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__label__wiki	0.658154	0.658154	Director Q&A: Will Addison of Easy Does It By Nathan Tucker October 2019 Set in the mid-1970s, Easy Does It follows two best friends, Jack and Scottie, who go on a mad journey out west in a flashy Ford Mustang to find hidden treasure. Linda Hamilton, most commonly known for her role as Sarah Connor in the first two Terminator films, stars as King George, the matriarchal crime boss who sends her bounty-hunter daughter in hot pursuit of our protagonists. This comedy plays like Natural Born Killers if it was a bromance. The dialogue is witty and outrageous and the actors’ delivery is equally over the top. The cinematography plays on the expressiveness of the dialogue’s delivery with quick zoom transitions of characters faces and montage sequences. Some of the film was shot on 16mm, and the overall look lends itself to the gritty grindhouse style. I caught up with Will Addison, the director of Easy Does It, to get the grainy details. Easy Does It was produced locally. What were some major influences for shooting/producing and having New Orleans as a homebase? The creative collaboration between New Orleans artists is phenomenal.Even if funds are slim (which is almost always the case) everyone helps each other out. Our core filmmaking team was made up of two local filmmaking collectives—EFI Productions and Worklight Pictures, both of which were founded by UNO film program alums. People with all kinds of different artistic backgrounds came together to help realize this project. We had people who work on massive studio movies and people who had never set foot on a film set before. We had a prominent local drag queen helping with wigs, theater lighting designers helping us fake night driving shots, painters designing our title sequence. I know there was a lot of crowdfunding involved in the movie. Could you talk about that and how it impacted the whole process of making the film? We had been hitting the ground hard, meeting with investors for a while. After what felt like the hundredth “no” we decided to get the ball rolling ourselves through Kickstarter’s crowdfunding platform. We shot a concept trailer to show people what the movie would be like and planned a grassroots marketing strategy before launching our campaign with a goal of $25,000. With the generous support of our friends, families, and community members we made our goal by the skin of our teeth. Not long after the campaign, our executive producer Alexa Georges came on board. Super savvy business woman and a perpetual beacon of light for New Orleans filmmaking. Without her, none of this would be possible. She brought a level of experience and legitimacy that elevated the project to the next level. There are some really great over-the-top characters in this movie. Can you talk about inspirations for some of these characters? I love movies with a heightened sense of reality. There’s nothing better than being magically transported into colorful worlds with absurd characters. New Orleans is brimming with real-life eccentric characters. There’s inspiration around every corner. Take your favorite wacky personalities, mix them up, dial it up to eleven and you’ve got a cinematic stew going. Of course, the trick is to know when to reel them back because the goal is always to have a unified feel across the board. Going too big or too small can put a character at risk of feeling like they don’t belong in the movie’s world. To help balance the tone of our cartoonish characters I researched movies with similar elements by filmmakers like the Coen Brothers, Terry Gilliam, Wes Anderson, and Guy Ritchie. The 1965 Ford Mustang is such a crucial part of the movie. What went into getting the car? Was any restoration needed to make it run? The car is almost like another character in the movie and it needed a big personality—to be cool and fun, the quintessential expression of freedom on the open roads. We searched for months trying to find the perfect muscle car. We went to car shows, picture car rental houses, talked with classic car clubs, scoured the internet… and just when we thought we weren’t going to find it, a beautifully restored 1965 Mustang went up for sale on Craigslist in the middle of nowhere, Mississippi. It was gorgeous. Newly painted with a sparkling, shiny blue body and white pinstripes. And for the price, it was the deal of the century. But because the movie takes place in a dirty, broken down rural fantasy world, it needed to feel lived in, banged-up, free-wheeling. We had no choice but to strip off the paint, break pieces off, bust it up and add our own rusty Evel Knievel style paint job. We broke a lot of hearts that day, but the end result was beautiful in its own way. It was exactly what we needed to tie the whole movie together. Shooting on film can get very costly. What were the pros of shooting on film for this movie? As much as I would’ve loved to shoot the entire movie on film, only a small portion was shot on a Bolex 16mm. Cost, efficiency, and visual effect workflow all factored into our decision to mix film with digital. We’re broke artists after all, making this on a shoestring budget. Sometimes you don’t want to risk destroying an expensive camera for a cool shot of a car driving over it. The whole shooting process was a very rough and tumble experience. We actually used twelve different cameras throughout the making of the movie. Our cinematographer, Bruno Doria, was a wizard at finding unique and exciting solutions to budgetary restraints and he did it in a way that was not only economical, but also beautifully cinematic. During the color grading process in post-production it was difficult matching the smorgasbord of cameras we used. Different brands, resolutions, color sensors, etc. It’s a real testament to our colorist, Bradley Greer, who was able to take all of these crazy different cameras and make the movie feel like it was all shot with a singular 16mm camera. For the look we researched film stocks and grain levels from the late 60s and early 70s—movies like Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Badlands, French Connection, and Midnight Cowboy. Were there any attempts at trying to do experimentation to the film itself, like push/pull processing or intentional light leaks? We talked about things like that in the early stages, but because we ended up shooting more digitally it made sense to incorporate things like that in post-production, giving us more control over the image. Easy Does It has a lot of fast-paced transitions. Was that discussed beforehand or did it come naturally in the editing process? Easy Does It was originally a short film I made in 2012 as an experiment to bend the conventional rules of filmmaking and try out a more visually unique approach to directing. At the time I was obsessed with Edgar Wright’s use of smash-zoom transitions in movies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. It’s such an exciting and flexible style of transitioning between scenes and can be used for both comedic and dramatic effect. When I teamed up with Ben Matheny to write the feature version we decided to keep that style and write it into the script, as we felt it had become a defining feature of the Easy Does It vibe. Once we entered post-production, our editor, Stephen Pfeil, found new and creative ways to embellish the fast-paced transition style throughout the film and we ended up incorporating additional flicker-transitions influenced by Easy Rider. What makes grassroots storytelling like this so important? It really connects the community. The bonds we created across the Gulf Coast have connected people to New Orleans in ways we never thought possible. As the characters in our movie travel across America they also encounter people from all walks of life, each with hopes and dreams of their own. Everyone’s striving for something different, but it’s the journey that connects us all. The world premiere of Easy Does It will be Friday, October 18 at the Orpheum Theater. For more info on the film, check out easydoesitmovie.com. For more info and up-to-date info on the New Orleans Film Festival, check out neworleansfilmsociety.org	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line3
__label__wiki	0.857691	0.857691	Part 7: 150 Years of Canadian Aerospace History A Government Lurching From "Problem to Problem" Canadair CF-104D Starfighter. Photo CWHM. By Robert Godwin While Phil Lapp and John Chapman worked on Canada's first satellite, the Canadian government seemed to lurch from one problem to the next. When the administration asked for aircraft industry proposals to update the CF-100s that were on-station in Europe, it was offered a choice of the new supersonic Lockheed F-104 Starfighter (which would be built by Canadair in Montreal) or the new vertical take-off Hawker P1127 which would be built by Avro in Malton. Both aircraft presented problems. Neither was adequate to protect or patrol Canada's remote regions and neither was ready for deployment. The F-104 was notoriously unforgiving in flight and soon earned itself the sobriquets "Jinx Jet," "Widowmaker" and "Flying Coffin". Meanwhile, the P1127 was only just getting off the ground as the world's first fighter jet capable of taking off and landing without a runway. The government chose to go for speed rather than dexterity and gave the contract to Canadair. Any chance that Avro might have had to regroup was now over. History would write the next chapters in this unfortunate mess. Canadair Plant One in Saint-Laurent, PQ, as seen from the air in March 1953, when it was producing forty F-86E fighters each month and ramping up production of the CT-133 Silver Star. The company began in 1944 as a subsidiary of another aircraft manufacturer, went on to become nationalized in 1976, then privatized in 1986 and finally absorbed by Bombardier after having experienced record losses during development of the Challenger business jet. Photo c/o Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. The F-104 would go on to kill pilots around the world at an unprecedented rate, while the P1127 would be deployed as the Hawker Harrier and is still in service today, making it one of the most successful aircraft to ever fly. 1959 also ended with the decision to equip Canada's domestic squadrons with the Douglas Voodoo, another supersonic fighter. The Voodoo couldn’t fly as high or as fast as the Avro Arrow, but its range far exceeded that being covered by the inadequate Bomarc missiles. Meanwhile, Canada's own big interceptor rocket finally took to the skies at Fort Churchill Manitoba. The Black Brant had entered space and began to return new information about the Canadian environment. The new decade began with Phil Lapp proposing to merge his Canadian Astronautical Society (CAS) with the Canadian Aeronautical Institute (CAI). Lapp was the founder of the former, and on the board of the latter. The core of the CAI had struggled to attract its members to space research and so the merger was seen as eminently logical. It took over a year before the "S" was inserted into the acronym and in October 1961 the Canadian Aeronautical and Space Institute (CASI) was formed. No wonder the public had concerns over the Bomarc missile. An account from the June 8th, 1960 issue of the Trenton Evening Times describing the explosive rupture of a Bomarc-A missile on-board helium tank at McGuire AFB on 7 June 7th, 1960. As outlined in the April 26th, 2011 Readex post, "The Bomarc Missile Plutonium Spill Crisis: Exercises in Propaganda and Containment in 1960 and Beyond," while the missile's explosives "didn't detonate, the heat melted the (nuclear) warhead, releasing plutonium which the fire crews then spread around. The Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission cleaned up the site and covered it with concrete." Graphic c/o Trenton Evening Times. Meanwhile, in the spring of 1960 both the Bomarc and Britain's Blue Streak missiles fell on hard times. Despite Boeing's attempt to change Bomarc to solid fuel, which would theoretically make it always ready for launch, both were still seen as vulnerable. The new preference was to keep nuclear warheads mobile, either aboard large aircraft or submarines. The Cold War was getting more and more dangerous and Canada still needed something to defend its airspace, but the Prime Minister did not want to bring nuclear warheads onto Canadian soil unless absolutely necessary. The Voodoos were capable of carrying such weapons, as were the Bomarcs, but so far neither had been armed. The highly public government fiasco turned even worse when the Bomarc was cancelled by the United States government just over a year after the missile had been selected to replace the Avro Arrow. By 1962 the whole idea of being in the missile business had become so odorous it caused de Havilland to rename its missile division as "Special Projects." When Hawker Siddeley's offer to have Avro build the P1127 for Canada was rejected, the company decided to purchase de Havilland Canada. The merger which took place in December 1959 involved both the companies in England as well as Canada. The price paid for the entire global operation was $37Mln CDN. There was now no need for two advanced project offices and so de Havilland's "Special Projects" was merged with Avro's "Advanced Research" to form SPAR. Spar Aerospace founder and longtime chairman Larry Clarke (1925 – 2015) beside a transmission for a Sikorsky UH-60A Blackhawk military helicopter in 1986. As outlined in his October 24th, 2015 Toronto Star obituary, "In 1967, he "led the acquisition of SPAR Aerospace Ltd. from de Havilland and as founder, president, and chief executive officer, built SPAR into a world-class space-technology company. SPAR was best known for the Canadarm designed for the Space Shuttle orbiters. As a result of this innovation, the country enjoyed a high profile within the US space program NASA. As a true visionary, Larry's commitment and dedication to developing Canada's aerospace industry provided opportunities for thousands of engineers." Photo c/o Virtual Reference Library. In an attempt to make use of all of the money that had already been spent on Blue Streak, in September 1960 the British government officially asked the Canadian government to join them in a joint Commonwealth space program but having just cancelled Bomarc, the cabinet in Ottawa was in no mood to get involved in another missile program. Ironically the choice to abandon cooperation left Canada with only observer status when it came to Britain and the United States' first serious attempts to design and build a trans-Atlantic communications satellite. Canada had been the first port of call for all trans-Atlantic communications since Kelvin had laid the first cable and Marconi had received the first trans-oceanic radio message. Now the next step in long distance communications, something which Canada knew how to do as well as any other country was being left to others. Leading the charge in England on this project was James Floyd, the repatriated chief engineer for the Avro Arrow. Once SPAR had perfected the long STEM antenna Canada's first satellite was ready to be built and tested. On September 29th 1962 Canada entered the space era when the Alouette was launched from Vandenberg Air Force base in California. Canada was only the third country to have a home-grown satellite in space and its stated task was to look down and study the earth's atmosphere. The STEM antenna deployed perfectly and performed so well that the US government asked that a set of STEMs be installed on its next manned Mercury spacecraft. Thus began the long history of one of Canada's greatest space exports. Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, with US President John Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in the Bahamas in December 1962. Officially, Diefenbaker was scheduled to arrive in Nassau for talks with Macmillan following Kennedy's departure. However, as outlined by David Owen in his 1972 book, "The Politics of Defence," the Canadian PM arrived early, so Kennedy lunched with both Diefenbaker and Macmillan. Owen quoted Kennedy as stating, "There we sat like three whores at a christening." Photo c/o Getty. However, just a month after the launch of Alouette the United States' military went toe-to-toe with the Soviet Union in what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy managed to extricate the world from the precipice but in the meantime he had run out of patience with the government in Ottawa for still refusing to arm the Bomarcs and Voodoos with nuclear weapons. Compounding the problem was the fact that the British Blue Streak had been removed as a weapon in Europe on the understanding that it would be replaced by another untested missile, the Douglas Skybolt. The Skybolt was a stand-off weapon, designed to be deployed on a bomber and launched from a distance at its target. The British had cancelled Blue Streak and agreed to take Skybolt, only to then see Skybolt cancelled. With no replacement in sight the British Prime Minister urged Kennedy to give Britain the submarine launched Polaris, which he did. This left Canada sidelined with nothing but unarmed Bomarcs and Voodoos. Prime Minister Diefenbaker flew to a summit in the Bahamas with President Kennedy and British Prime Minister Macmillan, but his insistence on keeping Canada out of the nuclear club had agitated the young American President who chose to not discuss the subject further and instead set about explaining how Americans were going to get to the moon using something called "Lunar Orbit Rendezvous" or LOR. Robert Godwin. Robert Godwin is the owner and founder of Apogee Space Books, the Space Curator at the Canadian Air & Space Museum and an American Astronautical Society History Committee Member. He has written or edited over 100 books including the award winning series "The NASA Mission Reports" and appeared on dozens of radio and television programs in Canada, the USA and England as an expert not only on space exploration but also on music. His books have been discussed on CNN, the CBC, the BBC and CBS 60 Minutes. He produced the first ever virtual reality panoramas of the Apollo lunar surface photography and the first multi-camera angle movie of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. His latest book was written with the late Frederick I Ordway III and is called "2001 The Heritage and Legacy of the Space Odyssey" about the history of spaceflight at the movies. Last Week, "Bomarc Missiles, The "Prevailing Wisdom" of Unaware Politicians, Unemployed Avro Employees, NASA, Canadair, CAI & the Origins of Spar Aerospace," in part six of "150 Years of Canadian Aerospace History." Next Week, "Stehling, Maynard, the Lunar Excursion Module, Gerald Bull, James Chamberlin & Phil Lapp" as part eight of "150 Years of Canadian Aerospace History" continues. On sale now, at Apogee Books. Labels: History Part 7: A History of the Canadian Space Program - Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets The 1980's, Reagan, Space Station Freedom and the Debate Over National Needs vs. International Partnerships Space Station Freedom in 1991. Graphic c/o NASA/ Tom Buzbee. By Graham Gibbs & W. M. ("Mac") Evans This paper, first presented at the 65th International Astronautical Congress, which was held in Toronto, Ontario from September 29th - October 3rd, 2014, is a brief history of the Canadian space program, written by two of the major participants. In January 1984, in his State of the Union address, US President Ronald Reagan directed NASA “to develop a permanently manned space station and do it within a decade.” The motives behind the announcement were many, but one of the important objectives was to use space once again (reminiscent of the Apollo Program) as a measure of the free world’s superiority over the Soviet Union which already had a space station in orbit called Sayut and was well on its way to launching the Mir space station. The Russians were also allowing astronauts from East Bloc countries to fly on Russian rockets to the Russian space station. To top this, the US needed to have significant international participation in their space station. And so, President Reagan also said that “NASA will invite other countries to participate so we can strengthen peace, build prosperity and expand freedom to all who share our goals.” He designated James Beggs the Administrator of NASA as a Special Ambassador and had him meet with the appropriate officials in Europe, Japan and Canada in 1984. President Reagan raised the space station at the London G7 Summit in June 1984 and the resulting declaration endorsed the US space station initiative and included the phrase: “In that context each of our countries will consider carefully the generous and thoughtful invitation received from the President of the United States to other Summit countries to participate in the development of such a station by the United States.” This declaration committed Canada to consider participation in space station and to have an answer before the next Summit meeting in a year’s time. The US invitation to participate in space station came at a time when Canadian officials in the Interdepartmental Committee on Space (ICS) were struggling with Canada’s next space plan. On the table at the time were two programs that had already received preliminary approval and initial financing – Mobile Satellite (MSAT), from the Department of Communications (DOC) and RADARSAT, from the Department of Energy Mines and Resources (DEMR). Having arrived as a Heads of Government initiative, Canadian participation in space station was now added to this mix. Each of these programs would entail substantial new resources and the government was expecting the ICS to rank their relative priority. The debate raged at the officials’ level pitching adherents to the policy that Canada should use space to meet national needs (e.g. MSAT and RADARSAT) against those who recognized that space station would become the world’s major space initiative and if Canada was to be a full member of the G7, we had to participate. Early in 1985, the government agreed in principle to participate in the space station and an MOU was signed with NASA. During 1985 extensive discussions with NASA ensued which resulted in agreement that the Canadian contribution would be the Mobile Servicing Centre (a complex system of robots for constructing and servicing the space station based on the successful Canadarm technology) Canada’s commitment to participate in the space station was announced at the Shamrock Summit between Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan in March 1986. Thus, just two years after the initial invitation, participation in space station became Canada’s largest space program by far. It took two more years of international negotiations before the formal agreements amongst the partners could be signed on September 29, 1988, the day the shuttle first returned to flight after the Challenger accident. Graham Gibbs & Mac Evans. Photos c/o MyCanada & CSA. Graham Gibbs represented the Canadian space program for twenty-two years, the final seven as Canada’s first counselor for (US) space affairs based at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. He is the author of "Five Ages of Canada - A HISTORY from Our First Peoples to Confederation." William MacDonald "Mac" Evans served as the president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) from November 1991 to November 2001, where he led the development of the Canadian astronaut and RADARSAT programs, negotiated Canada’s role in the International Space Station (ISS) and contributed to various international agreements that serve as the foundation of Canada’s current international space partnerships. He currently serves on the board of directors of Vancouver, BC based UrtheCast and as a member of the Federal government Space Advisory Board. Last Week: "The 1980's, A "National Space Agency," Canadarm's Rollout, The Second Three Year Space Plan & Canada's First Astronauts," in part six of "A History of the Canadian Space Program: Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets." Next Week: "Long-Term Space Plan I, a National Space Agency, RADARSAT, Centralization and the Dramatic Increase in Government Space Expenditures," as part eight of "A History of the Canadian Space Program: Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets," continues. Ministers Bains & Garneau Provide Motivational Speeches, But No New Money, For the Canadian Space Agency Back in the day, if someone received a press release titled, "New funding to be announced for Canada's space program," which promoted an upcoming announcement from two senior members of the Federal cabinet, there would be a reasonable expectation that the announcement would include "new funding." Minister Bains at CSA headquarters in Longueuil, Quebec on April 27th, 2017. As outlined in his presentation, the technologies developed through Canada's space program "can be applied to the everyday lives of Canadian's" and "point to new ways of fighting climate change, The complete, twenty-five minute press conference is available online by clicking on the screenshot above. For those more interested in the formal, prepared text, it's available online as part of the April 27th, 2017 ISED post, "Canadian Space Agency Budget 2017 Rollout." Graphic c/o CSA. Of course, that not exactly the way things happened on Thursday in Longueuil, Quebec, when Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains got together with Transport Minister Marc Garneau, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation David Lametti and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) president Sylvain Laporte to "celebrate" existing CSA funding relating to quantum encryption and future missions to Mars, plus provide a "dedication to the Canadian space program." But they mostly forgot to announce anything new. As outlined originally in the April 25th, 2017 Government of Canada press release, "New funding to be announced for Canada's space program," the original intent of the April 27th, 2017 press conference seemed to have been to announce "new funding." But by the day of the event, and as outlined in the April 27th, 2017 follow-up press release, "Ministers Bains and Garneau celebrate $80.9 million for the Canadian Space Agency," the focus had definitely changed from "announcing" to "celebrating." One item that hadn't previously received wide publicity before today's press conference, but was referenced there by Minister Bains and is well worth taking a look at is the Canadian CubeSat project, a CSA challenge to post-secondary educational facilities to "Build and fly your own satellite." As outlined on the April 27th, 2017 update to the CSA's "Canadian Cubesat Project website," the CSA "will award up to 13 grants (of up to $200K each) to fund selected proposals to build a miniature satellite called a CubeSat. Teachers and students from every province and territory are encouraged to participate in this innovative project." But even this program can't exactly be called cutting edge or innovative given that several Canadian post secondary facilities have already embarked upon their own space programs. The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) Space Flight Lab (SFL) has launched more satellites into orbit than the CSA over the last decade. As outlined in the March 27th, 2017 post, "UrtheCast, 3D Printing for Space, AlbertaSat & More on Reusable Rockets," the University of Alberta's AlbertaSat-1 is already safely in orbit on-board the International Space Station (ISS) being prepared for release and, as outlined in the April 3rd, 2017 post, "UofT Undergraduate Satellite Builders Raise Almost $500K to Build & Launch a Microsatellite in 2019," even small university based clubs are now capable of raising substantial sums of money for space projects, even without CSA assistance. Graphic c/o CSA. The largest portion of the press conference focused on March 2017 Canadian budget announcement that $80.9Mln CDN would be allocated over five years, starting in 2017 - 2018. As outlined in the March 27th, 2017 post, "Canada's Latest Space Budget; $81Mln for "New Projects" over Five Years Including a Contribution to NASA's Mars Orbiter," these funds were initially announced in March 2017 as part of the 2017 Federal budget and were widely known in the industry. As outlined in March 2017: ... Budget 2017 proposes to provide $80.9 million on a cash basis over five years, starting in 2017–18, for new projects through the Canadian Space Agency that will demonstrate and utilize Canadian innovations in space, including in the field of quantum technology as well as for Mars surface observation. The latter project will enable Canada to join the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) next Mars Orbiter Mission... Minister Garneau, looking memorable, but not saying much. Photo c/o CSA. Much the same was announced in the later, April 17th, 2017 press release: ... Budget 2017 proposes to provide $80.9 million over five years, starting in 2017-18, to the Canadian Space Agency. These investments will be used to develop emerging technologies, will create more well-paying jobs, will support scientific breakthroughs and will make Canada a world-leading centre for innovation... The more recent press release went on to state that, "the funding will support new projects that will demonstrate and utilize Canadian innovations in space." Those projects would include: A radar instrument that will be developed for a future orbiter mission to Mars. This instrument would be used to study the surface and subsurface of the red planet. It could contribute to developing a high-resolution map of the surface of Mars and could help identify water resources at shallow depths, which would provide critical geological information for the landing site of future spacecraft to Mars. A demonstration of the applications of quantum technology in space involving the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. This project will position Canada as a leader in quantum encryption, which uses highly advanced computing technology to create virtually unbreakable security codes. This technology could lead to more secure communications, safer and more reliable government services, and greater protection of Canadians' privacy. It's worth noting that announcements from Federal ministers almost always come with context and antecedents which supersede and sometimes influence the base political process. Seen here is one of the antecedent studies which led to the decision to fund an "instrument" to be "used to study the surface and subsurface of the red planet." To view the complete presentation, simply click on the graphic above. Graphic c/o MIT. The press conference also referenced the ongoing search for Canada's next astronauts as described in the April 24th, 2017 post, "More on Canada's "Next Top Astronauts," Canada's "Failure To Scale" & Is Our Space Agency "Muzzling" its Contractors?" and the ongoing work of the new space advisory board as outlined in the April 20th, 2017 post, "Space Advisory Committee Members Announced: Various Stakeholders Release Independent Assessments, Just in Case." But there wasn't a lot of anything new going on during the press conference. It's not that there is anything wrong about our current government using the CSA and the majesty of science for political gain or re-announcing the same news a second time and pretending that the announcement is a new story. On second thought, it does sort of leave a bad taste in the mouth. Here's hoping that the governing Liberal party recovers quickly from this misstep. Labels: Canadian Space Agency, Canadian Space Strategy More on Canada's "Next Top Astronauts," Canada's "Failure To Scale" & Is Our Space Agency "Muzzling" its Contractors? There's nothing new under the sun and pretty much everything happening today is understandable when placed in the context of what's happened in the past. That's why this blog is currently running two historical series, by acknowledged Canadian experts, on "A History of the Canadian Space Program - Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets," and "150 Years of Canadian Aerospace History." Given that. and for the week of April 24th, 2017, here are a few of the stories we're currently tracking for the Commercial Space blog: At least they're mostly not "striking a pose" or wearing heels. We're down to the "final seventeen," an important enough milestone to splurge on brown polo's and organize a group shot with the innovation minister (on the left, with his back facing the camera). A final decision on the two Canadian astronaut openings is expected to be announced sometime this summer. To view the complete April 24th, 2017 press conference, please click on the graphic above. Screenshot c/o CSA. As the hot PR winds continue to blow, Federal minister of innovation Navdeep Bains has announced the "final seventeen" candidates completing for the two open slots in the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut corps. As outlined in the April 24th, 2017 Global News post, "Final candidates unveiled as Canada searches for 2 new astronauts," the finalists now include "twelve men and five women, roughly reflecting the ratio of men to women who applied to the program." A complete listing of the remaining seventeen candidates are available online on the CSA "Who are the astronaut candidates?," webpage. The competition, being run by the CSA, began last year with over 3,700 applications received. That field was initially reduced (with much fanfare) to seventy-two, and then reduced again earlier this year to thirty-two candidates. The expectation is that the final two successful applicants will be chosen later on in the year, again with much fanfare. As part of the presentation surrounding the latest unveiling, Minister Bains noted the $379Mln CDN the Federal government allocated to International Space Station (ISS) activities in 2016 (which covers costs through 2024 and was originally announced by the previous government), the $80Mln CDN the Federal government allocated to new space projects in 2017 and the ongoing activities related to the space working group, which began meeting just two weeks ago to assess potential, future space projects. As outlined in the 2016-17 Report on Plans and Priorities, published yearly by the CSA, the current CSA base budget (the amount of money required to keep CSA employees on staff and CSA buildings open and functioning even without any activities, exploration or science being undertaken) is $300Mln CDN annually. The cover page of the April 2017 Impact Brief on "Canadian Tech Tortoises; Is a lack of spending on marketing and sales delaying fundraising?" Graphic c/o Impact Centre. Are Canadian start-ups unable to scale into large corporations? A recent study from The Impact Centre at the University of Toronto seems to think so and might have even suggested a reason why. As outlined in an April 24th, 2017 e-mail from Charles Plant, a senior fellow with the Impact Centre, "anecdotal evidence suggests that many Canadian technology companies wait until their products are launched before spending funds on crucial functions such as marketing and sales and that this practice is delaying growth and success in fundraising." The key component missing from Canadian start-ups seems to be that "Canadian firms have significantly fewer employees in marketing and sales functions than US firms do," at least according to Plant. Plant and his colleagues also found that, "even among the best funded firms, Canadian technology firms have 25% fewer marketing and sales employees than US based Unicorns do. This lack of emphasis on marketing and sales may be delaying and impeding rapid growth and our companies' ability to get funding to scale to world-class status." The complete April 2017 report, under the title "Canadian Tech Tortoises; Is a lack of spending on marketing and sales delaying fundraising?" is available online at http://www.impactcentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/170421-Tech-Tortoises.pdf. A bipartisan reminder, courtesy of the April 30th, 2012 Ottawa Citizen Post, "Agency's Long-term plan years overdue," that the Canadian government space program has been drifting for decades, even as our private space sector activities took off. But at least we've been allowed to publicly assess our flaws, right? Well... Maybe not. Graphic c/o PressReader. Has the CSA "muzzled" its contractors? The latest CSA request for proposal (RFP), posted on the Federal government Buy and Sell procurement website, suggests that it has. As outlined on the April 24th, Buy and Sell posting, "Radio-Frequency (RF) Communication Contribution Concept Study (9F050-16-0974)," the CSA has issued an RFP for a single contract, "for an all-inclusive budget not to exceed $400,000.00 CDN (excluding any applicable taxes)" covering "potential solution for an RF communications contribution." The attachment to the solicitation document (CSA-DSTRF-SOW-0001) under the title, "Post-ISS Human Spaceflight Contributions – Deep Space Telecommunications (DST) RF Concept Study," goes into a little more detail on the nature of the work the CSA is contracting. As outlined in the document, the RFP is to help define concepts for "collaborative Beyond Low Earth Orbit (BLEO) Missions" as defined in the NASA global exploration road map, which is being developed by space agencies participating in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG). Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's good that our space agency is co-operating with others to generate useful plans for activities after the ISS winds down. The main page of the ISECG website, a forum set up by 14 space agencies (including Canada's CSA) to "advance the Global Exploration Strategy through coordination of their mutual efforts in space exploration." Screenshot c/o ISECG. But there sure seems to be some onerous restrictions on how CSA subcontractors can go about discussing their contributions to this program. As outlined on page twenty three of the main solicitation document under the title Communications Activity Coordination Process: The contractor must coordinate with the CSA’s Directorate of Communications and Public Affairs all Communication Activities pertaining to the present contract. To this end, the contractor must: As soon as the Contractor intends to organize a Communication Activity, send a Notice to the CSA’s Directorate of Communications and Public Affairs. The Communications Notice must include a complete description of the proposed Communication Activity. The Notice must be in writing in accordance with the clause Notice included in the general conditions applicable to the contract. The Communications Notice must include a copy or example of the proposed Communication Activity. The contractor must provide to the CSA any and all additional document in any appropriate format, example or information that the CSA deems necessary, at its entire discretion to correctly and efficiently coordinate the proposed Communication Activity. The Contractor agrees to only proceed with the proposed Communication Activity after receiving a written confirmation of coordination of the Communication Activity from the CSA’s Directorate of Communications and Public Affairs. The Contractor must receive beforehand the authorization, approval and written confirmation from the CSA’s Directorate of Communications and Public Affairs before organizing, proceeding or hosting a communication activity. These clauses makes it essentially impossible for CSA subcontractors to talk to the public without either the formal approval of the CSA Directorate of Communications, unless they are willing to run the risk of becoming non-compliant with their CSA contract. This is similar to the actions of the previous Stephen Harper conservative government as outlined in the November 6th, 2015 Huffington Post report, "Liberals Unmuzzle Canadian Scientists, Promise They Can Now 'Speak Freely.'" It's also an activity the current Justin Trudeau Liberal government had insisted was done away with when they took office in 2015. Newly minted innovation minister Navdeep Bains at a press conference on Parliament Hill on November 6th, 2015 where he fulfilled a Liberal party campaign promise to allow government scientists and experts to comment on their work to the media and the public. Hopefully, he'll also do the same for our space agency. Photo c/o Adrian Wyld/CP. Oddly enough, similar clauses are also included in other recent CSA documents posted on Buy and Sell, such as the April 19th, 2017 "Development of enabling space technologies (9F063-160953/A)" notice of proposed procurement (NPP) and the April 5th, 2017 "Dextre Deployable Vision System (DDVS) – Phases B/C and D (9F052-160487/A)" NPP. This blog has requested clarification on those contract clauses and the reasons for their inclusion in CSA documents and will update this post as new information becomes available. For more, check out our upcoming stories in the Commercial Space blog. Labels: Canadian Space Agency, Carnival of Space, long term space plan, NASA, Universities and Science Bomarc Missiles, The "Prevailing Wisdom" of Unaware Politicians, Unemployed Avro Employees, NASA, Canadair, CAI & the Origins of Spar Aerospace Bomarc. Photo c/o Canadian Aviation and Space Museum. The Avro Arrow was to be replaced by a surface to air missile, built by Boeing in the United States, named the Bomarc. The Bomarc was a liquid fueled interceptor with a static launching site and a limited range. It was also designed to be equipped with a nuclear warhead. At the moment that Canada committed to this weapon for its defence, the prevailing wisdom was already changing in the United States and the Soviet Union, against the usefulness of static-site liquid fueled rockets. They were considered easy targets and they took too long to prepare for launch. In the Soviet Union even rocket genius Sergei Korolev was struggling to convince Nikita Khrushchev that the rocket which had launched Sputnik was useful as a weapon. In England, Geoffrey Pardoe, one of the principal designers of Britain's Blue Streak was fighting a similar fight with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. However, in the United States dozens of contractors were still lining up to build missiles. The new technology of rockets was outpacing the social awareness of the politicians in charge of commissioning them. At the exact time that 13,000 Avro employees went in search of employment, the United States government was looking for aerospace engineers to come and help its newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to put a man into space. Within weeks of the Avro lay-offs dozens of engineers headed south of the border and took up positions at NASA, McDonnell, Douglas, Boeing, Bell, Grumman and elsewhere. Many went back to England where they were employed by de Havilland and Hawker Siddeley. The main beneficiary of this "brain drain" was NASA where people like James Chamberlin, John Hodge, William Carpentier, Len Packham, Owen Maynard and two dozen others took up positions in the fledgling American space program, often as department heads. Over the next ten years they would play an important role in putting humans on the moon. Just four days after the cancellation of the Arrow, the Black Brant was fired for the first time on a test stand in Valcartier. The cancellation of Arrow represented something of a windfall for Canadair. The management at the Montreal based company now knew that it had another chance to bid on the construction of Canada's next generation of fighter aircraft. Canadair had flourished all through the 1950s building more than 1500 variants of the North American Aviation Sabre fighter. At about the same time de Havilland had been building the Grumman S2-F Tracker anti-submarine aircraft. Sabres of 421 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force at RCAF Station Grostenquin, France in the 1950's. The Canadair Sabre was a jet fighter aircraft built by Canadair in Montreal, PQ under licence from North American Aviation. According to the wikipedia entry, "a variant of the North American F-86 Sabre, it was produced until 1958 and used primarily by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) until replaced with the Canadair CF-104 in 1962. Several other air forces also operated the aircraft." Photo c/o Canada's Air Forces, 1914–1999. The CAI barely acknowledged the huge loss of jobs at Avro and began to encourage more cooperation with the United States, both for fighters and for space. In early March 1959, in response to the notion that Canada should join in on a Commonwealth space program, Herbert Ribner of the CAI expressed his opinion that Canada would be better to ally itself with the USA. Less than a month after that, in April 1959, the Diefenbaker government announced its intentions to design a satellite to be launched by the United States. At first it was expected that the satellite would be built in the USA, with the stated intention that it would be used to probe the upper atmosphere from above. If it could be built and launched successfully the satellite was expected to reveal hitherto unforeseen insights into the nature of the ionosphere and perhaps resolve some of the problems with long range communications that had been dogging governments for generations. Two weeks later the British government announced its intention to follow Canada's lead and launch its own space program with the help of the United States. Canada's first real satellite was proposed by John Herbert Chapman of the NRC in Ottawa. Chapman knew that to be able to study the ionosphere from above, his satellite would need to operate in a frequency range that would require extremely long antennae. Chapman knew Phil Lapp, who was still at de Havilland's missile division in Downsview Ontario, so he contacted him and suggested that he visit the office of George Klein who worked near to Chapman at NRC. Klein had devised a clever device which could be used as an antenna but could also be packed into a very tight space. This so-called STEM antenna could be deployed without any overly complicated mechanisms. It was perfect for space projects. The Canadian built STEM antenna used in the Alouette-1 satellite. The compact, flat, but flexible metallic bar unrolls and bends inward to become a rigid cylinder able to be used as a satellite antenna. Photo c/o Canadian Science and Technology Museum (CSTM) collection #1992.0357.00. Klein was another graduate of the University of Toronto. He was born in Hamilton in 1904 and by the time he was 39 he had already earned an MBE from King George. Klein had an uncanny knack for invention and in July of 1951 he had been returning from a trip to England aboard the Cunard ship Franconia when he had what was perhaps his greatest idea. Evidently Klein liked to roll his own cigarettes and it was while standing on the deck of the Franconia he rolled up a cigarette paper and had a revelation. It had occurred to him that he could make a similar roll-up device out of metal which might be a useful remedy to a problem that he had been given to solve. What was needed was an antenna which could be dropped out of an aircraft over rugged terrain, or even water, and be used to send back data. Working with another NRC genius named Harry Stevinson, Klein concocted a workable device which would ultimately lead to the black box concept seen in most of today's modern aircraft. Lapp studied Klein's invention and took it back to de Havilland where the engineers went to work to make a version that would be long enough for Chapman's satellite. This innocuous device would become so successful it would go on to create an aerospace industry behemoth – SPAR Aerospace. Last Week, "The International Geophysical Year, the Avro Arrow & Jetliner, Lapp, Stehling, Bull & Blue Streak" in part five of "150 Years of Canadian Aerospace History." Next Week, "A Government Lurching From 'Problem to Problem,'" as part seven of "150 Years of Canadian Aerospace History" continues. The 1980's, A "National Space Agency," Canadarm's Rollout, The Second Three Year Space Plan & Canada's First Astronauts Scan c/o Globe and Mail. In late 1979 and early 1980 the Ministry of State for Science and Technology (MOSST) and the Air Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) independently analyzed the existing approach to space in Canada and both concluded that there were weaknesses that limited the scope and benefits of the program. Both also concluded that correction of these deficiencies was essential to the more efficient and effective use of the government’s space resources. The AIAC argued strongly for the formation of a national space agency. In response to these concerns, the Prime Minister in July 1980 assigned to MOSST “the leadership role with respect to space policy and development” and transferred responsibility for the Interdepartmental Committee on Space (ICS) from the Minister of Communications to the Minister of MOSST. Thus, in 1980, MOSST became the lead agency in the areas of space research and development, policy development, and coordination of space activities among government departments and agencies. In April 1981, John Roberts, the Minister of State for Science and Technology announced a three-year space plan for Canada (1981/82 to 1983/84). This was the first time that a consolidated space plan had been considered by the government. The plan was aimed at building upon Canada’s strengths to use space for communications and science, while at the same time developing a major new thrust in the area of remote sensing. As outlined in the April 9th, 1981 United Press International (UPI) post, "Science Minister John Roberts Announced an Increase in Federal Funding for Space Research," Canada's first three year space plan was part of a proposal to centralize Federal space activities into a single agency, while also providing a funding increase for space and other areas of scientific research in order to assist with moving the plan forward. Roberts proposed a $64Mln CDN increase (to $260Mln CDN) for space research, along with a further increase of $200Mln CDN (to $1.5Bln) in all other areas of Federally funded scientific research and development. Screenshot c/o UPI archives. More than 60% of the new funding of $64Mln CDN was dedicated to remote sensing projects including a new basic R&D program to give Canada the technological and industrial competence to develop and establish a remote sensing satellite carrying a synthetic aperture radar (which eventually became known as RADARSAT). In making his announcement, Mr. Roberts indicated that it was the government’s intention to update the three year space plan every year. During this period, Canada also delivered the first of what would become multiple Canadarm's to NASA. A post (unfortunately, now deleted) on the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) website described very eloquently the moment that Canadarm sprung into the consciousness of people everywhere in the world: The morning of Friday, November 13, 1981, yielded a great emotional moment of pride for all Canadians. Shortly past 10:00 a.m. EST on that date, a majestic sight was broadcast on every television screen around the world. Through the aft window of shuttle Columbia, a video camera operated by the two STS-2 astronauts, Commander Joe Engle and Pilot Richard Truly had begun to transmit the first images of the deployed Canadarm. The arm, bent in an inverted V shape position, shined against the jet-black background of space, under a milky blue portion of the earth. The Canada wordmark with the red maple leaf flag prominently displayed on the upper arm boom of the Canadarm were a proud and clear statement about Canada’s official contribution to the Space Shuttle program. Canadarm quickly became the icon around the world for Canada’s high technology capabilities. The importance of the Canadarm to the Shuttle Program is indicated by the fact that this first flight of the arm took place on just the second Shuttle flight. In December 1981, Mr. Roberts announced the government’s second three-year space plan (1982/83 to 1984/85) that in essence added one more year to the previously announced plan. This new plan increased the government’s expenditures on space for these three years by 38% and included Canadian participation in the L-SAT Communications Satellite Program of ESA (justified on the grounds that it would support the prime contractor policy) and project definition studies for a new communications satellite program (MSAT) to provide communications services to mobile users anywhere in Canada. In 1982, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the flight of Alouette I, NASA extended an invitation for Canada to fly its own astronauts on the Shuttle. This offer was clearly seen as a “thank you“ to Canada for providing the Canadarm. The government recognized immediately the significance of this offer and National Research Council (NRC), as the only organization in the government with human space flight experience, was assigned responsibility to establish the Canadian Astronaut Program Office. The NASA offer was for two payload specialist flights, but NRC had ambitions to ensure Canada would be ready for additional flight opportunities, including flights to the space station that was on the drawing boards at NASA. In July, 1983 NRC placed an ad in Canadian newspapers seeking candidates. A 1983 help wanted ad. Image c/o Ron Riesenbach's Blog. Canada’s first six astronauts were announced in December, after a country-wide competition involving more than 4400 applicants. Ten months later, in October 1984 Marc Garneau became the first Canadian to fly in space. A little over a year later, the Shuttle that had taken Marc into orbit exploded on launch killing all seven astronauts on board. It is interesting to note that Canada entered the human space flight arena primarily to support the Canadian Space industry. There was no Canadian user need for either the Canadarm or the Astronauts, but the space industry needed a major program to follow-on to CTS. But public reaction to the Canadarm and the astronaut programs was so positive and so strong that these one shot efforts created the policy imperative to make human space flight a permanent part of the Canadian Space Program and would lead eventually to the creation of the Canadian Space Agency. He currently serves on the board of directors of Vancouver, BC based UrtheCast. Last Week: "Winding up the 1970's, The Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, Spar Aerospace, MacDonald Dettwiler, a Seminal 1974 "Canadian Policy for Space" & the Canadarm," in part five of "A History of the Canadian Space Program: Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets." Next Week: "The 1980's, Reagan, Space Station Freedom and the Debate Over National Needs vs. International Partnerships," as part seven of "A History of the Canadian Space Program: Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets," continues. Space Advisory Committee Members Announced: Various Stakeholders Release Independent Assessments, Just in Case With almost no fanfare in either the mainstream media or amongst the Federal government, but with a great deal of confusion from the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), the Federal government department tasked with administering its activities. the members of the long awaited space advisory board were finally announced last Tuesday evening. Industry minister James Moore at the 2014 Canadian Aerospace Summit and his successor, innovation minister NavDeep Bains at the 2016 edition of the same event. As outlined in the November 19th, 2014 post, "Industry Minister Moore Announces Space Advisory Board Members," the membership of the space advisory board was long-awaited even in 2014, when Moore appointed Colonel Chris Hadfield, retired general and former CSA president Walt Natynczyk and others to the original committee. However, the 2014 board never issued a report and so the search for a new board was announced by innovation minister Bains in November 2016 at the 2016 Aerospace Summit. The creation of a space advisory board was one of the recommendations of the November 2012 Federal Review of Aerospace and Space Programs and Policies (or "Emerson Report") which was presented to another industry minister, Christian Paradis, in November 2012. Photo's c/o Chuck Black & Brian Orlotti. As outlined in the April 18th, 2017 Government of Canada news release, "Government of Canada renews Space Advisory Board," the new board, chaired by Dr. Marie Lucy Stojak, the Director of the Summer School on Management of Creativity in an Innovation Society at HEC Montréal, will: ... engage with Canadians to develop a new vision for Canada’s space sector and define key elements of a strategy that will be launched this summer. The advisory board’s input will inform the strategy, which will focus on using space to drive broader economic growth and innovation, while inspiring the next generation of space scientists. The other committee members include: Dr. James Drummond, a professor at Dalhousie University. William MacDonald Evans, a past president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) who currently acts as a director for Vancouver, BC UrtheCast and is one of the two authors of the multi-part series on "A History of the Canadian Space Program: Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets," which is currently being serialized on this blog. Stéphane Germain, the president and CEO of Montreal, PQ based GHGSat Inc. Dr. Douglas Hamilton, a clinical associate professor of internal medicine and adjunct professor of electrical engineering at the University of Calgary. Michelle Mendes, the executive director of the Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA). Dr. Gordon Osinski, an associate professor at Western University and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) industrial research chair in planetary geology. Michael Pley, a last president of Cambridge, Ontario based COM DEV International before it was purchased by New Jersey based Honeywell International Inc. in 2016 and the current chair of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada's (AIAC) space committee. Dr. Afzal Suleman, the Canada research chair in computational and experimental mechanics, a professor in the department of mechanical engineering and the director of the Centre for Aerospace Research at the University of Victoria. Christine Tovee, an independent consultant who was once chief technology officer for Airbus, North America. A reminder that one of the real issues currently preoccupying the Canadian government is whether it should continue supporting at least one Canadian based contractor capable of building large, multi-function Canadian military satellites like RADARSAT-2 and the upcoming RADARSAT Constellation or open future competition to lower cost, international bids. The March 29th, 2017 SatCom Frontier post, "Commercial Space Operators to Canada; 'We're Here and We can Help,'" argues that large, international satellite providers like Intelsat General Corporation are able to assist with complex military programs like the proposed Enhanced Satellite Communication Project (ESCP). For a contrary view on this issue, its worth taking a look at the April 9th, 2017 post, "Part 4: A History of the Canadian Space Program - Policies & Lessons Learned Coping with Modest Budgets," which focused on "the 1970's, "Equal Access" to Communications, "Improved Industrial Capability" and the Hermes Communication Satellite" and was even co-written by one of the new members of the current space advisory board. Graphic c/o Intelsat General Corporation. The new members replace others appointed by the previous government to the same board in 2014. That board never issued a public report or held any public meetings. The new board is expected to engage in a process similar to the methodology employed during the "massive" review of Federal science funding which wound up last week. As outlined in the April 17th, 2017 post, "'Massive' Review of Federal Science Funding Finally Released; Will Likely Soon 'Drop Down the Memory Hole,'" that review seems to have achieved less than stellar results and might not be a good model to emulate. The only real surprise expected to come out of this review (and how's that for irony) could be an acknowledgement that foreign companies like Airbus and Intelsat General Corporation might soon be able to bid on large Canadian space projects. This is especially likely given the inclusion of Pley and Tovee on the board, although the debate on this particular issue originated in the early days of Canada's space efforts. Some organizations are willing to lobby the Federal government even without the bully pulpit provided by the space advisory board. An example would by the 8th Joint Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium (PTMSS) and Space Resources Roundtable, which will be held in conjunction with the 2017 Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) Convention in Montreal, PQ and promises "major announcements" from international space mining companies. Event organizers, such as Deltion Innovations CEO Dale Boucher have long advocated the use of tax credit system currently used in the mining, to grow the Canadian space industry. Boucher was last profiled in the April 10th, 2016 post, "Deltion Innovations Receives Gov't Funding to Develop Multi-Tool for Space Mining; Will Anyone Buy It?" For more on the mining industry and how it could drive space exploration, check out the July 30th, 2012 CSCA submission to the Aerospace Review, "Using Tools from the Mining Industry to Spur Innovation and Grow the Canadian Space Industry." Graphic c/o Deltion Innovations. Besides, as recently as a few years ago, Canada had two domestic firms capable of building large satellites. However, as outlined most recently in the April 19th, 2017 post, "American MDA Subsidiary Promotes "DEXTRE" for US as NASA RESTORE-L Satellite Servicing Budget Slashed," Richmond, BC based MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) is currently hunting US government and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contracts, which subjects the company to many of the same US export licencing regulations that delayed the launch of RADARSAT-2 for almost seven years, and currently causes concern among those responsible for developing Canadian policies relating to northern sovereignty. Also, in February 2016, common shares of Cambridge, Ontario based COM DEV International were de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) as the iconic Canadian company finished up its final task of becoming a subsidiary of US conglomerate Honeywell. However, nothing is ever certain in politics or in political committees. Board member Evans has often argued publicly for a policy of "capacity building" which would favor specific Canadian companies with additional funds and tax benefits to allow them to compete with large foreign multinational competitors, who typically also receive subsidiaries from their national governments. Evans argues that the creation of a domestic space industry outweighs the up-front costs associated with "capacity building," and supports the growth of domestic expertise and industry. The Canadian Senate isn't waiting for the space advisory committee to issue a report when it can issue its own. As outlined in the April 19th, 2017 Space News post, "Report: Canada should work with U.S. to protect satellites as “critical infrastructure,” a report from the Senate’s Standing Committee on National Security and Defence and Security advocates the designation of "satellites and radar installations as critical infrastructure and seek ways to secure the full spectrum of all critical infrastructure assets against significant threats, including electromagnetic pulse, by 2020 in partnership with the United States and other countries." The article notes that the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has long been advocating this approach. Screenshot c/o Space News. Support for the new space advisory board, at least among the Federal government departments likely to be the most affected by any final report, seems tentative at best. For example, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is in the midst of a series of announcements related to the development of technologies they expect to utilize over the coming years and have been doing this without any guidance from the space advisory board. As outlined most recently in the April 3rd, 2017 post, "The Canadian Space Agency is "Very" Cautious About Its Post ISS Role," and the April 19th, 2017 More Space News post, "The Canadian Space Agency has just announced 15 more "priority technologies" it wants to develop," the CSA already has a strong, if also strongly conservative, sense of where it wants to go over the next decade. There is also some question about whether the Department of National Defense (DND) is on-board with the new board. As outlined in the April 17th, 2017 post, "An Update on NS Rockets, Intelsat Hunting for Canadian Gov't Satellite Contracts & More Ukrainian Lybid News," DND is pushing its own military space program, the proposed Enhanced Satellite Communication Project (ESCP), and the new project is likely out of the scope of the space advisory board mandate. Professor Ram Jakhu, the associate director of the Centre for Research of Air and Space Law at McGill University, was one of two authors of the February 17th, 2017 "Independent Review of the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act." The report makes a number of recommendations directly relevant to the mandate of the new space advisory board but there was no plans from the Federal government to release the report for public comment. Fortunately, and as outlined in the April 20th, 2017 SpaceQ post, "Exclusive: A Review of Canada’s Remote Sensing Law Recommends Creating a New General Outer Space Act," that review is now open to public perusal. The report and other issues relating to it, will be the topics of discussion when Jakhu and the Centre hold the 5th Annual Manfred Lachs International Conference on Global Space Governance, which will be held in Montreal, PQ from May 5th - 6th. Hopefully, someone from the space advisory board will also be there. Photo c/o McGill University. It's also worth noting that, while the space advisory board members are expecting to hold a series of town halls across the country to solicit feedback and assist with the development of useful policy, the secretariat supporting the space advisory board has so far refused to confirm or deny any activities the committee could possibly be conducting, except for one meeting taking place in Ottawa on Friday, April, 21st. Here's hoping that they organize a few more meetings after that first one. There's a lot of data to collect and some actual activities culminating in a proper, publicly available report would certainly be an improvement over the last time. Labels: Canadian Space Strategy, Carnival of Space, Department of National Defence, Universities and Science Part 7: A History of the Canadian Space Program - ... Ministers Bains & Garneau Provide Motivational Spe... More on Canada's "Next Top Astronauts," Canada's "... Space Advisory Committee Members Announced: Variou... An Update on NS Rockets, Intelsat Hunting for Cana... "Massive" Review of Federal Science Funding Finall... Goldman Sachs is Bullish on Asteroid Mining General Fusion, exactEarth's Missing (But Insured)... UofT Undergraduate Satellite Builders Raise Almost... As God & John W. Campbell Intended: SpaceX Launche... The Canadian Space Agency is "Very" Cautious About... Hidden camera exposes forced labour in PPE factory (Marketplace) Update: Person in police custody following Oakville standoff CTV National News for Jan. 15: The delay on Pfizer doses Why You Should Not Shoot a Gun With a Really Bent Barrel, YouTuber Demonstrates Lawmakers launching investigation into Capitol security	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line10
__label__cc	0.590871	0.409129	We are thrilled to announce that Genevieve Wang, former Chief Strategy Officer and VP of Product at Brightidea, Inc., will join the management team at GrubMarket as Chief Product Officer. Genevieve will report to GrubMarket’s Founder and CEO, Mike Xu. As Chief Product Officer, Genevieve is in charge of building a world-class SaaS and eCommerce product suite, as well as driving the software product direction and execution for GrubMarket. In her previous role, Genevieve oversaw the product management and marketing organizations and served as Chief Strategy Officer at Brightidea, the maker of the world’s top idea management software product. She has 15 years of software product and marketing experience at multiple software and CPG/food companies. Genevieve received a B.A. from Harvard University (Economics) with the highest distinction, and a MBA with honors from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was also selected for the Brian Maxwell Fellowship. “Genevieve is joining GrubMarket with the mission of taking our Software-as-a-Service and eCommerce products to a new level of success. This includes developing WholesaleWare, our SaaS product, into a one-stop ‘go-to’ wholesale operating system for small and medium-sized wholesalers and farmers. She had an amazing track record at Brightidea, leading its software products, and we are so thrilled to have her at GrubMarket,” said Mike Xu, CEO of GrubMarket. “I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this incredible team, working on software that is digitally transforming our food supply chain,” said Genevieve. “The unique combination of operational expertise and technical talent that GrubMarket has assembled is unparalleled, and our opportunity for impact is immense. I am thankful and excited to contribute to realizing GrubMarket’s inspiring mission, creating both business value and a positive impact on society at a number of levels.” Welcome aboard, Genevieve!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line15
__label__cc	0.668999	0.331001	How About 100% School Choice I have a better idea regarding school choice. Why don't we just close all the MPS schools in Millaukee and place the children (and their voucher money) in the private and charter schools and bus the rest to the suburban schools. These are all better schools, according to conservatives, and they should be able to do a better job educating all of the children. Or might there be another reason that these schools would not want their chance at educating all of Milwaukee's children? Who's standing in the doorways now. Thanks For Visiting...Sign at the Door James, my buddy at Wigderson Library & Pub, has commented on the previous post regarding the cartoons, Flemming Rose and Daniel Pipes. He must have linked over to the article by John Sugg, because in his comment to me, James challenges me to prove that Pipes advocates elimination of Palestinians or that he is racist. Now normally, I'd tell James one of two things: One) I don't have the time for this, do it yourself, or Two) John Sugg made those claims, not me, go challenge him (though I do happen to agree with Sugg). But, in the interest of having some fun and I have just a little time before I need to shower and get ready to go to a play with my wife, here are some items for James' perusal. One other thing...I am under no illusion that James will agree with any of this stuff. He has sources, I have mine...so tra la la. One of James own favorite writers, Christopher Hitchins, was not very complimentary of Pipes in this piece published in Slate. Hitchens says this about Pipes: On more than one occasion, Pipes has called for the extension of Israel's already ruthless policy of collective punishment, arguing that leveling Palestinian villages is justifiable if attacks are launched from among their inhabitants. It seems to me from observing his style that he came to this conclusion with rather more relish than regret. Hitchinson concludes with: The objection to Pipes is not, in any case, strictly a political one. It is an objection to a person who confuses scholarship with propaganda and who pursues petty vendettas with scant regard for objectivity. Okay, I'll admit no where does it say he wants to eliminate Palestinians, but there is some groundwork laid for feeling unkind things for Palestinians. Here's more: Pipes is best known for his strident and often racist denunciations of Arabs and Islam. In an effort to divide Americans -- one that if you inserted "blacks" for "Muslims" and "whites" for "Jews," would be vigorously damned as KKK-speech -- he told the American Jewish Congress a year ago that he worries "the presence and increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims...will present true dangers to American Jews." I contacted Pipes, and he not only confirmed his quote but, incredibly, added: "It is accurate in itself but you must note that this was spoken to a Jewish audience. I make the same point respectively to audiences of women, gays, civil libertarians, Hindus, Evangelical Christians, atheists, and scholars of Islam, among others, all of whom face 'true dangers' as the number of Muslims increases..." --John Sugg, Creative Loafing, 10/2/02 Then there was this: Based in Philadelphia and headed by anti-Arab propagandist Daniel Pipes, Campus Watch unleashed an Internet firestorm in late September, when it posted "dossiers" on eight scholars who have had the audacity to criticize US foreign policy and the Israeli occupation. As a gesture of solidarity, more than 100 academics subsequently contacted the Middle East Forum asking to be added to the list… Pipes is notorious in the academy for calling Muslims "barbarians" and "potential killers" in a 2001 National Review article and accusing them of scheming to "replace the [US] Constitution with the Koran," in a similar piece in Insight on the News. Along these lines, a 1990 National Review article insisted that "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene....All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most." In addition to running the Middle East Forum, serving on a Defense Department antiterrorism task force and writing columns for the Jerusalem and New York Post, Pipes is also a regular contributor to the website of Gamla, an organization founded by former Israeli military officers and settlers that endorses the ethnic cleansing of every Palestinian as "the only possible solution" to the Arab-Israeli conflict… --Kristine McNeil, The Nation, 11/11/02 How about this: Israel needs to take more active steps...Bury suicide bombers in potter's fields rather than deliver their bodies to relatives (who turn their funerals into frenzied demonstrations)…Permit no transportation of people or goods beyond basic necessities. Shut off utilities to the PA...Raze the PA's illegal offices in Jerusalem, its security infrastructure and villages from which attacks are launched. --The National Post, 7/18/01 Oh, and this: As Danish politicians, we are offended by the way integration problems in Denmark were portrayed by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard and we wish to set the record straight (Muslim Extremism: Denmark's had Enough, Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard, Aug. 27). The authors claim that 40% of Danish welfare expenses are consumed by Muslim immigrants…Muslim immigrants do not receive 40% of those allocations even though they represent a substantial part of the clients. The main reason being: It is hard to compete on a job market not interested in employing immigrants. The further assumption that more than half of all rapists in Denmark are Muslims is without any basis in fact, as criminal registers do not record religion. NOTE: In the article referenced above, Daniel Pipes smears the Muslim community in Denmark with several accusations eerily similar to those leveled against the Jewish community in Europe by anti-Semitic propagandists prior to World War II. These include: 1) being parasites on the society, 2) being disproportionately engaged in criminal behavior, 3) having "unacceptable" customs, 4) seeking to take over the country, and 5) sexual aggression against women in the dominant culture. --Elisabeth Arnold and Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, National Post, 9/6/02 "The Palestinians are a miserable people...and they deserve to be." --Daniel Pipes, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2001 I have more...but it dawned on me that James is getting the better of this deal. It's obvious that he is a Pipes apologist. Nothing I provide here will change his mind. One has to wonder if James is a member of Campus Watch, a website crusade that claims to expose subversive teachers in America. Gadzooks...shades of McCarthy. The other thing about CampusWatch that is so egregious...it solicits students to spy on their teachers. So anyway, James, do your own work. But, thanks for visiting. Cartoons a Little Fishy You know, something seemed a little fishy about the Danish cartoon extravaganza. This guy just out of the blue decides to enlist the aid of cartoonists to print inflamatory cartoons to prove a point that the West has freedom of speech, and the Islam world does not. Well, John Suggs exposes a little more of the story. The guy who is responsible for this whole sordid affair is Flemming Rose, a close confederate of Daniel Pipes. Pipes is an extreme racist who wants the elimination of Palestinaians, according to John Sugg, and was nominated by Bush to the...get this...Institute of Peace. Anyway, the story by Sugg is good...read along. The lengths that the Bushies will go to ensure they stay in power in extraordinary...and pathetic...impeach the bastard. But Was It Wise? Garry Trudeau said this regarding the issue of the Danish cartoons. Why has the U.S. news media (broadcast and print), almost universally refused to publish the cartoons? I assume because they believe, correctly, it is unnecessarily inflammatory. It's legal to run them, but is it wise? The Danish editor who started all this actually recruited cartoonists to draw offensive cartoons (some of those he invited declined). And why did he do it? To demonstrate that in a Western liberal society he could. Well, we already knew that. Some victory for freedom of expression. An editor who deliberately sets out to provoke or hurt people because he's worried about "self-censorship" is not an editor I'd care to work for. With freedom of the press, speech, expression, etc. comes an awesome responsibility we would all do well to remember. WTMJ Adds Another Mouth Say it ain't so. Jessica McBride, the darling of the shameless promotion department has accepted a gig at 620 WTMJ on a part-time basis...apparently. I wonder if the screeners...wait, there probably won't be any. "Hi I'm Jessica McBride, and I'll only be taking questions from my husband, Paul, bloggers that I like from the right side of the cheddarsphere, conservative legislators that I like and...that's it." Apparently, she is the reason all along that Mark Riordan was asked to depart (in this case, the use of the word "apparently" really means I don't know if this is true...but it's fun to speculate). Say No to Saying No I don't like to step into the abortion debate because, truthfully, it's not a debate any person will win. There have been attempts at some sort of discourse between foes, none have been successful as far as I know. I'm pro-choice, but would like abortions kept to a minimum and the best way to do that is through eductation. Please don't comment...I will not involve myself in debate on this and will remove any comments offered. If that comes across to you as censorship, so be it. It's my site and I can do what I want. However, the reason I mention that is because of the following issue, which is on the fringe of the abortion debate. If interested, all are invited to comment on this. Sanctions against Neil Noesen, a pharmacist who refused to dispense bith control pills because he said he would be commiting a sin if he did, were upheld by Barron County Circuit Judge James Babler. Click here to read the article in the Capital Times. Hurray for some common sense. Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion, their right to believe or not, etc....no one is entitled to accept employment at a position that requires dispensation of services, and then say that because of your religious belief, you cannot follow your job duties. It's like you were a fireman and refused to take part in dousing the flames at a building owned by homosexuals because your faith believes that homosexuality is a sin. It's no different with Noesen's chosen profession. The sanctions that they placed on him were fair, though I still believe it would just be best for him (and any other poor soul that might enounter him over the counter) to find other work. Perhaps he could become a missionary. I hear they need some some prayers in Washington, D.C. at RNC headquarters. Posted by Other Side at 12:00 PM 0 Swings of the bat Links to this post Fiction Isn't Real...Duh! ...if you're at the point when the most prominent black person you can put on your side of an issue is a fictional character in a white man's shitty webcomic, your authority on cultural unity escaped this planet's gravity quite some time ago. Read this post from August J. Pollak about the latest disaster from Chris Muir, the guy the righties say is better than Doonesbury. He may be better at creating strawman arguments, but that's it. Teddy Said It "The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in renderling loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." Theodore Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star - May 7, 1918 Intolerance...Just on the Left? A rather uncouth and vulgar blogger with whom I recently had a conversation, bleated on his site a couple of days ago about the lack of tolerance by the left. He included a comment about his fascination with the anal orifice. How tolerant, I thought sarcastically...and weird. It got me to thinking, though. Intolerance on the left...what a strange thing to say. Left or right, it seems to me that intolerance is the same for both. For example, I'm guessing that both liberals and conservatives are intolerant of bigots. Could it be said that both the left and right are intolerant of homophobes? Obviously my former communication buddy is not a homophobe. He even said he's for gay marriage. There's one. Hmmm...I'll bet neither side is very tolerant of racists. I know that the left for years has smeared the right with that term. Some of the time it was deserving. And face it, conservatives were on the wrong side of civil rights for quite a while. But to say that there have not been conservatives who believed passionately in equality for all would be a lie. I'm intolerant of whiners. There's been a lot of that coming from the conservative camp lately. But to be fair, the left has its share. A tie. How about liars? I know both sides can't stand liars...especially lying politicians. It's hard to trust politicians anymore...plenty of examples on both sides of the fence. 'Nuff said for now. My Dad's First Post My Dad (an ex-Marine, WWII) asked that I post this (below in italics). The sentiment is a good one. The troops should be supported…they should always have been supported. However, the policies of the current administration that have put our troops in harms way are contemptible. Shame on the Bush administration for lying to us about the reasons for this conflict. Shame on the Bush administration for attempting to make an issue of Americans who simply are voicing their opinion about the course of this lost conflict. Shame on the Bush administration for ducking and hiding when these kids come back in coffins. AND shame on those who don’t support these kids. There’s blame enough on both sides. I sat in my seat of the Boeing 767 waiting for everyone to hurry and stow their carry-ons and grab a seat so we could start what I was sure to be a long, uneventful flight home. With the huge capacity and slow moving people taking their time to stuff luggage far too big for the overhead and never paying much attention to holding up the growing line behind them, I simply shook my head knowing that this flight was not starting out very well. I was anxious to get home to see my loved ones so I was focused on my issues and just felt like standing up and yelling for some of these clowns to get their act together. I knew I couldn't say a word so I just thumbed thru the "Sky Mall" magazine from the seat pocket in front of me. You know it's really getting rough when you resort to the over priced, useless sky mall crap to break the monotony. With everyone finally seated, we just sat there with the cabin door open and no one in any hurry to get us going although we were well past the scheduled take off time. No wonder the airline industry is in trouble I told myself. Just then, the attendant came on the intercom to inform us all that we were being delayed. The entire plane let out a collective groan. She resumed speaking to say "We are holding the aircraft for some very special people who are on their way to the plane and the delay shouldn't be more than 5 minutes. The word came after waiting six times as long as we were promised that I was finally going to be on my way home. Why the hoopla over "these" folks? I was expecting some celebrity or sport figure to be the reason for the hold up .. Just get their butts in a seat and let's hit the gas I thought. The attendant came back on the speaker to announce in a loud and excited voice that we were being joined by several U.S. Marines returning home from Iraq !!! Just as they walked on board, the entire plane erupted into applause. The men were a bit taken by surprise by the 340 people cheering for them as they searched for their seats. They were having their hands shook and touched by almost everyone who was within an arm's distance of them as they passed down the aisle. One elderly woman kissed the hand of one of the Marines as he passed by her. The applause, whistles and cheering didn't stop for a long time. When we were finally airborne, I was not the only civilian checking his conscience as to the delays in "me" getting home, finding my easy chair, a cold beverage and the remote in my hand. These men had done for all of us and I had been complaining silently about "me" and "my" issues I took for granted the everyday freedoms I enjoy and the conveniences of the American way of life. I took for granted that others had paid the price for my ability to moan and complain about a few minutes delay to "me" while those Heroes were going home to their loved ones. I attempted to get my selfish outlook back in order and minutes before we landed, I suggested to the attendant that she announce over the speaker a request for everyone to remain in their seats until our heroes were allowed to gather their things and be first off the plane. The cheers and applause continued until the last Marine stepped off and we all rose to go about our too often taken for granted everyday freedoms. I felt proud of them. I felt it an honor and a privilege to be among the first to welcome them home and say "Thank You for a job well done." I vowed that I will never forget that flight nor the lesson learned. I can't say it enough, THANK YOU to those Veterans and active servicemen and women who may read this and a prayer for those who cannot because they are no longer with us. Brewers Contend in 2006? The Milwaukee Brewers contending in 2006? No way. Well, Tristan Cockcroft at ESPN thinks so if everything falls in place. Personally, I like what the new owner has done and I like Ned Yost. I believe he one of the best young managers in the game. If Ben Sheets, Carlos Lee, Geoff Jenkins and the youngsters (Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Hart, Hall, etc.) play to their expected levels, who knows? by Tristan Cockcroft Things are finally looking up in Milwaukee. The Brewers, who entered 2005 tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the longest streak of losing-record seasons (12), managed to improve to .500 and third place in the National League Central. It's progress, and perhaps the most encouraging development of all is that the Brewers' new owner, Mark Attanasio, boosted the payroll last season and seemed to bring new life to the franchise...click here to read the entire article. The Innocent Have Nothing to Hide It's Sartre's Fault During the February 6 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN) The 700 Club, host Pat Robertson said that "Europe is right now in the midst of racial suicide because of the declining birth rate." Robertson blamed the declining birth rate on the existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre which, according to Robertson, "has permeated the intellectual thinking of Europe" and has left Europeans without "a faith in the future." From the February 6 edition of CBN's The 700 Club: ROBERTSON: Studies that I have read indicate that having babies is a sign of a faith in the future. You know, unless you believe in the future, you're not going to take the trouble of raising a child, educating a child, doing something. If there is no future, why do it? Well, unless you believe in God, there's really no future. And when you go back to the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, the whole idea of this desperate nightmare we are in -- you know, that we are in this prison, and it has no hope, no exit. That kind of philosophy has permeated the intellectual thinking of Europe, and hopefully it doesn't come here. But nevertheless, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is right now in the midst of racial suicide because of the declining birth rate. And they just can't get it together. Why? There's no hope. A subscriber to Media Matters for America posted this: Darling, I'd love to make love to you, but I'm too depressed after reading "The Age of Reason." -- Ellington I was going to add my comments, but that was too good. Well, one comes to mind...I wasn't aware that Europeans were a race...notwithstanding that it has been shown scientifically that there is no such thing as race in humans. Walker Threatens County's Long-Term Survival Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker warned Monday that a mounting budget imbalance threatens the county's long-term survival. Dramatic changes are required, he said, including the building of more coffee shops and Burger Kings, drilling for oil, introducing off-reservation gambling, and opening a couple of charter schools to be run by ex-cons out of unused toolsheds on park grounds. Walker said in the long run the county needs to scale back employee benefits to basically nothing, force the employees to live on-site in tawdry run-down shacks and, every month, rent themselves out to Waukesha elites to trim shrubs, cut the lawn, clean the pool, serve cocktails… whatever that can be done to increase revenues, he said. He noted the success of the slums of Calcutta. If it takes a coffee shop, oil well, or greedy rickshaw owners to keep them open, then I'm all for it," Walker said. Borrowing an idea from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Walker delivered his speech during the ritual beheading of a homosexual at an evangelical church on the north side. Walker’s full head of hair was augmented to achieve the Perry affect. Typically, Walker blamed everyone else for the delay in pursuing the idea. Walker believes that not taking responsibility for anything will eventually prove effective in getting him into the governor’s mansion. Walker said care would be taken not to block park access to wealthy Republicans. Gates set up to block the entry of Democrats, the poor and illegal immigrants would have special scent sensors that would be able to recognize the perfumed elite. Walker said the state of the county is good in many respects. A big management success involved dramatically reducing the error rate for processing food-stamp cases, he said. By eliminating food stamps for the poor, the error rate dropped to zero. More Room for Jello by Penn Jillette I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire? So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy. But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God." Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day. Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around. Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something. Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future. Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have. Al Qaeda Ain't Stoopid by digby The oceans no longer protect us. The terrorists are coming over any minute to kill us all in our beds. They are a ruthless enemy who hide in caves until they suddenly decide to strike without mercy. But they have an achilles heel. They are all suffering from serious memory problems. Unless they see it in the paper they forget that we are tapping telephones. Then they slap themselves in the forehead and say "Oh no! I've been calling my friend Mohammed in LA planning that awesome terrorist attack and like, totally fergot that the infidels are listening in. Fuck. Man, Zawahiri is gonna to be so pissed." This is why it was so horrible that that the NY Times revealed the program. It jogged the terrorists' memories and now they won't use their phone and e-mail accounts anymore. Until they forget again, that is. So, shhhh. Loose lips sink ships. So says Alberto Gonzales. "The right to freedom of thought and expression... cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers." -- Vatican statement re: Mohammed cartoons My Son's First Post The Beatles came to do a concert in Ianville once, and the band liked it so much they never left. Now every Friday night, all the people who live in Ianville put on their small, black blue jeans and walk their gerbils to the town square. Then they sit on the grass, listen to The Beatles play movie sound tracks, and eat granola bars. No one has to go to school in Ianville unless they want to. Of course, everybody wants to because Janis Joplin and William Shatner are two of the teachers. Janis Joplin teaches mathematics and William Shatner teaches video games. One day Janis Joplin said to William Shatner, “Maybe we should take the students on a field trip.” “That's a big idea, Janis Joplin,” said William Shatner. “Let's take them to the most fun place we can think of.” “But that would be Ianville,” said Janis Joplin. “You're right!” William Shatner exclaimed. “Call off the field trip! We're already here!” The Vitriol is Thick On Both Sides - An Apology Had an interesting e-mail conversation with Chris at spottedhorse2. I responded to a comment of his, he e-mailed me...it went back and forth and Chris doesn't like me anymore. The problem with all this is that in the midst of starting up this blog and "feeling the power" I have come to see that I have allowed much of my deep-seated anger to seep out into my posts and communications. I don't know Chris. I simply didn't like what he had to say and responded. Tit for tat. The communications were not pleasant. And sitting here as I listen to my kids play in the background, I don't feel good about it. So, while I will continue to be passionately liberal, I am going to try to tone things down. My fellow bloggers like James at Wigderson Library & Pub, Dean Mundy, etc., are just as passionate at what they believe. They are not wing nuts (Coulter, O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh still are though...sorry, some things are too hard to overcome). They are Wisconsinites just like me. Lastly, a public apology to Chris, and to any others I have offended inappropriately (hey, some offense is necessary at times, but it can be civilly done). Nuff said. "The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side." -- NAACP Chairman Julian Bond It's too much, but I still don't feel sorry for Republicans or conservatives. Rather Take a Turn to the Port Those on the right like to make jokes about Clinton's dalliance with an intern...endlessly. Personally, if I had to choose between losing my freedoms because the current administration has nothing but contempt for them, or a blowjob...I'll take the blowjob. Vitriol on the Left...Ha Ha Ha...Too Much Poor James at Wigderson Library & Pub. His feelings have been hurt. He didn't like what Belle at Leaning Blue posted, so he counters with the "poor poor College Republicans" jab and the classic "vitriol on the left" uppercut. Bwah ha ha. I remember James and the College Republicans at UWM and I can tell you they dished it out pretty good and usually anonymously. The "vitriol on the left" line is too good to pass up. We've done this once before, but here are a few more: I'm talking about the activists. I'm talking about the leaders of these. These are the original feminazis, folks, if you want me to go back in time and define the term for you. Every abortion possible must happen. Every abortion that can happen, that doesn't happen, is a setback for the cause. As a young broadcaster in the 1970s, Limbaugh once told a black caller: "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back." A decade ago, after becoming nationally syndicated, he mused on the air: "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?" 'What about Hillary? What about Hillary?' So, I told them, 'I'm not worried about Hillary. She puts her pants on one leg at a time like every other guy does.' " "[W]hy wouldn’t anyone want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, unless they detested their own country or were ignorant of its greatness?" My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war. Liberal soccer moms are precisely as likely to receive anthrax in the mail as to develop a capacity for linear thinking. The founding document of the United States of America acknowledges the Lordship of Jesus Christ because we are a Christian nation. Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. These are some of the tamer ones because I don't want to offend James and the other College Republicans too much. So a question: The constant Hillary innuendos, Clinton slap downs, etc. are okay because...why? Get off your high horse, James...the vitriol is pretty thick on both sides of the aisle.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line16
__label__wiki	0.522521	0.522521	No: 24, 27 January 2020, Press Release Regarding The International Holocaust Remembrance Day The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution dated November 1, 2005 which Turkey co-sponsored and designated January 27 as “International Holocaust Remembrance Day.” On the occasion of the “International Holocaust Remembrance Day”, we once more commemorate with respect 6 million Jewish victims who were brutally and systematically murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators as well as those minorities and groups including Roma people and disabled persons that were also targeted. We remember with respect the Turkish diplomats who aided those victims fleeing this horrible tragedy. Victims of Holocaust, which is an unprecedented incident in human history, are commemorated across the world as well as in Turkey. This year’s ceremony will be hosted by University of Ankara with participation of Minister of Culture and Tourism H.E. Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chancellor of Ankara University, academics and students, members of diplomatic corps, Chief Rabbi of Turkey, the President, along with the members of the Turkish Jewish Community. Despite the painful lessons of Holocaust, it is worrying to observe the rise in Antisemitism, xenophobia, racism and Islamophobia in today’s world. It is essential to resolutely fight against these hate-based phenomena that pose threats to global peace, security and stability. With this understanding, Turkey has been participating as an observer country since 2008 in the activities of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which was established with the aim of researching Holocaust thoroughly, duly commemorating its victims and educating the new generations about this crime. Turkey opened its doors to hundreds of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution and today she continues to provide protection to millions of people escaping from cruelty. Turkey will continue her decisive efforts to prevent Antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia, discrimination and all forms of extremism.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line18
__label__wiki	0.977989	0.977989	Just another Rajugine.com Sites site Ranbir Kapoor latest news upcoming movies bio family etc Top Bollywood Male Celebrity Ranbir Kapoor Ranbir Kapoor is a worldwide famous and familiar male celebrity, who plays a significant role in Hindi film industry. He was born on 28th, September 1982 (age 33) height 183CM . His acting career starts in the Bollywood films, and become more popular by their hit movies. He is one of the top and high-paid Bollywood actors in India. He got many awards by their hit and blockbuster movies in the cinematic field. His debut romance movie Saawariya 2007 and got an award for the best male debut. breakup with Katrina kaif . he spotted on Bipasha Basu & Karan Grover marriage on may 1st with Salman khan, Aishwarya rai, ranbir & kaif have to act in jaggo jasoos. List of Ranbir Kapoor awards:- He totally got a nomination for 42 and got an award 32. He got five International Indian Film Academy Awards, two Stardust Awards, Filmfare Awards, four Zee Cine Awards and five Screen Awards. Besides, he placed a top list such as Sexiest man Alive in people magazine and Most stylish young actor in Filmfare’s poll. He is also one of the top recipients’ awards of people of the year by Limca Book of Records. In 2010, he nominated for the male most entertaining movie actor by Raajneeti. In the following year, he won the title for the most entertaining movie actor, most entertaining in a romantic role. Besides, the following year, he nominated for Barfi, got an award for the most entertaining movie actor, and nominated for most entertaining movie actor in the romantic role. In 2013, he nominated for an award of most entertaining movie actor, and most entertaining movie actor in romantic character for Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. At 2015, he nominated for the movie Tamasha as most entertaining male actor in romantic character. In the filmfare awards, he got nominated for the movie Saawariya and got an award for best male debut. He got a critics award for best actor by Wake Up Sid in 2010. In 2012, he got a rockstar award for the best actor, critics award for best actor. He also got an award by Barfi for best actor. The International Indian Film Academy Awards provides five awards in 2008 by Saawariya for star debut of the year. In 2012, he also got an award by Rockstar for the hottest pair with Nargis Fakhri and best actor. In 2013, he got an award by Barfi for best actor and in 2014, and also got an award by Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani for best actor and hottest pair with Deepika Padukone. And, he got many awards and unforgettable in the people minds by the best movies. He nominated for the movie Tamasha as the most entertaining male actor in romantic character. Even, the Filmfare awards, he also got nominated for the movie Saawariya and got an award for the best male debut. In 2010, got a critics award for best actor by Wake Up Sid. In 2012, he got a rock star award for the best actor, critics award for best actor. He also got an award by Barfi for best actor at 2013. The International Indian Film Academy Awards provides five awards in 2008 by Saawariya for star debut of the year. In 2012, he got an award by Rockstar for the hottest pair with Nargis Fakhri and best actor. In 2013, he got an award by Barfi for best actor and in 2014, got an award by Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani for best actor and hottest pair with Deepika Padukone. And, he got many awards and unforgettable in the people minds by the best movies. cousins: Karishma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor. parents; Neetu Singh, rishi Kapoor. jaggo jassos, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Ranbir Kapoor not have any official social profile: Kareena Kapoor latest news upcoming movies bio etc Tom cruise biography, movies latest news Deepika Padukone latest news biography movies wallpapers Hrithik Roshan biography latest news Ask a Question: Cancel reply sixteen − eight = Shahid Kapoor latest news upcoming movies family etc. Aamir Khan latest news & upcoming movies family bio etc	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line31
__label__cc	0.628621	0.371379	2020 Rock Hall of Fame Nominees Announced Thread: 2020 Rock Hall of Fame Nominees Announced Ive always been a dreamer Cruising down the center of a two-way street in VA Re: 2020 Rock Hall of Fame Nominees Announced Quite honestly - I am underwhelmed by the Class of 2020. However, I am glad to see The Doobie Brothers finally get in. As far as Whitney Houston, I think she deserves it considering that many other pop artists have been inducted before her. I also think Pat Benetar will eventually get in. I get what people are saying about all the different genres that aren't pure rock and roll that get in, but, TBH, it has always been that way. I would argue that these other genres influence rock and roll artists or are influenced by rock and roll artists. Also, you have to account for the evolution of music - what was considered rock and roll in its infancy is only remotely similar to what is considered rock and roll by today's standards. I believe it will always be that way. I am personally not a fan of hip hop or rap either, no more than I am I a fan of heavy metal, but I do appreciate the artistry of the different genres. I wonder what rock and roll will look like 30 years from now? "People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..." Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016 WalshFan88 Originally Posted by Ive always been a dreamer This is nothing new, I agree. But it still bothers me and is one of the reasons I and many others think its a sham... We could debate about if rap is music, but it would be a long-winded one. To me there isn't much art in rhythmically repeating senseless lines and curse words and blunt sexual profanity to drum machines and a DJ scratching records. There is no double entendre or innuendo, no subtlety. Not to mention a lot of it promotes abuse and use of many things, and it just seems like a bad culture to be in. Especially gangsta rap. I think Whitney Houston, on the other hand, is infinitely more respectable. She has actual talent and while it still isn't fit for the rock hall, RNB and soul music has a deep connection to rock n' roll just as much as blues. Just like how jazz and classical has deeply influenced country and folk music. And I cannot stand those, so maybe thats why I'm not a fan of most country music. But I LOVE Motown, Stax, etc RNB music. You couldn't be more right about the fact about "rock n' roll" being so much different now. To me modern rock has lost the "roll" in rock and roll. The groove, swagger, and all of that is gone. There are artists that break the mold, like Greta Van Fleet, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, etc, but most of it now is just not my thing at all. I recently saw an interview on YT with one of the guitarists from Buckcherry (Keith Nelson) talking about the "roll" of rock and roll missing in modern rock music. A lot of it is either noise-rock/post-rock stuff, or just straight up modern metal with cookie monster voices and guitars tuned as low as they can get them without the strings falling off, creating a low deep graveling sound to match the vocals. Bands like Slipknot, Korn, etc pioneered that sound and I absolutely hate it. Metallica is a guilty pleasure of mine, but at least there was musicality and melodic senses to their music. You can hear the lyrics, the guitars while big sounding are more old school. That's metal music I can respect. Not the Slipknot type of bands. And that's fine, they can exist too, but it's just rock music, not rock and roll to me. It's dramatically different than classic rock. And it's not my thing. Other than blues and RNB music, I really only like classic rock and genres that sound like it like modern country (although it's gone electronic which I'm not happy about), etc. I like 60s/70s/80s rock. Not a 90s grunge guy, not a modern rock or post-rock guy. Not necessarily a huge Elvis or Buddy Holly 50s rock fan although I respect them greatly. I love a lot of British rock bands from the invasion and the bands who they influenced. I like the old school rock n' roll sound. I love vinyl and miss the days when album art said so much and vinyl showed it big and proud. I miss MTV playing actual music videos and miss music videos period. And good live records too. I'm old school and proud. Oh, and I hate disco. I'm sorry Mr. Billy Joel, but it's not "still rock and roll" to me. The "new sound" is just that, a new sound. I was never a big Joel fan, but I don't mind his music - except that one. lol Last edited by WalshFan88; 01-21-2020 at 04:32 AM. -Austin- Resident Guitar Slinger Fan of the (real) Eagles 1972-2016 #NOGLENNOEAGLES RIP Glenn Lewis Frey 1948-2016 Well - shun posted in Don's thread that it looks as if they are going forward with the HOF induction ceremony - it will air on HBO on November 7th. Ringo, Bruce Springsteen, and Don Henley will make guest appearances. Other guests include Nancy Wilson, Billy Idol, Billy Gibbons, Gwen Stefani, Chris Martin, Iggy Pop, Adam Levine, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley, Lin-Manuel Miranda, St. Vincent, and Charlize Theron. Here is the link that shun posted: http://abcnewsradioonline.com/music-...ial-guest.html Long road south out of Cass County I meant to post this awhile back but it slipped my mind. This is Depeche Mode’s acceptance speech and at around the 1:00 mark they thank the Eagles (which was kind of unexpected): Thanks Delilah - that is a surprise ... you never know how many artists have been influenced by our Desperados. Out on the Border We have to remember that the R&RHF is privately owned and the owner choses who will be nominated than it is voted on. He doesn't like Joe just like he doesn't like Motley Crew and if he doesn't like you, you don't get nominated. People or groups are not nominated by the general public or by industry people. Joe has all his fellow musicians who appreciate him. Look at some of those in the Hall and no longer play. Joe still performs and brings in a crowd. Other artist call him to do parts on their recordings, some half his age. LOL He could be in on his slide guitar playing alone. Originally Posted by Scamp We have to remember that the R&RHF is privately owned and the owner choses who will be nominated than it is voted on. He doesn't like Joe just like he doesn't like Motley Crew and if he doesn't like you, you don't get nominated. Why do you think Wenner doesn’t like Joe? He’s in the HoF already with the Eagles. NightMistBlue I thought everyone likes Joe! However, there is a video clip of Joe saying that the HOF doesn’t have a good reputation among musicians because of all the deserving bands who aren’t recognized. Originally Posted by Delilah With the Eagles, not as a solo. Few years back I read where he basically just doesn't like Joe and his life as a rocker. Just like Motley Crew, too rowdy I guess. It's his HoF and he nominates who he wants. Joe thinks it should be more on what an artists or group has done for rock and roll, public opinion and what other artists think. I got the feeling in the article that is is more personal between Wenner and Joe. Wish I could remember where I read the article, it seems like it was online and like a magazine interview. Quick Navigation Singing for the Sake of the Song Top	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line32
__label__wiki	0.56113	0.56113	Caribbean Blog International An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind. The Immigration Plight of the Haitians in The Bahamas Versus the Mexicans in America Politicole: The Real Problem That Bahamians Have With Illegal Haitian Immigrants By NICOLE BURROWS: THE story of the Bahamian national of Haitian parentage who lost his illegal home in a legal demolition has made its way across every form of local media, perhaps most of all social media, where people have dialogued on the verge of meltdown. As the Anson Aly threat grew more newsworthy in the Bahamas, in Canada a Canadian national shot and killed a Canadian soldier on duty and then stormed into the Canadian parliament to see who else he could take out; he was subsequently identified as a “terrorist” by the Canadian prime minister. The terrorist’s motive was said to have been vengeance, having been a suspected militant and repeatedly denied a passport for travel to the Middle East. According to his mother, “he was mad and felt trapped so the only way out was death.” Some Bahamians have called Aly a terrorist, which, per definition, is someone who threatens people with the intention of intimidating a society or government. Using this definition, the only real difference between the Canadian terrorist and the angry Haitian Bahamian is the fact that the latter wasn’t carrying a weapon when he made his threat. Many Bahamians are concerned that if we take for a joke now threats of this nature, which approximate the definition of terrorist activity, who will be able to take such threats seriously or be themselves taken seriously later on? And where and when do you draw the line? We’ve habitually allowed the little things that ail our nation to fall through the cracks, and we continue to do it, so we continue to suffer many a social ill. On this issue, people are saying forgiveness is key. And, yes, I agree you can and should forgive. But forgiveness doesn’t exempt a wrongdoer from punishment. How many people in Fox Hill Prison are forgiven, yet they remain incarcerated? In any other sensible, progressive country, our man Aly would have been made to incur some consequence greater than an apology for his threatening verbiage. Only in this jokey little country can we not recognise a problem while it’s brewing. Maybe if we throw some political colours in the mix some people who need to jump would jump faster. Many – including immigration minister Mitchell – are saying that Aly is just one person, and we should not allow one person to cause us alarm. But, to draw an analogy in the context of this subject, there was one person at the start of our problem with illegal immigrants, too. Look how that turned out. I think the general idea amongst a large number of Bahamians is that it may be one person now, but who’s to say that the next “one person” won’t push the envelope further the next time, now that it is already clear how far threats can go unpunished and how silly we are in managing national security issues with no real demonstration of authority? Our reality, whether you believe it, is that the one man, the one person, is representing countless others with the same mindset. And if you put Aly, or any other woman or man like him, in that situation again, or another situation like it, you’ll see where their allegiance really lies. There is a very large group of compassionate people – of which I confess I am one – who understand the plight of immigrants to seek a better economic life in a country they think is prosperous. Hell, if the Bahamas is overrun by poor illegal immigrants or rich legal immigrants, many of us might find ourselves on a voyage to some other country we also believe to be prosperous, where we can seek a better quality of life all around. But since Aly threatened his fellow Bahamians in a heated moment, there’s been a lot of dialogue about how unloving Bahamians are towards Haitians or people of Haitian descent. I won’t say that some Bahamians aren’t downright cruel, using “Haitian” as a derogatory word to describe someone unattractive, dark-skinned, broad-nosed, poor, colourfully dressed, with a high body odour. These are all hateful, hurtful things that would cause anyone to feel unhuman or marginalised. But this is not the real issue at hand. The issue in this Aly incident is the specific underlying, ongoing problem Bahamians have with illegal Haitian immigrants and the inability or the refusal of our government and the Haitian government to stem the illegal influx of Haitian migrants to the Bahamas once and for all. Minister Mitchell has been keen to point out that there is “not one international group” causing us problems with illegal immigration, but the fact of the matter is we all know where the biggest problem lies with respect to illegal immigration in the Bahamas – we can see it everywhere we turn. Yet the discussion somehow has centred on the statement that not only Haitians are a problem for us, but so are many other illegal populations. Some have even likened the immigration plight of the Haitians in the Bahamas to the Mexicans in America. They ask why Bahamians are prejudiced against Haitians when we have other illegals to contend with. That we do. But there are a few significant differences between them, and I believe these differences are at the core of the anger and frustration that Bahamians have towards illegal Haitian migrants to the Bahamas. Having lived in the Bahamas and America, and being exposed to both groups and their respective ways of life, I find that the problem many Bahamians have with illegal Haitian immigrants is a deep-seated frustration that goes far beyond their desire for a better life; no one wants to deny them that in principle. But illegal immigration of Haitians to the Bahamas is really a multi-pronged problem, and it is very similar in composition to the concerns US citizens have about illegal Mexican immigrants. And they are all legitimate concerns. In my estimation, it comes down to three things, best explained by drawing comparisons to other large migrating populations, particularly of Chinese and Indian origin, as they are two of the largest in the world. Within the Haitian and Mexican populations, there is often: 1) Violent aggression as a trademark of conflict management; 2) Low levels of education/ intellectual achievement prior to migration; and 3) Prolific reproductive lifestyles. Firstly, by and large, as compared to the Haitian and Mexican immigrant populations, Chinese and Indian immigrants tend to have a higher degree of education before they migrate. Many have credentials for marketable skills beyond that of agricultural farmhands, and whereas the latter are necessary, the former present a diversity that is needed to build a country. Moreover, the (Indo) Asian immigrants have a better attitude about building a nation, which shows in the quality of their contribution to their host country. They don’t continue to profess that their country of birth is better, or best, yet remain in the country they migrated to, taking everything they can, investing in nothing and repatriating their income or sharing it primarily within their own communities. Secondly, Chinese and Indian immigrants tend not to breed by the half-dozen; not so for Haitian and Mexican immigrants. And this strikes a delicate and particular chord for me and many of my compatriots, because, in our younger years, we held off on reproducing to be responsible and to ensure that we were financially equipped to care for our children in the best way possible when we did have them, while the illegal Haitian immigrants multiplied and are still now procreating left and right with no care whatsoever for the burden it places on the Bahamian society. Haitians and Mexicans are largely comprised of people who follow the Catholic religion, and they don’t readily subscribe to birth control. But when has “more mouths to feed” ever helped anybody’s economic situation or lifted them out of poverty? Clearly, there is something here that the Catholic church has failed to teach its followers: if you’re already in poverty, and you have little to no education to improve your opportunities, it tends to lead to greater poverty when you multiply inordinately. Observing the growing numbers of illegal Haitian immigrants and their offspring in the Bahamas, it has become more than obvious that extreme/excessive reproduction is their way of life, and it is more likely to occur amongst the poorer Haitian and Mexican immigrant populations than the poor Chinese or Indian immigrants. Finally, and without mincing words, Haitian and Mexican immigrants have a known culture of violent aggression, as demonstrated by the types of crimes they commit and the ways in which they commit them. Chinese and Indian immigrants can be very pushy, maybe because they compete to survive in their very large populations, but their first idea to resolve a dispute isn’t to pop off 10 rounds on someone, beat them to a pulp, hack them to pieces, or tie them with a Colombian necktie. There’s a degree of responsibility in Chinese and Indian culture that makes them point their aggression at themselves. I’m reminded of my Haitian neighbour who, only a few months ago, killed a baby bird on her porch with her slipper, when the little bird had only lost its way from its nest. The woman didn’t kill it because she was hungry and needed to eat it; she killed it just because it was there. And then threw it into the street. It’s a simple, solitary incident, but it is still violent aggression for no reason whatsoever. All these isolated occurrences taken together reveal a strong tendency toward violence that lends itself to a colossal crime problem. And we have the numbers to prove it. The reality is that extremely populated countries of the world have people who migrate to other nations in search of better lives for themselves and their children. The countries they tend to migrate to are usually larger, developed countries, which have open job markets, the need for unskilled labourers, wide expanses of land to accommodate increases in population, and education and healthcare systems that are properly constructed and fairly well-operated and funded. But what, of these things, do we have in our little Bahamas? Is it not in the Bahamian interest to defend what little we do have, and insist that it be developed in a sustainable way? To top it all off, when there is already a sizeable portion of the native Bahamian population that exhibits violent aggression, low education and high reproductivity, adding illegal immigrants of similar profiles only makes matters worse, because the Bahamian disadvantaged become even more marginalised in their own country. But rather than impose a penalty on and make an example of the offender who threatens the little Bahamians have now, the authorities prefer to admonish the law-abiding. Their answer is for the people who are “up in arms” to “shoosh”. Be quiet. Stop talking about it. Don’t get upset. Move on. Well, no. Because the path to being or becoming “ignorant” is to “ignore”, and to make no statement or movement with respect to the problem at hand. And, if we don’t mind believing the genius Einstein, whose many theories about our world ring true to this day, “nothing happens until something moves.” Give comments and suggestions at Tribune242.com, Facebook.com/politiCole, politiCole.com, or nicole@politiCole.com. Posted by webcrat at 7:32 PM Labels: Haitians in The Bahamas, illegal Haitian immigrants in The Bahamas, illegal immigrants in The Bahamas, Mexicans in America, Plight of Haitians in The Bahamas, Plight of Mexicans in America The limits of changes – Venezuela: terminal crisis of the rentier petro-state? by Edgardo Lander: Venezuela’s failure to develop an effective strategy to reduce its economy’s dependence on gas and oil threatens the social successes and future viability of the Bolivarian project. Over the 15 years of the Bolivarian government in Venezuela, significant changes have taken place in the political culture, the social and organisational fabric, and the material living conditions of previously excluded low-income groups. Through multiple social policies (known as “missions”) aimed at different sectors of the population, levels of poverty and extreme poverty have been reduced significantly. According to ECLAC, Venezuela has become – together with Uruguay – one of the two countries with the lowest levels of inequality in Latin America. People are better fed. Effective literacy programmes have been carried out. With Cuban support, the Barrio Adentro mission has brought primary medical care to rural and urban low-income groups throughout the country. The state pensions system has been massively expanded to include millions of older people. The increase in university enrolment has been equally extraordinary. For the last few years, a housing programme for people with low incomes has been taken forward. Unemployment has been kept at a low level and informal-sector employment has been reduced from 51% in mid-1999 to 41% in mid-2014. The amount spent on social investment between 1999 and 2013 is estimated to total some US$650 billion. According to the UNDP, Venezuela’s Human Development Index rose from 0.662 in the year 2000 to 0.748 in 2012, taking the country’s human development ranking from medium to high. This has been a time of dynamic grassroots organising and participation, with the setting up of Water Committees and Community Councils, Health Committees, Urban Land Committees, Communal Councils, Communes... Most of this organisational dynamism was the result of government policies expressly aimed at promoting these processes. Equally important has been the weight of Venezuela’s experience – particularly its constitutional reform process – in the progressive shift or turn to the left that has taken place in Latin America over these years. Its influence has also been important in the setting up of various regional integration mechanisms – UNASUR, CELAC, Petrocaribe, ALBA – that have strengthened the region’s autonomy and lessened its historical dependence on the United States. Nevertheless, the social changes that have taken place were not the result of equally profound changes in the country’s economic structure. On the contrary, the last fifteen years have seen a consolidation of the rentier state model, with an increased dependency on revenue from oil exports. Oil’s share of total export value rose from 68.7% in 1998 to 96% in the last few years. The value of non-oil exports and private sector exports has fallen in absolute terms during this time. Industry’s contribution to GDP shrank from 17% in 2000 to 13% in 2013. [1] Labels: crisis in Venezuela, petro state, petro-state, Venezuela, Venezuela crisis, Venezuela in crisis “Economic Genocide” in Latin America: The Unspoken Legacy of Wall Street and the IMF. President Cristina Fernandez United Nations General Assembly, September 24, 2014: Argentina's President Fernandez de Kirchner Denounces Economic Terrorism By Carla Stea Dazzling and supremely erudite, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner denounced as terrorism the economic policies that have been strangling the developing world during the past century, and are continuing these criminal actions today, the legacy of Milton Friedman’s Chicago Boys’ gangster economic policies. These policies, implemented by the infliction of “shock therapy,” institutionalizing torture, murder and disappearances of individuals, groups, and often heads of state who defy these barbaric economic models, are policies which are more accurately described as global economic theft, sanctioned by the theory that “might makes right.” The IMF’s “conditionalities” were described, in sanitized language, as “structural adjustment programs,” demanding the obliteration of free national education and health care programs, causing the destitution of majorities of citizens in the developing countries, and resulting in the gross indebtedness of collaborating governments to parasitic interests of multinational corporations, banks, hedge funds, vulture funds and their ilk. The Milton Friedman Chicago Boys policies were described by one of Friedman’s most brilliant students, the German born economist Andre Gunder Frank, as “economic genocide.” President Kirchner described her late husband, President Nestor Kirchner’s success in rebuilding Argentina, despite the total bankruptcy into which decades of the Chicago Boys policies had plunged a devastated Argentina. She described the earlier chaotic situation, in which Argentina had five presidents in one week during 2001, a disaster rivaled, perhaps, only by Bolivia, which, similarly hostage of the Chicago Boys, had three revolutions in one afternoon, finally resulting Bolivia’s progressive presidency of Juan Jose Torres in 1970. President Torres was overthrown, ten months later, by fascist General Hugo Banzer, with the blessing of Washington, and was then murdered in Argentina in 1975. The earlier history of Argentina described by President Kirchner, a history common to almost all Latin America Southern Cone governments hostage to the Chicago Boys’ policy of economic genocide, is succinctly summed up by Professor John Dinges in his work “The Condor Years,” (Pages 154-155). [By 1975], “Inside the U.S. embassy Legal Attache Robert Scherrer quickly developed information that the Torres murder was part of the new security forces cooperation among the military governments…the bloody reality of mounting repression and the assassination of three prominent figures – the Uruguayan Senators Michelini, Gutierrez and Bolivian President Torres who had sought protection in Argentina… .Slowly, among those reading the most secret intelligence traffic about Latin America – in the embassies, in the CIA, in the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI and the State Department there was an awakening to a flow of hard evidence that was soon to become a flood: that by 1975 the government of Argentina was committing human rights violations on a massive scale never before seen in Latin America, and the six military governments of the Southern Cone were cooperating to assassinate one another’s opponents.” This was the Argentina in which Presidents Cristina and Nestor Kirchner spent their earliest years. This was the environment in which the Chicago Boys’ murderous economic policies were forced down the throats of the majority of Argentina’s citizens, utilizing torture, murder and “disappearances” to facilitate the “privatization” of the country’s resources in the organized theft of the nation’s patrimony. This theft was engineered by one of history’s most deadly mobs of criminals, the Chicago Boys, trained by the sociopath Milton Friedman, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in a decision grossly discrediting the legitimacy of the Nobel Committee. President Kirchner described the economic and social recovery steered by her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, a program of social and economic inclusiveness which made education widely available to Argentina’s majority, which decreased unemployment while establishing social safety nets, a program in which Argentina’s economy began to thrive, as Nestor Kirchner weaned Argentina’s economy from the IMF ‘debt trap’ (the title of the superb book by economist Cheryl Payer), and made arrangements to pay off the astronomical debts amassed during the previous period of economic domination by the Chicago Boys, (debts for which Nestor Kirchner’s government was in no way responsible). President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner spoke with legitimate pride of Argentina’s success in reducing widespread poverty, despite the financial disaster engineered by the thugs of the international financial system who are currently still attempting to hold Argentina hostage. President Kirchner voiced the concerns of the greater part of the developing world, which voted on September 9, 2014, for the United Nations General Assembly resolution: “Toward the Establishment of a Multilateral Legal Framework for Sovereign Debt Restructuring Process.” Argentina’s Foreign Minister, Hector Timerman (whose father, the great journalist and human rights advocate, Jacobo Timerman, had been imprisoned and tortured for two years in Argentina during that same “dirty war” of 1976 described earlier) introduced that resolution, “establishing an ethical political and legal pathway to end unbridled speculation.” The resolution was adopted, with 124 nations supporting it, eleven nations opposing it, and forty one abstentions…The scandalous profits made by parasitic “vulture funds” are funneled into campaign and lobbying to prevent change in the current viciously unjust economic architecture. The Cuban delegate stated the appalling fact that “Developing countries had paid many times the amounts originally received as loans and that devoured resources essential for development.” The distinguished American economist Joseph Stiglitz has repeatedly emphasized precisely this same fact. President Kirchner denounced U.S. Federal Judge Thomas Griesa, whose currently strangling injunctions, prohibiting Argentina’s repayment of 92.4 percent of the debt until the “vulture funds” are paid in full, would force the return of Argentina’s economy to destitution, totally destroying the new economic and social programs which are empowering Argentina’s majority, and would quickly restore the earlier squalor of the economically colonized Argentina into which Milton Friedman’s thugs and the IMF had forced Argentina to subsist for decades of Kirchner’s earlier life. In her masterpiece, “The Shock Doctrine,” exposing the criminal thuggery of Friedman’s Chicago Boys, Naomi Klein states: “In the early nineties, the Argentine state sold off the riches of the country so rapidly and so completely that the project far surpassed what had taken place in Chile a decade earlier. By 1994, 90 percent of all state enterprises had been sold to private companies, including Citibank, Bank Boston, France’s Suez and Vivendi, Spain’s Repsol and Telefonica. Before making the sales, (former President) Menem and (former Finance Minister) Cavallo had generously performed a valuable service for the new owners: they had fired roughly 700,000 of their workers, according to Cavallo’s own estimates; some put the number much higher. The oil company alone lost 27,000 workers during the Menem years, An admirer of Jeffrey Sachs, Cavallo called this process “shock Therapy.” Menem had an even more brutal phrase for it: in a country still traumatized by mass torture, he called it “major surgery without anesthetic.”* “* In January 2006, long after Cavallo and Menem were out of office, Argentines received some surprising news. It turned out that the Cavallo Plan wasn’t Cavallo’s at all, nor was it the IMF’s: Argentina’s entire early-nineties shock therapy program was written in secret by JP Morgan and Citibank, two of Argentina’s largest private creditors. In the course of a lawsuit against the Argentine government, the noted historian Alejandro Olmos Gaona uncovered a jaw-dropping 1,400 page document written by the two U.S. banks for Cavallo in which “the policies carried out by the government from ’92 on are drawn up…the privatization of utilities, the labour law reform, the privatization of the pension system. It is all laid out with great attention to detail ….Everyone believes that the economic plan pursued since 1992 was Domingo Cavallos’s creation, but that’s not the way it is.” In the long term, Cavallo’s program in its entirety would prove disastrous for Argentina. …So many jobs were lost that well over half the country would eventually be pushed below the poverty line.” As President Fernandez Kirchner charges, today it is obvious that U.S. Federal Judge Griesa’s ruling is an attempt to destabilize Argentina, using a new imperialist tactic devised by the current gangsters of international capitalism who thrive by devouring the lives and patrimony of the majority of citizens of the developing world, and, indeed, impose these tactics upon the “99%” percent of citizens within the countries of the developed world. President Fernandez Kirchner explicitly denounced as economic terrorists the “vulture funds” which, supported by the United States’ judicial system, are attempting to destabilize and ultimately overthrow her government. She stated: “Not only those who place bombs are terrorists, but also those who destabilize the economy of countries, and cause hunger, misery and poverty from the sin of speculation.” Judge Griesa is attempting, in fact, to fine Argentina $50,000 per day for not complying with his ruling, and declaring Argentina in contempt of court.” In response to his brutal arrogance, President Kirchner cited a quote from former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who described such “creditors” as immoral, preventing countries from tackling problems of education, health and poverty. Argentina’s president spoke fiercely of such engineered poverty and destitution as creating fertile breeding ground for terrorist leaders recruiting among those who have lost all hope of lives affording them options for fulfillment and dignity, and her voice echoed, 35 years later, the speech delivered on August 27, 1980 at the United Nations Eleventh Special Session on Economic Development: “Toward a New International Economic Order”: Joaquim Chissano, then Foreign Minister of Mozambique addressed the General Assembly, decades ago, and stated: “The existing economic order is profoundly unjust. It runs counter to the basic interests of the developing countries…we see the perpetuation of underdevelopment in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The peoples of those continents are forced to face hunger, starvation, poverty, nakedness, disease and illiteracy increasingly. We denounce any kind of economic prosperity or independence for part of mankind built on the dependence, domination and exploitation of the rest of mankind…the developing countries have warned the world about the need to take measures to eliminate the main obstacles to emancipation and progress of the peoples struggling for a proper standard of living which would meet the basic needs of life. …During the colonial period we were branded as rebels and insurgents when we demanded the restitution of our status as human beings. When we demanded independence we tried to talk peaceably with our masters, but no one would listen. The dialogue of force was imposed upon us. We took up arms. Much blood was spilt. But only in that way were we able to win.” Twenty-nine years later, at the 64 Session of the United Nations General Assembly, on September 24, 2008, Stjepan Mesic, President of the Republic of Croatia, and the last President of Yugoslavia stated: “Our world is finally still dominated by an economic model which is self-evidently exhausted and has now reached a stage where it is itself generating crises, causing hardship to thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. If one attempts to save this already obsolete model at any cost, if one stubbornly defends a system based on greed and devoid of any social note worthy of mention, the result can be only one: social unrest harboring the potential to erupt into social insurgence on a global scale.” Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, President of Argentina today raises her powerful voice in, once again, the noble call for economic and social justice. Those who are guilty of perpetuating the injustices she and so many other world leaders abhor walked out of the hall as she spoke. And those are the ones who may ultimately pay the fatal price for ignoring her warning. The Centre for Research on Globalization Posted by webcrat at 6:51 AM Labels: America, Cristina Fernandez, Economic, Economic Genocide, genocide, IMF, Latin, Latin America, Legacy of the IMF, Legacy of Wall Street, President Cristina Fernandez, Wall Street The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) calls for the protection of migrants’ rights CELAC calls for protection of migrants’ rights QUITO.— With a call to protect the rights of migrant workers the Third Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Meeting on Migration began in the city of Azogues, southern Ecuador. "Migrant workers can no longer be viewed solely as labor, we must ensure their rights," stated Ecuadorian deputy minister for Human Mobility, María Landázuri, at the opening of the two-day event. According to the deputy minister, the search for safe migration facilities for citizens must involve both the governments of the origin and destination countries and the people in general. Landázuri commented that the CELAC meeting - in which representatives from 33 member countries of the regional bloc are participating - aims to share experience and find points of agreement. "There are more similarities than differences, and our ultimate aim is to create spaces of peace," she stated, adding that the agreements established in the meeting will be presented to the UN and CELAC leadership, reported PL. According to the Ecuadorian minister, one of the main challenges CELAC experts will face will be developing a action plan to protect migrants and provide them with greater resources, in addition to addressing the issues of unaccompanied minors and reuniting families. According to the agenda, they will also analyze sub-regional protection and response mechanisms, migration and development, and the advances and prospects in this area between the European Union and CELAC. (PL) Granma.cu Labels: American, Caribbean, Caribbean states, CELAC, Latin, Latin American, Latin American states, migrants, migrants rights, rights, rights of migrants Looking for a leader in the Caribbean By Robin Guittard: It takes a strong leader to sit up and take notice when the tides of public opinion are turning. Often the idea of real change can be concerning to politicians. However, in Trinidad and Tobago people are crying out for their rights to be recognised, as a whole section of society suffers continued discrimination and abuse. Will the leaders listen to their calls? A few months ago, the country’s Commission in charge of the reform of the constitution pointed out “a high level of violence and abuse directed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual or intersex (LGBTI) people” in Trinidad and Tobago But over the last couple of weeks something has changed, there is excitement in the air. Perhaps the country is having its most mature debate since independence half a century ago. The nation is discussing what place to give to those who doesn’t identify themselves as heterosexuals, those often called LGBTI. The ground-swell of support has been palpable, and has come as a reaction to a mis-judged statement from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Last month, during an interview in New York, she ducked and dived when she was questioned about the “decriminalization of homosexuality” in the country. She said that it isn’t something her government is seeking to do at the moment because “it’s too divided, there’s no consensus on that issue.” She then rapidly ended the discussion saying the question should be put before a national referendum. Since then, a fierce debate has taken place. Many new voices have appeared to challenge the Prime Minister’s dismissal of her government’s obligations to protect the rights of LGBTI people. The public debate has been bolstered by recent developments. Recently UNAIDS, the United Nations agency in charge of the fight against HIV/AIDS, presented the results of a survey undertaken in Trinidad and Tobago. An encouraging 78% of people interviewed said that “homosexuals should not be treated differently”, and 56% said that they themselves were tolerant towards LGBTI people. Then, last week the country’s Equal Opportunity Commission announced that it will recommend including sexual orientation, age and HIV status in national legislation designed to protect citizens against discrimination. Surely if the Prime Minister needs a green light to act on this issue, she has just received a strong message: the country is ready to move forward. In fact, Kamla Persad-Bissessar herself has already shown she is open to change. In 2012 she noted that “the stigmatisation of homosexuality in Trinidad and Tobago is a matter which must be addressed on the grounds of human rights and dignity to which every individual is entitled under international law.” Amnesty International could not agree more. However, while the prime minister can take strength from the outpouring of support and call for change, her suggestion of a referendum is not the surest way forward. If the prime minister is serious about effecting progressive change she does not need to put the question to a referendum and risk a result that reinforces discrimination. She should instead promote legislation that would ensure that Trinidad and Tobago’s laws comply with its international obligations and implement appropriate awareness raising measures to combat society’s prejudices and discriminatory practices. Above all, protection from discrimination is an internationally-binding obligation that has been voluntarily accepted by the Trinidadian state. Over the years, UN experts have clarified that treaty provisions prohibiting discrimination implicitly proscribe discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It’s a responsibility which needs to be acted upon by the government, not something that’s optional. Trinidad and Tobago has repeatedly proven to be a tolerant society. Protection from discrimination is a key component amongst its diverse communities, the foundation on which the society has been built. It’s exactly because of this strong track-record in tolerance that the prime minister’s inaction and excuses need to be challenged. When so many people and institutions are voicing concerns that LGBTI Trinidadians are continuously facing discrimination, the Prime Minister can no longer ignore the issue. To improve the human rights record in Trinidad and Tobago the country needs leadership. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar can be that leader and could truly make a mark on the country’s history and change the human rights environment for the better. A national version was published on Monday in the Trinidad Express Caribbean News Now Labels: Caribbean, Caribbean leader, Caribbean leaders, Caribbean leadership, leader in the Caribbean Wake-up My Bahamian People! The Bahamas: A Perfect Financial Storm Brewing in Tourism Paradise By Norman Trabulsy Jr. The Bahamas is entering a period for which I see a Perfect Storm gathering, and this is unfortunate. A Perfect Storm comes about when a number of factors synergize to exacerbate what would otherwise be a mildly disruptive event. Although a number of other supporting realities strongly buttress my view, for the sake of brevity I will base my analysis and prediction of a Perfect Storm on the following. Implementation of a value-added tax (VAT) It does not take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out who owes hundreds of millions of dollars to the Bahamian government in uncollected property taxes. Value-added tax is being implemented because the government has failed in its job and been unable, or unwilling, to collect even half of the taxes it is owed. The VAT is a consumer-based and regressive tax, meaning that it hits the poorest the hardest. The estimated revenue from the VAT assumes that the economy will remain roughly at its current level. I strongly suggest that the Bahamian economy will take a very hard hit for several years due to the high cost of VAT compliance, higher prices, fraud, and the overestimate of the tax revenues to be collected, causing the government to further tighten its belt, all contributing to a dangerous shrinking of the economy. This: before the risk of any hiccup in the tourism sector, which accounts for 80 percent of The Bahamas’ gross domestic product (GDP). It is rather naive to suggest that the tourism sector is immune to rising prices, when survey after survey show that the No. 1 complaint of tourists is high prices. Sun, sea and sand have a value, but there is a limit, and we are pushing it. Legalization and proliferation of gambling web shops In The Bahamas, a social epidemic of gambling appears to be a symptom of the larger desperation of being unable to make a decent living and provide for one’s family by holding an average job. But more on that later. I predict that the net effect of a proliferation gambling web shops will be a continued drain on the real economy and an increasing transfer of monies into the hands of web shop owners. The health of an economy is based on the amount of money that freely circulates within it. As more money leaves the real economy via the web shops, the net result is unarguable: a rapid and decisive transfer of wealth into the pockets of those who produce nothing. A software designer for some of the web shops told me that, for every winner, there are 8,000 losers. Ponder these odds for a moment. I live on a small family island, and I have paid attention to this matter for nearly a decade. I cannot count the times Bahamians who do not gamble have said to me, “These web shops are going to take this country down.” Perhaps they say this because, like me, they have seen the dashed hopes, the unfinished houses, the children whose lunch moneys were squandered by their parents’ spinning, and the money leaving this small island on a weekly basis that could have gone to so many worthy causes and needs. The language should be more honest: gambling is not an industry, it is a Ponzi scheme, and it should be called what it is. Downgrading of the credit worthiness of The Bahamas by Moody’s Moody’s recently downgraded the credit worthiness of the Bahamas due to the unlikely probability that it will reduce its 50 percent debt-to-GDP ratio. We are unlikely to do this because for the past 10 years our country has only grown by six percent, and we continue to borrow more money. Moody’s rightfully wonders where the government will find the money to pay off its increasing debt. The prospects are bleak. I liken this situation to the following conversation. A friend comes to me and says, “You owe me $500 today.” I ask, “Why is that?” He answers, “Because 50 years ago your grandfather borrowed $500 from my grandfather and he said you would pay me the $500 your grandfather owed him.” Who doesn’t think this is absurd? Yet, what do the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and Free National Movement (FNM) do each year to the citizens of The Bahamas? How is this any less absurd than what our well-educated economists, politicians and lawyers are proposing to us today? When politicians take out these big loans, with interest, who winds up paying for them? State of the global economy Not enough honest people have spoken out about the implications of what the major players in the financial sector and government officials have been doing. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, the United States in particular, has pumped trillions of taxpayers dollars into the banks and financial institutions there and around the world, in an attempt to “save” the economy that was put in danger by, you guessed it, the banks and financial institutions. Soon the consequences of this policy will become yet more apparent in rising inflation, increasing inequality, and a greater impoverishment for most of humanity. Any prudent government would have, after assessing the crisis and its causes, broken up the largest of banks and nationalized those that had done the most harm to society. The largest banks, financial institutions, and here in The Bahamas even the web shops, have completely captured our politicians and the political process. Consider the phrases: Too Big To Fail and Too Big to Jail. Justice has become lopsided and no longer applies to the rich and powerful. This is the reality today throughout the world, and it is contrary to any concept of democracy. The people of The Bahamas said “No” on the referendum regarding web shops. Yet, what did our Prime Minister do? Who do the politicians really work for? Does democracy exist in The Bahamas, or anywhere? Answer honestly. Now, what are you going to do about it? Increasing poverty rate in The Bahamas The realities about poverty in The Bahamas are probably worse than the government statistics suggest. For an indicator of the real state of our economy and the hurdles that must be overcome to change our course, speak to any social service worker. They will tell you that they are seeing an increasingly depressed, despondent and hopeless people who come for assistance. Yet the government is cutting back on social services to balance the budget, so that there will be even less resources to help the rising numbers of people who need them. The economic considerations are in themselves sufficient cause for concern, but it is also reasonable to expect that, as the poverty rate increases, the crime rate will increase, and public safety, the quality of life and tourism will decline. Increasing emphasis on the “financial services industry” The so-called financial services industry is the second largest contributor to the GDP of The Bahamas, after tourism. It is not an industry but a scheme to attract people who don’t want to pay taxes in their own countries and need a place to hide their money. The Bahamas levies no income tax, no corporate tax, no inheritance tax, no capital gains tax, and it seems that property taxes are very low and not collectable. The money to run the government comes, for the most part, from the working people of The Bahamas. The rich pay a minuscule percentage of their incomes to live in paradise: sort of like going to Disney World for free. If the tax policies here in The Bahamas actually created an incentive for investment, an improvement in the job market, and a healthy economy, wouldn’t there be better results after all these decades of such policies? Instead, our politicians, lawyers, bankers, the financial services representatives, all of them, have become beholden to big money. Who, in their right mind, can possibly say that things here and around the world are going well and that the future looks bright for most of the world’s people? The “financial services industry” produces little to improve the lives of ordinary people. There is no reason to give the rich a free ride in this country; the benefits of living here are too great to be given away for free. I say: make them pay their fair share. The Bahamian people need to stand up and call for these changes, because not one person in the government has the guts to tell it like it is. Aspiration to join free-trade organizations Generally speaking, free trade in today’s world is a way for transnational companies to subvert a county’s legal system and destroy its sovereignty. The result of almost every modern free-trade agreement has been the destruction of a country’s agricultural and manufacturing base and its replacement by highly subsidized foreign corporate ownership, gutting of environmental laws and crushing of organized labor. Any complaints and lawsuits must now be handled by an extra-judicial group of corporate lawyers with loyalties to big business. This idea of The Bahamas joining these free-trade agreements will only further the interests of those businessmen, lawyers and politicians who are pushing them. They will not help the tourist economy or manufacturing economy of The Bahamas or create more and better jobs for Bahamians. These issues must be known to the Bahamian people before our politicians sell this country out from under our feet. Lack of leadership Anyone old enough to remember, or who has gone to YouTube to hear, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. understands that we have no statesmen in this world today. Do not be duped by the words of the first African-American US President. He is not even worthy to stand in the shadows of MLK Jr. Listen to the words of our own politicians in The Bahamas: mere words, poisonous words, for they are meant to trick us into believing that they have our interests in mind. Nowhere in the world is there a leader with the integrity, honesty, courage and fortitude required to govern. Each and every one is beholden to the moneyed interests in the world today. I have heard the expression, “We get the government we deserve.” If this is true, I am saddened by where we are as a people. If we can rise up, and create a better society, it is time to do so. Let us get rid of the charlatans, the spineless, the greedy, the dishonest and egotistical excuses for public servants that we now have. This isn’t about one political party or another. Wake up people! I believe we are staring a Perfect Storm in the face. It is up to us to do something for ourselves to avoid the impending crisis. Editor’s Notes: Norman Trabulsy Jr. is an expecting father, restauranteur, sailor, captain, carpenter and naturalist living in The Bahamas. His writing generally focuses on environmental issues concerning tropical marine ecosystems and economics. Photographs one, four and nine by Thomas Hawk; two, five and fourteen by Albyan Toniazzi; three and ten by Susan; seven and thirteen by Bruce Tuten; eleven and twelve by Shutter Runner; six by Jordon Cooper, and eight from the IMF archives. Labels: Bahamas, Bahamas Paradise, Bahamas tourism, Bahamian, Bahamian Paradise, Bahamian people, people, The Bahamas, Tourism Paradise Ebola and The Bahamas: Proper Planning will Prevent Panic - says the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Amid rising concern regarding the Ebola health crisis, Government officials from around the globe are taking the necessary action to prepare their respective countries for a potential outbreak and protect their citizens. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of this Christie led administration. The Government of the Bahamas has taken too lax an approach to the handling of this disease which is now at our back door; and as with countless other national issues, our leaders have shown themselves ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL. The Democratic National Alliance, more than two weeks ago, called for the Ministry of Health, helmed by Dr. Perry Gomez, to begin a widespread education campaign on the effects of the disease and outline specifically, the government’s plans to prevent a possible outbreak. According to the Minister, the government has created what officials claim is a dynamic preparedness plan to protect the citizenry, a plan based on meetings with stakeholders from various sectors of government and private sector. For this, the DNA commends the Minister of Health for at least taking these very minimal steps, however MORE IS NEEDED. Instead of providing clarity on the way forward, the Minister has left even more unanswered questions. His most recent update statement on the Ebola virus and its implications, was yet another wasted opportunity for the government who, instead of providing details of its plan and when implementation of said plan would occur, he simply regurgitated facts about the disease which could be acquired by a simple Google search. What we need are SPECIFICS! What we need are FACTS! What we need is ACCESS to the government’s plan! The government’s failure to release that plan to the public is cause for concern and raises a number of Questions. For example, has the government identified secure isolation centers to house the potentially infected and If so, WHERE? This is of particular importance as many public healthcare clinics and facilities exist within the heart of residential communities which could spell disaster if exposure occurs. What are the protocols in the event of a confirmed case? Have healthcare professional been properly briefed regarding those protocols? In a statement to the media last week the Chief Medical Officer revealed an even more frightening reality when he asserted there was only 3 days’ worth of medical supply to treat an infected individual, even though experts suggest that an infected patient can live up to 8 days after becoming symptomatic; coupled with the recent “loss” of millions of dollars in prescription medication from the Princess Margaret Hospital is even MORE ALARMING! As the deadly virus continues to overwhelm isolation centers and public healthcare systems worldwide, scores of countries around the globe and even within this region have already implemented increased screening processes and travel bans to protect their borders; particularly as it relates to persons traveling from locales severely affected by the disease. Here in the Bahamas however, such options are only now being CONSIDERED by government officials locally even though thousands of visitors from around the world enter our borders by air and sea daily. For decades, our country’s porous borders have posed serious challenges in terms of immigration, drug and weapons smuggling and even human smuggling. Now, the threat of this lethal disease threatens to further aggravate an already contentious problem. Rather than take the proactive approach like our regional counterparts, this government seems comfortable relying on foreign nations to perform Ebola screenings. According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control, the recent Ebola outbreak, categorized as the worst in the world’s history, has killed over four thousand, five hundred people with the number of new infections to grow exponentially by the end of the year. The disease, which has an incubation period of 2 to 21 days, means that an infected individual traveling through Europe or the United States may successfully pass through screenings in those countries only to become symptomatic and contagious once reaching our borders. Since January 2014 to September 2014, the Bahamas has had at least 66 persons who have traveled from West Africa to the Bahamas. Those figures alone reinforce the absolute need for enhanced screening and public education. Enhanced screening protocols must ensure that travelers from affected countries be questioned at the border by a health care professional stationed there to determine the potential risk. Travelers must also be subject to physical screenings such as having their temperature taken – with an Infrared Thermometer to limit physical contact – and observation for other Symptoms of Ebola. Information packets containing facts about the disease and its symptoms should also be provided at the border so that travelers themselves are vigilant about their own health status. These additional screenings are a layered approach and must be used with other public health measures to ensure that every precaution is being taken. While it is important to refrain from inciting panic over the potential impact of the disease on the Bahamas, it is EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to educate the citizenry. In the absence of actual FACT and INFORMATION, only fear, uncertainty and misinformation remain. The government MUST not treat this issue as it has treated countless others. Shrouding their plans in secrecy will not keep Bahamians safe. ONLY ACTION WILL! Christopher Mortimer Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Deputy Leader Labels: Democratic National Alliance, Democratic National Alliance in The Bahamas, DNA, DNA Bahamas, Ebola, Ebola Bahamas, Ebola in The Bahamas, Ebola panic Paralysed Venezuela vs Thriving Bolivia: Two Faces of Socialism By Hernán Luis Torres Núñez – Aporrea.org: Hernán Luis Torres Núñez, a frequent economics commentator on leftist Venezuelan community forum Aporrea, argues that Venezuela should learn from Bolivian president Evo Morales’ pragmatic style of governance for “21st century socialism”. A few days ago a friend asked me if I’d written about the situation in the country again. I answered no, because the government hadn’t taken any action on the economy that served as an excuse for me to write something. The only thing that’s happened worth mentioning is the assassination of Robert Serra, which is in an area of events that isn’t my strength. Also I don’t like speculating about this type of issue, above all because the investigations haven’t finished solving the crime. However it should be pointed out that not making decisions is a way of deciding. That is, maintaining the status quo is a way of signalling that although the situation is very difficult, making decisions can worsen the situation. This reminds me of the second government of [Rafael] Caldera [1994 - 1999]. When he was elected he put the economy in the freezer and let time pass. Caldera was clear that the economic adjustment measures of [former president] Carlos Andres Perez [1989 - 1993] had cost him his job. [Caldera] finally implemented these measures two years into his term, when the political atmosphere had calmed down. These are very difficult times for the Venezuelan economy. We can’t exaggerate when we see indices of inflation and shortages of all kinds of products (because we no longer see the shortages indicator); when we see that dollars [for imports] are sporadically shared out to different economic sectors at a drip drop; when we see that oil is dropping to 80 dollars a barrel; when we have three official exchange rates to the dollar, each one overvaluing the bolivar and generating deep distortions in the economy; when we see that property prices reach 50 million bolivars (US $7.9 million at highest official rate); when the prices of used cars are crazy, etc. Therefore we can speculate that no economic decisions are being taken to stabilise the situation because these would have a very strong impact on Venezuelans’ quality of life. A strong devaluation toward one exchange rate, a generalised increase in prices (which has been happening surreptitiously), a petrol price increase, and a possible tax rise would make poverty rates violently shoot up. This situation would put the government against the wall, as its banner all these years has been the eradication of poverty. The goal of zero poverty would be smashed to smithereens. On the other hand, it’s important to point out that politicians pursue power, and once obtained, they try to keep it for the longest time possible. Good economic performance is something that can favour the politicians in government, and bad management sooner or later ends up taking its toll and hastening the fall of the governors, above all if we live in an effective democracy. By virtue of what’s happening in the economy and with parliamentary elections next year, the fear of losing political power is a close possibility. As such, in these moments political calculation can impose itself over economic reality. Meanwhile, Evo Morales has just won his third term in Bolivia, and overwhelmingly. Bolivia is experiencing economic growth, and in 2015 is expected to be the country that grows most in the region. There is a construction boom in La Paz, with new shopping malls full of foreign brands. In Bolivia there are no currency controls, and yet, international reserves reach 48% of GDP. It appears that there hasn’t been capital flight, and rather Bolivia is today a very attractive site for foreign investment. An important reduction in poverty has also occurred. The opposition to Morales’ government, that at one point backed the division of the country, has softened its posture. Apparently Evo Morales has been capable of gaining the support of the middle class and some business. The conflict of his first years in government has given way to social, political and economic stability. All of this drives us to think about what the key to success in Bolivia is, a country with far less resources than Venezuela but that has been capable of establishing a successful popular government, very different from the Venezuelan case. It’s necessary in the field of Venezuelan socialism that the Bolivian case is studied and the necessary lessons taken. I’ve often heard the argument that other countries don’t have anti-patriotic parasitic bourgeoisies, a reasoning that seems contradictory and a little naïve, because in some way it’s saying that the success of socialism depends on the kindness and patriotism of the bourgeoisie, which is nonsense. The industrial bourgeoisie in all countries behaves in the same way, it invests to profit, and if it can’t profit it moves its capital somewhere else. We can’t forget that there was a moment that the Bolivian bourgeoisie and its half moon movement wanted to remove Morales from power the underhand way. If today the Bolivian bourgeoisie is investing and not encouraging capital flight it’s because it trusts that its investment will be respected and will perform well. All of this has occurred due to negotiation between the Bolivian bourgeoisie and Evo’s government. The above is notable because Evo Morales has declared himself a Marxist and admirer of Fidel [Castro], however, it would appear that he is also a pragmatic man who understands that socialism of the 21st century has to be radically different than that of the 20th, something that the person who was our economic flag bearer, [former minister Jorge] Giordani, could never understand and less so put into practice. Strong applause for Evo Morales. Translated by Venezuelanalysis.com. Source: Aporrea.org Labels: Bolivia, faces of socialism, paralysed Venezuela, socialism, socialism in Bolivia, socialism in Venezuela, thriving Bolivia, Venezuela Ebola in the Caribbean and Latin America - a matter of when? Ebola: Will LatAm succumb? By Christian Molinari International news has been abuzz with the Ebola outbreak, its haunting effects on victims in West Africa and its spread into Europe and the US. So far, the epidemic has not been confirmed in Latin America, although Brazil's health ministry reported its first suspected case. Following the death from the virus of a Liberian man in a Dallas hospital on October 8, the US government expanded airport examinations. (The screening consists of questions about a passenger's history and a fever check, which passengers can beat by taking medicine to bring down their temperature.) Previously, a nursing assistant became infected in Spain, the first person to contract Ebola outside of West Africa. Marine Corps general John F. Kelly, the commander of US Southern Command – responsible for US military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean – admitted last month that the issue keeps him awake at night. According to Kelly, Latin America is the backdoor through which many West Africans, part of a human trafficking chain, illegally enter the US. And if Ebola were to take hold in the Caribbean or Central America, the streaming of immigrants into the US trying to get proper medical care would be unstoppable, he said. The numbers are frightening – with up to 1.4mn possible infections worldwide by early 2015, according to estimates, and half of the victims dying. The World Bank forecasts billions of dollars in economic losses in West Africa alone if the epidemic lasts and continues to spread. It's being called the worst calamity since the outbreak of AIDS. In short, it's a matter of when and not if the disease will make it to Latin America. As the 40mn-strong online activist organization Avaaz points out, the core of the epidemic boils down to a health issue, with just 0.01 doctors for every 1,000 people in Liberia. "There just aren't enough medical staff to stem the epidemic," it says, calling for international medical volunteers to help meet needs. For Latin America, the overall sense is that while Ebola is sure to arrive sooner or later, it will not turn into an epidemic. According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), many Latin American countries have more than one doctor per 1,000 citizens. Even the region's poorest country, Haiti, has 0.3 doctors per 1,000 – not a great figure, but still 30 times higher than in Liberia. The statistic goes all the way up to 6.7 for Cuba. And a number of countries in the region are fairly well prepared to address the virus – Argentina (3.2 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants), Chile (1.0) and Brazil (1.9) are tightening security at airports. Argentina, on epidemic alert, has already designated a number of hospitals in urban areas as 'Ebola-only' quarantine centers if cases are detected in the country. Chile, in turn, while saying it is on the WHO's list of the countries least likely to be affected, has assured that it is implementing contingency plans to be able to respond to the situation should it come up. And Brazil has for years cooperated and shared information with Hamburg-based Bernhard Nocht Institute (BNI) for Tropical Medicine. According to Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, BNI's virology department director, Brazil is actually very well prepared thanks to past work the institute has carried out in conjunction with local authorities regarding dengue-based viral hemorrhagic fevers. That has allowed the University of Rio de Janeiro to have a virus diagnostic center to perform tests and detect Ebola relatively quickly. Additionally, the health ministry said that 37 hospitals in 25 states are in condition to receive patients infected with the virus. The Ebola virus – believed to be naturally hosted by fruit bats – is not endemic to Latin America, which in and of itself is an impediment to its propagation, Schmidt-Chanasit said, according to German publication DW. In summary, Ebola will arrive in Latin America, if it hasn't already. But with proper precautions and controls, it will not have the effect seen in West Africa, and cases will be limited. Keep calm – mass hysteria and panic have never helped in any situation. BN Americas Labels: Ebola, Ebola in America, Ebola in Central America, Ebola in Latin America, Ebola in the Americas, Ebola in the Caribbean National Money Laundering Risk Assessment - The Bahamas AG: “Zero Tolerance On Money Laundering” By JonesBahamas: Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Allyson Maynard-Gibson yesterday reiterated the government’s zero-tolerance position on money laundering as she opened a two-day workshop to address the risks associated with this practice. With the growing recognition that illegally earned funds are being concealed more and more throughout the Bahamas, officials met to continue the first of three phases of the National Money Laundering Risk Assessment at the Melia Resort early yesterday morning. “My presence here this morning indicates the commitment of the government to Financial Services and doing all that it takes to correct the ease of doing business ratings – it’s very very low…lower than we ought to have,” the attorney general said. Bahamas Anti-Money Laundering Coordinator, Stephen Thompson, said the sole purpose of the National Risk Assessment is to identify money laundering and terrorist financing risks in the Bahamas. The two day workshop facilitated by the World Bank will consist of training on exactly how to identify the risks. “This is a workshop where once we would have determined the money laundering terrorists and financing risks, we will determine how we go about putting mechanisms in place to strengthen what already exists or put in place mechanisms to identify areas that are not currently regulated. We will move in that direction” said Thompson. Mr. Thompson told reporters that all financial services legislations will be reviewed for the assessment to determine the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing risks in the Bahamas. “What we do is we look at what is called Typologies, Money Laundering Typologies. These would be the means by which people have laundered money in the past” said Mr. Thompson, “Those will be the areas, obviously, that we will focus on. In addition to that, we will look at any other areas of vulnerabilities. Meaning, any area that is susceptible to criminal activity, obviously, cash intensive businesses will be very critical for us to look at. Any area that we know from a global perspective poses as a risk for money laundering.” Attorney General Alyson Maynard was also present at the assessment this morning. She said As the risk assessment continues, Mr. Thompson and his team hope to find any area that is vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing within the country. Jones Bahamas Labels: money laundering, Money Laundering in The Bahamas, Money Laundering Risk, Money Laundering Risk Assessment, Money Laundering Risk Assessment in The Bahamas, Money Laundering Risk in The Bahamas Should homosexuals influence Caribbean society on the right to sex more than the Caribbean church? Part-2 Should homosexuals influence Caribbean society more than the church community? Part 2 By Dr Lazarus Castang: Continuing from part 1, where the question was left unanswered, I propose, from numerous perspectives, an answer to the question: Should homosexuals influence Caribbean society on the right to sex more than the Caribbean church? On the question of majority rule, for the maintenance of social order there must be some sort of political, or military, or numerical majority. Numerically, there are far more professed Christians than homosexuals in the Caribbean society. Heterosexuals are a sexual majority and LGBTs are a sexual minority. A vote for the repeal or retention of Caribbean sodomy laws may result in its retention because of social, cultural and religious norms that do not favour men having sex with men (MSM). So, purely on the basis of a numerical majority rule as to whether homosexuals should influence Caribbean society on the right to sex more than the Caribbean church, the verdict is on the side of the Caribbean church. “Should” brings the question of morality into play, while “can” puts the question of ability on the screen. Homosexuals can influence Caribbean public policy through political pressures and funding agencies. But it may still be an uphill battle to overthrow the will of the numerical majority to legislate what homosexuals do as legitimate, normal or normative. The question of the tyranny of the majority over the minority misses the important distinction between parallel rights and conflicting rights. Where there is a conflict of rights in society, one right will be made fundamental and the other less than fundamental. In the Caribbean, there is a right to conscience (religious liberty), but there is no right to homosex. If the distinction between parallel rights and conflicting rights is not kept in mind, then it can be indiscriminately argued that Caribbean legislations and religious norms create tyranny of the majority over a minority with crimes of drug addiction, incest, pedophilia, homosexuality, and bestiality. On the question of a sexual orientation rule, homosexuals may be born with tendencies to homosex, and early in life feel attracted to the same sex. It is an injustice of tremendous proportion to discriminate or legislate against homosexual orientation over which homosexuals have no choice. Moreover, how will evidence of orientation be reliably culled where there is no external evidence of homosexual practice? Therefore, a clear distinction must be maintained between homosexual orientation and the behavioural expression of it. In like manner, a clear distinction must be maintained between pedophilic orientation and the behavioural expression of it. Legal and moral consistency requires parity of treatment for homosexual and pedosexual behaviour. So, the verdict on the possession of the greater moral influence in the right-to-sex debate belongs to the Caribbean church. Analogies between homosexual behaviour and slavery or women issues are not the best analogies. Sexual analogies like incest, pedophilia, bestiality, prostitution, adultery, polygamy, polyamory, and male polysexuality are the best analogies. On the question of morality rule, the argument that a “right” to sexual orientation is an automatic right to any sexual behaviour on a sexual continuum is fallacious. Many men have a polysexual orientation, so is it an automatic right for them to sleep with as many consensual adult sex partners in order to be true to their polysexual orientation/identity? Married women will not agree to this, nor will loving, committed gay partners agree to it. What is considered “normal” is not automatically moral and there is no natural right to homosexual behaviour to make it a fundamental right. Those who call homosexual behaviour a universal human right have not made the case for the rightness, or universality, or humanity of homosex. So, the verdict on the possession of the greater moral influence in the right-to-sex debate belongs to the Caribbean church. Morality should not be disregarded even if it is alleged or made to stand in the way of economic growth. In fact, widespread economic growth itself presupposes a reduction or stifling of political and moral corruption in society. On the question of harmful rule, if homosexual behaviour is a victimless crime, then incest and bestiality are victimless crimes that should be decriminalised, legalised and protected. Furthermore, since there is no scientific research showing that pedophilia causes measurable harm to all children in all cases, then, pedophilia should be legislated against on a case by case basis. Harmful rule and victimless crime have been used to give a pass to prostitution. Interestingly, homosexual behaviour is against the natural use of women and against the perpetuity of the human race. Therefore, it is sexist and against our humanity. So, the verdict on the possession of the greater moral influence in the right-to-sex debate belongs to the Caribbean church. On the question of freedom, social inclusion, tolerance, equality and acceptance rules, these are so-called morally neutral issues that attempt to evade any talk of the morality of homosexual behaviour. We cannot have a society that declares a sexual matter a right by sheer ideological fiat. Nor can we have a society that physically abuses and professionally, or medically, or socially discriminates against homosexual persons because they come out or covertly engage in private, consensual adult homosex. Above all, we cannot have a society that is morally all-embracing from incest to prostitution to homosexuality to pedophilia to bestiality. How far do we extend the principle of right to sex if sexual satisfaction is a right? A moral society must draw the line. Homosexuals draw the line to include homosex as personally acceptable. The church draws the line to exclude homosex as morally unacceptable but to tolerate homosex, like adultery, fornication, male polysexuality as social immoralities beckoning sincere repentance of heart and reformation of behaviour. The Caribbean church will not support the legal protection of homosex that criminalises Christianity’s moral stance against homosex. Homosexuality is not a moral equivalent of heterosexuality. The opposite of both homosexuality and heterosexuality is moral purity. So, the verdict on the possession of the greater moral influence in the right-to-sex debate belongs to the Caribbean church. On the question of privacy, consensuality, male-adult, ownership-of-one’s-body, and right-to-choose rule, it works on the individual level with a purely private matter, but is inadequate a rule on the public level. Gay lobby, gay parades, the homosexual movement/community, promotion of gay lifestyle as a normal variant of human sexuality and gays coming out are public, not private matters. This rule gives free reign to any adult sexual behaviour that crosses gender, species, or blood-relatedness boundaries. It accommodates abortion, prostitution, incest, male polysexual behaviours, bestiality, polygamy, and polyamory. Therefore, such rule is virtually worthless being exclusive only of children and cognitively disabled individuals, but accepting of all other sexual behaviours, whether harmful or not. So, the verdict on the possession of the greater moral influence in the right-to-sex debate belongs to the Caribbean church. Caribbeannewsnow - Should homosexuals influence Caribbean society on the right to sex more than the Caribbean church? Part-1 Labels: Caribbean church, Caribbean society, homosexual, homosexual in the Caribbean, homosexual right to sex, homosexuals, homosexuals in the caribbean, homosexuals right to sex, the right to sex What now for Scotland? • The United Kingdom will need to reform its relationship with the Scots following the political unrest that led to the referendum Linet Perera Negrin Scotland will not become an independent country because that is what the majority wanted. However, the United Kingdom will need to reform its relationship with the Scots following the political unrest that led to the referendum, analysts have claimed. "Better Together" the No campaign slogan. Photo: La Nación The "No" vote won in Scotland. After 307 years of union and following polls suggesting victory for Scottish sovereignty, in the end 55.3% of the electorate decided to continue as part of the United Kingdom. With a lead of 10%, those in favor of the union won with 55.3% against 44% in favor of independence. 1,914,000 of those who went to the polls voted "No", while 1,539,000 supported the "Yes" vote. Although the British government is celebrating the victory, Edinburgh awaits the concessions promised, should the "No" campaign win. Whilst the Scottish National Party (SNP)’s request for more tax-raising powers was denied by the central government in 2012, this will now have to be taken into account in the process which is already underway, according to a pledge signed by the three main political parties. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the Labour opposition all promised greater powers, resources and more autonomy for Scotland, which will impact not only in other parts of Britain, but throughout Europe. In response to the results of the referendum, British Prime Minister David Cameron promised that Scotland will have increased rights as part of the promises made by his government on the eve of the vote. Cameron said that implementation of the promises set out in terms of taxation, spending and social welfare will advance over the coming months. He also pledged to push reforms for the rest of the UK and stated that he had instructed William Hague, former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, to draw up plans for decentralization. The changes will be reflected in bills that should be ready by January 2015. The British Prime Minister also referred to England, Wales and Northern Ireland and said the population of these territories should have more say in their internal affairs. If local authorities are given more powers, the Scots will have more autonomy in regards to tax collection, expenditure budgets and social services. Similarly, during the campaign leading up to the referendum, Cameron promised to maintain the so-called Barnett Formula of distribution for Scotland, a system of distribution of public spending designed by the former Minister of Economy, Joel Barnett, in the 1970s. Scots will therefore continue under this formula which, even with a smaller population, ensures they receive sufficient resources to run their public services, granting funds per capita 19% higher than in England. Another controversial topic was the British National Health Service or NHS. Supporters of independence assured that only separation would protect the health service from the cuts imposed by London. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties included a categorical promise that the last word on the money spent in the National Health Service in Scotland would be for the Scottish Parliament. On the other hand, by preserving the union, London maintains its benefits in terms of the oil and natural gas reserves in the North Sea and other natural resources on the Scottish mainland. Similarly, the British government will continue to recive taxes from the production of whiskey, wool, silk and fishing from the rich Scottish waters. In addition, the British military bases remain in Scotland. Another detail is that the Royal Bank of Scotland, like other financial institutions that had announced plans to move their headquarters to England in case of a separatist victory, announced that it would not be making any changes to its structure. In this context, and after learning the results, the price of the pound rose on the Foreign Echange Market. In the political sphere, Scottish Minister Alexander Salmond, the main champion for independence, announced his resignation after the defeat. Labels: Alexander Salmond, referendum, referendum in Scotland, Scot referendum, Scottish sovereignty, The No vote won in Scotland, United Kingdom Dennis Dames International Domain Dennis Dames Online The Immigration Plight of the Haitians in The Baha... The limits of changes – Venezuela: terminal crisis... “Economic Genocide” in Latin America: The Unspoken... The Community of Latin American and Caribbean Stat... Ebola and The Bahamas: Proper Planning will Preven... Paralysed Venezuela vs Thriving Bolivia: Two Faces... Ebola in the Caribbean and Latin America - a matte... National Money Laundering Risk Assessment - The Ba... Should homosexuals influence Caribbean society on ... Property Tax Reform in The Bahamas Political Bahamas Blog Bahamian Politics Blog Cheap Hotel Deals Int'l Hotel Finder	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line35
__label__cc	0.546452	0.453548	Revision as of 13:07, 20 June 2012 by Schrantz (Talk \| contribs) (1 revision) The Carson Valley is a large valley in Western Nevada. It sits between the Carson Range, which is popularly considered part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to the west, and the Pinenut Mountains to the east. The Carson River runs through the valley from south to north, entering the valley in two separate forks which join together near Genoa. The river leaves the valley to the northeast, heading on to the Eagle Valley and Dayton Valley. The Carson Valley is mostly rural agricultural land, with large ranches scattered through most of the south and west of the valley. There are also a few towns and suburban centers, where most of the residents live. Gardnerville Ranchos Johnson Lane Jack's Valley Fish Springs Ruhenstroth While today the term "Carson Valley" refers only to the large valley along the Carson River in Douglas County, in the 19th century the term referred to the Carson River valleys and canyons extending all the way from today's Carson Valley through Churchill Canyon ENE of Dayton. (According to Thompson and West's 1881 History of Nevada, p. 492, the area around Dayton was considered the "Carson Valley bottom" and extended all the way to Fort Churchill.) Today's Carson Valley was one of the first places settled in Nevada. California-bound wagon trains in the 1840s and 1850s had two major routes to choose from: either follow the Truckee River and cross the mountains by Donner Lake, or follow the Carson River Route through the Carson Valley, and follow what is now called Hwy 88 over the Carson Pass. In July 1850, H.S. Beatie and his party stopped along the Carson River Route, near the river, and built a small trading post to sell animals and supplies to travelers on the road. They didn't want to spend the winter here, though, so by September they had packed up and gone back to Salt Lake City. The next year, in the summer of 1851, John Reese (who was Beatie's boss) led a party back to the Carson Valley with the intention of establishing a permanent trading post along the Carson River Route. After scouting several locations along the trail, they decided that the spot where Beatie had built his cabin was the best location, so they settled there and built a more substantial fort, intent on staying the winter. Since most of the party was made up of Mormons, the fort and the settlement were named Mormon Station. It was the first permanent town in Nevada. In 1855, Mormon Station was renamed Genoa by Orson Hyde, an elder in the Church. By that time several other settlers had also stopped in the Carson Valley to make homes for themselves. Some of them lived in town, others had discovered the fertile ground near the Carson River, and had set about irrigating the land and building large farms. Many of these settlers were Mormons, but a lot of other faiths and nationalities had taken up residence in the valley, including a large contingency of German immigrants who established ranches stretching over hundred of acres. Retrieved from "http://carsonpedia.com/index.php?title=Carson_Valley&oldid=130" This page was last modified on 20 June 2012, at 13:07. This page has been accessed 9,536 times.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line36
__label__wiki	0.563443	0.563443	ELT CHOUTARI What to Write How to Write? Submitting a New Blog Post/Article ELT Resource Bank ELT in Nepal ELT Journals ELT Blogs, Discussions Suggest Resource English is one of the local languages in Nepal: Dr. Giri October 30, 2020 · Interview Ram Ashish Giri, PhD Ram A. Giri, PhD, academic staff at Monash University, English Language Centre, Melbourne, teaches and researches issues related to ELICOS courses, TESOL, language testing, and language (education) policy. In his extensive career spreading over Nepal and Australia, he has published in international journals, written book chapters, and published edited books. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of NELTA and sub-editor of TESL-EJ. Our Choutari editor, Jeevan Karki has spoken with Dr. Giri about the status of English in Nepal and the extent to be used, policies, and practice of English language teaching to avoid educational inequalities in multilingual Nepal. Moreover, the interview has also explored the concept of ‘authenticity’ in ELT, pros, and cons of adopting the foreign textbooks and other instructional materials including the ideas of localizing English language teaching, and the roles of English teachers and practitioners to balance the influence of English in our teaching-learning practices. Now, here is the exclusive interview for you. 1) In Nepal, English has already received a considerable space in the school and university curriculum as a compulsory language subject and, more recently, as a medium of instruction starting from as early as grade one. So, to what extent do you think English is required in our education system? How do you see the status of English in Nepal in the current sociopolitical situation? There are two parts to this question: why and to extent, English is required in our (education) system, and its status in the current socio-political system. Both of these should be looked at in their proper contexts. I will address the second part first because I think that it is the prelude for the first part. Status of English in the current socio-political situation: As the readers of ELT Choutari may be aware, the label of ‘English as a foreign language’ and ‘English as the most important international language’ in Nepal was unceremoniously attached to it in the 1950s and endorsed in successive educational plans by the then so-called experts of education. Although the reports and articles published in the 1960s have challenged this labelling as unrealistic and inappropriate, I am not going to delve into the argument here because the label, for me, is unimportant. What is important is how people saw the status of English then and how they see it now. I might add here that English was the language in- and of-education prior to 1951, and 44 percent of the population who participated in the first-ever national survey on education was in favour of keeping English as a medium of instruction in the planned school education. That was about 70 years ago. Let’s briefly outline what has changed in Nepal in the last 70 years. The literacy rate in Nepal has changed: In 1951-52, the literacy rate was around 4 percent and only 1 percent of school-age children attended school. According to some internet reports, the literacy rate in 2020 is around 90 percent and 76 percent of children are enrolled. The children who attended school since then would have some literacy in English. So, we can safely claim that the literacy rate in English has also changed/improved. There has been a change in the people’s attitude towards the language: People no longer see it as a subject they must study to get a degree. They see it as an essential graduate attribute which prepares them for being a functional citizen in the globalized world today. There has been a change in how people use English. It is a second or an alternate language for a significant number of people in the country. There are many educational and economic domains where English is used as the primary language. Similarly, in many social domains, it is an alternate language. People do not simply use it to gain social prestige, they use to express themselves better. There has been a change in the source and means of knowledge. Knowledge bases and knowledge sources have become multidisciplinary and multiple norm-referenced. In the globalized context, knowledge is sourced through the internet and the primary means of accessing it is English, the language of the internet. The Nepali users of English do not worry about what variety of English they are taught or whether it is multi-norm referenced. There has been a change in why people learn English today. The target of ELE in the past was to access knowledge from the print media. Now it is learned to access educational, employment, and better life opportunities globally. The purpose of learning English today is more realistic, practical, and locally appropriate. There has been a change in how people learn English. The conventional methods are no longer the only methods of learning English. More and more students and teachers work together today to negotiate what they need/want to learn and how they want to learn it. Given these changes, we need to re-assess the label which is unfairly attached to it for so long. In other words, its status in the Nepalese context must be reassessed in the light of the current practices and situated appropriately in the national life and educational curricula. Let’s now turn to the second part of the question, the question of its requirement. The requirement of English in our (education) system: You may have noticed, I have put the word ‘education’ in the parenthesis, and that is on purpose. I think it is relevant first to see why English is required in the national system before we can understand its place in education because the education system of any country is subservient to its national system. The national system dictates what type of education the country should adopt and how it should deliver it. The requirement of English in Nepal has already been determined. The Federal Government of Nepal, for example, has been using it as a second language. It has become the language of education at all levels. Many provincial governments have committed, they have even signed a treaty to use it as the third language under the three-language formula. So, the socio-politics of Nepal has dictated its requirement and space through its directives for how it should be used in national life including education. What it has not done is that it has not formulated a policy consistent with its directives. Considering the varying situations and uses of English, Nepal needs to re-assess the roles English plays in the lives of its people. More importantly, it needs to re-assess its status because the Nepalese users of English are not being served well in the existing provisions. Therefore, a new national framework for its status, roles, uses, and space in education needs to be constructed which recognises the different types of English literacy situations. A new approach to its education, recognizing its multiple needs, therefore, should be developed in order to serve the Nepalese population better. 2) You mentioned that English is an alternate language in many social domains for a significant number of people in Nepal, hence its status should be reassessed. But if you see the figures of the Central Bureau of Statistics (national body of government), there is only 0.007% (2032) speakers of English as a mother tongue, while we do not have any statistics of the proficient speakers of English yet. So, isn’t it too early to claim it? Could you elaborate? As you may be aware, a sizeable section of the Nepalese population is monolingual native speakers of Nepali. The only other language for many of them, particularly those who are educated, they use outside their home/ community is English. In many economic and education domains, such as tourism and (private and higher) education, it is an alternative language. Now some people use the term ESL (English as a second language) or even ELF (English as a lingua franca) to refer to the situation. For me, these terms connote differently. The term ESL, for example, focuses more on the learning/teaching aspect of the language rather than its use. Similarly, ELF is a means of inter-community or intra-national communication. By using the term, English as an alternative language (not to confuse it with English as an additional language), I refer to the myriads of situations in which people use English to participate and respond to when their native language does not serve them best. In order to be effective, creative, and confident communicators in such situations, such users negotiate their English by appropriating proficiency in terms of accuracy and fluency, communicative skills, and language repertoire for different types of participants, and purpose of the interaction. Now let’s turn to the data you have quoted in your question. First of all, it is old data reported on the 2011 (2012) census. Secondly, the reported population is the native speakers of English. And finally, the concept of English as an alternative language does not include native speakers of English but those who alternate their native language with English. And as I mentioned above, there is a sizeable section of the Nepalese population who already do that. 3) Historically, English has always been said as the language of elites and elites are believed to have appropriated English for their benefits. While English still functions as a second/third/fourth language for the majority of multilingual children in Nepal. So, there appears to class-based injustice and inequalities in English language teaching. In your views, what measures can be taken in the policies and practice of English language teaching to avoid such inequalities? As is widely reported, English was imported and has been used in Nepal for ideological reasons, which helped the elites to establish a linguistic edge over the caste/class-based divisions in the Nepalese society. An example of the primacy of English is evident in the fact that English was made compulsory in education even before Nepali (the official/national language) was (Nepali was introduced as a compulsory subject in school only in 1951; whereas English had been compulsory and the medium of instruction since the beginning of school education in Nepal). In addition, English language education (ELE) initially restricted to the elites has also helped establish a form of neo-colonialism in Nepal. The language became a yardstick for employment and educational and occupational opportunities which were made available exclusively to the English-speaking elites. This has been the basis of social injustice and social inequalities. But things have changed now. With the new generation of English users, a new school of thought has emerged that sees English as neutral, democratic, and, more importantly, liberating. This new line of thinking is based on three perspectives. First and foremost, it suggests that Nepal’s identity in the new context should be redefined with English as an official language in it. They believe that that English in Nepal is no longer an elite language, nor is it tied to any caste or class. Rather it has become everybody’s language and therefore is one of the local languages. The second perspective is that as English is used in more and more domains by more and more people, it should be given official status to remove the confusion and uncertainties surrounding it. Finally, the third perspective contends that it must be appropriately situated in the Nepalese language landscape on the principles of language ecology and linguistic co-existence. So, the answers to what measures can be taken in the policies and practices to avoid such inequalities are in the three perspectives presented above. However, I will reiterate them here again. In order to address inequalities, the following measures can be taken: There is a great deal of confusion and uncertainties around what space Nepal should accord to English language education because the government lacks a clear and consistent ELE policy. In order to avoid these, the government should legislate it giving it an official status. Please note, it has already officialized it in its directives. Legislating it should give ELE an official regulating body something like ‘The National Institute of English Language Teaching’ whose job can be to regulate the distribution of human and materials resources and monitor an effective practice of ELE throughout Nepal. The official status will also place emphasis on addressing the issue of scarcity of trained and qualified English teachers in rural Nepal, It will ensure equitable access to quality ELT for all, especially the disadvantaged sections of the population, and finally An equitable and consistent policy will address the disproportionate distribution of ELT facilities and resources. 4) English, when promoted as the official language due to political imperative, has become the only dominant language in the educational landscape and administrative use limiting the growth and scope of other local languages for example in Rwanda and Cameroon. Research globally shows that students perform better in their local/mother tongues and the government of Nepal in its constitution and policy documents has also warranted and prioritized the use of local languages. So, why do you propose English to be the official language in multilingual Nepal which is not even the official language at the federal level in the USA ? Legislating English, ambitious and problematic though it may sound, is not as problematic and chaotic as if we work out what to do, why to do it, and how to do it. First, we need to change our attitude towards the language and its legislation. People may see the problem in the very word of ‘officialising’. Let’s look at some of the ways the term ‘official language’ can be viewed. One view can see English – an official language as one of the languages that are accepted by the government of Nepal, which is taught in schools and colleges and is used as an alternative language in certain domains such as information and communication, official document, education, tourism, national and international companies, diplomacy and so on. Secondly, English could be given a special legal status, which could be used within the specified domains for communicational and transactional purposes. One other way of viewing it could be to legislate ‘official multilingualism’ where the government recognises multiple official languages with English among them. Under this system, all official languages are situated in the national space based on the principle of co-existence. Furthermore, I am not suggesting that it should be legislated ‘overnight’. That could be disastrous. What we should commence doing is to prepare ourselves. We as a country should be prepared for this first. In order to be prepared, we need to initiate a conversation first with grassroots users or end-users of the language. We need to engineer the right attitude in the stakeholders. We need to develop the right strategies and adequate infrastructure. Above, all we need to situate English appropriately in the language landscape of Nepal. All of these processes are time-consuming processes, but if we want to do it in ten years’ time, we have to start the conversation now. Now whether or not it will become dominant will depend on how we situate it in our linguistic landscape. English is dominating our linguistic landscape now. As we have seen lately, it is replacing Nepali in several socio-economic domains. Not legislating will not stop its domination. 5) School-level English language curriculum of Nepal considers English as the most prominent means of international communication, language for global mobilities, and a means for academic success. What’s your perspective on this common belief? The three aspects mentioned in the question sound great. It captures what may be called ‘the extrinsic view’ of English in Nepal. However, as it is evident, it fails to capture the local sentiments towards the language. It does not recognize the fact that English has already taken a significant position in the life of the Nepalese people. In other words, it lacks an intrinsic perspective on English. 6) In a country like Nepal, there is a tendency to adopt textbooks and other instructional materials developed elsewhere, mainly in the Western countries, and there is a lack of local reflections in such materials. What are the positives and negatives of this practice? Using commercially marketed textbooks and instructional materials is a double-edged sword. By this, I mean that it has some pros as well as some cons. In my personal opinion, they do more harm than good. Let me explain this further. First of all, I will take up the pros. The marketed materials, especially those published by the western presses, are prepared by a highly trained team of experts and go through rigorous processes of reviews. In other words, the texts and exercises have been tried and tested on English language principles and organised and paced appropriately for a particular age-group of students. Therefore, the quality of such text materials and exercises can be assured. Such textbooks are visually attractive in that they contain colourful pictures, drawings, and charts. In addition, the accompanying workbooks, CDs, audios, and videos are of high quality. They work as a source of an appropriate model and input especially for those teachers who have learned English as a foreign language themselves. Such textbooks often come with comprehensively prepared teachers’ books (teachers’ manuals) which provides step-by-step guidance and support to teachers. Now I look into the cons. Such textbooks are prepared for a particular group of children, for a particular set of aims, on a particular approach, and with a particular context in mind. If such textbooks are appropriate for a particular group of children, there is no certainty that they will work for the children in Nepal. The Nepali learners of English may have a different route or pace of learning English. Their needs, objectives, and therefore, their interest in learning English are likely to be different. Such textbooks and instructional materials are prepared on the publishers’ prescribed approaches and their chosen context. These approaches and contexts are usually different from those of the approaches and contexts adapted in Nepal. Most important of all, they may be culturally insensitive. In other words, such materials are not culturally authentic. So, they do not help achieve the aims with which teaching English in Nepal. On the other hand, if the materials do not match the students’ pace and level, they can create demotivation or frustrations in them. 7) In the case of the Nepali English language teaching context, how do you define “authenticity” in both preparing and delivering lessons? What could be some ways to incorporate such authenticity in classrooms? The term ‘authenticity’ is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. In the Nepali English language teaching context, authenticity in language lessons may be defined as lessons that are prepared and delivered in order to meet the learning targets of the students in the social contexts they learn English in and to fulfil their prospective needs. Now, this definition may sound a bit simplistic, but I tend to think that it is not. I will explain it with the help of three expressions, i.e., the authenticity of ELT practices should be passed on three principles: feed-up, feed on, and feedforward. Firstly, the lessons teachers prepare and deliver should be based on appropriate learning principles and designed to meet the current targets of the learners. The teachers and learners both need to understand what they are doing during the lessons, what materials they are going to use, why they are going to use such materials, and in what ways they are going to help achieve their learning goals. In other words, they should feed up in unpacking the learning targets and the curricular elements associated with them. Secondly, the materials and methods need to be grounded in the reality of learner needs and contexts. In other words, the preparation and delivery of lessons should be fed on the reality of the contexts in which the students learn and use English. For example, if the lesson is about ‘giving and receiving telephone messages’, the materials teachers use should be ‘actual’ conversations grounded in actual contexts in which students are likely to give and receive messages, e.g., giving and receiving messages about assignments, requesting and receiving messages about examinations, giving and receiving personal details at a bank, and so on. Similarly, if the lesson is about ‘pollution’, the materials used should be the ones that are written about their own cities published in the local newspapers or magazines, or broadcast on local radio or telecast on local TVs. Finally, the lessons should be designed in such a way that the language elements that they learn should feedforward to their future needs and activities on the related topic. Authentic materials, thus, have intrinsic educational value. It keeps them informed about what is happening in the context they live in. 8) Could you please also share your ideas about localizing English language teaching, also in terms of linguistically and culturally responsive teaching? In Nepal, we have had no engaged discussions or conversations on the issue of how English language teaching can be localised despite the fact that the teaching and learning of English are now increasingly intricately intertwined with a wide variety of local cultures, including regional and national cultures. I am aware that some institutions/universities of Nepal, particularly those in the west, are planning to develop locally appropriated text materials for their localised teaching practices. For linguistically and culturally responsive teaching, the text materials, and their teaching practices need to include four cultural dimensions: (1) the aesthetic dimension (local art and literature); (2) the sociological dimension (local customs and practices); (3) the semantic dimension, the manner in which a culture’s conceptual system is embodied in the language (local English); and (4) the pragmatic dimension, which pertains to linguistic and paralinguistic rules and skills that guide speakers to appropriate use of rhetorical styles for communication purposes (local use). 9) What should be the role of English teachers and practitioners to minimize the hegemonic influence of English in our teaching-learning practices? In some ways, this question is related to the previous question. The hegemony of English is exercised through practicing Anglocentric norms, models, and teaching materials. This gives the learner the feeling that they have to speak/use the language as the native speakers do, and they are learning a language that does not belong to them. They do not identify themselves with it. English teachers can play a significant role in minimizing this hegemonic influence. They can change the lens through which our students look at English. They can, for example, develop in them a critical view of English, its ownership, its plurality, and complexity. In other words, they can raise students’ awareness of world Englishes, by detaching English from its Anglocentric linguistic and cultural model and methods, and then by localizing it considering the way(s) in which it is used and experienced locally. In other words, English teachers can shift the focus from norm, teaching methods, and materials of the Centre (Anglocentric) to teaching strategies, contexts, knowledge, and culture of the Periphery (Local) for the development of ELT curricula, materials, and methodology. Note: Now the floor is open for you. If you have any concerns or comments on the interview, drop them down in the box below. Your constructive feedback and questions are always welcome. Thank you! Cite as: Giri, RA (2020). English is one of the local languages in Nepal. http://eltchoutari.com/2020/10/english-is-one-of-the-local-languages-in-nepal-dr-giri/ authenticity in ELT · localization in ELT · Reassess English language in Nepal · roles of ELT practitioners · status of english in Nepal How to teach Language Functions Issues and Challenges in Teaching Reading in EFL Classrooms Reflection on a one-day-workshop "How to Write and Publish Reflective Writing” Certification and Licensing of English Teachers in Nepal Post-colonialism in Indian literature Teaching English using locally made/available materials English in Nepal: From colonial legacy to professionalism My reflection on second ELT and applied linguistics conference in Nepal Issues and Challenges of Teaching Creative Writing My Journey to Become a Textbook Writer	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line38
__label__cc	0.536996	0.463004	46 C H A P T E R 3 \| Higher availability Introducing site-aware failover clusters Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview also introduces site-aware clusters. As a consequence, you can now group nodes in stretched clusters based on their physical location. This capability enhances key clustering operations such as failover behavior, placement policies, heartbeat between nodes, and quorum behavior. One of the key features of interest to SQL Server professionals is failover affinity, which allows availability groups to fail over within the same site before failing to a node in a different site. Additionally, you can now configure the threshold and site delay for heartbeating, which is the network ping that ensures the cluster can talk to all its nodes. You can not only specify a site for a cluster node, you can also define a primary location, known as a preferred site, for your cluster. Dynamic quorum ensures that the preferred site stays online in the event of a failure by lowering the weights of the disaster-recovery site. Note Currently (in Windows Server 2016 TP4), the site-awareness functionality is only enabled through PowerShell and not through Failover Cluster Manager. More information is available in "Site-aware Failover Clusters in Windows Server 2016" at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2015/08/19/10636304.aspx. Windows Server Failover Cluster logging Troubleshooting complex cluster problems has always been challenging. One of the goals of WSFC logging in Windows Server 2016 is to simplify some of these challenges. First, the top of the cluster log now shows the UTC offset of the server and notes whether the cluster is using UTC or local time. The cluster log also dumps all cluster objects, such as networks, storage, or roles, into a comma- separated list with headers for easy review in tools such as Excel. In addition, there is a new logging model call DiagnosticVerbose that offers the ability to keep recent logs in verbose logging while maintaining a history in normal diagnostic mode. This compromise saves space but also provides verbose logging as needed. Note Additional information is available in "Windows Server 2016 Failover Cluster Troubleshooting Enhancements – Cluster Log" at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2015/05/15/10614930.aspx. Performing rolling cluster operating system upgrades In prior versions of SQL Server, if your SQL Server instance was running in any type of clustered environment and an operating system upgrade was required, you built a new cluster on the new operating system and then migrated the storage to the new cluster. Some DBAs use log shipping to bring the downtime to an absolute minimum, but this approach is complex and, more importantly, requires a second set of hardware. With rolling cluster operating system upgrades in Windows Server 2016, the process is more straightforward. Specifically, SQL Server requires approximately five minutes of downtime in the rolling upgrade scenario illustrated in Figure 3-11. In general, the process drains one node at a time from the cluster, performs a clean install of Windows Server 2016, and then adds the node back into the cluster. Until the cluster functional level is raised in the final step of the upgrade process, you can continue to add new cluster nodes with Windows Server 2012 R2 and roll back the entire cluster to Windows Server 2012 R2. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2015/08/19/10636304.aspx	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line49
__label__cc	0.517437	0.482563	The Joys of Multiculturalism You know, sometimes I think we have ceased to live in the real world and have entered a realm not unlike that of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, though without the innocent Victorian charm of that story. Our nonsense world is far more frightening than the one that Alice found down the rabbit hole. We live in a world where we are not allowed to speak the truths that everyone knows, where to be considered "good" and moral and politically correct, we must pretend to believe exactly the opposite of what we know to be true. We all know that the gigantic Liberal social experiment that has transformed America since the Second World War has been a complete failure. We all know that our much‑vaunted pluralism and multiculturalism have not helped either Black people or White people or anyone except the global elitists who are now in the final stages of incorporating our nation into their New World Order slave state. We all know that multiculturalism has brought us nothing but crime, disease, immorality, the breakup of the family, loss of identity and self‑esteem among our youth, and the most brutal epidemic of rape and murder that our continent has ever seen. But to keep our jobs and our social positions we must deny reality and refuse to acknowledge the obvious reasons for our nation's problems. When we hold up an inanimate object like a pistol and say "Here, THIS is what killed those people on the Long Island Railroad" ‑ or when we see that the drug abuse and VD statistics in our high schools move in lockstep with racial integration, yet we persist in concentrating our attention on inanimate objects like bags of white powder or condoms, we are like the Ptolemaic astronomers of old, who devised ever more tortured explanations of circles within circles within circles for the movements of heavenly bodies, even in the face of mountains of evidence that they were wrong, because due to social and religious conventions they refused to admit that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Let us now review the joys and benefits of multiculturalism. In Canada, where the multicultural program is in full swing just as it is in the US, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police have issued their 1993 Organized Crime Report, which was reported on recently in the newsletter Canadian Immigration Hotline. "[This report] demonstrates how poorly the politicians have protected Canadians from being prey[ed upon by] highly organized immigrant criminals. Illegal immigrant smuggling operations represent one of the largest and most complex smuggling operations worldwide. ...The profits are high for those involved in this illegal activity. Fees to smuggle illegal aliens average from $15,000 to $30,000. However, individuals desperate to enter Canada have been known to pay smugglers a $70,000 fee per person to circumvent legal immigration procedures. Organizations involved in illegal alien smuggling operate within vast networks with international connections. In many instances, the illegal aliens are also used to facilitate other related criminal activities such as drug trafficking and money laundering. Triad Societies [which are Chinese gangs] and gangs of Vietnamese descent... are all involved in this illegal practice. "The financial losses in Canada involving credit card frauds are estimated at over $50 million annually. Losses in Canada attributed to counterfeit credit cards during 1992 increased by 100 per cent compared to the previous year. Criminal organizations of southeast Asian descent are largely responsible for credit card frauds, which include the production of totally counterfeit cards as well as the altering of genuine cards. "...Chinese criminal gangs and associated crime groups represent a major challenge to law enforcement today. They are predominantly active in the larger urban centers in all avenues of crime, including the importation and trafficking of cocaine and heroin, extortion, gambling, prostitution, counterfeiting, alien smuggling, fraud, forgery, intimidation and murder. These individuals operate with total disregard for the law. They are professional criminals who work in gangs and do not hesitate to resort to violence. Their use of automatic weapons is commonplace. [And I break in to the report to note how effective are Canada's gun laws which make it almost impossible for ordinary Canadians to own self‑defense weapons! I continue with the report.] The most prevalent Triad organizations in Canada include the Kung Lok and 14K Triads. However, the United Bamboo, Wo Hop To, and Sun Yee On are other active Triads in the country.... "Jamaican trafficking groups, known as posses, control a significant share of crack cocaine in both Montreal and Toronto. Many of these groups maintain contact with Colombian organizations and other Jamaican groups in the United States. Gangs of Asian descent are active in all avenues of crime British Columbia intimidation, extortion, home invasions, alien smuggling, counterfeiting, fraud, [drug] importing and trafficking, gambling, the operation of bawdy houses, and murder. Their use of automatic weapons in the commission of these crimes is commonplace. ...the various gangs in question are Chinese or Vietnamese. ...[Gang] members are most often recruited from local high schools and ethnic communities. Illegal aliens are also targets for recruitment. Vancouver [British Columbia] has become a major point of entry for the smuggling of aliens of Asian descent, not only for Canada, but for the United States as well. A member of United Bamboo from Los Angeles was involved in smuggling aliens into North America via the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan from staging areas in Vancouver. Gangs of Asian descent are active in the Montreal area. ...Also, a new gang emerged over the past year whose members are primarily of Cambodian descent. Gangs of Haitian descent active in Montreal include Master B, Brooklyn Action, The Family, and Public Enemy. Gangs of Haitian descent are [also] active in the Laval area. "[In 1992] there 37,000 registered refugee claimants in Canada. [How many entered illegally and were not registered is not stated and may be unknown.] ...the major source countries for Canadian refugee claimants were Sri Lanka, ...China, Iran, Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Somalia, Zaire, Ghana, and Nigeria. Criminal organizations routinely use fraudulent and counterfeit travel documents to facilitate an immigrant's unlawful journey to Canada. The RCMP has identified in excess of 7,900 suspected alien smugglers, [and counterfeit] document vendors...." Now no one says that all Asians are gang members. Certainly the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police was not saying that. But these gangs are very real and very deadly and they were not here before the gates of immigration were opened wide by the Liberal social planners. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, if there are 7,900 identified Asian gang members in the alien smuggling business in Canada how many do you think are active but not yet identified? If so many Asian gang members are active in the alien smuggling business in Canada, how many do you think are active in the United States? And if so many Asian gang members are active in the alien smuggling business, how many aliens is each one of them bringing across our borders every year, every week, every day? These are questions which every American and Canadian needs to think about very seriously. Let us now reflect further on the joy and cultural enrichment that the wonderful humanitarian Liberal multicultural program has brought to us. You have all heard the name Rodney King. But how many of you have heard the name Melissa McLauchlin? According to an article by Samuel Francis. about a year ago, Melissa, a White woman living in Charleston, South Carolina, was minding her own business when she was kidnapped by a Black gang. The gang took her to a mobile home belonging to a gang member, where she was raped by at least five Black men. When these five had had their fun, they invited other Blacks from the neighborhood to come and join in the fun, and several did so. When they had exhausted themselves in gang raping her, they then proceeded to torture her. Laundry bleach was rubbed into her skin. She was shot five times, but Melissa McLauchlin was still alive and breathing when they dumped her body by the side of a road, where she died an agonizing and lonely death. When they were arrested in Detroit a few days later, two of the seven accused killers told the police that they had picked Melissa McLauchlin completely at random, that any White woman would have done, that they had kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered her because she was White and Whites were guilty of "400 years of oppression" of Black people. Now I am not saying that all Blacks harbor such evil vengeance in their hearts, and I am not saying that outrages are not committed by some Whites. What I am saying is that such horrors as were visited upon Melissa McLauchlin are the very real result of attempting to go against Nature and against human nature by forcing incompatible peoples to live together, against their will in the same society. When will we learn the lesson that racial hatred and violence are the result of the unnatural multiculturalism that is being forced upon us, and that the whole Clinton program of accelerated school bussing for integration, more affirmative action, more inculcation of White guilt in our schools and in the media, more of the same old Liberal lies are just going to make things worse? And I am saying that this brutal racial slaying, far worse than anything that happened to convicted criminal Rodney King, should have been on the front pages of every newspaper and on the evening news on every network, but it wasn't. It wasn't because the major media are owned and controlled by those who are forcing this homicidal and genocidal multicultural program upon us. Well, my dear radio friends, we are in an emergency situation in this country, and I do not believe that it helps anyone, be they majority or minority, to hide from the truth. I do not care who it is that doesn't want to hear it ‑ I am going to give voice to what millions of Americans know in their heart to be right. And the truth is that the drug problem in this country cannot be solved by more and more draconian laws or by limp‑wristed Liberal "education programs" ‑ and the crime problem in this country cannot be solved by more and more police and prisons or by giving the Willie Hortons of this world love and understanding and furloughs ‑ all of these solutions are band‑aids that only treat the symptoms and not the cause. And the very serious problem of racial hatred and violence in this country cannot be solved by more and more of the same poisonous medicine that the Liberal witch‑doctors have been force‑feeding us for a generation. All of these problems are but symptoms of a much larger problem, which is the root cause of our nation's decline. That problem is the unrelenting war which has been waged on traditional American institutions and on Americans of European descent by the Liberal social engineers and the forces behind them. In what the Liberals think of as the bad, old America (before they took over), we were relatively safe, secure, happy and prosperous, and we were free. Drug laws were minimal, yet drug abuse was almost unknown. Racial tension was much less than it is today, yet in those bad old days Europeans formed over 90% of our population and minorities for all practical purposes lived in their own, separate societies. The right of the people to keep and bear arms was almost uninfringed in those days, and all types of guns were freely available to the people, yet crime was far less common than it is today. Americans, you need to wake up to the fact that there has been a revolution in this country ‑ a hidden revolution in some respects, perhaps, but a revolution nonetheless. There has been a revolution, and the American people lost. How else can you explain the fact that leering homosexuals now occupy positions of power over us, from which they now control the education of our children, who are being taught that sodomy is acceptable behavior and that laws against sodomy are a violation of human rights? There has been a revolution, and the American people lost. How else can you explain the frantic efforts of our rulers to outlaw and confiscate all forms of effective firearms from the people? Tyrants fear an armed populace, and so‑called "gun control" laws always follow fast in the footsteps of tyranny. There has been a revolution, and the American people lost. How else can you explain the billions and billions of dollars sent to Israel and other foreign nations, and the billions spent on the burgeoning population of illegal aliens within our borders; while at the same time more and more real Americans are going hungry and without work? A man whom you are compelled by force of law to support with your labor is your master, and you are his slave, no matter what euphemisms are used to describe the relationship. The globalist bankers, whose overseas loans are guaranteed by tax money; and their pets, the organized forces of multiculturalism, who seek to destroy the traditional European character of our society, and who batten at the public trough in a thousand different ways; these are your masters. Ladies and gentlemen, American Dissident Voices has reached a point of both triumph and crisis. Thanks to recent additions of several new 50,000‑Watt clear channel stations to our network, we are reaching most of North America, not just on shortwave, but also on the regular AM and FM dials. Literally millions can now hear our unique truth‑telling educational program on Spokane's KGA, covering 6 states and provinces; Iowa's KXEL covering ten states and provinces, and Little Rock's KAAY, covering 13 states and provinces. But we have added these stations more on faith than anything else. We have overextended ourselves in full knowledge of the fact that these new stations may take many months before they even begin to pay for themselves. But America cannot wait ‑ our people need to hear the truth about their peril NOW, not later. We urgently need every person who hears this program and understands our nation's plight to give sacrificially to keep American Dissident Voices on the air. To every one of you who gives $12 or more this week we will send a copy of one of the finest patriotic speeches ever committed to audio tape ‑ Dr. Revilo Oliver's What We Owe Our Parasites. Dr. Revilo Oliver has been a leading patriotic writer and speaker in this country for nearly four decades, and was for 32 years professor of the classics at the University of Illinois. He is one of the very few academicians who have spoken out fearlessly and forcefully against the subversion of our institutions and defacement of our civilization. What We Owe Our Parasites is a powerful and life‑changing speech that will lift the veil from your eyes and reveal in frightening detail just who it is that has engineered America's decline, what their goals are, and most importantly, what it is about us that has made us such easy dupes of our enemies. What We Owe Our Parasites is available from no other source, and it can be yours for any donation of $12 or more as our Radio Offer Number 7. I know that some of you can send us $5000 today to help save America. I also know that some may only be able to afford $1. But what I need each and every one of you to do today is stand behind us in this fight. Decent traditional Americans are still, just barely, the majority in this country, and if we don't stand together we will lose everything. Those who send $12 or more will receive the tape What We Owe Our Parasites by Dr. Oliver. Write to National Vanguard Books, Department R, PO Box 90, Hillsboro H‑I‑L‑L‑S‑B‑O‑R‑O WV 24946 USA, and remember to ask for Radio Offer Number 7. It has been truly said that to discover the real rulers of any society, you need only ask yourself one question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize? Ask yourselves that question, America, ask it again and again and again! And when you have the answer, tell your family, tell your neighbors, tell your friends and coworkers, and together we will take our country back!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line53
__label__cc	0.71525	0.28475	Frank London of The Klezmatics - interview Identity. Who is this polish Jew? Written on 31 May 2012 . Klaudia Klimek The founder of the Jewrnalism Organization. For the last 10 years she has been closely working with the Jewish community of Poland and particularly of Krakow. The next topic I would like to consider is the issue of self-determination. For over a year, I have been collecting relations of people who are, one could say, interesting! Indeed, these are the witnesses of the history, this most dramatic one that could ever happen to a human – the history of suffering. First of all, however, these are people stigmatised with the mark of the twentieth century. Usually a beautiful childhood was like a breath of crisp air before a huge cloudburst. Really! For everyone, childhood is, or rather should be, such a big gulp of fresh air. However, the things that were to come next were not an ordinary downpour which we experience at times. It was a real flood! Those few human beings who survived, just like in the biblical ark, engage us in stories from the verge of madness, which today are impossible to embrace with one’s own mind. It is to be remembered that the cataclysm of God lasted forty days and forty nights, whereas the one we put us through ourselves – over six years! As you can see, the worldly insanity came out of God’s control and became the point of reference for defining good and evil. But maybe that was the way God thought it up... The topic of those conversations, however, is not only suffering and the war connected with it. We talk about their lives, mainly the post-war ones. How that pack of survivors, who experienced holocaust and outlived the Soviet Poland without deciding to leave, have managed to see freedom. What did they go by? Yet, hundreds kilometres south their dream of freedom had already come true. A Country was born, where they could have done anything they wanted. They would have been at home. But would they? This is the question we will try to answer. At the beginning, I ask who they are. This seemingly easy question brings lots of emotions and difficulties. I am a Polish Jew. This is one of the most frequent answers I hear. And it evokes instantly another simple question. Who is this Polish Jew? Is it rather a Pole or maybe rather a Jew? One is tempted to say that both but in which proportions? In the pre-war times one could say that they were rather Jews but today they would be probably Poles! In order to understand the issue comprehensively, I suggest a bit of history. According to the 2nd census in December 1931, there were three million one hundred thousand Jews, which was exactly the tenth part of all citizens of the Republic of Poland. In February 1946, already the people’s authority, conducted the 3rd census. The outcomes were dramatic The population of Poland decreased by over seven million! And what happened with the Jews? They got lost in the ruins of the Third Reich. The census mentions only people who are subject to rehabilitation or verification procedures (417 thousand) and the so called Others (300 thousand). No word about the Jews. Just as if they ceased to exist! The most current research estimate that only one in ten Jews, residing on the territory of Poland until 1939, survived the war. So we should have around 300 thousand. Where are they? Between 1949 and 1950, within the framework of the self-determination action, approximately 30 thousand Jews left. Through Gomułka’s mouth, the socialist power said that “some of the Jewish comrades do not feel bound with the Polish nation”, and consented to emigration. ‪Another period when the Jews could have left Poland fell on the turn of October 1956, when within several years approximately 47 thousand people emigrated. Between 1960 and 1967, another four thousand left. By the data of the Social and Cultural Association of Jews (TSKŻ) from July 1967, Poland was inhabited by approximately 25 thousand Jews. Of course these are only the persons who confessed to being Jewish. The others are impossible to count. As a result of the events of March 1968, around 13 thousand additional persons of Jewish nationality left Poland with the so called dog passport (it was a travel document telling who the passenger is not – “holder of this document is not a citizen of the People’s Republic of Poland”). Summing up, we get a number of approximately 95 thousand. Where is the rest? The territory of Poland decreased drastically as a result of war, and what follows – many people were forced to love their “new homeland”. By experience, I know that everyone who could, came back. Let’s assume that there were around 30 thousand people who left in the Soviet Union, another 20 thousand chose a different place, having unspecified possibilities. To round this number, nowadays there should live around 150 thousand people being lineal descendants of those who survived. Most of them do not identify themselves with the world of their ancestors. Usually baptised, they melted with their families into the Polish society. The war broke spines of many people! They became spiritually stateless. Their Jewish Poland ceased to exist, and Israel was not, in the physical sense, their homeland. Many of them do not know Hebrew, Yiddish practically disappeared. In person, I know only two elderly men who have good command of this language. Putting on a scale everything they have and everything they are, they draw a conclusion that for them it is closer to the Vistula river than to Jerusalem. One has to remember that the secular People’s Poland liquidated quite fast all the religious schools, so cultivating the tradition took place, if it took place at all, in privacy. It does not help, especially the young rebelled people who do not want to stand out, they chose Polishness. It was more convenient. Those who survived, received already their education after the war. Whether they wanted it or not, they found Polish wives who gave birth to their Polish children and we could jump on the family trees and degrees of kinship without any end. The head of the family, this true Jew, in order to accept their family and themselves, has to assume something. Has to determine oneself somehow. The “proportions” of which I am writing in the beginning, in view of these facts, gain an almost symbolic dimension. This is a peculiar relocation of weight, determined by the circumstances given by the reality. Who is this Polish Jew? This is a man who is Polish and Mosaic. And can they be Catholic? Or being Catholic, can they call themselves Jews? This question is faced usually by young people of Jewish nationality who in search of their identity come back to their roots. In my opinion, however, one has to assume something. We have to be flexible because somebody some time ago gave us no choice. The war destroyed Jews in Europe, this needs to be said clearly. The Jews, together with the Poles, lost the war. This is an undeniable fact. All the pretty and bold words spoken out by the politicians are aimed at covering up the facts. Sadly. Poland lost over 80 thousand square kilometres and seven million people, including almost all Jews. Usually, these were the educated people who died, as the Soviet and the Nazi invaders tracked just them. It was done on purpose, and the Krakow and the Lviv professors were its best example. Nobody cared then, whether they were shooting at a Jew or at a Pole. They aimed at a professor – the heart and the brain of the Polish statehood. The most eminent citizens were dying in the Katyń forest, in Ponary or in the chambers of Auschwitz, no matter whether they attended a church or a synagogue before. It was a Polish citizen who paid their taxes from honest work. And this is not a look through the prism of holocaust. This is a sober and clear point of view of a Polish rationalist. The king lost 3 million of his subjects! And this king should be happy? I am asking, of what? Michał Zajda Edward Pasewicz Jak randkują Żydzi w Polsce? Dlaczego Żydzi w Polsce najchętniej zatrudniają nie-Żydów? THE ON-LINE CONFERENCE "Polish assholes" in Auschwitz ON-LINE KONFERENCJA	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line54
__label__wiki	0.879623	0.879623	KICK AND RUN: MEMOIR WITH SOCCER BALL Jonathan Wilson's new "Kick and Run: Memoir With Soccer Ball" out this Fall... "Jonathan Wilson is an intellectual hooligan: Kick and Run is a book of brilliant anecdotes and fantastic wit, nostalgia and twisted love. This memoir is full of sharp insights, a sort of Speak Memory centered on the mysteries of soccer and fandom and revealing an amazing world of Jewish culture and history." - Josip Novakovich Finalist The Man-Booker International Prize Growing up Jewish in London with a difficult home life, Jonathan Wilson had plenty of reasons to feel he didn't belong, and one reason to feel certain he did: football. Wilson discovered his love for the game as a young boy; through his adolescence and adulthood and well into his later years it remained an important part of his life. Football became Wilson's international passport, helping him find friends and community and solace all over the globe, from England to Israel to the US. Whether working on a kibbutz or teaching literature to young Americans, traveling through Russia or raising children, the sport remained a constant in his life. Kick and Run is a gripping, funny, sometimes heartbreaking account of a life well lived and a game played, if not always masterfully, then certainly with the utmost passion. Goals - Esquire iPod Shuffle - AGNI Online A Dinner In Moscow - The Paris Review Daily Cutouts - The Paris Review Daily Albrecht Dürer, W.G. Sebald, and My Father - AGNI Online Avigdor Arikha's Art of Pain - Tablet Why Pop Art Is Jewish - Tablet Hasidic Cubism - Tablet Rhapsody in Blue - Tablet The Fading World of Leopold Bloom - New York Times Magazine New Yorker Articles Jonathan Wilson on www.NewYorker.com Kick and Run: Memoir With Soccer Ball Novelist and critic Jonathan Wilson clears away the sentimental mists surrounding an artist whose career spanned two world wars, the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, and the birth of the State of Israel. Marc Chagall's work addresses these transforming events, but his ambivalence about his role as a Jewish artist adds an intriguing wrinkle to common assumptions about his life. Drawn to sacred subject matter, Chagall remains defiantly secular in outlook; determined to "narrate" the miraculous and tragic events of the Jewish past, he frequently chooses Jesus as a symbol of martyrdom and sacrifice. Wilson brilliantly demonstrates how Marc Chagall's life constitutes a grand canvas on which much of twentieth-century Jewish history is vividly portrayed. Chagall left Belorussia for Paris in 1910, at the dawn of modernism, looking back dreamily on the world he abandoned. After his marriage to Bella Rosenfeld in 1915, he moved to Petrograd, but eventually returned to Paris after a stint as a Soviet commissar for art. Fleeing Paris steps ahead of the Nazis, Chagall arrived in New York in 1941. Drawn to Israel, but not enough to live there, Chagall grappled endlessly with both a nostalgic attachment to a vanished past and the magnetic pull of an uninhibited secular present. "A lovely, wise book." New York Times Book Review "An artfully written art biography that captures its subject in the same kaleidoscopic palette as Chagall painted. " New York Sun LECTURE ON CHAGALL FOR GOOGLE - CAMBRIDGE, MA 2007 LECTURE ON CHAGALL FOR THE JEWISH MUSEUM - NY 2008 An Ambulance is on the Way National Jewish Book Award finalist Jonathan Wilson's uproariously funny stories showcase the neuroses of suburban men as they ruminate, self-medicate, and acclimate to the rhythms of middle age. From the slacker husband who spends his day running household errands, chatting up the local soccer moms, and drinking most of the wine he was instructed to buy for his wife's women's-group meeting, to the man who calls an old girlfriend while waiting for the verdict from his cardiologist, to the good Jewish son who is torn between the caustic wit of his very Jewish mother and the fertility urges of his very not-Jewish girlfriend, each of these stories is touched by Wilson's affection for male foibles. Taken together, they give us a nuanced picture of men in hot water–with women, their teenage kids, and their own consciences. "A wise, wistful, and unexpectedly funny collection of stories about the crises and opportunites of midlife. If the rest of the world were as generous and forgiving as Jonathan Wilson, gowing old would be a lot less daunting, and a lot more fun" Tom Perrotta "How does Jonathan Wilson do it? . . . The way Denis Johnson did it, the way Jayne Anne Phillips did it (but funnier), the way David Foster Wallace did it (but deeper)." –Los Angeles Times "Sublime. . . . It might be considered a companion volume to the movie Sideways." –Seattle Weekly DISCUSSION WITH JONATHAN WILSON ON THE LEONARD LOPATE SHOW - WNYC A Palestine Affair In British-occupied Palestine after World War I, Mark Bloomberg, a beleaguered London painter, and Joyce, his American wife, witness the murder of a prominent Orthodox Jew. Joyce, a non-Jew and ardent Zionist, is drawn into an affair with the British investigating officer, while Mark seeks solace in the exotic colors and contours of the Middle Eastern landscape. Each of the three has come to Palestine to escape grief, and yet—caught in the crosshairs of history—they will all be forced to confront the very issues they hoped to leave behind in this swift and sensuous novel of artful concealment and roiling passions. Wilson's portrait of Chagall is altogether more historical, more political, and edgier than conventional wisdom would have us believe–showing us how Chagall is the emblematic Jewish artist of the twentieth century. "Like the best of historical fiction, Wilson's story is placed in an imagined past, but it is really happening right now. . . . You're likely to stay up late reading." —The Washington Post Book World "An engrossing, complex, and fearless tale of politics, arts, murder, sex, and history (personal and global) set in the rough and tumble that was Palestine in 1924." —Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent "A Palestine Affair is hard to put down. . . . [It] echoes its modernist predecessors: Forster's A Passage to India, Conrad's The Secret Agent, and James's The Princess Casamassima." —San Francisco Chronicle "Tightly knit. . . . Wilson is exceptionally attuned to the range of opinion and complex sense of identity of the Jews living in Palestine, as well as the subtle but potentially explosive tension that characterizes everyday interactions under colonial occupation." —Publishers Weekly, starred review "A Palestine Affair evokes, quite tangibly, the days of the Mandate. This is a true and touching act of the imagination. The book's very sexy, a nostalgic and provocative envisioning of that time. I recommend it highly." —David Mamet INTERVIEW WITH TOM ASHBROOK ON WBUR The Hiding Room In Cairo in1941, Esta, a young Jewish refugee from Hitler's Europe, meets and begins an affair with Archie Rawlins, a twenty-two-year-old army intelligence officer. Their relationship, mutually suspicious and tortured in the beginning, becomes in the end an affair of desperate passion. Esta tells Rawlins that she has been an eyewitness to murder and atrocity. Rawlins passes on the information to his superiors only to discover that they are determined to cover up information concerning the plight of the Jews of Europe. He is also told that Esta may belong to a group of Zionist terrorists responsible for the assassination of a senior British diplomat. Who and what should Rawlins believe? The decision that he makes brings fateful consequences to himself and Esta, whose own secrets turn out to be darker than anything Rawlins could have imagined. "Riveting...Part of Wilson's achievement in this wonderful book is the steadiness with which he moves us back and forth from the 90's to the 40's--each decade imagined so surely, each holding a story so compelling, you resist leaving it." Elle "The rewards of reading Jonathan Wilson's superb novel set in Palestine and Egypt in 1941 are almost equalled by the pleasures of recalling it." The Boston Globe "The Hiding Room does not look back nostalgically. It is an astringent, often brutal illustration of how events shape individual lives and even bring them into being." Daily Telegraph Schoom Wiseguys, adulterers, schoolboys,disappointed lovers, sexual over-optimists and many others form the cast of wry, self-deprecating, and often wildly self-deluded characters who populate this collection of stories. In London and Israel during the 1940's, the 1950's, and the Gulf War, men are observed at various stages of life and states of mind as they confront ironic, sometimes traumatic turning points. "Jonathan Wilson writes with charm, insight, and graceful humor. His prose is strong and simple." David Mamet "There's a lot of tenderness and a lot of love in these wryly funny tales...Well worth reading" The Sunday Times "A superb debut collection...His easy readable manner belies a formidable talent" The Independent Readings -> Sunday November 3 Jewish Museum 3pm 129-131 Albert St, London NW1 UK Tuesday November 19 Soccerpalooza: Writers on the Beautiful Game Bookstore Cafe 7pm 126 Crosby Street New York, NY Jonathan Wilson's work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine and Best American Short Stories, among other publications. In 1994 he received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. His fiction has been translated into many languages including Dutch, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Uyghur. Wilson is the author of seven previous books: the novels The Hiding Room (Viking 1994), runner up for the JQ Wingate Prize, and A Palestine Affair (Pantheon 2003), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Barnes and Noble Discovery finalist and runner up for the 2004 National Jewish Book Award; two collections of short stories, Schoom (Penguin 1993) and An Ambulance is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble (Pantheon 2004); two critical works on the fiction of Saul Bellow; and a biography, Marc Chagall (Nextbook/Schocken 2007), runner-up for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. Kick and Run is his eighth book and his first work of memoir. Wilson lives in Newton, Massachusetts. He is Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Tufts University. For the Center for the Humanities at Tufts: Director, Jonathan Wilson http://ase.tufts.edu/chat/ Gail Hochman Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. Marian Brown Press contact for Kick and Run: Memoir With Soccer Ball Stephanie Duncan	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line55
__label__cc	0.504644	0.495356	You are here: Home › Tim Riggins, Buzz Bissinger, and Father’s Day Tim Riggins, Buzz Bissinger, and Father’s Day Buzz Bissinger wrote the book Friday Night Lights, which got made into a movie and then a television show that introduced us to Taylor Kitsch, in the role of Tim Riggins. For that reason alone, we all owe Buzz a debt of gratitude and should buy his latest book, a memoir about a road trip he took with his brain-damaged son Zachary. Father’s Day is Bissinger’s first swing at a memoir and–to shift from football to baseball–he hits the ball out of the park. In an effort to connect with his twenty-four year old son, Bissinger decides the two of them should drive (because Zach hates to fly) from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, re-visiting all the places they’ve lived, places that Zach remembers with pinpoint accuracy. Zach is the “family’s human GPS” as Bissinger tells us, despite the fact that he will never himself be able to drive–or to live alone, or to fully comprehend the plot of “Friday Night Lights. Zach and his brother were born thirteen weeks early, but Zach came three minutes after his brother and in that crucial three minutes, his brain was deprived of necessary oxygen. Zach’s twin, Greg, is now a graduate student planning a career as a teacher; Zach has a steady job bagging groceries. Bissinger’s twins were more premature than my son Liam (born at 32 1/2 weeks), but Liam weighed less than they did. Zach was one pound, eleven ounces, his brother slightly more; Liam was one pound, ten ounces. The dire predictions that came true for Zach were possibilities for Liam’s future, but, amazingly, Liam’s only preemie legacy is that he’s still the shortest seventh grader on two continents. The feelings that Bissinger describes when his sons were born called up all my painful memories of the NICU: my baby wasn’t supposed to be surrounded by a clutch of masked doctors and nurses; my baby wasn’t supposed to be plugged into an infinite number of clicking, whirring machines; my baby wasn’t supposed to be wrapped up tight in a plastic box with a tube down his throat; my baby wasn’t supposed to spend the first months of his life in a hospital ward. Eventually, Zach comes home from the hospital and his parents confront the fact that brain damage had “settled like patchy mist, some places forever abandoned, and yet some places heightened and magnified.” Zach is a savant, who is filled with love and optimism, but he is not, as Bissinger admits with painful clarity, “the son he wanted.” Father’s Day begins as the story of Bissinger’s efforts to know his son more closely, but it is also the story of Bissinger struggling to come to terms with the reality, not only of his son’s life, but his own. Memoirs are often praised for their “brutal honesty,” but of all the memoirs I’ve read, only Father’s Day demonstrates the full power of that phrase. Bissinger lays himself bare, gives us a full monty of his flaws: professional jealousy, marital failure, profound insecurity, fraught relationships with his own parents. Mostly, however, Bissinger scrutinizes his relationship with Zach–or rather, what he regards as the lack of a relationship with Zach. In talking about Zach, Bissinger runs the risk of alienating his readers because he gives voice to those dark thoughts that I think all parents have, but rarely admit–even to themselves. We wonder with dismay why we got the kid we did; why little Dakota can do back flips while our kid balks at somersaults; why diligent Jayden gets straight As and works hard while our kid stares at the fish-tank and refuses to bathe. Perhaps we protest a little too much that State U offers a great education, even as we stare wistfully at the Harvard bumper-sticker on our neighbor’s car, or maybe it’s just the minor-league networking we do to land our kid the “good” summer job as opposed to the job scooping ice cream. Bissinger says “I wanted [my kids] to succeed. I wanted them to make me proud…[and] grocery bagging was beyond humbling for a father awash in ambition.” The arc of this narrative moves Bissinger from anger and frustration at his son’s situation to a place of peace (or as peaceful as someone like Bissinger can get), and so in that regard, the endpoint of the book does not come as a huge surprise. The surprises occur along the journey, as the two men see parts of America that don’t usually make it into the public eye (Tulsa, anyone?) and as Bissinger explores the history of Zachary’s life, which necessitates an exploration of American attitudes towards special needs kids. In order for Zach to get his disability check from Social Security, for instance, he is required to take an aptitude test every two years, “as if he might transform into a member of Mensa when he cannot drive or cook on a stove or add two-digit numbers.” The system, Bissinger argues, is “despicable….It is our moral obligation to make [people like Zach] into productive citizens. But without the assistance they deserve, they will always live … on the bare fringes of the world.” Zach, it is clear, is one of the lucky ones, because he has parents who can afford to integrate him into the world as fully as possible; what Bissinger comes to realize is that his perspective on Zach’s life is not Zach’s perspective on his life. Zach does not see himself on the fringes of the world; Zach loves his routines, his co-workers, his friends; he loves his family and his memories. As the two men drive cross-country, their roles, ironically, begin to reverse. It is Bissinger who locks himself out of hotel rooms, not Zach; it is Zach who reads the map, not his father; it is Zach who stays calm when they’re lost or tired or when his father has an anxiety attack. And it is Zach, in fact, who helps Bissinger come to closure about the deaths of his parents, some years earlier. Bissinger writes so eloquently about what he learns from his son on their journey that I finished the book with a haze of tears in my eyes. That is not to say that the book ends in roses and sunshine; it’s not a “pretty little package with a tidy bow,” as Bissinger says. Despite Zach’s growth–he tells his father that he wants to come with the family when they go visit Zach’s step-brother in South Africa, a twenty-hour flight–Bissinger still fears for his son’s future once his parents are no longer around to intercede on his behalf. But, Bissinger adds, he sees Zach as the most fearless man he knows, who has restored “the faith of a father in all that can be.” So yeah, Bissinger brought us Tim Riggins, and that’s a fine, fine thing. But in Father’s Day, Bissinger brings us a brilliant narrative about the painful joy of being a parent–and he brings us Zach, who is better than an entire season’s worth of Rigginses. Whether or not you have sons, whether or not you’re the parent of a special needs child, whether or not you’re a father, you owe it to yourself to read Father’s Day. book jacket photo source here autisim, Bissinger, Books, Friday Night Lights, memoir, savant, special needs, tim riggins the men from the boys Out of Africa II: The Search for Carnage 4 Responses to Tim Riggins, Buzz Bissinger, and Father’s Day Gina August 21, 2012 at 11:58 pm # I would buy a bridge from the man who gave me Tim Riggins. Thanks for the book recommendation. I read “Friday Night Lights”, saw the movie and watched every episode of the series. Oh and I drooled non-stop over #33!!! Deborah Quinn August 22, 2012 at 3:31 am # Oh Tim, Tim, be still my beating heart…we forgive you Jack Carter & Battleship (sort of). Father’s Day is a drastic departure, but it’s really powerful and, like FNL, brings you into the hearts and minds of the people involved. Jenn August 22, 2012 at 12:51 am # What a wonderful review. Sounds like an amazing memoir, I will definitely check it out. Thanks for stopping by – it’s a really good book.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line58
__label__wiki	0.584999	0.584999	Stroller (horse) Thoroughbred x Connemara Geldin' Foaled Bay, star, near hind sock Marion Mould Medal record 1968 Mexico City Individual jumpin' Women's World Championships 1965 Hickstead Individual Jumpin' 1970 Copenhagen Individual Jumpin' Stroller (1950–1986) was a bay geldin' who was the bleedin' only pony to compete at the feckin' Olympics in show jumpin', the hoor. He stood about 14.1 hands (57 inches, 145 cm). C'mere til I tell ya. He was a feckin' member of the oul' British team who competed in the oul' 1968 Olympics in Mexico, ridden by Marion Coakes, would ye believe it? Bill Steinkraus and Snowbound won the bleedin' Gold Medal while Marion and Stroller won the feckin' Individual Silver Medal, only four faults behind Steinkraus. Stroller jumped one of the feckin' only two clear rounds in the Olympic individual championship. In 1967, Marion rode Stroller to victory in the Hickstead Derby, the bleedin' only pony to have ever won this event. Whisht now and eist liom. This partnership won the oul' Wills Hickstead Gold Medal, for points gained in the feckin' major events durin' the year, for five years consecutively from 1965 to 1970. Stroller was the bleedin' grand age of 20 when he won the bleedin' 1970 Hamburg Derby, would ye swally that? The pair won 61 international competitions. He was a feckin' crossbred horse, by an oul' Thoroughbred sire out of a feckin' Connemara pony mare, grand so. Stroller died of a feckin' heart attack at the feckin' high age 36 in 1986, after 15 years of happy retirement. Be the hokey here's a quare wan. He is buried at Barton-on-Sea Golf Club, New Milton, Hampshire, England. Achievements[edit] Individual Silver medal at the 1968 Olympic Games (Mexico) Winner of the bleedin' Women's Show Jumpin' World Championships 1965 (Hickstead) Won 1967 Hickstead Derby Won 1970 Hamburg Derby (as only clear round) Winner of the oul' Queen Elizabeth II Cup 1965 and 1971 2nd place, Women's World Championships 1970 (Copenhagen) Only pony to compete at International level among horses and win consistently in Europe BHS (British Horse Society) Hall of Fame Laureate Stroller profile in Horse & Hound Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stroller_(horse)&oldid=968667026" Show jumpin' horses Individual Connemaras Individual male horses Horses in the Olympics 1950 animal births 1986 animal deaths Articles with 'species' microformats This page was last edited on 20 July 2020, at 19:27 (UTC).	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line68
__label__wiki	0.539926	0.539926	Главная /Служба ЭР истоки /Служба ЭР /Публикации2 /Noocenologist: The Profession of the Future Noocenologist: The Profession of the Future Ekaterina Shen 1. Positive models of organising civilization according to the understanding of Russian cosmists. 2. The noosphere as a result of a sensibly arranged biosphere. 3. Biospheric rent as a fundamental condition in fulfilling the requirements of the ecological imperative. 4. The present model of noocenosis: the elementary cluster of a noosphere. A ten-minute slide show, and a seven-minute documentary film 5. Practical noocenology as a highly demanded form of activity. I have often thought about what it is that differentiates humans from animals. Simple observations of my dogs suggest that they live in the moment and don’t plan for the future. Planning the future by the most part of all people separates from animals, except, quantitatively: humans adapt to the changing conditions of their surroundings, and as a rule never leave the framework of banal consumption and comfortable improvements of their existence, while the future vanishes before them in a sinister endless chain of deaths and births. However, when developing a scientific picture of the world, the most enlightened minds of humanity have learned to draw in fine detail various strategies not only targeting human civilization, but also all planetary biomes. The most well-known strategy for the future of human civilization was outlined in the, albeit already forgotten, theory of Marx. In addition to the theory of Marxism, at least two fundamental paradigms of the human future have been described in, foremost, the masterpieces of world scientific fiction. The American model, as found in the works of Harry Harrison, Arthur Clarkе, Ursula Le Guin, and Frank Herbert, implies the predatory expansion of earthlings into other worlds. Cultivated on Earth and then transferred, this model constitutes the seizure of foreign territories by “nations-colonizers” with the goal to extract all resources, including the elimination of obstructive factors, among other things the aboriginal population. Specifically, we are talking about strategies to barbarously plunder the natural resources of the colonized territories. It is relevant to mention that after a 30 years of interaction with professional colonisers there is every reason to suggest that the shared fate of colonized peoples will befall the inhabitants of Post-Soviet countries. I dare to suggest that the fate of the North American Indians and the natural environment which served them as a habitat is well known to the present reader. A polar opposite model concerning the development of humanity was first demonstrated in the works of Russian cosmist Aleksander Sukhovo-Kobylin at the end of the 19th century. He was the first to formulate the possibility of "sideral" penetration of earthlings deep into space, carrying out a noble mission to study new worlds. From this time onwards, this model of a noble development mission when venturing into new worlds was depicted in the science fiction works of Ivan Efremov and expressed in idea of the Great Circle - a cosmic commonwealth of highly developed intelligent civilizations. This idea was picked up by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and reached it’s zenith in the works “Hard to Be a God”, “Beetle in the Anthill” and “The Time Wanderers” , which promote the idea of “progressiveness” as the fundamental chain used in penetrating other worlds. This conception fundamentally differs from that of pillaging attainable worlds, illustrated extensively in the blockbuster "Avatar" by the American director James Cameron. With the fall of the Soviet Union the idea of the Great Circle and Progressiveness as a highly ethical form of advancement into the Large space lost its ethical and material base, transforming, together with the idea of building communism, into a utopia. Planet Earth in today’s world is saturated with the ideology of business and overconsumption, which is leading to the destruction of biosphere and the collapse of human civilization. At its present stage in history, humanity, infected with the ideology of money grubbing, poses a threat to any humane power throughout the cosmos, as it carries with itself potential extermination and reckless overconsumption of accessible resources. Thankfully, technological progress is not capable of solving the problem of how to send destroyers in mass beyond the limits of our planet. As a result we are doomed to stay within the borders of Earth’s limited space and if we want to live it is necessary to create a model of existence that does not only not bring harm to nature, but that also restores destroyed biosphere, on the huge territories which have been devastated by people due to imprudent management. Such form of activity is absent in the world classifiers of economic activity and citizen services. Nevertheless, such work is being conducted, and according to the conceptions of my colleagues, it is the hand-created reasonably-arranged biosphere of the second order, that is the noosphere. The current mass-strategy of “Sustainable Development”, actually formulated as Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development, is geared towards developing control over every square meter of land, every person and every piece of currency in order to further exhaust all types of natural resources and to stimulate new forms of consumer activity. As such, there are two mutually exclusive paradigms on how to hypothetically master the Great cosmos: consumeristic and progressive, which are correspondingly polarized in American and Russian formats. Two cosmological doctrines emerge from these positions: The first doctrine is the “American dream”: the dominating and priority myth of modernity, impudently championed by the promoter of American ideology Zbigniew Brzezinski in his work "The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership". Take notice that Brzezinski does not offer any alternatives to global domination and global leadership, which are, in essence, exactly the same. The second doctrine is that of the "Russian idea", which is entirely tangled up and clouded by "exaggerated slavophilic patriotism" and imported clericalism. An enlightened mind, however, is able to perceive the fundament of the «Russian idea» not only as the intuitive aspiration to live justly, according to truth and to one’s conscience, but also the deep conceptual fundament expressed in the ideas of Russian cosmism and the domination of a clear noospheric theory by the mutually exclusive logos of "Sustainable Development". Theoretically one could endlessly debate the indicated topics. The authentic scientific foundation, however, as expressed in the ideas of Russian cosmism and noospheric world understanding, requires the transition to practical forms of work, because, as we know, only practice is the criterion of truth. Such practical experience manifests itself precisely in the sensible physical transformation of already devastated terrestrial biosphere into noosphere, and only subsequently we acquire the right to cosmic progressiveness, first of all on one’s own planet. Otherwise humanity has not earned the right, ethically, to export into outside worlds a disgraceful model of interaction with the natural environment, as is currently prevailing. As such, we, people, either rebuild the planetary landscape into a harmonious rationally equipped biosphere - noosphere, and receive the right to access other worlds, or we perish in our own toxic waste and self destruct with the help of our self-devised weapons of mass destruction. One of the most authoritative futurologists of the west Dennis Meadows, who published in Russian his work "The Limits to Growth. 30 years later", conducted large-scale research, modeling the development of human civilization along 10 possible scenarios, and determined the 100 most important parameters for these scenarios, which all end in an apocalyptic finale. An alternative theory is presented in the works of the world-famous Soviet scientist Nikolay Vladimirovich Timofeev-Ressovsky, in coordination with the mathematical models of Nikita Nikolayevich Moiseyev. He promoted the model "biospheric rent", which views the biosphere as a gigantic combine, on which humanity is obliged to live with a certain percentage of "green turnover". With the thoughtless destruction of this "combine", the human race is dooming itself to self annihilation. In view of the short-sighted and irrational operating control systems, the predictive models of future civilization, as presented by Meadows, Timofeev-Ressovsky and Moiseyev, coincide with reality. It is extremely difficult to dispute the opinion of authoritative specialists. It is evident that humanity is incapable of intentionally changing the course of unlimited consumption. It would seems that the project for transforming biosphere into noosphere, ends on this sad note, as humanity is clearly unable to cope with the role of a sensible environment-forming factor and the sensible idea to build planetary communism did not take root in body of civilization. It turns out that mankind condemned itself to collapse until it has reached a biospherical appropriate level, that is almost until zero. Thus, how can we in such situation talk of creating noosphere without being utopians? I would like to give you good news. Such conception exists, formed upon the empirical basis and mapped out in Alexander Edvinovich Wegosky’s publication "Characteristics of Posthomo Evolutional Group", as published by the academic Stakhov on the site Academy of Trinitarianism. In order to avoid bias, I, myself, will not illustrate the particularities of this valuable scientific work, and instead refer to the commentary of Doctor of Technical Sciences, prof. Yuri Vasilyevich Safroshkin. … As we understand from the review, the disappearance of mankind is not the end of the world, for evolutionary logic indicates to the wise arrangement of nature, which replaces inadequate biogroups with ones more ideal. In Wegosky’s conception the responsibility to form noosphere lies upon the shoulders of the next generation of sentient beings, that fundamentally differ from people according to a number of ethical and other innovative features. The practical application of this concept can be found in conscious evolutionary-progressive work, as expressed in the creation of clusters of post-industrial society - noocenosis, meaning the elementary subunits of a forthcoming noosphere. I have been fortunate enough to become a full member in this process and actually doing practical noocenology for the past 12 years, since completing my postgraduate studies at Mendeleev University Создание сайта Indigo Studio	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line70
__label__wiki	0.955927	0.955927	Winningest Rocket football coach to sign books Sept. 16 September 13th, 2017 by Meghan Cunningham Former University of Toledo head football coach Gary Pinkel will return to campus to sign his new book, “The 100-Yard Journey: A Life in Coaching and Battling for the Win,” Saturday, Sept. 16. He will be at the Barnes & Noble University Bookstore at the Gateway from 2 to 4 p.m. Pinkel also will be among the honorees of Toledo’s 100-year football anniversary celebration at halftime Saturday night when Toledo takes on Tulsa at 7 p.m. in the Glass Bowl. He co-authored the memoir published by Triumph Books with Dave Matter, who covers the University of Missouri for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Few college football coaches earn the distinction of becoming their programs’ winningest, but Pinkel has done it twice. From 1991 to 2000, he coached the Toledo Rockets, leading the team to 73 wins, the most in school history. Pinkel also has the highest winning percentage (.659) among UT coaches who were on the sidelines at least three seasons. In addition, he ranks fifth in the Mid-American Conference in wins, fourth in wins in MAC contests (53), and eighth in winning percentage. He led Toledo to a MAC Championship in 1995, as the Rockets went 11-0-1, won the Las Vegas Bowl, and ended the season ranked No. 22 in the final coaches’ poll. He also led UT to MAC West Division titles in 1997 and 1998. In his final season at Toledo in 2000, Pinkel’s Rockets went 10-1, including a 24-6 win at Penn State. His teams ranked in the top 25 in three different seasons — 1995, 1997 and 2000. Pinkel was MAC Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1997. He left Toledo after the 2000 season to accept the head coaching position at Missouri, leading the Tigers into the top 10 in 2007 and 2008, as well as to Southeastern Conference East titles in 2013 and 2014. Missouri received a No. 1 Associated Press ranking at the end of the 2007 season, and Pinkel took home SEC Coach of the Year honors in 2014. In 15 seasons, he and the Tigers won 118 games — the most by a Mizzou football coach — and reached 10 bowl games. Pinkel’s su ccess on the field was accompanied by personal and professional challenges, including a diagnosis of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which prompted him to step away from coaching in 2015. In the 272-pages of “The 100-Yard Journey,” the football leader reflects on meeting and overcoming the unexpected. The book follows the 1975 Kent State University graduate’s coaching career, including serving as an assistant at the University of Washington from 1979 to 1990. And it begins with his days on the gridiron. From 1971 to 1973, Pinkel played tight end for the Golden Flashes; his senior season, he earned All-MAC and honorable mention All-America honors. In 2009, the Akron native was inducted into UT’s Varsity ‘T’ Hall of Fame, and six years later, into the MAC Hall of Fame. Pinkel now is a special consultant to the University of Missouri and its Athletic Department. Copies of “The 100-Yard Journey” will be for sale at the event for $26.95. This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2017 at 2:30 pm and is filed under News Release .	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line75
__label__wiki	0.886046	0.886046	The Best of Manchester 2009 winners The best in art, fashion and music gathered at the Urbis last night for the results... Published on July 24th 2009. The Best of Manchester Awards are once again kicking off the awards shows this year with their recognition of innovators in the city. The annual awards celebrate innovation in art, music and fashion. After a ten-week campaign, with over 250 entries, the winners were revealed at the Urbis on Thursday evening. Open to anyone that lives or works in Manchester, this year work was judged by a panel of industry experts that included Peter Saville, Wayne Hemingway, the Turner Prize winning artist, Jeremy Deller, Tim Marlow (White Cube, London), Miranda Sawyer, Yvette Livesey (In The City) and Luke Bainbridge (Observer Music Monthly). Together, the panel of judges selected just three winners which were as follows: BoMa crowd image exhibition The winner of the fashion award went to Manchester School of Art graduate, Holly Russell with her unusual graduate collection of hundreds of hand-sewn scarab beetle wings. Russell also collaborated with a metal worker to incorporate aluminium into her designs and an astronomer to create embellished digital prints. She hopes to take up an MA in fashion womenswear at the renowned Royal College of Art. The art award went to an art collective named Owl Project. Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons’ influences include woodwork, hobby-style electronics and open source software. Owl Project has produced a range of semi-sculptural musical instruments that have been exhibited across Europe and premiered at events such as the Sonic Arts Network EXPO, Lovebytes and Futuresonic. Finally, onto the music award and for the first time the Best of Manchester judges decided to award a joint first place in this category, reflecting the very high standards. Jayne Compton won for her diverse portfolio of work which includes the long-running experimental club night, Club Brenda, Switchflicker Records label and an upcoming Arts Council book, Strange Trees. Max Moran also took home the award for his energetic portfolio of work that includes the video-based music blog, ThisTownSounds.com, his sell-out club night, Hot Club, its laid back sister session, Hat Club and, more recently, his burgeoning record label, Hit Club. BoMa winners with Peter Saville All winners get £2,000, as well as a 12-month professional development package, designed to help them kick-start their career. Their work is currently exhibited in the Best of Manchester exhibition, which opens on Friday 24 July and runs until 20 September.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line79
__label__wiki	0.722535	0.722535	St. Lukes Institute Has Problems The Silver Spring, MD institute that treats priests for pedophilia, and other sex-related dysfunctions, may lose its accreditation. The State of Maryland cites a " level of deficiencies was of such scope and gravity as to pose a serious and immediate threat to patient safety." I think that the institute should be closed, or moved, regardless of whether those deficiencies are corrected. When I lived in Langley Park, MD, we often drove up New Hampshire Avenue to an apartment complex where some friends lived. Every time we made that trip, I noticed this very Catholic looking institution that I assumed was an academic "institute" for priests. I went along believing that assumption, until Fr. Rossetti starting making the rounds of news shows in re the current scandal. With this new knowlege of exactly what that institution is, I started asking myself some questions -- like, why didn't I know? Do the residents of that neighborhood know? There are apartment complexes in the neighborhood -- directly across New Hamshire Ave, and directly across Metzerott -- full of families and children. Even more troubling, is an elementary school in walking distance of St. Lukes. How well secured is the facility? What happens if one of the "priests" wanders away? [my housemate, who has worked in these types of facilities for years, tells me that it's not an uncommon event] I'm not worried about the "safety" of the priests -- I'm concerned about the safety of our children! QP Saturday Will Vehrs We briefly turn away from FISA and "The Man Without Qualities" to ponder the essential question, "What's up with Dodd?" Perhaps it was our inability to "connect" with Legos, or perhaps it was our inability to connect with Dodd's capricious whimsy, but for whatever reason, posters from The Refuge did not fare well in the latest Caption Contest. "Rags," JulieC, Dan, and even yours truly were in there, but apparently we didn't realize that the streetwalker motif was destined to carry the day. If that was the program, then Ray's entry certainly had the right stuff. Maybe we'll do better with Ronald McDonald, since we cleaned up with peeing people and dressed up dogs. UPDATE: Maybe I shouldn't check the contest so early in the morning. I totally forgot to welcome Mommabear and comment on her excellent entry. Someday, everyone in The Refuge will enter the Caption Contest. I hope everyone will pause this weekend and reflect on those who gave their lives defending our way of life. Memorial Day's meaning is much clearer this year as we battle another threat to our nation and see military personnel making the ultimate sacrifice. posted by Will Vehrs at 7:14 AM \| permalink \| "The Refuge" Did We Not Have The Tools? I said "hint: FISA...", because FISA (as amended) is in fact still the law. Does it restrict the Intelligence Community? Yes, but not unreasonably so. More importantly, though, establishment of the FISA court actually made it easier for the FBI to legally conduct domestic surveillance, and codified the government's authority to conduct domestic surveillance so long as it meets a lawful purpose -- that is, FISA was a grant of authority, with limits. Mr. "Musil" doesn't like those limits -- he blames "liberal Democrats" for those limits, citing concerns over "civil liberties." What he conspicuously fails to note are the very real abuses of Constitutional protections prior to FISA -- you know, a little matter of the Bill of Rights. Man Without Qualities insists that USA-PATRIOT was needed to "fix" FISA. Problem is that with some exceptions -- amendments taking into account cell phones & computers; being able to tap a "person" rather than a "number"; sharing of grand jury information (amendments with which I agree with some reservation) -- the amendments to Title 18 and Title 50 really don't allow anything relevant to "international terrorism" that wasn't allowed prior to September 11. Cooperation? Let's look again at how Mr. Reagan put FISA into effect in Executive Order 12333 1.14 The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Under the supervision of the Attorney General and pursuant to such regulations as the Attorney General may establish, the Director of the FBI shall: (a) Within the United States conduct counterintelligence and coordinate counterintelligence activities of other agencies within the Intelligence Community. When a counterintelligence activity of the FBI involves military or civilian personnel of the Department of Defense, the FBI shall coordinate with the Department of Defense; (b) Conduct counterintelligence activities outside the United States in coordination with the CIA as required by procedures agreed upon by the Director of Central Intelligence and the Attorney General; (c) Conduct within the United States, when requested by officials of the Intelligence Community designated by the President, activities undertaken to collect foreign intelligence or support foreign intelligence collection requirements of other agencies within the Intelligence Community, or, when requested by the Director of the National Security Agency, to support the communications security activities of the United States Government; (d) Produce and disseminate foreign intelligence and counterintelligence; and (e) Carry out or contract for research, development and procurement of technical systems and devices relating to the functions authorized above. Not only was cooperation allowed, it was required -- at least that's what "shall" means any other time it's used. At Section 2.3 of the Order there is authority to collect information on "U.S. Persons": 2.3 Collection of Information. Agencies within the Intelligence Community are authorized to collect, retain or disseminate information concerning United States persons only in accordance with procedures established by the head of the agency concerned and approved by the Attorney General, consistent with the authorities provided by Part 1 of this Order. Those procedures shall permit collection, retention and dissemination of the following types of information: (c) Information obtained in the course of a lawful foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, international narcotics or international terrorism investigation And at Section 2.6 there is more authoriiy to cooperate: 2.6 Assistance to Law Enforcement Authorities. Agencies within the Intelligence Community are authorized to: (b) Unless otherwise precluded by law or this Order, participate in law enforcement activities to investigate or prevent clandestine intelligence activities by foreign powers, or international terrorist or narcotics activities... That Order has not been revoked, so what new authority was needed? Might it be that the problem wasn't the law? Could it be that the problems in our intelligence community have more to do with the nature of bureaucracies. Let's examine the case of Zac M. -- the 20th Highjacker -- for clues about how people are the worst enemies of intelligence collection, collation, and dissemination. As I noted on Monday last: It looks to me like what went wrong -- at the FBI, anyway -- is something not unknown in the workings of large institutions: somebody saw something that appeared to be significant, then passed it up the line, where it was promptly set aside by somebody to whom it appeared to be insignificant And guess what -- that's exactly what happened.[I don't know how he reaches this conclusion, but Man Without Qualities cites this story as a "further report of how FISA paralysed the FBI" -- the report doesn't say that. The lede reads, "Minneapolis FBI agents investigating terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui last August were severely hampered by officials at FBI headquarters, who resisted seeking search warrants and admonished agents for seeking help from the CIA" -- we'll get to another example, below, of how people at DoJ's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review can really screw the pooch] We had the memo from Phoenix, Zac M. in custody, warnings about highjackings - we had intel. What we lacked wasn't the ability to collect data: In her classified 13-page letter, which includes detailed footnotes, Rowley said Minneapolis investigators had significant evidence of Moussaoui's possible ties to terrorists, including corroboration from a foreign source that Moussaoui posed a major threat, sources said. If the source is correct, then we had everything we needed to obtain a FISA warrant to search Zac M.'s computer (authority for physical searches under FISA was added in '98 -- supported by that other "liberal Democrat-in-chief" Bill Clinton). Why didn't the FBI seek a FISA warrant? Well, first of all, the folks at 10th and Penn NW didn't seem to be particularly interested in following up on the intel coming in from the field, but there's something else going on. An instructive precursor is the Wen Ho Lee case. In August 1999 the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee noted: In the investigation at Los Alamos, the FBI tried to get a FISA order for surveillance or a physical search of Wen-Ho Lee, a scientist at Los Alamos, but the Department of Justice (DoJ) refused to go to a FISC judge because the Department did not believe that the FBI's evidence was sufficient to meet FISA's statutory requirements for "United States persons". The Thompson-Lieberman statement details the wrangling between the FBI and DoJ's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR) and lists (on pages 14-17) 18 paragraphs of allegations that the FBI submitted to OIPR to show that there was, indeed, "probable cause" to apply for an order. DoJ's failure to act on that information is what baffles Senators Thompson and Lieberman. The Senators are not the only persons who are baffled. Their statement says that FBI Director Louis Freeh believed there was probable cause. The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) said "the Department of Justice may be applying the FISA in a manner that is too restrictive, particularly in light of the evolution of a very sophisticated counterintelligence threat and the ongoing revolution in information systems." The chairman of the PFIAB, former Senator Warren Rudman, called DoJ's reading of FISA "one of the most baffling" parts of the Chinese espionage story. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson seems to agree with these conclusions. Thompson-Lieberman Statement at 20 n. 78. When the Department of Justice refuses to forward a request to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court even when the FBI has compiled the kind of facts that were arrayed in this case, then one can't help but wonder if FISA's "sound balance" has come undone. Here it is again -- "allegations [...] submitted", "probable cause", and "failure to act." Of course, the Lee case was a little more complicated because of his status as a "United States Person", but Zac M. was in jail on an immigration violation -- the standard that the FBI had to meet in order to obtain a FISA warrant was by definition much lower. The FBI had the tools, but DoJ simply didn't allow the tools to be used. That's not a problem presented by the law -- it's a problem presented by the bureaucarcy. The fix to that problem isn't new legislation -- it's faithful application of existing legislation. If you have a dysfunctional bureaucracy, the way to make it functional isn't by giving it new authority. I'll put it more colorfully: If you have a person that can't find his own ass with both hands, a flashlight, and a roadmap, the answer isn't to put him into a room full of asses and praying that he just happens to stumble into his own. Such a person is useless, and needs to get the hell out of the way. Now, Mr. "Musil" sees a need to restore the "balance." I agree, and advert to the PFIAB (at the time they were Clinton's folks) statement above -- "the Department of Justice may be applying the FISA in a manner that is too restrictive, particularly in light of the evolution of a very sophisticated counterintelligence threat and the ongoing revolution in information systems."[emphasis added] Where I disagree is his belief that FISA was too restrictive. His constant reference to "civil liberties" and "liberal Democrats" as cause for the imbalance is ironic -- FISA as originally enacted actualy did something that civil libertarians still scream about: allowed searches without evidence that a crime has been or is about to be committed. And that's where my disagreement with Fareed Zakaria begins. Fareed argues on a false premise when he says: The FBI is a law-enforcement agency, not an intelligence outfit. To begin a massive operation, a crime needs to have been committed To have properly analyzed and investigated the leads that pointed to 9-11, the FBI would have had to have been a different organization, a kind of domestic intelligence agency, focused not simply on investigation after the fact but pre-emption and prevention. “The paradox is that once someone enters the United States, they become invisible, shielded by all our laws and restraints,” explains Philip Zelikow, director of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “The National Security Agency and the CIA can keep tabs on people around the world-but not here. We just caught a terrorist in Pakistan. Had he been in America, he’d have been safe.” For the purpose of FISA, the FBI is an "intelligence outfit." Further, under FISA there is no need to wait for a "crime to be committed" -- there needn't even be a crime about to be committed. That's because FISA lightened the burden for obtaining a warrant -- you only need to show "probable cause" [not "proof"] that the target is an agent of some foreign group. And that burden isn't very hard to meet -- 12,178 warrants approved, 1 denied. "To have properly analyzed and investigated the leads that pointed to 9-11" all the FBI had to do was act on the information coming in from the field (as noted above). The tools didn't exist? - Wrong, they're at statute and executive order. Nobody connected the dots? - Wrong, the agent in Phoenix and the agents in Minneapolis did "connect the dots". The government did everything it could have under existing law? We'll have to wait for Director Mueller to get his new story together -- his response to the Rowley letter: it's being investigated. [p.s.: my absence yesterday wasn't due to any shocking blow deliverd by Mr. Musil -- I was having dinner with a source who used to work on The Hill -- that's who tipped me to the piece from the Senate Republican Policy Committee] posted by Anonymous at 11:15 PM \| permalink \| "The Refuge" Still Missing The Point... Mr. "Musil" says that I "packpeddled' in the post below, and accuses me of failing my own test. Nothing can be further from the truth. I stand by my original comment, and will amplify here. What I took exception with was this line: Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard professor of geology who wrote popular books and got involved in all kinds of political things died today. Why did I take exception? Not simply because he wasn't just a "professor of geology", but because that label does a dishonor to his legacy -- he was "more widely regarded as a paleontologist [which is the field in which he earned his doctorate] and professor of zoology" Most of Prof. Gould's research work was in invertabrate paleontology. In fact, since 1982 he had been the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology -- that is The "academic position" that Prof. Gould held [hint: his office was at the Museum of Comparative Zoology], notwithstanding the fact that he held other positions at the university. The American Association For The Advancement Of Science, whose board Prof. Gould chaired, had no problem getting it right. It's his academic work in evolutionary theory for which he will be best remembered, and that brings me to the second half of the problematic passage - "political things." What are these "political things" -- well, he's was most noted for his repeated clashes with creationists. But it wasn't "politics" that he was about in those clashes -- it was science. Backpeddling? No, standing firm, just as Prof. Gould would do. Being indecent? Far from it -- Prof. Gould would insist on no less than honesty and accuracy, and my linking his name to the broader context while criticisizing some particularly dishonest and inaccurate rhetoric does more honor to Prof. Gould than does Mr. "Musil's" simple acknowledgement of Prof. Gould's death. Next up: How both Mr. "Musil" and Fareed Zakaria are wrong about the FBI not having the legal tools it needed prior to Sep. 11, and wrong about the ability of the FBI and CIA to cooperate (Hint: FISA, signed in '78 by the "liberal Democrat-in-Chief" Carter). I'm "dismissive"? Man Without Qualities says that I've treated him indecently, and dismissed this arguments. Actually, my comments below were purposefull on both accounts, and he dismisses my comments. The point that I was making in re his pointing the finger at "liberal Democrats" is that a full review of the record shows that it's not only Democrats who favour restrictions on domestic intelligence gathering - his view is very one sided. Just as a full review of Gould's bio would show that he was not only a professor of geology, and was more widely regarded as a paleontologist and professor of zoology. Let's not be one-sided... posted by Anonymous at 8:06 AM \| permalink \| "The Refuge" It's All The "liberal Democrats'" Fault? How "Man Without Qualities'" argument is without merit Man Without Qualities seems to want to pin the blame for everything wrong with our intelligence services on "liberal Democrats", and Mr. Clinton in specific. Specifically, he notes limitations placed on our intelligence services, both in how they may operate domestically and internationally. Wanna know who started this? Musil would know, if he had bothered to do a little research (instead of simply relying on an opinion column) -- it was Gerald R. Ford. Read Ford's 1976 Executive Order 11905: United States Foreign Intelligence Activities Also, that great conservative icon Ronald Reagan signed on to basically the same restrictions. Read Reagan's Executive Order 12333. 'Twas Clinton who in '98 made a "presidential finding" that going after terrorists with covert action, even killing terrorists covertly, doesn't violate the prohibition against assassination. Clinton so authorized action aganst bin Laden, and Bush reauthorized on that same finding as soon as he took office. Of course, Musil wants to argue that the problem goes back as far as the National Security Act of 1947. What Musil fails to note is that the '47 act was not an attempt to restrict the CIA from activities that it had previously been performing. Rather, the '47 act coincides with the CIA's founding. Musil's verbose attempt to prove his point actually proves nothing. Ted Barlow will hopefully have a more comprehensive response to Musil. I'd give Musil's "fact checking" abilities some credit, and simply disagree with his analysis, but he can't even get Stephen Jay Gould's field of study correct, though he presumably read the article he linked to.... p.s.: Don't even get me started on how Mr. Reagan's response to terrorism -- beating a hasty retreat from Beirut after the Marines were bombed in their barracks, and paying off, with weapons, the sponsors of MidEast hostage takers, making the activity lucrative for them and creating a "hostage mill" -- was in ways far more problematic than Clinton's approach... The Approach to Blame A two-way street congested with political traffic What can I say about the current comedy playing out on the political stage? I'll reiterate what I iterated on January 2, 2001: [...]now everybody's carping on [Clinton's] "failure" to deal with bin Laden - as if anybody else would've done anything differently prior to Sep 11. In fact, prior to Sep 11th Mr. Bush was pursuing bin Laden on the same track that Mr. Clinton was on. The point I was making then, and I'm echoing now, is that neither Clinton nore Bush are at fault There certainly were failures, but they weren't individual failings. Rather, the failings evidence some systemic problems -- a problem inherent to bureaucracies and a problem inherent to democracies. I think that the failure of the political establishment -- not just the President and his staff, but Congressional leadership as well -- to fully grasp the scope of the threat is a function of "what they didn't know", and not the hypothetical "what they should've known." There's much that the President and Congress should've known, but that they didn't know is the fault of the agencies responsible for collecting, collating, and diseminating information -- the FBI and CIA. It's on those agencies that any investigation must focus, and there must be an investigation -- if for no other reason but than to find out what went wrong so we can try to fix it. It looks to me like what went wrong -- at the FBI, anyway -- is something not unknown in the workings of large institutions: somebody saw something that appeared to be significant, then passed it up the line, where it was promptly set aside by somebody to whom it appeared to be insignificant. Why that happened, what role it played in allowing the attacks of September 11th to go forward (or, how properly handling that info might have prevented the attacks), and how to keep it from happening again, are all questions that we ought rightly seek answers to. The questions that seek an answer to why we did things the way we did vis a vis terrorism in general and Osama bin Laden specifically, prior to September 11th, and attempts to lay blame on either Clinton or Bush, are all lacking a certain perspective -- how we operate as a democracy. It's easy in hindsight to say what we ought to have done, and just as easy to assert that had we known, the we would've done differently. I'm not buying that -- it's too easy. Truth is, much of what we've done since September 11th was just as "unthinkable" as the thought that terrorists would use commercial jet aircraft as guided missiles to bring down the World Trade Center -- it wasn't unthinkable at all. We may have been able to prevent the attacks by vigorously pursuing the leads we had, and there the fault rests with the agencies. But, the other activities -- increasing scrutiny on Arab-looking men, or going to war against terrorism much sooner -- are policy decisions made by politicians acting in the context of an open democratic society. Those policy paths we've gone down since September 11th are roads that no U.S. administration or Congress would have gone down prior to September 11th, and any attempt at comparison is really a juxtaposition. The use of this juxtaposition in argument is a political rhetoric, and does disservice to the genuine search for what went wrong and how to fix the problem. Addendum: Mr. Novak gets it just right: Revelations that shook the nation's capital last week provided dispirited Democratic partisans with ammunition for bashing George W. Bush. All that really was exposed, however, is a failed government system of analyzing intelligence that transcends party politics and shortcomings of the current administration. It also revealed the FBI's lack of gratitude.[emphasis added] Of course, the Bushes are twice sandbagged -- the agencies screwed the pooch in the first instance, and the "leaks" conspicuously appear to be an attempt by the ungrateful ones to deflect back at Mr. Bush. Knowing how dearly Mr. Bush values loyalty -- almost to the point of fidelity -- I don't need to imagine how much the revelations hurt. But, as Bob says, and only in context of the political fallout: In a sense, Bush and his team have themselves to blame. Immediately after Sept. 11, Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) called for a ''Pearl Harbor-type'' investigation by a citizen's commission. The White House stifled this baby in its crib, citing protests from the FBI and CIA that they had no time to cope with an investigative commission. Actually, the attitude fits this administration's passion for secrecy. Had Torricelli prevailed, a broad-based investigation launched months ago might have revealed in orderly fashion what is now being leaked piecemeal--fueling conspiracy theories and aiding irresponsible Democratic members of Congress. Or, as Scott Shuger said in another context, "[...] if the government has a right to secrecy in these matters, it doesn't have a right to stupidity." I should add, if the Congress has a right to investigate, it doesn't have a right to stupidity. I'll not fault the manner in which the administration has prosecuted the war, but I'll go along with a label in application to how this war has played out on the domestic political front -- both parties have engaged in stupidity. Shadow Government Leader Appears on Sunday Talk Shows TV Punditwatch is up, analyzing Vice-President's Cheney's appearances today. There's also some discussion of tackiness, George Will's name dropping, and Cokie Roberts' warning to George W. Bush. posted by Will Vehrs at 1:30 PM \| permalink \| "The Refuge"	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line87
__label__cc	0.50464	0.49536	AAPI Run: Jeremy Akbar Cooney, Candidate for NY State Senate, District 56 Jeremy Akbar Cooney (Photo Credit: Jeremy Cooney for State Senate) Once again, a record number of Asian Americans and a growing number of Pacific Islanders are running for public office at the local, state, and national level. Every week, Reappropriate will profile progressive AAPI candidates for higher office, as well as officials serving in public office. Check back at Reappropriate throughout 2020 to learn more about these candidates and find out how you can get more involved in their campaigns. Jeremy Akbar Cooney is endorsed by Run for Something, which recruits and supports talented, passionate young people who advocate for progressive values now and for the next 30 years, with the ultimate goal of building a progressive bench. Since its launch on inauguration day 2017, they’ve recruited 16,000 young people to run for office. Jeremy Akbar Cooney What office are you seeking? When is the election date? What is your party registration (if any)? Democratic Party, Working Families Party (endorsed) Tell me a little bit about your background in general, as well as your relationship to your identity as an Asian American and/or Pacific Islander? I was born in an orphanage in Calcutta, India, and adopted at a young age by a single mother in New York. I always joke: I’m the tannest Irishman with the funniest upstate accent you’ll ever meet. While I have been back to India, including to visit the orphanage I was born within, it has been through this State Senate campaign that I discovered my cultural identity as an Indian man. I am so grateful to our local South Asian community that has embraced and supported me. One of my Indian supporters told me: “I want my son to see someone who looks like us in political office.” As an American, that sentiment is incredibly impactful on me, and I finally feel like I belong to the country I was born. I am so proud to potentially make history as the first AAPI candidate ever elected to state office from upstate New York. One of my Indian supporters told me: “I want my son to see someone who looks like us in political office.” As an American, that sentiment is incredibly impactful on me, and I finally feel like I belong to the country I was born. I am so proud to potentially make history as the first AAPI candidate ever elected to state office from upstate New York How did you become inspired to seek elected office? One of my first jobs was working for Congresswoman Louise Slaughter in Washington. She inspired me to go to law school and to pursue a career in public service. She was not like other politicians. She taught me and my colleagues to always pick up the phone, do the work, and follow up with our constituents. When so many in our community struggle to get answers and results from elected officials, she reminded us daily of the importance of letting people be heard and to be reminded of the job that we are tasked with in public service. What three issues do you think are most important to your constituents, and what step(s) do you plan to take to address them if elected? Healthcare is too expensive and hasn’t worked for far too long. Families choose between paying co-pays and saving for the future. Young people cannot afford high cost deductible plans, so they remain essentially uncovered. Our seniors cannot buy expensive prescription drugs on fixed incomes. I believe healthcare is a right and something must change. I support universal healthcare and the NY Health Act.We must make change to ensure children and families have access to high quality healthcare, period. Our criminal justice system imprisons too many people for too long at too high of a cost to families, communities and taxpayers. This is particularly true for Black and Brown populations and those with economic disadvantages. Recent protests have shown us that the time for change is now. We must put an end to needless arrests and expand protections against oppressive policing and judicial sentencing. We can also increase access to support resources for marginalized communities, such as stable housing, mental health counseling, social workers, and drug and alcohol addiction treatment. Public School Funding The Rochester City School District has been vastly underfunded for years. The graduation rate at RCSD hovers around 50% and child poverty in the City of Rochester is 2nd highest in the nation of cities with populations over 200,000. We must act to receive the appropriation of funds from the state level that our students and teachers deserve. It is imperative to the success of our community and funding not only our schools but the future which will define it. What impact has the current political climate had on you as an Asian American and/or Pacific Islander progressive seeking elected office? I feel that AAPI candidates struggle to belong in today’s racially-charged dialogue. Our brown complexion doesn’t fit nicely into one category or another. We are not Brown, as members of the Latinx community. We are not White. And we do not share the years of oppression and systemic racism that Blacks in the U.S. have had to endure. In many ways, AAPI citizens have been given privilege by society based upon our community’s strong scientific and business educational background, which has produced affluence for some families. That privilege conception, however, is also a misnomer. One of the poorest ethic minorities in New York City are Asian Americans. Similarly, AAPI citizens have faced racial discrimination since the September 11th attacks. Personally, I have been pulled off airplanes after passengers complained that I might pose a threat because of the color of my skin. Additionally, my fiancee Diane, who is Chinese, has also faced discrimination in the wake of current coronavirus pandemic, based upon divisive messages from the White House. What is clear is that we need more AAPI voices at all levels of government to tell our stories and represent one of the fastest growing minority groups in the nation. We need more AAPI voices at all levels of government to tell our stories and represent one of the fastest growing minority groups in the nation. What advice would you have for other young Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders currently considering a career in politics and/or public service. Step up, and run. Break barriers and be proud of the cultural identity you bring to public office. Once there is a first, there should be a second. Help blaze that trail for the next generation. Be a part of our story being told and be a part of it within the realm of serving others. Where can readers go to learn more about you and your campaign? Website: JeremyCooney.com Facebook: facebook.com/JeremyCooneyROC Twitter: twitter.com/JeremyCooneyROC Instagram: instagram.com/JeremyCooneyROC How can readers get involved to help your campaign? Are there any upcoming events you’d like for us to know about? All events are shared via our Facebook page. As we just finished our primary campaign, and are awaiting the official results of the election, we do not have any events planned until certification is finalized, however our website and social media will contain all necessary updates. Run for Something recruits and supports talented, passionate young people who advocate for progressive values now and for the next 30 years, with the ultimate goal of building a progressive bench. Since its launch on inauguration day 2017, they’ve recruited 16,000 young people to run for office. Register to vote online now. If you are a progressive Asian American or Pacific Islander running for or currently serving in elected office in 2020, and would like to be profiled in this series, please contact me for more information. Posted on July 13, 2020 November 2, 2020 Categories Categories Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, Elections, Elections 2020, Politics Tags Tags AAPI Run, Asian Americans Run for Something, Interviews, Jeremy Akbar Cooney, New York, New York State Senate, Run for Something Previous Previous post: Asians 4 Black Lives: Structural Racism is the Pandemic, Interdependence and Solidarity is the Cure Next Next post: BREAKING: ICE Rescinds International Student Rule Requiring In-Person Classes	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line88
__label__wiki	0.518133	0.518133	Ux Development Cloudera Data Warehouse Demonstrates Best-in-Class Cloud-Native Price-Performance Optimized joins & filtering with Bloom filter predicate in Kudu Extending Flarum: Adding a Web3 Address to a User’s Profile Artificial Intelligence Creates Tremendous Changes for the Direction of Marketing How to Improve User Experience with Accurate User Feedback Brick and Mortar Stores are Now Built Brick by Brick with Digital Insights Data-Driven Learning & Development Are Keys to Employee Retention After a tumultuous year, the final award category at the Data Impact Awards was a much needed pick me up for everyone in attendance. Showcasing some of the most inspiring and uplifting use cases of Cloudera’s technology, The Data for Good category recognizes organizations that are tackling the challenging issues affecting society and the planet — and we all know there are plenty of them in 2020! Judge Cornelia Levy-Benchton teed up the award on the night and summed up the category finalists beautifully. “We’ve all heard inspiring stories from the frontline of the pandemic. First responders, healthcare workers, key workers, doctors, and nurses, all going above the call of duty during the pandemic to save lives and give comfort to people in distress. However, there is also a group of heroes right here among us in the corporate ranks. These are heroes, unsung as of yet, who operated behind the scenes during the pandemic, to fight the good fight against COVID-19, and the chaotic situation that ensued.” She continued, “Cloudera has put a spotlight of praise and recognition on these unsung heroes. They are our corporate technical leaders, our data scientists, our data practitioners, and data administrators, all of whom stepped up to the plate in a time of critical need. They behaved selflessly and tirelessly, and they delivered, with remarkable speed and effectiveness. Providing new services and new solutions that will endure beyond the cap of the pandemic. The ways they have utilized data for good, will be shared by other companies and even across industries.” With so many incredible use cases, it was a tough category for the judges with much deliberation. The winner was announced as Rush University Medical Center. Let’s see what it was about this submission that stood out and clinched them the win. The Data for Good winner — Rush University Medical Center Rush University System for Health is an academic health system with a mission to improve the health of the individuals and diverse communities in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Through the integration of outstanding patient care, education, research, and community partnerships. The Rush healthcare system includes Rush University Medical Center, Rush University, Rush Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital, as well as numerous outpatient care facilities. Rush University Medical Center, the leader of the project and flagship location for the larger Rush University System for Health, is an 830,000 square foot academic medical facility on Chicago’s Near West Side with a patient capacity of 664, including adult and pediatric patients. From the frontline of the pandemic, as it swept through Chicago, Rush University Medical Center came up with an incredible way to utilize its data, in order to save lives during the crisis. Using data to save lives during the pandemic Reliant on electronic health records (EHRs), Rush Medical University Center’s doctors and physicians found that, due to the time it took developers to script and analyze patient records, they weren’t able to make fast COVID-19 diagnoses. Struggling with a lack of data and insights, they found themselves at a disadvantage in preventing the spread of the pandemic. Unable to get information from medical source notes quickly and efficiently could lead to misdiagnosis and slower care during critical windows, at the cost of lives. With it taking up to three days to process data, Rush developers were inhibited from supporting medical staff in the way they both wanted and needed to. They knew they needed a solution that could match the speed and ferocity of the pandemic. The Data Science & Knowledge Management team acted fast to fix this problem, building a data ingest pipeline with Cloudera DataFlow (CDF) in less than 2 weeks. Using CDF, custom NiFi flows were developed to automate the ingestion of COVID-19 data. This meant that instead of analyzing historical data from the last week, or even month, developers were able to analyze data on a real-time basis and get near-instant feedback. Thanks to this project, and how quickly it was put into production, Rush was able to build a Coronavirus dashboard, early on, even while clinicians were still trying to figure out what exactly COVID-19 was. The dashboard displays analytics in real-time, providing an up-to-date and accurate view, and the insights gleaned from this project allowed early recognition of COVID-19 symptoms. This feedback has allowed clinicians and physicians to treat patients quickly and effectively, ultimately saving lives. Forecasting the future to improve outcomes With the dashboard, and Cloudera technology in place, Rush researchers developed real-time tracking of regional Influenza-like illness (ILI), using EHR data, to provide surveillance of the symptoms consistent with COVID-19. This data feeds a forecasting model that Rush (and others) are using to better estimate regional COVID-19 case volumes. It was found that the anticipated case rates forecasted by this model accurately reflected the case spikes across Chicago. The model updates with regional case counts and can estimate specific supply estimates and personnel needs, which can help health care organizations of all kinds understand where potential shortages of critical supplies could emerge. Without quick and easy access to structured information about its patients, Rush would be forced to rely on COVID-19 testing alone to diagnose patients, which can take days to produce results. With CDF, clinicians have all the data they need within minutes. Talk about using data for good, as you read this blog, this is literally saving lives. It’s been a privilege for Cloudera to play a part in what Rush University Medical Center is achieving. If you are currently working on a project battling the challenges of 2020 and think your company deserves recognition, we’d love to hear from you. This year’s nominations inspired us all and we are truly excited about the incredible work we know is going on out there, to tackle the biggest challenges the world is facing. From using data to battle climate change, through to the breakthroughs we know are happening in the fight against COVID-19, we look forward to hearing more about the incredible ways you are using Data for Good. To learn more about the Data Impact Awards, our judging panel, and winners please visit: https://www.cloudera.com/about/customers/data-impact-awards.html The post 2020 Data Impact Award Winner Spotlight: Rush University Medical Center appeared first on Cloudera Blog.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line90
__label__wiki	0.939531	0.939531	High-profile clients to be executed by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer Iranian human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei fled his country this week, eluding government security agents trying to arrest him. He had been in hiding since July 24, when he was detained and interrogated for three hours by police. When he was released, he returned to his office to find it had been ransacked. When his wife and brother-in-law arrived at the office, they were arrested. Mostafaei surfaced in Turkey on August 5, and then reappeared in Norway on August 9, where he asked for asylum. His brother-in-law has been released, Mostafaei says, but his wife is still in solitary confinement in Evin prison. Their 7-year-old daughter is staying with her grandparents, he says "I love my country. I loved helping people and I didn't escape because I'm afraid of going to jail. I did it because I have no more belief or respect for Iran's judiciary," Mostafaei told reporters in Oslo. Mostafaei has a long history of taking on politically sensitive cases pro bono. He has pressed Iran's judiciary to ban stoning, execution of minors, and imprisonment of political dissidents. He has represented 40 juveniles on death row, he says. Eighteen of those clients have been freed, four have been executed, and the remaining 18 cases are pending. Mostafaei angered Iranian officials because of his aggressive defense of two high-profile clients - a young man convicted of sodomy and a widow convicted of adultery. Both were sentenced to death by courts in Tabriz, Iran, and are awaiting execution. Ebrahim Hamidi, an 18-year-old, has been sentenced to death for a sexual assault on another man. His accuser has since withdrawn the assault claim in a sworn affidavit, admitting that he lied under pressure from his family. Two years ago, the alleged victim was caught by Hamidi damaging his father's crops. There had been a history of feuding between their families. A fistfight ensued, involving Hamidi and some friends. During the fracas, the accuser's pants slipped down 20cm, which he claimed was evidence of a sexual assault. Two hours later, Hamidi and three friends were arrested on sodomy charges and tortured for three days in a detention centre. Under torture, Hamidi signed a confession. There is no evidence that Hamidi is Gay or that a sexual assault took place, only the word of one person against another and a confession under torture, both of which were later retracted. The Supreme Court of Iran has overruled the local court's guilty verdict on two separate occasions, and ordered a re-examination of the case, citing errors in the legal investigation and an "issue of doubt." Both Supreme Court rulings have been ignored by the judiciary in Tabriz. According to international Gay activist Peter Tatchell, "Ebrahim's case highlights the flaws and injustices of the Iranian legal system. It is further evidence that innocent people are sentenced on false charges of homosexuality, often after torture." "To avoid the hangman's noose," Tatchell continued, "Ebrahim's best hope is to persuade the Chief Justice of Iran, Sadeq Larijani, to veto his hanging." Tatchell gave Larijani's address as follows: Sadeqh Larijani Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary) Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri Tehran 1316814737, Iran E-mail: info@dadiran.ir or via the official website: www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx In Mostafaei's other high-profile case, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death. She has already been held in prison for five years and received 99 lashes for an "illicit relationship" that she confessed to at the time of her arrest. Like Ebrahim Hamidi, she later recanted her confession, saying it was extorted from her under duress. An online petition for Ashtiani's release had more than half a million signatures as of Thursday, with celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Peter Gabriel joining the effort. Protestors around the world staged demonstrations calling on Iran to release her. Last week, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered to grant Ashtiani asylum, an offer the Iranian government rejected. An Iranian court has cancelled the stoning sentence while upholding the adultery conviction. State-controlled Iranian media said this week that Ashtiani is also guilty of murdering her husband. The punishment for that charge is death by hanging.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line94
__label__cc	0.686364	0.313636	$4B 9 new york giants NFL $3B The 2019 live boxing series is scheduled to air monthly on March 21, April 25, May 16, June 13, July 18, Aug. Chicago Cubs MLB $3B 17. in 2021 to play in the MLB Little League Classic presented by Geico, according to MLB, the Major League Baseball Players Assn. She owns a California vineyard, Somnium . 1 overall pick. Especially since he still gets to explore new territory. Additional properties under KSE’s umbrella include Altitude Sports & Entertainment, a 24-hour regional television network; Altitude Authentics, the company’s official retail provider. Highest Paid Women Athletes 2020 Per Forbes 1. We are looking forward to working closely with MLB Properties and its Clubs to invest in innovation and creativity to bring baseball cards and other collectible items to new audiences for many years to come, Eisner said in a statement. Beckham will appear in a multi-media campaign that includes print, POP and Internet, with social media components on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Philadelphia Eagles NFL $3B 24. This company is designing a very easy-to-make and cheap ventilator to be built with easily sourced parts that they can start manufacturing quickly. He already has had a couple of true iconic moments, and those iconic moments get athletes the attention of people well beyond their sport. In 2016, the Bruins’ defense ranked 12th in the nation in defensive efficiency. 22, will be a home game for Cleveland and air nationally ESPN’s design your own football jersey New England Patriots NFL $4B 8. Boston Red Sox MLB $3B 17. Chicago Bulls NBA $3B 17. This year it is a different story as Landesberg is one of the best sixth men in the league, providing 9 points and 2 rebounds per game off the bench. 22, will be a home game for Cleveland and air nationally ESPN’s ll. Bayern https://www.fanscustomize.com/collections/baseball-new-arrivals soccer $3B 25. I’m especially grateful for CLC’s leadership from Day One and their vision in helping to bring OHT to the national stage, including working with ’47 and Lids on this Veteran’s Day Salute to Service month, said Sheehan. Serena Williams tennis $36M 3. Denver Broncos NFL $3B Source: Forbes By Barry Janoff August 31: In an effort to give its corporate name a broader and more immersive presence on the national sports stage, Nissan Motor Corp. At the same time, it’s details because in games like that one or two possessions make the difference. Among the university’s involved in the OTH program are Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn, Boston College, Cal-Berkley, Clemson , Colorado, FSU, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisville, Loyola, LSU, Maryland, Miami , Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Purdue, San Diego State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, UCLA, Washington State, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. As a global brand, Asics is dedicated to bringing the best in athleticism and innovation to our family, friends and fans, Wulff said. Bayern Munich soccer $3B 25. Also, last time we checked, LeBron was doing quite well with endorsements and national presense. Previous PostPrevious Daniels gwendoline christie kelly marie tran laura dern and benicio Next PostNext Star potential at the top analysis deni avdija looks	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line96
__label__wiki	0.791392	0.791392	Category: Ilyanica Images from Ilyanica Photos from Set of “Ilyanica” We completed filming “Ilyanica” April 12-13. Filming “Ilyanica” This Weekend A cast and crew of approximately 20 people, made up of UT film students and local film community members, will shoot the film “Ilyanica” April 11-13 in the abandoned Old Travis County Jail at 1000 Guadalupe in Austin. Filming will take place from 6 PM to 10 PM Friday April 11 and 8 AM – 6 PM on Saturday April 12 and Sunday April 13. See photos of the abandoned jail area. Most people who drive by or who visit the Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse in downtown Austin probably don’t realize the top two floors house the old county jail, in use from the 1930s until the 1980s, when a new jail was opened. “Ilyanica”, directed by Scott Cobb, is a fictional short film about two American women, now in their 40s, who have been friends since college. They met each other in Berlin, Germany during their year abroad in college 20 years ago. Instead of returning to the U.S. after their junior year abroad, they remained overseas. Except for a few years back in the U.S., they have both spent most of their adult lives living outside the U.S. as expatriates. In the film, Erica believes Ilyana has gotten herself in a difficult situation. Ilyana has become involved with a group of people occupying the abandoned jail of a closed military installation in Eastern Europe. The Old Travis County Jail is doubling as an abandoned jail on a military base in Eastern Europe. In the fictional world of the film, the base has been scheduled for demolition, but many years ago the CIA used it as a so-called black site to interrogate people using waterboarding and other torture techniques as part of the Extraordinary Rendition and Detention Program. Ilyana is played by Circe Sturm, an Austin actor who is also an Associate Professor in the UT Department of Anthropology. Erica is played by Cynthia Fray, who spent many years living in France. “Ilyanica” is part three of a trilogy of films about the same two characters directed by Scott Cobb as he has pursued a degree in the UT Radio-Television-Film program. Scott will graduate in May 2014. The first film in the series was “Ex Patria”, which was filmed at the W Hotel in downtown Austin. In “Ex Patria”, the characters are 21 years old. In the second film, “The There”, the characters are around 30. “The There” was filmed at Deep Eddy Pool one night in November 2013 when the pool was drained of water. See photos of “The There” at the film’s website, thetherefilm.com. As the characters have aged, different actors have portrayed them in each film. Actors Cast for New Short Film We have cast the two main actors in the new short film we are shooting this semester. Circe Sturm will play Ilyana and Cynthia Fray will play Erica. “Ilyanica” is the third in as series of short films about the same two characters. In the first film “Ex Patria”, the two characters were 21. In the second film, “The There”, they were 30. In the third film, they are in their 40s. Ilyana has become involved with a group of people occupying the abandoned jail of a closed military installation in Eastern Europe. The base has been scheduled for demolition, but many years ago the CIA used it as a so-called black site to interrogate people they brought there for waterboarding and other torture techniques as part of the Extraordinary Rendition and Detention Program. Erica believes Ilyana has gotten herself in a difficult situation as a result of her impetuous nature, radical politics and free spirit, so she comes to visit her at the abandoned facility to see what exactly is going on. “Ilyanica” is a short film about two American women, now in their 40s, who have been friends since college. They met each other in Berlin, Germany during their year abroad in college 20 years ago. Instead of returning to the U.S. after their junior year abroad, they remained overseas. They have both spent most of their adult lives living outside the U.S. as expatriates. They have gone through many things together over the years. Erica is now a successful European-based American filmmaker, while Ilyana has always struggled to find her place in the world. Circe Sturm Cynthia Fray	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line102
__label__cc	0.722317	0.277683	A free online tool for stakeholder network analysis. What is Stakeholder Analysis? What is Stakeholder Network Analysis? Stakeholder network analysis can be used to identify which stakeholders, namely, organisations and individuals, are connected to each other and how they are connected. The technique can also be used to measure the quality of these connections (i.e. relationships, collaborations), and the information used to strengthen ties and improve the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of the network. The methodology involves the application of Social Network Analysis which investigates the interactions between individuals or organisations or stakeholders in different settings. Social network analysis (SNA) provides a set of theories, techniques and tools useful for understanding a broad range of behaviours as people and organisations interact with others. For example, in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), Stakeholder Network Analyses can identify the organisations involved in implementing programmes and how they are linked; describe the structure and characteristics of the network—how its participants communicate with each other and how influential they are; and identify areas and strategies to strengthen the participation of key stakeholders. A visual representation of the network helps members to better understand the network and identify priorities to make the network more robust and collaborative—for example, by establishing relationships between stakeholders that are disconnected, identifying areas where new stakeholders need to be recruited, and facilitating sharing of resources and knowledge. Understanding how a stakeholder network is organised can empower and promote self-management among the network members. Who is a stakeholder? The term is often loosely defined as “People or organisations invested in the programme, interested in the results of the evaluation, and/or with a stake in what will be done with the results of the evaluation”. In health, key stakeholders might include: Government -- not only the Ministry of Health or Department of Health, but other departments such as Finance, Treasury, Education, etc; Non-governmental organisations and not-for-profit sector community groups and civil society organisations business and the private sector; Political parties; Local government; Health insurance groups and other health care funders; Donors and aid agencies, including global health initiatives; UN agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO); Health workers 'organisations & health care providers' networks patients and health service users. When thinking about who you stakeholders are, the following categories might help: Those involved in programme operations: Management, programme staff, partners, funding agencies, coalition members. Those served or affected by the programme: Patients or clients, advocacy groups, community members, elected officials. Those who are intended users of the evaluation findings: Persons in a position to make decisions about the programme, such as partners, funding agencies, coalition members, and the general public or taxpayers. Levels of Engagement: Primary, secondary and key stakeholders: A common framework for defining or categorising stakeholders is by assigning them as primary, secondary, or key stakeholders (see ODA, 1995). A Primary Stakeholder is one that will be affected by a project’s outcomes either positively (beneficiary) or negatively (e.g. those involuntarily displaced). Secondary Stakeholders are the intermediaries in the delivery process of outcomes. Key Stakeholders are those who will be significantly affected by the project. The IOSP Framework: An alternative framework for identifying stakeholders is the In/Out/Seeker/Provider (IOSP) Framework (Varda et al, 2009), which is similar to a stakeholder matrix, helping to identify the actors and their roles. Why do stakeholder network analysis Content for section When to use stakeholder network analysis Queen's University Belfast, Centre for Public Health, Belfast Stakeholdernet © 2020. Privacy Policy.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line104
__label__cc	0.628257	0.371743	Desert Storm » 3AD Casualties Desert Storm » 1st Brigade Monument Images of the 1st Brigade monument, both in its original setting at Ayers Kaserne and its current setting at Ray Barracks. This monument was originally erected on Ayers Kaserne by the 1st Brigade's German Partnership unit, PZG 131 in late 1991. After the closing of Ayers Kaserne, the monument was moved into storage at Ray Barracks for about three years. In July 1999, under the direction of the commander of 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division (COL Orr), this monument was restored to its original condition, placed on the parade field at Ray Barracks, and rededicated. The rededication speech was given by LTC Mike Cloy, commander of 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry, and the Desert Storm commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 18th Infantry of 3d Brigade, 3d Armored Division. The text of his remarks is on a page in this section of the website. Detail of plaque c.1991 As placed at Ayers Kaserne Detail of plaque in 1999 During 1999 rededication	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line107
__label__wiki	0.657442	0.657442	Author: Scott Garris February 22, 2018 by Site Administrator and Scott Garris Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Backs Bipartisan Legislation to Address Hawai‘i, Nationwide Nursing Shortage Washington, DC—Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02), co-chair of the House Nursing Caucus, today announced support for bipartisan legislation to address the severe shortage of nurses in Hawai’i and across the country. The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act (H.R.5052) would direct Medicare-participating hospitals to develop nurse staffing plans that ensure an adequate number of nurses to meet patient needs and improve patient safety. Without adequate registered nurse staffing, patients are at higher risk for prolonged hospital stays, increased infections, avoidable medication errors, falls, injuries, and even death. Companion legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR). “Nurses are the driving force of our healthcare system, providing top-notch healthcare while ensuring patient safety and comfort,” said Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. “Unfortunately too many hospitals, especially in our rural and under-served communities, face a nursing shortage—putting patient lives and health at risk and driving up hospital costs. Adding nurses to hospital staffing plans would help to dramatically prevent hospital deaths, reduce infections and hospital re-admissions, and save hospitals nearly $3 billion. Our bipartisan legislation will support and empower nurses in Hawai‘i and across the country to deliver quality healthcare for all.” “As a husband of a nurse, I have experienced first-hand the many challenges and responsibilities nurses face on a day to day basis,” said Congressman David Joyce. “Ensuring patient safety and care has always been a priority but has faced many challenges when nurses are over worked and hospitals are under staffed. As Co-Chair of the House Nursing Caucus, I am proud to introduce legislation that addresses the issue and protects our patients and nurses.” “RN staffing makes a critical difference for patients and the quality of their care,” said Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, president of the American Nurses Association. “Appropriate nurse staffing keeps patients safe and protects them from preventable complications, even lowering the risk of death. Nursing care is like medication—we would never withhold a medication when we know its lifesaving effects. The Safe Staffing for Nurse and Patient Safety Act empowers direct care nurses to determine the unique and variable needs of their patients to ensure the safety and quality outcomes of care.” Background: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard serves as Co-Chair of the Congressional Nursing Caucus with Rep. David Joyce (OH-14). The congresswoman joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers to introduce H.R.959, Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act in February of 2017. The bipartisan legislation would reauthorize federal funding for nursing workforce and education programs to help grow and support nurses across the United States. The congresswoman has also hosted a congressional briefing focused on the severe shortage of nurses in Hawai‘i and across the country. She also supports HR676 Improved Medicare For All. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Votes Against Bill that Undermines Civil Rights Protections for Americans with Disabilities Washington, DC—Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) today voted against legislation that unravels civil rights protections for millions of individuals with disabilities in Hawai‘i and across the country. H.R. 620 undermines the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by placing burdensome requirements on individuals with disabilities, making it more difficult for them to access equal rights protections. The legislation passed the House by a vote of 225-192. According to the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, 15 percent of Hawai‘i residents are disabled – higher than the national average. The National Federation for the Blind of Hawai‘i also reported that Hawai‘i is home to roughly 22,700 people with a visual disability, who would be disproportionately burdened by the hurdles enacted by H.R. 620. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said, “For more than 25 years, the ADA has been instrumental in expanding and protecting fair, equal opportunities for disabled Americans. H.R. 620 unravels this progress, making it easier for employers to skirt around discrimination laws and requiring people with disabilities to jump through hoops for the equal access protections to which they are entitled. I’ve heard from many community organizations in Hawai‘i that shared how this legislation would hurt our more than 210,000 disabled residents. I stand with them in strong opposition to this harmful legislation.” National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii said, “The leaders and members of the National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii strongly oppose H. R. 620, the so-called ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Education and Reform Act. If this bill becomes law, it will diminish the rights of blind people by eroding the foundation of the ADA. Passed with strong bi-partisan support and signed into law by president George H. W. Bush in 1990, the ADA assures that all Americans with disabilities have the right to live free from exclusion and discrimination in any way in American society. The ADA ensures that anyone with a disability can enjoy the benefits of living in our free and open state and country alongside all other citizens. In short, the ADA is the persons with disabilities equality act, which must not be diminished in either its force or effect. We call upon everyone in Hawai‘i and throughout the U. S. to join us in opposing H.R. 620, which is a deceptive attempt to repeal the ADA.” Aloha State Association of the Deaf said, “Aloha State Association of the Deaf strongly opposes this bill because it will affect Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing citizens of Hawai‘i.” Special Olympics Hawaii said, “Special Olympics strongly supports legislation that guarantees the rights, full participation, and integration of people with intellectual disabilities (ID). We appreciate the progress that has been made towards eliminating the stigma, stereotypes, isolation, and discrimination that people with intellectual disabilities face – most importantly around access to sport, health, and education. We ask Congress to remain vigilant against any erosion of any provisions that have made a substantial difference in the lives of people with disabilities.” H.R. 620 is opposed by numerous civil rights, disability rights, and other organizations including AARP, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, American Association of Justice (AAJ), ACLU, AFSCME, National Disability Rights Network, American Association of People with Disabilities, National Council of Disability, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Easterseals, National Foundation of the Blind, and United Cerebral Palsy. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has long called for expanding federal protections against discrimination on the basis of national origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, gender, or race. She is a cosponsor of the Equality Act, which would add sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity to the list of protected classes under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. H.R. 2282 would expand federal protections to end discrimination in public accommodations, state and local government services, public education, federal financial assistance, employment, housing, credit, and federal jury service. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is also a cosponsor of H.R.1734 and H.R. 1772, which will increase access to technology, education, and employment opportunities for blind individuals, and H.R. 1377, which phases out subminimum wages for workers with disabilities. Follow Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on social media: Facebook.com/RepTulsiGabbard Twitter.com/TulsiPress YouTube.com/TulsiPress Flickr.com/RepTulsiGabbard Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Supports Bill to Fund Veteran Treatment Courts in Hawai’i, Nationwide “This legislation is an example of some of the long overdue reforms needed in our criminal justice system, and honors our veterans and their sacrifice by providing them with the care and treatment they need” Hilo Veterans Day Parade Participants. Pictured above are some team members of the Big Island Veteran’s Treatment Court February 13, 2018 Press Release Washington, DC—Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02), co-chair of the Congressional Post 9/11 Veterans Caucus, announced support today for bipartisan legislation to authorize federal funding for veteran treatment courts in Hawai‘i and across the United States. The Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act (H.R. 4345) would provide federal grants to state, local, and tribal governments to establish new veteran treatment courts and maintain current programs, like the Big Island Veterans Treatment Court. More than 15,000 veterans nationwide have received support through veteran treatment courts. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said: “In Hawai‘i and across the country, veteran treatment courts are helping veterans who are dealing with substance addiction and have committed nonviolent crimes get treatment and get their lives back on track. Through high-intensity supervision and a network of support that includes veteran-to-veteran mentorship, job and housing support, employment assistance, treatment and counseling, and more, veteran treatment courts are ensuring that they get the care and services needed to heal, and putting them on a path to success. I’ve met veterans in Hawai’i who have graduated from this program, and who tearfully share how this program has literally saved their lives. This legislation is an example of some of the long overdue reforms needed in our criminal justice system, and honors our veterans and their sacrifice by providing them with the care and treatment they need.” The Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act of 2017 establishes a program within the Department of Justice to provide grants, training, and technical assistance to help state, local, and tribal governments maintain existing veterans treatment courts. The bipartisan legislation also provides federal resources for the establishment of new treatment courts. H.R. 4345, the Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act of 2017 is endorsed by numerous servicemembers and veterans organizations including American Legion, AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, National Military & Veterans Alliance, American Logistics Association, American Military Retirees Association, American Military Society, American and Navy Union of the USA, American Retiree Association, Association of the US Navy, Military Order of Foreign Wars Military Order of the Purple Heart, Military Order of World Wars, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, The Flag and General Officers Network, The Independence Fund, The Retired Enlisted Association, Society of Military Widows, Vietnam Veterans of America. January 10, 2018 by Site Administrator and Scott Garris Proposal to Deport H-1B Visa Holders Seeking Permanent Residency Stopped by Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, Kevin Yoder’s Bipartisan Push Washington, DC—On January 5, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard(D), Co-Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, and Rep. Kevin Yoder(R), a member of the Caucus, sent a letter to President Trump urging his Administration to reject a proposal to deport H-1B holders awaiting permanent residency processing. Soon after, along with mounting pressure from business, technology, and government leaders, the Trump Administration has reportedly backed off from the counterproductive proposal. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02), and Kevin Yoder (KS-03), today released the following statement. The United States grants 85,000 H-1B visas every year to highly skilled applicants, including roughly 70 percent for Indians, seeking employment and educational opportunities. According to the National Foundation for American Policy, more than half of privately-held companies worth $1 billion or more in the United States had at least one immigrant founder – with many having come to America on an H-1B visa, including the CEOs of both Microsoft and Google. “H-1B visa holders, many of whom become small business owners and job creators, drive innovation and help build and strengthen our U.S. economy,” said Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic Co-Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. “The Trump Administration’s decision to back off this counterproductive proposal is a positive step forward. While it remains a priority to invest in training and create a pipeline of skilled American workers, we must continue to leverage the talent and expertise of the hundreds of thousands of H-1B visa holders to fill the gaps in our domestic workforce.” “I have seen personally how high-skilled immigrants have helped my community and so many others across the country by filling critical labor shortages in specific industries, preventing employers from fleeing overseas to fill them,” said Congressman Kevin Yoder, member of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.“Plus, many of these immigrants hope to eventually start their own businesses and create new jobs here in the United States. These are the people who have helped America grow and thrive as a nation of immigrants and we need to make sure our system continues to value those who are following our laws and doing the right thing.” Alok Madasani, an H1B visa holder and survivor of last year’s shooting in Olathe, Kansas, said, “America has provided me and many hundreds of thousands of folks on H1-B an opportunity to further our careers after education. America also taught us that if you are determined and hard working and follow the established process, there are opportunities for everyone. There are folks who moved here decades ago and have kids going to school here, the place they call home. Every process can be improved continuously for maximum output and current H-1B process can also be improved but eliminating it on a whole affects much larger audience. I’m grateful the administration has reconsidered these changes to H-1B extensions for folks with pending green card applications and I appreciate Representatives Yoder and Gabbard’s efforts to help us and our families continue staying together here in USA and continue contributing to the society.” Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard cosponsored H.R. 392, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, introduced by Congressman Yoder. This bipartisan legislation would remove the existing per-country cap on employment-based green cards and ensure all immigrants are treated equally regardless of their country of origin. Understanding H-1B Visas by Todd Sumlin tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com Among those applying to use the visa workers are companies that have been awarded millions of dollars in state grants under agreements to create jobs in Charlotte and elsewhere. Indeed, the tech industry and some lawmakers were stunned last week to learn the administration was considering a measure that would prevent hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications were pending. The possible change, part of President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative promised during the 2016 campaign, would reinterpret discretion given to the administration under the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act. Reps. Kevin Yoder, a Kansas Republican, and Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, sent a letter to Trump, obtained by McClatchy, urging him “not to deport H-1B holders awaiting permanent residency processing.” “We strongly believe this action would be harmful to the American economy, credibility, and relations with India and the Indian-American community,” wrote Yoder and Gabbard on Friday. Both are members of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned it would be “tremendously bad policy” to tell highly skilled people they are not welcome to stay in the United States. And the Indian tech industry, backed up by the Indian government, quickly began to mobilize. Groups that represent Indian companies and workers — such as the National Association of Software and Services Companies, Immigration Voice and Compete America — started deploying lobbyists and other representatives at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to argue against possible regulatory changes that could prevent foreign tech industry workers from keeping their visas longer than six years, according to U.S. and India-based industry sources and worker advocates familiar with the plans. “Nobody’s happy with it,” said an industry source. “Everyone’s trying to figure out exactly what’s going on and also trying to explain to the administration, if they’re thinking of doing this, it’s a horrible idea and these are the reasons why.” Trump’s senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and L. Francis Cissna, the director of the USCIS, have long worked to clamp down on the program. Before the White House, Miller worked for then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama who during the 2016 campaign raised the idea of ending the H-1B program. (Sessions is now Trump’s attorney general.) Read more @ http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article81625232.html October 26, 2017 by Site Administrator and Scott Garris Two More Members of Congress Sign On to Tulsi Gabbard’s #OffFossilFuels Act! From #TeamTulsi Tulsi Gabbard is leading the charge for transitioning the United States away from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy by 2035, as natural disasters and careless exploitation of our environment continue to leave thousands of Americans without homes, food, and clean water. In the wake of catastrophic hurricanes, massive wildfires, and the increase of man-made disasters, the push to implement the congresswoman’s groundbreaking legislation, H.R. 3671, the OFF Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act continues to gain widespread support. Joining the bill’s list of cosponsors this week are Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Zoe Lofgren. Along with a growing list of over 300 national, state, and local groups who are calling for Congress to pass the bill, the OFF Act is also rallying support from Food & Water Watch, Progressive Democrats of America, National Nurses United, Our Revolution, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Friends of the Earth, and Center for Biological Diversity. As more and more Americans suffer the consequences of destructive environmental crises brought on by greedy fossil fuel companies, it has never been more obvious than now more than ever, our planet needs healing. Since she was a teenager, Tulsi Gabbard has been passionate about surfing, environmental education, and protecting our oceans and natural resources. She has been a strong advocate for reformative legislation that puts the planet first (not profits!) and has a history of standing up to fight for real change. Joining her fellow veterans in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the Dakota Access Pipeline last December, Gabbard has consistently warned of the enormous dangers fossil fuel companies have imposed on the citizens of our country. If we want to protect our wildlife and stop the destruction of our ecosystems, we must demand that Congress pass Tulsi Gabbard’s OFF Fossil Fuels for A Better Future Act to prevent the continued use of our environment as a dumping ground. In light of a recent 672,000 gallon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last week that is the worst of its kind since the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010 when 4.9 million barrels contaminated beaches, wetlands, and estuaries and killed eleven people were killed, the congresswoman had this to say: “If we are going to preserve our planet for ourselves and future generations, we need to move off of fossil fuels to sustainable energy. We can achieve this by passing the Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act (HR 3671), which puts our country on a path to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2035. By making renewable energy a top priority, we can add millions of new US jobs and secure a brighter future for our people and planet.” Join our citizen based Facebook group to promote the #OffFossilFuels for a better future!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line110
__label__wiki	0.794089	0.794089	Two crew members wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they've been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they're actually not alone - and the reality of their situation is more horrifying than they could have imagined. More like this >> Based on the 1930's comic strip, puts the hero up against his arch enemy, Shiwan Khan, who plans to take over the world by holding a city to ransom using an atom bomb. Using his powers of invisibility and "The power to cloud men's minds", the Shadow comes blazing to the city's rescue with explosive results. Ground control has been receiving strange transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to investigate, he experiences the strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his own consciousness. Based on the novel by the same name from Polish author Stanislaw Lem. Subconscious (2015) An investigation into a retired WWII sub plunges a research team into a supernatural journey across the dark abyss of time - with history hanging in the balance. Convergence (2015) Detective Ben Walls finds himself in a modern day Dante world, passing back and forth between the present and the future. Surrounded by the residents seeking redemption, Ben is left with the task to find a way out. Attack of the Gryphon (2007) In a mystical land torn apart by civil war, a warrior princess must team up with a rival warrior prince to hunt down an evil sorcerer who has summoned a giant flying demon which is terrorizing their land. A nomadic 16th century warrior, condemned to hell for his brutal past, seeks redemption by renouncing violence, but finds some things are worth burning for as he fights to free a young Puritan woman from the grip of evil. Sheena (1984) Sheena's white parents are killed while on Safari. She is raised by the mystical witch woman of an African tribe. When her foster mother is framed for the murder of a political leader, Sheena and a newsman, Vic Casey are forced to flee while pursued by the mercenaries hired by the real killer, who hopes to assume power. Sheena's ability to talk to the animals and knowledge of jungle lore give them a chance against the high tech weapons of the mercenaries. Zombies Have Fallen (2017) A young woman (Tansy Parkinson) who possesses the supernatural powers and visions of an upcoming apocalypse is aided by a retired bounty hunter who must protect her from those who wish to use her abilities for evil. Prince (2010) It's Showtime ... Nothing and No One Can Be Trusted..... One of the savviest thieves in the world commits the biggest heist of his life. He wakes up next morning to realize he has a gunshot wound on his arm that he doesn't remember getting. In his quest to find answers he discovers his name is Prince, he used to work for a man named Sarang and his girlfriend's name is Maya. He is being hunted by the secret service of India- I Grip, the CBI and the biggest white collared criminals in the world. Ink (2009) Invisible forces exert power over us in our sleep. A mercenary named Ink, on a literal nightmare mission, captures the spirit of 8-year-old Emma (Quinn Hunchar) in the dream world. To save her, the dream-givers marshall all their resources , focusing on saving the soul of Emma's tragically broken father Priest (2011) In an alternate world, humanity and vampires have warred for centuries. After the last Vampire War, the veteran Warrior Priest lives in obscurity with other humans inside one of the Church's walled cities. When the Priest's niece is kidnapped by vampires, the Priest breaks his vows to hunt them down. He is accompanied by the niece's boyfriend, who is a wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess. Firehead (1991) When a Russian cyborg with telekinetic powers terrorizes a city, an elite government agency intervenes. Col. Vaughn convinces "regular guy" chemist, Warren Hart, to team up with a beautiful blonde agent to capture the menace. But Warren finds the true villain isn't who he expected. Forces of good and evil go head to head in this paranormal story of corruption and redemption...with the world's future hanging in the balance. Confessions of a Pit Fighter (2005) "From the day I was born I had to fight to survive. I fought everyone and everything that came in front of me. On the streets, confessions are made in Blood. They say that when you confess your sins, only then can you be redeemed. This is my redemption. This is my confession." (Eddie Castillo 2005) Full Contact (1992) In an effort to get his buddy out of a gambling debt, Jeff agrees to join forces with Judge in a weapons heist. The job goes bad and Judge betrays Jeff. Jeff plots the ultimate revenge on Judge and his followers and it is a question of whether he can follow through with his plan. Cargo (2009) The story of CARGO takes place on rusty space-freighter KASSANDRA on its way to Station 42. The young medic LAURA is the only one awake on board while the rest of the crew lies frozen in hibernation sleep. In 4 months will Laura's shift be over. The Bourne Identity (1988) An unconscious man is washed ashore on the beach of a small French village during a heavy storm. A retired doctor takes care of the unconscious stranger. When the mysterious man recovers, he can't remember a thing...he does not know his name, he does not know where his flashback memories come from, and he does not know why the access code for an anonymous Swiss bank account is implanted in his thigh. As he seeks his own identity, things quickly become dangerous. There are attempts to kill him, he is well known in first class hotels across Europe, and worst of all, there are strange similarities between his memories and reported actions of the notorious terrorist, Carlos the Jackal. The Yakuza (1974) Harry Kilmer returns to Japan after several years in order to rescue his friend George's kidnapped daughter - and ends up on the wrong side of the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia... Along Came a Spider (2001) When a teacher kidnaps a girl from a prestigious school, homicide detective Alex Cross takes the case, teaming up with young security agent Jezzie Flannigan, in hopes of finding the girl and stopping the brutal psychopath. Every second counts as Alex and Jezzie attempt to track down the kidnapper before the spider claims another victim for its web. TRON (1982) As Kevin Flynn searches for proof that he invented a hit video game, he is "digitalized" by a laser and finds himself inside The Grid, where programs suffer under the tyrannical rule of the Master Control Program. With the help of TRON, a security program, Flynn seeks to free The Grid from the MCP. Radioactive Dreams (1986) After an atomic war Phillip Hammer and Marlowe Chandler have spent 15 years on their own in an bunker, stuffed with junk from the 40s and old detective novels. Now, 19 years old, they leave their shelter to find a world full of mutants, freaks and cannibals. They become famous detectives in the struggle for the two keys that could fire the last nuclear weapon. Ant-Man (2015) Changing Lanes (2002) A rush-hour fender-bender on New York City's crowded FDR Drive, under most circumstances, wouldn't set off a chain reaction that could decimate two people's lives. But on this day, at this time, a minor collision will turn two complete strangers into vicious adversaries. Their means of destroying each other might be different, but their goals, ultimately, will be the same: Each will systematically try to dismantle the other's life in a reckless effort to reclaim something he has lost. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) Edmond Dantés's life and plans to marry the beautiful Mercedes are shattered when his best friend, Fernand, deceives him. After spending 13 miserable years in prison, Dantés escapes with the help of a fellow inmate and plots his revenge, cleverly insinuating himself into the French nobility. Proof of Life (2000) Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America. Hero Wanted (2008) Liam Case is a garbage man whose life hasn't quite turned out the way he expected it would. In order to impress the girl of his dreams, Liam plans an elaborate heist that will culminate with him jumping in to save the day at the last minute. When the day of the heist arrives, however, the plan takes an unexpected turn and Liam winds up in the hospital. Commando (1985) John Matrix, the former leader of a special commando strike force that always got the toughest jobs done, is forced back into action when his young daughter is kidnapped. To find her, Matrix has to fight his way through an array of punks, killers, one of his former commandos, and a fully equipped private army. With the help of a feisty stewardess and an old friend, Matrix has only a few hours to overcome his greatest challenge: finding his daughter before she's killed. The Quick and the Dead (1995) A mysterious woman comes to compete in a quick-draw elimination tournament, in a town taken over by a notorious gunman. The Informers (2008) A multi-strand narrative set in early 1980's Los Angeles, that deftly balances a vast array of characters who represent both the top of the heap and the bottom. Connecting the intertwining strands are a group of beautiful, blonde young men and women who sleep all day and party all night, doing drugs and one another with abandon, never realising that they are dancing on the edge of a volcano. Never Die Alone (2004) A drug kingpin's return home touches off a turf war. Breaking Point (2009) "Breaking Point" is a dramatic tale of corruption and self-realization, in which one man has to overcome a deep seeded conspiracy and his own lingering past in order to gain the redemption he desires. Inception: The Cobol Job (2010) The Cobol Job is a fourteen-minute animated prequel to Christopher Nolans award-winning movie: Inception, detailing the heist on Mr. Kaneda's mind by Nash, Cobb, Arthur, and several Cobol Engineering thugs. D-War (2007) Based on the Korean legend, unknown creatures will return and devastate the planet. Reporter Ethan Kendrick is called in to investigate the matter... Dreamscape (1984) A government funded project looks into using psychics to enter people's dreams, with some mechanical help. When a subject dies in his sleep from a heart attack Alex Gardner becomes suspicious that another of the psychics is killing people in the dreams somehow and that is causing them to die in real life. He must find a way to stop the abuse of the power to enter dreams. Altered States (1980) A research scientist (William Hurt) explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind. Python (2000) Sleepy New Haven California is a small town with a big problem. A sixty foot slithering horror has arrived and shattered the town's tranquillity on it's path of death and destruction... Growing violent and more savage with each attack the gigantic creature soon becomes an unstoppable feeding machine raging beyond control of it's creator, leaving only the stripped bones of it's victims in it's wake. After being betrayed and left for dead in Italy, Charlie Croker and his team plan an elaborate gold heist against their former ally. Entrapment (1999) When retired thief Robert "Mac" MacDougal is implicated in the disappearance of a priceless painting, insurance investigator Virginia "Gin" Baker sets a trap to catch her suspect. But Gin is not exactly who she seems. Soon, she and Mac have joined forces to pull off -- quite literally -- the heist of the millennium. VANish (2015) Three thugs kidnap Emma, the daughter of a drug kingpin, and have no idea that murderous blood that runs through her veins. As time passes, the unlucky threesome finds themselves in danger from the police, gangsters and their captive. A soldier on vacation finds himself hunting down a terrorist. A military officer attempts to hunt down a terrorist, destroy a terrorist gang and deactivate the sleeper cells under its command. Jazbaa (2015) After her daughter is kidnapped, a lawyer is forced to defend a criminal in exchange for her daughter's freedom. London Heist (2017) Armed robber and career criminal Jack Cregan seeks to discover the truth behind his father's murder and his stolen heist money and in doing so puts his life in danger. The devastation that Jack soon discovers puts his very own existence into question. 'Cash' is a high octane heist thriller set in Cape Town, South Africa.The film revolves around an ace con artist,(Ajay Devgan) who hires a set of top notch robbers (Esha Deol, Zayed Khan, Dia Mirza and Riteish Deshmukh) to steal a set of priceless diamonds in South Africa. The group also faces a threat from underworld don (Suniel Shetty), who is after the same diamonds and also the Head of Security (Shamita Shetty). How these three groups manage to thwart each other forms the rest of the story and makes it a nonstop adventure caper. Drive Angry (2011) Milton is a hardened felon who has broken out of Hell, intent on finding the vicious cult who brutally murdered his daughter and kidnapped her baby. He joins forces with Piper, a sexy, tough-as-nails waitress with a 69 Charger, who's also seeking redemption of her own. Caught in a deadly race against time, Milton has three days to avoid capture, avenge his daughter's death, and save her baby before she's mercilessly sacrificed by the cult. Falls the Shadow (2011) In a world gone mad, can compassion survive the Zombie Apocalypse? Amid the horrors of the Post-Apocalyptic south, three disparate groups of survivors must come together to save themselves as the only hope for the future. Pitted against a powerful neo-Confederate tribe and the relentless hunger of the infected, our heroes find redemption, love and hope. Assault on a Queen (1966) A group of adventurers refloat a WWII German submarine and prepare to use it to pull a very large heist; The Queen Mary which they plan to rob on the high seas. High Sierra (1941) See Bogie at his best as world weary "Mad Dog Roy Earle" Given a pardon from jail he gets back into the swing of things as he robs a swanky resort. Highlander: Endgame (2000) Immortals Connor and Duncan Macleod join forces against a man from Connor's distant past in the highlands of Scotland, Kell, an immensely powerful immortal who leads an army of equally powerful and deadly immortal swordsmen and assassins. No immortal alive has been able to defeat Kell yet, and neither Connor nor Duncan are skilled enough themselves to take him on and live. The two of them eventually come to one inevitable conclusion; one of them must die so that the combined power of both the Highlanders can bring down Kell for good. There can be only one... the question is, who will it be? I, Robot (2004) In the year 2035, where robots are common and abide by the three laws of robotics, a techno-phobic cop investigates an apparent suicide. Suspecting that a robot may be responsible for the death, his investigation leads him to believe that humanity may be in danger. Atlantic Rim (2013) When monsters suddenly appear from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, a special team pilots giant robots to combat the new threat. Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966) The 7th film in the Godzilla series. After being caught in a storm in the south seas, several teenagers and thief arrive on an island where natives have been enslaved by a terrorist organization. They also discover a sleeping Godzilla and decide to wake him up to aid in their plan to free the natives. The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) This time Fu Manchu and his army of henchmen are kidnaping the daughters of prominent scientists and taking them to his remote island headquarters. Instead of asking for ransom, Fu demands that the fathers help him to build a death ray, which he intends to use to take over the world. But Fu's archenemy, Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard, is determined not to let that happen. During World War II, a brave, patriotic American Soldier undergoes experiments to become a new supersoldier, "Captain America." Racing to Germany to sabotage the rockets of Nazi baddie "Red Skull", Captain America winds up frozen until the 1990s. He reawakens to find that the Red Skull has changed identities and is now planning to kidnap the President of the United States. End of Days (1999) On December 28th, 1999, the citizens of New York City are getting ready for the turn of the millennium. However, the Devil decides to crash the party by coming to the city, inhabiting a man's body, and searching for his chosen bride, a 20-year-old woman named Christine York. The world will end, and the only hope lies within an atheist called Jericho Cane. A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) A young woman is accused of murdering her debauched neighbor after dreaming it. Was she set up, or did she really do it? Architect Walter Craig, seeking the possibility of some work at a country farmhouse, soon finds himself once again stuck in his recurring nightmare. Dreading the end of the dream that he knows is coming, he must first listen to all the assembled guests' own bizarre tales. Arlington Road (1999) Threats from sinister foreign nationals aren't the only thing to fear. Bedraggled college professor Michael Faraday has been vexed (and increasingly paranoid) since his wife's accidental death in a botched FBI operation. But all that takes a backseat when a seemingly all-American couple set up house next door. Presumed Innocent (1990) Life takes a nasty twist for D.A. Rusty Sabich when the woman he has been romantically involved with is murdered. He is assigned to investigate the case, but is soon charged with the murder. Sleepy Hollow (1999) New York detective Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in which the victims are found beheaded. But the locals believe the culprit to be none other than the ghost of the legendary Headless Horseman. In My Sleep (2010) Marcus (Philip WInchester) wakes up in the middle of a cemetery half naked and has no idea how he got there. Urgent questions pound inside his head. "Where was I last night? Who was I with?" Marcus suffers from parasomnia, a rare sleep disorder which causes him to do things in his sleep which he cannot remember the next day. His situation takes a horrifying turn when Marcus wakes up covered in blood with a knife at his side. Then, the wife of his best friend is found stabbed to death. Marcus is terrified to put together the pieces - could he have murdered her in his sleep to hide a dark secret between them? Mysterious phone calls make Marcus believe someone is watching him. He investigates his own nocturnal activities, desperate to figure out what happens after he goes to sleep at night. His journey to discover the truth ends in a shocking discovery. Please enter your e-mail address to subscribe for updates The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Cookies On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 will come into force. The GDPR strengthens and clarifies the rights of EU-resident natural persons with regard to their personal information The Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy for Valossa services have been updated accordingly. Please review Valossa's updated Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy. If you use our services to process personal information of EU-resident natural persons you need to comply with the GDPR. By using our services on or after 25 May 2018, you will be agreeing to the changes. Under the GDPR, you have several rights, such as accessing your own personal data, erasing of that data, and the right to be notified within 72 hours of a data breach that is likely to result in a risk for your rights and freedoms. You may reach the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of Valossa when needed, and the details for doing so can be found in the updated Privacy Policy. Click 'OK' to agree and continue using WhatIsMyMovie.com. © Valossa 2015–2021	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line116
__label__wiki	0.926983	0.926983	. Gracias, gracias muy mucho. The 1953 Pulitzer prizes for journalism, letters and music would be announced on May 4. In Raleigh, the State Senate passed eight local measures and the State House approved one local bill this date, in what could be the final Saturday meeting of the 1953 session. Let us hope so. They have done enough damage for one biennium. In Buenos Aires, five Texas cotton businessmen arrested the prior Monday on suspicion of violation of national security laws, were released this date without charges. U.S. Embassy officials in Argentina had arranged for their release. In Hong Kong, three riot squads went into action after 2,000 people jammed the streets around a downtown store when word spread that a Finnish beauty, Miss Universe, was shopping there. In Hong Kong on her world tour, she ducked out a rear door. In Omaha, the Union Pacific Railroad's publicity department reported this date that it had discovered that one of its employees was named R. R. Lines, whom friends called "Railroad". On the editorial page, ""Encouragement on the Fiscal Front" indicates that it was hard to find encouraging signs on the fiscal front of late, with the General Assembly putting the state into deficit financing and the Congress demanding tax cuts before balancing the current budget. But it had found such an encouraging sign during the week from Senator Harry F. Byrd's "one-package" appropriations resolution, which had cleared its first major hurdle, being favorably reported out by the Senate Rules Committee. The bill would place all appropriations under one measure, making it easy to place it alongside the Treasury estimate of revenue for the ensuing fiscal year, and thus determine readily whether the budget would be balanced, and if not, by how much. It suggests that even so, members of Congress might not hesitate to engage in deficit financing and some agencies which presently had unexpended funds might suddenly decide to spend them hastily to prevent Congress from cutting budgets in the ensuing fiscal year. Congress might also jeopardize defense by cutting off money for expenditures which had been long and carefully planned. But those disadvantages also were applicable to some extent to the present system of piecemeal appropriations, denying the public and the legislators a clear picture of the nation's finances in the process. It thus supports the Byrd proposal. "Putting the Voice Where It Belongs" indicates that Edward R. Murrow of CBS—who would, during the Kennedy Administration, head the Voice of America—, had said that it was what came out of the loudspeaker which counted. It suggests that the political proclivities and opinions of American technicians presently doing radio work for the Government, despite their having been investigated recently, were secondary to the content of the broadcasts and the number and nationality of the listeners. With those standards in mind, it finds that the changes to the International Information Administration, announced during the week by its head, Robert L. Johnson, appeared sound. One of his decisions had been to cut Information service personnel, mostly from the Voice, by ten percent, a move on which it indicates it could not pass judgment, as it was best left to the technicians. His change in target audiences made sense, as more programs would be broadcast to Russia and the satellites and fewer to the free countries of Europe. English-language broadcasts would be reduced from five hours and 45 minutes daily to 30 minutes, and broadcast service to Latin America would be reduced to only a token operation. Since Communist countries did not have access to U.S. news and free countries did, it finds it made sense to make those changes. It also liked Dr. Johnson's plan to take the Information service out of the State Department and place it under a separate agency, as the latter's province was in the field of diplomacy and foreign policy and not news gathering and dissemination. Streamlining the Voice so that it would broadcast straight news rather than Government handouts made great sense, as it would then have stronger influence if the diplomats were not held responsible for it. "Comparison" indicates that during the 34 months of the Korean War, the U.S. had suffered 133,787 casualties, including approximately 23,500 deaths. At home, during the prior year, the U.S. had suffered 2,090,000 casualties on the nation's highways, a total which excluded the 37,600 deaths from highway accidents. "The Queen City Takes to the Air" relates from North Carolina Facts, put out by the North Carolina Research Institute, that Charlotte airline passenger traffic during 1951 had consisted of more than half of the passengers who boarded planes within the state, bearing in mind that Charlotte was a major transfer point and those passengers included transfers, even so constituting an amazing amount of the state's air traffic, the share of which for Charlotte had increased steadily from the 44.7 percent in 1949 to the 50.6 percent in 1951, translating to more than doubling of the amount of passenger traffic during that interim, indicative of the increased commercial flying throughout the state. While air traffic was increasing all over the country, particularly in the South, the rate of increase in the state was considerably higher than both the national and regional averages. Between 1950 and 1951, the total passenger traffic nationally had increased 29 percent, whereas in the South, it had been 36 percent, and in North Carolina, 45 percent. The state had 136 airports, 54 of which would accommodate medium-sized aircraft, and six major airlines, utilizing 14 airports, were operating in the state, bringing in advance men for new industries. It ventures that only uninformed Yankees now got Charlottesville and Charlotte confused, and that the Queen City was literally flying forward. A piece from the Arkansas Gazette, titled "Language of the Teens", indicates having just completed its annual investigation of teenage slang and being able to report that it had not changed much in the previous year. Such expressions as "down boy!", as applied by a "cute chick" to a high school make-out artist, a "wolf", and "take a train!", appeared to have been adopted here and there, and teacher and parental confusion still tended to exist to about the same degree. According to American Magazine, "DDT", which meant "drop dead twice", and "you popped a corny", meaning that a joke had fallen flat, were still in use. "Upper plate" standing for an older person, and "FFFFTOYFF", meaning "fall fatally flat five times on your fat face", and "the current is pushing me", as a parting remark, also remained in currency. The Chicago Sun-Times had found that "bitter banana", which meant a sulker, remained proper in Chicago's preparatory institutions, along with "hairy", meaning terrible, and "that's the way the ball bounces". It indicates that there were other such expressions, such as "a look that needs suspenders", referring to a male oggling a female, and "you may take three giant steps", a mocking remark to a braggart. There were others, but it finds that those listed would suffice until the following year, unless some youths from the Greater Little Rock schools desired to bring them more up to date. It wishes that they would, because "up here in the rarefied air of the ivory tower, us upper plates tend to get a little on the square side." The use of the "ivory tower" echoes the phrase often used in the editorial department of The News, suggesting that the author of the piece may have been Gazette editor and former News editor Harry Ashmore. All we have to say to the Trumpies is FFFFTOYFA. Over and out, DDT. The current is pushing us... Drew Pearson tells of having visited General Eisenhower in Paris a year earlier and then suggesting that one of his most difficult problems after he would reach the White House would be the China Lobby, the small but powerful group dominated by the Soong-Kung dynasty, which had benefited greatly from U.S. aid to Chiang Kai-shek and which had siphoned part of those funds off into one of the most skillful propaganda and political machines ever to operate in the U.S. The Nationalists, however, had not hesitated to sell strategic materials to Communist China and had attempted to corner the soybean market just before the Korean War, the Lobby hiring some of the most politically potent lawyers in the nation to plead the Nationalist cause with Congress. Mr. Pearson had suggested to General Eisenhower that since certain Senators received heavy campaign contributions from the Lobby, its operation actually amounted to having Asiatic policy fixed by carefully placed dollars rather than by the State Department. He had also suggested that it would be to the advantage of General Eisenhower to encourage a Congressional investigation of the China Lobby when he became President, a probe which the State Department and many Democrats would welcome. The General, at the time, had expressed incredulity that Senators would accept campaign expenses from the China Lobby and did not take to the idea of such an investigation. Recently, however, the President had been forced to choose between the Lobby's Senators and his own Secretary of State, the choice having come after Secretary Dulles had dropped a hint that the U.S. might have to abandon Formosa to obtain peace in Korea. The President had hesitated in his choice for only a few minutes before repudiating Mr. Dulles for his remarks. Mr. Pearson ventures that it left the nation where it was during the Truman Administration, with a State Department just as intimidated by the Lobby as it had been when Dean Acheson had been Secretary, with the exception that Mr. Dulles had retreated more quickly and further than had Mr. Acheson. The country also had an Asian foreign policy influenced by secret foreign agents, many of whom were not registered with the Justice Department as required by law. When foreign policy was influenced in secret by private individuals, the situation, he suggests, became dangerous, which is why foreign agents were required to register. It would be very difficult to win the peace in Korea without sacrificing the Nationalist Chinese, the unofficial position which Secretary Dulles had taken with a small number of journalists, before the Lobby had scared the President into a retreat from his Secretary of State. Mr. Dulles had reasoned that to get the Communists to retreat some 80 miles from currently established battle lines to the waist of Korea, a more easily defensible line for the long-term, it would be necessary to give them something in return, which might be the placement of Formosa under a U.N. trusteeship, necessitating, in that event, their giving up all claims on the Chinese mainland. Mr. Dulles faced the alternative of sacrificing thousands of U.S. soldiers or else making diplomatic concessions such as that regarding Formosa. He understood that the American people would not tolerate much longer the loss of American lives in Korea. He also understood that a report to Washington from Formosa had informed of the Nationalist troops having an average age of 29, considerably older than that of the American Army and that of the Communist Army, and much too old to fight. Mr. Dulles had also understood that Chiang had no means of recruiting fresh troops. Finally, he understood that Chiang was so fearful of being invaded from the mainland, rather than intending to invade himself, that a reference to using his troops was recently removed from a speech by Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley, upon request. Yet, when Mr. Dulles had noted the possibility of certain concessions naturally and necessarily arising from those facts, the China Lobby had risen up and complained to the President, causing the latter to take the nearly unprecedented action of reversing his own Secretary of State. William Henry Chamberlain, who had spent 12 years in Russia as a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, writing in the Wall Street Journal, indicates that during Stalin's lifetime, there had been no doubt as to who had been boss at the Kremlin, with final power residing solely in Stalin's hands. When Georgi Malenkov was appointed Premier following the death of Stalin on March 5, it was widely assumed abroad that Mr. Malenkov would also be another dictator. But events since his taking power had shown that he did not have the same authority possessed by Stalin. Contrary to Stalin's publicity apparatus, which maintained his image before the Russian people, Mr. Malenkov was largely unknown to Russians, and there had been no great press promotion of him since he had taken office. He had given up his post as chief secretary of the Communist Party, turning that role over to Nikita Khrushchev, a position formerly occupied by Stalin, who had made it a very important office, controlling party machinery and enabling Stalin to rise to power following the death of Lenin. It was possible that there had been a successful attempt to keep Malenkov's power within certain boundaries. There had been a strange reversal in certain policies followed under Stalin, preeminent of which was the sudden dropping of the prosecution of the Soviet doctors who had been accused of acting on orders of American intelligence agencies and the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in killing, through improper treatment, two high Soviet officials. Six of the accused seven doctors were Jews, and a medical expert commission had formally confirmed the allegations of deliberate mistreatment of the patients. But then a unique thing happened for totalitarian states. Russia admitted that innocent victims had been framed and that their confessions had been obtained through the use of methods inadmissible and forbidden under Soviet law. Such methods had been used routinely within the Communist satellite countries, and so it was quite strange that suddenly Pravda had set forth such an admission, casting doubt on the validity of all such confessions which had been obtained in a long series of Soviet political trials. Equally surprising had been the official statement that the purpose of staging the frame of the doctors had been to inflame Soviet society, to arouse feelings of national antagonism, which Pravda deemed alien to Socialist ideology. The Kremlin admitted not only torture but also having engaged in anti-Semitism. It had taken someone very powerful to instigate the prosecutions and someone equally powerful to call them off. Another development which had occurred almost immediately following Stalin's death was the change in the highest steering committee of the Communist Party, with the Politburo, which had been enlarged from 14 members to 36 members, now dubbed the Presidium, during the Party Congress the previous October, reduced back to its original number of 14. He indicates that it was impossible for the foreign observer, no matter how well informed, to understand what was going on within the Kremlin, whose political secrets were the best kept in the world. He ventures a plausible guess, however, that what had followed Stalin was not another all-powerful dictator, but a directory type of administration, with a very uneasy and precarious balance of power. Some of Mr. Malenkov's rivals may have entered into a combination to prevent him from becoming too strong and engaging in the kinds of purges which Stalin had undertaken after he came to power, eliminating his competition. L. P. Beria, who as Minister of Internal Affairs controlled the secret police, appeared to have vindicated his reputation and perhaps gained in political stature by repudiating the frame of the doctors. Mr. Chamberlain ventures that it was probably wise for the Eisenhower Administration to have shelved the idea of promoting a quick meeting between the President and Mr. Malenkov, as no one could be certain who would be the final victor in a struggle for succession to Stalin, which might be only in its initial stage. Joseph & Stewart Alsop tell of the Eisenhower Administration encountering a problem which the Truman Administration had, that being people within it who did not believe in the policies they were assigned to administer. In the Commerce Department, for example, Assistant Secretary Craig Sheaffer, the pen manufacturer, had gotten Secretary Sinclair Weeks initially to fire the head of the Bureau of Standards, Dr. Astin, creating a hue and cry among scientists and forcing Mr. Weeks to backtrack and retain Dr. Astin during a period of evaluation of the Bureau by a panel of scientists. Mr. Sheaffer admired right-wing rabble-rouser Herwin Hart, and was suspicious of science and scientists. Another example was former Senator Harry Cain of Washington, who had sought to outdo Senator McCarthy in chasing down Communists while a Senator, now appointed to the Subversive Activities Control Board. Former Representative Joseph Talbott had been appointed to the Tariff Commission, despite being protectionist in orientation, contrary to the position taken by the President, who favored extension of the reciprocal trade agreements, a measure which Mr. Talbott had voted against while in the House. During the campaign, General Eisenhower had favored expansion of the Social Security program, and yet had appointed former Representative Parke Banta of Missouri to be the counsel for the new Department of Health, Education and Welfare, despite his having, during the 80th Congress, voted to remove 750,000 people from Social Security rolls. The President favored a moderate public housing policy and yet had appointed former Representative Albert Cole of Kansas as the head of the Housing Administration, despite his having, while in Congress, complained that public housing "came from the Kremlin". President Theodore Roosevelt was one of President Eisenhower's political heroes, and the General had pointed out during the campaign that TR and the Republican Party had been responsible for initiating national conservation and land-use policies, but had appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Orme Lewis, who had testified that public lands, comprising nearly a quarter of the land mass of the nation, ought ultimately be turned over to private citizens. The Administration could not lightly disregard the wishes of such a powerful man in the Senate as Interior Committee chairman Hugh Butler of Nebraska, who had introduced a bill to turn over public lands to the states and had successfully insisted on the appointment of men of like mind within the Interior Department. The President would have to maintain the executive branch on a very tight rein, the Alsops suggest, if he was going to give the country the middle of the road government for which he stood, and he might find good uses for his famous temper in the months to come. Marquis Childs, at the U.N., indicates that those with faith in the U.N. concept had much about which to be pleased in recent weeks, starting with the agreement of the Security Council to name as the new Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold, the unanimous agreement of the Assembly regarding the Korean issue, and the new cordiality between East and West, all potential harbingers of good things to come, though the optimism had to be checked against past disappointments. New U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., was taking a middle-road position, working hard to retrieve the reputation of the U.N. with the American public and to create a useful place for it between the dream of world salvation and the dead end to which the old League of Nations finally succumbed prior to World War II. He had a lot to do with bringing about the mutual assent on the new Secretary-General, having formulated the idea that a Swede could win acceptance on the Council, as Sweden was not a member of NATO. His first choice, Erik Boheman, Swedish Ambassador to the U.S., had declined the position, and Ambassador Lodge then was instrumental in the selection of Mr. Hammarskjold. Had the Russians vetoed his nomination, Ambassador Lodge was prepared to take the matter before the full General Assembly, the awareness of which having had a lot to do with the eventual decision by Russia not to veto the selection. One of Ambassador Lodge's first acts as head of the delegation was to reach an understanding with Attorney General Herbert Brownell, regarding orderly investigation before a Federal grand jury of charges of Communist infiltration of the American employees of the Secretariat, headlines having been leaked from the grand jury the prior December, before the new Administration took office, a practice which had been stopped under Mr. Brownell. One of the reasons for such an investigation was the haste with which the U.N. had been put together in its early phase, necessitating that the foreign offices of each member country send their quotas of employees to serve on the Secretariat, causing problematic individuals whom each country wanted to unload to be named, a continuing handicap for the organization. Mr. Childs points out that there were many able and devoted employees at the U.N., and Russia had always sent capable persons to fill its quota on the Secretariat. But it was significant that the Russian quota had never been filled, indicating doubts in Moscow regarding the usefulness of the organization as a base for espionage. As Mr. Lodge had explained to all visiting Congressional delegations, the U.N. never dealt in classified material. Framed Edition Links-Date — Links-Subj.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line119
__label__wiki	0.52286	0.52286	US Troops out of Haiti - Picket of US Embassy Haiti Solidarity Ireland invite you to join them in calling for the removal of American and other international occupation troops from Haiti with a picket of the American embassy in Dublin on February 25 from 6-7pm.Event date and time: Thu, 2010-02-25 18:00 - 19:00 The protest will also call for the right of ordinary Haitians to control the reconstruction of their country, against the interventions of imperial powers and the brutal repression of a colluding domestic political and business elite. The picket is part of an international day of action which will see solidarity actions take place in over a hundred cities around the world. It has been called by a coalition of Haitian grassroots organisations and trade unions, including Fanmi Lavalas, the country's most popular political party, which has been illegalised and persecuted by the Haitian government. Haiti Solidarity Ireland is a broad-based coalition to support Haitians in their struggle against foreign intervention and for an inclusive, democratic and equitable Haiti. We are organised on the principles of international solidarity and anti-imperialism and have branches in Cork and Dublin. We call for the immediate departure of international troops from Haiti, and for aid and reconstruction efforts to be controlled by Haitians themselves through their unions and community organisations.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line121
__label__wiki	0.838675	0.838675	Local band has Cal State East Bay influence Daniel McGuire, When I walked into Jupiter Pizza in Berkeley, it looked like a small, underwhelming restaurant. However, inside was a spacious venue and a large outdoor section accompanied by a stage for live music. The rustic setting was accompanied by the sounds of the West Grand Brass Band. With half of its members holding performance or composition degrees from Cal State East Bay, they often spend their time playing at local farmers markets in Hayward and Oakland as well as at restaurants and on the streets of Berkeley and San Francisco. The sousaphonist held down the bass lines that acted as the foundation of many of their songs while the drums, alto saxophone, trumpet, tenor and bass trombones filled the remaining parts of the jazz standards or music arranged by members of the band. The trumpet player cracked jokes and introduced their songs while the other members of the band danced while they played, adding to the energetic environment. The West Grand Brass Band was formed when a number of members were approached by the samba troupe the Hot Pink Feathers to perform at a carnival parade. Afterward the members decided it would be fun to busk at the 2015 Golden State Warriors championship parade and continued to seek out venues to perform at, according to band leader and alto saxophonist Matt Couzens. The band consists of six members, all who have different types of degrees in music, some with emphasis on composition and arranging, while others are music minors. Three have degrees from CSUEB while the rest acquired them from UC Berkeley, SFSU, Chico State and Gonzaga. Couzens, the band’s alto saxophonist, has a jazz studies degree from Sonoma State University and is one of three members with an emphasis on composition. In the West Grand Brass Band, he uses his degree knowledge to arrange many different popular songs that fit the band’s instruments. Although all current members are considered original founders, bass trombonist Noah Ortiz, with a music degree from CSUEB, was one of the three members that performed at the 2015 Warriors parade, which he described as “the very first iteration of WGBB.” Jeffrey Miller, a CSUEB music theory and composition instructor, called Ortiz “one of the best of our recent graduates in trombone.” Sousaphonist Jordan Nadell has experience playing in a brass band from his time at Chico State where he studied performance for three years. Paired with his composition degree from CSUEB and his recording arts studies education from SFSU, Nadell has the ability to arrange music for the WGBB. Miller also described Nadell as “one of the most talented composers I’ve taught at CSUEB, and wrote excellent pieces for band, string quartet and brass ensemble.” Drummer Thomas Dreiman has a bachelor’s degree from CSUEB in music with an emphasis in percussion performance and composition. CSUEB percussion instructor Artie Storch described Dreiman as a “thinking man’s drummer… [giving] thought as to what kind of sound is best, where it belongs, and whether it serves the intent of the piece in question.” Tenor Trombonist Chris Lundeen, who has a jazz studies minor, was asked to sub for an absent band member and enjoyed it so much he decided to continue as a regular member. Trumpet player Adam Borden, with a music minor from UC Berkeley was invited by a long time friend to come to a jam session that ended up being more of an audition, according to Borden. He joined the band after being asked shortly after the jam session. He teaches and fixes instruments at the Music Time Academy in Livermore, and plans on being a member of the band as long as he is welcome because “now is the right time for a band like this, one with a good mix of jazz, pop, and funk,” Borden said. “It is contemporary without giving away any soul.” West Grand Brass Band	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line122
__label__cc	0.60074	0.39926	Interview with Kazım Akşar 1. How did your interest in the theater, one of the deepest branches of the art, begin? My interest in theater started in 1969 BC. Seriously, it began with entering in Radio Children time in 1969. At that time, I was at high school, and was taking examinations. Indeed, with another friend, we started it for a little fun; my friend was even more eager than me; but he did not win, I won. I began and I liked it very much. There were, of course, theater artists working. I took them as role models; they came and practiced memorization, talked about plays, etc. Then, I started going to plays more often, it became like an infection, a disease. Radio Children time also had effect on me as a teacher. It is a club, its name was also Radio Children Club. I started with intonation, and then continued with mini plays. The play was played there already. Therefore, acting was like a disease that spread in me. 2. You were sent to United Kingdom by the state for education. How did it happen? I wanted to go. It happened as follows – here comes a little gossip – I saw some teachers in the theater studying in a very old fashioned way, in templates. I did not like that study. I thought that I should study something different, but I did not know what it was; I was also too young. Because everybody in Turkey worked like each other, I thought that the best method should be a place beyond these borders. United Kingdom came into my mind as the best place, also I had language infrastructure. In fact, I told this reason also to general manager, in other words, I gossipped “I think some directors usually work wrong, but if you ask what the correct one is, I actually do not know. So I want to learn.” I said. They sent me for maximum one year; from three months to six months onto a year. But it was not enough. You need to build up a connection before going there. I have to thank Haldun Dormen for that matter. I met with Haldun Dormen at that time. I told him that I wanted to go the United Kingdom, but did not know what to do. I could not go to school, because I had graduated. He told me that the best school was actually a theater and The National Theatre was there. “The director of the National Theater is Peter Hall, I know him. I will get into contact with him, and go” Haldun Dormen said. Indeed, we talked, wrote and phoned, etc. They understood and accepted. When I arrived there, Peter Hall was working on a play, a modern one. I worked as his assistant in the beginning. Of course, I was not the one doing his work, but the one watching and observing. I gained great experience in there. For example Judith Dench, who is very famous, played in there. She was not so famous in cinema at that time. How an actor is directed, how the decor becomes united with the play, how the text of the play is told to the actors, what is workshop; we had heard of them at the time in Turkey- but a new world had opened up to me. Then, Peter Hall was going to leave the theater and wanted to stage a last play. He wanted to stage three late period Shakespearian plays together. We cannot envisage such a thing, but his assistants were directors anyhow. He would go from floor to floor and give them directives, and I would walk around him like a mouse, learning how to stage Shakespeare, how to explain, how to express the sentences of that period. They don’t believe in ‘modernising’, neither do I; you cannot play Macbeth wearing jeans. I noted everything down, I look at my notes now – they are so detailed; ‘’he did this, he refused that, he flew at that point…’’ Of course, when the state sends you, they filter it back from you. They send you for a year and ask three years of obligatory work in return. I had no choice of staying more. I really wanted to, but one has to pay back double the amount of money spent on me back. I could not afford that and returned and never went back afterwards. 3. So how much did your family helped you when these were happening? None. Not on this stage. When I was about to get into drama college, my father did not want it. He also said that he will refuse it when it becomes serious. So I started another university. You don’t have to go to university those days. It wasn’t like today. I was studying and working at a bank also. Working in a bank wasn’t exactly my type of a job. At the end, I said “No way!”. I could stand for it just for ten months. At the end of the tenth month, I threw the type writer, not towards the manager, I understood that I won’t have a future in this job. I thought that I would definitely kill the manager. I did not have any problems with the manager but I had problems with my job. I thought that I would be an alcholic, fight with my wife and kill my son. I would do any bad thing and I would appear in the 3rd pages of every newspaper. That is why I denied my father’s opinion and he did not talk to me for three years. I had already won my boarding rights but my father did not give his permission. Thankfully I was getting the news from my mother. I was obliged to stay at home. Later on, he started to talk to me when he saw me everyday. However, I was like a ghost, like Casper. I was invisible. 4. Where do you see Turkey’s position in theatre? Actresses and actors are displaying a perfect performance. We need to match this perfomance with the text and the director. However we cannot accomplish this task technically. The world is going in a different way and we need to catch this way. We need to observe the worlds’ view and their impression. This can only happen with text but the texts do not allow us to to keep up with the world. The texts are out of date, they are insufficient. Also the texts which comes from different countries are not adequate too. When we compare these days with the past, we can clearly see the huge difference. Today we can receive a lot of texts by email. In the past when we found a text which came from a foreign country we would feel like we had found gold. Now, it’s as if it is sold on the streets, we find it every where. But good texts don’t exsist abroad either. In fact, there is a general problem with creativty. Of course I am not saying anything for the classics; they keep their place; but we should give proper advice. We should play the classics, they should be a part of theatre; but we need to start using our creativity too. I think that there is a parallel between global warming and mental warming! When you don’t have a proper text you dont have too much to do. Science has advanced a lot in this century. But art and music and literature has become very shallow. 4.1 Do you think that theatre has come to a halt or is regressing? Halt yes, but we cannot say that it is regressing. If we continue like this, however, and if what is being told about the eclipse of 2012 does not come true, it will halt! 5. Do you think theater is getting sufficient attention from the audience? I truly find it quite surprising that they are still coming. In spite of all the things that happen they are obstinately coming ! There are some prejudices such as, ‘’the audience likes to see comedy only’’, however, in reality the audience goes to watch tragedy knowing perfectly well what it implies; even if it is a heavy play there are some sentences that scream to them and they are there to see it. It is also wrong that national theater halls are filled with people due to the low prices of the plays. Would anyone go somewhere just because it is cheap? You go out of home, you go all that way, if you go with three people you will pay 30 liras, is that cheap? If they can afford this, it means they are interested and they like the theaters that have different opinions. The audience is still enthusiastic. That is why writers should stop worrying about the audience. Another reason why directors are stuck is that they are doing a job that is based on money. I want to create a world where money has no importance. If a play needs a train coming onto the stage, I would do it. I would make the sound of the train come on stage. For example, if we are playing Anna Karenina and she is committing suicide under a train, I would give that to the spectator through her scream, through the sound of the train, through the music and the suicide would come alive. Wouldn’t that be nice to see? Ofcourse, theater budgets do count. That is why the state, instead of giving away money to arms, wars or people they know, they should give it to science and art. As an artist, if you ask me what you believe in on the world, it is science and art; and as a consequence, peace and nothing else. 6. Could you please share with us a memory of you that made you laugh the most, made you think the most or a memory that you will never forget? I was playing Atatürk in Ankara National Theater when this happened to me. I think it was the first semester. By the way I was constantly going back and forth to Istanbul for filming tv shows. I was really busy. Of course the role is very hard, when it is about Atatürk, all about Atatürk, he talks a lot and I cant memorize the lines very easily. I am going back and forth with trains that contain beds, when I go to a restaurant I encounter a friend, we talk, we stay up till the morning in there, that’s why, that day, I had preferred going directly to my compartment. I put down the book, looked out of the window, the train is moving slowly. First I start to memorize by myself. ‘’ The enemies will immediately abandon Meriç, go to the west of Sakarya.’’ While I was practicing my tone, my voice had risen. I am saving the country. At that moment I saw the ticket inspector looking at me with frightened eyes. He doesn’t understand, he doesn’t see the book either, even if he had he wouldn’t have understood. He thinks here is a person who thinks he is Atatürk and is saving the country, he is obviously crazy.  He didn’t open the door completely, he showed his nose, ‘’Would you like to have something?’’ he said, ‘’Tea.’’ I answered. He brought it but he gave it to me frightenedly and sneaked away. In the next days we finished filming the tv show and I am going back to Ankara, I am travelling with train that contains beds again. There they are, conductors are waiting for us, all gathered. When they saw me they smiled, I forgot about this thing. Usually conductors never laugh, they are grumpy, you can’t understand if you are on a train with beds or on a torture train. But here they were standing in a line and smiling for the first time. It couldn’t have been because I was famous because the tv show had just started and these were the first shows in Turkey. I understood what was going on, went to my compartment, put my book on the table and waited. When the door rang I was quiet. Somebody asked ‘’Would you like to have something?’’, ‘’Tea’’ I said. ‘’You saved the country my general.’’ he said. I stayed as the madman of the trains ! 6.1 Were there any funny moments when you did voice overs? Doing the voice overs of cartoons is pretty funny obviously. But what I find especially funny is people, whom we know as extremely serious, even grumpy, come and do the voice over of some animals, to chirp like little birds; they say ‘’tweet tweet’’ and then wear their coats and leave the studio as serious and grumpy as before. I’ve never doen Yeşilçam voice overs, I’ve never wanted to give my voice to those, I’ve worked for my own roles, or cartoons or radio. 7. What is your advice to young actors ? I always say this in my acting lessons; 1.Don’t act! Go out, just stay on the stage, just “stay” 2.Just “look”. Look and “see” what you’re looking. 3.After those “hear”. Hear and “undertand” Thats the only thing that I study with them and they can’t do it very easily. They don’t know what to do when I tell them to see something. I’m looking to a point in space right now and seeing a piece of metal. I’m seeing this metal. I’m literally seeing every detail and curve on the metal. An actor on stage should be able to see this very well. If he can see it than the spectator can too. If he can hear it well, the spectator can hear it too. Standing for example doesn’t mean only reclining to a wall with hands in your pocket or sitting down. Stand, just stand in the middle. That’s a very difficult thing to do. People can’t stand still. When I say stand people start to fidget, shoulders move, the back curves, funny things happen to the body. Standing still is not easy. “How will I stand?” First you need to know how to stand on stage, then start to speak. Eveybody wants to start by doing something, start to speak, laugh, cry immediately. That would’ve been easy but you first need to stand still. Let’s first see how you will stand, then how Hamlet stands, then how Hamlet would speak. Until human beings started to speak, humans used body language to get along. In one look they were able to tell the other that a bear was coming and that they were in danger. They didn’t use sentences. They never said “look, a lion is coming”; they moved their hands and looked fearfull. They acted well. The most important thing is not to do “as if”, not to move ridiculously, not to be a silly monkey. Or not to become a parrot who repeates everything. I start with these lessons and the ones that can do it, can play Lady Macbeth. It’s much harder in movies or tv series. For example, yesterday night the director said to me “Please be a bit more cool in this scene.” “What is cool? How do you become cool?” the character is a lawyer in my ages. This lawyer should be “cool” and attract that woman, and this should be very natural. When the camera is on your face, that’s when you understand how hard acting is. You want to do it with feeling. For example, they told me to get angry in a play. A small mimic is nothing in theather, it also doesn’t seem like a lot in cinema, but not true; in cinema that mimic appears as a big motion and gives a very big impression. That’s why cinema teaches you to be natural, to be a human being and act normal. Feel the feeling inside yourself. That’s the main thing that all of us, including me, is trying to learn. Interview with Kazım Akşar, 10.0 out of 10 based on 3 ratings Mart 2, 2011 By Rahime Ismetova MustafovaCoffee Break February 2011 Interviews Issues Professional Standards of JournalismAçı Leaks: February 2011 Hammer Müzik – Enis Kızılkaya Röportaj Turtles All The Way Down: A Novel By John Green	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line123
__label__cc	0.6944	0.3056	Harvesting and Using Quince Harvesting Quince Gardeners in areas with long hot summers should allow the fruits to ripen on the plant. Elsewhere, these should be picked before the first frost. Storing Quince Unlike soft fruits, quince is suitable for storing. These can be refrigerated for two to three months. If refrigeration isn’t available, other cool, dry, dark storage areas are suitable. After these fruits are cooked, these can be stored in the refrigerator for three weeks. Using Quince Depending on how the fruits will be prepared, quince may not need peeling. When they’re cooked, the peel easily slips off and is easy to remove from the pulp. As the fruits cook, they turn a beautiful pink. Some cooks like to add some quince when making applesauce just for the lovely color. Basically, these versatile fruits can be used in the same way as apples. They’re often combined with apples as well. These can be made into marmalades, preserves, jams, jellies, fruit butters, conserves, syrup, chutney, and candy. These are so high in pectin that they were once used as a source of pectin before this was commercially available. The Greeks and Romans were some of the first to preserve quince. They preserved the fresh raw fruits in honey, and sometimes added vinegar and spices to the mixture. Later, the Europeans modified the preserves by first cooking the fruit, and the result was the discovery of the pectin that is released during cooking. One of the traditional uses for quince is for quince paste. This classic dish is served with cheese in Europe. France was famous for its molded quince paste. In Britain, this was served with partridge. Quince paste was also popular in Spain where it was called membrillo. This paste was also popular among the Pennsylvania Dutch. Quince is also good for various types of drinks, such as liquors, distilled beverages, wine, and juice. The fruits are also baked, pickled, stewed, and stuffed. These are sometimes added to stuffing and compote. The fruits are perfect for ice cream as well as for various baked goods, such as pies, cobblers, crisps, tarts, and coffee cake. Quince is excelled as an accompaniment for poultry and meat. Arabs served quince with meat. Quince was an important ingredient in Turkish and Persian cuisine. Persian recipes for quince included ones for quince stewed with meat. Quince was also popular in Greece, Morocco, and Eastern Europe. Some Europeans consumed some quince dishes, such as preserves, for medicinal purposes. The ancient Greeks ate both fresh and dried quince. Some of the newer Russian quince varieties bear fruits that are tender and sweet enough to eat raw. In some cases, Smyrna quinces can also become soft and sweet enough to eat fresh after being stored for awhile. But, in general for most varieties, the fruits are most often eaten cooked. Uses for Quince Seeds In Iraq the seeds are crushed and cooked to make a drink. The gum from the seeds is used as a thickener in ice cream and also for medicinal purposes. The seeds are also used to treat sore throats.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line134
__label__cc	0.727649	0.272351	Sample Pages of My New Book McFarland has posted sample pages of my new book on their website. You can check them out here. You can read sample pages of my first book here. Posted by Brett at 6:32 PM No comments: Classic Game Fest 2009 -- Austin, TX Friday, July, 31st, while my family gets the house ready for my son's 13th (gasp!) birthday party, I'll be doing a book signing at Game Over Video Games for Classic Game Fest 2009, a fun-filled event featuring a Dr. Mario Tournament, a costume contest, a screening of the Super Mario Bros. movie, and more. For more info, check out Game Over Video Games. For a look at pics from the last autographing I did at Game Over, check out this previous post. (BTW, I'll be home in time for the actual birthday party, Ryan, so don't worry.) Posted by Brett at 8:22 AM No comments: The other day, after returning home from a trip to Galveston (where I had a great time with the family, swimming, wakeboarding, and building sand castles), I was pleased to discover these two magazines in the mail. Video Game Trader #13, which published my Super-Hero article as their cover feature. And McFarland's Fall 2009 Catalogue, which includes listings/descriptions of hundreds of new books from my publisher. I was surprised to find my book featured on the back cover. Freelance Writing Opportunity for Gamers Digital Press is looking for non-fiction video game stories for a new book. Here is the information from Rob Strangman: One of the most popular parts of the various Digital Press Guides is the LORE section. And one question that's been asked over the years is "will there ever be a book consisting solely of LORE stories?" Until now, though, there has not been a concrete answer.Today, I'm happy to announce that the answer is in fact yes. Joe and I have been discussing the particulars, and we're ready to start taking submissions. This is where you come in. Anyone interested in contributing a story to be published in the book feel free to submit it to gradiusone@yahoo.com with the subject heading "DP LORE Book Entry". The deadline for all submissions is September 20, 2009. There is no scheduled release date yet, but you can expect that to be announced in the near future. Here are some basic rules: You write up a non-fictional account of some gaming moment, memory, event, or recollection, then send it to me. This post should be in essay form (we will help with the editing) and most importantly should be as ENTERTAINING as possible. It doesn't necessarily have to be funny - but intrigue makes for good reading, and good reading increases the chance that you'll be published. Your story can be as long as you'd like but in the past we've always preferred stories that take up less than a full page in 10pt text. Grammar, spelling, editing all count but we will assist. It just gets you points if the thing is written well because that means it reads well right out of the gate. We ask that your story be truthful. You can embellish, of course, but wildly unbelieveable stories are usually cast aside. I'm looking forward to reading what you send in! Good luck! Classic Home Video Games 1985-1988 - NOW AVAILABLE! For ordering information, click on the following link: Classic Home Video Games 1985-1988 Here's a description of the book: Introduced by Bill “The Game Doctor” Kunkel, one of the most important figures in all of classic gaming, Classic Home Video Games 1985-1988 contains detailed descriptions/reviews of every U.S.-released game for the Nintendo NES, one of the best, most popular video game systems ever produced. The book also contains detailed descriptions/reviews of every U.S.-released game for the Atari 7800 (revised, expanded, and updated from Vol. 1) and the Sega Master System, both of which maintain a loyal fan base to this day.Organized alphabetically by console brand, each chapter in this book includes a description of the game system, followed by substantive, literate, fun-to-read entries (most 125-185 words in length) for every game released for that console, regardless of when the game was produced (meaning hundreds of games are covered). Each video game entry includes publisher/developer data and the release year, along with gameplay information and, usually, the author’s critique. A glossary provides a helpful guide to the classic video game genres and terms referenced throughout the work, and a preface provides a look at the industry at the time (and how it relates to gaming today), along with anecdotes from the author, a full-time writer who has been a devoted gamer and game collector since the days of Pong, Pitfall!, and Pac-Man. Classic Home Video Games 1985-1988, which is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Classic Home Video Games, 1972-1984, also contains photos, historical information, and comparisons to arcade classics, computer games, and similar games for other consoles. Aimed at hardcore gamers, casual fans, and pop culture scholars alike, Classic Home Video Games 1985-1988 is must-reading for anyone interested in the history of the industry and the playability of its games, namely that fondly remembered era that gave us the Atari 7800, the Sega Master System, and the Nintendo NES. Posted by Brett at 11:22 PM No comments: Comics Buyer's Guide #1657. Where I review: Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1 $2.99, color, 32 pgs. Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artist: Sean Chen Grade: 3 Stars (out of 4) Mostly setup for the next four installments, this issue takes place in the aftermath of such “events” as Civil War, Illuminati, and Secret Invasion, with Reed Richards blaming himself for all that has gone wrong in the world. To make things right, he has constructed a “bridge,” which lets him observe other earths in order to see how they have solved various problems. Adding to the drama is an attack on the Baxter Building by H.A.M.M.E.R. Agents, who are soldiers in the employ of the recently empowered Norman Osborn. Jonathan Hickman, slated to follow Mark Millar on the ongoing Fantastic Four title, appears to “get” the family dynamic and personalities of the FF. Reed feels obligated to use his smarts to make the world a better place; Sue worries over Reed, but shows leadership skills of her own; Johnny feels lost without his little black book; and Ben acts gruffly, but is a good friend. Sean Chen provides semi-capable art—the sci-fi machinery is sleekly designed, but the characters, though recognizable, exhibit odd facial expressions. Drive-In Movie Manor While vacationing recently with my family, we saw some amazing sights (Pike's Peak, the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, etc.), but one of the more esoteric things we did was visit the Best Western Movie Manor, in Monte Vista, Colorado. The kids were dying to see Drag Me to Hell, but Mom preferred Night at the Museum 2, so guess who won out? If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. We stayed in the Charlton Heston room, which was cool since he's in some of my favorite films. This was the view from our room (where you can see and hear the film being played), but we chose to watch the movie the old fashioned way: from our car. The History of Kelloff's Movie Manor (click on the photo for a closer look). Prior to the screening of the film, we had time to play on the sturdy steel playground, which was built in 1960. ScrewAttack Game Convention This weekend, I attended the ScrewAttack Game Convention, which was at a hotel near the DFW Airport. While there, I met some really cool people, had a few laughs, heard some interesting talks, and sold a bunch of books. Atari founder and Pong mastermind Nolan Bushnell delivered the keynote speech (which was funny and informative), and he was kind enough to pose for this picture. Nolan gets a visit from yuckmeister Keith Apicary. Crazy Keith kept people in stitches the entire weekend. Keith organized a you-had-to-be-there game of human Duck Hunt. Sonic the Hedgehog keepin' it real. The obligatory Rock Band jam session. The only really big disappointment of the show was the dealer's room, which was very small. Only two vendors were actually selling video games. Others had miniatures, plush toys, sign-up forms, and such. (The show could have also used an auction, a swap meet, more consoles set up for play, more panels, and a larger arcade). Political activist and former lawyer Jack Thompson was on hand to discuss violence in video games. He was a good sport, taking questions from the crowd and explaining his viewpoint with intelligence and, frequently, humor. Thanks to the ScrewAttack staff for putting on a fun, funny, and even educational show. Posted by Brett at 7:50 PM 1 comment: Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave I went to my beloved niece's wedding over the weekend, where I ran into comic book artist Kerry Gammill (he's been a friend of my sister's family for years), who's got a new project in the works: Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave, a horror anthology series slated for some time in 2010. It was fun talking movies and comics with Kerry, who I see from time to time at conventions and various family gatherings (birthdays, anniversaries, and whatnot). Me, Kerry, and Kerry's lovely wife, Susan.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line136
__label__wiki	0.64893	0.64893	Compulsive Reader Reviews of books by some of the hottest writers working today, exclusive author interviews, literary news and criticism. About Compulsive Reader Magdalena’s website Magdalena’s Blog A review of Russians Versus Fischer by Dmitry Plisetsky and Sergey Voronkov Reviewed by Paul Kane Russians Versus Fischer Dmitry Plisetsky and Sergey Voronkov September 2005, ISBN 1857443802, Format Hardcover, 462 pages This fascinating book presents a unique perspective on the chess career of Bobby Fischer, and includes some marvelous material. It contains, first and foremost, all the games (there are 158 in total) that Fischer played against Soviet opposition. (The “Russians” of the title is something of a misnomer, by the way, for many of the best Soviet players were not Russian: Mikhail Tal was Latvian, Tigran Petrosian was Armenian, Paul Keres was Estonian, and so on.) Moreover, as can be imagined, the vast majority of these games – many of which are annotated – are of an exceptionally high quality. The book also contains detailed accounts of all the tournaments and matches where Fischer fought against Soviet players. The first such was a tournament held at Portoroz in 1958: Bobby was then a boy of 15, but already the best player in America; he had won the U.S. Championship the previous year (becoming champion of a country he now condemns) and would continue to win it, whenever he competed in it. The last serious competitive event included here is the world championship match Fischer played against Boris Spassky at Reykjavik in 1972, the one that everyone remembers. By defeating Spassky, Fischer became the eleventh world champion; and then he stopped playing, seemingly for good. (In 1992, after an absence of 20 years, Fischer returned to play a further match with Spassky. An account of this match is also included in the book, though this was not, to be frank, a serious competition. Both players were, by then, well past their best.) What is so extraordinary about Russians Versus Fischer, though, is the way in which it uses a myriad of till-now confidential documents from the archives of the USSR Chess Federation and the Soviet Sports Committee, many of them dating from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, to tell the story of Fischer’s rise from a Soviet perspective; i.e. from the viewpoint of those who had most to lose from it. Two research reports are of especial interest: “An Analysis of Fischer’s Play” and “All Hands on Deck!” The latter was a report compiled for Spassky’s benefit, an evaluation of Fischer’s strengths and weaknesses by the leading Soviet players of the day. There was a hope that such analyses would enable Spassky to keep the world championship in the Soviet Union’s hands. Alas, all was futile in the face of Fischer’s strength! Mark Taimanov’s despairing description of what it was like to face Fischer as an opponent comes to mind here: “He is a kind of wall, which moves inexorably towards you, a wall in which there are no cracks at which you can fire.” Indeed: Bobby beat Taimanov 6-0 in their 1971 match. In many ways, the story told here is a kind of fable: An Empire (the Soviet Union) hears tell of a Prince in a distant land (Fischer), whose powers somehow threaten its existence (for the Soviets used their chess dominance as a propaganda tool). The Prince succeeds, but only for a brief time: Fischer reigned for only 3 years, resigning his world title in 1975, and was succeeded by Anatoly Karpov. The Prince destroys himself and is vanquished. Is the Empire now fine, still prosperous and intact? Well, in a way. Yet there is a lingering feeling of impoverishment, of a significant absence. Life is elsewhere – wherever Fischer is. If this seems overly fanciful, consider for a moment Karpov’s fate. After he became world champion, Karpov tried to arrange a match with Fischer. Once, he was close to succeeding, but Soviet officials absolutely prohibited it. They wanted Fischer out of the picture for good. Here are Karpov’s thoughts in retrospect: It is hard to describe the feeling I experienced, when I realized that there would be no match with Fischer. I felt a sense of loss … Some kind of a vacuum opened up in my life. It did not cause me pain, but a great deal of time passed before I was able to overcome that feeling of regret. I realized that the most vivid thing that could have happened in my life would not take place. (424) This book recounts what is, in many respects, a tale of irresistible triumph and success. It tells how Bobby Fischer, for many the strongest chess player in history, won the world championship at age 29 and, as some would see it, fulfilled his destiny. Yet considering what came after, the presentiments of which can be read here as well (for shadows there undoubtedly were, before the darkness came), a final elegiac note is unavoidable. Yuri Averbakh, still a big cheese on the Russian chess scene, says this: It has long been established statistically that a chess player is at his best between the age of 30 to 40. As a rule, it is at that age that grandmasters achieve their best results. And, of course, it is very sad that the world’s foremost player of the early 1970s, a player of scintillating and original talent, voluntarily crossed these years out of his chess life and did not make use of the gift that nature had bestowed upon him. Sad as this may be, time lost cannot be recovered! (427) Set against many now quite common, everyday occurrences – a suicide bombing, the death of a child – this is a small tragedy. But for those who care about chess, it is a tragedy nonetheless. Russians Versus Fischer is a superb book and is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the chess world during the period of Fischer’s rise. Dmitry Plisetsky and Sergey Voronkov should be congratulated and commended for making these documents available to a wider public, as should Everyman Chess for producing such a handsome hardback. About the reviewer: Paul Kane lives and works in Manchester, England. He welcomes responses to his reviews and can be contacted at pkane853@yahoo.co.uk Tags: chess ← A review of Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope Tradition and Conscience: Painter Kerry James Marshall’s Colorful Narratives → Sign up for Compulsive Reader News What’s new here, the latest literary news, plus fresh giveaways every month. Sent out just once a month, for free. A powerful political novel ripped from the headlines and wrapped in a love story. 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__label__wiki	0.658983	0.658983	Marginal thinking: The office of the dead The text is introduced by a picture of the mass for the dead. A burial scene introduces the text. One of the sections in the books of hours was the Office of the Dead, Officium Mortuorum, Officium Defunctorum or Vigiliae mortuorum. The Office of the Dead was located towards the end of the book, just as Death comes towards the end of life. The rest of the book — after the Office of the Dead — was dedicated to intercessory prayers — known as "suffrages" — to sundry saints, the identity of which would vary depending on the region where this particular book had been produced. The Office of the Dead was different from the other sections, not only because of its size, but also by being authorized liturgy. While the rest of the book of hours consisted of prayers that a good Christian might say to himself at the different hours, the Office of the Dead contained the actual text that the choir and the congregation would follow in the church, whether it was for all dead people at All Souls' Day or for a specific funeral. When one leafs through a book of hours, one can often locate the Office of the Dead by the illustration that introduces the section. One typical illustration is the very mass for which the text was intended (picture to the left). Another possibility was to depict the burial that would follow the mass (picture to the right). This picture also shows another identifying mark, namely the big "P" in "Placebo". The congregation's first reply to the choir (antiphon) was from Psalm 116 (114 in the Septuagint tradition), »Placebo Domino in regione vivorum«, I shall please the LORD in the region of the living. Death attacks a young couple. Death attacks two women. Another popular category might be labeled "The Triumph of Death" or "Death personified". The theme could be varied endlessly, but the common denominator was Death attacking unsuspecting people, often armed with a giant dart, as seen on the pictures to the left and right. To the right Death attacks two women standing close to a dead king. Death comes riding on a bull. Death comes riding on a bull The personified Death is often portrayed riding on a bull with his long dart in hand. The ox moves like Death: Slowly, but unstoppably. When the artists of the time illustrated Petrarch's six Trionfi, the chariot of Death would often be driven by oxen trampling down people in their path. We shall return to that. BOok of hours: Death attacks a young mand Death attacks "Everyman". In many cases it's a only a single young man who is being attacked by Death with his dart. In these cases the theme is very similar to the story of "Everyman". The image to the left is from a book of hours, while the image to the right is from a Dutch book: »Den spieghel der salicheit van Elckerlijc«, "The Mirror of Everyman's Salvation". One book was printed in Utrecht by Gerard Leeu, while the other was used by Govaert Bac of Antwerp. Two different books in two different cities, and yet the two woodcuts are almost identical. This image can be found even as far away as in Trondheim, Norway. Job and his three friends Death attacks a young man Besides the Psalms, the Office of the Dead also contained quotes from the Book of Job. The story about the naked Job sitting on the dunghill covered with boils and regretting he was ever born, gave associations to the dead being tormented in Purgatory. The same holds true for the dance of death in Basel, which also started with Job's comfort in chapter 19. Therefore the picture of Job debating his three friends (and being scolded by his wife) is a very popular motive too (picture to the left). These motives could be combined. To the right we once again have Death attacking "Everyman", while Job is sitting in the background with his friends and wife. Job and The Triumph of Death Here are two more examples of this particular combination. Lazarus the beggar Another popular motive was Lazarus the beggar. Lazarus is the only person in the Bible, who experiences the afterlife where he gets to rock in the bosom of Abraham. These two pictures show Lazarus at the table of the rich man. To the left is a version in black and white and in a good resolution, to the right is a version in color. On both copies the dance of death starts in the margin with pope, emperor and cardinal.(1) This motive is often used, but sometimes it is labeled "David and Bathsheba's wedding". The mistake is understandable since the section immediately preceding the Office of the Dead (often) was the Seven Penitential Psalms of David, and this section would often be illustrated by one or more pictures of David watching Bathsheba in the bath, David sending Uriah off to the battle, and Uriah being killed. Nevertheless there cannot be any doubt. When the picture shows a dog licking the beggar's wounds this is clearly an allusion to Lazarus: »a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, […] moreover the dogs came and licked his sores« (Luke 16:20-21). In the background — through the window — one can see Lazarus lying on the ground next to his beggar's bowl. Is he sleeping or dead? In one version of this image an angel picks up his soul. Jesus resurrects Lazarus The funny part about the Bible is that there are two persons named Lazarus in The New Testament, who both have an experience after being dead. The other Lazarus is Jesus' beloved friend whom Jesus resurrected from the dead. This motive was obviously also very applicable to introduce the mass for the dead and to give hope about the resurrection. The three living The three dead The final genre we'll look at is the popular story about the three living meeting the three dead and a hermit. The story exists in many variants: Sometimes the three living are from three different ranks, and they meet their dead counterparts (example here). Other times its three lay people meeting three dead ecclesiastics. Still other times the three dead are in various stages of decomposition. The version that's used again and again in the books of hours is the same version that Guy Marchant had printed in his books after the section with la Danse Macabre: Three young noblemen meet three generic dead (see Marchant's woodcuts here: the three living and the three dead). The text to the left says: "Ad Vesperas", because the mass for the dead consisted of three hours: Vesper (sunset), matins (3 in the morning), and laudes (sunrise). The three dead. With dog. Here's a very similar version. A curious detail is the dog on the picture to the right, which clearly shows its disgust. The moral remains the same in all the stories: "What you are, we were; what we are, you shall soon become". The three living flees from the dead. This means they'll have a chance to repent and change their wicked ways — as opposed to the dances of death from which there is no escape. But it must be pointed out again, that there is no text to accompany these illustrations. No matter how different and spirited they may be, the only text in the book (outside the calendars) is the prayers of the various hours. Pictures, including the vignettes, live their own separate lives and don't influence the main book, just like the marginals in Mad Magazine. The text to the left says. »Sequuntur vigilie mortuorum« ("now follows the vigil for the dead"), »ad Vesperas« (evening prayer), »antiphona« (the congregation's reply to the choir), »placebo«: the first word in Psalm 116:9 (114:9 in the Septuagint tradition), "I shall please". The text to the right begins, »Dilexi, quoniam exaudiet Dominus«, which is the beginning of the same Psalm (116/114). This particular version was often used by Thielman Kerver. For more examples, see images tagged with Office of the dead and The three living and three dead. The rest of this section will concentrate on the borders and dances of death: Dancing on the edge. The next chapter in this series is about Dances of death in the margins. Footnotes: (1) I introduced the subject by stating that these marginals have no connection with the rest of the contents, but one of the very few exceptions is that the dance of death in the margin — if there is one — is placed in the Office of the Dead. But this exception is not enforced by Hardouyn, who distributes La Vie de l'Homme all over the book. The dance of death Marginals The office of the dead	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line141
__label__wiki	0.670154	0.670154	Light beams offer bright future for lighter-weight cars Beams of light could one day replace the jumble of wires under a car bonnet, leading to lighter-weight and more fuel-efficient vehicles. University of Warwick scientists are pioneering research into optical wireless – where data signals travel through light – and its use in cars. Their research was presented at the recent International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks held at the University. Optical wireless can use just a basic LED, such as those used in torches, to send data. In situations where it’s best for the beam to be invisible, infrared light can be used instead. While optical wireless has been explored for use in aviation for some time, scientists in the University of Warwick’s Department of Engineering are leading the way globally in terms of its use in private vehicles. Inside a car, it can be used to communicate between parts inside the engine compartment, such as between temperature sensors and the engine management system, or between the brakes and the vehicle speed control systems. In addition it can be installed into the overhead lights above the passenger seats to send multimedia content for in-car entertainment. The major advantage of optical wireless is the weight of wiring it can cut out of cars, which translates into significant fuel savings over the lifetime of a vehicle. But it also reduces manufacturing costs, as LED and infrared light sources are not expensive to make, and cuts back on the expense of maintaining and repairing wires. Also, unlike radio frequency communications, which suffer from a congested bandwidth, optical wireless benefits from an unlimited and unregulated spectrum. Combined, all these factors spell significant advantages over the current systems for in-car data which, in the engine, are generally copper wire-based or carbon fibre systems. Radio frequency signals are used for smartphones, for hands-free headsets for the driver and passengers and for multimedia related applications such tablet PCs. Professor Roger Green said: “Optical wireless is relatively unknown at the moment. But it’s not hard to imagine a day when passengers can watch TV streamed through a beam coming from their overhead light, or when parts of the engine can ‘talk’ to each other without wires. We believe that this technology is poised to come into its own - not least because of the potential fuel savings to be gained from taking weight out of a car. “Removing that weight could translate into lower fuel costs over the life of a vehicle. It is also cheap to install as it can use a simple LED light source which are being mass produced at the moment. And it has other benefits such as its lack of electromagnetic interference and the fact that, unlike the overcrowded radio spectrum which we use for much of our data communications, optical wireless is unlimited by the technical and regulatory bandwidth limitations which exist for radio signals.” A complete RFID system in a compact housing from ifm(22/04/2020) Diagnostics made easy!(23/01/2019) IO-Link by Murrelektronik takes you there directly(04/07/2017) Efficient wiring for complex machines(28/02/2016)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line142
__label__cc	0.725184	0.274816	13Jun/132 Ring of Fire (2013) In yet another sign of an incredibly slow week, here comes another made-for-TV movie that looks better than any of its DVD kin. We're jumping from the National Geographic Channel to Lifetime and trading a President I respect more than love to a musical legend I love more than respect. Unfortunately, the legend in question is not the ostensible focus of this film, Ring of Fire. Because for all the subtitle would have you believe this movie is not at all about the life of June Carter Cash. Here's the most straightforward approach to the film. If you know nothing about the lives of June Carter or Johnny Cash, the music that they produced, the hardships they plowed through, or the raw strength of their faith than this film will suit you just fine on a bored Sunday. None of the performances are bad, pass into the realm of ok at times, and you'll hear a number of excellent songs that are performed with great emotion if not exactly skill. That's about as positive as I can get about this film, but the rest of it doesn't deserve much scorn. Ring of Fire advertises itself as the story of June Carter Cash as "It's time for her side of the story." That would be great if we ended up getting her side of the story at all. Instead it seems just as slavishly devoted to the men in her life as any other fictionalized account of the Carter / Cash legacy. The first third of the film is filled with a lot of great music and little complication. We see young June Carter (Mary Steward Sullivan) as she travels around with her family performing their steadily popular gospel country hits. Her parents (Frances Conroy and Andy Stahl) dutifully tour their neighboring towns while making the time to appear at a radio station twice a day for years of their lives. I wasn't enthralled by these opening passages but I was interested. The only film I can think off the cuff that deals with a professional entertainment family dealing with the rigors of the road is Selena (home of the best over-emotional saxophone work ever recorded). I liked that the film took the time to, even in small shots, show just how stressful the life is on them. But, years pass in montage, and June Carter has become a glowing young woman with the stress of those early years barely affecting what is seen onscreen. See, Ring of Fire has the worst tendencies of the most mediocre biopics to gloss over the intimate details of the lives of its participants to make sure it hits every key moment. So most of the events that occur in the film are important only so long as they are onscreen and rarely ever have an effect afterward. This is most hilariously realized in a scene the creators probably did not intend as funny when elder mama Carter is called on by her daughter to sing one last time and then promptly dies some time later in the next cut. I know the death of mama Carter affected June deeply but you won't be able to pick that up from the film. From mama's death, to June's divorce, meeting Johnny Cash, starting a family, and any other milestone in the film there is no resonance carried between scenes. It's to the performers credit that there is at least some sense of emotion portrayed but it has nothing to do with the structure, which feels inclined to rip June from one low point in her life to the next. If the music weren't so chipper this would almost qualify for misery porn. The chemistry between this version of June and Johnny was lacking, and it's never more apparent than in the music scenes. That may seem a bit hyperbolic considering that Jewel Kilcher is in the cast as the elder June and, aside from her music video for Hands, hasn't really traipsed in unnecessary emotional pain too much. But the sequence of events of her life is edited together for pain instead of joy. It goes back to her divorce, then Johnny's pill addiction, mama's death, her son's disillusionment with his father, more pain. This might seem more transcendent if the film showed a soul rising above it all but June is a witness to the way everyone collapses around her instead of having a hand, either helping or hurting, in the events. The biggest failing of the film is that there were many times I wanted to stop the movie and listen to the albums, or revisit James Mangold's Walk the Line, instead of continuing on with the movie. This isn't out of pain or apathy, two of the biggest reasons I usually want to stop doing something. But Ring of Fire doesn't even have the strength of its own premise. It completely fails to tell the story of June Carter by placing her in the context of what her dad asked of the family for the first part of her life then what Johnny Cash (Matt Ross, better suited for Kurt Cobain than Cash) asked of her in the second. The film rendition of "I'll Fly Away" made me want to listen to the Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch's version, and any song performed by Carter or Cash longed for the better pretenders. If I can't at least have inspiring music what else can I have? The heroin-thin version of Johnny Cash isn't enough. I want music, even if the story comes second. Directed by Allison Anders. Screenplay written by Richard Friedenberg. Starring Jewel Kilcher and Matt Ross. Killing Lincoln (2013) 47 Ronin (2013) Safe Haven (2013) Out of the Furnace (2013) The Host (2013) Filed under: 2013, DVD Reviews, Indifference Leave a comment June 23rd, 2013 - 02:59 Good review. I haven’t watched the movie & don’t know if I will. We are such big CASH fans in our family but just seeing the previews makes me feel that the actors they chose to play Johnny and June aren’t right for those rolls. And after reading your review maybe I’ll just despatch Walk the Line. Cheers Thanks for the comment Brenda! Getting Walk the Line out is probably going to be a better choice. Ring of Fire isn’t bad but you’re absolutely correct that the roles are not cast well. Oliver Stone: Looking for Fidel (2004) » « Killing Lincoln (2013)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line143
__label__cc	0.73427	0.26573	Contact us on 6336-8985 or books@catherinekhoo.sg Young Author Club Wicked Witty Women! HomeTerms & Conditions Posted June 29, 2016 1472 0 1 Welcome to the catherinekhoo.sg website.Please read these terms and conditions carefully. The following Terms of Use govern your use and access of the Platform (defined below)and the use of the Services. By accessing the Platform and/or using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, do not access and/or use this Platform or the Services. Access to and use of password protected and/or secure areas of the Platform and/or use of the Services are restricted to Customers with accounts only. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain unauthorised access to such parts of this Platform and/or Services, or to any other protected information, through any means not intentionally made available by us for your specific use. 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Protected: Flipbook 02 Walk, Learn & Eat in Serangoon Gardens Young Reader Club Amazing Journeys Heritage Journeys © 2020 Janus Education Services Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. Design by Crunch Studio	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line144
__label__wiki	0.659531	0.659531	Congratulations to Maestro Muti on the 42nd Anniversary of his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. On July 25th we celebrate the 42nd anniversary of our Maestro Muti's debut with the Chicago Symphony, at the Ravinia Festival, July 25, 1973. His first program was: ROSSINI Overture to Semiramide SCHUMANN Piano Concerto with Christoph Eschenbach, piano MUSSORGSKY/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition The following is published in the CSO's Rosenthal Archives Blog: Maestro Muti made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in the summer of 1973, conducting a series of three concerts that also included three up-and-coming pianists: thirty-three-year-old Christoph Eschenbach (in his Ravinia Festival debut), twenty-seven-year-old Misha Dichter, and twenty-eight-year-old Jean-Bernard Pommier (in his CSO and Ravinia Festival debuts). Muti’s biography in the Ravinia program book that week: Permanent conductor of the Florence Maggio Musicale Orchestra since 1969, Riccardo Muti was born in Naples in 1941. He graduated with honors from the Conservatorio San Pietro a Maiella, where he studied piano, and then completed his studies at Milan’s Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, graduating with honors in composition and conducting. In 1967, Riccardo Muti became the first Italian candidate to win the Guido Cantelli International Conducting Competition. In June 1968, he conducted the Maggio Musicale Orchestra and the same night was asked to become permanent conductor. Thomas Willis’s review of the first concert in the July 26 Chicago Tribune certainly sets the stage: “It is easy to see why Riccardo Muti was the first Italian to win the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition. The Neapolitan firebrand, still in his early thirties, can galvanize both audiences and an orchestra with the kinetic energy of his beat. In his Midwest debut at Ravinia last night, he asserted command at the first notes of Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide and sustained it until the last of the procession had marched through the Great Gate of Kiev in the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition. Whether one responds or not to the tense muscularity of his approach, there is no gainsaying its power and effectiveness . . . With the sensitivity to melody of an already seasoned opera conductor, he sets off each tune with a breath, combines short phrases into longer ones, and underlines each high point. Above all, his music is perfectly clear.” Click here to read the entire article from the Rosenthal Archives Musicians Away From The Stage Musician Spotlight	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line145
__label__wiki	0.568315	0.568315	Shoe View Fans erupt over From Dust's DRM, Ubisoft runs scared (Posted by: Eric Rees) First off, let me say that anyone who hasn't looked into From Dust should do it right now. Seriously, go and do it and I'll wait. Alright, now that you're back I'll tell you what has got PC fans of the game hot and bothered. When the game came out, Ubisoft said that reports of DRM (Digital Rights Management) that mandated players keep the game connected to the internet at all times were false. But, it seems like Ubisoft was wrong and or lying. They deleted the post saying you didn't need the connection and replaced it with one that admitted yes, you do have to be connected to the internet otherwise you can't play your awesome game. People got mad. People don't like this kind of DRM. It's a good protection against piracy but most gamers feel that it's a little too intrusive for their tastes. So steam went so far as to offer refunds to people who misinterpreted the DRM stance. But now Ubisoft is looking to make amends. One of their forum managers responded to the crisis with this statement, "Our tech teams are working on a patch that should release in approximately two weeks that will eliminate the need for any online authentication. This development time is required as we are working to ensure that those who have already started the game, and who's progress is currently saved on our servers, will receive and save their game information locally. Once the patch is ready, players who already have the game will automatically receive the update on their next login and subsequent game sessions will be 100% offline." Looks like the gamers got their way, and made their point. The point not being that they don't like DRM, even though most of us don't, but it's the point not to lie to try and appease your fans. Gameshoe Staff	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line152
__label__cc	0.749006	0.250994	Hambledonian Hambledonians down under Village Noticeboard Churchyard Hambledon CC See by day See by week See by month See by year See by categories Search 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 Events for the Friday 30 October 2020 No event for the Friday 30 October 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line162
__label__cc	0.649106	0.350894	Critical Systems Labs Software Safety and Risk Experts About CSL System/Software Safety Engineering Bridging Safety and Cybersecurity Compliance with Safety-Related Standards Canadian Department of National Defence Fuseforward McKesson Medical Imaging Monteris Medical OSI Maritime Systems Thales Canada, Transportation Solutions Cybersecurity and Safety for Aircraft and Aircraft Systems: DO-326A guidance CSL has been an active member of the international committee, RTCA SC 216, charged with the responsibility of developing guidance material that will help ensure safe, secure and efficient operations amid the growing use of highly integrated electronic systems and network technologies used on-board aircraft, for CNS/ATM systems and air carrier operations and maintenance. Recent efforts of the committee have resulted in a revision of RTCA DO-326 “Airworthiness Security Process Specification” that was released on the RTCA web site in August 2014. The guidance of DO-326A is intended to augment current guidance for aircraft certification to handle the information security (i.e., cybersecurity) threat to aircraft safety. In a nutshell, this new document describes a security engineering process that includes generic activities with corresponding compliance objectives. The scope of DO-326A not only covers the initial Aircraft Type Certification but also aircraft system changes. As a result, it is likely to become a very influential guidance document. Why is this standard likely to be important for the aerospace community? Aviation certification authorities have seen the need for more official guidance in this area and have been actively supporting the effort of this special committee. In this context, it is highly expected that this guidance document will receive formal recognition from civil aviation certification authorities such as the FAA and EASA as acceptable means of compliance with the security rules. Note: this standard has also been published by EUROCAE under the reference ED-202A. This standard carries even more weight as it is not an ‘isolated’ publication; it is one of a set of three documents dedicated to security engineering. The other two standards are: DO-355 “Information Security Guidance for Continuing Airworthiness” covers operations and maintenance, published in June, 2014 DO-356 “Airworthiness Security Methods and Considerations”, published in September 2014 DO-326A is one of the very few standards that tackle the topic of integration of Security Engineering with Safety Engineering. At a time when cybersecurity is in the news almost on a daily basis, it is noteworthy to see that there is a guidance document that addresses the interactions between security and safety. In particular, this standard discusses the links between the security process, the safety assessment process (SAE ARP 4761), and the system engineering process (SAE ARP 4754A). Aerospace standards have often paved the way for, or at least influenced, other industries. This standard might be another example of this paradigm. By being an active member of RTCA SC-216, CSL gained essential knowledge to help organisations such as Aircraft OEM and aircraft system suppliers become proficient with this guidance material. Why Use Eliminative Argumentation Friday, 15 May 2020 02:25 Over the last few years CSL has embraced Eliminative Argumentation (EA) as a notation for describing system assurance cases, and more importantly, as a mode of thinking about overall system assurance. EA was proposed by Goodenough and Weinstock as an extension to Goal Structured Notation (GSN), the conventional method used to express assurance cases [1]. Their objective was to create a method to improve “confidence” in an argument by systematically eliminating reasons to doubt the argument’s validity.In this blog post, we will argue that EA is both a natural means of arguing about system safety and that it ultimately leads to more comprehensive and useful safety arguments... Cybersecurity and Safety for Aircraft and Aircraft Systems: DO-326A guidance Thursday, 18 September 2014 20:17 Cybersecurity and Safety for Aircraft and Aircraft Systems: DO-326A guidance CSL has been an active member of the international committee, RTCA SC 216, charged with the responsibility of developing guidance material that will help ensure safe, secure and efficient operations amid the growing use of highly integrated electronic systems and network technologies used on-board aircraft, for CNS/ATM systems and air carrier operations and maintenance. Recent efforts of the committee have resulted in a revision of RTCA DO-326 “Airworthiness Security Process Specification” that was released on the RTCA web site in August 2014. The guidance of DO-326A is intended to augment current guidance for aircraft certification to handle the information security (i.e., cybersecurity) threat to aircraft safety. In a nutshell, this new document describes a security engineering process that includes generic activities with corresponding compliance objectives. The scope of DO-326A not only covers the... EN ISO 14971 or not EN ISO 14971? Friday, 06 September 2013 15:39 EN ISO 14971 or not EN ISO 14971?The European community recognised EN ISO 14971:2012 in July 2012. EN ISO 14971:2012 supersedes EN ISO 14971:2009 which was based on ISO 14971:2007 ‘Medical devices - Application of risk management to medical devices’.In general, the EC committee felt that the application of ISO14971:2007 did not meet the Essential Requirements described in the European Medical Device Directive 93/42/EEC. Therefore the EC group reviewed ISO14971 to identify these areas in the standard that are not compliant with the MDD and formally document these deviations.EN ISO 14971:2012 applies only to manufacturers with devices intended for the European market; for the rest of the world, ISO 14971:2007 remains the standard recommended for risk management purposes.Standard outlineThis standard published* in 2012 is somewhat unusual in its layout: it includes three annexes located at the beginning of the document and then includes a copy of the 2007 corrected version of ISO 14971.... FAA Recognizes RTCA DO-178C Friday, 26 July 2013 22:36 FAA recognizes RTCA DO-178C and Associated Technical Supplements (July 2013)The FAA published AC20-115C on July 19, 2013. In this Advisory Circular (AC), the FAA recognizes RTCA DO-178C, three associated technical supplements and the 'Software Tool Qualification Considerations' document.The actual documents that are the subject of this AC are the following RTCA documents:• DO-178C, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification.• DO-330, Software Tool Qualification Considerations, dated December 13, 2011.• DO-331, Model-Based Development and Verification Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A.• DO-332, Object-Oriented Technology and Related Techniques Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A.• DO-333, Formal Methods Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A. It has been a long-awaited recognition since the release of RTCA DO-178C in December 2011. (In terms of comparison, RTCA DO-178B was endorsed by the FAA only one month after its publication). Similarly, to the previous AC... Correctness vs Safety Tuesday, 16 July 2013 20:03 Correctness vs. SafetyOne of the examples that we regularly use in our training material is the catastrophic loss of Lufthansa Flight 2904 on September 14, 1993 when it ran off the end of the runway in Warsaw Poland. It is an interesting and very useful teaching example because it illustrates some of the main themes of the training that we regularly provide to clients on system/software safety. This accident is particularly effective as an introduction to the training material because students quickly realize that we are not simply talking about defect prevention or quality assurance.When an Airbus 320 lands, the crew relies on the combination of brakes, ground spoilers and reverse thrusters to slow the aircraft. However in the case of Flight 2904 the activation of all three of these critical systems was delayed such that the aircraft reached the end of the runway at a speed of 72 knots and hit an embankment resulting in 2 fatalities.The official investigation... Alarm Management Wednesday, 22 May 2013 17:38 Alarm Management Our clients appreciate the fact that we are involved in projects across a wide spectrum of industries becausewe bring insights from common challenges experienced by other industries that lead to innovative solutionsto their problems. A good example is alarm management which is a consideration in the design of almostevery kind of critical system. Although the details of alarm management may vary considerably betweentechnical domains, our approach to helping clients with alarm management is based on the same fundamentalconcepts and principles.Thanks to Hollywood and movies such as The China Syndrome (1979), most of us have a sense of theadrenaline fueled drama of a control room during an emergency with alarm bells ringing and lights flashing. But helping a client develop a sound approach to alarm management goes well beyond thinking about therare moments of high drama.For example, an operator could eventually become desensitized to a spurious alarm that is... © 2021 Critical Systems Labs Inc. 601 West Cordova Street, Suite 140, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1G1, CANADA Tel: 604-688-2754 Fax: 604-628-5692 Email: info@cslabs.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line163
__label__cc	0.698265	0.301735	Consequentialism, the Moral Philosophy of the West Jeremy Bentham, a founder of Consequential thought Since the 1960's Western society, hitherto Christian in foundation, has come under the influence of a school of moral theology known as Consequentialism. Consequentialism, essentially denies objective truth and leads to moral relativism. Ultimately it leads to a culture of death that today sanctions everything from contraception to abortion, homosexual activity, sex outside of marriage, divorce, sterilization, in-vitro fertilization, pornography, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia and even false notions of a just war. Labels: Ethics & Morals, Modern Philosophy, Politics, Western Civilization Rod Serling on Why Some Monuments of the Past SHOULD Haunt Us "Mr. Schmidt recently arrived in a small Bavarian village which lies eight miles northwest of Munich... a picturesque, delightful little spot one-time known for its scenery, but more recently related to other events having to do with some of the less positive pursuits of man: human slaughter, torture, misery and anguish. Mr. Schmidt, as we will soon perceive, has a vested interest in the ruins of a concentration camp — for once, some seventeen years ago, his name was Gunther Lutze. He held the rank of a captain in the SS. He was a black-uniformed strutting animal whose function in life was to give pain, and like his colleagues of the time, he shared the one affliction most common amongst that breed known as Nazis... he walked the Earth without a heart. And now former SS Captain Lutze will revisit his old haunts, satisfied perhaps that all that is awaiting him in the ruins on the hill is an element of nostalgia. What he does not know, of course, is that a place like Dachau cannot exist only in Bavaria. By its nature, by its very nature, it must be one of the populated areas... of the Twilight Zone." (Twilight Zone, "Deaths-Head Revisited", Season 3, Episode 9, Opening Narration) Labels: Television, Twilight Zone The Feast of St. Gerasimos in 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' Rod Serling on Why Some Monuments of the Past SHOU... The Feast of St. Gerasimos in 'Captain Corelli's M...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line167
__label__cc	0.56506	0.43494	online home of the poet, Kate Wilson. Home / books / Book Review: "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr Book Review: "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr "It strikes Werner just then as wondrously futile to build splendid buildings, to make music, to sing songs, to print huge books full of colourful birds in the face of this seismic, engulfing indifference of the world- what pretensions humans have!" Anthony Doerr's novel is beautifully conceived and heart breaking. He traces the stories of Marie and Werner, two adolescents whose lives are irrevocably altered by the outbreak of the Second World War. Marie-Laure lives in Paris with her father before the war, taught to navigate the streets of the city by her father's scale model, in the face of the onset of blindness. When war breaks out, the pair flee to Saint-Malo to stay with her father's Uncle Etienne, a man deeply troubled by his past traumas. Werner is an orphan growing up in Germany with his sister Jutta. His fascination with science and the mechanics of the radio eventually lead him to an elite Nazi school, where he must balance his passion with the unfathomable realities of the survival of the fittest mentality. Doerr's story evolves in short chapters, so the reader never loses sight of either of the primary characters. The writing is precise and beautiful, with brutality often conveyed powerfully through the absence of direct description, as in the case of Frederick's disappearance from school, letting the reader, and in this case Werner, fill in the gaps with their imagination. "A single bed with blood in it. Blood on the pillow and on the sheets and even on the enameled metal of the bed frame. Pink rags in a basin. Half-unrolled bandage on the floor." As the much anticipated convergence of the two stories happens, readers are provided with a poignant conclusion which reveals the power of love in the face of all. As the title of the novel suggests, there is much which is unseen, but present, including the strength of character Werner has been struggling to embrace throughout the story. The end result is incredibly moving. "So how children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?" Buy the book: All the Light We Cannot See Book Review: "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr KJW 09:36 booksreview Recommendation: I Am Nobody's Nigger by Dean Atta Dean Atta's poems act as a plea to his readers to stand up against the injustices of modern life. Whether he's descrying the use o... Book Review: "A Little Life" By Hanya Yanagihara Given the Baileys Prize shortlist has now been announced and I was less than impressed by the one title I've read on the list, I thou... Review - The Son, Duke of York's Theatre The Son is the third in a sequence of plays by Florian Zeller. I was fortunate enough to see the London staging of The Father back in 2016... Review - Come From Away A huge thank you for Rachael for this wonderful guest post on Come From Away... I went into Come from Away with very few expectations,... Book Review: Brandon Stanton's "Humans of New York" I've no doubt that many of you have become hooked on the wonderful photography project by Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York. I think... Review: Pinter 4 - Moonlight/Night School at the Harold Pinter Theatre I was fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to review Moonlight and Night School, a double bill of Harold Pinter plays staged as... Retro Review: Jean Paul Sartre's "The Reprieve" I know I've been a bit quiet on the reviewing front recently. Aside from taking quite a lot of spare time to write, I have also been tre... Blog Tour ~ "Pieces of Me" by Natalie Hart Emma works in Iraq, helping to interview Iraqis who have supported the US forces in some way, to seek refuge in the United States. Adam is ... © 2016 Kate Wilson - Poet. Designed by Themeswear	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line169
__label__wiki	0.946003	0.946003	Incline is a New Zealand-based project that publishes original analysis and commentary on issues and trends that impact New Zealand's international relations. With a strong Asia-Pacific focus, Incline aims to provide different perspectives on New Zealand's foreign, security, trade and development policy from established scholars and emerging researchers based both in New Zealand and further afield. Incline is an initiative of Robert Ayson and David Capie who are based at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Launched in April 2015, Incline is non-partisan and independent. The website is managed by Benedict Xu-Holland. The views expressed are those of the individual contributors and do not represent the views of Incline's editors or of any institutions with which Incline's editors or contributors are associated. We welcome contributions or responses to posts. Our aim to publish at least one new article each week. All articles are edited to conform to style conventions. Executive Editors Robert Ayson Rob is a Professor of Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He has previously held academic positions at the Australian National University, Massey University, and the University of Waikato, and official positions within the New Zealand government. Rob is also an Adjunct Professor with the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Honorary Professor with the New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College, and a member of New Zealand's Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control. David Capie David is Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies and Associate Professor of International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington. His research focuses on conflict and security issues, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, and New Zealand's foreign policy. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and is a Research Associate in the ASEAN Studies Center at American University. He tweets about foreign policy and football at @davidcapie Benedict Xu-Holland Benedict is an honours student at the University of Sydney.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line171
__label__cc	0.719338	0.280662	MovieFanFare MoviesUnlimited.com Title Actor Director MoviesUnlimited.com 6 From the ’60s: Favorite Films from the 1960s 10.29.20 \| Constance Metzinger \| Tags: 1960s films, Brian Keith, David Niven, Dean Jones, Doris Day, Edward G. Robinson, Elsa Lanchester, Frank Gorshin, Hayley Mills, Jack Lemmon, Maureen O'Hara, Peter Sellers, Rock Hudson, Roddy McDowall, Send Me No Flowers, That Darn Cat, The Parent Trap, The Pink Panther, Throwback Thursday, Tony Randall, Walt Disney Studios, William Demarest \| no comments My sister and I were first introduced to classic movies through the films of the 1960s since this was the decade that our father loved the most growing up in. He started us off on children’s classics from this time… There’s Plenty of New Releases Worth Seeing, Including “The Invisible Man” 05.26.20 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Candace Cameron Bure, Carey Mulligan, Christopher Lee, Claire Trevor, Criterion Collection, Donald Sutherland, Edward G. Robinson, Elisabeth Moss, Ethan Hawke, Frank McHugh, Frank Whaley, Hallmark Channel, Humphrey Bogart, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Earl Jones, Jesse Metcalfe, Joan Blondell, José Ferrer, Kevin Dillon, Martin Scorsese, Michael Caine, Michael Curtiz, Paul Dano, Rosalind Chao, Sandra Dee, Sarah Lind, Vincente Minnelli \| no comments It’s fitting that the summer is unofficially underway, as the new releases are heating up. Cult flicks, recent theatrical efforts, and classics from the golden age of Hollywood are all showcased this week. Take a look at what releases you’ll… The Movies Unlimited Exclusive “Action of the Tiger” and More New Releases! 04.14.20 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: Action of the Tiger, Alan Alda, Amanda Plummer, Buddy Ebsen, Bugs Bunny, Burt Lancaster, Busby Berkeley, Charlotte Rae, Criminal Minds, Danny McBride, Diane Lane, Dick Powell, Doris Day, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Powell, Frances Langford, Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Hallmark Channel, Herbert Lom, Hugh Herbert, Jack Benny, James Cagney, James Stewart, Jamie Foxx, Joan Blondell, John Goodman, John Hughes, June Knight, Looney Tunes, Lucille Ball, Marc Singer, Marlo Thomas, Martine Carol, Michael B. Jordan, Molly Ringwald, Movies Unlimited Exclusives, Red Skelton, Robert Englund, Robert Taylor, Rod Steiger, Ruby Keeler, Scott Glenn, The Criterion Collection, Una Merkel, Van Johnson, Vincent Gardenia \| no comments Wow. In the ten years since Movies Unlimited began, there has never been a week as crammed with exciting new releases as this one. Starting with the title Action of the Tiger that is available exclusively from Movies Unlimited on… Check Out the Suspense and Intrigue of Our Fall Film Noir Sale 10.14.19 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: Barbara Stanwyck, Billy Wilder, Burt Lancaster, Charles Laughter, Claude Rains, Clifton Webb, Dana Andrews, Edward G. Robinson, Film Noir, Fred MacMurray, Gene Tierney, John Garfield, MovieFanFare Mega Mondays, Otto Preminger, Peter Lorre, Ray Milland, Raymond Chandler, The Shadow \| no comments It doesn’t have to be a dark and stormy night to enjoy a film noir classic (but it sure helps). Maybe its how the air is getting chilly and the days are getting shorter, but there’s something about watching suspense… “Detective Pikachu,” Edward G. Robinson Favorites, and Other Fantastic New Releases! 08.06.19 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: Anthony Quinn, Aretha Franklin, Bill Nighy, Billy Wilder, Buck Jones, Carol Burnett, Charles Durning, Colm Meaney, Criterion Collection, Derek Jacobi, Detective Pikachu, Diane Keaton, Edward G. Robinson, Hallmark Channel, Jack Lemmon, Jackie Gleason, Jane Campion, Jane Wyman, Jean Arthur, Ken Watanabe, KL Studio Classics, Marlene Dietrich, Matt Smith, Nicholas Hault, Pam Grier, Ryan Reynolds, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Susan Saradon, Tilda Swinton, Walter Matthau \| no comments The past and the future collide this week, as the new Blu-rays and DVDs now available are a great mix of recent hits and classics from the golden years of Hollywood. To quote the motto of Pokémon, you gotta catch… Create-A-Caption: Key Largo 02.03.19 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: Academy Award Winners, Claire Trevor, Dan Seymour, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, Key Largo, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Gomez \| 2 comments In the 1948 favorite Key Largo, A World War II vet (Humphrey Bogart) ventures to the Florida Keys so he could pay his respects to a lost comrade’s widow (Lauren Bacall) and hotelier father (Lionel Barrymore). Unfortunately, his hosts’ latest… Fritz Lang’s Noir Favorite “The Woman in the Window” Hits DVD & Blu-ray 06.11.18 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: Edward G. Robinson, Film Noir, Fritz Lang, Joan Bennett, KL Studio Classics \| no comments One of the motion pictures that helped establish the genre of film noir, Fritz Lang’s compelling The Woman in the Window brilliantly adapts J.H. Wallis’ novel for the big screen. Originally released by RKO Radio Pictures on November 3, 1944,… A Jack London Classic Leaps to Life in 1941’s “The Sea Wolf” 01.16.18 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: 1940s Movies, Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, Jack London, John Garfield, Michael Curtiz, The Sea Wolf \| no comments A year before he forever changed cinema with Casablanca, director Michael Curtiz brought the Jack London classic The Sea Wolf to the big screen. Recently released on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive collection, the film examines what happens when an… The Timeless Allure of Bogart and Bacall in “Key Largo” 11.20.17 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: 1930s Films, Academy Award Winners, Claire Trevor, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, Key Largo, Lauren Bacall \| no comments On July 16, 1948, Key Largo — adapted from the Maxwell Anderson play of the same name — brought its mix of noir and suspense to theaters. Is it an exaggeration to say that film was never the same again?… Five Recent Releases You Might Have Missed 11.12.17 \| Chris Cummins \| Tags: Alan Ladd, Busby Berkeley, Chuck Berry, Edward G. Robinson, Elvis Presley, Film Noir, Jackie Wilson, Walter Matthau \| no comments We get it. Life is busy. It seems every day is full of work and personal obligations. Given the fast pace of our society it’s only natural that some things are going to fall to the wayside. We can’t help… Movies That Scared Me – When I Was Young What’s Your Favorite War Movie? What Movie Will You Never Watch Again? Explain. Movies I’ve Seen 50 Times What’s the Most Romantic Movie of All Time? Pick Your Favorite Movie from the Year You Were Born What Was Your Favorite Film As a Kid? What’s the Best Movie Shootout? I Would Not Like to Thank the Academy: Oscar Snubs Over the Years My Five Favorite Cary Grant Films Randy Skretvedt on Movies I’ve Seen 50 Times Ray Cowburn on Movies That Scared Me – When I Was Young Michael Cooney on Movies That Scared Me – When I Was Young Here’s How You Can Save An Extra 20% On Your Next Movies Unlimited Order The Movies Unlimited Exclusive “Tennessee Johnson” Leads An Exciting Week of New Releases Poll: Who’s Your Favorite Looney Tunes Character? FYI: Check Out the MovieFanFare Holiday Gift Guide on November 27th! 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__label__cc	0.593358	0.406642	Clinical Course Health & Wellness Archive Public Health Archive Pentyl Pantothenamide: A New Pathway for Antimicrobial Treatment Anthony Wong Edited by Rice Zhang Pentyl pantothenamide is an antibiotic originally released in the 1970s but wasn’t widely distributed due to the plethora of more effective antibiotics that were readily available. Most antibiotics combat harmful bacteria in one of two ways: killing the pathogen outright or inhibiting the growth of the infection long enough for the immune system to finish the job. Pentyl pantothenamide belongs to the latter type, sabotaging bacterial metabolic processes so that the bacteria can’t spread at an infection-worthy rate. For this reason, it was passed up early on for other more fast-acting options like methicillin. Ironically, it is this performance tradeoff that has contributed to the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant pathogens like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and, consequently, led to pentyl pantothenamide being reconsidered for mainstream use. Since it hasn’t been in circulation long enough for bacteria to develop immunity against it, this little-known drug is at the forefront of a previously ignored class of antibiotics. For many years, pentyl pantothenamide was known to be passably sufficient in subduing most bacterial outbreaks. However, it was also noted for being especially effective against E. coli. The reason for this was unknown until December 2017, when the University of Leeds in the U.K. published a study revealing the exact mechanism. E. coli utilizes a molecular structure called the PanDZ complex to manufacture vitamin B5, a vitamin necessary for E. coli to metabolize energy. A dysfunctional or nonexistent PanDZ complex resulted in a deficiency of vitamin B5, thereby reducing E. coli metabolic function and drastically slowing growth. Colorized scanning electron micrograph of E. coli on a cover slip. Image Source: "E. coli Bacteria" by NIAID is licensed under CC BY 2.0 When the scientists introduced pentyl pantothenamide into a population of E. coli, they found that the bacteria broke the drug down using three notable enzymes: PanK, CoaD, and CoaE. A chain reaction ensued, and the presence of these three enzymes consequently split apart the PanDZ complex in the E. coli. With the PanDZ complex dismantled, the E. coli cells were unable to make vitamin B5. As a result, they did not have enough energy to multiply, and the E. coli population as a whole displayed measurably less growth. While the study only illuminated how pentyl pantothenamide specifically scales back E. coli virulence, the drug can also be used against other bacteria in the future, with potentially similar effects. By artificially manufacturing the three enzymes Pank, CoaD, and CoaE, immunologists could tailor pentyl pantothenamide to “detonate” within a target bacteria to inhibit growth, even if the pathogen didn’t naturally contain those three enzymes in the first place. However, further research is needed to conceptualize and synthesize those novel compounds. Featured Image Source: qimono New Insights on Treatments for PCOS Related Infertility Microbes: Masters of Food and Mood Resisting Antibiotic Resistance With Combating Polymers	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line177
__label__wiki	0.604139	0.604139	Person Detail: E E Cummings Full Name: E E Cummings (1894-1962)(Edward Estlin Cummings) E. E. Cummings is a poet whose work is noted for, among other things, its eccentric typography, language, and punctuation. Among his 15 volumes of poetry are "Tulips and Chimneys" (1923), "Is 5" (1926), and "Ninety-five Poems" (1958). His experiences of being held in France as a prisoner during World War I provided the basis for "The Enormous Room" (1922). He lived in New York during 1917-23, at 15 West 14th Street and 21 East 15th Street, eventually settling at 4 Patchen Place. Djuna Barnes was a neighbor of Cummings. Some writers who visited that house included T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Dylan Thomas, and others. Cummings lived in New York City during 1917-1923, at 15 West 14th Street and 21 East 15th Street, eventually settling at 4 Patchen Place. Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1894. E. E. Cummings died in North Conway, New Hampshire, in 1962. Collection of poetry. Tulips and Chimneys Ninety-Five Poems The Enormous Room Novel. E. E. Cummings is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line178
__label__wiki	0.903855	0.903855	You are at:Home»News»Brexit»NFU issues statement on UK/EU Brexit deal NFU issues statement on UK/EU Brexit deal By Simon King on October 18, 2019 Brexit, News The NFU said it was pleased to see that the UK and EU negotiators have come to an agreement on the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, which might pave the way for an orderly Brexit and the avoidance of leaving without a deal. NFU president Minette Batters said: “However, we must remember that if this deal is agreed by UK and EU Parliaments in the coming days, it only determines how the UK withdraws from the EU and does not determine the long-term future of the UK’s and EU’s relationship. “It is vital that government has a long-term aspiration to ensure that British farming standards are not undercut by an ambition to open up British markets to food which would be illegal to produce here and that there is free and frictionless trade with the EU in the long term.” Mrs Batters added: “We have had precious little reassurances on these issues so far and we look to government to be clear about its ambitions for British farming, which provides affordable, safe home-grown food produced to some of the highest standards in the world.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line180
__label__wiki	0.66525	0.66525	Artists Database DJs & Top10 :: back :: Non Fiction is Nisim Ben-Maor, born in 1976 and lives in Dimona in the south of Israel. Nissim got into music in the age of eight thanks to his mother Geula. He started playing the soprano flute and then moved to mandolin, all and all playing seven years in the conservatorion. Then his father bought him an Organ, which he learned to play by himself. He played in different Rock bands in pubs, and then moved to producing other artists' stuff from different musical directions. Nissim also works as a recording technician in studios in Dimona, and plays in weddings. He moved to making Dance music and tried to get into the market, but the distance from the center of things and the stigma that Dimona has made it quite impossible. Then Nissim started making trance in 1996 and is around as Non Fiction since 1997. His first Album as Non Fiction- Aspect to the Future was released on Shem Records in 1998 and Nissim worked on it for a year and a half, using Midi and analog equipment. Nissim defines himself as a musician and not a trancer, as he writes the music according to what he feels, not thinking of trance necessarily. He doesn't listen to trance much, and he's not really part of the 'scene'.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line181
__label__wiki	0.631651	0.631651	Created: Monday, 05 May 2014 23:00 Last Updated: Tuesday, 11 July 2017 22:01 Written by William M. Windsor Are members of the Church of Scientology and Scientology Fair Game behind the vicious cyberstalking and defamation of William M. Windsor? This is one of the questions to be answered as discovery rolls into high gear in the case of William M. Windsor v. Joeyisalittlekid, et al... The term Fair Game is used to describe policies and practices carried out by the Church of Scientology towards people and groups it perceives as its enemies. Applying the principles of Fair Game, L. Ron Hubbard and his followers targeted many individuals as well as government officials and agencies, including a program of covert and illegal infiltration of the IRS and other U.S. government agencies during the 1970s. They also conducted private investigations, character assassination and legal action against the Church's critics in the media. The policy remains in effect and has been defended by the Church of Scientology as a core religious practice. In his confidential Manual of Justice of 1959, Hubbard wrote "People attack Scientology. I never forget it, always even the score." He advocated using private investigators to investigate critics, who had turned out to be "members of the Communist Party or criminals, usually both. The smell of police or private detectives caused them to fly, to close down, to confess. Hire them and damn the cost when you need to." He said that in dealing with opponents, his followers should "always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace. Don't ever defend. Always attack." He urged the use of "black propaganda" to "destroy reputation or public belief in persons, companies or nations." The Church has retained an aggressive policy towards those it perceives as its enemies,and argued as late as 1985 that retributive action against "enemies of Scientology" should be considered a Constitutionally-protected "core practice" of Scientology. One of the people involved with Joeyisalittlekid is allegedly a member of the Church of Scientology, Megan Van Zelfden. And as I read the approximately 8,000 pages of information published by Joeyisalittlekid, I have found mentions of Scientology terms scattered through the content. Ginger Snap, believed to be Casey Hargrove and/or Shonda Hargrove of Red Oak, Texas, wrote one article in which the entire topic was a term, used only by the Church of Scientology. It's hard to conceive of how a group of people would launch a massive character assassination, conduct a private investigation, and manufacture information to destroy my reputation. But as I read about Scientology Fair Game, this is precisely what this sick Scientology Fair Game policy calls for. I suspect that if this is what is behind the thousands of false statements and defamation by the Joeys of Joeyisalittlekid, many of the participants likely don't even know that this is behind it. This doesn't excuse the participation of those who don't know they are using Scientology Fair Game, but Scientology Fair Game does provide an explanation for how in the world a group of people could commit the biggest case of defamation in history. Let me be clear: This is just a theory. I do not know, and may never know, if what has been done to me is the result of Scientology Fair Game, government action to try to silence me, or just a group of sick people. But I'd like to find out. If you haven't been keeping up with Lawless America and me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/billwindsor1 or www.LawlessAmerica.org, you may be surprised to learn that a gang of cyberstalkers has viciously defamed William M. Windsor with thousands of false and defamtory statements online. At last count, there are over 320 articles filling over 7,000 pages, written by about 700 screen names, 99% of which are aliases or anonymous. I am reading as much as I can each day, and I recently completed reading 847 published comments by Sean D. Fleming. To those who have published false and/or defamatory information about me: CEASE AND DESIST. Correct and make a retraction of all of the false and/or defamatory information. If you don’t have absolute proof that your published statements are true, then issue a correction and retraction. The correction and retraction must include the following: (1) Give your legal name, address, and contact information. (2) List each false and/or defamatory statement with a specific statements that it is false and a retraction. So, if 3,000 false and defamatory statements have been made, 3,000 separate corrections and retractions must be published. (3) Publish this on Joeyisalittlekid's website, and it must also appear on each and every website where the false and/or defamtory information has been spread on the Internet. So, if the information has spread to 1,500,000 web pages, the correction and retraction must appear on all 1,500,000. (4) Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the links to each and every published correction and retraction; put this in all caps in the subject line: CORRECTION AND RETRACTION. There are hundreds of screen names who have published false and/or defamatory information on joeyisalittlekid.blogspot.com. I ask whoever is the owner/operator of that site to publish this article on that site so all of the people who frequent that site know the truth and know of this demand for correction and retraction. It is impossible for me to list each specific false and/or defamatory statement as yet because there are approximately 40,000 published statements, and there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of false and/or defamatory statements or support for such statements, and I have not yet been able to read everything. I have thus far been unable to get a Texas court to enjoin these folks and force them to take down all the defamatory material. Until that is done, I feel I have no choice but to deny all the defamation here. I plan to produce two expose documentary films about cyberstalking -- Slanderella and Slanderfella. William M. Windsor Bill Windsor Movie Status & Basic Information Short Documentary on Making of the Movie Lawless America Videos Proposed Legislation -- Word File -- PDF File Lawless America Movie Promos Lawless America Merchandise Self-Filming Instructions Lawless America Testimony to Congress Congressional DVD Home Page State Index to Corruption Testimony Index to Type of Corruption Testimony Alphabetical Index to Congressional Testimony Search all Congressional Testimony State of the Union Response "I Support Honesty in Government and the Constitution and Bill of Rights." And Join Our Facebook Cause! Grand Jury Information Grand Jury TalkShoe Episode 30 Invalid Court Orders How to Fight Corruption Corruption Reports Criminal Acts Search All Reports U.S. Congressmen Email: bill@billwindsor.com Website: www.lawlessamerica.com I, William M. Windsor, am not an attorney. This website expresses my OPINIONS. The comments of visitors to the website are their opinions and do not therefore reflect my opinions. This website does not provide legal advice. I do not give legal advice. I do not practice law. This website is to expose corruption in government, law enforcement, and the judiciary. Whatever this website says about the law is presented in the context of how I or others perceive the applicability of the law to a set of circumstances if I (or some other author) was in the circumstances under the conditions discussed. Despite of my concerns about lawyers in general, I suggest that anyone with legal questions consult an attorney for an answer, particularly after reading anything on this website. The law is a gray area at best. I am a professional journalist; most of my career was spent as the Publisher of magazines. Please read our Legal Notice and Terms. Lawless America is not now and never has been a 501 c 3. Bill Windsor has never solicited donations on the basis that they would be tax-deductible because they are not. Bill Windsor and Lawless America ceased accepting donations in the Spring of 2013, and there are no plans to ever accept donations again. Judicial Corruption is rampant. Our rights to a fair trial are a myth. Many judges are totally corrupt. READ all about it. Our fundamental rights have been taken away by a government of wrongs. Stolen by corruption. Misconduct is everywhere. Dishonesty abounds. Perjury, subornation of perjury, corruption! Abuse, Dishonesty, Corruption. It's all common with Police and Law Enforcement. Government Dishonesty is Bad. We must find honest people and make them accountable to We the People. You are here: Home News Cyberstalking Joeyisalittlekid The Cyberstalking of William M. Windsor - Is it Scientology Fair Game?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line182
__label__cc	0.613089	0.386911	BUZZ - Chamithri Rambukwella May 13 2020. views 3485 Hope all is well and everyone is safe. I’m happy to start the Buzz back on print and with a quiet Vesak which passed us, I thought it’s the ideal time to speak to my guest. Educated at Ladies College, she completed her degree in Political Science, specializing in International Relations, and completed her MBA at the University of West London. Today she talks about her life and her work at the United Nations. FULL NAME – Chamithri Rambukwella HOMETOWN - Kandy STATUS - Single BIRTHDAY - 31 May PASSIONS - Travelling, meeting new people and politics and diplomacy HOW WAS IT TO WORK FOR THE UN? It was an interesting experience. I was fortunate to be able to work representing both sides of the UN. I represented Sri Lanka (a member state) from 2011-2015 as a diplomat and right after, I joined the UN secretariat and worked as a UN staffer (2015-2017). Both aspects were intense and interesting. I must say that, though the perks were better whilst working as a UN staffer, I enjoyed myself more, representing Sri Lanka. It gave me the opportunity to be able to perform for my country and that’s a feeling that cannot be outdone by any perk I could have been given. WHAT MADE YOU PURSUE THE QUEST TO MAKE VESAK A UN HOLIDAY? In 2014, Israel submitted to the Committee on Conferences of the UN, Yom Kippur - a Jewish holiday, for consideration to be made a UN holiday. I had just concluded my tenure as Chairperson of that committee and was part of the discussion when this happened. I was instantly reminded of the fact that Sri Lanka, through the late Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar had made a similar request in 1997/98. But this request was denied at the time. I proceeded to do some research into the matter and thought it would be a great opportunity for Sri Lanka to resubmit the request of making Vesak an official UN holiday. VESAK WAS RECOGNISED AS AN INTERNATIONAL DAY AS A RESULT OF HON. LAKSHMAN KADIRGAMAR’S GUIDANCE IN 1998. WHAT WAS LACKING THEN IN MAKING IT AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED UN HOLIDAY? When the request was made in 1997/98 by Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar, it was denied on the basis that the UN would have to incur an extra-budgetary expense by adding a holiday to the calendar. To answer your question, what Hon. Kadirgamar probably lacked at the time, was someone to pick up the slack and lobby for the initiative. As Sri Lankans, we tend to be content with the bare minimum and often compromise on the weight of our full potential, and thus, in 1998, we settled for a somewhat satisfactory response from the U.N. HOW WAS THE REACTION WITHIN THE UN OPERATION WHEN THIS WAS PUT FORWARD? Well, there was quite a bit of opposition. At first when it was just Yom Kippur (Jewish holiday), on the table for discussion, the Secretariat of the UN, in fact, came back to the committee and stated that there would be no incurrence of any extra-budgetary expenses in case of an added holiday. (This was contrary to what was told to Hon. Kadirgamar when Sri Lanka made the Vesak request initially) However, the moment Sri Lanka re-submitted the request for Vesak to be considered a UN holiday, the response from the Secretariat was similar to the one given in 1998 to Hon. Kadirgamar. This time we were not going to give up without a fight and I decided to forge ahead with our request. We managed to procure support from all the majority Buddhist countries and a few others to sign the request as a body of 32 co-sponsors. A few other powerful countries then decided to put a spoke in the wheel, by following suit and submitted their own holidays for consideration in an attempt to strongarm us out of consideration – none of whom had any interest in this until Sri Lanka submitted Vesak for discussion. Yes, Sri Lanka may be a tiny little island nation and we almost have little to no influence at the UN; but in this instance, this little island nation was done being bullied by the larger, more powerful states and I decided to hold our own. We have, in abundance, an extremely hardworking and intelligent workforce, that will excel given the right leadership and empowerment. This was one occasion where we did not allow ourselves to be bullied into a corner. WHAT SUPPORT WAS EXTENDED BY THE GOVERNMENT AT THE TIME FOR THIS TO COME THROUGH? I ran this initiative by the then President, H. E. Mahinda Rajapaksa when he was in New York for the High- Level Segment of the General Assembly in September 2014. We weighed the pros and cons and it was not going to be easy. Also, we were looking down a road of long negotiations, but it was an opportunity we did not want to squander. H. E. Mahinda Rajapaksa ensured that I was empowered to be able to carry out the negotiations on behalf of Sri Lanka. It was in fact, an excellent example of what strong leadership and support can do to empower those representing the country, where even the impossible can be achieved. WHO WAS YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCE AND SUPPORT IN SEEING THIS THROUGH AND MAKING VESAK GLOBALLY RECOGNISED? That’s an easy question. My biggest influence for all I do in life has been my parents who always had only one piece of advice to us as kids. No matter what you do, give it your best. That being said, however, my greatest ground support in this fight was my mentor Dr. Palitha Kohona. He was the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN. All of what I learned as a diplomat I learned from him. I was in my early 20’s when I got to New York and he drew me out of my shell and moulded my career to be the diplomat I became. He was stern and disciplined, but he was also generous with his guidance. Particularly in today’s world when people dislike sharing credit and when they take pleasure in discrediting another’s work, Dr. Kohona was the complete opposite. He trusted me to carry the fight forward and he empowered me to do so. Even when other Ambassadors requested him to withdraw our request, he steered their requests to me and stood by like a rock while allowing me to take decisions in consultation with him. THIS IS QUITE AN ACHIEVEMENT FOR SRI LANKA. WHY THEN HAS IT NOT RECEIVED THE SAME RECOGNITION THAT HON. KADIRGAMAR GOT WHEN HE MANAGED TO GET VESAK DECLARED AN INTERNATIONAL DAY? That’s a good question. The way I see it, it’s a couple of things. Firstly, Sri Lankans do not understand the nuances of how the UN works. They assume an International Day and a UN holiday are one and the same. There is an International Day for everything. For instance, we have an International Yoga Day and an International Day for, believe it or not, Toilets(!), as opposed to a UN-recognised holiday. We only have 10 holidays that the UN has agreed upon. And in 2014 Vesak was recognised as one. Secondly, the moment my name was associated with it, probably because I come from a political background it was promptly swept under the carpet. It didn’t help that the incoming government at the time happened to be political opponents of my family and the outgoing President with whom my closeness was of public knowledge. AS A FEMALE WORKING IN POLITICS - WHAT IS YOUR STAND ON THE FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT? Female representation in parliament is next to nothing in Sri Lanka. It is deplorable. I’m not an advocate of quota systems because of the way that women are picked for nominations, to stand for an election where women are chosen at random, simply to tick the checkbox of 25% female representation. This situation has deteriorated throughout the years. It’s disheartening because in the past, we’ve had in politics formidable women, like Siva Obeysekara, Tamara Illangaratne, Vivienne Goonawardena, Vimala Wijewardene not to mention the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike who were all par excellence. WHENEVER A WOMAN HAS BEEN GIVEN HALF AN OPPORTUNITY, IN ANY GIVEN SPHERE, SHE HAS EXCELLED. WE HAVE MANY GREAT EXAMPLES CURRENTLY IN SRI LANKA. ASHA DE VOS, OTARA GUNAWARDENA, JAYATHMA WICKRAMANAYAKE, JAYANTHI KURU UTUMPALA AND MOST RECENTLY SHARLYN PERERA STAFFORD ARE ONLY A FEW WHO HAVE SHATTERED THE GLASS CEILING AND RAISED STANDARDS, NOT JUST FOR WOMEN BUT FOR MEN AS WELL. STILL, HOW MANY OF US EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY DO? Male leaders who acknowledge a woman who has excelled are few and far between, but this is what also gives me hope for the future. Leaders like Namal Rajapaksa are challenging the status quo and forging an inclusive path for women leaders to take their place in leadership going ahead, but my prayer is that more like him should join the fray. Sri Lanka, in comparison to her neighbouring nations, is ahead. However, we have a long way to go. We as a nation will only be able to flourish if half our women which account for half our population are treated with respect and are given equal opportunities to contribute to the growth of the nation. I’m not limiting myself to the sphere of politics when I say this. WOULD YOU BE FOLLOWING YOUR FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS IN THE FUTURE? Hahaha! Interesting question. I have no plans right now to become a politician. My father is a first-generation politician, quite by accident. He never planned on it. As a result, we are not a family that feels that it’s a must that one of his kids should follow in his footsteps. My parents have always inspired us to follow our dreams and do what makes us happy. whether it’s in the public eye or not. That’s where I am at my happiest. WHAT'S YOUR OPINION ON COVID AND HOW WOULD THIS AFFECT THE LIVES OF THE YOUTH? I think it’s a timely reminder for us all to reconsider our lifestyles and reconsider our priorities, personally, as well as nationally. The current government along with our health care workers, the police, and our tri forces are doing a truly amazing job in going above and beyond the call of duty to keep us safe. They truly are real-life superheroes. We, however, must remember, that as citizens we also need to take responsibility in the way the situation is handled. Coming out of this pandemic, there will be many challenges that the youth will have to face. I fear a huge psycho-social impact on the youth because life as we know it is now forever altered. The larger portion of responsibility coming out of this will lie with the youth. We will have to work harder and be more responsible to be educated, informed, and reserved in our dealings to keep the curve flattened. We are going to have to rethink and restructure the future; rebuild the economy, rethink national priorities, be more involved in policymaking, shed light on and discuss difficult issues such as mental health, gender disparity, etc. Just as much as the burden lies with the government, it is our collective responsibility to give back to the country and ensure that none of our citizens are left behind whether it be in thought, word or deed. ANY FINAL THOUGHTS? I would like to acknowledge Jonathan Benedict who made all of this possible. For taking the time to listen, for doing his own research, for connecting the two of us, and for pushing me to do this. Because left up to me I probably would have never done it. Thank you for being the strength and support in everything I do. Buzz with Danu - Isuru & Natasha Fonseka Buzz with Danu - Shivantha Wijesinha Buzz With Danu: Shivanthi Silva	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line185
__label__wiki	0.738309	0.738309	Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists > Lists > Film Lists > 10 of The Most Unconventional Road Movies of The 20th Century 10 of The Most Unconventional Road Movies of The 20th Century Posted on May 31, 2020 May 31, 2020 by Tia Miseria We are all in this vast landscape that is life, on a journey toward the discovery of ourselves and others. That’s why a road trip can easily become a metaphor for human life. There is something left behind and a future that is coming. Some know their way, others just wander. The trip has been a prolific theme in the universal narrative because it allows the random, the multiplicity of characters and settings. Not by chance “The Odyssey” is the most influential work in history. Cinema, by being a succession of moving images, can be compared to an extensive road, where as spectators we travel to a final destination. The origins of road movies came from mythical epics but also as a progression of the western genre, where the horse was replaced by the car. Others consider that it was born with Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” Undoubtedly, it became visible as a genre with “Easy Rider” (1969) although it had emerged a long time before films like “It Happened One Night” (1934) or “Wild Strawberries” (1957), but no one considered them examples of a new genre because they fit in with others. The consecration of road movies was achieved with the ‘60s counterculture where all manifestations pointed to the same objective: breaking with the status quo and old traditions to proclaim freedom of expression. The road became a means of escape, to leave behind the ghosts of war and move toward a new beginning in an improvised experience. Migrations and escapes made by cars, trains, airplanes, buses or ships. We must understand that this genre can easily escape from its common space by adapting to the different socio-economic development of each country. In this way, it’s a legitimate wandering made by foot or a road movie off-road. This list searches for films that transgress the American road movie archetypes, proposing an avant-garde form with nonlinear narratives, free montages, dissonant sound worlds, and stylization of image. We are in front of a combative cinema facing its worst enemy – conventionalism – and attacking it with experimentation and authenticity. 1. Pierrot Le Fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard) The tragic and misfit Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo), after being fired from his work and disgusted by the frivolity of the world around him, embarks with Marianne (Anna Karina), a childish femme fatale, on a romantic getaway breaking all laws, even those of cinema. Among guns, books, musical scenes and tragedy, this duo will face the impossibility of love. Based on a crime novel and born in the middle of Godard’s breakup with the main actress, this film becomes a mirror of the love betrayal he had to face and also his own struggle in the research for a unique style. Godard breaks the narrative logic with a fragmentary mise-en-scene, as a collage, with inserted frames of magazines, paintings, vignettes, and handwriting, using an introspective voice-over and a discontinuous soundtrack to make the viewer aware of the subjective nature of creation. Brecht’s groundbreaking style direction, the combined color palette, the jump of axis and ellipsis, the documentary and theatrical tone, the welter of genres, and infinite references that go from pop art to Velazquez, converge in an authentic experimental work. Godard in this film (or in his own words, “in this attempt to make a film”) plays his most subversive weapon, rejecting the verisimilitude. 2. Touki Bouki (1973, Djibril Diop Mambéty) Mory and Anta, an unhappy young couple from post-colonial Senegal, dream of fleeing to Paris on the next ship. They ride the streets of Dakar by motorcycle, plotting a plan to reach the other side of the ocean. After stealing money, they buy the tickets. But when the ship is ready for departure, Mory’s ghosts around his childhood and homeland will appear. Is Paris the Promised Land? Mambéty laughs at frivolity, showing how the young couple fantasizes about power and recognition, in a key scene where they both parade in a car, adopting an extravagant personality and being praised by the neighborhood that previously used to hate them. “Touki Bouki” exposes the clash of two contradictory cultures that, when merged, cause the division of the members of a society, between those who value their own and those who desire what is foreign. This film is a hybrid between African traditions and Nouvelle Vague. The free and associative editing incorporates a cyclical vision that breaks with linear narrative. The director claims to be a griot (an old African poet who tells stories) but is also strongly influenced by Godard, in the pictorial of color and sound dissonance. Seagulls and the sea collide with the ironic soundtrack with the song “Paris, Paris.” Poetic and political, “Touki Bouki” shows us the misfortune of thousands of young Africans who seek luck in Europe, but only find mistreatment and death. 3. The Children of the Stork (1999, Tony Gatlif) Otto, an unemployed young man who sells newspapers, and Louna, a crazy and exploited hairdresser, both tired of having no hope in future, join to hit the road next to Ali, an intellectual boy who escapes from his family’s attempts to hide their Muslim roots. Paris is polluted and starved, but this anarchic trio rebels against capitalist society by stealing cars and burning whatever they cross. On the way they will find a stork with an injured wing who will ask them for help to cross the border with Germany. The stork, being a migratory bird, works as a metaphor for the problem of immigration and borders. Gatlif took a risk with this eccentric road movie where the narrator laughs at the characters, with sharp jump cuts, ellipsis, and sound collages, reminding us of Godard’s innovations in the ‘60s. Far away from his gypsy theme, this journey of mischief is perhaps the strangest thing in Gatlif’s cinema, but his usual characters remain: nomads who have nothing to lose but their chains. Otto, Louna and Ali are like storks, free birds that will always be foreigners because they don’t care about conventionalist existence. And they have no other home than a nest in the roof. 4. Walkabout (1971, Nicolas Roeg) From the bricks of a facade to a desert, from citizens locked to fulfill an established role to the messy stones of a vast open ground, we are in front of a clear confrontation between white civilization and barbarism. Two children are abandoned in the desert. Without water and food, they must survive in the Australian outback. Their null notion of survival doesn’t allow them to find a way out. It’s an aboriginal teenager who, in the middle of a ‘walkabout’, will save them. But they can’t communicate through language nor can they understand themselves by their opposite conceptions of life. Meanwhile, as the aboriginal child hunts to feed them, they insist on clinging to their occidental values. Making a parallel editing through images of animals free in their wilderness and indiscriminate hunting, there are two cultures that meet. One that is interested in survival and the other only in commerce. John Barry’s heavenly and exotic soundtrack joined to panoramic and detailed shots converge on this disorienting pilgrimage through the strange fauna of the Australian outback, where the cyclical spirit of nature feeds on death to sprout again and again. 5. Wild at Heart (1990, David Lynch) Sailor and Lula must face the adversities of their love, being stalked by a controlling mother and perverted characters. Although this young couple embodies the archetype of misfits and rebels, Lynch breaks with the tradition of American road movies, adding surrealism. With unconventional editing that breaks linearity through flashbacks, parallels, and narrative ellipsis, Lynch offers us this twisted and modern ode of “The Wizard of Oz,” which looks more like a nightmare playing between the childish and sordid. Most Unconventional Road Movies The 20 Most Underrated Movie Soundtracks of All Time The 10 Best Romance Films of 2019	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line196
__label__wiki	0.507325	0.507325	Jack and Jill Crutches Recycling At the jack and Jill foundation appeal for people to donate their old crutches. With Senator O'Brien, Daly and Mattie McGrathTD Crutches and zimmer-frames, essential in aiding our mobility following an accident or illness, have for years now, found long-term retirement homes in attics across the length and breadth of the country. The HSE’s no-returns policy when it comes to crutches and zimmer frames has meant that once patients were finished with such items, they had no further use – until now that is. Recently, the Jack and Jill Foundation have been retained by the HSE to collect all these abandoned, old, dust-catching crutches and zimmer frames to be recycled to the benefit of the Jack & Jill Foundation There could be one million crutches out there in Irish homes just taking up space; environmental hazard, waste of money. These old crutches will help support Jack & Jill families up and down the country. So this is win win for everyone and good opportunity to remind people to keep sending in their old mobiles too Tragic death of Elaine Curley, Creggs Speaking on the order of Business Thursday, 19 July 2012: I ask the Leader of the House to devote time today to debate another matter raised by Senator Norris, namely the tragic death of Ms Elaine Curley, who was only 19 years old. She was 15 minutes away from Roscommon Hospital when she was involved in a car crash on the Galway-Roscommon border. Due to the closure of the accident and emergency department in Roscommon Hospital, she died. She is the first real, declared tragedy of the decision by the Government of Deputies James Reilly and Enda Kenny, who gave commitments and promises to the people of Roscommon that the accident and emergency department in Roscommon would be retained. They misled the people. This young girl is a victim of the policies of the Fine Gael, Labour Government. Angry scenes erupt in Seanad in debate over Roscommon death http://www.shannonside.ie/news-details.php?nid=12886 HSE defends two-hour tragic ambulance trip http://www.independent.ie/national-news/hse-defends-twohour-tragic-ambulance-trip-3174221.html 35 years...time flies! On 5th July 1977, the 21st Dail met for the first time. 35 years ago this week. The say a week is a long time in politics, well 35 years have passed since I first walked through the gates of Leinster house as an elected representative. I was asked this week of my memories of the day - I remember it as if it was only last week. Its interesting * An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD and myself are the only 2 remaining TDs elected in 1977 that are elected members of the current Oireachtas * It was 54 years since Roscommon had elected a Roscommon Town Fianna Fail TD to Leinster House About this election: My first general election campaign. The Irish general election of 1977 was held on 16 June 1977 and is regarded as a pivotal point in twentieth century Irish politics. Quota = 8,892 Name 1st Pref Share of Vote Joan T Burke (FG) 7,862 0.22 Terry Leyden (FF) 6,563 0.18 Sean Doherty (FF) 5,968 0.17 A grainy image taken from The Connaught Tribune from the count	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line197
__label__wiki	0.625374	0.625374	“HUMAN RIGHTS” WARRIORS FOR EMPIRE \| Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch admin Feb 16, 2012 Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Humanitarian Agencies, The International Campaign to Destabilize Syria, The War on Libya - There Was No Evidence “Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have chosen sides in the Washington-backed belligerency – the side of Empire.” Syria has no choice but to secure every square foot of its territory. “Faced with the certainty of superpower-backed attack under the guise of ‘protecting’ civilians in “liberated” territory, Syria cannot afford to cede even one neighborhood of a single city – not one block! – or of any rural or border enclave, to armed rebels and foreign jihadis.” “NATO wants desperately to identify some sliver of Syrian soil on which to plant the ‘humanitarian’ flag of intervention.” The largest imperial offensive since the Iraq invasion of March, 2003, is in full swing, under the banner of “humanitarian” intervention – Barack Obama’s fiendishly clever upgrade of George Bush’s “dumb” wars. Having failed to obtain a Libyan-style United Nations Security Council fig leaf for a “humanitarian” military strike against Syria, the United States shifts effortlessly to a global campaign “outside the U.N. system” to expand its NATO/Persian Gulf royalty/Jihadi coalition. Next stop: Tunisia, where Washington’s allies will assemble on February 24 to sharpen their knives as “Friends of Syria.” The U.S. State Department has mobilized to shape the “Friends” membership and their “mandate” – which is warlord-speak for refining an ad hoc alliance for the piratical assault on Syria’s sovereignty. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are swigging the ale with their fellow buccaneers. These “human rights” warriors, headquartered in the bellies of empires past and present, their chests shiny with medals of propagandistic service to superpower aggression in Libya, contribute “left” legitimacy to the imperial project. London-based Amnesty International held a global “day of action” to rail against Syria for “crimes against humanity” and to accuse Russia and China of using their Security Council vetoes to “betray” the Syrian people – echoing the war hysteria out of Washington, Paris, London and the royal pigsties of Riyadh and Doha. New York-based Human Rights Watch denounced Moscow and Beijing’s actions as “incendiary” – as if it were not the empire and its allies who were setting the Middle East and Africa on fire, arming and financing jihadis – including hundreds of veteran Libyan Salafists now operating in Syria. “Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch contribute ‘left’ legitimacy to the imperial project.” Under Obama’s “intelligent” (as opposed to “dumb”) imperial tutelage, colonial genocidaires like France now propose creation of “humanitarian corridors” inside Syria “to allow NGOs to reach the zones where there are scandalous massacres.” NATO flatly rejected such a corridor in Libya when sub-Saharan Africans and black Libyans were being massacred by militias armed and financed by the same “Friends” that now besiege Syria. Turkey claims it has rejected, for now, the idea of setting up humanitarian “buffer zones” along its border with Syria – inside Syrian territory – while giving arms, training and sanctuary to Syrian military deserters. In reality, it is Syrian Army troop and armor concentrations on the border that have thwarted the establishment of such a “buffer” – a bald euphemism for creating a “liberated zone” that must be “protected” by NATO or some agglomeration of U.S.-backed forces. NATO, which bombed Libya non-stop for six months, inflicting tens of thousands of casualties while refusing to count a single body, wants desperately to identify some sliver of Syrian soil on which to plant the “humanitarian” flag of intervention. They are transparently searching for a Benghazi, to justify a replay of the Libyan operation – the transparent fact that prompted the Russian and Chinese vetoes. Faced with the certainty of superpower-backed attack under the guise of “protecting” civilians in “liberated” territory, Syria cannot afford to cede even one neighborhood of a single city – not one block! – or of any rural or border enclave, to armed rebels and foreign jihadis. That road leads directly to loss of sovereignty and possible dissection of Syria – which western pundits are already calling a “hodge-podge” nation that could be a “failed state.” Certainly, the French and British are experts at carving up other people’s territories, having drawn the national boundaries of the region after World War One. It is an understatement to say that Israel would be pleased. “It is the Libya formula, and might as well have come straight from Barack Obama’s mouth.” With the Syrian military’s apparent successes in securing most of Homs and other centers of rebellion, the armed opposition has stepped up its terror tactics – a campaign noted with great alarm by the Arab League’s own Observer Mission to Syria, leading Saudi Arabia and Qatar to suppress the Mission’s report. Instead, the Gulf States are pressing the Arab League to openly “provide all kinds of political and material support” to the opposition, meaning arms and, undoubtedly, more Salafist fighters. Aleppo, Syria’s main commercial and industrial city, which had seen virtually no unrest, was struck by two deadly car bombs last week – signature work of the al-Qaida affiliate in neighboring Iraq. The various “Friends of Syria,” all nestled in the U.S./NATO/Saudi/Qatar cocoon, now openly speak of all-out civil war in Syria – by which they mean stepped up armed conflict financed and directed by themselves – as the preferred alternative to the protracted struggle that the regime appears to be winning. There is one caveat: no “Western boots on the ground in any form,” as phrased by British Foreign Secretary William Hague. It is the Libya formula, and might as well have come straight from Barack Obama’s mouth. Syria is fighting for its national existence against an umbrella of forces mobilized by the United States and NATO. Of the 6,000 or so people that have died in the past 11 months, about a third have been Syrian soldiers and police – statistical proof positive that this is an armed assault on the state. There is no question of massive foreign involvement, or that the aim of U.S. policy is regime change, as stated repeatedly by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (“Assad must go,” she told reporters in Bulgaria). Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have chosen sides in the Washington-backed belligerency – the side of Empire. As groups most often associated with (what passes for) the Left in their headquarters countries, they are invaluable allies of the current imperial offensive. They have many fellow travelers in (again, what passes for) anti-war circles in the colonizing and neo-colonizing nations. The French “Left” lifted hardly a finger while a million Algerians died in the struggle for independence, and have not proved effective allies of formerly colonized people in the 50 years, since. Among the European imperial powers, only Portugal’s so-called Carnation Revolution of 1974, a coup by young officers, resulted in substantial relief for the subjects of empire: the withdrawal of troops from Portugal’s African colonies. “Of the 6,000 or so people that have died in the past 11 months, about a third have been Syrian soldiers and police – statistical proof positive that this is an armed assault on the state.” The U.S. anti-war movement lost its mass character as soon as the threat of a draft was removed, in the early Seventies, while the United States continued to bomb Vietnam (and test new and exotic weapons on its people) until the fall of Saigon, in 1975. All that many U.S. lefties seemed to want was to get the Republicans off their backs, in 2008, and to Hell with the rest of the world. Democrat Barack Obama has cranked the imperial war machine back into high gear, with scarcely a peep from the “Left.” There was great ambivalence – the most polite word I can muster – among purported leftists in the United States and Europe to NATO’s bombardment and subjugation of Libya. Here we are again, in the face of existential imperial threats to Syria and Iran, as leftists temporize about human rights while the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” blazes new warpaths. There is no such thing as an anti-war activist who is not an anti-imperialist. And the only job of an anti-imperialist in the belly of the beast is to disarm the beast. Absent that, s/he is useless to humanity. As we used to say: You are part of the solution – or you are part of the problem. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are part of the problem. BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line205
__label__wiki	0.582864	0.582864	Duluth’s Park Police The very first badge worn by a Duluth park policeman, issued to either Joseph Plaunt or David Waugh in 1890. (Image courtesy of Andrew Ebling) When Duluth’s Park Board met on March 26, 1890—roughly a year after it was created—President William K. Rogers explained there was a “necessity for police supervision in the several parks and along the connecting driveway to prevent the deposit of offal and garbage and injury to trees and undergrowth.” Everyone agreed and voted for the following resolution: “Resolved: that the President of the Board is hereby authorized to request of the proper city authorities the appointment of two policemen to patrol…public grounds…to the strict enforcement of the police regulations of the City therein. Payment for services to be made by the Board.” Five days later the Duluth News Tribune reported that Joseph Plaunt and David Vaugh had been “sworn as special policeman…to do duty on the boulevard through the summer season.” The article noted that the men were already Park Board employees and would serve “without pay from the city.” Vaugh was assigned to Lincoln Park, and the Board provided him with a modest house to live in. Besides maintenance work on the Boulevard (“cleaning gutters, raking and leveling and other wise keeping it in good condition for driving”) the park police “looked out for any violation of the ordinances of the board….” In 1896, the Board hired two men to serve as combination gardeners/park policemen in Cascade and Portland squares from May 1 to November 1 of each year, “one for day and one for night duty in either park.” The report predicted that Lester and Lincoln parks, which had one park policeman each, would require additional employees as “it was found necessary to have those same men remain on duty in their capacities of policemen until midnight much of the time….” That same year a park policeman named Johnson arrested two men for fighting in Lincoln Park. Vaugh’s career as a park policeman ended with his tragic death in 1896. In late February an unconscious Vaugh was brought to a police station, said to be inebriated, but it was soon discovered he had suffered internal head injuries and he was transported to St. Mary’s Hospital. Dr. William Magie suggested he had been beaten over the head with a sandbag, thus explaining why he had no external injuries. He remained unconscious for some time. Meanwhile, two people were questioned, including George Twaddle, who claimed to be Vaugh’s companion the night of the attack. Twaddle said Vaugh was attacked by an “unknown man” while the two were visiting the West End home of Mrs. Annie Cyers, who fled town. Vaugh emerged from his coma in early March. When Park Board Secretary Henry Helm visited Vaugh in the hospital, the injured park policeman asserted that George Twaddle was “a liar” and that he had been beaten with a rubber club at the West End saloon of Bob Kennedy, a former alderman—and former friend of Vaugh’s until the pair had a major falling out. Police suspended the investigation until Vaugh recovered and could “make good his statements.” He never did, slipping into a state of delirium until he died on April 10. Twaddle was arrested the next day as he sat drinking inside Kennedy’s Saloon; the following day Cyers was tracked down and arrested. Both were released due to lack of evidence. The case was never solved. Duluth’s Common Council forced extra duty on park police in 1902, when an ordinance called for park police to act as pound masters. Similar to an animal control officer today, a pound master was responsible for the feeding and care of wayward livestock such as hogs, cattle, horses, and geese placed in the town pound, but he did not control dogs or cats. The ordinance called for park police to perform the extra duties “without extra compensation from the city.” That same year the Board’s annual report lamented the expense of the park police—and how hard it was to find good men to serve: “The greatest single item of expense in this connection [maintenance] is for the caretakers…whose duties are combined in those of policemen as well as workmen, positions hard to fill…with any great degree of satisfaction to either the Board or public at large.” Three years later the Park Board employed a total of fourteen park policemen; by 1910 that number was reduced to eleven: two at Fairmount, Lincoln, Cascade, and Portland and one at Lester and the five squares in Lakeside. The park police mostly dealt with improper conduct and property damage. Such was the case in 1905, when a park policeman arrested a teamster who had allowed his horse to chew the bark off two shade trees. And in July 1912, four young men were arrested in Lincoln Park after they hired single-horse livery rigs and raced “through section of the park reserved for foot passengers” while singing and shouting. Ten days later park police arrested a man for “using bad language within Lincoln Park.” Apparently, the man had been sleeping in the park and, when awoken by park police, “became angered that his nap should have been disturbed and wanted to fight.” In 1921, park police stayed on duty through Christmas in order to “curb vandalism and the theft of evergreen trees.” Earlier that year Park Superintendent Henry Cleveland commented after a park policeman interrupted a couple kissing in one of the city’s parks. “There is no city ordinance against kissing in Duluth parks,” Cleveland said. “There is one, however, against disorderly conduct. We have not instructed our park police to prohibit kissing in the park.” Park policeman John Mullen was accused of negligence in 1922 when a ten-year-old boy drowned at the Indian Point swimming beach in Fairmount Park. Cleveland exonerated Mullen, saying that the park policeman could not swim because of an injured limb and “did all in his power to save the boy.” Besides, Cleveland explained, the beach had been closed due to pollution and the Park Board had posted “six signs forbidding swimming”—but boys kept tearing them down. Mullen’s job was to supervise the tourist camp, not act as a lifeguard. When F. Rodney Paine replaced Cleveland as Park Superintendent in 1926 he eliminated the use of the term “park police.”Thereafter the men who maintained and policed Duluth’s parks were called “caretakers.” In 1928 Duluth employed twelve caretakers for its busiest parks: Carl Johnson (Lincoln Park), John Bradley (Lester Park), Ole Anderson (Fairmount Park), George Cauchy (Chester Park, upper), Ernest Wolf (Chester Park, lower), J. Walling (Portland Square), Charles Onraet (Magney Park), John Hate (Kitchi Gammi Park), Paul Lusua (Lakeshore Park), and Arvid Koskinen and C. E. Read (both at Fond du Lac Park). During the 1930s and 40s the city’s larger parks had full-time caretakers while the the caretakers at smaller parks worked half time. Caretakers are not mentioned in annual Park Department reports after 1949.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line211
__label__wiki	0.802588	0.802588	Lubbock Authorities Cancel Evacuation After Thursday Morning Hydrochloric Acid Leak Jacob Estrada Chris Bernard Updated September 12th,2019, 9:30 a.m.: It's being reported that a hydrochloric acid leak is to blame for an evacuation called by the Lubbock Police Department on Thursday, Sept. 12th. KAMC News reports that Hazmat, EMS, and other first responders were called to the leak at 2701 East 66th Street at around 7:15 a.m. The leak was located near the Hydrite chemical plant, located at 2701 E 66th Street in Southeast Lubbock. According to Acidsolutions.com, Hydrochloric Acid has a, "corrosive effect on human tissue, with the potential to damage respiratory organs, eyes, skin, and intestines irreversibly." Neighborhoods and businesses between Vanda Avenue and Southeast Drive from East 48th Street to East 66th Street were evacuated as a precaution. Lubbock police and Lubbock Fire Rescue say they had stopped the spill itself, but that as of 9 a.m. it was still emitting a vapor cloud. At 9:36 a.m., however, Lubbock authorities said the spill had been completely contained and that residents could return to the evacuated area. Download the KFYO app for more Lubbock news Original Story: At around 8 a.m. Thursday morning (Sept. 12th), the Lubbock Police Department sent out an alert through the LBK Alert system asking the public to evacuate the area between Vanda Avenue and Southeast Drive from East 48th Street to East 66th Street. The LPD claims that hazardous materials are present in the 2700 block of East 66th, but have not specified what kind or exactly how dangerous the materials might be. Filed Under: Lubbock Police Department	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line212
__label__wiki	0.751359	0.751359	(→Host) (and various stand-ins including Mark Goodier, Richard Allinson, Stuart Maconie, Alex Lester, [[Dermot O'Leary]], [[Charles Nove]], [[Aled Jones]], etc.) (and various stand-ins including Mark Goodier, Richard Allinson, Stuart Maconie, Alex Lester, [[Dermot O'Leary]], [[Charles Nove]], [[Aled Jones]], [[Simon Mayo]], etc.) (and various stand-ins including Mark Goodier, Richard Allinson, Stuart Maconie, Alex Lester, Dermot O'Leary, Charles Nove, Aled Jones, Simon Mayo, etc.) BBC Radio 2 (as part of The Ken Bruce Show), 1996 to present The quiz was run in two parts (at 10.25 and 11.15) for several years but is now back to its original all-in-one form (indeed, practically a show within a show) at around 10.30. The last major tweak (in January 2005) was to have the two contestants on air simultaneously, answering alternate questions, with unanswered questions passed over to the other contestant for a bonus, which only lasted a week or two before being given up as A Really Bad Idea. (This format was briefly revived for the Children In Need Celebrity Popmaster week in November 2006.) Winners go through to endgame Three In Ten, naming three hits by a given group or artist in ten seconds. This is very much pot luck - sometimes it'll be someone like the Rolling Stones or Status Quo, but sometimes it's a real stinker like Shalamar or Go West, where you think "have they even had three hits?". Top prize is a DAB radio worth about £100, which isn't bad for a daily phone-in, winners who don't name three in ten get a "flip-up radio" (which replaced the mysterious "space radio" in May 2007). Occasionally someone still asks for an inflatable chair, even though that particular consolation prize hasn't been given away in years. The year's top scorers come back in December for Champions League Popmaster, with some posh hi-fi equipment for the overall champ. During a period from July 2007 to January 2008 when all BBC phone-in quizzes were suspended due to mismanagement and defrauding the public, Popmaster was played using celebrity contestants. The first (and indeed, only) celeb to score maximum points was Richard Drummie from the aforementioned Go West - and what made this particularly impressive is that he did it without the outrageous giveaway clues Ken usually dished out to the celebrity players. The music bed for the quiz lasts seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds. Or at least, the old one did. They introduced a new music bed and jingles in January 2008 to coincide with the return of the regular non-celeb version. Popmaster online application form	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line214
__label__wiki	0.961455	0.961455	Puerto Rico Lays Out Energy Future With Tesla, Privatization Written by Jonathan Levin. This article first appeared in Bloomberg Markets. A Puerto Rican official who has been in talks with Tesla Inc. said the island is serious about transforming its energy infrastructure after it was leveled by Category 4 Hurricane Maria, despite questions about how such an overhaul would be funded. Speaking in a telephone interview Sunday, Department of Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Manuel Laboy said Puerto Rico’s government understands its skeptics: The island’s finances are shot and its electricity system is in tatters. But he said the U.S. territory has a historic opportunity to use federal funds to modernize an aging and weak power grid. At the core of the argument is the government’s belief that funding related to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, can be used to build a new system, not just repair the old one, so that it won’t be susceptible to collapse when the next storm hits. Laboy said Governor Ricardo Rossello’s government is prepared to make its case. “There is a fair chance that we can pull this off,” he said by phone from Ponce, Puerto Rico. Even before the storm, Puerto Rico’s decades-old energy system was known to be dirty, inefficient and vulnerable, with most of the production in the south and the demand in the northern part of the island. It also saddled consumers with above-average energy bills. When the hurricane barreled through a month ago, most of Puerto Rico was left in the dark. The blackout has brought the already struggling economy to a near-standstill. Laboy said the government is considering a series of micro-grids and regional grids that use solar and battery technology, along with other renewable sources. He said he’s been in talks with Tesla Inc. since Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk exchanged messages with Rossello on Twitter. Tesla, a maker of electric cars, also sells batteries to consumers to combine with rooftop solar systems. The island is considering options with other companies including Sonnen GmbH, Arensis Corp. and Sunnova Energy Corp., Laboy said. It’s “highly probable” that the government would hold a competitive bidding process. In one scenario, a private company or companies could run power generation while the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority manages transmission, he said. Operators have approached Puerto Rico already, he said, declining to disclose their names. The relationship between Puerto Rico and the Palo Alto, California-based car maker began years ago when the island sought to bring in Tesla jobs, Laboy said. He said he had traveled to meet with Tesla officials as recently as June. The island is also working with renewable-energy companies on near-term projects to ensure power to hospitals and schools, he said.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line216
__label__wiki	0.567325	0.567325	Various books, papers and policy briefs related to IG and IG institutions An introduction to internet governance, by Jovan Kurbalija, 2014 \| The aim of this book, now in its fifth edition, is to provide a comprehensive overview of the main issues and actors in the field through a practical framework for analysis, discussion, and resolution of significant issues. Between Coordination and Regulation: Conceptualizing Governance in Internet Governance, By Jeanette Hofmann, Christian Katzenbach, and Kirsten Gollatz, August 2014 \| This paper contributes to the recent move towards a more systematic reflection on the conceptual foundations of Internet governance. It is led by the question of how to define (Internet) governance in a way that is theoretically grounded as well as empirically instructive. For this aim, it mobilizes literature from the broader field of governance and regulation studies as well as sociological theory and applies these concepts to issues of Internet governance. Beyond NETmundial, edited by William J. Drake, August 2014 \| Beyond NETmundial: The Roadmap for Institutional Improvements to the Global Internet Governance Ecosystem explores options for the implementation of a key section of the “NETmundial Multistakeholder Statement” that was adopted at the Global Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (NETmundial) held on April 23rd and 24th 2014 in São Paulo, Brazil. The Roadmap section of the statement concisely sets out a series of proposed enhancements to existing mechanisms for global internet governance, as well as suggestions of possible new initiatives that the global community may wish to consider. The sixteen chapters by leading practitioners and scholars are grouped into six sections: The NETmundial Meeting; Strengthening the Internet Governance Forum; Filling the Gaps; Improving ICANN; Broader Analytical Perspectives; and Moving Forward. Global Information Society Watch reports Internet Architecture Board: Privacy considerations for internet protocols, Cooper et al., July 2013 \| This document offers guidance for developing privacy considerations for inclusion in protocol specifications. It aims to make designers, implementers, and users of Internet protocols aware of privacy-related design choices. It suggests that whether any individual RFC warrants a specific privacy considerations section will depend on the document’s content. Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies edited by William H. Dutton, 2013 \| The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies has been designed to provide a resource in this area, bringing together scholarly perspectives on how the Internet has been studied and how the research agenda should be pursued in the future. The book aims to focus on Internet studies as an emerging field, each chapter seeking to provide a synthesis and critical assessment of the research in a particular area. The Role of Governments in Internet Governance by Jeremy Malcolm, May 2013 \| Presentation which analyzes the role of governments in internet governance. The Duality of Information Policy Debates: The Case of the Internet Governance Forum, by Dmitry Epstein, January 2012 \| This project focuses on the dynamics of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as a non-binding multistakeholder debate about information policymaking. Using the theory of structuration and critical discourse analysis, Epstein explores how the nation-state-centric and the internet-community centric perceptions of authority and approaches to decision-making manifest themselves in the forum and what political and cultural norms they reify. Human rights and Internet protocols: comparing processes and principles, by Avri Doria and Joy Liddicoat, December 2012 \| The Internet is a network that empowers at the edges, rather that the centre, rendering it a profoundly democratic and rights-fostering platform. Human rights are principles that seek to empower those at the margins rather than at the centre of power, rendering them a fundamentally empowering framework for individuals. This paper explores human rights and Internet protocols by comparing the processes for their making and the principles by which they operate. A Long Way to Go: Civil Society Participation in Internet Governance in MIND Collaboratory discussion paper series No. 1, by Anriette Esterhuysen, September 2011 \| The internet is not a level playing field. We need to deal with conflicts of interests, differences in accountability and in ability to participate. Multi-stakeholder participation in internet policy-making has a long way to go if it is to really deepen democracy. The APC ICT Policy Handbook Second Edition, by APC/Ed, David Souter, November 2009 \| This handbook aims to take the mystery out of ICTpolicy and make it easier to understand. In particular, it aims to build the capacity of those who want to understand more about the issues surrounding policy on ICT development and regulation, to grasp the policy process, and to become more involved as informed participants. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Affirmation of commitments, 2009\| The Affirmation of Commitments signed on September 30th 2009 between ICANN and the US Department of Commerce (Affirmation) contains specific provisions for periodic review of four key ICANN objectives. These reviews provide a mechanism to assess and report on ICANN’s progress toward fundamental organizational objectives; they are: Ensuring accountability, transparency and the interests of global Internet users; Preserving security, stability and resiliency of the DNS; Promoting competition, consumer trust and consumer choice; WHOIS policy. Frequently asked questions about multi-stakeholder partnerships in ICTs for development, by APC, September 2007 \| In response to the growing demand for information on multi-stakeholder processes in ICT policy, APC produced the book “Frequently asked questions about multi-stakeholder partnerships in ICTs for development – a guide for national ICT policy animators”. The Working Group Of Internet Governance (WGIG): Background Report, Chateau de Bossey 2005 \| The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) was set up by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in accordance with the mandate given to him during the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva, on 10-12 December 2003. The WGIG comprised 40 members from Governments, private sector and civil society, who all participated on an equal footing and in their personal capacity. The background report includes much of the work produced in the course of the WGIG process. New challenges to governance theory by Renate Mayntz, 1998 \| The subject of this paper is the development, and the successive modifications, governance theory, a theory that began by being concerned with the steering actions of political authorities as they deliberately attempt to shape socio-economic structures and processes. South Africa is caught in the global hype of the fourth industrial revolution by Alison Gillwald, 2019 \| The article discusses how the trend of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has distracted South Africa a country in the southern region of Africa from addressing more pertinent issues in it’s country; redressing inequality and creating the preconditions for an inclusive digital economy and society.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line223
__label__wiki	0.506131	0.506131	Christopher Judge Information Christopher Judge Douglas Christopher Judge is an American actor best known for playing Teal'c in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. He attended the University of Oregon on a football scholarship and was a Pacific Ten Conference player. EXP Con 2019 - October 11-13, 2019 in St. Augustine, FL, USA Pyrkon 2019 - April 26-28, 2019 in Poznań, Poland SacAnime 2018 - August 31 - September 2, 2018 in Sacramento, CA, USA Pensacon 2018 - February 23-25, 2018 in Pensacola, FL, USA Dragon Con 2017 - September 1-4, 2017 in Atlanta, GA, USA Supanova Pop Culture Expo - Perth 2017 - June 23-25, 2017 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia Supanova Pop Culture Expo - Sydney 2017 - June 16-18, 2017 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Paris Manga & Sci-Fi Show 2017 - March 25-26, 2017 in Paris, France Supanova Pop Culture Expo - Melbourne 2016 - April 15-17, 2016 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Supanova Pop Culture Expo - Gold Coast 2016 - April 8-10, 2016 in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia Armageddon Christchurch 2016 - March 12-13, 2016 in Christchurch, New Zealand Armageddon Manukau 2016 - March 5-6, 2016 in Manukau, New Zealand Supanova Pop Culture Expo - Brisbane 2015 - November 27-29, 2015 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Supanova Pop Culture Expo - Adelaide 2015 - November 20-22, 2015 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Paris Manga & Sci-Fi Show 2015 - October 3-4, 2015 in Paris, France F.A.C.T.S. 2014 - October 18-19, 2014 in Ghent, Belgium Oz Comic-Con: Sydney 2014 - September 13-14, 2014 in Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia Oz Comic-Con: Brisbane 2014 - September 6-7, 2014 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Armageddon Expo Wellington 2014 - May 31 - June 2, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand Armageddon Expo Hamilton 2014 - May 24-25, 2014 in Hamilton, New Zealand Armageddon Expo Auckland 2012 - October 19-22, 2012 in Auckland, New Zealand Armageddon Expo Melbourne 2012 - October 13-14, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia London Film & Comic Con 2012 - July 6-8, 2012 in London Comicpalooza 2012 - May 25-27, 2012 in Houston, TX, USA New York Comic Con 2010 - October 8-10, 2010 in New York, NY, USA 26 confirmed guest appearances View Christopher Judge on FanCons.com for 27 additional guest appearances Tweets by iamchrisjudge Add or Update Information for Christopher Judge	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line225
__label__wiki	0.603285	0.603285	The Amazing Cave People of Malta by Mike Matthews and Joseph Mizzi on December 1, 2003 Originally published in Creation 26, no 1 (December 2003): 40-43. Evolutionist indoctrination has led many to link the idea of 'cave dwelling' with the notion of “primitive subhumans”. But this does not logically follow, as recent evidence confirms. “Do you believe in cavemen?” Sceptics think “gotcha!” when they ask this question. They might know the Bible says that Adam’s descendants built great cities, but they claim the “evidence” clearly shows that early humans lived in caves. “Of course we believe in cavemen,” we respond, “if by ‘cavemen’ you mean people who live in caves.” Just visit the town of Coober Pedy in South Australia, where opals are mined—it’s so hot that some miners live in underground houses. Real live “cavemen” with TV sets! Cave, Sweet Cave! There was “no place like home” to the cave dwellers of Ghar il-Kbir. Foreigners were struck by their intense devotion to cave life. “These people are so tied to their cave that when they have to go to the city of Melita either to sell their merchandise or in order to buy their needs, they feel as if they were condemned to exile and no sooner do they finish their errands, than they hurry back to their caves lest they spend even one night away.” – Kircher, 16371 “… these Maltese Troglodytes … rather chose to bury themselves, as it were, alive, by inhabiting the dark and solitary Caverns of the Earth, than to live above ground in Houses … .” – Veryard, 17012 The discovery of modern cave dwellers should not surprise us. But evolutionary ideas have brainwashed us to believe that cave dwellers are “primitive”. We need to remember that evidence must be interpreted—it does not speak for itself. If Christians look at cave dwellers through biblical glasses, they should realize that Noah’s descendants chose to live in caves, perhaps for convenience or personal preference, but not because they were brainless brutes! Zammit Ciantar, J., Life at Ghar il-Kbir, Dingli Local Council, Malta, p. 11, 2000. Back. Veryard, E., An Account of Divers Choice Remarks, as well Geographical, as Historical, Political, Mathematical, Physical, and Moral; taken in a Journey through the Low-Countries, France, Italy, and Part of Spain; with the isles of Sicily and Malta, Sam Farley, London, pp. 233–236, 1701. Back. Well, we answered the question. But the question is not really about cavemen at all. It’s about those hairy, cave-dwelling “apemen” so often depicted in books and museums. People assume, based on their evolutionary beliefs, that humans who once lived in caves were primitive brutes. But this is not a deduction from the evidence; rather, it is a consequence of evolutionary conditioning. Even the caves occupied by Neandertals show clear evidence that they were skilful human beings, even talented musicians. The Bible describes a number of “cavemen”. In Genesis, we find that Lot was once a “caveman” (after he fled Sodom). When David was running from King Saul, he lived in a cave. Obadiah hid a hundred prophets in a cave and fed them bread and water, to save them from Jezebel. To escape the Midianites, the Israelites lived temporarily in caves. Elijah himself lived in a cave. Even Job mentions people who lived in caves ( Job 30:6 ). From the viewpoint of biblical history, as people spread out after the confusion of languages at Babel, they would have constructed a variety of homes—some temporary and some permanent—such as tents, or made of mud, stone or wood, and many people would surely have taken up residence in caves. (The receding waters of Noah’s Flood probably carved many caves.) Thus, you would expect evidence all over the world that people lived in caves. One interesting example comes from the island of Malta, south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. Mediterranean people have always liked caves and grottos as convenient and cool dwelling places. Malta is no exception. Here, the tradition of cave dwelling goes back to antiquity. There is strong archaeological and documentary evidence that cave dwelling, or troglodytism, was very popular during medieval times, too. When Jean Quintin d’Autun wrote about the island in 1536,1 he was surprised by the great number of cave dwellers in Malta; and there were still some people living in caves till very recent times. The remains of several of these cave settlements are still present, including some that had cave churches. The Great Cave Ghar il-Kbir (the Great Cave) is the best-known of these settlements.2,3,4,5,6 It consists of eight smaller caves, on two different levels, surrounding a large natural cavern. The roof of the cavern (technically called a “karst hollow”) has collapsed. The cave dwellers inhabit the smaller caves, having built stone walls inside (as well as at the entrance) to separate their living quarters. There is no evidence of wall painting (which is found at some other sites), but there are various works in stone—loops in the ceiling, ducts, shelves and niches, which evidently served practical purposes. The date of the earliest settlement at Ghar il-Kbir is unknown, but the first known mention of it, in 1544, is a reference to Simone Camilleri de gar il-chibir (Simone Camilleri of the Great Cave). The Maltese historian Giovanni Francesco Abela includes Ghar il-Kbir in his list of inhabited places on the island. He describes it as a vast cavern where 117 people lived, grouped in 27 families.7 They were pastori e pecorai—“shepherds and sheep-herders”. The most dramatic description of life at Ghar il-Kbir is given by the German scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) in his voluminous book Mundus Subterraneus (Latin for “World Beneath the Earth”).8 When he visited the place, tall, strong and simply dressed children and adults greeted him. He also noted that the women were remarkable for their good looks (which contrasts markedly with the pictures of brute and coarse women in children’s books!). The people were vegetarians, eating vegetables, cheese and home-baked bread, and using dried cow dung to fuel their fires. The men worked in the fields and tended animals, which were taken to town for sale. The women took care of the children and made cheese. Drinking water was stored in large earthen pitchers. The cavern was ventilated by shafts, devised to exclude rain and wind. The cave dwellers decorated the caves with crosses and holy pictures. A First-Hand “Tourist” Account Ghar il-Kbir became a mini–“tourist attraction” among the travellers of that day. Imagine visiting a real-life community in a cave. The published account of a German visitor, Athanasius Kircher, was most vivid: “In 1637, when I was in Malta, … [my host mentioned] that there was a hill in the vicinity where people who were his subjects live underground. He expressed the wish that I go and see them and admire the art with which they adorn these caves and how they organize the place where they live. … “[T]hey had truly well-organized rooms. … Here they have a bed dug out of solid rock. There, in the wall, they have a wall cupboard where they keep bread and cheeses. In another place they have pens for cows, sheep, and donkeys; and some hens as well. Pottery jars, large enough to hold water instead of cisterns, were not lacking. Onions and garlic, tied in bundles like festoons were hung up, adorning the walls. “There were also ovens for baking bread. … The ovens also have chimneys, otherwise … smoke would spread in the cave and the people would suffocate. …”1 The population gradually decreased, but some inhabitants still remained there at the beginning of the nineteenth century. According to popular accounts, the British colonial government forcibly expelled the last residents in the 1830s and resettled them in nearby villages. The church records in the nearby village of Dingli include personal details of the people who lived at Ghar il-Kbir. 2For example, in 1699, a 53-year-old man named Franco Vella lived there with his 38-year-old wife, Filumena, and their three children. Clearly, these cave dwellers were normal people who interacted with nearby villagers. While the noble and rich lived in palaces, the ordinary people lived in stone houses or in caves. These cave dwellings could not compare in architectural beauty with the nearby Verdala Palace, but during the hot summer months, the caves were surely more comfortable than anywhere else on the island. Zammit Ciantar, J., Life at Ghar il-Kbir, Dingli Local Council, Malta, pp. 8–10, 2000. Back Buhagiar, K., The Ghar il-Kbir Settlement and the Cave Dwelling Phenomenon in Malta, B.A. (Archaeology) thesis, University of Malta, 1997, Appendix 1, pp. 31–34. Back Quintin d’Autun, J., Insulae Melitae Descriptio, Lyons, France, 1536. Zammit Ciantar, J., Life at Ghar il-Kbir, Dingli Local Council, Malta, 2000. Wettinger, G., The lost villages and hamlets of Malta, in: Luttrell, A. (Ed.), Medieval Malta, London, p. 188, n. 24, 1975. Messina, A., Trogloditisma Medievale a Malta, Melita Historica, Malta Historical Society 10(2):109–120, 1989. Buhagiar, K., The Ghar il-Kbir Settlement and the Cave Dwelling Phenomenon in Malta, B.A. (Archaeology) thesis, University of Malta, chapter 2, pp. 19–23, 1997. Luttrell, A., Malta Troglodytica: Ghar il-Kbir, Heritage (publisher: Midsea Books, Malta) 24:461–464, 1979. Abela, G.F., Della Descrittione di Malta, Isola nel Mare Siciliano, Bonacota, Malta, pp. 79–80, 1647. A photocopy of pp. 97–99 in volume II of the original 1665 Latin text of Kircher, A., Mundus Subterraneus, can be found in Hein, O. and Mader, R., Athanasius Kircher S.J., in Malta, Akademie Verlag Berlin, pp. 139–141, 1997. Life in the Great Ice Age$15.99 Secrets of Ancient Man$21.99 The Mammoth and the Ice Age$12.99 The Cave Book$15.99 Evidence Against Evolution Scopes Trial Theory of Evolution	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line227
__label__wiki	0.758269	0.758269	Home » Google » “Great Sporting Land” tours Australia’s sports-mad history “Great Sporting Land” tours Australia’s sports-mad history Australians have a passion for sports—so much that it was perfectly normal for the Prime Minister to give the entire country the day off when they won a boat race back in 1983. Over generations, Australia’s favorite pastimes have shaped the country’s identity, values and culture. Along with the Melbourne Cricket Club, Australian Football League, National Portrait Gallery and the North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club, Google Arts & Culture is showcasing the people, moments and places that led Australia to become the “Great Sporting Land” it is today. The exhibition features over 11,000 archived images and videos, and more than 100 original stories from more than 30 partners. To do so, Google’s Art Camera technology has been on a marathon between sporting institutions across the country to capture over 200 pieces of art, archival materials, and artifacts in high-resolution gigapixel quality. Zoom into the details of Don Bradman’s original bat (held here by Steve Waugh). Learn about the lives of Australian sporting pioneers and female icons, including Sarah “Fanny” Durack. Explore The Melbourne Cricket Ground (affectionately known as ‘“he G.”) A Crows and a Dockers fan pose for a photograph at a Women’s AFL game. See thousands of new surf images online from North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club, the National Archives and the Australian National Surfing Museum Australian All Stars: Tune in to interviews with sporting stars. “Australia defeats England on home soil for the first time in 1882.” This is where the term “Ashes” was first coined. Sports can be an incredible vehicle for the inclusion of people with disabilities, including Blind Cricket. Join cricket legend Steve Waugh who will take you on a tour of the archives of the world-famous Bradman Museumwhere you can zoom in to the hand-etched scores on the back of Don Bradman’s first bat. Or take a trip to a changing room at The Sydney Cricket Ground, where visiting players have drawn their standout batting and bowling figures on the changing room door. You can also follow Steve Waugh through a video seriesthat offers never-before-seen insight into his work and memories of the sport. Then put on your cossies or your togs (swimwear) to feel the vibes of a trip into Summers Past from the National Archives of Australia —an exhibition celebrating the golden days in the Australian sunshine. The surf’s up when you Watch the Waves, a selection of photographs by the National Archives, or explore the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club in Google Street View. For Australians, sports are a part of national identity, pride and belonging, whether played by everyday people or world known icons. To discover more moments from Australia’s sporting history by visiting g.co/GreatSportingLand, or download the Google Arts & Culture app on iOS or Android.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line234
__label__wiki	0.851863	0.851863	Item 2012.005.05.16 - "CBC Sports Weekend" photo collage Robert Hackborn Fonds "CBC Sports Weekend" photo collage Photographs relating to "CBC Sports Weekend" collaged onto a "CBC Sports Weekend board + framed; 103 x 82 cm Hackborn, Robert Arthur, Mr., September 22, 1928 Robert Arthur Hackborn was born on September 22, 1928 in Toronto, where he lived during his childhood years. Hackborn attended Northern Vocational High School and upon completion of his studies, spent a year travelling across Canada and living and working on the West coast. During this period Hackborn worked in Banff Alberta at The Banff Springs Hotel as a golf caddy, and then in Vancouver B.C. where he got a job as a bell boy for Canadian Pacific Railway tour boats taking passengers to Alaska. Upon his return to Ontario, Mr. Hackborn attended the Ontario College of Art (OCA) between 1948-1952. During his time at the OCA, Hackborn and some of his fellow classmates including Michael Snow became known as the 'Musical Art Group' owing to the fact that they played together around Toronto in various Jazz bands and clubs while pursuing their fine art studies. While still enrolled at the OCA, Hackborn took a job as a bell hop on the Great Lakes tour boat The Noronic in the summer of 1949. On September 16th, 1949 while The Noronic was docked in Toronto, Hackborn was fortunate to have been granted shore leave to visit his parents. It was in the early hours of September 17th that The Noronic caught fire resulting in the deaths of over one hundred people and the destruction of the vessel. Directly after graduating from the OCA, Mr. Hackborn travelled throughout Europe. While touring the European continent, Mr. Hackborn continued to develop his painting technique while he also regularly played gigs as a jazz drummer. Along with a group of musicians that included Michael Snow, Hackborn was contracted to Club Med, playing in their clubs in Italy, Yugoslavia, and The French Alps. After travelling Europe and living in Malaga Spain for 3 months over Christmas and New Years, Mr. Hackborn returned to Canada in 1954 and took a post working as an advertising illustrator and artist for S.W. Caldwell in Toronto. In 1955 Hackborn embarked on what would become a long and important career in the design and production of sets and special visual effects for television when he took a position in the nascent Television Production unit at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Hackborn started his career as a scenic paint artist then subsequently transferred to the set design department in 1958. Hackborn continued to work for the CBC for nearly four decades, helping to design the look for a staggering array of variety, comedy, musical, sports, news, children's, and scripted television dramas. Hackborn's career saw him work both in-studio with multi camera shooting setups and later, with 16mm film cameras on a variety of sets and exterior locales. Starting with The Juliette Show in the late 1950's, and stretching to the 1990's, Hackborn's designs and special visual effects enhanced the production values of a vast number of shows at the CBC. Shows featuring Hackborn's input include but are not limited to: Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood, Mr. Dressup, The Tommy Hunter Show and Tommy Hunter's Canada Entertains, World Tour '67, Wayne & Shuster, I Married the Klondike, Fraggle Rock, The Royal Canadian Air Farce, and The Kids in the Hall. Hackborn also worked as a production designer with director Donald Brittain on several CBC/National Film Board (NFB) co-productions including: Canada's Sweetheart: the saga of Hal C. Banks and The King Chronicles. His contributions to these and many other shows are of great cultural and technological significance. photographs rolling + some mould on frame Hackborn, Robert Arthur, Mr., September 22, 1928 (Creator)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line237
__label__cc	0.586415	0.413585	ARDILAMORIN The UX of healthcare platforms Designing People Who, a Platform for patients with a chronic illness. In 2011, people with an illness basically didn’t have a secure place where to communicate with others, and people around them had a hard time finding reliable information regarding the illness. I was part of the the small team of four that started this amazing journey to create a new kind of digital platform for patients. People Who initial wireframes using Balsamiq While working at Saatchi & Saatchi Health, I was asked to participate in a new kind of web platform, a platform for patients with a chronic illness. At first it sounded dull and full of constraints, and full of constraints it was, but not dull. The project was born inside the agency and the Product Manager had a clear vision of what it needed to convey, who was it for, what tools they needed and what type of content should have based on the experience of working with the major pharmaceutical brands in Spain. To create a digital platform for patients with a chronic illness, their care takers, friends and family, that could be a place to share with others, provide tools to help control the illness, and find update, reliable information. I was hired to translate a product vision into a tangible product that could meet those expectations for the Spanish market while complying with a restrictive regulated market and still be a viable product. I led the user experience for the initial MVP for Spain, and the expansion to 4 other countries, adding new illnesses, additional functionalities and development of mobile apps. I worked alongside the product manager, visual designers, content and development teams defining the product and creating user flows, wireframes and writing documentation for development. The platform was launched in October 2012 in Spain. And I left on 2015 when the platform had over 10 illnesses available, and was available in 4 countries in Europe. Our users, who are we designing for and their needs People who live with an illness don’t go through it alone, so the platform needed to be a place for patients but also for caretakers, family and friends. What are their needs The needs were common to most illnesses: Connect: to connect and feel understood by others living in a similar situation. Control: manage their treatment, medication, food, and other habits that may affect their health. Express: tell their stories, as a way to unload and share experiences that may help others. Know: current and reliable information about treatment, experiences, professional opinions that could make their lives better. There were several platforms available, but most did not attend the Spanish market and didn’t have an all-in-one solution for their needs. Patients associations didn’t have the resources to provide the digital tools that patients needed and Pharma companies didn’t see the investment viable since they don’t offer solutions for a wide range of illnesses, and those illnesses required specific tools to be of value to patients. Competitors and alternatives The closest to our vision was “Patients like me”, which was focused on the United States and made no distinction between illnesses. Carenity (France) and other specific apps for wearables, or communities created for just one illness. As you can imagine, the health industry is heavily regulated, so all patient information is critical, any advice on treatment must be given by a licensed doctor, and other considerations are important like reporting suicidal behaviour, offering help lines, avoiding spam for drugs and the difference between the drugs offered in each market. Designing the experience Created with six sections: Home, Community, Data centre, Apps, Experiences, Magazine. With the focus on social interaction, providing tools that could help keep control of the illness and provide up-to-date information. People Who website sections The tricky part is not every illness available on the platform has all five sections, and the name of the illness was part of the header, so we created a modular structure that allows to have the number of sections necessary and still work, changing its width depending on the illness selected and the sections available. Making it flexible and still familiar to users. Roles: Patient for one illness /caretaker for another We found that some of the users were patients for an illness, but also had a family member with another illness, and the way the wanted to interact with the platform was different depending on the the role they were playing. That was a big insight, so we designed it to be vertical, everything was tied to an illness, that meant you could only interact with people that suffered or cared for that same illness. That, for us, was a huge benefit, reducing noise, and improving the quality of relationships. This was a big factor to take into account, since some illnesses are more delicate than others, people may choose to share with others that they have the illness. So we designed for privacy: We asked for a username, instead of real names. We offered avatars that users could choose, instead of uploading their personal photo. You shared gender and city of residence, for statistical purposes, but you could choose to share it publicly or not. User avatars Anonymous Relationships This presented a new challenge, to create friendships with people you didn’t know, and coming to a place where everyone maintains their privacy. So the challenge was to create a social network focused on discovery, where you didn’t have any friends when you first go in and start building you own “circles” of friends from interacting with others on the platform. This was a major constraint, but we managed to put in place all the resources needed with a mix of technology and great people. Avoiding spam and Medical databases We wanted to avoid companies going into the platform to promote their medications so we developed and integration with medical databases that detected the drug name and replaced it with its active component. We started the platform with bipolar disorder as the first illness, that meant a specific set of control tools, but also meant a special attention to our users. We were required by law to report if any user had expressed they wanted to end their life. So we developed a supervision tool that analysed the comments and watched for specific words that could mean they could be in danger. When this happened, the platform informed the user to call the emergency services, and reported to the authorities all comments with those criteria in less than 12 hours. We also had a team o community managers that could help with the supervision of the platform, detecting spam, unauthorised users (people pretending to be doctors, recommending treatments, etc) or helping users with doubts that they could have while using the platform. Licensed doctor We also had a licensed doctor for each illness, one that could actively participate in the conversation, answer questions and make sure that people were not following treatments that could put them in danger, always referring them to their doctor if they wanted to make changes in their treatment or were thinking of stoping it. The doctors we had were vital for the development of tools that could help patients control their illnesses. We interview them to have a better picture of what was important, how was the best way to capture that information and what kind of information we could provide users to stick to their treatment. The big major difference was in the design and its look and feel (I had nothing t do with that, it was all the Product Manager and Visual Designer there). What we found was that every platform looked liked going to a hospital with sad colours, bad (stock) images or pictures that made you feel sorry for the people that had the illness. Our approach was different, the fact that you suffer an illness doesn’t mean that you are unhappy, or need to be reminded how bad it is living with it by all aspects of the design. So we designed it with a focus on light colours, a heavy presence of illustration, and overall care for aesthetics. Making it a place where you were comfortable and were pleased to be a part of. Due to each country’s regulations, we need a global platform with local websites, adjusting language, medical databases, community supervision and the specific cultural needs. The first to arrive was Germany, France and Italy, each with its own set of challenges but proving the concept worked with some adjustments. Learning from our mistakes: There are some things that we could have done better: Agile mindset: We followed a waterfall process and didn’t launch until all sections of the platform were developed. Data informed decisions We didn’t have a specialised data team to really understand user behaviour, we were a small startup, but we definitely could have gained a lot by better insights from analytics or user testing. Focus on acquisition We put a lot of effort on adding new functionalities for existing users, looking back seems that the real challenge was gaining traction and adding more users consistently. By 2013, The platform won a Gold Laus Award in the category of best web application, for its overall user experience, navigation structure, visual simplicity, iconography and easy access to content. Like the project? Appreciate on behance The website: https://www.peoplewhoglobal.com SXSW Interactive 2017 My experience at SXSW 2017, some tips, and what I learned about AI, Product Design and Future Trends. What I learned working remotely Tips and advice on office setup, work routine and collaboration while away from the office. If you think we can collaborate on a project, want me to teach a class about UX, or speak at you conference, get in touch. ©2016 - 2021 José Ardila.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line238
__label__cc	0.507219	0.492781	Durham University Research Fellowship in Russian Studies 2018, UK Culture, History, Languages, Linguistics, Russian Studies Research in Russian Studies covers the period from 1700 to the present day. Staff in Russian have particular research expertise in: 19th- and 20th-century social and cultural history, especially the history of Russian sciences and professions (Professor Byford); Russian and Soviet linguistics (Dr Chown); 19th- and 20th-century Russian poetry, especially Anna Akhmatova (Dr Harrington); 18th- to 20th-century Russian literature and culture, especially material culture and gender (Dr Ivleva); literary and critical theory, Bakhtin, Russian and Soviet cinema (Dr Radunović); and translation studies (Dr Tyulenev). This is reflected in a range of undergraduate courses in Russian history, literature, language and culture, including specialist modules in Russian poetry, Russian and Soviet cinema, the cultural history of St Petersburg, and the Russian intelligentsia. Our language courses are taught at all levels by highly experienced language instructors as well as academic staff. In the first year, students have the choice of an intensive ab initio course (for those with no prior experience in the language) or an intermediate course (for students with an A-level in Russian). Students normally spend their third year abroad at different Russian universities with which we have exchange agreements. Finalists can take an additional specialist language course in Russian for Professional Communication. The Department was placed 3rd nationally in the most recent (2017) Sunday Times Good University Guide, and2nd in the 2017 Complete University Guide table for Russian and East European Languages. The Department is now home to a Russian World (Russkiy Mir) Centre with open access facilities in term-time, Mon, Tue, Thurs and Fri 10am-2pm (Room A29) The Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership offer studentships under two schemes: The Standard Awards scheme for applicant-led projects, including interdisciplinary projects. The Partnership Awards scheme, which offers a unique opportunity to conduct PhD research in collaboration with a participating Northern Bridge Strategic Partner organisation. This opens up enhanced access to a wide range of research materials and resources, as well as facilities, training, expert advice, mentoring and supervision, and publication and impact opportunities. A Partnership Award means working with a supervisory team that includes members from one of the Northern Bridge universities as well as from the partner organisation, enhancing your skills and employability while providing defined benefits for the partner organisation. Northern Bridge will be offering Application Masterclasses for potential applicants to all Northern Bridge universities on Tuesday 14 November 2017 in Belfast and Wednesday 15 November 2017 in Newcastle. The programme will involve presentations by staff and students on how to apply for a Northern Bridge studentship (tailored to conventional and practice-based awards, and to Partnership Awards), as well as surgeries at which you can discuss your proposal with members of academic staff and meet current students. Further information will be posted on our News and Events page in due course. Before applying for either a Standard Award or a Partnership Award, please read the relevant Guidelines for Applicants. If you wish to apply for a Standard Award you must first explore with the relevant Subject Area Contactwhether your area of research interest can be supervised and supported, and identify suitable supervisors. If you wish to apply for a Partnership Award, you must first submit an Expression of Interestform, clearly indicating the relevant Partner and Research Field, and email it to: northernbridge.admin@newcastle.ac.uk by 17:00 on 20 October 2017. EoIs will be reviewed by both the Northern Bridge Academic Directors and Strategic Partners, and applicants will be notified of their decisions by 31 October 2017. Step Two: Complete an Online Postgraduate Application Form: All applicants, under either scheme, are then required to apply through the online application form of the University at which you would like to study. You must include the code AH18 on your application form to indicate that you wish to be considered for a Northern Bridge award: Applicants to Newcastle University should quote AH18 under ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ and ‘Who is your sponsor/funding body?’ Applicants to Durham University should insert AH18 where asked on the form ‘How do you intend to finance your tuition fees and living expenses?’ Applicants to Queen’s University Belfast should tick ‘I will apply separately to an external body’ then enter AH18 under ‘To which body do you intend to apply?’ The deadline for postgraduate applications to the Northern Bridge studentship competition is 5:00pm, Wednesday 10 January 2018. Applications received after this date will not be considered for nomination. If you are nominated by your subject area to proceed to the second stage of the competition, you will work with your Subject Area Contact and supervisor(s) to complete a Northern Bridge Nomination Form – note this form is only made available to those applicants selected for nomination. The deadline for receipt of Nomination Forms is 5:00pm, Wednesday 14 February 2018. The results of the competition will be announced on Friday 23 March 2018. For more information please click "Further Official Information" below. Dostoyevsky Scholarships to Learn Russian in Yerevan	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line240
__label__cc	0.732643	0.267357	Autumn Scholarships in Science, Engineering, Journalism and Related Spheres 2016, Germany Engineering, Journalism, Science, Technology Application Process Autumn 2016 undergraduate scholarship for German and German-educated applicants undergraduate scholarship for German and German-educated applicants for the journalism programme "Medienvielfalt, anders“ doctoral scholarships for German and German-educated applicants (Bildungsinländer/innen) and for international students doctoral scholarships in the focus programme "Transformation Research" for German students undergraduate and graduate scholarships for refugees who are studying, or wish to study in Germany at any kind of university and regardless of their number of semester For international students: By March 1, 2017 international graduate students and PhD students can apply for scholarships in Germany. For details of application requirements and procedures, please consult information sheet A 1-1 (“scholarship application for undergraduate and graduate students”, PDF) or A 2-1 (“scholarship application for doctoral studies”). These give important information on the formalities of your application and on preconditions and criteria. The online application portal opens on July 20, 2016 and closes on September 2, 2016 at the latest. Please use only Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill out the application form. This also applies to the expert reports. Please notice that the length of your application is restricted by the space provided in the application form. This also applies to the expert reports. To avoid system overload, please do not wait until deadline day to submit your application. You can send off your application as soon as you have all your documentation ready. By the application deadline of September 1, we must have received all documentation in full, including the expert reports and references. Only then will the application be considered complete and will processing begin. Please note that incomplete applications cannot be processed. If we have not received all the required documentation in full by September 1, we will inform you of this and refer you to the next application deadline. At the time of application, the applicant must have been accepted as a student or doctoral student by a state-recognised institution of higher education in Germany.The applicant has to be accepted by a state-recognised institution at the latest by the beginning of the scholarship. Undergraduated General Student Scholarships for German and German-Educated Applicants Target groups: Special (but not exclusive) target groups are: first-generation students, women, members of ethnic minorities Our scholarship programme also focuses (but not exclusively) on certain subjects: especially the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), particularly with a focus on environmental science (e.g. environmental protection, renewable energies, climate, etc.); economic and legal studies; journalism; and art studies. German and German-educated Masters students cannot apply, because we aim to support students over the longer term. However, Bachelors students who have been awarded support may receive further support for a Masters course. Formal Prerequisites: I. Undergraduate scholarships General student scholarships for German and German-educated applicants (Bildungsinländer/innen): Students in all subjects who are pursuing a FIRST DEGREE (Bachelor, Diplom) and who earned their university entrance qualification in Germany and are enrolled or will be enrolled at university or university of applied science (Fachhochschule). You may apply before beginning your first degree (Bachelor, Staatsexamen, Diplom) or at any time up to the end of your fourth “Fachsemester”. Due to the fact that by March 1, 2016 the applications for scholarships were restricted to students of applied sciences only, we will accept for the upcoming process (deadline September 1, 2016) applications by university students until the fourth semester (we usually accept applications only until the end of the third semester). II. Undergraduate student scholarship – journalism: General student scholarships for German and German-educated applicants (Bildungsinländer/innen) Students in all subjects who are pursuing a FIRST DEGREE (Bachelor, Staatsexamen, Diplom) and who earned their university entrance qualification in Germany and are enrolled or will be enrolled at university of applied science (Fachhochschule) or university This programme is aimed at German or German-educated students with a migration background who wish to become journalists. Funding is not limited to students following journalism studies programmes. DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIP (PHD) III.. Application of Doctoral students – formal application rules Doctoral students in all subjects who earned their university entrance qualification in Germany (Germans nationals and Bildungsinländer/innen): At the time of application, the applicant must have been accepted as a doctoral student by a state-recognised institution of higher education in Germany or another EU country. Preference will be given to dissertation projects related to the working areas of the Heinrich Böll Foundation IV. Doctoral scholarships in the focus programme "Transformation Research" for German students By March 1, 2017 international graduate students (Master) and PhD students (from EU countries and from countries outside of the EU) can apply for scholarships in Germany (see information sheet A 1-1 and A 2-1). Doctoral, Graduate, PhD, Undergraduate ETS Internal Master’s and Doctorate Scholarships 2021, Canada ARISE Fellowship Program 2021 at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany RMIT Academic Merit Scholarship 2020 - 2021, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia Russell J. Ebeid Scholarships 2021 at Kettering University, USA Holland-High Potential Scholarship 2021, Maastricht University, Netherlands frican Peacebuilding Network (APN) Individual Research Fellowships 2021	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line241
__label__cc	0.743746	0.256254	The Angels compile the best record in baseball Posted on September 27, 2008 by ballcaps The Los Angeles Angels go for victory No. 100 tonight. Even if they lose and lose again tomorrow on the final day of the season, they’ll still have the best record in baseball with 99 wins. No matter the record, no team is a lock to advance even past the first round of the playoffs. But such is the playoff system, where a team that gets hot in September can sneak in as a wild card and win it all. That’s happened four times, including the Angels’ 2002 defeat of the San Francisco Giants — who were the NL wild card winner, incidentally. Even back in the pre-playoff days, the best record did not guarantee a World Series triumph. The 1954 Cleveland Indians racked up 111 wins in a 152-game season, yet got swept by the New York Giants. So good luck, Angels. It’s been a great season — but a new one starts in a few days. This Angels cap, by the way, was the one my son wore on his team three seasons ago. Technically, it was an Anaheim Angeles cap at the time, but I won’t quibble. The Angels caps have evolved over the years to this red model, which I like. Disney undertones notwithstanding, I actually preferred the previous “winged A” version of the Angels’ cap. The expansion club’s original LA with the halo circling the crown was also pretty cool. I did not care much for the “CA” logo during the “California Angels” era. Tags: Anaheim Angels, California Angels, Cleveland Indians, Disney, Los Angeles Angels, New York Giants, San Francisco Giants, Walt Disney Co., World SeriesCategories: Baseball PreviousThe final game at Yankee Stadium NextBrewers vs. Phillies, and bratwurst vs. cheesesteaks	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line244
__label__wiki	0.57544	0.57544	A Home for the Stray Thoughts of an Ordinary Christian Woman Favorite Blogs and Links Meet Jesus God’s help TM Resources Unanswered prayer and reasons for suffering Book Review: The Sword in the Stone Posted on March 24, 2016 by Barbara Harper The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White tells the story of the boyhood of King Arthur. He has no idea he is descended from royal blood. He’s growing up in the family of Sir Ector in his castle near the Sauvage Forest in England. Arthur is known then as “The Wart” and knows he is not a “proper son,” but we’re not told yet where he came from and how he got there. Sir Ector’s son, Kay, is about the Wart’s age, and they take lessons together in everything from History to jousting and hawking. Kay’s destiny is to become a knight: the best that The Wart can hope for is to become Kay’s squire. When Sir Ector decides the boys need a tutor, the Wart happens upon Merlin. Merlin is a magician who is moving through time backwards, which often confuses him as to whether something is about to happen or has already happened. He is an able tutor, but he gives more time to the Wart, telling him it’s best to learn from experience and therefore turning him into various creatures, like a fish, a snake, an ant, a bird, and a badger, and sending him into each creatures environment to interact with others. The Wart feels bad that Kay doesn’t get any adventures and wants Merlin to turn him into something, but Merlin insists he can’t use that magic for Kay. But he does send them off on a trail in the forest which leads them to Robin Hood’s camp and an expedition to save prisoners from the fairy queen, Morgan la Fey. The word that seems to stand out to me to describe the Wart as a boy is decent. It’s not that he’s brave because bravery is a good trait in itself, but in doing the right thing he has to exercise bravery, such as when he and Kay take their father’s prize hawk into the woods to hunt rabbits, and Kay mishandles the hawk, resulting in its flying into a tree and not coming back to them. Kay goes home, but the Wart stays all night alone in the forest to keep an eye on the hawk so they don’t lose it. He’s also thoughtful, merciful, humble, and kind. The musical Camelot is based on White’s version of Arthur’s story, and once I saw an interview with Richard Harris, who played Arthur in the film version, in which he said that he played him as someone who has greatness thrust upon him, but Richard Burton, who played Arthur on stage, played him as someone born to greatness. I can see both elements here. He is born to greatness, but he doesn’t know it yet. But events like the climatic removing the sword from the stone are done, not with the desire to overcome the challenge and prove himself king, but to help someone. He discovers only later that the sword would only come out for the person destined to be king (having missed the conversation in which everyone else talks about it) and at first feels quite uncomfortable with Sir Ector and Kay treating him like a king. The Wart’s various experiences with animals were not just to teach him about nature. According to various sources, they also served to teach him about various governments. The pike, for instance, who was the king of that particular body of water in which the Wart was learning to be a fish, had absolute power but was deceptive and cruel. A colony of ants, on the other hand, acted like mindless automatons working for the greater good, which some suggest is meant to portray Communism (oddly, the ants aren’t included in the version I listened to, but I saw them mentioned in other sources). Perhaps what he learns about governing from each of them is brought out in the later books, but in this one, the various lessons he learns from them come back to him as he tries to pull the sword out of the stone. For instance, when he was trying to learn to swim as a fish with fins instead of arms and a tail instead of legs, Merlin kept telling him to “put his back into it.” That as well as bits from his other experiences came back to him in that moment. The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White was originally published in 1938 but eventually it was combined with other books about the legend of King Arthur in The Once and Future King in 1958. It underwent quite a bit of revision by the time the 1958 version was published, incorporating some material that White had wanted to include in a fifth book in the series. According to Wikipedia, stand-alone publications of the novel tend to use the first version while publications of all four books into The Once and Future King used the revised. According to the PDF accompanying the audiobook I listened to, this version uses elements of both. This book reads like a fairy tale or a boy’s adventure story, but it’s not technically aimed at children. There are comic moments along with the adventures and lessons as well. It was the basis for the Disney movie by the same name, but, as usually happens, much was changed in the cartoon version. I understand that the rest of the legend gets darker as it progresses in the other books. I haven’t decided yet whether to read them. As far as potential objectionable elements go, there’s the whole issue of Merlin being a wizard, the Wart being turned into other creatures, and a fight with a witch. If you allow fairy tales, these shouldn’t be a problem: when my kids were young, I avoided stories with witches, but at some point when they were older decided that fairy tale witches were different from the real thing and operated more as the antagonist in stories. But if you have a problem with that or think your children shouldn’t be exposed to that yet, then you’d want to avoid this book. There is also a good deal about evolution and a good bit of violence, though it’s not gratuitous nor overly descriptive. The one brief part I didn’t like was the flippant portrayal of God in one legend. But when it comes to the adventures themselves and Arthur’s growth into the man and king he eventually became, I enjoyed the story quite a lot.This book ends not long after Arthur’s coronation, and I assume the next one picks up some time after that. (Sharing at Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books) This entry was posted in Books and tagged Books, classics by Barbara Harper. Bookmark the permalink. 9 thoughts on “Book Review: The Sword in the Stone” bekahcubed on March 24, 2016 at 6:16 pm said: It’s so interesting to hear your thoughts on this one! I’ve wanted to read White’s The Once and Future King since listening to Julie Andrews’s memoir Home. Andrews played in the Broadway version of Camelot and speaks of the book Camelot is based on quite a bit. Gattina on March 25, 2016 at 6:23 am said: Must be a nice book ! Pingback: What’s On Your Nightstand: March 2016 \| Stray Thoughts Carrie, Reading to Know on March 29, 2016 at 12:22 pm said: I absolutely LOVE this book! This would make a fun read aloud, I think. Maybe next month we’ll read this one. Pingback: The 1938 Club: welcome! – Stuck in a Book Pingback: Back to the Classics Challenge Wrap-Up \| Stray Thoughts Pingback: Books Read in 2016 \| Stray Thoughts Pingback: Clare Bucknell – Better Known I love hearing from you and will approve your comment ASAP. Cancel reply	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line246
__label__wiki	0.969362	0.969362	Constitutional By-Law 2020 MLB Canadians Provincial Associations Junior National Team (U-18) Senior National Team Grassroots Programs Rally Cap Initiation Program Winterball My First Pitch Girls Baseball Challenger Baseball Baseball Canada Cup 13U National Atlantic 13U National Western 15U Boys Ray Carter Cup 16U Girls Invitational 18U Championship 22U Men's Championship 21U Women's Invitational Men's National Championship Women's Invitational info@baseball.ca (613) 748-5606 Baseball Canada National Teams Awards Banquet and Fundraiser a Glamorous Success OTTAWA - Baseball Canada held its seventh edition of the National Teams Awards Banquet and Fundraiser on January 24 at Toronto’s Renaissance Hotel at Rogers Center and the event was once again a complete success. "Once again, we were quite fortunate to celebrate Canadian Baseball excellence with so many committed alumni, MLB and Corporate Partners and Friends who have directly and indirectly contributed so much to the growth and development of our National Teams Program," says Greg Hamilton, Baseball Canada's Head Coach and Director of National Teams. "Baseball excellence in Canada continues to impact the game on a global scale and as such we are honored to have the support of so many of our country's key contributors." Baseball Canada also recognized its past, present and future with the annual awards presentation. Highlighting the awards portion was Larry Walker who was honoured with Baseball Canada’s first Wall of Excellence Award, presented by David Vander Voet of RBC Wealth Management. The numbers speak for themselves as Walker holds most Canadian Major League career records. The humble Maple Ridge, BC native tallied a .313 average with 383 homers, 1,311 RBI, 2,160 hits, 471 doubles, 230 stolen bases in 1,988 games. He was the 1997 NL MVP, putting together arguably one of the best single seasons in Major League history when he hit .366 with 49 homers, 130 RBI, 46 doubles, 33 stolen bases, .720 SLG in 153 games. “I would like to thank the Regina Pats who cut me twice, making my choice of careers that much easier,” says Walker jokingly while accepting his award. Brett Lawrie of Langley, BC earned the Junior National Team MVP award, sponsored by Disney’s Wide World of Sports, for the second time in three years. Lawrie was the offensive key cog of the Junior National Team at the World Junior Championship in Edmonton, winning the Triple Crown of the tournament batting .469 with three home runs and 16 RBI. He also displayed his power during the Dominican Summer Camp, hitting five home runs in a doubleheader against the Seattle Mariners Dominican team. Nick Weglarz of Stevensville, Ontario was recognized as the Olympic team MVP, presented by Steve Rogers of the MLBPA. Weglarz was a crucial part of Canada qualifying for the 2008 Olympics when he hit .450 with three homers and seven RBI at the Final Olympic Qualifier in Taiwan. He then proceeded to lead the team at the Olympics with a .400 average, two home runs and five RBI. He is also establishing himself in the professional ranks as he is now ranked third by Baseball America on the Cleveland Indians top 10 prospects list. The Stubby Clapp Award was presented to Scott Richmond of North Vancouver, BC, presented by Dave Bartlett of Mizuno Canada. Richmond is the personification of this award as he came from working the docks in Vancouver to taking the mound in the Majors. After completing his college career, the 6’5”, 220 lbs right-hander went to Edmonton to play independent ball with the Cracker-Cats. After three seasons, he signed with the Blue Jays in 2008 and quickly made his way to the big leagues, making his debut on July 30th. He earned his first Major League win on September 26th, throwing six shutout innings against the Baltimore Orioles. Alumni Awards were presented to Rheal Cormier of Cap Pele, NB and to Jeff Zimmerman of Carsland, Alberta, presented by Larry Pearson of the L.J. Pearson Foundation. Cormier is a two-time Olympian, participating in the 1988 and 2008 Olympics. Following the Beijing Games, Cormier retired from baseball. He pitched 16 seasons in the majors, collecting a 71-64 record and 4.03 ERA in 683 career games. Zimmerman was a solid reliever during his Major League career with the Texas Rangers. He owns a handful of club records, including most consecutive wins to start a season with nine and was an All-Star in 1999. He is now the Co-Chair of Baseball Canada’s Alumni Group and is a coach with the Junior National Team. Chris Reitsma of Calgary, Alberta was the recipient of a Special Recognition Award, presented by Steve Rogers of the MLBPA. Reitsma spent seven seasons in the Major Leagues, appearing in 338 games with the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and Seattle Mariners. The right-hander called it quits after the 2008 season when he represented Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Reitsma is now back in his native Calgary where he is involved in several endeavours, including working with mentally and physically disabled kids. And finally, a Special Achievement Award was given to Joey Votto of Toronto, Ontario, presented by Steve Rogers of the MLBPA, for his terrific season. After being a September call up in 2007 with the Cincinnati Reds where he hit .321 with four home runs and 17 RBI in 24 games, Votto completed his first full season by finishing second in voting for the National League Rookie of the Year Award to Geovany Soto of the Chicago Cubs. The first baseman hit .297 with 24 home runs, 84 RBI and 32 doubles in 151 games in 2008. The evening included check presentations from Major League Baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Royal Bank of Canada to Baseball Canada at a value of $100,000, $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. “I can’t say enough about the support we’ve received from our sponsors,” said Baseball Canada Director General Jim Baba. “They continuously show a vested interest in promoting the sport in Canada, both at the grassroots level and at the elite level.” Baseball Canada would like to thank everybody who made the seventh annual National Teams Awards Banquet and Fundraiser a night to remember. Short Hops: Cerantola top Canadian on Baseball America MLB Draft Rankings . Short Hops: Baseball Canada remembers Tommy Lasorda. Mike Wilner captures inaugural Bob Elliott Media Recognition Award. Baseball Canada honours John Haar with Lifelong Coaching Award. BC Minor Baseball Coaches Conference receives 2020 Baseball Canada Event Recognition Award!. Anthony Pluta captures Baseball Canada Coach Developer Award. Ed Quinlan and Chris Wilhelm recognized with 2020 Baseball Canada Umpire Developer Award. Anne Hayes wins Baseball Canada Volunteer of the Year Award. Six-time national team member Jamie Romak captures 2020 Tip O’Neill Award. Dykxhoorn leads Lions to Taiwan Series title, named ‘Outstanding Player’ . Baseball Canada Tweets Tweets by baseballcanada Mizuno is the official glove and catcher's gear supplier for Baseball Canada’s Men's National Teams. More than 200 professional baseball players depend on Mizuno baseball equipment every day to perform at the game’s highest level. That trust comes from Mizuno’s longstanding commitment to quality, craftsmanship, and performance. For more information on Mizuno’s involvement globally in baseball or any of the company's top quality products, visit: www.mizuno.com or in Canada www.mizunocda.com More Partners + SheIS, Take the Pledge Today! Baseball Canada Strategic Planning Document (2019-2023) Responsible Coaching Movement MLB Canadians Joey Votto Current MLB Team: Cincinnati Reds Hometown: Etobicoke, Ontario COACH INITIATION BASEBALL Umpire of the Week Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Academy Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) What is LTAD? Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) is a systemic approach being developed and adopted by Baseball Canada to maximize a participant's potential and involvement in our sport. The LTAD framework aims to define optimal training, competition and recovery throughout an athlete's career to enable him / her to reach his / her full potential in baseball and as an athlete. About Baseball Canada Federally incorporated in 1964 as the Canadian Federation of Amateur Baseball, Baseball Canada is the national governing body for baseball in Canada and is made up of 10 provincial associations representing players, coaches and umpires nationwide. 2212 Gladwin Cres. Suite A7 K1B 5N1 info@baseball.ca 2021 © Baseball Canada. ALL Rights Reserved.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line248
__label__cc	0.625765	0.374235	Mental Health Sustainability Programme Health and Wellbeing Alliance Search amhp.org.uk Association of Mental Health Providers Supporting inclusive workplaces for everyone – Health Related Pathways to Work Dania Hanif Association of Mental Health Providers is partnering on a Health and Wellbeing Alliance project, being co-led by Homeless Link and Win/Win and involving seven other Alliance members as well as the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), and Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM). The partnership is supporting the Health and Work Unit to work towards inclusive workplaces for everyone. Funded by Public Health England (PHE), the project will produce resources to help employers to embed good practice approaches supporting disabled people, people with long term health conditions and/or people from protected characteristic groups towards, into and to stay in work. Central to this work is developing an Employer Directory to highlight ‘national and local pathways to work’. This electronic Directory of employment support programmes will sit alongside a Pathways to Work toolkit for public sector employers and the voluntary and community sector. These resources will help employers work with and support disabled people, people with long term health conditions and disabilities and people with protected characteristics as defined by the Equalities Act 2010: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. The work will also seek to address the needs of homeless people, those with experience of poor mental health, people in contact with the criminal justice system and people with experience of substance misuse. As part of this project we are issuing a Call for Evidence for examples of national and local employment support initiatives and “success stories” helping people towards, into and to stay in work. The good practice and success stories will be brought together as a Directory that will be shared with employers. This project will include a toolkit which supports employers to implement a psychologically informed approach – a framework for working with people who have experienced repeated adverse life events. We are particularly interested in organisations which use reflective practice and/or an understanding of the impact trauma can have on a person’s emotions and behaviour. We are also holding a short consultation on this topic, please respond by participating in this survey. Using the template, please share any examples of work being undertaken currently or previously. These examples will be used to identify and highlight effective practice and inform employers about employment support programmes. By following this format, examples can also be submitted to PHE for review and inclusion in their practice examples collection. If you are engaged in multiple projects supporting any of these groups, please complete a separate template for each activity. If the information for any of the sections is not available, please leave them blank. Please return any examples to dania@amhp.org.uk as soon as possible. If you have any questions about the research, please contact dania@amhp.org.uk Call for Evidence - Health Related Pathways to Work Search amhp.org.uk: Kids Inspire Website: https://kidsinspire.org.uk/ We support young people across Essex who are at an educational, social and/or economic disadvantage resulting from trauma or emerging mental health issues. For example they may have experienced sexual or domestic abuse, separation anxiety or significant loss. In our Mental Health Sustainability Programme Tyneside Women’s Health Website: https://www.tynesidewomenshealth.org.uk/ The organisation provide inclusive, compassionate services in a safe, women only space. Services help women to improve their mental health, reduce social isolation, and help diverse communities of women and girls to participate no matter their mental health or circumstances. Many of the services are focused on supporting women and girls to recover from abuse… Mental Health Concern Address: Buttress House, 36 Brenkley Way, Seaton Burn Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear NE13 6DR Website: http://www.mentalhealthconcern.org/ Mental Health Concern is part of Concern Group. Together with our sister organisation, Insight Healthcare, and with a range of other partners and projects, the Group is focused on our mission: to improve the mental health and wellbeing of the people we serve. What we… Local Minds Website: https://www.mind.org.uk/about-us/local-minds/ Each local Mind is unique. They understand the needs of their community and they tailor their services to match. Services include talking therapies, peer support, advocacy, crisis care, employment and housing support. As well as delivering services local Minds work to further National Mind’s mission. They also: get involved in planning local mental health services campaign… VOLSAG Address: Broadacre House, Market Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6HQ, UK VOLSAG is the Voluntary Sector Advisory Group, a longstanding network of mental health VCS organisations that work in Newcastle and Gateshead. Statutory sector partners also attend the network meetings. VOLSAG is a CCG funded, 3rd sector based initiative that supports the MH VCS locally by sharing information and organises 6 network meetings a year, alongside a small… MHFA England Address: 49-51 East Road, London N1 6AH, UK Website: http://www.mhfaengland.org/ Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England is a Community Interest Company (CIC) that delivers a range of mental health courses in communities across the country. MHFA is an educational course which teaches people how to identify, understand and help a person who may be experiencing a mental health issue. In the same way as we… Riverside Care and Support Address: 2 Estuary Boulevard, Estuary Commerce Park, Liverpool, Merseyside, L24 8RF Website: http://www.riverside.org.uk/careandsupport Riverside Care and Support is the award-winning specialist provider of supported housing and retirement living within the Riverside Group. The housing association is uniquely placed to provide innovative and flexible housing, support and care solutions up and down the country. What we do Riverside Care and Support provides a range of support and care services to people… Talk for Health Address: 103 Constantine Rd, London NW3 2LR, UK Website: https://www.talkforhealth.co.uk We are a Psychotherapist-led social enterprise (not-for-profit). We deliver the Talk for Health Programme – a peer counselling skills training that trains and enables people to set up highly effective, ongoing peer counselling groups. Our programme was developed in 2008 and we have been a Social Enterprise since 2013. We have delivered our programme, funded… Coping with Cancer North East Website: https://copingwithcancer.org.uk/ Coping with Cancer North East was set up in 1982 to share experiences and strategies which help people cope with a cancer diagnosis. It delivers counselling and complimentary therapies in hospitals and communities in the North East supporting emotional, social and physical needs. Website: http://www.seaviewproject.co.uk/ Seaview is an open access mental health and wellbeing centre serving the needs of those that are homeless, insecurely housed, and on the edge of society for other reasons. We provide meals, showers and laundry facilities, clean clothing , sleeping bags, healthy activities including, gym sessions, art sessions, money planning, benefits advice, computers, housing advice… Website: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk The Mental Health Foundation, a UK wide charity, has been in existence for 65 years. We focus on researching and evaluating fresh approaches to mental health with a view to advocating helpful policy change and the roll out of best practice more widely. Our work is centred on prevention. We believe that there is far… Southside Rehabilitation Association Address: 45 Knight's Hill, West Norwood, London SE27 0HS, United Kingdom Website: http://www.sra-ltd.co.uk Southside Rehab Ltd was established in 1991 to assist people with serious mental problems get back to open employment. We run 3 social enterprises – catering, cleaning and printing – in order to give people real work experience. We mainly work with people who live in Lambeth or Southwark but will provide places for anyone… Living Well UK Website: https://livingwellconsortium.com/ The consortium is a company limited by guarantee established as a joint venture of over 25 organisations. Living well UK (LWUK) exists to support its members to gain access to contracts and commissions that will widen the coverage of mental health services and support within the community. In 2018 members of Living Well Consortium (formerly… Anxious Minds Address: The Vault, 31 Station Rd, Wallsend NE28 6RL, UK Website: https://www.anxiousminds.co.uk Anxious Minds is a multi-award winning charity, providing support for people with various Mental Health conditions, specialising in those that suffer from depression and anxiety. We are the highest rated Mental Health service on HealthWatch North Tyneside’s website rated by service users. We provide lots of different professional support including counselling and psychotherapy including person-centred… Together for Mental Wellbeing Address: 52 Walnut Tree Walk, London, UK Website: http://www.together-uk.org/ Together for Mental Wellbeing is a national charity that supports people with mental health issues to lead fulfilling and independent lives. We value people as experts in what works best for them, and each individual we work with influences and shapes the support they and others receive from us. We work with approximately 4,500 people… Home Start South and West Devon Website: http://homestart-southandwestdevon.org.uk/ The organisation’s mission, using local peer-to-peer volunteers, is to support parents when they need us most, in order to enable them to provide a nurturing, positive environment for their children and allow the family to take advantage of life opportunities. Through tailored support, we aim to build emotional resilience, support the development of local networks,… Address: 15 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PJ, UK Website: http://www.womenatwish.org.uk A voice for women’s mental health Established in 1987, Wish is the only national, user-led charity working with women with mental health needs in prison, hospital and the community. It provides independent advocacy, emotional support and practical guidance at all stages of a woman’s journey through the Mental Health and Criminal Justice Systems. Wish acts… Warrington Community Living Address: The Gateway, 89 Sankey Street, Warrington WA1 1SR, United Kingdom Website: http://www.wcliving.org.uk/ Warrington Community Living supports people with a diversity of individual needs in Warrington and surrounding areas through the provision of a range of types social care support. We aim to offer personalised, high quality services rooted in our purpose to support people to be active citizens. Working closely in co-production with the people we support,… Bridge Mental Health Address: 1st Floor Deepened House, 30B Bellegrove Road, Welling, Kent DA16 3PY Website: https://www.bridgesupport.org/ Bridge Mental Health provide a full range of services from 24-hour supported living to floating support for individuals from a broad range of cultures and backgrounds. Our coordinated approach to care provision means that we work in close collaboration with local authorities, clinical teams, community mental health groups and with the family and friends of… Address: 2 Witan Way, Witney, Oxfordshire OX28 6FH Website: https://www.advanceuk.org/ Our vision Our vision is to transform the lives of people with a disability or mental health condition by providing the best quality housing, support and employment services. We do this to enable them to live the lives they choose, achieve their personal goals, feel valued and know their voices are heard. Together, we transform… Taraki Website: https://www.taraki.co.uk/ Taraki envisions that Punjabi communities perceive and embrace mental health as an integral facet of their lives. We hope that Punjabi communities will engage in conversations, support, and care for their mental well-being at an individual and collective level. We want to see an environment which enables mental health awareness, education, support, and research centred… Chilli Studios Website: https://www.chillistudios.co.uk/ Chilli Studios creatively improves mental health by enabling members to take control and work towards wellbeing by participating in creative projects, courses and activities across a wide variety of disciplines including visual arts, music, media and literature. Rethink Mental Illness Address: 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP, United Kingdom Website: http://www.rethink.org/ Rethink Mental Illness is a charity that believes a better life is possible for millions of people affected by mental illness. In 1972 one man bravely spoke about his family’s experiences of mental illness in a letter to the Times and in the process brought together hundreds to talk about their experiences of mental illness… National Survivor User Network (NSUN) Website: https://www.nsun.org.uk The National Survivor User Network (NSUN) is an independent, service-user-led charity that connects people with experience of mental health issues to give us a stronger voice, feel supported and have the power and the platform from which to have direct influence at every level. It recognises the isolation and discrimination experienced by people who experience… Centre for Mental Health Website: https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/ Centre for Mental Health (CMH) changes the lives of people with mental health problems by using research to bring about better services and fairer policies. The Centre is here until people with mental health problems have a fair chance in life. Areas of work Our main work areas are: Children: we undertake work which aims to… Address: Granta House, 15-19 Broadway, London, Greater London E15 4BQ, United Kingdom Website: https://www.mind.org.uk Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales. We provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. We campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. Our broad base of funding from the public, from trusts and from companies – but never pharmaceutical companies – gives us integrity and the independence… Mosaic Clubhouse Address: 65 Effra Road, Brixton, London SW2 1BZ, United Kingdom Website: https://www.mosaic-clubhouse.org Mosaic Clubhouse is founded on the belief that all people, no matter how severely disabled by mental ill-health, have the potential to be productive and the right to dignified and meaningful relationships. We work within the psycho-social model of rehabilitation. One of the central elements of the Clubhouse approach is the importance given to the… Centre for Better Health Address: 1A Darnley Road, London, London Borough of Hackney, Greater London E9 6QH, United Kingdom Website: https://www.centreforbetterhealth.org.uk The Centre for Better Health is a Hackney based charity that supports well-being and recovery from mental ill health We run three main services; counselling/psychotherapy, a community hub and a social enterprise (consisting of 3 commercial businesses) Address: 31-33 Lumber Court, 209 Balham High Road, Balham,London SW17 7BQ Website: https://www.certitude.org.uk/ Certitude is a social care group which supports people with mental health needs and learning disabilities living within London and the Home Counties. Certitude’s provider organisations are Southside Partnership and Support for Living. Our services are progressive and wide-ranging. They are focused on improving the lives of the people we support and increasing their independence. We… Address: Zion Community Resource Centre, 339 Stretford Road, Hulme, Manchester, Greater Manchester M15 4ZY, United Kingdom Website: http://www.selfhelpservices.org.uk Established in 1995, Self Help is a user-led mental health charity providing primary care mental health services and self-help initiatives to people across the North West of England. Self Help is currently commissioned by a range of NHS Trusts to provide a range of services, including: cognitive behavioural therapy (at low and high intensity level… MumsAid Website: https://www.mums-aid.org/ MumsAid is an award-winning charity providing pregnant women and new mums with specialist counselling for emotional or mental health difficulties. Our vision is of a society where all mothers are supported with giving their babies the best start in life. In our Mental Health Sustainability Programme Care in Mind Address: F13 Waterfront Studios, 1 Dock Road, London E16 1AH Website: https://www.careinmind.co.uk/ Care in Mind works with local people to improve conditions by supporting them towards better physical and emotional wellbeing. We also aim to increase their confidence and self-esteem and provide opportunities for them to volunteer with us in order to help us shape our services and help them to achieve their personal goals. We are a… Website: https://illuminatecharity.org.uk/ Illuminate is on a mission to see tried and tested coaching and positive psychology be used to help those disadvantaged by poverty and mental ill health, to make sustainable life changes. They do this through their own designed and honed Confidence for Change programmes, aimed at those disadvantaged by poverty, long term unemployment and mental… Website: https://www.volition.org.uk Volition is an alliance of voluntary sector organisations that either provide mental health services for or work with people who have mental health needs. We have over 80 members from all areas of the voluntary sector providing services to people in Leeds. Members include agencies that directly provide mental health services as well as those… Hope 4 the Community Website: https://www.h4c.org.uk/ The organisation’s mission is to empower people to manage their health and wellbeing. They use science and co-creation to generate face-to-face and digital products and services to empower people to manage their wellbeing and to flourish in their working and personal lives. Mashriq Challenge Resource Centre MCRC provide a community based support service primarily to Asian women who are depressed, isolated or disabled. The service helps them build their confidence and enables them to lead a better life. The service is aimed at women who suffer from mental illness enabling them to build their self-esteem and regain the skills for independent… Address: 18 Seel Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 4BE, United Kingdom Website: https://psspeople.com/ PSS is a social enterprise that works across the UK. We have one key purpose: to help people get the most from life, whether this is at home, in their families, in their health and well-being or within their wider support networks. As an organisation we developed some of the best known names in community… Cygnus Support Address: 1 Council Road, Ashington NE63 8RZ, UK Website: https://www.cygnussupport.com We are a small mental health charity and offer counselling services across Northumberland. We also offer holistic services and workshops. We are currently developing our relationships with schools and businesses. Website: https://www.hart.works/ hArt exists to offer creative therapeutic activities to support mental health through group workshops and 1-2-1 Art Psychotherapy for children, young people and adults self-referred or referred from education, health and care sectors and other voluntary organisations. Website: https://www.makeamove.org.uk/ Make a Move’s mission is to advance education and to promote and protect the good health of people who have special educational, behavioural or emotional needs through sessions in music and movement. n-compass Address: Edward VII Quay, Navigation Way, Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston, PR2 2YF Website: https://www.n-compass.org.uk/ n-compass is an organisation to help people regain control of their lives, providing hope and a sense of purpose in helping them stay well. Last year we supported over 30,000 to do just that by building resilience and not encouraging reliance on services. We place people at the centre of everything we do and we deliver… Address: 9 Brunswick Square, Bristol, Avon, BS2 8PE Website: http://www.second-step.co.uk/ Second Step is a leading mental health charity in the South West offering housing, support and hope to thousands of people with mental health and other problems. Our mission We promote mental health and wellbeing by supporting people and communities to build brighter futures Action for Aspergers Address: 9 Darwin House, Corbygate, Priors Haw Road, Corby, Northamptonshire, NN17 5JG Website: https://www.actionforaspergers.org Action for Asperger’s has two aims. The first is to counsel people whose lives are distressed or upset by a son, daughter, spouse or friend with Asperger’s Syndrome. It is likely that when some receives a diagnoses of Asperger’s Syndrome for their child, they can become depressed at the difficulties that child might have to… Minds Ahead Website: https://www.mindsahead.org.uk/ Minds Ahead CIC is a social enterprise committed to making a step change in school mental health. Minds Ahead sees the need for a new and comprehensive school based mental health system. We are relentlessly focused on universal, pre-clinical, supportive and evidence informed activities that fit into the realities of school. We do this by… Breakthru Community Interest Company Website: https://www.break-thru.co.uk Breakthru CIC mission is to create new ideas and projects, promote equal opportunities and better futures for all, especially those most often left behind. Using extensive community experience and a focus on results breakthru’s work covers several broad areas, including: Bringing communities together Encouraging wellbeing both mentally and physcially Assisting under-represented communities Educating residents to… Address: Zion Community Resource Centre, Stretford Road, Manchester, United Kingdom Website: https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/ Anxiety UK is a user-led organisation, run by people with experience of living with anxiety, stress or anxiety-based depression, and is supported by a high-profile medical advisory panel. We work regularly with external agencies and healthcare professionals to improve services for those living with anxiety conditions. We also campaign to raise awareness of such conditions.… Men’s Health Forum Website: https://www.menshealthforum.org.uk The Men’s Health Forum aims to improve the health and wellbeing of men and boys. The Forum works to provide men and boys – particularly those in the most disadvantaged areas and communities – with the information, services and treatments they need to live healthier, longer and more fulfilling lives. Website: https://www.maytree.org.uk Maytree is a national charity that provides a one off, five day, four night residential stay to adults experiencing suicidal feelings and/or contemplating suicide. We offer our guests the time and space to talk, rest and reflect in a safe, non-medical setting, with the aim and hope that they will reconnect with hope and find… FaithAction Website: http://www.faithaction.net/ FaithAction is a national network of faith based organisations involved in social action and delivering public services. We fund, train, advise, campaign, research and innovate. Our Friendly Places initiative is working to raise awareness of the significant role that faith groups have in their communities as places of welcome and support, including for people who… Making Space Address: Lyne House, 46 Allen Street, Warrington, Cheshire WA2 7JB Website: https://www.makingspace.co.uk Since 1982, Making Space has been working with people affected by mental health conditions, and with their carers, to help them shape their lives based on their own personal aspirations and circumstances. This approach is the key to ‘personalisation’ in health and social care – something that all Making Space services strive to deliver with… Bridges for Children CiC Website: https://bridgesforchildren.org/ Bridges for Children Community Interest Company (CIC) Connecting to communities, enabling through participation Bridges for Children CiC is an independent non-profit organisation that provides community-driven educational and child psychology services for children and young people with disabilities and social, emotional and learning needs in London and South East Asia. Our approach places an emphasis on… YiS Young People’s Mental Health Website: YiS Young People's Mental Health YiS Young People's Mental Health is a long running independent charity that works in Milton Keynes to help young people as well as the people that support them. We provide counselling, education, training and more to improve mental health and wellbeing in the local area. The Cellar Trust Address: Farfield Road, Shipley BD18 4QP, UK Website: https://www.thecellartrust.org Set up in the mid-1980s and originally called The Cellar Project, we are a registered charity (No. 701982) which aims to provide mental health support in Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven, helping people with mental health problems move forward in their recovery and live independent, fulfilling lives. Our services: Pathways to Employment – for people… Chasing the Stigma Address: 54 St James St, Liverpool L1 0AB, UK Website: http://chasingthestigma.co.uk/ Chasing the Stigma (CTS) is a national mental health charity, which aims to remove unnecessary stigma attached to mental health by humanising and normalising the topic and making help as easy as possible to find. At CTS we have created the Hub of Hope, a world’s first of its kind mental health database, that uses the location of… Oakleaf Enterprise Address: 101 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4UQ, United Kingdom Website: https://www.oakleaf-enterprise.org Oakleaf is the only mental health charity in Surrey working as a social enterprise to provide vocational training for those suffering from mental health issues. We offer on the job training in upholstery, gardening, IT and printing services. Clients get the opportunity to work with local businesses and individuals in the community and all funds raised… Suicide Prevention & Intervention IOW (SPIIOW) Telephone: 897331 Website: https://www.spiiow.org We are a not for profit organisation specialising in Suicide Prevention, Intervention, Training & Education. Our aim is to seek to save lives across the Isle of Wight, this is done by using proven prevention training and / or using proven suicide (crisis) intervention to reach out, offering hope to anyone who is suicidal be… KeyRing Living Support Networks Website: https://www.keyring.org We offer many creative options to support people. Whatever support we are delivering, we start with the strengths and skills of the people we work with and the community they live in. KeyRing Networks are just one of the approaches we offer. Our support is flexible, and so is our service design. We support local… Muslim Youth Helpline Website: https://www.myh.org.uk/ The Muslim Youth Helpline (MYH) is an award winning registered charity which provides pioneering faith and culturally sensitive services to Muslim youth in the UK. In our Mental Health Sustainability Programme Artlift Website: https://artlift.org/ Artlift uses creativity to enable people to find and sustain improved mental health and wellbeing whilst developing a rigorous evidence base to inform best practice in the wider Arts and Health sector. They currently do so through provision of arts on prescription non-clinical interventions where they co-produce our projects, courses and events with participants and… Address: 25 Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 9BQ, United Kingdom Website: https://www.imagineindependence.org.uk/ Imagine has spent the last four decades working to improve the opportunities available for people suffering mental ill-health. With an ethos of “positive risk taking”, Imagine has developed a wide range of services from social inclusion and housing to vocational and user-led projects. Our Mission Imagine has a positive approach to mental health and works to… Sussex Oakleaf Address: 36-38 Church Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, United Kingdom Website: http://www.sussexoakleaf.org.uk/ Sussex Oakleaf exists to “help people survive crisis and recover control in their lives”. We were created in 1993 when the original need was to respond to a local psychiatric hospital closure. The immediate need was to provide quality housing for patients and since then we have expanded to provide a wide range of services… VoiceAbility Website: https://www.voiceability.org/ VoiceAbility is an independent national advocacy and user participation charity which works to enable people who face disadvantage or discrimination to exercise their rights to be heard, to be equal and included in society, and to live free from abuse. We work with people who need the greatest support to realise these rights, including people… Address: Stanton House, 21 Mansell Street, London, E1 8AA Website: http://www.turning-point.co.uk/ Turning Point is a leading health and social care organisation. We are a social enterprise reinvesting its profits to provide the best services in the right locations for those that need them most across mental health, learning disability, substances misuse and employment. We are committed to delivering services which provide a joined-up approach to people’s… Open Door Centre Website: https://www.opendoorcharity.com/ The organisation’s mission is to make mental health support available to young people in an immediate sense without waiting lists. They work to combat stigma and change the way mental health support is perceived by utilising music and the arts, whilst promoting informality and creativity. In our Mental Health Sustainability Programme Sheffield Flourish Website: https://sheffieldflourish.co.uk/ The organisation’s mission is to support people living with mental-ill health to use their skills, ideas and talent to build the lives they wish to lead. They use a blended model, combining community activity with digital support. They support a core group of 5 community enterprises, each has its own unique characteristics that increase opportunities… Website: chaptermentalhealth.org Chapter promotes the mental health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and workplaces through the provision of education and training services that adopt preventative and/or therapeutic approaches. Chapter has been operating across Cheshire for almost 30 years. Choice Support Website: https://www.choicesupport.org.uk/ Choice Support is a national charity, formed in 1984, supporting people with autism, learning disabilities and mental health needs. In 2019 we doubled in size when we merged with mcch. Both organisations were part of the movement in the late 1980s to support people out of institutions, to re-connect with families and build new lives… Website: https://www.mhm.org.uk Mental Health Matters is a registered charity delivering a range of mental health services with a focus on personalised support, to enable people to live the life they want to live. This means helping them to achieve good physical and mental health and tailoring support to meet their specific needs. Services include both primary care… Website: http://www.harmless.org.uk/ Harmless is a user led organisation that provides a range of services about self harm and suicide prevention including support, information, training and consultancy to people who self harm, their friends and families and professionals and those at risk of suicide. Triumph Over Phobia (TOP UK) Website: https://www.topuk.org We run a network of self help groups for those suffering from phobias, OCD and other related anxiety disorders. Our groups offer evidence base, supported self help to anyone who wants help to recover. Website: http://www.weareagenda.org/ Agenda is a cross-sector alliance working to change the way services respond to women and girls who have experienced extensive abuse and multiple disadvantage. Its members include voluntary organisations, funders, and other interested parties. Agenda is calling for services and systems to be redesigned with women and girls at their heart, so they can access… Address: 36 New Mount St, Manchester M4 4DE, UK Website: https://www.moodswings.org.uk Moodswings are a Queens Award winning registered charity and company limited by guarantee, set up in 1999 to support people with mental health problems and their friends and family. Much of our work is done by volunteers, many of whom have suffered the effects of anxiety or emotional distress themselves. Each year we work with… Mental Health North East (MHNE) Website: https://www.mhne.co.uk Mental Health North East (MHNE) is a coalition of third sector and voluntary organisations that provide mental health services in the North East of England. MHNE uses its combined voice to represent the sector at all levels. MHNE is built around a core belief that a strong, vibrant, diverse yet united voluntary and community sector… Recovery Republic CiC Website: https://www.recoveryrepublic.co.uk/ The Recovery Republic Community Interest Company (CIC) is a Heywood focused, supported-self-help wellbeing centre. We focus on supporting our local community by building on individuals’ assets co-operatively. In our Mental Health Sustainability Programme Website: https://justforwomen.org.uk/ Just for Women support local women living in Stanley and surrounding areas through advice and guidance, training, counselling, crafting workshops and volunteering opportunities. Bespoke programmes are tailored to help women rebuild their lives following situations such domestic, physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse. Better Pathways Address: 201-206 Alcester St, Birmingham B12 0NQ, UK Website: https://www.betterpathways.org.uk Better Pathways is a not-for-profit organisation which engages with adults and young people experiencing mental health problems on their pathway to recovery. We provide employment, education, training and volunteering services to support clients in our local communities of Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell, Dudley and Coventry. We use a person-centred approach, which means that our clients are… OCD-UK Website: https://www.ocduk.org OCD-UK has been working for children and adults affected by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder since 2004. We provide advice, information, and support services for those affected by OCD, and campaign to end the trivialisation and stigma of OCD. Uniquely, the charity is completely service-user led, everyone involved in the organisation have personal experience of OCD, either directly… Address: 80 Holloway Road, London, N7 8JG Website: http://www.richmondfellowship.org.uk/ Richmond Fellowship is one of the biggest voluntary sector providers of mental health care in England, working with over 6,000 people towards the achievement of the best possible quality of life for each individual. With over 100 services across the country, we offer a wide range of housing, care, employment and community support services to… National LGB&T Partnership Website: https://www.nationallgbtpartnership.org The National LGB&T Partnership is an England-wide group of LGB&T voluntary and community organisations who are committed to reducing health inequalities of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities and to challenging homophobia, biphobia and transphobia within public services. The partnership have previously provided staff to represent LGB&T issues at Association of Mental Health Providers events,… Association of Mental Health Providers is a not-for-profit organisation registered in England and Wales as Voluntary Sector Mental Health Providers Forum and is a company limited by guarantee no. 5536120. Registered charity no. 1120222. Registered office: 3rd Floor, Watson House, 54 Baker Street, London, W1U 7BU. We are working remotely so please email or find us on Twitter to get in touch.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line252
__label__cc	0.654506	0.345494	A Forgotten Feast May 8, 2018 / Rick Yoder St. Michael, pray for us. (Source) One of the great victims of the liturgical reform was a whole set of very odd, very particular feasts. The homogenizing, unpleasantly modern mindset of so many reformers back in the 1960’s and 70’s seems to have left no room for anything that could be remotely construed as anachronistic or legendary. Thus vanished the Invention of the Holy Cross, which would have fallen only a few days ago. Another feast lost to us is the one that would, in the old calendar, have come today: the Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael. How wonderful that the Liturgical Providence of God should grant us a feast simply to recall the visible presence of the Angelic Powers in our lives. Allow me to quote Dom Gueranger at length: Devotion to St. Michael was sure to spread through the Church, especially after the worship of idols had been banished from the various countries, and men were no longer tempted to give divine honor to creatures. Constantine built a celebrated Church called Michaelion in honor of the great Archangel, and at the time when Constantinople fell under the power of the Turks, there were no fewer than fifteen churches bearing the name of St. Michael, either in the city or the suburbs. In other parts of Christendom the devotion took root only by degrees; and it was through apparitions of the holy Archangel that the faithful were prompted to have recourse to him. These apparitions were local and for reasons which to us might seem of secondary importance; but God, Who from little causes produces great effects, made use of them whereby to excite Christians to have confidence in their heavenly protector. The Greeks celebrate the apparition that took place at Chone, the ancient Colossae in Phrygia. There was in that city a church dedicated to St. Michael and it was frequently visited by a holy man named Archippus, who was violently persecuted by the pagans. One day, when Archippus was at his devotions in his favorite St. Michael’s, his enemies resolved to destroy both him and the church. Hard by ran a brook which flowed into the river Lycus; they turned it aside and flooded the ground on which the church stood. Suddenly there appeared the Archangel St. Michael holding a rod in his hand; the water immediately receded, and flowed into a deep gulf near Colossae where the Lycus empties itself and disappears. The date of this apparition is not certain, but it occurred at the time when pagans were still numerous enough in Colossae to harass the Christians. Another apparition which encouraged devotion to St. Michael in Italy, took place on Mount Gargano, in Apulia; it is the one honored by today’s Feast. A third happened on Mont Tombe (Mont Saint-Michel; see images at left and at bottom), on the coast of Normandy; it is commemorated on the 16th of October. The Feast we are keeping today is not so solemn as the one of September 29th; it is, however, more exclusively in honor of St. Michael, inasmuch as the Autumn Feast includes all the choirs of the Angelic hierarchy. The Roman Breviary gives us the following account of the Apparition on Mount Gargano: That the Blessed Archangel Michael has often appeared to men, is attested both by the authority of Sacred Scripture, and by the ancient tradition of the Saints. Hence, the memory of these apparitions is commemorated in divers places. As heretofore St. Michael was honored by the Synagogue of the Jews as Guardian and Patron, so is he now by the Church of God. A celebrated apparition of the Archangel took place, under the Pontificate of Gelasius I, in Apulia, on the top of Mount Gargano, at whose foot lies the town of Siponto. A bull belonging to a man who lived on the mountain, having strayed from the herd, was, after much searching, found hemmed fast in the mouth of a cave. One of its pursuers shot an arrow, with a view to rouse the animal by a wound; but the arrow rebounding struck him that sent it. This circumstance excited so much fear in the bystanders and in them who heard of it, that no one dared to go near the cave. The inhabitants of Siponto, therefore, consulted the Bishop; he answered that in order to know God’s will, they must spend three days in fasting and prayer. At the end of the three days, the Archangel Michael warned the Bishop that the place was under his protection, and that what had occurred was an indication of his will that God should be worshiped there, in honor of himself and the Angels. Whereupon the Bishop repaired to the cave, together with his people. They found it like a church in shape, and began to use it for the celebration of the divine offices (see image below). Many miracles were afterward wrought there. Not long after, Pope Boniface dedicated a church in honor of St. Michael in the great Circus of Rome, on the third of the Kalends of October (September 29), the day on which the Church celebrates the memory of all the Angels. But today’s Feast is kept in commemoration of the Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel. The shrine to St. Michael on Monte Gargano (Source) Yet these stories, reflecting Medieval devotional practice more than any Biblical story or the life of any particular saint, have no place in the new calendar. It is one thing to accept Our Lady of Guadalupe, beloved by millions. It is quite another to countenance a similar story which might only be of local interest. Yet the liturgy is never purely provincial. While there has always been great variety among local rites and practices, the Mind of the Church synthesizes this diversity into an underlying, supernatural harmony. There is only one High Priest, and the liturgy is His eternal prayer as shared by His bride and body, the Church. The irony of course, is that the reformers seem to have grasped that principal, but then applied it perversely. They acknowledged the universality of the liturgy, but understood it with prejudice against the forest of particularities that had sprung up over the whole Catholic world over the course of nearly two millennia. They could stand on the precedent of Trent and the suppression of most other rites by Quo Primum (1570). Yet that bull at least allowed those liturgies in existence prior to 1370. Apparition of St Michael the Archangel to Diego Lázaro, Santuario de San Miguel del Milagro, Nativitas, Tlaxcala, Mexico (Source) It occurs to me that, in removing feasts like the Apparition of St. Michael, we have allowed ourselves to forget many of those little stories and details that were once part of a common Catholic heritage. That forgetting coincided with a general turn away from the supernatural in Western civilization. The middle of the twentieth century saw a retreat from those doctrines of the invisible world that today’s feast (and others like it) commemorate. The result? A proliferation of “new religious movements” seeking the transcendent in a host of spurious, unsound practices. The mumblings of Victorian cranks were garbled together with bastardized Buddhism and reconstructed paganism, garnished with a generous helping of hallucinogens. And that’s just the New Age. The task that faces us now is to remember all those things we forgot. May St. Michael pray for us in this critical venture. Art, Benedictine, Catholicism, History, Italy, Liturgy, Religion, Spirituality, Theology Angels, Baroque, Church History, Church Kalendar, Colonial Mexican Art, Dom Prosper Gueranger, Legends, Liturgy, Spirit of the Council, St. Michael, Supernatural, Tradition, Traditional Latin Mass, Vatican II ← My Favorite Hymn to St. Philip Neri A Relic of the 1965 Liturgy → 2 thoughts on “A Forgotten Feast” Pingback: TVESDAY EXTRA – Big Pulpit Pingback: Happy New Year From The Amish Catholic! \| The Amish Catholic	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line253
__label__wiki	0.840268	0.840268	The Sportswriting of Andrew Kahn My First Game July 21, 2015 at 2:50 pm Andrew Kahn Leave a comment As I’ve mentioned here before, I keep the tickets from sporting events I attend. Come visit my Sports Memorabilia Room and you can page through the four binders filled with tickets and my comments on the games. Notables include the 1996 World Series clincher, the 2007 Rose Bowl, and the 2013 MLB All-Star Game. What you won’t find is the ticket from the first game I ever went to. What’s worse, I don’t even know what my first game was. I didn’t think to start saving my tickets until I was about 10—perhaps the age I was able to hold on to my own ticket at a game—there is no record to check. I was interested in whether other people could recall their first game, regardless of whether they have the ticket, so I asked my readers last summer.* Many of you clearly enjoyed writing about your experiences and I had fun reading them. *I asked for recollections of their first “big-time” sporting event (professional or college) and noted I was particularly interested in baseball, hence the baseball slant in the responses. It’s not always the details of the game itself, but souvenirs and food that are remembered. Elisabeth H. remembers her parents pulling her from kindergarten for Opening Day at Yankees Stadium, which fell on her fourth birthday. “I got a hot pink Yankee hat I still have to this day.” Adam K. knows the Mets played the Cubs but not other specifics from his first game, other than the pennant he still has that reads, “Shea Stadium, Home of the New York Mets.” Brian K. remembers that a hot dog fell from the upper deck at Shea and hit him in the head, but that’s about it. Andre S. was a 10-year-old who had just moved from Brazil when he went to his first sporting event in the U.S., a New York Giants game. “I had no idea what was going on, having only really watched soccer my entire life up to that point. Only thing I really remember from that day was the awesome tailgate my dad’s friends put together. They roasted a whole pig in the parking lot.” Ryan S. was all about the uniforms and bought a teal Detroit Pistons Allan Houston jersey in the mid-90s, only to watch Houston leave for the Knicks shortly after. His replacement Stacey Augmon jersey lasted a few months longer before he was traded. During a Cubs-Cardinals game at Wrigley during the Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire home run chase, he “wore a new Cubs hat all game except when McGwire came up to bat. I would switch hats just for his at-bats and I remember the gentleman next to me saying, ‘We’ve got a politician here!’ I have no idea who won that day, but apparently everyone was a winner in my heart.” While Ryan witnessed the McGwire-Sosa battle, Sandy F. saw the original home run race: Mickey Mantle vs. Roger Maris. His first game was September 9, 1961 at Yankee Stadium. Maris hit No. 56 that day off a pitcher named Mudcat Grant. A baseball game in New York around that time period was popular among my responders. Larry A. attended his first in ’61 as well, and remembers looking down at Mantle and Maris from his upper deck seat. Tony K. saw the Yanks win that same season (they won 109 games and the World Series that year). Marc S. remembers going to Yankee Stadium with his dad for the 1967 Mayor’s Trophy Game between the Mets and Yankees on his 12th birthday. “My dad was building a business and travelling a lot. He was rarely home. I felt like a king that day.” On May 31, 1964, Bill G. witnessed an epic doubleheader in the brand new Shea Stadium. Juan Marichal and Willie Mays helped the San Francisco Giants beat the Mets in the first game, but it was the second game that made the day memorable. It lasted 23 innings and took seven hours and 23 minutes, still the longest in National League history. The Mets turned a triple play, Mays played shortstop for three innings, and Gaylord Perry pitched 10 innings of shutout relief to help the Giants win 8-6. “I started with seats high in the grandstand, but by the time the game ended, we were right behind the plate with the few fans who remained. I was in fourth grade at the time, and got home so late that I was allowed to sleep in and go to school the next day at lunchtime.” Before the Mets existed, the Giants and Dodgers played in New York. In 1956, Dennis S. saw the Dodgers’ Don Newcombe dominate on the mound and Duke Snider hit a home run. “Ebbets Field was the only ballpark in my mind. What a great place to watch a baseball game.” Hank A. and his dad, who grew up a Giants fan, seized an opportunity to see their team while living in Boston in 1952, the year before the Braves moved to Milwaukee and National League left the city for good. More recently, Tom H. remembers attending a Yankees-Royals game with family. “Mark Gubicza pitched for the Royals, and that name has stuck with me forever.” Looking up the game online, he realized he saw Bo Jackson hit a homer. Despite his first game being a Cardinals home game in 1993, Rob B. now roots for the Brewers and despises the Cards. Perhaps that’s because the game didn’t leave much of an impression on him. All he remembers is the plastic replica St. Louis batting helmet he got. As noted, not all responses were about baseball. Scott B. recalls seeing Michigan upset Michigan State by one point in 1979, the year the Spartans would win the national championship behind Magic Johnson. Mike B. remembers a Notre Dame football game at which the two flask-drinking fans seated next to him were kicked out before halftime. Dick M. recalls the details from the 1946 Army-Navy football game. He entered the Naval Academy that year, and he and his classmates were subjected to constant hazing. Should Navy beat heavily favored Army in the November 30 game, hazing would be suspended until Christmas. Arriving at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium hours before kickoff, he and his fellow midshipmen stood in a dim tunnel under the stadium. “Toilet facilities were minimal and many of us had used the empty cardboard milk cartons from our box lunches. So we all had to watch where we stepped. The order finally came to march off. Suddenly we were at the entrance and we burst on to the field to the blinding sunshine and the sight and sound of 102,000 cheering fans. It was overwhelming.” After playing music and executing several cheers and salutes, the game began. Navy lost 21-18 in a controversial ending. “Hazing continued unabated to the end of the year.” While I know I couldn’t top that story, I wish I at least knew the date and location of my first game. There’s a good chance it is something like Josh. R’s, who watched the Mets play the Pirates at Shea Stadium in August of 1993. “The Mets would go on to lose 103 games that season and it might have been 103 degrees that day. I don’t remember who won or lost, but the next season I was obsessed. I had to watch/listen to every game, and play baseball whenever I could. And here I am today: bruised, battered, beaten, but still holding on.” first game Previous PostAll-Star Week RecapNext PostScoop and Score: ACC Football Preview One man's writing in one place. I'm an award-winning sportswriter who has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, ESPN the Magazine, and CBS Local, among others. As of Oct. 2017, I am a full-time writer for MLive.com, where I primarily cover the Michigan men's basketball and football teams. Carol Hutchins Why March Madness Is Awesome All Access: Nik Staukas at the NBA Draft Secret Life of a Caddy Camp Sanderson	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line255
__label__wiki	0.501669	0.501669	Geopolitics and International Security Studies Terrorism Conflict and Peace Crisis Horizon Afghanistan Crisis Horizon Libya Crisis Horizon Syria Crisis Horizon Ukraine Crisis Horizon Yemen Crisis Horizon Mediterranean Crisis Horizon Horizon Weekly Horizon Insights ALL-IN-ONE 4 HER EDUCATE TO BUILD RESILIENCE SUPERMENTOR Horizon Global Academy Guideline for Contributors Support and Donation Terms and Conditions, Cookie, Privacy and GDPR Policies The Spurring of a New Arms Race by Tom Sauer* \| Apr 8, 2019 \| Commentary, Geopolitics, Geopolitics & International Security As any observer can notice, all great and regional powers are building up their weapons arsenals. Some are proud of it and like to show it both to the outside world and to their own people like Putin’s Russia or Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, and also Trump; others do it more disguised like China. At first sight, this theme can easily be linked with the overall topic of this section, the collapse of the liberal world order. Under liberal world order, I understand a world order based on the idea of cooperation, that means international law, international organizations, international regimes, including free trade, as well as the idea of democracy and human rights with respect to the domestic characteristics of the polis. The current weakening of the liberal world order yields more uncertainty, that is used as an argument to build up weapons arsenals. Sounds logic. My point today is that reality is a bit more complex. I will try to argue: 1) That there has never been a truly global liberal world order; if not, one would not have seen arms racing e.g. in the Cold War; 2) That there are also other drivers of arms races than great power rivalry, here I mean domestic drivers, read bureaucratic politics. 3) That there is more and more contestation against arms racing in the group of countries that is mostly forgotten, those that are not directly seen as being regional powers, and that applies in particular to nuclear weapons. Before elaborating, let me briefly give you an overview of the impasse we have reached in the domain of arms control: with respect to nuclear weapons, the INF treaty on medium-range missiles is gone since yesterday; for the first time ever (including large parts of the Cold War), the US and Russia are not negotiating a new arms treaty nor are they planning to do; the only treaty for strategic nuclear weapons is New START; that will expire in 2021 and it is unclear whether it will be extended for five years; If it is not extended, as it currently looks like, it would be the first time since very long that there will be no strategic arms treaty that is in the stage of being implemented. The latter means that both former superpowers will have no direct access anymore to verify each other’s nuclear arms installations, and that both of them can build up their nuclear weapons arsenals again without any constraint. Less information means more uncertainty, which is not beneficial for the overall relationship between the US and Russia. The CTBT dating back to 1996 (and promised at the 95 NPT Review and Extension Conference) has still not entered into force; fissile material cut-off negotiations (also promised in the framework of the NPT) have not started yet; the same applies to negotiations for a Middle East WMD free zone; the last NPT Review Conference failed and most experts believe the next one in 2020 will fail again; that would be unprecedented, exactly 50 years after its entry into force; the CD in Geneva is in complete disarray since the late 1990s. President Bush, Jr. unilaterally withdrew from the ABM treaty; Trump from the Iran deal and the INF treaty. North Korea acquired nuclear weapons. Despite the CWC, chemical weapons have been used again recently in Syria. The CFE Treaty is dead. This is not a rosy picture. Of course, there is also good news: the numbers of nuclear weapons are still decreasing (but the speed is much and much lower than before, and all nuclear armed states are planning to modernize their nuclear weapons arsenals); a landmine and cluster munitions treaty have been concluded as well as an ATT. But overall, the picture looks rather bleak indeed. But let’s come to the main question: What is the effect of the collapsing liberal world order for arms racing and arms control? First point: The picture is not that in the past we had a truly successful liberal world order including in the field of peace and security, and that today because of the collapse of that order we see the spurring of new arms races. The origin of the liberal world order is mostly associated with the end of WW II. As we all know, this world order was largely overruled by the Cold War schism right from the beginning. The Soviet Union and its allies never belonged to that liberal world order, also because they did not want to. Because there was no true global liberal order, we immediately tumbled into the Cold War, including an immense nuclear arms race. In short, I would argue that there has never been a true global liberal world order, except maybe in the beginning of the 1990s, maybe. After the Cold War, there was a window of opportunity to expand the liberal world order from the West to the rest. Remember, this was the time that Francis Fukuyama wrote his famous book ‘The end of History’, a very optimistic description of the world of that time. According to Fukuyama, the combination of democracy and capitalism, key aspects of a liberal world order, is the ideal world to live in, and humankind had reached that stage. Nothing better could be expected in the future. Theoretically, he may have been right. In practice, it became immediately clear that his theory did not apply to all states and regions in the world. Although Russia embraced both capitalism and democracy under Yeltsin, its economy and as a result its political system never escaped from being very dependent on the export of energy. The Russian economy never made it to a thriving economy. China in contrast did much better in the economic sphere, but there the political system lagged and is still lagging behind. Since Putin is in power, Russia fell back to being a Chinese- like autocracy. In the meantime, even the West encountered serious difficulties on both accounts: we have experienced the financial crisis in the period 2008-2009 that brought us on the brink of an economic crisis like the one of 1929, and we are experiencing the rise of nationalist and populist tendencies, including in the US, which was the initiator and major defender of the so-called liberal world order in the past. The collapsing liberal world order is partly the result of a shift in the global balance of power that is going on with the rise of China and the demise of the US, at least relatively speaking, esp. in economic terms. Given all that, it is not surprising to see that the level of cooperation amongst great powers is diminishing, and that balancing mechanisms are on the rise, including arms racing. That said, I do not believe that we should exaggerate. Overall, most of the liberal world institutions that were created are still alive and kicking: the UN and the whole panoply of other international organisations, the Bretton Woods monetary system, etc. And even in the realm of defence, reality is sometimes different than what the mainstream media makes of it. In the Western media, Putin is the new Hitler. Russia is on the verge of attacking the Baltic states. Russia is building new weapons systems that can easily circumvent Western missile defence systems. Etc. Don’t be fooled. Russia is a declining power (also demographically) that is extremely dependent on the expert of energy. Its defence budget is 5 times less than what we in Europe spend on defence, and if we add our big NATO partner 20 times less. Many of the weapon systems Putin announced do not work. In addition, one could make the argument, as I have done in an article in Global Policy last year, that also the West can be blamed of not having integrated Russia into the Euro-Atlantic security architecture after the Cold War. NATO should have been abolished after the Cold War, just like the Warsaw Pact. Even Realists maintain that alliances are temporary organisations. Not so. NATO did not only remain into existence, it also expanded – contrary to what Western leaders had promised to Gorbachev in 1990 – not only once, but twice or thrice. And it installed missile defence in the Central European states ‘against Iran’. Notice that the missile defence systems remained after the Iran deal. You do not need a lot of empathy to understand that Russian strategists felt afraid, and Russian politicians and people felt not respected, and excluded. One could even make the argument as Stephen Walt (from Harvard), John Mearsheimer (from Chicago) and myself do: that the West is also responsible for the current crisis with Russia. What about China? China’s arms build-up cannot be denied, but here again it should not be exaggerated. Of course, it is investing some of the huge amount of dollars it has capitalized in defence. But it is limited. China’s assertiveness in foreign policy has also been limited, although we see more and more indications recently that that may be changing, which is not abnormal from a Realist perspective. Is it normal that US submarines are still active on the shores of China? How would the US react if the Chinese would start doing that? As all Realists know, there exists something like spheres of influence. As long as we do not create a true liberal world order, things like spheres of influences and arms racing will remain. The US, the declining power, will have to adapt its behaviour in the Chinese neighbourhood. If not, there will be war. Second point: the shifting balance of power is not the only explanation for the current arms race. There are also domestic drivers, regardless of the evolution of the external environment. It is crystal clear that defence firms depend for a substantial part for their survival on government orders. Both in the US and Russia a gigantic military-industrial- complex (MIC) was built up during the Cold War with millions of employees both in government and in the private sector. The concept MIC is a term coined by President Eisenhower during his farewell speech. He knew what he was talking about. It means money. It means jobs. As a result, there is permanent pressure from this complex on politicians to order new weapons systems, whether the country needs them or not, whether they work or not (like missile defence, which is basically a job program). There is another mechanism that is at play in this regard. Weapons systems, especially large weapon systems like missiles, aircraft, ships, nuclear weapons, have a life-time of a couple of decades. It happens that these complex and expensive systems come in cycles. Nowadays, a new cycle of new weapons systems is being planned as the existing systems will come to the end of their lifetime in 10-20 years. That means for instance that the US is now planning to spend 1.2 trillion dollars (and if you add inflation 1.7 trillion dollars) the coming three decades only on nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. That includes new ballistic missile submarines for 128 bn $, new strategic bombers (B-21s) for 100 bn $, new ICBMs for 85-140 bn $, new air-launched cruise missiles (LRSO) for 11 bn $. The Trump Nuclear Posture Review added new sea-launched cruise missiles and proposes for the first time low-yield SLBMs. But again, most of this (apart from the examples of the Trump NPR) was already planned 10-20 years ago. How do we political scientists call that? Path dependency, right. And it is very hard for politicians to stop that, also because there are so many jobs involved. My point: this arms-racing is happening regardless of the changes in the external environment. Third and last point: here I limit myself to nuclear weapons. An event that may have escaped your attention (blame it on the mainstream media) is the signing of a major new treaty, namely the Nuclear Prohibition Treaty. It basically forbids the existence, that means development, production, possession, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. The treaty has been negotiated in the framework of the UN and was concluded by 122 states – a clear majority of states in the world – on the 7th of July, last year. Once 50 states ratify, the treaty will enter into force. That may already be the case at the end of next year, or in 2020. From that point onwards, those states that have signed it will regard nuclear weapons not only as inhumane, immoral, but also illegal weapon systems. The nine nuclear armed states and their allies do not like the treaty. But they are a minority. The tables are turned. This is an example of the rise of the Rest, basically African, Latin American and Asian countries who argue that if nuclear weapons will be used, they – their security – will suffer as well, and they are right. The Prohibition treaty is fully in line with the NPT, which up to now was the cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime, but which is in deep troubles, not because of the Prohibition treaty (as the nuclear armed states claim), but because of the lack of nuclear disarmament. The ongoing modernisations, the ongoing nuclear arms races are perceived by the rest of the world as being a mockery of the nuclear disarmament obligations that are part of the NPT. This frustration was one of the main drivers behind the Humanitarian Initiative that led to the Prohibition Treaty. One could make the point that this is the outcome of the liberal world order that included the NPT that on its turn promised nuclear disarmament. If legal obligations are only to be fulfilled by one party, they become complete meaningless after a while. The Prohibition Treaty should be regarded as a warning signal to the nuclear armed states and their allies. One can speculate about the effects of the Prohibition Treaty. I have an article coming out in The Non-proliferation Review in a couple of weeks on the possible stigmatisation effects of the treaty. While most observers in the nuclear armed states and their allies are sceptical, I am rather optimistic. You see already changes happening now. More in particular in the private sector and more in particular in the financial sector. The Norwegian pension fund, a 1,000 bn dollars fund, one of the biggest in the world, decided to divest from nuclear weapons related businesses, last year. The largest Dutch pension fund followed. Deutsche Bank turned the screws on. And in June of this year, the biggest Belgian bank KBC decided to divest from nuclear weapons related business, explicitly referring to the Prohibition Treaty. Not because the CEO was aware of it, but because clients, employees and in the end his Board of Governance made him aware. I have no illusions that all this will halt the pressure from the MIC, but this debate may have spill-over effects in our societies at large. It is my prediction that countries like the NL, Belgium, Germany, and Norway cannot and will not continue their nuclear weapons policies, once a Prohibition Treaty exists. With respect to nuclear weapons, a clash is coming. That can be easily predicted. The non-nuclear weapons states are fed up with waiting for real disarmament. The NPT may be the first victim. But in the end the survival of the planet, which is still another ball game than the survival of the liberal order, may be at stake. To conclude, most of us will probably agree that arms racing is not ideal, that we are risking war and, in our age, even nuclear war. This situation is not tenable. It would not be illogic to start diminishing and then hopefully completely eliminating the risk of nuclear war. The only realistic way of doing that is by eliminating nuclear weapons. There is a new incentive, the Prohibition treaty. If the nuclear weapons states miss this chance, the risk exists that we first have to undergo a worsening of the situation in the sense of the end of the NPT and possibly the arrival of new nuclear armed states. * Tom Sauer is professor of political science at University of Antwerp. His major research interests are international security, more in particular (nuclear) arms control, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, disarmament, missile defence. He currently focusses on humanitarian initiative with respect to nuclear disarmament; Iranian nuclear programme; nuclear terrorism and nuclear security. We use cookies for various features according to our privacy and GDPR policies. AcceptPrivacy Policy	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line259
__label__wiki	0.664016	0.664016	Life Lessons From Michael Jackson Through his entertainment and the way he lived, Michael Jackson spread the message of peace of love, and taught the world many lessons applicable to our personal lives and careers. Alicia Wallace Singer, songwriter, producer, dancer, and innovator, Michael Jackson became a pop cultural icon, and maintained the “King of Pop” title throughout and beyond his life. Many credit him with revolutionizing the music video, combining drama and dance to create a theater experience. Through his entertainment and the way he lived, Michael Jackson spread the message of peace of love, and taught the world many lessons applicable to our personal lives and careers. Start with yourself Man in the Mirror is introspective, and seems to tell of a personal experience Michael had, and encourages us to start with ourselves. It’s easy to look at the world and point out the injustices and deficiencies, but more challenging to sit down, soul search, and find ways to be better versions of ourselves. Build community and collaborate He took his social responsibility seriously, and used his platform to share messages of positivity and hope. Heal the World and We Are the World showed his willingness, even as a powerhouse in his own right - to work as a part of a team, and bring others together to envision and work toward a better world. The popularity of these songs and their use - from social campaigns to graduation ceremonies - prove the power of collaboration, and what we can achieve by pooling our resources and talent. To be the king or queen of anything, you need a strong brand. Michael Jackson had a distinct style, signature moves, and an unchanging demeanor. His tricks were so unique to him that he could do them over and over again, and elicit the same response. Even performed by others, they were - and still are - easily and quickly recognized as his own. This allowed him to stand on a stage and make a 90 degree turn of the head in exchange for the cheers a last second 3-pointer from half court to tie the game would get in any basketball stadium. When your brand is strong, it becomes synonymous with you and cannot be stolen. Perfection has its place There are a variety of opinions on perfection. Is it realistic? Is it a fair bar? Michael Jackson always aimed for perfection, both from himself and from his team. Rather than burdening others with abstract ideas of perfection, he participated in every aspect of his performance and career, from choreography to lighting. Video footage of his rehearsals reveal his involvement in every area of production. He was determined to deliver beyond anyone’s expectation. “Seeing the show does the talking. The show speaks for itself.” Even in leadership, be gentle Though his goals were high, he valued people. He engaged his team with kindness. In This Is It, he gave instructions during rehearsal without aggression and punctuated by “with love.” He showed understanding to fan who followed him, almost to the point of torment. He recognized that some things - including paparazzi - came along with his success, and did his best to preserve himself without harming anyone in the process. Bring passion, and share it Michael Jackson’s passion was evident in everything he did. His music videos show his creativity and dedication, and his live performances shared his energy with audiences. It was clear that he wasn’t following choreography or going through the motions. He felt the music, and it literally moved him. The energy he brought with him was infectious, and shows that when you believe and invest in something enough, sharing it the world means sharing that passion, using one candle to light many more. From record releases and tour dates to the turn of his head in sync with the clash of symbols, he understood the importance of timing. In This Is It, someone is heard off stage telling Michael that he missed a cue and should be moving on to the next step, but Michael tells him it’s not time yet. “We’re sizzling,” Michael said. He knew that, at that point in the show, he would take a moment. He had learned from decades of performing, and didn’t allow convention or scripts or stand in the way of what he knew to be right for him and his audience, even before they were in the room. Michael Jackson knew his audience, but more importantly, he knew himself. He had a head start, but he found what he loved and was good at, and used it as a vehicle for sharing his passion - peace and love. He used his music to wake the social consciousness of his fans. Nothing he did was by chance, but was well-crafted and executed. He started with himself, built a team, treated them with kindness, and developed the brand that powered his message, and it lives on in his music and our memory of him.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line260
__label__cc	0.563124	0.436876	Adnan Morshed Professor, Architect, Writer Visiting & Regular Faculty Adnan Morshed is currently the Chairperson at the Department of Architecture of BRAC University, Dhaka. He received his Ph.D. and Master’s in architecture from MIT, and BArch from BUET. He completed a pre-doctoral fellowship at CASVA (National Gallery of Art) and his post-doctoral at the Smithsonian Institution. He teaches at the School of Architecture and Planning at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. He is the author of Impossible Heights: Skyscrapers, Flight, and the Master Builder (University Minnesota Press, 2015) and Oculus: A Decade of Insights into Bangladeshi Affairs (University Press Limited, 2012). His original work on “aerial imagination” in architecture, in “Impossible Heights: Skyscrapers, Flight, and the Master Builder,” has received wide acclaim. Also a practicing architect, Adnan Morshed has designed buildings in the U.S., Lebanon, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. He is an avid traveler, photographer, collector, and an op-ed contributor to various newspapers and online forums. March 2018: Histories and Theories The session in March 2018 on "Histories and Theories." was a two-weeks long academic session set to shed light on the History and Cultural background on the art and architecture of the subcontinent. Fall 2017: September – November Session: Scale Is Everything: LARGE/MEDIUM/HUMAN A seven week long special session brought renowned architects, landscape architects and academics for a fantastic series of design workshops, seminars and other special events. Fall 2017: August Session: Scale is Everything ‘LARGE’ From house compounds to neighbourhoods, and from villages to rice-fields and regions with rivers and rivulets, we organize our surroundings in shifting scales and scopes... A Conversation Between Kazi Khaleed Ashraf and Adnan Morshed: The Future is the City but what will it be? If the future is the city, and the city the future, what kind of a city do we want? How do we make the city civic again? How Aerial Imagery Changed Our Perception Farhat Afzal writes on how looking from an aerial perspective changed perceptions based on the lectures at Bengal Institute by Adnan Morshed	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line261
__label__cc	0.689097	0.310903	Rank Affiliates Rank Affiliates / The Rank Group handle some of the UK’s leading casino and gaming brands. The Rank brand has been around for over 80 years. However, the current plc in charge of the name has been operating for over two decades. Which Brands are on this Affiliate Program? At Rank Affiliates you can look to promote the following: Mecca Bingo Online Mecca Casino Slots The Rank Group oversees the operation of two colossal names in UK gaming and leisure. Mecca Bingo, which was previously known as Top Rank, is just one of them. The other is Grosvenor Casinos, which has grown to become the largest operator of casino games in the UK. Here is a little bit more information on both of the brands: Mecca Bingo is hugely popular both on the high street and online. The Rank Group operates meccagames.com and meccabingo.com, as well as scores of bingo halls available for players to join across the country. They compete directly with the likes of Buzz Bingo. This is a slight rebranding of the popular Gala Bingo name. Mecca Bingo is well-regarded as one of the most popular online bingo sites. It’s also a leading name in traditional high street bingo fun. Grosvenor, as a brand, was originally set up in 1970. Having evolved from the County Clubs chain, this brand of casinos focuses on luxury gaming and bar facilities. It is one of the leading names in authentic, classy online Vegas fun. Over 50 Grosvenor Casino branches are operating in the UK, following a small acquisition from Gala. There are even two based on the continent in Belgium. Enracha The Rank Group also oversees Enracha, which is a Spanish gaming website that specialises in live casino games, bingo and slots. This brand has been around since 2011, and continues to grow, as does Rank’s presence in Europe. Mecca and Grosvenor Affiliate Program As you can see above these are some of the most popular brands based in the UK. Are you interested in making money from online gaming? Not having much luck on the reels or the tables, and want to try something a little bit different? You may have come across affiliate programs before. Rank Affiliates is a brand which is helping to bring some of the biggest online gaming brands to the masses. This is through the Mecca and Grosvenor affiliate program line-up from Rank Group PLC. If you’re new to affiliate marketing and are unsure how you could make money from signing up with Rank Affiliates, read on. We have all the details you need to get started. If you run your own website, particularly if it relates to online gaming, you may be able to make a tidy sum from referring people to Rank’s brands. What is the Rank Affiliate Program? The Rank Group is on the London Stock Exchange. This means it is open for members of the public to take a financial interest. People invested in the brand, too, can take advantage of their affiliate program. The Rank Affiliate Program is set up to help people make money from customer referrals. Rank has been around as a brand for over 80 years, having branched into the online gaming scene in recent decades. Rank is all about bringing more and more people to big online brands which offer fun and prizes. Their program will net you up to 35% revenue over a customer’s lifetime. That means, even long after you have referred a customer, you could still be cashing in some passive money. All you need to do is sign up with Rank and to encourage your visitors and readers to check out their big brands. How Does the Rank Affiliate Program Work? The program works through the following, simplified steps. Do, however, take a closer look at Rank’s website for the full lowdown. Sign up with Rank and agree to become an affiliate partner. Agree to promote brands offered by Rank according to their terms and conditions, including expectations of form and tone. Don’t worry, as they have plenty of customer care personnel ready to help you. Use Rank’s advanced tracking to check how your referrals are going. You’ll start making money once your first visitors clicks on your affiliate link, signs up at a site and makes a deposit. It’s as simple as that! Do be aware; however, that affiliate programs can take time to generate serious cash. You’ll need to put in the effort, to begin with, to push for that elusive passive income. More importantly, it’s a good idea to get acquainted with Rank’s brands. Mecca and Grosvenor are very well-known on the UK high street as well as online. Commission and Payment Of course, before you start with Rank Affiliates, you’re going to want to know when, and how, you’ll get paid. Essentially, you’ll start seeing conversions once a visitor who’s clicked on your affiliate link has made a deposit. Rank will pay out £50 minimum every 30 days. This means if your earnings are lower, they will spill over to the next earning period. This then continues until you break the threshold. Payment is available in GBP, and you can receive money via Moneybookers, bank transfer or Neteller. It’s nice to have a bit of flexibility! Is it a Good Way to Make Money Regularly? If you run a popular gaming site, and you think your readers would like to take a look at these brands, then you could be earning some fantastic income. The work you will need to do will rely on regular blog posts and links to Rank directly. Signing up with Rank will let you in on all the details you’ll need to keep in mind. Stick to their style and form, and you should have no problem turning over some serious cash if you have a healthy visitor base. Again, affiliate revenue can take time to accumulate! Have faith! See other affiliate marketing programs below which you could sign up with: Silverspins Affiliates Maxi Partner Program About The Rank Group The Rank Group is first and foremost involved in UK gaming markets. They are a plc in charge of the Rank brand, which has over 80 years’ experience in the film industry. The plc has over 160 locations worldwide and has headquarters in Maidenhead, UK. Its CEO is John O’Reilly, and its Chairman is Ian Burke. The Rank Group is one of the most profitable gaming giants in the UK. They also have locations in Spain and Belgium on the continent. The company oversaw revenue of £691 million in 2018, which helped to cement them as one of the biggest operators of gaming in the here and now. They are in charge of a handful of big gaming brands, those of which we will cover in a little more detail below. Who is the Owner? An executive committee owns Rank Group plc, and as mentioned, is overseen by a Chairman and a CEO. The Group itself was set up in 1995. After taking control of the Rank name, they seized upon the online bingo boom of the early 00s. This was as well as taking control of many bingo halls and clubs scattered across the country. The owner oversaw Rank Organisation film-making and distribution until 2005. After this, their focus switched to gaming full-time. Enduring Rank films include The Thirty-Nine Steps, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and many of the popular Carry On films. If you’d like to know more about Rank Affiliates and their brands, please click here. You can read their handy guides and learn more. Affiliate marketing and linking can generate some fantastic cash for the right people. It’s passive income at its most lucrative. What’s more, you’ll be introducing genuinely engaged people with brands they will love. Get earning up to 35% for life – start today! More Partner Programs Check out other casino affiliate schemes here to see other ways to make money: Copyright © 2021 Best Companies - All Rights are Reserved	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line263
__label__wiki	0.840476	0.840476	January 1st, 2000, fell on a Saturday. It was day 1 of 2000. The decade was the 2000s. 21 years, 0 months and 15 days have passed since January 1st, 2000. Events that occurred on January 1st, 2000: The new millennium begins. Fictional Date January 1st, 2000 relates to an event in a movie, book, game or television series: Futurama: Fry falls into a cyrogenic chamber, which freezes him until the year 3000. Songs that were on top of the music singles charts in the USA and the United Kingdom on January 1st, 2000: United States: Smooth - Santana & Rob Thomas United Kingdom: I Have A Dream / Seasons In The Sun - Westlife The movie "Stuart Little" was at the top of the box office on this date. The date is January 1st, 2000 and it's a Saturday. Anyone born today will have the star sign Capricorn. Currently, people are enjoying their weekend. It's New Years Day, the official start of the year 2000 and a brand new decade. A lot of people are relaxing at home. Others are nursing hangovers from the night before. In America, the song Smooth by Santana & Rob Thomas is on top of the singles charts. Over in the UK, I Have A Dream / Seasons In The Sun by Westlife is the number one hit song. Bill Clinton is currently the President of the United States and the movie Stuart Little is at the top of the Box Office. In the United Kingdom, Tony Blair is the current Prime Minister. The Nokia 3210 is currently one of the most popular cell phones on the market. Pokemon has become one of the most popular franchises in the world, as trading cards, toys and handheld games gross over one billion dollars. In celebrity news, Catherine Zeta-Jones and actor Michael Douglas have recently become engaged. It's the year 2000, so the music charts are being dominated by the likes of Christina Aguilera, Savage Garden, Destiny's Child, Santana and Enrique Iglesias. People are watching popular TV shows such as "Walker, Texas Ranger", "Stargate SG-1", "Ally McBeal" and "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place". Meanwhile, gamers are playing titles such as "Pokémon Red and Blue", "Silent Hill", "Final Fantasy VIII" and "Counter-Strike". Kids and teenagers are watching TV shows such as "Blue's Clues", "Pokemon", "USA High" and "That '70s Show". If you're a kid or a teenager, then you're probably playing with toys such as "PlayStation (PS1)", "The Pokémon Trading Card Game", "Game Boy Color" and "The Dreamcast". Trending news stories and fads that were prevalent throughout this time period. These are news stories and events that would have been in the media on January 1st, 2000. Throughout much of 1999, the media focused on Y2K and the dawn of a new millennium. There was also a lot of concern about the "Millennium Bug". The Second Chechen War. During this period, the Second Chechen War was taking place. The armed conflict took place in Chechnya between Russia and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Big Mouth Billy Bass A singing prop fish called Big Mouth Billy Bass becomes a huge hit. The fish sings and moves to songs such as "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin and "Take Me To The River" by Al Green. Whassup? The "Whassup?" catchphrase from the Budweiser beer commercial becomes insanely popular. Boris Yeltsin steps down. On the 31st of December, 1999, Boris Yeltsin issued a televised resignation speech and named Vladimir Putin as his successor. "Gladiator" won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2000. In 2000, the best soccer players were Luís Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Andriy Shevchenko, Thierry Henry, Alessandro Nesta, Rivaldo, Gabriel Batistuta, Gaizka Mendieta, Raúl, Paolo Maldini and David Beckham. American singer Jennifer Loper (aka J. Lo) tops the FHM sexiest woman list in both 2000 and 2001. Movies released in 2000 included Mission: Impossible 2, Gladiator, Cast Away, What Women Want, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Meet the Parents, The Perfect Storm, X-Men, What Lies Beneath, Snatch, Almost Famous, Memento, Traffic, Final Destination and Scary Movie. US President George W. Bush is named as the Time Person of the Year in 2000. The dot-com bubble continues to grow. During this period, the dot-com bubble was entering its final phase, as excessive speculation in Internet-based companies continued to push stock prices upwards. In 2000, the best NBA players were Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Grant Hill, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Chris Webber, Vince Carter, David Robinson, Eddie Jones and Stephon Marbury. Popular music artists in 2000 included Christina Aguilera, Eiffel 65, Céline Dion, Montell Jordan, Santana, Faith Hill, Sisqó, Destiny's Child, N Sync, Linkin Park, Enrique Iglesias, Matchbox Twenty, Mya, 3 Doors Down, Backstreet Boys and Eminem. U2 - "Beautiful Day" "Beautiful Day" by U2 would go on to win a Grammy for 2000's Record of the Year. Age: Anyone born on January 1st, 2000, will be 21 years of age. Notable events that occurred around January 1st, 2000: December 2nd, 1999: The video game "Quake III Arena" is released. December 10th, 1999: The Green Mile (1999) is released. December 12th, 1999: Wrestling: Triple H defeats Vince McMahon during a No Holds Barred match at Armageddon. December 17th, 1999: The movie Stuart Little (1999) is released. December 21st, 1999: Brazilian footballer Rivaldo wins the 1999 Ballon d'Or. December 22nd, 1999: Any Given Sunday (1999) is released. December 25th, 1999: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) is released. December 27th, 1999: The Puff Daddy nightclub incident occurs at Club New York in Manhattan. December 30th, 1999: Beatles legend George Harrison is attacked at his home in Henley-on-Thames, England. December 31st, 1999: Vladimir Putin becomes the Acting President of the Russian Federation. December 31st, 1999: The Millennium Dome is opened in London. December 31st, 1999: Boris Yeltsin resigns as the President of Russia. January 8th, 2000: NFL: Music City Miracle: The Tennessee Titans defeat the Buffalo Bills after Kevin Dyson runs 75 yards and scores a touchdown with seconds to go. January 23rd, 2000: Wrestling: The Rock wins the 2000 Royal Rumble and Triple H defeats Cactus Jack in a Street Fight. January 30th, 2000: Super Bowl XXXIV: The St. Louis Rams defeat the Tennessee Titans by 23-16 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. January 30th, 2000: 169 people are killed when Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes off Ivory Coast. January 31st, 2000: The Radicalz make their WWF debut. January 31st, 2000: 88 people are killed when Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast. January 31st, 2000: Dr. Harold Shipman is found guilty of murdering 15 patients between 1995 and 1998. Zodiac Sign (Astrology): Anyone born on January 1st, 2000, will have the star sign Capricorn. Chinese Zodiac Animal: In the Chinese Zodiac, 2000 was the year of the Dragon (Yang Earth). Native American Zodiac: January 1st, 2000 falls under the Goose. The Amanda Show - Starring Amanda Bynes. Roswell - TV show about the town of Roswell. Angel - Spin-off show of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Freaks and Geeks - Short-lived TV series about a misfit high-school student. The West Wing - Political drama. Futurama - Animated series. The Sopranos - Crime drama about the life of a New Jersey mobster. The Powerpuff Girls - Cartoon about a group of sisters with superpowers. Becker - TV show about a grumpy doctor called Dr. John Becker. Charmed - TV series about a group of sisters that are witches. Will & Grace - TV series. The King of Queens - Comedy TV show starring Kevin James. Ed, Edd n Eddy The Wild Thornberrys USA High The Angry Beavers Blue's Clues Kenan & Kel Moesha Hang Time The Dreamcast Spice Girls dolls The Pokémon Trading Card Game Unreal Tournament - FPS game. Grand Theft Auto 2 - Second game in the GTA series. The last GTA game to show a top-down view of the player. Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings - Strategy game. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - Third game in the series. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Skateboarding game. Counter-Strike - FPS game. Final Fantasy VIII - RPG game. Syphon Filter - Third-person shooter / stealth game, starring Gabriel Logan as the main character. Silent Hill - Survival horror game. Pokémon Red and Blue - Game Boy game. Celebrities and historical figures that were born on the 1st of January: January 1st, 1895: J. Edgar Hoover: The first Director of the FBI. January 1st, 1958: Grandmaster Flash: American hip hop recording artist and DJ. National holidays and famous events that fall on the 1st of January: Weather information for January 1st, 2000: Dublin, Ireland: It was 8.0 degrees Celsius. It rained a bit (mist or a shower or two). It was a mostly sunny day. New York, USA: Temperature: 37.5 degrees Fahrenheit. 3.06 degrees Celsius. Precipitation: 0cm. London, England: Temperature: 7.94 degrees Celsius. Fog was reported. Rain fell. Precipitation: 1.78cm. Who was the US President on January 1st, 2000? Bill Clinton was the President of the United States. Who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on January 1st, 2000? Tony Blair was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Bertie Ahern was the Taoiseach of Ireland. A baby that was born on January 1st, 2000 was probably conceived around the 24th of March, 1999. (Rough Estimate). The due date for a baby that was conceived on January 1st, 2000 is the 10th of October, 2000. (Rough Estimate). Enter your date of birth below to find out how old you were on January 1st, 2000. Looking for some nostalgia? Here are some Youtube videos relating to January 1st, 2000. Please note that videos are automatically selected by Youtube and that results may vary! Click on the "Load Next Video" button to view the next video in the search playlist. In many cases, you'll find episodes of old TV shows, documentaries, music videos and soap dramas. Here are some fun statistics about January 1st, 2000. 664,070,400 seconds have passed since the January 1st, 2000. Since January 1st, 2000, earth has travelled approximately 342,660,326,400 miles through space. 14th of June, 2004 1st of July, 2025 21st of May, 2018 31st of December, 1999 2nd of January, 2000	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line264
__label__wiki	0.934008	0.934008	Lee Hughes failure sky sports news flash Lee Hughes name receives mixed reactions while speaking of football. His illustrious career has been followed closely by sky sports news who have been following his career from his days being a semi professional in England C National Football team to his latest position being a striker of Notts County. Lee Hughes began realizing his dream when he became a part of the West Bromwich Albion to get a record fee of 200,000, the biggest ever paid to a non-league player. His career continued its upward stream prior to the car crash that he was included in and held accountable during the 2003-2004 season. It can be said that it had been this crash that changed Hughes life. A passenger, Douglas Graham, inside the Renault that his Mercedes hit, died from the crash plus the driver of the Renault was seriously injured. Since Hughes had been drinking that night, he fled from the accident scene to avoid the breath analyzer test. Though he turned himself to the police the following day and was arrested for causing death by drunken driving, he was released on bail which allowed him to finish Albions First Division campaign and subsequently be a part of the Premier League. He proceeded to becoming the clubs leading goal scorer with 13 goals. The verdict on the crash was delivered in August 2004 where Hughes was found responsible for the death of Douglas Graham caused by drunken driving as well as fleeing from the crime scene and was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment and was also banned from driving for 10 years. It appeared like the start of his downslide when his contract with West Bromwich Albion was terminated and his appeal for a reduced sentence refused. While in prison he found salvation in Islam, the faith that he changed into. Alongside, he also played for the Staffordshire County Senior League as part of the prison football team, Featherstone F.C. Days before his release news surfaced of Hughes signing a contract with Oldham Athletic. He did sign a two year contract upon his release in August 2007 along with them at 1,800 per week, the amount being one tenth of what he earned throughout his stint with Wes Bromwich Albion. However, by the time the season ended, Hughes has reclaimed his position as the highest goal scorer for that club, scoring 8 goals. It has been on the upswing for Hughes since then. He joined the Championship Club Blackpool on loan making his first goal against Charlton Athletic. He was then signed a two year contract for League Two team for Notts County and scored a hat-trick in a victory over Bradford City with 5-0. Though Hughes finds himself climbing to an advaced status of success, he’s still haunted by the demons from the past. He still seeks to redeem himself by doing community and charity work with the hope that his work in a way can help prevent another tragedy from happening. Sky Sports news has the detailed and updated records of all of Lee Hughes games, scores and transfer history gambeling odds tips sport bet sporting bet	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line265
__label__cc	0.587862	0.412138	Austin Sanctuary Network Bold Compassion & Courageous Love, Compasión Audaz y Amor Valeroso Posted on September 20, 2019 October 1, 2019 by Austin Sanctuary Network PRESS RELEASE: Immigrant Rights Groups Demand Government Records On Recent Onslaught of Civil Penalties Against Immigrants in Sanctuary Claudia Munoz, cmunoz@grassrootsleadership.org, (512)-499-8111 Lizbeth Mateo Jimenez, (213)-262-2581 Dave Bennion, (646)-441-0741 DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE PDF Immigrant Rights Groups Demand Government Records On Recent Onslaught of Civil Penalties Against Immigrants in Sanctuary Excessive and Retaliatory Fines Target Sanctuary Seekers and Activists September 20, 2019, New York, NY – Austin Sanctuary Network, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Free Migration Project, and Grassroots Leadership demand records from the Trump Administration on the recent spate of exorbitant civil fines against people who have chosen to take sanctuary while pursuing their legal remedies to remain in the U.S. An unknown number of people in sanctuary received notices for ‘failure to depart’ this past summer, according to the groups. Advocates first became aware of this practice, enabled by a seldom-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), in July 2019, when a number of people in sanctuary received notices of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s intent to fine them within a matter of weeks, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Edith Espinal Moreno, an immigration activist and sanctuary seeker in Ohio, received such a notice on June 25, 2019. “I am happy that people who support me and others living in sanctuary are fighting to uncover all of the information that we know exists that proves that the Trump administration is purposefully retaliating against us because we are living in sanctuary. I want everyone to know that we are not going to let the government scare us into staying silent,” said Espinal Moreno, who has been in sanctuary since October 2017. Austin Sanctuary Network, Free Migration Project, and Grassroots Leadership work closely with people who have received such “intent to fine” letters. The groups, along with the Center For Constitutional Rights, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, which requires the U.S. Government to provide copies of certain non-public documents to interested parties. The groups are seeking a broad array of information from ICE, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review, including records relating to current policies, procedures, guidelines, and other materials documenting when and how civil fines and penalties under INA § 274D, 8 U.S.C. §1324d, the provision of the INA that allows ICE to levy these steep fines, are being enforced against individuals. “They want to traumatize us psychologically and I will fight for my case for both myself and my son,” said Hilda Ramirez, an activist and leader of Austin Sanctuary Network, who also received an “intent to fine” notice after taking sanctuary in an Austin, Texas church for almost four years. “ICE knows very well knows we don’t have that amount of money. We don’t have money, we don’t have anything. I need help from Congressmen and our whole community because this is an injustice. We don’t have a normal life. That’s all we want.” Lizbeth Mateo, a lawyer representing Ms. Espinal Moreno, raised concerns about the legality and motives behind the fines. “It is no secret that the Trump administration has regarded the practice of providing sanctuary to immigrants as a lawless one and has vowed to end it. But it is the government that has violated the law by trying to impose exorbitant fines in an effort to intimidate and silence immigrants who dare speak against this administration’s treatment of immigrants. My client Edith and I are confident that with the help of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the other organizations that have joined this records request, we will be able to prove what we have known for a while – that this administration is retaliating against sanctuary leaders like Edith,” said Mateo. “The Center for Constitutional Rights is proud to stand with the immigrant community and support our organizational partners in shining a light on this administration’s cruel and outrageous policy of fining immigrants, in particular those who have chosen to take sanctuary,” said Ian Head, who coordinates the Open Records Project at the Center for Constitutional Rights. For more information about the requesting organizations, please visit: https://austinsanctuarynetwork.org https://freemigrationproject.org http://grassrootsleadership.org https://ccrjustice.org Previous PostPrevious Support ASN! And come party with Brave Combo! Next PostNext PRESS RELEASE: Rep. Castro Introduces Private Bill for Austin Sanctuary Leaders Carrie Newcomer Benefit Concert PRESS ADVISORY Bracing for Election Results, Immigrant Leaders Living in Sanctuary Churches Ask Joe Biden to Commit to Free Them If Elected PRESS ADVISORY: Sanctuary Leaders Release Documents Showing ICE’s Plan to Roll Out Massive Civil Fines Against Undocumented Immigrants PRESS ADVISORY: Immigrant Leaders Who’ve Lived in Lockdown Throughout Trump Administration See Ray of Hope with New Commitments, Potential New Administration Support Alirio, Hilda and Ivan in Sanctuary	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line268
__label__wiki	0.583782	0.583782	Home > 1940, 20th Century, French Literature, Memoirs, Sachs Maurice > When our qualities are off wandering, what can we do with ourselves? When our qualities are off wandering, what can we do with ourselves? May 1, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments Le Sabbat by Maurice Sachs (302 pages) 1939. English title : Witches’ Sabbath. I was interested in reading Maurice Sachs’s memoirs, Le Sabbat after enjoying his Au Temps du Boeuf sur le Toit, which I reviewed here. As Guy Savage was interesred too, we coordinated and read it at the same time. So another post is published on his blog. I recommend to read his review as it will show these memoirs in another light. Maurice Sachs was born in 1906, in a bourgeois family in Paris. He was of Jewish origin but never went to the synagogue. He has few memories of his childhood, except his English nurse Suzy and his wish to be a girl. His parents were divorced, he was living with an indifferent mother (very close to the character of Mrs Farrange in What Maisie Knew, now that I think of it) and never heard about his father after he left. He was sent to boarding school where he learnt nothing useful but read a lot and definitely accepted to be gay. Back from school, he spent a few years with his newly-wed mother. He lived his first true love with a boy named Oscar, a feeling he says he’d struggle to relive all his life. When his mother inherited a large sum, she decided to manage it herself and went bankrupt. His world collapsed and he helped her evading to Great-Britain to avoid prison for debts. He was 15 when it happened, was left alone and had to fend for himself as almost all their acquaintances turned their back on him. After a while, he decided to join his mother in London, where he worked for a twelve-month as a bookseller. He chose to come back to France in 1922. He was only 16. 1922 was a turning point in his life. Le Maurice Sachs louche, fuyant, combinard, ivrogne, prodigue, désordre, curieux, affectueux, généreux et passionné, ce Maurice Sachs qui s’est formé toujours un peu malgré moi, mais avec ma complicité et qui a donné ce personnage parfois répugnant, souvent attachant, auquel je donne tant d’importance parce qu’il est quand même moi, (…) ce Maurice Sachs dont j’espère qu’il écrit ici avec cette main qui est la sienne et la mienne la confession qui clôt un cycle de notre vie, date vraiment de ces premiers jours de l’année 1922 quand je revins d’Angleterre. This Maurice Sachs who is shady, elusive, a real schemer, a drunkard, untidy, curious, loving, generous and passionate; this Maurice Sachs who grew up in spite of me but with my complicity and who turned into that repulsive but sometimes touching character and to whom I’m so attached because he is me anyway (…); this Maurice Sachs who writes this confession that closes a period of our life and hopefully writes it with this very hand that is both his and mine; this Maurice Sachs really dates back to those early days of 1922 when I came back from England. Chapter 9 In 1922, he started partying in Paris; it was the time of Au Boeuf sur le Toit, a place where the golden youth of that time used to hang out. He was part of Cocteau’s crowd and he adored him like an idol. He was his fan, worshipping the ground Cocteau walked on. He was 16 and had the same enthusiasm for Cocteau than a nowadays teenager could have for a rock star. Thanks to Cocteau, Maurice Sachs met Jacques Maritain, a Catholic devout. He changed of guru, converted to Catholicism, planned to become a priest and got in a seminary. No one seemed more ill-fitted for seminary life than him. (apart from Casanova maybe?). After a few months of happiness and peace in blissful rituals, strict routine and soothing prayers, chastity became a burden. He left the seminary. He was due to military service and had to spend 18 months as a soldier. He didn’t want to be an officer. He rather enjoyed life in the army, which is highly improbable for someone not so keen on discipline. There was no such rule as “Don’t ask, don’t tell” but he thought it more prudent to hide he was gay and manfully survived through his relationship with a girl who had elected him as her man of the moment. The other soldiers thought he was lucky, it was impossible to refuse such a gift. Back to civilian life, he came back to Paris and had an awful meeting with André Gide. He worked as a librarian for Coco Channel, tried to be part of the high society of the Boulevard Saint Germain, always spending more that he could afford and thus always running after money. After a while, he shipped himself to New York to manage an art gallery. A failure. Introduced in the NY society, he was hired as a speaker for a tour of the USA. During that tour, he met Gwladys, who wanted to get married to liberate from her parents and leave her little town of Morpheus. On a whim, Sachs proposed to her and she accepted. They got married in Morpheus after he converted to their Presbyterian faith. Unsurprisingly, the whole marriage turned into a big failure and he abandoned her. It was the kind of departure where the guy goes out to buy cigarettes and never comes back. Sachs writes “I had married her like a crazy man; I left her like a coward”. In California he met Henry; they fell passionately in love and Maurice Sachs persuaded him to come back to Paris with him. After a few months of happiness in the country near Chartres, they were back to Paris. Their come back was a slow go down into the underworld of poverty. They were filthy poor, lived in a dump hotel, the Hôtel Saint-Joachim, among a strange crowd of semi-artists. Maurice Sachs drank heavily and spent his time chasing after money. When Maurice Sachs wrote his memoirs, in 1939, he was only 33. Really young to write memoirs. I think he wrote this book when he was in rehab for alcoholism. It’s an exorcism. He tries to slough off his former self, the hateful Maurice Sachs who, as quoted before, was born in 1922. He wants it to be a resurrection, at 33, the age Jesus was when he died and resurrected. I’m not sure it is a coincidence. Maurice Sachs had no moral roots, no principles. He just grew up like a weed. He was lazy, crazy, always making a fool of himself and always full of himself too. No idea of grandeur was foreign to him. That same grandeur that turned men into heroes during WWII turned him into a weed. His male models were either weirdos, debauchees or saints. He never compared himself to average men, to reachable models. He was aware of his vices and aimed at virtue but he lacked persistence and temperance. Words like “decency”, “integrity” or “honesty” were in his dictionary but as a vague ideal he couldn’t reach for himself. This book can only foresee what he would do during WWII, black market, work for the Gestapo. As long as there was money to be earned, no moral issue could get in the way. He drank heavily, tried drugs. And yet, with all this, he managed to be a member of the prestigious reading committee of the NRF (Nouvelle Revue Française) He always kept in touch with the literary world. How charismatic, witty and intelligent he must have been for people to help him along the way despite his despicable flaws. In the last years of these memoirs, he had started to write plays and novels but he doesn’t talk about his literary work. For some reason, the guy was incapable to work. He could have been a waiter, a cleaner or whatever instead of living in misery in a dump hotel. It seems that having a regular job was impossible to him. He was too snob, too lazy for that. He had so much pride and blinded confidence in luck and in his personal qualities. He was a gambler. He gambles his life, bet on his qualities and always expected a turnaround of luck. Maurice Sachs was a homosexual and I appreciated how he casually describes his sexual preferences in this book, although it was still a crime at the time. His lack of moral education was an advantage on that field. He was never taught to think homosexuality as a deviance. Cocteau was homosexual too and so was Proust. He knew he wasn’t alone and had great models in mind. I thought his memoirs a little dry; I would have liked more anecdotes or thoughts about society and “l’air du temps”. I enjoyed the chapter about Proust and Albert, the model for Jupien. The description of Morpheus is really vivid and the other inhabitants of the Hôtel Saint-Joachim are depicted in a colourful manner. Sachs had a real literary style, rather close to Kessel for example. They were from the same generation and the reader can feel the imprint of the time. The syntax is still traditional; he uses the “imparfait du subjonctif”, a past tense nobody uses any more. It’s not heavy, it’s formal, more formal than Gary’s first short stories I read lately. He sounds a bit old fashioned too, like when he uses such expressions as “the age of manhood”. It would also be interesting to compare his style to Saint-Exupéry’s, another writer of that generation. As shown in the next quote, Sachs could write well but he was not innovative. Je revois la commode bien polie et je ne sais quelle odeur de confort me monte aux narines, comme si le salon sentait le pain frais; quel appétit me revient du poulet du dimanche que l’on mange le cœur content. I recall the well-polished drawers and a scent of comfort reaches my nostrils as id the living-room smelled of fresh bread; I’m reminded of Sunday chicken that one eats with a contented heart and a heartily appetite. (chapter 13) I translated the quotes and I found Sachs really hard to translate into English. Curiously, Sachs mentions that being a writer was the first career path he thought of. Writing was important to him but he seldom evokes his literary work but for the last chapters. There is a lot of name dropping in this book. It didn’t bother me, it came naturally to Maurice Sachs. He lived in the literary world and literature was the one and only topic he really studied. His work is full of literary references: he sees himself as a Balzacian heroe, as a new Julien Sorel. Proust is hovering over his shoulder as THE model, I think. He’s hidden in that sentence “C’est pourquoi elle était revenue y terminer ses jours pour tenter to recapture the past” The English translation would be “She came back to end her life here in an attempt to recapture the past”. In English, Time Recaptured is the last volume of In Search of Lost Time... The following quote reminds me of Candide by Voltaire: Il faut être son propre jardinier : arracher ses mauvaises herbes, faire côte à côte avec soi-même le terrible chemin et quand on se dégoûte trop, suer les odeurs mauvaises, travailler, travailler jusqu’à ce que l’âme soi nette. Car il ne faut se remettre à personne le nettoyage de son être, à Personne. Sur cette route solitaire et brûlante, il y a pourtant des poteaux indicateurs. Il faut les examiner, suivre certains indications, repartir. Personne en chemin, personne à l’arrivée ; quelques bras tendus sur la route. You have to be your own gardener: pull out your weeds, walk the dreadful path side by side with yourself and when you’re disgusted with yourself, sweat out the bad smells and work, work until your soul is all cleaned up. Because you can’t rely on anybody to clean up your soul. On Nobody. On this lonely and scorching path, there are road signs though. You need to watch them carefully, follow some of the instructions, resume walking. Nobody on the way, nobody at the arrival; some arms held on the road. Chapter 13 Doesn’t Mlle Viaud who lives in the Hôtel Saint-Joachim look like La Cousine Bette? J’y trouvais Mlle Viaud, une petite noiraude au visage tanné, aux mains sèches, qui faisait de la couture mais était l’âme des potins qui circulaient d’étage en étage avec une incroyable rapidité. Here I found Mademoiselle Viaud, petite, dark-haired with a tanned face, dry hands, who used to sew but was the soul of the gossips that circulated from stair to stair at an incredible speed. (chapter 32) When he’s in the army, his lover’s name is Lisbeth and she sorts of force him into the relationship. Does he think himself as the Stanislas that Lisbeth (La Cousine Bette) loves and who has to put up with it? Is Lisbeth her real name or was it just for the literary reference? Sachs also plays with words and knowing Guy was reading the English translation, I often wondered how the translator had fared with specific passages or translated double meanings of words. Here is an example at the end of chapter 14: “Tout en nous croit en elle, comme tout de nous a crû neuf mois en elle du jour de la fécondation” (All in us believes in her, like all of us have grown nine months in her from the day of fertilization). Sachs plays with the conjugation of “croire” (believe) and “croître” (grow). So the sentence could also be translated as All in us grows in her, like all of us have believed in her from the day of fertilization. Only the ^ on “cru” lets the reader know that the first meaning is the good one. Orally, the sentence can be understood in both ways. I’d be curious to know what the translator did with “J’aurais aimé la voix d’une femme qui dit “mon ami” et qui veut dire “mon amant”, ce vouvoiement qui tutoie” (chapter 18) , which means I would have loved the voice of a woman who says “my friend” and means “my lover”, addressing to me as a “tu” but saying “vous”. In French, “mon ami” can be used for friend, lover or partner. Only the inflection of the voice can tell you what the person intends to say. Like Rousseau in Les Confessions, Sachs is looking for the reader’s compassion. Though he doesn’t show any indulgence for his vices and never tries to present himself as a victim, he wants the reader to forgive him all the things he has done. I didn’t find Maurice Sachs likeable because of his unquenchable need for money combined with his laziness. Post Office was a novel about a drunkard and Bukowski is not a model for virtue. But he worked hard in that post office, enduring horrendous hours and dreadful working conditions. Maurice Sachs was never able to keep a position for long without taking advantage of it. Of course, you can always argue that he had a miserable childhood and that no one really took care of him during his formative years. That’s an explanation, not an excuse. In the 1960s, Maurice Sachs would have been Jim Morrison, enjoying fame, money, sex, booze and drugs while dreaming of being Rimbaud or some other literary model. In the 1980s, he would have been a well-read John Self, the fictional character of Money by Martin Amis. With his rotten background, he would have written commercials, enjoyed money, sex, booze, cocaine and would have died of AIDS before the end of the decade. Categories: 1940, 20th Century, French Literature, Memoirs, Sachs Maurice Tags: French Literature, Maurice Sachs, Memoirs, Witches Sabbath Comments (26) Trackbacks (1) Leave a comment Trackback Guy Savage Happy Birthday to your blog. Chapter 14: because everything in us believes in her, as all that we are has grown within her, nine months from the day of conception. I can’t find the chapter 18 quote. Where is it in the chapter? Bookaroundthecorner Chapter 14: Right, translation isn’t a strenght of mine. Of course, the play on words couldn’t be translated. Chapter 18 : It is later in a paragraph that starts with something like “I would have been passionately happy with a woman…” I might have been passionately happy with a woman, I think, if I had cared more for the sex physically, but my body, though quite capable of performing its masculine functions, did so valiantly and without voluptuous pleasure. Oh, we both experienced that thrill of pleasure afforded by the rising sap, but it was not the overwhelming joy, that delicious laceration, that peak to which the flux of desire carries you, nor that abyss into which the spasm flings you; it was not a liquor of the soul that I poured into Lisbeth’s tender orifice, but merely a froth of the body. (After typing out that paragraph, I think Sachs missed a career in Bodice-ripping romances) ah ah ah. You’re so funny (and you’re right, except that they would say pussy instead of orifice) They just spoke like this at the time. Very Kessel in Belle de Jour, you know. (btw all the fantasies shown in the film aren’t in the book) My quote is after that, have you found it? How I would have loved hearing a woman’s voice saying, “my friend,” meaning “my lover” OK the translator skipped the “vous” / “tu” references. Too bad. There’s really something in French between vous/tu. Interesting that we both used one of the same quotes and that we both got that he wanted our compassion. Actually, I wanted to use “I regard myself as a bad example capable of giving good advice.” for the title of the post but I couldn’t find a satisfactory translation… He really made me think of Rousseau. (I loathed studying Les Confessions in school. Thankfully we only did excerpts. All this self-pity) I didn’t feel that much compassion for Sachs, did you? He had many opportunities to have a good, honest and comfortable life and he was always building castles in the air. I’m too down-to-earth to feel compassion. What’s the translation of the last sentence of the book? There’s play on words too in French. In French it is : “On est comme on naît” et comme on est. The book and not the postscript: the last sentence is After which, one is free to write twenty books of which one is not the subject. Sorry, my mistake, I meant the last sentence of chapter 38, almost the end. Ah Ha! I realized one morning that I had misread Stephen Hudson’s sentence: On est comme on nait (one is as one is born)as comme on est (as one is). I hadn’t heard of Au Boeuf sur le Toit until you mentioned it in your earlier Sachs review. When did it close? (WWII?) As for compassion: well I felt as though he was the sort of person who was destined for unhappiness. This may sound odd, but I think it’s a burden to be given the taste for leisure and luxury but not the means to have that lifestyle. That can breed weak character. Better to grow up knowing that you have to work damn hard if you want to eat. I still have many questions about what Sachs actually did during WWII that made him so despised. Is it in French in your book? Le Boeuf sur le Toit still exists. (34 rue du Colisée, 75008 Paris) http://www.boeufsurletoit.com/ According to Wikipedia, the French expression “faire le boeuf” (jam session) comes from it. I’m going to visit the place or at least the street next time I go to Paris (in 10 days) if I have enough time. I’ll tell you about it. “This may sound odd, but I think it’s a burden to be given the taste for leisure and luxury but not the means to have that lifestyle.” You’re right. That makes me think about this book you reviewed (I don’t remember the title) about a French criminal in the 19thC who lost his social position and turned into a criminal instead of simply work. Sachs worked for the Gestapo, that’s what made him so despised. He went to the STO by himself, he wasn’t sent. If he had double-crossed the Gestapo and worked for the Resistance, it would be known. France was really willing to show as many resistants as possible after the war. That period left scars. “Thou shall not denounce somebody to the authority” is now in our DNA. It’s not socially acceptable to denounce someone to the boss, whoever the boss is (teacher, superior at work, police, state…) When a French sees a sign like “report drunk drivers” in the USA, he/she’s incredulous. Who in their right mind would do it in France? The person you reference was L’elegant Criminel Lacenaire, and yes there are indeed similarities. The taste for luxury, the bankrupt relatives, the need for work combined with a sense of entitlement. There’s a criminal who was executed for being a collaborator after WWII …can’t remember the name but there’s now some doubt about his activities. And then there’s the Gange des Tractions Avant. I’d like to find a book about their activities in English… Let me know about your visit. Yes it has the French part. I typed it out as it appears in my copy. Not sure about the menu at Le Boeuf sur Le Toit. Can’t see any vegan options. I thought Stephen Hudson was British, that’s why I’m surprised the quote is in French in your book. There aren’t vegan options in most French restaurants. (I’ve never met a French vegan so far). You’d be miserable here or cook all the time. PS : I’m so glad we can discuss this almost “live” I have a spartan diet& I rarely eat at restaurants. BTW, I wanted to say that I was disappointed in the memoir. I expected more–probably because it had a reputation. What about you? I was disappointed too, but probably not for the same reasons. From you review, I understand you are disappointed that the memoir ended before WWII and it gave you no clue to understand Sachs’s behaviour during the war. There’s a clue, though : he has no moral roots and that attraction to “grandeur” (a concept well described by Wharton in French Ways and their Meaning, btw) combined with the absence no moral compass can lead him to do anything. I was disappointed not to read more analysis and more relevant anecdotes about Paris and the literary world of the time. I thought for example that the description of the other guests of the hotel Saint Joachim was too long compared to other passages. He didn’t want to talk that much about his time with Cocteau, though the portrait he made of him isn’t really nice but I would have wanted more. Well, it was in Au Boeuf sur le Toit anyway. I would have wanted to know more about his family. It’s sad to think he helped his mother but lost her trace. Sometimes it was hard to remember how young he was when he lived all this. Yes I was disappointed because the memoir cut off at the interesting part (for me), but I also felt that he was so vague at times. He glossed over details when I wanted them most. That’s exactly how I felt about it. Chose promise, chose due. I’ve been to “Au Boeuf sur le Toit” tonight. It’s not on the same premises than the original place. It’s a brasserie now, full of tourists (Americans, mostly). I was a little slow to answer to the waiter and he was so used to foreign tourists that he started to speak to me in English, he thought I couldn’t speak French!! I took a picture but I can’t upload it in the comments, unless you know how to do it. Inside, the decoration is Art Déco. There are pictures of jazz, Cocteau and his crowd, Josephine Baker… There’s also a “painting” made of graffitis and drawings by the Dada Group. It has become very neat and “rangé” compared to what it was. What a pity. I’m glad I went there though. Well at least you went there, and now you know. I’d wondered about the tourists.Is it a tourist spot because of the location or is a ‘famous’ spot? Art Deco would be the appropriate way to go. Sounds as though the waiter wasn’t used to French customers. I don’t know if it’s a famous spot. The best would be to look in a foreign tourist guide book. I’ve been to Paris last week end too, visiting La Tour Eiffel and Montmartre. Truly, when you don’t answer quickly enough clerks and waiters assume you can’t speak French and start speaking English. It seems we’ve improved in that field. Witches’ Sabbath by Maurice Sachs \| His Futile Preoccupations…. Take a walk on the money side The Learned Ladies by Molière A painting which portrays Charles Swann	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line269
__label__wiki	0.827538	0.827538	Adventures on the American Frontier John Joseph Micklos (Author) Elizabeth Raum (Author) Danielle Smith-Llera (Author) FORMAT <div class="flex flex-wrap space-x-1"><span>Other</span><b>$167.94</b><span>(English)</span></div> <div class="flex flex-wrap space-x-1"><span>Other</span><span class='line-through ml-2 text-primary'>$111.96</span><b>$103.00</b><span>(English)</span></div> Crafted to meet Common Core critical thinking standards, this series focuses on some of the most significant events that took place as pioneers blazed a trail to settle America's western frontier. Readers will explore the causes leading up to these historical events, then examine their immediate and lasting effects on people and places. Lively, descriptive language, primary source accounts, eye-catching illustrations, and detailed infographics, such as maps and charts, bring these stories to life. History - United States - General John Micklos, Jr. has written nearly 20 books for young reads, ranging from poetry books for young readers to biographies for high school students. John loves the research involved in crafting a nonfiction books, and enjoys doing writing workshops with student authors. He lives in Newark, Delaware, with his family. Elizabeth Raum has written over two-dozen nonfiction books for young readers, including a biography of Louis Armstrong for Capstone Press. Over the years, she has worked as a middle school and high school English teacher, an elementary school librarian, and a college library director. Elizabeth Raum has written many nonfiction books for children. Two of her Capstone You Choose books, Orphan Trains: An Interactive History Adventure (2011) and Can You Survive Storm Chasing? (2012), are Junior Library Guild selections. Elizabeth lives in Michigan with her husband, Richard. Danielle Smith-Llera's former life as a teacher led her to write books for young people. She has taught literature, writing, history, and visual arts to students ranging from elementary school to college. Danielle studied English and Visual Arts at Harvard University and exhibits her artwork internationally. As the spouse of a diplomat, she and her family have lived in Washington D.C., New Delhi, India and Kingston, Jamaica. Community Organizing VIEW LIST (22 BOOKS)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line271
__label__wiki	0.570927	0.570927	Captured Television History 4D Emma Carlson Berne (Author) Michael Burgan (Author) Rebecca Rissman (Author) FORMAT <div class="flex flex-wrap space-x-1"><span>Other</span><span class='line-through ml-2 text-primary'>$35.96</span><b>$33.08</b><span>(English)</span></div> <div class="flex flex-wrap space-x-1"><span>Other</span><span class='line-through ml-2 text-primary'>$303.92</span><b>$279.61</b><span>(English)</span></div> <div class="flex flex-wrap space-x-1"><span>Other</span><span class='line-through ml-2 text-primary'>$71.92</span><b>$66.17</b><span>(English)</span></div> <div class="flex flex-wrap space-x-1"><span>Other</span><span class='line-through ml-2 text-primary'>$35.96</span><b>$33.08</b><span>(English)</span></div> <div class="flex flex-wrap space-x-1"><span>Other</span><span class='line-through ml-2 text-primary'>$151.96</span><b>$139.80</b><span>(English)</span></div> Other $35.96 $33.08 English Other $303.92 $279.61 English Television has been a part of our world for well over half a century. Captured Television History shows how television has brought living history into our homes, in real time, giving immediacy to world-changing events. Compass Point Books Emma Carlson Berne has written numerous historical and biographical books for children and young adults, as well as young adult fiction. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two sons. Michael Burgan has written numerous books for children and young adults during his nearly 20 years as a freelance writer. Many of his books have focused on U.S. history, geography, and the lives of world leaders. Michael has won several awards for his writing, and his graphic novel version of the classic tale Frankenstein (Stone Arch Books) was a Junior Library Guild selection. Michael graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor's degree in history. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his cat, Callie. Rebecca Rissman is an award-winning children's author. She has written more than 200 books about science, history, art, and culture. Her writing has been praised by School Library Journal, Booklist, Creative Child Magazine, and Learning Magazine. She lives in Chicago, Illinois, with her husband and two daughters. Holiday Gift Ideas, from Boyds Mills & Kane VIEW LIST (12 BOOKS)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line272
__label__cc	0.501455	0.498545	Home > Self-Realization Magazine > Self-Realization Magazine Spring 2020 Self-Realization Magazine Spring 2020 A Magazine Devoted to Healing of Body, Mind, and Soul Self-Realization Fellowship Magazine with CD Self-Realization Magazine Spring 2020 quantity Featured CD: SRF at 100: Inauguration of the centennial year celebrations by Brother Chidananda https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/wp-content/uploads/SRF-at-100-Inauguration-of-the-Centennial-Year-Celebrations-SAMPLE.mp3 Click below to view the entire magazine with this special flipbook edition. Aims and Ideals of Self-Realization Fellowship The central theme of this special centennial issue is Paramahansa Yogananda’s vision for a harmonious and balanced world civilization, as expressed in the aims and ideals he set forth for his worldwide work. Universal Spirituality for the Coming Global Civilization An introduction to this special SRF centennial issue SRF at 100: Inauguration of the Centennial Year Celebrations Selections from the SRF/YSS President’s January 5 address inaugurating yearlong celebrations of the centennial of the founding of Self-Realization Fellowship Be Nourished by the Soul SRF’s third president gives a stirring call to overcome the modern disease of addiction to restlessness by immersing body, mind, and emotions in the stillness and divine contentment within. A Global Network of Healing and Higher Consciousness An exposition on the power of prayer to heal the world and an invitation to all to join the SRF Worldwide Prayer Circle World Teacher for a New Millennium Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer A former justice of the Supreme Court of India discusses Paramahansaji’s teaching as a panacea to the world’s problems. 100 Years of Self-Realization Fellowship Appreciation from around the world for Paramahansa Yogananda and his teachings Featured CD recording for this issue: Excerpts from the talk by Brother Chidananda at the SRF International Headquarters, livestreamed to a worldwide audience. Since 1920, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) has been dedicated to carrying on the spiritual and humanitarian work of its founder, Paramahansa Yogananda, widely revered as the father of Yoga in the West. SRF is a worldwide religious organization with international headquarters in Los Angeles. The society seeks to foster a spirit of greater understanding and goodwill among the diverse peoples and religions of our global family, and to help those of all cultures and nationalities to realize and express more fully in their lives the beauty, nobility, and divinity of the human spirit. Self-Realization Magazine Subscription Enter the Quiet Heart — eBook Inner Reflections 2021 Engagement Calendar	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line274
__label__wiki	0.564163	0.564163	Erdogan lashes out at Sisi over Egypt executions ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticised his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after the recent execution of nine people in Egypt, saying he refused to talk to “someone like him”. “They killed nine young people recently. This is not something we can accept,” Erdogan said on Saturday in an interview with Turkish TV channels CNN-Turk and Kanal D, referring to the execution last Wednesday of nine men sentenced for the murder of the Egyptian prosecutor general in 2015. “Of course, we are going to be told that it is a decision of the judiciary, but there, justice, elections, all that, are codswallop. There is an authoritarian system, even totalitarian,” Erdogan added. “Now, I am answering those who wonder why Tayyip Erdogan does not speak to Sisi, because there are mediators who come here sometimes, but I will never talk to someone like him,” he said. Relations between Turkey and Egypt have been virtually non-existent since the Egyptian military, then led by Sisi, in 2013 ousted president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan. Morsi’s Muslim Brother-hood is outlawed in Egypt but members of the group have sought refuge in Turkey. Erdogan, who denounced Morsi’s ouster, sometimes draws a parallel with the failed coup against himself in 2016. The Turkish President also called for the release of Muslim Brotherhood prisoners in Egypt. “First of all, he should release all those imprisoned with a general amnesty. As long as these people have not been released, we will not be able to talk with Sisi,” he said. Previous articleAdopt preventive safety practices, port users, workers urged Next articleJohnson leads McIlroy by four at WGC-Mexico	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line275
__label__wiki	0.949696	0.949696	Lukaku says split from Man Utd was ‘right decision’ LONDON (AFP) – Romelu Lukaku believes he made the right decision to leave Manchester United for a new challenge at Inter Milan, saying he had to “re-find” himself after a difficult time at Old Trafford. The Belgium striker joined United from Everton for GBP75 million in July 2017, scoring 42 goals in his two seasons at the club before moving to Inter in August last year. He has been in superb form for Antonio Conte’s side, scoring 18 goals to help the club sustain a challenge for the Serie A title. Those performances, and United’s reported interest in signing a striker this month after Marcus Rashford’s back injury, have raised questions as to the wisdom of allowing Lukaku to leave Old Trafford. But, in an interview with Sky Sports News, the 26-year-old said the decision was his and it had worked out well for United as well. “I think I had to re-find myself,” he said. “Last year was difficult for me on the professional side because stuff was not going how I wanted and I was not performing as well… and I just came to the conclusion that it was time for me to change environment. “I made my decision around March, and I went to the manager’s office (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) and I told him it was time for me to find something else.” “I think I made the right decision and I think Manchester United now has made space for the younger players to come through so I think it was a bit of a win-win situation for both of us,” he added. The Belgian was signed for United by Jose Mourinho and had an excellent first season, scoring 27 goals as United finished second in the Premier League. But Mourinho was sacked in December 2018 after a disappointing start to the season, with Lukaku also unable to discover his best form. Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku. PHOTO: AP Previous articleComing around again: Famous ice disk seems to be re-forming Next articleImagine opens 10th branch at airport	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line276
__label__wiki	0.929077	0.929077	S African rugby aims for Sept restart without fans CAPE TOWN (AP) – Rugby in South Africa is aiming to restart next month after the government gave permission for matches to go ahead again without spectators. National body SA Rugby said approval for full-contact training sessions and games was given on Thursday but it will take teams around a month to be ready to play competitive matches again. SA Rugby hasn’t announced where games will be played in a country among the worst affected in the world by the coronavirus pandemic. South Africa has more than half a million confirmed COVID-19 cases, the fifth biggest caseload in the world. It has more than half of the cases across the entire African continent. Cities like Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, home to the biggest teams, all have high numbers of COVID-19 cases. The relaxation of rules does not apply to any trans-national competitions and teams cannot leave or travel to South Africa. South African captain Siya Kolisi holds the Webb Ellis Cup after South Africa defeated England to win the Rugby World Cup final at International Yokohama Stadium last year. PHOTO: AP South Africa’s top domestic teams have been out of action since the southern hemisphere’s Super Rugby competition was suspended in mid-March. Southern hemisphere rivals New Zealand and Australia have been running their own domestic rugby competitions for the last month. Two South African teams also play in Europe’s Pro 14 league, which is planning a return to action later this month with games between teams from the same countries. The development in South Africa may allow its Pro 14 teams to follow suit. South Africa’s national team, the world-champion Springboks, hasn’t set foot on the field since winning the Rugby World Cup last November and will likely be out of action for at least a year because of the virus. The Springboks’ next target is the delayed southern hemisphere Rugby Championship, which could now be played in November and December if restrictions on travel are lifted. “At this stage, we hope to have our first (domestic) matches by early to mid-September and our plans on the structure of the planned competition will be announced in due course as we have various options to consider,” SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said. Previous articleStudents develop Halal honey products Next articleUber lost USD1.8B in Q2 as riders stayed home and ordered in	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line277
__label__wiki	0.964264	0.964264	VanVleet scores 22 as Raptors top 76ers for fifth straight win TORONTO (AP) — Already without star centre Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers couldn’t overcome losing another starter to injury. Pascal Siakam had 18 points and 15 rebounds, Fred VanVleet scored 22 and the Toronto Raptors beat the short-handed 76ers 107-95 yesterday, extending their winning streak to five. Philadelphia lost guard Josh Richardson when he strained his left hamstring while trying to make a steal four minutes into the first quarter. He did not return. “He’s a big part of this team defensively and offensively, so we’re going to miss him for however long he’s out,” Sixers guard Ben Simmons said. Richardson had scored 15 or more points in seven of the past eight games, He did not speak to reporters following the game, but the team said he will be re-evaluated. Richardson missed six games in late November and early December last year because of a right hamstring injury. Embiid missed his eighth straight game after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left hand. “We thought that our best opportunity to steal a win on the road without Jo and J-Rich was going to be to hunt some 3s and spread the thing around and play fast and share the ball,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said. “At the start of the game, in the first period, we did that quite well.” Philadelphia connected on seven of 14 attempts from beyond the arc in the first, but just 11 of 32 the rest of the way. After making 14 field goals in the first, the Sixers had 18 in the final three quarters combined. “Even with guys out we still had a chance to be in this game and get a win,” forward Tobias Harris said. “Give them credit, they did a really good job after the first quarter defending us.” Norman Powell scored 18 points, Marc Gasol shot seven for seven and finished with 17 points, and Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka each scored 16 as the Raptors won their 15th straight at home against the 76ers. “They had like five totally uncontested 3s in the first four minutes of the game but we (defended) when it mattered,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said. “We were moving and flying, playing physical most of the second half, I thought.” Simmons had 17 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the 76ers, narrowly missing his second straight triple-double. But he had just two points and one rebound in the fourth quarter as Philadelphia’s four-game winning streak was snapped. “There was a physicality to their game that you felt,” Brown said of Toronto’s defence. Harris scored 22 points, Furkan Korkmaz had 17 and Matisse Thybulle 13 for the 76ers. Philadelphia trailed 93-90 after Simmons scored on a dunk with 4:26 left in the fourth, his only points of the final quarter, but Toronto answered with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes as the Sixers missed five straight shots. Previous articleTwo children killed in school bus crash in Germany Next articleSingapore confirms first case of Wuhan virus Syrian Arab Republic 100 12,760 6,329 809 Vietnam 10 1,531 1,369 35	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line278
__label__wiki	0.821247	0.821247	Wall divides political game, real life along US-Mexico border \| Huang Heng & Tan Yixiao \| SAN DIEGO (Xinhua) – “What Congress and Trump do is all politics; what we are here to speak about is people’s lives. They’re playing games with each other and not caring about us,” Juan, a 34-year-old alien day labourer who refused to reveal his last name, told Xinhua. Just past 9am on a cloudy Saturday, Juan and dozens of other day labourers stood at a corner of the parking lot of a Home Depot on Fairmount Avenue, awaiting their work. Like usual, cars and pickups came by. Drivers discussed prices with these men from Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti. Some of them then got into the trucks and left, while more would go afterwards to the underground labour market, trying their luck. No employer asked these alien labourers for immigration documents there, but thousands of kilometres away, in Washington, controversy on immigration and the building of a border wall that would be located just 35km south of the Home Depot has led to the United States (US) government shutdown for weeks. DAILY NEED They are called day labourers as they always ask to be paid daily, whether their amount of work is calculated by the hour or project. “Sometimes, after a USD200 job, they (employers) will say, ‘I don’t have the money with me, follow me to the bank,’ and when they’re following them to the bank, all of a sudden the car takes off and they get away. So they robbed them, they really robbed them,” founder of Border Angels Enrique Morones explained to Xinhua as to why the labourers require daily payment. On the other hand, these labourers satisfy the daily needs of local people, said Morones, who is also head of the San Diego-based volunteer group aiming at helping migrants. “There is a lot of different types of jobs like hanging drywall, gardening and construction. Right now there are about 15 of them (day labourers) working on a demolition project,” Morones said. “Even if the Home Depot is closed, there are still people who come by knowing … and try to hire somebody.” Juan said local people want to hire day labourers so as to save money. “The agencies are going to charge them USD45 an hour, but here around USD15 an hour,” he added. A man protests against border wall near the US-Mexico border in San Diego. – XINHUA Cladio, a 55-year-old day labourer from Mexico, told Xinhua he used to be hired to work as far away as Riverside and San Bernardino, over 200km away from the border. “There are two things, one is (that it’s) less expensive and two (is) they are very hard workers. They’ll do a lot more work than somebody else,” Cladio said. “You don’t see the Latinos on corners asking for money. They’re actually here to work.” Statistics show that the so-called “illegal immigrants” have contributed a lot to the US economy. A cross-section of Californian leaders in business, education, law enforcement and religion testified at the Supreme Court of the US in 2016 that a quarter of illegal immigrants in the country lived in California, which accounted for seven per cent of the Californian population. Meanwhile, more than 34 per cent of agriculture labourers, 22 per cent of manufacturing labourers and 21 per cent of construction workers in the Golden State were illegal immigrants. “The undocumented workforce alone made over USD130 billion’ GDP for California last year, which was more than the entire respective GDPs of 19 other states,” they said in a court brief. NATIONAL SECURITY? However, since his Presidential campaign, US President Donald Trump has been preaching building a border wall between the country and Mexico to keep out rapists, criminals and drug traffickers, though in reality most migrants are simply looking for work. “The overwhelming majority of the people here are good people. They’re here to work trying to support their family. And like everywhere in the world, there are some criminals, but that doesn’t have anything to do with whether you’re documented or not,” Cladio said. “Most of the migrants are not criminals. They’re the opposite. They’re trying to do something for their family. That’s why they’re risking their life crossing the border and coming over here,” he added. Tina Better, a 55-year-old preschool teacher who has been working for Border Angels for five years, also doubted the border wall’s efficiency against crime. “I understand where they might be coming from, but it’s really not going to stop the bad people and the drug trade. All those people, they’re going to get in here whether there’s a wall or not … It’s just a sad thing to put up a wall like that,” she said. “I don’t think it’s necessary for security. I think it’s a waste of money. That money could be used for plenty of other things,” said Better, adding that there has been plenty of border patrol and security technology. Furthermore, she is afraid the proposed wall would trigger more moral crisis. “I just don’t think the wall will keep out drugs and stuff. I think it’s more keeping out the good people that are trying to come. Keeping them out will also force them to go into the desert areas, even in the cold in the wintertime or in the high heat in the summertime, which sometimes is deadly for them.” Border Angels, which has water drops in the desert every third Saturday of the month, said that since Operation Gatekeeper started in September 1994, about 10,000 people have lost their lives trying to cross into the United States from Mexico due to extreme weather, lack of food and water, and the overall perilous nature of the trip. Operation Gatekeeper was a measure implemented during the presidency of Bill Clinton by the US Border Patrol, which aimed to halt illegal immigration to the country at the US-Mexico border near San Diego, California. POLITICAL GAME “It’s an unnecessary cost and a waste of money. They should look at other ways for immigration, not the wall,” echoed Morones, who founded Border Angels in 1986. “As a matter of fact, this country is predominantly made of immigrants. Look at Trump. His wife is an immigrant. He had undocumented people working for him.” Morones pointed out that the country should take responsibility for these people who are seeking a better life, basic sustenance for their family or freedom from poverty and violence which are “not only the result of the various countries’ government, but also that of US economic and political involvements in Latin America”. Both Morones and Better agreed that a partial government shutdown, the result of a budget standoff between the White House and Democrats over funding for Trump’s controversial border wall, is ridiculous. The shutdown, on its 15th day by Saturday, has affected nine Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, forcing about 420,000 federal employees whose jobs are deemed essential to work without pay, while 380,000 others were asked to take unpaid leave. Trump said Friday that he is prepared for a partial government shutdown to last for months or years, after his meeting with congressional leaders yielded no deal over funding for the wall. “It’s crazy to have the government shut down over this. They could keep the government open and still negotiate on the wall or border security without closing the government down,” Better said “This is harming the average person. “Nobody knows how long it will last,” Morones said. “Trump is like a little child, stubborn and he’s not qualified to be president. His stubbornness and what he does is causing a lot of damage. There are a lot of people out of work because of it.” Juan, the Mexican labourer, also had his understanding of the game between the US Congress and Trump. “It’s all politics when it comes to them. That is affecting us and they don’t care. They only care what they’re going be able to say in the elections,” Juan said at the cold parking lot. However, unlike most of his friends, Juan supported Trump’s idea to build the border wall, since he believes the huge construction project will create a lot more working opportunities for day labourers like him. “More people will come from Mexico to build the wall,” he said. Previous articleCourt allows Musa Aman to seek treatment in London Next articleMadrid slip 10 points behind Barca after shock defeat by Real Sociedad	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line279
__label__cc	0.720029	0.279971	CCMA Awards announced in Edmonton Congratulations to all the Canadian Country Music Award winners who were honoured at an awards event in Edmonton on September 11th. RADIO STATION OF THE YEAR Major Market: CISN-FM • Edmonton, AB RADIO STATION OF THE YEAR Secondary Market: CFRM-FM • Manitoulin, ON The Gala Dinner honours record companies, publishers, talent buyers and radio stations alongside awards for the roots artists, songwriters and top selling albums. Also recognized at the gala were members of the industry with long-term contributions to the growth and development of Canadian country music (Hall of Honour Builder) and outstanding contributions of time and energy in the support of humanitarian causes (Humanitarian Award). The full list can be found here	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line280
__label__wiki	0.783544	0.783544	South korean dating rules Free sex chatting website without webcams Sex chat free of sign up Jasmine sexs chat room Caucasian men dating pakistani women graduate student online dating ring mountings antique dating dating a guy with mental illness online dating websites japan ireland dating customs Free sex chat line numbers Chatrandom pilipen adulit x dating Free sex textchat Are paula abdul and simon cowell dating Her six number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 tie her with Diana Ross for seventh among the female solo performers who have topped the chart.Abdul was one of the original judges on the television series American Idol from 2002 to 2009, and has since appeared as a judge on The X Factor, Live to Dance, and So You Think You Can Dance.She received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography twice for her work on The Tracey Ullman Show, and her own performance at the American Music Awards in 1990.Abdul was honored with her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is the first entertainer to be honored with the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards' Hall of Fame Award.The single performed well on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where it reached number one, and peaked at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100."Crazy Cool" and "Ain't Never Gonna Give You Up" served as the album's second and third singles. "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" was a modest comeback hit for Abdul, peaking at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 11 on i Tunes, and number 2 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. is an American dancer, choreographer, singer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreographer for the Laker Girls, where she was discovered by The Jacksons. After choreographing music videos for Janet Jackson, Abdul became a choreographer at the height of the music video era and soon thereafter she was signed to Virgin Records. Her debut studio album Forever Your Girl (1988) became one of the most successful debut albums at that time, selling 7 million copies in the United States and setting a record for the most number-one singles from a debut album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: "Straight Up", "Forever Your Girl", "Cold Hearted", and "Opposites Attract". Search for are paula abdul and simon cowell dating: Previous PostWithout registration sex text chat with mumbai girls Next PostFree girls cams no sign ups One thought on “are paula abdul and simon cowell dating” last minute christmas gifts for dating couples says: Jewish Dating at Jewish Jewish is a SAFE Jewish dating and Jewish personals site. Adult chat trade pics says: Our ebony babes are not only the sexiest free ebony cams online, but also feature a broad range of stunning cam girls which will appeal to everyone's tastes and desires. Free london ontario phone chat lines dating guys with no facebook lux ladies dating	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line281
__label__wiki	0.791016	0.791016	Key Dates Vanarama National League Key Dates Confirmed For Vanarama National League Season 2020/21 The new Vanarama National League season is edging ever closer. With the excitement starting to build we are delighted to announce the key dates for your diary. This year’s highly anticipated fixture release will be on Tuesday 8th September at 1pm. The season begins in just over a months’ time. The National League clubs will get things underway on Saturday 3rd October. National League North and South sides will be in FA Cup action that day - and their battle for points kicks off with a midweek programme days later. Because of the later than usual start, the league season will conclude on Saturday 29th May. The play-offs for each division will take place over the first three weekends of June. The festive period is always crucial to supporters and there will of course be a full Boxing Day offering on Saturday 26th December. Games will also be scheduled for Monday 28th December, with the first match of 2021 pencilled in for Saturday 2nd January. Round dates for the FA Cup and FA Trophy can be found at: www.thefa.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line283
__label__wiki	0.886872	0.886872	Losing My Head Over "Sweeney Todd" The Oscar nominations were announced last week and despite winning the Golden Globe award for Best Musical or Comedy, Tim Burton’s film version of Sweeney Todd didn’t make the cut as one of the five nominees for Best Movie. Johnny Depp, however, did get a Best Actor nod for his portrayal of Sweeney. There was so much to do over the holidays and so many stage shows to see, that I only recently caught up with the film even though Sweeney Todd is my all-time favorite musical. And now having seen it, I think the Oscar folks got it right. Depp’s characteristically idiosyncratic intensity is a perfect match for Sweeney and deserves to be recognized. But while Burton’s trademark creepy aesthetic also fits the show’s macabre subject matter, it lacks the humor that stage versions have used to leaven the horror of a vengeful man who slits people’s throats and an opportunistic woman who bakes their remains into savory meat pies. It’s a good, even spellbinding, movie. But it has been a great, truly sublime, show. In fact, the best time I ever had in the theater was back in 1979 when I saw the original production just before Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, as Sweeney and his cheerfully ghoulish companion Mrs. Lovett, were about to leave the cast. I had never seen or heard a show like it before. And I have never since felt anything like the almost sexual energy that coursed through the entire theater that night. The actors apparently felt it too and began channeling the emotion into their performance. That electrified the audience and its excitement seemed to goad the cast on to even greater intensity. Near frenzy mounted on both sides of the stage lights as the evening went on. I don't know if this happened at every performance but when the final note of “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” the song that begins and ends the show, was sung that night, the cast, visibly dripping with sweat, broke into applause for the audience and, at that same moment, the entire audience leapt to its feet and literally roared its gratitude. I was enraptured. And I have remained so about what is certainly Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece. When The Kennedy Center presented its Sondheim Celebration in 2002, my husband K and I jumped on the Metroliner and went down to Washington for a weekend-long orgy of three of the Celebration’s six shows. Sondheim happened to be sitting in the same car, right across from us, and K, a pit musician who has played several Sondheim shows, went over and and said hello and they chatted briefly about the Kennedy Center festival. Sondheim said it was going well. That proved to be a total understatement. We saw Company, Merrily We Roll Along and, of course, Sweeney Todd and we had a magnificent time. Brian Stokes Mitchell made a powerful Sweeney and Christine Baranski was terrifically amusing and even touching as Mrs. Lovett. It was a wonderful production and I hoped it would come to New York so that I could see it again. Instead, in 2005, we got the John Doyle production with Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone and a tiny cast of eight other actors, who also doubled as the orchestra. The Doyle production was widely praised for its innovative approach but although I liked Cerveris and LuPone, I missed the sound of a real orchestra and a full-throated chorus. The movie cuts some of the songs but the music that remains is full-strength (Sondheim’s frequent Broadway collaborators Jonathan Tunick did the orchestrations and Paul Gemignani conducted the orchestra) but while Depp and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett are terrific actors, they are only so-so singers. So I was delighted when I discovered that the Masterworks Broadway series had released a digitally re-mastered 2-disc set of the 1979 original cast album. It’s done up with over a dozen photos from that production, liner notes that include recollections fr om Victor Garber who played the young sailor Anthony who befriends Sweeney and later falls in love with his daughter Johanna, and two bonus tracks from the one-night Sondheim celebration at Carnegie Hall in 1992 (click here to learn more about it). It’s the kind of stuff that theater geeks love. But you don’t have to be a geek to love this CD. For the music is thrilling, amusing, intoxicating and damn near addictive. I haven’t been able to stop listening to it since the CD arrived four days ago. Even when I unplug my iPod, I can’t get the songs out of my head. Nor do I really want to. And so although, there are new shows I’ve seen—a nice revival of Lisa Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride at Altered Stages, a disappointing retelling of The Trojan Women by the Classical Theatre of Harlem —and that I should be writing about, I simply had to share the passion that this theater lover has for Sweeney Todd with those of you who love theater too. Labels: 2.5 Minute Ride, Sweeney Todd, Trojan Women "Come Back, Little Sheba's" Blind Spot Casting can make or break a show. And back in 1950, nearly everyone agreed that the casting was the best thing about Come Back, Little Sheba, William Inge’s drama about the unhappy marriage between Lola, a childish woman, and her alcoholic husband Doc. The play, Inge’s second and his first to make it to Broadway, was admired for taking on then-taboo subjects like premarital sex, domestic violence and substance abuse. But it also exhibited all the shortcomings of a novice playwright—heavy handed metaphors, long expository speeches and narrative-turning coincidences. “Come Back, Little Sheba for all the true and touching things it has to say is on the whole much less satisfactory than it ought to be,” wrote the New Yorker critic Wolcott Gibbs. But both the critics and the public loved the shattering performances Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer gave as the mismatched couple. Both actors won Tonys and Booth went on to win an Oscar for the movie adaptation. The casting is also what makes the Manhattan Theatre Club’s new revival of Come Back, Little Sheba stand out. Although, alas, not as much as it could have. The play’s symbolism is still obvious, its speeches, particularly in the slow-moving first half, are still too explanatory and nowadays, the subjects it explores aren’t new territory but well-trod ground. The result is that the show comes off as dated. Still, several critics including Ben Brantley in the New York Times and Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal have praised the production (click here to see a brief excerpt). But the public response seems less favorable. “I can’t stay awake,” a woman sitting behind my husband K and me confided to her husband during intermission. “They said this was going to be good and fresh but it wasn’t,” a man walking out of the theater in front of us griped to his friends. "It felt like homework," a friend told me the next day. K and I were disappointed by the old-timey quality too. But what is fresh about the new production is its colorblind casting. S. Epatha Merkerson, who is black and best known for her 14-year run as the tough lieutenant on TV’s “Law & Order,” plays Lola; and the stage stalwart Kevin Anderson, who is white, plays Doc. Merkerson, an expert actor who usually plays strong women, works hard to portray the fragile Lola and almost pulls it off. Anderson doesn’t quite get all of Doc’s sadness but nails his anger. They might have been even more successful if director Michael Pressman had seized the opportunity to explore the tensions that the actors' racial differences would bring to a marriage like Lola and Doc’s. There are one or two nods in that direction. The one person Lola feels she can call for help in an emergency is played by Keith Randolph Smith, the only other black member of the cast. But without changing a word of the play, Pressman might have delved deeper, pushed his actors further and come up with a reinvigorating subtext for a play that never seems to have had one. Instead, while there are some affecting moments, the evening was, at least for me, largely colorless. Colorblind casting is great when it opens up opportunities for actors to play parts they might not have been considered for in an earlier time. But it shouldn’t mean that directors and actors are blind to the different shadings that race can bring to those roles. In April, Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand are scheduled to star as another unhappy couple in the Mike Nichols-directed revival of Clifford Odet’s The Country Girl. Unlike Sheba, which maintained its original 1950s setting, the new production of Country Girl is reported to be set in the present. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will also use the incredibly wonderful casting of Freeman and McDormand to explore contemporary attitudes on race. Hear, hear cheers for "Speech and Debate" Everyone is always talking about the need to get younger people to see more theater. But the folks at the Roundabout Theatre Company have clearly decided to do something about it. Last fall, they introduced Access Roundabout, an audience development program that sets aside about 2,000 tickets for people between the ages of 18 and 35 at just $20 each, and $10 seats for all first preview performances. But cheap seats work best when there’s something on stage that people really want to see. The Roundabout has an answer for that too: Roundabout Underground, a new series that showcases the works of young playwrights in full-scale productions in the company’s new 60-seat Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, located in the basement of the Laura Pels Theatre on West 46th Street. Now, the Roundabout’s next challenge will be to find plays equal to the black box’s inaugural production, Speech & Debate, a sassy comedy about free speech, online privacy and sexual identity, written by the 27 year-old playwright Stephen Karam. Speech & Debate is smart and funny and, unlike so many plays that focus on the problems of middle-aged folks, it speaks directly to the concerns of young people. And there were lots of them in the audience the night my husband K and I saw the show. My friend Bill had seen Speech & Debate right after it first opened, back in October, and told me I shouldn’t miss it. He also told me, which the show doesn’t advertise, that seating is open so it’s best to get there early to get a good spot. Because K and I are the kind of people who tend to arrive everywhere so early that we usually have to walk around the block to burn up some time, there were only two other people sitting in the downstairs lobby when we got there. We bought soft drinks at the lobby bar, sat at one of its round café-style tables and people-watched as our fellow audience members arrived. The early-birds weren’t at all what we expected—mainly the same grey-heads that you see at most theaters. In fact, when the first twentysomething couple arrived, they did a double take they were so surprised to find themselves in the company of what seemed to be an AARP rally. But then just before the doors of the theater opened, the black clad, nose-pierced set began to flow in. K and I got front row seats, which made us feel almost a part of the show, which takes place largely in high school classrooms. Speech & Debate signaled that it was different even before it started; the customary “Turn off your cell phones” announcement wasn’t spoken but appeared in laser print on the set’s blackboard—line after line of the message, written as though it were a detention room assignment. But there is nothing punitive about the show. Speech & Debate’s plot involves three high-school misfits who meet over the internet and become involved in one another’s secrets. It’s longer than it needs to be, some speeches are overwritten and some debates just peter out but Karam’s distinctive voice emerges through it all and the performers, particularly Susan Steele, a scene-stealing dynamo who reminded me of a young Stockard Channing, keep you from wriggling restlessly in your seat. And it was really nice to see really young actors (at least one is still in college) playing young people in a play dealing with the concerns of young people. “This is the greatest play I’ve ever seen,” the young woman sitting behind me told her companion with the kind of emphatic passion that is endemic to her age. And that is just the kind of passion that the theater needs more of. We oldsters liked it too. I’m already looking forward to Karam’s next play. This one is running through Feb. 24. Go see it if you can. Or better yet, if you know some young people between the ages of 16 and 29, buy a ticket and send them. Labels: Speech and Debate Voting No on "November" Politics, or at least political satire, makes particularly strange bedfellows as foul-mouthed David Mamet and frolic-making Nathan Lane have teamed up to create November, a comedy about a bumbling White House incumbent trying, by whatever means necessary, to be reelected president. And I made an uneasy voyeur of their goings-on. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a Mamet fan. I even once had “a date” with him. An old boyfriend gave me the phone number of a playwright pal of his when I moved to Chicago for a short time in the early ‘70s. I called and the pal offered to show me around town one evening, introducing me to the Art Institute of Chicago and the deep-dish pleasure of the original Pizzeria Uno on Ohio Street. I never saw him again after that; I was stunned when I later saw Sexual Perversity in Chicago and realized it had been written by my tour guide. Lane is even more beloved in my household. My pit-musician husband K played in the orchestras of the 1990s’ revivals of Guys and Dolls and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Lane’s onstage antics in those shows, particularly in Forum, cracked K up almost every night and we have made a point of seeing just about everything that Lane has done since then. But K decided to pass on November. That seemed strange to me at first because K is also something of a political junkie. But, after seeing the show, it occurred to me that may have been why he passed on it. November tells the story of Charles Smith, a hapless and unpopular president whose poll numbers are “lower than Gandhi's cholesterol.” He and his adviser, a wry Dylan Baker, scheme about how they can stay in office and their plan ropes in Laurie Metcalf’s comically earnest speechwriter Clarice Bernstein, a lesbian with a bad cold and a good cause; a representative of the turkey industry played by Ethan Phillips and a disgruntled Native American played by Michael Nichols. The seemingly ubiquitous director Joe Mantello puts them through their paces nicely and the equally ubiquitous set designer Scott Pask recreates a recognizable, and yet amusing, version of the Oval Office. As one would expect from Mamet, there are lots of undeleted expletives and no political correctness—every group and every political issue gets skewered. And as one would expect from Lane, there are lots and lots of laughs. And yet the whole thing seemed kind of pointless to me. It wasn’t that the situations were so ridiculously silly; I loved “Wag the Dog,” the equally silly 1997 film satire that Mamet co-wrote about a president who tries to divert attention from a sex scandal by invading Albania. And it wasn’t even that so many of the jokes were predictable in a Borscht Belt kind of way; Mel Brooks was sitting across from me and although he was clearly aware that people were looking at him to gauge his response, I caught him nodding his head a couple of times in apparent "ta-da" recognition of the shtick. I think it was that the show’s underlying messages that politicians can be puerile and that democracy is important seem superfluous coming in the midst of an historic campaign. Mamet has been campaigning hard for November, giving almost as many interviews as Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama or John McCain and even maintaining a blog in the voice of his presidential character (click here to read it). But for me, there’s no contest: November can’t compete with the drama, the inspiration or even the humor of the real thing. Labels: November Stumbling on "The 39 Steps" The funny thing about comedy is that we don’t all laugh at the same things. One person’s guffaw is another’s ho-hum. What makes one person giggle with glee can make another wriggle in discomfort. What got me thinking about all of this is the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of The 39 Steps, the parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1935 romantic thriller that opened at the American Airlines Theatre this week. The conceit of the show is that just four actors recreate all of the movie’s 100 or so speaking parts in its fast-moving story about an innocent man who is swept up in a murderous conspiracy and rushes across England and Scotland trying to clear his name. The movie is considered the greatest of the films that Hitchcock made in England before moving to Hollywood and the stage parody was a great hit in London, even winning an Olivier Award. The New York theater critics seem tickled too. And me? Well, not so much. My husband K and I are big Hitchcock fans. When we’re at a loss for a DVD to watch, we always know we can count on Hitchcock. We got "The 39 Steps" the weekend before we saw the play and a good thing too. Not only did we thoroughly enjoy the movie but we would have missed out on a bunch of the play’s jokes without it. But even though we got the bits, we didn’t find them as funny as the London fans or the New York critics apparently did. I certainly can't blame the hard-working cast, particularly Arnie Burton and Cliff Saunders, who play most of the roles. And the way director Maria Aitken uses simple props—a few chairs, some boxes, sheets, a wooden rectangle—to recreate the film’s special effects, including a race across the top of a moving train and a plane crash, is indisputably clever. Still, instead of rolling with laughter, I was just mildly amused. Maybe the Brits loved it more because they're more familiar with the movie. Maybe if it has been a staged parody of “Casablanca” or “The Godfather,” it would have hit home more with me. Judging by the polite applause at the curtain call, K and I weren’t the only ones who’d expected to have a better time. As people filed out of their seats after the curtain call, the women sitting in front of us turned around and asked what we thought of the show. We told them. They confessed that although they’d seen the movie years ago, they couldn’t remember most of it and so some of the funny bits had gone right over their heads. After the show, K and I walked two blocks over to the Algonquin, the old hotel made famous by the writers who lunched at its legendary Round Table in the 1920s. I ordered a vodka cocktail called The Parker in honor of Dorothy Parker, the witty writer, screenwriter and one-time theater critic. Parker—the woman, not the cocktail—went out to Hollywood a year before the original "The 39 Steps" was made and worked on dozens of scripts including the 1937 version of “A Star Is Born.” But it’s her Round Table-era quips that still make me chuckle. The most infamous is probably her critique of a Katharine Hepburn performance: “She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.” Which, alas, more or less sums up how I felt about The 39 Steps. Labels: The 39 Steps "The Little Mermaid" Fails to Make A Splash Disney was not a bad word when I was growing up. It meant "The Mickey Mouse Club," which I loved watching. It meant Disney World, which I longed to see. And it meant entering the magical worlds of feature-length cartoons like "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty." So, I'm not really quite sure how Disney became a four letter word on Broadway. Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and the restoration of the venerable New Amsterdam Theatre helped rescue Broadway and the Times Square area from the drug pushers, pimps and sex shops that dominated the neighborhood in the ‘70s. But sophisticated musical lovers complain that Disney's later shows—Aida, Tarzan, Mary Poppins—have been too bland and too mechanical. Broadway insiders gripe that the Disney corporation refuses to play by the rules, throwing its weight around in contract negotiations and its money around to buy up talent. And now, this week, nearly every major theater critic has joined in, harpooning Disney's latest show, The Little Mermaid. “Loved the shoes. Loathed the show,” wrote the New York Times’ Ben Brantley. Alas, I have to swim with the tide on this last one. I don't think The Little Mermaid is as terrible as Brantley says but there certainly isn't anything magical about it. And it's magic you want from a fairy tale and from the imagineers of Disney. Raised expectations might be part of the problem. There have been few more magical moments on the stage than the opening of The Lion King. The Disney folks hired the experimental theater director Julie Taymor and she transformed that beloved cartoon into a wondrous theatrical experience that set a high bar for other Disney shows. For Mermaid, Disney hired the internationally acclaimed opera director Francesca Zambello, clearly hoping that she would create a similarly transformative production. I've never seen Zambello's work before but if The Little Mermaid is any indication, I don't get what the fuss is about. The show still tells the story of the mermaid princess Ariel (the pleasant Sierra Boggess) who falls for a human prince (the equally pleasant Sean Palmer), and then defies her father (the very buff and therefore particularly pleasant-to-look-at Norm Lewis) and almost sacrifices her life for love. But the book by Doug Wright (yes, the same award winning creator of I Am My Own Wife and the book for Grey Gardens) pads the tale so much that what was once a brisk 83-minute movie is now a somewhat bloated 2 ½-hour show. All of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's songs from the original cartoon are still there and they still delight but the new ones by Menken and Glenn Slater aren't up to the same level. Most of the imagination seems to have gone into creating an underwater world, which set designer George Tsypin and costume designer Tatiana Noginova do primarily with lots of plastic to simulate water and by having actors glide around on sneakers with wheels in their heels to affect the movement of swimming. I went to the show with my niece Jennifer, who is now 28 but who, like me, grew up on Disney cartoons and still has the DVDs of every show that came out during the company’s second golden era of animation, which began with the release of “The Little Mermaid” in 1989. We tried to get into the mood of the evening by stopping for a quick bite before the show at Blue Fin, the seafood restaurant around the corner from the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre where The Little Mermaid is playing. But the service was spotty and the tab was ridiculously high for the salad and appetizers we ordered. Jennifer wasn't any more pleased with the show, perking up only for familiar songs like "Part of Your World," "Kiss the Girl" and, the always-buoyant "Under the Sea." "Well," she said at the end, damning the show with faint praise, "it was better than Tarzan." The kids in the audience, and there were oodles of them at the performance we attended, seemed to enjoy the show more than we did. But they didn't display the excitement that I saw in the young theatergoers at Wicked or Legally Blonde. Maybe kids today are too jaded for the PG-attractions of a traditional Disney show. But maybe it’s just time for Disney to move on from adaptations of its old animated hits. The company seems to think so too. It is currently developing musicals based on "The Man in the Ceiling," Jules Feiffer's children's book about a boy who yearns to become a cartoonist; and "Peter and the Starcatchers," a prequel to Peter Pan by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Maybe they can help restore Disney's good name. Labels: Legally Blonde, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Wicked Great Movies for Theater Lovers Great ideas don't come along every day. But I found one on the blog Gratuitous Violins. Its blogger writes smartly about the whole range of culture —books, movies, TV and, of course, theater (click here to visit her site)—and last week, she pointed her readers to the movie review podcast Filmspotting whose two hosts listed their Top 5 movies about the theater world. They selected "All About Eve" (which made both their lists) "All That Jazz," "Bullets Over Broadway," "Cradle Will Rock," "The Goodbye Girl," "Moon Over Broadway," "Waiting for Guffman" (another dual choice) and "Yankee Doodle Dandy". (Click here to read more about their choices) I've seen them all. And loved each one. I actually bought copies of "All That Jazz," "Moon Over Broadway" and "All About Eve," which might be my favorite movie of all time. In fact, I've used it as a kind of litmus test. There have been two great loves of my life; both got "All About Eve" and both got me. I also love lists and seeing the Filmspotting one got me thinking about what other stage movies I’d add. So here are 10 more, listed alphabetically, that I think should be must-sees for every respectable theater geek: "BEING JULIA" This is not a great movie but Annette Bening’s portrayal of a London actress in the 1930s is and she gloriously, and hilariously, fulfills every stereotype of the fiercely great stage diva. "THE DRESSER" Both Gratuitous Violins and I chose this wonderful screen version of Ronald Harwood’s play about the relationship between the actor-manager of a touring Shakespeare company (the sensational Albert Finney) and his dresser (the equally superb Tom Courtenay) whose story comes to resemble that of Lear and his Fool. "FAME" How can you not love this exuberant musical that follows the lives of four talented kids from their first audition straight through their graduation from New York’s famed High School for the Performing Arts? "FUNNY GIRL" Whatever you may think about Barbra Streisand’s later career or her politics, there can be no question about the fact that her star-making portrayal of the legendary Ziegfeld comedienne Fanny Brice is a tour de force. "THE GREAT ZIEGFELD" This great Oscar-winning biopic stars William Powell as the master showman, Luise Rainer and Myrna Loy as his wives, Fanny Brice as herself, Busby Berkeley’s spectacular dance numbers and half the Great American Songbook. "KISS ME KATE" There’s Cole Porter, there’s Shakespeare, there’s even Bob Fosse in a supporting role in this terrific show-within-a-show version of The Taming of the Shrew, plus there are great showbizzy songs and loads of backstage in-jokes. "SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE" It’s highly unlikely that there’s any truth in this witty romantic comedy about how the Bard came to write Romeo and Juliet but the script, co-written by Tom Stoppard, and the performances, including Oscar-winning turns by Gwyneth Paltrow as a young noblewoman who yearns to be an actress and Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I, are all truly entertaining. "STAGE BEAUTY" If you know this one, then you really are a theater geek. The setting is Restoration-era London and Billy Crudup stars as a fictional version of the real-life actor Ned Kynaston, celebrated for playing female roles when women weren’t allowed on stage; Claire Danes portrays the first woman who breaks the gender barrier; Richard Eyre, the former director of London’s Royal National Theatre, directs and together they create a first-class love letter to the art of acting. "STAGE DOOR" Who knows how many impressionable young girls over the decades have seen Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers in this still-delightful 1937 classic and then dreamt of coming to New York, moving into a boardinghouse with other stage-struck girls and waiting for their big break on Broadway? "TOPSY-TURVY" Mike Leigh’s exquisite film about the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership transports you into the world of the theater at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of musical comedy as we know it. The centerpiece of the nearly three-hour film is the making of The Mikado and it alone is worth the DVD rental fee. O.K. so now, what are your favorites? A Stellar Crew for "The Seafarer" If there were a Tony Award for Best Ensemble (and why isn't there one?) it would be the most competitive race this Broadway season. The frontrunner probably would be the Steppenwolf gang from August: Osage County. And not far behind would be the merrymakers of Is He Dead? and the lethal quintet in The Homecoming. But I'd cast my vote for the brilliant band of actors in Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer. The cast—Jim Norton, Conleth Hill, Sean Mahon (standing in the photo above), David Morse and Ciarán Hinds—is listed alphabetically in the Playbill, the actors come out together for the curtain call and it's hard to set a hierarchy on their uniformly superb performances. Like the members of a crew team, each man grabs his oars and, working together as a single unit skillfully steered by McPherson who directs his own play, they transport the audience into an engrossing evening of theater. It's a particularly impressive feat because their vehicle, the play with its fanciful twists, isn't quite as sturdy as one might hope. Like The Weir and last season's Shining City, The Seafarer is another one of McPherson's ghost stories. The Dublin-born playwright has the Irishman's love of a good yarn and he is a great raconteur. But at the end of each of his plays I've seen, I found myself asking, So what was that about? The critics, whose reviews I'd saved and read when I got home, also seemed confused by The Seafarer's meaning and divided on whether or not it was a really good play or just a good time. At its simplest, The Seafarer is about a ne'er do-well (Morse) who returns home during the Christmas season to take care of his brother (Norton) who was blinded when he got so drunk that he fell into a dumpster. Two local friends (Hill and Mahon) drop by and a mysterious man (Hinds) whom one of them met at a local bar joins the group. There is much drinking, much storytelling some gambling (metaphorical and literal) and inquisitions into the meaning of good and evil, the nature of heaven and hell. Souls are imperiled and salvation is sought. There are also lots and lots of laughs. The great actor Brian Dennehy was sitting in front of my friend Bill and me and he laughed so hard that he doubled over at times, a good thing since he's a huge man who, at times, blocked Bill's view. You wouldn't know this just from watching the play, unless maybe you were a particularly wonky English major in college, but I learned from the articles and reviews I read afterwards that the title of the play apparently refers to an old English poem of the same name. And even a quick perusal of the poem seems to provide some clues as to what McPherson may be getting at. "Death leaps at the fools who forget their God," goes one line (click here to read the entire poem). It's odd when you think about it but religious faith isn't often the subject of a Broadway show. A photo of Jesus hangs on the back wall of The Seafarer’s set and right at the start of the play, the returning brother almost absent-mindedly lights a small votive candle in front of it. The flame seemed to flicker on and off throughout the performance Bill and I saw. I don't know if that was intentional or not but right before the final lights dimmed, it glowed. Labels: August: Osage County, Is He Dead?, The Homecoming, The Seafarer The Best Shows of 2007 The title on this blog entry isn't totally honest. I mean who can really say what's the best? Who even had a chance to see all of the hundreds of productions that played on Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off Broadway last year? Over the last week or so, theater critics for the major New York papers and magazines listed at least 39 different shows as the Top 10 of 2007. As you might expect, the much-celebrated August: Osage County made almost everyone's list. But even the lackluster Grease limped into one lineup. As my mother used to say, "One man's meat is another man's poison." So I'm not going to pretend to tell you what was best last year. Instead, here are a few words about the 10 shows that most amused or moved me, the ones, in other words, that I loved best: 1. Journey's End Because R.C. Sherriff’s drama, first produced in 1929, about a group of soldiers in a frontline trench during WWI, devastated me and because its terrific cast, lead by the inestimable Boyd Gaines, performed valiantly even when playing to undeservedly half-full houses. The show won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play but closed on the very same day. But you can catch Gaines giving another standout performance as the sad sack Herbie who loves Patti LuPone's Mama Rose when the Encores! production of Gypsy that played an acclaimed three-week run at City Center last summer reopens on Broadway in March. 2. The Coast of Utopia trilogy Because this three-part epic— written by Tom Stoppard, brilliantly directed by Jack O’Brien, beautifully designed by Bob Crowley and Scott Pask and superbly acted by an all-star ensemble — on the 19th century Russian intellectuals who set the scene for their country's 1917 Revolution was, as I wrote when I saw it, one of the most thrillingly theatrical experiences I've ever seen, engaging to the mind, the eye, and the imagination. It's just a memory now for those of us fortunate enough to have seen it but Stoppard is already back on Broadway with Rock 'n' Roll and O'Brien is working on a musical adaptation of the movie Catch Me if You Can, with a book by Terrence McNally and music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, that is planning to open later this year. 3. Frost/Nixon Because Frank Langella's mesmerizing portrayal of Richard Nixon evaded caricature but captured the agonized soul, and surprising wit, of the man in Peter Morgan's docudrama about the landmark interviews between the disgraced former president and the British interviewer David Frost. Luckily for those of us who love great acting, producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard have had the good sense to cast Langella (and his equally terrific co-star Michael Sheen as Frost) in the movie version that is currently in production. 4. The Piano Teacher Because the most amazing performance I saw all year was Elizabeth Franz's searing portrayal of a lonely woman struggling to hold on to the genteel world she's worked hard to create for herself in Julia Cho's delicate drama. 5. Yellow Face Because after nearly a decade of writing books for Disney musicals, David Henry Hwang returned to his artistic roots and once again dealt with issues of race and identity, this time in a semi-autobiographical play that was simultaneously thought provoking and side-splittingly funny. Its run has been extended through Jan. 13. 6. August: Osage County Because there's a reason this dysfunctional family drama is on so many lists; the show is smart, wickedly funny and showcases an ensemble from Chicago's rightly famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The actors are not only all pitch-perfect but also a reminder of that special alchemy that makes repertory companies so invaluable. Its limited run has been extended through March 9. 7. Passing Strange Because this innovative show—part rock concert, part memory play — about a young black man coming of age in the 1970s is blazingly original and a welcomed sign that, like the Tony-winning Spring Awakening, talented young people are finding ways to incorporate their experiences and their sound into musical theater. It’s scheduled to open on Broadway on Feb. 28. 8. Blackbird Because Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill stripped themselves emotionally naked in this harrowing drama about the reunion between a man and the young woman he molested when she was a girl, and showed that you don't need big scenery, a big cast or even big names to make a big show. 9. Rock 'n' Roll Because although it seems silly to have two Tom Stoppard plays on one list, I left the theater feeling as though I had seen a work that could serve as an emblem for the art, culture, and politics of my generation that came of age in the tumultuous and still controversial 1960s. 10. The Encores! productions of Follies and Stairway to Heaven Because this series proved yet again that it can bring new luster even to classics like Follies whose stellar cast, lead by Victoria Clark and Donna Murphy, had musical lovers panting for an extended run, and because for the first time the Encores! team showed that it can produce an equally sensational original work as it did with Stairway to Paradise, an homage to the grand revues made most famous by the Ziegfeld Follies. Stairway allowed such distinctive talents as Kevin Chamberlin (who was in The Ritz, which closed on Dec. 9) Christopher Fitzgerald (now in the disappointing Young Frankenstein) and Kristin Chenoweth (alas, on TV’s “Pushing Daisies”) to do what they do best.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line285
__label__cc	0.544737	0.455263	Tell Me More \| Episode 51: Scott Feinberg on The Long-Awaited Tony Awards On today’s episode of “Tell Me More,” Matt speaks the most respected man in entertainment awards journalism, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg. On Aug. 7, Feinberg published an article entitled “How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Tonys?” in which he discussed the confusion that has surrounded the Tony read more This Week on Broadway for June 4, 2017: The Government Inspector Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere review Red Bull Theater’s production of The Government Inspector, Building The Wall @ New World Stages, The Boy Who Danced On Air @ Abingdon Theatre Company, MCC Theater’s production of The End of Longing, Oklahoma! @ John W. Engeman Theater, Natasha, Pierre & The Great read more	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line286
__label__wiki	0.68265	0.68265	FORTRESS JOSEFOV Tickets - where to buy Bands→ Genre: STONER ROCK Ever since their inception in 2005, Portland’s RED FANG have strived to write heavy, catchy music underlaid with subtle complexities. The band had a distinctive and fully-formed sound right from the start: a mix of compelling rock songwriting and party-hard metal euphoria that speaks to the headbanger, the hesher, and the music student alike. The band’s two-pronged vocal attack and knack for finding the sharpest hooks made sure that the music world caught on right away. The success of Whales and Leeches even led to a live appearance on Late Show with David Letterman in January 2014. Now, after years of vigorously touring the world, the band are ready to return to the stage with their latest and greatest full-length album, "Only Ghosts". Produced by the legendary Ross Robinson (At The Drive In, The Cure, Slipknot, and many more) and mixed by Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Melvins), Only Ghosts consists of 10 new tracks of the band’s signature, high-impact, hook-filled, hard rock. RED FANG prove once again they are top-notch songwriters who have mastered the heavy anthem without taking themselves too seriously. "Only Ghosts" is a rock album of incredible magnitude that demands to be played at maximum volume! Customer care - Mon-Fri 08:00-15:00	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line288
__label__wiki	0.960836	0.960836	COREY TAYLOR Says SLIPKNOT Has 'A Lot Of Things' To Work On Before Returning To Studio SLIPKNOT recently completed a three-week European tour that was the band's first run of dates since the death of bassist Paul Gray in May 2010. Singer Corey Taylor, who has been unsure of SLIPKNOT's future since Gray's death, told Artisan News last week that "It's more about trying to figure out what it means to me in this day and age. I mean, I know what the original music means to me; it's something that I will always be proud of. I'm trying to figure out what the next steps are. And without Paul, and the way that the turmoil in the band is right now, it's gonna take some time. The tour went really well that we just did, so that's a step in the right direction. But there's still a lot of things that we've gotta work on before we can run back in and be like, 'OK, let's do another album.' It's like, let's slow down a little bit. It's here if we want it. But if we make the wrong choices for the wrong reasons, then it could all [snaps fingers] go like that, and I don't wanna be a part of that." SLIPKNOT concluded its three-week European tour on July 10 with a headlining set at England's Sonisphere festival. Taylor said he had a good time. "I did enjoy the show," he said. "The whole tour has been great. Thank you to everyone who came and everyone who participated in the two minutes of silence for Paulie; he would have been so proud." Drummer Joey Jordison also said earlier this year that SLIPKNOT can carry on "with or without" Taylor. Taylor, for his part, has been touring with his other band STONE SOUR and has indicated that he would like to return to the studio with that group next. NANCY WILSON Says Her Debut Solo Album Will Include Instrumental Tribute To EDDIE VAN HALEN Ex-IRON MAIDEN Singer PAUL DI'ANNO: Crowdfunding Campaign Launched For Long-Overdue Knee Surgery TODD LA TORRE Says His Nine-Year Run With QUEENSRŸCHE Has Been 'An Awesome Experience' So Far NIKKI SIXX Pays Tribute To NEW YORK DOLLS Guitarist SYLVAIN SYLVAIN	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line298
__label__wiki	0.580555	0.580555	Burmese culture is an exceptional blend of rice cultivation values and Buddhism ones. In addition, under the influence of many neighboring countries like India and Thailand, the country has absorbed much of cultural quintessence, not to mention Western culture, which also entered Myanmar more than a century ago. A Myanmar trip will help you better understand the cultural richness of the country of Golden Temples. Like other countries in the region, Myanmar shares partly its border with China. However, despite a strong presence of the Chinese community, Burma hardly receives the influence of traditional Chinese culture. Indeed, the country has its own agricultural calendar (lunar). Its 7 astrological signs are thus different from those of Chinese astrology. Confucian ideology, writing, classical literature as well as music, customs and other culture values of China hardly exist in Myanmar. The Ministry of Culture of Myanmar is responsible for the management of all cultural activities, literature, arts, museums and publishing. 1. Literature The literature of Myanmar is deeply influenced by the philosophy of Buddhism. The first literary works of Myanmar, which were mainly religious works, were carved in stone at the time when Buddhism was not yet a dominant religion in the country. Since the 15th century, new manuscripts have appeared in Myanmar on palm leaves. The contents of the literary works of this period were mainly related to the stories told by the Buddha and in which he answered the questions of the faithful, often expressed in plays or poetry. Religious or historical works are written in prose. Myanmar's classical literature has flourished in two major periods. The first period lasted 300 years, between 1450 and 1750. A kind of verse (called Pyo) and 4 kind of poetry (called Mongun, Eigyin, Tola, Yadu) were born. The main topics are stories about Buddhism or stories praising kings and their royal families. They also talk about military campaigns and beautiful landscapes. The second period began in 1750 with the appearance of another epic genre (called Yagan) that tells Mon legends, Indian legends and singing poetry (called Bole). They were composed and interpreted only at the request of the royal family. Myanmar's classical literature, usually written in a sophisticated style, tells mystical stories from the monarch's palace. After the invasion of Thailand in 1767, Thai plays and novels were introduced in Myanmar. They contributed to the development of the Burmese literature. Since Myanmar fell under British rule, the country's literature is strongly influenced by Western culture. The import of printing technology also affected the Burmese literature. It is thanks to printing technology that plays gained popularity among the public. Paper could not only watch them on stage, but also read them on paper. Myanmar's first novel is an adaptation of a novel by Alexandre Dumas - "The Count of Monte Cristo" in the context of Myanmar. The modern literature of Myanmar has formed since 1930s, after the founding of Yangon University. A new trend in literature - called the Khitsan (contemporary) phenomenon has emerged. The authors use a simple, clear literary style and this style continues to prevail in Myanmar today. The modern literature of Myanmar is still popular with religious works. At the same time, there are many novels, poems, stories for children and works translated from foreign literature. Most famous novels are romance novels and novels of kung fu. Literary prices are awarded annually in Myanmar. Many famous writers are retired officers. Some have taught at the university. Most authors consider writing as an additional job. They write only during their free time. The literature of Myanmar is strongly influenced by the orthodoxy of Buddhism. Buddhism forbids fictitious stories. However, British colonization brought to Myanmar kinds of fiction that have become so popular today. The poetry of Myanmar is very unique and has many genres. 2. Arts 2.1. Traditional theater The people of Myanmar enjoy watching the popular theater called Zat. These stories tell of Buddha's previous life and how he met his disciples, parents and enemies. These stories illustrate heroic deeds, the wisdom and courage of the Buddha before he attained enlightenment. The Zat is often played all night and interspersed with the performance of dancers on stage or musicians behind the scenes. The Zat is played on a Zat-Yone - a large bamboo stage or simply surrounded by a bamboo bed sheet. The audience is sitting on mats to watch the show. They can bring food, cigarettes and other things to chew while watching the show. The Zat generally begins around midnight and ends at dawn. Before the show is an interpretation of dancers. Another kind of theater is also very popular in Myanmar called Yamazat - a version of the epic Amayana style of Myanmar. The actors wear masks to play the main characters like princes Yama and Lekkhana, princess Thida, witch, monkey king and baby monkeys. In early 16th century, after the Thai conquest of King Hsinbyushin in 1767, many Thai artists and musicians remained in Myanmar. The traditional theater of Thailand was introduced in Myanmar. A genre named "Lakhonnai" - meaning "palace" in Thai, were composed and made for the king and the governor. From the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century, the traditional theater was popular in Myanmar. In the nineteenth century, traditional theater was in competition with other types of arts, especially those of the West. 2.2. Puppet theater The puppet theater has existed since the time of King Nga Sint Gu Min (mid-seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century). An officer devoted to the entertainment of the royal family called U-Thaw is considered the pioneer of this theater category. In the feudal society of Myanmar, social relations between men and women were very limited in public places. This has inspired the use of puppets in place of performers and the puppet theater has had the opportunity to develop. The use of puppets in Myanmar requires ingenious control. Some of the puppets have six strings to control. Some puppets can even blink. A puppet play requires twenty-eight characters: a king, an old woman, a prince, a princess, an astrologer, a loner, a Nat (spirit), a Mahadeva (god), an old man, two Clowns, two Catholics, a horse, two elephants (a black and a white), a tiger, a monkey, two parrots, a dragon, a witch and four assistants. Artists control the puppets while men and women use their voices to tell the story. Today, the puppet theater has almost disappeared in Myanmar. The emergence of different types of other arts has taken audience from the puppet theater. When old artists pass away, it is very difficult to find successors. Currently, the puppet theater appears only in some festivals of ancient temples or on big Burma holidays. 2.3. Dance The dance in Myanmar began in the Buddhist era when the cult of Nat asked for accompanying dance. The dances of Myanmar are very lively and ask artists to perform difficult movements. They are also very elegant with sophisticated costumes, and dancers never touch each other. Beginners in dance are taught Kabyalut - a basic traditional dance of Myanmar. There is a very interesting dance in which the dancers make movements like puppets. This is why it is said that Burmese dance is an imitation of the puppet theater, a theatrical genre that puppets can replace real dancers. The female dancers wear royal clothes: jacket with long and wide sleeves and a Longyi. The male dancers are dressed in longyi silk, white jacket and scarf. Other dancer roles include soldiers, Zawgyi (shaman) and Nat. One of the famous folk dances drawing attention of tourists is the Yein dance of Myanmar Yein is the famous dance of the annual Myanmar Water Festival whose dancers, often women, wear the same costumes and perform the same movements. Hnaparthwa is a dance of a duet of two women or a man and a woman. Elephant Festivals are held in mountainous areas with the team of dancers in the effigies of cardboard elephants. The popular Anyein dances are simple dances combined with the Lupyetxen clown that makes the audience laugh, taunting current events and other subjects, including profane ones. When the clown is on stage, it’s the time for dancers to rest or change their costumes. The entire dance lasts about two hours. Many ethnic minority dances are performed with swords or small and large drums. Dances of ethnic minorities are often performed in which men and women dance together. See more: Burma travel A traditional Myanmar classical orchestra is a set of musical instruments consisting of drums, gongs, cymbals, bells, flutes and trumpets. All their sounds form a unique type of music in Myanmar. Under the Hsinbyushin dynasty of Burma, the king invaded Thailand in the eighteenth century. Many musicians, dancers, Siam musicians were arrested and taken to Burma. As a result, the music and culture of Burma were greatly influenced by the culture of Siam. There is a type of dance and classical lyrics called Yodaya, which means "the people of Siam". Today, Western instruments such as violin, piano, mandolin, guitar and accordion also participate in the Myanmar orchestra. A traditional Myanmar orchestra usually consists of a set of drums, a gong, bells and wind instruments, including the high-pitched sound, flutes and cymbals. In a drum kit, there is a large drum hanging on brackets engraved with flying dragons. Gongs and drums are decorated with colored stripes and mosaics made of glass or gold on drums. The drum can be disassembled to be carried everywhere. A large drum kit has 21 units, while the small one has only 9 drums. Sometimes instead of the gong, a quadrangular is used which consists of a set of gongs hung on a rectangular frame and some round gongs. In rituals, people use different types of drums: Sidaw - large drum - used for big occasions; OZL - amphora-shaped drum - and Dobat - tambourine - used for village festivals; Bonshay - long drum - and Bongyi - drum - used in seasonal festivals. A Burmese drum can change its sound by applying a handful of sticky rice mixing with ash to the bottom of the drum. A drum kit can thus play varied songs because they have many different tones. Musical Instruments in Myanmar The Saung-gauk of Myanmar is a very popular ethnic zither with 13 strings, shaped like a boat. During his performance, the musician sits on the floor and keeps the instrument on his lap. The Puttalar is a xylophone made of wood or bamboo. The musical instruments of ethnic minorities are very varied with many forms and materials. The Chin have a trumpet resembling the OBOA, called Bühne. Mon gongs are hung on a horseshoe mount. The Karen’s flute is composed of bamboo tubes of different lengths, attached in the form of a triangle. 4. Theater A popular theater in Myanmar is called Pya-Zat (Pya means "show" and Zat is "story"). The Pya-Zat is quite similar to modern music show with many simple scenes, but unlike the western music show, the Pya-Zat has no scene of dance and singing. It usually presents poem recitation. A scene of Pya-Zat often begins with a mime, as a "silent film" performed by the artists on stage. This show was very popular before the Second World War and after the Independence of Myanmar. However, since the late 1950s, this theater has gradually disappeared with the advent of cinema. In 1943, a number of European style theaters were built in Yangon. During the period between 1943 and 1969, more than 200 plays were performed in these theaters with musical orchestra under the stage. At present, with the support of the State, the Pya-Zat is reborn in order to please the whole population. Compared to other arts of Myanmar, painting holds a special place. Myanmar's traditional painting still preserves beautiful paintings of the Buddha and his disciples, and paintings of temples, monks and nuns, festivals, etc. The modern art of Myanmar is also very well known for its oil paintings, especially the type of colorful paints made by scraping a knife on the wooden surface. The paintings of Myanmar are highly valued in the world of international art and the price of these paintings is often very high. 6. Handicrafts Currently, in Myanmar, artisans can still live comfortably even if the country is in the process of industrialization. The handicrafts of Myanmar such as weaving, lacquer, gold, silver, wood and stone carving, ivory, mother-of-pearl, boat manufacture or even ceramics are still very flourishing. The men and women of Myanmar still prefer to wear Longyi silk or cotton woven by hand even though young people like to dress in western clothes. The Arakan region is famous for weaving Longyi with Acheik patterns bearing magnificent spirals. Regions like Mandalay, Amarapura and Moulmein are also famous for weaving while Mudon near Moulmein is also famous for weaving blankets and tablecloths. Popular handicraft textile products include scarves and blankets in Pakkoku - north of Myanmar. Kalagar Carpet The tapestries, called Kalagar by Western tourists, are very popular. They are velvet or fabric combined with beads. Traditional motifs are often in the form of a dancer, peacocks, elephants and mythical mascots. The gold made in Mandalay is encrusted on the surface of temple towers and Buddha statues as a form of worship. The yellow metal is stuck on a piece of wood to make the gold become thin, then it is cut, packed and sold in stands around the temples for the pilgrims. Burmese women often wear gold jewelry or precious stones that are considered a money reserve. In each city, people can easily find a jeweler. Women come for the purchase and renovation of jewelry. Myanmar silverware is also a famous art. Burmese women usually wear belts, silver necklaces. Bowls, spoons, silver forks are often used in weddings and parties. The pottery of Myanmar includes objects such as pots, jars of water, vases, porcelain pitchers, vases, bowls and other pottery arts. Crafts are mainly related to religion, such as Buddha statues made of precious stones, wood, copper or silver. Stone statues are made in Mandalay; copper or silver statues are made in Ywataung near Mandalay. Myanmar fascinates tourists with its rich culture. The influence of the dominant religion, Buddhism, also brings a typical characteristic to the Burmese culture. A trip to Myanmar will offer you the opportunity to discover exceptional historical cultural values. Some values are disappearing while others are preciously preserved by the Burmese. Come to understand why the Burmese culture is the pride of all Burmese people. Source: http://ancharm-myanmar.com/travel-guide/cultural-experience/trip-myanmar-burmese-literature-arts/ Today, there have been 4 visitors (8 hits) on this page!	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line300
__label__wiki	0.590671	0.590671	Top Utilities: Power Players For Economic Development Size counts, but when it comes to making our picks for forward-thinking utilities, so do smart grids, renewable energy and a seat at the table when economic development deals are negotiated. https://businessfacilities.com/2019/02/top-utilities-power-players-development/ Home » Business Facilities Blog » Magazine » Feature Story » Top Utilities: Power Players For Development Top Utilities: Power Players For Development By Jack Rogers From the January/February 2019 Issue You can always find the largest utilities in the country—the biggest regional and multi-state power players—on any top utilities list based on installed power capacity. But if you use size as your primary criteria, be prepared to make some last-minute edits to the list: as we were going to press last year with our Editor’s Picks for the utilities sector, Virginia-based Dominion Energy swallowed SCANA in neighboring South Carolina in a $7.9-billion acquisition; earlier this year, Gulf Power was acquired by NextEra Energy. When BF makes its utilities choices, we’re not just measuring megawatts—we’re looking for the power players who are fast on their feet in embracing new technologies and proactively fine-tuning their sources of energy for a rapidly adjusting market. We’re looking for old-school reliability combined with cutting-edge efficiency. And we’re zeroing in on the players who always seem to have a seat at the table when the deals are cut for the most important economic development projects in their region. Today’s leading utilities are playing an integral role in the future prosperity of the communities they serve. They’re busy tailoring energy solutions to match the evolving requirements of the 21st century businesses that locations covet as engines of sustainable growth. They’re also playing a leading role in expanding the reach of renewables by delivering green energy at rates that make it competitive in all markets. And so, without further ado, here are our Editor’s Picks: Top Utilities. ELECTRICITIES OF NC: PUBLIC POWER In more than 70 cities and towns across North Carolina, homes and businesses are powered by municipally owned utilities. These public power communities have a well-earned reputation for providing safe, reliable electric service and outstanding customer service to more than 1.2 million people in North Carolina—more than the populations of Raleigh and Charlotte combined. In fact, a statewide survey of 3,000 customers in North Carolina conducted in 2018 found that 82.3 percent of residents are satisfied with public power. “Time and time again, public power communities throughout North Carolina have demonstrated the value that comes with owning and operating their own electric system,” said Roy Jones, CEO of ElectriCities, a non-profit organization that serves public power communities in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. “Throughout 2018, a number of our member communities saw a direct economic development impact from being locally owned. Businesses throughout the country and the world recognize and appreciate the value that public power provides and find comfort in knowing their power demands will always be met. We look forward to seeing what 2019 has in store for public power in North Carolina.” Public power providers in North Carolina—and across the nation—consistently outperform investor-owned utilities when it comes to reliability. In fact, public power experiences fewer power outages, and gets the power restored more quickly than others. A prime example of this ability to provide exceptional reliability was demonstrated during the 2018 hurricane season. Three days after Hurricane Florence made landfall, 80 percent of Fayetteville customers and 83 percent of New Bern customers had their power restored. These were two of the hardest hit communities. And 26 member communities reported no outages at all. ElectriCities is proud to be the energy behind public power. ElectriCities is a not-for-profit membership organization that consolidates many of the administrative services needed by 70 municipally owned electric utilities operating in North Carolina. ElectriCities was formed to protect the interests of North Carolina public power communities and to provide a unified voice on state and federal issues affecting public power. In addition, ElectriCities provides customer service and safety training, emergency and technical assistance, communications, economic development, government affairs and legal services. Through consolidation of these services, members save their customers the expense of administering these functions locally. Economic development is a huge driver in North Carolina public power communities. The benefits of public power have helped our communities attract and retain businesses, adding a growing workforce throughout the state. Public power communities throughout North Carolina saw some big economic development wins during the third and fourth quarters of 2018. Novo Nordisk, a multinational pharmaceutical company, expanded in Clayton with a $22 million investment, creating 22 jobs. Hanesbrands signed a lease for a 340,000-square-foot distribution center in High Point, paving the way for 200 new jobs. AirBoss of America Corp. received a performance-based grant from the One North Carolina fund to help facilitate the expansion of their existing 150,000-square-foot rubber compounding facility in Scotland Neck, creating 42 additional jobs. Enforge, which is a manufacturer of steel-formed suspension and steering assemblies for automotive companies, invested $4 million to expand its existing production plant in Albemarle, creating 44 jobs. Additionally, Sysco Foods invested $11.6 million into an expansion in Selma. An in-house economic development team serves ElectriCities’ member communities with everything from site selection to providing demographic and market reports. Visit www.electricities.com to learn more and follow ElectriCities on Twitter @ElectriCitiesNC, Facebook @ElectriCities and Instagram @ncpublicpower. SANTEE COOPER IS DELIVERING BRIGHTER TOMORROWS TODAY Cathedral thinking—that’s what State Sen. John C. Matthews called the plan for Camp Hall, South Carolina’s next-generation industrial commerce park being developed now by Santee Cooper. Many of the world’s greatest cathedrals were the vision of one generation, designed and built by those who came later, and still stand to serve today’s generation, Sen. Matthews noted during last summer’s Camp Hall groundbreaking. By the same token, “who would have believed 30 years ago that this timber forest would be converted to such a magnificent park to benefit so many,” he said. “The next generation will continue to benefit from the work that all of you are doing here, doing this day to make a better day tomorrow.” Ground was broken last year for Camp Hall (site map, above), South Carolina’s next-generation, 1,400-acre industrial commerce park being developed by Santee Cooper adjacent to Volvo Car USA’s manufacturing plant. (Image: Santee Cooper) South Carolina Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt was more direct. “Folks, this is one of the most remarkable industrial sites I’ve ever seen,” he told the crowd that June morning. Santee Cooper has developed industrial sites for decades, always with an eye fixed on improving the quality of life for South Carolinians. Camp Hall is the largest, not only in terms of acreage (roughly 1,400 developable acres) – but also in vision. With anchor tenant Volvo Car USA already manufacturing cars at its first U.S. automobile plant, Camp Hall will achieve success unlike any other industrial commerce park around. And as with any exercise in cathedral thinking, Santee Cooper stands shoulder to shoulder with key partners: the state Commerce Department, South Carolina electric cooperatives, economic development alliances, educational institutions and many other organizations who understand Camp Hall’s potential to lift up generations to come. Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s largest power provider and one of the nation’s largest publicly owned electric utilities based on generation. For more than 80 years, we’ve been breaking new ground in South Carolina by creating safe, reliable, energy-saving solutions that support our business community and ultimately improve the quality of life for South Carolinians. Today, Santee Cooper is the largest source of electricity across the state, with direct power delivery to Charleston Air Force Base, 20 electric cooperatives, the cities of Bamberg and Georgetown, 26 large industrial customers, and 10 member cities that form the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency, plus roughly 180,000 residential and commercial customers. Santee Cooper believes in industrial growth, strong business and community partnerships, personal relationships, environmental stewardship, quality and respect. The company also believes that innovation and forward thinking create a dynamic environment that works for business, employees and the community. Reliable, affordable electricity is what Santee Cooper does best. It has the American Public Power Association’s prestigious Diamond RP3 award for outstanding reliability. Its constant focus on reliability, quality delivery, minimal outages and swift restoration are some of the many reasons the company can offer such low industrial pricing. Its industrial electric costs are 30 percent below the national average and reflect a diverse generating portfolio combining natural gas, nuclear, coal, hydro and renewable resources. And the company prioritizes a hometown, here-for-you service that makes you partners in your success. Santee Cooper also understands the importance of maximizing natural resources and is proud of its record in renewable generation, energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. Santee Cooper has been the state’s pacesetter when it comes to Green Power and renewable energy. Its recycling initiatives have earned industry accolades, and the company has attracted national attention for its innovative program to beneficially reuse coal ash. This comprehensive Reduce The Use campaign offers rebates, incentives and low-interest financing to encourage customers to make energy-efficient improvements to their homes and businesses. The company also help customers who choose to use the sun to help offset their electric use through Solar Home, Solar Business and Community Solar programs. Santee Cooper provides competitive prices, reliability and excellent customer service—and its customers recognize that. An independent survey last year found 100 percent overall satisfaction among industrial customers who responded, the highest ever recorded in nearly 20 years of its surveys. Areas where customers gave the strongest marks include pricing, power restoration, communication, general customer service and technical expertise. “They do an excellent job in all categories and have good people at all levels,” offered one customer. Because of South Carolina’s favorable business climate and Santee Cooper’s competitive electric rates, reliable service, diverse generation mix, alliances with electric cooperatives and municipalities, and exceptional customer service, companies like Samsung, Google and Volvo have located here. Its creative and dynamic economic development team is actively engaged with local and regional partners and stands ready to serve as your point of contact through the site selection process. Santee Cooper has buildings and sites ready for your building…with more being built: The company has loaned money to dozens of industrial projects since 2012 and has a grant program that can put finishing touches on a site to suit your needs. The company’s partnerships across South Carolina have helped light the way for new industry with billions of dollars of investment and in payroll, and tens of thousands of jobs for South Carolina. Camp Hall is a first-of-its-kind industrial community blending commerce, lifestyle, business and family in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Volvo built its first North American car manufacturing plant at Camp Hall and is planning an expansion there. Santee Cooper is clearing additional tracts and readying the area for more industry and business. Camp Hall is logistically strong with nearly complete onsite access to Interstate 26 and plans for rail service in the near future. It is close to Interstate 95 and the Port of Charleston. Infrastructure, including roads, sewer, water, redundant and diverse power and fiber are already constructed. Camp Hall is well-suited for large-scale industries with more than 15,000 employees and more than 15 million square feet expected upon completion, and with development opportunities on tracts that range from 7 to 600 acres for sale. In addition, the Camp Hall vision includes a people-first community with a village core that includes daycare, fitness, medical services, convenience services, shops, restaurants and more. The plans also include a number of recreational opportunities, such as walking and biking trails, and a large park to help strike the perfect work-life experience. Camp Hall is Santee Cooper’s largest project, and other buildings and sites are ready for industry too. The company powers business and economic development. Visit www.poweringsc.com and let Santee Cooper put its power to work for you. CONSUMERS ENERGY HELPS MICHIGAN BUSINESSES THRIVE As Michigan’s largest energy provider, Consumers Energy was designated a Business Facilities Editor’s Choice Utility and received an Honorable Mention Award in Business Facilities’ 2018 Economic Development Deal of the Year for the Spartan Michigan dairy facility. Why would Consumers Energy be involved in economic development? The answer is simple: the company is committed to its communities in ways beyond energy to sustain Michigan’s economic future. Businesses in Michigan enjoy several competitive advantages. Among them: a stable tax and regulatory environment, plentiful natural resources, proximity to major Midwest cities and Canada and robust research and development and engineering talent. Targeted incentives are vital components of Michigan’s approach to business attraction and job creation. In 2017, the Michigan legislature passed “Good Jobs for Michigan” legislation. Signed into law by former Gov. Rick Snyder, performance-based “Good Jobs for Michigan” legislation enables businesses that create jobs to capture up to 100 percent of the new employees’ personal income tax withholdings for up to 10 years depending upon the volume of jobs created and wages paid. Measures like these help Michigan and its job-creating businesses compete to win. In 2017, working with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Consumers Energy deployed a new way of addressing talent challenges—Talent Pipeline Management (TPM)—using supply chain management principles. A first of its kind program in Michigan, TPM enables businesses to clearly identify and signal talent needs to and engage with talent suppliers. These include local economic development agencies, K-12 schools and higher education institutions, workforce development organizations and others—also known as the talent supply chain. Together with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Consumers Energy is training local economic development agencies, chambers of commerce and other workforce development partners to work with groups of employers using the TPM methodology. These employer-driven networks use TPM to help build their own talent supply chains and align business needs with educational offerings. In Michigan’s Grand Rapids region alone, we’ve trained four facilitators working in local economic and workforce development agencies. They are working with more than 65 companies organized into manufacturing, IT, healthcare, energy, agriculture and other industry sectors. How does this benefit a company entering the Grand Rapids region? No matter what talent door you enter, all agencies speak the same language and work together as one entity—the West Michigan TPM Network—to solve talent challenges. Collaboration between business and education lays the groundwork for Michigan’s next generation to work in good-paying jobs and stay in our state. Michigan has 133,000 engineers statewide—the highest concentration of engineers in the nation. Michigan also ranks in the top 10 for its number of skilled trades workers (250,000) and offers a Going Pro talent initiative that can help your business find the skilled trades professionals you need anywhere in the state. In February 2018, Michigan upped the ante on career readiness when former Gov. Rick Snyder announced the Marshall Plan for Talent. The Marshall Plan is a $100 million workforce development initiative enabling education and business leaders to apply for grants to create and develop programs to prepare workers with professional trades skills. Consumers Energy’s job is to build confidence in Michigan site selection decisions and the siting process. We’re working to reduce risk by offering competitive industrial rate options, natural gas prices 60 percent lower than a decade ago, and robust new construction and energy efficiency incentives. From demand response to solar distributed generation, net metering and a large customer renewable energy program supporting large companies’ renewable energy commitments, Consumers Energy offers options to help make renewable energy goals reality. Having set a goal to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent and eliminate use of coal to generate electricity by 2040, the company is positioning renewable energy as a cornerstone of Michigan’s energy future. Consumers Energy is proud of its deep relationships with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and local economic development agencies. No matter how a business begins the siting process, the company is at the table as a team to understand a businesses’ long-term goals and provide tools beyond energy to reach them, with focus on growth. Consumers Energy connects all the dots: education and talent, tax incentives, electric rates and natural resources and more. It works to understand how all factors fit together for each business, and recognizes what works for one business might not for another. The result is a seamless, from-all-angles, “we’ve got this” customer experience. That’s a major reason why, in 2018, leaders in automotive, medical technology, retail and other industries are planning to invest more than $2 billion and create more than 5,700 jobs in Consumers Energy’s service territory. Attracting businesses to Michigan and keeping them here means keeping upfront and ongoing energy costs competitive. The company’s goal is competitively priced—or potentially zero upfront cost—energy infrastructure for business customers. When it comes to keeping energy costs low over the long haul, energy efficiency incentives for current and planned upgrades have saved customers more than $1.5 billion since 2009 and offer competitive energy- and cost-saving advantages. It also assigns a no-cost energy advisor to help businesses maximize energy efficiency incentives. Consumers Energy shares in Michigan’s quest to become a top-tier state for business attraction. The company knows that goal is achievable, and is getting better every day. Jackson, MI-based Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest utility and the nation’s fourth largest combination utility. Consumers Energy provides natural gas and/or electric service to 6.7 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. For more about Consumers Energy’s economic development services, contact Scott Corrin, Director of Economic Development, at (517)374-2248, email [email protected] or visit ConsumersEnergy.com/econdev. HOOSIER ENERGY: A SOLID PAST BUILDS A BRIGHTER FUTURE The goal for companies is to build a thriving business. Hoosier Energy helps them reach that goal in a safe, reliable and cost-effective way. Headquartered in Bloomington, IN, Hoosier Energy is a not-for-profit generation and transmission (G & T) cooperative that since 1949 has provided wholesale power and services to its 18 member cooperatives in central and southern Indiana and southeastern Illinois. Construction of POET LLC’s new $160 million biofuel facility in Shelbyville is underway along County Road 300 North. The facility is slated to open in spring of 2020. (Photo: shelbynews.com) With the mission of providing its member distribution systems with assured, reliable and competitively priced electric power, Hoosier Energy provides the solid foundation for those member-system cooperatives to deliver the appropriate power supply safely and reliably—transcending weather, market volatility or regulatory uncertainty. Local electric cooperatives offer a unique business model: their customers are also their owners. These community-focused organizations are led by directors elected by their members (customers). Cooperatives are built by people who live in the areas they serve—creating jobs, fueling growth and powering their own communities. Expansion of electric cooperatives changed the face of the national economy and continues to be a catalyst for economic growth today. Nearly 900 electric cooperatives across the nation are part of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), located in Washington, D.C. Hoosier Energy recently had a change in leadership. Steve Smith, president and chief executive officer, retired after serving the cooperative for 42 years, 25 of them as president and CEO. He was succeeded by Donna Walker, who was named to the office after serving as chief financial officer for eight years. “The Board of Director’s vision for the company includes a continued path toward a diverse portfolio of energy sources and reinforcing reliable delivery methods,” says Walker. “This vision allows our member co-ops the opportunity to help their communities grow and thrive in a rapidly changing business environment.” To ensure a successful implementation of that vision, Walker began the strategic realignment of all divisions. The realignment, along with a focus on eight new strategic priorities, will enhance opportunities for member cooperatives to help their communities flourish. The cooperative model is unique: It is member-owned, with decisions made by the member-elected board and by members themselves. Cooperatives do not report to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), the state’s public utilities commission. This model enables rapid decision making and flexibility. Potential public-utility-related roadblocks of case hearings and appeals are non-existent for cooperative-owned electrics. “Hoosier Energy brings great flexibility to the table,” said Harold Gutzwiller, manager of economic development and key accounts for Hoosier Energy. “What is considered a non-negotiable position by a publicly owned utility is negotiable for member-owned cooperatives. That versatility opens up many possibilities for our member-customers.” Flexible options don’t end at the negotiation table. Hoosier Energy offers an “all-of-the-above” energy portfolio, with an ever-increasing renewables section. Its portfolio currently includes nearly five percent renewable energy sources and is on track to surpass a goal of 10 percent by 2025. Hoosier Energy offers renewable energy credits as an easy and inexpensive way for a facility to purchase renewable energy. These credits can cover up to 100 percent of energy usage. For companies wishing to have on-site renewable generation Hoosier Energy can provide multiple options to achieve corporate goals. Hoosier Energy’s renewables team is also available to discuss project analysis, carbon calculations and contract analysis with interested companies. A defined process guides the client successfully from project conception to interconnection. Hoosier Energy’s local cooperative partners also provide a range of options to help commercial and industrial members meet their goals easily, quickly and cost-effectively. Hoosier Energy’s commitment to renewable energy helps companies achieve their sustainability goals. Its Economic Development Rider (EDR) program offers significant savings to qualified new and expanding businesses in its member cooperative service territories, providing savings from five to 30 percent over the first six years. These savings are yet another step in the flexible incentive path Hoosier Energy offers growing companies. Hoosier Energy has a long history of working with state and local economic development partners on behalf of its members, building a reputation of community enrichment as well as helping to guide economic growth. In 2018, 55 business expansions or relocations were announced in Hoosier Energy territory, leading to a commitment of more than 2,500 new jobs and $730 million in investments. Among those investments were ones by specific industries that thrive in Hoosier Energy’s Indiana service areas: agriculture, logistics and advanced manufacturing: The POET biofuel facility in the city of Shelbyville is just one example of the great opportunities available in Indiana. The 80 million-gallon-per-year facility is under construction with an expected completion date of Spring 2020. The $160 million project will be the 28th starch biofuel plant in POET’s network and the fifth in Indiana. Amazon.com Inc. signed a lease for a new $80 million distribution facility in Greenwood, a “Receive Center” that’s expected to create 1,250 full-time jobs. Amazon has only a handful of Receive Centers around the country, which package incoming products for shipment to fulfillment centers. NTN Driveshaft Inc., a global automotive supplier, will invest $90 million to expand its manufacturing operations in the city of Columbus. The company, a subsidiary of Japan-based NTN Corporation, will create up to 100 new jobs in Bartholomew County by 2023. The company will invest nearly $100 million over the next three years to increase the plant capacity. Hoosier Energy is focusing on technology as it looks toward the future. With a revamped economic development website (www.hoosiersites.com) set to launch in early March, businesses will have unique digital tools at their fingertips to help make the right site location decisions. The website boasts a comprehensive site and building database of real estate available in Hoosier Energy member territory. It also includes tools to estimate labor availability, the cost of workers compensation, and the potential value of tax abatements on sites in member territory. Energized by new leadership, Hoosier Energy offers unique flexibility through rates and programs to help businesses thrive. It also boasts a knowledgeable, professional economic development team ready to help businesses navigate the site location or expansion process. FPL: THE NEXT ERA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT With a leading position in the utility industry, a focus on growing Florida’s economy and white-glove support for complex projects, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) should be one of your first calls for economic development projects considering the Southeast U.S. As one of the nation’s largest, cleanest and most reliable electric utilities, FPL is creating innovative solutions to drive down electricity costs and provide tangible, sustainable benefits for its more than five million customers. In fact, FPL is the largest utility by retail electric sales in the United States, serving 35 counties, or more than 50 percent of Florida’s population. Florida Power & Light’s parent company, NextEra Energy, is the world’s largest generator of renewable solar and wind power (solar farm pictured). FPL is in the midst of one of the largest-ever solar expansions in the U.S. (Photo: Florida Power & Light) FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE), is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and the sun. With more than $40 billion in new investments planned through 2020, NextEra Energy is also one of America’s top five capital investors in infrastructure. Its scale and diversity means the company has a wide range of resources and expertise available to support capital projects. Companies and site selection consultants look to utilities to provide power infrastructure and reliable, low-cost power—but utility economic development professionals can offer much more. FPL launched its Office of Economic Development in 2011 to help businesses that drive Florida’s economy forward and support the communities it serves. The economic development team supports business expansions and relocations with customized service in the following areas: site and building searches, infrastructure assessments, electricity rate quotes, electricity rate incentives, tax exemption qualifications, energy efficiency and clean energy programs, and electric service planning and delivery timing. Since its inception, FPL’s Office of Economic Development has worked with hundreds of companies in their competitive location or business expansion efforts in Florida, resulting in pledges to create over 25,000 jobs. FPL’s rates are already among the lowest in Florida and more than 30 percent below the national average. Through its understanding of the competitive business landscape, where even small changes to operations and maintenance can influence facility location decisions, FPL strives to ensure power costs are never a barrier to businesses choosing to invest in Florida. FPL has two key discounted electric rate programs: the Economic Development Rate (EDR) and the Commercial Industrial Service Rider (CISR). To qualify for EDR, which is a discounted rate over four or five years, a company must create 25 new jobs per 350 kilowatts of new demand. To qualify for CISR, which is a flexible negotiable electric rate, a company must have at least two MW of firm power from a single meter and should be a participant vying to select a location between at least two states in a competitive project. Power reliability is another key requirement for large power users. FPL’s relentless focus on service to customers was recognized among industry leaders as a recipient of the 2018 ReliabilityOne™ “Award for Outstanding Reliability Performance in the Southeast U.S.,” by PA Consulting Group, Inc. This was the third time in four years that FPL’s service reliability benefitting millions of customers has been recognized for excellence. FPL’s service reliability is more than 50 percent better than the national average. The company’s industry-leading reliability is enabled by the thoughtful deployment of cutting-edge technologies such as robots, drones and augmented reality, and over $3 billion invested to harden and secure power infrastructure. FPL has installed more than five million smart meters and more than 90,000 other intelligent devices across its service territory to help monitor and manage the energy grid and to detect and prevent power issues. During Hurricane Irma in 2017, FPL’s smart grid technology not only prevented more than 546,000 service interruptions, it also allowed the company to begin restoring service to customers remotely even before it was safe for crews to work in the field. As the Sunshine State’s largest utility, FPL is leading the way in sustainable, clean energy investments. FPL is in the midst of one of the largest solar expansions ever in the U.S. with more than 3.5 million new solar panels added in the past two years alone. By 2023, FPL will generate more energy from solar than from coal and oil combined, with more than 10 million solar panels installed at 34 sites across the state. These investments have helped reduce the company’s carbon emissions profile, now one of the cleanest among all utilities nationwide—30 percent cleaner than the U.S. industry average. Taking the commitment to sustainability even further, FPL recently purchased 1,800 acres of land in North Florida to develop Florida’s first sustainable products industrial park. The company plans to leverage its position as an industry leader and innovator in clean energy generation and storage to attract sustainable energy and technology companies. The conceptual plan for this rail-served site includes the construction of 74.5 MW of universal solar on approximately 1,300 acres. FPL has reserved the remaining nearly 500 acres for industrial development. FPL knows that achieving economic prosperity and sustainability for Florida is a team effort, and that a strong Florida economy benefits all of its residents. FPL’s Office of Economic Development works closely to support economic development around the state alongside Enterprise Florida, Inc., and its regional and local partners. FPL offers economic development tools, which include a comprehensive website, PoweringFlorida.com, a one-stop shop for business owners and site selection consultants interested in exploring Florida locations to establish or expand their businesses. Additionally, the site is valuable to Florida local economic development organizations that use the site’s data to help market their communities. To explore Florida and the benefits of working with FPL’s Office of Economic Development team, visit PoweringFlorida.com. DOMINION ENERGY: DEALMAKING POWER PLAYER IN VIRGINIA Dominion Energy played an active role in luring some of the largest economic development deals in the country to Virginia in 2018 and is positioned to build on that success in 2019. The key to the company’s impressive track record is a philosophy rooted in responsiveness and customer service. The company had a hand in helping Virginia win Business Facilities 2018 State of the Year award, as well as in two of its 2018 Deal of the Year winners: the Amazon HQ2 project in Northern Virginia (Gold Award) and Facebook’s data center project in Henrico County (Honorable Mention). The efforts are paying off with billions of dollars in investments and tens of thousands of new, high-paying jobs in its electric service territory. In 2018, Amazon, Micron, Aligned Energy, and EdgeCore Internet Real Estate announced significant investments within the Dominion Energy service territory. The Amazon HQ2 announcement was one of the most sought-after economic development projects in history. Virginia will benefit from its share of the company’s new headquarters project, which includes a $2.5 billion investment and the promise of 25,000 new jobs. Micron announced one the largest manufacturing investments in the history of Virginia with the expansion of its existing facility in Manassas. The expansion will include an investment of $3 billion and 1,100 new jobs. Aligned Energy solidified its presence in the largest data center market in the world with the announcement of a 180 MW facility in Ashburn. EdgeCore Internet Real Estate also announced a new presence in the Northern Virginia data center market with its new 144 MW facility. “Dominion Energy strives to be more than an energy provider. We actively partner with customers to help define and advance their electrical needs and sustainability goals,” said Kent Hill, Manager of Strategic Economic Development. “We have strong relationships with stakeholders at local and state levels that help drive these investments. Plus, we can leverage our competitive rates, reliable power, key locations, renewable energy options, and the expertise afforded by a team of experienced energy and site selection experts.” Dominion Energy continues to be one of the most affordable providers of electricity in the country in terms of both residential and industrial rates, a crucial component for economic development and job creation. Dominion Energy rates are consistently around 30% below the national average. The largest data center market in the word is located in Northern Virginia and is continuing to grow at a record pace, due in large part, to electric rates that are among the lowest of any major data center market. Sales and use tax credits and other state and local incentives encourage more data centers and energy intensive companies to locate in Virginia and stay in the Commonwealth moving forward. The strategic location of the Dominion Energy territory in the Mid-Atlantic region and adjacent to Washington, DC offers world-class transportation and logistics infrastructure and provides easy access to major U.S. and international markets. Dominion Energy encourages the growth of renewable energy and is committed to providing its customers with program options to support their renewable energy goals. Renewable energy solutions range from an individual Green Power purchasing program to dedicated facilities for large commercial and industrial customers. Dominion Energy’s partnership with companies such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Facebook has allowed those companies and many others, to meet their renewable energy goals as they grow their businesses in Virginia. The Dominion Energy economic development team realizes time to market and a streamlined connection plan are critical aspects of the site selection process. The economic development team can help companies navigate the challenges of site selection, siting and permitting, construction design, and service agreements. The team also can help establish crucial business relationships to get facilities up and running quickly and efficiently. Several key developments promise to enhance the company’s position in 2019. Dominion Energy completed a merger with SCANA Corporation in January, which will extend its territory and the commitment to provide reliable and affordable energy to customers in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Dominion Energy now serves 3.3 million electric utility customer accounts in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia; 3.3 million natural gas utility customer accounts in Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming; and 800,000 competitive and regulated natural gas customers in states with competitive markets. Its operations now include: 93,600 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines; 106,400 miles of natural gas gathering, storage, transmission and distribution pipeline; About 31,000 megawatts of diverse electric generation capacity in 10 states; and more than one trillion cubic feet of natural gas storage. Dominion Energy is investing in key clean energy infrastructure to better position Virginia’s energy future for decades to come. The company is rapidly growing its renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, as well as zero-carbon nuclear energy and clean burning natural gas. Today, Dominion Energy has more than 30 facilities totaling 824 MW of solar generation operational or under development in the Commonwealth. These units are capable of providing power to more than 206,000 homes at peak solar output. Additionally, the company has committed to having 3,000 MW of solar and wind energy in operation or under development in the next three years. The company has contracted with a global wind energy leader—Ørsted Energy of Denmark—to build two 6-megawatt turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. This project is the first off-shore wind project in the mid-Atlantic region. The growth of renewables is complimented by investments in low-cost, clean-burning natural gas and zero-carbon nuclear energy. Dominion Energy is a partner in the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), which will ensure a low-cost, reliable supply of natural gas. The ACP is the largest single economic development project currently underway in the Commonwealth and is crucial to future economic development and job creation in the Commonwealth. An economic impact study found that the lower energy prices the project will bring to the region will create up to 2,200 new full-time jobs in North Carolina and Virginia. Additionally, the operation of this pipeline is projected to produce energy cost savings averaging $243 million annually for electric and natural gas consumers in Virginia over the next 20 years. Similarly, power from Dominion Energy’s four nuclear units in Virginia provides safe, reliable, affordable, and clean electricity. The company has filed to renew the licenses of the two units at the Surry Power Station to keep them in operation through 2053. Renewal will help the Commonwealth remain a leader in the production of clean energy and supports more than 900 high-paying jobs at the station. Dominion Energy anticipates filing for extensions of the licenses at the North Anna Power Station next year, as well, which would allow them to run through 2060. For more information about Dominion Energy Economic Development, visit the company’s website or contact Kent Hill, Manager of Strategic Economic Development, at (804) 771-4987. FIRSTENERGY: $30 BILLION IN CAPEX AND 75,000 JOBS IN 10 YEARS At FirstEnergy, a legacy of contributing to the prosperity and vitality of its service area continues today and takes many forms—from providing customers with safe, reliable and affordable electricity, to supporting economic development efforts that create jobs, sustain local suppliers and attract new businesses. Over the past decade, economic development efforts have helped attract nearly $30 billion in capital investment and create more than 75,000 jobs in the service area. FirstEnergy is proud of its strong presence in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, where it is a leading regional energy provider dedicated to safety, operational excellence and responsive customer service. The company’s subsidiaries are involved in the transmission and distribution of electricity, and its 10 utility operating companies form one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems based on 6 million customers served. With approximately 12,400 employees working in a nearly 65,000-square-mile area of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York, FirstEnergy knows firsthand the advantages of operating a business in this region. They include a well-educated, diverse workforce and a great location with access to a large portion of the U.S. population and its buying power. The region also benefits from ongoing investments in education, infrastructure, transportation and industry. FirstEnergy’s Economic Development team promotes the service area’s capacity for meeting the needs of new and existing businesses. This includes assisting site-seekers with services such as in-depth location analysis as well as introductions to local, regional and state officials. It also offers advanced analytics tools that provide customized and detailed economic forecasting, and support and sponsor community-based business retention and expansion initiatives. “The eastern part of our service area, specifically around Interstates 78 and 81 in eastern Pennsylvania, continue to be a prime location for distribution centers, with more than 3 million square feet under construction,” said Patrick Kelly, Director of Economic Development for FirstEnergy. “In the tri-state area of western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio, we’re working with mid-stream companies that are expanding their operations—a result of Marcellus and Utica shale being the largest natural gas play in the world,” added Mr. Kelly. Ohio continues to be a manufacturing power house with significant investments in primary metals and materials. “These tend to be large, capital and energy intensive projects, where we can help customers use our product wisely,” said Mr. Kelly. FirstEnergy is a forward-thinking electric utility powered by a diverse team of employees committed to making customers’ lives brighter, the environment better and communities stronger. Access to reliable power at stable, affordable prices is necessary to keep the region competitive and support economic development initiatives. Toward this goal, the company is making significant investments to upgrade its electric system through its Energizing the Future program—a multibillion-dollar initiative to strengthen the transmission system through projects that make sense for customers and are a source of well-paying jobs. FirstEnergy plans to invest up to $1.2 billion per year in its transmission system and up to $1.7 million per year in distribution operations from 2019 through 2021. By installing automated advanced equipment in substations, the company no longer must wait for field crews to operate line switches during outage events, which significantly improves response times. Digital relay devices also can detect and automatically isolate outages and efficiently restore power to customers. In addition, remote monitoring devices proactively evaluate the health of the grid and take corrective actions before outages occur. To accelerate the deployment of new, smart grid technologies on its transmission system, FirstEnergy is completing construction of its Center for Advanced Energy Technology adjacent to its West Akron Campus in Akron, OH. This 88,000-square-foot facility will be one of the most comprehensive testing and training centers of its kind in the nation, providing engineers and technicians with a centralized, hands-on environment for upgrading and maintaining the power grid by simulating real-world conditions on the electric system. In addition, the facility will be used for evaluating and testing equipment to ensure it complies with current cybersecurity standards. FirstEnergy is making significant investments in its infrastructure to support increased demand for electricity from new shale gas facilities, pipeline compressor stations and other energy-intensive operations. The company also has assembled multidisciplinary regional teams to support manufacturing growth and other business opportunities resulting from shale gas. These teams bring together experts in economic development, local, state and regulatory affairs, energy delivery and other disciplines under a single point of contact with the company. FirstEnergy promotes the ability of its electric utilities to meet the energy needs of new and existing businesses. Customer support representatives develop and maintain quality relationships with commercial customers and help them grow their businesses, while leveraging their strong relationships in the economic development community and with key trade and professional organizations. Whether partnering with local and regional economic development agencies to bring new jobs and economic growth, supporting shale gas development or working with customers to meet their electric service requirements, FirstEnergy is dedicated to supporting the long-term prosperity and vitality of the communities it’s privileged to serve. AEP: 50 SHOVEL-READY SITES American Electric Power (AEP) serves 5.4 million customers and an overall population of 12.4 million across its 11-state service territory. In 2018, its Economic Development team supported 110 projects that attracted and retained over 14,700 jobs from investors including Amazon, Black and Decker, ElringKlinger, Monogram Foods, Sofidel and Whirlpool. Through its Quality Sites program, AEP focuses on product development with over 50 development-ready sites available to industrial, food processing and data center companies. It has already proven successful in attracting five companies to its Quality Sites, including distribution centers for Campbell Soup and Dollar General and an automotive parts manufacturing facility for Italian-based ELDOR Corporation. AEP spearheads other programs, including community grant programs and economic development training. In the Tri-State region of eastern Kentucky, southwestern Ohio and western West Virginia, it also has launched an initiative called Appalachian Sky to attract the aerospace/aviation industry to this coal-impacted region of Appalachia. In addition to economic development assistance, it also consults businesses on renewables, energy efficiency, beneficial electrification and other energy solutions. Partnering with AEP gives you direct access to several fast-growing, pro-business regions in the United States. Choose from more than 3,000 communities spanning 11 states, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. With locations across diverse geographic and economic regions, you’ll find a boundless range of market choices for any size and type of facility. AEP can identify the optimal site that offers you unique advantages such as: Skilled and affordable labor, with average manufacturing wages 10% below the national average and a talent pipeline built from more than 200 higher education institutions Easy transportation accessibility by rail, air, water and road, including 19 major interstate highways Convenient proximity to major population centers, raw materials and 1⁄3 of the total U.S. manufacturing output Robust and modern utility infrastructure, including water, gas and electric Business costs — taxes, utilities, real estate and labor—among the lowest in the nation Direct access to several major U.S. shale oil and gas plays AEP can help you find the right place for your company to reach its full potential. You’ll access its deep territory of knowledge, customized research capabilities and influential relationships with state and local organizations. The company maintains a portfolio of more than 600 available sites and buildings across its territory, and can perform customized property searches based on your requirements. Among those properties are dozens already prepared for development by AEP and its partners—including sites reviewed specifically for industrial, data center and food and beverage processing—enabling you to fast-track construction and minimize risk. AMEREN: A PARTNER FOR GROWTH Ameren Corporation has a rich history of serving businesses, residents and communities across its Illinois and Missouri service territory. For decades, Ameren has been a valuable partner in providing reliable electricity and natural gas service. The company is now more focused than ever on leveraging innovative technologies to further improve service to its customers. It’s all part of Ameren’s ongoing commitment to keep pace with future energy needs, while serving and investing in the communities it calls home. Based in St. Louis, Ameren powers the quality of life for 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois rate-regulated utility subsidiaries. Ameren Illinois provides electric transmission and distribution service and natural gas distribution service. Ameren Missouri provides electric generation, transmission and distribution service, as well as natural gas distribution service. Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois develops, owns and operates rate-regulated regional electric transmission projects. Located in the heart of the Midwest, the Ameren service area is competitively positioned as a key hub for distribution, advanced manufacturing and agribusiness. Advantages include access to worldwide markets via integrated, efficient transportation systems; eight foreign trade zones; world-renowned research in agriculture, biofuels and supporting technologies; and a workforce energized by education and experience with the famous Midwest work ethic creating a talent pool that is both dependable and highly productive. The Ameren service area isn’t just a great place to work, it’s a great place to call home. Residential customers pay less for electricity compared to Midwest and national averages. According to the Edison Electric Institute, Ameren Missouri’s residential rates are 18 percent lower than the Midwest average and 19 percent lower than the national average. Ameren Illinois’ residential rates are 12 percent lower than the Midwest average and 13 percent lower than the national average. Ameren also understands many companies have clean energy standards requiring on-site renewable energy generation. Ameren Missouri’s Community Solar, Solar Partnership, Private Solar, and Pure Power Programs are a few options available to customers that would satisfy these needs. It takes power to grow a business and that power comes from trusted partnerships. Ameren has several programs to help meet the needs of new and expanding companies responding to the fast-paced economy with rapid site location and investment decisions. Ameren Missouri now has one of the nation’s best economic development incentive rate programs for industrial customers. The new economic development rate is one of the many customer benefits included in Ameren Missouri’s Smart Energy Plan, which was enabled by recent passage of a state energy law. Quaker Window Products Co., one of the first companies to take advantage of the new incentive rate, said the benefit offered by Ameren Missouri was a key deciding factor for the company to construct its new manufacturing facility in the service area. According to Michael Moehn, president of Ameren Missouri, the Quaker expansion is just the beginning of businesses—and jobs—coming to the service territory as a result of the economic development incentive. New and expanding businesses can now get one of the most favorable economic development rate incentives in the country, keeping energy costs low for the business and all of Ameren’s customers. The economic development incentive not only attracts new businesses to Missouri, but also encourages existing businesses to expand, adding jobs and spurring economic growth in local communities. Construction began on the $65 million expansion this winter and is expected to add 300 new jobs in the region. Ameren Illinois is benefitting from a progressive regulatory environment that has enabled the company to invest billions of dollars to improve the reliability, resiliency and integrity of the energy delivery system. Under the company’s electric modernization initiative, Ameren Illinois has installed storm-resistant utility poles and power lines, outage detection technology, and new facilities and substations that can accommodate future growth. The enhancements have resulted in a 19 percent reduction in annual electricity service interruptions on average and the company is restoring power on average 17 percent faster. Ameren Illinois is also replacing older natural gas pipelines and facilities, and adding new gas distribution equipment and technology which will further enable the company to provide a safe, reliable natural gas system for years to come. Ameren Illinois Chairman and President Richard J. Mark says whether it’s providing key data, identifying prime development sites or extending infrastructure to ensure that businesses have the capacity to operate, the company’s economic development team is at the table to assist in the site selection decision and help its service area compete for new investments and job creation. It’s this dedicated focus, along with the state’s intrinsic advantages, that have helped Ameren Illinois stay competitive in a rapidly-changing market, and contributed to World Wide Technology’s decision to expand in the Metro East. The technology systems integrator and solutions provider is expected to open a $100 million, 2 million square foot industrial space in the Gateway Commerce Center in Edwardsville later this year. This move will add approximately 500 new jobs to its existing 1,500 person regional workforce. The WWT project is one of many in recent years to bring world-class employers to the Metro East area. Amazon recently located two new fulfillment centers in Madison County and brought with it approximately 2,000 employees and a major new customer to the Ameren Illinois service area. Legislation passed in the Illinois General Assembly in Dec 2016 is expected to bring additional business development to the state. The Future Energy Jobs Act created financial incentives that will spur development of green power (wind, solar, biogas, etc.) throughout the Midwest region. Ameren Illinois is actively working with renewable energy developers on interconnection applications that will facilitate their ability to connect green power to the delivery system. Top Utilities: The Power Behind Growth The leading utilities are finding innovative ways to seal the deal on new development projects. They’re also ahead of the curve on low-cost efficiency, smart-grid technology and the […] Top Utilities: Power To The People New electric generating capacity in 2020 will come primarily from wind and solar, with renewables making up 76 percent of the 42 gigawatts that will be added. Top Utilities: Powering Growth Our Editor’s Choice selections for Top Utilities include the leaders who are upgrading their grids, diversifying their energy sources and doing what it takes to power economic development. Ameren American Electric Power BF-Jan/Feb-2019 Consumers Energy ElectriCities of NC Hoosier Energy Santee Cooper Previous articleCover Story: Virginia Is Business Facilities’ 2018 State Of The Year Next articleKF Aerospace Investing $23M In Ontario Expansion http://businessfacilities.com/editorsblog Location Spotlight: Spotsylvania County, Virginia Spotsylvania, Virginia is a highly sought after location for businesses due it's strategic location in the mid-atlantic region. With Interstate 95 carrying thousands of people through the county everyday, Spotsylvania has quickly become a hub of economic activity. New Jersey Approves Loan Program For Brownfield Revitalization Economic Development January 12, 2021 On Thursday, January 14, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) will host a webinar to provide details on its new Brownfields Loan Program. $2.9M Grant Will Help Virginia’s Water Economy Face Climate Change GO Virginia approved the grant to help the Virginia Coastal Resilience And Adaptation Economy Initiative address flooding challenges. Automotive January 11, 2021 The manufacturer, retailer, and distributor of automotive parts and racing products will bring 25 new jobs to Kearneysville, WV.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0043.json.gz/line303

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