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Airbus to deliver its first planes to Iran
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has granted to Airbus a license allowing it to sell the first 17 planes to Iran. Airbus spokesman, Justin Dubon, told AP that the first 17 planes will be A320s and A330s.
Although a European company, Airbus needs U.S. approval for the sale due to the U.S.-made parts that are in its jets. The agreement between Iran Air and Airbus covers the purchase of 118 planes, with the deal estimated to be worth around $25 billion.
The deal was made possible by last year’s agreement, which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for it curbing its atomic program.
Boeing has agreed as well to sell or lease more than 100 aircraft to Iran, under the terms of a contract covering a mix of 109 of the company’s 737s, 777s and 787s.
Airbus airplanes deal Iran
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Kenya on the Hook for Millions in Nation’s Worst Corruption Case
“The Dams, the Scums, the Hyenas and the Thieves and that’s just the beginning.”
You’re in for a wild ride when your favorite news show begins like this:
That was the voice of Francis Gachuri, anchor person for a lively news show on Citizen TV in Kenya. The topic was deadly serious – billions of shillings designated for the construction of two hydroelectric dams had gone missing and the company that took the money – CMC di Ravenna – just declared bankruptcy.
It’s been called Kenya’s biggest scandal yet and in a worst case scenario, Kenya could be on the hook for the billions of dollars it borrowed to get the project off the ground.
At least US$146 million of public money is at risk of being lost as the Italian contractor at the center of bribery claims involving Kenyan Cabinet Secretaries appears to have left the sites of three mega projects.
CMC Di Ravenna, which has been declared bankrupt at home in Italy, has abandoned the hydro-power and drinking water projects in Nakuru and Elgeyo Marakwet counties despite receiving a down payment from which it is alleged kickbacks were paid.
Before declaring itself insolvent, CMC di Ravenna had agreed to finance the Arror and Kimwarer dams project located in Elgeyo Marakwet county, set up a power plant, transmission lines and other related infrastructure and recover its money by selling power to the government for an unspecified number of years before handing back the dams to the government.
But the local Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) and the National Treasury went ahead and borrowed money in the name of taxpayers to launch the ghost projects.
CMC di Ravenna received US$77 million, while US$107 million went to insuring the project’s loan. Another US$49 million was given to Italy’s government as a commitment fee.
In a report just presented to the National Assembly, Auditor General Edward Ouko said he found no evidence of who was paid the money, when the money was paid and by who, and who granted the authority for the money to be paid. He added that no environmental impact assessment report was given for audit.
Further, it appeared that no compensation had been made to the affected community members.
The two projects would have provided water for irrigation for over 50,000 people living in the vast region, and 80 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
Quitting your Job to start a Business is a Bad Idea!
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I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story
I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story tells the journey of a young African American girl who navigated over 30 foster homes and psychiatric facilities before age 18, and…
The Doom Patrol’s members each suffered horrible accidents that gave them superhuman abilities — but also left them scarred and disfigured. Traumatized and downtrodden, the team found purpose through The…
Genre: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
When siblings Judy and Peter discover an enchanted board game that opens the door to a magical world, they unwittingly invite Alan — an adult who’s been trapped inside the…
Fast Color
A woman is forced to go on the run when her superhuman abilities are discovered. Years after having abandoned her family, the only place she has left to hide is…
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller
Three years after the demise of Jurassic World, a volcanic eruption threatens the remaining dinosaurs on the isla Nublar, so Claire Dearing, the former park manager, recruits Owen Grady to…
Thor is on the other side of the universe and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok, the prophecy of destruction to…
Country: Australia, USA
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
A glimpse at the life of French singer Serge Gainsbourg, from growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris through his successful song-writing years in the 1960s to his death in 1991…
A contemporary British re-working of The Twilight Zone with stories that tap into the collective unease about our modern world. Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every…
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
When Mystery, Inc. are guests of honor at the grand opening of the Coolsville Museum of Criminology, a masked villain shows up and creates havoc before stealing the costumes of…
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery
The Flash Season 2 Episode 11
When Cisco gets a vibe of Eobard Thawne, Barry and the team don’t believe it. But, after an attack at Mercury Labs, Christina McGee confirms that the Reverse Flash is…
Episode Title: The Reverse-Flash Returns
Serie: The Flash
Phillip is a wealthy quadriplegic who needs a caretaker to help him with his day-to-day routine in his New York penthouse. He decides to hire Dell, a struggling parolee who’s…
Pink Floyd: Pulse
Pulse (stylized as P•U•L•S•E) is a Pink Floyd concert video taken from the October 20, 1994 concert at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, in The Division Bell tour, originally released…
The Mountain II
In a desolate war zone where screams of the innocent echo, on the very line between disaster and valor, 7 Maroon Berets will dance with death.
Nossa Chape
Nossa Chape tracks the rebuilding of the Chapecoense football club in Brazil after an airplane carrying the team crashed on November 28th, 2016, and left all but three of the…
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All Access VIPs
Coast To Coast AM with George NooryCoast To Coast AM with George Noory
Kevin Spacey Pleads Not Guilty in Sexual Assault Case
Weeks after he posted a bizarre video in character as his former role as President Frank Underwood from House of Cards, Kevin Spacey was in a courtroom in Massachusetts today. After protesting his innocence as Underwood (a character famous for being notoriously evil, up to and including murdering his political enemies, which made him kind of a weird messenger in this case), Spacey pled not guilty to a charge of felony indecent assault and battery stemming from an incident where he allegedly groped an 18-year-old boy in 2016.
More, from the Associated Press:
The judge set another hearing for March 4. Spacey does not have to appear, the judge ruled, but said he needs to be available by phone. Spacey must stay away from his accuser and his accuser’s family, the judge also ordered.
This was Spacey’s first criminal case since sexual misconduct allegations first emerged against the actor in 2017. The first came from actor Anthony Rapp; after he published his account in Buzzfeed, several others accused Spacey of similar behavior over the years. According to the AP, Spacey’s accuser’s mother claims the star “got her son drunk and then grabbed his genitals.”
Spacey was soon fired from House of Cards, which then filmed its final season without him, and replaced in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World, which re-filmed every scene he’d originally appeared in. (His replacement, Christopher Plummer, went on to earn a Best Supporting Actor nomination for the performance.) Here’s the scene as Spacey arrived at court today.
If You Missed Kevin Spacey’s Weird Frank Underwood Video, Here It Is
Source: Kevin Spacey Pleads Not Guilty in Sexual Assault Case
Filed Under: kevin spacey
Categories: Entertainment, Headline News
Tour de Gap
Abilene Business Listings
2019 News/Talk 1470 KYYW, Townsquare Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
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What if all our Mondays were like Saturdays?
by johnpersico in Uncategorized
I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said “either do something worth being written about or write about something worth being done.” A group of artists is doing something I think worth being written about. Part of a series of art projects called “MONDAY MORNING,” their goal is to bring some joy and happiness to the world through a series of creative art endeavors.
In Kenya, more than 10,000 bright yellow balloons were given to commuters on their way to work on a recent Monday morning with the sole request that they hold on to the balloon until they arrive at their jobs. Kenya has seen more than its share of violence and misery over the past decade and the artist Yasmany Arboleda wanted to bring some joy to the streets of Kenya. When you look at the picture, can you just imagine how this must have transformed the streets if only for a brief time?
About a year ago, a book was published called “Thank God It’s Monday” by Roxanne Emmerich. The subtitle was “How to create a workplace you and your customers love.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if every one of us could go to work each day (particularly Mondays) with an attitude of joyous expectation? An attitude that said “I can hardly wait until I get to work because I love what I do and I know I can make a difference to the world.” What if students, workers, managers and leaders all loved their job so much that they felt this way every day of the week? Impossibly idealistic? What would it take to make it happen?
Richard Bolles wrote a popular book called “The Three Boxes of Life.” The theory is that we live in 3 boxes that create a separation problem. The boxes are work, education and play. We work but it is not much fun and we do not receive much education. We play but we do not get paid or learn much. We go to school to get educated but we do little if any meaningful work and it is not much fun. What if we could put these three boxes together? I asked this question to a bunch of hard hat miners during a training session one day and I will never forget the response I received. One grizzled old timer raised his hand and said “Well, I wouldn’t know if it were Monday or Saturday.” I was stunned by the profundity and the implications of what I had just heard.
I can find all sorts of complaints about the state of American education, about the productivity of the American labor force and about the rising income inequality in the US. Solutions seem to pour forth from politicians on a daily basis. However, I do not think any of them really hit at the core of the problem. If we want to get back on track again, we need some radical thinking. What could be more radical than thinking of putting these three boxes together for every man, woman and child in our country? Can you imagine a school where students get paid to do what is fun and meaningful? Can you imagine a workplace, where learning and play take place right alongside relevant and important work? Can you imagine when play time is synonymous with time that involves learning and pay and not just watching the boob tube?
If we could put these boxes together, we could transform the nature of education, play and work. We could create a world where no one any longer cared about clocks, weekends or time off. People would be having so much fun and still paying their bills. “Thank God it’s Friday” would become an anachronism.
Do you think it cannot be done? What if we tried? Can we create a school system where kids are not bored to death? Can we create a workplace, where people are so engaged they do not want to go home at the end of the day? Can we create playgrounds all over this country where people also go to learn and get paid? Why not? Are we perhaps stymied by a Failure of Imagination?
Previous What does a veteran do? Are all veterans heroes? Next What is the meaning of life? Did Shakespeare know it?
bgalbreath
I worked in a state employment office for many years, talking with people who were looking for work. A few people were able to find jobs that were very fulfilling for them and they often said “Don't tell anyone, but I would do this for free.” They found a lot of intrinsic reward in what they did for a living, and for them there was no distinction between work and play. But the overwhelming majority did not like their work and did it for the extrinsic rewards (money, a social role, something to do). I think it should be the goal of a good society to find ways to expand the sorts of jobs that will find willing, enthusiastic workers, but there are always going to be a lot of things that need doing but that are unpleasant enough that few will find them intrinsically rewarding. I think underground mining and dairy farming are both examples of incredibly demanding jobs. For these things, we will have to give rewards to get people to do them. If we find out that somebody gets a big kick out of doing X, what's to stop us from cutting back on his pay?
As for the other box, education, I think that people learn job specific things in almost every job we have, and that probably more real education occurs in workplaces than in schools. So I am hopeful that those two boxes merge.
I have suffered from a sort of neurosis in my life centered around not liking to be under an obligation to do things. I can work quite hard, but I don't like to have to. Often I have come across things that attract me, that I like to do. But as soon as it becomes part of a job or part of a formal educational effort, I find myself not wanting to do it so much. Crazy? Yes. Self-defeating? Definitely. But my foolish habit is probably a common one.
John Persico
Bruce, I hope more people have the merging experiences that you refer to above. I actually worked with miners from INCO for 7 years and you would be surprised how many actually liked the job due to the camaraderie and teamwork. Your comment on “cutting back on someone's pay is interesting. Do you think many people or companies do that or would if they felt an employer would do the work for free? I felt like that for my first seven years in the consulting industry and was highly paid to boot. I think you are right about many jobs do merge a form of training but I would not say training and education were the same.
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Introducing GSK’s Frontline Health Worker Partnership; a multi-sectoral approach to training health workers and strengthening health systems across Africa.
GSK, CARE International UK, Amref Health Africa and Save the Children
The Frontline Health Worker programme is a partnership between GSK, Amref Health Africa, CARE International and Save the Children, working to tackle the chronic global shortage of health workers, expected to rise to 18m by 2030.[i] In one of the largest private sector-NGO partnerships in the world focussed on frontline health workers, we are working together to help shape a world where everyone, everywhere has access to affordable, quality healthcare.
The question of how to harness the role of health workers most effectively towards achieving Universal Health Coverage, (UHC), is vital. We are looking forward to exploring this challenge on Thursday 7th March, (Day 3), in a satellite session bringing together government, NGO, and private sector stakeholders and hosted by Amref Health Africa’s Institute of Capacity Development.
The global shortage of a well-trained and skilled health workforce is a significant barrier to the attainment of UHC . Globally, the uneven distribution of health workers means that about 1 billion people lack access to health care services. Addressing the shortage and developing a well-trained and motivated health workforce is therefore paramount if we are to build the strong health systems necessary for achieving UHC. Our Frontline Health Worker partnership is an ambitious one, helping to address this challenge and bringing innovative and sustainable healthcare programmes to 44 countries across Africa and Asia.
The partnership represents one of the biggest private sector-NGO partnerships in the world focussed on frontline health workers. Since 2009, together, we have:
invested £33m, funded by GSK
launched long-term projects in 44 countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Haiti and Yemen
trained over 67,000 frontline health workers
reached 10.8m people with improved healthcare
Breaking new ground and tackling barriers
Some of our programmes have broken new ground, not only directly delivering frontline healthcare to save lives but also changing the policies that put those lives at risk. For example, in April 2016, the government of Burkina Faso announced free healthcare for children under five and pregnant women. This ground-breaking new legislation, advocated by the ‘My Voice, Children’s Health’ campaign, was the culmination of years of campaigning from Save the Children with vital financial support from GSK. Save the Children and GSK have been working since 2015 to improve maternal and child health in the Cascade region of Burkina Faso.
Other programmes within the partnership have focussed on tackling the barriers that can prevent current or potential frontline health workers from continuing their training. In Tanzania, for example, over 2,000 frontline health workers are building their skills through Amref Health Africa’s eLearning programme, supported by GSK. The flexible format means they can continue their life-saving work as they learn, remain close to home and balance work, learning and family commitments.
Collaborating with government in a multi-sectoral approach
In all of our programmes we work closely with national and local government, to ensure the programmes are relevant to national and local policies and needs. In Chad, for example, CARE International’s programme, supported by GSK, works to improve the quality of and access to district-level reproductive and maternal health services. The programme was developed in response to the Ministry of Health’s recommendations to expand CARE’s SAFPAC – Supporting Access to Family Planning and Post-Abortion Care – model for fragile and crisis-affected settings. Focussing on youth friendly services, a high strategic priority for the District authorities, the programme has successfully integrated adolescent representatives into 10 Community Leader Associations, giving young people a seat at the table in community health decision making for the first time.
Investing for social impact and business sustainability
Investing in health system strengthening through training health workers delivers social impact through improved access to quality healthcare for communities and also helps give a platform for improved health and access to essential medicines and vaccines. This drives a long-term business benefit too. As Dr Daryl Burnaby, Director, Frontline Healthworker Programmes, GSK, explains:
“We hope that demonstrating the benefits of investing in health workers will act as a catalyst for others to invest in and champion health workers.”
Satellite session, Thursday 7th March: ‘Harnessing the role of health workers towards achieving UHC’
Please join us for a 1-hour satellite session on Thursday 7th March, (Day 3), at 7.10am, on ‘Harnessing the role of Health Workers towards achieving UHC’, hosted by Amref Health Africa’s Institute of Capacity Development and featuring panellists from government, NGO and private sector partners.
[i] [i] Source: ‘World Will Lack 18m Health Workers by 2030 without Adequate Investment Warns UN’, BMJ, 22nd September 2016: http://www.who.int/hrh/com-heeg/bmj.i5169.full.pdf
Unite for Universal Health Coverage: Now is the Time for Collective Action
Africa Health Conference 2019: Media Coverage
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Site Name: Jpn Site 043531010
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Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
Jump to: Spoilers (3)
While Julie Andrews initially turned down the role of Miss Price, she eventually reconsidered, believing she owed her film career to the Disney studio and wanted to work there again. However, when she told the studio she changed her mind, Angela Lansbury had already accepted the part, having signed her contract for the role on Halloween of 1969.
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Angela Lansbury hated what she called "by the numbers" acting in this film. Due to the heavy special effects, the entire film had to be storyboarded in advance, shot for shot. It meant every moment was pre-determined and the actress wasn't free to explore the character naturally.
Many people in the film, both on and off screen, have actual connections to WWII. Angela Lansbury, Roddy McDowall, and Robert Stevenson all emigrated to the US from the UK due to the outbreak of war. David Tomlinson served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force. Robert B. Sherman served in the US Army, and was one of the first Allied soldiers to see the Dachau concentration camp. He used his time recuperating from a gunshot wound to the knee to learn about the English people and their culture. Manfred Lating and Fred Hellmich were native-born Germans who had lived under Nazi rule.
This was the last Disney-branded film to receive an Academy Award until The Little Mermaid (1989). Ithers received nominations, and two Touchstone films, The Color of Money (1986) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), received awards before that.
This is the last feature film that longtime Disney studio songwriters Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman wrote songs for until The Tigger Movie (2000). They briefly returned in the early 1980s to write songs for EPCOT Center.
While the name of the King of Naboombu is given as Leo in the film, official merchandise guidebooks give his full name as "King Leonidas" (a named derived from lion) after the Spartan king who died at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.
This was the last Disney film released while Roy O. Disney was still alive. He died a week after its US premiere.
The song "The Beautiful Briny Sea" was originally written for a sequence in Mary Poppins (1964) that was ultimately dropped.
The castle in the background of the town is real and situated in Dorset, England. Both the castle and the town where it resides are called Corfe Castle, where many Thomas Hardy adaptations have been filmed since.
HIDDEN MICKEY: In the establishing shot of the animated soccer game, a bear wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt is in the crowd, on the right side of the picture.
Walt Disney bought the film rights to the two Mary Norton books in the early 1960s, around the same time as work on Mary Poppins (1964). When "Poppins" author P.L. Travers stonewalled on the movie rights negotiations to her books, most of the story development along with many of the songs for this film were written at this time. Had Travers not granted the film rights to her own books, Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) would have been made instead.
When Disney restored the film as closely as it could to the original cut, it found that not all the original audio tracks for the dialogue survived, requiring the use of ADR for a handful of scenes. Of the original cast, only Angela Lansbury and Roddy McDowall were able to return. Tessie O'Shea died shortly before ADR work began.
GOOFY HOLLER: heard during the soccer game when the king kicks the hyena.
Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman wrote two songs that never made it past preproduction despite Richard's protests. The first, "The Fundamental Element," had Miss Price explain her kindly philosophy to the children after turning Charlie into a rabbit. The second was a Music Hall pastiche called "Solid Citizen," which Miss Price would have sung to distract King Leonidas and get the magic star; ultimately, the soccer game replaced it. Both of them went unheard until demos performed by Richard Sherman appeared on the CD soundtrack reissue. However, part of "The Fundamental Element" was incorporated into the "Don't Let Me Down" portion of "Eglantine."
Several of the dolls Carrie admires in the nursery of Prof. Brown's house are modeled after the international puppets in the Small World ride at Disneyland.
Lennie Weinrib based his performance of King Leonidas on Robert Newton's performance as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1950).
The opening credits sequence is an homage to the Bayeux Tapestry, a seamless linen cloth made in France during medieval times that tells the story of the Norman conquest of England.
The film premiered at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. The Music Hall's Christmas stage show ran so long that film premieres had to run less than two hours. After much debate, Disney cut the film down to 117 minutes. After the same thing happened to The Happiest Millionaire (1967) and The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968), the Sherman brothers decided not to renew their contract with Disney. In 1995 Scott MacQueen, who headed Disney's restoration department, discovered that two of the cut songs, "With a Flair" and "A Step in the Right Direction", were still on the soundtrack album and quoted throughout the underscore. When he learned the extent of the film's edits, he persuaded Disney to reconstruct the longer cut. Sadly, the picture element of "A Step in the Right Direction" has yet to be located as of the present day.
Julie Andrews, Leslie Caron, Lynn Redgrave and Judy Carne were considered for the role of Miss Price before Angela Lansbury was cast.
Ron Moody and Peter Ustinov were considered for the role of Mr. Browne. Moody refused to do the film unless he was billed first, which the studio would not do.
Roddy McDowall is third in the cast list, but appears on screen for less than ten minutes.
Final film of Anthony Eustrel.
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The "Gypsy Switch" is the act of reaching inside the pocket of one's coat, grabbing contraband and switching it to another pocket on the other side of the coat.
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According to the Laws of the Game, as authorized by the International Football Association Board, no goal should have been awarded during the soccer match. The referee would properly have stopped play at the point where the ball burst or became deflated (Law 2), if not earlier for substandard field surface or goalposts (Law 1), short-sidedness (Law 3), insufficient equipment (Law 4), severe injury (Law 5), advantage gained by being in an offside position (Law 11), or any of various fouls and misconduct (Law 12), including but not limited to: dangerous play, dissent, unsporting behavior, serious foul play, and leaving the field of play without permission.
Final film of Reginald Owen.
Jon Pertwee were considered for the role of Mr. Jelk.
Elvis Presley were considered for the role of Mr. Jelk.
Faye Dunaway were considered for the role of Miss Price.
Terry Jones were considered for the role of Emelius.
Jack Albertson were considered for the role of Mr. Jelk.
James Coburn were considered for the role of Emelius.
Basil Rathbone were considered for the role of Emelius.
Elizabeth MacRae were considered for the role of Miss Price.
James Garner were considered for the role of Emelius.
Cesar Romero were considered for the role of Mr. Jelk.
Lillian Gish were considered for the role of Miss Price.
Desmond Llewelyn were considered for the role of Mr. Jelk.
Larry Storch were considered for the role of Emelius.
The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
During the final battle, the bottom half of a knight's armor (from the waist down) is seen with a German soldier apparently seated in the armor with his kicking legs sticking out in front. The actor playing the soldier actually did the walking while two electrically operated kicking special effects legs stuck out in front.
The armor in the climactic battle with the Nazis was authentic medieval armor, previously used in Camelot (1967) and El Cid (1961). When any item of armor was to be destroyed, exact fiberglass replicas were created and used.
The song "Nobody's Problems" was written with two sets of lyrics: one to be sung by the three orphans (which was never recorded or filmed) and the second version performed by Miss Price after Professor Browne leaves. Version 2 was recorded by Angela Lansbury to a piano track by Irwin Kostal, but was cut before the orchestra could be added. 25 years later, an orchestral track was finally added, and when the 25th Anniversary Special Edition premiered at the Academy Awards theater, "Nobody's Problems" received a standing ovation.
Goofs | Crazy Credits | Quotes | Alternate Versions | Connections | Soundtracks
Famipelis (X-TREME FASE From IMDB)*
My Favourite Disney Films
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← 1992 Fan Response to Alien³
Alien Resurrection: Hybrid Theory →
In 1983 Dan O’Bannon sat with Starlog magazine to talk about his career, including a customary overview of the Alien production and a poke at the possibilities of a sequel. “Also extraordinary,” the article read, “in this age of sequelmania, is the impossibility of Alien 2, Return of Alien, Revenge of the Alien, or anything else smacking of a second curtain call for the grisly astronaut-eater.” The problem, O’Bannon revealed, was that “The rights were altogether too divided among a number of us who can’t get along.” As far as he knew, he added, “There has never been any intention of doing a sequel.”
Contrary to his claims, producers Walter Hill, David Giler, and Gordon Carroll had mused on the prospects of a second film during the promotional run for the original film. “We’re involved in preliminary discussion right now,” Giler told Cinefantastique in 1979. “It’s still too early to say how it will unfold. Hill and I are working on it. I know a lot of people who think we intended the close-ups of the cat in the shuttle as a hook for the sequel. Not so. It probably won’t have anything to do with the cat.”
When Fantastic Films magazine pressed them on plans for any further sci-fi movies, Giler mentioned a sequel, on which Carroll elaborated, “We don’t have any one idea we like better than the rest. But I think it’s a very realistic idea.”
Fantastic Films: Will it feature the same Alien?
Giler: Probably not.
Fantastic Films: The company the crew works for seems to be very sinister. Will they be elaborated on more?
Carroll: That’s a possibility. I would think that’s one of the things we might do. We also have, for example, the planet and all that. I think that the sequel would have more. I’m not saying necessary of that planet, but of the fantasy of science fiction in terms of design.
The producers weren’t the only ones musing on Alien II, with director Ridley Scott admitting to Fantastic Films magazine that, concerning the first film, “What I missed most of all was the absence of a prognosis scene. There were no speculative scenes or discussions about what the Alien was and all that sort of thing either. I believe that audiences love those, especially if they’re well done. They give the threat much more weight. If they make Alien II, and if I have anything to do with it, the film will certainly have those elements in it. From a certain point of view, Alien II could be more interesting than Alien I.”
Ridley further mused with Cinefantastique that “In many respects it’ll be more interesting [than the first movie], from a pure science-fiction stand point. We’d get into speculative areas, deal with two civilisations.” He told Omni’s Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies in 1984 that “It certainly should explain what the Alien is and where it comes from. That will be tough because it will require dealing with other planets, worlds, civilisations. Because obviously the Alien did come from some sort of civilisation. The Alien was presented, really, as one of the last survivors of Mars – a planet named after the god of war. The Alien may be one of the last descendants of some long-lost self-destructed group of beings.”
Then, not long after Alien’s theatrical run, rumours of a TV sequel, made in the vein of ‘Salem’s Lot, hit the trades:
Not long afterwards, details for a movie sequel emerged in the press:
The Alien, merely stunned by its close encounter with the shuttle engines, manages to survive outside the craft and reaches civilisation along with Ripley.
A second expedition to the planetoid is stranded there and, weathering a storm within the derelict and their own ship, its members deal with a group of Aliens, climaxed by the appearance to whose race the Space Jockey belongs.
A prequel, rather than a sequel, telling the tale of the Space Jockey and ending where Alien begins, with the arrival of the Nostromo crew.
The planetoid of the Alien explodes, sending Alien eggs to Earth where -shades of Invasion of the Body Snatchers– a whole flock of the monsters run rampant.
But despite all of Ridley’s theorising and the commercial and cultural success of the original, the sequel did not appear. The reason for this is perplexing but simple: Twentieth Century Fox did not want it. Alan Ladd Jnr., the head of Fox who had heralded both Star Wars and Alien (and affectionately called ‘Laddy’ by Ridley Scott and co.) left the company in 1979 to found his own production firm, The Ladd Company, whom most will recognise as the producers of another science-fiction classic, Blade Runner. Ladd’s replacement was Norman Levy, who, according to Giler, opposed the very notion of an Alien II.
“Norman Levy wouldn’t even hear about it,” Giler told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “He thought it would be a disaster … I was introduced to John Davis at a bar one night, and I asked him, ‘When is your dad (Marvin Davis, owner of the studio at the time) going to make the sequel?’ He said, ‘Never. Norman Levy is going to save my father millions by not making that movie.'”
In an interview with Blade Runner fansite BladeZone, journalist Paul M. Sammon, responsible for the excellent Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, said of the sci-fi/horror genre at the time: ”You have to keep in mind that even though Alien was a smash, it was still a science-fiction/horror film. And back in the late Seventies/early Eighties, those two genres, at least in the opinion of many Hollywood executives, were barely a step above pornography, even if horror and science fiction films were suddenly becoming these huge cash cows.”
When Levy left his post in 1984, Giler and Hill finally managed to make some headway. Giler attributes the revival of the project to a Fox executive who stopped him in the car park. “I told him the story that was a cross between Southern Comfort and The Magnificent Seven,” said Giler. “He said, ‘Great! That sounds fine.’ And we all had a meeting and we were on.”
The producers then proceeded to band ideas about. “David and I sat down and had a discussion about what the sequel should be,” Walter Hill told Film International in 2004. “We figured the next one should be a straight action thriller -the military takes over- a patrol movie.” But though ideas had begun to materialise, Giler and Hill, who both confessed to sci-fi not being their area of expertise, made no headway on a screenplay for the film.
The breakthrough came when Larry Wilson, a development executive working for the Phoenix Co. (Giler’s production company), came across a script called The Terminator. “It was electrifying,” he recalled. “I put the script on David’s (Giler) desk and said, ‘This is the guy.’” Giler and Hill, after perusing the script, had to agree that Cameron had talents worth investigating, and they arranged a meeting with the budding filmmaker to discuss ideas for a film, though not specifically an Alien sequel.
Cameron cut his teeth on films like Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) before branching out to write and direct his own features.
“When I went over to visit the Corman facility, where the special effects were done, he was the genius, the resonant genius – everyone was talking about how great he was. I remember meeting him on the set [of Escape From New York], actually it was over in the San Fernando Valley, he was doing a glass painting for us. He was sitting on a hillside with some glass setup painting a New York skyline to be able to shoot the next shot. It was just beautiful – he was really technically great.”
~ John Carpenter, Sci-fi-online, 2008.
At this point in time Cameron was in a rut – his first directorial project The Terminator had been picked up by Hemdale and Orion Pictures, but shooting was put on an 8 month long hiatus due to Dino De Laurentiis pulling Arnold Schwarzenegger out of the movie to fulfill contractual obligations with a Conan sequel. Suddenly, despite having the entirety of The Terminator scripted, designed, cast, and ready to film, Cameron found himself with a lot of spare time to whittle away. So, not the type to sit on his hands, he sought new writing projects, taking on the sequel to First Blood as well as attending the meeting with Giler and Hill to discuss further projects. At first, the two offered him a take on Spartacus set in space which Cameron listened to with some bemusement. “It quickly became clear that David Giler wanted a swords and sandals-type film set in outer space,” Cameron said, “with literal swords and sandals.”
After some to’ing and fro’ing, the meeting stalled.“And I was sort of getting up and sort of making my way towards the door,” Cameron continued, “and David Giler said, ‘Well, we do have this other thing.’ And I said, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ And he said, ‘Alien II.’ And all the kind of pinball machines lights and bells went off inside my head.” The original movie had left an indelible impression on Cameron. “I saw Alien on its opening night in 1979 and it had a great effect on me … It created such a benchmark for visual design in science-fiction, as well as photography, acting, sound, and editing – all things that one did not necessarily associate with science-fiction.”
To aid him with the story, Giler and Hill pointed Cameron in the direction they thought it should take. “All they said was, ‘Ripley and soldiers,’” Cameron explained. “They didn’t give me anything specific, just this idea of her getting together with some military types and having them all go back to the planet.” The producers also imparted Cameron with their notes and story ideas. “I’ll never forget this,” commented Cameron, “The outline concluded with this sentence: ‘and then some other bullshit happens.’ Which I thought trivialised the entire process of figuring out what the story should be.”
Cameron, a science-fiction fan since his childhood, had already made attempts at sci-fi scripts in the vein of Alien and Star Wars before, none of which he had developed, but could now mine for his Alien sequel just as Dan O’Bannon had amalgamated his own Dark Star with a myriad of other ideas and influences. One of Cameron’s unproduced screenplays, titled ‘Mother’, was extensively reworked and would come to form the many throughlines of Alien II.
“In 1980 or 1981,” he explained, “I wrote notes and an initial treatment for a science fiction story that I initially called E.T., meaning extraterrestrial, a commonly used term in science fiction literature. As I was writing it, I found out that Steven Spielberg was making a film called E.T. The Extraterrestrial, so I promptly changed the title of my story. I used Protein as an interim working title, but then switched the title to Mother, because the story concerned a female genetically engineered creature attempting to ensure the survival of its young.”
“It featured a character very much like Ripley,” he continued, “had its own type of Alien Queen, and ended with a final battle between the protagonist and Mother while the main character was encased in what I’d later call a ‘power-loader’.” The ‘Mother’ screenplay also originated many other Aliens tropes, including a company (Triworld Development Corporation, generally referred to as ‘the Company’) that funds inhabitation and resource-mining of other worlds, the term ‘xenomorph’, as well as a strong maternal theme. “I’d felt that that fit like a glove in the development of [Ripley]. I just grabbed all the stuff that I’d already been thinking about and slammed it together. It felt very mercenary, at the time.”
Cameron stayed up for three nights drinking coffee and working on First Blood II and the Alien II treatment, deconstructing his ‘Mother’ script for the latter and injecting it with Giler and Hill’s mandate that the military be involved. Luckily, his research for First Blood II offered an insight into the Vietnam War that he figured would meld very well with the story of an elite fighting force confronting “a less technologically advanced but more determined enemy” which, in his case, would happen to be not Viet Cong guerillas but a horde of murderous biomechanoids. “I was kind of fascinated by Vietnam at that point and what a weird and surreal kind of war that was. So my approach to [First Blood II] was a lot heavier, a lot more character.” Frustratingly for Cameron, Sylvester Stallone’s rewrites obliterated much of the depth that he had tried to instil in the film. “They kept a lot of the action,” he said of the film. “They just kind of made it a Mission Impossible thing – for me it took on kind of a superhero-type quality. I thought it was much more interesting to kind of explore this traumatized character.”
Not wanting to let a good theme go to waste, Cameron realised that Ripley’s encounter with the Alien would undoubtedly have traumatised her in a way that would be powerful and lingering. “One of the things that interested me is that there are a lot of soldiers from Vietnam,” he told Time magazine in ’86, “who have been in intense combat situations, who re-enlisted to go back again because they had these psychological problems that they had to work out. It’s like an inner demon to be exorcised […] I used a bit of it in Aliens, having them come back from something they were traumatized by. There was a bit of that delayed stress syndrome stuff in Aliens they didn’t use in Rambo II.”
Another theme of Alien II would be one that James Cameron was fascinated with for some time: “Would you be willing to go into hell for someone, and if so, who would it be, and what would your relationship to them be?” Though the original Alien ended with what David Giler termed a “Sleeping Beauty … lyrical ending,” Cameron geared the sequel to encompass more than lyricism, but a sense of healing and catharsis for both Ripley and the audience.
“The first thing I did was give Ripley a past,” explained Cameron, “a life back on Earth – it’s just barely sketched, but there are resonances throughout the story: she was married, she got divorced because her career took her into space, and she had a daughter who, in the time that Ripley was on the Nostromo, grew up and died of old age. So there’s a sense that Ripley survived what happened, but there is still tremendous loss – all this was taken from her.”
Cameron’s hopes for the cathartic experience were best put by Stanley Kubrick, who said, though he was talking in regards to 2001: A Space Odyssey, “The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile, but that it is indifferent – but if we can come to terms with the indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”
But a snag came when Cameron, finally entering production of The Terminator in late ’83 and early ’84, had yet to finish the full Alien II screenplay. “Giler lost it,” Cameron recalled. “He actually said something I never thought I’d hear anyone say in Hollywood – ‘You’ll never work in this town again!’”
Luckily, Walter Hill was of a cooler disposition and advised Cameron to send in whatever he’d written, and the resulting 60 page treatment, submitted on September 21st, 1983, pleased Brandywine enough to keep him on the project. In fact, Giler & Hill liked Cameron’s treatment so much, they added their name to it, placing Cameron third in the credits and earning themselves a pay cheque from Fox. “Walter and David got a cheque for my treatment, and I got nothing,” he said. “I was pretty pissed off about that one.”
Twentieth Century Fox, however, were not so impressed. “An executive told me he didn’t like the treatment because it was wall-to-wall horror and it needed more character development,” Cameron told the LA Times. As The Terminator went into production in March 1984, Fox made an attempt to sell the rights to the Alien franchise to producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vanja, but the deal ultimately fell through. When producer Larry Gordon replaced Fox studio production head Joe Wizan in the summer of ’84 he came across the Alien II treatment. “I couldn’t believe it hadn’t already been done,” Gordon said. “In this business there are those decisions you agonize and lose sleep over, but this was so obvious. It was a no-brainer.” Gordon, who had worked with Hill on the 1982 hit 48 HRS, kept the Alien II project alive and rolling. Though Cameron was busy directing his first feature, Gordon allowed him to continue to refine and complete the first Alien II screenplay draft throughout The Terminator’s production, even throughout the editing phase. There was even another promise: that if The Terminator was successful, then Cameron could also direct the Alien sequel. “I agreed to write Alien II on the basis– and on the sole basis –that I direct it,” Cameron said. “I created the characters, I created the scenario, and I got emotionally involved. I had a large creative investment in what I’d done up to that point.”
The first public announcement that Cameron had written the sequel came in December 1984, when he told Starlog magazine: “I have written the screenplay for Alien II. It does exist. What will be done with it, no one really knows. I can’t really say anything more about Alien II than that it exists.” While drafting the screenplay Cameron, who had never intended for his sequel to imitate the original film, concocted a title that shed the roman numerals and allowed it to immediately air its own identity. “I don’t know Dan O’Bannon,” he explained, “but I read an interview with him that said he was typing away one night at four o’clock in the morning, and he was writing , ‘the Alien did this, the Alien did that,’ and he realised that the word ‘alien’ stood out on the page. It was very much like that for me on this film. I was writing away and it was ‘Aliens this and Aliens that’ and it was just right. It was succinct. It had all the power of the first title, and it also implied the plurality of the threat. It also implied, of course, that it’s a sequel, without having to say Alien II.” The first draft was handed into Fox in early 1984, and was received with enthusiasm by the studio. There was some sweat shed over the cost: Cameron’s partner and producer Gale Anne Hurd insisted the film could be made for around $15.5 million; Fox estimated it would total an unacceptable $35 million.
A bigger snag came when Cameron insisted that only Sigourney Weaver could play the lead. Fox protested that taking such a stance would allow Weaver a great deal of leverage over her pay, and that they would make Aliens without her if possible. In return, Cameron and Hurd left the project and, recently married, honeymooned to Hawaii. “We assumed it was a dead issue,” said Hurd, “and when we left for Hawaii we thought the movie was off.” But when they returned they found that the movie was still on, and that Weaver had been approached to resume her role of Ripley. Weaver, having found the script suddenly dropped in her lap, was impressed enough with Ripley’s characterisation to sign on. “The emotional content is much greater in Aliens,” she said. “I tried to imagine and comprehend something like that […] Coming back to a whole different world and haunted by the other one. Ripley’s personal situation is so bleak. I know I’m playing the same character, but I feel she has changed so utterly by what happens to her early in the film. I don’t think she’s the earnest young ensign she was when she went into space the first time.”
“To begin with, Alien happened in space,” Cameron told Prevue magazine in ’86. “The characters literally existed in a vacuum – they had no past or life beyond that film. Ripley, of course was the only survivor because she was a very strong female, and that impressed me very much. I wanted to take the character further, to know Ripley as a person, to see some depth and emotion. The movie is about her, every scene. It gets inside her mind, takes her back to face her own worst nightmare – and conquer it, so to speak. In a way, Aliens is about her revenge.” Weaver affirmed Cameron’s concern that a Ripley without catharsis would ultimately end up as a self-destructive person: “I play a character who, probably, if she stayed at home and the nightmares continued, she might end up with a loaded gun next to her bed.”
“Ripley is very different [in Aliens]. The horrific experience she endured on the Nostromo changed her irrevocably from the eager young ensign to a really haunted person. And we must remember that she drifted in space for fifty-seven years … I firmly believe that Ripley’s mind never stopped working while she slept … she’s probably been over that experience in various nightmare forms through the years. Ripley has to start life over again and finds it very difficult to do so. There are so many ghosts in her life. And yet she agrees to face the horror once again … She feels she must finally lay to rest the ghosts and sadness of the past or there will be no future for her. But once on the planet and faced with the nightmarish situation, she finds a purpose … she finds she can identify with the little girl, Newt, who is the only other person to experience what Ripley experienced, and survive … She is a fellow creature who shares the same nightmare. When Ripley finds her, her life means something again.”
~ Sigourney Weaver, Starbust, 1987.
Ripley’s actions on LV-426 were intended to serve as atonement for her (self-perceived) failure to protect her Nostromo crewmates. “Ripley still feels responsible for what happened on the Nostromo,” explained Weaver. “She has a feeling that she could have done more to help the crew to survive. It’s nonsense of course; but she can’t help thinking that she could have done a better job […] To me, it is the story of a woman who loses her whole life, and has to start over again,” she surmised. “I don’t think she’ll ever be the same again. I mean, she’ll never be that eager young ensign, but who’d want to be anyway? You’ve got to move on […] It’s been very satisfying to see how Ripley coped with what turned out to be a real tragedy in her life.”
Though the writing process was generally smooth, Cameron noted that “[Sigourney] tried to have an influence on Aliens, but it didn’t work! She said, ‘I don’t want to shoot a gun,’ I said, ‘No, you have to shoot a gun.’ ‘Oh, well, can I get killed?’ ‘No.’ When I saw the third film I cracked up, because it was all the things she’d asked for on the second film.” This isn’t to suggest that Cameron wasn’t accommodating to Weaver’s suggestions, as the latter praised his ability to interpret the character of Ripley correctly: “Jim is incredibly open to things. I always felt that he trusted my instincts and that he had his own very clear idea of Ripley. Whatever decisions I made about her mental and emotional attitude, he has tried to incorporate into scene changes, how we play them, and things like that. For the most part it has gone very well.”
Aliens finally went into production in September 1985, and would wrap in April 1986 on a budget of $18 million – half of what Fox had frightfully predicted. “If Jim Cameron hadn’t fallen in love with something about Alien,” stated Sigourney, “then a sequel wouldn’t have been made. No one really wanted to touch it … Luckily, Jim wanted to make his own movie.”
Filed under Aliens
Tagged as David Giler, Gale Anne Hurd, James Cameron, Walter Hill
11 responses to “Writing Aliens”
Balaji Imperial
It’s always a treat when a new article appears on here, and this ones a cracker! Thanks for all the hard work you must put into these…
alientimeline
Nice work, as always.
Great, great stuff. Love it.
morse88
Brilliant article Valaquen. An extremely fascinating look into the earliest parts of Aliens. Who knows where the franchise would be if Terminator had tanked at the box office………
Neil Branquinho
Great read, thanks!
““Giler lost it,” Cameron recalled….”
David Giler always seems to give the impression of being a prick doesn’t he.
Liubo Ursiny
So much stuff that isn’t in the Superior Power documentary… Thank you!
Thanks so much for such a great article.
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STARBEAST
Excellent article.
Structure wise Aliens is flawless to me. It hits every beat you want it to and goes into places you don’t expect. One of the things I love about the film is its supporting cast.
I don’t get why people whine about the supporting cast in Aliens and think that Alien 3 or Alien for that matter is some masterpiece of in regard to having great supporting characters.
You at least get to understand Ash and to a degree Dallas, but other than that, the other three don’t have too much going on. They have their appeal as the common man and their performances are fine, but I never got invested in any one in that movie except for Ripley and Ash. Which is fine, it totally worked for that story.
Alien 3 had pathetic supporting characters. Completely interchangeable minus Charles Dance’s character and Dutton’s. And Dance’s character was the only one with any hint of depth. The others aren’t interesting in the slightest and are never developed. They’re cannon fodder.
Aliens pound for pound had the best supporting characters in the saga. Seeing a child in that environment was thrilling and regardless of what you say about Newt, I believed that she was a survivor. She was smart, adaptable and served a great purpose to the development of Ripley’s character.
Gorman was great because he’s in a position of command and at first you think he’s the consummate asshole professional when actually he’s a total coward who actually who gets his men killed and is able to command a bit of redemption as he goes out.
Hudson was over the top as hell, but he was such a different personality to the rest of the crew and has so many memorable moments. I love the moments when he just loses it. They’re genuine and it’s a nice juxtaposition between more straight laced guys like Hicks.
Vasquez is just kick ass. Not a lot of depth, but it was great seeing a woman on the frontlines who was a total bad ass who could carry herself. She was instantly likable the moment she was asked if she’s ever been mistaken for a man. It’s little moments like this that add empathy for the characters. They’re relatable, they’re human.
Apome was a great drill sergeant type character and his interactions with all of the characters was just first rate comedy gold.
Burke is the most annoying shit in cinema. Cameron is good at writing weasel characters and this is his best example. He represents the company, is duplicitous and totally believable. Interactions with Ripley are tremendous and his plan to impregnate Ripley and Newt is just despicable. He’s a classic character hate him so much you love him character.
Hicks is the everyman. His interactions with Hudson and Ripley are his best moments of the film. You respect his ability to react under pressure, his command of the marines once Gorman goes down and you believe the sensitivity he feels for Ripley and what he represents to her is something out that furthers our protagonist.
Bishop was a great android. He’s kind of like the metaphorical representation of Aliens in comparison to Alien. Same subject matter, totally different feeling film, but a logical progression forward for the series. Ash to Bishop is great because you have the same feeling Ripley does to him and he winds up just turning that expectation on its head with a completely different android than Ash minus his fascination with the Xenomorph.
The rest, yeah are pretty interchangeable and yes it’s a completely different movie from Alien, but that’s what makes it great. It evolved the franchise and took it to new ground. It couldn’t just be another movie about a Xenomorph killing a bunch of clueless people in a single space. That would be a retread. Oh wait…
Those are 8 incredibly memorable, well done characters. Two of which really further the development of Ripley’s character which is what your main supporting characters should do.
Slasher McKagan
All four Alien movies have great cast (despite I loathe Resurrection), but I do agree the second one is the most engaging. Still, I did care even about those murderers in Alien 3. God, those movies are brilliant.
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If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was… - J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.
Nurses Endure WWII Captivity in Solomon’s Debut Novel-2015
Written by Diane Slocum
A Pledge of Silence
by Flora J. Solomon
at Amazon.com
An exclusive Authorlink interview with Flora J. Solomon,
Author of A Pledge of Silence
By Diane Slocum
As the US entry into World War II approaches, young army nurse Margie is sent to the Philippines. At first, she and her friends enjoy the tropical paradise. Margie even falls in love. Then comes Pearl Harbor followed quickly by attacks on the Philippines. As the battles rage, the medical teams are forced to work under more and more difficult circumstances and finally endure captivity.
“Originally I was going to write a post-World War II mother/daughter story. . .”
AUTHORLINK: How did you decide to write about a nurse in World War II? What were the first aspects of the story that came to you?
SOLOMON: Originally I was going to write a post-World War II mother/daughter story, because that is the era in which I grew up. I envisioned the mother as having a dramatic past that would somehow affect the relationship. What would Mother have been during the war—a journalist, a spy, a cryptologist? Searching for ideas, I ran across We Band of Angels by Dr. Elizabeth Norman, and All This Hell by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee, both wonderfully researched non-fiction accounts of the nurses who served in the Philippines during World War II. My own mother and grandmother were nurses, and I have a quasi-medical background myself, first as a student nurse (I did not finish the three year program), and later as a biochemical research assistant, and then as a healthcare analyst. I felt comfortable writing in a medical milieu.
“I tore the book apart and deleted what wasn’t working and expanded on what was.”
AUTHORLINK: How did you develop your story from there?
SOLOMON: In the first version, there were two tracks told in alternate chapters—a World War II track, and a mother/daughter track. I found an agent to represent this version, but she could not interest a publisher. Thankfully, editors from the publishing houses send critiques with their rejections. Almost every critique stated that the World War II chapters were strong, but the mother/daughter chapters were weak in comparison, and the book felt unbalanced. Over the following year, I tore the book apart and deleted what wasn’t working and expanded on what was. At that point, the story of the nurses became the focus.
AUTHORLINK: How did you learn about the era and the historical events?
SOLOMON: Besides the two books mentioned above, I found memoirs, newspaper clippings, journal articles, and other historical accounts of the nurses’ experiences in the Philippines. Additionally, I found books, documentaries, videos, and US Government websites with information about everything from what guns and airplanes were available to the military early in the war to the effects and treatment of battle fatigue on the returning soldiers. One reference often led to another. I’ve listed several of my most helpful references on my webpage www.apledgeofsilence.com.
“All I had to do was drop my fictional characters into the already well-documented and intense setting and let them react . . .”
AUTHORLINK: How did you balance your fictional characters and storyline with the historical events? Did you need to make adjustments or fill in unknown areas?
SOLOMON: World War II is recent history and the information about it is ubiquitous. All I had to do was drop my fictional characters into the already well-documented and intense setting and let them react to it. I introduced my protagonist, Margie, as a young girl who would have been happy marrying her high school sweetheart, but she got swept up in the war and her life took a dramatic turn. Her story is one of physical and mental struggle, transformation, and good over evil.
AUTHORLINK: This is your debut novel. What else have you written?
SOLOMON: If you’re counting years of diary entries, endless letter to pen pals and favorite aunts and cousins, eight years of college papers, twenty years of business reports, and a handful of journal articles, then the answer is I’ve written all my life. If you are counting what has been published, then the answer is nothing. I had to learn how to write fiction, and my first attempts were pitiful. I studied How To books and other authors’ styles. I joined the North Carolina Writers’ Network and took advantage of their conferences, workshops, and editorial services. I wrote every day and most of what I wrote those first years ended up in the trash, but eventually, my own voice began to emerge and A Pledge of Silence began to take shape.
“When I finished the revision, I debated which way to go, and decided the agent/publisher route was too slow . . .”
AUTHORLINK: You self-published your novel before it won the General Fiction category of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Why did you go that route?
SOLOMON: As I mentioned, I did find an agent for an earlier version of my book. It was a good experience, and I learned a lot, but in the end, after a year with the agent, I was back to square one. When I finished the revision, I debated which way to go, and decided the agent/publisher route was too slow, and there were no guarantees, so I published with Kindle Direct Publishing and Create Space. It was the right thing for me to do. A Pledge of Silence has been successful on both platforms. When I saw information about the ABNA, I thought – what do I have to lose?
AUTHORLINK: How did you feel about being one of the winners?
SOLOMON: Are there words to describe the feelings, the validation, and the pure joy? My goal was to advance to the quarter finals to win a Publisher’s Weekly Review. My book whizzed through the quarter finals and kept going. The call came at 6 pm on July 3rd. My husband is a volunteer fireman, and he was on duty, so I was alone in the house. The phone rang and the caller ID read, “AMAZON.” I couldn’t have been more excited if it had read, “The president of the United States!” I immediately called our three children, and then had to hurriedly call them back to tell them the news was confidential until it was officially announced.
“Melody, the developmental editor assigned to me by Amazon, was an immense help.”
AUTHORLINK: Are there changes in the edition being published by Amazon?
SOLOMON: Yes. I knew the first few chapters of the story dragged a bit, but I didn’t know how to change them. Melody, the developmental editor assigned to me by Amazon, was an immense help. She identified scenes that didn’t move the story forward, and I swallowed hard and deleted them. Together, we shortened the front chapters and expanded the end ones, which made a better beginning and a more satisfying ending. Hardly one iota changed in between.
AUTHORLINK: What is your next project?
SOLOMON: While I was researching A Pledge of Silence, I came across information about American women who were trapped in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded, but didn’t go into the prison camps like the nurses were forced to do. Instead, they fled to the mountains and became spies for the underground. My new project was inspired by the bravery of these women. It is a story of danger, intrigue, and love lost then found. Watch for it in a year or two.
About Flora J. Solomon:
Solomon grew up in the post-World War II years, surrounded by reminders of the war and the bomb-shelter mentality of the cold war days. She started writing her novel the morning after she retired from her medical career.
About Regular Contributor:
Diane Slocum
Diane Slocum has been a newspaper reporter and editor and authored an historical book. As a freelance writer, she contributes regularly to magazines and newspapers. She writes features on authors and a column for writers and readers in Lifestyle magazine. She is assigned to write interviews of first-time novelists and bestselling authors for Authorlink.
Categorised in: Interviews
This post was written by Diane Slocum
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Australian Boy’s Coming of Age Story, a Wild Ride
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UK trade gap between goods exports and imports narrows in 2013
It is welcome news for the economy that the gap between imports and exports has been reduced to its smallest for six months. ONS data has shown that the manufacture of transport equipment was one of the biggest contributors to the increase in exports. While the balance of trade has implications for the overall economic stability of the country, it also has direct impacts on the businesses involved in the process and logistics of exporting, and not just on those primary companies growing through the export of their products.
When the reduction in the balance of trade deficit is due to a rise in the volume of exports, it is good for businesses related to the exporting process itself, such as those that facilitate the export process. These include packaging and pallet manufacturers. While there will be many rules and regulations around actual goods being exported and imported, there is equally stringent guidance around the exporting and importing of the pallets and packaging carrying the goods. There are specific guidelines relating to wooden packaging and therefore wooden pallets.
Regulations for Wood Packaging
The regulations for wooden packaging include ISPM15, which relates to the treatment of wood to eliminate and therefore control the spread of plant-based pests and disease. ISPM stands for the International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures. The 15 references a specific publication number which deals with the regulations for wood packaging material. ISPM15 regulations are controlled by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), which is part of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Wood packaging materials which fall under the regulations include coniferous softwood when used in its raw wood form for packaging, and they also include non-coniferous hardwood when that is used in its raw form. However, manufactured wood products such as plywood or forms of reconstituted wood such as particle board and high-density fibre board are exempt from the regulations, as too are wood-based materials which are manufactured using heat, pressure or glue.
Standards to Meet Regulations
The reason for the manufactured wood-based products being exempt is due to the processes they go through which eliminate the possibility of plant pests or diseases surviving from the original wood. Raw wood packaging materials therefore must undergo a form of treatment to provide the same safeguards. Treatments can involve the heat treatment of the wood, or the wood can be fumigated in a process using methyl bromide. Packaging made using treated wood materials must carry the approved mark which guarantees the item’s safety, so a manufacturer of heat treated pallets would furnish a label marked with HT (amongst other regulatory information) and a manufacturer using the methyl bromide option would be marked with MB.
Double Bonus
When UK companies are able to export more, there is a positive direct knock-on effect for companies that manufacture packaging materials or that treat wood for packaging materials, not to mention those involved in the transportation of the goods for export. The rise in the level of exports can therefore be seen as a double win for UK businesses.
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Cognex - Get News & Ratings Daily
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Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Lowered to $43.00 at Morgan Stanley
Posted by Andrew Walz on Jul 14th, 2019
Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its price objective decreased by Morgan Stanley from $47.00 to $43.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Stock Target Advisor reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.
Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Gordon Haskett assumed coverage on Cognex in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. They set a hold rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Investment Research downgraded ExlService from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Wednesday. ValuEngine cut Zumiez from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. BidaskClub downgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Encana from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $51.80.
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Shares of CGNX stock opened at $42.42 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.21, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 2.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 8.31 and a quick ratio of 7.46. Cognex has a 1-year low of $34.88 and a 1-year high of $59.18.
Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.03. Cognex had a net margin of 26.55% and a return on equity of 18.90%. The company had revenue of $173.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.21 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cognex will post 1 earnings per share for the current year.
In other news, insider John J. Curran sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.01, for a total transaction of $2,450,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $612,625. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.
A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Riverhead Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Riverhead Capital Management LLC now owns 55,859 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,841,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Cognex by 26.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,592,100 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $80,974,000 after purchasing an additional 329,400 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,982,117 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $76,607,000 after buying an additional 102,876 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 52.6% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 13,253 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $674,000 after buying an additional 4,566 shares during the period. Finally, Marsico Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 32.8% in the fourth quarter. Marsico Capital Management LLC now owns 83,921 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,245,000 after buying an additional 20,704 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.49% of the company’s stock.
About Cognex
Cognex Corporation provides machine vision products that capture and analyze visual information in order to automate tasks primarily in manufacturing processes worldwide. It provides machine vision products, which are used to automate the manufacture and tracking of discrete items, including mobile phones, aspirin bottles, and automobile tires by locating, identifying, inspecting, and measuring them during the manufacturing or distribution process.
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Banks Tried to Curb Gun Sales. Now Republicans Are Trying to Stop Them.
Posted by David Williams | May 26, 2018 | Op-Ed, Transylvania Indivisible
CreditGary Neill
By Alan Rappeport published in the New York Times
When Congress decided not to take significant action after a spate of mass shootings this year and last, some big banks opted to take matters into their own hands by restricting financing for gun sellers.
Now, Republican lawmakers are pressing regulators to stop banks from doing so, over concerns they are veering too far into social activism.
The issue has put the Republican Party in the awkward position of choosing between its embrace of free markets and its concerns over infringement of the Second Amendment, even as the school-shooting crisis has persisted with the deadly attack at Santa Fe High School in Texas on May 18 and the wounding of at least two people Friday at a middle school in Indiana. Guns are creating a rare rift between Republicans and the financial industry, which has been among the party’s biggest contributors.
“If you’re going to turn us into a nation of red banks and blue banks, you’re making a mistake,” Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican and member of the banking committee, said in a recent interview before the latest shooting. “Don’t come crying to us when you screw up and you want the American taxpayer to bail you out.”
Mr. Kennedy said he planned to file complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against banks that are effectively restricting gun sales by setting their own rules on legal products and refusing to do business with gun makers and retailers that do not comply. He is also working to get Republican colleagues to join him in writing legislation to stop banks from discriminating against gun buyers.
Major banks have taken a series of steps this year to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. They are restricting their credit card and banking services to gun retailers and halting lending to gun makers that do not comply with age limits and background check rules determined by the banks. They are also freezing out businesses that sell high-capacity magazines and “bump stocks,” attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire faster, even though such products are legal under federal law.
Citigroup was the first to unveil such a firearms policy in March when it announced that it would forbid any new retail clients who operate gun shops to sell guns to people who have not passed background checks. It also restricts those shops from selling firearms to people younger than 21 and bars sales of bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. Gun sellers that do not comply will not be able to raise capital through Citigroup, and the bank said it would look to move away from existing clients that do not change their policies.
In April, Bank of America said it would no longer lend money to manufacturers of military-inspired firearms that civilians can use, such as AR-15-style rifles. A bank executive said the policy was intended to help reduce mass shootings.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said it would begin offering a new line of investment funds that do not include producers of firearms or retailers that sell them, cutting off a potential avenue of financing for gun makers and retailers.
Gun advocates have viewed the moves as a direct assault on the industry.
Senator Michael D. Crapo, the Idaho Republican who heads the banking committee, sent blistering letters in late April to the top executives at Citigroup and Bank of America, accusing them of using their market power to manage social policy. He told them not to go any further and warned them against developing ways to monitor gun transactions through their payments systems, a move that gun advocates view as a dangerous step toward using data to block law-abiding customers from buying guns.
“I am concerned when government agencies use their power to try to cut off financial services for lawful businesses they may disfavor,” Mr. Crapo wrote to Michael Corbat, Citigroup’s chief executive. “I am also concerned when large national banks use their market power for similar purposes.”
Mr. Crapo reminded the banks that he had fought against Operation Choke Point, an Obama-era initiative in which the Department of Justice and bank regulators worked to discourage banks from doing business with companies such as payday lenders and gun sellers. The Trump Justice Department decided to end the policy last year.
At a meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month, a departing Republican commissioner, Michael Piwowar, assailed Citigroup executives over the bank’s gun policies. Mr. Piwowar, according to Bloomberg News, warned that the bank could struggle to get Republican support on the commission for easing derivatives regulations. He declined to comment on the exchange.
Citigroup also declined to comment, but Edward Skyler, its executive vice president for global affairs, laid out the bank’s position at a technology conference in New York this month. He said the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and the lack of a government response had inspired Citigroup’s executives to take action.
“We tried to balance respect for law-abiding gun owners and respect for the Second Amendment,” Mr. Skyler said, explaining that the bank’s goal was just to keep firearms out of the wrong hands. “The sense was nothing was really changing in our society.”
Gun lobbyists that usually direct their resources at attacking Democrats have now jumped into the fray to take on banks, pressing Republican lawmakers to use their influence to make the banks back down.
The website of the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, has been accusing bankers of infringing on constitutional rights from the comfort of New York City skyscrapers.
“There is growing evidence that some of America’s financial elite want to create a world in which America’s public policy decisions emanate from corporate boardrooms in Manhattan rather than from citizens and their elected officials,” an article on the website said.
Lawrence Keane, general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said his organization had been lobbying lawmakers in hopes they would take action against banks. He said businesses should not be able to tell consumers what legal products they could and could not buy.
“We are very concerned that banks enter into this hotly contested political issue,” Mr. Keane said. “These are matters for the policy arena. Banks shouldn’t be interjecting themselves into this issue.”
Gun Owners of America tried, unsuccessfully, to use a financial regulation bill that the House passed this week as leverage to crack down on banks that it feels are discriminating against gun owners. In a letter to the House, it urged Republicans not to vote for the bill, which offers banks relief from the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, unless those firms backed off the gun industry.
“Please do not support the Dodd-Frank reform legislation without the inclusion of an amendment that stops federally funded banks from discriminating against the lawful exercise of the Second Amendment,” said John Velleco, director of government operations at Gun Owners of America. No such amendment was included, and President Trump signed the bill into law on Thursday.
Mr. Trump, who has not hesitated to publicly attack companies such as Amazon for policies that he opposes, has not yet weighed in on the banking industry’s efforts to curb gun sales. However, members of his administration have expressed doubt that there is much their regulatory agencies could do.
During congressional hearings this spring, Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Randal K. Quarles, vice chairman of supervision at the Federal Reserve, faced questions from Republican lawmakers about whether regulators could intervene.
Mr. Quarles indicated that the issue was outside of the scope of the Fed’s mandate. Mr. Mulvaney said that what the banks were doing to the gun industry was “troubling,” but that he did not think it was his agency’s role to intercede.
While lawmakers have been mulling how to respond, legislation, at the moment, appears unlikely.
The gun restrictions are one of the few areas where Democratic lawmakers have been supportive of the banks, and Republican leaders in the House have expressed reluctance about interfering in the financial sector despite their strong belief in gun rights.
Thus far, other banks have remained quiet about their intentions, but more action against the gun industry could bring reluctant Republican lawmakers off the sidelines.
“I’m still thinking through this, because I generally don’t like to tell businesses how to conduct their business,” said Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania. “But it is certainly problematic if it were to be the case that the major banks that provide the infrastructure for so much of our financial services decided that they were going to practically shut down a perfectly legal industry.”
Previous“Fair Courts, Fair Votes” Month of Action (May 18-June 18). 6 Ways You Can Stop the Next Attacks on Our Democracy – Step One
NextCall to Action – Be Part of the Moral Fusion
The Civil Rights movement of the 60's and 70's provided David with his introduction to the pacific resistance and social activism of the Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. Understandings and beliefs now long dormant and his commitment to those teachings guide his renewed activism with Transylvania Indivisible today. His determination to provide his son and grandson with a chance to live the American Dream drive his ongoing passion for change.
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October 28, 2016 February 28, 2017 by Better World In Uncategorized Leave a comment
At Bertha Holt Elementary School in Eugene, Oregon, students learn to give back through sponsorship and Gifts of Hope.
With paper cups full of paint and minds full of artistic creativity, ninety fourth grade students get working on the project before them. The final product? A striking mural with six faces of children in Holt sponsorship — colored in with a mosaic of vibrant doodles — to be hung permanently in the cafeteria at Bertha Holt Elementary School in Eugene, Oregon.
Named after the woman who along with her husband, Harry, founded Holt International in 1956, Bertha Holt Elementary first opened in 2004 — inspired by the legacy of “Grandma Holt,” and her iconic words that “all children are beautiful when they are loved.” Lining the entryway of the school are display cases full of the Holts’ photos, letters and memorabilia, and each year the school holds a celebration in Bertha’s honor. In continuation of her legacy, the school also holds annual fundraisers to sponsor children through Holt.
“We want to educate the students about who she is, what was important in her life and what we can do to help children now,” says Mandy Robison, a fourth grade teacher at the school and also a Holt adoptive parent. This year, in addition to sponsorship, Holt Elementary decided for the first time to give gifts to children and families in need through Holt’s Gifts of Hope catalog. “Our school’s theme,” Mandy says, “is that all of us can do something small to make a big difference.” And as students raised money for their sponsored children or for Gifts of Hope, this concept became tangible.
Students asked their parents, grandparents and neighbors for opportunities to make one dollar through small chores around the house and yard. They then pooled their dollars and, as classrooms, they voted on which items they would like to give from the catalog — items like a goat or a cow to help a family generate income, or a bicycle to help a child get to school. This year, chickens were an especially popular choice! But no matter the gift they chose, the school’s principal, Joyce Smith-Johnson, says the children seemed to grasp the impact of their generosity.
With a grant from Imagination International Inc. in Eugene, the school hired local artist Bayne Gardner to draw the outline for a mural based on photos of actual children in Holt sponsorship. The children in the mural live in Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Thailand and Vietnam.
“When we look at the world, it seems so big and out of reach,” Joyce says. “‘Children in need’ is too abstract for kids [to understand]. With Gifts of Hope, it’s easy for them to see how it helps and they could see their efforts connect to something real and important.” In fact, many teachers used the fundraiser to teach students just how a chicken or new school supplies could change the life of a child in another part of the world.
“It felt really good,” says 10-year-old Emerson Kearney, who along with her classmates gave chickens as a Gift of Hope. “I think [a child and their family] feel really happy now that they have something to eat every day.”
And the teachers and students at Holt Elementary are committed to continue making a “big difference” for children all around the world through Holt International.
“It’s such a part of the fabric of this school,” says Joyce. “It’s so much a part of who we are and what we do — and we’d like it to stay that way.”
Megan Herriott | Staff Writer
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Posted Monday, July 8, 2019 - 3:37 pm
(CNS) A federal judge in Santa Ana Monday scheduled a hearing for next month to iron out issues related to exchanging evidence in the criminal case against embattled attorney Michael Avenatti.
The 48-year-old Avenatti has pleaded not guilty to a 36-count indictment alleging tax, wire and bank fraud and accusing him of stealing millions of dollars from clients. He has also denied a charge in New York of trying to extort $25 million from Nike by threatening to expose alleged payments by the company to high school basketball players.
U.S. District Judge James Selna set an Aug. 26 hearing on evidentiary issues between Avenatti and federal prosecutors, who are also wrestling with the location of a trial in the embezzlement case against the attorney stemming from his most notable client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels. That case was filed in New York, but Avenatti wants it moved to California, where his attorney, Dean Steward, is based.
A major point of evidentiary contention is a pair of computer servers from Avenatti’s firm, Eagan-Avenatti. A bankruptcy receiver has them but Avenatti wants to access them to prepare his defense.
“The receiver just gave over the servers to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the question is whether they were legally required to do that, and our answer is no,” Steward said.
Avenatti has argued in court papers that he needs access to that evidence to help him defend himself.
Also at issue are four computer devices, including a cell phone, that are encrypted. Federal prosecutors want to access them, but Avenatti will not provide passwords. There are also issues related to attorney-client privilege relating to the devices.
Selna suggested a third party could be authorized to go over the evidence, but it’s an open question what could be accessed by prosecutors.
Prosecutors in Santa Ana pushed for a trial in January, but Steward said he has received a 5-terabyte hard drive which could hold up to 175 million pages of evidence, so he could not be ready for trial by then.
In a joint report to Selna from Avenatti and prosecutors filed July 1, Avenatti raised the issue of a grand jury considering new evidence. Prosecutors said Monday they have no plans at this time to pursue a superseding indictment.
Avenatti, who is also facing discipline from the State Bar of California, will get a chance with his attorney on July 22 to cross-examine one of the alleged victims in his Santa Ana case.
“I am looking forward to a jury passing judgment on my conduct in each case,” Avenatti said. “I will be exonerated and the truth will be known to all about what really happened here.”
CNS-07-08-2019 13:18
Arts / EntertainmentHealthLaw EnforcementLocal
Woman Sues Bikram Yoga Guru for Alleged Sexual Assault, Battery
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Ralph Slatyer Medal
Biology at ANU – the first 50 years
Home » About us » Awards » John Innes Foundation Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research
John Innes Foundation Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research
Benjamin Schwessinger
Year awarded
The John Innes Centre
Benjamin Schwessinger was one of four postgraduate research students to receive the 2011 John Innes Foundation Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research and Excellence in Science Communication.
Benjamin Schwessinger also received a Prize for Scientific Excellence for his PhD studies in the Zipfel group in The Sainsbury Laboratory. He has made important discoveries in the molecular and genetic basis of the plant immune response to pathogen attack. In work published in PLoS Genetics and Plant Cell and other journals, he identified and characterised a new mutation in a key immunity regulator, BAK1. He established a crucial role for protein phosphorylation in immune signalling. “I am delighted and honoured to receive the JIF Excellence in Scientific Research Award,” said Benjamin.
Ben completed his PhD in 2010 and is undertaking postdoctoral research in USA, at the University of California, Davis.
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China/Vietnam 2019
Day 28-29: Ninh Binh
FPU Study Abroad
By Megan Kroeker. Goodbye Hanoi! Yesterday we began with a 2.5 hour drive to the Phat Diem Cathedral. I was expecting the traditional European-style cathedral that somehow happens to look exactly the same no matter where you are in the world. This was not the case. The most impressive features of this cathedral included a large man-made lake with a Jesus-island in the middle, a 2-ton bell which was in the third story of a tower (keep in mind no machines were used to do this), and the huge iron-wood support beams used in each building. The most interesting part of this specific cathedral was the incorporation of local culture with traditional catholic symbols. Specifically, there was a picture etched in the stone of a series of lotus flowers. It was a cycle of life, death, and rebirth which is used in Christianity with earthly life, death, and rebirth in Christ. They also had the gospel writers sitting in lotus positions on top of the roof. The priest who instructed the building of this cathedral was Father Six. When the church started there were 2000 Catholics in the area. By the time he died there were 10,000! Later in the afternoon, we went to the river to see the on-land version of HaLong Bay. We hopped on these little boats and were rowed down the EXTREMELY hot and sunny river to some gorgeous views and fascinating caves. One cave was 1,000 meters long! We all had fun seeing skull island from Kong Skull Island and feeling like a part of pirates of the Caribbean. Today (June 29) we woke up a little earlier than usual (as an attempt beat the heat) and went to the largest Buddhist complex in Vietnam. The most interesting thing about this complex was that the architecture was extremely similar to the catholic cathedral that we saw yesterday. They had the same iron wood pillars, square shaped pond, large bells, and the same color scheme as each other. Another interesting feature was the sheer number of Buddha statues there were. Definitely well over 1000 (I heard something about 10,000 but that may have been Tony exaggerating). The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We ate some more goat (a staple of every meal in this region), went to a shopping mall (mom & dad, if you are still expecting a good souvenir please transfer money into my account :)), and finally got on our flight to Hue. Northern Vietnam has been fun but we are all hoping for a little less humidity. By this time we are all counting down the days til the end of the trip (both with excitement and sorrow). Keep praying for our stomachs!!!
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IoD seeks greater role for remcos over share buybacks
by Gavin Hinks on February 27, 2018
Remuneration committees should have responsibility for reporting on what happens to executive pay following a share buyback, according to the Institute of Directors (IoD).
Remuneration committees should have responsibility for reporting on what happens to the pay packets of executives following a share buyback, according to the Institute of Directors (IoD).
The IoD made the call as part of its submission to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for a consultation on a revised corporate governance code for the UK. The government announced in January that it was to investigate whether share buybacks take place to boost the pay of executives.
The IoD also called on a revised code to make it clear that executives would have to pay back bonuses in cases of gross misconduct or following “material” restatements or insolvency.
Dr Roger Barker, head of corporate governance at the IoD, said: “Following the collapse of Carillion, and in an atmosphere of growing public concern about occasionally excessive executive pay, the FRC have a chance to use revisions to the Code to bolster corporate governance in the UK.
“Business leaders will support the regulator’s attempts to ensure the code now takes better account of a number of key governance issues, such as ensuring workers have a greater voice in the boardroom.”
He continued: “The code correctly allows companies to do this in their own way, increasing boardroom diversity and highlighting the importance of companies taking a long-term approach to their business. The code could go further, however, in pushing greater transparency and accountability over executive pay.”
Buyback abuse
Business secretary Greg Clark said in January that there was concern that share buybacks were being abused “to artificially inflate executive pay”. He said the review would seek to answer whether government action was required.
The IoD is also concerned about what it sees as a lack of focus on director training in the code.
Dr Barker said: “We are frustrated that this redraft of the Code has not emphasised the important role that professional development and training of directors could play in improving board-level behaviour and decision-making.
“As in other professions, effective directorship demands specific skills and expertise. We must ensure that the people who sit on the boards of important UK companies have a profound understanding of what is expected in the delivery of good corporate governance—including the need to challenge and properly hold management accountable.”
corporate governance, finance, FRC, Institute of Directors, IoD, Remcos, remuneration committees, Share buybacks, UK Corporate Governance Code
Nissan governance causes clash with French minister
Nissan's CEO clashes with French government over governance at the car maker.
Executives: the new social leaders
The public are losing faith in politicians to solve their problems and are increasingly looking to employers and business leaders to take a stand on societal issues, according to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer.
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Virginia W. Kettering is Remembered as One of Dayton’s Leading Philanthropists
By Elizabeth B. Fisher
Virginia Kettering is remembered through the Dayton area as a great philanthropist and benefactor of the community’s cultural and educational institutions. She was actively involved with the Dayton Society of Natural History (DSNH) starting in the early 1970s and integral to the building campaign for a new interpretive center at SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park in the 1980s.
Teakettle
During her extensive travels around the world, Mrs. Kettering acquired a large collection of ethnographic artifacts representing many cultures, which she generously donated to the museum.
Mrs. K, as she was known, was born in Kentucky, but moved to Dayton with her family as a small child. In 1930, she married Eugene W. Kettering, the son of inventor Charles F. Kettering. The couple lived throughout the Midwest for about a decade before returning home to Dayton.
Mrs. Kettering loved Dayton and was highly active in the community well into her 70s. At the time of her death in 2003, it was estimated that she and her family had given more than $150 million to Dayton institutions.
ViviLnk
Clockwise; Turban, Necklace, and Bowl.
Twentieth-Century Explorer: The Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Herbert Spencer Dickey
By ELIZABETH FISHER
Romantic stories of early adventurers and the emerging social science of ethnographic fieldwork influenced the twentieth-century physician and explorer, Dr. Herbert Spencer Dickey.
Starting in 1900, until his death in 1948, Dickey traveled through the northern and western regions of South America, collecting curiosities from the native peoples of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Many of these objects made their way into the ethnographic collections of public institutions across the country, including the Dayton Society of Natural History.
Of his many expeditions, Dickey is credited with discovering the source of the Orinoco River and famously returned from his honeymoon excursion, with his Ohio bride, Elizabeth Staley Parker, and a shrunken head.
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all ages, anthropology, archaeology, conservation, education, history, museums, science, Uncategorized
culture, history, learning, science
Falcon Cam Final Update – July 27, 2018
By ELIZABETH TOTH
Unfortunately, all three fledglings have experienced trouble. Each of the young falcons has struck a building in downtown Dayton while learning to fly. The first chick was injured on July 9 and the second fledgling struck a building on July 13.
The first two injured fledglings were doing fine and able to be released in downtown Dayton on July 17. The third fledgling is now at Glen Helen Raptor Rehabilitation center in Yellow Springs with an injured wing and will require additional rehabilitation before its flight capabilities can be evaluated.
Editor’s Note: The Falcon Cam has been discontinued due to a lack of activity at the nesting site.
Elizabeth Toth is the Associate Curator of Live Animals at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery.
all ages, animal fun, be green, biology, careers in curiosity, conservation, cool science, dayton, education, falcon cam, in the sky, museums, science, Uncategorized, zoo, zoo animals, zoology
The History of the Joseph (J.) Morton Howell Collection
Between 1926 and 1927, Joseph (J.) Morton Howell, U. S. minister to Egypt, donated close to 100 Ancient Egyptian objects to the Dayton Society of Natural History (DSNH), including a mummy named Nesiur.
Howell was born in 1863 on a farm sixty miles north of Dayton, Ohio. Howell had a long and prosperous career in the medical field. He was one of the first doctors to specialize in the study of infantile paralysis (polio) and other childhood diseases.
President Warren Harding appointed Howell as the first United States Minister to Egypt on October 7, 1921. Howell and his daughter, Lorena, were the first diplomats from the United States to be invited to King Tutankhamen’s tomb by its discoverer Howard Carter.
Howell brought Egyptology to Dayton, by presenting Nesiur to the DSNH in 1926. Howell
was given Nesiur by famed Egyptologist Herbert Eustis (H.E. Whitlock, after she was excavated during the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Theban Expedition of 1921-1922.
Howell left Egypt on July 27, 1927, passing away ten years later at seventy-four.
anthropology, archaeology, conservation, cool science, dayton, early childhood education, education, history, museums, science, Uncategorized
culture, history, learning, school, science
Falcon Cam – July 9, 2018: Fledglings Aloft!
By LIZ TOTH
The chicks have taken their first flights! It is likely the two chicks that hatched first were the first to fly. One chick remains on the ledge on the south side of the building which could indicate his flying skills are not as strong as the others yet.
The fledglings are now as large as their parents even though they are only about 6 weeks old. Fledgling falcons have longer flight feathers than the adults to make it easier to learn the flying skills needed to become an excellent hunter in their first year. The parents will continue to provide food for the fledglings. Dayton was seen dropping off food for the youngster on the south ledge this morning.
This image shows the ledges on the east side of the Liberty Savings Tower with the nest box circled in red:
Liberty Savings Tower
These ledges and the other buildings around provide good landing spots for short flights for the young peregrine falcons. Since they have taken their first flights they are referred to as fledglings but will be dependent on their parents for food until they can hunt for themselves (about 4 weeks later).
Once the fledglings are adults and experienced flyers they can fly at about 60 mph when flying level and they are known to reach speeds of up to 200 mph when hunting in a stoop, or dive. Occasionally they will make it all the way down to the ground and land safely but are not skilled enough to make it up to a higher location from the ground. If this happens the young peregrines may need help to make it to a higher location.
The young peregrines need close observation in downtown Dayton during fledging and will be monitored over the next several weeks. The nest box, as viewed on the Falcon Cam, will often be empty until they can increase their flying skills and may return to the nest box as a safe location while they practice hunting with their parents.
Liz Toth is the Associate Curator of Live Animals at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery
all ages, animal fun, be green, cool science, dayton, falcon cam, families, fun, in the sky, museums, nerd alert, outdoor fun, science, special events, Uncategorized, weather, zoo animals, zoology
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Falcon Cam – July 1, 2018
The chicks are getting so big! They are now about 5 weeks old and could take their firsts flight this week or next. If you do not see them in the nest box it is because they have figured out how to move from the ledge of the nest box to the large roof area behind the nest box.
In this large space they can begin to stretch their wings in preparation for their first flights. This is also a good space to take practice hops and flap their wings to gain strength. The chicks do not have all of their flight feathers and the younger chick still has quite a bit of white downy feathers.
With the weather being so hot the roof provides a good breeze and also a three foot high wall around the roof to provide protection. Their parents are always close by watching for danger as the chicks prepare to take their first flights soon.
As of Wednesday they were still spending quite a bit of time in the box but were very close to the ledge:
The older chick, who is darker and has more adult feathers, seems to have led the two younger chicks around to the rooftop so you may see an empty box.
We are monitoring the chicks at the Liberty Savings Tower site even when they cannot be seen on the Falcon Cam to make sure they are doing OK and do not need any assistance.
In the image below you can see what the back of the nest box looks like and the pebbled roof with the wall around it where the chicks are spending a lot of their time.
Liz Toth is the Associate Curator of Live Animals at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery.
all ages, animal fun, biology, conservation, cool science, dayton, education, falcon cam, geeks, museums, science, special events, Uncategorized, zoology
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Falcon Cam Update – June 14, 2018
The chicks are growing very fast. They are now about three weeks old. At this age, the diameter of their legs is full size so in the past they were banded by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife at this age.
In 2015 they were removed, or “downlisted”, from the list of threatened species in Ohio. The Division of Wildlife will continue to monitor select peregrine falcons nests in Ohio. The Dayton nest is one nest of a sample monitoring program to assess the health of the peregrine population.
Data collected includes the presence of the falcon pair at the site, whether or not eggs are laid, how many of the eggs hatch, and how many chicks are successfully fledged at the nest. Fledging is when the chicks take their first flights around six weeks old.
The two chicks that hatched earlier than their siblings already have dark flight feathers showing through their downy fluff. By six weeks old the chicks will be as large as their parents.
The three chicks seem to be doing well. It is hard to say why the fourth egg did not hatch, but we have only had four chicks three seasons in the 16 years of the Dayton Falcon Cam.
Now the chicks are much larger and are able to move around inside the nest box.
One week ago they were unable to move very far and stayed grouped together:
all ages, animal fun, be green, biology, careers in curiosity, children, children's activities, conservation, cool science, dayton, education, falcon cam, families, family, family fun, fun, geeks, in the sky, museums, nerd alert, outdoor fun, science, special events, Uncategorized, zoo, zoo animals, zoology
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Jessica Origliasso Wiki – Boyfriend, Family, Net Worth, Height, Body Measurement
Facts of Jessica Origliasso
Singer, Songwriter, Actress, Fashion Designer
5 ft 3 in or (160 cm)
$5 million.
Dutch-Ashkenazi Jewish
Relationship Statistics of Jessica Origliasso
Origliasso started a relationship with Ruby Rose in 2008 but the relationship did not last long. Origliasso later started relationship with Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan a famous singer and song writer. The duo relationship started in 2010 and ended in 2012. Origliasso started dating Josh Katz a bad flower guitarist in 2014 and the relationship ended in 2016. Origliasso then went back to dating Rose in November 2016 and the duo relationship reportedly broke in 2018 after two years of courtship.
1 Who Is Jessica Origliasso
2 Jessica Origliasso Family
3 Jessica Origliasso Career
4 Jessica Origliasso Measurements
5 Jessica Origliasso Net Worth
Who Is Jessica Origliasso
Jessica Louise Origliasso is a successful Australian singer and song writer, actress and fashion designer. Jessica Origliasso was born on December 25,1984 in Albany Creek, Queensland, Australia.
Jessica Origliasso Family
Jessica Origliasso was raised along with her twin sister Lisa Origliasso in Albany creek in Origliasso family. Jessica and Lisa performed together in show business while they were young. The duo are born into the family of Joseph who is a music manager and Colleen Origliasso. Origliasso has an elder brother Julian Origliasso.
Jessica Origliasso Career
Jessica Origliasso and game sister Lisa started their career at the age of five. Jessica and Lisa was formerly called Origliasso but later change it to Lisa and Jessica. The duo release their first three albums. Lisa and Jessica venture into acting at the age of sixteen, being cast in a small role in the child television series Cyber Girl. Jessica and Liza form another band with their two other friends called Teal and they release a single titled “Baby it’s over”.
Jessica and Lisa were signed to Ex Calmour productions Australia as song writer in 2004. Jessica and Lisa co wrote song by other artist such as “What’s going on?” By Casey Denovan, all about us by T.A.t.u and “Faded”. In 2014 thshe duo got signed to sire records. Jessica and Liza released their album the secret life of in 2005 and spawned their first major hit “4ever”.
Jessica and Liza release their second album hook me up in 2007. “Untouched” one of their single became their global breakthrough song reaching the top tenth of the billboard hot 100 the duo embarked on the Revenge is sweeter four which was their first to go global which began in February 2009 and ended in December. The duo got separately after their second album in 2007.
Jessica and Liza reunited in 2010 and began working on their third studio album Veronica’s . Jessica and Lisa release their new song titled “Lolita”. The single was a huge success and reached twenty three on the ARIA single chart. Jessica and Liza was signed to Sony music in April 2014 and started their third album which was renamed “The Veronica’s”. Jessica and Liza first single from the album “You ruin Me” was debuted a top the ARIA singles chart which was their first hit in the country since “Hook me up” in 2007. Jessica and Liza release their various singles in 2016 and 2017, “in my blood “, “On your side “ and “Only High”.
Jessica Origliasso Measurements
Jessica Origliasso’s body measurement is 34-24-36 in or 86-61-91 cm and her height measures 5 feet 3 inches with her 52 kg(115 pounds)weight. She wears 32B inch bra size.
Jessica Origliasso Net Worth
Jessica Origliasso’s net worth is estimated at $5 million.
Tags: Actress fashion designer Singer songwriter
Erika Tham
Chloe Green
Austin Giorgio
Soundarya Sharma
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Category: terrorism
American Torture
U.S. troops use the “water cure” in the Philippines, 1902
Back in 2009, I wrote a few articles on torture during the Bush/Cheney administration. With Barack Obama elected on a vague platform of hope, change, and transparency, there was a sense torture would be outlawed and torturers would be called to account. Obama did sign an executive order to outlaw torture — which really meant nothing more than that the U.S. would abide by international treaties and follow international law with respect to torture — but torturers were never called to account. The failure to do so has left us with a new president, Donald Trump, who says he supports torture (though his Defense Secretary, James Mattis, does not), and a person nominated to head the CIA who enabled torture and helped to cover it up.
Here are a few points I made back in 2009. We should consider these as Congress debates whether to place the CIA in the hands of a torturer.
Recently [2009] in the New York Times, Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti showed that the Bush administration, the CIA, and the Senate and House Intelligence Committees failed to ask for any historical context before approving so-called “harsh interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding, in 2002. No one apparently knew, or wanted to know, that the U.S. had defined waterboarding as torture and prosecuted it as a war crime after World War II. Did our leaders think the events of 9-11 constituted an entirely new reality, one in which historical precedent was rendered nugatory?
Perhaps so, but their failure to ask historically-based questions also highlights the narrowness of their intellectual training. Like the accused Nazi judges before the bar in the movie Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), they asked themselves only what the law is (or what it became under John Ashcroft and John Yoo), not whether it is just. If a legal brief authorized brutal methods such as waterboarding, who were they to question, let alone challenge, the (freshly minted) legal opinion?
Clearly, the leaders making and implementing decisions on torture constituted a single, self-referencing, self-identified Washington elite almost entirely divorced from thinking historically, let alone tragically. And because they could think neither historically nor tragically, they found false comfort in picturing themselves as stalwart defenders of the nation, not recognizing the mesmerizing power of vengeance and hate.
Our elected officials who find history books too onerous would do well to invest three hours of their time to watch Judgment at Nuremberg. They might learn that a compromised judiciary will uphold any action — discriminatory race laws, involuntary sterilization, even mass murder — all in the name of defending the people from supposedly apocalyptic threats.
Indeed, defending the country from apocalyptic threats is a popular line for those wishing to uphold the Bush Administration’s policy on torture. After the tragedy of 9/11, and subsequent panic in the wake of Anthrax attacks, our leaders were compelled to “take the gloves off” in our defense, even compelled to exact vengeance as a way of deterring future attacks — or so these torture apologists claim.
In their haste to make America safe, Bush and Company effectively declared vengeance was theirs and not the Lord’s. But the human lust for vengeance is blinding, even more so when it’s perceived as righteous. Here our wrathful lawyers/politicians might consider the lessons of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto. The hunchbacked court jester, Rigoletto, delights in other people’s misfortune, and for this he is cursed by a cuckolded husband. Soon, his own daughter, Gilda, the joy of his life, is kidnapped and despoiled, the first bitter fruits of the curse. Despite Gilda’s pleas to forgive the transgressor, Rigoletto, blinded by his own murderous desire for vengeance, sets in motion a chain of events that ends with the sacrificial death of his beloved Gilda and the annihilation of any vestige of goodness in his tortured soul.
In Rigoletto, the desire for total vengeance produces total tragedy. In Judgment at Nuremberg, man’s ability to justify the worst crimes in the name of “safeguarding the people” is memorably exposed and justly condemned.
What we need today in Washington are fewer leaders who base their decisions on vengeance empowered by legal briefs and more who are willing to embrace the toughest lessons to be gleaned from history and tragedy. What we need today as well is our own version of Judgment at Nuremberg — our own special prosecutorial court — one that is unafraid to elevate justice, truth, and the value of a single human being above all other concerns — especially political ones.
A full accounting of the torture decisions made by the Bush Administration would serve powerfully to reassure Americans that their government is, in fact, transparent and accountable to the law. Such a result would be more than advantageous: It would indirectly strengthen our national defense as well as people’s patriotism. Far easier it is to trust a government that owns up to its mistakes than one that cloaks them in bombast and bromides.
Self-serving bromides that excuse torture as the price of keeping America safe from evil-doers must be dismissed. Self-preservation is no excuse for torture or similar war crimes. It’s easier to see the truth of this when you look at the abuses committed by countries other than one’s own.
Think, for example, of Germany in the opening weeks of World War I. As John Horne and Alan Kramer have shown in German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial (2001), German soldiers clearly committed atrocities against Belgian civilians. But the Germans themselves refused to admit culpability. As Germany’s Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, explained: “We are in a position of necessity and necessity knows no law.” The court of history, however, has rendered a far different judgment.
When the argument from necessity failed to convince, the Bush administration disputed whether waterboarding actually was torture, even though American soldiers had been punished for it during the Philippine-American War. Indeed, even in Nazi Germany, government functionaries tried to fight a rear-guard action against the Gestapo and its use of waterboarding. In a 1979 article on “The Nazi Concentration Camps,” Henry Friedlander cites a complaint made by the Reich Minister of Justice in regards to a murder in 1934 at a concentration camp in Saxony: “The nature of the assault, especially the use of water torture,” the Reich Minister noted, “reveals a brutality and cruelty on the part of the perpetrator that is alien to German sensibilities and feelings. These cruelties, reminiscent of oriental sadism, can neither be explained nor excused by even the most extreme form of hatred in battle.”
If “water torture” was so clearly illegal and so utterly reprehensible to German legal authorities in 1934, even as they battled the baneful influence of Nazism, how can its true nature remain a matter of dispute among some former Bush administration functionaries?
We fancy ourselves to be a nation of laws that apply equally to all. If our new president truly stands for hope and change, he needs to act appropriately. “Hope” in this case means full exposure of torture and appropriate punishment for those who authorized and conducted it. “Change” means accountability for all, even for (especially for) the highest ranking officials in government.
We need a “Truth Commission” to investigate torture. Efforts to suppress the truth, even seemingly innocuous ones, like looking ahead instead of back, will only make the eventual revelations that much worse. Delays in holding people accountable may even empower others to commit new war crimes in our name. Such are the perils of refusing to confront the truth.
Here, the lessons of the French in Algiers continue to resonate. Think back to the revelations of General Paul Aussaresses in 2001, which scandalized France. Aussaresses unrepentantly confessed that, in attempting to suppress terrorism in Algeria in the 1950s, detainee abuse, torture, even murder became routine, first-choice, approaches. The resort to torture simply begat more torture.
Investigators should look at whether this dynamic also applied to America in Afghanistan and Iraq. How many of our counterterrorist experts became like General Aussaresses: Self-perceived “patriots” who believed torture and even murder were justified in the name of protecting the state? After all, if the state’s essential purpose is to protect its citizens, and you’re dealing with an enemy that’s malevolently contumacious, as Al Qaeda appeared to be, what’s to stop avowed “patriots” from torturing suspects, especially when the state’s leaders have authorized harsh techniques and are pressing you for results?
In the case of the Bush administration, not only did torture apparently provide unreliable intelligence: It also abrogated America’s fidelity to international treaties that forbade torture, and compromised our own ethos of truth, justice, and the American way.
And in the case of the Obama administration, its failure to confront the legacy of torture and to prosecute those responsible helped to facilitate the rise of Trump, a man who boasts of favoring torture while nominating for high office officials who served as torture enablers and supporters.
The words “American” and “torture” are linked together. Isn’t it time we separated them?
Posted on March 30, 2018 by wjastorePosted in terrorism, US Foreign Relations, US PoliticsTagged Bush/Cheney, CIA, Nuremberg, Obama Administration, Paul Aussaresses, Rigoletto, torture, waterboarding. 4 Comments
National Insecurity
What are the real threats that Americans face daily?
Tom Engelhardt. TomDispatch.com.
If you want to know just what kind of mental space Washington’s still-growing cult of “national security” would like to take us into, consider a recent comment by retired general and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. In late May on Fox and Friends, he claimed that “the American public would ‘never leave the house’ if they knew what he knew about terrorist threats.”
That seems like a reasonable summary of the national security state’s goal in the post-9/11 era: keep Americans in a fear-filled psychic-lockdown mode when it comes to supposed threats to our safety. Or put another way, the U.S. is a country in which the growing power of that shadow state and its staggering funding over the last decade and a half has been based largely on the promotion of the dangers of a single relatively small peril to Americans: “terrorism.” And as commonly used, that term doesn’t even encompass all the acts of political harm, hatred, and intimidation on the landscape, just those caused by a disparate group of Islamic extremists, who employ the tactics by which such terrorism is now defined. Let’s start with the irony that, despite the trillions of dollars that have poured into the country’s 17 intelligence agencies, its post-9/11 Department of Homeland Security, and the Pentagon in these years, the damage such terrorists have been able to inflict from Boston to San Bernardino to Orlando, while modest in a cumulative sense, has obviously by no means been stopped. That, in turn, makes the never-ending flow of American taxpayer dollars into what we like to call “national security” seem a poor investment indeed.
To deal with so many of the other perils in American life, it would occur to no one to build a massive and secretive government machinery of prevention. I’m thinking, for instance, of tots who pick up guns left lying around and kill others or themselves, or of men who pick up guns or other weapons and kill their wives or girlfriends. Both those phenomena have been deadlier to citizens of the United States in these years than the danger against which the national security state supposedly defends us. And I’m not even mentioning here the neo-Nazi and other white terrorists who seem to have been given a kind of green light in the Trump era (or even the disturbed Bernie Sanders supporter who just went after congressional Republicans on a ball field in Virginia). Despite their rising acts of mayhem, there is no suggestion that you need to shelter in place from them. And I’m certainly not going to dwell on the obvious: if you really wanted to protect yourself from one of the most devastating killers this society faces, you might leave your house with alacrity, but you’d never get into your car or any other vehicle. (In 2015, 38,300 people died on American roads and yet constant fear about cars is not a characteristic of this country.)
It’s true that when Islamic terrorists strike, as in two grim incidents in England recently, the media and the security state ramp up our fears to remarkable heights, making Americans increasingly anxious about something that’s unlikely to harm them. Looked at from a different angle, the version of national security on which that shadow state funds itself has some of the obvious hallmarks of both an elaborate sham and scam and yet it is seldom challenged here. It’s become so much a part of the landscape that few even think to question it.
In his latest post, Ira Chernus, TomDispatch regular and professor of religious studies, reminds us that it hasn’t always been so, that there was a moment just a half-century ago when the very idea of American national security was confronted at such a basic level that, ironically, the challenge wasn’t even understood as such. In this particular lockdown moment, however, perhaps it’s worth staying in your house and following Chernus, who’s visited the 1960s before for this website, on a long, strange trip back to 1967 and the famed Summer of Love. Tom
Be sure to read the entire post, “A Psychedelic Spin on National Security,” by Ira Chernus, at TomDispatch.com. Ah, to have a “summer of love” again!
Posted on June 19, 2017 June 19, 2017 by wjastorePosted in Society, terrorism, US PoliticsTagged fear, Homeland Security, John Kelly, terrorism.
The Iraqi Surge and Alternative Facts
An Alternative Fact
Donald Trump and Kellyanne Conway didn’t invent alternative facts. The U.S. government has been peddling those for decades. Consider the recent history of the Iraq War. Recall that in 2002 it was a “slam dunk” case that Iraq had active programs to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD). (We couldn’t allow the smoking gun to become a mushroom cloud, said Condoleezza Rice.) In 2003, President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and declared that major combat operations were over in Iraq – mission accomplished! And in 2007, the “surge” orchestrated by General David Petraeus was sold as snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in Iraq. All of those are “alternative facts.” All were contradicted by the facts on the ground.
Nowadays, most people admit Iraq had no active WMD programs in 2002 and that the mission wasn’t accomplished in 2003, but the success of the surge in 2007 is still being sold as truth, notes Danny Sjursen at TomDispatch.com. Sjursen, who participated in the surge as a young Army lieutenant, notes that it did succeed in temporarily reducing sectarian violence in Iraq, but that was precisely the problem: it was temporary. The surge was supposed to allow space for a stable and representative Iraqi government to emerge, but that never happened.
A short-term tactical success, the surge was a strategic failure in the long-term. Partly this was because long-term success was never in American hands to achieve, and it certainly wasn’t attainable by U.S. military action alone. In sum, the blood and treasure spilled in Iraq was for naught. But that harsh truth hasn’t stopped the surge from becoming a myth of U.S. military triumph, one that led to another unsuccessful surge, this time in Afghanistan in 2009-10, also conducted by General Petraeus.
These surges sustain an alternative fact that the U.S. military can “win” messy insurgencies and sectarian/ethnic wars, whether in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya or Yemen or elsewhere. They contribute to hubris and the idea we can remake the world by using our military, a belief that President Trump and his bevy of generals (all veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan) seem to share and want to put into practice again. This time, they promise to get it right.
The President and the Pentagon are currently considering sending several thousand more troops to Afghanistan. This mini-surge is being advertised as America’s best chance of defeating terrorists in the AfPak region. Even though previous, and much bigger, surges in Iraq and Afghanistan were failures, the alternative fact narrative of “successful” surges remains compelling, even authoritative, among U.S. national security experts. They may grudgingly admit that, yes, those previous surges weren’t quite perfect, but we’ve learned from those – promise!
Prepare for more troop deployments and more surges, America. And for more “victories” as alternative facts, as in lies.
Posted on March 12, 2017 by wjastorePosted in terrorism, US Military, warTagged Afghan War, Alternative Fact, General David Petraeus, Iraq, Iraq War, Pentagon, Petraeus, The Surge, WMD. 1 Comment
General Flynn’s Resignation: A Holy Warrior Derails Himself
Flynn waiting for an elevator in Trump Tower back in December (NBC)
General Michael Flynn’s resignation as National Security Adviser is good news, and not only because of his lack of candor in regards to Russia. Flynn is a believer in religious war. He sacralized the war on terror and saw himself as a holy warrior against radical Islamist terrorists. (Of course, he couldn’t perceive his own extremism and radicalism.)
Both in religious terms and in predatory terms, men like Flynn and Steve Bannon see radical Islamists as the enemy. These “animals” cut off heads! A creed war that treats the enemy as animals is a combustible combination. When you see the enemy as an inferior yet insidious “Other,” there is no opportunity for compromise. Vermin can only be exterminated. Especially when they are allegedly out to destroy your “Judeo-Christian” values.
Flynn’s war against radical Islamists would be unending, driven as it would be by outrage against what he saw as a verminous enemy. In such a “holy” war, killing acquires quasi-sacred meaning. Flynn’s war was not to be a Clausewitzian war of politics by other means. Nor was it a greed-war driven by money and empire. His war was far more insidious.
When you conceive of the enemy as predators who simultaneously have the human ability to enslave you with their own creed (Sharia Law): Well, this enemy is a shape-shifting monster. Small wonder that Flynn infamously tweeted: “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.”
What was the source of his fear? In theory, what is the biggest threat to humans? Not tigers or snakes or other predators; they can be identified. The biggest threat is something human but not quite human. Something that looks human, has human skills, human smarts, but is ruthlessly inhuman, even as it readily blends in with “normal” humans.
The tight Islamophobic circle around Trump (one weaker, with Flynn’s resignation) appears to view Muslims in this way. It’s a little like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
They look like us — act like us — and that’s precisely the problem! Even a five-year-old Muslim refugee, no matter how innocent-looking, is seen by Sean Spicer and crew as an opening to an unstoppable invasion of America, hence Trump’s hurried and sweeping ban on Muslim immigration.
Flynn’s ideology supported the dynamic of permanent religious war. His writings and tweets were consistent with an exterminatory struggle for existence of the worst kind. His actions and views would only perpetuate jihad, a struggle he apparently sees as inevitable.
Until we neutralize jihadists like Flynn (and Bannon) and his Islamist counterparts, until we see a common humanity instead of viewing the enemy as insanely ferocious predators who are out to destroy our way of life, there is no hope for even a semblance of peace in this world.
Posted on February 14, 2017 February 15, 2017 by wjastorePosted in Religion, terrorism, US Politics, warTagged creed war, Crusade, Islamophobia, jihad, jihadist, Michael Flynn, National Security Adviser, religious war, Sharia Law. 7 Comments
The Attack in Nice, France
In Nice, France, 84 people were killed by a maniac who drove a truck into a crowd on Bastille Day (French Independence Day). The driver, identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was a French-Tunisian with a criminal record but with no known terrorist links.
Much remains unknown about this attack. Was the driver acting alone? Was he “radicalized,” killing for a political/religious purpose? Was he working with a terrorist sect, or perhaps he sympathized with one? We should be careful not to jump to conclusions.
I want to make one rather obvious point: It’s easy to politicize such horrendous attacks. It’s easy to say things like: “It’s all the fault of radical Islam! The West is at war with radical Islam! Muslim immigrants are to blame!” And so on. Before reaching any conclusions, let’s gather all the evidence.
There’s a natural tendency to resort to the rhetoric of warfare here. Politicians are especially prone to this. And if you don’t agree with them, they dismiss you as naive or delusional — or worse.
The problem with warfare rhetoric is that it answers questions before they’re even asked. It imposes solutions before you even fully understand the problem. For example, if it’s a “war,” the inevitable solution is more militarization. More surveillance. More police. More weapons. Perhaps more military strikes as well.
But what if more military strikes actually aggravate the problem? What if more police, more surveillance, more raids combine to abridge the freedoms that France fought for, the very freedoms which the French celebrate each year on Bastille Day?
Liberty, equality, and fraternity are noble goals. They need always to be nourished and protected, not just from terrorists and other criminals, but from those in authority who may overreact in the name of protecting the people.
Posted on July 15, 2016 July 15, 2016 by wjastorePosted in Europe, terrorism, warTagged Nice, Nice France, radical Islam, terrorism. 13 Comments
Guns and Grievances
Guns look way too cool in our movies
The news out of Orlando is shocking. Another mass shooting in America. Another 50+ people dead with an additional 50+ wounded. And then I saw this headline:
“America has 4.4% of the world’s population, but almost 50% of the civilian-owned guns around the world”
The ready availability of guns in America, to include military-style assault weapons with 30-round clips, makes it far easier for shooters bent on murder to kill large numbers of people. It doesn’t matter what you call these shooters, whether you label them terrorists or lone wolves or crazed lunatics or whatever. Apparently the latest shooter bought his guns legally, had a grievance against gay people, expressed some last-minute allegiance to ISIS, and then started blasting away at innocent people in a club that was friendly to gays.
Sure, guns alone are not to blame. The primary person to blame is the shooter/murderer himself. But (to repeat myself) the guns sure make it a lot easier to kill, and in large numbers.
We live in a sick society, often a very violent one, certainly a disturbed one, one that places enormous stress on people. Another exceptional headline that I first heard on Bill Maher is that America, again with 4.4% of the world’s population, takes 75% of the world’s prescription drugs.
Guns and drugs – the two don’t mix, even when they’re legal. Americans are over-armed and over-medicated. Add to that mix the fact that Americans are under-educated, at least compared to our peers in the developed world, and you truly have a toxic brew.
Over-armed, over-medicated, and under-educated: surely this is not what our leaders have in mind when they call us the exceptional nation, the indispensable one, the greatest on earth. Is it?
Posted on June 12, 2016 by wjastorePosted in Society, terrorism, UncategorizedTagged domestic terrorism, drugs, guns, mass shootings, massacre, murder, terrorism. 2 Comments
The Right Approach to Terrorism
Replica of the Manneken-Pis statue, a major Brussels attraction, among flowers at a memorial for the victims of bomb attacks in Brussels. REUTERS/Yves Herman
I grew up during the Cold War when America’s rivalry with the Soviet Union posed a clear and present danger to our country’s very existence. Since the collapse of the USSR, or in other words the last 25 years, the U.S. has not faced an existential threat. Of course, the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were shocking and devastating, as were recent attacks in Paris and Brussels. But terrorism was and is nothing new. We faced it in the 1970s and 1980s, and indeed we will probably always face it. The question is how best to face it.
Stoking fear among the people is the wrong way to face it. Restricting liberty is the wrong way. An overly kinetic approach (i.e. lots of bombs and bullets) is the wrong way. Invading the Middle East (yet again) is the wrong way. Most of counter-terrorism, it seems to me, is an exercise in intelligence and policing (national and international). Yet we seem always to turn to our military to solve problems. The emphasis is relentlessly tactical/operational, stressing how many terrorists we kill in drone strikes and special ops raids (a version of the old “body count” from the Vietnam War era).
Military strikes and raids generate collateral damage and blowback, arguably creating more enemies than they kill. We’re helping to sustain a perpetual killing machine, a feedback loop. The more we “hit” various enemies while playing up the dangers of terrorism, especially in the media, the more they prosper in regards to attention (and recruits) they garner.
One of the first Rand primers I read as young Air Force lieutenant was “International Terrorism: The Other World War,” written by Brian M. Jenkins in 1985. Jenkins made many excellent points: that terrorists seek to instill fear, that their acts are mainly “aimed at the people watching,” that terrorism can’t be defeated like traditional (uniformed) enemies, that terrorists commit crimes for a larger political purpose (“causing widespread disorder, demoralizing society, and breaking down existing social and political order”), that terrorism is a form of political theater. As Jenkins notes:
“Terrorism attracts intense interest but produces little understanding. News coverage focuses on action not words. Terrorist incidents attract the media because they are genuine human dramas, different from ordinary murder and therefore newsworthy. “
Furthermore, “terrorists provide few lucrative targets for conventional military attack,” though this may be less true of state-sponsored terrorism.
What can we learn from Jenkins’s primer on terrorism? Three big lessons:
Deny the terrorists their victory by refusing to succumb to fear. In short, don’t panic. And don’t exaggerate the threat.
Don’t sensationalize the feats of terrorists in 24/7 media coverage of their attacks. That’s what the terrorists want. They want extensive media coverage, not only to shift public opinion and to spread fear, but also to recruit new members.
Finally, don’t change your way of life, your political system, your liberties, in response to terrorism. Abridging freedoms or marginalizing people (e.g. American Muslims) in the name of attacking terrorism is exactly what the terrorists want. They want to turn people against one another. To divide is to conquer.
The question is, when will Americans recognize the complexity of the terrorist threat while minimizing fear and over-reaction?
Terrorists need to be stopped, and that requires robust intelligence gathering, strong policing, and selective military action. But threat inflation, media hysteria, and militarized over-reaction simply play into the terrorists’ hands. Fear is the mind-killer, as Frank Herbert wrote. Let us always remember this as we face the terrorist threat with firmness and resolve.
Posted on March 30, 2016 by wjastorePosted in terrorism, US Foreign Relations, US PoliticsTagged counter-terrorism, fear, ISIS, Islamic State, Media, terrorism. 6 Comments
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resiliency in preschoolers
Written by Julie Kurtz
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma, it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma-informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child / Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco, CA-based Wu Yes Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
Kurtz leads them into a description of how a child’s young brain functions, how young children – regardless of whether they have experienced trauma or not — live in their reptile brain.
“What’s the job of the reptile brain?” she asks.
“Survival” comes a response. “Yes, it’s fight, flight or freeze,” she says.
With guidance from adults, she explains, children’s immature brains develop neurons that build bridges to the rational part of the brain. The rational, executive part of the brain, she continues, is a place of calm, where we can plan, solve problems, and imagine how someone else interacting with us is feeling.
But if a child is in a state of terror, explains Kurtz, all bets are off. In that state, a child can’t hear what you’re saying or express herself in words, Kurtz says.
“What’s the strategy to calm a reptile brain?” she asks.
“It depends on the child…one idea is holding the child,” offers a teacher.
”Reassure the child,” suggests another teacher.
“Bring them to the current time,” another chimes in.
“You remembered!” says Kurtz. It’s the third session she’s had with these WuYee staff members, which include teachers, coaches and site managers. In the first session, Kurtz covered an overview of trauma and traumatic stress, and the impact it has on learning and development, including an explanation of the science associated with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
ACEs comes from the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study), groundbreaking research that looked at how 10 types of childhood trauma affect long-term health. They include physical, emotional and sexual abuse; physical and emotional neglect; living with a family member who’s addicted to alcohol or other substances, or who’s depressed or has other mental illnesses; experiencing parental divorce or separation; having a family member who’s incarcerated, and witnessing a mother being abused.
Subsequent ACE surveys include racism, witnessing violence outside the home, bullying, losing a parent to deportation, living in an unsafe neighbourhood, and involvement with the foster care system. Other types of childhood adversity can also include being homeless, living in a war zone, being an immigrant, moving many times, witnessing a sibling being abused, witnessing a father or other caregiver or extended family member being abused, involvement with the criminal justice system and attending a school that enforces a zero-tolerance discipline policy.
The impetus for the workshops was an awareness that many children in San Francisco, including many served by WuYee, are experiencing trauma and adversity, according to Wu Yee Associate Program Director in Child Development Kimberly Jones. The organization serves 648 children in 12 locations across the city, according to its 2015/2016 annual report.
Some teachers reported having difficulty managing challenging behaviors among some of the children, and wanted to learn new skills to better help them.
A deeper look into the histories of those children revealed that many were living in communities heavily affected by violence and trauma. “A highly anxious child, a child that’s hard to calm down may have been up all night listening to gunshots,” says Jones, as an example of what a child in their preschool might be facing.
Among the takeaways from Kurtz’s earlier training was that staff learned more about trauma caused by domestic violence, intergenerational trauma, and historical sources of trauma, such as “the impact of racism, its lingering effect in how it impacts people,” Jones says.
Another adverse childhood experience that was clearly affecting some of the children they serve is homelessness. Three percent of the 648 families who have children in the organization’s preschool are homeless, according to the most recent annual report, a figure that Jones says may not accurately reflect the actual toll. Some families who have lost housing may have moved in with relatives, “but there’s lot of shame with that, so it’s underreported,” she says.
To help children ensnared in such turmoil, Kurtz reviews some strategies about how to defuse a child who has been triggered into “fight, flight or freeze” mode. In the midst of a trigger, she explains, the world is dangerous, the child sees you “as a lion or a monster.” They can’t see you or hear you. Words don’t work.
“How do they express themselves?” she queries.
“They shake,” says another teacher.
“They hit.”
If they’re hitting, Kurtz says, “It is a sign they need to expel energy.”
Then Kurtz pivots to some ways to pull the preschoolers back to safety. It’s all about bringing them into the present moment. The teachers call out strategies to draw the child from the time warp of trauma to a designated safe space in the room: Have them throw a ball inside a box or crumple up paper and throw it in the trash. Kurtz ticks off other calming activities: Have them walk with you in nature, run, cry, squeeze Play Dough, color.
To be able to lead a child away from a moment of terror, however, Kurtz reminds the teachers, is easier and more effective if the adults are actively managing stress in their own lives. In the second training session, Kurtz helped guide WuYee staff through exercises to recognize their own experiences with trauma and what triggers stress for them. Those participating were asked to identify what activities rejuvenate them, and were taught how to shift “self-talk” — the internal chatter that we all have in our heads in reaction to the world outside — from negative to affirming and kind.
The tools provided in the self-care session really struck a chord for Merced Rocha, a lead teacher at Wu Yee’s New Generation Center in Visitation Valley. “I lost my daughter to cancer 5 years ago,” says Rocha. She says she would give 100 percent in the classroom, “but when I’d go home, I’d shut down. The training helped me acknowledge my own emotions, and think about how I feel and take care of myself before I go to work.” That self-care plan included walking around a nearby lake, an activity she had stopped altogether when her daughter died.
After reviewing the previous sessions, Kurtz walks participants through a series of exercises to help them develop plans tailored to the needs of children who have experienced trauma. A handout asks them to identify what triggers a child, where the trigger occurs and how to interact with the child based on whether she’s in fight, flight or freeze mode.
To highlight how expressing feelings may feel dangerous for a triggered child, for example, Kurtz recounted to the WuYee staff how she knew instinctively as a child that to stay safe and keep her brothers safe, they couldn’t show any emotions.
ACEs science, she says in subsequent emails, “was foundational in my personal transformation.” It also sparked her interest in sharing what she learned with others. “When you heal yourself,” notes Kurtz, “you want to share the hope for others and carry a torch as a change agent.”
Kurtz and her coworkers at WestEd have trained preschool teachers and other groups working with children from infants to 8-years-old all over California, including in Bay Area counties and Sacramento, Tehama, Kern, Ventura, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. What’s included in trainings varies based on need, as does the cost, which Kurtz stresses they strive to make affordable and cost-effective. The Packard Foundation funded trainings that her group provided in Oakland.
Following the training — which included around 65 WuYee staff members, including lead teachers, managers, mental health consultants and coaches — Jones says they’ll survey the participants to see what they’ve learned and figure out the next steps.
The bottom line for much of the trauma training is finding ways for children to feel safe. It’s an endeavor, counsels Kurtz, that will likely take time.
“If a child pushes me away, I have to show that I’m safe, and won’t reject him. Over time, it will build resiliency: ‘There’s an adult who makes me feel safe’ (the child will think). But,” she says, ”it won’t happen quickly.”
Keywords: childhood trauma, ACE Study, reptile brain, neurons
https://acestoohigh.com/2018/04/09/early-childhood-educators-learn-new-ways-to-spot-trauma-triggers-build-resiliency-in-preschoolers/
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Origins of depression brought into focus in large-scale genetic study
Written by the Science of Psychotherapy
New insights into the origins of depression have been offered by a large-scale genetic study.
The study found hundreds of genes linked to depression, shedding light on the origins of the condition and highlighting personality types that could be at risk. The international study, involving more than two million people, is the largest of its kind. It could inform treatments for the condition, which affects one in five people in the UK and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Scientists led by Professor Andrew McIntosh at the University of Edinburgh studied information pooled from three large datasets of anonymised health and DNA records and pinpointed 269 genes that were linked to depression.
The team is inviting people with depression or anxiety in Scotland to take part in a further study, to understand more about the role of DNA in the common mental health conditions. The research – known as The Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study – aims to better understand depression and anxiety in order to improve the lives of people with mental health issues. The team, working with colleagues at the National Institute of Health Research Mental Health BioResource and King’s College London, hopes to collect saliva samples and questionnaires from 40,000 people across the UK.
Professor Andrew McIntosh, of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, who led the research, said: “These findings are further evidence that depression is partly down to our genetics. We hope that by launching the GLAD study, we will be able to find out more about why some people are more at risk than others of mental health conditions, and how we might help people living with depression and anxiety more effectively in future.” The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, was funded by Wellcome and the Medical Research Council.
Keywords; depression, genetics
Source: The University of Edinburgh
https://www.thescienceofpsychotherapy.com/origins-of-depression-brought-into-focus-in-large-scale-genetic-study/
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BGA Appoints New Chair
We are delighted to have appointed Chris Hewlett as your new Chairperson. Chris is the Managing Director of Haddon Training and has sat on the BGA Board of Directors for two years, so has an intricate understanding of the BGA and what is important to its members.
Chris said, “I am very pleased to be asked to take up the role of Chair for the association. Having come from the equine industry and worked on the coal face, I am very aware about the practical and challenging issues there are for grooms and their employment. I am passionate about the associations vision and mission and what it is trying to achieve and very much look forward to working with the rest of the Board to further establish and strengthen the good work that has already been achieved by the BGA.”
“We are thrilled that Chris has been appointed into this role and are confident that he will continue to help develop and shape the future of the BGA, with our members at its heart” said Lucy, Executive Director.
Chris Hewlett has spent his working life with horses, previously owning Haddon Stud, an internationally recognised stud that produced winning horses at national level in the competition disciplines of eventing, dressage, showing and National Hunt racing. He is a key member of equine sector development bodies and maintains an active role as a national Showing judge for Hunters and Irish Draughts.
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biggest headline show of my career. ended with the song that started it all, my guitar, and us. I love you. Thank you. #augusta //@david_od
A post shared by Kelsea Ballerini (@kelseaballerini) on Feb 10, 2018 at 7:00pm PST
Kelsea Ballerini Leads Sweet Singalong of ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ at Show
When Kelsea Ballerini took the stage in Augusta, Ga. Saturday (Feb. 10) night, the crowd was extra big, and extra pumped.
The highlight of the show came at the end, when Ballerini—after announcing it just happened to be her biggest night on tour to date—broke into her 2014 debut hit, "Love Me Like You Mean It," and urged the audience "I want you to sing this with me."
They certainly had no problem doing that. The crowd immediately rose to the occasion and sang pitch-perfectly along with Ballerini, for a charming/spine-tingling effect.
The singer posted the magic moment on Instagram, noting, "Biggest headline show of my career. ended with the song that started it all, my guitar, and us. I love you. Thank you."
"Love Me Like You Mean It" was included on Ballerini's debut studio album,The First Time, and reached the top of Billboard's Country Airplay chart, making Ballerini the first solo female to top that chart with her debut single since Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take the Wheel" in 2006 and the first female country music artist to accomplish that on an independent label. The song was certified Platinum in 2016.
Ballerini will next be hitting the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14). She's currently on her headlining Unapologetically Tour with Walker Hayes and Bailey Bryan through April.
Next: 5 Songs That Will Make You Want to Sweep Kelsea Off her Feet
Adorable Pictures of Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Evans
Source: Kelsea Ballerini Leads Sweet Singalong of ‘Love Me Like You Mean It’ at Show
Filed Under: Kelsea Ballerini
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NHS England announces £6.9m of new funding for national Cancer Vanguard
NHS England has today (15 December) announced £6.9 million of new funding to support and spread the work of the national Cancer Vanguard (Accountable Cancer Network).
The national Cancer Vanguard is a partnership between Greater Manchester Cancer Vanguard Innovation, RM Partners and the UCLH Cancer Collaborative.
The vanguards are partnerships of NHS, local government, voluntary, community and other organisations that are implementing plans to improve the healthcare people receive, prevent ill health and save funds.
Considerable progress has been made since the vanguards were launched in 2015 and there is emerging evidence that they are making significant improvements at a local level. This includes reducing pressure on busy GP and A&E services.
In addition to the funding, the Cancer Vanguard will continue to receive support from NHS England and other national bodies to implement their plans, including how they harness new technology including apps and shared computer systems. They are also receiving help to develop their workforce so that it is organised around patients and their local populations.
Samantha Jones, Director of the New Care Models Programme said: “The vanguards are making great progress and have already made a tangible impact on the lives of patients and the working lives of staff. 2017/18 is a crucial year for the vanguards, in particular how we further spread their work across the wider NHS and care services. This funding, as well as the support we offer to them, will help them to continue to move at pace.”
Roger Spencer, Chair of the Cancer Vanguard Oversight Group and Chief Executive of The Christie, said: “Today’s announcement is hugely positive and a very tangible demonstration that the NHS leadership is prepared to invest in improving cancer patient outcomes and experience.
“Over the next year the support from the national vanguard programme will enable us to conclude our important programme of work, crystallising models that can be replicated and adopted throughout the NHS. The emergence of the new national Cancer Alliances presents an outstanding opportunity to cascade these models and achieve long term impact for patient benefit.”
Nicola Hunt, managing director, RM Partners, said: “We are delighted to have received this funding from NHS England. It will enable us to continue to improve the care of everyone affected by cancer and achieve world-class cancer outcomes for our population across London and Manchester.”
Prof Geoff Bellingan, Medical Director for Cancer at UCLH, said: “As a national Cancer Vanguard we are transforming earlier cancer diagnosis and trialling new care models for cancer patients, including through a series of partnerships with pharma companies to make better use of cancer drugs. We are also developing options for long-term health system improvement, such as the prime provider model. We are working together to ensure that people can live well after a cancer diagnosis, as well as receiving high quality palliative and end-of-life care where appropriate.”
Mike Thorpe, service user involvement representative in Greater Manchester, said:
“This is fantastic news. The vanguard team is doing some very impressive work and I’ve been struck by their commitment and can-do attitude.
“This announcement will help them carry on their good work, which is all about saving lives. I’ve seen at first-hand how quickly the projects are moving so it’s important the money is there for the team to take them forward and make the best use of resources.”
Nationally, the total funding allocated to the national Cancer Vanguard matches that of 2016/17 and will be matched by funds and resources from the vanguards themselves.
New models of care, including the work of the vanguards, are key to the delivery of sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) which are being developed across the country.
In order to secure their allocated funds, vanguards will need to meet a number of conditions including:
spread of their new care models within and across STPs, including production of guidance and materials for others to use;
full implementation of the published care model frameworks – what good looks like within their vanguard type;
clear quality improvements and costs/savings.
As with 2016-17, local evaluation remains a critical part of the programme and will be funded separately, with details set out at a later date.
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Camping makes for happy customers - Caravan & Camping Western Australia
You are here: Home > Travel Tips > Holiday and Travel Articles > Camping makes for happy customers
We often hear the phrase “happy campers”, but are campers really that happy?
A recent study by the Caravan Industry Association of Australia found campers were happier, more socially and environmentally conscious and closer to their loved ones than Australians who did not camp.
The study consisted of two different surveys. The first survey looked at a sample of 750 people who enjoyed caravanning and camping, examining their experiences, while the second survey consisted of a panel of 1000 Australians who had not caravanned or camped in the past 20 years.
It looked at how satisfied they were with their everyday lives and the reasons they had chosen not to camp in the past 20 years.
For the purpose of the study, the term camping included trips taken in swags, tents, tent trailers, camper trailers, caravans, campervans, motorhomes and cabins.
“Australians who go camping are more satisfied, happy, optimistic and energised than those who do not go camping,” the report said.
“They are also less stressed, frustrated, bored and lonely. “What’s more, campers say camping makes them more productive, more grounded, more in touch with nature, healthier and gives them time to gather their thoughts.”
An impressive 85 per cent of campers felt close to their spouse, compared to five per cent of non-campers. The report also found campers felt closer to their children, grandchildren, parents, friends and community than non-campers.
Australians who go camping are more satisfied, happy, optimistic and energised than those who do not go camping.
“Something we seem to be hearing a lot these days is the need to escape the digital world and reconnect with loved ones in a relaxed environment, free from modern distractions,” the report said.
“Friends and families are taking to the roads in groups of all shapes and sizes, going on all kinds of adventures and making long-lasting memories together.”
Camping and caravanning are good ways to recover and increase health and wellbeing according to the report.
“More and more, we are seeing people use camping as a way of recovering from all sorts of illnesses,” the report said. “Maintaining a healthy lifestyle seems to be front of mind for our Aussie campers, with 68 per cent describing their level of health as somewhat or extremely healthy. “This is compared to only 50 per cent of non-campers.” 94 per cent of campers believed that camping recharged their batteries, according to the report, 85 per cent said camping allowed them to gather their thoughts and 83 per cent said it made them feel healthier.
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Yoko Ogawa, Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales
by James Bradley on February 6, 2015
Towards the end of ‘Afternoon at the Bakery’, the opening story of Japanese author Yoko Ogawa’s slim but mesmerizing volume, Revenge, the narrator describes the discovery of the body of her late son, who suffocated after crawling into an abandoned refrigerator.
“He’s just sleeping,” she says, refusing to believe he is dead, “He hasn’t eaten anything, and he must be exhausted. Let’s carry him home and try not to wake him. He should sleep, as much as he wants. He’ll wake up later, I’m sure of it”.
It’s an exquisitely unsettling moment, and not just because of the way it plays upon our deep-seated sense of the strangeness of death, its closeness to life, but because of the way it evokes a particular sort of psychological instability, reminding us of how easy it is for our minds recoil from reality and take refuge in fantasy and denial.
Yet it might also serve as a microcosm of the emotional landscape and method of the book as a whole. For as becomes clear when the image of the abandoned refrigerator recurs to deeply disquieting effect in the book’s final pages, the stories in Revenge are not so much a collection, or even a suite or sequence, but something more closely resembling a set of uncanny matryoshka dolls, each nestled inside the last like the dead boy folded into his refrigerator.
For many readers this sort of metafictional gameplay will probably be reminiscent of Murakami, in particular his sprawling opus, 1Q84, with its worlds within worlds and floating cocoons. But where Murakami’s fiction is characterised by the tension between the curiously bland, almost affectless, prose (and its digressive fascination with cooking and running and whatever else seems to take its author’s fancy) and its surreal elements, Ogawa’s draws much of its power from somewhere considerably darker, the almost preternatural clarity of the prose belying the profound cognitive dissonance that lies at the heart of many of these stories.
Sometimes that dissonance reflects a disengagement from reality, rather as the calm words of the narrator of ‘Afternoon at the Bakery’ offer an unsettling suggestion of a mind both rational and profoundly disturbed, a quality that is repeated in ‘Old Mrs J’, in which the slightly-over-familiar landlord of the neighbour turns out to have murdered her husband and buried him in her vegetable plot, an act that has led, in one of the book’s more disturbing images, to crops of carrots resembling human hands (apparently the carrots are “plump, like a baby’s hand, and perfectly formed”).
Elsewhere though it takes other forms, as in stories such as ‘Welcome to the Museum of Torture’, in which a young woman abandoned by her boyfriend (whether for her disturbing affectlessness or for her interest in a nearby murder is never entirely clear) finds herself fascinated by the exhibits in the titular museum, or ‘Lab Coats’, in which a young woman with a crush on her co-worker hears her shocking confession (the story ends with the unnerving image of a tongue lolling out of the pocket of a used coat. “It’s still soft,” the narrator says. “And maybe even warm”).
As the repeated images of bodily mutilation and death suggest, much of the power of the stories in Revenge lies in their capacity to articulate anxieties that are usually suppressed. And certainly the book is at its strongest when it is exploring repression and sublimation, rather than in more deliberately surreal moments such as ‘Sewing for the Heart’, in which a bagmaker is commissioned to make a special bag for a woman whose heart is outside her body.
Yet in many ways what is most striking about Revenge is the way its nested imagery echoes and recurs, weaving a web of implication that is as suggestive as it is disturbing, and giving shape to a world in which the line between reality and our most morbid imaginings is never entirely clear.
Tags: Book Reviews, Yoko Ogawa
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Least Developed Countries Fund – Climate Funds Update
Least Developed Countries Fund
The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) was established to meet the adaptation needs of least developed countries (LDCs). Specifically the LDCF has financed the preparation and implementation of National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs) to identify priority adaptation actions for a country based on existing information.
The Least Developed Countries Fund is administered by the Global Environment Facility.
Basic Description
Name of Fund
Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF)
Official Fund Website
http://www.thegef.org/gef/ldcf
Date fund proposed: 2001
Date fund made operational: 2002
Proposed Life of Fund
Administrating Organisation
Global Environment Facility (GEF) with World Bank as Trustee.
The LDCF aims to address the needs of the 48 LDCs which are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. As a priority, the LDCF supports the preparation and the implementation of the National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs), which are country-driven strategies that identify the immediate needs of LDCs in order to adapt to climate change.
Activities Supported
The LDCF supports the preparation of NAPAs wherein supports LDCs to identify priority activities that respond to their urgent and immediate needs to adapt to climate change. It can also fund NAPA implementation, including the design, development, and implementation of projects on the ground.
Conditions and Eligibility Requirements
All Least Developed Countries are eligible. However, proposals submitted for funding under the LDCF are reviewed in light of agreed project criteria informed by guidance from the UNFCCC COP. These criteria include country ownership; program and policy conformity; financing; institutional coordination and support; and monitoring and evaluation: these are understood as follows:
Country ownership in that proposed projects must have been identified as priority activities in the NAPA and show evidence of stakeholder consultation and support.
Program and policy conformity in terms of project design; sustainability, and stakeholder involvement.
A Financing plan must be developed, together with an assessment of cost-effectiveness.
Institutional coordination and support
Accessing the Fund
Before a LDCF Project Proponent can access financing for an adaptation project, a country NAPA must be completed and sent to the UNFCCC Secretariat. Once a NAPA has been submitted to the UNFCCC secretariat, the LDCF Project Proponent can start the process of preparing for project implementation under the LDCF. A number of tools have been developed to help countries to access LDCF funding.
Fund Governance
Decision Making Structure
The SCCF/ LDCF Council is the governing body for the LDCF. The Council is comprised 14 members from donor constituencies and 18 from recipient constituencies (a total of 32 GEF members) and makes decisions by consensus. The LDCF uses the operating procedures of the GEF, including its implementing agencies.Finance is available for project preparation. Full Size projects must be cleared by the CEO of the GEF before they are formally approved by the Council at which point funding is earmarked for their support. Projects are only considered to be approved after a Project Identification Form that shows that the project meets certain criteria has been produced and then approved by the council. It then needs to be endorsed by the CEO before funding can be said to have been approved (although nearly 100 % of council approved projects are also endorsed by the CEO). Implementing agencies then also have to approve projects through their internal decision making processes. Finance is disbursed to approved projects under implementation.
Non-Government Stakeholder Participation
The Programming Paper for Funding the Implementation of NAPAs under the LDC Trust Fund further explicitly requires stakeholder consultation in the formulation of NAPAs and subsequent project implementation, which is supportive of a high level local stakeholder involvement.
A Financial Status Report includes information on the progress of donor contributions. The web based GEF project tool includes LDCF projects. Disbursement is also reported on a bi-annual basis in the status report on the least developed countries fund and the special climate change fund.
Issues Raised
A joint independent evaluation of the LDCF was completed in 2011. It highlighted the problems caused by a lack of predictable finance for the LDCF and its low levels of capitalisation. It further highlighted the need for streamlined project cycles and to make the fund easier to access. More generally, the actual inclusiveness and effectiveness of the NAPA process has been the topic of substantial critique and debate.
Relationship with Official Development Assistance
Inclusion as Official Development Assistance
Financial Instrument/ Delivery Mechanism Used (e.g. grant, loan)
Grants.
Nature of Recipient Country Involvement
National ownership is quite central to the conceptualisation of the LDCF which places a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement in the development of the NAPA and on country driven approaches to identifying priorities. A project has to be endorsed by the country or countries where it will be implemented to be considered to receive GEF funding.
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IEPs
a tested family
Exposed to lead as a baby, Bishop now struggles in school. Could an evaluation used in Flint help NYC students like him?
Bishop’s struggle, according to Jeffries and specialists who have examined him, is likely the result of permanent brain damage caused by his early exposure to lead.
Asked and answered
Are special education reforms moving too slowly? Chicago monitor responds to criticism.
"There’s been a lot of broken trust between parents and schools, parents and central office, parents and administrators," Chicago schools special education monitor says
Thousands of students still wait for special education services or don’t receive them at all, city figures reveal
"The fact that they’re doing the reporting and that it’s public and people are looking at it is a good thing."
Grim statistics show city still failing to evaluate, serve many students with disabilities
Newly released data show New York City is still struggling to provide services to students with disabilities — a group larger than Hawaii’s entire student population.
For students with severe disabilities, New York must do more to see if schools measure up
Lori Podvesker explains that parents who have children in District 75 programs need more information about individual schools to make informed decisions.
To best serve their students, schools need to be realistic about their special-ed capacity
Schools can't be afraid to get real about what they can and can't provide for students with special needs if they want to come up with the best plans for students, Mark Anderson writes.
Unable to suggest other schools, teachers left with special ed reform dilemma
A middle school special education teacher is concerned that city policy has schools like hers constantly scrambling to support the needs of new students who might be better served by different schools.
How my school is bringing teachers together to improve students’ IEPs
In a series about special education, teacher Mark Anderson describes the limitations in the traditional IEP process and explains how he changed the way his colleagues share their insights about students' needs and performance.
After city pays millions in SESIS overtime, complications remain
Special education teachers say it's a common feeling: the students are gone for the day, and it's time for the real work to begin. But if they need to record something on a student's Individualized Education Program, it's probably too late. Early efforts to curb overtime payments have now become policy, as the Department of Education reminds principals to keep staff members out of SESIS—the online system that tracks special education students—after the school day ends unless the principal has committed to pay for that time. The reminders were spurred by arbitration that ultimately cost the city $41 million in belated overtime to teachers and staff whose after-hours work violated union contracts. For months, some principals have been looking for ways to give teachers more time during the day to work with the notoriously glitchy system (made more frustrating by slow school Internet speeds). But teachers and principals say that serious problems remain, as students' information is now updated more slowly, data entry takes time away from student interaction, and some teachers continue to work without pay. "Is that the reality? Of course it's the reality," said Carmen Alvarez, the UFT's vice president for special education, of the continuing issues. "Do I like it? No. Did we tell it to the DOE three years ago in writing? Yes."
Lawsuit demands DOE increase language services for parents
Parents attended a rally at Tweed Hall, where they demanded the DOE provide more translation and interpretation services to those whose children require special education. Advocates filed a federal complaint today against the city Department of Education that they said represents years of troubling reports from parents who don't speak English. Hundreds of those parents have come to the advocacy groups with concerns that the department doesn't provide sufficient language services for navigating special education. And with extensive special education reforms in progress, the need for language services is more pressing than ever, said Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children. AFC, which represents low-income students and students with disabilities, joined with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest to file the complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights on behalf of 19 city families. The complaint charges the city with violating federal, state, and city laws by failing to provide translation services for the parents of children with special needs. The complaint profiles one of the parents in detail. Nyuk Siem Looi, who speaks only Cantonese, has two sons who are autistic and cannot speak. According to the complaint, Looi has been told to bring her own interpreter to meetings and pressured to sign documents about her sons' educational programs that she could not understand. Parents named in the complaint were joined by dozens of others at a rally on the steps of City Hall today after the complaint was filed, many holding umbrellas to relieve themselves from more than 90-degree heat.
Brill-ing Down: Adding to Steven Brill’s NYT Magazine Report
Steven Brill's latest article chronicling the politics of the Race to the Top competition has caused a torrent of commentary. One contentious aspect of the piece is Brill's comparison of two schools that share the same building: Harlem Success Academy and P.S. 149. After Valerie Strauss picked up the statistics posted on the New York Public School Parents Blog, there has been much speculation about what types of kids are attending each school. Just how different are the populations anyway? To figure out the answer, I looked at NY State Accountability Report Cards, the Special Education Service Delivery Report for P.S. 149, as well as special education invoices provided to the UFT by the New York State Education Department. I chose these data sets because they seemed to be the most reliable and the most comparable. By "comparable" I mean that both Harlem Success and P.S. 149 have to submit to the state as part of their Accountability Report Cards data on students who receive free or reduced price lunch (an indicator of economic need), whereas, for instance, only P.S. 149 lists something known as the poverty rate (which is slightly different.) According to this data, Harlem Success Academy does appear to serve fewer needy students, both in terms of economic status, limited English proficiency, and special education needs. On the other hand, Harlem Success dramatically outperforms P.S. 149 on 3rd grade test results.
State, special ed advocates tussle over proposed changes to IEPs
Special ed advocates objected to the limited choices in this drop-down menu on the proposed IEP form. A new push by the state to standardize the way school districts plan which services special needs students should receive is rattling parents across New York. At the heart of the process is a document called the Individualized Education Plan, which a team of experts crafts to describe the student's educational needs and how the school should address them. For years, every school district has used its own IEP form. Now, state officials have created standardized forms to be used by all districts. The officials say this is an important move because it will create consistency across the state, but special education advocates are worried that the new form could put children's needs in jeopardy. Everyone agrees that IEP forms are crucial documents because they are the strongest form of insurance a parent can have that his child will get specific services. Advocates worry that the forms the state is pushing would weaken that insurance.
State special ed hearing conflicts with city special ed conferences
I just spent the afternoon at a public hearing about the state’s proposed changes to special needs students’ individualized education plans. I’ll have more to…
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Posted by conradiator under Africa, Computing (software), Design, Printing and Publishing
The graphic element of the BarcampAfrica UK logo
BarcampAfrica UK is a gathering of technologically inspired Africans and their friends, to be held in London on 7th November. Barcamps are a form of ‘unconference’, events in which the overall focus is declared, but a detailed agenda is only worked out on the day, and people are encouraged to come along prepared to take part in running a workshop. I’m lending my support to the organising team (thus far my main contribution was the logo design), and I plan to facilitate a workshop on the day.
The first Barcamp Africa was held last year in northern California, the brainchild of Ellen Petry Leanse and Kaushal Jhalla. There have been several since, one recently in Cameroon. Much of the impetus for the UK barcamp has come from young Africans in the BCS. The overall focus of the event will be on what technology (especially computing and communications technologies) can contribute to positive human, economic and environmental development in the African continent.
My Barcamp focus will be on information sharing/publishing. Information design, information sharing and electronic publishing are my personal areas of interest and knowledge. The workshop I intend to run at BarcampAfrica UK will focus on how to make it easier for African institutions to publish and disseminate useful information.
The high cost of publishing software
Ghanaian high school students in the National Museum, Accra. Photo Conrad Taylor
A few years ago, I spent a couple of weeks in Ghana. I went over with Ghanaian friends, but spent time wandering around Accra on my own. One of my visits was to Ghana’s National Museum, a small circular building that is not well known even to Ghanaians. If you want to get there by taxi, ask to be taken to ‘Edvy’s restaurant’: located within the museum grounds, it is better known than the museum itself!.
While browsing the exhibitions, I got talking to the museum’s curator, Joseph Gazari Seini, about methods for captioning exhibits; most of theirs were either typed, or hand-written. I explained the kind of work I do, and he invited me to his office.
Pulling out a folder, he showed me the text for a book, a report of some important archaeological work. It had been written on a computer, and the print-out was inkjetted. The folder also contained a collection of colour photographic prints showing aspects of the excavation and the objects found. Joe Gazari explained to me that they would love to get materials like this published, but they didn’t know how to go about it, and they hadn’t the means.
I wondered if there was some way I could help, and later that week I had a meeting with Joe’s boss. I’m afraid it ended up with misunderstanding; in retrospect I think they thought I was some rich oburoni offering to finance the whole venture. But what I did do when I got back to England was contact Adobe Systems Inc. Their software — FrameMaker or InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator — would be excellent tools for book-publishing.
I understood that Adobe had some history of charitable giving; would they donate software to this cause? No. They do support projects, but only in their back yard, for example in San Jose, California. And the amount of money it would cost the museum in Accra to buy legitimate copies of professional publishing software would be way beyond their budgets.
Is free, open-source software the answer?
So this is one of the barriers: the cost of decent software. What about free, open source software? That is certainly a route worth exploring. There is OpenOffice Writer of course, but a word-processing program doesn’t have all the features you would expect of proper publishing software, such as flexible layouts, extensive support of graphics types, and CMYK colour for commercial printing.
There is also the Scribus desktop publishing program. Last time I tried it it was awful, but that was two years ago and maybe version 1.3.3.x is OK. I have to say that the page about installing on Mac OSX doesn’t inspire much confidence…
Another possibility would be to use the venerable typesetting language TeX, invented by Donald Knuth in the 1980s — free implementations are available for a variety of computer operating systems. On the down side, typesetting in TeX is not a WYSIWYG experience: you prepare a file using a text editor, embedding formatting codes, and feed the result to the TeX engine, which does a batch process on the file. The results can be of very good quality and the method has great promise for textbooks, but is difficult if not impossible to lay out publications in which there is an intimate relationship between text layout and graphics.
Fonts for African languages
Another issue that is a barrier for publishing in some of the African vernacular languages is that they require characters that cannot be found in the standard fonts. In early 2000, I conducted a personal investigation of this issue, writing a 55-page illustrated report called Typesetting African Languages, which I have now parked at The Internet Archive as a PDF. (Warning – it is now out of date, and may contain errors.)
In my report, I divided the languages into five grades of difficulty in respect of typesetting them:
Languages which use the same characters as English, without any diacritics — examples include Swahili, Somali, Zulu, Xhosa. These langauges can even be processed using 7-bit ASCII or sent as telex without orthographic compromise!
Languages which use accents but in a way that is similar to Western European languages like French or Portuguese, so can be typeset using standard computer fonts. Examples include Kikuyu and Tswana.
Languages which use ‘ordinary’ letterforms but in unusual combinations, such as a dot under a vowel, or an accent over a consonant. These could be typeset with systems like TeX that build accented characters from components. Examples include the Nigerian languages Igbo, Edo and Yorùbá, the Zambian language Nyanja, and Wolof (Senegal).
Languages which have additional letterforms that are not found in standard fonts — for example Fulfulde, Krio, Twi and Hausa.
Languages which are written with non-latin script systems. Apart from the Arabic script, there is also the Tifinagh script of the Berber people, and the Ge’ez script of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
A passage from a text in Yorùbá, typeset using MacTeX and Computer Modern fonts. Click to enlarge.
At the time that I wrote my study, the options for Level Three and Level Four languages looked quite problematic. I did have a go at typesetting a passage of Yorùbá using the MacTeX system and the Computer Modern type family. In this system, the accents and letters are composed by TeX macros, rather than stored as precomposed letterforms, so with a bit of hacking I was able to produce the result illustrated here
But a lot has happened since. For a start, more publishing software now encodes text in the Unicode system, which allocates a unique character identification number to each letter in all of the world’s languages. There are now fonts available in the extended TrueType and OpenType formats – fonts like Arial Unicode, Lucida Sans Unicode and Adobe’s ‘Pro’ font families – which contain hundreds or even thousands of characters, though usually not the ones which are needed for the African languages I have mentioned.
The growth in the number of ‘large glyph set’ fonts has in turn led to the development of mechanisms which make it easier to insert characters for which there is no keyboard keystroke. A good example is the Glyph Palette in Adobe InDesign, and the Character Palette system utility for Mac OSX.
A Twi (Akan) proverb typeset in two free-of-charge fonts, Gentium and SIL Charis
What Africa really needs is fonts which contain the glyphs for African languages – and which are free of charge! Fortunately this is now beginning to happen. Gentium, a beautiful font, was designed by Victor Gaultney, originally I believe as part of a research project at The University of Reading. Victor started the drawings for Gentium (the name means of the nations in Latin) in the same year I was conducting my informal research. It now encompasses full extended latin, greek and cyrillic alphabets, is hosted by SIL International, and is available at no charge under the SIL Open Font License, which allows modification and redistribution.
SIL International is a Christian organisation with a 75-year history of documenting and supporting the world’s less well known languages. Originally a summer school (Summer Institute of Linguistics’), SIL has grown into an organisation with knowledge of 2,550 languages. It publishes The Ethnologue and has also created a number of fonts that supprt African languages well. Charis is a family of four fonts – roman, italic, bold and bold italic. It is based on Bitstream Charter, originally designed by Matthew Carter, which in 1992 was donated by the Bitstream foundry to the X Consortium.
It’s a good start, and there are other initiatives along these lines of which I am aware. A friend of mine, Dave Crossland, recently obtained his Masters at the University of Reading, in the course of which he created a font which he intends to release using an Open Font license. The other day, Dave showed me the font running on his Google Android ’phone, and very crisp and legible it looked too. Although Dave’s font doesn’t have the character support for, say, Twi and Yorùbá, the licensing provisions he has chosen make it possible for other type-wranglers to take the baton and run the next mile.
Even TeX doesn’t stand still. In the course of preparing this blog post I found a reference to a brand new version of TeX – XeTeX – which supports Unicode, OpenType and Apple Advanced Typography. It’s also being looked after by SIL, see here!
2 Responses to “How to liberate African publishing?”
conradiator Says:
Via Twitter and the Barcamp Africa community, I’ve become aware of the Kasahorow project and its resources such as spelling-check dictionaries and keyboard input methods for African languages. For example for Twi and Ewe see here, then go exploring… http://bit.ly/3rjhbH
Bob Bater Says:
Conrad, you continue to amaze me with your energy, your knowledge and your commitment. Barcamp Africa and harnessing computing technology in support of development in Africa is a noble aim, although regrettably, one to which I have little to contribute. If it should transpire that there is some way I could contribute, then do let me know.
Leave a Reply to Bob Bater Cancel reply
Africa, Computing (software), Design, Printing and Publishing
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Questions and Answers on the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision
1. What is the individual shared responsibility provision?
Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government, state governments, insurers, employers and individuals are given shared responsibility to reform and improve the availability, quality and affordability of health insurance coverage in the United States. Starting in 2014, the individual shared responsibility provision calls for each individual to have minimum essential health coverage (known as minimum essential coverage) for each month, qualify for an exemption, or make a payment when filing his or her federal income tax return.
2. Who is subject to the individual shared responsibility provision?
The provision applies to individuals of all ages, including children. The adult or married couple who can claim a child or another individual as a dependent for federal income tax purposes is responsible for making the payment if the dependent does not have coverage or an exemption.
3. When does the individual shared responsibility provision go into effect?
The provision goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. It applies to each month in the calendar year. The amount of any payment owed takes into account the number of months in a given year an individual is without minimal essential coverage or an exemption.
4. Is transition relief available in certain circumstances?
Yes. Notice 2013-42, published on June 26, 2013, provides transition relief from the shared responsibility payment for individuals who are eligible to enroll in eligible employer-sponsored health plans with a plan year other than a calendar year (non-calendar year plans) if the plan year begins in 2013 and ends in 2014 (2013-2014 plan year). The transition relief applies to an employee, or an individual having a relationship to the employee, who is eligible to enroll in a non-calendar year eligible employer-sponsored plan with a 2013-2014 plan year. The transition relief begins in January 2014 and continues through the month in which the 2013-2014 plan year ends.
5. What counts as minimum essential coverage?
Minimum essential coverage includes the following:
Employer-sponsored coverage (including COBRA coverage and retiree coverage)
Coverage purchased in the individual market, including a qualified health plan offered by the Health Insurance Marketplace (also known as an Affordable Insurance Exchange)
Medicare Part A coverage and Medicare Advantage plans
Most Medicaid coverage
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage
Certain types of veterans health coverage administered by the Veterans Administration
Coverage provided to Peace Corps volunteers
Coverage under the Nonappropriated Fund Health Benefit Program
Refugee Medical Assistance supported by the Administration for Children and Families
Self-funded health coverage offered to students by universities for plan or policy years that begin on or before Dec. 31, 2014 (for later plan or policy years, sponsors of these programs may apply to HHS to be recognized as minimum essential coverage)
State high risk pools for plan or policy years that begin on or before Dec. 31, 2014 (for later plan or policy years, sponsors of these program may apply to HHS to be recognized as minimum essential coverage)
Minimum essential coverage does not include coverage providing only limited benefits, such as coverage only for vision care or dental care, and Medicaid covering only certain benefits such as family planning, workers’ compensation, or disability policies.
6. What are the statutory exemptions from the requirement to obtain minimum essential coverage?
Religious conscience. You are a member of a religious sect that is recognized as conscientiously opposed to accepting any insurance benefits. The Social Security Administration administers the process for recognizing these sects according to the criteria in the law.
Health care sharing ministry. You are a member of a recognized health care sharing ministry.
Indian tribes. You are a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe.
No filing requirement. Your income is below the minimum threshold for filing a tax return. The requirement to file a federal tax return depends on your filing status, age and types and amounts of income.
Short coverage gap. You went without coverage for less than three consecutive months during the year. For more information, see question 22.
Hardship. The Health Insurance Marketplace, also known as the Affordable Insurance Exchange, has certified that you have suffered a hardship that makes you unable to obtain coverage.
Unaffordable coverage options. You can’t afford coverage because the minimum amount you must pay for the premiums is more than eight percent of your household income.
Incarceration. You are in a jail, prison, or similar penal institution or correctional facility after the disposition of charges against you.
Not lawfully present. You are not a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national or an alien lawfully present in the U.S.
7. What do I need to do if I want to be sure I have minimum essential coverage or an exemption for 2014?
Most individuals in the United States have health coverage today that will count as minimum essential coverage and will not need to do anything more than continue the coverage that they have. For those who do not have coverage, who anticipate discontinuing the coverage they have currently, or who want to explore whether more affordable options are available, the Health Insurance Marketplace will open for every state and the District of Columbia in October of 2013. The Health Insurance Marketplace will help qualified individuals find minimum essential coverage that fits their budget and potentially financial assistance to help with the costs of coverage beginning in 2014. The Health Insurance Marketplace will also be able to assess whether applicants are eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For those who will become eligible for Medicare during 2013, enrolling for Medicare will also ensure that you have minimum essential coverage for 2014.
For those seeking an exemption, the Health Insurance Marketplace will be able to provide certificates of exemption for many of the exemption categories. HHS has issued final regulations on how the Health Insurance Marketplace will go about granting these exemptions. Individuals will also be able to claim certain exemptions for 2014 when they file their federal income tax returns in 2015. Individuals who are not required to file a federal income tax return are automatically exempt and do not need to take any further action to secure an exemption. See question 21 for further information on exemptions.
8. Is more detailed information available about the individual shared responsibility provision?
Yes. The Treasury Department and the IRS have issued final regulations on the new individual shared responsibility provision.
9. Are children subject to the individual shared responsibility provision?
Yes. Each child must have minimum essential coverage or qualify for an exemption for each month in the calendar year. Otherwise, the adult or married couple who can claim the child as a dependent for federal income tax purposes will owe a payment.
10. Are senior citizens subject to the individual shared responsibility provision?
Yes. Senior citizens must have minimum essential coverage or qualify for an exemption for each month in a calendar year. Senior citizens will have minimum essential coverage for every month they are enrolled in Medicare.
11. Are all individuals living in the United States subject to the individual shared responsibility provision?
All U.S. citizens are subject to the individual shared responsibility provision as are all permanent residents and all foreign nationals who are in the United States long enough during a calendar year to qualify as resident aliens for tax purposes. Foreign nationals who live in the United States for a short enough period that they do not become resident aliens for federal income tax purposes are not subject to the individual shared responsibility payment even though they may have to file a U.S. income tax return. The IRS has more information available on when a foreign national becomes a resident alien for federal income tax purposes.
12. Are US citizens living abroad subject to the individual shared responsibility provision?
Yes. However, U.S. citizens who live abroad for a calendar year (or at least 330 days within a 12 month period) are treated as having minimum essential coverage for the year (or period). These are individuals who qualify for an exclusion from income under section 911 of the Code.
13. Are residents of the territories subject to the individual shared responsibility provision?
All bona fide residents of the United States territories are treated by law as having minimum essential coverage. They are not required to take any action to comply with the individual shared responsibility provision.
14. If I receive my coverage from my spouse’s employer, will I have minimum essential coverage?
Yes. Employer-sponsored coverage is generally minimum essential coverage. (See question 5 for information on specialized types of coverage that are not minimum essential coverage.) If an employee enrolls in employer-sponsored coverage for himself and his family, the employee and all of the covered family members have minimum essential coverage.
15. Do my spouse and dependent children have to be covered under the same policy or plan that covers me?
No. You, your spouse and your dependent children do not have to be covered under the same policy or plan. However, you, your spouse and each dependent child for whom you may claim a personal exemption on your federal income tax return must have minimum essential coverage or qualify for an exemption, or you will owe a payment when you file.
16. My employer tells me that our company’s health plan is “grandfathered.” Does my employer’s plan provide minimum essential coverage?
Yes. Grandfathered group health plans provide minimum essential coverage.
17. I am a retiree, and I am too young to be eligible for Medicare. I receive my health coverage through a retiree plan made available by my former employer. Is the retiree plan minimum essential coverage?
Yes. Retiree health plans are generally minimum essential coverage.
18. I work for a local government that provides me with health coverage. Is my coverage minimum essential coverage?
Yes. Employer-sponsored coverage is minimum essential coverage regardless of whether the employer is a governmental, nonprofit or for-profit entity.
19. Do I have to be covered for an entire calendar month in order to get credit for having minimum essential coverage for that month?
No. You will be treated as having minimum essential coverage for a month as long as you have coverage for at least one day during that month.
20. If I change health coverage during the year and end up with a gap when I am not covered, will I owe a payment?
Individuals are treated as having minimum essential coverage for a calendar month if they have coverage for at least one day during that month. Additionally, as long as the gap in coverage is less than three months, you may qualify for an exemption and not owe a payment. See question 22 for more information on the exemption for short coverage gaps.
21. If I think I qualify for an exemption, how do I claim it?
It depends upon which exemption it is.
The religious conscience exemption and most hardship exemptions are available only by going to the Health Insurance Marketplace and applying for an exemption certificate. Information on final rules for obtaining these exemptions is available.
The exemptions for members of federally recognized Indian tribes, members of health care sharing ministries and individuals who are incarcerated are available either by going to a Marketplace or Exchange and applying for an exemption certificate or by claiming the exemption as part of filing a federal income tax return.
The exemptions for unaffordable coverage, short coverage gaps, certain hardships and individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States can be claimed only as part of filing a federal income tax return. The exemption for those under the federal income tax return filing threshold is available automatically. No special action is needed.
22. What qualifies as a short coverage gap?
In general, a gap in coverage that lasts less than three months qualifies as a short coverage gap. If an individual has more than one short coverage gaps during a year, the short coverage gap exemption only applies to the first gap.
23. If my income is so low that I am not required to file a federal income tax return, do I need to do anything special to claim an exemption from the individual shared responsibility provision?
No. Individuals who are not required to file a tax return for a year are automatically exempt from owing a shared responsibility payment for that year and do not need to take any further action to secure an exemption. Individuals who are not required to file a tax return for a year, but file anyway, will be able to claim the exemption on their tax return.
Reporting Coverage or Exemptions or Making Payments
24. Will I have to do something on my federal income tax return to show that I had coverage or an exemption?
The individual shared responsibility provision goes into effect in 2014. You will not have to account for coverage or exemptions or to make any payments until you file your 2014 federal income tax return in 2015. Information will be made available later about how the income tax return will take account of coverage and exemptions. Insurers will be required to provide everyone that they cover each year with information that will help them demonstrate they had coverage beginning with the 2015 tax year.
25. What happens if I do not have minimum essential coverage or an exemption, and I cannot afford to make the payment with my tax return?
The IRS routinely works with taxpayers who owe amounts they cannot afford to pay. The law prohibits the IRS from using liens or levies to collect any payment you owe related to the individual responsibility provision, if you, your spouse or a dependent included on your tax return does not have minimum essential coverage. However, if you owe a shared responsibility payment, the IRS may offset that liability against any tax refund you may be due.
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National Theatre in HD: Small Island
Name: National Theatre in HD: Small Island
Website: https://rockportmusic.org/small-island/
Andrea Levy’s Orange Prize-winning novel Small Island comes to life in an epic new theatre adaptation. Experience the play in cinemas, filmed live on stage as part of National Theatre Live’s 10th birthday.
Small Island embarks on a journey from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, England.
The play follows three intricately connected stories. Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots. Hope and humanity meet stubborn reality as the play traces the tangled history of Jamaica and the UK.
A company of 40 actors take to the stage of the National Theatre in London in this timely and moving story.
Tuesday, July 16, 7 PM
Tickets: $22 Adults/ $15 Students & Seniors/$5 Youth
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Schmidt is it
Jenny Lu
As his fingers glide across the guitar strings, freshman Kyle Schmidt brainstorms how he can make the chord he has just made into a verse. This verse will be the beginning of a full-scale song, which he produces on his own.
Schmidt said he has been producing music since elementary school, with his first official production being in third grade. From that point on, he said he has developed an acquired taste for music and has improved vastly on his skills, especially with his guitar.
The basis for Schmidt’s music is in the bass progressions. These are fundamental to the acoustics of his music. He makes these by strumming different chords on his Ibanez guitar, which he has had since roughly the third grade.
“If [a chord] sounds good, I try to connect it with something else,” Schmidt said. “It’s like a puzzle, trying to get everything to mesh together.”
After stringing three to four chords together, Schmidt makes a decision as to whether the new combination will be a part of the chorus or a verse. These decisions are purely dependent on what he is feeling like on the day he is producing music. His mood also affects the tone of the song and the emotional content of the lyrics.
“[The lyrics] should be clever and witty,” Schmidt said. “As long as it rhymes and fits well rhythmically with the rest of the song, it’s good.”
The stories behind the songs are generally based on Schmidt’s life experiences and the experiences of his friends. He said he particularly likes writing lyrics about drama and inspirational, relatable life events. One event in particular was a break-up in a relationship, which resulted in one of his most prolific songs.
“That is more emotional and is on a more personal and intimate level. I think it represented the way that it happened well enough that it turned into something that was really incredible.”
Schmidt said his original inspiration was his father, who invested in Reason, a music editing software program. The software was handed down to Schmidt later, and he currently uses it to adjust the pitch of the song.
According to Schmidt, his recording process of a song is somewhat makeshift. He records his songs using the “voice memo” feature of his iPhone. The editing is done using Reason, the software program handed down by his father. However, Schmidt said editing is only used to change the acoustics, not his voice. He prides himself on being a singer that is entirely natural, a feat he believes is hard to find in musicians nowadays.
One of the major factors in how he composes his music is the feedback he gets from his friends. Freshman Jacob Mies said one of Schmidt’s special niches is the ability to create a meaningful song from only three chords. He also said his lyric abilities are unique because of his ability to make them relevant to people his age. However, he said Schmidt’s most developed ability is his guitar-playing skills.
“From the time I’ve known him, [his guitar skills] have been amazing,” Mies said. “Especially for a high school freshman.”
Another one of Schmidt’s friends, freshman Marc Almeida, said he has always been an artsy kid with a special interest in music. He has played the bass for Schmidt since fifth grade, and that formed the basis for his first songs. Schmidt looks to Almeida for feedback on his music, saying that it forms how he produces it.
“He doesn’t really care about what other people think of him,” Almeida said. “He does what he wants.”
Almeida said that all aspects of Schmidt’s music have improved over the course of time he has known him, but the area that has improved most has been his lyric-writing process.
“His lyrics have become more intricate as he’s gotten older and matured,” Almeida said.
Schmidt said he music he makes, no matter where it is at in the process, is always ready to be listened to. In his opinion, every step of the music-making process is vital to the development of his music. Every time he listens to a song he is making, he said he finds new ideas of how to make them even better and gets inspirations for new songs at the same time.
“There’s a whole different dynamic to playing with friends compared to playing alone,” Schmidt said. “It adds depth to the song that you can’t get playing on your own.”
According to Mies, Schmidt has lots of potential to become a successful musician, with a plethora of fields available to him at his disposal.
“He has a genuine passion for music,” Mies said. “He could be a producer or anywhere in the music industry based on the way he knows his music.”
Lending a helping hand
Lifting spirits through social media
Sturdivant to leave BVNW for Texas
2018 graduate Ben Holloway self-publishes book of poetry
Broader perspectives
Return to the spotlight
Worldwide weightlifter
Breaking the boundaries
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EPA’s Office of Inspector General Issues Report on Needed Improvements to FIFRA Section 18 Emergency Exemption Process
On September 25, 2018, EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report summarizing the conclusions of its audit of the Agency’s FIFRA Section 18 pesticide emergency exemption process. Section 18 of FIFRA allows the Agency to grant federal and state agencies the authority to approve the limited application of an unregistered pesticide not currently registered for that use in the event of a serious pest problem that jeopardizes production of agricultural goods, the environment, or public health and for which there are inadequate tools to address the situation. The regulations governing implementation of FIFRA Section 18 establish four types of emergency exemptions (specific, quarantine, public health and crisis) with different time periods allowed for each.
In its report, the OIG concluded that while EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) collects human health and environmental data through its emergency exemption process, it does not use this data to capture outcome measures that would demonstrate how well the emergency exemption process maintains human health and environmental safeguards. In addition, the OIG found that OPP does not have comprehensive internal controls to manage the emergency exemption data it collects and cited specific deficiencies in the Agency’s online public database, internal guidance documents, and its annual progress reports to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congress. Finally, OIG determined that the OPP does not consistently communicate emergency exemption information with its stakeholders.
The OIG recommended that EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention develop outcome-based performance measures; develop or update procedures on data collection, database management and the re-use of data submitted by state lead agencies; and communicate changes to the emergency exemption process in a timely manner. The full OIG report, including EPA’s response to the recommendations contained in the report, may be accessed by clicking here.
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a web of simple thanks: part 6
Tim McCormack – the generous enthusiast
In the last of this series, acknowledging the key influencers in my first career, I go back to the beginning. In fact, while I’d framed this as being about the foundations for the years between 20 and 40, I was only 18 when I met Tim McCormack.
I had just returned from 12 months as an Exchange Student in Gifu, Japan. My childhood in Ulverstone, North West Tasmania was happy and successful; I’d done OK at school, socially and in various sporting endeavours. Japan had opened me up to the world beyond my little pond; I returned slightly less naïve ready to take on the world. I was a green and zealous young man. I left home and moved into a residential college at Uni in Hobart and in orientation week was welcomed by Tim. His influence on my life was swift and deep.
I was hungry to develop, I was alert to opportunities and was sponge-like in my enthusiasm. I absorbed and mimicked many things from Tim but there are two things in particular that defined the way Tim lived that were so attractive to me I found myself taking them on.
Firstly, Tim was an enthusiast. He was (and probably still is) confident and charismatic. He had passions. He loved the Tasmanian outdoors, he fiercely supported Australian Rules Football team Carlton, and he had a love affair with 1963 EH Holdens. He was active, social and political. People liked him and he liked people. Tim gave me permission to be energetically and irrationally committed to living life at full volume. Fanatical even. We believed in ‘rightness’, to the extent we made decisions that were against the grain.
But Tim’s enthusiasm wasn’t scattered and shallow. One of his attributes that most endeared him to me was his polish and depth. He had an eye for quality that was contagious. He was articulate and considered.
Coupled with his enthusiast nature was a startling generosity. Tim demonstrated time and time again that the money in his wallet belonged to whoever needed it most. I listened wide-eyed to the story of how he’d saved to buy a beloved EH and then given the lot away. It was not that I hadn’t experienced generosity before, but Tim’s style was risky. Resources were simply a tool for living. He gave away time and things. He seemed to be testament to the proverbial truth that what goes around comes around, the more generous he was, the more came back to him.
Tim has a stellar and distinguished career. It has been many years since we shared a coffee, but I come across his name or voice from time to time. Notably, in 2010 he was appointed as Special Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, an outstanding achievement.
Mate, thanks for believing in me. Thanks for the years of friendship and for imparting something of your enthusiasm for life and generosity of spirit.
July 25, 2011 by Col Categories: betterness, meaning, musings, vocate
← a web of simple thanks: part 5
behaviour change; not what you think →
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Galactic News: Tantalum Appeal Extended
The Wyrd Raiders have announced that their campaign for tantalum has been extended. A spokesperson for the organisation confirmed that this was to ensure targets would be met.
In a brief statement, the spokesperson said:
"We are extremely grateful for the support we have received so far. But it is clear that for this campaign to succeed, we will need to give pilots more time to source the tantalum we have asked for."
The campaign is now scheduled to end on the 19th of May 3302.
Powerplay: Incoming Update
At 7.00 am tomorrow morning (GMT), the monitoring of powers' activities will go offline for a short period while the latest data is assembled. Pilots who operate for one of the powers should deliver any cargo or vouchers before this time to ensure their activities are registered.
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Cubs Fan Blinded By Foul Ball Applauds White Sox For Plan To Extend Safety Netting At Guaranteed Rate Field
Filed Under:Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Guaranteed Rate Field, MLB, Netting
CHICAGO (CBS) — A man who lost the sight in his right eye after he was hit by a foul ball at Wrigley Field in 2017 is applauding the White Sox for moving to install protective netting all the way down the foul lines at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The White Sox announced Tuesday that they would install protective netting all the way from foul pole to foul pole by the end of the season, becoming the first major league team to install netting that far down the lines.
Jay Loos, who lost sight in one eye due to a foul ball at a Cubs game in August 2017, said it’s a class move by the White Sox.
“I’m an advocate of fan safety based on my experience. I was really pleased; very, very pleased. To come out like that, just class organization comes to mind when I think about that; to want to protect the fans, to do what’s right to protect the fans,” he said.
Loos said it’s hard to forget the moment a foul ball changed his life forever two years ago.
He and his three kids were sitting along the first base line at Wrigley Field when a Pittsburgh Pirates batter slammed a foul ball into section 135, Seat 107 – and into Loos’s face.
The pain was excruciating. In addition to a broken nose and jaw, he lost sight in his right eye. Loos has sued the Cubs and Major League Baseball over his injuries.
In recent weeks, both Cubs and White Sox players have been involved in incidents in which fans were hit by foul balls.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – MAY 29: A young child is rushed from the stands after being injured by a hard foul ball off the bat of Albert Almora Jr. #5 of the Chicago Cubs in the fourth inning at Minute Maid Park on May 29, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
On May 29, Cubs outfielder Albert Almora Jr. hit a hard line-drive foul into the stands at Minute Maid Park in Houston, striking a 4-year-old girl in the stands. Almora was able to finish his at-bat but broke down and collapsed to his knees in anguish after the half-inning ended.
The girl appeared to be conscious but crying as she was carried away.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – MAY 29: Albert Almora Jr. #5 of the Chicago Cubs is comforted by Jason Heyward #22 after checking on the young child that was injured by a hard foul ball off his bat in the fourth inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on May 29, 2019 in Houston, Texas. Almora Jr. would leave the game. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
Less than two weeks later, on June 10, a woman was struck by a foul ball hit by White Sox outfielder Eloy Jimenez at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The woman, who was sitting several rows from the field, was bleeding from her head but was alert when she was taken to the hospital. She was released from the hospital the next morning.
Personnel help a woman who was struck in the head by a foul ball hit by Eloy Jimenez of the Chicago White Sox during the fourth inning of a game against the Washington Nationals at Guaranteed Rate Field on June 10, 2019. (Credit: David Banks/Getty Images)
Major League Baseball currently requires safety netting at all ballparks to extend to the end of the dugouts on both sides of the field, but the league has said it is now reviewing that policy.
The Texas Rangers have announced plans to extend the protective netting at Globe Life Park further down the outfield, although not from foul pole to foul pole like the White Sox.
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The TSA Makes It Harder To Detect Terrorists
Posted by Jonathan on April 24th, 2003 (All posts by Jonathan)
This article in Tuesday’s WSJ (requires subscription) discusses the trials and tribulations of innocent air travelers whose names, or even parts of whose names, resemble those of people on the government’s “No Fly List.” The unfortunate false-positives are greatly inconvenienced, and at a rate that far exceeds the number of bad guys caught. (The article delicately points out the obvious: the No Fly List has contributed to the capture of “very few” suspected terrorists.)
So what’s driving this aggressive flagging of harmless individuals (some of whom have been cleared repeatedly for earlier flights)? Part of the answer lies in airlines’ use of antiquated name-matching systems that were originally designed to ferret out multiple bookings, and to make it easy for ticket agents to look up passenger records without knowing the exact spellings of names. These systems intentionally cast a wide net. That’s helpful for common travel snafus but makes the systems ridiculously inefficient for finding the one terrorist among millions of legitimate travelers.
One name-matching technique that airlines have used, called Soundex, dates back more than 100 years, to when it was invented to analyze names from the 1890 census. In its simplest form, it takes a name, strips out vowels and assigns codes to somewhat-similar-sounding consonants, such as “c” and “z.”
The result can be bizarre. Hencke and Hamza, for example, have the same code, H520. If there’s a Hamza on the No Fly List, a traveler named Hencke could be pulled aside for a background check before being allowed to board.
Why not match names precisely? The article points out that it’s difficult to do, because spellings vary (William and Bill), transcription of foreign names is unreliable (Haj and Hag), titles may become confounded with names, and (surprise) some people use one of more aliases.
Another problem is that airlines are hesitant to spend money on anti-terror measures they think the government should pay for.
Moreover, the TSA’s institutional incentives encourage maximizing the number of passengers scrutinized: it’s unlikely that anyone will be fired for screening too zealously, but failure to detect a terrorist could lead to disaster (including career disaster for the officials on whose watch it occurred). A significant number of false positives may be a reasonable tradeoff for an increased probability of catching real terrorists. However, because there will always be vastly more non-terrorists than terrorists in our traveling population, and because the screening databases are likely to contain errors, any increase in the scrutiny given the traveling public is likely to increase the number of false positives by much more than it increments the number of terrorists apprehended. The result can be a level of noise so high that it overwhelms many signals. We can end up with both a high rate of false positives and a screening system that is suboptimal at detecting real risks.
The TSA bureaucracy, like other bureaucracies, will define its job in ways that tend to bring increased authority and funding. If you frame the TSA’s role as the screening of passengers, you end up with lots of screeners and lots of screening. Does that make terrorism less likely? It probably does some good, but it’s difficult to know because of the low base rate of terror attacks. Whatever the real level of risk, the TSA’s incentive is generally to throw money and employees at perceived problems, even if this is not the best response.
Finally, there is political correctness. Targeted screening of people who fit likely-terrorist profiles works well (Israel), and is generally a much more effective use of resources than is trying to screen every single passenger at a level of intrusiveness sufficient to determine whether he is a security risk. The problem with targeted screening is that it’s taboo here because some voters might be offended. So instead the government is going to try to expand its current flawed program. The false premise of the government’s implicit argument is that we can trade freedom for safety. The reality is that we are giving up freedom for nothing and are still not serious about security.
What are the prospects for intelligent reform of our passenger-screening system? Not good. Political and bureaucratic incentives are driving attempts to extend some of the system’s most abusive features. Here’s the kicker from the end of the article:
The TSA has been trying to get the message to airlines that they should focus on matches of full names, not just the last name, says James R. Owen, a TSA official in Juneau. Longer term, the agency is working on an advanced passenger pre-screening system known by the acronym of CAPPS II.
It will scour not only watch lists such as No Fly but also criminal records, credit-card transactions and identifiers such as address and date of birth to detect suspicious patterns. The TSA envisions it as “dramatically reducing” the number of people flagged. Privacy and civil-liberties advocates fear just the opposite — that the increased ways to attract suspicion will result in even more passengers being wrongly tagged.
So the TSA claims to want to deal with false positives caused by bad data and sloppy procedures, and says that it will do so. . . by expanding the bad-data set. This is absurd. Since inaccurate databases are a big part of the system’s problem, the main result of incorporating additional inaccurate databases into the system is likely to be an increased rate of false positives. It looks as if the civil libertarians are right and this data-mining scheme is a power grab pure and simple. The author of this article, by not seriously addressing these issues, seems to have been at best gullible, at worst complicit in the administration’s PR campaign for Orwellian measures that cannot deliver the level of security they promise.
(Instapundit has related comments and links.)
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2003 at 12:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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interview with singers
Meet the Artist – Maggie Finnegan, soprano
By The Cross-Eyed Pianist | January 24, 2019
Who or what inspired you to take up singing and pursue a career in music?
I grew up with a passion for singing, and when I got to grade school, I met my music teacher who encouraged me to sing in school performances and consider pursuing it as a career. At age 7, my parents took me to my first opera (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at San Francisco Opera and I was absolutely hooked. At age 10 I joined a local community theater and began performing musical theater while I waited to grow into my “opera voice.” It was during a summer program after my junior year in high school where I met my undergrad teacher and mentor, Edith Bers. She encouraged me to come to New York City to get my Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at Manhattan School of Music. I have had the unique experience of being encouraged at every turning point in my journey towards becoming a professional singer, and for that I am grateful to many people.
Who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?
The community theater that I joined as a kid had a profound influence on my passion for performing. It was at The Western Stage that I forged my deepest friendships and became completely hooked on the “theater” lifestyle and experience. The environment of professionalism, acceptance and community still shapes what I seek out and what fulfills me in my career journey.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
For a long time, I thought there was one way to be a classical singer… go to a prestigious conservatory, immediately start performing in Young Artist Programs, then sit back and watch as your career blossomed. I realized as an undergrad at MSM that I didn’t fit into the “standard” mold of the classical opera singer. Despite everyone being impressed with my talent and performances, I never seemed to book the roles in the Mozart operas, and I didn’t know why. I felt out of place for a long time, unsure of where I fit, and where I would find my community within the classical world. After my senior recital at MSM, my teacher Edith Bers told me and my mother, “Maggie will find her place in this career… I don’t know what it is yet, but there is a place for her, and she will find it.” I have replayed this statement in my head many times and I’ve kept my trust in her vision for me. With perseverance and an open mind, I have finally found my place in this world.
Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?
I performed O Zittre Nicht at the Washington Award Gala last Spring in Washington DC, and the video from that performance is one of my favorites. It was the first time I’d performed the aria, and I had a great time singing it, and I believe the video reflects that joy.
Which particular works do you think you play best?
Hands down my favorite thing to sing, and the thing I think I sing the best, is a song by composer Lembit Beecher called “A Paradoxical Thing.” It is from his song cycle Looking at Spring for soprano, violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano. The song is for solo soprano and is virtuosic, charming, thoughtful and through it I can express everything that makes me unique as a performer.
How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?
My repertoire is driven largely by the composers that I meet or work with throughout the year. I concentrate on new opera and art song and feature this repertoire when I design my own programs. I also peruse social media to see what my favorite artists are performing and go down the youtube rabbit hole looking for new and exciting musical adventures.
Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?
I don’t have a specific favorite venue, but my favorite type of venue is hands down the black box theater. While the acoustics often leave something to be desired, I love being close to my audience and I feel that the blank canvas of an empty room has great dramatic potential. A black box theater can become anything the artists want and allows them to take the audience on a dramatic and musical journey. I also believe that because often the actors and audience members are on the same plane (the stage is not raised), the black box can be an equalizer, knocking down the artificial barriers that often separate the performers from the ‘non performers.’ This helps me feel like my audience is with me and not just passively witnessing the action on stage.
Who are your favourite musicians?
My favorite musicians are people who create straight from their truth with joy in their heart. I am fortunate to work with a group called The Broken Consort.As a group we devise and create new programs using music spanning from medieval to contemporary. Using improvisation, discussion and trial and error, we hone in on the truest expression we can make, and through this process we have produced amazing music as well as lasting and deep friendships. I have so much respect and I highly value anyone who inspires me to live and create from my true self.
Some of my other favorite classical musicians are Stephanie Blythe, Frederica Von Stade, Anthony Roth Constanzo, Joyce DiDonato, Dawn Upshaw and John Shirley-Quirk.
My current favorite non-classical musician is Janelle Monáe. Her incredible music and performances coupled with her message of self-love, acceptance, inclusivity and perseverance absolutely transport me to a place of bliss (and fierceness!)
What is your most memorable concert experience?
This past spring I performed the workshop of part of a piece I am creating entitled Reassemble With Care. Members of The Broken Consort and I devised the music around a text that I wrote, which is based on my personal experience with sexual assault. Performing Movement 12 was a deeply moving experience, and embodies everything I am searching for as a performer. While on stage I felt completely connected with and supported by my fellow musicians. Using the words I wrote as my guide, I fearlessly improvised the music, subconsciously accessing all the technique I have honed over my 20 years of study, and the result was magical. I felt my body deeply grounded on the stage and felt my voice reach high and out into the room. It felt like true freedom, and is a moment I will never forget. Next fall we’re going to premiere the entire work, which consists of written music by composer Dominick DiOrio and devised music by myself and The Broken Consort.
As a musician, what is your definition of success?
For me, success is achieved when I am able to support myself financially by performing in a way that fulfills me artistically. Performing in this way means that I am free to access my own creativity, call upon my vocal technique, and explore new ways to express myself.
I think it is entirely possible for people to be successful performers while working other jobs to supplement their income, but for me this element is part of my own personal goal in my career path.
What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?
Find out exactly how you want to use your talent and create opportunities to make that vision come true. It’s very easy to get caught up into trying to fit into a “mold” as a classical artist, and I believe that true fulfillment comes from creating straight from individual truth. While you’re taking the time to hone your skills and perfect your craft, take as many diverse opportunities as possible to broaden your knowledge of what is out there. Then when you’ve figured out what you want to do, go create something uniquely yours.
I would like to be living with my partner (it doesn’t matter where) and still traveling for work. I would like to be performing at least 3 large-scale operas a year in major houses and pursuing my own projects the rest of the time. My own projects could include cabarets, art song recitals, salons, and anything else I come up with!
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Perfect happiness is being in the moment and fully experiencing the abundance around me.
What is your most treasured possession?
Okay, moment of vanity here… My most treasured possession is probably the hair paste I use to style my hair. My haircut is a very big part of my personal identity, and the paste makes this image possible. It seems silly, but my hair feels like a talisman that helps me to take the world on with strength and well… style 🙂
Hailed by The Washington Post for her ‘silvery, pitch-perfect voice’ and by Opera News for her ‘noteworthy acting prowess,’ Maggie Finnegan is a versatile soprano, singing repertoire spanning from medieval to contemporary. Awards include the S&R Foundation’s 2017 Washington Award, First Place in the Washington International Competition for Voice and second place in The American Prize Competition. Specializing in new opera, she performed the world premiere of Lembit Beecher’s opera Sophia’s Forest , Beth Morrison Projects: Next Generation and Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince with Opera Parallele. She made her Handel and Haydn Society solo debut at Jordan Hall, singing the soprano arias in Bach Cantatas 36 and 147. Past seasons included premiers with Vital Opera, The American Chamber Opera Company in New York City and the Center for Contemporary Opera in Louis Andriessen’s Odysseus’ Women/Anais Nin. Other career highlights include The Sound of Music with Paper Mill Playhouse, the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s School Touring Program of The Magic Flute and Boris Godunov with The Metropolitan Opera Chorus. Her recent concert appearances include performances with the Avanti Orchestra, the New Dominion Chorale, The Camerata Singers of Monterey County, The City Choir of Washington, the Handel and Haydn Society and the PyeongChang Winter Music Festival in South Korea. She was featured as a soloist in the revival of the play Extraordinary Measures, in which she worked with Tony award winning playwright/activist Eve Ensler.
An avid chamber music performer and recitalist, concert highlights include the U.S. Premiere of Jacob TV‘s Van Grote en Kleine Vogels (for soprano and soundtrack) at the 2018 {Re}Happening Festival at Black Mountain College, Paola Prestini’s Body Maps with Fresh Squeezed Opera and studying American art song with Stephanie Blythe as a Fall Island Fellowship Artist. She is a core member of the critically acclaimed ensemble The Broken Consort, which recently presented the world premiere of Movement 12 of her new project Reassemble With Care. Maggie honed her improvisation skills at the Opera Works Advanced Artist Program and has since then made improv a regular practice.
Maggie earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and her Master of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory. She currently splits her time between New York City and Boston, where she shares a home with her partner and three step-kids.
maggiefinnegansoprano.com
Posted in General and tagged as American singer, female musician, interview with singers, interviews with musicians, Meet the Artist, soprano.
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Tag Archives: ReWalk Robotics
Equity Crowdfunding Surges in Israel; OurCrowd Raises $60M for 46 Different Startups
Producing a better track record than Silicon Valley, twenty of these companies have already raised more than $1 million each in investments
Jerusalem, Israel – OurCrowd announced has successfully raised $60 million in the aggregate to date over its platform for its 46 portfolio companies. Twenty of these companies have already raised more than $1 million each in investments, and four companies have raised over $3 million through the OurCrowd platform.
OurCrowd Equity Crowdfunding in Israel
OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved stated, “We are proud to have raised these amounts in just 16 months since launching. These numbers demonstrate that our model works and can be effectively used for major funding rounds. The fact that OurCrowd has deployed more money for our companies than our Silicon Valley competitors proves that we are indeed at the forefront of equity crowdfunding innovation.”
Larry Jasinski, CEO of OurCrowd’s portfolio company ReWalk Robotics, which recently filed for its IPO, said, “OurCrowd did their diligence thoroughly, effectively and quickly which was appreciated and valuable for an operating company. Their team has a combination of deep experience, meaningful skills and enthusiasm for their mission. They also have provided key contacts in the US and in new areas for us such as Australia.”
OurCrowd, and its team of experienced investment professionals, provides a new and innovative way to invest in Israeli and global early-stage companies. The company has emerged as a leader in the increasingly competitive equity crowdfunding space. Earlier this year, OurCrowd announced the closing of a $25 million Series B funding round. OurCrowd continues to grow its investor base and team.
OurCrowd is a hybrid VC-equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors who wish to invest in Israeli and global early stage companies. Managed by a team of well-known investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd selects opportunities, invests its own capital and brings these startups to its accredited membership. Members choose those deals they invest in via OurCrowd-managed partnerships.
OurCrowd provides post investment support to its portfolio companies, assigning industry experts as mentors and taking board seats. OurCrowd has raised over $60 million in equity crowdfunding for its 46 portfolio companies which include leading companies, such as: ReWalk, Consumer Physics (SCiO), BioCatch and Abe’s Market.
Tags: Abe’s Market, BioCatch, Consumer Physics (SCiO), Equity Crowdfunding, Israel, Jerusalem, Jon Medved, Larry Jasinski, OurCrowd, ReWalk Robotics, Silicon Valley
Categories Accredited Investors, Angel Investors, Crowdfunding Industries, Equity-Based, Financial Services, Institutional Investors, Israel, OurCrowd
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Bob Clark Dies: ABC Newsman Who Covered Both Kennedy Assassinations Was 93
By Erik Pedersen
Erik Pedersen
More Stories By Erik
‘Astronomy Club’: Kenya Barris Producing Sketch-Comedy Series For Netflix
Warner Bros’ Sesame Street Pic Moved Back Five Months; ‘Just Mercy’ Gets Christmas Limited Release
Stephen Colbert Back From Break Tanned, Rested & Ready To Call Out “Racist” Donald Trump
Bob Clark, who covered the assassinations of President Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy for ABC News, has died. He was 93. The network confirmed his death but did not provide details.
Clark is believed to be the only journalist present at both Kennedys’ assassinations. He was riding in a press car in President Kennedy’s Dallas motorcade in 1963 and witnessed RFK’s 1968 murder at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He had been covering the senator’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
After President Kennedy was shot, Clark folllowed his car to Parkland Memorial Hospital. “The president was lying in the back seat of the limousine, his head cradled in the first lady’s lap,” Clark reported in his first phone dispatch to ABC News. “At this stage there was no official word as to whether Mr. Kennedy was still alive. But he lay motionless on the back seat of the car for some two minutes while a stretcher was wheeled out from the hospital.” His colleague Bill Lord said in a 2013 interview with the Portland Press Herald: “Bob looked at the carnage in the back seat of the limousine and realized no one could survive that type of wound. It was horrific.”
Clark was a Washington and White House correspondent for ABC News during the 1960s and into the ’70s, covering campaigns, conventions and elections along with daily news. He spent six years as host of ABC’s Sunday morning public-affairs program Issues And Answers and was associated with it for nearly its entire 21-year run. It was rebranded and reformatted in 1981 as This Week With David Brinkley.
After retiring from ABC, Clark was a guest host and commentator on C-SPAN, appearing on the channel several times during the 1980s and ’90s.
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Rose Garnett Named BBC Films Chief
By Diana Lodderhose
Diana Lodderhose
More Stories By Diana
Bruce Forsyth Dies: Brit TV Legend Who “Delighted Millions” Was 89
ITV Plans Build Mini-Theme Park In London
Gemma Chan Joins ‘Mary Queen Of Scots’ Opposite Saoirse Ronan & Margot Robbie
Film4 Head of Creative Rose Garnett has been made director of BBC Films. She’ll take over the reins for the influential role from acting head of film Joe Oppenheimer, the longtime BBC exec who was widely tipped to be the front-runner for the position. Former head of film Christine Langan stepped down last year.
“Rose will be an exciting new ambassador for BBC Films,” said Director of BBC Content Charlotte Moore. “She has an impressive track record in the UK film industry and brings bundles of experience and passion to the role. I believe she will lead BBC Films into a bright future with work that will push the boundaries; she has a reputation for taking risks and developing new talent and is known for working with some of the most distinctive voices. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Joe Oppenheimer for his commitment and dedication over the last few months when he has been acting up, both the team and I are hugely grateful.”
Garnett said: “The opportunity to join BBC Films was just too good a role to turn down, especially as under Charlotte Moore the BBC feels like a place brimming with possibility and ambition. I’m really looking forward to joining the BBC Films team and the excitement of taking the next steps in building a vibrant and bold department. I’ve loved working at Film4. It’s been an enormous privilege to have been part of such a wonderful company, working with a set of brilliant and inspiring colleagues and most of all, the chance to work with some of the best storytellers in the world It’s been an amazing four years and I leave Channel 4 with real sadness.”
Garnett has been Head of Creative at Film4 since 2015. There, she managed an extensive slate of projects from a wide range of talent from first-time filmmakers to established directors. She developed and exec produced an array of recent successful UK pics including Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette and Andrea Arnold’s American Honey. Upcoming projects include Sebastian Lelio’s Disobedience, Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Clio Barnad’s Dark River and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite.
She began her time at Film4 as Head of Development in 2014 before being promoted to Head of Editorial in 2014 and finally head of creative in 2015. Garnett is also an established theatre and film producer and took over the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill, London, with David Farr where they both commissioned and worked with writers and directors ranging from Lee Hall to Tracy Letts to Dominic Cook.
Speaking of her departure, Film4 chief Daniel Battsek said: “Rose Garnett has been a fantastic Head of Creative for Film4 and it’s testament to her acclaimed work and the strength of Film4 that she’s taking on a leadership role in the industry. Although I’m very sad to see Rose go, she is leaving us with a great forthcoming slate and an incredibly talented creative team. We wish her all the best in her new role.”
This article was printed from https://deadline.com/2017/02/rose-garnett-named-bbc-films-chief-1202012938/
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Category: Policing
Until Sunday, no marker commemorated the site where the 1967 unrest began.
[This is the first part of a three-part series on the past, present, and future of Detroit in the light of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 rebellion.]
“I think it’s best to leave that night in the past.”
“You sure it’s gonna stay there?”
– from Dominique Morriseau’s play Detroit ’67, performed at Rosa Parks and Clairmount on July 23, 2017
This past Sunday, July 23, as the Motor City’s top elected officials gathered to commemorate the most traumatic event in Detroit’s 316-year history, they painted a hopeful portrait of a city on the rise.
Not everyone in the crowd agreed with that optimistic picture.
As a teacher of mine once observed, anniversaries are not only a means of linking the past and present, but also a means of remaking past and present alike.
Many people today might like to put the memory of 1967 to rest under a tidy memorial – if not an unmarked grave. But as Sunday’s event suggested, the present being what it is, the ghost of rebellion past is not resting easy.
“It does not define us”
A half-dozen politicians, ranging from Congressman John Conyers, Jr. to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, had taken the stage in Gordon Park at Rosa Parks (formerly Twelfth Street) and Clairmount, where it all began in the early hours of July 23, 1967, following a police raid on an after-hours bar at that site.
The dignitaries were there to mark the anniversary, but more importantly, they said, they were there to celebrate the progress that had been made.
Congressman Conyers had tried in vain to calm the crowds on Twelfth Street 50 years earlier. Now 88 years old, the longest-serving current member of Congress, he began his remarks by asking the audience, roughly equal parts black and white, to repeat after him: “Never again.” Continue reading “Where Do We Go From Here? Part 1: A Contested Commemoration”
Author Joel BattermanPosted on July 27, 2017 Categories 1967, Policing, Racism2 Comments on Where Do We Go From Here? Part 1: A Contested Commemoration
Up against the wall in the Algiers Motel: screenshot from the “Detroit” trailer.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the upcoming movie, scheduled for an August release, about the 1967 Detroit rebellion.
But the two-minute trailer released this week suggests that the movie, directed by Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) and titled simply “Detroit,” could, fingers crossed, be one of the stronger artistic efforts so far to dare to try to come to terms with the Motor City’s biggest unfinished business.
The biggest revelation from the trailer is that the movie is centered on the rebellion’s Algiers Motel Incident, the never-resolved killing of three black teenagers by law enforcement personnel. The Incident became a cause célèbre for Detroit’s black community in the months after the rebellion and the subject of a 1968 book by investigative journalist John Hersey, author of Hiroshima.
Hiroshima broke ground by presenting the gut-wrenching stories of ordinary Japanese residents of that city in the wake of U.S.-induced nuclear annihilation. In The Algiers Motel Incident, Hersey dramatized the cost of state-sanctioned violence on the home front, placing police brutality at the center of discussions of the Detroit rebellion at a time when most white Americans were still struggling to comprehend it.
By choosing to follow in Hersey’s footsteps, Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal appear to have made a fateful, and laudable, choice to focus attention on the police violence and official racism that brought the rebellion about, rather than rehashing the all-too-common white narrative that the “riots” were an inexplicable outburst of random violence by blacks. Continue reading ““Detroit” Movie Sets Sights on Algiers Motel, Police Violence”
Author Joel BattermanPosted on April 13, 2017 Categories Policing, Racism1 Comment on “Detroit” Movie Sets Sights on Algiers Motel, Police Violence
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The Dawn of Software Engineering: from Turing to Dijkstra
This is the landing page of the eponymous book. The publisher also has a page about the book where you can find a very concise summary, some endorsements, and technical details. Feel free to leave feedback on the book as a comment to this post.
Turing's involvement with computer building was popularized in the 1970s and later. Most notable are the books by Brian Randell (1973), Andrew Hodges (1983), and Martin Davis (2000). A central question is whether John von Neumann was greatly influenced by Turing's 1936 paper when he helped build the EDVAC machine, even though he never cited Turing's work. This question remains unsettled up till this day. As remarked by Charles Petzold, one standard history barely mentions Turing, while the other, written by a logician, makes Turing a key player.
Contrast these observations then with the fact that Turing's 1936 paper was cited and heavily discussed in 1959 among computer programmers. An historical investigation of Turing's influence on computing shows that Turing's 1936 notion of universality became increasingly relevant among computer programmers during the 1950s. In 1966, the first Turing award was given to a computer programmer, not a computer builder, as were several subsequent Turing awards. In short, Turing had already acquired fame and recognition in the emerging field of software, well before his alleged role in the advent of the `first universal computer' was publicized.
The aforementioned historical investigation is described in my book The Dawn of Software Engineering: from Turing to Dijkstra, published by Lonely Scholar in April 2012. My central thesis is that Turing's influence was felt more in programming after his death than in computer building during the 1940s. Moreover, Turing's influence only emerged gradually and often without full comprehension. Many first-generation programmers did not read Turing's 1936 paper, let alone understand it. Those computer practitioners who did become acquainted with Turing's 1936 work during the 1950s–1960s received it in at least one of the following three ways:
The `Turing machine' was viewed as a model for a stored-program computer. Some researchers tried to build `Turing machines' during the 1950s, i.e. after the first universal computers were already available.
Turing's notion of universality helped lay the foundations of programming.
The unsolvability of the Halting Problem helped researchers lay bare certain limitations in programming. The 1972 Turing award winner, Edsger W. Dijkstra, was definitely one of the first to do so.
Frequently and less frequently Asked Questions
Q1: Do you claim that the idea of the universal machine should not be attributed to Turing?
A1: No.
Q2: It seems von Neumann actually read Turing’s 1936 paper. Do you agree?
A2: Yes. In my book I even support the statement that von Neumann and Turing were exceptional because they saw the connection between the latter's 1936 paper and real computing machines during the mid-1940s.
Q3: Turing actually worked on two teams implementing computers, the one in Manchester created the first memory stored program computer. Turing actually wrote the first ever programmers manual for this computer. Is this consistent with your statement that Turing's influence was more in programming than in building computers?
A3: Yes this is consistent although I would suggest avoiding making claims of the form "the first X". Michael R. Williams shows that such claims can easily be refuted. It is extremely hard to show that something is the first. It is very easy to show that something is not the first. I strongly recommend reading Michael R. Williams's paper "The First Computer".
Of course, Turing helped build computing machines. But this is not where his fame came from when the first Turing award was handed out in 1966.
Q4: Do you claim that Dijkstra became famous because of the Halting Problem?
A4: No, I don't. I also do not assert that the Turing Award was handed out to Dijkstra because he thoroughly understood all of Turing's work. My educated guess is that Dijkstra never studied Turing's 1936 paper.
Q5: You make different claims about undecidability and universality. Can you elaborate?
A5: I do not claim that undecidability is essential to programming. I do assert that it influenced experienced programmers. I write that Turing's notion of universality influenced the field of automatic programming during the 1950s. Some of the historical actors in automatic programming (cf. Gorn, Carr, Perlis) were or later became major players in the ACM and I implicitly claim in my book that this is why the annual Turing Award was handed out in 1966 and onwards. Turing was honored by programmers because of the impact the universal machine had on their discipline.
If you find an error, feel free to report it as a comment to this post.
Turing's Cathedral
My review of George Dyson's book Turing's Cathedral is now available in video format.
Book presentation in Cambridge
Submitted by egdaylight on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 08:10
I will present my book on Wednesday, June 20th at 11:15 am.
Venue: Session 4 of the CiE conference
Location: New Museum Site, ASB
Address: Pembroke St., Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3QZ
Book presentation in Manchester
I will present my book on Sunday June 24th between 12:30 and 14:00 at the Turing-100 conference in Manchester.
Book presentation in Paderborn
I will present my book on Saturday 15 September 2012 at the Colloquium Logicum in the Heinz Nixdorf Museum, Paderborn, Germany. The title of my presentation is Towards an Historical Notion of "Turing --- the Father of Computer Science".
Book review of Dyson's "Turing's Cathedral"
On 12 October 2012 I will present a book review of George Dyson's Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe (Penguin Books, 2012). The venue is in Brussels at the conference Turing in context II.
Impossibility results are not welcome
Submitted by Dijkstra quoter (not verified) on Wed, 10/24/2012 - 18:41
In support of the general theme of your book, the following words from October 1982 by Edsger W. Dijkstra (EWD841, p.4) are noteworthy:
As any logician knows - since Godel and Turing - there are such things as provably undecidable questions and provably uncomputable functions. People that don't know that will believe anything. There is the lovely story of the IBM employee - I shall not divulge his name - whose research proposal mentioned uncomputable functions. When the proposal was discussed he was asked in disbelief "Do you mean to say that there exist functions that our equipment cannot compute?" upon which, tongue in cheek, the scientist answered: "Indeed, in their current form IBM computers cannot compute all functions", upon which answer his proposal was approved! In a way, the 30's were more enlightened than the 60's, 70's, and perhaps the 80's. In my very young days, impossibility results could be published and were not completely ignored. With the increased economic significance of technology, such scientific results are now too unwelcome.
Dutch elegance?
Is there really such a thing as Dutch elegance? According to Alan J. Perlis there is. In his words:
The European style has always worked very hard at producing elegant constructions --- devices that fit. Holland, for example, is a very small country, and when going to Holland one finds that the instruments they use are also small. Russia is an enormous country; they use large instruments. So it never surprised me that the Russians decided to build a compiler once that would simultaneously compile PL/1, Cobol, and Algol. Holland gave us Edsger Dijkstra, with structured programming and natural Dutch construction.
Source: p.555 in J.A.N. Lee's International Biographical Dictionary of COMPUTER PIONEERS, 1995.
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Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, composers of so many memorable songs in Disney theme parks and motion pictures have now their own window on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland. As we know the tradition of honoring individuals with a personalized decorative window was started on Main Street, U.S.A. by Walt Disney and has continued at Disney parks worldwide. A Disneyland window is considered the ultimate honor anyone can receive from “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
Considering that the Shermans’ composed more than 150 Disney songs including such familiar Disneyland compositions like “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room”, “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” and “It’s a Small World” - one of the most translated and performed songs on Earth - the least we can say is that they fully deserved their Main Street window! Among the Sherman brothers’ honors are three Grammy Awards, 24 gold and platinum albums and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They have also been named Disney Legends in 1990.
The Main Street window ceremony was held mid-morning last thursday and Disneyland Resort President George Kalogridis, Thomas Schumacher, Marty Sklar and Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts did each a great tribute to the Sherman Brothers. Robert Sherman who now resides in England was unable to attend the ceremony in person but his brother Richard was there with his family.
The ceremony was not only moving but also funny as you will see in this great video filmed by the always excellent Inside the Magic. I remind you that Inside the Magic have each week great videos and podcasts and suggest you to have a look on their site regularly HERE.
The video show the whole ceremony and i recommand you to watch it entirely to don't miss the fun parts. Enjoy!
Pictures: copyright Disney
Video: copyright Inside the Magic
Publié par Alain Littaye à l'adresse 9:40 PM
Libellés : disneyland, main street usa, Sherman Brothers, window ceremony
D&M Innoventions : Special Audio Animatronics
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Tag: Diana Ross
(July 11, 2019). When it comes to seeing the legendary Diana Ross in concert, you can count on three constants: she’ll open with “I’m Coming Out,” she’ll wrap up with “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” usually during the closing encore, and there’ll be lots of glitz and glamour in between…whether it’s in the form of Ms. Ross’ ageless beauty, her trademark big hair or her many costume changes that mesmerize the audience with each splashy reveal.
The always larger-than-life Diana Ross on July 10, 2019, at the Chicago Theatre.
Let’s face it, with Diana Ross you come for the whole package, which includes the many years of chart-topping hits but also includes the dazzling, unapologetically over-the-top outfits: the famous body-hugging jumpsuits, the flamenco-inspired gowns with long truffled trains, the strapless dresses that come heavily accessorized with feathered shawls and cascading ruffles, the silk, the chiffon, and, of course, the oh-so-many brilliant colors.
And Ms. Ross never fails to deliver on the promise of great music and awe-inspiring splendor.
But when she performed to a sold-out crowd at the Chicago Theatre on Wednesday, July 10, the living legend had a few surprises up her feathered sleeves, and most of them happened as the show was supposedly ending.
Ms. Ross is touring the country as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebration, which kicked off with a pre-75th birthday commemoration at this year’s Grammys and has continued since with what is being officially billed as the Brand New Day 2019 tour.
The first surprise at the Chicago stop was her opening act, none other than first daughter Rhonda Ross. Rhonda was introduced as a singer/songwriter (who knew?) who was there to promote her new CD. The younger Ross launched into a 20-minute, six-song set that included her own songs plus takes on classics by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (“Somewhere” from West Side Story), Jill Scott (“A Long Walk”) and Adele (“Rolling In The Deep”).
Rhonda even boldly stepped into her famous mom’s territory with a rendition of the blues classic made famous by Billie Holiday, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.”
Though not many people know this, Rhonda, 47, is a show business veteran having starred in a soap opera (she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in the ‘90s for her role as Toni Burrell in Another World) and movies.
But musically, she’s a late bloomer with only one studio album (released in 2016) to her credit. As far as her singing went on this night, what she lacked in tonality she made up for in stage presence. She clearly enjoyed engaging the crowd (including hyping her website and an upcoming album). The crowd, in turn, warmly received her.
But this crowd was amped for mom Diana, whose first appearance – mere minutes after Rhonda exited the stage – was to “I’m Coming Out,” the Chic-produced 1980 hit that had the crowd immediately on its feet dancing and singing along. That segued into the tune “More Today Than Yesterday,” a cover of the Spiral Staircase song from the 1960s that Ms. Ross has included in her show for years now, practically making it her own during live performances.
Then came the Supremes hits, first “Stop! In The Name Of Love,” followed by “Come See About Me,” “You Can’t Hurry Love” and later “Love Child.” Those were just four of that legendary Motown group’s twelve No. 1 hits and – as the only Supremes songs of the night – Ms. Ross clearly left a bunch of classics on the table. Still, the crowd wasn’t complaining as they stood at their seats clapping and singing along to hits they’ve known and loved for more than half a century.
“Love Child” was given the special treatment by Ms. Ross’ backing band, which transformed the classic Motown tune into a lengthy, calypso-styled jam that gave Ross time for the first of five costume changes.
Upon her return to the stage, the legend delved into her disco-era hits. First, there was the Ashford & Simpson-penned 1979 tune that became her nickname, “The Boss,” followed by another Chic-produced hit, the 1980 No. 1 smash “Upside Down.”
Diana sings “Upside Down” on July 10 at the Chicago Theatre.
In its original, Chic-polished glory, “Upside Down” was Diana at her funkiest and, as many of my closest friends know, it’s my favorite song. Done live, however, the disco-era hit loses its luster as it foregoes the vision intended by Chic maestros Nile Rodgers and the late Bernard Edwards.
Still, the enthused crowd stood up for Diana’s performance of it on this night, and by the time she finished it, “Upside Down” had morphed into a ten-minute marathon that included Ross engaging the audience and inviting several fans on stage to dance and sing with her. A rousing standing ovation followed for what was ultimately one of the show’s highlights.
More disco followed with another No. 1 “Love Hangover,” followed by the latter-day Diana tune “Take Me Higher” and her main contribution to 1978’s movie musical The Wiz, “Ease On Down The Road.”
After a second costume change, Diana emerged in a striking purple and black truffled ensemble for a more mellow set that included her take on the Burt Bacharach classic, “The Look Of Love” and two Billie Holiday tunes from Ross’ Oscar-nominated acting role in Lady Sings the Blues, “Don’t Explain” and the more playful “My Man.”
Then it was back to three more No. 1 pop hits with “Theme From ‘Mahogany’,” her signature tune “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” which included a snippet of the guitar solo in Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”
By the time that portion of the set finished she had gone through her third, fourth and fifth costume changes, the last two of which included a sleek, body-hugging black dress that showed off Diana’s once-again trimmed down frame, and finally a flowing blue number that got the loudest applause of the night as far as her outfits went.
But it was Diana’s next move that was the most impressive.
After modeling – or more accurately showing off – the blue wardrobe wonder, Ms. Ross engaged the crowd in a sit-down chat, inviting fans to come up to the microphone – hers – and ask her anything they wanted to know. After stating nothing was off limits, she answered mostly tame questions about her next album (she’s recording it at the end of the year), her favorite song (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”) and who she’d like to record a duet with that she hadn’t yet.
She answered that last question by stating the singer was a guest in the audience, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls fame, which generated loud applause as audience members began feverishly looking around to try and spot the singer.
When Hudson didn’t emerge right away, Diana continued answering questions like what advice she’d give to young aspiring singers to keep their voice strong for 75 years. Answer: she had no particular advice but offered that she steamed her vocal chords before shows and that each person should just stay true to themselves. Her most interesting commentary was about how she doesn’t sweat her performances anymore by fretting over whether she’ll hit all the right notes or be on key or make mistakes. It was an introspection from a lady who clearly has reached a more zen-like state in her later years.
After the eight-minute “interview,” Ms. Ross went into the traditional finish with her favorite audience participation tune, “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” as the audience swayed side-to-side with hands either raised or interlocked.
Then, just as the show was ending with the band’s outro – a reprise of “I Will Survive” – up comes none other than Chicago’ own Jennifer Hudson who got a little playful scorning from Ms. Ross as to her whereabouts when she was supposed to show up on stage earlier. Diana got in quite a few digs, including chiding Hudson about not being at her 75th birthday party, noting that “Beyoncé was there.”
But the capper was when Diana asked Hudson to join her in a duet of “Endless Love,” the biggest hit of the Motown legend’s career (and her last big hit for Motown in 1981).
Diana Ross and Jennifer Hudson perform “Endless Love” on July 10, 2019 at the Chicago Theatre during Diana’s Diamond Jubilee.
Hudson obliged and performed her parts perfectly while the doting Ms. Ross led the way, singing Lionel Richie’s parts as Hudson sang Diana’s.
It was three unexpected minutes of pure heaven for fans of either artist, but especially those of Ms. Ross, who had given us far more than expected on this perfect night.
In all, there were more than 90 minutes and 22 songs worth of fun and entertainment by a looser Diana Ross, a legend who knows she’s one but wasn’t giving us that vibe during the show. She was playful, engaging, and willing to share the spotlight with others.
She was just beautiful in all her 75-year-old glory.
Diana Ross will forever be known for her exquisite showmanship, and for one more night in Chicagoland, more than 3500 people got to see why.
Jennifer Hudson and Diana Ross (July 10, 2019 at the Chicago Theatre)
Diana Ross’ Setlist for the Chicago Theatre on July 10, 2019:
“I’m Coming Out”
“More Today Than Yesterday” (Spiral Staircase cover)
“Stop In The Name Of Love” (Supremes)
“Come See About Me” (Supremes)
“You Can’t Hurry Love” (Supremes)
“Love Child” (Supremes)
“Love Hangover”
“Ease On Down The Road”
“The Look Of Love” (Burt Bacharach)
“Don’t Explain” (Billie Holiday cover)
My man” (Billie Holiday cover; from Lady Sings the Blues)
“Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” (Frankie Lyman & the Teenagers cover)
“Theme From ‘Mahogany’ (Do You Know Where You’re Going To?)”
“I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor cover w/ snippet of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”)
“Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)”
“I Will Survive” (encore/reprise)
“Endless Love” (duet with Jennifer Hudson)
You can also register for free to receive notifications of future articles by visiting the home page (scroll up!).
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“I can’t” and the amazing truth about us all
We say “I can’t” all the time:
“I can’t come to dinner, because it’s my wife’s birthday.”
“I can’t stop smoking. Its too hard.”
“I can’t figure out why I’m so tired. I’m just tired.”
But its never true. Every “I can’t” is always an “I don’t want to”:
“I don’t want to come to dinner because I prioritise my wife’s birthday.”
“I don’t want to have to deal with “too hard” while I quit smoking.”
“I don’t want to figure out why I’m so tired. I’m satisfied with ‘so tired’.”
If we can realise that “I can’t” is never an expression of ability, we will be more truthful about what it really expresses: Willingness.
If we can replace “I can’t” with “I don’t want to”, we will be more honest with ourselves and everyone else.
It will be hard, but we will be willing to do “hard”.
“Of course,” you will say, “there are limits to this denial of can’t.”
“OK, maybe I don’t want to go to dinner with you, but I can’t play anything on a violin! ”
But it’s not true. There are no limits.
If I want to play a violin, I will play a violin. It’s as simple as that. We are all amazing. We are all limitless. And we are all able.
If we want to be.
“No, no, that’s enough,” you will say, grasping at straws. “There are still some things I can’t do :
I can’t jump over a tall building without any aid from technology.”
And you will wait for me to say that you could try if you wanted to.
But I won’t. Because that’s not the point and not the truth that gives rise to the point.
Yes. There are some limits in physical ability.
I could not go out today and complete an Iron Man faster than anyone ever did.
I can’t jump over a tall building.
But that is not a reductio ad absurdum to the real point.
Because the point is not about physical limits and you damn well know it.
When did you ever say “I can’t jump over a tall building” until today ?
You are just looking to argue your way out of hearing the truth about how we all speak all the time.
And the truth about who we really are.
The point is about being a lion, not a victim.
We all have amazing ability.
We all have dreams.
We all have a “real me” hidden behind the bullshitting victim that other “me” is trying so hard to cling on to.
We can all be decisive and take ownership for whatever action we choose to go out and get.
We can all dare to announce to the world the limits we choose to place on ourselves.
And we can all believe in and be willing to be who we really are and do what we really want.
Sometimes I don’t want to.
And that’s OK.
But I always can.
And that’s the amazing truth about us all.
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Freedom Project
Impact Your World
Death toll in Kabul hotel attack rises to 14; Taliban claim responsibility
By Masoud Popalzai and Jethro Mullen, CNN
Updated 1603 GMT (0003 HKT) May 14, 2015
Afghan security forces surrounded the Park Palace Guest House in Kabul.
A UK-Afghan national was killed in a "callous" act of terrorism, a diplomat says
An American citizen and Italian national are also among the dead
"These deliberate attacks on civilians are atrocities," a U.N. official says
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) The death toll from an attack on a hotel in Kabul where guests were trapped amid gunfire has risen to 14, a senior Afghan police official said Thursday.
Foreigners are among the casualties from the deadly assault Wednesday night on the Park Palace Guest House, for which the Taliban have claimed responsibility.
An American citizen was killed, U.S. authorities have said. Four of the victims were Indian citizens, CNN affiliate IBN reported, citing Indian Foreign Ministry officials.
Luciano Pezzotti, Italy's ambassador to Afghanistan, said on Italian TV that one of his countrymen was also among those killed.
And a British-Afghan dual national who, according to UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, was "working for the British Council" died as well.
"This incident brings home to us once again the courage and perseverance of the people of Afghanistan and members of the international community who support them," Hammond said in a statement. "These callous acts of terrorism against innocent civilians must not be allowed to threaten a more peaceful future for Afghanistan."
They were among people gathered at the hotel for a cultural event, according to the United Nations.
Six others were wounded in the attack, including an Afghan special forces member, said the Afghan police official, who declined to be identified. The identities of the victims have not been released.
U.N.: Attacks on civilians are 'atrocities'
The Taliban, which issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, have often targeted sites frequented by foreigners. In March 2014, they carried out a deadly assault on the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul.
"These deliberate attacks on civilians are atrocities," said Georgette Gagnon, the U.N. human rights director in Afghanistan, referring to the Park Palace attack and one on a government department in Helmand province.
The siege began at about 8 p.m. Wednesday (11:30 a.m. ET). It ended more than five hours later, Kabul police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said.
Security forces rescued more than 50 people from the hotel, including trapped guests, the police chief said.
There was confusion over the exact number of gunmen involved.
Police officials said early Thursday that Afghan special forces had killed three armed assailants who were behind the attack. But the unidentified Afghan police official said later that the body of only one assailant had been found.
The Taliban also said that they had sent only one attacker to the hotel.
CNN's Masoud Popalzai reported from Kabul, and Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Hada Messia and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.
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EEAS homepage > Eastern Partnership > The EU and the EaP countries review the progress achieved under the 20 Deliverables for 2020
The EU and the EaP countries review the progress achieved under the 20 Deliverables for 2020
A meeting with Foreign Ministers of the 28 European Union Member States and the EU’s six Eastern partners – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine – and Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, chaired by High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini, took place today in Luxembourg to take stock of the progress made under the 20 Deliverables for 2020 to bring concrete benefits for citizens.
The meeting took place one year after the last Eastern Partnership Summit, during which all partners agreed on an ambitious work plan, 20 Deliverables for 2020, aiming at bringing tangible benefits to the lives of citizens across the region. In this context, cooperation between the European Union and its six Eastern partner countries has focused on working towards stronger economies, stronger governance, stronger connectivity and stronger societies.
High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini said: “The Eastern Partnership is a key component of our foreign policy. Our Ministerial meeting today has been an important moment to review not only the different bilateral relations we have, but also the common work are doing within the Eastern Partnership framework. We are delivering not only economic benefits, such as increased trade volumes between all six partner countries and the European Union, but also strengthening democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms. We need to keep pressing ahead with implementation if we are to continue to see good results.”
Commissioner Johannes Hahn said: "We should be proud of our achievements in the framework of the Eastern Partnership’s 20 Deliverables for 2020. Together, the six Eastern Partners and the EU, have taken concrete steps towards making our societies stronger, the region’s economies more resilient and better connected through improved transport links and infrastructure. Looking ahead, we will continue to work together for concrete results, in particular in the areas of judicial reform and ensuring an enabling environment for civil society independent media.”
/file/eapprogresspng_eneap_progress.png
Key achievements over the last year of the EU’s cooperation with the six countries include:
the launch of the Eastern Partnership European School;
the strengthened support to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and an increase in trade between the partner countries and the EU;
the finalisation of an indicative TEN-T investment action plan which foresees 5,500 kilometres of road and rail projects by 2020.
The ministerial meeting also provided the opportunity to exchange views and prepare for the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership, which will be marked with a series of events throughout 2019.
Launched in 2009 as a joint policy initiative, the Eastern Partnership (EaP) aims to deepen and strengthen relations between the European Union (EU), its Member States and its six Eastern neighbours: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. At the last Eastern Partnership Summit in November 2017 all partners agreed to deliver tangible benefits to the daily lives of their citizens by focusing on achieving 20 Deliverables for 2020.
For more information see the factsheet on the 20 Deliverables for 2020
For more information on the cooperation between the EU and individual EaP countries, see the country factsheets.
EEAS
EU information in Russian
Regional policies
EU and partners fostering youth skills - Young people's real stories
EU marks peace building partnership with new Delegation in Kuwait
Federica Mogherini en tournée dans la région du Sahel
Niger: Mogherini meets vulnerable migrants who speak about their stories and vital EU-IOM support
The EU and G5 Sahel: key partners to secure stability in the region and beyond
Top 10 Achievements of the Eastern Partnership in the last 10 YearsLaunched in 2009 as a joint policy initiative, the Eastern Partnership (EaP) aims to deepen and strengthen relations between the European Union (EU), its Member States and its six Eastern neighbours: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Within this framework,
EDD 2019: Top development leaders and practitioners discuss ways to address inequalities to achieve sustainable peace “It is crucial to find ways to address inequalities and foster inclusion in order to create conditions for sustainable peace and stability. And inclusion is not just socio-economic, because political inclusion is just as important. It should make people feel they are fully part of society and that
The EU and the countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan hold High-level Political and Security Dialogue The EU and the countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan hold High-level Political and Security Dialogue
Orav: The country's willingness to reform its electoral system is of crucial importance for the reform process The country's genuine willingness to reform its electoral system in an inclusive manner is of crucial importance for the reform process. This was concluded during the conference organised within the EU-funded project “Let fair elections become a habit!- Building trust in the integrity of the
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Written by EgoPoisoning August 20, 2012
My Brain Has Excellent Casting
I just had a dream. This dream, which followed on the heels of a dream where Adam Sandler made a very tasteless joke about midgets ladling love-juice on the hair of sleeping female employees at a strip club (the dream included no actual stripping).
In the dream, Paul Blackthorne was playing Harry Dresden, which he did.
He was comforting a young woman, after he’d used his magical talents to solve the brutal murder of her family during a daring crime. The criminal was, of course, Michael Massee–or possibly Billy Drago. Dresden was explaining that since the character had previously been a diamond thief, he was well-suited to switching into safe-cracking. But, specifically, Dresden said “What the mind wills, the hand will do.”
In Latin.
A language I don’t speak.
Dresden said that while spinning a drill and, using a slight bit of prestidigitation, crafting a three-lobed amethyst crystal which he gave to the grieving girl in order to assuage her bad dreams.
My wife, on the other hand, had a dream where I cheated on her and some people wrecked our wedding, and now I’m home alone.
Previous Post The Dice Will Roll!
Next Post Time!
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Browsing by Author "Valitutto, Richard"
Andria L. Helm, mezzo-soprano, Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Helm, Andria L. (University of Cincinnati. College-Conservatory of Music; University of Cincinnati. Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library; University of Cincinnati; University of Cincinnati. Archives and Rare Books Library, 2008-06-10)
Bogdana Krasteva, violin, Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Krasteva, Bogdana (University of Cincinnati. College-Conservatory of Music; University of Cincinnati. Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library; University of Cincinnati; University of Cincinnati. Archives and Rare Books Library, 2009-05-26)
Curt J. Armbruster, percussion, Sunday, May 24, 2009
Armbruster, Curt (University of Cincinnati. College-Conservatory of Music; University of Cincinnati. Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library; University of Cincinnati; University of Cincinnati. Archives and Rare Books Library, 2009-05-24)
Elizabeth Eccleston, oboe, Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Eccleston, Elizabeth (University of Cincinnati. College-Conservatory of Music; University of Cincinnati. Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library; University of Cincinnati; University of Cincinnati. Archives and Rare Books Library, 2006-11-22)
Matthew M. Boyles, clarinet, Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Boyles, Matthew M. (University of Cincinnati. College-Conservatory of Music; University of Cincinnati. Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library; University of Cincinnati; University of Cincinnati. Archives and Rare Books Library, 2008-02-26)
Richard Valitutto, piano, Friday, February 9, 2007
Valitutto, Richard (University of Cincinnati. College-Conservatory of Music; University of Cincinnati. Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library; University of Cincinnati; University of Cincinnati. Archives and Rare Books Library, 2007-02-09)
Richard Valitutto, piano, Friday, May 9, 2008
Richard Valitutto, piano, Thursday, May 21, 2009
Ryan Pratt, composition, Friday, May 16, 2008
Pratt, Ryan (University of Cincinnati. College-Conservatory of Music; University of Cincinnati. Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library; University of Cincinnati; University of Cincinnati. Archives and Rare Books Library, 2008-05-16)
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Graduate School - Theses and Dissertations collections
Creighton Theses and Dissertations
Curcumin and Resveratrol loaded Calcium Alginate nanoparticles for anti-cancer therapy
Saralkar_P_2016_MS.pdf (2.286Mb)
Saralkar, Pushkar Atul
MS (Master of Science), Pharmaceutical Science
Copyright: Thesis/Dissertation © Pushkar Saralkar, 2016
Curcumin and resveratrol are naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds having anti-cancer potential. However, their poor aqueous solubility and bioavailability limits their clinical use. Entrapment of hydrophobic drugs into hydrophilic nanoparticles such as calcium alginate presents a means to deliver these drugs to their target site.
Curcumin and resveratrol loaded calcium alginate nanoparticles were prepared by emulsification and cross-linking process. The nanoparticles were characterized for particle size, zeta potential, moisture content, physical state of the drugs, physical stability, and entrapment efficiency. An UPLC method was developed and validated for the simultaneous analysis of curcumin and resveratrol. The in vitro release of drugs from the nanoparticles was studied using the dialysis membrane. The cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of the formulation was studied in DU145 prostate cancer cell line.
The particle size of the nanosuspension and freeze dried nanoparticles was found to be 12.53±1.06 nm and 60.23±15 nm, respectively. The zeta potential of blank as well as drug loaded nanoparticles were in the range of -13 to -25 mV. The moisture content of blank and drug loaded nanoparticles was 5.9±0.8% and 4.8±0.2%, respectively, as determined by Karl Fisher titrimetry. Both DSC and powder XRD studies indicated that curcumin as well as resveratrol were present in a non-crystalline state, in the nanoparticles. The entrapment efficiency for curcumin and resveratrol was found to be 49.3±4.3% and 70.99±6.1%, respectively. Resveratrol showed a higher release than curcumin (87.6±7.9% versus 16.3±3.1%) in 24 hours. Curcumin was found to be taken up by the cells from solution as well as the nanoparticles. Resveratrol had a poor cellular uptake. The drug loaded nanoparticles were found to exhibit cytotoxic effects on DU145 cells with a 47.2±7.7% cell survival, 72-hours post-treatment. Drug solution exhibited greater toxicity than nanoparticles at the highest concentrations. The formulation was found to be safe for intravenous administration. This formulation needs further testing for its efficacy in other cells lines such as prostate cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer cell lines. The possible efflux mechanism for resveratrol transport in these cell needs future investigation.
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Modi most followed world leader on Facebook
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most followed world leader on Facebook with 43.2 million followers on his personal page, according to study by a leading global public relations and communications firm released on Wednesday.
Modi’s followers are nearly twice the 23.1 million who follow US President Donald, the “World Leaders on Facebook” study by Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), a top-three, full-service, global communications agency with expertise in digital and integrated communications.
As of March 15, 2018, Queen Rania of Jordan is in third place with 16 million followers, ahead of the institutional page of the Indian prime minister, @PMOIndia, with 13.9 million followers.
The study analysed the activity of 650 Facebook pages of heads of state and government and foreign ministers from January 1, 2017 using aggregate data from Facebook’s Crowdtangle tool.
Over the past 14 months, the Facebook page of Trump had by far the most interactions of any world leader on Facebook, with a total of 204.9 million interactions (defined as the total number of comments, likes and shares), almost twice as many as Narendra Modi with 113.6 million interactions.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has 46 million interactions and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen and Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri follow with 36 and 33.4 million interactions, respectively.
The study found that 175, or 91 percent, of the 193 United Nations member states maintain an official Facebook page.
In addition, 109 heads of state, 86 heads of government and 72 foreign ministers maintain personal pages on the platform.
“It is clear that world leaders are increasingly using social media to communicate directly with their constituents and platforms like Facebook to bring a personal, humanizing tone to their communications,”said Chad Latz, chief innovation officer, Burson Cohn & Wolfe.
The findings revealed that, while more than half of the posts have photos, world leaders are increasingly sharing videos and a handful are going live to talk directly to their constituents.
Tags: facebook Modi
Modi, Amit Shah thank people for voting BJP as single largest party in Karnataka
GST-registered MSMEs access to cheaper credit : Modi
Trump-linked political data firm Cambridge Analytica skirted Facebook’s privacy policies
Modi warns action for not selling goods at reduced prices after GST reduction
Modi government has systematically annihilated Panchayati Raj System: Congress
Modi, Xi to meet during SCO summit in China on June 9
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Captain And His Crew essays
Captain De Chaumereys And Governor Schmaltz
... he Loire, The Medusa and The Echo. The Medusa was to transport the governor along with 400 passengers, to re-establish the colony. Soon after departing the Port de Rochefort on June 17, 1816, the Medusa, piloted by an inexperienced captain, Hugues Duro y De Chaumereys, sailed quickly away from the rest of the fleet, leaving The Medusa, her crew and passengers to the mercy of the Atlantic. De Chaumereys, an incompetent sea captain, achieved his high ranking position due to political influence...
Crew Aboard A Pirate Vessel
DEMOCRATIC OUTLAWS? Pirates, the outlaws of the sea. If like me, the first idea that comes to mind regarding pirates is a group of raiding and plundering individuals. This is due to today's society glamorizing the pirates as fascinating characters. Historically, not much written information has been left behind. The pirates did not leave ship logs or accounts of plunders, because it could be used to incriminate them. Society today has invented the pirates to fit a romantic mold. Therefore, we gr...
Captains Cabin Legatt
"The Secret Sharer" The short story "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad centers around a character of a sea captain who is insecure and has great feelings of inadequacy on his fist job as Captain of a ship. In the story the Captain befriends a fugitive by the name of Legatt who is clearly shown to be a figment of the Captains imagination rather than an actual human being. The title of the story alone suggests that the "secret sharer" is an imaginary friend that is secretive and that the Captain...
Flight Engineer And The First Officer
Flight Synopsis Flight KAL 801 was scheduled to fly from Kimpo Airport in Seoul, Korea to A.B. Won Guam International Airport in Agana, Guam. The flight crew had met earlier to discuss the flight release, weather conditions and fill out all necessary paperwork. And on August 6th, 1997 at 9: 27 PM the Boeing 747-300 departed Kimpo Airport for a three hour and fifty minute trip to Guam. The flight crew consisted of a captain, first officer and a flight engineer. The captain had several flight hour...
Social Classes And The Fishermen
A number of aspects about the film, Captains Courageous were quite interesting. The first is the gap between the rich and the working class. The second is the way the shipmates could work their way up the ladder to captain. The third aspect that interested me was the very high mortality rate. Apparently this was considered socially acceptable back then. I was intrigued about how much camaraderie and competition existed between the boats and their crews. Finally, I was amazed at the father and so...
Surviving Members Of His Crew
FATAL VOYAGE The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis by Dan Kurz man 8 September 2000 The United States Navy's core values are based on Honor, Courage, and Commitment. These three basic principles have laid the foundation for the continued success of the Navy and has enabled us to meet and conquer every new challenge. Honor - true faith and allegiance; conducting ourselves in the highest ethical manner in all relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates. Abide by an uncompromising code of i...
Actions Of Captain Bligh
HMS Bounty The HMS Bounty set sail in 1789. Captain William Bligh and his many crewmember's ran the ship. There was an upset between the crew and the Captain. Even though the men violated the "Articles of War" it was justifiable that they should not be punished. The Crew of Captain Bligh, under penalty of law and the Captain, had no right to commit mutiny and remove the Captain from the ship. The "Articles of War" clearly state that if any crewmember conceals any traitorous practice or design sh...
Poor Flight And Cabin Crew Communication
The Importance of Communication and Teamwork Among the Flight and Cabin Crew TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 4 INTRODUCTION 5 Background 5 Purpose / Audience 5 Sources 5 Limitations 5 Scope 5 COLLECTED DATA 5 Importance of Communication Among the Crew 5 Main Cause of Aircraft Accidents 6 Duties of the Crew Members 7 Expectations of the Crew 7 The Crew is a Team 8 Intimidation in the Cockpit 8 Cabin Crew is a part of the Team 9 Trusting the Crew's Judgment 9 Crew Resource Management (CRM) 9 Outline of...
Two Main Characters The Captain
The Secret Sharer This book has two main characters the Captain, who is the central main character, and Leggatt, the secret sharer, whom is the competitor, along with minor characters such as the first and second shipmates. The captain narrates the story, but he is telling the story years after it actually took place. It seems as if the character knows little about the other characters thoughts, he just tells us what he knows from his experience with them. The captain also has a certain amount o...
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Eternal Orbit’s Most Influential Games Growing Up
Feb 28, 2019 EternalOrbit
Growing up we all had games that helped shape who we are today. Given the position that gaming has put all six of us in, we wanted to write an article about which ones affected us the most, and our experience with them!
AzraelAsItGets (Starcraft: Brood War)
It is nearly impossible for me to name one particular video game which would be the most memorable or influential on me growing up. That said, if I had to pick one it would be StarCraft: Brood War. This was the game that single-handedly ignited my passion for video gaming and e-sports. The hundreds and thousands of hours I put into this game over a decade spawned a passion for gaming in me that has become one of the driving forces in my life. Sure, there were many other games that crept in as well—such as World of Warcraft—but it was StarCraft that really started my journey. It was my love of StarCraft that lead me to follow the then-pro gamer and caster Sean “Day9” Plott back in 2009, who I later followed to Twitch when he moved to the platform, which in turn eventually lead to me streaming as well.
So, considering that I am writing this blurb for my Twitch-based Eternal Orbit stream team’s website, it seems only fitting that I recognize StarCraft: Brood War as the IP that not only launched my passion for video games, but that is also, quite literally and somewhat ironically, the reason why I’m even writing this piece at all.
Blumplunk (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is, and will always be, in my heart. I often think back to when I would come home from school and become engulfed by with how mesmerizing it was. I would be glued in front of the TV for hours on end. I could be doing the silliest things, like going fishing, or playing every mini-game there was in every town.
OoT was, and still is, this funny and cute, but also very challenging game. If you have played it you know what I’m talking about. I used to share my adventures with a fellow classmate, and if one of us was ever stuck we helped each other out. Well, he mostly helped me out, but still. If Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is not THE best game ever, it’s goddamn close.
ExilesRhythm (Super Smash Bros. (N64))
Super Smash Brothers has had such a large influence on my life, I would not be the same person without it. The first time I played SSB64 I was 10 years old and loved the challenge. The fact that you could scale the difficulty and got immediate feedback whether you were doing something wrong or right pleased the puzzle seeking part of my brain, and of course, being a fighting game, it satisfied the adolescent lust for confrontation. Soon, I found, none of my friends could beat me at the game. They would fight me 3 v 1 and I would still win. It was a satisfying feeling being the biggest fish, but I didn’t realize until much later in life how large the pond was exactly. My friend Phil was the first person I ever met who could beat me. We’d battle all night, elevating each other’s game further and further. Eventually I had to move away, and we figured out how to play SSB64 against each other online. I’d also play against others online, and bring the lessons learned from all those bumps and bruises back to my games with Phil.
Phil and I began to drift apart shortly after 2016, so I had to look to the larger SSB64 community. I began going to tournaments, meeting friends, and leaving the house. Doing all of this also helped me deal with my long-standing anxiety issues and agoraphobia. If it wasn’t for my early years with SSB64 I would not have continued to play video games as an adult. If it wasn’t for my time with Phil I would not be competitive. If it wasn’t for my time with the community I would still be a complete recluse and a nervous wreck. If it weren’t for my losses I wouldn’t know how to be humble. The more I think about it, the more I think I could consider SSB64 a parent. 🤔
rudeclouds (World of Warcraft)
World of Warcraft was there for me for almost 5 years while I was going through some rough chapters in life. My brother started playing Vanilla near release (I didn’t have a subscription until a couple months later), and I would just sit next to him, completely entranced, to watch. Seeing a Druid level up in Teldrassil will probably be something I remember for the rest of my life.
The game was just so expansive, and different from anything I had ever seen. It felt like anything was possible. Starting WoW led to countless LANs/nonstop gaming sessions with close friends, and really was the culmination of my adolescence. I also would have never started playing Hearthstone if I hadn’t become so invested in the Warcraft universe. To this day it’s the game that holds the most meaningful spot in my heart, and I’m thankful I had the opportunity to grow alongside it.
Striving_Light (Dynasty Warriors 2)
Dynasty Warriors 2 came out when I was just 4 years old. I’ve been a gamer all my life, starting with the original Game Boy and playing black and white Pokémon games. Being able to play DW2 on the Playstation 2 was such a huge upgrade for me. It fits the tomboy side of me perfectly where I can just slash, kill, and destroy :D.
Even to this day I own Dynasty Warrior games, with 8 being the newest one. It’s my all time favorite, and the first console game that I was obsessed with. The nostalgia it gives me, the mechanics, story, everything about it makes it my all time favorite.
Valseran (MediEvil)
Video games have been the biggest influence in my life by far, so it’s hard for me to say which one had the biggest impact when I was growing up. However, I’d have to say MediEvil was an absolute blast. It was the first game I played that fit the stereotypical “hero saves the day”-type of RPG. But gosh darn, even with that in mind it certainly took a cool twist on the whole thing. There were really interesting gameplay mechanics, like detaching your head to put on a severed hand and run around, and a witty, unusual main character.
I also distinctly remember getting stuck on a puzzle and for the first time ever, and I can’t recall ever since, having to ask someone to help me complete a game because I was hard stuck, haha. I was probably 6 or so and I had to ask my sister to help me with a puzzle. I still really fondly remember that time, being able to just purely enjoy a game, and the story it was trying to tell with my sister. I’d like to think if I were ever a world saving video game character, I’d be a mute skeleton who really has no idea what’s going on, too. (And yes I am BEYOND excited for the Remaster, although I’m really hoping they do the second game as well.)
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Archive | April, 2011
Shakespeare once said, “I love the P-51.” True story.
Designed and built in just 117 days
Armament: Six .50-cal. machine guns and 10 5-in. rockets or 2,000 lbs. of bombs
Engine: Packard-built Rolls-Royce Merlin V-1650 of 1,695 hp
Maximum speed: 437 mph
Cruising speed: 275 mph
Range: 1,000 miles
Ceiling: 41,900 ft.
Span: 37 ft.
Length: 32 ft. 3 in.
Height: 13 ft. 8 in.
Weight: 12,100 lbs. maximum
How about some flybys?
http://www.aviationspectator.com/resources/aircraft-profiles/north-american-p-51-mustang-aircraft-profile
Tags: mustang, North American, P-51, P51, WWII
Categories Aviation, History
New addiction? I think I might really enjoy being on dirt… uh oh.
So I started life with a ’71 Chevelle. Years later, and with a much lighter wallet, I sold it. Then I turned to the old school hot rod world… the ’28 Model A coupe. Well, I moved on from that also.
For the past two years I’ve had my ’60 Watson Indy Roadster dream. Copies of AJ Watson’s blueprints are in the safe.
But there’s the light wallet problem. I think that one’s going to have to wait ’til a little later in life where there’s more time and money floating around. In the mean time, I was introduced the to the world of offroading this weekend… all the way down to the broken parts.
It is wrong to start window shopping for a toy to wheel around in? And is it even more wrong that I would love to hack up an early Bronco 😀
Tags: Bridgeport, broken, jeep, JK, offroad, TJ
Categories Auto, Outdoors
Solo speed climbing record on The Eiger – insane, beautifiul, scary all at once video
Ueli Steck setting a new record.
The Eiger is a 13,025 ft peak in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.
+5 pts for having Radical Face for the soundtrack.
At the limit: Speed climbing
Scaling the treacherous north face of the Eiger in less than three hours is the pinnacle of the extreme sport of speed climbing
Tom Whipple
The Traverse of the Gods is still a desperate climb. Its approach is scored by a thousand scratches, each the scramble of an alpinist looking for purchase on the icy rock. If climbers fall here they will have 14 seconds to ponder their mistake before they reach the bottom.
Many have been defeated by this, the most exposed section of the north face of the Eiger, itself one of the most infamous climbs in Europe. The mountain was first conquered in 1858, but its near-vertical northern flank, with unpredictable weather and snow and ice fields rarely touched by the sun, held out until 1938.
Generations of mountaineers have been inspired to try, but few have made it. It is a climb that has claimed more than 50 souls. Yet Ueli Steck, a Swiss climber, has just shattered all past records by shinning up the north face in 2hr 47min 33sec. His previous best in 2007 was just under four hours, which itself had slashed half an hour off the four-year old record held by Christoph Hainz, an Italian climber.
Steck’s feat is the latest example of the growing phenomenon of “speed climbing”. For adherents it is no longer enough to climb a mountain “because it’s there”; they also want to scale it in record time.
To understand the magnitude of his achievement, we need to go back to when the north face was first conquered. For three days in the summer of 1938, excited tourists manned the observation telescopes of the Kleine Scheidegg hotel in Switzerland. High above them, four alpinists were hacking their way up the north face – a vertical mile of ice, rock and snow– to the summit 13,025ft above sea level. On past form, the assembled crowd must have expected to witness the climbers’ deaths.
Instead, they were present for a pivotal event in mountaineering history: it was the last great unclimbed Alpine wall, and the Austrian-German team who scaled it received personal congratulations from Adolf Hitler. They also inspired such greats as Chris Bonington, who made the first British ascent 24 years later.
Steck’s phenomenal climb began on the morning of Februay 13. The weather was fine, and he was acclimatised to the altitude.
He stood at the base of the cliff and looked up at the huge wall of rock towering above him. If he was to climb it in less than three hours, he would need to cover 35 vertical feet a minute. To do that, he needed to be as light as possible.
An ordinary climbing pair on the Eiger’s north face carry two 200ft ropes, a sleeping bag each, a stove, gas, food for three days, ice axes, and safety gear for attaching equipment to ice and to rock.
Everything Steck had could fit in a small rucksack. He had just the essentials: a thin 100ft rope (which he didn’t use), a single ice screw, four karabiners and a pair of ice axes. Most ramblers on Ben Nevis carry more weight. Because of his training regime, he had also lost 11lb in body weight. Compared with his last record breaking ascent, he was lighter, quicker and stronger. His attempt followed the most popular line, the 1938 route. “On the lower part of the wall there was quite a lot of snow, which cost me a lot of energy,” he says. In every other respect, though, the “conditions were simply perfect: very dry rock and the ice fields were covered with hard snow”.
His first major obstacle was the Hinterstoisser Traverse. A thin band of vertical rock, 100ft wide, it separates the lower portion of the climb from a steep snow slope beyond. At this point, any climber who looks down between their legs will see 2,000ft of clear air.
In a celebrated feat of rock climbing, Andreas Hinterstoisser proved in 1936 that it was climbable, but in doing so sealed his fate. When his party was forced to retreat, they discovered they could not cross back – the traverse was possible from right to left, but from left to right there were simply not enough holds. All four climbers died: the last frozen to death dangling helplessly from a rope, within earshot of rescuers.
After the Hinterstoisser Traverse comes a series of snow fields. This is where most parties pause after a day’s climbing to set up camp for the night before trekking across to the next rocky section. Steck, however, was still a little over an hour into his ascent.
By this stage it was critical that he moved fast. He needed to cross the upper sections before the temperature rose too high – even in winter, loose rocks come unfrozen from the crumbling face, hurtling down at deadly speeds.
At the end of the snow fields, Steck reached Death Bivouac – named for an unfortunate early climbing party who froze to death, huddled in the snow. Only now, for a climber of Steck’s ability, did the serious climbing begin.
The route takes alpinists directly up a steep groove known as the Ramp. A thin ice-filled crack, flanked by angled rock, it is perhaps the most technically difficult section of the whole face. Here, Steck’s experience showed. Delicately placing his crampons on thin ledges, and wedging his axes in cracks, he pulled himself elegantly up – to be rewarded with the Traverse of the Gods. If there was anywhere where Steck would have succumbed to fear, it was here. But his concessions to safety were small.
“I carried my rope on my back and had a daisy chain on my harness, which allowed me to clip on the fixed gear on the route,” he says, describing the looped sling he used to attached himself to equipment left by other climbers. “Other than that, I did not use the rope at all.”
As he entered the third hour of his climb, laterising tourists in Kleine Scheidegg would have still been taking breakfast. Some might have been looking through one of the many telescopes trained on the mountain. If they had been, they would have seen Steck facing his last obstacles: the White Spider, a snow slope where the first of the day’s rocks would be plummeting to earth; and the Exit Cracks – thin grooves leading to the summit ridge.
Finally, his thighs burning, soaked in sweat, but otherwise unharmed, Steck hauled himself the last few feet to the summit and stopped his watch. He had climbed 6,000ft; the display read 2hr, 47min 33sec.
Some have criticised Steck’s achievement, and the new obsession with speed, as demeaning to the efforts of other climbers, but Sir Chris Bonington believes it to be an inevitable progression. “The real thing is, as in all sports, each generation is trying to surpass the previous generation,” he says.
“In areas that have been developed for a long time – the Alps, Yosemite, Everest – because you can’t do new routes, the top climbers need to measure themselves against something. So there is a definite trend to go in for speed climbing. It is the game we play – it is just a natural development.”
Steck is not alone in taking on previously hallowed peaks with a nonchalance bordering on disrespect. Last year Christian Stangl, an Austrian climber, completed the seven summits – the highest mountains in each continent – in a combined time of 58hr 45min. He went up Everest in less than 17 hours. And in September climbers will converge on Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain, for the fourth annual speed climbing competition where competitors discard much of the equipment previously thought essential in an effort to shed weight and increase speed.
So has the daunting reputation of the north face of the Eiger, the mother of all peaks, been lessened now that Steck has shown he can reach the top in less time than most people take to summit Snowdon? “It’s still a very special mountain to me,” he says. “It’s my home mountain and I have spent so many days of my life and climbed so many routes.
“The fact that I am the first human to climb the north face in under three hours will stay with me for ever.”
Conquerers of the north face
1938 First successful ascent of the north face, led by Anderl Heckmair; it took three days
1947 Lionel Terray and Louis Lachenal, a French team, follow Heckmair’s route for the second ascent. On completion, Terray vows never to repeat it
1962 Chris Bonington and Ian Clough complete the first British ascent, spending one night on the mountain
1963 First solo ascent, by Michel Darbellay, taking 18 hours
1981 Ueli Bühler, a Swiss guide, climbs the face solo in 8½ hours
2003 Christoph Hainz reaches the top of the north face in a little more than 4½ hours
2007 Ueli Steck stuns the climbing world by conquering the north face in a time of 3hr 54min
2008 Steck beats his own record, reaching the summit in 2hr 47min 33sec
Ferraris tearing ass up Mulholland Dr.
GTO Impressions
Article about the Ferrari 250 GTO
By: Stephen Mitchell
The 250GTO #3987 was the third car I’d ever owned. The first was a 3.8 E-Type Jaguar. It was a beautiful car, but featured a low-revving six cylinder with an unsynchronized first gear that was like a granny gear off a truck. The car was more at home on the open road than negotiating the beach canyons of Los Angeles. The second was a Ferrari Berlinetta Lusso. It was very different from the Jaguar with its V12 redlined at 7000 rpm. The Lusso loved the canyons as much as it did the highway. Just as the Lusso was a world apart from the E-Type, so was the GTO an advance over the Lusso. It was a high-revving V12 with six Webers and the gearbox was a 5 speed compared to the Lusso’s 4 speed. I don’t recall which final drive ratio it had, but upon entering a freeway, I would be passing the fastest traffic before needing to shift to second gear. This was worlds apart from the E-Type that would barely get you to 25 mph before requiring a shift to second. Seen in the context of its time, there was nothing quite like the GTO. From 1967-70, 3987 was my principal form of transportation, though I also had an Alfa-Romeo Giulia Veloce spider and the family Cadillac as back up.
When entering the cockpit, I never got used to the fact that the pedals were so close. I’m 5’10” and my knees were splayed around the steering wheel in an effort to fit into the car. Anyone who has ever made this complaint about a Lusso or GTE never sat in a GTO! This lack of legroom was probably a result of the rearward placement of the engine for better weight distribution. The bulkhead behind the seat limited aft seat travel, so there was no way to adjust for comfort. I always had it in mind to have the pedals moved forward, but never did. I once had a conversation with Mark Slotkin, a former owner of 3987, and he also had a list of things he wanted to do with the car that were never done. You adapt to the GTO, it doesn’t adapt to you. I‘ve heard similar remarks made about the Old Man. Headroom was fine and the seat was comfortably wide. One of my favorite things about the car was the position of the gear lever in relation to the steering wheel. Visually, that marvelous aluminum gear knob looked as though it would be too high for comfort. One is accustomed to having to reach down for the lever to shift. With the GTO, the knob was only inches away from the wheel, so shifts could be made very quickly with a short lateral move of the hand. In front of you, the tachometer had a telltale that would move to–and remain at– the highest revs attained. I rarely exceeded 7500 rpm. The view forward was defined by the two dramatic fender bulges and the ‘power bulge’ in the center of the hood that made room for the twelve velocity stacks above the six Webers. It was a very exciting place to be!
When turning and pushing the ignition key, one was treated to a peculiarity common to Ferraris of the time. The starter motor made a constant whine instead of the more cyclical sound of most starters. To me, it was reminiscent of an aircraft starter. The engine always fired easily and suddenly you would feel the nervous tension of twelve cylinders turning over at 1000 rpm. It took awhile to warm up thanks to the dry-sump and large oil tank. First gear was to the left and back in the slotted gate and the clutch would engage directly without the care required by the Lusso.
For the first 3000 miles that I drove 3987, I kept it to 5000 rpm, as I recall. I did this on the advice of my mechanic, Sal DiNatale, who had just rebuilt the engine. The day I got the car out of the garage (the engine was in pieces when I bought the car) I drove it to Phoenix, Arizona as a break-in trip. A friend of the family was directing an episode of the television series “Then Came Bronson” on location in Tempe and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know the car. I left Los Angeles about 9pm and drove all night. Apart from the yoga position my legs had to adopt, the car was very peasant to drive. The sound of it was louder than the Lusso and the suspension was clearly race-tuned. Even at the conservative revs I was using, the car was delightful to drive and must have been a sight to other drivers on the road with its two orange ‘Le Mans’ lights lit up on the roof. That night I became accustomed to hearing a car breath for the first time. It is the interesting sound of air being sucked through the twelve velocity stacks as you increase pressure on the accelerator pedal. I might have heard this on the Lusso were it not for the air filter masking the sound. But, this was new to me and re-enforced the fact that this was a race car. I also had the impression of the timing chains being noisier than those on the Lusso. This may have been owing to the lack of insulation, but it was thrilling to hear all the noises that are usually subdued. It made every drive an adventure. Sometimes, believe it or not, the Lusso was just transportation. The GTO never let you forget it was a star!
The day came when I was given the go-ahead by Sal to let it out and see what the car could do. I did. Up to that time, I had only taken it to 5000 rpm and was already in love with the car. Imagine what happened the first time I took it to 7500! At about 6-6500 rpm, the sound of the engine changes entirely from a low pitched growl to a high pitched banshee scream. It was a transcending experience and it felt like the car was thanking you for giving it release. It was an adrenaline rush every time I experienced it. Fortunately, the people in my neighborhood appreciated this sound and would often stop me in public to convey their amazement about the car. I was often stopped in public by members of the California Highway Patrol who also seemed to appreciate the sound.
The racing history of the GTO speaks for itself. My time with the car was subsequent to its time on the track, but prior to the organization of historic races that feature these cars today. However, I did instigate or take part in a great many informal gathering during which other cars of its kind were present. One very memorable event was staged at Willow Springs Raceway. My acquaintance and fellow GTO owner Mario Tosi wanted to have a farewell party for his GTO, so a bunch of us went with him and spent the day racing our cars on the track. Present that day were three GTOs (Cord/Tosi/Mitchell), a California spider (Peter Helm) and at least a half-dozen other cars. It was a great afternoon. For at least half the day, I was letting different people ride as passengers and it is interesting how this affects the handling dynamics when near the limit. The oil sump tank is located behind the passenger seat and probably provides some natural balance to offset the driver’s weight. The car was fairly neutral—though not in the way that a mid-engined car is neutral—and would oversteer on command. I liked the handling and it was a very forgiving car in my experience. On many occasions, the car would be seen in tandem with the famous Breadvan, which then belonged to my friend Matthew Ettinger. He, too, used his car as personal transportation and many are the times that we jointly recorded “Fastest Time of the Day” on one or more of southern California’s highways and byways.
The GTO was well-suited for sustained high-speed runs, as one would expect. Very often, I would get in the car and drive it from my home in Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nevada. On these occasions, the car performed without any complaint and I would maintain a cruising speed in the 140 mph range, slowing to about 80 mph when approaching other cars that I would be passing. It never overheated or displayed any temperament. The only concessions to street driving were the installation of an electric fan for the radiator and the use of cooler spark plugs. If the GTO had any agenda of its own, it wanted to go faster. No matter how fast one was traveling, it was always the easiest thing in the world to make it go faster. After driving at 145 mph for a time, the slightest input took the car to 150 and above.
If one were to compare the GTO’s performance figures to those of more recent cars, one might begin to wonder what the fuss was all about. Even Porsche 911s that came not too long after could match it dynamically. The GTO was the dominant GT of its time and though that time has passed, what hasn’t is the manner in which the GTO delivers its performance. It had a personality as defined and characteristic as the man whose name it bore. It is a genuine icon with all of the history, myth, legend and chicanery attached to it that one would expect of a car now valued in the millions of dollars. The memory of the engine screaming as it came on the cam and the snick-snick of that excellent gear change makes almost any other car irrelevant to me. I was able to enjoy the car in a way that current owners wouldn’t dream of. That wouldn’t stop me for a minute, however, if the opportunity to have it back again ever presented itself.
http://www.ferrarilife.com/models/view_model.php?modelid=65
Tags: 250 gto, ferrari, history, mulholland, racing, video
Categories Auto
Haven’t been shooting in a while. Scratching the itch today with some pics.
Enjoy some SPR Mk12 Mod0 / Mod1 goodness.
Tags: AR-15, AR15, special purpose rifle, SPR
Categories Guns, Military
GM Tonawanda engine plant, c.1959
EDIT: It appears some of the pics are at the Tarrytown assembly facility. The engine plant did not install carburetors, transmissions and other accessories. That happened in the vehicle assembly plant in preparation for installing the engine in the frame.
Alone on the Wall : Free-solo climbing with Alex Honnold
No words really. The dude’s an animal. There’s an article about him in this month’s issue of Outside… I read it on the plane yesterday and it blew my mind.
Article here: No Strings Attached
“At 25, climber Alex Honnold is already the undisputed master of the most dangerous sport around—scaling iconic rock walls without any ropes. Is he the next great thing in modern climbing? Or a suicide mission in sticky shoes?”
Alex Honnold makes the first free solos of the largest walls in North America. He scales 2,000 feet with only shoes and chalk bag—no rope, no safety, and no room for error. Though he’s a superhero on the walls, off the rock Alex is a shy, self-effacing young guy living in his van. He’s sort of a Clark Kent-Superman character.
This first link won’t embed, but you NEED to click it:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/adventure/featured-videos-adventure/adv-beyond-the-edge-honnold.html
In the realm of free solo climbing – climbing peaks without ropes – Alex Honnold is the best in the world. Honnold, a bumbling and slightly geeky kid becomes a poised, graceful and calculated climber able to complete the hardest free solos. With his sights set on Yosemite’s iconic 600-metre Half Dome wall, Alex first travels to Utah to conquer the 370-metre Moonlight Buttress. It takes all of his mental efforts to focus on the climb, with 300-metres of air – and no rope – beneath him. Honnold has developed his own mental armour to protect him from thinking too much while climbing, but when he’s standing on a sliver of a ledge 550 metres above Yosemite’s Half Dome wall, his armour runs thin. To Honnold, doubt is the biggest danger and he experiences a feeling of dread like never before. Pulling himself together, Alex completes the 600-metre climb – something that can take other climbers days to complete – in under 3 hours cementing his place in free soloing history.
http://natgeoadventure.tv/int/post.aspx?id=24672
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/adventure/adventure-featured/adv-beyond-the-edge-honnold.html
Tags: alex honnold, climbing, free solo, yosemite
Categories Outdoors, Sports
20 Things You Didn’t Know About Eclipses
1 The longest total solar eclipse of the century occurred on July 22 over India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. It peaked over the Pacific Ocean, but even there the darkness lasted a mere 6 minutes and 29 seconds.
2 Fast and furious: The moon’s shadow zooms across Earth’s surface at up to 5,000 miles per hour.
3 Canadian astronomer and renowned eclipse chaser J. W. Campbell traveled the world for 50 years trying to see 12 different eclipses. He ran into overcast skies every time.
4 Don’t repeat J. W.’s mistakes: Monsoon season throughout south Asia means that there is a good chance the eclipse this July will be clouded out too.
5 Just before full eclipse, dazzling “Baily’s beads” appear where sunlight shines through valleys on the moon. The last bead creates the impression of a diamond ring in the sky.
6 On eclipse-viewing expeditions, this phenomenon is frequently accompanied by a marriage proposal.
7 The beautiful symmetry of a total solar eclipse happens because—by pure chance—the sun is 400 times larger than the moon but is also 400 times farther from Earth, making the two bodies appear the exact same size in the sky.
8 In case you were thinking about relocating: Earth is the only place in the solar system where that happens.
9 Other planets get other kinds of fun, though. Jupiter can have a triple eclipse, in which three moons cast shadows on the planet simultaneously. The event is easily visible through a backyard telescope.
10 The Chinese word for solar eclipse is shih, meaning “to eat.” In ancient China people traditionally beat drums and banged on pots to scare off the “heavenly dog” believed to be devouring the sun.
11 Then again, China also produced the first known astronomical recordings of solar eclipses, inscribed in pieces of bone and shell called “oracle bones,” from around 1050 B.C. or earlier.
12 By comparing those ancient records with modern calculations of eclipse patterns, scientists have determined that the day is 0.047 second longer today than it was back then.
13 Tidal friction, which causes that lengthening of the day, is also making the moon drift away. In about 600 million years it will appear too small to cover the sun, and there will be no more total solar eclipses.
14 In any given location, a total solar eclipse happens just once every 360 years on average.
15 Luckiest place on Earth Carbondale, Illinois, will beat the odds: Folks there will see an eclipse on August 21, 2017, and again on April 8, 2024.
16 In contrast, everyone on the night side of the world can see a lunar eclipse, where the moon slips into Earth’s shadow.
17 During a total lunar eclipse, the moon takes on a deep reddish hue due to the sunlight filtering through our atmosphere—the cumulative glow of all the world’s sunsets.
18 While stranded in Jamaica, Christopher Columbus was famously saved by the lunar eclipse of February 29, 1504, which he had read about in his almanac. After a fracas with the locals, Columbus warned that the moon would disappear if they did not start supplying his men with food.
19 When the moon vanished, the locals promptly complied, and Columbus breathed a huge sigh of relief: His almanac was calibrated for Germany, and he was not sure that he had adjusted correctly for local time.
20 Who knows—it might be useful to you, too. The next lunar eclipse visible from the United States will take place on December 21, 2010.
http://m.discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/30-20-things-you-didnt-know-about-eclipses
Tags: Eclipse space facts
Categories Space
Stellar Dichotomy
From PopSci:
Today in Pretty Space Pics: Stellar Birth and Death Captured in the Same Image
The cosmic fireworks above capture both stellar birth and stellar death in one sweeping view. With eyes pointed at nebula NGC 3582, part of a larger star factory here in the Milky Way, the Wide Field Imager at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile managed to capture a nebula shaped by supernova glowing with the intense light of baby stars.
Some of the stars that form in the region are huge, far more massive than the one anchoring our solar system. These stars have shorter lifespans during which they dump huge amounts of energy into their surroundings. Then, like any good massive star, they collapse in on themselves in explosive supernovae.
Those supernovae create the corona effect you see above in the wispy loops of gas. At least, that’s what astronomers think causes the bubble-like features around the fringes. The hot spots are definitely lit by stars fresh out of the nursery, but the important thing to know about this image is that you can get a wallpaper-res version here.
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1113a/
Tags: Space nebula supernova
Categories Science, Space
The Flying Crowbar
excerpts from Air & Space Magazine, April/May 1990, Volume 5 No. 1, page 28. Written by Gregg Herken, illustrations by Paul DiMar
Full Article here (definitely worth the read): http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html
At the dawn of the atomic age, scientists began work on what might have been the nastiest weapon ever conceived.
“Pluto’s namesake was Roman mythology’s ruler of the underworld — seemingly an apt inspiration for a locomotive-size missile that would travel at near-treetop level at three times the speed of sound, tossing out hydrogen bombs as it roared overhead. Pluto’s designers calculated that its shock wave alone might kill people on the ground. Then there was the problem of fallout. In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto’s nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by. (One enterprising weaponeer had a plan to turn an obvious peace-time liability into a wartime asset: he suggested flying the radioactive rocket back and forth over the Soviet Union after it had dropped its bombs.)”
“The idea behind any ramjet is relatively simple: air is drawn in at the front of the vehicle under ram pressure, heated to make it expand, and then exhausted out the back, providing thrust. But the notion of using a nuclear reactor to heat the air was something fundamentally new. Unlike commercial reactors, which are surrounded by hundreds of tons of concrete, Pluto’s reactor had to be small and compact enough to fly, but durable enough to survive the several thousand-mile trip to targets in the Soviet Union.
The success of Project Pluto depended upon a whole series of technological advances in metallurgy and materials science. Pneumatic motors necessary to control the reactor in flight had to operate while red-hot and in the presence of intense radioactivity. The need to maintain supersonic speed at low altitude and in all kinds of weather meant that Pluto’s reactor had to survive conditions that would melt or disintegrate the metals used in most jet and rocket engines. Engineers calculated that the aerodynamic pressures upon the missile might be five times those the hypersonic X-15 had to endure. Pluto was “pretty close to the limits in all respects,” says Ethan Platt, an engineer who worked on the project. “We were tickling the dragon’s tail all the way,” says Blake Myers, head of Livermore’s propulsion engineering division.”
“so many unknowns surrounded Pluto that Merkle decided that it would take a static test of the full-scale ramjet reactor to resolve them all. To carry out the tests, Livermore built a special facility in a desolate stretch of Nevada desert close to where the lab had exploded many of its nuclear weapons. Designated Site 401, the facility — built on eight square miles of Jackass Flats — rivaled Project Pluto itself in ambition and cost.”
“Just to supply the concrete for the six- to eight-foot-thick walls of the disassembly building, the U.S. government had to buy an aggregate mine. It took 25 miles of oil well casing to store the million pounds of pressurized air used to simulate ramjet flight conditions for Pluto. To supply the high-pressure air, the lab borrowed giant compressors from the Navy’s submarine base in Groton, Connecticut. For a five-minute, full power test, as much as a ton of air a second had to be forced over 14 million one-inch steel balls in four huge steel tanks raised to 1,350 degrees Fahrenheit by oil-burning heaters.”
“Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, Pluto’s sponsors were having second thoughts about the project. Since the missile would be launched from U.S. territory and had to fly low over America’s allies in order to avoid detection on its way to the Soviet Union, some military planners began to wonder if it might not be almost as much a threat to the allies. Even before it began dropping bombs on our enemies Pluto would have deafened, flattened, and irradiated our friends. (The noise level on the ground as Pluto went by overhead was expected to be about 150 decibels; by comparison, the Saturn V rocket, which sent astronauts to the moon, produced 200 decibels at full thrust.) Ruptured eardrums, of course, would have been the least of your problems if you were unlucky enough to be underneath the unshielded reactor when it went by, literally roasting chickens in the barnyard. Pluto had begun to look like something only Goofy could love.”
“The Navy, which had originally expressed an interest in firing the missile from ships or submarines, also began to back away from the project after successful tests of its Polaris missile. Finally, at $50 million apiece, there were doubts that SLAM was worth the price. Pluto was suddenly a technology without an application, a weapon without a mission.”
Tags: military, science, weapons
Categories History, Military
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Tag Archives: man
Lessons in Manliness from Atticus Finch
http://artofmanliness.com/2011/02/02/lessons-in-manliness-from-atticus-finch/
by Brett & Kate McKay on February 2, 2011 · 115 comments
When it comes to manly characters in literature, my thoughts always return to one man:
Atticus Finch.
Perhaps this character from To Kill a Mockingbird seems like an unusual choice. A gentleman in a three piece suit. A widower of two kids, Jem and Scout. A man who was quiet instead of brash. Polite instead of macho. A lawyer who used his mind instead of his fists, who walked away from insults. Who didn’t gamble or smoke, who liked to walk instead drive. A man who liked nothing better than to bury himself in a book. Yes, Atticus may not seem very “manly,” at least when measured by the modern rubric for manliness.
But it is the subtlety of his manliness, the way he carried himself, taught his children, made his choices, that makes his manliness all the more real, all the more potent. His manhood was not displayed in great showy acts but in quiet, consistent strength, in supreme self-possession. The manliness of Atticus Finch does not leap off the page; instead, it burrows its way inside of you, sticks with you, causes your soul to say, “Now that is the kind of man I wish to be.”
The examples of honorable manhood that can be wrung from To Kill a Mockingbird are plentiful and powerful, and today we’d like to explore just a few.
A man does the job no one else wants to do.
To Kill a Mockingbird unfolds against the backdrop of Atticus’s representation of Tom Robinson. Robinson, a black man, has been accused by Mayella Ewell, a white woman, of rape. While Atticus is assigned to be Robinson’s public defender by a judge, he earns the townspeople’s ire in his determination to actually defend him, honorably and fairly, to the best of his abilities.
He does the job that must be done, but that other people are unwilling and afraid to do.
Indoors, when Miss Maudie wanted to say something lengthy she spread her fingers on her knees and settled her bridgework. This she did, and we waited.
“I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.”
“Oh,” said Jem. “Well.”
“Don’t you oh well me, sir,” Miss Maudie replied, recognizing Jem’s fatalistic noises, “you are not old enough to appreciate what I said.”
A man stands in the gap and does what must be done. Doing so earns the respect even of one’s most ardent critics; after facing a myriad of taunts and threats from his neighbors for his defense of Tom Robinson, Atticus is once more re-elected to the state legislature …unanimously.
A man lives with integrity every day.
In Maycomb County, Atticus was known as a man who was “the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” That was the standard he lived by. He did not have one set of morals for business and one for family, one for weekdays and one for weekends. He was incapable of doing anything that would broach the inviolable sanctity of his conscience. He made the honorable decision, even when that decision was unpopular.
“This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience-Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man.”
“Atticus, you must be wrong…”
“How’s that?”
“Well, most folks seem to think they’re right and you’re wrong…”
“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions,” said Atticus, “but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
Atticus understood that a man’s integrity was his most important quality-the foundation upon which his honor and the trust of others was built. Stripped of integrity, a man becomes weak and impotent, no longer a force for good in his family or community.
“If you shouldn’t be defendin’ him, then why are you doin’ it?”
“For a number of reasons,” said Atticus. “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem to do something again.”
“You mean if you didn’t defend that man, Jem and me wouldn’t have to mind you any more?”
“That’s about right.”
“Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine.”
The most important form of courage is moral courage.
There are different types of courage: physical, intellectual, and moral.
While unassuming, Atticus certainly possessed physical courage; when Tom was in jail, he sat outside all night reading and faced down an angry mob intent on lynching the prisoner.
But moral courage is arguably the most important type of bravery, and this Atticus had in spades. Moral courage involves the strength to stick with your convictions and do the right thing, even when the whole world criticizes and torments you for it. Atticus’s decision to represent Tom Robinson brought a slew of insults and threats to him and his family. But he was willing to bear the onslaught with head held high.
Moral courage also supplies the fortitude to take on a fight you know you’ll lose, simply because you believe the cause to be honorable. Atticus knows that he will lose his defense of Tom Robinson. When Scout asked him why he continued to press on, Atticus answered:
“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.”
Atticus used the example of Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose to teach Jem the power of this kind of moral courage.
Mrs. Dubose was a sick, cantankerous old woman who would berate Jem and Scout whenever they passed by her house. Jem tried to heed his father’s counsel to be a gentleman, but finally snapped one day and tore up her flower beds. As punishment, Atticus made Jem read books to Mrs. Dubose every day after school. She hardly seemed to pay attention to his reading, and he was relieved when his sentence finally ended.
When Mrs. Dubose died soon afterwards, Atticus revealed the true nature of Jem’s assignment. She had been a morphine addict for a long time, but wanted to overcome that addiction before she left the world; Jem’s reading had been a distraction as she worked to wean herself from the drug. Atticus explained to Jem:
“Son, I told you that if you hadn’t lost your head I’d have made you go read to her. I wanted you to see something about her-I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.”
Live with quiet dignity.
Despite the fact that Bob Ewell “won” the case against Tom Robinson, he held a grudge against everyone who participated in the trial for revealing him as a base fool. After the trial, Ewell threatened Atticus’s life, grossly insulted him and spat in his face. In response, Atticus simply took out a handkerchief and wiped his face, prompting Ewell to ask:
“Too proud to fight, you nigger-lovin’ bastard?”
“No, too old,” Atticus replied before putting his hands in his pockets and walking away.
It’s often thought that the manly thing to do is answer tit for tat. But it can take greater strength to refuse to sink to another man’s level and to simply walk away with dignity. Frederick Douglass said, “A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.” This was a credo Atticus lived by.
Atticus’s quiet dignity was also manifested in his authentic humility.
At one point in the book, Jem and Scout feel disappointed in their father; at 50, he is older and less active than the dads of their peers. He doesn’t seem to know how to do anything “cool.” This opinion is transformed when Atticus takes down a rabid dog with a single bullet, and they learn that their father is known as the “deadest shot in Maycomb County.” Jem becomes duly impressed with his father for this display of skill, all the more so because Atticus had never felt the need to brag about his prowess.
“Atticus is real old, but I wouldn’t care if he couldn’t do anything-I wouldn’t care if he couldn’t do a blessed thing.”
Jem picked up a rock and threw it jubilantly at the carhouse. Running after it, he called back: “Atticus is a gentleman, just like me!”
Cultivating empathy is paramount.
If Atticus had one dominating virtue, it was his nearly superhuman empathy. Whenever his children felt angry at the misbehavior or ignorance of the individuals in their town, he would encourage their tolerance and respect by urging them to see the other person’s side of things:
“If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
Atticus understood that people could only be held responsible for what they knew, that not everyone had an ideal upbringing, that folks were doing they best they could in the circumstances in which they found themselves. Atticus strove above all to see the good in folks and to figure out why they did the things they did.
When Scout complained about her teacher embarrassing a poor student, Atticus got her to see that the teacher was new in town and couldn’t be expected to know the background of all the children in her class right away. When a poor man that Atticus had helped with legal problems showed up in the mob to hurt him and lynch Tom, Atticus defended him, explaining that he was a really good man who simply had some blind spots and got caught up in the mob mentality.
Even when Bob Ewell spit in his face, he responded with empathy:
“Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I’d rather it be me than that houseful of children out there. You understand?”
Teach your children by example.
Atticus is probably best remembered as an exemplary father. As a widower he could have shipped his kids off to a relative, but he was absolutely devoted to them. He was kind, protective, and incredibly patient with Jem and Scout; he was firm but fair and always looking for an opportunity to expand his children’s empathy, impart a bit of wisdom, and help them become good people.
“Do you defend niggers Atticus?” I asked him that evening.
“Of course I do. Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.”
“’s what everybody else at school says.”
“From now on it’ll be everybody less one.”
As a father he let his kids be themselves and nurtured their unique personalities. During a freak snowstorm in Alabama, Jem, determined to build a snowman from the scant snow on the ground, hauled a bunch of dirt from the backyard to the front, molded a snowman from the mud, and then covered the mudman with a layer of snow. When Atticus arrived home, he could have been angry with the kids for messing up the lawn, but instead, he was pleased with Jem’s enterprising creativity.
“I didn’t know how you were going to do it, but from now on I’ll never worry about what’ll become of you, son, you’ll always have an idea.”
Atticus’s sister wished that tomboy Scout would wear dresses, play with tea sets, and be the “sunshine” for her father; she often hurt Scout’s feelings with her disparaging remarks. But when Scout asked her father about this criticism:
He said there were already enough sunbeams in the family and to go about my business, he didn’t mind me much the way I was.
And he bought her what she wanted for Christmas-an air rifle.
Most of all, Atticus taught Jem and Scout by example. He was not only always honest with them, he was honest in everything he did himself.
He not only read them the newspaper each evening, but modeled a love of reading himself. And as a result, his kids devoured every book they could get their hands on. (Modern studies actually bear the truth of this out; kids with fathers who read are more likely to read themselves).
And he not only taught his children to be courteous, he was a model of courtesy and kindness himself, even to prickly types like Mrs. Dubose:
When the three of us came to the house, Atticus would sweep off his hat, wave gallantly to her and say, “Good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a picture this evening.”
I never heard Atticus say like a picture of what. He would tell her the courthouse news, and would say he hoped with all his heart she’d have a good day tomorrow. He would return his hat to his head, swing me to his shoulders in her very presence, and we would go home in the twilight. It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.
Tags: art of manliness, atticus finch, life lessons, man, morality
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Official Journal of the European Union
C 427/83
Action brought on 11 September 2018 — YL v Commission
(Case T-545/18)
(2018/C 427/110)
Language of the case: French
Applicant: YL (represented by: P. Yon, lawyer)
Defendant: European Commission
The applicant claims that the Court should:
annul his removal from the 2017 promotions list;
order his retroactive promotion as from 1 January 2017;
award him compensation for the damage — estimated in the amount of EUR 100 000 — suffered as a result of the contested measures: the number of days and amount of energy expended in respect of the present action and preparation thereof, overcoming the feeling of being rejected, ostracised and persecuted by an authority supposedly required to have regard to the welfare of its members of staff and have, if not a benevolent attitude towards them, then at least a neutral one;
order the reimbursement of his lawyer’s and legal fees in the amount of EUR 10 000, and
order the Commission to bear all costs.
In support of the action, the applicant relies on two pleas in law.
First plea in law, alleging infringement of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union (‘the Staff Regulations’) by the appointing authority when it based its refusal to promote the applicant on a previously imposed penalty, when that penalty had already affected the applicant’s career by a relegation in step. Moreover, the contested decision was allegedly adopted on the ground that the penalty was related to the applicant’s conduct while on active duty, whereas the decision to impose a penalty of 2016 indicated that the acts in question were totally unconnected to the applicant’s duties and responsibilities.
Second plea in law, alleging abuse of powers and process by the appointing authority when it used its power of promotion to increase the penalty imposed in 2016 and used the promotion procedure to circumvent the limits provided for in the Staff Regulations in the event of deferment of advancement.
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©2019 FAQReviews
What does it feel like to be wealthy
What does it feel like to be wealthy?
Ranjan Asked 5 days ago in Finance.
I was born into wealth and never knew our family was different until acclimating to the public school system and developing cognizant thought.
My father was recruited by MIT and came to the United States speaking only two languages: Japanese and binary. Upon graduation, he was quickly snatched up by Japanese financial institutions that sent him abroad to set up their computing systems. This was back in the day before IT was segmented, and he was a one man operation (architect, network administrator, systems engineer, programmer, IT support and R&D LOL.)
Before moving abroad for good, he married my mother in Tokyo and together they immigrated to Canada. I was born in West Vancouver, British Columbia and attended exclusive private schools. My classmates were of the same socio-economic status as my family, so our lifestyles were similar. Our days were jam packed with lessons, classes, tutors and we were privileged to take weekend trips to Banff or Lake Louise.
When I was in the 1st grade, my family migrated south to the U.S. – the San Francisco Bay Area to be exact. Against my mother’s wishes, my father made the executive decision to put me in public school. I was still in 1st grade but clearly remember the moments I started realizing the kids at my new school were unlike my old peers. I was the only one dressed in pinafores. The only one taking a load of after school classes and lessons. Other people didn’t go away on weekends. My home was different. Everything about my family was strange, and I remember thinking I was not just the new kid, but the weird new kid.
In order to fit in, I started lying. I would tell people I lived in San Mateo as opposed to Hillsborough. I stopped inviting people over, never told friends about our weekend trips. Or that I attended summer school at Crystal Springs Uplands, then summer sports camp at Stanford University.
Being constantly exposed to two different socio-economic worlds, I didn’t fit in anywhere and was an outcast.
Separately, gross behavior from people who think they have more than the next person is more commonly observed in new money. My family is proof.
My father’s family has a prominent lineage that can be traced for centuries; I guess it’s called old money. My father was the only one who lived outside of Japan and my brother and I would spend our summer/winter vacations with our grandparents. My day school friends and their families were exactly like my father’s side: kind, well mannered, polite, gracious and classy from the inside out. You see, when born into wealth, there is nothing to prove. We are raised to assimilate and not stand out as much as possible. Yes, we do own nice things, but there is no need to flaunt.
Growing up in the U.S. and Canada in a household that only spoke Japanese was embarrassing. Public outings with my father could be turned into a sitcom. He spoke broken English even after living in English speaking countries for 20+ years. I used to be mortified in public with him. His voice was loud. His English poor. Yet no matter how atrocious his grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, he still talked to everyone in a pleasant manner. Everyone.
At restaurants he frequented, from the valets, wait staff to busboys and the kitchen, the entire staff knew my father. The chefs would take my brother and me to the kitchen for special menus. (These were 5 star dining rooms.) When we drove through Half Moon Bay, my father would stop by his favorite farms and greet farmers working the fields. They only spoke Spanish and he spoke zero Spanish but somehow they were able to communicate. At his work, from security and maintenance staff to his assistants, colleagues and C-level execs, people would smile and wave hello as he walked by. He took after my grandmother, who treated every single person the same: like they mattered.
Conversely, my mother grew up dirt poor. Frankly, she was a gold digger and married my father for stature, status, lifestyle and most importantly his wealth. She epitomized gross new money characteristics where she felt entitled because our family was more privileged than most. She was snooty, elitist and condescending to those she thought were beneath her; absolutely charming to those who were of equal or higher social statuses. Even as a child, I remember apologizing for her vile behavior and was embarrassed to be in public with her.
Long story short, even if we had access to things a lot of people didn’t, it still wasn’t enough for my mother. On the outside, she was polished, elegant, sharp, witty and sustained her youthful looks. But she was a horrible wife, mother and housewife. She was miserable most of her adult life; making everyone around her even more miserable. I’m making her sound like a crappy person, but as an individual she was phenomenal. I – along with many – admired her. She was a born entrepreneur, extremely brilliant, creative but analytical, methodical, strategic and organized.
When my parents finally divorced, she left my brother and me with our dad and succeeded career wise. So much so, she retired in her early 40s. After she attained what she thought was success, she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. She spent the days up until her death regretting almost all the choices she made and beat herself up day after day. One of her last journal entries included reflections on how unappreciative she was with the things in front of her, and finally realizing happiness does not lie within superficial matters a little too late.
Looking back, I am extremely grateful for my parents and my life. Don’t get me wrong, my life was far from cakewalk but I obtained invaluable life lessons. My father, taught me my favorite quote: “A true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him no good.” by actions, not words. My mother, taught me money cannot buy happiness. I am so fortunate to comprehend those simple yet complicated life lessons I still abide by. And just by remembering those two points, saved me from making vast mistakes in relationship, career and life choices.
So what does it feel like to be rich? It’s like everyone’s life, no matter what your financial situation is, there are ups and downs. Different ups and downs, but ups and downs nonetheless.
Hope this sheds some perspective.
Oh. As for my father, the divorce (and my mother) basically destroyed him, and a series of events led to my father being disowned. I have not spoken to him since I was 16… along with other misc. family drama. But that is a story for another day.
Ranjan Answered 5 days ago.
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The Transporter Refuelled
Filed under: Talking Movies (Reviews) — Fergal Casey @ 12:59 pm
Tags: 24, Adam Cooper, Alexandre Dumas, Anatole Taubman, Bill Collage, Brick Mansions, Camille Delamere, CTU, Ed Skrein, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Frank Martin, Gabriella Wright, Game of Thrones, Harrison Ford, Henry Jones, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, Jack Bauer, James Bond, Jason Statham, John Wick, Karl Marx, Keanu Reeves, Kim Bauer, Lenn Kudrjawizki, Loan Chabanol, Luc Besson, Mad Max: Fury Road, Quantum of Solace, Radivoje Bukvic, Ray Stevenson, Samir Guesmi, Sean Connery, Taken 2, Tatiana Pajkovic, The Communist Manifesto, The State, The Three Musketeers, The Transporter 3, The Transporter Refuelled, Tower Heist, Wenxia Yu, Yuri Kolokolnikov
Luc Besson reboots his Transporter franchise with a younger version of Frank Martin, but without the State in the lead, things just aren’t the same…
Ed Skrein replaces Jason Statham as Frank Martin, and, in a transparent attempt to give proceedings a Last Crusade vibe, Ray Stevenson is his retired spy father Frank Sr. But the film’s all about Anna (Loan Chabanol), a traumatised hooker on the French Riviera who comes up with an audacious plan for revenge on her pimps, which begins with the dispatching of Bond henchman Anatole Taubman’s Stanislas. She plans to get out from the under the thumb of the Russian mob, and take her sisters in prostitution with her, by turning junior bosses Yuri (Yuri Kolokolnikov) and Leo (Lenn Kudrjawizki) against their more successful colleague Arkady (Radivoje Bukvic). But if Anna and her comrades in arms Gina (Gabriella Wright), Maria (Tatiana Pajkovic) and Qiao (Wenxia Yu) are to pull this off then they will need the help of both Franks.
It seems silly complaining about the 19 year age gap between Stevenson and Skrein given only 12 years separated Connery and Ford, but Stevenson is the same age as Keanu Reeves; it almost feels like he’s there as back-up in case Skrein couldn’t carry the film (and indeed he displays little of his Game of Thrones’ swagger). This is a double redundancy as Anna controls the film, to the point where, following Mad Max: Fury Road, it must be said this peculiar bait-and-switch manoeuvre is as unacceptable as any other. Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers features prominently, copies even being left lying about lairs, but another key 1840s text seems more apposite given that the logline for this movie could be ‘Hookers of all countries unite, you have nothing to lose but your pimps, you have a world to gain’.
There is a nice fight involving some business with filing cabinets, but too often Frank is a supporting player, while Frank Sr gets kidnapped twice to aid plot mechanics; as a spy he’s more Kim Bauer than Jack. And then there’s the action directing of Camille Delamere, who edited Transporter 3 and Taken 2 before helming Brick Mansions. Some of what should be the film’s best moments (car landing in an airplane tunnel, Frank jumping off a jet-ski into a jeep) become conceptual stunts, where there’s a nice physical set-up, only for a digital pay-off to leave you feeling cheated. The under-used Inspector Becatoui (Samir Guesmi) leaves you pining for the absurdist comedy of previous Transporters, and wondering why Besson decided that Bill Collage and Adam Cooper, writers of Tower Heist and Exodus: Gods and Kings, fitted this knowing franchise
The Transporter Refuelled has some fun fights, but if the Transporter becomes a backseat driver in his movie what exactly is the point of rebooting the franchise at all?
2014: Fears
Tags: 300, 300: Rise of an Empire, Aaron Paul, Adam Cooper, Alex Kurtzman, Alicia Vikander, Andrew Garfield, Anthony Hopkins, Armie Hammer, Artemisia, Athens, Bathsheba Everdene, Ben Kingsley, Bill Collage, Bill Paxton, Black Swan, Boyhood, Bradley Cooper, Bruce Willis, Carey Mulligan, Channing Tatum, Charlton Heston, Chris Cooper, Chris Pratt, Christian Bale, Christopher McQuarrie, Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, Clifton Collins Jr, D-Day, Dane DeHaan, Darren Aronofsky, Dave Bautista, David Nicholls, Doug Liman, Eddie Redmayne, Edge of Tomorrow, Electro, Elizabeth Debicki, Ellar Salmon, Emily Blunt, Emma Stone, Emma Watson, Emun Elliott, Ethan Hawke, Eva Green, Exodus, Far from the Madding Crowd, Festen, Frank Miller, Gabriel Oak, Gareth Evans, George Clooney, George W Bush, Gorgo, Green Goblin, Groundhog Day, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guy Ritchie, Gwen Stacey, Harry Osborn, Henry Cavill, Hugh Grant, Iko Uwais, Illya Kuryakin, Jack Paglen, Jaime King, James Gunn, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Connelly, Jessica Alba, Jez Butterworth, JGL, Joel Edgerton, John Schlesinger, John Turturro, Johnny Depp, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Joshua, Jumper, Juno Temple, Jupiter Ascending, Karen Gillan, Kate Mara, Kirsten Dunst, Lena Headey, Lionel Wigram, Logan Lerman, Marvel, Matthias Schoenaerts, Methuselah, Michael Chabon, Michael Fassbender, Michael Rooker, Michael Sheen, Michael Winterbottom, Mila Kunis, Morgan Freeman, Moses, Mr & Mrs Smith, Napoleon Solo, Natalie Portman, Noah, Norman Osborn, One Day, Patricia Arquette, Paul Bettany, Paul Giamatti, PG Wodehouse, Rameses, Ray Winstone, Raymond Chandler, Rebecca Hall, Rhino, Richard Linklater, Ridley Scott, Roberto Orci, Rodrigo Santoro, Russell Crowe, Saga, Scott Z Burns, Sean Bean, Sgt. Troy, Sherlock Holmes, Sigourney Weaver, Sin City, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Sleepy Hollow, Slither, Source Code, Sparta, Spider-Man, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Star Wars, Steve Zaillian, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, Sullivan Stapleton, Super, Supernatural, Swingers, Terry Gilliam, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Black List, The Hunt, The Man from UNCLE, The New Yorker, The Raid, The Raid 2: Berandal, The Wachowskis, Themistocles, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Vinterberg, Tobey Maguire, Tom Cruise, Tom Sturridge, Tower Heist, Transcendence, Tuppence Middleton, Vin Diesel, Wally Pfister, Waverley, William Boldwood, Xerxes, Zack Snyder, Zoe Saldana
Arriving in March is Darren Aronofsky’s soggy biblical epic starring Russell Crowe as Noah, and Anthony Hopkins as Noah’s dad, the oldest man imaginable Methuselah. Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, and Logan Lerman round out the family, and Ray Winstone is the beastly villain of the piece. Aronofsky doesn’t lack chutzpah, he passed off horror flick Black Swan as a psychological drama in which Natalie Portman did all her own dancing after all, but this will undoubtedly sink without trace in its own CGI flood because it apparently tackles head-on the troublesome references to the Sons of God while somehow making Noah an ecological warrior – which neatly alienates its target audience.
The ‘sequel’ to 300 finally trundles into cinemas 7 years and about three name changes later. Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) urges the Greeks to unite in action against the invading army of Persian ruler Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), while Athenian Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) leads the Hellenic fleet against the Persian fleet (which we’re supposed to accept is) led by the Greek Artemisia (Eva Green). 300 is a fine film, if you regard it, following PG Wodehouse’s dictum, as a sort of musical comedy without the music. Zack Snyder took it deadly seriously… and has co-written this farrago of CGI, macho nonsense, Bush-era patriotic bombast, and deplorable history.
The Raid 2: Berandal
March sees the return of super-cop Rama (Iko Uwais), as, picking up immediately after the events of the first film, he goes undercover in prison to befriend the convict son of a fearsome mob boss, in the hope of uncovering corruption in Jakarta’s police force. 2012’s The Raid was bafflingly over-praised (Gareth Evans’ script could’ve been for a film set in Detroit, and in the machete scene a villain clearly pulled a stroke to avoid disarming Rama), so this bloated sequel, running at nearly an hour longer than its predecessor, is a considerable worry. At least there’ll be some variety with subway fights, and car chases promised.
Nolan’s abrasive DP Wally Pfister makes the leap to the big chair in April with this sci-fi suspense thriller. Dr. Caster (Johnny Depp), a leading pioneer in the field of A.I., uploads himself into a computer upon an assassination attempt, soon gaining a thirst for omnipotence. Pfister has enlisted Nolan regulars Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy, as well as Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, and the inimitable Clifton Collins Jr, and Jack Paglen’s script was on the Black List; so why is this a fear? Well, remember when Spielberg’s DP tried to be a director? And when was the last time Depp’s acting was bearable and not a quirkfest?
May 2nd sees the return of the franchise we didn’t need rebooted… Aggravatingly Andrew Garfield as Spidey and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey are far better actors than Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, but the material they were given felt inevitably over-familiar. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci wrote the sequel, and, after Star Trek ‘2’, their Sleepy Hollow riffs so much on Supernatural it casts doubt on their confidence in their own original ideas, which is a double whammy as far as over-familiarity goes. And there’s too many villains… Electro (Jamie Foxx), Rhino (Paul Giamatti), Harry Osborn/Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), and Norman Osborn(/Green Goblin too?) (Chris Cooper).
Richard Linklater and Michael Winterbottom as transatlantic parallels gains ground as it transpires they’ve both been pulling the same trick over the last decade. Linklater in Boyhood tells the life of a child (Ellar Salmon) from age six to age 18, following his relationship with his parents (Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette) before and after they divorce. Linklater has spent a few weeks every year since 2002 shooting portions of this film, so Salmon grows up and his parents lose their looks. Hawke has described it as “time-lapse photography of a human being”, but is it as good as Michael Chabon’s similar set of New Yorker stories following a boy’s adolescence?
Tastefully released on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, Tom Cruise plays a soldier, fighting in a world war against invading aliens, who finds himself caught in a time loop of his last day in the battle, though he becomes better skilled along the way. So far, so Groundhog Day meets Source Code. On the plus side it’s directed by Doug Liman (Swingers, Mr & Mrs Smith), who needs to redeem himself for 2008’s Jumper, and it co-stars Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton. On the minus side three different screenwriters are credited (including Christopher McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth), and, given how ‘development’ works, there’s probably as many more uncredited.
The Wachowskis return in July, oh joy, in 3-D, more joy, with a tale of a young woman (Mila Kunis) who discovers that she shares the same DNA as the Queen of the Universe, and goes on the run with a genetically engineered former soldier (Channing Tatum), oh, and he’s part wolf… The cast includes the unloveable Eddie Redmayne, but also the extremely loveable Tuppence Middleton and the always watchable Sean Bean, and, oddly, a cameo from Terry Gilliam, whose work is said to be an influence on the movie. Although with bits of Star Wars, Greek mythology, and apparently the comic-book Saga floating about, what isn’t an influence?
An unnecessary prequel to 2005’s horrid Sin City follows the story of Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) and his dangerous relationship with the seductive Ava Lord (Eva Green). Shot in 2012 but trapped in post-production hell the CGI-fest will finally be ready for August, we’re promised. Apparently this Frank Miller comic is bloodier than those utilised in the original, which seems barely possible, and original cast Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis and Jaime King return alongside newcomers Juno Temple and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. But who cares? The original’s awesome trailer promised cartoon Chandler fun, and delivered gruesome, witless, sadistic, and misogynistic attempts at noir from Miller’s pen.
Also in August, Marvel aim to prove that slapping their logo on anything really will sell tickets as many galaxies away Chris Pratt’s cocky pilot (in no way modelled on Han Solo) falls in with alien assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), warrior Drax The Destroyer (wrestler Dave Bautista), tree-creature Groot (Vin Diesel’s voice uttering one line), and badass rodent Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper’s voice), going on the run with a powerful object with half the universe on their tail. Writer/director James Gunn (Slither, Super) has form, and reunites with Michael Rooker as well casting Karen Gillan as a villain, but this silly CGI madness sounds beyond even him.
Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), a wilful, flirtatious young woman unexpectedly inherits a large farm and becomes romantically involved with three widely divergent men: the rich landowner William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), the exciting Sgt. Troy (Tom Sturridge), and the poor farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts). John Schlesinger’s 1967 film of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel is a formidable predecessor. This version is from slightly morbid director Thomas Vinterberg (Festen, The Hunt), in his first period outing, and, worryingly, he co-scripted this with David Nicholls of One Day fame; whose own tendencies are not exactly of a sunny disposition. Can the promising young cast overcome Vinterberg’s most miserabilist tendencies?
The Man from UNCLE
Probably a Christmas blockbuster this reboot of the 1960s show teams CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB man Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) on a mission to infiltrate a mysterious criminal organization during the height of the cold war. Steven Soderbergh nearly made this with George Clooney from a Scott Z Burns script. Instead we get Guy Ritchie and his Sherlock Holmes scribe Lionel Wigram. Sigh. Hugh Grant plays Waverley, while the very talented female leads Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki will highlight the lack of suavity and comic timing of the male leads; particularly troublesome given the show was very dryly done tongue-in-cheek super-spy nonsense.
Another year, another Ridley Scott flick among my greatest cinematic fears… Thankfully Fassbender is not implicated in this disaster in waiting. Instead it is Christian Bale who steps into Charlton Heston’s sandals as the leader of the Israelites Moses in this Christmas blockbuster – don’t ask… Joel Edgerton is the Pharoah Rameses who will not let Moses’ people go, Aaron Paul is Joshua, and the ensemble includes Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Emun Elliott and John Turturro. But Tower Heist scribes Adam Cooper & Bill Collage are the chief writers, with Steve Zaillian rewriting for awards prestige, and Scott’s on an epic losing streak, so this looks well primed for CGI catastrophe…
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Any Other Business: Part XXXV
Filed under: Talking Television — Fergal Casey @ 12:03 pm
Tags: BBC 2, Inside the Bank of England, Mark Carney, The Bank of England, The Beast from the East
What is one to do, so forth.
This bank deserves a better class of journalist
Watching BBC 2’s Inside the Bank of England during the week was a profoundly dispiriting experience. The process of setting the interest rate involved the 9 member monetary policy committee being brief on element after element of the complex matrix making up the British economy. Each briefing was the result of the work of dozens of people crunching statistics or scouting the country to gauge sentiment. The Beast from the East had hit the growth of GDP in the first quarter, so the Bank was likely to not raise interest rates to curb inflation. And what was the reaction of the journalists, who had been locked in a vault with 50 pages of material explaining the statistical context – Governor Carney, does this make the Bank an unreliable boyfriend? Are you bothered by the tag of unreliable boyfriend?
The Age of Attenborough
Filed under: Talking Television — Fergal Casey @ 3:29 pm
Tags: BBC, BBC 2, Blue Planet, Civilisation, David Attenborough, Dynasties, Life in Cold Blood, Life in the Freezer, Life on Earth, Monty Python, Planet Earth, Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, RTE, The Ascent of Man, The Life of Birds, The Living Planet, The Private Life of Plants, The Trials of Life, Wimbledon, Zoo Quest
The Age of Attenborough can be said to have begun on the 16th of January 1979 with the broadcasting of the first episode of Life on Earth. Attenborough, before his stint as director of BBC 2 where he pioneered Wimbledon coverage and Monty Python, had of course been presenting Zoo Quest, and he presented other programmes, even delivering the Royal Instution’s Christmas Lectures in the mid-1970s. But Life on Earth was a self-consciously landmark series in the manner of Civilisation and The Ascent of Man, which Attenborough had commissioned for BBC 2 to show the ambition of the new channel.
1979 was coincidentally also the year my parents bought a humble cathode-ray tube television which has been faithfully broadcasting Attenborough’s explorations of the natural world since Life on Earth and will remain his faithful servant, as RTE 1 prepares to screen his Dynasties programme, until the 6th of August at which point the analogue signal will be turned off and this technical marvel bow out after 40 years of service.
The series that Attenborough has made over those 40 years are astonishing: The Living Planet, The First Eden, Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives, The Trials of Life, Life in the Freezer, The Private Life of Plants, The Life of Birds, The Human Face, The Blue Planet, The Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth, Planet Earth, Life in Cold Blood, Life, Madagascar, Frozen Planet, Kingdom of Plants, Galapagos, Africa, Micro Monsters, Life Story, Conquest of the Skies, The Hunt, Great Barrier Reef, Planet Earth II, Blue Planet II, Dynasties, Our Planet.
Any Other Business: Part XXXI
Filed under: Talking Books,Talking Television — Fergal Casey @ 5:17 pm
Tags: BBC 2, David Benioff, DB Weiss, Elbow, Game of Thrones, George RR Martin, HBO, Julian Barrat, Later...with Jools Holland, LOST, Monsieur Gustave, Neil Gaiman, Newsnight, Noel Fielding, Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Mighty Boosh
What is one to do with thoughts that are far too long for Twitter but not nearly long enough for a proper blog post? Why round them up and turn them into a thirty-first portmanteau post on television of course!
When you play the game of thrones, you watch or you win
I gave up on Game of Thrones after suffering thru 3 seasons. I was unwilling to continue torturing myself to ‘keep up to date with pop culture’. So I’m quite amused at everyone now having a LOST-style meltdown that the show wasted their time for 8 years. In retrospect it was probably insane of HBO to greenlight a TV show based on an ongoing book series that the author clearly had no interest in finishing. I’ve long been comparing George RR Martin to a stand-up comic who 10 minutes into a 12 minute shaggy dog story loses interest and wanders off stage, leaving the poor fools in the audience outraged that he just wasted 10 minutes of their time, and even more outraged when Neil Gaiman walks by to chastise them for feeling outraged that his good friend George wasted their time – he doesn’t owe anybody the punchline to a shaggy dog story.
But now I wonder if there was another more conniving strand to his literary inaction. By refusing to finish writing the books Martin has got the poor saps Benioff & Weiss to test an ending for him to gauge reaction to it. So now Martin just has to say his books would have done it all … differently, and continue to never finish them, but do more fun things like attend sports events and fan conventions like a conquering hero, and he’ll go to his grave with that taunt irrefutable. When did he realise that by not finishing he can eternally be better than the TV ending without ever having to actually furnish his ending?
Jazz Trances, real and fictional
Happening across The Mighty Boosh late at night the other week I suddenly remembered Howard Moon’s jazz trance, something which I saw just a few years prior to a 2011 live episode of Later with Jools Holland featuring a bona fide jazz trance. Jools was trying in his inimitably (and endearing) ramshackle way to keep the show on track for time given that Newsnight was prepping to air live too once his show stopped. And standing waiting in the shadows was a 40 piece choir ready to join Elbow in a rendition of a meisterwerk, but unfortunately he’d put on a jazz band led by an aged jazz legend just before, and all four of them had gone into a proper eyes closed working out their melodies by feel jazz trance. The camera captured a nervous looking Jools baffled at how to get them to stop as he couldn’t make eye contact with any of the players: a moment of panic that reduced Dad and I to helpless laughter. At last one musician opened his eyes and Jools was able to flag him down. He stopped. And then another musician opened his eyes wondering why he’d stopped, and saw, and stopped too. Only for our man, the legend, to misinterpret this, in his jazz trance, as his merry men waiting on him to change key, which he duly did, until the third musician stopped, and then he opened his eyes, and lo, the jazz trance was broken. And a mightily relieved Jools rushed across to stop it starting up again and hurried Elbow and their 40 piece choir into action.
Any Other Business: Part XIX
Tags: BBC 2
What is one to do with thoughts that are far too long for Twitter but not nearly long enough for a proper blog post? Why round them up and turn them into a nineteenth portmanteau post on matters of course!
Oh no, not again. BBC 2 has ditched its 1990s idents for new ones that aren’t as good. Here we bloody go again. Back around Christmas 2014 it was a delight to see the inventive, practical magic of the 1990s idents reappear for the 50th anniversary of the station’s founding. The response seemed so unanimously enthusiastic that it was heard at BBC HQ and lo, the crummy idents of the 2010s faded away, and the glorious old idents of the 1990s marched forth before programmes once again. Until now, and a new set of crummy idents are here to end the 2010s as it began, not with a bang but a whimper.
Ecuador plots daring escape for Julian Assange
Filed under: Talking Nonsense — Fergal Casey @ 1:48 pm
Tags: Aaron Sorkin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, B Bradley Bradlee, BBC 2, Ben Miller, Common Sense, Die Emmerich-Zeitung, Die Hard, Ecuador, Escape Plan, Ferrero Rocher, Halloween, Harrods, Hugo de Bradias, John McClane, Julian Assange, Julian Assange Escape Plan, Kim Jong-Un, Kim Kardashian, Livia, London, Longmire, Metropolitan Police, Nakatomi Plaza, North Korea, Olly Murs, Oxford Street, Pyeonchang, Selfridges, South Korea, Sylvester Stallone, The Met, Tom Paine, Wikileaks, Winter Olympics 2018
A drunken Ambassador who is shamelessly junketing in South Korea to support Ecuador’s sole entrant in the Winter Olympics has accidentally let slip an elaborate long-term plan to get Wikileaks founder Julian Assange out of their London embassy without being arrested by the Met, writes B. Bradley Bradlee from Pyeongchang.
Julian Assange met with Noam Chomsky to discuss the ethics of selling the movie rights to his forthcoming escape. Mr Chomsky insisted he be played only by philosopher Sam Harris.
Hugo de Bradias, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed over his seventeenth tequila that the Ecuadorean embassy in London had had enough. “You think we really had a package delivered of mysterious white powder last week? Mystery white powder?! We were just, testing, hiccup, the response time of the Met. All our white powder comes from the Bolivian embassy’s chauffeur. Don’t print that. I’ll deeeny I shaid shit.” Ambassador de Bradias then flourished a piece of paper which was headed ‘Julian Assange Escape Plan’ ™. When pressed on why it was trademarked he mumbled about various copyright infringements, and ‘out-chutzpah’.
The document, which will no doubt be of especial interest to London’s Metropolitan Police, details an elaborate escape plan for Julian Assange – to take place on Hallowe’en night 2018. Ambassador de Bradias laughed so hard he fell off his barstool explaining that the final version of the plan had come together after Assange had gone to bed for the night and the embassy staff stayed up and watched recent episodes of Longmire and Blindspot after Olly Murs had caused chaos on Twitter by implying Oxford Street’s Selfridges had become Nakatomi Plaza with Murs himself as an all-singing all-dancing John McClane.
The plan involves a huge amount of simultaneous Tube platform altercations and minor vandalism on busy shopping streets to divert police resources all over London. The Ecuadorean embassy will be hosting a masked ball for some 10,000 partygoers, flooding the building and grounds. Assange will make a speech from his usual balcony, and get a coughing fit mid-tedious tirade. He will duck inside to get a glass of water, a light bulb will blow, but he will soldier on, giving the speech in half-light. But, and Ambassador de Bradias hooted with glee – this will not be the real Assange.
The real Assange will have disappeared when he went for his glass of water, replaced by a double. At this moment of subterfuge all 10,000 partygoers will flood out of the Ecuadorean embassy; and the mask that everyone is wearing will be revealed to be the face of – Julian Assange. The real Assange escapes because the Met are stretched too thin from all the mayhem to search so many civilians without probable cause. That at least is the plan. Obviously such a massive subterfuge, requiring so much materiel and so many personnel, and, strictly confidential, an outlay for a fake party and gunbattle in Harrods to inspire panicked tweets from an influential useful idiot like Kim Kardashian, would be hugely costly for troubled Ecuador.
When pressed on how the embassy would pay for all this Ambassador de Bradias tapped his nose and alluded to the presence in Pyeongchang of Kim Jong-Un’s diabolical sister, the Livia of North Korea. He was more forthcoming on the plan’s urgency, “This man, Assange, he must go. At first, yay, stick it to the Americans. Now, no. Now he pain in ass. BBC 2 make sitcom about him. What do we get? Nada. We try to interest Aaron Sorkin. Hey, come do research, make movie, Assange he is like Man who come to dinner, no? No. Sorkin, no.” When asked if he was not concerned that Assange, a digital Tom Paine, could end up being beaten with sticks about the kidneys in a floating black site not unlike the prison in Stallone/Schwarzenegger vehicle Escape Plan, the Ambassador gave me a withering look and called for more Ferrero Rocher.
B. Bradley Bradlee is fictional editor emeritus of The New York Times. He is currently covering the Winter Olympics for the German weekly Die Emmerich-Zeitung.
Filed under: Uncategorized — Fergal Casey @ 4:56 pm
Tags: 1913: The Year Before The Storm, Aaron Sorkin, Alfred Hitchcock, BBC 2, Bradley Whitford, Brideshead Revisited, Florian Illies, Studio 60, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
I’m putting the blog on ice for a bit while I cook a duck for Christmas dinner, finally get round to re-reading Brideshead Revisited after I finish reading Florian Illies’ 1913: The Year Before The Storm, and whoop up BBC2’s late night Hitchcock season.
Talking Movies proper will return in early January with a Top 10 Films of 2015, and previews of 2016′s best and worst films.
And for the season that it is revisit Sorkin Christmas: Part Two.
2014: Hopes
Tags: 2014: Hopes, 22 Jump Street, A Cock and Bull Story, Agent 13, Al Pacino, Amanda Noret, Amber Stevens, Anne Hathaway, Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, BBC 2, Ben Affleck, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Black Widow, Bolivar Trask, Brie Larson, Bryan Singer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Casey Affleck, Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum, Chris Claremont, Chris Lowell, Christopher Nolan, Colin Firth, Danny Strong, Dave Franco, David Fincher, Domhnall Gleeson, Donald Sutherland, Edward Norton, Eileen Atkins, Elementary, Ellen Page, Emily VanCamp, Emma Stone, Enrico Colantoni, Ernst Lubitsch, Evan Goldberg, F Murray Abraham, F Scott Fitzgerald, Falcon, Francis Lawrence, Frank, Fritz Lang, George Clooney, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, Grant Heslov, Hayley Atwell, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Ice Cube, Interstellar, Jacki Weaver, James Franco, Jason Dohring, Jason Schwartzman, Jean Dujardin, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Joe Russo, John Byrne, John Goodman, John Lithgow, Jon Ronson, Jonah Hill, Jonathan Nolan, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Julianne Moore, Katniss Everdeen, Kitty Pryde, Kristen Bell, Lenny Abrahamson, Lizzy Caplan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Magic in the Moonlight, Marcia Gay Harden, Mathieu Amalric, Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Me and Dupree, Michael Caine, Michael Fassbender, Michael Winterbottom, Midnight in Paris, Mockingjay - Part I, Moonrise Kingdom, Natalie Dormer, Neil Patrick Harris, Nick Fury, Nick Offerman, North Korea, Ocean's 11, Owen Wilson, Patrick Fugit, Patrick Stewart, Percy Daggs III, Peter Dinklage, President Coin, President Snow, Quarter Quell, Ralph Fiennes, Recount, Revenge, Rob Brydon, Rob Riggle, Rob Thomas, Robert Redford, Rosamund Pike, Ryan Hansen, Samuel L Jackson, Saoirse Ronan, Scarlett Johansson, Sentinels, Seth Rogen, Shawn Levy, SHIELD, Steve Coogan, Steven Spielberg, Sweet & Lowdown, Talking Movies, The Dark Knight Rises, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Hunger Games, The Interview, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Monuments Men, The Prestige, The Psychopath Test, The Train, The Trip, The Trip to Italy, This is The End, Tilda Swinton, Tina Majorino, Tommy Lee Jones, Veronica Mars, Wes Anderson, Wolverine, Woody Allen, Wyatt Russell, X-Men, X-Men: Days of Future Past, You
The Monuments Men
George Clooney stars, co-writes with Grant Heslov again, and directs what seems like a promising mash-up of The Train and Ocean’s 11, arriving sometime in February. Somewhat based on fact, a crack team of art experts and soldiers are assembled in the dying months of WWII to try and rescue priceless works of art from wanton destruction at the hands of nihilistic Nazis. The team includes regular Clooney cohort Matt Damon and the great Cate Blanchett, alongside the undoubtedly scene-stealing comedic duo of Bill Murray and John Goodman, and oddly Jean Dujardin. Can Clooney pull off a more serious art heist from Nazis caper? Fingers crossed he can.
Wes Anderson returns in March, apparently in thrall to Lubitsch and Lang. Edward Norton did so well in Moonrise Kingdom that he’s invited back alongside Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, and Owen Wilson. Newcomers are Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Jude Law, Mathieu Amalric, and F Murray Abraham. Fiennes is the legendary concierge of the titular hotel in inter-war Europe, where any gathering storms are ignored in favour of absurd murder plots, art thefts and family squabbles gone mad, as Fiennes gives his lobby-boy protégé an education in dealing with the upper classes which he’ll never forget; if they escape a sticky end long enough to remember.
AW YEAH!! It was cancelled in 2007 but Kristen Bell’s iconic teen detective snoops again as creator Rob Thomas sends NYC legal eagle Veronica back to sunny Neptune to attend her high school reunion. Present and correct are friends Mac (Tina Majorino) and Wallace (Percy Daggs III), nemesis Madison (Amanda Noret), and frenemy Dick (Ryan Hansen). Dad Keith (Enrico Colantoni) remains a sage, warning against the obvious peril of insipid boyfriend Piz (Chris Lowell) being replaced in her affections by roguish ex Logan (Jason Dohring), who is once again accused of murder and asking for V’s help. Please let the sparks of ‘epic love’ spanning ‘decades and continents’ rekindle!
Lenny Abrahamson is the opposite of a Talking Movies favourite, but he’s teamed up with the favourite di tutti favourites Michael Fassbender. Thankfully Abrahamson’s miserabilist tendencies and agonising inertness have been put to one side for this rock-star comedy co-written by journalist Jon Ronson, a man with a verified eye for the absurd having written The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Psychopath Test. The original script loosely based on a cult English comic musician follows wannabe musician Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), who discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew when he joins a pop band led by the enigmatic Frank (Fassbender) and his scary girlfriend Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Literally everything I loved most about the original disappeared with the time-jump. So the major attraction of April’s sequel isn’t Robert Redford as a shady new SHIELD director, but Revenge’s icy heroine Emily VanCamp as the mysterious Agent 13. Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow regrettably take the place of Tommy Lee Jones and Hayley Atwell in support, but Anthony Mackie as sidekick Falcon is a major boon. The real worry is that directors Joe and Anthony Russo (You, Me and Dupree, yes, that’s right, that’s their resume) will be intimidated by their budget into endless CGI action and precious little else.
I’m excited and nostalgic, because May 23rd sees the arrival of the X-3 we deserved, but never got. Bryan Singer returns to the franchise he launched for one of Claremont/Byrne’s most famous storylines. In a dystopian future, where mutantkind has been decimated by the Sentinels of Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage),Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) Wolverine (Hugh Jackman – this is a movie, not a comic, it’s all got to be about Wolverine!) is sent back into the past by Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) to alter history by rapprochement of their younger selves (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender). Jennifer Lawrence co-stars, with every X-Men actor!
A proper summer blockbuster release date of June 13th for this sequel recognises the hilarious success of the absurd original. Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) (or was it the other way round?) go undercover in college to crack another drug ring, and once again their fantastic bromance starts to crack under the strain. The original’s unwieldy team of writers and directors are back, as are Ice Cube, Nick Offerman, Rob Riggle and Dave Franco. Amber Stevens and Wyatt Russell are the college kids, but sadly Brie Larson is absent. Jonah Hill appears in full goth gear, which seems to suggest that the absurdity levels remain healthy.
The Trip to Italy
It’s not clear yet if we’ll get this as an abridged film or just be treated to the full version as 6 episodes on BBC 2. In either case Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite to play heightened versions of themselves as they bicker their way around restaurants in Italy for the purposes of writing magazine reviews. 2010’s endearing roving sitcom The Trip, with its competitive Michael Caine impersonations was a joy, and director Michael Winterbottom takes the show on tour here. And no better man for the job, as this originated with their duelling Al Pacinos at the end of his A Cock and Bull Story.
Woody Allen’s latest should hit our screens around September. This time round the cottage industry is giving us a period romantic comedy, set in the south of France, which takes place in the 1920s and 1930s. The cast is as usual intimidating: Emma Stone, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, the imperious Eileen Atkins (one of the few actresses capable of domineering over Judi Dench), and Jacki Weaver. Will F Scott and his ilk make an appearance? Who knows! There are no details, just stills of open-top cars, drop waists, and cloche hats so this could be a close cousin of Sweet & Lowdown or Midnight in Paris.
The start of October sees the great David Fincher return, with his first film in three years, and it’s another adaptation of a wildly successful crime novel. Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) are seemingly the perfect couple, but when she disappears suddenly on their 5th wedding anniversary, Nick becomes the prime suspect as he discovers his wife told friends she was scared of him. Could he have killed her? Or is the truth far more twisted? Gillian Flynn has adapted her own work, and, incredibly, penned an entirely new third act to keep everyone guessing. The unusually colourful supporting cast includes Neil Patrick Harris and Patrick Fugit.
The pitch is that an attractive talk show host and his producer unwittingly get caught up in an international assassination plot. So far so blah, if that was say Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson directed by Shawn Levy, except that the host is actually James Franco, the producer is Seth Rogen, the interview is in North Korea, and the awesome Lizzy Caplan is the rogue femme fatale CIA agent who drags them into all sorts of mischief. And it’s written and directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg who distinguished themselves with 2013’s best comedy This is The End. This is very likely to mop up the non-Gone Girl audience.
Christopher Nolan tries to redeem himself after TDKR with a small personal project, taking the same release date as The Prestige did. Well, small, in that the WB needed Paramount to stump up some cash for it, and personal, in that Spielberg spent years developing it; albeit with the assistance of Jonathan Nolan. Scientists attempt to observe a wormhole into another dimension, and that’s about all we know, other than vague speculations about ecological crises. Matthew McConaughey 2.0 stars alongside Anne Hathaway, Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, Jessica Chastain, and, yes, Michael Caine – who is now as essential a part of the signature as Bill Murray for Wes Anderson.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I
Jennifer Lawrence goes for third biggest hit at the North American box office for the third year in a row with her latest turn as rebel heroine Katniss Everdeen on November 21st. Having survived the Quarter Quell and the destruction of her District, she discovers President Snow has Peeta hostage, and that the rebellion has a leader, President Coin (Julianne Moore), ready to embark on a full-scale bloody war of rebellion against the Capitol. Recount writer (and Buffy shmuck) Danny Strong is the new screenwriter, and Elementary star Natalie Dormer joins the cast, but director Francis Lawrence remains in situ, with his considered visual style.
Tags: Aaron Sorkin, Andrew Roberts, BBC 2, Brideshead Revisited, Salisbury: Victorian Titan
I’m putting the blog on ice for a while while I cook a duck for Christmas dinner, finally get round to re-watching Brideshead Revisited and finish reading Salisbury: Victorian Titan, and whoop up BBC2′s customary feast of late night and early morning B-movies.
Talking Movies will return in early January with a Top 10 of 2013, and previews of 2014′s best films.
And for the night that’s in it revisit Sorkin Christmas: Part One.
Tags: BBC 2, I Cladius, Shame, Steve McQueen, The Talented Mr Ripley
I’m putting the blog on ice for a while while I cook a duck for Christmas dinner, finally get round to viewing I, Claudius and reading The Talented Mr Ripley, and whoop up BBC2′s late night season of 1940s horror B-movies. Talking Movies will return in mid January with a Top 10 of 2011, previews of 2011’s best films and a review of Steve McQueen’s Shame. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Icon: Werner Herzog
Filed under: Talking Movies — Fergal Casey @ 11:53 am
Tags: Aguirre the Wrath of God, Batman, BBC 2, Beverly Hills, Christian Bale, Conquistadores, El Dorado, Encounters at the End of the World, Errol Morris, Fitzcarraldo, For a Few Dollars More, Gates of Heaven, Grizzly Man, Hollywood, Incident at Loch Ness, Joaquin Phoenix, Klaus Kinski, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Loch Ness, Los Angeles, Mark Kermode, My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?, National Geographic, Nessie, Rescue Dawn, Signs of Life, Sunset Boulevard, The Bad Lieutenant, The Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans, The Culture Show, The Flying Doctors of East Africa, The Fog of War, The Loch Ness Monster, Werner Herzog, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, X-2, Zak Penn
Herzog’s dementedly brilliant The Bad Lieutenant is currently in cinemas and another feature My Son What Have Ye Done? is winning acclaim at film festivals, so it’s time for a brief spot of hero-worship of the insane German auteur.
Werner Herzog was born in 1942 and worked in a steel factory to fund his film education. When he was thirteen his family had shared an apartment in Munich with an eccentric actor called Klaus Kinski. Kinski had a small role in For a Few Dollars More but was widely considered impossible to work with. Herzog (who said of Kinski, “I had to domesticate the wild beast”) was thus uniquely positioned to extract performances of grandeur from the actor in the five films they made together. Herzog spent the mid-60s trying to get his award winning feature script Signs of Life off the ground. He had written it in 1964 and in 1967 finally managed to make it with only $20,000 and a stolen 35 mm movie camera. It was released to acclaim in 1968 and his debut established his directorial style. Languidly paced with long takes and dreamy landscape shots it followed the descent into madness of an injured soldier while working as caretaker of a military fortress with his wife on a Greek island. Herzog followed it up with a National Geographic documentary The Flying Doctors of East Africa establishing a pattern of alternating features with documentaries that persists to this day.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) established Herzog as a truly visionary director with an extraordinary eye for landscape cinematography and a talent for exploring states of deep psychological madness in its epic narrative of a Conquistador’s search for El Dorado. Herzog revisited this theme with Fitzcarraldo (1982) which was another story of insanity in the South American rainforests and during which he remarked, “I shouldn’t make movies anymore. I should go to a lunatic asylum”. Both films benefited from extraordinary performances by Klaus Kinski of whom he said: “People think we had a love-hate relationship. Well, I did not love him, nor did I hate him. We had mutual respect for each other, even as we both planned each other’s murder”. It is alleged that Herzog threatened Kinski with a gun during takes on Fitzcarraldo…
Documentaries became Herzog’s mainstay following Kinski’s death in 1990. Herzog’s reputation in that field is immense. He was responsible for forcing Errol Morris, director of 2004’s The Fog of War, to stop talking about it and finally make his documentary debut, the off-beat 1978 pet cemetery documentary Gates of Heaven, with a challenge that Herzog made good on in the 1979 short film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe… Herzog’s most notable documentaries include 1997’s Little Dieter Needs to Fly and 2005’s Grizzly Man. He also starred in 2004’s Incident at Loch Ness, an uproariously funny mockumentary about Herzog making a film about the phenomenon of Nessie, co-written and directed with X-2 scribe Zak Penn.
While being interviewed about Grizzly Man by Mark Kermode for BBC 2’s Culture Show Herzog was shot live on camera by an air-rifle. Herzog, Kermode and the crew dived for cover and scurried from the Beverly Hills to Herzog’s house to finish the interview. Herzog was remarkably unperturbed, merely muttering “I have been shot at before, but this is the first time I have been shot at in those hills”. Kermode was aghast to discover that Herzog was bleeding having been shot in the stomach by the sniper. Herzog steadfastly refused to go to hospital maintaining, “It is an insignificant wound”, and finished the interview. The morning after the interview was broadcast Joaquin Phoneix revealed Herzog had rescued him from a car wreck. Phoenix overturned his car on a canyon road above Sunset Boulevard after his brakes failed. Phoenix said “I remember this knocking on the passenger window. There was this German voice saying, ‘Just relax’…I’m saying, ‘I’m fine. I am relaxed’…this head pops inside. And he said, ‘No, you’re not’. And suddenly I said to myself, ‘That’s Werner Herzog’ There’s something so calming and beautiful about Werner Herzog’s voice. I felt completely fine and safe. I climbed out. I got out of the car and I said, ‘Thank you’, and he was gone”. After such a truly Batman like escapade it was only suitable that Herzog’s next film was with Christian Bale. Rescue Dawn dramatised the true story of Little Dieter Needs to Fly, an account of USAF pilot Dieter Dengler’s attempts to escape from a Vietcong POW camp.
Herzog followed up his highest-profile feature in many years with Encounters at the End of the World, an inspired portrayal of Antarctica’s wildlife and landscape and the oddballs who live there, which was Talking Movies’ pick of 2009. Herzog may well win it and place this year…
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Silk Road phrasebooks
Posted on May 12, 2014 by Sam van Schaik
Phrasebooks still seem to sell quite well, judging by their presence on bookshop shelves. If translation apps do eventually make them redundant, it will be the end of a tradition that goes back a long way. The Central Asian manuscript collections provide plenty of evidence that phrasebooks were popular with travellers on the Silk Road in the first millennium AD.
One Tibetan-Chinese phrasebook (found in Or.8210/S.1000 and S.2736) was obviously compiled for merchants. The phrasebook gives the Tibetan word, followed by the Chinese equivalent, all in the Tibetan script. Thus it was clearly written for travellers who knew the Tibetan language but little or nothing of Chinese. In this phrasebook, the names of goods including food, clothes, tools, weapons and armour predominate.
Also here are words and phrases helpful to visitors to a strange town looking for food and a bed for night, and moving on to the next destination. The phrasebook is also there for travellers who encounter problems such as illness, being robbed, or being accused of being a thief, including the essential (but perhaps not very effective) “what have I done wrong!?” Probably more useful is the translation of the title of the Tibetan emperor and other high officials in the Tibetan empire. There is also a Chinese translation of the word bonpo, in case you need the help of a ritual specialist. The author of the phrasebook had a sense of humour: the last phrase he included is “shut up!” Sometimes even an intrepid traveller needs a bit of peace and quiet.
It wasn’t just merchants who had to haggle at the market. Another manuscript, IOL Khot 140, is a list of goods for a Khotanese monastery in the 10th century. On the list are: coats of silk and wool, trousers, undergarments, shoes, blankets, a camel-skin pouch, a silver cup, incense and more. It is nice to think of the monks all heading off to market with this list, but the document is signed by the “receiver” (nāsākä), the Revered Ratnavṛkṣa, plus witnesses, which suggests that this is more of a receipt for an order than a shopping list. Considering the phrasebook we just looked at, it’s interesting that in this list a few items are glossed in Tibetan, suggesting that Tibetan might have become the lingua franca of the marketplace in Dunhuang by the 10th century.
Back to phrasebooks, but staying with Khotanese, Pelliot chinois 5538 is a scroll with a series of phrases in Sanskrit and Khotanese, on the general theme of pilgrimage. Some of the phrases form conversations, like this:
And where are you going now?
I am going to China.
What business do you have in China?
I’m going to see the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.
When are you coming back?
I’m going to China, then I’ll return.
The conversations also cover practical matters:
Do you have any provisions for the road?
I do not like my provisions.
I’ll go with one or two horses.
We don’t know whether this particular scroll (which also dates from the late 10th century) was actually used as a phrasebook – it might have just been copied out as an exercise – but most of the phrases in it are relevant to the needs of a Buddhist pilgrim travelling from India to China. The phrasebook also has some revealing snippets of conversation that suggest another interest for travellers. After some phrases regarding the arrival of a Tibetan teacher, the conversation goes in this direction:
He is dear to many women.
He goes about a lot.
He makes love.
Which suggests that gossip was another popular activity among Silk Route travellers!
Not all Tibetan teachers were held in such low esteem by the Khotanese, as another multilingual manuscript shows (Pelliot 2782 – pictured at the top of this post). This is a letter, or a copy of a letter, written to a Tibetan lama. It’s written in the Khotanese script, as you can see in the image above, but the language turns out to be Tibetan. Presumably the writer knew Tibetan as a spoken language, but could only write the Khotanese script. Luckily for us, the Tibetan was reconstructed by Ryotai Kaneko, and published by H.W. Bailey, with an English translation. Since Bailey’s translation of the Tibetan was not very accurate, I’ve retranslated it here.
To the great teacher, the eyes of the Buddha, who sees lowly ones like us with the eyes of wisdom. Although we do not share a language, and we are not skilled in the Tibetan language of the lords of the dharma, the local rulers, please do not break your commitments. This is
addressed to the great master. I respectfully enquire whether you are well, and in particular whether your precious and noble body has become fatigued. We humble ones have ridden to see the face of the Noble Mañjuśrī and are returning to [the land of] Śākya[muni], the god of
gods. May we be permitted to come and make an offering to all who have seen the face of Mañjuśrī?
The letter begins with the usual polite conventions (in fact, these take up the majority of the letter) before getting to the point, a request to visit this teacher and make an offering. Like the monk whose conversations appear in the Khotanese-Sanskrit phrasebook, the writer of this letter has travelled East to visit Wutaishan, and is on his or her way back to Khotan (yes, the Khotanese did consider themselves to belong to the land of Śākyamuni).
I find something really heartening about this evidence of human beings’ ability to cross the barriers of language. OK, so maybe it was often just to buy blankets. Still I suspect that the linguistic efforts of the merchants paved the way for the communication of other things, including Buddhism. Once that has happened did the kings and emperors with their big translation projects get involved, and get the credit. That’s why its nice to have these accidentally preserved phrasebooks and multilingual lists and letters, scraps of evidence of unsung linguistic adventurers.
Bailey, H.W. 1964. ‘Śrī Viśa Śūra and the Ta-uang’. Asia Major (New Series) 11.1: 17–26.
Bailey, H.W. 1973. “Taklamakan Miscellany.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36.2: 224–227. JSTOR.
KUMAMOTO Hiroshi. 1988. ‘Saiiki ryokōsha yō Sansukuritto-Kōtango kaiwa renshūchō’ 西域旅行者用サンスクリット=コ一タン語 會話練習帳. Seinan Ajia Kenkyū 西南アジア研究 28: 53–82.
Sam van Schaik. “Red Faced Barbarians, Benign Despots and Drunken Masters: Khotan as a Mirror to Tibet.” PDF here.
van Schaik, Sam and Imre Galambos, Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012.
Thomas, F.W. and Giles, Lionel. 1948. ‘A Tibeto-Chinese Word-and-Phrase Book’. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 12.2–3: 753–769. JSTOR
This is an expanded version of a post I wrote on the IDP blog.
Posted in Bon, Buddhism, China and Tibet, Khotan, Manuscripts, Tibet | 4 Replies
The Original Bodhicaryāvatāra
Posted on February 4, 2014 by Sam van Schaik
The Bodhicaryāvatāra or “Way of the Bodhisattva” as it is often translated, is one of the most read texts in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.* This is hardly surprising, as its author Śāntideva managed the feat of encapsulating the vast expanses of Mahāyāna Buddhism in a single elegantly and often movingly written text. What is surprising is that the text as it has been passed down in the Tibetan tradition, and as it is read in translation today, is not the earliest version, and is quite different from it. We know this largely thanks to the excellent work of Akira Saito, which is undeservedly difficult to get hold of. During the 90s Saito worked on four Dunhuang manuscripts of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, showing how the early version that they contained differed quite radically from the familiar later version. Here I’ll summarize his conclusions and add some of my own thoughts. The four manuscripts are actually three:
(1) A complete copy comprising IOL Tib J 628 and Pelliot tibétain 794.
(2) A copy with several missing pages, now representing about 60% of the text (IOL Tib J 629).
(3) A copy of the last chapter, on the dedication of merit (IOL Tib J 630).
So, what are the differences between this Dunhuang version of the Bodhicaryāvatāra and the one that was passed down through the centuries in Tibet and is still being taught today? Most strikingly, it is significantly shorter, containing roughly 700 verses instead of 1,000. Also, chapters 2 and 3 of the longer version are combined together, so that the Dunhuang version has nine chapters instead of ten. Most of the missing verses come in the chapters on meditation and wisdom, perhaps the most read and discussed chapters in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Further confirmation that the Dunhuang Bodhicaryāvatāra was the earlier version is found in the early 9th-century library catalogue, the Ldan dkar ma, which records the existence of this text, with 600 verses (Saito suggests that it is given as 600 rather than 700 because the verses were estimated at 300 verses per volume, and the text was in two volumes). Saito’s close study of the differences in the wisdom chapter lead him to conclude that the familiar longer version of the Bodhicaryāvatāra is “an enlarged version” of the Dunhuang manuscript version, with many verses added on criticism of other systems of thought, including that of a supreme deity (Īśvara) and the metaphysics of the Sāṃkhya. On the other hand, some of the verses on non-self have been cut from the older version.
The existence of different versions of the Bodhicaryāvatāra was known in Tibet. Buton was aware that a shorter version was listed in early library catalogues like the Ldan dkar ma, and he wrote:
Though this [Bodhicaryāvatāra] is described the three great catalogues as comprising 600 verses, it actually has 1,000. Many state that this [Bodhicaryāvatāra] is not the same as the one with nine chapters said to be written by Akṣayamati. However, apart from the difference arising from separating the chapter on the confession of sins, and differences in the earlier and later translations, I would say that they are the same [text].
Another major difference between the two versions, which Buton mentions, is the name of the author, which in the colophon to the complete Dunhuang manuscript (IOL Tib J 629) is not Śāntideva but Akṣayamati. Saito quotes from two sources that suggest this was an alternative honorary name for Śāntideva. Here’s that colophon:
Note also that this colophon gives the names of two translators, an Indian, perhaps Sarvajñādeva (Sa ra bad nya de ba) and a Tibetan, Bande Paltseg. If we look at the colophon of the longer version of the text, we can see that this is the first stage of its translation history:
The Indian master Sarvajñādeva and the Tibetan translator Paltseg edited and finalized [a translation] based on a text from Kashmir. After that, the Indian master Dharmaśrībhadra, the great translator Rinchen Zangpo, and Shakya Lodro completed an amended translation by combining a text and its commentary from central India. Furthermore, in a later period, the Indian master Sumatikītri and the monk translator Loden Sherab completed a correctly amended translation, which was excellent.
Thus there is a gap of some two centuries between the work of the first translation team in the late 8th century and the second in the early 11th century. It is not surprising that a significantly different manuscript version was in circulation by the time Rinchen Zangpo was travelling in India in search of books to translate. (Incidentally, the surviving Sanskrit versions of the Bodhicaryāvatāra are all the longer version.)
Writing much later still, in the 17th century, the Tibetan scholar Tāranātha claimed that there were three versions of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: a version from eastern India in 700 verses, and two different versions from Kashmir and central India in 1,000 verses. Tāranātha then tells a story of two monks being sent to Śāntideva to ask which was the correct version, to which the author replied that it was the one found in central India. The same story is told by Buton in his history of Buddhism. These look very much like post facto justifications that the version already accepted in the Tibetan tradition was indeed the correct version.
I’m inclined to agree with Saito in his assessment that the version found in Dunhuang is earlier, and the longer ones that were passed down through the Tibetan tradition were based on Indian manuscripts that had been supplemented with new verses between the 8th and 11th centuries. Since the first translation was done quite soon after the time of Śāntideva himself (who lived in the 8th century) the shorter version may represent something close to what the author first circulated. The popularity of the text in India meant that it would have been copied multiple times, and that it could have been adapted to the needs of the people using it, resulting in multiple variously expanded versions circulating in India. As we saw, in the longer version there is new material in the chapter on wisdom, disputing theists and metaphysical dualists, and this would have been useful in religious debates.
I’ve written a little bit in the past here on the concepts of “originality” and “authenticity” in Buddhist texts. It is difficult to hold on to the idea of an original and authentic text when one looks at the multiple versions on offer in printed and manuscript versions. In manuscript culture in particular, it is clear that texts were constantly trimmed, augmented and supplemented. Commentary added in interlinear notes might be inserted into the main text in a later copy. Whole sentences might disappear due to a copyist’s eye’s skipping too far down the page.
At one end of the spectrum there are the scriptural texts that are preserved as much as possible from the innate malleability of manuscript culture, as they represent the authority of the tradition, and are not actually used much. At the other end there are those works that are found to be useful in a variety of ways, spread far and wide, and are much changed in the process. The latter was surely the case with the Bodhicaryāvatāra in India. Later on in Tibet, as a prestigious text translated from the home of Buddhism, it became important to designate and preserve an original version. Though as we have seen, due to the quirks of history and politics, the version that came to be accepted as authentic in Tibet was probably further from the original form than the version that was forgotten.
Not that the shorter version is the “original” either. Unless a Sanskrit manuscript turns up, signed by Śāntideva himself, we’d better not worry about that. As for the “authentic” Tibetan version: if pressed I would go for the one that has been used with great success by generations of teachers and students.
* The full title is Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, literally meaning something like “Engaging in the activity of a bodhisattva.”
The above is based on the following works by Saito:
Akira SAITO. 1993. “A Study of Akṣayamati (=Śāntideva)’s Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra as Found in the Tibetan Manuscripts from Tun-huang. Report of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research published by Miye University, Japan.
Akira SAITO. 2000. “A Study of the Dūn-huáng Rescension of the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra. Report of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research published by Miye University, Japan.
Saito’s conclusions were discussed in:
Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton (trans.). 1996. Śantideva: The Bodhicaryāvatāra. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The image at the top is from a 19th-century painting: see here.
Posted in Buddhism, Manuscripts, Tibet | 19 Replies
A Turk far away from home
Posted on August 6, 2013 by Sam van Schaik
Detail from IOL Tib J 1410
There is a sutra from the Dunhuang cave that is one of the few truly “illuminated” manuscripts from this collection; that is to say, it has small pictures of buddhas complementing the text.* As you can see from the image above, they have either been damaged, or perhaps were never completed. Anyway, these illuminations are not the most interesting thing about this manuscript. It is a copy of a Chinese sutra (the shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha) in Tibetan script. Apparently the scribe who wrote the manuscript knew spoken Chinese but not the written characters, so used the Tibetan alphabet instead.
But this was not a Tibetan. In a colophon, the scribe writes that he comes from the country of the Kyrgyz (Tibetan gir kis) though he now lives in Hexi, the province that contains Dunhuang. And another scribble on the back of the page states that though this sutra is written in TIbetan (thu pod), it was written by a Turk (‘brug). I must say I don’t understand the whole of the colophon, which seems to be a mixture of Tibetan, Turkic and Chinese words, but I detect the Turkic name Kahraman (khang re man). I could well be wrong, but let’s call him Kahraman.
So why did Kahraman, born in the Kyrgyz lands, end up in Dunhuang? The Uighur Turkic empire ruled the northern steppes from the mid-8th to mid-9th century, until they were destroyed by their enemies, the Kyrgyz. From then onwards hundreds of Uighur Turks fled south across the mountains. Some settled in the Turfan region, where they established the kingdom of Qocho, and others ended up in Hexi, where they ousted the local Chinese rulers and set up a kingdom based in Ganzhou (modern Zhangye). Here, surrounded by Tibetan and Chinese Buddhists, many of the Turks learned to write in Chinese or Tibetan, and adopted Buddhism. The Uighur Turks are the ancestors of the modern Uighurs of Xinjiang province. Over the following century, the Uighurs gradually converted to Islam. However, the Uighurs of Hexi remained Buddhists, and today are considered a separate ethnic minority in China, known as the Yugur people.
If Kahraman was a Kyrgyz, he would be have been living under the rule of his tribe’s enemies, the Uighurs. I suppose this is possible, but perhaps he was not a Kyrgyz after all, but was just referring to his homeland as the land that is now ruled by the Kyrgyz.
Kahraman seems to have had a grasp of some basic Buddhist principles. From the colophon we can see that he was familiar with the idea that copying sutras accrues merit, and that merit leads to good rebirths. His colophon lists a dozen or so Buddhist texts (mostly by their Chinese titles) that he has written, and then recited in a single day as an offering to “the buddha, the gods and nagas of the eight quarters, and the protectors of the four directions.” By the merit of this, he hopes that one day he will be able to return to his own country, and that after he dies, he will be born free of suffering, not in hell, and preferably in the god realms.
This sutra is a reminder that Tibetan was the lingua franca of Central Asia for a long time, and that it allowed people from various backgrounds to communicate with each other. It also allowed them to participate in a shared system of religious values and practices. Centuries later, the Gansu Uighurs had adopted Tibetan Buddhism (along with other aspects of Tibetan culture like sky burial) and were firmly settled in the region. It looks like Kahraman was a first-generation immigrant, adopting the new languages and customs, but still hoping to return home one day.
A study of the manuscript IOL Tib J 1410 was published in 1927 by FW Thomas and GLM Clauson, mainly dealing with the Tibeto-Chinese phonology. Thomas’s reading of the colophon differs slightly from mine: F. W. Thomas and G. L. M. Clauson. 1927. “A Second Chinese Buddhist Text in Tibetan Characters.” J.R.A.S., April 1927, pp. 281-306, and Supplementary note, pp. 858-60.
On the Uighurs at Dunhuang, see:
Moriyasu Takao. 2000. “The Sha-chou Uighurs and the West Uighur Kingdom”. Acta Asiatica 78: 28-48.
Lilla Russell-Smith. 2005. Uygur Patronage at Dunhuang. Leiden: Brill.
And for the Uighur manuscript collections, a good summary of recent research is this online paper by Matsui Dai.
There is not much written on the Yugurs: Carl Gustav Mannerheim’s article published in 1911, “A Visit to the Sarö and Shera Yögurs” is still one of the best accounts. You can get a scan of it here.
* Apparently the term “illuminated manuscript” can refer to manuscript embellished with decorations or colours other than black. Check out Michelle Brown’s excellent Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts (The British Library, 1994). An odd thing about the buddhas in this manuscript is that they are upside-down in relation to the text, something that has yet to be explained.
IOL Tib J 1410 colophon:
recto:
@/:/ stag gi lo’i dbyar/ /gir kis yul du ha se to ab ‘ga den chung shi ‘gi/ /khang re man gyis/ the’u kyig shi chor lha ‘tso’i yid dam du bsngos te// [a] myi ‘da kyi bam po gcig dang/ par yang kyi bam po gcig [dang/] kwan im kyi bam po gcig dang/ ta sim kyi bam po gcig [dang/] phyogs bcu’i mtha yas bam po gcig dang/ /bkra shis bam po gcig dang/ /de ‘bur te ci’u bam po bcig dang/ / ‘da la ‘ji ci’u bam po gcig dang/ bzang po spyod pa smon lam dang/ /’thor bshags la stsogs te/ /gong nas smon pa ‘di rnams/ /yi dam du bris pa ‘di/ /gdugs gcig klag ching/ /sangs rgyas dang/ lha klu sde brgyad dang/ phyogs bzhi’i mgon po la mchod cing/ yi dam du bcas te/ /lha ‘tsho tshe lus la bsam pa thams cad grub ching yul du sngar phyin pa dang/ tshe slad ma la gar skyes kyang/ /sdug bsngal dang bral ching/ /na rag du myi rtung bar byin gyis skabs te/ lha yul du skye bar shog shig//
verso:
‘di yang de’i tshe/ thu pod yang ‘brug gis bris pa ‘o
gar song gar skyes kyang lha yul du skye bar smon no//
Posted in Buddhism, China and Tibet, History, Manuscripts, Tibet, Uighurs | Tagged dunhuang cave, pictures of buddhas, tibetan alphabet | 7 Replies
Captain Bower’s adventurous journey
Posted on July 4, 2013 by Sam van Schaik
Detail from the cover of Hamilton Bower’s Diary of a Journey Across Tibet
I first heard of Captain Hamilton Bower as the man who made the first major manuscript find in the Central Asian deserts: the “Bower Manuscript” which sparked off the whole international scramble for archaeological treasures by Britain, France, Russia and others. At the time that he obtained this manuscript, in 1889, Bower had been sent on the trail of an Afghan who had murdered a Scottish explorer. A couple of years later, in 1891, Bower was sent on another mission, this time to Tibet as a spy. In disguise, with another British officer and an Indian “pundit”, Bower crossed into Western Tibet and proceeded towards Lhasa. But before he reached the city he was discovered by Tibetan officials, who flatly denied permission to enter Lhasa. In the end, he had to continue eastwards, crossing into Kham and leaving Tibet via Tachienlu.
Bower published the diaries of his travels in a book, Diary of a Journey Across Tibet, which was quite popular at the time. He also wrote a report entitled Some Notes on Tibetan Affairs, which was not published. This ten-page pamphlet was intended for the eyes of the Director of Military Intelligence, and was highly confidential. The note from British Intelligence at Shimla mentions that an account of “Captain Bower’s adventurous journey” is publicly available, but “the present pamphlet contains his remarks on the government, commerce, etc, of Tibet and China, which it is politically undesirable to publish and it is therefore issued confidentially.”
Reading the pamphlet, it’s easy to see why it was keep secret. Bower makes no attempt to hide the fact that he is concerned mainly with the prospects of British trade with Tibet (mainly the tea trade) and the means of opening up this trade via a military expedition. This was very much in line with the agenda of the British government in India was thinking, which was aggressively pushed forward by Lord Curzon once he took up the position of Viceroy. The invasion of Tibetan under Younghusband happened just over ten years after the publication of Bower’s report.
Below are some extracts from the report, and under these, a link to a PDF of the whole thing.
On the premature deaths of the Dalai Lamas
Unfortunately Talai Lamas, who are supposed to come of age at eighteen, almost invariably die before attaining their majority. Since the beginning of the present century, all of them, disgusted with the sins of the world, have retired to the mansion of joy before the time came for taking over the seals of office. I am afraid that a post-mortem would demonstrate that the retirement, though undoubtedly owing to the sins of the world, was not entirely voluntary. The prevalence of poisoning in Tibet, a fact of which there is no doubt whatever, added to the abnormally high rate of mortality obtaining amongst them, is pretty conclusive evidence against the Gyalpos (literally “kings”) or regents with whom the power remains.
On China’s lack of influence in Tibet
The position of the Amban at Lhassa I take to be exactly the same as that of his fellow-countryman in Chiamdo; treated outwardly with much respect, before strangers at least, the bearing of the Tibetan authorities towards him is almost servile, but in reality he has no power whatever and lives in continual dread of the powerful priesthood. Even in Chinese Tibet, a country in no way to be confused with Independent Tibet, the Chinese power is merely nominal. In Lithang, for instance, the mandarin was quite pathetic in his complaints of his position: how he had no power whatever and dare not do anything for fear of the monks, how they were a turbulent lot, and a deal more to that effect.
Prospects for a British invasion
Looking at Tibet from a military point of view, we may say that it is quite feasible to coerce the Lhassa Government either from the south or west as with the exception of the passes the general elevation is not very great… As a general rule, it may be said that they can all be crossed at any time from midsummer to Christmas. The south and south-west also being populated, supplies sufficient for a very small force could be procured in the country, and a very small force is all that would be required to coerce the Lhassa Government.
The quality of Tibetan tea
From Lhassa to Ta Chen Lu the string of animals carrying brick tea to meet this enormous demand is continuous. These bricks are made of what appears to be the prunings of neglected bushes of extreme age. I used to think that some of the tea imported into Chinese Turkistan was the worst in the world, but since visiting Tibet I have changed my opinion.
Opening Tibet to trade
But tea is the article on which we must primarily pin our faith as a means of opening Tibet to commerce. The trade in other articles imported from China is simply an adjunct to the great tea trade; as soon as that is diverted to Darjeeling the other will assuredly follow. Unfortunately great opposition would be brought to bear from the Chinese, who, I believe, would almost as soon give up all their shadowy claim to Tibet as their monopoly of the supply of tea…
British relations with China
A general wish to keep on good terms with China in the hopes that she may be of possible use as an ally at some future date has largely influenced our dealings with her of late years; nothing could be more misplaced than the nervous consideration for China’s feelings that has guided our policy.
Bower’s report was not taken very seriously back in England. Peter Hopkirk, who consulted a copy of the report in the archives of the Foreign Office, writes:
That the Foreign Office liked neither the hawkish tone of Bower’s report not its message is apparent from two footnotes neatly inscribed on the letter accompanying it. One dismisses his views on the Chinese in Tibet as ‘somewhat crude’. The other, in red ink, observes that he appeared to be ‘a sort of damn them all’ man.
You can probably judge for yourself from the extracts above, but these comments seem pretty fair to me. They also reflect the general gap between the attitudes of the British in India and at home; when Curzon did push through the invasion of Tibet in 1903 it was in the face of strong opposition from the British government.
Click here for a PDF scan of Bower’s “Some Notes on Tibetan Affairs”
Bower, H. 1893. “Some Notes on Tibetan Affairs”. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing.
Bower, H. 1894. Diary of a Journey Across Tibet. London: Rivington, Percival and Co.
See also Peter Hopkirk’s Tresspassers on the Roof of the World: The Race for Lhasa (Oxford University Press, 1982) for a discussion of Bower’s journey and this report (pp.83-91).
Posted in China and Tibet, History, India and Tibet, India Office Records, Tibet, Uncategorized | 4 Replies
Did the Buddha visit Khotan?
Posted on June 7, 2013 by Sam van Schaik
“The way of the Mahāyāna has been sought by the accomplished in the auspicious places where our Teacher placed his feet, such as the Vajra Seat, the Vulture’s Peak and the Shady Willow Grove of Khotan.”
At the beginning of the 10th century, a chaotic time for Tibet, the scholar Nub Sangyé Yeshé wrote these lines on the sacred places where the Buddha had taught. Two of them are well-known throughout the Buddhist world, but the third is a little more obscure. Is the Buddha really supposed to have visited the Silk Road city of Khotan? According to the Khotanese, he did indeed, and the fact that this was accepted without any need of explanation by an educated Tibetan writer like Sangyé Yeshé shows how far the Khotanese understanding of Buddhism had penetrated into Tibet at this time.
Khotan was the most important kingdom on the southern Silk Route, situated between the Taklamakan desert and the Kunlun mountain range. Two rivers coming down from the mountains brought the water that allowed cultivation of the land, also bringing down jade, the stone prized by the Chinese and the source of much of Khotan’s wealth. Khotan was thus ideally placed to take advantage of east-west trade, becoming in the process open to influences from a variety of cultures. Indigenous legends of Khotan’s early history emphasise both the country’s cultural plurality and its allegiance to Buddhism.
These legends do indeed tell of the Buddha visiting Khotan. In one version, he flies over from Vulture’s Peak to hover above the lake that covered Khotan in ancient times, before descending to rest upon a lotus throne in the middle of the lake. Other legends also brought to Khotan the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara and the protector deity Vaiśravaṇa. Re-imagining themselves as the centre of their religious world became a surprisingly consistent feature of Khotanese culture. When Aurel Stein visited Khotan at the turn of the 20th century, he noted of the Muslim Khotanese: “Pious imagination of a remarkably luxuriant growth has transplanted into the region of Khotan the tombs of the twelve Imāms of orthodox Shiite creed, together with a host of other propagators of the faith whose names are known to local legend only.”
It may be true, as Stein suggested, that the people of Khotan are a gens religiosissima particularly given to pious invention, but a solid Buddhist sangha was resident in Khotan from at least the 3rd century AD. Discoveries of Khotanese manuscripts in archaeological sites in the areas once ruled by the kingdom have shown that the major Mahāyāna sutras were all known in Khotan. These were first written in their original language, then after the 5th century increasingly translated into Khotanese. The Suvarṇaprabhāśa sūtra seems to have been particularly influential, informing the notion of Khotan as a Buddhist realm under the protection of bodhisattvas and divine kings. Alongside this Buddhist material are many examples of Khotan’s literary tradition, stories on Indic themes, like the trials of Rāma, and poems on the ever-popular subjects of nature and love. One unique text, the so-called Book of Zambasta marries the Khotanese poetic tradition with Buddhist subject matters in a lengthy and wide-ranging survey of Buddhism.
During the seventh to the ninth centuries, the Tibetans were sporadically active Central Asia, fighting the Chinese Tang empire over strategically situated and highly profitable Silk Route oasis cities. The Khotanese first encountered the Tibetans in the seventh century as one among many threatening barbarian armies, enemies of the Buddhist dharma. After a brief period of Tibetan occupation in the late seventh century, Khotan was returned to Chinese rule, to be conquered again by the Tibetans at the end of the eighth century. Then, after the final fall of the Tibetan empire in the middle of the ninth century, Tibetans and Khotanese met in Silk Road towns like Dunhuang in the role of Buddhist teachers and disciples, sharing their knowledge, and translating each other’s religious texts.
And what of the “Shady Willow Grove of Khotan” (li yul lcang ra smug po) mentioned by Sangyé Yeshé? It does appear in a few other later Tibetan sources, including a pilgrims’ guide to the Khadrug temple, which includes a story of how the temple’s statues were obtained from Khotan by the Tibetan army, during the reign of Songtsen Gampo. Later, when the real location of Khotan had largely been forgotten in Tibet, the Shady Willow Grove came to be identified with one of the tantric holy sites known as pīṭha – pilgrimage sites in India associated with parts of the body. The place associated with Khotan was Gṛhadevatā, a problematic site unlocateable in India. On the divine body, Gṛhadevatā represented the anus, a rather ignominious place for the Willow Grove to end up.
This post is drawn from my paper “Red Faced Barbarians, Benign Despots and Drunken Masters: Khotan as a Mirror to Tibet.” A pre-publication version is now up on the Author page and here.
Tibetan text
Gnubs Sangs rgyas ye shes’s quote is from Bsam gtan mig sgron, 5–6: rgyu’i theg pa chen po’i lugs kyis kyang sngon ston pas zhabs kyis bcags pa’i rdo rje’i gdan dang/ bya rgod phung po’i ri dang/ li yul lcang ra smug po la stsogs pa bkra shis pa’i gnas dag bya ba grub par byed pas btsal lo/.
I should say that “Shady Willow Grove” is a provisional translation of lcang ra smug po, as lcang ra needn’t always refer to willow trees, and smug po literally means dark red or brown. I’d love any suggestions for alternative translations.
The legend of the Buddha visiting Khotan is in the Prophecy of Khotan (Li yu lung bstan pa); translation and Tibetan in: Ronald E. Emmerick. Tibetan Texts Concerning Khotan. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
For a review of Khotanese literature, see also his A Guide to the Literature of Khotan. Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1992.
Aurel Stein’s quote is from p.140 of M.A. Stein, Ancient Khotan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.
On the pilgrim’s guide to Khadrug temple, see pp.62-4 of Per Sørensen and Guntram Hazod, in cooperation with Tsering Gyalbo, Thundering Falcon: An Inquiry into the History and Cult of Khra-`brug, Tibet’s First Buddhist Temple. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften/Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences of the Autonomous Region Tibet, 2005.
On the identification of the “Shady Willow Grove” with Gṛhadevatā, see pp.95-6 of Toni Huber, The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008.
The image is a painted wooden panel from Khotan, possibly representing a Khotanese king (on horseback) and Vairocana.
Posted in Buddhism, Khotan, New Publication | 9 Replies
Manuscripts under the microscope
Posted on April 11, 2013 by Sam van Schaik
What I like about working with manuscripts is that there are so many different ways to approach them. You can read the texts written on them (and sometimes that’s as far as you get) but you can also look at their shape and size, how they were put together, how the writing is laid out on the page (codicology) and the style of the writing itself (palaeography). You can get into their materiality, feel the rough and smooth sides of a page, their coarse and fine fibres, the subtle patterns of laid and chain lines. If you’re lucky, you can find out who wrote them, who owned them and how they were used, who repaired and re-used them, and so on.
I like to think this isn’t just the idle curiosity of somebody who’s spent too much time around books. While most studies of the early Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang and other Central Asian sites are focussed on the texts, there’s a lot more we can find out from the physicality of the thing itself. Sure, we can discover what a text is about by reading it and comparing it with other texts. But there are a lot of things we won’t know, like who made the manuscript, who used it, and what it was used for. If we can get some kind of answers to those questions about the manuscript, our understanding of the text will be enriched. Or to put it another way, if we want to know the meaning of a text, we should look at how it was used.
A few years ago I started working with Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, a scientist specializing in the study of Tibetan and Central Asian paper. Agnieszka’s speciality is the microscopic analysis of paper fibres. She also looks at the patterns left on the paper by the process of making paper (such as the fine pattern of ‘laid lines’) and other aspects of the technology of papermaking. Gradually we developed a plan to bring the results of her analysis of the paper in the Tibetan manuscripts from Central Asia with the work I had done in the palaeography of the manuscripts, and of course the contents of the texts as well. We selected a group of fifty manuscripts, put everything we could find out about them into a table, and looked at the patterns that emerged.
One of the most interesting results was this: those manuscripts that had been brought to Dunhuang from Tibet itself, were made in quite different ways from those that were made locally at Dunhuang. Though our sample was limited, this opens up the possibility of ‘fingerprinting’ a manuscript to find out where it was made.
It looks like the manuscripts made in Dunhuang and other Central Asian areas inhabited by the Tibetans during the 8th and 9th centuries were made with rag paper, which is probably mainly recycled textiles. The technical apparatus of papermaking was a mould made from a sieve made from bamboo or reeds arranged on a wooden frame, which leaves the tell-tale pattern of laid lines on the finished paper. The advantage of this kind of mould is that you can lift out the piece of paper and leave it to dry while you begin to make another one. On the other hand, in places like Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, the method to this day is to use a wooden frame with a cloth backing stretched across it. With this kind of mould the paper cannot be removed until dry, so the paper dries on the frame. This is obviously a slower method, and the paper produced this way does not have the laid lines characteristic of the sieve method.
Two manuscripts, letters that we already thought may have been originated from Tibet, did turn out to have been made on a woven mould. Also, they were not made of rag paper, like the locally produced Central Asian manuscripts, but paper made from the Daphne or Edgeworthia plants, which grow along the Himalayas. As well as these letters, a sutra manuscript written in the archaic ‘square style’ also turned out to be composed of Daphne fibres.
Then there are the big Perfection of Wisdom manuscripts that were brought to Dunhuang to be used as models by the local scribes who had been ordered by the Tibetan emperor to produce copies. The Perfection of Wisdom manuscripts made in Dunhuang are composed of rag paper made on a sieve mould, like other locally made manuscripts. But those that were brought in are composed of Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia) fibres and were made on a woven mould. Paper Mulberry is not native to Central Tibet, but it is found in Eastern Tibet, so perhaps these Perfection of Wisdom manuscripts were produced in the Eastern regions of the Tibetan Empire, before being brought to Dunhuang. This would give us a triangle of geographic locations to which we can assign the manuscripts: Central Asia, Central Tibet and Eastern Tibet.
Though I can’t put the article in which we published our results on this site, I am going to make it briefly available for download here. Of course, the 50 manuscripts that we studied are a tiny proportion of the Central Asian manuscripts in Tibetan, so more work needs to be done to confirm what we have suggested. As well as using these results to pin down the geographical origin of early Tibetan manuscripts we can also say a bit more about what ‘Tibetan paper’ means in this early period. If we can begin to speak of a type of paper with specifically Tibetan characteristics, it is a paper composed of Daphne or Edgeworthia (from Central Tibet) or Paper Mulberry (from Eastern Tibet), made on a woven mould — a technology that continues to the present day.
Helman-Wazny, Agnieszka and Sam van Schaik. 2013. “Witnesses for Tibetan Craftsmanship: Bringing Together Paper Analysis, Palaeography and Codicology in the Examination of the Earliest Tibetan Manuscripts.” Archaeometry 55.4: 707–741. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2012.00687.x
Iwao, Kazushi (forthcoming). “On the Tibetan Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā sūtra from Dunhuang.” In Scribes, texts, and rituals in early Tibet and Dunhuang (eds. B. Dotson, K. Iwao and T. Takeuchi). Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
1. Paper mulberry (Broussonetia sp.) fibres stained with Herzberg stain, found in IOL Tib J 1560.
2. A large-size ‘floating’ mould, constructed with a wooden frame and attached woven textile, placed in water (a stream) in Gyantse, c. 1910–1920. Photo 1112/2 (139), © The British Library
3. The flower of the Daphne plant.
4. Sheets of paper left to dry on individual moulds on the mountain slope near Tawang, Arunchal Pradesh, 1914. MSS Eur/F157 (324), © The British Library.
Paper made from the Daphne and Edgeworthia species is shog shing or dung lo ma in Tibetan. There is also a Tibetan paper made from the roots of both the Stellera chamaejasme species (re lcag pa in Tibetan) and, more seldom, Euphorbia fisheriana (re lcag gi rtsa ba in Tibetan). It has been suggested that re lcag pa is the “original” Tibetan paper. Though we did not find any of this paper in our study, finds from Tibet itself may help to confirm whether it was produced during the Tibetan imperial period or later. Also, it is hard not to oversimplify this complex research, and I had better clarify here (as we did in the article) that the rag paper in the Dunhuang manuscripts was also often made with the addition of Paper Mulberry and/or Hemp. Agnieszka Helman-Wazny’s continuing work on the Chinese manuscripts from Central Asia will no doubt add much more to our knowledge of Central Asian papermaking.
Posted in Manuscripts, New discoveries, Science, Tibet | 16 Replies
Monks and Mahāyoga
Posted on September 11, 2012 by Sam van Schaik
As you probably know, after the collapse of Tibetan imperial power towards the end of the 9th century, the lineage of monastic vows (the vinaya) died out in Central Tibet. During the ensuing dark period, if the traditional histories are to be believed, the lineage of the vows survived only in the far northeast of the Tibetan cultural area. Now if that is true, we might hope to see some corroborating evidence among the Dunhuang manuscripts — and I think we do. Several manuscripts that (judging by their handwriting) seem to be from the post-imperial period contain classic texts on the monks’ vows, such as the Vinaya-vāstu and the Prātimokṣa-sūtra (see for example IOL Tib J 1).
It seems likely that these manuscripts, like most manuscripts, were made to be used. They are the kinds of extracts and summaries that would have been part of the ceremonies of taking and renewing of the monastic vows. Which is to say, they were probably written and used by Buddhist monks. These monks who were maintaining a monastic lineage which may well have died out in Central Tibet, but was very much alive here in the northeast, in places like the mountain retreat of Dantig, or the walled city of Tsongka.
If we accept that the Dunhuang manuscripts containing vinaya texts were used by Buddhist monks, then an interesting issue arises: were these monks also writing and making use of the many tantric manuscripts also to be found in the Dunhuang collections, including those Mahāyoga texts containing violent and sexual imagery? If they were, then the problems involved in monks practising tantric rituals must have come up here, before they were explicitly discussed by Atiśa, who famously addressed the issue a century later.
I was thinking about this after looking at one of the biggest Mahāyoga manuscripts in the Dunhuang collections, a manuscript so big that it begins in the Pelliot collection in Paris (Pelliot tibétain 42), continues in the Stein collection in London (IOL Tib J 419) and ends back in Paris again (Pelliot tibétain 36). Clearly it had already broken into three parts before Stein and Pelliot arrived at the cave in Dunhuang. Put the three back together, and you get a major ritual, involving torma offerings, teachings, the visualization of mandalas, and a violent ritual of liberation (sgrol ba). The liberation ritual has recently been discussed in detail in Jacob Dalton, who describes it as “clearly the most violent text to emerge from the library cave at Dunhuang.” Surely not the kind of thing for monks?
Looking at the manuscript again recently, I noticed some text that had been added to the end of the ritual, either by a different scribe, or by the same scribe writing less carefully. This text turns out to be a summary of the vinaya, beginning like this:
The vinaya of the hearers is divided into eighteen different sects. Of these, the one that exists in Tibet is the system of the Mūlasarvāstivādins.
Fair enough — this agrees with what the Tibetan historians say, and indeed the fact that the massive Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya is the version of the monastic vows that was preserved in the Tibetan canon. On the other hand, I think this is the first time I have seen the fact mentioned in a Dunhuang manuscript. The text goes on to enumerate the different classes of vows in the vinaya of the Mūlasarvastivādins. Maybe it was a kind of primer for new monks.
So why is this text written on the last pages of a major Mahāyoga ritual? Perhaps so that the monks performing the ritual should do it in the context of their Buddhist vows (and thus certainly not taking the violent and sexual imagery of the texts literally). Or as a rebuke to the text by a shocked monk: this is what Buddhism is about, not that! I don’t know, but I suspect the former is more likely than the latter. Everything we know about tantric Buddhism in India and Tibet suggests that it was thoroughly accepted in the monastic context. What remained uncertain and shifting was the exact nature of the relationship between the monastic vows and tantric practices, and issue that received much discussion later in Tibet in the “three vows” literature (these being the monastic vows, the bodhisattva vows and the tantric samaya vows). The juxtaposition of texts here suggests that similar negotations were already taking place in the northeast of Tibet in the tenth century.
Jacob Dalton. 2011. The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ronald Davidson. 2005. Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
Carmen Meinert. 2006. “Between the Profane and the Sacred? On the Context of the Rite of ‘Liberation’ (sgrol ba).” In Michael Zimmermann (ed.), Buddhism and Violence. Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute. 99-130.
Sam van Schaik and Imre Galambos. 2012. Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Posted in Buddhism, Manuscripts, Tibet, Vajrayana | 7 Replies
Defining Mahāyoga
Ancient Tibetan Seals
Blood writing
The Earliest Evidence of Bonpo Rituals?
André Alexander, 1965-2012
The First Tibetan Buddhist Biographies?
Tibetan Chan V: Dzogchen and Chan
Two frogs, a thousand years apart
Early Dzogchen IV: the role of Atiyoga
From the Taklamakan, with Love
Red Herrings on a High Plateau
The Chinese under Tibetan rule
Secrets of the Cave III: The Cave of Monk Wu
Secrets of the Cave II: The “Library Cave”
Secrets of the Cave I: “Sacred Waste”
Dharma from the Sky III: Self-Appointed Buddhas
Amdo Notes III: Gold and turquoise temples
Amdo Notes II: The Hidden Valley and its Name
Amdo Notes I: Lost soldiers
The Brilliant Scholar and the Scurrilous Letter
Tibetan Chan IV: The Great Debate
British Barbarians, Tibetan Prophecies
What Are Those Monks Doing?
The Abbot, or Ironing out History’s Wrinkles
Tales from the Scriptorium III: Scribal doodles
The Sitting-in-Bed Ceremony and Other Strangeness
Buddhism and Bon IV: What is bon anyway?
Buddhism and Empire IV: Converting Tibet
The Decline of Buddhism V: A prayer for the dark age
A Prayer for Tibet
Two Tibetologists
Tibetan Buddhism, the international religion
A Tibetan Book of Spells
The Decline of Buddhism IV: Keepers of the flame
The Golden Turtle: A Sino-Tibetan divination manuscript
What happens between death and the tomb?
Phagpa’s Arrow, or Buddhists vs Daoists
Padmasambhava II: the dark Padmasambhava
Buddhism and Empire III: the Dharma King
Rama in early Tibet
Teachers, Students, and Notes
Tibetan Chan III: more teachings of Heshang Moheyan
Tibetan Chan II: the teachings of Heshang Moheyan
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Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c4/2...e6/3. Nc3/3...Bb4/4. a3
< Chess Opening Theory | 1. d4 | 1...Nf6 | 2. c4 | 2...e6 | 3. Nc3 | 3...Bb4(Redirected from Chess/Sämisch Variation)
Sämisch Variation
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation(FEN)
rnbqk2r/pppp1ppp/4pn2/8/1bPP4/P1N5/1P2PPPP/R1BQKBNR
Moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.a3
ECO code: E24-E29
Parent: Nimzo-Indian Defence
Nimzo-Indian Defence, Sämisch VariationEdit
Sämisch VariationEdit
This move can be seen as the critical test of the Nimzo-Indian; White is willing to spend a tempo to force Black to carry out his plan of neutralizing the c3-knight.
With 4.a3, the Sämisch named after the German Grandmaster Friedrich Sämisch, White immediately questions the placement of the bishop. This has the benefit of seizing the bishop pair early (if Black takes the knight), and resolving central tension. White will play for an eventual e4 push after f3.
Taking the Knight is forced as the alternatives are illogical or unsafe.
4...Bxc3+ inflicts the doubled pawns on White and is the main continuation.
4...Ba5?? Maintaining the pin is an error as it just loses the bishop after 5.b4 Bb6 6.c5.
Playing 4...Be7?! is better, but it defeats the point of the Nimzo-Indian since White gets to play 5.e4 for free. (The point of the 3...Bb4 pin was to prevent White from doing this easily.)
Theory tableEdit
For explanation of theory tables see theory table and for notation see algebraic notation
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.a3
Bxc3+ bxc3
O-O e3
Be7?! e4 +/=
Ba5?? b4
Bb6 c5 +/-
When contributing to this Wikibook, please follow the Conventions for organization.
Wikipedia has related information at Nimzo-Indian Defence
Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.
Batsford Chess Openings 2 (1989, 1994). Garry Kasparov, Raymond Keene. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.
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Samanid Empire
The Samanid Empire (Persian: سامانیان, Sāmāniyān), also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid Emirate, or simply Samanids, was a Sunni[8] Iranian empire[9] from 819 to 999. The empire was centered in Khorasan and Transoxiana during its existence; at its greatest extent, the empire encompassed all of today's Afghanistan, large parts of Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Kazakhstan and Pakistan.[10]
The Samanid Empire at its greatest extent under Isma'il ibn Ahmad
Samarkand (819–892)
Bukhara (892–999)
Persian (lingua franca, court, academia),[1][2][3][4]
Arabic (theology)[5]
Sunni Islam (minority Shia Islam, Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism)
• 819–864/5
Ahmad ibn Asad
'Abd al-Malik II
• Established
• Disestablished
928 est.[6][7]
2,850,000 km2 (1,100,000 sq mi)
Saffarid dynasty
Abbasid Caliphate
Alid dynasties of northern Iran
Banijurids
Bukhar Khudahs
Principality of Ushrusana
Principality of Farghana
Ghaznavid dynasty
Karakhanids
Banu Ilyas
Farighunids
Muhtajids
Buyid dynasty
The Samanid state was founded by four brothers; Nuh, Ahmad, Yahya, and Ilyas—each of them ruled their own territory under Abbasid suzerainty. In 892, Isma'il ibn Ahmad (892–907) united the Samanid state under one ruler, thus effectively putting an end to the feudal system used by the Samanids. It was also under him that the Samanids became independent of Abbasid authority.
The Samanid Empire is part of the Iranian Intermezzo, which saw the creation of a Persianate culture and identity that brought Iranian speech and traditions into the fold of the Islamic world. This would later lead to the formation of the Turko-Persian culture.[11]
The Samanids promoted the arts, giving rise to the advancement of science and literature, and thus attracted scholars such as Rudaki, Ferdowsi, and Avicenna. While under Samanid control, Bukhara was a rival to Baghdad in its glory.[12] Scholars note that the Samanids revived Persian language and culture more than the Buyids and the Saffarids, while continuing to patronize Arabic for sciences as well as the religious studies. They considered themselves to be descendants of the Sasanian Empire.[13][12] In a famous edict, Samanid authorities declared that "here, in this region, the language is Persian, and the kings of this realm are Persian kings."[12]
OriginsEdit
The eponymous ancestor of the Samanid dynasty was Saman Khuda, a Persian noble who belonged to a dehqan family, which was a class of land-owning magnates. The original home of the Samanids is unclear, for some Arabic and Persian texts claim that the name was derived from a village near Samarkand, while others assert it was a village near Balkh or Tirmidh. The latter is more probable since the earliest appearance of the Samanid family appears to be in Khorasan rather than Transoxiana.[14] In some sources the Samanids claimed to be descended from the noble Mihran family of Bahram Chobin, whereas one author claimed that they belonged to the Turkish Oghuz tribe, although this is most unlikely.[14] Originally a Zoroastrian, Saman Khuda converted to Islam during the governorship of Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri in Khorasan,[15] and named his oldest son as Asad in the governor's honour.[16] In 819, the governor of Khorasan, Ghassan ibn Abbad, rewarded the four sons of Asad for their aid against the rebel Rafi ibn al-Layth; Nuh received Samarkand; Ahmad received Farghana; Yahya received Shash; and Ilyas received Herat.[15] This marked the beginning of the Samanid dynasty.
RiseEdit
The Samanid branch in Herat (819–857)Edit
Ilyas died in 856, and was succeeded by his son Ibrahim ibn Ilyas—the Tahirid governor of Khorasan, Muhammad ibn Tahir, thereafter appointed him as the commander of his army, and sent him on an expedition against the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar in Sistan. He was defeated at a battle near Pushang in 857, and fled to Nishapur, where he was captured by Ya'qub al-Saffar and sent to Sistan as a hostage.[15] The Tahirids thereafter assumed direct control over Herat.
The Samanid branches in Transoxiana (819–892)Edit
Map of Khorasan and Transoxiana.
In 839/40, Nuh seized Isfijab from the nomadic pagan Turks living in the steppe. He thereafter had a wall constructed around the city to protect it from their attacks. He died in 841/2—his two brothers Yahya and Ahmad, were then appointed as the joint rulers of the city by the Tahirid governor of Khorasan.[15] After Yahya's death in 855, Ahmad took control over Châch, thus becoming the ruler of most of Transoxiana. He died in 864/5; his son Nasr I received Farghana and Samarkand, while his other son Ya'qub received Châch (areas around modern Tashkent/Chachkent).[17] Meanwhile, the Tahirids authority had significantly weakened after suffering several defeats by the Saffarid ruler Ya'qub al-Saffar, thus losing their grip over the Samanids, who became more or less independent. Nasr I used this opportunity to strengthen his authority by sending his brother Isma'il to Bukhara, which was in an unstable condition after suffering from raids by the Afrighid dynasty of Khwarazm. When Isma'il reached the city, he was warmly received by its inhabitants, who saw him as one who could restore order.[17] Although the Bukhar Khudahs continued to autonomously rule in Bukhara for a few more years.
After not so long, disagreement over where tax money should be distributed, started a conflict between the brothers. Isma'il was eventually victorious in the dynastic struggle, and took control of the Samanid state. However, Nasr had been the one who had been invested with Transoxiana, and the Abbasid caliphs continued to recognize him as the rightful ruler. Because of this, Isma'il continued to recognize his brother as well, but Nasr was completely powerless, a situation that would continue until his death in August 892.[17]
Final unification and height of power (892–907)Edit
Picture of the Samanid Mausoleum, the burial site of Isma'il ibn Ahmad.
A few months later, Ya'qub al-Saffar also died and was succeeded by his brother Amr ibn al-Layth, who saw himself as the heir of the Tahirids, thus claiming Transoxiana, Khorasan and other parts of Iran for himself. He thereafter forced the Abbasid caliph to recognize him as the ruler of those territories, which they did. In the spring of 900, he clashed with Isma'il near Balkh, but was defeated and taken to captivity. Isma'il thereafter sent him Baghdad, where he was executed.[18] Isma'il was thereafter recognized as the ruler of all of Khorasan and Transoxiana by the caliph.[18] Furthermore, he also received the investiture over Tabaristan, Ray and Isfahan.[18] It was also during this period that the Afrighid dynasty was forced into submission.[18]
Before his major victory against the Saffarids, he had made various expeditions in Transoxiana; in 892, he put an end to the Principality of Ushrusana by seizing all of its lands. During the same period, he put an end to the Bukhar Khudas in Bukhara. In 893, he invaded the territories of the Karluk Turks, taking Talas and converting the Nestorian church there into a mosque.[19][20]
In 900, Isma'il sent an army under Muhammad ibn Harun al-Sarakhsi against Muhammad ibn Zayd, the Zaydi ruler of Tabaristan and Gorgan. The invasion was successful; Muhammad ibn Zayd was killed and Tabaristan was conquered by the Samanids. However, Muhammad ibn Harun shortly revolted, making Isma'il himself invade the region the following year. Muhammad ibn Harun thereafter fled to Daylam, while Isma'il reconquered Tabaristan and Gorgan.[21] In 901, Amr Saffari was defeated at the battle of Balkh by the Samanids, which reduced the Saffarid dynasty to a minor tributary in Sistan.[22] It was during this period that the Samanids were at their height of power, ruling as far as Qazvin in west[23] and Peshawar in the east.
Isma'il is known in history as a competent general and a strong ruler; many stories about him are written in Arabic and Persian sources. Furthermore, because of his campaigns in the north, his empire was so safe from enemy incursions that the defences of Bukhara and Samarkand were unused. However, this later had consequences; at the end of the dynasty, the earlier strong, but now falling apart walls, were greatly missed by the Samanids, who were constantly under attack by the Karakhanids and other enemies.[21]
Isma'il died in November 907, and was succeeded by his son Ahmad Samani (r. 907–914).
Intermediate period (907–961)Edit
Not long after his accession, Ahmad invaded Sistan; by 911, Sistan was under complete Samanid control, and Ahmad's cousin Abu Salih Mansur was appointed as its governor. Meanwhile, an Alid named Hasan al-Utrush was slowly re-establishing Zaydi over Tabaristan. In 913, Ahmad sent an army under Muhammad ibn Sa'luk to deal with him. Although the Samanid army was much larger, Hasan managed to emerge victorious. Ahmad, before he could plan another expedition to Tabaristan, was the following year murdered by some of his slaves in a tent near Bukhara.[24] During his reign, Ahmad is also said to have replaced the language of the court from Persian to Arabic, which made him unpopular among his subjects, and forced him to change it back to Persian. After Ahmad's death, his eight-year-old son Nasr II (r. 914–943) succeeded him.
Coin of Nasr II, minted in Nishapur (933/4).
Due to Nasr's youth, his prime minister Abu 'Abd-Allah al-Jaihani took care over most of the state affairs. Jaihani was not only an experienced administrator, but also a prominent geographer and greatly educated man. Almost right after Nasr II had ascended the throne, several revolts erupted, the most dangerous one being under the uncle of his father, Ishaq ibn Ahmad, who seized Samarkand and began minting coins there, while his son Abu Salih Mansur seized Nishapur and several cities in Khorasan. Ishaq was eventually defeated and captured, while Abu Salih Mansur died of natural causes in 915.[24] Some time later Nasr II once again had to deal with rebels; in 919, the governor of Khorasan, Husayn ibn Ali Marvarrudhi, rebelled against Samanid authority. Nasr responded by sending an army under Ahmad ibn Sahl to suppress the rebellion, which the latter managed to accomplish. After a few weeks, however, Ahmad shortly rebelled himself at Nishapur, made incursions into Gorgan, and then fortified himself in Merv to avoid a Samanid counter-attack. Nevertheless, the Samanid general Hamuya ibn Ali managed to lure Ahmad out of Merv, and defeated him in a battle at Marw al-Rudh; he was captured and imprisoned in Bukhara, where he remained until his death in 920.
In the west, Nasr II clashed several times with Daylamite and Gilite rulers; In 921, the Zaydids under the Gilite ruler Lili ibn al-Nu'man invaded Khorasan, but were defeated by the Simjurid general Simjur al-Dawati. Later in 930, a Dailamite military leader, Makan ibn Kaki, seized Tabaristan and Gurgan, and even took possession of Nishapur in western Khorasan. He was, however, forced to withdraw back to Tabaristan one year later, due to the threat that Samanids posed.[25][26] Makan then returned to Tabaristan, where he was defeated by the Ziyarid ruler Mardavij, who managed to conquer the region.[25][27] In 935, Nasr II re-established Samanid control in Gurgan and made Mardavij's successor Vushmgir his vassal. However, in 939 he declared independence, but was defeated the following year at Iskhabad.
In 943 several Samanid army officers, angry at Nasr's support of Isma'ili missionaries, formed a conspiracy to murder him. Nasr's son Nuh I, however, learned of the conspiracy. He went to a banquet designed to organize the plot and had the head of their leader cut off. To appease the other officers, he promised to stop the Isma'ili missionaries from continuing their activities. He then convinced his father to abdicate, who died of tuberculosis after a few months.[28]
Right when Nuh I ascended the throne, a revolt erupted in Khwarazm, which he managed to suppress. Later in 945, he had to deal with the Muhtajid ruler Abu 'Ali Chaghani, who refused to relinquish his post as governor of Khorasan to Ibrahim ibn Simjur. Abu 'Ali Chaghani then rebelled, and was joined by several prominent figures such as Abu Mansur Muhammad, whom he appointed as his commander-in-chief. In 947, he installed Nuh's uncle Ibrahim ibn Ahmad as amir in Bukhara. Abu 'Ali Chaghani then returned to his domains in Chaghaniyan. Ibrahim, however, was unpopular with the people of Bukhara, and Nuh soon retaliated by retaking the city and blinding Ibrahim and two brothers.
When the news of the re-capture of Bukhara arrived to Abu Ali Chaghani, he once again marched towards Bukhara, but was defeated by an army sent by Nuh and withdrew back to Chaghaniyan. After some time, he left the region and tried to obtain support from other Samanid vassals. Meanwhile, Nuh had Chaghaniyan ravaged[29] and its capital sacked.[30] Another battle shortly ensured between Abu 'Ali Chaghani and a Samanid army in Tukharistan, which resulted in a Samanid victory. Fortunately for Abu Ali Chaghani, he managed to secure the support of other Samanid vassals, such as the rulers of Khuttal, and the Kumiji mountain people, but in the end made peace with Nuh, who allowed him to keep Chaghaniyan in return for sending his son Abu'l Muzaffar Abdallah as hostage to Bukhara.[29][31]
Iran in the mid-10th century.
Alp Tigin, nominal vassal of the Samanids, conquered Ghazna in 962 from the Lawik dynasty.[32][33] The fifth of these commanders was Sebüktigin, who governed Ḡazna for twenty years till 387/997 with the title (as it appears from his tomb inscription,[34]) of al-ḥājeb al-ajall (most noble commander). He would later be the founder of an independent dynasty based in Ghazna, following the decline of the Samanid Empire in the 990s.[35]
Decline and fall (961–999)Edit
The power of the Samanids began to crumble in the latter half of the 10th century. In 962, one the ghulams, Alp Tigin, commander of the army in Khorasan, seized Ghazna and established himself there.[36] His successors, however, including Sebük Tigin, continued to rule as Samanid "governors". With the weakened Samanids facing rising challenges from the Karakhanids for control of Transoxiana, Sebük later took control of all the provinces south of the Oxus and established the Ghaznavid Empire.
In 992, a Karakhanid, Harun Bughra Khan, grandson of the paramount tribal chief of the Karluk confederation Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan, captured Bukhara, the Samanid capital.[37] Harun died shortly afterwards, however, and the Samanids returned to Bukhara. In 999, Nasr b. Ali, a nephew of Harun, returned and took possession of Bukhara, meeting little resistance. The Samanid domains were split up between the Ghaznavids, who gained Khorasan and Afghanistan, and the Karakhanids, who received Transoxiana; the Oxus River thus became the boundary between the two rival empires.
Isma'il Muntasir's attempt to resurrect the Samanid state (1000–1005)Edit
Artwork of Isma'il Muntasir in a battle.
Isma'il Muntasir was the youngest son of Nuh II—he was imprisoned by the Karakhanids after their conquest of Bukhara in 999. Some time later, Isma'il managed to escape to Khwarazm, where he gained support. Driving the Karakhanids out of Bukhara, he then moved on to and captured Samarkand. The approach of the Karakhanid army, however, forced Isma'il to give up all of his possessions, following which he travelled to Khorasan, where he captured Nishapur. Mahmud's army, however, made its way to the region, and Isma'il decided it necessary to flee again.
In 1003 Isma'il came back to Transoxiana, where he requested for and received assistance from the Oghuz Turks of the Zarafshan valley. They defeated the Karakhanids in several battles, even when Nasr Khan was involved. For various reasons, however, Isma'il came to feel that he could not rely on the Oghuz to restore him, so he went back to Khorasan. He tried to gain Mahmud's support for a campaign to restore the Samanid state, but failed. Some time afterwards, he returned to the Zarafshan valley, where he gained the support of the Oghuz and others. A Karakhanid army was defeated in May 1004, but subsequently the Oghuz deserted Isma'il during another battle, and his army fell apart.
Fleeing to Khorasan yet again, Isma'il attempted to reenter Transoxiana in the end of 1004. The Karakhanids stopped this and Isma'il was nearly killed. Following this, he sought the hospitality of an Arab tribe near Merv. Their chief, however, killed Isma'il in 1005. His death marked the defeat of the last attempt to restore the Samanid state. Descendants of the Samanid family continued to live in Transoxiana where they were well regarded, but their power was relatively broken.
Iranian intermezzoEdit
Along with several other states, the Samanid Empire was part of the Iranian Intermezzo, or "Persian renaissance". This period has been described as having a key importance in the formation of the Islamic civilization, both politically and culturally. In political terms, it saw an effective break up of the Abbasid power and the rise of several successor states such as the Samanids and Buyids while in cultural terms, it witnessed the rise of new Persian as an administrative and literary language.[38]
CultureEdit
GovernmentEdit
StructureEdit
A Samanid coin minted in Bukhara bearing the name of Mansur I
The system of the Samanid state was modelled after the Abbasid system,[39] which in turn was modelled after the Sasanian system.[3][40] The ruler of the state was the amir, and the provinces were governed by appointed governors or local vassal rulers. The main responsibility of both governors and local rulers was to collect taxes and support the Samanid ruler with troops if needed. The most important province in the Samanid Empire was Khorasan, which was in the start given to a relative of the Samanid ruler or a local Iranian prince (such as the Muhtajids), while it was later given to one of his most trusted slaves. The governor of Khorasan was normally the sipah-salar (commander-in-chief).[39]
Like in the Abbasid Caliphate, Turkic slaves could in the Samanid state rise to high offices, which would sometimes result the Turkic slaves usurp power, almost making the ruler their puppet.[39]
The nature of political authority under the SamanidsEdit
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Cultural and religious effortsEdit
The Samanids revived Persian culture by patronizing Rudaki,[41] Bal'ami and Daqiqi.[42] The Samanids determinedly propagated Sunni Islam, and repressed Ismaili Shiism[43] but were more tolerant of Twelver Shiism.[12] Islamic architecture and Islamo-Persian culture was spread deep into the heart of Central Asia by the Samanids. Following the first complete translation of the Qur'an into Persian, during the 9th century, populations under the Samanid empire began accepting Islam in significant numbers.[44]
Through zealous missionary work as many as 30,000 tents of Turks came to profess Islam and later under the Ghaznavids more than 55,000 under the Hanafi school of thought. The mass conversion of the Turks to Islam eventually led to a growing influence of the Ghaznavids, who would later rule the region.
Agriculture and trading were the economic basis of Samanid State. The Samanids were heavily involved in trading – even with Europe, as thousands of Samanid coins that have been found in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries testify.[45]
Another lasting contribution of the Samanids to the history of Islamic art is the pottery known as Samanid Epigraphic Ware: plates, bowls, and pitchers fired in a white slip and decorated only with calligraphy, often elegantly and rhythmically written. The Arabic phrases used in this calligraphy are generally more or less generic well wishes, or Islamic admonitions to good table manners.
ScholarshipEdit
Avicenna and Abu Rayhan al-BiruniEdit
LiteratureEdit
The Sasanian king Khosrow II and his courtiers in a garden, page from a manuscript of the Shahnameh, late 15th-early 16th century. Brooklyn Museum.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, there was a large amount of growth in literature, mostly in poetry. It was during the Samanid period that Persian literature appeared in Transoxania and was formally recognized.[46] The advancement of an Islamic New Persian literature thus started in Transoxiana and Khorasan instead of Fars, the homeland of the Persians. The best known poets of the Samanid period were Rudaki (d. 941), Daqiqi (d. 977) and Ferdowsi (d. 1020).[46]
Although Persian was the most favorable language, Arabic continued to enjoy a high status and was still popular among the members of the Samanid family.[46] For example, al-Tha'alibi wrote an Arabic anthology named Yatimat al-dahr ("The Unique Pearl"). The fourth section of the anthology included a detailed account of the poets that lived under the Samanids. It also states that the poets of Khwarazm mostly wrote in Arabic.[46]
The acknowledged founder of Persian classical poetry, and a man of great perception, was Rudaki, who was born in the village of Panjrudak, which is today part of the Panjakent District in Tajikistan.[46] Rudaki was already becoming popular during his early years, due to his poems, his voice, and his great skill in using the chang (an Iranian instrument similar to the harp). He was shortly invited to the Samanid court, where he stayed almost the rest of his life. Only less than 2,000 of his poetry lines have survived, but are enough to prove his great poetic skills—he perfected every basic verse forms of medieval Persian poetry; mathnawi, qasida, ghazal and ruba'i.[47]
"Look at the cloud, how it cries like a grieving man
Thunder moans like a lover with a broken heart.
Now and then the sun peeks from behind the clouds
Like a prisoner hiding from the guard." – Rudaki
Another prominent poet was Shahid Balkhi, born in the village of Jakhudanak near Balkh. Not much is known about his life, but he is mentioned as being one of the best poets in the court of Nasr II, and one of the best scholars of the age. He was also a student of Rudaki, and had close relations with him. He died in 936, a few years before Rudaki's death. His death saddened Rudaki, who afterwards wrote an emotional elegy about him.[47]
Daqiqi, who was a native of Tus, began his career at the court of the Muhtajid ruler Abu'l Muzaffar ibn Muhammad in Chaghaniyan, and was later invited to the Samanid court.[47] Under the Samanids, ancient Iranian legends and heroic traditions were taken in special interest, thus inspiring Daqiqi to write the Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings"), a long epic poem based on the history of the Iranians. However, by his death in 977, he had only managed to complete a small part of it, which was about the conflict between Gushtasp and Arjasp.[47]
However, the most prominent poet of that age, was Ferdowsi—he was born in Tus in 940 to a dehqan family. It was during his youth that there was a period of growth under the Samanids. The rapid growth of interest in ancient Iranian history made him continue the work of Daqiqi, completing the Shahnameh in 994, only a few years before the fall of the Samanid Empire. He later completed a second version of the Shahnameh in 1010, which he presented to the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud. However, his work was not as appreciated by the Ghaznavids as it was by the Samanids.[47]
PopulationEdit
Under the Samanid Empire, the Zarafshan valley, Kashka Darya and Usrushana were populated by Sogdians; Tukharistan by the Bactrians; Khwarezm by the Khwarazmians; the Ferghana valley by the Ferghanans; southern Khorasan by Khorasanians; and the Pamir mountains and its surroundings by the Saka and other early Iranian peoples. All these groups were of Iranian ethnicity and spoke dialects of Middle Iranian and New Persian. In the words of Negmatov, "they were the basis for the emergence and gradual consolidation of what became an Eastern Persian-Tajik ethnic identity."[48]
LanguageEdit
Ferghana, Samarkand, and Bukhara were starting to be linguistically Persianized in originally Khwarazmian and Sogdian areas during Samanid rule.[49] The Persian language spread and led to the extinction of Eastern Iranian languages like Bactrian, Khwarezmian with only a tiny amount of Sogdian descended Yaghnobi speakers remaining among the now Persian-speaking Tajik population of Central Asia, due to the fact that the Arab-Islamic army which invaded Central Asia also included some Persians who later governed the region like the Samanids.[50] Persian was rooted into Central Asia by the Samanids.[4]
Intellectual lifeEdit
In the 9th and 10th centuries, intellectual life in Transoxania and Khorasan reached a high level. In the words of N.N. Negmatov, "It was inevitable that the local Samanid dynasty, seeking support among its literate classes, should cultivate and promote local cultural traditions, literacy and literature."[51]
The main Samanid towns – Bukhara, Samarkand, Balkh, Merv, Nishapur, Khujand, Bunjikath, Hulbuk, Termez and others, became the major cultural centres under the state. Scholars, poets, artists and other men of education from many Muslim countries assembled in the Samanid capital of Bukhara, where a rich soil was created for the prosper of creative thought, thus making it one of the most distinguished cultural centres of the Eastern world. An outstanding library known as Siwān al-hikma ("Storehouse of Wisdom") was put together in Bukhara, known for its various types of books.[52]
ArtsEdit
Example of figural earthenware ceramics from Samanid period.
CraftsEdit
Bowl with Arabic Inscription
Due to extensive excavations at Nishapur, Iran in the mid-twentieth century, Samanid pottery is well-represented in Islamic art collections around the world. These ceramics are largely made from earthenware and feature either calligraphic inscriptions of Arabic proverbs, or colorful figural decorations.[53] The Arabic proverbs often speak to the values of "Adab" culture—hospitality, generosity, and modesty.[54]
The Bowl with the Arabic Inscription is from Iran during Samanid period in the 10th century. It has a white slip with black slip decoration under a transparent glaze. There is calligraphic decoration all around the bowl. It is elongated at some points and compressed in other areas of the letter to the point where it almost looks abstract. Right in the center of the bowl is a black dot. If the bowl is looked at closely there are cracks and marks that have occurred over time. What would’ve been a white bowl is now stained yellow in some areas. The calligraphy looks well thought out and planned. Each letter is well spaced and the whole saying fits perfectly around the bowl and that could be because they used to practice it before hand on paper. The saying translates to “Planning before work protects you from regret; prosperity and peace”
EconomyEdit
AgricultureEdit
MiningEdit
Material cultureEdit
Domestic and external tradeEdit
In commending the Samanids, the epic Persian poet Ferdowsi says of them:
کجا آن بزرگان ساسانیان
ز بهرامیان تا به سامانیان
"Where have all the great Sasanians gone?
From the Bahrāmids to the Samanids what has come upon?"
A Bukharian historian writing in 943 stated that Ismail Samani:
"was indeed worthy and right for padishahship. He was an intelligent, just, compassionate person, one possessing reason and prescience...he conducted affairs with justice and good ethics. Whoever tyrannized people he would punish...In affairs of state he was always impartial."[55]
The celebrated scholar Nizam al-Mulk, in his famous work Siyasatnama, stated that Ismail Samani:
"was extremely just, and his good qualities were many. He had pure faith in God (to Him be power and glory) and he was generous to the poor – to name only one of his notable virtues.[56]
The Somoni currency of Tajikistan is named after the Samanids. A notable airline based in Dushanbe is also named Somon Air. Also, the highest mountain in Tajikistan and in the former Soviet Union is named after Ismail Samani. The mountain was formerly known as "Stalin Peak" and "Communism Peak" but in 1998 the name was officially changed to Ismoil Somoni Peak.
Samanid rulersEdit
Shash
Saman Khuda
Persian: سامان خدا
(A Persian landowner from the village of Saman in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, he arrived in Merv to the court of the Umayyad governor of Khorasan, Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri, under whose influence he became a Muslim and served the governor till his death. He was the founder of the Samanid dynasty)
Asad ibn Saman
Persian: اسد بن سامان
Nuh ibn Asad
Persian: نوح بن اسد
819–841/2 Ahmad ibn Asad
Persian: احمد بن اسد
819–864/5 Yahya ibn Asad
Persian: یحییٰ بن اسد
819–855 Ilyas ibn Asad
Persian: الیاس بن اسد
819–864/5 Ibrahim ibn Ilyas
Persian: ابراهیم بن الیاس
Abu Ibrahim Isma'il ibn Ahmad
Persian: ابو ابراهیم اسماعیل بن احمد
892–907 Nasr I
Persian: نصر بن احمد
864–892 Ya'qub ibn Ahmad
Persian: یعقوب بن احمد
? Saffarids
Ahmad ibn Isma'il
Persian: احمد بن اسماعیل
Nasr II
Persian: ابوالحسن نصر بن احمد
Nuh I
Persian: نوح بن نصر
Ibrahim ibn Ahmad
Persian: ابراهیم بن احمد
Abd al-Malik ibn Nuh I
Persian: عبدالملک بن نوح
Abu Salih Mansur ibn Nuh I
Persian: ابو صالح منصور بن نوح
Nuh ibn Mansur
Persian: نوح بن منصور
Abd al-Aziz
Persian: عبدالعزیز
Abu'l-Harith Mansur ibn Nuh II
Persian: ابو الحارث منصور بن نوح
Abd al-Malik ibn Nuh II
Persian: عبدالمالک بن نوح
Isma'il Muntasir ibn Nuh II
Persian: اسماعیل منتصر بن نوح
Iranian Intermezzo
List of Iranian dynasties and countries
List of kings of Iran
List of Sunni Muslim dynasties
^ "Persian Prose Literature." World Eras. 2002. HighBeam Research. (September 3, 2012);"Princes, although they were often tutored in Arabic and religious subjects, frequently did not feel as comfortable with the Arabic language and preferred literature in Persian, which was either their mother tongue—as in the case of dynasties such as the Saffarids (861–1003), Samanids (873–1005), and Buyids (945–1055)...". [1]
^ Elton L. Daniel, History of Iran, (Greenwood Press, 2001), 74.
^ a b Frye 1975, p. 146.
^ a b Paul Bergne (15 June 2007). The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. I.B.Tauris. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-1-84511-283-7.
^ Frye 1975, p. 145.
^ Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-systems Research. 12 (2): 222. ISSN 1076-156X. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
^ Taagepera, Rein (1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 475–504. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. JSTOR 2600793.
^ Taagepera, Rein (1997-01-01). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 475–504. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. JSTOR 2600793.
^ Canfield L., Robert (2002). Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780521522915.
^ a b c d The History of Iran by Elton L. Daniel, pg. 74
^ Frye 1975, p. 145-146.
^ a b Frye, Richard N. The Cambridge History of Iran. Cambridge University Press. p. 136.
^ a b c d Frye 1975, p. 136.
^ Gibb 1986, p. 685.
^ a b c Frye 1975, p. 137.
^ Renee Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes:A History of Central Asia, Transl. Naomi Walford, (Rutgers University Press, 1991), 142.
^ "Samanids", C. E. Bosworth, The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. VIII, Ed. C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs and G. Lecomte, (E.J. Brill, 1995), 1026.
^ Bosworth 1968, p. 35.
^ Bosworth, C. Edmund (15 December 1998). "ESMĀʿĪL, b. Aḥmad b. Asad SĀMĀNĪ, ABŪ EBRĀHĪM". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
^ a b Nazim (1987), p. 164
^ Madelung (1975), pp. 211–212
^ Madelung (1975), p. 212
^ A new text on Ismailism at the Samanid court, Patricia Crone and Luke Treadwell, Texts, documents, and artefacts:Islamic Studies in Honour of D.S. Richards, ed. Chase F. Robinson, (Brill, 2003), 46.
^ a b Bosworth 2011, p. 63.
^ Frye 1975, pp. 149–151.
^ Bosworth 1984, pp. 764–766.
^ He dispossessed an indigenous family who had ruled in Ghazni, the Lawiks (?), and following him a series of slave commanders, ruled there as nominal vassals of the Samanids; they struck coins but placed the names of the Samanids on them
^ Gardīzī, ed. Ḥabībī, pp. 161–62; Jūzjānī, Ṭabaqāt, I, pp. 226–27; Neẓām-al-Molk, pp. 142–58; Šabānkāraʾī, pp. 29–34; Bosworth, 1965, pp. 16–21
^ Flury, pp. 62–63
^ "GHAZNAVIDS" Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 17 August 2014
^ Sinor, Denis, ed. (1990), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521243049
^ Davidovich, E. A. (1998), "Chapter 6 The Karakhanids", in Asimov, M.S.; Bosworth, C.E. (eds.), History of Civilisations of Central Asia, 4 part I, UNESCO Publishing, pp. 119–144, ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1
^ Peacock, A. C. S.; Tor, D. G. (2017-08-30). Medieval Central Asia and the Persianate World: Iranian Tradition and Islamic Civilisation. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. xix. ISBN 9780857727435.
^ Shahbazi 2005.
^ "Mihragan", J. Calmard, The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol.VII, Ed. C. E.Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs and C. Pellat, (Brill, 1993), 18.
^ C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids: 994–1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 131.
^ An Ismaili Heresiography: The "Bab Al-Shaytan" from Abu Tammam's Kitab Al ... By Wilferd Madelung, Paul Ernest Walker, pg. 5
^ Michael Dillon, Xinjiang: China's Muslim far Northwest, (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), 11.
^ History of Bukhara, By Narshakhi trans. Richard N. Frye, pg. 143
^ a b c d e Litvinsky 1998, p. 97.
^ Litvinsky 1998, p. 101.
^ Kirill Nourzhanov; Christian Bleuer (8 October 2013). Tajikistan: A Political and Social History. ANU E Press. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-1-925021-16-5.
^ Paul Bergne (15 June 2007). The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. I.B.Tauris. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-1-84511-283-7.
^ Litvinsky 1998, p. 93.
^ Grube, Ernst J. (February 1965). "The Art of Islamic Pottery". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 23 (6): 209–228. doi:10.2307/3258167. ISSN 0026-1521. JSTOR 3258167.
^ Pancaroglu, Oya. "Serving wisdom: The contents of Samanid epigraphic pottery." Studies in Islamic and Later Indian Art from the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University Art Museum (2002): 58-68.
^ The modern Uzbeks: from the fourteenth century to the present : a cultural history, by Edward Allworth, pg. 19
^ The book of government, or, Rules for kings: the Siyar al-Muluk, or, Siyasat-nama of Nizam al-Mulk, Niẓām al-Mulk, Hubert Darke, pg. 14
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Samanid Empire.
Bosworth, C.E. (1968). "The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids". Iran. 6: 33–44. doi:10.2307/4299599. JSTOR 4299599.
Daniel, Elton. (2001) The History of Iran (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30731-8, ISBN 978-0-313-30731-7
Frye, R. N. (1975). "The Sāmānids". In Frye, R. N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–161. ISBN 978-0-521-20093-6.
Bosworth, C. Edmund (1984). "AḤMAD B. SAHL B. HĀŠEM". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 6. London et al.: C. Edmund Bosworth. pp. 643–644.
Houtsma, M. Th (1993). First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913–1936. Brill. pp. 579–1203. ISBN 9789004097964.
Bosworth, C. Edmund (2011). The Ornament of Histories: A History of the Eastern Islamic Lands AD 650–1041: The Persian Text of Abu Sa'id 'Abd Al-Hayy Gardizi. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–169. ISBN 9781848853539.
Shahbazi, A. Shapur (2005). "SASANIAN DYNASTY". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
Bosworth, C. Edmund (1984). "ĀL-E MOḤTĀJ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 7. London et al.: C. Edmund Bosworth. pp. 764–766.
B. A. Litvinsky, Ahmad Hasan Dani (1998). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Age of Achievement, A.D. 750 to the end of the 15th-century. UNESCO. ISBN 9789231032110.
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Untitled Korn album
The untitled eighth studio album by American nu metal band Korn was released on July 31, 2007, through Virgin Records and is the first and only album as a three piece band without longtime drummer David Silveria. The standard edition holds thirteen tracks, whereas the deluxe edition holds fourteen. The album was intentionally released without a title, as vocalist Jonathan Davis reasoned, "Why not just let our fans call it whatever they wanna call it?"[1] The album was certified Gold in the United States on October 30, 2007.[2]
Studio album by
October 2006 – March 2007
EMI/Virgin
Korn chronology
See You on the Other Side
(2005) Untitled
(2007) Korn III: Remember Who You Are
Singles from this album
"Hold On"
"Kiss"
Released: April 7, 2008
"Haze"
Background informationEdit
This album was the first without former drummer David Silveria, instead, Korn enlisted the help of Terry Bozzio, Brooks Wackerman, as well as Jonathan Davis for drumming. Also, the band recruited Zac Baird as keyboardist on this album. An MTV article published on May 17, 2007 includes an interview with Munky as he details the process of the new studio album, while also revealing several song titles. On May 28, vocalist Jonathan Davis joined Dutch radio station 3FM immediately after his performance at the Pinkpop Festival. He commented on the band's upcoming album, stating it "will not be titled." He elaborated, "We had the world's greatest drummer Terry Bozzio in and Brooks Wackerman from Bad Religion in and I played drums on some songs too. I'm so proud of it, we just can't wait to show people what we've done." Davis went on to say "We didn't want to label this album. It has no boundaries. It has no limits and why not just let our fans call it whatever they wanna call it?" It is the first and only Korn album to ever be recorded by the band as a trio.
Terry Bozzio's contributionsEdit
After successfully recording six tracks with Bozzio, Zac Baird announced that Bozzio would not be touring with the band on the Family Values Tour 2007. Jonathan Davis claims "things just got weird [with Bozzio]." Brooks Wackerman of Bad Religion was brought in to record some tracks, and even Jonathan Davis himself contributed, something not done since 1999's Issues. Munky stated in an interview that Bozzio had imposed himself on the band. He mentioned that among other things, Bozzio had demanded to be a full member of the band while receiving 25% interest; the band felt that this was "offensive", therefore, Korn decided not to tour with Bozzio. Joey Jordison of Slipknot would tour with Korn on the Family Values Tour, along with the Bitch We Have a Problem Tour.
This album features drummer Terry Bozzio, formerly of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa.
The Matrix's departureEdit
When premiering the single "Evolution" on KROQ on May 16, 2007, guitarist Munky noted that the band re-recorded much of The Matrix's tracks with Atticus Ross because of the band being dissatisfied with how the material had turned out. This was later confirmed in a Reuters/Billboard article:
“ This time around, amid some changes—founding drummer David Silveria is on hiatus to become a restaurateur, and The Matrix left the project early in the recording process—the band has crafted perhaps its most musically serious work since 2002's Untouchables. On the album's 13 tracks, Korn balances every chorus with murky keyboard atmospheres and toying arrangements, with songs that deeply explore a mood before exploding into a frenzy. ”
Musical styleEdit
"We always wanted the atmospheres, and to really go deep," guitarist Munky told Billboard. "It wasn't until this record that we really felt comfortable to do that. As records progress, the urge to do that becomes greater. We feel like we've finally solidified ourselves in the rock world, and wanted to take this one a little deeper into that direction. It's less pop, and it's more experimental." Jonathan Davis said of the songs, "I don't want to say that it's heavy, because that pisses the other band members off. It's still the Korn sound, but it's also very atmospheric."[citation needed]
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The album was released through EMI/Virgin in various territories, starting on July 27, 2007. The band ventured on the trio's Family Values Tour 2007 several days prior to the release and toured in support of the new record. The deluxe edition contains the bonus track "Sing Sorrow" (which follows the thirteenth track, "I Will Protect You"), a bonus DVD containing behind-the-scenes footage, hundreds of never-before seen photos of the band. The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, the highest since Untouchables. Though debuting at number 2 like Untouchables, the untitled album sold less than one quarter of the units in its first week. It also fell off the charts within twelve weeks, accumulating twenty weeks altogether.
July 27, 2007 – Germany
July 30, 2007 – United Kingdom, Mexico
July 31, 2007 – United States, Canada
August 8, 2007 – Japan
October 14, 2007 – Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore
December 18, 2007 – United Arab Emirates
Critical receptionEdit
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Entertainment Weekly (B+)[6]
New York Daily News (Mixed)[8]
Reception was lukewarm to the album and was mostly met with a mixed response from critics as Metacritic scored the album (51/100), with the user's average score of (7.4/10).[14] The most positive reviews coming from IGN, The Gauntlet, and Billboard. IGN noted that, "There's an overall cohesion from start to finish, and repeated listens continue to reveal new and intriguing elements at every turn, which bodes well for the future",[7] while The Gauntlet wrote, " 'Untitled' is the most articulate recording the band has delivered to date."[15] Entertainment Weekly also praised the album as being the band's best release "since 1999's 'Issues' ".[14]
On the contrary, Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the band is going through a "middle-age slump" and that the album "doesn't break them out of it."[4] Rolling Stone asserted that Korn sounds "wounded and diminished",[13] while PopMatters agreed, calling it "tired, bland and dated... merely going through the motions rather than creating honest music."[12]
Track listingEdit
1. "Intro" 1:57
2. "Starting Over" 4:02
3. "Bitch We Got a Problem" 3:22
4. "Evolution" 3:37
5. "Hold On" 3:06
6. "Kiss" 4:10
7. "Do What They Say" 4:17
8. "Ever Be" 4:48
9. "Love and Luxury" 3:00
10. "Innocent Bystander" 3:28
11. "Killing" 3:36
12. "Hushabye" 3:52
13. "I Will Protect You" 5:29
14. "Sing Sorrow" (Bonus Track) 4:35
15. "Overture or Obituary" (iTunes Bonus Track) 3:02
14. "Haze" (Bonus Track) 2:48
15. "Hold On (Video)" (Data Track) 3:40
Japanese Edition
14. "Evolution (Dave Garcia + Morgan Page Remix)" (Bonus Track) 6:36
Japanese Special Edition
14. "Sing Sorrow" (International Bonus Track) 4:33
15. "Evolution (Dave Aude Remix)" (Japan Edition Bonus Track Only) 7:38
Australian Tour Edition
MP3 Download from Official Korn Fan Club
1. "Once Upon a Time" (Sing Sorrow with alternate lyrics) 4:35
Deluxe Edition Bonus DVD
Making-of documentary
Korn photo slideshow
PersonnelEdit
Jonathan Davis – vocals, bagpipes, drums on "Bitch We Got a Problem" and "Love and Luxury", additional drums on "Kiss" and "Hushabye"
James "Munky" Shaffer – guitar, lap steel guitar
Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu – bass
Additional musicians
Terry Bozzio – drums on "Intro", "Starting Over", "Kiss", "Do What They Say", "Ever Be", "Killing", "I Will Protect You", and "Sing Sorrow"
Brooks Wackerman – drums on tracks "Evolution", "Hold On", "Innocent Bystander", and "Hushabye"
Zac Baird – keyboards, organ, synthesizer
Technical personnel
Atticus Ross – producer, mixing on "Intro" and "Bitch We Got a Problem"
Korn and The Matrix (Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards, Scott Spock) – production
Jim "Bud" Monti and Frank Filipetti – recording, engineering
Doug Trantow – additional engineering, mixing on "Intro" and "Bitch We Got a Problem"
Terry Date – mixing on "Evolution", "Do What They Say", "Innocent Bystander", and "I Will Protect You"
Alan Moulder – mixing on "Starting Over", "Hold On", "Kiss", "Ever Be", and "Love and Luxury"
Stephen Marcussen – mastering for Marcussen Mastering, Hollywood, CA
Stewart Whitmore – digital editing
Leopold Ross – production assistant
Jeff Kwatinetz – executive producer, exclusive management for The Firm
Jeff Katsis – exclusive management for The Firm
John Branca, Gary Stiffelman and David Byrnes – legal representation for Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman and Cook, LLP
Larry Einbund and Bill Vuylsteke – business management for Provident Financial Management
Darryl Eaton and Rick Roskin – booking agents for Creative Artists Agency
Peter Katsis – A&R
James Bryant – A&R, A&R coordination, art consultation
Nikki Hirsch – product management
Sean Mosher-Smith – art direction and design
Richard Kirk – artwork
Chapman Baehler – photography
ChartsEdit
Chart (2007)
Australian Albums Chart[16] 11
Austrian Albums Chart[17] 3
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[18] 28
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[19] 17
Danish Albums Chart[21] 20
Dutch Albums Chart[22] 32
Finnish Albums Chart[23] 2
Irish Albums Chart[26] 31
Italian Albums Chart[27] 19
Mexican Albums Chart[28] 11
Polish Albums Chart[31] 23
Spanish Albums Chart[32] 55
Swedish Albums Chart[33] 17
UK Albums Chart[35] 15
US Billboard 200[20] 2
US Billboard Top Rock Albums[20] 1
2007 "Evolution" 20 4 18 114
"Hold On" 35 9 — —
2008 "Kiss" — — — —
"Haze" — — — —
Book: Korn
^ "Korn Cancels Hellfest Appearance". blabbermouth.net. 2007-06-22. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
^ "Searchable Database". RIAA. Archived from the original on 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
^ "Canadian certifications – Korn". Music Canada. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
^ a b Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Untitled - Korn". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
^ [1] Archived January 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ Shirley Halperin (2007-07-27). "Untitled Review | Music Reviews and News". EW.com. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ a b Spence D. (2007-07-25). "IGN: Untitled Korn Album Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ "Korn dogged by its past". Nydailynews.com. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ New, The (2007-07-23). "CRITICS$(RSQUO$) CHOICE - Critics' Choice - New CDs - NYTimes.com". Select.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ "NME Album Reviews – Korn". Nme.Com. 2007-08-06. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ (Sept. 2007, p.91)
^ a b Blackie, Andrew. "Korn: Untitled < PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ a b Fricke, Dave (2007-08-01). "Untitled : Korn : Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22.
^ a b "Korn: Untitled (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ "Korn Album Review". The Gauntlet. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
^ "Australian chart positions". australian-charts.com.
^ "Austrian chart positions" (in German). austriancharts.at.
^ "Belgian (Flanders) chart positions" (in Dutch). ultratop.be.
^ "Belgian (Wallonia) chart positions" (in French). ultratop.be.
^ a b c "Billboard charts". Billboard charts. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
^ "Danish chart positions". danishcharts.com.
^ "Dutch chart positions" (in Dutch). dutchcharts.nl.
^ "Finnish chart positions". finnishcharts.com.
^ "French albums chart" (in French). lescharts.com.
^ "German chart positions" (in German). musicline.de.
^ "Irish chart positions". irish-charts.com.
^ "Italian chart positions". italiancharts.com.
^ "Mexican chart positions". mexicancharts.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-04. Retrieved 2011-08-15.
^ "New Zealand chart positions". charts.org.nz.
^ "Norwegian chart positions". norwegiancharts.com.
^ "OLiS: sales for the period 30.07.2007 - 05.08.20007". OLiS.
^ "Spanish chart positions". spanishcharts.com.
^ "Swedish chart positions". swedishcharts.com.
^ "Swiss chart positions". Die Offizielle Schweizer Hitparade.
^ a b "Chart Log UK: Alex K – Kyuss". zobbel.de. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
^ "Korn Album & Song Chart History". Billboard.
^ "Korn > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Macrovision.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Untitled_Korn_album&oldid=904422749"
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Speciality chemicals (also called specialties or effect chemicals) are particular chemical products which provide a wide variety of effects on which many other industry sectors rely. [1]
65 relations: Adhesive, Aerospace manufacturer, Agrochemical, AkzoNobel, Albemarle Corporation, Aroma compound, Ashland Inc., Automotive industry, BASF, Bloomberg L.P., By-product, Cabot Corporation, Catalysis, Chemical Industries Association, Chemical industry, Chemical plant, Chemtura, Clariant, Cleaning agent, Cognis, Commercial classification of chemicals, Commodity chemicals, Compound annual growth rate, Croda International, Crystallization, Cytec Industries, Distillation, Economies of scale, Elastomer, Evonik Industries, Ferro Corporation, Fine chemical, Flavor, Food additive, Food processing, Formulation, Huntsman Corporation, Industrial gas, Ingredients of cosmetics, Kemira, Lanxess, Logistics, Lubricant, Lubrizol, Manufacturing, Molecule, North East of England Process Industry Cluster, Organic compound, Paper chemicals, Pesticide, ..., Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical industry, Polymer, Raw material, Recycling, Rhodia (company), Sealant, Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates, Surfactant, Textile industry, W. R. Grace and Company, Wacker Chemie, Warehouse, Wastewater treatment, Water treatment. Expand index (15 more) » « Shrink index
An adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any substance applied to one surface, or both surfaces, of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation.
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Aerospace manufacturer
An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft.
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An agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of agricultural chemical, is a chemical product used in agriculture.
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AkzoNobel
Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational company which creates paints and performance coatings and produces specialty chemicals for both industry and consumers worldwide.
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Albemarle Corporation is a chemical company with corporate headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Aroma compound
An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance, or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor.
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Ashland Global Specialty Chemicals Inc. is an American chemical company which operates in more than 100 countries.
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The automotive industry is a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles, some of them are called automakers.
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BASF SE is a German chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world.
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Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
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By-product
A by-product is a secondary product derived from a manufacturing process or chemical reaction.
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Cabot Corporation is an American specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Catalysis is the increase in the rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of an additional substance called a catalysthttp://goldbook.iupac.org/C00876.html, which is not consumed in the catalyzed reaction and can continue to act repeatedly.
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Chemical Industries Association
The Chemical Industries Association (CIA) is the leading national trade association for the chemical and chemistry-using industries in the United Kingdom.
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The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals.
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A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale.
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Chemtura
Chemtura Corporation was a global corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with its other principal executive office in Middlebury, Connecticut.
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Clariant is a speciality chemicals company, formed in 1995 as a spin-off from Sandoz.
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Cleaning agents are substances (usually liquids, powders, sprays, or granules) used to remove dirt, including dust, stains, bad smells, and clutter on surfaces.
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Cognis
Cognis was a worldwide supplier of specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients, headquartered in Monheim am Rhein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
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Commercial classification of chemicals
Following the commercial classification of chemicals, chemicals produced by chemical industry can be divided essentially into three broad categories.
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Commodity chemicals
Commodity chemicals (or bulk commodities or bulk chemicals) are a group of chemicals that are made on a very large scale to satisfy global markets.
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Compound annual growth rate
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a business and investing specific term for the geometric progression ratio that provides a constant rate of return over the time period.
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Croda International
Croda International plc is a British speciality chemicals company based at Snaith in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
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Crystallization is the (natural or artificial) process by which a solid forms, where the atoms or molecules are highly organized into a structure known as a crystal.
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Cytec Industries
Cytec Industries Incorporated, based in Woodland Park, New Jersey is a speciality chemicals and materials technology company with pro-forma sales in 2004, including the Surface Specialties acquisition, of approximately $3.0 billion.
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Distillation is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by selective boiling and condensation.
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In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation (typically measured by amount of output produced), with cost per unit of output decreasing with increasing scale.
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An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i. e., both viscosity and elasticity) and very weak intermolecular forces, and generally low Young's modulus and high failure strain compared with other materials.
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Evonik Industries AG is an industrial corporation headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest specialty chemicals company in the world, owned by RAG Foundation.
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Ferro Corporation is an American producer of technology-based performance materials for manufacturers, focusing on four core segments: performance colors and glass; pigments, powders, and oxides; porcelain enamel; and tile coatings systems.
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Fine chemicals are complex, single, pure chemical substances, produced in limited quantities in multipurpose plants by multistep batch chemical or biotechnological processes.
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Flavor (American English) or flavour (British English; see spelling differences) is the sensory impression of food or other substance, and is determined primarily by the chemical senses of taste and smell.
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Food additive
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste, appearance, or other qualities.
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Food processing is the transformation of cooked ingredients, by physical or chemical means into food, or of food into other forms.
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Formulation is a term used in various senses in various applications, both the material and the abstract or formal.
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Huntsman Corporation is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of chemical products for consumers and industrial customers.
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Industrial gases are gaseous materials that are manufactured for use in Industry.
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Ingredients of cosmetics
Cosmetics ingredients come from a variety of sources but, unlike the ingredients of food, are often not considered by most consumers.
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Kemira Oyj is a chemical industry group that consists of three main segments.
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Lanxess
Lanxess Aktiengesellschaft is a specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany that was founded in 2004 via the spin-off of the chemicals division and parts of the polymers business from Bayer AG.
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Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation.
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A lubricant is a substance, usually organic, introduced to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move.
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The Lubrizol Corporation is a provider of specialty chemicals for the transportation, industrial and consumer markets.
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Manufacturing is the production of merchandise for use or sale using labour and machines, tools, chemical and biological processing, or formulation.
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A molecule is an electrically neutral group of two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds.
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North East of England Process Industry Cluster
The North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) is an economic cluster created following the industrial cluster ideas and strategy of Michael Porter.
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In chemistry, an organic compound is generally any chemical compound that contains carbon.
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Paper chemicals
Paper chemicals designate a group of chemicals that modify the properties of paper.
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Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests, including weeds.
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Petrochemicals (also known as petroleum distillates) are chemical products derived from petroleum.
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The pharmaceutical industry (or medicine industry) is the commercial industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as different types of medicine and medications.
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A polymer (Greek poly-, "many" + -mer, "part") is a large molecule, or macromolecule, composed of many repeated subunits.
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A raw material, also known as a feedstock or most correctly unprocessed material, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished products, energy, or intermediate materials which are feedstock for future finished products.
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Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects.
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Rhodia (company)
Rhodia was a group specialized in fine chemistry, synthetic fibers and polymers which was acquired by the belgian Solvay group after a successful tender offer completed in September 2011.
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Sealant is a substance used to block the passage of fluids through the surface or joints or openings in materials, a type of mechanical seal.
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Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates
SOCMA, the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates, is an international trade association that represents the interests of the batch, custom and specialty chemical industry.
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Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension (or interfacial tension) between two liquids, between a gas and a liquid, or between a liquid and a solid.
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The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing.
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W. R. Grace and Company
W.R. Grace and Company is an American chemical conglomerate based in Columbia, Maryland.
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Wacker Chemie
Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914.
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A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods.
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Wastewater treatment is a process used to convert wastewater into an effluent (outflowing of water to a receiving body of water) that can be returned to the water cycle with minimal impact on the environment or directly reused.
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Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it more acceptable for a specific end-use.
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Redirects here:
Speciality chemical, Specialty chemicals.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciality_chemicals
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Aachen Town Hall
(Redirected from Aachen Rathaus)
This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, as it is written in a poor (German!) style. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (June 2016)
The Aachen Town Hall seen from the cathedral
Aachen Town Hall (German: Rathaus) is located opposite to the Aachen Cathedral and is one of the most striking structures in the Altstadt of Aachen, Germany. It is built in the Gothic architecture.
1.1 Three Kings relief
1.2 Baroque
1.4 City hall fire, 1883
Drawing by Albrecht Dürer in 1520
Engraving by Matthäus Merian in 1647
In the first half of the 14th century, Aachen’s citizenry built the city hall under the leadership of its acting mayor Gerhard Chorus (1285–1367) as a sign of their civic freedom. Yet, they had to promise to establish a space in the new town hall that could host the traditional coronation feast that was part of the coronation ceremony of the Holy Roman Empire. Up to then, the nearby mid-13th century Grashaus – which is one of the city’s oldest still-standing buildings – had served the community in that function. Construction began in 1330 on top of the foundation walls of the Aula Regia, part of the derelict Palace of Aachen, built during the Carolingian dynasty. Dating from the time of Charlemagne, the Granus Tower and masonry from that era were incorporated into the south side of the building.[1] The structure was completed in 1349, and while the town hall served as the administrative center of the city, part of the city’s munitions and weaponry was housed in the Granus Tower, which also served as a prison for some time.
Three Kings relief[edit]
Torsos of the Three Kings relief, from the 14th century
From 1380, the entrance of the Kaisertreppe ("Emperor's stairs"), which connected the subterranean levels to the Coronation Hall, was adorned by the limestone relief of the Three Kings and a depiction of the Adoration of the Magi. Four limestone blocks formed the relief, with one serving for each king, and the last depicting Mary and Jesus.
In 1798, during the French period, the relief was partially destroyed, and the remaining pieces were left as they were above the entrance to the main guard station.[2] The medieval artwork was then replaced by Gottfried Götting with a replica in 1879. Before World War II, it was transferred to the local museum (Heimatmuseum) in Aachen and disappeared in the war.
Baroque[edit]
The baroque city hall and the Aachen market, steal engraving by Henry Winkles around 1840
During the great Fire of Aachen in 1656, portions of the roof and towers burned. The destroyed elements were then replaced in a baroque style. From 1727 until 1732 the Chief Architect of Aachen, Johann Joseph Couven, led a fundamental baroque remodeling of the structure, especially of the front façade and entry steps. The gothic figures and muntin adorning the windows were removed, and even the interior was remodeled in the baroque style. Today, the sitting room and the “White Hall” both still convey this change in style.
Characteristic of the time period, the wood paneling of the White Hall is in the style of Aachen-Liège baroque master Jacques de Reux, while the wall painting comes from master painter Johann Chrysant Bollenrath. This hall was originally for a panel of jurists who controlled the quality of cloth produced in Aachen, but the space would later serve as the main office for the mayor of Aachen.
At the treaty signing ceremony that ended the War of Austrian Succession in 1748, the “Peace Hall” was set up but was not used because of a dispute between the envoys. As a compensation for this, the city obtained portraits of the envoys, which can now be found hanging in the various spaces of the City Hall.
Since the end of the Imperial City era and the Napoleonic occupation of the area, the structural condition of the City Hall was greatly neglected, so that the building was seen to be falling apart by 1840. After that, and especially under the watchful eye of 19th century Chief Architect Friedrich Joseph Ark, the building was rebuilt little by little in a neogothic style that tried to capture its original gothic elements. The side of the City Hall that faced the Market was adorned with statues of 50 kings, as well as symbols of art, science, and Christianity.
In the meantime, the Coronation Hall was restored and a new entrance was constructed. In addition, the painter Alfred Rethel had the task to embellish the room with a large series of frescoes. Begun in 1847 and completed by his student in 1861, the frescoes eventually depicted legends from the life of Charlemagne. After the destruction of similar artwork at the Neues Museum in Berlin, this painting is one of the most important testimonies to the late romantic style in Germany.
City hall fire, 1883[edit]
Seventeen years after the fire of 1883
Starting from a fire in the Johann Peter Joseph Monheim Drug and Material Warehouse at 26 Antonius Street (Antoniusstraße), flames first spread when cinder from the roof landed on the Granus Tower and set it ablaze.[3] Within four hours the roof and both towers of the City Hall were aflame, as were a large number of surrounding houses on the south side of the Market. Within City Hall, the Coronation Hall with its frescoes by Alfred Rethel, as well as the building's first floor, was spared. In the time immediately following the fire, its roof and towers were kept erect through makeshift structures of support.
On 1 November 1884 the city of Aachen initiated a contest among German architects to see who would rebuild City Hall. Of the 13 submitted designs, the first prize went to Aachen architect Georg Frentzen, who in 1891 was commissioned to rebuild the building and its towers. The restoration of the inner rooms was performed under the leadership of Joseph Laurent, and around 1895 sculptures depicting the Knight Gerhard Chorus and Johann von Punt (who was leader of the city six times from 1372 to 1385) were reinstalled in the bay windows on the back side of City Hall, and the eight shields depicting the coat of arms of medieval nobility (Margarten, Berensberg, Roide, Hasselholz, Surse, Wilde, Joh Chorus, and Zevel) were remade in the spandrels. This was done by Karl Krauß.
The restoration was finally finished in 1902, and the unveiling of the Rathaus took place with the blessing of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, on 19 June 1902.
Devastation of the interior of the city hall after its storming by separatists on 21 October 1923
Aachen’s city hall survived World War I without sustaining damage, but during civil unrest that arose in the course of a separatists’ movement whose goal was the creation of an independent Rhenish Republic, City Hall was stormed by a group of separatists who caused serious damage both to its interior and exterior. Parts of the façade, such as adorning statues and both clocks, were broken, as were all window panes on the first floor on the Market side. Additionally, several rooms inside the building were ransacked, and many of the famed frescoes within were heavily damaged by gunfire. The furniture (especially that within the mayoral office and Coronation Hall) were damaged as they were used as projectiles. In the Emperor Hall, an undetonated bomb was discovered.[4]
During World War II, Aachen City Hall was heavily damaged by bombing raids, especially those occurring on 14 July 1943 and 11 April 1944. On 14 July 1943 the roof of the building and both towers burned, and afterwards the structure retained a distinctive shape due to the heat that twisted the steel skeletons inside the tower caps. The Coronation Hall was again heavily damaged and the north facing wall was moved in places up to 30 centimeters vertically. The imminent threat of collapse was staved off through the use of emergency beams that held the structure in place. Because of rain penetrating the interior of the building, its frescoes were severely affected, and five of the eight were carefully removed by Franz Stiewi and stored at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum.
The architect Professor Otto Gruber and the building engineer Professor Richard Stumpf prepared a report in 1945 about the structural integrity of the building. With the help of Professor Josef Pirlet, the dilapidated north façade was reinforced with steel and tension bars, and in 1946, the building’s roof was repaired using makeshift sheets of zinc. After structural analysis was conducted and the foreground was reinforced, the replacement of the north façade had to take place, since almost all of the arches there were broken. The arches on the ground floor were again closed for repairs in 1950, and the reconstruction of the Emperor Hall was largely completed by 1953, with the configuration of the room following in the next few years.
The question of how the tower caps should be rebuilt remained at the heart of a controversial discussion. In 1966 Professor Wilhelm K. Fischer, who had worked extensively in the reconstruction of Aachen, produced a sketch for the towers’ design, as students from RWTH Aachen University also took part in the debate, submitted 24 designs for consideration. In 1968 eight additional expert designs were submitted to a working group whose task it was to rebuild the towers, and after discussing several modern looks, the group settled on a design by the conservation-restoration expert Leo Hugot, who stuck tightly to the historical image of the towers. The tower caps were finally finished in 1978.
Replicas of the Imperial Regalia
Today, replicas of the Imperial Regalia from the Viennese Imperial Treasury reside in the city hall. These replicas were made around 1915 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II for an exhibition to recall the 31 coronations that took place in Aachen between 813 and 1531. Among the replicas are a copy of the Vienna Coronation Gospels, the Sabre of Charlemagne, the Imperial Crown of Otto I, and the Imperial Orb.
Since 2009, Aachen City Hall has been a station on the Route Charlemagne, a tour program by which historical sights of Aachen are presented to visitors. At the city hall, a museum exhibition explains the history and art of the building and gives a sense of the historical coronation banquets that took place there. A portrait of Napoleon from 1807 by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet and one of his wife Joséphine from 1805 by Robert Lefèvre are viewable as part of the tour.
As before, the city hall is the seat of the mayor of Aachen and of the city council, and annually the Charlemagne Prize is awarded there.
Rovenhagen, Ludwig: Das Rathaus zu Aachen: ein Führer für Besucher und Legende zu den Freskobildern des Kaisersaales. Aachen: Jacobi, 1873.[5]
Philipp Kerz: Zerstörung und Wiederaufbau des alten Rathauses in Aachen, In: Aachen zum Jahr 1951, Hrsg. Rhein. Verein für Heimatpflege und Denkmalschutz, Düsseldorf, S. 140-151
Paul Schoenen: Rethels Karlsfresken und die romantische Historienmalerei, In: Aachen zum Jahr 1951, Hrsg. Rhein. Verein für Heimatpflege und Denkmalschutz, Düsseldorf, S. 152-165
Mathilde Röntgen: Das gotische Rathaus zu Aachen. in: Aachener Beiträge für Baugeschichte und Heimatkunst. Bd.3. Das alte Aachen seine Zerstörung und sein Wiederaufbau. hrsg. i.A. des Aachener Geschichtsvereins in Verbindung mit Bernhard Poll von Albert Huyskens. Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsvereins, Aachen 1953, S.106-155.
Wilhelm Niehüsener: Bericht des Arbeitskreises für den Wiederaufbau der Rathaustürme. Aachen, J.A. Mayer, 1977
Helmut A. Crous: Aachen so wie es war 2. Droste, Düsseldorf, 1979
Hans Hoffmann: Aachen in Trümmern - Die alte Kaiserstadt im Bombenhagel und danach. Droste, Düsseldorf, 1984
Thomas R. Kraus: Zur Geschichte der Aachener Rathausuhr. in: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins. Bd.90/91, 1983/84, Hrsg. Herbert Lepper. Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsvereins, Aachen 1984, S.69-97.
Ernst Günther Grimme Das Rathaus zu Aachen, Einhard-Verlag, Aachen, 1996 ISBN 3-930701-15-4
^ Wilhelm Niehüsener: Bericht des Arbeitskreises für den Wiederaufbau der Rathaustürme. Aachen 1977<ǃ--[p. ???]-->.
^ Cf. Ernst Günther Grimme: Das Rathaus zu Aachen. Aachen 1996, p. 40.
^ "Das Rathaus zu Aachen und sein Brand am Petri- und Pauli-Tage 1883: mit 5 Abb / von Johannes Chorus Aachen: Peter Kaatzer, 1883". Digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
^ Will Hermann:. Stadt in Ketten, S. 250-269 , Aachen 1933
^ Digitalisat der ULB Düsseldorf
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aachen City Hall.
Aachen Town Hall at archINFORM
"Rathaus Aachen. Station Macht der Route Charlemagne". City of Aachen, The Lord Mayor. Retrieved 2015-03-02.
Coordinates: 50°46′34″N 6°05′02″E / 50.77611°N 6.08389°E / 50.77611; 6.08389
NKC: olak2002158699
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aachen_Town_Hall&oldid=894976359"
Buildings and structures completed in 1349
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The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
Cover of the first edition
New American Library
1971 (1st edition)
1975 (2nd edition)
1999 (retitled edition)
Print (Paperback)
204 (1st edition)
239 (2nd edition)
352 (retitled edition)
0-452-01184-1 (retitled edition)
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution is a 1971 collection of essays by Ayn Rand, in which Rand argues that religion, the New Left, and similar forces are irrational and harmful. Most of the essays originally appeared in The Objectivist. A revised edition appeared in 1975, and an expanded edition edited by Peter Schwartz was published in 1999 under the title Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution.
2 Publishing history
4.1 Works cited
The inspiration for collecting these essays into a book came from a reader, who wrote Rand a letter complimenting several of the essays and suggesting she put them out as a book to counteract the influence of the New Left among college students.[1]
Publishing history[edit]
The first edition of the book was published by New American Library in 1971, as a paperback under its Signet imprint. A revised edition, adding the essay "The Age of Envy," appeared in 1975.[2]
In 1999, Rand's estate authorized publication of an expanded edition titled Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. It was edited by Peter Schwartz and added a new introduction by Schwartz, as well as two essays by Rand ("Racism" was included in The Virtue of Selfishness, and "Global Balkanization" was in The Voice of Reason) and three by Schwartz ("Gender Tribalism", "The Philosophy of Privation", and "Multicultural Nihilism").
The book received little attention from reviewers when it was first released.[3] In a survey of Rand's works, historian James T. Baker described the book's essays as "shrill proclamations" that are "more negative than positive more destructive than constructive."[4] Rand bibliographer Mimi Reisel Gladstein said the book's topics "seem dated", but "as Rand's predictions about the negative results of some of the practices she rails against come about, one begins to appreciate the perceptiveness of her logic."[5]
^ Rand 1999
^ Perinn 1990, p. 38
^ Gladstein 1999, p. 119
^ Baker 1987, p. 88
^ Gladstein 1999, p. 84
Works cited[edit]
Baker, James T. (1987). Ayn Rand. Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7497-1. OCLC 14933003.
Gladstein, Mimi Reisel (1999). The New Ayn Rand Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30321-5. OCLC 40359365.
Perinn, Vincent L. (1990). Ayn Rand: First Descriptive Bibliography. Rockville, Maryland: Quill & Brush. ISBN 0-9610494-8-0. OCLC 23216055.
Rand, Ayn (1999). Schwartz, Peter (ed.). Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. New York: Meridian. ISBN 0-452-01184-1. OCLC 39281836.
We the Living (1936)
Anthem (1938)
The Fountainhead (1943)
Atlas Shrugged (1957)
Ideal (2015)
For the New Intellectual (1961)
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1979)
The Art of Fiction (2000)
Essay collections
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)
The Romantic Manifesto (1969)
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971)
Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982)
Red Pawn (1932)
Love Letters (1945)
You Came Along (1945)
Night of January 16th (1934)
The Unconquered (1940)
The Early Ayn Rand (1984)
Letters of Ayn Rand (1995)
Journals of Ayn Rand (1997)
Objectivist periodicals
Objectivism and libertarianism
Objectivism and homosexuality
Objectivism's rejection of the primitive
Randian hero
The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
Objectivist movement
List of people influenced by Ayn Rand
Objectivist Party
Biographical depictions
Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical
The Ayn Rand Cult
Goddess of the Market
The Passion of Ayn Rand (book)
The Passion of Ayn Rand (film)
Who Is Ayn Rand?
The Night of January 16th (1941)
Gawaahi (1989)
Atlas Shrugged (film series): Part I (2011), Part II (2012), Part III (2014)
Theatrical adaptations
List of Atlas Shrugged characters
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_New_Left:_The_Anti-Industrial_Revolution&oldid=891777463"
Books about the New Left
Books by Ayn Rand
Books in political philosophy
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Objectivist books
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Tom Tugendhat
(Redirected from Thomas Tugendhat)
MBE VR MP
Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee
Crispin Blunt
for Tonbridge and Malling
John Stanley
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat
(1973-06-27) 27 June 1973 (age 46)
Westminster, London, England
Sir Michael Tugendhat (father)
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
tomtugendhat.org.uk
Adjutant General's Corps
Intelligence Corps
Member of the Order of the British Empire (2010)
Volunteer Reserves Service Medal (2013)
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat[1] MBE VR (born 27 June 1973) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tonbridge and Malling since May 2015.[2] Since 12 July 2017, Tugendhat has served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Before entering politics, Tugendhat was a British Army officer.
3 Political career
Tugendhat is the son of the High Court Judge Sir Michael Tugendhat and his French wife Blandine de Loisne.[3] He is the nephew of fellow Conservative politician Christopher Tugendhat, Baron Tugendhat. After attending St Paul's School, London, Tugendhat studied Theology at the University of Bristol, before doing a Masters in Islamic studies at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and learning Arabic in Yemen.[4]
Tugendhat holds dual British and French citizenship. His wife is a French judge and senior civil servant, and his father-in-law is a French diplomat, the lead OSCE mediator in Ukraine.[5]
On 6 July 2003, Tugendhat was commissioned into the Educational and Training Services Branch of the Adjutant General's Corps, Territorial Army, British Army, as a second lieutenant (on probation).[6] His commission was confirmed on 16 July 2003.[7] He transferred to the Intelligence Corps on 29 July 2003.[8]
He was promoted to lieutenant on 16 July 2005,[9] captain on 1 April 2007,[10] and to major on 1 January 2010.[11] He had been promoted to lieutenant colonel by July 2013.[12]
Tugendhat has seen service on operations during the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. He later served as the military assistant to the Chief of the Defence Staff.[13]
Political career[edit]
Tugendhat was elected as the Member of Parliament for Tonbridge and Malling, the safe Conservative seat in Kent at the 2015 General Election, with an increased vote share and larger majority than his predecessor.
Tugendhat supported continued membership of the European Union in the 2016 referendum.[14]
On 12 July 2017, Tugendhat was elected chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.[15] Soon after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury by a nerve agent, Tugendhat said the attack was "if not an act of war … certainly a warlike act by the Russian Federation".[16]
On 21 May 2018, Tugendhat's Foreign Affairs Committee published a report heavily criticising the law firm Linklaters on the work it undertook relating to the initial public offering of EN, a Russian company with alleged close ties to the Kremlin. The Committee was widely criticised for failing to comprehend the statutory rules of confidentiality that would likely have made it an offence for Linklaters to give evidence.[17]
Tugendhat was a participant at the 30 May–2 June 2019 Bilderberg Meeting in Montreux, Switzerland.[18]
Honours[edit]
In the 2010 New Year Honours, Tugendhat was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).[19] In July 2013, he was awarded the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal for ten years' service in the Territorial Army.[12]
Ribbon Description Notes
Order of the British Empire (MBE)
Military Division
Iraq Medal
With clasp "19 Mar to 28 Apr 2003"
Civilian Service Medal (Afghanistan)
Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan
With clasp "AFGHANISTAN"
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
UK version of this medal
Volunteer Reserves Service Medal (VR)
10 years service in the Territorial Army.
^ "No. 61230". The London Gazette. 18 May 2015. p. 9123.
^ Tonbridge and Malling (UK Parliament constituency) profile, bbc.co.uk; accessed 16 August 2016.
^ "Tugendhat, Hon. Sir Michael (George), (born 21 Oct. 1944), a Judge of the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, 2003–14; Judge in charge of Queen's Bench jury and non-jury lists, 2010–14". Who's Who. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U38156.
^ Boffey, Daniel (10 May 2015). "How representative are our MPs now?". The Observer.
^ "Formal Minutes" (PDF). Foreign Affairs Select Committee. p. 54.
^ "No. 57043". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 September 2003. p. 10846.
^ "No. 58002". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 June 2006. p. 7725.
^ "No. 57089". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 October 2003. p. 12991.
^ "No. 58008". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2006. p. 8068.
^ "No. 59237". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 November 2009. p. 19393.
^ a b "No. 60575". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 July 2013. p. 14489.
^ Kirkup, James (1 November 2013). "Conservatives call up veterans to combat career politicians". The Telegraph.
^ Gimson, Andrew (7 September 2017). "Profile: Tom Tugendhat, successful insurgent and a possible future Tory leader". Conservative Home. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
^ "What do the elections of select committee chairs tell us?". BBC News. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
^ "Russian spy poisoning: Theresa May issues ultimatum to Moscow". The Guardian. 13 March 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
^ "MPs criticise elite law firm Linklaters for work with Putin allies". The Times. 21 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
^ "Participants". bilderbergmeetings.org. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
^ "No. 59282". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2009. p. 5.
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Tag: Columbia
March 21, 2017 September 3, 2017 University Press of Florida History, Publication Announcement, Science & Technology
The History of Human Space Flight
“A fascinating human saga of dedication, competition, sacrifice, and achievement.”—Dave Finley, National Radio Astronomy Observatory “An ambitious and thorough history, extending back to the earliest risk takers and innovators who laid the groundwork for the astronauts and cosmonauts who would break the bonds of Earth.”—George Leopold, author of Calculated Risk “Brings many of the personalities … Continue reading The History of Human Space Flight
September 3, 2013 University Press of Florida History, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Publication Announcement
Oil, Exploitation, and Transformation in Columbia’s Llanos Orientales
The first book of UPF's fall season is available now! Territorial Rule in Columbia and the Transformation of the Llanos Orientales by Jane M. Rausch Pub date: 9/3/2013 The discovery of oil in the 1980s turned Columbia's "primitive" Llanos Orientales into the fastest growing region in the country, permanently altering this tropical grassland. Jane Rausch … Continue reading Oil, Exploitation, and Transformation in Columbia’s Llanos Orientales
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Passport: Missing the point on the Pope Missing the point on the Pope...
Missing the point on the Pope
Atlantic blogger and soon-to-be New York Times columnist Ross Douthat was not happy at all that my colleague David Rothkopf put Pope Benedict on his list of the world’s biggest losers because of his comments on AIDS and condoms: There are many other NGOs working in Africa that proceed from different premises, and take a ...
By Joshua Keating
| March 25, 2009, 10:28 PM
A woman shows condoms with a picture of Pope Benedict XVI and reading "I said No !" on March 25, 2009 in Paris. This condoms were released to mock Pope Benedict XVI after he rejected condoms as a weapon against AIDS during his African trip. AFP PHOTO BORIS HORVAT (Photo credit should read BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images)
Atlantic blogger and soon-to-be New York Times columnist Ross Douthat was not happy at all that my colleague David Rothkopf put Pope Benedict on his list of the world’s biggest losers because of his comments on AIDS and condoms:
There are many other NGOs working in Africa that proceed from different premises, and take a different attitude toward matters sexual as a result, and if David Rothkopf prefers their approach that’s perfectly understandable. But unless he’s willing to tell the Catholic Church that it should fold up its charitable operations in the developing world and go home, I’d prefer to be spared the lectures on how the Pope is responsible for “massive death and suffering” among populations for whom Catholic institutions have provided lifelines beyond counting over the years, just because he isn’t willing to to use his pulpit to preach the importance of playing it as safe as possible, health-wise, while you’re committing what the Church considers mortal sin.
Rothkopf is more than able to defend his own posts, but I think that Douthat is missing the real reason why the Pope’s comments upset so many people. As Bill Easterly pointed out, the first part of the Pope’s statement, that AIDS is “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms,” is a perfectly legitimate statement. Condoms alone won’t solve anything. It’s his next clause, that the distribution of condoms “even aggravates the problem” which is more problematic.
Here’s more Easterly:
From the standpoint of the individual, this is obvious nonsense, you are much less likely to get AIDS if you use a condom. The reason that mass condom distribution has not worked is that far too many people don’t use the condoms. One among the many possible reasons that people don’t use condoms is that religious leaders like the Pope tell them not to, or they believe unscientific statements like the Pope’s that “condoms aggravate the problem.” So it is tragically circular for the Pope to condemn the condom campaigns for not working, when one reason they don’t work is that the Pope has previously condemned condoms.
So in response to Douthat, the Pope was not “proceeding from a different premise” than those who promote condom use, he was making a statement that could at the very least be interpreted as arguing against the fact that condoms use can prevent the transmission of AIDS. Until condom proponents start telling people that they’re obligated to have sex, the Pope’s defenders are on shaky ground when they say he’s just offering another approach.
But don’t take my word for it. Roseli Tardelli, a Brazilian AIDS activist who’s been educating people on these issues for over a decade, has a new piece on The Argument blog, about how the Pope’s words have set her work back years.
BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images
Twitter: @joshuakeating
Tags: AIDS, Religion
Colombia’s Uneasy Peace
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Strangled financially, the Zimbabwe prohibits foreign currency transactions
Zimbabwe announced on Monday, prohibits transactions in foreign currencies, the umpteenth attempt to dry up the black market in foreign currency and to avoid the return of the hyperinflation that has ravaged the country’s economy.
Since 2009, it was possible to adjust its spending (supermarket, petrol, bills at the hospital…) in a foreign currency, including us dollars very popular with traders in this southern African country.
The announcement Monday of the zimbabwean authorities to put an end to this provision – a decision that has already been controversial – one step closer to the country of the restoration of a true national currency, promised several times by the president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“As of 24 June, the british pound, the u.s. dollar, the south african rand (…) or any other currency cannot be used as a currency with the zimbabwean dollar for any transaction,” announced the central Bank.
“As a result, the zimbabwean dollar remains the only currency that is allowed for transactions in Zimbabwe”, she added.
In power since the end of 2017 and the resignation of Robert Mugabe, the absolute master for thirty-seven years, Mr. Mnangagwa is promising to revive the economy, so far without result.
Lack of liquidity, currency in free fall, high inflation, endemic unemployment, the country is stuck for two decades in an endless crisis.
In 2009, the country had been forced to abandon its currency completely devalued by hyperinflation dizzying heights of several hundred million percent, in favour of the us dollar and south african rand in particular.
But the precious greenbacks are increasingly rare, to the point of strangling the economy. In 2016, the government introduced the “hop notes”, the government bonds of the same value as the greenbacks.
Again, the operation failed. The value of the “hop notes” has collapsed, inflation has picked, dug the deficits and caused the return of the shortages of basic products such as oil, sugar or drugs and, for the past two months, power cuts widespread.
– Under control –
In January, the multiplication by two or more of the price of fuel has caused riots in the country, severely suppressed – at least 17 people dead and hundreds of arrests, according to civil society by the police and the army.
In February, Mr Mnangagwa has decided to float the value of its “bond notes”, renamed for the occasion dollars RTGS (real time gross settlement) or “zimbabwean dollars”, with the hope of drying up the black market. Again in vain.
The value of the “zimbabwean dollars”, which are not recognized on the foreign exchange market, is falling and, according to the statistics agency (ZimStats), the increase in price (97,85%) has even come close to the 100% annual rate in may.
On Monday, the minister of Finance, Mthuli Ncube, has justified its decision to ban foreign currency by the need to “bring the situation under control”.
Employees “are not paid in dollars (…), they do not have the funds to pay for drugs or services in hospitals and clinics that require us dollars”, took the example of Mr. Ncube in front of the press.
His decision has been freshly welcomed by the opposition.
“It is only going to exacerbate the chaos”, a late senator of the opposition David Coltard. “The market is redollarisé by a lack of confidence in the us dollar RTGS”, he pointed out on Twitter, “you can’t force anyone to like a currency”.
The reaction of the markets has not been more enthusiastic.
“The measure can be disastrous if the system of purchase of foreign currency through the interbank market doesn’t work”, warned with the AFP, the independent economist Gift Mugano, “the exchange rate (foreign currency) will rise and the inflation”.
According to his colleague Jee and van der Linde, the firm’s south african African Economics, the introduction of a new local currency will not change anything in a country whose economic fundamentals remain more than hesitant.
“It requires confidence,” he said to Bloomberg, “people will not believe in this new currency and this will increase further the black market”.
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NBA Star Kyrie Irving Is Idiotically Taking a Neutral Position on the Flat Earth June 9, 2018 Hemant Mehta
NBA Star Kyrie Irving Is Idiotically Taking a Neutral Position on the Flat Earth
NBA star Kyrie Irving may be as well-known today for suggesting the world is flat as he is anything on a basketball court, and he just made everything worse in a new interview with the New York Times.
It was more than a year ago when Irving first said on a podcast that Earth wasn’t, in fact, round. He said: “It’s right in front of our faces. I’m telling you, it’s right in front of our faces. They lie to us.”
They, in this case, would include every single person with a science degree… and first graders.
He hasn’t let up ever since, and it’s had an impact. This past April, a poll found that only 66% of people ages 18-24 said they had always believed the world is round.
That’s the backdrop for an interview Irving did with the Times‘ Sopan Deb. Irving didn’t say the world was flat, but he didn’t say it was round, either, and it was clear he thought the middle position made him look smarter than he really is.
DEB: You’ve been coy about what you really believe so I’m hoping you’ll clarify here. Do you or do you not believe the Earth is flat? Or do you not know?
IRVING: That’s what I’m asking you. No, no, no. Can you openly admit that you know the Earth is constitutionally round? Like, you know that for sure? Like, I don’t know. I was never trying to convince anyone that the world is flat. I’m not being an advocate for the world being completely flat. No, I don’t know. I really don’t. It’s fun to think about though. It’s fun to have that conversation. It is absolutely fun because people get so agitated and mad. They’re like, “Hey man, you can’t believe that, man. It’s religious, man. It’s just science. You can’t believe anything else. O.K.?” Cool, well, explain to me. Give me what you’ve known about the Earth and your research, and I love it. I love talking about it.
DEB: I don’t want to misrepresent what you’re saying here. So just to clarify. You don’t know whether the Earth is round. You don’t know whether it’s flat. You’re just open to having the discussion about it.
IRVING: Absolutely. It’s fun for me, man. It’s mentally stimulating to hear because there absolutely are scientists or engineers that have said, “Hey man, I believe the Earth is flat”…
First of all, no scientists or engineers have ever said that. If they did, they’re lying to Irving about their professions.
But look at how he’s pushing this conspiracy. He ignores the experts, assuming that the small contingency of idiots promoting nonsense means there must be something to their beliefs. He won’t say he’s entirely on their side, but he doesn’t cede anything to the people who know what they’re talking about, either. Instead, he pays just enough respect to the conspiracy nuts while pretending he’s above it all because he’s not taking sides.
It’s not fun. It’s foolish. Irving is like someone who tells you, with a smug smile on his face, that he’s not an atheist because he could never be certain God doesn’t exist. (There are so many fallacies in that statement, you don’t even know where to begin.) You just want to yell back, “Unicorns don’t exist either, but no one’s taking a middle position on that!”)
When the evidence is so clearly on one side of a debate, being a moderate is not a noble position. In some ways, it’s even worse than the people on the other side because at least they’re fully deluded. They drank all the Kool-Aid. A Donald Trump supporter is far easier to understand than, say, someone who voted for Jill Stein because “both parties are equally horrible.” What the hell are you talking about?!
Irving, as usual, is just promoting ignorance under the guise of being open-minded. But as the saying goes, you should never be so open-minded that your brain falls out.
Christian Author Urges Believers to Stop Sharing Church Abuse Stories in Public
June 9, 2018 Preacher Kenneth Copeland, Who Owns a Private Jet, Would Never Ask You for Money
"S1: No, since the meaning of "uncivil speech" vary.GW1: I actually asked four different questions. ..."
Gary Whittenberger
Twitter’s Policy Banning Hate Speech Against ..."
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Man Who Killed 26 in TX Church Was an Atheist, Says Wife (But Questions Remain) August 14, 2018 Hemant Mehta
Man Who Killed 26 in TX Church Was an Atheist, Says Wife (But Questions Remain)
Silvia Foster-Frau of the San Antonio Express-News tells a gripping story about Danielle Kelley, the wife of the man who shot up a church in Sutherland Springs last November. It’s her first time telling her side of the story — and it’s devastating. She went through hell and back growing up, only to find herself, on that fateful day, bound to a bed with duct tape and rope, unable to prevent the tragedy from occurring.
Despite all of that, she says, she still loves and misses Devin Kelley.
The reason I bring it up here is because of an admission she makes later in the piece:
When she could convince him to go to area churches, including the First Baptist in Sutherland Springs, he laughed during the sermons. Devin became an atheist.
He told Danielle that a God wouldn’t let people like him and her go through such hardships. He resented God, and the world, for not protecting them from the world’s cruelties.
That’s the reporter’s account of Danielle’s words, not her own interpretation of them, and that actually sheds light on Devin’s “atheism.” He’s not an atheist in the way most atheists use the term. He’s not someone who actively disbelieves in God’s existence.
He’s an atheist in the way Christian apologists use the word. He’s someone who hated God… which implies that God exists. He was confused, more than anything. Not that this stopped media outlets from putting him in the same box they reserve for people like Richard Dawkins.
How confused was he? This was the same Devin quoted later in the same piece readily accepting the supernatural years before the shooting:
“I don’t think people change,” he said in the recording. “I believe in miracles. I believe in angels. I believe in demons. And I think for most people, they’re going to be who they are and live their lives out based on the choices they make.”
On the timeline of his life, that admission came after his high school classmates claimed he was preaching atheism to them.
Similarly, a widely circulating image of his Facebook page showed various “likes” that included this blog and other atheism-related sites. But it also included a “like” for a psychic medium.
That’s just not what you’d expect to hear from an atheist — at least not one who washes himself of all things supernatural. If he called himself an atheist, he seems to have been a wishy-washy one, frustrated with the idea of religion, but without the ability to articulate why belief in God is delusional.
The piece doesn’t really go into Devin’s motives for the shooting — there was unverified speculation he was going after Danielle’s mother, but no definitive motive has been published. Needless to say, there’s no evidence whatsoever suggesting this was an atheist trying to kill Christians. All the factors that led him to commit this massacre are far removed from any potential religious differences.
As for his wife, after experiencing a spell of doubt herself, she’s now attending church again. And she plans to get a tattoo. You might say that’s not following God’s will… but I guess not adhering to faith-based labels runs deep in this family.
Pro-Gay Church Opening a Brewery Will Donate Some Proceeds to Planned Parenthood
August 14, 2018 Want to Know What Catholic Hospitals (Won't) Do? Good Luck Finding Out.
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Mario Tractor
About Mario Tractor
Mario Tractor multi player is a very exciting racing video game. The match has been launched by Toongames.com also lets you play online flash.
This game includes cute graphics and fun action. With all these layouts, games are acceptable for all ages, particularly kids and families.
At the match, you will feel very familiar with these characters. The special purpose of this game will be that on each car there will be coins. You want to reach the final line until the competition and you have to stop dropping the diamonds. When the race is over, the system computes the score centered on who may be your first destination and the rest coins on your vehicle. Who’s more things are the winner.
Furthermore, the game also allows you to play in “2 Players” manner, this manner is very attractive. You will be able to compare directly along with your pals. Both of you will play the same match on a computer system. The screen is split into two parts, the top and the bottom. The top section is for Player 1 and the lower section for Player 2.
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Home Analysis The EMP Threat: How It Works and What It Means for the...
The EMP Threat: How It Works and What It Means for the Korean Crisis
Originally produced on Feb. 19, 2018 for Mauldin Economics, LLC
By George Friedman and Phillip Orchard
Over the past year, North Korean state media have repeatedly featured warnings of a potential high-altitude electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attack against the United States. The North is moving rapidly toward both a high-yield weapon (which is likely needed to pose a major EMP threat to the US) and the ballistic missile capability needed to deliver it. Depending on which group of scientists you believe, the threat of a high-altitude EMP attack can range from an overhyped doomsayer fever dream to a grievously overlooked and near-existential threat to the US. But given the uncertainty around the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, the debate about the severity of the EMP threat is worth examining.
A high-altitude EMP attack would work like this: A nuclear device explodes at high altitude, somewhere between 25 miles (40 kilometers) and 250 miles above the Earth, producing powerful gamma rays that radiate outward. Upon colliding with molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere, the downward-directed gamma rays create a powerful electromagnetic energy field. The EMP doesn’t hurt humans directly, but it makes some electrical devices and attached cables act as antennas, hitting electronic systems with a surge of high-voltage current.
The EMP arrives in three phases—a near-instantaneous, powerful pulse known as E1, a subsequent high-amplitude pulse known as E2, and a slower and lower-amplitude (but still damaging) waveform known as E3. E1 causes most of its damage by inducing voltage in electrical conductors beyond what they can handle. E2 pulses behave similarly to the current produced by a lightning strike, and thus would likely be the least-damaging phase (assuming standard lightning protections haven’t been disabled by E1). E3, which can last from several seconds to several minutes, occurs when the fireball from a large detonation briefly warps the Earth’s magnetic field. Its effects are akin to those of a geomagnetic storm caused by solar flares. It feasts on long electrical conductors, such as power and telecommunications lines, allowing its effects to ripple outward.
Prone to Disagreement
The damage that could be done by an EMP is difficult to assess—and thus prone to major disagreement within the scientific and national security communities—in part because it hinges on an array of factors. The first, of course, is the power of the EMP, which depends on things like the size of the blast and the altitude at which it is set off. The power of the EMP can also differ from one part of the globe to another, based on distance from the equator and the strength of the magnetic field of the region below. (Generally, the farther the blast is from the equator, and the stronger the magnetic field, the stronger the pulse.)
One area of debate about the EMP threat is whether a simple fission device with a yield of, say, less than 10 kilotons—the sort of device that would most likely be held by a fledgling nuclear state or non-state actor—would really be powerful enough to cause widespread damage. The power of the first phase of the EMP for a low-yield device is believed to be limited by the narrow range of altitudes at which it can be detonated while still causing significant damage. For example, a 1-kiloton device is believed to be strongest if detonated at around 25 miles above the Earth. If detonated much higher, the electromagnetic pulse would dissipate too much. If detonated much lower, deep inside the Earth’s atmosphere, it wouldn’t produce an EMP of consequence at all. (Any high-altitude EMP attack must be conducted at an altitude of 20 miles or above.)
At 25 miles, the area of the Earth’s surface within line of sight of the blast, and thus theoretically exposed to the E1 pulse, would have a radius of some 440 miles. Skeptics also argue that E1 from a low-yield device (by some estimates anything with a yield less than 100 kilotons) would also weaken considerably toward the periphery of the exposed region, shrinking the potential area of damage further to a 250-mile radius.
Given all the variables involved in assessing the impact of a high-altitude EMP attack, along with the disagreements within the scientific community and the lack of publicly available information from classified US research into the issue, estimates about the potential damage vary widely and tend to be short on empirical evidence.
The most routinely cited estimates come from a pair of assessments put together by the Congressional EMP Commission in 2004 and 2008. The commission had access to classified research and was allowed to conduct some testing of its own in a laboratory environment. Its findings weren’t optimistic.
According to the 2008 report on critical infrastructure: “The cascading effects from even one or two relatively small weapons exploded in optimum location in space at present would almost certainly shut down an entire interconnected electrical power system, perhaps affecting as much as 70 percent or possibly more of the United States, all in an instant.… Should significant parts of the electrical power infrastructure be lost for any substantial period of time, the Commission believes that the consequences are likely to be catastrophic, and many people may ultimately die for lack of the basic elements necessary to sustain life in dense urban and suburban communities.”
The following year, the chairman of the EMP Commission told Congress that the damage in areas within the blast radius would be an order of magnitude worse than what Hurricane Katrina inflicted on the Gulf Coast in 2005—and that a 90% fatality rate nationwide within a year due to starvation and systems breakdown was plausible.
Since then, public officials, including a former CIA director, have routinely given credence to the 90% figure. But experts in the scientific community have dismissed this figure, along with a number of other commission findings, as speculative and/or contingent on factors that are basically impossible to model.
Still, even if the EMP threat is prone to exaggeration, it can’t be dismissed altogether—especially given that North Korea is moving toward the sort of high-yield nuclear weapons that have been most successful at generating damaging EMPs in the past. So it’s worth investigating what is perhaps the pivotal question: In what scenarios would it even make sense for a country like North Korea to resort to a high-altitude EMP attack? To put it bluntly, there aren’t many.
The main hurdle to a high-altitude EMP attack is the same argument against a nuclear attack—the threat of retaliatory annihilation. Even if the North were able to trigger an EMP with a nuclear device far more powerful than anything it’s tested to date (delivered via an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a heavier warhead than any rocket it’s tested to date), and even if the resulting EMP is as strong and effective as feared in the most extreme scenarios, it would not strip the United States of its ability to strike back. Most critical military equipment is hardened to protect against an EMP, particularly strategic systems.
So, in reality, the choice facing the North would be no different than if it were deciding whether to conduct a direct nuclear strike on the United States. And if the North gets to the point where thermonuclear war is an acceptable risk, it’s hard to see why it would waste its limited arsenal of nuclear warheads on unproven EMPs rather than on trying to incinerate Los Angeles.
At this point, it would make sense for the North to launch a high-altitude EMP attack in only one scenario: if it were faced with a choice to either use it or lose it.
If the North finds itself under attack by the United States and determines that it will soon be denied the chance to master re-entry technology, attempting a high-altitude EMP attack may be one of its few cards left to play. This is because a high-altitude EMP attack does not require sophisticated re-entry or guidance technologies. The device is detonated above the atmosphere, after all. In this way, EMP can serve as a sort of bridge between the North’s status as nuclear aspirant and full nuclear power.
This is why the North has floated the possibility of an EMP attack. It knows that the US knows it still needs time to make its traditional nuclear deterrent credible, and it’s looking for ways to stall a US attack until it crosses the Rubicon. An EMP attack may or may not live up to the hype. But the possibility that it could cause serious problems for the US, combined with the possibility that the North will empty its chamber when under attack even if doing so invites massive retaliation, gives the US one more factor to consider before moving forward with the military option.
Nuclear Weapons Around the World
Daily Memo: Trump and Kim Meet at the DMZ, Iran Enriches Uranium, Israeli Airstrikes in Syria
Forecast Tracker: 2019 Second Quarter Update
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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Attack Killing 6 Libyan Special Operations Forces
In: Libya
Tagged: AFRICOM, Bani Walid, Daesh, Government of National Accord (GNA), ISIS, Libya, United States
ISIS IN ACTION
On 23 August, ISIS claimed an attack on the Kaam checkpoint 20 km east of Khoms. Six members of the Government of National Accord (GNA) affiliated Special Operations Force were killed in the attack. The attack was reportedly conducted by three men, one of whom was killed, using automatic rifles and PRGs. On 26 August, the GNA vowed to punish the perpetrators and ordered the general prosecutor to take the necessary legal measures against them. It said that investigations by local security directorates had led to the arrest of another ISIS cell member, reportedly connected to the perpetrators of the Kaam attack.
WESTERN RESPONSE
On 28 August, US AFRICOM said it had killed a suspected ISIS fighter in an airstrike in Bani Walid. AFRICOM said it had carried out the strike in coordination with the Government of National Accord (GNA). It didn’t name the person who was killed, but local residents named him as Walid Bu Hariba, a Libyan from Sirte. The strike reportedly hit him while he was driving in a vehicle in Bani Walid. No other casualties have been reported.
On 27 August, UNSMIL called on all militias to observe an immediate ceasefire in the capital after clashes erupted in southern Tripoli.
Libya-Analysis is the most read independent English-language blog on Libyan affairs. It is run by Jason Pack, founder of EyeOnISISinLibya.com and researcher of World History at Cambridge University.
This post was republished here with explicit permission from the author.
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Elizabeth Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax
Posted on 28 Apr 2019 by Frank Moraes
The most exciting thing in the Democratic presidential primary has been Elizabeth Warren’s stream of policy proposals. Over time, I’d like to dive into them. Today, I will look at her Ultra-Millionaire Tax.
She starts by highlighting work by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman (PDF) who first looked into this idea in 2016. It includes an amazing fact that I don’t think most people grok: in 1986, the bottom 90 percent of Americans owned 38 percent of the wealth here. In 2014, it was 25 percent. So let me provide a little context.
The average wealth of the bottom 90 percent in 1986 was roughly $80,000. In 2014, it was roughly $83,000. These are inflation-adjusted numbers, so the bottom 90 percent did see real gains: 0.1 percent per year.
During the same time, the average wealth of the top 1 percent increased from $5.2 million to $14 million. That’s a real gain of 6.0 percent per year — 45 times the relative gains of the bottom 90 percent. I don’t have the data for the top 0.1 percent, but it would be much more extreme.
Note also that during the housing bubble the wealth of the bottom 90 percent went way up — as did the wealth of the top 1 percent. After the crash, both groups saw their wealth decline. But the top 1 percent didn’t see it decline as much, and after two years, it had turned around. The bottom 90 percent saw their wealth decline and then stagnate.
This is not an accident — just the way the world is in a globalized economy. Dean Baker (PDF) has shown that the current situation we have where most people see little or no gain from productivity growth is the result of government policy. This is the way that our leaders have chosen to make it.
The Rich Aren’t Taxed Enough
I’ve written before about how the poor and middle classes get screwed by the tax system. One part of this is shown by how much everyone but the very rich pay compared to the very rich:
Wealth Taxed
Relative Taxation
Top 0.1% 3.2% 100%
Bottom 99% 7.2% 225%
Like most taxation in the United States, this is regressive. Conservatives always claim that they want a flat tax. But they only apply this to progressive taxes. They don’t even mention all the regressive taxes.
Beyond Income Tax
Warren makes an excellent point about why the income tax — even if improved to be more progressive — is not enough:
While we must make income taxes more progressive, that alone won’t straighten out our slanted tax code or our lopsided economy. Consider two people: an heir with $500 million in yachts, jewelry, and fine art, and a teacher with no savings in the bank. If both the heir and the teacher bring home $50,000 in labor income next year, they would pay the same amount in federal taxes, despite their vastly different circumstances. Increasing income taxes won’t address this problem.
As a result, she proposes a wealth tax.
Ultra-Millionaire Tax
There are various policies we need to change to reverse this that go beyond taxation (intellectual property law, for example). But Elizabeth Warren’s proposal is essential.
The tax itself is pretty modest: 2% on net worth over $50 million and below $1 billion; and 3% on net worth over $1 billion. There would be no new tax on anyone with a net worth of less than $50 million. That’s pretty generous, I would say. That means only 75,000 American households would pay any of this modest tax. That doesn’t mean they won’t fight it with all their substantial resources.
Saez and Zucman estimate this would bring in $2.75 trillion over the first decade. According to the CEPR Budget Calculator, this represents an increase of about 5 percent in revenue.
To give you some scale, SNAP and other food assistance programs costs the federal government roughly $70 billion per year — that’s roughly one-quarter of how much the Ultra-Millionaire Tax would raise. That provides some kind of idea how much good could be done with the money. At the same time, our military budget is roughly $600 billion per year — roughly 2.2 times as much as the wealth tax raises. (Eternal war is expensive.)
Some people may be thinking that the rich will just find a way to evade this tax. But Warren has put in a number of measures to avoid this. One is that the tax applies to all wealth — even that held outside the country. It also increases enforcement by funding more IRS agents and establishing a minimum audit level for people with wealth above $50 million.
Perhaps best of all, the Ultra-Millionaire Tax goes after the (false) claim of the rich that they will just leave the country. Warren says, “Fine!” But there is a 40 percent tax on net worth above $50 million for people who emigrate.
Warren also claims that the Ultra-Millionaire Tax would allow us to improve our procedures in the implementation of the Estate Tax to remove loopholes. So we would likely get more from it. (Also: we need to greatly increase the Estate Tax.)
There’s more about the Ultra-Millionaire Tax at Elizabeth Warren’s website. Win or lose, she is expanding the policies that Democrats think about. And these policies are wildly popular with the bases of Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden alike.
Article updated to reflect Barney’s criticism.
Elizabeth Warren by ElizabethForMA licensed under CC BY 2.0.
This entry was posted in Politics by Frank Moraes. Bookmark the permalink.
9 thoughts on “Elizabeth Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax”
Barney on 29 Apr 2019 at 2:36 am said:
FWIW, GDP per capita wouldn’t necessarily track *wealth* – GDP being yearly ‘income’ rather than total net assets owned with no idea of time. However, Saez and Zucman did plot the average wealth for the 90% in their paper – graph B, Figure VII, page 38: https://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2016QJE.pdf
This shows a hump in the real average wealth of the 90% from about 1998-2008, which graph A shows was basically the housing boom and bust. After that, however, the average was indeed back to roughly the 1986 level (it’s all in constant 2010 dollars) – about $80,000 per household (and that includes personal pension investments). In that time, the top 1% went from about $5 million to $14 million.
Frank Moraes on 29 Apr 2019 at 7:59 am said:
Yeah, I knew it wasn’t the same but I was having difficulty finding wealth numbers. Figure VII is really good. It shows how the housing crisis caused most of nation to lose everything it had gained and more. But the 1% saw a temporary hit and then went back to their trend line. In other words, the government response to the crisis was to do nothing for most Americans and make sure the rich weren’t harmed.
I’ve updated the article. Despite the housing bubble, the bottom 90 percent end up in the same place in 2014 as they were in 1986. During that period, the top 1 percent sees its wealth grow 6.0% per year while the bottom 90 percent see its wealth grow by 0.1% per year. And given the way this data is structured, these minor gains are almost all due to the top of the 90 percent. The bottom of it have certainly seen their wealth decline.
Thanks for noticing this. I was trying to get this out fast last night and was being lazy.
James Fillmore on 29 Apr 2019 at 5:08 am said:
I like this. “What if the rich people all leave?” Well, don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. You’re antisocial jerks, anyway, and we’re better off without you. By the way: you will pay before or after you go. We have armies on every continent, huge influence in every major financial institution on Earth. Might as well use this power for good, for once. Get these guys.
I love the evolution of how right-wingers have sold trickle-down economics:
1. Cutting taxes on the super-rich creates growth. Nope. Absolutely nobody believes this anymore.
2. Taxing the rich is morally wrong, a form of theft. This argument sold for awhile, but people are getting wise to it. Shitty pay for hard work is worse theft. Almost everyone gets this in their bones.
3. If you tax the rich, they’ll all leave, and won’t you be sorry! Oh, blow it out your nose, Ayn Rand.
I’m not sure where the rich think they will go. The only low-tax havens are bad places to live. As I’ve remarked in the past, if John Galt and his friends all left, it would make no difference. Other people would just step up. I’ve worked at too many places where some “amazing” person left and somehow the place got on fine without them. We like to mythologize individuals but when it comes to economic policy, we need to think in terms of the system.
Jurgan on 29 Apr 2019 at 11:43 am said:
Any excuse to share one of my favorite comics:
http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif
Frank Moraes on 29 Apr 2019 at 1:50 pm said:
I can’t believe I haven’t seen that before! I’ve been making that point about Atlas Shrugged for a decade.
You know, Rand’s fiction is a kind of early safe space for the rich. It tells them everything they want to believe. And it tells them that other people don’t believe it because they are emotional and irrational. That reminds me: it’s really interesting how many people who started out of New Atheists turned into anti-SJW warriors. It’s part of the same thing: people who claim they just follow the fact somehow ignoring them when they conflict with their prejudices. Not that I have so much of a problem with that: we are irrational. But people who claim they only look at the world rationally remind me of people who claim that commercials don’t affect their buying decisions — they are generally the worst marks. So it isn’t surprising that such people would end up allowing their racism to flood out of them. And Rand was a horrible racist.
James Fillmore on 29 Apr 2019 at 7:52 pm said:
It was funny this morning. Mrs. James was watching a YouTube playlist of various public intellectuals on her IPad, and I was reading a book, half-listening.
One guy comes on, and he’s this combo of the worst psuedo-scholarship with a really foul anti-SJW burr up his butt. I asked, “is this Jordan Peterson?” “Yes, you know him?”
No, I don’t. I’ve never read him, only seen a few seconds of him on Maher one time, couldn’t identify his voice if other people were reading those words.
But I know of him, and how worshipped he is in the anti—SJW, half-bright crummyverse. It was either him or Hitchens, and I know what Hitchens sounded like, so, process of elimination, it’s either Peterson, or some new one I haven’t heard of. I guessed correctly.
It’s interesting that you compared Peterson and Hitchens. There isn’t a lot of difference. The one thing that binds these people together is how they fall to pieces about SJWs. Hitchens was an atheist and Peterson is a Christian, yet they appeal to the same “just tellin’ it like it is” crowd that somehow always believes that being an asshole is what the Truth is. I don’t think any of these people would be popular if it weren’t for their most base attribute. Certainly Hitchens wasn’t popular because he was a good prose stylist.
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315 essays for Subject “Social science Essay”
The Objective of Good Social Work Practice is to Treat Everyone the Same
Under the Mental Health Act 1983 children with mental health problems are not distinguished from adults with mental health problems (Young Minds 2002, p. Thus, individuals regardless of their age are treated the same way without regard for the different needs that they may have. Such view of mental health, however neglects the fact that unlike adults, children have a three-fold interest in the outcomes that result from acquiring mental health care, particularly the interests of the current
Social science, Media, Gender & Sexual Studies
Social science, People, Politics
The Position of the Modern Woman
Interactions have played a role in the changes experienced in the society, feminist theorist and writers have played the most striking roles in the changes in views and attitudes and other societal changes. Feminist theories have always been very useful in that, they tend to address the practical issues faced by women in their daily living and interaction with the society (Sydie, 1987). Feminists’ theory views women in the society and addresses practical issues that are of concern to them,
The Lisbon Treaty and the Development of the European Union
From a mere handful of countries in the initial stages, the EU has expanded to 27 Member States. Moreover, its responsibilities have continued to increase with the passage of time. All this makes it essential to establish a new legal basis for the EU. Albeit, such a new legal foundation is now indispensable, there should be no dilution of democracy. Consequently, the Irish referendum provides invaluable lessons for the future of the EU4.The complexity of the EU’s legal basis required
The Effects of Competition, Predation and Disturbance
This process of interaction is the main cause for the achievement of the ultimate balance in the ecosystem (Botkin and Keller, 2003).One of the ways to better understand the predator-prey interaction is through the use of the Lotka-Voltera model. The said model is based on the propositions that include: the increase of the birth rate (B1) of the predator population (N1) is directly proportional to the increase of the prey population (N2) and that the death rate (D2) increases due to the
The Internet and Public Policy in Qatar
As part of Qatari government’s effort on implementing some international and regional strategies against transnational crime, an Intellectual Property Enforcement Office was recently been established. Software developers are among the common victims of copyright theft. Because of the implementation of the anti-piracy law, the IT piracy in Qatar has significantly decreased by 10% as compared to five years ago (Trade Arabia Business News Information, 2009).Online identity or property theft is a
The middle east - a hotbed of conflict
Place due to lack of cultural adherences, an improper infrastructure within the different nations that exist within the Middle East region, and an overall mistrust in each other’s issues and undertakings. It would be appropriate to state that the Middle East has become a hotbed for conflict to arise sooner rather than later. The same happens on a very proactive basis whenever the world’s stock prices fluctuate and whenever there are financial issues arising in the wake of the economic
The Impact of Racial Discrimination on the Health
A cross-sectional study collecting data at the same pointing of time in both the age groups is done below. Stress scores have been developed in relation to perceived racism and they will be utilized to collect data regarding the levels of racism-induced stress. Data pertaining to other variables including but not limited to BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
The Meaning of Race in Western Society
In order to understand the civil rights movements, it is essential to understand the circumstances surrounding the civil war as it formed the basis for the movements. The war had the worst casualties than all the other wars that had been fought in America including the world wars. According to McPherson (1990), America was experiencing rapid growth in population, territory size and economy as a whole. The population explosion was due to immigration and high birth rates in the north due to
The Butcher of Milwaukee's Human Slaughterhouse
In June of 1978, right after graduation Dahmer committed his first murder. Steven Hicks, a hitchhiker that he picked up, had sex with and then drank beer with was the first of his victims. His murder was unplanned seeing as Dahmer struck him in the head with a barbell that led to his demise solely because he could not stand the idea of Hicks leaving. To dispose of the body he chopped it into pieces, packaged it in plastic garbage bags and buried it in the woods near the house.In September 1987
The Main Monetary Instruments in the British Government
In the UK, consecutive governments have taken the task of bettering the performance levels of the public sector services by using on a large scale the trend of contracting and competitive tendering so that services improve through competition between the private and public sector in such areas as NHS catering, laundry and cleaning services along with infrastructure development and correction services. The government has initiated such schemes as value for money for its departments by setting
The Advantages of Depression
Research finds this ability to focus common amongst patients of depression. While no amount of research can make the symptom of Anhedonia sound like a pleasant experience, suffering patients should realize that there is a positive side to it, which they can utilize to gain an advantage over people who are not patients of depression.Apart from this, depression also has a personal benefit for patients. To understand this, one needs to contrast two popular therapies of depression: drug therapy and
The Concept of Resilience
Studies indicate that resilience has been credited for its ability to allow states maintain forms of stability and functioning. In essence, resilience can be described as a form of a system that allows states and societies function in a stable manner, despite the tough conditions, the country may be undergoing. Resilience, in this context, can be argued to play the role of ‘an absorber’ of all the ills and challenges the country may be facing; thus, allow the society devise new systems of
The Role of Social Contract in Western Political Theory
It will give a brief introduction and understanding of the theory of western politics. Moreover, this paper intends to look at the following in details: Inclusiveness of the People, Fairness in the Society, the Presence of a Legitimate Government, Property Rights of the people, Need for Citizen Participation, Not Representation, the Presence Sovereignty and Civil Religion, promoting Indivisible Sovereignty among the people, promoting Consent of the Governed and Voluntarism. Another objective of
The Pros and Cons of Migration in the United States
The arrival in the United States of large numbers of foreigners from various countries can either be a cause for concern or a trend to be welcomed. “There is no single answer, which helps to explain why Americans are ambivalent about immigration” (Martin and Midgley 3).
The Most Significant Political Development
In order to achieve this, there is need to ensure robust growth in key sectors including the developmental sectors, economic sector as well as stabilize the political sector (Williams, 67). However, it is extremely saddening to understand that most criminal activities always target such sectors in order to destabilize such nations as well as the international community. This has been experienced in the country of Syria. The political status in Syria has been considered one of the greatest
The ethics and leadership conference pertained to the selection of the speakers overview
On the other hand, profit organizations tend to be more conservative and careful when it comes to public disclosure of information. Furthermore, they exude a different attitude whenever responding to compliments sent from an employee. According to Mr. Allen, he believes that organizations should exercise commitment to an open door policy in which they are ready to listen or receive any information regarding the management. This would consequently guard the organization from any avoidable
The impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Developing States
Based on the research and available data, the paper will examine the impact of the global financial crisis of 2007 on developing states. In order to evaluate the overall effects of it, the paper will analyze the economic situations during the crisis in major developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Further, the paper will highlight the relationship between the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis of 2007.Due to the global financial crisis
Truslows Understanding of the American Dream
This paper tells that Truslow’s understanding of the American Dream was based on historical events where individuals migrated from their respective birthplaces to America in search of better opportunities to improve their lives. What he regarded as the American Dream was a vision of a place in which life should be improved and more affluent and comfortable for every individual.
The Impact of Economic Globalization and The Rise of The MNCs on The Developing World
Emerged in its initial form when humans began to settle into different parts of the world; however, due to increased scale and speed of technological advances in recent years, it has shown a rapid progress and has developed as an international dynamic (Pologeorgis 2010). According to Guy Brainbant, the phenomenon of globalization not only includes rise of global trade, internationalism of economic markets, development of advanced information and communication technologies, increased number of
Parts of the world; however, due to increased scale and speed of technological advances in recent years, it has shown a rapid progress and has developed as an international dynamic. According to Guy Brainbant, the phenomenon of globalization not only includes rise of global trade, internationalism of economic markets, development of advanced information and communication technologies, increased number of MNCs, increased mobility of people, capital, goods, ideas, and data but also pollution,
More Social science Essay
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The Mythical Democratic- Republican National Convention (DRNC)
To What Extent Do Middle Eastern States Have the Capacity to Develop Civilian Nuclear Power Programs And Would This Development Encourage Regional Cooperation
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Social science Admission/Application Essay Social science Annotated Bibliography Social science Article Social science Assignment Social science Book Report/Review Social science Case Study Social science Coursework Social science Dissertation Social science Lab Report Social science Literature review Social science Movie Review Social science Outline Social science Personal Statement Social science Research Paper Social science Research Proposal Social science Scholarship Essay Social science Speech or Presentation Social science Term Paper Social science Thesis Social science Thesis Proposal
Select type...Case StudyAssignmentEssayResearch PaperAdmission/Application EssayLiterature reviewDissertationTerm PaperCourseworkBook Report/ReviewAnnotated BibliographyArticleSpeech or PresentationResearch ProposalThesisLab ReportMovie ReviewScholarship EssayOutlineThesis ProposalPersonal StatementPowerPoint PresentationStatistics ProjectMath Problem
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New Director of Legal Practice announced
Published 2 March, 2009
Douglas Mill has been named as Glasgow University’s new Director of Professional Legal Practice.
Mill, a Glasgow University graduate with 18 years’ worth of experience in private legal practice and 11 years as Chief Executive of the Law Society, will be working to strengthen the Department of Law’s links with the legal profession as well as managing the return of the Diploma in Legal Practice.
Professor Tom Mullen, Head of the School of Law, told Guardian that the appointment will greatly benefit the University.
He said: “Douglas Mill will bring a combination of vision, energy and practical experience to his role as Director of Professional Legal Practice.”
Mill explained how happy he is to be returning to Glasgow University, saying: “I am delighted to return to my alma mater to take up the challenge of delivering the University’s ambitious strategic plans for the School of Law. I enjoy working with students and have always been very involved in legal education.
“With the 300th anniversary of the School of Law coming up in 2013, we aim to establish a centre of excellence for professional legal studies at Glasgow.”
Pawsitive Practice
A group of University of Glasgow vet students have set up the first free preventative treatment clinic for homeless dogs in Glasgow. It will provide free vaccinations, micro-chipping, worming treatments, food packs and other supplies such…
SRC election results announced
Dentistry School volunteers list needs filling
At a time when Glasgow dental health records are at an all time low, there is growing concern in the community of dental students about the lack of volunteers at Glasgow Dentistry School. The Dentistry School and…
A1: the legal jobs scam
Recent investigations by the Glasgow Guardian have revealed A1 Outsource, a company based in Glasgow, has been falsely advertising management training schemes targeted towards graduates who have found themselves unemployed. The scam is designed to get…
In the director’s chair
Scholarship initiative is announced
Muscatelli announced as new Principal
Amy McGregor It has been announced that Professor Anton Muscatelli will be the the next Principal of the University of Glasgow. The unanimous decision of the University Court to appoint Muscatelli has been warmly received. Following the appointment, Joy…
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78-Year-Old Trump Supporter Charged With Punching BLM Protester In The Face
John McGraw was attending a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina when he was caught on video punching the man.
D.L. Chandler
A 78-year-old White man attending a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina was arrested and charged Thursday with assault after punching a Black Lives Matter protester in the face.
John McGraw was at the Wednesday night event with several other zealous supporters of the Republican presidential hopeful when he threw the punch, WTVR reports.
McGraw was charged with two counts of assault and disorderly conduct after video images of the punch went viral. Due to the quick work of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, they were able to obtain McGraw’s identity and make the arrest.
After the rally, McGraw was interviewed by Inside Edition, telling them that the man “deserved it.”
“Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization,” he says on the video.
WTVR reports:
McGraw appears in the video to punch a black protester in the face as he was being escorted out of the venue with a group of protesters by a half-dozen police officers. The incident occurred during Trump’s rally Wednesday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The department has also opened an internal investigation probing whether the officers in the video, who did not detain or arrest McGraw on site, should have done so, Swain said.
McGraw’s bond was set at $2,500 secured, and his next court date is April 6.
Donald Trump’s campaign refused to comment on the incident.
McGraw’s arrest adds to a continuing trend of intolerance from Trump supporters when protesters enter rallies or gathering where the mogul is campaigning.
It is also the first time a Trump supporter has been formally charged after similar assaults captured on video have failed to yield arrests.
Rakeem Jones, the 26-year-old African American man who was assaulted, told The Washington Post that the punch “came out of nowhere.”
SOURCE: WTVR , Washington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty | VIDEO CREDIT: Inform
SEE ALSO: SNL’s “Racists For Trump” Ad Is The Funniest Thing You’ll See All Day
15 State Of The Union Moments From President Obama's Final Address
1. President Barack Obama arrives in the presidential limo on Capitol Hill for the final State of the Union address.
Source:Getty 1 of 15
2. Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul Ryan greet at President Obama's final State of the Union address.
3. Kim Davis gives a poker face prior to Obama's arrival at Capitol Hill.
4. Bernie Sanders was just one of the presidential candidates at the SOTU address. The Vermont Senator was also present at the Joint Session of Congress prior to the event.
5. Biden greets civil rights leader and US representative John Lewis as they wait for the president.
6. Biden gives one last classic greeting to fellow politicians on Capitol Hill.
7. Ahmad Alkhalaf, 9, arrives at US Capitol Hill for the president's speech. The Syrian refugee was invited by Rep. Seth Moulton after losing both of his arms in an ISIL bomb attack in Syria.
8. First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden greet the crowd before the State of the Union address.
9. The first lady looked ravishing at her husband's State of the Union address.
10. President Barack Obama arrives at Capitol Hill for his eight and final State of the Union address.
Source:Getty 10 of 15
11. US Secretary of State John Kerry arrives at Capitol Hill for President Obama's final State of the Union address.
12. Obama shared his final State of the Union address with Paul Ryan, the new speaker of the house.
13. Two nuns from The Little Sisters of the Poor arrive clap for the president upon his arrival. The sisters were invited by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)
14. Always in president's corner, Joe Biden gives Obama a standing ovation at his final State of the Union address.
15. We'll miss you President Obama!
Continue reading 15 State Of The Union Moments From President Obama’s Final Address
78-Year-Old Trump Supporter Charged With Punching BLM Protester In The Face was originally published on newsone.com
black lives matter , Donald Trump , North Carolina , Racism in America
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About UMHB
/ About UMHB / Our History
The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor traces its distinguished history to the days when Texas had yet to gain statehood and when Baptist missionary work was just beginning in the frontier Republic. As early as 1839, representatives of churches in Washington County issued an appeal to the Home Mission Board of New York to inaugurate a missionary movement in Texas. Missionaries Rev. James Huckins and Rev. William M. Tryon were sent, and soon after, Judge R.E.B. Baylor came to Texas as a teacher, lawyer, soldier and preacher.
These leaders inspired the desire for Christian education in the area and, at a meeting of the Union Association in 1841, recommended forming an education society. War prevented action until 1843, when the Texas Baptist Education Society was organized.
Tryon and Baylor were appointed to prepare a charter to establish a Baptist university. On February 1, 1845, a charter was granted by the 9th Congress of the Republic of Texas, approved by President Anson Jones at Washington-on-the-Brazos, and the long awaited Baptist university became a reality.
The school initially included a Preparatory Division in addition to co-educational classes for college students. In 1851, under the same charter, a Female Department and a Male Department were created, ending co-education. In 1866, the Female Department obtained a separate charter and its own board of trustees.
In 1886, due to changing transportation and economics in the area, it was deemed necessary to move both schools. The Male Department consolidated with Waco University in Waco, Texas, retaining the name Baylor University. The Female Department (Baylor Female College since the 1866 separation) moved to Belton, Texas.
Since the move to Belton, the school has undergone several name changes including: 1925, Baylor College for Women; 1934, Mary Hardin-Baylor College (named in honor of a benefactor); and 1978, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. In 1971, the oldest college for women west of the Mississippi became co-educational.
UMHB's illustrious history includes such notable milestones as starting the first work-study program for women in a college west of the Mississippi (1893); serving as the campus model for the Baptist Student Union (1920); establishing the first school of journalism in a college for women in America and being the second institution in Texas to offer the degree of Bachelor of Journalism (1921); and being recognized as the first Texas Baptist college accepted into full membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1926).
Since these auspicious "firsts," UMHB has continued to make history as a leader in the fields of education, business, nursing, and church leadership; in athletics through conference and national play; and in other important areas of campus life.
Today, UMHB enjoys a robust student enrollment of about 3,900 students and employs more than 400 full-time faculty and staff committed to Christian higher education.
Next up...
Learn about our traditions
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100% Dynamite
Commodore 64 - Released - 1990
100% Dynamite is a collection of four games, including three arcade conversions: After Burner Double Dragon Last Ninja 2: Back with a Vengeance WEC Le Mans
Arcade - Released - 1992
The Addams Family's lawyer, Tully Alford, has taken control of their Gothic mansion and imprisoned Morticia Addams, Pugsley Addams, Wednesday Addams, Granny and Uncle Fester. The player controls Gomez Addams as he explores the various rooms in the mansion, locating items and battling monsters, until he has located all of the lost family members.
The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Nintendo Game Boy - Released - 1992
Darling little Pugsley has lost his family to kidnappers who have hidden them as prisoners in their own spooky home. Only lovable little Pugsley can rescue them by hunting for delightfully strange items located in secret spots in their weird mansion. What oddities and atrocities await him! There are twisted creatures and complex features at every turn of the task. If precious little Pugsley is able, he'll find and rescue Gomez, Granny, Wednesday and Uncle Fester and see them to the music room. Each one holds a piece of the unnaturally lovely music which Lurch must play to unlock the secret...
Nintendo Entertainment System - Released - 1992
Adidas Championship Football
Amstrad CPC - Released - 1990
Adidas Championship Football is a soccer game with 24 national teams. The only playing mode is a championship which mimics the World Cup with randomly drawn groups. A second player can control a second team. The playing perspective is top-down with a scrolling field. The control method is an expanded dribbling method known from the Kick Off series. To make a shot, the player needs to hold down the button for a certain amount of time (this determines the power of the shot) and only then play the ball. The angle can be changed by tapping the button.
Adidas Championship Tie Break
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1990
Pin Em To The Baseline attack the net and volley the Winner! You might have taken the match ,but that was on grass.Can you play as well on clay or on the indoor courts? With Tie Break you`ll soon find out.
The Adventures of Mighty Max
Sega Genesis - Released - November 1, 1994
Max is a kid who possesses a magic cap that allows you to travel across different world and to save people who get in trouble in other dimensions. But his archenemy, the demonic Skull Master, has recently locked all the portals Max was using for inter-dimensional travel. However, the Skull Master has kept some of the portals for himself, keeping there some of his destructive weapons. It's time to destroy those weapons and to stop Skull Master!
Wear The Cap. Be The Max. Save The Planet. You've seen every episode. You know all his moves. The question is...are you ready to wear the magic cap??? Dust off your traveling shoes - it's time to play Mighty Max! SkullMaster has scattered pieces of the mighty doom weapon all over the planet. Go solo or double the action in 2-Player Split Screen mode, and embark on an earth-saving scavenger hunt through time. Time travel to 50 different worlds. Crush SkullMasters evil minions. Save the planet. Have more fun than watching the cartoon!
Alien Breed 3D
Commodore Amiga CD32 - 1995
Alien Breed 3D is a follow-up to Alien Breed, a Gauntlet-style shooter, and its sequels. Unlike its predecessors, this game is set into a 3D context, making for the Amiga's first big Doom-style game. The 3D engine uses fairly small screen graphics, but these include full floors and ceilings with detailed shading, doors, vertical position variations, lifts and transporters. The CD version includes extra atmospheric sound, while fast processors and extra FastRAM are also supported.
Alien Olympics
Nintendo Game Boy - September 1, 1994
THE STORY SO FAR... After the 2012 AD Olympic Games when the Aliens walked away with every major sporting award, the Earth Council refused Aliens the right to take part in their games ever again. Consequently, Garvan the supreme ruler of Traxsis, decided to organise his own games the Alien Olympics which began in 2016 AD. Since then, Traxsis has been represented by its reigning champion, the great Ooie Gooie, and is set to be so once again, now that the games for the year 2044 AD are upon us.
Atari ST - Released - 1987
The original Breakout concept involves controlling a bat at the bottom of the screen and using it to catch and direct a ball so as to hit all the bricks which are arranged at the top of the screen. It was unpopular for over a decade, before Taito revived it with some new ideas in this arcade game. The game's plot redefines the bat as a Vaus spaceship, the ball as an energy bolt, and the bricks form a mysterious wall stopping the ship from progressing to safety. By the mid-80s, power-ups were popular in most types of arcade games, and Arkanoid features them. They are caught by positioning...
Armageddon is based on the arcade game Missile Command where you are the commander of a Missile Battery and you have to protect six cities in this single screen shooter. Nuclear tracers fall from the top of the screen leaving behind a trail and as you move a cross-hair around the screen, you must fire a limited supply of missiles and allow them to explode in front of each trail to destroy them. If a nuclear tracer hits a city then it is destroyed and if all cities are destroyed then it is game over. A plane occasionally flies over the screen from left to right and you get bonus points for...
Bad Dudes
Bad Dudes is a six-level action game originating in the arcades. The gameplay involving beating a succession of guys to complete the level, then an end-of-level bad guy. The action takes place on two different levels of the screen, which can be jumped across or navigated using ladders. Moves such as punches and kicks are on offer. The control method makes jumping sideways quite tricky.
Barbarian II: The Dungeon Of Drax
Amstrad GX4000 - Released - 1990
At the finale of BARBARIAN - THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR, the Barbarian defeated the warriors of Drax and thus saved Princess Mariana from his evil spell. Drax fled to the dungeons beneath his black castle, vowing to wreak disaster on the Jewelled Kingdom. There is only one way to stop Drax - the Barbarian and Mariana are the only two warriors skilled enough to survive the perilous journey to Drax's lair. Can you stop him? You must stop him!
Batman is a 1986 3D isometric action-adventure game by Ocean Software for the Amstrad PCW, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and MSX, MSX-2 microcomputers, and the first Batman game ever developed. Upon release, the game received favorable reviews, and received a sequel two years later, titled Batman: The Caped Crusader. The object of the game is to rescue Robin by collecting the seven parts of the Batcraft hovercraft that are scattered around the Batcave. The gameplay takes place in a 3D isometric universe, which programmer John Ritman and artist Bernie Drummond would further develop for 1987's...
Batman is a 1986 3D isometric action-adventure game by Ocean Software for the Amstrad PCW, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and MSX, and the first Batman game developed. The game received favourable reviews. An unrelated Batman game was released two years later, titled Batman: The Caped Crusader. The object of the game is to rescue Robin by collecting the seven parts of the Batcraft hovercraft that are scattered around the Batcave. The gameplay takes place in a 3D isometric universe, which programmer Jon Ritman and artist Bernie Drummond would further develop for 1987's Head over Heels, and is...
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - December 14, 1988
Batman: the Caped Crusader was unique for its time in both its gameplay and graphical style. In what was essentially a puzzle game, the player controlled Batman trying his best to foil the plans of both The Joker and The Penguin. But instead of punching people in the face and driving the Batmobile at lightning speeds, the game has more in common with the adventure games genre; forcing the player solve puzzles, match objects in the correct locations and solve puzzles which required backtracking to previously visited locations. The graphical style was based around comic book panels. Enter a...
Batman: The Movie
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - June 5, 1989
Based on the 1989-Batman movie. The game consists of five different parts, each resembling well known game types. Part one, the chemical plant: Hunt down Jack Napier who has raided the plant (typical platform action, climb ladders or use "Bat"-rope and shoot at some enemies...). Part two, "Batmobile" (...the car): Joker is chasing you and have to escape to "Bat"-cave. Avoid obstacles like police blocking the road and others. Part three, "Bat"-cave: A puzzle game where you have to find a certain item (belonging to Joker) amongst other items. Part four, "Batjet": Cut the ropes of the balloons...
Sony Playstation - Released - July 1, 1996
When the game is on the line, you need blistering service returns, ball hammering ground strokes and an impenetrable net game. You need Break Point Tennis. 8 Adrenaline charged players vie for international supremacy on grass, clay, asphalt and indoor surfaces.
Burnin' Rubber
Burnin' Rubber is the game that was included with every Plus and GX4000 on a cartridge, in a bid to showcase the Plus machine's new hardware abilities. Therefore it was quite popular, although it did not really show off the Plus capabilities, being an early title and all. Despite that, it wasn't a bad game on its own and is considered one of the good racing games on the Amstrad.
Commodore 64 - Released - July 1, 1988
The player assumes the role of an unnamed commando trying to destroy several enemy military bases. The player's character is seen from behind and initially starts behind a protective wall (the wall can get damaged and shattered by enemy fire). The player must use a limitless ammunition gun and a limited number of grenades to fend off enemy troops and damage the base. An enemy gauge at the bottom of the screen depletes as foes are destroyed and certain structures (usually the ones that collapse when destroyed, rather than simply shattering) are brought down. At the successful completion of a...
Originating in the arcades, Cabal is a shooter where the protagonist runs back and forth along the bottom of the screen, ducking and dodging bullets and grenades from the enemy. The roll maneuver from the arcade was not implemented in the PC version. The player returns fire by moving a target around the screen which also moves the player character and may expose him to enemy fire. The enemies throughout the five levels come thick and fast and there are many of them. They include normal foot soldiers, tanks, helicopters and end of level bosses such as submarines and war machines. Just about...
Cavelon
The princess is being held captive inside the castle, and it's up to you (the knight) to rescue her. In order to do this, though, you need to collect the door pieces that are scattered in the six dungeons that await you, and defeat the black wizard in the end. Time is against you, so you need to hurry up. Once you have collected all pieces, the exit door will open, and you can proceed to the next dungeons. Collect other items for bonus points and avoid other knights that will shoot at you, even when their backs are turned. To make it fair, you can shoot them. Some knights only take one hit to...
Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigation
Special Criminal Investigation, also known simply as S.C.I. and Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigation in some versions of the home ports, is a 1989 arcade game published by Taito and is the sequel to the 1988 original Chase H.Q.
Sony Playstation - Released - November 15, 1996
It has mine carts rattling past experimental monster lunatics on chilli fire-breathing chilli peppers stepping on dangerous blobs of... er... Danger with power hungry evil no holds barred super intense dangerous blobs oh done that and scientist, one, very nasty. And Cheesy. A mouse. Right in the middle. The game Cheesy stars a mouse that has been captured by a mad scientist and locked in a cage. Being denied his freedom he waits for his oportunity to escape. One day a minature alien UFO comes flying along and bumps into the cage, hence knocking it over and allowing Cheesy to escape....
Choplifter III
Nintendo Game Boy - January 1, 1994
In this third installment of the Choplifter series, it is once again your job to fly your helicopter through enemy territory to rescue hostages. The helicopter does not only take damage from enemy fire, but also from contact with buildings, trees, walls etc., which makes some levels difficult to navigate. Enemies can be destroyed by either using the helicopter's standard weapon, or more powerful weapons that can be picked up throughout the levels. The main task of each level however, is picking up a certain number of hostages and taking them to your home base.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - December 4, 1986
As vigilante cop, Marion Cobretti of the 'Zombie Squad', you must rescue top fashion model Ingrid Knutsen from an army of psychotic killers and the evil clutches of 'The Night Slasher'.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System - January 1, 1992
It's an imaginary world that's real. It exists in another dimension, where cartoon characters, called Doodles are alive. It's Cool World. For cartoonist Jack Deebs, who's been carried across the boundary, it's a wild and amazing place; and he's discovered that only some of the Doodles are friendly. Take Holli Would. She's a knockout Doodle who's really interested in Jack. She's interested in using him to get herself and real body and transfer into this world. She just needs to get her hands on one special piece of magic. The Golden Spike of Power, hidden atop the Ocean Hotel in Las...
Nintendo Game Boy - 1993
The Golden Spike of Power, hidden atop the Ocean Hotel in Las Vegas, is the powerful wedge between Cool World and this world. And Holli's trying to steal it. If she removes it, she may destroy both her world and Jack's. As Jack, you're got to stop her from doing it -- because you know she will if she can!
Daley Thompson's Decathlon
The player takes part in the ten events of the modern decathlon: Day 1: 100 metres, Long jump, Shot putt, High jump, 400 metres Day 2: 110 hurdles, Pole vault, Discus, Javelin, 1500 metres The player starts the game with three lives; failure to reach the minimum standard in an event results in the loss of one life. Success in the 1500 Meters event results in the game returning to Day 1 to repeat the events with more difficult qualification criteria. Running is simulated by hitting two keys (representing the left and right leg) alternately and as quickly as possible. The game rapidly gained a...
Daley Thompson's Super-Test
BBC Microcomputer System - Released - 1985
This game features a variety of sporting events in the second game licensed around the Decathlon champion. Each one has its own world record and a target time/distance/score to reach. Fail and the player loses one of three lives. After completing all events successfully they repeat with tougher targets. Eight sporting events are featured: cycling, giant slalom, penalties, pistol shooting, rowing, ski jumping, spring board diving, and tug of war.
This game features a variety of sporting events in the second game licensed around the Decathlon champion. Each one has its own world record and a target time/distance/score to reach. Fail and the player loses one of three lives. After completing all events successfully they repeat with tougher targets. The Amstrad, Commodore, and ZX Spectrum 48K versions of this game feature eight sporting events: cycling, giant slalom, penalties, pistol shooting, rowing, ski jumping, spring board diving, and tug of war), while the ZX Spectrum 128K release has four additional events: 100 metres hurdles,...
Dennis the Menace (known simply as Dennis in Europe) is a multiplatform video game based on the 1993 movie of the same name. The object in all versions of the game is to defeat a burglar who managed to find Dennis' town via the local railroad connection. Stages include Mr. Wilson's house, the great outdoors, a boiler room, and eventually the big boss battle with the burglar himself.
Here comes trouble! Yipes! Grab your slingshot, water pistol and peashooter. Mr. Wilton's valuable coin collection has been stolen! Dennis was only trying to help - he didn't mean to ruin Mr. Wilson's garden club party. But when Dennis is around, one thing always seems to go wrong: EVERYTHING! Now his only chance to win back Mr. Wilson's friendship is to go after that thieving thug, Switchblade Sam. If he can get out of Mr. Wilson's house, Dennis will have to brave the weird woods, the spooky sewers, the adventure park, and the crazed coach in the school gym before he even gets a shot at...
This is the Ocean version of Donkey Kong which is different than the Atarisoft version on the C64. In Donkey Kong, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. The hero and ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular characters. The game is divided into four different one-screen stages. Each represents 25 meters of the structure Donkey Kong has climbed, one stage being 25 meters higher than the previous. The final screen occurs at 100 m.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released
Following 1980's Space Panic, Donkey Kong is one of the earliest examples of the platform game genre.[10]:94[11] As the first platform game to feature jumping, it requires the player to jump between gaps and over obstacles or approaching enemies, setting the template for the future of the platform genre.[12] With its four unique stages, Donkey Kong was the most complex arcade game at the time of its release, and only the second game to feature multiple stages, following 1981's Gorf by Midway Games.[13]:66 Competitive video gamers and referees stress the game's high level of difficulty...
Microsoft MSX - Released - 1986
Released in the arcades in 1981, Donkey Kong was not only Nintendo's first real smash hit for the company, but marked the introduction for two of their most popular mascots: Mario (originally "Jumpman") and Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong is a platform-action game that has Mario scale four different industrial themed levels (construction zone, cement factory, an elevator-themed level, and removing rivets from girders) in an attempt to save the damsel in distress, Pauline, from the big ape before the timer runs out. Once the rivets are removed from the final level, Donkey Kong falls, and the two...
Eek! The Cat
Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Released - August 1, 1994
KOOM-BY-YAH! Hold on tight for hair-raising adventure with your favorite Saturday morning superhero - in his Super NES debut. Now you can play with EEK! every day of the week!!! Get zapped bonked and splattered through six hilarious adventures as you try to rescue Annabelle from loony aliens... Reunite Pierre with his Squishy Bear brothers... Save a sleepwalking granny from a zoofull of accidents... Catch Joey the orphan's runaway Christmas present... And put your tail on the line nine times against Sharky the sharkdog...
Emilio Butragueño Futbol
Emilio Butragueño Fútbol is a game branded with the moniker of the Spanish striker Butragueño, who was discovered for the rest of the world in the World Cup 1986. The game is simply a simulation of soccer; no league, no tournament... only a match, team white against team red.
Eskimo Eddie
Eskimo Eddie is an arcade adventure set in the Ice Age. The game is split into two levels. The first level varies between the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum versions. In the C64 version, Eddie must make his way toward Percy Penguin who has been captured by a polar bear named Growler. This can be done by navigating a series of platforms while jumping over snowballs Growler throws at him. Eddie only needs to rescue Percy once before he can move on to the next level. In the Spectrum version, the first level has Eddie collecting Percy, who is at the top of the screen, and bring him back to...
Nintendo 64 - January 27, 1998
Defeat the Masters of the Fight in a head-on bout of power and skill. Fighters Destiny demands everything you have, everything you are and throws it right back at you in truly amazing, unstoppable 3D action. Prepare to fight every step of the way as you master the moves and unlock the secrets to fulfill your ultimate destiny!
Super Nintendo Entertainment System - February 1, 1995
IT'S FRED'S LIFE...AND YOU GET TO YABBA-DABBA-DOO-IT! What's more fun than watching The Flintstones? Playing The Flintstones, silly! The evil Cliff Vandercave has kidnapped Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. Guess who to the rescue?!? Put on your tiger skin, take off your shoes, and be your favorite Stone Age stooge in the rockinest adventure this side of the Jurassic Park. Live in Bedrock. Hang out with Barney, Wilma, Betty, and Dino. Wrestle with hungry dinosaurs. Eat Brontosaurus Burgers. And bring home the little ones, safely. After all, it's Fred's life...and you get to...
IT'S FRED'S LIFE...AND YOU GET TO YABB-DABBA-DOO-IT! What's more fun than watching The Flintstones? Playing The Flintstones, silly! The evil Cliff Vandercave has kidnapped Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. Guess who to the rescue?!? Put on your tiger skin, take off your shoes, and be your favorite Stone Age stooge in the rockinest adventure this side of the Jurassic Park. Live in Bedrock. Hang out with Barney, Wilma, Betty, and Dino. Wrestle with hungry dinosaurs. Eat Brontosaurus Burgers. And bring home the little ones, safely. After all, it's Fred's life...and you get to YABBA-DABBA-DOO-IT!
Commodore 64 - Released - December 11, 1985
Playing a thoroughly drab, mundane and predictable character, your aim is to become interesting enough to reach the Pleasuredome. After discovering a gruesome murder, your interest in something greater than the routine of 80s Liverpool is awoken. You explore the streets and houses in the search of a way out. The main basis of the game involves picking up objects and using them in the correct way - most objects have more than one potential use, and misusing them is the only way the game can be lost. There are several sub-games along the way, including shoot 'em ups, a maze and a jigsaw...
The player controls an unnamed prisoner of war who has been interned in a P.O.W. camp somewhere in northern Germany in 1942. The camp itself is a small castle on a promontory surrounded on three sides by cliffs and the cold North Sea. The only "official" entry to the camp is by a narrow road through the gatehouse and anyone passing through this must be carrying the correct papers. Everywhere else the camp is surrounded by fences or walls with guard dogs used to patrol the perimeter and guards in observation towers with searchlights posted to watch for any prisoners trying to escape. Beneath...
GT 64: Championship Edition
Nintendo 64 - Released - April 1, 1998
GT 64, short for Grand Tour 64, is a 3D racing game for the Nintendo 64. It features cars and drivers from the All-Japan GT Championship season of 1997 as it is an officially licensed game. There are three stages with each a long and a short version counting six tracks in total situated in Japan, the USA and Europe, all located in urban settings. You can opt to race three, six, twelve or 24 laps on each track. There are fourteen cars available to race in and they can be manually tweaked to improve performance. The Japanese re-release of the game includes two new tracks based on the 1998...
Gutz
You've been swallowed up by a ten million ton space being with an equally large appetite. This mega-monstrosity also has its greedy eye on Earth, so you have no choice but to try and escape by shutting down the body's major organs - otherwise your home planet is about to end life as an undignified midday snack. The treacherous quest takes place over four levels, inside a vast four-way scrolling complex of interconnecting tubes. Each of the four major organs (kidneys, lungs, heart and brain) must be destroyed in turn. As they are each encased in a tough membrane, an appropriately powerful...
Two distinct characters called Mr Head and Mr Heels are played in this arcade adventure. They are separated at the shoulders but capable of joining together to maximize their abilities in some situations (but reduce them in others, so they can be split again). The game is presented from an isometric perspective, and presents the characters with a number of puzzles involving switches, jumps and climbs. The levels are 3 dimensional, and the characters must collect crowns as they progress. Objects can be picked up and manipulated as necessary.
Highnoon
Commodore 64 - Released - October 5, 1984
A sheriff must defend his town against outlaws, who are about to abduct women from "Saucy Sue's Saloon" or rob the local bank. To defend it, the sheriff is equipped with his gun, which is used to shoot one of the outlaws. Shooting can be done in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. There are five waves to complete, and the outlaws get tougher after each level, with outlaws riding horses, blowing up sticks of dynamite, and hiding behind windows. In Wave 5, the sheriff is out of town and finds himself outside the entrance of the cave where outlaws emerge from. In Waves 1 through 4,...
Amstrad CPC - January 1, 1985
Hunchback is an arcade game developed by Century Electronics in 1983. The player controls Quasimodo from the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The game is set on a castle wall. The player must cross the screen from left to right avoiding obstacles in order to ring the bell at the far right. Obstacles include pits which must be swung over on a long rope, ramparts which must be jumped (some of which contain knights with spears) and flying fireballs and arrows (to be ducked or jumped). Eventually, after completing a number of screens, the player must rescue Esmeralda. If this final...
Victor Hugo never could have expected that his creation Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, would run such an obstacle course as is dished up in this game, dodging fireballs and arrows while leaping over pits and pikemen, sometimes with the help of a swinging bell-pull rope, in hopes of rescuing his beloved Esmeralda from the top tower -- all while being slow-but-steady chased across the castle parapets by an invincible knight in full armour. Once you get the hang of any individual obstacle, the game starts throwing them at you in tandem, until toward the end you're tracking the swing of...
Hunchback II: Quasimodo's Revenge
On the first six screens Quasimodo must collect bonus bells to reach the following screen. On the first, a simple platform arrangement, the bells are set into the floor and walking over them will collect them. Each level of the platform screen is connected by the bell ropes at either end which go up and down. Hazards include arrows and fireballs which must be ducked or jumped, while on subsequent screens there are bats, birds and axes. On the seventh screen, which is inside the castle belfry, the working mechanisms of the clock threaten him. On completing the seventh screen, the game returns...
Ironhand
Commodore 64 - 1987
Commodore Amiga - July 1, 1990
A scrolling beat 'em up along the lines of the Streets of Rage series. Our hero is armed with a sword. He must progress through lots of tough levels in order to save the princess. He has various ways of slashing at opponents with his sword. The game features large characters with animation indicating clumsy lumbering movement. Cheats : Pause the game and type “ZOBINETTE”. The screen will flash to let you know the cheat is activated. Now unpause the game and press any of the following keys. M = For extra lives. N = Skip to next level. DEL = Kills all enemies on screen. CTRL = Kills...
Jelly Boy
If it's raining... no problem... he can dodge trouble, give it the hammer or move like a rocket! It's not all hot air, just look again. Is it a bird? Is it a brick? No it's... Jelly Boy!
Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike
Commodore Amiga - Released
Some time after Operation Desert Strike, Ibn Kilbaba, son of Kilbaba S.R, threatens to annihilate America. After his father was killed, the people who were under his control, sent his son running off, along with his father's money and nuclear weapons program. Kilbaba, more ruthless than his father, longs for revenge of his father's death and decides to shed the blood of those who killed him, the Americans. Already armed, Kilbaba hires Carlos Ortega to help him set up his Nuclear Weapons program, deep in South America. Carlos Ortega, the world's most notorious druglord, also yearns to seek...
Nintendo Game Boy - Released - June 1, 1995
Now the storm hits the jungle! The Desert Madman is dead - now his vicious son plots a nuclear strike against the U.S.A. He's enlisted a powerful ally - a ruthless South American Drug Lord with an army of hi-tech mercenaries. It's YOUR mission to take them out! Turn night into day with your explosions on a deadly night mission. Penetrate the Drug Lord's air defenses in an F-117A Stealth fighter. Stalk the terrorists from the streets of Washington D.C. to the deadly jungles, rivers and snow-covered peaks of South America! Stunning cinematics and digitized sound effects create a spectacular...
Nintendo Game Boy - August 1, 1993
Plunge into a heart-wrenching race for survival! On a tropical island, a violent hurricane rips through the dinosaur preserve, trapping the tourists and freeing the most terrifying animals in prehistory! Two bigger-than-life ways to play: Be a dinosaur! As a Raptor, rampage across the island battling other beasts and eluding the traps and weapons of your human enemies. As Grant, the paleontologist, arm yourself with tranquilizer guns, and sleeping-gas grenades. Dodge the slashing jaws of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the paralyzing spit of the Dilophosaurs! 16 mammoth megs of nerve-shredding...
Commodore Amiga - Released - 1994
A game based on the hit movie Jurassic Park. The game starts just after the T-Rex pushes the visitor's van into it's pit. You play the role of Dr. Alan Grant, so you have to find Tim and Lex, take them to the Visitor's center and get everybody out of the island. But this time it won't be half as easy as it was on the movie. The game is split in two missions, played in two different ways. The first mission is to take Tim and Lex back to their grandfather and is (almost exclusively) played from a top-down perspective. The second mission involves getting the power back on line and returning...
HUNT AND BE HUNTED! If the movie shook you, Ocean's REAL 3-D graphics will blow you away! This is in-your-face, eyeball-to-eyeball, full-motion 3-D. We're going to put you closer to the main attractions than ever before possible. So close, that when you find yourself staring into the flared nostrils of a famished raptor, you can almost smell his breath. Play the greatest game of all time: Jurassic Park in 3-D Enjoy your stay!
Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues
Get ready for the war. A year has passed. No one has set foot in Jurassic Park... until now. As Dr. Grant, you'll venture back to the island, where more dinosaurs than you could ever imagine await your return - including all-new species. It's a totally different game this time. You'll realize it once the nerve-snapping sounds & graphics get a hold of you. Go it alone or team up for terrifying 2-player action. Only you have the power to send these prehistoric monsters back where they came from. Only you can close the doors on Jurassic Park... for another 65 million years!
Kid Chaos
Commodore Amiga CD32 - Released - 1994
Kid Chaos is transported from the stone age into an unknown world by evil scientists from the future. Now he must fight his way through artificial environments such as the Secret Garden, Toxic Wasteland, Toy Factory, Techno Fortress, and the Ruined City to reach the time machine that can transport him back home. Kid does this by running through the level, destroying all wildlife and several destruction targets, then leave the level by the exit door, which remain closed until Kid has destroyed all destruction targets. He destroys by swinging his club in the air and hitting them. He can also...
Michael Knight and his amazing talking car KITT have received news of a nationwide terrorist plot to bring about the destruction of America, so they must save the day. Based on the hit 1980s TV show, the game has several quests to choose from, such as foiling the assassination of the President or locating the terrorists' hidden bomb supply, and two different styles of gameplay; a basic driving game where you can control either the handling of the car or the shooting down of enemy helicopters (the computer controls the other), and an overhead-viewed stealth-type game for when you are inside...
Kong Strikes Back
Kong Strikes Back! is a single screen platformer inspired by the arcade game Mr. Do's Wild Ride and uses the characters from the game Donkey Kong as you control your hero to rescue a girl in the top right of the screen from a giant ape over various levels. Each level is played on a rollercoaster and you must run along the track until you reach the girl while avoiding bumper cars and other obstacles. You are armed with a limited supply of bombs (unlimited on the ZX Spectrum) and these can be used to destroy the cars. Ladders are also spread over the tracks and these can be climbed to avoid...
A unique mind-boggling game of multiple skill levels. Take command of the wackiest collection of misdirected rodents ever seen on your screen. Featuring fantastically animated graphics and simple yet addictive gameplay.
Nintendo Game Boy - April 1, 1993
Lethal Weapon is an Action game, developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software and published by Ocean, which was released in 1993.
Nintendo Entertainment System - April 1, 1993
You know what it's all about. That's right. The crazy cop and his almost crazy partner are back to do the city a world of good. It doesn't get rougher or trougher than the streets of L.A., where Riggs and Murtaugh take on every cheap low-life mercenary, street punk and dope dealer to get to the real slime behind big-time corruption. How much of your life, your future, are you willing to risk? As Riggs? As Murtaugh?
You know what it's all about. That's right. The crazy cop and his almost crazy partner are back to do the city a world of good. As Martin Riggs or Rogar Murtaugh, you've got a lot to decide - like how you're gonna outwit and outdo the major outlaws of L.A. It doesn't get rougher or tougher than the streets of Los Angeles, where you'll take on drug smugglers, terrorists, The Organization and a hostage situation at a shopping mall. Which of these four mission will you tackle first? One thing's for sure, they'll all be tricky ...and deadly. How much of your life and your future are you willing to...
Commodore Amiga - 1992
In this game, based on the movie series, you can play as Martin Riggs or Roger Murtaugh to complete four main missions, before taking on a final bonus one. For each mission you can choose the appropriate character. Walking around, jumping and swimming, kicking or shooting the opponents you have to stop the crimes in your beloved L.A. Firstly, you have to stop drug dealers who want to transport their money from the dock, where you infiltrate. Secondly, you have to stop suicidal terrorists, who entered the subway. Thirdly, you have to defuse a bomb, planted by another terrorist group in the...
Liquid Kids
Another cute run'n'jump romp from Taito. The hero's gimmick is his ability to shoot and burst bubbles full of water, a bit like Bubble Bobble only this one scrolls horizontally. A solid conversion that respects the original arcade game in a lot of aspects. However, some choices are strange, like the design of mountains of the first level or the musics that are nice but totally different than the original ones. The real harsh fact is of course the reduced screen size. Sprites are smaller but they don't respect the arcade proportionals in playing area, making more difficult to anticipate...
Manchester United Championship Soccer
Take control of the 'Mighty Reds' as they battle their way into Europe! Unique in-game commentary adds to the tension and realism. With Overhead and isometric views, you never miss a moment of the action!
Mario Bros. (Ocean)
Mario and Luigi are doing some underground plumbing when all sorts of weird creatures come flying out of the pipes. Turtles, crabs - even fighterflies - attack the helpless Mario Bros. It's up to you to kick, punch, and knock out these sewer pests before time runs out! But beware. Just when you think you got rid of them, they come back for more! Play against the computer, or with a friend - either way, this is one underground classic you'll want to play time and time again!
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - 1984
Match Day is a football computer game, published by Ocean Software in 1984, originally on the ZX Spectrum and then later released on the Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, & Commodore 64 systems. It is the first game in the Match Day series, and the title and opening music are references to Match of the Day. It was the creation of programmer Jon Ritman.
Match Day II
The original Match Day was the first serious football game to hit the Spectrum, and this sequel emerged over 2 years later. League and Cup tournaments for up to 8 teams (any or all of which can be human-controlled) are offered alongside one-off Friendly matches with a handicap option - passcodes are given to allow you to restore these to the same state another day. Matches are seven-a-side, with variable lengths from 10 to 30 minutes. All kicks except set pieces are variable in strength using a Kick-o-meter which is displayed on screen. One revolutionary feature of the game was the Diamond...
Commodore 64 - January 1, 1986
In this spin-off from a popular TV cop show of the 1980s, Crockett and Tubbs are trying to smash a drugs ring bossed by Mr. J. You have to start at the bottom, initially busting the casual dealers before reaching their suppliers, and ultimately the casino-dwelling honchos. This is done through a combination of driving and shooting, through an overhead rendition of Miami. When crooks are stopped they will often provide valuable information, although sometimes they can only be stopped by shooting them.
Hit the gas and race on 16 outrageous, high-speed tracks in 8 different worlds. It's totally unique racing action in an oversized world where anything (and everything!) can happen.
210 Mph across the bathroom floor! Through the bubbles like a rocket, you flip your speed boat around the drain, ricochet off the rubber ducky, and slip cozily back into first... Welcome to Micro Machines, the game where you get to race eight itty-bitty, turbo-charged, lightning-spewing vehicles - on 28 different circuits. Cruise a hot rod across the living room floor. Race a Formula 1 around the pool table. Command a chopper over your neighbor's flower garden. It's big fun on a, uh... small scale. Just be sure to stay clear of that nasty soap scum!
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Released - February 22, 1996
Bigger, Better, Faster, Meaner, More! They're back! Codemasters brings you Micro Machines 2 - Turbo Tournament, packing more micro power than ever before. Flying, hovering, tracking, biking, the game has exploded in every aspect. Interactive courses, rain, wind, wild jumps and much much more.
Nintendo Game Boy - February 22, 1996
The second game of the Micro Machines series. Like in its predecessor, you behind the steering wheel of an extremely small car. You race around on interesting places, like a table, a treehouse and many more. The control of the cars is sometimes quite difficult, especially if you don't know the tracks (the top-down view is not very clear). The CD-ROM version additionally features CD-Audio music and a track editor. Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament is a Driving game, developed by Codemasters and published by Ocean, which was released in Europe in 1996.
Midnight Resistance
The Midnight Resistance fighters are up against the awesome powers of mad scientist King Crimson and his Crimson Corps. Crimson has kidnapped your scientist grandfather and five more of your relatives, and aims to put his advanced plans to evil use. Take control of a Resistance fighter in this scrolling shoot 'em up consisting of nine platform-based levels, each ending with a Boss to defeat. Your enemies appear on foot and in vehicles, and Crimson has also planted machine gun bays en route.
The player takes control of a commando who is out to rescue his kidnapped family, including his scientist grandfather who is being forced to create a weapon which will give the antagonist of the game, known only as "the Commissar", the power to take over the Earth. In the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version, the commando, known as Johnny Ford is on a solo mission to destroy the reign of the entity known as "The Crimson King" who kidnapped his family because Johnny's Father, Malcolm Ford created a serum which could make people immune to the addicting effects of drugs.
Mr. Do!
Nintendo Game Boy - November 1, 1992
You need strategy and fast moves to help MR. DO! harvest the fruit from his orchards and avoid getting caught by the evil Badguys or Alphamonster! Throw your Power Ball to knock them out, or drop apples on them. Pick all the cherries or eliminate the Badguys and you can go on to the next orchard, where the Badguys are faster and meaner!
MR. NUTZ - Only he can prevent a new and permanent ice age. To help him on his way he's got a lotta Nutz, a lotta gutz, and one enormous tail!
Sega Genesis - Released - September 1, 1994
Get Nutz! This is no time to hibernate, Mr. Nutz! Yeti the abominable snowbeast is about to put a chill on the entire planet - It's up to you to put the freeze on this cold-hearted creature. Grab your acorn stash and embark on a puzzling adventure through the freaky forest, a maze-filled volcano, a zany street carnival... and use your mighty tail to stomp purple plum-heads, squirrel-eating slugs and bumbling bees... Only you, Mr. Nutz, can save the planet from becoming a giant ice cube. Happy tails to you!
Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad
Similarities with the other Mr. Nutz game only go as far as the title and main character, although both are side-scrolling platform games. Mr. Nutz the squirrel is holidaying on Peanut Planet when he's called into action to save the local people from a race of chickens. Nutz can fly, swim and dive through the planet on his quest. The level layouts include tunnels and warp zones. Bonus items and additional weapons including bombs are available along the way.
Mr. Wimpy
Mr. Wimpy is a platforming video game released by Ocean Software in 1984. The game was intended to be a promotional tie with Wimpy restaurants as their logos, company mascots, and theme tunes were reproduced. The game was released on the Oric 1, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Commodore 64. The gameplay is similar to the video game BurgerTime.
Mr. Wimpy: The Hamburger Game
You control Mr. Wimpy whose favorite hobby is making tasty hamburgers. In level one, you are required to bring back each ingredient (cheese, beef patty, and sausage) separately on each of the three trays provided. The player must avoid the 'moving manholes' which will take away the tray or ingredient that they are carrying. Once you have done this, you'll advance a level where the gameplay changes a la Burger Time. The object is to make four burgers, and you do this by running over ingredients including either cheese or lettuce, beef patties, and the two hamburger buns, to make them fall...
MRC: Multi-Racing Championship
Featuring up to 10 chooseable cars (many which open up later in the game), and three courses (plus mirror courses), Multi Racing Championship's biggest draw is the splendidly realistic feel of the cars themselves and the well designed courses on which they drive. The cars range from 4X4s, trucks, and off-road racers to slick street cars, Lamborghinis and the like. While initially it may seem like there is a deficit of courses, in fact, the multi-terrain courses contain mini-courses within each one. For instance, at least three times in each course, you will have the choice to take two...
Commodore 64 - July 15, 1987
In the distant future, human beings have outposts all over the galaxies, but wars and aggression have not died out. Neither has opposition to potential exploitation or environmental damage; your resistance movement has discovered that Macro-Genetic Mutoids (Mutants) are being bred purely to be used as weapons.
Narc is a 1-2 player game, where your mission is to infiltrate the Mr. Big Corporation, the scourge of the underworld. To do this, you must get through the game's eight stages, with over ten sectors like the junkyard, subway, drug lab, nursery, downtown, Sunset Strip, and even the corporation, where Mr. Big resides. In order to get through the stages, you are required to collect a number of safe cards, and insert them in the slot next to the stage exit. Each sector includes a map, and should be easy to read. For example, the blue or red dots represent you, and the white dots are the missile...
A non-stop, action-packed arcade-style thriller based on the heroic missions of the world's most elite, superbly trained commando unit... the U.S. NAVY SEALS. You have a number of perilous missions to complete. Outmaneuver the enemy, destroy hostile missile sites, and rescue the hostages. You begin with the briefing. You may end with a victory... It's the middle ground that hurts!
Like many of Ocean's games this was licensed from a film,in this case one by Orion, the company best known for Robocop. You control a succession of the USA's elite fighters with the aim of destroying missiles held by terrorists. You must destroy the missiles by placing bombs next to them and then fleeing the scene. You will of course meet many more fighters throughout the level, and pick up improved weapons as the game goes on (neither of which fit with the film, or real-life logic, but make for Generic Ocean Film License #718). The gameplay is primarily side-scrolling, but the levels are...
The Newzealand Story
Commodore 64 - July 1, 1988
The goal of each level is to safely get Tiki through the level, avoiding enemy fire and spikes, and rescue one of his kiwi friends at the end. The weaponry starts out as arrows, but pickups can change these into bombs, lasers, or bouncing fireballs. These act a little differently, and what is useful depends upon the player's location. A distinctive feature of this game is the ability to ride a variety of flying vehicles, including balloons, blimps, and UFOs. Vehicles can be found ready for use or can be stolen from an enemy.
Nightbreed: The Action Game
This is the first of a planned trilogy of games based on Clive Barker's movie Nightbreed (the second game was Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie, and the third game was never released). This is a side-scrolling action game where Boone must fight his way through Midian, fighting the Sons of the Free and the Berserkers. There are five legs to Boone's quest as listed in the manual
Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie
This is a mixture of action and adventure in a game based off of Clive Barker's movie "Nightbreed" (which is based of Barker's novella Cabal). You play Aaron Boone, the main character from both the book and the movie. Boone is attempting to get to a planet of bliss called Midian. His attempts at gaining acceptable go wrong when he is bitten by a cannibal, and the Police of Earth find Midian and set out to destroy it. Boone must stop them. The game has several different sequences, most arcade based, trying to bring sequences from the movie to life on the computer screen. There are eight...
Nightmare Rally
Nightmare Rally is a driving game simulating a pseudo 3D environment for a car. The player is a rally driver and must drive through stages as soon as possible, avoid bumping into objects such as trees, rocks, rivers etc. The right route is signaled through red and blue flags. The player must pay attention to the level of damage, high engine temperature and fuel. When destroyed the car is lost and the player has several cars (lives) to use.
The star of the game is Colin Curly, a dog, who loves Quavers (snack). It was a stormy night and Colin was playing his favorite game Pushover. Accidentally, Colin has been digitized and curlified into his computer at the moment he completed the final level of the game. Colin has been trapped inside his own computer and an amazing array of challenges are standing between him and the escape from this electronic nightmare. You have to move Colin Curly from the ENTRY packet to the EXIT packet by jumping from one platform to the next. Colin can only escape from a level if ALL the platforms have...
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“I’ve been doing this for 25 years!” – Bronx drug boss caught on wiretap gets over 6 years for narcotics trafficking
Posted by Gangsters Inc. on June 14, 2017 at 8:49am
It’s never good when a drug trafficker gets caught on a wiretap talking about narcotics. But it gets really bad when one gets caught talking about how he’s been involved in the business for over 25 years. Meet Jose “Omar” Miranda, a 52-year-old drug boss from the Bronx sentenced yesterday to over 6 years in prison for trafficking cocaine and heroin.
Miranda’s downfall began in October 2015, when – alarmed by several drug overdoses in the region - the DEA, the Willimantic Police Department, and Connecticut State Police initiated an investigation into a Willimantic-based drug trafficking ring.
Investigators pulled out all the works, including the use of confidential informants, physical surveillance, controlled purchases of drugs and court authorized wiretaps on five cellular telephones utilized by the co-conspirators.
Read: Top 5 drug lords killed while on the run
They discovered that Miranda was supplying large quantities of heroin and cocaine to individuals in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island, including Carlos Alberto Lopez-Zelada, of Willimantic, and Persio Hernandez, of North Windham. In Connecticut, Lopez-Zelada converted a portion of the cocaine he received into crack cocaine. Lopez-Zelada, Hernandez and others then distributed heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine in the Willimantic area.
One of the phones authorities had tapped was that of Miranda. At one point agents listened in as he threatened to shoot a co-conspirator who refused to pay Miranda for a quantity of heroin that he had provided to the individual on consignment.
If death threats weren’t enough, Miranda also disclosed on a wiretap intercept that he had been involved in drug trafficking for “25 years.”
With plenty of interesting calls on tape, agents arrested Miranda on June 23, 2016, shortly after he had made the death threats to his co-conspirator. On December 9, 2016, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine.
Lopez-Zelada and Hernandez were arrested on July 6, 2016, and subsequently pleaded guilty to related charges. They are detained while awaiting sentencing.
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Africa, 1802 (Raster Image)
This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Africa. It was published by A. Arrowsmith, Rathbone Place, Nov. 1, 1802. Scale [ca. 1:6,500,000]. Covers also Cape Verde Islands and Madagascar. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the 'Africa Sinusoidal' projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as drainage, cities and other human settlements, territorial boundaries, shoreline features, and more. Relief is shown by hachures. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection and the Harvard University Library as part of the Open Collections Program at Harvard University project: Organizing Our World: Sponsored Exploration and Scientific Discovery in the Modern Age. Maps selected for the project correspond to various expeditions and represent a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes.
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Graphic Novelty²
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
My boyfriend and I were so excited for this movie we leapt out of my car immediately after parking and practically sprinted hand in hand across the lot to get to the theater. Inside, it was apparent what camp everyone was in. Batman symbols glared neon yellow from every corner of the crowded lobby. I noticed only a handful of people wearing Superman – and as far as I could tell, I was the only one all decked out in Wonder Woman. We had to wait a few minutes for seating to begin, but once we got in, even though it was a full house, we still got good seats. Near the back, on the wall. We settled down, ordered our food, and waited impatiently for it to begin.
The film begins with the destruction of Metropolis at the end of Man of Steel from Bruce’s point of view. The fall of the Wayne Enterprises building begins his crusade against Superman. Lois Lane uncovers a plot of blackmail against Superman – but who’s doing it, and why, is something she’s determined to discover. Clark Kent is trying to write about the brutal Bat of Gotham to hold him accountable for his crimes. He is trying still to learn what it means to be a hero, to be looked on as a god. Young Lex Luthor worms his way into a Kryptonian ship wreck to learn it’s secrets. Through it all, Bruce keeps running into a mysterious woman – could they be after the same thing? What eventually pits Batman and Superman against each other? And when night and day finally do go head to head, who wins?
Forgive me for being concise, but I just don’t want to give too much away. I know what it’s like to be spoiled for something you’re really excited for! I will say, it took a while for the film to really get going. There are a lot of plot threads (as my boyfriend put it, “disjointed elements.” To each his own =P ) that didn’t start coming together until at least halfway through. They really packed a lot into it. There were still some questions that were left unresolved at the end of the movie. Some of it makes sense, because this is the movie that’s supposed to launch the rest of the DC movie-verse. Some of it was just… honestly, kinda weird.
As far as acting, I am sorry I ever doubted Ben Affleck. He was a brilliant Bruce Wayne. Jeremy Iron’s Alfred snark was ON POINT. These two were great together. Jesse Eisenberg, while not totally there yet, laid a good foundation for the cold, calculating Luthor we know and love. For most of the movie, he just seemed like an evil genius kid who inherited all his family’s fortune. I thought he was all right, but didn’t totally sell me.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, though. OH MY GOD. SHE WAS AMAZING. SHE WAS EVERYTHING I HOPED SHE WOULD BE!!! I was clutching my boyfriend’s arm the entire movie, but I flipped my shit when she showed up. Probably left bruises on him, poor thing. The WHOLE THEATER applauded when she showed up during the big fight. I maybe might have screamed a little bit (this is why I can’t watch anything in company. I make too big of an idiot of myself). This was just a little teaser for her own movie (and Aquaman and Flash even smaller teasers), but I AM SO INCREDIBLY PUMPED FOR NEXT SUMMER!!!!! I don’t know how I am going to survive!!!!!
Here’s my main problem with BvS, though. Henry Cavill was a nice-looking, albeit stoic, Clark, but his performance – dare I say, his whole character, was overshadowed by everyone else. And it was his own movie! The whole palette of the film was dark and gray, not like Clark at all. Clark is not stoic, he is not broody, he is not the dark side of heroism, but this is how he was portrayed in this movie and the last. I am getting really tired of DC trying to shove Clark aside and/or into a role he does not fit in order to appeal to a specific audience, or in order to make him more popular – i.e., like Batman. Repeat after me: Clark Kent deserves better. His character seemed better written in this movie than in Man of Steel, at least, though it’s not apparent until about 3/4 of the way through. Clark Kent deserves better!!!
In a way, we need him now, more than ever. We don’t need another Batman. We don’t need another hero who broods about how he feels the light has been sucked out of his life. We don’t need another hero who beats the crap out of every criminal he comes up against because of repressed fear and anger. We don’t need another hero who is morally gray, with questionable motives and methods. There is too much of that in the world already.
We need Superman. We need more light in the world today. We need a hero in these times of fear, someone who is good, kind, tolerant, and deals out justice truly, with the right mixture of mercy, compassion, and fairness. We need Superman to show us again how good the world can really be, how good people can really be, if we just gave them the chance. If creators are so intent upon using superheroes to show us how the world currently is, they should also use those heroes to show us how we can fix the world, too. And not by making them into something they’re not. We need Superman – not as we think he should be, but just as he is.
When all was said and done, I liked it. I have some major problems with it, as outlined above 8,D;; The rest of my issues will be resolved once more movies start coming out and the DCU starts establishing itself. I ended up owing my boyfriend a milkshake though. I lost our bet on whether or not Bruce and Diana would become romantically involved. There were plenty of hints to keep us wondering, though, which is good enough for us – for now ;D
– Kathleen
Birds of Prey (Vol 3): Of Like Minds
Simone, Gail, Ed Benes, Alex Lei, and Rob Lea. Birds of Prey (Vol. 3): Of Like Minds. 2004.
Finally got to read and review this one! =D
Oracle and Black Canary are at it again: this time, scaring Andrew Fisher, CEO, out of stealing the retirement funds of his employees. When he posts a suicide note, Dinah races to his home to stop him, only to be confronted by the man who blackmailed Fisher for the money in the first place. Savant subdues Canary and holds her hostage, telling Oracle he’ll let Canary go for one thing: Batman’s identity. Seeing no other options, Barbara calls on Huntress for help. Can the two put aside their differences to save Black Canary?
I had been enjoying the series so far, but this one was BY FAR my favorite. There was enough action to keep it going and enough humor to keep it fun. The dialogue between the women, though still cheesy, seemed a little more genuine, probably because it was written by a woman. The art was a huge step-up from the previous volumes, much more modern. I adored everyone’s character designs. I think I’m addicted. There are more of these reviews coming for sure.
Runaways: Pride & Joy
Tagline: At some point in their lives, all young people believe their parents are evil…but what if they really are?
Geared towards teens, this graphic novel perfectly captures children’s angst towards their parents and their thoughts of how they will be better than them and their wicked ways. The story begins with six families preparing to meet for their annual meeting in which the parents gather to supposedly cut checks for charity, and the youth hangout together. The youth range in age from 12-18, and as they have gotten older this motley group no longer anticipate the gatherings. Once all the adults have sequestered themselves in the library, the six youth sneak down a secret passageway to spy on their parents. They are horrified to discover their parents are super villains, who have banded together in a group they call The Pride. They witness a murder and then need to hide from their parents what they saw. They vote if they should report the crime, but then the authorities do not believe them. This then sets them off on a journey of discovery, each discovering secrets of their origins and powers they now need to harness and understand. The six sets of parents discover that their children know the truth, and use their nefarious skills to try to stop them. The youth are forced to band together and hide, vowing they will bring their parents to justice. However, one child seems to waver, not believing that their parents are evil. So, who is the mole????
In the beginning it was hard to keep track of all the families, so here is a cheat sheet: Wilder Family- Alex is a prodigy at strategic thinking & planning and is the child of mob bosses, Yorkes Family- Gertrude has a telepathic bond with a dinosaur and is the child of time travelers, Stein Family- Chase is a jock who steals technology from his mad scientist parents, Hayes Family- Molly is the youngest in the group who discovers she has super human strength, and is the child of telepathic mutants, Dean Family- Karolina finds out she is an alien with flying ability, with her parents masquerading as movie celebrities and the Minoru Family- Nico discovers she has magical abilities and is the child of dark wizards.
Pride & Joy collects the first six issues of the Runaways series, and each section opens with alternative art of the six youth. These splash panels give a different perspective of each teen, and is done in a different art style than the novel. The series artwork is clean and attractive, and that they include the time and location at the top of some of the panels helps the flow of the narrative. In 2005 the author, Brian Vaughan, won the Eisner Award for best writer for this series and is also the author of Saga. The artist, Adrian Alphona, now draws Ms. Marvel. I love seeing writers and authors I have liked elsewhere in books I am now reading (although Runaways was written first)!
This movie just fell into my lap, literally. I happened to be walking by the circulation desk when a patron was dropping off this movie and it fell off the desk, so I caught it, took a look, and knew what my next blog post was going to be about!
I am familiar with Image Comics, as I’m a fan of The Walking Dead and Revival, and most recently Alex + Ada. But I was not aware of how Image Comics got their start in the early 1990’s. During that time I was a huge devotee of ElfQuest, and my trips to Graham Crackers consisted of me heading straight for EQ, and also browsing in the Star Trek area. I was rather oblivious to the superhero genre, so the Image line of comics was a non-issue in my world at that time.
The movie The Image Revolution is a documentary that details how seven artists who were working for Marvel decided to break away and start up their own comic book publishing house, as to have more creative control and to retain rights to what ever characters they designed. The seven men were: Todd McFarlane (Spider Man & Spawn), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon), Whilce Portacio (X-Factor), Rob Liefeld (Deadpool & The New Mutants), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine) and Jim Lee (X-Men).
All seven of the founders of Image Comics were interviewed, in addition to other professionals in the comic book industry, to share how these artists became dissatisfied at Marvel and decided to strike out on their own. All seven were extremely talented, with their art being progressive and fresh, and had become well known in comic book circles. Them leaving was covered in the national news, and Rob Liefeld was even on the Dennis Miller show (I vaguely remember this). They experienced huge success with their first issues, with the Youngblood comic flying off the shelves.
But just because you are creative and gutsy, doesn’t mean you have the business acumen to run a publishing company. There were growing pains within the company, and infighting began. Some of the artists started to move away from the drawing board and spent more time on marketing and business issues. Jealousy arose among the factions, and eventually some of the original seven left for various reasons. It took several years to balance out, after their initial success, with The Walking Dead being a boon to the struggling but now stable company.
The documentary was extremely interesting, but uneven. Some of the founders had too much interview time (Liefeld!) and there were inconsistencies in the narrative and time line, notably regarding Whilce Portacio. WP left relatively soon after founding Image, but there is no mention of that at all. I understand in a documentary only so much can be covered, but adding a few minutes to explain why he went missing would have added to the flow of the story. It would also have fit with the narrative of growing pains, and that they left out his bio at the end, to me was disrespectful and a glaring omission. The movie only clocked in at 83 minutes, so there was definitely time to flesh out more of the founder’s stories. Another add in, would have been to explain why the 1990’s was the right time to break away from the big houses of Marvel and DC.
While I DO recommend this documentary, it would be only to the niche of comic book/graphic novel book lovers. But if you are reading this blog, then I’m guessing this movie would be right up your alley…
I just can’t resist posting this site mocking some of Liefeld’s artwork– although he’s really quite talented, despite the snark of this post!
Picture found on Why so Blu? review website
Nightwing: The Lost Year
Wolfman, Marv, Jamal Igle, and Jon Bosco. Nightwing: The Lost Year. 2008.
Nightwing is injured and left in a coma after the Crisis. When he wakes up, a year has gone by. Barbara Gordon is there when Dick wakes up and is tasked with being his physical therapist. But their time together proves ultimately too painful for both of them, and Dick leaves after his recovery. Back on the streets of Gotham, Nightwing stops a kidnapping attempt on someone he used to know. Liu visits Dick at his work, wanting to see him after being released from prison. Dick already knows he can’t trust her, but especially after she tells him she’s working for “Metal” Eddie Hwang, the leader of a gang Dick used to run with. Liu swears he’s clean now, but Dick isn’t so sure. For one, it can’t be a coincidence that Liu comes to see Dick Grayson the night after Nightwing rescues her. And Vigilante has shown up, swearing revenge on the seemingly reformed Eddie. What’s the connection? What does Liu want? Why does Dick want to trust her even though he knows he can’t?
This one is smack in the middle of the arc, so it was hard to get my bearings at first. I adored how elements of Barbara and Dick’s relationship were recounted in the beginning. They’re just so cute! Their first date was incredibly funny. Get ready for the feels though after that.
This is a good example of the inner struggle a hero faces. Dick wants to see the good in Liu, even though she’s hurt him before. He knows he can’t trust her, but wants to give her the benefit of the doubt anyway, even if it means he has to get hurt again. I suppose much of a superhero’s fights are internal more than external. This was definitely an internal book. I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn’t pick it up again. The rest of the book after Dick and Babs just wasn’t interesting to me??? Idk if that speaks to how much I love those two or how the book actually was.
Alex + Ada: Volume 1
Set in the near future, Alex receives a gift of a realistic android from his grandma as a birthday gift. As Alex is still reeling from the breakup with his fiancé a few months ago, his grandma feels that the android will cheer him up and bring him fulfillment, as a male android has done for her. At first Alex is freaked out by this beautiful female robot, and considers returning her, but ultimately keeps her. The year anniversary of a massacre between humans and androids that had become sentient looms throughout the narrative, and new stringent rules are in place to block any androids from gaining real emotions. As Alex becomes attached to the android he names Ada, he longs for a more “human” connection with her and he eventually seeks an underground group of androids that have gained sentience. Through an illegal download she gains self awareness, but as this is against the law, she needs to mask her new abilities in public. The two of them face a very uncertain future, and this sci-fi romance has strong connections to the movies Blade Runner and Her. As this story feels current in time, it did make me think of the imminence of artificial intelligence, and what rights and laws will be appropriate if this story’s technology become feasible in our future.
The cover of this graphic novel stands out, as the wrapping that Ada was packaged in is draped over her head, and with her white clothing, it is an obvious symbol of a woman being offered as a bride. The art is very sparse, with an earth tones color palette. Black borders surround a standard layout, with some full page panels. However, the simplicity of the art lets the complexity of the human emotions shine through. Nothing distracts from the character-centric narrative, and the story is able to breathe.
The story continues for two more volumes, with a definite conclusion in Volume 3. I have read Volume 2 and have Volume 3 on hold. I look forward to seeing how the story will wrap up, and wonder what the future holds for Alex +Ada!
Luna, Jonathan & Sarah Vaughn. Alex + Ada. 2014.
Get Pumped: Batman v. Superman!
Are any of you totally pumped for Batman v. Superman??? Because I DEFINITELY AM!!!
Here’s what we know so far. It’ll be a sequel to Man of Steel and kind of a segway into the whole rest of the DC movie-verse. Henry Cavill will reprise his role of Superman, and Ben Affleck has taken up the mantle of the Dark Knight. Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa will appear as Wonder Woman and Aquaman, respectively.
From the trailers, it appears that after the desctruction of Metropolis at the end of Man of Steel, Batman goes up against Superman because he doesn’t trust him and thinks he has too much power. Typical Bruce. Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) has cooked something up to pit against the heroes, Doomsday, just because he’s Lex Luthor. The threat is enough to bring Wonder Woman to Metropolis to stop them. It’s a little fuzzy where Aquaman comes in, though, unless someone can clear that up for me =P
This movie has hit some pitfalls already, mostly with casting. No one (including me) wanted Ben Affleck as Batman when he was first cast, because of the awful Daredevil movie. Fans seem to have warmed up to him after the first trailer, though. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor seems questionable, especially seeing him in the trailer. He seems not to have the cold calculation of Lex’s character. Then again, it is still early in the franchise, and his first appearance in the Man of Steel franchise, so perhaps we’ll see that develop later after he loses his hair.
A lot of parallels have been drawn between the artistic direction and storyline of the movie and the critically acclaimed comic, The Dark Knight Returns. Affleck’s Batsuit is unquestionably based the suit of the comic: the short, stubby ears and the Batman symbol on the chest are dead giveaways. In one of the trailers, there is a shot of Batman clinging to the side of the building as lightning strikes behind him. It’s an impressive piece of cinematograpy, and it is also a classic panel from the comic. Affleck’s Batman is also an older Batman, though it is unclear yet whether Affleck’s Batman is coming out of retirement to fight Superman, like in the comic. Have I mentioned y’all should read the comic? It’s really good and it might prepare you for the movie =P
This movie is being set up to be a blockbuster, as well it should be, because an extended DC movie-verse is looong overdue. I still have some reservations about it, mainly those of Affleck as Batman, and also the suit (I hate the DKR suit!!! The ears are too short!!! I know I’m petty and I don’t care). I’m warming up to him, but I still have my doubts. I’m also concerned about Superman himself as a character, as I don’t think Man of Steel did him justice at all. Superman isn’t grimdark like Batman is, they are total opposites. They went in more of a Batman direction with him and still I don’t know how to feel about it.
However, most of this is made up for me by the fact that Wonder Woman will be in it!!! Gal Gadot looks so freaking amazing!!! And the marketing is not leaving her out at all, which is super important for her fans and for young girls who love superheroes!!! Yes I am pumped for this movie mostly because of Wonder Woman but I DON’T CARE I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice will be coming out next Friday, March 25th. Advance tickets are on sale, so be sure to get yours if you haven’t already! My boyfriend and I will be seeing it that Saturday. We’re betting frozen yogurt on whether or not Bruce and Diana get romantically involved ;D Look out for my review in a few weeks!
Birds of Prey (Vol 2): Old Friends, New Enemies
Dixon, Chuck, Jordan B. Gorfinkel, Greg Land, and Drew Geraci. Birds of Prey, Vol. 2: Old Friends, New Enemies. 2003.
The Birds of Prey series continues in this volume. Black Canary and Oracle are working together to fight crime around the globe. The adventures outlined here take us from Gotham to Rheelasia to investigate the disappearances of important people, to Minnesota, where a vacationing Canary stumbles upon a Kobra plot… and the Loch Ness monster? Meanwhile, the Army is tracking the digital signature of a hacker who broke into their computer system – and it originates from Gotham City!
Oracle and Black Canary are still testing the boundaries of their relationship in this volume. It’s as much about the development of their friendship as much as it is about fighting crime. There is also an emphasis in the early issues on Barbara and how capable she is even though she’s in a wheelchair. Even though she isn’t Batgirl anymore, it’s hard to deny that she’s still a superhero. Canary, of course, is the woman on the ground, but it was great to see Barbara get some field action as well.
This is the last of the Chuck Dixon run, and the fan favorite Gail Simone series is coming up next! I’m sooo excited to read it finally =D
-Kathleen
Macabre.
Unsettling.
Gruesome.
This seemingly sweet graphic novel starts out with a lovely young woman having tea with a prince, and it is going splendidly well, that is until great globs of red stuff starts falling on them. As everyone runs for safety, the view shifts away for a long shot, and you see little creatures pouring out of the orifices of a dead girl. What?!
Aurora takes charge and finds food and shelter for all the little doll like creatures, and tries to befriend the woodland animals. They all work together and it seems like utopia (well, except for the decomposing human girl in the woods) for awhile. But all that shines is not gold. Soon the veneer of politeness starts to wear off, and what at first seemed like a fantasy story slips towards horror.
Another doll Zelie emerges as a leader, with many catering to her every cruel whim. Zelie’s manipulations lead to many of the tiny beings turning on one another to stay in her favor and some accepting their deaths willingly. Even Aurora falls prey to her for a bit, turning against her friend the mouse, when in actuality she is upset on how she fell for Zelie’s deceit.
Only a few besides Aurora survive outside Zelie’s influence- Jane, who is independent and moves away, and an unstable doll who hides in the skull of the girl eating maggots and slipping into insanity. Aurora eventually follows Jane to a mysterious woodcutter’s cottage, whom you will wonder about- what is his connection to the dead girl? When Zelie and her dwindling entourage arrive at the cottage, Aurora then makes a radical decision.
Allegories abound in this book- make of it what you will. Of this I am certain, you will leaf through it several times, reading even deeper meaning into the story each time you look carefully at the watercolor panels. Enjoy….
Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale
Home After Dark
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel
Surviving the City
Mera: Tidebreaker – Take²
Nancy on Home After Dark
Dani @ Perspective o… on Home After Dark
Joshua Ryan "Jammer"… on Home After Dark
Home After Dark… on Stitches
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Cutting Costs Without Cutting Corners: Lessons from Banner Health
Dennis Dahlen
Curt Bailey
Cost cutting is difficult in any industry, but it’s particularly challenging in healthcare, where organizations are simultaneously undergoing a major transformation to improve care and the patient experience. In a hospital setting, cost-reduction is often equated with cutting corners, and so is perceived as antithetical to care providers’ values, and typically creates high levels of employee and patient dissatisfaction. Resetting a health system’s cost structure also implies greater centralization and standardization, which goes against the grain of local facility leaders and clinicians.
There are two keys to successful cost-cutting in healthcare: the first – necessary but not sufficient — is to apply proven tools and tactics from industrial engineering, lean, six sigma, and business process reengineering; the second is to align the initiative with the organization’s mission and culture, and engage clinical and administrative staff across the organization to collaborate in the process. Here’s how Banner Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems, did it. Similar to health systems across the country, during the financial crisis Banner experienced substantial declines in patient volume and reductions in reimbursements amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Nonetheless, between 2012 and mid-2103, Banner has captured nearly $70 million in savings, and by 2017, the savings will contribute $256 million annually to its bottom line. The $5 billion nonprofit system achieved this by embracing the following four tenets in a cost reduction approach that is aligned with core values in healthcare—enlisting the empathy, collaboration, and engagement that characterize the best care delivery.
Vision before action
Banner’s leaders made a conscious choice to eschew industry benchmarks in the cost initiative. Rather than setting savings targets based on the performance of other health systems, they set their sights on realizing a 4.4 percent margin within three years on the lowest reimbursement received.
Next, the 10-member senior leadership team used a variety of means, such as town halls, and videos of executives explaining the plan, to clearly and repeatedly communicate the urgent need for cost reduction as a requirement for process redesign across the system that would ultimately improve patient care. This helped squelch rumors of impending layoffs and reduce the stress and fear that inevitably accompany cost cutting.
In making the case for change to its 36,000 employees, Banner’s leadership described how cutting costs would enable the system to invest in new initiatives, such as an accountable care organization and a network of community-based outpatient clinics, which would enable Banner to better coordinate, standardize, and integrate care delivery, eventually improving population health.
Finally, the leadership team, in partnership with Booz & Company, invited people from across the system to collaborate in cost reduction. Instead of imposing cuts and process redesigns from the top down, Banner’s leaders wanted physicians and administrators, practice groups of line managers from different facilities, and department managers and staff to work together to find innovative solutions that would simultaneously enhance patient experience, clinical quality, and financial sustainability. This decision to be inclusive and collaborative was essential to identifying tens of millions of dollars in savings while ensuring support of front-line leaders and staff.
The team began by attacking the system’s general and administrative (G&A) expenses. By identifying opportunities to fundamentally change how administrative services were delivered, the senior executives led by example and communicated a willingness to do their part in cutting costs by focusing on their own departments first – a messaging that helped dampen organizational resistance to change.
All of Banner’s C-suite leaders served on the leadership team for the G&A project. This ensured their commitment to the effort and created support for tough decisions—even when those decisions directly affected their own bailiwicks. They also set the ground rules that aligned the project to Banner’s values: cost-cutting would be done by empowered, cross-functional teams, whose recommendations would be respected and accepted whenever possible; changes that could negatively affect care delivery or patient experience would be unacceptable; and a soft landing would be provided for any employee whose job was eliminated.
With these rules in place, 8 cross-functional teams—each composed of middle managers, a consultant guide, and a sponsor from the leadership team—were formed. During an intensive 8-week pilot, each team was trained and then it analyzed the cost structure of one function and recommended cost reduction tactics. The pilot culminated in a day-long meeting of the senior leadership in which 123 recommendations were reviewed and 116—valued at $104 to $133 million annually or 18 to 24 percent of Banner’s G&A expense—were approved. Among the approved recommendations were opportunities to save nearly $4 million in HR administrative cost by deploying more self-service technology supported by a shared services organization, nearly $8 million from insourcing second physician reviews of inpatient charts, and up to $3.5 million by creating an internal facility for drug compounding and packaging. By the end of 2012, the first year of implementation, Banner captured $31 million in G&A savings.
Capitalize on success
Banner’s leaders used its G&A success to extend the optimization program to its clinical operations, starting with Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, the system’s flagship teaching hospital in Phoenix. It was also experiencing significant challenges associated with delivering tertiary and quaternary care, its teaching mission, high staff, test, and equipment expenses, all of which contributed to a 10 percent decline in net patient revenue per discharge.
As with the G&A project, a steering committee composed of the facility’s senior leaders was formed. It applied the same ground rules and again cross-functional teams were created. In addition, Banner made a special effort to engage the hospital’s physicians—by including them on the teams and soliciting their ideas through forums. At Banner Good Samaritan, as at any hospital, physicians are key leaders and influencers. Their in-depth knowledge of clinical functions and operations, their ability to drive revenue generation, and the direct effect they have on patient care and quality make it essential that they support and participate in cost reduction efforts.
When the physicians at Banner Good Samaritan began to see how the optimization teams were authorized and encouraged to identify inefficiencies and enhance care delivery and the patient experience, they freely gave their time and worked extra hours with the teams. The results: the optimization program at Banner Good Samaritan identified ways to reduce its cost structure by 15% and in the next 12 months realized $15 million in direct savings.
Banner’s senior leaders expanded on this second success by immediately starting a third project at the Banner North Colorado Medical Center, a community hospital. The optimization teams at Banner North Colorado followed the same process used at Banner Good Samaritan and identified savings opportunities valued at 17 percent of its labor and non-labor cost base and captured more than $13 million in annualized savings in the first year.
Shape the culture
With the potential for step-wise cost reduction established, as well as an approach in which hundreds of team members could be enlisted to generate savings in a variety of settings, Banner’s leaders moved to extend the cost cutting effort across the system. Leadership created an optimization office reporting to the CFO to facilitate cost reduction projects, train new team members, and document and disseminate results across the system. System-level teams were enlisted to share best practices, and in early 2013, Banner launched a system-wide optimization program encompassing all of its 23 acute-care hospitals and healthcare facilities. In scaling the effort, the system began to reshape its culture—creating a mindset of cost consciousness throughout the workforce.
Banner’s approach applies time-honored business cost-cutting methods to clinical settings. More importantly, it tapped into the high levels of integrity, empathy, and engagement among healthcare providers. The result is akin to turning on a light bulb—it releases the energy needed to truly transform the quality and cost of care.
Follow the Leading Health Care Innovation insight center on Twitter @HBRhealth. E-mail us at healtheditors@hbr.org, and sign up to receive updates here.
Leading Health Care Innovation
From the Editors of Harvard Business Review and the New England Journal of Medicine
Britain’s Patient-Safety Crisis Holds Lessons for All
An Obstacle to Patient-Centered Care: Poor Supply Systems
India’s Secret to Low-Cost Health Care
Intelligent Redesign of Health Care
Dennis Dahlen is the chief financial officer of Banner Health and primary sponsor of the system’s cost optimization program.
Curt Bailey is a partner at Booz & Company and leader of his firm’s support of the Banner cost optimization program.
This article is about COLLABORATION
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There will never be another generation like the Ex Generation
by Tom Smith
When Luke, my 8-year-old grandson, called, I expected an inning-by-inning report of his Little League baseball game. Not this time. This time, he asked me why I left the priesthood.
I had told him last fall when he made his first reconciliation that I was once a priest. It seemed a natural thing to say since many priests were there to hear confessions. Luke went on to make his first Communion this spring and was studying holy orders and matrimony when he phoned.
“So, Paw-Paw, why did you become a priest and then not want to be a priest anymore?”
“Well,” I said in too many words, “I wanted to be a priest to help people. That’s the way people in our family and neighborhood did it in those days. So I went to school a long time and became one. I’m glad I did. But after seven years I didn’t think being a priest was the best way for me to do all that and be happy anymore, so I asked the pope if I could leave and the pope said yes. And I met Na-Maw and we fell in love and I was happy and your Daddy was born and …”
“That’s OK, Paw-Paw! Thanks. I gotta go.”
That very morning, I had gone to the funeral of a friend who was also an ex-priest and there were at least seven more ex-priests, most of them with their ex-nun wives, grieving his death and honoring his life. Two weeks earlier, Fran and I had driven to Knoxville, Tenn., for the funeral Mass of her sister Betty, who like her was an ex-nun.
Now don’t get mad at me — I am using the term “ex” for convenience. I know there are many ways priests and nuns who are no longer recognized as formal church ministers choose to identify themselves. Married priests. Inactive priests. Former nuns. It’s all good.
No one knows the number of exes in this country, but there will never be another generation of so many of us. There will be no nephew or niece in 50 years who will ask the question Luke asked. And soon no one will ever know the enormous contribution the Ex Generation has made to the church and to humanity.
After the Knoxville funeral, about 15 of us gathered on a colleague’s deck to honor Betty’s remarkable life and legacy. The group included three ex-nuns and two former priests.
We were a microcosm of the thousands of others who had left official clerical or religious ministry. Betty herself was the legendary founder and dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee. Among the five of us, there were teachers, counselors, spiritual directors, authors, and founders of a nonprofit related to mental illness and suicide.
Tom, Betty’s brother, got up from a wicker chair and raised a toast: “To Betty, who she was and what she did for others and for the legacy she leaves behind!”
The spirit of that toast wafted on the wind through the hills of Tennessee, and continued to breeze through homes, churches, schools, workplaces and civic organizations throughout the country in honor of the exes everywhere, for their character, seeking, service and commitment to spiritual living. If you listen closely, you may hear it in your heart as well.
We exes have our unique stories and spiritual journeys, but we share a similar history that quickly connects us. We all love and revere our classmates who persevered and did wonders of unheralded good. We all have a common lived experience in seminaries, novitiates, rectories and convents.
The strict rules, the monastic lifestyle, the dramatic clashes over the changes in the church in the 1960s and ’70s, living with people who were models of religious life and living with those who were troubled, the prayer life that would someday open our eyes to see, the Great Silence that taught us how to hear, the remarkable opportunity for women in those days to get a professional education, and the friends — the friends — made and kept during those times are points of contact that invite unforgettable soul-sharing.
Remember the old country song that insists you can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy? It so fits the Ex Generation, boys and girls alike.
Sure, there were unreasonable restrictions, crazy conflicts, and multiple good reasons to leave the priesthood or the convent but those who experienced it could not un-experience it or want to. The remnants of that life remain embedded in our souls.
We are who we are because we were who we were. Somewhere along my journey, I learned to look at the past but not stare. It isn’t the past that wounds us or elates us, it is how we interpret and perceive that past.
Our challenge is to forgive the hurts, acknowledge the disappointments, accept the decisions, face the regrets, confess our sins, and absorb the ongoing transformation inherent in all our life experiences.
We also highlight the bright times, relish the loves, nurture the aha moments, remember the presence of God, recall the peace-filled days and rejoice in all the sunrises that gather the best of the past in a single moment and ushers in a hopeful tomorrow. We cannot find God outside our personal story because God lives within it.
For me, and thousands of others, that experience includes priesthood and ex-priesthood. I ultimately discovered that my vocation was to lay ministry, not priesthood, and I still live that calling today. Priesthood prepared me for lay ministry both in the church and in the world.
I hope that when Luke calls again, it’s not always about baseball.
[Tom Smith is the author of eight books, most recently Church Chat: Snapshots of a Changing Catholic Church. All Soul Seeing columns can be found at NCRonline.org/blogs/soul-seeing.]
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The Association of Arab Universities (AAU) agreed in July ‘ 1992 to establish the ACGSSR during its 25th Board meeting at Alexandria University, Egypt, where the management guidelines were also approved. Cairo University was selected to be the host university.
The Board of Directors is chaired by the president of Cairo University – The host University. The Board consists of :
The Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities, or his representative.
Five members of Arab universities presidents.
The Deputy Secretary General of the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Sciences.
The Representative of the Arab Economic and Social Development Fund.
The Director of the ACGSSR.
The board has the right to invite the representatives of the Arab, Islamic, and national organizations concerned to attend its meetings as observers.
In the 26th meeting, April ‘1993, held at the University of Jordan; five universities were selected to represent Arab Universities in the board of directors in its first round:
Emam Mohammed Bin Saud Islamic University (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
Qar younis University (Libya).
Yarmouk University (Iraq).
Kuwait University (Kuwait).
Ain Shams University (Egypt).
During the 30th meeting, held 4-6 March 1997 at Sanaa University – Yemen, five new member universities were elected to the board of directors:
University of Tishreen (Syria).
University of Khartoum (Sudan).
Sultan Qabous University (Oman).
University of Sanna (Yemen).
Al-Najaah National University (Palestine).
In its 31st session, held 10-12 March 98 at Suez Canal University, the Association of Arab Universities increased the number of member universities to 7. The Currently, The board consists of the following universities:
University of Sanaa (Yemen).
University of Bahrain (Bahrain).
University of Lebanon (Lebanon).
In its 33rd session, held in 17-19 April 2000 at the Lebanon University, the A.A.U. approved the following members of the ACGSSR board:
President of the Cairo University (Egypt).
Secretary General of the AAU
President of the Lebanon University (Lebanon).
President of the Bahrain University (Bahrain).
President of the Islamic University of Al Madinah al Monawara (Saudi Arabia).
President of the University of Science, Technology and Medicine (Tunisia).
President of the Al Basra University (Iraq).
President of the AL Al BEIT University (Jordan).
President of the SABHA University (Libya).
Director of ACGSSR.
In its 36th Session, held in May 3, 2003 at Qatar University, the A.A.U. approved the following members of the ACGSSR board:
President of the Al-Sudan University For Science & Technology.
President of the Birute University (Lebanon).
President of the Islamic University, Ghaza (Palestine).
President of the Tunisian University (Tunisia).
President of the Al Basra University (Iraq)
President of the AL Hussien Ben Talal University (Jordan)
President of the Al kuwait University (Kuwait).
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Van Dijk is brilliant but England can test him - Maguire
Omnisport 29 May 2019
England's attackers are more than capable of getting the better of Virgil van Dijk in the Nations League Finals, says Harry Maguire.
Harry Maguire has described Virgil van Dijk as "brilliant" but believes England can cause the Netherlands defender problems in next week's Nations League Finals clash.
Gareth Southgate's side take on the Dutch in their semi-final when the inaugural edition of UEFA's latest international tournament concludes in Portugal.
Van Dijk has enjoyed a superb season at the heart of Liverpool's defence, helping them to a second-place finish in the Premier League and a Champions League final against Tottenham on Saturday.
The 27-year-old has also collected personal accolades as he was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year and Premier League Player of the Year.
Maguire says there is plenty to admire about Van Dijk but is confident the likes of Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling will provide him with a stern test on June 6 in Guimaraes.
"He's a top player," said the Leicester City man, who is also widely considered to be one of the finest defensive operators in the Premier League. "You've seen in the Premier League; he won the best player and he thoroughly deserved that.
"He is a brilliant defender and I'm sure people are learning from him and so they should. I'm sure he's learning from other centre-backs in the game.
"We're focused on ourselves more than the opposition. We have some top-quality players as well.
"We've got numerous players who are talented and players who are more than capable of causing them a lot of problems.
"It's special to go up against the best teams and the best players and that's what we're doing.
"It gives you great confidence when you see your names up there with players of that stature but, at the moment, I'm fully focused on working for the team."
The Nations League was initially criticised by Premier League managers such as Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp but, according to Maguire, the tournament has been a welcome antidote to the general drudgery of international friendlies.
"I think it's been a real success," he added, having helped England through a group featuring their World Cup conquerors Croatia and Spain. "You either play in the Nations League or play friendlies, so I know which one all the boys would prefer.
"People argue that it's not competitive football but you see the way people react when they win the games and the celebrations.
"It's been really competitive to play in. I feel like it's been a real success in terms of playing against top opposition."
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4.5 million Britons watch Cricket World Cup final on Channel 4
Watch: Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid praised after exiting celebrations as champagne pops
Manchester United move 'near impossible' for Coutinho
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Djokovic Looks Like He Could Catch Federer, Nadal in Grand Slams
French Police Arrest Hundreds Due to Clashes After Algeria Reach Africa Cup of Nations Final
WWE Smackdown Live results and highlights: July 16, 2019
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Markets Australia Stocks Technology Software
9 SPOKES INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
9SP
Follow 9SP Following 9SP Unfollow 9SP
9SP Stock Chart
Industry: Software
Employees: 76
9 Spokes International Limited is a holding company engaged in cloud services brokerage services. The Company is involved in the development of an online, software-as-a-service (SaaS) application platform and store allowing a business to access a range of online services made available on SaaS basis by third-party vendors. The 9 Spokes platform focuses on small medium enterprises and incorporates a dashboard, which takes data from third-party services and among other things, provides a graphical snapshot of the status of that business. Each business may allow access to the 9 Spokes platform for its employees and representatives, and in addition may grant access to third-party technical and business specialists, such as accountants. It also develops and licenses bespoke versions of the platform for third-party channels, which provides the features of the platform and store to channel customers. It makes the 9 Spokes platform directly available to customers through 9 Spokes Direct.
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Julio César Franco Robles (born August 23, 1958),[note 1] is a Dominican former professional baseball player and coach, who is a hitting coach for the farm team of the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). He spent most of his playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB), entering the major leagues in 1982 and last appearing in 2007 (at which time, he was the oldest active big league player). During that stretch, Franco also spent two seasons playing in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and one season playing in the KBO.
While Franco was an All-Star and posted above-average hitting statistics throughout his career, he is best known for being the oldest regular position player in MLB history. Franco was the all-time hits leader among Dominican-born players until surpassed in 2011 by Vladimir Guerrero. He made his MLB debut as a shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies. During his long career, Franco saw significant time as a shortstop, second baseman, first baseman, and designated hitter.
Franco with the New York Mets
Infielder / Designated hitter
Born: August 23, 1958 (age 60)
Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic
Batted: Right Threw: Right
April 23, 1982, for the Philadelphia Phillies
Last MLB appearance
September 17, 2007, for the Atlanta Braves
Philadelphia Phillies (1982)
Cleveland Indians (1983–1988)
Texas Rangers (1989–1993)
Chicago White Sox (1994)
Chiba Lotte Marines (1995)
Milwaukee Brewers (1997)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1999)
Samsung Lions (2000)
Atlanta Braves (2001–2005)
New York Mets (2006–2007)
Atlanta Braves (2007)
3× All-Star (1989–1991)
5× Silver Slugger Award (1988–1991, 1994)
AL batting champion (1991)
Franco was born in Hato Mayor in the Dominican Republic. As a child, he lived in Consuelo, San Pedro de Macorís, a poor municipality 50 miles east of Santo Domingo.[1] He attended Divine Providence School in Consuelo.[2]
Minor league career
Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies organization on April 23, 1978, as an amateur free agent, Franco reported to the Rookie-level Butte Copper Kings. In each of five minor league seasons, he hit for a batting average of at least .300. Franco was promoted through the Philadelphia minor league system each year, reaching the Class AAA Oklahoma City 89ers in 1982 and batting .300 and hitting 21 home runs in 120 games.[3]
Early MLB career
Franco debuted in the major leagues in 1982, playing 16 games for the Phillies. That December, Franco was part of a five-for-one trade between the Phillies and the Cleveland Indians. The Phillies received highly regarded prospect Von Hayes in exchange for Manny Trillo, George Vukovich, Jay Baller, Jerry Willard, and Franco.[2]
In June 1986, Franco received a two-game suspension from the Indians after he arrived at the ballpark but then left before the game started. Indians manager Pat Corrales said that Franco left due to a personal problem, but he said that Franco had left without permission and that he had already been given a warning after missing a game in 1985.[4]
Franco hit over .300 in every season from 1986 to 1989. He also averaged over 20 stolen bases per season from 1983 through 1991. When he switched from shortstop to second base in 1988, he won four straight Silver Slugger Awards. Franco batted with a long whip-like swing with the heaviest bat allowed. Because of his batting style, Franco twice led the American League in grounding into double plays and was in the top-ten in that category seven times in the 1980s. He is seventh on the all-time list in ground-ball double plays and has just over 300.[5]
In December 1988, during baseball's Winter Meetings, Franco was traded from Cleveland to the Texas Rangers, who were in need of an everyday second baseman. The Rangers gave up first baseman Pete O'Brien, and two prospects, Oddibe McDowell and Jerry Browne. The Rangers had acquired first baseman Rafael Palmeiro the day before, and The New York Times said that the Rangers' lineup might allow Franco to bat fifth, a batting order slot that could increase his number of runs batted in (RBI).[6]
With Texas, Franco was named to all three of his All-Star teams: in 1989, 1990 and 1991, and he won the Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVP Award in 1990. In the 1990 All-Star game, Franco came to bat in the 7th inning against Rob Dibble of the Cincinnati Reds. Franco drove a 101 mph fastball to the right-center field fence for a double, scoring the only runs of the game.
In 1991, Franco had his only 200-hit season and won the American League batting title. His .341 average was nine points higher than that of future Baseball Hall of Fame member Wade Boggs. A 1992 knee injury limited him to 35 games and ended Franco's time as a middle infielder. Franco later said that the injury helped him to realize the importance of taking care of his physical condition.[7] He spent 1993 as a designated hitter before opting to become a free agent and signing with the Chicago White Sox.
Strike and baseball abroad
In 1994, Franco had already hit 20 home runs for the only time in his career and was on pace to reach 100 runs batted in for the only time in his career when the remainder of the season was canceled by the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. On December 28, 1994, Franco signed to play in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines in the Pacific League. Chiba Lotte had the best season in its history in 1995, and Franco won the Japanese equivalent of the Gold Glove Award as a first baseman.
After the 1995 season in Japan, Franco signed with the Cleveland Indians, where he was a fan favorite. In 1996, he batted .322 with 76 RBIs even in an injury-shortened season, and played in his first postseason. Early in the 1997 season, Franco hit a hard line drive back to the pitcher's mound which struck Detroit Tigers pitcher Willie Blair; the pitcher missed four weeks of the season with a broken jaw.[8] In August 1997, the Indians released Franco. He quickly signed with the Milwaukee Brewers.
In 1998, Franco was back in Japan playing for Chiba Lotte. The following year, he returned to North America, in the Mexican League with a .423 average in 93 games (and also a strikeout in his only MLB at bat with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays). In 2000, Franco was back in Asia but, this time, in South Korea to play for the Samsung Lions. He returned again to the Mexican League in 2001.
Return to the majors
Franco with the Atlanta Braves in 2002
In September 2001, Franco was a 43-year-old who had just one major league at bat in the previous three seasons. Despite his lengthy absence, the Atlanta Braves, after seeing his success in the Mexican League, purchased his contract from the Angelopolis (Mexico City) Tigers. Franco played well defensively as a first baseman and was a good hitter against left-handed pitchers. The Braves re-signed him after that season and each of the next three.
Franco was talking in the weight room in August 2003 with Jason Marquis, when he leaned on a stand and an 80-pound weight rolled over his finger, breaking it. "When the weight started to roll", Franco said, "I said, 'Uh-oh.'"[9]
In 2004, Franco passed Cap Anson as the oldest regularly playing position player in MLB history. (A few regularly playing pitchers, including knuckleballers Phil Niekro and Hoyt Wilhelm, were older than Franco, and a few non-pitchers, like Minnie Miñoso and Jim O'Rourke, appeared as publicity stunts at old ages but did not play regularly.)
On December 8, 2005, at age 47, Franco signed a two-year contract with the Mets.
Franco had been the oldest player in the major leagues from 2004 to 2007, and was the last active player who was born in the 1950s. On April 20, 2006, pinch-hitting with one out in the eighth inning against the San Diego Padres, Franco hit a go-ahead two-run home run, becoming the oldest player in Major League history to hit a home run. Franco hit a three-run homer on September 30, 2006, in Washington to extend his own record. It was one of three hits in the game for Franco, who fell a triple short of hitting for the cycle. Franco yet again bested himself on May 4, 2007 when he homered into the swimming pool at Chase Field against Arizona Diamondbacks lefty Randy Johnson – a game in which he also stole a base.
Franco was also the oldest player ever to hit a grand slam, a pinch-hit home run, two home runs in one game, and to steal two bases in a game. On April 26, 2006, Franco became the second-oldest man in MLB history to steal a base, behind only Arlie Latham, who accomplished the feat in a token appearance at age 49 with the New York Giants in 1909. On July 29, 2006, against the Atlanta Braves, Franco became the oldest player ever to pinch run, when he came in for Carlos Delgado after Delgado was hit by pitch. On September 19, 2006, a day after the Mets clinched the division title, Franco started at third base in a game against the Florida Marlins. This was Franco's first start at the position since his rookie year, marking 24 years between starts at the position.[10]
Franco struggled with the Mets in 2007, achieving just a .200 batting average (in only 50 at-bats in half a season). Franco grew unhappy with insufficient playing time before being designated for assignment on July 12.[11] He subsequently re-signed with the Atlanta Braves on July 18 and was placed on the team's active roster. In his first game since re-signing with the Braves, he went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs and received 2 standing ovations in a Braves 10–1 rout of the Cardinals. On August 1, just 13 days after the Braves signed him, the Braves designated Franco for assignment after the team acquired Mark Teixeira from the Texas Rangers. He accepted a minor league assignment on August 8 and was called back up as promised on September 1.
He declared free agency on October 29, 2007. Franco began the 2008 season – his 31st in professional baseball – as a first baseman for the Tigres de Quintana Roo (Cancún) in the Mexican League.[12]
After the Mexican League
On May 2, 2008, Franco officially announced his retirement from baseball to his Mexican League team, the Quintana Roo Tigers. An official announcement was released the next day. Franco said that retiring was the hardest decision he had ever made, but he pointed to his decreasing production as a player and said that he felt like it was time to retire.[13]
Franco was hired in March 2009 as the manager of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Mets.[14] In Franco's only season managing the team, they posted a record of 22 wins and 34 losses.[3] In 2010–2011, Franco managed a winter league team, the Caribes de Anzoátegui, in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. He led the team to its first league championship in 20 years. He returned to the team the following season, but he was fired after the team started with a 28-28 win-loss record.[15] Soon thereafter, Franco was hired as the manager of the Pericos de Puebla for the 2012 Mexican League season.[16] In two seasons with Puebla, he led the team to 110 wins and 104 losses.[3]
Franco appeared on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in 2013. Paul White of USA Today wrote that while Franco was a consistent player over a long career, he was rarely dominant. White wrote that Franco's statistics were inferior to other Baseball Hall of Fame second basemen.[17] Franco received six Hall of Fame votes (1.1% of the total ballots), an insufficient total to appear on the next year's ballot.[18]
Return to baseball
On May 16, 2014, the Fort Worth Cats of United League Baseball announced that Franco had been signed for the 2014 season.[19] He went 6 for 27 in 7 games.[20]
On February 8, 2015, Ishikawa Million Stars of the professional Japanese Independent baseball league Baseball Challenge League announced that Franco had been signed as a player-manager for the 2015 season.[20][21] Franco said that he did not think he would appear often as a player, but 14 games into the season, Franco had played in ten games owing to an injury to a key player.[22]
Awards and highlights
3-time All-Star (1989–91)
MVP All-Star Game (1990)
Led American League in batting average (.341, 1991)
Led AL in singles (156, 1991)
2nd in the AL Rookie of the Year selection (1983, behind Ron Kittle)
Led AL in at-bats (658, 1984)
Top 10 MVP selection (8th, AL, 1994)
Carolina League MVP (1980)
Twice hit over .400 in the Mexican League (.423, 1999; .437, 2000)
Oldest player to hit a Grand Slam (47, 2005, breaking his own record set in 2004 at 45)
Oldest regularly playing non-pitcher player in MLB history (48)
Second-oldest player to appear in MLB postseason play (48, during the 2006 postseason)
Oldest player in Major League history to hit a home run (48)
Second-oldest player to steal a base (48, during the 2007 season)
Led all Dominican players in MLB history in seasons, games, at-bats, hits, and bases on balls
4,000 Professional Hit Club: Has compiled over 4,200 hits in his 26-year professional career, making him one of only seven known players with at least 4,000 professional hits (the others being Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Jigger Statz, Stan Musial, Derek Jeter, and Ichiro Suzuki.[23] Jake Beckley and Sam Crawford may also have hit 4,000, but data for some of their minor league seasons is missing.[24]):
Major League Baseball: 2586 (through end of 2007 season)
Minor Leagues: 618
Mexican League: 316
Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball: 286
Dominican Winter League: 267
South Korea's Korea Baseball Organization: 156
United Baseball League: 6
As of 2006, Julio Franco was the only active player to face a pitcher who pitched against Hall of Famer Ted Williams, who retired in 1960. The pitcher is Jim Kaat, who played in the majors from 1959 to 1983. Williams had batted against Kaat the final day of the 1959 season, Kaat's rookie year. Kaat walked Franco in the latter's rookie season in 1982.[25]
Franco was the last MLB player eligible to wear a batting helmet with no ear flaps. He elected to wear a helmet with an ear flap throughout his career. He is the only MLB player known to have hit a home run with his grandson in attendance.[26]
Franco was the sixth batter that Roger Clemens ever faced, and when the two faced each other on June 15, 2007, they became the oldest batter-pitcher pair in the major leagues since October 1, 1933.[27]
If he was really born before 1958, then Franco may hold MLB records for oldest to steal a base and oldest to appear in the postseason.[28]
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
List of Major League Baseball batting champions
^ Franco's birth date is in question. Many of his early bios and cards have his birthday listed in 1954, and on the roster of the Quintana Roo Tigres, his birthday is listed in 1961.
^ McCarthy, Colman (June 28, 2003). "Through baseball, nun really connects". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ a b "Julio Franco Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ a b c "Julio Franco Minor & Mexican Leagues Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ Dias, Roberto. "UPI Archives: The Cleveland Indians Monday suspended shortstop Julio Franco for..." United Press International. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
^ "Career Leaders for Grounded into Double Plays". baseball-reference.com. June 19, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
^ Chass, Murray (December 7, 1988). "Rangers obtain Franco from Indians in four-player trade". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
^ Harvey, Coley M. (August 23, 2005). "Franco ages like fine wine". MLB.com. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
^ Kurkjian, Tim (September 18, 2012). "Getting hit by a batted ball". ESPN. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
^ "Makeshift Mets clip Marlins behind Glavine's strong start". ESPN.com. September 19, 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
^ Noble, Marty (2007-07-12). "Mets designate Franco for assignment". MLB.com.
^ Nearing 50, Franco still going strong in Mexican League. March 30, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ "Baseball: Julio Franco, 49, ends 23-year career". The Honolulu Advertiser. May 3, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ "Mets bringing back Julio Franco... as minor league manager". SILive.com. Associated Press. March 16, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
^ Fernandez, Jose Manuel (December 21, 2011). "Caribes despidió al manager Julio Franco". El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved January 26, 2016.
^ "Julio Franco dirigirá a Pericos de Puebla" (in Spanish). ESPN Deportes. January 12, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
^ White, Paul (December 28, 2012). "Hall candidate: Ageless Julio Franco has a unique resume". USA Today. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
^ "2013 Hall of Fame Voting". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ a b Hongo, Jun. Julio Franco, 56 years old, joins a Japan team as player-manager. Wall Street Journal. February 9, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ Fehr, Israel. Julio Franco is still playing baseball at age 56. Yahoo! Sports. February 9, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ "Julio Franco a player-manager in Japan: "I don't see myself out of baseball"". USA Today. May 10, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
^ http://baseballmusings.com/?p=95963
^ ESPN.com: Page 2 : Keep the owners out of the Hall
^ Mooney, Michael, J. "At 57, Julio Franco can't quit playing baseball". ESPN. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
^ MLB – New York Mets/New York Yankees Recap Friday June 15, 2007 – Yahoo! Sports
^ "Tigres de Quintana Roo". Retrieved 2008-04-20.
Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
1989 Texas Rangers season
The Texas Rangers 1989 season involved the Rangers finishing fourth in the American League West with a record of 83 wins and 79 losses.
1990 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 1990 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 61st playing of the midsummer classic between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 10, 1990, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the home of the Chicago Cubs of the National League. The game resulted in the American League defeating the National League 2-0. The game is remembered for a rain delay in the 7th inning that resulted in CBS airing Rescue 911 during the delay. This is also the first game – and so far the only one – to feature two players bearing the same name: Greg Olson. One was a pitcher, represented the AL squad and Baltimore Orioles and featured three G's in the first name and the other was a catcher, represented the NL squad and Atlanta Braves and featured only two G's in the first name. Outfielder Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics and First Baseman Will Clark of the San Francisco Giants were the leaders of their leagues in the fan votes. They both batted third in the line up for their squads.
The pregame ceremonies celebrated the 85th anniversary of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station which, as with previous All-Star Games held in Chicago, provided the colors presentation. After Wayne Messmer sang O Canada, recording artist (and native Chicagoan) Richard Marx sang The Star-Spangled Banner. The last All-Star Game previously held at Wrigley Field was represented by Ernie Banks who threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
The Texas Rangers 1990 season involved the Rangers finishing 3rd in the American League west with a record of 83 wins and 79 losses.
The 1991 Texas Rangers season involved the Rangers finishing third in the American League West with a record of 85 wins and 77 losses.
1994 Chicago White Sox season
The 1994 Chicago White Sox season was the White Sox's 94th season in the major leagues, and their 95th season overall. They led the American League Central, 1 game ahead of the 2nd place Cleveland Indians with a record of 67-46, when the season was cut short by the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike.
1997 Milwaukee Brewers season
The 1997 Milwaukee Brewers season involved the Brewers finishing third in the American League Central, eight games behind the Cleveland Indians, with a record of 78 wins and 83 losses. 1997 was the Brewers' final season in the American League, before moving to the National League for the following season.
1999 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season
The 1999 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season was their second since the franchise was created. They finished last in the AL East division with a record of 69 wins and 93 losses. Their manager was Larry Rothschild, who entered his 2nd year with the club.
2001 Atlanta Braves season
The 2001 Atlanta Braves season marked the franchise's 36th season in Atlanta and 131st overall. The Braves won their tenth consecutive division title. The season saw the team finish first in the NL East Division with an 88-74 record – the worst among playoff teams in 2001, and also the worst record for the Braves since 1990 (meaning the worst record through their run of 14 consecutive division titles starting in 1991. Not counting the strike-shortened 1994 season). Atlanta finished the season with just a 2 game division lead over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Braves swept the favored Houston Astros in the NLDS before losing to the eventual World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS 4-1, in which Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling notably dominated Atlanta's offense.
The 2002 Atlanta Braves season marked the franchise's 37th season in Atlanta and 132nd overall. The Braves won their 11th consecutive division title, finishing 19 games ahead of the second-place Montreal Expos. The Braves lost the 2002 Divisional Series to the eventual NL Champion San Francisco Giants, 3 games to 2.
2002 marked the final year that pitchers Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz played on the same team ending the reign of what has been considered by many the greatest pitching trio of all-time. All three would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame a decade later. Smoltz set the Braves' single season record for saves (55). Chipper Jones moved to the outfield in left field to allow for Vinny Castilla to be signed and added to the lineup at third base. Julio Franco became a regular player in the second stint of his Major League career and Gary Sheffield was acquired to the Braves in 2002, playing at right field.
The 2004 Atlanta Braves season marked the franchise's 39th season in Atlanta and 134th overall. The Braves won their 13th consecutive division title under Manager of the Year Bobby Cox, finishing 10 games ahead of the second-place Philadelphia Phillies. The Braves lost the 2004 Divisional Series to the Houston Astros, 3 games to 2.
J. D. Drew replaced Gary Sheffield (lost to the Yankees in free agency) in the outfield, free agent John Thomson joined the rotation, and rookies Adam LaRoche and Charles Thomas saw significant playing time on a younger 2004 Braves team.
2006 New York Mets season
The New York Mets' 2006 season was the 45th regular season for the Mets. They went 97-65 and won the NL East, a feat the team would not repeat until 2015. They were managed by Willie Randolph. They played home games at Shea Stadium. They used the marketing slogan of "The Team. The Time. The Mets." throughout the season.
George Vukovich
George Stephen Vukovich (June 24, 1956) is a former right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Indians in all or part of six seasons from 1980–1985. Listed at 6' 0" (1.83 m), 198 lb. (90 k), Vukovich batted left handed and threw right handed. He was born in Chicago.
Vukovich attended college at Southern Illinois University, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. The Phillies selected him in the fourth round of the 1977 MLB draft out of SIU.
Vukovich made his major league debut with the Phillies in 1980, appearing as a pinch hitter in a game against the Montreal Expos. He received a World Series ring in his rookie season, even though he did not play in the Series.
In 1981, Vukovich hit a game-winning home run against the Montreal Expos in Game 4 of the National League Division Series. It remains the only walk-off home run in Phillies playoff history.
In December 1982, Vukovich was sent along with Jay Baller, Julio Franco, Manny Trillo and Jerry Willard to the Indians in the same transaction that brought Von Hayes to Philadelphia. Afterwards, he played two seasons in Japan for the Seibu Lions from 1986 to 1987.
In between, Vukovich played winter ball with the Águilas del Zulia of the Venezuelan League during three seasons spanning 1979–1982. He later made a brief appearance for the Daytona Beach Explorers of the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1991.
Ishikawa Million Stars
The Ishikawa Million Stars (石川ミリオンスターズ, Ishikawa Mirion Sutāzu) are a semi-professional baseball team in the Baseball Challenge League of Japan. The team was established in 2007. Their home is Ishikawa Prefecture. Former Major League Baseball star Julio Franco was the team's player-manager. The team is also notable for having female knuckleball pitcher Eri Yoshida on their roster.
Julio Franco (disambiguation)
Julio Franco is a former Major League Baseball player from the Dominican Republic
Julio Franco may also refer to:
Julio César Franco, Paraguayan politician
Julio Franco Arango, Colombian Roman Catholic bishop
Julio Franco Arango
Julio Franco Arango (3 March 1914 − 16 September 1980) was a Colombian Roman Catholic bishop.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1938, Arango was named bishop in June 1964. In August 1964, he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duitama–Sogamoso, Colombia and died in 1980 while still in office.
List of Silver Slugger Award winners at second base
The Silver Slugger Award is awarded annually to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League (AL) and the National League (NL), as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball (MLB). These voters consider several offensive categories in selecting the winners, including batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage, in addition to "coaches' and managers' general impressions of a player's overall offensive value". Managers and coaches are not permitted to vote for players on their own team. The Silver Slugger was first awarded in 1980 and is given by Hillerich & Bradsby, the manufacturer of Louisville Slugger bats. The award is a bat-shaped trophy, 3 feet (91 cm) tall, engraved with the names of each of the winners from the league and plated with sterling silver.Among second basemen, Ryne Sandberg, who played 15 seasons with the Chicago Cubs in his 16-year career, owns the most Silver Sluggers with seven wins, including five consecutive from 1988 to 1992. Three other National League players have won the award four times. Jeff Kent (2000–2002, 2005) won three consecutive awards with the San Francisco Giants, before adding a fourth with the Los Angeles Dodgers; Craig Biggio, who played his entire career with the Houston Astros, won the award four times as a second baseman (1994–1995, 1997–1998) after winning another as a catcher. Chase Utley followed Kent's last win by capturing four consecutive awards (2006–2009).In the American League, José Altuve and Robinson Canó have won five Silver Slugger awards. Altuve won five consecutive awards (2014–2018), all with the Astros, while Cano won all five of his Silver Slugger awards as a member of the New York Yankees, including four consecutive wins (2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013). Altuve and Cano's five Silver Slugger awards are second-most all-time for a second baseman and first among American League winners, ahead of four second basemen who are all four-time winners in the American League. Roberto Alomar won the award at the same position with three different teams (Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians). Julio Franco won four consecutive awards (1988–1991) with two different teams, and Lou Whitaker won four awards in five years (1983–1985, 1987) with the Detroit Tigers.Altuve holds the record for the highest batting average in a second baseman's Silver Slugger-winning season with the .346 mark he set in 2017. In the National League, Daniel Murphy's .347 batting average in 2016 ranks first. Willie Randolph, who won the inaugural award in the 1980 season, set a record for on-base percentage (.427) that has not yet been broken. Chuck Knoblauch is second behind Randolph in the American League with a .424 on-base percentage, a mark that was tied by Jeff Kent in 2000 to set the National League record. That year, Kent also set the record among second basemen for highest slugging percentage (.596) and the National League record for runs batted in (125). Bret Boone is the overall leader in runs batted in (141) and holds the American League record for slugging percentage (.578); both of these records were established in 2001. Sandberg hit 40 home runs in 1990, the most ever by a second baseman in a winning season, while Alfonso Soriano set the American League mark with 39 in 2002.
Silver Slugger Award
The Silver Slugger Award is awarded annually to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League and the National League, as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball. These voters consider several offensive categories in selecting the winners, including batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage, in addition to "coaches' and managers' general impressions of a player's overall offensive value". Managers and coaches are not permitted to vote for players on their own team. The Silver Slugger was first awarded in 1980 and is given by Hillerich & Bradsby, the manufacturer of Louisville Slugger bats. The award is a bat-shaped trophy, 3 feet (91 cm) tall, engraved with the names of each of the winners from the league and plated with sterling silver.The prize is presented to outfielders irrespective of their specific position. This means that it is possible for three left fielders, or any other combination of outfielders, to win the award in the same year, rather than one left fielder, one center fielder, and one right fielder. In addition, only National League pitchers receive a Silver Slugger Award; lineups in the American League include a designated hitter in place of the pitcher in the batting order, so the designated hitter receives the award instead.Home run record-holder Barry Bonds won twelve Silver Slugger Awards in his career as an outfielder, the most of any player. He also won the award in five consecutive seasons twice in his career: from 1990 to 1994, and again from 2000 to 2004. Retired former New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza and former New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez are tied for second, with ten wins each. Rodriguez' awards are split between two positions; he won seven Silver Sluggers as a shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers, and three with the Yankees as a third baseman. Wade Boggs leads third basemen with eight Silver Slugger Awards; Barry Larkin leads shortstops with nine. Other leaders include Ryne Sandberg (seven wins as a second baseman) and Mike Hampton (five wins as a pitcher). Todd Helton and Albert Pujols are tied for the most wins among first baseman with four, although Pujols has won two awards at other positions. David Ortiz has won seven awards at designated hitter position, the most at that position.
Von Hayes
Von Francis Hayes (born August 31, 1958), is an American former professional baseball player whose Major League Baseball (MLB) career spanned from 1981 to 1992 for the Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, and California Angels. Hayes was originally acquired by the Phillies in a "five-for-one" trade with the Indians, in exchange for Manny Trillo, George Vukovich, Jay Baller, Jerry Willard, and Julio Franco.
Jesse Orosco Oldest Player in the
American League batting champions
1901: Lajoie
1902: Disputed
1905: Flick
1906: Stone
1907: Cobb
1916: Speaker
1920: Sisler
1921: Heilmann
1924: Ruth
1926: Manush
1928: Goslin
1929: Fonseca
1932: Alexander
1933: Foxx
1934: Gehrig
1935: Myer
1936: Appling
1937: Gehringer
1939: DiMaggio
1941: T. Williams
1944: Boudreau
1945: Stirnweiss
1946: Vernon
1949: Kell
1950: Goodman
1951: Fain
1954: Ávila
1955: Kaline
1956: Mantle
1959: Kuenn
1960: Runnels
1961: Cash
1963: Yastrzemski
1964: Oliva
1966: Robinson
1969: Carew
1970: Johnson
1976: Brett
1979: Lynn
1981: Lansford
1983: Boggs
1984: Mattingly
1989: Puckett
1991: Franco
1992: Martínez
1993: Olerud
1994: O'Neill
1996: Rodriguez
1997: Thomas
1998: B. Williams
1999: Garciaparra
2001: Suzuki
2002: Ramirez
2003: Mueller
2005: Young
2006: Mauer
2010: Hamilton
2014: Altuve
2018: Betts
American League Second Baseman Silver Slugger Award
1980: Randolph
1981: Grich
1982: García
1983: Whitaker
1986: White
1992: Alomar
1993: Baerga
1995: Knoblauch
1998: Easley
2001: Boone
2002: Soriano
2006: Canó
2007: Polanco
2008: Pedroia
2009 Hill
American League Designated Hitter Silver Slugger Award
1980: Jackson
1981: Oliver
1982: McRae
1983: Baylor
1984: Thornton
1987: Molitor
1989: Baines
1990: Parker
1992: Winfield
1995: E. Martínez
1998: Canseco
1999: Palmeiro
2004: Ortiz
2008: Huff
2009: Lind
2010: Guerrero
2012: Butler
2014: V. Martínez
2015: Morales
2017: Cruz
2018: J. D. Martinez
Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVP Award
1962: Wagner
1963: Mays
1964: Callison
1965: Marichal
1966: B. Robinson
1969: McCovey
1971: F. Robinson
1972: Morgan
1973: Bonds
1974: Garvey
1975: Madlock & Matlack
1976: Foster
1977: Sutton
1980: Griffey Sr.
1981: Carter
1985: Hoyt
1986: Clemens
1987: Raines
1988: Steinbach
1991: Ripken Jr.
1992: Griffey Jr.
1994: McGriff
1995: Conine
1996: Piazza
1997: Alomar Jr.
2000: Jeter
2003: Anderson
2005: Tejada
2008: Drew
2010: McCann
2011: Fielder
2013: Rivera
2014: Trout
2016: Hosmer
2018: Bregman
2019: Bieber
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Newswire > How Private Equity Is Turning Public Prisons Into Big Profits
How Private Equity Is Turning Public Prisons Into Big Profits
Tags: apple commodities electric equity finance financial fund google management media money option revenue rights small social stock stocks tablet video web
Author: DATE POSTED:May 6, 2019
Authored by Tim Requarth via TheNation.com,
In recent years, corporations have privatized almost every part of the public prison system. Now, PE firms are swooping in, seeking lavish returns for investors...
When the Bellamy Creek correctional facility’s longtime kitchen officer decided to leave in 2014, David Angel requested the position. Angel, who was nearing retirement, had worked at prisons all over Michigan, including stints at three maximum-security facilities. “I wanted a permanent position for my last few years in the department. I had a lot of respect among the prisoner and officer staff, and I thought I could do the job and keep people safe,” he said. “Um… I was wrong.”
The Bellamy Creek kitchen is typical for a Michigan prison. Sixty incarcerated men staff it, doing everything from slicing potatoes with tethered knives to working the dish tank. Angel’s job was to provide security while six or seven outside employees oversaw the operations. The employees were new hires by Aramark, a food-service company recently contracted by the state to run its prison kitchens.
“It was a constant daily struggle,” Angel recalled. At first, it was the little things: Food was spilled but never cleaned up. Meals were served late, or the kitchen would run out of food and the staff would have to swap ingredients. “I saw peanut butter substituted for a hamburger patty more times than I care to count.”
Then came the day that he noticed spoiled bananas being unloaded from the supplier’s truck. He told the driver to take the bananas back but was refused. That day, he decided to wheel the bananas over to a dumpster. But trucks kept arriving with more bad food:
“I threw out 700 pounds of rotten potatoes once.” Nevertheless, the spoiled food made its way into the kitchen, or fresh food would become spoiled because of Aramark’s poor storage practices, Angel said. He grew concerned about the safety of the food. “That’s when I saw maggots under the big commercial mixer.” He alerted his supervisor.
Angel laid the blame squarely on Aramark, and he wasn’t alone. Michigan’s switch to a privatized prison-food system was supposed to save the state money—$16 million, or more than 20 percent of what Michigan had been paying to feed the 44,000 people held in its prisons. But in order to make the numbers work, Aramark’s three-year, $145 million contract required the company to slash costs to an average of $1.29 per meal. One of the ways large companies like Aramark can do this is by taking advantage of economies of scale to get better prices on ingredients; they can also reduce quantities and serve lower-quality, less nutritious food. Probably the most effective way is to slash the payroll. In Michigan, unionized corrections workers earned $15 to $25 an hour, but the Aramark employees who replaced them were paid as little as $11 an hour.
As the months passed, stories like Angel’s began cropping up at prisons around the state. At the G. Robert Cotton facility, a prisoner spotted maggots on a vegetable slicer. At a neighboring facility, 30 people fell ill with foodborne illness after fly larvae were found crawling around the food-service line. At a prison farther north, an Aramark employee was caught serving meatballs fished out of a trash can. The state fined Aramark $200,000 for unsanitary food preparation, substituting nutritionally inferior ingredients, and routinely shorting prisoners on calories. In 2014, protests erupted throughout the state.
In 2015, Michigan and Aramark terminated their contract, over a year early. But prisoners and guards had little reason to celebrate, because the state quietly replaced Aramark with another prison-food giant, Trinity Services Group. The problems continued under Trinity, and by 2016, a second round of protests had erupted. Most of these were peaceful, but one, in the Upper Peninsula facility of Kinross, led to what the state Department of Corrections acknowledged internally was Michigan’s first prison riot since 1981, though some officials deny this publicly. No one was seriously hurt, but it cost the state nearly $1 million in damage. “It was a powder keg,” Angel said. (Neither Trinity nor Aramark responded to requests for comment.)
“This [situation] has created an environment of theft, extortion, and robbery—all in the name of survival,” said Ramone Wilson, who is imprisoned at the Cotton facility. “If you’re on an empty stomach, then you’re desperate.”
A worker prepares a meal tray at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Michigan. (Detroit Free Press via ZUMA Wire / Ryan Garza)
These days, Michigan’s for-profit prison-food experiment has few cheerleaders. But it’s hardly an aberration; rather, it is just one of the most flagrant examples of private companies taking over core services in the United States’ publicly operated jails and prisons. Hadar Aviram, a legal scholar, calls this phenomenon “piecemeal privatization.” She warns that, while the problems with privately operated prisons have been well documented, “focusing on private-prison companies misses the fact that public correctional institutions are also, essentially, privatized.” Fully private prisons hold less than a tenth of the nearly 2.2 million people incarcerated in America. Privatized services, by contrast, affect nearly everyone in the system.
Because of this reach, the market for privatized services dwarfs that of privatized facilities. The private-prison industry’s annual revenues total $4 billion. By comparison, the correctional food-service industry alone provides the equivalent of $4 billion worth of food each year, according to Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm. Corrections departments spend at least $12.3 billion on health care, about half of which is provided by private companies. Telephone companies, which can charge up to $25 for a 15-minute call, rake in $1.3 billion annually. The range of for-profit services is extensive, from transport vans to halfway houses, from video visitations to e-mail, from ankle monitors to care packages. To many companies, the roughly $80 billion that the United States spends on corrections each year is not a national embarrassment but a gold mine.
Today, a handful of privately held companies dominate the correctional-services market, many with troubling records of price gouging some of the poorest families and violating the human rights of prisoners. But the problem doesn’t end there. These companies are often controlled by private-equity firms, which through financial alchemy transform the prison-industrial complex into lavish returns for pensions, endowments, and charitable foundations. And, as successive administrations have ramped up immigration enforcement, they’ve also squeezed money out of immigrant detention.
Bianca Tylek, the founder of Worth Rises, an advocacy group that tracks commercial interests in corrections, has catalogued 3,100 companies with a financial stake in mass incarceration. Her findings were released last April in a Corrections Accountability Project report and include not only the well-known, publicly traded private-prison contractors but also divisions within companies with household names like Amazon, General Electric, and Stanley Black & Decker. In addition, dozens of boutique firms are dipping deep into the corrections-industry well, from Wall Street Prison Consultants, which provides advice to white-collar offenders, to a lawn-mower service that sells only to prisons. “We’ve underestimated the size of the prison-industrial complex,” Tylek said. “Every estimate you’ve seen until now is a conservative one.”
Or as Alex Friedmann, associate director of the Human Rights Defense Center and managing editor at Prison Legal News, put it, “Pretty much every conceivable service in the public prison system has been privatized in one form or another, with the exception of putting people to death.”
Friedmann has good reason to know. He spent 10 years in Tennessee’s prisons and jails, and in 1990, when his sentence began, most services were still run in-house. But privatization was on the horizon. At the time, he was optimistic about company-run services; the state-run prison system didn’t exactly have a stellar reputation. “I was in favor of privatization,” he said. “The big draw was rumors of free cold soft drinks in the chow hall. If you’re locked up, the amenities of life are pretty few, so that’s remarkable.” Two years later, he was sent to Tennessee’s South Central Correctional Facility, run by the corporation CCA (now CoreCivic). Once he arrived, he said, “I figured it out. Soft drinks are just sugar syrup and water, and thus cheap,” allowing private companies, he speculated, to meet state caloric requirements at little cost. Over his six years at South Central, he realized the for-profit companies had somehow made prison life worse.
Friedmann, then 23 years old, intuited a wave of privatization on the horizon, so he reached out to Prison Legal News and asked if he could write about it. One of his first articles, published in 1997, tells the story of six incarcerated men “roasted alive” in a privately operated prison transport van in Florida. “Ironically,” he wrote, “there are more regulatory guidelines for shipping cattle or other commodities across state lines than for extraditing prisoners.”
Alex Friedmann has been warning of the dangers of prison privatization for more than 20 years. (AP / Mark Humphrey)
The next year, he started his own newsletter, Private Corrections Industry News Bulletin, to keep track of privatization trends across the country. His neatly typeset bulletin was prescient. In 1990, Tennessee was just flirting with privatization. By 2018, over a third of the state’s 22,000 prisoners were housed in private prisons. All health care at public facilities is contracted out, at a cost of $95 million per year. Phone services, e-mails, and money transfers are all private. Food service is private. Even the transport vans are private. For misdemeanors, probation supervision is privatized, with the company’s fees paid by offenders.
Today, Friedmann is a leading advocate against privatized prisons and prison services. He has a salt-and-pepper beard and wire-rimmed glasses and speaks with the practiced precision of a high-school history teacher who has given the same lecture for two dozen years—which, in a sense, he has.
“Most people have no idea what prison’s like except from TV. It’s out of sight, out of mind.” That’s by design, Friedmann says. “Prison walls don’t just keep prisoners in, they keep the public out.” He said the privatization of services has benefited from the citadel secrecy of correctional facilities. “Privatization of services in jails and prisons just doesn’t rise to the level of headlines.”
Consider prison transport. He first investigated the subject in 1997 and followed up with a comprehensive 11,000-word cover story in 2006, but private prisoner transport became mainstream news only in 2016, when the Marshall Project and The New York Times published an exposé on the subject. Their reporting showed that companies forced drivers to pay out of pocket for hotels; as a result, they often chose to drive nonstop, and prisoners said they were forced to urinate or defecate on themselves. While transferring a prisoner from Kentucky to Mississippi, a guard from the company Prisoner Transportation Services of America dismissed the man’s complaints of stomach pains and refused to stop. Soon after, the man died of a highly treatable ulcer. At least 56 prisoners have escaped from for-profit transportation companies since 2000, with at least 16 committing crimes while fleeing. By comparison, California, Texas, and Florida, whose state-run transport systems shuttle some 800,000 people every year, reported a single escapee over the same period.
Prison Legal News published its first major story on privatized prison health care in 2000, and abuses by that industry have been confirmed by subsequent media reports and lawsuits. Among the most explosive was a 2014 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program on the company Corizon. Beginning in 2012, Corizon was awarded what would ultimately amount to a $405 million contract to provide health care to Alabama’s 25,000 prisoners. As is typical for private companies, Corizon understaffed facilities to save money. Only 15 physicians served the entire state—which meant a caseload of more than 1,600 patients per doctor. Some facilities had no full-time doctors, with dire consequences. A prisoner at the Kilby Correctional Facility had a stroke, but the underqualified medical staff waited to decide what to do until the doctor arrived the next morning, at which point the damage had been done; that man must now use a wheelchair. A prisoner in dialysis went into cardiac arrest, but because the medical staff on duty didn’t know how to use the emergency equipment, he died.
Nor are these problems limited to Alabama; Corizon recently lost contracts in Georgia, New Mexico, and Arizona and at the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. The company has been embroiled in over 1,000 lawsuits.
Despite such troubling records, correctional agencies continue to hire these companies on the grounds they will save taxpayer dollars. “The big draw is the economic pitch that the companies can save them money, and they don’t have to deal with medical care or food,” Friedmann said.
(Prison Policy Initiative)
The evidence that these companies actually save money is, at best, mixed. But the companies can sweeten the deal with commissions paid to the states. “‘Commission’ is a euphemism for ‘kickback,’” Friedmann said. “It really started with the prison phone companies,” which compete for monopoly contracts with prisons and jails, promising to share a percentage of the fees that the incarcerated are charged. These kickbacks can return up to 94 percent of a company’s sales revenue to the state. To make a profit, the company has to charge the incarcerated and their families high rates. Some cash-strapped jurisdictions now depend on these kickbacks to fund facility operations and law-enforcement activities, and correctional agencies are clearly hooked on the extra hits of cash. When the FCC considered restricting these commissions in 2013, the National Sheriffs’ Association threatened that the jails would be forced to end phone calls altogether.
These backward incentives can result in crushing costs, particularly in jails. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, a 15-minute in-state call from jail costs $5.74, on average. In one Arkansas jail, that call costs $24.82. Correctional telecom companies like Global Tel*Link and Securus, the two industry titans, are also expanding into video visitation. At first, Securus’s contracts sometimes mandated that video visitation—with typical rates around $1 per minute—replace previously free in-person visitation, but after outcries, Securus removed these provisions. However, because of the kickbacks and the reduced security costs associated with video visitation, many jails have gone ahead and implemented the policy anyway. A 2015 study by the Prison Policy Initiative found that 74 percent of jails that adopt video visitation end up reducing or eliminating in-person visits. In a scene worthy of dystopian fiction, visitors may sit in a room next to their loved ones but must pay to use a grainy video-visitation kiosk to see them.
In 1833, two years before Alexis de Tocqueville published Democracy in America, he helped write a lesser-known study, On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France. The report was generally damning (“the prisons…offer the spectacle of the most complete despotism”), and Tocqueville noted America’s penchant for inviting private profit-making into public prisons. Contractors who exploited the prisoners for labor also profited from selling them essential items:
The contractor is the most important person attached to the prison. The overseers of the workshops, the contre-maîtres, cooks, bakers, victual sellers, laundresses, apothecaries, attendants of the sick, servants, hommes de peine, and all others, whose functions are subject to no surveillance whatever, are chosen by the contractor…. It is clear that he does not accept the contract except with almost certain chances of great profit.
A wood engraving of Sing Sing prison, one of the sites Alexis de Tocqueville visited in the 1830s.
In 1887, Congress passed a law eliminating contract labor in the federal system, and the states soon followed. The market described by Tocqueville collapsed, and for the first half of the 20th century, public correctional agencies assumed nearly all aspects of management for adult prisons, from food and clothing to the commissary and health care.
But then a series of disastrous policies in the 1960s and ’70s—beginning with President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Crime—led to an explosion in the prison population. From 1972 to 1985, the number of people in America’s prisons more than doubled. Prison conditions began to deteriorate, and in 1974, a Texas prisoner named J.W. Gamble filed a lawsuit complaining that the state denied him proper medical treatment after a 600-pound bale of cotton fell on him during a work assignment. The case, Estelle v. Gamble, made it to the Supreme Court, where Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote for the majority that “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners” was a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. By 1985, prisons in 34 states were under court supervision for violating the constitutional rights of prisoners. States, hobbled by budget shortfalls, struggled to comply with court orders. At the same time, the prison population continued to swell. President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs had begun, and its harsh sentencing laws guaranteed a steady influx of newly incarcerated Americans.
At this point, policy-makers could have reckoned with the wisdom of incarcerating half a million people. Many suggested diverting money from law enforcement and incarceration and into social programs to address issues such as joblessness that contributed to crime. But the Reagan administration had something else in mind. The president assembled an advisory body of executives from the country’s largest banks and corporations and tasked them to “work like tireless bloodhounds” to cut costs and ferret out inefficiency in the federal government. The advisory body laid the groundwork for a 1988 report that recommended opening up functions like the postal service and air-traffic control to private enterprise. When it came to criminal justice, the administration, citing the notoriously inhumane conditions of America’s public prisons, recommended that the Department of Justice “give high priority to research on private sector involvement in corrections.”
A cynical way to look at correctional privatization is just business smelling blood and going in for the kill; the generous interpretation is that companies swooped in to save a failing government model. Regardless, the administration used the dismal state of affairs in government-run jails and prisons as a pretext to promote the privatization of every conceivable aspect of the correctional system.
On a rainy Friday night in March, I drove to the Hope Community Church on Detroit’s east side to visit a support group for families of the incarcerated. I was there to better understand the financial toll of having a loved one in a Michigan prison. The group meets every other Friday evening in an alcove to the right of the church’s nave. There I met Eunice Story, whose 45-year-old son, James, has been in and out of Michigan’s prisons for the past eight years. She spoke in measured tones, thumbing a knitted scarf while she recounted the financial burden of her son’s imprisonment.
“You can’t lift a finger without somebody profiting off of it,” she said. To keep costs low, she limited phone calls to her son to every Saturday morning, for which Global Tel*Link charged her $3.00 for 15 minutes, plus a $3.95 fee simply for putting money into the account. “You put $15 on there, but you only get $10 worth of phone calls,” she said. (The state has since capped prison phone calls at 16¢ per minute, but the same call from jail can run as high as $22.56.) If Story wanted to send an e-mail, JPay, a privately owned company that has been dubbed the Apple of the prison system, charged her a starting rate of 25 cents per message.
Every few months, she would order a SecurePak care package from the Keefe Group, for up to $85 plus a $2 handling fee. In between care packages, she’d deposit $100 into her son’s Keefe commissary account, plus a fee of $2.95, so he could buy the necessities like toothpaste ($3.82) and deodorant ($3.49) that many Michigan families say aren’t provided in sufficient quantities by the prison. Her son, who is diabetic, would also have to use that money to pay Corizon’s $5 co-pays if he wanted to see a doctor.
Some argue that the Michigan Department of Corrections has an incentive to permit all these charges. As with the phone companies, the various contracts are structured to kick back a cut of the fees to the state. The department receives 5 cents for every e-mail sent, $10 for every tablet computer sold, and 50 percent of printing fees if prisoners choose to save e-mails on paper. For each $100 care package, the department receives $19. If someone purchases $100 worth of commissary goods, that’s another $19.
Chris Gautz, a spokesman for the department, said that all commissions are deposited into its Prisoner Benefit Fund, which may be used to pay only for items that serve prisoners, like cable TV and exercise equipment. “Michigan has never looked at [commissions] as a revenue generator,” he said. But prisoner benefit funds have little oversight, and while there’s no evidence that Michigan has ever diverted the money, several other jurisdictions have. In Los Angeles, 49 percent of funds dedicated to inmate welfare went to routine jail maintenance, according to a 2010 report from the Sheriff’s Department. A 2011 budget report from Jefferson County, Colorado, revealed that 89 percent of phone and commissary commissions were used to pay staff salaries. An Orange County 2011 Internal Auditor’s report found that less than 4 percent of its “Inmate Welfare Fund” fund went to programs benefiting prisoners.
(Compiled by Prison Legal News)
Story estimated that she has spent $75 to $100 a month, on average, during her son’s years of incarceration—a sum that likely approaches $5,000. “It put a dent in my pocket,” said Story, who recently retired from AT&T, but “I was able to [afford it].” Many others aren’t as fortunate, though. According to a recent study exploring the hidden community costs of incarceration, 82 percent of families are responsible for phone and visitation costs—and of these, one in three families go into debt to pay for them. Of the family members responsible for these costs, 87 percent are women, and because of the racial bias in American criminal justice, the majority of those women are likely from communities of color.
A few days after I met Story, I caught up with June Walker, who founded the support group Story attends. We ate lunch at a diner a few blocks away from the church. Walker said many people might think, “What’s the big deal about a $3.95 fee?” But it’s not just one fee; it’s a constant trickle. “It’s death by a thousand pennies.”
Walker gestured out the window at a neighborhood still scarred by the 2008 recession. Census tract 5129, across from Hope Community Church, has a median annual income of $16,992. “Most people around here just don’t have a lot of pennies to spare.”
Some 1,400 miles away, just across from the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Miami, a 35-story office building angles skyward, covered in missile-resistant glass the color of the Bay of Biscayne. The building is home to a number of financial companies, including a private-equity firm called HIG Capital, which manages more than $30 billion in assets. HIG has one of the more unusual side hustles of any private-equity firm: Over the past decade, it has quietly helped consolidate correctional phone, food, commissary, and health-care companies into behemoths that dominate their markets and, according to critics, drive prices up for families while lowering quality.
A closer look at HIG reveals some surprising truths about the relationship between high finance and incarceration in America. HIG entered the correctional industry in 2004, when it merged T-Netix and Evercom, then two of the leaders in the correctional calling market, to form what is now Securus. After the 2008 financial crisis, profits at Securus accelerated just as economies in cities like Detroit crashed. HIG sold the company in 2011, but its growth trajectory had been set. In a 2015 company presentationobtained by The Huffington Post, the company boasted that the tens of billions of dollars the government spends on corrections each year offers “a large, recession-resistant and stable market” and that Securus was “well-positioned for organic growth.” Today, Securus provides phone services to 1.2 million men and women incarcerated at approximately 3,400 facilities, with likely annual revenues of over $500 million.
HIG then used a similar playbook to consolidate the correctional food and health-care industries. First, in 2012, HIG acquired Trinity Services Group, the food and commissary company that was partly responsible for Michigan’s debacle. Two years later, HIG acquired Swanson Services Corporation, a leading provider of commissary goods operating in 41 states, which was integrated into Trinity. Two years after that, HIG merged Trinity with commissary giant Keefe Group. Today, prisoners nationwide spend an estimated $1.6 billion each year on commissary goods such as food, clothing, and hygiene items like toothpaste. Some commissaries are state run, but estimated revenues suggest that HIG’s correctional food company likely profits off of more than half of all prisoner spending nationwide; it is clearly the largest commissary company that has ever existed.
During that time, HIG also moved into prisoner health care, investing in California Forensic Medical Group, which serves 90 percent of outsourced county jails in California, and merged it with industry heavyweight Correct Care Solutions. HIG’s health-care company, Wellpath, formed last October, is now on track to become one of the largest companies in the correctional health-care industry, with $1.6 billion in revenue.
Given these numbers, it’s fair to say that HIG has played a significant role in creating some of the largest correctional services companies in history. Yet HIG has a different interpretation of its role in the privatized prison-services industry. In a comment to The Nation, Jeff Zanarini, a managing director at HIG, rejected the claim that the company’s consolidation strategy has radically reshaped the prison landscape. He noted that HIG has invested in hundreds of companies, only a small fraction of which have ever provided correctional services. “In fact,” he wrote in an e-mail, “given the size and scope of the two companies referenced above [Keefe’s parent company, TKC Holdings, and Wellpath] that we currently own, it is accurate to say that H.I.G. plays ‘no role whatsoever in shaping the nation’s jails and prisons.’”
Zanarini further suggested that, to the extent HIG does play a role, it is a positive one. “The two companies we do own are focused on improving the health and well-being of prison populations, while providing services that are far superior to the available alternatives (i.e., the provision of such services by state and local governments),” he wrote. “So, again, contrary to your thesis, our portfolio companies aim to provide higher quality services to inmates and their families at more affordable prices.” As one example, he cited Wellpath’s predecessor, Correct Care Solutions, whose behavioral health division was widely praised for its dramatic improvement of appalling conditions at Bridgewater State Hospital, a Massachusetts medium-security mental health facility. After only five months of new management, The Boston Globe described Correct Care’s transformation as “remarkable, beyond the imagining of mental health advocates.”
And yet, as the failings of Michigan’s food service under Trinity shows, companies owned by HIG can also make things dramatically worse. Moreover, while these companies may indeed be small relative to the size of HIG’s portfolio, as Zanarini suggests, they loom large in the landscape of America’s jails and prisons, dominating entire sectors of the for-profit correctional services industry. Take Keefe Commissary Group. In a 2012 bid submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Keefe proudly claimed that it was five times the size of its nearest competitor. In states with fully outsourced commissary services, the bid noted, Keefe controlled 98.4 percent of the market by prisoner population. The only exception was South Dakota, which was serviced by a competitor, a company called CBM. Keefe was quick to point out in the bid, however, that Keefe Group was CBM’s main supplier.
While HIG has spent the past decade carving out a niche in the prison commissary and health-care sectors, it’s far from the only private equity firm with stakes in the corrections business. Indeed, when Bianca Tylek was sifting through the 3,100 companies in her Corrections Accountability Project report, she noticed a peculiar trend: “On a systemic level, the thing that really emerged is how active private equity has been in shaping the prison-industrial complex and how many of the biggest actors in the field are owned by private-equity companies.” She paused. “In fact, almost all of them are.”
Tylek said private-equity-brokered roll-ups—deals like HIG’s that bundle fragmented regional players into national conglomerates—have profoundly reshaped the correctional-services industry; “without PE shops, these companies could not have become as big and as exploitative as they are today.”
It took me only a few Google searches to grasp how difficult it would be to prove Tylek’s intuition about private equity’s negative effects on the correctional system. Anyone looking for insight faces three layers of opacity: Most correctional-services companies are privately held, meaning financial information is hard to come by; private-equity firms are lightly regulated, with few public-reporting requirements; and the correctional system is notoriously hostile to outside scrutiny.
At a loss, I called a friend who has worked in private equity, who said corrections is a niche industry that cuts across business sectors, so there are no analysts who look at it as a whole. He suggested calling Wall Street analysts who cover publicly traded private-prison companies, whose dealings are less hidden from view; none could offer any insight. I looked to academia, but several economists said no one studies the role of private equity in corrections.
I finally found Sabrina Howell, an assistant professor of finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business. She doesn’t study private equity in corrections, but she just published a study on the disastrous role of private equity in for-profit education. She and her co-authors obtained data on nearly 1,000 schools owned by private-equity firms. After controlling for confounding variables, they discovered that private-equity-owned schools have higher profits—but also higher tuition, sharp declines in graduation rates, more student borrowing, lower repayment rates, and dramatic increases in illegal activities such as recruiting quotas and misrepresentation of loan terms. Despite worse outcomes, private-equity-owned schools were better at capturing federal aid. “This is a purely rent-seeking phenomenon and is unambiguously not in students’ or taxpayers’ interests,” her study concluded.
After seeing my research, Howell said, “There are definitely parallels here.” In both cases, she pointed out, the government serves as middleman between company and consumer—via federal loans in education and via state contracts in prisons. Under this arrangement, what’s good for the company and the government might not be good for consumers. These misaligned incentives played a role in distorting the for-profit education market. “If anything,” she said, “in prisons the potential for misaligned incentives is much more extreme.”
The profound level of consolidation stuck out to her. “In principle,” she continued, “private-equity firms could combine companies to achieve economies of scale and drive prices down without a loss of quality.” But in practice, only a few companies dominate a given sector, enjoying monopoly-like conditions. Without hard evidence, Howell couldn’t speculate about the effects that extreme consolidation might have on this industry. But generally, she said, “it’s well established that having just one or two companies serving a market can yield monopoly pricing and collusive outcomes.”
Tylek was less guarded in her assessment: “These roll-ups and buyouts and sales aren’t just some esoteric financial deals. They exploit real people, particularly those from low-income, minority, and—increasingly—immigrant communities.”
In February 2018, Michigan’s then-governor, Rick Snyder, appeared in the Capitol rotunda to present his $56.8 billion annual budget to the state legislature’s appropriations committees. The otherwise soporific event was interrupted by chants of “Tricky Ricky” from protesters demanding that Snyder return correctional food services to state workers. The protesters weren’t particularly optimistic, but then Snyder dropped a bombshell. “We’ve worked with a couple of different private vendors,” he said. “The benefits of continuing on that path don’t outweigh the costs, and we should transition back to doing it in-house.” Nick Ciaramitaro, legislative director for the public sector union AFSCME Council 25, told the Detroit Free Press, “I give him credit. It’s one thing to try something—it’s another to admit that it didn’t work.”
Six months later, the food-privatization experiment in Michigan ended, and now, for the first time in decades, nationwide mass incarceration is showing signs of slowing. The companies providing correctional services see the writing on the wall. To insulate themselves, they continue to consolidate and diversify, with the same company that runs the phones also running, say, the prison store and selling software to help corrections officials surveil prisoners. Or the companies push deeper into the one market that shows no signs of flagging: Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities.
Unlike in corrections, the majority of immigrant-detention facilities (an estimated 73 percent) are fully private—a well-publicized fact. Less widely known is that the same food, health-care, commissary, and financial-services companies that dominate America’s jails and prisons also profit off subcontracts with ICE detention centers, such as the notorious processing facility in Adelanto, California. Wellpath (owned by HIG) runs health care, and Keefe Group (also owned by HIG) runs the commissaries. Now, thanks in part to the center’s history of violations, the city of Adelanto has decided to end its contract with ICE and the private-prison operator Geo Group and will no longer host the facility.
The profits that companies like Keefe and Wellpath extract from immigration detention centers are admittedly small, a point pressed by Zanarini, who described detention centers as “an immaterial portion” of the companies’ business. Yet even if revenues are “immaterial,” they are still, based on information provided by HIG, likely to be millions of dollars—a fact that at least some of the funds’ investors might not like to be made public.
Private-equity firms don’t typically reveal their investors to the public. But by examining tax documents, government filings, and investment reports, I was able to make a partial list of HIG fund investors that benefit from mass incarceration and, to a lesser degree, immigration detention policies. The results were surprising.
A number of public pensions have invested in the HIG fund that controls Wellpath, including ones from Tennessee and Orange County, California, as well as the Ohio Highway Patrol’s. A wide range of organizations have invested in the HIG funds controlling the Keefe Group, including the Knight Foundation, the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Police & Fire Pension Association of Colorado, and the Producer-Writers Guild of America Pension Plan.
In an unexpected twist, the State of Michigan Retirement Systems, which pays out correctional officers’ pensions, has $25 million in one of the funds that control Keefe and Trinity Services Group, according to a 2015 quarterly investment review and confirmed by Ron Leix Jr., the deputy public information officer at the Michigan Department of Treasury. Leix played down the multimillion-dollar investment, calling it “tiny.” Nonetheless, because the Michigan Department of Corrections contracts its commissaries and care-package service to Keefe, and previously contracted its food to Trinity, the department’s staffers, however indirectly, have benefited from the fees that Keefe charges prisoners and their families, and from the profits Trinity made from running the prison kitchens.
I called up David Angel, the retired Michigan kitchen officer, to ask him how he felt about having his pension paid out in small part from companies that also profit off of prisoners. “I don’t like it all,” he said. “You have them investing in something that could potentially be a conflict of interest.” He added that, if officers had known their pensions would be partly paid with profits from Trinity, the company that ran their kitchens into the ground, “we’d have maybe put pressure on the pension system to pull their pin on that.”
I also found that the University of California, which in 2015 announced to great fanfare its divestment of $30 million in private-prison stock, had $29.5 million committed to funds that control Keefe, according to a 2017 report detailing the university’s private equity holdings.”
Still, as uncomfortable as these investments make endowments and universities with lofty missions, few of us are spared. In a complex economy, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the tentacles of the prison-industrial complex. I’m no exception: The reporting for this article was supported by a grant administered through the University of California.
In 1998, Angela Davis popularized the term “prison-industrial complex” to describe the sprawling web of commercial and governmental interests in corrections, which seeks to sustain itself regardless of actual need. The term is as boring as it is foreboding, the phenomenon as predictable as it is intractable. The stark reality is that punishment in America has always had an appalling financial dimension. As Tocqueville observed in the 1830s:
The contractor, who sees nothing but a money affair in such a bargain, speculates upon the victuals as he does on the labor; if he loses upon the clothing, he indemnifies himself upon the food; and if the labor is less productive than he calculated upon, he tries to balance his loss by spending less for the support of the convicts.
In just the past few years, a movement to divest from the prison-industrial complex has taken off. New York State, New York City, and Philadelphia have sold their stocks in the two major corporations that operate private prisons. Columbia University became the first institution of higher education to divest, followed by the University of California system. In March, JPMorgan Chase announced that it would no longer finance the Geo Group and CoreCivic. But private-prison companies are only a small (if highly visible) part of the prison-industrial complex, and stocks only a portion of most institutional investors’ portfolios.
Divestment activists will have their work cut out for them. Mass incarceration isn’t just an ugly societal outgrowth that can be lopped off; the excision of these industries would reverberate in unexpected ways throughout the national economy, affecting not just financial firms like HIG Capital but also pensioners from Ohio to Orange County.
When I mentioned this to Alex Friedmann, he shrugged off the collateral damage.
“You know,” he said, “slavery had a lot of economic benefits. A lot of people owned slaves and produced goods, and a lot of ordinary people benefited from those goods, and so on. But nobody today would say, ‘Well, we should have just reformed slavery, improved slavery, reduced it to an acceptable level.’ There is no acceptable level. And that’s my position on profiting off incarceration: There is no acceptable level. It’s inherently morally and ethically wrong.”
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Method and framework
Results: the prevalence of non-market forms of medical care in the OECD countries
Discussion: the health care sector's articulation of two institutional arrangements – social welfare systems and national innovation systems
Discussion: technological innovation and cost in the health care sector
Discussion: issues concerning the situation in Brazil
Conclusions: recognizing the worth of sectoral labour and integrating it
Contemporary specificities of labour in the health care sector: introductory notes for discussion
Francisco Eduardo Campos1Email author and
Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque2
Human Resources for Health20053:8
© Campos and Albuquerque; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2005
This paper combines the literature on public health, on economics of health and on economics of technological innovation to discuss the peculiarities of labour in the health care sector.
The starting point is the investigation of the economic peculiarities of medical care.
This investigation leads to the identification of the prevalence of non-market forms of medical care in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Furthermore, the health care system has a distinctive characteristic from other economic sectors: it is the intersection between social welfare and innovation systems. The relationship between technological innovation and cost in the health care sector is surveyed. Finally, the Brazilian case is discussed as an example of a developing country.
The peculiarities of labour in the health care sector suggest the need to recognize the worth of sectoral labour and to cease to treat it separately. This process should take into account the rapid development of the health innovation system and one important consequence: the obsolescence of the acquired knowledge. One way to dignify labour is to implement continued education and training of health professions personnel.
Technological Progress
Health Care Sector
National Innovation System
Medical Care System
Labour in the health care sector has specific characteristics that are evidenced by its institutional organization. The special economic properties of medical care determine the generalized emergence of what is called "market failures" in the economic literature. That is, the operation of market forces alone is not sufficient for the working of this sector, as is recognized in a recent report of the World Bank [1]. Society constructs varied institutional forms in order to offset market flaws by assigning an essential role to non-market institutions to render adequate services. The welfare state institutions may be viewed as an expression of social attempts to offset generalized market failures in the health care sector.
The next section of this paper presents the method of investigating the economic peculiarities of medical care as the starting point of this paper. The economic literature extensively discusses this subject, and the theoretical basis for social welfare institutions is well-grounded. This literature shows how superficial and theoretically poor are those approaches that wholly or predominantly insist on the market role for the operation of the health care sector. Kenneth Arrow's (Nobel economics prize, 1972) seminal contribution is a powerful remedy for such superficiality.
Arrow's analysis [2] is a conducting line for this paper. Arrow highlights that "the special economic problems of medical care can be explained as adaptations to the existence of uncertainty in the incidence of disease and in the efficacy of treatment". The weight of uncertainty and expressive information asymmetries determine the emergence of market failures, and hence the need of institutions to deal with such activities.
Based on these theoretical topics, the results of this approach are presented in the third section, which points to the prevalence of non-market forms of medical care organizations – an empirical confirmation of Arrow's analysis according to Barr [3]. Another specificity of labour in this sector is derived from this topic: the way these services are articulated (existing institutions, regulation and competition pressure) may affect both the quality of medical care and the pace of scientific research (and future scientific-technological progress as well).
The fourth section discusses a very distinctive characteristic of health care: its location in the intersection of two constituting institutional arrangements in advanced capitalist societies – the social welfare system is connected to the national innovation system. In other words, the professionals' performance in the sector affects – and is strongly affected by – the pace of scientific advancement and technological innovations. To simplify, one could say that a hospital is part of both systems [4].
In the fifth section, an assessment of this articulation between both systems introduces a discussion on cost peculiarities and those of technological progress in the health care sector.
The sixth section discusses the specific characteristics of the Brazilian situation. The precarious and rudimentary character of the social welfare institutions, the serious problems of access to health services and the general determinants of health conditions in Brazil, in addition to the incipient Brazilian innovation system (including that in health matters), simply add new problems to Arrow's list. Problems of resource allocation are crucial for defining the profile of the systems being settled, which amounts to one more labour peculiarity in the sector: that is, the involvement of professionals in the area in defining such a profile is not a trivial issue.
By articulating all questions so far developed, the seventh section concludes the paper by assessing the crucial role of recognizing the worth of labour in the health care sector and of ending its isolation.
The starting point of this paper is the analysis of the economic peculiarities of medical care. Medical practice is full of lessons on the special character of medical care. Any physician or health care manager is able to describe a set of properties distinguishing the activity of a health professional from those of other workers in more conventional activities.
Perhaps one of the most often perceived differences in the sector is the lack of consumers' ability to choose their own basket of goods and services due to their lack of information for decision-making. It is useless to ask a patient whether he/she would prefer chemotherapy instead of radiotherapy in case he/she is able to afford only one of the alternatives. By the same token, it would also be useless to ask the patient whether he/she prefers an immunological examination or a magnetic resonance scan.
Such a situation is aggravated because the decision must be made at a time of personal or family distress – an illness threatens to take the patient's life or that of a loved one. For this reason, in contrast to other items whose consumption can be postponed, the consumer will make a heroic effort and will certainly not hesitate to try all available alternatives. This breaks one of the basic rules for adequate market resource allocation, as there is no symmetry of information. One side – the service provider – supposedly holds the information by accumulating esoteric knowledge [5] that is inaccessible to the other side.
Another important difference resides in the existence of limits to "rationalizing the production" as in other economic sectors. Every emergency service must always have a neurosurgeon available, even if traumas requiring nocturnal procedures rarely occur. It would be inadmissible to deny treatment to a person with multiple traumas on the basis of statistical evidence that his or her condition accounts for a small incidence of traumas and that it would not be economically justified to keep staff for this purpose. As a further example, even though snakebite is becoming increasingly rare, every health care unit must keep antivenin in stock – duly cooled and periodically checked – most of which is discarded.
Possible functions of standardized production are one more example of major differences. In industry, such possibilities stem from a relative standardization and monotonous industrial processes – the inputs are constant, the processes are repetitive and the outcome is always expected and predicted. In the health sector things are not as simple, as inputs and processes cannot be fully standardized.
An extensive literature shows that distinct health agents or even distinct medical "cultures" come to entirely different diagnoses regarding similar groups of patients submitted to them and prescribe utterly different therapies. According to the patient's social, economic and cultural level, the same disease may be given a totally different treatment. A verminosis, for example, may be treated with broad-spectrum drugs instead of a simple faeces examination or it could be treated using a series of examinations that could lead to a similar therapy (broad-spectrum drugs).
All this happens because there is much subjectivity in the health labour process, which remains basically artisanal, grounded on sight, touch and smell instead of being readily captured in a defined algorithm. Although a great deal of information may be objective – blood pressure, coronary permeability, electrocardiographic waves – other data or even the interpretation of those considered objective are quite subjective. There is always a feeling, a clinical look, based on subjective hints, that may trigger a dozen supplementary examinations. In addition, there is a sort of association between the physician and the patient that has been ontologically constructed during human history, ever since someone's sufferings were first alleviated by someone else.
Hindrances to standardization, however, should be qualified. In some health areas, there are – within certain limits – standard procedures, such as: laboratory procedures; highly standardized procedures in hospital sectors, resulting in serial surgeries; in public health, a number of advancements were achieved by means of standard protocols (e.g. for the treatment of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections); medical procedures can be partially standardized through detailed classification (as for example, the Diagnosis Related Groups – DRGs).
Such elements, however, encounter a significant limit – the clinical contact controls all other procedures. And the clinical contact is based on much more shifting variables in which there are imponderables and from which it is difficult to construct closed algorithms.
Such observations constitute a source of empirical elements for a substantive theoretical elaboration of the peculiar characteristics of medical care as an economic category. Such peculiarities thus present a series of limitations to the market's ability to provide such services in a quantitatively and qualitatively adequate manner. Arrow had the merit to present this discussion based on an elaborate economic conception.
Arrow's paper [2] is pedagogically structured. Firstly, the market's working is described in accordance with the neoclassical economic theory that it should lead to the occurrence of a competitive equilibrium and optimum status. Then, the author poses hindrances to medical care marketability. The first basic difference from common commodities is related to the risk-bearing associated with medical care – "to a great extent a disease is an unpredictable phenomenon". A subtle outcome arises: "When there is uncertainty, information or knowledge becomes a commodity ..." But information, in the form of skilled care, is precisely what is being bought from most physicians and, indeed, from most professionals.
The elusive character of information as a commodity suggests that it departs considerably from the usual marketability assumptions about commodities." (p. 183). Thus, he sustains that "all the special features of this industry, in fact, stem from the prevalence of uncertainty". Finally, Arrow considers that "when the market fails to achieve an optimum state, society will, to some extent at least, recognize the gap, and non-market social institutions will arise attempting to bridge it" (p. 184). Therefore, such unique characteristics call for "a special place for medical care in economic analysis" (p. 186).
First, the demand for it is irregular and unpredictable (contrary to the demand for food and clothing, for example). Another important aspect is that the demand for health care is usually associated with an assault on personal integrity. A disease is not just a risk, but a risk associated with a cost per se (reduction or loss of labour capacity, even temporary, obviously affecting one's earning capacity), which is distinct from the specific cost of medical care (p. 187). Furthermore, there is an "opportunity cost": the time lost for earning in the labour market while undergoing treatment.
Second, the physician's behavior cannot be fully known in advance – medical care is one of the activities of which "the product and the activity are identical". In these cases, the commodity purchased cannot be tested before consuming and "there is an element of trust in the relation". The physician's behavior "is assumed to be ruled with concern to the patient's welfare, which is not expected from a salesperson". "In Talcott Parsons's terms, there is a 'collectivity-orientation', which distinguishes medicine and other professions from business, where self-interest on the part of participants is the accepted norm" (p. 187).
Other typical differences from business people would be that: advertisement and price competition are virtually absent among physicians; counseling by doctors concerning other treatment is supposedly given without self-interest; and treatment should be oriented by the needs of the specific case and not restrained by financial considerations (p. 187). Finally, resource allocation in this area is significantly affected by "ethic compulsion" (p. 188).
Third, there is uncertainty concerning the output – recovery from a disease is as unpredictable as its incidence: "Because medical knowledge is so complicated, the information possessed by the physician as to the consequences and possibilities of treatment is necessarily very much greater than that of the patient, or at least so it is believed by both parts. Further, both parts are aware of this informational inequality, and their relation is colored by this knowledge" (p. 190). Information asymmetry proves to have a crucial weight in the physician-patient relationship.
A relevant aspect should be added here: although the physician knows better than the patient, his/her knowledge is still extremely limited, given the extensive ignorance areas of scientific knowledge concerning the working of a human body, aetiology of a number of diseases, etc. Thus, there is a great difference between purchasing a chair from a cabinetmaker and a medical appointment – the cabinetmaker knows how to make the chair that the client desires, but the doctor has every chance of knowing very little about how to treat the patient or even being unable to do so.
Fourth, supply conditions are uncertain – entry into the market is not free, which restrains the assumption of full mobility of the production factors. Doctors must be licensed to provide medical services. Furthermore, medical education costs are high and apparently are only partially incurred by the student (p. 191), which means another dissociation from the requirements for the working of competitive markets, i.e. private benefits granted to students after graduation exceed private costs. Arrow associates the high costs of medical education with the quality requirements imposed by the American Medical Association (AMA) since the Flexner Report (p. 191–192) became known.
Fifth, pricing is uncertain – this topic is not usual in economic texts. There is an extensive price discrimination according to the patient's income, at one extreme reaching zero cost for indigent patients. Price competition is strongly disapproved.
Sixth, there exist indivisibilities – specialists and some sort of equipment constitute significant indivisibilities (p. 194).
As risk (of the disease and its treatment outcome) determines the medical care "market", Arrow calls for the possibility of an insurance market that might be able to organize and distribute such risks. If such a market were possible, the problems identified so far could be solved. However, the analysis of a hypothetical ideal insurance market (pp. 199–207) points to a set of problems:
uncovered population segments (unemployed population, aged people, chronic disease sufferers, low-income population);
differentiated risk pooling (if the market is competitive, high-risk individuals will tend to have to pay higher premiums);
existence of moral hazard, to the extent that individuals covered by the insurance plans would tend to overuse them;
adverse selection – an aspect pointed out by Akerlof [6], since in case premiums increased so as to cover elderly people, individuals bearing higher risks would be precisely those who would tend to agree to pay for the insurance (therefore, the individuals selected by the insurer would be exactly those with greater health problems: the costlier individuals for the system);
uninsurable diseases (e.g. AIDS at the epidemic outset);
existence of interdependent probabilities (when a problem affecting a person reaches other people, as in epidemics) [3];
high administrative costs (which would serve as an argument in favor of quite generalized plans, particularly the compulsory ones).
Such problems determine the market's incapacity to provide a comprehensive insurance for medical care (p. 210). In a recent interview, Arrow [7] maintained the diagnosis of the 1963 paper, suggesting that funding the system through contributions to a centralized system "can be accomplished in a cheaper way than having many competitive insurance plans". An interesting aspect of this interview is that it confirms the basic elements of a diagnosis accomplished more than 20 years ago.
In the postscript to his original paper [2], Arrow highlights two aspects as follows: the failure of the market in developing policies of insurance against uncertainty has stimulated the emergence of many social institutions; in these institutions, the usual market premises are "contradicted to a certain extent". He notes that this is not an exclusive problem of the medical profession. All through the text, he emphasizes the role of nonprofit institutions in the sector (e.g. p. 191).
Barr [3], in his evaluation of the social welfare states, points out that the structures of medical care organizations are internationally more divergent than those providing benefits, the other major function of the welfare state. According to Barr, there are various arrangements that can be grouped into three categories:
a quasi-actuarial approach (purchase of private insurance by individuals and employees as well as private ownership of "medical factors of production" – as found in the United States);
social security related to earnings (compulsory and funded by employees and/or employers' contributions sometimes supplemented by taxes, services rendered by a big private sector – Canada – or by a small private sector – Germany); universal medical services (funded by taxes and publicly owned and/or controlled factors of production – New Zealand, Sweden and United Kingdom);
social service (most countries adopt schemes of this kind).
Another way of evaluating the distinct characteristics of medical care systems is accomplished by the OECD [8]. Its characterization does not contradict that explained by Barr (1992). In a different approach, Esping-Anderson [9] points to three categories of welfare systems: the Nordic, that of continental Europe and the Anglo-Saxon. This agenda contributes to a comparison between Arrow's diagnosis and the reality.
A general scenario can be drawn based on data from the World Bank Report [1], which show the relative weight of government expenditure in capitalist developed countries: 60% of total expenditure, according to the 1990 data. Even in the United States, where the private sector shows the highest participation among advanced countries, government health expenditure reached 6.17% of GDP in 2001, which amounted to 44.6% of total health expenditure (Table 1).
Total health care expenditure, relative participation of private sector and public sector health expenditure
Total expenditure (% of GDP)
Private expenditure (% of total)
Public expenditure (% of GDP)
Average: countries with high HDI
Source: WHO (2001)
According to Barr's scheme, the American health system is one of those that is closer to the private market model: this system "shows those problems predicted in the theory". In terms of resource allocation, public expenditure covers exactly those areas in which policies designed for health insurance are not capable of paying for the risks: Medicare for aged people; Medicaid for the poor; military veterans (partially due to chronic health problems); maternity and children's welfare. Furthermore, an increasingly high cost and unequal access to services can also be found: at the end of the 1980s, 17.5% of the population above 65 years of age could not count on adequate insurance coverage in the United States [3]. Finally, based on an assessment of the most pro-market health care system, Arrow's view – outlined in his classical paper – is confirmed.
It is worth noting that the pattern of the American public expenditure on health is comparable to those in countries found at the other extreme of a description of welfare systems proposed by Barr: the Swedish government invests 6.8% of the country's total GDP in health (Table 1).
The issue concerning the effectiveness of the several institutional arrangements is very controversial. Hurst [10] compares the systems in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, concluding that the British system would be the most efficient, as it was the cheapest, with similar results.
An international comparison raises relevant questions on the relative effectiveness of health care systems. The World Bank report, for example, compares countries in terms of health expenditure and results [1]. According to this evaluation, the United States is at one extreme, i.e. the countries with the worst performance and highest expenditure. China is placed at the opposite extreme – better performance with lower expenditure (Figure 3.1, p. 54).
Such evaluation is not a trivial task. Measuring productivity is (usually) an old problem in economics and it is becoming even more serious with the emergence of information and communication technologies [11]. Measuring productivity in the service sector (where the health care sector is placed) is even more troublesome. Gordon [12] presents a general survey of the discussion for the United States. In assessing the growth rates of sectoral products by employee, he found that the health care services presented a positive variation rate only during the period 1960–1972. In the remaining periods (1972–1979, 1979–1987, 1987–1992), it was negative. According to Griliches [11], these services would be ranked among those hard-to-measure sectors (as opposed to measurable economic activities).
Although measuring productivity in the sector is troublesome and controversial, measuring cost increases is not; the difficulty here is to determine the reasons for the rise in medical care costs. What is consensual in the literature is the role that the structure of incentives plays in the cost dynamics and even in the direction technological progress will take in the sector [13]. In other words, the way medical care is organized (in the various existing structures) contributes to the definition of the activity performance and the expenditure policy.
In order to understand the effect of medical care organization on its performance, a study developed in Brazil is quite instructive. Campos [14] found that the physician's decision – considering all the degrees of liberty that professional autonomy grants him/her – strongly affects the consumption pattern and the impact of medical action on the epidemiological indicators. By studying the resolvability of health care services in homogeneous cities – whose differences are only those relative to the health professionals' labour ties – the author found a significant difference between a system hiring its professionals under a regime of labor exclusiveness as compared to a traditional system of multiple labour ties. An explanation for this would be that the first model forces an on-the-spot resolution of problems, since the lack of resolution of a problem implies the patient's return, sometimes with some inconvenience regarding time and circumstances to the professional.
The second model, by its segmentation, is limited to the traditional treatment prescription without taking account of the outcome of such a behavior, as a responsibility tie is not established between the professional and the patient. Campos [14] concludes that "working in an exclusiveness regime is the major determinant of such a differential behavior". In all dichotomies found in a tree of decisions studied – e.g. concerning the commitment to a drug prescription, laboratory examinations prescribed and hospitalizations, among others – significant differences in behaviour were found among medical personnel.
The outcome of this investigation can be generalized in terms of determining the way labour is organized considering the quality of its results. With regard to the United States, it is believed that the structure of medical insurance through third-party payments and fee-for-service encourages the overuse of services (leading to increasing prices). Barr [3] considers this structure to be one of the causes of high costs in the American system. The emergence of health maintenance organizations – HMOs – has been an alternative of shared responsibilities by the users and service providers, a way by which the agents share the consequences of increased expenses (cutting harmful incentives granted to third-party payments). The growth of HMOs is also related to encouragement of competition among service providers, a policy suggested by the World Bank to high-income countries [1].
Such changes affect academic research, however. Studies show that "in regions where managed care plans are dominant and where there is stiff competition for dollars and patients among hospitals, physicians at academic medical centers report more pressure to take care of patients – and thus conduct fewer human studies, do less clinical research, and publish fewer papers" (NSF) [15]. A problematic result of higher competition at the service level is that nowadays medical research is directly related to the future quality of medical care.
The health care system possesses a distinctive characteristic relative to other economic sectors, i.e. it is the intersection between social welfare and innovation systems. These two systems (two institutional constructions) endeavour to surmount market restrictions. Arrow [16] points to a market economy trend to under-invest in research and development activities, which, as in the medical sector, would lead to the emergence of non-profit institutions so as to reach more desirable levels of R&D investment. These two institutional arrangements may be justified by Arrow's analysis [17], which considers that the market poses restrictions to efficiency (a task for the innovation systems) and equity (a task for social welfare systems).
The scientific and technological progress of nations – a decisive source of economic growth and development – is an outcome of complex institutional articulations involving firms, their R&D laboratories, universities and research institutions, financial systems, teaching institutions in general and the interaction of all such institutions, especially among firms [18, 19].
The development of innovation systems is derived from a trend predicted by Marx [20], i.e. the systematic application of science to production. National systems of innovation may be studied as an institutionalization of this phenomenon discussed in the Grundrisse.
A national innovation system can be disaggregated into different sectors as the characteristics of technological progress vary significantly among the several sectors [21, 22]. It is appropriate to say that innovation in the textile sector is quite different from innovation in the computer industry, i.e. the latter, for instance, depends much more on scientific knowledge and has a closer relation to universities and research outcomes [23]. Scholars of innovation economics have been surprised at the existence of a close relation between science and technology in the health care sector [24]. Following this rationale, the health sector can be outlined by the innovative dynamics differently from other economic sectors. Cautiously, however, the existence of an innovative subsector in the health care sector could be suggested.
A starting point already determined in the specific literature of the sector [25] is the notion of medical-industrial complex, which is an articulation involving medical care, education networks (schools, universities), the pharmaceutical industry and the medical equipment and diagnostic instrument industry. Back to that suggested formulation, the existence of an innovative subsystem within the health sector stemming from the literature on economics of technology and innovation adds to it a major aspect, i.e. it is necessary to study the information flows of technology and the mechanisms generating innovation in the medical-industrial complex. Gelijns & Rosenberg [26] presented a review of the literature on complex interactions between universities, industries and medical care systems, which pushed forward the advancement of medical technology. As in other sectors, interactions between demand for and supply of innovation are complex and varied.
On the one side, the study of a sectoral system necessarily contributes to the understanding of the medical care system. That is, the quantity and quality of treatment supplied, diagnostic methods and available equipment constitute a direct result of investment accomplished in scientific and technological research. By the way – and this is an important aspect for the specific objectives of this paper – a good deal of the "guilt" over the increased cost of the health care sector has been laid on technological innovation [3].
Lessons from the literature on economics of technology broke the traditional vision of technological progress, known as a "linear model". According to this model, there would be a process "from the top down", starting with basic research towards the laboratories of firms where applied research is accomplished and finally reaching the production phase. It could roughly be depicted in a scheme as follows: SCIENCE → TECHNOLOGY → PRODUCTION
This linear scheme is considered a distant representation of reality. Sources of technical progress are much more complex. For example, solving problems and bottlenecks in production is a major source of innovation (this is the way new methods of production appear). In many instances, the arrows' sense is the opposite – radio astronomy has been developed as a new scientific discipline based on the work of two physicists (Penzias and Wilson), employees at the laboratories of the Bell Company, in an attempt to solve a noise problem in transcontinental telephone calls. Therefore, science can be viewed as both leading and following technological advances [19]. For this reason, the existence of a dynamic nucleus of firms is crucial for the maturing of national innovation systems.
Hospitals play a major role as an authentic reservoir of innovation "coming from the top". Hospitals contribute to scientific development, i.e. the arrows of the scheme above point to both sides in the health sector, too. As a matter of fact, service-providing would usually play a similar role to that of firms in other sectoral systems: solving problems and escaping from bottlenecks is a significant source of innovation [4].
What is peculiar in the interaction between health innovation systems and health care systems is their closer tie to each other and the more immediate impact between technological progress and social welfare, the latter a decisive component of economic growth sources. Therefore, innovation in the health sector would have a double effect on the economic dynamics in general – the "usual" effects of every innovation and also those on health and welfare.
The relevance of such an articulation simply adds a new peculiarity and a new source of labour heterogeneity to the sector. It would not be possible to grasp the health care system integrally by neglecting academic research in the life sciences. The life sciences spent 54.4% (USD 10.83 billion) of total resources for R&D in academic institutions in 1993. In that year, the total United States expenditure on R&D amounted to USD 134.4 billion [27]. In 1994, the health sector absorbed 16.5% of federal expenditure on R&D, which reached USD 68.33 billion. The weight of R&D investment in health can also be assessed in the industrial sector. Drugs and medicines were the industrial sector with the most intense R&D (R&D expenditure in relation to revenues), and the sector of optical and surgical instruments and others was placed fifth [27]. Total expenditure on biomedical R&D funding reached USD 30 billion in 1993 [28]. Industry accounted for 50% of the total. American industry increasingly depends on the funding of science with public resources; the leading position of the biomedical sector is highlighted in this regard [29].
Therefore, it is possible to trace a labour repositioning, in relation to which the pole constituted by activities connected with intellectual labour can be found [30]. The peculiarity of labour repositioning in the health care sector would not reside in the shift of functions of manual labour (as in the industrial sector), but in the increased participation of more skilled professionals (including scientists and researchers), in addition to the demand for better-trained professionals in the area to deal with diagnostic methods and electronic equipment, etc. Such a dynamic stresses the need for training and retraining the whole set of professionals in the sector: the speed of technological progress enhances the role of continued learning.
The technological innovation dynamics in health care has been considered one of the reasons for the increased expenses in the sector. This would be partly explained by another peculiarity in the sector, i.e. the cumulative introduction of technology, as opposed to other production sectors, where new technology replaces the old. For example, the introduction of cardiac imaging (electrocardiogram, echocardiography, Doppler) did not replace traditional auscultation; the old technology and the new are used interchangeably. The obstetrician works with the time-tested Pinnard stethoscope together with modern sonar devices in order to listen to the fetal heartbeat.
In the case of the United States, there is another question derived from the pressure the demand for medical care exerts on R&D activities: the health insurance mode of organization based on retrospective payments (the mode of medical care and the incentive structure hence derived) exerts pressure on R&D activities in terms of producing costly and effort-consuming innovation [13]. Recent changes in the system would lead to a reversal of this pressure so as not to encourage the use of expensive technologies. As an example, General Electric had frozen the development of a diagnostic technology called positron emission tomography (PET) which "produces tridimensional images reflecting chemical and metabolic activities in the tissues". The reason for such a freeze, according to the company, was that government was too stringent in approving reimbursement to patients for PET scans. Previously, the company had invested heavily in developing computerized tomography scanners (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MCI), and had taken them to the market [13].
Such sensitivity in terms of technological progress in relation to the incentive structure is quite important. Two examples of how the structure of service provision affects both its quality [14] and the degree of involvement of hospital units with research [15] were presented in the third section. Surveying this subject, Halm & Gelijns [31] say: "it is clear that the critical point here is not medical technology per se, but a combination of economic, professional, and social incentives in the health care system which tend to diminish apprehensions as to the decision-making in medical care".
There is evidence that technological innovations are not exclusively price-raising in medical care [13]. This is an open question in the OECD document, which is uncertain "whether new technologies are part of the problem, part of the solution or both" [32].
In order to analyse this aspect, Weisbrod compares vaccines and transplants, their costs, effects and respective demands for innovation. He used the biologist Lewis Thomas' elaboration, which distinguishes three technological development stages in medicine so as to make his position explicit:
at the lowest level, the non-technology level, where the relation between the patient and the disease is entirely understood. Little can be done by the patient, hospitalization and infirmary services, and there is little hope of recovery (untreatable cancer, severe rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, advanced cirrhosis);
at a somewhat higher level, halfway technologies, which would include dealing with the disease and its disabling effects. These are technologies that adjust the patient to his/her disease and postpone death (artificial organ implants, cancer treatment by means of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy);
high technologies, as for example immunization, antibiotics and prevention of nutritional disorders, are designed for diseases whose mechanisms are known and whose treatment/prevention is feasible.
Weisbrod suggests the use of the following dynamic scheme: historically, knowledge goes from the first kind of technology to the second and then to the third. From this scheme, it arises that the cost function associated with such a dynamic process is an inverted U-shaped one. In the case of non-technology, not much can be done and the costs are low. The most expensive would be that of intermediate technologies, then decreasing again in the third stage – high technology. Weisbrod uses the evolution of poliomyelitis as an example: in the beginning (two generations ago), its victims died rapidly as a result of paralysis; then the development of intermediate technology came about with the emergence of the iron lung, which prolonged the patient's life at high cost; finally, the vaccines (Sabin and Salk) in the high technology phase reduced dramatically the costs associated with polio [13].
Based on this scheme, Weisbrod suggests, for the case of the United States, that "the development of halfway technologies was implicitly encouraged by the cost-reimbursement insurance system that has dominated hospital and medical care until recently, because there was little or no incentive for medical care providers to avoid costly technologies that were even marginally effective". (p. 534). That is, it is not the technology that accounts for increased costs, but the scheme of incentives that guides its evolution.
Further on, Weisbrod lists the technologies with a demand for health insurance: "the demand for health insurance tends to increase most rapidly when changes in technology are of the expenditure-increasing, halfway type" However, high technologies (vaccines) would tend to diminish the demand for insurance."
In order to confirm his suppositions, he describes some impacts of the emergence of HMOs being more concerned about costs; they would have broadened their R&D profitability by directing their actions to: drugs that could avoid costly treatments; drugs that replace surgeries (e.g. cimetidine, a substitute for ulcer surgery) [13]. Lichtenberg studied the relation between new medicine and the demand for hospitalization and found that hospital bed-days declined rapidly "for those diagnoses with a larger number of drugs prescribed and a greater change in distribution of medicines". He estimated that an increment of 100 prescriptions is associated with a reduction of 16.3 days of hospitalization [33].
However, perhaps Weisbrod has added another problem to Arrow's paper. As it is basically bought to pay for hospital treatments, health insurance provides incentives for R&D to search for ways to treat patients rather than prevent diseases. And this is not "optimum" in social terms.
Weisbrod's analysis is interesting as it contributes to assessing the demand for innovation in the health sector and mainly to show how the sector's organization affects technological progress. However, in the debate on health care changes, only the side of the demand for technological innovation has been focused upon; the conditions governing the supply of innovation have been neglected [26]. Undoubtedly, further developments in cancer prevention are restrained in part by the state of science.
A good example of such a restraint is provided by biotechnology: "a revolution in health care", announced OCDE [32]. The development of genetic therapies might mean treating cancers, genetic diseases and others (such as rheumatoid arthritis). Some research efforts are in the phase of clinical trials. However, the development of such therapies is complex and difficult, and so far "clinical efficacy has not been demonstrated in any of the genetic therapies". Perhaps "the genetic therapy will take a long time before reaching the patients" [32].
However, it is possible to conjecture that the biotechnology revolution will make high technology-type innovation available as soon as it is developed and employed in health care systems, in accordance with Weisbrod's scheme – efficacy derived from the understanding of the processes of a number of diseases treated with (cost-reducing) vaccine-type therapies.
So far the discussion has centred on advanced countries. A brief introduction to the situation in Brazil requires caution so that conspicuous differences may not be neglected.
The first major difference is the country's development stage. According to the World Bank, Brazil is a high-medium income country, with a GDP per capita of USD 3640 in 1995, and was placed 46th in the world ranking [34]. In relation to the Human Development Index (HDI), it was ranked 58th in 1993 and 62nd in 1995. The technological gap and the social gap come together. If expressed by the terms used all through this paper, such a reality can be translated into precariousness of social welfare systems in the country (with severe influence on its health care structure) and the rudimentary and incipient character of the national innovation system [35].
This standpoint contributes to determining the scenario of health and morbidity in the country. Brazil has been undergoing, according to the jargon used in the health milieu, an epidemiological transition, which combines features found in a low-income country, such as sanitation shortages, malnutrition and infectious-parasitic diseases, with features of high-income countries, such as a growing incidence of degenerative diseases. Such differences pose complex tasks to be tackled by the whole health apparatus in the country.
As for the labour peculiarity, the health care sector must count on broad competences, ranging from the treatment of simple verminous diseases to modern techniques of emergency treatment. A neurosurgeon and a plastic surgeon are not luxuries – these two kinds of specialists are needed in a country with a high incidence of labour accidents such as Brazil (one need consider only the kind of accidents found in construction and those accidents requiring hand-repairing surgery, recovery of persons with burns, etc.).
To an extent, the capacities the advanced countries have been building through time – which have been substituting for each other since their introduction – must coexist in the country. The result is a health care system more complex and differentiated than those of countries at either extreme (high-income countries: no verminous diseases and better labour conditions; low-income countries: lower incidence of degenerative diseases).
Another effect of Brazil's economic stage is the existing budgetary restriction: basic necessities (education, sanitation, health, infrastructure investment) compete with each other in budgets with relatively scarce resources.
The World Bank proposal for governmental action is based on an intervention divided into three basic levels, corresponding to three different foundations [1]: alleviation of poverty and access of the poor to health care services; public health; extension of medical care to the population through insurance as well as its regulation. The World Bank proposal concentrated the discussion on the latter (insurance and regulation). The Brazilian peculiarity would be the relevance of an action based on a combination of these three levels [1].
That the Brazilian constitutional text has adopted the proposed organization of a single health care system (SUS) that is universal and equitable, with an integral and socially controlled approach, is equally a significant conceptual advancement and a great operational complication, when the health care scenario in the country is considered.
Boelen [36] proposes a comparative analysis of the social accountability of health care services that are oriented by four polar concepts: equity versus quality and relevance versus cost-effectiveness. According to the author, it would be relatively easy to design an equitable system by following a formula containing only the basic health care actions for the most vulnerable population groups. In the same way, it would be theoretically simple to construct systems following the quality criterion alone, unconcerned with the coverage of the actions developed. In this case, the concept of relevance of the health care actions would oppose the analysis of their cost effectiveness.
When writing its constitution chapter on health, and hence including the SUS proposal, Brazil posed a great challenge to itself, i.e. to reach the four cardinal points (equity, quality, relevance and cost-effectiveness) at the same time. The very fact that the health chapter of the Brazilian constitution is within the social security area, joining health care actions with social security and social work activities, accounts for the size of such a challenge.
The difficulty resides in correctly developing the matching of such elements. As compared with more advanced countries (Table 1), it is worth assessing the need for and possibility of a general increase in health care expenditure (public and private). Public expenditure, by strengthening basic programmes, public health and investment in regulatory activities (the recent scandal of falsified drugs is tragic proof of the price to be paid for weakness in such areas) cannot be replaced.
Based on the ideas discussed throughout the present paper – that the health care system is placed in the intersection of the welfare system and the innovation system – the relevance of social and economic investment in research should be considered. Investment should be made in the country to enhance scientific and technological capacity in biotechnology as well as to improve and extend sewage systems. The range of activities to be achieved by the construction of these two indispensable systems is sizable.
From the viewpoint of technological innovation in health care and that of the rest of the innovation system as well, the technological gap of the country, in relation to the international technological frontier, reveals some advantages and requires some efforts [37]. The advantages are as follows: investment in initial phases of development is not necessary, as the country is in its absorption phase of technologies generated in the technological frontier; it is quite possible for the country to adopt a technology after defining its development "path" (i.e. expenditure on technologies that could later be replaced by new developments can be avoided).
However, such advantages cannot be exploited without making important domestic investments – constructing "absorption capacity" is a must, since: the absorption and necessary adaptation of such technologies are not passive processes; they require knowledge, critical mass, financial and entrepreneurial capacity; they presuppose a follow-up and monitoring capacity of current scientific and technological progress, to the extent that basic research frequently means an entrance ticket to a circuit of scientific and technological information, as pointed out by Mowery & Rosenberg [38]; previous knowledge is necessary even for a simple purchase of equipment, machines and processes.
The incapacity of the market to allocate resources in health care production, the asymmetry of knowledge and the relation of trust between the physician and the patient are among the reasons why attempts at external regulation and control of health care labour have failed or can be bypassed.
The traditional compendiums of health administration have already recognized that the three basic modes of health care labour remuneration – fixed-salary payment based on time spent in the procedure, fee for service and the different modes of capitation – present advantages together with remarkable failures as to its performance controllability.
Those receiving fixed salaries tend to evade providing services, unlike those paid for procedures accomplished, who tend to overestimate service provision, while mechanisms for capitation may be bypassed through selecting less vulnerable groups. Perhaps for these very reasons, these mechanisms are rarely used separately, and there is a trend towards combining them, as for example, incentives for increased productivity combined with wages.
No matter how creative health service managers may be, there will always be circumstances standing in their way, aggravated by a disguised protection of some attitudes by corporatism, professional complicity or a strictly organized hierarchical structure. There are differential requirements that are rarely unequivocally expressed beforehand. A clear example of this is the strict control of the hours worked by subordinates, on the one hand, and a relative leniency with physicians as to the same requirement, on the other hand. Another striking example of such a situation is the failure of management to attempt to limit the number of examinations and hospitalizations provoked by a given number of visits to the doctor.
First, standardization is impossible if the input of this system is not known, i.e. the seriousness and complexity of the pathologies to be treated. Furthermore, the control of the denominator of this equation is very difficult, as it consists of visits and not of assisted patients. As it would hardly be reasonable to forbid the patient's return visits, which would be desirable as a demonstration by the service provider of concern with solving the problem, the number of visits for a similar group could be unnecessarily multiplied, which would allow a striking inflation of procedures, in this way bypassing the external control.
For all these reasons, a tight wage policy and precarious health care labour conditions, instead of saving resources, may result in their waste by provoking an increment of unnecessary examinations and hospitalizations that could be avoided if a specific agreement to solve the problems were reached. In this case, a positive labour incentive – including improved wages and working conditions and encouragement for training, i.e. positive organizational "climate" and "culture" – would certainly represent a positive impact on health conditions without a burst of final costs.
In the Brazilian experience it can be said that, on the negative side, doubling the salaries of social security physicians after months of strike in the early 1990s did not have measurable positive impacts on productivity and outcome, despite the economic burden for the public accounts. In contrast, some managerial micro-decisions with low added costs – such as personal recognition, prestige, kindness in interpersonal relations and a smooth work environment, encouragement to participate in scientific events, flexibility in order to attain personal expectations and demands – can have positive impacts in the outcomes. Therefore, it seems clear that it would not be possible to rationalize health care labour without the workers' adherence and collaboration, in an agreement that could simultaneously benefit users and providers.
Additionally, viewing the worth of labour exclusively as a wage issue would be simplistic, although it is still crucial. Another way to dignify labour is by implementing continued education and training of professional staff. This process should take into account the rapid development of the innovation system whose consequence is the obsolescence of acquired knowledge. More than half of medical techniques are estimated to become useless in 16 to 18 years. The contribution of the academic apparatus – which was so relevant during the medical education "boom" period about 20 years ago and surely made this professional activity available to large population contingents, previously unassisted – will be lessened if such institutions continue giving only initial education background to physicians and other professionals in the sector, which was a very important mission when innovation was a relatively slow-paced process.
This article is based on a paper prepared for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 1998. The authors thank Ana Luíza Lara, Elaine Rodrigues and Thais Henriques for research assistance. The authors also thank Dr Binod Khadria for corrections and suggestions. Any remaining errors are ours.
The author(s) declared that they have no competing interest.
FEC and EMA shared the research and co-authored this paper.
Center of Study of Collective Health, School of Medicine, Federal University of Minas Gerais (NESCON, UFMG), Minas Gerais, Brazil
Center of Regional Development and Planning, Department of Economics, Federal University of Minas Gerais (CEDEPLAR-UFMG), Minas Gerais, Brazil
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Making gender equality real in Victoria
For more than 40 years the Commission has been helping Victorian employers and employees strive towards more inclusive workplaces where the contributions of women and men are valued and recognised equally.
In that time much has changed but real and enduring equality is yet to be embedded across all workplaces.
The Victorian Government is proposing a new law that will make public bodies more accountable for promoting gender equality in the workplace. Under the proposal there are specific actions that public bodies have to comply with.
This is a positive step and the Commission is pleased to contribute to the proposed draft bill with our submission.
Our ideas for strengthening the proposed new law
To help us achieve our vision we’ve made some recommendations to the proposed law, which have been formed by our extensive experience in this area.
The Commission resolves complaints, conducts research, and provides tailored education and support in the development of equal opportunity, human rights and diversity and inclusion action plans.
We also provide information and advice and intervene in court proceedings related to sex discrimination, sexual harassment and gender inequality.
Some of our key recommendations:
Clarify that the term 'gender' includes men and women, covers people who identify as trans and are intersex, and captures intersectional experiences of gender equality.
Strengthen the objectives by aligning them more closely with other laws such as the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth) and the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).
Fund the development and delivery of tailored education, consultancy and guidance materials to support public bodies to develop Gender Equality Action Plans.
Create a list of minimum standards that public bodies must address in their Gender Equality Action Plans.
Clarify targets and indicators and expand to capture additional areas where gender inequality occurs in the workplace.
Consult with gender equality stakeholders, and consider their recommendations, before outlining targets and indicators.
Appoint and resource the Commission to be the independent body to oversee the implementation of the new law because of our expertise and unique role
Make sure the independent body can:
provide independent support, guidance, resources and advice
review Gender Equality Action Plans and any related reports or analysis
maintain a public register of Gender Equality Action Plans and related reports
request further information to assist it in reviewing compliance with the legislation
offer targeted support and advice to non-compliant public bodies to help them comply
submit a report to the Minister with the names of non-compliant defined entities, including the details of non-compliance and the steps the entity proposes to take to address non-compliance
publish the names of non-compliant entities in its own report or on its website
report to the Minister on the overall implementation of the legislation and progress towards gender equality in Victoria.
In order to complement and strengthen the gender equality legislation, we suggest that consideration should be given to reinstating the Commission’s previous functions under the Equal Opportunity Act, in relation to the threshold requirements of the investigative function, public inquiries and compliance powers.
Download a copy of our submission
Why do we need a new law to promote gender equality?
In Victoria equality is protected under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. There are also federal laws that protect the right to equality to some extent.
Despite these important protections, gender inequality still exists.
Although women make up nearly half (47 per cent) of the workforce they are often still worse paid than men, in part-time jobs or in the huge informal employment sector with little protection and few rights.
As a result, many women are unable to participate fully in society.
We know that specific laws that establish equal rights help achieve gender equality in practice.
Laws influence policy shifts, social norms, attitudes and expectations. They improve gender equality by making public institutions accountable.
Several countries already have these laws in place and they are ahead of Australia on the 2017 Gender Pay Gap Index. Australia is now ranked 35th out of 144 countries.
The top 10 countries were Iceland, Norway, Finland, Rwanda, Sweden, Nicaragua, Slovenia, Ireland, New Zealand and the Philippines.
The ways the proposed new law will address the barriers that prevent gender equality in Victorian workplaces are by:
making public sector organisations actively do something about creating gender equality in the workplace, rather than allowing it to occur and responding when it does
setting targets for women in leadership – women are approximately half of the Victorian population, the public organisations that represent them should reflect that make up
requiring organisations to report on progress towards a future state of gender equality – and calling them out when they don’t comply
strengthening existing legal protections of the right to equality.
We have a vision for how workplaces would look if gender equality was embedded across the board:
Workplaces reflect the gender demographics of the community.
There is equal pay for work of equal value between men and women.
There are gender balanced teams at every level, including leadership.
There is a workplace culture of flexibility.
There is zero tolerance for sex discrimination and harassment.
Workplace leaders are committed to achieving gender equality.
Workplaces are held accountable for their progress toward gender equality.
Getting closer to gender equality requires a change in thinking, behaviour, culture and a change in our laws.
The Commission supports laws that reflect the importance of gender equality.
Read our submission on the proposed Gender Equality Bill and how it can be strengthened
Our work on gender equality
The Commission’s four strategic priorities are: embedding a human rights culture, improving workplace equality, protecting human rights in closed environments and reducing racism.
These priorities drive our vision for a fair, safe and inclusive Victoria.
In the area of improving workplace equality, we have committed to:
contributing to Victorian Government initiatives and committees designed to prevent and respond to gender inequality
partnering with employers through our education and consultancy service to identify the drivers for workplace inequality and implement structural and cultural changes to increase equality and diversity
providing victims of sex discrimination and sexual harassment with a confidential, accessible and effective conciliation process to resolve complaints
continuing our landmark independent review work into the nature, prevalence and impact of discrimination and sexual harassment in key sectors.
We have identified the workplace as an important setting to address sex discrimination and sexual harassment, and promote gender equality. However, our work covers all areas of public life, such as the provision of goods and services, education, sport and the provision of accommodation.
We also seek to address gender inequality through our work to realise our three remaining strategic priorities.
Examples of our work on gender equality
Independent Review into sex discrimination and sexual harassment, including predatory behaviour, in Victoria Police
Raise it! Conversations about sexual harassment and workplace equality
Consultancy work
Information on sex discrimination and sexual harassment
If you think you have been discriminated against, sexually harassed, victimised or vilified, contact us and talk about your concerns.
Our dispute resolution service is free and confidential. We can send you information about the complaint process and if we can’t help you we will try to refer you to someone who can.
To make a complaint:
call our Enquiry Line on 1300 292 153 or email enquiries@veohrc.vic.gov.au. We also have a free interpreter service
submit your complaint online or download our complaint form (DOC, 230KB)
Find out more about making a complaint.
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Home Business Opening the western front
Opening the western front
Rendering courtesy of Creature
Denham Building
A spring 2019 rendering of the Denham Building.
The Parkside District downtown has been booming for several years, ever since the opening of Railroad Park in 2010 and Regions Field in 2013.
That boom continues, with a dozen projects announced or in progress in the area, including more multi-family residential developments and a $25 million arts campus for Red Mountain Theatre Company.
Between 2010 and 2018, Parkside saw over $200 million in investment, but there will be more than $300 million in investment in the area in 2019 and 2020 alone, according to REV Birmingham President & CEO David Fleming.
Now a new frontier has opened up in Parkside — the western portion of the district from 14th Street South west to I-65.
Long dominated by warehouses and light industry, that area — like the rest of Parkside — is welcoming housing, bars, restaurants and other amenities.
Parkside’s Western Front gets a big jolt this summer with the opening of the Denham Building. The mixed-use development at 1143 First Ave. S. will include 81,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space, along with 59 loft apartments.
Atlanta developer Third & Urban began construction on the approximately $30 million project in summer 2018 and should be finished in August, according to company principal Hank Farmer.
The Denham Building, which measures about 140,000 square feet, is named after its original architects, Denham, Van Keuren & Denham. It opened in 1927 as the Merchants and Manufacturer’s Terminal Building.
The project is an important addition because it “anchors one end“ of the Parkside district, according to Fleming. In addition, the redevelopment of the historic structure “takes Birmingham adaptive reuse projects to the next level,” Fleming said.
Third & Urban is “taking advantage of the existing building and the site in ways that are creative but also true to the building that is there,” he said.
It was fun to do a project in a unique, 1920s-vintage structure like the Terminal Building, according to Farmer. “Being from Atlanta, we have an unfortunate history of tearing buildings down,” he said.
He compared the Denham Building to the old Sears and Roebuck building in Atlanta that his company turned into Ponce City Market.
Karim Shamsi-Basha
The Denham Building at 12th Street and First Avenue South is being developed into apartments on top and shops on the bottom.
Creature, formerly Golden + Appleseed Construction, is leading the design build for the Denham Building.
Farmer is also pleased to be in Parkside. When he first visited the area about five years ago, he was impressed by its location between downtown and UAB. He also liked the “vibe and feel” of the area, with Railroad Park, Regions Field and growing pedestrian traffic.
With the Denham Building, Third & Urban is “trying to keep the momentum going in bringing people down there and getting people living there and creating amenities,” Farmer said. The developer seeks to bring in at least two restaurants and a brewery at the development and build on the foundation laid by such Parkside establishments as Good People Brewing Company and the recently opened Mile End Delicatessen.
There is an outparcel building at the development that can accommodate one of those food or beverage tenants.
“We need to get more people to think of Parkside District as a place to hang out during the day, as a place to go get dinner,” Farmer said.
“Development in that area is not competition, it’s all collaborative,” he said, referring to all of the property owners in Parkside. “The more we can get people working and living down there, we can create a critical mass of retail.”
The Denham Building has already spurred investment in Parkside, including the area’s western fringe, according to Fleming.
“The announcement of the Denham project and its marketing strategy has given even more confidence to the market and attracted other investors,” he said.
Farmer agrees the Denham Building is helping drive more investment in the district. In fact, Third & Urban “is pleased at how fast it’s moving,” he said. “We thought it might take four or five years.”
Farmer is also pleased to see the area between the Denham Building and 14th Street South filling in.
“There’s a lot of momentum of connecting from Bakers Row over to us,” he said, referring to a mixed-use renovation of the old Merita Bakery on 14th Street, completed in 2015 by Corporate Realty.
The western area of Parkside is “the most dramatically changing area” in the district, Fleming said.
“At our last count, approximately 1,400 residential units will be added to Parkside, and the majority of those are in this [western] area,” Fleming said.
For example, the Novare Group — another Atlanta developer — will build 268 apartments and a parking deck on First Avenue South between 13th and 14th streets south.
Among other projects in western Parkside, Corporate Realty recently announced a mixed-use development on 14th Street dubbed “Baker’s Row II.” The project will include 228 apartments to be marketed primarily to UAB students..
A local group of developers is turning a 21,000-square-foot former macaroni factory at Fourth Avenue South and 14th Street into 20 condos.
A developer from Colorado recently purchased and is exploring the redevelopment of the Sherman Industries concrete plant, located in the 1100 block of Second Avenue South near the Denham Building.
The Denham Building was the first project for Third & Urban outside of Atlanta. But it won’t be the last, according to Farmer.
After it gets the Denham Building “over the finish line,” Third & Urban will look for other projects here. “We want to be in Birmingham long-term,” he said.
There will likely be other out-of-town investors doing projects in Birmingham, “especially from a multi-family perspective,” Farmer said. These investments are a good sign of their confidence in Birmingham, according to Fleming.
However, Fleming said he is “equally excited” to see local developers, such as Daniel Corporation, Corporate Realty and Harbert Realty, getting involved. “Sometimes it is most difficult to convince ourselves that we are a good city for investment,” he said.
The city also needs some “additional economic drivers” — in other words, additional large employers like UAB — to stimulate “job growth and population growth and allow us to absorb all this office space we are delivering,” Farmer said.
There is ample room for more office space in the City Center, with a lot of older buildings that can be redone, according to Farmer. “There is plenty of exciting building stock,” he said.
Creature, formerly Golden + Appleseed Construction is leading the design build for the Denham Building.
Arlington Properties will manage the property and lease the residential space, and Colliers International will lease the commercial space.
Denham Building Third and Urban Parkside
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DRINK & FOOD
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FIRST SIX
Tom Heaton | Patience in Progress
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13th of September 2018 wordsMatt Jones
READING: 7 MINUTES
When meeting Tom Heaton you get an immediate impression of a confident, calm and intelligent sportsman – clearly a few of his many qualities which have taken him to the brink of International success. However, this is not a story of automatic progression through the ranks in the traditional manner of many International Footballer, rather it is a story of determination, despair, dedication— and Dyche.
As a youngster, Heaton was with one of the biggest clubs in the world, Manchester United. You could be forgiven for believing that success would simply follow naturally after you sign your first professional contract at the age of 18 and are training alongside the likes of Edwin Van Der Sar on a daily basis, not to mention regularly playing practice matches against Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Life at Manchester United though as a young professional not only can be a once in a lifetime experience but also many times can come with harsh realities as Heaton very honestly explains.
“My Time at Manchester United overall was excellent. Looking back on it closely, it gave me a great foundation for my career. I signed as an 11 year old and was there until I was 24. I can’t speak highly enough of the club all the way through my time there. They covered all aspects of a young footballers life ; the technical, physical, mental and social sides to being a footballer. Everything was geared towards improving you not only as a player, but also as a person. As I got older, training with the first team and being in and around world class players was a great learning curve for me. Having to step up to that level in training everyday was a real test. As you’d expect it was fiercely competitive and no sentiment was given to young lads coming into the squad whatsoever. If you were there you were expected to do the job and do it well. That makes you learn very fast as a young player, which is something you have to do in an environment like Manchester United. I was fortunate to work with some great goalkeepers. The one that stood out for me was Edwin Van Der Sar. I tried to take things from his game and add them into mine, most notably his composure in every single situation. This is vital to a top keeper and his composure spread through the team and was a real asset to the club. So in that respect it was great to be training alongside him and learning these important attributes needed for a top level goalkeeper”.
So 3 years later and following 6 loan moves at clubs including Wycombe, Swindon and Royal Antwerp came the realisation that Heaton would maybe not be given an opportunity to fulfil his dreams at Old Trafford and that his only route to the big time would come if he can make a name for himself either in the Championship or even possibly in the lower leagues or abroad. This was the first of many huge decisions in Heaton’s career.
“By that point I had gained some decent experience playing at different levels. I wanted one day to be a Premier League player and that knew that required playing regular football and performing well. The best route for me to get that was to leave Manchester United. I spoke to Sir Alex Ferguson and told him what I had decided to do. To be honest, I did get a bit of the ‘hairdryer treatment’ in his office, but I knew deep down it was still the right decision. He did call me back into his office a couple weeks later to wish me the best and said he was there if I ever needed him. That meant a lot to me, especially having been there for so long. I didn’t have anything in place to sign at a club at that specific moment, so to be honest it was a risk, but definitely one worth taking. I just remember it being a long summer, checking my phone every 10minutes to see if my agent had any news!”
A move to Cardiff that summer as a back up keeper to David Marshall did at least give Heaton some game time at a high level. This included a run to the league cup final where they played Liverpool at Wembley, a game Heaton played particularly well in.
“The cup run that season was really enjoyable, unfortunately we got beaten on penalties, but it’s still one of my favourite matches I’ve ever played in. Being part of the penalty shootout was a fantastic experience for me. However, even though we had an incredible cup run, I wasn’t playing regularly in the league, so I knew that I would had to leave again if I was to be a number one at a club”.
This is where his first contact with Sean Dyche came, who at the time was manager of Watford. Heaton was on the brink of signing for Watford but the deal fell through at the last minute which left Heaton wondering where his next club was going to come from.
“I actually signed a contract for Watford, but it was under slightly strange circumstances as the club were being taken over at that very point. Unfortunately that led to something going wrong with the deal because the manager was sacked a few days later, which led to my contract cancelled. This put me back to square one again waiting by the phone again for an offer to come in. I agreed to a weeks trial in pre season with Bristol City and thankfully signed a contract with them—which wasn’t cancelled!”
Even though the move to Bristol City enabled Heaton the chance to play regularly in the league, his new club finished bottom of the Championship that season. Heaton, now 27 was at a big crossroads in his career, does he accept a one year contract from Bristol City to play in league one or once again roll the dice on being a free agent.
This was arguably the most significant moment of his career to date. Sean Dyche had recently been appointed manager of Burnley and offered Heaton a 2 year deal at Turf Moor to be their number one, which Heaton jumped at.
“I was delighted to finally sign for Sean after coming so close to playing for him at Watford. At the time Burnley was a mid table Championship side and some peoples tip for relegation but the manager had big ambitions. There wasn’t much money at the club for transfers but we managed to bring in a couple more free transfers such as Scott Arfield and David Jones that summer who both were big players for the club during that first promotion season”
This was the beginning of a relationship with Dyche that took Heaton from potential obscurity in the game to the cusp of the World Cup.
“Playing for England & playing in the Premier League were the 2 things I wanted to do. Those goals were the reason behind all of the decisions I had made. If I’m honest I always did believe I could get there. It was a dream come true to get promoted to the Premier League with Burnley. From that season the club has gone from strength to strength. Being part of that at Burnley massively helped me get a call up to the England squad. Everyone from the manager, all the staff, the goalkeeper coaching from Billy Mercer and playing in a good team are all factors that helped me realise my ambition of playing for England”.
In 2016 Heaton made his England debut at the age of 30 against Australia at The Stadium of Light coming on for Fraser Forster in the second half. After some more impressive performances for Burnley in the Premier League he was in a good position to be on the plane to Russia as one of Gareth Southgate’s three goalkeepers. However, in September 2017 in a game against Crystal Palace at Turf Moor Heaton suffered a shoulder injury that would sideline him for the rest of the season and almost certainly rule him out of the World Cup. This was a huge blow for Heaton who had started the season so well.
“It was a massive disappointment. Having the injury and the severity of it was difficult to take but I just tried to accelerate everything to give me a chance of going to the World Cup.
The closer the Squad announcement got the more frustrated I was, I was trying to force things a little bit, which can be difficult. I was just desperate to get on the plane!
Unfortunately that didn’t happen but I was delighted to be involved in standby, before the team left for Russia, considering the season I had”.
Heaton has faced many ups and downs in his career but talks very positive about the future. The good news for himself and Burnley is that he is now completely fit again and looking forward to the new season which could include another successful season in the Premier League.
“Since the season ended, I have felt all the frustration dissipate. When the decision was made, it is easier to deal with it. Often the uncertainty is what creates the frustration. I was very pleased to be on standby, had a really good 2 weeks training. Either side of that I had a good break. I’m delighted to say I’m back to 100%, a proper 100% now. Training has been good so far, I’ve felt sharp & hungry to get back playing. I spent some good time over the summer addressing what I want to achieve over the next few years”.
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Archive for the month “February, 2015”
Tactical Retreat: Cowardice
My friend and co-worker Brian M. Lambert has founded an online sketch comedy project called Tactical Retreat which you can find here on Facebook and here on Youtube.
As Tactical Retreat releases new videos, I will post them here. So far, I have found them rather funny and clever and they seem to get better with each release.
This is their first release called “Cowardice”; enjoy!
Posted in Tactical Retreat and tagged brian, case, cohen, comedy, court, cushing, defendant, faye, james, judge, lambert, law, litigant, office, pennsylvania, philadelphia, plaintiff, project, retreat, riva, sketch, skit, suit, tactical, troupe
Yes Concert Reviews: 11/21/08 – Front Row and on the Radio!
Here is another addition to my series of Yes music posts. I started this series here and you can read the others here.
I saw the progressive rock band Yes play at the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey on November 21, 2008 during the first part of their In The Present Tour. You can read more about this show here. Technically speaking this show was initially not considered a Yes show but a “Howe, Squire, White Show featuring Oliver Wakeman and Benoit David,” but at the end of the leg of the tour of which this show was a part the band faced reality and acknowledged that they were the new iteration of Yes. Starting with this show, and concluding with the Yes show I saw in 2013, I attended each one with my friend and former neighbor Mike March. He has incredible luck in getting good seats which will be described below. I also have posted some photographs from the show below. This show took place about six weeks after my first son was born and my wife reminds me that I should thank him for being born on October 12 and not only not interrupting our seeing the Phillies in the World Series but also not interfering with this show (my second son had similarly good timing which I will describe in a later post).
The line-up Yes fielded that show was:
Benoit David: lead vocals, percussion, guitar
Steve Howe: guitars, backing vocals
Chris Squire: bass guitars, backing vocals
Alan White: drums, percussion
Oliver Wakeman: keyboards
The set Yes played was (the album from which the song comes in parenthesis):
Intro: Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru (Close To The Edge)
I’ve Seen All Good People (The Yes Album)
Tempus Fugit (Drama)
Onward (Tormato)
Astral Traveller (Time And A Word)
Close to the Edge (Close To The Edge)
And You And I (starting with “Apocalypse”) (Close To The Edge)
Machine Messiah (Drama)
Starship Trooper (The Yes Album)
Encore: Owner Of A Lonely Heart (90125)
Encore: Roundabout (Fragile)
Recollections:
This show was the first of four shows I saw this line-up perform over the course of its “In the Present Tour” which spanned the better part of three years (2008 – 2010). I saw this line up also perform in 2011 for its final tour called the Rite of Spring Tour.
To date, I have seen this lineup perform more often than any other though, sadly, it was the weakest of the Yes lineups I have seen. When I review the other shows of this lineup I will discuss different details regarding its origins, strengths, and weaknesses. I reviewed the 2010 show of this line up here. In September 2004 I saw the classic Yes line up perform for the last time (you can read about that here) and, after that tour, Yes went on hiatus. In 2008 Yes reformed with Jon Anderson continuing as lead vocalist but without Rick Wakeman due a conflict with his prior commitments. To replace Rick Wakeman, Yes hired on his son Oliver Wakeman to play keyboards, who is a very skilled keyboard player in his own right. This quintet went ahead and scheduled the Close to the Edge and Back Tour. Unfortunately, this tour was cancelled due to Jon Anderson suffering a severe asthma attack. Controversially Yes went forward without Jon Anderson and hired Youtube Yes cover singer sensation Benoit David to replace him.
Due to Yes now touring without the man who is considered to be the band’s face, soul, primary composer and lyricist, and inspiration (Jon Anderson) and without their long time and most popular keyboardist (Rick Wakeman), they decided to tour the crap out of this new lineup. Losing Jon Anderson was a huge blow to their image, identity, and to their fan base, and Yes felt they had to pull out the stops to reassure the fans that Yes is still, well, Yes. So, they toured practically non-stop for over four years to get as much exposure as possible and to convince the fans that Yes is still the band it has always been. In an attempt to up the ante on their trying to reassure the fans of their Yes-cred, they played some real deep cut rarities and toured with a stage set designed by Roger Dean to boot.
I have to say that I thought this show an amazing and truly excellent show. The band played really well. David’s voice was strong, clear, and did Anderson’s parts justice. His stage presence was rather goofy, hokey, and some what amateur, but it did not affect the sound at all so I did not really care all that much. O. Wakeman’s playing was really good. He was able to replicate his father’s playing, Tony Kaye’s playing and Geoff Downes’s playing with aplomb. My only complaint about his playing was that it was totally nondescript and he had absolutely no state presence at all. He played his parts technically really well but offered no personal flair to any of the parts whatsoever. His playing was practically by rote, which disappointed me because other players who join Yes tend to place their personal stamp onto the music even if it was initially played by others; ironically perhaps the best at that was Wakeman’s father. At the time, I sort of assumed that this lack of a personal stamp was due to circumstance. It seemed Yes was very focused and intent on ensuring the fans knew that this was Yes and the next stage of their career and not messing with keyboard sounds and arrangements may have helped fans embrace this new line up due to the familiar sound it could produce. Regardless, for me, at this time, between the excellent playing and the Dean stage set, this iteration of Yes seemed to be the real deal and a worthy continuation of the band, even without Anderson and, to a lesser extent, R. Wakeman.
I also have to say that the set list was excellent and that was an amazing feature of the show for me. The set included rarities from Drama (only ever played in 1980), “Astral Traveller,” a great song that had not been played since 1970, “Onward” which had only ever been played live three times (all at the Keys to Ascension shows), and they brought back their tradition of introducing “And You And I” with “Apocalypse” (ala Yessongs).
Unfortunately this show was performed in a casino, which, for me, is one of the worst venues for a concert. It is the worst because (1) I have to drive at least 75 minutes to the show; (2) it takes place in a craphole city (Atlantic City); (3) a fair amount of the audience got tickets at the casino for something fun to do but were not really fans and, therefore, spent the show being drunk and talking instead of involved in the show; and worst of all, (4) the set list is shorter than usual due to casino rules. Despite the excellent set list, it was shorted and did not include other songs on this leg of the tour, including “Parallels,” Long Distance Runaround,” The Fish,” “Soon,” “Aliens” (a song played live but never recorded by Yes but eventually included on the first Squackett album), and a Steve Howe solo spot.
The most memorable part of this show has got to be the seats! As I said above, Mike has incredible luck with seats. The local classic rock radio stations 102.9 WMGK was promoting the show and one of its disc jockeys, Ray Koob, was there broadcasting live. Koob promoted something like a drawing for a “seat upgrade” and all one had to do was text WMGK to enter. Mike and I entered and he looked at me with confidence and said “I am not going to sit in our seats because it’s a waste of time considering we’re getting a seat upgrade.” I grinned but had no expectation to win. Mike assured me we would win and was getting amped up for front row seats. Miraculously I got a text from WMGK which bumped up our seats to the front row right in front of Squire! It is the only time I have ever had front row seats for Yes. I have to say that it is a really exciting place to be. You truly get a view impossible anywhere else in the theater, though, admittedly, the sound is better in other places in a venue. As I was right in front of Squire, needless to say his bass and voice dominated the sound for me. When we got the ticket upgrades, Koob interviewed Mike and I on live radio and we went home with some promotional material. My wife, who was spending the day with her sister, listened in from home. We also had our pictures taken (posted below) with our winning tickets and the photographs were posted to the WMGK website. It was a really exciting moment for me – and something of a whirlwind – to show up to a show expecting to sit in the fifteenth row and, within about 15 minutes, get bumped up to front row and interviewed on a live radio broadcast! On Christmas 2008 Mike was nice enough to buy me a beer stein with our WMGK photograph on it!
Needless to say, my first Yes show in 4 years, a great show, a great performance, a good stage set, a great set list, front row tickets, a radio interview, and a 6 week old son made for an amazing night!
Previous Review:
I reviewed this show a few days after the show and posted it to the Usenet group alt.music.yes. Back in the mid 1990s the old message board system of newsgroups on Usenet was in its heyday and, being a sucker for internet debates, I gravitated right toward it. Nowadays Usenet has been taken over by Google Groups but, needless to say, social networking things like Facebook and Twitter and any number of other options have made Usenet all but obsolete save for some loyal diehard hardcore users. I found my old review preserved at the website Forgotten Yesterdays and can be found here.
My old review has a lot of details about the show I have forgotten. Here is my old review (typos and all): Here are my thoughts about the AC show:
I posted elsewhere that the set was absurdly short due to the venue. I complained about it there and will not repeat it here. Suffice it to say that despite the short set, the evening was magical for me.
On a personal note, 102.9 WMGK was there broadcasting live. They did an “Owner of a Lonely Heart” game where you had to guess how many times various classic rock musicians have gotten divorced. My friend and I gave it a go and won a couple of radio station t-shirts. They also had a text message raffle for a first row seat. On a lark my friend and I both sent text messages. After a while it got close to show time and I wanted to take our seats, but he said “no way, we’re going to win those 1rst row seats”. Wouldn’t you know it, but 2 minutes later we won the tickets! So, we moved up a couple of dozen rows for out front row seats! directly in front of Chris Squire. So, needless to say it was awesome just on this note alone for me.
About the show:
BD: very good. Great stage presence. Moves around and interacts with the band and the audience very well and in a more “normal” sort of way as compared to JA. He also moves and dances a lot to the music (and according to its rhythm too!), so this is different from JA also. Obviously no spacey talk. Over all, a very good performance. Of course, we all missed JA but BD made us feel right at home.
SH: really hot. He’s a strange guy, people say he is slowing the band down in terms of tempo. However, his performance is hot and cold in terms of speed. A few moments he is playing either slower or less notes than the album or previous performances in years past (i.e.: TF). Other times (such as “Wurm”) he is blisteringly fast. So, I cannot tell if he thinks playing slower is more mature or refined or he can only sustain it occasionally. He got really angry at least twice during the show. While introducing AT he told some folks in the audience to “shut up” because he was talking. During the quiet part of “I Get Up, I Get Down” when CS is doing some noodling, he looked toward those same folks with a look that could kill and mouthed “shut up” and made a motion with his hand to tell them to keep it down. Overall, his performance was spot on and he was very animated at times.
AW; same as always: solid.
OW: I think he does not get the credit he deserves. He was mixed somewhat lower than RW. However, I have found with the exception of perhaps PM, every keyboardist is mixed lower than RW. There was at least one time when SH motioned to the sound guy to turn OW down – I cannot for the life of me remember what song that was. What he did play was spot on like the albums. I think his main “problem” if it is one, is that he has absolutely ZERO stage presence. He never looks at the audience and only acknowldged the band (CS specifically) one time that I can remember (during the “Roundabout” solo). When he has no keyboard part to play he often clasped his hands in front of himself looking at the floor. He also does not make his playing look challeging. He uses a smaller rig than RW, taking full advantage of new technology (unlike RW who seems to enjoy using 1,000,000 keyboards all of the time). He rarely played more than one at one time and does not sway/leap/run back and forth between them or, as RW did in 2002 – 2004, criss-cross his hands constantly. I guess it can be summed up by saying OW has no stage presence and no showmanship and I think a lot of people confuse that with inferior keyboard playing which is, I think, a mistake.
CS: what can I say about him? He was 5 feet from me so I saw everything and he took a lot of my attention. Really great playing and singing and he does not look like he is slowing down. I think he clearly looks like he is in charge of this group again. He is playing as good as he ever has played I think. My only suggestion is to stop wearing pants so tight. His package was way too prominent and his old man legs way too evident.
The set was as follows:
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
I’ve Seen All Good People
Astral Traveller
Close To The Edge
And You and I (starting with “Apocalypse”)
Machine Messiah
Starship Trooper
Owner of a Lonely Heart
The details are largely the same as other shows, but here are some details I noticed that may not have been shared perviously. No major issues or flubs. Overall a very tight performance considering the complaints from recent shows.
SK: during the quiet parts at the begining CS had something caught in his bass and fiddled with it for several seconds.
TF: I was 4 feet from CS. I can tell you that he seemed very confident playing the challenging bass parts. However, he seemed to REALLY struggle singing at the same time. He got most of his lines however he would pull back from the microphone at times and sort of scat the melody. Some of the lyrics got garbled by him. It really could not be noticed unless you actually watched him fromt he distance from which I viewed him. Overall, however, great playing.
Onward: CS plucks the strings with 2 fingers during many moments in the song instead of playing as he typically does. SH sat on a stool the entire song.
CttE; they pulled out the dry ice mist during the quiet parts. They also did some spacey improv circa 1972 during those same moments. I do not think SH’s blue guitar on a stand does justice to the sitar sound. The sound round of pipe organ is supplimented by SH doubling the melody and CS and AW souping it up a bit as they have done on previous tours. The tempo was more or less album tempo with a ripping guitar solo at the beginning.
AYAI: great and tight overall performance but awkward guitar playing when not using a steel. SH did not use his acoustic 12 string but opted for that 6-string blue guitar. As a result, the song was different (i.e.: more electric) and a lot thinner due to the lack of 6 more strings. So, I think that took away from the music if being true to the fullness of the acoustic 12 string is important for the listener. Also, not sure if it was intentional, but the blue guitar was facing to the left side of SH and not directly in front of him. As a result, when he had to sing the “Coins and Crosses” part he had to stretch his arms to the side while his face was forward toward teh audience. Very uncomfortable looking. Was it like this at other shows? The two note keyboard chords during the keyboard solo were prerecorded.
MM: AMAZING!! SH’s slow building guitar growl was just great and CS was blistering. Great job. Not sure what the point is for BD to play the acoustic guitar as SH is not playing his own guitar during those moments but competant strumming nonetheless. They also used the dry ice during the slow ending. CS’ singing on this one was intermittent. He would come in and out of the same verse and I do not think he did the same on the album.
ST: in terms of performance, probably the best and tightest performance of the night. Again the blue guitar used for an the acoustic sound during “Disillusion”. The solos at the end are as good as they have been in recent years. A REALLY well done rendition. During the “Follow…” part of “Disillusion” it sounded like OW played some keyboard effects that sounded like harmonized voices to boost the vocal sound of that section.
OoaLH: pretty standard. AW introduced it. SH looks less angry than bored playing this now, and actually played it pretty well and put some effort into it (unlike previous tours, I thought). The electronic drums were prerecorded and there were no shreeks from JA. OW played the little trippy transition parts. BD came in with the chorus at the end a little too early and looked at CS and the both laugh it off. BD sort of laughingly shrugged and CS did the same.
Roundabout: AW introduced this one too and it was again, pretty standard. The whole song too, none of this shorted nonsense. Again the blue guitar substituted for the acoustic and SH plays the “acoustic” parts with his fingers, which I do not know if he generally does that.
There you have it from AC!
From the WMGK website:
My own photos:
Posted in Musings: Music - Prog Rock Generally, Musings: Music - Yes and tagged 04, 08, 11, 12, 2, 2001, 2004, 2009, 2010, 21, 28, 3, 7, 9, alan white, album, allentown, art, asia, atlantic, attorney, august, avant, benoit, benoit david, bill bruford, billy sherwood, birthday, borgata, buggles, carl palmer, casino, center, chris squire, city, classic, concert, court, daid, darby, dean, ELP, emerson, fairegrounds, february, garde, geoff downes, groupe, heaven & earth, john wetton, jon anderson, jon davison, judge, july, lake, larry, law, lawyer, line, line-up, live, magnification, mann, music, octber, oliver, orchestra, palmer, pennsylvania, philadelphia, present, prog, progressive, review, rick, rick wakeman, rock, roger, september, set, show, sing, song, stage, steve howe, syd arthur, symphonic, symphony, theater, tom. brislin, tour, tower, track, trevor horn, trevor rabin, trop, tropicana, up, upper, upper darby, wakeman, yes
This article is part of my posts on the economic system of distributism. This is from practicaldistributism.blogspot.com/ which you can find here:
“One claim critics of Distributism frequently make is that the elimination of large monopolies with their wealth will bring innovation and technological development to a virtual halt. They cannot seem to conceive of companies working together for the mutual benefit of everyone without having government issue patents to “protect” their inventions. While the current system of patents certainly works in stimulating innovation, it does so based on the idea of exclusive claims to rights to use the development, and the ability to extract money payments from anyone else who would make use of it. Theoretically, it also allows companies to prevent the use of innovations by not allowing anyone to use the patented technology.”
Posted in Reblog: Practical Distributism and tagged attorney, capitalism, case, catholic, chesterton, christian, client, cohen, compensation, court, cushing, defendant, distribute, distributism, distributist, distritbutism, economics, economy, faye, income, james, jusge, law, lawyer, money, office, pennsylvania, philadelphia, plaintiff, redistibution, redistribute, riva, socialism, SUE, wealth | Leave a comment
Accepting Voluntary Layoff Is Now Involuntary Termination
Decades of Pennsylvania law concerning eligibility for unemployment compensation after accepting an early retirement package has been overturned in the recent landmark Pennsylvania Supreme Court case of Diehl v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 57 A.3d 1209
In Diehl, the Plaintiff, a sixty-three (63) year old man with twenty-three (23) years’ seniority with his employer, was given a memorandum from his employer which included a list of twenty (20) employees who would be laid off pursuant to a reduction-in-force; but Plaintiff was not on the aforesaid list. The employer also offered employees over the age of sixty (60) an early retirement program, for which Plaintiff was eligible. Plaintiff accepted the early retirement program and effectively quit his position with employer as a result; he subsequently applied for unemployment compensation benefits.
Plaintiff was ruled to be ineligible for benefits at every level of the litigation of this matter, prior to the Supreme Court’s decision which is the subject of this article. The reasoning of the lower decision-makers’ was based on Plaintiff’s voluntarily accepting the early retirement program which effectively served as a voluntary termination of his employment without a necessitous and compelling reason to do so. Plaintiff was not on the above-mentioned list and he was not compelled to accept the early retirement package, and there was no threat of termination by his employer, if he didn’t accept it.
The Supreme Court’s legal analysis centered upon the Voluntary Layoff Option Provision portion of 43 P.S. Section 802(b) which states the following: “[p]rovided further, [t]hat no otherwise eligible claimant shall be denied benefits for any week in which his unemployment is due to exercising the option of accepting a layoff, from an available position pursuant to a labor-management contract agreement, or pursuant to an established employer plan, program or policy.”
As one would expect, the tribunals below the Supreme Court cited to multiple cases over the last three (3) decades which would lead to the necessary conclusion that Plaintiff is ineligible for benefits due to voluntarily terminating his employment without a necessitous and compelling reason. These cases tend to focus on a judicially created distinction between early retirement and a voluntary layoff, with only the former allowing eligibility for benefits. However, the Supreme Court pointed out that, despite the long history of reasonably consistent decisions, it was apparent that none of other courts and tribunals actually read the statute they were applying and upon which they ruled.
The Supreme Court began its analysis of the decisions below by identifying an underlying interpretive framework for unemployment compensation which requires viewing the unemployment compensation law as liberally as possible in order to provide the maximum benefits possible. Furthermore, the Supreme Court pointed out that when attempting to apply a statute, courts must abide by the letter of the law when the language of the statute is clear and free from ambiguity using the common and approved usage of the words. As a result, the Supreme Court concluded that benefits should only be denied if the statute has explicit language to that effect; indeed there is a presumption that an applicant for unemployment compensation is eligible for benefits and the burden to prove the contrary lies with the employer.
Using the guidelines described above, the Supreme Court indicated that the Plaintiff was denied benefits, and the many cases in support of his denial, was the result of chronic misinterpretation of the Voluntary Layoff Option Provision portion of 43 P.S. Section 802(b), apparently in an attempt to harmonize it with the law regarding ineligibility upon voluntary termination. Despite this, however, the Supreme Court ruled that the language quoted above, taken on its face, uses the term “layoff” without any other modifier, therefore the term layoff can refer to either temporary or permanent separations initiated by an employer. Indeed, the Supreme Court specifically indicated that the Voluntary Layoff Option Provision portion of 43 P.S. Section 802(b) specifically forbids the denial of unemployment compensation benefits due to accepting a voluntarily offered plan by an employer. The Supreme Court asserted that the language of the aforesaid statute is so unambiguous that the legislature’s intent to equate someone falling within the statute with an involuntarily unemployed claimant as opposed to someone who voluntarily terminated his own employment without a necessitous and compelling reason.
To put it simply, the Supreme Court found no language in the aforesaid statute to prevent interpreting it to allow claimants to be eligible for benefits upon accepting employer-initiated early retirement packages offered pursuant to a workforce reduction.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer Blog on January 27, 2014 and can be seen here.
Posted in My Articles: Unemployment Compensation and tagged benefit, benefits, case, claim, claimant, cohen, compensaiton, cushing, discharge, eligibility, eligible, faye, fire, hearing, involuntary, james, judge, law, lay, off, office, pennsylvania, philadelphia, quit, referee, retire, retirement, riva, SUE, suit, termination, unemployment, voluntary
The cold never bothered us anyway…
Here is the latest post by Angela and Daz Croucher to their blog A.D. Croucher! They are up-and-coming young adult authors. Check them out!
A.D. Croucher
Now that CORRUPTED has hit the virtual shelves, we’re getting ready to gear up for book three. It’s definitely a busy time here at Croucher Towers. We’re finishing up a rewrite of the movie script we wrote last year, which placed quite well in a few competitions. We got some great feedback and notes on it, which gave us some good stuff to think about and work on… so we dived right back in to really pull it apart and put it back together again. Although the central character through line is unchanged, each of the three acts has been heavily restructured, some substantial new scenes added, and we’ve cut out a LOT of what was there before. Editing is ruthlessness. You have be cold, like Elsa. (Or Captain Cold in The Flash). There’s no room for sentimentality or “but I love that scene”. The story becomes your master and you…
Posted in Reblog: A.D. Croucher and tagged adult, angela, angie, attorney, author, blog, book, case, client, cohen, croucher, cushing, darren, darrin, daz, faye, james, judge, law, lawyer, movie, pennsylvania, philadelphia, riva, story, SUE, suit, writer, young | Leave a comment
Don’t be Afraid to Break Up Before Marriage!
I post this essay with much fear and trepidation because I do not necessarily view myself as a relationship expert or counselor, but I do feel that I have something to say on the issue of breaking up before stepping into marriage.
Just to note my background for the uninitiated, I have been a practicing family lawyer for over twelve years now and been in a relationship with the same woman for nearly as long (and married for nearly nine years), so needless to say, I have some experience being in a marriage relationship and seeing many many marriage relationships break up. Of course, like anyone else, I also have had the opportunity to have friends and family in marriage relationships and, unfortunately seen some of those end in divorce as well.
Now there are countless reasons why a couple divorces. Conventional wisdom says that the most common reasons surround children, money, and sex. I would say that is largely true. Of course, one could also add things like abuse, a large age gap, a large education gap, immaturity, and laziness to the list as well, among others for sure.
Although we could all come up with our own lists of reasons why couples divorce, I, in this post, would like to focus on those reasons that are clearly present before the marriage. One of the things I have noticed in my own marriage and in the marriages of others is that, as much as we wish it were not the case, the person we date will probably be the same person we are married to, no matter how much we try to change him/her and, if the person does change, there is a good chance that that change carries with it some resentment along with it.
The person who, before marriage, does not want kids, or is a spendthrift/cheapskate, or is emotionally/physically abusive, or is condescending (intentionally or unintentionally due to things like a large age or education gap), or is immature, or comes from a difficult and/or intrusive family or any number of “negative” things will likely continue to be that way after one marries. To think that putting a ring on someone’s finger will make it all better or different is nothing short of wishful thinking.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to be pessimistic or a romance killer; I am just being realistic. Before someone decides to make the life changing decision of marriage, one should be as completely and unabashedly honest with him/herself as possible and, of course, with one’s potential spouse. I think this is where the difficulty comes into play: people are afraid of this unfiltered honesty because it may point to the unpleasant reality that a couple should break up before marriage. Obviously breaking up is potentially hugely traumatic. The couple may truly feel love for one another and breaking up would bring true grief and sadness. Someone may feel that s/he would never (or at least have a very hard time) finding a new potential spouse. Someone may not want to experience being alone again. Some may feel that a particular relationship may be the best/only/last opportunity to have a child. Some may feel that less-than-satisfactory-relationship is better than none. There are all sorts of reasons why someone may want to avoid breaking up. In view of all of these things, though, are any of them worth the very real potentiality of divorce in the future?
Again, this is precisely where honesty comes into play. The person should try to look at his or her relationship as objectively as possible, but doing so may reveal some unpleasant truths. For example, let’s say one person wants a child and the other does not. Can the person who wants a child really and truly accept the possibility of not ever having one and, more importantly, do so without resenting the other? What about money? Can someone truly live with someone who spends money faster than he makes it (or with someone who refuses to spend money to such a degree one lives as if impoverished)? What about an age gap? A 20 year age gap when one is 23 is one thing; when one is 43 it is quite another; is the potential spouse truly ready for that? How about in-laws? That nasty mother-in-law or condescending father-in-law may be tolerable while one is dating, but how about for the next thirty years as a part of one’s “new” family? Anyone could suffer through a few years of any of these, but marriage is supposed to be life-long.
I think the big question is clear: are you ready to live with any of the above (and more) and not getting what you want? If someone thinks “I’ll talk him/her into it,” please understand that disappointment will likely follow: may be not today or tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life (to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart). If you are not prepared to deal with any of these things not going your way, then the best option may be to break up now before you wind up married, as disentangling the lives, finances, children, friends, assets, emotions, resentments, relationships, and families is far more difficult and expensive than breaking up before marriage. It just takes courage to look at reality in the face and acknowledge its truth and implications for your relationship. If this is too difficult, ask a friend, family member, counselor, mentor, or clergyman to give you his/her opinion on your relationship and be prepared to accept that opinion and seriously consider it.
Believe me when I tell you that I have heard “we all saw it coming” said countless times in my divorce practice, and thought and heard it many times in my own life, when a married couple decides to call it quits. If it is so obvious to everyone around you, then it ought to be discoverable to you if you only take a moment, step back, and look at yourself, your boy/girlfriend, and your relationship, honestly and objectively. One way my wife and I tried to achieve this objectivity was by reading a book together called Preparing for Marriage. This book was recommended by my then parish priest Fr. K. Brewster Hastings from my old church St. Anne’s in Abington, PA. Fr. Hastings conducted our premarital counseling. The book asks very insightful and extremely personal questions of the reader who is write the answers in the spaces left in the book; when finished the couple is to compare their answers, preferably together and with their premarital counselor. Sometimes the answers are fantastically harmonized. Sometimes they are rather different. When different, it is important for the couple, preferably with a clergyman or marriage counselor, to delve into those differences and to investigate how important they are to the two people in the couple. Many times the differences are easily overcome, however others – such as a disagreement over whether to have children – will probably never truly be overcome and that is where the hard decisions need to be made. As stated above, the decision will be to determine what is more important: preserving the relationship and sacrificing having children (for example) without resentment, or sacrificing the relationship for the thing more greatly desired (having children). It is a difficult decision and one not made lightly, but it must be made and must be made with eyes wide open, honestly, objectively, and, hopefully, maturely.
Do not be someone embroiled in a divorce over (an) issue(s) clearly in view, or potentially in view, before you got married. Have the courage, maturity, respect, and forethought to discern and truly consider these issues before marriage and, potentially, break off the relationship long before years of marriage are wasted on ultimately the wrong person.
Posted in Musings: Family Law and tagged attorney, boy, case law, child, cohen, court, cushing, defendant, father, faye, friend, girl, husband, james, law, lawyer, mother, office, pennsylvania, philadelphia, plaintiff, riva, SUE, suit, wife
Concert Review: Asia 9/13/06
This post is part of my series of posts on progressive rock which you can see here.
On September 13, 2006 I saw the progressive rock supergroup Asia during their 2006 reunion tour at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA.
Asia, which formed and released their first album in around 1982, started its life as a progressive rock supergroup which combined members of great prog rock bands of the 1970s into a single band. The band consisted of Steve Howe (guitarist of Yes), Geoff Downes (keyboardist of Yes and The Buggles), John Wetton (former bassist/vocalist of such bands as King Crimson, Family, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, Renaissance, UK and Wishbone Ash), and drummer Carl Palmer (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and Atomic Rooster), along with Roger Dean as their cover and stage designer to boot.
It is worth noting that the band, in progressive rock circles, is controversial in that, despite the pedigree of all of its band members, the music the band created is not nearly as progressive as the bands of origin for its members. Many prog rock fans felt let down by the more accessible music Asia released, however that did not stop the band from having great success. For me, I think much one’s impressions of music (or movies or whatever) is dependent upon one’s expectations. So, if one approaches Asia expecting a Yes/ELP/KC mash-up will be terribly disappointed. I think if one approaches Asia on its own terms, it provides a much different impression. I think Asia is really fantastic at what it does and I really enjoy that: they play really good stylized rock music that features good melodies and tight arrangements with good punchy solos that is influenced by prog rock. Taking Asia on its own terms makes them much more satisfying. I think Steve Howe said it best. He was asked how a Yes guitarist could play Asia’s music and he replied (I am paraphrasing) that sometimes someone needs a 7 course meal (Yes) and sometimes someone needs a light lunch (Asia) and that both of those needs are legitimate and that music is no different.
Their first album was an enormous success. It was the number one album in the United States for 1982, spent nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Charts, went quadruple platinum in the Untied States, sold about ten million copies worldwide, and spawned the number one hit single (for six weeks) “Heat of the Moment.”
Unfortunately for Asia, their second album, Alpha, though selling in the millions, did not do nearly as well as the first album which led to a even greater decline in sales for their third album, Astra. There was also internal unrest within the band. The Wetton/Downes writing team that proved so popular on the first album was pushed by the record company to lead the writing on Alpha which left Steve Howe feeling sidelined. As a result, he left after the Alpha tour to form GTR with Genesis guitar player Steve Hackett. John Wetton had his share of problems too. He was suffering from alcoholism around this time and that, of course, negatively affected his ability to work with the rest of the band. He stepped out for a time during the Alpha tour and was briefly replaced by ELP alumnus Greg Lake, whose time with the band is memorialized in the Asia in Asia video (along with some keyed down songs for Lake’s voice). Wetton returned for Astra, but by then the band had former Krokus guitar player Mandy Meyer in for Howe.
By 1986 Wetton was gone and there was little interest in the band continuing. Downes kept the flame alive with a half-new material-half-old material album Then & Now in 1991 but could not truly reunite the”classic” Asia, which led to an essentially new Asia led by Downes and bass-player-vocalist John Payne with a host of other musicians which only occasionally featured Howe and Palmer as guests here and there on record and/or live (notably Wetton stayed away until 2006 as described below). The Payne-led Asia released several albums and toured extensively over the next 15 years or so but to considerably less success than the original supergroup.
By 2006 the Payne-led Asia was losing steam and there was a push to reunite the classic supergroup as its twenty-fifty anniversary approached. So, in 2006, the original line-up reunited, which led to John Payne, through legal and practical means, creating an effective schism in the band, with his incarnation of the band essentially scrubbed from Asia history by retconning it to be that of another (new) entity called Asia Featuring John Payne. The classic line-up was restored as if they had simply went on hiatus since 1986. From 2006 onward they have released four albums (though their most recent album Gravitas lacks Steve Howe as he left again in 2014).
In celebration of their reunion, the classic line up of Asia went on tourin 2006 and I had the pleasure of seeing them and that is the inspiration of this post. I took three photographs at the show which you can see below. The set list was composed entirely of material from their first album and Alpha. Their stage set was rather simple: just some lights and a large tarp bearing the band name behind them. The band played loudly and powerfully and were able to play all of their old classics like they did in 1982. They even played an acoustic version of”Don’t Cry,” which Wetton indicated was how he initially conceived the song. One aspect of the show that I especially liked is that the band played one song from another band they each had been in before Asia. So, they played “Roundabout” (a song from Yes, Howe’s previous band), “Fanfare for the Common Man” (an ELP song, Palmer’s previous band), “Video Killed the Radio Star (a Buggles song, Downes’ previous band), and “The Court of the Crimson King” (a song from Wetton’s previous band King Crimson). Wetton’s choice was curious as that is a song from a time when he was not part of Crimson, but no one seemed to care. The band pulled off these other songs with aplomb. As these guys are getting a little older, some have noticed Palmer’s drumming to be less intense and the songs a little less aggressive, and that may be so, but I do not think it was very noticeable and certainly did not to detract from the show. Indeed, contrariwise, it could be said that Wetton’s voice is stronger than ever. All in all, it was a fun show with great music and great performances, and especially if one is an Asia fan.
Before I forget, let me add that the theater is a very nice, old, beautiful theater that sits about 1000 people and there is not a bad seat in the house for either visuals or sound. It is a great place to see a show!
Finally, after the show was a reunion of sorts as my concert-mate (my father-in-law) bumped into some of his old band mates from his younger years and I bumped into my old co-workers from my years at Acme Markets. So, a fun time was had by all.
Posted in Musings: Music - Prog Rock Generally, Musings: Music - Yes and tagged asia, attorney, band, buggles, carl, case, client, cohen, concert, court, crimson, cushing, defendant, downes, ELP, emerson, faye, featuring, geoff, glenside, howe, james, john, judge, keswick, king, lake, law, lawyer, music, palmer, payne, pennsylvania, philadelphia, plaintiff, prog, progressive, riva, rock, show, steve, SUE, suit, wetton, yes
Bought With a Price: Every Man’s Duty to Protect Himself and his Family from a Pornographic Culture
As many of my readers know, one of the primary areas of my law practice is family law. Unfortunately, family law deals with many very deep and profound problems in the family structure which result in custody disputes, abuse, divorce, and other related issues. A common problem which often underlies these issues is the use of pornography. Recently my friend and my former parish priest, Fr. K. Brewster Hastings from my old church St. Anne’s in Abington, PA, emailed me about a new publication issued by the Most Reverend Paul S. Loverde, Roman Catholic bishop of Arlington, Virginia called Bought With a Price: Every Man’s Duty to Protect Himself and his Family from a Pornographic Culture.
Pornography is an enormous blight in our society and plays a significant role in the diminishment of the American family and sexuality in general. The problem of pornography has become so prominent that Bishop Loverde felt led to prepare a comprehensive published essay on the subject. You can find the entire piece in .pdf format here. You can read more about it here.
Instead of summarizing the piece, I will let its author do the talking for me. Accordingly, here is a statement from the Bishop about his publication:
“Seven years into his addiction to online porn, John wrote to tell me of his struggles. His addiction began when he misspelled a word in an online search and was taken to a hardcore porn site. When I received his letter, he was nineteen. If anything, his exposure to pornography at the age of twelve was later than some: studies reveal our children’s first exposure is even younger. With the release of Fifty Shades of Grey, I wonder what we are saying to John and his female peers. I wonder what our decision to objectify women in situations of sexual violence—and to support the industry which fuels it—says about us and about our society? Though by the entertainment industry’s standards this movie is not classified as pornographic, it normalizes the intertwining of sex and violence, that old pornographic standby.
I have not had the privilege of a sheltered life. As a young priest and campus minister in the ’70s, I saw the early fruit of the sexual revolution: broken relationships, devaluation of sexual union, and rising divorce rates. In the lives of those I served, I saw prolonged adolescence, rising numbers of fatherless children, more addictions, and isolation. I listened, counseled, and tried to listen some more. With the dawn of the Internet, we awoke almost overnight to new dangers. Men began to chase online fantasies through progressively more explicit images, ones in which men were violent and controlling of female subjects. Virtual fantasies now broke apart real marriages, careers, and families. Wives stumbled upon their husband’s online history. Young adults lost their jobs viewing porn online at work. Children imitated what they saw in adults and began “sexting” one another—the end result of which was suicide in several cases.
By the mid-2000s, I was fed up with the silence surrounding this issue. In 2006, I wrote Bought with a Price, a pastoral letter aimed at empowering men and women to protect themselves and their children from porn. Since publishing that letter, I have been welcomed into many lives. Victims and addicts often share their stories with me—through letters and conversations. So too, many have confided their stories of hard-won freedom in overcoming addiction. With each new victim’s face, name and story, I find the $97-billion-a-year global porn industry less anonymous. The Internet and cable TV providers—the “white collar pornographers” who guarantee 24/7 access to porn in our homes—strike me as more culpable. It troubles me that many adults will watch Fifty Shades of Grey. My greater concern, though, is for the children like John whose entire moral ecosystem will be marred by the cultural mainstreaming of porn. I suppose we have the option of shrugging our shoulders, ignoring it, or cracking a joke. But I challenge every adult to reflect on this cultural moment from the perspective of a father or mother of young children.
Anyone listening to Pope Francis has heard his call to resist unjust social conditions and go to the margins: to the poor, weak, and defenseless in our “throwaway culture” marked by a “globalization of indifference.”
At the margins, I see twelve-year-old John fighting an addiction he did not seek. I see our daughters and sisters and wives viewed as objects for pleasure, victimized, and even trafficked. And I see a predatory porn industry that is nothing short of euphoric over these developments.
“There’s a greater sense of optimism,” a leader in the porn industry was quoted as saying earlier this year. “I believe the companies that have stood the test of time . . . have figured out a way to stay viable. I would say it’s a new era for the industry.”
It is most certainly a new era. The time has come to join our children at the margins and to defund the industries that prey so viciously and unjustly upon them.
The choice before us is stark. It is anything but grey.”
Posted in Musings: Family Law, Musings: Religion and tagged arlington, bishop, bought, case, catholic, child, children, christian, church, cohen, court, custody, defendant, divorce, duty, family, father, faye, james. cushing, judge, law, loverde, man, marriage, marry, mother, paul, pennsylvania, philadelphia, plaintiff, porn, pornography, price, protect, religion, sex, sexual, SUE, suit, support | Leave a comment
I Now Pronounce You Never Married
Over the last few months, Montgomery County’s register of wills, D. Bruce Hanes, has made quite a name for himself in the local and national media by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples because he personally believes that Pennsylvania’s definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, which is still the law in most of the United States, is “arbitrary and suspect.” Hanes’ actions do not take into account what these licenses will mean for any divorces that result from the same-sex marriage licenses he has issued.
Many will presume that these same-sex divorces will simply proceed like any other divorce would; however, there may be an alternate means to achieve the dissolution of these “marriages,” especially if you are, or represent, the person with the greatest amount of assets and/or income. First of all, as Pennsylvania law does not recognize same-sex marriage, courts have, thus far, been unwilling to grant same-sex divorces because to do so would be to tacitly recognize the underlying marriage. So, what does one do with this Montgomery County marriage license, especially if one, or both, of the parties in a same-sex marriage moves to a jurisdiction that does recognize their marriage?
No matter how one feels personally, emotionally, legally or any other way on the subject of same-sex marriage, the undeniable fact is that, as it stands now, Pennsylvania law defines marriage as “a civil contract by which one man and one woman take each other for husband and wife.” Therefore, by the clear operation of the plain and black-letter law, two people of the same sex may not enter a relationship defined as marriage under Pennsylvania law, regardless of what Hanes does or thinks. So, the obvious legal question is this: Can a court legally divorce what is not legally a marriage?
The matter of the same-sex marriages described above is not the first time the courts have had to entertain the basic question of whether a marriage was legal to start with, let alone subject to divorce. In 2007, the York County Court of Common Pleas heard the matter of Heyer v. Hollerbush, Pennsylvania No.: 2007-SU-2132-Y08 (September 7, 2007). In Heyer, the couple at issue (a man and a woman) was married with a Universal Life Church minister as the officiant. Under longstanding Pennsylvania law, only “the following are authorized to solemnize marriage between persons that produce a marriage license issued in this part: A minister, priest or rabbi of any regularly established church or congregation.” Armed with this statute, the plaintiff in Heyer, instead of filing for divorce, rather shrewdly and astutely, filed a motion for declaratory judgment instead, arguing that the couple had never actually been married because their Universal Life Church officiant had no authority to solemnize their marriage. The Heyer court agreed and ruled that since, in its estimation, a Universal Life Church minister does not fit the criterion laid out under 23 Pa.C.S.A. §1503(a)(6), the parties were never married. It is worth noting that in 2008, test cases with similar fact patterns as Heyer were filed in Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery counties and all resulted in rulings opposite to that of Heyer; however, as none of these matters reached the appellate level, there remains a split among the common pleas courts on this matter.
The impact of Heyer is enormous in the context of divorce, especially if one is, or represents, a defendant. The property held by one party, in the context of a divorce, is considered “marital” and therefore divisible if the parties were married. Furthermore, the dependent spouse may be entitled to spousal support, alimony pendente lite and/or alimony. If the parties were never married, property held in one name only is not divisible if the parties elect to dissolve their relationship and there is no right to any of the above-listed support. The “married” couple in Heyer turned out to be nothing more than a glorified dating, cohabitating or roommate relationship, with only basic contractual rights applying.
How is the Heyer case relevant to same-sex marriage and Hanes taking the law into his own hands? Similar to the parties in Heyer, the same-sex couples, despite the marriage licenses issued to them, are not actually married because of the basic application of Pennsylvania law. Therefore, if and when a party to a same-sex marriage wants to dissolve the relationship, one legal procedural route that is available is to file a motion for declaratory judgment instead of filing for divorce. As stated above, this avenue would be especially attractive to the party holding most of the assets and/or income. As there is already precedent for this tactic’s success, it would not be at all surprising to see it become more common as more same-sex couples are married contrary to the black letter of Pennsylvania law. Indeed, as Pennsylvania law does not recognize same-sex marriage, it does not, by definition, recognize same-sex divorce; therefore, a motion for declaratory judgment may be the only way to secure the striking and/or withdrawal of a same-sex marriage license.
In light of the above, there may be at least two ways to avoid a motion for declaratory judgment. First, if the Pennsylvania Legislature is able to change the historic definition of marriage, it could also, simultaneously, declare Montgomery County’s same-sex marriage licenses (and others like them) to be valid. Second, and more practically, same-sex couples who receive a marriage license such as those distributed by Hanes could simply enter into a nuptial agreement, laying out the terms and conditions of their relationship and their respective rights if their relationship dissolves; such an agreement is enforceable just as any other contract is enforceable. In the meantime, any same-sex couple that gets married using one of Hanes’ marriage licenses should do so with trepidation and with their eyes wide open to acknowledge that their marriage may be anything but a marriage if it does not work out in the future.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 26, 2013 and can be seen here and reprinted in the Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, Volume 35, Issue No.: 4, December 2013 edition.
Posted in My Articles: Family Law and tagged agreement, case, cohen, county, court, cushing, defendant, divorce, faye, gay, homosexual, husband, james, judge, law, LGBT, marriage, montgomery, nuptial, pennsylvania, philadelphia, plaintiff, pre-nup, riva, same, same-sex, sex, SUE, suit, wife
Is Distributism Liberal or Conservative?
“When hearing anyone discussing political or economic ideas, our society has been trained to look at them through one of two lenses: liberal or conservative. How you react to the ideas being expressed depends on the lens of your choice. Because of this, distributists need to be able to address the question that is foremost on people’s minds when they hear about us. Even if they don’t come out and ask the question, they want to know if distributism liberal or conservative?”
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