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Not a banner year, but snow crab fishing netted $500 million in Atlantic Canada this season
Member only content
Barb Dean-Simmons ([email protected])
Published: Aug 06, 2020 at 12:30 p.m.
Updated: Aug 06, 2020 at 3:40 p.m.
Snow crab - Contributed
It’s an ugly thing.
Orange and tan, with eight long legs, a rough hard-shelled body, and a face that only a mother might love.
Consider its astrological moniker, Cancer, and a crab is not exactly an inspiring creature.
It was once the bane of inshore fishermen and more than a few curse words were shared among fishing crews in the 1960s and 70s who spent hours picking the long-legged pests out of gillnets they had set for groundfish.
But that was before the northern cod stocks collapsed and before anyone could imagine that the snow crab could be a popular menu item in high-end restaurants or on cruise ship buffets.
Nowadays the crab has become the queen of the sea for many fishing boats and fish harvesters in Atlantic Canada, and an important economic driver of provincial economies.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, it’s is the most valuable catch, rivaled only by shrimp.
Price fluctuations
A fishing crew from Nova Scotia hauls in a pot of snow crab during the 2020 fishing season in the Southern Gulf fishing zone. - Contributed
In 2019, thanks to a strong market and a higher-than-usual price of $5.20 per pound, landings of snow crab in that province were worth $303 million.
COVID-19 took a bite out of the crab markets this year, thanks to the closure of restaurants and the cancellation of cruises, but compared to businesses in other sectors, crab fishing turned out to be a safer bet in spite of the pandemic.
With catches sold for around $3.40 a pound, the paycheques for fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador was, collectively, worth about $203 million.
While snow crab plays second fiddle to lobster in the other Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, it still added millions to those economies as well.
The total snow crab quota for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island was just over 27,000 metric tonnes for 2020.
That will add another $200 million or so in new money for Atlantic Canada.
And that's just the direct pay for fish harvesters.
The trickle-down effect of snow crab means hundreds of jobs created in fish processing plants, and the employment in the trucking industry.
Then there's the retail and service sectors where those fishing crews spend their money.
Add in the export value of the product, millions more dollars for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of each province, and ugly becomes a matter of perspective.
Opening of N.L. crab fishery will inject new money into provincial economy
Fishing — by the numbers
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Home Mumbai Protector Lockdown 4.0: State Receives Central Police Force, Relief for Local Police
Lockdown 4.0: State Receives Central Police Force, Relief for Local Police
While lakhs of migrants have been trying to get into the Shramik Special trains to return to their respective villages, the State Police is trying its level best to tackle the surging and desperate crowd. With the number of COVID-19 cases increasing among the Police Department, the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Shri Uddhav Thackeray has requested the Central Government to designate the Centre Armed Police Forces (CAPF), comprising of CRPF, CISF and the BSF to provide some relief to the local police who have been working tirelessly and ceaselessly since the first lockdown was announced in March.
After the rapidly increasing cases in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra, the State Government has imposed Lockdown 4.0 with some changes in their plans. Mumbai has been the most affected with 24,118 cases registered as on May 21, 2020.
The continuous growing cases in Mumbai have put the State Police on heightened alert. This has not stopped them from performing their duty even in the most-affected areas which have been declared Red Zones and Containment Areas. They have been maintaining discipline, booking and arresting lockdown violators, helping in relief work, accompanying suspected cases to hospitals, manning checkpoints, roads and highways, plus their regular duty of maintaining law and order.
The Mumbai Police has taken action against violators and have impounded more than 5000 vehicles with a span of 48 hours.
As per Traffic Police data, as many as 4,294 vehicles were impounded on May 20, and 2,000 on May 21. Among the vehicles impounded, 1,700 were autorickshaws, followed by two-wheelers at 1,150 and private cars at 1,057.
In areas such as Mulund, Bhandup, and Ghatkopar, the Traffic Police confiscated two-wheelers that were carrying three people. Mulund MLA – Mihir Kotecha said that motorists have been trying to hoodwink the police by putting up signs on their car windshields, claiming themselves to be associated with essential services. He has asked police officials to only allow genuine ones to ply on the road.
The Traffic Police is planning to continue the action until the end of the lockdown.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) – Pravin Padwal clarified: “No person is allowed to use vehicles unless it’s for transporting essential goods. If any citizen wants to buy essential goods, he should go walking. Using vehicles for this purpose is not allowed. No rickshaws or taxis are allowed to ply. We will allow the use of vehicles only for an emergency. We will impound all those vehicles found violating the lockdown rules,” he said.
State Police Faces Corona Web
Approximately, 655 personnel from Mumbai Police and 1,328 personnel from the State Police have tested positive for COVID-19, including 131 officers. 324 of them have since recovered, with 291 having been completely cured, while 11 have lost their lives.
Cops, medical professionals, and healthcare workers across the country have been widely exposed to the virus, as they are on frontline duty.
The State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) has had 387 cases. Most of these cases are from the companies deployed in Mumbai and Malegaon who returned to their unit headquarters at Hingoli, Aurangabad and Jalna after completion of 45 days of deployment.
The first few positive cases in the Police Department were reported in the second week of April. The number rose from 19 on April 14 to 64 on April 22. The cases then shot up to 342 on May 2, 618 on May 8 and crossed 1,000 on May 14.
The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) companies have been deployed in Mumbai, Pune, Malegaon, Amravati and some other places to ensure the State Police get a respite from coronavirus-related duties, State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Saturday.
The State Government had recently requested the Centre to deploy 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces to relieve the overworked State Police.
The Union Home Ministry had on May 16, 2020, ordered the withdrawal of 10 CAPF companies (comprising over 1,000 personnel) from Jammu and Kashmir and sent nine such units to Maharashtra, officials said. Among these ten, three companies belong to the CISF and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police each, while two each are from the CRPF and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
The Home Ministry, meanwhile, also released nine companies – four from the Rapid Action Force, two from the Central Reserve Police Force and three from the Central Industrial Security Force – for deployment in Maharashtra. While five companies for Maharashtra are drawn from the ten units being withdrawn from Jammu, the rest four have been released from the Mumbai-based unit of the RAF, CRPF’s specialised counter-riots unit.
The State had sought 20 Central Armed Police Forces companies recently to relieve its police personnel who, it said, were overworked during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.
Thirty-two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have already been deployed in Maharashtra and are working in tandem with the State Police, according to an official statement of the State Government.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had said the State Police have been working “day in and day out” to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the State.
Many State Police personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus and need time to rest and recuperate, he said.
“The festival of Eid is also around the corner, and proper law and order have to be ensured. The police should get some rest for that. Hence, we have requested the Centre to deploy 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), that is 2,000 personnel,” the Minister had said in a video message on Twitter.
Previous articleCourage. Commitment. Compassion
Next articleMaha Police Clamp Down on Violators
Editorial: Mumbai Protector Volume 10 Issue 2, 2020
EOW, Mumbai: Nipping Treachery in the Bud
The Protector - June 15, 2020
Having its motto - Sarwata Samyak Rashami (To Protect Everyone Equally), Maharashtra State Security Corporation (MSSC) was established to provide better protection and security...
Efficiency at its Best – Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai Police
Mumbai Police Chief’s Empathetic Call for Senior Police Personnel a Welcome...
Duty Above All: Cops Bear the Brunt of Covidiots
Maha Police Clamp Down on Violators
Courage. Commitment. Compassion
MCDCU: Protecting Vital Information of its Stakeholders
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Home National News
Time Warner Cable: One of the Best Places to Work for LGBT People
TOPICS:ali forney centercorporate equality indexgay newshuman rights campaigninclusion of lgbt employeeslgbt best place to worklgbt newsperfect hrc scorepro-lgbt companytime warner cable
Posted By: The Rainbow Times December 5, 2012
New York, NY – Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), the second-largest cable operator in the United States, has been named among the nation’s “Best Places To Work” for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people by the Human Rights Campaign’s 2013 Corporate Equality Index. This marks the first year that the company earns a 100 percent score – a 10 percent increase from last year.
The 2013 index, which looks at the policies and practices that impact LGBT employees across hundreds of large U.S. corporations, is considered a trusted benchmark for measuring the inclusion of LGBT employees. The criteria that were used to determine companies’ scores included looking at equal employment opportunity policies, employment benefits for workers and their spouses/partners, transgender-inclusive health insurance, public commitment and responsible citizenship.
“We can’t be more proud to be awarded such an important recognition by the Human Rights Campaign,” said Peter Stern, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy, People and Corporate Development Officer at Time Warner Cable. “Our 100 percent score clearly exemplifies our commitment and dedication to diversity and inclusion in our workplace. We are honored to be in the company of peers who are equally devoted to the LGBT community.”
“The Ali Forney Center is thrilled to see Time Warner Cable receive this recognition for their support of the LGBT community,” said Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of Ali Forney Center. “The homeless LGBT youth served by the Ali Forney Center have benefited so much from the financial generosity of TWC such as the Learning Lab they are building in our soon-to-be-opened new drop-in center.”
“We are proud of Time Warner Cable for achieving a perfect HRC score,” said Chris Frederick, Managing Director of NYC Pride. “They have been a strong supporter of us and this further solidifies their firm commitment towards our community.”
With a million members, the Human Rights Campaign is the nation’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for LGBT Americans. A complete list of the 2013 Corporate Equality Index rankings can be found at www.hrc.org.
About Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) is among the largest providers of video, high‐speed data and voice services in the United States, connecting more than 15 million customers to entertainment, information and each other. Time Warner Cable Business Class offers data, video and voice services to businesses of all sizes, cell tower backhaul services to wireless carriers and, through its NaviSite subsidiary, managed and outsourced information technology solutions and cloud services. Time Warner Cable Media, the advertising arm of Time Warner Cable, offers national, regional and local companies innovative advertising solutions. More information about the services of Time Warner Cable is available at www.timewarnercable.com, www.twcbc.com, www.navisite.com, andwww.twcmedia.com.
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Lady Gaga wins award for Best Original Song at the 91st Oscars
Adding to the list of nine Grammys and twenty-four nominations, Lady Gaga can now call herself an Oscar winner. The talented artist received the Academy Award for Best Original Song during the 91st Academy Awards this past Sunday.
Lady Gaga’s song "Shallow" from "A Star Is Born" earned Gaga her first-ever Oscar and won the title over other nominated original songs from "Black Panther," "Mary Poppins Returns," "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" and the documentary "RBG." This is Gaga’s first Academy Award win, and she was also nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in "A Star is Born."
Gaga’s song “Shallow” has also won the Golden Globe, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and the BAFTA for original music. The song first debuted in the film’s trailer last summer, and then rose to the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Gaga’s 15th top-10 hit in the United States.
The award for “Shallow” went to Gaga and co-writers Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Anthony Rossomando. During her acceptance speech, Gaga inspired audiences with her reslience.
"I worked hard for a long time, and it's not about winning, but what's about is not giving up," Gaga said. "If you have a dream, fight for it."
Directly after Gaga’s acceptance speech, her and Bradley Cooper performed “Shallow” in an intimate and emotional performance, that simultaneously hit viewers in the heart and fueled speculation that the two are involved.
Their performance was a highlight of the night for some and showcased Gaga’s emotional reaction to winning and her experiences throughout her career.
Even though the singer/songwriter is very successful, there was a time when Gaga wanted to give up and throw in the towel. In 2014, Lady Gaga bravely revealed that she had been raped at the age of 19 by an unnamed music producer.
This traumatic experience could have been enough for Gaga to quit music entirely and give up on her dreams, but instead, she used it as fuel to keep going.
In 2015, Gaga released "Til It Happens to You," her Oscar-nominated song featured in "The Hunting Ground," a documentary about campus rape. Gaga said she used personal experience to write the song, and performed it live at the 2016 Academy Awards.
We tend to categorize celebrities into their own world. We place them on these pedestals and forget that they are real people. Celebrities, just like us, feel pain and experience loss.
Gaga has used her platform to become an advocate for sexual assault victims and has proven that no matter what you’ve been through you can always achieve your dreams. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down, what matters is how many times you stand up, shake it off and move forward.
The 91st Academy Awards were broadcast live from Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.
By MELANIE RAIBLE
Featured photo: Lady Gaga image.
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Jan. 30, 2020 / 9:31 AM
Jessica Simpson says Justin Timberlake kissed her for a bet
Annie Martin
Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Jessica Simpson says singer and actor Justin Timberlake once kissed her as part of a bet.
The 38-year-old singer and fashion designer recalled her kiss with Timberlake and her crush on actor Ryan Gosling during Wednesday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Simpson auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club as a child and reached the finals but not the final cut. She said she later reconnected with Timberlake and Gosling, who both starred on the show.
"Throughout life we all found our way back to each other in ways. We were in the same circuit," Simpson said. "I knew Justin Timberlake very well."
Simpson said she shared the kiss with Timberlake following her divorce from singer Nick Lachey.
"After divorce and he was out of a relationship, he was over at my house. We shared a nostalgic kiss," she said. "I thought, 'Oh, this is interesting.' He took his phone out and started typing."
Simpson said Timberlake was texting Gosling, with whom he had a longstanding bet over who would kiss Simpson first.
"He texted Ryan and said he won the bet. I was like, 'Oh, okay. So we don't kiss again? That's done,'" she said.
Simpson said she had a crush on Gosling during his Mouseketeer days.
"When I was 12, I was like, 'This guy's so cool, and he's from Canada! I don't know where that is on the map but I really think that's amazing. There was something so cute about him,'" she said.
Simpson recounts her kiss with Timberlake in her forthcoming memoir, Open Book. She also covers several serious topics, including the sexual abuse she experienced as a child.
Simpson recalled on Wednesday's episode of Today how she was sexually abused from the ages of 6 to 12 by a young girl who was a family friend.
"At the time I didn't really understand what was happening. I knew something was wrong. I knew it was wrong, what was going on," she said. "This was a very close person, and she was being abused."
Open Book is scheduled for release Feb. 4.
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Gay bishop to go to Lambeth uninvited
CONCORD, N.H., March 25 (UPI) -- Gene Robinson, the would-be "simple country bishop" of New Hampshire, can count on attention when he travels to Britain for a worldwide Anglican gathering.
Robinson hasn't been invited to the Lambeth Conference, which brings together bishops from all over the world every 10 years, but plans to be outside, talking to anyone he can reach. His consecration as the church's first openly gay bishop has threatened to split both the Episcopal Church in the United States and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
"One of the things I think I've learned in the last five years is that, as much as I wanted to be known as the good bishop, and not the gay bishop, there's no escaping," Robinson told the Boston Globe. "I would love just to be a simple country bishop but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards."
Robinson has a book coming out next month. In June, he and Mark Andrew, who has been his partner for 20 years, said they plan to commit to each other in a civil union.
Gene Robinson
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Green Bay Packers defeat L.A. Rams in NFC playoff
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Trump ex-wife joins 'Dancing with the Stars'
Bill Keveney
A former Trump wife, a Real Housewife and an influx of NFL life highlight the new season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, due March 21 (8 p.m. ET/PT).
During a presidential campaign that's been compared to a reality show, the dancing competition establishes a definitive connection as Marla Maples, ex-wife of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, on Tuesday was named one of 12 celebrity dancers competing for the mirrorball trophy in the show's 22nd season.
Kim Fields, star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Facts of Life, is dancing, too, and so is a trio of football stars: Super Bowl MVP Von Miller, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown and former CFL and NFL quarterback Doug Flutie.
Executive producer Rob Wade acknowledges the larger-than-usual football contingent, and says he sought “a cast full of really current personalities that’s a lot of fun. Marla’s someone we’ve been talking to a lot. She is a very interesting woman,” he says. “The fact that Mr. Trump is very newsworthy at the moment was something that attracted us.”
The female stars and their pro partners: Maples and Tony Dovolani; Fields and Sasha Farber; Fuller House star Jodie Sweetin and Keo Motsepe; The O.C. star Mischa Barton and Artem Chigvintsev; Good Morning America weather anchor and new mom Ginger Zee and Valentin Chmerkovskiy; and UFC fighter Paige VanZant and Mark Ballas.
Male celebrities and their pro partners: Miller and Witney Carson; Brown and Sharna Burgess; Heisman Trophy winner Flutie and Karina Smirnoff; Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera and Edyta Sliwinska; Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris and Lindsay Arnold; and America’s Next Top Model winner Nyle DiMarco and Peta Murgatroyd.
Season 22 includes many familiar themes – including Disney, switch-up, Latin and judges weeks – and features the return of Len Goodman, who rejoins Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli at the judges table. The season will be Hough-less, as judge Julianne temporarily departs and brother Derek, a six-time champ, won’t be competing.
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Wade sees some natural rivalries, starting with the football players and extending to “a battle of nostalgia comedy” between Sweetin and Fields.
DiMarco faces a special challenge: Deafness. “He has no frame of reference to any kind of music,” Wade says. “What tools will he use to find the beat?”
For DWTS fan Fields, 46, the show made sense as a new challenge, a great fashion opportunity and a link to her heritage.
“I’m in love with the whole vintage lifestyle, in terms of fashion and Hollywood," she says. "My maternal grandmother was a ballroom dancer at The Savoy” Ballroom in New York.
For non-dancer Rivera, the decision to join Dancing was “kind of nerve-racking, outside my comfort zone. But it was on my bucket list.”
When he consulted his 96-year-old mother about competing, despite a lingering foot problem, she told him others danced despite far greater physical challenges: “She said, ‘Come on. This is nothing.’ She gave me like a high school football coach cheer. ‘OK, Mom. I’m going in there.’ ”
Rivera senses a more communal spirit on Dancing than on his last reality show, Celebrity Apprentice.
“Everybody is trying to do the best they can but they cheer everybody,” he says. With “Celebrity Apprentice, I never had any activity in my life where you had as much to fear from your own teammates, stabbing you in the back”
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Johnnies downed by Princeton due to errors and pitching issues
Photo/Athletic Communications
Brandon Mauk, Digital Sports Manager Emeritus
Considering how inexperienced their pitching is, it doesn’t help St. John’s to play poor defense.
After committing eight errors in a series victory against Georgetown, the Red Storm committed five last Wednesday night as they took a 9-4 loss from Princeton at Jack Kaiser Stadium.
St. John’s has now committed 43 errors on the season for a .962 fielding percentage. The pitching staff as a whole has given up 36 unearned runs in their first 30 games.
“We’re not working hard enough, and we’re not catching the baseball. That’s the bottom line,” head coach Ed Blankmeyer said. “You can’t give things away.”
Princeton scored twice in the second inning on a groundout by Andrew Christie that was booted by third baseman Robbie Knightes. The error scored an extra run from second; otherwise a routine play would have held them to one in the inning.
They then scored five in the third, as St. John’s committed three more errors in the inning. Starter Matt Messier threw wide on a pickoff attempt, and Michael Donadio later misplayed the ball on a single to allow runners an extra base.
A missed catch error by first baseman Gui Gingras, who committed another error in the fifth, allowed Princeton to score two more runs to put St. John’s in a 7-0 hole in the inning. Only five of Princeton’s nine runs on the game were earned.
Head coach Ed Blankmeyer was frustrated by his team’s performance Wednesday, as it was a continuation of their recent struggles in the field and on the mound. St. John’s has had a top-notch offense, but has also managed to take advantage of other teams’ mistakes and errors.
“We haven’t played really good baseball for quite some time,” Blankmeyer said. “[Princeton] didn’t make a mistake, but they didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves.”
Matt Messier gave up four runs (three earned) on four hits in 2 1/3 innings. Joey Graziano surrendered four runs (only one earned) but settled down for the next three innings.
St. John’s put together three runs in the fourth on an RBI double by Anthony Brocato (a rare start for him), a single by Gingras, and a single by Alex Caruso, but couldn’t muster much else after that. Josh Shaw grounded into an inning-ending double play in the fifth and two base runners were thrown out in the middle innings.
Caruso went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and scored in the seventh. Donadio also went 2-for-4 but was caught stealing in an attempt to start a rally with the game still in reach in the fifth. Princeton tacked on two more in the sixth and seventh to put it out of reach.
“If we don’t clean these things up, we’re going to be in trouble, because when you start to face good pitching, the opportunities to score are less and less,” Blankmeyer
Ed Blankmeyer
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Styx Talk Queen, Reveal Secrets Behind New Album ‘The Mission’
In a series of videos, Styx guitarist and singer Tommy Shaw, and producer Will Evankovich, discuss the making of new album The Mission.
Styx Set To Release ‘The Mission’, Their First Studio Album In 14 Years
Chicago prog-rock legends Styx are set to release 'The Mission', their first studio album of all-new material since 2003's 'Cyclorama'.
More The Mission
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Inside UEFA - Executive Committee decides hosts for 2015 finals - News
Executive Committee decides hosts for 2015 finals
Thursday 23 May 2013 by Mark Chaplin
Article summary
The Olympiastadion in Berlin and the National Stadium Warsaw will stage the 2014/15 finals of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League, respectively.
Article top media content
National Stadium Warsaw ©AFP/Getty Images
The 2014/15 UEFA Champions League final will be staged at Berlin's Olympiastadion, while the National Stadium Warsaw will hold the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League showpiece.
The decision on the hosts of the major European club competition finals in two years' time was announced by the UEFA Executive Committee at its meeting in London on Thursday.
Originally opened in 1936 for that year's Olympic Games, the Olympiastadion, situated in eastern Berlin, has been the home ground of Hertha BSC Berlin since 1963. It staged three matches at the 1974 FIFA World Cup and six when the global final tournament returned to Germany in 2006, including the final between France and Italy.
The stadium, which underwent four years of renovation ahead of the 2006 World Cup, has hosted every German Cup final since 1985. Next season it will also stage Bundesliga football again after Hertha won the second-tier title this month. With a capacity of just over 74,000, the Olympiastadion also hosts other big events, including music concerts.
The same can be said of the National Stadium Warsaw, though it is perhaps most widely known as the venue for the opening game of UEFA EURO 2012. Located on the eastern banks of the Vistula in the district of Praga Poludnie, the venue lies on the site of the old Tenth Anniversary Stadium, which, partly constructed using rubble collected from the site of the Warsaw Uprising, had stood since 1955.
Primarily a football stadium, it also hosted athletics and cycling, and, in 1983, Pope John Paul II gave mass to a congregation of 100,000. It held its last international that year, but then fell into disrepair, and since 1989 it had been home to a bazaar. Following its reconstruction for UEFA EURO 2012, the stadium, which has a retractable roof, reopened in January 2012.
With a 57,000 capacity, it staged five matches at last summer's UEFA European Championship – three group matches, the quarter-final between Portugal and Czech Republic, and the semi-final between Germany and Italy.
The Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica in Lisbon, Portugal, will hold the 2014 UEFA Champions League final, while Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy, will stage the 2014 UEFA Europa League showpiece.
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Global (US)
Resources for asylum-seekers in the United States
After decades in Pakistan, more Afghan refugees set to return
Pakistan wants to repatriate some of the almost 1.6 million refugees living in the country. UNHCR has set aside funds for 60,000 returnees.
23 June 2016 | Español | Français | عربي
Qudsia, 40, talks to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi about returning to Afghanistan with her husband and four children after living 35 years in exile in Pakistan. © UNHCR/Insiya Syed
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, June 23 (UNHCR) – Families sat quietly. Small children explored among the chairs. These people were going back, some after decades. And they were going back for good.
They were Afghan refugees and this was the Voluntary Repatriation Centre of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Peshawar.
Payenda Bibi Shahnaz sat in a wheelchair. Her husband Shamamud sat in another one. They have been refugees in Pakistan for 33 years but they, too, are going back to Afghanistan with their two sons, who will take care of them.
UNHCR will also help them after they return to their country.
“I simply can’t afford treatment for my illness here,” she said. “We have no other option.”
The two met with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who visited the centre today and wished them luck. UNHCR also provides returning refugees with US$200 for initial travel and housing.
There is now a concerted push from the Pakistan government to repatriate a large number of the almost one million refugees living in the Peshawar district. UNHCR has set aside funds for 60,000 returnees.
But so far this year just over 6,000 have actually crossed the border permanently.
For many the moment they hand in their Pakistan refugee registration card is emotional. School pupils are often in tears, thinking they may not see their friends again.
What drives most is economic necessity.
Qudsia is 40 and a mother of four children. She came to Pakistan as a child. Now she and her husband have decided to go back.
“We decided to return because it’s so expensive. We have problems. My husband is diabetic and there is no work here.”
But many more choose to remain. They told Grandi at a ‘shura’, or community meeting, that educational and economic opportunities kept them in Pakistan. They also feared the violence in their home country. Of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, 31 have seen scenes of conflict in recent months.
Another great fear is centred on their Pakistan Proof of Registration cards. These are all due to run out on June 30. Without them, refugees are subject to arrest and even deportation. Grandi said he had strongly urged the Pakistan government to extend their validity. The decision will be made by the Pakistan cabinet.
Grandi told them he understood their fears and their concerns that $200 is not enough to resettle in an uncertain country.
“I have heard the shura representatives,” he said. “We will increase the repatriation package very soon. We will work to create better conditions for returnees. I have talked about this with Afghan government leaders.”
He talked of his meeting with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. Ghani told him he had ordered an inventory of available government land. The goal would be to set up a resettlement programme for refugees similar to a pilot scheme in Herat for internally displaced people.
Refugees, like the internally displaced in Herat, would be given plots for houses. Water and electricity would be supplied.
Grandi also addressed the refugees’ fears that they are being made scapegoats after attacks or violent incidents along the Pakistan-Afghan border.
“I have heard your message. Refugees are not terrorists. I agree with that.”
He said he had stressed to Pakistan government leaders that the whole refugee population must not be blamed or penalized for such actions.
How climate change is multiplying risks for displacement
UN High Commissioner for Refugees warns of grave consequences if world looks away from Afghanistan, reiterates importance of finding solutions to Afghan displacement
First Central African refugees return from DRC since COVID-19 outbreak
UNHCR ramps up support to Iraqi returnees amid large-scale closure of IDP camps
UNHCR calls for protection, support for civilians affected by violence in southern Afghanistan
Refugees join voices in a song of hope and kindness
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THE SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTY OF TRINITY
General Info >>
Qualifications & Terms
JUROR QUALIFICATIONS AND TERMS OF SERVICE
Jury Services >>
Jury Services
Request For Deferral
Failure To Appear
JUROR QUALIFICATIONS
All persons are eligible and qualified to be prospective trial jurors, except the following:
1. Persons who are not citizens of the United States
2. Persons who are less than 18 years of age
3. Persons who are not residents of the State of California as determined under the Elections Code
4. Persons who are not residents of Trinity County
5. Persons who have been convicted of a malfeasance in office, and whose civil rights have not been restored
6. Persons who are incarcerated in prison or jail
7. Persons who have been convicted of a felony and are currently on parole, post-release community supervision, felony probation, or mandated supervision for the conviction of a felony
8. Persons who are currently required to register as a sex offender under Penal Code section 290 based on a felony conviction
9. Persons who do not have sufficient knowledge of the English language
10. Persons who are serving as grand or trial jurors in any court of this state
11. Persons who are the subject of conservatorship
12. Persons who are full time peace officers as defined in Penal Code § 830.1, 830.2(a), or 830.33(a)
If you received a summons for jury service but are not qualified due to one of the above reasons, you must contact the Jury Services Office prior to your service date.
Pursuant of Rule 2.1002 of the California Rules of Court, a person has fulfilled his or her jury service requirement when the person:
1. Served on a trial until dismissed;
2. Was assigned to one or more trial departments for jury selection and served through the completion of jury selection or until excused by the Jury Commissioner;
3. Attended court but was not assigned to a trial department for selection of a jury before the end of that day;
4. Served one day on call; or
5. Served no more than five court days on telephone standby.
Upon completing your service obligation, you should not be called for jury service for 12 months.
Trials vary in length, but are usually completed within a week. You will be told how long the trial is expected to last during the jury selection process. Approximately 80% of our prospective jurors complete their service in one day.
INFORMATION ABOUT JURY DUTY IN TRINITY COUNTY
Impaneled jurors are paid 34 cents per mile actually traveled in attending court as a juror, one way, and $15.00 for each day of attendance commencing on the 2nd day of service. Any juror employed by a federal, state, or local government entity and who receives regular compensation and benefits while performing jury services will not be paid the $15.00 daily fee, but still may request mileage. [CCP § 215(b)]
We randomly select prospective jurors using lists from the Department of Motor Vehicles and voter registration.
You will be summoned once during any 12 month period unless you request a postponement or if we do not have enough prospective jurors to impanel a 12-member jury plus alternates.
NOTICE TO EMPLOYER
It is a violation of the California Labor Code to fire or harass an employee who is summoned to serve as a juror. School employees and students are protected as well by law. Your employer should be notified about your jury service as soon as you receive a summons.
Forms & Filing
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Ventilator Users Speak Up During U.S. Healthcare Debate
In an August 9, 2017 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Repeal, Replace, Repair, Retreat — Republicans’ Health Care Quagmire,” Jonathan Oberlander, PhD, wrote a succinct review and his perspective of the recent healthcare debate in the US. The debate is not over........MORE
IVUN and PHI-Funded Research
Update from University of Toronto and CoughAssist Study
Louise Rose, RN, MN, PhD, lead researcher of “CoughAssist: use education needs, health service utilization, and outcomes,” reports the following. (See Organization Awards $100,000 for Study in 2016-2017 and PHI/IVUN Research Update.) “Participant recruitment for the longitudinal study has increased exponentially. We now have 38 enrolled in the study...........MORE
Polio Place: A site for history, too
Sharing the work of others
Vol. 31, No. 4, August 2017
Editor: Joan L. Headley
A Fight for Life at Home
In an August 9, 2017 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Repeal, Replace, Repair, Retreat — Republicans’ Health Care Quagmire,” Jonathan Oberlander, PhD, wrote a succinct review and his perspective of the recent healthcare debate in the US. The debate is not over.
Oberlander reminds us, “The Medicaid reductions were necessary to offset the costs of tax cuts for higher-income Americans and reflected long-standing conservative aspirations to limit the program. But Medicaid’s remarkable scope (it covers more than 70 million Americans), array of sympathetic constituencies (it covers 49% of all children, 39% of births, 35% of persons with disabilities, and 64% of nursing home residents), role in financing vital medical services (including mental-health, HIV, and opioid-addiction treatments and long-term care), and importance to health system stakeholders (including hospitals, physicians, and states) means that it is not an easy mark. The ACA’s Medicaid expansion has given many states an even larger stake in the program, making it harder to cut. The backlash from governors, the health care industry, and consumer groups was fierce, and the proposed Medicaid cuts helped doom the chances of repeal in the Senate.”
Fierce Consumers: New and Experienced
Trach Mommas of Louisiana
On July 10, 2017, the founders of Trach Mommas of Louisiana, Angéla Lorio and Jessica Michot were outside the Republican National Committee building (Washington, DC) on behalf of their four-year old sons, who both depend on ventilator via a tracheostomy to breathe. The mommas were protesting the cuts to Medicaid in the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) that was under consideration by the Senate. The cuts to Medicaid, and the lower of payments for equipment and supplies and attendant care, would dramatically affect the family’s ability to have their children live at home.
Gabriel Michot, born at 27 weeks, was diagnosed with a host of lung problems, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia. John Paul Lorio’s trachea was not fully developed when he was born at 27 weeks and he has a condition called tracheomalacia.
To learn more about their advocacy and their trip to Washington, DC, review Families take a risky road trip to save their health care.
Angéla Lorio (left) and Jessica Michot
Trach Mommas of Louisiana (TMOL) was created in 2016. It was founded to fill the severe gap that existed in the realm of mothers of children with medical complexities/technology needs in Louisiana. Mothers craved peer support. The goal is that no other “momma” will have to walk this path alone. Their contact info is trachmommas@gmail.com.
Mark Boatman
Mark Boatman, who uses a ventilator 24/7 due to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), used various methods to tell his story and the effect the Medicaid cuts would have on people with disabilities in North Dakota, his home state, and Montana, his home today.
Boatmen wrote a letter to the editor of the Jamestown Sun (North Dakota). His letter informed the public about his life. “I’m 41 years old, have life-threatening muscular dystrophy and Medicaid insurance pays for a ventilator that pushes every breathe into my body. Without this vital machine, I’d be dead in minutes.
“It took me almost four years to escape a Jamestown nursing home to move to Missoula, Mont., to live in the community in 2006. Medicaid insurance has given me a good life under the Big Sky. Medicaid pays for nurses and caregivers to get me out of bed, dress me, shower me, run tube feedings, clear my airway and transport me places – pretty much everything I need doing in a day. It is truly my lifeline to the world.
“I’ve also managed to stay healthy and thrive thanks to Medicaid because it pays for my team of specialist that keep me alive. It pays for all my medications, medical equipment and medical supplies that I require.”
He contacted the press and was interviewed by a reporter from 8 KPAX. Lolo resident on Senate health care bill: “I'm scared.”
Mark also was videotaped, explaining the importance of Medicaid to him and how he participates in the economy by hiring attendants, buying groceries, etc. The video was shot during an action at the office of Senator Steve Daines (R) on June 30, 2017.
The action was part of the organized effort nationwide by ADAPT based in Austin, Texas. Ventilator user Carrie Ann Lucas, Windsor, Colorado, participated in an ADAPT action at Senator Cory Gardener’s office. “Carrie Ann Lucas was the last to be taken away. Her ventilator gave police pause, so they decided to send her to a hospital to be checked and released.
“Police called a Regional Transportation District bus to move Lucas, who uses a wheelchair. As the bus pulled up, a lift dropped down so Lucas could be rolled on. The irony wasn’t missed. The wheelchair-accessible bus that carried Lucas away last week exists because of a similarly dramatic civil disobedience action held by the same group nearly 40 years ago.” Read more about the origins and activities: Meet the disabled activists from Denver who changed a nation.
Long-time Attendant Care Advocate Honored
Adolf Ratzka, ventilator user, Independent Living Institute, Sweden, was honored by ULOBA, a large personal assistance cooperative in Norway, with their Pride Award in Oslo on June 17. ULOBA's Secretary General Vibeke Maröy Melström, stated, “This year’s award winner has played an active role within the Independent Living movement since the early 70s. Ratzka thinks that things are definitely moving too slowly! He believes that it is critical that we shift our focus from fighting for individual rights to focusing on civil liberties overall.”
In his acceptance speech, Ratzka told his story. “I’m proud of the award you are giving me and I want to share the award with two important women in my life. I was 17 when I was paralyzed by polio and had to live in a hospital. After five years in the hospital in Germany, I had a chance to study at university in the United States. With money from a scholarship I was to live and study in Los Angeles, all by myself without family, without knowing anybody there, without knowing much of the language.
“I needed lots of help. I needed help with going to bed, needed a ventilator in order to sleep, needed help for going to the toilet, and for getting bathed and dressed. With the money from the scholarship, I was planning to hire fellow students as, what we today would call, my personal assistants.
“I was 22, I didn’t know much about life, I didn’t know what risks would await me. My mother knew I wanted to go, and she knew I would learn something important for the rest of my life. Trusting in my ability to learn how to manage my life, she let me go. I’m very proud of my mother.
“The other woman I want to share my award with is Doro. I’ve met many people in my life who helped me along my way. Doro is the most important one. She has been my anchor in the emotional ups and downs of my life. She has been the solid ground which I needed for feeling safe and secure.
“We started out as travel companions. Now, we have been travelling together through life for over 30 years. We’ve had many adventures together. The biggest one so far has been raising our daughter Katharina. We adopted her in Costa Rica after four years of fighting in Swedish courts for the permission to adopt a child.
“Katharina was three months old when we got her. Next month she will turn 23. A few weeks ago she received her university diploma as Licensed Occupational Therapist. A few weeks ago she and her boyfriend moved together into their own apartment. I am very proud of our daughter.
"I am not proud of my disability. I didn’t choose to become disabled. It is very inconvenient to be disabled. When you are disabled, society makes you dependent. We are made dependent on our families, when we don’t get enough personal assistance; we are made dependent on other people’s help, when the built environment is not accessible; we are made dependent when other people dictate how we should live our lives.
“When you are disabled, people see you as being different. Sure, I look different from most people. Not many drive around in an electric wheelchair wearing a nasal mask for breathing and speaking. We may look eccentric but we are not special persons. We are profoundly ordinary people because, just like all human beings, we need to be seen for who we are, we need to belong, and we need to be loved.
“These needs we share with everyone, these needs make us truly ordinary human beings. As profoundly ordinary people, we demand the same choices and control in our every-day lives that our non-disabled brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends take for granted. We want to grow up in our families, go to the neighborhood school, use the same bus as our neighbors, work in jobs that are in line with our education and interests, and start families of our own.
“To this end, we must support and learn from each other, organize ourselves and work for political changes that lead to the legal protection of our human and civil rights.
“I’m mighty proud of belonging to our international sisterhood and brotherhood that works for these goals. Let us all fight for our equal rights as equal citizens. Let us all be proud.”
Louise Rose, RN, MN, PhD, lead researcher of “CoughAssist: use education needs, health service utilization, and outcomes,” reports the following. (See Organization Awards $100,000 for Study in 2016-2017 and PHI/IVUN Research Update.)
“Participant recruitment for the longitudinal study has increased exponentially. We now have 38 enrolled in the study. Five have completed the nine months of follow up and another 16 are in the final three months. We have completed the interview phase and are starting to analyze the data. The 28 interviews included seven new cough assist users and seven established cough assist users. We also interviewed the equivalent in terms of caregiver numbers.
“We are on track for a final report to PHI/IVUN in the fall of 2018 and will be ready to submit articles for publication.”
Call for Proposals for PHI Research Fund Grant
Deadline for 2018: October 2, 2017 (Monday)
Funding in the amount of $50,000 is available from Post-Polio Health International and International Ventilator Users Network for research to be completed in 2018. Application for the funds must be received by October 2, 2017. (Applicants may apply for $100,000 for a study taking two years to complete.)
Researchers can choose to apply for one of the two grants described below.
The Thomas Wallace Rogers Memorial Respiratory Research Grant to study the management of neuromuscular respiratory insufficiency or to explore historical, social, psychological and independent living aspects of long-term home mechanical ventilation
The Post-Poliomyelitis Research Grant to study the cause(s), treatment and management of the late effects of polio or to explore historical, social, psychological and independent living aspects of living with polio.
The research must have the potential to improve the lives of polio survivors or users of home mechanical ventilation. For details on the application process and to access the form, see www.polioplace.org/phi-funded-research/new-request-2018-award.
PHI-Funded Research published in Scientific Reports, July 2017
Team’s new methods validated. Second article in progress.
"Revealing enterovirus infection in chronic human disorders: An integrated diagnostic approach" authored by Angelo Genoni, Filippo Canducci, Agostino Rossi, Francesco Broccolo, Konstantin Chumakov, Giorgio Bono, Jorge Salerno-Uriarte, Alessandro Salvatoni, Alberto Pugliese & Antonio Toniolo was published online in Scientific Reports 10 July 2017. They chose to make the article open access and so it is freely available at http://rdcu.be/t4V4.
Lead researcher, Antonio Toniolo, MD, Professor of Medical Microbiology, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy, reports, “This paper provides the evidence and justification for polioviruses being still present in the bodies of polio survivors after so many years.”
“I am glad that the results have been validated by an expert in the field, Konstantin M. Chumakov, PhD, Office of Vaccines Research and Review (OVRR) at the Food and Drug Administration. As an aside, he is the son of the famous Russian virologist Michael Chumakov who introduced the American poliovirus vaccines in the former Soviet Union. By 1959, the elder Chumakov organized the first mass production and clinical trials of the Oral Poliovirus Vaccine (OPV) made from live attenuated strains developed by Albert Sabin.
“We are preparing a full paper on post-polio with data from over 100 polio survivors now that the technicalities of the method have been approved for publication.”
Basically, the study shows that the protracted persistence of poliovirus in post-polio survivors can be demonstrated by analyzing blood leukocytes for the presence of virus. The original method set up in Italy is based on the in vitro cultivation of blood leukocytes and the further examination by genomic methods, i.e. polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) followed by virus genome sequencing. In addition to that, investigators have also been able to show that persistent polioviruses maintain their ability to produce virus structural proteins when propagated in cell cultures. Thus two independent lines of evidence point to the conclusion that – decades after the initial acute poliovirus attack – a minimal population of mutated virus remains still present in a portion of polio survivors.
The authors speculate that the presence of persistent poliovirus could be responsible for chronic inflammation (probably within the central nervous system and skeletal muscles). Studies are progressing with the idea of finding antiviral drugs capable of blocking the ongoing poliovirus replication in poliovirus-positive polio survivors.
The evidence provided by the study also provides support for the administration of intravenous immunoglobulins to post-polio subjects (an international clinical trial is currently ongoing with the support of Grifols, an immunoglobulin manufacturer). An additional possibility may be represented by the therapeutic administration of the existing poliovirus vaccines.
The team of researchers received funds from PHI both in 2009 ($25,000) and in 2014-15 ($50,000 each year). For details, see http://polioplace.org/phi-funded-research.
Scientific Reports is part Nature Research, the home of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. The Nature Research portfolio includes Nature (www.nature.com).
Interested in History?
The PHI Board of Directors determined in the late 2000s that it would create a place on the internet to house all of the organization’s publications and activities, from 1958 to present. Their commitment - a place for all things polio - was on behalf of polio survivors worldwide. With the financial support of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Foundation (RWSF), Polio Place was born.
The information on Polio Place is available for free to survivors and families all over the globe. It is also helpful for advocates and health professionals to adapt for their own country and situation.
Its content is historical, medical, practical and personal.
Polio Place uses Drupal™, an open-source web content management platform and is in a simplified format to make it easier for individuals in developing countries to access the knowledge.
Selections from IVUN's Archives
Selections from PHI's Archives
PHI continually adds material to the above sections. Check back often to see what's new.
From ALS Association, the official blog of The ALS Association
New Comprehensive ALS Review Published
In the July 13, 2017 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, leaders in the ALS field, Drs. Robert Brown, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Dr. Ammar Al-Chalabi, King’s College London, came together to write a comprehensive ALS review. The ALS Association blog posted the article with permission from The New England Journal of Medicine.
The U.S. COPD Coalition (USCC) is a nonprofit organization made up of patient organizations, health professional organizations, individuals, and government agencies who work together in a unified manner to promote the interests of individuals affected by COPD. The U.S. COPD Coalition wants to collaborate with all groups that want to take action on COPD in the United States. Explore the COPD Action Center.
From the U.S. COPD Coalition
Rosa's Law Amends Sections of the Rehabilitation Act and IDEA
Rosa's Law (Pub. L. 111-256) amended sections of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Rehabilitation Act) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), by removing the words “mental retardation” and replacing them with the words “intellectual disability” or “intellectual disabilities.” The final regulations implement these statutory changes in applicable Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) regulations.
From The ABLE National Resource Center
The ABLE National Resource Center (ANRC) is a collaborative whose supporters share the goal of accelerating the design and availability of ABLE accounts for the benefit of individuals with disabilities and their families. Check out details state by state.
“How does neuromuscular disease interfere with cough effectiveness? How can cough effectiveness be objectively assessed? What techniques can be used to augment cough?”
Case Conferences: The Clinical Physiologist Section, Editor: John W. Kreit, MD, and Erik Swenson, MD.
Cough Augmentation in a Patient with Neuromuscular Disease, Haala K. Rokadia , Jacob R. Adams, Kevin McCarthy, Loutfi S. Aboussouan, and Eduardo Mireles-Cabodevila. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2015;12 (12):1888-1891.
The objective of the study was to compare pulmonary function measures, maximal respiratory pressure and fatigue of respiratory muscles between patients with Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS) and controls. Conclusion: “Maximal respiratory pressure test and sEMG measurements may identify fatigue of respiratory muscles in patients with PPS. Early diagnosis of respiratory impairment may delay respiratory decline and future need of invasive respiratory aids.”
Comparison of activity and fatigue of the respiratory muscles and pulmonary characteristics between post-polio patients and controls: A pilot study, David Shoseyov, Tali Cohen-Kaufman, Isabella Schwartz, Sigal Portnoy. PLoS ONE. 12(7): e0182036. Published: July 27, 2017.
“Although having sleep apnea has been linked to elevated risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke, a new analysis of past research finds that apnea treatment with positive airway pressure (PAP) does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events or death.”
Does Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment Reduce Cardiovascular Risk? It Is Far Too Soon to Say. Daniel J. Gottlieb, MD, MPH, JAMA. 2017;318(2):128-130.
“In 1991 doctors in Australia began giving babies synthetic surfactant and their outlook improved significantly. Around the same time ‘non-invasive ventilation’ was introduced and became the preferred way of helping babies breathe.
“Instead of tubes down their throat, pre-term babies now had two little tubes resting just inside their nose with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) delivering air and oxygen, and helping their lungs stay inflated.”
Rethinking Premature Baby Care, based on Ventilation in Extremely Preterm Infants and Respiratory Function at 8 Years. Lex W. Doyle, MD, Elizabeth Carse, MD, Anne-Marie Adams, PhD, Sarath Ranganathan, PhD, Gillian Opie, MB, BS, and Jeanie LY Cheong, MD, for the Victorian Infant Collaborative Study Group, N Engl J Med. 2017; 377:329-337, July 27, 2017.
“New research takes a novel approach to traditional, clinician-only sedative delivery, finding that select critically ill patients can safely self-administer sedatives to manage their anxiety during mechanical ventilation.
“Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) are often lightly sedated to promote their comfort with mechanical ventilator breaths and to reduce anxiety.”
Safety and Acceptability of Patient-Administered Sedatives During Mechanical Ventilation published in the July 2017 issue of American Journal of Critical Care (AJCC). Also see www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28668914.
“When people have a severe attack of COPD, their breathing becomes very difficult. This can turn into breathing failure [acute hypercapnic respiratory failure (AHRF)] that often requires urgent hospital-based medical care.
“NIV is used more frequently nowadays to help such patients in many hospitals. This review aimed to determine the effectiveness of adding NIV to usual care for this patient group.”
Non-invasive ventilation for people with respiratory failure due to exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Osadnik CR, Tee VS, Carson-Chahhoud KV, Picot J, Wedzicha JA, Smith BJ. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2017, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD004104.
“This real-life trial identified the FFM as the predominantly used interface in COPD patients undergoing long-term NIV.”
Interfaces and ventilator settings for long-term noninvasive ventilation in COPD patients. Jens Callegari, Friederike Sophie Magnet, Steven Taubner, Melanie Berger, Sarah Bettina Schwarz, Wolfram Windisch, Jan Hendrik Storre. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2017; Jun 28;12:1883-1889.
“In total, 430 patients were randomized. The respiratory polygraphy protocol was non-inferior to the polysomnography protocol based on the Epworth scale.”
Conventional Polysomnography is Not Necessary for the Management of Most Patients with Suspected Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Corral J, Sánchez-Quiroga MÁ, Carmona-Bernal C, Sánchez-Armengol Á, Sánchez-de-la-Torre A, Durán-Cantolla J, Egea CJ, Salord N, Monasterio C, Terán J, Alonso-Alvarez ML, Muñoz-Méndez J, Arias EM, Cabello M, Montserrat JM, De la Peña M, Serrano JC, Barbe F, Masa JF, Spanish Sleep Network, Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2017; Jun 21.
European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress 2017
September 9-13, 2017, Milan, Italy. Registration is open.
September 28, 2017, Fall Focus (earn 10 credits), Doubletree Hilton Hotel, Monroeville, Pennsylvania (12 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh). Register online.
October 18, 2017, 36th Annual Fall Respiratory Therapy & Sleep Medicine (10 CRCE/CSTE/CEC) Conference, Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel in Poughkeepsie, New York. Register online at www.Foocus.com. (The next day, Thursday, October 19th, is the annual 8-credit conference of lectures for critical care nurses who work with adult patients, co-sponsored by the NY State Nurses Association. ICU nurse colleagues can visit www.FocusOnNursing.com for complete details.
October 28- November 1, 2017, Toronto, Canada. CHEST annual meeting offers more than 400 general sessions, postgraduate courses, simulation education sessions, original investigation presentations, CME/CE credits and MOC points for hundreds of sessions and more.
Registration is now open.
Make plans to attend the Margaret Pfrommer Memorial Lecture in Long-term Mechanical Ventilation Monday, October 30, at 1:30 pm Convention Center, Room 701A.
"When Air becomes BREATH ... and a Life worth Living" is the title of the 2017 lecture to be presented by Audrey J. King, a Toronto native and a dedicated and effective advocate. King is ventilator user due to childhood polio and her efforts over the years has been a quest for independence for herself and for other ventilator users.
May 4, 2018, Friday, Graceland Guesthouse, Memphis, Tennessee. Watch for details.
ATS Conference 2018
June 19-23, 2018 at The Chase Park Plaza, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
September 14 & 15, 2018, Fall FOCUS, Hotel Irvine, Irvine, California. Watch www.Foocus.com.
Home Ventilator Guide Updated
IVUN’s Home Ventilator Guide has been updated. Notify IVUN at info@ventusers.org if there are additions or changes.
New from Philips Respironics
The hose on the top of the head design gives one a full field of vision to read or watch TV before falling asleep. It is comfortable for wearing glasses. The gel pillows cushion works with almost any nose shape. Three sizes (S,M,L) of nasal pillows offers a comfortable, custom fit.
DreamWear Gel Pillows
This mask is intended to provide an interface for application of CPAP or bi-level therapy to patients. The mask is for single patient use in the home or multi-patient use in the hospital/institutional environment. The mask is to be used on patients (>66lbs/30kg) for whom CPAP or bi-level therapy has been prescribed. It is not for use for ventilation intended for life support.
Published in Khaleej Times
New technology to better lives of ALS sufferers
Published in HME News
Royal Philips has made its wirelessly connected Trilogy family of portable ventilators commercially available in North America. The Bluetooth-enabled devices, which connect to Care Orchestrator, deliver data directly to mobile devices or the desktops of healthcare providers multiple times per day, allowing them to make clinical decisions more proactively, according to a press release.
Care Orchestrator is a cloud-based software application that enables data, clinical management workflow, informatics and intelligence capabilities for providers, payers and patients in a single platform. “To have a meaningful impact on patient outcomes, we need to work closely with care providers and develop technologies that can help them break the cycle of reactive care,” said Eli Diacopoulos, Respiratory Care Business Leader, Philips.
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Hillside Animal Clinic
4745 Paoli Pike
Floyds Knobs, IN 47119
ACTH Stimulation Test
ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) is a hormone produced by the brain that stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol and other hormones.
Two medical conditions, Cushing’s disease and Addison’s disease, occur when the body’s regulation of adrenal gland hormones is altered.
The ACTH stimulation test can help your veterinarian diagnose Cushing’s disease or Addison’s disease.
What Is ACTH?
Glucocorticoids (primarily cortisol) and mineralocorticoids are two important types of hormones produced by the body’s adrenal glands. Glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids help regulate numerous complex processes in the body and participate in critically important functions, including the following:
Maintaining fluid balance
Maintaining sodium and potassium balance
Maintaining the integrity and function of blood vessels
Regulating blood pressure and blood flow to vital organs, like the kidneys
Supporting cardiac function
Controlling blood sugar levels and carbohydrate metabolism
Helping to counteract the effects of stress
Helping to maintain immune system function
Under normal conditions, the brain releases a hormone called adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) that stimulates the adrenal glands to release their hormones. The body has highly developed systems called feedback mechanisms that control, based on the body’s needs, how much of these hormones the adrenal glands produce and release. For example, during times of physical or emotional stress, the body tends to increase the production and release of glucocorticoids (cortisol) to help it deal with the stressful episode. In contrast, when the body is receiving cortisol from an outside source (like a cortisone pill or injection), it reduces the amount of cortisol that the adrenal glands produce.
Two medical conditions, Cushing’s disease and Addison’s disease, occur when the body’s regulation of these hormones is altered; such alterations can cause significant illness in affected pets. Cushing’s disease occurs when the body produces and releases excessive amounts of cortisol. The clinical term for Cushing’s disease is hyperadrenocorticism. Addison’s disease occurs when the brain doesn’t release adequate amounts of ACTH, or the adrenal glands fail to release their hormones in response to ACTH. The medical term for Addison’s disease is hypoadrenocorticism.
Cushing’s disease occurs when a change in the body causes the adrenal glands to ignore the normal feedback mechanisms that regulate cortisol, leading to excessive production and release of the hormone. Sometimes Cushing’s disease is caused by a tumor on one of the adrenal glands, which continues to make cortisol despite signals from the body telling it to stop. Sometimes, the adrenal glands are “tricked” by the pituitary gland in the brain into continuing to produce too much cortisol. Either way, the sustained overproduction and release of cortisol eventually results in negative effects on the body.
In most cases, the cause of Addison’s disease is not determined. Sometimes, the body’s immune system can damage the adrenal glands’ cells so extensively that they can’t release hormones when necessary. In other cases, such as a brain tumor, the part of the brain that should release ACTH is unable to. However, Addison’s disease can also occur if a pet that is receiving cortisol medication suddenly stops getting it. In this case, the body has reduced its own cortisol production and can’t increase it quickly enough to compensate when the medication is discontinued. This is why steroid medications, such as prednisone, should not be discontinued suddenly, but must instead be gradually reduced and then discontinued.
Cushing’s disease and Addison’s disease are most commonly diagnosed in dogs, although they occur rarely in cats.
What Is an ACTH Stimulation Test?
If your veterinarian suspects your pet may have Cushing’s disease or Addison’s disease, an ACTH stimulation test may be recommended. The ACTH stimulation test involves administering a small amount of ACTH by injection and then measuring the levels of cortisol produced over a period of a few hours. In dogs with Cushing’s disease, the injection of ACTH causes the adrenal glands to release unusually high amounts of cortisol. In a dog with Addison’s disease, the adrenal glands may be unable to respond adequately to ACTH, so the injection of ACTH does not result in a significant increase in cortisol levels. These responses can help your veterinarian diagnose Addison’s disease or Cushing’s disease in your pet. However, additional tests are recommended in many cases to confirm a diagnosis.
How Is an ACTH Stimulation Test Performed?
Your veterinarian will begin the test by drawing a small amount of blood from your pet to check the baseline (“starting”) cortisol level. Afterward, a very small amount of ACTH is given by injection. A repeat blood sample is taken 1 to 2 hours after the injection to measure the cortisol level and determine if the body’s response is appropriate. The blood samples are submitted to a diagnostic laboratory, and results are generally available within a few days.
Your veterinarian will likely recommend that your pet remain in the hospital for the few hours that are needed to complete the ACTH stimulation test. This is to avoid stress or excitement (for example, from a car ride), which can affect your pet’s cortisol level and reduce the accuracy of the final test result. Generally, pets undergoing an ACTH stimulation test are temporarily kept in a very quiet area of the hospital to reduce stress and excitement as the test is being performed. Your veterinarian may ask you to withhold food on the day of the test. You should mention any medications or supplements that your pet may be receiving, as some chemicals can affect the accuracy of the test. Be sure to address any questions or concerns with your veterinarian.
What Is an ACTH Stimulation Test Used For?
Cushing’s disease and Addison’s disease are complicated medical conditions, and confirming a diagnosis can be challenging. Your pet’s response on this test can provide valuable information to help your veterinarian reach a diagnosis. In many cases, additional tests (including blood tests, x-rays, abdominal ultrasound examinations, and urine tests) are recommended to confirm a diagnosis.
Once a pet has been diagnosed with Cushing’s disease and is undergoing treatment, many veterinarians periodically perform ACTH stimulation tests to assess how well the pet is responding to treatment.
Are There Risks Associated with Performing an ACTH Stimulation Test?
There are very few risks associated with ACTH stimulation testing. The ACTH injection is very safe and side effects are exceptionally rare. Drawing blood takes only a few seconds, and your veterinary team will take precautions to ensure that your pet is not injured during this procedure. Your veterinarian will also take steps to ensure that your pet is safe and comfortable while being hospitalized for the test. Once blood is obtained, all further processing is performed at your veterinarian’s office or at a diagnostic laboratory, so there is no risk of harm to your pet.
Diagnosing Cushing’s disease and Addison’s disease can be complicated, but an early diagnosis can mean early treatment and a better chance at a normal life for your pet.
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Top EPA official resigns amid scrutiny over possible ethics violations
Bill Wehrum’s ties to his former law firm and power sector clients prompted a congressional probe.
Bill Wehrum is leaving his post as the Environmental Protection Agency's top air policy official. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Juliet Eilperin and
Juliet Eilperin
Reporter covering domestic policy and national affairs
Brady Dennis
Reporter focusing on environmental policy and public health issues
June 26, 2019 at 4:47 p.m. UTC
Bill Wehrum spent only a year and a half as the Environmental Protection Agency’s top air official before announcing plans to resign Wednesday amid scrutiny over possible violations of federal ethics rules.
But during that time, Wehrum served as one of the chief architects of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the ambition and reach of the EPA, and to retreat from President Obama’s push to slash emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. He oversaw efforts to ease regulation of the coal industry, slow requirements that cars and trucks become more fuel efficient and overhaul how the agency calculates costs and benefits to favor industry.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s announcement Wednesday did not cite a specific reason for the departure of Wehrum, who as an attorney represented power companies seeking to scale back air pollution rules. But Wehrum has privately expressed concern about how an ongoing House Energy and Commerce Committee probe was affecting his former law firm, Hunton Andrews Kurth, according to individuals familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
“While I have known of Bill’s desire to leave at the end of this month for quite sometime, the date has still come too soon,” Wheeler said Wednesday, praising Wehrum for “his service, his dedication to his job, the leadership he provided to his staff and the agency, and for his friendship.”
Environmental groups, Democrats on Capitol Hill and other critics were quick to celebrate Wehrum’s departure, calling him an integral part of the “swamp” that President Trump had vowed to drain in Washington.
“William Wehrum was emblematic of the administration’s struggles to remain ethical," Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement. "While it’s a good thing that Wehrum’s potential ethics problems will no longer affect the agency, the tone is set at the top, and if the EPA is to clean up the mess started by Scott Pruitt, the Trump administration needs to get serious about policing its ethical failures.”
Wehrum, who was confirmed in November 2017, is the latest Trump appointee to depart after coming under investigation for possible misconduct. Four Cabinet members — EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin — have all left under an ethics cloud, along with other senior staffers such as Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator William “Brock” Long.
Interior’s Office of Inspector General is currently investigating seven current or former top appointees for improperly engaging with their former employers or clients on department-related business, including Secretary David Bernhardt. Bernhardt has denied any wrongdoing, and the other officials have not commented publicly on the allegations.
The Energy and Commerce Committee launched its inquiry of Wehrum after The Washington Post reported in February that questions had been raised about his compliance with the Trump ethics pledge, which requires political appointees to recuse themselves from specific matters involving their former employers and clients for two years. If an appointee does meet with a former client, the pledge dictates that the gathering should be open to all interested parties — a requirement that has been interpreted to mean four other participants who were not clients.
Less than one month after joining the EPA, Wehrum met with two former clients at his old firm without consulting in advance with ethics officials, even though they had cautioned him about such interactions. That same month, Wehrum weighed in on a decision that appeared to benefit a former client, DTE Energy.
Wehrum, who heads the air and radiation office at the EPA, acknowledged both incidents in an interview with The Post but said he had determined that he did not violate federal ethics rules.
“I have, from day one, tried to be absolutely strict and assiduous as to what I do about complying with my ethical obligations,” Wehrum said, “because it doesn’t do me any good, and it doesn’t do the agency any good, to be doing things that people see as unethical.”
Trump administration to relax tailpipe emission standards for cars and trucks, rebuffing automakers' plea for a compromise
Still, the fallout from the disclosure about Wehrum’s ties to his former firm and the utility industry by The Post and other outlets — including Politico, the New York Times and E&E News — has continued to reverberate. The Utility Air Regulatory Group, a collection of power companies that paid Hunton Andrews Kurth millions in membership dues, disbanded earlier this year.
Wehrum has said he represented the group as its own entity, rather than the individual utilities that made up its membership. But investigators on Capitol Hill have explored whether he and his former firm represented the power companies as well, according to one person familiar with the inquiry, raising the prospect that Werhum’s meetings could have violated ethics rules on multiple counts. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because it is ongoing.
Both Wehrum’s supporters and his critics say that he has accomplished some of industry’s long-sought goals. In doing so, he has rolled back some of President Barack Obama’s most sweeping air policies. Last week the EPA finalized a rule targeting power plants that cuts carbon emissions by less than half of what experts say is needed to avoid catastrophic global warming. He has advanced other controversial proposals as well, including one that would slow efforts to improve gas mileage for cars and light trucks. Another would limit how the EPA calculates public health benefits in proposed regulations, which could make it tougher to limit pollution sources.
“No assistant administrator at EPA had more on their plate than Bill," Ross Eisenberg, vice president of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement. "He executed the job with a steady hand and got big things done.”
But what some industry officials saw as Wehrum’s reasonable measures to reduce the regulatory burden on companies, critics describe as undermining the agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment.
“It is, at the very least, going to take years to undo the damage that has been done,” said John Coequyt, global climate policy director for the Sierra Club.
In a phone interview, Coequyt said that as Wehrum returns to the private sector, corporate clients could face blowback for enlisting Wehrum’s help. “We believe he’s toxic to their interests, and anyone who hires him will be publicly criticized for doing so."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who joined other Democrats in February in asking EPA’s inspector general to investigate Wehrum, predicted that he would end up representing one of the companies that has sought regulatory relief from Trump’s EPA.
“I can’t wait to see where Bill Wehrum lands once he’s out the door,” Whitehouse said in a statement. “What do you bet it’s with one of the fossil fuel interests he has served so well as air chief, delivering one big handout after another?”
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French environment minister quits with criticism of Macron
In a radio interview, Aug. 28, Nicolas Hulot said he was resigning as French environment minister. He said he had not yet told French President Emmanuel Macron.
James McAuley
Foreign correspondent focusing on French and European politics and culture
August 28, 2018 at 4:16 p.m. UTC
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron’s reputation as a leading climate change activist suffered a blow Tuesday with the abrupt resignation of his environment minister.
Nicolas Hulot, an outspoken environmentalist and former journalist, unexpectedly announced his departure in the midst of a routine interview on France Inter radio. He cited constant disappointments with what he considers the French government’s lax approach to tackling climate change, as well as its dependence on nuclear power.
“I no longer want to lie to myself,” he said. “I don’t want to give the illusion that my presence in the government signifies that we are answering these problems properly. So I have made the decision to leave the government.”
The French president has been widely seen as the chief defender of the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Accords, as well as one of the few world leaders willing to stand up to President Trump on the issue. After Trump announced in June 2017 the United States would withdraw from the Paris agreement, Macron pledged to “Make Our Planet Great Again.” He has received positive press for luring U.S. climate scientists to France.
Hulot suggested on Tuesday there was little substance behind these grandiose declarations.
“Have we begun to reduce the use of pesticides? The answer is no. Have we started to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? The answer is no. Or to stop the erosion of biodiversity? No.”
Hulot’s resignation was particularly striking because it took Macron’s government by surprise.
French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, a guest on BFM TV at the same time as Hulot’s bombshell interview, confessed Macron had not been warned in advance. Some of Hulot’s other government colleagues, making the usual rounds on the morning shows, were visibly stunned when presented with the news.
“Is that a joke?” asked Marlène Schiappa, France’s gender equality minister, her face angled in an amused smile.
They also struck back at Hulot’s criticisms.
“I hear his disappointment, but we must give him and the government credit for what has been done over the course of a year,” Griveaux said, citing incremental progress on saving species and transitioning away from nuclear energy. “We can’t have results in just one year, and Nicolas Hulot knows that.” Macron was elected in early May 2017 and took power shortly thereafter.
Hulot’s departure means the loss of one of the most popular members of Macron’s entourage. The minister is a former TV personality whose program endeared him to many in the generation of younger voters who came of age in the 1990s.
It also adds to a quiet but constant stream of turbulence at the Elysee Palace. Although Macron is often seen abroad as the composed, stable antidote to the political tumult in the London of Brexit and the Washington of Trump, four members of his cabinet have resigned after charges related to political corruption.
Additionally, Macron’s chief of staff, Alexis Kohler, is under investigation for influence peddling and for violating conflict-of-interest rules. Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen is under investigation for having illegally enlarged the premises of the publishing house she ran before entering the government. Budget Minister Gerard Darmanin was investigated for rape earlier this year, although the charges were later abandoned. Hulot, too, came under fire in February for allegedly sexually assaulting a granddaughter of former French president François Mitterrand in the late 1990s — an allegation from 2008 he denied. The government stood by him.
All throughout the long, hot summer, the French government has also been plagued by a scandal concerning one of Macron’s former personal security guards, Alexandre Benalla, who was caught on camera beating and dragging two protesters during the annual May Day demonstrations.
The way Macron appeared to protect Benalla before the footage was revealed in the French press has cost him significantly. The most recent Ifop poll, published Sunday, showed 66 percent of the French public is dissatisfied with his performance, a five point boost from the month before. By contrast, only 34 percent of those consulted expressed a favorable view.
The Hulot resignation may additionally portend a shift in the public identity of a government that styles itself as “neither right nor left.” From the beginning, the key players in the Macron cabinet were defectors from France’s traditional center-right party, and Hulot’s absence will mean even less of a voice for those on the left.
Macron’s nominally centrist party, “La République En Marche” (“Republic on the Move”), holds an absolute majority in the French parliament. But what remains of a political opposition immediately seized on Hulot’s resignation as the sign of further trouble ahead.
“The resignation of Nicolas Hulot serves as a vote of censure against Macron,” announced Jean-Luc Mélénchon, the outspoken leader of the far-left France Unbowed faction, on Twitter. “Macronism begins its decomposition.”
The president himself took the news of the day in stride. On an official visit to Copenhagen, Macron refrained from criticizing Hulot, saying he hoped “always to be able to count on the engagement of this free and convinced man.”
He also refused to entertain the substance of Hulot’s critiques. “This is a fight that does not happen overnight,” he said.
France’s Macron takes lead in climate change battle, with the U.S. absent
Promising to ‘Make Our Planet Great Again,’ Macron lures 13 U.S. climate scientists to France
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
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Flood Prioritization Bill Introduced For Missouri River
March 13, 2020 By David Murray
Missouri River management practices are the focus of a new bill in Congress, as well as of a lawsuit whose latest phase will take place in June.
Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt introduced a bill in Congress March 5 to require the Corps of Engineers to manage the Missouri River for flood control only, and to disregard earlier mandates for species preservation.
It’s not the first time such a bill has been introduced. Last year, Missouri’s other senator, Josh Hawley, introduced a bill, S.1571, that would have required the Corps to operate the river’s mainstem reservoirs for flood control only, meaning the Corps could not make any releases to support endangered species. Blunt’s bill was co-sponsored by Hawley.
The Missouri River experienced devastating flooding last year, the effects of which are still being repaired. Many thousands of acres of farmland were flooded, and hundreds of levees were damaged or breached. Weather forecasts indicate a similar season this year.
Stakeholders along the Missouri River have complained for years about the Corps’ management practices. In 2014, a group of them filed suit against the Corps, alleging that more frequent flooding of their land was due to the Corps changing priorities from flood control to species preservation. The case was known as Ideker Farms Inc. et. al. vs. United States.
According to a fact sheet by Polsinelli, the Kansas City law firm that represented the Ideker Farms plaintiffs, “The Missouri River has changed since 2004, and it is now more prone to flooding. For over six decades, the Corps placed the highest priority on flood control as mandated by Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1944. The water management guidelines and the Corps’ operations of the Missouri River, under last century’s new reservoir system and the Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project, resulted in the narrowing of the river, stabilization of the banks and abatement of flooding. Since 2004, that has changed with the de-prioritization of flood control by the Corps and aggressive construction of habitat for fish and wildlife. The changes have adversely affected those in the river basin.”
A judge agreed, ruling for the plaintiffs on March 13, 2018 that the flooding damage to their property amounted to an illegal “taking” of it. Since then, the case has been in federal claims court while compensation for property owners is being negotiated.
Dan Boulware, lead attorney for the Ideker Farms plaintiffs, told The Waterways Journal that the parties will appear before Judge Firestone in June to have the amount of compensation ruled on. That ruling could come by September. He said the Corps has already filed notice that it intends to appeal.
Dan Boulware
Ideker Farms v. United States
Josh Hawley
O.H. Ingram Whiskey Is Aged In Barge Rickhouse
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BIM Revit
Facial protection against Covid-19
A chat with a mother leads to new face protection shields
“Hi Mother, how are you?” Seems a simple enough way to start a phone call. But it was a call that started a new supply of personal protective equipment (PPE). That mother, a healthcare worker, explained how shortages of PPE were impacting the lives of healthcare professionals around the world in the fight against the corona virus. Her son, an engineer working for a global plastic pipes manufacturer asked his colleagues if they could help. That led to the manufacturer swapping some of its production of pipes for the construction industry to make high-quality face protection shields for (healthcare) workers. From April 2020, that company, Wavin, a global player in construction and infrastructure, will supply face protection shields from plastic normally used in the production of pipe systems and units for rainwater management. The company is keen to contribute to the global fight against the coronavirus. The company is expected to be able to deliver 10,000 pieces per day. The first 100,000 units have been donated to several hospitals in the Netherlands.
Developed within two weeks
Claudia Goemans, Director Technology & Innovation at Wavin explained “The face shields have been developed in cooperation with healthcare professionals to ensure that our products meet the same standards. We recognize this is an urgent need, and thanks to everyone involved, the product was developed within just two weeks, without compromising on quality. Now, we are delighted to say we will make thousands of face shields available for businesses that need to protect workers such as dentists, physiotherapists, installation and maintenances workers, hairdressers, etc. Indeed, not only healthcare anymore
Face Shield in use
People who work in close proximity of others, can pick up the virus from the vicinity tiny drops of saliva reach their faces. Face shields are transparent screens that cover the face and help prevent infectious droplets from getting into the eyes, nose and mouth. This Face Protection Shield is intended as an additional layer of protection, not as a replacement for personal protection equipment such as face masks and/or goggles. They have been made available on a very short term as an urgent solution for various professionals. At the same time a formal certification process has been started.
A contribution to healthcare
Gert-Jan Maasdam, Global VP Market Strategy and Innovation at Wavin: "These masks can make a small contribution to the well-being of the people who are so important right now. Like many others, we feel rather powerless in the fight against corona. We are happy to be able to take responsibility and at least do something."He continued: “We could not have produced this product so quickly without help so Wavin thanks all the closely involved partners for their commitment to make this important project possible. In particular, HAIDLMAIR, which helped to quickly develop and deliver the injection mould for the face shields, sheltered workshop Larcom and Valtech, Wavin's digital partner.”
The Wavin face shields are currently available for professionals across Europe. The company is looking for opportunities to export to other European countries on short term. Please contact your local Wavin company for information on local availability.
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About Wavin
Contact Wavin
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Wavin is part of Orbia, a community of companies working together to tackle some of the world's most complex challenges. We are bound by a common purpose: To Advance Life Around the World.
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Home/Mel Greenberg
Staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 37 years
First writer to be inducted into Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame
Created the first weekly national collegiate women’s basketball poll in 1976; two years later it began worldwide transmission as the Associated Press women’s rankings
Best known for national and local coverage of women’s basketball at the collegiate and professional levels
Covered every national finals dating back to the era of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW)
Known as “The Guru,” “Mr. Women’s Basketball,” “The Godfather”
Received Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s first media award in 1991; award was re-named the “Mel Greenberg Award” and given each year to someone whose work in the media helps foster the growth of women’s basketball
Received the Big East’s Media Award in 2004
Received the Jake Wade Award in 2005, given by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) to a member of the news media who has made a major impact on collegiate athletics
Received the ECAC-SIDA, an offshoot of the national organization, media award in 2006
Inducted into the Philadelphia Big Five Hall of Fame (1992), the United States Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame (2002) and the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2005).
Has covered the WNBA extensively every summer since the pro league’s beginning in 1997, as well as the former American Basketball League during its brief existence from 1996-98
During his collegiate days at Temple University , he served as basketball manager for Hall-of-Fame coach Harry Litwack’s men’s team
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Vanessa Guillen murder raises questions about how female service members are treated
by: Russell Falcon, Nexstar, and Anna Wiernicki
Posted: Jul 10, 2020 / 05:39 PM EDT / Updated: Jul 10, 2020 / 05:39 PM EDT
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nexstar) — U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy says he is ordering a full independent investigation into the murder of 22-year-old Spc. Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood in Texas.
Domingo Garcia with the League of United Latin American Citizens said that before her death, Guillen filed a sexual harassment charge against her alleged killer but was ignored.
Garcia, however, said Guillen is not alone.
“We now have thousands of women who have come forward and said, ‘I was raped, I was abused. I complained, I tried to bring it up and nothing happened,’” Garcia said.
Texas Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia said there will also be a panel of experts to take a broader look into how the military handles sexual harassment.
“To look at the culture, to look at the climate, to look at the environment, to look at the procedures and the processes. To see just how they can do better,” Rep. Garcia said.
When finished, Rep. Garcia said all of the findings will be available to Congress to then decide if more needs to be done.
“When a woman puts on the uniform and agrees to serve our country and takes that oath, she should be treated equally to the men in the Army,” Domingo Garcia said.
More Washington-DC Stories
by Alexandra Limon / Jan 19, 2021
WASHINGTON (Nexstar) -- Due to the attack on the US Capitol and internal turmoil in the Department of Homeland Security, lawmakers say a new DHS secretary needs to be confirmed immediately.
But Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley -- one of the senators who objected to certifying the Electoral College votes immediately before the insurrection by a mob on January 6 -- blocked the Senate from fast-tracking Alejandro Mayorkas' confirmation vote.
WASHINGTON (Nexstar) -- Garth Brooks is calling for national unity. So is freshman Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who had been a strong supporter of President Trump.
Both neither of them -- and many others -- think national unity will be easy to achieve.
Small numbers of protesters gather at fortified US capitols
Small groups of right-wing protesters — some of them carrying rifles — gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country Sunday as National Guard troops and police kept watch to prevent a repeat of the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol.
There were no immediate reports of any clashes.
West Virginia Issues New Private Property Hunting Rules
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New Hanover County to expand coronavirus testing starting Monday
April 26, 2020 at 3:13 PM EDT - Updated April 27 at 6:25 PM
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - The public health department in New Hanover County will implement “one of the most extensive and aggressive” COVID-19 testing programs in North Carolina, beginning Monday, according to county officials.
People who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 can call the coronavirus call center at 910-798-6800 to be screened by a nurse. If you then meet the criteria after that screening, you will be referred to a drive-through location in downtown Wilmington next to the Schwartz Center at a certain day and time for the actual test at no cost.
The screening process will give people with mild symptoms the opportunity to be tested, which is considered less restrictive than current state and CDC standards.
“This is the most extensive and aggressive testing effort by any county in North Carolina that we are aware of; and our team has been working diligently to bring this valuable resource to our residents – so we can increase our knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 in our community as well as extend care and support to those who are ill,” said New Hanover County Board of Commissioners Chair Julia Olson-Boseman during a Monday morning news conference.
“This testing is for anyone who is experiencing symptoms, but it’s especially important for those who don’t have insurance, or who lack access to health care, because they can be tested at no cost with the support from our Public Health staff that they need," said Olson-Boseman.
LIVE: New Hanover County to expand coronavirus testing starting Monday >>https://bit.ly/2KDOSqm
Posted by WECT News on Monday, April 27, 2020
The county has the capacity to test up to 2,400 people (or roughly 1% of the county’s population) over the next four weeks. This is on top of the testing being done by local providers. According to the US Census Bureau, there were more than 234,000 people living in New Hanover County as of 2019.
Eligible residents for this type of screening will include people who are experiencing symptoms, having limited or no access to healthcare and got the pre-screening through the call center. According to the CDC, symptoms can include fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and a new loss of taste or smell.
Lisa Brown, public health preparedness coordinator for New Hanover County, said that once an individual tests positive, contact tracing will begin. The county will use this data to determine how prevalent COVID-19 is in the community and if the county’s mitigation efforts need to be altered.
“As of [Monday morning], we have had 79 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Hanover County. But we know that this number of lab-confirmed cases is not the full picture of COVID-19 in the community,” Brown said.
Brown added that the testing recommendations from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services have focused on testing people who were at high-risk of serious illness, people who work in high-risk settings like long-term care and health care facilities and people facing severe symptoms.
“So, we know many minor cases of COVID-19 in New Hanover County are not known by public health. This lack of visibility about where this virus is and isn’t limits our ability to follow up with contact tracing when needed. And that’s why expanded diagnostic testing in our area is so important for a step for New Hanover County,” Brown said.
Olson-Boseman said that as of 11 a.m. Monday, the call center has taken 50 calls and has scheduled 31 testing appointments.
As a reminder, the coronavirus call center’s number is 910-798-6800 and the center will be open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo also announced that an anonymous donor from the area business community made a donation of 10,000 antibody test kits and 5,000 N95 masks.
“This is a great example of when the private sector and the public sector come together to do great things,” Saffo said.
Brown said scientists are working to determine if the presence of COVID-19 antibodies confers immunity to the virus – and if so, to what extent.
The health department is still working on a plan to perform the antibody tests throughout the community, but Brown says they will first be offered on the 79-lab confirmed positive cases.
Brown says in addition to expanded testing capacity, these tests will help in the fight against COVID-19.
“It could help us determine if someone could potentially had COVID-19 even though they were unable to be tested at the time they were sick or they never even had symptoms. Targeted antibody testing might also be able to tell us very quickly, in a matter of 15 minutes or so, whether someone is in a high-risk setting,” Brown said.
Brunswick County water rates could be on the rise
Water rates in Brunswick County could be going up after county commissioners met on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of a rate increase.
WECT Staff
Commissioners approve plan to feed more homebound senior citizens
County commissioners on Tuesday approved of a plan to expand the Home Delivered Meals program
Ashlea Kosikowski
DOJ ends investigation into stock sales of N.C. Sen. Richard Burr with no charges
An effort to honor a fallen firefighter is put on hold
FBI makes first federal arrest in North Carolina related to U.S. Capitol insurrection
WBTV Web Staff
Attack on U.S. Capitol causes renewed interest in 1898 Wilmington Massacre
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UN: Satellite images show Temple of Bel in Syria 'destroyed'
Associated Press |Published: 09.01.15 , 08:22
DAMASCUS - A satellite image on Monday shows that the main building of the ancient Temple of Bel in the Syrian city of Palmyra has been destroyed, a United Nations agency said. The image was taken a day after a massive explosion was set off near the 2,000-year-old temple in the city occupied by Islamic State militants.
Earlier, Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museums Department in Damascus, said there was conflicting information about the fate of the temple, one of the most prominent structures in a sprawling Roman-era complex, because eyewitnesses were unable to approach the site.
But Einar Bjorgo, manager of Geneva-based UN satellite analysts UNOSAT, said a satellite image taken Monday "unfortunately shows the destruction of the temple's main building as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity." UNOSAT based its findings after comparing the image with one taken on Aug. 27 which showed the main building and columns still intact.
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YOUNG AUSTRALIANS in
The future of the ANZUS alliance
Throughout history, Australia’s identity has been conditioned by its self-perception as the Anglo-American outpost of the south. Australia’s inherent geographical vulnerabilities and its affinity with European values underlie Australia’s historic pursuit for great and powerful friends, first Britain and then the United States (US). Following Britain’s failure to protect Australia from Japan in 1942, the broadly held view that the US had saved Australia from Japanese invasion prompted Australians to swap best friends, ditching Britain for the more powerful United States. On 29 April 1952, the Security Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America (the ANZUS Treaty) was brought into force and was given concrete expression through Australia’s involvement in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
While the initial utility of the alliance for both security and economic purposes is broadly undisputed, by the late 1960s, the Asia-Pacific accounted for two-thirds of Australia’s imports and exports; bringing the importance of regionalism and multilateralism into sharp focus for Australian policy makers. Even though rhetoric at the time suggested an openness amongst political and intellectual elites to the consolidation of a new national identity based in Asia - take for example former Prime Minister Keating’s slogan ‘It’s all the go with Tokyo’ - Canberra has remained committed to the alliance and adamant that it can manage tensions between its economic and strategic interests implied by the dramatic rise of China.
This disjuncture in Australia’s foreign policy is given some explanation through looking at Australia as a liminal state, experiencing two worlds, old and new at the same time. In seeking to establish whether Australia should remain in the old, or transition to the new, we need to weigh up the costs and benefits of the ANZUS security alliance. ANZUS is a threat-orientated security alliance that was established based on shared fears pertaining to communism, a militarily resurgent Japan, and more recently, terrorism. Similarly, the benefits provided to Australia through the ANZUS alliance are also security and threat orientated, including access to US intelligence and military technology. In exchange for these military advantages, Australia pays a regular premium by hosting US technology at Pine Gap and lending a hand to the US with military action abroad.
The threat-orientated nature of the security ANZUS alliance is problematic and inherently dangerous to Australia’s future for two reasons. First, Australia openly acknowledges that it faces no threat from regional or global states and yet paradoxically persists with spending up to $10 billion a year on a military force that is designed to deter and combat military attacks that could only emerge from these very neighbours. The second problem is the resulting ambiguity amongst neighbouring states in the Asia-Pacific, confused by Australia’s fluctuation between a traditional military defence approach and a cooperative, regional security approach.
Despite Australia perceiving no direct threat from any regional or global countries requiring the military might or resources of the US, the reciprocal expectations of the alliance have sparked fear pertaining to Australia’s subordinate position in what is clearly a binary power dynamic favouring the US. That is, the alliance impinges on the ability of Canberra to manoeuvre in favour of Australian national interests when they do not correspond to those of the US. In a sort of security dilemma, Australia has become unconditionally entrapped by US military choke points, fearing abandonment by the US if they do not oblige.
Analogies have been cast comparing Washington’s expectations of Australia to those held by Britain preceding the Second World War, where Australian troops were sent across the world to bolster the military pursuits of the UK. A more recent example can be taken from the Iraq quagmire, where the Howard government sent forces into an effort lacking UN mandate, and largely understood to undermine rather than promote Australian security. A prominent commentator in this field, former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser critiques Australia’s commitment to ANZUS, writing in 2015 that ‘we have effectively ceded to America the ability to decide when Australia goes to war’. This perception of Australia as an uncritical US proxy is particularly damaging for Australia’s regional interests, with political and intellectual actors in the Asia Pacific becoming increasingly concerned that Australia’s readiness to back US postures without reservation will be emulated in the Asia-Pacific region.
In what has been widely coined the ‘Asian Century’, Australia’s alliance with the US no longer parallels (as it once did) economic links to the US. With the economic geography of Australia making a major shift from West to East, particularly into China, accompanied by the relative economic decline of the US, serious questions arise pertaining to the regional costs of the ANZUS alliance for Australia. Looking to the future of Australian security, building on existing security cooperation with Japan seems like a logical first move. By strengthening security ties with Japan, Australia will be able to subdue much of the concern emanating from its regional neighbours pertaining to military engagement with the US and play a credible, non-threatening leadership role on regional issues without the explicit involvement of the United States.
It is time for Australia to abandon its insulation again the ‘reality of its own geography’ and realise that our strategic and economic potential as a nation lies in the Asia Pacific. For there is surely little doubt that Australia would be a far more prosperous and secure country if our neighbouring countries were similarly stable, secure and prosperous.
Rose is a University of Melbourne International Relations graduate & social policy researcher with a flourishing curiosity over Australia’s past, current and looming political chapters both domestic and abroad.
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WAYNE HAMMER became fascinated with Maya culture when he toured ruins in Honduras, Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala; however, it was a series of discussions with a geneticist about how DNA markers are inherited that crystallized the premise for this book. Wayne lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife, Sandy. For more information, visit http://www.waynehammer.com
SKU: 9781627872997 Category: Fiction
After fighting in a dirty little war against rebel insurgents, Michael Duchesne returns to the United States with an adopted son and a secret that could tear his family apart. In an effort to keep them safe, he severs all ties with his military past, building a successful career as a civil engineer. But past and present collide when Michael’s daughter is kidnapped by an old enemy. To free her, Michael must go back to the jungles of Central America and search for el Registro de Dios, a telling record of man’s evolution hidden from the world for two thousand years.
Joining him in the quest is his son, Mitch, whose tiny variation in molecular DNA is responsible for startling changes. Only Dr. Herman Walenz, a rogue scientist under siege by his peers, knows the full impact the mutation will have on the future of mankind. To validate Walenz’s research and unlock the growing genomic mystery, the Duchesnes must evade a deathtrap and recover the Registro. What they discover will send shockwaves through the scientific community and constitute a full-scale assault on Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Ant Dens: A Suspense Novel
Night Riders in the Tallgrass
Ocean Depths: A Darkness
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J. Hudson Taylor: Founder of the China Inland Mission
by Clifford G. Howell
Born in Yorkshire, England, May 21, 1832.
Died at Chang-Sha, China, June 3, 1905.
The opening chapter of J. Hudson Taylor's Retrospect of his work in China, is entitled "The Power of Prayer;" and that chapter, with the other contents of the book, reveals such reverent attention to the voice of God that it seemed to partake of the atmosphere which the angels breathe as they execute the Father's commands.
Such a work as he accomplished was not preceded by any happen so, haphazard preparation. He did not feel that his call, distinct and definite though it was, was the only thing needful; but, having this, he held on to it through such a process of thrashing and winnowing of the seed he was to scatter that he became a most successful sower in the land of Sinim. The steps to accomplish this are well worth tracing, and none other could do so as well as he.
In acknowledging "an unspeakable debt of gratitude" to his beloved parents, Mr. Taylor tells that before his birth his father was deeply moved in behalf of China's suffering millions, and "was led to pray that if God should give him a son, he might be called and privileged to labor in the vast and needy empire which was then apparently so sealed against the truth."
In following the fulfillment of that inspired petition, one is impressed that unless there is earnest attention to heed God's voice, the divine plan for the individual will be marred. God's purpose cherished in the heart, will, as the buds of the rose, develop into flowers of fragrance; yet unless the human will shall submit to divine control, the heavenly plan for that life is as easily broken as are the petals of the flower.
Young Taylor never knew of his father's desire and prayer until he had himself fought his way to China and laid seven years of service upon her barren altar. But that petition was written in heaven, and its spirit was cherished in holy influences in the home. One mountain in the way of its fulfillment, amounting even to infidelity in the boy, was removed by the prayers of his mother and sister, after the father had lost all hope of his going to China.
At fifteen he was a stranger to Christ. "Often I had tried to make myself a Christian," he says, "and failing, of course, in such efforts, I began at last to think that for some reason or other I could not be saved." Discouragement caused him to drift to infidelity; but one day, when his mother was visiting about seventy or eighty miles from home, she went to her room, determined to pray for her only son until he was born into the heavenly family. For hours she laid hold of the mighty arm of power which surrounds every imperiled soul. And there she remained till she received evidence that her son was converted. In the meantime, his attention was drawn to a little tract in the home library, and the words "The finished work of Christ" especially impressed him.
"What was finished?" he questioned; and thus he answered: "A full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin; the debt was paid by the Substitute; Christ died for our sins, 'and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.' Then came the thought, 'If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?' And with this dawned the joyful conviction, as light flashed into my soul by the Holy Spirit, that there was nothing in the world to be done but to fall down on one's knees, and, accepting this Saviour and His salvation, to praise Him forevermore."
Just one month before, his sister had begun daily prayers for him, to be continued till his conversion.
"Brought up in such a circle and saved under such circumstances, it was perhaps natural that from the commencement of my Christian life, I was led to feel that the promises were very real, and that prayer was, in sober matter of fact, transacting business with God, whether on one's own behalf or on behalf of those for whom one sought His blessing."
A few months after his conversion he took time for a special season of seeking God. "In the gladness of my heart," he says, "I poured out my soul before God; and again and again confessing my grateful love to Him who had done everything for me — who had saved me when I had given up all hope and even desire for salvation — I besought Him to give me some work to do for Him, as an outlet for love and gratitude; some self-denying service, no matter what it might be, however trying or however trivial — something with which He would be pleased!" "Well do I remember, as in unreserved consecration I put myself, my life, my friends, my all, upon the altar, the deep solemnity that came over my soul with the assurance that my offering was accepted."
No more his own, henceforth a worker for God, His ambassador, His representative, he must be about his Father's business. Thus was he Heaven-anointed; and his place of service was also Heaven-appointed. His call to China came as certainly from the same great Source as his call to service. He says: "Within a few months of this time of consecration, the impression was wrought into my soul that it was in China that the Lord wanted me. It seemed to me highly probable that the work to which I was thus called might cost my life; for China was not then open as it is now. But few missionary societies had at that time workers in China, and but few books on the subject of China missions were accessible to me."
He borrowed Medhurst's "China" of a minister, who asked his purpose. "I told him that God had called me to spend my life in missionary service in that land. 'And how do you propose to go there?' he inquired. I answered that I did not at all know; that it seemed to me probable that I should need to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in Judea — go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who called me to supply all my need. Kindly placing his hand upon my shoulder, the minister replied: 'Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will get wiser than that. Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.'
"I have grown older since then," he wrote after many years of labor in China, "but not wiser. I am more than ever convinced that if we were to take the directions of our Master and the assurances He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given."
Now began the pruning and planting process which became so productive on Chinese soil. Of such feeble constitution that his parents had abandoned all hope of a missionary career, the called and consecrated youth laid hold anew upon life, and "God gave increased health."
I began to take more exercise in the open air to strengthen my physique. My feather bed I had taken away, and I sought to dispense with as many other home comforts as I could, in order to prepare myself for rougher lines of life. I also began to do what Christian work was in my power, in the way of tract distribution, Sunday-school teaching, and visiting the poor and sick, as opportunity afforded."
Medhurst's book had recommended medical work; and the missionary-to-be took up this study. But he did not forget his Guide-Book. "Before leaving home," he says, "my attention was drawn to the subject of setting apart the first-fruits of all one's increase and a proportionate part of one's possessions to the Lord's service. I thought it well to study the question with my Bible in hand before I went away from home and was placed in circumstances which might bias my conclusions by the pressure of surrounding wants and cares. I was thus led to the determination to set apart not less than one tenth of whatever moneys I might earn or become possessed of for the Lord's service." Not only did he do this, but found great blessing in giving much more than this to the Lord's cause.
He was next led to investigate another subject of deep importance. He says: "A friend drew my attention to the question of the personal and premillennial coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and gave me a list of passages bearing upon it, without note or comment, advising me to ponder the subject. For a while I gave much time to studying the scriptures about it, with the result that I was led to see that this same Jesus who left our earth in His resurrection body was so to come again. ... I saw, further, that all through the New Testament the coming of the Lord was the great hope of His people, and was always appealed to as the strongest motive for consecration and service, and as the greatest comfort in trial and affliction. I learned, too, that the period of His return for His people was not revealed, and that it was their privilege, from day to day and from hour to hour, to live as men who wait for their Lord. ...
"The effect of this blessed hope was a thoroughly practical one. It led me to look carefully through my little library to see if there were any books there that were not needed or likely to be of further service, and to examine my small wardrobe, to be quite sure that it contained nothing that I should be sorry to give an account of should the Master come at once. The result was that the library was considerably diminished, to the benefit of some poor neighbors, and to a far greater benefit of my own soul, and that I found I had articles of clothing also which might be put to better advantage in other directions.
"It has been very helpful to me from time to time through life, as occasion has served, to act again in a similar way; and I have never gone through my house, from basement to attic, with this object in view, without receiving a great accession of spiritual joy and blessing. I believe we are all in danger of accumulating — it may be from thoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention of which entails loss of blessing. If the whole resources of the church of God were well utilized, how much more might be accomplished! How many poor might be fed and naked clothed, and to how many of those as yet unreached the gospel might be carried! Let me advise this line of things as a constant habit of mind, and a profitable course to be practically adopted whenever circumstances permit."
Mr. Taylor plunged heartily into gospel work in Hull, where he went for medical training. Late one night he was asked by a man to come and pray with his wife, who he said was dying. "Up a miserable flight of stairs, into a wretched room, he led me; and O, what a sight there presented itself to our eyes! Four or five poor children stood about, their sunken cheeks and temples all telling unmistakably the story of slow starvation; and lying on a wretched pallet was a poor, exhausted mother, with a tiny infant thirty-six hours old, moaning rather than crying, at her side. ... 'Ah!' thought I, 'if I had two shillings and a sixpence instead of half a crown, how gladly should they have one-and-sixpence of it!' But still a wretched unbelief prevented me from obeying the impulse to relieve their distress at the cost of all I possessed.
"It will scarcely seem strange that I was unable to say much to comfort these people. I needed comfort myself. I began to tell them, however, that they must not be cast down, that though their circumstances were very distressing, there was a kind and loving Father in heaven; but something within me said, 'You hypocrite! telling these unconverted people about a kind and loving Father in heaven, and not prepared yourself to trust Him without half a crown!'
"I was nearly choked. ... To talk was impossible under these circumstances; yet, strange to say, I thought I should have no difficulty in praying. ... 'You asked me to come and pray with your wife,' I said to the man; 'let us pray.' And I knelt down. But scarcely had I opened my lips with 'Our Father who art in heaven,' than conscience said within: 'Dare you mock God? Dare you kneel down and call Him Father with that half crown in your pocket?' Such a time of conflict came upon me then as I have never experienced before or since. How I got through that form of prayer I know not, ... but I rose from my knees in great distress of mind."
"The poor father turned to me and said: 'You see what a terrible state we are in, sir; if you can help us, for God's sake do!' Just then the words flashed into my mind, 'Give to him that asketh of thee,' and in the word of a King there is power. I put my hand into my pocket, and slowly drawing forth the half crown, gave it to the man. ... The joy all came back in full flood tide to my heart; I could say anything and feel it then, and the hindrance to blessing was gone — gone, I trust, forever!
"Not only was the poor woman's life saved, but I realized that my life was saved, too! It might have been a wreck — would have been a wreck probably, as a Christian life — had not grace at that time conquered, and the strivings of God's Spirit been obeyed. I well remember how that night, as I went home to my lodgings, my heart was as light as my pocket. The lonely, deserted streets resounded with a hymn of praise which I could not restrain. When I took my basin of gruel before retiring, I would not have exchanged it for a prince's feast. I reminded the Lord, as I knelt at my bedside, of His own word, that he who giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord; I asked Him not to let my loan be a long one, or I should have no dinner next day; and with peace within and peace without, I spent a happy, restful night."
The morning mail brought him a gift four times as great as he had given the poor family, and he says: "I then and there determined that a bank which could not break should have my savings or earnings as the case might be — a determination I have not yet learned to regret. ... If we are faithful to God in little things, we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials of life."
Another test in money matters upon which not only hinged answers to prayer, but which touched his life plan of going to China, served greatly to strengthen Mr. Taylor's growing faith. He believed that men might be influenced through prayer. The doctor by whom he was employed while studying was a forgetful paymaster, and pay-day passed without Mr. Taylor's receiving his much-needed wages. He prayed earnestly about it; but still his employer forgot. Finally, on a day when his landlady should be paid, the doctor turned suddenly to him with, "By the [way], Taylor, is not your salary due again?"
"My emotion may be imagined! I told him as quietly as I could that it was overdue some little time. How thankful I felt at that moment! God had surely heard my prayer, and caused him, in this time of my great need, to remember the salary without any word or suggestion from me. He replied: 'O, I am so sorry you did not remind me! You know how busy I am. I wish I had thought of it a little sooner, for only this afternoon I sent all the money I had to the bank; otherwise I would pay you at once.' It is impossible to describe the revulsion of feeling caused by this unexpected statement. I knew not what to do. ...
"As soon as he was gone I had to seek my little sanctum and pour out my heart before the Lord for some time, before calmness — and more than calmness — thankfulness and joy, were restored to me. I felt that God had His own way, and was not going to fail me. I had sought to know His will early in the day, and as far as I could judge, had received guidance to wait patiently."
And so he waited, spending the evening at the doctor's office, reading the Bible and preparing texts for his services at the lodging-houses in the lowest parts of the town, where he expected to speak next day. Just as he was putting on his overcoat to go, about ten o'clock, he heard the doctor coming. One of his wealthiest patients had just come and paid his bill. "It seemed that somehow or other he could not rest with this on his mind, and had been constrained to come at that unusual hour to discharge his liability." This time the doctor remembered, and turned over part of the bills to the prayerful boy.
"Again I was left," he says, "to go back to my own little closet and praise the Lord with a joyful heart that after all I might go to China!" A mighty weight hung on the golden chain of answered prayer. If his faith grasped not the promises to influence a man at home who was acquainted with God, how could it prevail with men in China who knew Him not? To him, "this incident was not a trivial one; and to recall it sometimes, in circumstances of great difficulty, in China or elsewhere, has proved no small comfort and strength."
Later Mr. Taylor went to London for further medical studies. He was led to trust in Him who feeds the sparrows, for his support in that great metropolis; for if he could not trust Him in a land of Christian influences, where was food in plenty, how could he trust Him where at almost any time he might be cut off from all human aid? The question of support was settled through prayer. Every bill was met promptly; and though at times he lived on bread and fruit and water, he grew rich in faith and experience.
He also had another severe test. In the dissecting-room he received deadly blood-poisoning through a needle prick in the finger. Two other medical students had similar accidents at the same time, and died in consequence thereof. The surgeon said to him, "You are a dead man." Indeed he was brought to death's door; but he had formed more than a speaking acquaintance with One who has power over disease and death, and he spread out his case before Him; and he says, "I was spared in answer to prayer, to work for God in China." "If you have been living moderately," another doctor said, "you may pull through; but if you have been going in for beer and that sort of thing, there is no manner of chance for you." His meager diet was a benefit at this time at least.
One more demonstration of the power of prevailing prayer, — an experience for which the others were preparatory: One of his medical duties was to dress the foot of a patient suffering from gangrene. As a sympathetic Christian nurse, he longed to acquaint his patient with his Saviour. But the patient was an avowed atheist, and very antagonistic to religion. A Scripture reader who had visited him had been ordered from the room, and he had spit in the face of the visiting vicar of the district.
"Upon first commencing to attend him," says Taylor, I prayed much about it, but for two or three days said nothing to him of a religious nature. By special care in dressing his diseased limb, I was able considerably to lessen his sufferings, and he soon began to manifest grateful appreciation of my services. One day, with a trembling heart, I took advantage of his warm acknowledgments to tell him what was the spring of my action, and to speak of his own solemn position and need of God's mercy through Christ. It was evidently only by a powerful effort of self-restraint that he kept his lips closed. He turned over in bed with his back to me, and uttered no word.
"I could not get the poor man out of my mind, and very often through each day I pleaded with God, by His Spirit, to save him. ... After dressing the wound and relieving his pain, I never failed to say a few words to him, which I hoped the Lord would bless. He always turned his back to me, looking annoyed, but never spoke a word in reply.
"After continuing this for some time, my heart sank. It seemed to me that I was not only doing no good, but perhaps really hardening him and increasing his guilt. One day, after dressing his limb and washing my hands, instead of returning to the bedside to speak to him, I went to the door, and stood hesitating for a few moments with the thought in my mind, 'Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.' I looked at the man and saw his surprise, as it was the first time since speaking to him that I had attempted to leave without going up to his bedside to say a few words for my Master.
"I could bear it no longer. Bursting into tears, I crossed the room and said, 'My friend, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear, I must deliver my soul,' and went on to speak very earnestly with him, telling him with many tears how much I wished that he would let me pray with him. To my unspeakable joy he did not turn away, but replied, 'If it will be a relief to you, do.' I need scarcely say that I fell on my knees and poured out my whole soul to God on his behalf. I believe that God then and there wrought a change in his soul, ... and within a few days he definitely accepted Christ as his Saviour. O, the joy it was to me to see that dear man rejoicing in hope of the glory of God!" He had not entered a church for forty years.
"I have often thought since, in connection with this case and the work of God generally, of the words, 'He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.' Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our own feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things, may be the true cause of our want of success."
In Mr. Taylor's voyage to China, September 19, 1853, to March 1, 1854, shipwreck among cannibals was avoided through prayer. In China he met among other missionaries, Drs. Medhurst, Parker, Edkins, Burdon, and William Burns. The latter he called "such a spiritual father," and tells how "with true spiritual insight he often pointed out God's purposes in trial in a way that made all life assume quite a new aspect and value. His views especially about evangelism as the great work of the church, and the order of lay evangelists as a lost order that Scripture required to be restored, were seed thoughts which were to prove fruitful in the subsequent organization of the China Inland Mission."
Upon the burning of his belongings at Shanghai, he observes: "To me this appeared a great calamity, and I fear I was more disposed with faithless Jacob to say, 'All these things are against me,' than to recognize that 'all things work together for good.' I had not then learned to think of God as the one great Circumstance 'in whom we live and move and have our being;' and of all lesser, external circumstances as necessarily the kindest, wisest, best, because either ordered or permitted by Him. Hence my disappointment and trial were very great." But it was one of the many providences that finally led to the establishment of the great system of missions.
On a journey from Shanghai to Ning-po, "among the passengers on board the boat was one intelligent man, who in the course of his travels had been a good deal abroad. ... On the previous evening I had drawn him into earnest converse about his soul's salvation. The man listened with attention, and was even moved to tears; but still no definite result was apparent. I was pleased, therefore, when he asked to be allowed to accompany me, and to hear me preach." As Mr. Taylor was in the cabin a few moments, he heard a splash and a cry, and running out, found this man was overboard and had sunk in the water. Instantly lowering the sail of the boat, he sprang into the water, and called to a near-by fishing-boat to come with their drag hooks.
"'Come!' I cried, as hope revived in my heart. 'Come and drag over this spot directly. A man is drowning just here!'
"'It is not convenient,' was the unfeeling answer.
"'Don't talk of convenience!' cried I in agony; 'a man is drowning, I tell you!'
"'We are busy fishing,' they responded, 'and can not come.'
"'Never mind your fishing,' I said; 'I will give you more money than many a day's fishing will bring; only come — come at once!'
'How much money will you give us?' ' We can not stay to discuss that now! Come, or it will be too late. I will give you five dollars' (then worth about thirty shillings in English money).
"'We won't do it for that,' replied the men. 'Give us twenty dollars, and we will drag!'
'I do not possess so much. Do come quickly, and I will give you all I have!'
'How much may that be?'
'I don't know exactly; about fourteen dollars.'
At last, but even then slowly enough, the boat was paddled over, and the net let down. Less than a minute sufficed to bring up the body of the missing man. ... But all was in vain — life was extinct.
"To myself this incident was profoundly sad and full of significance, suggesting a far more mournful reality. Were not those fishermen actually guilty of this poor China man's death, in that they had the means of saving him at hand, if they would but have used them? Assuredly they were guilty. And yet, let us pause ere we pronounce judgment against them, lest a greater than Nathan answer, 'Thou art the man.' Is it so hard-hearted, so wicked a thing to neglect to save the body? Of how much sorer punishment, then, is he worthy who leaves the soul to perish, and Cain-like says, 'Am I my brother's keeper?'
"The Lord Jesus commands, commands me, commands you, my brother, and you, my sister. 'Go,' says He, 'go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' Shall we say to Him, 'No, it is not convenient'? Shall we tell Him that we are busy fishing, and can not go? that we have bought a piece of ground, and can not go? ... Let us consider who it is that has said, 'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death. ... doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?'"
The work of J. Hudson Taylor in China can only be fully understood by knowing how he came to sever his connection with his society, the Chinese Evangelization Society. The following gives his reason and reasoning: "The society itself was in debt. ... To me it seemed that the teaching of God's word was unmistakably clear: 'Owe no man anything.' To borrow money implied, to my mind, a contradiction of Scripture — a confession that God had withheld some good thing, and a determination to get for ourselves what He had not given. ... If the Word taught me anything, it taught me to have no connection with debt.
"I could not think that God was poor, that He was short of resources, or unwilling to supply any want of whatever work was really His. It seemed to me that if there were lack of funds to carry on work, then to that degree, in that special development, or at that time, it could not be the work of God. To satisfy my conscience I was therefore compelled to resign connection with the society which had hitherto supplied my salary."
His colleague, Mr. Jones, was led to take the same step. The brave, conscientious men depended upon God alone for supplies, and He honored their faith. Mr. Taylor says, "I could look right up into my Father's face with a satisfied heart, ready, by His grace, to do the next thing as He might teach me, and feeling very sure of His loving care."
As Mr. Taylor was preaching one day, in 1857, there was a pleasing interruption; a middle-aged man stood up and said: "I have long sought for the truth, as my fathers did before me; but I have never found it. I have traveled far and near, but without obtaining it. I have found no rest in Confucianism, Buddhism, or Taoism; but I do find rest in what I have heard here tonight. Henceforth I am a believer in Jesus."
This was their first convert. "A few nights after his conversion he asked how long this gospel had been known in England. He was told that they had known it for some hundreds of years. 'What!' said he, amazed; 'is it possible that for hundreds of years you have had the knowledge of these glad tidings in your possession, and yet have only now come to preach it to us? My father sought after the truth for more than twenty years, and died without finding it! O, why did you not come sooner!'"
Mr. Taylor was married in 1858, to the daughter of the devoted missionary, Samuel Dyer, who had gone to the Straits in 1827.
When Dr. Parker was obliged to return with his motherless children to Scotland, Dr. Taylor took charge of his dispensary and hospital at Ningpo, "relying solely upon the faithfulness of a prayer-hearing God to furnish the means required for its support. ... Had not God said that whatever we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus shall be done? And are we not told to seek first the kingdom of God, — not means to advance it?"
Hundreds of patients were to be provided for, and only money enough left for about a month's expenses! Dr. Parker's native staff, having no such faith, resigned. But some members of the little church volunteered to help Dr. Taylor, "depending," he says, "like myself, upon the Lord; and they with me continued to wait upon God, that in some way or other He would provide for His own work.
"Day by day the stores diminished, and they were all but exhausted when one day a remarkable letter reached me from a friend in England which contained a check for fifty pounds. After a little season of thanksgiving with my dear wife, I called my native helpers into our little chapel, and translated to them the letter. I need not say how rejoiced they were, and that we together praised God. ... When, nine months later, I was obliged, through failure of health, to relinquish this charge, I was able to leave more funds in hand for the support of the hospital than were forthcoming at the time I took it.
By the year 1860 thirty or forty native Christians had been gathered into the church at Ning-po; but Dr. Taylor's health failed, and a return to England was the only hope of restoration. While there the whole great field, daily reviewed upon a large map on his study wall, seemed as near to him as when he was in China. With returning strength he engaged in a revision of the New Testament, and observes, "I have often seen since, that without those months of feeding and feasting on the word of God, I should have been quite unprepared to form, on its present basis, a mission like the China Inland Mission.
"In the study of that divine Word I learned that, to obtain successful laborers, not elaborate appeals for help, but first, earnest prayer to God to thrust forth laborers, and second, the deepening of the spiritual life of the church, so that men should be unable to stay at home, were what was needed. I saw that the apostolic plan was not to raise ways and means, but to go and do the work, trusting in His sure word who has said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'"
Mr. Taylor asked God for five workers. These were forthcoming, the fifth reaching the field in 1865. He was encouraged to ask for greater things. "Months of earnest prayer and not a few abortive efforts had resulted in a deep conviction that a special agency was essential for the evangelization of Inland China. ... I had also a growing conviction that God would have me to seek from Him the needed workers, and to go forth with them. But for a long time unbelief hindered my taking the first step. How inconsistent unbelief always is! I had no doubt that, if I prayed for workers, 'in the name' of the Lord Jesus Christ, they would be given me. I had no doubt that, in answer to prayer, the means for our going forth would be provided, and that doors would be opened before us in unreached parts of the empire. But I had not then learned to trust God for keeping power and grace for myself, so no wonder that I could not trust Him to keep others who might be prepared to go with me. I feared that in the midst of the dangers, difficulties, and trials which would necessarily be connected with such a work, some who were comparatively inexperienced Christians might break down, and bitterly reproach me for having encouraged them to undertake an enterprise for which they were unequal. ...
"Yet, what was I to do? The feeling of blood-guiltiness became more and more intense. Simply because I refused to ask for them, the laborers did not come forward — did not go out to China — and every day tens of thousands were passing away to Christless graves! Perishing China so filled my heart and mind that there was no rest by day and little sleep by night, till health broke down. At the invitation of my beloved and honored friend, Mr. George Pearse, I went to spend a few days with him at Brighton.
"On Sunday, June 25, 1865, unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony; and there the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told Him that all the responsibilities as to issues and consequences must rest with Him; that as His servant, it was mine to obey and to follow Him — His to direct, to care for, and to guide me and those who might labor with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened heart?" J. Hudson Taylor called, Heaven answered; and men and women were in waiting for the hour. Soon there were a goodly number in training for China.
"I had determined never to use personal solicitation, or to issue collecting books. Missionary boxes were thought unobjectionable, and we had a few prepared for those who might ask for them, and have continued to use them ever since."
On being invited to speak on China at a village near London, Dr. Taylor consented on condition that no collection be taken. At the close the chairman was so impressed with China's needs that he wished to take a collection notwithstanding the doctor's objections. But he says: "My wish was, not that those present should be relieved by making such a contribution as might there and then be convenient, under the influence of a present emotion; but that each one should go home burdened with the deep need of China, and ask God what He would have them do. If, after thought and prayer, they were satisfied that a pecuniary contribution was what He wanted of them, it could be given to any missionary society having agents in China, or it might be posted to our London office; but perhaps in many cases, what God wanted was not a money contribution, but personal consecration to His service abroad, or the giving up of son or daughter — more precious than silver or gold — to His service. I added that I thought the tendency of a collection was to leave the impression that the all-important thing was money, whereas no amount of money could convert a single soul; that what was needed was that men and women, filled with the Holy Ghost, should give themselves to the work. For the support of such there would never be a lack of funds."
In February, 1866, the doctor's mission band began a daily prayer-meeting to ask God for funds for this, His enterprise. In five weeks, nearly nine thousand dollars had been received; and in May a party of twenty-two, including children, sailed for China.
Figures have but feeble tongues to tell the story of benefit and blessing that followed that consecrated band. "The missionary career of J. Hudson Taylor," says Arthur H. Smith, himself a missionary thirty-five years in China, "having its quiet and unnoticed beginnings in 1853, culminated in the amazing breadth and sweep of the China Inland Mission, until at life's close he laid down its leadership in 1905."'
Statistics published in the same book for 1905, give 849 missionaries, including missionaries' wives and associates, with 1,282 native workers; 205 stations, and 632 sub-stations, and 35,726 communicants; 188 schools, with nearly 3,000 pupils, and 44 hospitals and dispensaries. What an agency for bearing the living Word to a dying people! No other society has in China so many workers; and these go out trusting for support in the God who called J. Hudson Taylor to the work.
May many more laborers listen to the divine appeal that stirred this great leader's soul, until "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations;" and then the Saviour for whom J. Hudson Taylor looked and longed will come and take His people home.
The Missionary Incentive
May it please the reader to take an interim after the sketch of this godly man — converted from boyhood infidelity into a lover of the Saviour's coming — to listen to the voice of one — the late Dr. Arthur T. Pierson upon this subject, whose words are so reasonable, whose knowledge of missions was so remarkable, whose love for his Master so wonderful, that he was well prepared to speak upon so exalted a theme as is thus introduced in his precious book on missions, "The New Acts of the Apostles":
"One powerful incentive, of which not only the Acts of the Apostles but the whole New Testament is full, is, we fear, far less prominent in the thoughts of the modern church. We refer to the blessed hope of our Lord's return.
"Revive this hope of our Lord's coming, and it begets hourly watching, ceaseless praying, tireless toiling, patient waiting. Moreover, this blessed hope is forever linked with the glorious compensation for all service and sacrifice for Christ. 'Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.'
"His coming, then, not our death, opens the door to the wedding feast, and the 'joy of the Lord.' Then the prize awaits the successful runner. Then the crowns are given.
"We shall never have apostolic missions till this apostolic hope claims again its rightful place. Daily dying — so that in the body one bears the marks of the Lord Jesus — will be easy only to him who feels redemption drawing nigh, and who follows the Son of man in His humiliation, as one who is to sit with Him on the throne of His glory.
His expected appearing is His saints' avenging and rewarding. ... Then, however dark and dismal the failure of mission work, faithfulness and not success will be the standard and measure of reward. ...
"This blessed hope both loosens the hold we have on this world and the hold this world has on us. If we are to build heaven here, we may be justified in laying deep and firm foundations; but if all these things are to be dissolved, if all work not done for God is to be burned up as wood, hay, stubble, and the work done for God is to be tried by fire — then what folly to spend our faculty and vital force upon what is to be turned to ashes! Let us walk with God and work with God, and so prepare a structure of character and of service which shall survive the fiery ordeal.
"Perhaps at no one point does the hope of our Lord's return touch our need so closely and vitally as in this — that it incites to unselfish service. ... The miser dies when the missionary is born; the carnal is cast out if the spiritual is to come in; only he who loses himself can save others.
"But just here the hope of the Lord's coming supplies exactly what is needed. ... In those seven epistles to the churches which open the Apocalypse, our Lord uses His imminent coming as a perpetual hope, motive, incentive; and this is enough to make it a sin, if not a crime, to lose sight of it. ...
"This blessed hope is the crown of all other hopes, and suggests to us an expectation that will be realized.
...Does the Scripture justify us in looking for the conversion of the world during the present dispensation, or is this the period of the out gathering of the church from all nations? For what are we to labor, and what is our rational Scriptural hope? James bade the first council at Jerusalem hearken unto him as he reminded them of God's purpose as declared by Simeon, visiting the gentiles 'to take out of them a people for His name.' That is not only uniformly declared to be the exact purpose of the gospel witness during these times of the gentiles, but it has been the actual result of these nearly two thousand years of such witness. At this advanced age, history is interpreting prophecy and expounding Scripture, if we will but hear it. ...
"Our highest 'Christian civilization' is an amalgamation of the church and the world. ... The great body of disciples are only nominally such, either wholly worldly or worldly holy; at the door of frivolous gaiety they drop their Christian consistency, as an Oriental guest shuffles off his sandals, and mix freely with the idolaters of folly and fashion. The church is to-day in danger of the moral putrefaction that loses all godly savor, and the moral petrifaction that loses all godly sensibility. Apostolic piety scarcely survives in the church at large. Disciples rarely keep themselves unspotted from the world; and it is only here and there that we find a few who seem to be filled with the Spirit. ... Some who have drawn their very life from Christianity now turn to curse the dam that nursed, and wound the breast that fed them.
"The ripeness of modern civilization borders on rottenness; and while men boast of society, its foundations sink; and the anarchy which is the natural end of atheism, threatens all with wreck. Science itself has furnished the lawless with weapons which are equally mighty against ballot or bullet; and Germany and Russia, France and Britain, and the great republic, are to-day at the mercy of the dynamite fiend.
"Notwithstanding such signs of the times, there are some who regard the outlook as so hopeful that they think the recent 'Parliament of Religions' was the inauguration of the millennium. What enviable sleight of mind that can turn everything into signs of progress! ...
"From all such frivolous methods of dealing with the Scripture and with facts, we turn candidly to ask, What does the New Testament encourage us to hope for as the outcome of our missionary work?
"If we read aright, the teaching of our Lord is plain. God's present purpose is that the gospel shall everywhere be preached for a witness unto the nations and for the gathering of the ecclesia; and then shall the end come, and the Lord Himself return and possess the kingdom, and carry its triumphs to completion. ... The devil's great wrath may only be due to the shortness of his time; and the ripeness of the tares may only hint the nearness of the harvest.
"If we are discouraged or despairing, our need and remedy is, perhaps, a laying hold of the hope set before us, in the gospel. As the Scriptures warrant no expectation of the world's conversion in this age of witness, so far as we look for such result, we work on a wrong basis, and will either be disappointed or deceived in the outcome. ...
"Let the disciples once get firmly planted on this rock basis, that we are sent forth, not to accomplish a world's conversion, but only its evangelization, and victory springs up out of defeat. Hope that had lost wings, plumes herself for a new flight, and over the grave of buried expectation, rises with the song of a lark."
From The Advanced Guard of Missions by Clifford G. Howell. Mountain View, Calif: Pacific Press Publishing, ©1912.
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Vultures Rising
Profiting on the Miami Condo-Market Implosion
By Paul Reyes, Photography by Ellen Reyes
ISSUE: Spring 2011
On a recent October afternoon in downtown Miami, the same week the robo-signing scandal triggered a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures (a brief reprieve for homeowners, a vindication for their attorneys, and a harbinger of economic paralysis for pundits), I met up for a Sunday drive with Peter Zalewski, a condo-slinger whose company, Condo Vultures, has been feeding on the remains of Miami’s real estate implosion. The day was mild, a spotless sky, mythically blue, with a sea breeze brushing the air—the climate around which an entire economy was invented. We drove along Brickell Avenue in Zalewski’s Hyundai Sonata, the sunroof peeled open for a better view of the towers that loomed behind the palms along the street. You could see the bay in flashes in between the architecture.
The drive served as a kind of economic perpwalk, basically chronological, a corridor of booms and busts that began near the Rickenbacker Causeway and angled north along the water, past the bright, white hulks of the 1980s, then up toward the Miami River, where taller, more slender, extravagant high-rises stood as testament to this most recent frenzy. We hooked a right and pulled over in front of the St. Jude Church, a small, handsome Gothic dwarfed by a dark-glass monolith just across the street. We got out. Zalewski, dressed with a waiter’s simplicity—starched white shirt with a white T-shirt underneath, black pants, his trademark ensemble—pointed here and there and named the buildings, named their developers and countries of origin. He began to quantify any tower we could see, naming the cost per square foot to build it, the price at which it sold during the boom, the percentage drop since, the number of units in foreclosure, the number being rented out. Then he spread his fingers and jammed them downward, like banging a piano.
“This is the pit,” he said, meaning downtown. “New York City, Chicago—they have their trading pits. This is our pit, this is where we get to trade. I’m buying or I’m selling, that’s all it is. You want to trade pork bellies, go to Chicago. You want to trade Fortune 500 stocks, go to New York. You want to trade real estate, come to Miami.” He sucked on his cigarette. “I mean, what’s the difference between a condo and a pork belly?” he asked, then shrugged. “Not that much.”
Pork bellies. It was exactly the kind of unglamorous comparison that distinguished Zalewski from virtually everyone else selling real estate in Miami, a blunt assessment that matched his lack of flash—his Hyundai, his wardrobe, his blue-collar attitude. The name Condo Vultures alone exercises a frankness that even today, after so much carnage in South Florida, where more than half a dozen banks have disappeared after $3 billion in losses, is an anomaly among agents and developers trying to sell a city to itself.
Taking a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon to spit statistics at me was, for him, a form of relaxation, like chanting a mantra. Plus, it was a welcome distraction from bigger things on his plate. For nearly a year he’d been trying to broker a bulk deal—the sale of many deeply discounted condominiums at once—on a building known as Everglades on the Bay: two towers just shy of fifty stories high, with two pools and a spa on the eighth floor, all of which reflected precious little of the drama between the developers, Cabi Downtown, and Bank of America as they clawed their way through a contentious bankruptcy. The Everglades was one of the largest projects of the boom, and the first big bankruptcy of the bust. It would also be the biggest bulk deal in the city—over six hundred units in all—and offered real bragging rights for the agent who could broker it. Zalewski’s edge was in knowing the Everglades better than anyone—better, even, than the people who were hired to sell it in the first place.
The proof, he insisted, was in his “white papers,” the highly prized report that quantifies a building through a matrix of factors (number of units, square footage per unit, number sold, number in default, etc.), which Zalewski had prepared long before the building’s failure, which he anticipated through obsessive number crunching. This is where Zalewski found his niche in the crisis ecosystem, by quantifying every condo project built in downtown Miami during the boom, as well as all the condos built before it—34,000 units in 170 buildings dating back to 1963—so that investors looking to scavenge distressed real estate could cut through a developer’s hype and get a true sense of what a struggling condo is worth. Zalewski lives in a condo on Miami Beach, “but I’m on the sand only about three times a year.” Instead he relaxes by running numbers. “I love databases,” he said. “I love spreadsheets. I love data collection. I love to assemble and look for trends based on historical information—anything numbers oriented, anything statistical.”
It is his grasp and packaging of those numbers that has made Condo Vultures such an odd phenomenon of the bust, stubbornly more than just a shtick. Through his hustling of data on Miami’s condo market, Zalewski has become one of the more intriguing characters in Florida’s real estate saga, a regular forecaster of its direction, a speaker at Chamber of Commerce luncheons and real estate panels, explaining where the market is and predicting where it’s headed. Other agents might broker bigger deals, in offices with much better views, but Zalewski has invented his role as an aggregator of Miami’s condominiums, warts and all, vying to make Condo Vultures Miami’s version of Case-Shiller, Moody’s, and CoreLogic, the temples of housing data whose numbers steer the market. With thousands of condos in his database, numbers at his fingertips, data at the ready, Zalewski has capitalized on a national trend: the rise in public awareness of—and public reliance on—purveyors of niche-market stats. Much like Trulia, Zillow, and RealtyTrac, Condo Vultures has been transformed by the crisis into a vital source of housing-market information, because in real estate—especially in real estate in crisis—data is power. And by virtue of his Midwestern hucksterism and his analytical stamina, Zalewski has found a way to both sell what he knows about Miami real estate and sell real estate by advertising what he knows.
To see Zalewski’s data in action, I showed up one morning at a café just a few doors down from the Condo Vultures office in Bal Harbor, where he and one of his managers, Frank Thomas, were meeting with the CEO of a Canadian hedge fund. The Condo Vultures office is, in essence, just an address, a short L-shaped hallway flanked by empty offices, where thirty agents drop in from time to time to make a few calls, pick up leads, record videos for the website, and sort through junk mail.
Hence the utility of the French café. The young Canadian and his young lawyer, a local real estate attorney, showed up dressed fashionably casual—the lawyer in a bright polo, the Canadian in jeans and a blue delicate shirt, delicate wire glasses and yarmulke.
Zalewski has an unassuming manner. Nothing about him advertises a hint of wealth, least of all his indispensable plastic clipboard case he keeps stuffed with spreadsheets. He is affable, seizes any opportunity to laugh aloud. And he talks fast. Over tea and espressos, an innocent question from the Canadian—“How long have you guys been scouting Florida?”—triggered a drilling monologue in Zalewski’s Chicago porridge of sour vowels, which included this mission statement: “We’re taking a Wall Street approach to residential, so instead of mom and pop driving around with white walled tires on the Cadillac showing you how great the granite is, let’s take a commercial approach, pull together the data and give Wall Street the ability to go in and assess the market very quickly. And instead of advertising, we take the money and stick it in R&D, so we’re very comfortable and aware of what’s available and how to get your hands on information. We capture that data on a daily basis.”
The Canadian proceeded gently with his questions. He was interested in bulk—where should he look?
“Outside of Miami,” Zalewski said. “The Miami chapter will be closed when the Everglades trades. And as soon as that deal’s gone, the only thing you’re going to have left are blocks of condos here and there, no really big deals in one building. It’s all getting played out. Broward County, West Palm Beach, that’s really the next play.” He sat up. “Think of it this way,” he said. “When a fund manager flies into Miami International, goes down to South Beach, gets in his hotel and looks out this window, anything he can see is effectively gone. Anything he can’t see is where the play is. That’s where we come in. We’re good in the weeds.”
There was something in the absoluteness of this prognosis that reeked of the sell, a hammering approach. I couldn’t tell what effect it was having on the Canadian as he stirred his tea.
Had he considered Orlando?
“I never really built an appetite for Orlando,” the Canadian said.
Was his company conservative? Were they gunslingers?
“It depends, it depends,” said the Canadian. “We just want to see the return. And we’re patient. What I’m looking for is good location.”
Location, cap rates, successor-developer vulnerabilities, tonnage, assignment clauses, blending-out: this was the language of condo courtship, and as the tea turned cold and the espresso dried in the cup, Zalewski rattled off the price-per-square-foot on buildings with names like Mint, Jade, and Epic, and eventually returned to the wisdom of West Palm Beach. “There, on a bulk basis, you’re talking about a hundred and forty dollars a foot. On a retail basis that stuff is worth two hundred a foot.”
The entire conversation, Zalewski kept his slender black clipboard case at his fingertips. Now he flipped it open and began shuffling through the papers stuffed inside. Every page was some type of spreadsheet or graph, some table of numbers, and his shuffling through it seemed a bit disheveled, like a rushed homework assignment barely cobbled together before the bell.
Zalewski, head down, asked them, “You’re looking for a trophy for the portfolio?”
“I’m looking for great returns,” the Canadian said. “And I don’t have an issue with bite-sized. It can be something small.”
“How small, ten units?” He kept shuffling. “No. I just bought one unit at the yacht club.” “How open are you to risk?”
The Canadian paused, thought about it, then nodded. “I like risk, provided it makes sense. Calculated risk.”
“Calculated,” Zalewski promised. “Very, very, very calculated.”
Finally he found the paper he was looking for. He shut the box and leaned in. Forty-five minutes into breakfast, here was the pitch. “I’m going to give you some big picture scenarios,” he said. “And I know this works. I know it works.”
The Canadian set down his spoon: “Shoot.”
Florida was born from the dreams of carpetbaggers. It owes its modernity to bankruptcy and speculation, to the bargain-basement price at which a Philadelphia sawmaker named Hamilton Disston bought four million acres of swamp in 1881 and promised to drain it; to the cut-rate deals on the defunct railroads snatched up by Henry Plant and Henry Flagler, both Yankee industrialists, whose railroads and hotels were invitations to future investment. The twenty-first century simply includes a more varied cast of gleaners: Germans, Brazilians, Italians, Portuguese, Mexicans (80 percent of downtown Miami real estate is owned by foreign nationals). Then there are Canadians, who spent $2 billion on foreclosures in Florida last year, the second largest group of buyers behind Americans themselves.
And for all its shameful history, carpetbagging is a very American form of reinvention. For Zalewski, the epiphany that led to his transformation came while working as a banking columnist for Miami’s Daily Business Review. He admits he wasn’t the savviest writer, but he worked hard to understand the landscape, spending days pulling dockets at the clerk of court’s office, sifting through the numbers for a story, hustling bank presidents for quotes, building his Rolodex. He even got his mortgage-broker’s license—“not to do mortgages,” he says, “but to understand what the hell they were doing.”
During the housing boom, Zalewski and his editor, Eddie Dominguez, were on the front lines of Miami’s real estate hysteria, when a couple dozen T-cranes swung along the waterfront and construction dust choked the city, coating the bay with a chalky film. And as projects came onto the scene, the launch parties reached deeper absurdities. Beautiful people were the common denominator, accented by a developer’s bold stroke: acrobats tumbling in the lobby…another lobby transformed into jungle…Vespa raffles…BMW raffles…diamond raffles…giraffes, alligators, panthers.… In the midst of these strange days, in the spring of 2005, during brainstorming sessions with Dominguez, a natural question arose: among the condos sprouting outside their window, rising on the $10 billion in loans that pumped up the skyline, which banks were vulnerable if the projects failed, and for how much?
To get an answer, Dominguez turned Zalewski loose on county records, which they used to cross reference addresses, company names, and dollar amounts for all condo projects between I-95 and the ocean, “where all the big money was,” Dominguez says. They knew the cycle was ending, and that the majority of buyers putting down 20 percent deposits were investors who were more than willing to walk away if the market turned even slightly south. But in running the numbers, says Dominguez, “we were astounded by how concentrated the debt was in so few banks. Until we counted it, we really didn’t have an idea of just how much money was involved. And the question was: the music is going to stop, who’s going to be left holding? And it became clear that it was these allegedly savvy lenders, and you had to wonder why they were holding such big stakes in so many condos that were coming out so late. It was an orgy, and everyone was trying to get as much out of it as they could. The numbers showed it.”
Between 1963 and 2002, twelve thousand condominiums were built in downtown Miami; between 2003 and 2010, twenty-two thousand condominiums were built. The city’s inventory tripled in just seven years—eighty-two buildings in a sixty-block stretch. But new condos rarely if ever show up on the MLS—the Mortgage Listing Service, a database which realtors use voluntarily to both sell property and keep track of what’s been sold. By comparing an asking price to the sales price of nearby properties listed on the MLS, both the buyer and the seller can get an objective sense of what a fair price is. With new condominium projects, there is no obligation to use the MLS, which means there is no backstop to keep a buyer’s enthusiasm—or a seller’s overconfidence—in check, no objective way to determine whether a price is fair or foolish. This meant that during the boom, word of mouth was the only gauge. Meanwhile, because of how the developer’s loan is structured, the sale of each condominium is tied to repaying the loan, and not necessarily part of the public record until many months later, when property taxes are collected and reported.
This was the informational vacuum—and, subsequently, the entrepreneurial epiphany—Zalewski discovered during his months of combing through public records for the Review. “There were patches,” he says. “You couldn’t get a handle on what was out there. All you knew was that there was a bunch of stuff being built.”
In the meantime, he says, developers filled the informational void with hype.
They hired sales teams, usually working out of a model unit, to hawk the product—and keep the prices artificially high. “It was all being inflated through press releases,” he says. “It was this price, it was that price, and the price was changing by the day, by the week, by the month.” What’s more, because of the haste with which the buildings were being built, and the lack of record to hold developers accountable, there were plenty of cases in which what was promised—in press releases, in architectural models, at parties—was different than what was being delivered. Olympic pools were built short; two towers were reduced to one; eleven towers ended up as three plus a dog park. One Ft. Lauderdale project promising access to the ocean skimped on the boat slip that would facilitate the jaunts. Through this formula of hype and mystery, developers were able to control the message—and by controlling the message they controlled the price. “That’s how you can sell a project with three hundred units in three days and raise the price so rapidly,” Zalewski says.
“This was all to the advantage of the seller.” Zalewski and Dominguez were convinced a crash was close and suggested as much in the story, which ran in early June 2005. By then the Everglades Hotel, a relic of the Jazz Age boom, had been imploded to make room for Cabi’s twin-tower Everglades on the Bay, which began construction just as Dominguez and Zalewski were beginning to calculate this boom’s consequences. From the Daily’s north-facing windows, Zalewski could see the building’s progress, as well as that of another project, a bland behemoth called 50 Biscayne, which rose just across the street to block the Daily’s northern view. As both projects crept upward, turkey vultures began to form a spinning crown atop each tower, a flock that thickened at the end of summer, riding the warm air that swept up off the bay, flying higher as the bubble stretched thin. It was all the metaphor Zalewski needed.
A company can live or die by its name. In the case of Condo Vultures, the name was both a publicity tool and a signal to vulture capitalists looking for distressed targets. In January 2007, his reporting days behind him, Zalewski took the site live. By then, the condo market had begun to unravel. New buildings kept coming, and Zalewski added each one to his list of an already bloated skyline. Jose Suarez joined the company; with a background in investment, he found a niche in bulk, working the volatile downtown scene. But, at a moment when the market was still in denial, sales teams and developers simply balked at the name and brushed them off. “At first,” says Suarez, “no one was interested.”
Zalewski and Suarez were patient. They kept up appearances at parties, conferences. Meanwhile, Condo Vultures began issuing reports on buyer walkaways, on how many units remained empty in a particular building, how many condos were in default, what a building’s amenities really were, what the real price per square foot should be. The strategy was to expose each building’s weakness.
“When people put 20 percent down,” says Suarez, “there was no public record about the developer’s success in getting them to cough up the other 80 percent. So developers could say, ‘Everything’s great, sales are great,’ but the building was still dark. But Peter could pull their actual sales—and nobody knew how he did it. We would go to a building and they’d tell us that they’d sold this and sold that, and Peter would say, ‘No, correction: You’ve only sold this number of units.’ And they couldn’t prove him wrong. They’d do the research, come back to us, and we’d be on the money.”
“We sorted out what was real versus what was hyperbole,” Zalewski says. “We told people: this is what we’re seeing, this is what we’re finding, this is what’s out there.”
To get that mysteriously accurate data, to help wade through the digitized swamp of public records, Zalewski hired other journalists, who became his core team of researchers—highly prized, well paid, and protected. What they do to get this data is an online grind of scouring public records and collating information the records don’t include. “We don’t know how he does it,” Suarez admits. “He doesn’t want us to know.” Zalewski shares in a good bit of this research, working out of a tiny room at home, surrounded by books and chotchkie. As for the other researchers, he says, “they mostly just sit at the computer all day, smoking. They’re not social types.” And while there is this impression of a great secret, the information his researchers collect is all public, and really just a matter, Zalewski insists, of “grinding it out.”
The data quickly became a trading chit as Suarez and Zalewski continued to connect developers in denial with eager vulture investors. In many cases, they’d even offer information about a building next door or across the street. Suarez says, “It got to a point where the same sales force that’s running the building for a developer would say, ‘Listen, can you let us know where we are?’ They’d ask us to underwrite their own building for them.”
In the meantime, the name was distributing the message. In the fall of 2007, Nightline ran a story on Miami’s crisis and Zalewski’s role in it; NBC News followed suit in February 2008, with 60 Minutes checking in by the end of that year. In each appearance, Zalewski advertised an intelligence and unapologetic charm that brought curious buyers and desperate sellers to his website. He became a regular voice of the downturn. In Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, Zalewski unfolds his operational metaphor with a shit-eating grin. “This is straight-up capitalism,” he says. “Somebody asked me, ‘What’s the difference between you and a real vulture?’ I said, ‘Very simple: I don’t vomit on myself.’”
His detractors grumble that Zalewski has garnered the spotlight by making outlandish statements like this, rather than by brokering high-profile deals. Zalewski himself publicly claims only six deals for a total of two hundred fifty units. Agents I spoke with credited Zalewski with brokering the city’s first bulk deal—sixty units in a building called Marina Blue in December 2008—but because of his reputation his deals are often cloaked in non-disclosure agreements, which make his actual influence a frustrating, unquantifiable secret. “If they’re a seller, they don’t want to be associated with getting vultured,” Zalewski admits. “That tends to be one of the negotiating points I have to deal with every time, because they’re all worried about their reputation, and reputation is the most important currency for a developer. If they’re going to build again, they have to do it the right way, and they have to control the message.”
Still, many high-profile agents, such as Mark Pordes, whose bulk tally stands at over 400 condos worth $228 million, dismiss Zalewski. “It seems he chases bulk more than he gets,” Pordes said. “He’s been reporting on bulk. And that’s how he promotes himself, that’s how he earns—reporting.” But that doesn’t make Zalewski a player. “It’s all about manpower and who can get these deals to close,” Pordes says. “Just collecting data won’t get a deal to happen.” Moreover, Pordes reminded me, most of what Condo Vultures cobbles together is public information, freely available to anyone.
“They’re not saying the data’s wrong,” Zalewski countered. “Of course anybody can do it, any single one of them can do it. But why don’t they do it? Because it’s a lot of work, that’s why. It’s a lot of work and the success rate is low. So yeah, we’re not the smartest. We’re not the best capitalized. But we work harder than all of them.”
Ron Shuffield, president of EWM Realtors, one of South Florida’s biggest real estate brokerages, is an expert when it comes to Miami’s market, a regular voice of marketplace reports in the Herald and other venues. In the interviews I’d seen of him, the data flowed through nimble conversation, all of it within easy recall. I visited Shuffield at his office in Coral Gables to look at some of his data arsenal and see how it matched with Zalewski’s obsessive research. Through his window I could see a T-crane reeling an I-beam slowly up and into place: commercial property, Mexican investors, eighteen months out—a signal of the upswing. But quantifying the upswing is a tricky business, because markets are largely mood driven, and the moods, in turn, are driven by the data analysts publish. Markets in crisis trigger a blitzkrieg of self-fulfilling and self-contradicting data that, because of the brevity of the news cycle and the modus operandi of pundits, becomes politicized, creating more confusion than clarity. Even more difficult is the fact that in a housing crisis, nearly every bit of market data is lagging, so that the moods are at least a month behind the action, but perceived by the public as closer to real time.
“The problem is,” Shuffield said, gesturing to his secretary on the other side of the glass that enclosed his office, “real estate is a longterm investment, and we’ve tried to make it a stock investment, measuring it by the month. I’ve tried to encourage our association leaders to not publish our numbers more than quarterly at most. It’s too much of a knee-jerk reaction when you see the movement every month, whether it’s going up or down. It just takes longer than that to analyze real estate.”
His secretary walked in and handed him a stapled stack of pages containing colored graphs and charts, which he slid to the middle of the table between us. The charts were composites of all the information agents in Miami-Dade County entered into the local MLS listings. Within this stack were full-color interpretations of weekly trends gauging prices, buyer attitudes, the pace of housing inventory. Whether he thought it was knee-jerk or not, he discussed stacks just like this one every other week with a couple dozen EWM managers around the country on morning conference calls. This way, he said, “you can keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in this country.”
According to what those calls suggested and what his data told him, Shuffield said, “the two brightest markets in the nation are South Florida and Southern California.” Brightness was relative, considering the depths to which those two markets had plummeted. But the health of South Florida and Southern California was also due, in part, to how unique they were to the housing market. According to Shuffield, neither region was greatly affected by the end of the federal tax credit. “In the Midwest, that eight thousand dollar credit made a big difference to a lot of people,” he explained. “Eight thousand dollars in our market is a rounding error.”
Flipping through the stack, several scenarios emerged from the numbers, both bleak and optimistic. In two years, the inventory of unsold homes had dropped by half, from a fortyeight-month supply to a twelve-month supply. (The ideal is six to nine months.) Foreclosure filings were down, though there was still an eighteen-month supply of foreclosures coming down the pipeline. More than half of all singlefamily homes sold in Miami Dade County were some form of distressed real estate—either short sales or bank owned. In the condo market, he estimated two-thirds of units were distressed, though it was harder to measure, since distressed condos could be dealt with by way of bulk sales before ever reaching the market or being repossessed.
He showed me graphs comparing quarters, years, counties, median prices. His own extrapolations were scribbled all over in blue ink. Sales were down, inventory was up, and who knew what the moratorium would do to that supplyand-demand ratio. He pointed to another graph. In February 2007, the peak median price for a single-family home in Miami Dade County was $386,000; by August 2010, it had dropped to $177,000—lower than what it was in 2002.
Shuffield, an admitted optimist, saw potential in the bad news. “Everything we’re selling today is below construction cost. So the land is free. At some point, when everything has been absorbed to a level that we need new construction, that’s when the reality will set in.”
But as we cross-referenced the data, flipping back and forth, I kept getting a convoluted picture. Disconnects emerged: the percentage of buyers had increased, homes were cheap and selling, but very few headlines in October were about the ability to get financing. In fact, very few headlines were positive about anything.
“It’s all a matter of perception,” Shuffield said. “If everybody thinks things are going to be okay, they get better.” He leaned on Roosevelt’s aphorism about fear, then pulled out another piece of paper, a comparatively homespun graph of a sine wave along which were various points marking moods of the cycle. It looked like a PowerPoint slide for a motivational conference. It was, in fact, a chart he showed to buyers to explain the opportunities of this market.
The blue sine wave rose and dipped and rose again, rollercoasting along the arcs of Optimism (2003), Excitement (2004), Euphoria (2005)—each marked the “point of maximum risk in investment”—then sloping toward Denial (2006), Fear (2007), and Panic (2008), until it slid into Despondency (2009). Right there between Despondency (2009) and Depression (2010) was a treasure map’s X that marked the nadir, the “point of maximum opportunity.” Apparently, many of us had missed it.
Hope (2011) led the crawl upward again. Optimism waited at the top, right around the year 2012. Along the way, following the psychological dots, Shuffield filled in details of what EWM had sold each year.
This was a childish graph compared to the others he’d shown me, but it was also the most telling. Was he blindly optimistic or willfully naïve? Did this reflect his philosophy or his politics? I was curious to see how the graph might be redrawn as the recovery slouched along—if Hope might be revised to Fury. A color-coded version might tell a more nuanced story, with a red cosine wave marked Middle Class, beginning right about where Despondency was, then trailing off the page.
But here it was, a sign of faith in the cycle, which technically you could never get around. The only alternative to eventual recovery is bedlam. And while it might be unfair to criticize Shuffield’s optimism, I was willing to bet that a year or two from our meeting that afternoon his sine wave might be stretched a little further out, the upward slope a little less steep.
On a Tuesday at the end of October, more than two dozen lawyers joined creditors, contractors, and a handful of real estate agents to pack Courtroom 1409 of the Claude Pepper Federal Building in downtown Miami as Cabi Downtown finally relinquished ownership of Everglades on the Bay and Bank of America took back the note. For over a year, the bank had been chasing $209 million it was owed on this project. By the end of the day, it would walk away about $67 million shy.
A bankruptcy hearing is a litany of deferments, objections, evidentiary hearings, and other procedural syrup. And with a bankruptcy this size, unraveling and nullifying so many commitments can be a messy business. There is a lot of delaying, stalling, agreeing to postpone particular contentions until a later date, to be agreed upon later on. There is no equivalent to a guilty verdict read by a jury member. It is all procedural, without the hook of narrative. The main crime, the inability to pay, has already been admitted to; what remains is dividing the pounds of flesh through a slog of legalese, the English language stripped of its music. Zalewski arrived fifteen minutes into it, a little puffy-eyed from a long night, and found a seat next to Suarez along the back wall, where I was. He wore a grin like he knew the script. And for the next couple of hours we listened as Judge Laurel Isicoff ground through the afternoon. Most lawyers not involved in the case doodled to pass the time. Others thumbed instructions into their Blackberrys. A few took notes.
Then, toward the end of the second hour, things got interesting, when it was revealed that Bank of America had already made arrangements to sell Cabi’s note to a New York hedge fund known as Rockwood Capital. None of the agents on hand, Zalewski included, seemed to know who Rockwood was. Rockwood’s offer wasn’t the highest—the Lynd Company, out of San Antonio, had made the highest offer at $146 million—but Rockwood had muscle.
Lynd’s attorney objected to the deal, saying that Bank of America was acting in “bad faith.” He had a point, since a lower offer meant that creditors who were owed money by Cabi would receive less than they would with a higher offer. But the bid is only half the equation. The terms of payment and, more importantly, the bank’s confidence in a buyer’s ability to pay can trump a dollar amount. Zalewski knew as much. “Like I said,” he whispered to me to me in the courtroom, “the highest bid doesn’t always get it.” And it happened this fast: Judge Isicoff called for a recess, the lawyers clustered in the hall—Lynd’s and Cabi’s on one end, Rockwood’s and Bank of America’s on the other—and within about fifteen minutes, Rockwood raised its offer to $141 million, and it was settled. Through it all, Zalewski wore his grin, but once Rockwood raised it’s offer, Zalewski’s client had no chance—and who could say, really, where his client stood among the five hedge funds courting this deal? What really mattered is that he’d fallen just short of making history—local history, at any rate—and that whatever his mastery of bulk data, his reputation as a closer and a true player would remain where it stood: six deals, a little over two hundred units.
Leaving the courthouse, we crossed the street to a bodega for coffee. Suarez was visibly depressed, almost sickly, and except for a soft refrain of, “Agh, fuck,” he kept quiet. Ten months of courting, of grinding out the numbers, of being patient, and the only moment to show for it was here at the takeout window of a grimy bodega under the Metromover overpass, with a round of cortaditos and a few cigarettes between them. But to the extent Suarez was dispirited, Zalewski was busy calculating, convinced of some back-door maneuvers that—in theory, at least—must have brought him to within one degree of separation from the winner. “The question to ask is, ‘Who’s going in on it with Rockwood?’ I bet you my guys have a piece of it,” he said conspiratorially.
Or it was simply a matter of ignoring his advice: “Our guys screwed up,” he said. “Their offer should have been ten percent hard from day one, instead of five percent soft. That was the difference. They wanted to go with their style rather than my advice. I was being told 10 percent hard and we would get the deal.”
He continued narrating how it all must have unfolded without him. “That day I went into Cabi’s office,” he said to Suarez, “when it was pissing rain. That’s when it must have gone down”—and as he did so, flipping through scenarios, forming the plot, his spirits kept lifting, until he was practically giddy.
Suarez ordered an empanada. We sipped our coffees.
Zalewski puffed quietly on his cigarette. It began to dawn on him just how much work had gone into coming up short on such a colossal deal, and for nothing. Ten months, who knows how many hours. He began to list his excuses, moments he could have seized upon, his suspicions. Had they gone in through another connection, perhaps, or been more aggressive earlier …
But then he snapped out of it—fuck it!—and demanded Suarez join him for dinner at the Capital Grille, a pricey steakhouse where they normally celebrated their victories.
“Well, that’s the end of bulk,” I said.
“Nah,” Zalewski said. “There’s more. I got a lead on 319 units up in West Palm.”
The owner of the bodega begged our pardon, then began dragging down the metal doors to close for the night. The sun was low, gilding the thunderclouds above us. It was well into fall, but hot, sticky, a holdout before the climate slipped into its blithe temperateness.
We parted ways, and I watched the two of them walk to Zalewski’s Hyundai, on the other side of the parking lot’s chain-link fence, slipping behind a concrete column that braced the rusty, sluggish Metromover. And as Suarez sauntered, Zalewski kept waving his hands, gesticulating, like a couple of kids on the losing team after the season’s last game, recalling the innings, out by out, the moves that might have made a difference.
The housing story is, in part, a story about bulk: houses and condominiums built in bunches, with harbors and hillsides cleared to fit the rush; millions of mortgages spliced and bundled and shipped across the planet with the same gravitas as a crate of rubber ducks. And when housing failed, it failed on a colossal scale, measured in the trillions. The recovery, meanwhile, has been mostly piecemeal—one sluggish modification at a time, a short sale here, a brief statistical uptick there. All except for one sector: condominiums—in particular, condominiums in downtown Miami, the ground zero of fraud in South Florida, where real estate has moved at a pace equal to the speed of the fall.
And as the recession inevitably subsides, and the recovery takes hold of downtown Miami, and prices stabilize and offer less of what Zalewski likes to call “condo arbitrage,” how does a company like Condo Vultures fit in?
“One of the things I’ve always worried about Peter,” says his former editor Eddie Dominguez, “is that he’s got a business model that depends on a sour real estate market. He’s going to ride the downturn, and what happens when the upturn comes? His business plan has no long-term upside. And I’ve asked him about this, but he doesn’t seem bothered by it.”
A few weeks after the Everglades deal, I caught up with Zalewski to ask him about this evolutionary hurdle. We met in a downtown neighborhood called Mary Brickell Village, a strip of restaurants and shops that city boosters use to emphasize the recovery that’s underway. Here and there are fenced-in empty lots where condos never materialized, where, looking at the slim dimensions of the dirt, it seems impossible that something over ten stories could be built without the risk of it toppling over. In one lot, chickens scuttle freely at their leisure, a vestige of what the neighborhood was not too long ago.
The street life here was recession-free, upbeat and easy. Athletic men and women carried lapdogs into a Starbucks on the corner. Young couples ambled along the sidewalk, cooing to each other in German, Spanish, Portuguese. Valets handled glistening German cars with military precision. The neighborhood seemed relaxed with casual, disposable wealth.
Zalewski led me to a café across the street from a stalled construction site, a crater the size of a city block, wrapped in an eight-foottall chain link fence, which itself was sheathed in a banner painted with the promises of luxury. The project was called Capital at Brickell, another one of Cabi Downtown’s troubled projects. “They dug this in 07,” Zalewski said. “Probably will never do a thing with it. Ultimately they’ll have to cut a deal to give it back to the bank or sell it off.”
Was there any lesson in that crater, or in any of the fallout in this town?
“It’s going to happen all over again,” he said. “And you’re already seeing it. Buyers buying in bulk and reselling. And who are they selling to? Not people who are going live in it, but people who are going to rent it, and when the prices go up, they’re going to resell them.”
Where, then, would his vulture shtick fit in?
Yes, he’d continue issuing market reports and press releases, capitalizing on the public’s need to know, and would continue to sell condos piecemeal here and there. But his next move was to grade the skyline he’d worked so hard to quantify, establishing a ratings agency by which condos would be graded in much the same way Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s grades stocks—AAA, BBB, CCC, and so on. He had a few details he needed to work out, such as how a developer might sue him for a poor rating, but overall he was confident.
“I look at condos like a bad sector with good companies,” he said, “meaning that while it looks like the whole thing is going to hell, there are certain buildings that are outperforming the rest. So a ratings agency is natural. Because when you’re trying to go through and evaluate a building, you don’t know what the delinquencies are. If you bring those in, now you can turn condominiums in a Wall Street sense.”
Pork bellies. I imagined his popularity, such as it was, would suffer.
He laughed. “This thing is going to be off the charts,” he said. “Everybody who disliked us before is going to hate us now.”
And as he puffed on his cigarette, he grinned like the only man in the room who knew the script.
Paul Reyes
Paul Reyes is VQR’s Editor and is the author of Exiles in Eden: Life Among the Ruins of Florida’s Great Recession. He has published several articles in VQR, including “Opportunity Knocks,” his essay about the Miami organization Take Back the Land, which was a finalist for a Harry Chapin Media Award. His writing—which has also appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, LitHub, and the Oxford American—has earned him a nomination for a National Magazine Award in Feature Writing as well as a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Issue: Spring 2011 Volume 87 # 2
Topics: Miami, real estate
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Death toll rises to 3 in blast at Colombia mall
Witnesses said they evacuated from movie theaters and stores after a blast in a second-floor women's restroom
Updated: 8:45 PM CDT Jun 17, 2017
AP file photo/Ricardo Mazalan SOURCE: AP file photo/Ricardo Mazalan
A strong explosion from a bomb rocked one of the busiest shopping centers in Colombia's capital Saturday, killing three people, including a 23-year-old French woman, and injuring nine others, authorities said.Witnesses told of being evacuated from movie theaters and stores after the blast in a second-floor women's restroom at the upscale Centro Andino in the heart of Bogota's tourist district. Ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the scene and the injured were taken to a hospital, where two later died.Police said a bomb from an undetermined explosive had caused the destruction. Mayor Enrique Penalosa called it a "cowardly terrorist bombing."He said the French victim, identified as Julie Huynh, had been in Colombia the past six months volunteering in a poor neighborhood and was preparing to return to France in the coming days. He said authorities were providing assistance to the victim's mother, who was also in Bogota.Authorities' attention immediately focused on the country's largest still active rebel group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, which in February claimed responsibility for a bombing near Bogota's bullring that killed one police officer and injured 20 other people.Penalosa urged residents of Bogota's wealthier districts to be on high alert but cautioned that there was no hint of other attacks being planned. Police said they were still trying to determine what the device that exploded was made of.The government last year reached a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which was much bigger than the ELN. The ELN is also engaged in peace talks but has so far refused for its fighters to lay down their weapons. Some analysts attribute an uptick in violence in Colombian cities to the group's desire to wrest concessions from the government at the negotiating table.Bogota has seen dramatic improvement in security over the past decade as the country's long-running conflict has wound down. But the capital remains vulnerable to attacks as residents let down their guardStill, the Andino shopping center would seem a difficult target. All vehicles entering the parking garage are screened by bomb-sniffing dogs and security guards are present throughout the mall.President Juan Manuel Santos said he was returning immediately to Bogota and ordered the head of Colombia's police to lead the investigation and keep him regularly updated. In a message posted on Twitter he expressed his solidarity with the victims.
BOGOTA, Colombia —
A strong explosion from a bomb rocked one of the busiest shopping centers in Colombia's capital Saturday, killing three people, including a 23-year-old French woman, and injuring nine others, authorities said.
Witnesses told of being evacuated from movie theaters and stores after the blast in a second-floor women's restroom at the upscale Centro Andino in the heart of Bogota's tourist district. Ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the scene and the injured were taken to a hospital, where two later died.
Colombian authorities arrest 8 for alleged ties to mall bomb
Police said a bomb from an undetermined explosive had caused the destruction. Mayor Enrique Penalosa called it a "cowardly terrorist bombing."
He said the French victim, identified as Julie Huynh, had been in Colombia the past six months volunteering in a poor neighborhood and was preparing to return to France in the coming days. He said authorities were providing assistance to the victim's mother, who was also in Bogota.
Authorities' attention immediately focused on the country's largest still active rebel group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, which in February claimed responsibility for a bombing near Bogota's bullring that killed one police officer and injured 20 other people.
Penalosa urged residents of Bogota's wealthier districts to be on high alert but cautioned that there was no hint of other attacks being planned. Police said they were still trying to determine what the device that exploded was made of.
The government last year reached a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which was much bigger than the ELN. The ELN is also engaged in peace talks but has so far refused for its fighters to lay down their weapons. Some analysts attribute an uptick in violence in Colombian cities to the group's desire to wrest concessions from the government at the negotiating table.
Bogota has seen dramatic improvement in security over the past decade as the country's long-running conflict has wound down. But the capital remains vulnerable to attacks as residents let down their guard
Still, the Andino shopping center would seem a difficult target. All vehicles entering the parking garage are screened by bomb-sniffing dogs and security guards are present throughout the mall.
President Juan Manuel Santos said he was returning immediately to Bogota and ordered the head of Colombia's police to lead the investigation and keep him regularly updated. In a message posted on Twitter he expressed his solidarity with the victims.
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Jacques Kallis admits to warming to the idea of helping arch enemy England
Jacques Kallis is coaching England's batsmen on the art of scoring runs
Jacques Kallis admits he has warmed to the idea of working with the “arch enemy” after England offered him the route back into international coaching that his native South Africa could not.
Just a year ago the Proteas great was in the home dressing room mentoring his countrymen against the English, but that consultancy role came to an end soon – in part due to Cricket South Africa’s commitment to racial transformation.
While CSA does not exclude white appointments to its backroom teams, it is legally bound to the country’s code of affirmative action and, with the likes of Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and Charl Langeveldt all in high-profile positions, Kallis believes the door was effectively closed on him.
Jacques Kallis (left) shares some tips with England captain Joe Root (ECB)
As the third-highest run-scorer in the history of Test cricket he was never likely to be left on the shelf for long and the ECB were quick to seek out his expertise for this month’s two-match series in Galle.
“I suppose in the beginning it was a little bit strange because England were the arch enemy when we played them,” confessed Kallis, who scored more than 2,000 Test runs and eight centuries against them.
“But I suppose in the world we’re living now guys go and coach other teams and in the T20s around the world guys go and play with other teams, so it’s kind of the norm in the modern world and I really have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) - 15,921
Ricky Ponting (Aus) - 13,378
Jacques Kallis (SA) - 13,289
“I wasn’t allowed to be involved with the South African side because Cricket South Africa said there would be no more white consultants.
“There was a rule so it was pretty much taken out of my hands. It’s sad in a way that I can’t help out in South Africa but I’m thoroughly enjoying my time here and my time in the England set-up. I’m certainly going to give them as much of my knowledge and time as I can to move them forward.
“It’s a good bunch of boys with a lot of youngsters who have bright futures ahead of them so it’s nice that I can perhaps help them achieve the goals and dreams they want to achieve.”
Kallis confirmed he had not applied for the recently advertised job of lead batting coach at the ECB – a wider-reaching full-time post – and that he would not be joining the group on its next assignment in India.
For now, then, it is a one-off meeting with an all-time great of the game, whose presence has already drawn enthusiastic responses from the likes of captain Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Dan Lawrence.
The sense of appreciation appears to be mutual, with Kallis taken by what he has seen in the camp to date – particularly the more attacking mindset than some of the teams he encountered.
“The way England used to play was a sort of old-style of batting and I think in the last few years, brought about by T20 and one-day cricket, England have taken to being a lot more aggressive in the Test arena. I think that’s exciting times.
“They’ve certainly got stroke-players and the talent to play that way but you still need to get that combination right of having players who can bat time. I think there’s a nice mix in this set-up where they’ve got the balance right in order to play some good entertaining aggressive Test cricket.
“I have been impressed about the guys have knowledge of the game and how they go about their game. They are very talented players who train very well. A few little points from me have hopefully helped them but it is a talented bunch of guys and a lot of them are very good about having game plans.
“They’re hungry to succeed. They are going to make mistakes along the way but that’s OK, that’s how you learn and grow. There’s a lot of youngsters here that are going to score a lot of Test runs for England.”
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Token charges filed against coal executive in West Virginia mine disaster
Samuel Davidson
The government whitewash of the death of 29 coal miners in West Virginia on April 5, 2010 continued with last Friday’s Federal Grand Jury indictment of former Massey Energy chief executive Don Blankenship.
Blankenship, who was well aware of the deadly conditions in the mine, will face only four counts of violating federal mine safety laws and issuing false and misleading statements to shareholders about the deadly explosion.
The miners were killed when a mixture of coal dust and methane gas ignited in the Upper Big Branch mine, setting off a massive explosion so powerful that some of the fatal injuries occurred more than a mile and a half away from the blast site. Investigators found that sparks from the long-wall mining machine—which dug $600,000 worth of coal a day—ignited the explosion.
The miners’ deaths were entirely preventable and not some “act of god,” the excuse often cited by industry officials and government regulators for the routine sacrifice of miners’ lives and limbs for profit. From January 1, 2008, through April 10, 2010, government safety officials cited the mine 835 times for violations of mine safety laws. Of these violations, 319 were of the most serious levels, including 283 violations specifically related to the proper ventilation of the mine.
Other violations included hundreds for not properly maintaining the long-wall machine and allowing the buildup of massive amounts of highly explosive coal dust. The indictment noted that investigators found that seven of the water sprayers attached to the long-wall mining machine—designed to keep the coal face and drill bits cool and prevent heat and sparks from igniting pockets of gas or dust—had broken off and were not fixed. The broken sprayers led to a drop in water pressure making the entire water system inoperable.
The failure of the ventilation system allowed methane gas to reach combustible levels. Methane gas is a natural product of the coal formation process and continuously released inside a mine. The gas becomes combustible only when it reaches five percent of the atmosphere. Strong ventilation systems are required to both prevent methane buildup and to bring fresh air to the miners working underground.
Blankenship oversaw daily mining operations and, in particular, the long-wall machine. Every half hour he was sent a fax of the production figures and if there was interruption in output, he demanded to know why. Every day he received reports of numerous safety violations at the mine, along with the amount of potential fines. In this way, he calculated the cost-effectiveness of slowing production to correct safety problems versus paying small fines.
In a move to further reduce time spent on mine safety versus production, in February 2009, Blankenship directed his mine managers to cut the labor cost for a ton of coal mined from the current $18 per ton to $14.
Most of this information was made public within days of the April 5, 2010, disaster with the remainder coming to light within the next few months. Yet it is only now, more than four and a half years later, that Blankenship is even formally being charged.
Even if convicted, however, Blankenship will, at most, spend a few years in jail while being responsible for the death of 29 workers. In addition, within months of beginning the investigation, the federal prosecutor announced that no charges would be made against the company as a whole, ensuring the protection of the corporate stockholders and directors.
The indictment also serves to cover up the role of officials from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, which for years sanctioned and covered up the horrendous safety conditions at the mine.
In the second count, Blankenship is charged with directing operators to warn foremen and miners inside UBB when inspectors had arrived, thus giving them time to correct known problems. While this was certainly a criminal act, it is a stretch to believe that such corrections could be made in the hour it would take for an inspector to travel from the mine surface to the mine face. It is more likely that there was a wink-and-a-nod agreement for mine safety officials to generally ignore the dangers or do nothing to seriously enforce safety regulations.
The indictment follows the pattern of the Obama administration, which has refused to prosecute and hold accountable corporate and financial executives for the 2008 financial crisis, the BP oil spill, the General Motors cover-up of defective parts, and countless other companies whose practices lead to the death and injury of thousands of workers in every branch of industry.
In fact, the administration is already preparing to implement deep cuts to corporate regulations and to collaborate with Congressional Republicans to reduce corporate taxes as well.
The disaster also highlighted the complicity of the United Mine Workers of America union, which long ago repudiated the militant traditions of the miners and collaborated in the systematic destruction of the jobs, wages and working conditions of miners in the name of boosting “international competitiveness” and profits. In 2009, Obama appointed former UMWA safety director Joe Main to head the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, where he has been complicit in the cover-up of the killing of hundreds of miners.
After the UBB disaster, Blankenship was allowed to retire from Massey with a golden parachute worth over $12 million dollars. This is nearly half as much as the total amount paid out to all the families of the miners killed.
Massey Energy was sold to Alpha Natural Resources in June 2011 for over $7 billion, after the federal government brokered a deal ensuring that neither Massey Energy nor Alpha Natural Resources would be held accountable for the disaster.
For miners, the killing continues. So far this year, 34 miners, both coal and metal, have been killed. In addition, on average, 10 miners die a slow and painful death every week from black lung disease.
Four years since the Upper Big Branch mine disaster
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Hell Hole Campground Closed Down By Human Waste
Updated: 6:34 AM EDT Oct 7, 2011
Hell Hole Campground in Oconee County is apparently living up to its name, and has been closed because of human waste in and around a broken bathroom facility.Andrew Pickens Ranger District officials said that the problems started with a failure in a pit toilet at the site. They said as a result, people have vandalized the bathroom.District Ranger Mike Crane said, As much as I hate to close a campground, visitor safety is our priority. Because the toilet isnt working, people are using the bathroom and leaving human waste both inside and outside the building that houses the toilet, as well as throughout the campground. Its just not sanitary for campers and we believe it could be causing some resource damage as well.The USDA Forest Service has temporarily closed overnight camping. Entry to the campground has been stopped by using large boulders to block access to vehicles. Day use is still allowed, but vehicles will have to be parked at the end of the Forest Service road.A release said the Forest Service will consider whether to continue overnight camping at Hell Hole.
MOUNTAIN REST, S.C. —
Hell Hole Campground in Oconee County is apparently living up to its name, and has been closed because of human waste in and around a broken bathroom facility.
Andrew Pickens Ranger District officials said that the problems started with a failure in a pit toilet at the site. They said as a result, people have vandalized the bathroom.
District Ranger Mike Crane said, As much as I hate to close a campground, visitor safety is our priority. Because the toilet isnt working, people are using the bathroom and leaving human waste both inside and outside the building that houses the toilet, as well as throughout the campground. Its just not sanitary for campers and we believe it could be causing some resource damage as well.
The USDA Forest Service has temporarily closed overnight camping. Entry to the campground has been stopped by using large boulders to block access to vehicles. Day use is still allowed, but vehicles will have to be parked at the end of the Forest Service road.
A release said the Forest Service will consider whether to continue overnight camping at Hell Hole.
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Evangelization Needs Belief in Eternity, Says Preacher
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 10, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa says that a renewed faith in eternal life is one of the keys to the New Evangelization.
The preacher of the Pontifical Household offered this suggestion today during the second of three Advent sermons that he is giving in the presence of the Pope and the Roman Curia.
Father Cantalamessa proposed at the beginning of the series to offer "a small contribution to the need of the Church" for a New Evangelization, concretely by examining three obstacles to the Gospel message: scientism, secularism and rationalism.
Last week's reflection centered on scientism and today's on secularism.
The Capuchin considered secularism as a synonym of temporality: "the reduction of the real only to the earthly dimension."
And he said, "The fall of the horizon of eternity, or of eternal life, has the effect on Christian life of sap thrown on a flame: it suffocates it, extinguishes it. Faith in eternal life is one of the conditions of the possibility of evangelization."
With this backdrop, the Pontifical Household preacher went on to reflect about eternity, including the rise and fall of the belief and the idea of eternity as a hope and a presence.
He gave a brief overview of belief in eternity within Judaism, noting that only after the Babylonian Exile did this faith start to gain ground, and even then, not everyone accepted it.
"This loudly denies the thesis of those -- Feuerbach, Marx, Freud -- who explain belief in God with the desire for an eternal recompense, as projection in the beyond of the disappointed earthly expectations," the preacher observed. "Israel believed in God many centuries before it believed in an eternal recompense in the beyond! Hence, it is not the desire of an eternal recompense that produced faith in God, but it is faith in God that produced the belief of an ultra-earthly recompense."
He continued that "even in the Greek-Roman world [there] is an evolution in the concept of the beyond. The oldest idea is that true life ends with death; after that there is only a semblance of life, in a world of shadows. [...]
"One can understand with this background the impact that the Christian proclamation must have had of a life after death infinitely more full and joyful than the earthly; one can also understand why the idea and the symbols of eternal life are so frequent in the Christian sepulchers of the catacombs."
Timid and reticent
Despite Christianity's radical impact, belief in eternity has wavered, Father Cantalamessa lamented.
"[W]hat has happened to the Christian idea of an eternal life for the soul and for the body, after it triumphed over the pagan idea of 'darkness beyond death,'" he asked.
The answer, the Capuchin suggested, lies in the style of atheism of the 19th century, "expressed preferably in the negation of a beyond."
He explained: "Taking up Hegel's affirmation according to which 'Christians waste in heaven the energies destined for earth,' Feuerbach and above all Marx combated the belief of a life after death, under the pretext that it alienates from the earthly commitment. To the idea of a personal survival in God is constituted the idea of a survival in the species and in the society of the future.
"Little by little, suspicion, forgetfulness and silence fell on the word eternity. Materialism and consumerism did the rest in the opulent society, making it seem inconvenient to still speak of eternity among educated persons and with the passage of time. All this had a clear repercussion on the faith of believers, which became, on this point, timid and reticent."
Coming to the light
Nevertheless, Father Cantalamessa continued, "For the believer, eternity is not, as we see, only a hope, it is also a presence. We have this experience every time that we make a real act of faith in Christ, because 'you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God'; every time we receive Communion, in which 'we are given the pledge of future glory'; every time we hear the words of the Gospel which are 'words of eternal life.'"
And, he suggested, "Between the life of faith in time and eternal life there is a relationship similar to that which exists between the life of the embryo in the maternal womb and that of the baby, once he has come to the light."
"A renewed faith in eternity does not only serve for evangelization, that is, for the proclamation to be done to others," the Capuchin affirmed. "[I]t serves, even before that, to give a new impetus to our journey toward sanctity. The weakening of the idea of eternity acts also on believers, diminishing in them the capacity to face suffering and the trials of life with courage."
To illustrate this point, he proposed the image of a man with a scale: On one side there is the dish to hold that to be weighed and on the other side, the measure. If the measure is lost, he said, then "all that is put on the plate makes the bar rise and makes the scale incline to earth." Even a handful of feathers will bring the scale down. "That is how we are when we lose the weight, the measure of all that is eternity: Earthly things and sufferings easily pull our soul down. Everything seems too heavy, excessive."
Run, hurry up
Father Cantalamessa concluded with the invitation to "direct our thoughts then with renewed impetus toward eternity, repeating to ourselves with the words of the poet: Everything, except the eternal, to the world is vain."
He noted: "In the Hebrew Psalter there is a group of Psalms called 'Psalms of the ascension,' or 'canticles of Sion.' They were the Psalms that Jewish pilgrims sang when they went out on pilgrimage toward the holy city, Jerusalem. One of them begins thus: 'I was glad when they said to me, "let us go to the house of the Lord!"' These Psalms of the ascension then became the Psalms of those that, in the Church, are journeying toward the heavenly Jerusalem; they are our Psalms. Commenting on those initial words of the Psalm, St. Augustine said to his faithful:
"'Let us run because we will go to the house of the Lord; let us run because this course does not exhaust; because we will arrive at an end where there is no exhaustion. Let us run to the house of the Lord and our soul rejoices for those who repeat these words. They have seen the homeland before us, the Apostles saw it and have said to us: "Run, hurry up, follow us! We are going to the house of the Lord!"'"
[ZENIT will publish a translation of the full text of the sermon on Saturday]
Report Records Anti-Christian Hate Crime in Europe
Observatory Urges International Action
Vatican Seeks Faith-Culture Dialogue With US
Interview With Max Bonilla of the Camartis Institute
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Fish (British TV series)
Fish is a British television drama series first broadcast on BBC One in 2000. It features Paul McGann as the title character, alongside Jemma Redgrave and Mick Ford. It was created by Stephen Tredre, written by Tredre and Matthew Bardsley, and co-produced by the BBC and Principle Pictures.
Stephen Tredre
Matthew Bardsley
Brett Fallis
Claire Winyard
Jemma Redgrave
Mick Ford
No. of series
No. of episodes
Executive producer(s)
Mal Young
Sarah Boote
Miriam Segal
Production company(s)
Principle Pictures
Original network
2 May (2000-05-02) –
5 June 2000 (2000-06-05)
Jonathan "Fish" Vishnevski (McGann) is an employment lawyer who specialises in industrial tribunals. His wife has left him and gone abroad, leaving him to look after their young son, Simon (Jack Stanley). In court, he often comes up against lawyer Joanna Morgan (Redgrave), who becomes his love interest. His friend Trevor (Ford) is an amateur philosopher who owns a mobile burger bar.
Additional characters include Ivan Vishnevski (Philip Voss), Harold Cornice (Stephen Moore), Sarah Cornice (Jill Baker) and Jess Taylor (Daniela Denby-Ashe).
Creation and production
The series was inspired by the brother of producer Miriam Segal[1] and conceived by Stephen Tredre in 1994, who took up screenwriting due to illness.[2] After obtaining funding from Principle Pictures, Segal approached ITV and then the BBC with the programme, who both turned it down. It was then offered to the BBC's regional drama department, BBC Birmingham, and the series was commissioned.[2] After reorganisation within the BBC, the series was announced in 1999 by the corporation's drama head, Mal Young.[3]
The first episode was written by Tredre before his death in 1997, with the rest of the series completed by Matthew Bardsley.[4]
The series was filmed in London and cost £3 million.[2]
Redgrave's marriage to lawyer Tim Owen did not put her off taking the role of lawyer Joanna Morgan, telling Rob Driscoll for the Birmingham Post: "I've been dying to play a lawyer for the longest time, precisely because I know that world quite well now. I'm just worried if people spot mistakes, after all this seemingly reliable research!"[5] Also speaking ahead of the first broadcast, McGann described his character as having "depth" and said of the "intelligent" writing: "It will really engage people. They'll find themselves strangely intrigued. This is the sort of television we should be making, television that makes you think."[6]
"The Sins of the Father" Brett Fallis Stephen Tredre 2 May 2000 (2000-05-02)
"Uncharted Waters" Brett Fallis Matthew Bardsley 9 May 2000 (2000-05-09)
"Ever Decreasing Circles" Brett Fallis Matthew Bardsley 16 May 2000 (2000-05-16)
"Dancing with the Devil" Claire Winyard Matthew Bardsley 23 May 2000 (2000-05-23)
"Love's Labour Lost" Claire Winyard Matthew Bardsley 30 May 2000 (2000-05-30)
"Another Shade of White" Claire Winyard Matthew Bardsley 6 June 2000 (2000-06-06)
In his review for The Herald, David Belcher found the first episode "a bizarre, overly-complex TV hybrid", categorising it as "so-wrong-it's-only-right-to-watch-aghast-and-snicker".[7] Tony Purnell in The Mirror wasn't 'hooked',[8] and Frances Grant in The New Zealand Herald said that "Fish doesn't yet seem to be an interesting enough character to single-handedly carry a series", with the review concluding with a quote from the series: "You lot in suits – you're very bland."[9]
Ogle, Tina (23 April 2000). "TV lawyer fishes for an audience". The Observer. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Waller, Ed (2 May 2000). "Off the hook". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
"Fish heads Young new drama drive". Broadcast. 6 August 1999. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Moreton, Cole (12 September 1999). "Film world acclaims writer's final act". The Independent. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Driscoll, Rob (23 February 2000). "Interview Jemma Redgrave". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Fergus, Lindsay (23 April 2000). "Sorrow of actor McGann at drama writer's death". The People. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Belcher, David (6 May 2000). "It's all far too fishy". The Herald. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Purnell, Tony (3 May 2000). "Fish just will not catch on". The Mirror. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Grant, Frances (9 January 2001). "TV: Fish out of water in this limp courtroom drama". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
Fish on IMDb
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Incarcerated for Life at Age 15: Lessons From Efrén Paredes, Jr.
The inside of a cell will try to erase you. Efrén Paredes, Jr. knows that, just as his life sentence has also taught him how time can relentlessly add up each day, without any hope for release. Convicted for murder and robbery at the age of 15, Paredes's life should trouble us all. But the really troubling question isn't the nature of his crimes, but rather why — after two decades — he still sits inside a cell in a Michigan prison.
It's hard to imagine what that much time does to a person. Harder still to imagine how Paredes, incarcerated at 15, has in over 20 years of prison transformed himself into a passionate advocate for justice, a highly intelligent man and a skilled organizer. During his recent hearing before the Michigan Board of parole, over two hundred people testified — many attesting to his ability to serve as a community asset and to the man that he has become in prison. Others, by contrast, argued that he should remain in prison. Somewhere between these two perspectives, we have lost the idea of justice.
The death of Rick Tetzlaff, who Paredes allegedly killed, was tragic. There's no escaping the brutality of it. There is no escaping the impact of Tetzlaff's death on his family and on his community. But justice here shouldn't mean that a 15-year-old gets sentenced to life in prison without parole.
When I met Paredes, he'd organized a speaking engagement for me at his Michigan prison — the first time I'd been back inside a prison since my release a few years earlier. While reading there from my memoir, A Question of Freedom, I recognized something. Prison is a community all its own, and those confined must lean upon each other for support, understanding and guidance. Too many falter because there aren't enough prisoners who truly represent strength of character, conviction and leadership. Paredes, though, does.
Yet Paredes has recently learned that his petition for release has been denied by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. The question here is not about guilt or innocence. Yes, Paredes maintains that he is innocent, and the family continues to insist that he should remain in prison forever. But the question here is the sanity of sentencing a 15-year-old to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At what moment is a life sentence equivalent to a death sentence, and at what point is that sentence too much?
Paredes just watched his 37th birthday come and go behind bars. His case exemplifies the worst of what we do to juveniles in the name of justice. When he was sentenced, the judge issuing his sentence said, "I must believe that you can do good if you want to." Our system should be able to recognize this possibility — and offer a man like Paredes the opportunity to walk free in the world after years of doing good. Given the marvel of his accomplishments — all of which he has achieved without institutional support — his very life is an argument against juvenile life without parole. And his continued incarceration is a scar on our justice system.
Photo Credit: FriaLOve
R. Dwayne Betts committed six felonies at age 16 and served nine years in adult prison, a journey he chronicles in his recent book, A Question of Freedom.
Incarcerated for Life at Age 15: Lessons From Efré...
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Home Movies Armie Hammer Bio, Age, Height, Career, Net Worth, Affair, Married, Life, Trivia,...
Armie Hammer Bio, Age, Height, Career, Net Worth, Affair, Married, Life, Trivia, Ethnicity, Religion, Facts, Wiki
Born on August 28, 1986, Armie Hammer is an American actor who is known for his portrayal of the Winklevoss twins in the film The Social Network, Prince Andrew Alcott in Mirror Mirror and the title character in the adventure film The Lone Ranger. For more information, read the article below.
Before Fame: He dropped out from high school to pursue career in acting.
Armie Hammer Parents/Ethnicity/Religion
Born in Los Angeles, California, he is the son of Dru Ann and Michael Armand Hammer. He has a younger brother, Viktor. He is half jewish. Hammer’s paternal great-grandfather was oil tycoon and philanthropist Armand Hammer. Armand’s own parents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and Armand’s father, Julius Hammer, who was from Odessa, Ukraine, “founded the Communist Party in New York.” Armie’s paternal great-grandmother was Russian-born actress and singer Olga Vadimovna Vadina, the daughter of a tsarist general.
Armie Hammer Affair/Married/Dating
He married Elizabeth Chambers on May 22, 2010. They have two children, a daughter and a son. For more information, contact him on twitter and Instagram.
Full Name: Armand Douglas Hammer
Nicknames: Armie
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, US
Current Residence: United States
Education: Los Angeles Baptist High School
Religion: Half-Jewish
Spouse/Wife: Elizabeth Chambers (m. 2010)
Net Worth: $16 million USD
Height: 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m)
Weight: 210 lbs (95 kg )
Feet Size: Not Available
Dress Size: Not Available
Shoe Size: Not Available
Chest Size: Not Available
Biceps: Not Available
He is the great-grandson of industrialist, art collector and philanthropist Armand Hammer.
His parents did not support his decision to pursue a career in acting, preferring him to enter business. According to Hammer, his relationship with them became strained but he reconciled with them after he started getting starring roles.
Despite his family’s wealth, he claims that he has never had a trust fund and that he supported himself through his acting career.
He dropped out of high school at sixteen to pursue acting.
I’m half Jewish, but no one believes me because my looks lean a little WASP-y… It’s sometimes hard for me to get the roles I’m drawn to.
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Royal Enfield Continental GT – Blast Around The Block
June 13, 2014 by Jim Gorde 1 Comment
Royal Enfield officially add a café racer to their line-up, finally! Does the Continental GT have what it takes to reawaken the speed demons within?
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
‘Essence’ is a term not often used in many industries, but when it is, it usually signifies a strong, even overwhelming, presence of an element which affects the flavour of the subject to such an extent that it is instantly recognised as a distinct creation. When a motorcycle maker, now 120 years old, decides to infuse a 60-year-old design with modern technology and improved build quality, you just know it will be something special.
Royal Enfield make motorcycles you either love or hate. Even those who love them hate so many things about them, but love them none the less. It is their several characteristics which are so unique and which set them apart from other motorcycles that the passion and desire to own one breeds in the souls of the young and old alike. While they have been making motorcycles for more than a century, India has only been witness to one of their designs – a vertical single-cylinder, overhead-valve engine, first introduced as early as in 1932, and offered in a heavy frame with a tank, a pair of panels and fenders, a seat and a miniscule but basically functional front-end ─ to wit, the Bullet.
With its 350-cc heart and an extremely distinct thump, which is revered even today, the Bullet was a mean, macho machine which audibly announced your arrival before bringing the style into view. The clatter from the engine, the bangs and sputters from the intake and carburettor all gave the exhaust thump the company it needed to make for the most engaging and appealing rides at the time in the country. Add to that the gearbox, which was a separate unit, and ran the shifter on the right with a spoon-shaped neutral-finder, enabling the rider literally to spoon-feed the gearbox with neutral. The 350 motor ran a bore and stroke of 70 mm x 90 mm; it was the basic building block. When the 500-cc version followed later, it was the most powerful made-in-India bike there was, with all of 22 PS and a then hefty 35-odd Nm of torque. The cylinder ran an 84-mm bore, with the same 90-mm stroke. From there on, there was another announcement.
The year was 2000, and a Lightning 535 would make its way to the line-up, running an 87-mm bore, and, you guessed it, the 90-mm stroke. It made 26 PS and 38 Nm. Even with the four-speed box and the spoon for company, the torque on offer, at that time, gave the rider a phenomenal feel if they hadn’t experienced any bigger, faster motorcycles manufactured overseas.
Fast forward to the present, and Royal Enfield still make 350-cc and 500-cc Bullets in various garbs. With the disc brake only being here for a decade, it’s worth noting the evolution of the now ancient architecture. The new unit construction engine (UCE) features a single lump integrating the engine, clutch and gearbox and you don’t have to pour oil in from multiple orifices every now and then. The 350 makes a healthier 20 PS and 28 Nm, while the 500 makes 27.5 PS and 41.3 Nm. Interestingly, the 535 has now re-appeared, and in the best way possible: their Café Racer!
More on page 2 >
Principal Correspondent at Bike India and Car India. Food for the body. Fuel for the soul.
t: @BikeIndia
f: /BikeIndia
Jim Gorde – who has written 315 posts on Bike India.
Filed Under: News, Road Test Tagged With: 535, bike, bullet, cafe, conti gt, continental, Enfield, gt, India, latest, launch, lightning, new, racer, Royal
krishan.adhikari says
I wish Royal Enfield would have developed a new engine for the café racer. Apart from that let’s hope so they have some competition so that they don’t take their customers for granted and develop a product that is vibration free.
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Tupac musical ‘Holler If Ya Hear Me’ canceled after just six weeks
After just six weeks on Broadway, Holler If Ya Hear Me will close.
The Tupac-inspired musical infused the late musician’s lyrics into an urban setting which took an in-depth look into the struggles of a neglected community.
From TIME:
“It saddens me that due to the financial burdens of Broadway, I was unable to sustain this production longer in order to give it time to bloom on Broadway,” producer Eric L. Gold said in a statement. “Tupac’s urgent socially important insights and the audiences’ nightly rousing standing ovations deserve to be experienced by the world.”
Directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon, the show is one of the worst-selling musicals in recent years, the New York Times reports. The production grossed $154,948 last week — only 17% of what it could have earned.
The musical, which started previews on June 2 and officially opened June 19, played 38 performances and 17 preview shows.
Read more at TIME
Holler If Ya Hear Me is scheduled to end its run on July 20.
Thoughts on the production’s failure?
Do you think it is difficult for hip hop to find a home on Broadway?
Sound off below!
Broadway, close, hip-hop, mixed reviews, musical, Tupac, urban theater
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Shuddhodana
From Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia
(Redirected from Shuddhodana's)
Suddhodana was the ruler of the Sakyā tribe and the father of Siddhattha Gotama.The name means ‘Pure Rice.’ Traditionally, Suddhodana is said to have been a great king but he was probably more like a ruler elected by the Sākyan tribal Council. Most courts in ancient India had a Body of men called ‘king makers’ (rājakattāro, D.II,233). No Doubt it was such a group who elected Suddhodana to rule over them and the rest of the tribe. Suddhodana had two wives – Mahā Māyā who was Siddhattha’s mother and who died soon after his birth, and Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī who became his step-mother. Suddhodana was very critical of his son’s Desire to renounce the World but eventually became his supporter and Disciple.
[浄飯王] (Skt; Pali Suddhodana; Jpn Jobonno)
A king of Kapilavastu in northern India and the father of Shakyamuni. According to the Sutra of the Collected Stories of The Buddha's Deeds in Past Lives, Shuddhodana was the eldest son of King Simhahanu. Shuddhodana's wife, Maya, died seven days after giving birth to Shakyamuni, after which he married Maya's younger sister, Mahaprajapati. With Mahaprajapati, he had another son, Nanda. Shuddhodana originally opposed his son Shakyamuni's Desire to renounce the secular World and lead a religious Life, but when Shakyamuni returned to his home Kapilavastu as The Buddha after his Awakening, Shuddhodana converted to The Buddha's teachings. Five years after Shakyamuni's Enlightenment, Shuddhodana is said to have died of illness at age seventy-nine (ninety-seven according to another account). The name Shuddhodana is rendered in Chinese translations of Sutras as "Pure Rice."
www.sgilibrary.org
Retrieved from "http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Shuddhodana&oldid=74921"
Buddhist Terms
Suddhodana
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'American Sniper' Rockets to $135.77M after Leading Thursday with $7.66M
on January 23, 2015 by Daniel Garris
Warner's American Sniper took in an impressive $7.66 million on Thursday to lead the daily box office with ease for a seventh consecutive day. The Clint Eastwood directed Best Picture nominee starring Bradley Cooper was up 1 percent over Wednesday. American Sniper rocketed past expectations this week with a massive $132.35 million in its first week of wide release. That brings the film's total gross to $135.77 million. American Sniper is currently running 67 percent ahead of the $79.13 million seven-day take of 2013's Gravity. Given its strong holding power throughout the week, American Sniper is in great shape to experience a very strong hold over the weekend.
The Wedding Ringer held steady in second with $1.18 million. Sony's modestly budgeted comedy starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad was up 2 percent over Wednesday's performance. The Wedding Ringer took second place for the week with a seven-day start of $28.08 million. That was on the lower end of pre-release expectations and places the film 9 percent behind the $30.75 million seven-day take of last year's About Last Night. The Wedding Ringer has been displaying stronger holding power than About Last Night so far and is very likely to continue to do so going forward.
Fox's Taken 3 grossed $0.757 million to remain in third place. The third installment of the Liam Neeson led franchise up 5 percent from Wednesday, but still down a sharp 57 percent from last Thursday. Taken 3 placed in fourth for the week with $19.66 million and has grossed $68.45 million in two weeks of release. That places the film a reasonable 26 percent behind the $92.57 million two-week take of 2012's Taken 2.
Selma continued to claim fourth place with $0.708 million. The Best Picture nominee from Paramount was up an impressive 17 percent over Wednesday and down 37 percent from last Thursday. Selma held up very nicely this week with a fifth place take of $16.06 million. That represented a 4 percent increase over the previous week and brings the film's current domestic total to a promising $33.72 million.
Fellow Best Picture nominee The Imitation Game followed in fifth place with $0.626 million. Like Selma, The Imitation Game was also up 17 percent over Wednesday. The Weinstein Company release was down a slim 25 percent from last Thursday. The Imitation Game placed in sixth for the week with $9.89 million. The film was down just 5 percent from the previous frame and has grossed $53.51 million to date.
Fellow Weinstein Company release Paddington placed in sixth with $0.603 million. The well received family film increased 6 percent over Wednesday. For the week, Paddington finished just behind The Wedding Ringer to take third place for the frame with a seven-day start of $27.67 million. Paddington is performing in line with expectations and is running 1 percent behind the $27.96 million seven-day take of last year's The Nut Job.
Meanwhile, Universal's Blackhat rounded out its first week of release with a tenth place take of $0.282 million. The Michael Mann directed film starring Chris Hemsworth grossed a very disappointing $5.43 million in its first seven days. Blackhat landed all the way down in eleventh for the week and will obviously fade away from theatres quickly.
Tags: Blackhat, Paddington, The Imitation Game, Selma, Taken 3, The Wedding Ringer, American Sniper
read all Daily analyses »
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Can-Am League
Division Menu
#22 Eric McGee - Profile
- Team - CANAM Brockton New Jersey New York Pittsfield Quebec Rockland Worcester
Home | Scoreboard | Leaders | Stats | Schedule | Roster | Transactions
Stats Spray Chart
Position: C
Birthday: Sep 5, 1987
Hometown: Cedartown, GA
Bats/Throws: R/R
McGee hit .274 with seven home runs and 19 RBI for Newark of the Can Am League in 2012 before joining the Slammers. In 2011, he hit .276 with 10 home runs and 23 driven in with Newark. McGee is a graduate of Emmanuel College and hails from Georgia. He can catch, play the outfield and play first base as well.
Summer 2012 Joliet Slammers 25 75 7 12 2 0 2 9 5 26 0 .160
Regular 2012 Newark Bears 49 179 24 49 12 1 7 19 10 51 0 .274
Regular 2011 Newark 49 152 26 42 6 0 10 23 3 33 1 .276
Total 123 406 57 103 20 1 19 51 18 110 1 .254
Batting Game Log
Sep 2 @Normal W 7-0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.232 0.267 0.160 0.499
Aug 30 @Washington L 2-7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.241 0.278 0.167 0.519
Aug 28 @Washington L 4-12 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.240 0.290 0.174 0.530
Aug 25 River City L 1-6 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.225 0.277 0.154 0.502
Aug 24 River City L 0-11 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.221 0.274 0.145 0.495
Aug 21 @Florence L 3-4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.200 0.254 0.119 0.454
Aug 19 Lake Erie L 1-2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.194 0.263 0.123 0.457
Aug 16 @Traverse City L 4-6 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.222 0.306 0.143 0.528
Aug 14 @Traverse City L 1-18 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.234 0.262 0.143 0.496
Aug 12 Rockford W 8-4 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.250 0.282 0.154 0.532
Aug 10 Rockford L 3-4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.244 0.297 0.162 0.541
Aug 9 Warriors W 6-0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0.225 0.297 0.162 0.522
Aug 7 Warriors W 14-2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.182 0.313 0.156 0.495
Aug 5 @Schaumburg W 11-6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.167 0.333 0.167 0.500
Aug 4 @Schaumburg W 5-0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.179 0.357 0.179 0.536
Aug 2 @Evansville L 6-8 4 0 1 1 0 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.250 0.500 0.250 0.750
Jul 31 @Evansville L 3-7 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.250 0.333 0.250 0.583
Jul 30 Windy City L 5-8 5 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.375 0.500 0.375 0.875
Jul 22 @Quebec L 2-3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.330 0.469 0.274 0.799
Jul 21 @Quebec W 9-1 5 2 3 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.337 0.480 0.280 0.817
Jul 20 @Quebec L 3-11 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.330 0.453 0.271 0.783
Jul 17 @Rockland L 2-4 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.330 0.452 0.268 0.782
Jul 16 Rockland L 8-13 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.331 0.457 0.268 0.788
Jul 13 Quebec L 2-7 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.328 0.441 0.267 0.769
Jul 11 Quebec W 3-0 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.328 0.437 0.266 0.765
Jul 10 @New Jersey L 2-5 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.329 0.422 0.266 0.751
Jul 8 @New Jersey L 7-12 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.337 0.433 0.273 0.770
Jul 7 @New Jersey W 4-2 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.342 0.445 0.281 0.787
Jul 6 @Quebec L 0-10 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.344 0.451 0.282 0.795
Jul 4 @Quebec L 0-6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.333 0.437 0.267 0.770
Jul 2 New Jersey L 2-10 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.338 0.444 0.271 0.782
Jul 1 New Jersey W 8-4 3 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.340 0.442 0.271 0.782
Jun 30 New Jersey W 8-1 4 1 2 0 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.329 0.429 0.262 0.758
Jun 29 New Jersey L 5-14 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.324 0.402 0.254 0.726
Jun 28 Rockland L 3-7 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.333 0.415 0.263 0.748
Jun 25 Rockland W 3-2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.336 0.421 0.263 0.757
Jun 23 @Worcester L 11-12 6 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.344 0.432 0.270 0.776
Jun 22 @Worcester L 2-3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0.345 0.429 0.267 0.774
Jun 21 New Jersey L 4-6 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.357 0.446 0.277 0.803
Jun 15 @Gr Prairie L 3-8 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0.333 0.455 0.205 0.788
Jun 13 @K. City W 2-1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.326 0.528 0.222 0.854
Jun 12 @K. City L 1-8 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.359 0.594 0.250 0.953
Jun 10 @Gary L 4-5 3 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0.395 0.552 0.328 0.947
Jun 9 @Gary W 6-4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0.403 0.563 0.328 0.966
Jun 8 @Gary L 11-20 5 3 3 1 0 1 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 0.409 0.842 0.316 1.251
Jun 7 @Gary L 4-7 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.313 0.643 0.214 0.956
Jun 6 Rockland L 1-14 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.421 0.569 0.353 0.990
Jun 5 Rockland L 4-7 4 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.400 0.578 0.333 0.978
Jun 3 St Paul W 7-1 3 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.370 0.512 0.293 0.882
Jun 2 St Paul L 2-7 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.357 0.447 0.289 0.804
May 31 @Worcester L 3-9 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.353 0.387 0.290 0.740
May 30 @Worcester W 7-4 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0.367 0.407 0.296 0.774
May 24 @Rockland W 5-3 4 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.429 0.526 0.368 0.955
May 22 @Rockland L 4-8 4 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.412 0.467 0.333 0.879
May 19 Worcester L 2-7 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.385 0.364 0.273 0.749
May 18 Worcester W 6-4 4 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.375 0.429 0.286 0.804
Sep 5 @Rockland W 9-5 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.329 0.513 0.276 0.842
Sep 4 @Rockland L 3-4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.333 0.517 0.279 0.850
Sep 3 Rockland L 7-8 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.342 0.531 0.287 0.873
Sep 1 @New Jersey L 4-11 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.353 0.556 0.296 0.909
Aug 31 @New Jersey L 2-7 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0.356 0.557 0.298 0.913
Aug 26 @Pittsfield W 5-4 3 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.359 0.567 0.299 0.926
Aug 25 New Jersey L 1-7 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.353 0.540 0.290 0.893
Aug 21 New York W 15-4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.348 0.542 0.283 0.890
Aug 19 New York W 6-2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.349 0.526 0.281 0.875
Aug 17 @Worcester W 5-4 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0.352 0.531 0.283 0.883
Aug 16 @Worcester L 4-7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.355 0.527 0.282 0.882
Aug 13 Quebec L 3-4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.358 0.532 0.284 0.890
Aug 10 @Rockland L 8-9 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.358 0.532 0.284 0.890
Aug 7 @Quebec L 1-11 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.358 0.528 0.283 0.886
Aug 3 Pittsfield L 1-11 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.345 0.524 0.272 0.869
Jul 31 Brockton W 5-0 3 2 2 0 0 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.348 0.535 0.273 0.883
Jul 28 New York W 9-6 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.333 0.500 0.260 0.833
Jul 23 @Brockton W 8-6 3 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.347 0.533 0.278 0.880
Jul 21 @Brockton W 10-2 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.340 0.506 0.276 0.846
Jul 19 Worcester W 18-4 2 2 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.359 0.537 0.293 0.896
Jul 17 Worcester L 10-12 4 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.344 0.450 0.275 0.794
Jul 12 New York W 11-4 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0.318 0.434 0.250 0.752
Jul 8 @Pittsfield L 1-2 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.325 0.464 0.261 0.789
Jul 5 Rockland W 11-2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0.304 0.410 0.230 0.714
Jul 2 @Rockland L 4-5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.277 0.417 0.233 0.694
Jul 1 Pittsfield W 8-2 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.281 0.424 0.237 0.705
Jun 30 Pittsfield W 9-3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.283 0.436 0.236 0.719
Jun 29 Pittsfield L 5-9 4 2 3 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.304 0.471 0.255 0.775
Jun 26 @Quebec L 5-6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.250 0.364 0.205 0.614
Jun 23 Worcester W 8-7 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.244 0.366 0.195 0.610
Jun 21 Worcester L 4-10 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.268 0.405 0.216 0.673
Jun 19 Brockton W 8-7 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.270 0.424 0.212 0.694
Jun 17 Brockton L 14-17 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.313 0.500 0.250 0.813
Jun 15 @Worcester W 6-1 3 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0.290 0.481 0.222 0.771
Jun 12 @Brockton L 4-5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.250 0.389 0.222 0.639
Jun 11 @Brockton W 2-1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.333 0.538 0.308 0.871
Jun 8 New Jersey L 0-4 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.417 0.700 0.400 1.117
Jun 5 New York W 5-3 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.250 0.714 0.286 0.964
Jun 1 @New Jersey L 5-10 4 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.400 1.000 0.400 1.400
May 28 Rockland W 16-4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
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Consulate Events
Home > Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Remarks
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on January 8, 2021
CCTV: State Councilor Wang Yi has just concluded his visit to Botswana. What do you think is the most important achievement or the highlight of this visit?
Hua Chunying: Every stop of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Africa comes with its own highlight. He has just concluded a successful visit to Botswana. President Masisi met with State Councilor Wang Yi, and State Councilor Wang Yi held talks with Foreign Minister Unity Dow. The two sides all spoke highly of bilateral relations.
This important visit to Botswana came as the two sides celebrate the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. As the two foreign ministers singed a MoU on BRI cooperation on behalf of the two governments, Botswana has become the 46th African country inking BRI cooperation documents with China. This is a highlight and a good symbol, which will bring out new opportunities, break new grounds, and open up new prospects for our mutually beneficial cooperation.
China is willing to work with Botswana to further implement the important consensus reached between the heads of state of the two countries and the outcomes of the FOCAC Beijing Summit and the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID19, enhance political mutual trust, strengthen practical cooperation, and promote China-Botswana relations to a higher level.
The Paper: Elon Musk, CEO of electric vehicle producer Tesla, said in an interview with an American news outlet that the Chinese government cares a lot about the well-being of the people and is possibly more responsible to people's happiness than the U.S. government. Do you have a comment?
Hua Chunying: I have also taken note of the report. I believe Mr. Musk made an objective statement when he said that the Chinese government cares a lot about the well-being of the people. Since its founding, the CPC has dedicated itself to the mission of serving the people. To improve people's living standards and to meet their increasing needs for a better life is the motivation and purpose of all our work. The CPC is a party of the people, for the people and by the people. In this lies the source of its invincible confidence in overcoming all difficulties as the ruling party.
As you've all seen, in the fight against COVID-19, the CPC puts people and life front and center and makes the best effort possible to protect every citizen's safety, health and dignity. We waged the largest and most vigorous battle in human history against poverty, lifting 850 million out of poverty. This year we will begin a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country, which will help meet people's increasing needs for a better life. According to authoritative international research, the Chinese people's overall satisfaction toward the Central Government exceeds 90 percent for many years.
Foreign friends free from bias and wishing to get an objective understanding of China will surely arrive at their own conclusion from the history of China's development in the past century and the changes taking place now. We welcome more foreign friends to come to China for tourism, study, work, sightseeing and visit so as to get a first-hand experience of the real China through their interactions with the Chinese people.
Global Times: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that "We've released more information about the CCP threat to the American people and U.S. businesses than any other administration." Do you have any comment?
Hua Chunying: During his tenure of office, Secretary of State Pompeo makes "lying diplomacy" a byword for U.S. foreign policy, when this U.S. administration has dented U.S. image and reputation as well its relations with other countries more than ever. This is a consensus shared by the international community, including those clear-eyed Americans.
In recent year, the United States has been pursuing unilateralism, undermining multilateral cooperation, wantonly pulling out of treaties and organizations, and arbitrarily resorting to use or threat of sanctions. To date, it has withdrawn from a dozen international treaties and organizations. On climate change, it refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement. On arms control and non-proliferation, it pulled out of the JCPOA and the INF Treaty, unsigned the Arms Trade Treaty, announced its withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, and has been dragging its feet towards extending the New START. At the crucial juncture when members of the international community joined hands to fight COVID-19, the United States pulled out of WHO. Facts have proven time and again that the United States is the biggest destabilizing factor for global peace and security. Polls surveying people in over 10 countries including Germany, Japan and the ROK show that half or more interviewees believe the United States poses major threats to their national security. Many Americans believe that the biggest threat to the United States is no other but itself.
For his own benefit, Pompeo unscrupulously suppressed China, and put on stage his "final madness" as his term is coming to an end, and frantically sabotage bilateral relations. His actions will only put him on the wrong side of history and in odds with the friendly sentiment cherished by the Chinese and American peoples. He will be convicted by history.
AFP: The European Union has called for the immediate release of over 50 people arrested in Hong Kong and urged authorities to respect Hong Kong's rule of law, democracy and freedom. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also said it was deeply concerned over the arrests, calling for the release of the arrested people who were "exercising legitimate rights to participate in political and public life". What is the foreign ministry's response?
Hua Chunying: First, the wanton criticism by the few people you mentioned of the Hong Kong Police Force's law enforcement constitutes grave interference in China's sovereignty and domestic affairs. China is firmly against it. Those arrested are suspected of subverting state power as set out in the Law on Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. They were by no means "exercising legitimate rights to participate in political and public life". The national security law provides clear definitions of crimes threatening national security. It also stipulates that the rights and freedoms which the residents of Hong Kong enjoy under the Basic Law and the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as applied to Hong Kong, shall be protected in accordance with the law. As we've stressed repeatedly, Hong Kong affairs are entirely China's domestic affairs that brook no external interference. No one has any right to demand that China release lawfully-arrested criminals.
As I said while answering your question yesterday, although the scenes in the United States and Hong Kong were similar, the descriptions or reactions by some are entirely different. Why is it that protesters of the same nature are branded "rioters" in the United States, but eulogized as "heroes of democracy" in Hong Kong? Why is it that the same thing is called two different names, defense of democracy and freedom in the United States, but suppression of democracy and freedom in Hong Kong?
I saw on TV this morning a statement by the White House press secretary. She said that the First Amendment guarantees the right of the people to peaceably assemble, but what they saw yesterday in Washington was not that, and the rioters were undermining the legitimate First Amendment rights. She also said they condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms and those that broke the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As you know, some social media platforms have imposed restrictive measures on the U.S. leadership. This shows that even in the United States, freedom of speech is not limitless. Those that abuse this freedom will pay dearly for it. Why must something unacceptable in the Unites States be acceptable in Hong Kong? Why must freedoms off limits in the Unites States be within reach in Hong Kong?
What happened in Hong Kong is plain and clear. You may have noted the detailed information released by the SAR government and police force and their position. There have also been a large amount of reporting by Hong Kong media. Those arrested are suspected of breaking the national security law with a view to paralyzing and subverting the SAR government. Undermining national security has nothing to do with democracy or freedom. There is a distinct difference between political dissent and seriously disrupting the normal functioning of the government. No country or society with rule of law will allow activities that undermine national security or seriously disrupt the normal functioning of the government.
As to democracy and freedoms, as I said yesterday, during the British colonial rule over Hong Kong, were the people granted any rights or freedoms? When ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1976, the British government made a reservation not to apply to Hong Kong the periodic elections provisions. Both the Public Order Ordinance and the Societies Ordinance during the British rule imposed draconian restrictions on assembly, procession and association in Hong Kong. It was only after Hong Kong's return that a democratic institution was truly established and developed. The tremendous efforts made by the Chinese government and the Hong Kong SAR government to promote democratic progress in Hong Kong in accordance with the Basic Law and decisions by the NPC Standing Committee shall not be denigrated.
I also noticed that some media claim what happened in the United States should not be compared with the storming of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Speaking of where they differ, I can think of at least two points. First, the riot was much worse in Hong Kong. The mob that stormed the Hong Kong Legislative Council back in July 2019 vandalized the facility, harassed innocent civilians and attacked police officers with petrol bombs and daggers while in the US, it's just climbing over exterior walls of the Capitol and storming into Congress. The mob in Hong Kong more justly deserve to be called rioters and terrorists and be punished by law. Second, what happened on Capitol Hill was organized by Americans, but what happened in Hong Kong was instigated, orchestrated and implemented by external forces, with some in the United States playing a dishonorable role.
Those saying what happened in the United States is different from what happened in Hong Kong. This double-standard reaction reveals their deep-seated sense of western supremacy and ideological bias. It bears on the question of how to define democracy and freedoms. During your post here, you might have heard a popular Chinese saying which can be translated as "trophies or prizes, nothing is worth more than good word of mouth". The ultimate yardstick for measuring a country's democracy and freedom is people's sense of satisfaction, happiness, security and gain. We should see if it is the whole society or just a small minority that enjoys freedoms and progress. Unlike the American government, which, according to international academics, is of, by and for the one percent, the Chinese government represents and safeguards the interests of the vast majority and is committed to defending the value and dignity of every life. Our democracy is broad-based, real and it works. As you've witnessed, since the founding the New China, the Chinese people's freedoms and rights to subsistence and development have been effectively guaranteed; political, economic and cultural rights made visible progress; and historic leaps have been made in the cause of freedom; over 800 million people have got out of poverty. As a foreign academic puts it, the Chinese people have experienced 30 years of the fastest improvement in living standards throughout the past 3,000 years. I'm not sure if you know that an average of 120 million Chinese tourists travel abroad every year. After a pleasant trip in foreign parts, what do they do? They get back home! If what the politicians and media said were true, that the Chinese people are oppressed and stripped of their freedoms, why, then, would the 120 million tourists choose to come back? The international research I mentioned just now also shows that the Chinese government's satisfaction and support rate exceeds 90 percent. Isn't this enough to prove the point? I think those criticizing China on democracy and freedoms either don't know the real situation in China or are just too full of themselves. We hope they will get off their high horse and try to understand the real China. We are more than ready to show them the real conditions. That being said, we are firmly against their interference in our domestic affairs in the name of democracy and freedom.
Bloomberg: I'd like to ask a question about the MSCI Inc. who will remove three Chinese telecom companies from its indexes on Friday. I'd just like to ask what the foreign ministry's comment is?
Hua Chunying: I have been responding to questions similar to this these days. The relevant Chinese companies have always abided by the rules and regulatory requirements of the United States, which is widely recognized by global investors. For the three companies you mentioned, we believe that they can properly deal with the negative impacts caused by the current situation. I also said earlier that China will take necessary measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. Since you asked again, I'd like to reiterate that China firmly opposes the U.S. side abusing state power, stretching national security concepts, and oppressing Chinese companies. We also believe that the U.S. actions are short-sighted. The United States not only violates the market competition principles and international economic and trade rules it brags about, but also goes against the trend of the times. By doing so, it harms the interests of investors from all countries and its own national interests, image and reputation.
RIA Novosti: The U.S. Mission to the United Nations announced last night that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft will visit Taiwan from January 13 to 15. Do you have any response?
Hua Chunying: We stated China's principled position yesterday. China's position on the issue of U.S.-Taiwan exchanges is clear and consistent. The actions of the U.S. side seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiqués. China firmly opposes it.
There is only one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing China. This is a fact recognized by the international community. The United States made a clear commitment on this in the Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and the United States. China firmly opposes any form of official ties between the United States and the Taiwan region. This position is consistent and clear. We have noticed that for a period of time, a few anti-China politicians in the Trump administration, or Pompeo and his like if you will, have put on stage their "final madness", unscrupulously using the remaining days in office to sabotage China-U.S. relations and serve their personal political gains. This trick goes against the tide of history and runs counter to the desire of the Chinese and American peoples for friendship and peace, which will definitely get punished by history.
We also urge the U.S. side to return to reason and stop any words and deeds that undermine bilateral relations. China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its own sovereign and security interests. If the U.S. side insists on going its way, it will pay a heavy price for its wrong words and deeds.
South China Morning Post: The U.S. Congress confirmed Joe Biden as the presidential election winner. What's your comment?
Hua Chunying: We noticed that the U.S. Congress has officially confirmed that Biden was elected as the new president. On November 25, 2020, President Xi Jinping sent a message to Joe Biden to congratulate him on election as U.S. president.
Beijing Youth Daily: Some American media reported that China is taking advantage of the chaos in the United States to expand China's influence, and the United States is even more unable to stop China's development. What is your comment on this?
Hua Chunying: I think such reports reveal that these media's points of view are problematic. No country can achieve its own long-term development by taking advantage of chaos in other countries. China's great development and progress is achieved through the diligent and hard work of all Chinese people. Regarding some problems in current China-U.S. relations, we know that some people in the United States are indeed very anxious about China's rapid development, and are trying to dominate or delay China's development. But as State Councilor Wang Yi pointed out, the best way to keep one's lead is through constant self-improvement, not by blocking others' development. We don't need a world where China becomes another United States. This is neither rational nor feasible. Rather, the United States should try to make itself a better country, and China will surely become its better self.
CRI: Recently, a director-general virtual meeting on COVID-19 and poverty relief cooperation by China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Could you give us more details?
Hua Chunying: You are well-informed. Indeed, on January 6, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh held the first meeting of director-general level working groups on COVID-19 and poverty alleviation cooperation. This meeting is a follow-up step to the video conference of foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal on COVID-19 in July and the video conference of vice foreign ministers of China, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh on COVID-19 in November 2020.
At the meeting, representatives from all parties shared anti-epidemic and poverty relief experience, exchanged views on addressing COVID-19's impact, resuming economic and trade cooperation, responding to non-traditional security challenges, advancing the sustainable agenda and eradicating poverty, and reached preliminary consensus on practical cooperation in relevant fields. The successful meeting demonstrates all parties' strong will and firm confidence in strengthening regional anti-epidemic cooperation, jointly addressing challenges and achieving development through cooperation. China stands ready with all parties to implement the consensus of the meeting, produce visible outcomes and make greater contributions to building a shared community of health for the region.
Beijing Daily: Some western media commented that the Chinese media are comparing the Capitol Hill riot with the violent riot Hong Kong experienced to serve its own propaganda purpose. What is your response?
Hua Chunying: What's happened at the Capitol Hill has been extensively covered by the US media. We've seen TV programs playing out violent scenes 24/7. We've heard world leaders commenting on it. People from all walks of life in the United States are talking about it. Then why, when the Chinese media are following this widely-reported event, it suddenly became propaganda?
When I responded to a foreign journalist's question yesterday, I invited all of you to seriously think about why some people reacted differently to similar scenes played out in the United States and Hong Kong and why they termed them differently. Why are factual reports by the Chinese media being labeled propaganda or even disinformation? Is it simply because some people in the United States find them unpalatable? I don't think this complies with the truthfulness principle of journalism. Besides, facts are there, beyond anyone's denial, regardless of whether they came up in the Chinese media reports or not.
However, this does uncover the ubiquitous existence of double standard when it comes to Chinese media and reflect the sense of superiority and ideological prejudice long harbored by some individuals. For some people in the west, they pride themselves on their democracy and freedom, even though deep down they have their grievances and dissatisfaction; they criticize China as being authoritarian and totalitarian, even though deep down they may hope they could lead a life as the Chinese do. For those issues that have come up in the United States or in other western countries, they in the west can argue, debate and comment in ways whatever they want, but if the Chinese side pitches in, then it suddenly morphs into "propaganda" or "disinformation".
It has been very aptly pointed out by a very famous scholar on social media that the Western establishment is clinging to the past, in denial of the present, and living in fear of a very different future. I do think that it is time for them to wake up, do some reflection, discard their double standard, and open up their eyes and minds to the world. The media has a particularly special role to play in this, as their commitment to the principle of truthfulness and objectivity has a strong bearing on the direction the world is heading towards.
AFP: The media has noted some similarities and some differences between what happened in Hong Kong and in the United States. I think one issue that news reports pointed out was also the intent behind the unrest. In the U.S. case they were trying to overturn the results of an election, while in Hong Kong they were demanding for more democracy. I'm just wondering if you could clarify your take on this?
Hua Chunying: The two are very similar in terms of subjecting legislature to violence. On July 2019, radical protesters stormed the legislature, trashed the place, defaced the Hong Kong emblem, fan up anti-police sentiment, and hurled toxic liquid and powder at and even stabbed police force. But the Hong Kong Police Force responded with maximum restraint.
Similar scenes played out in the United State but were reported by some press in different words. Protesters were "thugs" and "domestic terrorists" when they stormed the Capitol Hill, but were "democratic fighters" and even "heroes" when they stormed the Hong Kong Legco. It would be difficult if not impossible to find a better definition for double standard.
You said those in Hong Kong were demanding for democracy, but you lost sight of their true face hiding behind their masquerade of so-called democracy. Under the pretext of democracy, they committed the crime of subversion of state power under the Hong Kong national security law. Chanting "all five demands must be fulfilled", on July 2019, they committed violent crime, trampled on Hong Kong's rule of law and social order, challenged the bottom of "one country, two systems", and plunged the interests and security of the HKSAR and China into grave danger. What they did is nothing but political intimidation, blackmailing and extreme violent crimes, not even remotely related to democracy.
I just cited a statement by the White House Press Secretary. She said herself that the protesters undermined the right of the people to peaceably assemble under the First Amendment. It is fair to say that even in the US, freedom comes with boundaries, and abusing freedoms comes with a price.
Appendix:
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on January 7, 2021 (2021-01-07)
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on December 31, 2020 (2020-12-31)
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on December 28, 2020 (2020-12-28)
Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Davao All Rights Reserved
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sisyphus: the myth
[23], In Plato's Apology, Socrates looks forward to the after-life where he can meet figures such as Sisyphus, who think themselves wise, so that he can question them and find who is wise and who "thinks he is when he is not"[24], Albert Camus, the French absurdist, wrote an essay entitled The Myth of Sisyphus, in which he elevates Sisyphus to the status of absurd hero. Livres. Albert Camus's Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical writing based on a Greek Myth of Sisyphus. The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. Also Known As: Sisyphus, Sijipeuseu, Sisyphus: The Fable, 시지프스: The myth, Sisyphus: The Myth 2020. The Myth of Sisyphus The central concern of The Myth of Sisyphus is what Camus calls "the absurd." The absurd is often mischaracterized as the simple idea that life is meaningless. Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus: The Myth Cast. All Categories. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus aims to draw out his definition of absurdism and, later in the book, consider what strategies are available to people in living with the absurd. Sisyphus Son of Aeolus . Sisyphus betrayed one of Zeus' secrets by revealing the whereabouts of the Asopid Aegina to her father, the river god Asopus, in return for causing a spring to flow on the Corinthian acropolis. This caused Sisyphus to end up on the shores of the river Styx. As a life filled entirely of mundane and trivial labor, Sisyphus’s existence is meant to illustrate the futility (and absurdity) we confront in our own lives. From the thre texts-Albert Camus' The stranger, The myth of Sisyphus, and the plague. The Myth of Sisyphus – The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (1969), based on Greek mythology, talks about the existentialism crisis and the meaninglessness and absurdity of life.. Absurdity. The myth of Sisyphus is the story of how Sisyphus became the “futile laborer of the underworld” tasked with rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, just to watch it roll back down and repeat the task for all of eternity. Sisyphus … Sisyphus was unstoppable, he pushed the rock unabated every time it rolled down. Taylor, Richard. He was known for his deceitfulness and craftiness. When the death came up to him to chain up, Sisyphus asked how the chain worked and Thanatos agreed to explain. Subscribe Sisyphus: The Myth. This caused an uproar and Ares, annoyed that his battles had lost their fun because his opponents would not die, intervened. His brother, Salmoneus, stole the throne from Sisyphus. Albert Camus, in his 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus, saw Sisyphus as personifying the absurdity of human life, but Camus concludes "one must imagine Sisyphus happy" as "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart." The Myth of Sisyphus. Existentialism, which starts out by denying God, ends by denying Man, and is, therefore, anti-human. As a punishment for his trickery, Hades made Sisyphus roll a huge boulder endlessly up a steep hill. Sisyphus was unstoppable, he pushed the rock unabated every time it rolled down. GRADE: B- Read more. Also Known As: Sisyphus, Sijipeuseu, Sisyphus: The Fable, 시지프스: The myth, Sisyphus: The Myth 2020. JayneStars News Email Subscription. In Philoctetes by Sophocles, there is a reference to the father of Odysseus (rumoured to have been Sisyphus, and not Laërtes, whom we know as the father in the Odyssey) upon having returned from the dead. concepts. He then had no choice but to release Hades. His father was Aeolus, the king of Thessaly and the winds and his mother was Enarete, the daughter of Deimachus. If one believes Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. When Sisyphus refused to return to the underworld, he was forcibly dragged back there by Hermes. Greek mythology is full of cruel and brutal stories. -Albert Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus) Despite how it may appear, and this is the important part, The Myth of Sisyphus is not the musings of a mad man bent on self-destruction. This made the God of War really sad as no one died in the war, making it uninteresting. [Kdramas], Paranormal/ Supernatural/Fantasy/Horror PTW. His take on Sisyphus’ situation was unique and somehow the whole view of Sisyphus pushing the rock uphill changed for me. Written during the bleakest days of the Second World War, The Myth of Sisyphus (Le Mythe de Sisyphe) argues for an acceptance of reality that encompasses revolt, passion and, above all, liberty. In his book The Philosophy of Recursive Thinking,[22] German author Manfred Kopfer suggested a viable solution for Sisyphus punishment. [7][14][15] The maddening nature of the punishment was reserved for Sisyphus due to his hubristic belief that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus himself. Myth of Sisyphus is presented as a meditation on the theme of suicide. [9], In another version, Hades was sent to chain Sisyphus and was chained himself. One of if not the most successful and debated of Albert Camus works, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ is ground-breaking for many reasons, opening with the infamous quote, “there is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is … Sisyphus: The Myth is a story that begins with the gathering of a virtuoso specialist and a puzzling person. The Myth of Sisyphus: Part 9. Euripides, in Cyclops, also identifies Sisyphus as Odysseus' father. [3] German mythographer Otto Gruppe thought that the name derived from sisys (σίσυς, "a goat's skin"), in reference to a rain-charm in which goats' skins were used. Albert Camus The Myth of Sisyphus: The Absurdity of Human Existence. English; Português Thus it came to pass that pointless or interminable activities are sometimes described as Sisyphean. ", "Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology: Sisyphus". [7], Zeus then ordered Thanatos to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus. According to the Greek myth, Sisyphus is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain, only to have the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. According to the solar theory, King Sisyphus is the disk of the sun that rises every day in the east and then sinks into the west. Sisyphus was the first king and founder of Corinth. For me “The Myth of Sisyphus” marks the beginning of an idea which I was to pursue in The Rebel. The story is presented in a single, unbroken shot, consisting of a dynamic line drawing of Sysiphus, the stone, and the mountainside. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. Because of this, sacrifices could not be made to the gods, and those that were old and sick were suffering. He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Sisyphus (or Sisyphos) is a figure from Greek mythology who, as king of Corinth, became infamous for his general trickery and twice cheating death. But here is the original version that’s so important to Greek mythology. Most Commented News in 7 Days; His spouse was the nymph Merope, with whom he had four children; Glaucus, Ornytion, Almus, and Thersander. The Myth of Sisyphus: Part 4 The Myth of Sisyphus: Part 5. (but obviously with some evidence from boks as wel.) The Myth of Sisyphus. "[25] The philosopher Richard Taylor uses the myth of Sisyphus as a representation of a life made meaningless because it consists of bare repetition. There are many things we might naturally call absurd: a rude joke, an outrageous statement, or the price of a pair of designer jeans. Directed by Marcell Jankovics. 'Sisyphus: the myth' starring Lee Jae-won is a science fiction mystery drama, and the news of the confirmation of the lead roles of Jo Seung-woo and Park Shin-hye has already been hot topic. Accordingly,' Sisyphus: the myth' is expected to air without difficulty on JTBC. The Story of Sisyphus. [8][15], Ovid, the Roman poet, makes reference to Sisyphus in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. This though is not what Camus means by “absurd.” For Camus, the absurd originates from a combination of two things: the way we want the world to be and the way the world actually is. Every time Sisyphus reaches the top of the mountain, he breaks off a stone from the mountain and carries it down to the lowest point. Titian’s “Sisyphus,” 1548. Through the classical influence on modern culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean (/sɪsɪˈfiːən/).
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Опубликовано 04.12.2020 Автор
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Playfully mixing and deconstructing various genres to create its own sonic world, the seminal band hasn’t stopped changing shape and form throughout its existence (the only permanent member being its initiator, Crammed Discs boss Marc Hollander). Aksak Maboul now revolves around Hollander & Véronique Vincent. After a long gap, they’ve written & recorded a brand-new double LP, 'Figures' (out in 2020).
When Hollander founded Aksak Maboul in 1977 with Vincent Kenis, the band started exploring several directions later followed by the Crammed label (which was set up three years later). Each of the band’s four albums to date is stylistically different from the others, yet they all share common aesthetic and musical foundations.
The band's story unfolded in six episodes so far:
The project started in 1977, when producer Marc Moulin commissioned Hollander to write and record an album for his ephemeral label Kamikaze. MH was soon joined by his friend Vincent Kenis, and the pair proceeded to playfully fuse and deconstruct all kinds of genres to create their own musical world in the Onze danses pour combattre la migraine LP, which soon became a cult album, and seems retrospectively to have mapped out the way for the various directions which have been explored since then by the Crammed label.
Released in early 1980, Aksak Maboul's 2nd album Un peu de l'âme des bandits was recorded with an extended line up featuring a.o. Fred Frith and Chris Cutler (of Henry Cow and Art Bears fame). More intense and experimental than Aksak's debut, "Bandits" contains complex written sections, free improv, and a wild variety of elements: drum machines, bassoons, sampling before sampling, Bulgarian voices, tango, Turkish, crypto-punk or pseudo-Varese music... During that period, the band became associated with the RIO (Rock in Opposition) movement, of which this album is still viewed as “a pinnacle” (All Music). The album reached #3 in the NME's top ten European albums of 1980 (alongside Yello, The Nits, Steve Reich and Faust!).
In '80, Aksak Maboul went through a little-documented avant-No Wave phase after enrolling three members of Brussels band Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel, as well as vocalist Véronique Vincent. The new line-up then recorded the "Honeymoon Killers" album (1982) and continued performing under that name until 1986. During a long period, Aksak Maboul only made a few appearances under that name (one third of the first Made To Measure volume, original music for fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto's shows), but the spirit lived on, as both of the original protagonists playd a very active role in many Crammed productions, either together or separately.
2014 saw the release of the mythical, 3rd Aksak Maboul album, which was announced ever since Crammed Discs' first catalogue, back in 81. It's the avant-electropop opus now known as "Ex-Futur Album", which was written, recorded and unfinished in 1980-83 by Marc Hollander and Honeymoon Killers vocalist Véronique Vincent in collaboration with Vincent Kenis. The project had gradually evolved into a strange artefact, closely mingling Véronique's dreamy vocals and deceptively bubbly lyrics with Marc's musical ramblings. Electronic pop music with genre-wrecking leanings. The album was finally assembled/mixed/retrieved from demos & cassettes, was released in late 2014, with a slight delay of... 30 years (under the name Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul), was enthusiastically received by audiences, medias & many young musicians, and was granted a new lease of life with the tribute album "16 Visions of Ex-Futur" (2016), comprising cover versions and remixes by the likes of Flavien Berger, Aquaserge, Laetitia Sadier, Forever Pavot, Burnt Friedmann, Lena Willikens, Hello Skinny, Jaakko Eino Kalevi etc… as well as two "auto-covers" by the 2016 line-up of Aksak Maboul.
Meanwhile, the reception of Ex-Futur Album convinced Véronique Vincent & Marc Hollander to form a new live incarnation of Aksak Maboul. They started to play live shows in early 2015, for the first time since the '80s with a new Aksak Maboul line-up including three people who weren't even born when the songs were recorded: Sebastiaan Van den Branden & Christophe Claeys (both from Amatorski) and Faustine Hollander. From 2015 à 2017, they performed 35 shows in several countries around Europe, where they enchanted audiences with a powerful, rich and modern set, drawing freely from the latest five decades in the history of pop music.
They also performed a series of special "AKSAK MABOUL 'REVUE':" shows in Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Cologne and London, on which they collaborated onstage with Laetitia Sadier, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Julien Gasc & Benjamin Glibert from Aquaserge. This ephemeral 9-piece band played Aksak Maboul music as well as some of the guests' own material.
In 2020, Aksak Maboul are returning with a brand-new opus entitled Figures, a double album containing 22 tracks, resulting from the flow of creative ideas which arose after such a long gap... Drawing again from the multiple sources which inspire the band (from electronic music and pop to experimentation, jazz, minimalism, contemporary classical etc), Aksak Maboul reconfigures them with its inimitable style. The album was wholly written by Marc Hollander & Véronique Vincent, and features contributions by the band's current live line-up (Faustine Hollander, Lucien Fraipont & Erik Heestermans) and by guests including Fred Frith, Tuxedomoon's Steven Brown, three members of Aquaserge, some former Aksak cohorts and more.
Outro:
As summed up in 2017 by writer Mikey IQ Jones, “the roots of Aksak Maboul's appeal and longevity lie within the collective's shapeshifting lineup and their chameleonic aesthetic abilities; the group's ever-mutating sound is akin to a sonic möbius strip, always digesting and recontextualizing itself, where seams and edges show but continually fold in upon themselves as the madness evolves. The best part? That evolution hasn't yet ceased.”
Reissues:
Onze danses pour combattre la migraine was reissued on vinyl in 2015, in its original, 1977 artwork, with extensive, revised liner notes and three downloadable bonus tracks.
Un peu de l'âme des bandits was reissued on vinyl in January 2018, with a large booklet including documents & notes by all participants, as we as a bonus album (CD & digital) containing 78 minutes of unreleased live & demo recordings by 17 of the bands successive members and collaborators.
Aksak Maboul in the press:
The Belgian experimental group Aksak Maboul were - and are - out there on their own… revelatory" (The Quietus, UK)
On the reissue of Onze danses pour combattre la migraine:
A significant record… way ahead of its time (Gilles Peterson)
A truly extraordinary thing, prescient yet off-piste (The Arts Desk, UK)
One of the most beguiling albums released during the post-punk era… bafflingly timeless (FACT, UK)
A stew of imaginary world music, rock, electronics and proto-techno (MOJO, UK)
On the reissue of Un peu de l’âme des bandits:
As if Pere Ubu got together with Faust to cover Igor Stravinsky (Byte FM, DE)
Eclectic, inventive, inquisitively playful and surreal… simply indispensable (The Wire, UK)
Jazz meets avant-classical, while brittle electronics spray delirious nonsense into the air (Uncut, UK)
The Belgian art-rockers [in] a knotty experiment that freely slams together the sounds of contemporary classical music and free jazz (Pitchfork, USA)
On Ex-Futur Album:
A floating pop dream (The Quietus, UK)
An electropop miracle... Too avant-garde at the time, perfect for today (les Inrockuptibles, FR)
Adorably unfinished and delightfully imperfect (Vogue, DE)
So ahead of the curve it sounds like it was recorded yesterday (The Crack, UK).
On recent live shows:
A miracle: the resurrected Aksak Maboul unfolds a brand of synthetic, fleshy pop, with fat, enchanting grooves, sparkling melodies and lyrics. Between echoes of Brigitte Fontaine circa 'Comme à la radio' and strains of Tom Tom Club. (Télérama, FR)
The pop immediacy of the songs gets enriched by experimental tangents, between electronic music, krautrock and jazz, which raise the bar to unexpected heights (Le Soir, BE)
On the Figures album
The long-running Belgian avant-garde band explore complicated gender dynamics on their ambitious new double album. (Pitchfork, US).
Belgian avant-rockers Aksak Maboul bring their stylized shapeshifting to the 21st century... uniting a fascinating beam of novel sounds in thought-provoking ways (Pop Matters, US)
Véronique Vincent’s lyrics are among the finest you’ll encounter anywhere, wry, allusive, entertaining and sophisticated, [with] conceptual subtelties and verbal scenarios which are unequivocally her own. Hollander’s inventive arrangements and programming make Aksak Maboul’s music so exhilarating and durable. Mischievous and purposefully eclectic… wide-ranging appeal… (The Wire, UK)
First album in four decades from the Belgian experimental pop pioneers, making up for lost time with 75 minutes of scampering, genre-agnostic fun… Aksak’s questing spirit is very much intact… heralds a new start (Uncut, UK)
Aksak Maboul return with what could be their finest work, and the best album of 2020 to date. Totally pop, yet psychedelic… the pop and avant elements perfectly complement one another... You can also dance to it (The Quietus, UK)
A masterful lesson in contemporary pop. Across 22 tracks, Figures jumps from the craziest experimentations to irresistible pop songs, with joyful ease (Les Inrockuptibles, FR)
The rebirth of a band which escapes all categories… a unique weaving of pop and mischievous, poetic songs (Le Monde, FR)
Inspiring and exhaling more music and more poetic figures in 22 tracks than most people do in 22 albums - if not 22 lives. Figures is a very free, dense and sophisticated agglomerate, as playful, exploratory and facetious as ever (Libération, FR)
Get/stream Aksak Maboul releases HERE
More info & news HERE
AKSAK MABOUL ANNOUNCE THEIR NEW ALBUM WITH A HYPNOTIC VIDEO AND SINGLE
"Tout a une fin / Blaue Bleistift”
Aksak Maboul "Un peu de l'âme des bandits"
Deluxe vinyl reissue for the first-ever Crammed release
Aksak Maboul 'Revue' show in London
Feat. Laetitia Sadier, Aquaserge & Jaakko Eino Kalevi, this Saturday!
Aksak Maboul 'Revue'
Special shows feat. Laetitia Sadier, Aquaserge & Jaakko Eino Kalevi
Crammed's Autumn Releases Announced!
"Blue Velvet Revisited" (Tuxedomoon/Cult With No Name), Maïa Vidal album, Amatorski single, Tuxedomoon 10-LP vinyl box, vinyl reissues of Aksak Maboul, Honeymoon Killers
"Chez les Aborigènes", the first single off "Ex-Futur Album"...
... the avant-pop opus from 1980-83 by Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul
Soon out: "Ex-Futur Album" by Veronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul
At the extreme pop end of Aksak Maboul's broad musical spectrum, an album will soon be coming out with a slight delay of… 30 years!
"Tout a une fin / Blaue Bleistift” - the 2-track single heralds the release of Aksak Maboul's new double LP 'Figures' (out May 15, 2020), which will be the legendary experimental pop band’s first real new album in decades. These two tracks are reworks, which won’t appear as such on the album. Tout a une fin (short version) (‘Everything ends’) A tight 3-minute track including a song part (in which Véronique Vincent’s voice performs sinuous variations around the words in the title) and a section featuring electronic, rock and orchestral instrumentation rising to a wild, crescendo finale. Blaue Bleistift Unveiling some of the more electronic and experimental aspects of the new LP, with its criss-crossing keyboard lines and sound collages. Kind of a mysterious, ambient cousin of Aksak Maboul’s Saure Gurke? Tout a une fin also comes out on Feb 26 in the shape of a dizzying music video directed by young animator/collagist Yoann Stehr (whose recent work includes short films for fashion designer Paul Smith). Just like the Figures album, this single was written and produced by Marc Hollander & Véronique Vincent (respectively founder of Aksak Maboul & Crammed Discs, and former vocalist with The Honeymoon Killers).
View Full News Archive
Ancienne Belgique
BBMix
See All Other Live Dates
Charles F. Bleistift EP
cram300457
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Ex-Futur Album
Onze danses pour combattre la migraine (vinyl reissue)
View All Releases
Buy Releases By The Artist
Alternative Takes on Congotronics - Tradi-Mods vs Rockers [cram169] Cabin In The Sky - Tuxedomoon [CBOY1515] Crammed Global Soundclash Boxed Set - Crammed Global Soundclash [CRAM100] Give Me New Noise : Half-Mute Reflected - Various Artists [cboy11] La Debutante - Sonoko [CRAM110] Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel - The Honeymoon Killers [CRAM103] Made To Measure Vol.1 - Various Artists [MTM01]
Contains videos & live footage, free mp3s & streams, pictures, press quotes & clippings, and maybe even personal contributions from the artist.
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How One Man’s Vision is Revolutionizing the Architecture Industry | Business
How One Man’s Vision is Revolutionizing the Architecture Industry
Tuesday, November 21st, 2017, 8:20am
Topics: Business, Real Estate
Albert Einstein once said “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” While architecture has seen many changes over time, through various periods in history, it takes a visionary to lead the industry to the next level. Matthew Rosenberg is a designer and entrepreneur who set out to revolutionize the industry of architecture and change history. By studying industry inefficiencies and identifying potential solutions, he has developed a new business model for architects and designers around the world. This unique perspective will create a strong platform for architects while ensuring cities of the future are resilient and adaptable to evolving cultures and technologies.
“Architecture has been struggling for half a century. It has been heavily reliant on unpredictable markets,” explains Matthew Rosenberg, the founder of M-Rad Architecture + Design, located in Los Angeles. “Architecture has kept its distance from the early stages of the real estate cycle which has been the number one vulnerability of the industry.”
Over the past fifty years, architects have become increasingly more specialized, unloading many of the elements they once used to be responsible for. This has happened for several reasons, the two most prominent being the complexity of buildings and the increase in liability and legal aggression in the industry. While Rosenberg understands the risks, implications, and push-back in creating a business model completely opposite of the industry standard, he strongly believes the outcome will be well worth the efforts. Rosenberg foresees his business model providing the opportunity for architects to be fairly compensated and take equity in the projects they are working on, therefore resulting in far superior products and increased control over the building process. This financial security, in combination with a more efficient system, will alleviate the stress created by an industry typically overworked and underpaid and allow more time to design better communities, neighborhoods, and cities of the future. By using this all-encompassing approach, Rosenberg predicts M-Rad will see an unprecedented return compared to their competition.
There are three phases to Rosenberg’s model which extends the scope of the architect; pre-architecture, architecture, and post-architecture:
Pre-architecture. Researching cities needs, market trends, and a variety of other factors help M-Rad to discover the most efficient use of urban property. Once a development site is sourced, M-Rad acquires those properties and assembles adjoining parcels together under one ownership, ultimately allowing for larger more dense and thoughtful mix of programs. Early stages of branding, selecting a strategic partner, discussing needs of the current community, and conducting further detailed research ensures the project is set up for success.
Architecture. This phase includes concept design, design development, obtaining construction documents, construction management, and administration. During this stage, all legal aspects of the building are documented and executed. Permits are obtained and the vision of the project now starts to take shape so construction can begin.
Post-architecture. During this phase, M-Rad creates unique branding for the property which increases the value of each of project through brand recognition. A designated scent and specific furniture and product line are established which transitions the project from a building to an enhanced experience. M-Rad also maintains the marketing of the property throughout the building’s lifecycle.
“I saw a lifetime of struggle ahead and realized I had to make a drastic change to the way the industry was operating,” added Rosenberg. “The scope had become so small for architects that the logical solution was to do the opposite.”
Rosenberg, who was born and raised in Saskatoon, Canada, spent nine years studying architecture and environmental design. He has traveled all over the world to study structures and cultures which inspire him. Rosenberg has earned bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and environmental design in architecture, as well as a master’s degree in architecture. When he was ready to bring his architectural influence back to the West, he headed straight for Los Angeles to open shop and start implementing his vision into action.
Currently, the team at M-Rad are working on projects around the globe, from apartment buildings in Los Angeles to a private members club in Philadelphia, to a boutique hotel in Taipei. They have created designs for mixed-use towers, luxury hotels, sports parks, and more. For more information on the company, visit www.m-rad.com.
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Forum Home - > General > Native Life > News Telling Our Own Stories
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Telling Our Own Stories
Novel Portrays Earlier Days in Native America
Corina Roberts has been invited to the Sixth Annual Native American Writers Symposium at the Southeastern Oklahoma University, in Durant, Oklahoma, on November 10 through 12, 2005. Roberts will present a paper titled “Telling Our Own Stories” and share from her recently completed novel, “The Wisdom Walkers”.
“The Wisdom Walkers” is a fictional story about two women horse traders who fulfill a destiny left to them by aging parents; a destiny that includes traveling across continents and oceans to meet one another for the first time. It is not that this journey has fallen into the hands of women that is unusual, however. It is that the journey takes place 74,000 years ago, long before popular archeology would have natives on the North American continent, and well before the currently accepted time frame for ocean-going ships.
Current evidence and popular theory points to the migration of American Indians to the western hemisphere over the Bering Land Bridge in the recent geologic past, but Roberts believes that native peoples have been here far longer than current scientific thought suggests.
Little evidence of the human condition exists from 74,000 years ago, and there is a good reason why. A massive volcano named Toba erupted in that time period in the region of Indonesia. This singular event nearly exterminated the human race, changed the earth’s climate, and destroyed whole civilizations. We know very little about the times before Toba. Roberts believes humans probably achieved a much higher degree of civilization than we currently suspect.
Many Native American peoples do not believe they descended from Mongolians who walked across a temporary land bridge. Their own creation stories often point to an origin in the western hemisphere. The Hopi creation story includes not one, but four “worlds” – four times that the Earth was destroyed, or completely altered and rendered uninhabitable. During this time the people lived underground. According to the Hopi, we are now living in the fourth world.
Roberts is more concerned about today’s native peoples than about nailing down dates. “We trivialize the validity and culture of native peoples when we call them immigrants” she says. “What few Indian children are fortunate enough to grow up learning their creation stories are then sent to schools that teach them they are the descendents of wandering Asians. Their very existence is marginalized by this education. Their own stories are invalidated.”
“The Wisdom Walkers” is available online at www.lulu.com/corinaroberts . To learn more about Redbird, “The Wisdom Walkers” or other works by Roberts:
Corina Roberts, Founder
Redbird, P.O. Box 702, Simi Valley, CA 93062 (805) 217-0364
www.RedbirdsVision.org email: redbirds_vision@hotmail.com
Addendum to Press Release
Early ancestors walk in pre-historic times
The novel “The Wisdom Walkers” takes places in an ancient time from which there are no known surviving records of the human experience. Yet it includes the ancestors of many of today’s tribal peoples, from the east coast of the present-day United States to the borders of South America.
Its indigenous characters include peoples from the modern-day regions of the Tarahumara in South America, the Shoshone, Mono and other nations from the California/Nevada region, the Nez Perce of Oregon and Idaho, the Apache of the southwest, the Cheyenne and other plains tribes, and the nations along the eastern seaboard from the regions of the Delaware to the Iroquois.
Significantly, “The Wisdom Walkers” also portrays a movement seldom, if ever, considered by science; that members of these nations may also have traveled to distant lands and met with other cultures, weaving a genetic web that does not flow in a linear fashion from Mongolia to America, but in a circular pattern, like the Earth itself.
The Bering Strait is not the route of choice in this novel. Rather, an ocean-going vessel from the coast of present-day France travels to the Chesapeake Bay area to meet with a party which has come, by land, across the North American continent. The ocean-faring party hugs the coastline of Europe, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and North America to arrive at their destination.
When that early European party departs, they do so with an additional crew member; a young man from North America whose children will be born on European soil. It is their genetic legacy that will eventually return to their ancestral homeland in the Americas.
Roberts thinks it is unlikely that mankind has only become “civilized” in the past four to six thousand years of our 1.5 million year history on the planet as “modern man.” She also feels it unlikely that oceanic voyages and cross-continental travel is a recent phenomenon, or one that only certain cultures would enjoy. What does seem likely is that environmental factors have obscured and erased numerous successions of civilizations, and their collective knowledge.
If in fact the Toba volcano, or other cataclysmic natural events, reduced the human population to a mere two to five thousand people, those people would have lost the vast majority of their cultural knowledge. They would have been reduced, from whatever their previous state of accomplishment, to wandering scavengers and hunter-gatherers in a very short time frame. The tough, not the intellectual, would have had a better chance at surviving such a catastrophe. #
Creation Stories spiritwoman Archives 6 03-01-2001 04:41 PM
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Late Updates and Shrek Sequels
by David J. Bishop on 5th July 2007 at 12:15
Hello people out there in Internet Land, I hope you are all having a wonderful July — this is what summer is all about and it’s one of my favourite months of the year.
First up I want to apologise for the late updates — the past two comics were an entire day late by UK reckoning, maybe showing up the night before that point on the West Coast of America. I will not offer up any excuses other than it has been a busy week. Still, the comics are there and no harm’s done.
I saw Shrek 3 the other day. I wan’t thoroughly impressed. I heard they were making five or six of those films. If that’s true I can only hope the next two or three are better than that one was. My favourite of the three is definitely the first because it has the strongest plot by far. There’s nothing I love more than the satisfying execution of the three-act structure. Some people will know what I’m talking about — to anyone who doesn’t I would actually recommend you don’t look it up because it could well ruin your enjoyment of most if not every subsequent film or book you watch or read. Good examples of tightly-plotted films are Spider-man 2 and the Lord of the Rings films. Shrek has what those films have. I think the Hollywood term is ‘story-telling’.
The first sequel was funny and it had a plot. I enjoyed the introduction of the new characters and something interesting was done with the concept. They wrote in too many anachronisms, though, and it felt like the second film wasn’t set in the same world as the first. It looked pretty, though.
This third one introduces only a few new characters, the plot was thin on the ground and not without a few holes, the ending was really unsatisftying and most of the characters (in fact all apart from one — and it wasn’t Shrek) were extraneous to the plot. Puss in Boots and Donkey had nothing to do in this film and as a result they became annoying. This is just me, of course. I mean, the film made me laugh intermittently throughout. It wasn’t bad as such. It’s just that the most satisfying thing about films for me is plot so I came away quite dissatisfied, especially considering the film was only an hour and twenty-five minutes. How can they make a film that short and with such little story? It felt like it should have been a straight-to-video release. Pixar would never have made a film like that.
Anyway, I’m going to write some of my book now (cue pretentious laugh) and later on I’m going to cook dinner. Have fun out there!
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In OCNJ Nostalgia
Gay Talese / Photo by Joyce Tenneson
Joseph Talese immigrated to the United States in 1920 from a small village in mountainous southern Italy. He was only about 16-years-old. After passing through Ellis Island he traveled south to Philadelphia to take up his trade as a tailor; the occupation his family had practiced for generations in “the old country.”
Quite ambitions, in 1922 he relocated to Ocean City NJ where he and his wife Catherine DePaulo opened their own tailor shop and other related businesses. It was there that his only son Gay Joseph was born in 1932. Although they were a Catholic family, there wasn’t a Catholic School on the island so Gay was sent to Ocean City High School. He demonstrated good writing skills and was published in The Ocean City Sentinel.
After graduating in 1949, Gay went on to college at the University of Alabama, majoring in journalism and writing for the school paper. When he graduated in June 1953, he went to New York City seeking a position with The New York Times. He secured a copyboy spot but undauntedly moved up very slightly and began penning the obituaries of minor figures, attempting to make them as interesting as possible. It may have been in that post that he honed his human-interest skills. He then penned a favorably received article concerning the famous rolling chairs used on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Having been in the ROTC at Alabama, he was called up in 1954 and served his obligatory couple of years at Fort Knox.
Back in New York, he became a successful sports writer for the Times in ’56. In ’65 he moved to Esquire, where he authored a prominent piece on Frank Sinatra, then one on Joe DiMaggio a year later. He also wrote for the NYT Magazine, Reader’s Digest and The Saturday Evening Post. Marrying the lovely Nan Aheam in ’59, the couple took up residence in his beloved Ocean City eight years later, purchasing a turn of the century house at 154 East Atlantic Blvd for $32,000. Gay set up his writing office on the top floor and penned his many well-known books. When she wasn’t caring for their two beautiful daughters, Nan edited manuscripts for other authors besides her husband.
But after forty-plus years in Ocean City, Nan evidently became weary of having to deal with the tiresome commute to Manhattan. The couple maintained a townhouse in the city for convenience. And so, after Gay balked for a time about leaving Ocean City NJ, reportedly without telling him, Nan used her own money to buy a house in ritzy Roxbury, Connecticut, where the couple moved during the summer of 2011.
Although Gay didn’t make many public appearances in Ocean City NJ, the couple did entertain relatives, friends, and well-known celebrities. They have been sorely missed.
by Ed Murch
1920socean city njocnjocnj history
March 14, 2016 By Robert Idell
Sue Kirvan – OCNJ Memories
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Angela Maye-Banbury
Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S1 1 WB
Department of the Natural and Built Environment
Home > Vol 51, No 1 (2018) > Maye-Banbury
Strangers in the Shadows – An Exploration of the ‘Irish Boarding Houses’ in 1950s Leicester as Heterotopic Spaces
Existing research regarding the Irish immigration experience in England tends to focus on the push and pull factors which promoted the search for a better life ‘across the water’ (Garrett, 2000; Ryan, 2008) or the specific mental and physical health experienced by the Irish resident in England (Aspinall, 2002; Raftery et al., 1990). This paper adopts a different stance. Using Foucault’s concept of heterotopias (Foucault, 1986; 1994;) as a heuristic, the paper focuses on the ‘boarding houses’ of Leicester, England in the 1950s and 1960s in which many Irish men lived upon their arrival in England. Drawing on Irish men’s oral histories, I consider how these quintessential properties may be construed as worlds within worlds, placeless places and non-homes. The spatial and other strategies deployed by the landlords/ladies as a means of disciplining and controlling the lodgers are exposed. The paper also explores how the distinctive vernacular landscapes of the boarding houses were laden with multiple juxtapositions, including the interface between materialism and maternalism and productive/non-productive labour. The distinctive existentialist form of temporality evoked by men’s stories of boarding house life suggests that the passage of time was accumulated but never recorded.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2014/igj.v51i1.1354
URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:irg:ie:0000-igj.v51i1.13544
URN (PDF): http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:irg:ie:0000-igj.v51i1.1354.g11258
Copyright © Geographical Society of Ireland | Home | Contact us | ISSN: 0075-0778 (Print), 1939-4055 (Online) | Last Update: January 15, 2021
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An active fundraiser for autism awareness in Ireland, Keith has worked to raise awareness for children with autism since his daughter Mia was first diagnosed with the disorder at the age of 18 months.
Over €8,000,000 was generated for Irish Autism Action during Keith’s time as the organisation’s patron, through a variety of events including The Keith Duffy Ball, Tour De Force, Blue Nose Day, the Ironman 70.3, Keith Duffy 5k in Phoenix Park and the Connemarathon, to name a few.His personal fundraising initiatives include his KD golf day and KD Masquerade Ball, raising hundreds of thousands for Irish Autism Action.
Keith has been fundraising for autism for 14 years and after a productive and successful 10 years with Irish Autism Action, Keith is now putting his charity and fundraising experience to good use with this new foundation, aimed at providing support and financial assistance to a number of chosen children’s charities throughout the country.
Keith began his professional music career as part of Irish boy band Boyzone alongside Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately in 1993. The band decided to focus on solo projects in 2000.
They had sold more than 13 million records in total by this time and all sixteen of their singles had reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. They also became the first Irish act to have four number one hits in the United Kingdom charts. Since 2000 Keith Duffy has achieved critical acclaim for his acting roles.
2013 saw Keith, Ronan, Shane and Mikey take to the road once more to thank their fans for the incredible support and dedication they have shown over the past twenty years. ‘Love Will Save The Day’ is the first single to be taken from their new album BZ20.
Keith has presented a number of television shows, including the VH1 Fashion Awards in New York and TV3’s The Box as well as multiple appearances on shows like You’re A Star and The X Factor. In 2001, he took part in and finished in the final three of Comic Relief’s Celebrity Big brother on Channel 4.
He has also appeared on shows like the Justin Lee Collins Show, The Graham Norton Show, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Takeaway, Podge and Rodge, Tubridy Tonight, The Late Late Show, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and he recently won All Star Mr and Mrs with his wife Lisa in aid of Irish Autism Action of which he is a patron.
As an actor Keith is still perhaps best known for his role as Ciaran Mc Carthy in Coronation Street, but since he left the show in 2004 he has appeared as series regular Paul in three season’s of RTE’s prime-time drama, The Clinic, in the BBC comedy Be More Ethnic and as recurring character Ringo in RTE’s Fair City.
Keith made his Irish theatre debut in Fiona Looney’s play Dandelions opposite Pauline Mc Flynn and Deirdre O’Kane in two sell-out runs at the Olympia Theatre and on tour. Keith most recently re-appeared as the much loved character Ciaran in Coronation Street in ITV. He has also appeared in Druid Theatre Company’s nationwide tour of John B Keane’s Big Maggie.
Keith Duffy, singer, actor, television and radio presenter, has been awarded as Honorary Fellowship from the RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, in recognition of his work as a campaigner for children with autism. The honour was conferred at a special event to mark the 40th Anniversary of the RCSI Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery.
In addition to his latest honour from RCSI, his efforts have received national recognition including a Rehab People of the Year Award in 2008 and most recently the 2013 Philanthropist of the Year Award.
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KIRBY MORROW
ACTOR/VOICE ACTOR/WRITER
Born in beautiful Jasper National Park, Canada, Kirby attended theatre school at Mount Royal University in Calgary where he graduated at the top of his class and earned a diploma in fine arts, (DFA).
After starring in a season of Shakespeare In The Park, he moved to Vancouver where he quickly met with success in the film and television industry. His first role was co-starring alongside Sarah Chalke and Lochlyn Munro in the made for tv movie “Stand Against Fear”. His first voice over role was the legendary Michaelangelo from the series “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation”. Roles started to add up quickly, like fan favourites, Goku from “Dragonball Z”, Trowa Barton from “Gundam Wing”, Cyclops from “X-Men: Evolution and many more. On Camera, Kirby has run the gamut, guest starring on popular tv shows and movies like, “Breaker High”, “Supernatural”, “The Flash”, “Arrow”, “Supergirl”, “Man in the High Castle”, the list goes on.
Kirby is also only 1 of 24 actors to star in all 3 Stargate series. Playing two different roles in Stargate-SG1 in Seasons 1 and 6, playing Captain Dave Kleinman in two seasons of Stargate: Atlantis, and reprising the role in one episode of Stargate: Universe.
He has also done a number of Hallmark movies and starred opposite Rachael Boston as the romantic lead in “A Ring by Spring” which after several years is still going strong, playing on several channels, sometimes at the same time.
Currently, in 2020, He guest starred on Hallmark’s “When Calls the Heart” and “Mystery 101. He is also recording Cole the black ninja from Lego’s “Ninjago” as well as a couple of characters on Lego’s “Jurassic World”.
For a full list of Kirby’s many credits, please follow this link to IMDB!
Copyright © 2021 KIRBY MORROW
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Lowdown with Karen Bliss Exclusive Canadian Music Industry Angle
Other Music Stories
What Is Music Lowdown?
Other Music Stories by Karen Bliss
Canada Safe Bet For Former Child Soldier’s Record Label
September 24, 2012 | By KAREN BLISS
Alicia Keys and Emmanuel Jal
Sudanese hip hop artist and peace activist Emmanuel Jal has chosen to headquarter his record label, Gatwitch Records, in Toronto and hire industry veteran David MacMillan to run it. The former child soldier now in his 30s, whose harrowing early life was documented in an award-winning 2008 film, Warchild, and 2010 autobiography, War Child: A Child Soldier’s Story, is in the final stages of becoming a Canadian citizen.
“The reason I started here in Canada is because I got a lot of support from Canada in the past. [There are] all different kinds of people here and I’ve been traveling here a lot and I was looking for a place in the world to base the label that has got a good system, good government, good transparency,” Jal tells Lowdown. “Also, there is no other country that I know, when I’ve been traveling, that artists get supported to express themselves.”
All of Jal’s music-related business worldwide goes through the Toronto office. Jal’s manager, Tania Campbell-Golding, is based out of London, England.
His new album, See Me Mama, has been out in Canada since Aug. 7, but a new version will be released online worldwide Oct. 2. The difference is “We Want Peace — Reloaded,” an update of his 2011 song that now features a new chorus by rapper D.M.C. and guest singers from Dispatch, Das Racist and O.A.R. — all of whom are in the music video.
The original video was directed by Anna Gabriel, Peter’s daughter, and includes appearances by Peter, George Clooney, Alicia Keys, Kofi Annan, Richard Branson and former President Jimmy Carter. They are still in the new video, in addition to Ringo Starr.
Jal has had a distribution deal in place in Canada with Universal Music since 2011 as well as The Agency Group onboard to handle his live bookings, but it took a while for him to find the right person to open and run the label here.
Macmillan spent 13 years at EMI Music Canada, his last position as marketing manager for its Canadian roster, and followed it up with nine years at Eagle Rock Entertainment as director of its Canadian division. He had been let go just days before he heard about Jal and Gatwitch.
“I hadn’t really started looking for a job,” MacMillan tells Lowdown. “When I lost my job, I just sent out a blanket email to everybody, ‘Oh I lost my job. Hopefully I’ll resurface. I just wanted to let you know I’m looking for a job.’ And Lorraine [Webb] at The Agency Group said to me, ‘Oh, we have an artist that wants to start a record label here in Canada.’ And I go, ‘Wow, that’s what I do.’
Says Jal: “I wanted someone who at least was experienced in the industry and who would know what kind of music and also know what I’m trying to achieve. I was recommended to have David to come onboard and I asked David, ‘Would you like to try this thing out and see if it’s something you’d like to keep on going?’ and David said ‘Yeah.’”
Gatwitch Records is a combo condo/office space, where Jal — a modern-day nomad can crash when he’s in Toronto — and has two full-time staff, MacMillian, who is vice-president, and Brooklyn Doran, who is office administrator and also takes care of the charitable arm and peace campaign.
“Right now I’m in the process of securing Lose To Win as a registered not for profit in Canada,” Doran tells Lowdown. “We just signed some documents and sent them away.”
Lose To Win is a fundraising challenge, created by Jal, that asks people to lose something in order to win: for example, Jal ate one meal a day from Dec. 2008 to Oct. 2010 in order to raise money to build a school in Sudan, but it could be as simple as going without your cell phone for a month. Lose To Win supports three charities: Gua Africa, which Jal started; My Start, a British organization co-founded by Jal’s manager; and Africa Yoga Project.
Jal also has a worldwide campaign called We Want Peace, which asks people to join the movement as a “peace soldier” and/or participate in the community development/social entrepreneur program. “It’s not a charity; it’s for awareness,” says Doran, “to put a spotlight in a dark place. Right now we’ve chosen to focus on the conflict in Sudan and South Sudan as that’s really close to Emmanuel.”
Jal was born in the village of Tonj, in South Sudan. At age 8, he joined his father in Sudan People’s Liberation Army (his mother was killed in the war) and was trained in Ethiopia to become a soldier. When he was 13, he met Emma McClune, a British aid worker who rescued and adopted him and took him to Kenya to receive an education. His story doesn’t end there, but today, well into adulthood, he has traveled the world over spreading his message of peace.
He says he is still applying for Canadian citizenship. “They’re waiting for my security status so I’ve got the police certificates from the countries they are asking [for], so I will be sending it to them.”
Jal is excited about the prospects of rallying young Canadians.
“This is a country where a lot of young people want to change the world,” he believes. “There’s a lot of conscious people here. So basically [my hope is to] get a home base for peace soldiers, then we try to do what we can, which is try to make the world a better place. It takes one at a time. It takes every individual. No one person can achieve world peace, but if all people participate we will be in a better state.”
In terms of pure business, however, MacMillan handles that and outsources many of the elements needed for the marketing and promotion of an artist and album.
“We represent his music on a worldwide basis. We have staff on contract in the States. We have a publicist and two other people who mainly do branding for Emmanuel,” says MacMillan.
With A Bullet is working the single/video at radio, online and TV in Canada; Powderfinger is taking care of campus radio in America; marketing is headed by Annie Balliro with Jessica West; and publicity is handled by Beautiful Day Media in America and Listen Harder in Canada.
Cover art for Emmanuel Jal’s new album
Gatwitch Records is distributed in America by Transcendental Music, a non-profit founded by David Lynch, which is distributed by Red.
Jal was recently in the news after getting beaten up, robbed and left unconscious by police in Juba, South Sudan, when he was in the city for a peace conference. The assault was unprovoked, according to Listen Harder’s Cristina Fernandes, and he recovered in time to appear at the International Peace Day and to perform at the “We Want Peace” Business Gala and concert on September 20 and 21.*
MacMillian who heard from Jal the day after the incident and told Lowdown “he sounds good,” calls him “an amazing person.”
“He’s had an unbelievable life and for him to overcome all of the obstacles he’s had in his life and to be in the position that he’s in, to spread the word about war child and Sudan and the atrocities that are happening in this war-ravaged country, it’s not about himself as it is with other artists – it’s about his cause and he’s using his music to bring more attention to the cause.
“To me, it’s great to be working for him because it’s an unbelievable cause and it’s an amazing story. It’s just great to help launch a label and work with an artist of his stature.”
Jal won’t give a figure when asked about his sales expectations for See Me Mama, but is encouraged by the response people have to him and his songs.
“At the moment, after I perform, people go and buy [my music], which is a good sign and people are still buying online. It’s picking up slowly so if get radio play or if we get more TV play with the videos, then more people will know and we’ll get more support.”
MacMillan and Jal have bigger plans for Gatwitch once Jal is fully set up and rolling.
“We will be looking for socially conscious artists — not necessarily socially conscious music — that are diverse, entertaining and can tour,” says MacMillan. “That’s the key to any kind of release these days.”
* NOTE: At approximately 3 a.m. ET, Jal updated his Facebook page with this status:
“Good News, got an email that the police has return my phone and 2 police wrote a statement as witness in my beating , well done to south sudan National Security Official that arrested 2 police that identified. If police beat you dont keep quite [sic] speak about it, this way we can be able solve the problem, Not all police are bad only few.”
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Interdisciplinary Partnerships
We're all in this together
Interdisciplinary Partnerships: We’re All in This Together
As it turns out, launching the inaugural Keeping History Above Water conference this past April was only the beginning. Over the last five months, all of us at NRF have continued to distill the lessons, nurture the connections, and share the resources that came out of our four days in Newport. More than anything, the relationships we formed leading up to and during the conference have proven to be our most valuable takeaway – we now count preservationists, policy makers, and climate scientists from across the country and around the world as our allies in developing strategies to protect cultural heritage from rising tides. When formidable organizations such as the National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Union of Concerned Scientists join forces with powerhouse community efforts like Resilient Bridgeport and Weather it Together, meaningful change feels possible. Lesson learned: a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach really is the way forward on this issue.
Today, we’re excited to announce a new collaboration born out of Keeping History Above Water. The Newport Restoration Foundation is partnering with US/ICOMOS to develop and maintain a virtual Knowledge Community on Climate Change and Heritage that will connect US practitioners to the international community of interest around these topics. Together (and with the help of some intrepid graduate students), we’ll be sourcing and sharing resources related to climate change and cultural heritage on social media and on the US/ICOMOS site.
Our first big project is a countdown of 22 cultural heritage #climateactions leading up to COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco (November 7-18, 2016). Traditionally, this annual gathering has focused on climate policy, but this year US/ICOMOS has organized two side events about the impacts of climate change on the heritage of water and climate mobility, to take place on November 9 and 10. In the twenty-two days leading up to those events, we’ll be sharing topics large and small that have some bearing on the conversations taking place. We hope vigorous, interdisciplinary discussion will unfurl as the result, echoing the important work being done on the other side of the world.
We couldn’t have imagined this outcome when we first toyed with the idea of a conference about preservation and climate change, but we’re thrilled to be partnering with US/ICOMOS in this way, and we’re looking forward to other potential collaborations on the horizon. And be sure to let us know if you have news to share on the Climate Change and Heritage Knowledge Exchange!
Follow @USICOMOS or @US/ICOMOSClimate for the latest on COP22 in Marrakech, and keep an eye on the Climate Change and Heritage and Keeping History Above Water blogs for ongoing news updates.
New Orleans Changes How It Handles Rain and Flooding
Safeguarding Heritage Above and Below Water
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NHS England attempts (another) digital overhaul with £230m investment in IT
Derek du Preez | On April 4, 2014
The UK’s Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, made a rather bold statement last year. He declared that by 2018 he wants the National Health Service (NHS) transformed into a paperless organisation supported by new digital technologies – which if successful, could save taxpayers a whopping £4.4 billion a year. This gives an organisation that is now over 65 years old and which is sprawled across the country just four years to overhaul legacy systems and hop on the digital bandwagon.
A key milestone in this paperless agenda was revealed this week – NHS England pushed out a strategy document that outlines how it plans to invest £230 million in ‘high quality’ IT systems for General Practices. Something it hopes will go a long way to achieving Hunt’s vision. But, before we get too excited about this, let’s just remind ourselves that the government’s last attempt to overhaul IT in the NHS was a complete and utter disaster. Not only did it waste billions of pounds with suppliers, which frankly have failed to deliver bugger all, but UK taxpayer is still set to dish out hundreds of millions of pounds despite the project having being ‘canned’.
Not only this, but more recently the NHS has faced a backlash over controversial plans to extract, store and sell on ‘unidentifiable’ patient data from GP systems – a subject that Stuart has been following closely for a while now. Needless to say, health IT in the UK has a chequered past and the government has a lot riding on getting it right this time round.
Aim: Bettering the patient experience
The plan, or the ‘operating model’ as NHS England puts it, states that the money is going to be used to improve the quality of GP care by enhancing patients’ experience of services, support and encourage greater integration of care and provide efficiency benefits for practices by reducing paperwork, freeing up more time for the patients. All good in theory.
How to make a healthcare data sharing controversy worseYou’ve got to hand it to the UK government. If there was one way to make its plans to build a hugely…Feb 26 2014diginomica.com
The general idea is that the £230 million GP funding for IT will be distributed to Clinical Commissioning Groups based on patient population size (CCGs are groups of Practices that work together to plan and design local services across England). NHS England claims that this will ensure “equity across all parts of England based on a core IT service offer”. Alongside this, there will be a range of ‘add-on IT services’ which can be tailored and implemented to fit with local service improvement strategies – but more on that later.
Beverly Bryant, director of strategic systems and technology at NHS England said:
“Digital systems are the foundation upon which to build a modern, efficient and responsive health service. Enabling information to flow between care providers and between providers and patients will help achieve a safe, convenient and personalised health service for all.”
It is hoped that the investment will create online transactions for patients that include booking appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions and accessing individual health records online. It also supports the aim of implementing integrated digital care records across the NHS – the main stumbling block with previous projects – which should give health professionals access to patient information they need, without patients having to provide the same details to multiple agencies.
A push for localisation?
One of the most interesting points to be taken from this announcement was highlighted by Tracey Grainger, programme head of Primary Care IT at NHS England. She said:
“These arrangements will continue to give general practice providers a choice of high quality clinical IT systems that are tailored to local requirements while enabling the flexibility and innovation we recognise the service needs. This is underpinned by an on-going commitment from NHS England to continue to support and encourage the development of a world class IT infrastructure across health and care.”
The salient point here being one of localisation. The strategy plan outlines that the IT investment will be split into ‘core’ IT services, which includes things like infrastructure, disaster recovery, service desk, training support, and ‘add-on GP IT services’ – which are discretionary and to be aligned with local CCG strategies. For me, this is the smartest thing I have heard so far.
One of the biggest mistakes from the previous National Programme for IT (the multi-billion pound disaster) was that the government tried to implement a monolithic, standardised system from the top down, with complete disregard for local requirements. Although all Practices and health services fundamentally provide similar care, they are also bound to have different business processes, capabilities and needs – as is the same with any other sector.
In fact, former NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson said exactly this to a group of MPs last year when questioned on whether he thought it was possible procure a national IT project for health. His exact words were:
“The idea of ruthless standardisation has proved illusionary…the idea of managing change of that nature, from the top, centrally, simply is not possible.”
Although I’m wary of being too optimistic – given that this is an IT health project in the UK – there are some things I like about this. Distributing money based on population size makes sense. Giving the money to CCGs to spend based on local requirements makes sense. Splitting the services into core and add-on makes sense.
However, I do think that the Health Secretary’s 2018 target for a paperless NHS is unrealistic. This is an organisation that is incredibly unique and incredibly complex. Not to say that good work can’t be done in the next four years, but let’s not rush it and let’s learn from mistakes of the past. The last thing we need is another few hundred million pounds of taxpayer money down the drain.
http://diginomica.com/2014/04/04/nhs-england-attempts-another-digital-overhaul-230m-investment/
Labels: CCG's, clinical commissioning groups, digital health systems, General Practices, healthcare data, National Health Service, NHS
HHS Releases HIPAA Compliance Assessment Tool
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
New HHS tool helps providers assess security risks to HIPAA compliance
According to HealthIT.gov, “ONC, in collaboration with the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the HHS Office of the General Counsel (OGC), developed a downloadable Security Risk Assessment Tool (SRA Tool) to help guide” providers through the HIPAA-required assessment.
The Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool is meant to help providers in small to medium offices conduct risk assessments and, a HIPAA regulations require providers to regularly examine the way protected health information is handled, this new tool is a valuable asset to those looking for a way to meet the requirement.
“By conducting these risk assessments, healthcare providers can uncover potential weaknesses in their security policies, processes and systems. Risk assessments also help providers address vulnerabilities, potentially preventing health data breaches or other adverse security events. A vigorous risk assessment process supports improved security of patient health data,” wrote HHS in a press release.
"Protecting patients' protected health information is important to all healthcare providers and the new tool we are releasing today will help them assess the security of their organizations," said Karen DeSalvo, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology. "The SRA tool and its additional resources have been designed to help healthcare providers conduct a risk assessment to support better security for patient health data."
"We are pleased to have collaborated with the ONC on this project," said Susan McAndrew, deputy director of OCR's Division of Health Information Privacy. "We believe this tool will greatly assist providers in performing a risk assessment to meet their obligations under the HIPAA Security Rule."
http://www.healthitoutcomes.com/doc/hhs-releases-hipaa-compliance-assessment-tool-0001
Labels: Compliance, Healthcare, HHS, HIPPA, providers, risk assessment, SRA
Humana’s latest digital health pilot will test remote patient monitoring for Type 2 diabetes
Over the last nine months, Humana (NYSE:HUM) has undertaken a series of pilot projects aimed at testing the potential of remote patient monitoring in reducing hospital readmissions, improving health outcomes and cut costs.
Its latest program, called Activities in Daily Living, will utilize an engagement platform from Pharos Innovations to help its Medicare Advantage members better manage their Type 2 diabetes at home.
Humana said that select members in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Texas who have diabetes and take insulin or another diabetes medication will use Pharos’ Tel-Assurance platform to self-report health information like blood sugar levels, symptoms, diet and medication adherence daily. They can use a cellphone, telephone or internet to report the information, which will be reviewed by Tel-Assurance nurses. The nurses who will reach out to the member if any of the data indicates complications or cause for concern.
“We’re expecting to reduce unnecessary inpatient admissions and to improve self-care management,” a Humana rep said in an email.
This is the fourth remote monitoring pilot Humana has launched recently. It partnered with home health monitoring Valued Relationships Inc. and Healthsense on two separate pilots aimed at using sensors and medical alert systems to reduce serious long-term effects of falls and emergencies, and cut unnecessary emergency room visits. The insurer is also working with AMC Health on a pilot program using remote monitoring to improve congestive heart failure outcomes.As health insurers adapt to consumer-driven health and accountable care models, they’re making moves to do a better job of proactively engaging members in their health.
The diabetes pilot will run for six months and include 500 members.
Read more: http://medcitynews.com/2014/04/humanas-latest-digital-health-pilot-will-test-remote-patient-monitoring-type-2-diabetes/#ixzz2xugY0AEI
Labels: digital health, Healthcare, Healthsense, Humana, Pharos' Tel-Assurance Platform, self-care management
NHS England attempts (another) digital overhaul wi...
Humana’s latest digital health pilot will test rem...
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Fifteen fire engines and around 100 firefighters were called to a fire at a restaurant on George Street in Croydon last night.
Firefighters tackled a fire on the ground floor of a three-storey building. The fire also spread to the offices above on the first and second floors.
A significant amount of the building has been damaged by the fire and some of the adjacent buildings have been damaged by the smoke.
Staff working at the restaurant left before the Brigade arrived and people in the neighbouring properties have been moved as a precaution.
No injuries have been reported.
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Once More With Feeling, by Méira Cook
“This novel was not what I was expecting,” I wrote in my review of Méira Cook’s debut novel, The House on Sugarbush Road, in 2013, and it makes me laugh to see that now, because it’s exactly what I was going to say about her latest novel, Once More With Feeling. Possibly the only thing a reader can do with a Méira Cook novel is have no expectations at all. Because if you do, she’ll only grab you by them, and then swing you around and around her shoulder like a cowboy with a lasso. Or at least this was my experience of Once More With Feeling, which I’d been led to believe via the cover copy would be sweet and heartwarming, doddering professor Max Binder delivering an ill-advised gift to his wife on her birthday, the wife he’s still besotted with. I’d been setting myself up for a sweet comedy, a little bit homey and twee. But then the car drove off the road… Metaphorically and otherwise, and here we were barrelling down the off-roads, narratively speaking.
Once More With Feeling is not an easy book. (I think I said this about The House on Sugarbush Road as well.) It won’t be to everyone’s taste and there are things about it that are troubling, and I would have appreciated the end coming just a bit sooner than it did. I started reading this book on a plane, and to be completely honest there were a couple of points early on where I might have put the book down, had I not been thousands of feet in the air without another book to read. Not a singing endorsement, I know, but bear with me. I kept going, and it was not long after that it became clear to be that there was actually no better book for a four hour flight, or no situation better than a flight to enjoy a book like this. To give it the sustained attention it requires, and to have my reading time so richly filled with so many voices and stories. It’s hard to appreciate a feast in tiny bites, is what I mean, and so it was nice to just keep my seatbelt on and read voraciously.
Once More With Feeling is a novel about a city, Winnipeg in four seasons, although Winnipeg isn’t named. It’s specified though, and it reminded me of my favourite Winnipeg novel, Carol Shields’ The Republic of Love, in how the city is evoked, the sweep of its year. The two books are complementary, though Once More With Feeling is darker, with an edge. And every chapter is from a different perspective, connections between some of the characters tangential, and we get to see some of them from their internal monologues and also from far away. There is startling ambition as to the range of characters how share the story’s helm, a relay passed from one to another. Literature Professor Max Binder, then his wife’s editor at the local newspaper (whose contents we glimpse via letters from outraged readers). The newspaper’s spinster bookkeeper (who has a secret life of her own, surely) volunteers at a local mission that serves food to the homeless, and so the next chapter is from the perspective of another volunteer, whose mother is the Binder’s cleaner and whose sister is just one of many women who’ve gone missing on the city’s streets. And onward, through Max Binder’s children, and their schoolmates.
My favourite chapter was “Inspirational Living Centre,” from the perspective of a wayward high school student whose class gets paired up with Holocaust survivors. And while the bubbly popular girls in the class embrace this experience (“On the way back from the Inspirational Living Centre some of the girls said theirs were “cute” and Courtney Segal even said hers was “adorable.”) But the narrator is matched with a curmudgeonly asshole who refuses to be inspirational, and even ticks off Courtney Segal on the bus ride home—”Why can’t you keep your Holocaust survivor from bothering ours?” she demands.
Teenagers at the mall, a camp director in September, a chorus of Jewish mothers reflecting on Bar and Bat Mitzvahs past in a chapter that reminded me of Grace Paley (in which time made a monkey of us all). A chapter from the perspective of Lazer Binder’s English teacher’s ex-hushand, the Binders’ next door neighbour, two elderly sisters, and then back to Maggie after a year of grief and rage and the arrival of the missing piece of the puzzle of what ultimately happened to Max. And what is the plot? Which is the same question as what propels the story? Well, the sweep of days and months and change of the seasons, of course, the furious momentum of life itself, in a city in particular where nothing sits still for a moment.
Although with a Méira Cook novel (and this is her third) the language is as important as the plot is, and the vocabulary of this one is rich and dextrous. Cook is an extraordinary writer, an award-winning poet, as adept at plotting words as story—her sentences are truly magnificent.
Posted in picks, recently read
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Never Let Me Go (2010, Mark Romanek)
“Everyone I know goes away in the end.” ~ Nine Inch Nails, “Hurt”
When asked recently about the essential difference between his original U.K. version of The Office and its American remake, series creator/star Ricky Gervais stated that while Americans are brought up to believe in their boundless potential for success, British children are more often reminded of their social standing and limitations. I expect that this difference has quite a bit to do with the chilly reception Mark Romanek’s delicate adaptation of Never Let Me Go has found on these shores. Like The Remains of the Day, the most notable big-screen Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation, Never Let Me Go is a story about people who have been born and raised for the express purpose of serving. It’s not necessarily a theme that resonates widely in a culture that values determination and grit, but it’s a more universal idea than most people would probably care to admit.
It’s impossible for me to discuss the particulars of Never Let Me Go without spoiling the plot, so here goes.
Never Let Me Go is an almost unbearably sad story of three people- Kathy (Carey Mulligan), the film’s protagonist, and her friends Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley)- who have been bred specifically to serve as organ donors for others who have been born naturally. Like the meagerly paid Third World workers who toil in ramshackle factories to manufacture the products we take for granted, these “donors” are kept out of sight from the general population- less emotionally messy that way. From childhood, they’re sequestered in an isolated school called Hailsham, where they are taught numerous academic subjects in a way that doesn’t prepare them for the future so much as allow them to mark time before the inevitable. And these are the lucky ones- the administration of Hailsham sees itself as progressive, if you can call encouraging children to hope for the future before slamming the door on these hopes “progressive.”
What seems to turn off the film’s critics is the acceptable the characters have for their fate. However, it felt right to me. Since they were born, these children have been brought up to obey their elders and betters and not to question what they’re told about the world. They’re kept isolated from anything that might contradict what they already know, and are fed rumors about the horrors that face those who run away. All their lives, the characters in Never Let Me Go are told that their only worth is as spare parts for others, so it seems somehow right that they wouldn’t try to escape their fate for fear that they wouldn’t fulfill their appointed “purpose.”
Besides, what would people have this be? The Island, in which characters who have been raised in captivity suddenly morph into motorcycle daredevils and shoot-‘em-up action stars? Give me a break. When a person has spent his or her entire life clinging to a shred of hope, it’s the more mundane things that begin to sustain them- Lucy’s childhood dreams of owning a horse, or the art projects the students are assigned with the promise that the best will be selected to be shown in a gallery. As an adult, Kathy becomes a “carer,” tending to other donors and shepherding them through to their “completions” (even in death, donors aren’t granted full humanity). It’s a difficult responsibility, but Kathy believes she’s doing a service, bringing comfort to her fellow donors, including Tommy and Ruth. Trouble is, every donor’s got to reach completion sooner or later.
Late in the film, the characters hear a rumor that donors can be granted a few extra years if they are found to be in love. For Kathy and Tommy, who have harbored feelings for each other since their Hailsham years, this presents a new kind of hope. However, the movie never makes this possibility seem any more real than the rumors of Hailsham escapees turning up dead and mutilated. But while we don’t believe the rumor to be true- and it’s possible that Kathy doesn’t believe it very deeply either- Tommy is excited about the possibility of a delayed completion. It’s in these scenes where Garfield’s performance, the best in the film, gets especially fascinating. While Kathy and Ruth have grown up to be fairly normal (considering the circumstances), Tommy has remained more or less childlike, and so his efforts to prove he deserves to be granted an extension find him reverting to the ways he learned at Hailsham, as he draws sketch after sketch to show off his creative mind and soul. When he discovers the truth, it devastates him so much that all he can do is break down screaming as he did when he was a child. It’s a heartbreaking moment, as is his final scene, in which he meets his destiny by turning to Kathy and giving her one final sad smile.
One of the marvels of Never Let Me Go is how precisely Romanek captures the very specific tone of the novel. Ishiguro’s book is fairly light on story, so in order for the movie to work at all Romanek needed to find the right feeling, and he never missteps. Every element of the film- the performances, Rachel Portman’s score, the muted cinematography and art direction- is tightly controlled, all in the service of sustaining the mood of resigned fatalism at the heart of Ishiguro’s vision. Romanek doesn’t reach for his effects because to do so would break the movie’s spell. Like its central character, Never Let Me Go refuses to rage against the dying of the light, and while of the movie’s critics might object to that, I for one found it to be incredibly moving. By refusing to pander to the audience’s need to catharsis, Romanek has done justice to a great book.
Posted by Paul C. at 5:54 PM 1 comment:
The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
Nowadays, we’re told from childhood that we can do damn near anything, provided we’re willing to put forth the effort. And while that’s not entirely wrong, the truth is that some people have a much easier path to worldly success than others. To be born into money is a tremendous leg up for a child, since his family’s social and financial status allows them to use their money and connections to give their child an advantage over those who are less fortunate. And if David Fincher’s spellbinding The Social Network is any indication, the stratification is even more pronounced at the top. In the world envisioned by Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, the Harvard students we see aren’t content to accept that they’re the cream of the crop because they attend America’s most prestigious university- they need to further stratify their society, with the truly elite winning invitation to the school’s prestigious “final clubs” while the others find themselves on the outside, looking in.
Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg, is one of those on the outside. Early in the film he despairs, “how do I distinguish myself when I’m surrounded by people who all got 1600 on their SATs?” He sees induction into a final club as being his ticket to greater things in life, and he pictures (fantasizes?) soirees in which Harvard’s best and brightest bus in stunning young women for all sorts of decadent activities. Meanwhile, the best Mark can manage is to get into a Jewish frat that holds kitschy “Caribbean nights.” It doesn’t help that Mark is lacking in social acumen- the movie’s first scene finds him talking circles around his girlfriend, belittling her college (“Why do you need to study? You go to BU”), and insinuating that she slept with the doorman.
Naturally, the girl in question calls Mark an asshole and breaks up with him, which prompts Mark to get drunk, post nasty remarks about her to his blog, and extrapolate his feelings about her into a resentment toward all the women around him by starting a blog called “Facemash”, which asked visitors to compare the relative hotness of Harvard’s coeds. The stunt ended up crashing Harvard’s servers and landing Mark in hot water with the school’s administration, but it also made him a celebrity on campus and attracted the attention of a trio of popular seniors, the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence) and their friend Divya Narendra (Max Minghella). The three of them approach Mark to assist them with an idea of theirs, called The Harvard Connection, which would connect Harvard men to connect with interested women, since “women want to go with guys who go to Harvard.” Mark, of course, accepts.
It’s the so-called “Winklevii” who present the movie’s strongest contrast to Mark. Whereas Mark is average in stature and appearance, the Winklevii are practically Aryan poster boys (“I’m 6’5”, 220 pounds, and there’s two of me”). Likewise, the Winklevii are rich kids, honors students, and star, Olympic-bound rowers on Harvard’s celebrated crew team. Divya appears to be formidable unto himself, but he’s practically the Winklevii’s sidekick. Perhaps most importantly, all three are longstanding members of one of Harvard’s most elite final clubs, and when they propose their idea to Mark they’re only able to take him into the club as far as “the bike room.”
So why does Mark take the Winklevii and Navendra up on their idea only to turn his back on them almost instantaneously to pursue what would eventually become Facebook? According to the Winklevii, Facebook was a ripoff of their Harvard Connection concept, but I don’t see that many similarities to be honest. On the basis of The Social Network, Mark didn’t steal the concept so much as turn it upside down. Whereas the Winklevii were two of Harvard’s golden boys, Mark was an outsider in almost every sense. He saw The Harvard Connection as reinforcing the sense of entitlement that the Winklevii and their peers felt at being rich, smart, and popular. While he and guys like him yearned to be accepted into the Winklevii’s sphere, he also resented their eagerness to trade on the irresistibility of their lifestyle, while employing someone else to do most of the leg work. All this, of course, in the guise of “rehabilitating Mark’s image”, to use the Winklevii’s condescending phrase. What they don’t realize is that Mark won’t be condescended to- not by Harvard’s chief of security, not by the Winklevii’s smug attorney, not even by the golden boys of a final club Mark wishes to join.
The Harvard Connection was basically another way for the Winklevii and those like them to confirm their awesomeness by trumpeting the irresistible allure of the Harvard name to women who were in the market for the most eligible men out there. Like so many aspects of their blessed lives, it was defined by its exclusionary nature. But although Facebook was only available at certain college in its early years, any student who attended those colleges could join. Consequently, Mark’s creation of Facebook feels like a raised middle finger to the Winklevii and their cocoon of privilege. When asked why the Winklevii filed the suit, Mark posits that “for the first time in their lives things didn’t turn out as they’d planned.” In short, they weren’t the golden boys anymore. We see the Winklevii competing in one of the world’s toniest upper-crust sporting events, the Henley Regatta, and their hard-fought loss to the Dutch crew team feels like small potatoes to them after they’re told that video from the race had already been posted on Facebook. In response, the Winklevii (who had previously tried to be honorable about the whole thing because they thought it was the Harvard way to be) show their true colors by saying, “let’s get this frickin’ nerd.”
Of course, it would be much easier to root for Mark Zuckerberg if The Social Network it was just about him beating a matching pair of Teutonic stuffed shirts at their own game. But Mark is too prickly a character for that. Fincher and Sorkin contrast Mark’s difficulties with the Winklevii with a very different lawsuit filed by his Facebook co-founder and former best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield, very good). As Mark worked on the coding and design of Facebook, Eduardo supplied his business savvy, first supplying some of his own money before venturing out to find advertising revenue.
Unfortunately for Eduardo, advertising didn’t mesh well with Mark’s image for Facebook, which was “cool” precisely because it wasn’t plastered with ads. So when Napster founder Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) swooped in to hook Mark up with his venture capitalist friends, Eduardo found himself being forced out of a business he’s helped start and into which he’d poured much of his money and energy. Once again, there are some class dynamics in play- Saverin was a buttoned-down prep school graduate, whereas Parker was a self-made Silicon Valley rock star who lived fast and seemed less interested in making money than staying on the edge. The difference between Eduardo and the Winklevii is that Eduardo honestly cares about Facebook. The business with the Winklevii was just that- business- but Eduardo comes off almost like a jilted lover. In fact, during his final deposition, Eduardo can’t even bear to look Mark in the face, turning his chair around and gazing out the window with tears in his eyes.
The Social Network is the most impressive Hollywood movie I’ve seen this year, with a whip-smart screenplay, stellar filmmaking, and impeccable performances across the board. Eisenberg’s work as Zuckerberg is light years from the affable nebbishes he usually plays, and the supporting cast- yes, even Justin Timberlake- is first-rate across the board. But honestly, I think I’ve said plenty about the movie already. Not only are the film’s other pleasures articulated clearly by some of the other reviews out there, but this is such a deep film that it will take multiple viewings just for me to absorb everything it has to offer. And who knows- maybe after I revisit it, I’ll bump this rating up even higher.
Life During Wartime (2009, Todd Solondz)
You know, I think I’m pretty much done with Solondz. Happiness has its problems, particularly when Solondz feels the need to provoke, but it also makes some genuinely cogent points about the inability of its characters to relate to each other, or in some cases even try. For the most part, Storytelling and Palindromes kept the provocations while jettisoning the incisiveness, but I had some hope that Solondz might be able to pull it together for this sequel to Happiness. Alas, no such luck. Life During Wartime tones down the audience-baiting (to a point anyway), but doesn’t fill the gaps with anything interesting. It’s that rarest of creatures- a bland Todd Solondz movie.
That’s not to say it doesn’t have a handful of interesting ideas on its plate. Foremost among these is Solondz’s re-casting of the entire ensemble. The most obvious impetus behind this is to suggest the passage of time and the effects the years have had on the characters. Nebbishy pedophile Bill Maplewood, formerly played by Dylan Baker, has emerged from a decade-long prison sentence as hulking, monosyllabic Ciaran Hinds. Sunny bleeding-heart Joy has morphed from Jane Adams into wet blanket Shirley Henderson. Allen, the shut-in prank caller once played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, has turned into The Wire’s Michael Kenneth Williams, picking up additional dangerous hobbies along the way.
And so on. It would be easy to call Solondz’s re-casting a cheap formalist prank. After all, this was the guy who alternated half a dozen different actresses of different ages, body types, and colors (along with one male) in the lead role of Palindromes. But I think that Solondz recognizes that most of his audience will already be familiar with Happiness- enough that our familiarity will inform our pre-conceived notions of the characters and their lives. Consequently, he’s able to use the re-casting of the roles to comment on how greatly they’ve changed in the intervening years. For example, in the first movie Dr. Maplewood’s wife Trish, then played by Cynthia Stevenson, was something of a pushover, but a decade of raising her children alone while moving past her family’s dicey past (with help from prescription medications) has turned her into the quirkier, more imposing Alison Janney. Since we already know where she’s been, it’s interesting to see how much she’s changed.
Alas, if only the rest of the movie was so thought-provoking. Not that it doesn’t try, mind you- Solondz clearly thinks he has plenty to say on the subject of forgiveness. And maybe the film could have been a fascinating treatise on forgiveness if only he didn’t feel the need to make his characters talk about it in every other scene. The most egregious mouthpiece for Solondz’s thesis is little Timmy Maplewood (played by Dylan Riley Snyder), who at one point grills his mother and her new beau (the decidedly non-fruity Michael Lerner) about the concept of forgiveness and how far it should be taken. Timmy’s conflicted feelings about forgiveness make sense for his character- after all, this is a kid who has just discovered that his dad isn’t a dead war hero but rather an imprisoned sex offender. But Solondz just doesn’t know when to stop with Timmy. Scene after scene finds Timmy grappling with his feelings loudly and at length, until all I could do was give up on the character. It doesn’t help matters that Solondz feels the need to spout off profanities at several points, or that Snyder is less effective as a flesh-and-blood performer than an image of boyish innocence.
If Timmy is coming to grips with the past, his elders are haunted by it. In the case of Joy, this haunting is literal- she’s visited at several points by Andy (previously Jon Lovitz, now Paul Reubens), who committed suicide after she snubbed him in the first movie. During his visits, Andy appeals to Joy’s memory of their relationship (such as it was) and remembers the pain she once caused him. He also invites her to join him in death, an invitation that’s extended to her once more by Allen’s spirit after he too kills himself. The scenes with the ghosts show some promise- Solondz means to position them as the counterpoint to Timmy’s notions of forgiveness- but mostly come off as clumsy.
This clumsy execution of potentially effective ideas is a common thread that runs through Life During Wartime. There are a handful of moments that actually work as they should, notably a scene in which Charlotte Rampling plays a self-loathing woman who picks up Bill at a bar. But more scenes are like the film’s climax- in which Timmy mistakes an innocent male bonding gesture for an unwelcome sexual advance- which is so hamfisted in its setup and follow-through that most of its impact gets blunted. In the end, very little Solondz does in Life During Wartime manages to hit home. Storytelling and Palindromes didn’t work for me, but at least they were the work of a filmmaker who was trying. By contrast, Life During Wartime finds Solondz, like his characters, replaying old tapes.
Frankly, I’m getting tired of listening to these old tapes. Once again, Solondz’s worldview can be boiled down to “life sucks, and then you die.” The only thing new he can bring to the table here is that it sucks when you’re dead too. But that’s not enough to make his brand of nihilism any less cheap. I’m not averse to bleakness in my movies- I love No Country for Old Men, after all- but if that’s all you got, you don’t have much of anything. Unless I hear that Solondz suddenly has more to say, I think I’ll forego his movies from now on.
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Emmys 2020: Why Watchmen Deserves to Win in Every Nominated Category
Sarah Novack at September 15, 2020 1:00 pm .
It is safe to say that this year's Emmy Awards will be vastly different from previous years, given that they are virtual. Still, the award show's excitement has not dampened, especially over the shows with the most nominations.
There are plenty of good shows nominated this year -- Succession, Schitt's Creek, The Crown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and more.
While the list of nominees proves that the competition is great, one particular nominee stands out from the rest, and with good reason -- HBO's limited series Watchmen.
Watchmen is nothing like anything we have seen on television, especially shows based on superhero comics. Each character brings something unique to the table that rounds out the show from beginning to end.
We wish Watchmen ccould an win all eleven of their nominations, but unfortunately, they have multiple nominations in some categories, rendering it impossible.
However, Watchmen can win in all their nominated categories, and they definitely should.
Watchmen deserves to win as many Emmys as possible, especially their big nominations -- Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.
The mini-series had us on the edge of our seats from beginning to end. Each new episode raised the stakes with a more intense cliffhanger, leading to an epic series finale.
Watchmen was a limited series like no other. They had the entire package: themes that created meaningful discussions, complex characters, a well-paced, intriguing plot, and an air of mystery that makes you come back for more each time.
While the other nominated shows for Outstanding Limited Series deserved their nominations and had similar characteristics, none were even near the same level as Watchmen.
Watchmen is not just an entertaining show -- it is a powerful story that draws in all audiences, even those that do not watch fiction or superhero shows. Watchmen
As for Outstanding Lead Actor/Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, Jeremy Irons and Regina King were phenomenal. They led utterly different storylines, but as the series went on, they converged beautifully, something nobody would expect on Watchmen Season 1 Episode 1.
Angela Abar was a multi-faceted character with many layers. Regina King portrayed each peeled layer flawlessly, rounding out Angela Abar and making her wonderfully human. No matter what the show threw in Angela's way, Regina King took it in stride, making Angela look like the world's most natural character.
On a dystopian television show, it is difficult to not only create but to sustain a character's life, especially with only nine episodes. However, that did not faze Regina, and it is evident whenever Angela is on screen.
Jeremy Irons also portrayed a challenging character, Adrian Veidt. We did not even know Adrian's purpose for half the series, making it even more challenging to concentrate on him. However, Jeremy Irons faced this challenge head-on and delivered a performance that completely blew us away.
Even if Adrian's presence initially felt out of place, Jeremy Irons ensured that it was not. Irons provided meaning to Adrian before we knew his real purpose.
Besides, when all the pieces fell into place, Jeremy Irons's portrayal of Adrian Veidt became more satisfying. It is difficult to portray a character that made no sense at first, but Jeremy Irons succeeded in every way.
Of course, the other nominees gave outstanding performances and deserved recognition too. However, Regina King and Jeremy Irons tested limits and pushed boundaries with their characters. Angela Abar and Adrian Veidt are difficult and complex roles, but it did not stop King or Irons from delivering stunning performances.
Watchmen deserves to win in their other nominated categories as well. We wish that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jovan Adepo, and Louis Gossett Jr. could all win the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, but there can only be one winner.
Thankfully, Watchmen has a 50% chance of winning this category, and we will be thrilled if any of these three talented actors win. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II portrayed Cal Abar, Regina's husband, a grounding, calming presence on a non-stop action series.
But that does not mean Cal Abar was not a multi-dimensional character. Watchmen tested Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's limits on Watchmen Season 1 Episode 8, and he did not disappoint. Abdul-Mateen II delivered a top-quality performance, demonstrating Cal Abar's importance and intricacy.
Jovan Adepo and Louis Gossett Jr. also did terrific jobs with portraying Young Will Reeves and Will Reeves, respectively. Watchmen Season 1 Episode 6 was arguably one of the best episodes of the series, and it would not have been possible without Adepo's riveting performance of a Young Will Reeves.
Watchmen Season 1 Episode 9 was a smashing finale, but it would not have been complete without Louis Gossett Jr., who went above and beyond as Will Reeves. He rounded out the episode and added a nice finishing touch to his character on "See How They Fly." The finale would not have been the same without him.
Jean Smart raised the bar as Laurie Blake. Generally, limited series need strong main characters to be successful. However, Watchmen proved that their supporting characters are just as important, and the actors who portray them are just as talented.
If anyone deserves to win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, it is Jean Smart. Laurie Blake was sensational whenever she appeared on screen, but Watchmen truly captured her character's essence on Season 1 Episode 3, her first appearance.
Jean Smart portrayed Laurie Blake's multiple layers on "She Was Killed by Space Junk." Anyone watching the episode could see how Laurie is not a simple secondary character to play, especially with her broad range of emotions.
Nevertheless, Jean Smart nailed every scene, and we will be very disappointed if she does not win this Emmy.
Furthermore, Laurie's character development on the series as a whole is nothing short of phenomenal. Nine episodes is not a lot of time for a secondary character to develop, but Laurie certainly did, and Jean Smart captured her development beautifully.
The category for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special also has multiple Watchmen nominations, and rightfully so.
All three episodes nominated -- "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice," "Little Fear of Lightning," and "This Extraordinary Being" -- were phenomenal in every single way, especially in directing.
Watchmen Season 1 Episode 1 was a strong opener to the limited series. You can tell how great the directing was by watching all the episode elements come together beautifully.
The same thing goes for Watchmen Season 1 Episode 5 and Watchmen Season 1 Episode 6. "Little Fear of Lightning" was a pivotal, mind-blowing episode, and the director called all of the right shots. "This Extraordinary Being" portrayed an incredible backstory that will be quite impossible to defeat.
Finally, Watchmen has a nomination in Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special for the episode "This Extraordinary Being." Watchmen Season 1 Episode 6 has the most nominations of all nine episodes, which makes perfect sense.
"This Extraordinary Being" created new standards for telling a character's backstory, adding unique qualities to both the character (Will Reeves) and the character learning about his past (Angela Abar).
Watchmen Season 1 Episode 6 told a heartwrenching story about pain, love, loss, and (in)justice, all while depicting the horrifying reality of systemic racism and white supremacy.
"This Extraordinary Being" was quite literally extraordinary in every way. The episode raised the bar for character backstories, making it impossibly high. In the future, it will be incredibly difficult to find another episode focused on a character's backstory that is as flawless as this one was.
We genuinely hope Watchmen wins the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special, and that the show wins in all other nominated categories.
The limited series may only be allowed to win seven of their eleven nominations, but Watchmen deserves to win like no other nominated show.
These Shows Should Be Igniting Conversation!
We want to hear from you, Fanatics!
Have you seen HBO's Watchmen? Did you enjoy it? Do you think the mini-series deserved all of their nominations?
Who do you think should win at the Emmy Awards this year?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Sarah Novack is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
Tags: Editorials, HBO, Emmy Awards
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Saint Louis University Billikens Hosting “Pink Out” Game This Saturday
2162 days ago.
The Saint Louis University women’s basketball team hosts George Mason at 7 pm tomorrow night at Chaifetz Arena on the Saint Louis University campus. The team has quite an evening planned to raise breast cancer awareness, billing this as their annual “Pink Out” game.
The fun will start at 6 pm at Chaifetz. The first 1,000 fans entering the area will receive a pink Saint Louis University basketball t-shirt. Free breast cancer screening stations will be located throughout the concourse area as will representatives from the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, American Lung Association and Ronald McDonald House. Mascots from various St. Louis professional sports teams will be on hand as well. Fredbird from the St. Louis Cardinals, Rampage from the St. Louis Rams, Ruffy from the River City Rascals and of course The Billiken are scheduled to appear to delight young and old fans alike.
Sadly, Louie from the St. Louis Blues likely will not be in attendance as the St. Louis Blues host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday night at Scottrade Center.
Also to be found in the concourse area will be free sign-making, face-painting, balloon animals. A free photo booth will also be set up.
Concession stands will be selling popcorn and soda for $1 each throughout the game. All fans in attendance are asked to wear pink to the game. The Billikens will be also be wearing pink shoes on the floor.
Our pink shoes have arrived for our annual PINK game this Saturday. #breastcancerawareness
A photo posted by Saint Louis Women’s Basketball (@saintlouiswbb) on Feb 17, 2015 at 9:15am PST
Billikens head coach Lisa Stone had this to say to SluBillikens.com
“For many years, women’s college basketball has been at the forefront in the battle against breast cancer. The Billikens are proud to do our part in raising awareness of breast cancer, while at the same time providing our fans a fun-filled evening at Chaifetz Arena. We look forward to playing in front of what is expected to be a big crowd, and we invite everyone to join us for this very special event.”
The Billikens are 13-13 on the season after a tough 57-55 loss to St. Bonaventure at home on Wednesday night. Coach Stone’s team had won their previous two games before that game, including a 79-61 dismantling of George Washington. The Colonials came into that game ranked as high as 20th in National polls and had won 19 games in a row. It was time the Saint Louis University women’s basketball team had beat a ranked opponent in 12 seasons. In acknowledgment of their wins against GW and Dayton that week, the team was named the NCAA Women’s Basketball Team of the Week.
The Billikens are led by Sadie Stipanovich, the daughter of Steve Stipanovich. “Stipo”, as he was known, starred at Desmet Jesuit in St. Louis before heading off to the University of Missouri and teaming with Jon Sundvold during an All-American career that saw the Tigers win four consecutive Big 8 conference titles. Stipanovich was drafted #2 overall in the 1983 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers and played five seasons there before knee problems forced his retirement. His sophomore daughter is currently averaging 14 points and 6.5 rebounds per game on the season. Stipanovich was named the Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Player of the Week last week.
Freshman Jenny Vliet received the A-10’s conference Rookie of the Week last week as well. She was 8-of-14 from three-point range in SLU’s wins over George Washington and Davidson while registering 28 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in the two wins.
Tickets to the game are priced at $10 for adults and $5 for children and are available through Ticketmaster, at the box office or by calling (314) 977-4SLU.
Brought to you by Mills Properties
Ryan is a weird dude. He doesn't cook, yet owns a plethora of kitchen gadgets. He rationalized buying a SodaStream while unemployed. He counts Step Up 2: The Streets as one of his favorite movies along with Footloose, Rent, Grease and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He loves Mizzou but only wants them in the SEC so he can tailgate in Nashville. He owns a ShakeWeight and AbLounger, but still loves him some John Donut and Billie's Fine Foods. You can get more of Ryan at iLoveSoulard.com or just check the stool on the far end of the bar at iTap in Soulard.
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Title XIX MOTOR VEHICLES, WATERCRAFT AND AVIATION
☚ ☛ Effective - 28 Aug 2002, 2 histories, see footnote (history)
301.3109. Certain Greek organizations special license plates, application, fee (Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, Phi Beta Sigma). — 1. Any current member or alumnus of the Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, and Phi Beta Sigma Greek organizations at any college or university within this state may apply for special motor vehicle license plates for any vehicle such person owns, either solely or jointly, other than an apportioned motor vehicle or a commercial motor vehicle licensed in excess of eighteen thousand pounds gross weight, after an annual payment of an emblem-use authorization fee to the appropriate organization. Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, and Phi Beta Sigma hereby authorize the use of their official emblem to be affixed on multiyear personalized license plates as provided in this section. Any contribution to Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, or Phi Beta Sigma derived from this section, except reasonable administrative costs, shall be used solely for the purposes of those organizations. Any member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, and Phi Beta Sigma may annually apply for the use of the organization's emblem.
2. Upon annual application and payment of a twenty-five dollar emblem-use contribution to Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, or Phi Beta Sigma the organization shall issue to the vehicle owner, without further charge, an emblem-use authorization statement, which shall be presented by the owner to the department of revenue at the time of registration of a motor vehicle. Upon presentation of the annual statement, payment of a fifteen dollar fee in addition to the registration fee and documents which may be required by law, the department of revenue shall issue to the vehicle owner a personalized license plate which shall bear the emblem of Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, or Phi Beta Sigma. Such license plates shall be made with fully reflective material with a common color scheme and design, shall be clearly visible at night, and shall be aesthetically attractive, as prescribed by section 301.130. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 301.144, no additional fee shall be charged for the personalization of license plates pursuant to this section.
3. A vehicle owner, who was previously issued a plate with the Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, or Phi Beta Sigma emblem authorized by this section but who does not provide an emblem-use authorization statement at a subsequent time of registration, shall be issued a new plate which does not bear the Kappa Alpha Psi, Iota Phi Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, or Phi Beta Sigma emblem, as otherwise provided by law. The director of revenue shall make necessary rules and regulations for the administration of this section, and shall design all necessary forms required by this section. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated pursuant to the authority of this section shall become effective unless it has been promulgated pursuant to the provisions of chapter 536.
(L. 2002 H.B. 1093, et al.)
- All versions
Effective End
301.3109 8/28/2016
301.3109 8/28/2002 8/28/2016
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Barbara 'Sandy' Robison With The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - Barbara (1966-70 us, gorgeous emotional psych jazzy folk rock with heavenly vocals, 2014 release)
This is a collection of recordings featuring Barbara (Sandy) Robison during the time she was a member of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. On various recordings not all of the other members were included. Some of the songs were recorded for other projects but involved Barbara as vocalist and some were written during the time the group was recording but were not included on a Peanut Butter Conspiracy album. They did, however, feature her wonderful voice and for that reason, even more than it being the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, it makes this a very collectible collection to their fans that love to hear her sing.
"I put a lot into this 'work of love' release featuring Barbara", states Alan Brackett, "because I knew that there were people out there that would love to hear her sing more songs than what are already released on PBC records. She was blessed with a warm, natural and beautiful voice and I feel these recordings should be shared with her fans.
"Roses Gone" was recorded by The Ashes in 1966. This is the group that Barbara, John and Alan were in prior to the Peanut Butter Conspiracy along with Jim Chernis and Spencer Dryden, later to be the drummer with the Jefferson Airplane.
"Get Out Of My Dreams", "I Miss You", "It Comes And Goes With The Wind" "Foolhearted Woman" and "Love Came So Easy" were songs written by Alan and recorded between 1967 and 1970 but never released. PBC vocal harmonies can be recognized in all of these except "I Miss You", which Barbara sang solo.
"Shuffle Tune" was recorded during a vocal rehearsal at Alan's house on a Teac A1200 in 1968 with Barbara, John and Alan playing and singing live "Return Home" and "Good Feelest" were recorded in 1969 and ended up on the PBC Ip, "For Children Of All Ages". "Step Aside (You're Crushing All The Flowers)" was recorded by PBC in 1969 for the movie "2000 Years Later"
"True Believers" was recorded in 1969 by the PBC using the name The Windows for the Hell's Angels movie, "Run Angel Run" It features Barbara with an overdubbed harmony sung by her on the last verse.
"Come A Little Closer" is a song written by David Bennett. Alan produced the recording and David's brother, Steve, sang the 'echo' lines to Barbara's vocal.
CD Liner-Notes
Barbara (Sandy) Robison is at last featured on every song in this Peanut Butter Conspiracy release. The recordings date from 1966 through 1970. Five of them have never been previously released, two are from rare movie soundtracks, and five are hand-picked from previous PBC releases. There has always been consensus from their fans that Barbara possessed the most beautiful voice of the 1960's rock and roll era. This release is for those who have always wanted and now can hear more of her warm, soulful voice.
On April 6, 1988, Robison was performing in Butte, Montana. During her concert, she fell ill and was transported to a hospital in Billings, Montana. Robison did not recover, and died on April 22, 1988 from toxic shock poisoning at the age of 42.
1. Roses Gone (John Merrill) - 2:48
2. Get Out Of My Dreams (Alan Brackett) - 3:33
3. Shuffle Tune (Alan Brackett) - 2.14
4. Return Home (Alan Brackett) - 3:38
5. Step Aside (You're Crushing All The Flowers) (Stu Phillips, Neil Sedaka) - 3:02
6. I Miss You (Alan Brackett) - 3:13
7. Good Feelin' (Alan Brackett, John Merrill) - 2:49
8. It Comes And Goes With The Wind (Alan Brackett) - 2:06
9. True Believers (Alan Brackett, John Merrill, Stu Phillips) - 2:21
10.Foolhearted Woman (Alan Brackett) - 3:12
11.Love Came So Easy (Alan Brackett) - 2:10
12.Come A Little Closer (David Bennett) - 2:16
*Barbara "Sandi" Robison – Lead Vocals, Percussion
*Alan Brackett – Bass Guitar
*Lance Fent -Lead Guitar
*John Merrill – Rhythm Guitar
*Bill Wolff - Guitar
*Jim Voigt - Drums
*Ralph Schuckett - Organ, Piano
*Michael Ney - Drums
1965-71 Ashes - Ashes
1967-68 The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - Living Dream
1969 Peanut Butter Conspiracy - For Children Of All Ages (2008 bonus tracks remaster)
Redwing - Redwing (1971 us, astonishing classic rock with country folk blues and psych tinges)
The seeds of Redwing were sown in Sacramento, California in 1962. when folk trio Tim, Tom and Ron formed. Comprising Timothy B Schmit (guitar / bass / vocals), Tom Phillips (guitar / vocals) and Ron Floegel (guitar / vocals), they soon added drummer George Hullin and evolved into a surf band named the Contenders, then a British Invasion-influenced act called the New Breed. Under that moniker they issued their debut 45 on the tiny Diplomacy label in 1965, Green Eyed Woman I I'm In Love.
The A-side was stomping garage rock, while the flip was an obscure Lennon-McCartney number that had been a hit for the Fourmost but wasn't recorded by the Beatles. A 1966 follow-up on Mercury (Leave Me Be I I've Been Wrong Before) failed to break nationally, and their last two 45s (Want Ad Reader / One More For The Good Guys and Fine With Me I The Sound Of The Music) were minor garage classics that appeared on their own World United label.
Despite recording an LP's worth of material at this time, no album release was forthcoming so in 1968 they were only too glad to sign to a production company named Equinox (under the aegis of Byrds producer Terry Melcher). They promptly taped a further album's worth of material as the Breed, produced by engineer Erik Wangberg— but were dismayed when it appeared on ABC as by 'Glad', entitled Feelin' Glad (ABCS 655, 1969) Worse still, studio musicians had been drafted in to record certain parts, and several songs were swamped by string and brass arrangements.
Disaffected, Schmit departed to join Poco (and later the Eagles), leaving his former bandmates to draft in Andy Samuels, late of local blues act Nate Skitter's Band. Stung by their experience with ABC, they recorded a self-financed LP's worth of demos, which soon won them a deal with Fantasy, which was riding high with the massive success of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Their sound was now a tauiv gritty and commercial blend of blues, country and rock influences, which legendary Rolling Stone critic Ralph J Gleason declared had 'knocked me right out of my mind'.
Nonetheless, their debut LP (produced by Creedence engineer Russ Gary) was not the bestseller it could have been, and four further albums (1972's What This Country Needs, 1973's Take Me Home, 1974's Dead Or 'Alive and 1975's Beyond We Sun And Stars} were solid Californian sellers but unsuccessful nationally, causing them to split at the end of 1975.
1. The Underground Railway - 3:01
2. Please Doctor Please (Ron Floegel, Andrew Samuels) - 3:00
3. Bonnie Bones - 2:52
4. Dark Thursday (Ron Floegel, Andrew Samuels) - 2:45
5. Sweetwalkin' Lady (Ron Floegel, Andrew Samuels) - 3:18
6. I'm Your Lover Man - 5:13
7. Shorty Go Home (Ron Floegel, Andrew Samuels) - 4:29
8. Hogtied - 3:15
9. I'm Counting on You (To Come Through) - 4:58
10.Oh Maggie (Don't Lift the Weight) (Ron Floegel, Andrew Samuels) - 3:18
11.(Tell Me Baby) Why You Been Gone So Long (Micheal Newbury) - 3:01
12.California Blues (Jimmy Rogers) - 3:56
All songs by Ron Floegel, Andrew Samuels, Tom Phillips except where stated.
The Redwing
*Andrew Samuels - Lead Guitar, Bass, Vocals
*Ron Floegel - Rhthm Guitar, Vocals
*Tom Phillips - Guitar, Slide Guitar, Piano
*George Hullin - Drums, Vocals
Posted by Marios at 8:14 AM 11 comments:
The Rowans - Sibling Rivalry / Jubilation (1976-77 us, marvelous country silk rock, 2004 issue)
Jerry Garcia called them the California Beatles. Rock critic Dave Marsh quipped that Garcia must have been tripping at the time. The truth about the Rowans can be found where the truth often resides: somewhere in the middle. Between Garcia's adulation and the critics' damnation with faint praise, the Rowans made an eclectic and uneven body of work for Asylum Records in the mid-'70s—a trio of albums through which disparate styles, from bluegrass and reggae to straightforward pop and rock, intersected and combined. Some of the Rowans' songs from this period continue to be sung today and, thanks to Collectors' Choice, their original albums are back in print nearly thirty years later.
Peter, Chris and Lorin Rowan recorded their self-titled Asylum debut in 1975, and that story can be found in the booklet of The Rowans, reissued on compact disc by Collectors' Choice in 2002. This disc is the second chapter in the Rowans' saga, pairing the group's second and third Asylum albums, Sibling Rivalry Wlb) and Jubilation (1977). Herein is some of the Rowans' best and most commercially successful music.
Many fans consider Sibling Rivalry to be the Rowans' finest moment, and with good reason. For starters, it has the Rowans' sole charting single, "If I Only Could," which peaked at #74 on the Billboard pop chart but fared a little better in Cash Box, where it reached #69. The Rowans were no strangers to the charts, though: Chris and Lorin, as the Rowan Brothers, made a single that "bubbled under" the Billboard Top 100 in 1972, and Peter reached the Top 100 in 1969 with the band Earth Opera. "If I Only Could," written by Chris, features the delicate sound of Peter's mandola and the brothers' three-part harmonies on a gem of California country-rock that bears a passing resemblance to America or Crosby, Stills & Nash.
The Rowans' Asylum debut was filled with sounds of, and allusions to, Eastern spirituality and music. Sibling Rivalry showed their continuing interest in the East with the Chinese dragon on its cover and song titles like "Fire Dragon" and "Mongolian Swamp." But the album veered into other exotic realms with the Spanish story-song "Joaquin Murrieta," the faux reggae of "Love Is," and "Ya Ba Da Ba," which Billboard described as a "'40s-sounding Pointer Sisters type of number," in apparent reference to the Pointer Sisters' nostalgic 1974 album That's a Plenty. Keeping with the countercultural currents that were always on or just below the surface of the Rowans' music, Sibling Rivalry was co-produced by Bill Wolf, one-time member of legendary hippie rock band the Fugs.
The progressive bluegrass group Northern Lights later recorded Sibling Rivalry's closing cut, "Soldier of the Cross," and the song showed up again as the title track of Ricky Skaggs' Grammy award-winning bluegrass gospel album in 1999. In spite of the Rowans' accomplished songwriting and musicianship, Sibling Rivalry M not chart, nor did a follow-up single release of "Ooh My Love." Billboard reviewed the album in their Recommended LPs column, but weakly praised it as "wholly acceptable" and opined that "the boys could use some more bite intheirvocals next time out."
The Rowans released Jubilation late the following year—their final album for Asylum. On the surface it seemed like an attempt to make an overtly commercial pop album, but the music is in some ways a return to the sunny pop sound first heard on Chris and Lorin's 1972 album, Rowan Brothers. When Peter joined the group for the Rowans' Asylum debut, he brought his interests in bluegrass and Eastern mysticism to the table, but on Jubilation those contributions are not in evidence, and Peter's songs are much more pop-oriented than before. In particular, there is nothing that even a charitable critic would identify as progressive bluegrass. If you listen closely, however, there are still a few unusual things happening in the grooves.
The title and cover art of Jubilation convey a youthfulness and energy that is only furthered by the bright harmonies and melodies within. The previous albums' experimentation is all but gone, replaced with a sugary pop glaze and Beatlesque melodies. Even the fiddle on "Don't Say Goodbye" adds no particular country flavor, which should not come as a surprise since the man behind the bow is famous jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli! The album, in fact, is full of jazz players, right down to the steel drummer, Andy Narell. "Best of Friends," another light, harmonydrenched pop song in the direction of Bread, was paired with "Makin' It Easy" for the album's single but didn't register on the charts. "Hoo Doo Love" is only a few steps away from the dance floor with its pulsing rhythm, high harmonies and synthesizer solo (the Sheila Escovedo on the conga drums became better known in the mid-'80s as pop star Sheila E). "Love's Secret Sighs" and "Don't Say Goodbye" are distinctly Beatlesque, and "Lovelight" features more synthesizer sounds by Bernie Krause, George Harrison's collaborator on his 1969 album Electronic Sound. In the end, one minor hit was not enough to placate the bean counters, so the Rowans and Asylum parted company.
The Rowan brothers complained that Asylum didn't know quite what to make of—or how to market— their albums, and failed to give them much of a promotional push. Listening to their music, it isn't hard to understand the label's bafflement—today the Rowans' albums are often filed under progressive bluegrass, but Billboard categorized them as pop, and—with the exception of isolated cuts like Sibling Rivals "Tired Hands"—it would take a broad and permissive definition of bluegrass to accommodate the Rowans' music. The fact is, the Rowans were and are three individuals with distinct styles and interests, and the albums they made for Asylum were melting pots overflowing with their creators' eclecticism and ideas. If their styles didn't always gel, perhaps it was because their interests were so broad.
The Rowans went on to record other albums for other labels, separately and together, and continue to actively record and perform. The trio released a new album as the Rowan Brothers, Crazy People, on their own Rowantone Records in 2002. Stepping back in time, the two albums reissued here capture the brothers at their major label peak, going for broke in a commercial arena and striving to make, in Lorin's words, "the best successful records possible."
by Greg Adams
Sibling Rivalry 1976
1. Ooh My Love (Chris Rowan) - 4:30
2. Love Is (Lorin Rowan, Dudley Glanz, Mark Stein) - 4:10
3. Tired Hands (Lorin Rowan, Peter Rowan) - 5:07
4. If I Only Could (Chris Rowan) - 3:52
5. No Desanimes Amor (Peter Rowan, Juanita West, Amanda Lynn, Woody West) - 3:55
6. Ya Ba Da Ba (Chris Rowan) - 2:52
7. Fire Dragon (Chris Rowan, Lorin Rowan, Peter Rowan) - 0:58
8. Mongolian Swamp/King's Men (Lorin Rowan, Peter Rowan) - 4:14
9. Joaquin Murrieta (Peter Rowan) - 8:29
10.Sword Of Faith/Soldier Of The Cross (Lorin Rowan) - 4:59
Jubilation 1977
11.Best Of Friends (Lorin Rowan) - 3:06
12.Give Ya Good Lovin' (Peter Rowan) - 3:16
13.Hoo Doo Love (Chris Rowan) - 5:20
14.Love' Secret Sighs (Chris Rowan, Peter Rowan) - 2:35
15.Don't Say Goodbye (Peter Rowan) - 3:40
16.Lovelight (Chris Rowan) - 4:17
17.New Horizons (Lorin Rowan) - 4:42
18.Makin' It Easy (Chris Rowan, Peter Rowan) - 3:41
19.Calle Music (Lorin Rowan) - 5:14
*Peter Rowan - Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
*Chris Rowan - Guitar, Piano, Vocals
*Lorin Rowan - Guitar, Vocals
*Joe Carroll - Bass
*Wally Drogas - Drums
*Bill Elliott - Organ, Piano
*K. Dudley Glanz - Drums
*Richard Greene - Violin
*Jim Hodder - Drums
*Mark Stein - Drums
*Lorin Rowan - Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
*Terry Adams - Cello
*Susan Bates - Viola
*Nancy Ellis - Viola
*Brad Bilhorn - Drums
*Stephne Busfield - Guitar
*Joe Carroll - Basss
*Ralph Carter - Bass
*Peter Barshay - Bass, Drums
*Brian Cooke - Piano
*Glenn Cronkhite - Percussion
*Glen Deardorff - Violin, Guitar
*Keith Glanz - Drums
*Stephane Grappelli - Violin
*Lee Carlton - Drums
*Bob Hogins - Keyboards
*Daniel Kobialka - Violin
1972 Rowan Brothers - Rowan Brothers
1975 Rowans - The Rowans
Related Act
1968 Earth Opera - Earth Opera
1969 Earth Opera - The Great American Eagle Tragedy
Posted by Marios at 7:12 PM 4 comments:
The Frantics - Relax Your Mind (1968 us, magical trippy psychedelic rock, rare issue)
The Frantics were from the same era and area as The BlueThings the '60s and the Midwest. They were musicians from parts of Montana and North Dakota who formed The Frantics in Billings, Montana. All of them were in bands previously and some had released singles locally. They were fans of The BlueThings and the first Frantics1 single in 1966 was The BlueThings version of "La Do Da Da”, backed with "Route 66". Only 1,000 copies were pressed and today they are much sought-after by collectors.
Through 1966 and 1967, The Frantics progressed as artists. After becoming the top draw in Montana and most of Wyoming and 9outh Dakota, they became a "KOMA" band (along with The Tracers, The Fabulous Flippers, 9pider &• The Crabs, The Red Dogs and The BlueThings).
They headlined all over the country and were also second billed on concerts with The Who, The Young Rascals, The Everly Brothers, The 9teve Miller Band and other groups, including a week-long, three-state tour with The Yardbirds with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page ("...who were real friendly when we partied with them after the concerts back at the motel") and three tours with The McCoys, during which they became friends with Rick Derringer (Zehriger). Later when fhe Frantics were based in New York City, Rick, in his first role as producer, produced some demos tor them (including the first recorded version of "Just For A While").
The Frantics, then based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico ("The best place to be during the psychedelic days," says Kim Sherman), later moved to New York City in early 1968. They were quickly signed up with Premier Talent, one of the biggest national booking agencies then and now. The Frantics played the top East Coast circuit, including the legendary Steve Paul's "The Scene" in New York City. It was the best place for famous and upcoming groups to perform and jam after hours. Steve Paul liked The Frantics and they got to play there a lot. On off nights or after other gigs in town, they would go back to The Scene, where Steve would always let them in for free to watch other groups.
Says Kim, "Jimi Hendrix would often come down to The Scene and jam with other great musicians like B.B. King and Rick Derringer. Some of us also jammed with Jimi. One night Jim Morrison got up on stage with Jimi and literally screamed into the mike in a drunken stupor, fell down and had to be carried out."
The Frantics tired of the East Coast weather and rat race and after a tour of Florida they moved back to New Mexico. They rented two houses in the mountains around Ruidoso. They went out on weekends playing around New Mexico, Colorado and West Texas and spent the rest of the time jamming in their rehearsal house and working up more original songs.
This CD, a result of those jams, was recorded at Norman Petty’s legendary 4-track studio in Clovis, NM during a week's time. All of the songs were performed live with the exception of "She", which was too psychedelic to be played live. Some of these songs were later re-recorded and appeared on The Frantics' official 1970 album.
The Frantics then moved to Colorado Springs, CO, becoming the top local Colorado draw before relocating in 1969 to Los Angeles where they felt their psychedelic/hard rock frame of mind and stage show would be better suited to pursue their career. They shortened their name to "Frantic" and headlined at the Whiskey A Go-Go (where they were told to turn down their amps because they were so loud) and became well-known around Southern California. They signed up with manager Robert Fitzpatrick (who used to co-manage Cream and The Bee Gees) and in 1970 released their first official album which got a 4-Star pick in Billboard magazine.
Their record label, Lizard Records, was owned by Gabriel Meckler, who produced all the Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf records. Although Frantic received a $20,000 advance to sign with the label (a considerable amount at the time), the record did not sell well due to a lack of distribution. Amazingly, the album was bootlegged in Europe a few years ago and recently was also released on CD. The original album commands good money as a collectors1 item.
In 1971, after seven years, the band began to splinter and disbanded. However, half of the members stayed together and went on to create many more original songs and demo recordings, some of which got airplay on Los Angeles radio stations even though there was no record.
Their legacy continues today as most of the members are still active in the music business performing, producing and doing session work. Kim says, "During our career we had a lot going for us. We had the musicianship, vocals, songs and stage snow, as well as the equipment, clothes, confidence and the best light show. We were also the first group in the Midwest to have roadies to set up our equipment and were probably the best group most of our audiences had ever seen. We graduated to one-set concerts and blew away all of our backing groups, as well as some major groups when we did concerts with them. Our version of 'My Generation' was so powerful that when we played with The Who, their manager, after hearing us playing it during our sound check, wouldn't allow us to perform it that night?
Kim went to Hawaii, Dennis to London, England, and the rest of The Frantics stayed in Los Angeles. Please keep in mind that the original master tapes of this demo album were lost many years ago and all that exists of that session was a very old, fourth-generation tape from which this CD was made.
1. Her and Her Mountain (Kim Sherman, Dennis Devlin) - 3:27
2. Lady of the Night (Max Byfuglin, Jim Haas) - 3:38
3. Child of the Universe (Kim Sherman, Dennis Devlin) - 5:29
4. Sweet Mary (Kim Sherman, Max Byfuglin) - 2:38
5. Think About It (Max Byfuglin, Jim Haas) - 2:59
6. Relax Your Mind (Max Byfuglin, Jim Haas) - 3:22
7. JJust for a While (Kim Sherman, Max Byfuglin) - 2:53
8. Stranger (Max Byfuglin) - 3:29
9. She (Jim Haas) - 4:24
10.Great Tomato (Dennis Devlin) - 2:42
11.Scitnarf (Kim Sherman, Dennis Devlin) - 2:36
12.Stone Goddess (Kim Sherman, Dennis Devlin) - 4:41
The Frantics
*Kim Sherman - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Max Byfuglin - Lead Vocals
*Dennis Devlin - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
*David Day - Bass Guitar, Vocals
*Jim Haas - Keyboards, Vocals I
*Phil (Gordo Head) - Drums
Jim Sullivan - Jim Sullivan (1972 us, fascinating swamp folk rock, 2011 korean edition)
Sullivan’s second, self-titled and final essay was released in 1972 and hosted by Hugh Heffner’s record label “Playboy”. Three years after U.F.O., Sullivan began his new musical adventure exactly where he stopped. To be precise he rerecorded and included two songs from his first album “Sandman” and “Plain to See” –each one was the final track on every LP side-.
Rough folk blues mixed with brass jazz tunes and a hard (cry baby) guitar rockin’, named “Tom Cat”. Travelling from smoothness to sharpness, like riding a beautiful wild horse in a harsh country, with an edged blade cutting the desert’s silence.
1. Don't Let It Throw You - 3:14
2. Sonny Jim - 3:11
3. Tea Leaves 3:18
4. Biblical Boogie (True He's Gone) - 3:36
5. Lonesome Picker (John Stewart) - 3:09
6. Sandman - 2:45
7. Tom Cat - 3:10
8. You Show Me The Way To Go (Ronald Bertram Greaves, Jonathan Rowlands) - 3:32
9. Amos - 4:31
10.I'll Be Here - 2:26
11.Plain To See - 4:09
Words and Music by Jim Sullivan except where indicated
*Jim Sullivan - Vocals, Guitar, Strings Arrangement
*David Cohen - Guitar, Banjo
*Jim Hughart - Bass
*Allen Reuss - Bouzouki
*Gene Estes - Percussion
*Colin Bailey - Percussion
*Mike Melvoin - Piano
1969 Jim Sullivan - U.F.O. (2010 issue)
Jim Sullivan - U.F.O. (1969 us, tremendous folkish psychedelia, 2010 issue)
In March 1975, Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost in the desert. Some think he fell foul of a local family with alleged mafia ties. Some think he was abducted by aliens.
By coincidence – or perhaps not – Jim’s 1969 debut album was titled U.F.O. Released in tiny numbers on a private label, it too was truly lost, until Seattle’s Light In The Attic Records begun a years-long quest to give it the full release it deserves – and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened.
For record collectors, some albums are considered impossible to get hold of, records so rare you could sit on eBay for years and not get a sniff of a copy. U.F.O. is one of those albums. A seventh son, Jim Sullivan was a West Coast should-have-been, an Irish-American former high school quarterback whose gift for storytelling earned him cult status in the Malibu bar where he performed nightly. Sullivan was always on the edge of fame; hanging out with movie stars like Harry Dean Stanton, performing on the Jose Feliciano show, even stealing a cameo in the ultimate hippie movie, Easy Rider.
Friend and actor Al Dobbs thought he could change all that, and founded a label – Monnie Records – to release Jim’s album, enlisting the assistance of Phil Spector’s legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew to do so. That’s Don Randi, Earl Palmer and Jimmy Bond you can hear, the latter also acting as producer and arranger.
U.F.O. was a different beast to the one-man-and-his-guitar stuff Jim had been doing on stage; instead, it was a fully realised album of scope and imagination, a folk-rock record with its head in the stratosphere. Sullivan’s voice is deep and expressive like Fred Neil with a weathered and worldly Americana sound like Joe South, pop songs that aren’t happy – but with filled with despair. The album is punctuated with a string section (that recalls David Axelrod), other times a Wurlitzer piano provides the driving groove (as if Memphis great Jim Dickinson was running the show). U.F.O. is a slice of American pop music filtered from the murky depths of Los Angeles, by way of the deep south.
With no music industry contacts, the record went largely unnoticed, and Jim simply moved on, releasing a further album on the Playboy label in 1972. But by 1975, his marriage breaking up, Jim left, for Nashville and the promise of a new life as a sessioneer in the home of C&W. That’s where it gets hazy.
We know he was stopped by cops for swerving on the highway in Santa Rosa, some 15 hours after setting off. We know he was taken to a local police station, found to be sober, and told to go to the local La Mesa Motel to get some rest, which he did. Some time later, his car was spotted on a ranch belonging to the local Genetti family, who confronted him about his business there. The next day his car was found 26 miles down the road, abandoned. His car and his hotel room contained, among other things, his twelve-string guitar, his wallet, his clothes and several copies of his second album, but no note, and no Jim. It was as if he had simply vanished into thin air.
Jim’s family travelled out to join search parties looking for him, the local papers printed missing person stories, but the search proved fruitless. Around the same time, the local sheriff retired and the Genettis moved to Hawaii. Jim’s manager Robert “Buster” Ginter later stated that during the early morning hours of a long evening Jim and Buster were talking about what would you do if they had to disappear. Jim said he’d walk into the desert and never come back.
Tracking down the truth behind Jim’s mystery became an obsession of Light In The Attic’s Matt Sullivan (no relation) when he happened upon a copy of the album and fell in love. He took on a cross country pilgrimage in search of master tapes and truth, and came back with neither, despite hundreds of phone calls, e-mails, letters, faxes, private detectives, telepathy, palm readings and meetings with Jim’s wife, son and producer. Thanks to superb digital mastering techniques, Light In The Attic is still able to present a clean, near perfect copy of Jim’s masterpiece for general consumption for the first time. Enjoy. And remember, beyond the mystery, there’s the music.
LightInTheAttic
1. Jerome - 2:47
2. Plain As Your Eyes Can See - 2:27
3. Roll Back The Time - 2:14
4. Whistle Stop - 2:37
5. Rosey - 3:21
6. Highways - 2:51
7. U.F.O. - 2:5
8. So Natural - 3:2
9. Johnny - 4:5
10.Sandman - 2:31
All Music and Lyrics by Jim Sullivan
*Max Bennett - Bass
*Lyle Ritz - Bass
*Earl Palmer - Drums
*Don Randi - Keyboards
*Jimmy Bond - Double Bass
*Jim Sullivan - Vocals, Guitar
Shawn Phillips - Furthermore (1974 us, brilliant prog folk rock with funky vibes, 2014 issue)
Shawn Phillips is one of those legends that had been swept up in mystery, disappeared under the cloak of the sixties, or stripped of acknowledgement due to dirty management and contracts. Such is the case with the twelve-string acoustic genius, Shawn Phillips, one time flat partner with Tim Hardin, who played the Indian sitar for Donovan on “Sunshine Superman” and exquisite “Three Kingfishers”.
At the age of twenty Shawn moved to London and became known as a prolific writer, musician, and vocalist. Not only did he tutor Joni Mitchell at a very young age, but also this Texas born folk musician was a regular at the Bleecker / McDougal folk clubs of the early sixties.
Shawn’s 1974 Furthermore release has ex Big Three / Quartermass bassist John Gustafson ploughing into the progressive intro “January First”. It is here that you realize that Shawn was far from folk, but more in the jazzy confines of intricate Progressive Rock. As if to pacify the mayhem Shawn paints his brushes through the tranquil “Starbright” with Peter Robinson etching the canvass with his rippling keyboards while ex Blue Mink Anne Odell bends the mellotron on this choral stargazer. Shawn once told me on a 10min radio interview that Furthermore was his absolute assault and creation.
The album also boasts the ethereal cello of Paul Buckmaster, a master arranger of note. This album has dimension beyond the shifting sands of Camel or Caravan such as the spacey “Cape’ Barras” airlifting Shawn’s yodel vox. Shawn recruited phase axe innovator Caleb Quaye for the guitar inquisitions that sprouted out of “Ninety Two Years” and “Talking In The Garden”.Perhaps the most moistening deliverance saddles the infectious “Breakthrough”, a master in it’s own reflection. Each of Shawn’s albums has a dazzling gem that often blinds the listener, namely Collaborations that gave us the stirring “Moonshine” and “Spring Wind” while Furthermore, shimmered through “Talking in the Garden”, and then there was Bright White and the underrated Rumpelstiltskin Resolve.
by Shiloh Noone
1. January First (Shawn Phillips, Peter Robinson) - 3:11
2. Starbright - 3:51
3. Breakthrough - 5:45
4. Ninety Two Years - 3:07
5. See You - 4:14
6. Planscape (Shawn Phillips, Paul Buckmaster) - 4:16
7. Troof - 4:24
8. Cape Barres - 4:01
9. Song For Northern Ireland - 2:06
10.Mr. President - 3:35
11.Talking In The Garden - 3:13
12.Furthermore - 2:32
All selections written by Shawn Phillips except where noted
*Shawn Phillips - Vocals, Guitars
*Peter Robinson - Keyboards
*John Gustafson - Bass
*Barry De Souza - Drums
*Caleb Quaye - Guitar
*Paul Buckmaster - Cello
*Raul Mayora - Percussion
*Ann Odell - Mellotron On "Starbright"
1969-72 Shawn Phillips - Faces (2014 remaster)
1970 Shawn Phillips - Contribution / Second Contribution (2009 remaster)
Jesse Winchester - Learn To Love It / Let The Rough Side Drag (1974-76 us / canada, elegant folk world blues silk rock, 2012 remaster)
As the title suggests, making a virtue of necessity had always been one of Jesse Winchester's goals, and by the time of the release of his third album, the American expatriate had gone ahead and assumed Canadian citizenship. This seemed to free him to comment explicitly on his antiwar exile in "Pharaoh's Army" and especially a version of the old campaign song "Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt" updated with new lyrics: "In the year of 1967, as a somewhat younger man, the call to bloody glory came, and I would not raise my hand." Elsewhere, Winchester continued to write love songs to his lost South ("L'Air de la Louisiane," "Mississippi You're on My Mind") and, to a lesser extent, to pursue the wistful philosophizing found on Third Down, 110 to Go ("Defying Gravity").
The sense that he was repeating himself was inescapable, however, and with one-third of the album written by others and two of the originals in French Canadian, it was also obvious that Winchester was straining to come up with material. Interestingly, the two Russell Smith songs included, "Third Rate Romance" (which Smith sang uncredited) and "The End Is Not in Sight," went on to become Top 40 country hits for Smith's group, the Amazing Rhythm Aces, in the next two years. Stoney Edwards took "Mississippi You're on My Mind" into the country Top 40 in 1975.
At his best, Jesse Winchester is an inspired songwriter with a unique worldview. But even at less than his best, he is a craftsman, capable of turning out an album's worth of well-written songs like those here that, now and then, suggest his personal viewpoint. The title track, another of Winchester's reflections on the importance of persevering under difficult circumstances, and "Damned If You Do," which suggests that you might as well follow your heart because you're in trouble either way, are up to his usual standard. But even slight songs like "Everybody Knows But Me" are clever and enjoyable, and overall, Let the Rough Side Drag, with its accomplished mixture of country and R&B, was Winchester's most accessible album so far, even if it was his least ambitious.
by William Ruhlmann
Learn To Love It 1974
1. Wake Me - 2:26
2. Every Word You Say - 1:58
3. How Far To The Horizon - 2:18
4. L'air De La Louisiana - 2:20
5. Mississippi You're On My Mind - 3:29
6. Third Rate Romance (Russell Smith) - 3:39
7. Defying Garvity - 2:43
8. Tell Me Why You Look Like Roosevelt (Traditional) - 2:54
9. Pharaoh's Army - 1:18
10.Laisse Les Bons Temps Rouler - 2:36
11.The End Is Not In Sight (Russell Smith) - 2:40
12.You Can't Stand Up Alone (Martha Carson) - 2:04
Let The Rough Side Drag 1976
13.Let The Rough Side Drag - 2:40
14.Damned If You Do - 3:27
15.Step By Step - 3:02
16.Lay Down Your Burden - 4:13
17.Everybody Knows But Me - 2:58
18.Blow On Chilly Wind - 2:32
19.Working In The Vineyard - 2:48
20.How About You - 4:09
21.It Takes More Than A Hammer And Nails To Make A House A Home (Aaron Schroeder, David Hill) - 4:36
22.As Soon As I Get On My Feet - 3:16
23.The Only Show In Town - 2:31
24.The Brand New Tennessee Waltz (Reprise) - 3:31
All songs by Jesse Winchester except where stated
1974 Learn To Love It
*Jesse Winchester - Vocals, Guitar, Piano
*Amos Garrett - Guitar
*John Rigby - Strings
1976 Let The Rough Side Drag
*Jesse Winchester - Vocals, Guitar
*Keyboards, Flute
*Marty Harris - Bass, Background Vocals
*Chris Castle - Drums
*Bob Cohen - Guitar
*Christian St. Roch - Drums
*Maurice Beauchamp - Keyboards
*Ron Dann - Pedal Steel
*Carlisle Miller - Sax
*Bruce Murchison - Violin
*Ken Pearson - Piano
*Don Habib - Bass
*Bob Lucier - Pedal Steel
*Lorri Zimmerman - Background Vocals
*Sharon Ryan - Background Vocals
1970/72 Jesse Winchester - Jesse Winchester / Third Down 110 To Go (2012 remaster issue)
Barbara 'Sandy' Robison With The Peanut Butter Con...
Redwing - Redwing (1971 us, astonishing classic ro...
The Rowans - Sibling Rivalry / Jubilation (1976-77...
The Frantics - Relax Your Mind (1968 us, magical t...
Jim Sullivan - Jim Sullivan (1972 us, fascinating ...
Jim Sullivan - U.F.O. (1969 us, tremendous folkish...
Shawn Phillips - Furthermore (1974 us, brilliant p...
Jesse Winchester - Learn To Love It / Let The Roug...
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Stories from Saturday, December 17, 2016
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT (Column ~ 12/17/16)
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” —Exodus 20:17
SD ROUNDUP: Risco wins Clarkton Holiday Tournament in OT over South Pemiscot (High School Sports ~ 12/17/16)
CLARKTON, Mo. -- Nathan Burnett poured in a game-high 39 points to lead Risco to its first Clarkton Holiday Tournament championship since 2011 during a 62-61 overtime win over South Pemiscot Friday in Clarkton, Mo. Second-seeded Risco trailed by as many as 11 in the fourth quarter before they rallied to tie the game at 52-all at the end of regulation...
Scott County Central pushes pace, holds off Malden 67-61 (High School Sports ~ 12/17/16)
SIKESTON -- They may not be as explosive as when they were rattling off state championships just a few short years ago, but the Scott County Central Braves are still potent when they are able to push their pace. After eventually breaking loose from Malden's imposed speed, the Braves turned an early deficit into a 67-61 win Friday at Scott County Central High School...
Sikeston rolls past rival Notre Dame in tribute to longtime announcer (High School Sports ~ 12/17/16)
SIKESTON -- Last Friday, the Sikeston Bulldogs were flying high after clinching the SEMO Conference Tournament title with a win over Jackson in the championship game. Just three days later the mood changed as the team, and all of Sikeston, learned of the sudden passing of Bob Depro, longtime teacher and Sikeston Bulldogs public address announcer for decades...
R-6 officials say solicitations are not authorized (Local News ~ 12/17/16)
SIKESTON -- Area residents are being cautioned that an email claiming to sell advertisements for a high school calendar is a scam. Some area businesses and individuals this week received an email from "CW Promotions" with "Project Manager Samantha Woodward" soliciting advertisements for the "2017 Sikeston High School All Sports District Schedule Calendar."...
Former East Prairie resident masters life, college degree halfway around the world (Local News ~ 12/17/16)
BUSAN, South Korea - Mollie Triplett of Busan, South Korea, wants to be the best. "I wanted to be the best teacher I can be," said Triplett. "I wanted to do a good job at my chosen profession. I knew I needed to have the professional development and training to do and be the best."...
Carrier couple go the extra mile for their customers (Local News ~ 12/17/16)
SIKESTON -- To the 300-plus customers on their paper route, Larry and Kathy Pluhar are more than the people who deliver their Standard Democrat newspapers on a near-daily basis. The Benton couple are known to go the extra mile in ensuring the newspaper is delivered timely, dry and in one piece...
Three-vehicle crash (Local News ~ 12/17/16)
Traffic was rerouted for approximately 40 minutes while Sikeston Department of Public Safety personnel cleared an accident scene just before noon Friday. According to a DPS spokesman, a westbound truck on Malone Avenue failed to yield the right of way when making a left turn onto Dona Street. ...
A moment of silence (Local News ~ 12/17/16)
Sikeston fans watch a tribute video of Bob Depro Friday night at the Sikeston Field House. Depro, who announced Sikeston basketball games for over 50 years, died Monday.
Carrying on: Carrier couple go the extra mile for their customers (Local News ~ 12/17/16)
R-6 District officials say solicitations are not authorized (Local News ~ 12/17/16)
Bob Depro's impact will live on in Sikeston (Editorial ~ 12/17/16)
Despite my very best intent, I will never find the appropriate words to express the loss for our community with the passing of Bob Depro. Honestly, space will simply not permit a complete list of the ways that Bob impacted Sikeston and the amazing legacy he leaves behind...
Sherman Kimes (Obituary ~ 12/17/16)
PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. -- Sherman Day Kimes, 84, died Dec. 15, 2016, at his home. Born Sept. 11, 1932, in Portageville, to the late Franklin Day and Effie Mae Hoggard Kimes, he was a U.S. Army veteran, serving from 1953-1955 in Germany. He and his brother owned and operated Kimes Brothers Farms from 1958 until 2008...
Bobbie Lewis (Obituary ~ 12/17/16)
WARDELL, Mo. -- Bobbie Lewis, 65, died Dec. 16, 2016, at Baptist Memorial Hospital. Born July 7, 1951, in Kennett, to the late Juanita Clifton and Maurice Clifton, she had served in the U.S. Air. Force, was a member of the Red Hat Society and the Church of Christ of Wardell, and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force...
Annie Clifton (Obituary ~ 12/17/16)
FAIRDEALING, Mo. -- Annie Eldora Huffman Clifton, 84, died Dec. 13, 2016, at her home. Born July 22, 1932, in Parma, daughter of the late David Peter and Annie Ruth Victoria OGuim Huffman, she was raised in Olgesville and was a lifelong resident of Missouri. She was a member of the Pentecostal Church...
John Scott Mathis (Obituary ~ 12/17/16)
BERNIE, Mo. - John Scott Mathis, son of Vernon Carroll Mathis and June Faye Lawrence Mathis of Dexter, Mo., was born Jan. 18, 1962, in Sikeston, Mo., and departed this life on Dec. 16, 2016 in Benton, Mo., at the age of 54. John Scott was an employee of Donald Bond Construction Company, where he was a heavy equipment operator. He attended Liberty Hill General Baptist Church in Dexter. John was an avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed duck hunting, deer hunting and motorcycles...
Mary Ruth Brooks (Obituary ~ 12/17/16)
MATTHEWS, Mo. - Mary Ruth Brooks, 75, died Dec. 16, 2016, at Cotton Point Living Center in Matthews. Born Dec. 29, 1940, in Matthews, daughter of the late Raymond and Mary Lois (Moore) Dowdy, she had been a cook on a river boat and a beautician at Mary's Beauty Shop...
Gracie Givens (Obituary ~ 12/17/16)
CHAFFEE, Mo. - Gracie Iona Givens, 94, died Dec. 15, 2016, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. Born April 3, 1922, to the late Lawrence and Lou Surface McCulley, she worked for Advance Shoe Factory in Advance for five years. She also worked for and retired from Superior Electric in Cape Girardeau. After retirement she worked part-time for the Delta Schools. She was a member of New Life Full Gospel Church in Scott City...
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Sheepscombe History Society
A society for everyone who is interested in the
local history of Sheepscombe, Gloucestershire
Sheepscombe lies in a narrow valley hidden behind the Cotswold scarp, to the east of Painswick. Over time it has undergone several major changes. Five hundred years ago it was sparsely populated, and used as a deer park and hunting ground. The modern village has its origins in the seventeenth century, developing on the back of agriculture and the growing textile trade. The nineteenth century, however, brought a period of industrial decline, and Sheepscombe suffered from increasing poverty and a falling population. Since that time, its population has been revived once again and today it is a vibrant community, although no longer the working village that it used to be.
The Sheepscombe History Society exists to promote the study of the village's history, and to collect and preserve an archive of relevant historical material. All residents of Sheepscombe are members, and there is no membership fee.
This website seeks to make some of that material available to a wider audience, and to encourage others to join in that study.
The Society's meetings are open to all, whether resident in the village or not, and everyone with an interest in the subject will be made most welcome.
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The Complex Role of Protests in America
06/25/2020 Current Events, Resources for StaffBlack Lives Matter, protests, racial equity, resourcesAnnah Hackett
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by three Minneapolis police officers. His death was the latest in a long line of black people dying at the hands of police, including the late-night shooting death of EMT Breonna Taylor by Louisville police in her own apartment and the death of Mike Ramos, an unarmed man of black and Latinx descent, by Austin police on April 24, 2020. For many, it was also reminiscent of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in February, who was chased and shot by two white men while jogging near his home. While Arbery was not killed by police officers, it was a harsh reminder that the possibility of racially motivated violence against people of color is always present in American society.
Since late May, protests in response to police brutality against people of color and other acts of racist violence have spread across the country. Many of the protests have been guided by the principles of non-violence as set down by Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and other civil rights leaders. At a virtual town hall organized by the organization My Brother’s Keeper, former President Barack Obama both decried the police violence that led to Floyd’s death and also called upon protesters to remain peaceful.
However, in some places there has also been violence, including rioting and looting either by protesters or by other parties. Determining where a protest ends and a riot begins (if there even is a clear distinction) is difficult. Some scholars even argue that a certain degree of violence is an inevitable part of American protesting. After all, one of the most famous protests in American history– the Boston Tea Party– was an act of material destruction.
Likewise, the act of rioting has been construed by some as a means of last resort when all other avenues of change, including voting and peaceful protests, have failed. In a recent interview, Rep. Maxine Waters described the riots in California in 1992 as “an explosion of a hopelessness being played out” and went on to compare the 1992 riots to the current situation. While she points out several similarities between the two periods of unrest, including the lack of trust in the police, she also sees an important difference between them—specifically that in the recent protests there have been many white people joining black people in calling out for racial equity. In her words: “That’s telling us something — that it’s not only black people fed up with the police Establishment.”
Using the resources listed here, we invite you to explore the complex role protests play in American politics with a special emphasis on the ongoing struggle for racial equality. In future blog posts, we will discuss less frequently recognized events of racial violence in American history and the tradition of LGBTQ+ activism (including the Stonewall Riots of 1969).
Please note: All annotations have been taken from the resource itself.
Gottheimer, J., ed. (2003). Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches. Link.
Including a never-before published speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., this is the first compilation of its kind, bringing together the most influential and important voices from two hundred years of America’s struggle for civil rights, including essential speeches from leaders, both famous and obscure. With voices as diverse as Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Betty Friedan, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth, this anthology constitutes a unique chronicle of the nation’s civil rights movements and the critical issues they’ve tackled, from slavery and suffrage to immigration and affirmative action. This is an indispensable compilation of the words –the ripples of hope–that, collectively, have changed American history.
Cover of How To Read a Protest by L.A. Kauffman
Kauffman, L. (2018). How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organizing and Resistance. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520972209
In this original and richly illustrated account, organizer and journalist L.A. Kauffman delves into the history of America’s major demonstrations, beginning with the legendary 1963 March on Washington, to reveal the ways protests work and how their character has shifted over time. Using the signs that demonstrators carry as clues to how protests are organized, Kauffman explores the nuanced relationship between the way movements are made and the impact they have. How to Read a Protest sheds new light on the catalytic power of collective action and the decentralized, bottom-up, women-led model for organizing that has transformed what movements look like and what they can accomplish.
Streitmatter, R. (2001). Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. https://doi.org/10.7312/stre12248
Streitmatter tells the stories of dissident American publications and press movements of the last two centuries, and of the colorful individuals behind them. From publications that fought for the disenfranchised to those that promoted social reform, Voices of Revolution examines the abolitionist and labor press, black power publications of the 1960s, the crusade against the barbarism of lynching, the women’s movement, and antiwar journals. Streitmatter also discusses gay and lesbian publications, contemporary on-line journals, and counterculture papers like The Kudzu and The Berkeley Barb that flourished in the 1960s.
Tufekci, Z. (2017). Twitter and Tear Gas : The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. Link.
An incisive observer, writer, and participant in today’s social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protests—how they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change. Tufekci speaks from direct experience, combining on-the-ground interviews with insightful analysis. . . . These details from life inside social movements complete a moving investigation of authority, technology, and culture—and offer essential insights into the future of governance.
Peck, R., & Brown, J. (2016). I Am Not Your Negro. Documentary available on Kanopy. E-book available through UT Libraries.
I Am Not Your Negro documentary, a continuation of a book envisioned by Civil Rights activist James Baldwin
An Oscar-nominated documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO explores the continued peril America faces from institutionalized racism. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends–Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript. Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material.
Speeches and Music
Seale, B., & Educational Video Group. (1973). Bobby Seale : Speech on Black Panthers Movement. Link.
This is a video of Bobby Seale giving a speech about the values of the Black Panther Party.
Duration: 3 min.
Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs, 1960-1966. (1997). Link.
These 43 tracks are a series of musical images, of a people in conversation about their determination to be free. Many of the songs were recorded live in mass meetings held in churches, where people from different life experiences, predominantly black, with a few white supporters, came together in a common struggle. These freedom songs draw from spirituals, gospel, rhythm and blues, football chants, blues and calypso forms.
Online Resources and Newspaper Articles
Jackson, K.C. (1 June 2020). “The Double Standard of the American Riot.” The Atlantic. Link.
“Today, peaceful demonstrations and violent riots alike have erupted across the country in response to police brutality and the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Yet the language used to refer to protesters has included looters, thugs, and even claims that they are un-American. The philosophy of force and violence to obtain freedom has long been employed by white people and explicitly denied to black Americans.”
Hannah-Jones, N., et al. The 1619 Project. The New York Times Magazine. Link.
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
Texas After Violence Project (part of the UT Libraries Human Rights Documentations Initiative) Link.
In 2009, the Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI) partnered with the independent, Austin-based nonprofit organization, Texas After Violence Project (TAVP), a human rights and restorative justice project that studies the effects of interpersonal and state violence on individuals, families, and communities. Its mission is to build a digital archive that serves as a resource for community dialogue and public policy to promote alternative, nonviolent ways to prevent and respond to violence. The HRDI is working with TAVP to ensure the long-term preservation and access of its digital video testimonies, transcripts and organizational records.
Juneteenth: Celebrating Liberation
06/17/2020 Resources for StaffElle Covington
By Roxanne Bogucka
Juneteenth (variously called Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, or Cel-Liberation Day) is a holiday that commemorates the date when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the enslaved black people in Texas. “Juneteenth” is a portmanteau word formed from “June” and “nineteenth.”
Although the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, enslaved Texans were not apprised of this fact until Union Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, on June 19, 1865 (Acosta, 2020). While the text of General Order No. 3 announced that “all slaves are free,” it also stated that “Freedmen are advised to remain in their present homes, and work for wages.”
In Austin, freed persons organized the first Emancipation Day celebrations in what is now Eastwoods Park, just north of present-day Dean Keeton Boulevard (Hasan, 2017). Photographs of Austin’s Juneteenth observances in 1900, taken by a Mrs. Grace Stephenson, including this one of celebrants, are available in The Portal to Texas History. According to the Portal metadata, Mrs. Stephenson later sold her photos, along with a report of the day’s festivities, to the San Francisco Chronicle. A search for the article in America’s Historical Newspapers was unsuccessful. A reference staffer from the San Francisco Public Library replied that SFPL is unable to respond to these kinds of reference questions at the moment.
As freed persons dispersed from Texas, they carried with them the tradition of celebrating emancipation on June 19th. The database African American Newspapers, Series 1 has several articles about communities’ Juneteenth celebrations. The earliest reportage was published in the Parsons (KS) Weekly Blade, in 1895.
Enlarged images of Juneteenth coverage in the Parson’s Weekly Blade from June 22, 1895
In 1979, Texas State Representative Al Edwards (D-Houston) introduced House Bill 1016, legislation that led to Texas becoming the first of these United States to declare Juneteenth an official holiday. Today, Juneteenth is an official holiday or observance in 46 states and the District of Columbia (National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, n.d.). While not observed by the University of Texas, Juneteenth (Emancipation Day) is an official public holiday in the state of Texas. Do not get too excited by this, as the state of Texas also lists Confederate Heroes Day on its official calendar of holidays (Texas State Auditor’s Office).
The United Kingdom, which abolished the slave trade in 1807, and passed the Slavery Abolition Act nearly 30 years before the United States, has a related observance on 18 October—Anti-Slavery Day, whose unfortunate name raises inescapable questions about the other days of the year.
This year, with parades and gatherings being deemed unwise, Austin celebrates Juneteenth virtually. Stay Black and Live will be held online from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, June 19, 2020. There will almost certainly be a performance of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” also called the Black National Anthem. Learn the words, learn the tune, raise your voices in song on Friday, and raise your voices in citizenship every day.
Selected Resources from the UT Libraries
Abernethy, Francis E., ed. (1996). Juneteenth Texas. Denton, TX : Texas Folklore Society.
African American Newspapers, Series 1, https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/db/618 and Series 2, https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/aans2
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century. https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/db/10
African American Periodicals. https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/aap
Jordan, D., & Jordan, D. (2008). Juneteenth. (2nd ed.). Chicago: Heinemann Library.
“Describes the holiday known as Juneteenth Day, which has roots in Texas and which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.”
Sierra, Sali. (1988). Juneteenth and other freedom celebrations. Chicago: Society for Visual Education, Inc. [filmstrip]
“Explains the origins and histories of Black freedom celebrations in North America. Tells how, even though the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, it was not until June 19, 1865, that General Granger landed near Galveston, Tex., and spread the word that slavery had been abolished. Shows that the anniversary of Granger’s landing is celebrated today among Black communities as Juneteenth.”
Texas Newspaper Archive. https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/db/959
Works Consulted / Additional Reading
Acosta, Teresa Paloma. (2010, June 15. Modified: 2020, February 21). Juneteenth. In Handbook of Texas Online. Austin : Texas State Historical Association. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lkj01. Access date: June 14, 2020
The Anti-Slavery Day Act 2010. (2010). U.K. Statutory Instruments, 2010 No. 2325. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2325/made. Access date: June 14, 2020.
Conradt, Stacy. (2018, June 19. Updated: 2020, May 27). 12 things you might not know about Juneteenth. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501680/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-juneteenth. Access date: June 14, 2020.
Emancipation Proclamation. (1862). The National Archives. [online exhibit]. https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation. Access date: June 15, 2020
General Orders, No. 3. Retrieved from the Briscoe Center for American History. https://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=di_01803. Access date: June 8, 2020.
General Orders, No. 3. U.S. House, 54th Congress, 1st Session (H. Doc. 369, Part 2). “General Order Number 3,” 1896. U.S. Documents Collection. Y 1.1/2: SERIAL 3437
Gordon Granger. United States, None. [Between 1860 and 1870] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2018669780/. Access date: June 15, 2020
Hasan, Syeda. (2017, January 19). Staring down development, neighbors seek historical recognition for Emancipation Park. https://www.kut.org/post/staring-down-development-neighbors-seek-historical-recognition-emancipation-park. Access date: June 14, 2020
Juneteenth and General Order No. 3. (n.d.). Retrieved from GalvestonHistory.org. https://www.galvestonhistory.org/news/juneteenth-and-general-order-no-3. Access date: June 15, 2020
Legislative Reference Library of Texas. https://lrl.texas.gov/index.cfm. Access date: June 15, 2020
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. http://nationaljuneteenth.com/St_Holiday_Legislation.html
National Museum of African American History and Culture. (n.d.) The historical legacy of Juneteenth. https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/historical-legacy-juneteenth. Access date: June 8, 2020
(1895, June 22). Parsons Weekly Blade, p. 4. Available from Readex: African American Newspapers: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/apps/readex/doc?p=EANAAA&docref=image/v2%3A12B765516BD0CFE8%40EANAAA-12BE0D1D07C169A0%402413367-12BBC9429910C368%403. Access date: June 15, 2020
Stephenson, Grace Murray. (1900). Emancipation Day celebration. Austin History Center General Collection Photographs. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124053/. Access date: June 8, 2020.
Stephenson, Grace Murray. (1900). Emancipation Day celebration band. Austin History Center General Collection Photographs. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124054/. Access date: June 8, 2020.
Taylor, Derrick Bryson. (2020, June 13). So you want to learn about Juneteenth? New York Times. Access date: June 13, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration.html
Texas Remembers: Juneteenth. Texas State Library. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html
Texas State Auditor’s Office. (n.d.). http://www.hr.sao.texas.gov/Holidays/
U.S. House of Representatives. 54th Congress. (1896). The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records or the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, D.C. : Government Printing Office. https://www.tsl.texas.gov/outofthestacks/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GeneralOrders3_Juneteenth.pdf. Access date: June 14, 2020
Honoring Black Lives: Josephine Baker
06/02/2020 Current EventsBlack Lives MatterElle Covington
In light of everything that is going on in our country right now, I briefly considered cancelling plans to publish this post, which has been on our planning calendar since last Fall. The DAC blog team is working on other posts related to protests and social movements around racial justice and the history of systemic and violent racist oppression in the United States. Those posts will go up as soon as we are able to get them finished.
While we all grieve the violent and needless deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN; Michael Ramos in Austin, TX; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY; Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, GA; and Tony McDade in Tallahassee, FL, it is my hope that remembering the incredible life of Josephine Baker on the 114th anniversary of her birth will provide another avenue today for honoring black lives and black legacies in the United States.
Van Vechten, C. (1949) Portrait of Josephine Baker, Paris, 1949. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress.
Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis. Her early life was hard. Her father abandoned Baker and her mother shortly after she was born, and she began work as a maid at the age of 8 for white families at whose hands she experience both neglect and physical and sexual abuse. At the age of 11, she survived the East St. Louis Race Riots.
At age 13, Baker ran away from home. She began working as a waitress in a club and married a man named Willie Wells, whom she separated from after only a few weeks, though technically the marriage was never legal due to Baker’s age. She performed in clubs and on the streets until she began touring the United States with an all-black theatre troupe based out of Philadelphia. At 15, she married Will Baker, and though this marriage lasted only a little longer than her first, she kept the name Baker for the rest of her life.
Baker’s comedy skills provided her with increasingly successful performance roles and an undeniable place in the Harlem Renaissance. In 1925, she was invited to join La Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. She was 19 and already one of the highest paid performers in vaudeville. In Paris, her comedy and dance routines were celebrated, but it wasn’t until her performances turned to the more exotic that she truly achieved the international fame she is known for.
Photo Card No.101, Dancer Josephine Baker posing with a cheetah wearing a collar, photograph by Piaz Studios of Paris, Early 1930’s. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Baker embraced the exotification at the time, regardless of how she may have felt personally about her “Africanized” burlesque performances. She became a larger than life persona, even adopting a pet cheetah, which she named Chiquita, and walked on a leash with a diamond collar.
In 1927, she became the first black woman to star in a movie, Siren of the Tropics, a silent French Film. This debut was followed with two “talkies,” Zouzou in 1934 and Princess Tam Tam in 1935.
Baker’s fame continued to skyrocket. She expanded her repertoire and her performances matured until she was one of the highest paid performers in the world.
Baker was an American expat in Paris at the same time as Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, all of whom, along with other Jazz Age artists including Picasso and Colette, considered Baker as a muse.
She returned to the U.S. a couple of times, but was frustrated and disgusted at the racism she experienced. In the time of McCarthyism, she was accused of communism, and hounded by both the FBI and the CIA.
Baker married her third husband, a Frenchman, in 1937. Like the other marriages, this one didn’t last long, but it did provide Baker with the opportunity to become a French citizen, after which she renounced her American citizenship.
Over the years, she had many lovers of all genders, including a nearly 10-year relationship with her manager and a Sicilian count, Pepito Abatino. While Baker never labeled her sexuality, she did have affairs with women throughout her life, including Ada Smith, Colette, and possibly Frida Kahlo.
When World War II broke out, Baker remained in Paris, which by then, she considered her country. Baker worked as a nurse for the Red Cross. When France became occupied, Baker joined the French Resistance, smuggling information across enemy lines and hiding weapons and refugees at her chateau. Her international performances provided Baker with a unique opportunity. She would perform and attend parties at the Italian Embassy and then pass along any information she learned to the resistance, written in invisible ink on her music sheets.
For about a year and a half during the war, an illness kept Baker confined to a Casablanca clinic. However, even there, she joined the women’s auxiliary of the Free French forces as a sublieutenant and performed for the allied troops.
For her work during the war, Baker was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’Honneur with the Rosette of the Résistance.
When the war was over, Baker returned to France and turned her considerable energy to the fight for civil rights. She married (self-identified homosexual) bandleader Jo Bouillon, and though they eventually separated, they remained married throughout Baker’s life. Together, they adopted 12 children of different races and religions from around the world. Baker called them her “Rainbow Tribe.”
After 9 years of “retirement,” Baker found herself facing serious debts that forced her to return to performing. She returned to the stage with a musical autobiography called Paris mes Amours at the Olympia Theatre in Paris in 1959.
She often returned to the US throughout the 50s and 60s to support the Civil Rights Movement. While in the U.S., she refused to perform for segregated audiences, and in 1963, she was the only woman asked to speak at the March on Washington.
In 1969, she and her children were evicted from the chateau in southern France where they had lived since the end of the war. However, Princess Grace of Monaco stepped in, offering Baker and her family a villa in Monaco and helping to fund a new show titled Joséphine to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her Paris debut.
After a few performances of the new show, Baker died peacefully in her sleep in her chosen country, France. Even in death, Baker accomplished another notable first. She was the first and only American woman to be buried with military honors and a 21-gun salute in France. Over 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris to mourn her passing and honor her life.
Josephine Baker Biography. (2020). A&E Television Networks. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/performer/josephine-baker
Josephine Baker. (2004). In Encyclopedia of World Biography (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 448-451). Detroit, MI: Gale. Retrieved from https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/apps/doc/CX3404700392/GVRL?u=txshracd2598&sid=GVRL&xid=c379cd99
Norwood, A. R. (2017). “Josephine Baker.” National Women’s History Museum. Retrieved from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/josephine-baker
Josephine Baker. (2003). Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved from http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/j/josephine-baker/
Strong, L. Q. (2006). Baker, Josephine. Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com. Retrieved from http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/baker_josephine_A.pdf
CIA report on activities in Latin America of Negro singer Josephine Baker. (1953, February 10). United States: Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved from https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/apps/doc/CK2349254187/GDCS?u=txshracd2598&sid=GDCS&xid=52ea60d3
Josephine Baker in new challenge. (1969, March 11). Times, p. 5. Retrieved from https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/apps/doc/CS84504683/GDCS?u=txshracd2598&sid=GDCS&xid=8242988a
von Wangenheim, A. (2015). Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man’s World. San Francisco, California, USA: Kanopy Streaming.
Nalpas, M. & Étiévant, H. (1927). Siren of the Tropics. Paris, France. [film]
Allégret, M. & Nissotti, A. (1934). Zouzou. Paris, France. [film]
Greville, E. T. & Nissotti, A. (1935). Princess Tam Tam. Paris, France. [film]
Baker, J. (1952). Speech in St. Louis on the Third of February, 1952: The Josephine Baker Home Coming Day. UMSL Black History Project.
Baker, J., & Bouillon, J. (1977). Josephine. (1st ed.). Translated by Mariana Fitzpatrick. New York: Harper & Row.
Baker, J., & Sauvage, M. (1931). Voyages et aventures de Josephine Baker. Paris: M. Seheur. (Ransom Center)
Baker, J. & Sauvage, M. (1949). Les mémoires de Joséphine Baker. Paris: Corrêa. (Ransom Center)
Baker, J., & Chase, C. (1993). Josephine : the hungry heart (1st ed.). New York: Random House.
Jules-Rosette, B. (2007). Josephine Baker in art and life : the icon and the image. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. [Print].
News & Magazine Articles
La Baker Is Back. (1951). Life, 30(14), 55–60.
Curtiss, T. (1959). JOSEPHINE BAKER CONQUERS PARIS ANEW. Variety (Archive: 1905-2000), 215(2), 1, 66. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1032388739/
Cheng, A. A., & Baker, J. (2010). Second Skin Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface. Oxford : Oxford University Press. [electronic].
McAuliffe, M. (2016). When Paris sizzled : the 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and their friends. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. [electronic].
Willis, D. (2010). Black Venus 2010: They called her Hottentot. Philadelphia, Pa: Temple University Press. [electronic].
Powell, P. H., & Robinson, C. (2014). Josephine : the Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. [Print].
Baker, Josephine, Mario Braggiotti, and Jacques. Fray. “Josephine Baker : Complete Recorded Works, 1926-1927, in Chronological Order.” Document Records, 1999. Television.
PARIS MES AMOURS / JOSEPHINE BAKER, avec l’orchestre dir : JO BOUILLON ; Orchestrations : JO BOYER. (1959). Retrieved from http://ark.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k8816212k
Josephine Baker performing The Charleston on August 24th, 1928
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Act No. 20 of 2012, also known as the “Export Services Act”,
provides tax exemptions and tax credits to businesses engaged in
eligible activities in Puerto Rico, in order to develop Puerto Rico as
an international service center.
Download the Act 20 fact sheet >
Act No. 22 of 2012 or the “Individual Investors Act”. Attracts new residents to Puerto
Rico by providing a total exemption from income taxes on all passive income realized
or accrued after such individuals become bona fide residents of Puerto Rico.
Act No. 273, also known as the “International Financial Center Regulatory Act”,
provides tax exemptions to businesses engaged in eligible activities in Puerto Rico. To
avail from such benefits, a business needs to become an International Financial Entity
(“IFE”) and obtaining a tax exemption decree.
Download the Act 273 fact sheet >
Act No. 399 of the Puerto Rico Insurance Code was adopted in order to establish the
basis for the International Insurance Center (IIC), which provides a competitive
environment for reinsurers to cover risks in and out of Puerto Rico under a secure
and flexible regulatory system, with attractive tax benefits.
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Putnam Partners
Issue Advocacy
Christian joined Putnam Partners as an Associate in 2020. His interest in politics developed after volunteering for a state representative race in his home state of Florida. He has since volunteered on the 2016 Hillary For America Campaign, 2017 Virginia Coordinated Campaign, and served as a field organizer on a congressional campaign during the 2018 midterms.
While in college Christian co-founded and served as the Editor-in-Chief of his university’s first undergraduate political journal. He also served as an officer for his College Democrats chapter.
Christian is a graduate of Howard University with a degree in Political Science and a Minor in History.
© 2021 Putnam Partners
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university of nebraska business school ranking
FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd. and 47% female students. Learn how to explore all of your options. University of Nebraska--Lincoln Ranking Factors. Based on 67 evaluation factors, University of Nebraska Lincoln business program ranks #108 Business School (out of 3180; top 5%) in the United States and The Best Business School in Nebraska. Discover the perfect major for you based on your innate wiring. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence. Major competing business colleges for this college are University of Iowa in Iowa City and Iowa State University in Ames. The 20 top-ranking Canadian schools for business programs ... Canada’s best university business programs: 2020 rankings. View our Cookie Policy. Share on facebook; Tweet on twitter; National. Best Colleges for Information Technology in America. 45 in the publication’s annual ranking of business programs, which were released Sept. 12. Below are the median starting salaries by major for alumni of University of Nebraska--Lincoln. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 83%. Data provided by U.S. News College Compass Users. Paleontology combines geology and biology in the study of dinosaurs and other ancient life forms. Key statistics . University of Nebraska--Lincoln is ranked #133 in National Universities. 17, 2020. At University of Nebraska--Lincoln, 46% of full-time undergraduates University of Nebraska--Lincoln has a total undergraduate enrollment of 20,478, students and their Find out how to turn your hobby into a job, launch a start-up and more, in the FT Career Changers series. Read more about how we calculate our rankings. 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The second group includes schools from Esade Business School, ranked 14, to City, University of London, The Business School in 43th position. Video. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 20,478, its setting is city, and the campus size is 856 acres. The most popular majors at University of Nebraska--Lincoln include: Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services; Engineering; Agriculture, Agriculture Operations, and Related Sciences; Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs; and Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences. from students, alumni, staff and others. Major competing business colleges for this school are University of Minnesota Twin Citiesin Minneapolis and University of Iowain Iowa City. UNO's part-time MBA program is ranked in the top 100 in U.S. News and World Report's 2019 “Best Business Schools” rankings. Average MBA alumni salary … Save schools, compare and take notes. 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Businesses are stepping up to hire skilled refugees, Make the most of the right to choose where to work. to the See if University of Nebraska--Lincoln is ranked and get info on programs, admission, tuition, and more. OMAHA – The latest graduate school rankings from U.S. News and World Report, released March 16, recognize the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s part-time Master of Business Administration program. California Do Not Sell My Personal Information Request. The Innate Assessment sets you up for success by pairing you with majors, colleges and careers that fit your unique skills and abilities. University of Nebraska at Omaha Rankings. See all Graduate Schools Rankings for University of Nebraska--Lincoln » Online Program Rankings. and others who can provide additional insight into Undergraduate data are based on the 2019 school year. including nonremedial tutoring, women's center, placement service, day care, health service, health insurance. At the Nebraska College of Business, you don't have to wait to lead the future.Challenge yourself to stretch your strengths through hands-on projects and customize your path with experiences to power your career. The 10 highest-ranked schools are located in the Western Hemisphere. Keep up to date with our business education news and features on Facebook and Twitter. Best Colleges for Criminal Justice in America. reported by the institution * … Niche rankings are based on rigorous analysis of data and reviews. offenses to 14th and R Streets, Lincoln, NE 68588 | (402) 472-7211. fee at University of Nebraska--Lincoln is $45. This list of Big Ten schools is ranked according to our 2020 Best Colleges in America ranking. to evaluate the safety of a campus as well as the surrounding area. This school does not have enough reviews yet. Discover the world’s top universities for business & management studies, with the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2016. Discover the top 1000 disrupters and other rapidly-growing companies in the continent. 1 Nebraska Wesleyan University; 2 Creighton University; 3 University of Nebraska-Lincoln; To identify the Best Colleges in Nebraska for 2020 we averaged the latest results from the most respected college ranking systems with thousands of real student review scores from around the web to produce a unique College Consensus rating for each school.. You won’t find a more comprehensive ranking … At our collaborative, close-knit Big Ten business school, discover how you can use business to positively impact the world. At our collaborative, close-knit Big Ten business school, discover how you can use business to positively impact the world. a personalized ranking provided by U.S. News College the Best Colleges rankings. campus security and/or law enforcement authorities, not necessarily Two University of Nebraska-Lincoln programs – business and engineering – were ranked among the best in the United States, according to the latest U.S. News college rankings released Sept. 10.
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2020 Milwaukee Film Festival: “GOLDEN ARM”
Posted on Oct 30, 2020 by Robert Reineke | 0 comments
The 2020 Milwaukee Film Festival has been a welcome success ending its run yesterday. Despite the overwhelming options yet to be seen, I decided to end the festival on a lighter note with the film GOLDEN ARM.
GOLDEN ARM plays in the classic competition comedy arena. Danny (Betsy Sodaro), a truck driver by day, professional arm wrestler by night, is injured in a dirty move by her chief rival, the Bonecrusher (Olivia Stambouliah). Seeking revenge, Danny turns to her old college roommate Melanie (Mary Holland) and essentially tricks her into coming on the road with her. Melanie is suffering from a lack of confidence due to a failed marriage and a bakery business sinking under debt, but entering the world of professional arm wrestling might just be the way for her to regain her confidence.
GOLDEN ARM most decidedly does not reinvent the wheel. Reminiscent of DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY, GOLDEN ARM features all the quirky characters, silly costumes, erstwhile love interests, cartoonish villainy, and people taking a silly sport way too seriously that you’d expect. But it’s buoyed by a charismatic performance by Mary Holland who finds the emotional core and empowerment arc of her character, while still aiming for laughs. Holland and Sodaro also have a good dynamic going on, reminiscent of Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.
Perhaps GOLDEN ARM is too reminiscent of a Wiig/McCarthy joint as you can’t help but make the comparison to a studio film version. GOLDEN ARM has its charms, but there are plenty of times when you can imagine a bigger, sillier, more colorful version which has the time and money for multiple takes and ad libs. GOLDEN ARM is charming enough, but it never delivers any really big laughs. Still, of all the films that I’ve seen this festival, it’s easiest to imagine this having an extended life on streaming services. And I think a lot of people will be happy to check it out.
Alas, the 2020 Milwaukee Film Festival is now over, although Milwaukee Film will continue on. Hopefully, we’ll have a return to normal in the next year and they’ll be able to mount a 2021 Milwaukee Film Festival in person. But, kudos to Milwaukee Film for taking lemons and making lemonade out of them.
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All Hallow’s Lee: To the Devil a Daughter
Posted on Oct 16, 2015 by Robert Reineke | 1 comment
Hammer films was in dire straits by 1976. Their brand of period Gothic horror was decidedly out of favor with the rise of films like ROSEMARY’S BABY, THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE EXORCIST, and THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. Terence Fisher was retired, Peter Cushing was old and frail, and the many of the talented craftsman that had worked on their best pictures had left the company. To their credit, they had a reasonable plan to stay relevant. They hired older big name star Richard Widmark, they teamed him with Christopher Lee, and they adapted a Dennis Wheatley thriller which tapped into the same satanic horror fears that ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE EXORCIST tapped into quite successfully into TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER.
However, things didn’t work out as planned.
The plot of the film, as much as can be deciphered, finds excommunicated priest Father Michael Rayner (Christopher Lee) leading a heretical religious order and sending Catherine (14 year old Natassja Kinski) for a visit with her father (Denholm Elliott) on the eve of her 18th birthday. Catherine’s father is having second thoughts about his deal with the virtual devil that is Lee and contacts writer John Verney (Richard Widmark), a writer of supernatural thrillers like Dennis Wheatley, for help in spiriting Catherine away from the satanists. Verney consents, with the promise that Denholm Elliott’s information will be the basis for a best seller, and then finds himself in a deadly battle with the dark arts conjured up by Michael Rayner as Verney is the only thing that stands in the way of making Catherine the living manifestation of the devil Astaroth and ushering in an age of chaos. A plan that involves satanic orgies, demonic babies, and rechristening Catherine in demonic baby blood.
Or something like that, anyways. The script is more than a bit of a mess and director Peter Sykes doesn’t do much to make the material interesting. It’s hard to believe that a character burning to death in demonic hellfire could possibly be boring, but this is proof of that. TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER has much more adult material than Hammer’s other adaptation of a Wheatley novel, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, but it does nothing to really build up tension and John Verney and friends are pretty flat and uninteresting which contrasts sharply with the earlier adaptation which excels at those aspects. It has some memorably weird moments in the last third, and if naked 14-year old Natassja Kinski is your thing, this film delivers on that, but the journey isn’t worth the reward.
The primary culprit with the film, besides a dull script, is Richard Widmark. The idea was that this would be a big comeback for him. Instead, he looks utterly lost and uninterested in the material. Christopher Lee took a similar character in THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and crafted one of his very best performances. Richard Widmark looks like he’s waiting for the breakfast special at Denny’s.
Arguably, the only person on set that knew precisely what they were doing is Christopher Lee whose professionalism and presence elevates everything he touches. It helps that he has some of the juiciest material and lines like “It is not heresy, and I will not recant!” Lee plays his heretic priest as a true believer and seems to be getting great joy out of completing his lord’s work. It’s just that his lord happens to be Satan in this case.
Unfortunately, Christoper Lee alone and some of the odd effects (did I mention demonic babies?), aren’t enough to save a meandering, listless, low energy film. It was the end of the line for Christopher Lee and the studio that made each other famous. Hammer had a few more films to make before shuttering their doors, but this was the end of the line for the Gothic horror tradition started by THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.
The ironic thing is that Hammer was very close to hitting on a formula that would have revived the studio. Less than 3 months after TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER was released, another film regarding a Satanic conspiracy, with black magic inspired setpieces, and an old Hollywood star looking to revive his career hit the big screens and made a bundle. Watching THE OMEN in contrast TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER reveals every single misstep. THE OMEN has the right star in Gregory Peck, who is clearly engaged in what is happening and has a clear character arc, the setpieces are excellent, with Hammer regular Patrick Troughton being the star of a particularly memorable sequence, and the plot is straightforward with clear stakes that never stands still or gets muddled.
Perhaps a stronger director or producer, or someone in a position in power with a clear vision, could have salvaged TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER. No one with real vision and authority was apparently present in Hammer at that time, which perhaps makes the end of the line for the studio an inevitability. Christopher Lee showed he still had the chops that launched him and was still going strong as an actor or presence, but the without the likes of Anthony Hinds, Peter Cushing, or Terence Fisher to support him the studio had nothing left to give back. Like the climax, the studio’s day as a horror studio ended with a whimper.
Mrs Gail J Gray May 18, 2020
I love all of Christopher lees films and also Peter Cushing i have supported them since 1958, i miss them dearly, but i have many happy memories of them.
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About The Brizen Young People's Centre
In September 2009, a new purpose-built Youth Centre was built on the Brizen Recreation Field, after running a Youth project from a hired pod for 10 years. The POD only enabled about 12 young people access due to its size, but it was very popular and well used.
To enable a new build, the local authorities, with support from the police and a general management committee, worked for over a year to finance this project. With funding from The Severn Trent Community Flooding Fund and The Cory Environmental Trust, we raised the 100k needed and the centre was officially opened in 2009.
With support from the Parish Council of Leckhampton and Warden Hill, the centre is well used by hirers for public and entertainment purposes, along with a daily pre-school group.
The Youth Work sessions on a Monday and Friday are well attended and help young people to meet, socialise and open useful pathways for their future.
We function with a small board of Trustees who are enthusiastic and very dedicated to the wellbeing and the future of our young people in the Warden Hill and Hatherley/Leckhampton Area.
The Trustees maintain the hall, manage hall hire and fundraise in order to continue to provide youth work in the area.
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Gracious Living
Home Gracious Living The Art of the Lure
The Art of the Lure
by Janet Evans Hinman
Photo courtesy of Ilkka Jukarainen.
If there’s one piece of fishing gear that holds mystical properties in the hearts and minds of anglers, it’s the lure. Most enthusiasts have a favorite. It may have its own place of honor in the tackle box, or it may remain a secret and be carefully hidden away from prying eyes. Rumor has it that some anglers spit on them for good luck.
Rules abound for their use, like: “Use light on dark days and dark on light days.” There are spoons, spinners and buzzbaits, tubes and cranks, jitterbugs and streamers, jigs, trolling lures and a million types of flies. It’s a lot to keep track of, and the variety boggles the mind.
Crankbait. Photo courtesy of Ilkka Jukarainen.
It’s understood that at their basic level, lures are deceptions meant to replace live bait, which is hard to gather and often expires prematurely, or it’s used up before the day’s work is done, or it simply begins to smell bad when left in a cooler. Myths abound, but it’s no surprise that what you put on the end of your fishing line will have a big impact on the success of your fishing endeavor.
Over the years, anglers have experimented with what works and what doesn’t; however, there is no perfect lure that works every time. Part of what makes the fishing experience so alluring is adapting the tactics to overcome a challenge. Swapping stories with another angler who has experience catching the type of fish you’re after is perhaps the best way to learn about the best lure for your application.
Obviously, unlike natural bait such as worms and minnows, artificial fishing lures can be used over and over again to catch multiple fish. They’re designed to do one of two things (or both): Imitate smaller fish, insects, larvae and other creatures that fish eat in the wild; or attract fish with color, movement and/or reflective elements. Most fishing lures are designed to target a specific fish species or a group of similar fish species. Tackle manufacturers routinely provide information on the types of fish their lures are designed to target.
Fly Fishing Lure
“Fish are food driven,” said Robert Erickson, an experienced local sport fisherman. “Give them what they want to eat. If it’s shiny, sparkles, spins, looks wounded, or makes noise, the fish will probably be attracted to it.”
Anglers have long known that fish are often smarter than they’re given credit for. In a recent study, biologist Culum Brown found that, “Fish perception and cognitive abilities often match or exceed other vertebrates.” It turns out, they don’t have five-second memories, it’s more like a year or longer. The rest of us probably haven’t given the lures used to catch these clever creatures their due. In fact, the best lures are really works of inventiveness, science, utility and even art.
SOME ALLURING FAVORITES (according to sierra.com):
Spoon Lure — Although the simple spoon lure is one of the oldest types of fishing lure, it can still be a very reliable choice. A typical spoon lure consists of an oblong piece of metal with a treble hook (three-prong hook) at one end and a grommet or loop at the other. Many spoons have a colorful pattern applied to one side and a reflective, metallic surface on the other side. Some are reflective on both sides. The shape of a spoon causes the lure to wobble as it’s pulled through the water. This movement tempts predatory fish to strike.
Spinnerbait — Spinnerbait refers to a type of fishing lure that has one or more oval-shaped spinner blades, which are usually made of thin metal. The oval blades spin like propellers as the lure is pulled through the water, attracting fish with movement. The blades of most spinnerbait lures also have a reflective coating that helps catch the light, making the lure even more attractive to hungry fish. This design essentially imitates the appearance of swimming bait fish like minnows. Spinnerbait lures are ideal for targeting predatory species like bass and pike. Spinnerbaits come in a wide range of styles, sizes and colors and most anglers keep several options on hand.
Buzzbait — Designed to churn through the water like an egg beater, buzzbait lures are tools used by bass fishers to coax the really big ones out from cover. The primary characteristic that separates this lure from others is its ability to create vibrations as it’s pulled through the water; this attracts fish that may be unable to see the lure at first glance. Combined with movement and color, these “buzzer lures” are ideal for targeting bass in shallow water and tempting them out from thick cover, according to experts. Also, they say that buzzbait is ideal for night fishing.
Crankbait — When it comes to imitating bait fish, few other lures can match the crankbait, fans say. Available in a vast array of sizes and colors, this style of lure most often has two treble hooks pre-attached and a bill-shaped protrusion up front, although some designs are “lipless.” Bass in particular tend to find this type of lure very attractive. The size of the “bill” or “lip” on the front of the lure is what determines how deep the lure will dive. Experts say that lipless crankbaits are ideal for winter fishing when both predatory fish and their prey are less active due to cold water temperatures.
Jitterbug — The jitterbug lure is a classic topwater lure popular among bass anglers. It’s also well-known for its effectiveness for night fishing. A jitterbug has two cupped lips that create a side to side motion and a slight gurgling sound that is attractive to fish and helps the bait mimic actual jointed insects.
Jigs — Jigs are a specialized type of fishing lure designed for “ jigging,” using a jerky, vertical motion to attract predator fish. Fishing with jigs is widely considered to be a highly effective method for catching bass and other large, freshwater fish that respond well to the erratic behavior of bait. There are several jig varieties, including swimming jigs, football jigs and flipping jigs; each requires a slightly different technique to use effectively.
Trolling Lures — As the name implies, these lures are ideally suited for trolling, a method of fishing where one or more lines are drawn through the water, either behind a moving boat or by slowly winding the line in from a static position, or even sweeping the line from side to side. Although just about any lure or baited hook can be used for trolling, these lures are specifically designed for the purpose. Large trolling lures are frequently used for targeting medium-depth fish on the open ocean.
Fly Fishing Lures — These lures have been around for centuries, ever since the first angler whipped a line back and forth to catch dinner. With a combination of experience, art and science, fly fishers have tied their own special lures, and volumes have been written about them. Although the lures are called flies, but they’re actually representations of everything fish eat, from crayfish to minnows, to aquatic bugs, larvae and mayflies.
There’s a fish for every style of angler and there’s a lure for every kind of fish. Around the region this summer, they’re biting from the bay to the rivers, creeks, streams and ponds. Cobia, Red Drum, Rockfish, Trout, Bluefish, Spanish Mackerel, Flounder, Croaker, Spot, Brim, Perch, Bass and Crappie are just some of the possibilities. Consult an expert, grab a rod and choose your lures. Head for a favorite spot — go solo, with your family or a friend; perhaps try a charter excursion. There’s nothing like the open water to wash your cares away, especially when it’s accompanied by the sound of “fish on!”
lures fishing bait
2017 The House & Home Magazine
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Title: Polo
Subject: Cowboy polo, Manipur, Auto polo, Thoroughbred, Glossary of equestrian terms
For traditional sport see Chovgan
Two players disputing the ball in a polo match.
Highest governing body
Federation of International Polo
The Sport of Kings [1][2]
First played
Achaemenid Empire, 6th century BC [3]
4 per side
Equestrian, ball game, team sport, outdoor
Ball, stick, horse
Polo field (grass)
Esfehan, Iran.
No (since 1936)
Polo is a team sport played on horseback. The objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet. The traditional sport of polo is played at speed on a large grass field up to 300 yards (274 meters) long by 160 yards (146 meters) wide, and each polo team consists of four riders and their mounts. Field polo is played with a solid plastic sphere (ball) which has replaced the wooden version of the ball in much of the sport. In arena polo, only three players are required per team and the game usually involves more maneuvering and shorter plays at lower speeds due to space limitations of the arena. Arena polo is played with a small air-filled ball, similar to a small soccer ball. The modern game lasts roughly two hours and is divided into periods called chukkas (occasionally rendered as "chukkers"). Polo is played professionally in 16 countries. It was formerly, but is not currently, an Olympic sport.
1.2 Modern game
1.2.1 India and Britain
3 Polo ponies
6 The field
6.1 Outdoor polo
6.2 County polo
7 Contemporary sport
8 East and Southeast Asia
9 West Asia
10 Ireland
11 Variants
12 Notable players / 10 handicap players
13 Related sports
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, polo was first played in Persia (Iran) at dates given from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD.[4] Other authors give dates as early as the 5th century BC (or earlier)[5] Its birthplace was Asia and authorities credit Persian Emperor Shapur II of the Sassanid dynasty of the 4th century who learned to play polo when he was seven years old. It passed from Sassanid Persia to the neighboring Byzantine Empire at an early date, and a Tzykanisterion (stadium for playing polo) was built by emperor Theodosius II (r. 408–450) inside the Great Palace of Constantinople.[6] Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) excelled at it; Emperor Alexander (r. 912–913) died from exhaustion while playing; and John I of Trebizond (r. 1235–1238) died from a fatal injury during a game.[7] Naqsh-i Jahan Square in Isfahan is a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in the 17th century.
Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is the site of a medieval royal polo field.[8]
Qutubuddin Aibak, the Turkic slave from Central Asia who later became the Sultan of Delhi in Northern India, ruled as a Sultan for only four years, from 1206 to 1210, but died accidentally in 1210. While he was playing a game of polo on horseback (also called chougan in Persia), his horse fell and Aibak was impaled on the pommel of his saddle. He was buried near the Anarkali bazaar in Lahore(in modern day Pakistan). Aibak's son Aram died in 1211 CE [2], so Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, another ex-slave of Turkic ancestry who was married to Aibak's daughter, succeeded him as Sultan of Delhi.
After the Muslim conquests to the Ayyubid and Mameluke dynasties of Egypt and the Levant, whose elites favoured it above all other sports. Notable sultans such as Saladin and Baybars were known to play it and encourage it in their court.[9] Polo sticks were features on the Mameluke precursor to modern day playing cards.
A Persian miniature from the poem Guy-o Chawgân ("the Ball and the Polo-mallet") during Safavid dynasty of Persia, which shows Persian courtiers on horseback playing a game of polo, 1546 AD
Later on, polo was passed from Persia to other parts of Asia including the Indian subcontinent[10] and China, where it was very popular during the Tang Dynasty and frequently depicted in paintings and statues. Valuable for training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan by the Middle Ages. It is known in the East as the Game of Kings.[11] The name polo is said to have been derived from the Tibetan word "pulu", meaning ball.[12]
Modern game
India and Britain
The modern game of polo, though formalised and popularised by the British, is derived from Manipur, India, where the game was known as 'Sagol Kangjei', 'Kanjai-bazee', or 'Pulu'.[13] [14] It was the anglicised form of the last, referring to the wooden ball that was used, which was adopted by the sport in its slow spread to the west. The first polo club was established in the town of Silchar in Assam, India, in 1833
The origins of the game in Manipur are traced to early precursors of Sagol Kangjei.[15] This was one of three forms of hockey in Manipur, the other ones being field hockey (called Khong Kangjei) and wrestling-hockey (called Mukna Kangjei). Local rituals such as those connected to the Marjing, the Winged-Pony God of Polo and the creation-ritual episodes of the Lai Haraoba festival enacting the life of his son, Khori-Phaba, the polo-playing god of sports. These may indicate an origin earlier than the historical records of Manipur. Later, according to Chaitharol-Kumbaba, a Royal Chronicle of Manipur King Kangba who ruled Manipur much earlier than Nongda Lairen Pakhangba (33 AD) introduced Sagol Kangjei (Kangjei on horse back). Further regular playing of this game commenced in 1605 during the reign of King Khagemba under newly framed rules of the game.
Old polo field in Imphal, Manipur
In Manipur, polo is traditionally played with seven players to a side. The players are mounted on the indigenous Manipuri pony, which stands less than 13 hands (52 inches, 132 cm). There are no goal posts, and a player scores simply by hitting the ball out of either end of the field. Players strike the ball with the long side of the stick (not the end as in croquet; players are also permitted to carry the ball, though doing so allows opponents to physically tackle them when they are doing so. The sticks are made of cane, and the balls are made from the roots of bamboo. Colorful cloth pom-poms dangle at sensitive and vulnerable spots around the anatomy of the ponies to protect them. Players protected their legs by attaching leather shields to their saddles and girths.[16]
In Manipur, the game was not merely a "rich" game but was played even by commoners who owned a pony.[12] The kings of Manipur had a royal polo ground within the ramparts of their Kangla Fort. Here they played Manung Kangjei Bung (literally, "Inner Polo Ground"). Public games were held, as they are still today, at the Mapan Kangjei Bung (literally "Outer Polo Ground"), a polo ground just outside the Kangla. Weekly games called Hapta Kangjei (Weekly Polo) were also played in a polo ground outside the current Palace.
The oldest polo ground in the world is the Imphal Polo Ground in Manipur State. The history of this pologround is contained in the royal chronicle "Cheitharol Kumbaba" starting from AD 33. Lieutenant Joseph Ford Sherer, the father of modern polo visited the state and played on this polo ground in the 1850s. Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India visited the state in 1901 and measured the pologround as 225 yards long and 110 yards wide.
In 1862 the first polo club, Calcutta Polo Club, was established by two British soldiers, Captain Robert Stewart and Major General Joseph Ford Sherer.[17] Later they spread the game to their peers in England. The British are credited with spreading polo worldwide in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Military officers imported the game to Britain in the 1860s. The establishment of polo clubs throughout England and western Europe followed after the formal codification of rules.[16] The 10th Hussars at Aldershot, Hants, introduced polo to England in 1834. The game's governing body in the United Kingdom is the Hurlingham Polo Association, which drew up the first set of formal British rules in 1874, many of which are still in existence.
Luis Lacey, former captain of Argentine Polo Team in 1922
Meanwhile, British settlers in the Argentine pampas started practising it during their free time. Among them, David Shennan is credited with having organised the first formal polo game of the country in 1875, at Estancia El Negrete, located in the province of Buenos Aires.
The sport spread fast between the skilful gauchos and several clubs opened in the following years in the towns of Venado Tuerto, Cañada de Gómez, Quilmes, Flores and later (1888) Hurlingham. In 1892 The River Plate Polo Association was founded and constituted the basis for the current Asociación Argentina de Polo. In the Olympic Games held in Paris in 1924 a team composed by Juan Miles, Enrique Padilla, Juan Nelson, Arturo Kenny, G. Brooke Naylor and A. Peña obtained the first gold medal for the country's olympic history; this also occurred in Berlín 1936 with players Manuel Andrada, Andrés Gazzotti, Roberto Cavanagh, Luis Duggan, Juan Nelson, Diego Cavanagh and Enrique Alberdi.
From then on, the game spread powerfully across the country and Argentina is credited globally as the mecca of polo, mainly because Argentina is notably the country with the largest number ever of 10 handicap players in the world.
Five great teams were able to ensemble together four 10 handicap players in order to make a 40 handicap team: Coronel Suárez, 1975, 1977-1979 (Alberto Heguy, Juan Carlos Harriott, Alfredo Harriot and Horacio Heguy); La Espadaña, 1989-1990 (Carlos Gracida, Gonzalo Pieres, Alfonso Pieres y Ernesto Trotz Jr.); Indios Chapaleufú, 1992-1993 (Bautista Heguy, Gonzalo Heguy, Horacio Heguy Jr. and Marcos Heguy); La Dolfina, 2009-2010 (Adolfo Cambiaso Jr., Lucas Monteverde, Mariano Aguerre y Bartolomé Castagnola); Ellerstina, 2009 (Facundo Pieres, Gonzalo Pieres Jr., Pablo Mac Donough and Juan Martín Nero).
Argentina was host of the ninth edition of the World Polo Championship (for teams of up to 14 goals) at the Estancia Grande Polo Club, in the province of San Luis in October 2011.[18]
The three major polo tournaments in Argentina, known as “Triple Corona” ("Triple Crown"), are Hurlingham Polo Open, Tortugas Polo Open, Palermo Polo Open. Polo season usually last from October to December.[19]
Tang Dynasty Chinese courtiers on horseback playing a game of polo, 706 AD
A polo match at the Kentucky Horse Park
This version of polo played in the 19th century was different from the faster form that was played in Manipur. The game was slow and methodical, with little passing between players and few set plays that required specific movements by participants without the ball. Neither players nor horses were trained to play a fast, nonstop game. This form of polo lacked the aggressive methods and equestrian skills to play. From the 1800s to the 1910s, a host of teams representing Indian principalities dominated the international polo scene.[16]
Polo then found popularity throughout the rest of the Americas like Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the United States of America.[20][21]
H.L. Herbert, James Gordon Bennett and August Belmont financed the original New York Polo Grounds. Herbert stated in a 1913 article[22] that they formed the Westchester Club after the "first" outdoor game was played on 13 May 1876. This contradicts the historical record of the club being established before the Jerome Park game..
There is, however, ample evidence that the first to play polo in America was actually the English Texans. The Galveston News reported on 2 May 1876[23] that Denison Texas had a Polo Club which was before James Gordon Bennett established his Westchester Club or attempted to play the "first" game. The Denison team sent a letter to James Gordon Bennett challenging him to a match game. The challenge was published 2 June 1876 in The Galveston Daily News. By the time the article came out on 2 June the Denison Club had already received a letter from Bennett indicating the challenge was offered before the "first" games in New York.[24]
There is also an urban legend that the first game of polo in America was played in Boerne, Texas at retired British officer Captain Glynn Turquand's famous Balcones Ranch[25] The Boerne, Texas legend also has plenty of evidence pointing to the fact that polo was played in Boerne before James Gordon Bennett Jr. ever picked up a polo mallet.[26]
During the early part of the 20th century, under the leadership of Harry Payne Whitney, polo changed to become a high-speed sport in the United States, differing from the game in England, where it involved short passes to move the ball toward the opposition's goal. Whitney and his teammates used the fast break, sending long passes downfield to riders who had broken away from the pack at a full gallop.
In the late 1950s, champion polo player and Director of the Long Island Polo Association, Walter Scanlon, introduced the "short form", or "European" style, four period match, to the game of polo.[27]
Director Walter Scanlon - Bethpage, Long Island - POLO
Iranian polo player
The rules of polo are written and used to provide for the safety of both players and horses. The rules are enforced in the game by the umpires who blow whistles when a penalty occurs. Strategic plays in polo are based on the "line of the ball", an imaginary line created by the ball as it travels down the field. This line traces the ball's path and extends past the ball along that trajectory. The line of the ball defines rules for players to approach the ball safely. These rules are created and enforced to ensure the welfare of players and their horses. The "line of the ball" changes each time the ball changes direction. The player who hit the ball generally has the right of way, and other players cannot cross the line of the ball in front of that player. As players approach the ball, they ride on either side of the line of the ball giving each access to the ball. A player can cross the line of the ball when it does not create a dangerous situation. Most fouls and penalty shots are related to players improperly crossing the line of the ball or the right of way. When a player has the line of the ball on his right, he has the right of way. A "ride-off" is when a player moves another player off the line of the ball by making shoulder-to-shoulder contact with the other players’ horses.
The defending player has a variety of opportunities for his or her team to gain possession of the ball. He/she can push the opponent off the line or steal the ball from the opponent. Another common defensive play is called "hooking." While a player is taking a swing at the ball, his/her opponent can block the swing by using his/her mallet to hook the mallet of the player swinging at the ball. A player may hook only if is he/she is on the side where the swing is being made or directly behind an opponent. A player may not purposely touch another player, his/her tack or pony with his/her mallet. Unsafe hooking is a foul that will result in a penalty shot being awarded. For example, it is a foul for a player to reach over an opponent's mount in an attempt to hook.
The other basic defensive play is called the bump or ride-off. It's similar to a body check in hockey. In a ride-off, a player rides his pony alongside an opponent's mount in order to move an opponent away from the ball or to take him out of a play. It must be executed properly so that it does not endanger the horses or the players. The angle of contact must be safe and can not knock the horses off balance, or harm the horses in any way. Two players following the line of the ball and riding one another off have the right of way over a single man coming from any direction.
Like in hockey or basketball, fouls are potentially dangerous plays that infringe on the rules of the game. To the novice spectator, fouls may be difficult to discern. There are degrees of dangerous and unfair play and penalty shots are awarded depending based on the severity of the foul and where the foul was committed on the polo field. White lines on the polo field indicate where the mid-field, sixty, forty and thirty yard penalties are taken.
The official set of rules and rules interpretations are reviewed and published each year by each country's polo association. Most of the smaller associations follow the rules of the Hurlingham Polo Association, the national governing body of the sport of polo in the United Kingdom.
Polo ponies
Polo ponies waiting for the game to begin
The mounts used are called 'polo ponies', although the term pony is purely traditional and the mount is actually a full-sized horse. They range from 14.2 to 16 hands (58 to 64 inches, 147 to 163 cm) high at the withers, and weigh 900–1,100 pounds (410–500 kg). The polo pony is selected carefully for quick bursts of speed, stamina, agility and manoeuvrability. Temperament is critical; the horse must remain responsive under pressure and not become excited or difficult to control. Many are Thoroughbreds or Thoroughbred crosses. They are trained to be handled with one hand on the reins, and to respond to the rider's leg and weight cues for moving forward, turning and stopping. A well trained horse will carry its rider smoothly and swiftly to the ball and can account for 60 to 75 percent of the player's skill and net worth to his team.
Polo pony training generally begins at age three and lasts from about six months to two years. Most horses reach full physical maturity at about age five, and ponies are at their peak of athleticism and training at around age 6 or 7. However, without any accidents, polo ponies may have the ability to play until they are 18 to 20 years of age.
Each player must have more than one pony, so tired mounts can be exchanged for fresh mounts between or even during chukkas. A player's "string" of polo ponies may number 2 or 3 in Low Goal matches (with ponies being rested for at least a chukka before reuse), 4 or more for Medium Goal matches (at least one per chukka), and even more for the highest levels of competition.
A girls' polo team, United States
Each team consists of four mounted players, which can be mixed teams of both men and women.
Each position assigned to a player has certain responsibilities:
Number One is the most offence-oriented position on the field. The Number One position generally covers the opposing team's Number Four.
Number Two has an important role in offence, either running through and scoring themselves, or passing to the Number One and getting in behind them. Defensively, they will cover the opposing team's Number Three, generally the other team's best player. Given the difficulty of this position, it is not uncommon for the best player on the team to play Number Two so long as another strong player is available to play Three.
Number Three is the tactical leader and must be a long powerful hitter to feed balls to Number Two and Number One as well as maintaining a solid defence. The best player on the team is usually the Number Three player, usually wielding the highest handicap.
Number Four is the primary defence player. They can move anywhere on the field, but they usually try to prevent scoring. The emphasis on defence by the Number Four allows the Number Three to attempt more offensive plays, since they know that they will be covered if they lose the ball.
Polo must be played right-handed.
Polo helmet with face guard
Polo mallets and ball
Polo player wearing kneepads, "riding off" an opponent
The basic dress of a player is a protective equestrian helmet (usually of a distinctive colour, to be distinguished at the considerable distance from which onlookers are watching the game), riding boots to just below the knees, white trousers (often ordinary denim jeans), and a coloured shirt bearing the number of the player's position. Optional equipment includes one or two gloves, wristbands, kneepads (mandatory in some clubs), spurs, face mask, and a whip. The only piece of equipment required by the United States Polo Association (USPA) rules is the helmet or cap with a chin strap.[28]
The outdoor polo ball is made of a high-impact plastic, but was formerly made of either bamboo or willow root. The indoor polo ball is leather-covered and inflated, and is about 4 1⁄2 inches (11 cm) in diameter. The outdoor ball is about 3 1⁄4 inches (8.3 cm) in diameter and weighs about four ounces (113.4 g). The polo mallet has a rubber-wrapped grip and a webbed thong, called a sling, for wrapping around the thumb. The shaft is made of manau-cane (not bamboo because it is hollowed) although a small number of mallets today are made from Composite materials. Composite materials are not preferred by top players, because the shaft of composite mallets can't absorb vibrations as well as traditional cane mallets. The heads of the mallet are generally a cigar shape made from a hardwood called tipa, approximately 91⁄4" inches long. The mallet head weighs from 160 grams (5.6 ounces) to 240 grams (8.4 ounces), depending on player preference and the type of wood used, and the shaft can vary in weight and flexibility depending on the player's preference. The weight of the mallet head is of important consideration for the more seasoned players. Female players often use lighter mallets than male players. For some polo players, the length of the mallet depends on the size of the horse: the taller the horse, the longer the mallet. However, some players prefer to use a single length of mallet regardless of the height of the horse. Either way, playing horses of differing heights requires some adjustment by the rider. Variable lengths of the mallet typically range from 50 inches (127 centimeters) to 53 inches (134 centimeters). The term mallet is used exclusively in US English; British English prefers the term polo stick as the stick technically differs from a mallet in shape and usage. The ball is struck with the broad sides of the mallet head rather than its round and flat tips.
Polo saddle
Polo saddles are English-style, close contact, similar to jumping saddles; although most polo saddles lack a flap under the billets. Some players will not use a saddle blanket. The saddle has a flat seat and no knee support; the rider adopting a forward-leaning seat and closed knees dissimilar to a classical dressage seat. A breastplate is added, usually attached to the front billet. A standing martingale must be used: so, a breastplate is a necessity for safety. The tie-down is usually supported by a neck strap. Many saddles also have an overgirth. The stirrup irons are heavier than most, and the stirrup leathers are wider and thicker, for added safety when the player stands in the stirrups. The legs of the pony are wrapped with polo wraps from below the knee to the fetlock to prevent hurting. Jumping (open front) or gallop boots are sometimes used along with the polo wraps for added protection. Often, these wraps match the team colours. The pony's mane is most often roached (hogged), and its tail is docked or braided so that it will not snag the rider's mallet.
Polo is ridden with double reins for greater accuracy of signals. The bit is frequently a gag bit or Pelham bit. In both cases, the gag or shank rein will be the bottom rein in the rider's hands, while the snaffle rein will be the top rein. If a gag bit is used, there will be a drop noseband in addition to the cavesson, supporting the tie-down. One of the rein sets may alternately be draw reins.
Relative sizes of an association football ground and a polo field.
The playing field is 300 yards (274 metres) long by 160 yards (146 metres) wide, the approximate area of nine American football fields. The playing field is carefully maintained with closely mowed turf providing a safe, fast playing surface. Goals are posts which are set eight yards apart, centred at each end of the field. The surface of a polo field requires careful and constant grounds maintenance to keep the surface in good playing condition. During half-time of a match, spectators are invited to go onto the field to participate in a polo tradition called "divot stamping", which has developed to not only help replace the mounds of earth (divots) that are torn up by the horses' hooves, but to afford spectators the opportunity to walk about and socialise.
Outdoor polo
The game consists of four to eight 7 minute chukkas, between or during which players change mounts. At the end of each 7 minute chukka, play continues for an additional 30 seconds or until a stoppage in play, whichever comes first. There is a four minute interval between chukkas and a ten minute halftime. Play is continuous and is only stopped for penalties, broken tack (equipment) or injury to horse or player. The object is to score goals by hitting the ball between the goal posts, no matter how high in the air. If the ball goes wide of the goal, the defending team is allowed a free 'knock-in' from the place where the ball crossed the goal line, thus getting the ball back into play.
County polo
With most clubs in the UK, players need to become members, and invest in at least two ponies to be able to play "standard" club chukkas. It is usual to play four back-to-back chukkas using each pony for two chukkas alternately, so that they each play, then rest and then play again.
For many people, this requires a very large financial investment, which can be too costly for some. County Polo creates more affordable parameters for newcomers to the sport. Players are only required to use one pony, which may be hired, or owned. This form of polo is usually played with three players per side—as opposed to the standard four-player polo—and therefore allows each player to get more involved and develop.
The County Polo chukkas are usually overseen by a qualified mounted Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) instructor / umpire, who will coach and explain throughout the chukka.
With this format, including shorter chukkas, with breaks in between, the ponies are not getting over tired, so there is no need for such a large "string". Players may well continue to play polo at this level for many years, or players with more ambition could benefit from the tuition if they move onto more competitive polo.
County Polo is best complemented with regular stick-and-ball sessions, and regular wooden horse practice.
County Polo has had a resurgence in recent years, although the original County Polo Association was formed in 1898* to look after the interests of the country clubs and to run the County Cup Tournaments), the three London polo clubs—Hurlingham, Ranelagh and Roehampton—and from all associations within the Empire where polo was being played.[29]
Contemporary sport
Polo played as a part of the 1900 Summer Olympics
Polo is now an active sport in 77 countries, and although its tenure as an Olympic sport was limited to 1900–1939, in 1998 the International Olympic Committee recognised it as a sport with a bona fide international governing body, the Federation of International Polo. The World Polo Championship is held every three years by the Federation of International Polo.
Polo is, however, played professionally in only a few countries, notably Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Iran, India, New Zealand, Mexico, Pakistan, Jamaica, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[30] Polo is unique among team sports in that amateur players, often the team patrons, routinely hire and play alongside the sport's top professionals.
The most importants tournaments of the world, in a clubs level, are Abierto de Tortugas, Abierto de Hurlingham and Abierto Argentino de Polo, all of them in Argentina (la Triple Corona).
The United States Polo Association (USPA) is the governing body for polo in the U.S. The U.S. is the only country that has separate women's polo, run by the United States Women's Polo Federation.
The modern sport has had difficulty grappling with the traditional social and economic exclusivity associated with a game that is inevitably expensive when played at a serious level. Many polo players genuinely desire to broaden public participation in the sport, both as an end in itself and to increase the standard of play, while others value and seek to preserve the social and economic exclusivity of the sport. The popularity of polo has grown steadily since the 1980s.
Indonesia plays against Thailand in SEA Games Polo 2007
Polo was played at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games. Nations that competed in the tournament were Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines. The tournament's gold medal was won by the Malaysian team, followed by Singapore with silver and Thailand with bronze.
The recent surge of excitement in south-east Asia around the game has resulted in its popularity in cities such as [31]
A new Chinese Equestrian Association has been formed and two new clubs have been formed in China itself: the Beijing Sunny Time Polo Club, founded by Xia Yang in 2004[32] and the Nine Dragons Hill Polo Club in Shanghai, founded in 2005.[33]
Polo is not widely spread in West Asia, but still counts 5 active clubs in Iran, 4 active polo clubs in the UAE, one club in Bahrain [34] and The Royal Jordanian Polo Club, in Amman, Jordan.[35]
Polo in Iran is governed by the Polo Federation of Iran. There are five polo clubs in Iran: Ghasr Firoozeh, Noroozabad, Army Ground Forces, Kanoon Chogan and Nesfeh Jahan. Iran possesses some of the best grass polo fields in the region. The country currently has over 100 registered players of which approximately 15% are women. Historically, Kurdish and Persian Arabian horses were the most widely used for polo. This was probably also the case in ancient times. Today Thoroughbreds are being increasingly used alongside the Kurdish and Persian Arabian horses. Some players have also been experimenting with Anglo-Arabians. Iranians still refer to the game of polo by its original Persian name of "Chogan", which means mallet. Iranians still maintain some of the ancient rituals of the game in official polo matches.
Polo first began its Irish history in 1870 with the first official game played on Gormanstown Strand, Co. Meath. Three years later the All Ireland Polo Club was founded by Mr. Horace Rochford in the Phoenix Park.[36] Since then the sport has continued to grow with a further seven clubs opening around the country. The sport has also been made more accessible by these clubs by the creation of more affordable training programmes such as from beginner to pro programme at Polo Wicklow.[37]
An old Polocart displayed at City Palace, Jaipur. The museum also displays a "night polo ball" with a rotating platform on which a candle is placed.[38]
Sagol Kangjei, discussed above, is arguably a version of polo though it can also be seen as the precursor of modern outdooor polo.
Arena polo (or indoor polo) is an affordable option for many who wish to play the sport, with rules similar to the regular version. The sport is played in a 300 feet by 150 feet enclosed arena, much like those used for other equestrian sports; the minimum size is 150 feet by 75 feet. There are many arena clubs in the United States, and most major polo clubs, including the Santa Barbara Polo & Raquet Club, have active arena programs. The major differences between the outdoor and indoor games are: speed (outdoor being faster), physicality/roughness (indoor/arena is more physical), ball size (indoor is larger), goal size (because the arena is smaller the goal is smaller), and some penalties. In the United States and Canada, collegiate polo is arena polo; in the UK, collegiate polo is both.
A form of arena polo seen almost exclusively in the western United States is cowboy polo.
Another modern variant is snow polo, which is played on compacted snow on flat ground or a frozen lake. The format of snow polo varies depending on the space available. Each team generally consists of three players and a bright coloured light plastic ball is preferred.[39]
A popular combination of the sports of polo and lacrosse is the game of polocrosse, which was developed in Australia in the late 1930s.
These sports are considered as separate sports because of the differences in the composition of teams, equipment, rules, game facilities etc.
Polo is not played exclusively on horseback. Such polo variants are mostly played for recreational or tourist purposes; they include canoe polo, cycle polo, camel polo, elephant polo, golfcart polo, Segway polo and yak polo. In the early 1900s in the United States, cars were used instead of horses in the sport of Auto polo.[40] Hobby Horse Polo is using hobby horses instead of ponies. It uses parts of the polo rules but has its own specialities, as e.g. 'punitive sherries'. The Hobby Horse variant started 1998 as a fun sport in south western Germany and lead 2002 to the foundation of the First Kurfürstlich-Kurpfälzisch Polo-Club in Mannheim. In the meantime it gained further interest in other German cities.[41]
Notable players / 10 handicap players
Related sports
Buzkashi involves two teams of horse riders, a dead goat and few rules. It is played in Central Asia, and has a variant known as kokpar which is quite similar.
Cycle polo is a similar game played on bicycles instead of horses.
Cowboy polo uses rules similar to regular polo, but riders compete with western saddles, usually in a smaller arena, using an inflatable rubber medicine ball.
Horseball is a game played on horseback where a ball is handled and points are scored by shooting it through a high net. The sport is a combination of polo, rugby, and basketball.
Pato was played in Argentina for centuries, but is much different than modern polo. No mallets are used, and it is not played on grass.
Polocrosse is another game played on horseback, a cross between polo and lacrosse.
Water polo shares a name with polo, but more closely resembles team handball.
Auto polo was a motorsport invented in the United States with rules and equipment similar to polo but using automobiles instead of horses.
Yak polo is played in Mongolia.
^ "Preview: The Sport of Kings", CBS News, 5 April 2012
^ "Polo: the sport of kings that anyone can play", The Telegraph, 29 April 2010
^ "Historia del Polo", Buenos Aires Travel website
^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468128/polo
^ R. G. Goel, Veena Goel, Encyclopaedia of sports and games, Published by Vikas Pub. House, 1988, excerpt from page 318: Persian Polo.
^ Christopher Kelly. "Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity" Cambridge University Press. 2013. p. 4
^ "Playing Polo in Historic Naqsh-e Jahan Square?". Payvand.com. 29 October 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ "Touregypt.net". Touregypt.net. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ Malcolm D. Whitman, Tennis: Origins and Mysteries, Published by Courier Dover Publications, 2004, ISBN 0-486-43357-9, p. 98.
^ "Polo History".
^ a b Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th centuries on 17th centuriesby Robert Crego.bring the polo game from India,manipur page 25. Published 2003. Greenwood Press. Sports & Recreation. 296 pages ISBN 0-313-31610-4
^ "Manipur Polo – Indianpolo.com, polo, polo in india". Indianpolo.com. 25 March 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ The Guinness Book of Records. 1991 edition (page 288)
^ a b c Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th centuries by Robert Crego. Page 26. Published 2003. Greenwood Press. Sports & Recreation. 296 pages. ISBN 0-313-31610-4
^ "150 years Celebration-UNLOCKING A POWER BRAND". Calcutta Polo Club. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
^ [1].
^ Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th centuries by Robert Crego. Page 26 – 27. Published 2003. Greenwood Press. Sports & Recreation. 296 pages ISBN 0-313-31610-4
^ "FIP World Cup VIII – 2007". Polobarn.com. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ http://gracytravel.com/may%2019%201913%20westchester%20established%20after%20mid%20may%20game%20at%20jerome%20park.pdf
^ http://gracytravel.com/may%202nd%201876%20denison%20has%20a%20polo%20club.pdf
^ 2 June 1876 The Galveston News: At Denison Monday evening while Messers Harold Gooch and Will Lowe were practicing at the game of polo, quite a serious accident happened to former. Mr. Gooch’s saddle turned throwing him into the ground when his horse gave him a severe kick, cutting a gash about five inches long across his head over the right ear. Dr. Berry rendered the necessary medical attention, and Mr. Gooch is doing well. Will Lowe, Secretary of the Denison Polo Club, wrote James Gordon Bennett asking him if arrangements could be made for a match game between the Denison and New York Clubs. Mr. Lowe received a letter from Mr. Bennett Monday, in which he says he will lay the matter before the club at the next meeting. There is little doubt the New York club will invite our boys to play them. The Denison club will go into training at once, as they are confident the game will come off.
^ Balcones Ranch
^ The Texas Polo Club
^ Newspaper article from the 1950's - the actual article uploaded on Wiki commons
^ "United States Polo Association Rule Book 2009" (PDF). Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ "HPA – Hurlingham Polo Association". Hpa-polo.co.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ 8o Campeonato Mundial de Polo: México 2008
^ David, Ceri (23 November 2008). "Going Polo".
^ Eimer, David (25 October 2008). "The Daily Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ "NDPpolo.com". Ndhpolo.com. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ [3]"The Country Club, Bahrain"
^ [4]"The Royal Jordanian Polo Club"
^ Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum: Night Polo Ball.
^ "Aspen World Snow Polo Official Website". Worldsnowpolo.com. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^ Carlebach, Michael (2011). Bain's New York: The City in News Pictures 1900-1925. New York: Courier. p. 143.
^ Trendsportart Steckenpferdpolo: Ich glaub', mein Gaul holzt, Spiegel September 2014
Penina Meisels and
Use British English from January 2012
Use dmy dates from April 2012
All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases
Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from June 2014
Former Summer Olympic sports
India, Assam, Imphal, Nagaland, Mizoram
Uruguay, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Venezuela, Mexico
United States, Mexico City, New Spain, North America, Spanish Empire
Polo at the Summer Olympics
United Kingdom, France, Great Britain, Mexico, Spain
Argentina, Mexico, India, Venezuela, Russia
Cowboy polo
Polo, Beer, Basketball, Association football, Australian rules football
Auto polo
Polo, Manila, World War II, Washington, D.C., Toronto
American Civil War, Eventing, Horse, Show jumping, Dressage
Glossary of equestrian terms
Horse racing, Dressage, Horse show, Thoroughbred, Show jumping
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Title: Humanism
Subject: Timeline of Western philosophers, Mediation Cabal/Cases/2006-02-28 The Humanist papacy, Life stance, John Major (philosopher), Erich Fromm
Collection: Epistemology, Freethought, Humanism, Philosophical Movements, Philosophy of Life, Philosophy of Religion
Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith (fideism). The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated, according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it.[1] Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress. In modern times, humanist movements are typically aligned with secularism, and today "Humanism" typically refers to a non-theistic life stance centred on human agency, and looking to science instead of religious dogma in order to understand the world.[2]
Predecessors 2.1
Asia 2.1.1
Ancient Greece 2.1.2
Medieval Islam 2.1.3
Renaissance 2.2
Back to the sources 2.2.1
Consequences 2.2.2
From Renaissance to modern humanism 2.3
19th and 20th centuries 2.4
Types 3
Secular 3.2
Religious 3.3
Polemics 4
Humanistic psychology 5
The word "Humanism" is ultimately derived from the Latin concept humanitas, and, like most other words ending in -ism, entered English in the nineteenth century. However, historians agree that the concept predates the label invented to describe it, encompassing the various meanings ascribed to humanitas, which included both benevolence toward one's fellow humans and the values imparted by bonae litterae or humane learning (literally "good letters").
In the second century A.D, a Latin grammarian, Aulus Gellius (c. 125– c. 180), complained:
Those who have spoken Latin and have used the language correctly do not give to the word humanitas the meaning which it is commonly thought to have, namely, what the Greeks call φιλανθρωπία (philanthropy), signifying a kind of friendly spirit and good-feeling towards all men without distinction; but they gave to humanitas the force of the Greek παιδεία (paideia); that is, what we call eruditionem institutionemque in bonas artes, or "education and training in the liberal arts [literally 'good arts']". Those who earnestly desire and seek after these are most highly humanized. For the desire to pursue of that kind of knowledge, and the training given by it, has been granted to humanity alone of all the animals, and for that reason it is termed humanitas, or "humanity".[3]
Gellius says that in his day humanitas is commonly used as a synonym for philanthropy – or kindness and benevolence toward one's fellow human being. Gellius maintains that this common usage is wrong, and that model writers of Latin, such as Cicero and others, used the word only to mean what we might call 'humane" or "polite" learning, or the Greek equivalent Paideia. Gellius became a favorite author in the Italian Renaissance, and, in fifteenth-century Italy, teachers and scholars of philosophy, poetry, and rhetoric were called and called themselves "humanists".[4][5] Modern scholars, however, point out that Cicero (106 – 43 BC), who was most responsible for defining and popularizing the term humanitas, in fact frequently used the word in both senses, as did his near contemporaries. For Cicero, a lawyer, what most distinguished humans from brutes was speech, which, allied to reason, could (and should) enable them to settle disputes and live together in concord and harmony under the rule of law.[6] Thus humanitas included two meanings from the outset and these continue in the modern derivative, humanism, which even today can refer to both humanitarian benevolence and to scholarship.[7]
During the Enlightenment, have to a considerable extent more or less detached themselves from the historic connection of humanism with classical learning and the liberal arts.
The first Humanist Manifesto was issued by a conference held at the University of Chicago in 1933.[9] Signatories included the philosopher John Dewey, but the majority were ministers (chiefly Unitarian) and theologians. They identified humanism as an ideology that espouses reason, ethics, and social and economic justice, and they called for science to replace dogma and the supernatural as the basis of morality and decision-making.[10][11]
An ideal society as conceived by Renaissance humanist Saint Thomas More in his book Utopia.
In 1808 Bavarian educational commissioner Renaissance humanism, the movement that flourished in the Italian Renaissance to revive classical learning, a use which won wide acceptance among historians in many nations, especially Italy.[13]
But in the mid-18th century, during the French Enlightenment, a more ideological use of the term had come into use. In 1765, the author of an anonymous article in a French Enlightenment periodical spoke of "The general love of humanity ... a virtue hitherto quite nameless among us, and which we will venture to call 'humanism', for the time has come to create a word for such a beautiful and necessary thing".[14] The latter part of the 18th and the early 19th centuries saw the creation of numerous grass-roots "philanthropic" and benevolent societies dedicated to human betterment and the spreading of knowledge (some Christian, some not). After the French Revolution, the idea that human virtue could be created by human reason alone independently from traditional religious institutions, attributed by opponents of the Revolution to Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau, was violently attacked by influential religious and political conservatives, such as Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, as a deification or idolatry of humanity.[15] Humanism began to acquire a negative sense. The Oxford English Dictionary records the use of the word "humanism" by an English clergyman in 1812 to indicate those who believe in the "mere humanity" (as opposed to the divine nature) of Christ, i.e., Unitarians and Deists.[16] In this polarised atmosphere, in which established ecclesiastical bodies tended to circle the wagons and reflexively oppose political and social reforms like extending the franchise, universal schooling, and the like, liberal reformers and radicals embraced the idea of Humanism as an alternative religion of humanity. The anarchist Proudhon (best known for declaring that "property is theft") used the word "humanism" to describe a "culte, déification de l’humanité" ("cult, deification of humanity") and Ernest Renan in L’avenir de la science: pensées de 1848 ("The Future of Knowledge: Thoughts on 1848") (1848–49), states: "It is my deep conviction that pure humanism will be the religion of the future, that is, the cult of all that pertains to humanity—all of life, sanctified and raised to the level of a moral value".[17]
At about the same time, the word "humanism" as a philosophy centred on humankind (as opposed to institutionalised religion) was also being used in Germany by the so-called Left Hegelians, Arnold Ruge, and Karl Marx, who were critical of the close involvement of the church in the repressive German government. There has been a persistent confusion between the several uses of the terms:[1] philanthropic humanists look to what they consider their antecedents in critical thinking and human-centered philosophy among the Greek philosophers and the great figures of Renaissance history; and scholarly humanists stress the linguistic and cultural disciplines needed to understand and interpret these philosophers and artists.
Human-centered philosophy that rejected the supernatural can be found also circa 1500 BCE in the Lokayata system of Indian philosophy. Nasadiya Sukta, a passage in the Rig Veda, contains one of the first recorded assertion of agnosticism. In the 6th-century BCE, Gautama Buddha expressed, in Pali literature, a skeptical attitude toward the supernatural:[18]
Since neither soul, nor aught belonging to soul, can really and truly exist, the view which holds that this I who am 'world', who am 'soul', shall hereafter live permanent, persisting, unchanging, yea abide eternally: is not this utterly and entirely a foolish doctrine?
Another instance of ancient humanism as an organised system of thought is found in the Gathas of Zarathustra, composed between 1,000 BCE - 600 BCE[19] in Greater Iran. Zarathustra's philosophy in the Gathas lays out a conception of humankind as thinking beings dignified with choice and agency according to the intellect which each receives from Ahura Mazda (God in the form of supreme wisdom). The idea of Ahura Mazda as a non-intervening deistic divine God/Grand Architect of the universe tied with a unique eschatology and ethical system implying that each person is held morally responsible for their choices, made freely in this present life, in the afterlife.[20] The importance placed on thought, action, responsibility, and a non-intervening creator was appealed to by, and inspired a number of, Enlightenment humanist thinkers in Europe such as Voltaire and Montesquieu.
In China, Huangdi is regarded as the humanistic primogenitor. Sage kings such as Yao and Shun are humanistic figures as recorded. King Wu of Zhou has the famous saying: "Humanity is the Ling (efficacious essence) of the world (among all)." Among them Duke of Zhou, respected as a founder of Rujia (Confucianism), is especially prominent and pioneering in humanistic thought. His words were recorded in the Book of History as follows (translation):
What the people desire, Heaven certainly complies?
Heaven (or "God") is not believable. Our Tao (special term referring to "the way of nature") includes morality (derived from the philosophy of former sage kings and to be continued forward).
In the 6th century BCE, Taoist teacher Lao Tzu espoused a series of naturalistic concepts with some elements of humanistic philosophy. The Silver Rule of Confucianism from Analects XV.24, is an example of ethical philosophy based on human values rather than the supernatural. Humanistic thought is also contained in other Confucian classics, e.g., as recorded in Zuo Zhuan, Ji Liang says, "People is the zhu (master, lord, dominance, owner or origin) of gods. So, to sage kings, people first, gods second"; Neishi Guo says, "Gods, clever, righteous and wholehearted, comply with human." Taoist and Confucian secularism contain elements of moral thought devoid of religious authority or deism however they only partly resembled our modern concept of secularism.
6th-century BCE pre-Socratic Greek philosophers Thales of Miletus and Xenophanes of Colophon were the first in the region to attempt to explain the world in terms of human reason rather than myth and tradition, thus can be said to be the first Greek humanists. Thales questioned the notion of anthropomorphic gods and Xenophanes refused to recognise the gods of his time and reserved the divine for the principle of unity in the universe. These Ionian Greeks were the first thinkers to assert that nature is available to be studied separately from the supernatural realm. Anaxagoras brought philosophy and the spirit of rational inquiry from Ionia to Athens. Pericles, the leader of Athens during the period of its greatest glory was an admirer of Anaxagoras. Other influential pre-Socratics or rational philosophers include Protagoras (like Anaxagoras a friend of Pericles), known for his famous dictum "man is the measure of all things" and Democritus, who proposed that matter was composed of atoms. Little of the written work of these early philosophers survives and they are known mainly from fragments and quotations in other writers, principally Plato and Aristotle. The historian Thucydides, noted for his scientific and rational approach to history, is also much admired by later humanists.[21] In the 3rd century BCE, Epicurus became known for his concise phrasing of the problem of evil, lack of belief in the afterlife, and human-centred approaches to achieving eudaimonia. He was also the first Greek philosopher to admit women to his school as a rule.
Medieval Islam
Many medieval Muslim thinkers pursued humanistic, rational and scientific discourses in their search for knowledge, meaning and values. A wide range of Islamic writings on love, poetry, history and philosophical theology show that medieval Islamic thought was open to the humanistic ideas of individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism, and liberalism.[22]
According to Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, another reason the Islamic world flourished during the Middle Ages was an early emphasis on freedom of speech, as summarised by al-Hashimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma'mun) in the following letter to one of the religious opponents he was attempting to convert through reason:[23]
"Bring forward all the arguments you wish and say whatever you please and speak your mind freely. Now that you are safe and free to say whatever you please appoint some arbitrator who will impartially judge between us and lean only towards the truth and be free from the empery of passion, and that arbitrator shall be Reason, whereby God makes us responsible for our own rewards and punishments. Herein I have dealt justly with you and have given you full security and am ready to accept whatever decision Reason may give for me or against me. For "There is no compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256) and I have only invited you to accept our faith willingly and of your own accord and have pointed out the hideousness of your present belief. Peace be with you and the blessings of God!"
According to George Makdisi, certain aspects of Renaissance humanism has its roots in the medieval Islamic world, including the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis", and "the humanist attitude toward classical language".[24]
Portrait of Petrarch painted in 1376
Renaissance humanism was an intellectual movement in Europe of the later Petrarch as the first Renaissance humanist. Paul Johnson agrees that Petrarch was "the first to put into words the notion that the centuries between the fall of Rome and the present had been the age of Darkness". According to Petrarch, what was needed to remedy this situation was the careful study and imitation of the great classical authors. For Petrarch and Boccaccio, the greatest master was Cicero, whose prose became the model for both learned (Latin) and vernacular (Italian) prose.
Once the language was mastered grammatically it could be used to attain the second stage, eloquence or rhetoric. This art of persuasion [Cicero had held] was not art for its own sake, but the acquisition of the capacity to persuade others – all men and women – to lead the good life. As Petrarch put it, 'it is better to will the good than to know the truth'. Rhetoric thus led to and embraced philosophy. Leonardo Bruni (c.1369–1444), the outstanding scholar of the new generation, insisted that it was Petrarch who "opened the way for us to show how to acquire learning", but it was in Bruni's time that the word umanista first came into use, and its subjects of study were listed as five: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy, and history".[25]
Coluccio Salutati, Chancellor of Florence and disciple of Petrarch (1331–1406).
The basic training of the humanist was to speak well and write (typically, in the form of a letter). One of Petrarch’s followers, Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406) was made chancellor of Florence, "whose interests he defended with his literary skill. The Visconti of Milan claimed that Salutati’s pen had done more damage than 'thirty squadrons of Florentine cavalry'".[26]
Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459), an early Renaissance Humanist, book collector, and reformer of script, who served as papal secretary.[27]
Contrary to a still widely current interpretation that originated in Voigt's celebrated contemporary, Jacob Burckhardt,[28] and which was adopted wholeheartedly, especially by those moderns calling themselves "humanists",[29] most specialists now do not characterise Renaissance humanism as a philosophical movement, nor in any way as anti-Christian or even anti-clerical. A modern historian has this to say:
Humanism was not an ideological programme but a body of literary knowledge and linguistic skill based on the "revival of good letters", which was a revival of a late-antique philology and grammar, This is how the word "humanist" was understood by contemporaries, and if scholars would agree to accept the word in this sense rather than in the sense in which it was used in the nineteenth century we might be spared a good deal of useless argument. That humanism had profound social and even political consequences of the life of Italian courts is not to be doubted. But the idea that as a movement it was in some way inimical to the Church, or to the conservative social order in general is one that has been put forward for a century and more without any substantial proof being offered.
The nineteenth-century historian Jacob Burckhardt, in his classic work, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, noted as a "curious fact" that some men of the new culture were "men of the strictest piety, or even ascetics". If he had meditated more deeply on the meaning of the careers of such humanists as Abrogio Traversari (1386–1439), the General of the Camaldolese Order, perhaps he would not have gone on to describe humanism in unqualified terms as "pagan", and thus helped precipitate a century of infertile debate about the possible existence of something called "Christian humanism" which ought to be opposed to "pagan humanism". --Peter Partner, Renaissance Rome, Portrait of a Society 1500–1559 (University of California Press 1979) pp. 14–15.
The umanisti criticised what they considered the barbarous Latin of the universities, but the revival of the humanities largely did not conflict with the teaching of traditional university subjects, which went on as before.[30]
Nor did the humanists view themselves as in conflict with Christianity. Some, like Salutati, were the Chancellors of Italian cities, but the majority (including Petrarch) were ordained as priests, and many worked as senior officials of the Papal court. Humanist Renaissance popes Nicholas V, Pius II, Sixtus IV, and Leo X wrote books and amassed huge libraries.[31]
In the high Renaissance, in fact, there was a hope that more direct knowledge of the wisdom of antiquity, including the writings of the Church fathers, the earliest known Greek texts of the Christian Gospels, and in some cases even the Jewish Kabbalah, would initiate a harmonious new era of universal agreement.[32] With this end in view, Renaissance Church authorities afforded humanists what in retrospect appears a remarkable degree of freedom of thought.[33][34] One humanist, the Greek Orthodox Platonist Gemistus Pletho (1355–1452), based in Mystras, Greece (but in contact with humanists in Florence, Venice, and Rome) taught a Christianised version of pagan polytheism.[35]
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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
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Edo Neo-Confucianism
Ilm al-Kalam
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Ideal / Material
with Melvyn Bragg. HumanismIn Our Time. BBC Radio discussion with Tony Davies, Department of English, University of Birmingham; Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London and Honorary Fellow of Kings College Cambridge; Simon Goldhill, Reader in Greek Literature and Culture at Kings College Cambridge.
Humanism at the Open Directory Project. A web portal to Humanist Societies.
The Philosophy of Humanism by Corliss Lamont
American Humanist Association
International Humanist and Ethical Union
The British Humanist Association
Bauman, Richard. Human Rights in Ancient Rome. Routledge Classical Monographs, 1999 ISBN 0-415-17320-5
Berry, Philippa and Andrew Wernick. The Shadow of Spirit: Post-Modernism and Religion. Routledge, (1992) 2006. ISBN 0-415-06638-7
Burckhardt, Jacob, Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy' 1860.
Davies, Tony. Humanism The New Critical Idiom. Drakakis, John, series editor. University of Stirling, UK. Routledge, 1997 ISBN 0-415-11052-1
Ferguson, Wallace K. The Renaissance in Historical Thought. Five Centuries of Interpretation. New York: Nachdruck: AMS, 1981 (Boston: Mifflin, 1948)
Gay, Peter. The Party of Humanity: Essays in the French enlightenment. New York: W. W. Norton (1971). OCLC 11672592
Gay, Peter. Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1996 ISBN 0-393-31366-2
Giustiniani,Vito. "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism", Journal of the History of Ideas 46 (vol. 2, April – June, 1985): 167 – 95. [3] [4]
Grafton, Anthony. Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450–1800. Harvard University Press, 1991
Grafton, Anthony. Bring Out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004 ISBN 978-0-674-00468-9
Grendler, Paul F. '"Georg Voigt: Historian of Humanism", in: Humanism and Creativity in the Renaissance: Essays in Honor of Ronald G. Witt.
Christopher S. Celenza and Kenneth Gouvens, Editors. Humanism and Creativity in the Renaissance. Leiden 2006, pp. 295–326 ISBN 90-04-14907-4
Guinness, Os. The Dust of Death Intervarsity Press 1973 ISBN 0-87784-911-0
Hale, John. A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 1981 ISBN 0-500-23333-0.
Johnson, Paul. The Renaissance. Modern Library Chronicles. New York: Modern Library, 2002 ISBN 978-0-8129-6619-0
Kristeller, Paul Oskar. The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. The University of Chicago Press, 1950.
Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Renaissance Thought and its Sources. Columbia University Press, 1979 ISBN 0-231-04513-1
Laurie, Timothy. Becoming-Animal Is A Trap For Humans: Deleuze and Guattari in Madagascar In Deleuze and the Non-Human, edited by Hannah Stark and Jonathan Roffe, pp. 142-162. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. 2015
Partner, Peter. Renaissance Rome, Portrait of a Society 1500–1559 University of California Press, 1979
Proctor, Robert. Defining the Humanities. Indiana University Press, 1998 ISBN 0-253-21219-7
Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Origins of Greek Thought. Cornell University Press, (1962) 1984 ISBN 0-8014-9293-9
Schmitt, Charles B. and Quentin Skinner, Editors. The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy. Cambridge, 1990.
Wernick, Andrew. Auguste Comte and the Religion of Humanity: The Post-theistic Program of French Social Theory. Cambridge University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-521-66272-9
^ a b An account of the evolution of the meaning of the word humanism from the point of view of a modern secular humanist can be found in Nicolas Walter's Humanism – What's in the Word (London: Rationalist Press Association, 1997 ISBN 0-301-97001-7). A similar perspective, but somewhat less polemical, is found in Richard Norman's On Humanism (Thinking in Action) (London: Routledge: 2004). For a historical and philologically oriented view, see Vito Giustiniani's "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism", Journal of the History of Ideas 46: 2 (April–June, 1985): 167–95.
^ See for example the 2002 Humanism issued by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or the British Humanist Association's definition of Humanism
^ Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, XIII: 17.
^ a b Nicholas Mann (1996). The Origins of Humanism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–2. The term umanista was used, in fifteenth century Italian academic jargon to describe a teacher or student of classical literature including that of rhetoric. The English equivalent 'humanist' makes its appearance in the late sixteenth century with a similar meaning. Only in the nineteenth century, however, and probably for the first time in
^ Humanissime vir, "most humane man", was the usual Latin way to address scholars. (Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 168.)
There was a time when men wandered about in the manner of wild beasts. They conducted their affairs without the least guidance of reason but instead relied on bodily strength. There was no divine religion and the understanding of social duty was in no way cultivated. No one recognized the value inherent in an equitable code of law.(Cicero, De Inventione, I. I: 2, quoted in Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Volume 2: Renaissance Virtues [Cambridge University Press, 2002], p. 54.)
^ A noted authority on the subject, Paul Oskar Kristeller, identified Renaissance humanism as a cultural and literary movement, which in its substance was not philosophical but which had important philosophical implications and consequences." "I have been unable to discover in the humanist literature any common philosophical doctrine," he wrote, "except a belief in the value of man and the humanities and in the revival of ancient learning." (Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic, and Humanist Strains [New York, Harper and Row, 1961], p. 9). As the late Jacques Barzun has written:
The path between the onset of the good letters and the modern humanist as freethinker or simply as scholar is circuitous but unbroken. If we look for what is common to the Humanists over the centuries we find two things: a body of accepted authors and a method of carrying on study and debate. The two go together with the belief that the best guides to the good life are Reason and Nature. (Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence :500 years of Western Cultural Life [New York: HarperCollins, 2000], p. 45)
^ "Genesis of a Humanist Manifesto". Retrieved 2006-05-14.
^ "Text of Humanist Manifesto I". Americanhumanist.org. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
^ Although a distinction has often been drawn between secular and religious humanism, the Harold Blackham, Levi Fragell, Corliss Lamont, Harry Stopes-Roe, Rob Tielman. "Humanism is Eight Letters, No More". ^
^ Niethammer's book was entitled Der Streit des Philanthropinismus und des Humanismus in der Theorie des Erziehungs-Unterrichts unsrer Zeit (The Dispute between Philanthropinism and Humanism in the Educational Theory of our Time), which directly echoes Aulus Gellius's distinction between "philanthropy" and humane learning. Neithammer and other distinguished members of the movement they called "Neo-Humanism" (who included Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Johann Gottlieb Fichte), felt that the curriculum imposed under Napoleon's occupation of Germany had been excessively oriented toward the practical and vocational. They wished to encourage individuals to practice life-long self cultivation and reflection, based on a study of the artistic, philosophical, and cultural masterpieces of (primarily) Greek civilization.
^ As J. A. Symonds remarked, "the word humanism has a German sound and is in fact modern" (See The Renaissance in Italy Vol. 2:71 n, 1877). Vito Giustiniani writes that in the German-speaking world "Humanist" while keeping its specific meaning (as scholar of Classical literature) "gave birth to further derivatives, such as humanistisch for those schools which later were to be called humanistische Gymnasien, with Latin and Greek as the main subjects of teaching (1784). Finally, Humanismus was introduced to denote 'classical education in general' (1808) and still later for the epoch and the achievements of the Italian humanists of the fifteenth century (1841). This is to say that 'humanism' for 'classical learning' appeared first in Germany, where it was once and for all sanctioned in this meaning by Georg Voigt (1859)". (Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 172.)
^ "L'amour général de l'humanité ... vertu qui n'a point de nom parmi nous et que nous oserions appeler 'humanisme', puisqu'enfin il est temps de créer un mot pour une chose si belle et nécessaire"; from the review Ephémérides du citoyen ou Bibliothèque raisonée des sciences morales et politiques, Chapter 16 (Dec, 17, 1765): 247, quoted in Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 175, note 38.
^ Although Rousseau himself devoutly believed in a personal God, his book, Emile: or, On Education, does attempt to demonstrate that atheists can be virtuous. It was publicly burned. During the Revolution, Jacobins instituted a cult of the Supreme Being along lines suggested by Rousseau. In the 19th-century French positivist philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) founded a "religion of humanity", whose calendar and catechism echoed the former Revolutionary cult. See Comtism
^ The Oxford English Dictionary VII (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. pp. 474–475.
^ "Ma conviction intime est que la religion de l'avenir sera le pur humanisme, c’est-à-dire le culte de tout ce qui est de l'homme, la vie entière santifiée et éléve a une valeur moral". quoted in Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 175.
^ "Lesson 1: A brief history of humanist thought". Introduction to Humanism: A Primer on the History, Philosophy, and Goals of Humanism. The Continuum of Humanist Education. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
^ "Principles of Integral Science of Religion", By Georg Schmid, page 109, 'As an Example: Yasna 32:8', p. 109
^ "Human Behavior and Good Thinking".
^ Lenn Evan Goodman (2003), Islamic Humanism, p. 155, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-513580-6.
^ Ahmad, I. A. (3 June 2002). The Rise and Fall of Islamic Science: The Calendar as a Case Study (PDF). Faith and Reason: Convergence and Complementarity.
^ Makdisi, George (April–June 1989). "Scholasticism and Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West". Journal of the American Oriental Society (Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 2) 109 (2): 175–182.
^ Johnson, Paul (2000). The Renaissance. New York: The Modern Library. pp. 32–34 and 37.
^ Johnson, Paul (2000). The Renaissance. New York: The Modern Library. p. 37.
^ Following an old engraving; from Alfred Gudeman, Imagines philologorum: 160 bildnisse... ("Portraits of Philologists, 160 prints"), (Leipzig/Berlin) 1911.
^ The influence of Jacob Burckhardt's classic masterpiece of cultural history, The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) on subsequent Renaissance historiography is traced in Wallace K. Ferguson's The Renaissance in Historical Thought: Five Centuries of Historical Interpretation (1948).
^ For example the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, adhering to the tenacious 19th-century narrative (or myth) of the Renaissance as a complete break with the past established in 1860 by Jacob Burckhardt, describes the liberating effects of the re-discovery of classical writings this way:
Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanity—with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities—was the centre of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature. "Humanism". "The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Second Edition. Cambridge University Press. 1999.
^ "The term umanista was associated with the revival of the studia humanitatis "which included grammatica, rhetorica, poetics, historia, and philosophia moralis, as these terms were understood. Unlike the liberal arts of the eighteenth century, they did not include the visual arts, music, dancing or gardening. The humanities also failed to include the disciplines that were the chief subjects of instruction at the universities during the Later Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance, such as theology, jurisprudence, and medicine, and the philosophical disciplines other than ethics, such as logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. In other words, humanism does not represent, as often believed, the sum total of Renaissance thought and learning, but only a well-defined sector of it. Humanism has its proper domain or home territory in the humanities, whereas all other areas of learning, including philosophy (apart from ethics), followed their own course, largely determined by their medieval tradition and by their steady transformation through new observations, problems, or theories. These disciplines were affected by humanism mainly from the outside and in an indirect way, though often quite strongly". (Paul Oskar Kristeller, Humanism, pp. 113–114, in Charles B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner (editors), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy [1990].
^ See their respective entries in Sir John Hale's Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance (Oxford University Press, 1981).
^ To later generations, the Dutch humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, epitomised this reconciling tendency). According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Enlightenment thinkers remembered Erasmus (not quite accurately) as a precursor of modern intellectual freedom and a foe of both Protestant and Catholic dogmatism". Erasmus himself was not much interested in the Kabbalah, but several other humanists were, notably Pico della Mirandola. See Christian Kabbalah.)
^ Bergin, Thomas; Speake, Jennifer (1987). The Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Oxford: Facts On File Publications. pp. 216–217.
^ "Only thirteen of Pico della Mirandola's nine hundred theses were thought theologically objectionable by the papal commission that examined them.... [This] suggests that, in spite of his publicly expressed contempt in his Apologia for their intellectual inadequacies, the Curial authorities hardly saw these theses as the work of a dangerous theological modernist like Luther or Calvin. Unorthodox though they were, most of the issues raised in them had been the subject of theological dispute for centuries and the commission ... condemned him not for innovations but for 'reviving several of the errors of gentile philosophers which are already disproved and obsolete'". Davies (1997), p 103.
^ Richard H. Popkin (editor), The Columbia History of Western Philosophy (1998), p. 293 and p. 301.
^ More than 100 years earlier, Dante in the Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321) had pinpointed the Donation of Constantine (which he accepted as genuine) as a great mistake and the cause of all the political and religious problems of Italy, including the corruption of the Church. Although Dante had thunderously attacked the idea that the Church could have temporal as well as spiritual powers, it remained to Valla to conclusively prove that the legal justification for such powers was spurious.
^ Ironically, it was a humanist scholar, Isaac Casaubon, in the 17th century, who would use philology to show that the Corpus Hermeticum was not of great antiquity, as had been asserted in the 4th century by Saint Augustine and Lactantius, but dated from the Christian era. See Anthony Grafton, Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450–1800 (Harvard University Press, 1991).
^ "Humanism". Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion F–N. Corpus Publications. 1979. p. 1733. "Renaissance humanists rejoiced in the mutual compatibility of much ancient philosophy and Christian truths", M. A. Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (1997), p. 13.
^ Homo in Latin specifically means "human being", in contrast to vir, "man", and mulier, "woman": Annabel Robinson, The Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 206; Tore Janson, A Natural History of Latin (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 281; Timothy J. Moore, Roman Theatre (Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 62 (note to the line in Terence); as a "watchword" for humanists, Humanism and the Humanities in the Twenty-First Century, edited by William S. Haney and Peter Malekin (Associated University Presses, 2001), p. 171; similar homo sum declaration by Seneca, James Ker, The Deaths of Seneca (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 193.
^ The statement, in a play modeled or borrowed from a (now lost) Greek comedy by Menander, may have originated in a lighthearted vein – as a comic rationale for an old man's meddling – but it quickly became a proverb and throughout the ages was quoted with a deeper meaning, by Cicero and Saint Augustine, to name a few, and most notably by Seneca. Richard Bauman writes: "Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto., I am a human being: and I deem nothing pertaining to humanity is foreign to me.' The words of the comic playwright P. Terentius Afer reverberated across the Roman world of the mid-2nd century BC and beyond. Terence, an African and a former slave, was well placed to preach the message of universalism, of the essential unity of the human race, that had come down in philosophical form from the Greeks, but needed the pragmatic muscles of Rome in order to become a practical reality. The influence of Terence’s felicitous phrase on Roman thinking about human rights can hardly be overestimated. Two hundred years later Seneca ended his seminal exposition of the unity of humankind with a clarion-call:
There is one short rule that should regulate human relationships. All that you see, both divine and human, is one. We are parts of the same great body. Nature created us from the same source and to the same end. She imbued us with mutual affection and sociability, she taught us to be fair and just, to suffer injury rather than to inflict it. She bid us extend or hands to all in need of help. Let that well-known line be in our heart and on our lips: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto." (Bauman, Human Rights in Ancient Rome (Routledge Classical Monographs (1999], page 1.)
^ A. C. Crombie, Historians and the Scientific Revolution, p. 456 in Science, Art and Nature in Medieval and Modern Thought (1996).
^ Gottlieb, Anthony (2000). The Dream of Reason: a history of western philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 410–411.
^ Alleby, Brad (2003). "Humanism". Encyclopedia of Science & Religion 1 (2nd ed.). Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 426–428.
^ Kristeller, Humanism in The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, p. 114.
^ Schaeffer, Francis A. How Should We Then Live?. Crossway. pp. 146–147.
^ Os Guinness, The Dust of Death: A Critique of the Establishment and the Counter Culture and the Proposal for a Third Way (Intervarsity Press, 1973) p. 5.
^ Schaeffer, Francis A. How Should We Then Live?. Crossway. pp. 79–80.
^ Tony Davies, Humanism (Routledge, 1997) p. 26-27.
^ In La Condition postmoderne
^ Davies, Humanism, p. 27.
^ quoted in Davies (1997), p. 27.
^ "Comte's secular religion is no vague effusion of humanistic piety, but a complete system of belief and ritual, with liturgy and sacraments, priesthood and pontiff, all organised around the public veneration of Humanity, the Nouveau Grand-Être Suprême (New Supreme Great Being), later to be supplemented in a positivist trinity by the Grand Fétish (the Earth) and the Grand Milieu (Destiny)" According to Davies (p. 28-29), Comte's austere and "slightly dispiriting" philosophy of humanity viewed as alone in an indifferent universe (which can only be explained by "positive" science) and with nowhere to turn but to each other, was even more influential in Victorian England than the theories of Charles Darwin or Karl Marx.
^ Davies, p. 29.
^ Morain, Lloyd; Morain, Mary (2007). Humanism as the Next Step (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Humanist Press. p. 109.
^ "History: New York Society for Ethical Culture". New York Society for Ethical Culture. 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
^ "Ethical Culture" (PDF). American Ethical Union. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
^ Stringer-Hye, Richard. "Charles Francis Potter". Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Unitarian Universalist Historical Society. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
^ American Humanist Association
^ Craig W. Kallendorf, introduction to Humanist Educational Treatises, edited and translated by Craig W. Kallendorf (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2002) p. vii.
Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. The studia hunanitatis excluded logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group. (Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts [New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965], p. 178.)
See also Kristeller's Renaissance Thought I, "Humanism and Scholasticism In the Italian Renaissance", Byzantion 17 (1944–45): 346–74. Reprinted in Renaissance Thought (New York: Harper Torchbooks), 1961.
^ Vito Giustiniani gives as an example of an out-dated, but still pervasive view, that of Corliss Lamont, who described Renaissance Humanism as, "first and foremost a revolt against the otherworldliness of mediaeval Christianity, a turning away from preoccupation with personal immortality to make the best of life in this world. Renaissance writers like Rabelais and Erasmus gave eloquent voice to this new joy of living and to the sheer exuberance of existence. For the Renaissance the ideal human being was no longer the ascetic monk, but a new type - the universal man - the many-sided personality delighting in every kind of this-earthly achievements. The great Italian artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, typified this ideal." (Giustiniani, "Homo, Humanus, and the Meanings of Humanism" : 192.)
^ Edwords, Fred (1989). "What Is Humanism?". American Humanist Association. Retrieved 2009-08-19. Secular Humanism is an outgrowth of eighteenth century enlightenment rationalism and nineteenth century freethought... Secular and Religious Humanists both share the same worldview and the same basic principles... From the standpoint of philosophy alone, there is no difference between the two. It is only in the definition of religion and in the practice of the philosophy that Religious and Secular Humanists effectively disagree. A decidedly anti-theistic version of secular humanism, however, is developed by Adolf Grünbaum, 'In Defense of Secular Humanism' (1995), in his Collected Works (edited by Thomas Kupka), vol. I, New York: Oxford University Press 2013, ch. 6 (pp. 115-148)
^ "Definitions of humanism (subsection)". Institute for Humanist Studies. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
^ "Humanist movement hits new high in membership.". iheu.org. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
^ "IHEU's Bylaws". International Humanist and Ethical Union. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "War, Terror, and Resistance". Retrieved 2006-10-31.
^ a b "Humanism as the Next Step". Archived from the original on 2006-06-14. Retrieved 2006-06-25.
^ Tony Davies, Humanism (Routledge, 1997) p. 48.
^ Laurie, Timothy (2015), "Becoming-Animal Is A Trap For Humans", Deleuze and the Non-Human eds. Hannah Stark and Jon Roffe.
^ in Humanism and Anti-humanism (Problems of Modern European Thought) (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court Press, 1986, p. 128.
^ quoted in Davies (1997) p. 49.
^ Habermas accepts some criticisms leveled at traditional humanism but believes that humanism must be rethought and revised rather than simply abandoned.
^ "The antihhumanist Humanism of Heidegger and the humanist antihumanism of Foucault and Althusser" (Davies [1997]), p. 131.
^ Davies (1997), pp. 131–32
^ See for example Kurtz, Paul (2000). Humanist manifesto 2000 : a call for a new planetary humanism. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
^ Science and the Modern World (New York: Simon and Schuster, [1925] 1997) p. 96.
Alternatives to the Ten Commandments – Secular and humanist alternatives
Christian Humanism
Community organising
Extropianism
Humanistic psychology
John N. Gray
List of humanists
Misanthropy
Natural rights
Objectivity (philosophy)
Pluralistic Rationalism
Post-theism
Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in response to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B.F. Skinner's Behaviorism. The approach emphasizes an individual's inherent drive towards self-actualization and creativity. Psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow introduced a positive, humanistic psychology in response to what they viewed as the overly pessimistic view of psychoanalysis in the early 1960s. Other sources include the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology.
Contemporary humanism entails a qualified optimism about the capacity of people, but it does not involve believing that human nature is purely good or that all people can live up to the Humanist ideals without help. If anything, there is recognition that living up to one's potential is hard work and requires the help of others. The ultimate goal is human flourishing; making life better for all humans, and as the most conscious species, also promoting concern for the welfare of other sentient beings and the planet as a whole.[78] The focus is on doing good and living well in the here and now, and leaving the world a better place for those who come after. In 1925, the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead cautioned: "The prophecy of Francis Bacon has now been fulfilled; and man, who at times dreamt of himself as a little lower than the angels, has submitted to become the servant and the minister of nature. It still remains to be seen whether the same actor can play both parts".[79]
Modern Humanists, such as Corliss Lamont or Carl Sagan, hold that humanity must seek for truth through reason and the best observable evidence and endorse scientific skepticism and the scientific method. However, they stipulate that decisions about right and wrong must be based on the individual and common good, with no consideration given to metaphysical or supernatural beings. The idea is to engage with what is human.[77]
In his book, Humanism (1997), Tony Davies calls these critics "humanist anti-humanists". Critics of antihumanism, most notably [76]
Polemics about humanism have sometimes assumed paradoxical twists and turns. Early 20th century critics such as Ezra Pound, T. E. Hulme, and T. S. Eliot considered humanism to be sentimental "slop" (Hulme) or "an old bitch gone in the teeth" (Pound)[70] and wanted to go back to a more manly, authoritarian society such as (they believed) existed in the Middle Ages. Postmodern critics who are self-described anti-humanists, such as Jean-François Lyotard and Michel Foucault, have asserted that humanism posits an overarching and excessively abstract notion of humanity or universal human nature, which can then be used as a pretext for imperialism and domination of those deemed somehow less than human. "Humanism fabricates the human as much as it fabricates the nonhuman animal", suggests Timothy Laurie, turning the human into what he calls "a placeholder for a range of attributes that have been considered most virtuous among humans (e.g. rationality, altruism), rather than most commonplace (e.g. hunger, anger)".[71] Nevertheless, philosopher Kate Soper[72] notes that by faulting humanism for falling short of its own benevolent ideals, anti-humanism thus frequently "secretes a humanist rhetoric".[73]
Religious humanism is an integration of humanist ethical philosophy with Ethical Culture movement was founded in 1876. The movement's founder, Felix Adler, a former member of the Free Religious Association, conceived of Ethical Culture as a new religion that would retain the ethical message at the heart of all religions. Ethical Culture was religious in the sense of playing a defining role in people's lives and addressing issues of ultimate concern.
Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the natural and legal rights and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.
According to the IHEU's bylaw 5.1:[67]
" is the official symbol of the IHEU as well as being regarded as a universally recognised symbol for secular humanism. Happy Human The "[66] The
Secular humanism is a comprehensive life stance or world view which embraces human reason, metaphysical naturalism, altruistic morality and distributive justice, and consciously rejects supernatural claims, theistic faith and religiosity, pseudoscience, and superstition.[64][65] It is sometimes referred to as Humanism (with a capital H and no qualifying adjective).
The Humanist "happy human" logo.
Humanists reacted against this utilitarian approach and the narrow pedantry associated with it. They sought to create a citizenry (frequently including women) able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions. This was to be accomplished through the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy.[62] As a program to revive the cultural – and particularly the literary – legacy and moral philosophy of classical antiquity, Humanism was a pervasive cultural mode and not the program of a few isolated geniuses like Rabelais or Erasmus as is still sometimes popularly believed.[63]
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged in by civic and ecclesiastical chancellors, book collectors, educators, and writers, who by the late fifteenth century began to be referred to as umanisti – "humanists".[4] It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of scholastic university education, which was then dominated by Aristotelian philosophy and logic. Scholasticism focused on preparing men to be doctors, lawyers or professional theologians, and was taught from approved textbooks in logic, natural philosophy, medicine, law and theology.[61] There were important centres of humanism at Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Mantua, Ferrara, and Urbino.
In 2004, American Humanist Association, along with other groups representing agnostics, atheists, and other freethinkers, joined to create the Secular Coalition for America which advocates in Washington, D.C. for separation of church and state and nationally for the greater acceptance of nontheistic Americans. The Executive Director of Secular Coalition for America is Sean Faircloth, a long-time state legislator from Maine.
[60] After World War II, three prominent Humanists became the first directors of major divisions of the United Nations:
In 1941, the Isaac Asimov, who was the president from 1985 until his death in 1992, and writer Kurt Vonnegut, who followed as honorary president until his death in 2007. Gore Vidal became honorary president in 2009. Robert Buckman was the head of the association in Canada, and is now an honorary president.
Raymond B. Bragg, the associate editor of The New Humanist, sought to consolidate the input of Leon Milton Birkhead, Charles Francis Potter, and several members of the Western Unitarian Conference. Bragg asked Roy Wood Sellars to draft a document based on this information which resulted in the publication of the Humanist Manifesto in 1933. Potter's book and the Manifesto became the cornerstones of modern humanism, the latter declaring a new religion by saying, "any religion that can hope to be a synthesising and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present." It then presented 15 theses of humanism as foundational principles for this new religion.
Active in the early 1920s, F.C.S. Schiller labelled his work "humanism" but for Schiller the term referred to the pragmatist philosophy he shared with William James. In 1929, Charles Francis Potter founded the First Humanist Society of New York whose advisory board included Julian Huxley, John Dewey, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann. Potter was a minister from the Unitarian tradition and in 1930 he and his wife, Clara Cook Potter, published Humanism: A New Religion. Throughout the 1930s, Potter was an advocate of such liberal causes as, women’s rights, access to birth control, "civil divorce laws", and an end to capital punishment.[59]
In February 1877, the word was used pejoratively, apparently for the first time in America, to describe Felix Adler. Adler, however, did not embrace the term, and instead coined the name "Ethical Culture" for his new movement – a movement which still exists in the now Humanist-affiliated New York Society for Ethical Culture.[57] In 2008, Ethical Culture Leaders wrote: "Today, the historic identification, Ethical Culture, and the modern description, Ethical Humanism, are used interchangeably".[58]
The British Humanistic Religious Association was formed as one of the earliest forerunners of contemporary chartered Humanist organisations in 1853 in London. This early group was democratically organised, with male and female members participating in the election of the leadership, and promoted knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, and the arts.[56]
Eliot and her circle, who included her companion Matthew Arnold to Thomas Hardy.
the fellowship between man and man which has been the principle of development, social and moral, is not dependent on conceptions of what is not man ... the idea of God, so far as it has been a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of goodness entirely human (i.e., an exaltation of the human).[53]
Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans, known to the world as , 1846) and Ludwig Feuerbach's Das Wesen Christianismus ("The Essence of Christianity"). She wrote to a friend:
Davies identifies Paine's The Age of Reason as "the link between the two major narratives of what Jean-François Lyotard[50] calls the narrative of legitimation": the rationalism of the 18th-century Philosophes and the radical, historically based German 19th-century Biblical criticism of the Hegelians David Friedrich Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach. "The first is political, largely French in inspiration, and projects 'humanity as the hero of liberty'. The second is philosophical, German, seeks the totality and autonomy of knowledge, and stresses understanding rather than freedom as the key to human fulfilment and emancipation. The two themes converged and competed in complex ways in the 19th century and beyond, and between them set the boundaries of its various humanisms.[51] Homo homini deus est ("The human being is a god to humanity" or "god is nothing [other than] the human being to himself"), Feuerbach had written.[52]
Paine called himself a theophilanthropist, a word combining the Greek for "God", "love", and "humanity", and indicating that while he believed in the existence of a creating intelligence in the universe, he entirely rejected the claims made by and for all existing religious doctrines, especially their miraculous, transcendental and salvationist pretensions. The Parisian "Society of Theophilanthropy" which he sponsored, is described by his biographer as "a forerunner of the ethical and humanist societies that proliferated later" ... [Paine's book] the trenchantly witty Age of Reason (1793) ... pours scorn on the supernatural pretensions of scripture, combining Voltairean mockery with Paine's own style of taproom ridicule to expose the absurdity of a theology built on a collection of incoherent Levantine folktales.[49]
The phrase the "religion of humanity" is sometimes attributed to American Founding Father Thomas Paine, though as yet unattested in his surviving writings. According to Tony Davies:
19th and 20th centuries
For some, this meant turning back to the Bible as the source of authority instead of the Catholic Church, for others it was a split from theism altogether. This was the main divisive line between the Reformation and the Renaissance,[47] which dealt with the same basic problems, supported the same science based on reason and empirical research, but had a different set of presuppositions (theistic versus naturalistic).[48]
Yet it was from the Renaissance that modern Secular Humanism grew, with the development of an important split between reason and religion. This occurred as the church's complacent authority was exposed in two vital areas. In science, Galileo's support of the Copernican revolution upset the church's adherence to the theories of Aristotle, exposing them as false. In theology, the Dutch scholar Erasmus with his new Greek text showed that the Roman Catholic adherence to Jerome's Vulgate was frequently in error. A tiny wedge was thus forced between reason and authority, as both of them were then understood.[46]
Early humanists saw no conflict between reason and their Christian faith (see Christian Humanism). They inveighed against the abuses of the Church, but not against the Church itself, much less against religion. For them, the word "secular" carried no connotations of disbelief – that would come later, in the nineteenth century. In the Renaissance to be secular meant simply to be in the world rather than in a monastery. Petrarch frequently admitted that his brother Gherardo's life as a Carthusian monk was superior to his own (although Petrarch himself was in Minor Orders and was employed by the Church all his life). He hoped that he could do some good by winning earthly glory and praising virtue, inferior though that might be to a life devoted solely to prayer. By embracing a non-theistic philosophic base,[45] however, the methods of the humanists, combined with their eloquence, would ultimately have a corrosive effect on established authority.
From Renaissance to modern humanism
were followed everywhere, serving as models for the Protestant Reformers as well as the Jesuits. The humanistic school, animated by the idea that the study of classical languages and literature provided valuable information and intellectual discipline as well as moral standards and a civilised taste for future rulers, leaders, and professionals of its society, flourished without interruption, through many significant changes, until our own century, surviving many religious, political and social revolutions. It has but recently been replaced, though not yet completely, by other more practical and less demanding forms of education.[44]
It was in education that the humanists' program had the most lasting results, their curriculum and methods:
Just as artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci — partaking of the zeitgeist though not himself a humanist – advocated study of human anatomy, nature, and weather to enrich Renaissance works of art, so Spanish-born humanist Juan Luis Vives (c. 1493–1540) advocated observation, craft, and practical techniques to improve the formal teaching of Aristotelian philosophy at the universities, helping to free them from the grip of Medieval Scholasticism.[42] Thus, the stage was set for the adoption of an approach to natural philosophy, based on empirical observations and experimentation of the physical universe, making possible the advent of the age of scientific inquiry that followed the Renaissance.[43]
Better acquaintance with Greek and Roman technical writings also influenced the development of European science (see the history of science in the Renaissance). This was despite what A. C. Crombie (viewing the Renaissance in the 19th-century manner as a chapter in the heroic March of Progress) calls "a backwards-looking admiration for antiquity", in which Platonism stood in opposition to the Aristotelian concentration on the observable properties of the physical world.[41] But Renaissance humanists, who considered themselves as restoring the glory and nobility of antiquity, had no interest in scientific innovation. However, by the mid-to-late 16th century, even the universities, though still dominated by Scholasticism, began to demand that Aristotle be read in accurate texts edited according to the principles of Renaissance philology, thus setting the stage for Galileo's quarrels with the outmoded habits of Scholasticism.
The ad fontes principle also had many applications. The re-discovery of ancient manuscripts brought a more profound and accurate knowledge of ancient philosophical schools such as Epicureanism, and Neoplatonism, whose Pagan wisdom the humanists, like the Church fathers of old, tended, at least initially, to consider as deriving from divine revelation and thus adaptable to a life of Christian virtue.[38] The line from a drama of Terence, Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (or with nil for nihil), meaning "I am a human being, I think nothing human alien to me",[39] known since antiquity through the endorsement of Saint Augustine, gained renewed currency as epitomising the humanist attitude.[40]
After 1517, when the new invention of printing made these texts widely available, the Dutch humanist Erasmus, who had studied Greek at the Venetian printing house of Aldus Manutius, began a philological analysis of the Gospels in the spirit of Valla, comparing the Greek originals with their Latin translations with a view to correcting errors and discrepancies in the latter. Erasmus, along with the French humanist Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, began issuing new translations, laying the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation. Henceforth Renaissance humanism, particularly in the German North, became concerned with religion, while Italian and French humanism concentrated increasingly on scholarship and philology addressed to a narrow audience of specialists, studiously avoiding topics that might offend despotic rulers or which might be seen as corrosive of faith. After the Reformation, critical examination of the Bible did not resume until the advent of the so-called Higher criticism of the 19th-century German Tübingen school.
The refugees brought with them Greek manuscripts, not only of Plato and Aristotle, but also of the Christian Gospels, previously unavailable in the Latin West. [37], hoping to bridge the differences between the Greek and Roman Churches, and even between Christianity itself and the non-Christian world.Hermeticism and Neoplatonism to the Turks in 1453, which brought a flood of Greek Orthodox refugees to Italy, humanist scholars increasingly turned to the study of Byzantine Empire For the next 70 years, however, neither Valla nor any of his contemporaries thought to apply the techniques of philology to other controversial manuscripts in this way. Instead, after the fall of the [36]
Aesthetics, Philosophy, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Existentialism
Epistemology, Immanuel Kant, Philosophy, Ethics, Metaphysics
Epistemology, Philosophy of science, Logic, Rationalism, John Locke
Timeline of Western philosophers
Humanism, Epistemology, Stoicism, Aesthetics, Scholasticism
Life stance
Humanism, Religion, Buddhism, Law, Mythology
John Major (philosopher)
Latin, Humanism, Logic, Glasgow, University of Paris
Humanism, Critical theory, Frankfurt School, Capitalism, Karl Marx
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SOPHOMORE SURGE: Carson Macedo building steam in second full-time season Kyle Larson Racing on a hot streak heading into the 42nd Annual AGCO Jackson Nationals
JACKSON, MN – June 23, 2020 – Carson Macedo and his Kyle Larson team have found themselves on a hot streak just in time for the prestigious 42nd Annual AGCO Jackson Nationals at the Jackson Motorplex.
The Lemoore, CA driver and 2019 Rookie of the Year is coming off a run of four top-five finishes in a row – including his win at Tri-State Speedway last weekend – heading into the crown jewel event June 25-27, which will pay $30,000-to-win on Saturday. Macedo also currently sits fourth in points with the second most top-10 finishes this year with 12 – reigning champion Brad Sweet has 13.
(RELATED: Historic $30,000-to-win AGCO Jackson Nationals Shines in Return to Racing)
He won the second of three days at the 4/10-mile Jackson Motorplex last year and earned a top-10 finish the other two days. Knowing he can perform well at the Minnesota track, Macedo said he’s excited to get back there, especially with the way his Tarlton & Son #2 is running.
“I think if we go back there with our base package from last year, we’ll have a lot of success,” Macedo said. “Our car was really strong there. I feel like I made good decisions that whole week. I’m really excited.”
His win last weekend at Tri-State Speedway was his sixth career World of Outlaws win and fourth on a quarter-mile track. While he’s proven he can excel on the bullrings, Macedo said he’s working to become more diverse in his sophomore year and be just as successful at any size track, like Jackson Motorplex.
When the 2020 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series began at Volusia Speedway Park in February, Macedo and his team were encouraged by the start to their second year together. He earned one top-five and three top-10 finishes with a new package they were trying.
They were even more encouraged when they won a track event at Williams Grove Speedway in March – a track Macedo normally struggled at.
Then, the world stopped. The COVID-19 pandemic put racing on hiatus for about two months.
When they were able to return to racing in May at Knoxville Raceway, the performance they started the year with wasn’t there. The new package they tried to build upon wasn’t working. Macedo acknowledged he also made mistakes he normally wouldn’t have made.
“I remember being at Knoxville (in May) and thinking, ‘Man, we gained about 100mph,’ because we hadn’t been racing because it feels so fast,” he said. “I feel like if you look back at the video, a lot of guys made mistakes that normally World of Outlaws guys don’t make. Yeah, I think I came back rusty. It showed middle part of some of the races. I made mistakes that I normally wouldn’t make and kind of get out raced. It feels good to get back in a swing of racing a lot. It keeps you a lot sharper.”
He finished 14th at Knoxville and then 25th at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 the next race. But since then, Macedo hasn’t finished outside the top-10. He's currently on a streak of nine top-10 finishes in a row.
Once their new package was no longer working, Macedo said the team went back to its base package from last year and have been working overtime to improve.
“Overall, as a team, we’ve went out, we’ve tested,” he said. “We’ve worked really hard to get better. I think lately the past few weeks it’s been paying off. We’ve been able to string together some top-fives (and a win), kind of be in contention to do well.”
“I feel like my guys are working really hard. (Crew chief) Joe (Gaerte), (and crew members) Trey (Bowman) and Patrick (Dudzinski). They’ve been putting in extra hours during the week to go test and do other things that other guys aren’t doing so we can get a little bit of an edge and get better. I feel like it has been paying off. Like I said, the last few weeks we’ve had speed. Our cars have been a lot better and I’ve been making better decisions. I’m excited. I think there are good things to come and I feel like if we can keep on the path we’re on we’ll string some wins together.”
That winning streak could continue this weekend as he'll take on the likes of reigning champion Brad Sweet and 10-time Series champion Donny Schatz – who together have won the pass three AGCO Jackson Nationals titles – during the three-day event at the Jackson Motorplex. Tickets for the event are available by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all of the action live on DIRTVision.
Posted by Bill McIntyre at Wednesday, June 24, 2020
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Symposium - CILS4!
Action Plan 2019-21
Network for Conserving Central India
Increased patchiness of forests as infrastructure construction rises in India
~ by Kalyanee Paranjape
As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India’s topography is undergoing rapid changes. Due to this expansion, ecosystems are under threat due to rapid land use changes and fragmentation. This has led to a growing interest in integrating conservation concerns in infrastructure development in India and an urgent need to illustrate the extent of their fragmentation.
A recent paper titled, “Bits and pieces: Forest fragmentation by linear intrusions in India”, aims to understand the impact of infrastructure developments on forest structural connectivity in India through analyzing forest patch characteristics. The authors have utilized patch size, amount of perforation and inter-patch distance to quantify clusters and fragmentation categories. Cluster analysis was used to identify large, intact patches that need to be preserved in future development action plans. And results were summarized at the national scale and for the existing protected area (PA) network. The results also cover two important conservation landscapes; the Western Ghats and Central India, which are rich in biodiversity and critical for survival of several threatened large mammals including tiger and Asian elephant.
The scientists found an increase in the number of forest patches and a reduction in the number of large patches due to linear infrastructure in India. High tension power-transmission lines and major roads were the most common linear intrusions within forests, and 70 % of the assessed protected areas had some amount of linear infrastructure passing through them. They also discovered that the highest fragmentation due to linear intrusions was observed in Central India, where an intact forest habitat of size 162,000 km2 was split into 5200 smaller patches with a mean patch size of 30 km2 and the largest patch being 16,850 km2 in size.
The authors recommend that infrastructure projects should not be established through the existing forests and when inevitable, proper mitigation strategies are vital to maintain connectivity. A more rational development plan would be to connect larger numbers of villages or people while safeguarding forests rather than to establish the shortest routes that would destroy forests, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. The study addresses the issue of fragmentation within forests and develops techniques that can be usefully applied to mitigate fragmentation problems in other fragile ecosystems such as tropical grasslands and savannas.
Spatial distribution of forest patches and their size: (a) Depicts the patch size distribution as influenced by infrastructure; (b) Depicts patch size distribution in absence of infrastructure intrusion.
Original Paper: Nayak, R., Karanth, K. K., Dutta, T., Defries, R., Karanth, K. U., & Vaidyanathan, S. (2020). Bits and pieces: Forest fragmentation by linear intrusions in India. Land Use Policy, (September 2018), 104619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104619
Room to Roam in Central India
~ by Archita Sharma (WWF-India)
The Central Indian Landscape has been a stronghold for several long-ranging wild mammals for several thousands of years. Its dense forests and rolling grasslands provide a rich holdout for tigers and several other carnivores, big and small, prowling, hunting, and stalking in the shadows of this wild heartland. But over the last century, Central India has lost a share of its forests to growing human settlements, railways, roads and rampant mining. So, a landscape that was once a contiguous expanse of dry deciduous forests is now fragmented, remaining with 34% forest cover, out of which only 8.5% is legally protected.
Long-ranging mammals need room to roam. In many mammalian carnivores, the juveniles move out of their mother's territory to establish their own, with the males moving long distances to find new territories. When their dispersal routes to seek out prey, territory and mates are severed by roads, cities, villages, mining, and railways, natural populations can be isolated into small island populations. These small isolated populations face a higher risk of disease and extinction. Population genetic structure can help us determine the isolation or connectivity in natural populations.
To put it simply, genetic structure captures the level of genetic variation existing in a population. If mammals from different forest patches are mating with each other, they will be genetically more similar and will consequently have a lower genetic structure. Similarly, isolated populations will be genetically more distinct and will have higher genetic structure. Using DNA as a tool, estimating structure and connectivity in mammals can help us understand fine scale impacts of fragmentation. While there are several such studies on tigers, very little is known about how fragmentation impacts other mammalian species.
A new study published in Diversity and Distribution answers how the same level of habitat fragmentation has differential impacts multiple mammalian species in the threatened Central Indian Landscape. Researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, investigated the genetic structure and connectivity in four long-ranging mammalian species — jungle cat, leopard, sloth bear, and tiger. The four species have varying body size, diet and dispersal abilities, and are expected to have species-specific responses to fragmentation. The two major objectives of the study were (1) to understand how the genetic structure is partitioned between these four species and (2) to find out how different landscape features like roads, built-up areas, and human density impact connectivity and dispersal in the study species.
Leopards diets in the Kanha-Pench corridor: now and scenarios of the future
~ by Amrita Neelakantan (coordinator NCCI)
Mahi Puri and colleagues have conducted extensive surveys to find out what leopards eat and how might leopard diets change in the future. The study focuses on the important corridor between Kanha and Pench national parks. Leopards live within and outside of forests, with some taking up residence in the agricultural matrix. Wildlife outside the bounds of protected areas interact much more often with humans over a range of human activities – grazing cattle, growing crops and collecting non-timber forest produce to name a few. Understanding how our human lives affect and in turn change the behavior of wild species is important for a future where humans and big cats might continue to live side by side in one of the world’s more populated places that remains vital for global wildlife conservation goals. In addition, the knowledge of benefits provided by carnivore presence can help offset the negative perceptions around these species. Mahi Puri and her team extensively surveyed forest and households across the corridor to make sense of drivers of leopard distribution, conflict, and current patterns of their diet to showcase what might change in the future.
The big takeaway from this paper is that within the surveyed sites leopards predominantly ate wild prey (langur and ungulates) – an important consideration for human-wildlife conflict in the region. Occupancy statistics also highlight that leopards are more likely to be in spots with ample wild-prey confirming that leopards still prefer wild-prey and are not preferentially moving into human dominated areas for non-wild prey (signified by cattle and dog icons in the figures).
Wild canids in human-dominated landscapes of Central India
~ by Archita Sharma (University of Delhi)
Nested in Satpura-Mikal range lies the Kanha-Pench forest landscape, spanning over an area of 10,000 square kilometers. It connects two well-known tiger reserves: Kanha and Pench. This landscape is a mosaic of dry deciduous forests, rippling grasslands, and tanned scrublands, with almost 400 villages. Although protected reserves play a crucial role in conserving wildlife, many species of wild carnivores also depend on being able to occupy human-dominated spaces. There is little understanding of human-carnivore interactions in such shared spaces.
A new study published in Royal Society Open Science revealed habitat preferences, livestock predation, and conservation requirements for five lesser-known carnivores in the Kanha-Pench forest landscape. The results offer a framework for assessing human-carnivore interactions in other regions as well.
The study focused on four wild canid species - Indian grey wolf, Dhole, Indian jackal, and Indian fox. Striped hyena, which is closely related to wild canids in terms of behavior and ecology, was also included in the assessment. The research team used a unique socio-ecological framework for assessing carnivore occupancy and livestock depredation patterns by combining field data gathered from 1600 kilometers of indirect sign survey (scats and tracks) with 700 interview surveys of local residents. 10,000 square kilometers of the landscape was divided into 128 cells of 52 square kilometers each, and this grid-network was then used for data collection. Data on the distribution of free-ranging dogs in the study area was also included in the assessment.
Photo credits as on photo and Centre for Wildlife Studies (https://cwsindia.org/)
Reclamation of mining dumps: Is mining waste suitable for forest restoration?
Prachi Thatte
PhD Candidate, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS)
With 664 million tonnes (Mt) of coal, India was the third largest producer in 2014-15, next to China (3474 Mt) and the USA (924 Mt). The Indian government has announced an ambitious plan to produce 1500 Mt of coal by 2020, at an annual growth rate of almost 20%. In order to meet this target, massive expansion of open cast mines is envisaged. About 80% of India’s coal reserves lie in the central Indian landscape and much of it is under forests. Destruction of forests is inevitable for open-cast mining. Along with deforestation, direct and indirect mining activities change the landscape surrounding the mine. Direct activities include removal of the top soil, followed by excavation of overburden and then coal extraction. Indirect activities include tree felling for constructing roads, houses and other infrastructure, thus increasing the anthropogenic impact on the surrounding landscape.
A coal mine. Photo by Nitin Kirloskar.
Under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, whenever forest land is diverted for non-forest use, compensatory afforestation (CA) needs to be carried out on an equal amount of non-forest land, or double the amount of degraded forest land. It is usually recommended that CA should be done at the point closest to where diversion is taking place. Mining companies often reclaim the overburden dumps for afforestation. But can these overburden dumps, after reclamation, support similar species of trees which were found in the forest that was cleared? How different are the physical and chemical properties of the dump soil compared to the soil found in the surrounding areas?
In order to answer these questions, Jitendra Ahirwal and Subodh Kumar Maiti from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad evaluated the changes in soil properties due to direct and indirect mining activities around Ananta open cast mine in Odisha. They collected soil samples from 5 different sites in 2008:
Soil from Sal (Shorea robusta) forest patch- original habitat before the area was mined
Reclaimed mine soil (RMS)- While excavating coal from the mine, the overburden (rock and soil which lies above the coal) was dumped in a nearby area. In 2003 these dumps were reclaimed by planting fast growing species of trees such as Acacia and Cassia
Mine face topsoil, the uppermost layer of soil which is close to the excavated area
Soil from wasteland- Sal forest that was degraded due to human activities
Soil from agricultural area (mostly rain-fed paddy cultivation).
Project Spotlight highlights our members' work in Central India.
Human Wildlife Interactions
Science Summary
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The Canadian education system is regulated by the provincial and territorial governments through their ministries of education. These ministries oversee smaller bodies called boards of education or district school boards, which then manage individual schools in a particular region.
Additionally, Canadians have access to three different types of schools: public, private and Catholic. The largest school boards in cities with foreign missions are the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, Commission scolaire de Montréal, English Montreal School Board, Toronto District School Board, Calgary Board of Education, the Edmonton Public School Board and the Vancouver School Board.
The provincial education systems have a similar basic structure. Each has three levels: elementary, secondary and post-secondary. Elementary and secondary education is free and compulsory for all children. Education is available in both English and French, where numbers warrant, in most regions across the country, except Québec where French is the only official language. Here, residents must request special permission to have their children receive an education in English.
Most Canadian schools require a student to be comfortable using a computer and the Internet. Some schools may even require students to provide their own laptops to fully participate in classes.
The provincial ministries of education are as follows:
Ministry of Education and Training Ontario: www.edu.gov.on.ca
Ministère de l’éducation du Québec: www.meq.gouv.qc.ca
Ministry of Education Alberta: http://www.albertacanada.com/immigration/living/li...
Ministry of Education British Columbia: www.gov.bc.ca/bced
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Rosenstock-Huessy Live!
400 Hours of Free Lecture Audio
with Transcripts
Books by
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
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Read and Search
Rosenstock-Huessy’s Works
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Our website is a work in progress; please contact us if you notice anything that needs improvement!
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Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Fund
Norman Fiering
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LISTEN TO A
SAMPLE LECTURE
The historical nature of man is the aspect of reality about which we have been basically and emphatically instructed in the epoch of thought beginning with Hegel... Rosenstock-Huessy has concretized this teaching in a living way that no other thinker before him has done.
Rosenstock-Huessy continually astonished one by his dazzling and unique insights.
He was a thinker of startling power and originality; in my view an authentic genius of whom no age produces more than a handful.
Page Smith
Rosenstock-Huessy's is a powerful and original mind. What is most important in his work is the understanding of the relevance of traditional values to a civilization still undergoing revolutionary transformations; and this contribution will gain rather than lose significance in the future.
Above all, Rosenstock-Huessy's writings show how the experience of the second millennium of the Christian era can serve as a prophecy of the future of the human race.
Harold J. Berman
It is unfortunate that Rosenstock-Huessy's thought has been so overlooked. For years he has been concerned with many of the same things theologians are grappling with today, that is, the meaning of speech, the question of hermeneutics, the problem of secularization, and the disappearance of a sense of the transcendent in modern life.
Harvey G. Cox
❮ Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Live!
Volume 17: Universal History (1956)
Nine 1-hour lectures, a fragment of the original course.
We are in the midst of a tremendous, real universal history. Who cares for the French history, or for English history? A secular story. They are of no importance, if you compare them to this tremendous 2,000 years of organized life in the form of the Holy Spirit, of this power to connect more than one generation of man in the same spirit, to bear fruit, where one generation sows, and the other harvests. This has not existed before, and it is threatened today.
—May 8,1956
Universal History (1956) comprises the last nine 1½-hour lectures in that year’s course, and primarily covers the Christian era. Lecture 6 is a brilliant evocation of the Holy Spirit; Lecture 9 describes the challenges Rosenstock-Huessy expects coming generations to face in the coming third millennium.
There are several lecture courses with this title.
All of them have the same premise as Out of Revolution, in that they seek to express the unity of history. But here Rosenstock-Huessy proclaims more than the unity of the 1,000 years of European history–he argues for the movement of the spirit through the entire history of mankind, “from Adam to the last judgment.” Our own story is told through the lives of our revolutionary ancestors: the tribes, the astrological empires, the Jews, and the Greeks, all of whom are honored not only for their enduring and continuing contributions to that history, but for having once and for all broken new ground.
Rosenstock-Huessy defends both the existence and the meaning of the Christian era. Indeed he names Christ as the turning point of history, the culmination of the yearnings of the ancient world and the redemption of its achievements, as well as the cornerstone of our hopes for the unity of mankind. Like Augustine before him, he sees the four ages of the ancient world succeeded by the millennia of the Christian era, in which one God superseded the many gods, one world was forged out of our competing empires and nations, and one great society is to be born of our many warring social forms. The history of mankind is retold as relay race in which each age or generation enters, claims, and incorporates new territory.
The series also addresses the arts and sciences, Judaism and Christianity as historical forces, the mind, nature, epochs, the Gospels, Church and State, generations, and holidays.
The Digital Archive
Books by Rosenstock-Huessy
A Biographical Sketch
Books about Rosenstock-Huessy
Conferences on Rosenstock-Huessy
Read and Search the Works
Interactive Bibliography
© Copyright The Eugen Rosenstock Huessy Fund 2021. All rights reserved.
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Czech and Slovak Films
When, where and how to watch Czech and Slovak films
Czech cinemas
Czech and Slovak film festivals
Upír z Feratu: cult normalisation film
Posted on 3 June 2018 by admin
2018 is a year of anniversaries for Czechs and Slovaks. 1918 heralded the first republic following the break-up of the Hapsburg Empire. It’s also twenty-five years since the Czech and Slovak republics went their separate ways. And then there was 1968. 1968 was a pivotal year for unrest and upheaval across the world. In Czechoslovakia, the arrival of Russian tanks signalled a clampdown on the flourishing cultural activity that had emerged in the first half of the sixties, most famously in the New Wave of Czechoslovak cinema.
A recent retrospective in Brussels showcased the New Wave, showing eighteen films over 6 weeks. Eleven films from ’62-’67 covered the emergence of the new wave. The impact of the Russian invasion was showcased with five films made in ’69-’70, and “banned forever”. Most of these were not screened again until 1990. That leaves the film that brought the season to a close: Upír z Feratu (Ferat Vampire), made by the late director Juraj Herz in 1982.
It was a strange film to choose to finish the season, the other films are earlier Czech New Wave films, or banned after the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968. It could have been a tribute to Herz, who died in April, but Ferat doesn’t normally feature in lists of his best films. In fact Herz was the only director with two films in the programme. The other being The Cremator, regarded as his best.
It does serve as an example (a very good one!) of the longer term impact of “normalisation” on the Czech film industry. Normalisation sought to roll back the reforms that the Czech New Wave films had been made under, and preserve a Soviet-friendly status quo.
The film is an emerging classic, already a cult film in Czech. Last October, in time for Halloween, Prague based model car firm Fox Toys released a scale model of the star of the film, the car Ferat. Made in a limited edition (I got my hands on mine last week), early sales were accompanies by a cardboard sleeved copy of the film.
Ferat is a Škoda Super Sport prototype from 1971 that lives at the Škoda Museum in Mlada Boleslav. It was based on the iconic Škoda Š110R, a coupe that still has a thriving fan base and owners club in Czech and Slovakia, and the countries to which it was exported.
On the surface it’s a straightforward normalisation film: “look, you won’t even miss decadent western capitalist horror films, because, well, we can do our own!”. A simple plot: a new car from the Ferat Corporation appears to drain its drivers of energy, life even. Our investigative hero sets out to find the secret of the car and the corporation…. I won’t spoil the plot here, although one slightly cruel review suggested it needed a transfusion in the middle.
It’s not as simple as that, though. The team that made the film, for instance, looks decidedly dodgy:
Director: Juraj Herz, whose films included The Cremator, banned “forever” by the communist authorities.
Lead actor: Jiri Menzel: director of the banned “forever” film Larks on a String.
Bit part: Played by Vít Olmer, maverick Czechsploitation director, later to make Bony a Klid, banned on release until it’s black market distribution made a mockery of the ban.
Uncredited contributions from surrealist animator Jan Švankmajer, then banned from film making.
Actor Petr Čepek, later to take the lead in several Švankmajer films including Faust.
So, a group of film makers that are not in favour with the regime make one of the few Czechoslovak horror films. It’s tempting to make analogies with the activities of those in Hollywood, USA, during the anti-communist witch hunts of the 50s: the uncredited roles by those banned, and works rich in metaphor and references. Cy Endfield’s Hell Drivers for example.
Švankmajer’s contribution to the film is signalled by the clip of one of his films (ID please!) shown on a TV. In any case, the Faustian nature of the plot sits comfortably within his oeuvre. He is now credited with the creation of the visceral elements of Ferat, including the scene where Menzel’s character approaches the car, slices the throbbing bonnet with a knife, and is drawn to slide his hand into the wound, Cronenberg style (predating the hand through TV screen in Videodrome), only for the car to attempt to pull him inside in the classic Freudian manner. This scene uses Švankmajer’s hallmark use of raw meat as living flesh, and originally included a complete meat engine that was censored.
It’s tempting to credit another animation segment to Švankmajer. The scene is played by Menzel on a home movie projector and includes Juraj Herz hamming it up as a Dracula style vampire.
The title of the film obviously alludes to Nosferatu, it’s also possible to see Ferat as a play on Fiat/Ferrari, pillars of the decadent western car industry (although Fiat had widespread collaboration with the communist car industry, especially in Poland and the Soviet Union).
The car itself is real: a prototype built as the Škoda Super Sport, based on the S110R coupe, as are the Škoda rally cars seen in the film. The car, in common with the S110R, had its engine at the rear, the front bonnet covering the luggage area. Bony a Klid, Vit Olmer’s film about gangsterism at the end of the communist era, has a long opening scene filmed at the Škoda Factory in Mlada Boleslav.
Theodor Pištěk, who gave the car it’s makeover, drove on the racetrack competitively for Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. The Super Sport also made an appearance in the film Tomorrow I’ll wake up and scald myself with tea (1977). Both films are based on short stories written by Czech science fiction author Josef Nesvadba.
The car as star may well explain the cult status of the film, it predates the similar role of John Carpenter’s Christine released the following year, but we should to the role of the film in Czech normalisation to explain it’s conclusive role in the Brussels retrospective. It shows the extraordinary lengths film makers went to help and support each other in the worst of times. It also shows the subversive possibilities of a genre film. American horror films of the 70s and 80s are now seen to engage with cold war and other political issues such as race, gender and economy in a way that it was impossible to do directly at the time. Perhaps Ferat took on the same challenge in 1980s Czechoslovakia.
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Daily Talk Forum › General Discussions › Science
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Parts of a giant, exquisitely carved marble sculpture depicting the Roman emperor Mar
Parts of a giant, exquisitely carved marble sculpture depicting the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius have been found at an archaeological site in Turkey.
Fragments of the statue were unearthed at the ancient city of Sagalassos.
So far the statue's head, right arm and lower legs have been discovered, high in the mountains of southern Turkey.
Marcus Aurelius was portrayed by Richard Harris in the Oscar-winning 2000 film Gladiator and was one of the so-called "Five Good Emperors".
He reigned from 161AD until his death in 180AD.
In addition to his deeds as emperor, Marcus Aurelius is remembered for his writings, and is considered one of the foremost Stoic philosophers.
The partial statue was unearthed in the largest room at Sagalassos's Roman baths.
The cross-shaped room measures 1,250 sq m (13,500 sq ft), is covered in mosaics and was probably used as a frigidarium - a room with a cold pool which Romans could sink into after a hot bath.
It was partially destroyed in an earthquake between 540AD and 620AD, filling the room with rubble. Archaeologists have been excavating the frigidarium for the past 12 years.
The dig is part of wider excavations at the ruined city, which was once an important regional centre.
Imperial gallery
Last year, the team led by Prof Marc Waelkens, from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, uncovered fragments of a colossal marble statue of the emperor Hadrian in the rubble.
This month, the researchers found a huge head and arm belonging to Faustina the Elder - wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius.
Archaeologists now think the room hosted a gallery of sculptures depicting the "Antonine dynasty" - rulers of Spanish origin who presided over the Roman Empire during the second century AD.
Early on 20 August, a huge pair of marble lower legs, broken just above the knee, turned up in the debris.
They also found a 1.5m-long (5ft-long) right arm and hand holding a globe which was probably once crowned by a gilded bronze "Victory" figure.
But it was the giant marble head which identified this statue as the young Marcus Aurelius. The colossal head, which is just under 1m (3ft) in height, is said to bear his characteristic bulging eyes and beard.
Prof Waelkens said the pupils were gazing upwards "as if in deep contemplation, perfectly fitting of an emperor who was more of a philosopher than a soldier".
He added that the sculpture, which stood about 4.5m (nearly 15ft) tall, was one of the finest depictions of the Roman ruler.
The emperor wore exquisitely carved army boots decorated with a lion skin, tendrils and Amazon shields.
The torso was probably covered in bronze armour filled inside with terracotta or wood. When the niche's vault collapsed in the earthquake, the torso would have exploded.
Bath complex
The statue of Hadrian was found lying halfway down in the frigidarium's rubble.
This initially led archaeologists to think it had been hauled in there from another part of the huge bath complex, perhaps to remove its gilded bronze armour, or to burn the huge marble pieces to make cement in a nearby lime kiln.
However, they now think sculptures of Hadrian, his wife Vibia Sabina, another Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, his wife Faustina the Elder, and Marcus Aurelius all once adorned niches situated around the room.
There were three large niches on both the western and eastern sides. The fragments of Hadrian's statue were found near the south-west niche.
The front parts of two female feet were discovered in the opposite niche, on the room's south-eastern side.
The archaeologists now think these belonged to a colossal figure of Vibia Sabina, who was forced into marriage with the homosexual Hadrian at the age of 14.
Remains of the statue depicting Faustina the Elder were found further along, on the eastern side.
In the opposite niche, they found the front parts of a pair of male feet in sandals, which could belong to her husband, Antoninus Pius - who succeeded Hadrian as emperor.
The experts suggest Antonine emperors occupied niches on the western side of the room, while their spouses stood opposite, on the east side.
Five good emperors
After the discovery of Faustina and her male counterpart, the archaeologists guessed the north-western niche would contain a colossal statue of Marcus Aurelius - the longest-surviving successor of Antoninus Pius.
The discovery on Wednesday confirmed this prediction, and suggests the north-eastern niche may contain remains of a statue depicting Faustina the Younger, Marcus Aurelius's wife.
Archaeologists will get the opportunity to excavate this part of the room next year.
Despite his philosophical leanings, Marcus Aurelius had to spend much of his reign fighting Germanic tribes along the Austrian Danube where, in 180AD, he died in nearby Carnuntum.
The part of Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator was one of Richard Harris's last roles (the actor died in 2002). Although much of the storyline is fictional, it is set against an historical backdrop of the imperial succession from Marcus Aurelius to his son Commodus.
While Marcus Aurelius is considered, along with Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, as one of Rome's Five Good Emperors, Commodus's reign was marked by internal strife, cruelty and conspiracies.
Commodus took part, naked, in gladiatorial battles - which he always won. Opponents, whose lives were apparently spared, would eventually submit to the emperor.
He was murdered in 192AD - not by a general called Maximus, but by an athlete named Narcissus, sent by conspirators to strangle the megalomaniac emperor in his bath.
Scientists: Giant Black Hole at Milky Way's Center Beyond Doubt cyrano 0 920 12-16-2008 07:54 AM
Giant Fossil Bats Out Of Africa, 35 Million Years Old cyrano 0 760 03-05-2008 08:24 AM
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2016 Lexus LS460L lands in Hanoi
A single unit of the 2016 Lexus LS460L has been imported in Vietnam, which was recently spotted in the capital city of Hanoi. This model has been developed by the Japanese manufacturer to match the status of world class luxurious sedans like Audi A8L, Merc S500L and Bavarian's 7-series.
The latest edition of LS460L will be offered with a 4.6L V8 engine, which will be capable of generating a maximum power of 386 horses and a peak torque of 470 Nm. Despite being a luxury sedan, the LS can get from 0 to 100 kmph in just 5.4 seconds and also offer a satisfactory fuel economy of around 8.5 kmpl.
The car is equipped with four-wheel power-assisted disc brakes, with features like electronically controlled braking, ABS and EBD. All these features keep this machine under control and offer a safe ride to the occupants.
To compete against high-end luxury cars, it has a welded steel unibody frame, which minimizes the car's weight to just 1920 kg..
In order to provide a luxurious feel, the car has been equipped with two business class seats at the rear that are surrounded with all modern amenities that one can find in other rival cars of this segment. It is also featured with a top class entertainment system, which can be controlled through a separate control panel at the rear.
The LS460L can help the brand further spread its footprint in the Vietnam market. With the LS460L price marked to be more than 6.4 billion VND, it is being touted as one of the most expensive luxury sedans available in the country./.
Source: Carbay
More than 110,000 Yamaha Nozza Grande bikes recalled
Hanoi International Marathon to start next year
Construction safety regulations tightened
Vietnam Motorshow 2017 opens in HCM City
Positive signs seen in socio-economic situation: PM
More than two million foreign tourists visit Vietnam
Quang Ninh builds high-quality shrimp breeding complex
Clinical study demonstrates impact of nutrition intervention on healthy growth and dietary diversity of children
Vietnam prepares to lure back tourists
First solo exhibition inspires Hanoi’s streets
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The Redskins May Need a Ladder To Escape the NFC East Cellar
Published by 3rdStone FromTheSun on May 24, 2009
The NFC East has been one of the strongest divisions in football, since the 1970's, from top to bottom. Three teams, the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys, and New York Giants, have each won multiple Super Bowls since then. A fourth, the Philadelphia Eagles, has played in two Super Bowls as well.
The NFC East also used to include the Saint Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals featured many great players, including three Hall of Famers, and were generally always in the thick of the race for the division title. They did win two consecutive division titles in 1974 and 1975, but left the NFC East after the 2001 season. They are now in the NFC West, and have played in Arizona since the 1988 season.
The 2009 NFL seas...
April NFL Mock Draft Update
Who is the Best Closer in Baseball History
Few Canadian Goalies To Go Round
Will Landon Donovan’s Loan To Everton Save the Toffees’ Season?
Tigers in the Sports Pages: May 28
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Sculptures by Jonathan Borofsky
England’s Model Villages
The Crowsnest Pass
Wednesday, 20th February 2013 by Kyle Kusch
In a country known for its mountain scenery, the Crowsnest Pass corridor shared between British Columbia and Alberta stands out as one of Canada’s most scenic mountain destinations. The pass is also known for being one of the world’s largest sources of coal and for the numerous tragedies that have shaped its landscape over the past 125 years.
At an elevation of 1,358 m (4,455 ft), the Crowsnest sits on the drainage divide between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is the southernmost transportation route through the Canadian Rockies. In 1897, the Canadian Pacific Railway was built over the pass and almost immediately thousands of people flooded into the mountain valleys on either side of the pass looking to find their riches through coal. In a 15-year span between 1902 and 1917, over 400 miners died in various catastrophic mine disasters.
The pass forms the border between the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Sitting on the top of the pass is the appropriately-named Inn on the Border. The border splits the main building in two – the kitchen lies in Alberta, while the dining room lies in British Columbia.
Four separate glacier-fed lakes lie at the top of the pass. Here, the Crowsnest Highway divides Island Lake in half as it enters Alberta.
When the railway came, numerous mining operations large and small were formed, each with its own company town to house its residents. One of those towns was the sleepy village of Frank, Alberta. The village sits to the north of Turtle Mountain, the mountain its residents mined. Topped with weak limestone, the removal of the underlying coal accelerated the slumping of the mountainside that had been occurring for thousands of years.
At 4:10am on 29 April 1903, a 30 million cubic metre (1 billion ft3) block of Turtle Mountain collapsed, sending a plume of rock and mud racing toward Frank at a speed of about 70 km/h (120 mph), wiping out the eastern portion of the town and burying between 70 and 90 people in their sleep. The exact number of dead remains unknown as only 12 bodies were ever recovered; the rest still lay somewhere in the rubble.
More than a century later, the scar of the Frank Slide defines Turtle Mountain, and limestone boulders still cover thousands of acres of the valley. The railway and highway were rebuilt through the middle of the debris, and eventually the Frank Slide became one of Alberta’s major tourist attractions. Today, more than 100,000 visitors per year visit the slide.
Another unlikely attraction on the Albertan side is this old cafe in the hamlet of Bellevue. In 1920, a group of miners got word that the wealthy bootlegger Emilio Picariello would be aboard a train coming through the pass and decided to rob the train. Picariello was nowhere to be found, but the miners made off with passengers’ money nevertheless. Five days later, two of the miners were spotted inside the Bellevue Cafe by police, and a shootout erupted. One of the miners and two constables were killed. The other miner slipped away wounded and escaped into the rubble of the Frank Slide a few minutes to the west, only to be captured four days later in a nearby town.
While coal mining on the Albertan side of the pass ended decades ago, the coal operations at Elkford and Sparwood, British Columbia are some of the largest on the planet, covering hundreds of square kilometres.
Sparwood, a town of 4,200 people, is barely visible in the centre-left of the following image, dwarfed by the massive mine to the east.
Street View can’t take you right inside the mines (yet), it does drive right up to the entrance of the big mine at Elkford, where we see a massive wash plant and tailings pile.
Sparwood’s largest tourist attraction is the Terex Titan, which sits in its own park at the entrance to town. Built for hauling up to 320 tonnes of coal, it was the largest truck in the world when it was built in 1973, weighing 231,100 kg (509,500 lbs) and standing 6.88 m (22 ft 7 in) high.1
At the west end of the Crowsnest corridor is the city of Fernie. Destroyed by fire five times between 1902 and 1908, Fernie’s central business district was rebuilt the fifth time using brick and stone. Today, the buildings remain almost exactly as they were in 1908.
Fernie is also home to Fernie Alpine Resort, which receives some of the largest snowfalls of any ski resort in North America. The resort is known for its deep powder and panoramic vistas. Best of all, the entire resort is now available in Google Street View, so you can sit back at your computer and take it all in – perhaps while enjoying a nice Currie Bowl.
Longtime readers will remember that we visited the Terex Titan way back in November 2008 (although not nearly as up-close). ↩
Natural Landmarks
Stadiums and Sport
Kyle is a jack-of-all-trades geographer and archivist in rural British Columbia and was formerly the proprietor of humble geography blog The Basement Geographer. He enjoys a good game of hockey and a good 30-km walk with a frozen beverage in hand.
The World’s Largest Dump Truck
Usery Pass, Mesa
Canada’s Grand Railway Hotels – Part 3
Landslide!
5 comments Comments are closed
Friday, 22nd February 2013 at 3:33 am
Great article…thanks for posting!
Ian Brown says:
Friday, 22nd February 2013 at 4:25 pm
Would you believe that just last weekend I added Frank Slide to my ‘list of locations to consider writing about someday’!
Glad you were able to work it into an epic post, Kyle – far better than I would have done!
Might not be the same Ian Brown, but you went on a food tour of Canada a couple of years ago and we urged you to come through the mountains on the southern route. You went through Banff instead and were disappointed with the fare. If you ever come through the Frank Slide, eat with us at Stone’s Throw Cafe…you won’t be sorry you did. 🙂
Sorry, not the same Ian Brown (of the Globe), though I suspect a significant portion of my Twitter followers think I am him!
Thanks, Ian! Although I’m sure you would have done a great job with it as usual!
Just clicked on the Stone’s Throw website. SOOOO hungry now. Going to be thinking about cheesecake-stuffed strawberries all day. Only 5 1/2 hours away, too…
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PlayStation Network Is Not Safe Till Now
Absar Abdul Rahman 10 years ago 6 min read
Don’t know, what kinda hackers have sticked up to Sony’s PSN. Now again we have heard a bad news from an expert named Gregory Evans is a an online security expert, author of some books plus a hacker who hacked several site’s including AT&T, Sprint and WorldCom.
He stayed in jail for some time, and was released after giving $10 million to the US government.
Industry Gamers, held him up for an Interview… in which they arose a question of PSN
IG: Sony has said they implemented new security. Do you believe PlayStation Network and Qriocity are hacker-proof now?
No. And it’s not just Sony gamers that are at risk. It’s anyone who has any online gaming console like Xbox or Wii. Nothing’s 100 percent secure. Even if Sony had never been hacked, when anybody goes online to do anything, play games, search the Internet… you’re always taking a risk that somebody might get your information. When you’re connected to your Wi-Fi and you’re playing online games it’s opening up hundreds of ports. Each one of those ports is like a door that a hacker can use to bypass your firewall and get into your computer. In the gaming community, most people don’t even know this is happening. They just think I’m going online to play games and everything’s fine. They may not think about security because they have a firewall on their Linksys or DLink router that they bought at Radio Shack for $30 or $40. Well, if it was that easy then Sony shouldn’t have been hacked. They should have gone over to Radio Shack and grabbed a $40 DLink router and everything would be fine.
So what do you think ?? It’s really a big loss for Sony further more for the users. Okay, below is the full catch up of the ex-hacker Gregory Evans (An interesting interview)
IG: What’s your background as a hacker?
I started hacking when I was 12 years old back in the ‘80s. I got caught the first time when I was in the 10th grade by AT&T and my parents had to pay back $30,000. Then over the years I became a hacker for hire for big corporations through someone who I called my agent, who was an attorney. I started hitting companies for about a million dollars a week. I got caught in 1997 and plead guilty in 1998. I settled with the U.S. government for over $9.8 million and spent 24 months in a federal prison for hacking AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and WorldCom. Now, I spend my time running several companies and help companies and people secure themselves against hackers. We make products like LocatePC and LocateMac, so that if there’s a computer that’s stolen, you can retrieve it from anywhere in the world. We also have online programs to see if your computer or network is hacker proof called amihackerproof.com.
IG: What are your thoughts on what has happened with Sony’s PlayStation Network?
Well, Sony has about 100 million customers out when they got hacked, they’re out there at the forefront of the news, but big corporations get hacked every single day. Only 17 percent of companies whose computers were hacked report them to law enforcement due to fear of negative publicity. Ninety percent of Fortune 500 networks have been hacked.
IG: What are the challenges when it comes to security for a big company like Sony?
The main problem, and one that never seems to be fixed, can be explained in video game terms. IT managers are like the infantry. It really doesn’t take much skill to became an IT manager. There’s no association that says you’re a certified IT manager. But there are associations out there that say you’re a certified computer hacker. IT managers, for the most part, are just book-smart people who went out and read a book and passed the test. Well, these people who hacked into Sony probably never even went to high school. Some of them probably don’t even speak English — some of the best hackers in the world are coming from China. So if IT managers are like infantry, computer hackers are like Navy SEALs. When we went in to get Bin Laden we didn’t send in the infantry. We sent out the best in the world – the SEALs. But who’s protecting Sony’s network? IT managers. The PS Store has finally returned… but will customer info be safe?
IG: Sony has said they’re working with outside security companies to secure PlayStation Network. What are your thoughts on that?
Most big corporations have what’s called an annual security audit and they go out and hire outside security companies. But they’re nothing but a bunch of IT managers who went out and got a bunch of certifications and now they come in to see if your system is truly hacker proof. These IT managers who take the test to become a certified computer hacker or a CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional) have to work in a lab and hack into a system that’s in a controlled environment. The problem is that a true computer hacker will hack into a system where the other person doesn’t know that they’re being hacked into. It’s not a controlled environment. So why isn’t Sony hiring hackers to see if their system is hacker proof? People who wonder why Sony has been hacked multiple times; it’s because they’re relying on the wrong people to secure their system.
IG: So can gamers expect more hacks in the future?
Yes. The problem remains that Sony and most big corporations have IT managers designing their networks and security. Even if these guys have a Master’s Degree or PhD from a school like MIT, that doesn’t make them a true security expert. It’s scary and these attacks will continue to happen.
Though the security Sony provides to its user is also not enough and is not of high level. Any one can breach into the security and Hack their data. Sony doesn’t love its users.
Tags: PlayStation 3 PlayStation Network PSP Sony
Previous iCloud’s Login Page Is Right There
Next Apple Hires Dev Of A JailBreak Tweak Called MobileNotifier
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KEENE PEACE VIGIL
Readings, Links, etc.
The American Chaos Machine U.S. Foreign Policy Goes Off the Rails
By Danny Sjursen
In March 1906, on the heels of the U.S. Army’s massacre of some 1,000 men, women, and children in the crater of a volcano in the American-occupied Philippines, humorist Mark Twain took his criticism public. A long-time anti-imperialist, he flippantly suggested that Old Glory should be redesigned “with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.”
I got to thinking about that recently, five years after I became an antiwar dissenter (while still a major in the U.S. Army), and in the wake of another near-war, this time with Iran. I was struck yet again by the way every single U.S. military intervention in the Greater Middle East since 9/11 has backfiredin wildly counterproductive ways, destabilizing a vast expanse of the planet stretching from West Africa to South Asia.
Chaos, it seems, is now Washington’s stock-in-trade. Perhaps, then, it’s time to resurrect Twain’s comment -- only today maybe those stars on our flag should be replaced with the universal symbol for chaos.
After all, our present administration, however unhinged, hardly launched this madness. President Trump’s rash, risky, and repugnant decision to assassinate Iranian Major General Qassem Suleimani on the sovereign soil of Iraq was only the latest version of what has proven to be a pervasive state of affairs. Still, that and Trump’s other recent escalations in the region do illustrate an American chaos machine that’s gone off the rails. And the very manner -- I’m loathe to call it a “process” -- by which it’s happened just demonstrates the way this president has taken American chaos to its dark but logical conclusion.
Multiple interesting Links
New Hampshire Peace Action: https://www.nhpeaceaction.org
National Peace Action: https://www.peaceaction.org
Code Pink: https://www.codepink.org
American Friends Service Committee: https://www.afsc.org
World Beyond War: https://www.worldbeyondwar.org
Communities, Lawmakers Call for Action on Nuclear Threat
With the March 20 passage in the NH House of Representatives of a resolution calling for a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons and opposing development of so-called “low yield” nuclear weapons, New Hampshire legislators added their voices to a growing movement aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear conflict and moving the world toward abolition of nuclear weapons.
Other measures, based on a resolution known as “Back from the Brink,” also cleared the City Council in Portsmouth last Monday and Town Meetings last week in Warner, Alstead, Lee, and Exeter. The Durham Town Council passed one in December. New London’s Town Meeting kicked off the latest round two years ago.
It’s not a coincidence.
The resolutions flow from an organized effort by groups including NH Peace Action, the American Friends Service Committee, Seacoast Peace Response, Rights and Democracy, and the Union of Concerned Scientists to spotlight concerns about nuclear weapons at a time when presidential candidates are flocking to New Hampshire. The candidates are also starting to get questions on the campaign trail.
The reason should be obvious: 75 years into the atomic age and 3 decades after the Cold War ended, the world is still threatened by the possibility that through escalation of international conflict, accident, or technological malfunction, nuclear weapons could be exploded. Consider, for example, the festering tensions along the border between India and Pakistan, two of the world’s nine nuclear-armed powers, that could spin out of control.
As the Portsmouth resolution put it, “the detonation of even a small number of these weapons anywhere in the world could have catastrophic human, environmental, and economic consequences that could affect everyone on the planet.”
“A large‐scale nuclear war could kill hundreds of millions of people directly and cause unimaginable environmental damage, producing conditions wherein billions of people could die from starvation or disease,” the resolution added.
Yet, the United States and other nuclear powers are pursuing new nuclear weapons, even ones designed for battlefield use, rather than diplomatic courses to de-escalate tensions and reduce the chance that nuclear weapons would ever be used. The decisions by US and Russian leaders to pull out of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement and possibility that the New START treaty might go unrenewed in 2020 stand as stark examples.
For our country, this is a dangerous change of course from the approaches of previous presidential administrations, Republican and Democratic, which even at the height of the Cold War knew that restraint was preferable to an uncontrolled nuclear arms race.
According to a recent poll conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 84 percent of New Hampshire residents think it is very (54 percent) or somewhat (30 percent) important for candidates in the upcoming 2020 presidential election to lay out their views regarding nuclear weapons.
Presidential candidates take notice. When you visit New Hampshire, you may be asked questions like,
“Will you oppose current plans to spend upwards of one-and-a-half trillion dollars on a plan to rebuild the entire American nuclear arsenal?”
“Will you agree that no president, even yourself should you be elected, should have unilateral authority to launch a nuclear attack?”
“Will you live up to long-standing US treaty obligations and support multilateral negotiations leading to the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons?”
Voters will welcome the responses.
Arnie Alpert is co-director of the New Hampshire Program.
Links: https://www.concordmonitor.com/A-call-to-action-to-reduce-nuclear-threat-24334038
https://www.afsc.org/story/communities-lawmakers-call-action-nuclear-threat
By Arnie AlpertWith the March 20 passage in the NH House of Representatives of a resolution calling for a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons and opposing development of so-called “low yield” nuclear weapons, New Hampshire legislators added their voices to a growing movement aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear conflict and moving the world toward abolition of nuclear weapons.
www.afsc.org
This is a great article. Thanks, Paul! (He's the man pictured above.)
truthout.org/articles/heres-how-the-2020-candidates-stack-up-on-war-and-peace/
If all the waving of our flag rose up in mighty winds
That whirled us round and round
So we could not tell
Which way was up and which was down,
We’d blow about the earth
Taking root in land that is not our own
An invasive weed that kills the native species
So we can plant our flags.
If all the cheers of misplaced pride rose up at once
We would not be able to hear ourselves
Or others who prefer the silence
Drowned out by shysters whose fortunes rise
As truth fades to a whisper and disappears.
And If all the greed in grasping hearts rose up in flames
And burned away the victims
Who would be left to do their bidding
And envy them their riches?
If all the tears shed for lives cut short by war
Rose up in clouds that drenched the earth
And pooled in seas of sorrow
Refilled daily by the grief that doesn’t go away.
That ocean would rise up in angry waves
To punish the ignorance and pride
That cherished our false interests
And threw away those lives.
Jackie Clearly
As of January 4th, 2019, William Arkin resigned his position at NBC and MSNBC news. His departure is based on philosophical differences with the network, and his belief that the news organization has failed in its obligation to present the news fairly and objectively.
With regard to the United States' position of never-ending war, Mr. Arkin's comments are fully aligned with the Keene Peace Vigil.
William Arkin. Taken from the CNN website.
Full email from William Arkin, leaving NBC and MSNBC
January 4 is my last day at NBC News and I’d like to say goodbye to my friends, hopefully not for good. This isn’t the first time I’ve left NBC, but this time the parting is more bittersweet, the world and the state of journalism in tandem crisis. My expertise, though seeming to be all the more central to the challenges and dangers we face, also seems to be less valued at the moment. And I find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus.
I first started my association with NBC 30 years ago, feeding Cold War stories to Bob Windrem and Fred Francis at the Pentagon. I became an on-air analyst during the 1999 Kosovo War, continuing to work thereafter with Nightly News, delighting and oftentimes annoying in my peculiar position of being a mere civilian amongst THE GENERALS and former government officials. A scholar at heart, I also found myself an often lone voice that was anti-nuclear and even anti-military, anti-military for me meaning opinionated but also highly knowledgeable, somewhat akin to a movie critic, loving my subject but also not shy about making judgements regarding the flops and the losers.
When the attacks of 9/11 came, I was called back to NBC. I spent weeks on and off the air talking about al Qaeda and the various wars we were rushing into, arguing that airpower and drones would be the centerpiece not troops. In the new martial environment where only one war cry was sanctioned I was out of sync then as well. I retreated somewhat to writing a column for the Los Angeles Times, but even there I had to fight editors who couldn’t believe that there would be a war in Iraq. And I spoke up about the absence of any sort of strategy for actually defeating terrorism, annoying the increasing gaggles of those who seemed to accept that a state of perpetual war was a necessity.
I thought then that there was great danger in the embrace of process and officialdom over values and public longing, and I wrote about the increasing power of the national security community. Long before Trump and “deep state” became an expression, I produced one ginormous investigation — Top Secret America — for the Washington Post and I wrote a nasty book — American Coup — about the creeping fascism of homeland security.
Looking back now they were both harbingers for what President Obama (and then Trump) faced in terms of largely failing to make enduring change.
Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could no longer keep up with the world. Added to that was the intellectual challenge of how to report our new kind of wars when there were no real fronts and no actual measures of success. To me there is also a larger problem: though they produce nothing that resembles actual safety and security, the national security leaders and generals we have are allowed to do their thing unmolested. Despite being at “war,” no great wartime leaders or visionaries are emerging. There is not a soul in Washington who can say that they have won or stopped any conflict. And though there might be the beloved perfumed princes in the form of the Petraeus’ and Wes Clarks’, or the so-called warrior monks like Mattis and McMaster, we’ve had more than a generation of national security leaders who sadly and fraudulently have done little of consequence. And yet we (and others) embrace them, even the highly partisan formers who masquerade as “analysts”. We do so ignoring the empirical truth of what they have wrought: There is not one county in the Middle East that is safer today than it was 18 years ago. Indeed the world becomes ever more polarized and dangerous.
As perpetual war has become accepted as a given in our lives, I’m proud to say that I’ve never deviated in my argument at NBC (or at my newspaper gigs) that terrorists will never bedefeated until we better understand why they are driven to fighting. And I have maintained my central view that airpower (in its broadest sense including space and cyber) is not just the future but the enabler and the tool of war today.
Seeking refuge in its political horse race roots, NBC (and others) meanwhile report the story of war as one of Rumsfeld vs. the Generals, as Wolfowitz vs. Shinseki, as the CIA vs. Cheney, as the bad torturers vs. the more refined, about numbers of troops and number of deaths, and even then Obama vs. the Congress, poor Obama who couldn’t close Guantanamo or reduce nuclear weapons or stand up to Putin because it was just so difficult. We have contributed to turning the world national security into this sort of political story. I find it disheartening that we do not report the failures of the generals and national security leaders. I find it shocking that we essentially condone continued American bumbling in the Middle East and now Africa through our ho-hum reporting.
I’m a difficult guy, not prone to either protocol or procedure and I give NBC credit that it tolerated me through my various incarnations. I hope people will say in the early days that I made Brokaw and company smarter about nuclear weapons, about airpower, and even about al Qaeda. And I’m proud to say that I also was one of the few to report that there weren’t any WMD in Iraq and remember fondly presenting that conclusion to an incredulous NBC editorial board. I argued endlessly with MSNBC about all things national security for years, doing the daily blah, blah, blah in Secaucus, but also poking at the conventional wisdom of everyone from Matthews to Hockenberry. And yet I feel like I’ve failed to convey this larger truth about the hopelessness of our way of doing things, especially disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system.
Windrem again convinced me to return to NBC to join the new investigative unit in the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign. I thought that the mission was to break through the machine of perpetual war acceptance and conventional wisdom to challenge Hillary Clinton’s hawkishness. It was also an interesting moment at NBC because everyone was looking over their shoulder at Vice and other upstarts creeping up on the mainstream. But then Trump got elected and Investigations got sucked into the tweeting vortex, increasingly lost in a directionless adrenaline rush, the national security and political version of leading the broadcast with every snow storm. And I would assert that in many ways NBC just began emulating the national security state itself — busy and profitable. No wars won but the ball is kept in play.
I’d argue that under Trump, the national security establishmentnot only hasn’t missed a beat but indeed has gained dangerous strength. Now it is ever more autonomous and practically impervious to criticism. I’d also argue, ever so gingerly, that NBC has become somewhat lost in its own verve, proxies of boring moderation and conventional wisdom, defender of the government against Trump, cheerleader for open and subtlethreat mongering, in love with procedure and protocol over all else (including results). I accept that there’s a lot to report here, but I’m more worried about how much we are missing. Hence my desire to take a step back and think why so little changes with regard to America’s wars.
I know it is characteristic of our overexcited moment to blast away at former employers and mainstream institutions, but all I can say is that despite many frustrations, my time at NBC has been gratifying. Working with Cynthia McFadden has been the experience of a lifetime. I’ve learned a ton about television from her and Kevin Monahan, the secret insider tricks of the trade and the very big picture of what makes for original stories (and how powerful they can be). The young reporters at NBC are also universally excellent. Thanks to Noah Oppenheim for hissupport of my contrarian and disruptive presence. And to Janelle Rodriguez, who supported deep expertise. The Nightly crew has also been a constant fan of my too long stories and a great team. I continue to marvel as Phil Griffin carries out his diabolical plan for the cable network to take over the world.
I’m proud of the work I’ve done with my team and know that there’s more to do. But for now it’s time to take a break. I’m ever so happy to return to writing and thinking without the officiousness of editorial tyrants or corporate standards. And of course I yearn to go back to my first love, which is writing boring reports about secret programs, grateful that the American government so graciously obliges in its constant supply. And I particularly feel like the world is moving so quickly that even in just the little national security world I inhabit, I need more time to sit back and think. And to replenish.
In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners of Donald Trump, I think — like everyone else does — that we miss so much. People who don’t understand the medium, or the pressures, loudly opine that it’s corporate control or even worse, that it’s partisan. Sometimes I quip in response to friends on the outside (and to government sources) that if they mean by the word partisan that it is New Yorkers and Washingtonians against the rest of the country then they are right.
For me I realized how out of step I was when I looked at Trump’s various bumbling intuitions: his desire to improve relations with Russia, to denuclearize North Korea, to get out of the Middle East, to question why we are fighting in Africa, even in his attacks on the intelligence community and the FBI. Of course he is an ignorant and incompetent impostor. And yet I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war. Really? We shouldn’t get out Syria? We shouldn’t go for the bold move of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula? Even on Russia, though we should be concerned about the brittleness of our democracy that it is so vulnerable to manipulation, do we really yearn for the Cold War? And don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution?
Even without Trump, our biggest challenge as we move forward is that we have become exhausted parents of our infant (and infantile) social media children. And because of the “cycle,” we at NBC (and all others in the field of journalism) suffer from a really bad case of not being able to ever take a breath. We are a long way from resolving the rules of the road in this age, whether it be with regard to our personal conduct or anything related to hard news. I also don’t think that we are on a straight line towards digital nirvana, that is, that all of this information will democratize and improve society. I sense that there is already smartphone and social media fatigue creeping across the land, and my guess is that nothing we currently see — nothing that is snappy or chatty — will solve our horrific challenges of information overload or the role (and nature) of journalism. AndI am sure that once Trump leaves center stage, society will have a gigantic media hangover. Thus for NBC — and for everyone else — there is challenge and opportunity ahead. I’d particularly like to think and write more about that.
There’s a saying about consultants, that organizations hire them to hear exactly what they want to hear. I’m proud to say that NBC didn’t do that when it came to me. Similarly I can say that I’m proud that I’m not guilty of giving my employers what they wanted. Still, the things this and most organizations fear most — variability, disturbance, difference — those things that are also the primary drivers of creativity — are not really the things that I see valued in the reporting ranks.
I’m happy to go back to writing and commentary. This winter, I’m proud to say that I’ve put the finishing touches on a 9/11 conspiracy novel that I’ve been toiling on for over a decade. It’s a novel, but it meditates on the question of how to understand terrorists in a different way. And I’m undertaking two new book-writing projects, one fiction about a lone reporter and his magical source that hopes to delve into secrecy and the nature of television. And, If you read this far, I am writing a non-fiction book, an extended essay about national security and why we never seem to end our now perpetual state of war. There is lots of media critique out there, tons of analysis of leadership and the Presidency. But on the state of our national security? Not so much. Hopefully I will find myself thinking beyond the current fire and fury and actually suggest a viable alternative. Wish me luck.
16 Years Later, the Wars Rage On
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Patriots top NFL Earn of Corn team in 21st century
The 21st century has belonged to the New England Patriots in so many ways, so why not one more? The Patriots are the runaway winner in the Ear of Corn since it was first tracked with the 2000 season.
Quarterback Tom Brady has led the New England Patriots to, by far, the most success in the NFL traveling championship since we began tracking it in 2000 (Andrew Campbell/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).
The New England Patriots have dominated the 21st century NFL by every known measure.
Comes now another measure of the 21st century, that is less known. And – what do you know? – the Patriots dominate by that measure, too.
Since we began tracking the traveling championship in the NFL with the start of the 2000 season, the Patriots have owned it like no other team. As our standings of the top 10 NFL teams historically shows, the Patriots have won 44 Ear of Corn games, well ahead of the San Diego Chargers, who are next with 18 wins.The Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers all have 17 wins all-time.
Ledger for these standings: W – Wins. L – Losses. Pct. – Winning Percentage. T – Titles won.
D – Title Defenses. O – Defense Opportunities.
The Patriots didn't play for the ear in 2016, and it didn't hurt them one bit in these standings. The Patriots probably could lose every game they play for the ear for the next 15 years and still remain on top.
The Patriots last won it on Feb. 1, 2015, the day of Super Bowl XLIX, defeating the Seattle Seahawks, 28-24. Then, taking the prize to the 2015 regular season, the Patriots defended it 10 straight times before losing it, 30-24, in overtime to the Denver Broncos in Denver on Nov. 29, 2015.
Winning 11 straight Ear of Corn games was nothing new for the Patriots. They also won 11 straight from Dec. 2, 2001 to Sept. 29, 2002. That streak began with a 17-16 win against the New York Jets at New York and ended with a 21-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers.
The Patriots also had a 10-game winning streak for the prize during the 2007 season, when they took a perfect record to Super Bowl XLII against the New York Giants. The Giants won that game, 17-14.
Thus began a 12-game Ear of Corn winning streak for the Giants, before they finally lost it on Dec. 7, 2008, in a 20-14 home field loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
But none of those is the all-time longest winning streak for the Ear of Corn. That distinction belongs to the Green Bay Packers. Starting with a 31-25 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, 2010, the Packers won 14 straight before succumbing to the Kansas City Chiefs, 19-14, in Kansas City on Dec. 18, 2011.
Nor do the Patriots hold the all-time record for Ear of Corn championships. The Patriots have won six of them, tied for third all-time with the Vikings, Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers. The Seattle Seahawks are second historically with seven traveling titles. The Oakland Raiders are the all-time leader with eight.
In the top 10 standings given here, you will notice that the Raiders are not included. It seems peculiar that a team that has won the most titles ever wouldn't be one of the best ten teams of all time.
A peculiarity, perhaps, of the Ear of Corn. Though the Raiders have won as many such championships as any other NFL team, they are, arguably, the worst team ever playing for this prize.
Well, maybe not the worst. The Cleveland Browns (0-3 in Ear of Corn games), Chicago Bears (0-3), Baltimore Ravens (0-4) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-5) have never won it.
But the Raiders have stumbled much more often than not. Their overall record in Ear of Corn games is 12-18, giving them the most all time losses, barely more than the Jets (6-17). The Raiders have only successfully defended the prize four times after eight championships.
Thus, the Raiders are 4-8 as an Ear of Corn champion and 4-10 as an Ear of Corn challenger.
Following are the Ear of Corn results for the NFL in all three that are tracked – the NFL, the AFC and the NFC. The results for other seasons can be found here.
Labels: Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders, Philadephia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers
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The Domain Name that Got Away – Getting in on the Domain Name Drop
Here are two phrases for tech-savvy businesses to add to their lexicon: domain name “drop catching” and “getting in on the drop.”
Have you ever wanted to acquire a domain name someone else has registered?
You do not own domain names perpetually. You register them for a period of years. If you don’t renew the registration, the domain name becomes available for registration by others.
There are many reasons why you might want to corral domain names that are already registered.
Sometimes you may want to obtain an already-registered domain name because it matches the desired name of a new business, product or service you wish to launch. Or the desired domain name might be a shorter, more memorable domain name for your current business. Some people buy domain names for resale or to put up pay-per-click advertising.
Also, in my trademark practice, clients often want to acquire registered domain names that are highly similar to their trademarks. Indeed, before you register, use, buy or sell any domain name for any commercial purpose, you should make certain your doing so will not infringe on someone else’s trademark.
Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to get a domain name by waiting for its registration expiration and then registering it just like you would with a never-taken domain name. To be successful, you’ll almost certainly have to use a “drop catching” service and pay more than you would for a normal domain name registration.
Specifically, you face two hurdles – timing and professional competition.
As for timing, domain names don’t become available on their listed expiration dates, which you can look up on a domain name registrar’s website (e.g., GoDaddy.com) using the “whois” function.
Once the expiration date arrives, the domain name goes in grace periods of about 70 cumulative days during which the current registrant still can renew.
After that, the domain name is put in lockdown for five days and is placed on a “pending delete” list. The domain name cannot be transferred during that time.
Then the domain name is “dropped” back into the pool of domain names available for registration by anyone. The drop occurs somewhere in a three-hour window. It’s a jump ball. The art of trying to register a domain name at that time is called “drop catching.” Competitors are trying to “get in on the drop.”
If the domain name is desirable, you have almost zero chance of beating the pros at the drop. If the domain name is or was used for a website that attracts significant Web traffic, domain name speculators can detect that history and probably will want to register it in order to put up pay-per-click ads or to otherwise monetize the domain name.
Those drop-catching pros have massive computer resources. You will not beat them with your laptop.
Thus, the best approach is to subscribe to a drop-catching service that will watch the drop and snag the domain name for you.
Various online companies offer drop-catching services. They are competing to win the drop, so generally no single company can assure victory. You can use one company and hope it wins, or you can use multiple companies to increase your chances.
Currently, it appears that the biggest players in drop catching are Pool.com, Snapnames and NameJet. With each, you give your credit card information and are charged if and when it successfully obtains the domain name for you. Expect to pay about $60 per domain name if no one else tries to register it using the same drop-catching company.
GoDaddy.com offers a cheaper service, but you have to pay up front.
If others also try to buy at the drop through the same drop-catching company, the domain name probably will be put up at auction, so you’ll have to bid against faceless competitors.
Of course, the better strategy is to register desirable domain names while they are still available. You’ll pay less – only about $10 a year – and spend less time. Business strategy for preemptive domain name registration is a topic for another day.
But if someone else has the domain name you crave, you’ll need a good drop-catching service (or several of them) so that you can be “in on the drop.” Sounds kinda cool, eh?
By John Farmer
Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch
©2011 Leading-Edge Law Group, PLC. All rights reserved.
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The Redskins Fight On In Federal Court For Its Trademark Registrations
The Redskins recently suffered a major loss that won’t cause the team to fold but still hurts its prospects.
Quarterback Robert Griffin III’s dislocated left ankle? Well, that too, but I’m talking about the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revoking several of the team’s registrations for its REDSKINS trademark, holding that the trademark is disparaging to American Indians.
On that trademark front, the Redskins filed a lawsuit in federal court attacking the decision. What the Redskins filed illustrates its litigation plans and provides a useful reminder on why federal trademark registration is valuable.
Off to A Virginia Federal Trial Court
The Redskins had two options for contesting the USPTO decision. It could have filed an appeal with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Washington D.C. It chose not to do so.
Instead, the Redskins filed a lawsuit in a federal trial court in Alexandria, Virginia. By going to a trial court rather than the appellate court, both the Redskins and the American Indian plaintiffs can introduce new evidence.
Also, the Redskins probably chose the trial-court route to avoid the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Any appeal from the federal trial court in Alexandria will go to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is headquartered in Richmond.
Shortly before the USPTO’s recent REDSKINS decision, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision concerning another purportedly disparaging trademark, which decision contains legal holdings unfriendly to the Redskins’ legal position.
Effect of Losing Trademark Registration
The Redskins don’t have to change its team name if its trademark registrations are revoked. You get rights to a trademark simply by using it. Federal registration just strengthens your rights.
In its federal lawsuit, the Redskins highlighted several detriments it will suffer if its trademark registrations are revoked. This illustrates why getting a federal trademark registration is beneficial:
• The team probably won’t be able to use the U.S. Customs Service to stop importation of counterfeit merchandise.
• The team probably won’t be able to use the U.S. Marshals Service to interdict counterfeit merchandise.
• It’s easier to stop cybersquatters if you have a trademark registration. A cybersquatter is someone who wrongfully registers or uses a domain name that contains someone else’s trademark (e.g., RedskinsJerseyOutlet.com).
• It’s easier to attack trademark infringements on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, if you have a trademark registration.
• You can put ® next to your trademark only if it’s federally registered. Using the ® makes it easier to recover money damages from infringers.
• Having a federal registration makes it easier to prove your trademark is famous ¬− a well known brand like HONDA or APPLE. Famous trademarks have broader trademark protection.
• Having a federal registration makes it easier to prove an ordinary trademark infringement case.
• You need a nationally registered trademark to get certain trademark protections in the new top-level domain names that are opening up − alternatives to .com such as .team.
• Losing a U.S. trademark registration could undermine foreign trademark registrations gained based upon that U.S. registration.
• A federal trademark registration reserves your right to use your trademark throughout the U.S. as you grow into new geographic markets.
• Federal trademark registrations are valuable assets when it’s time to sell the business.
• Once your federal trademark registration is at least five years old, you get certain protections against potential challenges to your use of it.
First Amendment Challenge
The Redskins devoted a large segment of its federal lawsuit to raising First Amendment challenges to the revocation decision. It attacked the constitutionality of the part of federal trademark law that states trademarks that purportedly disparage a group cannot be federally registered.
There are federal appellate courts decisions holding there is no First Amendment problem here because not having a federal trademark registration does not prohibit speech − you can continue to use a trademark even if your registration is cancelled. The Supreme Court has not addressed this issue.
Yet, as illustrated above, a company suffers major detriments when its federal trademark registration is revoked. You can federally register a trademark that praises a group but not one that purportedly disparages a group. This might be unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by the federal government. Generally speaking, the government can’t favor some points of view over contrary views when regulating speech.
Expect the Redskins to try to run with its First Amendment argument all the way to the Supreme Court if it doesn’t win on other grounds beforehand.
Written on September 16, 2014
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Artist: Body Spotlight - Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman was beautiful and youthful with long, dark hair and a slim body. She was often the subject of her own artwork, but rather than focusing on her beauty, her photographs often elicit a haunting, somewhat unnerving mood. She created ghostly, blurred images with long exposure and her face was usually obscured or hidden in her photos. Her work commonly included symbols such as birds, mirrors, and skulls. Over the course of her life, Francesca created more than 800 prints.
Born to two artists, Francesca grew up surrounded by art, frequented art museums and was encouraged from a young age to foster her creativity. She spent time in many different parts of the country; born in Colorado, attended boarding school in Massachusetts, and later was accepted into the honors program at the Rhode Island School of Design. She also frequently traveled to Italy, spending summers there at her family home in Florence and studying abroad in Rome her junior year of college. It was in a small bookshop/gallery in Rome that Francesca held her first exhibition. After graduating, she spent time in Seattle and eventually moved back to the northeast to New York. During this time, the first inklings of severe depression began to consume Francesca and it was there that her life would eventually end.
After college, Francesca pursued a career in photography but success did not come easily. Her portfolios were continuously rejected and this, along with a failed relationship, presented struggles Francesca could not overcome. In fall of 1980, Francesca attempted to commit suicide but failed. Seeking help, she moved in with her parents in Manhattan and her condition seemed to improve. She applied for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts but was rejected. In January of 1981, Francesca committed suicide by jumping out of a loft window in East Side New York. Her father claimed her suicide was the result of severe depression and a series of rejections.
Although Francesca’s life ended at the age of 22, her work continues to receive acclaim over 30 years after her death. Her work has been featured in many major exhibitions across the United States from New York to Colorado to California and many places in between. Her work is also recognized internationally and has been displayed in numerous European countries. Her life has been chronicled in both print and film; the most notable being a full-length documentary directed by C. Scott Willis called The Woodmans.
Francesca’s work is remembered because of the many unique elements she incorporated into her photography. The frequent desolate settings and obscurity of her photos evoke disturbing feelings and fascination from viewers. Her work is often characterized by the theme of mystery, implying that photographs never tell the whole truth about the subject.
Artist: Body features two of Francesca’s pieces, Untitled, New York and Self Portrait (Providence, RI). Most of her photographs do not have specific titles, but rather are identified by the time and place they were taken. Francesca’s characteristic female subject and use of black and white film are present in both of these renowned photographs.
You can view Francesca’s work at the Loudoun House this Friday at Fourth Friday: Curatorial Conversation March 25th from 6pm-9 pm or during gallery hours Wednesday through Thursday 10am-4pm and Saturday through Sunday 1pm-4pm until March 27th.
Written by Caitlin Robinson, LAL intern, Eastern Kentucky University Recreation and Park Administration student
Easter Lillies (Providence, Rhode Island), 1976; Gelatin silver print; Collection of Sara M. & Michelle Vance Waddell
Untitled, New York, 1979-80; Gelatin Silver Print; Collection of Sara M. & Michelle Vance Waddell
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Man versus Sharks in Australia : the truce collapses
Posted on 30th September 2012 in Bathing Water > Marine Wildlife
Australian officials, under pressure to protect beach-goers after a string of deadly shark attacks, have approved a plan to kill sharks that venture too close to people in the water. The plan, which was announced by Western Australia state premier, Colin Barnett, has infuriated conservationists and marks a sharp reversal of the current policy that permits the killing of sharks only after they have attacked.
“We will always put the lives and safety of beach-goers ahead of the shark,” Barnett told ABC radio. “This is, after all, a fish – let’s keep it in perspective.” Barnett, along with the state fisheries minister, Norman Moore, announced the policy change as part of a AU$6.85m (£4.41m)) package of “shark mitigation strategies” aimed at reducing the risk of attacks on beach-goers.
Great white sharks are a protected species in Australian waters, but the new policy would allow fisheries department officials to kill any great whites that ‘present a threat’.
Photograph:Science Faction/Cor
There have been five fatal shark attacks in Western Australia in the past year, prompting some residents to demand a more aggressive shark management plan. The new funding will pay for a fisheries department service to track, catch and kill sharks that get too close to swimmers, a study of shark enclosures at beaches, more jet skis for lifeguards and a GPS tracking program.
Great white sharks are a protected species in Australian waters, but the new policy would allow fisheries department officials to kill any great whites that present an “imminent threat to people”, Moore said.
After an American diver was killed by a great white in Western Australia last year, the government set tuna-baited hooks to try and snare the predator. It was the first time authorities used an emergency legal exemption from the state protection of great whites to hunt the animal in the interest of protecting the public. The shark was never caught.
The Conservation Council of Western Australia praised the additional funds for research and increased patrols but slammed the new pre-emptive kill policy as ineffective. “We are concerned that plans to kill sharks that approach beaches applies a ‘guilty until proven innocent’ approach to sharks and is a knee-jerk reaction to public concern that will harm the environment without protecting swimmers,” the council’s marine coordinator Tim Nicol said in a statement.
Sharks are common in Australian waters, though the nation has averaged just over one fatal attack a year over the past 50 years.
Source: The Guardian, 28th September 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/28/great-white-sharks-killed-australia
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On the heels of the trio of records that turned them from underground heroes to breakout stars, All Distortions Are Intentional – out July 24th, 2020 – is the biggest and boldest step yet in the creative evolution of Neck Deep. An immersive experience from start to finish, Neck Deep’s fourth album is both a conceptual journey and straight-ahead banger, track after track. It’s polished yet raw, layered but catchy as hell. It’s a shoot-for-the-stars sonic reckoning, further proving this band’s instinctual DIY ethos has paid off once again.
Less than ten years into their career, the Welsh quintet have been hailed as “future festival headliners” and “best live band” in the press, their international accolades solidifying them as the UK’s biggest alternative rock export since Bring Me The Horizon. 2015’s Life’s Not Out to Get You album cracked the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, whilst 2017’s The Peace and The Panic debuted at No. 2 in America and No. 4 in their native UK. Handpicked in 2019 as main support to blink-182 and Lil’ Wayne on a hugely popular summer arena tour, Neck Deep have firmly established themselves as figureheads for a new generation of thoughtful, authentic young rock acts.
All Distortions Are Intentional leans hard into the storytelling tropes of classic rock, the attitude of vintage punk, and a healthy dose of modern, heavy crunch with renewed vigor and purpose. Unrestrained by preconceived notions of subgenre, Neck Deep have built a mountain on their remarkable foundations, with new tracks like “Lowlife”, “Fall”, and “When You Know” as readymade for singalongs in sweaty clubs and open-air festivals as they are long car rides and late nights.
No mere collection of songs, All Distortions Are Intentional is conceptually rich, with themes of disconnection, existential confusion, and the search for meaning. The album tells the story of a loner named Jett, who lives in a place dubbed Sonderland, a combination of “Wonderland” and the somewhat obscure word “sonder”: the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own, with their own ambitions and worries. “It’s that strange existential realization that you are not the entire world,” explains singer Ben Barlow. “Everyone around you feels and lives the same way that you do. You’re just an extra in their story.”
The album’s protagonist feels disconnected and disillusioned, until he falls in love with a girl called Alice. But even this new relationship brings its challenges; Jett is a victim of limerence – the only thing he loves about the world is this person. The songs explore Alice’s view of Jett, as well, as a story unfolds that is ultimately about the importance of meaning and purpose for each and every individual. As Barlow shares, “Modern music is so much based around ‘the single’ and writing a record isn’t held in nearly the same regard as it used to be.”
“All Distortions Are Intentional presents a whole story, where there is meaning from every angle of it,” the singer continues. “All of our records have their themes, but I wanted to create characters, scenes, a world, and have it mean something in the real world, too.”
All Distortions Are Intentional is a journey of self-discovery and personal expression not unlike the rise of the band itself. Neck Deep leapt from side project to fulltime band in 2012, after a single track online led to a pair of EPs followed by a deal with Hopeless Records. They struck a chord with a burgeoning audience, quickly heralded as leaders of a resurgence in hook-heavy punk, with an immediate accessibility and fun attitude combined with genuine concern for issues like loneliness, depression, and anxiety. The instant relatability of the band’s songs and overall approachable attitude endeared them to a new and incredibly passionate generation, with devotion to rival the biggest titans of melodic rock.
Grammy nominated A-list producer Matt Squire (Panic! At The Disco, Underøath, Ariana Grande, One Direction) lent his sizable talents and experience to the band for album four, unlocking an organic lack of inhibition in the studio. To create ADAI, Squire and Neck Deep tucked themselves away at world famous residential studio Monnow Valley, in the gorgeous but remote Wye Valley in the heart of the band’s native Wales. The decision to create the album ‘at home’ was an important one; on the eve of what’s certain to be Neck Deep’s greatest exposure to the world yet, it’s a grateful and decisive acknowledgment of where they’ve come from, both literally and figuratively.
Meanwhile, Ben’s brother and longtime ND collaborator Seb Barlow handled the album’s gargantuan mix, a process that saw him grow so close to the material that he formally joined the band as bassist at the completion of the process.
All Distortions Are Intentional marks Neck Deep’s arrival as an arena-confident band, with their global touring schedule for 2020 including headline shows at London’s prestigious Alexandra Palace and Cardiff Motorpoint. Having mastered all of the strengths of the scene that birthed them, Neck Deep have evolved to this next stage, and as their crowds grow larger, it’s clearer than ever just how much their “shitty little band” has come to mean to people.
Moreover, ADAI marks an epiphany of true self-belief for its creators: “Everyone wants to be seen as good at what they do, as creative, interesting, ambitious,” Ben asserts; “That’s what we wanted, for people to see that we are more than just some guys in a band. We truly lived and breathed this album, and wove unique perspectives, storytelling, and ideas into its fabric. We have crafted a sound that is ours, it is totally, unapologetically Neck Deep.”
The “biggest band you’ve never heard of” has stepped onto the world stage, but it won’t be long before that adage is a distant memory.
Fri 05 Nov 2021
The Masquerade Presents
All Distortions Are Intentional U.S. Tour
nothing, nowhere. and Heart Attack Man
Other Location The Tabernacle
152 Luckie St NW
Doors 6:00 pm / $28.50 ADV / All Ages
Buy At Door More Info
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Home Small Business Did Sun's GPL Move Cost it a Major Talent?
Did Sun's GPL Move Cost it a Major Talent?
By Andy Patrizio | December 07, 2006
Reporter's Notebook: Did Sun Microsystems' decision to adopt the GNU General Public License (GPL) cost the company one of its top talents? That's what a lot of people have been wondering in recent weeks.
As most every Java programmer might know by now, Sun decided to adopt the GNU General Public License v2 as its license of choice for the open sourcing of its Java language.
The move met with considerable approval across the developer blogosphere and even from the GPL's creator (and frequent Sun critic) Richard Stallman. But it seems not everyone was happy with it, or so the rumors go.
Very quietly in early November, Graham Hamilton, a Sun vice president and fellow in the Java platform team, left the company prior to the announcement of the GPL direction. Very little was made of this, and few noticed until the news appeared in the blog of Geir Magnusson, chair of the Apache Jakarta project, a few weeks later.
James Gosling may be the rock star of the Java world but Hamilton was a heavyweight in his own right. Graham joined the Java team in 1995 and has been involved in a number of projects, including CORBA support, the JDBC database connectivity APIs, JavaBeans, the Java Plug-in, RMI-IIOP, JAX-RPC, and others.
He was also the lead architect for Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) releases 1.3, 1.4, and 5.0, as well as one of the designers of the Java Community Process, which handled the development of projects before Sun adopted the open source model. The JCP still plays a big role in Java development.
Other news sites were quick to jump to the assumption that Hamilton departed in protest to the GPL decision. He had been known as an opponent of opening up the source code and wanting Sun to retain as much control over Java as possible. However, it's not clear if there is a definite causal relationship between his departure and Sun's decision to go open source.
Sun would say nothing on the subject beyond the following statement: "Sun thanks Graham for his many contributions to the company and to Java technology. Graham is widely respected by Sun employees and developers around the world. While it is always sad to see an employee of his caliber depart, we wish him well in all his future endeavors."
As if he doesn't have enough to do, Gosling will be taking over Hamilton's responsibilities when he returns to work after recuperating from jaw surgery.
Raven Zachary, analyst with The 451 Group, said there was considerable debate within Sun over which license to use, with some traditionalists wanting to keep things under as much Sun control as possible. But he thinks more departures from Sun by those who oppose the GPL could be healthy for the company.
"This is an opportunity for Sun to solidify its support for an open source software model, and if there has to be a little bit of shedding of the skin from the old guard, that's not necessarily a bad thing," said Zachary.
The GPL move threw more than a few people for a loop, because it came out of nowhere. Till now, Sun had been using its own license, the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), a derivative of the Mozilla Public License, to release the Java code.
The assumption was that Sun would go with CDDL again, but Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz had said as far back as May of this year that GPL was very much "on the table."
Schwartz only added to the confusion with a blog entry, which seems to say the decision to adopt a GPL license was in response to the Novell/Microsoft deal of November 2.
A Sun rep denied this, attributing the somewhat loopy blog entry to being done "probably at four in the morning." The rep argued that it would be practically impossible to marshal all of the company's legal and technical teams to shift the Java code base from CDDL to GPL in under 11 days.
Magnusson takes Sun's side in this case. "While I believe that the CDDL was on the table in the beginning, as late as October I'm fairly convinced that the GPL had been decided upon. It prohibits proprietary forks, and preserves the current technology licensing revenue from those that incorporate Java SE technology into proprietary products. I can't fault them for that," he told internetnews.com.
Prohibiting forking, or splintering of the code base, is probably the top concern for Sun. GPL also throws a huge monkey wrench into the plans of the Apache Harmony project, an open source Java SE project by The Apache Foundation (and by extension, IBM, which has all but subsumed Apache these days).
"Had Sun actually gone ahead and used a CDDL license, it would have been much more compatible with the Harmony project and allowed for code sharing and reuse," said Zachary. "With the GPL, the challenge is you have a somewhat incompatible license with what Apache has been using with Harmony."
It also explains IBM's recent behavior. Right before Sun announced its GPL plans, IBM issued a statement attributed to Rod Smith, vice president of emerging Internet technologies. In 2004, Smith wrote an open letter to Sun requesting the company make Java open source.
This time, Smith encouraged Sun to join an existing open source Java project rather than start its own, and make it "Apache-friendly." That takes a fair amount of brass, telling Sun to join someone else's Java project than continue with its own. Naturally, Sun dismissed this out of hand.
For now, Hamilton is maintaining a low profile. He has not signed on with a new company nor has he made a public statement. Gosling is healing well, according to Sun officials, and life goes on at Sun. It all looks like another peculiar round of corporate chess, with the pieces all being shuffled and a significant piece, for now, being taken off the board.
"I think that it's never good when a company loses an influential leader like Graham, but on the other hand, I'm sure he'll add tremendous value to whatever he decides to do next," said Magnusson. "As for the Java community at large? I think it's too early to predict. What Graham decides to do next may help us figure that out over time."
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You are here: Home / Southeast / Lewelling Quaker Museum – Salem, Iowa
Lewelling Quaker Museum – Salem, Iowa
ByTravel Writer2 Comments
Lewelling Quaker Museum – Salem, Iowa. The underground railroad had as many as 5 homes in the Salem area for the safety of slaves escaping their “owners.” This home is now a museum dedicated to that search for freedom.
The Lewelling Quaker Museum sits in the quite farming community of Salem, Iowa, 10 miles south of Mt. Pleasant. This community is known for it’s nice square, active Quaker church, safe living environment and fabulous history.
Once known as the main ticket office of the underground railroad, the Lewelling Quaker House contains grim reminders of the anti-slavery movement. There were two trap doors: One in the kitchen and one in the small room off of the dining room. The original trap door in the kitchen leads to the crawl space under the kitchen, dining room and small room off the dining room. The remains of the second trap door was found in this small room. When you tour the home you will find leg shackles on a chair by the fireplace. Several slaves would be linked together with similar shackles and forced to walk in them.
The first recorded incident of slaves through Salem was in 1839 when an advertisement with a reward appeared in the Iowa Territorial Gazette, for runaway slaves lost or stolen near Salem.
The word “underground” makes people think freedom seekers on the run must have been hidden in basements or cellars. There are five underground railroad stops in Iowa that have been preserved (Lewelling House in Salem, Pearson House in Keosauqua, Jordan House in West Des Moines, Hitchcock House in Lewis, and the John Todd House in Tabor). They all have cellars, but there’s not much proof that freedom seekers were actually hidden in them—except possibly at the Hitchock House. Instead, favorite hiding places seem to have been in the attics of houses, or in outbuildings like the haylofts of barns. Sometimes freedom seekers were hidden outside in the woods along creeks or rivers, or even in tall prairie grass.
People often think freedom seekers were families or women with children. In fact, traveling with children slowed freedom seekers down. Parties traveling with young children were more likely to be recaptured. Nearly 75 percent of the freedom seekers who were successful were young men. Most of the rest were young women in their teens, who did not yet have children.
Most runaway slaves didn’t get very far and were soon recaptured. Only a few made it to the free states of the North or to Canada. One guess is that about 35,000 from 1830 to the end of the Civil War in 1865 made it to freedom. There were 4 million slaves in the South in 1860. The underground railroad was a serious annoyance to slaveholders, but it didn’t make much of a difference in the number of slaves held.
It’s harder to guess how many freedom seekers passed through Iowa on the underground railroad. Most came from Missouri. Some came from Arkansas or Indian Territory (Oklahoma). A few came from Kentucky, Tennessee or Mississippi. Most likely not more than a few hundred passed through Iowa on the underground railroad.
It’s important to remember that black freedom seekers were not just waiting for help from sympathetic whites. Many ran away and traveled on their own. If they were successful in reaching the free states, they often became station agents and conductors helping other passengers on the underground railroad. The railroad analogy was enhanced, because those who assisted the movement were called by railroad terms. Conductors arranged the routes called tracks and travel times. Engineers moved the fugitive slaves from place to place. Agents hid them during the daytime until the former slaves were off to the next station.
The Lewelling Quaker Museum was added in 1982 to the National Register of Historic Places and has been nominated for National Historic Landmark designation, which is the highest recognition accorded by our nation to historic properties. On August 31, 2007 they were approved and changed from a “locally significant” Historical Site to “nationally significant” Historic Site listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This is the completion of the first step to Landmark status.
Today, about 2,500 historic places bear this distinction. The National Historic Landmark designation is an official recognition by the federal government of a historic property’s national significance. These special places embody the actual sites where significant historical events occurred, or where prominent Americans worked or lived, and represent the ideas that shaped our nation.
Location: Salem, Iowa south side of the square across, one block south of the Friends (Quaker) Church.
MAY – SEPTEMBER SUNDAY 1-4 P.M.
Weekdays by appointment, call, the wonderful volunteers will certainly help you set a time to touch this piece of history.
Email: fheartsill@iowatelecom.net
Fee: $1.00 students $2.00 adults
Nishnabotna Ferry House – Lewis, Iowa
Railswest Railroad Museum – Council Bluffs, Iowa
Filed Under: Southeast Tagged With: Salem
Veronique Shoemaker says:
I would like to set up a tour of of Lewelling house and museum for a homeschool group in Ottumwa. Could you please contact me 641-777-3697
Here are the hours for the museum and the contact information for you to reach someone to set up your tour. Thank you for contacting http://www.iowabeautiful.com.
WEEKDAYS BY APPOINTMENT
(319) 385-2460 or Email – Lewelling House
$1.00 STUDENTS $2.00 ADULTS
Midwest Vintners Await Federal Approval for Largest Viticulture Region
Maharishi Vedic City Iowa
Storied Gifts Launches Family Reunion Keepsakes
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Britain British music industry in secret talks with ISPs
British music industry in secret talks with ISPs
'Broadband settlement' being negotiated behind closed doors
Talks between the British music industry and the ISPs to resolve the P2P / free downloads logjam have been going on secretly for the past 2-3 weeks, it emerged today. It is not clear exactly what kind of deal is anticipated, but it is believed that some kind of levy on ISP subscriptions is on the table, under the banner of a 'broadband settlement'. And there are indications that the British music industry is not going to push for French-style enforcement involving cutting off people's internet access. If that is the case - which remains to be seen, these talks could be positive.
The existence of the talks became evident at the Music Publishers Association AGM in London today, where management of the composers and authors collecting societies and music publishers gathered to review the financial performance of this sector of the industry for 2007. They appear to have begun about 2-3 weeks ago, and were presented as a change of heart by the ISP industry, that it is now willing to talk. A timeframe of the next 3-4 weeks to reach a conclusion has been suggested, but not confirmed.
Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of British Music Rights, confirmed that the talks are happening, but refused
to say more. When pressed to say whether a French-style graduated response was on the table, he stated emphatically that British Music rights policy does not endorse termination of user's internet accounts.
Comments from the panel discussion which took up the second half of the AGM, indicated that the talks are in direct response to the British government's threats to legislate, and they appear to involve the levy concept.
Andy Heath, chairman of British Music Rights and a board member of the Music publishers Association, said that some ISPs are re-inventing the value chain. He foresees that online royalties for music composers and publishers could grow 7-fold in the next two years, with ISP agreements in place. There was some discussion about how much the levy should be - obviously an area of contention, because it could bring in a much-welcomed injection of funds to the beleaguered music industry, but if is it set too low, there is little to gain. 'If it was the right number I'd take it, but stand back for 10 years of internicine war! " said Mr Heath.
The subject of enforcement of copyright was conspicuous by its absence at this event - it was not raised, in spite of a long panel discussion about P2P downloads and new business models. The overall atmosphere was one of forward-thinking, and presented a refreshing change from the relentless attacks on downloading from the record companies and IFPI - and their refusal to come to terms with change.
The hope is that this is a positive signal, but there is still a long way to go. Until we know more about what's on the agenda behind those closed doors in the music industry's Soho offices, we will reserve judgement.
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Reviews that mention Gene Ammons
Over the years he’s played with Gene Ammons, Charlie Parker, Johnny Griffin and Richard “Groove” Holmes, composed a couple of funky jazz hits and still gigs frequently at 85, yet if Chicago-based George Freeman is known in jazz, it’s as the last remaining jazz-playing Freeman Brothers.
Baby brother of the three siblings, that included Drummer Bruz 1921-2006) and tenor saxophonist Von (1922-12012), he’s also the uncle of saxophonist Chico Freeman. Freeman says without boasting, but with no false modesty “God gave me an extremely different type of talent, but I don’t think I’ve been properly heard”. MORE
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General Travel Information
Professor Philip Home
University of Newcastle, UK
Professor Philip Home trained in medicine at Oxford University and Guy's Hospital, coming under the influence of Harry Keen, and thus gravitating into diabetes research. Continuing this research career in Newcastle upon Tyne, initially under the guidance of George Alberti, he has published over 460 papers, books and reviews on aspects of diabetes, from basic studies on metabolism to RCTs of new therapies, and aspects of the organization and delivery of diabetes healthcare.
In Newcastle he is Professor of Diabetes Medicine, and he practiced in diabetes care and disorders of lipid metabolism at the Newcastle Diabetes Centre and at the Newcastle Hospitals until the end of 2011.
A background in pharmacology and medicine led to his appointment to the external panel of the Committee of Safety of Medicines (UK) and later the MHRA, and subsequently to membership/Vice Chairman of the Appraisal Committee of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (UK) (2000-2011). He has given evidence at Federal Drugs Administration (USA) hearings and advised EMA on diabetes medication regulation.
Particular research interests have been of the disturbances of metabolism found in people with controlled diabetes, especially in relation to insulin therapy, the optimal design and implementation of insulin regimens using new and conventional insulin preparations, and the development and use of other new medications. In these areas, Professor Home has been a consultant to most of the major international pharmaceutical companies, on behalf of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. A publication list is available on his website.
An interest in editorial work lead to Professor Home becoming Editor of Diabetic Medicine. He has also been involved in editorial boards (twice for Diabetes Care) and advised many other international diabetes journals, including being Editor-in-chief of IDF’s Diabetes Voice.
An interest in information technology and quality of care initiatives lead to a major role in developing international evidence-based clinical guidelines, datasets for diabetes care, and in software development for diabetes services. These interests lead to a core role in some of the European St. Vincent Declaration initiatives, and subsequently to becoming Chairman of the International Diabetes Federation (Europe), and of the WHO/IDF St. Vincent Executive in Europe. Subsequently, Professor Home was a Vice President of the IDF and a member of its Executive, and founder Chair of Clinical Guidelines Task Force. In 2009 he was Program Chair for the IDF World Diabetes Congress in Montreal.
In the UK, Professor Home has been Chairman of the Joint Royal College of Physicians/Specialist Societies’ Endocrinology and Diabetes Committee and was Senior Scientific Advisor to the UK Type 2 Diabetes Guidelines Initiative, having been Senior Clinical Advisor to the NICE Type 1 Diabetes Guidelines Development Group. He continues to advise NICE and the MHRA.
Internationally Professor Home has assisted in diabetes developments in many countries, including the states of Central Asia, Kuwait (at the invitation of the government and WHO) and other countries in connection with national diabetes programs, and been involved in teaching and/or diabetes care provision in countries as diverse as China, Paraguay, Malta, Russia, India, Gulf states, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Australia.
In 1999 he became founding Chairman of the WorldWide initiative for professional education in diabetes, and subsequently President when it was incorporated. Lecturing and teaching on the management of diabetes (including drugs and insulin), the organization of diabetes care (international initiatives, information technology, optimal care delivery), and diabetes guidelines are a major part of his activity for local, national, and international congresses, and the meetings of many transnational societies.
See the Speaker List
Conference services for Metabesity 2019 are provided by Custom Management Group. If you need assistance with abstract submission or registration, please contact CMG by e-mail at cmg@custommanagement.com or by telephone at +1 434-971-4788.
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(Click on the pictures below to see a larger image)
Please click here to see our family tree.
Mother Lodge – Torbay Lodge No. 1358
On 4th April 1772, The Premier Grand Lodge of England warranted the original Torbay Lodge No. 427. This occurred during a period of Freemasonry’s instability but also its meteoric rise in popularity. Torbay Lodge No. 427 predates all other local lodges in the area including those in Brixham, Totnes, and Torquay.
However, little is known of Paignton at this time. It was known to be a hamlet within the “Hundred of Haytor” and The Imperial Gazetteer of 1760 described Paignton as having:
Streets irregular, narrow, dirty, and ill-kept, with houses generally of mean appearance.
In 1792, Richard Polwhele’s Devonshire described Paynton as:
One of the most fruitful lordships in all the County. The roads tolerably good, materials in general – marble. The greater part of the houses are built of mud walls and covered with thatch but not remarkable for neatness or commodiousness; a great quantity of orchard ground. Numbers of inhabitants in the Parish supposed to be about 2,000. The number of paupers about 100 names.
So in 1772 in the small village of Paington (note the spelling), the new Torbay Lodge No. 427 met in an upstairs room at the “Crown & Anchor” public house in Church Street; their regular meeting place for the next 40 years. From 1815 the Lodge also frequently met at the “London Inn” also in Church Street - both Inns being equidistant from the Parish Church and the Monastery.
Between the years 1780 and 1813, Torbay Lodge No. 427 was renumbered several times, eventually becoming Torbay Lodge No. 350.
However, all was not well in Torbay Lodge No. 350. In 1824 the Worshipful Master and Senior Warden, who were brothers, met in the upstairs room of the ‘Crown & Anchor’ Inn after what turned out to be that Lodge’s last meeting. The weather was cold and the fire was burning brightly. As the labours of the evening proceeded, so did the strong ale flow, with the result that an argument over ritual is alleged to have taken place. The row reached fever pitch when the Senior Warden, unable to contain himself, picked up all of the aprons he could get his hands on, and flung them into the open fire. Such action proved to be the death knell of Torbay Lodge No. 350.
On 9th October 1824, John Hutchings wrote to the Grand Lodge Secretary stating:
Herewith I send you our Warrant No. 350. I regret it very much. Our Treasurer informs me he paid into your hands all demands when he was in London.
Thus Torbay Lodge No. 350 was erased from the Register.
In 1871, ninety-nine years after the formation of the first Torbay Lodge, a new Torbay Lodge No. 1358 was formed. At a meeting on 24th April 1871 presided over by The Rev. Robert Bowden (from Torquay's St. John’s Lodge No. 328) it was unanimously agreed that a Freemason’s Lodge should be established in Paignton. The Worshipful Master and Wardens of Pleiades Lodge No. 710 were invited and agreed to support a prayer of Petition.
The warrant for the new Torbay Lodge was granted on 26th May 1871 to meet at the newly built Town Hall at the junction of New Street and the Totnes Turnpike. Records show that in May 1871:
the three rooms upstairs to be let as a Freemason’s Lodge for £15 a year.
The popularity of this new Torbay Lodge gave rise in 1890 to a desire for a new Masonic Hall in Paignton.
The architect to Isaac Merritt Singer, W. Bro. George Soudon Bridgman (pictured left) gave a site in Courtland Road for a new Lodge premises, and following the acceptance of a tender for the build by Bro. H. P. Rabbich (pictured right) for £663, the foundation stone was laid by W. Bro. Bradford, Secretary of the Lodge and W. Bro. Bridgman on 15th April 1891.
On 11th August 1891 the present Lodge premises in Courtland Road were consecrated.
Miles Coverdale Lodge No. 5069
In 1928 Torbay Lodge No. 1358 considered the creation of its first daughter Lodge. The Lodge minutes of 29th May detail the following proposal:
New Lodge: The Proposition: That Lodge recommends and supports the petition to form a new Lodge for Paignton was unanimously adopted on being proposed by W. Bro. Hayden Crawford and seconded by W. Bro. C. Wilton. The petition was signed by the Master, Senior, and Junior Wardens.
This entry in the minutes is the first recorded indication that Torbay Lodge No. 1358 were sponsoring the petition of a new lodge, and whilst there are further entries in later minutes which report on progress, nothing specific is detailed as to the reason why a new lodge was being petitioned for.
Thus Miles Coverdale Lodge No. 5069 was warranted by the United Grand Lodge of England on 7th November 1928 and was consecrated on 9th April 1929, the ceremony in respect of which was attended by some four hundred Masons. The consecration of Miles Coverdale Lodge was covered in the 11th April 1929 edition of the “Paignton Observer and Echo” (the cutting of which appears in the lodge's first minute book), which read:
Paignton’s new Masonic Lodge: Consecrated at Torquay on Tuesday. Impressive and largely attended ceremony ... The undoubted need for this new Lodge in Paignton is a further testimony to Paignton's rapid growth.
Given the newspaper reports of Paignton's rapid growth and at the time there being only one lodge in the town, it is likley that the feeling was there would be enough interest from potential candidates’ and joining members to make a new lodge viable.
The Consecration ceremony was presided over by Rt. W. Bro. Sir Henry Lopes, Bart., the Provincial Grand Master (later Baron Roborough of Maristow). After the Invocation and Dedication ceremonies, V. W. Bro. John Stocker, Deputy Provincial Grand Master, the Installing Officer, placed Bro. H. G. White in the Master's chair. Following the Consecration ceremony the Officers of the lodge were appointed and invested, two candidates were initiated and nine brethren balloted for as joining members.
But why was the name Miles Coverdale chosen for Paignton’s new lodge? It seems that no one really knows - nor who it was that suggested it.
Miles Coverdale (1488-1569) was born in Coverdale in that district of the North Riding of Yorkshire called Richmondshire. He studied Philosophy and Theology at Cambridge and was admitted to priest’s orders at Norwich in 1514. Miles Coverdale's practical protests identified him with the reformers and indeed he was very active during the reformation. He assisted Thomas Tyndale in translating the Pentateuch and is credited with producing the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English in 1535; the so called Coverdale Bible. Such was its popularity that King Henry VIII had a Coverdale Bible placed in every English Church chained to a bookstand so that everyone could have access to it. Miles Coverdale accompanied Lord Russell to the West of England in a campaign against rebels and when Lord Russell relieved the siege of Exeter, Miles Coverdale delivered the sermon at a service of thanksgiving in the Cathedral.
After the battles of St. Mary Clyst and Sampford Courtenay, Miles Coverdale was appointed Bishop of Exeter on 14 August 1551, being enthroned on 11 September. On 28 September 1553, Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII became Queen and deprived Miles Coverdale of his office and so he left the country. In 1558 Elizabeth became Queen and on 12 November 1559 Miles Coverdale returned to England, but did not regain the Bishopric of Exeter. He died on 20 January 1569 and was buried on 19 February. His figure appears in the memorial west window to Archbishop Temple in Exeter Cathedral and in an oil portrait in the blue dining room of Warwick Castle.
Water colour by Bro. Ted Jones - 2010
Miles Coverdale's life covered most of the reign of King Henry VII and all of the reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and most of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Miles Coverdale was undoubtedly committed to his faith.
In Paignton there are the ruins of a building known as the Bishops Palace which are deemed the remains of the summer residence of the ancient Bishops of Exeter, to which they came for some relaxation from their episcopal duties. Bishop Miles Coverdale is believed to be the last Bishop of Exeter to possess it. The Coverdale Tower adjacent to Paignton Parish Church is named after him, but whilst he is reputed to have lived there, this seems to be doubted by modern historians.
Perhaps the reasons why Miles Coverdale was chosen as an ideal candidate for the lodge to be named after, were his faith and his Exeter and Paignton connections.
Miles Coverdale Lodge No. 5069 has met continuously since its Consecration right up to the present day with only one exception. The meeting of 15th September 1939 was cancelled by a United Grand Lodge of England decree that owing to the outbreak of the Second World War, all masonic meetings were to be suspended. However following a relaxation of the decree, the lodge met again on 19th October 1939, and has done so ever since. During the war however, the Temple windows were blacked out and the Masonic Hall was used for ARP lectures and meetings.
On 29 October 1929 Miles Coverdale Lodge presented to the lodge premises the Star in the East and had it placed over the Master's chair. On 28 April 1931 an emergency meeting was convened at the Palace Hotel, Paignton, at which Rt. W. Bro. Sir Henry Lopes, Bart., Provincial Grand Master conducted part of the ceremony and afterwards addressed a meeting with Torbay Lodge No. 1358 asking for support for his forthcoming Chairmanship with the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys Festival.
The current and past Worshipful Masters, Officers and Brethren of Miles Coverdale Lodge No. 5069 would like to pay tribute to the founders who laboured long and diligently to create a distinctive personality for the lodge, in particular Bros. White, Haden, Crawford, Dale and Smith who spent many hours compiling manuscript copies of the authorised ritual and they strove at all times to secure its performance by the members. It is now tradition to hand over to each newly installed Master the original book of the founder’s handwritten ritual for his guidance and use.
Sources: With sincere thanks and gratitue to W. Bro. John Hipwell (Past Master of Torbay Lodge No. 1358), W. Bro. the late Bob Brewis for his presentation "History of Masonry in Paignton", the website Paignton Masonic Centre for the early history and to W. Bro. F.A.D. Kirkham for Miles Coverdale Lodge history, adapted from “The Masonic Province Of Devonshire 1732 - 2003: The Story Of Devonshire Freemasonry From The Birth Of Its First Lodge, St John The Baptist No. 39, To The Present Day” by the late Colin E. Summers, Past Provincial Grand Registrar and published by The Masonic Province of Devonshire, 2004. Additional content added by WBro. Paul O'Connell.
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Capturing the First Image of a Black Hole & Beyond - Online Zoom Event
This talk will present the methods and procedures used to produce the first image of a black hole from the Event Horizon Telescope, as well as discuss future developments for black hole imaging. It had been theorized for decades that a black hole would leave a "shadow" on a background of hot gas. Taking a picture of this black hole shadow would help to address a number of important scientific questions, both on the nature of black holes and the validity of general relativity. Unfortunately, due to its small size, traditional imaging approaches require an Earth-sized radio telescope. In this talk, I discuss techniques the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration has developed to photograph a black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of telescopes scattered across the globe. Imaging a black hole’s structure with this computational telescope required us to reconstruct images from sparse measurements, heavily corrupted by atmospheric error. The talk will also discuss future developments, including new imaging techniques and how we are developing machine learning methods to help design future telescope arrays.
» Katherine L. Bouman, California Institute of Technology
How offshore nuclear power stations can help achieve rapid deep decarbonization - Online Zoom Event
The need for deep decarbonization is now well understood. While meaningful progress has been made, the magnitude of this task cannot be overstated. Deeply decarbonized electric grids in France, Ontario, and Sweden use large fractions of nuclear power, and thus nuclear is included in many rapid deep decarbonization scenarios. Unfortunately, construction schedule slippage and cost overruns have been significant in recent nuclear builds, especially in the West. The concept of building nuclear power plants in shipyards and operating them on floating platforms several kilometers offshore offers intriguing solutions to these challenges. The controlled, serialized construction environment can improve both quality and speed. Deep-water operation can decouple the plants from earthquakes and tsunamis, and provides a robust heat sink (the sea). While perhaps surprising at first, this approach was seriously considered in the US in the 1970s. Today, Russia operates a floating nuclear power plant while China and South Korea are both planning similar projects. In this talk we will take a deep dive into the historical and technical bases of floating nuclear plants and explore the modern research and projects focused on ramping them up for deep decarbonization.
» Nick Touran, nuclear engineer and reactor physicist based in Seattle, Washington
You are what you cook - Online Zoom Event
» Rachel Carmody, Harvard University
Carbon Emissions during the Pandemic - Online Zoom Event
» Steven Davis, University of California, Irvine
A Perfect Storm: Climate Change, Emerging Disease, Us - Online Zoom Event
Even before the COVID19 pandemic, Emerging Infectious Diseases in humans, livestock and crops cost humanity more than 1 trillion dollars a year in production losses and treatment costs, more than the GDP of all but 15 countries. The global economic collapse associated with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic underscored that the traditional approach of crisis response is not simply expensive, it is failing. Finding an effective action plan for risk management requires new risk assessment. Novel evolutionary insights about pathogens, based on what is called the Stockholm Paradigm, link the potential for emerging infectious disease outbreaks directly to climate change. Highly specialized pathogens evolve in localized settings in association with one or a few hosts. Climate change and ecological disruption alters geographic distributions and ecological connections, bringing pathogens into contact with susceptible but previously unexposed hosts. This has been true throughout the history of life on this planet. Human activities during the past 15,000 years, including domestication and agriculture, population growth, conflict and migration, urbanization and globalization have all increased the risk of emerging diseases. Technological humanity now faces an existential crisis. The risk space for emerging diseases is much greater than we realized, so we need to begin to find them before they find us. The DAMA (document – assess – monitor – act) Protocol links activities from neighborhood gardens to global surveillance systems that can allow us to anticipate to mitigate emerging disease. We can lower costs to society, limiting the global impact of pathogens and slowing the expanding and accelerating crisis, while buying time for traditional efforts to medicate, vaccinate and eradicate.
» Daniel Brooks, University of Toronto
“My life is my mom”: Elder Caregiving in Latino Families - Online Zoom Event
This talk will address the cultural values associated with elder caregiving in Latino families, and the challenges and opportunities they present for Latino caregivers.
» Carolyn Mendez-Luck, Oregon State University
Chemical and physical considerations and the production of coffee - Online Zoom Event
Numerous physical and chemical processes play a determining role in the qualities of a cup of coffee, ranging from agricultural practices, to roasting and brewing. This talk canvases the landscape of coffee research to date and discusses burgeoning efforts to better understand the key factors that determine cup quality and reproducibility. A focus will be placed on the production of espresso-based beverages, and protocols to systematically improve flavor reproducibility, while minimizing coffee waste.
» Christopher Hendon, University of Oregon
A Human-Centered Perspective for Interactive Robots - Online Zoom Event
Machine learning and control theory have made substantial advances in the field of robotics in the past decade. However, there are still many challenges remaining when studying robots that interact with humans. This includes autonomous vehicles that interact with people, service robots working with their users at homes, assistive robots helping disabled bodies, or humans interacting with drones or other autonomous agents in their daily lives. These challenges introduce an opportunity for developing new learning and control algorithms to enable safe and efficient interactive autonomy. In this talk, She will discuss a journey in formalizing human-robot interaction. Specifically, she will first discuss developing data-efficient techniques to learn computational models of human behavior. She will continue with the challenges that arise when agents (including humans and robots) interact with each other. Further, she will argue that in many applications, a full computational human model is not necessary for seamless and efficient interaction. Instead, in many collaborative tasks, conventions —low-dimensional shared representations of tasks — is sufficient for capturing the interaction between agents. She will conclude the talk with challenges around adapting conventions in human-robot applications such as assistive teleoperation and collaborative transport.
» Dorsa Sadigh, Stanford University
How Mathematics Shapes our World, and our Values - Online Zoom Event
That abstract mathematics, the most logical and insular of fields, would impact the rough-and-tumble world of human affairs might seem unlikely. Yet that is indeed the case, as some of the core principles of modernity are founded on mathematical order. From the avenues of Versailles to the streets of New Delhi, and from the National Mall in Washington to the open plains of the American West, mathematics has been imprinted on the landscapes of the modern world. Along the way it has shaped not only our esthetics, but our values, our institutions, and even our politics.
» Amir Alexander, University of California, Los Angeles
Ice sheets, sea level rise, and solutions - Online Zoom Event
The ice sheets and glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have been responding sooner and more strongly to climate change than anticipated. Combined with the melting of glaciers and ice caps around the world, we are currently on a trajectory to raise global sea level by more than 1 meter by the end of the century versus 20 cm in the previous century. The potential exists, however, for multiple meters of sea level rise beyond 2100, but that largely depends on whether humanity acts sooner on the climate system or later. In this talk, I will review our current understanding of the rapid changes taking place in Greenland and Antarctica, what physical processes are driving the retreat of glaciers, how they relate to human activities, and what this means for the upcoming decades and century of sea level change. This review is based on a wealth of direct observations from above and below, combined with conceptual and numerical models and basic physics. I will discuss the concept of irreversible retreat and what it means for specific sectors of Greenland and Antarctica where dramatic changes are already taking place. The presentation will end with a discussion of adaptation strategies to regional sea level, including in Southern California, and more importantly what mitigation strategies should be put in place to preserve our coastlines, the World's glaciers and Antarctica for future generations.
» Eric Rignot, University of California, Irvine
Harnessing big data to battle wildfires - Online Zoom Event
Wildland fires and related hazards are increasing globally. A common observation across these large events is that fire behavior is changing to be more destructive, making applied fire research more important and time critical. Significant improvements towards modeling of the extent and dynamics of evolving plethora of fire related environmental hazards, and their socio-economic and human impacts can be made through intelligent integration of modern data and computing technologies with techniques for data management, machine learning and fire modeling. However, there are still challenges and opportunities in integration of the scientific discoveries and data-driven methods for hazards with the advances in technology and computing in a way that provides and enables different modalities of sensing and computing. The WIFIRE cyberinfrastructure took the first steps to tackle this problem with a goal to create an integrated system, data and visualization services, and workflows for wildfire monitoring, simulation, and response. Today, WIFIRE provides an end-to-end management infrastructure from the data sensing and collection to artificial intelligence and modeling efforts using a continuum of computing methods that integrate edge, cloud, and high-performance computing. Though this cyberinfrastructure, the WIFIRE project provides data driven knowledge for a wide range of public and private sector users enabling scientific, municipal, and educational use. This talk will review some of our recent work on building this dynamic data driven cyberinfrastructure and impactful application solution architectures that showcase integration of a variety of existing technologies and collaborative expertise.
» Ilkay Altintas, University of California, San Diego
Microplastics: The Ocean’s Biggest Tiny Problem - Online Zoom Event
Dr. Jennifer Brandon has been studying microplastics in the Pacific Ocean for eight years. She is an expert in the spatial and temporal analysis of microplastics. She helped develop new methods to determine how microplastics weather and degrade in the marine environment, as well as how to quantify the smallest size classes of microplastics. In this talk, she will provide an overview of marine plastic pollution and how we became so dependent on plastic, discuss her research, and talk about ways you can help the problem.
» Dr. Jennifer Brandon, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
Why You Like It: The Story of Your Musical Taste - Online Zoom Event
Dr. Nolan Gasser—composer, pianist, author, and architect of Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project—discusses the sources and implications of your musical taste: where it comes from, what it says about you, and how it can make your life better. Musical taste is addressed and enlightened through the realms of musicology, anthropology, physics, neuroscience, culture, and psychology, among other topics. The discussion, including musical performances, will conclude with a Q/A session with Dr. Gasser.
» Dr. Nolan Gasser, Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project
From Rocket Science to a Ventilator, in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic - Online Zoom Event
In the middle of March 2020, a group of JPL engineers were moved by reports in the news of the dire consequences of the national and global shortage of respiratory ventilators to treat the most severe cases of COVID-19 patients. A small group coalesced into a team which hosted Dr. Michael Gurevich from the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena to teach them how a lung works and how ventilators are used to treat COVID-19 patients. That same week, the team reached out to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for guidance; initiated the prototyping of at least two different JPL ventilators, and started to self-assemble into a functioning project, building upon well defined processes and systems engineering knowledge that the engineers would apply to build inter-planetary spacecraft and autonomous robotics systems that would successfully land and rove on Mars. We had a chief engineer, team leads, leadership team, project manager, well defined interfaces to the outside world, upward communications to the JPL leadership, communications with NASA HQ and more. The team started with well-defined and peer-reviewed systems engineering requirements; followed by peer reviews with external experts: technical implementation review; medical use review; and regulatory review; and manufacturing review. On April 21st, the first prototype was tested at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City; on April 24th the design was submitted to the FDA Emergency Use Authorization which was then approved on April 30th. Currently, the design is being licensed to companies in the US (8) and internationally (10) for use around the world. This presentation will outline the team, the process and lessons learned from the fast-pace project from the ‘white board to the White House’ in less than 40 days.
» Leon Alkalai, JPL Fellow
The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World - Online Zoom Event
Climate models show that global crop production will decline every decade for the rest of this century due to drought, heat, and flooding. Water supplies are in jeopardy. Meanwhile, the world’s population is expected to grow another 30 percent by midcentury. So how, really, will we feed nine billion people sustainably in the coming decades? Amanda Little, an award-winning journalist and professor, spent four years traveling through a dozen countries and as many U.S. states in search of answers to this question. The Fate of Food: What We'll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World tells the fascinating story of human innovation. Little‘s journey took her from an apple orchard in Wisconsin and tiny Kenyan cornfields to massive Norwegian fish farms and computerized foodscapes in Shanghai. This was a deep, transformative education, by turns shocking, funny, and powerfully hopeful. She explores new and old approaches to food production while charting the growth of a movement that could redefine sustainable food on a grand scale.
» Amanda Little, Vanderbilt University
Thinking Culturally about the Science of Genetic Ancestry Tests - Online Zoom Event
Direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry testing is a thriving business, and is generating a great deal of public interest in genealogy, genomics, and human microevolution. Its status as science is not in doubt, yet it has properties that are unusual for science: its products are narratives about ancestry, and there is room to reject the purchased narrative on epistemological grounds if you don’t like it. This is clearly not science like evolution, heliocentrism, vaccinations, and anthropogenic climate change. That something as seemingly natural as relatedness could in fact vary widely among peoples, based on ideas that may defy genetic relationships, was one of the earliest discoveries of anthropology. Today we can see genetic ancestry testing as a cultural site for contrasting ideas and assumptions about descent, the nature of human groups, and the role of science in modern life.
» Jonathan Marks, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Health effects of Vaping and E-cigarette use, what is known thus far
Before the hubbub over e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury (EVALI), we had growing evidence that vaping would cause health problems. But how did this disease blow-up so fast? Is it really Vitamin E causing these cases of severe lung injury? We will discuss what is known and unknown about the effects of nicotine and THC containing e-cigarette aerosols on respiratory health, cardiovascular health, and neuro, renal and hepatic health while we are at it! Outside of this acute disease entity (EVALI), what health effects are likely to occur due to vaping?
» Laura Crotty Alexander, University of California at San Diego
What Children Reveal About the Origins of Altruism and Fairness
Humans are able to cooperate with others in sophisticated, flexible ways: assisting others who need help, working collaboratively in teams, and sharing resources according to what’s ‘fair’. How do humans accomplish these behaviors? In some views, humans are initially driven by purely selfish motives and must be taught to be cooperative. Yet other views suggest we have a biological predisposition for cooperation that emerges early. He discussed developmental studies with children and comparative studies with chimpanzees that provide insight into the origins of human altruism and fairness, and the factors that shape human cooperation across development.
» Felix Warneken, University of Michigan
White rhino reproduction: a new recipe for success?
San Diego Zoo Global has a long-standing history of successfully breeding southern white rhinoceros (SWR). With nearly 100 calves born since the early 1970’s, our SWR conservation breeding program is the most productive outside of Africa. However, the world’s ex situ SWR population has struggled to become self-sustaining, due to low rates of fertility for females born in managed settings. For decades, the cause of this phenomenon has remained elusive. In this talk, Dr. Christopher Tubbs will present San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research’s Reproductive Sciences group’s work investigating the relationship between diet and fertility in SWR and highlight the steps taken to solve this problem. Finally, he will present an overview of SDZG’s Northern White Rhino Initiative for which exciting new assisted reproductive technologies are being developed to save SWR’s closely related cousin, the critically endangered northern white rhino, from the brink of extinction.
» Christopher W. Tubbs, Ph.D., Associate Director, Reproductive Sciences, San Diego Zoo Global Institute for Conservation Research
Cellular Immunotherapy for treatment of cancer: from transplant to gene therapy
One of the first demonstrations of the immune systems ability to recognize and reject cancer came from the work done in stem cell transplantation as a treatment for leukemia. This therapeutic effect has been now shown for many other cancers including lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma and actually contributes to the cure of patients undergoing this procedure. In the years that followed, research was conducted to develop an immune therapy that was specific for a given cancer by introducing new genes into healthy immune cells( T cells) that endows the cells with the ability to recognize proteins on the surface of the cancer cell and eliminate it, similar to what the immune system does against viruses. This has now lead to a new therapy that is being increasingly utilized in the treatment of people with cancer using genetically engineered immune cells in addition to the traditional treatments of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. For some cancers, we can now imagine a time when immune based therapies will replace many of the chemotherapy approaches we now use for cancer.
» Stephen Forman, City of Hope
Genome Editing with CRISPR-Cas systems: Challenges and Opportunities in a New Era of Biology
CRISPR gene editing is transforming biology. Fundamental research to understand how bacteria fight viral infections uncovered how the CRISPR system uses Cas proteins with RNA as a programmable guide to detect and cut specific DNA sequences. Cas/RNA complexes constitute a powerful toolkit for genome editing in animals, plants and bacteria. I discussed research into this amazing family of proteins: where they came from, how they work and how CRISPR technologies are revolutionizing research, biomedicine and agriculture. I also discussed the ethical challenges of some of these applications with a focus on what our decisions now might mean for future generations.
» Jennifer Doudna, University of California, Berkeley
An Open Discussion on Facial Recognition Technology
For nearly 60 years, the U.S. government has been investing in the development, testing and standardization of automated technologies for recognizing persons by their faces. In this talk, Dr. James Wayman will gave a brief history of the development of automated facial recognition, explained how the computer algorithms really work, showed recent government test results on system accuracies, looked at current state and local legislation limiting both government and private applications, then explored criticisms of racial bias and function creep.
» James L. Wayman, Ph.D., FIEEE, FIET, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.
Psyche: Mission to a Metal Asteroid
Do you ever wonder what the heart of a baby planet is like? NASA does, too! Psyche is an orbiter mission now in development to visit the asteroid named Psyche, one of our solar system’s most unique objects. As far as scientists can tell by examining it from the Earth, it is a large, perhaps mostly-metal asteroid big enough to span the distance from Los Angeles to San Diego... and it may be the now-exposed core of a protoplanet. Learn about the details from Tracy Drain, the mission’s Deputy Project System Engineer.
» Tracy Drain, Systems Engineer working at NASA’s JPL
Exercise Builds Brain Health
An overall objective of research in the study of brain aging is to identify effective intervention strategies to reduce age-related cognitive decline. Over the past few years, there has been a growing focus on the importance of exercise for promoting healthy brain function, particularly in the aged and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain. Studies on the mechanisms by which exercise can improve brain health and reduce aging-related cognitive decline have revealed that physical exercise increases brain levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF mobilizes a sequence of molecular and cellular events which promote synaptic plasticity, learning and memory and brain health. Overall, it appears that a moderate to high level of physical for the elderly can reprogram the brain’s gene expression patterns to a more youthful state. Currently, a 300 person multisite clinical exercise trial for people with mild cognitive impairment is ongoing to evaluate the impact of aerobic exercise vs stretching and toning on biomarkers and cognitive function in this population.
» Dr. Carl Cotman, University of California, Irvine
Connecting to Urban Nature in the Age of Extinction
The planet’s human population is rapidly expanding towards 8 billion people. More people live in cities and developed areas than in rural or non-developed areas. Around the world, we are progressively becoming more urban, and less familiar with the natural world. This trend is highlighted by the continued removal of nature words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Recently, words like acorn, fungus, fern, and willow were removed from the dictionary, and replaced with blog, MP3 player, and chatroom. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is tackling this trend head on, to connect people to their urban nature and create an environmentally literate public. Lila Higgins will speak about her leadership in the community science field, from co-founding the large global City Nature Challenge event, to her work in the local community that bring people together, in their own neighborhoods, to learn about and document nature. She will talk about the NSF, Wellcome Trust, and ESRC funded learning research she is conducting on international youth’s development of environmental science agency, and various other projects that work to communicate urban nature concepts to a wide audience. Projects such as the Museum’s Nature Gardens & Nature Lab exhibits, the recently published Wild LA book, and use of novel social media practices with @NatureinLA.
» Lila Higgins, Senior Manager Community Science and Co-founder of the City Nature Challenge, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Using Science for Good
We expect that the products we use every day will be safe, reliable, and effective. However, that does not always occur. A computer battery can unexpectedly catch fire, bedroom furniture can be unstable and topple, and food can be contaminated. Consumer Reports (CR) is committed to revealing the truth and raising the bar for safety and fairness, and empowering consumers with trusted information. Learn how CR uses science for good, applying its scientific findings for diverse audiences—from consumers to rulemakers, industry to government, all with the goal of driving marketplace change that benefits everyone.
» James Dickerson, Consumer Reports
Integrated mountain research systems - people, plants, and glaciers on Mt. Everest and in the Peruvian Andes
Nepal’s Himalaya and the Cordillera Blanca of Peru have both provided ecosystem services for local people for thousands of years. However, new economic possibilities combined with climate change impacts on local resources have changed local community vulnerabilities and resilience to change. From 1996 to 2006, civil war engulfed Nepal. The insurgents used the Himalayan national parks as their bases and this had severe social and environmental consequences – consequences that have continued to this day. John All was on Everest leading an NSF-supported expedition during the 2014 icefall and subsequent closure of the mountain by the former Maoist insurgents. John’s research team was in the middle of the icefall that, at the time, had the greatest death toll in Everest history, and one member of his team was killed as they studied climate change impacts on the Everest massif. He discussed the positive and negative environmental impacts resulting from the Maoist insurgency and how these impacts have reshaped the cultural and social dynamics of the area. Dr. All then linked this project with similar work in Peru as the Mountain Environments Research Institute conducts holistic, interdisciplinary research in the world's highest mountains. The interaction of local resource decision-making and climate change impacts will continue to shape mountain landscapes as environmental and population stresses increase for the foreseeable future.
» John All, PhD, JD, Western Washington University
Human Lunar Exploration – Are We Really Planning to Stay?
This year marks the semi-centennial celebration of the accomplishments of the Apollo lunar landing missions, some saying these were the crowning achievements of human space exploration. Our generation’s fingerprints on the next saga of human space exploration can surpass those amazing milestones by leveraging technology, data analytics, non-government capital and partnerships. Beyond reaching the lunar surface … again, today’s challenges include the development of a sustainable extraterrestrial ecosystem supportive of extended lunar exploration with the added goals of burning down the risks of humans to Mars. This presentation will discuss systems assessments leading to strategies for making the space program of the “Artemis generation” relevant through the long cycle effort of reaching these goals.
» Wanda Sigur, NAE Member, Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board
Science at Play!
The challenge of micro- and nano-fabrication lies in the difficulties and costs associated with patterning at such high resolution. To make such promising technology—which could enable pervasive health monitoring and disease detection/surveillance—more accessible and pervasive, there is a critical need to develop a manufacturing approach such that prototypes as well as complete manufactured devices cost only pennies. To accomplish this, instead of relying on traditional fabrication techniques largely inherited from the semiconductor industry, we have developed a radically different approach. Leveraging the inherent heat-induced relaxation of pre-stressed thermoplastic sheets—commodity shrink-wrap film—we pattern in a variety of ways at the large scale and achieve desired structures by controlled shrinking down to 5% of the original, patterned sizes. The entire process takes only seconds yet enables us to ‘beat’ the limit inherent to traditional ‘top-down’ manufacturing approaches. With these tunable shape memory polymers, compatible with roll-to-roll as well as lithographic processing, we can robustly integrate various materials from thin metal films to various nanomaterials in order to achieve extremely high surface area, densified, and high aspect ratio nanostructures directly into our microsystems for conformal wearable sensors as well as other applications.
» Michelle Khine, University of California, Irvine
How the Brain Invents the Mind
One of the most striking creations of the brain is the mind … of other people. What I mean is: each human brain faces the critical challenge of predicting and explaining the choices and behaviours of other human brains. Because the true full causal story of how brains work is preposterously complicated, our brains invent simplified causal models of other people, that are not exactly true, but nevertheless very useful. This simplified, useful model of other's brain is called our “theory of mind”. This talk will give an introduction to how theory of mind works in the brain. We’ll see that each of us has whole patches of brain cortex dedicated to the puzzle of understanding others, and that we use these patches not just to predict and explain but also to evaluate others actions. We’ll see that understanding others is not the same as empathizing with them. The final lesson is that our brain’s models of other minds is imperfect, but not immutable or limited to minds similar to our own. It is up to us to learn enough, to listen enough, to model the minds that matter.
» Rebecca Saxe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ocean-Atmosphere Studies Aimed at Understanding Mother Nature's Control of Climate
Nearly 50 years ago, it was proposed that microbes in the ocean can regulate planetary health by maintaining a homeostatic balance through the exchange of chemical species with the atmosphere. Ocean microbes including phytoplankton, viruses, and bacteria have been coined the canaries in the coal mine as they show faster adaptive responses to our changing climate than other organisms. When waves break, these microbes are transferred into the atmosphere and profoundly influence human and planetary health. This presentation will focus on recent studies aimed at advancing the understanding of the control of ocean biology on the atmosphere, clouds, and climate. Highlights will be presented of a novel laboratory mesocosm approach developed in the NSF Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment (CAICE) that transfers the physical, chemical, and biological complexity of the ocean/atmosphere system into the laboratory. A discussion is presented on new insights that have been obtained using this approach as well as next steps, and a future vision for how to unravel human versus microbial impacts on the changing Earth’s system.
» Kimberly Prather, University of California, San Diego
The Rise of Misinformation in and about Science
In 2017, Jevin West and a colleague developed a course titled “Calling BS.” The goal is to teach students how to spot and refute BS, especially the kind wrapped in numbers, data, figures, and statistics. The class discusses the role that social media and misdirected algorithms play in spreading this and other forms of misinformation, and how the breakdown of communication systems in science and journalism have made it more difficult to combat it. Since the inception of the class, more than 70 universities have shown interest in adopting some version of the course. The content is now expanding into into high schools and middle schools (sans “BS”). Hear what has been learned teaching the class, and, more broadly, the rise of misinformation, specifically within and about science, and what can be done in education, policy, and technology to address this threat to democracy and the integrity of science.
» Jevin West, University of Washington
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Timeshare Cancellation
California Timeshare Rescission
Welk Timeshares
Paschall Law Blog
California Employers Must Reimburse Employees Who Use Personal Cell Phones For Work Purposes
The California Supreme Court denied a petition for review of a lower court's ruling that employers must reimburse their employees who use their personal cell phones for work purposes, rendering the lower court's ruling the law of the land.
In Cochran v. Schwan's Home Service, Inc., the California Court of Appeal for the Second District ruled that employers must reimburse employees who use their personal cell phones for work purposes:
"We hold that when employees must use their personal cell phones for work-related calls, Labor Code section 28021 requires the employer to reimburse them. Whether the employees have cell phone plans with unlimited minutes or limited minutes, the reimbursement owed is a reasonable percentage of their cell phone bills."
California Labor Code section 2802(a) provides that “[a]n employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties, or of his or her obedience to the directions of the employer[.]” The purpose of section 2802 is “‘to prevent employers from passing their operating expenses on to their employees.’” Gattuso v. Harte-Hanks Shoppers, Inc. (2007) 42 Cal.4th 554, 562 (citations omitted). “In calculating the reimbursement amount due under section 2802, the employer may consider not only the actual expenses that the employee incurred, but also whether each of those expenses was ‘necessary,’ which in turn depends on the reasonableness of the employee’s choices.” Gattuso, 42 Cal.4th at 568 (citations omitted).
The Cochran court delineated the rule with respect to cell phone plans as follows:
"Thus, to be in compliance with section 2802, the employer must pay some reasonable percentage of the employee’s cell phone bill. Because of the differences in cell phone plans and worked-related scenarios, the calculation of reimbursement must be left to the trial court and parties in each particular case."
San Diego employers should carefully assess whether their employees utilize their personal cell phones in carrying out their work duties. If so, employers are legally mandated to pay a reasonable percentage of the cell phone bill based on the particular circumstances of the cell phone plan and work usage.
Will The California Supreme Court Rule On The Constitutionality Of MICRA, California's $250,000 Cap On Noneconomic Damages In A Medical Malpractice Case?
On November 25, 2014, the California Supreme Court granted the petition for review in the medical malpractice case Hughes v. Pham. In Hughes, the plaintiff was injured while off-roading. Due to a physician's delay in treatment, the plaintiff's injured spinal cord became much worse. At trial, the jury determined that the physician was negligent and awarded the plaintiff $2,750,000 in noneconomic damages (pain and suffering). Pursuant to California's statutory cap on medical malpractice noneconomic damages (California Civil Code section 3333.2), that award was reduced to $250,000.
Hughes is a "grant and hold" case, meaning that no action will be taken on the case by the Supreme Court until another case is decided. That other case is Rashidi v. Moser, and a decision is expected to be handed down in January 2015.
However, the issue granted for review in Rashidi, which will be applied to Hughes, is not whether the $250,000 cap violates the California Constitution's “inviolate” right to jury trial or the United States Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. Rather, the issue granted for review is whether a settlement amount between the plaintiff and one of the defendants can offset the noneconomic damages against defendants who remain in the case, thus making the noneconomic damages "joint and several".
Nevertheless, the California Supreme Court may open Hughes for briefing as to the constitutionality of California's medical malpractice damages cap before everything is said and done. Despite several denials for review in the past, many legal commentators believe that the current makeup of the California Supreme Court, crafted by Governor Jerry Brown, opens the door to reevaluate MICRA against constitutional challenge.
If so, there is a decent chance that MICRA's damages cap will be deemed unconstitutional, following in the footsteps of other States' decisions on similar caps.
MICRA's $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases was enacted by the California legislature in 1975, and has never been adjusted for inflation since that time. To make matters worse, despite claims to the contrary, medical malpractice insurance premiums have continued to rise since MICRA's enactment.
As Consumer Watchdog's amicus letter to the California Supreme Court relays: "Review in this case is vitally necessary because the opinion of the appellate court will leave millions of Californians and their families who have suffered from medical negligence without fair compensation despite a jury’s verdict above an outdated cap on damages."
39 years after MICRA's enactment with no adjustments for inflation, it's about time that the California Supreme Court reevaluated the noneconomic damages cap to ensure that Californians are not being unfairly under compensated for injuries sustained as a result of negligence by medical providers.
Patrick Dodger Paschall has been a practicing attorney since 2009.
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Amidst border tensions, armed forces get free hand for procurements up to $40 million
July 15, 2020 By Vishal Thapar Photo(s): By US Army
ARMING UP: Additional financial powers have been delegated to remove bottlenecks in the path of military readiness
A special meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on July 15, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, delegated powers for making urgent capital acquisitions up to 300 crore ($40 million) to the armed forces.
This step has been taken “considering the security environment due to prevailing situation along the Northern Borders and the need to strengthen the Armed Forces for the Defence of our borders”, a senior officer of the Ministry of Defence said.
“The DAC delegated the powers for progressing urgent Capital Acquisition Cases upto 300 Croreto the armed forces to meet their emergent operational requirements. This will shrink the procurement timelines and ensure placement of orders within six months and commencement of deliveries within one year,” the officer elaborated.
This is the first time that financial powers for capital procurements have been delegated to the armed forces for capital purchases. It's in addition to the delegation of powers to Vice-Chiefs to make revenue purchases of up to 500 Crore per procurement on their own.
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Greek Property May Well Prove a Calm Investment Among a Tempest of Economic Uncertainty
By : Nicole Rapaport
Ten years ago, Greece property was largely overlooked. Buyers were either repeatedly drawn to old favourites such as Spain and France, or looking further afield to the emerging markets of Morocco or Bulgaria. But interest in property in Greece remains alight for a number of reasons: the healthy lifestyle, sunny climate, great beaches and food, and a superb quality of life for a fraction of the cost, to name but a few.
An established democracy, Greece is a fully-fledged member of the EU, which means that for Europeans the purchasing process can be simple. It also gives Spain a run for its money on the British package-holidaymaker front, which is good news for anyone planning to rent out their property in Greece.
Property investors generally regard Greece as a strong market due to its healthy tourist industry, which is backed by the government. Prices remain very affordable in many parts, and homebuyers can purchase far more for their money than in other popular European holiday destinations. Most rural and costal areas provide an idyllic lifestyle that many British retirees choose to adopt.
In terms of the global recession, Greece is holding out according to some experts. Mike Saunders, marketing director at Snobby Homes says: "Property prices on the whole remain unchanged. Personal borrowing in Greece is nowhere near so highly geared as it is in the UK. The Greek banks have not been caught up in sub-prime lending, so mortgages are still available for UK buyers to purchase property in Greece."
So if the overall prognosis for Greece is good, it may well prove a calm investment spot among a tempest of economic uncertainty. Greek sellers appear reluctant to drop prices, hoping to weather the storm, although there is the odd bargain to be had.
Robert Key, senior partner at Cluttons Greece, concurs saying that despite what is happening in the rest of Europe, the market for Greek real estate is holding up well. "Property prices increased in the first half of 2008, and there was only a slight drop in values towards the end of the year. At time of writing the average price of residential properties in Greece has fallen by five to 10 per cent. It is true that the number of transactions taking place is around 40 per cent less than this time last year - but this is due mainly to the banks having tightened lending criteria.
"Prices may still fall a little in 2009, but any drop is not expected to be significant. This is due mainly to Greeks having one of the highest rates of home ownership in Europe - hence mortgage repayments and forced sales are not a worry for most. For those willing to research the market, however, properties with higher price reductions do exist. These come mainly in the form of price reductions by developers who have over-borrowed and must now meet loan repayments."
He adds: "Overall Greek property represents excellent value for money when compared to other European destinations - and it's a market which historically holds its value. Greece with its diverse mountain ranges, lakes, valleys, island paradises, ski-centres and the cleanest of seas offers everything one could desire - with heaps of culture. And that's without mentioning the cuisine...
"Be it an investment in land, a villa or an apartment, we remain confident that Greece will continue to be a safe and profitable place to invest in property - providing the advice of a reputable surveyor and lawyer is taken."
However, Babi Prokas of PK Developments paints a somewhat bleaker picture of the property market in Greece, claiming that the recession has hit it so hard there that not only is there a virtual standstill in construction, but that violence and theft is on the rise among frustrated and unemployed youths.
"Greece has over 160,000 newly built houses that haven't been sold and that number is expected to climb this year," Prokas estimates. "I believe that it will take a good six months to see the beginning effects of the stimulus packages that the G20 nations have committed to. I believe we will see a price stagnation in the property market for the medium term, before prices rebound."
In terms of location, there are hundreds of inhabited Greek islands, so choice is by no means limited. Crete is one of the most appealing areas for Brits who are looking for a permanent base or a holiday home. Every year its sandy shores, green hills and olive groves attract almost a million British holidaymakers.
"Over the last two years, there has been an increase of almost 40 per cent in the number of Brits purchasing property in Crete. Four out of five new property buyers are British and the final statistics show that more than 15,000 Britons are owners of a property in Crete," says George Skouloudis Director of Artec Homes (which has projects in Tavronitis and Kissamos).
Maria McLaren, an estate agent specializing in Crete property, says: "The cost of living here is around 35 per cent less than Britain, and the crime rates are minimal. People buy in Crete mainly because they already know and love it-they can switch off and relax here. It is the lifestyle that attracts them and the friendliness of the people."
Not forgetting the Greek capital, property in Athens remains popular with international investors, and the expansion of the metro system has increased interest in residences further away from the centre.
Lucy Russell managing director of Quintessentially Estates says: "Athens is the gateway to all the islands in Greece and has easy access from the UK. Properties vary from the cheaper apartments around £200,000 to grandiose villas in the millions. Athens tends to attract people buying second and third homes rather than holiday home, and house prices have risen around 40 per cent in the last five years. The rental yields are fairly low, at around two to three per cent, and the average rent is around between £2,000 to £3000 per month."
Nicole Rapaport for Homes Overseas.
Search our extensive range of Crete property, property in Rhodes and property in Samos.
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Welcome to the Rocktopia Interviews Section (* For Members Only)
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Interview with The Struts
Added by Electronic Brain | 03 January 2019
Interview by Simon Ramsay
If you've yet to be dazzled by The Struts inimitable anthemic charms, that may well change over the next couple of years. The Derby four-piece have already made significant waves in America thanks to a bombastic, feelgood sound that – while recalling everyone from Queen, The Rolling Stones and Slade to Oasis, The Killers and Mott The Hoople - traverses numerous styles and eras such as Glam Rock, Britpop, AOR and Classic Rock N' Roll with astonishing levels of class, confidence and charisma.
The UK mainstream has, unsurprisingly, yet to take notice, but if the group's second album 'Young & Dangerous' is anything to go by, those aforementioned waves will soon be crashing onto these shores with the force of an unstoppable tsunami. We spoke to flamboyant frontman Luke Spiller about their new record, making it in the USA and the reaction to a certain divisive duet with a well-known popstar.
For people who may not be aware of your success in America, how did things unfold for you over there?
We've been touring here for almost four years. We came over in the beginning as a completely unknown band. Our song 'Could Have Been Me' went into the top five in the alternative chart and that led to a fantastic tour. 'Kiss This' went top ten and since then we've gone on to have the honour and privilege of opening for The Killers and Guns N' Roses. We were selected to play Motley Crue's last four dates. More recently, we've finished an eight-month tour with the Foo Fighters where I ended up singing a duet with Taylor Hawkins on a rendition of 'Under Pressure'. I've actually worked it out and think I've spent about three hours on stage with the Foos, with Dave Grohl playing drums and Taylor doing a brilliant Bowie.
Dave recently said you were the best band to ever support the Foo Fighters. What was the reaction to that statement because you can't buy publicity like that?
Mate, about two hours after that I suddenly had a call and it was my publicist saying 'hey, the NME want to talk to you.' This was the first time ever, so I was like 'finally, New Music Express want to see what my world's all about.' That's just one small part, but it's really opened up doors for us. That band, the whole tour we did, it's insane.
Have you stopped pinching yourself yet?
Let's put it this way, I'm at the beginning of a fort eight plus show tour going throughout the United States, something which – in a lot of ways – is completely unheard of. We're talking non-stop, three plus months of shows. Within that there are moments where you're extremely exhausted and suffering fatigue. Sometimes you wake up and all you want is to go home. But once you get on stage and are playing in front of two thousand kids it's like 'wow, this is what it's all about.' Those are the pinch me moments. I'm pinching myself every day. I've got marks all the way up my arm.
Your trajectory reminds me of Def Leppard's in the 1980s, when they broke big in America before Britain, but then subsequently suffered a backlash from their English fans. Have you encountered anything similar?
Not really. I do play on it and I've been told I can be fairly dramatic at times. The frustration I've had in the past with the United Kingdom, whether it's the radio or lack of press a few years ago, isn't as bad as I probably made it out to be. It's just the fact we haven't had any significant airplay on the major stations in the UK. So, we're not really in the public arena. But now things are beginning to change and it's the way we knew it was going to be once we started heading to America. Like 'We're gonna be very absent from our native country and we're not going to get as much exposure in the UK as America' and you can't blame anyone for that. It's just one of those things.
How's it going now in the UK, in terms of the exposure your new material is getting?
With the United Kingdom, even if the radio stations turn around and say 'it's not really for us', we have always said we're going to create an absolute monster of a song that is gonna be so great no one will be able to ignore it. Those particular songs have yet to be aired into the public spectrum so I'm waiting and seeing what happens. I've still got faith. There's still fight in me yet!
You really need to get on Jools Holland as that can really break a band.
Well it is and, funny enough, we're gonna be doing some fantastic late-night stuff in the US. Jools Holland's show, for me, would be an absolute dream come true as a Brit, as a fan of squeeze. I love Jools and really respect him and the show. His voice is something I've adopted when announcing our support acts. (Uncanny imitation) 'Give it up for White Reaper!'
'Everybody Wants' was one of the best debuts by a British rock band for a long time. You've repeatedly said 'Young & Dangerous' is much bigger and better, so why are you so confident it's a stronger record?
We've grown a lot as musicians, as writers, and extensive touring can only grow a band in a way playing and playing and playing can do. Physically seeing and hearing what audiences react to has definitely been a component when composing this album. It has a lot more depth than 'Everybody Wants'. There are tracks which really take you on a journey and express all types of emotion. We're talking about freedom to be what you are, young love, death, being a prima donna. There's so many dynamics compared to the first. The amount of work that was put into this has been ten times the amount that was on the first. I think it's very hard not to hear that.
How would you describe the stylistic evolution between the two?
The second is a lot more immediate. We've trimmed the fat on what we want to express and, in doing so, sculpted songs which have more impact. I always describe it as this: 'Everybody Wants' was a fantastic left hook in this fight for stardom and 'Young & Dangerous' is going to be a fantastic right punch knockout. Stronger and heavier than the last and carries much more weight. It's that second burst of energy to blow people away.
The reaction to having Kesha on a version of 'Body Talks' has polarised opinions, with some seeing it as an obvious attempt to crossover into the pop market. How do you feel about that?
I understand where they're coming from completely (Laughing). I'm not stupid. As soon as she said 'yes' I thought 'hmmm, this could rub people the wrong way.' Honestly, I don't give a shit. The only thing that matters to me is 'does it sound good?' I can say with my hand on my heart that this collaboration came so beautifully and naturally. She loves the band, we are musically kindred spirits in a lot of ways, and she injects this certain energy and je ne sais quoi I couldn't bring. I love the original but the one with her is brilliant and unique and I absolutely love it.
It must have really helped your profile too?
There's no doubt about it. It's like when people would ask bands who appeared on Live Aid 'did you do it for charity or were you thinking of that exposure?' I think you'd have to be an absolute arsehole to say 'yes, we did it a hundred per cent for charity.' I did this collaboration for creative reasons but I've also got a career to think about. I want to grow and want my audience to grow but, most importantly, I want to do it in my own way and on my terms. For those reasons, I have nothing to apologise for.
Did you consciously think about what the best album to make would be in order to build on your success?
There was no clear musical direction. The only thing that was calculated was that this had to be as strong, and make an impact sonically, as much as the debut. With regards growing and taking chances, there's quite a few songs which are pushing the envelope and taking this band and our audience in an ever so slightly different direction. Just enough to make people stand up and go 'oh, Wow! They've tried this and they've definitely pulled it off.' Which is extremely important on the second album.
It is very radio friendly and accessible. It must have been in your mind to create something that would really stand out and get people's attention?
You're completely correct and what's so special about our music, and this album, is we've been able to do it in our own way. Which is the danger element. We've been able to think 'okay, let's listen to what's going on.' I'm still Luke Spiller and this band is still The Struts, but how are we gonna push things forward? How are we going to remain true to ourselves, convey the messages that we want, but bring a fresh sound to a genre full of people regurgitating the same thing and sounding exactly like a band that sprung up in the 1960s / 70s.
You guys draw from a huge pool of influences, more so than people give you credit for, and that creates a kind of classic sound that's also modern too.
Exactly. That's always been the number one priority. We do not, ever, want to just regurgitate the bands we love because they never did that. If there's anything you can learn from Oasis, Queen, the Stones, it's that you have to take things you love and push it forward to create something unique. There's only a certain amount of time a band can last being a carbon copy of something else. If you stand on the shoulders of giants then yes, you'll be up there, but you'll soon lose your balance and fall quite a way down when you're on top of a giant.
'Primadonna Like Me' is the perfect Struts anthem and has 'calling card' written all over it.
We had gone down a lot of avenues, a lot of rabbit holes, experimenting and some things were not working and some kind of were. In order to make something great you have to know exactly what you don't want to do. So, we went through that process for the first three to four months and 'Primadonna Like Me' was that fantastic moment where we had done it again. Like 'WOW! This is the Struts.' It's got a little bit of everything from Supergrass, the Stones, Queen. There's even the Kaiser Chiefs in there. It was this fantastic mixture and from then on was the template for the rest of the album.
'Who Am I?' is the biggest departure. What can you say about that song?
People say it's the departure but, if anything, I think it's an expansion on the ideology we had with 'Dirty Sexy Money'. We always love to inject groove in some songs because I love to dance and I'm heavily influenced by Motown records. We wanted to create something which was another fantastic groover, very bass driven. It's a slight departure because it's a lot more Disco than 'Dirty Sexy Money', but what makes it fantastic is its lyrical content. That's what binds it into The Struts. Saying 'I can be your Harley Quinn or Dr Strange' and having this sexual, provocative nature makes it super unique. We pushed things forward but we've definitely pulled it off.
'Tatler Magazine' is the kind of song Freddie Mercury would have loved. Are tracks like that a tongue in cheek summation of your dreams?
That track is 100% my 'inner head fantasy.' I was in the UK and ITV or Channel Four was running a documentary called 'Inside Tatler Magazine' and I thought 'Wow, this is absolutely fucking gold and why haven't I ever sung or talked about this because it's so me?' I went straight to the piano and started coming up with this musical theatre skeleton. My initial thought was 'this is never gonna see the light of day, but I'd love to exorcise this small bare-boned song.' I had been writing a rock opera musical in my spare time so the style of the song evolved from what I had been doing, having this freedom of the arrangement going wherever the song wanted to and keeping you entertained and interested every single beat and second.
When we were writing the album, we were doing very linear tracks and thinking everything had to be super hip and whatnot. By the time 'Tatler Magazine' was suggested it was a very unique and refreshing experience where I encouraged myself and Jed (Elliot, bass), who joined in for the majority of the writing of that song, 'let's just throw in the fucking towel for one day and have fun with this. What do you say?' It came out beautifully and was an absolute joy to record and finish at Sunset Sound (studio).
As huge Queen fans can you envisage a day when you may go full 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and shoot off in some mind-blowing directions like they used to?
Yeah, of course. It's something I hold close to my heart and there's a couple of moments in this album where I get to express myself in that way. Whether it's 'Tatler Magazine' or 'Ashes (Part Two)', or even in my own personal time when I'm writing musical theatre, I love that aspect of being able to take people on a journey. Not just with the lyrical content but the musical arrangements as well. Again, talking about the differences between the first and second album, I think there's a few tracks on this like 'Tatler...' and 'Fire.......' and 'Ashes....' that have this musical theatre, super-Queen, feel. I felt it was very important we sat down and did something like that to show everyone what we can do.
It feels like you can go a lot further too.
We will. We will. Trust me, there are things in the works, in terms of arrangements and really thinking outside the box, that have yet to be unveiled. I think it's very important to try and keep one step ahead of ourselves. It's something I'm constantly expanding on for sure.
A lot of bands almost consider it a crime to have fun, but you guys are all about escapism and getting the party started. In 2018 it feels like that separates you from the pack and is what's badly needed in the world today.
I think so too and not just in 2018. It's something I've always held true and it's always resonated in me in a way I can't really describe. It's in my nature. It's in my bones. As soon as I started to sing and perform, I always had this desire to embody different people and write songs which were a little out of this world and take people on a journey. When I was fifteen and sixteen and riding the bus from Cleveland into Bristol, attending school, at seven thirty in the morning, I'd have my CD Walkman on with my giant silver headphones. I'd smoke a little spliff before getting on the bus and would just float away into my own little world for forty-five minutes before arriving. That was my escapism and something I felt was so important and, in a lot of ways, is lacking in current music.
In the '70s and '80s rock groups like yourselves would be playing stadiums and arenas. Is that still possible?
Even if it's not I refuse to believe it. I believe in great music and when you have great music, most of the time, you have a great reaction and can cash in on that, so to speak. What we've been doing over here in the States is testament to that. For a band that started out playing in front of three hundred and fifty to four hundred people, we're now doing fifteen hundred to two thousand people, sold out, and this is all happening before our second album is out. I don't think Noel Gallagher would have been aggrieved bands weren't able to do arenas when they were coming out with 'Definitely Maybe'. When you look at bands like that what's the most important aspect? It's the perfect marriage of hype, a great live show and fantastic fucking music which - I believe - if you have can change the world.
How big can The Struts become?
The Struts can only become as big as we want to. The last few years is evidence towards the theory you can only get out what you put in. We've been touring non-stop for the last three years and we're definitely starting to see the fruits of that labour now. As long as we want to keep going and pointing towards the stars we can get there. We're definitely on our way and I think with 'Young & Dangerous' people will listen, lean back and think 'Wow, they're fucking going for it.' That was definitely what I wanted to get across.
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These are three (3) completely different entities.
California is a physically defined State of the Union. It has borders. It is populated by people called Californians. These Californians are the Employers of a business entity called "State of California".
California and Californians exist in the actual world as land and soil, flesh and blood---- State and People.
Californians acting in their capacity as State Citizens govern California through their lawful State Assembly, which is guaranteed to them by all three Federal Constitutions.
California functions under Public Law and Californians have a Public Duty to uphold and obey the Public Law, which includes Treaties like the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, the Four Organic Laws of the United States, the Federal and State Constitutions, and the Ten Commandments.
That's California, the actual State, which employs the "State of California" which is a business entity.
As a business entity, the State of California has no physical borders or content, and is called "an inchoate state".
The State of California business organization can be structured in any number of ways. It can operate as an unincorporated business, a corporation, a trust, or as an incorporated entity----even as a foreign incorporated entity. It's a Subcontractor of California. It's current service contract is expressed as The Constitution of the State of California.
Employees and dependents of the State of California are, as a condition of their employment or receipt of public welfare benefits, obligated to pay various taxes that don't apply to other Californians, and to obey the internal rules, codes, regulations, statutes, and Executive Orders of the State of California and it's Governor.
This is really no different than IBM Employees having to follow the public policies and codes and rules of IBM, Inc., and being obligated to obey the orders of IBM's CEO.
But just as obviously, a business entity hired to provide services to Californians has no authority to rule over its Employers. Our relatives created a State of California entity to serve them, not to rule over them.
The original State of California business organization was an American Common Law Business Trust doing business as The State of California.
This original American owned and operated State of California was replaced in the aftermath of the Civil War by a British Territorial corporation doing business as "the" State of California.
The assets of The State of California were placed in a State Trust called the "California State", the State of California Legislature was called upon to draft a new Constitution, and the British Interloper was installed on an "Emergency" basis.
This happened all over the country, in every State of the Union, and nobody knew what was going on. Joe Average on the Street was never given any full disclosure about these new arrangements being undertaken "for them" by their employees.
Please note that these State of California Legislators were employees of California and had no authority to rewrite their own service contract or create any new Constitution for the Californians, but.....this is what they did.
As a result, instead of having an American company providing public services for the People of California, we suddenly had a British Territorial corporation, a franchise of the British Crown, providing those services and the only visible sign of this was a change from "The State of California" to "the State of California".
This Cuckoo Bird-like substitution put a foreign government in de facto control of public services in California and every other State of the Union, in Breach of Trust and violation of the Federal Constitutions.
This obvious conflict of interest and the change in business structure from an American Common Law Business Trust to that of a British Crown Corporation set up the opportunity to access the credit of Californians and the abuse of their assets as collateral for debt run up by a foreign commercial corporation.
It's the same thing that credit card hackers do today. The identity of the American Common Law Business Trust doing business as The State of California was stolen and impersonated by a British Crown Corporation operating as the State of California, Inc.
This unlawful conversion and the failure of rank and file Californians to wake up and recognize the con job has allowed the Perpetrators to undermine the lawful government for six generations-- and it set up the cycle of so-called "Public Bankruptcies".
Owing to their business structure as incorporated entities, these British Commercial Corporation franchises doing business "as" the State of California and the State of Ohio, et alia., had bankruptcy protection for themselves and their stockholders.
So they ran up the credit of the victims to the stratosphere, and went bankrupt in 1907, leaving the hapless Americans on the fork for their debts.
That was so much fun and so much money was made that the Roman Catholic Church got into the act next, and did the same, letting their "State of State" franchises go bankrupt in 1933.
And they've been up to the same old crap again, resulting in the current bankruptcies of both the Municipal and Territorial United States Governments.
The important take home point is that these corporations are not our government and never were, and we are not responsible for their debts, nor are our assets collateral for their debts.
The further take home point is that they are standing on our land and soil, and while they are, they are responsible for upholding their respective Constitutional obligations with respect to us and obeying the Public Law.
All of this has been nothing but a gigantic commercial fraud scheme against the American States and People-- the same Employers that all these employees of ours are obligated to protect-- and all orchestrated by the other Principals involved: the British Monarch, the Pope, and the Lord Mayor of London.
They have misdirected our employees to wage economic war against us, while collecting their paychecks from our largess.
The actual living people of this country own the land and soil, every cubic inch. The actual living people of this country have met all their obligations under the Federal Constitutions and the State Constitutions, too.
Bottom line: our erstwhile foreign Subcontractors have acted in Gross Breach of Trust.
Their corporate Employees have endeavored to unlawfully convert us into franchisees just like they are, and to impose their rules, codes, regulations, and statutes, as if we were British Territorial Citizens or Municipal United States citizens getting paychecks --- just like they are, and as if we were under the same obligations and conditions of employment that they are.
But the truth is that we are Americans, not Brits, not corporate franchises, not officers of the Holy Roman Empire, not "residents" or "inhabitants" of any Territorial "State of State" or Municipal "STATE OF STATE", either.
We are Americans, State Nationals and State Citizens, and we are now properly declaring the facts and correcting the Falsified Registrations that our foreign employees have created to mis-characterize us in violation of both the Hague and Geneva Conventions.
We are also assembling our State Assemblies and acting as the Employers of these "State of State" organizations, accepting our Public Duty to uphold the Public Law, including the Federal Constitutions, and beginning the enforcement and correction owed under these deplorable circumstances.
Any American acting in any capacity for these foreign Subcontractors and their State of State franchises needs to be fully informed of their obligations as employees of the actual States and People.
The State Trusts that were formed in the wake of the Civil War belong to us along with all material rights, titles, and interests.
We, the Californians, Arizonans, Wisconsinites, Texans..... are the "Qualified Heirs" and also the Presumed Donors and Beneficiaries of all resources, profits, and assets held in any State Trust.
The appropriate liens and claims have already been lodged, registered internationally, and recorded and published.
All Americans who are not Federal or State of State Employees and who are not presently on public assistance are called to correct their political status records and join their State Assembly.
We are the Employers, not the Employees.
Labels: Anna von Reitz, state, State of State, State Trust
Kathy Tittle July 10, 2020 at 8:13 PM
Thank you. I shall look up my Oregon State Assembly.
JD July 11, 2020 at 2:44 PM
How do I correct my status with these agencies and to become part of the State Assemblies?
Turtle July 13, 2020 at 9:49 AM
https://theamericanstatesassembly.net
Michael Porter July 11, 2020 at 6:50 PM
Thank You again for another Analogy that I can share with my friends who are trying to get a grasp on all this. Very nice step by step.
earthdweller July 11, 2020 at 9:30 PM
US Bank has closed its branches in the grocery stores here in Las Vegas, probably the whole state.
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