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Truth & Light
Bitcoin is Not a Cryptocurrency - It’s MUCH Better
Written by Liz Louw on 03 February 2020
In our blog about Bitcoin’s backstory we explored Satoshi Nakamoto’s simple, yet revolutionary solution for creating an immutable, transparent and regulatory compliant digital record-keeping system.
To recap: Cryptocurrencies of the ‘90s were designed to operate anonymously and behind closed doors. As a result, governments shut down the entirety of the 1 Trillion dollar industry in a single week in 2002. In contrast to their gameplan, Satoshi Nakamoto created the Bitcoin blockchain to operate as a publicly run, distributed ledger technology - the first of its kind.
This is an extract (Chapter 2) from our new eBook, "What is Bitcoin? 11th Birthday Edition".
You can order your free copy by heading over here.
Why Bitcoin is NOT a Cryptocurrency
To understand the Bitcoin blockchain’s true value and potential applications, it’s essential to agree on our definitions of the most important concepts we’re talking about. And so, the first term to get clarity on is the infamous ‘cryptocurrency’.
Although a throng of cryptocurrencies have sprouted since the birth of Bitcoin, and Bitcoin is usually pooled along with the ‘cryptocurrency industry’, it is everything but. Let me allow Dr Craig Wright, the individual behind Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto to explain:
Bitcoin uses the same algorithms as cryptocurrency, but that doesn’t mean it is a cryptocurrency itself. If you look at eCash which was an actual cryptocurrency, it uses blinding and other features to cryptographically hide something. Cryptography is secret writing. Bitcoin is the exact opposite of that. Bitcoin is, basically, a public ledger. So, it’s designed to be private, but it doesn’t actually encrypt things. You can encrypt data and store it in the blockchain, but the difference is that Bitcoin itself is a set of digital signatures, it’s a chain of evidence, and it’s pretty much everything that systems that aim for anonymous transfer, is not.
On being asked why he would not classify Bitcoin as a currency, Wright responds:
A currency is basically defined as something used by the State. So, ‘money’ doesn’t mean ‘currency’, although ‘currency’ means ‘money’. To be a currency, it needs to be something like legal tender.
Source: “Bitcoin is not a Cryptocurrency”, CoinGeek Conversations.
Bitcoin as a Public Data Ledger and Electronic Cash System
Now that we’ve debunked the idea of Bitcoin as cryptocurrency, it’s easy to see why Satoshi Nakamoto, in early days, found it so difficult to explain what Bitcoin actually is.
“Sorry to be a wet blanket. Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There's nothing to relate it to.”
Source: Satoshi Nakamoto via Bitcointalk forum
Luckily, in 2020 we’re fortunate enough to have ample new material by Dr Craig Wright, to give us more clarity on what Bitcoin actually IS, its potential applications, and how it's going to rock our world!
As a starter description, we could describe the Bitcoin blockchain as a public data ledger and an electronic cash system.
“But, what does that mean and why should I care?”
The Problems with Traditional Ledger Systems
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.” Dr Craig S. Wright
So, what’s the big deal about the idea of a public and distributed ledger system?
To start off with, let’s consider a few examples of the opposite kind of digital records system: private, centralised ledgers. We can think of a company’s financial statements, a national health database, and a fiat monetary system.
In each case, the integrity of the system’s data depends on the reliability of the managing parties, including big fish like the CEO and the President of the Central bank, but not excluding all the employees and technical operators who have access to the data.
With so many people having the opportunity to leak, erase or alter digital records, it’s very difficult to know if a company’s dealings really are above board, our sensitive health data is protected, and our fiat currency system is not being debased.
A single point of failure - a crooked CEO, an exhausted IT professional, or a sociopathic central bank official - is all it takes to make an entire data system vulnerable.
The Benefits of Bitcoin’s Public Ledger Plus Electronic Cash System
“Just as the central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, we need a system that does not allow developers to become technocrats thinking they are smarter than the market. Just as the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust, so is the history of promises from technocrats.” Dr Craig S. Wright
No Central Point of Failure
The beauty of running applications on Bitcoin’s distributed ledger instead of a centralised one, is the elimination of a central point of failure.
If the central server of a centralised network were to fail, none of the computers on that network would be able to function. If a single computer were to disconnect from Bitcoin’s distributed ledger system, on the other hand, there would be no effect on the functioning of the network whatsoever.
What’s more is that we eliminate central authorities with the power to alter the data in the distributed ledger, and so also neatly remove the possibility of human manipulation of data.
Transparency and Immutability Allowing for Accountability
Another advantage of Bitcoin’s ledger system is that it is available for anyone to view - both the recorded history as well as the latest transactions and data interactions as they are verified and recorded to the ledger. With this level of transparency in place, there’s no need to trust that data was recorded with the promised access permissions, we can simply check.
And then, because Bitcoin’s ledger is immutable (can not be altered or erased), we end up with a reliable, untampered record trail that can be audited even many years after an event.
Data Ownership and Data Privacy
Alongside the issue of data integrity, arises the matter of data ownership and data privacy. Existing data collection companies tend to wheedle our personal data out of us under reasonable-sounding guises...
Perhaps they need your health records for the sake of your insurance policy. Maybe you’re offered the use of a Social Media platform to enable you to ‘connect’ and ‘share’ your most personal thoughts, feelings and fears with your ‘close friends’. Whatever the pitch, the moment we’ve put our data out there, we risk having it sold for profit, or used against us through nefarious ad campaigns.
With Bitcoin’s data ledger, we can do better. MUCH better. For a start, a data collection project running on Bitcoin would clearly indicate the volume and nature of our data that’s recorded, and we’ll be able to see who has permission to access it. A more sophisticated application of the Bitcoin blockchain would allow us to program access permissions for each bit of data, which means that you could retain control of your own personal data and choose to share it only if, and for as long as you are satisfied that it’s in your best interest to do so.
Bitcoin as Electronic Cash System
If I tell you that Bitcoin was created to allow transactions as tiny as a few pennies to be secure, instant, and cheap, it’s easy to see the huge improvement over the traditional banking system.
But, what if I told you that Bitcoin is the key to changing the Internet from its current data syphoning model to one where you’ll be able to earn micropayments for your online content, data, interactions and activity?
Bitcoin as ‘The Internet of Money’
But wait, there’s more GRAND NEWS! As we speak, this new blockchain-based Internet is already being built, and it’s called Metanet.
Metanet’s goal is to take back control of our data from tech giants like Twitter, Facebook and Google. The bargain we currently make with these companies is to allow them to sell our data in return for the ‘free services’ they offer. This online advertising model does not only lead to a loss of control over our data, but it’s also incredibly inefficient with millions of click fraud scams defrauding ad buyers. With Metanet powered by Bitcoin’s transparent data ledger and electronic cash system, it all changes. While Metanet users will have to pay for services like search and Social Media platforms (e.g. Twetch), we will also be able to earn micropayments for each of the bits of data we contribute to the system.
With Metanet, we have a chance to free ourselves from a surveillance economy and acquire our financial sovereignty!
And that’s not even mentioning the entirely new business models that such a micropayment facility might unlock... But let’s leave that topic for a later edition of our series.
Press release: Funding the Future of Finance
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We answer the most common questions we’ve had from our community about our crowd...
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How to prevent the collapse of the liberal-left after Brexit and Trump
The UK’s decision to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States have been cited by some commentators as proof that the West is turning away from liberal values. Tahir Abbas argues that in the aftermath of Brexit and Trump, supporters of liberalism require a new movement aimed at reaching a unitary consensus that resists division.
In the wake of the US election, much has been stated about the failure of the liberal left. Arguments abound suggesting that the liberal left is to blame for Trump’s victory as they were unable to engage with inclusive ideas or that their consistent emphasis on those confined to the margins of society, namely the poor, disabled, immigrants or minorities, has led to the ineffectiveness of leftist critical thinking. It has been accused of being unable to find adequate systems of knowledge and practice to engage with an intellectual and political process necessary to build holistic ideas and solutions.
By concentrating energy on the margins of society and at the margin of social and political discussion, it is seen as ultimately redundant in a world where self-interest has triumphed. However, there is a fundamental flaw with this approach as it suggests that criticism of inequalities and injustices are responsible for pushing people apart, not together. The idea of a series of arguments on the nature of complex social relations being responsible for the existence of those problematic social outcomes is completely nonsensical.
Nevertheless, there are aspects of left-leaning thinking that have created inaction. Indeed, the ‘silent majority’ spoke out to produce Trump’s victory and Brexit earlier in the year. This silent majority consists of people who feel they have been ‘left behind’, not just in the race for economic success, but also in discussions of what it is to be part of nations competing on the global stage. However, the rage of this body of the population thrives in spaces where there is no national consensus on political identity, social cohesion or concepts of equality within fraternity.
Political leaders believe that neoliberal globalisation is the only mechanism through which to improve profits at home, compete for recognition on the international stage and have a voice among the giants of the United States, China, India, Russia and the EU. But globalisation connects only the few, not the many. And it does so at the expense of the many. By plumping for Trump and Brexit, voters believed theirs was a scream against the system and a rejection of the establishment. In reality, political elites took advantage of the left behind by making empty promises. With all the blustering rhetoric emerging from prominent Brexiteers and Trumpists, their intention is not to speak or act for the people as a whole, but only in the interests of the top strata of society. The people were duped.
In the early 1970s, there was a discernible emphasis on race equality and antiracism in Western Europe and America, but later in the decade, it was shelved in favour of increased attention on multiculturalism. This involved respect and tolerance for differences in society while maintaining national unity under an umbrella-coalition of shared values and principles. Such amiable ambitions neglected racial and ethnic inequality, leaving the structural determinants of racism and discrimination unchecked. Save for fluffy, light doses of celebrating differences for a day or two in the year under the banner of multicultural policy, little else was done.
The intellectual classes were preoccupied by a liberal fantasy. Much of the population shared this sentiment and appreciated the need to embrace a global world and the opportunities that it would bring for western societies struggling with post-industrialisation. However, after 9/11 multiculturalism was seen as having failed to bring about wider social cohesion. By the late 2000s, it was being utterly ridiculed not just by the hard left and the centre-left, but also by the hard right and certainly the far right who were able to play on the lack of synergy that the idea of multiculturalism had created.
Globalisation, rather than increasing openness to differences in society, has created the opposite effect. Furthermore, many people care deeply about their futures but western governments are unable to bridge the gap between expectations and reality. The events of 9/11 and the emergence of the global ‘war on terror’ fundamentally eliminated any focus on ethnic inequality, social capital or social cohesion. All the while, the demographic trends of the world grow wider into the seemingly impervious categories of East and West, North and South.
In relation to Muslim minorities in Western Europe, they are increasingly visible because of their various urban population concentrations and their particular experiences of exclusion, alienation and political violence. The only real progress has been on gender equality, but even here there are issues. Hillary Clinton lost the US presidential election, in part, because the dominant misogynistic undertones in the media and political landscape of American politics were hostile to the idea of a woman as the leader of the free world.
While generalisations can be made, it is also true that the vast majority of the populations of the world attempt to keep an open mind on social matters. It is the rising tide of elitism, self-interest and the perseverance of the status quo for those who pretend to speak for the people that have created the current malaise. The vast majority of people vote for such figures because they have been cornered into thinking about their own interests, where ‘others’ are presented as hostile or even dangerous to the collective identity of the nation and its array of interests. Therefore, the arguments of the liberal-left did not create a vacuum that was exploited by others. Rather, the liberal-left abandoned its core principles, squeezed out by conservative and anti-God voices from within, with new alt-right voices emerging and taking advantage of populist sentiment with ease.
It is sad and disturbing how the fear of the other has translated into anger, disgust and violence towards minorities, immigrants and those of different faiths to the majority. In the latter instance, Muslims are the softest of targets, especially since the events of 9/11. At the heart of this anger is a new form of racism, one that combines colour, immigration status and hostility towards Islam and Muslims into one seemingly compacted whole, easily abused and manipulated by those in power. Elites aim to promote and then take advantage of this anxiety. The best response should be a new kind of antiracism, pro-integration, pro-equality and pro-human rights discourse. But what to call this new paradigm?
One suggestion is to call it pro-truth, pro-evidence and pro-discussion for the more we shout at each other from a distance, the more that distance increases. The fear of political correctness has led to the fear of political incorrectness. Changing this must be our priority, with our energies positively directed towards a unitary consensus that resists division with confidence. Perhaps the only leading political figure to direct this is Angela Merkel. The world will watch Germany’s 2017 elections with great eagerness. The outcome could affect some of the most pertinent discourses facing global societies today.
Please read our comments policy before commenting.
Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics. Featured image: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons.
Shortened URL for this post: http://bit.ly/2fSo3xb
Tahir Abbas – RUSI
Professor Tahir Abbas is Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI).
Posted In: featured | Politics | Tahir Abbas
David Maughan Brown says:
While I wouldn’t take issue with the general thrust of the argument here, the one possible ray of light in a very dark picture is that ‘the vast majority of people’ don’t, in fact, ‘vote for such figures’ – at least not yet. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, if only marginally, in the USA, and nearly 13 million people eligible to vote in UK didn’t vote at all. That 28% constitutes the genuinely ‘silent’ portion of the electorate, at least some of whom will not have bothered to vote because the ‘remain’ outcome was being touted as almost certain.
Joe Thorpe says:
Why wouldn’t you want to ensure the collapse of the Liberal Left? It has been the ruination of our country & western civilisation & opened it up to be abused but all the misfits & undesirables that worm their way to our countries illegally.
bobbo says:
the liberal left looneytunes ALMOST succeeded in destroying our societies with their politically correct left wing ideology and MULTICULTURISM edicts,but the british and American people have finally got their acts together and seen the light,the EUSSR will not exist within a years time alleluia brothers.
Felsweep says:
With comments like that, it’s no wonder that more and more people are beginning to see hardcore Leavers as crazies. Honestly…
EU Foreign Affairs
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Contemporary Turkey in conflict: How ethnic, political and religious conflicts will define Turkey’s future
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Global Wind Day Recognises Worldwide Renewable Energy
Global Wind Day takes place tomorrow, Wednesday 15 June, around the globe. The international event aims to encourage wind discovery, its power, and the way it can be used to change the world. A variety of public events will be on offer including the chance to visit wind farms, meet experts, attend events and find out more about wind energy.
Louise Ward, Investor Relations Director at Low Carbon, said: “In light of Global Wind Day, we’d like to see the UK harness the full potential of wind power as a viable energy source for the UK. Partnered with other renewable energy technologies such as solar PV, wind energy can make a significant contribution to changing the UK’s energy mix to become more sustainable, and to help reduce the country’s carbon emissions. Last year was a record-breaking year for wind energy in this country, with 11 per cent of total electricity being generated by wind power. Moreover, according to The Department of Energy and Climate Change, renewable energy accounted for 24.7% of total electricity generation in the UK in 2015, which strongly suggests that renewable energy is a core, resilient electricity source that is here to stay.
“Results like this reinforce the fact that the UK must continue to create a positive investment climate for renewable energy technologies, as an alternative to investments in fossil fuels. Wind farms, in particular, can be an attractive option for those who wish to divest from carbon-heavy technologies, especially in an age of oil and gas volatility. Wind turbines make financial sense as well, as they generate electricity all year round and are typically long-term, inflation-linked contracts, generating attractive, stable returns. Investments in the solar and wind sector, for example, are predicted to be the best outperformers (between 0.5% to 3.5% additional annual returns) over the next 35 years.”
Find out more about Global Wind Day here.
Related Topics:clean energyglobal wind dayGreen Energyinternationallow-carbonrenewableswindwind energywind power
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Hospitality general
Amusement and sports
Recruiting and hiring staff
Employment of minors and young adults
13 and 14-year-olds
15-year-olds
Youths of 16 and 17
Social traineeship and professional internship
Delivering newspapers
Holiday work
Young people with their own company
Working in the hotel and catering sector
Children in radio, television, film and theatre and performances
Do you want to employ minors or young adults? In the Netherlands special rules apply to the employment of young people regarding the kind of work and their working hours and rest times. These rules differ per age category.
Children aged between the ages of 13 and 16 are allowed to work outside school hours and in the holidays, but only under certain conditions. From the age of 16, young people are free to do any kind of work. Young people from 15 to 21 receive the minimum youth wage (until July 2019: from then on the minimum youth wage applies to 15 to 20-year-olds).
Children under 13 are not allowed to work. The ban on children’s labour applies to all children under 13 in the Netherlands, also to children of a different nationality.
12-year-olds who have committed an offense and are given community service are allowed to do work. This may only be light work, under the supervision of an adult. They cannot work in a factory, or operate machines or work near machines.
13 and 14-year-old children can do jobs on school days and days off. They are not allowed to work in a factory, or operate machines or work near machines. Children of these ages are banned from doing some types of work, such as working at a bar that serves alcohol, operating machinery, lifting weights of over 10 kilograms, or working with chemicals.
Children of 15 are allowed to do light work without supervision, after school and during the holidays. They are not allowed to work in a factory or operate machines. 15-year-olds can work a maximum of five days a week. On Sundays, they can work under certain conditions (in Dutch).
Youths who are 16 or 17 can do just about any type of work, so long as it is not dangerous. For instance, they cannot work with hazardous substances or in extreme noise. The work must not interfere with their school attendence. Only under expert supervision are they allowed to do work that involves risks (in Dutch).
Children aged between 13 and 15 can do light work during their social traineeship. You lay this down in a traineeship agreement with the school. Certain working hours and resting times (in Dutch) apply to social traineeships (in Dutch).
Children of 14 and 15 can perform a professional internship under certain conditions (in Dutch). During this internship, they can do light factory work or operate machines. The child must be supervised. You draw up an internship agreement with the school. Both the child and its parents or carers must sign this agreement.
15-year-olds can deliver papers and advertising brochures. There are, however, special rules for delivering morning newspapers. For instance, a 15-year-old is not allowed to work for more than 2 hours, and must have at least 12 hours uninterrupted resting time per day. The child and parents/carers must also sign a delivery agreement.
Young employees can work longer hours outside school hours and during holiday periods. There are several restrictions on when and where children are allowed to work, as well as on the types of employment.
Young entrepreneurs under the age of 18 are permitted to start their own company, but they need approval from their parents or carers. Those between the ages of 16 and 18 can apply to the sub-district court for limited legal capacity. This makes them responsible for their own actions. Children of under 16 always need approval and cannot apply for limited legal capacity.
Children under the age of 16 are not allowed to work in areas where alcoholic drinks are served.
As of 1 July 2020 you may not employ children under 16 years old to deliver meals by (electric) bike. A younger child may however assist in delivering of meals and a 15 year old may still deliver meals independently on foot.
If you want children between 7 and 13 years of age to participate in performances (in Dutch), such as acting in a film, fashion or TV show or commercial, or performing in a theatre, you need a dispensation from the ban on child labour. You apply for children to perform cultural work (in Dutch) at the SZW Inspectorate (Inspectie SZW, in Dutch). You have to observe certain working hours and resting times (in Dutch).
Do you want a child of over 13 to take part in a performance? You won’t need a dispensation. The child must be supervised by an expert. And you will have to observe certain working hours and resting times (in Dutch), too.
Preventing child labourEffective date: 1 January 2022
Rules for starting a business as a minor
Youth and employment (Government of the Netherlands)
Child performance dispensation (SZW Inspectorate, in Dutch)
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Home NEWS Science News Immunology
Europeans and Africans have different immune systems, and neanderthals are partly to thank
in Immunology
Credit: Quach et al./Cell 2016
It's long been clear that people from different parts of the world differ in their susceptibility to developing infections as well as chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Now, two studies reported in Cell on October 20 show that those differences in disease susceptibility can be traced in large part to differences at the genetic level directing the way the immune systems of people with European and African ancestry are put together.
The researchers also found that differences between populations have been selected for over time because they conferred advantages to people facing distinct health challenges in the places where they lived. As a result, according to the new evidence, people of African ancestry generally show stronger immune responses than Europeans do.
The discovery suggests that European populations have been selected to display reduced immune responses since our ancestors first made their way out of Africa. Intriguingly, the immune systems of Europeans were partly shaped by the introduction of new genetic variants through interbreeding between some of our early European ancestors and Neanderthals.
"Our findings show that population differences in transcriptional responses to immune activation are widespread, and that they are mainly accounted for by genetic variants that differ in their frequencies between human populations," said Lluis Quintana-Murci of Institut Pasteur and CNRS in Paris, France, who led one of the two studies.
"I was expecting to see ancestry-associated differences in immune response but not such a clear trend towards an overall stronger response to infection among individuals of African descent," added Luis Barreiro of the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine in Canada, senior author of the other study.
Quintana-Murci and colleagues used RNA-sequencing to characterize the way that immune cells, known as primary monocytes, derived from 200 people of self-reported African or European ancestry would respond to attack by a bacteria or a virus. The researchers detected many differences in the activity of particular genes in those immune cells both within and between populations. They also discovered that changes in a single gene encoding an important immune receptor lead to decreased inflammation only in Europeans.
The researchers found strong evidence of selection on genes that control the immune response. Their evidence also shows that Europeans "borrowed" some key regulatory variants from Neanderthals, which in particular affect the way their immune systems respond to viral challenges.
Barreiro and colleagues took a similar approach to test for the effects of African versus European ancestry on changes in the activity of immune cells. His group focused on another type of immune cell known as primary macrophages and their response to live bacterial pathogens.
The researchers infected macrophages derived from 80 African and 95 European individuals with either Listeria monocytogenes or Salmonella typhimurium to look for differences in response and related them to ancestry. Their studies identified thousands of genes showing population differences in transcriptional response to infection. They also found that African ancestry is associated with a stronger inflammatory response, which limited the growth of bacteria.
In many cases, the activity of particular genes was tied to a single genetic variant, with strong differences in frequency between European and African populations. The researchers also observed the signature of past selection on those genes and additional evidence for an important role of genetic variants passed on to modern humans from Neanderthals. "This strongly suggests that a diminished inflammatory response has conferred a selective advantage to European populations,"Quintana-Murci said.
"The genetic and molecular basis of ancestry-related differences in disease susceptibility has been a mystery," Barreiro said. "These results provide a first description of differences in immune response and associated genetic basis that might explain differences in susceptibility to disease between people of African and European ancestry. More generally, our results demonstrate how historical selective events continue to shape human phenotypic diversity today, including for traits that are key to controlling infection."
The researchers noted that the two studies made strikingly similar findings despite the fact that they focused on different types of immune cells. They say that more work is now needed to better understand the role of environmental and other factors, including epigenetic changes, in the differences they've observed.
Cell, Quach, Rotival, Pothlichet, Loh et al.: "Genetic Adaptation and Neandertal Admixture Shaped the Immune System of Human Populations" http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31306-X, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.09.024
Cell, Nédélec, Sanz, and Baharian et al.: "Genetic ancestry and natural selection drive population differences in immune responses to pathogens." http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31307-1, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.09.025
Cell (@CellCellPress), the flagship journal of Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that publishes findings of unusual significance in any area of experimental biology, including but not limited to cell biology, molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology, virology and microbiology, cancer, human genetics, systems biology, signaling, and disease mechanisms and therapeutics. Visit: http://www.cell.com/cell. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact [email protected]
Joseph Caputo
The post Europeans and Africans have different immune systems, and neanderthals are partly to thank appeared first on Scienmag.
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Today's Tune: Bruce Springsteen - Fire (Live 1986)
(W/ Danny Federici and Nils Lofgren at The 1986 Bridge School Benefit.)
A sad day on E Street
by Jay Lustig
Newark Star-Ledger Staff
Friday April 18, 2008, 4:24 PM
The E Street Band (1980)
Danny Federici, the E Street Band keyboardist who died on Thursday, can never be replaced.
One musician can never duplicate another's playing exactly, of course, but that's just part of it. Federici, who died of cancer, at the age of 58, added something intangible to the band by his mere presence.
Core members of the E Street Band band came together in small Jersey Shore clubs, struggled to attain stardom together, played arenas and stadiums throughout the world and now, in middle age, are still doing it. And Federici, the first E Streeter to die, played with Bruce Springsteen the longest.
"I loved him very much ... we grew up together," said Springsteen Thursday, in a message posted on his Web site.
In 1969, the Flemington-born Federici and drummer Vini Lopez recruited the longhaired hotshot guitarist from Freehold to play with them, in a band called Child. Child morphed into Steel Mill, then Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom, then the Bruce Springsteen Band, and, finally, the E Street Band. Federici played in them all, and stayed in the E Street Band until his disease forced him to take a leave of absence in November (though he did join the band one more time, for a surprise eight-song appearance at an Indianapolis concert, in March).
Federici and Springsteen's shared history included legendary all-night jam sessions at the Asbury Park club, the Upstage, and the kind of communal living arrangements that young musicians of limited means often resort to. At one point, Federici lived with Springsteen and Springsteen's family in Freehold. At another, Federici, Springsteen and others shared a house in Bradley Beach.
"We all shared the rent," Federici told Backstreets magazine in 1990. "It was one for all and all for one. It was a collection of togetherness. It was a good time."
Part of the band's appeal has always been rooted in their personal camaraderie, and the kind of deep musical communication that only comes when musicians have logged countless shows together. That shared history made Springsteen's decision to reunite the band, in 1999, a big deal. And it makes fans fear that every tour will be their last.
The E Street Band will continue without Federici. Charles Giordano, who has been substituting for Federici since November, has proven to be quite capable. But it's not exactly the same.
"I haven't felt this bad since I saw Mickey Mantle's funeral, and I knew part of my youth was being buried with him, forever gone," said Joel Ram, a singer-songwriter from Cedar Grove, and a longtime E Street fan. "It just hits you hard."
The E Street Band has always seemed like a bunch of regular guys, not rock-star prima donnas. And no one seemed more human than Federici. His place on the stage was usually far away from the center spotlight. His keyboard riffs added textures behind the charging guitars and pounding drums, but rarely dominated an arrangement.
He released two solo albums of jazz-pop instrumentals, but never really established himself as a solo artist. And he had a drinking problem, spending two stints in rehab before quitting in 1983. "During my drinking binges over the years I must have quit the band three or four times," he told Backstreets. "I was always talked back into it, which I'm grateful for."
Several key members of the Asbury Park rock scene have died over the last few years. Bill Chinnock, who Federici and Lopez played with before they met Springsteen, died last year, as did Springsteen's longtime assistant and confidante, Terry Magovern. The theme of mortality winds through some of Springsteen's best post-reunion songs, like "You're Missing," and "Matamoros Banks," and "Devil's Arcade." Springsteen's tribute to Magovern, "Terry's Song," closes his most recent album, "Magic."
Springsteen and the E Street Band postponed two shows after Federici's death, but will resume their tour Monday night in Tampa. Springsteen will surely add some kind of tribute to the show.
Maybe he'll sing "Blood Brothers," his 1995 meditation on the eternal ties that bind the members of the E Street Band together.
"The stars are burnin' bright like some mystery uncovered/I'll keep movin' through the dark with you in my heart/My blood brother," he pledges in the song.
He might not have been thinking about death when he wrote it. But it will be hard to think about anything else, now.
Federici's family is requesting that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Danny Federici Melanoma fund.
Jay Lustig may be reached at jlustig@starledger.com or (973) 392-5850.
Remembering Danny Federici
By Kelly-Jane Cotter
ASBURY PARK PRESS MUSIC WRITER
If the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is the quintessential sound of the Jersey Shore, then it is due in large part to Danny Federici.
Federici, who died Thursday after a three-year battle with melanoma, was a Flemington native. But his musical style was evocative of the beach-and-boardwalk scene that inspired much of Springsteen's work.
With a few taps on the keyboard or accordion, Federici could conjure a summer day in Asbury Park — the rides on the boardwalk, the call of sea gulls and, most importantly, the swirl of emotions such a day can bring. In songs such as "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" there is the melancholy hum of Federici's notes. In "Hungry Heart" there is irony, as Federici's bright lines contrast with the narrator's tale. In "Kitty's Back" there is excitement, anticipation and the swagger of youth.
"Kitty's Back" used to be one of those Holy Grail songs — a track everyone wanted to hear live but that the band seldom performed. But in recent years, the song has become a more familiar presence on set lists. And it sounds great in Convention Hall in Asbury Park, maybe because there are so many longtime fans in the audience and their energy gets linked to the song. Federici always received his due from those crowds during those kinds of songs.
"I knew him to be a tremendously talented musician and a natural, organic player," said Tony Pallagrosi, a former member of Southside Johnny's Asbury Jukes and a longtime participant in the local music scene. "I still listen to "Flemington,' one of Danny's solo albums. When I first heard it, I thought it was the contemporary version of Booker T. It was so grooving. Here's this cat who's part of a group and he had the chance to step out and do something different, and it reeked of the great R&B influences that made the E Street Band what it is."
As the editor of the New York-based Crawdaddy magazine, Peter Knobler first encountered the E Street Band on Dec. 7, 1972, at a concert at Sing Sing Prison.
Crawdaddy chronicled rock 'n' roll as it became a force in the '60s and '70s, and Knobler said he recognized immediately that the E Street Band was the real deal. The band's camaraderie, he said, was compelling.
"They were a band of brothers — they were good friends," Knobler said. "Danny Federici, he was just a classic Jersey guy, a regular guy. He totally filled out the sound. He had no airs about him, none of them did. He did not take his musicianship too seriously, yet you should've seen him play."
Chris Phillips, editor of the North Carolina-based Backstreets, a Springsteen fanzine, said Federici added to the mystique of the band.
"I've been listening to the live version of "You're Missing,' " Phillips said, "and it's a fine example of Max (Weinberg) hits the snare and Bruce points it over to Danny. And it's not that anything jawbreakingly technical is going on, but those notes Danny plays say as much or more than the lyrics. Sometimes he would bring that Jersey Shore sunshine part of the song, or maybe even some circus tones, but his music also was haunting at times, bringing in a whole different color to a song.
"I don't see Bruce as a poet, I see him as a songwriter," Phillips added, "and that's why the E Street Band is so important, because they provide that half of the experience. And Danny has always been part of that foundation."
Backstreets plans to devote its June issue to a tribute to Federici.
"Danny was there from the beginning — he and Bruce knew each other from the '60s," Pallagrosi said. "They were all in their formative stages at that point, and whatever they did individually influenced each other. They forged a musical identity together.
"That's the magic of music, and one of the defining characteristics of rock 'n 'roll: The whole is greater than the parts," Pallagrosi said. "That certainly has been the case with the E Street Band, just like the Rolling Stones, The Beatles and all the bands that have created something important. When members leave, it changes the equation."
Springsteen's concerts for last night in Fort Lauderdale and tonight have been postponed. Springsteen and the E Street Band are due back in the area in July for shows at Giants Stadium. Springsteen also is scheduled to perform May 7 at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank.
On his Web site, www.brucespringsteen.net, Springsteen posted this remembrance: "Danny and I worked together for 40 years — he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much. . . . We grew up together."
Federici's family and bandmates have set up the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund to raise money to fight this most deadly form of skin cancer. Details will be announced on www.brucespringsteen.net.
For more thoughts on Danny Federici, read Press Staff Writer Jean Mikle's blog.
Today's Tune: Bruce Springsteen- 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
By Bruce Springsteen
Sandy the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonight
Forcin' a light into all those stoned-out faces left stranded on this Fourth of July
Down in town the circuit's full with switchblade lovers so fast so shiny so sharp
And the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers along the shore
Chasin' all them silly New York girls
Sandy the aurora is risin' behind us
The pier lights our carnival life forever
Love me tonight for I may never see you again
Hey Sandy girl
Now the greasers they tramp the streets or get busted for trying to sleep on the beach all night
Them boys in their spiked high heels ah Sandy their skins are so white
And me I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades bangin' them pleasure machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where they promise to unsnap their jeans
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And that Joey kept me spinnin' I didn't think I'd ever get off
Oh Sandy the aurora is risin' behind us
The pier lights our carnival life on the water
Runnin' down the beach at night with my boss's daughter
Well he ain't my boss no more Sandy
Sandy, the angels have lost our desire for us
I spoke to 'em just last night and they said they won't set themselves on fire for us anymore
Every summer when the weather gets hot they ride that road down from heaven on their Harleys they come and they go
And you can see 'em dressed like stars in all the cheap little seashore bars parked making love with their babies out on the Kokomo
Well the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
This boardwalk life for me is through
You know you ought to quit this scene too
Sandy the aurora's rising behind us, the pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever
Copyright © 1973 Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)
Danny Federici, E Street keyboardist, dead at 58
By Jean Mikle and Mark Voger
ASBURY PARK PRESS STAFF WRITERS
In this image released by Backstreets.com, Bruce Springsteen and Danny Federici perform on stage at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, on Nov. 14, 2007.
NEW YORK — Danny Federici, the E Street Band's organist and keyboard player since its inception whose stylish work helped define the band's sound, died Thursday after a three-year battle with melanoma.
Federici, 58, a Flemington native, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. News of his death was posted late Thursday night on Bruce Springsteen's official Web site, www.brucespringsteen.net.
He had performed with Springsteen longer than any other E Streeter, playing with him in bands such as "Child," and "Steel Mill," before the E Street Band was formed.
Federici was also a regular at The Upstage, the legendary Asbury Park club where Shore artists honed their skills in all-night jam sessions. Among his most notable E Street performances were his organ playing on the hit "Hungry Heart" and the accordion solo on "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."
"Danny and I worked together for 40 years -- he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much ... we grew up together,'' Springsteen said in a statement posted on his Web site.
In November, Federici took a leave of absence from the E Street Band to battle melanoma following an emotional send-off at the Nov. 19 Boston show.
During that show, Springsteen frequently allowed Federici to take the spotlight during songs like "Kitty's Back" with its extended organ solo, "This Hard Land," "E Street Shuffle" and "Sandy."
Following the last song that night, Federici had tears in his eyes as the crowd chanted his name. Federici made only one more appearance with the E Streeters, on March 20 in Indianapolis, in which he again played "Sandy" and several other songs.
When he announced Federici's plan to take a leave of absence from the band, Springsteen described him as "one of the pillars of our sound." A clip of part of Federici's last E Street performance in Indianapolis can be seen on Springsteen's Web site, www.brucespringsteen.net.
In a 1998 interview with the Asbury Park Press, Federici spoke about the first time he saw Springsteen perform.
Said the musician: "When (drummer) Vini Lopez and I first saw Bruce play at The Upstage Club — because we were pretty much playing at the same time — we basically said, "We've gotta have this guy in our band.' So we decided to start a band.
"So he (Springsteen) quit Earth to put a band together with me and Vini. And we found a bass player, Vinnie Roslin. And that band was called Child. And that's how the whole switcheroo thing — getting him out of Freehold — began."
Danny Federici, keyboard player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band in Manhattan (2005).
Federici also reminisced about jobs he worked around the Shore area before joining Springsteen's E Street Band.
"I was an electrician for a while," Federici told the Press. "I worked construction. Actually, Allan Berger — he was the bassist with Southside (Johnny Lyon) for a while — his dad was the super on a construction job I worked. A couple of times, I worked at a paper place up in Wanamassa (in Ocean Township). And of course, I worked in a surfboard factory with "Tinker' (Carl West), Bruce's first manager — Steel Mill and Child's first manager. He'd throw us a few bucks."
Said Federici of his early Asbury Park days: "I lived on Bangs Avenue for a while, almost right across from the police station. I had to move closer to the buses and the trains — I lost my license as a kid."
Federici was often introduced in concert by Springsteen as "Phantom Dan," a nickname the keyboarder got following the night in 1970 Springsteen and his band Steel Mill went head to head with Middletown Police Chief Joe McCarthy.
When a concert at a swim club did not shut down promptly at 10 p.m., police stormed onstage and ended the performance. Twenty-one people, nine of them juveniles, were arrested on a variety of drug and assault charges.
"I could see the cops were getting ready to do something, so I went backstage and pulled the plug on the band," Richard Kleva, who arranged for the concert, said afterward.
The crowd immediately began to shout to turn the music back on. A roadie for Steel Mill plugged the amplifiers back in. Then the police took the stage, and bedlam broke loose.
McCarthy was injured when an amplifier toppled over onto him. Witnesses said one police officer on stage jabbed Springsteen in the ribs with a nightstick, while others chased Federici.
After the concert, warrants were issued for Federici's arrest, because the police believed he had purposely knocked the amplifier onto McCarthy.
"I was a fugitive," Federici recalled in an interview in a book on Springsteen published by the Springsteen fan magazine Backstreets. At several Steel Mill shows after the Middletown concert, police were waiting to arrest Federici, he said in the book. So Springsteen devised a plan.
Steel Mill usually closed its concerts with a song called "Resurrection," during which Springsteen would pull people out of the audience to dance onstage. When the stage was crowded with dancers, Federici would slip away, and the police would lose him in the crowd.
Federici eventually turned himself in, but nothing came of the charges.
In a band with larger-than-life characters like saxophonist Clarence Clemons and bandana-wrapped guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt, Federici was content to play in his familiar position to the side of the stage. But his playing was as vital to Springsteen's live show as any instrument in the band.
Federici released a pair of solo albums that veered from the E Street sound and into soft jazz. Bandmates Nils Lofgren on guitar and Garry Tallent on bass joined Federici on his 1997 debut, "Flemington." In 2005, Federici released its follow-up, "Out of a Dream."
Besides his work with Springsteen, Federici played on albums by an impressive roster of other artists: Van Zandt, Joan Armatrading, Graham Parker, Gary U.S. Bonds and Garland Jeffreys.
Springsteen concerts scheduled for today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Saturday in Orlando were postponed following the news of Federici's death.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. This story contains material previously published by the Press.
Labels: Bruce Springsteen, Obituaries
Bruce Blog
Posted by Stan Goldstein
April 18, 2008 1:35AM
William Perlman/The Newark Star-Ledger
Danny Federici in New York City in July 2005.
When I heard the news tonight that Danny Federici died, it hit really hard.
I guess it was expected, but the reality of it is still sinking in. To many of us E Street Band fans, it's like losing a member of our own family.
My first Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show was on Aug. 2, 1976 at the Monmouth Arts Centre (now Count Basie Theatre) in Red Bank. The song I most wanted to hear that night was "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" because it was about the Asbury Park boardwalk where I hung out playing pinball on many a summer afternoon.
My sister, who took me to the concert, told me that you could tell when Bruce was going to play "Sandy" because Danny Federici would leave the organ and come to the front of the stage and play the accordion.
The second encore of that night, Danny put on the accordion and I still remember that feeling his accoridon brought of the boardwalk and the Jersey Shore. Everytime I've heard "Sandy" since, I think of that night in 1976.
Other memories that come to mind are watching Danny run from Roy Bittan's keyboards back to his organ toward the end of "Born In The U.S.A." when Bruce opened the shows with the powerful song in 1984-85 . Danny would start the song playing next to Roy, and then toward the end of the song, he would run like an athlete to his own organ on the other side of the stage.
I also liked when Bruce introduced him as "Phantom Dan Federici." The story goes that the Middletown cops were looking for Danny after the infamous Clearwater Swim Club riot following a Steel Mill show on Sept. 11, 1970.
Danny may or may not have pushed an amp from the stage on to the Chief of the Middletown police. Later, the cops were looking for Danny and he escaped arrest on future nights by disappearing into the crowd when Steel Mill would perform "Ressurection," which started his nickname "Phantom."
I had a chance meeting with Danny in the Tampa Airport following the three great Florida shows in November of 2002. I was flying back to Newark and when I got to my gate, I saw Danny sitting by himself, at the next gate. I hesitated going up to him to say hello, but we had a mutual friend so I figured I would just go up and say a few words.
He was a nice as could be and asked me how I liked the shows in Orlando, Miami and Tampa. I told them I thought they were all great and he said to me "yes, they were. You sure picked three good ones to see."
I was fortunate to be at Miller Park in Milwaukee on Sept. 27, 2003 when Bruce brought Danny up front with the accordion to play "Beer Barrel Polka." That was fun.
Maybe Bruce summed Danny up best with this quote when he was indcuted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999.
"Danny Federici, the most instinctive and natural musician I ever met and the only member of the band who can reduce me to a shouting mess. I love you Danny. Your organ and accordion playing brought the boardwalks of Central and South Jersey alive in my music. Thank you.''
Yes Danny, thank you for many nights of wonderful music. That great band in heaven just got itself one great organ and accordion player.
Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists
By Brent Bozell III
http://www.townhall.com
I confess that when the producers of Ben Stein's new documentary "Expelled" called, offering me a private screening, I was less than excited.
It is a reality of PC liberalism: There is only one credible side to an issue, and any dissent is not only rejected, it is scorned. Global warming. Gay "rights." Abortion "rights." On these and so many other issues there is enlightenment, and then there is the Idiotic Other Side. PC liberalism's power centers are the news media, the entertainment industry and academia, and all are in the clutches of an unmistakable hypocrisy: Theirs is an ideology that preaches the freedom of thought and expression at every opportunity, yet practices absolute intolerance toward dissension.
Evolution is another one of those one-sided debates. We know the concept of Intelligent Design is stifled in academic circles. An entire documentary to state the obvious? You can see my reluctance to view it.
I went into the screening bored. I came out of it stunned.
Ben Stein's extraordinary presentation documents how the worlds of science and academia not only crush debate on the origins of life, but also crush the careers of professors who dare to question the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution and natural selection.
Stein asks a simple question: What if the universe began with an intelligent designer, a designer named God? He assembles a stable of academics -- experts all -- who dared to question Darwinist assumptions and found themselves "expelled" from intellectual discourse as a result. They include evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg (sandbagged at the Smithsonian), biology professor Caroline Crocker (drummed out of George Mason University), and astrophysicist Guillermo Gonzalez (blackballed at Iowa State University).
That's disturbing enough, but what Stein does next is truly shocking. He allows the principal advocates of Darwinism to speak their minds. These are experts with national reputations, regular welcomed guests on network television and the like. But the public knows them only by their careful seven-second soundbites. Stein engages them in conversation. They speak their minds. They become sputtering ranters, openly championing their sheer hatred of religion.
PC liberalism has showered accolades on atheist author Richard Dawkins' best-selling book "The God Delusion." But when Stein suggests to Dawkins that he's been critical of the Old Testament God, Dawkins protests -- not that Stein is wrong, but that he's being too mild. He then reads from this jaw-dropping paragraph of his book:
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
Dawkins has a website. Its slogan is "A clear-thinking oasis."
It's understood that God had nothing to do with the origins of life on Earth. What, then, is the alternate explanation? Stein asks these experts, and their very serious answers are priceless. One theorizes that life began somehow on the backs of crystals. Another states electric sparks from a lightning storm created organic matter (out of nothing). Another declares that life was brought to Earth by aliens. Anything but God.
The most controversial part of the film follows Stein to the Dachau concentration camp, underlining how Darwin's theories of natural selection led to the eugenics movement, embraced by Adolf Hitler. If there is no God, but only a planetary lab waiting for scientists to perfect the human race, where can Darwinism lead? Stein insists that he isn't accusing today's Darwinists of Nazism. He points out, however, that Hitler's mad science was inspired by Darwinism.
Now that the film is complete, the evolutionist prophets featured in the film are on the warpath inveighing against it, and the alleged idiots who would lower themselves to watching it. Richard Dawkins laments how the film will solicit "cheap laughs that could only be raised in an audience of scientific ignoramuses." Minnesota professor and blogger P.Z. Myers predicts the movie is "going to appeal strongly to the religious, the paranoid, the conspiracy theorists, and the ignorant ---- which means they're going to draw in about 90 percent of the American market." Myers and Dawkins now both complain they were "duped" into appearing in the movie (for pay).
Everyone should take the opportunity to see "Expelled" -- if nothing else, as a bracing antidote to the atheism-friendly culture of PC liberalism. But it's far more than that. It's a spotlight on the arrogance of this movement and its leaders, a spotlight on the choking intolerance of academia, and a spotlight on the ignorance of so many who say so much, yet know so very little.
Founder and President of the Media Research Center, Brent Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America.
Labels: Film Reviews and Features, Origins
Connecting Hitler to Darwin
by David Berlinski
http://www.humanevents.com/
One man -- Charles Darwin -- says: “In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals. …”
Another man -- Adolf Hitler -- says: Let us kill all the Jews of Europe. Is there a connection?
Yes, obviously is the answer of the historical record and common sense.
Published in 1859, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said nothing of substance about the origin of species. Or anything else, for that matter. It nonetheless persuaded scientists in England, Germany and the United States that human beings were accidents of creation.
Where Darwin had seen species struggling for survival, German physicians, biologists, and professors of hygiene saw races. They drew the obvious conclusion, the one that Darwin had already drawn. In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals. German scientists took the word expense to mean what it meant: The annihilation of less fit races.
The point is made with abysmal clarity in the documentary, Expelled. Visiting the site at which those judged defective were killed -- a hospital, of course -- the narrator, Ben Stein, asks the curator what most influenced the doctors doing the killing.
“Darwinism,” she replies wanly.
It is perfectly true that prominent Nazis were hardly systematic thinkers. They said whatever came into their heads and since their heads were empty, ideas tended to ricochet. Heinrich Himmler proclaimed himself offended by the idea that he might been descended from the apes.
If Himmler was offended, the apes were appalled.
Nonetheless, even stupid men reach their conclusions because they have been influenced in certain ways. At Hitler’s death in May of 1945, the point was clear enough to the editorial writers of the New York Times. “Long before he had dreamed of achieving power,” they wrote, [Hitler] had developed the principles that nations were destined to hate, oppose and destroy one another; [and] that the law of history was the struggle for survival between peoples … ”.
Where, one might ask, had Hitler heard those ideas before? We may strike the Gospels from possible answers to this question. Nonetheless, the thesis that there is a connection between Darwin and Hitler is widely considered a profanation. A professor of theology at Iowa State University, Hector Avalos is persuaded that Martin Luther, of all people, must be considered Adolf Hitler’s spiritual advisor. Luther, after all, liked Jews as little as Hitler did, and both men suffered, apparently, from hemmmorhoids. Having matured his opinion by means of an indifference to the facts, Roger Friedman, writing on Fox news, considers the connection between Darwin and Hitler and in an access of analytical insight thinks only to remark, “Urgggh.”
The view that we may consider the sources of Nazi ideology in every context except those most relevant to its formation is rich, fruity, stupid and preposterous. It is for this reason repeated with solemn incomprehension at the website Expelled Exposed: “Anti-Semitic violence against Jews,” the authors write with a pleased sense of discovery, “can be traced as far back as the middle ages, at least 7 centuries before Darwin.”
Let me impart a secret. It can be traced even further. “Oh that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears," runs the lamentation in Jeremiah 9.1, “that I might weep day and night for the slain daughters of my people.”
And yet if anti-Semitism has been the white noise of European history, to assign it causal powers over the Holocaust is simply to ignore very specific ideas that emerged in the 19th century, and that at once seized the imagination of scientists throughout the world.
What is often called social Darwinism was a malignant force in Germany, England and the United States from the moment that social thinkers forged the obvious connection between what Darwin said and what his ideas implied. Justifying involuntary sterilization, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes argued that “three generations of imbeciles is enough.” He was not, it is understood, appealing to Lutheran ideas. Germany reached a moral abyss before any other state quite understood that the abyss was there to be reached because Germans have always had a congenital weakness for abysses and seem unwilling, when one is in sight, to avoid toppling into it.
These historical connections are so plain that from time to time, those most committed to Darwin’s theory of evolution are moved to acknowledge them. Having dismissed a connection between Darwin and Hitler with florid indignation, the authors of the site Expelled Exposed at once proceed to acknowledge it: “The Nazis appropriated language and concepts from evolution,” they write, “as well as from genetics, medicine (especially the germ theory of disease), and anthropology as propaganda tools to promote their perverted ideology of ‘racial purity.’”
Would he care to live in a society shaped by Darwinian principles? The question was asked of Richard Dawkins.
Not at all, he at once responded.
And why not?
Because the result would be fascism.
In this, Richard Dawkins was entirely correct; and it is entirely to his credit that he said so.
David Berlinski is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, the author of “The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions” and appears in the new documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.”
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Labels: European History, Origins
E Street Band member Danny Federici dies at 58
Bruce Springsteen, Danny Federici and Roy Bittan
NEW YORK - Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday. He was 58.
Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen's official Web site.
He last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.
"Danny and I worked together for 40 years — he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much ... we grew up together," Springsteen said in a statement posted on his Web site.
Springsteen concerts scheduled for Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Saturday in Orlando were postponed.
Federici was born in Flemington, N.J., a long car ride from the Jersey shore haunts where he first met kindred musical spirit Springsteen in the late 1960s. The pair often jammed at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park, N.J., a now-defunct after-hours club that hosted the best musicians in the state.
It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band.
By 1969, the self-effacing Federici — often introduced in concert by Springsteen as "Phantom Dan" — was playing with the Boss in a band called Child. Over the years, Federici joined his friend in acclaimed shore bands Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom and the Bruce Springsteen Band.
Federici became a stalwart in the E Street Band as Springsteen rocketed from the boardwalk to international stardom. Springsteen split from the E Streeters in the late '80s, but they reunited for a hugely successful tour in 1999.
"Bruce has been supportive throughout my life," Federici said in a recent interview with Backstreets magazine. "I've had my ups and downs, and I've certainly given him a run for his money, and he's always been there for me."
Federici played accordion on the wistful "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from Springsteen's second album, and his organ solo was a highlight of Springsteen's first top 10 hit, "Hungry Heart." His organ coda on the 9/11-inspired Springsteen song "You're Missing" provided one of the more heart-wrenching moments on "The Rising" in 2002.
In a band with larger-than-life characters such as saxophonist Clarence Clemons and bandana-wrapped guitarist "Little" Steven Van Zandt, Federici was content to play in his familiar position to the side of the stage. But his playing was as vital to Springsteen's live show as any instrument in the band.
Federici had taken a leave of absence during the band's tour in November 2007 to pursue treatment for melanoma, and was temporarily replaced by veteran musician Charles Giordano.
At the time, Springsteen described Federici as "one of the pillars of our sound and has played beside me as a great friend for more than 40 years. We all eagerly await his healthy and speedy return."
On the Net:
Bruce Springsteen: http://www.brucespringsteen.net
Handling the Situation
By Amy Welborn
http://www.spectator.org/
Published 4/18/2008 12:08:35 AM
Pope Benedict XVI (R) visits the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to hold a Vespers prayer service with the Catholic Bishops of the United States in Washington April 16, 2008.(Max Rossi/Reuters)
Before Pope Benedict XVI's arrival in the United States, many hoped he would address the clergy sexual abuse scandal, but no one could know for certain if he would. The doubters pointed to the fact that he had been invited to make Boston -- epicenter of the 2002 revelations -- a part of the itinerary, and declined. Didn't that imply a lack of awareness of the importance of the issue?
Midway through this journey, Pope Benedict has addressed the clergy sexual abuse crisis three times with words and a fourth in a way far more powerful than words -- by meeting with victims of clergy sexual abuse on the afternoon of April 17.
Benedict was not cajoled into uttering any of his words on the issue. Even in the most informal of settings in which it came up -- the press conference on the plane -- those questions asked of the Pope were preselected. And the first question selected to be answered, posed by veteran Vatican reporter John Allen, concerned this very issue.
I'll come back to what Benedict has said about the abuse scandal in a moment, but first some background on his previous engagement with the issue, which has not made headlines, but is telling.
As prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, part of Cardinal Ratzinger's responsibility, especially in the latter years of John Paul's pontificate, was to handle the cases of priests accused of sexual abuse. He referred to his Friday mornings reading these dossiers as his "Friday penance."
In an article published after his election, Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times wrote of this troubling part of Ratzinger's job and also of the meetings some members of the U.S. bishops' National Review Board had with him in 2003. Former board chair Anne Burke reported they found a concerned and engaged listener in the Cardinal.
THIS RELUCTANT IMMERSION in these cases led to a strong and poignant moment in 2005, just days before the death of John Paul II, when the traditional Good Friday Stations of the Cross at the Coliseum, written that year by Cardinal Ratzinger, read, during the meditation on the Ninth Station:
Should we not also think of how much Christ suffers in his own Church? How often is the holy sacrament of his Presence abused, how often must he enter empty and evil hearts! How often do we celebrate only ourselves, without even realizing that he is there! How often is his Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many empty words! How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him!
Finally, and to me, very tellingly, in the fall of 2004, Ratzinger re-opened the long-controversial cases charging Legionary of Christ founder Marcial Maciel Degollado with abuse and exploitation of seminarians.
Maciel was disciplined in 2006 and when he died this past January, the Vatican had nothing to say. It is standard procedure for the Pope to issue a statement of condolence when a religious order founder dies. But from Benedict, silence.
This week, the Pope has used his voice to recognize the terrible cost of the sexual abuse crisis in this country: most of all to victims, but also to the entire Church.
On the plane, in answer to Allen's question, Benedict used the word "shame" in relation to the scandal, then briefly outlined the areas in which the Church should act: juridically, pastorally, and in relation to seminary screening and formation.
The emphasis on victims came through very clearly in Wednesday's speech to the U.S. bishops, when Benedict said that it was their "God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged."
JUST WORDS? Not at all, if you consider the priorities of various dioceses in the past. Showing compassion and care to victims has not always topped the list, which is exactly the reason we are where we are. Benedict reminded the bishops not only that this was most important, but that it was what God -- you know, God -- expected of them.
In the earlier days of these scandals, we were reassured that those in charge were trying to respond to the concerns of the faithful on this score, and that they were listening to us. Frankly, I never really cared if they were listening to me. I just thought they should try listening to Christ.
Speaking of Christ, he came up, too. Benedict told the bishops that their lives should be Christ-centered and prayerful, devoted to the virtues and holiness.
In saying this, Benedict isn't tossing out self-help platitudes or suggesting magic formulas that make suffering and complexity disappear. Rather, he's saying that in addition to other concrete efforts, Christ-centered bishops should foster holiness in priests, and when sins are committed, they tend to victims first. First. First.
Thursday, during his homily at Mass at Nationals Park, he brought the subject up to those gathered and, by extension, to Catholics across the country. First, once again, were victims. And only after that did he ask them to "love your priests, and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do."
And finally, Thursday afternoon, in a surprise move, Benedict met with five victims who were escorted to their meeting by Sean Cardinal O'Malley of Boston.
NO, BENEDICT DIDN'T take anyone publicly to the woodshed. He didn't lay out any canonical or structural issues. Those things are important, but they are also not the stuff of homilies and press conferences.
Here in the U.S., Benedict spoke as a pastor, laying it out plainly before all of us, including the bishops, not only by his words but by his actions.
Time after time, we hear that in the beginning, victims of abuse asked something simple of bishops: Meet with us. Listen to our stories. Help us.
How many bishops were asked to do this, how many times? And how often did they refuse?
This week, one bishop said "Yes."
Amy Welborn is the author of 16 books, most recently, Mary and the Christian Life, published by Word Among Us Press. She blogs at Charlotte was Both.
Labels: Christianity
‘Out of Step’
In praise of criticism.
By Kathleen Parker
Pope Benedict XVI gestures to the crowd while celebrating Mass at Nationals Park in Washington April 17, 2008.
(Larry Downing/Reuters)
Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the U.S. has afforded the American media and others an opportunity to remind us that the Catholic Church is “out of step” with modern times.
That is both a criticism and compliment — praising with faint damnation.
What exactly about modern times would compel a pope to change his institutional mind about the fundamental belief in, say, the dignity of all human life?
The central life issue is, of course, abortion, about which even a majority of American Catholics (58 percent) differ from the Church’s view. Other related concerns include embryo-destructive research, cloning, and assisted suicide.
The Catholic Church persists in opposing all of the above, insisting that life begins at conception, all life has value, no human being has the right to terminate the life of another. Case closed.
And, really, who would insist otherwise? In the abstract, few. In practice, millions.
Though we know that life biologically begins at conception, we’ve decided to disagree about when that life becomes “human.”
And, though we sort of believe that all life has value, our actions suggest that we think imperfect life has less value. Increasingly, Down Syndrome babies today are terminated, for instance.
If we quantify human life only according to productivity, then imperfect life inarguably is less valuable. But is it less human? Nazi eugenicists thought so. But measuring productivity requires a detached calculation — and, inevitably, bureaucratic enforcement — that defines inhuman.
This is not, by the way, a judgment of people who have made difficult choices. None of us really knows which path we would take until presented with the intersection that forces such contemplations.
Finally, all agree that no human being has the right to take another’s life except in self-defense. Since most abortions are for reasons other than the mother’s health, our current practices are possible only if the unborn are considered “not human.”
Keeping that definition alive is the trick. Human or not? Who decides?
A majority of Americans are comfortable with the view that a woman, her doctor, and her God should decide. But what if there were irrefutable proof that a fetus at conception is fully human? Would we then feel that government has a role in protecting unborn life?
These questions are especially tricky for Catholics. For those who side with the pope, the answer is clear: If life is a gift of the creator, then only the creator can be the ultimate arbiter of conception (though the Church does allow for limiting and spacing babies on the basis of informed conscience, just not through artificial means).
To believe in God’s autonomy over human life, however, is a hard sell. How does one justify creating more mouths when so many can’t be fed? My own Catholic grandmother, the youngest of 11 children, was handed over to the nuns at age 4 when her family could no longer feed her.
And yet, the nuns did feed my grandmother. And she did manage to grow up and marry and create my father, who then created me. So.
Pro-choice arguments are, nonetheless, compelling. Privacy from government intrusion, yes. Women’s autonomy over their own bodies, yes. All children wanted, well, of course. But none of those testaments to logic alters the essential truth that life begins when egg and sperm commingle and that every one of us was at that far end of the life continuum before we were able to dabble in ethics and trifle with electronic keyboards.
The question is how we reconcile what is true with what is merely convenient? That we might choose a path other than the pope’s is the prerogative of a free people — and no one recognizes that freedom with greater consistency than this pope. No one has to be Catholic.
But to ask Benedict to change the church’s rules to suit modern appetites and lifestyles is to ask that he forsake the sanctity of human life for the benefit of earthly delights. Those are not his concerns.
Even for non-Catholics like me, there’s something comforting about a stubborn pope in a world of moral relativity. Like a strong father, he ignores his children’s pleas for leniency knowing that his rules, though tough, serve a higher purpose.
If Benedict were to relent and compromise the value of human life, what would be left to debate? Perhaps only one’s own time to die. And then ...
Who decides?
© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group
Labels: Abortion and Life Issues
Today's Tune: The Bobby Fuller Four- I Fought the Law
Fisking Barack Obama
Deconstructing the Philly debate.
By Peter Wehner
US Democratic presidential candidates Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) stand at their podiums before the Democratic Presidential Debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia April 16, 2008. (Jae C. Hong/Pool/Reuters)
1. Senator Barack Obama’s strongest defenders, led by Andrew Sullivan, were furious at the questioning directed at Senator Obama by two of the best in the news business: ABC’s Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. In Sullivan’s words:
The loser was ABC News: one of the worst media performances I can remember — petty, shallow, process-obsessed, trivial where substantive, and utterly divorced from the actual issues that Americans want to talk about.
What really irritated Sullivan is that the early part of the debate focused on issues like Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright Jr., Obama’s association with a former leader of the radical and violent group the Weather Underground, his reluctance to wear an American flag pin on his lapel, and his comments in San Francisco about how middle-class voters are “bitter” and frustrated and “cling” to guns, religion, and xenophobia.
These issues were entirely appropriate to raise — and, in fact, several of them have not been asked of Obama before, including Obama’s relationship with William Ayers (the former leader of the Weather Underground). Obama, after all, was given a chance to respond in full, and there are few questions that should be declared out of bounds for presidential candidates. There was no “specious and gossipy trivia” (to quote the close-to-unhinged Tom Shales in Thursday’s Washington Post). And the debate did not focus exclusively on those issues; there were questions about Iraq, Iran, taxes, guns, affirmative action, and other topics. This debate, more than most, was enlightening and useful. Obama’s supporters are enraged that he would be treated like any other candidate running for president.
2. The consensus view is that the reason Obama did poorly Wednesday night is because he was on the defensive due to his recent gaffes. But let’s unpack some of the substantive policy answers Obama gave as well.
On Iraq, Obama reaffirmed a rock-hard pledge that he will withdraw our combat troops and leave no permanent bases. He is wholly uninterested in what General Petraeus or anyone else has to say on the matter of our mission; our troops are coming home, come what may. And if as a result of a precipitous withdrawal we see mass death and genocide, a revitalized al-Qaeda, a strengthened Iran, and massive instability in the region, the withdrawal would presumably continue. There is, it seems, no scenario that would cause Obama to change his mind. David Brooks of the New York Times put it well: “To pledge an automatic withdrawal is just insane. A mature politician would’ve been honest and said: I fully intend to withdraw, but I want to know what the reality is at that moment.”
3. On the matter of capital-gains taxes, ABC’s Gibson pointed out that in the past, when the rate dropped, revenues increased. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased, revenues went down. “So why raise it at all,” Gibson asked Obama, “especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?”
Sen. Obama’s response was, “I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.” Obama assures us that he wants “businesses to thrive and I want people to be rewarded for their success.” But he also wants to “make sure … that our tax system is fair and that we are able to finance health care for Americans who currently don’t have it and that we're able to invest in our infrastructure and invest in our schools.” But back to the empirical evidence: when capital-gains taxes are cut, the private economy expands. So if lowering the capital gains tax led to a stronger economy and higher revenues, Obama presumably would still oppose it on grounds of “fairness” (a concept that doesn’t help you determine what the precise tax rate ought to be). This demonstrates the depth of Obama’s animus toward the corporate world, which is the engine of prosperity for America.
4. Obama wasn’t much better in his treatment of other issues. Last night he said that a central focus of his campaign was to deliver on “middle-class tax relief.” When asked if he had just taken a pledge on not raising taxes on people making less than $200,000, Obama agreed. But later in the debate Obama admitted he would raise the cap on the payroll tax, meaning that those making more than $97,000 a year would pay higher payroll taxes. When Charles Gibson pointed out this fact to Obama and said there are “a heck of a lot of people between $97,000 and $200(,000) and $250,000” and that if you raise the payroll taxes, that will raise taxes on them, Obama said, “I would look at potentially exempting those who are in between.” But of course if he exempts all of those in between, then he’s not going to raise the payroll tax to help save Social Security. And if he doesn’t exempt all of those in between, then he’s raising taxes on those making less than $200,000.
On affirmative action, Obama was asked “how specifically would you recommend changing affirmative action policies so that affluent African Americans are not given advantages” over poor, less affluent whites (a position he had previously stated). His response was that the “the basic principle that should guide discussions” is “how do we make sure that we're providing ladders of opportunity for people.” That’s not terribly specific. He then went on to say, “race is still a factor in our society.” This exchange followed:
SENATOR OBAMA: And I think that for universities and other institutions to say, you know, we're going to take into account the hardships that somebody has experienced because they're black or Latino or because they're women…
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if they're wealthy?
SENATOR OBAMA: I think that's something that they can take into account, but it can only be in the context of looking at the whole situation of the young person. So if they look at my child and they say, you know, Malia and Sasha, they've had a pretty good deal, then that shouldn't be factored in. On the other hand, if there's a young white person who has been working hard, struggling, and has overcome great odds, that's something that should be taken into account. So I still believe in affirmative action as a means of overcoming both historic and potentially current discrimination, but I think that it can't be a quota system and it can't be something that is simply applied without looking at the whole person, whether that person is black or white or Hispanic, male or female. What we want to do is make sure that people who have been locked out of opportunity are going to be able to walk through those doors of opportunity in the future.”
So Senator Obama believes in affirmative action but not in quotas to overcome “potentially current discrimination.” He believes as well that race “can’t be something that is simply applied without looking at the whole person.” But what specifically does Senator Obama have in mind when he speaks about affirmative action without quotas? And in what circumstances should we make decisions based on race? Should a middle-class black get a slot at an Ivy League university because of race if he’s in competition with, say, a lower-class Asian woman? Obama seems to believe that race can be a factor that is taken into consideration when it comes to college applications and jobs, but it shouldn’t always be a factor. And sometimes, but not always, class circumstances should trump race. It’s very hard to discern a principled position from Obama on this important matter of constitutional law.
5. On the issue of guns, Obama said, “As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms. But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right…” When asked if he still favors the registration and licensing of guns because, as Gibson pointed out, “in 1996, your campaign issued a questionnaire, and your writing was on the questionnaire that said you favored a ban on handguns,” Obama denied it:
No, my writing wasn't on that particular questionnaire, Charlie. As I said, I have never favored an all-out ban on handguns.
But as the New York Times points out today
Politico.com recently found an amended questionnaire that [Obama] filed with [a liberal] group that year [1996] with the same answer to the handgun question.
So contrary to what he said last night, Obama did favor banning the manufacturing, sale, and possession of handguns.
Wednesday night’s debate was a bad one for Senator Obama, both substantively and in style. He was on the defensive because of associations he’s had, things he’s said, and positions he’s embraced. Indeed, the last six weeks have been damaging ones for him. People who were once impressed with Obama are beginning to wonder if the image he projects — post-partisan, post-ideological, post-racial, a uniquely unifying and hopeful figure for America — is deeply at odds with the man himself. As the election plays out, we will see if these concerns are valid. But it’s fair to say that for Barack Obama, the magic is gone. The videos which were so fashionable just a few weeks ago, featuring people chanting “O-ba-ma,” now seem even more weirdly cult-like, empty, and out of touch. And Democrats now find themselves on the cusp of nominating one of the most liberal and untested nominees in history — a man of obvious talents but also a man of obvious flaws.
Democrats have good reasons to be nervous.
— Peter Wehner, former deputy assistant to the president, is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Obama Woos Gun-Toting God Nuts
http://www.anncoulter.com
The Democrats' "Fake-Out America" adviser, Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff, must be beside himself. Despite Lakoff's years spent training Democrats to "frame" their language to stop scaring Americans, B. Hussein Obama was caught on tape speaking candidly to other liberals in San Francisco last week.
One minute Obama was bowling in Pennsylvania with nice, ordinary people wearing "Beer Hunter" T-shirts, and the next thing you know, he was issuing a report on the psychological traits of normal Americans to rich liberals in San Francisco.
Obama informed the San Francisco plutocrats that these crazy working-class people are so bitter, they actually believe in God! And not just the 12-step meeting, higher power, "as you conceive him or her to be" kind of God. The regular, old-fashioned, almighty sort of "God."
As Obama put it: "(T)hey get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
The rich liberals must have nearly fainted at the revelation that the denizens of small towns in Pennsylvania have absolutely no concern for the rich's ability to acquire servants from Mexico at a reasonable price.
We don't know much about Obama's audience, other than that four fundraisers were held on April 6 at the homes of San Francisco's rich and mighty, such as Alex Mehran, an Iranian who went into daddy's business and married an IBM heiress, and Gordon Getty, heir to the Getty Oil fortune.
It is not known whether any of Getty's three illegitimate children attended the Obama fundraiser -- which turned out to be more of a McCain fundraiser -- but photos from the event indicate that there were a fair number of armed (and presumably bitter) policemen providing security for the billionaire's soiree.
In 1967, Gordon sued his own father to get his hands on money from the family trust -- and lost. So Gordon Getty knows from bitter. It's a wonder he hasn't turned to guns, or even to immigrant-bashing. God knows (whoever he is) there are enough of them working on his home.
These are the sort of well-adjusted individuals to whom Obama is offering psychological profiles of normal Americans, including their bizarre theories about how jobs being sent to foreign countries and illegal-alien labor undercutting American workers might have something to do with their own economic misfortunes.
It's going to take a lot of "framing" for Democrats to recast Obama's explanation to San Francisco cafe society that gun ownership and a belief in God are the byproducts of a psychological disorder brought on by economic hardship.
It is an article of faith with the Democrats that they must fool Americans by simulating agreement with normal people. The winner of the Democratic primary is always the candidate who does the best impersonation of an American.
But then, after all their hard work making believe they're into NASCAR and God, some Democrat invariably slips and lets us know it's all a big fake-out. They're like a gay guy trying to act straight who accidentally refers to Brad Pitt as "yummy!"
The Democrats' last phony American (or perhaps I should say "faux American") was John Kerry, who famously said that if "you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
Kerry claimed this was not an accurate reflection of his feelings about the troops, despite a four-decade record of contempt for them, including accusing American troops of being baby-killers during the Vietnam War.
Rather, he said, it was a "botched joke." (In Kerry's defense, he was the opening act for Randi Rhodes' stand-up comedy show at the time.) But as with his military records, Kerry refused to allow his joke-writer to release any of the jokes cut from that speech.
In case there was any confusion, other Democrats immediately clarified their position by going on television and saying -- as Rep. Charlie Rangel did -- that our troops are people who don't have the option of having "a decent career."
These Democrats can't even pull off attending a NASCAR race without embarrassing themselves. In August 2004, Kerry exclaimed: "Who among us does not love NASCAR?" And then, about six months ago, Democratic congressional staffers to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sent out a memo urging aides going to NASCAR races to get inoculated before attending.
Obama had been so careful until now, "framing" his message as "change" -- rather than partial birth abortion, driver's licenses for illegal aliens, tax hikes, socialized medicine and abandoning mandatory minimum prison sentences for federal crimes.
His message is "change" -- not that his wife has not been proud to be an American for most of her life.
He is for "change" -- and don't mind the crazy racist loon who has been Obama's spiritual mentor for two decades.
One can only hope that Obama got his shots before bowling in Altoona, Pa.
- Ann Coulter is a bestselling author and syndicated columnist. Her most recent book is Godless: The Church of Liberalism.
Labels: Ann Coulter, Barack Obama, Politics
Today's Tune: Queen W/ David Bowie- Under Pressure
Benedict's Big Week
By Mark Shea
U.S. President George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI watch a marching band on the South Lawn of the White House as Bush welcomed the Pope to the United States at a ceremony in Washington, April 16, 2008.REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)
"They say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.'"
So wrote the Apostle Paul describing the scuttlebutt about himself in one of his periodic gusts of annoyance with the Church at Corinth. The Corinthians had definite ideas about what an apostle should look and sound like and Paul did not measure up in their eyes. Part of the problem was that there seemed to be a disconnect in the minds of the Corinthians between how Paul sounded in print and the way he came off in person. Communication wasn't especially helped by the fact that the Corinthians were pretty confident they were All That and that Paul would really be improved if he would just listen to their up-to-date theories. Throughout the correspondence that constitutes 1 and 2 Corinthians, you can see Paul patiently (and sometimes not-so-patiently) attempting to shepherd a group of people who are blissfully confident that they had it together.
The Corinthians brag about their tolerance of sexual immorality, revel in class inequalities, pull their chins thoughtfully while the latest philosopher tells them there is no resurrection from the dead, resent Paul's authority, are all excited about some new moral theory that "Grace" = "Go Nuts and Do Whatever you Want!", as well as various other alarums and discursions that force the apostle to put out a bunch of fires.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. The Corinthians sound remarkably American. And as you survey the Mainstream Media (MSM) coverage about Pope Benedict, who is visiting America this week, what comes through again and again is that much of the MSM is already weary of hearing what it has never yet heard.
Many come to bury Benedict, not to praise him, let alone listen to him. Their minds are made up. Like the Far Side cartoon about what we say and what dogs hear, much of the press coverage will consist of TV spots which will consist pretty much of regurgitations of The American Media Narrative on Benedict: "Benedict blah blah blah Hitler Youth blah blah blah God's Rottweiler blah blah blah inflexible blah blah blah homosexuality, divorce, women priests blah blah blah Vatican crackdown, etc. blah blah."
THIS WILL NOT be helped by the fact that we are a Paris Hilton people meeting a Pope who expects us to think. Much of the media -- especially the visual media -- finds this as hard as Barbie finds math.
So large swaths of TeeVee America encounters the Pope's visit on exactly the same basis they encounter the Presidential race: "How does the guy look? He has a German accent! His eyes are deep set! I heard somewhere that he thinks only Catholics go to Heaven! I liked John Paul II better because he had twinkly eyes."
I wish it were not so, but the fact is a visual medium encourages this sort of surface stimulus/response and discourages large numbers of people from doing much else. Who has time for all those encyclicals and all their big words?
Nonetheless, this Pope who believes so strongly in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit appears to think that even a Paris Hilton people can be granted the sight to see beyond the tips of their own cosmetically-enhanced noses.
He comes to us in one of the darker hours of our history when we are at war, the economy is in a shambles, the election is a choice between Larry (D), Curly (D), and Moe (R), Solomonic judgments are about to be made in the field of bioethics by the best court prophets money can buy, the Church is wracked by scandal, and we are preparing ourselves to cope with it all by watching That Pregnant Guy on Oprah and dosing up on a cocktail of Viagra and Ambien.
Will Benedict succeed in his mission to America? I suppose it depends on what you mean by "succeed" and "mission." Will he succeed in making the world not be the world? No. Even Jesus couldn't do that. But then, that's not the mission for either Jesus or Benedict.
Will he succeed in preaching the gospel? Yes. Nothing can stop that, including three nails and a lance.
MY OWN MODEST definition of "success" would include, as well, some modest progress toward fulfillment of Shea's Iron Law of Media-Reported Benedictine Growth, It states, "Whenever the MSM declares that Pope Benedict has grown, undergone a dramatic change of course or gone a long way toward accepting positions he once rejected this invariably means the reporter or pundit who has discovered Benedictine 'growth' has no clue whatsoever what Benedict (and often, the Catholic faith) teaches and is only now discovering it."
So I look forward to some dim recognition by the media that Pope Benedict, while mysteriously choosing to remain Catholic despite exposure to the bracing intellectual and spiritual winds blowing from the summits of our Hiltonic media culture, still has some good points and does not seem to be as mean and anti-intellectual as member of our journalistic class have been assuring one another he is.
This tiny movement of the grey matter, while no great shakes by itself, could be a prelude to at least some of our chattering classes attempting to familiarize themselves with the immense oceans of light and lucidity that are his works. For though his bodily presence may be "weak" (to use Paul's term) or "unphotogenic" (to use the language of the image-obsessed media), his letters are indeed weighty and strong.
Strong enough, I pray, to speak to a culture that is desperately in need of the clarity, humility, beauty, and love of Christ that he preaches with such marvelous grace.
Mark P. Shea is Senior Content Editor for Catholic Exchange. He blogs at Catholic and Enjoying It.
Is Brigitte Bardot Bashing Islam?
[The French need to thank God...oops, the French at best barely acknowledge the existence of the Almighty...uh, the French need to be very grateful tooo...something or other...that Bardot or anyone else has the temerity to stand up to the brain-dead and cowering French governmental establishment on this issue. Bardot has the moral clarity to recognize the ever-growing threat of the Muslim population invasion and its effect on her beloved country. God bless her for that...and she sure knew how to hold on to a cigarette in the most provocative fashion...God bless her for that too. - jtf]
By BRUCE CRUMLEY/PARIS
http://www.time.com
BRIGITTE BARDOT, SPAIN, 1971
She may be better remembered as the revolutionary sex kitten of 1960s French cinema, but these days Brigitte Bardot is better known as a standard-bearer of the anti-immigrant wing of France's political spectrum. Bardot went on trial Tuesday charged with "inciting racial hatred," and in view of her four previous convictions on similar charges, prosecutors sought exceptionally stiff penalties of $22,000 and a two month suspended sentence.
"I'm a bit tired of trying Madame Bardot," admitted assistant prosecutor Anne de Fonette, as she urged the court to impose "the most striking and remarkable" punishment in the case. A verdict is expected on June 3.
The current charge against Bardot was lodged by the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP), citing a letter Bardot wrote to French officials in 2004 in which she alluded to Muslims as "this population that leads us around by the nose, [and] which destroys our country." The former actress-turned-animal rights crusader had written that letter to protest the ritual slaughter of sheep during the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Kabir. Her missive, whose contents were later leaked to the media, had been sent to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose rising popularity was based in part on his hard line on immigration and tough stand against troublesome youths from immigrant backgrounds.
Lawyers for the 73 year-old Bardot, who did not attend the trial, argued the offending sections of the letter had been taken out of the context of her militant defense of animal rights over the years, a cause in support of which she has raised and spent millions of dollars. Her work in the area has been hailed by French political leaders and organizations around the world, although more recently French courts have interpreted some of her statements as Islamophobia.
Bardot's defense Tuesday was that her passionate denunciation of the ritual slaughter of Eid-al-Kabir had been misinterpreted as an attack on Islam in France. A similar defense had failed to spare her from conviction in four earlier trials. In 1997, for example, Bardot was first convicted on the charge of "inciting racial hatred" for her open letter to French daily Le Figaro, complaining of "foreign over-population", mostly by Muslim families.
The following year she was convicted anew for decrying the loss of French identity and tradition due to the multiplication of mosques "while our church bells fall silent for want of priests." Darkening Bardot's public image in both cases was her marriage to an active supporter and political ally of French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
In 2000, Bardot was again convicted — this time for comments in her book Pluto's Square, whose chapter "Open Letter to My Lost France" grieved for "...my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims." And in 2004, another Bardot book, A Cry In the Silence, again took up the question of immigration and Islam — ultimately running afoul of anti-racism laws by generally associating Islam with the 9/11 terror attacks, and denouncing the "Islamization of France" by people she described as "invaders".
The prosecution has called for the harshest possible punishment in the hope of getting through to Bardot the seriousness of her transgressions of French law. MRAP implored the judge to "take note of this refusal by (Bardot) to learn the lessons of previous convictions and cease using racist language". The court will make its decision by June, although the repeat convictions on similar charges suggest that Bardot has not exactly been chastened by previous court rulings.
Brigitte Bardot in race hate row
By Henry Samuel in Paris
London Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Last Updated: 2:07am BST 16/04/2008
Brigitte Bardot, now an animal rights activist, has been convicted four times since 1997 on similar charges.
A Paris prosecutor yesterday called for French film legend Brigitte Bardot to receive a two-month suspended prison sentence and a £12,000 fine for inciting racial hatred in a letter.
In December 2006, Miss Bardot, 73, now an animal rights activist, wrote to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, then the interior minister, criticising the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep without first stunning them.
In the letter published by the magazine Info-Journal and handed out to members of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, she wrote: "We're fed up with being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts".
Several French anti-racism groups filed for charges of "inciting discrimination and racial hatred" against Muslims.
Miss Bardot was not in court, citing "difficulties in getting around", but her lawyer read out a note in which she said she was "appalled" at the "harassment" of anti-racism groups.
advertisement"I will never keep quiet" until animals are stunned before ritual slaughter, she added, saying she was "tired and weary".
"I too am tired and weary", said the prosecutor Anne de Fontette, pointing out that Miss Bardot had been convicted four times since 1997 on similar charges.
"She might as well write that Arabs should be thrown out of France", she said. "It is time to hand out heftier sentences".
The heaviest penalty to date was in 2004, when the star of "And God Created Woman" was fined £3,300 for inciting racial hatred in a book. In A Cry In The Silence, she "opposed the Islamisation of France" and racial mixing.
"You see racism and xenophobia, but I only see the expression of her fight" (against animal slaughter practices, said her lawyer, Francois(cedilla)-Xavier Kelidjian.
A lawyer for the French human rights league, a plaintiff, said that while Miss Bardot deserved respect as an actress and animal welfare campaigner, that did not give her "any special rights" to be racist, and called for the court to "put a stop" to such declarations.
The verdict is due on June 3.
Labels: Europe, Islam and The West
Jimmy Carter: Emissary of Evil
By Ben Shapiro
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, right, walks with members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Honor guards, in order to lay a wreath at late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, April 15, 2008.
(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Jimmy Carter is an evil man. It is painful to label a past president of the United States as a force for darkness. But it is dangerous to let a man like Jimmy Carter stalk around the globe cloaked in the garb of American royalty, planting the seeds of Western civilization's destruction.
On Tuesday, former President Carter met with leaders of the terrorist group Hamas. He embraced Nasser al-Shaer, the man who has run the Palestinian education system, brainwashing children into believing Jews are the descendants of pigs and dogs. He laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, the most notorious terrorist thug of the 20th century. Then, he had the audacity to offer to act as a conduit between the Palestinian Arabs and the Israeli and U.S. governments. This is somewhat like Lord Haw-Haw offering to broker peace between the German and British governments during World War II.
Carter is a notorious anti-Semite and an even more notorious terrorism- enabler. In particular, he is a huge supporter of Palestinian violence. He considered himself a friend to Arafat, as Jay Nordlinger of National Review wrote in his masterful 2002 piece, "Carterpalooza!": After the Gulf War, when Saudi Arabia was perturbed by Arafat's support for Saddam Hussein, Carter flew to the country at Arafat's behest to soothe the Saudis. In 1990, Carter told Arafat, "You should not be concerned that I am biased. I am much more harsh with the Israelis." He then proceeded to agree with Arafat that "the Reagan administration was not renowned as promise keepers," according to Douglas Brinkley.
Carter subsequently wrote one of Arafat's speeches, penning these vomit-inducing lines: "A good opening would be to outline the key points of the Save the Children report Then ask: 'What would you do, if these were your children and grandchildren? As the Palestinian leader, I share the responsibility for them. Our response has been to urge peace talks, but the Israeli leaders have refused, and our children continue to suffer. Our people, who face Israeli bullets, have no weapons: only a few stones remaining when our homes are destroyed by the Israeli bulldozers.' Then repeat: 'What would you do, if these were your children and grandchildren?' This exact litany should be repeated with a few other personal examples."
Not surprisingly, Carter's ardent hatred for Israel translates into a Jeremiah Wright-esque hatred for the United States -- the country he has never forgiven for throwing him out on his ear in 1980 in favor of Ronald Reagan.
Here's Carter on America's refusal to fund Hamas: "Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime. Because they voted for candidates who are members of Hamas, the United States government has become the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of depriving the general public of income, access to the outside world and the necessities of life."
Jimmy Carter is all about Jimmy Carter. During his presidency, he gave up the Panama Canal and allowed the Ayatollahs to take power in Iran -- all for the praise of the international community. In 1980, he asked the Soviet Union to release Jewish emigrants, hoping that such action would soften American feeling against the USSR and thereby swing the presidential election to him. In 1984, he told the Russians that if Reagan were re-elected, there would not "be a single agreement on arms control, especially on nuclear arms, as long as Reagan remained in power." In 2002, Carter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, despite a clear indication by Nobel Committee members that the prize was meant as a rebuke to President Bush.
Does all this make Carter evil, or just a useful idiot? By all accounts, Carter is highly intelligent -- perhaps the most intelligent president of the last 50 years. It would be foolish to write him off as simply naive. He is quite willing to be used by dictators from Venezuela to Cuba to North Korea, so long as helping them polishes his legacy. For almost three decades, Carter has pandered to enemies of Western civilization, shielding his treasonous behavior with the title of "ex-president." His Hamas-hugging is just the latest entry in a political diary that would make Osama Bin Laden proud.
Ben Shapiro is a regular guest on dozens of radio shows around the United States and Canada and author of Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House.
Today's Tune: U2 (W/ Johnny Cash)- The Wanderer
Labels: Johnny Cash, Today's Tune, U2
Springsteen hearts the Seventies
HandStamp
Your entry to the Houston music scene with Sara Cress and Joey Guerra
Kevin Fujii: Houston Chronicle
Springsteen performs Monday at Toyota Center.
A fellow behind me in the restroom line following Bruce Springsteen's two-and-a-half hour show at the Toyota Center Monday night called the performance "up and down."
Another wanted fewer hits from Springsteen's latest, last year's very good Magic. Another (um, my wife -- though not in the men's room) was disappointed that Born in the U.S.A. wasn't represented. A friend I knew to be a big Patti Scialfa fan likely went home a little disappointed since she was, according to Springsteen, watching their three teenage kids at home. If there are any die-hard Danny Federici fans out there, there was also likely disappointment, as he continues to recover from cancer treatment.
But all this is really just quibbling. What really is there to say about a Springsteen concert? It's an experience that has been well documented for more than three decades. They're long, they're joyous, they're poignant and they're a shared experience in a sweatier way than, say, a Neil Diamond show. They have their own language.
Springsteen seems to play each one as though it could be his last. If he's ever sleepwalked through a concert, he's a master at disguising it. He's endured various subgenres of pop music that were supposed to render him yesterday's icon. But start assembling one of those I Love the [insert decade] shows and you'd be hard pressed to peg him to one. Sure, the '90s treated him a little worse than the '70s and '80s, but he's since rallied.
Eras of excess and irony have done little to change what he does. So maybe some of us wouldn't have tipped the fairly recent Lonesome Day so early in the show (it was third), the same way some of us wouldn't wear black jeans. Being Bruce Springsteen means being impervious to minor criticisms and "major" trends. It means no concessions to fashion, musical or otherwise. He sort of exists in a world of his own creation. Then he invites us over for his shindigs.
So were there down spots that justify an "up and down" critique? Sure. But they were few. I've brought this up before, but last time I saw Springsteen in Houston was more than a decade ago. During the encore he would fall back, only to be caught by a bandmate. "I'm too old," he kept repeating. This night he made a few jokes about his eyesight and the age of some grandkids in the audience, but he sells himself again with a youthful kick.
Maybe the shows have shrunk from three to 2.5 hours since the old days. But he stuffs that time like a smaller suitcase packed for a long trip. How else to explain an ability to drop an A-bomb like the incendiary Badlands -- a fairly reliable show stopper -- and still have a half hour of bangers at the ready?
Things started energetically with Cadillac Ranch and the great Radio Nowhere (though the latter galloped ahead of him on the first verse). The aforementioned Lonesome Day featured a great snippet with guitarist Nils Lofgren (on slide) and saxophonist Clarence Clemons twisting lines around each other. A rousing Atlantic City, fourth in the set, was the closest thing to a downtempo tune early on.
It was also a very rare concession to the '80s. Politics were on Springsteen's mind during that era, but for the most part he selected hot-button songs from more recent albums. A spare and lovely Magic was preceded by a comment about "the end of eight years of bad, bad magic."
He dipped back a little further for raging runs through Because the Night (featuring a marvelous and Sonny Sharrock-y solo by Lofgren) and Candy's Room, later letting loose another new one, the vintage-sounding Living in the Future.
The Promised Land and The E Street Shuffle (a request from a kid named Quentin inked sloppily on a red piece of paper) sandwiched Girls in Their Summer Clothes, another new one that seemed to go over fine with the crowd; a dark, air-conditioned venue at night struck me as an odd place to present it.
Terry's Song, The Rising, Last to Die and Long Walk Home might also be one of those "down" spots since they're all from the past six years. Rising was rousing (how can it not be) though it's li li li's seemed to leave Springsteen winded. But with that tune, he got a little greedy (in a good way) with guitar leads for the first time in the night. He's one of rock's underappreciated players, and it was a treat to hear him cut loose, ragged on Rising, precise on Last to Die.
He could've gone to bed after Badlands, but instead charged through Thunder Road and left the stage having been at it two hours, pulled largely from his old '70s bag of tricks and his new Magic.
The break was a couple of minutes at most, and Springsteen returned with two localish heroes. He and Alejandro Escovedo had a ball with a song I believe to be titled Wasn't I Always a Friend to You, from Escovedo's upcoming album. Joe Ely got a louder rally of recognition applause when he led the band through All Just to Get to You.
Then Springsteen got back to the business of emptying out some of his '70s trunk with Rosalita, 10th Avenue Freeze Out and Born to Run.
The response was, um, very positive.
Saxes go in and out over time. Keys go in and out over time. Black jeans go in and out over time. Anthems and political songs go in and out over time. But something about Springsteen's staples from this era endure and it's not just listener nostalgia. The melodies are undervalued; they hold up to his bullying voice, which it should be noted, sounds untamed by time. Call his sound the epitome of rockism, but it's pointless to wonder what Springsteen would sound like with hip-hop loops or electronic production.
Closing with the Pete Seeger staple American Land was either curious or genius; maybe both. There likely wasn't a soul in the venue who wouldn't have preferred something of Springsteen's own, but you gotta shut it down somehow. A cover It provided some strange punctuation to the evening, a celebratory way of letting everyone know he was done. If he'd unshelled Hungry Heart, folks would've just wanted more peanuts.
Again, it was his party.
Always a Friend (w/ Alejandro Escovedo)
All Just to Get to You (w/ Joe Ely)
Today's Tune: Bruce Springsteen- 4th of July, Asbu...
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Today's Tune: Sniff'n The Tears - Driver's Seat
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Home Cases Williams v. North Carolina (1942)
Williams v. North Carolina (1942)
Williams v. North Carolina (1942): The Background
The United States Supreme Court Case of Williams v. North Carolina (1942) deals with divorce. The case of Williams v. North Carolina (1942) was argued on October 20th of 1942 and decided on December 21st of 1942.
In 1942, the United States was a far more conservative place than it is today. During the middle of the 20th century divorce was regarded as taboo. The case of Williams v. North Carolina (1942) begins when Mr. Williams married Carrie Wyke in North Carolina in 1920. In June of 1940, the couple moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where they filed for a divorce. Mr. Williams was served with a decree of divorce petition in August of 1940 on the grounds of extreme cruelty. During the divorce process the court found that the filer (the wife in this instance) was a bona fide resident of the County of Clark in the State of Nevada.
It was not until the 4th of October in 1940 until Ms. Hendrix was declared divorced on the grounds of extreme cruelty and willful neglect. On the very next day, the two married in Las Vegas, Nevada. Soon after this marriage, they returned to North Carolina where they lived as man and wife until a lawsuit was filed against them.
The couple was prosecuted under the North Carolina law for bigamous cohabitation (polygamy). The couple pleaded not guilty by offering copies of the Nevada divorce petition and argued that the divorce documents and their Nevada marriage were legal in both North Carolina and Nevada. The state of North Carolina; however, argued that since neither of the individuals, when processing the divorce, were true residents of the state of Nevada.
Williams V. North Carolina (1942):
The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina, in affirming the lower court’s judgment, declared that the state of North Carolina was not required to recognize the Nevada divorce under the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution.
What are Case Studies?
The Facts on Bill Clinton’s Presidency
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Salvation Army Has 1 Week to Raise $50,000 in Red Kettle Campaign
Noah Lueker
(Photo Courtesy of The Salvation Army)
The Salvation Army has just one week left in its annual Red Kettle Campaign and still needs to raise $50,000 to reach its goal. They're urging members of the Tuscaloosa community to contribute as the event draws to a close.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the national fundraising campaign has had to operate a bit differently this year, with the iconic red kettles and bell ringers disappearing from most storefronts across the area in favor of online donations.
"We rely heavily on the funds received during this season to fund our feeding and shelter programs," said Major Bill Shafer, Corps Officer with The Salvation Army of Tuscaloosa. "We are so thankful for those who have supported us thus far. Please help us make this season a big win for our neighbors in need."
The 2020 Kettle Campaign started early in November with a goal of raising $100,000. With one week left to go, though, they've only managed to raise $53,741.86.
"We are so appreciative and honored that our community has supported us during this difficult time," a Monday press release read. "Although this year looks a little different, the kettles still bring positive change to our community."
The Red Kettles are The Salvation Army's largest annual campaign with a history going back 130 years. Proceeds go towards local programs and services including providing food and shelter for those in need, as well as providing Christmas gifts to local families.
To support the campaign, donors can visit the Red Kettle website, or contact Tuscaloosa TSA Major Bill Shafer at 205-632-3691.
Top Stories From The Tuscaloosa Thread (12/14 - 12/18)
Categories: Articles, Local News, News, Tuscaloosa Events
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Louis Hoover
Book Louis Hoover
Sixteen years ago, on May 14th, 1998, Frank Sinatra died. In a gesture befitting a Legend, Las Vegas switched off its lights for three minutes and The Empire State Building in New York was bathed in blue light for three days.
About Louis Hoover
There’s ONLY One Sinatra Left!
Sixteen years ago, on May 14th, 1998, Frank Sinatra died. In a gesture befitting a Legend, Las Vegas switched off its lights for three minutes and The Empire State Building in New York was bathed in blue light for three days. The World had lost one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
Many have since tried to copy Frank Sinatra or ride the swing revival wave. But there is only one man on the international circuit who is made from the same block of wood as Frank Sinatra – British swing sensation Louis Hoover.
Louis has the natural nonchalance, the inbuilt rhythm, and the true class of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. When he sings, it is as if Sinatra has been reincarnated. Louis Hoover knows all the big stars’ little secrets – from his breathing technique, mannerisms right down to his philosophy of life.
Sinatra’s original musicians, who Louis has sung with, have long recognized Louis Hoover as the new ‘leader of the pack’. They chose to play on Louis’s own album “And This Is Me….” and perform with him whenever possible. With his ‘Salute to Sinatra’ solo show, Louis Hoover has been selling out venues such as THe Royal Albert Hall and The London Palladium for years. He co-created the West End hit musical “The Rat Pack”.
Ironically, US Audiences are mostly unaware that it took a kid from the streets of London to re-import the epitome of American musical history. More than 17 Million people Worldwide have seen “The Rat Pack” and Sinatra’s youngest daughter Tina is a huge fan. “Swing with a modern attitude” – that’s how Louis Hoover describes his own songs. His mission is to preserve the legacy of Sinatra by capturing the essence and taking it to the next level.
The only one left who can still do it like the old boys are Tony Bennett, and he is 88″, he says. Louis Hoover has already been labeled the “Sinatra of the New Millennium” by many critics. The legendary actor Sir Roger Moore once told Louis: “If Frank could see you, he’d tell you: You have great pipes kid!”
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Walter and Max Katz: Two Outstanding Americans
Posted on July 27, 2017 by Amy
When I spoke with Fred Katz, I had many questions about what it was like to come to the US in 1938, a nine year old boy leaving the small town of Jesberg, arriving in New York City, and then settling in Oklahoma. Fred made it seem as though this was not a very difficult adjustment for him, although he said it was harder for his parents. I asked how he felt about leaving Germany, and he said that he had been very excited to come to the US although sad to leave the family’s horse behind. He said he learned English quickly and adjusted easily to school in Oklahoma, and he said the family felt comfortable in Oklahoma, having so many other family members around, most of whom had been either born in or living in the US for quite some time.
So what happened to the rest of the family of Karl and Jettchen Katz after immigrating to America in the late 1930s? What happened to Fred’s two older brothers, Walter and Max?
On September 24, 2000, two graduate students at Wichita State University, Janice Rich and Paul Williams, conducted an oral history interview of Walter Katz. That interview, which remains unpublished, is the source of much of the information in this post.
In the interview Walter spoke about the family’s decision to leave Germany after 1933. He told the interviewers that boys who had been his friends before Hitler came to power ganged up on him and threw dirt clods at him, giving him a black eye; after 1935, his father and uncle were not legally allowed to engage in their cattle trading business, but they persisted illegally at great risk. He also shared the story that Fred had told of the difficulties the family had getting visas from the American consulate and of Fred’s rescue of the Torah scroll after Kristallnacht.
Walter also noted that his uncle Jake in Oklahoma had facilitated Max and Walter’s departure from Germany by submitting affidavits to support their applications for exit visas. When Walter left Germany, he sailed to New York, stayed with relatives there for a few days, and then took a train to St. Louis where he was met by his uncle Jake. Obviously Jake was very instrumental in saving Karl’s family from the Nazis.
Walter Katz on passenger manifest, line 29, Year: 1937; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 6055; Line: 1; Page Number: 50
Ship or Roll Number : Roll 6055
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
Jake brought him back to Stillwater where he was enrolled in school and was quickly put on the football team (he was seventeen, but because he did not yet know English, he was placed in junior high school).
Walter’s younger brother Max arrived in New York on July 21, 1938, and also listed that he was going to his uncle in Stillwater, Oklahoma:
Max Katz passenger manifest
Year: 1938; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 6188; Line: 1; Page Number: 101
Finally, Max and Walter’s parents and brother Fred arrived on November 30, 1938:
Karl Katz passenger manifest, Year: 1938; Arrival: New York, New York;Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957;Microfilm Roll: Roll 6258; Line: 1; Page Number: 16
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
The family of Karl Katz and Jettchen Oppenheimer was finally reunited in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The Family of Karl Katz reunited in Stillwater: Max, Jettchen, Karl, Fred, and Walter
In 1939, Walter moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he worked at a men’s clothing store owned by two of his Youngheim cousins. In 1942, he was drafted and inducted into the army at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. He was then transferred to Camp Cook in California (now Vantenberg Air Force Base) and was soon naturalized as a United States citizen, as he described in the oral history interview.
Walter Katz in the US Army during World War II, courtesy of his family
Walter was assigned first to the 5th Armored Division and worked in company supply because of his retail experience. He trained in Tennessee and in New York and was then transferred to intelligence school at Camp Ritchie in Maryland where he received two months of intensive training to prepare him to interrogate POWs. He and 300 other servicemen from his base were then sent to the UK for seven months more of training. After that he was stationed in France, Belgium, and Germany. In France Walter became entangled in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944; while en route to Paris to pick up jeeps, he learned that the Germans had broken through Allied lines, and his unit, which had been stationed in Reims, France, was relocated to Belgium.
In Germany Walter was part of the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) where his job after the war was to interview and arrest civilian officials who had been Nazis and to see that they were replaced with those who had not been affiliated with the Nazis. Walter told his interviewers that the people he interviewed all denied being Nazis and claimed they had no choice but to follow orders.
While in Germany, Walter met up with his cousin Jack Katz, Aron’s son, who was stationed in Wiesbaden. The two cousins attended high holiday services in 1945 at a restored synagogue in Bad Nauheim. In one of those eerie small world stories, a teenage boy who participated in the service later married one of Walter’s cousins. Walter did not know of this coincidence until visiting that cousin in New York years later.
Walter and Jack also visited Jesberg while they were stationed in Germany. Walter was distressed by the state of the cemetery, which had been vandalized during the war, and he demanded that the mayor restore the stones that had been toppled and clean up the damage, which was done by the next time he visited. Walter and Jack also met a young Jewish woman they’d known in Jesberg who had been in one of the camps and wanted to live in Jesberg again. She had no money, so Walter went to the man who had been the local Nazi official responsible for the damage to the synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses and demanded that this woman be provided with everything she needed.
Walter and Jack visiting the former Jesberg synagogue after World War II, courtesy of the Katz family
Walter Katz and Jack Katz in Jesberg after World War II
Courtesy of the Katz family
Although Walter had an opportunity to stay in Germany and work for the State Department, he wanted to return to the US. He returned to Wichita and to his work in his cousin’s men’s clothing store, The Hub, which he eventually purchased. He married his wife Barbara Matassarin in Denver on July 7, 1950. Barbara had been a nurse training in Wichita when she met Walter and had enlisted in the US Army as a second lieutenant in early 1950. When she was assigned to a hospital in Denver, they decided to get married. Walter and Barbara lived, however, in Wichita with their daughter for most of the rest of their lives, and Walter remained in the men’s clothing business until he retired.
Walter Katz at his store in Wichita, 1950s.
Walter’s brother Max also served in the US army during World War II. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 until 1945, according to his obituary. Like Walter, he became a US citizen while serving in the armed forces. According to his brother Fred, Max was stationed stateside during the war and did not fight overseas.
Max Katz in the US Army during World War II
After the war, Max returned to Oklahoma and attended Oklahoma A&M for two years, receiving a certificate in business. He worked in the meat packing industry for several years before starting his own cattle trading business in 1953.
Military discharge papers for Max Katz
According to his obituary, “in 1973, Max began buying pasture land throughout Payne County and feeding his own cattle, in addition to commission buying. At any given time, Max usually had about 3,000 head of cattle either on pasture or in feed lots. Max retired from the cattle business in 2009.” Tulsa World, January 1, 2011.
Walter, Max, and Fred Katz lost their father Karl in 1966 and their mother Jettchen in 1979. Both had remained in Stillwater, where they are buried.
Katz family members buried at the Stillwater cemetery
Walter Katz died in Israel on November 5, 2007; his wife Barbara had predeceased him on July 1, 2000. They are buried in Israel. Max Katz died in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on December 30, 2010; he is buried in Stillwater.
According to his obituary, Max Katz “was known far and wide as a superior cattle buyer and rancher who created a successful 56-year career in the cattle business by relying on a keen eye, a razor-sharp business sense, honest dealings, and above all, pure hard work. His generosity and willingness to help others in need became his hallmark and reputation.” Tulsa World, January 1, 2011.
Walter Katz, when asked in 2000 by his interviewers what he would say to the youth of America, said “First, you are lucky to be born in the United States. Second of all, you can do anything here that you want to do if you put your mind to it. The opportunity for anything you want to do is here if you want to do it. Work hard and stay with it and be good and honest. Live a good honest life and you will make it!”
Although those words do not necessarily reflect the experiences of everyone in this country, they do reflect the experiences and the values of Walter Katz and of his brother Max. Both Walter and Max had escaped from Germany as teenagers and traveled by themselves to the United States; they both had contributed greatly to their adopted country. They served in its military during a war against their country of birth, and they worked hard to become successful businessmen.
And yet these were two men who almost did not get into this country because of some bureaucrats dealing with immigration in the 1930s. How many more could have been saved? How many more were turned away because of ignorance, fear, and prejudice? Will we ever learn?
This entry was posted in Genealogy, Holocaust, Jesberg, Katzenstein, Oklahoma and tagged Germany, holocaust, immigrants, Jesberg, Katz, katzenstein, Oklahoma by Amy. Bookmark the permalink.
41 thoughts on “Walter and Max Katz: Two Outstanding Americans”
zicharon on July 27, 2017 at 10:16 am said:
I love the photos! Uncle Walter and Aunt Barbara were wonderful people who are still missed.
I am so grateful that the family shared them with me.
Debi Austen on July 27, 2017 at 10:58 am said:
Amy, I love this post. What a wonderful family and I am so happy to read they had a happy ending – I know there were so many who didn’t. it’s interesting that they served their new country just a few short years after immigrating. My husband’s family is from Germany and we have recently seen some photos of a few who never left – very chilling to see family members in German uniforms.
I loved researching and writing these stories. And the family has been so gracious in sharing with me.
Sylvia Dinkin on July 27, 2017 at 11:04 am said:
Thankyou for sharing this wonderful story.
Luanne @ TFK on July 27, 2017 at 12:25 pm said:
First of all, this reminds me of the hidden stories of so many around us. Most people knowing Walter or Max in their community would have no idea of their stories. I felt particularly drawn to Walter’s photo as he looks like he would be so interesting and warm. And then to hear how brave he was to demand the justices he did. I can’t even imagine going back into Germany like that. Can you even imagine it?!
No, the whole thing is inconceivable. And I have only recently learned how many of the kids I knew from camp as a kid had parents who were survivors. And I never had a clue.
Luanne @ TFK on August 2, 2017 at 8:21 pm said:
Oh, wow. That must have felt like you were hit in the stomach to find out.
Amy on August 2, 2017 at 8:35 pm said:
It was just really eye-opening to realize how many of my peers had parents who had somehow survived. I can’t help but wonder what effect it had on those children.
Oh, I can imagine. Those poor kids.
Forgot to ask: did you receive Kin Types yet? They started Monday, and today I received mine. Still a few people I know who have not received them. Area of the country doesn’t seem to be part of the issue.
Amy on August 2, 2017 at 10:46 pm said:
No, but we are not at our home address, so all our mail gets forwarded, which can take an extra week or so. I will let you know.
Dee on July 27, 2017 at 1:56 pm said:
I find it fascinating that this immigrant Jewish family made a home and had great business success in Oklahoma.
It certainly surprised me when I discovered this branch of my family.
nwpaintedlady on July 27, 2017 at 4:06 pm said:
Hi Amy…I truly enjoyed this uplifting and inspiring post! Loved reading it!
Thanks, Sharon. This one was uplifting.
Shirley Allen on July 28, 2017 at 7:44 am said:
A wonderful read and such interesting lives for Max and Walter, especially their military history.
They made the best of all their opportunities and worked jolly hard. A 56 year career for Max in the cattle business?? What an accolade.
Amy on July 28, 2017 at 8:03 am said:
It truly is. They both turned lemons into lemonade, as we say.
EmilyAnn Frances on July 28, 2017 at 12:24 pm said:
Walter’s story shows that with determination it was and still is possible to achieve here what could not be done in the ancestral country. It might have had a different turn, as you say, if the immigration authorities had delayed. I find it very disturbing how European Jews had such a difficult time obtaining safe passage and resettlement here during WWII. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle has many articles about how escapees were sometimes not wanted by locals in the NYC area. Some places didn’t even want the boats to dock. If Walter had experienced this kind of delay, then the outcome to his life may have been different.
And we really haven’t learned very much, have we? 😦
EmilyAnn Frances on July 28, 2017 at 5:57 pm said:
Maybe you and I and those we know but as a whole humanity has a long, long way to go.
Amy on July 28, 2017 at 10:32 pm said:
fhtess65 on July 28, 2017 at 5:34 pm said:
Another great story, though my blood chilled when the boys’ friends turned against them after Hitler’s rise to power. Heartbreaking and frightening at the same time. I am glad they all built such successful lives after leaving Germany.
It is heartbreaking to imagine, and it makes their later success even that much more remarkable.
bobyleff on July 29, 2017 at 1:12 pm said:
I should like to make several comments to this very special post – here is the first:
way over 10 years ago I was, as many of my friends, moved by this FILM
http://www.ritchieboys.com/EN/press_photos.html;
read also the reviews here : http://www.ritchieboys.com/EN/press_reviews.html
Totally new to me, and of special interest :…… In 1944, while assigned to Camp Ritchie (now Camp David) in Maryland as one of the first members of the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section, Yamane made a key discovery.
http://www.100thbattalion.org/archives/newspaper-articles/ben-tamashiro/kazuo-yamanes-key-discovery/
Thank you, Dorothee. I had heard the term Ritchie boys before, but didn’t know what it meant, nor did I make the connection between Walter and the term. I am so glad you pointed this out to me and provided the links. Very helpful!!
My second comment: the US Army created the most important occupation
zone in (fortunately beaten at last) Germany in the first postwar period. Not only
did the Army enable the Nuremberg Trials. They also made possible
safe places for the Jewish survivors – displaced persons – to live, including synagogue services, not only in Bad Nauheim but also in Frankfurt and other places. Military Rabbi Dalin officiated in Wiesbaden and was instrumental to restoring the (smaller) orthodox synagogue damaged but not destroyed. It was replaced in 1966, still the home of an active community with members from many parts of the world…
And my third comment: radio programs were started in Frankfurt and Munich attempting some new beginning of democratic media – the cold war put an end to this, unfortunately. But another aspect may not be known to many. I was fortunate to befriend survivors from Hungary: Anna and Paul Ornstein, who went – as others did – to University in Heidelberg to get their medical degree. More about this here: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/241300/their-classmates-followed-hitler
Thank you, Dorothee, once again. It’s so odd to read that you saw your country’s defeat as fortunate. But I can understand obviously. I will check out the Tablet article.
meghan on July 29, 2017 at 5:42 pm said:
I am inspired by the stories of these hard working, resilient men. Thank you
I am also, Meghan.
Michael on July 30, 2017 at 4:00 pm said:
What a compelling read, Amy. Their lives were truly shaped by some extraordinary circumstances.
Thank you, Michael. You’re right—it’s hard for me to imagine being uprooted that way and adapting to a new country and a new language and serving in the army of that new country against your old country.
Pingback: The Family of Regina Katz and Nathan Goldenberg—Escaping the Nazis | Brotmanblog: A Family Journey
thegenealogygirl on August 4, 2017 at 12:32 am said:
What a great post Amy. I chuckled to myself that Walter was 17, in Junior High, and put immediately on the football team. Of course he was! He was probably twice the size of everyone else. 🙂 You could not do that today.
It sounds like these were two really wonderful men. I love the photo of the family reunited.
It breaks my heart that so many families were torn apart, even if only for a time, in their efforts to flee for their lives. It breaks my heart that this still goes on today all over the world. We seem to always be too little too late. I understand that there are issues with immigration, but I am so horrified to think of all those who have died who did not need to all because someone marked their form as ‘denied’. We need to do better. I don’t know exactly what better looks like, but I hope we figure it out.
Amy on August 4, 2017 at 7:25 am said:
I am with you 100% on that. And now the administration is talking about cutting LEGAL immigration in half and mocking Emma Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty. It’s a disgrace to our national mission.
Pingback: The Legacy of Jake Katz: One More Family Rescued and a Remarkable Life | Brotmanblog: A Family Journey
Pingback: The Family of Moses Katz, Part I: Markus Katz | Brotmanblog: A Family Journey
Jeff Weitzenkorn on September 12, 2018 at 10:06 am said:
My name is Jeff Weitzenkorn currently living in Stoughton, MA. My mother was Milly Stern, the daughter of Wolf Stern, the “Judenmetzker in Jesberg” (Kosher Butcher). She, her four brothers Jack, Alfred, Manfred, & Leo, parents Wolf & Jettchen (Nussbaum) and Wolf’s mother Malchen emigrated to the US in the late ’30’s. I have been to Jesberg many times during my military assignments in Germany and subsequent visits with my son. I too am interested in geneology and have compiled data on both sides of my family. The Stern family was close with the Katz family; I remember my mother mentioning them since they were close in age and went to school together.
Amy on September 12, 2018 at 11:22 am said:
Hi Jeff, thank you so much for reaching out to me. I will email you directly.
Ester Katz Silvers on May 12, 2020 at 11:06 am said:
Jeff, I am Walter Katz’s daughter and would like to be in contact with you. Ester
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Hermann Gutmann Becomes Dennis Goodman: An Oral History, Part II
Posted on June 9, 2020 by Amy
By the spring of 1940, Hermann Gutmann was seventeen years old and had been in England and separated from his parents since the fall of 1936. He had completed his secondary education and had been working at a leather factory in Lancashire in the north of England since February 1940 and moved to London that May.1
On July 2, 1940, at 6 am he heard a knock on his door. The police told him to pack his bags and come with them to the police station. He protested, but to no avail, and along with many other German Jewish “enemy aliens,” he was taken to a camp, Huyton Camp, and housed in a tent with other young refugees from Nazi Germany. All those who were under eighteen, including Hermann, were told they were being taken out of England. He again protested and was told by the commanding officer that those leaving England would have the best chance of survival because England was likely to lose the war.
As the internees boarded the HMT Dunera on July 10, 1940, all their personal possessions were taken and never returned. The Jewish internees were placed in the hold in the rear of the ship and kept there by barbed wire fencing. They were only allowed up on the deck for thirty minutes a day for exercise where they were barefooted and often stepping on the broken beer bottles left behind by the guards, whom Hermann described as “football hooligans.” The internees slept on the hard floor and had open toilet stalls that he described as “awful.” Hermann described the morale of the younger internees as fairly good, but said that those who were older had a much harder time and that there were even a few suicides during their voyage. There were also Nazi and Italian internees on the ship, but they were kept in a different location.
HMT Dunera. Not stated in the AWM record / Public domain
The internees had no idea where they were going until they arrived in Australia on September 6, 1940. Once in Australia, they were sent to New South Wales and housed at the Hay Internment Camp. There were about two thousand internees kept there, many of whom had been successful professionals—doctors, lawyers, professors, and so on. They formed their own government and even printed their own money. Hermann distributed newspapers and even started a Boy Scout group that was officially recognized by the London headquarters of the Boy Scouts.
They lived in huts, about forty to a hut, and conditions were good. Hermann noted several times that as a young man (he was seventeen), he was not as uncomfortable as those who were older, and he didn’t mind some of the living conditions. When asked whether he now resented having been interned during this time, he said no—that he understood it was done without much thought based on fear when the war started and that it was an awful waste of time and money, but that he did not feel any resentment towards the British for their actions.
In the fall of 1941, Hermann volunteered to join the British military as a means of getting out of the internment camp. He left Austrialia on October 13, 1941, and arrived back in England on November 28, 1941, just over a week before Pearl Harbor. He and other Jewish refugees were given no choice as to where to serve and were assigned to the Pioneer Corps, a corps assigned “light engineering tasks [that] included building anti-aircraft emplacements on the Home Front, working on the Mulberry harbours for D-Day, and serving during beach assaults in France and Italy. Pioneers also carried stretchers, built airfields, repaired railways, and moved stores and supplies.”
Pioneer Corps clearing rubble, Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer / Public domain
It was during this time that his commanding officer asked him to change his name to something less German-sounding. Hermann chose the name Dennis John Goodman, his first name for a friend who had been killed in the war and Goodman as an Anglicized version of Gutmann. In the interview, he commented that he now regretted that he never returned to his birth name Hermann Gutmann as it had a very long history in his family.
Dennis was not content being in the Pioneer Corps because he wanted to be fighting the Nazis. In 1943, British policy changed, and Jewish German refugees like Dennis were allowed to serve more directly in combat. Dennis joined a tank unit and was on the beach at Normandy three days after D-Day, that is, on June 9, 1944. He ended up fighting in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and finally in Germany. He was involved in many difficult and dangerous battles, made more dangerous by the fact that the English tanks were outmatched by the German Tiger Tanks they were facing. He experienced some very close encounters with death or capture by the Germans.
The interviewer asked him how he felt when he entered Germany, his country of birth, and fought on German soil. Dennis commented that “by that time I felt more English than German” and that he had no difficulty facing his former countrymen in battle. When the war ended, he was in Berlin for the British Victory Parade on July 21, 1945.
British Victory Parade in Berlin, National Archives and Records Administration / Public domain
By that time he already knew about the concentration camps. He was given compassionate leave to go to Amsterdam to learn what had happened to his parents and learned of the deportation to and murder at Sobibor. In the interview, Dennis mentioned that at that time he learned that his grandmother had been hidden in the northern part of Holland and had survived.
I checked to see which grandmother, and it had to be his maternal grandmother, Hedwig Goldschmidt, because his paternal grandmother had died in 1932. I have no wartime records for Hedwig after March 15, 1938, when she was a passenger coming to England from Amsterdam.2 I initially thought that meant that she had moved to England at that time, but it appears from Hermann’s information that she had returned to Amsterdam, perhaps after visiting him in England.
Dennis remained in Germany after the war and joined the Review and Interrogation staff in Neuengamme, near Hamburg, where he was involved in interrogating Nazis about war crimes. He was struck by the ordinariness of the people who committed these crimes and their weak excuses for what they did. He also found some of them very arrogant. Several times during the interview, Dennis made the point that it was well known throughout Germany that Jews were being persecuted and that those who afterwards claimed that they hadn’t been aware of what was happening were either lying or repressing what they’d known.
In 1947, Dennis was discharged from the military and returned to England. He married a Polish-born Holocaust survivor after the war and had three children. I don’t know much about his life after the war, but did find several immigration documents from Brazil, starting in 1949, suggesting he might have been involved in international business or perhaps visiting family members who had immigrated to Brazil.
Ancestry.com. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965. Original data: “Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965”. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2013.
Dennis John Goodman, born Hermann Gutmann, died in England in 2007. He had lived an extraordinary life, leaving his parents and homeland as a thirteen year old boy, being interned for over a year in Australia as an “enemy alien,” and then fighting valiantly against the Nazis for several years including post-war interrogation of war criminals. His parents had been murdered at Sobibor. He had every right to be an angry, resentful man.
But listening to his voice in the oral history interview, I detected no resentment towards his adopted country, despite the internment. Certainly he harbored anger with the Nazis for what they did to his parents and all the Jews in Europe and continuing bewilderment over the German citizenry’s acquiescence to it all. But I did not come away from the interview thinking of him as bitter or defeated; instead I heard a then 72 year old man who looked back on his life with pride in his ability to endure and succeed against all odds and in his strength and independence even as a young man. His story will stay with me forever.
These facts come almost entirely from the oral history interview of Dennis Goodman, aka Hermann Gutmann, found on the Imperial War Museum website. Some of the dates in this post were found in an article written by his daughter, Naomi Levy, and published in the AJR [Association of Jewish Refugees] Journal of December 2018, on page 11, and found here. ↩
Hedwig Goldschmidt, Arrival Age: 61, Birth Date: abt 1877, Port of Departure: New York, New York, United States, Arrival Date: 15 Mar 1938, Port of Arrival: Plymouth, England, Ports of Voyage: New York, Ship Name: Washington, Shipping Line: United States Line, Official Number: 232210, The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 1158, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 ↩
This entry was posted in England, frankfurt, Genealogy, Goldschmidt/Goldsmith, Holocaust, Leaving Germany and tagged Antisemitism, Australia, dunera, England, Germany, Goldschmidt, Gutmann, holocaust, Internment, Washington DC, World War II by Amy. Bookmark the permalink.
26 thoughts on “Hermann Gutmann Becomes Dennis Goodman: An Oral History, Part II”
Eilene Lyon on June 9, 2020 at 9:07 am said:
His story is a good lesson in endurance, forgiveness and rising above intolerance.
Amy on June 9, 2020 at 9:33 am said:
I agree. Thanks, Eilene.
Shirley Allen. on June 9, 2020 at 10:07 am said:
Hi Amy, what an extraordinary life Hermann Gutmann/ Dennis Goodman had. I also read with interest page 11 of the AJR as his daughter wrote he was a “Desert Rat”, which was one of the most elite divisions in
the north African campaign. Nice photo of him! Having listened to his oral history he seemed happy to settle in the UK after the war. This blog will stick with me too. I hope you will find some descendants to further this story as it’s fascinating.
Amy on June 9, 2020 at 4:14 pm said:
I do also, Shirley, and thank you again for helping me look for them. Now you know why I was so interested in finding them!
Sharon on June 9, 2020 at 12:00 pm said:
He was a hero in my book – the details of his story is such an education for me too.
Amy on June 9, 2020 at 12:09 pm said:
In my book also, Sharon. And I learned a great deal also.
Debi on June 9, 2020 at 1:34 pm said:
What a story of resilience. I am so sorry he lost his parents but also relieved that he was able to go on to live a meaningful life.
It really is—I am just always amazed by how people come through such tragedies and live full lives.
Peter Klopp on June 10, 2020 at 9:53 am said:
Hermann/Dennis understood that he was kept in an internment camp as an ‘enemy alien’ because of the fear that prevailed among the British authorities at the beginning of the war. For this reason, he did not resent the way he was being treated. It is also truly a mark of a great character not to harbour such feelings and even courageously join the British armed forces to fight the Nazis.
Amy on June 10, 2020 at 1:06 pm said:
I think that in the end he was so grateful to England for saving his life and educating him and so angry with Germany for what they did to his family that it was hard for him to harbor a grudge for the internment. He just sounded like a man who was more grateful for what he had than angry about what’ he’d lost.
Peter Klopp on June 10, 2020 at 1:17 pm said:
So true! I understand Hermann’s sentiments completely.
dapperdaveanddinkydi on June 10, 2020 at 7:54 pm said:
Really interesting. Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much—and thanks for reading.
Sharon and Herb Schwartz on June 10, 2020 at 8:02 pm said:
Another remarkable person
On Tue, Jun 9, 2020 at 8:38 AM Brotmanblog: A Family Journey wrote:
> Amy posted: “By the spring of 1940, Hermann Gutmann was seventeen years > old and had been in England and separated from his parents since the fall > of 1936. He had completed his secondary education and had been working at > a leather factory in Lancashire in the north of” >
I agree! Thanks for reading!
SaaniaSparkle 🧚🏻♀️ on June 11, 2020 at 10:41 am said:
Amy on June 11, 2020 at 10:47 am said:
My pleasure, followed you ❤️
Thank you! I will check out your blog also. 🙂
findingjoreecemarch on June 11, 2020 at 4:02 pm said:
Hi Amy! We were just going back and forth on Facebook messages regarding the Seligmans and I mentioned we were cousins… the connection is through Arthur Seligman. He married my Great Grandmother Frankie Harris. My Grandmother, Ritchie, was already born from a previous father, so no actual blood connection there. Additionally, Ritchie and her husband John March adopted their son, George March, my father. So that’s why I said cousins by marriage – My entire family is buried on the same plot as Arthur Seligman and Frankie at Fairview Cemetery on Cerrillos Rd in Santa Fe, including my Grandmother Ritchie, her husband my Grandfather John March, their adopted son my dad George March and my mom Harriet, my two sisters Patty and Beth, and, I’m not sure but I think another sister from my dads first marriage named Mary March who apparently died in childbirth – no one ever spoke of her… oh my! I did go on and on… Hopefully it is interesting to you. Love, – Jo Sent from my iPhon
Hi Jo! Thank you so much for this explanation, and I hope you see my response. Of course, I knew about Frankie and her daughter Ritchie—I’m sure you’ve seen the posts on the blog about them. I’m delighted to be in touch. Now I have your email so I will email you back!
Luanne on June 19, 2020 at 8:13 pm said:
I had no idea that the British did something that rotten to their Jewish refugees. Fascinating story, but really traumatic. It was hard to read. I would love to read Hedwig’s story, too.
I never knew about until a few years back when I discovered other long lost cousins who’d been in internment camps as “enemy aliens.”
Luanne on June 20, 2020 at 10:26 am said:
His experience sounds horrific.
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North Carolina Lawmakers Present Bill Declaring Supreme Court ‘Gay Marriage’ Ruling ‘Null and Void’
By Heather Clark on April 18, 2017 253 Comments
Pittman
RALEIGH, N.C. — Four Republican lawmakers in North Carolina recently presented a bill that would declare the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on “gay marriage” to be “null and void,” but the House speaker has considered it dead and won’t bring it up for a hearing.
Reps. Larry Pittman of Concord, Michael Speciale of New Bern, Carl Ford of Rowan County and Mike Clampitt of Bryson City filed House Bill 780, also known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act,” on April 11th.
It notes that the U.S. Constitution does not give power to the federal government to create laws surrounding the institution of marriage, and that the issue is rather reserved to the states. The bill also outlines that the courts have no right to overrule the laws of God.
“[T]he ruling of the United States Supreme Court … also exceeds the authority of the court relative to the decree of Almighty God that ‘a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24, ESV) and abrogates the clear meaning and understanding of marriage in all societies throughout prior history,” it reads in part.
The proposal instructs the state to therefore uphold North Carolina’s constitutional marriage amendment, which passed in 2012 with 61 percent of the vote.
“The General Assembly of the state of North Carolina declares that the Obergefell v. Hodges decision of the United States Supreme Court of 2015 is null and void in the state of North Carolina, and that the state of North Carolina shall henceforth uphold and enforce Section 6 of Article XIV of the North Carolina Constitution, the opinion and objection of the United States Supreme Court notwithstanding,” it proclaims.
However, House Speaker Tim Moore, also a Republican, says that he will not give the bill a hearing.
“There are strong constitutional concerns with this legislation given that the U.S. Supreme Court has firmly ruled on the issue, therefore House Bill 780 will be referred to the House Rules Committee and will not be heard,” he remarked in a statement.
Gov. Roy Cooper also criticized the proposal, opining, “We need more LGBT protections, not fewer.”
However, Pittman said in a statement that the Constitution never gave the federal government the right to get involved in the marriage business, but rather delegated most issues to the states.
“HB 780 is about the need for the states to reassert their rights. As the bill states, marriage is not a federal matter,” he outlined. “For too long, the federal government and federal courts have been allowed to overstep their bounds because the states have not had the courage to say no.”
“Upholding the U.S. and N.C. Constitutions means demanding that laws and court rulings do not contradict the very Constitutions we are obligated to uphold. I appreciate Rep. Speciale and Rep. Ford for having the courage to stand with me and say so,” he said.
Psalm 119: 126-128 reads, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void Thy law. Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Therefore, I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way.”
North Carolina Lawmakers Present Bill Declaring Supreme Court ‘Gay Marriage’ Ruling ‘Null and Void’ added by Heather Clark on April 18, 2017
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Grayland Arnold Matt Rhule Art Briles John Mayers Denzel Mims Charlie Brewer Sports College sports College football Football
Iowa State Big 12 Baylor
No. 12 Baylor keeping it close and undefeated with OU next
By STEPHEN HAWKINS - Nov. 10, 2019 08:44 PM EST
Baylor cornerback Grayland Arnold (1) intercepts the ball as TCU safety Keenan Reed (4) looks on to end the game in the third overtime of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019, in Fort Worth, Texas. Baylor won 29-23 in triple overtime. (AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)
No. 12 Baylor is the Big 12's only undefeated team, and people are finally starting to pay attention with four-time defending conference champion and No. 10 Oklahoma up next.
There are all those close wins for the Bears (9-0, 6-0 Big 12), including the latest in triple overtime at TCU when they had to make a 51-yard field goal in the final minute of regulation just to keep playing. It was the fourth time in their conference games that they trailed in the fourth quarter, including a double-overtime home win over Texas Tech.
"I told our guys in there, the story line is going to be, no disrespect, they're going to talk about us all week what we're not," coach Matt Rhule said after the 29-23 win at TCU. "That's what happens when you get up here, when you get to be ranked, everyone has to find your flaws."
Then the script got flipped by the coach, who has taken the Bears from their first 11-loss season in his debut two years ago in the wake of a sexual assault scandal that led to two-time Big 12 champion coach Art Briles getting fired.
"Let's talk about what we are. We're just a tough, hard-nosed, resilient group of guys that goes out there and just competes and plays," Rhule said. "We're not perfect, but a lot of teams would have lost that game (Saturday)."
ESPN will be doing its three-hour "College GameDay" show from the banks for the Brazos River outside Baylor's campus stadium Saturday morning. The game between the Bears and Sooners will be played in prime time on network television.
Baylor, which has won 11 games in a row, and Oklahoma (8-1, 5-1) were both actually down one spot in the new AP Top 25 poll Sunday, with the Bears still one spot below two-loss Florida. Minnesota (9-0) jumped six spots to No. 7 after its win over Penn State, which slipped four to No. 9.
The Bears are the lowest ranked of the five remaining undefeated FBS teams, behind No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Clemson and the Golden Gophers.
"The season's a grind and you've got to take it week by week," Baylor junior quarterback Charlie Brewer said.
"We're not satisfied at all," Rhule said, describing the feeling in the locker room after the TCU game. "They're proud of the accomplishment but they're not satisfied at all. They understand there are things we can do better."
Oklahoma held on at home to beat Iowa State 42-41 on Saturday night, when the Cyclones were unsuccessful on a 2-point conversion try in the final minute after overcoming a 42-21 halftime deficit.
Iowa State also had a second-half surge against Baylor in the Big 12 opener Sept. 28 in Waco, when the Cyclones scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to go ahead 21-20 before John Mayers kicked a 38-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining for the first of Baylor's late comebacks.
Mayers had a 19-yard field goal to end regulation against Texas Tech before Baylor won that game. The Bears were down going into the fourth quarter at Oklahoma State, then scored three touchdowns in less than four minutes and won going away.
"You never know what can happen in a game, so we always expect it," said receiver Denzel Mims, who had two overtime TD catches against the Horned Frogs.
The comebacks don't even count the West Virginia game on Halloween night. The Bears were tied until Mayers kicked a 36-yard field goal with 10:19 left, and they blocked a WVU kick seven minutes later.
"We're a tough team. The Tuesday practices are really rough. Coach Rhule does a good job of putting us in situations where mentally it's messing with you in practice," said Grayland Arnold, who had the game-ending interception against TCU. "We're kind of prepared for the rough rides."
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Located in the heart of Lexington, Transy offers students several opportunities to engage with the surrounding community. Transy is proud to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with local non-profit organizations. Students engage with the community through student volunteer teams, community work-study placements, internships, research, and special projects. Ongoing engagement projects include:
STUDENT VOLUNTEER TEAMS
Students can join a Student Volunteer Team to support the weekly needs at partner sites that are focused on the following areas: youth and educational development, affordable housing, domestic violence and family support, and food justice.
SATURDAY-IN-SERVICE
One weekend of every month, the Office hosts a Saturday-In-Service project in the community.
ALTERNATIVE BREAK EXPERIENCES
The Office organizes a variety of Alternative Spring Break projects, which are week-long programs that take students to new communities to focus on a specific issue of social justice.
LONDON FERRILL COMMUNITY GARDEN
In partnership with Seedleaf, the Office helps to manage the London Ferrill Community Garden to get both students and Lexington locals involved in its upkeep and overall mission. Activities related to the garden educate those involved about food deserts, poverty, and sustainability.
Located in Lexington, Kentucky, Transy U is a vibrant, thriving campus full of unique opportunities. Lexington offers the perfect backdrop for an inspiring college experience, offering performing arts, sports, and nature spaces. The city also provides access to internships and jobs, community service, arts and culture, interaction with a diverse population, and numerous other opportunities that can prepare students of all interests prepared for a career or grad school. Major employers in the city include Toyota, Valvoline, Lexmark International, Lockheed Martin, and much more.
Men’s Sports: Baseball, Basketball, Cheerleading, Cross Country, Dance, Eventing, Golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field.
Women’s Sports: Basketball, Cheerleading, Cross Country, Dance, Eventing, Field Hockey, Golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, Triathlon, Volleyball.
The Office of Career Development helps students connect their talents to the right opportunities. Whether one needs help identifying their major or preparing for the first of many interviews, they have a team of dedicated career experts on their side. And that help doesn’t stop after graduation; the Transy community of alumni is encouraged to take advantage of the university’s career resources at every stage of their career.
100 DOORS TO SUCCESS
Transylvania’s mentor program is designed to help students prepare for a successful future. In the program, students are paired with a successful alum who will helps them learn how to build a professional network, set goals, and plan for their career.
Early Action #1: Oct. 31
Early Action #2: Dec. 1
Regular Decision: Feb. 1
Transylvania University upholds a test-optional policy, meaning that neither the SAT nor ACT standardized exam scores are required on the application. Students may choose to submit these scores, though the primary factors considered along with the application and essay include a high school transcript, the rigor of the curriculum, and class rank. An interview is also encouraged.
Transylvania University is committed to making its world-class education as affordable as possible. That’s why 98% of students receive financial aid. Transy also offers a number of scholarships based on merit, fine arts performance, and other qualifying factors.
Further, the Pioneer Pledge guarantees the possibility for every student to graduate in four years.
Contact Transylvania University
transy.edu/admission
admissions@transy.edu
Visit Transy Online
www.transy.edu
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Waarom THCV het volgende grote ding in wiet is
Early research shows that THCV produces a different effect than normal THC, and it could help with a number of health issues.
Image credit: Norman Posselt | Getty Images
September 30, 2019 10 min read
Brought to you by Weedmaps
2019 has the potential to be remembered as the year when minor cannabinoids really hit the scene. While it’s true that the cannabis market is generally interested in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the intoxicating cannabinoid that most marijuana consumers have come to know and love; as well as cannabidiol (CBD); but cannabinoids such as cannabinol (CBN), tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), along with cannabigerol (CBG) have started to attract attention on their own.
One minor cannabinoid that appears to be gaining attention is tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV). THCV is an analog of THC, but produces a completely different buzz than its intoxicating counterpart. It is also found in trace amounts in marijuana, so the effects are likely attributed to more prominent cannabinoids.
While more research is done for potential health benefits of this trace cannabinoid, THCV-focused products are starting to emerge on the cannabis market.
RELATED: Can Taking CBD Products Cause You To Fail A Drug Test?
What Science Says About THCV
Like CBD and THC, this cannabinoid is initially produced by the cannabis plant in its precursor acidic form of tetrahydrocannabivarin acid (THCVA). Cannabigerovarinic acid (CBGV), a central precursor, converts to THCVA, which itself eventually converts into THCV when exposed to heat, or light.
Under a microscope, there’s not much distinguishing THCV and THC. They share a similar molecular structure, except THC has a longer side-chain (tail), according to Itzhak Kurek, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Cannformatics, a Northern California biotech company that uses bioinformatics (a combination of biology, mathematics, engineering, and computer science, among other fields) to improve medical cannabis science.
Despite sharing a similar molecular composition with THC, existing evidence suggests that THCV interacts with the CB1 and CB2 receptors in the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in an entirely different way. In one 2018 review, published in Molecular Biology, it was described as an “anomaly” of the cannabis plant, said to be the only known phytocannabinoid that acts as an antagonist of the CB1 receptors.
“Like THC, THCV binds strongly to the CB1 [receptors in the central nervous system] and CB2 receptors [found on immune cells], but THCV has a different effect than THC and does not produce the ‘THC-like high’ effect,” Kurek said.
In fact, research shows that THCV could act as an antagonist against THC, at least in certain cases. A 2015 study published in Sage’s Journal of Psychopharmacology, for instance, found that low doses of THCV inhibited the intoxicating effects of THC. At higher doses, however, the effects of this cannabinoid suddenly became more comparable to THC.
While researchers continue to unearth new information, THCV has demonstrated a potential for the following:
Appetite Suppressant: Evidence suggests that, at low doses ranging between 5 and 7.5 milligrams, THCV inhibits appetite by antagonizing the CB1 receptors. A 2015 study found that the effect of it on the CB1 receptors suggested a potential to treating obesity. According to Kurek, the findings of this study suggest that THCV could provide treatment without the risk of side effects found in common anti-obesity drugs, such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
Diabetes: In a 2016 study published in Diabetes Care, researchers found that CBD and THCV appeared to help patients with type 2 diabetes maintain tighter glycemic control, which is essential in preventing chronic complications from the condition. Research has also shown that, at moderate to high doses ranging between 10 and 20 milligrams, THCV regulated blood sugar levels and reduced the body’s resistance to insulin.
Epilepsy: THCV has also been researched for its anti-epileptic properties, suggesting that it could also be used to reduce seizures for epileptic patients. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, researchers found that THCV showcased anticonvulsant effects, significantly reducing seizure incidences in an in vitro model induced with epileptic activity.
Parkinson’s Disease: In a 2011 study on lab mice, researchers found that THCV held antioxidant properties that could prove useful in treating the symptoms and delaying neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease.
Schizophrenia: A 2015 study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, researchers found that this particular cannabinoid enhanced serotonin receptors and demonstrated antipsychotic effects in lab rats, leading the authors to conclude that THCV could provide “therapeutic potential for ameliorating some of the negative, cognitive, and positive symptoms of schizophrenia.”
RELATED: There’s No End In Sight (Yet) For The Cannabis Oil Boom
How Is THCV Used By The Cannabis Industry?
While THCV could be beneficial for several health-related conditions, the cannabinoid has yet to receive the attention that THC and CBD have amassed.
One reason is the difficulty in obtaining THCV. While most strains contain high levels of THC or CBD, the levels of THCV are significantly lower.
THCV-rich cultivars can be hard to come by, as most strains contain zero or trace amounts. According to Steep Hill, a U.S.-based cannabis science and technology company, classic varieties of African origin tend to have notable levels of THCV, such as Durban Poison, which has upwards of 0.5% THCV. The cannabis lab also found that rarer strains such as Pineapple Purps have been said to contain significantly higher levels of it, in this specific case about 4%. In other words, currently, there are not many strains that produce significant levels of this minor cannabinoid, creating a market gap and an opportunity.
“In general, any natural compound produced in the plant in low concentrations will be cost-prohibitive due to the low yield recovered during the extraction process,” Kurek explained. “This suggests to opportunity for a breeding program to create THCV-dominant plants.”
However, a small swell of THCV-centric products are beginning to hit the market.
In July 2019, the California-based cannabis flower brand Flow Kana unveiled a new THCV-rich cultivar called Pink Boost Goddess. According to a press release, the strain contains 18.7% THC and 4.24% THCV and is marketed as an ideal product for those seeking to reduce anxiety and suppress appetite while still getting stoned.
“We believe there is great healing potential in sun-grown flower that possesses this rare THCV cannabinoid and are honored to play a role in bringing this unique cultivar to market,” said Flow Kana CEO Michael Steinmetz in the release.
The cannabinoid has also made its way into a number of vape products. In February 2019, the THCV-focused brand Doug’s Varin, owned by the Oakland, California-based California Cannabinoids, released two THCV-rich vape pen products: Doug’s Varin Original and Doug’s Varin Relief, both of which contain about 25% to 30% THCV cannabis oil by weight. Doug’s Varin also has a preroll containing flower that has 3% THCV, 10% THC, and 4% CBG, and plans to release THCV capsules and tinctures in the near future.
David Lampach, the co-founder of Doug’s Varin, explained that the company developed a family of THCV-heavy strains, but the original strain is said to have stemmed from a Harlequin cultivar. After about three years of cultivating high-THCV strains, Lampach believes this minor cannabinoid is a “cognitive enhancer” that could be ideal for consumers or patients who are seeking a more energizing and short-lived high.
“You smoke it and a light bulb goes off in your head,” Lampach explained. “In terms of the duration of how long you feel it, the effects are much shorter, at least half the length of THC.”
Another interesting cannabis product that places THCV in the spotlight is Stimulate Tablingual by Level, THCV-enriched sublingual tablets that contain equal levels of THC, THCV, and CBG. As stated on the packaging, this formulation is made using Doug’s Varin’s special THCV-heavy cannabis and is designed to stimulate and energize the mind while also providing a tantalizing buzz, which according to Lampach could make THCV a potential alternative to Adderall and other commonly prescribed amphetamines.
More research is needed to support these purported health benefits, but the initial findings seem to signify that THCV could offer several distinct health benefits that THC does not, as well as a more manageable and social buzz.
RELATED: Listen: New Opportunities In The Cannabis Business
Could THCV Become Popular?
Despite the variety of potential benefits that it appears to offer, the current lack of research and limited affordable access to high-THCV strains has kept more cannabis companies from integrating this cannabinoid into their products.
Tristan Watkins, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer at LucidMood, a Boulder, Colorado-based brand of proprietary terpene and botanical formulations, believes that there might be other factors influencing the purported benefits of THCV, including the fact that these high-THCV strains such as Durban Poison all typically come from the African region.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the strains that are naturally high in THCV also have a unique terpene profile as well, so it’s really hard to point THCV as being the only player,” he explained. “When you have a strain that was grown in one part of the world, it probably naturally expresses a completely different composition of these compounds in relation to its environment.”
Another hindrance is that THCV can’t really be sourced from industrial hemp plants, which are federally legal to grow following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, making it harder to source than other minor cannabinoids, such as CBG.
“It’s difficult to source, there hasn’t been a major demand so far,” Watkins continued. “It’s also a little difficult to identify because the structure, from a side component, is so close to THC, so you have to run a special analysis to delineate between THC and THCV.”
According to Lampach, there are certain other obstacles preventing THCV-heavy strains from taking a bigger slice of the cannabis market’s fruitful pie, as these plants are both difficult to grow and have lower yields on average. Currently, he stated, high-THCV plant biomass sells for $1,000 per pound, while crude 35% THCV is priced at $30,000 per kilogram.
Nevertheless, there’s still reason to believe that it will become a featured ingredient in cannabis products, especially once it becomes more readily available at a lower price point.
“It’s a really good crossover type of product that can pull people in who don’t currently consume cannabis, because it has a completely different set of effects,” Lampach explained. “I think that ability to pull people into cannabis who otherwise wouldn’t be into cannabis is a big component of its future.”
To stay up to date on the latest marijuana-related news make sure to like Weedmaps on Facebook
Categories tetrahydrocannabinolTags thc Post navigation
Deze broers hebben net $ 15 miljoen opgehaald voor hun startup, Dutchie, een soort Shopify voor apotheken
Apple verwijdert de Hong Kong-protesta
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Monsters Unleashed #1 Review
Moon Knight #10 Review
A.D. After Death #2 Review
Hulk #1 Review
Comic Vine Review
Catwoman #35 - Comfort to the Hurt of the King
Last updated by Tony 'G-Man' Guerrero on Oct 22, 2014 11:06 AM
CATWOMAN gets a new creative team and new direction, spinning out of events in BATMAN ETERNAL.
For months we've wondered who Catwoman was in the New 52. When last I read, there was some question over her true identity and background. The series had gone in a few different directions and I wasn't really sure what to expect anymore. With things developing in BATMAN ETERNAL and the change for Selina we first saw in the slight future story in BATMAN #28, it was a matter of time until those events caught up with Catwoman's main series.
Walking into this issue, you don't necessarily have to know what happened before in the series. I actually went back to check out issue #34 (and I did read the FUTURES END issue). This is more of a slight continuation from last week's BATMAN ETERNAL. Selina is embracing her true heritage as the "Daughter of the Lion," Rex Calabrese. Gotham City is a mess and she wants to use her true family name and contacts to establish a new position for herself. That's what we're seeing in this issue. Seeing this evolution of Catwoman is surprising (even though we knew it was coming) and it definitely grabs your attention. There are moments you might say, "What the heck is going on?" but it's a nice shift in the series. I'm deeply interested to see what Genevieve Valentine has planned for Selina.
Garry Brown's art fits the new tone perfectly. There's a great balance between the grittiness and beauty of the story being told. Catwoman is often drawn in a sensual way but that's clearly not needed here. She still exudes the confidence we would expect and you can tell she is determined to get the job done.
I mentioned the moments of slight confusion. We immediately see Selina with a new supporting cast. I wasn't sure exactly who they were or where they came from. Hence, the reason I looked back at the previous issue). Who they are is explained. Perhaps we'll see more of them in the coming issues to fully find out who they are, assuming we haven't seen them already (I've missed some issues of BATMAN ETERNAL due to the weekly schedule).
It's time to check out CATWOMAN once again. There's a new creative team and a whole new direction for Selina Kyle. As we see her make her move to try to fix certain things in Gotham City, there's also an element of mystery going on. The new level of complexity being added to her character is something we will relish. Garry Brown's art fits the tone of the story nicely. If you've been wondering what Catwoman has been up to lately, this is a great place to jump in. There may be some tiny moments of confusion but you'll want to stick around to find out more.
Mark Doyle, Matt Humphreys, Joshua Middleton, June Chung, Jae Lee, Taylor Esposito, Sal Cipriano, Lee Loughridge, Garry Brown, Genevieve Valentine
Catwoman, Batman, Black Mask, Tammy Keys, Carlos Alvarez, Ward, Eiko Hasigawa, Nick Calabrese, Antonia Calabrese
Falcone Family
Story-Arc
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Update, News & More
Coronavirus: All you need to know about symptoms and risks
Post author By Covid19
Countries around the world are stepping up efforts to tackle the new coronavirus that has killed thousands.
As the world further shuts down in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, more cases are now being recorded outside of China, where the virus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan, than outside.
As of March 19, at least 8,648 people worldwide have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. More than 207,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19.
Here is what you need to know:
According to the WHO, coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
These viruses were originally transmitted from animals to people. SARS, for instance, was transmitted from civet cats to humans while MERS moved to humans from a type of camel.
Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.
The name coronavirus comes from the Latin word corona, meaning crown or halo. Under an electron microscope, the looks like it is surrounded by a solar corona.
The novel coronavirus, identified by Chinese authorities on January 7 and since named SARS-CoV-2, is a new strain that had not been previously identified in humans. Little is known about it, although human-to-human transmission has been confirmed.
According to the WHO, signs of infection include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
In more severe cases, it can lead to pneumonia, multiple organ failure and even death.
Current estimates of the incubation period – the time between infection and the onset of symptoms – range from one to 14 days. Most infected people show symptoms within five to six days.
However, infected patients can also be asymptomatic, meaning they do not display any symptoms despite having the virus in their systems.
Read more on what the coronavirus does to your body if you catch it here.
How deadly is it?
With more than 8,600 recorded deaths, the number of fatalities from this new coronavirus has surpassed the toll of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, which also originated in China.
SARS killed about 9 percent of those it infected – nearly 800 people worldwide and more than 300 in China alone. MERS, which did not spread as widely, was more deadly, killing one-third of those infected.
While the new coronavirus is more widespread than SARS in terms of case numbers, the mortality rate remains considerably lower at approximately 3.4 percent, according to the WHO.
Where have cases been reported?
Since March 16, more cases were registered outside mainland China than inside, marking a new milestone in the spread of the global pandemic.
Deaths have been reported in several countries, with Bahrain recording the first fatality in the Gulf on Monday.
The virus has spread from China all around the world, prompting the WHO to designate the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic
Human-to-human transmissions became evident after cases were recorded with no apparent link to China.
Read about which countries have confirmed cases here.
What is being done to stop it from spreading?
Scientists around the globe are racing to develop a vaccine but have warned it is not likely one will be available for mass distribution before 2021.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have effectively sealed off Wuhan and placed restrictions on travel to and from several other cities, affecting some 60 million people. Other countries have since followed suit with total lockdowns, closing schools, restaurants, bars, and sports clubs, and also issuing mandatory work-from-home decrees.
International airlines have cancelled flights the world over. Some countries have banned non-citizens from entering their territories, and several more have evacuated their citizens from abroad.
Where did the virus originate?
Chinese health authorities are still trying to determine the origin of the virus, which they say likely came from a seafood market in Wuhan, China where wildlife was also traded illegally.
On February 7, Chinese researchers said the virus could have spread from an infected animal species to humans through illegally-trafficked pangolins, which are prized in Asia for food and medicine.
Scientists have pointed to either bats or snakes as possible sources of the virus.
Is this a global emergency?
Yes, this outbreak is a global health emergency, the WHO said on January 30, raising the alarm further on March 11 when it declared the crisis a pandemic.
The international health alert is a call to countries around the world to coordinate their response under the guidance of the WHO.
There have been five global health emergencies since 2005 when the declaration was formalised: swine flu in 2009, polio in 2014, Ebola in 2014, Zika in 2016 and Ebola again in 2019.
← GHANA : Police Arrests Pastor For Breaching Covid-19 Directive → Coronavirus: Which countries have confirmed cases?
© 2021 CoronaVirus (Covid19)
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Free exhibition and events explore the untold story of Sylvia Pankhurst’s radical East End suffragettes
Discover a remarkable new side to the Suffragette story this Autumn, as 2018 marks 100 years since women won the vote. Suffragettes didn’t only campaign for the vote. They campaigned for more food for the poor, pulling together to help feed needy families with nutritious food. This exhibition continues that legacy with free events and a Pay What You Can Cafe, recreating the original 400 Bow Road site where Suffragettes worked. The Women’s Hall Season brings this amazing part of history to life, right in the heart of where it all began: Tower Hamlets.
Autumn/Winter is packed with ways to get inspired by this sisterhood. Choose from a rich array of free book talks and cooking demos to accompany the exhibition. From transgender rights with Christine Burn, to cooking fun with local Brick Lane chef Dina Begum, register for a free event today. If you can’t make an event, simply drop in to visit the permanent exhibition and the cafe.
Open till 22nd October 2018, The Women’s Hall at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives is the first major exhibition about the East London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS). The free exhibition and accompanying events explore the ELFS campaign for the vote, their split from the WSPU and their wartime projects. These included a co-operative toy factory, a health clinic, and a nursery in a former pub.
Thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the exhibition hall at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives has been transformed into a unique space evoking the headquarters of the ELFS, a former Baptist mission hall on Old Ford Road in Bow which the suffragettes named ‘The Women’s Hall’.
Eat or Volunteer | Pay What You Can Restaurant:
The exhibition includes a recreation of the ELFS Cost Price Restaurant, which serves refreshments for visitors on a ‘pay-what-you-can’ basis using redistributed food. There is also a donation point for the local food bank.
Free Events At Tower Hamlets Archive:
October 11th, 4:30-6:00pm
Hear from Sally Nicholls, author of ‘Things a Bright Girl Can Do’ in this informal literary chat:
Women United Against Racism
October 11th, 6:30pm-8:30pm
An evening with Julie Begum, who will be sharing her story of a coalition of women from diverse backgrounds who formed a group, Women Unite Against Racism, as part of the wider anti-racist and anti-fascist campaign that managed to get the BNP out of Tower Hamlets during the 90’s.
Talk: Christine Burns on the historic struggle for transgender rights
At our penultimate event at the Women’s Hall we are delighted to welcome Christine Burns MBE who has campaigned for the civil rights of transgender people for a quarter of a century, having been involved with the trans community for more than 40 years. Christine was a leading figure in the pioneering trans rights organisation Press for Change, working on new employment legislation and the Gender Recognition Act. She will be selling and signing copies of her new book Trans Britain after the talk.
Sign up: https://www.facebook.com/events/587730334975148/
Women’s Hall Grand Finale
October 20th, 12:00 -5:00pm
The Women’s Hall exhibition draws to an end at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives. Dina Begum will join the festivities whose Brick Lane Cookbook celebrates the diverse cultures of our much loved Tower Hamlets.
To continue the suffragette legacy we have:
12.30-2.30pm The final session of Cost Price Restaurant our suffragette inspired zero waste pay what you can cafe.
2.00-3.00pm Speed Histories exploring through storytelling locally inspured suffrage history.
3.00-5.00pm Suffragette Studio Photography at The Women’s Hall, dress up as a suffragette and remember it forever!
Speaker of the Council, Cllr Sabina Akhtar said: “Sylvia Pankhurst and the East London Federation of Suffragettes used Tower Hamlets as a base, campaigning for the rights of working women in the East End and improved conditions for the poor.
Since then, numerous other women have played equally vital roles in shaping the future of our community. That’s why we are extremely delighted to bring this amazing part of our history to life with this major new exhibition which will hopefully resource and inspire present and future generations to continue to campaign for equality for all.”
John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets said: “We are proud of our rich history of campaigning for the rights of women and the less privileged. Especially in the year that marks the centenary of women’s right to vote in the UK, I am pleased that this new exhibition and accompanying public programme illustrates how important it is to continue the legacy of the East London Federation of Suffragettes.”
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March 18, 2009 | David F. Coppedge
Physicists Bow to Darwin
What’s Darwin got to do with physics? Presumably, if you dropped his statue off the leaning tower of Pisa, it would fall at 32 feet per second squared, but the man is remembered for his speculations about biology, not physics. Why, then, did Nature Physics devote a special issue to Darwin? Here’s what it presented.
Editorial: The editors explained why they were honoring Darwin.1 In “What’s the big idea?” they wrote, “It is not obviously the business of a physics journal to mark the anniversary of a major development in biology. But the repercussions of Darwin’s theory of evolution are relevant to all.” They believe the story of Darwin has something for everyone – including physicists. They encouraged subscribers to read The Origin of Species in recognition of a “bold scientist” who, according to Mark Buchanan, was one of few “leaving the comfortable confines of the accepted theoretical framework of their day and launching themselves out into territory unknown.”
The editors compared evolution to gravity. Neither is something to be believed; it just is. Something else just is: science.
That is something to be understood from this year’s anniversary celebrations, perhaps – that science has a unique place in human culture, and is not counter, or equal and opposite, to anything else. Science just is. After all, isn’t it appreciation of that purity, that integrity, that ultimately motivates us as scientists?
George Berkeley might have asked, if there were no scientist performing a measurement, would there be a science? (For thoughts on evolution and integrity, see the 03/12/2009.) The Editorial recommended that its physicist readers review the 15 “Darwin’s Gems” published in Nature in January (see 01/02/2009).
Michael Shermer: The well-known skeptic (of religion) Michael Shermer wrote a piece in the issue entitled, “A noble conception.”2 He’s not a physicist, but he wanted to share thoughts on why evolution is still controversial when physical theories are not. His thesis relied heavily on the “god of the gaps” argument. He quoted Sir Isaac Newton who had said, “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being,” and asked why creationists and intelligent design proponents do not quote this line more often. His answer: scientists have filled in the gap in our knowledge with theories of the formation of planets. “That is the fate of all such ‘god of the gaps’ arguments – the gaps are filled by science, and religion moves on to other problems.” He parried this line of thinking to Darwin, whom Shermer said was moving in the same direction.
This raises the question whether religion will retreat entirely from saying anything about nature. Shermer feels it should. “Why did religion not fall into disuse with the rise of science? The reason is that it is no longer the job of religion to explain the natural world. That is what science does, and it does so spectacularly.” Yet Shermer knows that a controversy still revolves around Darwin’s ideas, but not Newton’s. He offered six reasons for this: (1) The fear that evolution degrades our humanity by making us another animal species; (2) Belief that science is in conflict with religion, which tends to polarize “believers” against scientists “If scientific discoveries do not seem to support religious tenets”; (3) Belief that evolution is a threat to specific religious tenets, like a recent Genesis creation vs a 4.5-billion-year-old earth; (4) Misunderstanding of evolutionary theory, because teachers are afraid to teach it; (5) The fear that evolutionary theory implies we have a fixed human nature (surprisingly, a fear from the political left, who don’t like the implications of a mind that evolved from animal nature, he claimed); and (6) the equating of evolution with nihilism and moral degeneration.
On point 6, Shermer quoted Irving Kristol and Nancy Pearcey both arguing that society cannot survive if individuals believe they have meaningless lives in a meaningless universe. He argued, though, that “It need not be so.” First, “Evolution is science, as solidly supported as any in the human pantheon of knowledge.” And then he said “if one is a theist,” it shouldn’t matter how or when God created: “whether it was through a miraculous spoken word or through the natural forces of the Universe that He created: the grandeur of the work commands awe regardless of the processes used.” It’s a stretch to imagine what this article has to do with physics. The famous agnostic ended with theological arguments:
Theists and theologians should embrace science, especially evolutionary theory, for what it has done to reveal the magnificence of the divinity in a depth never dreamed by our Bronze Age ancestors who first penned the origin myths to which some still cling today. We have learned a lot in 4,000 years, and that knowledge should never be dreaded or denied. Instead, science should be embraced by all who cherish human understanding and wisdom, and that is ultimately what Darwin’s noble conception implies, and why Darwin matters today more than ever.
Quantum weirdness: Seth Lloyd, a specialist in extreme quantum information processing at MIT, offered his speculations about deep connections between biological natural selection and quantum physics.3 After a touch of history about the parallel development of quantum mechanics (QM) and the neo-Darwinian synthesis, Lloyd wrote, “Which brings us to the central question that I wish to consider here: what, if anything, does quantum mechanics have to do with natural selection?” His answer: “quite a lot.” QM is like Mendelian genetics: it is based on discreet states, not fluid, continuous variations predicted by classical physics. The discreet nature of quantum interactions, he explained, “gives a package of digital ‘gifts’ to nature, which in turn uses these gifts crucially in the development of life.” Here is his list of five gifts bequeathed by QM: (1) stability, because the quantum atom is stable, whereas the classical atom would have imploded; (2) countability, because QM only allows for a limited number of stable atomic arrangements; (3) information, because QM states are like bits; (4) information processing, because bits can be combined into ever more complex ways at higher scales; (5) randomness. Why is randomness a gift? Bring in Darwin:
The fifth and last gift that quantum mechanics gives to nature might not always be considered a gift: it is randomness. Unlike classical mechanics, quantum mechanics contains intrinsic uncertainty, which translates, under the proper circumstances, into irreducibly random behaviour. It was this intrinsic randomness to which Albert Einstein was objecting when he declared “God does not play dice”. In fact, Einstein was wrong: God does play dice and, luckily, is very good at it. Randomness is indeed the enemy of order – this is the quality to which Einstein objected. But randomness is also the source of variation. And as Darwin taught us, life without variation is not life.
Nature took these quantum gifts of stability, countability, information, information processing and randomness, and ran with them. The Universe began with a bang, and immediately started processing information.
Lloyd proceeded to portray the evolution of nature as the outworking of a cosmic creative process:
Each reaction transformed its input molecules and their attendant bits of information into a particular mix of output molecules and bits, which in turn became the inputs to further chemical reactions and so on. Eventually, in a sequence of events that scientists would desperately like to uncover, the more sophisticated methods of processing information that underlie life came into being. Once proto-life had attained the ability to reproduce with variation, the genie was out of the bottle. Darwinian natural selection kicked in. Bacteria, multicellular organisms, plants, animals, primates and humans all came onto the scene in due course.
This argument seems to beg the question of the nature of information. What is information, if not informed by a mind? And how does life and humanity evolving “in due course” square with what he just said about randomness? The quantum weirdness of Lloyd’s thesis gets weirder when he tries to incorporate human intelligent design into the category of natural:
When I give talks about quantum computers, every now and then a member of the audience will object that quantum computers are not possible to build, because if they were, “nature would have already discovered them”. This is a silly argument, not least because we can already build simple quantum computers. The same argument could also be made about lasers: natural selection did not cause pre-human life on Earth to evolve the laser, yet we still have lasers. Nor is the laser somehow unnatural. Natural selection evolved human beings, who then, naturally, invented the laser.
To support the idea that nature randomly selected humans able to build computational machines, Lloyd claimed that the 99% efficiency of the antenna of photosynthesis is a case of quantum computation achieved by bacteria. He claims bacteria used a quantum search algorithm to achieve this remarkable efficiency of converting sunlight to chemical energy. The efficiency of the quantum search in spite of noise and temperature fluctuations, he said, arose by accident: “we conclude that, on the one hand, nature is an excellent quantum mechanic, and, on the other hand, trillions of bacteria did not give their lives in vain.”
It’s apparent that Seth Lloyd just personified nature as if it were some communist dictator willing to sacrifice countless individuals in a five-year plan to build a factory for the revolution. But Lloyd is not done Darwinizing reality yet. Next, he extended it into hyper-reality. “Let’s close with some speculation,” he said, as if he had not already been engaging in it. He leaped into the multiverse and made natural selection the law to rule all laws:
The power of natural selection extends beyond mere biological systems. The laws of physics as we know them may themselves have been the outcome of a process of natural selection. Lee Smolin has suggested that the Universe is constantly sprouting baby universes, whose physical laws are similar to, but not quite the same as their mother’s. As they mature, these baby universes in turn sprout further universes, and so on (see Fig. 2). Our Universe could be ‘naturally selected’, in the sense that its physical laws support life, where the laws of its cousins do not. A similar notion arises in Leonard Susskind’s string theory ‘landscape’ in which some 10500 different sets of physical laws, each equally likely a priori, vie to construct the Universe we see today. Finally, Max Tegmark and I (ref. 16) have speculated that the Universe is generating all possible self-consistent information-processing structures. If this is so, quantum mechanics itself, with all its weirdness, might have been naturally selected out of other potential bases for physical law for the simple reason that, as we have seen, quantum mechanics has much to offer to life.
Historical science: Mark Buchanan wrote a thesis in the special issue about Darwin’s use of history in science.4 It began with Lyell, he said, who brought in the notion of gradual change over long periods of time. “But if Lyell brought history into science, Darwin pushed it further, introducing the notion that everything in biology that exists does so, in some sense, by chance, as a result of accidents that left ineradicable marks on the future.” Contingency, he acknowledged, seems the opposite of laws that science describes. Yet much of what science works with is contingency. “Darwin gave science a way to proceed in this setting by identifying underlying historical processes – algorithms, if you will – which may be simple in outline, yet lead to consequences of surprising complexity.” His next paragraph admitted that Darwin, despite the title of his famous book, never provided evidence for the origin of species:
There is, indeed, little simplicity in biology. To take one example, Darwin never managed to explain the creation of new species, focusing rather on the gradual phenotypic change of existing species – the lengthening of beaks, or the changing of colours. Today, it’s increasingly clear that speciation probably takes place through a variety of mechanisms, such as so-called allopatric speciation, driven by the division of populations into geographically isolated sub-populations, which may then evolve divergently with time. But experiments and theory over the past two decades suggest that speciation may also take place without geographical isolation, through the ordinary dynamics of evolution.
Buchanan did not explain the apparent circularity of this last statement: can one invoke “ordinary dynamics of evolution” to prove evolution? Next, he mentioned a recent hypothesis that speciation acts like a phase transition (here’s a tie-in with physics). As with a phase transition (like liquid water freezing into ice), small change in circumstances of a bird population can cause a rapid change in optimality that produces a big result in the population. Yet that seems an argument by analogy. “Even so, it seems to me fair to place with Darwin – although Lyell and whoever inspired him deserve credit as well � the very beginnings of the appreciation that complex phenomena can emerge from relatively simple dynamical origins, a notion that resonates strongly with much of modern physics.” This, he indicated, resembles chaos theory:
Today we are all influenced by this thinking and find it hard to see how revolutionary it was initially. In physics we’re used to models in which accidents count and accumulate and end up driving outcomes – models of self-organized criticality, applied in contexts ranging from earthquake dynamics to mass extinctions, models for fracture dynamics, erosion or deposition, crystallization and so on. If the timeless laws of classical physics and quantum mechanics attempt to wipe history away, or at least demote it to secondary status, processes based on evolution – in a general sense – focus on the accidental and how it gets locked into place. This is part of the broad legacy of Charles Darwin, even if it has little to do with biology.
As a metaphor for what Darwin accomplished, he invoked Sewall Wright’s notion of the “fitness landscape” (Buchanan likes the word “notion” – he used it four times in his short essay; see 10/14/2008 commentary). According to Wright’s metaphor, populations can be pushed by natural selection onto local fitness peaks and get stuck there – unable to cross the lower-fitness basins to a higher peak. Similarly, Darwin pushed humanity off its comfortable “fitness peak” because he saw a distant, higher peak far away. “This inevitably means traversing a valley of low ‘fitness’ in between, which includes the usual ridicule and opposition facing all those with disruptive ideas which inevitably start out ill- and incompletely formed,” he ended. “We owe the greatest scientific discoveries to those who shoulder such risks, of whom Darwin himself may be the greatest example.”
Buchanan did not clarify whether he thinks mankind ever reached said higher peak. One can only wonder what he would think if intelligent design proponents were to apply the same metaphor to themselves: suffering ridicule and opposition from the Darwinist majority while traveling toward their “vision of another, higher peak far away.” Whose measurement criteria should prevail: those of the majority, or of the brave minority or individual? Darwin was in a minority when he struck out across the landscape, but now the scientific institutions strongly oppose the minority of intelligent design scientists who would wish to follow their vision. He seems right about one thing: we need a “sense of history.”
Cause for celebration: Dan Csontos reviewed the Darwin celebrations taking place around the world.5 Down House, Cambridge, London – these all received glowing descriptions. The “tree of life” sketch from the Origin, “perhaps the perfect encapsulation of Darwin’s big idea,” adorned the short article, but precious little was said about physics. (For the scientific status of Darwin’s “tree of life,” see the 01/22/2009, 01/28/2009, and 01/23/2009 entries.)
Origin reviewed: Patrick Goymer, 150 years after the publication of Darwin’s Origin, decided to review the venerated book.6 “It’s probably the most famous scientific book ever written, but is On the Origin of Species worth reading if you are not an evolutionary biologist or a historian of science?,” he asked. Indeed it is, he argued. He surveyed the major themes in the book – none of which have to do with physics – as useful to the educated lay reader, even if built on the science of his time (Malthus and Lyell providing “essential foundations”). Darwin’s handling of possible objections to his theory (“this is falsifiable science,” Goymer said), including the evolution of the eye and gaps in the fossil record, “are handy reference for any scientist who might encounter creationism.” He ended by recommending two physics-informed books on evolution – What Is Life? by Erwin Schroedinger, and Quantum Aspects of Life by Paul Davies. That’s about the only tie-in he provided with physics.
Quantum Darwin: The most detailed tie-in of Darwin with physics was a “Progress Article” by Wojciech Hubert Zurek entitled, “Quantum Darwin.”7 Here a physicist can feel at home: the article is adorned with the equations of mathematical physics and quantum mechanics. Zurek applied natural selection to the outcomes of quantum states. The discussion, though, is as much philosophical as mathematical. Sparing the reader the math, here’s a sample:
Selection of the set of outcomes by the proliferation of information essential for quantum Darwinism parallels Bohr’s insistence that a ‘classical apparatus’ should determine the outcomes. However, it follows from the purely quantum equation, and is caused by a unitary evolution responsible for the information transfer. Nevertheless, as classical apparatus would, preferred pointer states designate possible future outcomes. This precludes measurements of complementary observables and makes it impossible to find out the pre-existing state of the system. Thus, information acquisition—a copying process—results in preferred states.….
There was nothing non-unitary above– unitarity was the crux of our argument, and orthogonality of branch seeds our main result. The relative states of Everett come to mind. One could speculate about the reality of branches with other outcomes. We abstain from this—our discussion is interpretation free, and this is a virtue. Indeed, the ‘reality’ or ‘existence’ of a universal state vector seems problematic. Quantum states acquire objective existence when reproduced in many copies. Individual states—one might say with Bohr—are mostly information, too fragile for objective existence. And there is only one copy of the Universe. Treating its state as if it really existed seems unwarranted and ‘classical’.
If this seems to beg questions about knowledge of information and existence, it does. Nevertheless, Zurek invoked all the Darwinian ideas – struggle for existence, contingency, variation, favoured races and natural selection in his discussion of “quantum Darwinism.” This was the longest article in the series. It had the most mathematical rigor. Yet, in the end, it ended with questions. Zurek raised possibilities that could render his entire discussion self-refuting. What is information, if its history can be overwritten? Could that mean that there is no way to know Zurek’s treatise itself contains reliable information?
We have seen how quantum Darwinism accounts for the transition from quantum fragility (of information) to the effectively classical robustness. One can think of this transition as ‘the it from bit’ of John Wheeler.
In the end, one might ask: how Darwinian is quantum Darwinism? Clearly, there is survival of the fittest, and fitness is defined as in natural selection—through the ability to procreate. The no-cloning theorem implies competition for resources…so that only pointer states can multiply (at the expense of their complementary competition). There is also another aspect of this competition: the huge memory available in the Universe as a whole is nevertheless limited. So, the question arises: what systems get to be ‘of interest’, and imprint their state on their obliging environments, and what are the environments? Moreover, as the Universe has a finite memory, old events will eventually be ‘overwritten’ by new ones, so that some of the past will gradually cease to be reflected in the present record. And if there is no record of an event, has it really happened? These questions seem far more interesting than deciding the closeness of the analogy with natural selection. They suggest one more question: is quantum Darwinism (a process of multiplication of information about certain favoured states that seems to be a ‘fact of quantum life’) in some way behind the familiar natural selection? I cannot answer this question, but neither can I resist raising it.
1. Editorial, “What’s the big idea,” Nature Physics 5, 161 (2009) doi:10.1038/nphys1206.
2. Michael Shermer, “A noble conception,” Nature Physics 5, 162 – 163 (2009) doi:10.1038/nphys1207.
3. Seth Lloyd, “A quantum of natural selection,” Nature Physics 5, 164 – 166 (2009) doi:10.1038/nphys1208.
4. Mark Buchanan, “A sense of history,” Nature Physics 5, 167 (2009) doi:10.1038/nphys1209.
5. Dan Csontos, “Anniversary: Cause for celebration,” Nature Physics 5, 170 (2009) doi:10.1038/nphys1211.
6. Patrick Goymer, “Modern classic,” Nature Physics 5, 169 – 170 (2009) doi:10.1038/nphys1210.
7. Wojciech Hubert Zurek, “Quantum Darwin,” Nature Physics 5, 181 – 188 (2009) Published online: 2 March 2009 | doi:10.1038/nphys1202.
Making Darwin the god of physics demonstrates once for all that the Darwiniacs have turned evolutionism into a religion. You need no more proof than to read these articles. Darwin’s theory of natural selection has been turned into a meta-law exalted above all meta-laws, such that it governs the fictional multiverse and steers the formation of universes toward evolving fools who will believe such things.
There’s a logical fallacy to which mortals often succumb, called “begging the question.” It’s a form of circular reasoning that fails to deliver on a promised explanation. Usually, the responder distracts attention from the main question by answering some other question, leaving the original question sitting there, begging for an answer. For example, let’s say Joe asks Moe how he knows the future will be like the past. Moe responds cheerfully that it has always been so. He proudly thinks he has provided empirical evidence that the future will be like the past, till Joe points out that he didn’t ask how the past turned out to be like the past; he wants to know how the future will be like the past. A little reflection reveals the fallacious nature of Moe’s logic. One cannot appeal to past evidence to explain the future.
Nor does it help if Moe hedges his explanation with probability, claiming that “very probably” the future will be like the past. Joe asks why. Moe says, “Well, because it has always worked out that way.” Once again he has appealed to past explanations as evidence for the future, leaving the original question begging. Lest one think this is silly semantic quibbling, it is part of a major philosophical problem – the problem of induction – that David Hume and others have used to challenge the pretensions of the self-proclaimed wise among us. Bertrand Russell used a humorous illustration to point out the flaw of assuming the future will be like the past. Imagine a chicken that learns to associate the appearance of the farmer at 6:00 in the morning with feed on the ground. Every morning, day after day, the chicken experiences the sight of the farmer with feed. 6:00 a.m.: farmer, feed. Next morning: farmer, feed. This continues for years. It becomes like a law of nature to the chicken. The chicken has every reason to assume the future will be like the past, till one morning, the farmer shows up with an axe. Similarly, we humans sing with Little Orphan Annie that the sun will come up tomorrow, and bet our bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun, but we cannot know whether the Rapture will occur or a meteor will wipe out the planet or the sun will go supernova, or any other of a number of unknown eventualities will spoil the pattern to which our experience has made us accustomed. Scientists cannot even prove the laws of nature will be the same tomorrow. Yet science relies on assuming they will. Bible believers have a solution to the riddle of induction. They believe the word of God (as in Genesis 8:22) that because the Creator is orderly and truthful, we can trust His word that the future will be like the past (subject to His promises), because He is the Lawgiver who set up the laws. This “precondition for intelligibility,” as philosopher Greg Bahnsen called it, allows us to do science. The materialist, however, has no such foundation for induction. Scientists are supposed to demonstrate things, not assume them. But without assuming the validity of induction and the reliability of the laws of logic, they have no grounds for making sense of the world. Moe responds, “well, they are doing science without worrying about this.” True, Joe says; they are “helping themselves” to assumptions from the Christian worldview, assumptions they cannot justify from their own premises. If Joe were really merciless, he could explain that they make good use of these assumptions because, as rational creatures made in the image of God, they have the law of God written on their consciences (Romans 2:14-15). In a sense, they are using God’s BiOS (Bible input-output system) to boot up a faulty operating system and run junk programs.
Look at the papers from Nature Physics above and go hunting for begged questions. The hunting field is rich with game. One example is the presumption that natural selection has creative power. The authors all simply assumed that Darwin’s Supreme Law of Nature could generate eyes, livers, lungs, wings and minds from matter, simply because Darwin seemed to demonstrate variation among pigeons, mockingbirds, sheep and plants. The Darwinians extrapolate horizontal motion into vertical motion. Another is Lloyd’s silly analogy between baby animals and baby universes on which natural selection can act. Another is assuming that laws of nature can emerge by natural selection. Another is assuming similarities prove ancestry. And another is assuming natural selection conveys any meaning at all. Zurek repeated the tautology that “fitness is defined as in natural selection—through the ability to procreate.” Once defined by its outcome, natural selection reduces to “survivors survive.” How do you know they are fit? Because they had the ability to procreate; i.e., their progeny survived. Why did their progeny survive? Obviously, because they were the fittest. Without an independent measure of fitness, the statement conveys no information. It’s simply a restatement of the obvious: one equals one, boys will be boys, a rose is a rose, and survivors survive.
In fact, the question-begging goes further. By appealing to an undirected, purposeless process, they reduced natural selection to the Stuff Happens Law. The mutation component of neo-Darwinism clearly has no direction or goal – it is all chance. The natural selection part, similarly, cannot be personified into an intelligent Selector. Natural selection is incapable of foresight – indeed of any sight at all. Contrary to Darwin’s characterization of his law as something that is “daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good,” natural selection is not a person. It can only react to the immediate circumstances. It cannot foresee that an eye or a wing or brain would be beneficial, and even if it did, it would convey no sense of value on it since, as we just explained, fitness is a meaningless metric. No part of the theory, therefore, is anchored in any factor that is necessary or normative. It wobbles like a dust particle undergoing Brownian motion. In short, Stuff Happens. How explanatory is that? One might try to boast that the Stuff Happens Law is scientific because it makes predictions (stuff will happen) and is falsifiable (if nothing happens, the law is disproved) and produces corollaries (e.g., Murphy’s Law; see 09/15/2008 commentary), but its explanatory power is nil. Since it can accommodate contradictory outcomes (i.e., some planets produce life but others don’t, or some bacteria produce humans but others undergo no change at all for 2.6 billion years) it explains nothing. Opposite stuff happens as probably as ordinary stuff. Buchanan calls this an algorithm. If this is an algorithm, then earthquakes are architects.
Re-read the papers above with this in mind. Is it not true that they are wallowing in a fantasyland of their own making, begging questions left and right? They attribute the beauty, order and design of the universe and life to Stuff Happens. They help themselves to concepts like law, information, and virtue from the Christian smorgasbord – items that cannot be derived from their materialistic presuppositions. They exalt the imagination of their own hearts (01/17/2007), extending the speculations of a biologist into speculations about physics and cosmology and imaginary worlds beyond observation. Having assumed the supremacy of the Law of Natural Selection (aka the Stuff Happens Law), they fall into religious ecstasy, worshipping its founder, celebrating his apotheosis, and glorying in his sacred scripture. They spread Savior Charlie’s Gospel of Stuff Happens to every realm, from the behavior of quantum particles to the operation of a mythical multiverse.
Their rhetoric consists primarily of bald assertions of dogmatism (b.a.d.). They’re b.a.d., and like Michael Jackson, they brag about it. Michael Shermer boasts that it is no longer the job of religion to explain the natural world. “That is what science does, and it does so spectacularly.” Remember that the word spectacular can apply to failures (see Wired.com).
Tags: Darwin
Categories: Physics
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Le Jacques Cartier, Treasures of the Persian Gulf ex Muscat to Dubai
8 Night cruise departing from Muscat to Dubai onboard Le Jacques Cartier.
Departure: 22 Jan 2021
From: Muscat, Oman
Cruise line: Ponant
Cruise Ship: Le Jacques Cartier
22/01/2021 Muscat, Oman 11:00 PM
23/01/2021 Sur, Oman
24/01/2021 Khasab, Oman
25/01/2021 Doha,Qatar overnight
26/01/2021 Doha,Qatar
27/01/2021 Sir Bani Yas, UAE
28/01/2021 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
29/01/2021 Dubai, United Arab Emirates overnight
30/01/2021 Dubai, United Arab Emirates
In partnership with the Louvre, with the presence on board of Yannick Lintz, curator and director of the department of Islamic Arts.
PONANT invites you on an all-new 9-day cruise between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, departing from Muscat. Come aboard Le Jacques-Cartier, and set off to discover the treasures of the desert of the Arabian Peninsula.
In the charming port of Sour, on the far south of the peninsula, you will discover maritime traditions that date back a thousand years. Today, they still build dhows there. These are the typical boats that were used to transport goods on the spice route.
Le Jacques-Cartier will then drop anchor in Khasab, the gateway to the sublime “fjords of Arabia” that you will be able to explore aboard a traditional boat, before setting sail for Doha, in Qatar. In this city blending tradition and modernity, next to the most recent skyscrapers, you will discover a superb museum home to treasures of Islamic art, and the sparkling colours of the Waqif souk which brings the heart of the old town to life.
You will then stop off at the nature reserve of the island of Sir Bani Yas, a veritable wildlife sanctuary.
Your ship will take you towards Abu Dhabi, the booming capital of the United Arab Emirates. You will be able to make the most of this day to visit the fantastic new Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum and the Grand Mosque, one of the largest in the world.
Finally, you will reach fascinating and futuristic Dubai, the kingdom of excessiveness, the end of your cruise.
Unlike neighbouring metropolises, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman has chosen to ban towers and skyscrapers and to cultivate the peninsula’s traditional and refined architectural style: low houses, domes, moucharaby windows, and wooden balconies. This authenticity adds to the charm of this small former maritime city protected by mountains and the forts constructed by the Portuguese in the 16th century. There is no doubt that you will fall under the charm of the treasures of Omani craftsmanship: the souk in the old district of Mutrah is a perfect example of this, as is the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, reputed to have the world’s largest hand-made carpets.
On the banks of the Persian Gulf, discover Doha, the capital of Qatar. Rising out of the desert, the city has managed to maintain its traditions in spite of a frantic race for modernity. The cliff bordering Doha Bay has magnificent views over the city centre’s enormous constructions. The silhouette of the Museum of Islamic Art rises up near the quays, where the region’s typical sailboats, known as dhows, are docked. This “fortress”, designed by Ming Pei, the architect of the Louvre pyramid, is home to the finest collections of Islamic art in the world. Not far, the lively district of Souq Waqif and its colourful stalls are also an unmissable visit.
The political capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi stands out thanks to its exceptional cultural offering. In the Saadiyat Island district, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by Jean Nouvel as a museum town inspired by traditional Arab architecture, creates a dialogue between objects and works from civilisations from all over the world around the great universal questions. A little further, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque boasts a sumptuous decor of marble, gold and glass. Abu Dhabi is also the gateway to the Al Ain oasis and its 150,000 date palms, a remarkable testimony to the settling of nomads in the region since Neolithic times, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vertiginous, excessive, immoderate… Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, stands out for its architectural follies. Home to the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Kahlifa, with a total height of 828 metres, almost three times that of the Eiffel Tower, the city is also famous for the gigantic scale of the Palm Islands, its artificial islands in the form of a palm tree. You can explore more traditional districts not far away, with visits of the souks of Deira or the Gold Souk. Or perhaps you would prefer to discover Dubai Museum: located in an 18th-century fort, it tells the city’s history from Antiquity to the present day.
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Islamic Rioters Chant: “Obama! Obama! We Love Obama!”
Islamic Rioters Chant: “Obama, Obama, We Love Obama!”
The following is a video is of a violent riot by Islamic immigrants in Sydney Australia. They appeared to be beyond control and they beat at least two police officers bloody and senseless.
If you doubt the accuracy of this title, be sure to listen carefully, particularly near the end of the video.
I call this and all other similar examples, cultural suicide by Islam.
I will also call the our last two Presidential terms America’s suicide by Obama.
I defy you to argue otherwise.
Thanks to Lee Hornack for sending this video to me.
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialBritainFirst/videos/870403776438218/
V. Thomas Mawhinney, 2/28/16
Tags:America's Suicide by Obama, Cultural SuicIde by Islam, Islamic Rioters Chant: We Love Obama!, Lee Hornack, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM
“The Brit” Explains Trumpophilia: Its Really American Truthophilia!
“The Brit” will give many more truth than they can stomach. But, just hang-in there and watch this short video.
The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable!
P.S., Thanks to Joe Grunert for sending this video to me.
Tags:"The Brit" Explains Trumpophilia, Progressiive betrayal, Progressive Debauchery, Progressive Lies, Progressive Treason, Trumpophelia Is Really Truthophilia!, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM
Rush Limbaugh: On Getting Along With Liberals
Yes, Rush can be bombastic, but he is seldom inaccurate.What he said on yesterday’s radio show is so important that Drudge placed his entire manuscript on his Drudge report.
I have only selected a portion of his transcript because it is too long to present here.
But this major quotation of Rush interacting with a caller is essential for America to understand and to believe.
I will tell you that what he says is the unvarnished truth and I urge to to send it to everone who you know.
The following is a direct quote and it is long. However, it is very important that you take time to read it…and then vote to defend America from liberalism’s effort to destroy our way of life.
CALLER: Well, you said a lot, and if I’m going to be completely honest — because I think that’s what we all need to be at this stage of the game — I was not aware of the entire Gang of Eight bill. I did not know details and how you explained them and the votes that Mario (sic) and the Gang took. But I will say this, Rush. We are on a precipice, and we have got to face reality. And as you’ve mentioned and said on your program many times, there is no perfect candidate. In this election, we need somebody who can bring this country together and not divide it like the current candidates are. And I’m speaking of Donald Trump. I feel like he’s exploiting the American people and their anger. I’m angry, too, but —
RUSH: May I interrupt you here for a second? And don’t worry, you’ll have your time. But I’ve gotta stop you on something.
CALLER: Yes?
RUSH: This whole notion of working together, bringing the country together? We’re way past that. We’re never… We’re not gonna unify with the liberal Democrats. We’re not. There’s no candidate out there that can forge a kumbaya. These people have to be defeated, Pam.
CALLER: Do you not…?
RUSH: They have to be defeated. There’s no unity here. There never, really, has been in this country, anyway. It’s always been a contest for leadership.
CALLER: Well, let me ask you this question. Do you truly believe — truly (giggles), with every ounce, every fiber in your being — that we can truly defeat the mind-set that is now occurring in our country? Do you not think that we have kind of crossed a line now where we’re going to have to find a candidate that…? I’m as conservative as you’re going to get, and I understand now that I have to be realistic with who I think can actually win and defeat Hillary Clinton in November.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: You even shared a while back the candidates now, if you would get Kasich out, if you would get Carson out, if you would get one of those out, those votes most likely, they’re negatives of Donald Trump, surpass his… his —
RUSH: No, other people are saying that. I haven’t.
CALLER: But you were reciting polls or whatever.
RUSH: Right. Right. Nobody knows. We do have a preliminary indication that some Jeb Bush voters are going to Trump. But there’s not enough days that have gone by for that to be known. I’ve gotta ask you to hold on. We’ll continue the conversation here, Pam, after the bottom-of-the-hour break here, ’cause this is important. This whole business of… There’s two things I want to tackle with you here. Don’t go away.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH; Now back to Pam in Brentwood, Tennessee.
CALLER: Hi there.
RUSH: Now, two things. I want to be understood on this. You said that we need to have somebody bring the country together, and a lot of people talk about bringing the country together, unifying us, making factions of people who disagree somehow come together. I don’t think that that’s gonna happen. We’re too divided. And they are not interested in it, Pam. The people on the left, they don’t want to reach common ground with us. We are gnats to them, or worse. We are the Gestapo to them. We’re Nazis to them. We are standing in the way of whatever they want.
These people have to be defeated. They have to be overwhelmed. And then after they’re defeated they cannot be allowed to bully whoever wins into cowardice and caving in. It’s going to be tough. Winning an election is just a tiny first step. After we win the election, it’s gonna take perseverance to prevail over all the attempts to subvert the winners of the election and to corrupt what’s going on, knowing they still own a lot of the bureaucracy.
But if you believe in a certain cultural America, it’s under siege. There’s nothing to join with on the other side in preserving it. They want to tear it down, transform it, and rebuild it. They have to be defeated. This is why the Republican Party’s worthless. They don’t even think this way.
The Republican Party’s thinking about showing they can work together, they can cooperate, make Washington work. Sorry; we’re so past that, we’re so far past that, it’s irrelevant. We’re talking about holding on and preserving the country as founded. And it’s gonna be really, really hard.
The second thing is, “Rush,” — and this is not just you — “Rush, we can’t deport 12 million people. We’re never gonna –” Who says? All that is is a conversation stopper. We are the United States of America. Who says we can’t get rid of people who are here illegally? It’s not a question of we can’t. It’s a question of do we have the resolve to? Do we have the desire to? Does it makes sense to do it? Are we gonna do it — and, believe me, even if we win on this, the people opposing it are gonna be firing ammo at whoever wins like you can’t believe.
But if we’re serious about stopping this transformation of America, it isn’t gonna be easy, and winning an election is not gonna send a signal to the other side to stand down, you lost. They don’t look at it that way. This is a fight between socialism and capitalism, freedom versus tyranny, however you want to categorize. There isn’t any overlap. The only things that we may have in common with them are what people want for their families. But we can’t even agree on the definition of a family with half of these people. So I don’t think all the putting our hands together and coming together and unifying and working and making the country come together and common ground, we’re so far past that, if we’re serious about what we want.
CALLER: And I didn’t mean to be touchy-feely when I was referring to that. I think there’s a way you can unify people. Well, we know there is, because his name was Ronald Reagan. And I feel like we have been given a gift, the Republican, the conservative movement, whatever you want to call it, we’ve been given two gifts, and they are Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. And if this is not the time where we can bring a candidate who has those qualities as much as we can look for them in a candidate on our side right now to win this election, I believe we will start seeing a shift in tone and we will start converting minds. Listen, I was at Mario’s rally in Franklin, Tennessee, this past weekend.
RUSH: Hm-hm.
CALLER: And there were supposedly going to just be a thousand people, and they had to open it into the parking lot. There was around five to six thousand people. That was their estimate. He was the closest thing that I have ever experienced to Ronald Reagan in my entire adult life. I just feel like that argument that we can’t start bringing people to our side, in quotation marks, is not valid right now because we are now in a great position because there are so —
RUSH: Look, I’m not even making this about Rubio or any candidate right now, but you’re making my point. You’re citing the eighties and Reagan, and you mean his landslide victories as bringing people together. Well, then why aren’t we still together? What the hell happened? Two landslides. We had the greatest economy the country’s known in our lifetimes. We had low unemployment. We had burgeoning job growth. We had individual and personal wealth that was going like crazy. We brought down the Soviet Union. Why are we still not unified? How did the left tear that down? ‘Cause they sure did.
Because even when Reagan was bringing everybody together, they didn’t stop. The Democrats in Congress were aligning with Soviet communist client states in central America and Grenada and wherever else they could find to undermine Ronald Reagan. Teddy Kennedy was going to the Soviet Union and telling Soviet leaders: do not fall for anything Reagan does for you, Reagan is a trick, Reagan is a bad actor, whatever.
They were doing everything they could to undermine Reagan during his entire eight years. They hated Reagan as much, if not more so, than they hated George Bush, because Reagan was more successful than George W. Bush. It was brutal. It was vicious. And if the country had been brought together, and if the country during those eight years had actually learned that it was conservatism and Reaganism that led to all of that bounty and the end of the Soviet Union, the Democrats would have never stood a chance. They would have been ended.
But it was just four short years later and here comes Bill and Hillary Clinton. And why? Because the next president got rid of Reaganism. The next president started making deals with the Democrats to show that we can do deals, to show that we’re nice guys, to show that we can get along. My point is, we had the greatest economic circumstances in our lifetimes and the Democrats were not interested, Pam. They didn’t want to participate, because it left them out of power.
It’s not about a great country to them. It’s not about the American people doing the best they can do for themselves. That’s actually bad news for the Democrat Party, because all that means is people don’t need government, people don’t need the Democrats, people don’t want them, they’re not dependent. Bad, bad news. Can’t have that. Why do you think Ted Kennedy decided to reinstitute amnesty and illegal immigration during Reagan’s second term? They had to undermine it somehow. And we went along with it because we accepted a promise that we would secure the border and those three million in 1986 would be it. And here we are talking 12 million, which I think is probably closer to 15 or 20 million.
In the midst of abundance, in the midst of economic prosperity like we hadn’t known since the postwar boom, the Democrat Party was trying to tear it down and succeeded. There isn’t a Jesus Christ running that’s gonna unify everybody. And I hate to say it, Jesus Christ didn’t, either. Unity is one of these things that sounds wonderful, sororities love it, fraternities pretend to love it so they can get inside the sororities, but it’s nothing more than a dream. This is a world governed by the aggressive use of power, the aggressive use of force, and if you want to maintain both, you have to fight for it each and every day. It’s never permanently won. You never permanently convert people.
Even average, ordinary Americans who ended up having economic prosperity they’d never known in the 1980s, were talked out of it. In four short years, they were convinced it was phony. They were convinced it was a party that we didn’t deserve, and we ran up all these deficits (which was a lie), and we had to now start paying it back. Sam Donaldson at ABC News said, “We’ve got a big credit card bill, folks, because of the Reagan eighties and we gotta pay it back.” BS! That’s what we’ve got now! The deficit was coming down with Reagan!
The national debt was stagnant. It wasn’t growing under Reagan. Well, it was, but the deficits eventually were brought under control. And in 1994 we actually balanced a budget for the first time in my lifetime. All that’s gone, because we have not had a Republican Party that accepts conservatism and fights for it and preserves victories when we get them! So every day… Do you ever notice what we talk about? We talk about stopping things. Every Republican think tank, every conservative media whatever, organization — including this show — every day is devoted to how do we stop them?
We don’t have time to get around to what we want to advance. We’re too busy stopping. They’re not talking about stopping anything. They’re on the march! They’re on the march and succeeding with things that ten years ago you would have never thought would ever happen. Gay marriage? Today in a lot of cities, you can walk into any bathroom you want claiming you’re a “transgender” and you decide to present female that day, so you walk into the ladies’ restroom. That’s becoming a matter of law.
Ten years ago you’d have been laughed out of this country if you’d have thought that would ever happen. They are not stopping anything, except us. But they’re on the march advancing each and every day. We talk about stopping things. Now, you can correlate all this to the current presidential race, and maybe answer some questions you have about why and how people are doing, not doing well, doing poorly or what have you.
Because the American people, I’ve just described how they feel about all this. Mine is the most common view. Everything I just said is what a majority of conservative-oriented, cultural Americans believe. They’re scared to death over this! They’re frustrated; they’re ticked off; they’re angry. They want to do more than just stop something every day. They’re tired of being overrun. They’re tired of not having allies in the centers of power where this stuff can be stopped. It’s not hard to understand.
But it is.
Because once you accept the task at hand and what has to happen, winning the election, that’s equivalent being born, and we’re an infant, and we’ve got people coming at us that are gonna try to wipe us out and eliminate everything and pretend it didn’t happen, corrupt, sabotage, undermine. Whoever the next president is, and whoever’s running the next Congress, and whoever nominates the Supreme Court justice, if it’s a conservative, you have no idea what’s gonna be brought to bear!
We’re gonna need people with such backbone and guts and steel and iron to hold up and to withstand what’s gonna come at ’em, you can’t even imagine it. But it’s what’s gonna happen. So it’s all of that that informs me each and every day here, folks, as to what happens on this program, analyzing what’s going on out there. This is for keeps! This isn’t about unifying, getting along. They’re not interested in it — and what do you want to get along with ’em over? What about their agenda do you want to embrace?
End Quote:
V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D. 2/24/16
Tags:Limbaugh: On Getting Along With Liberals, Rush Limbaugh, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM, Why America Should Hate Liberalism
Why America Should Hate Liberalism #5
A dear friend and fellow patriot, Karen Kuiper, commented about my series, Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism.
I interpreted her remarks to indicate her bewilderment about how Liberals could be so stupid as to consistently pass laws, or ignore laws, that make matters worse for America’s citizens and speed our decline as an international power.
My research into the workings of liberal philosophies and practices, the world around, has led me to a simple conclusion.
Once liberalism gains control of a political system, a political and socioeconomic system must be driven into destruction before a significant proportion of the affected citizens will rise-up and put an end to Liberalism’s pathologically destructive hegemony.
Control, or better put, the counter-controls against liberalism remain the ultimate challenge. It was once thought that America’s unique and masterfully designed Constitution was enough, but liberalism has found ways to defeat even that.
We shall now see about the matter of Control.
I fear this national election could be the tipping-point to a fast slide into a long American nightmare.
The following was my answer to my friend, Karen.
The simple reason why Liberalism consistently does self-defeating things was also hard for me to understand.
But, everything will “click into place”, cognitively, as soon as we change our perspective on Liberalism’s guiding motives.
Very simply put, Liberals are driven to increase their power. They are generally pathologically selfish and irresponsible. They do not care about America’s future, or that of its citizens.They say they do because it is what the public wants to hear and it helps them win elections.
Liberals care only about their own growing high status and the growth of their political power. It is in their best interests that the culture deteriorate to a hellish state.
In this way liberals have criminals, poor ignorant illegal aliens, drug addicts, single mothers in poverty with children, pregnant teens, sex addicts, gambling addicts, drug addicts, and bankrupt/broken businessmen, etc., who will vote for them in order to get more free medicine, housing, food, phones, electricity, health care, and so-on.
This is the unhappy conclusion that I have been forced to by the consistent world-wide evidence.
Do not listen to what the liberals say…just watch what they do and pay attention to how it benefits them in their mad quest for political power and permanent membership in America’s ruling class.
P.S. I challenge anyone to debate these perceptions with me.
Tags:Karen Kuiper, Liberalism: America's Long Nightmare, Liberalism: Pathological Selfishness and Irresponsibility, Liberasism: Buying Votes With Working-Class Money, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM, Why America Should Hate Liberalism #5
Posted in Boiling the American Frog | 1 Comment »
Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism #4
The following are a series of ideas and paraphrases taken from Micheal Martin’s excellent book; Liberalism: The Demise of America.
Liberals hope to construct utopias by planning and designing socialist or communist states and embracing the idea of a transnational government. The many failures of socialist and communist states are well documented (Russia, China, North Korea, and much of Latin America, for examples). To the extent that any such states have recovered from their socialist/communist disasters, they have implemented important components of free market enterprises.
Regarding Transnational States, The history of gross failure of both the League of Nations and its successor, The United Nations are illustrative of the old saying: “Too many chefs spoil the brew.” This is particularly true when a large number of the chefs are socialist and communist nations.
Liberals systematically increase state control over citizen’s behavior. They do this through the control of education, the popular media, the news media, and though increasing restrictions on citizen’s speech via political correctness. The weakening of religious influences over population behavior is also a major goal of Liberals.
American Liberalism is also destroying, capitalism, families, Constitutional governance, law, moral values, and the incentives/work/vigor and the independence of individuals.
Liberals destroy economies trough reckless spending and massive debt. This is an age-old trick of dispensing governmental entitlements, and redistributing the taxed wealth of productive citizens. This is done in order to win political support from a growing population of unemployed, irresponsible and dependent citizens who then become “a captured” voting block for liberal candidates. This selfish and irresponsible political strategy strengthens liberal political parties in the short-run, but reliably destroys entire sococultures in the long-run.
Liberal philosophy, like communist philosophy, believes that only “superior” leaders (i.e., a liberal ruling class) can effectively plan and execute environmental, social, and other cultural outcomes. They believe that they can shape the will and motivations of the population in ways superior to spontaneous social and free market economic forces. They are pathologically narcissistic in their beliefs of personal and group superiority and they are sociopathic in their willingness to lie, cheat, steal and propagandize in an attempt to achieve their goals.
Tags:Liberalism Destroys Nations, Liberals Destroy Economies, Liberals Destroy Families, Liberals Destroy Independence, Liberals Destroy Productivity, Liberals Destroy Religion, Liberals Lie, Micheal Martin, Ph.D., V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM, Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism #4
The following is a direct quote from Dr. Michael G. Martin’s book: Liberalism: The Demise of America .
Not only will it be well worth your time to read and think about these two paragraphs: It is your patriotic duty to do so.
America’s future hangs in the balance of a general understanding of the following perceptions of reality.
Liberals want to change society so that there are no longer losers, malcontents, or the irresponsible. It is strange that the policies they tout involve perverse incentives, so these bad behaviors are actually promoted and incentivized. This applies to drug addiction, hard work, sexual responsibility, and the like. Liberals think compassion will change everything. They believe people are malleable and plastic, susceptible to change—but even if this were true, it must be accomplished though the proper incentives and social and economic context. They appear to be behaviorists, but yet they are employing perverse incentives to get change. This is a puzzle that defies comprehension.
It’s interesting that liberals believe they can change society and the nature of individuals when they don’t believe in individual responsibility or accountability for individuals. They see the life of the individual as being largely deterministic. That is to say, their behavior is shaped by social and environmental forces beyond their control. If an individual can’t affect his own life, how can liberals argue that they can change the nature of society and individuals? On the scale of the collective, then, they are basically acknowledging that they escape the thrall of determinism.
Perhaps the explanation is that they believe the common man is too stupid to affect his life, but that the elite—the smart people—can basically re-engineer not only themselves, the society, and the very nature of human beings themselves. Liberals are saying in effect, then, that the common man—really the stupid people—is totally malleable. He can be made into anything the liberal elite want, good or bad. There are strong assumptions here about not only human nature, but the influence of other unseen and not-understood forces that shape human behavior, as well as the ability of the liberal elite to engineer the wrenching change that they desire.
Kindle pages 261 and 262.
I am a behavioral psychologist and a great admirer of B. F. Skinner, perhaps the greatest psychologist of the 20th century.
Skinner and other behaviorists rightfully ascribe great power to the environment to shape the behavior patterns of humans and other animals. Furthermore, Skinner, as well as many behaviorists acknowledge the strength of genetic determinants upon human psychological adaptations as they interact and are influenced, in very complex ways, by a plethora of environmental influences.
It is important for Americans to understand that is no “free will”, in the sense that humans are totally free from genetic and environmental influences.
No population can escape the influences of their genetics, social and physical environments. The best that can be done, in my judgment, is to educate citizens about the scientific principles of these influences and also teach them to come under the control of the imperatives of survival for their own society, their own loved ones who will outlive them and their loved-ones who are yet to be born.
This bright future will require that Americans relearn the advantages of forsaking immediate gratifications in favor of highly beneficial long-term outcomes. It will also require that we again venerate and teach the compliance with rules of living and conduct that insure such future benefits.
My reading of American and World History has led me to conclude that the “Wisdom of the Ages” resides in the Judeo/Christian precepts and values for personal conduct that once helped make America great. The same can be said of other compatible religions of the world.
The teaching of, and compliance to, these precious guides for life are powerfully augmented when a society encourages the belief in a Higher Power than that of the self-destructive philosophy of secular humanism forms the basis of liberalism, progressivism, socialism and communism.
Only then we can we hope that our Constitutional Republic might endure thorough our representative democratic political process and citizen voter counter-controls on governmental actions.
Tags:B. F. Skinner, Behaviorism, Liberalism: The Demize of America, Micheal Martin Ph.D., Rule-Governed Behavior, Short Verses Long-Term Consequences, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., Voter Counter-Control of Government, Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism #3
One of the prime targets for liberalism’s conquest of America has been our institutions of education.
In this way Liberalism captures our youth, often shackles them to debt and governmental dependency, and/or forces unsuspecting parents and tax payers to cover the increasingly absorbent costs for an “education”.
The word education is in quotations because, what passes for education, is too often less a real education and more a liberal/Marxist propaganda machine.
Perhaps you have been astonished by very bright college educated youth who sanctimoniously parrot liberal philosophy, without any historical understanding of the real-world failed performances of these ideas and cultural designs.
A term for such propaganda outcomes, used to describe Korean concentration camp “re-educational” methods, was “brain washing”.
I urge parents to choose their children’s educational programs with very great care, from start to finish.
Please see the following for George Will’s very clear and factual expose’ of the propaganda camps that many of America’s Colleges and Universities have become.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vfl4BGbMxoQ
Thanks to Vic Palenski for sending this video to me.
Tags:Brain Washing in Colleges and Universities, George Will on Higher Education, Liberal Propaganda in American Education, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM, Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism #2
Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism
I am reading the following massively informative and well-documented book by Michael G. Martin, Ph.D.. Dr. Martin is an International Economist who has visited over 100 different Nations.
I cannot recommend his book highly enough to all Americans as we approach the 2016 Presidential Election: An election upon which the very life of America’s Constitutional Republic may hinge.
Liberalism: The Demise of America (2013), Michael G. Martin, Ph.D.
The following main points are paraphrased from Dr. Martin’s Prologue.
America’s Founding Fathers drafted our Constitution to maximize liberty from governmental control. The idea was for citizens to manage their government and to be free of the tyranny of habitually increasing power and dominance inherent in all levels of government.
America’s War of Independents, the Civil War, WWI and WWII were fought to preserve our independence from governmental dictators and the controls they impose upon citizens inalienable rights.
Liberals have increasingly destroyed America’s constitutional protections against governmental control and regulation of citizens, at all levels. Liberals hate America’s Constitutional restrictions on their power to control our behavior, tax us and manage or manipulate our businesses and the free market.
America, and Western Culture, are in steep decline largely because of Liberal social, educational, legal, economic, international governmental, military, and multicultural immigration policies. America and Western Civilization are committing sociocultural suicide by adopting liberal political policies.
Liberalism is an irrational political and social philosophy because its policies invariably lead to social chaos and economic decline.
Liberalism Kills independence, traditional values, history, education, justice, military, law and order, business, and eventually it destroys itself and the sociocultures that adopt its practices.
Dr. Martin quotes George Washington: “Our greatest enemy is the criminal and the state; the latter is a greater threat than the former and moreover transforms itself into the former as well.”
America is now embracing the same ideology it defeated during the Cold War (Communism and Socialism). We are destroying our selves with the very political systems we fought so very hard to defeat!
End of paraphrasing.
There are many reasons to hate liberalism; not the least-of-which is the fact that liberalism is now destroying your own Constitutional Republic…the only one like it ever in the history of the world!
I hope you will send this, and the series to follow, to everyone you know.
Tags:"Liberalism: The Demise of America, How Liberalism Is Killing America, How Liberalism Is Killing Western Civilization, Michael G. Martin, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM, Why Americans Should Hate Liberalism #1
How To Separate Real Conservatives From Phonies!
The following are key identifiers enumerated in The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, by Russell Kirk ( page 8).
The following are called “cannons of conservative thought”:
There is a “Belief in a transcendent order, or a body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience. Political problems, at bottom are religious and moral problems.”
There is an “Affection for the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence, as opposed to the narrowing uniformity, egalitarianism, and utilitarian aims of most radical systems; conservatives resist what Robert Graves calls “logicalism” in society.”
A “Conviction that civilized society requires orders and classes, as against the notion of a ‘classless society’. With reason, conservatives often have been called ‘the party of order’. If natural distinctions are effaced among men, oligarchs fill the vacuum. Ultimate equality in the judgment of God, and the courts of law, are recognized by conservatives; but equality of condition, they think, means equality in servitude and boredom.”
The “Persuasion that freedom and property are closely linked: separate property from private possession, and Leviathan becomes master of all. Economic leveling, they maintain, is not economic progress.”
“Faith in prescription and distrust of ‘sophisters’ (i.e., clever politician’s and philosopher’s whose arguments are designed to deceive; think Barack Obama), ‘calculators, and economists’ who would reconstruct society upon abstract designs. Custom, convention, and old prescription are checks upon man’s anarchic impulse and upon the innovator’s lust for power.”
A “Recognition that change may not be salutary reform: hasty innovation may be a devouring conflagration, rather than a torch of progress. Society must alter, for prudent change is the means of social preservation; but a statesman must take Providence” ( i.e., God and nature) “into his calculations, and a statesman’s chief virtue, according to Plato and Burke, is prudence” (i.e., skillful good judgment).
Conservatives have used these guidelines for over two centuries. These are the values and beliefs that have built America as the greatest nation in the history of the world.
It is only the abandonment of these values and beliefs that have led to America’s great present decline.
Vote only for true conservatives.
Do not listen to what politicians say. Research how they have behaved through history. Vote only for true conservative behavior patterns or….kiss our once great America goodbye!
P.S. Please send this blog to your citizen friends and family
Tags:Cannons of Conservative Thought, Conservatism...or Kiss Amerca Goodbye!, Conservative Values and Beliefs, How To Separate Real Conservatives From Phonies!, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., Vote Conservative, VTM
Republican Debate Moderators “Dis” Dr. Carson
I get that Dr. Carson is low in the polls.
But, that is no reason to put him on stage and publicly isolate him from the Republican Debate!
The Republicans have a bad reputation for ignoring, and not caring for minorities. Unfortunately, last night’s debate proved the case.
Dr. Ben Carson’s treatment by moderators was brutally diminishing to this outstanding American gentleman. What in the hell were they thinking?!
America needs quality minorities in the political lime-light and Dr. Carson is one of America’s finest citizens.
To add insult to injury, this abusive public political treatment occurred on the heels of allegations that he had been mistreated (true or not) by a Cruz campaign’s dirty trick.
If the Republican Party were truly a conservative party, the intermediate and long-term effects of their values and consistent actions would catalyze the upwards mobility of all hard-working citizens, irrespective of ethnicity.
I believe the the Republican Party and last night’s moderators owe Dr. Ben Carson a public apology.
I can only hope that Dr. Carson will be selected as a Republican Vice-Presidential candidate.
With this experience under his belt, who knows what would be in store for the conservative’s potentially best answer to the radical liberal’s Marxist President, Barack Obama.
V. Thomas Mawhinney, 2/7/16
Tags:Dr. Ben Carson For Vice President, Republican Debate Moderators "Dis" Dr. Carson, Republicans and Debate Moderators owe Carson Apology, V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., VTM, What the Hell Were They Thinking?!
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Downing named to Ray Guy Award watch list
Jared Stansbury, Jul 07 • 0 Comments
The following is a press release courtesy of Iowa State Athletics Communications
AMES, Iowa – Iowa State junior punter Colin Downing has been selected to the preseason Ray Guy Award watch list, announced today by the Augusta Sports Council.
Created in 2000, the award is given annually to college football’s best punter and is honor of Ray Guy, who is considered the greatest punter in football history.
A native of Whitefish Bay, Wis., Downing is entering his third season as the Cyclones’ punter. Downing averaged 40.9 yards per punt in 2015, recording 21 fair-catches, 20 punts downed inside the 20 and seven 50-yarders.
He had a season-long punt of 61 yards vs. Texas Tech in 2015
Jared Stansbury
View articles by Jared Stansbury administrator
Jared a native of Clarinda, Iowa, started as the Cyclone Fanatic intern in August 2013, primarily working as a videographer until starting on the women’s basketball beat prior to the 2014-15 season. Upon earning his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Iowa State in May 2016, Jared was hired as the site’s full-time staff writer, taking over as the primary day-to-day reporter on football and men’s basketball. He was elevated to the position of managing editor in January 2020. He is a regular contributor on 1460 KXNO in Des Moines and makes regular guest appearances on radio stations across the Midwest. Jared resides in Ankeny with his four-year-old puggle, Lolo.
Follow @@JaredStansbury
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Next POSITION BREAKDOWN: Quarterbacks
Mike Warren named to Doak Walker Award Watch List
Allen Lazard on Biletnikoff Award Watch List
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New FBI Data Shows Whites Underrepresented and Blacks Overrepresented as “Hate Crime” Offenders
Iowa: FBI Investigates Spray Painted Bible Verse as “Anti-Semitic Hate Crime”
Thousands of National Socialist Artifacts Looted from Netherlands War Museum
Spain: Hitler Portraits, National Socialist Memorabilia Found in Raid on Arms Dealers
Minneapolis FBI Protects Anarchists, Claims They Had Nothing to Do With George Floyd Riots
UK: National Socialist Teenager Sentenced for “Secretly Promoting neo-Nazi Terrorism”
Oregon: Liberals Celebrate Police Brutality Against Peaceful Patriotic Protesters in Salem
56,976 Nonwhites Invade Europe in February 2019, Pretending to be “Refugees”
At least 56,976 nonwhites successfully invaded Europe during the 28 days of February 2019, all falsely claiming to be “refugees” despite none of them coming from a war zone, and crossing numerous “safe” countries on the way.
(The New Observer)
According to the latest invasion statistics released by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), the February figure was about 1,900 less than in January, but “remained higher than the average over the past twelve months, and considerably higher than applications in February 2018 (46 000 applications).”
According to the EASO, most applications were lodged by nationals of Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iraq and Nigeria. These five citizenships together made up one third of all applicants in February.
While most citizenships lodged fewer applications than in previous months, nationals of many Latin-American countries continued to seek “international protection” in larger numbers, the EASO statement said.
Venezuela became the second main country of origin of applicants in the EU, with almost 4,000 applications (+51 percent from January).
With few first-instance decisions being issued, the number of Venezuelans awaiting a decision in the first instance also grew considerably and now stands at 33,800.
Colombian applications reached a record high in February with some 1,937 claims (+47 percent from January), more than tripling the number of applications compared to a year earlier, and becoming the tenth most common nationality of applicants for international protection in the EU.
The number of Nicaraguan applicants also increased substantially, from nine (9) in February 2018, to 616 in February 2019.
Nigerians also lodged increasing numbers of applications for the second consecutive month, following a drop in the latter months of 2018. Nigeria re-entered the top five of countries of origin for the first time since June 2018.
Some 3 percent of all applications were lodged by self-claimed unaccompanied minors (UAMs). The highest concentration of UAMs was among nationals of Vietnam, Eritrea and Egypt: one in ten applicants each.
The number of self-claimed UAMs among Gambian applicants, in contrast, was much reduced (about 7 percent of all applications they lodged in February), after being considerably higher throughout 2018.
None of these originating countries—not even Syria—are actually a war zone. In Syria, the last ISIS stronghold fell last month, and there is an effective truce between the last remaining US-UK-Israeli-backed “rebels” in Idlib and the legal Syrian government, so there is no excuse even for Syrians to be claiming asylum, or indeed even remaining in Europe.
The same applies to all the other nationalities involved, and when this fact is understood, it becomes clear that all that is happening is a mass nonwhite invasion of Europe and nothing else.
Unless this invasion is halted, and reversed, Europe will be completely overrun and the white race reduced first to a minority, and then ultimately completely physically exterminated in its ancestral homeland.
Finnish Elections: Anti-Immigration Party Creep Closer to Aim of Seizing Control of EU Parliament
Third Israeli Bank Fined $195 Million for Helping Jews in America Dodge US Taxes
White British: Minority within 50 Years
French, British and American Soldiers Raped almost One Million German Women after World War II
Do Not Play the Part of a “Supremacist” — Leave That to the “Chosen Ones”
Top 10 German Tank Aces - The Masters of the Blitzkrieg
Genuine Heroism
Another Study Finds Races Naturally Separate
“My Father Heinrich Himmler was Not a Monster”
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Greenhouse Gas Physics
Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change
This class describes the science of global warming and the forecast for humans’ impact on Earth’s climate. Intended for an audience without much scientific background but a healthy sense of curiosity, the class brings together insights and perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, earth and atmospheric sciences, and even some economics—all based on a foundation of simple mathematics (algebra).
It's a very comprehensive and extremely tough course to negotiate. Some of the quiz answers are still a mystery. It has arisen the appetite of Climate Change within me, like never before.
Excellent course. My understanding of the world and how we are affected by climate has grown tenfold if not more. I recommend this to anyone who has an interest in living on this planet.
Greenhouse Gases and the Atmosphere
The Layer Model above assumes that the pane of glass representing the atmosphere absorbs all of the infrared radiation that hits it and that it radiates at all infrared wavelengths. In other words, the layer model atmosphere is an infrared blackbody, but transparent in the visible. In reality, greenhouse gases are not "black" at all; they are very choosy about which frequencies of light they absorb and emit. This selective absorption of infrared light by greenhouse gases leads to the band saturation effect, which makes rare, trace gases like methane disproportionally powerful relative to higher-concentration gases like CO₂.
Greenhouse Gas Physics7:43
The Band Saturation Effect12:41
Sprache wählenArabischer RaumChinesisch (vereinfacht)DeutschEnglischFranzösischItalienischKoreanischPortugiesisch (europäisch)RussischSpanischTürkischVietnamesisch
[MUSIC] So far, most of the things we've talked about in this class have been pretty good black bodies. So I've sort of been slinging epsilon values around, but just calling them one in my mind at least. Because most things are pretty good, most condensed matter is pretty good at absorbing and emitting all the different frequencies of infrared light. But gases are different, because they're so simple. They only have very simple modes of vibration. If you take say, carbon dioxide and you freeze it into dry ice, into condensed form, it's got all these other things around it and so it can kind of, it's like a blop of Jello. It has all different kinds of vibrational frequencies and kind of absorbs, sort of, everything in a condensed state. But when the CO2 is floating off by itself and not touching anything else very much, it can only vibrate in very specific ways. And so, it's very gases that turns out are very choosy about the kinds of light that they can absorb and emit. So the way we've done this for black bodies, epsilon is a value close to one and that works for the ground and for the plane of glass in our simple model. But for gases in the real atmosphere, epsilon value is not at all one. It's much smaller than that, because gases are so picky. [SOUND] Just as an aside, before we go on. I want to explain that most of the colors that we observe, most of the light we see in nature around us is got its color not because of absorption and emission by vibration of the atoms, but actually because the electrons exist at different energy levels and they can hop up to higher energy levels and pop back down again. And when they do that, they absorb or give off energy. So most things that are good dyes like the red stuff in this chalk has energy levels that are fairly close together. And so when an electron falls down that much, it gives off light that has that much energy, which turns out to be in the visible range and so we can see it. But gases are so simple that the energy levels of their electrons are so far apart that what they mostly do is make light in the ultraviolet that we can't see and this is why gases are transparent to the visible light that we can see. Some exceptions to that are chlorine gas is actually green. Chlorine is a big atom with lots of electrons on the outside and some of them are bound loosely and so it has a visible, it can actually see it in visible light. And O2 is a brown color, this is something that you find in urban smog when they have ozone alert days. If you can see far off into the distance, you can see this sort of brown layer and that's what this is. And so that's mostly what does the colors that we see, but what we're interested in for the energy in the atmosphere is back to molecular and atomic vibrations. So for a gas to absorb light or to emit light, because it's always a two-way street. If it can absorb, it can also emit. Two things must be true. One is that the frequency of the light has to be pretty close to the frequency of the vibration. Has to be kind of a match, you have to tune, has to be well tuned. But the other thing that's very important is that the vibration of the molecule has to create a fluctuating electric field, an oscillating dipole and most gases in the atmosphere are not really capable of doing this. So the main gases in our atmosphere are consist of molecules that have two identical atoms in them each, O2 or N2 are mostly what the atmosphere is made out of. So those are totally symmetric. One oxygen is the same as another. And if you vibrate it when their farther apart or closer together, it's still always symmetric. There isn't a plus on one side and a minus on another side and that's why these major gases in the atmosphere are not greenhouse gases. They don't effect the climate of the Earth in the greenhouse effect sort of a way. So carbon dioxide is a symmetric molecule in its resting state. The carbon is in the middle and then we have these double bonds to the oxygens on either side. It doesn't really matter to us that these are double bonds instead of single bonds, they still sort of act like springs and they can still vibrate. And so at first glance, you might think this is symmetric too and so it wouldn't be a greenhouse gas, but there are modes of vibration of this molecule that breaks the symmetry and the one that's most important is the bend. So you're sort of bending the thing like this. And when you do that, the oxygens have sort of a minus charge to them and that leaves sort of a positive charge on the other side. And then when it swings back the other way, the electric field is gonna flip and so you've got this oscillating dipole here. And so this mode of vibration of the CO2 molecules, the one's that's most important for climate. There are two other modes, there's a symmetric stretch, which is kinda like this. And then there's asymmetric stretch, which is kinda like that. So the asymmetric stretch is Infrared active, because it's broken the symmetry as you might have figured out. But it turns out that this mode of vibration is not as important to climate, because there's just less light there at this frequency. So this is the frequency that is the most important to absorbing light that's coming up from the ground. [SOUND] Other greenhouse gases, the main ones are water vapor. Water has the oxygen has two lone pairs of electrons on it, which tend to crowd the hydrogens off to one side and so the water is an asymmetric molecule even at rest when you write it. And so it's got a dipole moment, even when it's just sitting there. And so there's lots of different ways you can vibrate this or you can just spin it around and that will create an oscillating electric field. So water has a very, very complicated absorption spectrum. It can do lots of different colors of infrared light. And then the other one, the other major greenhouse gas is methane, CH4. So there's the carbon and you got four hydrogens on it and they are symmetrically spaced around the carbon in a tetrahedral shape is sort of how I tried to draw it there. So these three triangle in base and then like a pyramid and this is symmetric too in its resting state, but there's lots of ways that you can vibrate this thing and have it break the symmetry. So this is also an important greenhouse gas. In general, any atom, any molecule that has more than two atoms is gonna be a greenhouse gas of some sort, some strength. [MUSIC]
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Composers Edition is a unique and fully independent publishing enterprise proudly serving composers, performers and champions of contemporary music-making.
In the Autumn of 2011 Composers Edition founder Dan Goren was approached by a group of independent professional UK-based composers looking for a means to publish their own music in order to serve their community of musicians, ensembles, orchestras and choirs. The composers knew Dan from his time running New Voices and Contemporary Voices publishing services at the British Music Information Centre during 2000-2004. It was there that he also led a project which created a pioneering online browsable library of contemporary music. On 1 February 2013 with the support of the Holst Foundation, The Britten-Pears Foundation and Arts Council England, Dan and Sam Roberts launched Composers Edition with 11 composer members.
The initial offering was very straightforward. Composers Edition made top quality printed and digital editions of professional composers’ works available world-wide, selling directly via composersedition.com, with proceeds shared between itself and the composers who also retained all rights to their works and royalties from performances and broadcasts.
Composers Edition has grown in many respects since then. We now serve a community of over seventy composers and other rights-holders from across Europe, North America and Australasia. We publish more than 1600 musical works as well as books and educational publications, from solo and chamber pieces to choral and large scale orchestral works. We serve an ever growing global community of performers, libraries and educational institutions, providing hire as well as sales.
The same simple and efficient model remains at the core of what we do today. That said we’re always evolving and innovating to do our very best for composers, performers, buyers, retailers and distributors. In 2016 we started our news and media operation sharing the latest on our composers and the works through our website, mailing list and social media channels. In 2018 this evolved in to CE Club, a special free monthly email service through which partners including, musicians, fellow industry organisations and buyers can receive news, discounts on all our titles and special offers from us and our partners. We have been very pleased to strike up great trading relationships with many distributors, retailers and digital platforms around the world, helping our composers’ works reach musicians wherever they are. We work closely with our composers, through an ever developing range of services, helping them make the most of the professional opportunities they and their agents work hard to create. We also work with other partners on special publishing projects. For more details on our services for composers and other rights holders please head to ….
We don’t believe in a special place for contemporary music, set apart from the rest of the world, a place which serves only those in the know. We believe in the transformative power of our composers’ creations to reach into the minds and hearts of listeners, whoever and wherever they are. Each work we publish has been created with passion, skill and integrity and it is our mission to make them as readily available as possible to musicians and their audiences. We do this by making the carefully crafted fruits of our composers and authors labours affordable and quickly available in high quality print editions and digitally online. At the same time we ensure that composers and authors receive decent returns from the sale of their works.
The composers we work with have proven themselves as creative artists capable of delivering the the highest standards whether it’s composing for a world-class symphony orchestra or commmitted community choir. For many people, the art of composing is shrouded in mystery which is why we especially appreciate the wonderful musicians through whose dedication our composers’ works reach the ears of listeners. They are the music’s ambassadors and we love to hear and share their stories.
Whether you’re a composer, performer, librarian or an administrator we want to help. We provide a friendly, open and proactive service to all. If you’d like to get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
Dan Goren
Director, Composers Edition
Composers Edition is a trading name registered to Source Music Services Ltd, company no: 12542318
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Campaign 2016, Campaign 2020, Commentary, Foreign Policy, Gulf States, Intelligence, Politics, Russia, Ukraine
SCOTT RITTER: The ‘Whistleblower’ and the Politicization of Intelligence
The whistleblower complaint has opened a window into the politicization of the intelligence community, and the corresponding weaponization of the national security establishment, argues Scott Ritter.
By Scott Ritter
Special to Consortium News
The whistleblower. A figure of great controversy, whose actions, manifested in an 11-page report submitted to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) on August 12 alleging wrongdoing on the part of the president of the United States, jump-started an ongoing impeachment process targeting Donald Trump that has divided the American body politic as no other issue in contemporary time.
His identity has been cloaked in a shroud of anonymity which has proven farcical, given that his name is common knowledge throughout the Washington-based national security establishment in whose ranks he continues to serve. While Trump publicly calls for the identity of the whistleblower to be revealed, the mainstream media has played along with the charade of confidentiality, and Congress continues to pretend his persona is a legitimate national security secret, even as several on-line publications have printed it, along with an extensive document trail sufficient to corroborate that the named man is, in fact, the elusive whistleblower.
There is no legitimate reason for the whistleblower’s identity to remain a secret. The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, (D-CA) has cited statutory protections that simply do not exist while using his authority as chairman to prohibit any probe by his Republican colleagues designed to elicit information about the whistleblower’s identity. “The whistleblower has a right, a statutory right, to anonymity,” Schiff recently opined during recent impeachment-related testimony. And yet The Washington Post, no friend of Trump, was compelled to assign Schiff’s statement three “Pinocchios”, out of a scale of four, in rejecting the claim as baseless.
The myth of statutory protection for the whistleblower’s identity has been aggressively pursued by his legal counsel, Andrew Bakaj, the managing partner of the Compass Rose Legal Group, which has taken on the whistleblower’s case pro bono. In a letter to the president’s legal counsel, Pat Cippolone, Bakaj demanded that Trump “cease and desist in calling for my client’s identity”, claiming that the president’s actions, undertaken via Twitter and in press briefings, constituted violations of federal statutes prohibiting, among other things, tampering with a witness, obstruction of proceedings, and retaliating against as witness.
Schiff: Wrong to shield whistleblower. (Flickr)
All of Bakaj’s claims are contingent upon the viability of the whistleblower’s status as a legitimate witness whose testimony can, therefore, be tampered, obstructed or retaliated against. The legal foundation of the whistleblower’s claims are based upon the so-called Intelligence Community whistleblower statute, 50 USC § 3033(k)(5), which stipulates the processes required to report and sustain an allegation of so-called “urgent concern” to the U.S. intelligence community. An “urgent concern” is defined, in relevant part, as: “A serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of the law or Executive order, or deficiency relating to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity within the responsibility and authority of the Director of National Intelligence involving classified information, but does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters.”
At issue was a telephone call made between President Trump and the newly elected President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on July 25 of this year. According to the whistleblower’s report to the ICIG, “Multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call informed me that, after an initial exchange of pleasantries, the President used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests.” President Trump, the whistleblower alleged, “sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President’s 2020 reelection bid,” an act which the whistleblower claimed presidential abuse of his office “for personal gain.”
Upon review of the whistleblower’s report, which consisted of a nine-page unclassified letter and a separate two-page classified annex, Michael K. Atkinson, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, initiated an investigation of the complaint as required by the whistleblower statute. This investigation must be completed within a 14-day period mandated by the statute, during which time the ICIG “shall determine whether the complaint or information appears credible.”
While the statute is silent on the methodology to be used by the ICIG in making this determination, Atkinson had testified during his Senate confirmation hearing that, when it came to any investigation of a whistleblower complaint, “I will work to ensure that ICIG personnel conduct investigations, inspections, audits, and reviews in accordance with Quality Standards promulgated by CIGIE (Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency) to keep those activities free from personal, external, and organizational impairments.” The CIGIE standard in question requires that, “Evidence must be gathered and reported in an unbiased and independent manner in an effort to determine the validity of an allegation or to resolve an issue.”
In a letter transmitting the whistleblower complaint to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Atkinson stated that he had “determined that the Complainant (i.e., whistleblower) had official and authorized access to the information and sources referenced in the Complainant’s Letter and Classified Appendix, including direct knowledge of certain alleged conduct, and that the Complainant has subject matter expertise related to much of the material information provided in the Complainant’s Letter and Classified Appendix.”
However, when it came to assessing whether or not the whistleblower, in reporting the second-hand information provided to him by White House persons familiar with the July 25 Trump-Zelensky phone call, had done so accurately, Atkinson did not review the actual records of the telephone call, noting that he “decided that access to records of the telephone call was not necessary to make my determination that the complaint relating to the urgent concern ‘appears credible.’”
Zelensky and Trump at UN in September. (Wikimedia Commons)
Atkinson declared that “it would be highly unlikely for the ICIG to obtain those records within the limited remaining time allowed by statute,” and opted to perform an investigation in violation of the very CIGIE standard he had promise to adhere to in his Senate testimony. In short, no evidence was gathered by the ICIG to determine the validity of the whistleblower’s allegation, and yet Atkinson decided to forward the complaint to the DNI, certifying it as “credible.”
The whistleblower statute allows the DNI seven days to review the complaint before forwarding it to the House Committee on Intelligence, with comments if deemed appropriate. However, in reviewing the actual complaint, Joseph McGuire, the acting DNI who took over from Dan Coats, who was fired by President Trump in early August, had questions about whether or not the matters it alleged fell within the remit of the whistleblower statute, and rather than forwarding it to the House Intelligence Committee, instead sent it to the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel for legal review.
The Office of Legal Council, on September 3, issued a legal opinion rejecting the ICIG’s certification of the whistleblower complaint as constituting an “urgent concern” under the law. “The complaint,” the opinion read,
“does not arise in connection with the operation of any U.S. government intelligence activity, and the alleged misconduct does not involve any member of the intelligence community. Rather, the complaint arises out of a confidential diplomatic communication between the President and a foreign leader that the intelligence-community complainant received secondhand. The question is whether such a complaint falls within the statutory definition of ‘urgent concern’ that the law requires the DNI to forward to the intelligence committees. We conclude that it does not. The alleged misconduct is not an ‘urgent concern’ within the meaning of the statute.”
DOJ Rejected Complaint as Urgent
As related in the Office of Legal Counsel’s opinion, the Justice Department did, however, refer the matter to the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice for appropriate review. After considering the whistleblower’s complaint and classified annex, the Criminal Division opted not to pursue charges, in effect determining that no crime had been committed.
Under normal circumstances, this would have concluded the matter of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky, and the second-hand concerns unnamed White House officials had reported to the whistleblower. But this was not a normal circumstance. Far from diffusing an improperly predicated complaint, the failure of the acting DNI to forward the whistleblower complaint to the House Intelligence Committee, and the concurrent legal opinion of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel rejecting the “urgent concern” certification of the ICIG, opened the door for the whistleblower, through legal counsel, to reach out to the House Intelligence Committee directly.
The whistleblower followed procedures set forth in the whistleblower statute detailing procedures for a complaint, which had not been certified as an “urgent concern,” to be forwarded to Congress. The issue is that the matter was being treated by the ICIG, Congress and the whistleblower’s attorney’s as an “urgent concern”, a status that it did not legally qualify for.
On September 24, Bakaj sent a “Notice of Intent to Contact Congressional Intelligence Committees” to acting DNI McGuire providing “formal notice of our intent to contact the congressional intelligence committees directly” on behalf of the whistleblower, identified only as “a member of the Intelligence Community.” Almost immediately, Schiff announced via Twitter that “We have been informed by the whistleblower’s counsel that their client would like to speak to our committee and has requested guidance from the Acting DNI as to how to do so. We‘re in touch with counsel and look forward to the whistleblower’s testimony as soon as this week.”
Andrew Bakaj, whistleblower attorney. (Twitter)
Thus was set in motion events which would culminate in impeachment proceedings against President Trump. On the surface, the events described represent a prima facia case for the efficacy of statutory procedures concerning the processing of a whistleblower complaint. But there were warning signs that all was not right regarding both the whistleblower himself, and the processes involved leading to the whistleblower’s complaint being presented to Congress.
Political Bias?
Far from an exemplar in bureaucratic efficiency, the whistleblower complaint has opened a window into the politicization of the intelligence community, and the corresponding weaponization of the national security establishment, against a sitting president.
As I shall show, such actions are treasonous on their face, and the extent to which this conduct has permeated the intelligence community and its peripheral functions of government, including the National Security Council and Congress itself, will only be known if and when an investigation is conducted into what, in retrospect, is nothing less than a grand conspiracy by those ostensibly tasked with securing the nation to instead reverse the will of the American people regarding who serves as the nation’s chief executive.
The key to this narrative is the whistleblower himself. Understanding who he is, and what role he has played in the events surrounding the fateful July 25 telephone conversation, are essential to unravelling the various threads of this conspiracy.
Much has been made about the political affiliation of the whistleblower, namely the fact that he is a registered Democrat who supports Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election. On the surface this information is not dispositive—the intelligence community is populated by thousands of professionals of diverse political leanings and affiliations, all of whom have been trained to check their personal politics at the door when it comes to implementing the policies promulgated by the duly elected national leadership.
Indeed, Inspector General Atkinson, while acknowledging in his assessment of the whistleblower’s complaint an indication of possible political bias on the part of the whistleblower in favor of a rival political candidate, noted that “such evidence did not change my determination that the complaint relating to the urgent concern ‘appears credible’”. But when one reverse engineers the whistleblower’s career, it becomes clear that there in fact existed a nexus between the whistleblower’s political advocacy and professional actions that both influenced and motivated his decision to file the complaint against the president.
Like most CIA analysts, the whistleblower possessed a keen intellect born of stringent academic preparation, which in the whistleblower’s case included graduating from Yale University in 2008 with a degree in Russian and East European studies, post-graduate study at Harvard, and work experience with the World Bank.
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a contemporary colleague of the whistleblower, has provided an apt account for what is expected of a CIA analyst. “The CIA is an intensely apolitical organization,” Kendall-Taylor wrote. “As intelligence analysts, we are trained to check our politics at the door. Our job is to produce objective analysis that the country’s leaders can use to make difficult decisions. We undergo rigorous training on how to analyze our own assumptions and overcome biases that might cloud our judgement.”
The training program Kendall-Taylor referred to is known as the Career Analyst Program (CAP), a four-month basic training program run out of the CIA’s in-house University, the Sherman Kent School, which “introduces all new employees to the basic thinking, writing, and briefing skills needed for a successful career. Segments include analytic tools, counterintelligence issues, denial and deception analysis, and warning skills.”
Andrea Kendall-Taylor (Center for a New American Security)
The standards to which aspiring analysts such as the whistleblower were trained to meet were exacting, and included a requirement to be “independent of political considerations,” meaning the product produced should consist of objective assessments “informed by available information that are not distorted or altered with the intent of supporting or advocating a particular policy, political viewpoint, or audience.” As an analyst, the whistleblower would have chosen a specific specialization, which in his case was as a “Political Analyst”, charged with examining “political, social, cultural, and historical information to provide assessments about foreign political systems and developments.”
By the time the whistleblower completed his application process with the CIA, which requires a detailed background check, several rounds of interviews, and final security and psychological evaluation before an actual offer of employment can be made, and by the time he finished his basic analytical training, the U.S. had undergone a political and social revolution of sorts with the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.
The whistleblower was assigned to the Office of Russian and Eurasian Analysis (OREA), within the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence, at a time when U.S.-Russian policy was undergoing a radical transformation.
Under the guidance of Michael McFaul, President Obama’s special advisor on Russia and the senior director of Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, the Obama administration was seeking to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the election of Dmitri Medvedev as Russia’s president in 2008. Medvedev had succeeded Vladimir Putin, who went on to serve as prime minister. Medvedev was a more liberal alternative to Putin’s autocratic conservatism, and McFaul envisioned a policy “reset” designed to move relations between the U.S. and Russia in a more positive trajectory.
As a junior analyst, the whistleblower worked alongside colleagues such as Andrea Kendall-Taylor, who joined OREA about the same time after graduating from UCLA in 2008 with a PhD is Slavic and Eurasian studies. A prolific writer, Kendall-Taylor wrote extensively on autocratic leaders and Putin in particular. Her work was in high demand at both the CIA and NSC, which under the Obama administration had undergone a massive expansion intended to better facilitate policy coordination among the various departments that comprised the NSC.
The whistleblower had a front-row seat on the rollercoaster ride that was U.S.-Russian policy during this time, witnessing the collapse of McFaul’s Russian “reset,” Putin’s return to power in 2012, and the U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine that led to the annexation of Crimea and Russian support for rebels in the Donbas region.
During his tenure at OREA, the whistleblower obviously impressed his superiors, receiving several promotions and, in July 2015, he detailed to the NSC staff at the Obama White House as the Director for Ukrainian Affairs. According to a former CIA officer, any high-performing analyst who aspires to be promoted into the ranks of the Senior Intelligence Service must, prior to that time, do a rotation as part of the overall policy community, which includes the NSC or another department, such as Defense or State, as well as a tour within another directorate of the CIA.
NSC positions were originally intended for senior CIA analysts, at the GS-15 level, but waivers could be made for qualified GS-14 or “very strong” GS-13’s (the whistleblower was a GS-13 at the time of his assignment at the NSC, a reflection of both his qualification and the regard to which he was held by the CIA.) NSC assignments do not coincide with the political calendar—detailees (as career civil servants who are detailed to the NSC are referred) are expected to serve in their position regardless of what political party controls the White House. When an opening becomes available (usually when another detailee’s assignment has finished), prospective candidates apply, and are interviewed by their senior management, who forward qualified candidates to another board for a final decision.
Assignments to the NSC are considered highly sought after, and while the process for application must be followed, the selection process is highly political, with decisions being signed off by the director of the CIA. In the case of the whistleblower, his candidacy would have been approved by both Peter Clement, the director of OREA, and John Brennan, the CIA director.
Into the Lion’s Den
By the time the whistleblower arrived at the NSC, the NSC staff had grown into a well-oiled policy machine managing the entire spectrum of Obama administration national security policy-making and implementation. The NSC staff operated in accordance with Presidential Policy Memorandum (PPM) 1, “Organization of the National Security Council System”, which outlined the procedures governing the management of the development and implementation of national security policies by multiple agencies of the United States Government.
Brennan briefing Obama May 3, 2010. He approved whistleblower. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The vehicle for accomplishing this mission was the NSC Interagency Policy Committee (NSC/IPC). The NSC/IPCs were the main day-to-day fora for interagency coordination of national security policy. They provided policy analysis for consideration by the more senior committees of the NSC system and ensured timely responses to decisions made by the president. NSC/IPCs were established at the direction of the NSC Deputies Committee and were chaired by the relevant division chief within the NSC staff.
The whistleblowers job was to develop, coordinate and execute plans and policies to manage the full range of diplomatic, informational, military and economic national security issues for the countries in his portfolio, which included Ukraine. The whistleblower coordinated with his interagency partners to produce internal memoranda, talking points and other materials for the National Security Advisor and senior staff.
The whistleblower reported directly to Charles Kupchan, the Senior Director for European Affairs on the NSC. Kupchan, a State Department veteran who had previously served on the NSC staff of President Bill Clinton before turning to academia, in turn reported directly to Susan Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser.
When the whistleblower first arrived at the NSC, he volunteered for the Ukraine portfolio. Kupchan was impressed by the whistleblower’s work ethic and performance, and soon expanded his portfolio to include the fight against the Islamic State. The whistleblower was aided by another organizational connection—his colleague and mentor at OREA, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, had been selected to serve in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia. Among Kendall-Taylor’s responsibilities was to closely coordinate with the NSC staff on critical issues pertaining to Russia and Ukraine.
The whistleblower’s arrival at the NSC staff also coincided with the start of Trump’s improbable candidacy for the presidency of the United States. As 2015 transitioned into 2016, and it became apparent that Trump was the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, allegations about the Trump campaign colluding with Russia began to circulate within the interagency. Trump’s electoral victory in November 2016 , the shocked the whistleblower, like everyone else on the NSC staff.
Alarmed By Trump on Russia
The line between policy and politics began to blur, and then disappeared altogether. National Security Advisor Rice was becoming increasingly alarmed by the activities of the Trump transition team, especially when it came to issues pertaining to Russia. According to The Washington Post, “Rice apparently was closely monitoring the high-profile investigation into Russian interference.”
The President-elect had, during the campaign, openly advocated for better relations between the U.S. and Russia and had even suggested that the Russian annexation of Crimea could eventually be accepted by the U.S. This stance was anathema to the policies that had been massaged into place by the NSC in general, and the whistleblower in particular. According to multiple sources familiar with the whistleblower during this time, his animus against Trump was palpable.
In December 2016, Rice was involved in the unmasking of the identities of several members of the Trump transition team. Various sensitive intelligence reports were circulating within the NSC regarding the interaction of unnamed U.S. citizens with foreign targets of intelligence interest. In order to better understand the significance of such a report, Rice has acknowledged that, on several occasions, she requested that the identity of the U.S. persons involved be “unmasked.”
The U.S. intelligence community is prohibited by law from collecting information about U.S. citizens. As such, when a conversation undertaken by a foreign national of intelligence interest was captured, and it turned out the person or persons whom the target was speaking to was a U.S. citizen, the analysts preparing the report for wider dissemination would “mask”, or hide, the identities of the U.S. citizens involved. Under relevant laws governing the collection of intelligence, up to 20 officials within the Obama administration had the authority to unmask the identities of U.S. citizens. One of those was Rice.
In late December 2016, the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, arrived in New York for a meeting with several top Trump transition officials, including Michael Flynn, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the President-elect’s top strategist Steve Bannon. Intelligence reports had been circulating about the UAE coordinating a backchannel for the Trump transition team and Russia.
Zayed’s arrival, which was unannounced and had not been coordinated with the U.S. government, caused great concern among the NSC staff especially given the context of allegations of collusion between Trump and Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
The principle NSC staffers who would logically been advising Rice on this matter were Kupchan, the whistleblower, and Sean Misko, a State Department detailee who served as the director for the Gulf Arab States (According the NSC staffers who worked in the White House at the time, Misko and the whistleblower were said to be close friends, frequently socializing with one another after hours, and possessing a common dislike for Trump.) Rice requested that the intelligence reports pertaining to Zayed’s visit be subjected to unmasking procedures.
While the subsequent reporting about the three-hour meeting between Zayed and the Trump transition team failed to uncover any evidence of a secret communications channel with Russia, Rice (who would logically have been assisted by Kupchan and the whistleblower) facilitated the near continuous unmasking of intelligence reports involving Flynn, who was in contact with Russian officials, including Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
Susan Rice, center, with Obama, March 10, 2009. (White House photo)
As a professional intelligence analyst detailed to the NSC, the whistleblower was committed to a two-year assignment, extendable to three years upon the agreement of all parties. President Obama’s departure from the White House did not change this commitment. According to NSC staffers who served in the White House at the time, the whistleblower, like many of his fellow detailees, had grown attached to the policies of the Obama administration which they had fought hard to formulate, coordinate and implement. They viewed these policies to be sacrosanct, regardless of who followed in the White House.
In doing so, they had committed the greatest sin that an intelligence professional could commit short of espionage—they had become political.
In December 2016, the whistleblower was, based upon his role as a leading Russian analysts advising Rice directly, more than likely helping unmask Flynn’s communications with Russians; a month later, he was working for Flynn, someone he had likely actively helped conspire against, using the unfettered power of the intelligence community.
The Trump administration had inherited a national security decision-making apparatus that was bloated, and which fostered White House micromanagement via the NSC. While the Obama NSC had proven able to generate a prolificate amount of “policy”, it did so by relying on a staff that had expanded to the largest in the history of the NSC, and at the expense of the various departments of government that were supposed to be the originators of policy.
As the new national security adviser, Flynn let it be known from day one that there would be changes. One of his first actions was to hire four new deputies who centralized much of the responsibilities normally tasked to regional directors such as the whistleblower. Flynn was putting in place a new level of bureaucracy that shielded professional detailees from top level decision makers.
Moreover, it recognized that the NSC, while staffed with professionals who are supposed to be apolitical, was viewed by the White House as a partisan policy body whose work not only furthered the interests of the United States, but also the political interests of the president. When Trump included his top political advisor, Bannon, on the list of people who would comprise the National Security Council (normally limited to cabinet-level officials), it sent shockwaves through the national security establishment, which accused Trump of politicizing what they claimed was an apolitical process.
But the reality was that the NSC had always functioned as a partisan decision-making body. Its previous occupants may have tried to temper the level to which domestic politics intruded on national security decision-making, but its presence was an unspoken reality. All Trump did by seeking to insert Bannon into the mix was to be open about it.
Like the other professional detailees who comprised 90 percent of the NSC staff and were expected to remain at their posts as part of a Trump administration, the whistleblower was dismayed by the changes. Some accounts of the early days of the Trump NSC indicate that the whistleblower was defensive of the Ukraine policies he had helped craft during his tenure at the NSC.
When his immediate superior, Kupchan (a political appointee) departed the NSC, the whistleblower was temporarily elevated to the position of senior director for Russia and Eurasia until a new replacement could be found. (Flynn had reached out to Fiona Hill, a former national intelligence officer for Russia under the administration of George W. Bush, to take this job; Hill had accepted, but would not be available until April.)
The whistleblower was a known quantity within the NSC, as were his decidedly pro-Obama political leanings. As such, he was not trusted by the incoming Trump officials, and his access to the decision-making process was limited.
According to persons familiar with his work at the NSC during the Trump administration, the whistleblower’s frustration and anger soon led to acts of resistance designed to expose, and undermine public confidence in President Trump.
Cut Out of Call to Putin
In late January 2017 Trump made several introductory telephone calls to world leaders, including President Putin. Normally the NSC director responsible for Russia would help prepare the president for such a call by drafting talking points and supporting memoranda, and then monitor the call directly, either from within the Oval Office or from the White House situation room.
According to sources familiar with the incident, Flynn did not coordinate Trump’s call with NSC staff, and as such the whistleblower, who was acting as the director for Russia and European Affairs at the time, would have been cut out of the process altogether. When the whistleblower tried to access the read out of the phone call afterwards, he found that no verbatim record existed, only a short summary released by the White House, presumably prepared by Flynn.
More frustrating was the fact that the official readout of the call released by the Kremlin contained much more information, putting Russia in the driver’s seat in terms of defining U.S.-Russian policy priorities—the very policy blunder the NSC was supposed to prevent from happening. While searching for the non-existent records of the Putin-Trump conversation, however, the whistleblower came across detailed verbatim transcripts of two other calls made by Trump that day—one with Mexico, and one with Australia.
Within days the details of these calls were leaked to the media, resulting in a series of unflattering articles being published by the mainstream media. While no direct evidence has emerged about who was responsible for leaking these calls, NSC staffers who worked in the White House at the time suspected the whistleblower. (One of the byproducts of this incident was the decision by NSC lawyers to move the records of Presidential phone calls to a more secure server, significantly limiting access by NSC staff.)
On February 13, 2017, Flynn resigned from his position as President Trump’s national security adviser. The reason given was Flynn’s having misrepresented his conversations with Russian Ambassador Kislyak when questioned by Vice President Mike Pence. For the whistleblower, whose previous work in the Obama NSC appeared to help Rice’s efforts to unmask the very conversations Flynn was being held accountable for, this had to have been a satisfying moment. He had to have been even more pleased by Trump’s choice to replace Flynn —Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, a decorated combat veteran known for his intelligence and willingness to challenge the establishment.
In the little more than a month that transpired between McMaster coming on board and the arrival of Hill as the new director for Russia and Europe, the whistleblower would have had the opportunity to meet his new boss and work with him on repairing what they both viewed as the flawed changes undertaken by Flynn at the NSC.
McMaster rewrote the presidential guidance regarding the functioning of the NSC, replacing the original Presidential Policy Memorandum 1 with a new version, PPM 4, which removed Bannon from the NSC and restored much of the policy coordinating functions that characterized the NSC under Obama.
Moreover, McMaster stuck up for the professional detailees, such as the whistleblower. When Hill arrived in April 2017 to assume her responsibilities as the NSC director for Russia and Europe, the whistleblower found himself without a job.
But instead of being returned to the CIA, McMaster, who had come to know the whistleblower during his first month as national security adviser, appointed him to serve as his personal assistant. The whistleblower moved from his desk next door in the Executive Office Building, where most NSC staffer work, to the West Wing of the White House, a move which gave him direct access to every issue that crossed McMaster’s desk.
Oval Office Leak
The new job, however, did nothing to diminish the disdain the whistleblower had for Trump. Indeed, the proximity to the seat of power may have served to increase the concern the whistleblower had about Trump’s stewardship. On May 10, President Trump played host to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Kislyak. During the now-infamous meeting, Trump spoke about the firing of former FBI Director Jim Comey; a sensitive Israeli intelligence source related to the ongoing fight against ISIS in Syria; and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
As McMasters’ assistant, the whistleblower was privy to the readout of the meeting, and was so alarmed by what he had seen that he sent an email to John Kelly, who at that time was serving as director of the Department of Homeland Security, detailing the president’s actions and words. All materials relating to this meeting were collected and secured in the NSC’s top secret codeword server; the only unsecured data was that contained in the whistleblower’s email. When the media subsequently reported on the details of Trump’s meeting with the Russians, the White House condemned the “leaking of private and highly classified information” which undermined “our national security.”
Trump meets with Lavrov on May 10, 2017. (TASS/Wikipedia)
According to a NSC staffer who worked in the White House at the time, an internal investigation pointed to the whistleblower’s email as the likely source of the leak, and while the whistleblower was not directly implicated in actually transmitting classified information to the press, he was criticized for what amounted to unauthorized communication with an outside agency, in this case the Department of Homeland Security. When his initial two-year assignment terminated in July 2017, the White House refused to authorize a one-year extension (a courtesy offered to the vast majority of detailees).
The whistleblower had become a liability, publicly smeared by right-wing bloggers and subjected to death threats. He was released from the NSC and returned to the CIA, where he resumed his role as a Eurasian analyst. Shortly after the whistleblower left the NSC, the full transcripts of President Trump’s January 28, 2017 conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were leaked to the press. While several colleagues in the NSC believed that the whistleblower was behind the leaks, McMaster refused to authorize a formal investigation which, if evidence had been found that implicated the whistleblower, would have effectively terminated his career at the CIA.
It is at this juncture the saga of the whistleblower should have ended, avoiding the turn of events which ended up labeling him with the now famous (or infamous) appellation. However, in June 2018 the whistleblower’s colleague, Kendall-Taylor, ended her assignment as the deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia. An announcement was made to fill the vacancy, and the whistleblower applied.
Despite having left the NSC under a cloud of suspicion regarding the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, and even though his anti-Trump sentiment was common knowledge among his colleagues and superiors, the whistleblower was picked for a position that would put him at the center of policy formulation regarding Russia and Ukraine, and the sensitive intelligence that influenced such. His appointment would have been approved by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates.
Enter Vindman
The whistleblower was well versed in the collaborative functions of the deputy national intelligence officer position, having worked with Kendall-Taylor during his time at the NSC. He began to develop professional relationships with a number of individuals, including the new director of Ukraine at the NSC, Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Vindman had extensive experience regarding Ukraine and had been detailed to the NSC from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The two soon appeared to share a mutual concern over President Trump’s worldview of both Russia and Ukraine, which deviated from the formal policy formulations promulgated by the interagency processes that both Vindman and the whistleblower were involved in.
Kiev-born Vindman. (Wikipedia)
The whistleblower’s concerns about President Trump and Ukraine predated the July 25, 2019 telephone call, and mirrored those expressed by Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, both in chronology and content, provided during his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. While Vindman was critical of President Trump’s deviation and/or failure to conform with policy that had been vetted through proper channels (i.e., in conformity with PDD 4), he noted that, as president, “It’s his prerogative to handle the call whichever way he wants.”
Vindman took umbrage at the non-national security topics brought up by the president, such as investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, regarding their relationship with a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, and other references to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
According to Vindman, it was this aspect of the telephone call Vindman believed to be alarming, and which he subsequently related to an authorized contact within the intelligence community. While Vindman remained circumspect about the identity of the intelligence community official he communicated with about his concerns over Trump’s Ukraine policy, the fact that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee refused to allow any discussion of this person’s identity strongly suggests that it was the whistleblower who, as the deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Ukraine, would be a logical, and fully legitimate, interlocuter.
According to an account published in The Washington Post, sometime after being informed by Vindman of the July 25 Trump-Zelensky telephone call, the whistleblower began preparing notes and assembling information related to what he believed was untoward activity vis-à-vis Ukraine on the part of President Trump and associates who were not part of the formal Ukraine policy making process. He made numerous telephone calls to U.S. government officials whom he knew from his official work as the deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia. Because much of the information he was using was derived from classified sources, or was itself classified in nature, the whistleblower worked from his office, using a computer system approved for handling classified data.
From the perspective of security, the whistleblower’s work was flawless. There was one problem, however; investigating the actions of the president of the United States and officials outside the intelligence community who were carrying out the instructions of the president was not part of the whistleblower’s official responsibilities.
Indeed, anything that whiffed of interference in domestic American politics was, in and of itself, off limits to members of the intelligence community.
Robert Gates, a long-time CIA analyst and former CIA director, had warned about this possibility in a speech he delivered to the CIA in March 1992 on the issue of the politicization of intelligence. “National intelligence officers”, Gates noted, “are engaged in analysis and—given their frequent contact with high-level policymakers—their work is also vulnerable to distortion.”
There was no greater example of politicized distortion than the rabbit hole the whistleblower had allowed himself to fall into. From Gates’ perspective, the whistleblower had committed the ultimate sin of any intelligence analyst—he had allowed his expertise to become tarnished by political considerations.
Worse, the whistleblower had crossed the threshold from advocating a politicized point of view to becoming political—that is, to intervene in the domestic political affairs of the United States in a manner which influenced the political future of a sitting president of the United States.
Once he had assembled his notes, he sought out staffers on the House Intelligence Committee for guidance on how to proceed. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, had hired two former members of the Trump NSC staff who had served at the same time as the whistleblower.
One, Abigail Grace, had worked at the NSC from 2016-2018, covering U.S.-Chinese relations. Grace was hired by Schiff in February 2019 for the express purpose of investigating the Trump White House. A second NSC veteran was hired in August 2019, around the same time that the whistleblower was preparing his complaint. That staffer was none other than Sean Misko, the whistleblowers friend and fellow anti-Trump collaborator.
Both Misko and the whistleblower departed the NSC in 2017 under a cloud. Misko went on to work for the Center for New American Security, a self-described bipartisan think tank set up by two former Obama administration officials, Michèle Flournoy and Kurt M. Campbell, before being recruited by Schiff. It is not known if Misko was one of the House Intelligence staffers the whistleblower approached, or if there had been any collaboration between the whistleblower and Misko about the nature of the complaint prior to Misko being recruited by Schiff.
After conferencing with the House Intelligence Committee staffers, the whistleblower sought legal counsel. He reached out to a lawyer affiliated with Whistleblower Aid, a group of national security lawyers who came together in September 2017—eight months after the inauguration of President Trump—to encourage whistleblowers within the U.S. government to come out agains Trump, and provide legal and financial assistance to anyone that chose to do so. One of Whistleblower Aid’s founding members was a lawyer named Mark Zaid.
In the days following Trump’s swearing in as president, Zaid turned to Twitter to send out messages supportive of a “coup” against Trump that would lead to the president’s eventual impeachment. The identity of the lawyer who met with the whistleblower is not known. However, this lawyer referred the whistleblower to Bakaj, a fellow member of Whistleblower Aid, who took on the case and provided procedural guidance regarding the preparation of the complaint. Bakaj later brought on Zaid and another lawyer, Charles McCullough, with close ties to Senator Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, to assist in the case.
On August 12, the whistleblower completed his complaint, and forwarded it to the intelligence community inspector general, thereby setting in motion events that produced weeks of hearings before the House Intelligence Committee that will very likely result in Trump’s impeachment.
Shielded from Questions
While the whistleblower, through counsel, had expressed a desire to testify before the House Intelligence Committee about the issues set forth in his complaint, he was never called to do so, even in closed-door session. The ostensible reason behind this failure to testify was the need to protect his anonymity, a protection that is not contained within the relevant statutes governing whistleblower activities within the intelligence community.
Later, as witnesses were identified from the content of the whistleblower’s complaint and subpoenaed to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, both Schiff and Bakaj indicated that the whistleblower’s testimony was no longer needed, since the specific issues and events covered in his complaint had been more than adequately covered by the testimony of others.
But the apparent reason Schiff and Bakaj refused to allow the whistleblower to testify, or to be identified, was to avoid legitimate questions likely to be asked by Republican committee members.
Namely, what was a deputy national intelligence officer of the U.S. intelligence community doing investigating activities of a sitting president? Who, if anyone, authorized this intervention in U.S. domestic political affairs by a CIA official? How did the whistleblower, who had a history of documented animosity with the Trump administration that included credible allegations of leaking sensitive material to the press for the express purpose of undermining the credibility of the president, get selected to serve as a deputy national intelligence officer? Who signed off on this assignment? What was the precise role played by the whistleblower in unmasking the identities of U.S. citizens in 2016, during the Trump transition?
Did the whistleblower maintain his friendship with Misko after leaving the NSC in July 2017? Did the whistleblower collaborate with Misko to get the House Intelligence Committee to investigate the issues of concern to the whistleblower before his complaint was transmitted to the ICIG? Who did the whistleblower meet on the House Intelligence staff? What did they discuss? Who was the lawyer the whistleblower first met regarding his intent to file a complaint? Did the whistleblower have any contact with Whistleblower Aid prior to this meeting?
Answers to these questions, and more, would have been useful in understanding not only the motives of the whistleblower in filing his complaint—was he simply a concerned citizen and patriot, or was he part of a larger conspiracy to undermine the political viability of a sitting president? There is no doubt that Congress has a constitutional right and obligation to conduct proper oversight of the operations of the executive branch, and to hold the president of the United States accountable if his conduct and actions are deemed unworthy of his office. Whether or not the facts surrounding the July 25, 2019 telephone call between Trump and Zelensky constitute grounds for impeachment is a political question for Congress to decide.
Intervening in Domestic Affairs
There is, however, the major issue looming in the background of this impeachment frenzy: the intervention by elements of the intelligence community in the domestic political affairs of the United States. There is no question that the whistleblower’s complaint served as the genesis of the ongoing impeachment proceedings.
The American people should be deeply concerned that an inquiry which could result in the removal of a duly elected president from office was initiated in secrecy by a member of the intelligence community acting outside the four corners of his legal responsibilities. The legitimacy of the underlying issues being investigated by the House Intelligence Committee is not at issue here; the legitimacy of the process by which these proceedings were initiated is.
To find out what happened, the whistleblower should not only be identified, called before the House Intelligence Committee, and other relevant Congressional committees, and be compelled to answer for his actions.
Impeachment is a constitutional remedy afforded to the U.S. Congress to deal with the political issues surrounding the conduct of a sitting president. If this constitutional remedy can be triggered by the intelligence community in a manner which obviates laws prohibiting the intrusion of intelligence agencies into the domestic political affairs of the United States, and done so in a manner where the identities of the persons and organizations involved, along with their possible motives, are shielded from both American people and those whom they elect to represent them in Congress, then a precedent will have been set for future interventions of this nature which undermine the very foundation of American democracy.
The political weaponization of intelligence represents a significant threat to the viability of the American constitutional republic that cannot be ignored.
Scott Ritter is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD.
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Tags: Adam Schiff Alexander Vindman Barack Obama CIA Donald Trump Fiona Hill Impeachment Joe Biden John Bolton John Brennan Robert Gates Sergei Lavrov Susan Rice Ukraine Vladimir Putin
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67 comments for “SCOTT RITTER: The ‘Whistleblower’ and the Politicization of Intelligence”
Politicization of intelligence and national security. Check.
Something going on that’s not quite right. Check.
But you lost me with the following. “Despite having left the NSC under a cloud of suspicion regarding the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, and even though his anti-Trump sentiment was common knowledge among his colleagues and superiors, the whistleblower was picked for a position that would put him at the center of policy formulation regarding Russia and Ukraine, and the sensitive intelligence that influenced such. His appointment would have been approved by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates.”
The claim of Coates approval is a weak attempt to explain away what is otherwise inexplicable.
Noah Way
Hello, shadow government.
Maricata
It is clearly an attempted coup. It is part of what is known as Lawfare, well known in Latin America.
ourconstitution.info
What an important article – everyone should read this!! Thank you again Scott.
Below, michael had some more great points:
“Where were these people with Snowden’s, and Manning and Assange’s much more serious complaints? … Stephen Cohen has emphasized the essential ability of elected Presidents to meet in private with foreign leaders, as every President since Kennedy has done (saving us from nuclear destruction in JFK’s case and leading to the fall of the Soviet Union in Reagan’s). That’s where important deals are concluded and military, intelligence, and state members whose jobs depend on warmongering advantages, cannot and should not be allowed access to sensitive national security decisions … This is essentially the rotten core of American government today. The intelligence community somehow has been empowered to run the country and its politics since 2016, which is much more dangerous than anything the Russians could ever do.”
Wish Eisenhower’s and Truman’s warnings had been heeded long ago. The FBI too has quite sordid aspects and history, and we have now seen these agents communicating with each other in hopes to undermine a presidential candidate. Although there are of course ethical and good agents (thank you to them), at least several of the Intel agencies need to be reviewed, reformed, and perhaps disbanded. They all need valid, reliable, and verifiable oversight. They need to be OUT of our schools. A new entity should be established solely to monitor for foreign agents in schools. As a whistleblower, I have had horrid experiences related to universities with military, state, and Intel (at one point, perhaps still the 2nd largest CIA hub) affiliations. See details and documentation at ourconstitution.info (see video there “a lot of killers” – Trump to O’Reilly).
As for the military, it would appear important changes should also be made in those regards, certainly as long as the Intel apparatus is out-of-control and unconstitutional, and probably forever, regardless. One major problem that facilitates this hell is the career appointments of Intel and the military, versus the much shorter terms of congress and presidents — a setting ripe for abuse unfortunately. Intel can wait out any of these, undermine, or worse, as we saw with JFK… We continue to maintain a separate military at our own PERIL … We should have conscription, mandatory service of a variety of options/types, but we should ALL want and DEMAND a say in all things military. Military mandates, policies, benefits, plans, treatment of vets, and participation in conflicts, to name a few things, should involve us all. This will no doubt lead to less war, conflicts, more fairness… and a more integrated, positively purposed society. More developed nations with mandatory conscription also have a healthier respect for war, and in notable cases lower gun violence.
I wish abolishing war and hatred was an option. Unfortunately, Intel cannot be as integrated as the military, and we all know they spied on their Senate overseers. These (Intel) agencies that continue to ‘stir up trouble to justify their existence” quite often include the military, mercenaries, or paramilitary in their actions. Our Soldiers, and All Americans, should fight and die for just causes only. We can, and should, be gatekeepers in these regards, and for Our Republic, Of, By, and For The People (as long as we can keep it). If we are not that Beacon, no one will be. Words are no longer enough. Protest with me in Miami, or wherever you are.
dean 1000
Great Article Scott. You are as right about the politicization of Intelligence you were about there being no WMD’s in Iraq.
There is a corollary to the old saw that “the power to tax is the power to destroy.” The power to surveil also carries the power to destroy.
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover used it (after WWII) to control or get what what he wanted from politicians who had something embarrassing in their past or maybe a current affair.
FBI Director James Comey’s attempt to Hoover president Trump didn’t work. It does reveal that the FBI hasn’t changed much. Intelligence, especially the CIA, is so corrupted (read politicized) it has to be considered a political faction. A very powerful political faction that wants to run the country without being elected. If Russiagate was the coup d’essai (first attempt) the impeachment is a coup de theatre.
Former US Senator from New York, and UN Ambassador, Danial Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) proposed disbanding the CIA and transferring its intelligence functions to the State Dept. He also introduced a bill in the senate to do it. See onlinelibrary dot wiley dot com. – “Do we still need the CIA” 15 pages pdf. If even half the CIA’s ‘deeds’ were public and half what it has failed to do or know became public, the voters would happily support Senator Moynihan’s bill.
Good informative stuff from Scott as always
Dan Kuhn
There you have it. A perfect anaylisis of the state of the union and it ain`t pretty.
I always thought that focussing on Trump’s rather idiotic and stupid obsession with Ukraine and Joe Biden made little sense for impeachment, compared with a long list of valid and important reasons of Trump’s transgressions. The fact that the team who listened to the call were disturbed by it but ‘blew no whistle’ implies that they probably just shrugged their shoulders and looked away in embarrassment.
The “whistleblower” was CIA and it seems ‘he’ just seized this transgression as the main chance for the security state to finally get rid of Trump, just as they have tried since his campaign statements for restoring detente with Russia. As Scott Ritter points out, careers have been made on the New Cold War.
Arnieus
Scott Ritter is obviously still a fearless truth teller. My first awareness of Scott was an interview on CNN with the disgusting Paula Zahn during the months before the Iraq war. Like the rest of corporate media, her job was obviously to be a cheer leader for “W” Bush’s disastrous war. She didn’t know how to respond to Scott as he explained that as Chief Weapons Inspector he had witnessed the elimination of anything that could be considered a WMD in Saddam’s Iraq. This interview, the exposure of the outdated plagiarized student thesis held up as intelligence, the Downing St. memo, and the yellow cake lie outing of Valerie Plame all added up to one thing. The Bush administration obviously knew there was no justification for their “shock and awe” invasion. This was my awakening at age 50 I am embarrassed to admit. I helped organize the local protest demonstrations of several thousand people in my area which did no good of course. Millions of people all over the world could not stop it.
Mark Rabine
If you think it is proper, in fact imperative, to publically identify the whistleblower (which is publically known anyway), then why do you keep referring to him as the whistleblower? Not only iis it annoying it casts a shadow over the rest of the information you present (without sources).
From Scott Ritter:
The idea behind my not including the name of the Whistleblower, all the while providing a documentary trail that clearly identifies the individual in question, was to highlight the absurdity of the ongoing decision by Congress and the Whistleblower’s legal counsel to pretend that he enjoys a modicum of anonymity. Perhaps my approach was too sophisticated by far, but with all due respect, it certainly did not lack for courage.
OlyaPola
“the Politicization of Intelligence”
The purpose of “intelligence” is to enhance/preserve specific political relationships of the entity/entities for whom activities which are defined/framed as “intelligence” are undertaken, and hence “intelligence” is always “politicised” since it is a component of politics a.k.a. interactions defined/framed by the “initiators” implemented in interaction.
Often interactions deemed to facilitate de-mystification are facilitated/framed by mystification a.k.a. perception management in which the “initiators” are also immersed/subject to in some assay.
The distinction being made is about “electoral politics,” i.e., meddling to overturn the results of an election.
Bill Rood
Note that House Democrats just extended the PATRIOT act for 3 mos by stealthily attaching it to a “must pass” bill.
Miranda M Keefe
Note that the Squad voted against it. Tulsi Gabbard was absent due to the debate. Ro Khanna, one of Bernie’s co-chairs, and Pramila Jayapal, the sponsor of the House Medicare for All bill, both voted for it.
It had to be approved in the Senate, which happened. Of the six senators running for president, only Bennett was present and voted for it. The others, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, Harris, and Booker, were all absent due to the debate.
Thank you, Scott Ritter, for this background info. I’m very upset about the Dems protecting the whistle blower, who works for them, while persecuting others.
Sam F
Thanks for this detailed glimpse of secret operations at the top of the USG. Indeed interventions of this nature “undermine the very foundation of American democracy” along with the economic power of oligarchy that controls all branches of federal government and the mass media.
Scott seems convinced that the NSC serves the administration, although it surrounds and outnumbers them, controls the information and narratives available to them, is controlled by secret tribes of the secret agencies, and acts against them everywhere when it disagrees. The administration are mere figureheads in a government by secret agencies lost in their own self-serving narratives. Any contrary administration would have to move in a shadow government by force right after election, and abolish the NSC. Not that it could get elected.
Bill Mack
In 1979 a presidential CAMPAIGN colluded with a foreign country for political leverage , and used it successfully .
RobertX5
Interesting and informative article.
However I’m concerned that Mr Ritter exhibits a worryingly consistent trait in many people, which is, because institutions have a stated set of values and principles, by and large those institutions act in accordance with them, when the reality over many years suggests that is not the case. Perhaps the sooner people get rid of those core beliefs the better for all.
So unless I’ve misunderstood we have Mr Ritter viewing the future whistle blower as becoming politicised which has caused him to stray from the high ideals of the institutions where he is working. If that was genuinely the case, on his return to the C.I.A. he would have been told in no uncertain terms that he had no career future with them. The fact that did not happen leads to a conclusion that everything he did was sanctioned.
We then look at his return to the NSA in June 2018. In view of his past suspected conduct how did he ever get near the job? Again it leads to a conclusion that everything he has done is sanctioned and strings are being pulled behind the scene to ensure he is appointed.
We now get to the latest escapade concerning the phone call. In the normal course of events we would be assured non stop by agents of the national security state of the dangerous damage done to U.S. interests etc, etc, but unless I’ve missed it the silence from Gina Haspel has been deafening and where was she in 2016, oh yes, London where much of the Trump/Russia collusion story was hatched. So why again do I suspect everything he is doing is sanctioned?
BRAVO, Scott
Good investigative reporting in the tradition of Consortium News founder Bob Parry, who was warned he would be “controversialized” and went full scale ahead anyway — no, not “anyway” — rather ALL THE MORE, ALL THE STRONGER.
More than two years before his untimely death, Bob had it pretty much figured out, and wrote it. See, for example The Foundering Russia-gate Scandal on Dec. 13, 2007 and Protecting the Shaky Russia-gate Narrative on Dec. 15, 2017.
Needless to say, your VIPS colleagues are among those proud of your gutsy, professional work.
Perhaps Consortium News folks merit a reminder to send this piece of Scott’s far and wide — and best BEFORE the politicians, who prefer not to understand why intelligence needs to be apolitical, make the usual hay out of your findings.
This afternoon I told a close friend about your findings in getting the truth out. He asked, Will this help Trump??
Aaaaaaaaagh, no, I said, this will help the TRUTH, which still matters. If the dumb Dems can’t find something more important and unconstitutional on which to impeach Trump, they are beyond help.
Yes, it is astounding that the Dems seek to impeach Trump for investigating their own corruption, rather than exposing Rep corruption. I am doing the latter at one corner of the state government level, and am sure that hundreds of times that could be found at the federal level if the Dems were not equally enthusiastic kleptocrats and nepotists.
But we would be ahead even if Reps prosecute only Dems and Dems prosecute only Reps: the public would at least see that Rep judges only convict Dems and probably the reverse as well. Only the scum floats to the top in an unregulated market economy dumbed-down by oligarchy-controlled mass media.
David Shavin
When you write “Aaaaaaaaagh”, I can hear your distinct pronunciation!
Otherwise, don’t you mean, “If the dumb Dems can’t find something more important and actually constitutional on which to impeach…” – instead of “unconstitutional”?
Fran Macadam
It works the same in every country, whether monarchy, oligarchy, dictatorship, socialist, communist or various blends with democracy. Once you set up an unaccountable secret police or intelligence agency and empower it to spy on people, carry out various deceptions and allow it to operate outside the law, it becomes the real power, blackmailing and even murdering according to its own direction.
Yes, the creation of an unaccountable secret power is the end of democracy, and very deliberately done by oligarchy control of politics, the first stage. In our case that was facilitated by the historical circumstance of the founders being unable to foresee the rise of economic concentrations after about 1850, sufficient to control all branches of federal government and the mass media. We may as well enjoy living in the middle decay stage of an unfit and irreparable former democracy, not much worse than living by an average star with its own decay prognosis.
Reply to Sam F:
“First the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly & without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, *restriction against monopolies,* the eternal & unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land & not by the law of Nations.” – Jefferson to Madison, Dec. 20, 1787
“With regard to monopolies they are justly classed among the greatest nusances in Government. But is it clear that as encouragements to literary works and ingenious discoveries, they are not too valuable to be wholly renounced? Would it not suffice to reserve in all cases a right to the Public to abolish the privilege at a price to be specified in the grant of it? Is there not also infinitely less danger of this abuse in our Governments, than in most others? Monopolies are sacrifices of the many to the few. Where the power is in the few it is natural for them to sacrifice the many to their own partialities and corruptions. Where the power, as with us, is in the many not in the few, the danger can not be very great that the few will be thus favored. It is much more to be dreaded that the few will be unnecessarily sacrificed to the many.” -Madison to Jefferson, Oct. 17, 1788
To the editors: Fascinating quotes. The only monopolies foreseeable were of intellectual property, considered to be valuable encouragements of little danger where “the power… is in the many not in the few.”
Madison also mentions ” ingenious discoveries,” and on the whole is taking a much broader view about the dangers of monopolies concentrating power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many.
robert e williamson jr
I believe Scott is right on target with his presented material.
We still don’t know what happened with the JFK murder but we do know that CIA knew something big was up.
So JFK get murdered and CIA prevents a thorough exacting investigation. I see CIA interference as being political. What else would it be be. CIA escaped any blame at the time and the president was gone and replace. Political.
Then Robert fell, a likely winner of the next election he was terminated.
In this day and age CIA can’t afford getting caught with gunpowder residue anywhere on it entity if a sitting president happens to catch a round or two. The alternative is to use all that money the Super Wealthy Elites have stashed and go openly political. Hiding in plan sight as always.
JFK got shot by Oswald. The only bullets found in the limo were from his carbine. Several people have duplicated Oswald’s shots. An extensive FBI investigation found no links to organized crime. He was the only person in the School Depository Building unaccounted for. He left the building with $14 trying to flag a cab then a bus. He killed an arresting officer. There was a photo of him with the carbine that he denied owning. The evidence for his guilt is overwhelming. There is no evidence for any of the numerous conspiracy theories.
Excellent report, Scott Ritter. Thank you. I have always trusted your reports and analysis since the days of Iraq’s supposed
weapons of mass destruction. You have really served the American people well.
phree
Interesting stuff. I’m certainly against politicization of intelligence. I am troubled about the whistleblower not being willing and allowed to testify.
But the rest of this sounds very much like a conspiracy theory. I’ll have to reread Ritter’s prior work, which I viewed very favorably. Given this mess, though, I’ll have to reconsider. Let’s assume the whistleblower was out to get the President. What difference does the whistleblower’s motivations t make if the President was doing exactly what the whistleblower said the President was doing? Prosecutors are always out to get criminals, and we don’t let the criminals go just because of that. Prosecutors get tips from all sorts of unsavory people, such as informants and criminal competitors. Are they supposed to just ignore those tips?
There are a number of other problems with this theory.
First, Ritter confuses “political” with “partisan.” Foreign policy is necessarily political — can’t be avoided. What it shouldn’t become is partisan — the party in power shouldn’t leverage the United States’ national security interests to gain political power over their domestic opponents. I hope we can all agree on that. When we say intelligence shouldn’t be political, we mean intelligence shouldn’t be “fixed around the policy.” Even going into Iraq, as stupid as that was, and as bad as the intelligence agencies acted, that’s different than using national foreign policy to stick it to your domestic political rivals. The Bushies and the neocons really thought it was in the national interest to go into Iraq. It also isn’t being “political” in the “partisan” sense to become wedded to a policy that you helped developed, it just means you think that’s the right policy and should be followed regardless of which party or politician is in office. It’s actually the opposite of political. Fiona Hill is a perfect example: To her, Russia is and always will be evil and duplicitous, and she’s going to say that no matter which party is in the oval office. She may not be right, but she sure isn’t partisan. If you are convinced that the President is selling the U.S. and the Ukraine out, what are you supposed to do?
Second, it is a real stretch to call phone calls to friends and acquaintances to verify the reports of the July 25 call and the surrounding circumstances “an investigation” of the president. Really? Sounds pretty deep statey to me.
Third, why does Ritter refer to the President’s request of a “favor” of a Biden investigation as “non-national security topics” rather than what it clearly was — a request for help that could only be primarily for Trump’s personal benefit in our domestic politics? Such sophistry is troubling and revealing. If the whistleblower’s claim is true, and it sure looks like it is based on publicly available evidence, Trump was giving Ukraine $391 Million reasons to fabricate evidence on Biden. Even the mere announcement, as Sondland says, would be politically damaging to the candidate who polls the best against Trump in key constituencies with no benefit at all to the U.S.’s national security. That’s why the story is troubling, not because it related to “non-national security topics.”
Fourth, who else other than an anti-Trump lawyer is the whistleblower supposed to choose? A pro-Trumper? Ridiculous criticism.
Fifth, he’s got friends here and there, and he might have leaked. This is just more “deep state” conspiracy nonsense, and the old look at all of this smoke, there must be a fire. It was so smoky and he was such a swampy deep stater that he was rehired into the White House despite those concerns? Yeah, maybe, or maybe the suspicions were not substantiated. And, again, what does any of that have to do with Trump essentially soliciting a bribe in exchange for aid and/or a White House meeting. All this shows is that Trump, who complains that they’re all out to get him, was stupid enough to get caught. Because he was stupid enough to rely on Rudy Giuliani.
So, this would make a nice spy novel, but it is pretty weak tea to support the claim that the Whistleblower did anything other than report what he thought was an improper and likely illegal act, and even weaker tea to support a claim that we ought to just ignore the whole scandal.
Withholding aid and a White House meeting unless Ukraine agreed to announce an investigation the primary purpose of which is to benefit the President personally and politically is wrong. It’s wrong for Trump and it will be wrong for every president of any party. If Ritter isn’t alarmed about that, it says more about him than it does about the whistleblower. If Ritter isn’t also troubled by that allegation, and the evidence that has come out to support it, his judgment is more suspect than the whistleblower’s.
The bottom line here is that a deputy national intelligence officer charged with overseeing intelligence activities regarding the Russian-Ukraine target used his position to initiate a Whistleblower complaint which failed to conform to the legal requirements required of such. Many sins are conducted by officials “under the cover of law”, and this is one. You can spin and cherry pick and obfuscate the article all you like, but you can’t avoid the reality that an intelligence officer, operating under a veil of secrecy, initiated a political action under the color of law designed to unseat the President of the United States. At a minimum this individual should be identified and subjected to an appropriate amount of investigation as to his motive and that of those who collaborated/conspired with him.
Yes, agree. And Ritter’s explanation doesn’t help at all. Ritter attacks the “process”, but says nothing about the substance. If Eric went about it the wrong way, what does Ritter suggest would have been the right way? Was Eric part of a cabal to unseat the prez? Probably. So. What?Trump knew there were guys in the “intelligence” community who were out to get him. He gave them what they wanted and they ran with it. Right Scott, that’s politics, though as the writer points out, its not partisan. Did Eric lie? Did he invent the story? Are the allegations bogus? No. Everything he alleged in his complaint, and more, has been shown to be accurate. Trump has admitted it. So say the process was not right (according to the sainted Robert Gates), then tell us please what he should have done. Ignored it? Place bets against Biden? Apply to the Brookings? Vote for Mayor Pete? Although he never says it, Ritter seems to think “no harm no foul” when it comes to soliciting dirt on partisan rivals from foreign governments in exchange for favorable policies. Note: this is not the same as the Steele Dossier which is line with traditional CIA activity. Nor is it all the same as overthrowing Allende, et. al. What Trump did is a simple textbook example of constitutional bribery. Is that Eric’s fault? Did Eric introduce “politics” into the situation, or did Trump? Again, what should Eric have done? What would you have done Scott?
lizzie dw
Biden is a crook and his son is a crook and many of the Ukrainians they dealt with are crooks. Did you not know that?
John Neal Spangler
Anner is right. A huge problem is that most US bureaucrats have never lived abroad and gone thru culture shock. They are so rigidly American they do not understand foreign cultures
Dennis Rice
“There is no legitimate reason for the whistleblower’s identity to remain a secret.” And the article says that some media have already published the whistleblower’s name.
I am an avid reader of Consortiumnews, and most often agree with its views. However, this article, while demeaning other media for not identifying a whistleblower whose name is already publicly known, it too, does not name the whistleblower. What gives?
Did you go to the “red letter references”?
jhawk620
…this is an historical abstract into the machinations of bureaucrats within the U S government. Well worth the time to read it.
Herb Davis
Bob Van Noy
I’ll second that D! Thanks…
Ojkelly
Blowing the whistle on the whistle blower! Great article. He learned well.. I am still in shock from Morrell’s op ed in NYT, “I used to run the CIA and I am for Hillary Clinton”.
I know the morels post the government career doesn’t include a job at Booz Allen or SAIC or $ think tank world, just a desk at the Clinton Foundation BGS. Plus only a few crumbs from CBS and CNN. Maybe that is an instructive object lesson for other senior retiring officials.
Cal Lash
Scott, Excellent piece. However i am still struggling with, “Duly Elected.”
Andy Pratt
I didnt read the whole thing but I would like to comment that we are all human and the flagrant recurring hypocrisy of Anerican public drama/celebrity seems to be anybody claiming purity and objectivity. The whistleblower is human. How can we judge him. Or anybody. Have a blessed and happy Thanksgivung Love wins
Joe Tedesky
The timeline of Trump’s inquiry to Zelensky to investigate American wrong doing wasn’t a timeline structured around a 2020 presidential campaign as it was formed around a time of sitting Vice President performing his duties while in the office of VP.
Good point, although the MSM is spiking any negative Biden stories. Biden seems to be the CIA’s preferred Democrat.
Heavy published their “five facts” on the presumed whistleblower several days ago, including that he worked as the point man with Biden on Ukraine issues. Evidently he was so pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia (pointed out by Mike Cernovich who suggested he was involved in leaks, as noted in Foreign Policy back in 2017), that it must have been difficult for him to fall in line and do his required job, implementing new foreign policy with a new administration. Whether he “went native” or truly decided to over-ride the President’s policies in favor of the old Obama “consensus community” policies for Ukraine, he has crossed several lines interfering with foreign policy and national security.
Ritter mentions treason, but that is only applicable to war time. This case is classical sedition. If the CIA wants to run the country, they should run for office (as several did and won as Democrats in 2018).
Llitchfield
Exactly. The relevant timeline is not the 2020 election.
The relevant timeline is of VP Biden’s alleged activities on behalf of his son while serving as VP and as the Obama administration point man on Ukraine. The sequence whereby various phone calls by Biden and his son resulted in monies departing Ukr bank accounts and arriving in American bank accounts Those are the activities that need to be investigated. Before Biden can dream of running for POTUS.
It is in a sense coincidence that Biden’s activities became known to the public and others at this moment in time.
AnneR
Mr Ritter’s own anti-Russian bias is clearly on display throughout this piece, which reduces considerably its pretensions toward objectivity.
As for the politicization of the secret agencies – as a fairly recent phenomenon or so it would seem from Mr Ritter’s piece – from my reading and understanding of the past 70+ years, these agencies and their forebears have *Always* been politically biased. Not necessarily regarding whichever of the dual headed monopoly party that has controlled US politics for even longer, but biased always on behalf of the Ruling Elites.
As for the educational attainments of these secret agencies’ staffs and their supposed knowledge of, in this instance, Russia and other eastern European/Eurasian countries, I would suggest that they apparently understand very little about Russia particularly, no matter how well they speak, read and write the language; and what they remain steeped in, for reasons having to do with the insatiable desire for the US to remain *the* hegemon and the political biases of their university tutors/professors which they clearly absorb (their leanings probably already in those directions anyway), is the COLD WAR US/western erroneous apprehension of what the USSR intended. Of course Russia (the USSR before) want to dominate the world – we do, so obviously other such nations (China being the other one) want to overtake us. We visit war, coups, invasions, destruction, siege warfare (sanctions) on every nation that won’t do as we want – therefore Russia and China want to do exactly the same thing to us and the rest of the world.
Apparently the Anglo-American ruling elites and their instruments (such as the staffs of these agencies) are utterly incapable of conceiving of, perceiving that other cultures exist and that those cultural perspectives are *NOT* the same as ours, do not want to be exactly like ours (rightly so). WE cannot, do not, are utterly unwilling, are incapable, lack the imagination to try to walk in the footwear of another, very different culture. But for the world’s sake, we need to start doing so. Now.
“WE’re only a pawn in their game.” And sometimes, even the knights, the bishops and the rooks don’t even know it. And the Queen is the real King.
Piotr Berman
Actually, the anti-Russian bias of the author is not clear at all. I surmise that Anne is displeased by what he did not write. For example, there is a revolving door between academia and CIA, and no field is more contaminated than Russian and East European studies. For details, reading “Team B” at Wikipedia is a good start.
Skip Scott
How true. The CIA (Capitalism’s Invisible Army) killed JFK when I was seven years old. They’ve been in charge my whole life. Assassinating a sitting president isn’t “political”? I would think its way beyond “allowing your expertise to be tarnished by political considerations”. It is willful blindness to think there is any remnant of a “constitutional republic” in the USA, especially from a former “intelligence” officer.
Reading Putin’s speeches and interviews, it is plain to see that he is interested in the welfare of his citizens, and maintaining sovereignty by refusing vassal status to Empire. Imagine if we had a president truly committed to serving “We the People”.
I just read the piece and I don’t notice any anti-russian bias at all.
Please be specific, AnneR. Actually, I think AnneR might be raising a dust cloud here, or call it, misdirection of attention. From Vindman/See-Eye-Aye Ramella’s anti-Russian bias to, putatively, Ritter’s. But the latter is nowhere to be seen. AnneR’s post seems to be an elaborate Whataboutism gambit.
Actually, regarding the “education” of some of this security types, it is worthwhile to take a much closer look at their background—esp. in the case of Vindman. Who is this guy, and how did he get here? Did anyone besides Amazing Polly think to wonder? He sure looks to me like a Ukrainian Manchurian . . .
Polly shows at amazingpolly (dot) net numerous odd connections of both Vindman and See-Eye-Aye ramella.
Bravo Ann! Are you familiar with Sibel Edmonds? If not read her book, Classified Woman and see just how political these agencies are,
CharlieK
Yes, Anne, there is an uncontested, imperial mindset that seeps through the US body politic. And a central part of that imperial mindset is the demonization of Russia, of everything Russian, and anything that Russia might do. This has been ongoing for at least over 100 years, since the revolution of 1917. It is so ingrained into the lifeblood of this country that to challenge it results in being condemned as a heretic. One perfect example is the delusional version of events surrounding Crimea, which was a part of Russia for centuries until Khrushchev “transferred” Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukranian SFSR in 1954. Who even bothers with such historical facts! Moreover, it was incredible to watch the impeachment hearings, as everyone in the room, Republican and Democrat, sat around and discussed Ukraine as if it was ours to control. Imagine for one second if Russia (or China) were discussing Mexico in the same terms, or if they had intervened in a similar fashion as the US National Security State did to midwife the overthrow of the elected government in Ukraine. Under such circumstances we would probably be ready to declare war. All of our meddling in Ukraine is for the sole purpose of solidifying US hegemony and undermining Russia. Would the US tolerate Mexico joining a military bloc a la NATO that was a part of a Russian global military alliance? To ask the question is itself heretical. Anne, your declaration that the US is unwilling and genetically incapable of walking in the footwear of another, very different culture is totally accurate. Unfortunately, there is no evidence whatsoever that this imperial mindset is likely to change. And if history is any lesson, this kind of imperial mindset never changes until it is forced to do so, as Germany and Japan learned as a result of WWII.
John Donohue
Join the Peace Corps for culture awakening, culture shock and reverse culture shock.
“therefore Russia and China want to do exactly the same thing to us and the rest of the world.”
A useful hypothesis to test in “analysis” is “Do you think your opponent is as stupid as you are?”.
The “Soviet Union” was in some regards emulative of the opponents although some perceived the strategic opportunities afforded thereby to the opponents.
The notion/belief/perception that such emulation is practiced by the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China continues to have utility and decreasing veracity as functions of the opponents’ resort to projection predicated on “exceptionalism”‘s subset of knowbestness.
Sally Snyder
As shown in this article, there is a key aspect to the entire anti-Russia/pro-Ukraine story that has received no coverage by the mainstream media:
The West’s blanket condemnation of Russia and its so-called annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 would suggest that more of us need to educate ourselves on the history of Russia and Crimea in particular before we whole heartedly swallow the narrative that our political leaders and media foist on us.
Just as I suspected, the CIA directly interfered in US politics. Great article, but why the coy insistence on not naming the “whistle-blower, ” yourself, Scott? And of course “whistle-blower” should be in quotes throughout the article, no? His name is Eric Ciaramella.
This is simply Russiagate 2.0, with the “Intelligence” agencies having run completely amok at this point. Very disturbing, but not really surprising.
“… why the coy insistence on not naming the “whistle-blower, …”
Indeed, the universal coyness in the repetitive use of the term “the whistleblower”, beyond becoming now tedious and annoying, has so embedded the term in discussions of this issue, that it has now become the default usage. To the point where writing Eric Ciaramella, without explaining that he is the presumed “the whistleblower”, would leave one wondering who this Eric person is. To overcome this problem, I would suggest, at least as a temporary measure, that the term “Eric Ciaramella a.k.a. ‘the whistleblower’ “be used instead.
Excellent detailed summary of the SNAFU of politicized national foreign policy that has led to the unhinged continual neocon/ neolib invasions and coups and sanctions this century.
The whistleblower’s complaint was rejected as “not urgent” by the DNI with the government lawyers’ advice (rejected as most whistleblower’s complaints are in government, for better or worse).
“After considering the whistleblower’s complaint and classified annex, the Criminal Division opted not to pursue charges, in effect determining that no crime had been committed.”
When the whistleblower refused to accept this decision, and instead took his complaint to Schiff, as a politicized weapon, he and anyone else involved should have been or now be charged with Sedition. (Obama would have thrown the whistleblower’s butt in jail as he did so many others.)
The whole point of Electing a President is to change ineffective policies (in the new President’s view), particularly in foreign policy. Unelected expert advisers are only that. While Ciaramella and Vindman may feel the consensus community foreign policy agendas are sacrosanct and untouchable by any new President, their only recourse is to advise, make their arguments, and as the constitution states, Heads of Departments can disagree in writing. Or they can resign.
As Thomas Jefferson noted “the President is the only channel of communication between the United States and foreign nations, it is from him alone ‘that foreign nations or their agents are to learn what is or has been the will of the nation’; that whatever he communicated as such, they had a right and were bound to consider ‘as the expression of the nation’; and that no foreign agent could be ‘allowed to question it,’ or ‘to interpose between him and any other branch of government, under the pretext of either’s transgressing their functions.’ There is a major difference between oversight by Congress and interfering in executive branch functions (such as taking up a rejected whistleblower’s complaint for political reasons. Where were these people with Snowden’s, and Manning and Assange’s much more serious complaints?).
Stephen Cohen has emphasized the essential ability of elected Presidents to meet in private with foreign leaders, as every President since Kennedy has done (saving us from nuclear destruction in JFK’s case and leading to the fall of the Soviet Union in Reagan’s). That’s where important deals are concluded and military, intelligence, and state members whose jobs depend on warmongering advantages, cannot and should not be allowed access to sensitive national security decisions.
As Chuck Schumer said ““Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you”. This is essentially the rotten core of American government today. The intelligence community somehow has been empowered to run the country and its politics since 2016, which is much more dangerous than anything the Russians could ever do.
Isn’t there also something in the Constitution that prohibits anyone from conducting an “independent” foreign policy? That is, the president and the State Department (part of the executive branch) are the ones who make foreign policy. A senator, say, can’t go off on his or her own, travel to a foreign country, and advance different policies from those advanced by the POTUS and State. In this respect McCain was way out of line. Maybe because he thought he *should* have been the pres. He should have been punished publicly for his transgression.
Looks like it it up to the Orange One to draw a line on these off-the-reservation activities, whether by those in Congress or in the national security apparatus. They should all be charged with sedition.
David Otness
“The intelligence community somehow has been empowered to run the country and its politics since 2016….”
If one truly studies such things—seriously—objectively— that date will be determined to be November 22, 1963.
Maybe 1946?
Eugenie Basile
Very interesting and detailed analysis of what will be considered in the near future as a pivotal moment when a precedent was created by Democrats and anti-Trumpers, that led to further destruction of trust between citizens and their elected politicians and the implosion of U.S. democratic institutions.
But of course: Russia did it……… NOT !
Jane CHRIST
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The Top Universities in Mechatronics
By John Huddle
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The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology of Atlanta offers graduate degrees with a concentration in mechatronics-related areas. The school has a top-ranked mechanical engineering program with cutting-edge, multidisciplinary areas, including mechatronics areas, like robotics and MEMS or microelectromechanical systems. Students study and research in areas devoted to automation and mechatronics, including innovative mechatronics systems, automated manufacturing and intelligent systems. A number of research facilities are available, such as the Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics Research Laboratory, where research in mechatronics for structural health monitoring is currently being conducted.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Mechanical Engineering Graduate Programs
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Georgia Institute of Technology: The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering: Graduate Program
Georgia Institute of Technology: The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering: Automation/Mechatronics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Mechatronics Research Laboratory
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John Huddle is an Army veteran with enlisted service as general hospital staff and hospital chaplain's assistant. His career also included stints as a teacher, adjunct faculty, administrator and school psychologist. Twice, Dr. Huddle was a major party nominee for state office. He also served as a director on several nonprofit boards. Today he enjoys consulting and lobbying for underdog causes.
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4 Top Communication Engineering Colleges
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News‘Olayinka Is The Humblest Public Servant I Ever Met’
‘Olayinka Is The Humblest Public Servant I Ever Met’
An elder in Ekiti State, Chief Oladeji Fasuan, has said the late Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka, was humble to a fault.
Fasuan, a retired permanent secretary in the old Ondo State, said: “The late Mrs. Olayinka is the most humble public servant I ever met. She was very sublime in conduct and committed to the development of the state.”
In his tribute to the deceased, he said: “It is very difficult to find a public servant more respectful and humble. I cannot talk about her efficiency, but Governor Kayode Fayemi has said it all by saying she was his co-pilot.
“This assertion is very significant in a political ambience, where the deputy governor is generally seen as a spare tyre. This is the first time a governor would describe a deputy as a co-pilot.
“Her death is a tragedy for us in Ekiti. Here was a woman literally in the trenches as a partner with Fayemi, trying to retrieve a stolen mandate. There was a lot of anxiety and, eventually, success.
“I have been close to the family for over 60 years. Her dad, Chief Famuagun, was my classmate in the elementary school now called primary school.
“We were also colleagues in Ibadan for over 15 years and, more importantly, we have been neighbours in this residential area for about 30 years. Only two houses separate us on this street.
“I knew the late deputy governor through her father when about 30 years ago, he brought her to me and said she had been nominated as a director of the Oodua Textile Mills, now defunct. I gave her some printed materials and some information. I was once the chairman of the organisation.
“On a more personal note, she related to me quite warmly. She participated actively in any family function that I had. In Ado-Ekiti here, she was a symbol, not only of womanhood, but also of integrity.
“I am not sure any section of this society has a negative thing against her. Hence, you have visitors and sympathisers of all categories rushing to the governor and the family house to express their condolences. She was not controversial at all.
“People saw her as decent and straightforward. Certainly, we will continue to miss her for a long time to come.”
By Sulaiman Salawudeen
This article was first published in The Nation
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“When Morrison meets ADRs”
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“When Morrison meets ADRs” en
US District Court allows Toshiba ADR holders’ class action to move forward
On 28 January 2020, the District Court for the Central District of California issued an order in a securities class action lawsuit against Toshiba (Stoyas et al. v. Toshiba Corp.) denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint.
The order caught our attention, as it sheds new light on important questions regarding the extraterritorial reach of the US Securities Exchange Act – an issue that was also the subject of the landmark ruling of the US Supreme Court in Morrison et al. v. National Australia Bank (2010) (“Morrison”).
RECAP: WHAT WAS MORRISON ABOUT?
In Morrison, a number of non-US investors brought a class action lawsuit against National Australia Bank Ltd, an Australian company, before US courts. The plaintiffs alleged securities fraud and relied on sec. 10 (b) of the US Securities Exchange Act (“Exchange Act”).
As (i) National Australia Bank’s stock was not listed on any securities exchange in the US, (ii) neither the plaintiffs nor the defendant were domiciled in the US, and (iii) the plaintiffs did not buy the stock in the US, National Australia Bank contended that the Exchange Act did not provide a cause of action for the plaintiffs. According to National Australia Bank, there was no or insufficient nexus with the US for the Exchange Act to apply.
After both the District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed the plaintiffs’ action, the case was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States.
The plaintiffs argued before the Supreme Court that whenever a securities fraud involves significant conduct in the US that is material to the fraud’s success, the Exchange Act should be interpreted to provide a cause of action. In the case of National Australia Bank, the deceptive conduct – overstatements in the financial statements of a US subsidiary - and some of the additionally alleged misleading statements took place in the US. Therefore, the Exchange Act should apply.
The Supreme Court did not agree with the plaintiffs’ argument and ruled in favour of National Australia Bank. Scrutinizing the extraterritorial reach of sec. 10 (b) of the Exchange Act, the Supreme Court ruled that sec. 10 (b) applies only to (i) transactions in securities listed on domestic exchanges, and (ii) domestic transactions in other securities. The conclusive factor regarding the applicability of the Exchange Act was determined to be not whether the deception was perpetrated in the United States, but whether the purchases and sales of the relevant securities took place in the United States. The fact that there had been some “domestic” activity was not deemed by the Supreme Court to be sufficient for the Exchange Act to apply.
WHAT IS THE ISSUE AT STAKE IN THE TOSHIBA CASE?
In Stoyas et al. v. Toshiba Corp., the plaintiffs brought a claim under sec. 10 (b) of the Exchange Act against Toshiba, a company incorporated in Japan.
As was the case in Morrison, Toshiba’s stock is not listed on any stock exchange in the US. The claims brought by the plaintiffs, however, related for the most part to purchases of American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”). ADRs are negotiable certificates created by depositaries (generally a bank) and represent an ownership interest in foreign securities held by the depositary. Each ADR references a fixed number or fraction of underlying securities on deposit with a depositary. Importantly, the depositary cannot issue an ADR unless it effectively holds the corresponding underlying securities.
In the case at hand, the ADRs reflected ownership of Toshiba’s common stock and were purchased in the US on the over-the counter market. Moreover, the ADRs were “unsponsored”, which means that they were issued by depositaries without Toshiba’s formal participation. ADRs can be issued without obtaining a company’s consent – and in theory even without its knowledge.
Toshiba filed an initial motion to dismiss, and the trial court granted dismissal on the grounds that the trading platform the Toshiba ADRs were purchased on were an “exchange” but failed to meet the specific requirements of the first prong of the Morrison test (limiting the applicability of sec. 10 (b) of the Exchange Act to purchases made on an exchange to “domestic” or “national” exchanges), and therefore the Exchange Act did not apply. The plaintiffs appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the trading platform was not an exchange at all, and the second prong of Morrison (limiting the applicability of sec. 10 (b) of the Exchange Act to purchases not made on an exchange to “domestic transactions”) should be applied. The Ninth Circuit explicitly declined to follow precedent from the Second Circuit indicating that the second prong of the Morrison test should examine not only where the applicable transactions took place, but whether the alleged fraudulent acts were “predominantly foreign”. The appellate court remanded the matter to the trial court to reconsider the plaintiffs’ complaint after giving them the opportunity to amend it to better address (i) whether the transactions at hand were “domestic”, and (ii) whether Toshiba’s alleged false statements were made in connection with those transactions. An attempt by Toshiba to appeal the Ninth Circuit’s decision to the United States Supreme Court was denied, and the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint.
Toshiba once again moved to dismiss the plaintiffs’ (amended) complaint. With regard to the claim brought under sec. 10 (b) of the Exchange Act, it relied on two main arguments.
No domestic transaction
Firstly, Toshiba argued that the plaintiffs’ complaint did not allege a domestic transaction, as required by Morrison, because the plaintiffs’ pleading showed that the underlying securities (i.e. Toshiba’s ordinary shares) were purchased in a foreign transaction (i.e. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange) before being converted into ADRs in the US. The conversion of ownership interest from title holder of Toshiba ordinary shares to beneficial owner through unsponsored ADRs does not qualify as a purchase. Moreover, the plaintiffs failed to adequately allege where the purchaser and the seller of the ADRs incurred irrevocable liability to respectively pay and deliver the ADRs, Toshiba argued.
The plaintiffs’ response to this argument pointed at the nature of secondary market ADR transactions, stating that the placement of the buy orders, the payment of the price and the transfer of title to the ADRs all took place in the US. The ADRs were allegedly purchased on the OTC Market in New York through the OTC Link trading platform. The purchase orders were placed through a broker located in New York and the payments were made from a bank based in New York. These elements demonstrate that the irrevocable liability to purchase was incurred in the US and that the transactions were therefore “domestic”, according to the plaintiffs.
The court sided with the plaintiffs. It deemed that the plaintiffs’ allegations with regard to the locations of the broker, the placement of the purchase orders, the passing of title and the payments made were relevant to the domestic transaction inquiry and stated that all plaintiffs’ allegations taken together provided sufficient indicia that irrevocable liability to purchase the ADRs was indeed incurred in the US.
No misconduct relating to a domestic transaction
Secondly, Toshiba argued that it could not be deemed to have acted in connection with transactions in the ADRs, because (i) Toshiba is a non-US company (incorporated in Japan), (ii) its shares are not listed on any stock exchange in the US, and (iii) it had not played any role whatsoever in the issuance or sale in the US of the - unsponsored - ADRs. Toshiba stressed that the plaintiffs’ complaint did not refer to any contact by the depositary bank with Toshiba seeking Toshiba’s consent to issue unsponsored ADRs. Toshiba contended that the plaintiffs’ statements regarding the general practice of depositary banks to obtain confirmation of non-objection or implied consent and their argument that it was thus likely similar non-objection or consent occurred with Toshiba were merely speculative. Therefore, the plaintiffs’ complaint failed to allege any misconduct of Toshiba in connection with a domestic transaction – which is a prerequisite for establishing liability.
The plaintiffs, in response, argued that, despite Toshiba’s not formally sponsoring the ADRs, it was implausible that the depositary bank for the stock underlying the ADRs had acted without Toshiba’s “consent, assistance or cooperation” because of the volume of shares it held – about 55 million, making it one of Toshiba’s ten largest shareholders.
Once more the court did not subscribe to Toshiba’s argument. It ruled that the plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged Toshiba’s plausible participation in the establishment of the ADR program, and thus the plaintiffs’ claim that Toshiba’s fraud was “in connection with” the sale of the ADR’s in the US was sufficient to survive Toshiba’s motion to dismiss.
IS THIS DECISION IMPORTANT FOR INVESTORS, AND WHY?
First, it should be noted that in its decision, the court merely ruled on a motion to dismiss. When ruling on such a motion, the court accepts every factual statement made in the plaintiff’s complaint as true. It does not verify the accuracy of the factual statements. If the complaint contains sufficient factual statements for the claim to be plausible on its face – i.e., did the plaintiff allege all elements necessary for the claim to be found with merit - the complaint will survive the motion to dismiss. The scope of the court’s review is therefore rather limited.
The decision is nevertheless significant because, if upheld and adopted by other courts in the US, it provides purchasers of unsponsored ADRs a potential avenue for recovery in the US that the Morrison decision had appeared to foreclose. With regard to the “misconduct relating to a domestic transaction” requirement, the bar has been set relatively low in the Toshiba ruling.
Future ADR class action complaints will likely deploy similar arguments to make a claim under sec. 10 (b), giving courts ample occasion to either adhere to the Toshiba ruling or to decline to do so.
For example, in Dalpoggetto v. Wirecard AG et al., a class action suit relating to unsponsored ADRs referencing ordinary shares of German fintech group Wirecard (“WCAGY”), an amended complaint was filed in February 2020. In this case, the plaintiff argued, presumably in an attempt to establish a link between Wirecard and the alleged domestic transaction, that it is common practice for a depositary to notify the foreign issuer of securities of its intent to issue ADRs and to obtain affirmative or implied consent to the sale of ADRs. If a foreign issuer objects to the establishment of an unsponsored ADS program, the depositary “ordinarily” will refrain from issuing and selling ADRs. To support its allegations, the plaintiff referred to, among other things, a regulatory comment letter addressed to the SEC by one of the main depositary institutions in 2008. In this letter the depositary asserted that foreign issuers are often willing to allow a depositary bank to establish an unsponsored ADR program but are reluctant to put this in writing, and consent should thus be implied by a lack of affirmative objection. Therefore, if the WCAGY ADRs were issued, it should be assumed that Wirecard consented thereto – at least implicitly.
It is too early to tell if this line of reasoning will develop into a new trend in caselaw or not. Needless to say, however, Deminor will closely monitor the evolution of relevant caselaw and brief its clients on important developments.
Written by Michael Watson & Jens Benoot .
Written on April 7, 2020 by
Michael Watson & Jens Benoot
Michael Watson is a Senior Legal Counsel. Jens Benoot is a Senior Legal Counsel at Deminor.
Introduction of class action for damages in the Netherlands
On 19 March 2019 the Dutch Act on Collective Damage Actions (Wet afwikkeling massaschade in collectieve actie) was adopted. This will make it ...
US District Court allows Toshiba ADR holders
On 28 January 2020, the District Court for the Central District of California issued an order in a securities class action lawsuit against Toshiba ...
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Battle of equals as Hero Hockey India League to begin tomorrow
More in Sports:
Priyanka Chopra and other Stars at the NBA India Games 2019 ! Oct 5, 2019
Priyanka Chopra Jonas on the Red Carpet of NBA India Games 2019’ Welcome Reception ! Oct 3, 2019
NBA Lights Up The Gateway of India Sep 29, 2019
New Delhi, Hockey lovers across the world would be treated to a mouth-watering outlay of high quality hockey with the inaugural edition of the Hero Hockey India League set to kick off with the opening encounter between Delhi Waveriders and Jaypee Punjab Warriors at the Major DhyanChand National stadium here on Monday.
The tournament, conceptualised by Hockey India and sanction by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), will see five teams to compete for top honour.
On paper, there is hardly anything to choose between the five squads that boast of the world’s best 120 players and even the bookmakers would find it difficult to pick a clear favourite at the start of the tournament, which will be played in a home-away format over the next one month.
Each team consists of 14 Indian and 10 foreign players and national coach Michael Nobbs has already underlined the importance of the tournament for the future of Indian hockey saying it would be a great opportunity for youngsters – either playing or watching the league – to learn from the foreign internationals and also rekindle the magic of hockey in India.
And that’s something that the other foreign coaches involved in the tournament feel too.
“This tournament offers some of the young Indian players to rub shoulders with some of the best in the world. Getting the experience for them that will only benefit the game locally. This tournament will be interesting because you are tested by having to use your full squad and plus the quality of the reserve players that is critical,” says Ric Charlesworth, coach of Mumbai Magicians.
Uttar Pradesh Wizards’ Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans feels the five-team city-based HIL will give a big boost to Indian hockey and the event will be a blessing in disguise for the domestic players. “I feel HIL will have a great contribution to the future of Indian hockey. The important thing is that Indian players will get the opportunity to train and play alongside and against the best players in the world. They will learn from them. The most important thing is to learn to develop yourself,” says the Dutchman.
At the same time, none of the think tank is losing focus on the immediate task ahead, which is to win the League.
Delhi Waveriders’ skipper Sardar Singh believes that the experienced players in the squad have a role in driving the team to excel. “The senior players along with the coaches and the chief advisor have already had sessions where we have talked about strategy and game-plans. The onus will be on the players to perform because a coach can only guide us. A K Bansal and AjitPal Singh have a wealth of experience and we are not missing a foreign coach,” Sardar says.
“I am looking forward to working with Ranchi Rhinos as a coach and I am hungry to win this inaugural tournament. India has the best hockey talent available in the world which we will utilise to build a strong team in the inaugural season of HIL,” is how Gregg Clark, puts it.
While national coach Nobbs is already looking at the future, the team management of Delhi Waveriders and Jaypee Punjab Warriors would not want to look beyond the opening round clash as they aim to launch their campaign on a winning note.
All in all, the hockey fans in India are set for an absolute treat for a month, and the show begins on Monday evening.
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Sanjay Mishra busy for SRK’s Dilwale, delays Jimmy Shergill’s next ‘Gun Pe Done’
Published by Hemant Sanganee on Mar 19, 2015
Sanjay Mishra, an alumnus of National School of Drama, Actor and Famous TV personality, made his acting debut with “Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India!” is a happy man, as his movie, Dum laga ke Haisha, is well received among critics and audience alike, especially his portrayal of a father is brilliant.
But, what people don’t know is that, Sanjay Mishra also acted in another soulful and brilliant movie, Gun Pe Done, based on Hooch Nexus and its tragedies, directed by versatile Abhik Bhanu.
Abhik says, “Movie is likely to release in mid-2015, post production and dubbing are in full swing and we are eager to go for aggressive promotion. But we are facing a completely different story that Sanjay Mishra delays to show up for Dubbing as he is currently shooting for Dilwale, which is directed by Rohit Shetty and features Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. But, it is costing dearly to the producer and other cast members who has worked equally hard for the movie.”
The entire issue came to light, when Abhik Bhanu, the director of Gun Pe Done, had to cancel all promotional and dubbing sessions because of Sanjay Mishra’s prior commitments to Rohit Shetty for SRK’s starrer ‘Dilwale’. Now all promotional and post-production has come to stand-still and we all know, what does that means for a movie. Gun Pe Done features Jimmy Shergill, Vijay Raj, Tara Aslisha Berry, Sanjay Mishra, Vrajesh Hirjee, Anant Jog, Bidita bag, Deepraj Rana among others.
Film is produced by Pioneer Films and Entertainment LLP.
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Tag: Music of Africa
Black Music. Music, Deutsche Welle, English works, feature, MOBO
What is Music of Black Origin Anyway? Radio feature about Mobo Awards (16/11/2000)
November 16, 2000 July 19, 2012 by Daniel Z. Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski
This feature was broadcasted in 2000 on DW – transcript follows
At the beginning of October, London hosted the MOBO awards, MOBO standing for Music of Black Origin. It is important to consider MOBO within Europe’s and North America’s history. “Black music” supposedly means by people with a black skin colour. For years, many black artists were pushed behind. Their songs were often copied by white performers to satisfy audiences, alienated by blacks. In the eighties and nineties, attempts to label music were made, to try to correct, decades of exclusion.
MOBO supporters hold the view that the drum was invented in Africa –as most music has a drum based rhythm – most music is held to be black. But why be specific here, if, most likely, the totality of humanity originated in Africa? Different folk traditions made use of drums –not always due to an African migration.
So. can music be separated into black and white? Kanya King is one of the founders and main driving forces behind MOBO, which this years saw fames like Lauryn Hill, and Armand van Helden, both of darker complexion, and Fat Boy Slim and Emi-nem, on the lighter side of shades. With her I discussed the meaning and history of MOBO:
Kanya King: “The MOBO award was founded through award and celebrity artists involved in the broad spectrum of music of black origin and that encompasses Hip Hop R&B, Gospel, Jazz, Reggae et cetera. Basically the MOBO awards are unique because they celebrate the basis of much popular music today, as well as saluting the rich history and cultural diversity apparent in today’s multi-cultural society. It’s only been going three years, this will be the fourth year. It goes out worldwide to an audience of over a 100 Million people.
I think there became a time when I said look, I’d been to see a lot of organisations I had the door slammed in my face: “Oh look this is niche music, It’s a niche event! “ I said: No it’s not a niche event! You only have to look at the sales pattern and politics of music today and you re realising we’re defining the future of world music. You know, the acts that we’re talking’ about are securing number one global hits around the world. In a way I said, what we’re trying to do is something positive. We’re trying to celebrate the music, we’re also trying to celebrate genres that often get overlooked in other mainstream award ceremonies.”
Daniel Zylbersztajn: ”But it seems like at the moment we have a little bit of circulation from awards to awards, especially big people like Lauryn Hill, Puff Daddy is certainly somebody who has been recognised by MTV awards and what have you!!
Kanya King: “These artists feel comfortably not only n specialist charts but also in mainstream charts. So there is a lot of talent out there. We have an award called the unsigned act award. Basically what we are trying to do is to provide a platform for them. What we’re saying is, most people would wholeheartedly agree that most forms of popular music today have their roots in black heritage, and that’s what we’re doing trying to celebrate that fact. It doesn’t matter the colour or creed of an artist.. It’s a bout the music that counts.
Daniel Zylbersztajn: “African musicians in Europe are pretty much marginalised, and also would deserve an award!?”
Kanya King: “You’ve got Hip Hop and R&B, that’s African music! It started with the drum! Gospel music and Reggae music is marginalised! What we’re trying to do is say there are many forms of African music. And African music is R&B and Hip-Hop as well!
Daniel Zylbersztajn: “But why haven’t you got an award for African music?”
Kanya King: “We haven’t got an award for English music!
Daniel Zylbersztajn: “I thought that the award us called music of black origin?”
Kanya King: “Why do we need to call an award for African music when it should be either highlife or Zoot – we have a ninety minute slot and we obviously try to reflect, you know, a reggae act performance. A dance act performance, a hip-hop act performance, a gospel act performance. If we can – we only have ninety minutes of television, so we can’t reflect everything although we’d love to. It’s a very difficult choice, because what you’re trying to do is to give something have something for everyone and even though we have people say: Oh. Can we have not have more reggae acts on our show performing – you should have more dance acts, you try to reflect as much as you can, obviously with the time that you have. What’s also important is that rock music as well, we have black artists. People see that very much as a white genre, obviously you have to look where it’s come from. What we’re trying to do is to focus on music that doesn’t necessarily always get the recognition.!”
Daniel Zylberstajn: “Can you explain a little bit, how was it like when you grew up? How was it like for most black people, in this country about this recognition?”
Kanya King: “Gosh – when I was growing up, it was very very difficult to hear my influences, I mean whether it’s Sam Cook, John Holt or Steve Wonder, I think the sales patterns and politics of music is changing, and it’s no longer niche music, it’s part of the main stream today which is very important and this is really what we were campaigning for to make sure that black music is not marginalised, like it has been done in the past.”
Kanya King organiser of the MOBO.
If MOBO would specify black musical invention that occurred at specific locations, maybe the growth of rap and hip-hop in poverty ridden black populated urban areas in the USA, It would maybe have more validity. MOBO only circles between Britain, the Caribbean and the U.S.A. Today, Hip-Hop and other music forms are made in other world locations too! Most critically, a black origin music award begs its opposite – a white award –an impossibility in contemporary Europe, except for white supremacists. Further, what exactly do the generalising words black or white people mean anyway? They seem to gain meaning only in the context of a Europe and America for several centuries prejudiced towards people of a darker complexion. In the musical context consider also that Europe’s own native musical traditions – white music in the ears of MOBO – have and are still often ridiculed as backwards and primitive, those who believe Europe is the only place with a higher culture. Perhaps what we really need is to re-evalue our understandings of music, beyond black and white?
For Deutsche Welle, I am Daniel Zylbersztajn in London.
2000 Interview with Kanya King, organizer of the MOBO award, on background and history of MOBO.
Originally aired on Cool.
recorded, presented and produced by Daniel Zylbersztajn,
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Tag Archives: autocrat
Twilight’s Last Gleaming – Print series release
5 print set
5- 11×14 inch (28 x 36cm)
Archival pigment print on 300 gr Moab Entrada Rag Matte Fine Art Paper
edition size 50
It had become increasingly important to me, to make a piece about 2020. Why? That’s a tricky question. Maybe as proof, simply that I was here or perhaps, as some self imposed obligation I feel. An arcane idea that because I chose to be an artist it is my responsibility to add my perspective to things of cultural and historical significance. To chime in, as it were. That’s reportage though; witness and record, and it was of little interest to me. It seemed pointless, gratuitous even. After all, what could I add to the analysis of political pundits, scientists, activists, and a cacophony of opinionated social media users? “Nothing.” I thought.
My defeatist, uninspired answer actually angered me. It became a mirror of what the past 10 months had done to me. An unflattering mirror, far removed from who I thought I was. Like the aging man who steps out of the shower one morning and sees himself, not his idea of himself, nor a memory of himself, his current self. Unadorned. As if 15 years of aging had slowly crept up on him unnoticed and then all at once presented themselves in a chorus of diminishing returns. Just as age will steal your youth, this year had stolen my faith, perhaps even my voice. I had nothing to add to the conversation.
Sometime in November I began searching through my hard drive for an image I had misplaced. I don’t remember what image, and it isn’t important. What is significant is what happened as I searched. Image after image I began to see things I had made, in some cases over a decade ago, that reflected what I was reading and seeing in the news everyday. Two thousand and twenty was a year that disoriented even the most even keeled of us. Many of our assumptions about the world were called into question, and yet, for anyone paying attention it was all quite predictable. Inevitable even. There, on my hard drive, were images that I had made between 2009 and 2018 that felt like they were about exactly what was happening.
Images are not static things, they change, as we change. Chances are if you haven’t looked at something for a few years or a decade, when you see it again it will be with fresh eyes. The world will have changed, you will have changed and thus your perception will have changed. This, I found interesting.
Upon recollecting how these images started for me, I remember researching possible causes of apocalyptic events. It was 2011 and Hugh Leeman, D Young V, and I, had agreed to do an exhibit in Los Angeles scheduled for 2012. 2012 was predicted by the Mayans to be the end of the world. Hugh, D, and I, thought that would be an interesting theme; the world after. We created an installation titled: “Epilogue”. What’s significant here is the research. The most common theory I came across regarding apocalyptic events wasn’t a comet smashing into earth or a multi-national nuclear war. It was something quieter, invisible almost, it was an airborne respiratory virus with a high level of transmission. When the initial reports from Wuhan started making there way to the New York Times, after New years Day 2020, I distinctly remember my reaction. Fuck.
In May, when George Floyd was murdered by a police officer, I would be lying to tell you I was shocked. Angry? Yes. Despondent? Absolutely. Surprised? How could I be. We live in a country where it is necessary to have a group called Black Lives Matter. Was that not among the truths we hold to be self-evident? Racism in the united states is a disease that has been left untreated for 400 years to fester. We keep treating it like the flu, in that, we think a few minor remedies will lessen the symptoms in the short term and it will eventually self resolve. It won’t. Racism is the actual plague of this nation and presents an existential threat. Until we as a nation, reconcile that, deal with it and address it, our full potential will never be realized.
In my adult life, from Rodney King to George Floyd I have witnessed a steady increase in both frequency and severity of police violence against African Americans. The civil unrest that follows are not simply predictable, they are necessary. Demonstrations of outrage are necessary. They represent the frayed cords that are the remaining ties to our best aspirations as a nation. Their absence would be the final breath of the great experiment, and it’s concluding failure. From 2015 til today the nation has had a race-baiting candidate and then president at the helm of the Republican party. Race baiting politicians only win votes in a racist nation. Donald Trump is the empirical proof that we live in a racist nation, (for anyone who actually had doubts). His racism is no more real than his tan, or his hair, or his marriage. It is mostly for appearances, and the appearance of racism only appeals to a racist constituency. To a man like Trump, racism is American currency and currency is power.
In the summer of 1997, I was on a bus with the Backstreet Boys driving around Oklahoma City. I was on a magazine assignment to photograph them. Nick Carter and A.J. McLean wanted to go to the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building. This was the building Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed on April 19, 1995, killing 168 fellow American citizens. The victims ranged in age from 3 months to 73 years old. 19 were children and 3 were pregnant women. The bombing was the first I had heard of militia groups, or the phrase domestic terrorism. The building had been demolished 2 years earlier. Now there was simply a chain linked fence around the area. On that fence people had posted photos, memorials, teddy bears… Back on the bus everyone was quiet. I’ve thought back to that moment over the years. I don’t know what the backstreet boys were thinking, I, however felt like the concept of war was forever changed. We were the enemy. Ourselves. Some alienated, damaged part of our collective, lacking the vocabulary to express their disaffection. Like some of the least persuasive people I’ve ever met, they had found the language of force. Force completely strips a gesture of it’s meaning. There is only meaning in choice and free will. There is only respect, love, and compassion in choices. Because choices are the things we want to be, not the things we need to be.
This was a new era. This was the national equivalent of an auto immune disorder. The body of our nation had begun to attack itself. So in May of 2020, when armed militia stormed the state building in Lansing Michigan, or in October when the Wolverine watchmen, a group that had met with McVeigh prior to the Oklahoma city bombing, had been charge with a plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan one could hardly be surprised.
Only weeks earlier President Trump had intentionally encouraged and emboldened these groups when he tweeted, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN.” To me the word liberate sets off an alarm when I hear it leave a leader’s lips. More often than not what it calls for, in actionable terms, is the antithesis of liberation. It is sometimes simply a call to quell dissent. Painting oneself as the defender of freedom and the opposition as an existential threat to freedom itself. Other times it is the self righteous and indignant facade that attempts to hide a nefarious plan. In this case it was the left hand of the magician pointing and waving a handkerchief while the right hand went unnoticed.
The specter of autocratic rule resides in the collective unconscious of all free people. This is what makes it potentially, such a dangerous tool. It enlists everyone. On the one side are those convinced that those in power are defending against our demise. On the other side are those convinced this nationalist movement is in fact the very thing it purports to be defending against; over-reaching autocratic rule. These scenarios present this curious contradiction. They divide people by allegiance and at the same time they engage the entire population, mostly in panic. That’s when the shit show begins. Dr. King said that “a riot is the language of the unheard” and that rings true. Let’s also consider how “riot” is simply a fear inducing word choice for freedom of assembly. It is not dissimilar to the way the word “socialism”, in this country, has become synonymous with communism. So while this president had decided that social distancing and mask wearing were an erosion of your constitutional rights, rather then a temporary public health measure. Fast forward to June 1st at Lafayette Square in Washington D.C., where the same man, decided to clear peaceful protestors, exercising their 1st amendment rights, by use of force and chemical weapons. What ensued was called a riot. If it weren’t so devastating and dangerous it would almost be comical how often American police physically attack peaceful demonstrators, and when those demonstrators act in self defense they call it a riot. All the more heinous was the reason for clearing the square. The most profane president in our history wanted a picture of himself in front of a building he’d never been to (a church) holding a book he’d never read (the bible).
There are people who believe that a president who has ruled primarily through executive order, sidestepping the process of political discourse, is the defender of your civil liberties. Mostly because he has said so. There are also many people who believe the United States is the greatest nation in the world, mostly because it has claimed to be. There are also the rest of us, which on most days, account for a majority. Some believe you can simply fire rubber bullets and tear gas dissent into submission, without retribution. That seems unlikely. When I see a person, who has been beaten by police, in the absence of recourse, toss a molotov cocktail at the same police, I understand that. That is not a difficult dynamic to comprehend. I don’t necessarily condone it, but I am not surprised by it either. When I see people who are refused their rights and refused representation and they turn up day after day and demand those rights and demand representation, I can only applaud them. Freedom is a funny wheel. Once it has rolled forward It requires 10 times the force to roll backwards. Anyone who aspires to that sort of reversal had better come prepared to reconsider. I suspect we will come out of this year with our democracy dented and scraped but mostly in tact. I would attribute that, not to it’s durability entirely, but more to the sheer incompetence on the part of this administration. A better prepared, more experienced group of autocrats may have made more headway.
Much of my work is about alienation and disconnection. Specifically the type that happens when people feel threatened by their immediate surroundings. 14 years ago I was talked into going to see a movie starring Al Gore. Not exactly known for his charisma, Al Gore was a tough sell. If my memory serves me, I was trying to appease a girlfriend and agreed to go see “an inconvenient truth”. I walked out of that theatre with the knowledge of a new (to me) concept; Climate change. Climate change and the existential crisis it represents would become a big part of the global conversation over the following decade. That film would be a source that inspired me to begin using surgical masks in my images, a barrier between our own physiology and the outside world. The need to protect ourselves from the natural world around us brought me back to that day on the bus with the Backstreet boys, again, we had become our own worst enemy. Like those men from Michigan, the environment had become hostile towards us, and threatened our physical well being. The chickens were coming home to roost in both scenarios and again my reaction was the same as it was to the news coming out of Wuhan in January 2020. “Fuck”.
2020 saw a record breaking season of destruction both in the form of wildfires in the west and hurricanes in the east. Unsurprisingly, it was a consequence Al Gore had describe 14 years ago. Who, I wondered, was surprised? In March of 2020 I had a dream. In the dream the pandemic had paralyzed the world and Hurricanes battered the east coast as wildfires tore through California. I woke up with my heart pounding. I thought “Shit. What if it all starts to unravel simultaneously?’ The dream wasn’t a fear dream, like when I am trapped on a scaffold outside the 38th floor of a building and my fear of heights is in full swing. Rather it is what I call a “consequence” dream. To me these dreams are the result of some ignored or postponed anxiety. Maybe one morning you notice a suspicious mole on your shoulder. You think, “hmm, maybe I should get that checked out” but you don’t, you forget about it. 2 years later you have a dream that you’re in a doctor’s office being diagnosed with skin cancer and the doctor is asking why you didn’t have this checked out sooner. These dreams are an acknowledgement of negligence. For me, 2020 has been a consequence dream, the predictable outcome of negligence, without the respite of waking.
The piece I created is called: “The Twilight’s last Gleaming”. It is a series of 5 images I made between 2009 and 2018. That they were made prior to 2020 was necessary to demonstrate that this past year was not an apparition but a predictable consequence of negligence. It was important to me that the number of images be an odd number. There needed to be room for, not only a left and a right, but also a center. Each print contains a single word from the second line of the star spangled banner (our national anthem). What, so, proudly, we, hailed. Words that were written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 as he watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships in the battle of Baltimore. Key was speculating on the outcome of a battle, as was I with the piece. What would remain, and what would fall. Surely there was a point during this year where most of us questioned whether we would return to normalcy, or whether we would perish. Whether we thought, “was this the twilight’s last gleaming?’
The images I chose are arranged sequentially with the word “Proudly” in the center. The center image is the most neutral, acting more as a document than an ideology. To the viewers left the ideology becomes more politically left. To the viewers right, the image becomes more politically right. While I am an atheist, I consider myself culturally catholic. Any claim that this doesn’t inform my work would be inauthentic and any to attempt to erase it would be futile. While, above I describe a political arrangement of images there is a concurrent religious arrangement in which, the woman in the center acts as a proxy for God and conversely, the images at her right hand represent the favor of God. The left hand represents the judgement of God, as in Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgement” fresco from the Sistine Chapel. I view this language as mythology or allegory and while I do not suspect a second coming of Christ, certainly, 2020 was a reckoning.
Tagged 2020, atavisms, authoritarian, autocrat, COVID, domestic terrorism, eddie colla, eddie colla art, eddiecolla artwork, limited edition, pandemic, print, print release, print series, salvage portraits, Trump, year2020
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Alexis Skyy Reveals She Was ‘Sold’ At 15 in New ‘LHH: Atlanta’ Season 9 Trailer [WATCH]
*VH1 has dropped a nearly six-minute super trailer for the upcoming season 9 of “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta,” in which cast member Alexis Skyy opening up about her troubled past.
In the clip, Alexis reveals to an audience at an event that she is the victim of human trafficking, Ace Showbiz reports.
“I was just basically sold to whoever, highest bidder,” she says, adding: “I had to forcefully do it or he would say he was gonna kill me. I didn’t want to die.”
Following the release of the trailer, Alexis took to her Instagram account to share a lengthy message. “LHHATL this season is a really BIG season for me, for the first time EVER…in my life… I’m opening up about my traumatic human trafficking experience I went thru as a little girl…!!!” so she wrote.
“Everyday I’m attacked, judged & accused of lying… all because, I’ve never spoke on my story before, but what nobody knows is, I still to this day haven’t told my mom, my grandmother or none of my immediate family!!!” she added. “I was only 15 years old when I was kidnapped & forced into human trafficking by a guy 20 years older than me.”
Peep the full post below.
OHETR NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: ICE T Will Host the Mob Movie Awards 2020
LHHATL this season is a really BIG season for me, for the first time EVER…in my life… I’m opening up about my tramatic human trafficking experience I went thru as a little girl…!!! l never in my life, planned on saying anything UNTIL one day, I mention part of it & SO SO SO MANY young girls reached out to me about them currently going thru the same thing & having similar stories!!! It’s so sad & so important you talk to, love, guide & caress your children!! Everyday I’m attacked, judged & accused of lying… all because, I’ve never spoke on my story before, but what nobody knows is, I still to this day haven’t told my mom, my grandmother or none of my immediate family!!! I been so afraid for many years to talk about any of it, specifically in fear of a possible revenge, harassment & lord knows what else!! I was only 15 years old when I was kidnapped & forced into human trafficking by a guy 20 years older than me!! Every single day.. for 2 months… he would beat on me, threaten to kill me, my family & etc!!! Multiple times he held a loaded gun to my face, abused & raped me!! Also forcing me to have sexual intercourse who would pay!!! It’s so much shyt I’ve been thru as a young girl that nobody knows!! This season will be the first time my mother, dad & all my other family will hear about this!!! For so many years I didn’t know how to tell my family about this!! But after hearing so many stories similar to my own, I gotta be a role model to these young girls!! If it’s something I can say or do that will help or save some of these girls from making the mistakes I did & help bring awareness to the danger these girls face… I HAVE to face my fears!!! I was a very young girl who was taken advantage of & abused. Many nights I just knew the end was near… but by the grace of god I was saved & rescued from this man, from a guy I’ve never been able to see again or thank!! ? I don’t really wanna speak too much on it right now because I really want you all to tune into #LHHATL & get to understand me so much more! Understand my pain, my growth, & what I been thru… ️? I wanna give a HUGE thank u to Stef, Mona, Paris, Jacinda,
A post shared by Alexis Skyy (@alexisskyy_) on Mar 9, 2020 at 4:54pm PDT
Alexis went on saying that every day for two months the man “beat on me, threaten to kill me, my family & etc.”
She added, “Multiple times he held a loaded gun to my face, abused & raped me!! Also forcing me to have sexual intercourse who would pay,” she explained. “It’s so much shyt I’ve been thru as a young girl that nobody knows.”
“This season will be the first time my mother, dad & all my other family will hear about this!!! For so many years I didn’t know how to tell my family about this!! But after hearing so many stories similar to my own, I gotta be a role model to these young girls!!,” she explained. “If it’s something I can say or do that will help or save some of these girls from making the mistakes I did & help bring awareness to the danger these girls face… I HAVE to face my fears!!! I was a very young girl who was taken advantage of & abused. Many nights I just knew the end was near… but by the grace of god I was saved & rescued from this man, from a guy I’ve never been able to see again or thank.”
Alexis says you will have to tune into the show to get the full tea of the trauma she endured.
This season will also see Alexis and Karlie having a heated moment once they realize both are boo’d up with the same man.
Karlie appears to be married to the mystery guy, so she attempts to attack Alexis at Rasheeda and Kirk Frost‘s 20th anniversary party.
Scroll up and watch the trailer via the YouTube clip above.
Season 9 of “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” premieres March 16 at 8 P.M. ET/PT on VH1.
Love and Hip Hop Atlanta
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Home Editorials of Interest Taipei Times Hong Kong police are out of control
Hong Kong police are out of control
Tuesday, 03 September 2019 04:40 Taipei Times Editorial Editorials of Interest - Taipei Times
Former British home secretary Robert Peel, credited as the father of modern policing, in 1829 established the Metropolitan Police, the world’s first professional police force.
In a force made up of ordinary citizens, police officers nicknamed “bobbies” were expected to adhere to the “Peelian principles,” often summarized as “policing by consent.” This meant that rather than using fear on the streets of London, “bobbies” had to secure and maintain the approval, respect and affection of the public, an ethos that is still followed. The Hong Kong Police Force of old, modeled on Britain’s police force, once adhered to these principles and was considered “Asia’s finest.”
Unfortunately, the latest violent clashes at the Hong Kong MTR’s Prince Edward Station on Saturday evening provide further evidence that Hong Kong police are increasingly using disproportionate violence to quell the unrelenting protest movement that has engulfed the former British colony.
Protesters on Saturday went ahead with a rally in defiance of the police.
A video uploaded to YouTube shows dozens of riot police sprinting down the platform at Prince Edward Station in pursuit of what appears to be a lone protester before tackling him to the ground. Officers then converge on a stationary train, pointing a tear gas gun through the open doors before storming carriages and, seemingly at random, spraying passengers with pepper spray and beating them with batons. A group of passengers is seen huddling in a corner, trying to shield themselves from the police, terrified and sobbing uncontrollably.
On Sunday, pro-democracy lawmakers held a news conference to condemn the use of extreme force.
Hong Kong Legislator Claudia Mo (毛孟靜) said: “Hong Kong people are now facing licensed terror attacks not just from the police force, but from the Hong Kong government.”
“What happened on an MTR train at Prince Edward Station was blatantly clear through press footage and photos, and police would still dare to deny ... that [they] were beating up ordinary citizens indiscriminately,” Mo said.
Civic Party Legislator Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) accused the police of “shameless behavior unbefitting of monsters.”
Such extreme levels of force being employed by police anywhere in Hong Kong, let alone within its safe and efficient metro rail system, would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago.
Regrettably, Saturday evening’s carnage was not the first time Hong Kong police have used excessive force in the past few weeks. It follows multiple instances of officers firing rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and tear gas canisters at close range and at head height, targeting protesters.
In one particularly egregious example, a young woman was reportedly hit in the eye with a beanbag round at an anti-government protest outside Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station on Aug. 11. She is still receiving treatment to her shattered right eye, which could be irrecoverably damaged.
Hong Kong police increasingly look and act like a paramilitary outfit. Many officers wear olive-colored, army-style fatigues, instead of blue or black uniforms. The police regularly refuse to grant permission for rallies and last week conducted a dragnet operation, arresting many former student leaders of the 2014 “Umbrella movement” and other high-profile democracy advocates on trumped-up charges.
Following the events of the past few months, many Hong Kongers are understandably questioning whether Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), who has repeatedly refused to condemn excessive force, has lost control not just of the Hong Kong Police Force, but effectively relinquished control of the territory’s governance to Beijing.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) announced yesterday that it would submit a new referendum proposal tomorrow that aims to ask voters whether they agree with the government’s signing of a controversial trade pact with China.
Unhappy that the Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected a similar proposal earlier this month, the opposition party said it had gathered the necessary 86,000 petition forms to launch the first phase of a new referendum drive and did so faster than expected.
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Renault and Nissan may soon become one company
Alliance Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi - is by far one of the largest in the production of passenger cars in the world. Companies Renault and Nissan, included in its structure, thought about the merger.
We remind you that now Renault owns 43% of Nissan shares, and Nissan, in turn, owns 15% of Renault. In addition, Nissan controls Mitsubishi Motors. If the merger is approved, Carlos Ghosn will become the head of the new company, who today is the managing director of Nissan and Renault.
Experts agree that when merged into a single company, it will be easier for them to resist their main competitors in the face of the Volkswagen AG concern and Japanese Toyota. Within one company, it will be easier to assemble cars on a "new energy" (NEV) and to develop a carchering service.
Last fall, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance announced a $ 17 billion investment in the development of four platforms where 40 autonomous vehicles and 12 electric vehicles will be assembled. Triumvirat expects that the implementation of electric vehicles up to 2022 will be 9 million copies.
Skoda Octavia (White)
Bentley Flying Spur new 2019
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(Redirected from Air travel in the United States)
Travel topics > Transportation > Flying > Flying in the United States
Flying in the United States
1.2 Current situation
2 Service types
2.1 Mainline carriers
2.2 Low-cost carriers
2.3 Hybrids
2.4 Regional airlines
2.5 Other
3 Fees
4 Security
5 By private plane
6 Respect
With vast distances and many "holes" in the rail network, air travel is a necessity for any traveller in the United States wishing to see more than a handful of places in a manageable amount of time.
The United States was a pioneer of aviation; the Flyer was famously flown by the Wright Brothers at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina in 1903, becoming airborne with the help of a catapult. While the US initially lost some ground in aviation to Europe, especially France, due to the Wright's business practices and litigious nature, they soon caught back up and by the end of World War II were without a doubt among the leaders in all fields of aviation in no small part due to wartime investment.
The years between the two world wars saw the birth of commercial aviation, with the development of the first transatlantic routes. This era gave rise to many of the first commercial airlines, including Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) and Trans World Airlines (TWA), which would re-define commercial air travel in the years following World War II and become global icons. The United States invested gargantuan sums of money into civil aviation as well as "dual use" military aviation facilities that could be used by civil aviation in peacetime, even taxing the railroads (which were an all private affair until the creation of Amtrak) to fund airport and highway expansion. Lucrative military contracts also propped up numerous aerospace companies, which produced among others the behemoth that is Boeing, the only company besides Airbus to still produce large passenger jets. The 1950s and 1960s are often called the "Golden Age of Air Travel", with the aforementioned Pan Am and TWA known for their luxurious on-board service and young, attractive stewardesses.
A series of court cases in the late 1960s and early 1970s eventually led to the end of the practice of only hiring young, attractive and unmarried women as cabin crew, and also led to the hiring of male cabin crew, as the courts ruled that such hiring practices constituted gender and age discrimination, hence violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 then led to the end of government-controlled pricing, thus allowing the airlines to set their own ticket prices. While this led to a sharp decrease in the cost of air travel, making what was once a privilege for the filthy rich now accessible to the middle class, it also meant that airlines no longer needed to compete solely based on their onboard service, thus leading to a decline of service standards in economy class. The icons of the Golden Age, Pan Am and TWA, were not able to adapt quickly enough to this new environment, and eventually closed down in 1991 and 2001 respectively.
The United States never had a "flag carrier" in the classical sense of the term, and while public investment played and continues to play a large role in the infrastructure of aviation, no major airlines are or were publicly owned to any significant extent. However, Pan Am came to be seen as a representation of all good and bad things American and thus was a target of terrorism aimed at the US, just as Lufthansa was for terrorism aimed at Germany or El Al for terrorism aimed at Israel. Pan Am had already been in financial trouble due to deregulation and a severely overpriced attempt to buy a "feeder network" when the Lockerbie attack showed that America's proudest airline was vulnerable to terrorism. This combined with variations in fuel prices ultimately brought the airline to its knees with bits and pieces sold of, in part to Delta, America's oldest airline left in the air.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and growth of budget carriers with the dawn of the 21st century, there was consolidation of the airline industry on a grand scale. United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines emerged from among the legacy carriers to become the global aviation giants that we know today. To compete with the budget carriers, the legacy carriers emulated them by stripping the frills from economy class and selling those tickets at prices competitive with the budget carriers. Thus, flying domestically in the United States today, while relatively affordable, is a largely no-frills affair: service standards are only a shadow of what they once were during the Golden Age, often lagging behind those of the major legacy carriers in the rest of the world. Still, air travel is the fastest and most convenient way to travel long distance in the United States. Safety standards have improved dramatically since the Golden Age, and the United States has one of the best commercial aviation safety standards in the world. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on the investigation of aviation incidents. Likewise for a long time the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was regarded as so credible an authority that FAA approval was seen almost as ipso facto enough for approval by other authorities like the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). However, severe oversights regarding the Boeing 737 Max have led to a crisis of confidence in the FAA and have led to other aviation authorities announcing more rigorous testing before they approve FAA recommendations.
Unlike in Europe where airlines face increasingly stiff competition from fast, cheap, popular and ubiquitous high speed rail, airlines in the US have had little serious competition from other modes of transit since the 1950s, and have in fact been successful at lobbying against government funding for building high-speed rail lines. A frequently cited example is Southwest Airlines successfully lobbying against a high speed rail project in Texas in the 1980s, then their core market. This means that where demand is too low for more than one airline to profitably operate (or in fact where air service has to be subsidized to be offered at all), airlines often engage in a "take it or leave it" attitude in terms of customer service, price and onboard comfort. Of course the picture is different on busy routes or along the Northeast Corridor, where the Acela Express is at least a somewhat credible alternative to aviation.
Current situation[edit]
The quickest and often the most convenient way of long-distance intercity travel in the United States is by plane. Coast-to-coast travel takes about 6 hours from east to west, and 5 hours from west to east (varying due to winds), which would take several days by land. The longest domestic flight in the U.S., Hawaiian Airlines' flight from Boston to Honolulu, takes a whopping 11 hours and 25 minutes, and more than 9 hours in the opposite direction (due to winds). Most large cities in the U.S. are served by one or two airports; many smaller towns also have some passenger air service, although you may need to detour through a major hub airport to get there. Depending on where you are starting, it may be cheaper to drive or take a bus to a nearby large city and fly or, conversely, to fly to a large city near your destination and rent a car (or take another bus) to your final destination. Rail travel may be a cheaper option, either for the last leg of your journey or for the whole trip, particularly on the East Coast, in and around major hubs like Chicago, or in California. In some cases coach class on Amtrak may be similarly priced to relatively long flights, but it involves sitting in coach for hours, sometimes one or two days.
Shopping around carefully is certainly a good idea, as neither distance nor travel time nor the "remoteness" of a destination is a 100% trustworthy predictor of the price you will pay getting there through different modes of transport, including bus travel. The best fares tend to be 7 to 14 days in advance of travel while the worst are less than 7 days in advance or showing up at the airport and buying a ticket on the spot. This is the most expensive way to fly as most business travelers tend to make last-minute or short-notice travel plans. If you are traveling through the Thanksgiving period (last week in November) or the Christmas/New Year holidays (Dec 15-Jan 2), the fares also tend to be the highest.
Unlike most other countries, the United States has never had a state-owned flag carrier, and the aviation market is a highly competitive one that has always been served entirely by several privately-owned airlines. Major carriers compete for business on major routes, and travelers willing to book two or more weeks in advance can get bargains. However most smaller destinations are served by only one or two regional carriers, and prices there can be expensive. Prices do not always follow any discernible logic and very often longer flights can be cheaper than shorter ones.
In the US, the term “First Class” can be misleading to foreign visitors, and for domestic flights, First Class is typically more similar to domestic or short-haul business class elsewhere in the world. Unlike in most other countries, flying in a premium class or having gold status in a U.S. airline’s frequent flyer program does not automatically grant you lounge access when flying domestically. Instead, you’ll have to either purchase lounge membership, buy a single-use lounge pass, or have gold status in the frequent flyer program of a foreign airline in the same alliance.
Service types[edit]
There are several types of airlines flying in the United States today:
Mainline carriers[edit]
Due to bankruptcies and mergers, there are only three major and two minor mainline (or legacy) carriers left. Each of these airlines has hubs in several U.S. cities, meaning most of the airlines' flights originate or terminate from those cities:
American Airlines: hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C.. (Member of the Oneworld Alliance)
Delta Air Lines: hubs in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Salt Lake City, and Seattle, with focus cities in Cincinnati and Raleigh/Durham. (Member of the Sky Team Alliance)
Eastern Airlines (operated by Swift Air) operates mainly as an international carrier from the East Coast to South America, the Caribbean, Mexico City and Guatemala City in Central America. They also offer limited domestic flights within the U.S. Hubs are in Miami and New York City; Focus cities in Philadelphia and Boston.
United Airlines: hubs in Chicago, Denver, Guam, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.. (Member of the Star Alliance)
Alaska Airlines: hubs in Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle, with focus cities in San Diego and San Jose (CA). Their service is focused primarily in Alaska and the West Coast. They also offer flights to Hawaii, transcontinental flights to the East Coast (and anywhere in between) and international services to Canada and Mexico. They are not a member of a world alliance program, but they intend to join Oneworld in the summer of 2021. Alaska has alliances with American Airlines and several foreign flag carriers who are either members of Oneworld and SkyTeam alliances. Virgin America has been merged into this carrier.
Hawaiian Airlines: hubs in Honolulu and Kahului. Service primarily between the Hawaiian Islands, and between the Hawaiian Islands and the West Coast.
These carriers used to be full service, though these days they have stripped most of the frills away from economy class and are virtually no different from low-cost carriers. On a domestic flight in economy class, expect to pay extra for anything beyond a seat, one or two carry-on bags, and soft drinks. Some flights to/from Alaska or Hawaii still offer a few perks, but check for your particular airline and flight. At times their fares may even undercut the "low-cost carriers" fares too!
Mainline carriers also offer first class (which is a marketing term; it's more like "premium economy" on most other countries' airlines) for a larger seat, free food and drinks and overall better service. Round trip fares can run over a thousand dollars, even for short flights, making the added cost not worth it for the vast majority of travelers. (Most travelers in first class get their seat as a free frequent flier upgrade or similar perk.) You may also be offered an upgrade at a much lower cost during check in or at the airport if there are open seats available. Depending on the cost for a last minute upgrade, the savings in checked bag fees alone may make this a worthwhile option (and you'll also get priority boarding, the bigger seat, more legroom, free beverages and food.)
True international-style "business class" and "first class" — with lie-flat seating or suites, substantially upgraded dining, and dedicated premium service — is slowly reappearing after decades of absence. Carriers brand it with unique names (e.g. American's Flagship, Delta's Delta One, JetBlue's Mint, and United's Polaris), and it's only available on certain international and domestic flights. Upgraded transcontinental service is usually only available between New York JFK and Los Angeles or San Francisco, although Delta also offers it on some flights to Seattle. Flights between the East Coast and Hawaii along with all flights from the mainland to U.S. Pacific territories (Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, etc.) typically feature international business class.
Low-cost carriers[edit]
The most famous low-cost carrier in the U.S. is ubiquitous Southwest (Focus cities in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago Midway, Dallas-Love Field, Denver, Houston-Hobby, Las Vegas, Los Angeles (they also serve the other LA airports), Oakland, Orlando, and Phoenix-Sky Harbor); with Allegiant (focus cities in Asheville, Bellingham (WA), Cincinnati, Concord (NC), Ft. Walton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Oakland,Orlando/Sanford, Phoenix/Mesa, Pittsburgh, Punta Gorda (FL), Savannah, and St. Petersburg (FL)); Frontier (hub in Denver Airport; focus cities in Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia, Raleigh/Durham, and Trenton); Spirit (Focus cities in Atlantic City, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Las Vegas, and Orlando), and others becoming formidable competitors. Amenities vary greatly by carrier. On one end, Southwest is the only airline in the United States that lets passengers check two bags free of charge, and have done away with some of the formality of air travel – with no travel agents (all reservations are through their website or call center), assigned seating or buy-on-board programs (free soft drinks and snacks for all passengers.) At the other end of the spectrum, Spirit Airlines sells seats as low as $9, but charges for everything beyond the seat: checked and hand luggage, advance seat assignments, checking in at the airport, on board refreshments, etc. LCCs usually do not offer a premium product, but Spirit offers its "Big Front Seat" with a bit more legroom.
Don't assume low-cost carriers are always the cheapest. In economy class, the mainline carriers offer the same level of onboard (no-frills) service on their domestic routes as the low cost carriers, and their cheapest fares are usually very close to or sometimes lower than what the low-cost carriers are offering. Even on a long-haul domestic flight with a mainline carrier (eg. from Hawaii to the East Coast (United States of America)), it is still the same level of no-frills service such as no free meals and no free check-in bags in coach class. So never assume anything and always shop around as no one airline is always the "cheapest".
While Southwest pioneered the "all one type fleet" flying an exclusively Boeing 737 fleet to cut costs and have more streamlined operations, Allegiant historically flew a lot of "old metal" before finally retiring it's McDonnell Douglas planes in favor of the Airbus A320 series in the late 2010s.
Southwest, Frontier and Spirit serve destinations nationwide and internationally (Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), although they sometimes use smaller or alternative airports such as Chicago Midway instead of the larger O'Hare International Airport; Houston Hobby instead of the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston; or Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami International in South Florida. In other places, such as the Los Angeles metropolitan area they can be at all airports.
Other low-cost carriers such as Allegiant and Sun Country (Hub in Minneapolis, with focus cities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, and Portland (OR)) focus on "vacation destinations" (Florida, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, etc.) In some places, Allegiant may only serve an alternative airport but not the principal airport such as to Bellingham (WA) but provide no service to the busier Seattle Tacoma International Airport (80 mi/128 km south) and Vancouver International Airport (45 mi/72 km north). Another example is that they serve Mesa Phoenix Gateway Airport 32.5 mi/52 km southeast of the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport where they don't fly to for travel to the [[Phoenix metropolitan area. Check their schedules.
Hybrids[edit]
Hybrid carriers offer more amenities than low cost airlines but with fares lower than the legacies. The most famous of these is JetBlue Airways (focus cities in Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles-LAX, New York-JFK, Orlando, and San Juan), which has an extensive network covering primarily major airports, one free checked bag, 34 inches between seats (very generous for an American airline) and free satellite TV in every seat. On some routes, JetBlue offers "Mint" a service comparable to business class but at usually much lower cost.
Regional airlines[edit]
Regional airlines come in three varieties:
Regional subsidiaries are operated by Skywest, Mesa Air Group, Republic Airways for a mainline carrier under brands such as American Eagle, Delta Connection, Alaska Airlines/Horizon and/or United Express in smaller regional jet or turboprop aircraft (seating 60-70 or less) to locales where it is not economically or technically feasible to operate a larger sized Boeing or Airbus jet, though some routes are served by flights on both mainline and regional carriers. These flights are booked through the parent company of the mainline carrier partner (e.g. Delta Connection through Delta.com), either by themselves or connecting to a mainline itinerary via a major airport. The regional subsidiaries also offer international services to the neighboring countries of Canada and Mexico. On-board services are very basic. From a practical perspective, flying these airlines is almost no different from flying with the mainline carriers apart from the smaller size of the aircraft, meaning that the usual frequent flyer program rules apply.
There are also independent regional airlines which are not affiliated with a mainline carrier and operate on their own brands, these are usually found in major airports and in more out of the way places, and in or near island communities (Cape Cod, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands, etc.) using propeller driven aircraft. They are Air Choice One, Boutique Airlines, Cape Air, Mokulelea (only over Hawaii and Southern California), Pen Air, and Silver Airways (mainly over Florida and to the Bahamas). They can operate solely in one area like Hawaii or they can operate in several regions (adjacent states) in different parts of the country but don't offer contiguous routes across the country between these regions. Some of them also offer "essential air" services to rural locales (see below under Essential Air Service).
Commuter airlines primarily serve the business travel market, with 10–30 seat turboprop planes. If you can work with their schedules and choice of airports (usually private aviation airports and municipal airfields) – their consistent fares can be a bargain compared even to low cost carriers. Additionally, since fares are the same whether you buy a month in advance or the day of, tickets are also flexible with no cancellation or change fees.
Other[edit]
Services to remote regions are provided by various small, local or regional carriers:
Bush planes are named for their ability to reach otherwise difficult-to-access points, such as remote settlements in the Alaska Bush. While some are small general aviation or charter flights, others are scheduled; many mixed passenger/cargo runs carry U.S. Postal Service bags (scheduled a few times weekly) to rather inaccessible points along with a few paying passengers.
Essential Air Service, a subsidised intercity service, reaches more than a hundred small cities and towns which would have otherwise lost all service to airline deregulation. Small (9-35 passenger) scheduled aircraft run two or three times daily to a single major domestic city. These flights are typically operated by small, privately-owned regional carriers such as Boutique Air, Cape Air, and Via Air and they serve communities more than 70 miles from a major airline hub. Alaska Airlines operates as a sole major airline for many remote cities and towns throughout Alaska in Boeing 737 aircraft, some of which are a combination type of aircraft with a cargo hold in the front half and a passenger cabin in the rear half.
Fees[edit]
Quoted prices, from airlines themselves and from consolidators, generally include all taxes and other mandatory fees, and there is no fuel surcharge. However, extra services tend to incur extra fees. The main ones are listed here, along with strategies for avoiding them. Even baggage fees can be avoided with careful planning.
Checking in with an agent — In today's age of online and kiosk check-in, most air travelers have no need to see a counter agent, apart from bag drop. Hence some low-cost airlines charge $3–10 to check in with a human being, although this fee will be waived if there is a legitimate reason preventing you from using other options (for example, a passport check is required or if you are physically disabled and require assistance). Spirit Airlines also charges for using a kiosk at the airport rather than checking in online. Some airlines accept emailed boarding passes displayed on smart phones, obviating the need to print them, although many smaller and regional airports do not support mobile boarding passes yet.
Checked baggage — Expect to pay $25–35 to check a single bag, an additional $50 for a second bag, and up to $100 or more for a third bag. Particularly large or heavy bags can easily double or triple these fees. Shop around, as some discount carriers give a free baggage allowance; e.g. JetBlue (one bag) and Southwest (two bags).
Each passenger's cost-free cabin baggage allowance is generally one small suitcase or garment bag and one item such as a briefcase, backpack, or purse. If you can get all your belongings into your cabin baggage, this is the best way to avoid baggage fees. Spirit Airlines charges $20–35 per carry-on bag, making it often cheaper to check in these bags. Don't forget the standard security restrictions regarding cabin baggage: liquids and gels must be in containers under 3.4 ounces (100 mL) and be presented to security inside a transparent zip-lock bag. Razor blades, electric shavers, scissors, or anything else with a blade or sharp edge must not be carried in cabin baggage.
Pre-paying baggage charges online may give you a slight discount.
Frequent flier programs may give a limited free baggage allowance and additional weight allowances to those with elite status. Some airlines have a branded credit card that offers similar perks.
Shipping luggage via UPS, FedEx or the U.S. Postal Service can work out cheaper than checking in bags.
Seat selection - Unless you're flying on a full fare ticket or have elite status in an airline's frequent flyer program, there may be a fee to select seats toward the front of the economy cabin. Airlines have different names for this: on American it's called "Main Cabin ExtrAA", Delta advertises it "Economy Comfort", JetBlue's "Even More Legroom", and United's "EconomyPlus". You'll typically get 3-4 inches of additional legroom and a slightly better position in the boarding queue for earlier access to the overhead bins, but usually no other benefits (although Delta offers free alcoholic beverages and on-demand movies to transcontinental and international Economy Comfort passengers). If there are no free economy seats remaining, you may be assigned a premium seat at check-in for free, although this is not guaranteed. If you are flying more than 2 hours or so, seat comfort and location may be especially important. Consider the Wikivoyage section of "Flying" Planning your flight#Choosing your seat, and such web sites as SeatGuru, SeatMaestro and others for specifics about seats in aircraft of any airline(s) you're considering.
Curbside check in — $2–10 on top of any baggage or check-in fees, plus a gratuity is usually expected.
Food — Small snacks (e.g., peanuts, potato chips, cookies) are generally free on all flights. On domestic and North American flights longer than 1½–2 hours, packaged sandwiches and snacks boxes may be available to buy at inflated prices. Hot food for purchase is available on some cross country flights. Some airlines allow you to preorder for your meals and pay online when flying economy, guaranteeing that there will be a meal available for you and that it's your first choice. International flights outside of North/Central America and the Caribbean feature complimentary meals, and oddly enough some international flights with meal service are actually shorter than the longest domestic or regional flights without it. New York to London takes 6 hours and still features complimentary meal service in coach, New York to Honolulu on the other hand is an 11-hour domestic flight and does not feature complimentary meals! Even if food and soft drinks are complimentary, there is always a charge for alcoholic beverages in economy, even on long-haul international flights.
All airlines allow you to bring your own food and non-alcoholic beverages on board. All except the smallest airports have an array of fast food and quick serve options in the terminal – but you can't bring liquids through the security checkpoint (and some airports do not allow food either). Airside food will inevitably be more expensive than that before security but will be far cheaper and better than what's available on board. Some cities, such as Philadelphia, regulate airport food vendors and limit how much air-side restaurants can markup.
Drinks — Free coffee, tea, water, juice and soft drinks remain standard on flights. Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are exceptions and charge for anything other than water. Alcoholic drinks cost $5–7.
In-flight entertainment — Most U.S. carriers offer entertainment of one kind or another on longer domestic routes. JetBlue and Delta (on mainline medium and long-haul flights only) offer free seatback satellite TV to all passengers; United charges $6 in coach to watch TV. Delta, JetBlue, and United also offer on-demand movies on flights with satellite TV, typically at a cost of $4-8 each unless the flight leaves U.S. airspace (where satellite reception is unavailable), then they're free. Some airlines (American, Southwest, and select Delta and United aircraft without personal screens) offer streaming entertainment to your laptop, smartphone or tablet via the aircraft's Wi-Fi system. Expect a selection of older movies (mid-2000s and earlier) and TV shows (primarily sitcoms from the 1990s); newer content generally can't be shown on streaming services due to higher licensing costs. American is charging for streaming; other carriers are not at this time.
In-flight Wi-Fi — Delta, JetBlue and Southwest offer in-flight Wi-Fi on nearly all their domestic fleets; American and United offer it on select flights. Prices range from $5 to $20, depending on the airline, length of flight, and device (tablets and smartphones get a discount as they use less data), but the Internet connection is good for almost the entire flight (at least until told by crew to switch-off your devices). Daily and monthly passes are available for less than $50/month. Most airlines do not offer power ports in economy, so be sure you're charged up or have extra batteries for your device. Mobile phones are usually permitted to be operated in-flight as long as they have been set to flight mode (which effectively shuts-off the mobile phone signal from your provider) before being airborne.
Pillows and blankets are disappearing rapidly. Some airlines don't have them at all; some will charge you for them (but you get to keep after you pay); and one or two offer them for free (but you have to ask for them). Red-eye flights and those longer than 5 hours are more likely to have free pillows and blankets. As always, check with your airline, and bring your own from home if you think you'll need them.
Lounge passes: Each mainline carrier operates a network of lounges, such as Alaska Airline's "Board Rooms", American's "Admirals Clubs", Delta's "Sky Clubs" and United's "United Clubs", offering a quieter space to relax or work in, business amenities such as free Wi-Fi, fax services, conference rooms, free finger foods, soft drinks, beer and wine. Frequent flyers buy annual memberships to these lounges or hold access through a credit card perk, but any passenger can buy a day pass during check in or at the club itself, usually around $50, although sometimes less if you buy online. Only you can decide if the fee is worthwhile, but if you're in the upper elite tiers of a foreign airline in the same airline alliance (One World Sapphire or Emerald, Star Alliance Gold or SkyTeam Elite Plus) you may have access to these lounges for free with your frequent flyer card. For members in the highest tiers, this privilege may be extended to a traveling companion. Additionally international Business and First Class passengers can also access these lounges for free, as do international passengers on the upper elite tiers of the respective airline's frequent flyer program. Unlike in other countries, lounge access is typically not provided for travellers in domestic first class, or for upper elite tier members of U.S. frequent flyer programs on domestic flights. Note that lounge day passes are becoming a much rarer option as airlines strive to combat overcrowding in their "exclusive" spaces, and even domestic Business- or First-class travelers will find it difficult to gain entrance.
First-class upgrades: Delta, United, and American sell upgrades on a first-come, first-served basis at check-in, if first class has open seats. This is one to actually consider, especially if you're checking bags – "day of" upgrades can sometimes be as low as $50 each way, less than the cost of two bag fees. You'd may be paying less to check your bags and additionally getting priority security screening, boarding and baggage handling, along with a larger seat and free refreshments on board.
Most mainline carriers feature "cashless cabins", meaning any on-board purchases must be paid with either Visa or MasterCard (Delta also accepts American Express). Regional subsidiaries generally do still accept cash on board, although flight attendants may not be able to break large bills – hence the traditional request "exact change is appreciated." If you paid in advance for first class, checked baggage, meals, and alcoholic beverages are all included with the price of your ticket, as well as priority access to check-in agents and boarding.
Security[edit]
See also: At the airport#Security check
Security at U.S. airports is onerous, especially during busy holiday periods. Allow plenty of time and pack as lightly as possible. Adults must show approved picture ID (a passport is sufficient). Ensure that any liquids are held in containers no bigger than 3.4 ounces (100 mL). The containers must all be placed within a single zippered plastic bag that is 1 quart (946 mL) or less in size. Only one such bag, with however much liquid, is allowed per passenger.
If arriving from international destinations all passengers must go through security screening to continue on the onward flight, after clearing immigration and customs inspections. That means all liquids and prohibited items (per TSA rules) that were purchased in a Duty Free shop or allowed through as carry on from a foreign airport must re-packed into checked luggage after coming out of the customs area and before re-checking luggage. In most airports there is a check-in desk outside or conveyor belt outside of customs for transiting passengers to re-check their luggage. Items cannot be re-packed or re-arranged before customs inspections in the luggage reclaim area.
Passengers connecting from a domestic flight to another flight do not need to re-clear security and they simply just have to proceed to the gate of their next flight unless the next flight is in a terminal which does not have airside access to the terminal they would arrive at.
At security, all passengers must remove shoes, belts, jackets, and anything from your pockets and submit personal belongings to X-ray screening. Full body scans using millimeter waves are now standard for most U.S. airports, though they also have metal detectors to use at busier times and for passengers with TSA Precheck. Experts say that the millimeter wave scanners don't pose health risks, but if you'd rather avoid them for health or privacy reasons, you can opt for a pat-down instead. You may have to wait a few minutes for an agent to be available to do the pat-down. Should you opt for a pat-down, the TSA agent will offer to do it in private, and you also have the right to demand that it be conducted by an officer of the same sex. No clothing other than shoes and belts will normally be removed, although the agent will feel some private areas through your clothes. Random passengers may also be selected for additional screening. This may include an "enhanced pat-down." Do not assume that you are in any sort of trouble or that you are even suspected of causing trouble, simply because you are being subjected to these screenings.
There are limitations on liquids (including gels, aerosols, creams, and pastes) in carry-on baggage. Liquids must be in individual containers each no bigger than 3.4 ounces (100 mL). The containers must all be placed within a single zippered plastic bag that is 1 quart (946 mL) or less in size. Only one such bag, with however much liquid, is allowed per passenger, and must be removed from your luggage and placed separately. Liquids in excess of these limits will be confiscated. (Liquids in checked baggage are not restricted.) Medications (including saline solution for contact lenses) and infant and child nourishment (formula, breast milk, and juice for toddlers) are exempt but subject to additional testing; notify TSA agents if you are carrying these items, store them separately from your other liquids, and if possible clearly label them in advance.
U.S. citizens and permanent residents should consider applying for TSA Precheck. This allows you to used an expedited security screening lane, and exempts you from having to remove your shoes, having to take your laptop and liquids out of your bags, or going through the full-body scanner, if flying from a participating airport with a participating airline. It costs $85 for 5 years, and requires a background check and in-person interview by TSA officers. If approved, you will be assigned a Known Traveller Number (KTN), which you need to provide your airline with prior to checking-in. Alternatively, members of CBP trusted traveller programs such as Global Entry and NEXUS regardless of nationality are automatically granted TSA Precheck benefits by entering their PASSID as their KTN, and do not need to go through any additional application procedures or pay any additional fees.
If you wish to lock your checked baggage, the TSA requires you to use special locks that have the Travel Sentry TSA lock system. These locks can be opened by TSA officials using a master key should they wish to inspect the contents of your bag. If your lock is not one of the TSA-approved locks, the TSA will break it open and you will not be entitled to any compensation for the damage.
By private plane[edit]
The cost of chartering the smallest private jet begins at around $4000 per flight hour, with the cost substantially higher for larger, longer-range aircraft, and cheaper for smaller propeller planes. While private flying is by no means inexpensive, a family of four or more can often fly together at a cost similar to or even favorable to buying first-class (or even economy class) commercial airline tickets, especially to smaller airports where scheduled commercial flights are at their most expensive or unavailable, and private flying is at its cheapest. Though you may find it cheaper than flying a family of four first-class internationally, it is rarely the case, except when traveling from Western Europe.
Air Charter refers to hiring a private plane for a one-time journey. Jet Cards are pre-paid cards entitling the owner to a specific number of flight hours on a specified aircraft. As all expenses are pre-paid on the card, you need not concern yourself with deadhead time, return flights, landing fees, etc.
In some large cities, general aviation and private planes are served from a secondary airport where the main airport is crowded with frequent scheduled airline flights. These facilities occasionally bill themselves as executive airports to market themselves to large corporations who acquire their own small aircraft for business travel or resource exploration. General aviation facilities also serve flight schools, parachute clubs, aerial photographers, mapmakers or agricultural "crop dusters" and the lucky few individuals who can afford ownership and operation of one small plane as a very expensive hobby.
Many small-town airports on America's borders welcome individually-owned small aircraft; points like Ogdensburg, Watertown and Massena, with just a few scheduled domestic Essential Air Service flights daily, fill the rest of their time with general aviation. Give them an hour or two advance notice so that they can fetch border officials to meet the tiny private plane from exotic and foreign Brockville, and you've provided just the excuse they needed to add "International Airport" to their names.
Respect[edit]
The term "stewardess" is today considered outdated and arguably sexist. The preferred term for more than 3 decades has been the gender-neutral "flight attendant".
Economy class on U.S. airlines is typically cramped with little leg room, and confrontations have occurred between passengers over reclining seats. If you want to be extra respectful, consider asking the passenger behind you for permission before you recline your seat in economy class.
U.S. airlines prefer that you use the call button sparingly. Because one of its main purposes is for emergencies, flight attendants have to promptly stop whatever they're doing to answer it; using it frivolously as though it summons a personal butler will quickly annoy them. If you can't wait until the next drink service, for example, you can walk to the galley to ask for a drink. However, you should still feel free to use the call button when it makes sense (e.g. if you can't get up due to sleeping passengers).
While it's usually fine to visit the galleys for a minute or two to stretch or request a drink, don't linger there; it's also the flight attendants' seats and the only place they have to themselves.
Avoiding travel through the United States
United States without a car
This travel topic about Flying in the United States is a usable article. It touches on all the major areas of the topic. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page.
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This travel guide page was last edited at 04:10, on 3 January 2021 by Wikivoyage anonymous user 131.191.9.51. Based on work by Wikivoyage users Hobbitschuster, 20chances, AdamT777, Wrh2Bot, Mx. Granger, Bigpeteb, The dog2 and Dmartin969, Wikivoyage anonymous user 108.34.49.191 and others.
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Home - Sport - Tennis
Novak Djokovic makes winning start to 'strange' ATP World Tour Finals
World No 1 beats debutant Diego Schwarzman 6-3, 6-2‘It feels very strange to play in front of empty stands’It is 50 years since Stan Smith edged out Rod Laver and the other great players of his day to win the game’s first season-ending tournament in a totally unsuitable hall in Tokyo, but this farewell 12th edition in London is struggling to create the atmosphere of a bad school-sports day.
Certainly records are still tumbling, many of them at the feet of Novak Djokovic, who this week celebrates a successful if disjointed 2020 as world No 1 for the sixth time, alongside Pete Sampras in the game’s modern history. But Djokovic’s pursuit of a sixth title here to match the absent Roger Federer got off to a low-key start against Diego Schwartzman, his 6-3, 6-2 victory in the opening round-robin match of the Tokyo 1970 Group arriving with a smattering of applause from family and Friends.
Tinie Tempah and Emeli Sandé on how they made Disc-Overy
Stefflon Don: ‘I’m never scared to try things’
One to Watch: Babeheaven
ballistic missile
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@Communist.Workers.League
Communist Workers League
Fighting Words
Journal of the Communist Workers league
HomeDomestic NewsLow-wage workers strike in Detroit
Low-wage workers strike in Detroit
November 20, 2019 fwstaff Domestic News, International News 0
By Detroit FW staff
Almost 1000 low-wage workers, organized by Fight for $15, went on strike on Nov.12, 2019, and took the streets of Detroit, braving record cold temperatures and snow to demand unions for all, $15/ hour, and an end to sexual harassment. The marchers successfully shutdown a McDonald’s restaurant for an hour.
Several women workers spoke and described sexual harassment at McDonald’s. Days earlier, McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook was fired for an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. And on the day of the strike, Fight for $15, in partnership with the ACLU and Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, filed a class action lawsuit against McDonald’s for creating a “culture of sexual harassment.”
The lawsuit is the latest allegation of rampant abuse and harassment of women workers at the McDonald’s corporation. More than 50 claims and charges of harassment have been filed by women workers against McDonald’s in the courts and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Although a majority of McDonald’s restaurants are owned by franchisees, the lawsuit maintains that the fast-food chain has failed to address the “systemic sexual harassment”, thereby enabling it.
In 2017, McDonald’s had an annual revenue $22.8 billion, reported earnings of $5.2 billion, and a market capitalization of $134.5 billion. It operates almost 38,000 restaurants (in 2018) in over 100 countries, and is the world’s second-largest private employer with 1.7 million workers. In 2017, the average McDonald’s worker that earned $7,000, while the CEO earned $21.8 million, or more than three thousand times more than the average McDonald’s worker.
Low-wage work extends well beyond the fast-food industry. It is an ever growing feature of this capitalist system where wages are kept low in order to satisfy the insatiable appetite for profits demanded by Wall Street. According to a recent report by the Brookings Institute:
An estimated 53 million people—44 percent of all U.S. workers ages 18–64—are low-wage workers. That’s more than twice the number of people in the 10 most populous U.S. cities combined. Their median hourly wage is $10.22, and their median annual earnings are $17,950.
Workers from Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Brazil, Chile, and other countries across the world joined in a #FastFoodGlobal Day of Action demanding higher wages and a union. It was a global response to a global corporation.
Fight for $15 is showing the way forward to millions of workers in the struggle for higher wages, better working conditions and a union.
California wildfires inflame class division
Chicago teachers strike settled
The history of interferon in Cuba, in use today to treat Covid-19
March 29, 2020 fwstaff International News 0
Note: Interferon Alpha 2B is used to treat various cancers (e.g., leukemia, melanoma, AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma). It is also used to treat virus infections (e.g., chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, condylomata acuminata). This medication […]
Workers demand livable wages at Marriott
December 8, 2018 fwstaff Domestic News 0
By Tyler Vosgerchian One job should be enough. That is the tagline of the strike called by the hospitality union Unite Here against Marriott hotels nationwide, which concluded last week. This writer recently became a […]
Detroit Holds Daily Demonstrations to Denounce Police Brutality and Racism
June 30, 2020 fwstaff Domestic News 0
By Detroit Fighting Words Staff Since May 29, thousands of people in Detroit and surrounding suburbs have held demonstrations in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the overall struggle against racism. Detroit officials responded to […]
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All Out – Support Michigan State Rep. Cynthia A. Johnson
Contact Fighting Words
Email: editor@fighting-words.net
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Email: cwl@communistworkersleague.org
Copyright 2020 © Fighting Words/Communist Workers League
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By Lorry Kikta | May 19, 2020
It’s very timely that a film such as Trial By Fire should be released now, as it begs the question of how much control the government should have over our bodies and our lives. Trial By Fire discusses the polarizing topic of the death penalty through a true story of an innocent man on death row.
Cameron Todd Willingham (Jack O’Connell) is a husband and father of three in Corsicana, Texas. His family is poor, with only his wife, Stacy (Emily Meade), having a job. Nor is Todd’s, as he prefers to be called, track record with local law enforcement all that stellar. Then tragedy strikes when the house catches on fire while his wife’s at work and everyone is asleep. He is unable to save his children. At first, his neighbors are very supportive of the Willinghams in their time of tragedy, but it doesn’t take long before the attitude of the townspeople changes.
“…on trial for murder and arson, which he maintains he didn’t do.”
Suddenly, Todd is on trial for murder and arson, which he maintains he didn’t do. His defense attorney is of no real assistance to him, and it appears that the District Attorney got witnesses to falsify testimony. Todd ends up on death row, and Stacy never comes to visit. Through an interesting turn of luck, Houston playwright Elizabeth Gilbert (Laura Dern) starts corresponding with Todd. She then goes to visit him and believes he is innocent. She and a new lawyer race against the clock to find new evidence to corroborate Todd’s innocence. For Elizabeth, this means sacrificing time with her family.
Trial By Fire is an incredibly sad, harrowing movie. Things go badly for almost everyone involved and then some. Jack O’Connell portrays the fear and grief of a wrongfully accused prisoner in a way that seems as realistic as I would be familiar with personally. You really feel his turmoil over the combination of heading towards an unjust end and missing his family. Emily Meade, best known for playing Lori on The Deuce, is great as Stacy, a frustrating character that you can’t help but sympathize with. Then, of course, there is Laura Dern as Elizabeth Gilbert.
Trial By Fire (2019)
Directed: Edward Zwick
Written: Geoffrey Fletcher
Starring: Jack O’Connell, Laura Dern, Emily Meade, Jade Pettyjohn, Jeff Perry, Chris Coy, Joshua Mikel, Jason Douglas, Carlos Gòmez, William Tokarsky, Wayne Pére, etc.
Movie score: 7/10
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The Third Strike
In the '80s, when crack was king, the US government tried to come up with a way to deter the rampant drug abuse in the country. They came up with the...
Brian Banks
In Brian Banks, a high school student falsely accused of rape must find the strength within himself to prove his innocence. A film of hope and inspiration...
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We Saw ‘The Interview’ Before It Got Scrapped. Take That, Terrorists.
Jeffrey Rindskopf
When I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening of The Interview earlier in the year, I had no inkling I was watching a film destined to become so controversial. But here we are months later, when it seems that Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s sophomore directorial effort might never see the light of day because of Sony’s willingness to give in to hokey hacker terrorists.
If The Interview does ever get a proper release, it will likely be watched by everyone and their conservative, commie-hating father. Until then, I’m among a select few who saw the movie — which isn’t so much a biting satire as it is a funny, aimless comedy about James Franco being dumb and Seth Rogen having a couple of his fingers bitten off.
Beyond the obvious criticism of North Korean leadership, The Interview does have a few things to say in its depiction of vapid pop culture influencing world events — a point it’s hard not to believe, in light of the terrorism hubbub generated by a film from the same guys who wrote freakin’ Pineapple Express.
I wrote a full review, which you can read here.
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Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom in 2002 when she was 14. After missing for nine months, she was rescued and returned to her family. Today, Smart is an American child safety activist, author, and contributor for ABC News. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah,...
Spencer Burhoe
Spencer Burhoe is a well-known and popular figure in the modeling world. He has worked all over the world, from Miami to Milan, and has been open about his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Burhoe began modeling when he was 17 as the...
Ariel Pearse
Ariel Pearse is the 2017 Miss Tourism International. Ariel is the first person from New Zealand to win this world title. She served as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Australia Sydney North Mission. After her mission,...
Lucky Blue Smith’s modeling career began at age 12 after he and his three sisters were scouted by the director of Next Models LA. He followed his agent’s advice to change his hair color to platinum blonde, and quickly after that began growing into an icon...
Darwin A. John
Chief Information Officer, Federal Bureau of Investigation “The FBI, in the midst of a massive reorganization in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, yesterday (10 Jul 2002) hired the top information and communications official of the Church of Jesus...
Rob Davis Chief of police, San Jose, California In the 1970s, he served a full-time mission in Argentina. He became police chief in January 2004 when Vietnamese residents were accusing the department of cultural insensitivity after officers fatally shot Cau Bich...
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Brian David “Emmanuel” Mitchell
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Mark Hacking
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Mike Weir
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Samuel Cowley
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Fandomania Podcast
Favorite Things Podcast
Geek Music Podcast
8 Mother-Themed Songs For Mother’s Day
Paige F MacGregor
In celebration of Mother’s Day (which is this Sunday, in case you weren’t aware), I sat down and went through my iTunes library and picked eight “mother-themed” songs from some of my favorite artists. One thing that I want to point out about this list right away is that the songs collected here have only two things in common: first, they are what I call “mother-themed”, meaning that they have something to do with mothers; and second, they are songs that I personally enjoy and are performed by artists of which I am a fan (Get it? Fan… fandom… Fandomania…?). In other words, this is not a “traditional” Mother’s Day song list in the sense that all of the songs celebrate mothers or are the most popular songs written about mothers; rather, these songs have to do with mothers — whether they are praising, seeking help from, addressing, or discussing mothers — and they were chosen based on my personal taste.
My goal in choosing eight of my favorite songs that have to do with mothers is to illustrate the profound impact, whether positive or negative, that mothers have on our lives. The songs on this list range from emo-pop to reggae, Broadway musical to rap, and the artists themselves vary just as markedly as the genre and subject matter. That said, here are eight of my favorite “mother-themed” songs in honor of Mother’s Day:
1. “Criminal” – Britney Spears, Femme Fatale (2011)
“Criminal” is the last track on the standard version of Britney Spears’s seventh studio album, Femme Fatale, which was released just this past March. Written by Shellback, Max Martin, and Tiffany Amber, “Criminal” is a pleasant surprise but not top-of-the-charts material. In it, the speaker confesses to her mother that she’s in love with a criminal, but doesn’t want her mother to be upset because she is going to be okay, no matter what happens. Here is the chorus:
But mama I’m in love with a criminal
And this type of love isn’t rational, it’s physical,
Mama please don’t cry, I will be alright,
All reason aside I just can’t deny,
Love the guy.
“Criminal” is a catchy song that highlights Britney’s well-known vocal style while remaining true to the overall feel of Femme Fatale. The song earned the first spot on my Mother’s Day list because Britney Spears has been one of my favorite recording artists since her first album, …Baby One More Time, was released in 1999 (come on, I was thirteen then — this stuff was made for me). Having listened to her music for twelve years now, I can say that Femme Fatale is a major success for Britney, and “Criminal” is one of my favorite tracks.
2. “Man Down” – Rihanna, Loud (2010)
“Man Down”, written by Shama Joseph, Timothy & Theron Thomas, and Shontelle Layne, is one of several singles off of Rihanna’s fifth studio album, Loud (2010). Its Caribbean-tinged rhythm stands out from the rest of the album — likely the reason that it both garnered attention among fans and failed to move above number seventy-one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. In the song, the speaker addresses his or her mother, confessing to shooting a man in Central Station and lamenting the circumstances that led to such a life-changing mistake, as the chorus states:
Oh, mama, mama, mama
I just shot a man down
In Central Station
In front of a big ‘ole crowd.
Oh, why? Oh, why?
In Central Station.
Rihanna is one of my favorite recording artists at the moment, which is why this song earned the second spot on this list. Lyrics are particularly important to me when I listen to music, and Rihanna’s latest album features well written tracks from top to bottom, not the least of which is “Man Down”.
3. “Mama” – My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade (2006)
Following two songs sung by popular female recording artists that feature confessions, either criminal or romantic, I chose the song “Mama” by alternative pop-punk band My Chemical Romance to fill the number three spot on my list. “Mama” is the ninth track on the band’s third studio album, The Black Parade, which was released in 2006.
I discovered My Chemical Romance when I went to a concert at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island, one of the first U.S. stops on The Black Parade World Tour in 2007. In addition to the title track, “Welcome to the Black Parade”, “Mama”, which features Liza Minnelli, quickly became one of my favorite songs and I listened to it on repeat until I knew all the words (which didn’t take long since the song is very repetitive).
Mama, we all go to hell
I’m writing this letter and wishing you well
Mama, we all go to hell.
Oh, well now
Mama, we’re all gonna die
Stop asking me questions, I’d hate to see you cry
Mama, we’re all gonna die.
“Mama” is commonly believed to be about a transsexual who joined the army to gain his mother’s approval, although some fans believe that it is about a Soviet soldier in an alternate version of Operation Unthinkable launched in 1946. Regardless, it is clear that the speaker desires his mother’s approval but feels as though he won’t be able to earn it.
4. “Mama Who Bore Me” – Lea Michele, Spring Awakening (2006)
For those of you that haven’t heard of Spring Awakening, it is a rock musical adaptation of a controversial 1891 German play written by playwright Frank Wedekind. Spring Awakening features music by Duncan Sheik and a lyrics book by Steven Sater.
Spring Awakening opens with “Mama Who Bore Me”, and as you can see from the lyrics below, the female lead, Wendla (played by Lea Michele in the original Broadway performance), is lamenting the fact that her mother has given her “no way to handle things” and hasn’t taught her the lessons that she needs to know.
Mama who bore me,
Mama who gave me,
Mama, the Angels,
Who made me so sad.
No way to handle things,
Who made me so sad…
Spring Awakening deals with some very heavy issues, including sex and sexuality, suicide, and general teenage angst. The story follows a group of late-19th-century German teens as they muddle through some of the toughest issues to face adolescents, both then and now. Spring Awakening received eight 2007 Tony Awards, including best musical, direction, book, score and feature actor, and it also took home four Drama Desk Awards. Although somewhat sad, “Mama Who Bore Me” is a beautiful song, regardless of who performs it, and was a mandatory inclusion on this list when I began searching through my iTunes library.
5. “Chinese” – Lily Allen, It’s Not Me, It’s You (2009)
“Chinese” is a track off of British pop singer-songwriter Lily Allen’s second studio album, It’s Not Me, It’s You. The track was written collaboratively by Lily Allen and Greg Kurstin and although it doesn’t specifically mention “mother” or any other term usually used to address one’s mom, fans like me that have seen Allen perform this song on tour know that she wrote it about her mother because she prefaces performance of the song by telling fans what it means to her.
If you are familiar with the song, or if you read through the lyrics, you can see why many people think that it’s written about a boyfriend or lover, but this sweet, somewhat sad song is actually a celebration of the bond between Allen and her mother, film producer Alison Owen.
I don’t want anything more
Than to see your face when you open the door,
You’ll make me beans on toast and a nice cup of tea,
And we’ll get Chinese and watch TV.
Although it wasn’t one of the five singles released from It’s Not Me, It’s You, “Chinese” is a fan favorite and serves as yet another example of the important role mothers play in the lives of average people and pop stars alike.
6. “Stacy’s Mom” – Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)
Chances are good that every reader will recognize the sixth song on my Mother’s Day list: “Stacy’s Mom”, by Fountains of Wayne. The track was released as a single of off the band’s album Welcome Interstate Managers in 2003 and climbed the Billboard Hot 100 chart all the way to number twenty-one. “Stacy’s Mom”, an ode to a young boy’s adolescent fantasies about his friend Stacy’s mother, became one of the first songs to reach the #1 spot on the iTunes Music Store’s Most Downloaded Songs list.
Stacy’s Mom has got it goin’ on,
She’s all I want,
And I’ve waited for so long,
Stacy can’t you see,
You’re just not the girl for me,
I know it might be wrong,
But I’m in love with Stacy’s Mom.
“Stacy’s Mom” differs from the other songs on this list, all of which feature a speaker directly addressing or speaking about his or her mother in some way. Alternatively, this song features a speaker that is singing about his friend’s mother, specifically about his attraction to Stacy’s mom and how he tries to spend time with Stacy in order to get closer to her mother.
I’ve always found this song to be particularly interesting. If you ignore the fact that the speaker is meant to be a young boy, what remains of “Stacy’s Mom” could be the plot of any one of a long list of popular horror movies and thrillers. All creepiness aside, “Stacy’s Mom” is incredibly catchy and probably will remain a power pop staple for some time to come.
7. “Infatuation” – Christina Aguilera, Stripped (2002)
What music list compiled by a female writer would be complete without selections by both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera? Not this one, apparently. Christina Aguilera is another recording artist that I’ve listened to since the release of her debut album, Christina Aguilera, which was also released in 1999. Much like Britney Spears’s “Criminal”, which took #1 on this list, Aguilera’s “Infatuation” is a song about falling for the wrong man, despite some good motherly advice.
As you can see from the lyrics below, “Infatuation” doesn’t directly address the speaker’s mother the way that “Criminal” does, it follows a similar theme:
Mama used to warn me to beware those Latin lovers,
She said, ‘I gave my heart too soon
And that’s how I became your mother.’
I said, ‘Ay, mama, you seem to forget
I’m not in love yet, sweet talk don’t win me over.’
But I realized, big brown eyes can hypnotize when he says…
“Infatuation” was written by Christina Aguilera, Scott Storch, and Matt Morris, and is the sixth song on the singer’s third studio album (second English-language studio album). It’s often overlooked in favor of the album’s singles, which include “Dirrty” and “Beautiful”, but in my opinion the song stands out as one of the best on the album.
8. “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” – Eminem, The Eminem Show (2002)
The final song on my Mother’s Day-themed list is “Cleanin’ Out My Closet”, the second single released off of Eminem’s third studio album, titled The Eminem Show. This song is probably one of the most memorable released by the rapper to date as it was one of the first times that Eminem departed from his “Slim Shady” persona to branch out on an autobiographical journey of anger and pain. “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains one of the highest-charting singles of Eminem’s career.
In this song, Eminem examines his troubled childhood and his ongoing feud with his mother, who he addresses in the chorus, sarcastically commenting that he “never meant to hurt [her]”, presumably the way that he perceives she has hurt him throughout his childhood and adult life:
I’m sorry momma,
I never meant to hurt you,
I never meant to make you cry, but tonight
I’m cleanin’ out my closet, one more time.
“Cleanin’ Out My Closet” is not the type of song usually included on Mother’s Day song lists, probably because it is less a celebration of motherhood than it is a talented and damaged man’s expression of hatred and resentment. More than any of the other songs included on this list, however, “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” truly illustrates how deeply a mother’s actions (or lack thereof) can impact a child — again, whether positively or negatively. Although he may bear emotional scars from his past, Eminem certainly wouldn’t be the artist that he is today were it not for his experiences, including those with his mother.
britney spears, broadway, christina aguilera, eminem, lily allen, Lists, music-, musicals, my chemical romance
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tablion
Posted by FIT Student | Last updated Aug 10, 2018 | Published on Sep 20, 2017 | Byzantine, T, term definition
A rectangular panel, often ornamented with embroidery or jewels, attached to the front of a cloak. Worn as a sign of status by Byzantine emperors and other important officials.
he Dictionary of Costume (1969) by R. Turner Wilcox defines the tablion while explaining its origins, writing:
“The roman toga gradually evolved into the full-length semicircular mantle worn by the Church and Byzantine emperors. The tablions with which it was ornamented were twelve-inch squares solidly embroidered in gold and colored silk thread and accented with varicolored jewels and pearls. The squares were placed at the front corners of the semicircular cloak and at the edge in center back.” (339)
The mosaic of Emperor Justinian and his retinue, ca 547 CE, from the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy features Justinian with a golden tablion adorning his purple chlamys with two attendants with purple tablions (Fig. 1).
According to 20,000 Years of Fashion, the tablion was:
“a rectangular piece of cloth inset in the front of the chlamys at the waist height; it appeared in costumes of both emperors and empresses and in the dress of the high court dignitaries during the Byzantine empire.” (Boucher 74)
Empress Ariane is shown wearing a tablion in a 6th century ivory carving in the Bargello museum in Florence (Fig. 2). Mary Houston in Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Costume and Decoration (1931) writes that the tablion:
“was an important feature of men’s court dress from the fifth to the tenth century, and even later. On it was lavished the most sumptuous decoration of the whole costume. As a rule, it was a cloth of gold embroidered in jewels. The Empress wore it also from the eighth to the eleventh century, but otherwise it was confined to the Emperor and his nobles.” (136)
The Met describes the dress of King Saul, which features a tablion, in a 7th century silver plate (Fig. 3):
“Saul is dressed as member of the Byzantine court. His chlamys, or cloak, worn over a long-sleeved tunic, is fastened with a cruciform fibula, or brooch, the sign of a high-ranking state official (fig 8). The chlamys is adorned with a tablion, a rectangular embroidered panel indicating the wearer’s rank.”
The tablion was one of the most prized parts of a garment due to its lavish embroidering. Embroiderers would ornament these favored geometric panels with silk or gold thread, and favored the use of jewels and bright colors.
Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages describes the embroidery work the tablion made so prominent:
“Embroiderers used many rich and colorful types of thread to make their work stand out. They might use silk or gold thread, and they favored bright colors, especially purples, golds, reds, blues, and yellows. The rich and beautiful nature of so much Byzantine clothing owes much to the art of the embroiderer. Byzantine embroidery was a great influence on the embroidery of clothing throughout the Middle Ages (c. 500–c. 1500 C.E.) and beyond in Europe and Russia in particular.”
An example of a golden tablion can be seen in Figure 4, a mosaic from the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora.
Fig. 1 - Artist unknown. The mosaic of Emperor Justinian and his retinue, 526-547. Mosaic. Ravenna, Italy: San Vitale Basilica. Source: Ravenna-san-vitale
Fig. 2 - Artist unknown. Empress Ariane, 6th century. Ivory. Florence: Musee National Du Bargello. Source: Musée National Du Bargello
Fig. 3 - Artist unknown. Plate with the Presentation of David to Saul, 629–630. Silver; (10 11/16 x 1 9/16in). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.190.397. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fig. 4 - Artist unknown. Mosaic from the Church of the Holy Saviour, 1077-1321. Mosaic. Chora: Church of the Holy Saviour. Source: Pinterest
Chanel’s pre-fall 2011 collection was inspired by the Byzantine opulence and can see the modern take of the tablion (Fig. 6), taking direct inspiration from the Justinian mosaic (Fig. 1).
Fig. 6 - CHANEL. Chanel Pre-Fall, 2011 Collection. Source: Vogue.com
Cumming, Valerie, C. Willett Cunnington, Phillis Cunnington, Charles Relly Beard, and C. Willett Cunnington. The Dictionary of Fashion History. Oxford ; New York: Berg, 2010. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1011105549.
Gale, Group. Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear Through the Ages. Edited by Drew D. Johnson, Sara Pendergast, and Tom Pendergast. 2nd ed. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Detroit: UXL, 2013. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/907119374.
Houston, Mary Galway, and Mary G. Houston. Ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Costume and Decoration: Including Cretan Costume. A Technical History of Costume, v. 2. London: A. & C. Black, 1931. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/470644561.
“Plate with the Presentation of David to Saul | Byzantine | The Met.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Accessed December 28, 2017. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464378.
Wilcox, R. Turner. The Dictionary of Costume. 1st Macmillan Hudson River ed. New York: Macmillan, 1987. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/925659137.
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People You Should Know: Lauren Byl, Copyright & Licensing Librarian
Our “People You Should Know” blog series interviews key people and offices at the University of Waterloo so you can make the most of their services.
Lauren Byl is the Copyright and Licensing Librarian at the University of Waterloo.
What does a copyright librarian do?
In my role, I answer copyright questions about use of materials in teaching, such as those related to the Fair Dealing Advisory, as well as provide guidance on copyright during the publication process. I’m also responsible for negotiating the Library’s licenses for electronic resources.
Why should faculty members know about your role?
Much of the work faculty do triggers copyright in some way—whether it’s their own rights as authors, asking permission to use other’s work, or what they can use in the classroom. Faculty should know about my role because I’m here to help make copyright easier to understand and provide guidance on University best practices.
“There’s no end to the ways that people consider using or adapting works.”
What are the most common questions you help faculty with?
On the teaching side, the most common question is “What can I share in LEARN?” Faculty want to know if they can share slides with images, content from eJournals, or scans of book chapters.
On the publishing side, the most common question is “What can I do with work I’ve published?” Faculty usually sign over copyright to their publisher during the publishing process; the agreement states what an author can do with their own work.
Continue reading “People You Should Know: Lauren Byl, Copyright & Licensing Librarian” →
fauwaterloo Campus resources, People you should know Leave a comment Jan 15, 2020 Jan 14, 2020 2 Minutes
Meet the Faculty: Julia Williams
Our “Meet the Faculty” interviews provide a window into the work lives of faculty across the University of Waterloo. Faculty members talk about the day-to-day joys and struggles, and share tips for getting the work done and staying mentally and physically healthy in academia.
Julia Williams is director of the English Language Studies unit, co-ordinator of the Applied Language Studies plan, and a continuing lecturer in Culture and Language Studies at Renison University College.
What do you teach and research?
I teach English for Multilingual Speakers (EMLS) courses and Applied Language Studies (APPLS) courses. I also carry a substantial administrative workload. Although research is not part of a continuing lecturer’s official workload, like many CLs, I do engage in research. I have written several textbooks for EMLS courses and conducted collaborative research with colleagues in Economics, Optometry, and Earth Sciences. Currently, I am working, with a colleague, on a survey of units administering English language programs at post-secondary institutions across Canada.
You have a number of service roles, including directing the English Language Studies unit. What else is filling your days right now?
I’m fortunate to have a varied and stimulating workload. I’m teaching and in the midst of providing feedback on student assignments, I’m the chair of Renison’s Anti-Harassment and Discrimination Committee, and I’m a departmental representative on the College’s Academic Council and the Community and Professional Education (CAPE) Council. I’m also a reviewer for two disciplinary journals and am developing a presentation for a conference in early December. Outside of work, my family and I are becoming more involved in the Ride for Multiple Sclerosis.
The Renison Association of Academic Staff has demonstrated that faculty have shared interests and can work together for our shared benefit.
You work at Renison. How would you describe your relationship to the University of Waterloo?
We have strong ties to the University of Waterloo through a variety of connections. English Language Studies offers communication skills courses, and we are integral to the Math and ARTS First communication skills initiatives. We participate regularly in community of practice groups run by the Centre for Teaching Excellence and the Writing and Communications Centre, and we have links with the Centre for Extended Learning as well. We also develop and maintain strong ties to the larger university through our undergraduate and graduate students who come from faculties all across campus.
Continue reading “Meet the Faculty: Julia Williams” →
fauwaterloo Meet the faculty Leave a comment Dec 12, 2019 Dec 12, 2019 4 Minutes
Meet the Faculty: Patrick Lam
Patrick Lam is the soon-to-be-ex-director of UWaterloo’s Software Engineering program and an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He’s also an at-large representative on the FAUW Board of Directors.
What do you teach and research, and what drew you to that work?
I am trained as a computer scientist and my subfield is programming languages and their applications to software engineering. When I came to Waterloo, I learned that Electrical and Computer Engineering departments tend to be quite scientifically diverse and include faculty from a wide range of disciplines, from physics to mechanical engineering, and fortunately passing through computer science as well.
Specifically, I develop techniques and tools which automatically understand what software developers are saying (and what they meant to say) when writing computer software. A common misconception that developing software is a solitary task where it’s just you telling the computer what to do. That’s totally not the case, especially today, and developers absolutely must communicate with their teammates (and others). My research aims to dig out some of the implicit communication developers are performing and make it explicit.
I believe that many of us just happen to fall into doing what we’re doing by coincidence, and I think there are a lot of interesting things to study in the world. But often there are mentors that help us find our own area. In my case it was my professors for undergrad, Prakash Panangaden and the late Laurie Hendren. I hope that I can similarly inspire my own students.
What kind of work is involved with being the director of a program?
Being a program director is a rewarding but high-volume service task. The two main parts are managing operational challenges and providing academic leadership to students and committees. Operational challenges include supporting instructors and balancing the concerns of the parent units; for software engineering this is especially challenging because it is jointly offered across Faculties by the School of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and these units are quite different. Academic leadership includes thinking about what the students should learn (and what they don’t need to learn) and guiding curriculum committee discussions. I strive to be a well-rounded intellectual role model for students.
For Software Engineering, we have an associate director who is the primary academic advisor. However, I do serve as a secondary advisor and work with students when they feel more comfortable with me. That is one of the most rewarding parts of the role, even if it’s somewhat peripheral.
At this career stage I feel like one can get stuck in what I call “associate professor purgatory.”
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fauwaterloo Meet the faculty Leave a comment Dec 4, 2019 4 Minutes
Meet the Faculty: Brian Doucet
Brian Doucet is the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Urban Change and Social Inclusion and an associate professor in the School of Planning. In this extended interview, we dive a little deeper than usual into Brian’s research and its local applications.
My main focus is trying to understand how people experience big forces of change that shape their neighbourhood. A lot of my previous work has focused on the lived experiences of gentrification and I am increasingly focusing on the relationship between neighbourhood change and mobility, with a particular emphasis on cycling and transit. In teaching, that connects to some of the big trends taking place in cities today: inequality, polarization, housing challenges.
Where does your interest in these aspects of cities come from?
I’ve always been interested in the ordinary, everyday parts of cities, and curious as to why things are where they are and what is driving change. There’s a lot of inequality in our society, so there’s a lot of inequality replicated in our cities and I’m trying to find genuine ways to reduce those divisions, whether it be through housing or transportation—and not just superficial ways, but looking at the root causes of some of that inequality.
When and where do you do your best work?
I find now that I have children, almost out of necessity, I tend to work well in the mornings. One of the big pressure points of the day is around dinner time, so I like to try and get home for that. Having a very spacious office that’s only a 15-minute bike ride or a 30-minute walk from home, I find I tend to come in to work much more than I did when I lived in a different city from where I work. Sometimes I’ll even come back up here after the children have gone to bed because it’s a better place to work than the dining room table.
Continue reading “Meet the Faculty: Brian Doucet” →
fauwaterloo Meet the faculty Leave a comment Nov 19, 2019 Nov 19, 2019 8 Minutes
Meet the Faculty: Bin Ma
Bin Ma is a professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science and co-founder of Rapid Novor Inc.
I teach and research in bioinformatics. In particular, I developed a new technology to read out the sequence information of protein molecules. This is an analog to the better-known DNA sequencing, except that we deal with protein molecules, which requires a totally new method.
What is it about your work that you’re really excited about?
I am most excited about the fact that my work can help patients and improve human health.
Tell us about your start-up.
I cofounded Rapid Novor Inc. in 2015 to commercialize new protein sequencing technology. We started a residency at the Accelerator Centre in 2016 and started offering antibody protein sequencing service to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Recently, the company moved to a purpose-built facility at Catalyst137 in Kitchener. We employ 25 full-time employees—computer scientists, lab scientists, and a business team—and have served more than 200 customers worldwide, including nine out of the ten largest pharmaceutical companies. The company has also developed a clinical assay to detect the relapse of Myeloma, a special type of blood cancer.
It is very important to have full-time business partners. This allows me to participate in the company only on a part-time basis.
How do you balance that work with your role at Waterloo?
It is very important to have full-time co-founders and dedicated business partners. The other two co-founders, Mingjie Xie and Qixin Liu, work full-time for the company as the CEO and CTO, respectively. This allows me to participate in the company only on a part-time basis.
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fauwaterloo Meet the faculty Leave a comment Nov 4, 2019 Nov 4, 2019 3 Minutes
Meet the Faculty: Nada Basir
Nada Basir is an assistant professor at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business.
My PhD is in strategic management, but a lot of my research looks at entrepreneurship as a vehicle for social impact and change. I tend to make these worlds collide when I teach. I teach social entrepreneurship in our Master of Business Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program, where I focus on building innovative, financially sustainable businesses to tackle pressing social problems. My entrepreneurial strategy undergraduate course is very much focused on business strategy but there is definitely an element of leveraging businesses for social good in there.
What else do you do on campus?
There are many exciting entrepreneurship initiatives happening at the University, and I think it’s important for someone like me, a female visible minority, to be present and involved in as many as I can. The start-up space has a diversity problem, especially when it comes to female representation. Things are starting to get better, but we are not there yet. I help judge some of the campus competitions, such as the Norman Esch Awards and the World’s Challenge Challenge, and I speak on panels and act as a mentor for some student-led entrepreneurship clubs. I see and hear first-hand some of the challenges the female entrepreneurial students face and this has shaped my research and community involvement. For example, a few years ago, I was involved in organizing the Waterloo Women: Ideas, Makers, and Innovators event.
I’ve been working on building a network for faculty across campus who research innovation and entrepreneurship. Since UW doesn’t have a business school, this incredibly interesting research is happening across campus, with few connections between projects and people working on very similar problems. We’ve been playing around with a few models of how we can build better connections between all of us.
What is it about your work that you’re really passionate or excited about?
The more I learn, the more excited and passionate I become about leveraging ‘business’ for social good. Whether you are a Walmart or a social enterprise developing an affordable infant incubator for rural India, there are diverse and creative ways to make a positive impact in this world. Capitalism is an incredible force—let’s unlock that force for good. My teaching revolves around this, and much of my research does too. I feel very lucky and privileged to be able to come to work and spend my days asking questions that really excite me and working with students who are exploring how to make all of this happen.
Continue reading “Meet the Faculty: Nada Basir” →
fauwaterloo Meet the faculty Leave a comment Oct 29, 2019 Oct 24, 2019 4 Minutes
Meet the Faculty: Kelly Anthony
Kelly Anthony is a continuing lecturer in the School of Public Health and Health Systems.
The influence of poverty and inequity on people’s health. Health Sciences students tend to expect that there are biomedical explanations for health outcomes; I show them how social factors are involved in why some people are more likely to develop certain conditions than others. I don’t push any specific political belief system, but the conversation gets political very quickly! Students should leave my classroom angry and wanting to change stuff.
What else do you do on campus or in the community?
I’m fortunate that my director understands the significance of service in the community. I do more external service than internal. I’ve been on the board of the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council for the last four years; I’m currently on the executive and also two subcommittees, one on high risk youth, the other on cannabis legislation. These committees include representation from all kinds of sectors; we’re trying to ensure that people don’t end up in the criminal justice system.
What is it about your work that you’re really passionate about?
I try to bring the community into the classroom, and send my students into the community. Even something as simple as suggesting that they go into an emergency room and really look at the demographics of who’s there—who doesn’t have access to a regular family doctor or other health care options. They come back with a whole new understanding of the issues. I feel incredibly privileged to be doing what I’m doing, in a situation where I can be both angry and effective. The second I think my students aren’t leaving my class angry enough to change things, I’ll leave here.
Continue reading “Meet the Faculty: Kelly Anthony” →
Meet the Faculty: Judith Koeller
Judith Koeller is a lecturer with the Dean of Math office and the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing.
What do you teach?
I teach Classical Algebra and Linear Algebra for math majors. I also teach online in the Masters for Math Teachers program. And I’m working on a course with Peace and Conflict Studies on the peace implications of math. A lot of professions have some kind of ethical training—there are things that have to be reported and protection for whistleblowers. Some fields in math, like CPAs, have professional associations. But for many math and CS graduates, but there are a lot of social implications to their work without much clarity around ethics and whistleblowing. This course will get students thinking about what kind of ethical issues they might face in their careers.
I do a lot of service through the Centre for Education in Math and Computing. We create math contests for grades 7-12 that are written around the world, and visit a lot of schools to get students thinking about what they can do with math. I’ve visited schools in five or six countries as well as across Canada.
I’ve also served on the FAUW Equity Committee, responding and advocating for policies on campus for equity seeking groups. Through that I’ve become a facilitator for the University’s Making Spaces workshops, which specifically advocate for LGBTQ+ people.
When I connect with a young kid who really has an interest in mathematics and a lightbulb goes on that maybe they could pursue that in more depth than they realized. Sometimes it’s a kid who doesn’t think about themselves as being strong in math, but maybe there’s a particular problem that they do really well at and they see themselves in a different way. That’s really exciting.
Continue reading “Meet the Faculty: Judith Koeller” →
fauwaterloo Meet the faculty Leave a comment Oct 15, 2019 5 Minutes
People You Should Know: Amanda Cook, Sexual Violence Prevention and Response
Amanda Cook is the Director, Sexual Violence Prevention and Response at Waterloo. She supports all students, staff, and faculty on campus who have experienced, or been impacted by, sexual violence.
Why might faculty members be interested in your role?
For a couple of different reasons. If there are any faculty members who have survived sexual violence and would like to talk about resources that are available to them, any workplace accommodations that I can help facilitate, or any other way that I can support them—whatever that individual needs or wants—I am available for them.
And I also support faculty who receive disclosures. Sometimes it’s just to consult about something that they’ve become aware of, and sometimes they’re seeking to share information with or accompany a person who’s come forward to them.
What advice do you have for faculty who’ve had a student disclose an experience to them?
At the end of the day, it’s about meeting the person wherever they’re at and trying our hardest not to make it about ourselves. In an effort to be caring and compassionate, whether we’re conscious of it or not, we bring a bias about what we think a person should do, or what we would do in the same situation. The important thing is engaging in active listening and seeing what that person needs and then trying to bridge them to another support that can provide the safety or the resources they might need.
A lot of times folks minimize how much they’re impacted by caring about other people, but the stress that causes sits with you. That’s normal and there are supports for you.
What’s the most important thing you want faculty to know?
I think a lot of times folks minimize how much they’re impacted by caring about other people, but the stress that causes, trying to coordinate and figure stuff out for students, it sits with you for a while. Even if the student’s not doing anything, you as a holder of that information might have some difficulty moving forward. So just know that that’s normal and there are supports for you if you need that.
Also that there is no wrong question. I’ve had faculty just consult with me about what they could tell somebody if they come forward, hypothetically. I’m happy to work within hypotheticals.
Continue reading “People You Should Know: Amanda Cook, Sexual Violence Prevention and Response” →
fauwaterloo Campus resources, People you should know Leave a comment Mar 20, 2019 Feb 26, 2019 5 Minutes
People You Should Know: Charmaine Dean, VP Research & International
Charmaine Dean is Waterloo’s Vice President, Research & International. She started at Waterloo in 2017 and is responsible for two distinct offices—the Office of Research and Waterloo International.
Research & International is a big portfolio—what does your role involve?
The Office of Research encompasses a number of portfolios, including commercialization, ethics, grants and prestigious awards, centres and institutes, and large research programs such as FedDev and Canada Research Chairs.
I am also responsible for several new portfolios, including interdisciplinary research, and equity, diversity and inclusion in research. In addition, I am the first point of research-related contact for external communities including the Tri-Agencies; Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED); and ministers’ offices.
Half of my time is spent on internally facing initiatives and issues, while the other half is allocated to externally facing needs. I sit on 20 Boards of Directors (as Chair for six of the boards) related to research initiatives at Waterloo, as well as a number of boards, councils, committees, and advisory groups for partners and government, and some related to my research.
Waterloo International encompasses international agreements and partnerships; international experiences for faculty, staff, and students, and building a strong international profile.
Why might faculty be interested in your role?
One of the key elements of my role is to ensure that research at Waterloo is understood and supported by government and industry. Part of my mandate is to drive research forward within Canada in order to guide policy, as well as to continue building a profile for Waterloo research internationally. For faculty, I would like them to know that my door is always open to hear about their research and successes, and to help ensure their work leads to valuable impact.
Continue reading “People You Should Know: Charmaine Dean, VP Research & International” →
fauwaterloo Campus resources, People you should know Leave a comment Mar 6, 2019 Mar 5, 2019 4 Minutes
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PO Box 62131, Colorado Springs, CO 80962
Deadly Force Study
Deadly Force Incidents Statistics
Deadly Force Incident History
By Carl Uncategorized
27 Oct: POLICY PASSION; WITH REGARDS
Scriptural value was a way of life in my parent’s home. I grew up hearing them discuss politics, but never heard them argue politics (or anything else for that matter). I didn’t know until years after I left home; Dad was a democrat and Mom a republican. In 1996 my brother asked Dad if he was going to switch parties to vote for him in the republican primary for Sheriff. I said, “Dad is a republican.” They looked at me like I had three heads. Everyone knew but me. They valued all humanity; in the womb or in a union. Everything was measured first morally, then by other means. Sometimes, they voted for the same President (Carter and Reagan). Sometimes they voted different, but each President elected was their President and honored as such unless they failed. Both Kennedy and Nixon were failed leaders in their book. Our nation is entering…
20 Oct: Courage is Contagious
At 10:12 AM (MDT) on 10/12/19, I got the first of many news pings of a situation at a Pelham, NH church. News came in soon that the attack was at the New England Pentecostal Church. I knew that name. On 10/01/19 a pastor of that church (60-year-old Luis Garcia), had been killed by Brandon Castiglione, whom he had gone to see in the home of Brandon’s father, Mark Castiglione. The story started unfolding; Garcia was to have his memorial service at the church on 10/12/19. That morning (before the afternoon memorial), 60-year-old Mark Castiglione was getting married when a hooded guest stood up and started shooting. Castiglione’s bride and Bishop Stanley Choate (who was performing the wedding) were shot. Castiglione was hit over the head with the shooter’s .380 handgun. Deacon Othniel Archer had been watching from the balcony above. Within moments of the gunfire, Archer jumped from the…
13 Oct: One you might not see coming…
On 10/11/19, Boone County (Missouri) officers attempted to stop a man for traffic violations, but he ran. As officers pursued, he ditched his vehicle in a church parking lot and disappeared into the nearby woods. The same day, a Police Officer in Kansas City chased a fugitive on foot through church grounds, got him on the ground behind the church and wrestled a gun from him. There was nothing unusual about October 11th. As much news as I examine on church crime, suspects running to or through a church or the grounds is common. While these two didn’t end deadly, many desperate and deadly last stands are at a church. We may never know what happened on 11/05/2017 (the same day as the Sutherland Springs Texas church attack) in Rockford, IL. What we do know is Police officer Jamie Cox was killed by fatal blunt force trauma on the property…
The Faith Based Security Network, Inc. (FBSN) is a 501(C)(3) public charity.
Copyright © Faith Based Security Network. All Rights Reserved.
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Great hall
For other uses, see Great hall (disambiguation).
The Great Hall in Barley Hall, York restored to replicate its appearance in around 1483
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence. In the medieval period the room would simply have been referred to as the "hall" unless the building also had a secondary hall, but the term "great hall" has been predominant for surviving rooms of this type for several centuries to distinguish them from the different type of hall found in post-medieval houses. Great halls were found especially in France, England and Scotland, but similar rooms were also found in some other European countries.
A typical great hall was a rectangular room between one and a half and three times as long as it was wide, and also higher than it was wide. It was entered through a screens passage at one end, and had windows on one of the long sides, often including a large bay window. There was often a minstrel's gallery above the screens passage. At the other end of the hall was the dais where the top table was situated. The lord's family's more private rooms lay beyond the dais end of the hall, and the kitchen, buttery and pantry were on the opposite side of the screens passage.
Even the royal and noble residences had few living rooms in the Middle Ages, and a great hall was a multifunction room. It was used for receiving guests and it was the place where the household would dine together, including the lord of the house, his gentleman attendants and at least some of the servants. At night some members of the household might sleep on the floor of the great hall.
1 Architectural detail
3 Decline and revival
Architectural detail
A plan of a manor house called Horham Hall. All of the basic features of a great hall are present: a screens passage (above the porch in the plan); a dais; a bay window (not essential but very common). The main staircase is at the dais end and photos show that the hall was the full height of the two storey house.
The great hall would often have one of the larger fireplaces of the palace, manor house or castle, frequently large enough to walk and stand inside it. It was used for warmth and also for some of the cooking, although for larger structures a medieval kitchen would customarily lie on a lower level for the bulk of cooking. Commonly the fireplace would have an elaborate overmantle with stone or wood carvings or even plasterwork which might contain coats of arms, heraldic mottoes (usually in Latin), caryatids or other adornment. In the upper halls of French manor houses, the fireplaces were usually very large and elaborate. Typically, the great hall had the most beautiful decorations in it, as well as on the window frame mouldings on the outer wall. Many French manor houses have very beautifully decorated external window frames on the large mullioned windows that light the hall. This decoration clearly marked the window as belonging to the lord's private hall. It was where guests slept.
In western France, the early manor houses were centered around a central ground-floor hall. Later, the hall reserved for the lord and his high-ranking guests was moved up to the first-floor level. This was called the salle haute or upper hall (or "high room"). In some of the larger three-storey manor houses, the upper hall was as high as second storey roof. The smaller ground-floor hall or salle basse remained but was for receiving guests of any social order.[1] It is very common to find these two halls superimposed, one on top of the other, in larger manor houses in Normandy and Brittany. Access from the ground-floor hall to the upper (great) hall was normally via an external staircase tower. The upper hall often contained the lord's bedroom and living quarters off one end.
Occasionally the great hall would have an early listening device system allowing conversations to be heard in the lord's bedroom above. In Scotland these devices are called a laird's lug. In many French manor houses there are small peep-holes from which the lord could observe what was happening in the hall. This type of hidden peep-hole is called a judas in French.
The mid-14th century great hall at Penshurst Place, Kent.
Many great halls survive. Two very large surviving royal halls are Westminster Hall and the Wenceslas Hall in Prague Castle. Penshurst Place in Kent, England has a little altered 14th century example. Surviving 16th and early 17th century specimens in England, Wales and Scotland are numerous, for example those at Longleat (England), Burghley House (England), Bodysgallen Hall (Wales), Muchalls Castle (Scotland) and Crathes Castle (Scotland); however, by the late 18th century the great hall was beginning to lose its purpose. The greater centralization of power in royal hands meant that men of good social standing were less inclined to enter the service of a lord in order to obtain his protection. As the social gap between master and servant grew, there was less reason for them to dine together and servants were banished from the hall. In fact, servants were not usually allowed to use the same staircases as nobles to access the great hall of larger castles in early times; for example, the servants' staircases are still extant in places such as Muchalls Castle. The other living rooms in country houses became more numerous, specialized and important, and by the late 17th century the halls of many new houses were simply vestibules, passed through to get to somewhere else, but not lived in.
Many colleges at Durham, Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews universities have halls on the great hall model which are still used as dining rooms on a daily basis, the largest in such use being that of University College, Durham. So do the Inns of Court in London and King's College School in Wimbledon. The "high table" (often on a small dais at the top of the hall, farthest away from the screens passage) seats dons (at the universities) and Masters of the Bench (at the Inns of Court), whilst students (at the universities) and barristers or students (at the Inns of Court) dine at tables placed at right angles to the high table and running down the body of the hall, thus reproducing the hierarchical arrangement of the medieval household.
Decline and revival
From the 16th century onwards halls lost most of their traditional functions to more specialised rooms, both for family members and guests (e.g. dining parlours, drawing rooms), and for servants (e.g. servants halls and servants bedrooms in attics or basements) . The halls of 17, 18th and 19th country houses and palaces usually functioned almost entirely as vestibules, even if they were architecturally impressive. There was a revival of the great hall concept in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with large halls used for banqueting and entertaining (but not as eating or sleeping places for servants) featuring in some houses of this period as part of a broader medieval revival, for example Thoresby Hall.
^ Jones, Michael and Gwyn Meirion-Jones, Les Châteaux de Bretagne, Rennes: Editions Quest-France,1991, pp 40-41
v · d · eRooms, spaces, and architectural elements
Changing room / Locker room
Refectory
Passages and spaces
Entryway / Genkan / Mud room
Pedway
porte-cochère
Secret passage
Spear closet
Utility and storage
Box room / Carport
Electrical room
Furnace room / Boiler room
Janitorial closet
Laundry room / Utility room
Mechanical room / floor
Root cellar
Semi-basement
Server room
Wiring closet / Demarcation point
Shared residential rooms
Hearth room
Living room / Lounge / Sitting room
Media room or Home theater
Mehmaan khana
Sunroom / Solarium
Bathroom / Toilet (room)
Bedroom / Guest room
Jack and Jill bathroom
State room
Great house areas
Buttery
Fainting room
Great chamber
Long gallery
Saucery
Servants' hall
Servants' quarters
Spicery
Stillroom
Undercroft
Secondary suite
Storm cellar or Storm room
British architecture
Flatland BMX
TLV mirror
Great Hall — may refer to* Great hall, the main room of a royal palace, nobleman s castle or large manor house * Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, Beijing * Great Hall of the University of Sydney, Australia … Wikipedia
Great Hall — The building in the inner ward that housed the main meeting and dining area for the castle s residents. Long ago, the great hall at Hemyock was converted into the present manor house. Related terms: Great Chamber … Medieval glossary
great hall — noun the principal hall in a castle or mansion; can be used for dining or entertainment • Hypernyms: ↑hall • Hyponyms: ↑apadana • Part Holonyms: ↑palace, ↑castle … Useful english dictionary
great hall — noun a) The main room of a palace, castle or large manor house in the Middle Ages, or in a country house of the 16th and early 17th centuries b) The principal building of a manor or castle compound See Also: great chamber, great room … Wiktionary
great hall — ➡ castles * * * Main space in a medieval manor house, monastery, or college, in which meals were eaten. In large manor houses it also served other purposes: Justice was administered there, entertainment enjoyed, and often at night its stone floor … Universalium
Great Hall — A building located in the inner ward which served as a castle s main meeting and dining room … The writer's dictionary of science fiction, fantasy, horror and mythology
Great Hall of the People — The Great Hall of the People (zh stp|s=人民大会堂|t=人民大會堂|p= Rénmín Dàhuìtáng ) is located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square, Beijing, People s Republic of China, and is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the People s Republic of… … Wikipedia
Great Hall of the University of Sydney — The Great Hall, of the University of Sydney, Australia, is one of the principal structures of the University; today a public interior embracing such purposes as formal ceremonies, conferences, recitals and dinners. The Hall, located in the Main… … Wikipedia
Great Hall of Feasts — The feasting hall of Minas Tirith. The King s feasting hall in Minas Tirith, where Aragorn greeted Éomer after the War of the Ring. It was more properly known by its Elvish name, Merethrond … J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth glossary
Great Chalfield Manor — is an English country house near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire.The house is a moated manor house built around 1465 1480 for Thomas Tropnell. It was altered substantially (with some of the original character lost) in the 1830s. In particular, the… … Wikipedia
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Face masks, lies, damn lies, and public health officials: "A growing body of evidence"
By Denis G. Ranco…, 02 August, 2020
Editor: This is a mirror of a paper by Professor D. G. Rancourt, PhD in which he explains the Operation Mockingbird effort to con the general populace into surrendering their fundamental rights and freedoms —for the greater good.
There's a memorable short url setup:
https://MaskSickness.ca/body-of-lies
Denis G. Rancourt, PhD
Researcher, Ontario Civil Liberties Association
Working report (not submitted for journal publication), published at ResearchGate
Download from OCLA (eventually)
Download from MaskSickness here
A vile new mantra is on the lips of every public health official and politician in the global campaign to force universal masking on the general public: “there is a growing body of evidence”.
This propagandistic phrase is a vector designed to achieve five main goals:
Give the false impression that a balance of evidence now proves that masks reduce the transmission of COVID-19
Falsely assimilate commentary made in scientific venues with “evidence”
Hide the fact that a decade’s worth of policy-grade evidence proves the opposite: that masks are ineffective with viral respiratory diseases
Hide the fact that there is now direct observational proof that cloth masks do not prevent exhalation of clouds of suspended aerosol particles; above, below and through the masks
Deter attention away from the considerable known harms and risks due to face masks, applied to entire populations
The said harms and risks include that a cloth mask becomes a culture medium for a large variety of bacterial pathogens, and a collector of viral pathogens; given the hot and humid environment and the constant source, where home fabrics are hydrophilic whereas medical masks are hydrophobic.
In short, I argue: op-eds are not “evidence”, irrelevance does not help, and more bias does not remove bias. Their mantra of “a growing body of evidence” is a self-serving contrivance that impedes good science and threatens public safety.
I prove that there is no policy-grade evidence to support forced masking on the general population, and that all the latest-decade’s policy-grade evidence points to the opposite: NOT recommending forced masking of the general population. Therefore, the politicians and health authorities are acting without legitimacy and recklessly.
The article is organized into the following sections:
Competence to talk about face masks and COVID-19
Government responses have been a public-health and safety catastrophe
The “growing body of evidence” mantra needs to stop
So, what actually is the “growing body of evidence”?
On 5 June 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reversed more than a decade of public health bodies around the world expressly not recommending face masks for the general population. [1]
The WHO made its recommendation of the preventative medical intervention of face masks for the entire global population while stating: [2]
“At the present time, the widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence and there are potential benefits and harms to consider (see below).” (p. 6)
The pretext used by the WHO was:
“a growing compendium of observational evidence on the use of masks by the general public in several countries”. (p. 6)
Therefore, in its recommendation that could have devastating civil, social and medical consequences, when enforced on the scale of the world population, the WHO violated the Golden Rule of medical ethics: “You don’t recommend an intervention without policy-grade evidence for both harms and benefits”.
Regarding the said Golden Rule of medical ethics, allow me to quote the most authoritative voices of Califf, Hernandez and Landray, discussing medical-treatment- protocol assessment during COVID-19, and writing in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on 31 July 2020: [3]
[...] However, there is growing concern about whether attempts to infer causation about the benefits and risks of potential therapeutics from nonrandomized studies are providing insights that improve clinical knowledge and accelerate the search for needed answers, or whether these reports just add noise, confusion, and false confidence. Most of these studies include a caveat indicating that “randomized clinical trials are needed.” But disclaimers aside, does this approach help make the case for well-designed randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and accelerate their delivery? Or do observational studies reduce the likelihood of a properly designed trial being performed, thereby delaying the discovery of reliable truth?
Anxious, frightened patients, as well as clinicians and health systems with a strong desire to prevent morbidity and mortality, are all susceptible to cognitive biases. Furthermore, profit motives in the medical products industry, academic hubris, interests related to increasing the valuation of data platforms, and revenue generated by billing for these products in care delivery can all tempt investigators to make claims their methods cannot fully support, and these claims often are taken up by traditional media and further amplified on social media. Politicians have been directly involved in discourse about treatments they assert are effective. The natural desire of all elements of society to find effective therapies can obscure the difference between a proven fact and an exaggerated guess. Nefarious motives are not necessary for these problems to occur.
[...] But if leaders, commentators, academics, and clinicians cannot restrain the rush to judgment in the absence of reliable evidence, the proliferation of observational treatment comparisons will hinder the goal of finding effective treatments for COVID-19—and a great many other diseases.
Thus, we see that the WHO and local public health officials are hindering advancement, by promoting non-RCT “observational studies”, rather than protecting public health.
It should be of great concern to all that the WHO pretext of “a growing compendium of observational evidence on the use of masks by the general public in several countries” has morphed into the mantra “a growing body of evidence”, which finds itself on the lips of virtually all public health officers and city mayors in the country.
This mantra of “a growing body of evidence” is advanced as the false silver bullet justification for draconian masking laws, in actual circumstances in which:
There have been NO new RCT studies that support masking
All the many past RCT studies conclusively do not support masking None of the known harms of masking have been studied
(re: enforcement on the entire general population)
This is the opposite of science-based policy. The politicians and public health officers are actuating the worst decisional model that can be applied in a rational and democratic society: forced preventative measures without a scientific basis, while recklessly ignoring consequences.
In this article, I prove that there is no policy-grade evidence to support forced masking on the general population, and that all the latest decade’s policy-grade evidence points to the opposite: NOT recommending forced masking of the general population.
Therefore, the politicians and health authorities are acting without legitimacy and recklessly.
I am retired and a former tenured Full Professor of Physics, University of Ottawa. Full Professor is the highest academic rank. During my 23-year career as a university professor, I developed new courses and taught over 2000 university students, at all levels, and in three different faculties (Science, Engineering, Arts). I supervised more than 80 junior research terms or degrees at all levels from post-doctoral fellow to graduate students to NSERC undergraduate researchers. I headed an internationally recognized interdisciplinary research laboratory, and attracted significant research funding for two decades.
I have been an invited plenary, keynote, or special session speaker at major scientific conferences some 40 times. I have published over 100 research papers in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, in the areas of physics, chemistry, geology, materials science, soil science, and environmental science. I have made fundamental scientific discoveries in the areas of environmental science, measurement science, soil science, bio-geochemistry, theoretical physics, alloy physics, magnetism, and planetary science.
My scientific h-index impact factor is 39 (84% of Nobel Prize winners in physics had h-indexes of at least 30), and my articles have been cited more than 5,000 times in peer- reviewed scientific journals. My publication record, citations statistics, and impact factors are publicly available at Google Scholar.
My recent non-committee-reviewed articles about the science of the COVID-19 epidemic and the science of masks for preventing viral respiratory diseases have been read more than 0.5 million times on ResearchGate, and more times on other venues. My recent video interviews and reporting videos about the science of COVID-19 and face masks have been viewed more than 1 million times.
My personal knowledge and ability to evaluate the facts in this article are grounded in my education, research, training and experience, as follows:
Regarding environmental nanoparticles.
Viral respiratory diseases are transmitted by the smallest size-fraction of virion-laden aerosol particles, which are reactive environmental nanoparticles. Therefore, the chemical and physical stabilities and transport properties of these aerosol particles are the foundation of the dominant contagion mechanism through air. My extensive work on reactive environmental nanoparticles is internationally recognized, and includes: precipitation and growth, surface reactivity, agglomeration, surface charging, phase transformation, settling and sedimentation, and reactive dissolution. In addition, I have taught the relevant fluid dynamics (air is a compressible fluid), and gravitational settling at the university level, and I have done industrial-application research on the technology of filtration (face masks are filters).
Regarding molecular science, molecular dynamics, and surface complexation.
I am an expert in molecular structures, reactions, and dynamics, including molecular complexation to biotic and abiotic surfaces. These processes are the basis of viral attachment, antigen attachment, molecular replication, attachment to mask fibers, particle charging, loss and growth in aerosol particles, and all such phenomena involved in viral transmission and infection, and in protection measures. I taught quantum mechanics at the advanced university level for many years, which is the fundamental theory of atoms, molecules and substances; and in my published research I developed X-ray diffraction theory and methodology for characterizing small material particles.
Regarding statistical analysis methods.
Statistical analysis of scientific studies, including robust error propagation analysis and robust estimates of bias, sets the limit of what reliably can be inferred from any observational study, including randomized controlled trials in medicine, and including field measurements during epidemics. I am an expert in error analysis and statistical analysis of complex data, at the research level in many areas of science. Statistical analysis methods are the basis of medical research.
Regarding mathematical modelling.
Much of epidemiology is based on mathematical models of disease transmission and evolution in the population. I have research-level knowledge and experience with predictive and exploratory mathematical models and simulation methods. I have expert knowledge related to parameter uncertainties and parameter dependencies in such models. Recently, in collaboration, I have examined the instantaneous reproductive rate of COVID-19 infections in response to government masking impositions, in U.S. States.
Regarding measurement methods.
In science there are five main categories of measurement methods:
spectroscopy (including nuclear, electronic and vibrational spectroscopies),
imaging (including optical and electron microscopies, and resonance imaging),
diffraction (including X-ray and neutron diffractions, used to elaborate molecular, defect and magnetic structures),
transport measurements (including reaction rates, energy transfers, and conductivities), and
physical property measurements (including specific density, thermal capacities, stress response, material fatigue...).
I have taught these measurement methods in an interdisciplinary graduate course that I developed and gave to graduate (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) students of physics, biology, chemistry, geology, and engineering for many years. I have made fundamental discoveries and advances in areas of spectroscopy, diffraction, magnetometry, and microscopy, which have been published in leading scientific journals and presented at international conferences. I know measurement science, the basis of all sciences, at the highest level.
It would be insufficient for me to be a simple medical doctor (MD) or public health officer. My relevant knowledge and ability stems from my broad multi-disciplinary knowledge, in light of the recognized difficulty of the question. For example, recently, 239 scientists put it this way:
Understanding the transmission of respiratory infections indoors requires expertise in many distinctly different areas of science and engineering, including virology, aerosol physics, flow dynamics, exposure and epidemiology, medicine, and building engineering, to name the most significant. No one person has expertise in all these areas. However, collectively, the community of the signatories to the Comment understands the characteristics and mechanisms behind the generation of respiratory microdroplets, survival of viruses in the microdroplets, transport of the microdroplets and human exposure to them, and the airflow patterns that carry microdroplets in buildings. We have dedicated our careers working in this multidisciplinary field, and our statement stems from our collective expertise spanning the entire field.
(First paragraph on page 1 of the Supplementary data, for: Morawska and Milton et al. (239 signatories) (6 July 2020) “It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19”, in Clinical Infectious Diseases. [4])
The forced masking laws are being recommended and enacted in a declared-pandemic context in which government responses to COVID have been disastrous, both in terms of response-induced deaths and permanent societal damage:
In my 2 June 2020 article “All-cause mortality during COVID-19: No plague and a likely signature of mass homicide by government response”, I showed that an unnatural sharp “COVID-peak” in the all-cause mortality by week occurred across the world synchronously initiated by the 11 March 2020 WHO declaration of the pandemic and recommendation for States to empty their critical care units in preparation, which corresponded to a large acceleration of deaths of immunevulnerable elderly. [5]
Since my article, at least two published scientific papers have arrived at the same conclusion regarding accelerated or excess non-COVID-19 deaths occurring within the said “COVID-peak”, as follows.
The 1 July 2020 article “Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes, March-April 2020”, by Woolf SH et al. in JAMA reports large numbers of said “COVID-peak” coincidence excess deaths actually caused by
● heart disease,
● diabetes,
● cerebrovascular disease, and
● Alzheimer disease,
reported in their Figure. [6] This means that the government responses caused these large numbers of non-COVID-19 excess deaths, unless one believes in supernatural coincidences.
The 2 July 2020 (date posted) article “An Improved Measure of Deaths Due to COVID-19 in England and Wales”, by Williams, S et al., available at SSRN reports that more than half of the deaths in the said “COVID-peak” are non-COVID-19 deaths, and concludes: [7]
Three key findings from our empirical analysis are as follows. First, although it has been widely reported that COVID-19 has been highly concentrated in the elderly, we find that it has been particularly concentrated in the very elderly (75-84 and 85+ years), and less so in the 65-74 age category. Second, using two sets of COVID identifiers, we find from the beginning of the two periods when we assume the lockdown was having an impact, through to the end of our study period (week ending 17th or 24th April 2020 - week ending 8th May 2020), that our weekly estimates of COVID deaths for five cases (the total; the 75- 84 and 85+ age categories; males; and females) diverge from the corresponding 5 year average excess deaths measure. Over these periods, we find that, on average per week, our estimates of COVID deaths for these five cases were (in absolute 6 terms) considerably below the corresponding 5 year average excess deaths measure. For example, on average per week, our estimate of total COVID deaths over these periods was lower than the corresponding 5 year average excess deaths measure by 4670-4727 deaths (54%-63%). For the above five cases, and in line with our hypothesis, we posit that the 5 year average excess deaths contains a large number of non-COVID deaths. Third, and relatedly, our analysis suggests that the UK’s lockdown has had a net positive impact on mortalities. That is to say, it resulted in more, not less, deaths.
This means that government responses in many jurisdictions caused more deaths than the virus itself.
The mechanism for the deaths caused by government response are manifold, and from my reading of the scientific and policy literature include:
reduced access to care for chronic conditions,
the direct impact of psychological stress,
the practice of exporting ill patients from chronic care facilities to long-term care facilities, and
the practice of locking in and isolating long-term care facility residents.
The direct impacts of fear and psychological stress on immune vulnerable elderly persons have most certainly been underestimated. Psychological stress is proven to be a factor that can measurably depress the immune system and induce diseases, including: immune response dysfunction, depression, cardiovascular disease and cancer: “Psychological Stress and Disease”, by Cohen, S et al., in JAMA. [8]
Furthermore, it is established since 1991 that psychological stress dramatically increases susceptibility to viral respiratory diseases, even in young healthy college-age subjects: “Psychological Stress and Susceptibility to the Common Cold”, by Cohen, S et al., in The New England Journal of Medicine. [9]
Additionally, it is known that social isolation increases susceptibility to viral respiratory diseases: “Social ties and susceptibility to the common cold”, by Cohen, S et al. in JAMA. [10]
Thus, government responses that induced fear, psychological stress, and isolation, including face masking impositions, were diametrically opposite to known science and had the predictable effect, given their scale, of directly in themselves causing large numbers of deaths.
This does not count the harm from restructuring the economy, corporate activity, and institutional networks. In a letter dated 19 May 2020, more than 500 USA physicians wrote to President Trump that “In medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident.” [11] In their letter, they concluded:
The millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight, but they will be called alcoholism, homelessness, suicide, heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. In youths it will be called financial instability, unemployment, despair, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and abuse.
There can be little doubt that governments have made fatal errors in responding to COVID-19, causing widespread harm and death.
Imposing face masks on the healthy general population is another such disastrous blunder:
Repeated large randomized controlled trials (RCT) with verified outcome (lab-confirmed infection) and several systematic reviews of RCTs have proven that face masks have no detectable benefit for reducing the risk of person to person transmission of a viral respiratory disease.
Recent laser visualization of simulated coughs has proven that cloth masks do not prevent exhalation of clouds of suspended aerosol particles, above, below and through the masks. [12]
The known significant potential harms of face masks, and cloth face masks in particular, have neither been studied nor ruled out nor been the subject of harm mitigation trials.
For example, home fabrics are hydrophilic, whereas medical masks are hydrophobic, the many harmful consequences of which have not been studied, and are virtually never mentioned.
All-population face mask impositions increase fear and psychological stress.
All-population face mask impositions cause:
• widespread discomfort,
• impaired breathing,
• impaired vision (e.g., fogging of glasses),
• impaired communication,
• psychological social distancing,
• skin irritation and infections,
• impaired self-expression,
• prolonged exposure to bacterial cultures near the eyes, nose and mouth,
• possible collection and delivery of viral pathogens that would otherwise not be inhaled, and
• possible amplification of the exhaled aerosol size-fraction of infectious particles.
I gave my review of the scientific literature regarding the measured (in)efficacy of masks to reduce the risk of transmission of viral respiratory diseases in my article published on 11 April 2020 at ResearchGate, entitled “Masks Don’t Work: a Review of Science Relevant to Covid-19 Social Policy”. [13]
The said article [13] was read some 400K times on ResearchGate, was published in several venues, and has been the subject of many commentary articles and interviews. It was critiqued by an incompetent academic and columnist at Phycology Today, who was spectacularly exposed in a live debate with me: “Digi-Debates. The Face Mask Debate”, Digi Debates YouTube Channel, 25 July 2020, https://youtu.be/AQyLFdoeUNk , and see: https://www.digi-debates.com/ .
My conclusion in the said article [13] is that the policy-grade science of the recent decade conclusively shows that any benefit from masks is too small to be detected in trials designed to detect a benefit in this application.
My conclusions in the said article [13] regarding the RCT-with-verified-outcome studies are robust, and have again been corroborated by the very latest systematic reviews of RCTs, and by the most recently published expert assessments [14] [15] [16] [17] [18], as shown below.
In contrast, politicians of all jurisdictions, city mayors and local public health officers claim by mantra that this decade’s worth of policy-grade research is being overturned by “emerging” evidence. Well, if it is “emerging”, then it has not yet arrived.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health, Toronto Public Health (TPH), announced her recommendation to the Toronto City Council on twitter as: Dr. Eileen de Villa @epdevilla “Since the beginning of this pandemic I've asked residents to take care of each other. Today I'm asking for this again & this is why I'm asking City Council to require masks or face covering in all public settings to help stop the spread of #COVID19: bit.ly/38cYlu8” 10:46 AM ∙ June 30, 2020 ∙ Twitter for iPhone.
The link provided in this tweet is to a TPH document (the “Recommendation”) dated “June 30, 2020 at 9 a.m.” entitled “Update on COVID-19, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health”. [19]
The Recommendation contains ten (10) paragraphs as “bullets”. At the 2nd bullet, Dr. de Villa has “there is a growing body of emerging evidence that shows that non medical masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-19”. This is squarely false. There is not a single published scientific study “that shows that non-medical masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-19”, let alone “a growing body”. In order to measure “the spread of COVID-19”, one has to actually measure “the spread of COVID-19”. In fact, there is a growing body solely of spin and of false statements about the scientific research literature. For comparison, see the sober recent Public Health Ontario (PHO) synopsis. [20]
As another of a multitude of such examples of the use of the said mantra, mayor Jim Watson of the City of Ottawa, Canada, in a well-crafted statement put it this way, in answering a recent demand by the Ontario Civil Liberties Association, while ignoring all the points raised by OCLA: [21] [22]
“Increasing evidence supports wearing a mask when in enclosed public spaces as an important measure in reducingCOVID-19 transmission, while the risk of rising rates of infection continues. The scientific community and public health organizations around the world have concluded that the cumulative weight of evidence supports that face masks lessen the rates of transmission of COVID-19 from wearers. Most agree that face masks work best by reducing the amount of virus that is projected into the air in respiratory micro-droplets from someone who is infected with the virus. Additionally, other community level measures such as physical distancing and hand hygiene should continue to be employed to decrease transmission of COVID-19.
While we respect that you may not necessarily agree with this public health initiative, we trust that you will understand the basis that prompted OPH to recommend that Council enact a by-law.”
Basically, the mayor is relying on “we are all saying it”.
Here is why “what they are all saying” is simply worthless. The new mantra is pure propaganda that is diametrically contrary to all the authoritative science reports, as follows:
In medical research, the only scientifically valid way to test a medical intervention, such as wearing a face mask or prescribing any preventative treatment, is to use the universally accepted comparative study (e.g., face mask versus no face mask) specifically designed to remove selection and observational bias from the study. This is called a “randomized controlled trial” (RCT).
Arguably the world’s leading medical standards and medical statistician expert ,Dr. Janus Christian Jakobsen, author of the highly cited “Thresholds for statistical and clinical significance in systematic reviews with meta-analytic methods” (Jakobsen, JC et al., in BMC Med Res Methodol [23], has emphatically stated: [24]
Clinical experience or observational studies should never be used as the sole basis for assessment of intervention effects — randomized clinical trials are always needed. Therefore, always randomize the first patient as Thomas C Chalmers suggested in 1977. Observational studies should primarily be used for quality control after treatments are included in clinical practice.
Abstracted Conclusion (p. 1) in: “The Necessity of Randomized Clinical Trials”, by Jakobsen and Gluud, in the British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research. [24]
Meldrum in her “A Brief History of the Randomized Controlled Trial: From Oranges and Lemons to the Gold Standard” (Meldrum, Marcia L., in Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America) [25], puts it this way (p. 746):
Nevertheless, the RCT remains the “gold standard.” Its power as a model for good practice rests on its imposition of experimental order on the clinical setting and its production of numerical results that may not be absolutely accurate but that are unquestionably precise. As Theodore Porter has argued, the value of the precise quantitative result is that it is readily translated outside its original experimental setting, for replication, comparison, and adaptation elsewhere.[ref]
The inferential authority of the RCT has been such that it is accepted as a standard for “rational therapeutics” by physicians and regulatory authorities and also by patients and populations at risk.
It appears that “regulatory authorities” in Ontario, Canada, are not up to speed on modern medical-practice standards.
Recent medical history has shown that non-RCT comparative or observational studies can be egregiously wrong, with devastating negative public health consequences. Two examples are particularly well known, among many more:
(i) Non-RCT studies of the antiarrhythmic agents flecainide and encainide were glowing when the drugs were put onto the market in the late 1980s, then a RCT showed that these drugs increased mortality rather than had any benefit.
(ii) Decades of non-RCT “observational studies” were the basis for widespread hormone replacement therapy for post-menopausal women, until 2002 and later when published RCTs showed that these treatments actually increased myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) rather than decreased them as intended. The RCTs also found that the treatment increased the risk of incident breast cancer, which had not previously been detected in the decades of use. See: “Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results From the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled trial” (Writing Group for the Women's Health Initiative Investigators, in JAMA.) [26]
In my article “Masks Don’t Work: a Review of Science Relevant to Covid-19 Social Policy” [13], I concluded (p. 4):
No RCT study with verified outcome shows a benefit for HCW or community members in households to wearing a mask or respirator. There is no such study. There are no exceptions.
Likewise, no study exists that shows a benefit from a broad policy to wear masks in public (more on this below).
Furthermore, if there were any benefit to wearing a mask, because of the blocking power against droplets and aerosol particles, then there should be more benefit from wearing a respirator (N95) compared to a surgical mask, yet several large meta-analyses, and all the RCT, prove that there is no such relative benefit.
In my co-signed 21 June 2020 letter to the Executive Director of the WHO [1], we (the Ontario Civil Liberties Association) put it this way:
Second, more importantly, you fail to mention that several randomized controlled trials with verified outcomes (infections) were specifically designed to detect a benefit, and did not find any measurable benefit, for any viral respiratory disease. This includes the many randomized controlled trials that find no difference between open-sided surgical masks and respirators. [Footnote-2: citing and quoting from ten (10) scientific studies.]
You failed to mention that such results set a probabilistic upper limit on mask effectiveness, and you failed to calculate this upper limit. Instead, you repeat the misleading notion that reliable evidence has “not yet” been found to confirm your adopted bias.
In other words, if masks were even moderately effective at reducing the risk of infection, then a benefit would have been statistically detected in one or more of the many reliable trials that have already been made.
More fundamentally, a major problem with your document is that you wrongly rely on substandard scientific reports as constituting usable “evidence”. With public policy, especially health policy having draconian consequences, there must be a standards threshold below which a given report cannot be used as an indicator of reality. The reason that science requires randomized controlled trials with verified outcomes is precisely because other study designs are susceptible to bias.
The context of a new disease and of a publicized pandemic is one in which all reporting (media, political, and scientific) is susceptible to large bias. The mechanisms of the biases are well known and anticipated, such as: political posturing, partisan conflicts, career advancement, publication-record padding, “discovery” recognition, public-interest and public-support mining, institutional and personal reputational enhancement, funding opportunities, corporate interests, and so on.
Group bias is not an uncommon phenomenon. Large numbers of bias- susceptible studies that agree are of little value. Any study that does not apply the established scientific tools for avoiding observational bias should be presumed to be biased, in any draconian policy context.
That is why the WHO cannot collect and rely on potentially biased studies to make recommendations that can have devastating effects (see below) on the lives of literally billions. Rather, the WHO must apply a stringent standards threshold, and accept only randomized controlled trials with verified outcomes. In this application, the mere fact that several such quality studies have not ever confirmed the positive effects reported in bias- susceptible reports should be a red flag.
For example, two amply promoted recent studies that do not satisfy the standards threshold, and that, in our opinion, have a palpable risk of large bias are the following. [...]
My statements about the scientific evidence regarding masks are corroborated by all the concurrent and subsequent publications of leading experts on this question of reliable bias-free studies, as follows.
>>> “Rapid Expert Consultation on the Effectiveness of Fabric Masks for the COVID-19 Pandemic” (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 8 April 2020): [17]
(p.2) In considering the evidence about the potential effectiveness of homemade fabric masks, it is important to bear in mind how a respiratory virus such as SARS-CoV-2 spreads from person to person. Current research supports the possibility that, in addition to being spread by respiratory droplets that one can see and feel, SARS-CoV-2 can also be spread by invisible droplets, as small as 5 microns (or micrometers), and by even smaller bioaerosol particles.[ref] Such tiny bioaerosol particles may be found in an infected person’s normal exhalation.[ref] The relative contribution of each particle size in disease transmission is unknown.
There is limited research on the efficacy of fabric masks for influenza and specifically for SARS-CoV-2. As we describe below, the few available experimental studies have important limitations in their relevance and methods. Any type of mask will have its own capacity to arrest particles of different sizes. Even if the filtering capacity of a mask were well understood, however, the degree to which it could in practice reduce disease spread depends on the unknown role of each particle size in transmission.
Asymptomatic but infected individuals are of special concern, and the particles they would emit from breathing are predominantly bioaerosols. [...]
(p. 3) An additional consideration in the effectiveness of any mask is how well it fits the user.[ref] Even with the best material, if a mask does not fit, virus-containing particles can escape through creases and gaps between the mask and face. Leakage can also occur if the holding mechanism (e.g., straps, Velcro®) is weak. We found no studies of non-expert individuals’ ability to produce properly fitting masks. Nor did we find any studies of the effectiveness of masks produced by professionals, when following instructions available to the general public (e.g., online). [...]
(p. 6) CONCLUSIONS [...] The current level of benefit, if any, is not possible to assess.
>>> "Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures" (Xiao, J et al., in Emerging Infectious Diseases, 5 May 2020): [14]
(p. 967: Abstract) Although mechanistic studies support the potential effect of hand hygiene or face masks, evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza. We similarly found limited evidence on the effectiveness of improved hygiene and environmental cleaning. We identified several major knowledge gaps requiring further research, most fundamentally an improved characterization of the modes of person-to- person transmission.
>>> “Masks for prevention of viral respiratory infections among health care workers and the public: PEER umbrella systematic review” (Dugré et al., in Canadian Family Physician, July 2020): [15]
(p. 509, Abstract) Synthesis In total, 11 systematic reviews were included and 18 RCTs of 26 444 participants were found, 12 in the community and 6 in health care workers. Included studies had limitations and were deemed at high risk of bias. Overall, the use of masks in the community did not reduce the risk of influenza, confirmed viral respiratory infection, influenzalike illness, or any clinical respiratory infection. [...]
Conclusion This systematic review found limited evidence that the use of masks might reduce the risk of viral respiratory infections. [...]
>>> Moe et al. summarized the detailed study of Dugré et al. [15] in their praxis article for medical practitioners: “PEER simplified tool: mask use by the general public and by health care workers” (Moe et al., in Canadian Family Physician, July 2020) [16]. Their Figure 1 (p. 506) has:
MASKS FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Based on evidence from randomized controlled trials
If I wear a surgical mask while out in public, will it protect me from flu-like illness?
• 2 trials 1683 people
• The reduction in flu-like illness may be 4% (range: 0-8%) over 6 weeks.
• But no difference in lab-confirmed influenza
What about wearing a surgical mask at home after a household member becomes sick?
• Sick person wears mask: 2 trials, 903 people
• Healthy household members wear masks: 1 trial, 290 people
• Healthy and sick people wear masks: 4 trials, 2750 people
• In all three scenarios, wearing a mask did NOT reduce the risk of getting flu-like illness or confirmed influenza.
Here, note that, as always, “flu-like illness” or “influenza-like illness” (ILI) means non- laboratory-confirmed infection, based on reported symptoms or clinical observation. Such determinations are not “verified outcomes” and are thus more susceptible to bias.
>>>“Masking lack of evidence with politics” (Jefferson and Heneghan, in Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM), Oxford University, 23 July 2020): [18]
(p. 1) The increasing polarised and politicised views [ref] on whether to wear masks in public during the current COVID-19 crisis hides a bitter truth on the state of contemporary research and the value we pose on clinical evidence to guide our decisions.
In 2010, at the end of the last influenza pandemic, there were six published randomised controlled trials with 4,147 participants focusing on the benefits of different types of masks.[ref] Two were done in healthcare workers and four in family or student clusters. The face mask trials for influenza-like illness (ILI) reported poor compliance, rarely reported harms and revealed the pressing need for future trials.
Despite the clear requirement to carry out further large, pragmatic trials a decade later, only six had been published: five in healthcare workers and one in pilgrims.[ref] This recent crop of trials added 9,112 participants to the total randomised denominator of 13,259 and showed that masks alone have no significant effect in interrupting the spread of ILI or influenza in the general population, nor in healthcare workers.
(p. 2) What do scientists do in the face of uncertainty on the value of global interventions? Usually, they seek an answer with adequately designed and swiftly implemented clinical studies as has been partly achieved with pharmaceuticals. We consider it is unwise to infer causation based on regional geographical observations as several proponents of masks have done. Spikes in cases can easily refute correlations, compliance with masks and other measures is often variable, and confounders cannot be accounted for in such observational research. [...]
The small number of trials and lateness in the pandemic cycle is unlikely to give us reasonably clear answers and guide decision-makers. This abandonment of the scientific modus operandi and lack of foresight has left the field wide open for the play of opinions, radical views and political influence.
Given the above-documented contradiction between the claimed “growing body of evidence” and the actual “all RCTs say the opposite of what is claimed”, one can reasonably ask: What are Ontario public health officers thinking of when they assert “there is a growing body of emerging evidence that shows that non-medical masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-19”?
One answer comes from the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit (Ontario, Canada) webpage entitled “FAQ’s- Wearing a Face Covering in Indoor Public Spaces”, updated 24 July 2020. The latter webpage has the section: [27]
What is the evidence that supports the use of masks?
There is a growing body of scientific evidence that indicates the widespread use of face coverings by all persons decreases the spread of respiratory droplets. Public health experts also support the widespread use of face coverings to decrease transmission of COVID-19.
At this link you will find a collection of expert opinions and studies on face coverings. This list is for informational purposes only and is not representative of all articles and studies available on the subject, nor does this list cover all articles and studies that are reviewed by our staff and our Medical Officer of Health.
The said “link” is to a webpage of the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph public health unit, entitled “Your Health / COVID-19 Information for the Public / Reliable Information Sources”, accessed on 28 July 2020. [28] The latter webpage has a section entitled “EXPERT OPINIONS”, having eight (8) entries, and a section entitled “EVIDENCE AND STUDIES ON FACE COVERINGS (UPDATED ON JULY 23)”, having thirty (30) entries.
The eight (8) so-called “expert opinions” are merely “op-ed” type commentaries not providing any new data, evidence, or perspectives. These do not constitute “a growing body of emerging evidence”, nor do they add any evidence whatsoever.
The thirty (30) so-called “evidence and studies” (ES) can be described as follows, numbering them ES-1 through ES-30 in the order given (alphabetical order of first- author):
ES-1 through ES-30: None of these studies are RCTs, irrespective of whether any outcomes (infections) are “verified” (lab-confirmed) or not. Some are actually “op-ed” style opinions. Some are tentative modelling studies. Some are population studies. Some are physical mask-filtering studies. A few are overview reports. A few purport to be “meta-analyses” or “systematic reviews” of old RCT and non-RCT studies (see below). None can be considered additions to “a growing body of emerging evidence”, at least not usable policy-grade evidence. All are susceptible to large bias.
ES-1: “Alberta Health Services COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group. Rapid Response Report: What is the effectiveness of wearing medical masks, including home-made masks, to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community? (Updated 2020 June.” [29] →)
The first two bullets in the section entitled “Key Messages from the Evidence Summary” are (page 1):
As medical masks are often bundled with other IPC interventions and have variable compliance, clinical trials on the effectiveness of medical masks have been challenging. Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials in health care settings have not demonstrated a significant reduction in acute respiratory infections, (ARIs), ILIs or laboratory confirmed viral infections with medical mask use although it is acknowledged there were methodological flaws and smaller underpowered studies in the data analyzed.
There is a paucity of clinical evidence in favor of using medical masks in the community, with multiple randomized trials demonstrating mixed results which when pooled demonstrate no significant reduction in acute respiratory infections (ARIs), ILIs or laboratory confirmed viral infections. There are some lower quality studies showing a reduction in viral infection rates in households, in transmission of viral respiratory infections in the context of mass gatherings, and in university residences when combined with hand hygiene interventions.
The third-last bullet is:
There is limited evidence of harms related to community mask wearing with no studies identified that have systematically looked at potential harms. Such harms could include behavioral modifications such as risk compensation/non-adherence to social distancing or optimal hand hygiene practices, self-contamination, induction of facial rashes, and increasing real or perceived breathing difficulties. There are also concerns about poor compliance or tolerance of masks in children or those with cognitive challenges and communication difficulties.
The last bullet is:
Pre-symptomatic transmission and asymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 have been described but the degree to which they contribute to community spread is unclear, At this point, there is no direct evidence that the use of a medical or homemade cloth mask or the wider use of masks in the community significantly reduces this risk. For more information, refer to the Asymptomatic Transmission of SARS- CoV-2 rapid review.
ES-7: “Chu DK, Akl EA, Duda S et al. Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2020 [30] →
The DK Chu article has many problems. It was described in our letter to the WHO [1] as (pp. 5-6):
The Chu study was funded by the WHO. It contains no randomized controlled trials, but rather uses a hodgepodge of data about associations of ill-defined factors. DK Chu et al.’s own appraisal of “certainty” regarding their conclusion about masks is “LOW” meaning “our confidence in the effect estimate is limited; the true effect could be substantially different from the estimate of the effect” (their Table 2), yet such a result is a basis for your recommendation to governments.
ES-18: “Liang M, Gao L, Cheng C, et al. Efficacy of face mask in preventing respiratory virus transmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 May 28.” [31] →
The Liang study purports to be a systematic review and meta-analysis yet it does not apply PRISMA-P [Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta- analysis protocols] [32], nor does it perform GRADE [Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations] reliability analysis] [33], which are the established standard in such medical research intended to be used for policy guidance. If Liang did apply GRADE, it would fail, because its included studies are mostly non-RCT “case-control studies”, and because its confidence intervals encompass outcomes leading to the oppose recommendation of masks:
“GRADE guidelines 6. Rating the quality of evidence—imprecision, by Guyatta et al., in Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. [34]
ES-21: “MacIntyre CR, Chughtai AA. A rapid systematic review of the efficacy of face masks and respirators against coronaviruses and other respiratory transmissible viruses for the community, healthcare workers and sick patients. Int J Nurs Stud. 2020. [35] →
The co-authors, MacIntyre and Chughtai, have both worked for or with 3M (a major proprietary mask and respirator manufacturer) and now work together; as they admit in the required “Conflict of Interest” statement. MacIntyre has made an industry or writing spin-laden articles about masks in scientific journals, which repeatedly have recast old RCT studies. This is one more in that pattern.
The authors MacIntyre and Chughtai claim “Results were reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria (Moher et al., 2015).” (their “2. Methods” section, last sentence). In fact, this is false. The following numbered directives of PRISMA were not followed by MacIntyre and Chughtai (Table 3, [32]):
#13 » List and define all outcomes for which data will be sought, including prioritization of main and additional outcomes, with rationale
#14 » Describe anticipated methods for assessing risk of bias of individual studies, including whether this will be done at the outcome or study level, or both; state how this information will be used in data synthesis
#15a » Describe criteria under which study data will be quantitatively synthesized
#15b » If data are appropriate for quantitative synthesis, describe planned summary measures, methods of handling data, and methods of combining data from studies, including any planned exploration of consistency (e.g., I2, Kendall’s tau)
#15c » Describe any proposed additional analyses (e.g., sensitivity or subgroup analyses, meta-regression)
#15d » If quantitative synthesis is not appropriate, describe the type of summary planned
#16 » Specify any planned assessment of meta-bias(es) (e.g., publication bias across studies, selective reporting within studies)
#17 » Describe how the strength of the body of evidence will be assessed (e.g., GRADE)
Not having introduced one iota of new evidence, MacIntyre and Chughtai conclude (p. 5):
In summary, there is a growing body of evidence supporting all three indications for respiratory protection – community, healthcare workers and sick patients (source control).
The work of MacIntyre and Chughtai is not science that can be used to guide public policy. It is substandard and misleading.
Endnotes / References
21 June 2020 letter to the Executive Director of the WHO. “RE: WHO advising the use of masks in the general population to prevent COVID-19 transmission”, Hickey, J and Rancourt DG, Ontario Civil Liberties Association.
( Link | Archived )
“Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19: Interim guidance”, WHO Reference Number: WHO/2019-nCov/IPC_Masks/2020.4
( Link | Mirror )
Califf RM, Hernandez AF, Landray M. “Weighing the Benefits and Risks of Proliferating Observational Treatment Assessments: Observational Cacophony, Randomized Harmony”. JAMA.
doi:10.1001/jama.2020.13319
Morawska and Milton et al. (239 signatories) (6 July 2020) “It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19”, in Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaa939 and supplementary data,
“All-cause mortality during COVID-19: No plague and a likely signature of mass homicide by government response”, by Rancourt, DG (2 June 2020)
ResearchGate. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24350.77125
Woolf SH, Chapman DA, Sabo RT, Weinberger DM, Hill L. “Excess Deaths From COVID- 19 and Other Causes”, March-April 2020. JAMA.
“An Improved Measure of Deaths Due to COVID-19 in England and Wales”, 25 June 2020, by Williams, S et al.,
Cohen S, Janicki-Deverts D, Miller GE. “Psychological Stress and Disease”. JAMA. 2007;298(14):1685–1687.
doi:10.1001/jama.298.14.1685
“Psychological Stress and Susceptibility to the Common Cold”, by Cohen, S et al., The New England Journal of Medicine. 1991; 325:606-612.
DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199108293250903
Cohen S, Doyle WJ, Skoner DP, Rabin BS, Gwaltney JM. “Social Ties and Susceptibility to the Common Cold”. JAMA. 1997;277(24):1940–1944.
doi:10.1001/jama.1997.03540480040036
( Link | Archived | PDF | Mirrored )
Letter dated 19 May 2020: more than 500 USA physicians wrote to President Trump that “In medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident.” “A letter signed by hundreds of doctors warning of adverse health consequences stemming from the coronavirus shutdowns.” Scribd (uploaded by Fox News as “A Doctor a Day Letter - Signed”)
( Link | Archived | Mirrored )
Verma S, Dhanak M, and Frankenfield J “Visualizing the effectiveness of face masks in obstructing respiratory jets” Physics of Fluids 32, 061708 (2020);
“Masks Don’t Work: a Review of Science Relevant to Covid-19 Social Policy”. Rancourt, DG (11 April 2020) ResearchGate, obtained 400 K reads, then was deplatformed, as per this report ( Vixra | Archived ) and at RC Reader ( Link | Archived )
"Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings— Personal Protective and Environmental Measures", by Xiao, J et al. Emerging Infectious Diseases. (5 May 2020) 26(5): 967-975.
“Masks for prevention of viral respiratory infections among health care workers and the public: PEER umbrella systematic review”, by Dugré et al., Canadian Family Physician (July 2020) 66: 509-517.
“PEER simplified tool: mask use by the general public and by health care workers”, by Moe et al., Canadian Family Physician (July 2020) 66: 505-507.
( Link | Archive )
“Rapid Expert Consultation on the Effectiveness of Fabric Masks for the COVID-19 Pandemic” (8 April, 2020). By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
“Masking lack of evidence with politics”, by Jefferson and Heneghan, Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM), Oxford University (23 July 2020)
Toronto Public Health (TPH), dated “June 30, 2020 at 9 a.m.”, “Update on COVID-19, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health”.
( Link | Mirrored )
“SYNOPSIS 06/17/2020 COVID-19 — What We Know So Far About...Wearing Masks in Public”, Public Health Ontario (PHO), 17 June 2020.
OCLA’s 29 June 2020 letter to Mayor and City Council of Ottawa, Canada. “RE: Mandatory face mask policies have no scientific basis, violate civil liberties, and must be rejected”.
( Link | Mirrored | Letters Index | Archived )
City of Ottawa mayor’s 27 July 2020 answer to OCLA. “RE: Mandatory face mask policies have no scientific basis, violate civil liberties, and must be rejected”.
“Thresholds for statistical and clinical significance in systematic reviews with meta-analytic methods” (Jakobsen, JC et al., BMC Medical Research Methodology 14, Article number: 120 (2014).
“The Necessity of Randomized Clinical Trials”, by Jakobsen and Gluud, in the British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research. 3(4): 1453-1468, 2013.
“A Brief History of the Randomized Controlled Trial: From Oranges and Lemons to the Gold Standard”, Meldrum, Marcia L., Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America), 2000, 14(4): 745-760.
“Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results From the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled trial”, by Writing Group for the Women's Health Initiative Investigators. JAMA. 2002; 288(3): 321–333. doi:10.1001/jama.288.3.321
Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit (Ontario, Canada) webpage entitled “FAQ’s- Wearing a Face Covering in Indoor Public Spaces”, updated 24 July 2020.
Webpage of the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph public health unit, entitled “Your Health / COVID-19 Information for the Public / Reliable Information Sources”,
Alberta Health Services COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group. “Rapid Response Report: What is the effectiveness of wearing medical masks, including home-made masks, to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community?” Updated 2020 June.
Chu DK, Akl EA, Duda S et al. “Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis”. Lancet. 2020; 395(10242): 973-1987.
Liang M, Gao L, Cheng C, et al. “Efficacy of face mask in preventing respiratory virus transmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis”. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 May 28.”
Moher D, Shamseer L, Clarke M, et al. “Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement”. Systematic Reviews. 2015; 4(1):1. Published 2015 Jan 1.
doi:10.1186/2046-4053-4-1
GRADE [Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations] from the webpage “Evidence based medicine (EBM) toolkit » Learn EBM » What is GRADE?”, at the website “BMJ Best Practice”.
“GRADE guidelines 6. Rating the quality of evidence—imprecision”, by Guyatta et al., Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 64 (2011) 1283e1293
MacIntyre CR, Chughtai AA. “A rapid systematic review of the efficacy of face masks and respirators against coronaviruses and other respiratory transmissible viruses for the community, healthcare workers and sick patients”. Int J Nurs Stud. 2020; 108(103629).
Review: Good CDC science versus dubious CDC science, the actual risk that does not justify the “cure”
08/26/2020 - 12:00 , by Denis G. Ranco…
Why Support this Covfefe Operations thing?
Masks Don't Work: A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy
Anonymous (not verified), Tue, 08/04/2020 - 07:33
It's Lockstep facilitated by an implementation of the Operation Mockingbird protocol.
Mask Exemption: Ontario Regulatory Enforcement Counterstrike
Are Lockdowns Based on Faulty COVID-19 Tests?
07/30/2020 - 02:10 , by Fearless Ontario
Risperidone - Restriction of the Dementia Indication
Complaint re Melchers Vexatious Conduct (followup)
09/06/2020 - 01:28 , by Laura-Lynn Tyl…
Mask Law Exemptions Poster
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British NYPhil Conductor Apologizes for 1776
July 8, 2014 By Masha Leon
Explaining his British accent, Bramwell Tovey, conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, welcomed the Avery Fisher Hall audience at its July 4th Summertime Classic Star-Spangled Celebration with: “I am here to apologize for 1776…bad decision by the King. Happy Birthday America!”
As he raised his baton, someone sneezed! Without missing a beat, Tovey brushed the back of his sparkling white jacket with his hand then led the orchestra and a 2,700-strong audience in a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Marine Band member, Bramwell Tovey and Major Dix // Photo by Karen Leon
Leading off with Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” (1942), the program included George Gershwin’s 1927 “Strike Up The Band.”
Mark Nuccio, NYPhil associate principal clarinetist, accompanied by the orchestra thrilled with a memorable performance of Aaron Copland’s (1947/48) “Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra with Harp and Piano.”
When the “Commandant’s Own” 80-strong United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps [red jackets, white pants and blinding polished brass instruments] marched on stage, there was a momentary hush followed by explosive applause. Perhaps it was an optical illusion, but from where I sat, the edges of the Marines’ red jackets —irrespective of the wearer’s height — seemed to line up evenly!
Under the baton of Major Brian Dix, director and commanding officer of “The Commandant’s Own,” the Marines led off with Elmer Bernstein’s (1922-2004) theme from the Oscar-nominated film “The Magnificent Seven.” A drums only “Xylophonia” [two xylophones were wheeled on stage] adapted by Nathan Morris and Briana Dix and performed by the entire assemblage was followed by Durham Prince’s 1941 “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” which had audience members — myself included — dancing in their seats.
Image by Karen Leon
Marine Corp Commandant’s Own
The Commandant’s Own play at Avery Fisher Hall // Photo by Karen Leon
“The band travels 50,000 miles each year giving concerts,” Major Dix said. He invited members of the audience who had served in various wars to stand up and be recognized. As each military branch of service theme was played, veterans stood up to explosive applause. An a capella rendition of “I’m Proud To Be An American” was accompanied by a kishke-churning drumline tattoo. After John Philips Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis” the Marine Band joined the NY Phil in a medley of Dix’s “Ellis Island” (1999). Maj. Dix explained that this work was based on his grandmother’s favorite American folk songs that she and other immigrants learned on their journey to America.”
“We really need America in the world today,” were Tovey’s parting words to the audience.
During the post-performance reception in the Green Room, I mentioned to Major Dix that my husband had served in the U.S. Navy, that a relative recently joined the Marines, that I was a columnist for The Jewish Daily Forward and that I was a Holocaust survivor. He looked down at me (he is tall!) then kissed the top of my head!
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California Dems’ Private Prison Conundrum
Abolishing private prisons could undermine efforts to reduce unconstitutional overcrowding
Inmates sits in housing block at San Quentin State Prison / Getty Images
Yuichiro Kakutani - November 10, 2019 5:00 AM
As California moves forward with a plan to phase out private prisons in eight years, state Democrats have no plan for how to deal with the 1,600 inmates housed in such facilities.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law last month that will abolish all private prisons by 2028. One of the bill's supporters, California representative Mike Levin, admitted to constituents that California policymakers "don't know" how the state will accommodate the hundreds of prisoners who currently live in private prisons.
"We're going to have to write a letter to figure out exactly how this is going to be implemented, but those facilities, I believe, will close," Levin said at an October town hall. "I wonder what happens to the 1,500 people there right now. We are in a bit of uncharted territory to this because we just passed this law."
Levin's concession is symbolic of the larger tension between the two competing goals that California's prison system must now pursue. On the one hand, the new private prison ban will force the state to close private facilities, lowering the system's inmate capacity. On the other hand, abolishing private prisons might return the state to dangerous levels of overcrowding that former Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy said was a "serious constitutional violation."
Alexandra Wilkes, a spokesperson for prison industry advocacy group Day 1 Alliance, said Democrats lack any plan to house the inmates incarcerated at private prisons.
"There is no plan to our knowledge," she said. "There is no plan to address the overcrowding and all the issues that come with that. This is a knee jerk emotional decision that is not rooted in public policy. It is rooted in making activists happy."
The Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that California's prisons were too crowded to provide adequate health care to inmates and ordered the state to reduce overcrowding by releasing prisoners and expanding capacity. Kennedy, delivering the majority opinion, said that a California prisoner died of preventable or possibly preventable causes every five to six days. Such conditions violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishments," according to the 5-4 ruling.
"For years the medical and mental health care provided by California’s prisons has fallen short of minimum constitutional requirements and has failed to meet prisoners' basic health needs," the majority opinion read. "Needless suffering and death have been the well documented result."
California signed contracts with leading private prison companies to house thousands of inmates to reduce overcrowding, according to court filings. The new private prisons, coupled with legal reform that reduced sentences and other tweaks, decreased the state's prison occupancy rate from an all-time high of 200 percent to 135 percent today—just under the 137.5 percent threshold established by the Supreme Court. Newsom himself acknowledged the role private prisons played in bringing down the prison occupancy rate.
"Private, for-profit prisons have been used for many years to help the state overcome prison overcrowding challenges, but it is time to end our reliance on them," Newsom said in September, one month before he signed into law the private prison ban.
The prison ban law acknowledges the need to keep overcrowding under the legal limit. California will not be allowed to renew or enter into new contracts with for-profit prison companies starting in 2020 unless they are needed to keep the prison population under the Supreme Court's cap. But by 2028, all private prisons must go, even if doing so would potentially violate the ruling.
Wilkes said the law would end up hurting California inmates more than it would help them.
"What the California ban could end up doing is moving detainees far away from their families or into lower-quality facilities like local jails where they are forced to live amongst charged and convicted criminals rather than a modern civil facility with health care and legal support and other resources," she said.
This entry was posted in Issues and tagged Gavin Newsom. Bookmark the permalink.
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Yuichiro Kakutani is a reporter at the Washington Free Beacon. He recently graduated from Cornell University, where he studied government and history. He previously served as editor for The Cornell Daily Sun. He's a proud New Yorker — and by that he means, New York City. He can be reached at kakutani@freebeacon.com.
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Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road to Boruto
A long title for a long legacy — Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto review
by Elisha Deogracias on June 4, 2020
Play with power instantly with the Early Unlock Pack for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto Switch release
by Elisha Deogracias on February 26, 2020
Play as Boruto in Ultimate Ninja Storm 4’s upcoming story mode DLC
by Hunter Wolfe on September 12, 2016
Today, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that it will release the Sarazanmai Anthology to bookstores...
Today, Bedtime Digital Games announced that the sequel to the game Figment, entitled Figment...
Today, Atlus released a new trailer for the upcoming Persona 5 Strikers, which will...
Once upon a time, in a galaxy not that far away, space games were...
If you weren’t already thrilled to be playing a classic 2.5d fighting game in...
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Matterhorn Speed Record Set
April 30, 2015 | By Sean McCoy
Dani Arnold set a new speed record on the Matterhorn on Wednesday, climbing the North Face in 1 hour and 46 minutes.
It breaks Ueli Steck’s previous record of 1:56 on the 4,478-meter peak, set in 2009. Both climbers ascended what is known as the Schmid Route, climbing free-solo. For perspective, average roped climbers take anywhere from 10-20 hours to finish the route.
Arnold blasts up the Matterhorn; photos by Christian Gisi
Arnold, a 30-year-old Mammut-sponsored climber from Switzerland, has made a name for himself for his extraordinary achievements in mixed and ice climbing. He also set a speed record for climbing the north face of the Eiger in 2011, charging up the mountain in 2:28.
Arnold, just a tiny spec of red on the North Face of the Matterhorn
A speed record of the Matterhorn represents a pinnacle in mountaineering. The peak, on the boarder of Switzerland and Italy, was first climbed in 1865. This year, 2015, represents the 150th anniversary of the first ascent.
For his record, Arnold set off at the bergschrund at 3,400 meters at 8:34 a.m. The conditions were “actually really good, even if not optimal,” he said.
“In many places I was climbing on glare ice, and on rock further up. This is where you would ideally find snow,” he reported.
The Swiss mountain guide is known for his speed at climbing mountains. When he set a record on the Eiger in 2011, which is still unbroken today, he was largely unknown outside the climbing scene.
Topics: Mountaineering
Up Next: First Look: Featherweight ‘Cube GTX’ Mountain Boot
First Look: Featherweight ‘Cube GTX’ Mountain Boot
Arresting Development: Pole Has Collapsible Pick
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Sony Releases Final Trailer For ‘Brightburn’
By The Movie God | @ | May 21st, 2019 at 10:00 am
Sony Pictures Entertainment has released the final trailer for Brightburn, which is set to arrive in theaters this week.
The movie, which takes a superhero story and gives it a horror twist, stars Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, and Meredith Hagner. It’s comes from producer James Gunn (Slither, Super, Guardians of the Galaxy), and is directed by David Yarovesky (The Hive) from a screenplay written by Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island).
Continue below for a synopsis and to check out the final trailer for Brightburn.
Tags: Brian Gunn, Brightburn, Dan Clifton, David Denman, David Yarovesky, Elizabeth Banks, Jackson A. Dunn, James Gunn, Kenneth Huang, Mark Gunn, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Nic Crawley, Simon Hatt, Sony Pictures
‘Brightburn’: Watch An Extended Red Band Scene From Superhero Horror Flick
By The Movie God | @ | May 8th, 2019 at 8:32 pm
A new video has been released for the upcoming superhero horror Brightburn, which comes from producer James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither).
The video is an extended red band scene from the movie we’ve seen teased in the trailers for the movie, which takes place in a diner. You can find a synopsis for Brightburn and check out the red band video below.
Topics: Movies, News, Videos
‘Brightburn’: New Trailer For Superhero Horror From Producer James Gunn Released
By The Movie God | @ | March 6th, 2019 at 3:22 pm
Sony Pictures Entertainment has released a new trailer for Brightburn, a superhero horror flick.
The movie comes from producer James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither), and offers a twisted take on the superhero tale. It tells a Superman-like story of a young boy with super powers from another planet who ends up on Earth. But as he discovers his special gifts, he passes up the opportunity to do good with them and instead opts for very dark deeds.
You can find more info on Brightburn and check out the new trailer below.
‘Brightburn’ Trailer: James Gunn Puts A Dark Twisted Spin On Superbeings Who Fall From The Sky
By eelyajekiM | @ | December 10th, 2018 at 2:00 pm
James Gunn will not be stopped. Although what happened to him this past summer was tragic, losing his place within the MCU, the filmmaker has picked himself up to give us a movie that he had been secretly producing for quite some time. And now we know what that film is. The first trailer for Brightburn was released over the weekend, and it teases of what happens when a bundle of joy from another world turns out to be a full-on nightmare. Check out the trailer here below.
Tags: Brian Gunn, Brightburn, David Denman, David Yarovesky, Elizabeth Banks, James Gunn, Mark Gunn, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Michael Caine To Join The Cast Of ‘Journey To The Center Of The Earth’ Sequel
By The Movie God | @ | September 9th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Just recently we found out that Dwayne Johnson would be replacing Brendan Fraser in the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth, currently being called Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.
Johnson will be playing the boyfriend of returning star Josh Hutcherson‘s mother, who accompanies the young explorer on his journey to a mysterious island to find his missing grandfather…a grandfather who at the time was not yet cast. Today that has changed. We now know who will be joining the cast to play this missing grandfather, and that man is Sir Michael Caine.
Tags: 3D, Brad Peyton, Brian Gunn, Dwayne Johnson, Josh Hutcherson, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Mark Gunn, Michael Caine
‘Monster Squad’ Remake Gets Two Writers; Franchise Possible?
By The Movie God | @ | June 17th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Remember back in March when we found out that Paramount Pictures was remaking beloved ’80s favorite The Monster Squad and we all hoped that that would be the last we ever heard of it? It looks as if it’s not only happening, but this could just be the start.
It’s being reported that cousins Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn have been hired to write the screenplay for the movie, and that there are hopes that this could develop into a possible franchise. The Gunn cousins haven’t done a whole lot yet, but they did pen Bring it On Again, James Gunn’s (director of Slither and Brian’s brother) PG Porn, and the upcoming sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth, which is being called Journey to the Mysterious Island.
Tags: Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Brian Gunn, Fred Dekker, Mark Gunn, Michael Bay, Paramount, Platinum Dunes, Rob Cohen, Shane Black, The Monster Squad
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Archives for category: Fullerton Public Library
City Council to Make Final Selection of Hunt Applicant June 2
The proposal being recommended to the City Council.
The Fullerton City Council is scheduled to consider proposals for programming in the closed Hunt Branch Library during it’s regular meeting on June 2. Eight different organizations responded to a Request for Proposals issued last November by the city to solicit programming proposals for the site. A five member panel that included members of the Library Ad Hoc Committee reviewed the proposals following direction by the council in March. The highest ranked proposal came from Heritage Future in partnership with Arts Orange County. The council is being asked to approve staff engaging with the Heritage Future/Arts OC.
Eight responses were received to the city’s Request for Proposals, issued in November, 2019.
Arts OC is a non-profit arts advocacy group founded twenty years ago at a time when such an organization was lacking in the county. Every major, and most minor, arts organization in OC is a member of the group, which advocates for arts funding and support and provides organizational and other services to both local governments and constituent members. For many years they have managed the Imagination Celebration in Orange County. Heritage Future was founded by Kevin Staniec, a writer, publisher, and arts impresario who founded and directs the 1888 literary space in Orange and has organized exhibitions for the City of Irvine’s Great Park gallery for many years and previously worked for the Muckenthaler Cultural Center.
The joint proposal envisions utilizing the historic Hunt Branch Library as an arts and literary presentation and educational space. Staniec would serve as the program team leader, while Arts OC would help to conceive, plan, and implement programs for the space and grounds. The proposal also includes architect Robert Young, who would presumably direct use of $2.5 million in state funding for renovations and restoration of the building.
What oversight the Library Board of Trustees will have of the project is unclear, but the state grant requires that the site retain some aspect of library use.
The library’s tenant, Grace Mission University, also submitted a proposal to utilized the site, scoring at number 5 of the 8 submitted proposals. The next to highest score was received for a proposal called Hunt Library Gardens, but no other information about it is provided in the agenda report, nor were proposals submitted by Access California, Arborland (who operate a private school in Amerige Heights), Faruk Zia & Associates, OCHCC, or Bonnie Hall.
Tags fullerton city council, Fullerton Public Library, Hunt Branch Library, William Pereira
Categories Fullerton, Fullerton City Council, Fullerton Public Library, Hunt Branch Library, Uncategorized
City Council Study Session on Hunt Library May 7, 5:30 p.m.
May 6, 2019 //
At 5:30 p.m., May 7, the Fullerton City Council will hold a Study Session about the Hunt Library in the council chambers located at 303 W. Commonwealth Ave. The purpose of the session is to discuss “identifying and prioritizing future potential uses of the Hunt Branch Library as recommended by the Library Ad Hoc Committee.”
The full agenda report can be found at this link: https://fullerton.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3936489&GUID=0CB906F8-716A-4A3B-B07B-EDE3C7FB972E
The page includes a copy of the Library Ad Hoc Committee’s report to the Fullerton City Council, as well as a letter from the Library Board of Trustees, who wrote that “We endorse the goals presented by the Library Ad Hoc Committee, and we agree with their first priorities emphasizing a broad spectrum of literacy programs. This priority would include Art, Culture, Museum Uses, Events, Activities and Classes which would benefit the larger Fullerton community.”
On February 1 of this year the council directed city staff to schedule the study session in order to develop a Request for Proposals (RFP) to be issued by the city. Non-profits or other outside agencies could respond to the RFP with proposals to operate on the site, providing programming in accordance with list of prioritized uses identified by the Library Ad Hoc Committee (literary, arts and culture, events, classes, etc.).
The staff report for May 7 recommends developing an RFP to solicit partner organizations to not only provide compatible programming in accordance with those suggested by the Ad Hoc Committee, but also one that would obtain “grants and other funding for capital and other improvements to the building and grounds to modernize its technology ability, make it accessibility compliant, and to repair and / or replace necessary plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems,” suggesting that the city is not prepared to make these investments.
The agenda report anticipates considering responses to an issued RFP sometime before the end of this year.
The study session represents a valuable opportunity for supporters to attend and voice their support for keeping the Hunt Library in the public realm.
Categories Architecture, Fullerton, Fullerton City Council, Fullerton Public Library, Hunt Branch Library, Uncategorized
City Council Wants to Fix Library Board Appointment Process That Isn’t Broken
October 1, 2018 //
By staff consultant Rube Goldberg
The Fullerton City Council is having another go at the Library Board appointment process Tuesday night, October 2. “Based on community input on September 18, 2018, the Mayor requests that the City Council discuss, and members of the public to provide input, into an alternate process for appointing members of the Library Board of Trustees“ reads the Staff Report accompanying the Agenda (reproduced below).
While it is true that the community criticized the City Council for not asking the volunteer library support groups Friends of the Library or the Fullerton Library Foundation for their respective opinions on the idea of needlessly changing the Trustee appointment process, as far as we know, nobody ever asked for an alternative process in the first place, other than City Councilmemeber Jennifer Fitzgerald. On May 1 she unilaterally suggested that the City Council appoint themselves as Trustees and create what would essentially be a subservient and powerless Library Advisory Board. What the community did two weeks ago at the last City Council meeting was to roundly reject this idea the Council making themselves the Trustees when we said to just leave the Library Board alone. The community did not say to try to solve a problem that doesn’t exist by terminating a perfectly clear and functional process by which members of the City Council each appoint a Trustee from the community to serve as Trustees.
Like the last agenda two weeks ago, this one does not specify anywhere why any change at all to the Library Board appointment process is needed. As far as we can tell, it is just another solution–and probably a bad one–looking for a problem.
The Staff Report continues…“Such a process could include stakeholders in the Library to include the Friends of the Library, the Library Foundation, and local school districts. A panel of stakeholders could then make a recommendation to the City Council for appointment as Library Board of Trustee appointments become available.” One would hope that members of the City Council were already consulting with these groups when considering appointments to the Library Board, but if it must be codified that people who know a thing or two about the library ought to be listened to, then such an action seems harmless enough…
…unless, the whole thing is just cover for a majority of the City Council to control the Library Board outright. As it now stands, each Councilmember appoints a single Trustee to a five member Board. This arrangement ensures that the balance of the Library Board reflects the balance on the Council, which is as balanced as the electorate collectively sees fit to make it. If another process is adopted whereby the entire council must approve appointees recommended by the Library Foundation or Friends of the Library, a bare majority will be able to make all five appointments. This is not a strategy for making the Library Board more “independent,” as Mayor Doug Chaffee suggested during his attempted damage control at the last meeting.*
One possible method of adding informed voices to the Library Board would be to allow the Library Foundation and the Friends of the Library each an ex-officio seat on the Board, but allowing them to directly appoint members with voting power changes the way the library is governed, and any such change should be justified somewhere in an agenda report, but isn’t at this time. It’s still a mystery why this entire issue is being bought forth in the first place.
*And since when does Doug Chaffee care so much about a more independent Library Board? He objected to any member of the current Library Board serving on the 2018 Library Ad Hoc Committee, claiming they were too “biased” about what to do with the Hunt Branch. The 2012 Library Ad Hoc Committee included all five Trustees as members.
Tags Doug Chaffee, fullerton city council, Fullerton Public Library, Hunt Branch Library, Jennifer Fitzgerald
Categories 2018 Elections, Doug Chaffee, Fullerton, Fullerton City Council, Fullerton Public Library, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Uncategorized
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Dominic Calvert-Lewin: The stunning transformation of a blossoming talent
Posted byGeorge Bennett March 8, 2020 March 9, 2020 Posted inFeaturesTags:Carlo Ancelotti, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, England, Everton, Premier League
England Under-21 striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been an irresistible force time and time again since Carlo Ancelotti took to the helm in December.
Everton are a team revitalized and have undergone a stunning transformation under Ancelotti. They’ve gained fresh momentum from his arrival and Calvert-Lewin has been the man of the moment on the scoring front – notching 8 goals in 10 appearances to extend his tally to 13 goals in the Premier League.
Southgate will undoubtedly be casting his eye on the mid-season revolution and Everton have been quick to persuade the 22-year-old to sign a new five-year contract at the club. His sixth sense of sniffing out chances has provided Everton with an indispensable front-man capable of hauling them to victory against the odds.
The Toffees have a plethora of creative midfielders, including Andre Gomes and Gylfi Sigurdsson. The issue under Marco Silva was the lack of a clinical striker capable of bursting the net on a regular basis.
Calvert-Lewin has filled the void which was left gaping when Romelu Lukaku switched to Manchester United in 2017 and is forming a formidable partnership with Richarlison. The Brazilian had failed to reach the heights of his debut season until a late flurry of goals during the latter stages of the Silva era gave him newfound confidence.
Richarlison (4) and Calvert-Lewin (5) have scored a combined 9 goals alone since the turn of the year. He’s been on board with Ancelotti from the very beginning and he’s more than likely to play a decisive role in whether Everton finish the season with a flourish.
“For me personally I am enjoying my football as you can see, but for the lads it has been a great period,” he said in December. “We have got that togetherness back in the team. We are getting back to where we want to be after a below-par start.
“It was not good enough and it was vitally important we turned it around. We wanted first to get into that middle cluster and go beyond that.”
Everton have indeed hauled themselves clear of the relegation dogfight and they could perhaps make a last-ditch challenge for Europa League qualification. The Toffees have lost just 2 league games during Ancelotti’s reign (W5 D3) and the Italian has lifted them 10 points clear of the relegation zone.
Calvert-Lewin along with Southampton forward Danny Ings has blazed an unexpected trail this term. England had become heavily reliant on Harry Kane in the centre-forward position but a new generation of prolific net-bursters have well and truly broke onto the scene.
His manager Ancelotti has fully backed him to earn his first England cap, saying: “Of course he can play. He showed a lot of quality in the last game, he can play for England, no doubt about this.
“Dominic is doing really well, he has to keep going, he is showing good qualities in this moment.
“I don’t have to tell Southgate to look at Dominic because he already did this. Southgate has his own right to decide.”
Richard Kharman Q&A: The main talking points in the Bundesliga.
Gary Cahill: “We need to look in front of us and not behind us”
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In the launch event, taking place in the sidelines of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly Ministerial week New York, the High Representative/Vice-President, Ministers of Foreign Affairs or Representatives of Argentina, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Chile, Georgia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, The Gambia, Tunisia and Uruguay jointly declared:
“The United Nations international human rights framework is indispensable to tackle the challenges we are faced with today, including the realisation of sustainable development, peace and security, gender equality, and social resilience and inclusion.
“Today, we come together to reiterate our respect for all human rights — civil, political, economic, social and cultural — as a fundamental value and a central principle of our domestic and international actions.
“It is with a shared belief in human rights and a collective sense of responsibility that we pledge to continue improving our own human rights record and to support those who, like us, wish to build and promote ever-more resilient democracies and peaceful and inclusive societies, through identifying and sharing concrete “good human rights stories” and practices.
“Those stories will encourage sustained efforts to improve policies and practices regarding human rights and foster national and cross-regional engagement in the service of the universality, indivisibility and inalienability of human rights.
“We recommit to promoting fundamental government priorities, such as sustainable development, security, social justice, reduced inequalities and resilience, gender equality, non-discrimination and inclusiveness, in our countries and globally, based on the respect for universal human rights and human dignity, good governance and the rule of law, and open and free consultations with all our citizens, also pursuant to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“We strive for continuous human rights progress and renew our pledge to support and cooperate with the UN human rights system, aspiring to work closely with UN Special Procedures; commit to building and safeguarding strong and independent national human rights-related oversight institutions; and affirm our belief in the benefits of regular and open consultations with an independent and vibrant civil society, both nationally and in regional and multilateral fora.
“We fully support the UN Secretary General’s pledge marking the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the commitment to “stand up” for everyone’s rights.”
“A great part of the work of my Office consists of working to mitigate and resolve situations of human rights disaster. But there are many places where human rights do not go wrong. And sometimes we lose sight of these good stories.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
“Often, the world’s spotlight is focused on the bad news – the human rights challenges and setbacks, the human rights agenda losing ground mainly to the national sovereignty agenda. But we know there is more to the story. Progress in one corner of the world plants a seed of hope in another.”
European Union Special Representative for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore
“Let us encourage each other. Let’s use these good stories to inspire each other to do better. ”
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FSM PIO
David Syne Government 13 January 2021
Government & Public Information Services Questions
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Visit the National Elections Office website here: http://fsmned.fm/
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On the Homepage, click Announcements and then Job Announcements. This page is updated as we receive announcements the Personnel Office.
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You can find information before 2017 on FSMPIO.FM, which is the most recent FSM Public Information Office website prior to this one. Some information on the old website will be merged here throughout the course of 2019 and 2020. If you have a specific request, please contact the SAP/PIO directly.
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Joint Committee on Compact Review & Planning (JCRP)
Executive Director of the Secretariat: The Honorable Epel K. Ilon
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Secretary: The Honorable Lorin Robert
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Phone: (691) 320-2641/2613
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Secretary: The Honorable Marcus Samo (Acting Secretary)
NOTE: The Department of Health & Social Affairs website, as of January 9th 2019, is under maintenance. Contact the Public Information Officer (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) if you need additional contact information for this agency.
Secretary: The Honorable Joses Gallen
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Secretary: The Honorable Kalwin Kephas
87 Palikir, Pohnpei State, FM 96941
Department of Environment, Climate Change & Emergency Management
Secretary: The Honorable Andrew Yatilman
Palikir Station, Pohnpei State, FM 96941
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Public Defender: Mrs. Lorrie Johnson-Asher
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Mr. Haser Hainrick
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President/CEO: Ms. Anna Mendiola
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Administrator: Mr. Alexander R. Narruhn
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College of Micronesia-FSM
President: Dr. Joseph M. Daisy
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The Honorable Yosiwo Palikkun George
Super User Government 04 July 2019
The Honorable Yosiwo Palikkun George is the 8th Vice President of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
George was born in Kosrae on July 24th, 1941. His rich and varied public and political life started during the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) and has continued through today. His public service experiences began as an Engineer Trainee at the Pohnpei Transportation Authority, later as a classroom teacher in Kolonia Elementary School, and then as the TTPI Social Security manager in Saipan.
George later served as Kosrae's Lieutenant Governor for a partial term, when he was appointed by the 1st President of the FSM, Tosiwo Nakayama, as the Director of Department of Social Services with foci on health, education, and community services.
After many accomplishments in the Department of Social Services, George was reminded again of his home in Kosrae, and ran for Governor of Kosrae State, where he served two full and consecutive terms. George was then appointed by President Bailey Olter to serve as the Ambassador of the FSM to the United Nations, where he served with distinction for three years.
International service on behalf of the FSM inspired George to run for a seat in the Congress of the FSM, and in the 10th Congress he began his service as a Senator for four years. George was later appointed by Governor Rensley Sigrah to serve as the Chief Justice for Kosrae State Court, where he served until 2006 when he was then called upon by President Manny Mori to serve as the Administrator for MiCare. After several years of dedicated service, President Mori appointed George to be the Ambassador of the FSM to the United States, which additional accreditation to the State of Israel.
George ran for the State of Kosrae's At-Large seat in the Congress of the FSM for its 19th Congress, where he was elected as the 8th Vice President of the FSM, sworn into office on May 11th, 2015. Upon completion of his first term as Vice President of the FSM, George successfully ran for Kosrae's At-Large seat again in 2019, where the 21st Congress of the FSM elected him to the Vice Presidency again on May 11th, 2019.
George's education began at Malem Elementary School, and in 1957 he moved to Pohnpei to attend Pohnpei Intermediate School and then on to Pacific Island Central School (PICS), where he graduated in 1963. George then attended the College of Guam (now the University of Guam) under the Trust Territory Scholarship, and transferred to the University of Hawaii under the East-West Center Scholarship. While at the East-West Center, George participated in a student-exchange program at the University of Mexico. George graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1969, and spent one year of graduate school at Ball State University in Indiana whilst working for the TTPI's Social Security Program.
Yosiwo Palikkun George is married to Antilise W. Mackwelung George, and they are blessed with seven children and more than ten grandchildren
This website is operated by the Public Information Office, a division within the Office of the President located in the Palikir Capitol Complex. All official inquiries and requests for information must be directed to the proper Departments or Agencies of the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia. E-mail to the respective Departments or Agencies, except where otherwise noted, does not constitute an official manner in which to correspond.
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These pages and the original content therein are subject to copyright, and remain the property of the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia, unless otherwise stipulated. Requests for other uses of copyrighted information, or questions concerning this disclaimer, should be addressed by e-mail to the Special Assistant to the President for Public Information (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Any links from this site are provided for convenience only. The views and opinions contained therein do not necessarily represent the views of the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia, either in whole or in part.
H. E. David W. Panuelo
Ninth President of the Federated states of Micronesia
His Excellency David W. Panuelo is the Ninth President of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
Born April 13, 1964, Panuelo completed his early education on his home island of Pohnpei, and continued his education in the United States of America where he received his Bachelor’s in Political Science from Eastern Oregon University in 1987. Panuelo returned to his beloved home and, aspiring to serve the Nation and its citizens, started his career with the FSM National Government in the Department of Foreign Affairs as a Foreign Service Officer. A year later, he was confirmed as the Deputy Ambassador for the FSM Embassy to Fiji where he served until 1993 where, upon his return to Palikir, he was re-appointed to serve his Nation in the same role at the FSM Mission to the United Nations from 1993 through 1996.
After nearly a decade serving the FSM abroad, Panuelo returned home and, having been recognized as deep, strategic, and passionate thinker, was immediately offered a Cabinet position in the Pohnpei State Government, which he accepted so as to address more focused and pragmatic issues at the state level. In 1997, Panuelo was named the Director of the Department of Resource Management and Development for the State of Pohnpei and, for the next four years, devoted his energy and cross-cultural experiences to enhance the development of resources in Pohnpei, correlating with Pohnpei’s increased GDP per capita. At the end of the Administration in 2000/2001, he returned to the FSM Department of Foreign Affairs and served as the Assistant Secretary for the Division of American and European Affairs.
In 2003, Panuelo—recalling the Government’s desire to grow the private sector and create jobs for the citizens of the Nation—resigned from government work to re-direct his energy and efforts to the development of the private sector. For the next seven years, Panuelo established various businesses ranging from construction to human services, including the non-profit Care Micronesia Foundation.
Having demonstrated to himself that the FSM is capable of sustaining a healthy private sector, Panuelo entered his name in the national elections of 2011 with the goal of developing the Nation’s economy and human capacity.
On May 11th, 2011, Panuelo was seated as Pohnpei State’s two-year Senator from Congressional District Three to the 17th Congress, and was re-elected unopposed in 2013 and 2015. During the special election of 2015, Panuelo entered the race for, and was seated, as the State of Pohnpei’s four-year at-large representative to the 19th Congress, which he maintained into the 20th Congress.
Panuelo campaigned for the March 5th, 2019 election for the State of Pohnpei’s at-large seat for the 21st Congress, highlighting his various service-centered and people-centered accomplishments—including growing the FSM Trust Fund from $11,000,000 to more than $250,000,000—and on May 11th, 2019, Panuelo was elected by the 21st Congress of the FSM to serve as the Nation’s ninth President.
Panuelo is the loving father of five beautiful children and seven equally beautiful grandchildren.
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Student Handbook Intro
Role of the College of Graduate Studies
Standards of Conduct and Responsibility
Academic Environment
Expectations of Graduate Faculty
Expectations of Graduate Students
Expectations of Graduate Departments and Programs
Expectations of the Graduate School
Record Holds
Florida Residency
The College of Graduate Studies is dedicated to and benefits from a student population diverse in background, culture, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and work and life experiences that contribute to a fuller representation of perspectives within the academic life of the university. As part of a larger institutional commitment to promoting a diverse student body, we encourage applications from all sectors of society, including prospective graduate students whose life experiences may include the challenge of access due to a disability. In support of this graduate context, we are also actively working toward establishing and utilizing a holistic review of all our graduate applicants. Research shows that this admissions practice increases the diversity of the graduate applicant pool.
As part of our long-standing commitment to increasing the diversity and quality of our graduate student body as per our institutional missions, the College of Graduate Studies works to:
Enroll a student population whose family income reflects the distribution of the region.
Enroll a student population that reflects the demographic distribution of the region.
Enroll students from traditionally underrepresented groups.
Establish efforts through graduate education to solve significant community challenges such as hunger, homelessness, public health, or quality of life.
Develop university activities and partnerships that can diversify the region’s economy.
Provide students with sufficient funding to complete their graduate studies in a timely manner.
UCF also adheres to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as amended by the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008, in prohibiting discrimination against any qualified individual with a disability. Any student with a disability may voluntarily self-report the nature of the disability and identify needed accommodations to the Office of Institutional Equity.
Role of the College of Graduate Studies Admissions
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Hyungsoo Choi
hyungsoo@illinois.edu
Ph.D. Chemistry, Brown University, 1983
Synthesis and development of tailored organometallic, inorganic and polymeric precursors to deposit nanostructured materials, such as thin films, nanoparticles and nanowires of metals and ceramics, and micro and nano-spheres of biomaterials, via sol-gel processing, flow-limited field emission electrostatic spray (FFESS) deposition, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for various devices such as display devices, solar cells, and metamaterials, and via chemical solution method and precision particle fabrication (PPF) technology for advanced drug delivery and cell therapy, including pancreatic islet encapsulation for type I diabetes treatment.
Electronic and optical materials: electronic, optical and magnetic materials for various devices involving thin films, micro and nano particles, and nanowires/tubes of metals, and metal nitrides and oxides utilizing their electronic, optical, optoelectronic, and magnetic properties.
Thin film and nanoparticle fabrication: Thin films, micro and nano particles, and nanowires/tubes via sol-gel processing, charged liquid cluster beam (CLCB) deposition, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), chemical solution deposition (CSD), and precision particle fabrication (PPF) technology.
Precursors for Nanoscale materials synthesis: Syntheses and development of tailored organometallic, inorganic and polymeric precursors
Bio-materials: micro and nano spheres/capsules of biodegradable/compatible materials for imaging, advance drug delivery, and cell therapy.
Biomedical imaging
Bionanotechnology
Nano-materials
Nanomedicine and bio-nanotechnology
Semiconductor devices and manufacturing
Solar and renewable technology
Kim, I.-Y., Choi, H, Kim, K. (2017). "Improved survival of anchorage-dependent cells in core-shell hydrogel microcapsules via co-encapsulation with cell-friendly microspheres." Journal of Microencapsulation 34(1): 57-62.
Kim, I.-D., E. Sawicki, et al. (2016). "Robust neuroprotective effects of intranasally delivered iNOS siRNA encapsulated in gelatin nanoparticles in the postischemic brain." Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine 12(5): 1219-1229.
I.-Y. Kim , E. Joachim, H. Choi, K. Kim, "Toxicity of silica nanoparticles depends on size, dose, and cell type." Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine 11(2015): 1407-1416.
E. Joachim, I.-D. Kim, Y. Jin, K. Kim, J. Lee, H. Choi, "Gelatin nanoparticles enhance the neuroprotective effects of intranasally administered osteopontin in rat ischemic stroke model." Drug Deliv Transl Res 4 (2014) 395-399.
Y.-C. Jin, I.-Y. Kim, H.-K. Lee, J.-Y. Park, P.-L. Han, K. Kim, H. Choi, J.-K. Lee, "Biodegradable gelatin microspheres enhance the neuroprotective potency of osteopontin via quick and sustained release in the post-ischemic brain", Acta Biomater 10 (2014) 3126-3135.
P. E. Heil, H. Kang, H. Choi, and K. Kim, "Effects of controlled surface treatment on titanium dioxide electrode nanostructure for dye-sensitized solar cells”, Appl. Phys. A 112 (2013) 371-380.
G. Kulsharova, M. Lee, F. Cheng, M. Haque, H. Choi, K. Kim, W. O'Brien, Jr, and G. L. Liu, "In vitro and in vivo imaging of peptide-encapsulated polymer nanoparticles for cancer biomarker activated drug delivery", IEEE Trans NanoBioscience 12 (2013) 304-310.
I.-Y. Kim, P. L. Pusey, Y. Zhao, S. S. Korban, H. Choi, K. Kim, “Controlled release of Pantoea agglomerans E325 for biocontrol of fire blight disease of apple”, J. Control. Release 161(2012) 109-115.
F. Cheng, Y. B. Choy, H. Choi and K. Kim, “Modeling of small-molecule release from crosslinked hydrogel microspheres: Effect of crosslinking and enzymatic degradation of hydrogel matrix”, Int. J. Pharm., 403 (2011) 90 – 95.
Y.-C. Jin, S.-W. Kim, F. Cheng, J.-H. Shin, J.-K. Park, S. Lee, J.-E. Lee, P.-L. Han, M. Lee, K. Kim, H. Choi, J.-K. Lee, “The effect of biodegradable gelatin microspheres on the neuroprotective effects of high mobility group box 1 A box in the postischemic brain”, Biomaterials 32 (2011) 899 – 908.
W. Gu, P. E. Heil, H. Choi, and K. Kim, “Generation of stable multi-jets by flow-limited field-injection electrostatic spraying and their control via I-V characteristics”, J. Physics D: Applied Physics, 43 (2010) 492001
Y. B. Choy, H. Choi, and K. Kim, "Uniform Ethyl Cellulose Microspheres of Controlled Sizes and Polymer Viscosities and Their Drug Release Profiles", J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2009, 112(2), 850-857.
Y. B. Choy, F. Cheng, H. Choi, and K. Kim, “Uniform Chitosan Microspheres for Potential Application to Colon-Specific Drug Delivery", Macromol. Biosci. 2008, 8, 1173–1181.
C. Kim, W. Gu, M. Briceno, I. M. Robertson, H. Choi, and K. Kim, “Copper Nanowires with Five-Twinned Structure Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition” Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 1859–1863.
Y. B. Choy, F. Cheng, H. Choi, and K. Kim "Monodisperse Gelatin Microspheres as a Drug Delivery Vehicle: Release Profile and Effect of Cross-Linking Density", Macromol. Biosci. 2008, 8, 758–765.
W. Gu, H. Choi, and K. Kim, "A Quantum Mechanical Theory for Single Molecule-Single Nanoparticle Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering”, J. Phys. Chem. A 2007, 111, 8121-8125.
W. Gu, P. E. Heil, H. Choi, and K. Kim, "Comprehensive model for fine Coulomb fission of liquid droplets charged to Rayleigh limit Comprehensive model for fine Coulomb fission of liquid droplets charged to Rayleigh limit", Appl. Phys. Lett. 2007, 91, 064104.
Y. B. Choy, H. Choi, and K. Kim, "Fabrication of uniform biodegradable hydrogel microspheres by a surfactant-free electric-field-assisted method," Macromol. Biosci. 2007, 7, 423-428.
W. Gu, H. Choi, and K. Kim,"Universal approach to accurate resistivity measurement for a single nanowire: Theory and application", Appl. Phys. Lett. 2006, 89, 253102.
S. Park, S. Lim and H. Choi, "Fe(II) Hydrides as Precursors for Chemical Vapor Deposition of Iron and Iron Oxide Thin Films", Chem. Mater., 2006, 18, 5150.
H. Choi and S. Park, "Seedless Growth of Free-Standing Copper Nanowires by Chemical Vapor Deposition", J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 6248 -6249.
H. Kang, S. Park, H. Choi, K. Kim, M. Sung, "Low-Temperature Growth of Highly Crystalline (Ba, Sr)TiO3 Films by Charged Liquid Cluster Beam Method", Electrochem. Solid-State Lett., 2004, 7, F77 ?F80.
H. Choi, S. Park, and T. H. Kim, "Novel Nickel Precursors for Chemical Vapor Deposition," Chemistry of Materials, vol. 15, p. 3735, 2003.
H. Choi and S. Park, "Liquid Cobalt(I) Hydride Complexes as Precursors for Chemical Vapor Deposition," Chemistry of Materials, vol. 15, p. 3121, 2003.
H. Choi, S. Park, and H. G. Jang, "Chemical Vapor Deposition of Cobalt using Novel Cobalt(I) Precursors," Journal of Materials Research, vol. 17, p. 267, 2002.
H. Choi, S. Park, Y. Yang, H. Kang, K. Kim, M. Y. Sung and H. G. Jang, "Low-Temperature Fabrication of High-Quality (Ba, Sr)TiO3 Films using Charged Liquid Cluster Beam Method," J. Mater. Res. 2002, 17, 1888.
Y. Yang, K. Kim and H. Choi, "Fabrication of Perovskite Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 Thin Films using Charged Liquid Cluster Beam," Thin Solid Films, 2001, 396, 97.
S. H. Rhee, Y. Yang, J. M. Myoung, K. Kim and H. Choi,"Deposition of Highly (100)-Oriented MgO films at Low Temperature by Charged Liquid Cluster Beam," Thin Solid Films, 2001, 396, 23.
H. Choi and S. Hwang, "Volatile Amidoalane Complexes for Chemical Vapor Deposition of Aluminum", Chem. Mater. 1998, 10, 2323.
H. Choi and S. Hwang, "Copper(I) Tert-butyl-3-oxobutanoate Complexes as Precursors for Chemical Vapor Deposition of Copper", Chem. Mater. 1998, 10, 2326.
M. Cich, K. Kim, H. Choi and S. Hwang, "Deposition of (Zn,Mn)2SiO4 for plasma display panels using charged liquid cluster beam," Appl. Phy. Lett. 1998, 73, 2116.
"Copper CVD Precursors Containing Alkyl 3-Oxobutanoate Ligands", S. Hwang, H. Choi and I. Shim, Chem. Mater. 1996, 8, 981.
C. K. Ryu, H. Choi and K. Kim, "Fabrication of Highly Concentrated Er3+-Doped Aluminosilicate Films via Sol-Gel Processing", Appl. Phy. Lett. 1995, 66(19), 2496.
Encapsulated Materials and Methods for Encapsulating Materials, K. Kim, and H. Choi, U. S. Patent No. 8,663,511 B2, 2014.
Microparticles, K. Kim, H. Choi, Y. Choi, U. S. Patent No. 8,409,621 B2, 2013
High Intensity Discharge ARC Lamp Using UV-Absorbant Coating, K. Kim, J. Gao, H. Choi, R. P. Singh, U.S. Patent No. 8,469,762 B2, 2013.
Apparatus and Methods for Applying a Film on a Substrate, K. Kim, H. Choi, U. S. Patent No. 8,507,048 B2, 2013.
Apparatuses and Methods for Applying One or More Materials on One or More Substrates, K. KIM, H. Choi, P. E. Heil, U. S. Patent No. 8,342,120 B2, 2013.
Electron Emission Device Incorporating Free Standing Monocrystalline Nanowires, H. Choi, K. Kim, U. S. Patent No. 8,030,833 B2, 2011.
Apparatus and Method for Applying a Film on a Substrate, K. Kim, H. Choi, U. S. Patent No. 8,025025 B2, 2011.
Organometallic Compounds and Their Use as a Precursors for Forming Films and Powders of Metal or Metal Derivatives, H. Choi, U. S. Patent No. 7,507,390, 2009.
"Nanostructures Including A Metal," H. Choi, PCT 10/664,431(US), 2003; U. S. Patent No. 7,344,753, 2008.
"Microparticles," K. Kim, H. Choi, and Y. B. Choy, U. S. Patent No. 7,309,500, 2007.
"Organometallic Compounds and their use as Precursors for Forming Films, and Powders of Metal or Metal Derivatives," H. Choi, China Patent Pub. No. 101139365, 2008; Korean Patent Pub. No. 1020030028767, 2003; European Patent Pub. No. 1299404 (A1), 2003; U. S. Patent No. 6,777,565, 2004.
"Organocopper Precursors for Chemical Vapor Deposition," H. Choi, U. S. Patent No. 6,538,147, 2003.
"Amidoalane Precursors for Chemical Vapor Deposition of Aluminum", H. Choi, U. S. Patent No. 5,880,303, 1999.
National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), Winner of EnvisioNano Contest, 2015
Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, 2012
ECE 110 - Introduction to Electronics
Tiny drug-delivering capsules could sustain transplanted insulin-producing cells for diabetics
Getting into your head: Gelatin nanoparticles could deliver drugs to the brain
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Empowering Young Arab Athletes, One Nike Pro Hijab At A Time
hlsjrnldev · March 17, 2017 ·
On March 7, 2017, Nike announced its expansion into a new market with the Pro Hijab. The product is designed for Muslim female athletes and will be available for sale in spring 2018. CNN Money reports the design process took 13 months, resulting in a lightweight, breathable design that still adheres to religious standards. According to the New York Times, a group of athletes including United Arab Emirates figure skater Zahra Lari, United Arab Emirates Olympic weight lifter Amna Al Haddad, and triathlete and runner Manal Rostom who currently lives in Dubai, have all tested and praised the Nike Pro Hijab. Rostom explained “[t]here weren’t any hijabi athletes to look up to when I was growing up, and I had to be my own pioneer, and now girls today have women like Amna Al Haddad and Zahra Lari to look to as role models, which is so inspiring. For young girls to see these women and to see this revolutionary shift will change the face of sport for Muslim Arab girls, whether they wear hijab or not.”
Nike’s foray into this market is but one component of a larger strategy to reach Muslim athletes across the world. The New York Times reports that the Pro Hijab announcement followed the release of an Arabic version of the Nike & Training Club app and a Middle East marketing campaign featuring female athletes from the region. Nike’s most recent ad featured Arab women boxing, fencing, running and skateboarding, with the tagline “What will they say about you? Maybe they’ll say you exceeded all expectations.” The significance of the first clause of this statement is that is a phrase that young Arab women are often confronted with if they do not conform to traditional cultural norms.
Reuters noted that although some criticized the ad for not accurately portraying what life is like as a female athlete in Arab countries, Sara al-Zawqari, a spokeswoman for the International Red Cross in Iraq, stated “[a]n ad (which) touches on the insecurities of women in a society digs deeper and becomes an empowerment tool rather than just a product.”
Kendall Howell is a Sports Highlight Contributor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current first year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2019).
Filed Under: Highlight Tagged With: Highlight, sports
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Tag: Racism
Reflections for Holocaust Memorial Day 2020
Yesterday I was called a Jewish agent.
What! Why? I hear you exclaiming. The reason was simple. I had dared to extend an invitation to the local Holocaust Memorial Day event to local Muslims. It is reassuring to report that no one supported the views of this misguided individual and there was robust support for the event from others on the group.
But the comment was a wakeup call. Whilst we have a lot of work that needs to be done in challenging anti-Semitism across the country, we have not taken up the challenge of addressing anti-Semitism robustly enough amongst Muslims. The reasons for this are many and varied. For one, there is a lack of understanding amongst Muslims surrounding the definition of anti-Semitism. There is a propensity to conflate political issues concerning Israel and Palestine with Jews and Jewish organisations in this country. There is a feeling that by commemorating the Shoah, we are ignoring the injustices and suffering of others (Muslims) across the world. And lastly and sadly, some Muslims have been indoctrinated with anti-Semitic views.
The working definition developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance clearly defines anti-Semitism and the definition does not include criticism of the state or government of Israel. The full definition can be seen here . But when you start accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoings, for example, or deny the facts of the holocaust or even the holocaust itself, you are being anti-Semitic.
For Muslims, there will always be sympathy for the injustices suffered by their Palestinian brothers and sisters but this should never prevent us from developing friendships and working relationships with Jews. We must stop blaming all Jews for the actions of the Israeli state or the actions of individuals. This is synonymous with blaming all Muslims for terrorist attacks, British Indians for what the Indian government of Modi is doing to Muslims in India and Kashmir or blaming all Arabs for what’s happening in Yemen.
Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates the Shoah and subsequent genocides, in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda. It is not ‘just about the Jews’.
I have spent over half my life working with people of all faiths and none. Most recently I have been working with Nisa-Nashim, a Jewish and Muslim women’s network, that strives to develop friendships, respect and understanding between our faiths. I have seen Jewish women be the first to call out anti-Muslim hatred and have the utmost regard for أهلالكتاب Ahl al-Kitāb ‘People of the Book’ . I take guidance from my religion, most especially on how to treat others and I wish others, in particular our keyboard warriors who feel they are defending Muslims and Islam by attacking Jews, would do the same.
Reflections from St Mary’s Church Stafford
In the name of God the Most beneficent the Most merciful
O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). (Al Hujarat)
Salaam Shalom and Peace
It is always a source of great honour to be invited to speak at St Mary’s – and especially to be asked to share some reflections, as we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on what is, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
I’m sure we’ve all seen a number of news reports and social media posts this week related to Holocaust Memorial Day. Senior multi faith representatives visited and prayed at the site of Auschwitz in a show of unity and friendship. You may have seen reports of global senior politicians and dignitaries in Germany, speaking out about the holocaust as crimes against humanity. The Premier League also produced a very powerful anti-racism film featuring top footballers to mark HMD. This commemoration is about remembering a period in our world history that we really should be ashamed of. A point in history that saw the systematic extermination, of millions. Six million Jews, and countless others targeted because of their racial and political ideologies – the Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, dissidents, communists, social democrats as well as those with disabilities and homosexuals.
It’s really difficult to try and comprehend the mass scale at which these events took place. And in trying to get our heads around the enormity of the numbers, we sometimes neglect the fact, that every single one of these beings, lived, had a narrative to tell, each individual experienced a life that came to a vicious and abrupt end. If you haven’t yet seen them, you may want to take a look at some of the survivors’ testimonies online – not just related to how they survived but what they lost during this bleakest period of human history.
But one thing we forget is this. Hostility towards Jews began long before Hitler came into power. It started many years before that – with name calling, stereotyping, character assassination, religious intolerance and bigotry. The Nazi trademark of anti-Semitism blamed Jews for the defeat of Germany in 1918, it “predicted” the annihilation of the Jewish race from Germany and propagated the idea of the dominance of the pure white or Aryan race. The demonization came many years before state-sponsored extermination, by creating a division in society – a ‘them’ and ‘us’ society, where ‘they’ were the root cause of all societal problems. Stigmatisation and persecution became the norm and whilst sometimes we make it sound like it happened overnight, it didn’t.
Closer to home, our own divisions in society sometimes seem overwhelming, with anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hatred, racism, gender-based violence, homophobia and other forms of prejudice growing on the streets of Britain. Today is an opportunity for us to listen, and show compassion to others. Evil acts by states and the slaughter of innocents should never be forgotten, nor should remembering victims of genocide be viewed as a ‘Jewish thing’ – it is a universal and humanitarian obligation, to ensure the world never sees it’s like again. Every year we say ‘never again’. Yet three days ago The International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Myanmar to prevent a genocide of the country’s remaining Rohingya Muslims — the target of a brutal army crackdown that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent men women and children. Every year we commemorate the Shoah and the genocides that took place in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. How long before we add Myanmar to the list? How long before we add Kashmir and Xinjiang to that list? Now is the time for all of us to break out of your comfort zones, our religious and collective bubbles, stand together and witness the humanity that exists amongst others. It is only then that we can honestly say that we are taking responsibility, we’re speaking out and will act against all forms of prejudice, racism and indiscriminate violence. We should never attempt to justify what are quite simply acts of evil as anything other than what they really are. We should never be amongst those “that shook their heads or turned away or watched the deeds of others but did nothing”. As Nelson Mandela reminded us “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, because love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
I’d like to finish with a short prayer written especially for this years commemorations by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi and a senior Imam, and by quoting Prince Charles who said that ‘I hope and pray that all those who are suffering, all those who are oppressed, all those who are facing injustice, persecution and division find freedom, justice and equality” in the future.
A prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day
“Loving God, we come to you with heavy hearts, remembering the six million Jewish souls and countless others who were murdered during the Holocaust.
In the horrors of that history, when so many groups were targeted because of their identity, and in genocides which followed, we recognise destructive prejudices that drive people apart.
Forgive us when we give space to fear, negativity and hatred of others, simply because they are different from us.
In the light of God, we see everyone as an equally precious manifestations of the Divine, and can know the courage to face the darkness.
Through our prayers and actions, help us to stand together with those who are suffering, so that light may banish all darkness, love will prevail over hate and good will triumph over evil.”
“For every man there is a purpose which he sets up for his life and which he pursues. Let yours be the doing of all good deeds’ (Al-Baqarah)
Rod Liddle you’re a …… (fill in your preferred adjective) Election 2019
At a recent event, Margaret Attwood spoke about her book ‘The Handmaids Tale’ and made it clear – that if we don’t like the dystopian societies she describes then we need to do something about it as they can very easily happen. Hearing this, then reading Rod Liddle’s Spectator piece, stirred me to write this blog. His piece yet again effectively demonstrating what a hate monger he is . Whilst it came out a couple of weeks ago, I find myself seething every time I look at social media and see some troll spouting the same hate filled nasty rhetoric his commentary legitimises. Having written blogs before the elections of 2015 and then again in 2017, I had made the decision that I was going to steer clear of writing yet another blog about why we must use our democratic right and vote, by placing an X beside the name of our choice on the 12thDecember 2019.
However, having read the vile diatribe produced under the guise of ‘journalism’ I felt compelled to say my piece. Considering he does have a reputation for writing such tirades vilifying certain groups, I think the vitriol he has had hurled at him, is well deserved.
Mr Liddell it appears, was having a bad day when he wrote his article. His ‘sense of humour’, unsurprisingly, seems to have gone over most people’s heads. His column was little more than an excuse to vent his resentment and fury at anybody he could take aim at. Politicians being described as mentally ill, students lazy, pig ignorant junkies, he showed utter contempt for women who have been sexually abused and made light of the #metoo movement. Nevertheless his commentary would have been incomplete had he not included Muslims in the torrent of abuse his supporters have claimed was merely ‘satirical’ ‘humorous’ and ‘taken out of context’. His article was not exercising his freedom of speech; under its’ guise, his Fascist anti-Muslims anti-women hate filled comments were morally and ethically abhorrant. The language adopted by Lidell and his ilk have a damaging effect on our society especially when aimed at those already marginalised.
In the run up to a general election, anyone who uses such hateful polarising language must be called out for the damage their divisive language has on society. The free will to elect our political leaders in this country is one of the freedoms we should value about living in Britain and being British. Everyone has the right to have their say in the electoral process. Whichever party you support, whichever party you agree or disagree with, voting is one of the fundamental freedoms of expression we have as British citizens. Think about some of the images we’ve seen on our TV screens from elections across the world. People who are forced to vote one way or another amidst threats of having family members kidnapped or murdered. Others queuing for hours, votes being forged and others never even having the opportunity. There is a level of dishonesty that exists amongst individuals who want to live in Britain, enjoy the freedoms and benefits that being British citizens affords them, but not being prepared to fulfil their own obligations.
As a Muslim, this is something I am particularly aware of. I have grown up with an understanding of a principle that exists within Islam called “Shura” meaning consultation. This, in its simplest form is a way to harness the views and opinions of those individuals most affected by any decisions that may be made. The Prophet Muhammad would, as instructed by God in the Quran, consult his companions; “And consult them in the affairs and when you have taken a decision, put your trust in God, certainly, God loves those who put their trust in Him” [Aal-’Imran, 159]. For those individuals who argue that the electoral choices presented to them do not represent the ideals of their faith in its purest form, there are always alternatives available. I can think of several theocratic dictatorships that they may like to consider as places of residency. For the rest of us, let’s make the most of the democratic freedoms afforded to us as British citizens. By voting, we are not violating any Islamic laws. We are making a decision as to who we feel is the best to govern the country we call home.
I am under no illusions that unlike other elections, this one is different. There are all sorts of factors at play, issues that will affect every single citizen depending on the outcome. The noise surrounding this election is toxic from whichever angle you look at it. However, we must and should make our decision based on those things that matter the most to us. Education, healthcare, housing, environment, domestic policies, foreign policy, social inequalities and yes even Brexit. Make the decision about who you will vote for based on which party you belief has the best interests of the things that matter to you.
However we must not let anti-Muslim hatred, anti-Semitism, prejudice and bigotry in any of its form, be turned into the battleground for this election. Nisa-Nashim, A Jewish and Muslim women’s network have this week launched a campaign to challenge those who use hateful and discriminatory language and have pledged to call out politicians, media outlets and users of social media who are generating this hate rather than acceptance and polarisation rather than social cohesion. They are asking everyone to #WatchYourLanguage. We know that when unchecked, hate has the potential to ultimately turn to violence. So to Rod Lidell and those who support him, I ask, do we really want European history repeating itself?
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A history of Draughts
Checkers or draughts is the name of several different board games. All of these games are similar. In every kind of checkers, the other player’s pieces can be taken by being “jumped” over. “Checkers” is the American name. In British English, and in various other English-speaking nations, these games are called “Draughts“.
Though most people do not know it, the game we know today as Draughts has a long and storied history. From ancient Egypt to your own living room, Draughts has remained a popular pastime for most of recorded history.
Draughts, as we know it, probably began as a game called Alquerque, or Quirkat. Alquerque boards and pieces have been found in archeological digs dating as far back as 600 BCE, and images of Alquerque have been found carved into temple walls dating as far back as 1400 BCE. It was played throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. It was enjoyed by the Ancient Egyptians, mentioned by both Plato and Homer, and even made its way into India.
While we do not know exactly how the ancients played Alquerque, what we do know about the game strongly resembles modern Draughts. Like Draughts, Alquerque features round, flat pieces divided into light and dark colors, the capture of opponent pieces, and a grid-based board. Unlike Draughts, an Alquerque board is only a 5×5 grid and sports intersecting diagonal lines; and in Alquerque, there are only 10 pieces per side, moving along the intersections of lines instead of within squares.
Historians place the invention of “modern” Draughts in the 12th century CE, when someone, somewhere (probably in the south of France) combined the rules and pieces of Alquerque with the 8×8 grid of a common chessboard. They called the game Fierges, and the pieces “ferses,” the same name given to the queen in Chess; at that time the queen moved like a Fierges piece, one space at a time. Later, Ferses also became a name for the game, and by the 15th century both Fierges and Ferses had been replaced by the name Jeu De Dames, or simply Dames.
Many famous men were fond of Draughts. It’s antiquity is attested by Homer in the Odyssey, where reference is made to games in the palace of Ulysses in Ithica: and by Plato who in his dialogs makes frequent mention of it by way of illustration.
The oldest know works on Draughts was published at Valencia, Spain in 1547 by Antonia Torquemado.
Famous Draughts players have been Cicero and many roman emperors: Napoleon; the Duke of Wellington: Federick the Great; Pierre Mallet, engineer ordinary to Louis XIV; Edgar Allen Poe; J.P. Dodd L.L.D; General U.S. Grant who ascribed much of his military success to the mental sharpening derived from Draughts, Garibaldi, the savior of Italy; John Paterson the great mathematician; Andrew Carnegie and hundreds of doctors, lawyers, and members of the learned professions.
You can read more about general history of Draughts http://www.draughtshistory.nl or http://www.damasweb.com/
There are several types of games in draughts on a board 8 X 8 in the present.
You can read more about variants of draughts http://games21.info/
Section 64 develops Russian and Brazilian versions of draughts-64.
Draughts, which originated and gained great development in Russia, have called Russian version of draughts-64. The game spread throughout the world today. Players from more than 30 countries took part in official competitions for Russian version of draughts-64.
You can read more about Russian version of draughts: http://shashki.info/, http://shashkinn.ru, http://www.gambiter.ru/
Draughts-64 in Brazil started to develop in the 30s of the twentieth century. Players played on a
board 8 X 8 to the rules of draughts 10 X 10. The game became known as Brazilian draughts.
The game is very popular in Brazil. Players in some European countries and China play this game too.
You can read more about history of Brazilian draughts http://www.codexdamas.com.br/historia.html
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Opinion of the Coalition for Independent and Transparent Judiciary on the Fourth Wave of Judicial Reform Legislative Package
Posted on 29/01/2018 by IDSD
To Parliament of Georgia
The Parliament of Georgia is conducting the first hearing on the legislative package of amendments to the Law on Common Courts, and the Civil and Administrative Procedural Codes, which together make up the “Fourth Wave” of judicial reforms.
According to the initiators of the package, the legislative amendments aim at resolving the problems of protracted case hearings and judicial overload. It came to the Coalition’s attention that later on, and within the Fourth Wave, amendments are planned regarding judicial discipline, the mandate of the High Council of Justice (HCOJ) and the High School of Justice. We would like to stress that the Coalition supports the continuation of systemic reforms in the judiciary and hopes that the Fourth Wave amendments address the challenges stemming from the informal and damaging management of the judicial system, and aim at strengthening individual judges and increasing accountability.
At the same time, the Coalition negatively assesses the process of working on the Fourth Wave, which was conducted in isolation, without involving professional groups or civil society organizations. Given the previous experiences with judicial reform efforts, the reasons for excluding organizations with many years of experience in monitoring courts and the High Council of Justice, as well as working on reforms and judicial strategy, are unclear to us. The Coalition hopes that the work on other legislative amendments of the Fourth Wave will be made more open and participatory.
Below we present the Coalition’s opinion on the initiated amendments. The Coalition commends certain changes proposed by the amendments that will alleviate the problem of protracted justice. Among these are the issues of: admissibility of evidence at the preparatory hearing; use of security measures during the appeal; sending copies of case materials to Appeals Courts; usage of electronic signatures and electronic submission of documents; and widening the scope of the cases that can be heard by a single judge.
Still, the proposed drafts contain changes that may negatively affect the realization of the right to fair trial or could be detrimental to independence of the judiciary and public trust in the judiciary.
Widening the scope of work for the court personnel (Magistrate civil servant)
The Coalition does not consider it prudent to give the magisters the authority to administer justice and to introduce this as a mechanism for ensuring speedy justice.
According to the current Civil Procedural Code, a magistrate’s work is confined to hearing undisputed cases. The proposed amendments widen the magistrate’s scope to hearing certain disputed cases as well. The Coalition does not consider it appropriate to delegate the administration of justice to court personnel (magistrate civil servant) and does not support the introduction of this as a mechanism for fast justice. Additionally, the Coalition stresses that the draft amendments do not regulate the appointment of the personnel, their term and other matters of great importance. Widening the personnel’s authority is unjustifiable in the legal-constitutional and practical sense.
According to the draft provision’s explanatory note, the proposed change aims to avoid protraction of case hearings, diminish the case backlog, and aid speedy justice. However, it remains unclear why the widening of the court personnel’s authority is necessary and how would it aid the objective of timely delivery of justice. Giving the authority to administer justice to court personnel without any guarantees of independence, rather than to a judge, is unwarranted. Rather than increasing the number of judges, the amendments call for the increase of court personnel numbers and new regulation of this position, which requires new regulation of several interconnected issues. The explanatory note does not clarify what is the reason for the preference of this approach over increasing the number of judges. Such substantiation is particularly crucial given that the draft amendments introduce a completely novel mechanism, the need for which must be adequately justified prior to adoption.
In general, for the objective of speedy justice, whether a judge or court personnel administers justice is irrelevant. Hence, it remains unclear what additional benefits expanding the authority of court personnel would entail.
The Coalition considers that endowing court personnel with the function of administering justice is not justified, since the introduction of this mechanism for hearing disputes would not be effective in reaching the objective of speedy justice. Additionally, this would be associated with greater difficulty, compared to at least a marginal increase of the number of judges. The court personnel do not enjoy all of the guarantees of independence that the legislation affords to the judges.
According to the draft amendments, the decisions of the court personnel would be appealed in the same court of first instance, and then in the Court of Appeals. This adds an extra step to the existing process of hearing disputes, which could further protract reaching the final decision. Pointing to the low rate of appeals as a counter-argument does not substantiate the appropriateness for introducing the new mechanism.
According to transitional provisions of the draft amendments to the Organic Law on Common Courts, with the entry into force of this legislation the current court personnel would be considered acting magistrate civil servants until the appointment of permanent staff under the rules set by the new legislation. This provision contradicts the Constitution of Georgia, which states that justice is administered by a judge who is appointed to the position by the HCOJ under the procedures set by the law.
The Coalition proposes that the government use the mechanism of judicial transfers as an interim measure, rather than increasing the authority of the court personnel. It is well known that the problem of judicial overload is most significant at Tbilisi City Court. Hence it would be more reasonable for the High Council of Justice to use the transfer mechanism for such situations. This would also allow postponing legislative changes until the time when in-depth analysis and long-term vision for solving the problems is available.
Introduction of further specialization of judges in the Appeals Courts
The Coalition considers that introduction of the general mechanism of specialization at Appeals Courts is unwarranted and that it contains tools that may threaten judicial independence.
According to Article 1 of the amendments to the Organic Law on Common Courts, the HCOJ may decide to introduce further specialization of judges at the Appeals Courts.
The narrow specialization of judges has always been a problem for the judicial system. In practice, the HCOJ narrows judicial specialization to such a degree that it threatens the independence of individual judges and often may make the new case distribution system pointless. The creation of specializations is the HCOJ’s prerogative, however the court Chairs unilaterally decide on the appointment of judges to the specializations, further escalating the risks.
Of the recent high profile cases, the hearing of Rustavi 2 case at Tbilisi City Court, serious criticism was directed to the fact that there was only one judge at the court specializing in copyright issues. This was the reason why the Rustavi 2 case was not allocated alphabetically, using random selection as prescribed by law, but was rather assigned directly to Judge Tamaz Urtmelidze. Accordingly, while narrow judicial specialization is already problematic at the first instance level, introduction of a similar mechanism at the appellate level, particularly with only general provisions, is inexcusable. Importantly, for most cases the Appeals Court would be the highest instance to reach. In this situation, with amendments such as this the legislation would give the HCOJ and the Court Chairs a tool that threatens judicial independence.
The draft’s explanatory notes indicate that “adjudicating similar cases by a judge is related to the timely execution of justice. Additionally, this ensures raising the qualifications of a judge in the particular field of law, which in turn will have significant effect on the quality of justice.” This is not adequately substantiated. According to the draft’s explanatory notes, the disputes that constitute the bulk of the case-load are not of a complicated legal nature. Mostly, these are small loan contracts with banks and financial institutions, which are simple disputes. Hence it is unclear why there is a need for narrow specialization, when hearing such simple disputes is not connected to raising the qualification of judges or providing speedier justice. Any judge sitting at the Civil Law chamber of the Appeals Court can hear such cases rapidly and with high quality. Additionally, the drafts do not contain any substantive amendments to the Civil or Administrative law that would have possibly justified narrower specialization for judges.
The Consultative Council of European Judges Opinion #15 (2012) on the specialization of judges does not indicate alleviating heavy case burden as among the objectives of specialization. The opinion stresses that along with its benefits, specialization has disadvantages and can be a threat to judicial independence, among others. Article 8 of the Opinion notes that specialization is seldom a pre-determined choice and is most often a result of adaptation to needs stemming from changes in the legislation. Hence, the narrow specialization of judges is not a general rule, and important and legitimate grounds are needed for its use.
Article 24 of the above Opinion stresses that all judges of common and specialized courts must be experts in the art of judging. They must have sufficient knowledge to be able to analyze and assess facts and the law, and must be able to reach a verdict on cases in different spheres of law. For this they must have thorough knowledge of legal institutions and principles. According to Article 26 of the Opinion, “judges should be capable of deciding cases in all fields. Their general knowledge of the law and its underlying principles, common sense and knowledge of the realities of life give them an ability to apply the law in all fields, including specialist areas, with expert assistance if necessary.”
The Coalition believes that if the Parliament plans changes regarding specialization, these changes must first of all reduce the Court Chairs’ competence on this issue.
Public Hearing of Court Cases
The Coalition considers that parties’ consent for hearing a case without oral hearing must be maintained.
The proposed draft adds points 12 – 14 to Article 34 of the Administrative Procedural Code, which sets the list of instances when the Appeals Court may consider the appeals claim without an oral hearing. In the circumstances under Article 34.14, the Court may only consider the case without an oral hearing with the parties’ consent.
During the first hearing of the draft at the January 5, 2018 session of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament, one MP suggested to remove the requirement of parties’ consent and have the oral hearing at the sole discretion of the Court.
The Coalition considers it important to retain the parties’ consent on deciding a case without an oral hearing. Here it is important to note that this amendment pertains to the general rule and extends to all claims under the administrative law. Importantly, in such cases the state is always a party. Hence, it is essential that the oral hearing of such cases is not disproportionately limited. The explanatory note of the draft mentions cases of several jurisdictions that conduct cases without oral hearings. Removal of the parties’ consent and making this a matter of the court’s discretion would counter the arguments outlined in the explanatory note.
Interim Chairs and Deputy Chairs of Appellate Courts
The Coalition believes that the rule for appointing interim Court Chairs and Deputies proposed in the draft is too general. It does not establish any restrictions for appointing an Interim Chair and his/her Deputy, thereby exacerbating the problems existing in practice. The absence of criteria and rules for selecting Court Chairs is also problematic. The draft does not address this issue.
The draft amendment to the Organic Law on Common Courts specifies the functions of the High Council of Justice. The draft establishes the Council’s authority to appoint an Interim Chair prior to the appointment of an Appellate Court Chair.
The current legislation does not define criteria and rules for appointing Chairs and Deputy Chairs of courts/chambers/collegiums. In practice, the Council’s work related to the appointments of Chairs and Deputy Chairs is problematic. Decisions are not substantiated and limited in time. In this situation a minor technical change of the legislation is not sufficient. The legislation should clarify a number of important issues related to the appointment of Court Chairs, Deputy Chairs, Chairs of Chambers and Collegiums. These issues include appointment criteria and rules, appointment of interim Chairs/Deputies for a specific period of time, and substantiation of appointment decisions. The problems with the appointment of Interim Chairs/Deputies are similar to the issues with appointment of Court/Chamber/Collegium Chairs. The High Council of Justice established a practice in which Interim Chairs can perform the functions of Chairs for years. The need for Interim Chairs is not justified or bound in time. This creates a ground for manipulating the process for appointment of Chairs and Deputies.
For many years, Court Chairs were used by the High Council of Justice as leverage for exerting control over the judiciary. This institution has been heavily criticized by civil society organizations. Court Chairs make up the influential group of judges exercising a clan-type management of the court system. The High Council of Justice has been appointing Chairs subjectively, without assessing their managerial skills or substantiating appointment decisions. This practice contradicts the established international standards.
Without introducing criteria and rules for appointing Chairs and Deputy Chairs, a mere technical specification of the issue is a sign of the legislator’s attempt to consider the needs of the court system without grasping the real significance of the problem. This approach strengthens a clan-type administration of the court system.
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Board index ‹ Philosophy Forums ‹ Society, Government, and Economics
The defamation of socialism
For discussions of culture, politics, economics, sociology, law, business and any other topic that falls under the social science remit.
by Serendipper » Thu Mar 07, 2019 1:23 am
FWD to 57:30
We should recognize what I think is true, I've written about it plenty myself, that the Bolshevik Revolution, was really a coup, was really a counter-revolution, which placed state power in the hands of a highly authoritarian anti-socialist group which within a couple of months had destroyed the factory councils, had destroyed the Soviets, had dismissed the Constituent Assembly (because they knew they were gonna lose) and have eliminated every popular movement; and had done exactly what Trotsky said: turned the country into a labor army under the control of the maximal leader. That was mid 1918. And since then there hasn't been a shred of socialism in the Soviet Union!
Now of course they called it "socialism", but they also called it "democracy", you know, they were "people's democracies", "the purest form of democracy", they were "socialism". The West, the big propaganda system in the world, of course, just laughed at the "democracy" part, but it loved the "socialism" part because that's a way to defame socialism. So if you think that the fall of the Soviet Union is a blow to socialism, you ought to also think, on the same grounds, that it's a blow to democracy. After all, they call themselves democracies too, so why isn't it a blow to democracy? Makes as much sense. It's only when it gets filtered through the Western propaganda system that it's not a blow to democracy, but it is a blow to socialism.
But, you know, there's actually no reason to play that game. Whether you play it in Dissent [the magazine] or in the Nation [the magazine] or on the Right or anywhere else, expose it for the fraud that it is.
[Someone asks question]
What ideology? The ideology of totalitarianism? Yeah it's deeply flawed. I mean, they were the initial modern totalitarians.
[Asks another question]
It doesn't have anything to do with socialism. They destroyed socialism within weeks! You know. They didn't wait. By 1918 it was finished. And they knew it. You know. Like, it's not a secret; they knew it. I mean, in fact, Lenin as soon as, you know, as soon as he sort of got grips of things, he moved to what he called "state capitalism". Which is what it was. It had nothing to do with socialism.
Socialism... I mean we can argue about... there's no point arguing about what the word means, but what it always meant at the core was that producers take control of production, working people take control of production: what's sometimes called industrial democracy, that was the absolute core of it. Well, you know, there was more socialism in Germany, in Western Europe, than there was in Russia.
No, Russia's about the most anti-socialist place you can imagine, since 1918. It had wage-labor, had super-exploitation, had no element of worker's control or involvement or participation. What's that got to do with socialism? It's the exact opposite on every point.
As I say, the West liked to call that "socialism" while laughing at the fact that they called themselves "Democrats", but that's for purely propaganda reasons. I mean, unless you're committed to being part of the Western propaganda system, there's nothing to say about that issue, except to laugh.
Serendipper
Re: The defamation of socialism
by phyllo » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:32 am
That's a good reason to be cautious. Someone peddling socialism might be a totalitarian in disguise.
Look at you. You call socialism any system where the government spends a lot - it could be a monarchy or a dictatorship.
That's a recipe for disaster.
by Silhouette » Thu Mar 07, 2019 3:33 am
phyllo wrote: That's a good reason to be cautious. Someone peddling socialism might be a totalitarian in disguise.
Who is the government?
Normal regular people who are told what to do just the same as if they are in a private business. The motivation, incentive, ethic - it's the exact same for all wage labourers, whoever they work for.
Doesn't matter who your totalitarian boss is: Capitalist or public payroll, if you take what you're told for granted with no conscience, that's a recipe for disaster. That's how genocides happen, doesn't matter one bit who orders it as long as the people who get paid will do whatever they're told. Nothing to do with government or capitalist payroll, Socialism or Capitalism. Zero.
Location: Existence
by phyllo » Thu Mar 07, 2019 1:23 pm
So what are you saying? Don't worry because it's all the same anyways?
by Karpel Tunnel » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:02 pm
I agree, though I would add the same thing can be true for someone peddling capitalism - it could be a monarchy or a dictatorship also.
This is not to discount your point. I am wary of governments and corporations, powerful private and powerful public players. I see them generally in cahoots, which is true in both socialisms and capitalisms, at least often.
Karpel Tunnel
Right. Develop your 'spidey sense' and use it.
I tend to agree and my reaction was similar, but I think it is good for the discussion to look at the specific concerns around power in each system - and also, I would like to add, not assume that these are the two systems and one must choose one of them.
One of the problems with socialist countries/communist countries has been the potential for a world encompassing idealism. Now of course leaders in capitalist nations can also 'do things for the people' and ask people to 'do things for the people'. But there is something all encompassaing aobut the idealisms in some of the larger far left regimes. China and Russia and the USSR for example. Here we can sacrifice for a great future in ways that I think would be hard in the capitalist nations. Because these latter are trying to convince you that their current policies, in general, are good for you. Selfishness is more built in - for good and for ill - and presumed.
Which is why capitalist nations have to come up with wars, and have creatively got a few going at once now, when we include the war on drugs and the war on terrorism. Wars allow them to shift powers to their buddies/themselves but also make it sound like it is in all our interests.
But in socialist countries there really is a kind of God's kingdom is coming, though without God, and the government, in that system, is much more able to couch policies in the name of some future proletariet heaven and guilt trip formally and punish depending on the government powers directly based on what all of you need to sacrifice for our ideals. Capitalist regimes have more of a sales job.
I think we also need to look at what happens in powerful socialist nations, because it is the smaller ones that tend to have good human rights records.
What's good for Denmark, might be problematic in a superpower. You have less degrees of separation between those people in government and those they rule. In Denmark the chances a someone fairly high up in government has kids in a daycare that also has your cousins kids go way up. Large governments with massive militaries and intelligence communities may handle left wing rule in a very different way. I don't know that's the case. I see some historical support for that. I think it might be the case.
Now I wouldn't even know what to call myself. My position is not that socialism is better or that capitalism is better. Honestly I dislike both, though there are facets of both that appeal to me. I see the current US as an oligarchy with socialist facets.
What do we say to people coming from the old USSR or other communist regimes when they raise skepticism about socialism. They lived through the consequences of when leaders put on false humility, and considered inviduals only valuable as parts of the whole and in fact often not valuable in and of themselves. And could even say this out loud. Leading to very intrusive intelligence communities, because the I does not matter. Of course our little NSA with infinitely more highpowered tools is extremely intrusive, but they are joke in terms of intrusion compared to STASI.
Of course socialism does not have to be like in the USSR. Just as capitalism does not have to be like is Saudi Arabia or Guatamala in the 80s.
And then Scandanavia is not really socialist. Certainly not anymore. Though most middle americans would call them commies if they knew what happens there.
WE can smile and say that something mixed is best. Sort of like it is assumed that something with a mix of democratic and republican policies makes for the best.
I am skeptical.
But I do not have an answer.
I can't really create/designe at the level of 100s of millions of people. If we are talking about the US.
But to repeat: The US being socialist is nto the same as Denmark being socialist. More degrees of separation betwene gov and people. More massive intelligence and military. A history of much more violent law enforcement. Law enforcement that is vastly more heavily armed.
phyllo wrote: Right. Develop your 'spidey sense' and use it.
So as you look around the world now, which government do you, using your spidey sense, trust the most. Or distrust the least, might be better.
by Bob » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:33 pm
I found this an interesting take on what happened in Soviet Russia, but I think an even better description of what happened can be found in "The Gulag Archipelago", from someone who actually suffered the betrayal.
Solzhenitsyn wrote:
"Macbeth's self-justifications were feeble – and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb, too. The imagination and spiritual strength of Shakespeare's evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology. Ideology – that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes.... That was how the agents of the Inquisition fortified their wills: by invoking Christianity; the conquerors of foreign lands, by extolling the grandeur of their Motherland; the colonizers, by civilization; the Nazis, by race; and the Jacobins (early and late), by equality, brotherhood, and the happiness of future generations... Without evildoers there would have been no Archipelago."
— The Gulag Archipelago, Chapter 4, p. 173
There is a pattern described here of how ideology works, and the pattern is being repeated again in our time. Just as then, people seem to be oblivious of the fact, even the evildoers. It is as though they are possessed.
The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.
TS Eliot
The best systems available are democracies with strong limits on the powers of the government and robust tools for removing politicians.
So for example, increasing the length of time that a president or prime minister can serve would be strictly forbidden.
An example of robust tools, is the removal of Mussolini by the Grand Council of Fascism in 1943. When things got really got out of hand, they still retained ways of getting rid of the dictator. That significantly deduced the damage to Italy and the Italian people. (non-democratic example, I know )
Of course, if put your faith in democracy, you have to trust that the average human will do the right thing.
by Serendipper » Thu Mar 07, 2019 3:19 pm
Yes, like National Socialism that has zero to do with socialism by any definition.
It's often the case that politicians don the label of socialism to garner whatever appeal it may offer.
But it's also prudent to be aware of the ongoing propaganda campaign to defame socialism by pointing to the USSR or the Nazis, neither of which had any socialistic aspects whatsoever.
Or Venezuela which neither puts the people in charge of production nor issues wealth to its citizens by virtue of having the largest oil reserve on the planet.
If Denmark tops every list of measures of prosperity, mainly due to its oil and lack of Islam, then how much more should Venezuela?
down with socialism.jpg (108.32 KiB) Viewed 12870 times
Look at you. You call socialism any system where the government spends a lot
Government spending is an attribute of socialism and not necessarily the equivalency. However, it's impossible to have a socialistic system without government spending.
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The accretion of capital is an attribute of capitalism and the dispersal of capital is an attribute of socialism.
- it could be a monarchy or a dictatorship.
Even then, at least 50% of monarchies are social and fairly prosperous. Norway is a monarchy.
Norway is a unitary constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government, wherein the King of Norway is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. Power is separated among the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, as defined by the Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway#Po ... government
The UK is a monarchy and Canada is technically under the Queen, so you're living in one lol. Not so bad, eh?
I agree that a monarchy is not the way to go, even if it's purely ceremonial.
phyllo wrote:
The best democracies are those where people are encouraged to have informed debates on subjects, which are completely transparent as to where the people (or the information) are/is coming from. This is, of course, difficult because many people rely more on their uninformed "opinions". I believe also that those who do have power should be held accountable, which also means that the job must be worth the hassle.
phyllo wrote: Of course, if put your faith in democracy, you have to trust that the average human will do the right thing.
They do and did.
All 55 counties in West Virginia voted for Bernie, but Hillary won the state.
3 million more votes were cast for Hillary, but Trump won the election.
In 2000, Gore won 1/2 million more votes, but lost the election.
The people have excellent spidey sense, but the US does not have democracy.
Bob wrote: This is, of course, difficult because many people rely more on their uninformed "opinions".
There is also propaganda meant to demonize academia and intelligentsia causing people to believe there is virtue in ignorance.
"I realize you’re under a bit of a penalty because all our professors are stupid liberals, but that’s the best we can do." https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015 ... ain_folks/
That is spouted on AM radio and youtube daily.
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And on here with this post speculating that "communists" have taken over academia: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=194702#p2720670
The first step is to attack and marginalize academia:
Totalitarian governments manipulate and apply anti-intellectualism to repress political dissent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism
The totalitarian regime doing this is the plutocratic corporations, and Rush Limbaugh is their Goebbels.
Serendipper wrote:
Yes, there is an ongoing attack on academia, but the counter-attack seems to be falling into the trap that ideologies on both sides fall into. If you give your opposition what they've been giving you, you could adopt your own system of ideology and be in danger of being just the other side of the coin. I get the feeling that people know that the right-wingers are doing this, but are not aware that left-wingers tend to use the same strategy. You know when someone on the right oversteps the line of being beyond an appropriate reaction. Do we know when the left overstep?
I think the Orwellian warning is valuable in assessing the present situation because there is a tendency to confuse the whole issue, so that simple working people are left trying to work out what on earth is going on. There are many people who regard themselves as left-orientated who have now become confused when looking at the battlefield. It is hard to find the people you actually agree with.
Yeah. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are important for a democracy.
It has more democracy than a lot of places.
You guys don't appreciate what you have.
Bob wrote:
Oh yes, I hate that the left focuses on Russian collusion and appealing to grave threats to humanity through climate change while legitimate perils of poverty and lack of education and healthcare exist. Their ploy seems transparent to me, but I hope it's not too transparent to everyone else. I wonder if Chomsky is more sly than I thought. Maybe he doesn't buy climate change, but knows it's the surest way to slay the real dragon.
D0TC65WX0AApZML.jpg (185.74 KiB) Viewed 12673 times
Green is the new Blue. The easiest way to make the country Blue is to first make it Green
For half a century Chomsky battled the corps with nary a mention of climate, then suddenly he jumped on the climate bandwagon and shutup about his most passionate crusade, only in the last handful of years.
But the working people of the future will be better equipped to handle it. We're in a transition period from scarcity to abundance and such demands social reforms that those of old just can't embrace because all they know is hardship and what it takes to overcome it.
All I have that you don't have is sunshine... and the ability to go out and waste ammunition anytime I want. Canada tops the US in almost ever measure except prisoners and number of people thinking the devil is real.
Canada ranks 7th in happiness, the US ranks 18th.
Canada ranks 13th in life expectancy, the US 32nd
Canada ranks 4th in freedom, the US 53rd.
Canada ranks 6th in democracy, the US 25th.
Once again, only focusing on the negative. Focusing on what "the other guy" has. No appreciation of what you have.
phyllo wrote: Once again, only focusing on the negative. Focusing on what "the other guy" has. No appreciation of what you have.
Once again, only focusing on relative prosperity "well wage slavery is bad, but be thankful you're not a real slave, so let's not aspire for more, but be happy with what we have." Focusing on what the other guy has to justify your own suffering. No motivation to prosper, but only motivation to perpetuate suffering in the name of appreciation.
Chomsky talked about the proliferation of religion as a means for people to take their focus off of this world and concentrate on the other. "Well don't worry about this place or bettering yourself, just focus on the next world."
Don't worry about this world...
Be thankful for what you have...
Now bend over and grab your ankles!
No thanks, I don't want that philosophy.
Suit yourself. It's your life.
by Silhouette » Fri Mar 08, 2019 12:12 am
The "Fallacy of relative privation" is the dismissal of arguments due to the existence of more important arguments. Saying the US doesn't have it as bad as other countries seems to fit this, especially in response to the argument that the US could have it better. The US having room for improvement isn't a failure to appreciate what it does have.
There is something wrong with a system that boils down to just two representatives to figurehead one of two political agendas that they choose, and even if more people vote for one, the other gets in. Even when the more popular does actually get in (I wonder how much it resembles random chance), it's unclear whether it would have been any different if they hadn't. It's still all just lobbying by rich people anyway... To call that democracy is generous even if there is some truth to it. The format of it all too, is exactly like a sports game - support your team and watch them try to win, then resume your life as normal. You could get less democracy, but you could get more! An argument in its favour is that at least the two choices you're ultimately left with have to be offering something at least partly preferable to the populace that they are to be governing, but a skeptical point might be that it is just another autocracy like any other undemocratic rulership - only it's a rich, powerful and well connected one. I.e. the democracy thing is just PR, when really things are just being run for you and happen to be going relatively well. A lot of the reason why the PR of Socialism or Communism hasn't done well is because the rich, powerful and well connected countries cut them off in addition to the infrastructure that they're left with being poor to begin with. We all know that the US was founded on genocide, but somehow it's only remembered and reprimanded when poorer, more economically isolated countries with different PR do it.
In short, you have to wonder how much politics is just smoke and mirrors, and how much it's all really to do with resources, infrastructure, trade agreements and reputation. To phyllo, I'm not flatly saying it's all the same anyways, but the degree to which it is all the same anyways is not to be underestimated. The ways in which it's not all the same anyways - that at least seems to matter in theory, and I would like to test whether it actually does.
by Serendipper » Fri Mar 08, 2019 12:28 am
Silhouette wrote: The "Fallacy of relative privation"
Nearly fell outta my chair laughing
by phyllo » Fri Mar 08, 2019 3:05 am
I gave him a link to the Democracy Index and he knows that the US ranks 25th out of 167 countries. He still makes this bizarre statement: " ... but the US does not have democracy."
What can one say? Count your blessings. Get therapy.
Various forms of democracy, communism, fascism, monarchy, etc have been tried and tested.
You don't think the differences have been shown? It's just PR?
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‘Unacceptable and illegal’: humanists condemn human rights violations committed against refugees and migrants in Hungary
Photo: woodleywonderworks / Flickr
The British Humanist Association (BHA), in a joint statement with the European Humanist Federation (EHF), has spoken out against how refugees and migrants attempting to enter Hungary from neighbouring countries have been treated by Hungarian authorities as part of the 33rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
In September 2015, a razor wire fence was constructed in order to keep migrants and refugees from entering Hungary, capping admissions into so-called ‘transit zones’ at 15 per day, leaving hundreds of asylum seekers stranded without adequate shelter, shower facilities, or food. The BHA and EHF are particularly concerned about a recently adopted law that allows Hungarian border officials to summarily return asylum seekers to the country they are entering from, a move that concerned the High Commissioner for Human Rights as such a policy may result in the police not respecting the human rights of migrants, and expelling migrants and refugees by force without due legal process violates international law. Prime Minister Orbán has, so far, not made any statements suggesting the law will be reviewed, but recently has said that Hungary will build a new ‘more massive’ fence on its southern border to defence against a possible surge in the number of migrants. The EHF and BHA also highlighted reports of dog attacks and beatings by the police directed towards asylum seekers crossing the border.
The statement ended with the EHF and BHA reminding the Hungarian delegation that its response is ‘both unacceptable and illegal’, imploring Hungary to implement a proper asylum application process, and ensure that border control police are not complicit in human rights abuses. They also called on the international community to live up to its obligations under the 1951 Convention and Protocol relating to the status of refugees, which mandates an equitable refugee acceptance scheme be adopted, and urged all states to provide all necessary assistance to Hungary such that they can better cope with the refugee crisis.
The EHF has long called for the European Commission to sanction Hungary for failing to uphold the principles of the Treaty of the European Union, namely the rule of law, non-discrimination and protection of minorities with almost no resistance from European institutions.
For further comment or information, contact Pavan Dhaliwal, Director of Public Affairs and Policy at pavan@humanism.org.uk or on 0773 843 5059.
Read the full statement: https://humanism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/UN-HRC33-Hungary-UPR-.pdf
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethically and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.
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Lakota Local School District » About Us » What's New » Michael Pearl Appointed to School Board
Michael Pearl Appointed to Lakota Board of Education
The Lakota Board of Education unanimously appointed Michael Pearl to the school board at its Sept. 14 meeting.
A Lakota parent and resident of Liberty Township, Pearl has been the Recreation Center Director for the St. Monica’s Recreation Center through the Sisters of Transfiguration since 2011. He is also the pastor at the New Day Baptist Church in Lincoln Heights. He and his wife, Bridgette, have been married for 23 years and have two children, Jasmyn and MJ, both graduates of Lakota East High School.
Pearl believes that serving on the Board is “a great way for me to give back to a community and district that’s given so much to me and my family...This is a way to serve the community in an even bigger capacity.”
“We are excited to have Mr. Pearl join us in serving our students, staff, families and community,” said Board President Brad Lovell. “He brings a deep dedication through community service and volunteerism, in addition to life experiences that will add tremendous value to our governing board.”
The Board held a special meeting on Sept. 11 to review the 50 applications in an executive session. While the Board had agreed to interview 14 applicants prior to moving to executive session, after reviewing the applications, that number increased to 16. “We are pleased that so many of our community members were interested in serving on the board,” said Lovell. “It was a very difficult decision given the high caliber of applicants.”
Because this was not an election, all four board members wanted to give the community an opportunity to share their thoughts on what should be considered when replacing Todd Parnell, who was asked to resign by the Board on Aug. 27. The district encouraged participation in a community-wide ThoughtExchange that asked, “What qualifications should the Lakota Board of Education consider when appointing a new member?”
Over 320 people participated in the exchange, with 269 thoughts shared. The top five rated qualifications shared were:
The member should prioritize education over political views or positions;
A strong supporter of public education;
Equity;
Not looking for political gain; and
A person who is supportive of building diverse, inclusive, equal access to all, and (a) competitive educational school system.
Click here to view all of the responses, as well as emerging themes from the exchange.
Pearl’s first meeting will be the scheduled work session on Sept. 28 where he will join Lovell and Vice President Kelley Casper, along with members Lynda O’Connor and Julie Shaffer.
Pearl, who also serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of West Chester/Liberty and coached for the district for almost 10 years, is looking toward the future. “I like to be very optimistic,” he said. “I know that we are in challenging times in a lot of ways. My agenda is to keep the kids first and to support (Superintendent) Matt (Miller), the administrators and teachers to keep the district moving forward.” He continued, “I’m looking forward to working with the other board members...to make the best decision for the kids.”
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yorkdispatch
New Mexico food banks prepare to buy millions of meals
AP-NM--Food Banks-New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico food banks will be able to provide more meals for thousands of families with an infusion of $5 million in funding as part of an economic relief package approved by state lawmakers and signed by the governor.
Mag Strittmatter, president and CEO of Roadrunner Foodbank in Albuquerque, called the legislation significant given that 1 in 3 children and 1 in 5 New Mexicans overall are at risk of hunger amid the ongoing pandemic.
"We will all be able to acquire the many millions of meals needed to help the growing number of food insecure neighbors in the state, while in the throes of this pandemic. We are so grateful to all who helped make this possible,” she said in a statement.
In northern New Mexico, officials at The Food Bank said that along with unemployment, the need for emergency food assistance has increased during the pandemic. The Food Bank and its nonprofit partners moved about 7.8 million pounds of food in the first nine months of the year.
The city of Albuquerque reported Wednesday that it has served more than 500,000 meals to older people since March, including Thanksgiving lunches that were distributed this week. Home-delivered and drive-through meals are two of the essential services for seniors that the city has maintained during the pandemic.
In all, city officials say they've seen a 114% increase in meals served between March 1 and Oct. 31.
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Organizations in this Story
New Mexico state government
No trending data is available.
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Today’s Democrat Party: One Big Mass of Hypocrites
Larry Usoff
Let’s start off with a definition: Hypocrite: a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements. If that isn’t a perfect description of Hillary Clinton, I’ll retract that immediately. From leaked documents it is apparent that she doesn’t believe the law applies to her. She doesn’t truly like Latinos, again, from leaked documents. The whole Clinton Foundation is nothing but a money-laundering scheme so that the donations from foreign countries can be legally obtained…but once they disappear into the Foundation no one knows what happens to them.
Because of the rigged system in the Democrat party, the Bernie Sanders campaign was DOA from the start. There was no way the party establishment was going to allow him to upset the Clinton applecart.
Watching the Democrat convention, I thought that Sanders was going to have some backbone and keep his distance from Mrs. Clinton, but he caved and lauded her for all the things he once said he was against, in her regard. It was never more true than in that moment that politics makes strange bedfellows. Now let’s talk about Mrs. Obama…she said that the White House was built by slave labor, and that’s true…however… TV Host, Bill O’Reilly, Responds to Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention Comments About Slaves…”Slaves that worked [at the White House] were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government,” O’Reilly said in a fact-checking segment of “The O’Reilly Factor” Tuesday, July 26th.
Trending: Democrats: The Party of Hate, Violence, and Division
As reported by a member of the Democrat party, crime figures are down. Yes, that’s true because more and more people are becoming gun owners. We can use the now-famous M&M example for this. If you know that there are 10 M&M’s that are poisonous, in a bowl that might contain a couple of hundred, would you eat ANY of them? Probably not, right? So, if you know that 10 houses in an area of a couple of dozen are armed, but you don’t know which ones…would you attempt a burglary there? Probably not. An armed citizen may be his/her only defense, when the police cannot get there in time.
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Also, with the overt hatred of the police among certain groups, it’s possible that the police might not show up at all…but that’s another story, isn’t it?
It was reported recently that the current Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, was on the Bill Clinton defense team back when he was President. Of course, one has nothing to do with the other, does it? Also, it seems that FBI chief Comey was also on that legal team. Comey, in his cave-in to Mrs. Clinton, shamed himself, the bureau and every agent that did any work on that report. Single-handedly he destroyed any faith that the thinking public might have had in the FBI.
Miss Cleo: TV Psychic Dies at Age 53 of Cancer, Representative Says. Miss Cleo, whose real name was Youree Harris, died Tuesday, July 26 in Palm Beach County, Fla., after previously diagnosed colon cancer spread to her liver and lungs, her representative told TMZ. Hmmm…you’d think she would have seen that coming, huh? That reminds me, another so-called psychic, and once-famous singer, Dionne Warwick, is seen very, very, briefly in a commercial…not even a speaking part. She didn’t see the bankruptcy coming either. What is it with these psychics that they cannot see the future?
Let’s talk about protesters. For starters, most of them have no idea what the hell they’re talking about and speak in such broad terms that it’s ridiculous. Then, when asked about specifics they revert back to some talking points that they were given which, in some cases, have absolutely nothing to do with what they’re protesting about! Burning the American flag, while permissible under the law, does nothing to endear the protesters to other Americans. If they understood what that flag stands for they would give it more respect. That flag, and the millions of American men and women that fought and died for it, gives them the freedom to disrespect it. In most other countries, especially where a dictator rules, burning the flag would be like committing suicide because you’d be rounded up, jailed and eventually killed.
I make no bones about which side I’m on, so let’s not belabor that point. For 232 years this country has been a shining light for freedom. Actually, that’s the proper name for the Statue of Liberty…it’s Liberty Enlightening The World, so you can understand why I said what I said. For those of you that may be doing the math, yes we are 240 years as a nation, but the last 8 have been intentionally adverse to what the Founding Fathers stood for. If you remember, the final sentence of the Declaration of Independence is a promise among the signers, to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor,” and many of them and their fellow patriots did in fact sacrifice their lives and fortunes in service to our country. Can we, as Americans, do less than they did?
A quick tidbit here. In Hawaii, Mark Zuckerberg, who has talked against a wall between the United States and Mexico, has built a six-foot wall around his property. Guess what folks…he’s a hypocrite!
Just a reminder…we think of the Founding Fathers as old men, but many of them were in their late teens and early twenties…and they were making the United States a safe place for us. Wake up America, your
Country needs you…desperately.
Tags: Hillary Clinton
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author and are not not necessarily either shared or endorsed by iPatriot.com.
US Navy Retired. Articulate. Opinionated. Patriotic. Conservative. Cultured enough so that I can be taken almost anywhere. Makes no excuses for what I say or do, but takes responsibility for them. Duty, Honor, Country, are my watchwords. E-mail me at: [email protected]
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Comings and Goings: Hershell Ezrin appointed to Order of Ontario, new hires for Edelman and Summa
By Janet E Silver. Published on Jan 5, 2021 11:35am
Parliament Hill (Jolson Lim/iPolitics)
Hershell Ezrin, senior fellow at Global Public Affairs, has been appointed to the 2020 Order of Ontario, as announced on Jan.1. The province’s highest honour, the Order is awarded to those individuals who, according to its website ‘show outstanding qualities of excellence in their field’.
Hershell Ezrin
Ezrin joined the Toronto offices of Global Public Affairs last July and is a distinguished fellow at Ryerson University. He was founding chief executive officer for the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy.
He also served as Canadian Consul in New York and Los Angeles and worked in the Privy Council Office under former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, and as deputy minister and principal secretary to former Ontario premier David Peterson.
LAST WEEK: Comings and Goings: Peter MacKay signs on as strategic adviser for two firms
Kevin Tetreault has joined the Edelman office in Ottawa as senior account director for government and public affairs. Prior to joining Edelman, Tetreault spent the past two years as founder and executive director of DisGovr Canada after working as a consultant for the Capital Hill Group.
He was a candidate for the Ottawa City Council elections in 2018 and worked on the Hill from 2012-2015 focusing on parliamentary procedure and committee hearings.
At Summa Strategies Rob LeForte has signed on as a senior consultant.
Rob LeForte (LinkedIn photo)
“I’m looking forward to working with an array of new clients across federal and provincial policy files. I’ll continue to focus on digital advocacy efforts and building relationships with Parliamentarians, civil servants and political staff,” LeForte wrote on his LinkedIn page.
LeForte spent the past seven years at Impact Public Affairs serving as the firm’s vice president since October 2019. Following graduation, he did a brief stint at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and served on the Dalhousie University Student Union.
Michael Wilson, a former executive assistant on Parliament Hill, has been promoted to partner at Goodmans LLP in Toronto. He rejoined the firm a year ago after serving as chief of staff to Ontario Attorney Caroline Mulroney for eighteen months.
Wilson is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario.
RECENT: Comings and Goings: Big changes at Global Public Affairs
Please send your tips about people in the government relations scene on the move to [email protected]
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Most Anticipated Indie Games of 2017
Find out which games everyone is dying to get their hands on in 2017.
November 22, 2016 2:45 PM by Morgan Shaver
This year, a slew of incredible indie games came out. In fact, many of these games are under consideration for the first annual Indie Obscura Indie Awards. However, with the year quickly coming to an end and 2017 approaching at a rapid pace, we find ourselves anxiously reviewing several of our indie “prince that was promised” games (to nerdily quote Game of Thrones).
Below, we’ve listed several games releasing in 2017 (hopefully) that we find to be the most anticipated by the folks here at Indie Obscura, and by the gaming community as a whole. If there's a game releasing next year that you're excited about—and not mentioned on this list—no worries! We intend to cover far more games that you can get your hands, so get ready because more articles are definitely on their way.
Without further ado, here are some of the most anticipated indie games of 2017!
Originally intended to release this year, Cuphead was pushed back to early 2017 in order to receive a few more tweaks and adjustments. Cuphead originally made our list of games we couldn’t wait for back in 2016, so it’s only proper that it makes it onto our list of most anticipated games of 2017. Cuphead is is a 2D platformer with some of the most unique art we’ve ever seen in a game, and we can’t wait to play it. Especially considering how everyone claims that it's extremely challenging... and we definitely love a challenge!
Originally intended to release in October of 2016, Friday the 13th: The Game had its release date pushed back to 2017 for a variety of valid reasons. Namely, because the developers listened to the numerous fan requests and responded by officially deciding to include a single-player experience to the game. In addition, a variety of other updates were added which you can check out in our exclusive Friday the 13th preview. Because of all of these exciting updates, we can't wait to get our hands on Friday the 13th: The Game and finally slay all those campers as Jason!
Supergiant Games have released some of our favorite indie titles over the years including Bastion and Transistor. In 2017, they intend to release Pyre, an action RPG where you lead a wily band of exiles to freedom through an ancient competition spread across a vast, mystical purgatory. If we’ve learned anything from Supergiant, it’s that Pyre's story is sure to be impressive and introspective, the soundtrack to be haunting and memorable, and finally the art… obviously mindblowing.
Absolver by developer Sloclap and publisher Devolver Digital looks to redefine the fighting game genre in 2017. The martial arts style and hypnotizing game art make this title something special in and of itself. We look forward to participating in the online multiplayer, testing out our combat skills, and proving our worth to the Guides. After all, we already feel like we truly belong among the corps of Absolvers, all that's left now is to prove it once the game is released. Stay tuned to Indie Obscura for a more in-depth preview of this unique and intriguing indie game!
We really hope this game doesn’t go the same way as No Man’s Sky in regards to overhype. After all, out of all the indie games releasing next year, Yooka-Laylee is among the most hyped. Then again, this is for several legitimate reasons as you can see in the video above. The game looks like it will whisk us away back to our childhood (if you grew up in the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s), to the days when we obsessively played games like Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie. We miss those bright and colorful platformers and feel like Yooka-Laylee is just the game we need to fill that empty nostalgic hole in our hearts. Fingers crossed, as we'll find out in March of 2017!
We played the demo for Outlast 2 in order to provide you guys with a full walkthrough and had the living daylights scared out of us (we can’t even begin to explain how many curse words we uttered trying to get to the end). After the demo concluded, we became both excited for Outlast 2 and very, very afraid. We're confident Outlast 2 will live up to its predecessor, if not surpass it. So, if you’re into horror games, Outlast 2 looks to be one of the best ones you can buy in 2017. We’ll test it out upon release and let you know! Well... we’ll peek between our fingers because we’re filthy cowards.
We’ve mentioned this title before, including how the reveal of the first 15 minutes of the game as seen above. However, it’s definitely worth mentioning again and again and again. If you enjoy games from Dontnod Entertainment like Life is Strange you will definitely find your interest piqued by Vampyr. The gothic-noir setting and all of the intricate, complex mechanics (not to mention complications) that come with being a vampire all play out beautifully in Vampyr. We honestly cannot wait to try ourselves and discover all the implications of our vampiric in-game actions.
Keep in mind, these indie games barely scratch the surface of the endless array of incredible content releasing next year. Stay tuned for more coverage on upcoming indie games, including another list of indies that we're excited about. If you didn't see one of the games you can't wait to play next year mentioned above, let us know in the comments below and we'll be sure to add it to our future lists!
For more indie features here at Indie Obscura, be sure to check out our exclusive preview of Let it Die which features an interview with Hideyuki Shin, all of the details and secret details about the upcoming Friday the 13th game, and how Sea Hero Quest is working with neuroscientists to further Alzheimer's research.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo Directs | We Should Be Excited About Indie Announcements Too
ICYMI - Indie Game News and Releases (August 7, 2020)
Neko Ghost, Jump! | Interview with Victor Burgos
Supergiant Games | Interview with Darren Korb
2017 indie games
upcoming indie games
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Ms. International World and Latina International Pageants
The Drive to Find True Beauty with Purpose
In the beauty and fashion world, there is no end to the amount of gorgeous models you can find. However, the cross over to the pageant world is much more challenging and unique. These women are not just models with a gorgeous face, great body, with the ability to pose properly for that one incredible photo. Pageant queens have a sense of purpose and drive for something much larger than themselves. Because they all represent a platform, a purpose, and follow through with community service and public speaking, they are more than just models. They are mentors.
Understanding just how much goes into the creation of a successful pageant is best known from a previous pageant queen. Angela Posillico has a long standing history working in the pageant systems in multiple facets. She has over 27 years of cosmetic experience, working with almost every major line in the country. She was even a trainer for Lancome for 12 years. Working at a makeup counter, she would find pageant competitors frequently came in requesting assistance with makeup. At one point, one of the competitors hired her to attend the pageant and be her makeup artist for the course of the competition. This put her foot in the door and she continued working pageants as a makeup artist.
With a Masters in Operatic Studies, she graduated from Juilliard School of Music and started her adult life as a successful and professional singer. Occasionally performers would not show for pageants or would cancel at the last minute. With her tremendous background and training, Angela
started to perform at pageants as well. It is no great surprise that working behind the scenes, stepping on stage as a performer, and with her incredible beauty, that Angela would eventually begin competing as well. She won multiple large scale pageants over the years such as Greatest Legs in New Jersey sponsored by Budweiser, Mrs. New Jersey Globe 1996, and won the Ms. Morganville New Jersey USA pageant of 1997.
With all this experience under her belt, before you knew it, Angela was directing. However, it wasn’t until her big move to Florida that her vision really revealed itself. Angela noticed that there was a HUGE Latin presence in Florida but no crossover to the American market. She endeavored to change this and created the Ms. Latina International Pageant where women who had a least a 25% Latin background were able to compete. But by 2007, she sought out to give women without a Latin background a prestigious system and created the Ms. International World. Both systems compete over a 3 day and 2 night cruise to the Bahamas.
Angela is meticulous about her pageants. They are glamorous, fast paced, highly competitive, and well thought out. Planning takes almost an entire year. Actor, model, MC, and host, Lamont Easter, was contacted almost a year ago regarding hosting the pageants. His passion for community and love for volunteerism made him an especially perfect choice to co-host the event with Angela. Not only is he gorgeous and charismatic but he was able to recognize how hard each of the contestants worked to not only get there but to get their platforms across as well.
Lamont spends his free time advocating for autism, especially young adults that are transitioning to independence. He attends soup kitchens for the homeless and has participated in “Sleep Out America”. Lamont is even producing a film called “Blood” to bring awareness to invisible illness. With such a generous heart, he was able to quickly recognize this common trait amongst all the beautiful ladies competing for the crown. “It’s not all pomp and circumstance, it’s about having a voice.” Lamont enjoyed the experience and was tremendously impressed with each of the girls. He also raved about Angela’s attention to detail. So many activities are packed into the 3 day competition. Nothing left to chance and the entire event was marked with positivity and energy.
Christian De La Rosa has been working closely with Angela for months to bring this classy and stunning event to fruition. As cruise staff and an Assistant Cruise Director for four years, he had recently been promoted to Cruise Director of the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line a year ago. This was his first pageant to coordinate and he met with Angela every two weeks to work on planning. From set design, to lights, to timing and scheduling, Christian was ecstatic to see the end results of all the meticulous planning. In fact, he was scheduled not to be aboard the cruise line during the competition but was so excited to see it all come together that he boarded as a passenger and used his vacation to volunteer during the pageant. He helped set things up, keep things moving, and be a support to the girls. He remarked at how impressed he was at the end with each of the girls, their teamwork, and the amount of work put in. Angela indicated that Christian was simply amazing during the entire experience and that this was one of the most successful pageants to date.
The event is packed with a Welcome Party, swimwear competition, interviews, and photoshoots, the Parade of Costumes (which the passengers just loved) and of course, crowning. To be apart of this remarkable event and compete for their crown, contestants initially contacted Angela either through one of her social media platforms, email, or attended one of the pageant castings. Qualifications have to be met, such as community service requirements, along with a biography and photo submissions. Once chosen, they signup, pay the deposits, and their banner are received.
The newly crowned queens are able to continue to represent the system and their platforms at multiple events throughout the year, such as The Winterfest Boat Parade, Asian Trade Show, Swim Week, and Miami Fashion Week, as well as countless other opportunities. They also are able to help give back to community with charitable events.
As if this all wasn’t impressive enough, this year, Ms. International World and Ms. Latina International brought over 300 pairs of children’s shoes for the SHUZZ Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides shoes to children in poverty-stricken areas of the world.
Winner of this year’s pageants include:
Ms. International World: Kelsey Rae La Barbara
Ms. Latina International: Francisca Garcia
Ms. International World Classic: Srimali Fonseka
Ms. International World Super Model: Alexia Slusher
Ms. International World Global: Rebecca Reinhardt
Miss Portada World: Karina Andujar
To be a Beauty Queen is so much more than just being beautiful. And a pageant, a truly successful and remarkable pageant, is more than just a runway with lights and judges. Creating a system that defines exception by recognizing a queen with a voice, a platform, and a purpose is what Angela has done here. Finding women who would prefer to help each other behind the scenes so that everyone has the ability to put their best forward, is what Ms. Latina International and Ms. International World pageant systems are both about and is what spectators and pageant staff witnessed from them all weekend. Each of these women are truly mentors, and this, in addition to planning such a flawlessly executed event, is why Angela Posillico’s pageants are always such a tremendous success.
All Images by Julie Nichols for Intermodelo.com during Ms. International World 2018
May 29, 2018 September 11, 2018 | Angel Beth | Events
Tags: Ms Intermodelo, Ms International Global, ms Latina International, Ms Portada, Ms. International World, Pageant Competition, Pageant Queens
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When the Story Line Is This Easy, You Just Know
Krin Rodriquez September 7, 2020
Will Ryan Jones had some time to kill before attending a party hosted by the Cameroon Embassy in Washington, so he asked Monica Marie Clark if he could tag along with her to her friend’s birthday party.
Mr. Jones and Ms. Clark had crossed paths before at mutual friends’ gatherings, but this time, they were both single. Mr. Jones, 36, a television reporter at WLS-TV in Chicago, had traveled to town in the summer of 2018 for the embassy party. That morning he found himself, thanks to friends, seated at a brunch next to Ms. Clark, 36, then a senior counsel in the legal division of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Mr. Jones, Ms. Clark and her friends moved on to Marvin, a bistro in Washington’s U Street corridor. The evening was sultry, but they found an oasis on the bar’s rooftop, where the drinks flowed and the DJ spun ’90s R&B. “I was talking about my relationship philosophy,” Mr. Jones said. “When two people come together, you should become your better selves. I think we should support each other. As I was talking, Monica’s eyes just changed. You know how in sitcoms, someone is in love and the music starts to play? It’s kind of corny, but I saw my future.”
Ms. Clark, a graduate of Harvard and Georgetown Law who grew up in Jamaica Estates, Queens, also felt a special connection. She recognized in Mr. Jones the same values of ambition and duty with which her parents had raised her and her older brother. “I feel a responsibility to achieve something because I grew up in a privileged household and I’m a Black person,” she said. “I agreed with everything he was saying. I had never had that experience before.”
They did not kiss that evening, but Mr. Jones returned to Washington the next week for a proper first date. “I wanted to see if it was the alcohol or if this is my life,” he said. While they ate hamburgers at a restaurant on the Potomac, their server pointed out some other patrons trying to get Mr. Jones’s attention — they recognized him from his reporting job in Chicago. “I planned that,” Mr. Jones said, jokingly.
Ms. Clark had noticed during their earlier interactions that Mr. Jones had a nice speaking voice, but during the bottomless mimosa brunch, she was also drawn to his smile and his understated style. “He’s reflective, he’s got his stuff together,” she said, “and he had nice style.”
It was the type of love story that Ms. Clark had always been drawn to. She is a fan of classic Black romantic movies like “Love Jones” and “Brown Sugar” from the late 1990s and early 2000s. She’d even written her own unpublished romance manuscript, “Lessons From Robin,” chosen as a Marlene Award Finalist by Washington Romance Writers in 2014. “There aren’t that many stories out there with Black characters that are just a love story that aren’t a struggle,” she said. “Whenever I saw one, it fed your soul, this is so great, a love story. I wanted to create one.”
[Sign up for Love Letter and always get the latest in Modern Love, weddings, and relationships in the news by email.]
She and Mr. Jones began a long-distance relationship, showing off their respective towns and getting to know each other. They shared similar backgrounds. Mr. Jones received his degree in journalism from Northwestern, while Ms. Clark was a news editor for The Harvard Crimson in college. Both had been raised by loving, long-married parents with high expectations for their children. Ms. Clark is the daughter of Dr. Luther Clark, a cardiologist and deputy chief patient officer at Merck, and Camille Clark, who retired as assistant executive director of Forestdale, a child welfare agency in Queens.
“I think a lot of people’s parents were like, ‘Get good grades,’” Ms. Clark said. “My parents cared about that, but they were very strategic: ‘You need to run for office, get a leadership role on the newspaper.’ Me and my brother, having parents who were very focused on the college process, it motivated us.” She now serves as the vice president of the Harvard Black Alumni Society.
Mr. Jones, his older brother and younger sister were raised in Forest Park, a Cincinnati suburb, the son of Will Jones, a retired Cincinnati Fire Department firefighter, and Marlinda Jones, a retired AT&T project manager. In 2012, Mr. Jones won an Emmy for his work with the Detroit station WDIV covering an immigrant advocacy nonprofit organization that he had volunteered with. He now chairs the scholarship committee for the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Mr. Jones said that he wanted “to be with someone who is trying to be their best, whatever that may be. If someone’s ambitious, it shows they’re not someone who is just going to settle in life.”
But as Ms. Clark said she has found out that “not everybody wants an accomplished woman. With Will, he actually appreciated that about me.”
About a year and a half after their first date, Mr. Jones wanted to propose with a grand gesture, and started with a phone call to Dr. Clark to state his intentions. “I have a younger sister; I knew if my sister would move out of Cincinnati for a relationship, there would have been a lot of drama,” Mr. Jones said. The two men ended up having a friendly 45-minute conversation.
Mr. Jones meticulously planned a proposal on Nov. 2, 2019, scheduling a haircut, a beard shaping and then an Uber to the LondonHouse hotel in Chicago where they would begin their date. He booked a saxophonist and photographer and found a spot near the city’s downtown river walk where the artists could look inconspicuous. “I went to that location probably 10 times,” he said. “I practiced getting on one knee. I checked the weather report for the last seven years: ‘Is it going to snow or rain?’ I knew Monica wouldn’t want to get her hair wet.”
The couple strolled along the Chicago river walk, and on its steps, Mr. Jones proposed with a 1.8-carat, pear-shaped diamond ring surrounded by a halo of smaller stones purchased in Chicago’s Jeweler’s Row. Ms. Clark said yes, and they hugged and celebrated while the saxophonist played tunes by Mary J. Blige and K-Ci & JoJo.
Ms. Clark found a Chicago job as senior legal counsel at the food and beverage ingredient manufacturer Tate & Lyle in Hoffman Estates, Ill., and moved in with Mr. Jones in a Wicker Park apartment with her cat, Jack. They hung art passed on to them from Ms. Clark’s mother, a Harlem Renaissance and African art collector who has donated pieces and books to the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. The couple began planning their nuptials, excited to show off Chicago to their 150 guests.
Then the coronavirus began to surface. As they inched closer to their scheduled Aug. 8 wedding date, the couple reluctantly canceled their New York engagement, bachelor and bachelorette parties and watched with dread as other friends’ weddings were postponed.
On April 18, while covering a press briefing with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Mr. Jones asked what he’d advise people considering holding weddings, reunions and other family gatherings over the summer. Ms. Clark watched from home as the governor offered a 73-second response that provided no definitive answer, and no reassurance. “I saw the writing on the wall,” Mr. Jones said. “Days later Monica and I made the decision to postpone our wedding.”
They were, of course, disappointed. But the couple decided to move forward with a small wedding and reschedule the larger celebration. “She didn’t stay down for long,” Mr. Jones said of Ms. Clark. “She’s easy to cheer up. I like that.”
While planning a smaller ceremony, the couple found themselves witnessing another piece of history: On May 31, Mr. Jones was assigned to cover the George Floyd protests in downtown Chicago. He stood on a Loop sidewalk strewn with hangers from a nearby Macy’s when a group of four young masked men walked by. Mr. Jones interviewed them for several minutes, gently reminding them to at times avoid using bad language, about why they came out to demonstrate that night. “What can the police do to improve the relationship with young Black men like yourself?” he asked.
“I got it,” answered one, stepping forward. “For real. They need to make it so that the police live in the towns and the communities that they’re trying to police,” he said.
In the beginning, the coronavirus seemed like it was primarily a respiratory illness — many patients had fever and chills, were weak and tired, and coughed a lot, though some people don’t show many symptoms at all. Those who seemed sickest had pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome and received supplemental oxygen. By now, doctors have identified many more symptoms and syndromes. In April, the C.D.C. added to the list of early signs sore throat, fever, chills and muscle aches. Gastrointestinal upset, such as diarrhea and nausea, has also been observed. Another telltale sign of infection may be a sudden, profound diminution of one’s sense of smell and taste. Teenagers and young adults in some cases have developed painful red and purple lesions on their fingers and toes — nicknamed “Covid toe” — but few other serious symptoms.
Why is it safer to spend time together outside?
Outdoor gatherings lower risk because wind disperses viral droplets, and sunlight can kill some of the virus. Open spaces prevent the virus from building up in concentrated amounts and being inhaled, which can happen when infected people exhale in a confined space for long stretches of time, said Dr. Julian W. Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester.
Why does standing six feet away from others help?
The coronavirus spreads primarily through droplets from your mouth and nose, especially when you cough or sneeze. The C.D.C., one of the organizations using that measure, bases its recommendation of six feet on the idea that most large droplets that people expel when they cough or sneeze will fall to the ground within six feet. But six feet has never been a magic number that guarantees complete protection. Sneezes, for instance, can launch droplets a lot farther than six feet, according to a recent study. It’s a rule of thumb: You should be safest standing six feet apart outside, especially when it’s windy. But keep a mask on at all times, even when you think you’re far enough apart.
I have antibodies. Am I now immune?
As of right now, that seems likely, for at least several months. There have been frightening accounts of people suffering what seems to be a second bout of Covid-19. But experts say these patients may have a drawn-out course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus typically produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins made in response to an infection. These antibodies may last in the body only two to three months, which may seem worrisome, but that’s perfectly normal after an acute infection subsides, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It may be possible to get the coronavirus again, but it’s highly unlikely that it would be possible in a short window of time from initial infection or make people sicker the second time.
What are my rights if I am worried about going back to work?
“It’s very important to get your message across,” said Mr. Jones at the end of the interview. “You guys did a good job expressing your opinion. I appreciate you all stopping and talking with me tonight.”
Ms. Clark was again watching from home. “He was in the middle of everything,” she says of Mr. Jones. “For him, professionally, that was a cool experience, but at the same time I noticed with him and in general with the George Floyd thing, I think it had a unique impact on Black men. It was a stressful time for them in particular. He also had to deal with his own feelings about the state of America.”
Aside from several just-to-be-sure coronavirus tests, the rest of the summer passed relatively peacefully until the couple found themselves, on Aug. 8, on another city rooftop on another sticky day.
The couple’s parents, Demetrius Davis, the pastor of CityPoint Community Church, (plus two photographers, a reporter and a hotel staffer) gathered on the 17th-floor terrace of Chicago’s downtown Kimpton Hotel Palomar, sweating beneath their face masks. Ms. Jones, the mother of the groom, sported one covered in flashing silver sequins. A breeze kicked up at the bride’s arrival, lightly ruffling the oversize organza flower pinned to the Vera Wang gown she and her mother found in Chicago. Ms. Jones played DJ, pressing a button on her son’s phone, to queue up a jazz cover of John Legend’s “All of Me,” while the bride, per the hotel’s safety requirements, wore a lacy mask crafted by her dry cleaner, and walked down an abbreviated aisle strewn with mauve rose petals.
While their parents wiped their eyes, the couple held hands in front of the golden hour Chicago skyline, gazed at each other, and tried to dial down their grins. Pastor Davis read a passage from I Corinthians and in a short blessing prayed for bright days in the couple’s future. They hopped over a broom acquired from Etsy to some applause from viewers from a nearby high-rise watching from their balconies.
After cake and champagne on the rooftop with their parents but before a 9 p.m. restaurant reservations, the couple video chatted with their siblings and their families.
Before taking a four-day honeymoon trip to the Traverse City area in Michigan to hike the dunes and visit local wineries, the couple returned to their apartment to enjoy some time off with each other and with Jack, no longer just Ms. Clark’s cat. “It is now our cat,” Mr. Jones said.
When Aug. 8, 2020
Where Kimpton Hotel Palomar, Chicago
Hometown Treats After the rooftop ceremony, the newlyweds cut a two-tier almond cake with buttercream frosting from ECBG Cake Studio in Chicago. “I don’t know if we’re allowed to feed each other during the pandemic,” the bride said. “We’re in the same household,” the groom pointed out.
Intimate Reception The couple and their parents enjoyed a patio dinner at Aba, a Mediterranean restaurant in Chicago’s West Loop. They dined on lamb, shrimp, hummus, as well as homemade stracciatella, a gelato, and frozen Greek yogurt. They also sipped champagne sent to the table as a surprise from friends.
Putting It in Writing The morning of the wedding, the bride and groom wrote each other cards and exchanged gifts — she gave him a Briggs and Riley duffel, he gave her diamond stud earrings. They also wrote thank you notes to their parents.
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Jussie Smollett Indicted on 16 Felony Counts
Emily Alford
A Chicago grand jury has indicted Empire star Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
In January, Smollett reported that he was the victim of an attack that police initially investigated as a hate crime. Later, two brothers, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, reportedly told police that they’d been paid $3,000 by Smollett for orchestrating the attack. Police claim that Smollett staged the attack and a threatening letter that arrived one week beforehand in order to “gain attention” because he was “dissatisfied with his salary.” Smollett vehemently denies any part in staging the attack.
Though he was originally indicted on just one count of disorderly conduct, on March 7 the grand jury returned 16 felony counts, one for each lie Smollett allegedly told police, according to ABC7 Chicago:
“The grand jury returned two separate sets of charges, one of each lie Smollett allegedly told. The first set are related to what Smollett told officers about the alleged attack, including that the attackers called him racial and homophobic slurs, struck him with their hands, put a noose around his neck, and poured some sort of chemical substance on him.
The second set of charges are related to the second interview Smollett had with police about the alleged attack later that day, saying the men attacked him from behind and he fell to the ground, at which point the men continued kicking him. Smollett also told police on this occasion that one of his attackers was white.”
In a statement, Smollett’s attorney Mark Geragos called the number of felony indictments “overkill”:
“The fact of an indictment is not unexpected. We knew that there is no way they would expose their evidence to a public airing and subject their witnesses to cross-examination.
What is unexpected however, is the prosecutorial overkill in charging 16 separate counts against Jussie. This redundant and vindictive indictment is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines in order to distract from the internal investigation launched to investigate the outrageous leaking of false information by the Chicago Police Department and the shameless and illegal invasion of Jussie’s privacy in tampering with his medical records.
Jussie adamantly maintains his innocence even if law enforcement has robbed him of that presumption.”
Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department has launched an internal investigation into leaks to the press during the Smollett investigation.
Kat Marlowe
The thing I think about is: What if two people were charged with Jussie’s “attack”? He would likely have sat back and let the lives of two people be irrevocably changed for something that didn’t happen. All for what? More money? Better storylines? A profile raise?
I don’t think Jussie fully understood or cared about the ripple effect of his actions. Of course, this is a man who tried to escape a DUI charge by giving the police his brother’s name instead of his own.
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Datsun Was The First Car Maker To Officially Brand A Video Game
Car companies now routinely license their car's name, look, and characteristics for driving games. Like all clever things, somebody had to do it first, right? So who was this daring, visionary company to first wise up to the value of putting their cars in videogames? It's a name that now is used to sell cheap cars in India.
Forza Horizon 2 Is As Close To Living Your Car Fantasy As You'll Get
Hi, I'm an autojournalist. Car companies fly me and my colleagues around the world to drive their…
Yes, Datsun seems to be the first car maker to officially license their name and a car for a video game. This was way back in 1976, the car was the Datsun 280Z, and the game was Datsun 280ZZZap, made by Bally-Midway, and programmed by Jay Fenton. Jay Fenton later transitioned to become a woman and took the name Jamie Fenton, so you may find the game credited under that name as well.
The game actually didn't start out as Datsun 280ZZZap — it started out as a game called Midnite Racer, made by Midway. The problem was that Midnite Racer was, essentially, a copycat game (though licensed) of a Micronetics game called Night Racer. And, if you follow the copycat chain down just a little further, it looks like Night Racer was basically a knockoff of a German driving game called Nürburgring.
Meet The Doctor-Engineer Who Basically Invented The Modern Racing Game
Chances are good that if you read yesterday's post about that racing simulator, you're a fan of…
On top of all this, Atari would very soon release their licensed knockoff, Night Driver, creating a glut of pseudo-3D, drive-between-the-white-fenceposts racing games out there.
Midway noticed exactly this at the November 1976 AMOA (Amusement and Music Operators Association) show, which featured all the indistinguishable night-driving games in one place. After the show, in an effort to have their game stand apart from all the others, Bally-Midway started a promotion that would give away a brand new 1977 Datsun 280Z, and worked out a deal with Nissan (the details of which I still haven't found) that allowed them to rename the game Datsun 280ZZZap (sometimes just 280ZZZap) and include images of a 280Z on the marquee and case.
The game also stood out by using Midway's unique mirror-based projection system that could overlay static, printed images on top of the primitive raster-scan graphics of the game. Since the simple, 8080-based computer running the game could only display blocky black and white images, the mirror-projection system was used to overlay a night sky and the hood of a yellow 280Z on the screen. Oh, and to keep things classy, the 'dashboard' section of the screen had a woodgrain bezel around it. The effect was pretty cool, as you can see in this video:
The game was also notable for the big, pixellated words it would display when you crashed, like BANG and BOOM and most notably, ZORK. ZORK was notable not just because it's possibly the least likely sound for a car to make when running into a post at high speed, but also because 'Zork' was the name of a popular text-based adventure game of the era. Since Zork was first written in 1977, there's some speculation the name came from the game, but it may just be a coincidence as the word was in widespread use in geeky communities already.
Datsun doesn't seem to have done too much on their end to publicize this video game tie-in, though in 1977 Datsun did offer a 'special decor package' for the 280Z called the 280ZZZap, which was a Sunburst Yellow 280Z with rear window louvers and black hood and roof stripes (a personal favorite combo), and a multicolored side stripe kit.
The ZZZap edition did seem to roughly mirror what the car in the videogame looked like, though there doesn't seem to be any official mention of the game in Datsun's ads. Still, I think it's more than just a coincidence here. And this special edition car based on a video game may be a one-of-a-kind thing as well, at least until Koenigsegg releases their Agera:Forza Horizon Edition.
Chaparral2F
I really miss Datsun, or at least what they had to offer back in the early 70s. 240 Zs and 510s. It is Datsun that really put Japanese cars on the map. Honda and Toyota soon followed, but they were a delightful alternative to the crappy, poorly designed American cars of that decade. Not surprised they had a video game for the 280Z because this was a much coveted car back in the day.
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2 Research jobs with job title Faculty Position
Browse for Research Faculty Position Jobs. Find the job of your dreams on IEEE today!
Full-time Faculty Position in Electronics Engineering at Sabanci University
Sabanci University
Tuzla, Istanbul Turkey
Full-time Faculty in Electronics Engineering at Sabancı University About Sabancı University Established by Sabancı Foundation in 1994, Sabancı University provides a world class education to its students from undergraduate to doctorate levels. It is distinguished by its educational system which wa...
Full-time Faculty in Electronics Engineering at Sabancı University About Sabancı University Established by Sabancı Foundation in 1994,...
Open Rank Faculty Position in Cybersecurity
The University of Virginia (UVA) seeks applicants for multiple open rank, tenured or tenure-track faculty positions in fields related to Cyber Security. These faculty positions have the flexibility of appointments among multiple schools/departments across the University. The successful applicants wi...
The University of Virginia (UVA) seeks applicants for multiple open rank, tenured or tenure-track faculty positions in fields related to Cyber...
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Nippon malt
You would think that when it comes to Japanese alcoholic beverages, the more traditional sake would be the first one I wrote about here. But no, after sampling some of its finest whiskies some columns back, I found myself once more trying out a non-sake Japanese product – beer this time.
According to an interview on Suntory’s website with Kiyoshi Yoshizawa, former professor of Tokyo University of Agriculture, beer in Japan has always been divided into two different styles: a full-bodied tasting beer, and a lighter one with a more refreshing feel. Then there is the happoshu (literally “sparkling spirits”) beers, which are beer-like drinks made from less than 67% malted barley (a beverage can only be classified as a beer in Japan if it contains more than that amount of malt).
Coincidentally, the beer I tried this time was from the same company that produces the whisky that I tried previously – Suntory.
Delicate touch: Satoru Abe of Suntory showing the right way to pour a Suntory Premium Malt’s beer.
Suntory is one of Japan’s four major beer producers, the other three being Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo. Suntory is the smallest, according to its executive general manager Satoru Abe, affectionately known as “Tiger-san”, who was in Kuala Lumpur recently for the launch of Suntory’s The Premium Malt’s beer at Fukuya Japanese Restaurant.
While the company’s main product is still its award-winning whiskies (which include Yamazaki, Hakushu and Hibiki), Suntory’s beer was the brainchild of the company’s second president – Keizo Saji (son of Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii) – who wanted to diversify the company’s products from whisky and wine to beer and non-alcoholic beverages.
Unfortunately, with three major players already in the Japanese beer market, Suntory’s beer didn’t really hit its stride until much later. In fact, it was only recently that the company is finally seeing some returns from its beer business.
“For more than 40 years we didn’t make any profit from our beers!” Abe said matter-of-factly. “Since we started in 1963, it’s been very hard for us to catch up with the other three companies. But in 2008, 46 years after we started it, we finally went into the black.”
One of the key elements of Suntory’s recent success is the quality of its beer, especially The Premium Malt’s beer.
Made according to the standards set by the famous German Beer Purity Law (which states that beer can only be made from malted barley, water and hops), Suntory produces The Premium Malt’s from 100% malted barley, pure natural water and aromatic hops that are specially imported from Europe in refrigerated containers.
This blend of ingredients produces a nice aromatic lager that is full-bodied and flavourful, but somehow refreshingly light at the same time, with a nice lingering aftertaste.
“Most other beers in Japan mix their malt with corn starch or rice – we use only 100% malt, so it is more full-bodied than others,” said Abe. “Also, most lagers would use cheaper bitter hops for their beers, but we use the more expensive aromatic hops so we can get a more floral aroma.”
The company’s commitment to making The Premium Malt’s out of such high quality ingredients means that it is positioned as a high-end beer, and priced higher than most other Japanese beers in the market.
It is so strict about the quality of the beer that it has even devised a pouring technique that utilises a specially designed glass.
“First, pour the beer straight down to generate the foam, then wait 20 to 30 seconds for it to settle a little,” Abe explained as he demonstrated the technique. “Then, tilt the glass and pour it down the side of the beer to top it up. The beer should always have a good head of foam to keep the flavour in.”
True enough, when tasted side by side with a separate freshly poured glass with minimal foam, the one that adhered to the technique tasted creamier, less flat and less bitter.
Suntory’s focus on quality is finally paying off as it has finally managed to rise to the third position in the Japanese beer market. Not only is its beer finally making the company some money now, but according to Abe, Suntory’s is the only beer that is seeing some growth in the dwindling Japanese beer market.
“The beer market in Japan has been shrinking for more than 60 years. In fact, the total alcohol consumption has been dropping,” said Abe, adding that the typical stereotype of a Japanese office worker who goes boozing after hours and crashing in capsule hotels afterwards is also changing thanks to the advent of technology.
“Alcohol used to be a way to unwind after work, but these days they have more options – iPhones, video games, and so on. Many young people also prefer to go straight home after work these days.”
According to Abe, it’s not that people are not drinking alcohol anymore – they just want something better to drink. “The key element (in our success) is the quality of our beer – today’s Japanese are looking for better quality products,” he said. “People are drinking less in volume and are more particular about the taste now. So if they want something to drink, they would prefer to try something that is good in quality.”
Having tried Japanese beers and whiskies, Michael Cheang reckons it’s about time someone taught him something about sake already.
Tags: japanese beer
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Home ▶ Vol 36, No 1 (2006) ▶ Swanepoel
Two new species of Commiphora (Burseraceae) from southern Africa
W. Swanepoel
Bothalia | Vol 36, No 1 | a331 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/abc.v36i1.331 | © 2006 W. Swanepoel | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
W. Swanepoel, H.G.W J. Schweickerdt Herbanum. Department of Botany., South Africa
Commiphora steynii Swanepoel and C. gariepensis Swanepoel, here described as new species, are known only from the Kaokoveld and Gariep Centres of Endemism respectively. Illustrations of the plants and distribution maps are provided. Diagnostic characters of C. steynii include the pale ashy grey, non-peeling bark and the lack of wart-like projections around the large lenticels. Diagnostic characters of C. gariepensis include the stamen number which varies between four and eight, and the milky-watery latex which does not squirt when branches are damaged. When without leaves or fruit, C. gariepensis can easily be confused with several other species. Comprehensive tables with diagnostic morphological features to distinguish between the new species and closely related taxa are presented.
Burseraceae; <i>Commiphora</i> Jacq., endemism, Gariep Centre. Kaokoveld, morphology, Namibia, new species. South Africa, taxonomy
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Certified Professional Inspector (CPI)®
Ryan Porter is the owner and inspector of Kozy Home Inspections. When you’re buying a home, it’s important to hire a home inspector who is not only qualified to do the job but who also cares about your family’s future. It’s clear from a first conversation with Ryan that he’s thrilled to help homebuyers and their families bring their dreams within reach. Ryan offers a warm and friendly service that’s a welcome break from the stiff approach of many professionals in the industry. You’ll feel right at home with Kozy Home Inspections as Ryan goes above and beyond to make sure that you’re happy with your service and prepared to make a great decision about a purchase.
A qualified home inspector needs more than what can be learned from books, and Ryan’s experience in the construction industry has given him the hands-on knowledge it takes to do the job right. Ryan has no trouble figuring out what’s strong and what needs work in a home, and he’s able to explain things to customers in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand. When you have Ryan inspect a home, he’ll do his best to save you time and money by letting you know exactly what’s going on and what it will take to fix any issues. For Ryan, a home inspection is about more than just figuring out a home’s condition—it’s about helping you find peace of mind. When he’s not inspecting homes, Ryan loves to spend time out in the mountains fishing, camping, and riding ATVs.
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kozyinspections@gmail.com
Copyright © 2018 Kozy Home Inspections | Designed By HomeGauge Web Services
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HomeSectionsNames & FacesFamous & Infamous with a Link to EvergreenGreenberg, Joanne
Greenberg, Joanne
Written by Marilyn Salzman on Monday, August 18 2014 .
Joanne Greenberg acts locally – and globally. Since the 1960s, she has volunteered in our mountain community while sharing her novels and short stories with the world. The author of 18 published works, Joanne not only lends a hand to others in our community, but also has been an advocate for the deaf and the mentally ill across our state and nation.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she and her husband, Albert, married in 1955, decided they wanted to live in a mountain setting with easy accessibility to a major city. So they purchased land on Rainbow Hill and moved into the home they built in 1963 where they raised their two sons. They still live there (2014) though the city has grown up around them.
Joanne’s volunteer work is as varied as the subjects of her novels and includes service on the Lookout Mountain Fire Department, co-founder of Congregation Beth Evergreen, sign language teacher and interpreter, Hebrew tutor, storyteller and visitor to Jewish inmates at Canon City.
How did she get involved in so many different kinds of activities? “Everything that ever happened to me, I fell backward into,” Joanne says. “I fell into my rescue work, working with the deaf, studying Hebrew…”
“I think my 13 years (1972-1985) on the fire department were the happiest years of my life. I was right at the heart of everything,” she says. She remembers helping numerous victims of car accidents on the steep hills of I-70 and working at the Grateful Dead and Rolling Stone concerts at Folsom Field as a paramedic. There were 80,000 people in the stands and quite a few drug overdose cases, Joanne recalls.
When Albert worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor with deaf clients, Joanne became interested in communicating with the deaf and studied to become a sign language interpreter and teacher. She spent decades working with state mental hospitals to provide appropriate care for the mentally ill deaf. She recently founded a web site, deafinprison.com to advocate for deaf inmates and prison reform. As a result of her advocacy for the deaf, Joanne received an honorary doctorate from Gallaudet University – the world’s only college for the deaf. Her interest in the deaf also led to her novel In This Sign, which has been dramatized for television.
Teaching has also been a big part of Joanne’s community service. For 23 years, Joanne volunteered at Ralston Elementary, teaching Latin and Greek roots as well as sign language. She has taught Hebrew and Torah to countless teens and adults. Her teaching of cultural anthropology and fiction writing at the Colorado School of Mines earned her the Colorado School of Mines Medal in 1999.
When Bernie Goldman called her in 1974 about getting some mountain Jews together for the High Holy Days, Joanne immediately jumped on board. From the inception of the Beth Evergreen congregation when a handful of families met in each other’s homes to its growth to 200 members and its own synagogue, Joanne has been an active member. Albert built the synagogue’s first ark to house the Torah, and Joanne was the main tutor for b’nei mitzvah (Jewish rite of passage) students for many years. During the High Holy Days, Beth Evergreen congregants eagerly anticipate Joanne’s wit and wisdom as she reads a new essay she created for the Jewish New Year.
Joanne graduated from American University in Washington, D.C., with a major in anthropology and English literature. She also studied at the University of London and the University of Colorado. She began writing when she was nine “but I wasn’t serious until I was 11,” she says. At age 20, enrolled in a college literature class, she realized that writing – which she had already been doing for 10 years – was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. The decision came despite the discouragement of the conventional women in her family who thought women just should get married and have babies. “My mother, her friends, my aunts all told me that writing is not what women do. There were women writers, but they were all dead – and they weren’t Jewish.”
Albert, however, encouraged her writing and she published her first book, The King’s Persons, in 1963 at the age of 31. Only a year later, she published the highly acclaimed fictionalized autobiography, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, under the pen name Hannah Green. Nearly six million copies were sold, and it was translated into several languages. Her published works now include 14 novels and four collections of short stories. Writing is like brushing your teeth to Joanne – an integral part of her daily life. “I said I was going to coast once I turned 80. But now I’m 81 and I don’t want to coast, so let’s make it 90,” Joanne says.
She writes because “there’s something I want to tell you, but there’s also something I don’t know. There has to be a lot of things for me to find out.” Joanne still writes every morning except Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, using a #5 mechanical pencil. “I started that way – by hand – and there’s something in the moving of your hand to form the letters that bonds you to the words,” she says. The research for her books has taken her into the world of ski law, maxillo-facial surgery, law enforcement and caving, to name just a few. “With me, all the books are different. When I start, I don’t know how it’s going to end,” Joanne says.
“The art of writing I love, the trade is lousy. It always has been,” Joanne says of the publishing industry. With the death of her agent of 40 years, she’s trying to decide if and how to publish her latest works. She has three almost completed works sitting on the shelf and a fourth in progress. When Joanne is not volunteering, studying Hebrew or writing, she can be found at home engaging in one of her numerous hobbies. She makes her own chokecherry wine, pickles, jams and jellies; bakes bread; makes most of her clothing as well as Albert’s; and spins wool, dying it with onion skins gathered at local grocery stores. An alto, Joanne loves to sing with the Renaissance Singers, a small choir that practices at St. Laurence Episcopal Church in Conifer.
Joanne has two collections – handkerchiefs and heroes. Her heroes include two deaf/blind people; a German major in the Holocaust who secretly rescued Jews; and the people of Lockerbie, Scotland because of their selfless acts of kindness after the terrorist bomb that caused a plane to crash in their community in 1988.
Though her modesty is legendary, for the deaf, the Jewish prisoners, the students she inspired, the accident victims she rescued, and discriminating readers everywhere, Joanne Greenberg belongs in our hero collection.
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← Kasane Heat
The Ostrich Capital of the World →
Mother City of South Africa
Posted on January 13, 2018 by kcbernick
This was a long travel day. Again, there were three legs to our flight. First, we returned to the small airport at Xakanaxa where we boarded a 12 passenger plane that took us to Maun. Mark saw a cow walking the street just outside the airport. We rejoined the crew of our DC-3 there, stopped for one refueling at Polokwane. We had to go through customs at Polokwane as it is in South Africa. The customs staff were less than friendly, taking their time to process us. When we thought we were good to go, they all came out to the airplane and inspected that. They took one suitcase off to inspect it. It appeared that they just wanted to demonstrate their control over us. Our steward, Werner, said that they often do this, and he thinks it’s some kind of retaliation against him because of his orientation. Sad.
So ended the safari portion of our trip. We consider it to be quite successful. We saw the Big Five: Elephant, Rhinoceros, Leopard, Lion and Cape Buffalo. They are called the Big Five, not because of their size, but because they are the most difficult and dangerous to hunt on foot.
We arrived in Johannesburg, picked up the luggage that was stored there, then boarded a British Airways flight to Cape Town, where our ride was waiting to take us to our hotel. I was so tired that I think I was sleepwalking by the time we got our room around 11pm. That bed felt so good.
Cape Town is called the Mother City of South Africa, with the second largest port in South Africa, with Durban being the largest. In the year 1488, King John II of Portugal commissioned Bartolomeu Dias to search for a sea route around the Cape to India. When Dias approached the Cape, he encountered high winds that blew him right around it. He landed in Mosell Bay, and his crew said they didn’t want to go any further, but wanted to return home. Diaz told the King that it was the Cape of Storms, but King John II was an optimist who called it the Cape of Good Hope. He then sent Vasco deGama who made it all of the way to India.
In 1652, the Dutch East India Company established a colony here to grow provisions for the ships that passed by. The colonists took slaves locally, and from Madagascar, Malay, India to work the farms and vineyards for them.
The British took over governance in 1806. British rule ended in 1910, and the country became the Union of South Africa, then the Republic of South Africa in 1961. Apartheid, meaning “apartness” in Afrikaans, was instituted in 1948, and lasted until 1994 when the first free democratic election was held, and Nelson Mandela became the first Black president of South Africa. There are 55 million people living in South Africa, of which 75% come from the nine black tribes.
Cape Town and surroundings are suffering from drought. In fact, we were greeted with a sign by the elevators of our hotel, outlining ways we could help conserve water.
We signed up for a tour of the District Six Museum, townships and Robben Island. The city of Cape Town is divided into several districts, each of which is segregated by racial group. There were four racial groups: White, Malay (their ancestors had been brought in as slaves,) Colored (mixed blood,) and Black. The way the South Africans determined whether a person was Colored or Black was to stick a pencil in the hair. If the pencil fell out, the person was Colored. If it stayed in the hair, the person was Black. Every adult over the age of 16 was required to carry a “pass” card that indicated their race. If a person was in the wrong area, he/she could be arrested. If your spouse was one race and you were the other, you could not live together in the same district. You could only see your family on certain days and for no more than an hour. Horrible!!!
The museum houses street signs from the original neighborhood, plus stories from some of the people who had lived there.
District 6 was designated a “white” area in 1966, and most of it was razed. One of the few buildings left standing was a Methodist Church, which now houses the museum. Over 60,000 people were dispossessed. Many of them moved to the wastelands of the Cape Flats. There was no housing provided. There were some “hostels,” residences that had been built to house workers. The hostels (apartments) are quite small, with a living/kitchen area, and up to six small bedrooms.
We went to the township of Langa, where we first visited an artists’ colony, and saw demonstrations of mosaic work and pottery.
We then visited one of the hostels that houses 16 families. We were allowed to peek into one of the bedrooms, and that one has three families living in it. The women and children sleep in those rooms, and the men sleep communally in the living/kitchen area. If they have electricity, all families pay for a part of it. Each family pays about $50/month to live here.
There are some larger residences, which cost about $500/month, but not enough. Some people live in shipping containers (like those we see on the trains.) Some may have small wooden shacks to live in. In the meantime, District 6 is mostly undeveloped.
This was not a tour that I care to repeat. Even now, as I write about it, I feel sick to my stomach.
After that, we were to go on a ferry ride to Robben Island for a tour of the prison that held Nelson Mandela. We had been warned that sometimes the ferry is cancelled due to the weather. That’s what happened today. In truth, I was not disappointed. I was feeling overwhelmed by the poverty, and I was also ready for some free time.
While waiting for our driver to pick us up, we checked out the art museum nearby. They have some chairs out front that are built to move and roll as we move in them. All I could think of was the old ad about Weebles: “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.”
After returning to our hotel, we were entertained by a marching band practicing just down the block. We have fabulous views of the city and the surrounding mountains, including Table Mountain. We found a restaurant nearby for dinner, then repacked everything and went to bed. I will be so happy to stop living out of a suitcase.
This entry was posted in Africa, Cape Town, National Geographic, South Africa, The Big Five. Bookmark the permalink.
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Maggie Crane calls into McGraw Show
UncategorizedBy News April 6, 2016 Leave a comment
Missouri House advances motorcycle-helmet exemption
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri lawmakers are advancing a bill to exempt motorcyclists who are 21 and older from wearing a helmet. House members gave the measure initial approval Tuesday. Riders 21 and older wouldn’t have to wear a helmet if they’ve had their motorcycle license at least two years or if they complete a…
Mercer lifts Pirates over Cardinals 6-5 in 11 innings
Sports, St Louis CardinalsBy News April 6, 2016 Leave a comment
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Jordy Mercer singled home Gregory Polanco from second base with one out in the 11th inning to lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night. Polanco, who agreed to a $35 million, five-year contract earlier in the day, drew a walk from Seth Maness…
Missouri House advances rules on daily fantasy sports
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri House is advancing a bill to allow daily fantasy sports and exempt the practice from gambling regulations. The House in a voice vote Tuesday gave the legislation initial approval. Daily fantasy sports sites would need to pay an annual $5,000 registration fee. They would face some additional restrictions…
Driver strikes family after overdosing on heroin
( KTRS ) St. Ann police say a driver overdosed on heroin, while driving, and struck a couple and their 2-year-old son, seriously injuring the family members. The accident happened Tuesday afternoon. Police say the driver, a man in his 20s, fell asleep at the wheel, causing the car to accelerate and strike a couple…
Battle between religious and gay rights splits GOP states
NationalBy News April 6, 2016 Leave a comment
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Republican lawmakers have advanced measures in about a dozen states this year that could strengthen protections for those who refuse for religious reasons to provide services to gay couples. The bills could benefit court clerks, photographers, florists, bakers, wedding-hall operators and others who say gay matrimony goes against their beliefs.…
Kansas City, St. Louis voters renew cities’ earnings taxes
( KTRS ) With all precincts reporting, voters in Missouri’s two biggest cities have overwhelmingly renewed the earnings tax. The tax requires those who work in Kansas City or St. Louis to pay a 1 percent tax on their pay. Because nonresidents also must pay, thousands of commuters from the neighboring states of Kansas and…
The Latest: Ferguson voters pass 1 tax hike, not the other
FergusonBy News April 6, 2016 Leave a comment
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) – Ferguson voters have approved one tax increase but rejected another, creating uncertainty about whether the town where 18-year-old Michael Brown died in a 2014 police shooting will be able to afford changes required in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Complete, unofficial results show voters in the Missouri town…
Missouri officials confirm third case of Zika virus
UncategorizedBy News April 5, 2016 1 Comment
(KTRS) – Missouri health officials confirm that there is a third person in the state who was infected with the Zika virus. The man recently traveled to Columbia and officials believe that is where he may have picked up the virus. It is not clear at this time where the man lives. The virus is…
Illinois lawmakers weigh making it easier for transgender people to change sex on documents
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Lawmakers gave initial approval to a measure that would allow transgender people to change the gender marker on their birth certificates, passports, and identification cards. Currently, people must first undergo surgery before changing their gender on documents, but a bill that advanced out of a House committee Tuesday removes that requirement.…
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Being a Woman Undaunted in a Man’s World – True Power without the Powerplay
By Leeza Carlone Steindorf
After dinner last night, as they were cleaning the dishes, Ashley surprised her family by proclaiming her plans to become president of the United States. A bold statement for a seven-year-old. When asked why she wants one of the hardest jobs with so much responsibility, she said, “because when I go to dance lessons I see those people who don’t have beds and sleep on the sidewalk. That’s not okay. And I think we should go to school to learn and play and not be scared that someone’s gonna shoot us.” Then she paused, and added, “I think I could fix some stuff.” Indeed.
When Ashley runs for president around 2043, we want to believe that her gender will no longer be an issue in the discussion, but rather her ability and commitment to solving problems of the day. Today, however, considering gender when considering placement in power is still a norm, and many are more than ready for that to change.
Should We Tell Her That Her Gender Will Be An Issue?
In the early 20th century, women had few rights and the women activists of the time, the suffragettes, fought hard against that norm and at great loss and pain. But their efforts paid off. The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920 giving women the legal right to vote. We have come far in many ways concerning women’s rights and equality. Yet the #metoo movement has more than blown the lid off of the pervasive undercurrent of inequality, harassment and abuse that continues to be tolerated in our society. Most would agree there is a problem here, but there is less agreement on how to solve it.
Ashley is not aware, yet, of how things work. It has not occurred to her that her passion, insight and the abilities that she will groom to run the country as president are not all that will be under the spotlight when she runs for office. Should we tell her that her gender will be an issue? Or should we rather roll up our sleeves and assure that she only reads in her American history books about archaic distractions such as basing a person’s value and ability to serve on characteristics like gender? (Or skin color, sexual preference, or age for that matter.)
We talk a lot about equality and how our legal system can and should establish it. In 1979 Lilly Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire and Rubber for having been paid significantly less than her male counterparts for equal work for the 18 years of her employment with the company. The case reached the Supreme Court, but was overturned as the case had not been filed within 180 days of her initial discriminatory paycheck in 1979. Unfortunately, it was years after that first paycheck that she became aware, thanks to an anonymous letter informing her, that there was a pay discrepancy between her and her male colleagues. So she filed suit, but did not win the case due to the 180-day rule.
In 2009, however, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act that restarts that 180-day clock every time a discriminatory check is issued, and not only after the first one. That was a major victory for equal pay and for women in the workforce. It honored Ms. Ledbetter’s efforts. The point remains, though, that a law was necessary at all to demand equal pay for equal work.
Don’t Mistake Differences For Inequality
The roots of inequality are entangled and deep, but in the end it is quite simple. We mistake differences for inequality. If someone is taller, smarter, older, or faster, for example, we judge those differences to be of use, or not, to be good or bad for us or our cause. The problem stems from the act of judging itself. When we realize that differences are not a factor of inequality but one of distinction, then the discussion shifts.
“Gleichwertig” is a German word that works well for equality. It has two parts: “gleich” meaning equal or same, and “wertig” meaning of value. So, if things are “gleichwertig,” they are of equal value but not identical in characteristics. This is the shift in thinking and acting that we need, as individuals and as a society.
One facet of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s brilliant and transformative leadership in the Civil Rights Movement was that he made available a paradigm shift that had not existed before. He illustrated that if anybody needs to stand in a position of superiority for any reason, to keep others down or believe they are better humans in some way, that is a clear indicator that they do not feel valuable themselves. If they did, such repression and abuse would not be necessary because their own sense of worth would be enough to help and support and contribute to others. Discrimination is based on the belief that one has to keep another down in order to feel good. So the abuse of power in its entirety is based on a false premise. That paradigm shift helped a majority of African-Americans understand that they have a right to be treated as equal because they are equal.
Today’s paradigm shift must begin with women. We must grasp that we do not need to fight for equality, because we already are equal. We do not have to fight for something that is. You do not have to fight for sunshine. You do not have to fight for air or trees or the ground beneath you. It is all there. Women need to understand that they are innately of equal value. It is not something we have to fight for.
Coming from that stance, though, we do have to diligently work for the practical and tangible expressions of that equality in all aspects of our lives – family, economy, and society as a whole – and to do so with passion and strength, and without resentment and anger. It will take us to where we want to go.
Ashley will tell you that she is just as good as her friends, male or female, but some are better at math, some at running, others at singing, and she herself excels in English. She knows that no one is better than anyone else in their value. They are all ‘gleichwertig’.
How is this insight, understanding our intrinsic value, useful? How does it help us grapple with the #metoo movement’s spotlight that has exposed injustices and painful harassment taking place today behind the scenes – and amazingly often in the open – in our businesses, organizations and families? Do we work to change the legal system? Or perhaps education? Maybe family life? Yes, yes and yes!
Yet, the most powerful place to begin is within each and every woman first.
How do we assure that all the future Ashleys will be able to share their gifts and goodness with the world and not have an inkling of having to explain or excuse their gender in doing so? How do we women come home to our own power and recognize our innate value, without the anger and resentment of having been treated as less than we are worth? How do we build community, especially amongst women, that thrives on mutual support and sincere encouragement void of any competition or jealousy about our beauty, gifts and accomplishments?
Knowing Your Own Worth
Women should first start by orienting internally, which can be the most difficult since we have been diligently taught to look outside of ourselves to define who we are, to determine what it means to be a woman. If you are an athlete you may have looked to Mia Hamm or Serena Williams. If you are a mother you may turn to your own mom or friends of the family. If you are a politician you may look to the public stage or in business to top CEOs like Marillyn Hewson at Lockheed Martin or Ginni Rometty at IBM. There is nothing wrong with seeking role models and learning from best practices. Yet we cheat ourselves of satisfaction and personal power by using external measurements to define who we are and how we want to be as women.
So, the first step to knowing your own worth is to disengage from the external influences and measurements of who you are as a woman. Look within and ask who am I? What are my values? What do I want, and how do I prefer to operate in the world?
Start with washing your face. Every morning look in the mirror and affirm that you are good, valuable, and important just because you are you. Nothing extra needed. Acknowledge your right to be the sole measure of your worth in this world. Your values, spiritual alignment, thoughts, and choices create the optimal guide to being the most amazing woman you can be. Make this your practice.
Then walk out into the world. Engage with the people and activities in your life knowing your value and taking an active stand. Practice expecting equal treatment and respect in your life.
Empower your children to speak to you respectfully, as you do with them. Be the example you want to be. Tolerate no backtalk or sass. State with a calm demeanor, knowing you deserve to be treated well, “I will speak with you when you are ready to speak with me in a tone and words that reflect respect for both of us.”
Encounter your employees, boss or co-workers being acutely aware of your skills and smarts and how you contribute to those around you, engaging not from a place of superiority or tentative expectancy. Anchor yourself in the strength of who you are. Know why you are there and what you want to give and achieve. Speak and act with clarity, power and conviction. The doubts and nay-sayers in your mind, if not your world, will quiet as your voice becomes stronger, resilient, and compelling.
Then move your sights and energies to the wider community. Set an intention and align yourself with other women on the same path of authentic and committed empowerment. Walk together and uplift each other. Start or join a group, speak out, create art, music, and amazing food. Build businesses together that will change our economy to reflect what women stand for in this world – connection, creation, collaboration, and unbound well-being and profit for all.
While widening your claim to equality, demand that your local educational system creates curricula and structures that teach active respectful treatment. Engage with, and expect from, your schools to teach equality of human value to both boys and girls, distinguishing and celebrating our incredible differences. What is true of women’s worth is equally valid for men. The genders must be educated. It need not be “either you or me.” What stands most powerful is “you and me” taking action together.
Support political initiatives and politicians who take an active stand for what you believe to be true. They are on the front lines and often in the line of fire. Senator Diane Allen committed herself and her time in office to assure that there was equal pay for equal work. The state of New Jersey just made history last month by passing the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act that puts into place stronger protection against discrimination and promotes equal pay for women.
First you become clear and convinced of your own intrinsic value as a woman, independently of your role, looks, success or position. Knowing one’s value may not be pawned off as ‘merely’ a soft-skill or personal transformation exercise (although those are powerful indeed). This taking stock and taking a stance in your value is as are streamlined and effective as time management, conflict resolution, and leadership skills.
Universal Movement of Equality
From that internal foundation, take a stance in the world and be the change you want to see from the inside out and the bite of anger and resentment are no longer necessary. The reach of the emotions of outrage, which are integral to processing pain and oppression, only takes us so far in creating change. At some point, they must be transmuted into reversing conditions or you become their victim. Committing to change from a foundation of internal value will lead to a universal movement of equality, something that anger and resentment cannot do.
Ashley will make a good president, if she has the chance to run for office solely on her abilities and skills, if her gender is not an issue in the election process, and if we finally make good on our promise to her of “… liberty and justice for all.”
Core Success’s Leezá Carlone Steindorf, is an award-winning author, a crisis management expert, an executive coach, and motivational keynote speaker, she has an extensive background in world-class multinational corporations, trade-unions, nonprofits, and educational institutions in over 35+ cultures. With her experience, she helps leaders make a consistent forward movement, especially during the most extreme of circumstances. Contact Core Success today to learn how you can benefit from Leezá’s strategic guidance.
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Stargate Atlantis Theme Song
2004–2009; also “SGA theme song”
Now on to the Stargate franchise.
Too bad Stargate Universe did not work out as expected.
Alright, let’s start. Stargate Atlantis lasted five seasons from 2004 to 2009. Throughout its run, it had one distinct theme song and similar but often-altered video opening sequences.
The theme song was composed by Joel Goldsmith. Although he composed music for the original Stargate SG-1, he did not compose its main title theme—more on this when I decide to post on the SG-1 theme.
Stargate Atlantis has an official soundtrack and it has the theme where it is simply credited as “Main Title”. In the disc, it lasts 1:06; it features all-original scores from Mr. Goldsmith.
What else? The song was nominated in 2005 for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music. However, it lost to the theme from Desperate Housewives. Also, the following was mentioned in a supplementary book for the DVD (I think), but it’s not a direct quote from the composer: “Goldsmith went for a more pastoral, European and Americana approach, while keeping the adventurous, symphonic approach the producers wanted.”
Stargate Atlantis Theme Song Season 2
Stargate Atlantis follows the present-day adventures of Major John Sheppard and his military team from Earth that, along with two dozen other teams, explore distant planets in the Pegasus Galaxy. They use an alien device known as a Stargate that was built millions of years ago by an advanced race of humans known as the Ancients. The expedition is based in the Lost City of Atlantis on the planet “Lantea”. The city was built millions of years ago and abandoned 10,000 years ago by the Ancients. Five to ten million years ago, due to a plague in the Milky Way Galaxy, they were forced to flee to the Pegasus Galaxy, and there they seeded life on hundreds of worlds as they had done to Earth in the Milky Way. After encountering a powerful enemy known as the Wraith and going to war with them for one hundred years, the Ancients ultimately lost and were forced to submerge their city beneath Lantea’s ocean, which, in the Stargate universe, is the source of the Greek myth of the Lost City of Atlantis.
GUUUYS!!! let me know if you like it and join mi starship if you want more theme songs like this one and then I’ll give you your first missions!! see you (on mi ship) in the next one 😉
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California Medical Association Officially Supports Legalization
Amid a new round of federal saber-rattling and setbacks for leading California dispensaries, here's some good news: The 35,000 doctor-strong California Medical Association has joined the reality-based community in recommending the legalization and regulation of cannabis. The CMA is the largest physician group in California and the first statewide medical association to take the position. CMA's president-elect James T Hay says it will be the first of many.
"CMA may be the first organization of its kind to take this position, but we won’t be the last. This was a carefully considered, deliberative decision made exclusively on medical and scientific grounds,” said Hay in a Sunday release. “As physicians, we need to have a better understanding about the benefits and risks of medicinal cannabis so that we can provide the best care possible to our patients.”
The federal government classifies pot among the most dangerous of all drugs, alongside heroin, when it is smoked in its plant form. However, pharmaceutical companies may sell the same active ingredients in pill form legally.
The CMA recommends regulating and taxing recreational cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco. In a related white paper (.pdf), the CMA also notes, the criminalization of cannabis has proven to be a failed public health policy for several reasons, including:
a) The diversion of limited economic resources to penal system costs and away from other more socially desirable uses such as funding health care, education, transportation, etc.
b) The social destruction of family units when cannabis users are incarcerated, rather than offered treatment and other social assistance;
c) The disparate impacts that drug law enforcement practices have on communities of color
d) The continued demand for cannabis nationally, which supports violent drug cartels from Mexico and other international sources
e) The failure to decrease national and international supplies of cannabis from criminal and unregulated sources
f) The failure of the federal government‟s limited actions through the “War on Drugs” in mitigating substance abuse and addiction
So, how long until the CMA bows but to political pressure to retract their statements, like RAND and the Cancer Institute?
Prohibition lobbyist John Lovell, spokesperson for the California's narcotics officers told the AP that the state's doctors have taken "an unbelievably irresponsible position."
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Oakland Privacy Commission Holds Hearing on 'Stingray' Cell Phone Surveillance Devices
by Darwin BondGraham
Oakland Police Deputy Chief Darren Allison.
Oakland's privacy commission held its second ever meeting last night, and on the agenda was a first: a public presentation by a police officer to a civilian oversight body about the use of cell-site simulators.
"Oakland has had a Stingray since 2006 and this is the first time there's been a public presentation about this," said Brian Hofer, the chair of the privacy commission.
In a brief presentation, Oakland Police Deputy Chief Darren Allison told the commissioners about the capabilities and uses of several cell-site simulator devices used by the Alameda County District Attorney and the Oakland police.
Cell site simulators, known commonly as Stingrays, trick cell phones into thinking they're cellular towers. As a result, cell phones send data to the Stingray. This data can include everything from a phone's signal strength to actual text messages and audio of phone calls.
DC Allison said, however, that the Stingrays currently used by OPD haven't had the capability to intercept text messages, phone calls, or other communications content. Instead, according to Allison, OPD's use of cell-site simulators has been restricted to gathering three things: the unique identifying numbers of cell phones in a given area; the signal strength of a phone; and the approximate compass direction of the phone in relation to the Stingray. The Stingray device used by OPD is housed in an unmarked vehicle that can be quickly deployed around the city.
OPD uses Stingrays to track down fugitives, said Allison, but only after getting an arrest warrant. In some cases, the Stingray can be used to track a suspect without a warrant, explained Allison, but there must be exigent circumstances. He added that the Stingray can also be used in settings like a natural disaster to locate people beneath rubble, or to find a kidnapped person.
Matt Cagle of the ACLU Northern California.
Matt Cagle, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California was also on hand to talk about potential threats to civil liberties caused by the proliferation of Stingrays among US police agencies. According to Cagle, police forces across the country obtained Stingrays and used them for years in secret. Their existence was only disclosed by attorneys, researchers, and civil rights activists who pried information from local and state governments.
Cagle said one major problem with Stingrays is that they can be used in a dragnet fashion to gather information on the whereabouts and associations of individuals, and that this could be in violation of constitutional rights.
Hofer said that the Stingray currently in use by OPD and the District Attorney was configured by its manufacturer Harris Corporation so that it cannot intercept the content of communications. But several other commissions questioned whether it's possible to verify this.
Commissioner Lou Katz.
Commissioner Lou Katz asked Allison whether the police would be willing to share the device's "specs sheet" with the privacy commission to show exactly what capabilities are built into it.
Allison responded that OPD does not hold these records and can't turn them over because they're the property of Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley. O'Malley's office took the lead on obtaining the newest model cell-site simulator, a Hailstorm, last year.
"It should be noted then that we are unable to verify the actual capabilities," said Commissioner Katz.
The commission is tasked with drafting use policies for the Stingray that will be forwarded to the city council. The item will be taken up again next month by the commission.
Correction: the original version of this story identified Darren Allison's rank as captain. Allson is a deputy chief.
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Living in FIN
Snapshots of Suomi
Tag: Kalevala
December 9, 2020 December 9, 2020 hecksinductionhourLeave a comment
The life of D.E.D. Europaeus, who was born in Savitaipale 200 years ago, was full of curiosities. Photo: Museovirasto
This strange man came up with dozens of words that you use every day, and without him, Tolkien’s world-famous fantasy classic might not have been born
Europaeus, who was born on 1 December 1820, introduced over 200 words into the Finnish language and one of its most famous characters to the Kalevala
Petri Kivimäki
It’s a miracle if you’ve ever heard the name David Emmanuel Daniel Europaeus.
It’s also a miracle if you have never heard or used the words eduskunta (“parliament”), harrastus (“hobby”), ilmansuunta (“compass point, direction”), mielikuvitus (“imagination”), johtaja (“manager”), tilavuus (“volume”), keräilijä (“collector”), kunta (“municipality”) or varasto (“stockpile, warehouse”).
All of these words were coined by Europaeus, or at least he published them for the first time in the history of the Finnish language.
Europaeus left us over 200 words that we still use.
Despite his strange-sounding surname, D.E.D. Europaeus was 100% Finnish. He was born 200 years ago on 1 December 1820 in a rural farmhouse in Savitaipale, South Karelia, about 40 km from Lappeenranta.
Without Europaeus, J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, would never have written The Story of Kullervo, nor would Jean Sibelius have composed his symphonic suite Kullervo. Elias Lönnrot’s Kalevala would be thinner.
The Swedish-Finnish dictionary compiled by Europaeus is on display at the Europaeus Museum. On the left is a list of words that Europaeus used for the first time in the history of the Finnish language. Photo: Petri Kivimäki/Yle
It is impossible to describe Europaeus briefly. He was a man of many hats and involved in everything: he was a Finnish-language advocate, newspaperman, pro-Finnish activist, archaeologist, teacher at a school for the deaf, lexicographer, and mathematician. He was an animal welfare officer for decades before any animal welfare society had even been established.
A man who grew up in a small country village 200 years ago, and whose impact is still audible in our lives every day, Europaeus is almost unknown.
Excited about everything
With a population of 3,400, the town center of Savitaipale looks quite similar to many other Finnish towns. There are a couple of grocery stores, a restaurant, several small businesses, a library, a fire department, and a town hall.
The handsome Olkkola estate is located a few hundred meters from the center. It was once the site of the old mansion building where Europaeus was born. His father was the vicar of Savitaipale, and his mother, the cattle girl at the vicarage.
Finnish was spoken at home, and there was a lot of multilingual literature, which Europaeus read voraciously as a boy.
There is now a small Europaeus museum next to the Olkkola estate. Inside, a big display case contains textbooks written by Europaeus, as well as copies of the magazine Suometar, which he published. On the walls, there are maps and reminiscences from his long research expeditions.
The museum is near Europaeus’s birthplace. Photo: Petri Kivimäki/Yle
A display case next to the back wall contains two human skulls found by Europaeus, which my guide has promised to tell me about soon.
A chart hung on a nail next to the skulls was used to teach the sounds of the Finnish language.
“This picture was used to teach the deaf the positions the mouth must assume to produce a certain sound,” says Eila Kajanus-Jurvanen, president of the Savitaipale Local Heritage Association.
This chart, developed by Europaeus, was used to teach the deaf to speak. Photo: Petri Kivimäki/Yle
Devised by Europaeus in 1857, the illustrated phonetic diagram was unique in Finland, because before Europaeus, no attempt had been made to teach the deaf to speak.
In his own time, Europaeus received no praise for the chart even though it enabled countless deaf people to get a toehold in the language. The chart was in use for decades: its replacement was published more than 100 years later.
“Europaeus was a special person in that he was always excited about everything new. However, his staying power in completing work was not always very good,” says Kajanus-Jurvanen.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s inspiration
When Europaeus was inspired by folklore, he naturally sought out Elias Lönnrot. Lönnrot, who was 18 years older than Europaeus, was no longer able to travel and collect oral folk poetry, but he set an enthusiastic Europaeus on the task.
Ultimately, Europaeus collected 53,000 verses on his five trips, which was far more than Lönnrot did on his dozen-some collecting trips. The Kalevala contains more poems collected by Europaeus than by Lönnrot himself.
Sculptor Viljo Savikurki’s bas-relief portrait of Europaeus was unveiled in Savitaipale in 1971. Photo: Petri Kivimäki/Yle
Lönnrot’s so-called Old Kalevala was published in 1835. Lönnrot then planned a new, larger edition. Europaeus sent a message to Lönnrot that the new edition of the Kalevala should be delayed, because he believed there was still a lot of unique poetry to be found in Ingria, the area around St. Petersburg.
That same year, Europaeus went on his fourth collecting trip to Ingria, during which he made a discovery.
“Lönnrot had never been there, and he did not think there would be any Finnish poetry there. Nevertheless, that’s where Europaeus found all the Kullervo poems. It is thanks to Europaeus that the Kullervo poems are now in the Kalevala,” says Kajanus-Jurvanen.
The Kullervo poems recorded by Europaeus ended up in the so-called New Kalevala, which was published in 1849. It is the same work that we read today as the Kalevala.
The Savitaipale elementary school is named after Europaeus. Photo: Kare Lehtonen/Yle
Kullervo has inspired many artists to create masterpieces. One of them was the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, whose Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have spread across the globe.
Tolkien was extremely interested in the Finnish language. He read the Kalevala in English, but he didn’t like it. So he learned the Finnish language by reading the Kalevala in the original. Tolkien was so enlightened by this episode that its effect began to appear immediately in his works.
Tolkien wrote his first prose piece The Story of Kullervo in 1914. It tells the tale of a young man who is sold into slavery and vows revenge on a magician who killed his father.
The Story of Kullervo was published in Finnish in 2016 under the title Kullervon tarina.
Tolkien also used mythological elements drawn from the Kalevala in his other works, both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Pölkäre and pyörö
In Europaeus’s day in the 19th century, there was still very little Finnish literature. Even as a child, he wanted Finnish literature and textbooks to be available to Finns.
When he started studying at the University of Helsinki, he took it upon himself to translate a geometry textbook into Finnish. Such things did not exist yet.
For The Geometry Book (Mittauden Oppi-kirja), published in 1847, Europaeus had to invent a whole set of Finnish words. Such words as kehä (“circumference”), suunnikas (“parallelogram”), tilavuus (“volume”), and parillinen (“even”) are still in use today.
However, not all the words have survived. Europaeus translated the word “circle” (ympyrä in modern Finnish) as pyörö (suggesting a “wheel”). Lävistäjä (“diagonal”) became keskeinen (which means “central” or “pivotal” in modern Finnish), and kuutio (“cube”) became pölkäre (suggesting a “block”).
Eila Kajanus-Jurvanen knows every object in the Europaeus Museum. Photo: Petri Kivimäki/Yle
Europaeus had to develop even more new words for his Swedish–Finnish dictionary. Although perhaps not all of them were personally coined by Europaeus, he brought them to light for the first time in the history of the Finnish language.
They include enemmistö (“majority”), harrastus (“hobby”), johtokunta (“committee”), vety (“hydrogen”), osoite (“address”), pätevä (“qualified, competent, valid”), ulkomaalainen (“foreigner”), valokuvaaja (“photographer”), viehättävä (“attractive, charming”), väitöskirja (“dissertation”), yhdyssana (“compound word”) and äänenkannattaja (“organ,” i.e., an official magazine, newsletter, or similar publication of an organization)
It is estimated that Europaeus introduced over 200 new words into the Finnish language.
Human bone collector
There is a sight in a display case at the Europaeus Museum that causes many museum visitors to pause for at least a moment: two real human skulls.
They harken back to the period when Europaeus was inspired by archaeology. After collecting folk poetry, he made seven archaeological expeditions, the first of them at the age of 51 in 1872, mainly to the northern shores of Lake Ladoga.
He is still the only Finn to have explored the southeastern parts of Ladoga.
During his travels he found objects in burial mounds that are now in museums around the world.
But Europaeus was not so much interested in objects as in bones and especially skulls. In keeping with the spirit of the times, he believed that they could be used to elucidate the history of European and Russian settlement.
Europaeus apparently found these two skulls near Ladoga. The Finnish National Museum has donated them to the Europaeus Museum. Photo: Petri Kivimäki/Yle
In one of his letters, Europaeus said that he had four skulls retrieved from the Savitaipale cemetery. Later, after his research trips, he wrote that he had all the skulls he needed.
“At the time, craniometry was in vogue. It was used to determine whether people were long-skulled or short-skulled. And then this was used to determine their origins,” says Kajanus-Jurvanen.
On the basis of his skull research, Europaeus concluded that Africa was humanity’s original home.
“That idea was laughed at, and all that was said was, ‘What a strange opinion,'” says Kajanus-Jurvanen.
No fame
In the 19th century, D.E.D. Europaeus was considered a peculiar vagabond, even a ragamuffin. In his own time, he was never approved, and he is still not famous.
“Europaeus was modest and did not promote himself,” says Pertti Jurvanen, a local heritage councilor who was involved in founding the D.E.D. Europaeus society.
Juha Nirkko, an archivist at the Finnish Literature Society, also explains how Europaeus was not well liked in his own time
“Lönnrot, for example, was a respected cholera doctor and was recognized for it. Poor Europaeus, on the other hand, was considered a cholera transmitter and well poisoner. Some people can’t get a break,” says Nirkoo.
A photograph of Europaeus taken by N.I. Snellman in the mid-1870s. Photo: Museovirasto
According to Nirkko, Europaeus was a telecommuter and temp worker of his day and age. He had no family and wandered around the country in search of work.
“He enrolled at university, but his studies never progressed,” says Nirkko.
Nirkko emphasizes how much Europaeus differed from his contemporaries. He was an anarchist of his time.
“He just couldn’t adhere to the norms and conventions of his time. He was not held back by the borders of countries, continents or cultures. Europaeus was not a limited thinker. Maybe he was too unrestrained and uncontrollable,” argues Nirkko.
Europaeus’s grave is in the old section of Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. The surname was subsequently Fennicized as Äyräpää, as seen on the tombstone to the left. Photo: Rudolph Bülow/Yle
After leaving Savitaipale to pursue his education, Europeaus was, at different times, a teacher, collected place names in St. Petersburg, and went on poetry collecting trips. He may have been a private tutor in Heinävesi, and studied in Viipuri and Helsinki. In Germany, he attended political rallies.
But he often returned to his native region on holiday. There he wrote, among other things, the Swedish–Finnish dictionary and met his sister Charlotta, who was also an avid collector of folk poetry.
In the spring of 1884 Europaeus went to St. Petersburg, where in the autumn of the same year he died at the age of 63.
Europaeus was buried in St. Petersburg. After a few weeks his remains were exhumed and brought to Helsinki, where on 4 December 1884 he was laid to rest in Hietaniemi Cemetery with other great men and women.
The peace of death has been attained by one wanderer of the world whose whole life was spent in tireless searching, restless acquisition and amateur pursuits. He lived like a bird without thinking about tomorrow’s needs.
—Excerpt from an article about Europaeus’s death, published in Uusi-Suometar on 23 October 1884
Europaeus’s date of death is marked on his tombstone as 15 October 1884, which, according to archivist Juha Nirkko, is at least quite close to the correct date. Some sources claim that Europaeus died in May 1884. Photo: Rudolph Bülow/Yle
Modest celebrations
Tuesday 1 December 2020 marks 200 years since the birth of D.E.D. Europaeus. The municipality of Savitaipale had planned a variety of events for the jubilee year, but most of them have been cancelled due to the coronavirus.
A small memorial event will take place at the Europaeus monument at 12:00 p.m. on first December.
On Thursday 3 December 2020 at 6:00 p.m. in the courtyard of the Europaeus School, excerpts from the play Europaeus, which was to be performed this year, will be presented. In addition, there will be a program by schoolchildren and a light show.
Thanks to Tiina Pasanen for the invaluable heads-up. Translated by Living in FIN
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While your domain name is one of the most critical components of your web address, the extension offers just as much value. The domain extension, also known as the top-level domain, helps to categorize websites. It can give visitors a good idea of what your digital space is about before they even take a look.
The TLD can impact your overall branding and make or break the memorability of your address.
There are more than 1,500 domain extensions out there. Two popular options are .co and .com. The .com domain extension is a legacy that’s, arguably, responsible for shaping the World Wide Web as we know it today. While the .co domain isn’t as historic or well-known, its simplicity makes it a worthy contender for your website address.
This begs the question: Which domain extension is the right choice for you? .co or .com?
In this guide, we’re going to dive into the history of these domains. We’ll compare and contrast the extensions’ merits to help you decide which one will provide the most success to your website!
What is a Domain Extension, and Why is it Important?
Before we go into the head-to-head battle of .co vs. .com, let’s look into domain extensions as a whole. As mentioned earlier, the extension is a method of classification. It’s part of the more extensive hierarchal system. As the highest level of the Domain Name System of the Internet, it’s one of the first things a browser looks at when trying to navigate to a site.
There are many top-level domains available. Some are generic top-level domains and incorporate distinct words. Others are legacy domains or country-code domains with restrictions. Whatever the case may be, every website has to have one!
Like human first names, multiple websites can have the same domain name. On a website address, the domain name refers to the main keywords. It’s the part that you get to choose. In most cases, it reflects the site’s niche, a company name, or the name of a personal blog. Take, for example, www.RandomBlog.com. The words “RandomBlog” are the domain name. The “.com” tag on the end is the domain name.
Several sites can have the “RandomBlog” domain name. But, two sites cannot share the extension! It’s what sets the two apart and dictates where a browser will take visitors.
You might think that the purpose of the extension decreases its importance. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. You see, different domain extensions hold varying levels of value in the public eye. At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.
The Internet at large is swarming with spam sites wanting to defraud visitors. This isn’t the early 1990s anymore! Web users are more technologically savvy and Internet-conscious than ever before. Most will not even attempt to visit a website if the web address looks fishy. It’s the embodiment of “judging a book by its cover.” But, that ingrained bias helps to keep web users safe.
Inherently, more people gravitate towards familiar legacy extensions. Standard domain extensions that have been around for a long time provide a sense of security. That’s not to say that virus-laden sites don’t have old-school extensions. But, the chances of that are much lower in the eyes of web surfers.
Having a reliable and familiar domain extension can make all the difference. It gives visitors a glimpse of what you have to offer and can prevent you from getting left behind on search engine results pages!
Does a Domain Extension Affect Search Engine Optimization?
An unorthodox or traditional extension might impact your SEO efforts. But, it might not affect it in the way that you think.
SEO algorithms for search juggernauts like Google remain a mystery. But, most Internet experts can agree that hundreds of factors come into play. The domain extension is only one. Thus, it has little to no effect on the ranking process.
That said, the secondary effects of your domain can make or break your SEO efforts. As mentioned earlier, people view domain extensions with a biased eye. Even if you’re using one of the newer generic TLDs, those unfamiliar with the extension might be less inclined to take a shot on your site.
In turn, this could reduce your traffic. Search engines view high-traffic sites more favorably because it shows that you have high-quality content that appeals to those looking into your niche. If your domain extension is already working against you, the site’s rankings could suffer!
About the .co Domain Extension
If you had to guess what .co stood for, what would be your first instinct? For most people, the word “company” comes to mind. Believe it or not, the .co extension has nothing to do with companies, commerce, or anything else in between. This connection was likely due to the letters “co” being used as a second-level domain. For example, it represents companies in the UK as .co.uk.
This extension is actually a country-code top-level domain, or ccTLD. A country-code domain extension is one that’s granted to a specific country. In this case, it’s the country code for Colombia!
It first appeared in 1991 and was delegated to the University of the Andes. Back then, it was primarily used for country-focused sites run by the government.
Chances are, you’ve seen the .co domain extension used by sites that had nothing to do with the country of Colombia. For a while, it had strict usage limitations. But that all changed in 2010. After nearly two decades of being a restricted country code, .co domain extension was made available to those outside of Colombia. It’s now frequently used by sites in the United States and beyond.
Today, anyone can use it regardless of their affiliation or site purpose. When this happened, the .co domain took on a life of its own.
Approximately 20 accredited registrars sell the domain extension. Some big-name web-hosting companies like Bluehost and GoDaddy offer it, too. As of 2014, over 1.4 million websites use it!
Cost of a .co domain name extension
Both .co & .com domains cost the same as a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin. Most people expect domain names to be expensive. In fact you can pick up a cheap domain name for as little as $1 (depending on the domain extension that is)
You can get a .co domain from most good domain registrars. My favourite is Domain.com. You can pick up a .co for $10.99
Use coupon code SITEHUB to get an extra 25% off.
Or get a domain name for free when you buy hosting from Bluehost ($2.95 pm)
About the .com Domain Extension
Without a doubt, .com domains are some of the most recognizable in the world. An original top-level domain, this extension came available in 1985 before the World Wide Web was even a thing!
Back then, there were only a handful of available domain extensions. It’s part of the very first internet naming system and was designed to help users distinguish commercial websites. It’s the alternative to .org, which was for non-profit companies and sites.
In the early days of the Internet, extensions like .com were derived from a word that represented the purpose of the site. For example, .com came from the word “commercial.” Other examples include .edu for “education,” .gov for “government,” and .biz for “business.”
However, those representations were merely a suggestion and weren’t enforced. As such, the .com domain extension flourished! It grew into prominence during the dot-com bubble and continues to be a staple today. It’s one of the most sought-after extensions and is used by over 145.4 million websites as of 2020!
Cost of a .COM domain name extension
You can get a .com domain from Domain.com for $12.99
Why Use the .co Domain Extension?
There are many reasons why you might want to use .co extension. It’s not nearly as popular as .com, but it still holds high value in the eyes of Internet users.
.co is still a popular domain name. Many believe that it represents companies or commercial entities. While we now know that’s not the truth, you can still capitalize on its familiarity!
As we said earlier, web users are far more inclined to visit sites that they view as reputable. This extension has some inherent credibility thanks to its adoption by big-name websites and organizations.
It’s a great choice for small startups and modern brands. The short, two-letter extension is easy to remember. It flows off the tongue and looks great on print material or digital logos. As a result, many brands make it an integral part of their marketing tactics!
Geographic-Based Content
Of course, you can always use the .co domain for its intended purpose. If you have a website that caters to a Colombian audience, it’s a no-brainer! Those in the country were familiar with the domain long before the rest of the world, so it makes sense.
Travel sites, Colombian-based blogs, and more have a lot to gain. You could even use it for other “Colombias,” such as the city of Columbia!
Domain Hacking
This extension is a popular choice for domain hacking. If you’re not familiar with this quirky naming scheme, domain hacking has nothing to do with anything nefarious! It involves using the domain name and the extension to create some memorable addresses.
Two-letter extensions are a favourite for this technique because they’re easy to incorporate into an advertisement-ready web address. For example, say that you have a blog dedicated to the world of art deco motifs. You could name your domain “artde.” Your full website would be www.artde.co. How cool is that?
There are plenty of ways to get creative with domain hacking, and the .co domain is ripe with possibilities!
Potential Drawbacks to the .co Extension
Positive perks aside, you may run into some issues with this country-code domain. The biggest problem is finding an available domain.
.co is pretty popular compared to some other generic top-level domains. As a result, pricing can be all over the place. .co domain names were a favorite among domain parkers. They would buy up popular keywords and sit on them, waiting for someone who really wanted to have it. They then act as resellers, demanding a high price on an otherwise affordable extension.
It’s crucial to shop around and explore your domain name options.
Why Use the .com Domain Extension?
This specific domain is highly sought after. It’s, by far, the most popular domain extension in existence and the first choice for most who are starting a new blog or website! There are countless reasons why you should invest. Here are some of the most significant.
A .com website has built-in credibility that no other domain extension can match. The extension has been around since the dawn of the Internet, so people instantly recognize it. It makes remembering your website address easier and gives people a bit more peace of mind before visiting.
The familiarity alone can do wonders for your website. Compared to lesser-known generic domains, .com outranks them all! It can help you gain traffic organically and could potentially boost your SEO efforts. This brings us to our next point.
SEO Perks
.com domain extensions are some of the most SEO-friendly. Like we said earlier, the domain doesn’t have much direct influence to search engine ranking algorithms. Google, Bing, and other search engines treat .com the same way they treat .tech, .online, or .xyz.
But, the internal bias that web users have could ultimately make your site more popular. You may gain more organic traffic with a .com extension, which makes your site more rankable right off the bat. Search engines view high-traffic sites more favorably. With most people gravitating to .com options rather than the alternatives, it automatically works in your favor.
Of course, the content you publish is the most important thing. But this domain extension could push your potential over the edge.
Here’s something that not too many website owners think about. Take a look at your smartphone’s keyboard when you navigate the mobile browser. Notice anything different? Chances are, there’s a dedicated .com key!
Many smartphones and tablets have a separate .com key to speed up the typing process. As the most-used extension out there, it makes sense to have one. Users can finish the address with a single finger tap, which speeds up the overall browsing experience.
Capitalizing on that fact can work in your favor! Now, your site still needs to be optimized for mobile devices if you want to see any real success. But having the domain extension can prove to be very beneficial.
Potential Drawbacks to a .com Domain Extension
Like .co extension, getting a .com website is no easy task! There are nearly 150 million websites already using it! As a result, many of the popular keywords and niches are taken. Unless you have a super-unique blog or business name, you might have to pay a higher price to register it.
Many .com sites are parked. Nearly all of the most expensive domain name sales in history used this extension. For example, CarInsurance.com and Voice.com went for $49.7 million and $30 million, respectively.
This is a trade-off you have to consider. Domain names are a big investment that can stick with you for decades! It may be worth it to pay a bit more to take advantage of .com’s credibility.
.co vs .com: Which One is Best?
These two domain extensions are in high demand and have a lot to offer bloggers, online businesses, companies, and eCommerce websites. The best choice for you will depend entirely on your needs.
Domain name extensions can make or break your site’s reputation before anyone even visits it. There’s no denying that the .com extension is more well-known than .co. For this reason alone, it’s always worth trying to get if you can! But if that’s not available, the .co extension is recognizable enough to help your site see success.
Both extensions have their pros and cons. The difference between them all comes down to visibility and reputation. We suggest shopping around for your new domain. Ultimately, the contents of your site are the most important thing to consider. A reliable domain extension like .com or .co is just the icing on the cake for your web address.
More Domain Name Related Content
If you want to read more about all things domain names then check out the following guides:
How To Sell A Domain Name
How Many Domains Are There?
How Get A True Valuation of Your Domain Name
Where To Buy The Cheapest Domain Names
.net vs .com – Comparison Guide
io vs com – Comparison Guide
org vs com – Comparison Guide
Categories Business Post navigation
Soaring Heart’s Mike Schaefer Interview — On Transitioning Your Brick and Mortar to eCommerce
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Last edited by Gorisar
3 edition of Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. found in the catalog.
Explorers and discoverers: Magellan.
Educational Research Council of America. Social Science Staff.
Published 1970 by Allyn and Bacon in Boston .
Magalhães, Fernão de, d. 1521 -- Juvenile literature.,
Magellan, Ferdinand, d. 1521.
An easy-to-read account of the first trip around the world begun by Magellan and completed by his men after he was killed in the Spice Islands.
Series Concepts and inquiry: the ERC social science program, Concepts and understanding.
LC Classifications G286.M2 E33
Pagination 49 p.
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Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. by Educational Research Council of America. Social Science Staff. Download PDF EPUB FB2
Magellan (Explorers and Discoverers) Paperback – January 1, by Marie M. Richards (Editor), Agnes M. Michnay (Editor), Mary Catherine McCarthy (Editor), Raymond English (Editor), Gayle P.
Parr (Illustrator), Phyllis Trotta (Illustrator), Kenneth L. Shipley (Illustrator), Martha Oliver (Illustrator) & 5 Manufacturer: Allyn and Bacon, Inc. Get this from a library. Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. [Educational Research Council of America. Social Science Staff.] -- An easy-to-read account of the first trip around the world begun by Magellan and completed by his men after he was killed in the Spice Islands.
The discovery of the new world is one of the most exciting periods to study. Here is a book that has not only has Drake, Magellan, and Columbus but has the story of less famous mariners as well.
This is not a book that Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. book to be read all at by: 4. Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. book Age of Exploration: From Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand Magellan (Britannica Guide to Explorers and Adventurers) Library Binding – J Price: $ For a similar audience, The Grolier Student Library of Explorers and Exploration Explorers and discoverers: Magellan.
book provides a more thematic context, with each volume devoted to a specific region or aspect of discovery. UXL's Explorers and Discoverers () has information on or so individual explorers.
Because these works and the Marshall Cavendish set take 5/5(1). Ferdinand Magellan's ship was the first to circumnavigate the globe. While the accomplishment is recognized as a historic milestone, less known are the details of that voyage around the world.
Magellan spent years trying to win the favor of the king of Portugal, and failing that /5(). Ferdinand Magellan is best known for being an explorer for Portugal, and later Spain, who discovered the Strait of Magellan while leading the first expedition to successfully circumnavigate the globe.
He died en route and Juan Sebastián del Cano completed it. The circumnavigation confirmed the idea that the world was round rather than flat. LibriVox recording of Discoverers and Explorers, by Edward R.
Shaw. Read by Laura Caldwell. Tales of the brave and daring explorers that ventured into the unknown "Sea of Darkness" where it was thought monsters and angry gods lived.
They dared to sail near the equator which was thought to have such intense Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. book that it Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. book boil the ocean water. Ferdinand Magellan () was a Portuguese explorer and the first sailor to sail all around the world. He did not discover America because he sailed around the bottom of South America.
Magellan also named the Pacific Ocean. Sir Francis Drake () was a British explorer and navy captain. Occupation: Explorer Born: in Portugal Died: Ap in Cebu, Philippines Best known for: First to circumnavigate the globe Biography: Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to sail all the way around the world.
He also discovered a passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean that is today called the Straits of Magellan. There have been many famous explorers throughout time whose achievements and bravery are worth noting. Their purposeful accomplishments and occasional accidental discoveries have helped to shape the course of history.
Below is a list of some of the most Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. book explorers of all time. Famous Explorers Leif Ericson () Nationality: Norwegian Known For: Considered the.
In a book entitled The Travels of Marco Polo, the adventures and journey of the man is detailed. Marco explored the continent Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. book Asia where Explorers and discoverers: Magellan. book met Kublai Khan. Vasco da Gama (c/) Famous For: Role in the Age of Discovery Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama was commander of one of the sailing ships that ventured into India from Europe.
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (), the first to circumnavigate the globe, sailed on behalf of the Spanish monarch from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and discovered the straights that now bear his name and the Philippines/5.
Christopher Columbus. Sir Francis Drake. Juan Ponce de Leon. Ferdinand Magellan. Francisco Pizarro. Hernando de Soto. Amerigo Vespucci. This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 2 December The following is a list of explorers.
Their common names, countries of origin (modern and former), centuries when they were active and main areas of exploration are listed below.
Leif Erikson was a famous Norse explorer who is credited for being the first European to set foot on. He was best known for his controversial book The Year China Discovered the World, in which he asserts that the fleets of Chinese Admiral Zheng He visited the Americas prior to European explorer Christopher Columbus inand that the same fleet circumnavigated the globe a century before the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan.
Menzies Genre: Pseudohistory. 7 Incredible Books On Exploration That Will Fuel Your Wanderlust. By Leigh Wright, December 4th Explorers have always held a special place on my bookshelf because of what they represent: independence, defiance, confidence, curiosity, political savvy, strategy, and imagination.
this book exonerates Magellan’s name in Europe after. Go here for a fun world explorers crossword puzzle or word search.
Back to Biography for Kids. Back to History for Kids. For more reading and reference, try these books: Eye Wonder: Explorers by Marie Greenwood.
10 Explorers that Changed the World by Clive Gifford. Explorers: From Columbus to Armstrong by Felicity Everett and Struan. One of the boldest and most determined of all the early explorers was Ferdinand Magellan, a young Portuguese nobleman. He felt sure that somewhere on that long coast which so many explorers had reached he would find a strait through which he would be able to pass, and which would lead into the Indian Ocean; and so Magellan formed the idea of.
The development of the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia owes much to Melbourne lawyer Kenneth McIntyre's book, The Secret Discovery of Australia; Portuguese ventures years before re's book was reprinted in an abridged paperback edition in and again in and it was found on school history reading lists by the mids.
Book: Oceanography (Hill) 1: A Voyage of Discovery Expand/collapse global location Columbus’ discovery opened up a whole new world for his successors to explore. Ferdinand Magellan.
Ferdinand Magellan lived from to He left Spain in September with men and five vessels in search of a westward passage to the Spice Islands. One of the greatest explorers of the Age of Discovery, Ferdinand Magellan is best known for leading the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
However, he personally did not complete the route and perished in the South Pacific. A determined man, he overcame personal obstacles, mutinies, uncharted seas, biting hunger, and malnutrition during the course of his voyage. Explorers make journeys into the unknown and make records of their travels.
From the explorers of thousands of years ago who set out in small boats to modern-day astronauts, human beings have set to explore new territories. Explorers document their discoveries through telling stories, drawing pictures, making maps, and keeping diaries. Discover a world of information on explorers and conquistadors like Christopher Columbus, Francis Drake, Henry Hudson, Ferdinand Magellan, Hernan Cortes, and Amelia Earhart.
Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, in into a noble family. After serving as a court page for two years, his adventurous spirit led him to a career as an explorer.
InMagellan went to the Spice Islands (Indonesia) to participate in several military and exploratory expeditions. Inhe was promoted to the rank of. - On March 6,during his fateful trip around the world, Ferdinand Magellan landed on Guam It was the first contact Europeans made with the islands and an important stop during the expedition that had begun in Spain in The traditional story has it that Magellan landed at the pristine Umatac Bay, but this is a subject of much scholarly debate based on the route.
Matthew Henson, Explorer. Peary, Henson, and the North Pole. William Bradford Biography. Columbus Sails the Ocean Blue. Sacagawea Biography: A Nonfiction Reading Warm-Up. Thor Heyerdahl Biography. Geography Activities. Chart voyages, familiarize students with maps and ask questions with our breadth of geography activities.
Chart Columbus's Voyages. This massive section includes games, historical accounts, articles, online activities, and printables related to explorers and the Age of Exploration. Login to Parents and Teachers: In light of the COVID crisis, and the many disruptions it has caused or will cause to our kids' education, I am offering subscriptions to (the upgraded site.
Discovery | Great Explorers | From 3 to 9 years Magellan. During our adventure cycle, discover the incredible life of Fernand Magellan. Read the story 28 pages - 5 min. Share. 3 Books | Great Explorers | From 3 to 9 years In the same collection. Discover the great explorers who made history. Continuing on from the ‘Top Twenty British Explorers’, here are the ones that have made it into the Top Ten.
The investigation of the World by British explorers contributed significantly to the development of modern society as we know it today. Explorers were expected to discover new lands, break records and map the world for future travellers.
It was a dangerous but exhilarating. Marco Polo and his two uncles visited Cathay, later called China.
They lived at the court of the Emperor. When he went back to Italy, Polo wrote a book about his travels in the Far East. After the invention of Gutenburg's Printing Press in the year this book became one of the first to be published. Books Authored By Our Members. The following are books written by our members and available to be purchased on external websites.
Please contact Will Roseman ([email protected]), Executive Director, to have your book listed. HISTORY books in 23 countries may need to be rewritten in the light of new evidence that Chinese explorers had discovered most parts of the world by the midth century. Throughout the centuries, brave explorers have fearlessly traveled the globe and beyond to discover new lands, people, animal species, riches and glory.
Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal proved the world is round with his mission to sail around the world. Juan Ponce de León scoured Puerto Rico and Florida in his quest for the fountain of youth. In The Year China Discovered America, Gavin Menzies presents evidence that China not only discovered North and South America before Columbus was born, but also rounded the Cape of Good Hope, explored the North and South Poles, discovered Australia, and circumnavigated the world, visiting every continent except Europe/5.
The Strait of Magellan (Spanish: Estrecho de Magallanes), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The route is considered difficult to navigate due to frequent narrows and Coordinates: 53°28′S 70°47′W / °S. Biography: Christopher Columbus is the explorer who is credited for discovering America.
Of course, there were already people living in America at the time who we call Native Americans. There even was a European, Leif Ericsson, who had been to the Americas before.
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Home > Experts > John Henning Fock
John Henning Fock
Dr. Fock is a senior vice president and account manager in the Munich office, focusing on institutional client servicing in Germany and Austria. Previously, he was a senior associate in the product management group, focusing on emerging markets and quantitative strategies. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2008, he was at the University of Augsburg, Germany, where he worked as a research assistant for the department of banking and finance. He has 14 years of investment experience and holds a diploma and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Augsburg.
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Nic Aguirre
Franklin Hall, Basement 030M
Friday, 10:30-11:30am
naguirre@indiana.edu
Nic Aguirre holds a B.S.B.A in Finance from the University of Central Florida, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with University Honors. He also has an M.F.A. in Interactive Media from the University of Miami, where he received the Outstanding Graduate Student award in 2015.
Nic is an aspiring data scientist and web developer, currently teaching Web Design at The Media School. He comes to IU with hopes of bringing new ideas to the way Web Design and Data Visualization are taught in The Media School.
Nic has worked doing financial analysis for companies like Lockheed Martin and Siemens Energy. He also worked as a freelance data visualization practitioner, interfacing with organizations such as SAP, the United Nations, ProPublica, and NORC at the University of Chicago.
A self-taught computer programmer, Nic is proficient in Java/Processing, JavaScript, and the D3.js library. While he is not a conventional artist, he has created prolific works of computer-generative art. His future ambitions include learning R and Python, and improving his familiarity with Tableau.
His leisure interests include weightlifting, public speaking, and language learning.
‘Gather’ event series will allow Media School community to share passions
Five join Media School faculty
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Forms of CBD
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celebrities who play clarinet
Now, Mr. Spielberg and his films need no introduction, but back when he was a boy he was a humble clarinettist in the school orchestra. June 27, 2020 April 25, 2020 by Famous People Today's Staff. It is the 4th released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe. Sam. 23. What Celebrities play the clarinet? When you pack your baby up for the day and every piece is nestled carefully in its velvet enclosure and you just look at it and smile. Benny Goodman Artie Shaw Stan Hasselgard. July 3, 2019 at 04:58 Reply. jennymaclay. This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. Answer. You … Begin by playing a B♭, on the second line of the staff. He was a very well-known performer and his playing inspired many people, including Mozart. Anton Stadler (1753 - 1812) is of course so well known, because his playing inspired Wolgang Amadeus Mozart to write his popular compositions. 11 Famous People Who Play Or Have Played WoW (Mila Kunis?) Wiki User Answered . Try loosening your mouth while playing this note to, and try to bring it down a major second interval to A♭. Blizzard's World Of Warcraft is one of the most popular game franchises in the world - and these celebrities love to play it! Seems to me that she would be the perfect star in a … July 3, 2019 at 18:01 Reply. 0 … Picture: Getty Images Clarinet. Share Share Tweet Email Comment. Blizzard's World Of Warcraft is the biggest and most famous MMORPG in the world. 7 superstar celebrities who sang in their school choir > Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg. 7 8 9. By Anja Grčar Oct 16, 2020. Asked by Wiki User. Any list of famous clarinet players would include clarinetists from around the world and since the early 18th century, when the modern instrument was introduced in Germany. Here are some famous clarinet players. Top Answer. The clarinet is a very difficult instrument to play, and the fact that there are so many fantastic clarinetists is amazing. Anton Stadler: Anton was born in 1753 and died in 1812. World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Anton Stadler. From Anton Stadler’s mastery of the basset clarinet in the late 18th century to Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw's 20th-century jazz and swing, clarinetists have played an important role in music. Famous Celebrities Who Played the Clarinet - Jenny Maclay. Keep your mouth just like it is and play a C (on the third space) and return your mouth to normal as you open up the keys by pulling your fingers off. 2009-12-02 04:04:38 2009-12-02 04:04:38. Michelle grew up playing DOOM, and like many other celebrities, she now plays Call of Duty. This is probably an old post, but “Song of the Thin Man” (1947) actually features a character named Buddy Hollis, who is a jazz clarinetist!
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Growing Up In Public (Stevie Wonder)
On alternate Saturdays, my school bussed a number of sports teams to other schools in the county. Despite fraternal intentions parochial rivalries were played out on the playing fields of Lincolnshire. Sport, as George Orwell wrote, is “war minus the shooting”. The back of the coach was strictly for the big kids, the 16 year olds on the football team. As this was January 29th 1966 they were young Mods, sharp & smart. I was 13 & my mum still bought my clothes. She thought that Ben Sherman was a Scottish mountain. I was there by default , making my first & only appearance for the chess team ! They really could not find anyone else dumb enough to press-ganged into giving up their afternoon. My skirmish for the honour of our alma mater would take place in a musty hut posing as a school library.
Any road up, I got to share oxygen with the cool cats. The song they sang, on the journeys there & back, while they were giving a lesson in how to play the beautiful game to a bunch of young farmers, was brand new, a chartbound sound but not just yet. Back then I still held a song’s chart position in some regard. I had more than a suspicion that “Michelle” by the Overlanders was a piece of opportunistic mush but, hey, it was #1, it was top of the pops. “Uptight” by Stevie Wonder brought into focus the idea that the best records around did not necessarily sell the most. “Baby, ev’rything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight.”
In 1963 the UK was busy with our own Beat Boom & we had missed “Little” Stevie Wonder’s smash US hit “Fingertips”, a live, wild & wonderful harmonica hullabaloo from the Motortown Revue (with Marvin Gaye on the drums). “Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius” was a #1 LP in the USA. It followed “Tribute to Uncle Ray”, an attempt by Tamla Motown to link their artist with another blind African-American musician. The miniature moniker was dropped but a set of lounge singer standards was inappropriate while “Stevie at the Beach” just sounds wrong. “Uptight”, his 5th release, was a big step forward. Stevie contributed to 5 of the songs including the surging, stomping title track. This time around the covers included an assertive, swinging version of Dylan’s “Blowing In the Wind”, a Top 10 hit single.
Stevie, just 15 years old, came to Britain to promote “Uptight” & became a permanent part of the Motown manifesto, a key contributor to the Sixties soul scene. His singles were not the label’s biggest hits but, with the assistance of producer/mentor Clarence Paul & of Hank Cosby, there was a consistency & quality about his releases. With 6 LPs in 3 years there were still a number of syrupy ballads, ill-judged covers & even a 1966 Xmas album (soon be time to dig that one out). 1967’s “I Was Made To Love Her” was as perfect a two and a half minutes of pop-soul rush as you could wish for. The following 45s were classic too. “I Was Made…” was co-written by Stevie’s mother, Lula Hathaway. It’s easier to stand your ground against experienced producers when your mum has got your back.
A 1968 “Greatest Hits” collection marked the end of Stevie’s musical adolescence. Tamla Motown were reluctant to change a winning formula so an instrumental LP was released on a different label, Gordy, under the name Eivets Rednow. “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” is a flexing of his musical muscles, A spare arrangement features the Hohner clavinet keyboard now favoured by our young man. The song builds to a crescendo & Stevie’s soul shouting. I loved this more rugged sound, so did the Jackson 5 who gave it the full Motown makeover while the Rolling Stones recognised a song built around a great rumbling riff. Here the “Hollywood Palace” band are no match for Detroit’s Funk Brothers but Stevie rocks out on prime time TV.
The next year saw Stevie taking on more production duties while still giving Motown what they wanted. The “My Cherie Amour” LP has a fair share of easy listening including the title track & a song from the musical “The King & I”. The 2 live LPs from 1970 have a touch of cabaret about them too. Stevie Wonder turned 20 in that year, of course he was taking notice of the funkification of Soul, of a growing concern with social issues in both lyrics & in a wider context. “Signed, Sealed & Delivered” opens with 4 tracks displaying his growing range & creativity. “Never Had A Dream Come True” develops his ballad style, there would be more like this. “We Can Work It Out” is an electric version, side 1 track 1 of any Beatles cover mixtape worth its soul. The title track is followed by “Heaven Help Us All” written by long-time contributor Ron Miller. “Heaven…” is another song with a slow build & the most conscious of Stevie’s work to date, tougher than “Give Peace A Chance” but still a song of hope. On “The Johnny Cash Show” Stevie’s fro is starting to grow & he has ditched the smart suits for a more pimped look. Pity they didn’t get the sleeves finished for that blue costume.
In 1970 Stevie married fellow Motown artist Syreeta Wright &, as his contract came towards its end, to consider a life beyond Motown.
“Where I’m Coming From” (1971) was handed to Motown as a done deal. If he was going to stay with the label then change was gonna come. All the songs are written by Stevie & Syreeta & it is self-produced. In the same year Motown’s other male solo star, Marvin Gaye, released “What’s Going On”, a mature soul masterpiece. “Where…” is not as focussed as that LP Stevie was not yet 21 & was still experimenting. “Do Yourself A Favor” is a slab of irresistible funk, “If You Really Love Me” a Top 10 hit & “Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” a heartbreaker that Wonder sang at Michael Jackson’s funeral. This is some coming-of-age record.
Stevie Wonder was now ready to enter what a good friend calls his “Imperial” phase, a blaze of creativity & fulfilled talent stretching across albums of such quality that match the work of anyone in popular music. I love that music, it’s what I reach for when I need a little Wonder in my life. In the live clips shot around 1972 Stevie is grooving to his inner rhythm, playing with his band & obviously enjoying his new freedom. I do find the period when he was leaving “Little” Stevie behind, trying out new things, breaking free of the commercial constraints of his label, absolutely intriguing. It did not all work but the 3 tracks here are classics which sit comfortably with the music that was to come.
Oh yeah, that chess match. I won it in a canter (then retired undefeated) before mooching over to watch the older guys with the style win their game. I was no grandmaster but I was a little flash !
tagged as 60s soul, heaven help us all, i dont know why i love you, never dreamed you'd leave in summer, stevie wonder, tamla motown, uptight
Small Faces : Wasp-Waist and Swivel-Hippy (Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake)
The first time a good friend of mine saw “Professor” Stanley Unwin”, the peerless purveyor of mangled mumbo-jumbo known as Unwinese, he was a little thrown. It was a quiet night in, just us two, the TV & a nice bag of magic mushrooms. Was this craziness his own psilocybin twisted perception or…well, what was this ? Carl was born too late to have heard or seen Stanley’s TV & radio appearances. He had missed out too on the long summer holiday of 1968 when our teenaged gang of four wondered at the circular sleeve (how mad was that !) and delighted in the Cockney Psychedelia of the Small Faces’ LP “Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake”. It was #1 on the charts for 6 weeks & Stanley Unwin was a pop star. So, “are you sitting comftybold two-square on your botty? Then we’ll begin.”
In 1966 Small Faces had taken residence in the UK Top 10 with 4 hit singles, 3 of them written by the partnership of guitarist Steve Marriott & bassist Ronnie Lane. The major pop players, the survivors of the British Beat Boom, had invaded the USA, they were less inclined to make the teen scene. The shift from wanting to hold your hand to spending the night together was a little too forward for some. The younger kids wanted some new posters on their bedroom walls, someone to scream at. These 4 young, sharp-dressed London mods, with a bright Soul/R&B inflected take on pop, were just the ticket. When I say sharp I mean best-dressed. Small Faces sounded great & looked better.
The group spent the first half of 1967 extricating themselves from an unfavourable contract with manager & all-round hard-ass Don Arden. Like kids in a toyshop Marriott, Lane, organist Ian McLagan & drummer Kenney Jones had thought that the Pimlico flat & the raids on Carnaby St boutiques were pop star perks. The hit records put clothes on their back but little money in the bank. They signed with the coolest record label around, Immediate, started by Andrew Loog Oldham, rolling in the profits from managing the Stones. The music was growing up & Small Faces, wearied by teen stardom, wanted to play with the big boys. In June they released the “Small Faces” LP, the bridge between “All Or Nothing” & what followed, all original tracks none over 3 minutes long. A great record, R&B lightly brushed with the new psychedelia, & not a hit record among them.
They revelled in the new freedom at Immediate. Recording at Olympic Studios with Glyn Johns Small Faces had 3 more Top 10 singles before the release of “Ogdens…”. “Itchycoo Park”, an English take on “Groovin'”, Mod growing it’s hair with some fine tape-wizardry flange work. The scorching “Tin Soldier”, a rocking band fronted by Steve Marriott, a great rock singer. “Lazy Sunday”, a lovely, cor-blimey, modern East End knees-up & a preview of the new LP.
“Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake” came wrapped in colourful parody of a tobacco tin from back then. The sleeve was round (how mad was that ?). Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, states that the said company had produced a Nut Brown flake since 1899. This has been copied & pasted by the Internet but oh no they didn’t. Ogdens’ built their huge Liverpool factory in 1899 & opened it in 1901, they were established in 1860. It was Adkins, a London firm, who made the Nut Brown brand not Ogdens. So, let’s get this right & you read it here first. Me, I was always a ready-rubbed kind of guy !
The LP opens with the bass-boom instrumental title track written by the whole band. I have no idea where Mac was in the above clip, he’s around in the rest of the programme. This was a heavier Small Faces sound, touched by the experimentation of the times. Marriott & Lane (especially Ronnie Lane ?) had hit their stride as songwriters. Soul shakers like “Afterglow” & “Song of a Baker” (see below) shook more effectively. The lighter tunes “Rene” & “Lazy Sunday” were confident & funny. Side 1 of “Ogdens’…” is stoned rather than psychedelic.
Side 2 is a fairy tale, the story of Happiness Stan’s quest for the missing part of the moon, it’s tuned in & turned on. On “Sergeant Pepper’s…” the Beatles acknowledged music hall & influences from the days before rock & roll. From way, way back in the 1950s Small Faces enlisted Stanley Unwin to narrate their story, an inspired decision. Unwin delivered his unique take on the English language with relish. His love of language picked up on the studio patois, “called to see you man hah, what’s been your hangup man huh ?”. Monty Python was a year away but they were already around the TV & radio. We were right on this surreal goonery. British psychedelia always had a high whimsy content , the imaginative writings of the likes of Lewis Carroll & Edward Lear are part of our humour as children & adults. Small Faces were not grooving with a pict in a field overlooking a university town, theirs was a much more urban outlook. At times attempts to write about their East End roots touched on jellied eels & mash stereotypes but they were a great unit who couldn’t help but turning it up for some muscular Mod rock & roll & “Ogdens’…” is still one of my favourite LPs of the time. They did not take themselves too seriously. Stan, with the assistance of a giant fly, completed his quest. The meaning of Life ? “Life is just a bowl of All-Bran, you wake up every morning and it’s there”. Gertcha !
“Itchycoo Park” was a Top 20 hit in the USA. A kerfuffle involving Ian McLagan, the police & a lump of cannabis resin on the mantelpiece restricted their transatlantic activity. This very English LP was unlikely to find an American audience. The band found it impossible to play “Ogdens’…” live & anyway the young fans wanted to hear “Sha-la-la-la-lee”. A frustrated Steve Marriott quit onstage at a New Year’s Eve gig at Alexandra Palace. He & Peter Frampton, another reluctant teen idol, wanted to boogie so they formed Humble Pie. The remaining 3 of the gang had lost their Artful Dodger, their great showman/singer. They needed to find another & they did but they were no longer Small Faces. Finally, like at Decca with Don Arden, they never saw the money they made for Immediate either.
Some years later, in the “Noughties” (spit !) the very same Carl & myself were visiting a friend in Liverpool. We happened to be driving down Boundary Lane & passed the impressive Victorian Ogden’s tobacco factory. Our Scouser pals were confused as their nut-gone passengers stopped the car & jumped out to admire an inspirational rock & roll relic, all ” folloloping in wonderboldness & deep, deep joy”.
tagged as 60s british pop, happiness stan, ogdens nut gone flake, rolling over, small faces, song of a baker, stanley unwin, the hungry intruder
Moving To The 21st Century Pulsebeat (The Everlasting Yeah)
Last Friday the debut LP from The Everlasting Yeah, “Anima Rising” arrived in my computer. 7 tracks to be downloaded, sized up, then listened to again at annoy-the-neighbours volume because that’s how great guitar music is best listened to. It was a momentous morning because here at loosehandlebars we have been bigging up TEY since their first gig in 2012 & this was the finished product, how those songs we had seen on the Y-tube clips were meant to sound. There are people I know who have been waiting for 21 years for this record, good folk, pillars of the community, not at all obsessive…The Everlasting Yeah were 4/5ths of That Petrol Emotion whose 5 LPs, a fine legacy of hook-laden songs, an energetic mix of tradition & innovation, left an impression on these Petrolheads that has lasted a long time. Last Friday was a great day for the whole clan.
That was then & this is the 21st century. 2014 is the Year of the Yeah & “Anima Rising” is a sparkling take on the 2 guitars, bass & drums rock template that we thought had been all played out. From the urgent opener, “A Little Bit of Uh-huh A Whole Lot of Oh Yeah” to the closing epic “The Grind” the guitar interplay, rumbling bass, relentless percussion is bright, shiny & new, reminding you just how exciting rock music is when it’s done properly. Be careful of “A Little Bit…”, it’s not just listener-friendly, it’s got a hand on your thigh, about to ask what you are doing later & you’re liking it. Hear it once & you’re smitten. Phew…& the hits just keep on coming. Now I’m not the guy to give away other people’s music on the Internet (even if I knew how to) so here is an early demo of “New Beat On Shaking Street”. The finished version…well, I need a word to describe flashes of light & still sounds tough, so that word is coruscating.
I am also not going to throw about a bunch of cool names from back then to make you want to listen to The Everlasting Yeah. “Anima Rising” is no retromance. Ciaran, Damian, Brendan & Raymond have the talent & the acumen to incorporate their influences into their own sound. They have been doing this music thing long enough to know what works &, more importantly, what doesn’t. The only guest musician is saxophonist Terry Edwards on the hypnotic “Taking That Damn Train Again” & it’s a perfect seasoning. The thing about “Anima Rising” is the groove, not a fake funk furrow but insistent, irresistible like “Exile…” (Oh crap…I did it !). The shimmering “Everything’s Beautiful” slows things down nicely but the rest takes a hold & just does not let go. Even the 12 minute long “The Grind” is not really long enough. The Everlasting Yeah are Neoteric Motorik…it’s a thing, well it is now.
The only people who have this music are those kind enough & smart enough to join the Pledge to get the record finished properly. The hard copies should be here soon. The geeks can sniff their new vinyl while I will slap the CD into the car’s system, head out on the highway looking for adventure, it’s that kind of sound. The band’s website is not yet up & running, just in time to miss the lucrative Xmas market. If you really need a copy (& you do need one) of “Anima Rising”, a nailed-on Album of the Year, then head on over to The Everlasting Yeah’s Facebook page, say hello & a very nice man will do his best to sort you out.He may even have 1 of these cool T-shirts lying around.
tagged as anima rising, the everlasting yeah
Change Is Now (The Byrds Part 3)
The initial recording sessions for the Byrds 5th LP were unsettled & confused. David Crosby was a Niagara of creativity but seemed to have little consideration for the contributions & intentions of his 3 associates. It appeared that Crosby was looking for a way out &, in October 1967 he was gone. There was conflict & dissatisfaction with the attitude & ability of drummer Michael Clarke. He was out too, only to return then leave the group on the completion of the record. Still, as we always say down at the Freemasons Lodge, “ordo ab chao”, out of chaos comes order.Despite the problems the 2 remaining Byrds, Roger (formerly Jim) McGuinn & Chris Hillman with producer Gary Usher, did not drop the ball. “The Notorious Byrd Brothers”, an experimental, ethereal, beautiful record was released in January 1968.
Now this is a strange one. “Goin’ Back” was released as a single 3 months before “Notorious…” was ready. Clarke was still around but the Byrds were reduced to a trio & that really wouldn’t fly (ouch!). To promote “Goin’ Back” on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” they called up Gene Clark, who had left the band in 1966, to make up the numbers. Gene was still signed to Columbia but his LP with the Gosdin Brothers had not sold well. He co-wrote a song, played a couple of gigs, added some backing vocals & hung around for all of 3 weeks. Crosby had not wanted to record this Goffin & King song, he wanted to leave the jingle-jangle behind. An early lethargic take does lack inspiration but McGuinn had an appreciation of how the Byrds had got to where they were, what was expected by their audience & he was right. “Goin’ Back” is a yearning for a lost innocence, a Rickenbacker infused reverie, a trademark sound still appropriate to their new music.
“The Notorious Byrd Brothers” was recorded across the release of “Sergeant Pepper’s…”.The bar was raised whether you were a musician on a bubblegum pop assembly line or were jamming in a Haight Ashbury crash pad. It was no longer enough for an LP to consist of a couple of hit singles & some quickly recorded knock-off soundalikes. You had to mean it ma’an. The same folk, country & jazz tinges present on “Fifth Dimension” & “Younger Than Yesterday” were still around . Gary Usher’s use of brass, strings &, more importantly, the Moog synthesiser moved the sound forward, creating a depth, an atmosphere which tied the whole thing together, brought a unity to the collection. A future member of the group spoke of his ambition to create a Cosmic American Music. He was too late, the Byrds got there on “Notorious”. Change Is Now.
Man, it’s tough to choose just 3 tracks from this LP. “Old John Robertson”, a country tear up moving into the baroque with strings & phasing, all in 1 minute 49 seconds.would be the choice of 2 of my associates but they are not here right now. “I Wasn’t Born To Follow”, another Goffin/King song, became a hippie anthem when it hooked up with Captain America & Billy for a spot of easy riding in “Easy Rider”. The introductory “Artificial Energy”, an amphetamine song which gets dark in the final verse, didn’t raise the controversy that “Eight Miles High” had. The moral panic had gone to San Francisco. For myself, only the closing sea shanty sci-fi “Space Odyssey” fails to make the cut.
David Crosby’s prints are still all over this record. He has 3 co-credits on the songwriting & appears on 5 of the 11 tracks. Crosby’s cutting-edge ideas about harmony & the lyrical content of his songs were sometimes too far out for his fellow band members but inspired them to experiment & develop. “Draft Morning” follows an inductee to the battlefields of Vietnam. Crosby’s lyrics were re-modelled by McGuinn & Hillman & he was not pleased. Now we know those ins & outs, the ups & downs. Then, we just had a stirring, beautiful song.The record had the 3 remaining Byrds & a horse on the cover. Roger McGuinn denied that this was a jibe at Crosby. Well, he would say that wouldn’t he ?
“The Notorious Byrd Brothers” is the most psychedelic of all the Byrds’ LPs, the last triumph of the original group that started all that folk-rock in 1965 with “Mr Tambourine Man”. There is not the harshness of acid-rock, it’s spaced-out, tripping on a sunny day by the lake with friends. A new wave of young groups were growing their hair & sporting hippy plumage while the Byrds ditched the moptops & dressed down. No longer at the centre of American popular music but not yet ready to be filed with the golden oldies. It was a turbulent time for the group, Roger McGuinn & his steadfast sidekick Chris Hillman had been knocked about a bit. They kept an eye on where it had all begun, omitted their more far out investigations & created assured, modern music which sounded great in 1968 & still does today & tomorrow. “The Notorious Byrd Brothers”…get on it.
tagged as 60s, change is now, david crosby, draft morning, gene clark, goin' back, notorious byrd brothers, roger mcguinn, the byrds
There Are Songs To Sing There Are Feelings To Feel There Are Thoughts To Think (Dennis Potter)
By 1978 Dennis Potter’s standing as a TV dramatist was unrivalled. His contemporaries from a decade before, the writers for the BBC’s “Wednesday Play”, a series of one-off plays which were often challenging, controversial & even influenced the political agenda, had moved to theatre, films or anonymity while contenders like Mike Leigh did not yet have back catalogue to claim the belt. “Pennies From Heaven”, six 75 minute episodes starring Bob Hoskins, was event television. Potter had never been backward about coming forward to blur the conventions of TV & this time around he came up with real doozy. Set in the mid-1930s, Arthur is an unhappily married sheet music salesman. His fantasies are expressed in flamboyant scenes where he mimes to popular songs of the day. This was charming, surprising & very effective. Film director Herbert Ross, a noted adaptor of Neil Simon’s plays, saw the series & “Pennies From Heaven” went to Hollywood.
There are 62 reasons to traduce the film version of “Pennies From Heaven” (1981) but I don’t do lists. Any attempt to condense a drama over 7 hours long into less than 2 will sacrifice more than nuance. Nevermind that which is lost in the translation from English to American despite Potter writing the screenplay. Then there is the bit where Christopher Walken totally nails this sleazy song-and-dance number. From “The Anderson Tapes” (1971) to “Seven Psychopaths” (2012) Walken deserves his rep as a great screen actor. He can claim some of the best scenes in modern American cinema & “Let’s Misbehave” is the sleeper in his own Top 10. Herbert Ross had started as a choreographer & he knew what he was doing here. When Spike Jonze got Walken to dance in the video for Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” (2001) it surprised many unaware of the range of his talent. I’m a little more mellow now about other folks messing about with my personal favourites. I can even sit through “A Scanner Darkly” without kicking the dog. Maybe it’s time I gave the “Pennies From Heaven” movie another look because there will be no new Dennis Potter scripts.
Dennis Potter was born in the Forest of Dean in the West of England. I hung out in Gloucestershire in the 80s, it was like the 30s, I didn’t venture into the beautiful Forest. A coal miner’s son, his generation of promising post-war working class children were skimmed off through the education system & offered the carrot of a way out. Social mobility, the safety valve of capitalism. Oxford University & 2 years of National Service (compulsory in the 1950s) must have been contrasting experiences. In 1964 he stood as a Labour Party candidate in a safe Tory seat. His dissatisfaction with the process meant that he did not vote for himself & produced 2 semi-autobiographical plays about Nigel Barton, which made some very modern points about politics & politicians which most sentient people now share.
This blend of the personal & the political was both adroit & unmatched. His autobiographical honesty, his sexual abuse by an uncle at the age of 10 was unflinchingly used in his work, fused with a direct, unsympathetic view of humans & their failings made for a heady brew which often offended his BBC bureaucrat bosses, the media & self-appointed guardians of public morality. “Son of Man” (1969), an alternative view of Jesus’ final days, was bound to stir it up. I saw a theatrical production, still starring Colin Blakely, & was thoroughly entertained, I guess they must have removed the blasphemy then. Potter said what he liked & liked what he said. He would kick against the pricks & was pleased when the pricks kicked back. He was a man who liked a good argument.
Had to get Joanne Whalley into this somehow.
“The Singing Detective” came around in 1986. an0ther 6 and a half hour epic. Since 1962 Potter had suffered with psoriatic arthritis, a condition affecting the skin & joints causing constant pain. His protagonist, writer Philip E Marlow (anagram), is hospitalised with the same ailment. The view from his bed fuses with flashbacks of his childhood & his mother’s life. When Marlow avoids his meds he fantasises about his novel about a dance hall singer (Marlow) who gets the detective jobs “the guys who don’t sing” leave alone. If you are looking for a couple of snappy sentences explaining “The Singing Detective” then sorry, you’re in the wrong place. It is a brilliant dramatic roller coaster ride, a landmark of British TV. Dennis Potter’s cynicism now had a barbed-wire bitterness. Marlow’s pain & self-loathing, his anger not only at the cards he’s been dealt but at the whole game, shocks & delights. If you went down to the woods there would be no teddy bears & it would be no picnic. Michael Gambon (ok…Dumbledore) never had a better script & was never better. Don’t mention Robert Downey Jr…I said don’t.
Between “Pennies…” & “…Detective” Dennis Potter had been prolific. 1979’s “Blue Remembered Hills”, his most popular single play, featured adult actors as 7-year olds in the Forest of Dean in 1943. Potter admitted that it was possible he could be a much more wholesome writer than his audience – even he himself – is led to believe . Yeah right. His play “Brimstone & Treacle” (1976) had enough of the Devil in it to get itself banned. It was made for the cinema in 1982 & he worked on several screenplays. The final one was in collaboration with another English maverick, Nicolas Roeg, an incendiary coupling. Roger Eberts reviewed “Track 29” (1988) as bad-tempered, kinky and misogynistic & that’s good enough for me.
By the time the last of the 3 lip-synch dramas Dennis Potter was incapacitated by his illness, sustained on a cocktail of medication. The landscape of British television had been changed by the launch of satellite TV by “that drivel-merchant, global huckster and so-to-speak media psychopath, Rupert Murdoch.”(Potter). Big budget drama favoured cosiness over controversy & after the BBC’s “Blackeyes”, a drama concerning misogyny was accused of that very thing “Dirty Den” (those tabloids eh ?) moved to Channel 4 for “Lipstick On Your Collar” (1993). “Lipstick…” is set during the Suez Crisis of 1956 when British aggression in Egypt in pursuit of its economic interest (sound familiar ?) was thwarted by the United Nations & the British ruling class had to face the fact that perhaps this Empire thing had run its course. Back home a new generation, hyped on rock & roll, were tired of war stories, through with deference. There’s a rom-com in there too. This series had less money spent on it, the more familiar songs less charming & the romance element is strained. I saw it again recently, it has a great cast of character actors, it’s funny , it has Louise Germaine & young Obi-Wan Kenobi (a very young Ewan McGregor) in a gold lamé suit miming to Elvis.
Dennis Potter died in 1994. In the 30 years he wrote for TV he produced the most innovative, distinguished & provocative drama around. If he was controversial it was not just that he liked a rumpus but he believed that television should be all of these things. There’s little point working in a mass media if you don’t have a mass audience. For myself, I was never offended, I found his modern views on British society to make a lot of sense & I think he wrote some of the finest post-war British drama. Is there TV around like this today ? Whenever I turn on the tube people are baking, ballroom dancing or patronising me. Luckily I have one of those sets with an off-switch.
filed under films, music
tagged as christopher walken, dennis potter, ewen mcgregor, lipstick on your collar, michael gambon, pennies from heaven, the singing detective
What Do You Do For Fun? I Don’t (Thomas McCarthy)
Thomas McCarthy, the American film director, has a new film ready for release & I am a little worried. McCarthy’s previous 3 films have been big favourites round our yard. All 3 have featured convincing actors whose characters & relationships develop beyond the overture. Their reactions & perspectives alter as situations change & new shit comes to light. Y’know, like I do, like you do, like real people do. This time around “The Cobbler” stars Adam Sandler. OK, what about “Punch Drunk Love”, isn’t that a good movie ? It is but I have seen “Little Nicky”, “50 First Dates”, & (Un)”Funny People” & each time resolved that me & the man-child Sandler could get along without each other fine thank you. Hey, “The Cobbler” also features Steve Buscemi (always a good thing), Dustin Hoffman (heavyweight) & a Brit off of “Downton Abbey” (Downright Shabby..ho-ho). It’s co-written & directed by Thomas McCarthy so it will be at the top of my to-see list.
Mr McCarthy takes his time making films, the first 3 are spread over 10 years. His day job is as an actor in films that you have probably seen. He is Dr Bob in “Meet The Parents” & “Little Fockers”. Back in 2005, when George Clooney was attempting to establish a liberal cred, McCarthy had parts in “Good Night & Good Luck” & “Syriana”. In series 5 of “The Wire” he played Scott Templeton, a Baltimore Sun journalist who’s over-ambition led him to exaggerate & falsify stories…a nasty piece of work. I guess that one reason for the time between films is that care is taken to achieve a script that is properly finished. These are satisfying dramas with a beginning, a middle & an end, in that order. I see too many acclaimed American movies which end with me going “Huh” !
“The Station Agent” (2003) is an absolute gem of a movie. I carried the DVD around for years, spreading the word, assuring people that a night with this film would be time well spent. Is Peter Dinklage a star now because of “Game of Thrones” ? I knew him from Tom DiCillo’s brilliant comedy “Living In Oblivion” (1995) & the part of Fin is tailor-made for him. Fin, a person of restricted growth, has had enough of being different in a world that really doesn’t handle difference well. He inherits an old train station & sees a chance to walk away, preferring solitude to the prying eyes of stupid people. In McCarthy’s films the world finds a way of coming back at you.
This is a film about friendship An odd menage develops between the taciturn Fin (Dinklage), Olivia, an artist touched by sadness (Patricia Clarkson, the Queen of Indie movies) & the gauche but you gotta like him Joe (Bobby Cannavale). These dissimilar people keep company with each other because the solitary alternative is really a non-runner in a world shared with other people. There is a humanity about “The Station Agent” that is Vonnegutian, the highest praise. If you have seen it then it is one of your favourite movies. If you haven’t…well, what is this, a staring contest ?
Next time around was “The Visitor” (2007), another slice of the American pie often avoided by US cinema. This film’s loner, Walter Vale, is a college professor, stranded by the death of his wife, choosing to shut himself down & pretty much check out on most social interaction. Walter is played by Richard Jenkins, best known for playing the dead father in “Six Feet Under” who since this film has shown up in Coen Brothers joints, movies starring Will Ferrell & Channing flipping Tatum. Watch the clip, you know the guy, he’s a good actor.
“The Visitor” concerns Walter’s rather reluctant return from Connecticut to his New York apartment to find that 2 illegal immigrants are living there. Once again circumstance, Life, gets in the way of a man’s decisions about how he should live. The liberal academic is exposed to a modern America of which he is unaware, emotions which he thought he could avoid. This serious story is confidently handled with humour, pathos & sentimentality, proper sentiment not Hallmark Channel bullshit. “The Visitor” is a touching, memorable film and Thomas McCarthy was hitting 2 for 2.
“Win Win” (2011) has a wider scope than it’s precedents. It has more characters & things get a little more complicated. It’s the way when more people are involved. Mike Flaherty, a small town attorney & high school wrestling coach, is played by Paul Giamatti, the finest American actor of his generation (sorry Mr Seymour Hoffman) so we are already ahead. Amy Ryan (classy) is his wife, Jackie, The incomparable Burt Young, the always funny Jeffrey Tambor are there, Bobby Cannavale (yay !) returns. This cast is solid.
So Mike is shot-down about making the monthly vig to support his family &, hoping he is doing the right thing, is tempted into some financial shenanigans involving a geriatric client. It is his secret to keep from his wife. The client’s grandson shows up, his mother’s in re-hab & he needs a hand which the Flaherty’s provide. These are good people. Kyle , Alex Shaffer’s debut comes on like a young Sean Penn, is a star wrestler so that’s great for Mike. Once again Thomas McCarthy’s screenplay & direction are pitch perfect. He was a high school wrestler himself & these parts of the film are just right.There is a reality, an honesty & an empathy about “Win Win” that I just don’t find in many modern Hollywood movies. Check the clip, it’s The National’s “Think You Can Wait”, (with Sharon Van Etten), the closing track, combined with a making-of the movie. Cooler than a trailer & as cool as the film.
Thomas McCarthy is getting a little busier. As well as “The Cobbler” he wrote “Million Dollar Arm”, this year’s baseball movie. His next film “Spotlight” is a serious story of the exposure of child molestation starring Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton & Mark Ruffalo. I am maybe being pessimistic that quicker work, bigger budgets & movie stars will dilute the quality of his work. Whatever, we have his great humanist trilogy, films that will be appreciated for many years, which make him an outstanding American director.
filed under films, flicks
tagged as paul giamatti, peter dinklage, richard jenkins, the national, the station agent, the visitor, think you can wait, Thomas McCarthy, win win
Midnight Teaser Real Soul Pleaser (Wilson Pickett)
Our summer holiday of 1966, on the intermittently sunny North Yorkshire Riviera, extended that year’s effervescent English exhilaration. Our national football team had given us all the World Cup willies for 3 weeks in July but they had only gone & won the thing (never again). The seaside sojourn’s soundtrack, coming through loud & clear from Radio 270, Yorkshire’s own pirate radio station, was headed by The Beatles’ current double whammy, the ground-breaking “Eleanor Rigby” & the psych-nursery rhyme “Yellow Submarine”. Each week brought a rush & a push of bright shiny new music that demanded your attention. We didn’t know yet that this was a classic time for pop music but we had an idea that it was. Here’s one that was picked to click in August 1966.
Oh Yeah ! 1-2-3 ! Still does it. For the 2nd week of the holiday I was joined by my best friend, brand new teenagers given a pass that we didn’t get at home.(Back then I thought my parents were like, old people, looking back they were pretty cool). We hijacked the family transistor radio, headed for the cliffs, just the two of us, the North Sea & Emperor Rosko’s drive-time show, a little bit of Wolfman Jack, on Radio Caroline. Summer evenings had never been better …up to now. Wilson Pickett’s “Land of a 1000 Dances” consolidated a whole bunch of future possibilities, power, passion, abandon. I didn’t know how to Pony, let alone like Bony Maronie but I sure intended to learn.
It was a familiar path for Wilson Pickett, from Detroit via Alabama. A gospel grounding, hits with the Falcons, his vocal group, before a solo career. An approach to Atlantic Records did not go his way when his song “I Found a Love” was given to Solomon Burke but his talent, his raw, impassioned testification, meant that Atlantic signed him. After a couple of releases recorded in New York Pickett was sent down to Memphis where, at Stax studios, an abrasive, modern soul sound was forged between the singer & musicians.
While we had not yet heard Cannibal & the Headhunters earlier version of “Land…” we did know about Wilson. The 1st 45 he recorded at Stax was “In the Midnight Hour”, a flawless Pickett/Steve Cropper tune, an instant, enduring soul standard . I think that a law was passed that it had to be played any place anyone danced. Maybe…it was a long time ago. The succeeding run of singles, “Don’t Fight It”, “634-5789” & “99 & a Half (Won’t Do)” established him as a major star. “Land…” was Wilson’s 3rd R&B #1 & it was followed by “Mustang Sally”. Good God Y’all !
Wilson Pickett was officially “Wicked”. His, let’s say, headstrong attitude ruffled the feathers of the tight knit group at Stax but Atlantic (that would be Jerry Wexler) were cultivating another talented coterie at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals. The hits just kept on coming. He was never a prolific songwriter, Bobby Womack was around at FAME at this time & had some good songs for Pickett. In September 1967 a cover of Dyke & the Blazers “Funky Broadway” was another R&B #1 between James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” & “Higher & Higher” by Jackie Wilson. It was Soul’s Golden Age & Wilson Pickett was right up there with all this great music. In person, live, well click on the “99 & a Half” clip…it’s nuts in the best way.
His final single of 1968 was a cover of “Hey Jude”, the Beatles’ current smash, an epic, shrieking vocal, an incendiary guitar solo by young Southern longhair Duane Allman. “Funky Broadway” had been the first chart record to include this new adjective & the leading lights of Soul were introducing innovatory sounds as the 60s ended. Pickett’s muscular cover versions of rock classics, “Born To Be Wild”, “Hey Joe”, seemed a little obvious at the time. Now they sound like psycho-soul juggernauts, heck even “Sugar Sugar”, a bubblegum song I really do not like, sounds good.
Of course Wilson Pickett was still amongst the biggest names. In 1971 he headlined “Soul to Soul”, a major concert in Accra, Ghana which included Santana, the Staples Singers & Ike & Tina Turner. In Africa he was “Soul Brother #2” only headed by James Brown. A workmate of mine, Emmanuel, was at that gig. I loved to hear his stories of a momentous day in that young country’s cultural history. In the same year “Don’t Knock My Love” was his 5th & final #1 R&B hit & in 1972 he recorded “Fire & Water” an imaginative & appropriate version of Free’s British Blues belter. On “Soul Train”, wearing the brightest suit ever made, he gives it plenty. The Midnight Movers, his backing band, are pretty good too. Pickett kept on keeping on even though public taste was for a smoother Soul than his rugged sound. There were still a Grammy award & many accolades before his death in 2006.
In 1966 I voted in the New Musical Express end-of-year poll. Best Group the Beatles, Best Single “Good Vibrations”, Best Male Singer Wilson Pickett. As I said up there music was moving fast back then. The more subtle supplications of Otis Redding, the relentless dedication to the funk by James Brown & Aretha’s unmatched quality were irresistible. In 1968 Atlantic released “This Is Soul”, a ready made collection of super music for just 62.5p ($1). The LP opened with “Mustang Sally”, closed with “Land of a 1000 Dances”. I was glad to have these songs around. Now I’m discovering LP tracks that I’ve not heard before while I’m still dancing to “…Midnight Hour” & still marvelling at the energy of “Land of a 1000 Dances”.
tagged as 60s soul, land of a 1000 dances, stax, wilson pickett
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Tag Archives: pinegrove
In the first week of February this year my nephew & I drove to the Sheffield City Hall to see Britain’s best comedian Stewart Lee. Both Mike & myself have always enjoyed shooting the breeze about potential world-ending catastrophes, swine flu, climate change, the zombie apocalypse & in the spirit of the upcoming evening we lightly riffed on the infectious bother the Chinese, in particular the Wuhan clan, were suffering. That night, apart from a family wedding with a severely restricted list of guests, has proved to be my final social gathering of 2020. Five weeks on (two weeks too late), the double whammy of age & “underlying health conditions” indicating that it was probably “so long, it was nice knowing you” if Corona called, meant that social isolation it was then & mostly still is. Just me, that pile of books I’ve been meaning to start, intimations of my own mortality & worry about family & friends. A blizzard of depressing, ominous, confusing, changing speculation on the information superhighway hardly helped, relief from introspection & flatlining was called for & admiring my huge stash of toilet paper didn’t do it because that was imaginary. It has always been music that soothed…still is.
I’ve done a lot of listening in 2020, appreciating an opportunity to savour & appreciate the complete works of John Cale, to be stirred by the old-time Sixties idealism of Paul Kantner & Grace Slick & to investigate the dusty, neglected Reggae albums at the back of the stack. Van Morrison & John Martyn have been the ideal companions at the end of another day of not much at all. It’s not all comfortable immersion in my record collection. My end-of-year highlights usually includes at least one new release by an artist of my own generation who has been making music for longer than I & they probably care to remember. Not this time.
In January Pinegrove released their fourth studio album “Marigold”. A group that had immediately appealed, I bought their record “Cardinal” (2016) within 30 minutes of hearing them & looked forward to their progress. An accusation of sexual coercion against frontman Evan Stephens Hall, then a clumsy apology/statement on social media, followed by the self-release of the “Skylight” record & a year’s hiatus stalled their momentum. Inevitably these events informed listening to the new collection. Hall’s meticulous, contemplative & articulate lyrics are one of the reasons Pinegrove are so distinctive. Such a public airing of his situation was not something the songwriter would take lightly. It’s not all introspection on “Marigold”, Hall & the group are developing their palate & it’s their strongest album yet. The title track, a reflective six minute long instrumental, ties a soothing, ultimately optimistic record together. They are still a band to be reckoned with.
Unable to tour in support of “Marigold” Pinegrove retreated to their Bandcamp enclave & released “Elsewhere 2” a short “pay what you can” live set expertly mixed by guitarist Sam Skinner. From what I’ve seen & heard it is on stage that the group really flourishes. The 2016 session they recorded for Audiotree, with sterling support from the sound engineer, is the best showcase of their early work. Playing live the band’s melodic Country-Folk tendencies have more Indie drive bringing late-period Teenage Fanclub to mind. I’m not tech-savvy enough to separate just the one track from “Elsewhere 2” so you’re just a click away from the full 30 minutes. It’s a great mix of new & old material , the rapport between the band & their audience is apparent & it’s this music that has given me the most pleasure in 2020. To close here’s a song from “Marigold”. “I wake up & feel totally the same. I woke up the same as yesterday with no news of any kind”, “Endless” still hits the spot as a song for these times. “When this is over hold me forever”. Damn right!
Bandcamp was also the place to be to try to keep up with Daniel Romano. As a devoted fan, even with time on my hands, it has been a stretch to get a handle on all of his new music this year. I reckon there have been 8 maybe 9 new albums in 2020, solo works, with his band Outfit & collaborations. It’s a list starting with “Visions of a Higher Dream” & perhaps ending with “How Ill Thy World is Ordered”. Daniel’s name got around playing artful old-time Country songs, a classic structure that Buck Owens, George Jones & Gram Parsons could have recorded. His move away from this, a progression that acknowledged his Punk roots while embracing Folk, mid-60s Dylan & psychedelic Rock, was a journey that I was glad to share. Each album has contained songs that linger & grow in stature. From this year’s torrent perhaps “(What Could Have Been) Infidels”, a re-imagining of Bob Dylan’s 1983 record inspired by his iconic TV performance with the Plugz, is a little esoteric while “Content to Point the Way” is a return to that Country thing he does so well. Pick a record, any of them & you’ll find a uniquely talented singer-songwriter with the ability to lasso & shape the many ideas he has about his music.
It’s another live album that is my pick of Daniel’s busy year. The aptly named “Okay Wow” came around in March, issued under the name Daniel Romano’s Outfit, recorded on their 2019 tour. With his brother Ian on drums, David Nardi (guitar), Roddy Rosetti (bass), Tony Cicero (organ) & Juliana Riolino (vocals) Daniel has assembled a blistering Rock & Roll unit. From the opening “Empty Husk” the band scorch through songs from his extensive back catalogue with a brio & energy that brings to mind fellow Canadian Neil Young’s Crazy Horse. His songs have always been dramatic & even the gentler country tracks benefit from this direct charge. “Hunger Is A Dream You Die In” from 2016’s “Mosey” makes the cut here because I think it’s the best of his many songs & I get to choose. This is 21st Century Rock not some Tom Petty/Bruce Springsteen derivative & I can’t get enough. The Outfits set in Kristiansand, Norway was filmed & is an absolute delight. You are busy people, I hope that you can spare 45 minutes to enjoy one of today’s great songwriters & a band at the top of their game.
Here at loosehandlebars three is the magic number so I only have one more choice from 2020. More than honourable mention should be made to the fastidious Prog-Pop, gentle Psych of Tame Impala’s “The Slow Rush” & to “Punisher”, a radiant collection from Phoebe Bridgers, the heartbreak offset by her light conversational style & a dry sense of humour, marking her arrival in the big time. I read that as well as kicking over the statues Black Lives Matter, a timely, important reaction to violent institutional racism, is a Marxist organisation dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism. In the words of the British collective SAULT, “You Know It Ain’t”!
The two “Untitled” albums released this year by SAULT, a unit that eschews publicity & promotion, are a wonderfully crafted blend of R&B beats, Neo-Soul, house, disco & world rhythms. I don’t know much about SAULT but I know that they know. The seamless. insistent groove of “(Black Is)” & “(Rise)” recalls club nights soundtracked by Bohannon & Roy Ayers. The last time I heard musical influences so capably configured into a whole new thing was when Massive Attack came around. The lyrics concerning the Black experience, oppression, loss, resistance, strength & hope, are in the tradition of Nina Simone, the Native Tongues & even the Last Poets. It’s been 50 years since Marvin told us “What’s Going On”, it’s shameful that this discussion has still to be had & it’s important that it is. SAULT made important music in 2020.
After 9 months of diminished social interaction I am like many of us suffering from pandemic fatigue. Those “what the fuck now?” moments don’t come around here so often, I follow the news less closely, ignore the views of amateur epidemiologists & willingly wear a mask in consideration of the health of those around me. The one statistic that I still find relevant is the daily record of deaths in the UK, a number that is still shocking, saddening & too high. This awful toll confirms that the actions of the British government, a fetid cocktail of incompetence, insensitivity, mendacity & corruption, have not matched the sacrifice & effort made by so many & that they should be held to account for for their failures. I am optimistic that community responsibility & a programme of vaccination offers hope for a healthier future however here in the not-so United Kingdom we are facing further economic uncertainty after the similar mismanagement of our separation from our trading partners in the European Union. I have considered expanding the parameters of this blog to include “Tasty Ways To Cook Your Shoes”, proof indeed that I have had too much time on my hands in 2020. I wish you all a Better, Busier New Year.
tagged as daniel romano, elsewhere 2, endless, hunger is a dream you die in, marigold, ok wow, pinegrove
New Music For January 2020
A new year & there’s always an intent (never a resolution though) to listen to more new music. I can easily fill my day with the tried & tested, records made by my generation that I have known & loved for so long now. People like us are surprised that stuff we consider “new” is now 20 years old! It may not last, this week’s discovery is “A Look Inside”, an LP that I hadn’t heard before, recorded by the late, great Joe South way back in 1972. Anyway 2020 is off to a good start with a new, much-anticipated release from one of my favourite new American groups.
Back in 2016 there was no other music that seized my instant attention more than Pinegrove’s. Within 30 minutes of hearing tracks from “Cardinal” I was over at their Bandcamp site naming my price, handing over the going rate to support new talent. The quality evident in the band’s Audiotree session confirmed that this was no mere impulse buy & from the opener “Old Friends” to the closing “New Friends” (geddit?) it became my favourite record of that year. The introspective, literate, concerned lyrics of Evan Stephens Hall matched to an attractive lo-fi melodicism, the punch of Indie-Rock with a folky, even Country tinge, sounded pretty modern to me at a time when older favourites seemed to be relying on familiar formulae. So far so good then.
A second release,”Skylight”, was recorded & ready to go in late-2017 when a charge of sexual coercion was made against Hall by a former girlfriend. Hall, a thoughtful man, addressed this in a lengthy well-intentioned Facebook post which, considerate of the privacy of others, reluctant to be specific & including an admittance that he had previously objectified his female fans, didn’t really help matters. Dropped by their label the album was self-released, a tour was cancelled & Pinegrove began a year’s hiatus while Evan received counselling to address his issues. There are those on the Internet, talking loud & saying not very much, who claim to know things but really added nothing to the understanding of what happened.
The band is now signed to Rough Trade, touring again to promote “Marigold” which will be released on the 17th of January. Produced by Evan & guitarist Sam Skinner, two preview tracks are around on the Y-tube. The short, sharp, dynamic & very good “Phase” has a video which, in my opinion, distracts from the song. Of course my decision to listen to & support Pinegrove is a judgement call but it is a considered one. It’s not just that I like what I hear, the behaviour of Ryan Adams, whose records I have, means that he is cancelled around here. I do believe that Hall has reacted appropriately & with good intent since this all started & will end with a comment from a thread about Pinegrove’s new music, “Hopefully everyone involved in the shitty situation that derailed them for a bit has made some level of peace and their music can be the focus again – because it’s really good”.
Phew…It’s been three & a half years since the last Drive-By Truckers record, the longest break since their debut back in the last century. “The Unravelling” appears on 31st of January & while the band may never emulate the run of albums before 2010, establishing themselves at the forefront of current US Rock, there was more than enough about 2016’s “American Band” to keep me listening. There was a time when I came for the songs of Jason Isbell & Patterson Hood & now I’m sticking around for Patterson & Mike Cooley who either improved as a writer or I’m listening more closely. With such a strong back catalogue the D-B Ts put on a great rocking show & I spend a good deal of enjoyable time over at archive.org listening to their recent gigs.
“Armageddon’s Back in Town” is the only finished track from “The Unravelling” around the Webs & it gets the motor running. The more familiar I become with it the better it gets. It doesn’t take a Sherlock to find versions of other tracks. Closer “Awaiting Resurrection” is 10 minutes long in the live set, “Thoughts & Prayers” concerns high school shootings & the inadequacy of official responses, “Babies In Cages” is self-explanatory. These are troubling times, Drive-By Truckers have always examined the dualities of the personal & the political. Now Hood & Cooley are mature artists in their fifties, I guess hard-living days are fewer & further between. They are obviously going to write about the things they see happening around them. “Compelled, but not defeated. Surrender under protest if you must”. Well now, what can a poor boy do except to sing for a rock n’ roll band?
I first heard about Andy Shauf when his name was dropped by Nicholas Braun, the actor who plays Cousin Greg, the only barely sympathetic character (& he’s not to be trusted) in “Succession”, the best TV series of 2019. 2016’s “The Party”, on which Canadian singer/songwriter/multi- instrumentalist Andy does everything but play the strings, is a connected series of closely observed vignettes about a gathering at someone’s house. There’s a touch of Elliott Smith in Andy’s voice & melancholic perspective but the assured, accurate, sometimes anxious Folk Pop story-songs benefit from a crisp, clear, fresh production which brings to mind an early-1970’s acolyte of Paul McCartney. “The Party” is quite a treat.
Apparently “The Neon Skyline” repeats the trick of linked songs on the theme of a night out in the city. Over the new year I’ve needed a daily shot of “Try Again”, another wry commentary on social interaction, short, sweet & absolutely addictive. I’m new to Andy Shauf, there are 4 solo LP’s before “The Party” & one from 2019 with his band Foxwarren. I’m a busy man & there’s all these old records that must be listened to. I’ll still be waiting for January 24th when “The Neon Skyline” is released.
tagged as andy shauf, armaggedon's back in town, drive-by truckers, marigold, phase, pinegrove, the unravelling, try again
Searching For Love In Forms It Never Takes (Pinegrove)
I was looking forward very much to hearing the new LP from Pinegrove, their third. “Cardinal” (2016) made an instant impression, it appealed as a fresh take on the kind of melodic American guitar music that I’ve always liked. I bought the record, heck I even ordered a tee shirt online (not from the band) which I paid for but never arrived! Robbing the fans of a fairly obscure group seemed such a niche crime & it was my first, hopefully my only, experience of such a 21st century crime so I bit it. “Cardinal” got played a lot but not as much as the sensational live session they did for Audiotree which captured the dynamism & clarity of Pinegrove’s sound better than the record. Ones to watch out for, for sure.
“Intrepid” is the first track to be found from the upcoming “Skylight album. It does that quiet-loud thing they do very well &, once again, a live version recorded for a radio station in November appears to be have more drive than the one released. The camera is mainly pointed at singer-songwriter Evan Stephens Hall. He’s pretty good but the contributions of Zack Levine (drums) who has been around since 7th grade (whatever that is) & Sam Skinner (guitar) should not be underestimated. Nandi Plunkett (vocals/keyboard) seems to have split & bass is played by whoever is around. Things were looking good for the arrival of the new record in March 2018.
So far so predictable until a couple of weeks later, a long rather rambling letter from Hall, responding to charges of sexual coercion by a former girlfriend, appeared on the band’s Facebook page. In consideration for the other person involved Evan kept the details vague & was possibly guilty of over-sharing about the emotional effect of the charges. An admittance that he has in the past abused his privilege as a performer & had sex with members of his audience seemed to be rather irrelevant (musician has sex with fans shock!). The band cancelled all dates, the hiatus has been extended & plans to release the new LP have been shelved. Let’s hope that Evan’s therapist can help him resolve his issues.
It is not my intention to minimise the charges made against the singer. I would appreciate if he & others accused of assault & coercion responded more directly to actual events rather than issue opaque apologies. If “Skylight” is never released & Pinegrove don’t return then so it goes. If wanting to hear it makes me an enabler of abusers then maybe I need a therapist. I do know that an insistence on moral rectitude from the artists whose work I admire would mean I have a lot fewer records & a lot less stuff. I’m still going to listen to & watch the “Aphasia” clip because there’s not much new music around that’s better than this.
tagged as aphasia, cardinal, intrepid, pinegrove
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powerball 3/14
Powerball Winning Numbers For 3/14/2020 Drawing: $120M Jackpot
Here are the winning Powerball numbers for the $120 million lottery jackpot drawing on Saturday, March 14, 2020.
Deb Belt , Patch Staff
Posted Sat, Mar 14, 2020 at 8:35 p m ET | Updated Sat, Mar 14, 2020 at 11:02 p m ET
The Powerball jackpot has reached $120 million for the player who has the winning ticket on Saturday, March 14. The one-time cash payout for tonight’s Powerball drawing is $96.1 million.
The winning Powerball numbers are drawn every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time, with Powerball results usually posted within five minutes. There was a delay Saturday, with number not being drawn until about 10:25 p.m. ET.
In most states, ticket sales end at least one hour before the drawing, but a state may halt sales earlier, such as Illinois, which stops sales three hours before the drawing. In Maryland and New Jersey, ticket sales end at 9:59 p.m.; in Virginia, they close at 10 p.m. Check with your state lottery for the cut-off time.
The winning Powerball numbers for Saturday, March 14, are: 09, 23, 26, 30, 32 and the Powerball of 08.
The largest Powerball jackpot in history was $1.586 billion, which was split by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in January 2016.
To win the Powerball jackpot a player must match all five white balls in any order and the red Powerball number. The odds of picking the correct Powerball grand prize numbers are one in 292,201,338, which doesn’t change even if more players buy tickets when the jackpot is enormous.
You have a better chance of winning the Powerball jackpot if you let the computer select your numbers, according to lottery officials. About 75 percent of winning tickets over the years had numbers picked by a computer.
Powerball tickets cost $2 each. Find locations where you can buy your Powerball tickets here.
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Shanderick Dorsey, 19, was near death and in a coma for two months, but his mother’s faith saw him through and gave him a new lease on life.
Powerball Winning Numbers For 3/14/2020 Drawing: $120M Jackpot – Annapolis, MD – Here are the winning Powerball numbers for the $120 million lottery jackpot drawing on Saturday, March 14, 2020.
Powerball results for 03/14/20; jackpot worth $120M
The Powerball Numbers (white) for March 7: 9-23-26-30-32. The Red Powerball Power Number: 8. The Power Play Number: 3.
LANSING, MI – Two players in Michigan came within one number of winning the jackpot, but there was no grand prize winner for the $120 million Powerball drawing held on Saturday, March 14.
That means the next Powerball drawing on Wednesday, March 18 will be worth $130 million with a cash option of $101 million.
The Powerball Numbers (white) for March 7: 9-23-26-30-32
The Red Powerball Power Number: 8
The Power Play Number: 3
Powerball winners for March 14:
· While there was no grand prize winner, one player matched all five white balls drawn to win $1 million. That ticket was sold in Connecticut.
· However, that player did not play the Power Play option, which would have increased their winnings to $3 million.
· In Michigan, one ticket sold matched four white balls and the Powerball while also playing the Power Play option to win $150,000 in the drawing. That was the largest prize won in the state.
· There were 601,304 tickets sold that won at least $4 in the drawing. In Michigan, 19,195 tickets sold won at least $4.
Powerball is offered in 44 States, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Players select five white numbers from (1 to 69) and one red ball (1 to 26). Tickets cost $2 each.
In other Michigan Lottery news:
· The next Mega Millions drawing is Tuesday, March 17 with an estimated jackpot of $90 million and a cash option of $69.4 million.
· The next Lotto 47 drawing is Wednesday, March 18 at 7:29 p.m. with a jackpot of $1.95 million. Deadline is 7:08 p.m. that day.
· Sunday’s Fantasy 5 jackpot is an estimated $100,000. The drawing is at 7:29 p.m. Deadline is 7:08 p.m.
For the latest on Michigan Lottery, check out the official Michigan Lottery site, which also offers more information on instant tickets, raffles and other lottery games.
The drawing comes during a string of big lottery wins in the state. Last month, a $70 million winning Powerball ticket was sold in Michigan. Earlier this year a Detroit woman claimed a $1 million Powerball prize after her mother pushed her into buying a ticket.
In December, a Grand Rapids woman claimed a $5 million prize that she only realized she’d won by scrolling through Facebook. The week prior, a Washtenaw County man expected to only win $20 playing an instant game, but was shocked to learn he won $1 million.
The last players from Michigan to win a Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot were a couple from Suttons Bay who came forward to claim an $80 million Powerball win. That couple plans on using the money to support their family of seven kids and 21 grandkids.
And while they were lucky winners, it’s smart for players to check their tickets immediately as a winner worth $1 million sold in Hartland last year went unclaimed. The ticket was purchased at the Speedway in Hartland, but the winner never came forward to claim the prize. The money instead went to the state’s School Aid Fund.
If you’d like to be the next player from Michigan to win a huge lottery prize, take a look at these tips from lottery expert Richard Lustig. The author of “Learn How To Increase Your Chances Of Winning The Lottery” has won more than $1 million in Florida by winning top jackpot prizes in smaller games.
Powerball results for 03/14/20; jackpot worth $120M The Powerball Numbers (white) for March 7: 9-23-26-30-32. The Red Powerball Power Number: 8. The Power Play Number: 3. LANSING, MI – Two
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10 key recommendations to rapidly boost energy efficiency progress worldwide
Higher ambition and faster action by governments to accelerate improvements in energy efficiency worldwide are both vital and achievable, according to 10 key recommendations published today by a group of national leaders, ministers, top business executives and prominent energy experts. The list of proposed actions will be a key part of discussions at a major IEA conference that takes place tomorrow.
With the support of the IEA, the members of the Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency have over the past year explored the most effective ways to achieve stronger global progress in energy efficiency, which brings major benefits such as lower energy bills, large numbers of new jobs and significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Their 10 recommendations highlight the best approaches to designing and implementing policies to unlock the huge advantages that energy efficiency offers to economies and societies around the world.
The Global Commission’s work comes as many governments are increasingly focusing on plans to repair the social and economic damage caused by the Covid-19 crisis. The Commission’s recommendations focus on this new reality and highlight the strong role that energy efficiency can play in bringing about a sustainable recovery.
“At this critical time, the importance of energy efficiency has not faded. If anything, the case is stronger and more urgent than ever before,” said Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland, the Commission’s Honorary Chair, in an introduction to the recommendations. “We need transformative change. Therefore, we have developed this set of 10 recommendations that identify policies that can be implemented quickly to boost activity on energy efficiency globally.”
Established a year ago, the Global Commission is an independent body comprising 23 members from around the world spanning government, industry, research and civil society. Drawing on the IEA’s analysis showing the worrying slowdown of global efficiency progress in recent years, the Global Commission was tasked with examining how to reverse this trend through new and stronger policy action by governments across key sectors of the economy.
The work of the Global Commission complements a major IEA report released last week that outlines a Sustainable Recovery Plan designed to enable governments to simultaneously boost their economies, create millions of jobs and put global greenhouse gas emissions into structural decline. Based on an analysis conducted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, the new IEA report shows that energy efficiency is an essential element in achieving these results.
“The IEA sees energy efficiency as a crucial clean energy resource,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director. “It has enormous untapped potential to help put the world on a more secure and sustainable path if governments make it an integral part of their policies and programmes across key parts of the economy. This is why I invited the members of the Global Commission to come together to identify global best practices and make actionable recommendations to spur the faster progress that the world urgently needs. I thank all the Commission members for their extremely valuable contributions to this endeavour.”
The Global Commission’s recommendations will be discussed at the IEA’s Fifth Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency, which will take place online on 23 June. The conference will hear from 15 ministers from around the world, with a focus on policy actions that can deliver the multiple benefits of energy efficiency as governments respond to the Covid-19 crisis. High-level speakers will bring a range of perspectives from governments, companies and international organisations.
The role of energy efficiency in economic stimulus plans and clean energy transitions will be an important part of discussions at the IEA Clean Energy Transitions Summit on 9 July. The Summit, which will take place online, will bring together dozens of ministers from countries representing over 80% of global energy demand as well as energy industry CEOs, big investors and other key leaders from the public and private sectors around the world.
Actions proposed by Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency highlight benefits of efficiency for sustainable recovery plans and will be discussed at major IEA conference tomorrow
1. Prioritise cross-cutting energy efficiency action for its economic, social and environmental benefits
A stronger, all-of-government policy focus will enhance social and economic development, energy security and resilience, decarbonisation, and rapid job creation and economic stimulus
2. Act to unlock efficiency’s job creation potential
Energy efficiency can quickly deliver job growth and can become a long-term, sustainable employment sector
3. Create greater demand for energy efficiency solutions
Efficiency action will be most rapidly scaled up through a focus on increasing demand for efficient products and services and enabling greater levels of market activity
4. Focus on finance in the wider context of scaling up action
Mobilising finance is an essential element of efficiency action, and policies to do so will be most effective if they are part of a wide, coherent approach to driving market scale
5. Leverage digital innovation to enhance system-wide efficiency
Policymakers can take advantage of digital innovation’s potential to enable smart control, better energy management, and wider energy system optimisation
6. The public sector should lead by example
Governments should lead through investment in public sector efficiency and driving innovation and higer standards throughout its reach
7. Engage all parts of society
Implementation of efficiency action can happen at all levels of society, with cities, businesses, and local communities all playing a particularly important role in its success
8. Leverage behavioural insights for more effective policy
People are at the centre of energy efficiency action, and insights from behavioural science can help design smarter policies
9. Strengthen international collaboration
International collaboration and exchange of best practice allow countries to learn from each other and to harmonise approaches and standards where appropriate
10. Raise global energy efficiency ambition
Governments should be significantly more ambitious in both the short- and long-term when setting their efficiency targets, policies and actions
The Global Commission’s 10 Recommendations
Honorary Chair: H.E. Mr. Leo VARADKAR, Prime Minister of Ireland H.E. Dr. Amani ABOU-ZEID, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, African Union Commission, Ethiopia H.E. Mr. Richard BRUTON, Minister of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Ireland Mr. Nick BUTLER, Visiting Professor, King’s College London, United Kingdom H.E. Mr. Alfonso CUSI, Secretary, Department of Energy, Philippines Ms. Lisa DAVIS, CEO, Gas and Power, Siemens, United States Ms. Connie HEDEGAARD, Chair, KR Foundation, Denmark Mr. Michael LIEBREICH, Chairman and CEO, Liebreich Associates, United Kingdom Dr. Ajay MATHUR, Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute, India Ms. Lisa MURKOWSKI, US Senator, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, United States (honorary member) Mr. Gil C. QUINIONES, President and CEO, New York Power Authority, United States H.E. Mr. Aziz RABBAH, Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development, Morocco H.E. Ms. Teresa RIBERA RODRIGUEZ, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Spain Mr. Adam SIEMINSKI, President, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Saudi Arabia H.E. Ms. María Fernanda SUÁREZ LONDOÑO, Minister of Mines and Energy, Colombia Mr. Masakazu TOYODA, Chairman and CEO, Institute of Energy Economics, Japan Mr. Jürgen TRITTIN, Member of the German Parliament, Germany H.E. Mr. Claude TURMES, Minister for Energy and Minister for Spatial Planning, Luxembourg Mr. Ben van BEURDEN, CEO, Royal Dutch Shell, the Netherlands H.E. Dr. WAN Gang, Chairman, Science and Technology Association of China H.E. Dr. Megan WOODS, Minister of Energy and Resources, New Zealand Dr. Kandeh YUMKELLA, Former UN Under-Secretary-General, CEO & Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sustainable Energy for All, Sierra Leone H.E. Ms. Salomé ZOURABICHVILI, President of Georgia
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UN chief calls for ‘urgent transition’ from fossil fuels to renewable energy
Building a global coalition for carbon neutrality by mid-century will be the UN’s “central objective”, the world body’s top official told a conference on climate action on Monday.
“All countries need credible mid-term goals and plans that are aligned with this objective”, Secretary-General António Guterres said, addressing the virtual COP26 Roundtable on Clean Power Transition. “To achieve net zero emissions by 2050, we need an urgent transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy”.
Energy for Africa
Painting a picture of some 789 million people across the developing world without access to electricity – three-quarters of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa – the top UN official called it “both an injustice and an impediment to sustainable development”.
He signaled “inclusivity and sustainability” as key to support African countries, while underscoring that all nations need to be able to provide access to clean and renewable energy that prevents “the dangerous heating of our planet”.
Mr. Guterres asked for a “strong commitment from all governments” to end fossil fuel subsidies, put a price on carbon, shift taxation from people to pollution, and end the construction of coal-fired power plants.
“And we need to see adequate international support so African economies and other developing countries’ economies can leapfrog polluting development and transition to a clean, sustainable energy pathway”, he added.
Adaptation ‘ a moral imperative’
Against this backdrop, Mr. Guterres repeated his appeal to developed nations to fulfill their annual pledge for $100 billion dollars to support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
Pointing to vulnerabilities faced by Africa – from prolonged droughts in the Sahel and Horn of Africa to devastating floods in the continent’s south – he underscored “the vital importance of adaptation” as “a moral imperative”.
The UN chief said that while only 20 per cent of climate finance is earmarked for it, adaptation requires “equal attention and investment”.
“The forthcoming climate adaptation summit on 25 January is an opportunity to generate momentum in this much neglected area”, he added.
Reversing a dangerous trend
Despite huge amounts of money that have been reserved for COVID-19 recovery and stimulus measures, the Secretary-General noted that “sustainable investments are still not being prioritized”.
He outlined the need for an annual six per cent decrease in energy production from fossil fuels through renewables, transition programmes, economic diversification plans, green bonds and other instruments to advance sustainability.
He reiterated the need to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, stating emissions needed to fall by 7.6 per cent every year between now and 2030.
However, he noted that “some countries are still going in the opposite direction. “We need to reverse this trend”, he said.
Aligning with Paris
He said all public and private financing should support the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with training, reskilling and providing new opportunities that are “just and inclusive”.
He noted that a sustainable economy means better infrastructure, a resilient future and millions of new jobs – especially for women and young people, maintaining that “we have the opportunity to transform our world”.
“But to achieve this we need global solidarity, just as we need it for a successful recovery from COVID-19”, the Secretary-General said, reminding everyone that “in a global crisis we protect ourselves best when we protect all”.
“We have the tools. Let us unlock them with political will”, concluded the UN chief.
In a bid of optimism for the new year, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) expressed confidence that clean energy would grow in 2021.
Despite that the world is not on track to meet climate objectives and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) for universal access to clean, affordable and reliable energy, Marcel Alers, UNDP Head of Energy, said that “clean energy solutions exist that can get us there”.
“There is growing momentum to make them political and investment priorities”, he added.
Smart investment
Fossil fuels used to be less expensive than clean energy but that is changing, according to Mr. Alers.
Renewables are becoming more affordable every year, and “some options are now cheaper than fossil fuels”, he said, pointing out that since 2010, the price of solar had decreased by 89 per cent.
“It is now cheaper to go solar than to build new coal power plants in most countries, and solar is now the cheapest electricity in history”, the UNDP official said.
Moreover, amidst an exceptionally challenging year, and despite suffering setbacks, the renewables sector has shown resilience.
“This fall in price, coupled with technological progress and the introduction of innovative business models, means we are now at a tipping point”, he said, urging for a large-scale clean energy investments from the public and private sectors.
Translating pledges to action
Throughout 2020, countries have pledged to build back better, greener and fairer.
“With support from UNDP’s Climate Promise, 115 countries committed to submitting enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions”, Mr. Alers said.
Among other things, he noted that high-emitting economies, such as China, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the European Union, had made net-zero commitments and that United States President-elect Joe Biden had vowed to rejoin the Paris Agreement.
“These pledges now need to be translated into action”, said the UNDP official. “Ambitious commitments are a strong signal and a necessary first step towards reaching net-zero emissions. We now need to build on them”.
Clean energy is also a win-win solution to recover from COVID-19 as it can improve healthcare for the world’s poorest while providing a reliable electricity supply – imperative for health centres to function.
“As COVID-19 vaccines – some needing to be stored at -70°C – get rolled out, powering a sustainable and reliable cold chain will be critical”, Mr. Alers reminded.
Furthermore, investing in renewables could create nearly three times as many jobs as investing in fossil fuels.
“As the world is rapidly urbanizing, energy efficiency in buildings, sustainable cooling and heating, smart urban planning and sustainable transport options…are key for the future of cities”, he maintained.
Looking to September
In September, for the first time in 40 years, the UN will host a High Level Dialogue on Energy for countries, businesses, civil society and international institutions to step up action on sustainable energy.
UN-Energy and UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner recently called for a reinforcement of global energy governance, saying “we know clean energy can both deliver universal energy access and contribute to tackling the climate crisis”.
Although phasing out fossil fuels and transitioning to green economies is a monumental task, Mr. Alers assured that “we are ready to rise to the challenge”.
Pioneering Solar Power Plant to Take off in Uzbekistan with World Bank Support
The World Bank Group, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC (Masdar), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Uzbekistan signed today loan and guarantee agreements to finance the first 100-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in the country, in support of its efforts to produce clean energy, strengthen the security of supply and combat climate change.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and ADB are providing up to $60 million in the financing of the project which will be the first large-scale, privately developed and operated renewable energy facility in Uzbekistan. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing an equity bridge loan to Masdar to fund the equity needs of the project. Meanwhile, the World Bank is providing a $5.1 million payment guarantee for the Government of Uzbekistan to backstop the payment obligations under the project along with its upstream support to create an enabling environment for renewable energy deployment in Uzbekistan.
The plant’s 300,000 photovoltaic panels occupying a 268-hectare plot of land 35 kilometers east of the city of Navoi are expected to start feeding power directly to the national electric network in 2021. It will produce 270 gigawatt hours per year of electricity from solar energy resources, enough to power more than 31,000 households, and prevent the release of 156,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually.
Thanks to the project, Uzbekistan, which generates 85 percent of its electricity in thermal power plants, will be able to reduce its dependency on natural gas and coal. The project will also help ramp up the use of renewable energy and contribute to electricity production that is projected to increase from 65,000 Gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2019 to 103,000 GWh by 2030 to meet rapidly growing demand across the country.
“The project will have an enormous effect, serving as a best practice example in Uzbekistan, opening new markets for private investment and helping accomplish the country’s goal of increasing the use of renewable energy,” said Wiebke Schloemer, IFC Director for Europe and Central Asia. “It will also help reduce the burden on public finances, which could be deployed into other critical sectors of Uzbekistan’s economy to support its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The financing package to implement the project includes up to $20 million in senior loans from IFC’s own account, up to $20 million from the Canada-IFC Blended Climate Finance Program, plus up to $20 million from the ADB. IFC will also provide of up to $1 million in interest rate swaps. And the World Bank will issue a $5.1 million payment guarantee. It will be used to ensure that the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NES) is capable of performing its obligations arising out of a power purchase agreement signed with Masdar and cover the risk of nonpayment for supplied electricity.
“I am pleased that the World Bank, together with IFC, is supporting Uzbekistan in greening its electricity generation through the first competitively-tendered public-private partnership in the country,” noted Lilia Burunciuc, World Bank Regional Director for Central Asia. “Our technical assistance, financing and guarantees will help the Government to grow the share of renewable energy generation from currently less than 0.2 percent to 25 percent by 2030 and attract private investments into the renewable energy sector. They will also facilitate the Government efforts in the energy sector reform, the integration of renewable energies into the grid, and the global climate change mitigation.”
The plant will be constructed and operated by the “Nur Navoi Solar” Foreign Enterprise, a limited liability company (the project company) owned by Masdar, a renewable energy company of the United Arab Emirates. In October 2019, Masdar won Uzbekistan’s first competitively-tendered solar power public-private partnership, which was structured with IFC’s advisory support under the WBG Scaling Solar Program, a one-stop shop that helps governments rapidly bring online privately funded solar projects at competitive tariffs. Uzbekistan was the first state outside of Africa to join the Program.
Masdar committed to supplying power for 25 years at just 2.679 US cents per kilowatt hour – the lowest tariff for solar energy in Central Asia to date. The project company will sell electricity to the NES at this fixed price until 2046.
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A Preamble to the Nazi Holocaust in Greece: Two Micro-Histories from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Posted: November 1, 2014 | Author: jackldavis | Filed under: Archaeology, Archival Research, Classics, History, History of Archaeology, Jewish Studies | Tags: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Georg Karo, Henry Immerwahr, Holocaust, Israel Walker, Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest |9 Comments
Jack L. Davis, Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati and a former director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2007-2012), here contributes to The Archivist’s Notebook an essay about Jewish academics in Athens in the 1930s and anti-semitism at the ASCSA.
A recent comment by Barbara McManus on a older post to this blog makes it clear that leaders of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) factored religion into decision-making about student applications for fellowships (https://nataliavogeikoff.com/2013/10/01/the-modern-greek-exam-professor-blanks-method-and-other-stories-from-the-1930s/). Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan had observed that fellowship procedures in the 1930s were weighted against women, the handicapped, and even Canadians! McManus remarked:
“Besides being female, handicapped, or Canadian, if you were a Jew it was also difficult to win an ASCSA fellowship in the 1930s. Letters in the Samuel E. Bassett papers in Yale’s manuscript and archives library show that the Fellowship Committee gave Israel Walker the 1930-31 Fellowship in Greek Language, Literature and History only with great reluctance. In an undated letter to Edward Capps about the results of the 1930 fellowship examinations, Bassett lamented that John F. Latimer, “a very attractive young man and an excellent teacher,” fell down badly on the history and literature exams, while Walker placed 6 or 7 points ahead of his nearest competitor. The committee agreed to award the fellowship to Walker since he was ‘vouched for as personally acceptable’ by LaRue Van Hook, Walker’s Columbia professor, who wrote that ‘his semitic blood does not make him objectionable.’ Van Hook’s letter (5 March 1930) actually said, ‘He is of Semitic extraction, but a quiet, modest, and unassuming fellow, very presentable.’ When Bassett had asked David Robinson’s opinion about giving the fellowship to Walker (Robinson was a member of the Fellowship Committee), Robinson had replied (29 March 1930), ‘I am a firm believer in examinations and if Walker comes out far ahead in general average I should hesitate not to give him the fellowship, especially as he can work under his own instructor, Van Hook [Annual Professor for 1930-31]… Personality is an important thing and I hate the Jews with a few exceptions, but these fellowships are given for scholarship and ability to do research work and not merely on the grounds of personality.’”
Samuel Bassett to Rhys Carpenter (ASCSA Director 1927-1932) concerning Israel Walker, April 10, 1930 (ASCSA AdmRec).
McManus’s intervention encouraged me to pursue the subject further. Was anti-semitism rife among our members in the years prior to WW II? What more can we say about the treatment of Jews by the ASCSA? This post focuses, however, on one small part of the larger picture, the story of two German scholars — Heinrich R. Immerwahr (1916-2013) and Georg Karo (1872 – 1963). When WW II erupted Immerwahr was a young scholar who had received his doctorate from the University of Florence in 1938. Karo had already retired as director of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens in 1936. Neither Immerwahr nor Karo was a practicing Jew. In fact their families had converted to Protestantism. They imagined themselves to be fully integrated members of German society, thus immune to anti-semitic persecution. But both men, in the course of the 1930s, would suffer consequences because of their Jewish ancestry.
Simon Schama’s “The Story of the Jews.”
Immerwahr’s and Karo’s travails are characteristic of the struggles of upper class German and French Jews in the early 20th century. From the time of the Franco-Prussian War and the Dreyfus Affair of 1894-1906, impediments to assimilation increased and ultimately rose to a crescendo in the virulent anti-semitism that fueled the Nazi Holocaust. (For a general introduction to the philosophy of assimilation, see Simon Schama’s “The Story of the Jews.” Episode 3: “The Enlightenment: A Leap of Faith.” [available at http://www.pbs.org]). Of course, how to find a place in gentile society did not cease to trouble Jews after WW II. Anne Roiphe (best known as author of Up the Sandbox) in a recent memoir offers a taste of what it was like for one Jewish woman coming of age in New York City in the 1950s. She writes: “In America, 1935, the year I was born, there were Hellenistic Jews and anti-Hellenistic Jews and every variety in-between. So it has always been, and so it was when I grew up, female.”
However, within the preamble to the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi occupation of the Balkans a relatively unknown tale lurks: archaeologists of the ASCSA shielded fellow academics from the wave of hatred that followed the enactment of the Nuremberg laws of 1935. Practicing and non-practicing Jews then found their livelihood, and their lives, at risk.
The Nuremberg Race Laws. Click to enlarge.
Men such as Immerwahr and Karo who reached American shores often had an impact on the educational infrastructure and intellectual life of the United States. But that is not my theme. Instead I emphasize the social networks and personal bonds that existed among Classicists in Athens in the inter-war period. Grounded in shared academic interests, firm friendships, and compassion for fellow mortals, a humanity surfaced that transcended national, political, or institutional objectives … or religion.
By the start of WW II, members of ASCSA had long been committed to public service in Greece, especially as it concerned the needs of refugees and the victims of natural disasters. Edward Capps, chairman of the ASCSA Managing Committee, had led a Red Cross Mission to Greece in 1918-1919, in response to the suffering of the thousands of ethnic Greek hostages returning from Bulgaria.
The plight of the Jews in Thessaloniki was also desperate at that time. Many had been left destitute by the great fire that devastated the city in 1917. In 1918, American archaeologist Hetty Goldman, daughter of Julius Goldman (son of the founder of Goldman Sachs), was the special representative in Thessaloniki of the Joint Distribution Committee of American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers. The stated purpose of that organization, as expressed by Goldman, was “to create a medium through which all funds collected by the Jewish population of America could be transported to their co-religionists who were suffering in the warring countries…”.
After 1922, members of ASCSA also played a significant role in the resettlement of Greek refugees from the Ottoman Empire after the Smyrna disaster. Director Bert Hodge Hill chaired an Athenian-American Relief Committee that operated until relieved by the Red Cross.
William B. Dinsmoor, Jr., Henry Immerwahr, T. Leslie Shear, ca. 1980.
It is not surprising, therefore, that a fellowship program to support German Jewish students of the Classics was instituted at the ASCSA in 1938. Capps, now at the end of his twenty-year chairmanship of the ASCSA, wrote to the director in Athens on March 1, 1939, that a candidate for the fellowship had been chosen: “I have just finished telephone conversations … re the case of a man named Immerwahr (I don’t know his first name), whom I have appointed Fellow at the School with the unanimous approval of the Committee on Fellowships.” Permits were issued that allowed Heinrich Immerwahr to enter Greece. It was an urgent matter because he was subject to the Italian decree that expelled “aliens of Jewish race on the twelfth of March.” Immerwahr was welcomed in Athens with open arms.
More than sixty years later, I interviewed him by email two years before his death at age 97, and he told me about 1939:
“The sequence of events was that by the end of 1938 it became clear that it was no longer safe for persons of Jewish descent to live in Italy where I had gone in 1934 because I could not study in Germany. … Let me add that it was a blessing to come in contact with an institution that still represented a functioning society and I have always felt that the ASCSA was much more to me than just another academic institution.”
The Italian fascist regime approves the race laws in 1938.
By May 1939, Heinrich was Henry and entirely at home in Athens. Arthur Parsons, assistant director of ASCSA, reported: “He seems to be making friends here with staff and students. He is very industrious and intelligent and a thorough gentleman. At present he is a bit perturbed as to what may happen to him if war comes … his German passport must soon be replaced by another German passport, which will bear the hateful mark of ‘Jew’… he has eaten wholesome food and has learned to speak English. He is really quite fluent now.”
Getting Immerwahr out of Greece was harder than getting him in, and his finances ran short. He and his family had lost everything, and strict quotas were imposed on the number of immigrants admitted to the United States. When he finally managed to exit in September, 1940, a fellowship supported him at Yale.
Immerwahr’s success in reaching safety in the United States depended on international academic relationships, both inside and outside the ASCSA. Karl Lehmann-Hartleben’s friendship with Immerwahr’s mentor, Giorgio Pasquali, was key to identifying him as a promising scholar. Lehmann-Hartleben, a German Jew and professor at NYU, was a prominent figure in the American archaeological community. He was more familiar than most with the plight of Jewish academics in Europe.
Georg Karo
The case of Georg Karo was entirely different. He had long been a fixture in the Athenian archaeological community, as director of the German Archaeological Institute from 1911-1916, and again from 1930-1936 (after that retiring to Munich). Karo was highly regarded as a scholar, not least for his monumental publication of Schliemann’s excavations at Mycenae. Most in the Athenian community were surprised to learn of his Jewish background, but in the course of the 1930s his heritage had created more and more difficulties for him as the Nazi regime implemented ever more restrictive measures against Jews. In the later 1930s, the threatening environment in Germany made him determined to return to Athens, and from there to reach the United States.
Once in Greece, Karo was supported by colleagues at the ASCSA. He was entirely fluent in English, speaking it with only a slight accent, and, since childhood, had cultivated friendships with both British and American archaeologists. Karo was, in particular, a close friend of fellow prehistorian Carl Blegen. He thus found himself on a boat in 1939, headed for Cincinnati in the company of Miss Lene Wenck, his secretary and mistress. Karo’s arrival in Ohio was eagerly awaited. John Caskey, future director of the ASCSA but then a newly minted Ph.D., wrote: “It will be grand to have Karo here and learn what he thinks about the problems…” concerning the Trojan war in the wake of Blegen’s recently concluded excavations. Karo married Lene Wenck in Cincinnati and the following year took up a teaching post at Oberlin College.
Celebrating Alan Wace’s 60th birthday at Mycenae, July 13, 1939. Left to right: Carl Blegen, Konstantinos Kourouniotis, Spyridon Marinatos, Bert H. Hill, Alan Wace, Georg Karo.
Not that all archaeologists in America were so helpful to Karo as Blegen and his circle of friends. Troubles began to brew. In 1941 Karo wrote from Oberlin to tell Blegen about:
“… nasty rumors that were spread about me in the East, ever since I landed here, in 1939. These have come to a head in the shape of several denunciations, both insidious and preposterous, and brought me a subpoena for a hearing before the Alien Enemy Board … No names were mentioned, but it was easy to recognize the sources of the slanders, in and around New York— people who were quoted as “intimate friends,” but with whom I have never been more than polite and hospitable, and whom I have long distrusted and disliked on account of their behavior towards real friends of mine—you know whom I mean.”
Steven Bowman’s Jewish Resistance in Wartime Greece.
Karo seems to have guessed the identity of one of his most vociferous assailants — Edward Capps, in 1941 no longer chairman of the Managing Committee of the ASCSA, remained a long-time enemy (“you know whom I mean”) of both Bert Hodge Hill and Blegen. Declassified files of the United States Department of Justice confirm that he was correct. Capps had asserted that “the subject [Karo] is dangerous to the security of the United States.” T. Leslie Shear, director of the Athenian Agora Excavations, had “confirmed that the subject was the principal German intelligence agent in Greece during the last war.” Harry Hill, Capps’s son-in-law and the director of American Express in Athens, supposedly had said that the Nazi government was transferring funds to that bank for Karo’s benefit. Furthermore, John Franklin Daniel, an archaeologist at the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, implied that Karo was posing as a war refugee in order to plant himself as a “sleeper” in anticipation of Third Reich espionage operations. The district attorney in Ohio thus sought a presidential arrest warrant, but it was denied by the Attorney General of the United States. Instead, Karo was classed as an Alien Enemy, derailing an application for citizenship that he had filed in 1940, and his conduct was monitored by the FBI until 1945.
Immerwahr and Karo were, of course, among the fortunate, in that most Greek Jews did not survive the Holocaust. The story of the sufferings of Jews in Greece in the 1940s is well known, as is that of their resistance to the terrors of National Socialism: for example, see Steven Bowman’s recent The Agony of Greek Jewry, 1940-1945 (Stanford University Press, 2009), and Jewish Resistance in Wartime Greece (Vallentine Mitchell, 2006). Add to these the astonishing tale of the salvation of the entire Jewish community on one Ionian island (Deno Seder, Miracle on Zachythos [Philos Press, 2014]) and, of course, Mark Mazower’s Inside Hitler’s Greece (Yale University Press, 1993) and Salonica, City of Ghosts (Vintage Books, 2006). On the history and ultimate fate of Jewish communities in Greece, see further http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/holocaust-in-greece, with bibliography.
After 1940, the ASCSA maintained only a skeleton staff in Athens and the few Americans there were hardly in a position to help Jews. But one American archaeologist could step up to the plate: John Caskey, who had left Cincinnati to become head of the Izmir Mission of the Office of Strategic Services of the U.S. Army. In 1943, plans for a Jewish rescue project in Greece were formulated. It was not too late to do something, since, only after the Italian surrender in September 1943, did the Nazis pursue in the Dodecanese, Volos, Corfu, Athens, and elsewhere what they had adopted in Thessaloniki in March 1943 — a policy of extermination.
John (Jack) L. Caskey
In Karo’s case, the warmth of his relationship with Blegen contrasts with the lack of sympathy for his plight expressed by Capps and Shear, who were based in the United States and had not spent years with him in Greece. In a less dramatic fashion, scholars in Athens admired Immerwahr, while scholars in the United States who lacked personal knowledge of the man focused on the economics of his dilemma and the cost to the ASCSA. One also wonders to what extent anti-semitic sentiments lay at the root of the attacks against Karo.
In any case, we are fortunate that expressions of anti-semitic opinions of the sort quoted by McManus are no longer acceptable in academic discourse at the ASCSA or elsewhere. But members of the ASCSA may be proud that even in 1930, despite the obvious prejudice of some voices on the selection committee, a fellowship was granted to Israel Walker, and that this award furthered his career. After a year in Athens, Walker completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University and published it in 1936 (“Kynouria: Its History in Light of Existing Remains”). Many years later he published notes and a glossary to Winnie Ille Pooh (1962), the only book in Latin ever to make the bestseller list of the New York Times.
Finally, while writing this essay, I was also reading Martin Amis’s new novel The Zone of Interest, a very brutal “comedy” of Auschwitz. Amis dedicates it “To those who survived and to those who did not … and to the countless significant Jews and quarter-Jews and half-Jews in my past and present …” As I read his work and wrote this post, I came to understand that Immerwahr and Karo are a part of my own past, Immerwahr a predecessor as director of the ASCSA, Karo a friend of Jack Caskey, my professor, and of his professor, Carl Blegen.
[Immerwahr’s and Karo’s story is told at greater length in “‘That Special Atmosphere Outside of National Boundaries’: Three Jewish Directors and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens” (Annuario della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene LXXXVII, serie III, 9, Tomo I, 2009 [2010], pp. 119-131). That paper may be downloaded for free at: http://classics.uc.edu/~davis/davisannuario.zip].
9 Comments on “A Preamble to the Nazi Holocaust in Greece: Two Micro-Histories from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens”
steven bowman says:
enlightening essay on attitudes and events at the ASCS by a former Gennadeion fellow
Dr. Patrick Hunt says:
Well-written and a fair account of a perplexing time. With the seeming rise again of Anti-Semitism, it’s vital to not let such a bias creep back into academe.
Glenn R. Bugh says:
Jack, fascinating and important story. We must acknowledge our past, whether good or bad. Thanks for sharing. I had the pleasure of knowing Henry Immerwahr as a graduate student at UNC, Chapel, taking his course on Sophocles. In fact, he proctored the ASCSA exams (then 9 hours over two days) that I took and he was the first to notify me offhandedly of my award in the halls of Murphey Hall in that so very typical Immerwahrian ‘archaic’ smile, the twinkle in his eyes, and his wry sense of humor. You never knew if he was serious, and I think he rather enjoyed the befuddlement it caused. When he died, apparently still as sharp as ever, I drove down to Chapel Hill for the memorial service. A touching event, fitting words of praise and respect from his colleagues and friends. A life well lived, and full. As a side note, Sallie Mackie, the wife of my deceased colleague in the History Department, was the niece or great niece (I need to check with their daughter to confirm which) of Edward Capps and, as a girl, she remembered his imposing presence at family gatherings. Sadly, she, too, is gone. I won’t go into the time I ran across a German doctor on a Smithsonian trip who was returning to Thessaloniki for the first time since the end of WW II. I pressed him on what exactly he was doing in Thessaloniki during the war, but he chose to keep his skeletons in the closet. Oh, I think we can imagine that he was no friend of the Jews, and worse.
A note on Georg Karo: after his entertaining guided tour of Mykenai with Goering in 1936, the latter offered his invitation to Karo to contact him if necessary. Following the Nazi pressure on Karo to retire from DAI in favor of his assistant, Karo flew to Berlin and boldly went to see Goering at his office. When the desk officer called his boss, G said, “Send him right up!” When Karo explained the situation G picked up his famous telephone and called Munich to arrange a seminar for him. Later the Gestapo showed up [G being away and Goebbels being vindictive] and invited Karo to accompany them to the Swiss border, leaving everything behind including the gold watch the Kaisar had given him and the inscribed and signed silver framed photo of Goering. Karo returned to Athens where he related the story to Edgar Thomashausen, director of the AEG in Athens. His friend and colleague Casky then arranged for his trip to Cincinnati as related in the article. Further details in Bowman’s book on Jewish Resistance in Greece.
jackldavis says:
Many thanks for your comment, Steve. A fascinating tale, and not, I believe, one mentioned in Karo’s biography. I believe, however, that it must have been Blegen and Bert H. Hill who set up the trip to Cincinnati, not Caskey, who had only recently completed his Ph.D. in 1939. As I understand things, it was Blegen who arranged hospitality in Cincinnati, with the support of William T. Semple, head of UC Classics, and Louise Taft Semple, his wife. It was also Blegen and Mrs. Blegen, then, who contributed most of Karo’s salary in order to enable him to teach at Oberlin the following year. See details in my own paper. We doubtless will learn much more about Karo from Astrid Lindenlauf’s biography in preparation.
Thank you for the correction Jack. It was a lapsus calami for which I acknowledge and apologize. The correct reference to the Karo material is my “Germans and Jews in Inter-war Greece” in The Jewish Communities of Southeastern Europe from the Fifteenth Century to the End of World War II (Thessaloniki, 1997), pp. 75-86
Pierre A. MacKay says:
My marriage to Theodora Stillwell, in Dec. 1963, brought me into the world of Richard Stillwell, Director, ASCSA, 1932–35, and that included the privilege of spending many of my summers at the Stillwell cottage on Littlejohn Island, in Maine. A highlight of each summer was to sail across to Chebeague island, run up onto the beach there and visit Henry and Sally Immerwahr. (They rarely visited us, because Henry was already having trouble with his legs, and the harsh rocky outcrop that is our “beach” is one of the most difficult landing places on the island.) My part in these visits was doubly satisfying because Henry had taken me into his graduate seminar on Herodotus during my Junior year at Yale. I learned from Richard about the rescuing of Immerwahr, but I never heard about the dealings with Karo. Indeed, Richard seemed a bit wary on the rare occasions when the subject of Karo came up as it sometimes did because of the beautiful Hoopoe plate (see the blog Surprised by Time, 25 April, 2011, keyword hoopoe) given by Karo for the wedding of Richard and Agnes (Newhall) [Theodora’s mother].
One of the most important things Richard brought to the School, as a respite from the ongoing Capps/Hill quarrel, was his deeply ingrained old-fashioned courtesy and diplomacy. If Karo even suspected Richard’s unease about the role of the DAI during the years of the first world war, it was not because of Richard’s behavior. It was a different world then. I had not learned till now that Karo was of Jewish descent, and that could never have mattered to Richard, who, after 10 years of widowerhood married Celia Sachs Robinson, the widow of Charles Alexander Robinson.
I got the sense that Karo’s barely disguised use of his position to promote the success of Imperial Germany created suspicions about him that lingered on into the 1940s. Some unregenerate anti-Semites, may have been happy to add their prejudice to the much larger group who thought of Karo simply as an unreformed German Imperialist. The uniquely toxic environment of Nazism ultimately made Karo’s position impossible, but his belief, as late as 1936, that Hermann Goering would protect him during a trip to Germany certainly seems odd, and it is not surprising that it seemed odd to some of the ACSCA figures who none-the-less contrived to save him.
Many thanks for your valuable response, Pierre. Indeed, Karo was a unabashed apologist for Germany in the years following WW I and even wrote a book on the subject. Still he managed to maintain his friendships with the English and Americans throughout. There is a story that he and Wace cordially agreed not to speak to each other during WW I in Athens, and only tipped their hats to each other one Christmas Day when they met by chance on the street.
honorthegodsblog says:
Reblogged this on honor the gods.
An African American Pioneer in Greece: John Wesley Gilbert and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1890-1891.
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Jesse McCarthy/ August 8, 2016
Visible Men
Mychal Denzel Smith's memoir reckons with racial injustice, and tells the story of his political education.
Courtesy of Nation Books
The space for black writing in America is wider than at any time in the past. It is more firmly entrenched in the public sphere, and wields more power in the shaping of public opinion and taste than ever before. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, a work of unabashedly avant-garde poetry, has had the kind of impact that many people believed a book of poetry simply no longer could. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s memoir, Between the World and Me, already a classic, has cemented his position as a public intellectual, perhaps the most defining voice in letters of the Obama presidency. During this period, Melissa Harris-Perry hosted her own show on MSNBC, Jelani Cobb became a staff writer at the New Yorker, where his colleague Hilton Als is one of the country’s most prolific and polyvalent cultural critics, Roxane Gay’s essays rocked conversations around feminism, and Lin-Manuel Miranda effected a revolutionary take-over of “The Great White Way,” with his smash-hit musical, Hamilton.
INVISIBLE MAN, GOT THE WHOLE WORLD WATCHING: A YOUNG BLACK MAN’S EDUCATION by Mychal Denzel Smith
Nation Books, 240 pp., $24
As Imani Perry recently observed in an essay for Public Books, the past few years have also seen a resurgence of interest in black memoir. Black autobiography, from the slave narrative to the modern memoir assumes that an individual’s experience can speak for a racial experience broadly shared. This assumption has endured even as black life in America has become increasingly complex and often divergent. The risk with this, Perry writes, is that black memoirs today, “are often read as saying much more than they actually can about the broader experiences and thoughts of Black people.” The burden heaped upon books like Coates’s Between the World and Me, Margo Jefferson’s Negroland or Clifford Thompson’s Twin of Blackness—is always greater than they can be expected to bear.
If we are truly to “acknowledge the widely ranging experiences of Black people across lines of class, gender, identity, region, education, sexuality, and ethnicity,” then no single voice, Perry cautions, “can stand as a singular representation of black life, regardless of how compelling it might be.” Instead, she asks us to imagine black memoirs as hollers in a ring shout, each one “understood as one cry in the ring, a small piece of a mosaic, vast and ever changing.”
Mychal Denzel Smith’s new memoir, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, is a voice entering the ring with fire. With raw urgency, intelligence and blistering candor, it tells the story of a young man’s political education. His story is refracted through the turbulent first decades of the new millennium, a period shaped by the global War on Terror abroad, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at home, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has challenged the nation to end its long history of unchecked and unpunished police brutality in minority communities.
As such, it is an opportunity to reflect on what has changed in our politics over the course of the Bush and Obama years, and in particular on the reemergence of an activist consciousness in black politics (and youth politics more broadly.) If Smith were merely telling that story, his book would make an interesting contribution to contemporary political commentary. But it is his pointed self-examination that makes it rarer and altogether more valuable, a book that gives us stories about how we learn to change, and not just arguments about why we should.
Smith has been a contributing writer for The Nation since 2012. The story of how he came to write his first piece, “Justice for Trayvon Martin,” is at the center of his narrative. “I was twenty-five years old when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin,” he writes. “I hadn’t prepared for life at twenty-five, having believed at different points of my life that I wouldn’t make it that far.”
Trayvon’s killing prompts him to seek answers through investigative journalism. But more importantly he seeks the meaning of his own survival in contrast to Trayvon Martin’s death, and the world in which both fates were possible:
I wanted for him, for all the Trayvons in waiting, a world where they didn’t have to grow up broken or not grow up at all. I wanted to figure out how to create that world. I looked at my own life and asked how I made it to twenty-five…I asked myself: How did you learn to be a black man?
What follows is Smith’s attempt to answer that question, by retracing his path into adulthood, the birth of his political consciousness, and his vocation as a writer. Many pivotal moments in his life coincide with national events and crises; others relate to his personal and family life. No doubt, tragedies that dominate the news cycle do come to shape who we are and our views about the world; but the notion that they are primarily what shapes us risks suturing the individuality of Black lives to grand narratives about Black Life in America in ways that flatten them into the fodder of CNN special reports, precisely the opposite of what Smith sets out to do here.
This is why the best pages of Smith’s memoir are not those in which he reads events like the Jena Six trial, Lebron James’s decision to go to Miami, or dissects figures like Dave Chappelle or Kanye West, an artist he astutely recognizes as an avatar for a newly assertive but anxiety-ridden black middle class. The most compelling moments come when he uses his personal experience to shine a light back on his politics—where his unflinching honesty allows us to share in a sense of greater awareness dawning on him, along with compassion and sometimes doubt.
Smith has an important realization—the first of many—at Hampton University on the campus newspaper. There he becomes something of a thorn in the side of the administration for his polemical stances, but more importantly, he comes to recognize not just the limitations of his institution, but of his own unexamined endorsement of a charismatic, masculine black politics. “To my newly forming black radical mind,” Smith writes, “women—more specifically, black women—had a way of existing without being present.” He arrives at this wisdom not abstractly, but through acknowledging his own debts to his co-editor at the paper, Leslie. “I reaped the benefits of her emotional and intellectual labor without ever asking how I could support her,” he acknowledges. This attitude, Smith observes, is no accident, but the pernicious legacy of a tradition within black protest that has repeatedly cast it as primarily a “fight to restore dignity to black manhood.” He offers himself as an example of how one can outgrow and think through certain fossilized attitudes and eventually shed them.
We get an excellent example of this in his exploration of the roots of his casual homophobia. I suspect many readers will be able to relate to Smith’s description of his earliest understanding of the term “gay,” as it got thrown around in the schoolyard:
Being assigned homework on the weekend was gay. The cafeteria not serving pizza was gay. And any person suspected of being gay, we called a faggot. And then we laughed. And then the person being called a faggot got angry. And you never really recovered from the charge, unless you could prove someone else was the faggot. And all of this made sense to us.
Smith outgrows the schoolyard slurs, but finds this is only the beginning of a longer struggle over sexuality and ethics. He tests his own attitudes against those of his father, who “wouldn’t curse or drink liquor in front of me” he writes, and yet in spite of that rectitude, “calling people faggots was alright with him.” When his roommate at Hampton starts dating another man, he revels in a shallow vindication of his adopted progressive politics that he soon realizes is an impoverished form of human acceptance: “I lived with two gay men, how could I be homophobic? […] I’d watched Brokeback Mountain and didn’t turn away once, how could I be homophobic?” Being gay was a matter for others and not for him to deal with: “I wasn’t afraid of gay people, or of witnessing expressions of same-sex attraction. I was, however, afraid of someone believing I was gay,” he admits.
He listens to Frank Ocean’s Channel ORANGE and struggles to sing along: “Frank Ocean pining after a man still felt ‘unnatural.’ The fear was no longer there, but my tongue hadn’t caught up to my politics.” Perhaps most crucially, he disavows the homophobic traces in his own black revolutionary politics, those currents in some black nationalist discourse that have attacked black gay men as “weak, deceptive, traitors,” who “undermine our collective manhood.” In its place he urges us to begin, “unpacking our identities that have been rooted in archaic notions of masculinity and sexuality, and embracing the parts of ourselves we’ve been taught to reject.” Borrowing the words of writer and activist, Darnell L. Moore, he reminds us that, “Black liberation is love. And love is the act of removing any barrier that keeps us apart.”
Smith pushes us to expand our empathy to others, but he also bravely advocates improving the care we afford ourselves. In a beautiful set of vignettes he describes grappling with a sense of survivor’s guilt after the loss of his cousin Demetri to gun violence. He connects that pain to a series of panic attacks, and ultimately an acknowledgment that he is suffering from depression. “No one in my life when I was twenty-one years old would have said they had depression,” Smith writes. “The only people I ‘knew’ who had gone to a psychiatrist and would talk about it openly were white people in Woody Allen movies.” It’s true, mental health remains a major taboo in black life. For a population exposed disproportionately to high levels of violence and trauma, the stigma attached to mental health and the lack of serious initiatives for addressing an expansion of care are unacceptable.
This too, is part of Smith’s political education, and it would be a great achievement if his example can inspire us to do better when it comes to normalizing discussions of mental health and black life.
Hip-hop heads will recognize the title of Smith’s book Invisible Man…. as a doubled allusion. The first is a reference to Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel, Invisible Man, in which Ellison’s ‘underground man’ recounts his (sometimes surreal) experiences navigating a formal education in the South, a political education in the North, and the threat of riots in a time of boiling racial tensions. The second comes from Mos Def’s track “Hip Hop” on his classic 1999 album, Black on Both Sides:
We went from picking cotton
To chain gang line chopping
To Be-Bopping, to Hip-Hopping
Blues people got the blue chip stock option
Invisible man, got the whole world watching...
In these lines, the rapper takes note of the historical trajectory of black life in America and the paradoxes of that legacy in his own fame, updating, as it were, Ellison’s metaphor.
Smith is also interested in updating the trope of visibility, in his case to tie it to the spectacular politics of online activism. In our day, “the Internet,” as he puts it, “became the new grassroots.” “Twitter made it easier to make the invisible men visible,” Smith writes, arguing not just for the importance of social media is an organizing tool, which it undoubtedly is, but for its ability to increase empathy, to force others to care about people who previously did not matter to them. Playing explicitly on Ellison’s famous prologue, he argues that, “through social media, the substance of our existence was made real for the rest of the world.”
No one, I think, would disagree with Smith that the Internet has opened important avenues for shedding light on racial injustice. But Ellison was getting at the very important fact that invisibility is not a function of what people see, but how they interpret what they see; Ellison’s narrator says that his invisibility to others is “a matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality.” His invisible man likens his condition to that of certain “circus sideshows,” and adds that, “it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass.” Is social media capable of making “the substance of our existence” real to the world? Or is it more like Ellison’s warped looking glass, capable of reproducing as much harm and unreality and caricature as any other medium? Isn’t the problem not what we see but what kind of readers we are, what kinds of stories we’ve been told? This is what determines whether or not we really see each other.
If we are ever going “to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country,” James Baldwin famously wrote, “we must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others,” that is, of those Americans who continue to insist that they are blameless, that they can evade the crimes of the past and the injustice of the present. Achieving our country today can seem, in some ways, just as remote and ideal a possibility as it was in 1963 when Baldwin wrote those words. On the other hand, unlike then, there really has been a sea change when it comes to the number and plurality of black voices with authority in the public sphere. There has never been a First Lady, like Michelle Obama, telling America the truth of her past so directly, as she did at this year’s Democratic Convention; a truth so fiercely and eloquently stated that the gatekeepers of white America simply could not believe it.
We are living in a time of vertiginous contradictions. The Obamas on the lawn of the Whitehouse; Philando Castile bleeding out in the front seat of his car. Across this abyss of senselessness and injustice, the creation of a new consciousness is daunting but also more tantalizingly plausible.
Jesse McCarthy @jessedmccart
Jesse McCarthy is a graduate student at Princeton. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Nation and Dissent.
Books, Culture, Mychal Denzel Smith, Memoir, Black Lives Matter, Race
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