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EditionsMagazine history
The journal Urbani izziv has been published since 1989. It continues the journal Informacijski bilten Urbanističnega inštituta SRS, published in 1977–1984. The first issue of the the journal Urbani izziv was published to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Urban Planning Institute. During its years of publication, the journal has developed into a leading publication in Slovenia for the dissemination of research and technical expertise, and also as a forum for open discussions of issues relating to spatial planning in Slovenia and abroad.
Thematic issue
Until 2008, each issue had a leading theme. These thematic issues published research and technical articles as thematic articles or articles in sections called Reflections, Echoes, Methods and Techniques, and Spatial-Informatics. Other contributions were published in the form of announcements, reviews, reports, information and interviews. Thematic editorials were written and thematic covers were designed for each issue.
List of thematic issues of Urbani izziv (1989–2008):
At the 30th anniversary of the Urban Planning Institute (December 1989)
Physical planning (March 1990)
The city and water (July 1990)
The innovative city (November 1990)
Regional planning (April 1991)
Rehabilitation (September 1991)
Values and evaluation (December 1991)
Urban design (April 1992)
New framework of spatial research (July 1992)
Planning and management of the countryside (December 1992)
The city – living and housing (November 1993)
Small towns (May 1995)
Housing (December 1995)
Views on space (May 1997)
Instruments of image (December 1997)
Infrastructure (June 1998)
Urbanisation and environmental protection (December 1998)
Security and dwelling (June 1999)
The city plan (December 1999)
Urban networks (June 2000)
Different living (December 2000)
Rehabilitation – the built environment (June 2001)
Urban rehabilitation – open spaces (December 2001)
Large projects (June 2002)
Building the city (December 2002)
Physical planning within the bounds of law (June 2003)
The image of the city in popular culture (December 2003)
Corridors and settlement (June 2004)
Europe in the East (December 2004)
Problematic projects (June 2005)
Synergy from co-operation – ensuring legitimacy? (December 2005)
The forgotten modernism of cities (June/December 2006)
Space, environment, housing (June/December 2007)
The image of the city 1900:2000 (June 2008)
Urban green spaces (December 2008)
The thematic issue of Housing was a common issue of the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and the Faculty of the Built Environment University of Central England, Birmingham.The thematic issue with regard to Physical planning included an Annex for the 12th meeting of spatial planners of Yugoslavia in the year 1990, in Dubrovnik.
From one to bilingualism
Since 1993, the texts in the journal have also been published in English. Originally only the abstracts of thematic articles appeared bilingually, but since 1997 all thematic articles have been fully bilingual, and other contributions have featured bilingual abstracts.
Past editors-in-chief
Breda Ogorelec (1989−1992)
Vladimir Braco Mušič (1993−1996)
Ivan Stanič (1997−2007)
Richard Sendi, Acting Editor (2008)
Boštjan Kerbler (2009−2016)
Past members of the Editorial Board
Barbara Černič Mali (1990−1996)
Andrej Erjavec (1990−1991)
Ksenija Kovačec Naglič (1991−1993)
Zlata Ploštajner (1990)
Richard M. Andrews, University of Central England, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Lucija Ažman Momirski, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Georgia Butina Watson, Oxford Brookes University, Joint Centre for Urban Design, Oxford, United Kingdom
Barbara Černič Mali, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Thomas Dillinger, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria
Mojca Golobič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Drago Kos, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Breda Mihelič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Vladimir Braco Mušič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Uwe Schubert, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Vienna, Austria
Marco Venturi, The University Iuav of Venice, Faculty of Architecture, Venice, Italy
Past Slovenian copy editor
Peter Weiss (1990−1993)
Sonja Pezdirc (1994−1996)
Miha Hvastija (1997−2001)
Simona Ana Radež (2001−2006)
Nataša Simončič (2001−2006, 2008)
Simona Stražišar (2007)
Past English copy editor
Finbar O'Mahony (2009)
Past translator
Polona Mertelj (2008−2009)
Past designers of the journal
Ivan Stanič (1989−2005 )
Barbara Černič Mali (2006)
Richard Sendi (2007−2008)
Biba Tominc (2009−2011)
Past covers layout designer
Bogo Zupančič (19/1992, 21−22/1992, 23−24−25/1993, 26−27/1994, 28−29/1995, 30−31/1997, 32−33, 1997, 10(2)/1999, 11(1)/2000)
Saša Dalla Valle (16−17/1991)
Andrej Erjavec (11/1990, 9(2)/1998)
Miran Gajšek (12−13/1990)
Ivan Stanič (14/1990, 15/1990, 18/1991, 20/1992, 12(2)/2001, 13(1)/2002, 14(2)/2003)
Aleksander Jankovič (9(1)/1998, 12(1)/2001)
Damijana Bremec (10(1)/1999)
Edi Koraca (13(2)/2002)
Peter Sovinc (14(1)/2003,)
Zora Stančič (11(2)/2000)
Biba Tominc (15(1)/2004, 15(2)/2004, 16(1)/2005, 19(1)/2008, 19(2)/2008, 20(1)/2009, 20(2)/2009, 21(1)/2010, 21(2)/2010, 22(1)/2011, 22(2)/2011)
Barbara Mušič (16(2)/2005)
Matej Nikšič (17(1−2)/2006, 18(1−2)/2007)
Past layout designers and DTP’
Vilma Zupan − Žaba design (1990−2008)
Past printers of print edition
Marjan Kukovec (1989)
Tiskarna Artelj − Martin in Jožica Artelj (1990−2008)
Past website designer
Biba Tominc
Barbara Železnik Bizjak
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Title 15. COMMERCE AND TRADE
Chapter 2B. Securities Exchanges
15 U.S.C. § 78f - National securities exchanges
Cite as: 15 U.S.C. § 78f
(a) Registration; application
An exchange may be registered as a national securities exchange under the terms and conditions hereinafter provided in this section and in accordance with the provisions of section 78s(a) of this title, by filing with the Commission an application for registration in such form as the Commission, by rule, may prescribe containing the rules of the exchange and such other information and documents as the Commission, by rule, may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.
(b) Determination by Commission requisite to registration of applicant as a national securities exchange
An exchange shall not be registered as a national securities exchange unless the Commission determines that-
(1) Such exchange is so organized and has the capacity to be able to carry out the purposes of this chapter and to comply, and (subject to any rule or order of the Commission pursuant to section 78q(d) or 78s(g)(2) of this title) to enforce compliance by its members and persons associated with its members, with the provisions of this chapter, the rules and regulations thereunder, and the rules of the exchange.
(2) Subject to the provisions of subsection (c) of this section, the rules of the exchange provide that any registered broker or dealer or natural person associated with a registered broker or dealer may become a member of such exchange and any person may become associated with a member thereof.
(3) The rules of the exchange assure a fair representation of its members in the selection of its directors and administration of its affairs and provide that one or more directors shall be representative of issuers and investors and not be associated with a member of the exchange, broker, or dealer.
(4) The rules of the exchange provide for the equitable allocation of reasonable dues, fees, and other charges among its members and issuers and other persons using its facilities.
(5) The rules of the exchange are designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices, to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to foster cooperation and coordination with persons engaged in regulating, clearing, settling, processing information with respect to, and facilitating transactions in securities, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system, and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest; and are not designed to permit unfair discrimination between customers, issuers, brokers, or dealers, or to regulate by virtue of any authority conferred by this chapter matters not related to the purposes of this chapter or the administration of the exchange.
(6) The rules of the exchange provide that (subject to any rule or order of the Commission pursuant to section 78q(d) or 78s(g)(2) of this title) its members and persons associated with its members shall be appropriately disciplined for violation of the provisions of this chapter, the rules or regulations thereunder, or the rules of the exchange, by expulsion, suspension, limitation of activities, functions, and operations, fine, censure, being suspended or barred from being associated with a member, or any other fitting sanction.
(7) The rules of the exchange are in accordance with the provisions of subsection (d) of this section, and in general, provide a fair procedure for the disciplining of members and persons associated with members, the denial of membership to any person seeking membership therein, the barring of any person from becoming associated with a member thereof, and the prohibition or limitation by the exchange of any person with respect to access to services offered by the exchange or a member thereof.
(8) The rules of the exchange do not impose any burden on competition not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter.
(A) The rules of the exchange prohibit the listing of any security issued in a limited partnership rollup transaction (as such term is defined in paragraphs (4) and (5) of section 78n(h) of this title), unless such transaction was conducted in accordance with procedures designed to protect the rights of limited partners, including-
(i) the right of dissenting limited partners to one of the following:
(I) an appraisal and compensation;
(II) retention of a security under substantially the same terms and conditions as the original issue;
(III) approval of the limited partnership rollup transaction by not less than 75 percent of the outstanding securities of each of the participating limited partnerships;
(IV) the use of a committee of limited partners that is independent, as determined in accordance with rules prescribed by the exchange, of the general partner or sponsor, that has been approved by a majority of the outstanding units of each of the participating limited partnerships, and that has such authority as is necessary to protect the interest of limited partners, including the authority to hire independent advisors, to negotiate with the general partner or sponsor on behalf of the limited partners, and to make a recommendation to the limited partners with respect to the proposed transaction; or
(V) other comparable rights that are prescribed by rule by the exchange and that are designed to protect dissenting limited partners;
(ii) the right not to have their voting power unfairly reduced or abridged;
(iii) the right not to bear an unfair portion of the costs of a proposed limited partnership rollup transaction that is rejected; and
(iv) restrictions on the conversion of contingent interests or fees into non-contingent interests or fees and restrictions on the receipt of a non-contingent equity interest in exchange for fees for services which have not yet been provided.
(B) As used in this paragraph, the term "dissenting limited partner" means a person who, on the date on which soliciting material is mailed to investors, is a holder of a beneficial interest in a limited partnership that is the subject of a limited partnership rollup transaction, and who casts a vote against the transaction and complies with procedures established by the exchange, except that for purposes of an exchange or tender offer, such person shall file an objection in writing under the rules of the exchange during the period during which the offer is outstanding.
(A) The rules of the exchange prohibit any member that is not the beneficial owner of a security registered under section 78l of this title from granting a proxy to vote the security in connection with a shareholder vote described in subparagraph (B), unless the beneficial owner of the security has instructed the member to vote the proxy in accordance with the voting instructions of the beneficial owner.
(B) A shareholder vote described in this subparagraph is a shareholder vote with respect to the election of a member of the board of directors of an issuer, executive compensation, or any other significant matter, as determined by the Commission, by rule, and does not include a vote with respect to the uncontested election of a member of the board of directors of any investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 [ 15 U.S.C. 80a-1 et seq.].
(C) Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prohibit a national securities exchange from prohibiting a member that is not the beneficial owner of a security registered under section 78l of this title from granting a proxy to vote the security in connection with a shareholder vote not described in subparagraph (A).
(c) Denial of membership in national exchanges; denial of association with member; conditions; limitation of membership
(1) A national securities exchange shall deny membership to (A) any person, other than a natural person, which is not a registered broker or dealer or (B) any natural person who is not, or is not associated with, a registered broker or dealer.
(2) A national securities exchange may, and in cases in which the Commission, by order, directs as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors shall, deny membership to any registered broker or dealer or natural person associated with a registered broker or dealer, and bar from becoming associated with a member any person, who is subject to a statutory disqualification. A national securities exchange shall file notice with the Commission not less than thirty days prior to admitting any person to membership or permitting any person to become associated with a member, if the exchange knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, that such person was subject to a statutory disqualification. The notice shall be in such form and contain such information as the Commission, by rule, may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.
(A) A national securities exchange may deny membership to, or condition the membership of, a registered broker or dealer if (i) such broker or dealer does not meet such standards of financial responsibility or operational capability or such broker or dealer or any natural person associated with such broker or dealer does not meet such standards of training, experience, and competence as are prescribed by the rules of the exchange or (ii) such broker or dealer or person associated with such broker or dealer has engaged and there is a reasonable likelihood he may again engage in acts or practices inconsistent with just and equitable principles of trade. A national securities exchange may examine and verify the qualifications of an applicant to become a member and the natural persons associated with such an applicant in accordance with procedures established by the rules of the exchange.
(B) A national securities exchange may bar a natural person from becoming a member or associated with a member, or condition the membership of a natural person or association of a natural person with a member, if such natural person (i) does not meet such standards of training, experience, and competence as are prescribed by the rules of the exchange or (ii) has engaged and there is a reasonable likelihood he may again engage in acts or practices inconsistent with just and equitable principles of trade. A national securities exchange may examine and verify the qualifications of an applicant to become a person associated with a member in accordance with procedures established by the rules of the exchange and require any person associated with a member, or any class of such persons, to be registered with the exchange in accordance with procedures so established.
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Message from the co-ordinator
VI-SEEM project has entered its final phase where its Virtual Research Environment and related supporting infrastructure, services and data are in full exploitation mode. The services of the Virtual Research Environment are provided through a compact service catalogue available at https://services.vi-seem.eu/ui/catalogue/services/, while the VRE portal at https://vre.vi-seem.eu/ provides a comprehensive environment for collaborative research for the communities of Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean regions.
VI-SEEM third Call for Proposals for projects accessing the VI-SEEM services and associated infrastructure is now open, available at (https://vi-seem.eu/3rd-call/) The call is addressed to scientists and researchers that work in academic and research institutions in the region in the fields of Life Sciences, Climate research, and Digital Cultural Heritage, and we are excited to welcome new applications and user groups in joining our community.
We have also opened a continuous call for SMEs, to encourage collaboration between industry and the scientific communities and explore prospects for long-term sustainability of the VRE. The call is available at https://vi-seem.eu/2017/11/15/sme-call/.
This newsletter also showcases new applications and services provided by the project, as well as project key regional and national training and dissemination events.
Finally, we would like to invite all interested researchers, scientists, students, e-Infrastructure providers, industrial players, as well as policy makers, to join us in Sofia on 15-16 May, for the project-organized conference on “e-Infrastructures for excellent science in Southeast Europe and Eastern Mediterranean”.
“e-Infrastructures for excellent science
in Southeast Europe and Eastern Mediterranean”
15-16 May 2018, Sofia Bulgaria
“e-Infrastructures for excellent science in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean” conference will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 15-16 May 2018 in Grand Hotel Sofia. The conference will be a unique opportunity for regional scientists to showcase their work in selected research fields relevant for the region, as well as for presenting the latest achievements resulting from the collaboration of countries in the region of Southeast Europe and Eastern Mediterranean in the area of e-Infrastructures and their use. The conference will gather e-Infrastructure providers, scientists and researchers, and the policy makers from the region and beyond.
The conference program will be divided in two main parts: in the first part an overview of the history, present status and perspectives of the regional e-Infrastructure collaboration will be given, including the analysis of the developments, connection with European programmes and initiatives, regional contribution to the European goals, etc. In the second part, the scientific results in the areas of climatology, life sciences and digital cultural heritage, achieved using the integrated regional e-Infrastructure platform, will be presented.
For more information about the conference, please visit:
https://vi-seem.eu/regional-conference.
VI-SEEM 3rd call for proposals for project access to services and supporting infrastructures
Following two successful calls for project access to the VI-SEEM services and the associated infrastructure, VI-SEEM opens its 3rd call in February, addressing scientists and researchers that work in academic and research institutions in the region of Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean in the fields of life sciences, digital cultural heritage and climate.
The applicants can use a simple form and rely on the peer-review process which will ensure high quality of accepted applications. For the applications that meet the selection criteria and are approved, previously established and well-tested procedures for deployment and support within the VI-SEEM Virtual Research Environment will be followed.
To date, VI-SEEM has supported 38 research projects, out of which 15 were related to climate research, 12 to life sciences, and 11 to cultural heritage. In total, 18 million CPU-hours, 5 million GPU-hours, 1 million Xeon Phi-hours, 80 Cloud virtual machines, and 100 TB of storage space has been offered to the communities.
The VI-SEEM is announced at: https://vi-seem.eu/3rd-call/. Join us and become a part of a unique Virtual Research Environment that improves research productivity and competitiveness on the pan-European level!
VI-SEEM continuous open call for SMEs: ecouraging collaboration between the Industry and Scientific Communities
VI-SEEM engagement with industry and external scientific communities is accelerating through its continuous SME Call (https://vi-seem.eu/2017/11/15/sme-call/). Launched in November 2017, the call supports partnerships involving SMEs and research institutions of South Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean, through the development of projects using the VI-SEEM services. The access team is available to answer any questions from the prospective users while the call is open, at: service-access@lists.vi-seem.eu.
The application procedure for access to the services and underlying computational and storage resources through the SME call is simple: it starts with a submission of a proposal at any time, via an application form that takes no more than half an hour to fill in. After passing the completeness and eligibility review, which requires that at most 100,000 CPU core hours or 6,500 GPU or Phi node hours are requested, the application goes through a technical evaluation, based on which the final decision on resource allocation is made.
Access to the services and resources offered by the VI-SEEM VRE (https://services.vi-seem.eu) is awarded for a maximum period of 3 months, while access to the data repository service might be granted for up to 12 months.
Applications will be accepted until the end of May 2018.
CSAD: The Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
The Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents was established in 1995 under the auspices of Oxford University's Faculty of Literae Humaniores to provide a focus for the study of ancient documents. Over the last six years it has developed into a research centre of national and international importance.
The Centre provides a home for Oxford University's epigraphical archive, which includes one of the largest collections of squeezes (paper impressions) of Greek inscriptions in the world, together with the Haverfield archive of Roman inscriptions from Britain, and a substantial photographic collection. The strengths of the epigraphical archive lie in its broad coverage of early Greek inscriptions, Attic epigraphy and the Hellenistic world. Individual sites well represented in the archive include Chios, Samos, Priene, Rhodes, and Samothrace. The material in the archive is currently being reorganised and catalogued.
The Center shares through VI-SEEM Clowder inscriptions of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt namely inscribed monuments in Greek, Latin and Egyptian, from Roman Egypt as well as RTI inscriptions such as various examples of RTI imaging from museum objects.
Clowder is a research data management system deployed to support the VI-SEEM digital cultural heritage community by being able to handle any data format. Clowder provides three major extension points: pre-processing, processing and previewing. Users can upload, download, search, visualize and get various information about cultural heritage data in the region.
The south front of Kingston Lacy with the Philae obelisk on the lawn. Philae obelisk is an example of an ancient monument which has been inscripted through Reflectance Transformation Imaging.
DICOM: collecting, processing and visualizing medical images online
In the last decade medical institutions have been facing the challenge of storage and visualization of medical images collected by various medical equipment. At the same time, providing the scientific community and Institutions access to medical datasets and ensuring in parallel personal medical data protection requires a state-of-the-art technological solution. DICOM Network project is developed for tackling such issues for different actors in the system based on various customized roles.
DICOM is a service that aids the collection, process and visualization of medical images online. It consists of the DICOM Portal, a front-end user interface for patients, doctors and scientists, the DICOM Server, which collects and archives images to DICOM portal for online access, and the DICOM Viewer for visualization, 3D modelling and medical image editing.
The project is based on a number of self-installed components that are built using a number of modules. Assembling of components and modules provides a flexible architecture of the DICOM “Network” that is consolidated by DICOM DATA Interface into a radiology tests database.
Parallel wind simulation speedup using openFOAM
Wind simulation over mountainous regions is of great interest for planning of human activities, in particular for green energy production with wind farms. The Polytechnic University of Tirana (UPT) performs wind simulations over rugged terrain in regional scales, using the OpenFOAM software. The mountainous area that includes Albania was selected as the terrain model, obtained from NASA SRTM Digital Elevation Model.
The experiments were carried out in three parallel systems aiming at the evaluation of runtime requirements as a preparatory phase for running it in the VI-SEEM Virtual Research Environment: the first in the Faculty of Information Technology of UPT with dual Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5506 processors, 2GB RAM per node and 1 GB switch, the second – HPC Cluster with non-blocking DDR Infiniband with dual Intel(R) Xeon(R) X5560 and 24 GB RAM per node, and the third - the supercomputer system Avitohol with dual Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2650v2, non-blocking InfiniBand FDR and 64 GB RAM per node, both in the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
The results of the experiment show the importance of such simulations for planning of wind energy farms, and for the air transport. The use of OpenFOAM for wind simulation models of medium resolution (spatial discretization steps 10km-1km) over rugged mountainous regional area of Albania and surroundings was possible in the HPC Avitohol shystem using reasonable resources. Besides the runtime, another limitation was the virtual memory in levels of 10-30 GB for medium sized models, requested by preparatory modules blockMesh, decomposePar, and reconstructPar. An optimistic extrapolation of the runtime for the model with resolution 100m of spatial discretization step using up to 640 parallel processes resulted up to 4 months, not considering limitations due to virtual memory and degeneration of parallelization efficiency.
North-South wind (bottom) in altitude 1,500m (left), East-West component (center), and vertical component (right)
Digital Cultural Heritage
VI-SEEM services and integrated VRE were presented at the DI4R conference in Brussels
VI-SEEM services and Virtual Research Environment were presented in the second edition of Digital Infrastructures for Research conference that was held in Brussels, Belgium, from 30 November to 1 December 2017. The presentation titled “Federated digital services for Open Science in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean” was accepted to be part of the session EOSC Building Blocks, among an overwhelming number of submissions - thus showcasing the VI-SEEEM services that are candidates for integration in a wider European Open Science Cloud ecosystem.
The presentation described the innovative approach developed by the VI-SEEM project focusing on the integrated state-of- the-art platform, built jointly by e-Infrastructure providers and end users, consisting of computational resources (HPC, cloud, Grid), data storage and management, visualization tools and discipline-specific services, provided via an integrated Virtual Research Environment, but also to the fact that the platform serves a large geographical area (South Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean) of about 300 million inhabitants having a diversity of e-Infrastructures with the aim to enable high-caliber research in strategic areas for the region, namely the Life Sciences, Climatology and Meteorology, and Digital Cultural Heritage.
The service orientation of the VI-SEEM e-Infrastructure, especially its service catalogue, was acknowledged and highly valued by the eInfraCentral project during the conference, as one on the most innovative service catalogues among the EU e-Infrastructure providers.
The DI4R 2017 conference is jointly organized by the 5 biggest e-Infrastructures in Europe: EGI, EUDAT, GÉANT, OpenAIRE, PRACE and RDA Europe under the theme “Connecting the building blocks for Open Science”. With more than 400 attendees, DI4R proved to be the leading e-Infrastructures event in Europe.
VI-SEEM participation in
“Two years AVITOHOL: Advanced HPC applications” workshop
The most active users of Bulgaria’s AVITOHOL supercomputer gathered in Panagyurishte in October 2017 to present the recent results of their research, during the “Two years of AVITOHOL: Advanced HPC applications” workshop.
The workshop was organized by the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and had more than 40 participants, including distinguished scientists from VI-SEEM partnering countries Hungary, FYR of Macedonia, Armenia and Albania, all of them AVITOHOL users. The program included 27 presentations on HPC applications in bioinformatics, molecular dynamics, environmental protection, climatology, digital cultural heritage, etc., divided in two main tracks: HPC applications, and tools and services for HPC. Special attention was given to a presentation on the current status and future perspective of HPC in Bulgaria. VI-SEEM was presented by the Assoc. Prof. Todor Gurov. A book with selected papers has been published as a Special Issue of the open access journal CIT, seven papers of which contain VI-SEEM related scientific results.
AVITOHOL is the newest multifunctional HPC system in Bulgaria, purchased and installed at IICT in 2015, and it is part of the VI-SEEM infrastructure. It consists of 150 computational servers HP SL250s Gen8, equipped with two Intel Xeon E5-2650v2 CPUs and two Intel Xeon Phi 7120P coprocessors, 64GB RAM, two 500 GB hard drives, interconnected with non-blocking FDR InfiniBand running at 56 Gbps line speed. The total number of cores is 20700 and the total RAM is 9600 GB, respectively. The theoretical peak performance of the system is estimated at 412.3 TFlop/s in double precision while the RMAX Performance according the LINPACK benchmark is 264.2 TFlop/s. AVITOHOL was put into operation in 2015 and was ranked among the 500 most powerful supercomputers (Top500), taking the 332nd place.
15th SESAME Users’ Meeting
VI-SEEM project w as presented at the 15th SESAME Users’ Meeting in Amman, on December 18th-19th, 2017. The meeting brought together scientists from the region and world experts in the various fields of synchrotron applications, and provided a platform for information exchange and discussions of ongoing collaborative efforts within the community. It included updates on the project and invited speakers on selected topics related to SESAME scientific plans.
Researchers from the Region presented their research results and/or their plans for SESAME by oral or poster contributions and they met together on-site for discussion, interaction and networking. A large number of researchers expressed great interest towards the services provided by VI-SEEM.
The VI-SEEM regional climate training event
11-13 October 2017, Belgrade, Serbia
A 3-day training event focusing primarily on the Climate community, but also addressing the opportunities and services that the VI-SEEM VRE offers to the cross-disciplinary research, was held in Belgrade in October 2017. The target audience were the researchers and developers from the Climate and other research communities, as well as current and potential users of the VI-SEEM e-Infrastructure and services.
The VI-SEEM Climate Scientific Community Leader Dr. Theodoros Christoudias (Cyprus Institute) presented topics related to Climate Modelling & Downscaling, Earth System Model Post-processing & Visualization. Prof Ljupčo Pejov of the Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Skopje, gave a lecture on "Efficient exact computations for molecular species relevant to atmospheric chemistry, climate science and drug delivery".
Participants received training on the WRF-Chem model and DREAMCLIMATE application usage for atmospheric chemistry and Aeolian dust transport modelling. Relevant computational themes, parallel programming with OpenMP, MPI and GPGPU co-processors, source code repositories and data services (discovery, staging, archiving, management, PID, metadata aggregation) were also covered.
The event gathered more than 40 participants, and more than a dozen trainers and presenters with topical expertise, covering all VI-SEEM partner countries and beyond.
National event on VI-SEEM services, training portal, VRE and applications
FYR of Macedonia, 18 October 2017
The VI-SEEM service catalogue, training portal, VRE and applications were presented in the national event that was held at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University Ss Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. The event was attended by more than 35 participants with quite diverse background and interests, mainly from the academia, including researchers and students from the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Medical Faculty and Pharmaceutical Faculty. During the event, several potential project applications were identified and discussed.
Representatives from the Industry expressed interest in the current VI-SEEM call for SMEs, while two institutions from the cultural heritage community, namely the National library and the Directorate for preservation of cultural heritage were inspired by the talk given by the cultural heritage virtual scientific community leader, Prof. Georgios Artopoulos from the Cyprus Institute. Participants coming from several public institutions, such as the M-Nav, state owned company responsible for management and control of civilian air traffic in the country, were specifically interested in the climate community developments.
VI-SEEM national training event in Thessaloniki
Climate Simulations for the European region, meteorological applications, Ab initio and Molecular Dynamics simulations in nanostructures, as well as applications on neutron stars and gravitational waves were just part of the research work that was presented during the VI-SEEM national training and dissemination event in Thessaloniki on 11-12 December 2017.
The event was attended by more than 35 students and researchers, current and potential users of the VI-SEEM e-Infrastructure and services, who had the opportunity to learn about successful applications that run on Greece’s HPC ARIS Infrastructure, followed by hands-on sessions. Furthermore, the training instructors presented in detail the access policy, tools and usage techniques of HPC ARIS, as well as the VI-SEEM project, Virtual Research Environment and services.
The event was held on 11-12 December 2017 at the Research Dissemination Center of the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki.
Commissioner Gabriel's visit to IICT in Sofia, Bulgaria
European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Digital Society Maria Gabriel visited the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia on 13 October 2017 to discuss the EuroHPC-related perspectives and challenges in Bulgaria. Earlier in the day the declaration that Bulgaria joins EuroHPC was signed in Sofia, by the Bulgarian Minister of Education and Science, Krasimir Valchev, in the presence of Commissioner Gabriel.
Commissioner Gabriel visited the IICT together with Dr. Thomas Skordas (Director of DG Connect), Dr. Thomas Lippert (Head of Jülich Supercomputing Centre), Dr. Ivan Dimov (Deputy-minister of Ministry of Education and Science) and other officials. They visited also the computing centre and were acquainted with the capabilities of the Bulgarian supercomputer AVITOHOL, which is the most powerful computing resource in the region of Southeast Europe. When AVITOHOL was put into operation in 2015, it took 332nd place in the ranking of world supercomputers (Top500). The supercomputer is used to solve major computational tasks in areas such as ecology, climatology, molecular dynamics, cultural and historical heritage, and more. Extensive calculations using its unique capabilities were performed for the forecasting of extreme snowfalls in Bulgaria during the past winter.
VI-SEEM events and VI-SEEM related events:
VI-SEEM regional conference: “E-Infrastructures for excellent science”, 15-16 May 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria
EU conference: “Improving long-term sustainability and opening up research and innovation infrastructures to industry and society”, 22-23 March 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria
EU Digital Forum “High Performance Computing (HPC) – Sofia”, 19 April 2018
E-IRG workshop, 14-15 May, 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria
European HPC Summit Week 2018, 28 May – 1 June 2018, Ljubljana, Slovenia
VI-SEEM related conferences, organized or co-organized by the VI-SEEM partners:
22nd International Scientific-Professional Conference on Information Technology (IT), 19 - 24 February 2018, Zabljak, Montenegro
International Conference on "Numerical Methods for Scientific Computations and Advanced Applications", 28 - 31 May 2018, Hissarya, Bulgaria
10th International Conference ICT Innovations 2018, 17 - 19 September 2018, Ohrid, FYRo Macedonia
20th International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing 2018, 20-23 September 2018, Timisoara, Romania
About VI-SEEM
VI-SEEM is a three-year project that aims at creating a unique Virtual Research Environment in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, in order to facilitate regional interdisciplinary collaboration, with special focus on the scientific communities of Life Sciences, Climatology and Digital Cultural Heritage.
VI-SEEM unifies existing e-Infrastructures into an integrated platform to better utilize synergies, for an improved service provision that will leverage strengthen the research capacities of user communities, thus improving research productivity and competitiveness on the pan-European level.
The project kicked-off in October 2015 and the consortium consists of 16 partners: lead institutes from the SEEM region, specializing in provision of scientific computing and storage resources, and scientific user support.
VI-SEEM project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 675121.
Copyright © 2018 VI-SEEM GRNET S.A., All rights reserved.
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In Music Photos Show Review
Matt and Kim (w/ Tokyo Police Club) @ State Theatre (Portland, ME) on April 24, 2018 [Photos & Show Review]
By Nathan Katsiaficas 05/03/2018
Indie pop giants Matt and Kim are wrapping up their first US tour in more than a year in support of their upcoming release Almost Everyday. Dubbed for their first single off the new album, “Forever,” the Forever Tour features openers Tokyo Police Club and has been making its way across the US since mid-March. We caught up with it in its final weeks, as Matt and Kim made their way to play before 800 fans on a Tuesday night in Portland, Maine at the State Theatre.
After a fantastic opening set by Tokyo Police Club, and a brief stage change-over, Matt and Kim took to the stage. What would ensue would be the most fun show I’ve ever seen. One cannot truly appreciate Matt and Kim without witnessing them live. With a set featuring everything from hundreds of balloons, confetti, a wall of death (yes at an indie pop concert), dildo drumsticks, and blow up dolls, the audience was in for a hell of a good time. This tour is especially significant because it marks Kim’s first return to the stage since injuring her ACL in early 2017.
The duo were electric, feeding off each other’s energy as they ripped through a set that had the whole venue bouncing along to songs pulled from across their discography and mashups of recent hits like Drake’s “Started From The Bottom.” Their set included new singles “Happy if You’re Happy,” and “Forever,” from their upcoming full-length due out on May 4th. Although the tour is almost over — ending in Toronto on May 7th — be sure to check out their new record once it drops later this week, and keep an eye out for new tour dates from the band.
Remaining Tour Dates:
05/03 – Washington D.C. – 9:30 Club
05/04 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore
05/05-06 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees Festival
05/07 – Toronto, ON – The Phoenix
April 24indie popindie rocklive imagesMEphotospicsportlandpuregrainaudioreviewshow reviewState TheatreTokyo Police Club
Nathan Katsiaficas
When he's not out in the woods, clomping around in streams, or looking at shiny rocks, you can find our U.S. Managing Editor and contributing photographer Nathan Katsiaficas in the photo pit, covering everything from heavy metal to punk, alternative, indie, and hip-hop.
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Home | Practice Areas at Valiente, Carollo and McElligott PLLC | Criminal Defense Lawyer Miami | Miami Weapons Charges Attorney | Florida Gun Laws
Florida Gun Laws
Miami Gun Charges Attorney
Although Florida has a storied history of gun ownership and advocacy — the right to bear arms is protected under the state and federal constitution — guns laws are strictly enforced. Moreover, the recent school shootings prompted the enactment of tough new gun control measures. While it may be legal to own and carry a firearm, as a gun owner it is crucial to understand the laws as well as the legal consequences of weapons violations. After all, ignorance of the law is never a defense so making sure you know the law is the first step in ensuring you do not break it.
Valiente, Carollo and McElligott PLLC has extensive experience protecting the rights of gun owners in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and throughout the state of Florida. Our criminal defense attorneys have a working knowledge of the applicable gun laws and a proven track record of successfully trying cases in state and federal court. If you have been charged with a weapons violation, our legal team will provide you with aggressive legal representation.
Nowadays in the political climate that we’re in gun laws are changing, everyday not just on the federal level but on the state level as well. And it can be confusing, and something that is legal today might not be legal tomorrow. And so it’s important to have a knowledgeable and experienced attorney like we are, who knows and we’ve done this literally hundreds of times. And we can help you use our experience, our expertise to stay on top of all of these laws to ultimately get the best possible outcome, whether it’s a dismissal of the charges, a reduction or not filing charges in the first place. You can count on us.
Call Us At 786-361-6887 For A FREE Consultation!
Who can own a gun in Florida?
The right to own a gun in Florida is derived from the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and the state constitution holds that the “the right of the people to keep and bear arms in their own defense shall not be infringed, except that the manner may be regulated.” At the same time, the state has the authority to determine who can and cannot possess a firearm. In particular, certain individuals are not permitted to possess certain firearms, including:
Minors under the age of 21;
A person convicted of a felony (unless their civil rights are restored);
Anyone under a domestic violence court order;
Those who have been committed to a treatment facility for drug abuse or convicted of certain related crimes, within the past three years;
Habitual alcohol and drug abusers; and
Anyone who has been committed to a mental institution during the last three years.
Because violations of Florida’s gun possession laws carry stiff penalties, including mandatory minimum sentences, significant jail time and fines, having an experienced gun law attorney in your corner is essential.
What are the new gun restrictions in Florida?
In response to the tragic recent mass shootings in Florida, a new state gun control measure has been enacted: the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. The law includes the following new restrictions on gun possession:
Minimum age — The minimum age for all gun purchases, including long guns, has been changed from 18 to 21.
Waiting period — After a purchase, the gun owner must wait three days, or the time it takes to complete a background check, before obtaining a gun, whichever is longer.
A Ban on Bump Stocks — Bump stocks, designed to enable semi-automatic rifles to fire more rapidly, mimicking an automatic weapon, are now prohibited.
The new measure also creates a “marshal program” that permits school superintendents and local sheriffs to arm and train certain school employees, including coaches, counselors, and librarians. The law also contains funding for beefed up security measures at schools, including hiring school-based police officers. It is worth noting that the provision regarding the new age requirement is being challenged in court on constitutional grounds.
Other Gun Offenses in Florida
The attorneys at Valiente, Carollo and McElligott PLLC are well-versed in numerous other weapons laws and routinely defend clients against the following gun offenses.
In Florida, a concealed weapon or firearm license (“concealed carry permit”) will only be issued to individuals who are:
At least 21 years-old;
A U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien; and
Eligible to own a gun under both state and federal law.
The license applies to handguns,electronic weapons or devices (tasers), tear gas guns, knives, or billie clubs, and the sole reason for carrying the weapon must be for self-defense. In addition, applicants for a permit are required to pay a license fee, submit fingerprints for a background check and demonstrate firearm competency.
In short, carrying a concealed firearm without a permit is unlawful, charged as a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison or $5,000 in fines, or both. Additionally, carrying a concealed weapon is prohibited in numerous places and situations, such as schools, bars, public parks, courthouses, public agency meetings, or any other location where state or federal law prohibits firearms.
Florida’s current “stand your ground” law holds that a person who is in any place in which he or she has a right to have no duty to retreat if he or she feels endangered by another person. The use of deadly force is justified if a person reasonably believes such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or bodily harm to oneself or another. Deadly force may also be justified to prevent an imminent forcible felony from occurring.
Although stand your ground is a valid defense, you must be able to show that you had a reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily harm. Once you make that showing the burden shifts to the State to disprove you acted reasonably.
Discharge of a Firearm in Public
It is unlawful to knowingly or recklessly discharge a firearm in any public place, right of way on any paved public road, highway, street, outdoors on any property used primarily as a dwelling, or any structure zoned solely for residential use. Violations are a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail.
Shooting into an Occupied Dwelling
In Florida, it is illegal to wantonly shoot a firearm, throw a deadly missile, or hurl or project a stone or other hard object that would produce great bodily harm or death, at, within or in any public or private building, occupied or unoccupied, or any public or private occupied vehicle (e.g. cars, trucks, buses, trains, subways, etc.). Such conduct is termed “Throwing a Deadly Missile” and is considered a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Miami-Dade County Gun Charges & Possession Attorney
Weapons violations are a serious matter in Florida, and a conviction can lead to imprisonment, fines, and loss of your rights as a citizen and gun owner. If you are facing a weapons charge involving a firearm, the criminal defense attorneys at Valiente, Carollo and McElligott PLLC can help. We will leverage our knowledge of the applicable gun laws and courtroom experience to protect your rights.
Call our office today at 786-361-6887 or complete the online contact form to set up a free consultation.
Miami Gun Laws Defense Review
Attorney Valiente provided exceptional service and was thorough in the court room. Even with two probation violations he was able to get me off probation early. I would definitely recommend him.
Miami Gun Laws Attorney
Valiente, Carollo and McElligott PLLC
1111 Brickell Avenue Suite 1550
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Live Sets, Mixes
Porter Robinson & Madeon deliver monumental Coachella performance as tour nears its close
By We Rave You Staff
It was the collaboration of a lifetime – Porter Robinson & Madeon, two of the most talented producers the industry has ever seen, teaming up to bring us a spine-tingling musical masterclass in the form of ‘Shelter‘, and to add the icing on the cake, an official North America tour to go alongside this. Prior to the collaboration, Porter had gone down in the dance music history books with his highly regarded and emotional ‘Worlds’ tour, while Madeon had also made a name for himself with his incredible live performance, ‘Adventure’. The two had toured independently quite a bit, but fans of both had been crying out for an official joint tour, and the duo duly obliged.
Over the last number of months, the pair have been visiting cities across the U.S., and their recent Coachella performance had been geared up as one of the highlights of this tour – and it’s safe to say they did not disappoint. Filled with a perfect combination of classics and recent singles, including the likes of “Sad Machine”, “Finale” and “Language”, the pair delivered a performance that will live long in the memory of fans who were lucky enough to witness it. The atmosphere and emotion from the crowd were enough to prove that this set was something special.
Guaranteed to be the most special of all, this weekend will see Porter & Madeon return to Coachella for Weekend Two, as they take to the stage for the very last time to draw their “Shelter” Tour to a close.
Relive their set from Weekend One below.
Tags: coachella, Madeon, Porter Robinson, shelter
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Assassin’s Creed U is going to be a new entry in the series
July 18th, 2011 in Games, Interviews, News
Yves Guillemot was recently interviewed by the Swedish site Aftonbladet. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed project for the Wii U came up, and Guillemot confirmed that it won’t be a port of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Revelations for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, while declining to elaborate any further.
Aftonbladet: We saw something about a new Assassin’s Creed for Wii U. What can you say about that?
Guillemot: Our next edition of Assassin’s will be in a Wii U version.
Aftonbladet: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations?
Guillemot: No, not Revelations. For the future.
Aftonbladet: So it’s Assassin’s Creed III? Or is it something else?
Guillemot: I can’t tell you that.
It remains to be seen whether the Assassin’s Creed game for the Wii U will be an original project for the console or a port of a future 360/PS3 installment in the series. Either way, I’m already getting excited just thinking about everything the touchscreen controller could be used for in an Assassin’s Creed game.
(via My Nintendo News)
Written by F0
Yves Guillemot
Mukkinese
Excellent, a whole new Assassins creed.
RockD79
I can see them going multiple ways with this. In one corner you have the Wii and Wii U that have never had the prior titles. In the other is an exclusive side story of the franchise on Wii U only. So let me take a stab and suggest ports of the older ones in maybe a box set to introduce the franchise to those who haven’t had the opportunity to play them before… That’s the cheap route for Ubisoft. Heck if they give them a little face lift I’m sold. Then there’s the side story idea. Could go either way.
Oldergamer
Oh look… a developer saying more words.
It’s Assassin’s Creed 3, no doubt. They’re going to release it holiday 2012 after all, could be a launch title.
i will? wiiu!!
differant game ohhhhhh!!!!!!!! so there doing z list versions like they did wii what a joke ubisoft
Jesus, don’t overreact. You realize that Revelations is coming out this November right and that Assassin’s Creed 3 is coming out November 2012, right? It makes so much sense to release Assassin’s Creed 3 on the Wii U instead, why port Revelations one year after it’s release? We’ll get the same AC3 as PS3 and XBox 360, but with updated graphics and some cool utilization of the Wii U controller (look up Ubisoft E3 roundtable and you’ll see what I mean).
For the future… Hmmm
Jmaster720
Hopefully it won’t get canceled…I’m looking at you Assassin’s Creed lost legacy
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If you missed the Anne Garrels webinar on December 17th or want to view it again Click Here to View the Webinar!
WACC Webinars
Click here to access WACC’s recent webinars. WACC members can participate in the live webinar Q&A sessions.
WACC Podcasts
Click here to access WACC’s recent podcasts.
Thanks to our podcast sponsor Morris Financial Concepts Inc.
Become a Member - INDIVIDUAL OR COUPLE
Become a Member of WACC!
New members are welcome! Currently WACC programs consists primarily of webinars, podcasts, and Great Decisions. These programs will be conducted in a virtual environment for members participation.
WACC dues primarily fund the expenses associated with the six evening meetings - the speakers, the venue, and the refreshments. With no evening programs planned at this time, new member dues for the 2020-2021 year are significantly lower than in previous years. New member annual dues are set for the 2020-2021 year at $35 for an individual membership and $70 for a couple membership.
WACC 2019-2020 members will have their membership extended to June 30, 2021. There is no need for 2019-2020 members to renew their membership. There will be no dues assessed to those members. Dues consideration after the end of the WACC fiscal year (June 30, 2021) will be revisited in April 2021. There are funds available from the 2019-2020 budget that can sustain WACC obligations until decisions on resuming “normal programming” can be made.
Click here to become a new WACC member!
Morris Financial Concepts Inc
The new Business membership runs from Fall to Spring, with a total of 6 events in each season. The dues for the 2020-2021 season (September 2020 to June 2021) are established at $350 with the fexibility allowing any two people (either directly or indirectly associated with the company) to attend each of the 6 meetings.
CLICK HERE TO BECOME A BUSINESS MEMBER
Due to the COVID-19 virus, all WACC 'in-person’ events (evening programs, dinner, luncheons) have been cancelled until further notice. The WACC Board of Directors is closely monitoring the situation and will keep WACC members advised on ‘reopening plans.’
Welcome to the World Affairs Council of Charleston
The World Affairs Council of Charleston (WACC, formerly the Charleston Foreign Affairs Forum) was founded in the early 1980's as a non-profit, nonpartisan organization. The WACC mission is to educate and engage the wider Charleston community through timely non-partisan activities on world affairs and international relations. The WACC membership, representing a cross-section of individuals from business, education, and civic backgrounds, seeks to inform and attract participants of all ages. Through thought-provoking presentations and discussions, participants are challenged to foster their understanding of the world. The WACC is a member of the World Affairs Councils of America.
The WACC hosts six speaking events each year. The events feature distinguished presenters from the U.S. and foreign governments, academic organizations and the business community. The speakers present timely lectures on international events affecting our lives. A lively question and answer period follows the presentations. For information on membership and attendance, go to our membership page.
Prospective members are welcome and encouraged to attend a meeting. Prospective members may attend one meeting as a guest for a nominal charge of $20 per person, payable at the guest registration table with either cash or check. No preregistration is required. The $20 guest fee can be applied towards the membership fee.
NEW WACC SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE
The World Affairs Council of Charleston has prepared a social media guide for members and guests to learn about WACC's social media platforms - our website, our Facebook page and our new LinkedIn page. The guide includes instructions to access the different media as well what is contained in each. View Social Media Guide Here!
Some WACC Photos to Enjoy!
The World Affairs Council of Charleston will sponsor a local Academic WorldQuest™ competition each year!
Academic WorldQuest™ (AWQ) is the World Affairs Councils of America’s flagship youth education program. It is a fun, fast-paced team competition for high school students. Academic WorldQuest™ tests players’ knowledge of current international politics, geography, global economics, history, and world cultures. Academic WorldQuest™ engages more than 4,000 high school students annually to test their knowledge of global issues and foreign policy in competitions across the country. Some 50 World Affairs Councils hold local AWQ competitions for high school students in their communities. Since 2003, winning teams have traveled to Washington, DC every April to vie for the national championship.
The World Affairs Council of Charleston (WACC) invites local high schools to enter four-person teams for the competition. The competition will be held in March or April of each year
Topics for the 2021 competition are:
1. Global Protests
2. Shifting Sands: The Arab Spring 10 Years On
3. International Labour Organization (ILO)
4. The U.S. Foreign Service in the 21st Century
5. Great Decisions
6. Country in Focus: Uzbekistan
7. Exploring Peace in a World of Conflict
8. Fraying Alliances
9. Looking to a Post-Pandemic Economy
10. Current Events
A practice competition was held in February 2020 at the Academic Magnet High School. Four teams competed. Since the actual competition was cancelled due to COVID-19, it was decided to award the winning team at the practice with our first year trophy. The winning team was from Academic Magnet.
For more information on the AWQ program click here. For questions regarding WACC’s local program send an email to [email protected] or call 843 860 2502.
AWQ funding is not included in present WACC revenues. Sponsors and donations are being requested to support AWQ expenses. If you would like to donate to support AWQ, click on the below 'To Donate' button.
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The World Affairs Council of Charleston (WACC) is an affiliate of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) and actively particpates in several programs: Travel the World and Great Decisions. WACA has other events, programs, and activities in which WACC members can participate. Of interest, may be the Newsletters and Weekly Alerts. It contains links to articles on world affairs from a variety of sources. You can sign up for the WACA 'Weekly World News Update' by entering your email address on the WACA website - https://www.worldaffairscouncils.org. You will find the newsletters and updates very interesting and informative.
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See WACC Videos
In 2018 WACC sponsored two special dinner meetings. Both dinner talks were video taped. The videos are available for viewing. Just click below to view the video you want to see.
Luis Rubio Talk on Mexico's Complex Democracy on January 31, 2018 Click Here
Larry Diamond Talk on the Global Liberal Democratic Order on October 1, 2018 Click Here
OTHER ACTIVITIES:
Great Decisions Groups -- In addition to the large group presentations by invited speakers, smaller groups of members have the option to meet to discuss current world affairs using materials prepared by the Foreign Policy Association. For details, see the Great Decisions Groups page.
Awards Program -- WACC sponsors an annual awards program for students from the local high schools View the Awards for Excellence in Global Studies and a Citadel student View the Colonel Myron C Harrington Award who have expressed an interest and have excelled in their study of foreign affairs.
WACA Programs -- The World Affairs Council of Charleston (WACC) is an affiliate of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) and actively participates in several programs: Travel the World and Great Decisions. WACA has other events, programs and activities in which WACC members can participate. Of interest, may be the ‘Weekly World News Update’. It contains links to articles on world affairs from a variety of sources. You can sign up for the WACA ‘Weekly World News Update’ by entering your email address on the WACA website - www.worldaffairscouncils.org. You will find the Updates very interesting and informative.
Open Amount World Affairs Council of Charleston Donation
An open amount donation to WACC
KEEP UP TO DATE WITH WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD!!!!
Click here to access the World Affairs Councils of America newsletters
OTHER WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCILS EVENTS/WEBINARS
On Thursday, January 14th, 2021 – 4:15 PM EST, the World Affairs Councils of Orange County Presents: AN OPEN WORLD: How America Can Win the Contest for Twenty-First-Century Order - A free webinar with Rebecca Lissner
Rebecca Lissner is an Assistant Professor in the Strategic and Operational Research Department at the U.S. Naval War College and a Non-Resident Scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies. Previously, Dr. Lissner held research fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, the Council on Foreign Relations, and International Security Studies at Yale University. She also served as Special Advisor to the Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy and, during the 2016 election cycle, advised the Hillary Clinton campaign and transition team on foreign policy.
Dr. Lissner’s research and writing focuses on U.S. national security strategy and the future of international order. She is the co-author of An Open World: How America Can Win the Contest for Twenty-First-Century Order (Yale University Press, 2020) and her second book, Wars of Revelation: The Transformative Effects of Military Intervention on Grand Strategy, will be published by Oxford University Press. Her scholarship has been published in Political Science Quarterly, the Texas National Security Review, Survival, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and International Peacekeeping. Her policy writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Quarterly, among other publications. Dr. Lissner received an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University and an MA and PhD in Government from Georgetown University. She tweets @RebeccaLissner. Click here to register.
On Thursday, January 21 at 7:00pm the College of Charleston School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs is sponsoring a most timely presentation by Ms. Lisa Carty, Director of the United States Liaison Office of UNAIDS. Ms. Carty has extensive experience in the field of international health, and her presentation could not be more timely.
View flyer for more information.
To join the Microsoft Teams Live Event, click here. Please know that Microsoft Teams does not support the Safari browser. You may also view the recorded event at a later date by clicking here.
Thursday, January 21st, 2021 – 4:00 PM EST - The World Affairs Councils of Orange County Presents: THE SOLARWINDS HACK & CYBER SECURITY IN A DIGITAL AGE - A free webinar with Secretary Michael Chertoff, Moderated by Bryan Cunningham
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LUNCHEON
On Februay 26th over 60 WACC members and guests attended a business luncheon featuring the German company, KION North America, headquartered in Summerville, SC. Mr Daniel Schlegel, Vice President of Operations, presented a history and update on this fascinating company. The luncheon was held at Halls Signature Events in downtown Charleston.
Dr. Andrew Hsu, College of Charleston President, Dinner
Over 90 WACC members and guests attended the dinner with Dr. Hsu on January 9th at the Citadel Alumni Center. Dr. Hsu shared his journey from China to the US, his reasons for accepting the College of Charleston Presidency, and his thoughts about the history of China and China today. Dr. Sally Selden, Provost and Dean of the College at The Citadel, introduced Dr. Hsu.
The WACC has started a partnership with the Political Science Department at The Citadel which will sponsor a WACC student intern. The part-time internship includes helping the WACC with marketing, implementing and managing various programs, and writing a term paper relating to a relevant international topic of interest. This program will provide an opportunity for our intern to work with "real world" aspects of organizing and managing an active and progressive international affairs civic organization.
Ken Fox giving the WACC thank you letter to Intern Wes Hayes.
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Village Parks
Cornerstone Crossing Conservancy
Foxmead Drive
This 13.6 acres nature conservancy park has .9 miles of pedestrian/walking paths, which connects the Foxmead Subdivision to the commercial district along Hwy 36.
Huening Park
North River Street
The public boat launch is located here,adjacent to the Village Hall Park. The motor boat launch is open from 8:00 am-10:00 pm from April 1 to October 30. Huening Park also has a picnic bench and historical monument stone.
River Bend Park
This 0.3 acre park is located by the Main Street bridge along the Fox River. The park provides a nice picnicking/rest area near the Downtown Business District. It also provides public access to the Fox River for fishing and environmental studies.
Safety Building Park
122 N. Second Street
The Safety Building Park, located on east side of the Fox River provides pedestrian access to the river for fishing and picnicking. The park is slated for improvements in the Riverfront/Ten Club Park Redevelopment Project.
Ten Club Park
100 S. 1st Street
Ten Club Park is located in the center of the Village on the Fox River and is also slated for improvements and additional parking.The Village will begin working with the community to develop a plan to enhance Ten Club Park.
Village Hall Park
The Village Hall Park is located in the center of the Village next to the Fox River. The extensive grassy area affords visitors with ample space for picnicking walking, or relaxing. The park also contains two functioning rain gardens.
Located on the Fox River, it is a prime fishing spot, attracting many visitors to the Village. The park is used by many local groups such as the Public Library's summer programs, River Rhythms summer concert series, and Full Moon 4 Miler. The park has a stage with lighting and electrical for special events. A canoe/kayak launch is located here with paddle sport rentals expected to open May 19, 2017.
Whitford Park
625 S. First Street
Whitford Park is the center of summer activity within the Village. Located on the far south side along the Fox River, it hosts the Fourth of July activities and many fund raising projects for local community service organizations. This 12.8 acre park with three lighted baseball and softball diamonds is home to local leagues, serving approximately 550 registered players plus spectators annually. The semi-pro and legion baseball league draws thousands more annually. A volleyball court and a preschool play area with swings, a slide and climbing structure complete the recreational area. The Fox River is also a popular fishing site. The extensive grassy area affords visitors with space for walking or jogging.
The park has two options for community groups, businesses, and individual who would like to hold company picnics, family reunions, showers, and the like. A picnic pavilion with tables, a concession stand, and restroom facilities and the Ray Seidel Community Building which holds 200, has a kitchen area, and rest rooms are available to rent.
Enjoying Waterford Parks
Fox River south at Whitford Park
Kayakers enjoying river paddle
Winter Swans on Fox River
Opening May 2017!
Canoes! Kayaks! SUPs!
Solo Kayak/SUP...............$35/4 hr
Tandem Kayak/Canoe......$50/4 hr
Upgrade Kayak Paddle.....$10 rental
2.5 hr intro class................$60/person
2-3 hr guided trip...............$60/person
www.foxriverpaddlesports.com
The Fox River
The Fox River winds through the center of the Village from north to south. To the north, travelers will encounter the 1800-acre Lake Tichigan above the Waterford Dam. The River continues south into Illinois. Fishing and boating are the two primary recreational activities, with fishing from the dam and riverbank and the two boat launches north of the dam to accommodate boaters.
The Fox River is considered by many to be the Village's most valuable yet under-utilized natural resource. Public access to the river can be found at River Bend Park, Safety Building Park, Ten Club Park, Village Hall Park and Whitford Park, and the public motorized boat launch at Huening Park which is open April 1 to October 30 from 8:00 am-10:00 pm. Canoe/kayak launches were constructed above and below the Waterford Dam in 2015, allowing easy access from the headwaters in Waukesha County to the Illinois state line (launches were also be constructed around the Rochester Dam for easy portage).
The Village also has a lease agreement with Fox River Paddle Sports which offers rentals of canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards (SUPs) at the Village Hall launch site. Visit www.foxriverpaddlesports.com for more information.
Village of Waterford | 123 N. River St. | Waterford, WI 53185 | Ph: 262.534.3980 | Fx: 262.534.5373
Contact Us | Site Map | Accessibility | Copyright | Powered by CivicPlus®
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Bird Hide Takes Flight for New Location on Hickling Broad
Uprooting a fragile, 13-year-old bird hide on a Broadland National Nature Reserve isn’t the easiest of tasks, let alone when it’s attached to the legacy of the Cadbury family. However, we used our half a century of problem solving expertise to assist Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) in the movement of its 13ft tall Cadbury Hide at NWT Hickling Broad.
The Cadbury Hide has been re-sited to elevate it from the higher water levels that will be present on the nature reserve once the Hickling wetland creation is complete. The hide will overlook a much larger collection of scrapes and flashes as a result of the habitat improvement work.
We worked closely with the team at Hickling to ensure the move was safe, stable and carefully managed so that disruption to the structure and local wildlife was minimal.
The move, which took two weeks from ground preparation to relocation, involved a number of different processes including carpentry to strengthen the base of the structure, groundworks to prepare the surrounding area and transporting the structure to its new home.
The move forms part of the NWT’s wider project to extend and improve 77 hectares of rare fenland habitat within the Upper Thurne and re-connect areas of floodplain with the Broad.
NWT Hickling Broad is situated in the upper stretches of the River Thurne, and is the largest expanse of open water in the Broads.
The Cadbury Hide’s new higher position will protect the structure and provide a wonderful opportunity for visitors to view some of Hickling National Nature Reserve’s rare and precious wildlife.
K. Hart, Head of Nature Reserves at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust
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China Has Donated Billions to American Universities Because They Truly Care…Now…Find out the Real Reason
Organizations with strong ties to China’s military have taken a keen interest in American universities. This includes Chinese entities that are heavily involved in cyberattacks, spying, and espionage. According to federal records, over the past six years, these companies have pumped $88 million into America’s system of higher education.
The prestigious Duke University is in cahoots with Wuhan University where the two schools operate a joint-campus in China. Wuhan U. is a public university well-known for conducting cyber-attacks in conjunction with the Chinese military.
Collectively, Northwestern University and the University of California Irvine have received over $4 million in funding from a Chinese defense contractor who made off with the designs for the American manufactured F-35. China then used the designs to build their own aircraft.
Between 2014 and 2019, American colleges happily accepted in the vicinity of $315 million. The money came from Chinese controlled public institutions, government-run non-profits, and other sources connected to the communist regime. Over one-quarter of the funds were donated by Chinese owned defense contractors who partner with universities and the Chinese military for the purposes of conducting defense research that could very well one day be used against us.
It’s no secret how China has always had a fondness for dabbling in America’s higher institutes of learning, but they appear to be a much bigger player than was previously thought. There’s a reason for this.
China is one sneaky little dragon. Privately-owned Chinese companies who affiliate with their government are not in the habit of letting it be known. They are shadow companies that are not as they appear on the surface. In actuality, the overwhelming majority of them are not privately owned at all.
Remember the $315 million figure referenced above? It’s peanuts. This is only what is recorded on federal records, and you know we won’t stop there. Let’s dig deeper.
An audit conducted by the Department of Education uncovered an astounding discovery. Education might make some folks smarter but it won’t make them any less devious, inclusive of the professors and scholars who are passing their wisdom on to our future generations.
The audit found, now get this, $6.5 billion in Chinese funding that was never reported, and this has just been in recent years. Who knows what the total figure might be? That’s way more than one truckload full of yen.
The senior director for the Project 2049 Institute think tank, Ian Easton, nailed it on the head when he pointed out the grave national security threat these donations pose. Communist China has no interest in educating America’s youth. This would prove counterproductive to their mission.
“It is imperative that the U.S. government dams up the torrent of CCP-linked money currently flowing into our education system. For U.S. national security, the implications of a continuation of the current arrangement are grave,” Easton said.
If this isn’t enough to already have your blood boiling, out of 1000 donations to US universities reviewed, 198 of them came from separate Chinese shadow companies, all controlled by the slave-owning Chinese commies. The Chinese are masterful at covering their trail and the schools couldn’t care less as long as the cash keep flowing.
The biggest guise is in transferring money directly between a Chinese and an American university. Seems legit, right? Until you realize the Chinese schools are backed by the communist regime. In recent years they’ve coughed up $192 million, on the books anyway.
But the donations came with a catch. They were earmarked for particular projects. In the eyes of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s China Defense Universities Tracker, over 40 percent of the funding came from institutions known to be working as research partners with China’s military.
In more recent years our own government has started cracking down and better scrutinizing Chinese donations, but the battle is endless. By the time the actual source of a contribution is discovered, the Chinese have taken an alternate route to avoid detection. They allude and escape, time after time.
With Joe Biden being as chummy as he is with his communist buddies, it’ll be like an old home week when he takes office. So chances are pretty great that this scenario is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better if it ever does.
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Home » Moving Guides » Moving to Newmarket, Suffolk
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Moving to Newmarket, Suffolk
Rough guide to Newmarket, Suffolk
Moving to Newmarket
Abels has been moving people to Newmarket in Suffolk for decades. Moving to Newmarket from within the UK or from Europe is done by road, with moves from abroad depending upon your preference and the original location. Abels has produced some guidance on the different methods to help you select the right mode for your move to Newmarket, and that could be by air or by sea.
Newmarket is is most famous for being the global centre and birthplace of thoroughbred horse racing. The area has two racecourses, Newmarket Racecourse and the July Course and nine of the UK’s thirty two group one flat races are held at Newmarket, the same number which are held at Ascot. Newmarket is home to many major British horseracing institutions and is the largest racehorse training centre in Britain.
An organisation called the Save Historic Newmarket group is dedicated to preserving Newmarket as the world headquarters of racing. This group also seeks in increase the number of visitors to the area by encouraging sustainable development. The Save Historic Newmarket group is run by and seeks to further include local residents. Newmarket is also well known for Newmarket market and its Newmarket sausage.
It is rumoured that David Beckham owns a house in the area and famous jockey, Frankie Dettori and trainer, Sir Michael Stoute both live there. Other famous faces from Newmarket include Brit Award winner Dina Carroll and polevault champion, Michelle Tuffs.
In addition to horse racing, Newmarket has a local football team called Newmarket Town, which reached the quarter finals of the FA Vase run in 2005-2006. The area is also home to a successful amateur jousting team, which became the first team to win successive Eastern League titles in 2001.
Located in Suffolk, Newmarket has a railway station which runs on the Cambridge to Bury St. Edmunds to Ipswich line, allowing tourists and locals to get to and from other parts of the country with ease.
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COVID-19 Updates Vaccine Information Read On... Coronavirus COVID-19 Updates Read On...
The pronouncing of a judgment in a case. As an example, the judge adjudicates a case when the judge decides whether the allegations in the petition are true or not.
A hearing at which one is advised of the charges that have been filed in one's interest, is advised of one's rights, and is offered an opportunity to remain silent or to admit or deny the charges.
A person who is under 17 years of age; or a person under 21 years of age who committed an act of delinquency before reaching 17 years and who has been placed under supervision by the court or on probation to the court; or a person under 18 years who is alleged to be a deprived child. (See Georgia Code Section 15-11-2)
Delinquent Act
An act that is designated a crime; an act of disobeying the terms of supervision contained in a court order directed to a child who has been adjudged to have committed a delinquent act. (See Georgia Code Section 15-11-2)
Delinquent Child
A child who has committed a delinquent act and is in need of treatment or rehabilitation or supervision. (See Georgia Code Section 15-11-2)
Detention / Probable Cause Hearing
A detention / probable cause hearing is held to determine whether probable cause exists for the presenting charges. If probable cause is found, the decision is made as to whether the youth continues to be detained or released into the community.
Deprived Child
One who is without proper parental care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for one's physical, mental or emotional health or morals; or one who has been placed for care or adoption in violation of law; or one who has been abandoned by parents or other legal custodian; or one who is without a parent, guardian, or custodian. (See Georgia Code Section 15-11-2)
Designated Felony
A list of particularly egregious offenses that may result in incarceration of a child for up to five years. (See Georgia Code Section 15-11-37)
A place of confinement for juvenile offenders. In Georgia the places of detention are operated by the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice.
Deciding what to do about a case that has been adjudicated. In an adult criminal court the equivalent is a sentencing hearing.
A formal written document that sets out the allegations of one party to a case against another. (See Georgia Code Section 15-11-25)
All deprived children, unruly children, and first offender delinquent children (except designated felons) have a right to limited confidentiality of their records. The public has access to the complaint, petition, and dispositional order of any child who has been previously adjudicated delinquent and commits a second delinquent offense, or of any child who is charged with a designated felony.
Taking Into Custody
To deprive a person of liberty by legal authority. Children are not arrested, but they may be taken into custody, which is also known as being detained.
These definitions were taken from the Cobb County Juvenile Court.
Child Deprivation Cases
Juvenile Delinquency Cases
Monthly Court Schedule
Status Offenders
Traffic Jurisdiction
Family Dependency Treatment Court
Athens-Clarke County Unified Government
Athens, Georgia 30603
Department & Staff Contacts
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Disparities and Abuse of Force in Minneapolis Can Change
July 13, 2015 - 12:00am
News sites like the Washington Post; The Guardian have started a formal tracking of people killed by police around the U.S. These databases are cropping up amidst general outcries against police brutality and discrimination against people of color. We know there is pervasive disparity in policing in Minneapolis, so we wanted to localize the discussion to talk about whether Minneapolis has the potential to erupt in protests similar to Baltimore or Ferguson after the deaths of people like Freddie Gray and Michael Brown.
During the first panel discussion, in reply to the question of whether the demonstrations and unrest that took place in Ferguson after Brown’s death could happen in Minneapolis, at least three of the panelists responded with an emphatic “absolutely”.
Nekima Levy-Pounds, a law professor and president of the Minneapolis NAACP, was one of these. “I know people don’t want to hear it,” she said. “But the reasons it happened in Ferguson are already in place here, such as lack of equal employment opportunities, over-policing in communities and too many minorities in jail compared to their population in the state.” Hennepin County’s chief public defender, Mary Moriarty, agreed with her, finding fault in implicit bias, unfair bail requirements and a culture where minorities almost expect they will be arrested at some point in their life.
On the other hand, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman argued that though the local justice system has some faults, it is not as bad as Ferguson, where officers were using citations as a huge money generator for the city. Keynote speaker Mark Kappelhoff, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice's civil rights division, also brought a more hopeful tone to the discussion stating that while “some say we are at a point of crisis, I call it an unprecedented opportunity to build back trust.”
The second panel moved on to debate solutions to rectify disparities and abuse of force. Topics that arose included possibilities of community policing and expunging criminal records to make it easier for people to get housing and jobs.
Minneapolis has been announced as one of six pilot cities for the $4.75 million National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, a strategy to reduce bias in the police-community. We are optimistic that this program, coupled with community engagement, activism and support from organizations like the ACLU will help to finally make Minneapolis more just and fair for everyone. Together we can make change.
Watch the full discussion here.
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ACLU-MN Releases Study to Sharply Reduce Mass Incarceration
Lynette Kalsnes, lkalsnes@aclu-mn.org; o: 612.274-7785; c: 612.270.8531
MINNEAPOLIS – The American Civil Liberties Union has completed a comprehensive study on mass incarceration in the state — and what actions we can take to dramatically reduce it. Were Minnesota to follow the reforms outlined in the “Blueprint for Smart Justice Minnesota,” by 2025 the state could have 5,484 fewer people in prison, saving more than $41 million dollars that could be spent on schools, roads, and other services that build communities.
Minnesotans take great pride in having one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country, but our justice system is far from perfect. While the national state imprisonment rate dropped by 7 percent between 2000 and 2016, Minnesota’s imprisonment rate spiked by a staggering 51 percent. The study is a two-year partnership between the ACLU and the Urban Institute.
Violations of probation play a big role in Minnesota’s swollen prison population. In 2018, two in five prison admissions were returns from supervision, and the vast majority of that group – 88 percent – had only violated the conditions of probation or supervision. That means people had to go back to prison for something as minor as missing a meeting – not for a new offense.
That same year, one in five people in prison were there for drug offenses – the most common charge. Minnesota also keeps increasing the number of offenses considered felonies. Between 2001 and 2017, the number of people sent to prison for a felony jumped 69 percent, mostly due to drug offenses, which more than doubled over that period.
Unsurprisingly, Minnesota’s incarceration crisis has had a particularly severe impact on people of color. In 2017, Black Minnesotans accounted for only 5.6 percent of the state’s adult population but 34 percent of its prison population. The numbers are similarly troubling for Native Americans, who are imprisoned at nearly 14 times the rate of white adults.
But it doesn’t have to be this way: The ACLU has identified several actions Minnesota can take to reduce the high human and financial costs of mass incarceration. These recommendations include measures the ACLU of Minnesota is actively rallying for, including:
Full legalization of marijuana, particularly given the known racial disparities in the policing of possession.
Eliminating cash bail across offenses and limiting pretrial detention to the rare case where a person poses a serious, clear threat to others.
Capping probation terms: Lawmakers should pass legislation to cap probation terms and expressly prohibit probation from being extended based on wealth-based conditions such as the ability to pay fines, fees and restitution.
Reduce probation revocations: Minnesota lawmakers should pass legislation to prohibit incarceration as a response to any technical violation, regardless of the original offense.
For more information about what’s leading to Minnesota’s incarceration crisis, go to: https://50stateblueprint.aclu.org/states/minnesota/.
pdfSJ-Blueprint-MN.pdf
https://www.aclu-mn.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/sj-blueprint-mn.pdf
ACLU-MN Sues Federal Women's Prison over Handling of COVID-19
Aaryana Malcolm et al. v. M. Starr et al.
Arnold Baker et al. v. Minnesota Department of Corrections
ACLU-MN Files Lawsuit to Protect People in Minnesota Prisons from...
The Legal Rights Center and ACLU of Minnesota Demand Immediate...
ACLU-MN & 34 Organizations Ask Governor to Order Release of Inmates...
Black People Five Times More Likely to Get Arrested for Marijuana...
Foster et al. v. Minnesota Department of Corrections et al.
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One small grain of moon dust, one giant leap for lunar studies
by Advanced Science News | Feb 10, 2020
New technique for analyzing Moon rocks lets scientists study them atom by atom.
Back in 1972, NASA sent their last team of astronauts to the Moon in the Apollo 17 mission. These astronauts brought some of the Moon back to Earth so scientists could continue to study lunar soil in their labs. Since we haven’t returned to the Moon in almost 50 years, every lunar sample is precious. We need to make them count for researchers now and in the future. In a new study in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, scientists found a new way to analyze the chemistry of the Moon’s soil using a single grain of dust. Their technique can help us learn more about conditions on the surface of the Moon and formation of precious resources like water and helium there.
“We’re analyzing rocks from space, atom by atom,” says Jennika Greer, the paper’s first author and a PhD student at the Field Museum and University of Chicago. ” It’s the first time a lunar sample has been studied like this. We’re using a technique many geologists haven’t even heard of.
“We can apply this technique to samples no one has studied,” Philipp Heck, a curator at the Field Museum, associate professor at the University of Chicago, and co-author of the paper, adds. “You’re almost guaranteed to find something new or unexpected. This technique has such high sensitivity and resolution, you find things you wouldn’t find otherwise and only use up a small bit of the sample.”
The technique is called atom probe tomography (APT), and it’s normally used by materials scientists working to improve industrial processes like making steel and nanowires. But its ability to analyze tiny amounts of materials makes it a good candidate for studying lunar samples. The Apollo 17 sample contains 111 kilograms (245 pounds) of lunar rocks and soil–the grand scheme of things, not a whole lot, so researchers have to use it wisely. Greer’s analysis only required one single grain of soil, about as wide as a human hair. In that tiny grain, she identified products of space weathering, pure iron, water and helium, that formed through the interactions of the lunar soil with the space environment. Extracting these precious resources from lunar soil could help future astronauts sustain their activities on the Moon.
To study the tiny grain, Greer used a focused beam of charged atoms to carve a tiny, super-sharp tip into its surface. This tip was only a few hundred atoms wide–for comparison, a sheet of paper is hundreds of thousands of atoms thick. “We can use the expression nanocarpentry,” says Philipp Heck. “Like a carpenter shapes wood, we do it at the nanoscale to minerals.”
Once the sample was inside the atom probe at Northwestern University, Greer zapped it with a laser to knock atoms off one by one. As the atoms flew off the sample, they struck a detector plate. Heavier elements, like iron, take longer to reach the detector than lighter elements, like hydrogen. By measuring the time between the laser firing and the atom striking the detector, the instrument is able to determine the type of atom at that position and its charge. Finally, Greer reconstructed the data in three dimensions, using a color-coded point for each atom and molecule to make a nanoscale 3D map of the Moon dust.
It’s the first time scientists can see both the type of atoms and their exact location in a speck of lunar soil. While APT is a well-known technique in material science, nobody had ever tried using it for lunar samples before. Greer and Heck encourage other cosmochemists to try it out. “It’s great for comprehensively characterizing small volumes of precious samples,” Greer says. “We have these really exciting missions like Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx returning to Earth soon–uncrewed spacecrafts collecting tiny pieces of asteroids. This is a technique that should definitely be applied to what they bring back because it uses so little material but provides so much information.”
Studying soil from the moon’s surface gives scientists insight into an important force within our Solar System: space weathering. Space is a harsh environment, with tiny meteorites, streams of particles coming off the Sun, and radiation in the form of solar and cosmic rays. While Earth’s atmosphere protects us from space weathering, other bodies like the Moon and asteroids don’t have atmospheres. As a result, the soil on the Moon’s surface has undergone changes caused by space weathering, making it fundamentally different from the rock that the rest of the Moon is composed of. It’s kind of like a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone: the outer surface doesn’t match what’s inside. With APT, scientists can look for differences between space weathered surfaces and unexposed moon dirt in a way that no other method can. By understanding the kinds of processes that make these differences happen, they can more accurately predict what’s just under the surface of moons and asteroids that are too far away to bring to Earth.
Because Greer’s study used a nanosized tip, her original grain of lunar dust is still available for future experiments. This means new generations of scientists can make new discoveries and predictions from the same precious sample. “Fifty years ago, no one anticipated that someone would ever analyze a sample with this technique, and only using a tiny bit of one grain,” Heck states. “Thousands of such grains could be on the glove of an astronaut, and it would be sufficient material for a big study.”
Greer and Heck emphasize the need for missions where astronauts bring back physical samples because of the variety of terrains in outer space. “If you only analyze space weathering from the one place on the Moon, it’s like only analyzing weathering on Earth in one mountain range,” Greer says. We need to go to other places and objects to understand space weathering in the same way we need to check out different places on Earth like the sand in deserts and outcrops in mountain ranges on Earth.”
We don’t yet know what surprises we might find from space weathering. “It’s important to understand these materials in the lab so we understand what we’re seeing when we look through a telescope,” Greer says. “Because of something like this, we understand what the environment is like on the Moon. It goes way beyond what astronauts are able to tell us as they walk on the Moon. This little grain preserves millions of years of history.
The results from this study convinced NASA to fund the Field Museum and Northwestern team and colleagues from Purdue for the next three years to study different types of lunar dust with APT to quantify its water content and to study other aspects of space weathering.
Research article available at: J. Greer, et al. Meteorics and Planetary Science, 2020, doi.org/10.1111/maps.13443
Provided by the Field Museum
Pioneers in Science: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Pluto's beating heart drives icy winds
Better than reality: NASA scientists tap virtual reality to make a scientific discovery
Pioneers in Science: Katherine Johnson
Researchers engineer tiny machines that deliver medicine efficiently
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This Japanese Company Believes That Renting Space on Armpits Is the Next Great Ad Frontier
Advertising keeps getting wackier
Quite the conversation starter. Wakino Ad Company
Another sweltering subway commute. You don’t notice the people coming and going from your train, or the ads peppering the inside of the car. You’ve conditioned yourself to block it all out. At the next stop, a gaggle of people walks in. Arms go up to hold on to a strap and, BOOM, you’re staring at an ad. In a woman’s armpit. You’re noticing advertising now, aren’t you? And it’s all courtesy of a company in Japan that’s selling ad space on the armpits of young models.
Wakino Ad Company (“Waki” is Japanese for “armpit”) is relatively new and it’s unclear how well stickers placed on armpits will be received or even revealed in the first place. Holding a handrail on the subway or stretching arms skyward makes sense but it doesn’t seem like there are too many options to get some armpit ad impressions in. Additionally, it’s not known whether the Japanese models will be more like brand ambassadors or simply billboards.
This isn’t the first time body parts have been used to promote products in the country. In 2013, young women were seen with stickers on their thighs supporting just about anything including the film Ted and a new release from Green Day. According to the Guardian, more than 3,000 registered to put the ads on their legs.
Wakino’s endeavor is backed by beauty company Liberta which, among its products, markets armpit creams. Per Sora News, Wakino has its first paying customer in Seishin Biyo Clinic, which is using armpit ads to promote its underarm hair removal service. Wakino is currently recruiting models (both men and women) and running a national armpit beauty contest as well.
Though you might shake your head about this quirky tactic, Ted Wright, founder of Atlanta-based word of mouth marketing firm Fizz thinks that Wakino may be on to something.
“I think it’s a great idea if you’re the first brand to do it,” he said. “People won’t care when you’re the third to do it, though.”
Where Wright sees an ample opportunity past the novelty of ads on armpits is in the ability to talk about the products being promoted. In his company’s experience, he notes that the average conversation—people sharing a brand story—is about 32 seconds in the U.S. By engaging the people wearing the ads, there is likely more bang for the investment buck. Rentals of the armpit space start at about 10,000 Japanese Yen (around $90 per hour), a rate that Wright feels is a little high considering that skilled brand representatives in this country engage with the public for around $50 per hour.
“You have to train people to talk about your product for this to work well,” said Wright. “All marketing should be interesting, relevant, authentic and driving conversation. Nobody has seen an armpit ad before, and it will likely make people stop and ask questions.”
Though the practice is starting in Japan, Wright thinks that there is a perfect place for this kind of advertising in the United States and, specifically, New York.
“(New York state governor candidate) Cynthia Nixon should do this,” enthused Wright, noting that New York City’s subway has become a major issue in her campaign. “There could be hundreds of Cynthia Nixon conversations per hour on the subway, and she’s definitely worth talking about.”
Doug Zanger
@zanger doug.zanger@adweek.com Doug Zanger is a senior editor, agencies at Adweek, focusing on creativity and agencies.
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Kenan Thompson, Hasan Minhaj Will Be Featured at 2020 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
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By A.J. Katz on Feb. 18, 2020 - 8:53 AM Comment
The 2020 White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be held on April 25 at the Washington Hilton in our Nation’s Capital, will feature Kenan Thompson as host and Hasan Minhaj as the featured entertainer.
This is a return to normalcy for the event, as the White House Correspondents’ Association last year went without an entertainer (usually a comedian) — after years of tradition — and instead chose Ron Chernow, the historian.
For the third year in a row, Pres. Trump did not attend the event, even though his predecessors have made a point of making the event, drawing political media, administration officials and celebrities.
Thompson is the longest serving cast member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, (and to millennial readers of this site, a Nickelodeon legend), and Minhaj, host of Netflix’s Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, was the entertainer at the 2017 dinner.
“Kenan and Hasan are two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America. I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy,” ABC News’ chief White House correspondent and WHCA president Jonathan Karl, said in a statement. “We’re looking forward to a lively evening honoring the most important political journalism of the past year.”
Director, Subscription Growth and Lifecycle MarketingADWEEKNY, New York
Director of StrategyBig CommunicationsBirmingham, Alabama
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2 critically injured in shooting at SW Atlanta gas station
Two men were shot Friday evening while walking out of a gas station in southwest Atlanta.
News | Sept 12, 2020
By Shaddi Abusaid, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two men were critically injured Friday evening after being shot while leaving a southwest Atlanta gas station, police said.
Officers responded to the BP in the 400 block of Windsor Street about 11:30 p.m., Atlanta police spokeswoman Marla Jean Rooker said. They arrived to find two men with gunshot wounds in the parking lot of the convenience store.
“Officers determined the victims were shot while walking out of the gas station,” Rooker said, adding that investigators believe the men were targeted in the attack.
Both victims were taken to the hospital in critical condition, and were described as stable on Saturday.
Whoever fired the shots fled the scene before officers arrived, authorities said, and police have not released the descriptions of any suspects in the case.
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Alabama Pioneers Honored ⁄ Biographies ⁄ Genealogy Information
Photograph of Gen. Basil Duke ca. 1860 who was the brother-in-law of Gen. John Hunt Morgan & others
August 25, 2019 August 7, 2019 by Donna R Causey
(Below are some photographs with information I discovered while doing some research that might be beneficial to other researchers. Subscribe to the daily email below to see all photographs and new posts on Alabama Pioneers)
Below is a photograph of Gen. Basil Duke who was the brother-in-law of Gen. John Hunt Morgan.
Basil Wilson Duke (1838-1916) Does not appear to be in uniform in this photo. Served as a volunteer scout in Arkansas at the outbreak of war. In 1861 he joined the Lexington Rifles (led by his brother-in-law, John Hunt Morgan) and served as a private and later as a second lieutenant. After promoting through the grades, Duke was promoted to brigadier-general in September 1864. Major campaigns and battles include Shiloh and numerous cavalry brigade in eastern Kentucky and western Virginia. After the war, he practiced law in Lexington, Kentucky. He died in New York City in September 1916 and is buried in Lexington. Sources: Boatner, Mark M. The Civil War Dictionary New York: Vintage Books, 1988. Davis, William C., ed. The Confederate General. Vol. 2. National Historical Society. 1991. Q138
Ben McCulloch (1811 – 1862) Not in uniform in photograph. Veteran of the Texas War of Independence and the Mexican War. Commissioned as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in May 1861. Major campaigns and battles include Wilson’s Creek and Pea Ridge. Killed in action at Pea Ridge in March 1862 and buried in Austin, Texas. Sources: Boatner, Mark, M. The Civil War Dictionary Vintage Books, 1988. Davis, William C., ed. The Confederate General, Vol. 4. National Historical Society, 1991. Q178
Benjamin Harrison Sapp, C.S.A. Sapp served as a captain in Company F of the 29th Alabama Infantry, C. S. A. Q4323
Faith and Courage: 2nd edition -A Novel of Colonial America (Tapestry of Love Book 2): Book 2 in Tapestry of Love Series
Bertram T. Clayton (1862-1918) White Studio, New York – Clayton’s father, Henry De Lamar Clayton, was a Confederate brigadier-general. During World War I, Bertram served as a colonel. He was killed by an enemy air bomb on May 30, 1918. Additional information is available in the World War I Gold Star Database: Q2930
ALABAMA DEATHS FROM WW I
Brigadier General Archibald Gracie, C.S.A (1832-1864) E. & H. T. Anthony, New York. Gracie was killed at Petersburg, Virginia, in December 1864 Q9445
See historical books by Donna R. Causey
ALABAMA FOOTPRINTS Pioneers: Lost & Forgotten Stories – Alabama Footprints Pioneers continues the series with lost and forgotten stories of the earliest Alabama pioneers. Stories include; The Yazoo land fraud; daily life as an Alabama pioneer; the capture and arrest of Vice-president Aaron Burr; the early life of William Barrett Travis, hero of the Alamo; Description of Native Americans of early Alabama including the visit by Tecumseh; Treaties and building the first roads in Alabama.
ALABAMA FOOTPRINTS Pioneers: Lost & Forgotten Stories (Volume 3) (Paperback)
By (author): Causey, Donna R
New From: $14.97 In Stock
About Donna R Causey
Donna R. Causey, resident of Alabama, was a teacher in the public school system for twenty years. When she retired, Donna found time to focus on her lifetime passion for historical writing. She developed the websites www.alabamapioneers and www.daysgoneby.me All her books can be purchased at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. She has authored numerous genealogy books. RIBBON OF LOVE: A Novel Of Colonial America (TAPESTRY OF LOVE) is her first novel in the Tapestry of Love about her family where she uses actual characters, facts, dates and places to create a story about life as it might have happened in colonial Virginia. Faith and Courage: Tapestry of Love (Volume 2) is the second book and the third FreeHearts: A Novel of Colonial America (Book 3 in the Tapestry of Love Series) Discordance: The Cottinghams (Volume 1) is the continuation of the story. . For a complete list of books, visit Donna R Causey
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FORGOTTEN PHOTOS: Vintage photographs of soldiers in the Confederacy with links to the…
Confederate veterans - photographs of Admirals and Generals photographs found
Photographs of Greensboro Confederate veterans & generals
PATRON + Names, photos, & records of Alabama Confederate Generals 1861-1865 (G - K)
PATRON + Names, photos, & records of Alabama Confederate Generals 1861-1865 (D - F)
PATRON + Names, photos, & records of Alabama Confederate Generals 1861-1865 (A-C)
Portraits of four brigadier-generals from the Civil War with some details of their service
General Sherman wintered in Jackson County, Alabama during the Civil War
TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: These epitaphs for wives reveal the state of the marriage
Photographs of Helen Keller's father and other Confederate soldiers
Tags: 1860's1900'sAlabama historyConfederacyConfederatephotographsWorld War I
Donna R Causey
Biography: Col. Charles Teed Pollard born August 25, 1805 – photograph
PATRON – Decatur had a telephone system, Gulf city would have electric lights again in 1887
Revolutionary War soldiers in Alabama includes a woman – Do you know her name?
June 25, 2019 May 26, 2020
Six more vintage photographs of Captains in the Confederacy at the ADAH
BIOGRAPHY: Thomas Carson McDonald born November 2, 1854 – photograph
Lona Faye Bows August 6, 2015
He is one of my ancestors. Thanks!
BettieBoyd Sullivan August 25, 2018
A collateral connection of my family’s.
More Alabama Pioneers Stories
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Tonic, January 2010
Posted in Press archive
The Woman Behind The Alex Fund. (Psst… It’s Ethan Hawke’s Mom!)
By Kendall Hunter | Monday, January 25, 2010 8:39 AM ET
At the age of 48, the actor’s mom left her career, joined the Peace Corp, moved to Romania — and learned to change lives for a living.
When A Lie Of The Mind is performed next month at The New Group in New York City, proceeds from the show will benefit an organization called The Alex Fund, which is dedicated to helping children and their mothers in Romania.
It’s the first time the play has been revived in Manhattan since the original production, directed by Sam Shepard in 1985 — when it won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critic’s Circle awards for Best New Play. This time around it’s being directed by Actor Ethan Hawke.
So, what’s the connection between the play and The Alex Fund, you ask?
The actor-director’s mother, Leslie Hawke, is Fund’s founder.
When I interviewed Leslie Hawke, she was the second woman I’d spoken to in two weeks who had altered her life in a single moment. The decision of both women was spontaneous, for the most part, yet not without intellect. Nor, of course, without the wisdom of a life lived (so far).
Both were, at the time, at about mid life. And both, when posed a question, gave answers that changed the direction of their lives. One was asked to teach English to a Tibetan in India (see Finding The Rhythm Of Family); the other, who was staying in Romania, was asked what was going to happen to her development programs when she left?
Hawke’s answer to that question took her by surprise: “I’m not leaving.”
At the age of 48, Leslie Hawke left her career behind, joined the Peace Corp, and was sent to Romania. During her stint with the corp, she was pitching a proposal to a USAID official — a program to make it possible for children to spend their days in school instead of on the street begging. “She thought my plan was impractical and naïve and she made a remark that rankled me,” Hawke says, recalling the official’s words. “‘Un-huh,’ she said, ‘and then what happens to the program when you leave?’”
It was December 2000 and Hawke had been in Romania for 11 months. “My response, partly involuntary and partly contrarian, was ‘I’m not going to leave,'” Hawke recalls. “I remember being surprised at my own audacity. It wasn’t something I had given much thought until she challenged me, but it was the only answer that made any sense”.
‘If you died tomorrow…’
For years Hawke had worked as an executive for an Internet start-up company in New York City. During the height of the IT craze it sold to a publishing conglomerate and her interest began to fizzle. It wasn’t until 1999 however, with news of the death of JFK Jr., that she seriously began to question the direction her life was taking. (That and a going-nowhere relationship). On her foundation’s website she explains, “I said to myself, ‘If you died tomorrow, wouldn’t you be embarrassed that this is what you were doing with your life?’ JFK Jr.’s death made me think of JFK — and the Peace Corps. So when I got to work that morning, I actually contacted the Peace Corps.”
With her son’s encouragement, she was soon on her way to volunteer in Bacau, Romania.
The program Hawke pitched to the USAID official was inspired by one boy whom she had come across early on in her volunteer service. “It all started with Alex. In the first weeks I was at my Peace Corps assignment I had a lot of time on my hands to look around at the workings of a society that was different from mine, but not that different. It was obviously a broken and largely dysfunctional society – but it was not a third world country. Except for this one thing: there were lots of small children sitting alone or in pairs on the sidewalk, begging to the passers-by in front of modern banks and beautiful churches.”
Alexandru was a young boy Hawke rescued from the streets soon after starting work in Romania. There is a law that if children don’t go to school for two years, they become ineligible to attend school at all; most kids she saw begging on the street, including Alex, were not allowed in school. However, it’s a complicated situation, and Hawke came to realize the importance of helping the mothers of these children too, if they were to have any chance at all for a better life.
And so, The Alex Fund was born. It’s primary beneficiary is the Fiecare Copil in Scoala or “Every Child in School Program.” It’s managed by an umbrella organization called Ovidiu Rom Asociatia created by both Hawke and a teacher by the name of Maria Gheorghiu, and is based on the Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing and Able program in New York City. Its mission is to promote self-sufficiency among marginalized people through education, job training and community development. To date, the organization has directly reached over 5,000 disadvantaged children with its services.
A Mother by Example
“Somebody once told me my resume looked like a Jackson Pollock painting,” Hawke tells Tonic. “My application to the Peace Corps was the first time it all made sense! And indeed it all has served me well: the years in sales, the years spent in Editorial Acquisitions, the one year I was a 6th grade teacher in Trenton, the church youth group I led, the 3 years in non-profit development — everything was useful in starting up an NGO in Eastern European.”
Naturally, her famous son has also benefited from his mother’s capricious choices in life, and he speaks admirably of her. “One way to raise your children is to try to do things by the book, something my mother never seemed too concerned about,” he tells Tonic. “Another way is to lead by example. My mother is a terrific example for my kids, especially my daughters, by being utterly independent and working very hard for something she deeply cares about.”
“It makes me feel good to help people,” his mother says. “For many years I worked in business because it afforded me a nice lifestyle and allowed me to send my son to good schools, but I always felt ambivalent about spending my life that way. Lucky for me, Ethan became self-sufficient at a relatively early age (18) and that gave me the financial freedom to consider doing something different with my life. I am very fortunate to have found work that makes me feel useful and productive.”
Ethan supports his mother by being on the board of her foundation. A Lie Of The Mind should help bring attention to the cause in a big way.
You can help the children of Romania by coming out for the event on February 19th. The performance is at 8pm, followed by a reception at the theater with the actors and director.
Tickets are $150.00. For reservations contact Wendy Kahn at alex@alexfund.org or 212.865.7611. Tickets can also be purchased on the website at alexfund.org.
Photos courtesy Shea Roggio
« American International School of Bucharest Thank you for your support »
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Solitary pulmonary nodules in chest X-ray and CT: Risk factors in a clinical population
By Staff News Brief
A solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) detected on chest X-ray should be considered a potential alert to high-risk of developing lung cancer within five years, even in patients who are lifelong non-smokers, according to a study published online September 11, 2019 in PLoS One.
The study by Spanish researchers of 893 patients with a SPN revealed that the relative risk of lung cancer diagnosis was higher in women than men, and that factors associated with malignancy, such as COPD and a smoking history, were not significantly associated with lung cancer diagnosis or death.
The clinical population-based study looked at more than 25,000 patients who had a chest radiograph or chest computed tomography (CT) scan at the Peset Hospital in Valencia and San Juan Hospital in San Juan de Alicante during a two-year period starting in 2010. Ninety-one percent had a chest X-ray as their first imaging examination. None of the CT scans were performed for lung cancer screening. Over the next five years, 15% of patients with an SPN and 2% without developed lung cancer.
The authors sought to determine the factors associated with lung cancer diagnosis and mortality after an SPN is detected in routine clinical practice. Eight radiologists reviewed the 893 imaging cases in which an SPN between 3 and 30 mm had been detected. The radiologists recorded nodule size, shape, location, and nodule consistency for the 741 patients who underwent CT. The researchers also recorded smoking history, presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and prior malignancies for each patient.
Their analysis showed that women with an SPN had a lung cancer rate of 17.67 per 1,000 person-years, compared to 1.38 without an SPN; for men, the lung cancer rate was 32.35 and 6.22 per 1,000 person-years respectively. The researchers found that lung cancer patients without an SPN had a lower mortality rate, while smoking history affected mortality in men but was not significantly associated with mortality among women.
Lung cancer risk, as expected, was higher in patients with an SPN and a history of smoking, COPD, and were older. Twice as many male smokers with an SPN were diagnosed with lung cancer than women (21% compared to 10%), but the percentage of women nonsmokers who developed lung cancer was dramatically higher than male nonsmokers: 13% compared to 2%. Also, while COPD and a smoking history were associated with significant lung cancer risk in men with an SPN, the same was not true for women.
Among patients whose SPN was detected on chest CT, cancer risk was higher in both men and women, but twice as many female nonsmokers than male developed lung cancer: 12% versus 6%.
With respect to imaging characteristics, as nodule size increased on chest X-ray, lung cancer risk also increased: 19% for nodules between 12 mm and 28 mm, and 46% for nodules over 28 mm. Sixty percent of women and 45% of men with an SPN that had a spiculated border developed lung cancer. Men with a nodule in the upper lobes had a higher lung cancer risk, but this was not true for women.
On CT, the median SPN diameter of patients who developed lung cancer was 17 mm compared to 9 mm among those who did not. Men who developed lung cancer had much larger median SPN diameters than women: 19 mm versus 13 mm. Forty-eight percent of all patients with an SPN with a speculated border also developed lung cancer.
“With these findings, all guidelines for SPN management should include factors associated with malignancy for men and women separately. Or, the sex of a patient needs to be included as a lung cancer predictor in models,” wrote the authors.
Chilet-Rosell E, Parker LA, Hernández-Aguado I, et al. The determinants of lung cancer after detecting a solitary pulmonary nodule are different in men and women, both both chest radiograph and CT. PLoS One. 14(9):e0221134. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221134.
Solitary pulmonary nodules in chest X-ray and CT: Risk factors in a clinical population. Appl Radiol.
By Staff News Brief| October 18, 2019
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Saudi Arabia: Alleged child offenders face execution, man faces beheading and crucifixion
24 Jun 2009, 12:00am
* Crucifixion means decapitated body and head to be displayed on pole in public
* One man’s sentence increased from five years to 20 years to death
Amnesty International has issued urgent appeals for five young people in Saudi Arabia who all face imminent execution in the Kingdom.
One of these is Muhammad Basheer al-Ramaly, a 22-year-old man who has been sentenced to death - by beheading - in the northern Saudi city of Hail. Reports indicate that the sentence also specifies that Muhammad is to be crucified, meaning that after beheading his decapitated body and head will be placed on a pole in a public square to act as a “deterrent”.
Muhammad was convicted by the Hail General Court of the kidnapping and rape of four people in February. Little is known about his trial, but death sentences in Saudi Arabia are invariably imposed after unfair trials carried out in secret. He did not have access to a lawyer during his trial and there are reports that he may be suffering from a psychological disorder.
The other people at risk of imminent execution are four Iraqi nationals now aged between 20 and 22, but reportedly aged between 15 and 18 at the time of their arrests. The four - Raid Halassa Sakit (20), Abbas Fadil Abbas (20), Othman Ali (20) and Aqil Matsher (22) - were sentenced to death (after unfair trials) despite that fact that international law strictly forbids capital punishment in the case of those accused of crimes while aged below 18 years.
Very little is know about the cases of Abbas, Othman and Aqil, but it is known that Raid Halassa Sakit was arrested in the town of Rafha in 2005 before being charged with drugs offences and of links with Iraqi armed groups. Raid was allegedly tortured with electric shocks into making a “confession” which he signed even though he is illiterate. He was tried in secret with no legal assistance and originally sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, which was later increased to 20 years before again being increased to a death sentence.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:
“These cases are shocking even by Saudi standards.
To sentence anyone to death after a secret and unfair trial would be appalling enough - but to sentence four alleged child offenders to death by beheading and another young man to crucifixion is a complete abomination.
“Even supporters of capital punishment within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia ought to be troubled by these sentences and I appeal to the Saudi authorities to look again at these sentences which risk bringing shame on the country.”
Saudi Arabia is one of the heaviest users of the death penalty in the world, last year executing at least 102 people - the third highest number globally, behind only China and Iran. So far this year at least 44 people have been executed.
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Dissent still under attack in post-Mubarak Egypt
By Diana Eltahawy
8 May 2013, 11:20 UTC
By Diana Eltahawy, Egypt Researcher at Amnesty International
While the world is celebrating the 20th World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, the crackdown on freedom of speech and dissent continues unabated in post-Mubarak Egypt.
Instead of drawing from the lessons of the fallen President, Hosni Mubarak, and accepting criticism and opposition as a healthy and natural outcome of the “25 January Revolution”, Egyptian authorities are lashing out against critics. Reminiscent of the past, the official discourse seeks to discredit opponents as being “thugs” and playing into the hands of Egypt’s enemies conspiring to destroy the country.
In recent months, there has been a notable increase in judicial harassment of opposition activists, bloggers, comedians, protesters, and others. News about fresh charges of insulting President Mohamed Morsi or other officials, or of “defaming” religion – as well as sweeping arrests of opposition protesters – are now the norm.
The government claims that it is not behind most complaints, brought by “concerned” citizens whose sensibilities are offended by others insulting the President or “heavenly religions”. What the authorities fail to mention is that it is up to the public prosecution to drop the complaints or refer cases to trial.
The latest opposition activist to be swept up is 24-year-old Ahmed Douma. On 30 April, he went to the office of the public prosecution in Tanta, 90km north of Cairo, for questioning in relation to charges of insulting the President and spreading false news. The charges are based on his appearance on a television programme on 25 February describing President Morsi as a “killer” for his alleged role in killing opposition protesters. Ahmed Douma was taken away from the prosecution’s office in an armoured vehicle without being given the chance to inform his lawyers and wife that he was being detained. They were not told of his exact whereabouts until one of his lawyers went back to the prosecution’s office in Tanta on 2 May to inquire about his fate. This violates Egypt’s laws, not to mention international standards.
On 4 May, blogger Ahmed Anwar and opposition activist Hassan Mostafa are facing trial in two separate cases, which similarly attempt to punish and silence government critics. Ahmed Anwar is facing trial on charges of “insulting the Ministry of Interior” for posting a comical video online, in which he pokes fun at the police forces. Commenting on his predicament, Ahmed Anwar told Amnesty International: “It’s ironic that 3 May is World Press Freedom Day and I’m facing trial the next day just for posting a video.” Hassan Mostafa, who was previously detained during Mubarak’s rule in relation to protests against emergency laws, has been sentenced to two years in prison on charges of insulting and allegedly slapping a public prosecutor on 12 March in a case marred by procedural irregularities and the refusal of the court to hear any defence witness. His appeal hearing will take place in Alexandria on 4 May.
Some of the tactics used by the Egyptian authorities bring to light how little has changed since the fall of President Mubarak in early 2011. Lawyers told Amnesty International that their 16-year-old client was taken from his home at dawn on 25 April by a group of men – some wearing civilian clothes – without explaining to his distraught mother where they would take him and why he was being arrested. Thirty-six hours passed before he was referred to the State Security Emergency Prosecution – another remnant of the old government – a flagrant violation of the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure. He is accused of belonging to the Black Block group, which allegedly condones a violent response against state violence. According to his lawyers, despite his age, he has been held with adults and beaten in custody.
Against the backdrop of these human rights violations, the authorities are attempting to further suffocate civil society, including human rights NGOs that played a crucial role in reporting state abuses before, during and after the “25 January Revolution”. The ruling Freedom and Justice Party is trying to push legislation through the Shura Council, Egypt’s upper house of parliament, which risks to severely impede the ability of independent NGOs, including internationals ones, to carry out their work documenting and denouncing human rights violations.
In another blow to freedom of expression and information, Egypt’s leading English-language newspaper, Egypt Independent, has been shut down by its parent company’s new CEO, who held a similar position in Egypt’s leading state paper Al Ahram at the end of Mubarak’s rule. Its final issue came out online on 24 April after being banned from going to press.
President Morsi’s government seems to have forgotten that it was precisely freedom of expression and dissent that facilitated its ascent to power. However, the wall of fear has been broken long ago and the government’s attempts to silence opposing voices have triggered the opposite effect, leading to further condemnation at home and abroad.
More face charges in Egypt's escalating crackdown on free speech and dissent (News story, 3 April 2013)
41 human rights wins to celebrate right now
ONE YEAR TOO LONG: BURUNDIANS ARBITRARILY DETAINED FOR THEIR JOURNALISM
Saudi Arabia: Release Women Human Rights Defenders Immediately!
Amnesty's experts
Human Rights In The Middle East And North Africa
Egypt: Historic opportunity for international community to halt crackdown on human rights movement
Egypt: Chilling rise in executions reveals depth of human rights crisis
Tunisia: 10 years on, victims are still awaiting justice
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Lebanon: New cabinet must prioritize human rights
11 February 2019, 15:05 UTC
Updated: 11 February 2019, 15:05 UTC
With the newly formed Lebanese government setting its agenda focused on the economy and the fight against corruption, the authorities must prioritize human rights and address the issues that are essential to ensuring a more just and equitable future for the people in the country, said Amnesty International.
For the first time in years, Lebanon finally has an elected parliament and a cabinet. It is high time decision-makers engage in meaningful reforms prioritizing the public interest. Authorities have a responsibility to respect, protect and the fulfil the human rights of the people in the country and ensure a more just and equitable future for everyone
Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Director of Research
“For too long, people have suffered the consequences of political deadlock and a lack of accountability, which in turn have contributed to ongoing violations of human rights, including the economic and social rights of the vast majority of the population,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Director of Research.
Amnesty International has identified nine core issues which are essential to tackling human rights violations in Lebanon. These include upholding the rights of women, LGBTQI people, refugees and migrant domestic workers, protecting freedom of expression and abolishing the death penalty.
“For the first time in years, Lebanon finally has an elected parliament and a cabinet. It is high time decision-makers engage in meaningful reforms prioritizing the public interest. Authorities have a responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of the people in the country and ensure a more just and equitable future for everyone,” said Lynn Maalouf.
* Full statement here and video
Justice Systems
Rohingya refugees need protection of their rights now more than ever
Sri Lanka: Collapse of Joseph Pararajasingham murder case a failure of justice
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Open Section hospitality services (1)
owner of clubs or casinos (1)
Open Section composition (2)
Open Section music industry (1)
promoter or impresario (1)
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popular singer (1)
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songwriter x
Social welfare and reform x
Denver, John (1943-1997), singer, songwriter, and environmental activist
Stacey Hamilton
Denver, John (31 December 1943–12 October 1997), singer, songwriter, and environmental activist, was born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in Roswell, New Mexico, the son of Henry John “Dutch” Deutschendorf, an air force pilot, and Erma Swope Deutschendorf. Dutch Deutschendorf's military career forced the family to move often, and John grew up a shy, self-conscious loner with few friends. He began taking guitar lessons when he was eleven, and in high school he used his natural talent for playing and singing to gain popularity. From 1961 to 1964 he studied architecture at Texas Tech University, but he quit school in his junior year and moved to Los Angeles, where he hoped to devote himself full time to a music career. Taking the name “John Denver,” he began playing at small folk clubs in the area with some success. He became a member of the “Backporch Majority,” which played on the back porch of Ledbetter's, a club owned by Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels, a popular folk group. But folk music was in transition at this time, as electric guitars and drums were more often being used, much to the dismay of traditionalists....
Rose, Billy (1899-1966), songwriter, show business impresario, and philanthropist
William Stephenson
Rose, Billy (06 September 1899–10 February 1966), songwriter, show business impresario, and philanthropist, was born on the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of David Rosenberg, a button salesman, and Fannie Wernick. He was born William Samuel Rosenberg, according to most biographical sources, though one source states he adopted that name in school after being born Samuel Wolf Rosenberg. He grew up in the Bronx and attended public schools there, winning junior high school medals for sprinting and English. Medals and honors were important as proofs of stature and worth to Rose, who never grew taller than five feet three inches. In the High School of Commerce, he became an outstanding student of the Gregg system of shorthand, winning first a citywide competition (1917) and then a national competition (1918). In 1918 he left high school shortly before graduation to become head of the stenographic department of the War Industries Board, headed by ...
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“We can still save them”: wild cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz, 65
August 18, 2018 By Merritt Clifton
Alan Rabinowitz & friends.
The “Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation” was an optimist in a field dominated by doom-and-gloom
NEW YORK CITY––Wild cat conservationist Alan Rabinowitz died of cancer on August 5, 2018 in Manhattan, New York City, after an 18-year struggle that began with a diagnosis of leukemia in 2001 and spanned most of the achievements for which he was best known.
These achievements included cofounding the international wild cat conservation organization Panthera in 2006, underwritten by investor Thomas Kaplan, and starring in the 2015 documentary Tiger Tiger, following Rabinowitz’s efforts to save the Sunderbans, a tidal mangrove swamp along the border of India and Bangladesh. The Sunderbans are believed to be home of the most wild tigers of any habitat left in the world.
First major habitat reserves in Burma
2001 was the same year in which Rabinowitz persuaded the government of Myanmar (formerly called Burma) to set aside the Hukawng Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, the first part of what is now a system of four reserves called the Northern Forest Complex, together protecting wildlife habitat in an area the size of Belgium.
The diagnosis of leukemia left Rabinowitz with what he said in Tiger Tiger were “two choices in my life,” either to “play it very, very safe and sit at home, and maybe prolong my life by a few years and be there for my kids,” daughter Alana and son Alexander, “or be the person who I am, and who makes me feel best, and be the father I want them to know—but maybe cut my life short with them.”
Illustration by Catia Chien from A Boy & A Jaguar, by Alan Rabinowitz (2015).
“Foolish to stay home”
Decided Rabinowitz, as he told Andrea M. Couture of the Christian Science Monitor in July 2002, “It’s very foolish for people to stand on their high horse and stay home.”
Recalled Ashley Yeager, associate editor for The Scientist, “Rabinowitz was born in 1953 in New York City. He stuttered as a child and found it impossible to talk.”
Rabinowitz, as a “target of playground ridicule,” recounted Tibor Krausz in a 2007 Christian Science Monitor profile, “began lifting weights and taking boxing lessons at age 10. Between kindergarten and sixth grade he stopped talking altogether. To people, that is. After school, he’d lock himself in his room and pour his heart out to his pet turtles, hamsters, and gerbils.”
Jaguar at Big Cat Rescue. (Beth Clifton photo)
Promised to use voice to save animals
“I made a promise that if I ever got my voice,” Rabinowitz said, “I’d use it to try to save animals.”
Elaborated Rabinowitz to National Geographic in 2014, “I had very, very bad speech blocks and would spasm and shake, trying to get the words out.”
“To find comfort,” Yeager narrated, “he’d [also] go to the Bronx Zoo, where he’d sit and watch the big cats, one lone jaguar in particular.
“I would go to the bars, wait until nobody was around, and talk to the jaguar—tell it my hopes and dreams, whether it was a bad day at school or how stupid I felt people were because they didn’t try to understand me,” Rabinowitz told Yeager.
George Schaller
As at home, to the turtles, hamsters, and gerbils, Yeager wrote, “He promised the cat that if he could learn to talk, he’d advocate for him and his fellow felines.”
Rabinowitz later told the story in a children’s book, A Boy & A Jaguar (2015), illustrated by Catia Chien.
Bats, raccoons, & George Schaller
Studying biology and chemistry at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) Rabinowitz at last overcame his stutter. Earning his undergraduate degree in 1974, Rabinowitz completed a master’s degree and doctorate in ecology at the University of Tennessee, in 1978 and 1981, respectively.
“He first studied the endangered gray bat, and then raccoons in Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” wrote Yeager.
Through this work Rabinowitz became acquainted with legendary biologist and conservationist George Schaller, then director of international conservation for the New York Zoological Society (renamed the Wildlife Conservation Society in 1992), now a Panthera vice president.
Schaller funded Rabinowitz to study jaguars in Belize, Central America, the beginning of a 30-year tenure for Rabinowitz as a Wildlife Conservation Society researcher, and eventually the beginning of his relationship with his Thai-born wife Salisa.
Salisa Rabinowitz, a Wildlife Conservation Society conservation geneticist from 1992 to 2005, working under director of conservation genetics George Amato, followed Amato when in 2005 he became director of the Center for Conservation Genetics at the American Museum of Natural History.
The Jaguar Corridor. (Beth Clifton collage)
“Rabinowitz’s work in Belize is credited with helping to establish the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary,” Yeager recounted.
Belize became the model
Designated in 1986, the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary project became Rabinowitz’s model for subsequent successes, among them helping to establish the biggest wildlife reserve in Taiwan, set aside to protect clouded leopards; his accomplishments in Myanmar; and persuading governments from Mexico to Argentina to cooperate with Panthera in preserving the Jaguar Corridor, intended to become a chain of jaguar habitat facilitating north/south migration and mixing of what could otherwise become isolated, fragmented populations at risk of losing genetic diversity.
Formerly, Rabinowitz told Elizabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times, “We were giving them [jaguars] nice land to live on when what they needed was an underground railway.”
“Political sense”
“Nobody goes to Belize, or anywhere else, and establishes a reserve — you convince the government to establish it,” George Schaller told The Washington Post. “That takes a certain political sense. It takes passionate people like Alan to be on the ground in these countries, sometimes for several years, to reach the trust of the government and convince them to protect something. And that’s not what you train for as a scientist.”
Rabinowitz detailed the politics and biology of the matter in his 1986 book Jaguar: One Man’s Struggle to Establish the World’s First Jaguar Preserve.
Jaguar. (Panthera photo)
Rabinowitz then revisited what he had learned about jaguar conservation in a controversial New York Times op-ed essay, “Jaguars Don’t Live Here Anymore,” published in January 2010.
Opposed “critical habitat” designation for jaguars
“Earlier this month,” Rabinowitz opened, “the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced it would designate critical habitat for the endangered jaguar in the United States and take the first steps toward mandating a jaguar recovery plan. This is a policy reversal and, on the surface, it may appear to be a victory for the conservation community and for jaguars, the largest wild cats in the Western Hemisphere. But as someone who has studied jaguars for nearly three decades, I can tell you it is nothing less than a slap in the face to good science. What’s more, by changing the rules for animal preservation, it stands to weaken the Endangered Species Act.”
Rabinowitz and other biologists had in 1997 persuaded the Fish & Wildlife Service to add jaguars to the U.S. endangered species list to protect the occasional individuals who sometimes wander across the Mexican border, but jaguars have not been known to breed in the U.S. in nearly 120 years and have rarely been seen even as far as 40 miles north of the border.
Jaguar. (Beth Clifton collage)
“We should help conserve true habitat”
The Fish & Wildlife Service did not protect “critical habitat” in the U.S. for jaguars, Rabinowitz recounted, because no U.S. habitat was more than marginally suitable for sustaining a jaguar population.
Under pressure of lawsuits repeatedly filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, the Fish and Wildlife Service eventually agreed to designate “critical habitat” and to draft a jaguar recovery plan.
“There are better ways to help jaguars,” Rabinowitz concluded. “Rather than demand jaguars return to our country,” even when jaguars themselves show no interest in doing so, “we should help Mexico and other jaguar-range countries conserve the animals’ true habitat.”
Between rounds fought on behalf of jaguars, Rabinowitz took up the cause of tigers.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Tigers “in desperate shape”
“When I started in 1993 or so in Indochina, doing tiger surveys throughout Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam,” Rabinowitz recalled to Lily Huang of Newsweek in 2008, “tigers were in desperate shape. We were dealing with estimates, which I thought were overestimates at the time, of 5,000 to 7,000 tigers left throughout their entire range. Now we know it’s probably half that, at most.”
Working to improve population data on wild cats led Rabinowitz into ever more ambitious efforts on behalf of habitat conservation.
“From his base in Thailand he looked hungrily over the border to Burma,” Peter Popham of The Independent recounted in January 2007. “Kachin was one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. But it remained a closed book to the outside world: the last Western scientist to have a good look at it was the British botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward, in the 1900s. The region’s wildlife had never been properly documented. The only thing for sure was that there was plenty of it, including many, many tigers – but it enjoyed scant protection. The military regime admitted to devoting a paltry 0.1 per cent of GDP to wildlife conservation.”
Indian leopard. (Big Cat Rescue photo)
“Marched into Rangoon”
Rabinowitz therefore “marched into the Ministry of Forestry in Rangoon and badgered the Forestry Minister into doing a deal,” Popham summarized. “He led a gruelling exploratory trek through Kachin state, and sketched the outlines of four national parks within it. The first to be established was Hkakabo Razi, around the mountain of the same name, Burma’s tallest, which borders Tibet and China,” also near the Burmese border with India.
By 2004 all four reserves had been designated, protecting among them 13,500 square miles of forests and river habitat between the Kumon and Patkai mountain ranges, home of as many as 100 tigers, plus clouded leopards, Asian black bears, sambar, and leaf deer, among other species of note.
“The process was certainly accelerated by the fact that there was no requirement to put it before parliament,” Popham observed. “As Rabinowitz commented to National Geographic magazine, ‘It’s much harder to get conservation done in democracies than in communist countries or dictatorships.’”
Sambar (male & female) (Wikipedia photos)
But Rabinowitz had underestimated the corruption that would undermine his efforts.
“The Burmese junta have been playing both sides of the street,” Popham explained. “While gaily endorsing Rabinowitz’s ambitious schemes, they have also been facilitating – and making immense profits from – an unprecedented gold rush into the very zones where his conservation effort is focused.”
Wrote Michael Casey for Associated Press, “Rabinowitz acknowledges that gold mining is a problem and says he has repeatedly pressed the [Myanmar] government to ban it, with limited success. But he says the problem has to be kept in perspective. The mines are located in a small part of the reserve and are not as much of a threat to the wildlife as hunting has been in the past or planned sugar cane and tapioca plantations are in the future.”
“Candy in a daycare center”
“Putting sugar cane plantations in a reserve is like throwing candy in a daycare center,” Rabinowitz told Casey. “Elephants love sugar cane and what you will get are major wildlife conflicts.”
Concluded Rabinowitz, “We’re making progress. We’re saving stuff. Does the reserve have lots of issues? Sure it does. But that is part of the dynamic of conservation on a large scale.”
Rabinowitz’s work in Burma also “hasn’t endeared him to human rights campaigners,” observed Tibor Krausz in his 2007 profile of Rabinowitz for the Christian Science Monitor.
“Burma is a pariah state under international sanctions thanks to its government, which jails pro-democracy activists, oppresses citizens, and engages in the ethnic cleansing of its minority populations,” Krausz explained. “Advocacy groups like the U.S. Campaign for Burma, which calls for the complete isolation of the country, accuse Rabinowitz of providing the government with an excuse to further dispossess minorities by appropriating their lands.
“I didn’t go to Myanmar to save people”
“By implication, Rabinowitz is an unwitting accomplice,” Krausz wrote. “Not so, he counters. Corrupt officials don’t need him as cover to exploit natural resources; they can do that anyhow. Rather, he argues, it’s his trademark brand of relentless, on-the-ground engagement that may stop both the government and locals from full-scale despoliation.
“You take whatever you can get, under whatever conditions are mandated,” Rabinowitz said. “I have a job to do save an ecosystem. I didn’t go to Myanmar to help people; I went there to save tigers.”
But Rabinowitz believed he had helped the indigenous people of the Hkakabo Razi region, as well as the wildlife, by introducing them to pig farming in place of their previous hunter/gatherer economy, which had come to depend largely on poaching and trafficking wildlife parts.
This was of course no favor to the pigs, and as indigenous pig farming becomes commercialized, may significantly pollute the habitat that Rabinowitz sought to protect.
Cloe the snow leopard, 1997-2011.
(Big Cat Rescue photo.)
High altitude tigers
From Myanmar, Rabinowitz ventured on to the Himalayan foothill nation of Bhutan in 2010 with BBC wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan and Bhutanese forest guard Phup Tshering, to investigate claims by villagers that tigers, normally a lowland-and-swamps species, were living at altitudes of up to 13,000 feet above sea level.
Leaving hidden cameras at the treeline, Rabinowitz and Buchanan returned three months later, recounted BBC Earth News editor Matt Walker, to recover documentation of the lives of red foxes, jungle cats, monkeys, Himalayan black bear, tarkin, serow, musk deer “and even a red panda,” as well as “tigers, leopards, and snow leopards all sharing the same valley.”
Alan Rabinowitz
(Facebook photo)
“I say we still can save them”
First called “the Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation” by Time magazine circa 2007, and since remembered as such by many others, Rabinowitz might also be remembered as an incorrigible optimist in a field dominated by pessimism and misanthropy.
“While everyone’s declaring gloom and doom for big cats,” Rabinowitz told Krauz in 2007, “I say we can still save them.”
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Filed Under: Advocacy, Animal organizations, Asia, Asia/Pacific, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Central America, Central Asia, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered species, Feature Home Bottom, Habitat, India, Indian subcontinent, Mexico, Obits & Memorials, Obituaries (human), Organizations, Organizations, Poaching & trafficking, Politics, South America, Southeast Asia, Thailand, The Americas, Tigers, USA, Wildlife, Wildlife, Wildlife, Zoos, Zoos Tagged With: Ashley Yeager, George Schaller, Lily Huang, Peter Popham, Salisa Rabinowitz, Tibor Krausz
Anthony Marr says
Kudos to Alan! Yes. It is a long haul. It took me 3 years (1997-1999) to win the trust of the villagers living in the buffer zones surrounding India’s Kanha and Bandhavgarh tiger reserves where I worked. Indeed, cooperation of the local people is paramount to success. Consistency on my part was a main ingredient for their trust, and it did take time. Unfortunately, it could work in reverse with government officials, that the more trust an NGO won from the villagers, the less the officials trusted the NGO, because they might see the very presence of NGOs as physical proof of governmental inadequacy. Yes, the simple mission of saving tigers could get complicated.
Certainly a warrior for the cats. RIP Alan Rabinowitz. With heartfelt condolences to his loved ones and colleagues. May others follow in his footsteps at this critical time. And certainly he was right about Myanmar/Burma, where the PTB’s, like PTB’s everywhere, need no assistance in carrying out their crimes.
James H. Mundy IV says
This man did outstanding………….hope his legacy continues for the Big cats.
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Barack Obama Visits Marlon Brando's Private Polynesian Resort at Tetiaroa
The former president isn’t done with his post-term vacation
By Karen Brill
Though Barack Obama is thoroughly sun-kissed three months into life as a private citizen, the former president hasn't had his fill of waterfront locales and breezy vibes just yet. This week finds Obama spending the next leg of his retirement tour in beautiful French Polynesia. Obama reportedly landed in Tahiti first, before traveling from the island to an even more exclusive locale: Marlon Brando's private resort at the Tetiaroa atoll. Brando purchased the property back in the 1960s while filming Mutiny on the Bounty, renaming the small island The Brando. The resort is difficult to access, requiring a 20-minute flight on a private airway.
Obama reportedly arrived on the island alone, and it's unknown whether he'll be joined by the rest of the former first family. Malia is working on a film internship in New York, while Sasha remains in high school, though she is said to have her spring break starting March 24, according to the Daily Mail. Obama will reportedly stay at the resort for a month. No details have been released as to his plans, probable kitesurfing aside, but he does have a book to get writing, and what better way to beat out the writer's block than sunny isolation?
In recent months, Obama has traipsed through the Caribbean, spending time in the British Virgin Islands and reaching a level of relaxation heretofore unknown to the human race.
The atoll of Tetiaroa is famous for its celebrity guests. They're attracted to the resort's coral gardens, rare orchids, and freshwater pools. The area opened as a vacation destination in 2014, complete with two restaurants, a spa, and a number of quiet villas. It also has a renowned reputation as an eco-friendly spot. Indeed, from Brando's purchase of the island through today, ecologists have also called the island home, dedicating themselves to protecting the atoll and its marine life.
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Mazda at 100| a century of records
From Hiroshima cork producer to global car manufacturer, 2020 sees Mazda celebrate a century of innovation, pioneering design and engineering success. One hundred years of business that has also seen a fair share of records achieved by Mazda over the course of its vibrant history.
Even Mazda’s first passenger car created a record-breaking sales impression when it was launched in 1960. Arriving just as the Sixties economic boom saw the Japanese public embracing car ownership, the Mazda R360 might have been Mazda’s first car but its arrival on the Japanese ‘Kei Car’ micro car marketplace was a huge success with charming 2+2 coupe capturing 65 per cent share of Japan’s flourishing microcar segment in 1960, which accounted for 15 per cent of the entire Japanese car market.
By 1963 Mazda’s cumulative global production reached one million vehicles, while by 1972 it was five million units. As global sales grew through the 70s and 80s, it was a car launched at the end of Mazda’s third decade of car production that would claim countless sales records across the world – an amazing achievement for a car launched into an automotive sector other manufacturers had abandoned. However, Mazda’s defy convention approach saw it rekindle the affordable rear-wheel drive sportscar and inspired by the classic British roadsters of the previous decades, the Mazda MX-5 arrived at the 1989 Chicago Motor Show and it was an instant sales success.
From its launch in 1989 until today, across four-generations, the Mazda MX-5 has remained one of the world’s most loved drivers’ cars, and in the year 2000 with 532,000 global sales, Mazda’s most famous sports car was official recognised by the Guinness World Record body as the world’s best-selling two-seater roadster, a title it has retained to this day. By 2016 the 1-millionth MX-5, rolled off the assembly line at Ujina Plant No. 1 in Hiroshima and the Soul Red soft-top then embarked on a world tour during which it would collect the signatures of around 200,000 fans.
Even better, MX-5 owners and fans gained their own Guinness World Record when in 2013 a parade of 683 MX-5s in Lelystad in the Netherlands set the record for the largest parade of Mazda cars, while in 2014 American Mazda fans broke the world record for most MX-5s at any single event as 1,934 roadsters from across North America attend a car show at the Mazda Raceway in Salinas, California
While last year to celebrate the MX-5s 30th birthday, a first-generation MX-5 broke the record for the most hairpin turns covered in 12 hours. The 2,900 curves, taken during a rainy night on the Kaunertal Glacier Road in the Austrian Alps, were more than double the previous RID Rekord Institute for Germany best mark.
However, it isn’t just the popularity of the Mazda MX-5 that’s marked out in sales records, Mazda’s development of the rotary engine set it apart from the rest of the rest of the automotive industry. Launched in 1967, the Mazda Cosmo was the firm’s first production rotary engined car and by 1986 total Mazda production of rotary powered vehicles had reached 1.5 million, setting records for manufacturing this unique type of engine.
Mazda’s famous rotary also helped the Japanese firm to some of its speed and competition records, from powering a Mazda RX-7 to become the first Japanese car to win the Spa 24 Hour Race to achieving more than 100 class victories in IMSA sportscar racing in the US, the rotary engine ticked off the records, even before it’s most famous achievement: when in 1991 the Mazda 787B of Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler and Betrand Gachot took victory in the Le Mans 24 Hour race, making Mazda the first Japanese manufacturer to win the world’s most famous endurance race.
Away from the racetrack the rotary powered Mazda RX-7 sent further records Mazda’s way, as in 1986 an RX-7 set the Bonneville Salt Flats Speed Trial record of 238.442mph – breaking the SCTA’s Grand Touring Class record, while in 1995a modified third-generation RX-7 broke another land speed record at Bonneville, managing 389km/h.
And it wasn’t just in the USA that rotary powered Mazdas set records: as in 2004 the RX-8 picked up where its predecessor left off, setting 40 international FIA records on the high-speed oval at the Papenburg automotive testing facility in northwest Germany, even more impressively unlike the modified Bonneville cars, the RX-8 records where achieved by production cars.
Further production car FIA records where achieved in 2014 when the Mazda6 demonstrated the potency of Mazda’s Skyactiv-D diesel engine, by shattering the previous record for highest average speed over 24 hours (221.1km/h vs. 209.8km/h) as well as numerous other FIA records for 2.0-2.5 litre turbodiesels.
By 2018 another production milestone was reached with the 50 millionth Japanese-built Mazda and more production landmarks are inevitable as Mazda sets its sights on increasing annual global capacity to 2 million units by 2024. And Mazda’s passion for setting records and defying convention continued when, to highlight the on-ice capabilities of the AWD version of its popular CX-5, Mazda became the first manufacturer to cross the frozen Lake Baikal – the world’s oldest and deepest lake – with production cars.
And finally as Mazda looks the next century of records and to the future of sustainable vehicles, in 2019 it launched the world’s first commercially available compression-ignition petrol engine – Skyactiv-X. Combining the outstanding real-world fuel efficiency of a diesel with the smooth, free-revving nature and responsiveness of a Skyactiv-G petrol powerplant, it is offered in both the Mazda3 and the Mazda CX-30.
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GET IN TOUCH: +27 12 110 4206|info@atrs.co.za
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How does the R47-03 affect the Measured Entity?
The SANAS R47-03 came into effect on the 7th of October 2020 and will have an undoubtedly impact on the Measured Entities-B-BBEE verification process. The R47-03 is a SANAS reference document, which clarifies the role of B-BBEE Rating Agencies. It further lists the SANAS accreditation criteria, as required by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic).
The related SANAS amendments share the ethical and professional conduct standards for B-BBEE Rating Agencies and their employees. It forms a basic guideline to manage the likelihood and prevention of risks such as conflict of interest from materialising. As such the impartiality of the verification agency is assured during the verification process.
SANAS is the accreditation body of B-BBEE Rating Agencies as part of its oversight role. The body must ensure that Rating Agencies assess, verify, and validate disclosed and undisclosed B-BBEE related information, on measured entities. The regulations imposed by SANAS, are detailed on R47-03 and must be referenced in the verification process to ensure that the B-BBEE certification process meets the required validity and accuracy standards.
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The B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice specifies the following in relation to the responsibilities of the Measured Entity: “it is the Measured Entity’s responsibility to understand their requirements for B-BBEE compliance and to ensure that their B-BBEE strategy is in line with the intention of the codes.”
Many Measured Entities have come accustomed to entrusting their B-BBEE Consultant to take the lead in their B-BBEE Verification process. The consultants by default assume the responsibility to address issues arising from the implementation of B-BBEE strategies. The amendments address and compel the Measured Entity to accept their innate responsibilities and take the lead during a B-BBEE Verification process. These organizations therefore must be direct and own communication with the B-BBEE Rating Agency as it is related to their business and the dynamics of the process. This does not prohibit the B-BBEE Consultant to receive copies or to be included in the verification process, but the core of the communications in terms of requests and deliverables must be between the B-BBEE Rating Agency and their client.
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B-BBEE Rating Agencies may only provide B-BBEE verification services and may not provide consulting services. Rating agencies, including their employees, may not take part in the verification of a Measured entity for which they have provided consultation for a period of four years.
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Supreme Court refuses to consider cities' efforts to prosecute the homeless for sleeping outside
Richard Wolf and Chris Woodyard / USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether state and local governments can make it a crime for homeless people to sleep outside.
The justices won't hear a case from Boise, Idaho, that posed nationwide ramifications for cities with large numbers of homeless people living on the streets.
The question was whether the homeless can be prosecuted using laws designed to regulate public camping and sleeping – or whether that constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.
The court's refusal to take up the issue is a setback to some states and cities with burgeoning homelessness. They wanted a federal appeals court ruling overturned, allowing them to prosecute people who sleep on streets when they claim shelter beds are unavailable. Boise appealed the ruling, hoping to enforce its ban on camping in public.
"We’re thrilled that the court has let the 9th Circuit decision stand so that homeless people are not punished for sleeping on the streets when they have no other option," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. "But ultimately, our goal is to end homelessness through housing, which is effective and saves taxpayer dollars, so that no one has to sleep on the streets in the first place."
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of cities, especially in the West, where they pitch tents on sidewalks or under bridges, live in cars or simply sleep out in the open.
>>Sleeping on the streets: Cities push back against homeless people
In Los Angeles, the homeless authority counted 27,221 people as unsheltered.
The notion of criminalizing homelessness when shelters are bulging enrages advocates.
"Criminalization isn't a strategy for ending homelessness. It is the consequence of not having a strategy," said Nan Roman, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled last year that prosecuting homeless individuals violated the Constitution because their situation was an "unavoidable consequence of one’s status or being.”
That was only the latest shoe to drop in a case dating back more than 10 years. It was initiated by six homeless people who were fined for violating an ordinance in Boise, a city of 225,000 that operates three homeless shelters serving about 900 people.
"Sleeping outside is a biological necessity for those who cannot obtain shelter," lawyers for the homeless individuals said in court papers. "A city that criminalizes both sleeping on private property and public property when no alternative shelter is available leaves a homeless individual who cannot obtain shelter with no capacity to comply with the law."
Boise sought the Supreme Court's intervention, and it brought along support from a wide range of states, cities and business groups that filed 20 friend-of-the-court briefs warning of crime, violence, disease and environmental hazards.
"The consequences of the 9th Circuit’s erroneous decision have already been – and will continue to be – far-reaching and catastrophic," its lawyers told the court. "Encampments provide a captive and concentrated market for drug dealers and gangs who prey on the vulnerable. It is thus no surprise that nearly 1,000 homeless people died on the streets last year in Los Angeles County alone."
A new report from the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty found a 15% increase over three years in the number of cities that punish homeless people for sleeping in public, even as the number of unsheltered homeless rose by 10%.
Advocates for the homeless say fining or arresting people who have nowhere else to go amounts to "arresting exhausted, deeply poor and vulnerable Americans struggling to meet the most basic human need for sleep," said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Court challenges such as the one from Boise sap money that could be poured into trying to solve the core problem of homelessness, said the Rev. Andy Bales, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles.
The country should be "focusing on immediate 24/7/365 shelters with comprehensive services and case management," he said, plus affordable, permanent housing.
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Categories For travel to France
Who is the capital of france
by TonyVaderLeave a Comment on Who is the capital of france
What is a capital of France?
Was Paris always the capital of France?
By 52 B.C., Julius Caesar and the Romans had taken over the area, which eventually became Christianized and known as Lutetia, Latin for “midwater dwelling.” The settlement later spread to both the left and right banks of the Seine and the name Lutetia was replaced with “ Paris .” In 987 A.D., Paris became the capital of
What was the capital of France during ww2?
Why is Paris the capital?
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the city was occupied by Clovis I, King of the Franks. He made Paris the capital of his empire in 508. By the Middle Ages, Paris would become the most important city in Europe, serving as the political, economic, religious, and cultural capital of France.
What is the capital of Europe?
What is the language of France?
Why is Paris called the City of Love?
People call Paris “the City of Love ” because of the romantic atmosphere it exudes. In fact, The City of Love isn’t just a random nickname given to Paris ; it’s the perfect description anyone who visited the French capital would give to the city for all the romantic vibes they find there.
What are French people called?
French people ( French : Français) are a Western European ethnic group and nation that shares a common French culture, ancestry, French language and is identified with the country of France.
What is France famous for?
What Is France Famous For? (20 Prominent Things) The Eiffel Tower . The Louvre . Notre-Dame de Paris . Palace Of Versailles. Moulin Rouge. Disneyland Paris . Fashion. Fine Wines .
You might be interested: Where to retire cheaply in france
Did Germany invade all of France?
As part of the armistice agreement France signed with Germany on June 22, Germany occupied northern France and all of France’s Atlantic coastline down to the border with Spain. A new French government was established in the town of Vichy, which was in the unoccupied southern part of France .
Which side was France on in ww2?
The major Allied Powers were Britain, France , Russia, and the United States. The Allies formed mostly as a defense against the attacks of the Axis Powers. The original members of the Allies included Great Britain, France and Poland. When Germany invaded Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Why did Germany allow Vichy France to exist?
First of all, the general German policy betwen 1940 and 1942 hoped to give the French enough rope to hang themselves with. The theory went, that the more the Germans could suck France dry without having to waste troops, the better it was for Germany .
What language is spoken in Paris?
Of the languages of France, the national language, French , is the only official language according to the second article of the French Constitution, and its standardized variant is by far the most widely spoken.
Is Paris a city or country?
Paris, city and capital of France , situated in the north-central part of the country. People were living on the site of the present-day city, located along the Seine River some 233 miles (375 km) upstream from the river’s mouth on the English Channel (La Manche), by about 7600 bce.
You might be interested: Bastille in france map
What was Paris called before Paris?
Lutetia Parisiorum
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MOST fills Honeywell's SIL 2 gap
The deal marks the latest in a recent string of heady new affiliations for the company.
By Andrew Bond
MTL Open Systems Technology (MOST), the Hampton, N.H.-based systems division of Luton, UK-based MTL Instruments, has pulled off something of a coup by persuading Honeywell to adopt the recently announced SafetyNet SIL 2 safety platform to fill a gap in its current range of Safety Instrumented System (SIS) offerings. According to MOST president Dennis Gillespie, who recently visited the United Kingdom for the European launch of SafetyNet, Honeywell has approved the MOST system and will encourage its sales teams to offer SafetyNet in situations where it has no suitable Safety Integration Level (SIL) 2 offering of its own, “rather than lose the order.”
SafetyNet is based on MOST’s open process automation platform, which it sells to Tier 2 distributed control system (DCS) vendors, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), systems integrators and end-users. It was recently certified by TüV Rheinland to SIL 2 and is already being rebadged by Houston-based SafePlex Systems for fire and gas applications as SIL-dTect 2600, for which SafePlex has also obtained approval under the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 72 standard.
“SafetyNet offers a real process control solution for lower-level safety functions with recognizable process control features such as Hart, hazardous area capability and high levels of availability, in contrast to PLC (programmable logic controller )-based solutions,” said MOST UK business development manager Dil Wetherill. He added that the group has no intention of developing the system into a SIL 3 product.
MTL is on something of a roll at present, having earlier this year pulled off a joint marketing agreement with Germany-based Weidmuller and most recently persuaded fieldbus and networking guru Ian Verhappen to join the group as director of industrial networking technologies. Verhappen, who will continue to be based in North America, will have responsibility for the development of MTL’s fieldbus products and new technologies.
Andrew Bond, andrew@abpubs.demon.co.uk, is Editor of the Industrial Automation Insider, a United Kingdom-based monthly newsletter that is delivered via e-mail.
Check out The Cobot Spot from Universal Robots
Looking for automation solutions for packaging and palletizing? This is your destination for all things cobot. Whether it’s webinars, video case studies or product information, you’ll find it all in this one spot.
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Nissan to establish engine plant in Rio
Brazil – The new 140m reais (£36m) facility will be part of the Resende Industrial Complex (RJ), where the OEM is constructing a vehicle plant. The engine unit will use an existing building next to the vehicle plant and will have the capacity to produce up to 200,000 engines per year.
Operations will begin in 2014, focusing on the 1.6-litre, 16V I-4 flexfuel engine, which will power the cars produced by Nissan in Brazil. According to the OEM, production will follow “strong sustainability concepts” and involve next-generation electrical equipment on the assembly line.
Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan, described the engine plant as “further proof of our confidence in the potential of the Brazilian market” and said that it “increases our competitiveness to reach our goal of gaining 5% market share, to be the first Japanese [company] in terms of share in Brazil, and to also be a leading brand in terms of quality in the country by 2016”.
Nissan is investing 2.6 billion reais (£677m) in the industrial unit, which will launch two Brazilian cars in 2014: the Nissan March and Nissan Versa.
www.nissan-global.com
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Aug 8, 2019 - Politics & Policy
Taylor Swift explains why she didn't endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016
Shane Savitsky
Taylor Swift. Photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage via Getty Images
Taylor Swift told Vogue that she chose not to endorse Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election because she believed President Trump had "[weaponized] the idea of the celebrity endorsement."
"He was going around saying, 'I’m a man of the people. I’m for you. I care about you.' I just knew I wasn’t going to help."
Why it matters: Swift faced criticism for years for her silence on political issues, which changed with her endorsement of Tennessee Democrats during the 2018 midterms. That move caused thousands of people to register to vote, BuzzFeed News reported.
Swift also told the magazine she believed her own personal controversies at the time, stemming from her feud with rapper Kanye West — who later famously declared his support for Trump — wouldn't have helped Clinton:
"Also, you know, the summer before that election, all people were saying was 'She’s calculated. She’s manipulative. She’s not what she seems. She’s a snake. She’s a liar.' These are the same exact insults people were hurling at Hillary. Would I be an endorsement or would I be a liability? 'Look, snakes of a feather flock together. Look, the two lying women. The two nasty women.' Literally millions of people were telling me to disappear. So I disappeared. In many senses."
The big picture: Since her 2018 endorsements, Swift has become much more vocal about her political leanings — especially on LGBTQ issues. She wrote an open letter in June to Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican, asking him to support the House-passed Equality Act.
Her Change.org petition on the subject has been signed by multiple 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Beto O'Rourke and Amy Klobuchar.
What's next: Swift will likely increase her political activism heading into 2020. She told Elle earlier this year, "Invoking racism and provoking fear through thinly veiled messaging is not what I want from our leaders, and I realized that it actually is my responsibility to use my influence against that disgusting rhetoric."
"Only as someone approaching 30 did I feel informed enough to speak about [politics] to my 114 million followers. ... I’m going to do more to help. We have a big race coming up next year."
Go deeper: Celebs largely shun 2020 spotlight
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No quitters, BHS girls' basketball overcomes some close calls
By Mike Richard news@barnstablepatriot.com
Feb 5, 2020 at 11:39 AM Feb 5, 2020 at 11:39 AM
Over the course of a long season, teams often show their mettle when it comes to what they can do in the close games.
The Barnstable girls’ basketball team has already survived four games that have been decided by two points or less, as well as an overtime game where they also pulled out a victory.
“They’ve become more comfortable in the close games, and no matter much we’re down by, they never quit,” said Red Raider coach Ross Jatkola. “If we’re down in the fourth quarter, we’re not going to fold. That’s the mentality we’ve tried to create here.”
Recently, the Red Raiders saw Marshfield with a late lead before sophomore Abby Lockhart’s big three-pointer and classmate Tianna Fernandez’ free throw gave them a 47-45 win to qualify for the South Sectional playoffs for the second year in a row.
Following a big Senior Night win over Sandwich on Tuesday night, 53-38, Barnstable will be going into Friday’s rival game against Falmouth with an 11-4 overall record.
“I think we’ve gained a lot of confidence this season, especially the close games where we came out in the end really strong,” said senior co-captain Kaileigh O’Donnell-Birch. “It’s not really surprising because we’ve been playing so hard.”
Barnstable opened the season, ironically, with a close, four-point loss to Brockton, 46-42.
“We should have won that game, but we missed about 15 free throws that night,” said Jatkola. “We have a bunch of sophomores, and we’re young, but I think we’ve grown a lot since that game.”
One example would be an early season game to New Bedford when they were down by a large margin in the fourth quarter.
However, thanks to 18 points from top-scoring sophomore Olivia Gourdine, along with the play of seniors Dajanay Mendes (11 points) and Dorian Funk (11 points, 15 rebounds, 9 steals), the Red Raiders won in overtime 61-55.
“I think that sums up what we are,” said Jatkola. “Even on nights when your shot’s not falling, you can always control your effort and your energy. Not quitting in those situations show that they believe in it.”
Then there was the earlier 48-46 win over Sandwich where Fernandez hit the go-ahead basket with just 10 seconds to play.
“We were down, but on three straight possessions, Dorian (Funk) hit a jumper, then we had a stop, then Abby (Al-Asousi) hit a jumper to tie it up,” Jatkola recalled. “Then we created a turnover, wound down the shot clock, and Tianna was open at the elbow. It happened on her 16th birthday, so it was pretty cool.”
In addition, there was an earlier 50-48 win over Marshfield where Gourdine drained four three-pointers to finish with 18 points, leading to another seat-squirmer.
“We have such great chemistry,” said senior captain Abby Al-Asousi. “The seniors on the team grew up playing travel together, and all of the younger girls were our fans while they were coming up. Now, having them up here with us, we’re all one team.”
Added O’Donnell-Birch, “I’m proud of the way – no matter what the score – that we’re not giving up, especially in those tough games against Nauset and Brockton,” she said. “Those close games tell a lot about our work ethic and how aggressive we are.”
With junior Emily Robinson, sophomores Gourdine, Lockhart, Fernandez, Rachel Bentinen and Mary Sives, and freshman Joslin Cabral, the youthful players are also being served on the squad.
“We’re so young, and we’re a team that will be together, hopefully, for a while,” said Gourdine, who has carried a good portion of the scoring load upon the graduation last season of Division 1 player Carly Whiteside, now at the University of Vermont.
“There has been a little pressure on me, but coming off a pretty good freshman season I thought the pressure would be a little more,” she said, “but as a team we have adapted to it and played team basketball. I’m proud of how we work together as a team.”
Assisting Jatkola this season are coaches Julia Ryan and Jason Gourdine.
Last season, the Red Raiders qualified for the South Sectional playoffs before a first-round loss to eventual state champion Braintree, 79-67.
However, it taught Jatkola – who is also the Barnstable football coach – that whether you are coaching boys out on the football field or girls on the basketball court, the approach is the same.
“When I first took the (girls) job, people asked me, ‘How are you going to coach girls differently?’ and I said ‘Why would I coach them any differently?’ We always talk about effort and energy, and that’s one thing you can control, regardless the sport.”
Email Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com.
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A Child's Introduction to African American History: The Experiences, People, and Events That Shaped Our Country (A Child's Introduction Series) (Hardcover)
By Jabari Asim, Lynn Gaines (Illustrator)
A comprehensive, entertaining look at heroes, heroines, and critical moments from African American history -- from the slave trade to the Black Lives Matter movement -- by award-winning author Jabari Asim.
Jabari Asim goes beyond what's taught in the classroom to reveal a fact-filled history of African American history through politics, activism, sports, entertainment, music, and much more. You'll follow the road to freedom beginning with the slave trade and the middle passage through the abolitionist movement and the Civil War where many African Americans fought as soldiers. You'll learn how slave songs often contained hidden messages and how a 15-year-old Jamaican-born young man named Clive Campbell helped to create hip-hop in the early 1970's.
You'll experience the passionate speeches, marches, and movements of the Civil Rights era along with and the sacrifices of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and many others. Along the way there are dozens of profiles of political trailblazers like Shirley Chisholm, the first black women elected to Congress in 1968; dominants athletes like Tiger Woods who, in 1995, was only the second African American to play in a Master's Golf Tournament which he went on to win in 1997; popular musicians like Miles Davis, one the most influential artists of the twentieth century; and inspiring writers like Toni Morrison, the first African American to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
Filled with beautiful illustrations by Lynn Gaines that bring these figures and events to life, plus a removable historical timeline poster, A Child's Introduction to African American History is a fascinating and comprehensive guide to this often overlooked yet immensely important part of American history.
Jabari Asim is an associate professor of writing at Emerson College and a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. He has written for the Washington Post and is the editor of the NCAAP magazine, The Crisis. He's also the author of children's books, including Fifty Cents and a Dream, Girl of Mine, and Boy of Mine. He lives in Boston, with his wife and five children.
Lynn Gaines is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art and has been illustrating greeting cards for more than twenty years. She lives in Northeast Ohio with her husband, mother, and two crazy cats. A Child's Introduction to African American History is her first picture book.
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
Publication Date: January 2nd, 2018
Series: A Child's Introduction Series
Juvenile Nonfiction / People & Places / United States / African American
Juvenile Nonfiction / History / United States
Social Science / Children's Studies
Compact Disc (January 2nd, 2018): $30.00
Copyright © Barrington Books
Barrington Books, voted BEST INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE by Rhode Island Monthly, is known far and wide for its knowledgeable book-loving staff, vast selection of high-quality books, toys and gifts, as well as its vibrant community events.
Barrington Books Retold is our new second location in Garden City Center is also known for all of the great things listed above and more!
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Iowa Sets Pace for 2016 Election
Here & Now
Senator Ted Cruz beat real estate mogul, Donald Trump to win Iowa’s Republican nomination. Former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders went head-to-head, but Clinton prevailed by .3 percent to win the Democratic nomination in Iowa.
Leo Smith, Assistant Online Editor
Since 1972, Iowans have gathered from Council Bluffs to Des Moines, in school gymnasiums, town halls, and or other public venues to participate in the much anticipated Iowa caucus. The caucus system is one of the oldest election methods used to select presidential candidates. The untraditional method means that party members meet, debate, and vote to select a candidate who they want to go onto the next level of elections. As the first state in the nation to vote, Iowa plays a pivotal role in the election.
Months of heated debate paid off for Texas Senator, Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz’s win was essential in establishing him as a real competitor for real estate mogul Donald Trump. Mr. Cruz beat Mr. Trump by 4 percent with over 6,000 votes. Mr. Cruz is very hopeful that his win in Iowa will transfer over to the rest of the primary election.
“Iowa has sent notice that the next president of the United States will not be chosen by the media,” Mr. Cruz said.“[It] will not be chosen by the Washington establishment…[it] will not be chosen by lobbyists.”
Mr. Trump announced his presidency in June 2015 and has since held the spot as the GOP frontrunner. Given last night’s results, Mr. Trump will have fierce competition throughout the rest of the election. He may even be forced to reconsider his campaign tactics. Mr. Trump has used unconventional campaign methods to gain traction among Republicans but his loss in Iowa may prompt him to use more traditional methods from this point forward.
Despite losing to Mr. Cruz in Iowa, Mr. Trump responded positively.
“We will go on to get the Republican nomination and we will go on to easily beat Hillary or Bernie,” Trump said. “We finished second, and I have to say I am just honored.”
Florida Senator Marco Rubio finished strong in third place among GOP candidates with 23 percent, one point behind Mr. Trump. Although Mr. Rubio did not win in Iowa, a third place finish sets him up to be a real contender for the rest of the race.
The night ended differently for the Democrats. For the majority of the evening, Senator Bernie Sanders trailed closely behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The evening’s final results showed Mrs. Clinton with 49.9 percent, .3 percent above Mr. Sanders.
Mrs. Clinton has had much success with older voters leading up to the Iowa caucus by boasting her experience in Washington. Mrs. Clinton was the first lady from 1992-2001, Senator of New York from 2001-2009, and Secretary of State for the Obama administration from 2009-2013. Despite her experience, Mr. Sanders proved he has what it takes to stay in the race.
When Mrs. Clinton addressed her supporters at the conclusion of the night, the results were still unclear on whether or not she beat Mr. Sanders. She did not claim victory over Mr. Sanders, but simply said, “I am excited about really getting into the debate with Senator Sanders about the best way forward to fight for America.”
Mr. Sanders addressed his supporters around midnight with enthusiasm about the night’s success. The senator from Vermont has been downplayed by media about his ability to compete with Mrs. Clinton. His appeal among the younger generation proved positive placing him head and head with Mrs. Clinton at the night’s end.
“Nine months ago, we came to this beautiful state, we had no political organization, we had no money, we had no name recognition,” Mr. Sanders said. “… we were taking on the most powerful political organization in the United States of America.”
The night did not end so well for Democratic candidate, Martin O’Malley and Republican candidate, Mike Huckabee, who suspended their campaigns in response to the votes. There are many other candidates who have yet to release statements regarding the outcome in Iowa. The candidates are expected to be in New Hampshire leading up to the state’s Feb. 9 vote.
One Response to “Iowa Sets Pace for 2016 Election”
Pamela Wye-Hunsinger on February 4th, 2016 8:39 am
This is a great article. So timely, informative and well written. Nicely done!
A Silver for Benedict News
SBP Marks Fr. Ed’s Birthday, Virtually
Becoming ‘Father Asiel’
Sen. Booker tells Students: We are Our Brother’s (and Sister’s) Keeper
Br. Francis Professes Solemn Vows
Our Future, Our Choice
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Home » PepsiCo commits $300,000 to Balkan flood relief efforts
Beverage NewsCarbonated Soft Drinks
PepsiCo commits $300,000 to Balkan flood relief efforts
Beverage company works to help 1 million people in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina
KEYWORDS charity / PepsiCo
Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc. and its philanthropic arm, the PepsiCo Foundation, are donating $300,000 to support international relief efforts in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina following massive flooding that has caused widespread devastation and destruction. In addition to this financial commitment, the company is donating 1.5 tons of its products to help the more than 1 million people in need.
The donated resources will be allocated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund and the World Food Programme (WFP) for relief efforts on the ground. Specifically, through the American Red Cross, the PepsiCo Foundation is supporting the Red Cross of Serbia and the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina with $100,000. Both Red Cross organizations are actively engaged in rescue operations, providing essential food and non-food items to those affected as well as helping to set up centers and temporary accommodations for those evacuated. Relief efforts are being hampered by destroyed infrastructure, broken telecommunications, power outages and difficult conditions in the field. This is the third response operation the Serbian Red Cross has been involved in this year.
The PepsiCo Foundation is providing $100,000 to the WFP. Part of the United Nations (UN) system, the WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Under the Immediate Response-Emergency Operations for Serbia, the WFP airlifted life-saving non-food items to Belgrade within 36 hours from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Brindisi, Italy, where a strategic stockpile of relief items are prepositioned for immediate response. This was the first UN assistance received for the flood response. The WFP continues to provide aid to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina with additional deliveries.
PepsiCo's business unit in the West Balkans, Marbo, is supporting the Red Cross of Serbia and the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina with $100,000. The company also donated 1.5 tons of finished goods last weekend to the Red Cross of Serbia and the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina and coordinated a local campaign for employees to donate food, goods, hygiene products, milk and other basic necessities. In addition, trucks and drivers were made available to transport boots, pillows, blankets and other charitable goods.
The PepsiCo Foundation will collaborate with agency partners in the coming months to assess the deployment of the relief committed and potential needs in the future.
PepsiCo donates $500,000 toward tornado relief efforts
Lifeway Foods, Kellogg Co. donate to Nepal relief efforts
Coke, Kraft give to relief efforts in Japan
PepsiCo commits more than $45M to combat impacts of COVID-19
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Women who are idealists and really fight for a cause inspire me
The stamina of women who actively care for their relatives who have been missing for years inspired Rasa Ostrauskaite in her work for a more sustainable missing persons process in Iraq.
By Eglė Zicari
This piece is part of our dossier "No Women - No Peace: 20th Anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security".
‘I am inspired by so many women I have encountered in local communities in Ukraine, Georgia and Iraq who selflessly fight for a cause, despite very challenging contexts and modest means’, says Rasa Ostrauskaite, who was Head of International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) Mission in Iraq until September 2020.
‘They may not have a university degree or great speaking skills, but they have the energy and the stamina and are able to bring people together and turn particular ideas into reality. In Georgia, I have met inspiring community leaders who work across the conflict lines. Most recently in Iraq, I have encountered many women that years after their loved ones went missing, they keep actively looking for them– such stamina and idealism inspire me!’
Two decades ago, Ostrauskaite was amongst the organisers of a major United Nations (UN) conference on women’s issues, and several months after this the UN adopted Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and peace and security. Although a lot still remains to be done, but at least the subject has become a mainstream discourse. Still, Ostrauskaite works in an environment where women have to prove that they are worth speaking with.
From a student of sociology to a diplomat
In the 1990s, Ostrauskaite studied sociology and had the ambition of becoming an academic researcher, but then she got a chance to do an internship at the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to the United Nations in New York. ‘I enjoyed my internship so much that I thought as soon as I finish my studies and have the diploma in my hands, I will join the ranks of diplomats’, she recalls.
The young Ostrauskaite joined the diplomatic service of Lithuania. Once the country became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004, she joined the Council of the EU where she served in various capacities in/on post-conflict countries. Five years later, Ostrauskaite joined the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) headquartered in Vienna. Whilst with the OSCE, she was recognized as a gender champion for supporting numerous innovative gender-mainstreaming projects in the area of combatting transnational threats. In September 2019, she became Head of ICMP Mission in Iraq. At the time, she had received two offers: a post in The Hague and Baghdad, but to everyone's surprise she chose Baghdad. It was not an accidental decision: Ostrauskaite wanted to contribute to addressing the problem of missing persons. There was also a personal consideration: Rasa’s grandfather was deported by the Soviets to Siberia and had never returned to Lithuania.
‘I thought I had been dealing with (post-)conflict settings throughout my career, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and eastern Ukraine but I had never worked in the Middle East. The ICMP seemed to be a very interesting organization with a noble mission. Home to some earliest known civilizations, Iraq is an immensely interesting country with a vast cultural heritage. But it is also a country which is affected by very high numbers of missing persons, with so many families suffering the anguish of uncertainty regarding the fate of their loved ones.’
It pays off to go local
Many analysts compare Iraq’s current situation to a ‘perfect storm’. In fact, Iraq faces a great number of issues: continued political divisions, popular civil protests, rising tensions between the US and Iran continue to have an impact on Iraq, budgetary crisis partly caused by the recent crash in international oil prices, and the recent outbreak of COVID-19.
‘Security incidents continue to dominate the headlines of local press. ISIS [the so-called Islamic State] has begun to reassert itself in Syria and Iraq, mounting increasingly bold insurgent attacks. So the security situation remains challenging.’ Yet the nature of ICMP work requires frequent travel throughout the country.
Security is traditionally considered to be a male-dominated territory. So it’s no wonder that Ostrauskaite has been asked many times: What are you doing here? Going local and blending in have paid off: ‘my best investment in Iraq has been an abaya’, Ostrauskaite laughingly notes. An abaya (literally meaning a cloak) is a robe-like dress that covers the whole body except the head, feet and hands.
‘I would put on an abaya when visiting most conservative local communities. In some meetings, I might be the only European. But if I am in abaya, even the more conservative religious or community leaders agree to receive me.
‘Huge effort to trace down enormous crimes’
ICMP team in Iraq consists of 20 experts. They assist the Iraqi authorities in excavating mass graves - a legacy of Saddam Hussein's rule or ISIS. Estimates run that there are from 250,000 to one million persons missing in Iraq from decades of conflict and human rights abuse including missing persons from the Ba’ath regime, the Iran/Iraq war, the Gulf Wars, as well as those missing since 2003.
‘There are hundreds of mass graves in Iraq. We work very closely with the Iraqi national team, consult them on various technical and legal aspects of a sustainable missing persons process...’ The process of locating and identifying missing persons is extremely complex, painfully long and requires a lot of specialized expertise from forensic anthropology and archaeology to DNA extraction and matching.
‘It is a standard to consider issues of women and peace and security’
This year, we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 that reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peacekeeping, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction. Has a lot changed in the last two decades in terms of women and peace and security? Ostrauskaite’s answer is ‘yes, I think so’.
‘I have been working on this issue in one way or another for a long time. Has anything changed? Yes, but progress has been uneven. The number of women negotiators or women peacekeepers continue to remain rather low, but the importance of women’s participation in peace processes is no longer questioned. There is a myriad of local initiatives successfully spearheaded by female community leaders. The growing number of female heads of state and government launch and support local and regional women’s initiatives. “Nothing about us without us” has gained momentum.’
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to escalate, Ostrauskaite is very concerned about the coronavirus backlash with so many women bearing the brunt of the economic fallout. ‘We speak a lot about opportunities for women, the heads of states and governments and ministers quote Resolution 1325, often in the form of normative statements. I would like to see those normative statements implemented! Actions speak louder than words.’
Having worked as Head of International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) Mission in Iraq for one year, Rasa Ostrauskaite became EU-Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as of September 2020.
UN-Resolution 1325
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Israel Horovitz in Paris to direct movie
By Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein Globe Staff,July 14, 2013, 12:00 a.m.
© 2009 Shawn G. Henry
Israel Horovitz is staying busy this summer. The celebrated playwright’s 1986 comedic drama, ”North Shore Fish,” opens at the Gloucester Stage Company Thursday. Alas, Horovitz, who cofounded the theater company in 1979, won’t be able to see the show because he’s in Paris. Perhaps even more relevant today than when it was written, “North Shore Fish” is about the challenges facing Cape Ann’s fishing industry — as explained, of course, by an entertaining group of Gloucester women in a fish processing plant. The new production is being directed by Robert Walsh, who previously directed Horovitz’s “The Widow’s Blind Date” and “Fighting Over Beverley.” So why is the playwright in Paris? He’s getting ready to direct the film version of his play “My Old Lady” — with an impressive cast. Two-time Academy Award-winner Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline, Jane Birkin, and Dominique Pinon are set to star in the film about a penniless New Yorker who inherits a beautiful Parisian apartment only to discover that it’s occupied by 94-year-old Mathilde, played by Smith, and her daughter Chloé, played by Birkin. Reached by e-mail in France, Horovitz sounds excited and perhaps a little intimidated about his directorial debut. “Hopefully, I’m not too much less than [Smith] deserves,” he said. “Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline, Jane Birkin — C’est pas mal, quoi?”
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BSCKids Team
Holiday Toy and Gift Guides For Kids
TV/Movie Interviews
Jacob Tremblay & Awkwafina in Talks for Live-Action Little Mermaid
Disney’s Little Mermaid live-action remake is eyeing two huge stars for lead roles. Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina are currently in talks to star according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Tremblay would play/voice Flounder- Ariel’s best friend, while Awkwafina would play/voice Scuttle – the other best friend of Ariel who is a Seagull. Tremblay is best known for his roles in Wonder, Room, and Doctor Sleep. Awkwafina is best known for roles in Crazy Rich Asians, Ocean’s 8, and the upcoming adaptation The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The duo would join Melissa McCarthy in the feature, who is also in talks to play the role of Ursula.
Rob Marshall is directing the film, who has previously worked on Mary Poppins Returns. He was previously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his feature film debut, Chicago. Since then, he’s helmed the likes of Memoirs of a Geisha and Nine. Marshall has also made his last three films at Disney, including Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Into the Woods, and the Poppins sequel. The upcoming Little Mermaid adaptation seems to be in good hands with Marshall.
The best part of the adaptation so far is that Disney has brought on Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken to create a blend of old and new songs that will be featured in the upcoming big screen version.
There is currently no release date for the live-action remake but as they move forward with casting, an announcement should be forthcoming.
Sarah is journalist and artist who lives in the city. She loves movies and television. She reads early and often. Leader of Optionated.com
Copyright © 2017 Boomtron LLC
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A Missouri public defender was so fed up with budget cuts he assigned a case to the governor
Aug 5, 2016, 6:33 AM
Faced with debilitating budget cuts, Missouri head public defender Michael Barrett found a creative solution when a poor man needed a lawyer.
He ordered the governor, Jay Nixon, to represent him, according to a letter released by Barrett.
Missouri law allows the public defender to delegate legal representation “to any member of the state bar of Missouri” in extraordinary circumstances. Barrett says Nixon has repeatedly refused to give the public defender system enough money to operate, and is withholding funding increases this year.
Citing extraordinary circumstances, Barrett ordered Nixon himself to represent the man, who was charged with assault, in Cole County.
“Providing counsel to poor people who face incarceration is the obligation of the state,” Barrett told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s not fair to go after private attorneys who are trying to pay the rent when they had nothing to do with contributing to this.”
This is the first time Barrett has exercised this particular power. The current situation is dire, Barrett told the Washington Post. The public defender system only got $4.5 million of the $23.1 million it requested in June, which isn’t enough to hire the 270 additional attorneys it needs. As a result, public defenders spent far less time on individual cases than the American Bar Association’s recommendation.
“However, given the extraordinary circumstances that compel me to entertain any and all avenues for relief, it strikes me that I should begin with the one attorney in the state who not only created this problem, but is in a unique position to address it,” Barrett told the Post-Dispatch.
Nixon’s office hasn’t responded to comment from multiple media outlets, as of Wednesday night.
According to reports, Missouri public defenders have been underfunded for years, resulting in overworked attorneys, low pay, and — in this case — an unusual assignment for the governor.
NOW WATCH: Watch Joe Biden’s full speech — the most effective Trump takedown delivered at the DNC
governor jay nixon law missouri politics-us public defender
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| All Events >
Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Kareem James Abu-Zeid is a translator of poets and novelists from across the Arab world, including Adonis (Syria), Najwan Darwish (Palestine), Rabee Jaber (Lebanon), and Dunya Mikhail (Iraq). His work has earned him an NEA translation grant (2018), PEN Center USA’s Translation Award (2017), and Poetry magazine’s translation prize (2014), among other honors. He has a PhD in comparative literature from UC Berkeley, and currently splits his time between Santa Fe and southern India.
Chris Clarke was raised in Western Canada, and currently lives in Paris, France. His translations include work by Raymond Queneau (New Directions) and Pierre Mac Orlan (Wakefield Press), among others. He was awarded a PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant in 2016 for his translation of Marcel Schwob’s Imaginary Lives (Wakefield Press, March 2018). His translation of Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano’s In the Café of Lost Youth (NYRB Classics) was shortlisted for the 2016 French-American Foundation Translation Prize. Chris is a PhD candidate in French at the Graduate Center (CUNY) in New York.
Heather Green's translation of Tristan Tzara's Noontimes Won was published in 2018 by Octopus Books, and her translation of Tzara's Guide to the Heart Rail was released in 2017 in a limited-run art edition by Goodmorning Menagerie. She is the author of two chapbooks, No Omen and The Match Array, on LATR Press and Dancing Girl Press, respectively. Her poems have appeared in AGNI online, Barrow Street, Denver Quarterly, Phoebe, the New Yorker, the Bennington Review, and many other journals. Her translations of Tzara's work have appeared in Asymptote, Open Letters Monthly, Poetry International, and several anthologies. She holds an MA in literature from University of Nebraska and an MFA in creative writing from Boston University and currently teaches at George Mason University.
Christian Hawkey
Author of two full-length poetry collections: The Book of Funnels (Wave Books, 2005) and Citizen Of (Wave, 2007); four chapbooks: Hour Hour (Delirium Press, 2005), Petitions for an Alien Relative (Hand Held Editions, 2009), Ulf (Factory Hollow Press, 2010), and Sonette mit Elizabethanischem Maulwurf (hochroth verlag, 2010); the cross-genre book Ventrakl (2010, Ugly Duckling Presse); and (with Uljana Wolf) Sonne from Ort, a collaborative bilingual erasure (kookbooks verlag, Berlin, 2013); he has received a Creative Capital Innovative Literature Award (2006) and a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Fellowship (2008); translates contemporary German-language poetry and prose.
Elisabeth Jaquette is a translator from Arabic, instructor at Hunter College, and executive director of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Among her book-length translations are The Apartment in Bab el-Louk by Donia Maher, illustrated by Ganzeer and Ahmed Nady, and The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz. Elisabeth is the recipient of a PEN/Heim Translation Grant and an English PEN Translates Award. Her work has been shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize, and longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award.
Megan McDowell
Megan McDowell is a Spanish language literary translator. She focuses on contemporary Latin American authors, and her translations include books by Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enriquez, Lina Meruane, Diego Zuñiga, and Carlos Fonseca. Her short story translations have been featured in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Tin House, McSweeney’s, Granta, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. Her translation of Alejandro Zambra’s novel Ways of Going Home won the 2013 English PEN award for writing in translation, and her English version of Fever Dream, by Samanta Schweblin, was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. She has lived in Portugal and Switzerland, and currently resides in Santiago, Chile.
Anna Morales
Anna Deeny Morales is a translator and literary critic. Recent translations include Floating Lanterns (Shearsman Books, 2015) by Mercedes Roffé and Sky Below: Selected Works by Raúl Zurita. Other translations of Zurita’s works include Purgatory (University of California Press, 2009) and Dreams for Kurosawa (arrow as aarow, 2012). She is an adjunct professor in the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University.
Sawako Nakayasu
Sawako Nakayasu writes and translates poetry, and also occasionally creates performances and short films. Her most recent books are The Ants (Les Figues, 2014) and a translation of The Collected Poems of Sagawa Chika (Canarium Books, forthcoming, 2014). Other books include Texture Notes, Hurry Home Honey, and Mouth: Eats Color—Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-translations, & Originals. She has received fellowships from the NEA and PEN, and her own work has been translated into Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish, Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
Vivek Narayanan
Vivek Narayanan holds an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Stanford University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University. He was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University and a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library. Narayanan has taught history, anthropology, and creative writing in many places, including the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, and the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi. His books include Universal Beach (Harbour Line Press, 2006; In Girum Books, 2011) and Life and Times of Mr S (Harper Collins India, 2012). His essays, criticism, and poetry have appeared widely in Agni, Granta, The Village Voice, Harvard Review, Caravan, and elsewhere.
Marcia Lynx Qualey
Marcia Lynx Qualey is the founding editor of ArabLit, an online magazine and resource that won the 2017 “Literary Translation Initiative” award at the London Book Fair. She writes, edits, and translates for a variety of newspapers and magazines, teaches writing in Morocco, and also works with a number of Arabic literature projects, including Kitab Sawti and the Library of Arabic Literature.
Lara Vergnaud
Lara Vergnaud is a translator of literary and scholarly works from the French. She currently lives in Washington, D.C.
Alex Zucker
Alex Zucker’s translations include novels by J. R. Pick, Petra Hůlová, Jáchym Topol, Magdaléna Platzová, Tomáš Zmeškal, Josef Jedlička, Heda Margolius Kovály, Patrik Ouředník, and Miloslava Holubová. He has also translated stories, plays, young adult and children’s books, essays, subtitles, song lyrics, reportage, and poems. His translations of Petra Hůlová’s Three Plastic Rooms and Jáchym Topol’s The Devil’s Workshop received Writing in Translation awards from English PEN, and he won the ALTA National Translation Award in 2010 for Petra Hůlová’s All This Belongs to Me. In addition to translating, Alex works in editing and communications. He lives in Brooklyn.
2nd Annual Day of Translation with the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center
The Bistro (G38) | Johnson Student Center | George Mason University | 4400 University Drive | Fairfax, Virginia
This event has already taken place.
Join us for our second annual Day of Translation co-presented with the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. All panels and events will take place at the Bistro (G38) in the Johnson Student Center on the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, VA.
All events are free and open to the public.
Writers and translators appearing include: Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Chris Clarke, Heather Green, Christian Hawkey, Elisabeth Jaquette, Megan McDowell, Anna Morales, Sawako Nakayasu, Vivek Narayanan, Marcia Lynx Qualey, Lara Vergnaud, and Alex Zucker.
9:15-10:15 EXPERIMENTAL TRANSLATION
Chris Clarke, Christian Hawkey, Sawako Nakayasu, Vivek Narayanan
10:30-11:45 THE POLITICS & ADVOCACY OF TRANSLATION
Michael Holtmann, Anna Morales, Marcia Lynx Qualey, Alex Zucker
12:00-1:30 BREAK
1:30-2:45 ARABIC LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Matt Davis, Elisabeth Jaquette, Marcia Lynx Qualey
3:00-4:15 PATHS TOWARD TRANSLATION
Heather Green, Elisabeth Jaquette, Lara Vergnaud, Alex Zucker
4:30 KEYNOTE: Megan McDowell
Leslie-Ann Woofter
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Justin Bieber's Spiraling Career By The Numbers
By Paula Wilson on March 31, 2015 in Articles › Entertainment
Last night, Justin Bieber was thoroughly lampooned as the "honoree" of the most recent Comedy Central Roast. With his almost incessant presence on the airwaves, in the news, in tabloids, and on many teen's smartphones, it would be easy to think that he's been around forever, and that he's churned out multiple albums. That's not the case. He actually has very little music under is belt, comparatively speaking, and his presence on every radio station has largely to do with remixes of his own songs. In fact, since the release of his first album, both his record sales and his tour sales have dropped off significantly. Just how significantly? Significantly enough that his management team decided the best way to keep him in the public eye, and attempt to salvage his increasingly tarnished reputation, was to let a room full of comedians give him some "tough love" on national television. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and with Bieber's spiraling record sales, those times are apparently very desperate. Here's a look at his decline by the numbers.
As has been documented countless times before, Justin Bieber was discovered via YouTube. Scooter Braun, a music manager and A&R man, first caught sight of Bieber in 2007, and convinced the young singer and his mother to travel to Atlanta to meet with Usher. A bidding war began for the pre-teen musician, with Justin Timberlake's label and Usher's label duking it out. Usher's label eventually prevailed and the rest is music history. Now age 21, Justin Bieber has become one of the most recognizable faces in music around the world with 37 million followers on Twitter, and multiple Top 10 hits. From the outside, it certainly looks like the young man from Ontario, Canada is on top of the world. His record sales tell a different story though. In fact, they show a career that is noticeably in decline. Which is a terrifying position for an artist who was on top just a few years ago.
(MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
Justin Bieber released his first song, "One Time" in 2009. It reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was later certified Platinum in the US and Canada. This was not a bad way to start. He followed this up by releasing the EP, "My World." The track, "One Less Lonely Girl," was subsequently certified Gold, and the album was certified Platinum in the US, and Double Platinum in Canada and the UK. Scooter Braun and Usher were now certain that they had signed a potential super star, so Bieber was booked to perform on multiple talk shows and music programs, as well as performing at major events and black tie affairs. "My World" went on to sell over 2 million units worldwide to the tune of over $20 million.
A year later, "My World 2.0," was released. It debuted at #1 in both the US and Canada. Considered a companion album, with some overlap, "My World 2.0" was meant to display Bieber's growth and increasing maturity. The first track from the album, "Baby," reached #5 on the Billboard charts. Four other singles were also released and three reached the Top 40 in the US and/or Canada. It ultimately went three times Platinum in both the US and Canada, and Platinum in multiple European countries. Again, Bieber appeared on every talk show, morning program, event show, or awards ceremony his management company could get their hands on. "My World 2.0" earned somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million, selling over 8 million units. Bieber followed the album up with an acoustic album featuring the same songs called, "My Worlds Acoustic." It debuted at #7 in the US, and went on to sell less than a million units worldwide, pulling in around $10 million.
(TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)
In order to capitalize on the popularity of the "My World" albums, he released a 3D concert film called, "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never." The film did surprisingly well at the box office, earning over $98 million worldwide, and the accompanying album, "Never Say Never – The Remixes," sold over a million copies worldwide, earning approximately $10 million. Based on the amount of hoopla after the release of "My World 2.0," it seemed like Justin Bieber was the best thing to happen to a music executive since sliced bread.
However, sometime between 2011 and now, things started to go a bit pear-shaped. His money, fame, and what seemed like a basic lack of responsible adult supervision, began to catch up with him. His neighbors complained about loud parties. He got stopped numerous times for reckless driving. He was arrested more than once. More recently, he's been sued. He's been banned from certain countries. He's basically done just about every not so smart thing a celebrity can do. While he's still quite successful, the change in his image and behavior, from squeaky clean teen to "swaggy" young adult, seems to be alienating his fan base. The teenaged girls, known as "Beliebers," who lined up outside in the cold for tickets to his first tour have gotten older, and they are not so enamored with Justin 2.0.
"Believe," his next album of new material, was released in 2012, following a moderately successful Christmas album. Like "My World 2.0," "Believe" was part of a package deal, including an acoustic version of the album, and a 3D concert film. The album debuted at #1 in the US, but then dropped off very suddenly after two weeks. It did moderately well worldwide, but considerably less well than "My World 2.0." It went three times Platinum in Mexico and Brazil, but only 2 times Platinum in Canada, and one time Platinum in the US. Sales figures topped out at around 3 million copies worldwide, for approximately $30 million. Ouch. That's a big drop off from the 8 million + units sold of his first LP. The acoustic version, "Believe Acoustic," debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, but, like its predecessor, dropped off immediately. While it was successful initially, public interest in what was basically a retread of previously released material dried up quickly. When year-end charts were released, its only presence was a spot at #192 in the UK.
The documentary about his "Believe" tour posted equally disappointing returns. While "Never Say Never" had far outperformed expectations, the film "Justin Beiber's Believe," and the "Believe Tour" itself, were far less successful. The movie, which was produced by the same production team that worked on his first film, was universally panned when it was released in late 2013, and only made $6.2 million at the box office. In late 2013, in anticipation of the release of his movie, a 10-song compilation album called "Journals" was released for digital download only. It was a flop, both critically and commercially. With tepid reviews and next to no advertising, the album charted nowhere. Since then, Justin Bieber has stuck to performing as a guest artist on other singer's tracks, and appearing on the occasional television show. He has not released any other albums, and doesn't appear to be doing much of anything except getting in trouble with the law.
So, will his appearance on the Comedy Central Roast save his spiraling career? Or will he become a pop music footnote like so many pop acts before him? "One hit wonders" come and go all the time, and artists flare up and flare out, like moths in the summertime. However, it's rare to have an artist achieve the level of success Justin has, and then tank it. You can be sure his entire management team will be watching how all this plays out on social media and in the news. One reporter noted that, unlike other celebrities of the past, none of Bieber's supposed "friends" in the industry were attending or participating in the Roast. Everyone there was largely chosen by Comedy Central, since, apparently, not many artists want to be seen with him right now. Will being raked over the coals about his bad behavior make him more likable, or will it just provide a stark reminder of how out of control he's become?
Justin Bieber Articles
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Justin Bieber Gives $500,000 Christmas Donation to Kids Charity
Justin Bieber's Car: Fast, Flashy, and Young, Just Like the Owner
Justin Bieber's Car
Justin Bieber's Car: Apparently You Can Make an Audi R8 Ugly
Justin Bieber's Baby Mama Wants Child Support, Faces Death Threats and Possible Rape Charges
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Mercy Medical Center (Baltimore
HeartField Counselor Has Message For Others
By By WENDI WINTERS and Special to the Blade-News
Ann Shelton's lips were set in a tight smile, her blue eyes lowered. Her doctor was yelling at her. And he was right.
"I went in for a physical exam," the 68-year-old said with a sigh. "He was really upset. I hadn't had a mammogram in five years. His office is in the breast center at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He made me make an appointment before I left the building."
According to the American Cancer Society website, "Yearly mammograms are recommended starting at age 40 and continuing for as long as a woman is in good health." The site also notes, "Some women - because of their family history, a genetic tendency or certain other factors - should be screened with MRI in addition to mammograms."
Two hours after Shelton's mammogram appointment ended, the doctor received the results. Sensing Shelton might procrastinate, he immediately made an appointment for her with Dr. Lorraine Tafra, a surgeon at the breast center. Then, he called Shelton and told her the mammogram revealed a lump in her right breast and a shadow on the left breast.
Shelton is a sales counselor at HeartFields Assisted Living, a residence for 52 seniors in Bowie. Thirty-six residents are in assisted living and 16 are in HeartFields' memory care unit. Several residents wave and cheerfully call her name as she passes by the dining room at lunchtime.
Through the years, Shelton also has been an account executive for Melaleuca: The Wellness Company, which sells beauty, bath, body, cleaning, food products and supplements.
She had been employed at HeartFields for five years when her cancer was diagnosed early in 2005. Surrounded by supportive co-workers, she continued to work at HeartFields while undergoing surgeries and treatments. After her husband of 30 years, Richard Jones, decided to retire in 2005, she retired, too.
In 2010, Shelton decided to get back into the workforce and returned to HeartFields. She missed working with the center's families and staff.
She has three grown children, four grandchildren and one Portuguese water dog named Skipper.
In the days that followed her diagnosis of stage 1 breast cancer, Shelton met with Tafra to discuss the upcoming surgery. She also consulted with Dr. Kevin Knopf, board certified in medical oncology and internal medicine, then with Annapolis Oncology Group. He prescribed the drug Arimidex, a trade name for Anastrozole, which she faithfully took for five years. "The tumor in my right breast was estrogen receptive," Shelton said. "The drug deprived my body of estrogen. It cleared the shadow the doctors saw in my left breast."
Tafra performed a lumpectomy on the right breast at AAMC, and at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Dr. Bernard Cheng handled the reconstructive surgery. Shelton also had 30 radiation treatments administered by Dr. Mary Young at the breast center - every weekday for six weeks.
"I was able to work during the radiation therapy until the final week, when I hit the wall," she said. At the end of each week's session, she had an appointment with Nancy Lester, a healing massage therapist and nurse in Crofton. "Her massages helped disperse the side effects of the radiation and restore my energy," Shelton said.
Giving thanks for the support she received from her husband, children, friends and co-workers, Shelton tries to pay it forward.
"I provide individual support when I find someone here has been diagnosed with cancer," she said. She donates money to several causes, but cannot physically participate in cancer walks or races as she also has fibromyalgia, which affects her balance. "I support friends who do the annual Susan G. Komen walk in this area. Some friends are walking for the fourth or sixth time this year." At HeartFields, she's active in corralling residents and their family members to attend the center's second Tea for the Ta Tas Friday, part of its support for Breast Cancer Awareness during October.
To anyone who will listen, Shelton urges: "Don't do like I did! Don't take care of everybody else first. Take care of yourself first. Get a mammogram as recommended by your physician.
"You might not be as lucky as I was."
Mercy Medical Center (Baltimore, Maryland)
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Title Recommendations based on Paris Geller
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.
After a lifetime of dreaming of traveling the world, 78-year-old homebody Carl flies away on an unbelievable adventure with Russell, an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer, unexpectedly in tow. Together, the unlikely pair embarks on a thrilling odyssey full of jungle beasts and rough terrain.
When an unexpected enemy emerges and threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins!
Gotham centers on Jim Gordon, a homicide detective. Jim wants to clean up Gotham City and do right by its citizens. Unfortunately, he's one of the only men in Gotham who does. Bribery, exploitation, and fraud are rampant, even among those who are tasked with upholding justice. Jim starts to realize that although he "came here to be a cop, this city needs something else."
Having seen the future, time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter is tasked with assembling a disparate group of both heroes and villains. Not only is the planet at stake, but all of time itself. Can this ragtag team defeat an immortal threat unlike anything they have ever known?
In South Park, the adventures of four young boys in rural Colorado become a means for the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, to ruthlessly satirize current events, celebrities, politicians, and to posit their essential thesis, which is that adults are idiots. Crass and deeply perverse, South Park is not for the faint of heart, but the show's predilection for "going there" accounts for both its funniness and insightful social commentary.
In Undertale, the player controls a human child as they navigate the fictional Underground: a large, secluded region underneath the surface of the Earth. The inhabitants of the Underground are called "monsters", a diverse and intelligent group who have been banished from the surface following a war with humanity. The child interacts with many monsters on their quest to return to the surface, with the player making decisions on whether to kill or befriend them. These choices affect the outcome of the game to a large degree, with the dialogue and story outcome changing based on their decisions.
The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.
Danganronpa: The Animation
Being just a normal student without a special talent, Makoto Naegi wins a lottery to attend the prestigious Hope's Peak Academy where only the top prodigies attend. However, instead of this being the beginning of a wonderful high school life, it's a ticket to despair, because the only way to graduate from Hope's Peak Academy is to kill one of your fellow students or be one of their victims.
The Mikaelson siblings are the world's original vampires: Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah. Klaus must take down his prot&?eacute;g&?eacute;, Marcel, who is now in charge of New Orleans, in order to re-take his city.
Jack Sparrow, a freewheeling 17th-century pirate who roams the Caribbean Sea butts heads with a rival pirate bent on pillaging the village of Port Royal. When the governor's daughter is kidnapped, Sparrow decides to help the girl's love save her. But their seafaring mission is hardly simple.
Saitama is a hero who only became a hero for fun. After three years of special training, though, he's become so strong that he's practically invincible. In fact, he's too strong. Even his mightiest opponents are taken out with a single punch, and it turns out that being devastatingly powerful is actually kind of a bore. With his passion for being a hero lost along with his hair, yet still faced with new enemies every day, how much longer can he keep it going?
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Chicago Reporter (https://www.chicagoreporter.com/reporter-impact-july-august-2008/)
Reporter Impact: July-August 2008
By The Chicago Reporter | June 30, 2008
Heartland Alliance presented The Chicago Reporter, the Chicago Community Trust, the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Public Radio and WTTW11 with the Midwest Light of Human Rights Award for the 2007 media collaboration Chicago Matters: Beyond Borders. The award was presented on Tuesday, June 10, at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. The Reporter’s contributions to Beyond Borders included cover investigations of the competition for jobs between African Americans and Latino immigrants (May/June 2007), the plight of undocumented Latino workers injured on the job and denied workers’ compensation benefits (July/August 2007), and the challenges facing thousands of Mexicans seeking jobs and other opportunities in the United States but with few options to do so (September/October 2007). Beyond Borders explored the impact of immigration in Chicago and the region. Chicago Matters is an award-winning multimedia public affairs series made possible by The Chicago Community Trust with programming from WTTW11, Chicago Public Radio, the Chicago Public Library and the Reporter
COVID-19 forces changes in strategies for anti-violence groups
COVID 19 forces changes in strategies for anti-violence groups
Like much of the country, Autry Phillips was caught off guard when a worldwide health crisis descended on Chicago last year. In addition to his long-time, ongoing efforts to reduce neighborhood violence, he now faced the challenge of conveying his organization’s message to residents who were increasingly vulnerable to a rampant virus.
Black and Latinx owners are barely a blip on the cannabis revenue radar
Patrons waiting outside of a south suburban dispensary is becoming a common sight. Black and Latinx owners are barely a blip on the cannabis income radar.
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Blackboard Jungle : its cinematic and cultural significance
It's one of those rare movies that both illustrates and propels an important feature of an historical era
Burning comic books, Binghamton,N.Y.,1948.
Blackboard Jungle exemplifies two major, interwoven concerns of post-1945 American society: fears about the behaviour of children, especially adolescents, and anxiety that so-called juvenile delinquency was caused and encouraged by the popular media, especially comics, movies and music. These concerns were not confined to the USA, but featured in most western countries . Blackboard Jungle was regarded as highlighting issues of teenage (mis)behaviour in cinematic form. It was also accused of fostering juvenile delinquency by providing teenagers with examples on screen for gullible youngsters, especially boys,to copy.
The paranoia over popular media and its presumed dangerous effects on the young reached its height in America.The rising number of teenagers in the population and their increased spending power made them a profitable niche market for comics, teenage movies and music.Comics, accused of inciting godlessness, violence, pre-marital sex and disrespect for authority were a favourite target of politicians, 'experts' in educational and psychology, and child-saver groups. Some blamed Russian communism for trying to poison the minds of American youth. Others blamed unscrupulous businessmen making quick bucks by feeding corrupting media filth to innocent young minds. During the 1950s some church, civic and school communities in America held bonfires in which suspect comics or records were burned. Some communities tried to ban the movie, as did some educational groups.
Blackboard Jungle owes a lot to City Across the RIver
If the 1949 movie The City Across the River is remembered at all today, it is for kick-starting the career of Tony Curtis. Yet Blackboard Jungle owes a lot to the earlier film, directed by the little-known Maxwell Shane. City looks at juvenile delinquency in a rundown area of New York city; education is an important motif ; a crucial scene take place in a classroom where teenagers intimidate the teacher. Both films strive for authenticity. Although Maxwell Shane's movie does not spend as much time in the school environment as does Brooks' later effort, the 1949 movie has a rather more incisive and tragic commentary on education and delinquency. Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause is also indebted to City Across the River in its focus on the relationship between family dynamics and youthful delinquency, although the earlier film is more convincing because its hero is struggling to escape from a disadvantaged socio-economic background and Rebel's hero is a spoiled youth from a privileged home.
See Cliomuse.com on City Across the River.
The movie introduced rock 'n' roll to a wider world, making Rock Around the Clock a huge hit
One of the early recordings of Haley's hit.
Sheet music for 'Rock Around the Clock'.
Bill Haley and the Comets - not exactly teenagers.
Blackboard Jungle is famous for making millions of moviegoers aware of a new form of music - rock 'n' roll. It wasn't the first rock 'n' roll record to become an American hit, and when it was first released released in 1954, Rock Around the Clock was only the B side to the Comets' recording of a now forgotten song called Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town). This song in turn was based on a Hank Williams number,Move It on Over. In May that year the ten-year old Richard Ford, (son of Blackboard Jungle's star Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell, a leading dancer in Hollywood musicals of the time), bought Thirteen Women and didn't like it. He played the flip side and immediately loved Rock Around the Clock. The young Ford followed his parents' keen interest in music: their huge record collections covered everything from classics to blues. Richard Ford's special interest was rhythm and blues - 'race' music as it was then called. One evening the movie's director Richard Brooks went to the Ford home and heard the record. He borrowed it and decided it would be ideal to play over the opening credits and at the end. The young Brooks attended a preview of the film in 1955. "...I remember very clearly my thoughts as the first scene opened on the empty blackboard as the credits rolled by: Wow! Not only were they playing 'Rock Around the Clock', the song that Dad had borrowed from my record collection and given to Mr Brooks, but it was so loud - just like I played it at home. It was wonderful!" (Peter Ford, Rock Around the Clock and Me.)
The same month that Rock Around the Clock was released, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision Brown V Board of Education. THis famously declared racial segregation to be illegal. Not only did the Brown Case spark of years of political, social and legal controversy - especially in the South - it was also crucially significant in the American cultural sphere. For it now brought to the forefront of American life the role of African-Americans in that society, and for many white Americans popular music was the most visible evidence of the increasing significance of that role.
Music and lyrics for 'Rock Around the Clock' How to play 'Rock Around the Clock' on guitar
The Girl Can't Help It - the best rock 'n' roll musical
Blackboard Jungle has an authenticity about the classroom experience lacking in similar movies
These stills from Blackboard Jungle exemplify one of the movie's great virtues: it'd realistic depiction of what an ordinary classroom looked like in the postwar years - and still looks like in many schools today.Brooks insisted on giving the film a realistic, almost documentary look. He insisted that it be filmed in black and white and that most of the students be cast by unknowns. He wanted the school buildings to have the dilapidated and tired appearance of the school that he taught in. Furthermore, the school is what used to be called a 'Manual Training School', teaching Trades, that least glamorous of subjects to an essentially working class student body. The classroom, the focus of many of the movie's key scenes, is drab and crowded. Unlike most Hollywood films set in schools, the class numbers more than a handful of students. And most of them hate school and don't want to learn. Most other movies about schools and teachers - the terrible Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers, for example - feature large, well-lit classrooms with good furniture and students who with amazing rapidity overcome their initial arrogant attitudes to end as worshippers of their saintly teacher.
Other features of Blackboard Jungle also provide realistic touches. Many of the teachers themselves have given up on their students and lack initiative and dedication. Some are simply scared of those they teach. The school's principal prefers to ignore the obvious failings of his school, and does not support his staff. There is racial conflict between students and an ingrained culture of violence.The film's hero is rather self-righteous and fails to provide emotional support for his wife.
Three inauthentic movies about schools and teachers
Sidney Poitier as teacher in 'To Sir Wth Love' -note the enormous class.
Robin Williams admired by his rather small class in 'Dead Poets' Society'.
Teacher Hilary Swank in her large, clean, pleasant classroom in 'Freedom Writers'.
Blackboard Jungle was one of the post-1945 Hollywood films that explored America's racial problem
Brook's film takes an interesting look at racism in America. Hollywood had a disgraceful record in using African-Amercans in movies. Originally most 'negroes' were portrayed by white actors in black-face.When African-American actors were used, for decades they were usually cast in degrading roles: brutish villains, fawning servants, illiterate but cheerful musicians. After World War II the situation slowly improved as a few directors cast African-Americans in meaningful roles, portraying characters of intelligence, dignity and resource. Some movies examined the issue of racial prejudice with some commercial success e.g.Elia Kazan's Pinky (1945). So did No Way Out (1950) which included Poitier. Another 1950 film, Storm Warning, attacked the Ku Klux Klan.Two years before Blackboard Jungle Fred Zinnemann, a major director made a major movie Member of the Wedding, the first Hollywood movie to give an African-American actor (Esther Waters) a major starring role.
In Blackboard Jungle Poitier portrayed an African-American who was not a thug or a figure of fun. His character,Miller, is an intelligent and thoughtful youth, made bitter and uncertain by the racism that he sees around him, especially in the education system. At first he joins his class in tormenting Dadier, the idealistic teacher portrayed by Glenn Ford. Dadier tries to overcome Miller's resentment by outlining the careers of Joe Louis the boxer and Ralph Bunche the diplomat as good role models to emulate. At the movie's climax Miller joins forces with Dadier against the thugs in the class.
This movie started a cycle of Hollywood films about delinquent teenagers
Encouraged by the success of Blackboard Jungle, and the previous year's The Wild One, Hollywood set about making films which appealed to (a) adults concerned about delinquency and (b) teenage audiences supposedly drawn by scenes of delinquency in action and usually featuring the actor equivalents of Paris Hilton One of the more adult movies has become a classic: Rebel Without a Cause, directed by Nicholas Ray, and screened in the same year as Blackboard Jungle. Whereas Jungle set the delinquency issue firmly within a working-class, inner-city context, Rebel looks at it from the viewpoint of prosperous middle-class suburbia. Parental failure is blamed for delinquency, as well as the erosion of paternal authority by wives and mothers. Again, this movie, like Blackboard Jungle, had wide appeal. Teenagers admired Deans (and Natalie Wood); parents could fret over how they should deal with their rebelliousl teenage offspring. However, there's an aura of self-pity and a sense of entitlement and victimhood about the Dean character that ultimately becomes repetitious and unconvincing.
Few movies about teenagers and delinquency were as thought-provoking or well-made as either Rebel Without a Cause or Blackboard Jungle. Most of them were sensationalist, aimed at a niche youthful audience including those having dates at drive-ins. The quickly-made, poorly-acted and unevenly photographed and directed films were watched, or not, by audiences more interested in their dates than in the movies on display.
The posters for such films promise a lurid and violent content, with cars, fights, curvaceous girls and angry youths. What their audience actually saw was usually much tamer and more conventional, with the wicked suffering at the end and the good guys and girls reforming their ways.
An overlooked but significant aspect of such movies is that a surprisingly large number of them feature young women as leading figures. Some of them are dominant characters: leaders, instigators, strong-willed, aggressive. They are far from being demure. Instead, these women are sexually assertive, and dismissive of accepted social norms for females. In many ways they act like disaffected young males: angry, defiant, reckless. In the final reel, of course, the majority have either paid for such effrontery by death, injury, or incarceration, or have been persuaded to forgo their wild ways. Yet such films constitute an early example of the wave of assertive feminism usually associated with the sixties and seventies.
See for yourself: scenes from Blackboard Jungle
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Liberty Records
Revision as of 12:38, 5 November 2020 by Travis (talk | contribs) (Created page with "<div class="WPC-editableContent"><div><font size="3"><i><font color="#FFA500">Logo descriptions and photo captures by <font color="#333333">Logophile</font></font></i></font><...")
Logo descriptions and photo captures by Logophile
Background: Liberty Records was a music label founded in 1955 by Simon Waronker. The company had acquired Pacific Jazz and Imperial Records. The company was acquired by Transamerica Corporation (then-owners of United Artists) in 1968 and in 1971, it was absorbed into UA's record label. In 1979, EMI acquired the United Artists label and in the following year, they dropped the UA name and revived the Liberty name for use on reissues of records from Liberty, UA and Imperial and was used as a label from 1980-1984 for EMI brand Capitol Records. In 1991, EMI renamed the Capitol Nashville label to Liberty Records and was used until 1995. And in 2001, the Liberty name was used one more time for "heritage acts" in the U.K.
1st (and only known) Logo
Logo: On a pistachio green background is a rounded rectangle with black bordering. Inside is a stylized picture of the Statue of Liberty with a sky blue background. Below that is a box with a white background with the word "LIBERTY" with lines above and below the name and with white shadow effects.
FX/SFX: None.
Music/Sounds: The opening soundtrack.
Availability: Only known to have been used on an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVhpQAHCaIE" target="_self">industrial film from 1966</a>.
LIBERTY HOME VIDEO
Logo: On a white background is a box. One part of the box has a drawing of the head of the Statue of Liberty on a white background with the words "LIBERTY" below. In the other part is the words "HOME VIDEO" in a black background.
Music/Sounds: None.
Availability: Seen on VHS releases from the company, such as This Is Garth Brooks.
Retrieved from "https://www.closinglogos.com/index.php?title=Liberty_Records&oldid=26545"
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Home / Health Services / Women’s health services / Laverton Sexual and Reproductive Health Hub
Laverton Sexual and Reproductive Health Hub
Providing confidential, caring and non-judgemental access to sexual and reproductive health services in the west.
The Laverton Sexual and Reproductive Health Hub provides services that assist in managing all matters related to women’s sexual and reproductive health.
With a team of highly trained general practitioners, a sexual health physician and a sexual and reproductive health nurse, we can help with:
providing information relating to sexual and reproductive health
STI screening and education
contraception advice
IUD and contraceptive implant insertion and removal
fertility awareness and family planning
management of PCOS, endometriosis and menopause
The hub is open to all women, and priority access is given to under-screened groups in the community, such as refugees, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and young people.
For more information and to make an appointment, call 9448 5534.
What will it cost me?
This service is bulk billed for clients with a current Medicare card.
Clients who do not hold a Medicare card will be required to pay a fee on the day. Please ask our friendly client services officers for a list of fees that may apply.
95-105 Railway Avenue, Laverton
Our women’s health services provides women with a holistic service that supports them to make…
Women’s health nursing
providing women with a holistic service to support them to make informed decisions about their…
Family violence counselling
Specialist counselling for women with present or past experiences of family violence
Aiming to improve the physical and mental health for people of refugee and asylum seeker…
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Access and Support Program
Supports you to access the services you need to stay living at home, active and…
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Planned Activity Group
Providing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 years and over or younger people…
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As an example, a person can earn a certificate in aircraft mechanics in 18 months at one of the area tech schools.
"We have a small company in Memphis called FedEx. You may have heard of them," Strickland said at Greenwood. "They hire airplane mechanics. The starting salary is $56,000 a year. The second year you're making $72,000 a year. These opportunities are out there. We just want to spread the news."
So many people don't know what's out there for them, he said.
"We really appreciate the governor being here because it puts more of a spotlight on it," Strickland said.
"Everybody, no matter what your politics are, you should recognize in our country we have a growing issue around income inequality. We just do. I don't care what your politics are," Haslam said before services at Greenwood began. "What we want to do is address that in Tennessee by giving more people opportunities up front with the mayor highlighting the open opportunities job-wise and then all of us in Tennessee being able to provide that free college education."
Tennessee Promise launched in 2015 and is open to anyone regardless of age, even individuals who have criminal records, Haslam said.
However, if a record needs to be expunged, the city has $70,000 raised entirely through donations to cover that cost, Strickland said. The amount was lowered by the Tennessee Legislature from around $400 to about $180.
More:Tennessee Reconnect puts college in reach of adult students
About six weeks ago the state launched Tennessee Reconnect(tnreconnect.gov), which helps adults interested in higher education or a work certification
So far, there are about 12,000 applicants, Haslam said.
"The good news is Shelby County actually has more applicants for the program than any other county, with almost 2,000," he said.
High school students learn about the opportunities provided by the state at school, but a mom with two kids may not know, Haslam said.
Southwest Tennessee Community College has space for about 12,000 students, but has an enrollment of about 8,000 or 9,000, Strickland said.
Those are a lot of openings that can be filled, he said.
Strickland also discussed Memphis: Opportunity City (opportunitymemphis.com), a resource that connects citizens with a wealth of available city services like help in accessing Tennessee Promise, getting a criminal record expunged, earning a high school diploma or other social services.
It's information his members need, said Greenwood Pastor Bethel Harris
"They need to hear about it, and they'll make an intelligent decision based on the information they get," Harris said.
After Greenwood, the Opportunity Sunday caravan was scheduled to hit St. Paul Baptist Church on Holmes Road and Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Westwood.
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As cryptocurrency creeps into mainstream, AML risks multiply
By Joe Mont2018-04-03T09:15:00+01:00
By now, our readers—like most of the world—likely divide into two camps: those with a fanatical zeal for the financial innovations (and potential profits) created by virtual currencies and those who see a modern version of “Tulip Mania,” poised to bubble and pop.
Regulators around the world are increasingly falling into the latter camp, especially as the trend starts to slowly go mainstream, fearing fraud and criminal activities.
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, is among those to recently cite the threat of both money laundering and sanctions evasion for cryptocurrencies.
“We need to define the legal status of a virtual currency, or digital token,” she wrote on an IMF blog. “We need to combat money laundering and terrorist financing by figuring out how best to perform customer due diligence on virtual currency transfers. The regulatory challenges are just emerging. For instance, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can be used to make anonymous cross-border transfers—which increases the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.”
The big question is how regulators can, or should, regulate virtual currencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a public offering of sorts to raise money for a new cryptocurrency.
“It is difficult for U.S. regulators to regulate cryptocurrency projects for several reasons,” says Jeffrey Alberts, partner and head of the white-collar defense and Investigations practice at law firm Pryor Cashman. He previously held a post with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
“First, the decentralized organization of many such projects often results in the absence of any formal corporate entity on which the regulators can focus their attention,” he explains. Many participants are located outside the United States and, “many of the entities are so small that they do not have the infrastructure to respond to regulatory inquiries and attempts at oversight.”
These problems haven’t stopped government agencies from inching toward a regulatory regime. Guidance and enforcement actions have focused on investor fraud, Ponzi cons, and get-rich-quick schemes by penny stocks and other entities.
“We even see cases where there are celebrities hawking these things,” says Eric Sohn, director of business product at Dow Jones Risk & Compliance. “I even saw an advertisement the other day that suggested you should invest your retirement money—your 401k money—in ICOs, or taking out a home equity loan to invest in bitcoin. That is pretty scary given how relatively threadbare most ICOs are.”
As virtual currencies and ICOs gradually enter the mainstream, money laundering is poised to take its place alongside fraud as a top concern.
“ICOs are really good money laundering vehicles,” Sohn says. “They are similar to what we call a transit account. You open up an ICO. Then you get the people who are collecting your drug money across the United States to buy those coins. Then, you abscond with that money, look like any other failed business, and open another new line in another country. A lot of countries haven’t started doing any kind of regulation regarding virtual currencies and ICOs. The U.S. is very much the exception.”
Business debate risk, seek cautious adoption
Concerns of this sort are made all the more concerning as mainstream companies choose to either join the fray or retreat from the inherent risk. The latter group is starting to lament virtual currencies in their 10-K itemizations of risk factors.
Among them is Cardtronics, the world’s largest non-bank ATM operator, as well as investment banking giant Goldman Sachs. Bank of America, which once dabbled with patents for a cryptocurrency exchange, wrote in its 10-K: “The widespread adoption of new technologies, including internet services, cryptocurrencies, and payment systems, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services.”
Companies that have decided to block advertising related to ICOs and virtual currency include Google, Facebook, and Twitter (despite its founder’s exhortation that Bitcoin might eventually replace traditional fiat currencies).
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup have separately announced that they will no longer allow the purchase of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies using credit cards.
“The criminal element is very opportunistic and with E-gold, with no controls in place, they flooded into the platform. What you saw was a large portion of the transactions being conducted by people engaged in investment fraud, Ponzi schemes, child pornography, and credit card fraud.”
Laurel Loomis Rimon, Attorney, O’Melveny
Other entities, moving beyond the inherent risks, are embracing the new technology. Overstock.com was the first major online retailer to accept bitcoin payments. The payment technology company Square now allows Bitcoin trading for its users. PayPal added bitcoin to the list of currencies it will accept.
Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce company and cloud-based platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems, now gives merchants the option of bitcoin payments. Microsoft similarly allows bitcoin as a currency to purchase games, movies, and apps in the Windows and Xbox stores.
One-time photography giant Kodak recently announced the launch of the KODAKOne image rights management platform, “a photo-centric crypto-currency.” Chanticleer Holdings, a company that owns a minority stake in Hooters (and has a portfolio that includes other chain restaurants) moved its customer loyalty programs to blockchain, touting that “eating a burger is now a way to mine for cryptocoins.”
The Chicago Board Options Exchange jumped on the bandwagon and became the first exchange to allow bitcoin futures trading. CME Group followed suit and Nasdaq is said to be considering its options in the space.
Stressing sanctions screening
A notable regulatory move into the world of cryptocurrencies comes from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. On March 19, it released a “frequently asked questions” document that may serve as a prelude to including digital currency addresses on its Specially Designated Nationals list of blocked persons and companies.
OFAC compliance obligations are the same, regardless of whether a transaction is denominated in digital currency or traditional fiat currency, OFAC emphasized.
“Persons including technology companies, administrators, exchangers, and users of digital currencies, and other payment processors should develop a tailored, risk-based compliance program, which generally should include sanctions list screening and other appropriate measures,” OFAC adds. “An adequate compliance solution will depend on a variety of factors, including the type of business involved. There is no single compliance program or solution suitable for every circumstance.”
The agency added that it “may add digital currency addresses to the SDN List to alert the public of specific digital currency identifiers associated with a blocked person.”
“Parties who identify digital currency identifiers or wallets that they believe are owned by, or otherwise associated with, an SDN and hold such property should take the necessary steps to block the relevant digital currency and file a report with OFAC that includes information about the wallet’s or address’s ownership, and any other relevant details,” it wrote.
Petro is a sovereign cryptocurrency issued by Venezuela and backed by oil assets. In March, President Trump issued an order banning U.S. purchases of the virtual currency.
The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is also on the case, stressing money-laundering concerns.
“Probably the most significant question you will need to answer in relation to your anti-money laundering obligations as you prepare to undertake a token sale is whether your sale amounts to ‘money transmitting’ under federal law,” says O’Melveny attorney Laurel Loomis Rimon.
Money transmitting regulations apply to virtual currencies and ICOs, according to guidance from FinCEN, she points out. Operating a money transmitting business without meeting Bank Secrecy Act requirements could subject both your business and the individuals involved in it to civil and criminal penalties.
Rimon was previously the top lawyer for the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She also served as the assistant deputy enforcement director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and held senior positions at the Department of Justice, including in the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section.
While an assistant United States attorney in the District of Columbia, she successfully handled the money laundering and money transmitting prosecution of the “E-gold” enterprise, one of the earliest digital currencies. It allowed users to open an account that exchanged cash for online commerce credits that were denoted in grams of gold and accepted by other e-gold accounts. For Rimon, the modern cryptocurency gold rush prompts déjà vu.
“I see a lot of similarities and many of the same challenges are out there,” Rimon says. “The activity (at E-gold) was money transmitting and that was clear in the government’s point of view [even before FinCEN codified the issue], but a lot of the issues that are of concern now are really the same. Avoiding money laundering is still a challenge. You have so many people rushing into this market right now and developing products that don’t have effective anti-money laundering programs.”
A key attraction of modern cryptocurrency offerings is their perceived anonymity. “You have a more advanced technology that is not necessarily anonymous, but tracing can be a challenge,” Rimon says. Like E-gold, many modern platforms invest little time or effort in verification. Although the former service required a name, there was no shortage of those claiming to be Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
Things are only slightly better today. “I see a lot of these offerings are doing some ‘Know Your Customer,’ but whether it is enough or not is still an open question,” Rimon says.
Even a legitimate product or offering can still be compromised, despite the warnings and lessons of E-gold.
“A lot of the focus right now is on being compliant, with a lot of consternation over all of the regulators that have jumped into this and overlapping jurisdictions,” Rimon says. “Nobody is quite sure: Are we a security, or a money services business? Are we both? There is a lack of clarity on the government’s side, and the developers are really scrambling to try to figure out what they need to do. But put all that regulatory stuff aside, even though it matters, you need to make sure that your platform doesn’t facilitate money laundering. That isn’t just a regulatory problem. It is a criminal problem.”
A recent development, Rimon says, is that those in the virtual currency space are seeking third parties that can provide KYC and anti-money laundering services, “but they may be relying on someone else who hasn’t fully built out their platform and product as thoroughly as they should have.”
“But that’s who they look to because that’s who they trust; they are looking for other developers like them who speak the same language,” she says. When it comes to sanctions compliance, however, OFAC has strict liability. “You can say you outsourced it to someone who said they did the screening, but you are still liable.”
Money laundering carries a similar gravity. “When you look at the Silicon Valley atmosphere, there may be a reluctance to go to what might be considered ‘your parent’s AML program,’ but it is something that takes some time and sophistication,” Rimon says, comparing the situation to pressures forcing banks to de-risk. “The regulators have really pushed the banks to push down to their customers the development of AML programs and other compliance programs.”
There are various red flags that can warn of money laundering risks.
“The key is to establish what is the pattern for your particular customer base. When you see anything that is different from what the routine pattern is, then you investigate that when it pops up,” Rimon says.
Another warning sign includes transactions structured to evade a $10,000 threshold, the amount that requires banks to file Suspicious Activity Reports.
These enterprises need to determine if they fall under the criteria demanding they register as a money services business. FinCEN has stated that, in its view, Initial Coin Offerings will be treated as money transmitting firms. As such, they must register as a money transmitting business within 180 days from the date the business was established.
As money transmitters, these firms must comply with both federal law (notably the Bank Secrecy Act and related recordkeeping requirements) on top of regulations imposed by every state in which they conduct business. On the federal front, they will be required to establish a formal AML program with written policies and procedures, training programs, a designated AML compliance officer, and independent monitoring of the program.
A challenge for these cutting-edge AML programs is customer identification.
“People use these keys, long chains of letters and numbers, and you can’t quickly identify who that is, which is the attraction for a lot of users,” Rimon says. “But for conventional businesses, the traceability is a sea change. If law enforcement comes to them and asks for a download of all their transactions, they are used to being asked to do that with some identification of their customers. Now they can’t.”
Rules & Proposals
SEC seeks to thwart cryptocurrency masquerading as ICO
The SEC is taking a different approach to target initial coin offerings than it has in the past in the case of its complaint against Telegram Group and its wholly owned subsidiary TON Issuer.
Coinbase names chief compliance officer
Coinbase, a digital currency exchange, has appointed Jeff Horowitz as chief compliance officer.
Big 4 fill gap in GAAP on accounting for digital currency
With no explicit guidance in GAAP on how to account for business done in digital currency, Big 4 firms are starting to arrive at conclusions of their own.
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French Fighters Mirage 2000 Will Land In Šiauliai
(Source: Lithuania Ministry of National Defence; issued August 26, 2016)
On Aug. 31, French air force Mirage 2000-5 fighters, seen here during a previous deployment, will take over the Baltic Air Policing mission from Lithuania, replacing Portuguese air force F-16s. (Lithuania MoD photo)
On August 28 four French Air Force fighters “Mirage 2000” which will conduct NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States for the next four months will land in the Lithuanian Air Force Air Base in Šiauliai. French soldiers will replace the Portuguese troops currently conducting the Air Policing Mission with four F-16 "Fighting Falcon" fighters.
On August 31 the Exchange Ceremony of the contingents conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States will be held in the Air Base in Šiauliai.
This will be the fifth time when the French troops will protect the Baltic States airspace. France assigned about 100 Air Force soldiers from Luxeuil Air Base in the East of France.
The first mission French troops conducted in 2007 with fighters “Mirage 2000” followed by successful missions in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
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North Shore softball opens spring registration
It may be fall, but the North Shore Girls Softball League is already gearing up for its spring 2012 season.
“It’s right around the corner and I’m both honored and excited to get the recreational season going,” says Cathy Scheg, North Shore’s new president. “We are fortunate to have an amazing group of volunteers working to provide girls 5 to 14 with a positive athletic experience in the game of fast-pitch softball.”
According to Scheg, a goal this year is to extend the league’s community outreach efforts to make more families aware of what North Shore has to offer.
“We want families to know that softball is a sport that girls can enjoy throughout their elementary and middle school years and beyond,” says Scheg. “Many of our North Shore girls go on to play high school softball at Torrey Pines, Canyon Crest, and other high schools.”
North Shore also plans to focus on improving the level of play throughout the league through skills clinics, pitching lessons and a season that includes both scrimmages and games. An emphasis also will be placed on improving managers’ and coaches’ skills with clinics for coaches and league support.
North Shore is the only league in San Diego County to offer a skills clinic for girls conducted by the coaching staff and players of the UCLA Bruins Softball Team.
“We are very proud of our association with UCLA,” says Scheg. “Our girls truly benefit from this relationship. Girls come away from the clinic with new skills, and they are inspired to play the game of softball.”
Registration is now open for girls from 5 to 14 years of age. To learn more about the North Shore Girls Softball League, or to register online for the Spring 2012 season, visit
www.nsgsl.com
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< All Articles
Who is El Chapo?
Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera was born in the rural Mexican town of Badiraguato in the state of Sinaloa. The exact date of his birth is disputed with various sources citing 25 December 1954 and others 4 April 1957.
Born into a poor family with an abusive father in the drug trade, Guzmán had been kicked out of the family home by his teenage years and forced to make his own way in life. With little employment opportunities in his hometown, Guzmán turned to selling drugs, and by the age of 15 had cultivated his own marijuana plantation. During these teenage years he acquired the nickname “El Chapo” (The Shorty) due to his 5ft 6in stature and stocky build.
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It wasn’t long before he entered the world of organised crime and began working for the drug lord Héctor "El Güero" (Blondy) Palma in the late ‘70s, overseeing the movement of drugs within the Sinaloa region (northwest Mexico) and towards the U.S.-Mexico border. Ambitious and ruthless, Guzmán soon earned a reputation for violence, shooting any smuggler straight in the head if they were late with a drug delivery.
By the early ‘80s he was working for Félix “El Padrino" (The Godfather) Gallardo, the leading drug baron in Mexico at the time and head of the Guadalajara Cartel. Guzmán was put in charge of logistics, tasked with coordinating drug shipments from Colombia to Mexico.
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When Gallardo was arrested in 1989 for the murder of a DEA agent, the territories controlled by the Guadalajara Cartel were divided up, allowing Guzmán and a few others to form the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán was now firmly on the radar of the U.S. authorities and considered one of Mexico’s most powerful drug traffickers.
Over the coming years, Guzmán took advantage of crackdowns on Columbian cartels to grow his own market share. Soon his empire was shifting multi-ton cocaine shipments from Columbia up to the United States via multiple transportation channels. Part of his success was his creativity in these transportation areas; examples included the smuggling of cocaine powder inside fire extinguishers and cans labelled ‘Chilli Peppers’.
His cartel were also involved in the production and distribution of methamphetamine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana. It wasn’t long before the Sinaloa Cartel had operations on five continents and nearly 50 countries, making it the most powerful drug trafficking organisation in the world.
The authorities finally caught up to Guzmán in Guatemala on 9 June 1993. He was extradited to Mexico and sentenced to 20 years in a maximum-security prison on drug and murder charges.
Although behind bars, the powerful influence of El Chapo didn’t abate as he bribed guards to maintain his opulent lifestyle, have conjugal visits and even arrange business meetings allowing him to continue operating his ever-growing drug empire.
In 2001, after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Mexico made extradition between Mexico and the United States easier, Guzmán made an audacious escape. After bribing multiple guards, Guzmán was wheeled out of the prison hidden inside a dirty laundry basket. The escape allegedly cost the drug lord over $2.5 million. Over 70 guards were implicated including the warden, who is now in prison for the part he played.
With a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest announced by the U.S. government, Guzmán went on the run. He eluded law enforcement agencies for 13 years, growing the legend of El Chapo to folk hero status. Many viewed him as a Robin Hood-like figure, aided by stories of him strolling into restaurants, asking his bodyguards to remove everyone’s phones, eating his meal, then returning the phones and picking up the bill for the entire restaurant.
By the time of his next arrest in 2014, El Chapo had become a billionaire. In 2009, Forbes controversially announced him as No.701 on their list of the world’s richest people. This placed his net wealth at a staggering $1 billion! He imported more drugs into the U.S. than anyone else becoming the “leading drug trafficker of all time” according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). His rise to the top of the criminal underworld had come at a staggering cost, unleashing multiple drug wars that have taken the lives of thousands of his countrymen.
El Chapo’s luck ran out on 22 February 2014 after he was captured in a hotel in a beachfront area of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, after a large-scale multi-country operation. No shots were fired.
Mexico refused U.S. requests for Guzmán to be extradited to America, wanting him to face charges in Mexico. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto uttered words that would later come back to haunt him stating that another escape, “would be more than regrettable; it would be unforgivable for the government to not take the precautions to ensure that what happened last time would not be repeated.”
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On July 11 2015, El Chapo cemented his reputation as the Houdini of criminals, as he slipped down a shaft under the shower area in his prison cell and escaped through a mile long ventilated tunnel, said to have taken over a year to construct. The tunnel led to a house under construction in a nearby town.
This time Guzmán’s freedom was shorter lived, with authorities catching up with him on 8 January 2016 in the coastal city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa. After a shootout with Mexican marines, Guzmán was taken once again into custody.
Guzmán now resides in a newer prison facility built in an unhabituated area in Juarez right on the U.S. border. This time the Mexican government has approved extradition proceedings with the United States, although Guzmán has filed an appeal to prevent this from happening.
In August 2016, Guzmán’s lawyers won an appeal to have the drug lord transferred back to the prison he previously escaped from and in October 2016 the federal judge presiding over his extradition case, Vicente Antonio Bermúdez Zacarías, was murdered.
In January 2018, Guzmán was extradicted to the United States where he currently awaits trial.
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The State of Siege: Fascism Dramatized
Members of Troupe du Théâtre de la Ville perform The State of Siege. (Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez)
It was brave of Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota and his Paris-based Troupe du Théâtre de la Ville to take on The State of Siege (L’État de siège), a play by Albert Camus that was roundly panned in its original production in 1948 and has pretty much stayed on the shelf ever since. That Demarcy-Mota and his ensemble of thirteen actors have been able to make so much of the play – the production, which Arts Emerson brought into Boston for four performances, is wonderful – is almost miraculous. Theatre students don’t study the dramatic works of Camus and Sartre these days, but when I was in university in the late sixties and early seventies Sartre’s The Flies and Camus’s Caligula were staples on any modern drama syllabus, along with other now-forgotten mid-century French playwrights like Anouilh, Giraudoux and Cocteau. I remember finding The Flies (a version of The Oresteia) intriguing and I’ve always been curious to see the 1951 movie version, but no one gets excited about the existentialist writers any more, and Camus was never much of a dramatist. (His novel The Stranger, the most famous fictional work he ever penned, holds up.) The State of Siege isn’t even striking as an existential work, though it does bring back the era when French theatre was the playground for intellectuals who delighted in defying the reign of realism. It’s a symbolist drama that begins when a passing comet brings a plague to a seacoast city and fascists take advantage of the fear of the citizens and the resulting chaos to impose a severe, repressive rule of order. This is the second time Camus used the idea of a plague as a premise and a symbol; the previous year he had written his novel The Plague. (The State of Siege is not an adaptation.)
The play, written in a prologue and three acts, is close to being unreadable; Demarcy-Mota has slimmed it way down and directed the actors to play it at breakneck speed, which makes keeping up with the supertitles challenging but is clearly the only reasonable choice. The production comes in at an hour and forty minutes, without intermission – and it soars. Yves Collet’s set consists of a raised circular playing area covered with green garbage-bag plastic framed upstage with a second, railed tier backed by rust-colored walls; above the action are three monitors that sometimes provide different perspectives on the action being played below and sometimes comment on it. (For example, when the plague descends on the city, the abstract images on the monitors suggest the proliferation of deadly microbes under a microscope.) Downstage left and right is scaffolding that the actors occasionally climb; they also pop up in the house at a few key moments. Collet and Christophe Lemaire designed the spectacular lighting; the costumes, which combine the sinister and the elegant – especially in the case of Casanova’s Alcade – are by Fanny Brouste. Her most beautiful work is done with the seven actors who represent the citizenry, whose range of deep colors tacitly defy the dehumanization of the fascist government. Anne Leray designed the masks: when Diego and others dispose of the corpses, their heads are covered in creepy skeletal headgear with elongated beaks.
Serge Maggiani plays The Plague, as Camus names the new dictator, who rules with the aid of The Secretary (Valérie Dashwood), The Alcade (Jauris Casanova) and, surprisingly, a drunken clown named Nada (Philippe Demarle) whose philosophical musings somehow persuade The Plague that he would be an ideal fascist. Alain Libolt plays The Judge, whose reluctance to oppose the new regime is perhaps meant to echo the laissez-faire attitude of the German aristocrats who did nothing to stop Hitler’s rise to power. His daughter Victoria (Hannah Levin Seiderman) is in love with the medical student Diego (Matthieu Dessertine), the play’s heroic character, whose sacrifice at the end of the play helps to bring an end to the plague and the tyranny of The Plague. The acting of the entire cast is strong and remarkably consistent – and, I was fascinated to see, it’s more or less in the old Comédie Française style, very forceful and highly attentive to the rhythms of the language. Whatever knowledge North Americans might have of this style is based on the work of actors who appeared in French movies during the thirties, the golden age of French cinema. It was essentially declamatory, though these contemporary players have modified that approach.
Demarcy-Mota is a stirring image maker. Sometimes actors rise up under the green plastic so that it has the look of sea monsters among the waves, and in one genuine coup de théâtre they disappear into the wings, via the second tier, whipping the plastic with them and exposing the stage floor. Toward the end of the evening a transparent black curtain cuts off the playing area and we peer through it at the actors as if we were glimpsing them through a giant cobweb. The production is so rousing and inventive that it successfully upstages the text; the play may have provided a useful starting point for the show, but the less you have to think about it the better. The work of Demarcy-Mota and his cast justifies the unearthing of this mothball-eaten Camus play, which they have fashioned into something memorable.
– Steve Vineberg is Distinguished Professor of the Arts and Humanities at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he teaches theatre and film. He also writes for The Threepenny Review and is the author of three books: Method Actors: Three Generations of an American Acting Style; No Surprises, Please: Movies in the Reagan Decade; and High Comedy in American Movies.
Posted by Critics at Large at 12:00 PM
Labels: Steve Vineberg, Theatre
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James M May
A house Phi Beta Kappa
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Speech by James M. May
On April 24, 2003, at the banquet following the spring initiation, James M. May, Professor of Classics, Provost and Dean of St. Olaf College, delivered the following speech:
“Love of Wisdom the Guide of Life”
Members of Phi Beta Kappa, old and new, parents, relatives, and friends:
I am honored to stand before you this evening as the speaker on the occasion of our annual spring initiation and banquet. My first order of business is, of course, to congratulate all those who have been newly inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Your academic achievements do, indeed, precede you, and you should be rightly proud of the work you have done and the esteem in which your teachers and peers hold you. To be sure, there is a tremendous amount of brain power collected between these walls at this moment; but as every person in this room knows, that’s only a small part of it—if we calculated the number of hours spent in study and hard work over the past four year by these initiates, not to mention the gallons of sweat poured out in that study, the results would seem even more impressive. The recognition that membership in Phi Beta Kappa brings, perhaps the highest and most visible recognition of academic achievement that an undergraduate student can receive, has been hard earned and is certainly well deserved. My prayer for you today is that you will continue, throughout your lives, to use that same combination of God-given intellectual ability, along with your incredible discipline and dedication, to garner honors and glory throughout your entire lifetimes—not only for yourselves, but more importantly for your fellow-human beings and the communities in which you live.
Indeed, the honor of being a member of this Society will, at least to some degree, persist throughout your lives. People have always been exceptionally proud to include “Membership in Phi Beta Kappa” as line on their resumes or CVs, and graduate/professional schools or potential employers have always been equally impressed to read it there. But this honor, like any and all others we might receive, will have proved empty and hollow if we do not continue to cultivate the ideals, the strengths, and virtues that enabled us to achieve it in the first place.
With this thought in mind, during the few minutes I have with you this evening, I would like to call us all to a consideration of the very name of the society, Phi Beta Kappa. It’s a strange name, to be sure, consisting of three letters of the Greek alphabet, an acronym of sorts—we’ve come to use them all the time; HUD, FICA, NEH, RPC—standing for three Greek words: philosophia, biou, and kubernetes . If you were listening carefully during the initiation while our secretary read the history of the society, you learned how and by whom these words, this motto, was chosen. One of my favorite passages from our initiation ritual bears repeating: “On December 5, 1776, a group of young men, students at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, meeting in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, formed the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which they dedicated to high purposes, with eighteenth century eloquence.” Indeed, much of the source of those 18th century high purposes and eloquence must have stemmed from these students’ immersion in the Greek and Roman classics, that course of study which marked all higher education at the time, as it had for literally centuries before. So, these young men, sitting in a tavern, not really unlike the Rueb-N-Stein, probably drinking something slightly stronger than our iced-tea and lemonade, in a room aptly named for the Greek god of the sun, of poetry, of prophecy, and of healing, were thinking on high purposes in the midst of the war with England, five months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They chose the motto of their society, Philosophia Biou Kubernetes, and, at that time, kept it a secret by using the initial letters of these three Greek words, a practice that subsequently spread widely among many other honor societies, as well as social fraternities and sororities.
But the motto itself is what concerns me here. Philosophia is, of course, the Greek word of which our word “philosophy” is a direct transliteration. Narrowly speaking, for the ancients the study of philosophy included three branches or areas: dialectic, the practice of discussing and debating an issue on several sides until clarity about it emerged; natural philosophy, which entailed an investigation into nature and the cosmos, its causes and the laws for its operation; and ethics, the study of human character and moral behavior. The modern discipline of philosophy has, of course, evolved from this notion, and though perhaps it would have behooved all of us to have majored in philosophy, this specialized sense of the term was certainly not what the founders had in mind in their choice of the word (at least exclusively). Now all you science majors out there can gasp a sigh of relief!! In its root sense, philosophia literally means “love of wisdom” (sophia), and presently I will return to what I believe this wisdom and such a love of wisdom meant to the Greeks and Romans, as well as to the young men sitting in the Apollo room on that December morn in 1776.
Biou is the genitive form of the word bios, “life,” or more properly “mode of life,” in English. Obviously it is the Greek root from which our words “biology,” “biodegradable,” “biosphere,” and “bioethics” are formed. The third word of the motto, kubernetes, is a fascinating one. In Greek it signifies “the pilot of a ship, a helmsman, a guide.” Its Latin manifestation is gubernator, essentially the same word, as you can hear, from which we derive our word “gubernatorial,” and ultimately “governor,” i.e., one who guides, governs, or controls. As my colleague Ralph Hexter, classicist and Dean of Humanities at Berkeley, has pointed out, the root of kubernetes also forms the Greek word kubernetike, “a rare word, but used by no less a writer than Plato, and revived in our century to describe the science of guiding, governing, controlling by certain machines that would soon come universally to be known as computers.”* Cybernetics—but that’s the subject of another talk!
So, taking it as a whole, we have a motto that can be translated, “Love of Wisdom the Guide/Helmsman/Pilot of Life.” Obviously the metaphor at work, commonly employed in many ancient Greek contexts as well as here by our founders, is that of the ship being steered or guided by the skillful pilot. For us, the metaphor is, perhaps, somewhat hackneyed, or even dead. Indeed, with the development of radar and sophisticated GPS, navigating the ocean in a vessel doesn’t seem to present the challenges or grave dangers that it once did. But imagine for a moment the difficulty of operating a ship in ancient Greek times, or for that matter in the 18th century, across the vast ocean in the midst of so many hazards and dangers; the skilled pilot was worth his weight in gold! So, the love of wisdom, i.e., philosophy, should be for us our pilot, helmsman, or guide in life.
Well, even you philosophy majors out there might be wondering how “love of wisdom” might practically serve as your guide of life. I believe the answer lies in our understanding of the notion of sophia or “wisdom” contained in the word philosophia or “love of wisdom.” Our founders, being good classicists, had not only studied Greek, but also Latin; as such, they provided a Latin acronym for the society as well, SP, which stands for the motto, Societas Philosophiae, or “Society or Fellowship of/for Philosophy.” Our initiation ritual, somewhat surprisingly, translates this phrase as “The Fellowship of Learning,” and in this regard, though not a literal translation, is certainly very close to what I believe is the intended meaning.
You see, even before the time of Plato, wise men called “sophists“ emerged in the Greek world and offered their services for pay. Chief among their teaching goals was to educate fellow citizens in how to become effective speakers before the courts and in the assembly. As this discipline of rhetoric continued to develop, handbooks were written that contained the rules for composing effective speeches, and these became a staple of rhetorical education. Others, who championed the role of dialectic and ethics over effective verbal persuasion saw these teachers of rhetoric as peddlers of deceit, striving in some cases to make the worse seem the better cause. Hence, from these early beginnings of the two disciplines of rhetoric and philosophy, a quarrel arose between them that stood as a constant backdrop to the ancient intellectual scene, sometimes more important, sometimes less so, throughout most of antiquity. The terms “eloquence” and “wisdom” serve in this debate, more or less, as emblems for two competing educational theories. The question is whether people who are being groomed for service to the community should be trained in a narrow, technical sort of way, allowing their own experience and the experience of others, along with the mere acquisition of the rules for effective public speaking, to serve as their intellectual basis (eloquence); or should such leaders, in addition to the education that eloquence (i.e., rhetoric) affords, also be schooled in wisdom, which includes not only philosophy proper, but all of what the ancients called the artes liberales or artes ingenuae, i.e., the liberal arts.
Many throughout the ages tried to reconcile rhetoric and philosophy, with varying degrees of success. Cicero, the great Roman orator of the first century B.C., argued perhaps most effectively of all (in his work On the Ideal Orator) for a bond that linked both eloquence and wisdom (rhetoric and philosophy), insisting that his ideal orator, i.e., the ideal statesman and citizen, should be educated not only in the technical aspects of persuasion (i.e., rhetoric), but in the broader, noble arts (wisdom). Surprisingly, more than two thousand years later, the same, basic quarrel exists.
In certain ways, our world today couldn’t be further removed from Cicero’s Rome; in other ways, however, things have remained remarkably the same. Although the legacy of antiquity in terms of the liberal arts has been filtered, refined, changed, and dogmatized by many events and many institutions, I would submit that certain aspects of Cicero’s ideal, and certainly the debate between the educational theories emblematized by the quarrel between wisdom and eloquence are with us still today and inform our own discussions (whether knowingly or otherwise).
At St. Olaf College, for example, we boast of offering an education based on the liberal arts, and in doing so and in recognizing that “life is more than a livelihood,” we claim to focus on “what is ultimately worthwhile and fosters the development of the whole person in mind, body, and spirit” (St. Olaf Mission Statement). Cicero’s insistence that eloquence be combined with wisdom or that wisdom be combined with eloquence is, in fact, the basis of our approach to education–in other words, we are dedicated to graduating students in the mold of Cicero’s ideal orator. As a traditional liberal arts program, we reject the narrow technical training that would enable students to pursue a career, but in what we believe would be a much less satisfying and incomplete way. For example, students wishing to become nurses or musicians could simply enroll in a nurses’ training program or in a conservatory; and, to be sure, they might become excellent nurses or musicians per se. But that’s not really good enough according to this way of thinking: we want nurses and musicians who, like Cicero’s ideal orator, are not only trained excellently in their own specialties, but who have the broad wisdom offered by liberal studies, wisdom that will inform their own specialties in ways far beyond technical competency. This is the kind of education, the kind of wisdom to which St. Olaf aspires, and indeed, although we are sometimes buffeted by the demands of the marketplace and other such forces, and have at times even made modest concessions, we remain, I believe, firmly committed to an educational philosophy that insists that “wisdom” must accompany our several forms of “eloquence.” This too is the kind of “wisdom” that the founders of Phi Beta Kappa envisioned as serving as their guide of life.
In a very short time, most of you in this room will be headed off to pursue some sort of graduate or professional training, a training that will be intense, focused, and generally narrow in its scope. This is a good thing: you must become “eloquent” in your respective areas of specialization. But in the midst of that study, and in subsequent years, I beg you to recall and to cultivate the wisdom of the noble, liberal arts, the foundation of which you have received at St. Olaf College. This is the wisdom writ large that is spoken of in the motto of Phi Beta Kappa; a capacious wisdom that will continue to cultivate a sense of wonder and inquiry for your entire life; an expansive wisdom that will inform your area of eloquence or specialty in countless fruitful ways; a wisdom that will benefit not only you and yours directly, but your fellow-citizens and your entire community. Put love of this kind of wisdom in the driver’s seat; let the hand of this kind of wisdom steer the vessel in which you take your life’s voyage. If you do, I can guarantee you at least one thing: it will be one heck of a trip!
*Ralph J. Hexter, “The Consolation of Philosophy,” Initiation Address to the Alpha of California Chapter, University of California, Berkeley, April 22, 1999.
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Saturday Night Fever (1977)
January 14, 2014 · by srogouski · in Film, Male Film Directors · 31 Comments
In the iconic opening scene of “Saturday Night Fever” Tony Manero, a 19-year-old Italian American from Bay Ridge played by a young John Travolta, is walking under the elevated railroad in Bensonhurst. He checks out a pair of shoes in a store window, puts a white silk shirt on layaway, and buys two slices of pizza. He also engages in some low level sexual harassment. Seeing an attractive woman in a tight dress, he doubles back, blocks her path, and propositions her. She rolls her eyes, walks around him, and continues on her way. We forget about it almost as soon as its over, dismissing it as just another example of boys being boys.
While it was marketed as part of the “Disco” culture of the mid-1970s,Saturday Night Fever is actually much closer to Bruce Springsteen’s songs about the fall of white, working class America than it is to the dance craze that started in black and Hispanic gay nightclubs and later moved to the mainstream. We are, in 1977, at a very key moment in American history, three years before the election of Ronald Reagan. Vietnam and the draft are over. The easy sex and drugs that were the “privilege” of the upper-middle-class in the 1960s have been thoroughly democratized, available to anybody with 20 or 30 dollars to spend at a local nightclub. Yet what appears on the surface to be “liberation” is actually the crackup of the last vestiges of the New Deal, the final burst of decadent hedonism before the neoliberal hammer came down in the 1980s.
Tony Manero, as it turns out, isn’t particularly interested in sex. The least favored son, the black sheep of a Catholic family in Bay Ridge Brooklyn, he lives with his younger sister, his unemployed and verbally abusive father, his elderly grandmother, and his harsh, angry but pious mother. Tony’s father, a nasty little soul killer of a man, is an unemployed construction worker. “You got a 4 dollar raise,” he says, dismissing Tony’s good news that his boss at his dead end job at a local paint store actually values him as an employee. “Four dollars buys nothing these days. It doesn’t even buy three dollars.” Tony’s mother, in turn, has little respect for her handsome charismatic younger son, openly favoring his dull, plain older brother, “Father Frank Jr.”
Father Frank Jr., however, clearly lacks a vocation. When he returns home, and announces that he plans to leave the priesthood, his parents are devastated. They blame Tony, who’s naturally curious about the genuine reason his brother is leaving the clergy. It’s too bad the Father Frank Jr. character isn’t given more development. “She’s afraid I’m going to say celibacy,” he says, giving us a hint as to why Tony is the family scapegoat, his manhood. Frank Jr., as a celibate Catholic priest, has been unsexed. No longer a real man, he’s no threat to his mother, who’s shown suffocating in her unhappy, oppressive marriage. “Maybe I’ll get a job,” she says, provoking an angry tirade from her husband, who accuses her of taking advantage of his the temporary loss of patriarchal authority that comes with being unemployed. Tony’s sexual charisma is a constant reminder of the hell that she was dragged into by getting married and having three children. She hates him because he makes her remember the squandered promise of her own youth.
A scapegoat and a black sheep at home, Tony is a valued employee at his dead end job. His boss genuinely likes him. He’s a natural at customer service, but where he really shines is on the dance floor of a local disco, 2001. A talented dancer, he’s also a sex object. If Tony later becomes a rapist, it’s not because he lacks the opportunity to get laid. Annette, a chubby, emotionally needy friend, follows him around so relentlessly that, if the gender roles were reversed, it would border on sexual harassment. “Kiss me,” a drunken, horny woman demands, coming up out of nowhere and grabbing his shoulder. “Are you as good in bed as you are on that dance floor?” a young Fran Drescher asks him practically begging him to take her home. She gets nothing for her trouble but snide verbal abuse passing itself off as witty banter.
But it’s not sex Tony wants.
Dancing for Tony Manero isn’t way to get laid. It’s a way to get respect. However superficial and downright ridiculous disco dancing is, it’s something he’s good at. The women hitting on him are only a distraction. As such, the one woman he falls in love with is the one woman he can’t have. Stephanie McDonald, played by a far from beautiful or charismatic Karen Lynn Gorney, is a 20-year-old version of his mother, a verbally abusive shrew who responds to his advances by telling him that “he’s a loser on the way to nowhere.”
But the unpleasant, unhappy, verbally abusive Stephanie, who, as we later find out, is in an exploitative relationship with an older man in Manhattan is, like Tony, a talented, if untrained dancer. Stephanie may be a bitch who makes an outward show of despising him, but as long as he’s with her, Tony can fool himself into thinking disco dancing is more than just a ritual you go through to get laid. By convincing her to become his partner in 2001’s yearly dance contest, he can imagine that disco dancing is a craft, something that will eventually bring him into the meritocracy.
Stephanie is more than just an unhappy young woman. She’s a willing little sheep in corporate America. A typist at a public relations firm in New York, and a ridiculous parody of a striver and a class climber, she spends most of her time name dropping, and mispronouncing, the famous clients who come into her office. She’s contemptuous of working-class Brooklyn, utterly loyal to and identified with the corporate neoliberal, new world order about to be imposed on New York City in the 1980s. Solidarity is a foreign concept. Tony Manero is a threat, someone who might pull her back down into Bay Ridge, into an unhappy, poverty ridden working class marriage. Stephanie realizes, deep down inside, that by dating Tony she will become Tony’s mother. That she’s already well on the way there eludes Tony completely. He’s as much of a willing sheep, ready for the neoliberal sheering as she is.
For all its marketing as the movie that embodied the disco craze of the 1970s, Saturday Night Fever is a clear eyed indictment of the sexual revolution. Dancing, for Tony, is freedom, the pantomime of sexuality the liberation from his repressed Catholic mother. But sex in the world of Saturday Night Fever becomes petty and mean spirited when it stops being a pantomime of sex and starts becoming actual sex. It’s a ten minute hump in the back of an old Chevy Impala, utterly lacking in Eros or a sense of romance. But it’s even worse. The sexual liberation of the 1960s has become the pump and dump rape culture of the 1970s.
Indeed, Tony despises the women who desire him sexually. Disco, as you may remember, started out in the gay black nightclubs of Manhattan. It was supposed to remain a pantomime, not to become a mating ritual. It wasn’t supposed to lead to marriage. In the gay world, Tony Manero wouldn’t have been working in a paint shop. He would have found a Robert Mapplethorpe to turn him into an icon, a rich sugar daddy to pay the bills and set him up in the Village. But Tony is heterosexual, and, as such, he realizes the absurdity of his predicament. His entire life is dedicated to marketing himself to women he doesn’t want, to putting himself in a position where he could fall in love, get married, have children, and, inevitably, become his father, the one thing, above all, that he fears.
I’ve always been fairly dismissive of the term “rape culture,” which, according to Wikipedia “is a concept that links rape and sexual violence to the culture of a society, and in which prevalent attitudes and practices normalize, excuse, tolerate, and even condone rape.” Yet, after watching Saturday Night Fever all the way through after many years, I can’t help but think that the “Second Wave Feminists” who invented the term back in the 1970s might have been on to something. It’s difficult to watch this film without thinking that it both critiques and in a way embodies the “rape culture.”
If rape is part of an actual “rape culture,” and not just a depraved act of a depraved individual, the rape culture has to be mainstream. It has to include normal men, and men who are downright sympathetic, not just the convenient feminist villain, the ugly man who complains about how “women don’t like nice guys.” Tony is not only sympathetic, he becomes a rapist at his finest moment. After he and Stephanie take first place in the dance contest, beating out a far better Puerto Rican couple, he realizes the contest was rigged. So he declines the award.
“You deserve this more than I do,” he says handing them the trophy and the prize money.
It’s a rather stunning moment for a 19-year-old working class boy from Bay Ridge. Yet, it’s exactly at that moment that he turns nihilistic. He’s lost the one thing he values. There’s no meritocracy in the nightlife of 1970s Bay Ridge, only cronyism and racism. When Stephanie protests that they were as good as the Puerto Rican couple, he grabs her and leads her out to the car. There’s nothing sexual about it. The attempted rape doesn’t flow out of lust but out of contempt. Tony looks more like parent dragging a toddler off to be spanked than a rejected suitor. She fights him off and runs away, but the worse is yet to come. Annette, the girl he rejected earlier, has spent most of the night drinking and taking drugs. She’s a ready victim for Tony’s destructively macho friends, who gang rape her in the back of their car while Tony, after making a half-hearted attempt to interfere, watches passively.
“You don’t give a fuck about her,” one of the rapists says.
Horrifyingly, Tony agrees with him. She’s not worth it. He like Stephanie, has become a striver and a class climber. Annette, the plain, overweight working-class girl from Brooklyn, isn’t valuable. She doesn’t have a high enough price on the market in the coming neoliberal world order to defend.
“Are you satisfied now?” he says as she sobs in pain and humiliation. “Now you’re a cunt.”
Stephanie McDonald, on the other hand, represents Manhattan (this was before Brooklyn was cool). She represents upward mobility. So he gets on the R-train and rides up to the Upper West Side to apologize. “You’re a known rapist,” she tells him, but then lets him into her apartment anyway. Stephanie, like Annette, has accepted her place in the rape culture, although, to be fair, she only knows about Tony’s halfhearted sexual assault, not the brutal gang rape that followed.
Once inside Stephanie’s apartment —- Oh for the days when a job as an administrative assistant would get you a duplex on the Upper West Side — Tony promises to “work on himself.” He vows to put the backward sexual morality of working-class Brooklyn behind him, and become an enlightened citizen of the meritocracy. He and Stephanie sit on the ledge by the window.
“Do you think you can be friends with a girl?” she asks.
Tony expresses some doubt. He also agrees to try. It’s clear they won’t just stay friends, that they will get married and become a carbon copy of Tony’s parents. The 1960s are over at last. The sexual revolution has failed. As the sun comes up, the young couple lean against each other, preparing themselves for Ronald Reagan, AIDs, and the long, miserable 30 year neoliberal hangover.
Tags: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Disco, John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever
vikingbitch · November 25, 2014 - 7:53 pm · Reply→
Reblogged this on vikingbitch's Blog and commented:
I often talk about the beat down that Working White Women get here in FUSA now Amurkistan. Middle class and working class White Women get it from all directions: Jews hates, DieVersity hates us,Upper Echelon Jew Think Whites hates, and our own male peers hate us. We have been dealt a raw deal due to the Neoliberal Era’s commodification of people.
This blogger gives insight via his analysis of Saturday Night Fever into how Neoliberalism tore away at the basic decency and mores of Working White relationships.
Solstice · November 27, 2014 - 1:02 am · Reply→
Please accept the apologies of a small group of people who coined the term Blonde Gynocide. The blogger Vikingbitch is presently cybersquatting in our concept and worse, impersonating at least one of us. We come from NYC and NJ, and created the concept to highlight *the truth* about issues of race, gender, class, etc. facing white women, and men too, especially as they pertain to our hometowns and state.
Hopefully legal measures will force this person to desist from her appropriations of others’ property and identities. Interesting article, sorry there isn’t more we could say about your insightful analysis at the present time.
srogouski · November 27, 2014 - 1:13 am · Reply→
I actually find it a bit odd that this review drew your attention because (except for the scene where Tony recognizes that the dance contest is rigged) Saturday Fever has very little to do with race.
Are you addressing that to VikingBitch?
She has the habit of barging into people’s blogs, and lives, with zero regard for their concerns or interests.
Anybody really.
I’m just curious. Besides, I only filter for spam. Any argument about a film I write about, whoever it’s from, interests me. So you really can’t “barge into” my blog. It’s an open forum.
Solstice · November 27, 2014 - 1:21 pm · Reply→
Well, what would you do, Stanley, if someone went around NYC/NJ pretending on the internet to be you? Wouldn’t you want to set the record straight? This is why Vikingbitch’s bizarre appropriation (it gets worse than that) of someone else’s meme for her URL needed clarifying.
On the other hand, it’s odd that you think race, class and gender are somehow indivisible. They aren’t.
Personally, I don’t remember the scene where Annette was actually raped. Was she inebriated? Or did they actually use brute force/the threat? How horrible that it didn’t register as ‘rape’ back then.
It is admirable that you as a skeptical man attempt to deconstruct what is a very real ‘rape culture.’ It’s also interesting that you locate its etiology in the 70’s. Another angle on it is that America hates women in a way our European predecessors never did. Ever lived in Europe? Study Brazilian history? Frontier countries (Australia included) tend to produce American caricatures of our former European selves.
The fact is, the 70’s ‘grew’ the rape culture exponentially, but it’s roots and underpinnings have always been here.
And Stanley, it’s odd that you don’t find Vikingbitch offensive. You state in your ‘About’ page that you ‘loathe anti-Semites,’ and have no time for racists and misogynists.
srogouski · November 27, 2014 - 4:38 pm · Reply→
I get that vibe from her, but I don’t know her well enough to make a decision. I’ve glanced at her blog. Seems offensive and racist. But as long as her comments and reblogs are on topic I’m not going to police her ideology.
Hey, do you remember LABIA at RU – Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action?!
I remember the acronym, but never had any contact with them.
As for appropriation of online identities, bizarrely enough, I’ve had it happen to me. Some Ukrainian (probably phishers) bought an old domain I used to run, and they are indeed “pretending to be me,” right up to putting my old content up on their site.
But I let the domain lapse, so what can you do? Wait for Putin to dismember Ukraine and put them in prison, I guess. If someone is appropriating your identity online, I’d have to know more about her before I out and out block her. Keeping track of various anonymous identities online is a full time job.
Race and class are related but not identical. Saturday Night Fever deals with class and ethnicity, but peripherally. It’s not clear just what the message is. Tony Manero’s not really very Italian, but identifies as one. His family seems to define themselves more by religion than nationality. What I find genuinely interesting is how he becomes a rapist after he realizes the dance contest is a racist little bubble designed to protect him and his fellow white ethnics against the Hispanics.
Dubbed in Spanish but you can see Tony’s emotions in his face. He’s like “we got beat.” But the judges give him the trophy anyway. He has too much integrity for his white privilege. But 5 minutes later he tries to rape Stephanie in the car. At the exact moment where he recognizes his white privilege, he becomes a nihilist. Self awareness or even political awareness doesn’t mean solidarity.
The scene where Annette gets raped is brutally clear. It’s your basic gang rape, set up to parallel Tony’s attempted rape of Stephanie. Tony, sympathetic though he is, attempts one rape, and stands by and watches a second. And yet in the 1970s he was an icon. That’s really what you need to define “rape culture,” normal, even sympathetic men as rapists, not trolls who pull women into alleys, or nerd gamers who can’t get laid. Saturday Night Fever does indeed show a genuine “rape culture.” How much it reflected the reality of 1970s Brooklyn, I wouldn’t be able to say. It was before my time. But if “rape culture” exists (and if you read the news what happened to Annette in the back seat of a car in Bay Ridge also happens to women at Princeton eating clubs) it looks like it does in this film.
As for Americans being more misogynistic than Europeans, that’s a pretty broad statement. I guess you’d have to begin by specifying which Europeans and which Americans.
Have you ever lived in Europe? Certainly countries like France, England, and the other german and celtic countries exhibit far less misogyny systemically than the US, *in certain ways,* anyway. But there’s an avenue in America for the lucky woman with the will to power; it’s not a common one that opens. And, the consequences can be more severe when it doesn’t. Our rugged individualism and coincident capitalism account for this, but I think the frontier itself also created a Wild West with extreme attitudes towards women.
I’d just have to watch this movie again to comment on the gang rape. You haven’t elucidated on whether brute force was used. I do remember Annette as both a victim of them and of her own willingness to be a victim (I was a kid but watched it later). Tony I remember as being pretty Italian in that the whole context was; how many WASP’s or ‘whitey’ types do you see amongst Tony’s set? John Travolta is half Italian and half Irish, BTW, and comes from Englewood, NJ (or some town right around there).
You’ve hit on a very interesting pivot and psychological process in the character and story, but I’d have to find it and watch again to engage the dynamics meaningfully. I’ve been meaning to sign up for Netflix…
I’m not really that surprised you’re being impersonated, or is it your content they’re trying to appropriate more than just your identity? Vikingbitch has a criminal conviction for theft by deception/false impression, but I doubt she’ll be back to trash the truth about the blonde gynocide concept any further.
Raging Bull comes to mind when talking about Italians, blondes, Brooklyn and complexity, as opposed to what’s often simplistic dynamics surrounding the ‘anglo’ types and meds in NJ/NYC. Both Jake and his blonde girlfriend were caricatures, in a way, but both were sort of equal and real, too, in that dimension. Scorsese had more authenticity when he was younger, I think. His portrayal of LaMotta was painfully honest. His films about the irish have suffered mostly from his unwillingness to cast real irish people in the leads. Shutter Island, however, out in 2009 or 2010, exposed how influenced he’s been by the anti-white posture of Hollywood; every evil and/or crazy sociopathic character is a blonde ‘nordic’ type, while every hero is a Mediterranean. The end crashed horribly due to this Italian self-indulgence, and I’ll come out and say he has absolutely given in to jewish anti-white influence. He may also want to dump the Nazi’s alleged crimes on the germans wholly as a means of vitiating Italian agency in the whole production.
So, are you all polish, Stanley, or part something else too? Are you jewish in there anywhere?
Polish is a nationality. Jewish is a religion.
There *were* a lot of Polish Jews, weren’t there? The idea that “Polish” means Catholic and excludes “Jewish” is paradoxicially both anti-Semitic and Zionist. It buys into the Zionist myth that East European Jews were descended from the original Israelites. It buys into the fascist myth that Jews can’t be real Europeans.
It speaks to the complex side of Polish history that was destroyed by Hitler and Stalin. In the 1920s and 1930s, the de Gaulle-like Józef Piłsudski considered Jews to be genuine Poles. The fascist Roman Dmowski didn’t. Piłsudski later became a dictator, but at one time, he supported a basic “separation of church and state.” Interestingly enough, Roman Dmowski, like a lot of American and British Stalinists today, didn’t consider “Ukrainian” to be a “real nationality.” Timothy Snyder, problematic in his own right, talks about it in his book The Reconstruction of Nations.
http://books.google.com/books?id=xSpEynLxJ1MC&hl=en
As for me, I call myself an “ethnic New Jerseyite.” I was raised Protestant, but grew up on the Irish/Italian side of a mostly black town. I’m waiting for Springsteen to write a song about me. There are real “Polish Americans” in Linden. I have no more in common with them than I do with the WASPs in Westfield and Summit.
Late Scorsese? I haven’t seen Shutter Island. I have written about Wolf of Wall Street. Leonardo DiCaprio is a mostly German American actor with an Italian name. In Wolf of Wall Street he plays an Anglo Saxonized Jew who mocks his friend Donnie Azoff for trying to “pass” for a WASP. Scorsese, like any real artist, is complex. I’m sure somebody, somewhere thinks Wolf of Wall Street is “anti-Semitic.” Some other people think it’s fundamentally Catholic. I think it’s a commentary on 100% American materialism.
https://stanleyrogouski.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/the-wolf-of-wall-street-stanley-w-rogouskis-review/
I don’t really see much of an anti-Irish or “anti-Nordic” bias in Scorsese’s films. Henry Hill is probably the sanest person in Goodfellas, and he’s half Irish. Tommy DeVito, who’s pure Sicilian, is a nut. Scorsese casts casts Liam Neeson as an Irish priest in Gangs of New York. Robert De Niro is mostly Irish and he casts him in all sorts of roles. He casts Willem Defoe (a WASP) as Jesus and Harvey Keitel (a Jew) as Judas. Then he flips the script and makes Judas the most sympathetic character in the film.
I wouldn’t get too hung up on the ethnicity of Scorsese’s actors anyway. Like most “auteurs” he tends to work with the same actors over and over again, Deniro, Daniel Day Lewis, Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci. You find a group of actors you like to work with and stay with them. There were a lot of great Italian and Jewish actors in the 1970s. He would have been a fool not to have used them.
Scorsese’s most underappreciated film, The King of Comedy, casts the mostly Irish Deniro as the probably Jewish Rupert Pumpkin. It’s a work of genius. Its ethnic biases? Your guess is as good as mine. I suppose you might even call it anti-Jewish. Jerry Lewis is a loathsome character. Then again, his assistant, Cathy Long, is equally loathsome, and in a very WASP fashion.
https://stanleyrogouski.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/the-king-of-comedy-1983/
There are *no* WASPS in Saturday Night Fever except for *maybe* Stephanie’s boyfriend in Manhattan. On the other hand, it was directed by an English director, John Badham, and is obviously influenced by an English novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_and_Sunday_Morning
Tony Manero is “Italian” but Italian in the way most Italian Americans are, not very. I never hear him speak Italian. His grandmother does. I think the point the film was trying to make is that the American working class had gotten stuck in small, insular communities that were in the process of cracking up. It’s incredibly pessimistic. Stephanie thinks she can get out of working class Bay Ridge by working as a temp administrative assistant. She’s wannabe yuppie. She doesn’t care if the dance contest is rigged. Tony does. He actually goes out and rejects the whole Italian American bubble, and, just for a moment, makes common cause with the Puerto Ricans. Tony recognizes that his little white ethnic, working-class bubble isn’t worth protecting at the cost of his own integrity.
But his fatal flaw is his misogyny.
Annette gets punished for being sexually aggressive. She pursues Tony. He not only rejects her, he “gives” her to his brutish friends. He watches while they rape her in the back of the car and listens to her crying for help. But is he a villain? Not at all. He lives inside a “rape culture.” Rapists, in Saturday Night Fever, aren’t villains are psychopaths. They’re either ordinary working class men, like Tony’s friends, or they’re outright sympathetic, like Tony. The film indicts all of working-class Brooklyn.
Tony is a misogynist because everybody in his world is a misogynist.
Definitely try watching Katyn, the polish film about the Katyn massacres during WWII, if you haven’t yet. It’s got subtitles but even for anyone uneasy with them it’s an amazing story. Since I’m not polish I don’t have all that much to say on how one would define it, although the notion that ‘irish’ could somehow be reduced to a ‘nationality’ as opposed to an ethnicity seems bizarre and distortionist, even delusional. There were natives to Ireland, England, Sweden etc. It seems sort of fascist to try to claim otherwise.
Rape culture is really capitalism, IMO. I don’t think that makes everyone in one a misogynist, though.
I’ve seen Katyn. Not one of Wajda’s best films, but I suppose a needed corrective to the historical record in Eastern Europe. He’s had an interesting career.
In his first film he was still a Stalinist.
https://stanleyrogouski.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/a-generation-1954/
His greatest film is loaded with the tension between the need to get by the Polish censors and the need to make an honest movie.
https://stanleyrogouski.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/ashes-and-diamonds-1958/
By the 1970s and 1980s, he’s an anti-communist but still making interesting films.
https://stanleyrogouski.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/danton-1983/
I may write about Katyn, but I’ll probably write about Man of Marble and Man of Iron first.
The “Irish” of course are a nationality, one of many “Celtic” peoples. Would you put them in the same category as the lowland Scots (also Celts) or the French in Brittany (also Celts)? The Russians and Poles are both Slavs. Russian and Polish are nationalities. Confuse them at your peril. The Irish and the Scots are both Celts. Don’t confuse them either.
I want to write about Balzac’s The Chouans, where he deals with that very issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Chouans
In 1800, the Celts in Western France might have been more Celtic than French. I suppose Bretagne nationalism (unlike Irish nationalism) is pretty much gone. Napoleon drafted their nationalist leaders and sent them to Russia. But it’s not “fascism” that assimilated Brittany into France or the Scots into Great Britain. It’s not even fascism that genocided the Irish in 1847. It’s the good old fashioned capitalist nation state, the same reason I’m an American (or “North American” as you would say in the Spanish speaking world).
“Fascism” I might argue, is Vladimir Putin trying to establish Russian hegemony over all Slavs. The Poles are a western, Catholic Slavic nation. The Russians and Ukrainians are Eastern Slavic nations. The 19th Century concept of all Slavs having this mystical unity became one of the building blocks of fascism. It gave us the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and was probably partly to blame for Stalinism.
My list of the 100 greatest films | Stanley W. Rogouski · December 12, 2014 - 12:49 am · Reply→
[…] https://stanleyrogouski.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/saturday-night-fever-1977-neoliberalism-and-rape-cul… […]
Arianwen Everett · December 29, 2014 - 9:20 am · Reply→
Finally someone else who recognizes the neoliberal subtext in Saturday Night Fever. I thought I was the only Although, your analysis went far beyond mine and has really bummed me out.
It had never occurred to me that Tony and Stephanie would ultimately get sucked into the condescending, class climbng world of the 80’s. I’d always assumed that Tony’s growth in the film would insulate him in the years to come. Stephanie might come close to joining the ranks of the judgmental yuppies, but Tony was a seeker, looking to find a new way of reordering his life now that the old way had fallen apart, and he would shield Stephanie from the excesses as their friendship grew over time. Throwing in your comments on how rape culture and the financialization of human worth intersect with Stephanie and Annette as examples of high value and low value in the sexual marketplace, I’m beginning to think you might be right. The two rape scenes weren’t merely melodrama born of lazy storytelling, but an integral demonstration of Tony’s replacing one distorted version of living in the world with another. There was no redemption to Tony Manero. He didn’t grow as a human being.
While you made me think, you also ruined this movie for me. At least I still got the music and the excellent choreography.
srogouski · December 29, 2014 - 9:48 am · Reply→
Tony’s rejection of his “white privilege” was a mark in his favor. His failure to come to Annette’s rescue is as bad as what Clerici did in The Conformist.
Oddly enough, it was my grandmother who explained all of this to me back when I was 12 years old.The less said about the Saturday Night Fever sequel, probably the better.
Giant Escape City (2015): First Impressions | Writers Without Money · July 3, 2016 - 3:54 am · Reply→
[…] to frame my review of The Omen (which got linked by the biggest newspaper n New Jersey) and my review of Saturday Night Fever (which was one of the first things I wrote for this blog, way back when it was called “Pair […]
Smokey and the Bandit (1977) | Writers Without Money · October 26, 2016 - 5:41 pm · Reply→
[…] only a great “bad” movie. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the world of the late 1970s. Saturday Night Fever, which was released a few months later, showed the dark side of a democratized … Smokey and the Bandit was a lot more optimistic. Where Tony Manero and his thuggish friends in […]
The Four Most Beautiful Words in the English Language – Thoughts From my Kitchen · November 12, 2016 - 2:59 am · Reply→
[…] by spending, spending and more spending. I was informed by many who were of age during this era that the 1980s was the most reactionary as the Establishment set to undo all of the social progress made in the […]
Eric Kay · January 29, 2017 - 5:38 am · Reply→
Amazing writing, thank you!. I found this critique after searching “Saturday Night Fever is fucked up,” but you describe it much more eloquently and I love the class analysis. I am 31 and I watched this movie because it seemed iconic and I had a sense that I was missing on on something culturally significant, historic–that image you describe of John Travolta pointing in his whige suit seems to be in my brain since birth. But this was no feel-good precursor to Grease that I can sing along to on family car ride without feeling nauseated.
srogouski · January 29, 2017 - 5:44 am · Reply→
Thanks. It’s one of the most underrated films of the 1970s, although very dark.
It’s almost hard to believe anybody couples it with Grease. Aside from Travolta they have very little in common.
Tony Manero (2008) | Writers Without Money · February 16, 2017 - 5:53 am · Reply→
[…] that Tony Manero was the 19-year-old Italian American disco king played by John Travolta in the 1978 classic Saturday Night Fever. Saturday Night Fever, as I have previously argued, was not only an international blockbuster that […]
Will Mega · April 2, 2017 - 8:24 am · Reply→
I enjoyed your analysis, thank you. This movie, particularly the illustration of rape being an accepted act with little or no consequence to the offender, shows me that American society has been fucked up for a long time. However when you package it in great music, awesome dance moves, and beautiful white people, it is seen as a masterpiece. Shit it made John Travolta a star and cultural icon. America the beautiful.
theunnamedanddirectionlessblog · May 11, 2017 - 2:47 am · Reply→
I didn’t consider Anette to be overweight but the gang rape scene was truly the darkest and most disturbing scenes I’ve ever seen in a film, particularly considering the fact that it was passively witnessed by a protag who had a fairly happy ending. And I thought my generation’s rape culture was ground breaking.
srogouski · May 11, 2017 - 6:04 am · Reply→
Yes. It’s one of the most disturbing rape scenes in film, partly because the rapists aren’t presented as monsters, but just as ordinary men who don’t even realize they’re rapists.
CeeCee · October 21, 2019 - 1:54 am · Reply→
The commentator Solstice asking over and over again if “brute” force was used to rape Annette is rape culture in itself. Rape is brutal ENOUGH! The idea that she didn’t resist enough or they weren’t rough enough to justify if it was really rape is disgusting. I remember Saturday Night being about dance so when I finally watched it I was shocked that Rape was even in it, it was never mentioned or talked about, it was also unnecessary like most rape scenes in movies and I disagree about it having some profound hidden meaning more than rape for the purpose of shocking or tantalising viewers. Rape being in so many movies especially of this era IS rape culture!!!
srogouski · October 21, 2019 - 1:56 am · Reply→
“Solstice” was a white supremacist troll I kept around for my own personal amusement. Interestingly enough it was my conservative, Lithuanian Catholic grandmother who really clued me into the sheer brutality of the film. She spoke very harshly to my mother for taking two under-aged kids to see it. And yes, that’s the way it was marketed in the 1970s, as a fun movie about dancing.
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) | Writers Without Money · January 1, 2020 - 4:45 am · Reply→
[…] sex-negative movie you can possibly imagine was successfully marketed as a romance. Like the earlier Saturday Night Fever, which was sold as a fun movie about dancing, but which was in reality a dark film about rape […]
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[…] most read article on my rather obscure blog is an analysis of the classic 1970s film Saturday Night Fever that I basically stole from my paternal grandmother. Back in the 1970s and 1980s the ideological […]
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Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP
Certificate in Creative Placemaking Program is Bigger and More Diverse than Ever
A dancer, a realtor, an architect, a planner and an theater director walk into a room. It's not a joke. People in these professions will gather in a classroom as part of this year's incoming class of the Certificate in Creative Placemaking program. They hail from 11 states and represent most regions of the country. They are recent college graduates, mid-career professionals and seasoned experts.
"There's a palpable energy and excitement," said Chris Archer, who co-produces the program for the New Hampshire Institute of Art in collaboration with The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking. "We again are seeing a wide range of professional sectors being represented. This year's group seems to really understand that creative placemaking is not just a trendy term from Wikipedia. It's a craft and a craft that needs to be learned." Archer is Associate Dean of Community Education at NHIA. This is the second year of the partnership between NHIA and NCCP. The certificate program was created by NCCP Executive Director, Leonardo Vazquez, PP, and was offered before by Rutgers University and Ohio State University. The program is designed for busy people. Students begin with three days of hands-on workshops in New Hampshire. That portion is followed by online instruction and coaching and culminates in the production of a capstone project by each student, a real-world application of creative placemaking strategies. Students will arrive at NHIA in September from Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Wisconsin, West Virginia, California, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia. Their job titles include the following: director of dance at a state university; executive and artistic director of a theater company; a senior planner of a mid-sized city; a destination branding consultant; a project coordinator of a large metropolitan transit authority; and a studio artist. The New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority is providing five scholarships for New Hampshire residents this year. "We have seen first-hand that integrating arts and culture in our communities can be transformational," wrote Executive Director, Katy Easterly Martey. "We are excited to host a new and impressive class of fellows and look forward to seeing how the program enables them to lead inspiring work that will make a difference in New Hampshire." In fact, many of the students are being sponsored by their employers; municipalities and other organizations, said Archer. "It's impressive to see that these organizations see this as an investment," Archer said. This year's class is almost twice as large as last year's class of 14. That cohort included John Sullivan, a Montclair, NJ resident, high school science teacher, and vice president of Bike and Walk Montclair. Sullivan's capstone project will change the character of Montclair's bustling downtown, when two parklets will temporarily replace parking spaces and serve as a spot to gather, perform, and make art until the cooler weather arrives. He wrote in his final paper that he valued what he learned about group facilitation, communication and dynamic and community-driven process. "It was the skills I learned ... that are most directly responsible for me being able to take my tactical urbanism work to the next level!" wrote Sullivan. Five seats remain in the program as of this writing.
Growing a healthier civil society through creative placemaking
NCCP to sunset in 2021
To Our Dear Friends and Supporters of NCCP, We know we can speak for so many of us when we say that the past year has been a challenge beyond our wildest imaginations. 2020 left no company exempt fro
Valuing creative placemaking in real estate development
Board Chair: Colleen Finnegan Kahl
Founding Director: Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP
28 Valley Road
This website uses cookies to identify logged in site members, track user engagement, and for security purposes. The National Consortium of Creative Placemaking will not share your personal information without permission and does not sell your personal information to any third parties. You may choose to manually clear cookies in your browser settings.
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Arts paint a pretty picture
Nonprofit leaders say the worst is over for their beleaguered sector.
More than 60% of the city's cultural groups reported that their organizations' attendance and fund raising improved in the first half of the year, compared with the second half of 2003, according to a semiannual survey conducted by Crain's and consulting firm DHR International Inc. A full 62% said the entire industry was rebounding, a significant increase from the previous survey, in which only 27% believed the industry was improving.
Arts institutions were even more optimistic about the future. Sixty-six percent said they expected attendance and sales to increase further during the second half of 2004 versus the first half. Only 11% expected a moderate decline. More than half, or 53%, of the groups surveyed, expected increases in fund-raising during the second half of the year as well.
A new U.S. president could help them even more, arts executives say. A full 94% said a Democratic president would be more likely to support the arts.
Sponsored Content: Crain’s Health Pulse Webcast:Health care’s gender divide: How the pandemic has hit women harder
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Coronavirus: Acts of kindness and compassion – Dr David Crichton
In recent days, I’ve been inspired by the actions of Captain Tom Moore, originally from Yorkshire and a fellow ex-serviceman, I feel very humbled by his steely determination to complete his challenge and to do something for others.
Captain Tom had wanted to thank the ‘magnificent’ NHS staff who had helped him with cancer treatment and a broken hip and to show his support for staff working on the frontline, caring for patients with coronavirus.
He set himself a target of walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday, originally aiming to raise £1,000 for NHS Charities Together. Tom has now completed his challenge and as I write this, the amount he has raised is over £26 million.
Tom has captured the heart of the nation. His kindness has provided a positive focus during the current Coronavirus situation and his fundraising has shone a bright light across the UK, the world and across all generations, bringing people together to celebrate his determination and wonderful achievement.
His daughter describes him as “a beacon of hope in dark times and I think we all need something like this to believe in.”
These are challenging times but if we all pull together, we can make things easier to get through it.
Following the government guidelines stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives, does require us to behave and act differently. Spending so much time at home can cause stress and anxiety and sometimes cause tempers to flare. We must try to show compassion and tolerance to those we live with, friends we connect with on line and the key workers we may come in to contact with.
Those key workers such as bin collectors, supermarket staff and healthcare workers are all going above and beyond to ensure essential services still run and that the vulnerable are supported. It is heart-warming to see everyone come together to show our appreciation of their efforts every Thursday with the #clapforourcarers.
Unfortunately, I have been made aware of a couple of incidents recently in Doncaster where NHS staff have been on the receiving end of unnecessary abuse and even experienced damage to their vehicles whilst at work. I’m sure you will agree that this is unacceptable, especially for our health staff who go to work to serve the people of Doncaster and expect to be able to do so in an environment free from violence and aggression. We know the vast majority of people support us and appreciate our work and we thank you for your patience and understanding.
Now more than ever, we need to stand together and support each other. If we can keep calm and show kindness to others, then this new world in which we find ourselves will feel less alien and easier to get through.
As Captain Tom said on the completion of his challenge, “You’ve all got to remember that we will get through it in the end, it will all be right. For all those people finding it difficult at the moment, the sun will shine on you again and the clouds will go away.”
Here are some resources/links to support your wellbeing during this time:
www.actionforhappiness.org
Please, stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives.
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When Virgin EMI approached DIABOLICAL to promote Laura Marling’s fifth album ‘Short Movie’, we were very excited about the prospect. The challenge was to come up with a campaign that would not only be creative, but also provide social media content to generate talk-ability prior to the album release.
In response to the brief, we came up with a big idea that had not been done before – we decided to paint the town yellow, red and blue. The abstract album cover was just like a work of art, so much so that we decided to use this as the backbone for the campaign. The big idea was to turn five billboards around London into individual pieces of art – we’re talking large scale, live art. We searched high and low for five up and coming, local artists to create their unique and inspiring interpretations of the original artwork. The installations were filmed from start to finish, providing Virgin EMI with what essentially was a ‘Short Movie’.
The campaign generated buzz on London streets, and major music titles such as NME got wind of the campaign, creating a bit of a PR frenzy. The video footage captured, was used as content for the Laura Marling twitter feed to encourage interaction with her followers.
Check out our video below!
LIVE ART TO PROMOTE THE ALBUM RELEASE
CAMPAIGN FILMING USED AS SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT
CAMPAIGN ACTIVATED ACROSS KEY LONDON LOCATIONS
ALBUM REACHED NUMBER SEVEN IN THE OFFICIAL UK ALBUMS CHART
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One South Home Avenue | Topton, PA 19562
Organizational News
Diakon, Lutheran seminary at Philadelphia recipients of major bequest; funds will help to support services for children and families
Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries and The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia today jointly announced the receipt of a more than $14.5 million bequest that will be split evenly between the two organizations.
The bequests of more...
Old Main on The Lutheran Home at Topton campus named to national register of historic places
The iconic Old Main building on The Lutheran Home at Topton campus now has its place in history assured.
Recently, the building—which dates to the late 1800s—was listed in the National Register of Historic Places....
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Involvement of NF-κB and HSP70 signaling pathways in the apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells induced by a prenylated xanthone compound, α-mangostin, from Cratoxylum arborescens [Corrigendum]
Authors Ibrahim MY, Mohd Hashim N, Mohan S, Mohd Ali H, Abdelwahab S, Kamalidehghan B, Ghaderian M, Dehghan F, Salim LZ, Karimian H, Yahayu M, Ee Cheng Lian G, Abdulla M, Farjam AS
Received 9 December 2014
Accepted for publication 9 December 2014
Published 12 June 2015 Volume 2015:9 Pages 3001—3002
This Corrigendum has been retracted.
Ibrahim MY, Hashim NM, Mohan S, et al. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2014;8:2193–2211.
On page 2193, author affiliations, “Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia” should be “Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia”.
Introduction, first paragraph, the text should read: “Breast cancer has become a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women globally. The American Cancer Society (ACS) reported that breast cancer incidence has an estimation of 26% of all new cancer cases, which is the highest in ratio among all the cancers in American women.1 The National Cancer Registry (NCR) in Malaysia has reported that one in twenty Malaysian women are at a risk of acquiring breast in their lifetime.2 The incidence rate in Malaysia is still considered low if compared to Europe and United States.3 Up to 70% of breast cancer development causes occur in women is reported to be of environmental factors and lifestyle.4,5”
Introduction, second paragraph, first sentence, the text should read: “Radiation therapy has become a valuable tool among cancer treatment strategies for the control of local and regional diseases after 1960 with the invention of the linear accelerator, but, like surgery, radiation therapy alone cannot enucleate metastatic cancer.”
Discussion, first paragraph, first sentence, the text should read: “Apoptosis has a vital role in many functions, ranging from fetal development to adult tissue homeostasis.32”
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Handed down for generations, the recipe used to make Hatfield & McCoy Moonshine is as authentic and original as the mountains and streams that bear the family names. The original recipe belongs to Devil Anse Hatfield and is currently produced in small, handmade batches, six days a week, in the micro-distillery in Gilbert, West Virginia, on original Hatfield land.
The Hatfield-McCoy feud began in 1875 between rival families of Devil Anse Hatfield and Ol' Randall McCoy. The story of “The Feud,” now over 135 years old, has become a modern American symbol of the perils of family honor, pride, justice, and vengeance.
H&M Bee Sting
H&M Devil's Brew
H&M Moontini
5 Cool Things You Didn't Know
About Moonshine
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Now is the time to take the first step toward recovery – 24/7 intake assistance available – 1-800-417-0485
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In-Patient Drug and Alcohol Detox Facility Located in Redlands, California
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How Is Black Lives Matter Winning?
Waleed Shahid
The following excerpt is from an article appearing on Dissentmagazine.org and was reprinted on EBONY.com with permission.
Over the past month, organizers in the Black Lives Matter-Minneapolis chapter have been demanding information and an investigation into the shooting and killing of twenty-four-year-old Jamar Clark, an unarmed Black man. They have asked for the names of police officers involved, an independent federal investigation, and the public release of video footage depicting the shooting. While the officers’ names have been released and a federal investigation is now underway, the fight over the release of the video continues to escalate.
“The demand to release the tapes is one that resonates deeply with the community, as the city of Minneapolis has a culture of violence it is unwilling to address,” said Miski Noor, an organizer with BLM-Minneapolis. “How are we to trust a system that continues to prioritize and benefit from Black death, and then hides, alters, or destroys the evidence of such action?”
The latest demand to #ReleaseTheTapes in Minneapolis fits into a pattern of demands by activists organizing under the banner of Black Lives Matter. Some observers claim that if we want to create a world in which Black life truly matters, activists will need more specific demands that will have a greater impact. But the movement for Black lives has repeatedly shown the strengths of a different kind of strategy.
The demands of the movement so far have been diverse and not necessarily unified. On the one hand, the demand chanted on the streets of Ferguson and New York was “simple,” as Johnetta Elzie put it in the New York Times: “Stop killing us.” In late August 2014, the social movement organization Ferguson Action released a long list of demands that went widely unnoticed. Nonetheless Oprah Winfrey and Al Sharpton criticized the movement for failing to articulate clear demands.
Calls began to emerge from different sectors of the racial justice movement for body cameras, civilian review boards, and data collection on police shootings. Elzie and Deray McKesson launched Campaign Zero in August 2015 to provide policy proposals for police reform. In September, Alicia Garza of Black Lives Matter and R.L. Stephens of Orchestrated Pulse had a back-and-forth in In These Times, in which Stephens criticized what he perceived to be the primary demand of the movement: asking politicians to utter the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” Garza responded by saying that the point of the exercise wasn’t simply to repeat the phrase, but to “expos[e] where candidates stand as it relates to Black people.” Garza’s rebuttal illustrates how Black Lives Matter’s strategy has operated: its rallying cry is used to dramatize where both the public and those in power stand.
Black Lives Matter’s successful entry into the public consciousness is largely due to their rallying cry. In traditional political organizing demands are often “instrumental” and aimed at a specific policy change. Instrumental demands are chosen based on their winnability within the limitations of an existing political context (a budgetary increase or decrease on a particular issue, for example) or by the benefit offered to a narrowly defined constituency (a union fighting for a neutrality agreement from an employer). While instrumental demands are essential for organizations and their members, they often fail to reach a broader public. The campaign’s terrain is limited to one between an organization and key decision-makers, and the debate can be too technocratic to keep the public’s attention.
But much of the Black Lives Matter movement has chosen a more indirect and symbolic route. Instead of the instrumental approach, movements and large-scale mobilizations often pursue symbolic demands that center the moral crisis at the heart of their struggle. These demands are not framed by their policy impact, but by how they “dramatize for the public the urgent need to remedy an injustice,” write Mark and Paul Engler in their forthcoming book on social movements, This Is an Uprising.
On the whole, the primary demand of Black Lives Matter has been a moral one, as put by both Garza and Elzie: justice for those killed by police officers and an end to police violence in Black communities. This is how the media and the public have generally understood the goal of Black Lives Matter. Thousands of people across the country have rallied around this simple idea, causing a dramatic shift in the political climate and public consciousness regarding racial inequality in our country. Before events in Ferguson, 46 percent of Americans believed that more changes were necessary to ensure that Blacks and whites had equal rights. After a year of protests, the Washington Post found that 60 percent of Americans think the country needs to change to address racial inequality. Today 53 percent of whites believe changes must be made, compared to just 39 percent in 2014.
The numerous symbolic actions taken by Black Lives Matter—large marches, die-ins, blocking traffic, and even disrupting the speeches of presidential candidates—have shifted public opinion. These high-profile actions have not necessarily focused on receiving a concession from a particular decision-maker, but have instead tried to draw public attention to the issue of racism and compel ordinary people to take action—or at least choose sides.
Because of this change in the political climate, several municipalities have adopted reforms regarding police conduct, community oversight, limited use of force, independent review boards, body cameras, de-escalation training, ending abusive revenue generating practices, and prohibiting police departments from using military weapons. Other racial justice campaigns have also been boosted by the energy generated by Black Lives Matter. Campaigns for the softening of three-strikes laws in California, against the construction of a new jail in Philadelphia, and for “banning the box” that allows employers to see a candidate’s conviction records, all won important victories this year.
Perhaps even more important than the local and state-level changes that have already been implemented, there has been a huge shift in the public conversation regarding race and policing in the United States. All of the major Democratic primary candidates have been pushed to develop more detailed proposals on racial justice than any candidate did in 2008.
Foundations and community organizations have launched brand new funding opportunities and grants to fund racial justice projects.
And unions like the AFL-CIO and SEIU are talking about the connections between the movements for labor and racial justice. These victories by no means suggest that the battle to end racism in the United States is over. But it is significant that hundreds of thousands of people have been moved to protest in dozens of cities for a demand that symbolizes the worst aspects of racial inequality in this country: Black death at the hands of public officials.
How Black Lives Matter Fights in the Court of Public Opinion
After the Black Lives Matter-Minneapolis protestors’ demands for a federal investigation and to release the names of the police officers involved in the shooting were met (a week after protests began), the group shifted to calling for the release of the police video footage. The group launched their #ReleaseTheTapes campaign over three weeks ago as people began a sit-in outside the city’s 4th Precinct headquarters. #ReleaseTheTapes is in keeping with the crucial role that video has played in previous police shootings. By refusing to release the video, authorities in Minneapolis are following a precedent set by their colleagues in Chicago.
For a year the city blocked the public release of a video showing the murder of seventeen-year-old Laquan Macdonald, arguing it would interfere with an ongoing investigation. The video was eventually released after pressure from activists and the work of whistleblowers and journalists who pursued Freedom of Information requests. As Jamar Clark’s case heads to a grand jury, the movement powerfully demands that the value of Black lives be determined not behind the closed doors of a courtroom, but in the court of public opinion.
Click here to read the full article at Dissentmagazine.org.
In this article:black lives matter, Dissent Magazine, minneapolis
Black History from the Pages of EBONY: African-Americans in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Stop Dating Non-Black People Who Are Silent About Our Struggle
A Look Back on the Death of Mike Brown in Ferguson
Jeff Sessions Blames BLM, Antifa and ACLU for Increase in Gun Deaths
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BritainJan 9th 1999 edition
THE Treasury is not in the business of running up the white flag. So what explains its retreat from its long-standing opposition to earmarking taxes for a specific purpose? Hypothecation, as this is known in the trade, has routinely been condemned by the mandarins of Great George Street. They believe that hypothecation not only undermines public spending controls but inhibits government from determining spending priorities.
Not long ago, the keepers of the public's purse-strings were still resolute in holding the line. But, deserted by Gordon Brown, the mandarins suddenly appear to have lost heart. John Prescott rubbed in the extent of the retreat when introducing his recent consultation paper on traffic. Local authorities, he stressed, would have the right to spend all the revenues from congestion and non-residential parking charges in their areas on transport schemes for at least the next ten years. Reluctantly the Treasury has also been forced to accept that legislation setting up the new elected mayor of London should be amended, to make it crystal clear that money raised by congestion charges should be spent on improving public transport in the capital.
Pressed by the Home Office, the Treasury has also now agreed to allow the police to keep millions of pounds raised in fines from motorists trapped by speed cameras. The money will be used to improve enforcement levels. The Treasury has also said that revenues from parking fines can now be used to pay for improved enforcement. And ministers have confirmed that they are considering allowing fines on polluters to be used to fund environmental schemes.
Where will this retreat end? A Treasury civil servant accepts that there has been a change, saying that the Blair government “does not take a dogmatic view of this.” Labour's criteria for hypothecation have not been spelled out, but it appears that acceptable schemes must be easily administered and self-financing. Speed-camera fines, for example, will rise by 50% to £60 to meet the costs of enforcement.
The Treasury has sought to draw a distinction between charges for, say, parking or congestion (the revenues of which it accepts can be hypothecated), and ordinary taxes which must remain inviolate. But the landfill tax has already breached this principle. Its revenues are being earmarked to finance environmental schemes and lower national insurance contributions. The £5.2 billion windfall levy on the “excess profits” of the utilities, one of the first actions of the Blair government, is another example of a hypothecated tax. It has been used to fund Labour's “New Deal” for the young unemployed. Plans for further hypothecated anti-pollution taxes are now on the drawing board. A report, commissioned by the chancellor from Lord Marshall into the merits of an industrial energy tax, recommended the recycling of carbon-tax revenues into environmental protection.
The Treasury is still resisting hypothecating mainstream tax revenues. It has so far successfully fought off an idea promoted by Frank Field, the former minister for social security, that up to half the budget of the NHS should be funded by a health tax. But now that the principle of hypothecation has been accepted, it may be difficult for it to resist further encroachments into its control of the public finances.
Some Whitehall observers believe that the Treasury's apparent change of heart owes more to political opportunism than genuine conversion. Andrew Dilnot of the Institute for Fiscal Studies says hypothecation is just another way to raise taxes. It will not take long, he claims, for the proceeds to be substituted or diverted to the government's preferred ends. History, it must be acknowledged, is on the side of the cynics. Both the Road Fund and the National Insurance fund started life as hypothecated taxes in the early 20th century—but ended up firmly in the Treasury's maw.
The National Lottery is a more recent case. At the outset solemn ministerial pledges were given that none of its receipts would be used for general public spending. But now £1.4 billion, 13% of the proceeds, is being diverted into health, environmental and education spending. The Treasury, doubtless, will feel vindicated: that is just what it believes will happen with all hypothecated taxes. In other words, they will go to the Treasury.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Hypothetical"
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We Urge All Senators to Closely Examine Judge Barrett’s Views on Environmental Law – EDF
Statement of Environmental Defense Fund General Counsel Vickie Patton – October 7, 2020
Sharyn Stein, 202-905-5718, sstein@edf.org
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he still plans to proceed with the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court prior to the November 3rd election. We urge all Senators, in accordance with their duty to the American people under the U.S. Constitution, to take the time needed before casting a vote to closely examine whether Judge Barrett respects the bedrock judicial precedents and statutes that protect public health and the environment for all Americans.
“When it comes to any nominee to the high Court, we ask whether the nominee, if confirmed, respects the congressional enactments and foundational legal precedents that make up our nation’s public health and environmental laws. Judge Barrett’s record warrants close scrutiny for adherence to central tenets of environmental law.
“People threatened or injured by public health and environmental harms depend on access to the courts to redress those harms. This is a pillar of the American justice system, and we recommend Senators and the public carefully review Judge Barrett’s position on it. Judge Barrett has ruled in several recent cases that plaintiffs lack standing to redress injuries. See, for example: Casillas v. Madison Ave. Assoc., 926 F.3d 329 (7th Cir. 2019) (held consumer lacked standing to challenge a debt collector’s failure to adhere to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act); and Protect Our Parks, Inc. v. Chicago Park District, 971 F.3d 722 (7th Cir. 2020) (held residents alleging violations of state public trust doctrine lacked standing to sue on that claim in a case where all parties agreed standing was not an issue). The Senate should thoroughly evaluate Judge Barrett’s views on people’s access to the courts in public health and environmental cases.
“Judge Barrett’s commitment to precedent also warrants careful review. Under the fundamental judicial doctrine of stare decisis, judges are bound by precedent. More than thirteen years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed EPA’s responsibility under existing statutory law to interpret the ‘capacious’ term ‘air pollutant’ to include climate pollution (Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 2007). This precedent and other pillars of U.S. environmental law must be respected to ensure our nation’s laws continue to protect Americans’ health and well-being. The Senators must determine whether Judge Barrett has demonstrated such respect. See, for example: Groves v. United States, 941 F.3d 315 (7th Cir 2019) (overruling precedent allowing district courts to enlarge deadline for filing interlocutory appeals); and Amy Coney Barrett, Originalism and Stare Decisis, 92 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1921 (2017).
“Judge Barrett’s academic career and short tenure on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit do not fully illuminate her views about environmental law and related areas of public law. Will she respect Congress’s and state and local governments’ powers to protect public health and welfare through legislation, including by authorizing administrative agencies with the expertise to implement these safeguards effectively? Does she respect the role of administrative agencies’ scientific and technical expertise in administering federal law? Does she agree with the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is causing extreme danger to public health and welfare?
“It is the responsibility of each Senator to carefully examine and weigh these vital questions if this nomination is considered.”
Vickie Patton, general counsel for Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading international nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. Connect with us on EDF Voices, Twitter and Facebook.
Vickie Patton General Counsel Contact Vickie
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https://www.edge.org/conversation/niles_eldredge-chapter-6-a-battle-of-words
Chapter 6 "A BATTLE OF WORDS"
Conversation : LIFE
Niles Eldredge [5.7.96]
Daniel C. Dennett: What Niles Eldredge wanted to show, and did show, along with Stephen Jay Gould, in their classic 1972 paper on punctuated equilibrium, was that the reigning assumption of their fellow paleontologists that the fossil records should show smooth gradual change over any timescale was wrong. It's very important that they pointed that out. What was even more important was that it didn't have the explanation that Darwin had given.
NILES ELDREDGEis a paleontologist; curator in the Department of Invertebrates at The American Museum of Natural History, in New York; author of Time Frames: The Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria and Unfinished Synthesis (1985), The Miner's Canary (1991), and Fossils (1991), Reinventing Darwin (1995), and Dominion (1996).
Niles Eldredge's Edge Bio Page
[Niles Eldredge:] Punctuated equilibria rests on a basic empirical claim, which is that once a species appears it typically doesn't change very much. If you're talking about marine invertebrates, that means five or ten million years. Yet evolution does, of course, occur, and the change seems to be associated with speciation events, in a formal sense. There's no intuitive reason why that should be true, because speciation is the setting up of new reproductive communities. It shouldn't have anything to do with adaptive change whatsoever, and yet it seems to.
I'm known for my work, in association with Steve Gould, on punctuated equilibria, also on fleshing out the hierarchical structure of biological systems: the ecological and genealogical twin hierarchies. It's basic ontology. Punctuated equilibria was a matter of putting Theodosius Dobzhansky's and Ernst Mayr's attention to the nature of species and discontinuities between them arising from the process of speciation, together with George Simpson's attention to evolutionary pattern in the fossil record. The resulting implications — one of which is the nature in general of large-scale biological systems — have occupied most of my attention.
There are several important paradoxes raised by the very notion of punctuated equilibria. One has to do with long-term evolutionary trends. If you look at long-term events in evolution within a group, like increased brain size in humans over four or five million years, the old model is that natural selection favors bigger brains, and so over four million years you get bigger and bigger brains. If you look at the fossil record, you do get bigger and bigger brains as you go through time, but it's a stepwise pattern, not a gradual thing. The raw statement of punctuated equilibria removed the old convenient element of directionality for long-term trends in the fossil record. But if you concede that there's a directionality over time, what is the explanation?
What we're saying is that species are entities. They have histories, they have origins, they have terminations, and they may or may not give rise to descendant species. They are individuals in the sense that human beings are individuals, albeit a very different kind of individuals. They're large scale systems that have an element of reality to them, and that's a big departure in evolutionary biology. There are some adumbrations of it, but certainly it's not traditional. Our notion — sometimes called "species selection" or "species sorting" (a better term) — sees the differential origins and extinctions of species as an important additional element shaping the history of life, including the production of long-term evolutionary trends.
Species are real entities, spatiotemporally bounded, and they're information entities. Other kinds of entities do things. Ecological populations, for example, have niches; they function. Species don't function that way. They don't do things; they are, instead, information repositories. A species is not like an organism at all, but it's nonetheless a kind of entity that plays an important role in the evolutionary process.
This is an ontological shift. Geneticists remain underwhelmed with the notion that species are real entities, simply because they think that their data (generation-by- generation change within populations) don't demand it. So John Maynard Smith, whom I respect a great deal, won't respond to the gambit that species are real entities, with actual roles to play in the evolutionary process, simply because he doesn't personally find it interesting. Richard Dawkins is trying to force everything into a genic explanation. It's ships passing in the night. You don't need that kind of concept at all, if you're just dealing with generation by generation, running the natural-selection algorithm. I don't blame those who don't find this interesting. It's our job to make them understand that construing species in this way adds a valid and interesting element to evolutionary theory.
I call people like Steve and myself "the naturalists," in contrast with our gene-minded colleagues, the ultra-Darwinians. We try to capture the middle ground. The three main characters in the ultra Darwinian camp would be Maynard Smith, George Williams, and Richard Dawkins. All of us agree on the rudiments of evolutionary change: adaptive modification through natural selection. The one gloss on it that ultra-Darwinians have developed is that the fundamental dynamic underlying all of biotic nature is a competitive urge to leave copies of your genes behind. Making bits of information — genes — compete with one another makes evolutionary biology seem more like physics, so my accusing ultra-Darwinians of physics envy is probably the snottiest thing I could say about them.
Punctuated equilibria reasserts the importance of discontinuity in evolutionary discourse. Though it's usually the ultra-Darwinians who are cast in the role of defensores fidei, it was actually Mayr and Dobzhansky, as founders of the "modern synthesis," who originally managed to inject an element of discontinuity into the evolutionary discourse. So it's actually we naturalists who are defending a corner of orthodoxy here. As Dobzhansky said, Darwin established the validity of natural selection, and natural selection generates a spectrum of continuous variation. But nature is discontinuous. It's discontinuous (as Dobzhansky said in 1937) at the gene level and again at the species level. Most evolutionary biologists are population geneticists, and so they don't, as I just said, see the significance of intraspecific discontinuity. The data they handle aren't at the intraspecies level. They're not used to thinking about these problems, so a lot of that early discourse, hard-fought and hard-won, about the differences between species, defined as separate reproductive communities, doesn't enter into their universe. That's O.K., in a sense, because, what the hell, you talk about the stuff that impinges on your consciousness, and what your data are all about, and there's a lot to be said about the forces affecting the frequencies of genes on a generation-by- generation level within populations. But to restrict the discourse to species is to ignore other elements of biological organization, and ultra-Darwinians do so at their peril. Theirs is an incomplete description of biotic nature, rendering their theory simplistic and incomplete. It's disturbing that in his recent book Natural Selection, George Williams goes out of his way to stress that species are no special category of biological entity.
Ultra-Darwinians generally deny that they're genetic reductionists, but by anyone's definition they absolutely are. They try to explain the structure and history of large-scale systems purely in terms of relative gene frequencies. Social systems, economic systems, ecosystems, and so forth, all flow from this supposed competition among organisms — or even worse, among the genes. So what they're doing is actually playing fast and loose with a lot of work that's been done over the last fifty years establishing the actual nature of large-scale biological systems like species, like ecosystems — like social systems, for that matter — because they have a very gene-slanted view.
In a sense, I think it's intellectually incomplete, rather than dishonest. I always feel that if you're going to critique somebody you ought to know how to sing their song, and I feel like I spend a lot of time learning how to sing these guys' song. I don't see them turning around and learning the song that Steve and I and Elisabeth Vrba and Steven Stanley have been singing. I think they're so wrapped up in their own gene-centered world that they have an incomplete ontology of biological nature.
George Williams was the one who began taking evolution out of the p assive mode and making it active. The translation of this is that organisms are out there competing, and although it looks like they're competing for food, they're competing for the opportunity to leave more genes behind. At the reproductive- biology level, it's a good description of nature. As a rubric to explain what's going on in biological nature in general, especially in large-scale biological systems, it falters — increasingly as you enter larger-scale systems and particularly as you address economic rather than reproductive phenomena.
Dawkins says in The Selfish Gene that ultimately we'll be able to understand the entire internal workings of ecosystems — the rules of assembly and what keeps them together — based on this particular principle of genic competition. It's an appeal to reductive thinking, and an attempt to turn into an active principle what Darwin was content to leave as a passive principle.
This is a subtle point. Ultra-Darwinians are reductionists, but only down to the genes-within populations level. They're afraid of still lower levels: most population geneticists freak out when they hear a molecular biologist like Gabriel Dover talk about evolution! What we're saying is that there are more levels, both higher and lower, than in the traditional bailiwick of population genetics. Things are a little more complex, and we can specify to some degree what that complexity is.
If you read Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker, it presents a seemingly adequate theory of why organisms appear to fit their environment so well — in other words, how natural selection shapes organismic adaptation. But on closer scrutiny, you find that there's absolutely nothing in there about why adaptive change occurs in evolution. There's really nothing about the context of adaptive change. It's just not addressed; it's not even an issue. It's just an in-principle argument. The algorithm is described in loving detail, and the supposition is that you just let the motor run and all the stuff we see — all that three-and-a-half-million- year history, those ten-million-odd species we have on Earth right now — simply falls out of that. The rest of it is mere detail. The important thing is to get the mechanism.
As I've said, we all basically agree on the statement of the mechanism, which Darwin established. Nobody's going to argue against it. Trying to make Steve Gould out as an anti- adaptationist is crap. Maynard Smith had a symposium in 1978, and as he himself says, the most visible thing that came out of it was the paper Steve wrote with Dick Lewontin called "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm," saying that there's this adaptationist program and its proponents assume that every biological structure we look at was carefully chosen by natural selection. It's just an assumption, and hard to show rigorously, and there are an awful lot of other possibilities. That statement cast him in the role of being an anti- adaptationist.
The adaptationism of Maynard Smith, Williams, and Dawkins can be explained as follows: there's design in nature, organisms look like they're fairly well suited to the environment they find themselves in, and they're functioning pretty well out there. The only explanation for this state of affairs that makes any sense, other than the notion that a creator did it, is the process of evolution — particularly through natural selection, where the best-suited variants in the population tend, on average, to leave more copies of their genes behind than others less well endowed. Over a process of generations, nature will cull out and push things, giving the requisite variations. Those are the ground rules; everybody accepts that. What we naturalists are saying, in contrast, is that natural selection seems to produce adaptive change mainly in conjunction with true speciation — the sundering of an ancestral reproductive community ("species") into two or more descendant species.
A lot of the debate between Dawkins and Gould is trying to show each other who's brighter and more clever. I sometimes think they're almost deliberately misconstruing each other. It's a battle of words, a battle of wills to try to inform the literate public about who has the best approach to nature.
Steve has always been ready, willing, and able to jump in there and joust with the Dawkinses and Maynard Smiths of this world. It's taken me a longer time to get to that point. I focused first on reconciling patterns of stasis and change in the fossil record with the views of my immediate predecessors — Simpson the paleontologist, of course, but also Mayr the systematist, and even, oddly, Dobzhansky the consummate naturalist-turned-geneticist. I had to get past seeing Simpson, Mayr, and Dobzhansky in the Oedipal sense — as father figures whose work I had to correct. I had to come to understand that the punctuated-equilibria idea actually reconciles some serious discrepancies between Simpson, on the one hand, and Mayr and Dobzhansky on the other. Once done, the radical implications of punctuated equilibria stood out in bolder relief, and I could turn my attention more fully to the modern ultra-Darwinians. It's only now that I'm ready to take on people like Richard Dawkins and Maynard Smith and George Williams.
George Williams makes an interesting, if depressing, observation in Natural Selection. He says that a lot of the problems aren't so much solved as that people stop probing them and convince each other that they're solved well enough. We don't so much solve scientific problems as abandon them. That's kind of chilling, but it's a good description of what goes on. What I'm saying here is that there's no final resolution to the current debates. The millennial issues of human overpopulation, large- scale environmental destruction, and species loss probably will — probably should — distract us from the less pressing concerns of pure evolutionary theory. The issues will be picked up again someday, but by our intellectual descendants.
Back to Contents
Excerpted from The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution by John Brockman (Simon & Schuster, 1995) . Copyright © 1995 by John Brockman. All rights reserved.
Reality Club Discussion
Niles Eldredge, a broadly educated geologist and biologist, is a wonderful interpreter of the fossil record. His gorgeously illustrated book, Fossils, is a splendid introduction to the vertebrate and marine-animal fossil record. Furthermore, Eldredge recognizes how modern biology infringes and impinges upon everyday life, in "common myth," "commonsense knowledge," and other preconceived concepts that so many take for granted. What people in our culture take for granted is often diametrically opposed to what science, especially biology, tells us. Eldredge is one of the few people willing and able to interface between commonly held truths that are, in my opinion and in his opinion, gross misunderstandings and what science really tells us. He's a writer who truly communicates, and I want to see him keep writing.
was an evolutionary biologist; professor emeritus of ecology
Eldredge is a great paleontologist, and his recognition of stasis as an important conceptual challenge was a great advance. Stasis is the frequently seen stability of characters that we might think of as subject to rapid evolution. I'm not impressed with some of his recent work with Marjorie Grene, and I think he's made a conceptual muddle of things like sexual selection and levels of selection.
Gould and Eldredge, as the two fathers of punctuated equilibria, are of course often linked together. Gould is much more inclined to look — and perhaps more talented at looking — at big conceptual issues.
Daniel C. Dennett
Philosopher; Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Co-Director, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University; Author, From Bacteria to Bach and Back
What Niles Eldredge wanted to show, and did show, along with Stephen Jay Gould, in their classic 1972 paper on punctuated equilibrium, was that the reigning assumption of their fellow paleontologists that the fossil records should show smooth gradual change over any timescale was wrong. It's very important that they pointed that out. What was even more important was that it didn't have the explanation that Darwin had given. Darwin had also been worried about the problem that the fossil record doesn't show lots of intermediate cases. He explained it in terms of imperfections of the fossil record: as if once we gather more data, unless we have bad luck, we'll eventually find all the intermediate cases and everything will be hunky-dory.
Eldredge and Gould showed, perhaps for the first time, that you should expect sudden transitions in even the most perfect fossil record. As Darwin himself had pointed out, most species — most lineages — should be in stasis most of the time anyway. Change doesn't happen continuously; it happens during brief periods, when there is a lot of change. These are also periods in which populations shift their locations, leaving their ancestral homes and invading new territory. And then a new equilibrium point is reached, after which you have another long period of stasis. Almost anywhere you look at the fossil record, which is both a spatial and a temporal cross section, if you see any change at all, it should look like sudden arrivals.
But a lot of people have wanted to read something much more into it; they've wanted to say that the proof of punctuated equilibrium — let's grant that they've proved that there is punctuated equilibrium — is a refutation of Darwinian gradualism. It's nothing of the sort. Eldredge knows that, and doesn't deny it. Gould isn't so sure. Over the years, Gould has tried out various different ways in which what happens during the punctuation could be importantly non-Darwinian. I think I can show that each of these ways must be wrong. It's pretty clear that when you sort the issues out — and this isn't really a controversial opinion — there's no defensible revolutionary hypothesis about what's going on during punctuated equilibrium. But that's not the common perception of punctuated equilibrium among bystanders.
Evolutionary Biologist, Paleontologist, Snail Geneticist; Professor of Zoology, Harvard University
Niles Eldredge is my closest and dearest colleague in science. Whenever two people are so strongly connected, as we have been through punctuated equilibrium, people inevitably try to drive wedges, and yet although some attempts have been made no one has ever succeeded.
I receive more attacks, and people are often attacking other things that I stand for, because I have a more public reputation. But Niles and I don't agree on everything by any means. For example, he's a cladist and I'm not. We certainly disagree about a variety of technical aspects in hierarchical selection theory. He's very intrigued, for example, by a notion of parallel hierarchies, one genealogical and one which he calls economic, having to do with actual and overt competitions in nature. I myself, for a variety of technical reasons, think that the genealogical hierarchies, where causality resides, should be the ones we focus on. But Niles and I have worked together on this stuff for twenty-one years, and we're as close now as we've ever been. We were graduate students together. He's built one of the best Victorian cornet collections anywhere. He plays cornet and trumpet. He plays a mean jazz cornet.
W. Daniel Hillis
Physicist, Computer Scientist, Co-Founder, Applied Invention.; Author, The Pattern on the Stone
One of the first things I noticed about the evolution in the computer was that it didn't happen gradually. Nothing would happen for a long time, and then the world would reorganize itself and there would be a big change. Obviously that level of description connects to a group of biologists of which Eldredge is one of the leaders — the "Punc Eq" crowd. But when you look at it in detail you find that there are so many things that happen at so many different levels in biology that it's not clear that the phenomenon I was seeing corresponds exactly to the phenomenon he's describing. He's describing punctuated equilibrium on a grand scale of entire ecosystems, but it may be that that happens at a minor scale, too — even just within one evolving species. To me, punctuated equilibrium is totally noncontroversial; it happens at all kinds of different levels. It's one of those things that's completely obvious to anybody who's had a chance to play with a few million generations of evolution.
Niles Eldredge
Paleontologist; Author, Darwin
Evolutionary Biologist, Paleontologist, Snail... [ Read ]
Philosopher; Austin B. Fletcher Professor of... [ Read ]
was an evolutionary biologist; professor emeritus... [ Read ]
Biologist [ Read ]
Physicist, Computer Scientist, Co-Founder,... [ Read ]
Why We Do It: Rethinking Sex and the Selfish...
By Niles Eldredge Paperback
The Pattern On The Stone: The Simple Ideas...
By W. Daniel Hillis Paperback
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Dr. Edgren joined the economics faculty at EMU in 1979. His major areas of academic interest were Environmental Economics and aspects of Institutional Economics, including the relation of ethics to economics. He regularly taught classes in Economics of Crime, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, and Intermediate Microeconomics. He also teaches the Macroeconomics half of the Principles of Economics sequence.
Professor John Edgren retired on August 31, 2011, after 32 years of service. He has distinguished himself as a colleague, scholar, and an educator. He served both Eastern Michigan University and the community through his appointment by the Governor to the Environmental Protection Policy Advisory Committee of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The Board of Regents have granted Dr. Edgren emeritus status for his outstanding dedication and service to EMU. Thank you, Dr. Edgren, for your long-term commitment and dedication to the Department of Economics.
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The experience and impact of Covid-19 calls for government to use measures beyond GDP to shape our recovery, level-up, and ensure opportunities for everyone
Rosie Gloster, Senior Research Fellow
This year is not turning out as predicted. Our routines, livelihoods and family lives have been turned upside down. Some of us have found ourselves unexpectedly without work, others have been furloughed and some have continued working, perhaps from home. The effects and experience of Covid-19 have been shaped by personal circumstances, and a sense that we are riding the same storm in very different boats. Yet in many respects there has been a new sense of collectivism; by working together the virus can be overcome. And a light has been shone on the ‘key workers’ in our society – often those in low-paid work. The crisis has collided with, and exacerbated existing inequalities: in health outcomes, in who provides unpaid care, income from work, and access to accommodation. These inequalities can be viewed through various lens: gender or ethnicity for example.
The UK entered the Covid crisis with a high degree of inequality when compared to other developed countries: not just in relation to income, but also in household wealth. Regional inequality was also higher in the UK than any other developed nation. High levels of income inequality raise social, political and economic concerns. They distort economic incentives, undermine social mobility, and tilt democracies in favour of powerful interests. Inequality tends to slow GDP growth, and people with lower incomes are prevented from realising their potential. The divergence in household income in the UK was forecast to continue prior to the Covid crisis, with disparities in the increase in real earnings between occupations and relative cuts to working age benefits being the two drivers of this. With the impacts of Covid falling unequally, these predictions will surely be exacerbated without action. Growth needs to be inclusive and now is the time to act.
After the Second World War there were the major reforms, with the establishment of the NHS and welfare system. As we move out of lockdown, this is the moment to take stock and consider the kind of society we want to return to. What have we learned from the experience of the last few months? How can the current government deliver their promise of ‘levelling-up’ our regions, and our society for the decades to come?
We should change how we measure economic success. The way we choose to measure our economy determines the perceived value and importance placed on various aspects by government during the policymaking process. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most well-known and used economic measure and is likely to fall in the coming months. The sharp fall in UK GDP in April as a result of lockdown was well publicised. Which other measures should we now also use to express the value of our work, and how we live? Which measures deserve equal standing to guide government and policymaking to ‘level-up’ society?
This discussion began in the years following the 2008 crash and recession where employment growth was largely built on precarious forms of employment – a growth in zero hours contracts, self-employment and the gig economy. Stigliz, Sen and Fitoussi discussed the broadening of national measures to include GDP alongside measures of inequality and economic vulnerability, wellbeing and sustainability is a ‘dashboard’ to inform economic and social policy making. The New Economics Foundation also later discussed five complementary measures to GDP, including measuring the quality work, rather than solely the number of people in work. New Zealand has been experimenting with this in recent years and developed a Living Standards Framework; a set of 12 well-being measures based on the idea that human, social and natural capital alongside financial capital provide the basis for intergenerational well-being. Scotland too through its National Performance Framework sits GDP alongside several other measures of progress.
As we aim to get our country back to work through active labour market and training and skills programmes, let’s also consider how we will measure our success. We have demonstrated renewed togetherness and understanding of the importance and our reliance on many low-paid occupations in lockdown. Let us now build on this revived sense of community and appreciation of the roles we all have in society, and how they are intertwined in order to move away from simple economic measures.
We should build and use a broader set of measures to monitor our economic and social progress which better reflect the wider determinants of quality employment and wellbeing. This should include measures of financial security, work-life balance, secure work contracts, and income inequality. These measures should be routinely analysed for regional differences, as well as differences between demographic groups, such as gender, disability and ethnicity, to highlight imbalances and identify opportunities for ‘levelling-up’. In identifying these new measures we need to avoid simply using a new narrative for an old problem of inequality, but be genuinely focused on increasing wellbeing and providing opportunities for everyone to get on, holding onto the importance of caring for the collective and valuing of low paid essential workers brought to the fore by Covid-19.
Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute as a whole.
Rosie Gloster
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Posted on: September 3rd, 2020
HRANA – Nearly half a year has passed since Iranian officials acknowledged the grave threat posed by the novel coronavirus to the country’s prison population. In late February 2020, high-ranking officials in the prison and judicial systems announced new protocols to head off a health catastrophe in the country’s chronically overcrowded and underfunded penal system, including furloughs for certain classes of prisoners, a reduction in intake of new prisoners, daily rounds of disinfection, hygiene training for prisoners and prison staff, distribution of hygienic supplies, and the formation of full-time task forces to monitor prisoners’ health.
In April of 2020, Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) released a report, COVID-19, Fear in Iran’s Prisons, detailing the scope of a COVID-19 crisis that was spreading across multiple prisons despite administrative measures taken to prevent it — including the release of thousands of prisoners — as well as the unrest sparked in late March by heightening fears of the virus and the subsequent violent crackdown by security forces.
In its analysis of key risk factors such as overcrowding, which makes social distancing next to impossible, the report identified shortcomings and inconsistencies in the implementation of Judiciary directives. It pointed to persistent overcrowding in some prisons; an unjustifiable insufficiency of fundamental necessities, such as cost-free cleaning products and hot water to ensure prisoners’ personal hygiene and to the glaring absence of systematic disinfection procedures in prison wards and common areas. In view of addressing these problems, the report also set forth recommendations that were in line with best practices formulated by international health and human rights authorities.
In conjunction with the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), ABC conducted a follow-up investigation into the evolution of these problems since April. The findings of this report indicate that the hygienic conditions in Iranian prisons, rather than improving, have significantly deteriorated. The research sheds light on Iranian officials’ failure to adequately decrowd prisons and implement prevention protocols, which led to a proliferation of COVID-19 cases in several prisons. Disinfections by prison officials have stopped across several investigated prisons, apparently due to a lack of budget. Some prisons were found to have reduced supplies of free food, basic hygiene products, and personal protective equipment to prisoners, and the steep price markups in prison shops render these items inaccessible to less-affluent prisoners, who can then not afford to ensure their own protection.
Quarantine procedures were shown in many cases to be self-defeating, due in part to a constant flow of newcomers and continued commingling in common areas such as bathrooms, hallways, and kitchens (ex: Zanjan, Greater Tehran). Initial efforts across several prisons to reduce the prison population in March and April seem to have been abandoned by May, coinciding with the return of prisoners who had initially been sent on furlough. Avoidable arrests and detentions for petty crimes and for crimes not recognized under international law, including for social media posts, religious activities and drug use, have countervailed releases and pardons that were issued in an attempt to keep inmate numbers low. These problems are compounded by a systematic and long-standing tradition of opaque governance and heavy-handed securitization. Consequently, Iran remains secretive about COVID-19 cases within prisons and the number of prisoners who were hospitalized or died, generating anxiety among incarcerated people and preventing an actionable assessment of the problem.
The human cost of this neglect continues to mount: confirmed or suspected cases of the novel coronavirus — some resulting in death — are cropping up in increasing numbers across the country, including Mashhad Central Prison (where three halls, with a cumulative capacity of around 600 people, have been designated as holding spaces for both confirmed and suspected cases), Evin (where at least eight people in the political prisoners’ ward have recently tested positive), Orumieh (where medical staff went on strike to protest a lack of preventative measures after prison personnel, including one doctor, fell ill and eight prisoners were transferred to the hospital with high fever and seizures), Greater Tehran (where two men exhibiting severe symptoms were held in a prayer room of Building 5 when the overwhelmed prison clinic couldn’t accommodate them, and a ward of Building 5 was placed under quarantine after an outbreak caused by the introduction of sick newcomers into a previously health ward), and Shahr-e Rey women’s penitentiary (known also as Qarchak, where scores of prisoners who tested positive have languished without much medical care).
Iranian officials have sung the praises of their coronavirus response in prisons, which they tout as exemplary for the region, if not for the world, yet the credibility of their claims is undermined by their blatant under-reporting of cases, their denial of prison access to independent human rights observers, and the persecution of citizens who disseminate accurate information about the virus. Documents recently leaked to Amnesty International indicate that Iran’s Ministry of Health has repeatedly ignored urgent appeals from the Prisons Organization to remedy the widespread shortages of the protective equipment, disinfectant products, and medical supplies needed to fight the pandemic.
Sanctions have indeed proven crippling to the economy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and its leaders are facing hard choices in terms of resource allocation. But this adversity cannot account for the continued shortages of certain vital products such as soap, which has been produced in Iran for close to a century. Ordinary citizens, Iranian officials, hospital staff, and sources with knowledge of medical supply chains have told ABC and HRANA that domestically produced masks and disinfectants, hard to come by at the beginning of the outbreak, are now available in adequate supply.
The dire state of Iran’s prisons is a long-standing systemic problem that stems from policy choices of Iran’s leaders. Responsibility for the failures highlighted in this report rests with the Judiciary, parliamentarians, and successive governments who have, for four decades, failed to reform a draconian criminal code — as repeatedly recommended by experts and prison officials — or resource the carceral system while continuing to overload it with hundreds of thousands more people each year. In normal times, prisoners are more vulnerable to disease than the general population; in a time of pandemic, when an increase in COVID-19 infections and deaths have been reported in several prisons, it is reckless to disregard prisoner’s rights to health and life, rights which Iran is obligate under international law. If Iranian prisons become hotspots for COVID-19, thousands of prisoners will get infected, constituting a real threat for the prison population and the communities outside prison walls.
Iran has ratified several UN Conventions, which bar it from arresting individuals for crimes not recognized under international law and obligate it to protect the health and life of individuals deprived of liberty. The International community must hold Iran accountable for violating prisoners’ human rights, the lack of administrative transparency, and denying access to independent human rights monitors. It is imperative to distinguish Iran’s systemic failures of resource allocation from current international tensions and the hardships they have placed on trade. Iran does have the resources it needs to improve prison conditions and save lives, but decision makers have simply chosen to allocate precious resources to non-essential causes instead, such as the rebuilding of golden shrines in Iraq or the funding of religious studies for foreign students. Releasing prisoners who do not belong in jail is also a budget-neutral measure that, if implemented, would reduce the strain on prison resources while helping prisons’ staff who are themselves at risk and under tremendous pressure in the fight against the pandemic.
Iran must immediately allocate the resources prison officials have repeatedly asked for. It must allow implementation of the preventive measures recommended by the World Health Organization, as well as the Judiciary’s own directives, including but not limited to:
daily and thorough disinfection of prison facilities,
ensuring that essential personal hygiene items such as soap and sanitizer are made available at no cost and in sufficient quantities to all prisoners,
systematic testing and monitoring of prisoners,
provision of proper medical care inside and outside prisons to prisoners who are infected
allowing independent monitoring and health assessments by human rights groups and civil society.
It is imperative to note that the measures above will fail to curb the spread of the pandemic if they are not paired with a significant reduction in the number of incarcerated people to enable prisoners to respect sufficient social distance and avoid mass infections. The vital decision to release prisoners –including prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders, individuals accused of petty crimes, and those guilty of crimes not recognized under international law– is in the hands of Iranian leaders alone. They must not allow lifesaving measures to be hindered by administrative and political obstacles.
To read the full report, please download the file:
PDF document (in English)
Tags: ABC, corona, Coronavirus, covid-19, HRANA
Posted in: Prisoners
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Eric Shinseki
NovemberNov 28, 1942
Lihue, HI
NovemberNov 28, 1942 (age 78)
Born in Lihue, HI#4
Sagittarius War Hero#28
Sagittarius Named Eric#19
Four-star U.S. Army General who was appointed by President Barack Obama to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He graduated from West Point and went to Vietnam, where he served as a base commander and a forward artillery observer.
He served as Commander of the Operation Enduring Freedom, which was the post-9/11 invasion of Iraq.
He grew up in Hawaii as the son of Japanese immigrants. In 1965, he married Patricia Shinseki.
He was promoted to Army Vice Chief of Staff by President Bill Clinton in 1999.
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Love & Money / Relationships
The Number One Predictor of Divorce, According to 7 Therapists and Relationship Experts
Take note and up your game.
By Chase Scheinbaum
Dec 14 2017, 8:36 PM
No two marriages end in the same way. But when looking at the larger picture, patterns emerge. And, prior to divorce, there are some key factors that stand out more than others. That is why we spoke to a variety of relationship experts and therapists and asked them this one question: What, according to what you’ve noticed, is the most common predictor of divorce? The professionals to whom we spoke responded with everything from failures of accountability to issues of contempt to a slow erosion of trust. They’re worth hearing out because they offer a chance to learn from the mistakes of others and take measures to prevent any of them from seeping into your marriage.
Failing to Take Accountability for One’s Own Flaws
Marriage is easy when the sex is hot, the money is rolling in, and the kids are getting straight A’s. “But when the going gets rough, that’s when people either retreat to their own corners, declare war, collapse into tears, or abandon ship,” says Dr. Fran Walfish, a family therapist in Beverly Hills. This often boils down to an unwillingness to love the other person while accepting their flaws and failing to acknowledge your own. “It’s easy to look at our partners versus looking at ourselves as the problem,” she says. “The key to all successful relationships is accountability, and that means having the courage to look within yourself, examine and own up to your own part of the equation.”
In a Word, Contempt
As one of John Gottman’s Four Horsemen, contempt is well recognized as a potent relationship neurotoxin. Naturally, it’s among the most common predictors of breakups, says psychologist Tanisha M. Ranger. “When you’re treating your partner with disdain, disrespect, mocking, being sarcastic,” those are very bad signs, she says. “You’re placing all the problems in the relationship squarely at their feet, like it’s all their fault and their doing.” This often leads to an accusation that the other person is irredeemably screwed up, which erases the possibility that they will be able to do anything to rectify the problem, Ranger says. “Then this person can’t stick around and try to work on the relationship.”
Forsaking One’s Spouse for the Children
Yet another reason not to be a helicopter parent: They’re often too busy hovering over their smothered children to pay sufficient attention to their marriage. “Child-rearing is about teaching children to walk and eventually walk away. But these folks don’t believe that, and stroke their egos by never letting their kids go,” says David Ezell, clinical director of Connecticut-based Darien Wellness. “As a result, one or both of them forget about their partner,” he says, instead of sneaking out to go bowling, get tiramisu and dessert wine, make out at the drive-in, or whatever horny couples do these days.
Compromise Is Not a Second Language
It’s trite — and true: Compromise is among the most important dynamics in any relationship. What that does not mean is that just one person does all the compromising, and the other does none. “One person should not always get their way in a relationship,” says Kimberly Hershenson, a relationship therapist in New York City. “It should be a give-and-take in which you sometimes meet in the middle,” she says. “Every healthy relationship involves compromise, but if values or beliefs are too different and neither party is willing to compromise, it may be a sign the relationship is not working.”
Not Accepting That Your Spouse’s Feelings Are Different From Your Own, and That’s Okay
You might share offspring, a bed, taxes, and the herpes simplex virus, but you and your spouse don’t need to share a brain. Just because you think and feel something doesn’t mean your spouse must think and feel the same things, says marriage and family therapist Lesli Doares. “When we love someone we see the differences as conflict. They’re not always conflicts. Differences are natural.” In a marriage, the key is to figure out which differences are worth trying to resolve, Doares says. Your spouse folding towels in a manner other than how you prefer them folded is not worth resolving. They’re just towels. It’s fine.
Having Unrealistic Expectations of Your Partner
How much can you realistically expect from one person? “Couples divorce when they are disenchanted and disappointed to discover their partner won’t complete them, fill in the holes in their soul, and make their life better,” says relationship coach Rosalind Sedacca. Problem is, when people search for someone else, they’re liable to ultimately find that their other love interests are similarly inadequate. “In a good relationship, couples can complement one another, but not complete the other. So it’s an endless cycle of failed relationships based on erroneous, unrealistic expectations.”
The Slow Erosion of Trust
“The erosion of trust that your partner has your best interests at heart slowly kills relationships,” says Pam Mirehouse, a certified divorce coach. Put another way, it’s the feeling that your partner no longer has your back. “Every time one person puts others ahead of their partner on their priority list, the relationship erodes slightly and over time the slights add up to disconnection. It is the little things like listening, being there through the big things as well as the little things that keep a relationship healthy.”
bad behaviors Divorce Marriage relationship experts separation warning signs
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COVID-19 Position Paper
The recent outbreak of COVID-19 and its implications on public and private life have over-rolled Europe with an unmatched gravity. We currently find ourselves at the beginning of an omniferous crisis that will have a persisting impact on the future of our continent and the European Union. Unemployment rates are skyrocketing while authoritarians seize the opportunity to manifest their power by using the crisis to bypass parliaments and rule by decree. The most severe health crisis in a century is rapidly turning into a political and economic crisis.
Robert Napier, President of ESU remarks “We want to highlight the incredible efforts and the personal sacrifices made by students and interns that currently stand in the frontline of the fight against this deadly disease while being exposed to massive physical and psychological pressure as well as the danger of infecting themselves and their loved ones.” He continues demanding that “governments and higher education institutions need to ensure adequate monetary remuneration and academic recognition of the unspoken exertion students, interns and civilian servants are undertaking in the scope of this pandemic.”
Sebastian Berger, ESU’s Vice President notes that “COVID-19 represents a historical juncture for the European Union. The EU’s ability to implement coherent policy as well as targeted political and economic measures will decide on its faith in times of uprising nationalism and growing Euro-scepticism.” He furthermore states that measures such as the Recovery Action Plan “need to become a channel of green transition for the European continent: A Green Deal based on disinvestment on carbon-intensive sectors and investment in carbon-neutrality of production, transportation and delivery of energy and goods. The economic crisis resulting from the current health crisis must not become an excuse to delay the action on climate and environmental sustainability.”
The European Students’ Union and many of its members are currently supporting mobile and international students throughout the whole world by providing knowledge on how to return to their home countries. “We urge governments to intervene by securing the repatriation within the EU and beyond its borders of all those who are willing to return by providing safe and cost-efficient means to do so”, says Gohar Hovhannisyan, Vice President of ESU in conclusion.
⬇️Download the PDF version here.
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A Culture Of Productivity
by EXO Edge | Oct 10, 2019 | Legal Services
Emails often comprise the bulk of the digital documents involved in the e-discovery process of corporate litigation cases. Depending on the case there could be 100,000, 500,000 or one million emails, perhaps from around the world, involved at the outset. The task at hand is to electronically gather them together and identify only those that should be reviewed by a lawyer because they may be relevant to the case.
This may seem like a daunting task, but with the availability of modern technology to gather emails and email threading software to organize them, it need not be.
In order to gain a grasp of the scope and potential cost of an email discovery project containing many emails, it helps to reduce the sheer volume of emails to a common denominator. Digital documents like emails are measured in gigabytes, a term which many people, including lawyers, may not be totally familiar. For better understanding, 500 gigabytes of emails would, if printed, fill 500 pickup trucks.
Capturing Designated Emails
To get this aspect of the eDiscovery process started, unaltered copies of the initial truckloads of emails must be captured. To accomplish this, a law firm or corporate legal department can choose to retain an eDiscovery provider with technology to forensically copy, collect and store the emails.
However, if they have the technical ability, they could do this themselves. The cost of capturing and storing these emails is normally based on the number of gigabytes they represent. A significant eDiscovery cost factor is the amount of time it will require for trained lawyers to review and tag for production those emails thought to be relevant to the case. The basic operating strategy to minimize these costs is based on the premise that not every email needs to be reviewed by the lawyer.
Some have no relevancy to the case at all and many others, perhaps hundreds or more, may deal with a relevant topic but are duplicates so lawyers need not look at all of them; but reviewers do. One method to narrow the number of relevant emails is to batch them, maybe by chronological order, and assign different batches to different reviewers. One problem with this approach is the presence of duplicates that may have gotten into different batches. This could cause multiple reviewers to spend time—and thus money—reading the same or similar emails several times. Threading software views emails as a mere collection of words. It organizes emails to indicate a conversation thread.
The lawyers involved in the case can also filter and prioritize emails based on key identifiers associated with the emails they are seeking. These might include the sender, recipient, dates sent or key words in the content or attachments. This software can electronically scan all the original emails. It will then group them together, including all duplicates based on threads of communication. When a lawyer is tagging documents for responsiveness and non- responsiveness, having emails threaded by conversation can save great amounts of time. They can often identify the full content in a chain of emails by simply looking at the final one in the chain and can make a tagging decision for the entire chain in mere seconds rather than needing to review each individual email. The fewer emails reviewed, the less time and cost invested in the process.
Email threading can thus reduce the time required for review of emails by as much as 60 percent.
A Threading Example
Let’s break down the threading concept with a simple example. If Mr. ABC sends an email to 10 people, generating 11 emails (10 sent and 1 in his sent folder), and all 10 respond and copy the others, that is 110 emails that are nearly identical. Using identifiers associated with Mr. ABC’s emails, threading software can quickly identify and group together these 110 separate email conversations. Threading may also reveal additional email addresses for custodians. If all of a sudden, an email thread indicates that an additional email address has been copied to a chain, it could indicate a new custodian about which the lawyer was not previously aware.
This could alert the lawyer to a custodian’s personal email account that had been used for business but was not included in the collection emails and may indicate the need to broaden the collection.
Threading can be as hands on as the law firm prefers. The e-Discovery provider may gather all the truckloads of emails and store them in its data centers or in the cloud and conduct the threading. As an alternative, the law firm or corporate legal department can perform the actual threading process themselves using the provider’s software.
Custodians are the Starting Point
During pre-trial discussions, both parties typically agree as to the individuals whose emails should be collected for potential review. In e-Discovery terms, they are known as “custodians.” Some custodians will have several business and personal email accounts that they access through their computers, digital pad devices or their business and personal cell phones. Some of the folks receiving Mr. ABC’s email on their computer may have responded through their business or personal cell phones.
Companies involved in the litigation can normally provide a list of business email accounts for their employees. Those individuals as well as custodians who aren’t employees may also be asked to provide a list of all their email accounts including personal accounts.
In our example, the goal at this early stage is to compile a list of Mr. ABC’s email accounts and those of each of the other 10 people. They hold the raw data being sought. At this point in the process, there is no indication of exactly how many emails are associated with each account, though to narrow the scope, the lawyers may designate specific dates in which they are interested.
When considering email collections, the devices that individuals use are not as important as the location of the servers that host their accounts. Likewise It does not depend on where someone works but rather where the email servers are located.
The Role of International Privacy Laws
These laws dictate how and where locally stored emails can be collected and where they can be reviewed. At this point, relying on the privacy law expertise of lawyers and the technical abilities of an international e-Discovery service provider is essential for a successful email review. The lawyers will guide the legal aspect of the process. A provider will never offer legal advice but can guide the task of collecting and securely storing from the servers in question. In many cases these providers may be able to satisfy compliance requirements by retrieving and storing emails in their own secure international data centers within the necessary jurisdiction.
However, as more and more providers move to storing data in the cloud, it is important that legal counsel understand where exactly their data will be stored and the security levels of that location. The presence of a provider’s international facilities may also be advantageous when time is critical, as this means that the provider is able to host data in multiple jurisdictions, giving more options to a law firm or legal department that has cases around the world.
When the litigation is over, the parties involved have multiple options available for the storage or handling of the truckloads of emails gathered through the e-Discovery process. Remember these are copies; the originals remain on the servers where they were first located. For a fee, they can continue to be stored with the e-Discovery provider, they can be returned to the lawyers and their clients, or they can be destroyed.
With an expected 7.2 billion email accounts by 2019, there is little doubt that the number of emails tied to litigation will continue to increase. This creates an ongoing need to apply technology to the examination process. By email threading, lawyers can gain efficiencies throughout their review and save time and money as well as identify key information sooner in the process. This can give them a competitive advantage and may ultimately help them win more cases while saving their end client money.
For further discussions or assistance, let’s talk. You may reach out to our team of experts
What is eDiscovery
What Should Lawyers Look for in an E-Discovery Vendor?
What Is a Litigation Support Professional?
3 Best Tips to Improve Cash Flow Generation
5 Ways to Fire Up your Document Review Project
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Homepage » People
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An Annotated Guide to 15 of David Bowie’s Favorite Books
By Tom Hawking
The Independent recently published a pretty fascinating list of David Bowie’s 100 favorite books. It was well stocked with classics — The Iliad, Madam Bovary, The Great Gatsby, 1984, and The Stranger all feature — but there are also a heap of fascinating lesser-known books, so much so that we thought we’d put together an annotated guide to some of the titles that caught our attention. Here are 15 that we can either vouch for directly or have added to our collective Flavorwire reading list.
R. D. Laing — The Divided Self
Madness has been a constant theme in Bowie’s songs, both as a sort of seductive escape from the world (“All the Madmen”) and as a sort of dire destiny (“Quicksand”). At least part of his interest in the subject is due to personal history — apparently mental illness runs in his family. In particular, his older brother Terry was schizophrenic, and killed himself in 1985 (as related in the Black Tie White Noise track “Jump They Say”). In light of all this, it’s both interesting and perhaps unsurprising to find Laing’s classic 1964 study of schizophrenia on this list — it’s a study of what it means to be sane and the nature of consciousness, ideas that also crop up again and again in Bowie’s lyrics.
Douglas Harding — On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious
On a more esoteric ontological note, there’s also this fascinating-looking text by British philosopher and spiritualist Douglas Harding. As per Harding’s website, it deals with a sort of spiritual epiphany he experienced on a walk in the Himalayas: “The best day of my life — my rebirthday, so to speak — was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head… What happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: I stopped thinking… For once, words really failed me. Past and future dropped away. I forgot who and what I was, my name, manhood, animalhood, all that could be called mine. It was as if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment and what was clearly given in it. ”
Julian Jaynes — The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
The nature of consciousness is clearly something that interests Bowie, because his list also includes this 1976 volume wherein Jaynes advances the remarkable idea that until about 3,000 years ago, humans’ left and right brains didn’t communicate the way they do now, and thus all of humanity heard voices in the way that schizophrenics often do today. It’s… um, well, it’s quite a theory, no?
Ed Sanders — Tales of Beatnik Glory
Given Bowie’s well-documented use of William S. Burroughs’ cut-up method as an aid to lyric writing, it’s a surprise not to see any Burroughs on the list. Instead, it’s Kerouac’s On the Road that represents the Beats, along with relatively obscure poet and latter-day beatnik Ed Sanders.
Eliphas Lévi — Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual
It’s also interesting that there’s neither Crowley nor Nietzsche, since they seemed to be the predominant influences on Bowie’s writing circa The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory. However, the list isn’t entirely devoid of magic(k) — there’s this famous treatise on ceremonial magic, which was to be an influence on Crowley’s ideas of Thelemism and presumably also on Bowie’s own expeditions into the occult.
Nathaneal West — The Day of the Locust
A bleak portrait of LA alienation in the depths of the Great Depression, following the life of a bunch of curiously one-dimensonal Hollywood fringe dwellers. It’s not hard to draw a parallel between this and the LA-centric cocaine-fueled paranoia and alienation of Station to Station, especially as a film version of this was released around the same time that Bowie was recording that album (not that he remembers making it).
Otto Friedrich — Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s
Bowie and Germany have a long association, and his interest in its history predates his moving to Berlin in the mid-1970s. In particular, the music and art of the Weimar period seem to have held enduring fascination — songs like “Time” and “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” have a distinctly cabaret sound to them, and he described his Thin White Duke aesthetic as “a kind of Expressionist German-film look … and the lighting of, say, Fritz Lang or Pabst. A black-and-white movies look, but with an intensity that was sort of aggressive.” Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz is also on the list, further cementing the Weimar connection.
Peter Sadecky — Octobriana and the Russian Underground
A fake history of a comic book written by a fictional group of Russian artists, apparently. There’s a fascinating story behind this.
George Steiner — In Bluebeard’s Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture
A slim volume that nevertheless contains a wealth of ideas about the direction of Western culture in the wake of the Second World War, and the cultural crisis brought on by the fact that “high” culture failed to prevent the horrors of the 20th century, and particularly the Holocaust. It was published in 1971, but remains both startlingly relevant and curiously prescient, particularly in his ideas about the decline of the written word and its replacement with an increasingly visual culture.
Susan Jacoby — The Age of American Unreason
The evolution and nature of popular culture is clearly another subject that fascinates Bowie. Nearly 40 years after In Bluebeard’s Castle, Jacoby takes a similarly holistic view of culture, arguing that the history of the last four decades has been characterized by a shift toward determined ignorance and anti-rationalism. You can make an argument for finding traces of these ideas in the world-weariness and latent misanthtropy of The Next Day.
Camille Paglia — Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
There’s always been something decadent about Bowie’s various aesthetics, too, especially in the hedonistic days of the early to mid-’70s. His work as Ziggy Stardust and his exploration of paganism, in particular, would fit right into Paglia’s ideas about how Dionysian decadence manifests in Western popular culture.
Frank O’Hara — Selected Poems
It’s perhaps surprising that Bowie’s an O’Hara fan — the poet’s relatively immediate and observational style forms quite the contrast to Bowie’s lyrics, which are often obtuse and cryptic. But then, perhaps O’Hara’s ideas of spontaneity appeal to our hero — he was famous for writing on the spur of the moment, something that would perhaps resonate with Bowie’s cut-up-driven methods of creation. He was also a prominent figure in the art world, which ties in nicely to Bowie’s interest in painting.
Spike Milligan — Puckoon
Bowie’s sense of humor is often underrated, and by the look of the stuff on this list, he leans heavily toward absurdism and surrealism. Milligan’s only novel is a darkly comic romp through the history of Irish partition, and it’s joined on Bowie’s list by the likes of Mikhail Bulgakov’s brilliant The Master and Margarita and Martin Amis’ Money, amongst others.
Peter Guralnick — Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom
This can’t have been a direct influence on Bowie’s “plastic soul” period, circa Young Americans, because it wasn’t published until 1986 — but it’s good to see that he maintains an interest in soul music and the musicians who made it.
And finally, the best thing about this entire list is the image it evokes of David Bowie sitting in a suburban laundromat reading the adventures of Ravey Davey Gravey, Buster Gonad, and Johnny Fartpants.
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Forest Web
"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow them." Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand
Aprovecho Sustainability Education Center
Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project
Cascadia Forest Defenders
Cascadia Wildlands
Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council
Coast Range Association
Freedom from Aerial Herbicides Alliance
Geos Institute
The Leopold Center
Klamath-Syskiyou Wildlands Center
Lobos of the Southwest
The Murie Center
North Cascades Institute
Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team
Oregon Coast Alliance
Umpqua Watersheds
The Walden Woods Project
The Wood River Wolf Project
Beyond the War on Invasive Species by Tao Orion
Invasive species are everywhere, from forests and prairies to mountaintops and river mouths. Their rampant nature and sheer numbers appear to overtake fragile native species and forever change the ecosystems that they depend on. Concerns that invasive species represent significant threats to global biodiversity and ecological integrity permeate conversations from schoolrooms to board rooms, and concerned citizens grapple with how to rapidly and efficiently manage their populations. These worries have culminated in an ongoing “war on invasive species,” where the arsenal is stocked with bulldozers, chainsaws, and herbicides put to the task of their immediate eradication. In Hawaii, mangrove trees (Avicennia spp.) are sprayed with glyphosate and left to decompose on the sandy shorelines where they grow, and in Washington, helicopters apply the herbicide Imazapyr to smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) growing in estuaries. The “war on invasive species” is in full swing, but given the scope of such potentially dangerous and ecologically degrading eradication practices, it is necessary to question the very nature of the battle.
http://www.chelseagreen.com/beyond-the-war-on-invasive-species
Biodiversity and Climate Change by Thomas E. Lovejoy & Lee Hanna
An essential, up-to-date look at the critical interactions between biological diversity and climate change that will serve as an immediate call to action
The physical and biological impacts of climate change are dramatic and broad-ranging. People who care about the planet and manage natural resources urgently need a synthesis of our rapidly growing understanding of these issues. In this all-new sequel to the 2005 volume Climate Change and Biodiversity, leading experts in the field summarize observed changes, assess what the future holds, and offer suggested responses. From extinction risk to ocean acidification, from the future of the Amazon to changes in ecosystem services, and from geoengineering to the power of ecosystem restoration, this book captures the sweep of climate change transformation of the biosphere. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300206111/biodiversity-and-climate-change
The Carnivore Way by Cristina Eisenberg
In the Carnivore Way, Cristina Eisenberg argues compellingly for the necessity of top predators in large, undisturbed landscapes, and how a continental-long corridor—a “carnivore way”—provides the room they need to roam and connected landscapes that allow them to disperse. Eisenberg follows the footsteps of six large carnivores—wolves, grizzly bears, lynx, jaguars, wolverines, and cougars—on a 7,500-mile wildlife corridor from Alaska to Mexico along the Rocky Mountains. Backed by robust science, she shows how their well-being is a critical factor in sustaining healthy landscapes and how it is possible for humans and large carnivores to coexist peacefully and even to thrive.
http://www.islandpress.org/carnivore-way
Earth in the Balance by Al Gore
Earth in the Balance probes the roots of the environmental crisis and offers a bold and forceful vision of a new, more sustainable path. Having provoked international discussion upon its original publication, it continues to confront us with profound challenges. Human civilization must change its course if we are to heal our ailing environment and preserve the earth’s ecology for future generations.
https://www.algore.com/library/earth-in-the-balance
Extreme Conservation by Joel Berger
A journey into some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, Joel Berger’s Extreme Conservation is an eye-opening, steely look at what it takes for animals like these to live at the edges of existence. But more than this, it is a revealing exploration of how climate change and people are affecting even the most far-flung niches of our planet.
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo23299766.html
Fire Ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes by William L. Baker
Fire Ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes brings a century of scientific research to bear on improving the relationship between people and fire. ... At the policy level, state and federal agencies have focused on fuel reduction and fire suppression as a means of controlling fire.
https://islandpress.org/book/fire-ecology-in-rocky-mountain-landscapes
Fire Storm - How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future by Edward Struzik
For two months in the spring of 2016, the world watched as wildfire ravaged the town of Fort McMurray. Firefighters named the fire “the Beast.” It seemed to be alive with destructive energy, and they hoped never to see anything like it again. Yet it’s not a stretch to imagine we will all soon live in a world in which fires like the Beast are commonplace. In Firestorm, Edward Struzik confronts this new reality, offering a deftly woven tale of science, economics, politics, and human determination. It’s possible for us to flourish in the coming age of megafires – but it will take a radical new approach that requires acknowledging that fires are no longer avoidable. Living with fire also means, Struzik reveals, that we must better understand how the surprising, far-reaching impacts of these massive fires will linger long after the smoke eventually clears.
https://www.ubcpress.ca/firestorm
The Hidden Life of Wolves by Jim & Jamie Dutcher
Delve into amazingly intimate wolf photography by Jim and Jamie Dutcher, a couple who spent many years living with a pack of wolves at the edge of Idaho's Sawtooth Wilderness, observing their complex social hierarchy.
https://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/books/books/animals-and-nature/the-hidden-life-of-wolves
Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West by Gary Ferguson
Wildfire season is burning longer and hotter, affecting more and more people, especially in the west. Land on Fire explores the fascinating science behind this phenomenon and the ongoing research to find a solution. This gripping narrative details how years of fire suppression and chronic drought have combined to make the situation so dire. Award-winning nature writer Gary Ferguson brings to life the extraordinary efforts of those responsible for fighting wildfires, and deftly explains how nature reacts in the aftermath of flames. Dramatic photographs reveal the terror and beauty of fire, as well as the staggering effect it has on the landscape. http://www.timberpress.com/books/land_fire/ferguson/9781604697001
Life in an Old Growth Forest by Valerie Rapp
Using the forests of the Pacific Northwest as an example, this book examines the physical features, processes, and many species of plants and animals that make up old growth forest ecosystems. Includes historical perspectives on how humans have used these forests and what is being done to ensure that old growth forests remain viable in the future. Visit a land filled with giant trees to learn what makes this environment so special. Ages 9-17
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2132515.Life_in_an_Old_Growth_Forest
Oregon's Ancient Forests by Chandra LeGue & Oregon Wild
Oregon’s Ancient Forests is a guidebook with a purpose: to inspire readers to learn about and visit Oregon’s rapturous old-growth forests, and then love them enough to keep them protected. Not just for hikers, this Oregon Wild– sponsored guide explains where the forests are and who manages them, the threats they face, and an action plan for protecting what remains and restoring damaged forests so they may become the ancient forests of the future.
https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/oregons-ancient-forests-a-hiking-guide
Poison Spring by E.G. Vallianatos
Writing with acclaimed environmental journalist McKay Jenkins, E.G. Vallianatos provides a devastating exposé of how the agency created to protect Americans and our environment has betrayed its mission. Half a century after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring awakened us to the dangers of pesticides, we are poisoning our lands and waters with more toxic chemicals than ever.
http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/poison-spring-9781608199143/
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac is a combination of natural history, scene painting with words, and philosophy. It is perhaps best known for the following quote, which defines his land ethic: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."
http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/almanac.shtml
The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters by Sean B. Carroll
How does life work? How does nature produce the right numbers of zebras and lions on the African savanna, or fish in the ocean? How do our bodies produce the right numbers of cells in our organs and bloodstream? In The Serengeti Rules, award-winning biologist and author Sean Carroll tells the stories of the pioneering scientists who sought the answers to such simple yet profoundly important questions, and shows how their discoveries matter for our health and the health of the planet we depend upon.
https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10661.html
Silent Spring by Rachael Carson
Silent Spring documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly. In the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring which brought environmental concerns to the American public.
http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/silent-spring/9780618249060
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
http://store.doverpublications.com/0486284956.html
Wolf Nation by Brenda Peterson
In the tradition of Peter Matthiessen’s Wildlife in America or Aldo Leopold’s work, Brenda Peterson tells the 300-year history of wild wolves in America. It is also our own history, seen through our relationship with wolves. Native Americans revered them. Settlers jealousy exterminated them. Now, scientists, writers, and ordinary citizens are fighting to bring them back to the wild. Peterson, an eloquent voice in the battle for twenty years, makes the powerful case that without wolves, not only will our whole ecology unravel, but well lose much of our national soul.
http://www.brendapetersonbooks.com/wolf-nation/
The Wolf’s Tooth by Cristina Eisenberg
Animals such as wolves, sea otters, and sharks exert a disproportionate influence on their environment; dramatic ecological consequences can result when they are removed from, or returned to, an ecosystem. In The Wolf’s Tooth, scientist and author Cristina Eisenberg explores the concept of trophic cascades and the role of top predators in regulating ecosystems. Her fascinating and wide-ranging work provides clear explanations of the science surrounding keystone predators and considers how this notion can help provide practical solutions for restoring ecosystem health and functioning.
http://www.islandpress.org/wolfs-tooth
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
Of Wolves and Men reveals the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing on an astonishing array of literature, history, science, and mythology as well as considerable personal experience with captive and free-ranging wolves, Lopez argues for the necessity of the wolf's preservation and envelops the reader in its sensory world, creating a compelling picture of the wolf both as real animal and as imagined by man.
http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Men-Barry-Holstun-Lopez/dp/0684163225
BURNED: Are Trees the New Coal?
This feature-length documentary takes an unwavering look at the latest energy industry solution to climate change. The film tells a story of greenwashing -- how woody biomass has become the fossil-fuel industry’s renewable, green savior, and of the people and parties who are both fighting against and promoting its adoption and use.
https://burnedthemovie.com/
Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. https://www.chasingice.com/
A Fierce Green Fire
A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement – grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. Inspired by the book of the same name by Philip Shabecoff and informed by advisors like Edward O. Wilson, A Fierce Green Fire chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds. http://www.afiercegreenfire.com/
In 2005, the Energy Policy Act removed environmental protection restrictions against hydraulic fracturing drilling. Since then, drilling for natural gas has increased at a dramatic rate. When Josh Fox, a theatrical director and filmmaker, was offered $100,000 for the gas rights to family property, he decided to investigate the environmental impact caused by reckless gas drilling. In the documentary, Fox travels to 34 states, speaking to property owners and environmental experts on the under-reported menace of fracking and the truth about the dangers of natural gas. http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
Gasland II
This explosive follow-up to the Oscar-nominated film Gasland, shows how the stakes have been raised on all sides in one of the most important environmental issues facing our nation today. The film argues that the gas industry’s portrayal of natural gas as a clean and safe alternative to oil is a myth and that fracked wells inevitably leak over time, contaminating water and air, hurting families, and endangering the earth’s climate with the potent greenhouse gas, methane. In addition the film looks at how the powerful oil and gas industries are in Fox's words "contaminating our democracy". http://www.gaslandthemovie.com
Aldo Leopold is considered the most important conservationist of the 20th century because his ideas are so relevant to the environmental issues of our time. He is the father of the national wilderness system, wildlife management and the science of ecological restoration. His classic book A Sand County Almanac still inspires us to see the natural world as a community to which we belong. Green Fire explores Leopold's personal journey of observation and understanding, It reveals how his ideas resonate with people across the entire American landscape, from inner cities to the most remote wild lands. The film challenges viewers to contemplate their own relationship with the land. https://www.aldoleopold.org/teach-learn/green-fire-film/
Living with Carnivores: Boneyards, Bears and Wolves
Living with Carnivores: Boneyards, Bears and Wolves is a documentary film about living with large carnivores. The story begins a decade ago in western Montana’s Blackfoot River Valley and explores how a rural agricultural community responded to the resurgence of grizzly bears and wolves. The film explores the thoughtful “can do” approach of Montana ranchers who realized that the age old practice of dumping dead livestock onto “boneyards” was destined to spell trouble by attracting grizzly bears and wolves onto ranches resulting in poor outcomes for wildlife and ranchers. https://vimeo.com/131528982
Lords of Nature
Birds, butterflies, beaver and antelope, wildflowers and frogs — could their survival possibly be connected to top predators like the wolf and cougar? This captivating documentary goes behind the scenes with leading scientists to explore the role top predators play in restoring and maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity. Wolves and cougars, once driven to the edge of existence, are finding their way back -- from the Yellowstone plateau to the canyons of Zion, from the farm country of northern Minnesota to the rugged open range of the West. Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators tells the story of science now discovering the great carnivores as revitalizing forces of nature, and a society now learning tolerance for the beasts they had once banished. http://www.lordsofnature.org/
Who Owns Water
"WATER WARS. Let's have a whiskey and I'll tell you something different." It's a conflict once unthinkable in the deep green South. Three states are locked in battle over the diminishing fresh water that saw Atlanta go from a small town to the largest growing city in the US. Who’s in control? It depends on who you talk to. In this stunningly-shot, award-winning documentary film, brothers Michael and David Hanson return to the source of their childhood river and paddle it to the Gulf of Mexico to take you deep into the Water Wars. Everything comes down to one question.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/whoownswater
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Graphene-based memristors for neuromorphic computing
An Oct. 29, 2020 news item on ScienceDaily features an explanation of the reasons for investigating brainlike (neuromorphic) computing ,
As progress in traditional computing slows, new forms of computing are coming to the forefront. At Penn State, a team of engineers is attempting to pioneer a type of computing that mimics the efficiency of the brain’s neural networks while exploiting the brain’s analog nature.
Modern computing is digital, made up of two states, on-off or one and zero. An analog computer, like the brain, has many possible states. It is the difference between flipping a light switch on or off and turning a dimmer switch to varying amounts of lighting.
Neuromorphic or brain-inspired computing has been studied for more than 40 years, according to Saptarshi Das, the team leader and Penn State [Pennsylvania State University] assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics. What’s new is that as the limits of digital computing have been reached, the need for high-speed image processing, for instance for self-driving cars, has grown. The rise of big data, which requires types of pattern recognition for which the brain architecture is particularly well suited, is another driver in the pursuit of neuromorphic computing.
“We have powerful computers, no doubt about that, the problem is you have to store the memory in one place and do the computing somewhere else,” Das said.
The shuttling of this data from memory to logic and back again takes a lot of energy and slows the speed of computing. In addition, this computer architecture requires a lot of space. If the computation and memory storage could be located in the same space, this bottleneck could be eliminated.
An Oct. 29, 2020 Penn State news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, describes what makes the research different,
“We are creating artificial neural networks, which seek to emulate the energy and area efficiencies of the brain,” explained Thomas Shranghamer, a doctoral student in the Das group and first author on a paper recently published in Nature Communications. “The brain is so compact it can fit on top of your shoulders, whereas a modern supercomputer takes up a space the size of two or three tennis courts.”
Like synapses connecting the neurons in the brain that can be reconfigured, the artificial neural networks the team is building can be reconfigured by applying a brief electric field to a sheet of graphene, the one-atomic-thick layer of carbon atoms. In this work they show at least 16 possible memory states, as opposed to the two in most oxide-based memristors, or memory resistors [emphasis mine].
“What we have shown is that we can control a large number of memory states with precision using simple graphene field effect transistors [emphasis mine],” Das said.
The team thinks that ramping up this technology to a commercial scale is feasible. With many of the largest semiconductor companies actively pursuing neuromorphic computing, Das believes they will find this work of interest.
Graphene memristive synapses for high precision neuromorphic computing by Thomas F. Schranghamer, Aaryan Oberoi & Saptarshi Das. Nature Communications volume 11, Article number: 5474 (2020) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19203-z Published: 29 October 2020
This entry was posted in electronics, graphene, nanotechnology and tagged Aaryan Oberoi, artificial neural networks, brainlike computing, graphene field effect transistors, Graphene memristive synapses for high precision neuromorphic computing, memristors, neuromorphic computing, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Saptarshi Das, Thomas F. Schranghamer, Thomas Shranghamer on January 12, 2021 by Maryse de la Giroday.
← Artificial Intelligence (AI), musical creativity conference, art creation, ISEA 2020 (Why Sentience?) recap, and more Neuromorphic computing with a memristor is capable of replicating bio-neural system →
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FTC, Florida Attorney General Take Action Against Illegal Robocall Operation
Case against Florida-Based Life Management Services Marks 39th Action against Illegal Robocallers by Federal, State, and International Law Enforcers since January 2015
The Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the Florida Attorney General have charged a web of related defendants based in Orlando with bombarding consumers with illegal robocalls in an attempt to sell them bogus credit-card interest rate reduction and debt relief services. In all, the complaint alleges the defendants’ robocall scheme bilked consumers out of more than $15.6 million since at least January 2013.
At the request of the agencies, a federal district court in Orlando has temporarily stopped the operation, collectively known as Life Management Services of Orange County, LLC, from making illegal robocalls and selling its services pending an upcoming hearing.
“This is the latest effort by the FTC and our international, state, and federal law enforcement partners to stop illegal robocalling operations that harass consumers day and night with unwanted calls,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
“These scammers use robocalls to hide their identities and exploit consumers,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Working jointly with the FTC, our actions to stop these schemes and hold the scammers responsible will not only keep Floridians from falling victim to these scams, but also protect consumers nationwide.”
According to the complaint, the defendants used generic names such as “Bank Card Services” and “Credit Assistance Program,” and falsely claimed to be a “licensed enrollment center” for major credit card networks like MasterCard and Visa. The alleged deception involved the defendants claiming that they would work with the consumer’s credit card company or bank to substantially and permanently lower their credit card interest rates.
The defendants allegedly claimed these “services” would save consumers thousands of dollars in a short period and allow them to pay off credit card balances three- to five-times faster. For these “services” consumers typically were required to make up-front payments of between $500 and $5,000. In reality, the defendants sometimes made a rudimentary attempt to contact the consumer’s credit card company, but consumers report that defendants were almost never able to obtain the promised rates or savings, the agencies charge.
The complaint alleges that the defendants also pitched a bogus credit card debt-elimination service, promising consumers that they could access money from a government fund to pay off consumers’ credit card debt in 18 months. For these “services” the defendants charged consumers between $2,500 and almost $20,000 up front. In reality, no such government fund exists, and consumers who paid defendants’ up-front fee wound up deeper in debt with damaged credit scores and higher interest rates and late fees, according to the complaint.
In bringing the case, the agencies charged the defendants with violating the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The FTC and Florida AG’s Office are seeking to permanently stop the conduct and secure money for consumer refunds. A complete list of the defendants can be found in the agencies’ complaint.
This latest case marks the 39th action taken since January 2015 as part of a coordinated multinational enforcement effort to halt robocall operations. The enforcement crackdown includes actions taken by international partners, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, the attorney generals’ offices of Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington State, and the Tennessee Regulatory Authority. Through their collective enforcement efforts, these agencies have taken action against operations estimated to have made billions of illegal robocalls.
The latest law enforcement action comes as the FTC and its international partners seek to forge a stronger alliance to combat the nuisance of illegal robocalls. The FTC today also issued a new consumer education document that provides information about how consumers can block unwanted telephone calls.
The London Action Plan MOU
To facilitate global enforcement cooperation, 11 regulatory organizations across the world recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to share information and intelligence in the worldwide fight against unsolicited messages and calls.
The organizations are members of the London Action Plan, a network of public agencies and private-sector representatives that promotes cooperation to target spam and unsolicited calls and their related problems, such as online fraud and deception, phishing, and dissemination of viruses. Each of the MOU signatories has committed to sharing information and intelligence about unsolicited messaging and calls, especially concerning fraudulent and malicious activities.
The MOU facilitates sharing intelligence and cooperating in global enforcement. The 11 signatories are ACM (the Netherlands), the ACMA (Australia), CRTC and OPC (Canada), FTC and FCC (United States of America), ICO and NTSIT (United Kingdom), KISA (Korea), Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), and National Consumer Commission (South Africa). For further information about the London Action Plan, visit londonactionplan.org.
A similar MOU was established with the CRTC early this year.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint announced today was 3-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division on June 7, 2016, the court granted the FTC’s request for a temporary restraining order on June 8, 2016, and it was unsealed on June 13, 2016.
The Commission vote authorizing Chairwoman Ramirez to sign the London Action Plan MOU on behalf of the agency was 3-0.
NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The case will be decided by the court.
The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, and protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about consumer topics and file a consumer complaint online or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357). Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, read our blogs and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
Press Release Reference:
FTC and State of Florida Win Summary Judgment: Court Orders Ringleader of Debt-Relief Scam to Pay $23 Million and Imposes Industry Bans
Mitchell J. Katz
FTC Office of Public Affairs
Whitney Ray
Florida Attorney General’s Office
Bikram Bandy
FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection (robocall actions)
Melinda Claybaugh
FTC Office of International Affairs (London Action Plan MOU)
Life Management Services, Inc.
Blog: The FTC gets Rachel the Robocaller… again
Video: Hate Robocall Scams? The FTC Does, Too
Blocking Unwanted Calls
Blog: Robocallers find themselves in a sticky situation
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Support Allies, Not Terrorists
by Shoshana Bryen
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4777/support-allies-terrorists
Translations of this item:
Kerry's international party should be trying to aid the Kurds, our friends and the mortal enemy of ISIS, instead of trying to lavish more international funds on Hamas and Fatah -- two sides of a movement dedicated to destruction.
For the moment and against the odds, Kobani stands. Kurdish men and women, abandoned by the United States and watched but not aided by Turkey, hold the line against the sweep of ISIS across Iraq and Syria; one little point of heroism that may be gone by the time you read this. ISIS, on the other hand -- well-financed, armed, vicious, and fighting on toward Baghdad -- will assuredly not be gone.
So the Cairo meeting of Secretary of State John Kerry with UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon and representatives of the EU, Qatar and Britain this weekend was probably a good thing, right? Just last week, a UN envoy was worried that massacres at Kobani would rival Srebrenica in the Bosnian war. Coordinated with President Obama and NSC, State and DOD meetings in Washington, an international meeting might decide a) how to take immediate steps to protect the tens of thousands of people left in the unfortunate city, b) how to pressure the Turks to provide serious support, and c) how the U.S. "air only" war plan needs to be revised in the absence of "allied" troops on the ground.
Since no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, and this one survived less well than others, there is no shame in moving to Plan B. Except they were not discussing Kobani.
They were trying to raise $4 billion for the Gaza Strip, to remove the evidence of Hamas's rocket war against Israel and its own people. Israel was not represented.
The Cairo meeting, the brainchild of Egyptian President Sisi, appealed to Kerry, who appears still to think Palestinians hold the key to glory if not peace. Qatar pledged $1 billion, the U.S. $213 million, the UK $32 million and the EU 450 million Euros. In the court of international organizational politics, Kobani loses and the Palestinians, including the terrorist group Hamas, win.
Can anyone spare some change for the Kurds of Syria? Above, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (front row, 5th from left) in a group photo at the Gaza Donors Conference in Cairo, Oct. 12, 2014. (Image source: U.S. State Department)
The real winner is Mahmoud Abbas, the man on whom the Palestinian fixation of Europeans and Americans can be focused. Abbas was said to be doing all he could to ensure that a "third intifada" did not break out. He is promoted as "not-Hamas," a partner for European, American, and NGO money that could be used without fear of rearming Hamas or rebuilding of tunnels. Everyone conveniently ignored the Hamas-Fatah "Unity Government", which met in late September to announce agreement on most major points -- although not whether or how to place Hamas military assets under Fatah control.
If Kobani is shamefully not on their minds, at least a few points might be considered before running billions of dollars more through the corrupt and kleptocratic Palestinian Authority [PA]:
Abbas and the PA engage in ongoing and vicious incitement not only against Israel, but against Jews, and look the other way when incitement results in violence. Abbas's government hid the murderers of three Israeli teens for two months before the IDF found them. Abbas took no steps to assist Israel in its manhunt, even though the IDF increased security for the PA by arresting nearly 100 Hamas operatives during that time. Palestinians were told to place multiple calls to the Israeli Police emergency number to stymie real calls that might come in. In particularly revolting displays, Palestinians walked near Jews waving three fingers, signifying the three kidnapped students; staged "reenactments" of the kidnapping with the boys portrayed as soldiers; and gave candy to their children to celebrate their deaths.
Since August, a low-level intifada has, indeed, been going on, primarily in Jerusalem and its environs. The light rail line from the suburb of Shuafat into Jerusalem, designed to bring Palestinians into central Jerusalem has been vandalized several times. Palestinians have vandalized graves on the Mount of Olives Cemetery, thrown rocks and firebombs at a Jewish nursery and daycare center and more, as can be seen here and here.
Hamas and Fatah agree that the independence of Israel in 1948 was a mistake by the international community, coming at the expense of Palestinians and needing to be reversed. Hamas is religious, corrupt and believes in armed revolution; Fatah is secular, corrupt and believes in negotiation until armed revolution is viable.
Incitement goes along with preparations for war. Fatah also claims to be producing rockets, showing Russian Television a West Bank production facility. A Palestinian journalist told RT, "The moment (Gaza) ended, the Palestinian military wings renewed military production in order to replenish the stock, which was emptied during the war." The indispensable Palestinian Media Watch has "documented that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself has said a number of times that he opposes violence against Israel only because it is not currently in the Palestinian interest. He has given two main reasons for this. First, Palestinians are not prepared militarily, and second, a war would heavily damage the infrastructure in the Palestinian areas."
Abbas and the PA have been corrupt stewards of international funds, here, here, here, here, and here for starters. The PA claims Hamas stole $700 million, but European auditors say Fatah is no better: see here and here.
Abbas broke his commitment to the U.S. not to engage in attempts to use international institutions -- including the UN and the International Criminal Court -- unilaterally to press claims against Israel. His UN speech about Israel as a genocidal monster prompted even the State Department to condemn it as "provocative."
Fighters in Kobani have found ways to slow down ISIS over the weekend, but lack serious weapons and intelligence to advance their position. Under the circumstance of immediate and critical fighting, Kerry's international party should have been trying to aid the Kurds, our friends and the mortal enemy of ISIS, instead of trying to lavish more international funds on Hamas and Fatah -- two sides of a movement dedicated to destruction.
Related Topics: Palestinian Authority
Recent Articles by Shoshana Bryen
US Defenses Against Chinese Cyber Offenses, 2021-01-12
Arrow - and Israel - in Alaska, 2019-07-30
Making Real Arab-Israeli Peace at the Bahrain Conference, 2019-06-05
UNESCO: Why the United States Needs to Watch Out, 2018-10-18
How the World Really Views Israel, 2018-07-18
Ora • Oct 16, 2014 at 16:13
Shoshana Bryen says, "Under the circumstance of immediate and critical fighting, Kerry's international party should have been trying to aid the Kurds, our friends and the mortal enemy of ISIS, instead of trying to lavish more international funds on Hamas and Fatah -- two sides of a movement dedicated to destruction."
If one is to make a list of all the things Kerry/Obama should have done in the past and should do in the future, the list would be much longer than this article. Kerry and Obama have got it into their heads that the Palestinians are the victims and must be rescued. The Kurds? Oh, the Kurds...ho hum. What can they do for America? How can they help the mid-term elections? The Palestinians, on the other hand, are very popular on university campuses. Maybe that will garner some votes. Not that I think the mid-term elections are the main reason for this policy or lack of policy. It's in the mind-set of Kerry and Obama.
Ilana Goldstein • Oct 15, 2014 at 23:37
What a sad day. Rewarding Hamas and Fatah for their hateful ideology and war mongering. When will the Palestinians be held accountable?
Jim • Oct 15, 2014 at 17:08
Why should Israel be surprised at the attitude of America, after all, they were against the formation of Israel from the start. The Soviets supported Israel in the United Nations, whereas America did not. Communist countries supplied arms to Israel, when America had an embargo on arms going to Israel. Unfortunately the Kurds have no strategic value to the Americans. They belatedly objected to Saddam gassing them (Kurds), and used this has a pretext to invade Iraq. Look at the result.
John Veschini • Oct 15, 2014 at 13:03
This article says it all but more especially in respect of the European powers, especially Germany and of course the US, the non-achiever Kerry, the President but last but not least, the UK.
What is allowed to be happening is soul destroying to me.
Bones • Oct 15, 2014 at 12:19
The last time donor money was given to Hamas and the PA it was spent on driving well-made, and expensive, cement-lined tunnels towards and into Israel. What wasn't used for this was then pilfered by the players.
There is no reason to expect anything different this time. Abbas and Hamas are already squabbling over who should control the funds.
Gaza will rebuild, Hamas will re-arm (already manufacturing more rockets) and the "dance" will eventually repeat itself.
Juliana Pilon • Oct 15, 2014 at 11:13
Where is the outrage from the American electorate? What is wrong with this country?
FREE THE BAHA'I SEVEN!
More than five years ago, the government of Iran arrested the seven Iranian Baha'i leaders known as the Yaran (which means "friends" in Persian). The seven prisoners, who committed no crime other than being Baha'is, were charged with espionage, propaganda against the Islamic republic, and the establishment of an illegal administration -- charges that were all denied categorically by the defendants. They were sentenced to 20 years each in prison.
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Justin Kirby
K-12 Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Mr. Justin Kirby joined GAA in 2015 and is the K-12 Director of Curriculum and Instruction. Prior to this, Mr. Kirby had been the Standards-Based Learning and Instructional Coach for Secondary, Head of Physical Education, and high school science teacher at GAA.
Mr. Kirby earned his Bachelor of Education from the University of Regina (Canada) and his Masters of Science in Education – Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment, from Walden University (USA).
Before joining GAA, Mr. Kirby had taught in several countries around the globe and has experience with multiple local, provincial, state, national, and international curriculums. He has taught kindergarten, elementary, middle school, and high school in Canada, England, Australia, South Korea, Sudan, and Thailand. He has also been an Athletic Director and the Chairperson of an international school sporting conference.
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Texas & New Mexico Personal Injury Lawyers
Defective Earplugs Hearing Loss
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3M Defective Earplugs
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Houston, TX – Woman Killed in Crash with Drunk Driver on East Freeway
By Farah Law
Houston, TX (October 15, 2020) – A motor vehicle accident reported on Wednesday claimed one woman’s life in Houston. At approximately 6:30 p.m., on October 15, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene of an accident on East Freeway.
According to reports provided by the Sheriff’s Office, a vehicle was traveling on the East Freeway near the area of Wayside Drive when it was struck by a second vehicle. The impact of the crash caused the vehicle to flip across four lanes before crashing into the dividing wall of the freeway.
A woman inside the vehicle sustained fatal injuries in the accident. The victim was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The driver in the second vehicle was injured in the accident and transported to a local hospital. One driver, identified as 36-year-old Noah Daniel Everitt, was charged with murder as he was found to be under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.
Investigations surrounding the accident are currently underway.
We would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who lost their life in this accident.
Our thoughts are with the victim injured in this accident. We hope for their full recovery.
Fatal Car Accidents in Texas
Motor vehicle accidents throughout the state of Texas claim the lives of more than 3,600 people each year. Head-on collisions are more likely to result in fatal injuries than most other types of accidents. The head-to-head impact of two vehicles can cause extensive front end damages and cause drivers and their passengers to become pinned inside their vehicles. These crashes are often a result of one or both drivers acting negligently.
Texting while driving, operating vehicles while impaired, reckless driving, and various other driver actions often result in collisions throughout our state. In fact, statistics show that more than 80% of fatal collisions are a result of these and other negligent actions. When victims lose their lives in accidents caused by the reckless actions of others, it is imperative that their families seek legal guidance from a qualified and knowledgeable wrongful death attorney in the Houston area as soon as possible. Working with an aggressive legal team will ensure your family is able to protect your legal rights after enduring the unexpected loss of a loved one.
At Farah Law, our skilled and knowledgeable car accident attorneys in Texas strive to help families protect their legal rights by providing them with responsive, effective, and compassionate legal representation. For over five decades, we have masterfully represented bereaved families to ensure they are able to maximize their recoveries through legal actions. If you have lost a loved one in an accident as a result of another driver’s negligence, it is crucial that you act quickly to protect your legal rights. Contact our Houston personal injury attorneys at (888) 481-9359. Schedule a free consultation with our attorneys to discuss the circumstances surrounding your loved one’s accident to determine what legal options are available to you.
Note: These posts are generated through the use of secondary sources for Farah Law. These sources include but are not limited to local news sources, newspaper articles, local and state police blotters, social media platforms, and more. The information and details surrounding this crash have not been independently verified by our writing staff. If you find any information that is incorrect, please contact us right away so that we can make the necessary changes to reflect the most accurate information available. If you would like this post to be removed, we will do so upon request.
Disclaimer: We have worked hard to build a solid and reputable personal injury law firm in Houston, Texas. We write these posts in an effort to create awareness about the dangers of operating a motor vehicle and hope that through awareness, people will drive with additional caution to avoid being seriously injured in an accident in Houston and throughout Texas. These posts should not be deemed as a solicitation for business. The facts and information in these posts should not be misconstrued as legal or medical advice. The pictures used in this post were not taken at the accident scene.
Jan 15 Houston, TX – Male Pedestrian Struck & Killed on Dashwood Dr
Houston, TX (January 15, 2021) – An automobile accident reported in the Houston area on Sunday claimed one man’s life during the ...
Jan 14 Houston, TX – Woman Fatally Injured in Pedestrian Crash on Clay Rd
Houston, TX (January 14, 2021) - An accident reported in Harris County claimed the life of one woman early Tuesday evening. At ...
Jan 13 Houston, TX – Pedestrian Injured in Car Crash on S Gessner Rd
Houston, TX (January 13, 2021) – An automobile accident reported in the Braeburn section of Harris County resulted in injuries. ...
1211 Hyde Park Blvd
704 Paredes Line Rd.,
1231 E. Missouri Ave
5211 S. McColl Street,
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To Access Photos, just click on them
Fairbanks House
It’s the oldest surviving timber structure house of North America. Jonathan Fairbank commissioned a master mason and carpenter to construct this farm house for his wife Grace and their six children between 1637 and 1641. Jonathan Fairbanks (1594-1668) was born in Yorkshire, England. The family immigrated to Dedham, Massachusetts in 1633. It was the ancestral home for the family for eighteen generations spanning 268 years. During this period the site grew from 12 acres to just under 200 acres. It was in the early 1800s that owner Ebenezer Jr Fairbank descended into financial crises. It wasn’t helped either with his younger brother, Jason (1780-1801) was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, Elizabeth Fales and was sentenced to be hanged. He managed to escape Dedham Jail with help from his family but was recaptured near Skenesboro (now Whitehall, New York) and was sent to Boston Jail. Under the supervision of two Calvary armies and a unit from the volunteer militia and in front of 10,000 people, James Fairbanks was hanged on the 10th September 1801. Ebenezer Jr died in 1832, his wife Mary lived in the house until her death in 1843. Their daughters, Prudence (1781-1871), Sally (1790-1877) and Nancy (1794-1879) never married and so when Nancy died, the last surviving sister, the house was left to her niece Rebecca (1827-1908). In 1904, Rebecca left the building. For over a hundred years now the house has been a museum and thanks to the organization, Fairbanks Family in America.
Fairbanks House Part 1
Niddry Street Vaults
Nestled in Scotland’s capital city, the Edinburgh Vaults or South Bridge Vaults are an arrangement of chambers formed from arches of the South Bridge. Completed in 1788, it served to link Old Town to the Southside, extending the cities development. The concealed arches had extra floors added to them, principally for the purpose of business. Niddry Street Vaults is one of three vaults now underneath the city. Taverns, where alcohol is sold and drunk, and Cobbler Workshops, a place for where shoes were made or repaired were customarily found within the vaults. The rushed erection of the bridge came a failure to seal water from the uppermost part of the overpass, leading to the vaults being flooded. By 1795, businesses started to steadily desert the vaults. As the population grew in Edinburgh, the vaults became the home to the poorest of people, living in squalor and disease, with as many as ten people living in each room. Due to lack of sanitation, clean running water, no sunlight and dire circulated air, the death rate in the vaults was disturbingly high. Criminal activity shot up with illegal gambling and manufacturing of spirits but major offences such as robbery and murder began to soar. The notorious body snatchers Burke and Hare accused of sixteen murders in 1828 are suspected of using the vaults to find helpless persons or store corpses for money to Robert Knox (1791 -1862) to use in dissection for teaching university students in his anatomy classes. The vaults were closed between 1835 and 1875.
Niddry Street Vaults 1
Bran Castle
Bran,
Transylvania,
Bran Castle sits on a steep rock face on the Transylvanian side of the former border of Wallachia. The surrounding Bucegi and Piatra Craiului mountains embrace what is known outside of Romania as Dracula’s Castle. The Teutonic knights, a German Catholic religious order built a fortress in Bran before they were forced to leave in 1226. On November 19th 1377 permission was granted by Hungarian King Louis the Great (1326-1382) for the Saxons of Transylvania to build Bran Castle – by 1388 construction was completed. It served as a customs point, for the transfer of stock going in/out of the area, in addition to stopping the growth of the Ottoman Empire. The Transylvanian Saxon lands were attacked by the Ottomans in 1438. John Hunyadi (1406-1456) a leading Hungarian military and political figure defeated Ottoman armed forces in the Battle of Hermannstadt (22nd March 1442). Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler, Vlad III Dracula) voivode (ruler) of Wallachia passed through Bran with his army in 1459 to settle a dispute with the Saxons. He plundered villages, and captured people whom he would later impale. Although it is thought Vlad never set foot in Bran Castle, there is a claim that he was imprisoned at the castle in 1462. It became the property of Queen Marie (1875-1938); who sought help from architect Karen Liman in renovating the castle. When Queen Marie died the castle was passed onto her daughter Princess Ileana (1909-1991), the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and of Tsar Alexander II.
Bran Castle 1
THIS YEAR LOCATIONS
2018 - 2020 LOCATIONS
GHOSTEIRE TESTS
Daylight in the West Wing Bedroom. It was a luxury to sleep on a bed in the 17th century.
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Rapper Megan Thee Stallion says she was injured during shooting in Hollywood
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - AUGUST 26: Rapper / Singer Megan Thee Stallion attends the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards red carpet at Prudential Center on August 26, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Rapper Megan Thee Stallion said she suffered gunshot wounds during a shooting over the weekend.
The Los Angeles Police Department could not immediately confirm which
shooting the rapper, who was born Megan Pete, was injured in, but it appears an Instagram story showed Stallion at a party in the Hollywood
Hills Saturday night with Kylie Jenner and rapper Tory Lanez.
Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was arrested during a shots fired investigation about 4:30 a.m. Sunday in the 1800 block of Nicholas Canyon Road in the Hollywood Hills West area, according to the LAPD.
He was booked for having a concealed firearm in a vehicle, but it was not immediately clear if investigators believe he was responsible for the shots fired.
One person was taken to a hospital with a foot injury, the LAPD said.
"On Sunday morning, I suffered gunshot wounds, as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me,'' Stallion said in a statement on Instagram.
"The police officers drove me to a hospital where I underwent surgery to remove the bullets. I'm incredibly grateful to be alive and that I'm expected to make a full recovery.''
Further information was not available from the Los Angeles Police Department.
Stallion, 25, is a rapper from Texas who gained attention in recent years in part through freestyling videos shared widely on Instagram. Her song "Savage'' went viral this year on TikTok and in May topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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Police identify suspect fatally shot at DC's Union Station
WASHINGTON - Police identified a man fatally shot by a security officer at Washington's Union Station after an apparent domestic dispute Friday, and the man's family mourned his death even as they raised questions Sunday about the actions of police.
District of Columbia police said the dead suspect was 57-year-old William Thomas Wilson Jr. of southeast Washington. Wilson was shot by a security officer Friday, and investigators said he had stabbed and wounded a woman. Wilson was chased and fatally shot after police said he pointed his knife at a security guard and lunged forward.
The violence Friday frightened commuters already wary on the 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The incident sent some people running for safety, while others hid amid the initial confusion about what was happening.
Union Station is home to Amtrak's headquarters. About 90,000 people pass through the station each day.
Yvonne Tyree, 61, was Wilson's older sister. She tried to comfort her grieving family members Sunday, saying they didn't understand why Wilson was killed by an armed guard. Tyree said the family was devastated.
"My brother was not a criminal, and he was loved by everybody," Tyree said. "I never thought he would be killed by a police officer or security guard. ... I doubt if he even knew it was 9/11."
Tyree added that the man was a sweet and humble person with no previous conflicts with police. The family had worried Wilson was going into a depression, though, and they warned him to stay away from his girlfriend, Tyree said. Wilson lived with his mother in Washington, a city where he had spent his whole life.
The family knew few details about the incident, Tyree said. But she said she understood Wilson had gone to the train station to settle a dispute with his girlfriend.
Tyree said she doubted a police report that said Wilson had lunged at the security officer with a knife.
"I don't believe anything in that report. That's what they do to cover themselves," she said. "There should have been some way to subdue him without killing him ... They could have spared him."
PHOTOS: SHOOTING AT UNION STATION
Police could have used a stun gun or some other way of subduing Wilson if they had to, Tyree said. "They used full force on a man who had only a small blade," she said.
Police said the security officer who saw the man stab a woman was a private security guard associated with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The guard fired one shot and hit the suspect in the side, police said Friday.
On Sunday, a D.C. police spokesman declined to identify the guard who fired the fatal shot. Police declined to release any other details about the investigation.
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London police shoot man over 'terrorism-related' stabbings
Police officers at the scene after a man was shot and killed by armed police on February 2, 2020 in London, England. The Metropolitan police have said that a number of people had been stabbed during a terrorist-related incident in Streatham.
LONDON - London's Metropolitan Police said it is investigating a terror-related incident after "a number of people" were stabbed and officers shot a man Sunday.
The police force said the incident happened in the London's Streatham neighborhood.
The Metropolitan Police tweeted details of the incident on Sunday afternoon, saying "The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related."
The BBC said that witnesses reported hearing two gunshots just after 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Social media showed multiple ambulances on the scene and helicopters in the air as helicopters responded to the incident.
Police warned people to stay out of the south London neighborhood.
Gulled Bulhan, a 19-year-old student from Streatham, told Britain's Press Association that he witnessed the attack.
"I was crossing the road when I saw a man with a machete and silver canisters on his chest being chased by what I assume was an undercover police officer - as they were in civilian clothing," he said. "The man was then shot. I think I heard three gun shots but I can't quite remember."
Bulhan said he ran into a local library to seek safety.
"From the library I saw a load of ambulances and armed police officers arrive on the scene," he said.
Police say at least three people were injured in the stabbings.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
Biden may have to leave his Peloton in Delaware when he moves into the White House: report
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Lottery fever heats up in Wisconsin with $1B+ up for grabs
By Hannah Jewell
FOX6 News Milwaukee
Lottery fever heats up in Wisconsin
Someone may soon have a very happy New Year; the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots combined are over $1 billion as of Tuesday, Jan. 12.
MILWAUKEE - Someone may soon have a very happy New Year; the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots combined are over $1 billion as of Tuesday, Jan. 12.
More people are rushing out the door to get their hands on tickets with drawings set for Tuesday night and Wednesday night, Jan. 13.
"I usually don’t play very often, so, when it gets real big like this, I have to buy just one," said Stephanie Conley.
Many who spoke to FOX6 News said they would use their winning to help people other than themselves, who have fallen on hard times.
"It definitely snowballs. When it’s the regular price of $40 million, no one really cares or bats an eye, but as soon as it gets to $300-400 million, they’re like, it’s definitely worth my money now," said Joseph McMahon, owner of the Corner Pump in Pewaukee.
Joseph McMahon
McMahon said he's happy to see more customers than usual, he estimates three-to-four times as many people -- around 100 a day.
Those customers are hoping a little luck will rub off onto them from the very registers that sold a Powerball ticket worth $156.2 million in 2017.
"I wasn’t in the store when it was sold but I was working here when it was sold, and just getting the phone call the next day that someone won was pretty nuts," McMahon said.
Winning 2017 Powerball ticket sold at Corner Pump in Pewaukee
"I know there’s been winners here before, so that is what I am hoping for," said Conley.
After a year that was tough on everyone, customers said their winnings would not just be for them.
"Buy a house, a new car, help my family," Conley said.
Mega Millions and Powerball lottery jackpots surpass a combined $1 billion.
"Retire and take care of family," said Harry Eisenmann.
Others said they would give to strangers in need.
"I don’t think one person needs all that money, but hopefully they can do some good in this world," McMahon said.
To be eligible for the Mega Millions drawing at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 12, tickets must be bought by 9 p.m. The Powerball drawing is at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, Jan. 13.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android.
Sheboygan dispatcher takes 911 call she will not soon forget
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Packers sign RB Tyler Ervin for next season, GM Gutekunst says
GREEN BAY -- The Green Bay Packers have re-signed running back Tyler Ervin, General Manager Brian Gutekunst announced Monday, March 30.
Ervin, a 5'10", 192-pound fifth-year player out of San Jose State, played in four regular-season games and both postseason contests for the Packers last season after being claimed off of waivers from the Jacksonville Jaguars on Dec. 3, 2019.
He averaged 26.7 yards on six kickoff returns, including a career-long 45-yarder for Green Bay during the regular season, and 9.6 yards on 11 punt returns, according to a release.
In the postseason, Ervin returned three kickoffs for 41 yards (13.7 avg.) and one punt for 6 yards with three fair catches.
He was originally selected by the Houston Texans in the fourth round (No. 119 overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft. Ervin played in 31 regular-season games and two postseason games for the Texans from 2016 to 2018. He also played for the Jaguars in 2019.
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Dow Climbs to Highest Level Since July; BofA Soars
The blue chips climbed on Tuesday to the highest level since July 26, led by Bank of America shares, which zoomed higher by close to 6%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 70 points, or 0.56%, to 12462, the S&P 500 gained 11.4 points, or 0.89%, to 1292 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 25.9 points, or 0.97%, to 2703.
The broader S&P 500 also rose to its highest level since July, while the Nasdaq closed in the green for the fourth-straight session.
BofA has had a solid year thus far after plunging more than 50% last year. America's second-largest bank by assets led the Dow higher on Tuesday, followed by machinery giant Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), all of which were up more than 2% on the day.
Banks performed well overall, with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) rallying on the day as well.
Meanwhile, Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and General Electric (NYSE:GE) were the Dow's biggest laggards, each slipping by less than a percent.
Alcoa (NYSE:AA), also a blue chip, kicked off earnings season after the closing bell on Monday. The aluminum giant posted a quarterly loss of 3 cents per share, which came in-line with analysts' expectations, but its revenue of $6 billion topped forecasts of $5.7 billion. The company also said it expects demand for aluminum to increase by 7% this year.
This helped boost mining stocks and expectations about corporate earnings in light of growing headwinds from Europe. Indeed, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX), the world's biggest publicly traded copper company, charged 4% higher on the day.
Market participants also cited a slew of news from overseas as having fueled Tuesday's rally.
China's imports grew at a rate of 11.8% in December, much slower than the 18% pace economists' projected, and just slightly more than half of the 22.1% it hit in November. The data highlight increasing concerns that the world's second-biggest economy is slowing down. However, the particularly weak data stoked anticipation that Beijing may enact a more accommodative monetary policy to boost growth, which traders say could be a positive development for equities.
In Europe, France's industrial production rose by 1.1%, zipping by estimates of a 0.2% fall. France is the continent's second-biggest economy and worries about its weakening economy have been partially to blame for speculation that it may lose its pristine 'AAA' credit rating.
Separately, ratings company Fitch said it doesn't expect to downgrade the country this year barring a "strong worsening" of the situation in the euro zone, AFP quoted a spokesperson as saying.
However, the situation in the euro zone remains fragile. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday Greece needs to reach a deal with private debt holders to cut its debt before the European Union and International Monetary Fund will pay the country's next aid tranche. Meanwhile, Italy's 10-year note recently yielded 7.17% -- a painfully-high level.
The euro climbed 0.08% to $1.2776, while European blue chips soared 2.7%. The U.S. dollar fell 0.14% against a basket of six world currencies.
Energy futures rose on the day, tracking strength in equity markets, a weaker dollar and continued worries about tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The benchmark crude oil contract traded in New York jumped 93 cents, or 0.92%, to $102.24 a barrel. Wholesale RBOB gasoline rose 0.5% to $2.773 a gallon.
In metals, gold climbed $23.50, or 1.5%, to $1,631 a troy ounce. Traders sold U.S. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note recently yielded 1.979% from 1.975%.
European blue chips jumped 2.7%, the English FTSE 100 rose 1.5% to 5,697 and the German DAX rallied 2.7% to 6,163.
In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 climbed 0.38% to 8,422 and the Chinese Hang Seng gained 1.1% to 4,152.
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Profits Could Weaken as "Perfect Calm" Ends
By Bill BarkerFool.com
The markets are almost eerily calm. Could a storm be coming just over the horizon? Photo: Flickr user 16:9clue.
Surviving "The Perfect Calm"One of the most overused tropes of the past two decades is the "perfect storm" -- a phrase that describes a major disaster caused by the confluence of two or more events or forces. When Sebastian Junger wrote his 1997 book about the 1991 nor'easter that took the lives of the crew of the Andrea Gail and popularized the phrase, a "perfect storm" was understood to be a once-in-a-century-or-more event.
Now, on any given day, you can do an Internet search on the phrase and see that nearly anything vaguely new can pass as a "perfect storm." As I google the phrase today, for instance, I see it attributed to a crisis in Yemen, the minimum wage in Oakland, the level of pollen this season, a hallway scuffle in Florida between a judge and a public defender, and, perhaps most accurately, the end of several societies during the Bronze Age. In other words, we've reached a point where, according to the media, perfect storms are absolutely commonplace.
In short, I'm aware that titling any thoughts after such an overused trope invites derision. But the nearly complete absence of stormy weather in our economy -- and, in particular, the action in the domestic stock market -- invites consideration of just how unusual such an occurrence is. It also calls to mind another phrase: "the calm before the storm."
I'd like to point out one variable indicating that the storm has not yet arrived, even though a critical piece of a beautiful calm already seems to have ended.
What we talk about when we talk about an overvalued marketAs broad domestic-market indexes keep hitting new highs, a growing number of voices are joining the chorus that the market is either overvalued or due for a correction or a fall, depending on where they fall on the cautious-to-doomsday spectrum. There are any number of data points we can rely upon to tell the story that stocks are overvalued, but most stories depart from a strict P/E-ratio description. After all, using the P/E ratio, the most simple and commonly used indicator of market valuation, stocks do not appear to be tremendously overvalued. At the end of the first quarter, stocks were priced at 16.9 times the 12-month forward consensus analyst expectation for earnings. The 25-year average is 15.7.
So the forward P/E ratio is a little bit higher than average, but not high enough to spark panic. It's far less than one standard deviation out of whack for the time period mentioned. Of course, you can argue that the past 25 years have generally been dominated by periods of overvaluation and that it is more prudent to look at the valuations of stocks going back 50 years or more. That's certainly a viewpoint worth considering, but it's not fodder for this column. After all, 25 years means something when you're talking about mean-reversion equations.
The strongest argument that the market is overvalued is grounded not merely on earnings, but on how the earnings are composed. There are, to keep it very simple, two components to the earnings: the (top-line) sales and the level of profit earned from those sales. And it is the level of profit margins that is the real concern. Observe the quarterly numbers over the past nine years.
Source: Standard & Poor's.
Consecutive all-time records were set for margins -- off already historically elevated levels -- for five consecutive quarters leading intolastyear's fourth quarter, at which point they hit a significant wall. Less-than-bullish observers (let's not go so far as to call them bears) have been calling for a reversion to the mean for operating profit margins for years now. In fact, they were calling for them in 2006-2007 as well.
Margins are a particularly visible manifestation of the nearly perfect calm. These gently improving margins ticked up just a little bit and a little bit more throughout 2013 to the end of 2014. There was never any boom in the GDP fueling significantly improving earnings numbers. Indeed, you can probably recall that the past several years have been noted for the lack of speed or strength in the economic recovery. Yet improved profit margins hid that weakness, as companies got incrementally better at wringing costs out of their businesses and declining to pursue expensive but unproven potential growth opportunities. The rising profitability has also come at the expense of any increase in employee compensation.
Then the decline in oil prices and foreign-currency effects teamed up (by no means a "perfect storm" level of teamwork) to meaningfully erode margins, along with the profits that came with them, at the end of last year. Reports from the quarter that has just ended will continue to show that margins are being affected, leading to a second consecutive quarter of earnings declines. Whether we'll again see 10% operating margins in the S&P anytime soon -- or ever -- is anybody's guess, but the weight exerted by previously achieved margin levels can't be dismissed out of hand.
Recall that operating-profit margins for the S&P 500 of even 8% were basically unheard of before the past 10 years. Previously, 6%-7% defined the top end of the range that had been established for many decades. A full reversion to the historical mean is something the market has not currently priced in by any stretch, and it would certainly end the perfect calm the markets have enjoyed over these past several years.
Not that I'm predicting such a full reversion, but we've certainly witnessed a wonderfully ascending domestic market, made smoothly possible by companies -- and let's give them credit here -- making more and more money off every dollar of the slowly growing revenue that a modest economy has allowed. Today, amid the perfect calm of a slow-growing, benign economy, investors need to be on the lookout for some break in the perfectly clear weather. When it comes, as it always must eventually, it doesn't need to come in the form of a catastrophe, as it did in 2008-2009. You'll note in the preceding table that margins collapsed from a level of 9.4% to a negative number in the fourth quarter of 2008, marking the first and only time a negative profit margin showed up for the S&P 500. (Now that's a perfect storm.)
I don't expect a repeat of that, nor do many others. But be prepared for margins to take a breather, and for profits to moderate as a result. It doesn't follow that the market must take a big hit as a result, but it does mean that the rewards the market can potentially offer to investors are facing a headwind for a bit.
But be alertNo matter where or how you invest, it's always important to control your costs. That's why my team recently produced a new special report uncovering a number of "hidden costs" you might not normally consider. It's absolutely free, and you can access it by following the link here.
The article Profits Could Weaken as "Perfect Calm" Ends originally appeared on Fool.com.
Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Donovan Mitchell signs 5-year contract extension with Jazz
Mitchell is a part of the young Jazz team that has made waves in the Western Conference
By Ryan Gaydos | Fox News
Jim Gray on what it means to be a 'GOAT'
Sportscaster Jim Gray gives his definition of a 'GOAT' to Brian Kilmeade the Fox News special 'Talking to GOATs.'
Donovan Mitchell signed a rookie max contract extension with the Utah Jazz.
Mitchell and the Jazz agreed to a five-year, $163 million extension and it could be worth up to $195 million with incentives, his agents told ESPN on Sunday.
TRISTAN THOMPSON, CELTICS AGREE TO TWO-YEAR DEAL
With the reported signing, Utah keeps one of its best players in recent memory in the corps of its team. Mitchell has been a great young player who has kept Utah in the playoff conversation since he joined the league. He’s also made teams regret passing over him.
The Jazz selected Mitchell with the No. 13 pick of the 2017 NBA Draft. He earned his first All-Star appearance during the 2019-20 season and finished the pandemic-shortened season averaging 24 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. It was the best season of his career.
FREE AGENCY OPENS: FOX AND KINGS AGREE ON $163 MILLION DEAL
Out of the 2017 draft class, Mitchell is averaging more points per game than anyone. His 22.7 career average is more than the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum, Sacramento Kings’ De’Aaron Fox and the top two picks – Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball.
Utah finished sixth in the Western Conference but was bounced out of the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets. The Jazz are poised for another playoff run during the 2020-21 season.
Ryan Gaydos is the sports editor for FoxNews.com. Follow him on social media @Gaydos_
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Giant Freakin Robot > Culture
Fuddruckers And Luby’s Are Shutting Down, End Of A Tasty Era
By Drew Dietsch | 4 months ago
Fuddruckers and Luby’s, two prominent restaurant businesses, have announced that they will be liquidating. Luby’s Inc., the parent company of both chains, intends to sell the business and distribute the proceeds from that sale to the company’s shareholders. The businesses were hit hard due to the coronavirus pandemic, and both chains were not able to remain profitable throughout 2020.
Fuddruckers was founded in 1979 by Dallas restauranteur Phil Romano. Romano’s vision for Fuddruckers was to create a chain of burger restaurants that could directly compete with McDonald’s. While the price would be higher, Romano wanted to offer a more “theatrical” experience that also catered to more adult tastes. The burger buns would be baked in house and employees would also grind the meat on site. This would cause a strong fragrance to waft through the establishment, helping to make customers even hungrier.
Fuddruckers was hit hard during the 2008 financial crisis and the brand was sold to Luby’s Inc. in June 2010 for $63.45 million. Luby’s was founded in 1947 in San Antonio, Texas by Robert Luby. The cafeteria became a Texas mainstay and even inspired a character on King of the Hill. The “Lu Ann Platter” was a popular combination platter served at Luby’s, offering a half portion main dish with vegetables. The character of Luanne Platter was named after this menu item.
After the liquidation of the company, a sale could be on the horizon. While no buyers have been publicly announced, it will be interesting to see if Fuddruckers and Luby’s will be purchased by another food conglomerate. The brands are certainly recognizable, especially in their founding state of Texas. Whether or not another corporate entity steps in and acquires the brands remains to be seen.
2020 has been a very difficult year for many businesses, but restaurants and fast-food chains have been hit extremely hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Many small, independently owned restaurants have had to shut down or permanently close due to decreased sales. It is very telling that even larger chains like Fuddruckers and Luby’s have not been able to adapt to this unfortunate new landscape. It is worth noting that both Fuddruckers and Luby’s were reporting losses before the pandemic hit. It is likely that the coronavirus pandemic only expedited their eventual demise.
Fuddruckers and Luby’s are two more financial and cultural casualties in the year of COVID-19. Hopefully, they can find a new life after the sale is announced. These are two restaurant brands that have engendered a lot of love from their customers. If the brands are strong enough and there is a strong enough showing of support, it could be possible that they will find a new life under the umbrella of another restaurant company.
As of this writing, it is unclear if certain Fuddruckers and Luby’s restaurants will stay open for operation. So, if you have a Fuddruckers or a Luby’s near you and they are still open for business, you might want to get a takeout order in before it is too late.
Arnold Schwarzenegger In Heart Surgery, Update On His Condition
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Home :: WMD :: Library :: News :: Pakistan :: 2017 :: April ::
WMD Menu
Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
Pakistan's Military Says Spokesman Of Taliban Faction Surrenders
RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal April 17, 2017
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- Pakistan's military said on April 17 that a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban has surrendered along with other members of the Tehrik-e Taliban (TTP) militant group.
Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director-general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations Agency, the military's media wing, identified the detained Taliban spokesman as Ehsanullah Ehsan, saying he had served as a spokesman for both the TTP and a Taliban-linked terrorist faction called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is the group that claimed responsibility for the December 2014 terrorist attack on a Peshawar school that killed 147 people, most of them schoolchildren.
Ghafoor told reporters in Rawalpindi on April 17 that the spokesman "is not the only one" who has surrendered to Pakistani security forces, adding that he would share information at a later date about others who have surrendered.
Pakistani intelligence sources told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that Ehsanullah Ehsan is an alias used by several different people who are spokesmen for the TTP and the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction.
Those officials told RFE/RL that the militant who surrendered is named Sajjad Mohmand and that he had turned himself in to Pakistani authorities in mid-March.
Ghafoor would not confirm that information or provide further details.
However, TTP sources also have confirmed to RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that one of their spokesmen had surrendered.
There was no immediate comment from the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction.
The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar split away from the TTP in September 2014 and the faction voiced support for the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
The split came when Jamaat-ul-Ahrar commander Omar Khalid Khorasani and his associates in Pakistan's Mohmand tribal region publicly accused the TTP leader in Pakistan's Swat Valley, Maulana Fazlulah, of deviating from the TTP's strict Islamic fundamentalist ideology.
Fazlullah said in September 2014 that he had ousted Khorasani and his associates from the TTP because they had formed what Fazlullah described as "dubious" organizations.
At the time of the split, Khorasani was considered to be one of the Pakistani Taliban's most powerful leaders in Pakistan's tribal regions.
Khorasani attracted international attention as the alleged mastermind of a December 2014 terrorist attack on a Peshawar school.
In March 2015, a Jamat-ul-Ahrar spokesman announced that the faction was rejoining the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan's military and Pakistani Taliban sources have said that Khorasani was killed in July 2016 by a U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Pamir Sahil, Reuters, and AP
Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-taliban-faction- spokesman-surrenders/28435439.html
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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Centerprise – the radical past of a much missed Hackney institution
By Hackney Citizen | Thursday 12 September 2013 at 13:44
A illustration of Centerprise as it looked in the 1970s. The image was provided by Ken Worpole
Iconic Dalston bookshop and community centre Centerprise closed late last year after Hackney Council seized its premises amid a bitter rental dispute.
This somewhat ignominious episode marked the closing chapter in the history of a place that was a hub for intellectual activity in the area in the 1970s and 1980s.
Centerprise began its life as a bookshop and café in Dalston Lane circa 1971. It is amazing to think now, given their proliferation in Hackney, but at that time there were virtually no independent bookshops in the borough.
My father Robin Simpson was involved in Centerprise for most of the 1970s.
He recalls: “We were told in 1970 that a bookshop would never work in the East End because East Enders didn’t read.
“Well, we proved them wrong. The bookshop more or less broke even. It didn’t make a lot of money, but I believe it didn’t make a loss.”
In those days whole rows of empty houses stood on some streets in Hackney.
Author Ken Worpole, who was also involved in Centerprise during the late 1970s, remembers: “The whole of Dalston Lane had been scheduled for demolition.”
Centerprise later moved to the Kingsland High Street premises where it was based until its demise last year.
In its heyday the bookshop also contained a coffee bar and ran various youth activities such as chess clubs and drama clubs.
There was a reading project, which taught adult literacy, and a publishing project, where local people wrote their autobiographies, as well as a legal advice centre.
Like a number of organisations in the late 1970s and early 1980s – Geoff Travis’ Rough Trade label springs to mind – Centerprise was operated as a collectively-run enterprise as much as a commercial business.
It attempted to capture something of the spirit of Karl Marx’s ‘For each according to their needs’ approach.
Everyone was on equal pay and rotated duties.
‘Lively counter-culture’
“It was a cooperative”, explains my father, “and so we all had the same rates of pay. It had all the benefits and disadvantages that characterised cooperatives.”
Rebecca O’Rourke, now a lecturer at Leeds University, was also involved in Centerprise during the 1980s, joining through her involvement with the Federation of Women Writers and Community Publishers.
“Centerprise was a hub for Hackney life”, she says. “It was a cross-cultural space – the publishing and writing projects worked with mixed groupings of men and women, with people who were straight, lesbian, gay, and from a variety of races. Identity politics were strong when I joined the collective, and there were issues about race and sexuality which were sometimes very confrontational amongst staff.
Ken Worpole recalls: “It was a heady time and there were lots of books about alternative culture and ideas, lots of interest in music and politics. It was very much part of what was happening in Hackney at the time in terms of the borough’s very lively counter-cultural scene.”
While the publishing arm of Centerprise would turn out to be its most commercially successful venture, the venue was also a meeting point for organisations and writers’ groups from all over East London, from Irish nationalists to feminist and lesbian groups.
Sheltering from Augusto Pinochet’s brutal regime at that time, Chilean exiles in London would meet at Centerprise.
However, it would be misleading to brand Centerprise as just a hang-out for hippies, intellectuals, and all the non-mainstream groups of the time.
The local Communist Party, for example, didn’t meet there, and the Labour Party – then still staunchly on the Left – nonetheless viewed Centerprise with suspicion.
Drugs and anti-social activity were not tolerated.
The pressures of running a collective were not easy to bear, which may explain why its golden days eventually came to an end, taking its toll on many involved.
The move to Kingsland High Street would lead to the organisation ultimately becoming more formal and hierarchical.
O’Rourke remembers: “We lived the work and the politics of community activism.
“It was one of the most hardest and stimulating times of my life – and it was tough for people with families. Most people who left did so because they were exhausted”.
Worpole, meanwhile, says: “I think you have to remember that it was part of a much wider community arts movement. Apart from Centerprise, you had Freeform, Hoxton Hall, Chats Palace, The Factory… There were a lot of community arts projects, very committed to multiculturalism, very committed to popular creativity.
“The idea at the time was cultural democracy, and I think those ideas are still very important.
“To have all these different things under one roof – nobody had done that before. It was a magic mixture, if you like”.
In more recent times, Centerprise contained a bookshop specialising in Afro-Caribbean literature and history, accompanied by a Caribbean restaurant and a space for community workshops.
Up until its closure it was paying an annual rent of just £520 (£10 per week) – a situation that Hackney Council was dissatisfied with.
These days, the area has become a strip of nightlife, full of revellers queuing for clubs.
The houses off the main roads, the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural on Dalston Lane, and the Rio Cinema are all that really remain as symbols of the Dalston of the 1970s.
The Kingsland High Street premises that housed Centerprise were, briefly, a ‘psychic medium’ centre, but this now appears to have disappeared.
The walls have been painted black and the shutters are down.
No sign pointing to the building’s previous history remains.
On the Record Community Interest Company is developing a project to record the history of Centerprise’s publishing project and create a permanent public archive.
They want to know how you think Centerprise’s work in publishing and community history should be remembered. They are collecting comments on their blog justanotherbookshop and can be contacted at info@on-the-record.org.uk or on 0758 365 6338.
← New East London publishers Hoxton Mini Press launch Kickstarter campaignConnecting Nothing with Something – review →
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CONC 2
CONC 2.10 Mental capacity guidance
CONC 2.10.1G 01/04/2014 RP
This section applies:
to a firm;
in relation to the following decisions:
granting credit under a regulated credit agreement;
significantly increasing the amount of credit under a regulated credit agreement; and
setting a credit limit for running account credit.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets out the legal framework concerning mental capacity for England and Wales. The Ministry of Justice has issued the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice which, among other things, includes information on indications of mental capacity limitations and on how to assist people with making decisions.
The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 provides the framework in Scotland for safeguarding the welfare and managing the finances of adults who lack capacity due to mental disorder or inability to communicate.
References in this section to a firm's knowledge, understanding, observation, suspicion, assumption or belief include1 that of the firm's employees, appointed representatives, agents and any others who act on behalf of the firm.
[Note: footnote 2 of MCG]
In making a decision within CONC 2.10.1 G, a firm should consider the customer's individual circumstances.
[Note: paragraph 2.4 of MCG]
Mental capacity is a person's ability to make a decision. Whether or not a customer has the ability to understand, remember, and weigh up relevant information will determine whether the customer is able to make a responsible borrowing decision based on that information.
A firm should assume a customer has mental capacity at the time the decision has to be made, unless the firm knows, or is told by a person it reasonably believes should know, or reasonably suspects, that the customer lacks capacity.
Where a firm reasonably suspects a customer has, or may have, some form of mental capacity limitation which would constrain the customer's ability to make a decision to borrow, the firm should not regard the customer as lacking capacity to make the decision unless the firm has taken reasonable steps without success to assist the customer to make a decision.
Amongst the most common potential causes of mental capacity limitations are the following examples, a mental health condition, dementia, a learning disability, a developmental disorder, a neurological disability or brain injury and alcohol or drug (including prescribed drugs) induced intoxication.
Where a firm understands or reasonably suspects a customer has a condition of a type in CONC 2.10.6 G, this does not necessarily mean that the customer does not have the mental capacity to make an informed borrowing decision. See also CONC 2.10.15 G.
[Note: paragraph 2.10 of MCG]
Indications that a person may have some form of mental capacity limitation
A firm is likely to have reasonable grounds to suspect a customer may have some form of mental capacity limitation if the firm observes a specific indication (behavioural or otherwise) that could be indicative of some form of limitation of the customer's mental capacity. Examples (amongst others) of indications might include:
where a firm has an existing relationship with a customer, the customer making a decision that appears to the firm to be unexpected or out of character;
a person who is likely to have an informed view of the matter, such as a relative, close friend, carer or clinician raising a concern with the firm as to the capacity of the customer to make a decision about borrowing;
the firm understands or has reason to believe the customer has been diagnosed as having an impairment which led to the customer not having had mental capacity for similar decisions in the past;
the firm understands or has reason to believe the customer does not understand what the customer is applying for;
the firm understands or has reason to believe the customer is unable to understand the information and explanations provided by the firm, in particular concerning the key risks of entering into the agreement;
the firm understands or has reason to believe the customer is unable to retain information and explanations provided by the firm to enable the customer to make the decision to borrow;
the firm understands or has reason to believe the customer is unable to weigh up the information and explanations provided by the firm to enable the customer to make the decision to borrow;
the customer is unable to communicate a decision to borrow by any reasonable means;
the customer being confused about the personal information that the firm requires, such as date of birth or address.
[Note: paragraphs 3.14 and 3.15 of MCG]
Practices and procedures
A firm should not unfairly discriminate against a customer who it understands, or reasonably suspects, has a mental capacity limitation, in particular, by inappropriately denying the customer access to credit. [Note: paragraph 4.8 of MCG]
It would not be inappropriate not to grant credit nor significantly increase the amount of credit under an agreement nor set a credit limit for running account credit where the firm reasonably believes the agreement or decision would be voidable at the instance of the customer or the agreement is void.
CONC 2.10.10G 01/07/2014 RP
In accordance with Principle 6, firms should take reasonable steps to ensure they have suitable business practices and procedures in place for the fair treatment of customers who they understand, or reasonably suspect, have or may have a mental capacity limitation. [Note: paragraph 4.1 of MCG]
CONC 7.2.1 R requires1firms to establish and implement arrears policies and procedures, which include policies and procedures for the fair and appropriate treatment of customers the firm understands or reasonably suspects of having mental capacity limitations.
A firm should document practices and procedures to set out the steps that it takes when it receives applications for credit from such customers.
Where a firm understands, or reasonably suspects, a customer has or may have a mental capacity limitation the firm should use its business practices and procedures to:
assist the customer, where possible, to make an informed borrowing decision; and
ensure its lending decision is informed and responsible in the circumstances and mitigates the potential risks to the customer.
[Note: paragraphs 4.3 and 4.5 of MCG]
As stated in the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice, it is important to balance a person's right to make a decision with that person’s right to safety and protection when they are unable to make decisions to protect themselves.
[Note: paragraph 4.5 (box) of MCG]
Firms should present clear, jargon-free information in explaining credit agreements in a way that makes it as easy as possible for the customer to understand. Firms should consider ways to present information in alternative, more 'user-friendly' formats where it appears appropriate to do so, subject to compliance with the relevant statutory requirements.
Where a firm knows, or reasonably suspects, that a customer has or may have one of the conditions in CONC 2.10.6 G this could justifiably act as a trigger for the firm to consider the potential specific steps in giving effect to the firm's practices and procedures for assessing:
whether or not the customer appears able to understand, remember, and weigh up the information and explanations provided and, when having done so, make an informed borrowing decision;
whether the customer appears able to afford to make repayments under the credit agreement in a sustainable manner without adverse consequences to the customer's financial circumstances; and
whether the credit the customer is seeking is clearly unsuitable (given the customer's individual circumstances and, to the extent that the firm is aware, the customer's intended use of the credit).
[Note: paragraphs 2.5 and 2.11 of MCG]
Firms' practices and procedures should be designed to assist customers that firms understand have, or reasonably suspect of having, mental capacity limitations to overcome, to the extent possible, the effect of the limitations and place them, to the extent possible, on an equivalent basis to customers who do not have such limitations, to increase the likelihood of customers being able to make informed borrowing decisions.
Allowing sufficient time for decisions
Where a firm understands, or reasonably suspects, a customer has or may have a mental capacity limitation it should consider allowing the customer:
sufficient time in the circumstances to weigh up the information and explanations the firm has given;
sufficient time in the circumstances to make an informed borrowing decision;
to defer a decision to borrow to a later date.
[Note: paragraphs 4.26, 4.27 and 4.28 of MCG]
Sustainability of borrowing
Where a firm understands, or reasonably suspects, a customer has or may have a mental capacity limitation it should apply a high level of scrutiny to the customer's application for credit, in order to mitigate the risk of the customer entering into unsustainable borrowing (see CONC 5.2 and CONC 5.3).
A firm should balance the risk of a customer taking on unsustainable borrowing against inappropriately or unnecessarily denying credit to a customer.
Where a firm understands or reasonably suspects a customer has or may have a mental capacity limitation, it should undertake an appropriate and effective creditworthiness assessment or assessment required by CONC 5.2.2R (1) and it would be appropriate not to place over-reliance on information provided by the customer for the assessment.
Where a firm understands, or reasonably suspects, a customer has or may have a mental capacity limitation the firm should take particular care that the customer is not provided with credit which the firm knows, or reasonably believes, to be unsuitable to the customer's needs, even where the credit would be affordable.
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