseys, Marshall Faulk jerseys, Kurt Warner jerseys,” he said, “They are going to remember that the Rams were really good then and fun to watch. We got a Super Bowl in St. Louis. I still can’t believe they won. They never did that in Los Angeles.”
At the same time, Fauth understands the repulsion his neighbors feel when they look at all that Blue and Gold history. “I love footba— I used to love football,” he says. “I’m not playing fantasy any more. I'm not watching. How else will the NFL get the message? Maybe if enough people stop watching they’ll learn not to treat communities like pawns.”
rams fans st louisstan kroenke relocationrams relocationLos Angeles Ramsstan kroenkest louis nfl stadiumst louis rams moveedward jones dome leasest louis rams move to larams st louis relocation
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Deja View: Interview With HP's Head Of Social Computing Lab
[I'm republishing some of my favorite articles of 2009.]
Is it possible to describe aspects of human behavior through algorithms? Hewlett-Packard's Bernardo Huberman believes you can and he has the studies to prove it.
Mr Huberman has one of the more interesting jobs in the computer industry. He heads up the Social Computing Lab within HP Laboratories. It's a team of about a dozen researchers studying how people behave on the Internet.
They look at fairly ordinary activities such as the number of YouTube downloads, the number of "Diggs" a web page receives, or the number of times people upload and share content.
From such mundane activities his team can derive algorithms that seem to uncover aspects of human nature and provide a glimpse into things about ourselves that could be universal, that could very well be possibly hard-wired into our very being.
The key to this research is that the studies are extremely large, the sample sizes are in the many tens of millions. The larger the samples, the clearer are the patterns of human behavior that emerge.
"We did a big study of 70 million YouTube video downloads and also millions of Digg stories. From that we can now tell which content is about to go viral," says Mr Huberman.
The study is part of the Social Computing Lab's work on what holds an Internet user's attention.
"Attention is a limited resource. We cannot produce more attention. It will be forever limited."
The study showed that attention is a function of novelty. And that attention will decay in a predictable pattern as novelty decreases.
"We see the same graph, time and again. All content has the same graph of attention and decay."
The shape of the graph is not a "Huberman distribution" it is one that has been familiar to statisticians since the mid-19th century, it is a lognormal distribution, also known as a Galton distribution.
Since the popularity of all Internet content always exhibits the same curve it is possible to make judgements about which content is rising in popularity and therefore promote it on a web page while removing content that is falling in attention.
Catching your eye...
HP has developed a tool it calls i-catcher that can be used to maximize attention for any web content. The tool is currently being tested at a large Danish publication where it helps determine the position of content on the page.
Although such algorithms work best when used against large amounts of content, Mr Huberman says that i-catcher has also proven effective within HP's internal blogs, which only have several thousand visitors.
Mr Huberman's team has also studied uploading of videos, numbers of comments, ratings, etc. Not surprisingly, the more of this type of this involvement and sharing activity the higher the quality of the content. But surprisingly, the more people uploaded the less successful was their content in terms of popularity.
Craving attention...
What is people's motivation when they upload content and share? Mr Huberman says it is based on a strong desire to gain attention.
"We are attention machines, we constantly crave attention."
But not everyone is a Paris Hilton or a Julia Allison. Clearly, many people are able to satisfy their relatively modest hunger for attention in moderate ways.
Still, this craving for attention is another insight that Mr Huberman's team has uncovered when it comes to predicting the mass behavior of Internet users.
Asymmetric attention...
Another interesting quality of attention is that it is asymmetric. I ask what this means.
"People will give attention to content regardless of the quality of the content. People are attracted to popularity. They are interested in what is popular and that is often independent of the quality of the content."
I ask how these findings are being used within HP. For example, the marketing department could use these algorithms in their efforts to gain attention for their marketing messages, and to sell more HP gear and services.
Mr Huberman smiles," Yes, marketing is very interested. It seems that for the first time, the work at HP Labs is relevant to the marketing department. Labs has never worked with marketing before."
HP Labs pilots i-catcher, a service that automatically maximizes the viewership of media Web sites (July 2009)
Bernardo Huberman, Director, Social Computing Lab, HP Labs
Social Computing Lab
A Gold Mine Of Original Research Into Online Social Behavior
Video: Social Dynamics In The Age Of The Web
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School for missionary children in Japan investigating allegations of past abuse
(RNS) — The Christian Academy in Japan, a suburban Tokyo school founded in 1950 as a boarding school for the children of Christian missionaries, is investigating 66 cases of alleged past abuse of students at the school spanning decades.
Those allegations include faculty physically and sexually abusing students mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, though a representative for a school alumni group said she is aware of cases as early as the late 1950s and as recent as the 1990s.
A written statement on the school’s website from Anda Foxwell, head of school, said the alleged abuse reportedly occurred “a quarter to a half century ago.”
But, Foxwell wrote, the Christian Academy in Japan admits that “as a school, CAJ did not provide the nurturing and caring environment for children that we should have provided.
“This is not the school CAJ is now. We renounce a culture of silence that suppressed the truth, which prohibited children from being heard in their suffering. We acknowledge that students were vulnerable to the way staff members used their power against them in ways that were hurtful and harmful, and we want to express our deep grief over learning about the pain some children endured,” the statement reads.
The investigation comes after former students began connecting and sharing stories about their experiences at the school on social media amid the attention given to sexual abuse by #MeToo and similar movements, Foxwell told Religion News Service.
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Home » A.J. Perri donates $52,000 in products, services to military families
Industry NewsIndustrial HVACResidential HVAC
A.J. Perri donates $52,000 in products, services to military families
A.J. Perri, an HVAC and plumbing contractor based in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, has donated more than $52,000 in time and materials to area veterans and their families.
KEYWORDS air conditioning / donation / HVAC equipment / military
A New Jersey contractor has given more than $52, 000 worth of HVAC equipment and installations to area military families in the past year.
The equipment is courtesy of A.J. Perri, an HVAC and plumbing contractor based in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.
“The team at A.J. Perri appreciates the service and sacrifices active and retired military men and women make,” said Jim Henkel, A.J. Perri’s general manager. “So we want to help them stay comfortable in their homes while affording them no expenses. It is a privilege to be able to serve those who have selflessly served our country.”
“We’re very grateful for A.J. Perri,” said Jamie Robertson, whose 16-year-old air-conditioning unit stopped working during hot June temperatures.
The Robertsons were one of four families who recently received free services from A.J. Perri.
Robertson’s wife, Brandi, said she is thankful for the contractor’s efforts.
“Civilians accepting us and supporting us in the community is hugely important,” she said. “That is how we can take care of our country with less stress in our home.”
“We see this as a different opportunity to give back, and we’re excited to help more families in need,” Henkel said.
The Gaines family was also in need of a new HVAC system and water heating equipment. Their existing unit was original to their 20-year-old home. During the fall and winter months, they layered jackets and sweatpants while in their home.
A.J. workers traveled to the Gaines’ home in Bayville, New Jersey, and installed a new heating and cooling system, water heater, a Nest carbon monoxide and smoke detector and Nest thermostat, all free.
Charles Gaines and his wife Diana grilled lunch for the crew while they worked.
WaterFurnace donates $38,000 to military support organization
Warranty company donates to military charity
HVAC market products company donates Wi-Fi units to wounded veterans
Should you add duct cleaning to your list of in-house services?
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Home -Album Review Guillermo Pizarro - "Harmonic Poems" album review
Guillermo Pizarro - "Harmonic Poems" album review
Back in 2014, I played a show at Garfield Artworks with Guillermo Pizarro, Christopher Feltner, Stephen Palke, and Ali & the Haitians. I don't remember much about the show. Recently, in the last month or two, I saw that Guillermo Pizarro had released a new album that seemed to be semi-blowing up across the noise groups on Facebook or at least was being talked about by various friends in "the scene". I figured I'd check it out.
The cover art of Harmonic Poems brings the viewer to a strange barren cabin room, the kind that might exist in a modern horror film. There is a focus on the strange chair, perhaps the seating for a garrulous ghost. It's quite a bleak, ghastly image and a good display of what will be heard when the musick is set in motion.
Harmonic Poems by Guillermo Pizarro
Harmonic Poems starts with "My Guest", sounds the crackling of wood, the invitation to a dark house as pictured on the cover. It is a slow burn, erupting into booms and crashes that sub-octavely pained me to listen to. I had to take off my headphones to hear all the creaky, creepy sounds without like losing my hearing. This track is still incredibly painful and probably damaging to speakers. It's certainly going to an interesting level, but I kind of don't like it for the levels it goes to. The next track, "A Room With A View", scares me. The high-pitched tones and strange screeches made me fear what might come next, but then it just stopped. There were just the sounds of typing or rattling shutters or clicking buttons and switches before the tones returned with more monstrous sounds too. And then everything stopped, and a voice spoke amidst explosions. The voice creeped me out, talking directly to me. I really felt scared. It was dark at night, I was alone in my house, and I almost gave up listening to the album right there.
I'm glad I toughed it out. "Aokigahara" has a different kind of space. It is still a scary space filled with the murmurs of the unliving surrounded by rattling bells, but this one is not claustrophobic. There is air to breath, maybe at the risk of one's health, and there is a space to get lost into. It's really not a good place to get lost though - Aokigahara is the suicide forest of Japan. It really isn't good for your health to be there. The creaking sounds, lost violins on the winds of the damned, build as the track goes on. I became afraid again. "Aokigahara Pt. II" features more violin, more cries, and rain. The violin provides more of a song than before, but the samples are a little much. The cries, which become somewhat annoying by the end, and the storm, drown out the sound of the violin. I don't think it works particularly well.
"Wind Horn (Kaze no Denwa)" recalls another morbid Japanese cultural artifact - a disconnected rotary phone on the shores of the Pacific Ocean to call to those lost in the tsunami of 2011. This track was interesting but the harsh noise blows everything out again. It kind of works here, but I feel like it is strange to use these types of sounds when referencing something solemn like that. I really like the droning sounds that go thru the rest of the track; I wish that was the main focus. When this track ended, I became acutely aware of the fan blowing in the other room. It seemed so loud all of a sudden. I quickly went back to focusing on the album, somewhat unnerved again.
"13 Years - Deep Creek Blues" is the final track. It starts with one or more field recordings, seemingly someone walking through a creek bed surrounded by animals and flies. The same voice from earlier begins to talk, very low and rough. The man says something about going down to the creek, but it's hard to make out the rest amidst all of the other sounds. I don't particularly like the separation of the sounds, obviously sourced from multiple sources. The voice sounds so robotic; of course, that's kind of the big reveal I guess. The track ends in a flood of Iommi-esque guitar and black metal vox.
Harmonic Poems is really an interesting album. It really does try something experimental. There is a narrative, but it doesn't consume the entire album. There are a lot of different sounds in relatively few tracks as well, ambient to metal to harsh noise. Unfortunately the production gets in the way. I didn't like the harsh, blown-out, digital sound of the various samples and effects used. It felt claustrophobic and somewhat jarring with the rest of the track, though on "A Room With A View", it helped create a particular fear. The levels seem off to me; it's hard to hear various sections that seem important. I did enjoy the album, though I also find it hard to listen to. Harmonic Poems tries something different; I don't think it is totally successful, but it made a good effort. Harmonic Poems gets a Good.
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It seemed as if nothing could stop James Bond, but then came a novel enemy ... the coronavirus
This was published 10 months ago
An on-set explosion. Creative differences. #MeToo. The latest blockbuster in the 007 film franchise has faced its share of challenges. Will No Time to Die live up to its name?
By Greg Callaghan
Daniel Craig appears for the fifth and final time as James Bond in No Time to Die – with rumours his character may even be killed off. Credit:Nicola Dove
We’re driving just after dusk along a wooded country road, rain pitter-pattering on the windscreen, the white beams of the headlights cutting through the shrouding mist to reveal pine trees and furrows of sticky mud lining the roadside. We come to a gentle stop at a small guardhouse beneath a commanding silver sign, the CCTV cameras above watching us. The security guy punches his keyboard, waves us through. That’s when I see her.
Renée.
Zellweger, that is. Her beautiful filled and filtered face is plastered over a towering billboard on the side of a massive white, windowless sound stage at Pinewood studios, west of London, where parts of Judy – the Judy Garland biopic – were filmed.
But I’m not here for Renée. Or Judy. I’m here for Bond. James Bond. Nearly all the Bond films were shot here at Pinewood, beginning with Dr. No in 1962. We pass one sprawling sound stage after another – there are 18 on the lot – including a stretch of cleared land set aside for a massive new stage, testament to the voracious appetite for film and TV content in this age of streaming and nesting.
Located within the green belt, a swath of rural land that rings London, Pinewood opened in 1936 on the grounds of a Victorian manor house, Heatherden Hall. Thousands of films have been shot here, from classics like Oliver Twist (1948) to recent blockbusters like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). It hosts the 007 sound stage, one of the largest film stages in the world.
This is the first act in a press junket extravaganza for the latest and 25th James Bond film, No Time to Die. It’s late October 2019, over two months before China will alert the World Health Organisation to several cases of an unusual pneumonia in the city of Wuhan. At this point, No Time to Die is pitched for an international release in the first week of April 2020. Box-office takings across Asia will be a crucial determinant of its success – and the future of the Bond franchise. Vast amounts of money are at stake. This is the most expensive Bond movie ever made, with a reported budget of $US250 million ($380 million), a crew of 650, and enough sponsored product placement (Omega, Aston Martin, Heineken, Jaguar Land Rover, Bollinger) to make a marketing executive’s eyes water.
Film junkets on this scale are a devil’s bargain for journalists – leaving us feeling guilty of churlish ingratitude if we don’t deliver a positive, gushy story after we’ve been flown to film sets across the world and put up at fancy hotels, and shamefaced for selling our souls if we do. Scout’s honour, I’ve been a 007 fan since I was a kid, so I’m torn between the “Wowww, I can’t believe I’m on a James Bond set!!!” response, and the captive anxiety of “Oh no, they’ve changed my interview schedule again,” “Will they give me enough time with Daniel Craig/Rami Malek/Lashana Lynch?” and “Crikey, how do I make this story not sound like a free ad for the film?”
Daniel Craig on James Bond's attitude towards women: "He’s a hero, but he’s also deeply flawed. It is up to audiences to decide on Bond. Not for me.” Credit:Nicola Dove
Either way, my circadian rhythms have been doing a river dance since I arrived in the UK the day before, after 27 hours in a tin can in the sky. Just after dusk, about a dozen of us, all long-lead print and online reporters from Europe, Japan, the US and UK, pile into two minivans for the 10-minute drive from our hotel to Pinewood. But not before we’re asked to sign two embargoes and cautioned “interviews should be straightforward and film-focused and not involve any games or gimmicks”. It’s not as if we could go crazy with plot spoilers: even the actors don’t know how No Time to Die ends, as three alternatives were reportedly shot.
I know this because, in the interests of hard-nosed investigative reporting, I spent a night in a semi-coma googling fun facts such as 007 author Ian Fleming choosing the name “Bond” because he considered it short and manly, and his fictional super spy attending Fettes College in Edinburgh, where Sean Connery was the school’s milkman in the mid-1940s.
Ursula Andress’s famous scene in 1962’s Dr. No. Credit:Alamy
Upon arriving at Pinewood, we’re ushered into Workshop 10, where a German journalist ahead of me is gazing wide-eyed – gasp! – at Ursula Andress’s white cotton bikini from Dr. No (often dubbed “the most famous bikini of all time”), which is suspended in a tall glass cabinet in a corner. (I later learn, to my disappointment, that it’s a replica.) That iconic cinema moment when Andress’s character, Honey Ryder, emerges from the glistening Caribbean waters all coppery and dripping was reprised by Daniel Craig in his nutcracking baby-blue togs and tanned, jacked physique more than four decades later in Casino Royale.
Craig in Casino Royale (2006) mirrored Ursula Andress's scene – but for a different audience. Credit:
My attention switches to four framed Bond movie posters – all Craig vehicles – lined up across the walls in order of release: Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), most featuring the gun-barrel silhouette of 007, brimming with adrenalin and testosterone, with a glam, sexy woman draped at his side.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when excessive, smug masculinity became unfashionable. Even Craig himself has labelled Bond a misogynist, and hates the term “Bond girls”, something I’m keen to ask him about. The problem for the ageing Bond franchise has not been finding crazier stunts, cooler gadgets and more luscious locations. The problem has been Bond himself. 007 is the most famous ladies’ man in modern cinema, a love ’em and leave ’em serial shagger whose pick-up and post-coital lines in the first four decades of the series sound amusingly sexist to 21st-century ears. Take the opening scene from You Only Live Twice (1967), when Sean Connery’s Bond is under the sheets with Ling, a pretty Chinese woman:
Bond: Why do Chinese girls taste different from all other girls?
Ling: You think we better, huh?
Bond: No, just different. Like Peking duck is different from Russian caviar. But I love them both.
Ling: Darling, I give you very best duck.
Ah, what a cultural shift has occurred since Roald Dahl, the acclaimed children’s writer who wrote the screenplay for You Only Live Twice, penned those gems. Or has it? Thirty years later, in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), audiences were treated to the following:
Bond: I always enjoyed learning a new tongue.
Miss Moneypenny: You always were a cunning linguist, James.
A pre-#MeToo-era scene from 1967’s You Only Live Twice. Credit:Getty Images
Over the past 20 years, the Bond women have been empowered, especially so since Craig became the man from MI6. But can Bond survive the post-Harvey Weinstein world too? No Time to Die has been made at a particularly “woke” moment. The last film, Spectre, was released in November 2015, two years to the month before #MeToo went viral. No Time to Die risks hitting a new raw spot when everyone is chattering about gender and power dynamics. How do you update 007’s man-whore ways without stripping him of his macho mojo?
That question has long been uppermost in the mind of Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, who has just sailed into this office/press room with her producer half-brother Michael Wilson. Broccoli, 59, and Wilson, 78, are lauded as Bond royalty.
“Two more nights of shooting,” sighs the balding, bearded Wilson in his deep, southern Californian drawl, sitting behind a tabletop of flickering digital recorders and smartphones.
“We’re exhausted; it’s been seven months,” chimes in Broccoli, who has long, straight, chestnut hair, chocolate-brown eyes and a winning smile.
The wrap in two days’ time will be “bittersweet”, she reflects, because “Daniel is saying it’s his last”.
“But is it really?” one journalist cuts in. “We managed to talk him around for this one, but I don’t think we’ll get him to come back,” Broccoli says resignedly.
“This is it,” adds Wilson quietly.
Craig, who famously griped while promoting Spectre that he’d rather slash his wrists than play Bond again, was reportedly “talked around” when Broccoli and Wilson waved a $US25 million cheque in front of him, plus a percentage of profits.
When one reporter asks if this film has been their biggest headache to date, the duo burst into raucous laughter. (Shooting was plagued by a string of hold-ups, from a change of director over creative differences, to Craig requiring minor ankle surgery after an on-set accident, to the damaged exterior of the 007 sound stage after a “controlled explosion” went awry.)
“They’re all headaches,” says Wilson, tossing his head back, not knowing that the mother of all headaches is still ahead of him.
Broccoli is the daughter of renowned film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who in 1961 teamed up with theatre and film producer Harry Saltzman to raise money to bring Ian Fleming’s character to the big screen. (Saltzman had already put in a bid to the bestselling author for the screen rights.) The two men formed Eon Productions (an acronym for “everything or nothing”) to produce the first Bond film, Dr. No on a budget of $US1 million, which reaped $US59.5 million and paved the way for the high-grossing blockbusters that followed. When Skyfall hit cinema screens worldwide on the franchise’s 50th anniversary in 2012, it hauled in $US1.1 billion at the box office, an all-time Bond record. (Its successor, Spectre, raked in a highly respectable $US881 million, but was less warmly received by critics and audiences, which puts greater pressure on No Time to Die to succeed.)
From the outset, this has been a family franchise. Albert Broccoli was married to actor Dana Wilson, who already had a teenage son, Michael, from a previous marriage. The half-siblings spent time on the 007 sets, although over different decades, both moving up the production ranks until Cubby Broccoli passed the keys of the Bond kingdom, and its parent company Eon, to his two offspring in 1995, a year before his death. Since then, Barbara and Michael have held an iron grip on the franchise – overseeing every casting decision, signing off on every line of dialogue, presiding over every phase of marketing. (Michael’s two sons also work for Eon.)
The title of the movie, announced last August after more than two years of being called Bond 25, has drawn a mixed response from fans, given the word “die” has popped up so often – Live and Let Die (1973), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Die Another Day (2002). “The title is always difficult,” observes Broccoli. “I came in one day and thought, ‘That’s it.’ Then I realised [No Time to Die] was actually the name of a film my father shot in the 1950s. But that made it more special to me. My dad’s legacy is prominent, all through these films.”
Against considerable hand-wringing among her professional peers who believed a blond, rough-edged 007 would be met with a cool response from audiences, Broccoli was determined to cast Daniel Craig after seeing him in the 2004 British indie crime film Layer Cake. It proved an inspired choice: Craig’s performance in 2006’s Casino Royale, the origin story of 007, succeeded in rebooting the franchise, which was at a creative stalemate following four financially successful but low-calorie Bond outings by Pierce Brosnan. Supported by a more nuanced script, Craig elevated the super spy from a cheesy caricature into something gritty and vulnerable, a man with demons and a capacity for true love. Even Bond’s trademark quips got an update: in a casino scene when 007 is asked by a barman whether he’d like his vodka martini shaken or stirred, he replies, “Do I look like I give a damn?”
Glancing at the four movie posters on the wall opposite, Broccoli gushes that Craig’s upcoming turn as 007 is his best (“this film has an epic emotional quality; it’s going to blow them away”). Rumours are rife that Bond himself will be blown away – that in one alternative ending, Bond is killed, which would throw open the door for a radical reboot of the franchise for the post-Craig films. Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle, the first director, was replaced after a script dispute by Cary Fukunaga of True Detective fame. But the very title of the film, No Time to Die, suggests Bond’s survival.
Whatever his fate, Broccoli and Wilson enlisted Emmy award-winning actor and scriptwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, of Killing Eve and Fleabag fame, to sharpen up the dialogue in a script already penned by Bond veterans Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and polished by director Fukunaga. “Phoebe has great humour and wit, is in touch with the zeitgeist and Daniel is a fan of hers, so it was a no-brainer,” says Broccoli.
Zeitgeist-y or not, it’s clear the duo is first and foremost aiming to create a huge popcorn hit. Whatever happens in the world in the meantime is outside their control. “Nobody wants to make the last Bond film,” says Wilson reflectively, adding that they’ve followed most of the tried-and-tested formulas, including a liberal dose of exotic locations. “We started filming in Norway, then Jamaica, then up to Scotland, then locations in London, then Matera in Italy for three weeks, then back here. It adds up to the usual travel adventure.”
Daniel Craig was offered $US25 million plus a percentage of profits to play Bond for the fifth time. Credit:Nicola Dove
Bullets are firing everywhere inside a hotel on a rain-washed, dimly lit Havana street. I have no idea what’s going on because I’m stuck behind a wire barrier with two other journalists and a publicist, checking out a man who looks eerily like Daniel Craig walk towards us with a pastry and a wide smile. Daniel? I squint, before realising it has to be his stand-in.
This is the dream machine in action – in the middle of Pinewood studios. Mark Tildesley, a blue-eyed, bespectacled 56-year-old who is the film’s head production designer, has already explained how he and his team took a reconnaissance mission to Cuba to suss out how they might film there, but were stymied by pesky politics (“they kept asking how we were going to portray the country”) and logistics (“we faced the prospect of shutting down streets and knocking down walls”).
And so, after sketching and taking photos of Havana’s finest neoclassical architecture, Tildesley built this whole street at Pinewood in just nine weeks, including the facades of bars, nightclubs and a barber shop. “We’ve created a set more Havana than anything in Cuba,” the cheery, rugby-mad Brit explains, standing beside a diagram of the set.
We’ve already been taken on a tour of the production workshops, including those of the prop makers who handcraft 007’s guns, but who gives a damn about a rubber Beretta 418 when you get to see a silver birch Aston Martin DB5 replica, the classic Bond car that first appeared in Goldfinger, firing a blaze of fake bullets from pop-out machine guns behind the headlights? (I shamelessly accept an offer from a publicist to take a photo of me beside one of the DB5s used in the film, which I intend to shamelessly post on Instagram.)
In a large tent about 50 metres from the set, we watch Daniel Craig on a monitor, taking his mark on the set of a Havana hotel, looking upwards and firing his gun with both hands. Few men, let alone those over 50, look better in a four-figure Tom Ford suit; few actors do inscrutable swagger better. Between takes, 007 walks into our tent. But the 007 in question is Lashana Lynch, whose character, Nomi, is given Bond’s secret agent number after he leaves MI6 (the film’s opening premise has the super spy coming out of retirement in Jamaica after five years to help his CIA officer friend track down a missing scientist). Lynch, a tallish, vibrant and down-to-earth 32-year-old of Jamaican/British origin, says she is excited to be a major character in the franchise: “My character is a black woman in 2019 overcoming so much.”
Director Cary Fukunaga (centre) with Craig (left) and Lashana Lynch (right), who plays secret agent Nomi, one of No Time to Die’s “incredibly strong” female characters. Credit:Nicola Dove
Which raises the question, will Lynch be the next James Bond, or is hers a one-off role for this film alone? As Barbara Broccoli has repeatedly said that Bond “can be of any colour, but he is male”, it’s unlikely to be the former. In 2018, Broccoli told The Guardian: “We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.”
In any case, the films have come a long way since the days when the Bond girls had names like Pussy Galore (Goldfinger, 1964), Chew Mee (Man with the Golden Gun, 1974) and Holly Goodhead (Moonraker, 1979). Even in the Pierce Brosnan era the female characters tended to be underwritten stereotypes, with the exception of Judi Dench as M.
As most of the journalists I’m accompanying are seasoned entertainment reporters who’ve interviewed many of the Bond stars before, notably Daniel Craig, I ask one what’s he really like. The reporter leans inconspiratorially, outside the earshot of a nearby publicist. “Grumpy. He can be quite short with you.”
“Grumpy?” I say, a little too loudly. “What’s he got to be a grumpy about?”
Daniel Craig on location in the southern Italian city of Matera. Credit:Oliver Palombi / MEGA TheMegaAgency.com
It's early December 2019, only weeks before the announcement of the novel coronovirus outbreak, and the worldwide promotion of No Time to Die is in full throttle. I’m in New York for the major one-on-one and group interviews with the cast. As the full twinkling panorama of Manhattan slides into view on this freezing snowy night, my cab driver declares, “I must come this way six times a day, but I never get sick of seeing that skyline.” Ah, the heady thrill of Noo Yawk, a storybook city that’s officially the most popular set location in the film and TV world, but a city that amazingly – or perhaps not – has seen only one James Bond film, Live and Let Die, set here, back in 1973. (That also happens to be the first Bond film Daniel Craig saw as a little boy.)
I ask the driver, who must be in his early 50s, whether he’s a Bond fan, but he mishears me.
“Bong fan??
“No, no, James Bond, you know, 007. One of the old films, Live and Let Die, was partly filmed here.”
“Live and what???”
His ignorance surprises me: a survey undertaken in 2012 by polling company YouGov found 60 per cent of Americans describe themselves as Bond fans, among them former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and the late Ronald Reagan.
“You have 20 minutes,” a publicist tells us the following morning in the conference room of the mega-elegant Crosby Hotel in lower Manhattan. About a dozen of us have already been given a sneak preview of the trailer for No Time to Die; now we’re set to meet Daniel Craig and Barbara Broccoli in a “round table” interview. When the pair walk into the room, I’m struck by Craig’s assured, commanding presence. Dressed in dark blue trousers and a jacket over an open-necked shirt, he’s craggier in the face and slighter than I imagined, but by no means short, at 178 centimetres tall, or 5 foot 10.
A reporter kicks off by asking the 52-year-old how he’s feeling now he’s wrapped up his last Bond film. Craig circles the question briefly, saying he feels “sad” it’s over but is “immensely proud” of the five films, which brought “all the Bond tropes back in, but in an original way”. He admits, “I didn’t want to do this movie, I didn’t want to do any of them, but I’m so glad I did now.”
What’s been the hardest thing about playing Bond? “Doing this,” he says dryly, looking down the table at us.
“I didn’t want to do this movie, I didn’t want to do any of them, but I’m so glad I did now.”
I seize the awkward pause and ask how he thinks Bond evolved during his 007 tenure, particularly in light of the social earthquake of the #MeToo movement. “Are you talking to me?” he jokes, turning to face me with more than a little ice. “Of course, you,” I smile sweetly.
“This is a long conversation I’ve had with Barbara,” he replies. “How do you deal with Bond’s misogyny, or his problem with women? He’s got a fairly messed-up attitude towards women. I don’t make apologies for that. What we’ve done is find these incredibly strong female characters who he’s come up against. He’s a hero, but he’s also deeply flawed. It is up to audiences to decide on Bond. Not for me …”
Broccoli cuts in: “Bond has already had trouble forming attachments, and that’s part of the character. He’s an orphan. He fell in love with Vesper Lynd [in Casino Royale] and she broke his heart.” Craig warms to the theme. “We could throw in all kinds of references to the world, and I think we all agree it dates a film.”
Within seconds of the duo exiting the room, there is a little echo, beginning with one reporter piping up, “Well he was in a good mood today,” while another enthuses, “So much more open and chatty,” and someone else offers “nice mood”. Even one of the publicists in the lift remarks on how chatty and cheery “Daniel” is today. Oh, what a tedious grind it must be, having to do interview after interview with reporters asking so many of the same questions. Craig can now return to his $US6.6 million brownstone across town, his day of soulless press meets over.
I’m escorted to the 11th floor, seated in a spare chair outside the lift doors, and asked to wait. I count 10 publicists milling about, some crouched on the floor in the corridor, heads in their phones, at least one standing sentry at each door to the suites. Behind each of these doors a major star from the film is ensconced, waiting for reporter after reporter to march in with their list of questions.
A publicist checks her running sheet, says, “You’re up next” and ushers me down the hallway. Another opens a door with a minor flourish while a third inside immediately clicks on her phone’s timer for my 10-minute slot. I’m about to meet French actress Léa Seydoux, who plays Dr Madeleine Swann, Bond’s love interest in No Time to Die.
Léa Seydoux as Dr Madeleine Swann, Bond’s love interest. Credit:Nicola Dove
I. Can’t. Help. Looking. Resplendent in a black pants suit with black high-heel boots and pearl earrings, Seydoux is breathtakingly beautiful. The odd puffs of smoke billowing behind her ears, which I quickly realise are from her discreet vaping, add another disarming touch (smoking-hot French actresses being apparently exempt from no-smoking rules in New York’s finest hotels). As she describes her character, the 34-year-old’s soft, lilting French accent lulls me into a kind of trance.
“She’s not there to please Bond’s sexuality … she’s a real character … I wouldn’t call her a Bond woman.”
How much of herself does she bring to the character?
“I feed my characters with my experience. I always feel I am many women … I’m sorry, I hear your phone.”
Jolted out of my reverie, I grab my handset in a panic. It’s switched to silent.
Our heads turn to the offending publicist. She’s been rustling her notes, for which she apologises profusely. Confused by how Seydoux has mistaken a clipboard’s paper-shuffling for a ringtone, I offer irrelevantly, “Do you find interviews boring?”
“Nooo … It’s interesting to speak about what you do. I like it when it’s a conversation like this … you exchange ideas … You never know how people will pursue you … purr sue? No, no per ceeeve you …”
She doesn’t strike me as someone who worries about what others think of her, I suggest.
Our time up, I ask Léa Seydoux whether she’d like to see a female Bond. “I don’t really care,” she says.
“No, not so much …” before adding that we’re all a mass of contradictions. “I am a very scary person,” which she immediately corrects to “scared”, adding, “I am strong and I am weak. I like to be in the light, but I also hate it.”
Our time up, I ask whether she’d like to see a female Bond. “I don’t really care,” she says, as I’m walking out the door.
After another 10 minutes or so, I’m escorted deeper down the celebrity corridor, where another door is flung open. I’m about to enter the villain’s lair.
Rami Malek plays the film’s villain, Safin. Credit:Nicola Dove
The first thing you notice about Rami Malek is his distinctive honey-rich baritone voice. The second is that he’s exceedingly polite and exudes a chill vibe. Sitting cross-legged, he patiently answers questions, and good-naturedly gets up to shake my hand at the beginning and end of the interview (the only star to do so during my time in Bond’s world).
I’m interested in how he manipulates his voice to suit his character, the villain Safin. “I really don’t enjoy the sound of my own voice,” the 38-year-old admits. “William Conacher [a British dialect coach] helped me get the phrase voice right for Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody and gave me some ideas for the villain, which I took to Cary Fukunaga to see whether they would fit.”
Did he research any of the early cat-stroking Bond villains? “Not only did I go through the Bond villains, but a catalogue of cinema history and picked out all my favourite villains.” His favourite? The former MI6 agent turned cyber terrorist, Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem in Skyfall, because of his backstory. “There’s nothing simplistic about being a villain,” observes Malek. “What drives that human being to do what they are doing? Is their malice defined by them or defined by others?”
We proceed to talk very briefly about his extraordinary journey – being the son of Egyptian immigrant parents, having a twin brother, growing up in Los Angeles, going to school with fellow actor Kirsten Dunst – and his astonishing rise. “Look man, if you told me in the span of two years, I’d be playing an icon like Freddie Mercury, then the villain in a Bond film, I would have laughed at you,” he says. “I don’t take this for granted for a second.”
After receiving his Best Actor Oscar statuette at the Academy Awards last year, he took a stumble on stage; there are videos of him on YouTube taking other falls. Is he a little clumsy? “I don’t think of myself as clumsy,” he laughs. “Perhaps I have a little too much on my mind.”
Malek has an earnest reverence for his craft. “When you’re at this level and working with such talented people, there is not much room to be anything other than poised, specific and intense.”
As I’m leaving the hotel and grabbing my luggage for a mad dash to the airport, it occurs to me that Bond wouldn’t be seen dead boarding a plane with a bag. I pass the highly engaging Lashana Lynch on her way to the lifts. “You know, you’re about the only reporter who still uses a notepad,” she observes.
“Well, I like to do some things the old-fashioned way,” I reply, stealing a Bond line from Casino Royale. Lynch looks at me blankly, the reference clearly passing her by. I feel compelled to elaborate. “I record, but the notes are for observational stuff.” “Ah, I see,” she laughs. “Hope you’ll still see the film.”
It's early 2020. The much-awaited title song for No Time to Die by 18-year-old singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, beloved by Generation Z, has been released, and the publicity machine has the pedal to the metal in the final lap to the film’s opening. But news of the coronavirus has become increasingly alarming. While the entertainment industry is hardly a priority in the face of a global pandemic, those whose livelihoods depend on the production, distribution and promotion of films are hit hard as cinemas across China, South Korea, Japan and Italy close their doors in February.
On March 2, the founders of the world’s two biggest James Bond fan sites send an open letter to Eon, MGM and Universal calling for the postponement of the film’s release because of the public health risk. Then, on the rainy morning of Thursday March 5, my phone lights up with emails and texts. A statement has been issued from the offices of Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli: the release of No Time to Die will be postponed until November. The rescheduling is likely to cost unknown millions in cancellation fees and relaunches.
No Time to Die is the first Hollywood blockbuster to shift its release date because of the coronavirus. Suddenly, Lashana Lynch’s words outside the lifts back in November seem oddly prescient.
Greg Callaghan flew to the UK and the US courtesy of Universal Pictures.
To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
Greg Callaghan
Greg Callaghan is a senior writer and the Associate editor with Good Weekend.
Most Viewed in Culture
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Stockinger posts best finish yet in Formula Renault 3.5 Series
by Matt Montoya
Marlon Stockinger posted his best finish yet in the Moscow stop of the 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 Series.
FILIPINO F1 hopeful Marlon Stockinger earned his first points for the Lotus F1 Junior team by finishing eighth overall in Race 1 during the fifth round of the 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 Series held in Moscow, Russia.
The 22-year-old Stockinger came home ahead of Danish teammate Marco Sorensen and highlighted his most impressive showing to date with a third-place finish in the rookie podium.
This marked the first time the Filipino-Swiss tested the newly-built Moscow Raceway, where the series returns for the second time upon its completion in 2012.
The rookie driver of the Lotus F1 Junior team, actually finished even better in the qualifying round for Race 1 where he placed a strong sixth.
He later qualified in Race 2 by placing 19th before officially finishing in 12th by the end of the race.
Aside from Stockinger, 12 other rookies complete a roster of 30 drivers from around the world vying for top podium honors in the race series where many Formula 1 teams draft their future drivers.
Four more rounds will be staged in the motor racing championship for 3.5-liter Formula Renault cars, with Round 6 to be held in Austria from July 20-21.
The Formula Renault 3.5 Series is the highlight race of each of the World Series by Renault events.
Last summer, Stockinger brought to the country a real F1 car which he drove around the grounds of the Mall of Asia Arena and the Quirino Grandstand as part of his Lotus F1 roadshow.
marlon stockinger f1 racing russia
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Movie Review - YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
2017 saw a movie that never really got much attention, even though it should have. You Were Never Really Here is about a traumatized veteran, who is not afraid of violence. His job is to track down missing girls. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death or his awakening.
Joe, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is a man who does what he needs to, providing he is paid. He has a job to do, and it is to track down missing girls who were taken in the name of sex trafficking. Most of the time he may not be successful in getting the girl, but he does exact vengeance when it is asked of him.
Joe, throughout the movie, does have some obvious issues. He takes care of his aged mother, and he remembers childhood trauma that causes him to risk his own life almost every night. There isn’t much given about his past, but the audience does see that there is one incident when he is working with either the military or after, that has caused him to take on the role of a paid savior.
This movie is a slow burn. It begins in a hotel room and ends in a diner. There are scenes which seem to be placed just to confuse the audience as to what is really going on, but overall it is a movie in something of the same vein as Leon: The Professional. Joe is sent to find and rescue Nina, the daughter of an elected official. Her father finds out who has taken his daughter and is understandably upset when he finds it is the man he is working on a campaign for. The man has been so taken with Nina that when she is rescued, she is immediately retrieved, setting off events that cause death to those Joe loves, and causing him to do what he has learned to do best, kill.
This movie was slow and weird, but there were several scenes that were interesting. One scene is Joe laying next to a man he has been fighting with. They are both laying on the floor, one dying and one exhausted from the fight. A song comes on and they both sing softly to it, holding hands as the man dies. There are several other intense scenes which makes one question the sanity of Joe, or what his plans are. He is searching for something, and in the end, like Leon had Matilda, Joe has Nine to save him from himself.
You Were Never Really Here is not a bad movie, but I don’t think everyone will enjoy it. It is a thought provoking movie, and for me, it made me wonder once again, about man’s inhumanity to man.
Movie Review - FIFTY SHADES FREED
I just finished watching FIFTY SHADES FREED and I've decided not to review it, because it wasn't any better than the other movies. The plot was iffy, it was all about sex (duh), and the "thriller" aspect was so, so, so very dumb. I mean *and here is where I insert spoilers* this entire thing was about revenge because the wrong kid got adopted and another kid got adopted. I mean, does this happen? Do kids look up their foster siblings when they grow up? Do they get jealous of ones who are adopted into wealthier families? I don't know, I didn't think the reason behind the suspense was realistic. Plus, again there was no chemistry between the two main characters.
So instead of reviewing the movie I decided to talk about what I am doing.
I am going to be at the Hanover Book Festival in Mechanicsville, VA. I will be selling books and bookmarks! So come and join. The festival is this Saturday, the 27th, from 10am-2pm!
And next Saturday, May 4th, I will be selling at a comic festival held at the Howell Library: 806 Lyons Boulevard
Fredericksburg VA 22406.
This event is from 1-4pm, and I will have my books and bookmarks there as well!
Some and see me. I love talking to horror and pop culture fans! Plus, we can talk about the awesome new things I have in development!
Book Review - ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE
When I bought Anna and the Apocalypse I didn't realize it was the novelization of a movie, I actually thought it was the other way around, and the movie was based on the book. I can honestly say I wouldn't have bought it if I knew.
Anna lives in the small Scottish town of Little Haven. She is a high school senior who is ready to get on with her life, and get out of Scotland. Her best friend, John, is of course in love with her, and has yet to tell her. She has many friends, and is the bane of the school's vice principal, Mr. Arthur Savage. Anna has dreams and aspirations. Anna is also a very single minded, and boring character. In fact, most of the characters are a little dull and flat. They begin to become stereotypes of what someone thinks teens are like. And one of the issues I have with this novel is that the premises or plot is that if makes Anna sound much more developed, a seventeen year old (I assume) girl who is dealing with the death of her mother (she died when Anna was twelve, why is it such a huge deal in this novel when it doesn't add anything to the story), and trying to survive high school.
The back of the book touts that it is a "horror comedy about a teenager who faces down the zombie apocalypse with a little help from her friends," but there weren't a lot of zombies in this until about page 85, and there was very little, if any, comedy. There were attempts, but most of the jokes were bad puns and terrible, terrible jokes. None of the characters were very interesting, except maybe Steph, but there wasn't enough backstory for her to be fully developed. For example, the reader knows that she was sent to the school and is from Canada. She has a girlfriend, and her parents are going to vacation in Mexico. She keeps saying she was sent away because she was "difficult" but it isn't really what is explained what she means by that, and she is very protective of the fact that she has a girlfriend, but she doesn't expand on that either (for example, did she have a bad experience while out with her girlfriend, or do her parents no accept that she is a lesbian).
When the zombie apocalypse does finally happen, there is a development that is explained either. In fact, a lot of things in this book seem to be glossed over. Like how is Anna's father, Tony, unable to protect himself against Savage? Why is Savage such a jerk and why is he so strong? Savage has zero background, and so the reader doesn't have any idea why he seems to hate people so much, especially the teens he works with. This book is all over the place.
While it could have been fun and interesting, there was nothing but sad attempts at humor and a noticeable lack of good zombie scenes. I do not recommend this novelization, and I cannot recommend this book. It is flat and there is not enough interesting about the characters to keep one interested. It is a fast read, and if I had the time I could have read it in one sitting, but it takes too long to get to the zombies, and the characters don't make me care enough to care if they live or die.
Book Review - THE WALL by John Lanchester
The Wall has an interesting concept behind it, but it lacks in development.
The Wall by John Lanchester is about a young man named Joseph Kavanaugh who is set out to work on... the Wall. Most people have few options for this dystopian future, and since Kavanaugh wears glasses he feels that his options are limited. The world is a dim and very cold place, and the wall seems to be protecting an island surrounded by water due to climate change. While on the wall the job of the "defenders" is to keep "the others" from getting over the wall. If some of the others do make it over then the defenders are sent out to live as the others were.
There are a lot of interesting and thought -provoking ideas in this novel, however it lacks a little in character development and actual story development. What the reader is given is that the wall is not a place anyone wants to be, and that the world is a very cold place. The reader doesn't get to know much about the characters themselves, even the main character Kavanaugh. The reader gets insight a little into his family life, he doesn't get along with his parents because they feel guilt over what has happened and the life they have created for their children and grandchildren. He doesn't like going home and is seeking another way so he doesn't have to, yet that is basically all we know about him. Even as the main character, when circumstances are dire for him and his love interest, we don't see him step out and do anything or think anything that might make him someone in our eyes.
Most of the characters are treated this way, even the Captain, who was once an other and is now a defender on the wall. It would have been interesting to get a little backstory into him and how he went from being an other to being a Captain on the wall. Yet, once again, where there could have been added information we get almost a two dimensional character who adds nothing to the story but one moment of lies and betrayal. There could have been much more added to the characters, for in one instance a character dies, and I can't remember where we saw the character, what they looked like, or what they had added to the story.
The idea is very much like what you you think of when you thought of the movie Waterworld. A lifetime spent on water looking for suitable land to live on, and upset when you find land, but it isn't suitable to live on or attach oneself to. There have been many tales of climate change creating a different face to the land structures of the world, and while it is intriguing it just wasn't built as as a strong story. There is nothing in this story that makes it stand out from others, as it is almost an amalgamation of several different dystopian novels. There are the "Breeders" who pop out children for a comfortable live. There is the "Help" who are others who have made it over the wall but are still looked at as nonhuman. There are the "defenders" those who do a job because someone has to. And then there is reference to people who disagree with the way all of this is run, and yet we don't get to see but one of them throughout the entire book.
While this isn't a bad book, and it is a fast read, it wasn't as fully developed as it could have been, and like the bottom of an ice cream cone, it left me wanting more.
Movie Review - FIFTY SHADES DARKER
Fifty Shades Darker..... more like fifty shades of why the hell was this movie made and why am I wasting my time with it?
Anna has decided, in this part two to the fifty shades series, that she is willing to give Christian another chance, but only if he follows her rules. While she is still willing to be spanked, and is intrigued by some of his toys, she is upset by the way his past keeps finding her, and threatening her future with Christian.
This movie basically had zero plot, and the ending was so abrupt that I literally shouted, "Are you serious, that's how we're going to end this one?" Anna goes through the same motions she went through in the first movie, several deer in the headlights moments when she has no idea how to take care of herself, then she tries to take a stand just to fall back into her deer in the headlights ways. She is faced with the woman who taught Christian everything he knows, and she goes so far as to throw a drink in her face (oh the horror), and she is confronted by a former "slave" who threatens her life and wonders why Anna is so special, and Anna just runs away when Christian tells her he can handle it, then the whole situation isn't spoken about again.
I don't know if it is the story or the acting by Ms. Johnson, but this was not good. The character of Anna was not very likeable or interesting, and a lot of the time I found myself wanting to slap her myself. I am thinking the writing of this was not well done, as none of it remotely fit together. There was a lot of hey let's do this, then no let's do this, then maybe we should stop, and I just want to be my own person. Also, it wasn't believable that Anna's boss gets fired and she moves from his assistant to his job - yeah sorry, spoiler alert.
Also, there is zero chemistry between the characters, and the sex scenes are washed out and boring. I was not at all interested, or turned on, which if we're going to watch a movie like this, I expect to be turned on at least a little bit.
So, do I recommend this movie, absolutely not. Am I going to watch the last one, most likely yes because apparently I am a masochist. Should you watch these movies, no, in fact run away, no, in fact, why don't you just watch porn. Even the worst porn is more interesting than this crap.
Movie Review - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS
The Girl With All the Gifts does share some similarities with the novel, but it isn’t really a lot like the novel. There are a lot of places in the movie that the divergence is clear, and it starts in the beginning, which I think might also be understandable. The book has a lot of information in it, and they cut some of it, probably due to the length of the movie. If they had kept it all it would have been longer than it hour and fifty-one minutes.
This movie is about a girl, Melanie, a scientist, and a teacher, who are trying to survive a dystopian/apocalyptic future full of zombies, which are called hungries in both the movie and the novel of the same name. In one instance everything changes, and Melanie finds herself defending her teacher in a way she didn’t know she could, and the teacher, scientist, a couple of soldiers, and Melanie find that they need to find a way to safety, to the Beacon of hope. However, a landscape full of hungries stands in their way, and they don’t know if they will survive, if they will be eaten, or if they will become a monster themselves. Of course, one question a lot of movies like this pose is who is the real monster?
Throughout the movie, Melanie, played by Sennia Nanua, portrays an innocent, playful, inquisitive child, well. She does not know what she is, although she does know that she is different. While she does still seem to be the same character in the movie as she is in the book, I feel that the movie made her a tad more intelligent and inquisitive than she was in the book. She still loves her teacher, Helen Justineau, and she does what she can to help her, but she isn’t as curious about the other children, nor is she as frightened as she was in the novel towards Doctor Caroline Caldwell.
Speaking of the other children, the movie makes a hasty introduction, but it isn’t really as thorough of the book, so it feels as if some of the information that made the story interesting is left out. The interactions between the children and the instructors and soldiers, isn’t as built as it could have been. In the novel, the reader knows how Melanie feels about Helen because there are several interactions, however in the movie there is only one scene in the schoolroom, and one outside, before everything goes to hell. The viewer of the movie doesn’t get as much background on the rest of the children, so there is no reason for the viewer to have as much sympathy for them as there was built in the novel.
Throughout it was obvious that several things had been changed due to the time restrictions of the film. The only monsters they had to face were the hungries, whereas in the book there are not only the hungries, but also humans with nothing to live for but their own selfish survival. The ending is a little different, but it isn’t a bad movie. Part of it, like a lot of movies, are a little slow, but overall, not bad. I will say, this is another case of I prefer the novel over the film, but that isn’t always true. I felt there was more depth to the novel that was lost in the film’s translation.
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