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Not averse to a verse? National Poetry Month
In spring, a teacher’s fancy turns to thoughts of poetry. Fortunately, April is National Poetry Month.
2012 National Poetry Month Poster, designed by Chin-Yee Lai – did you send off for your poster? From ACA: Sponsors: The New York Times, National Endowment for the Arts, Random House, Inc., Merriam-Webster, EBSCO Publishing, and The Poetry FoundationThe 2012 poster features the line “…wait on the wind, catch a scent of salt, call it our life” from U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine‘s poem “Our Valley.”
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.
How to celebrate? Read poetry. Use poetry in your classroom, or at your job. And don’t forget these other activities:
Poem In Your Pocket Day: Thousands of individuals across the U.S. will carry a poem in their pockets on April 26, 2012.
Poetry & the Creative Mind: Each April, The Academy of American Poets presents a star-studded celebration of American poetry.
30 Poets, 30 Days: Throughout each day during National Poetry Month, a selected poet will have 24 hours to post on Tumblr an array of ephemera—in the form of text, images, audio, and video—before passing the baton.
Poem-A-Day: Great poems from new books emailed each day of National Poetry Month. Sign up for your daily dose of new poems from new spring poetry titles.
Spring Book List: Check out the new books of poetry available each spring.
Poem Flow for iPhones: Available through the iTunes store, this innovative mobile app features daily poems presented as both fixed and animated text.
National Poetry Map: Find out what is happening in your state by visiting our redesigned and updated National Poetry Map.
Surely you can find something fun to do.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2012 at 11:49 am and is filed under Literature, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
12 Responses to Not averse to a verse? National Poetry Month
Remembering Paul Revere’s ride on April 18, 1775 — an exercise in poetry, history, and prognostication | Millard Fillmore's Bathtub says:
[…] Not averse to a verse? National Poetry Month (timpanogos.wordpress.com) […]
Spring time at the pond: – Notes from the Pond by Sheila Dobbie says:
Anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride, in the middle of National Poetry Month | Millard Fillmore's Bathtub says:
Anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride, in the middle of National Poetry Month 2014 | Millard Fillmore's Bathtub says:
NYC Cultural Collectives Unite To Form The Sangre Viva Arts Alliance says:
Is That a Poem in Your Pocket or Are You Glad to See Me? | k8edid says:
Spring time at the pond: | NOTES FROM THE POND says:
Anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride, in the middle of National Poetry Month « Millard Fillmore's Bathtub says:
April is National Poetry Month « Write on the World says:
National Poetry Month — Signs of Spring | Shiteki Na Usagi says:
Maybe go take a look at RedWheelBarrow1957’s Blog.
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CofC Day Celebrates Traditions, Sets Stage for Transformation
By Darcie Goodwin|2020-02-25T12:55:46-05:00February 4, 2020|All News, Campus Life|Comments Off on CofC Day Celebrates Traditions, Sets Stage for Transformation
As part of the celebration around the College of Charleston’s 250th anniversary, on Jan. 30, 2020, the College launched CofC Day, a 24-hour giving day aimed at generating excitement and support for the institution’s future. By midnight, CofC Day had raised more than $5 million, crushing the $1 million goal.
“January 30th was a historic day not only as the anniversary date of our founding in 1770, but also as a record-setting day for engagement and philanthropy,” says President Andrew T. Hsu. “I am so proud of and thankful to the College of Charleston community for their investment in this great university. Their gifts will make a difference in the lives of our students, faculty and staff for years to come.”
President Hsu speaks at CofC Day.
CofC Day kicked off at 12:01 a.m. with 16 giving challenges. Separately, the College’s sororities and fraternities participated in a Greek Life challenge, with Alpha Delta Pi coming out on top with the largest number of donors – 46 – and the greatest amount of contributions – $6,045.
One of the challengers, Catriona Carlisle ’90, called on young alumni to support the CofC Fund.
“My husband and I supported CofC Day in honor of the College’s history and impact it has made on lives for the past 250 years,” says Carlisle. “Our hope for the challenge gift was to inspire young alumni to join in the College’s celebration on January 30th by making a donation and helping Make.History.Here.”
Carlisle’s expectations were exceeded when more than 150 young alumni from classes 2009–2019 contributed to the CofC Fund, which unlocked her donation of $1,500.
In addition to 10 people including the College in their estate plans on CofC Day, two new scholarships were created along with numerous contributions to existing scholarships.
A student poses for a photo on CofC Day.
The day had 1,326 faculty, staff, alumni and students make gifts to the College, representing a record-breaking number of donors for any given drive. In addition to online solicitations, 80 members of the College community made calls from the Cougar Call Center, including President Hsu, School of Humanities and Social Sciences Interim Dean Gibbs Knotts and Honors College Dean Trisha Folds-Bennett. A total of 16 CofC Alumni Clubs hailing from as far as London, England, celebrated CofC Day and raised $36,179.20 for their alma mater.
The CofC Day headquarters on Cistern Yard had a constant stream of visitors who came to donate, play games and collect CofC swag. At noon, about 400 students came for pizza, leading to a line spilling out onto George Street.
CofC Day was a collaborative process from start to finish and demonstrates what can be accomplished when alumni, faculty, staff and students come together. Of course, having President Hsu’s support and engagement from the start of the day handing out donuts to students on Cougar Mall to playing drums with AFISHAL at the student party that night, served as an inspiration to the CofC community and contributed greatly to the day’s success.
And, this is only the beginning. CofC Day marked the launch of a yearlong drive to celebrate the College’s 250th anniversary. Throughout 2020, look for more information about plans to invest in the future of the College by improving the campus experience for students, faculty, staff and the greater community.
This is our time for transformation.
Tagged with: 250th anniversary • campus life • cofc day • homepage-feed • philanthropy • today-featured
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Nita Strauss says everyone would whinge if ‘Stairway To Heaven’ came out in 2020
Image: Nita Strauss/Instagram
By Holley Gawne
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Alice Cooper’s touring guitarist Nita Strauss has spoken out about dealing with criticism as a woman in the music industry.
In an interview on the Rob’s School of Music YouTube channel (via blabbermouth.net), Strauss explained that even the likes of Metallica and Led Zepplin are not immune to “trash-talk” from fans.
She began: “Honestly, my advice for girls is the same as my advice for young dudes — it really is. And it holds true for both. So I’m just gonna give it for both, but it really, really applies for both. And that’s there are always gonna be people that doubt you, no matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter how great you are.”
“I was just having this conversation this morning with [boyfriend and manager] Josh [Villalta]. You take a band like Metallica — we were just talking about Metallica — the biggest metal band that has ever existed in the history of metal bands, and they put out something new, and people trash-talk it all over it,” she continued.
“If [Led Zepplin’s] ‘Stairway To Heaven’ came out today, people would be just complaining and whining on YouTube and in the Blabbermouth comments and all this stuff. You can’t please everybody — not in this day and age.”
“So you need to not focus too much on pleasing everybody and not focus too much on the naysayers and the negativity that’s out there, and focus on working as hard as you can, performing as best as you can. Always be early. Show up ready to play. Don’t be asking a lot of questions when you get there. Show up super prepared. Always be 15 minutes early. Always be the most professional, the easiest to deal with.”
Strauss went on to say that she hopes her advice will particularly resonate with women, as “being easy to deal with is kind of important for a girl.”
‘Cause maybe that’s one place where I see there’s still a little bit of a stigma. You don’t wanna have people going around [saying], ‘She’s on her period,’ or something,” she said.
“For guys and girls, showing up on time — I keep saying ‘on time,’ because on time is so important,” she added.
“Being early is [so important], and being super, super professional. And also, on the flip side, not letting the negativity get to your head, but also not letting the accolades get to your head. Because once you start getting some notoriety and you start getting good and getting your name out there, there’s gonna be people saying some crazy stuff. ‘You’re the best guitar player in the world. No one has ever been better than you.’ And if you start believing that, nothing good can happen,” she continued.
“Nothing good comes from believing that you’re the best and you can never improve and you can never get better and you can never grow as an artist. So equally as important to shutting out the naysayers is shutting out people that will just tell you that you don’t need to progress, and you’re already good enough. You always have to get better. You always have to progress. You always have to be better in any way you possibly can,” she concluded.
Check out Nita Strauss being interviewed:
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James Bond star Roger Moore was a much loved man in India
Sir Roger Moore dead at 89: James Bond star dies after short ... - mirror.co.uk sourced by BN library
The man who brought Ian Fleming's character of the super spy alive on the screen died at the age of 89 in Switzerland
by MG Singh (article) and Parasshuram Shalgar (video)
25 May 2017 at 05:48 25 May 2017 at 05:48
Sir Roger Moore is no more. He died after a short fight with cancer. Moore has however left an endearing image of a gentleman. He died in Switzerland but was a true Englishman. It is important to understand that Moore had carved a special place in India. He had a fairly large following in the sub-continent.
Sir Roger Moore
Moore starred in a number of James Bond films. He took over from Sean Connery who had earlier held sway as the super spy. Many felt that Connery as Bond was a shade better but Moore was not far behind. The film which Indians loved was " Octopussy" which was shot extensively in Delhi and Rajasthan.
It also starred the Bollywood actor Kabir Bedi as the villain. " Octopussy" had lavish locales in palaces and hotels in India and Moore enjoyed his stay.
James Bond is a British spy with the code number 007. He is the only agent licensed to kill. The character was created by Ian Fleming, a naval officer in navy intelligence during World War II. Fleming used his wartime experience to create a fictitious character called James Bond. All the books of Fleming have been filmed and have been hits at the box office. Bond is a character that rivals Sherlock Holmes in terms of popularity.
Sir Roger Moore will be sorely missed. His image will remain for as long as films are made. He brought the character of James Bond alive.Apart from "Octopussy" he also starred in six other James Bond films.
He could only get the role of the super spy after Sean Connery expressed a desire not to do any more Bond movies.
Moore as secret agent Bond
He did his first role as James Bond in 1973. He was the oldest actor to portray Bond. His seven films are a testimony to his success. His other movies included " The spy who loved me" and "Live and let die". After Connery retired Timothy Dalton acted in one Bond movie " On her Majesty's secret service" before he got the role of James Bond.
Sir Roger Moore leaves behind three children. In addition, he will be remembered as the star who played the secret agent. Moore acted in other films as well as television serials also but it will be safe to say that his role as the spy James Bond will endure forever.
James Bond movies are popular in India. After Sir Moore retired from Bond films at the age of 58 other stars have filled his shoes.
Sean Connery and Moore were in a class by themselves and his movies in re- runs do well even now. Indians will always remember his fight atop a moving airplane with Kabir Bedi in "Octopussy." Sir Roger Moore will be remembered as an actor who lived his roles. Not many can leave such a large fan following behind.
MG Singh
Senior early retired senior Air Warrior and author of the novels " Romance of the Frontier" and "Enticing Tales of Love and Romance from the East.".
Follow singh on Facebook
Read more on the same topic from MG Singh:
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UMS Playlist: Our 2014-2015 Season
This post is a part of a series of playlists curated by UMS staff, artists, and community. Check out more music here.
Now that we’ve announced our 2014-2015 season, it’s time to get more closely acquainted with its sounds. Listen along with our Spotify playlist featuring artists on our next season.
A [brief] UMS History Presentation: Bach Family Tree
So many Johanns, so little time. We can’t wait for the UMS presentation of Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin at Hill Auditorium on Sunday, April 13, 2014, and what better way to prepare for a Bach-themed concert than with a family tree of this gifted and musically enriched family.
Questions or comments? Leave them below.
A Closer Look at Qawwali: Interview with Farina Mir
Photo: Asif Ali Khan Qawaali Music of Pakistan performs.
On Friday, March 21, 2014 at 8 pm, UMS presents Asif Ali Khan Qawwali Music of Pakistan in Rackham Auditorium. A protege of the late, legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-97), Asif Ali Khan performs the beautiful tradition of qawwali music of Pakistan and India. Whether you’re an adherent of the Sufi faith or not, the aesthetic experience of qawwali music is unique, inspiring, and inclusive.
To hear more, we talked with Farina Mir, the Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan. She is also the author of The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab (University of California, 2010), and co-editor of Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture, and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2012).
Farina was fortunate enough to hear Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan perform, and the experience changed the professional focus of her life.
UMS: Tell us about your experience seeing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Farina Mir: I heard Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at a charity dinner in New York City when I was only a junior in college. At the time, I hadn’t heard of the artist and was totally unfamiliar with the art of qawwali. I had only just started studying South Asian history; though, it quickly became a passion. I was particularly drawn to the history of the partition of India in 1947, which had led to the creation of Pakistan. This was a cataclysmic event, in which at least 17 million people migrated across newly created international borders (the largest peace time-migration of the twentieth century) and as many as one million people died in mass civil violence between members of different religious communities. I was particularly troubled by the violence of partition. The history I had learned—the standard history of the event at the time—found the roots of partition in “communalism,” antagonism along religious lines. It was a history that led one to think of Hindus and Sikhs, on the one hand, and Muslims on the other, as mutually antagonistic communities. What I saw at the charity concert undermined for me the certitude of this historical argument.
The audience for this concert wasn’t large; a relatively small hotel ballroom with people sitting at tables of 8 or 10, so maybe 200-300 people. Most of those in attendance were South Asian Muslims, but there was at least one table of Sikhs and Hindus. They stood out from the rest of the crowd because some of the men wore turbans and had unshorn beards. What stood out less than their presence—I knew from my own experience of growing up in the South Asian diaspora that members of all religious communities from the subcontinent intermingle socially—was their repeated requests for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to sing the compositions of particular Sufi poets. Qawwali as a genre is Sufi mystical poetry set to music. How were non-Muslims so familiar with Muslim Sufi poets, I wondered? And not only were they familiar with the poets’ names, but with particular compositions. They were making requests by reciting lines of Punjabi verse. And when Nusrat acknowledged their requests, I was struck by the looks of rapture of everyone around me, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh alike.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at Royal Albert Hall, London
An Enlightening Discovery
I, too, was taken in by the performance, by the pure pleasure of it—Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the qawwali form are nothing if not immensely powerful and emotive. But I was also taken in by the context of the performance. It produced a dissonance for me. I was struck by how the history books I was reading all emphasized Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim difference, yet what I saw that evening was a shared experience that defied the expectations produced by those history books. I began to wonder if there were historical antecedents to what I experienced that night. This led me to consider the historical role of the Punjabi language and its literary texts, including those of Sufi poets I heard at that performance, as the site for shared experiences among Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. What was hinted at in my experience that evening—the meaning, power, and pleasure of texts shared by members of different religious communities—led me to pursue a PhD in South Asian history, and today I teach in the history department at U-M. My book, The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab, provides one set of answers to the questions that emerged for me that night, with and through Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s amazing performance.
UMS: What do you think audience members who aren’t of the Sufi faith or no little about Sufi music will get out of the performance?
FM: As my comments above have suggested, there is undoubtedly an aesthetic beauty and emotional power to qawwali as an art form. It’s a pleasure to experience, no matter what one’s religion, or if one has no religious disposition at all. For those who know that this is a form of music associated with Sufi devotionalism, I think it will expose them to an aspect of Islam and Muslim devotion that has played a very significant role in Muslim devotion in the subcontinent historically, and continues to do so to this day.
UMS: What do you think people should look out for in seeing Asif Ali Khan’s performance with UMS this season?
FM: One of the pleasures of live performances of qawwali (as with other genres of Indian vocal performance) is artist improvisation. The genre lends itself to vocal improvisation, all within the bounds of a rigorous tradition of ragas and beat. Although improvisation is caught on recordings of live performance, the ability to see it in creation, as a response to a given environment is something you just can’t get off a CD!
UMS: Can you suggest some musical selections from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan that might give our readers an entry point into his music? What’s important to you or interesting about these selections?
This is a hard question because there are so many dimensions to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s music. One, of course, is that of aesthetic pleasure; the joy of the music/composition. This is accessible to anyone. The other, is the content of the verses set to music. Nusrat performed compositions in Persian, Urdu, and Punjabi (among other languages). Each has an important place in his repertoire. Three stand out for me, one in each language:
Qawwali in Farsi by Hazrat Amir Khusro in Raga Khamaj. I am not fluent in Persian, so can’t speak to the content of the poetry being performed in this composition, but what I love about this qawwali is how it ties contemporary practice, in time and space, to the subcontinent and the reputed creator of the art form of qawwali. Amir Khusro is a thirteenth century poet who was a devotee of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya. Amir Khusro is buried in the shrine complex that emerged around the tomb of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, and one can today visit his tomb, the shrine of his patron and Sufi master, and hear qawwali—usually poems in praise of the Sufi saint—in the precincts of his shrine. Khusro was a Sufi adept, as well as a gifted poet and music theorist. He is considered the father of Hindustani classical music, and it is through his own devotional practice that qawwali as a genre was born.
Main Jana Jogi de Naal. This is a Punjabi qawwali that draws on the poetry of the Sufi saint Bulleh Shah. The text is a Sufi poem that points to the hypocrisy of empty ritual, pointing to love (for the divine) as true faith. It’s an immensely evocative poem in its language and its allusions, and is performed with a level of emotion that conveys the conviction of the text, even if you aren’t a Punjabi speaker!
Modern qawwali by Allama Iqbal in Raga Bilawal. Allama Iqbal (Muhammad Iqbal) is among the most renowned Urdu poets of the twentieth century. This qawwali takes one his most famous poems, Shikwa (Complaint), and performs it in the genre of qawwali. Iqbal’s poem is a political tract about the place and status of Muslims in the early twentieth century, rendered as a complaint to God. It is a brilliant poem that captures an important moment in South Asian history. I like this qawwali not only for its beautiful verse, but for the ways it exemplifies how flexible and adaptable the qawwali genre is, particularly in the hands of someone as talented as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Did you listen to Farina’s music selections? Were you familiar with qawwali before? What do you think?
UMS brings Asif Ali Khan to Ann Arbor in conjunction with UMMA’s exhibition of Doris Duke’s Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art on view January 25 – May 4, 2014. Learn more about the exhibition.
Take Our Quiz: Which UMS Performance is the Right Valentine’s Date for You?
Each year, UMS brings over 60 world-class performances to the Ann Arbor area. This year we’re lucky to have a diverse set of offerings right around Valentine’s Day weekend. How will you pick the right performance for you and your date? A handy quiz:
You never know what’ll happen. We received this Hill Auditorium memory last season:
Got a story about a date during a performance? Share it in the comments below.
5 Curiosities about Bullet Catch
Photo: Rob Drummond in Bullet Catch. Photo courtesy of the artist.
A stunt so dangerous that Houdini refused even to attempt it, the magic trick known as the Bullet Catch has claimed the lives of at least 12 illusionists, assistants, and spectators since its conception in 1613. Director Rub Drummond explores the history of the Bullet Catch, including the true story of William Henderson, who died in 1912 attempting the infamous trick. Bullet Catch is (at Arthur Miller Theatre January 7-12), and in preparation, we’ve dug up 5 curious facts about the trick.
A Fresh Perspective: John Bracey on James Blake
Photo: John Bracey.
John Bracey, Executive Director of the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs, took some time to speak with me about the artist he’s most looking forward to seeing this UMS season: James Blake (who performs at the Michigan Theater on November 11, 2013).
How did you become interested in James Blake?
I find him interesting! He’s young and doing innovative, different things in his music that I find very interesting. I first heard him when he came on my Brian Eno Pandora station. And I liked what I heard. Then, later, I was listening to my Joni Mitchell station and all of a sudden, he popped up there. On that station, too, I heard his cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Case of You,” which I liked. And anyone who does a cover of a Joni Mitchell song must have courage at the very least, I thought, so I continued to listen to his stuff and really enjoyed the different, creative modes he was using in his music.
What about James Blake’s technique do you like the most?
That’s a complicated question. Like I said, I’m a big Brian Eno fan, big Robert Fripp fan from way back…I like traditional sounds as well though, but what I really enjoy is that melancholy folk kind of thing that artists are doing nowadays, like Joni Mitchell. There’s also some poetry in their music as well, which I really appreciate. Like, Leonard Cohen, I’m a big Leonard Cohen fan, huge Laurie Anderson fan…and James Blake seems to play around in all those borderlines of artists and their techniques that I truly enjoy and appreciate.
Some people believe James Blake only appeals to the young, hipster crowd. Do you agree?
Well, not only! I’m definitely not young or hipster. My granddaughter listens to him, so you’re probably right. But not only. And I don’t think he should limit himself by thinking he only appeals to the young, hipster crowd. He is already showing some evolution and growth, in tracks like “Overgrown,” and I hope he continues to invent and grow.
What do you think of established organizations like UMS supporting “emerging” or “popular” artists like James Blake?
I think it’s a great thing for an organization like UMS, which is a jewel in the state of Michigan in terms of the kinds of performance opportunities they allow the citizens of the state to have access to. Over the years, I have seen at UMS everything from Laurie Anderson and Keith Jarrett to the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus. Where else am I going to see that if I’m not living in LA or New York? It’s a huge service. I think it also shows strength in organizations when they’re willing to stick to their mission of bringing the highest quality of art that one can offer while also attending to trends in popular culture.
Some people view popular culture as threatening the classical music traditions. What do you think?
Honestly, I don’t pay a lot of attention to folks when I start hearing that classical music is dying. I don’t believe that. Classical musicians will continue to engage with audiences just as before, but in different ways as well. People will learn to love what’s there. It’ll expand their tastes. Arts organizations that continue to present both sides are thriving while staying true to their mission. It’s about access. They’re more and more not just performance venues, but even visual arts venues, and arts venues generally. You have to compete in that market, but providing access in different ways is really what their missions say they should be doing all along anyway. And I think you’re seeing it.
Are there any other UMS events that you’re looking forward to this season?
I look forward to UMS’s season period. And I don’t get to go to nearly enough of their offerings.
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, John!
Join John in attending the upcoming UMS presentation of James Blake on Monday, November 11th at 7:30 pm at the Michigan Theater. Tickets on sale now.
A [brief] UMS History Presentation: The Ukulele
Ukulele star Jake Shimabukuro returns to Hill Auditorium on November 16, 2016.
He last performed in an Ann Arbor in 2014, and we created this handy infographic about the history of the ukulele in the U.S.
Are you a ukulele admirer or ukulele player? Share your best ukulele stories in the comments below.
Last updated 04/29/2016.
Outside Looking In: Anne Grove on Hubbard Street Dance
Editor’s note: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago return to Ann Arbor on October 27, 2015.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 1000 Pieces by Todd Rosenberg
This UMS 13-14 Season, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will be bringing their first, evening-length piece to Ann Arbor’s Power Center September 27-28. To learn more about Hubbard Street behind the scenes, their new work, and Hubbard Street’s first resident choreographer, Alejandro Cerrudo, I sat down with UMS Artist Services Manager, Anne Grove, to talk about her experiences working as the company manager of Hubbard Street prior to coming to UMS.
This is the first time Hubbard Street has performed with UMS while you are working at UMS. What does it feel like to have Hubbard Street perform as part of the UMS season?
I’m really proud to see the company coming here, bringing Alejandro’s work, and I’m excited to see them! I don’t get to Chicago very often, so I’m really looking forward to having them here and to fulfill my old role a bit, working with them backstage.
What was your favorite or most memorable experience while working with Hubbard Street?
There were so many it’s hard to land on one! For one thing, it was amazing to see what ambassadors the Hubbard Street dancers are for the city of Chicago and for dance. I’ve had so many people come up to me and say after seeing a performance, “Oh I’ve never really liked dance” or “never been interested in it,” but because Hubbard offered such a variety within a single performance, it was a really great entry point into dance for a lot of people.
Personally, I really enjoyed the places I was able to travel to during my time as Company Manager. The events and receptions I attended, the people I was able to meet because I was a part of Hubbard Street that I never would have had any chance to otherwise. In Paris, a woman who happened to really like dance hosted a reception for us in her apartment where there were original Picasso sketches just lying on the floor…it was like being in a movie. Getting to travel with these talented artists and taking care of them; it was an incredible experience.
Did you always know you wanted to work with Hubbard Street?
No. I first saw Hubbard Street many years ago when I was still in Minneapolis and working with a couple different theater companies when Hubbard Street came through on a tour. I met Gail Kalver several years later, executive director of Hubbard at the time, at a booking conference. I had been with the company for several years at that point and had always wanted to travel overseas. My position at that time with the theater didn’t allow for much travel. I was always the point person who stayed home. When the company manager position became available at Hubbard, I pursued that.
How prepared were you for your new position with Hubbard Street Dance, coming from theater?
I really didn’t know much about dance at all. For the first couple of years with Hubbard, I made lots of mistakes. Things that are very important to theater artists are not necessarily important to dancers. Something so easy as, when you’re traveling overseas, ensuring the hotels have bathtubs because all the dancers like to soak after performing. For the first European tour, I had no idea that was a priority. There was a big learning curve, but the dancers really helped me along.
HSDC company photo on the Pillow Rock at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, MA. Summer 2007. Alejandro (top) and Anne (bottom right, fourth person from the right)
Photo Credit: Cheryl Mann Photography
Hubbard Street is performing a piece created by choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo, entitled One Thousand Pieces, inspired by Marc Chagall’s America Windows. This work is the first evening-length piece they’ve ever performed. How do you see performing an evening-length piece as different from the vignettes they usually perform?
Well, as I alluded to before, the company is very much known for their repertory performances, so this is a really big step. With a repertory performance, you’re seeing work by lots of different choreographers, the pieces will be different, although you still try to program with something that brings the evening together or gives an arc to the performance as a whole. When you have a full-evening work, you’re still going to get some variety, but the performance will usually have just one central theme or look to it.
Has this been several years in the making?
Yes, they’ve been working towards this for a long time. I was with the company for 15 years and I think from my second or third year, they started talking about at some point doing a full evening work. There were many different choreographers discussed for doing a full evening work, and I’m so proud of the company for taking the big leap with Alejandro.
Not only is it the first evening-length work for Hubbard, but this was Alejandro’s first full evening work as well. Selecting such a young, up and coming choreographer really speaks to the core of what Hubbard Street is about: nurturing talented, young artists and helping them explore their talents.
Mr. Cerrudo was a dancer with the company before he became Hubbard’s first Resident Choreographer, yes?
Correct – he joined the company as a dancer in 2005 from NDT2 in Holland, although he is originally from Spain. NDT2 is legendary in its ability to identify and support the work of emerging professional choreographers. Alejandro participated in the choreographic workshops there and then at Hubbard, once he started dancing with us.
The first year Alejandro participated in the choreographic workshop, he did this amazing, beautiful duet, and Jim Vincent, artistic director at the time, asked him to create a full piece that grew out of that duet, which was later to become Lickity Split. And then, every year, Alejandro created a piece in that choreographic workshop which usually in one form or another became part of the Hubbard Street rep. In 2008, he became a choreographic fellow at Hubbard, and the following year, became Hubbard’s first resident choreographer. He’s done many works now for Hubbard as well as being hired by other companies to create for them.
Because he was a dancer with the company, he has gotten to know the Hubbard Street dancers in a way he does not know dancers from the other companies. The intimacy he was able to create in One Thousand Pieces because of that really comes across.
How do you think Chagall’s widely-known America Windows will function within the choreography of One Thousand Pieces?
Well, I’ve talked to Alejandro about it, and I was actually able to see the piece last fall when it was performed in Chicago, and I think it’s really important for people to know that the Windows were a point of inspiration.
He’s not recreating the windows or trying to tell a story. What influenced him was the idea of windows, and how windows and reflections off of glass distort, enhance, frame.
Also too he’s added some technical aspects that work with his voice and vision, embracing the technological age he grew up in. At one point in the piece, the dancers dance in water on stage in front of a mist curtain. You get the visual power of that, the smoothness of movement through the water, the sounds of that…it’s really quite unique and special.
Anything else audiences should look out for when seeing One Thousand Pieces?
I would encourage audience members to look for the duets, trios, and other small groupings of the company. I still harken back to the talent Alejandro displayed in choreographing the duet in his first workshop at Hubbard Street. He creates stunning duets, especially using his knowledge of the dancers on a personal level, having performed with them before, to his advantage. The group stuff is also very beautiful, but there’s something extraordinary about his small groupings.
I hope too that audiences will remain open-minded to a full evening, single-choreographer work from Hubbard Street. There’s music they’ll recognize, Philip Glass, and it’s a moment to enjoy the beauty of bodies, lighting, and music. Take away from it your own experience. Alejandro would say himself the piece doesn’t have to mean the same thing to him that it means to you. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about sharing that moment of beauty and letting it be whatever it is to you.
Thanks, Anne!
For more information on Hubbard Street performing at UMS this fall, see their artist page [here].
UMS Book Club with Nicola’s Books
New this season, UMS is kicking off UMS Book Club. UMS and Nicola’s Books have teamed up to assemble a list of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, matching six performances with books that carry similar themes, messages, or character traits. Get reading and dig deep into elements of the performance.
Here’s how to join
Pick up a book from the UMS Book Club list at Nicola’s Books (at a special discount of 15%) and unlock a special offer of up to 25% off to the related performances. Nicola’s Books is located at 2513 Jackson Avenue, Westgate Shopping Center, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.
You can use the code online at ums.org. You can also call our UMS Ticket Office at 734.764.2538 or visit the Michigan League Ticket Office. Be sure to mention the the promo code at the start of your order.
This offer is not valid on previously purchased tickets, in conjunction with any other offer, or at the door on the evening of the performance.
Book: Seven Japanese Tales by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
Performance: Complicite: Shun-kin, September 18-21, 2013 at Power Center
Inspired by the work of one of the most important Japanese writers of the 20th century, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Shun-kin tells a tale of devotion, passion, and power, where beauty is unforgiving and love is blinding.
Book: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Performance: Ballet Preljocaj, November 1-2, 2013 at Power Center
And Then, One Thousand Years of Peace, which will be seen only at UMS, BAM, and Minneapolis, was first created by Angelin Preljocaj for the Bolshoi Ballet in 2010 and takes inspiration from the vision of apocalypse conjured by St. John in the biblical Book of Revelation. Karen Thompson Walker’s acclaimed novel is about a quieter apocalypse, when the Earth’s rotation slows, is a coming-of-age tale that clings to hope in light of a collapsing world.
Book: Shostakovich: A Life Remembered by Elizabeth Wilson
Performance: Kremerata Baltica, February 6, 2014 at Hill Auditorium
Kremerata Baltika will perform Shostakovich’s Anti-formalist Gallery, a dangerously satirical cantata never intended to be published or performed, as it would have imperiled his safety. In her biography of the composer, Elizabeth Wilson covers the discrepancies between Shostakovich’s public image and private life “from his early successes to his struggles under the Stalinist regime, and his international recognition as one of the leading composers of the twentieth century” through the reminiscences of his contemporaries and his personal writings.
Book: An African Quilt: 24 Modern African Stories
Performance: Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord: The Suit, February 19-22, 2014 at Power Center
Peter Brook’s tender production makes Can Themba’s tightly crafted, unsettling fable sing. African melodies and Schubert lieder thicken the air of this apartheid-era summer in which a shared wound is not allowed to heal. This collection of stories from the African continent, presenting many different visions of Africa and reflecting on the continent’s tragic, imperialized history, includes Can Themba’s fable.
Book: Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub Paperback by Rosa Lowinge
Performance: Alfredo Rodríguez Trio and Pedrito Martinez Group, March 14, 2014 at Michigan Theater
This double-bill performance features percussionist and vocalist Pedrito Martinez, who incorporates the folklore of his Cuban roots with religious Yoruba chants and batá melodies into the traditional clave beat of popular Latin jazz, and Cuban-born Alfredo Rodríguez, a young pianist of astonishing virtuosity and imagination, performs with the open spirit of a culture rooted in dancing. These musicians represent a new generation of Cuban-influenced music, while Rosa Lowinge’s Tropicana Nights is a window into the culture and history of pre-Revolutionary Cuba through Havana’s notorious Tropicana nightclub, an estate frequented by legends like Nat “King” Cole, Liberace, Josephine Baker, and Ernest Hemingway.
Book: The Essential Rumi
Performance: Asif Ali Khan Qawwali Music of Pakistan, March 21, 2014 at Rackham Auditorium
If the late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-97) was known as “the emperor of Qawwali,” Asif Ali Khan — who was once hailed by the maestro as one of his best students — has surely emerged as the music’s reigning prince. Asif is a superstar in his native Pakistan and a powerful figure on the international stage, remaining faithful to the sublime traditions of devotional Sufi music. Rumi is perhaps the most well-known exponent of Sufi poetry; both spiritual and carefully crafted, these poems aim to reveal the human soul.
Did you read one of these books and attend the related performance? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments below.
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Are there any arpas llaneras in the southeast Michigan area?
If you travel by air enough, eventually you’ll show up at your destination but your bags won’t. When this has happened to me, my missing luggage has eventually shown up, but it’s never fun. The pressure is worse when the missing luggage is your instrument and you have a performance that night.
Two years ago, I went to the airport to pick up Lila Downs and her band. All of the band members arrived, but one of them, Edmar Castañeda, was missing his arpa llanera or Colombian folk harp.
I wasn’t aware of anywhere in Ann Arbor to borrow or rent an arpa llanera, so I left Edmar and the tour manager at the airport. They tracked down the harp while I drove the rest of the group to Ann Arbor for their sound check.
Fortunately the harp was found in time for the concert. The harp sound along with Edmar’s unique approach to the instrument added a great touch to Lila’s music. I spoke with other UMS staff members after the concert who also marveled at Edmar’s harp playing. I was even more impressed when, after the concert, Edmar told me he had only been playing with Lila’s band for a short time. If I remember correctly it was only a couple weeks.
I have been looking out for Edmar’s music ever since. I saw this video on NPR’s website and wanted to share it with you. It showcases an artist who was not the main attraction, but added significantly to the quality of a UMS performance. On the video, you’ll hear Edmar’s novel technique through the mix of traditional Colombian dance music (joropo music) with jazz and Afro-Cuban music.
Do you remember this concert? Are there any arpas llaneras in the southeast Michigan area?
This Day in UMS History: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Feb 19, 1985)
Editor’s Note: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs in Ann Arbor on January 11, 2016.
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor
Yehudi Menuhin, conductor
“While Yehudi Menuhin’s name is synonymous with the violin, he is also regarded as one of today’s finer conductors.” So begins the biographical note for the concert of this orchestra, which in 1986 counted André Previn as its Music Director and the Queen Mum as its patron. Menuhin’s name is indeed synonymous with the violin, but even for a violinist he had an unusual life. He was raised in California, studied in Europe with Georges Enesco, and as a teenager was an internationally famous violinist. During World War II, he flew, sometimes in dangerous conditions, to military hospitals to perform for wounded soldiers – acts for which France later honored him with the Legion of Honor (making him its youngest recipient). He was a close friend and collaborator with famous Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar (who, still going strong at 90 years old, recently appeared at Hill with his daughter Anoushka) and released joint recordings with legendary jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. He founded the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, England, received fourteen honorary doctorates, and was made a life peer by Queen Elizabeth II. He died in 1999.
“This day in UMS History” is an occasional series of vignettes drawn from UMS’s historical archive. If you have a personal story or particular memory from attending the performance featured here, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.
This Day in UMS History: “Paderewski’s Piano Recital” (Feb 15, 1892)
University Hall, Ann Arbor
During my time at UMS, I’ve become used to seeing the ghosts of famous musicians. I’ve stumbled across signed photos of Jascha Heifetz (for whose violin classes current U-M Professor Martin Katz played) and records of Sergei Rachmaninov’s appearances at Hill. Even so, I did a double take when I found the program for Ignace Paderewski. The billing simply said “Paderewski’s Piano Recital”, adding that it was “For the Benefit of the Woman’s Annex to the WATERMAN GYMNASIUM.” I figured it was a society named after the Polish composer-pianist, and was very excited to discover that it was in fact a recital by Paderewski himself. I was even more excited to learn more about this pianist – I knew from Arthur Rubinstein’s memoirs that he was an inspirational pianist, mentor, and composer – but I also found out that he was an ardent Polish patriot, and was even Prime Minister of Poland for a brief time.
His recital program was formidable (Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt transcriptions of works by Schubert and Mendelssohn, and his own compositions), as befits a pianist who had just conquered the musical capitals of Europe (UMS’ archives includes a biography of Paderewski by a London reviewer) and was in the process of doing the same to America’s musical capitals – then as now including Ann Arbor. Paderewski returned to Ann Arbor five more times, the last in 1933. He died while on tour in New York City in 1941. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery until 1992, when his remains were brought to Warsaw.
History – In the Making!
Exciting news! After dreaming for years of digitizing the UMS archive, this massive project is finally underway! UMS has teamed up with the Ann Arbor District Library to digitize the UMS archive in all of its many forms: programs, photos, publications, and more. Please stay tuned as we continue to build and tweak a fully-searchable database for you to explore. Even more exciting are the innovative features we plan to include to create a “living” archive: the opportunity to submit your own comments, memories, and observations about events that you attended, whether that event was 50 years ago or yesterday! We’ll be asking for stories from patrons, donors, artists, ushers, staff, crew, and other UMS stakeholders to make this historical archive of the performing arts in Ann Arbor come alive.
In the meantime, please join UMS and the AADL for a sneak preview of the digitization progress in March!
A Sneak Peek into the Future of UMS’s Past:
100 Years of Concert Programs and Photographs
Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Branch, Multi-purpose Room
Join Ann Arbor District Library staff and Ken Fischer, President of UMS, as we launch two new online collections celebrating UMS’s concert history. We’ll show you how to browse and search thousands of pages of historical concert programs from UMS’s first 100 seasons; we’ll also unveil a growing collection of images that include both performance and rare backstage photographs of celebrated UMS artists over the past eight decades. Following a brief demonstration, Ken Fischer will present a talk on the history of the University Musical Society and the future of its archives.
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Internship Opportunities Provide Irish Players With An Investment For Their Futures
Steve Elmer embarked on his learning journey in the corridors of power in the United States Capitol building.
James Onwualu carved out the start of his career path on the greatest thoroughfare of the world’s economy – Wall Street.
Joe Schmidt honed his skills and vision in the world of investment finance closer to home in the University of Notre Dame Investment Office.
Fighting Irish football players Elmer, Onwualu and Schmidt reached the highest levels of learning through internships set up through the University.
Notre Dame’s unique and elite educational opportunities incorporated into the demanding schedule of student-athletes provides football players like Elmer, Onwualu and Schmidt a chance to start forging a bright future beyond football.
“It’s a typical saying, that it’s a 40-year decision to come to Notre Dame, not a four-year decision, and that definitely shows true with internships,” Onwualu says.
For Schmidt, the internship opportunity reinforces the concept that the Notre Dame experience is so much more than just football.
“Notre Dame really cares about the whole person,” Schmidt says. “You come to Notre Dame, not because you want to be the best person only in the classroom or the best person only on the field; it’s because you want to be the best in all of those areas.
“The football program and the academic people have been great about helping football players go after what they want to do and prepare them for life after football. That’s something that they really do well here, working that balance and helping you be successful in more than one area in life.”
Irish football head coach Brian Kelly says that the way the University prepares students for their futures is a critical part of Notre Dame’s commitment to its student-athletes, and one that puts the Irish program ahead of the curve.
“I just think it shows a piece of what we can do in balancing both academics and athletics at Notre Dame and making it work,” Kelly says. “… we’ve opened up something that I think other schools want to emulate.” Onwualu earned selection to an elite Wall Street internship with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch as one of only 10 sophomores out of thousands of applicants from all over the country selected for the program. He worked as a stock analyst on the stock market trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange.
Onwualu stepped into the bare-knuckled world of finance, learning trader techniques and styles, gaining insight in the world markets. The economic turbulence in Greece added to the learning experience.
A 6-foot-1, 220 junior linebacker from St. Paul, Minnesota., Onwualu believes that the internship is a vital jumpstart to crafting a career.
“The internships are extremely important,” Onwualu says. “There are so many careers today. A couple of years ago, if you were going into your senior year, that you would have the opportunity to do an internship. Now, you see it after freshman and sophomore years.
“Getting that real-life experience is what puts you ahead in the business world. I think it’s something that a lot of student-athletes miss out on, just because they have commitments that they need to stick to. I am obviously one of those guys, but luckily, I got to work around that and get the experience that a lot of normal students do, to put myself ahead and prepare myself for life after football.”
Onwualu stayed at his brother John’s place in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, sleeping on a blow-up mattress in his brother’s room. He arrived at his Bank of America/Merrill Lynch office by 6 a.m. He would take a break at about 6:30 p.m. for an hour workout, and then go back to the office. Onwualu estimates he put in at least 65 hours a week.
The Notre Dame alumni network on Wall Street proved invaluable to him and his helped make the internship program such a valuable experience.
“There were many alumni there within the firm that helped me so much,” Onwualu says. “Brian O’Neill, who just graduated from the finance school, was a tremendous help. He’s in his first couple of years starting there, but he took his time every day to make sure that I was on point and that I was doing what I needed to do. David Ulrich, who played lacrosse at Notre Dame, also spent a lot of time with me.
“Brian and David understood what I was coming from, and being able to talk to them and ask them the questions that I might not be able to ask a senior guy, I think that’s what really prepared me. Having that Notre Dame network to reach out to and get an idea of what to expect was definitely something that helped me be prepared.”
Elmer, a 6-foot-5, 315-pound junior offensive lineman from Midland, Michigan, served as a Congressional intern in Washington, D.C. to John Moolenaar, who represents Michigan’s Fourth District.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Elmer says of his summer political journey. “It ended up being really, really great, and blew away my expectations.”
Elmer’s duties included traditional intern work.
“I was pretty good at lugging water cooler jugs,” Elmer says with a laugh. “The storage room was a few floors up, and I had to get it from up there.”
Besides lugging water coolers, Elmer attended committee meetings and hearings and composed reports.
A life in public service intrigues Elmer, but he doesn’t know that he will ever throw his helmet in the political ring.
Schmidt, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound graduate student linebacker from Orange, California, has worked Notre Dame’s investment office since January. He praises the vision and intelligence of Scott Malpass, Notre Dame’s vice president and chief investment officer, and investment directors Richard Buhrman and Paul Buser in providing exceptional learning opportunities.
“I couldn’t feel more blessed to have this opportunity,” Schmidt says. “My internship has really been more about learning what I don’t know. Our investment office ââ’¬¦ those guys are all Notre Dame grads, they were all top of their class, they have certifications from the best places: Harvard business school, Columbia business school and Notre Dame.
“It’s just a very smart and well-oiled machine. Seeing how those guys come to work every day is a blessing. It’s been great to understand, to learn from them and to build a foundation.
Schmidt believes that Notre Dame’s commitment to the complete person is something that sets the university and its academic and athletic programs apart from other schools.
“I think Notre Dame does a really good job of taking this mashed up ball of clay and turning out this Notre Dame product,” Schmidt says. “They do it with every person who comes here and embraces the university and what it stands for.”
Obviously, the athletic journey and the academic journey here at Notre Dame really prepared me for when I went into the investment office. I didn’t understand much when I went into the office, and it was all going to be new to me. I just tried to work hard, trust in the process and put to use what I had learned in my four years as an undergraduate. I knew to ask the right questions in order to get to the right conclusion.
“I think Notre Dame really prepares you for an internship and the workplace environment. You have a mindset of inquiry in order to learn as much as you can.”
Every day was an eye-opening experience in the investment office for Schmidt. He sees parallels from the culture that his coach, Brian Kelly, has cultivated in his football program, and the blueprint for success in the Notre Dame investment office.
“If you look at the most successful endowments in the world, Notre Dame is right at the top of everyone’s list,” Schmidt said. “What Scott Malpass has done, since he got here in the late 1980’s and building this great institution ââ’¬¦ it’s really a one-of-a-kind accomplishment.”
Learning through the Notre Dame internship experience has Onwualu confident about his future.
“I love being here with my team all summer and training hard, preparing for the season, but at the same time, we are student-athletes, and we need to experience some of the business world as well,” Onwualu says. “It’s a tough balance, but I was fortunate that Coach Kelly let me take a little extra time off. I took an extra week to make it a month-long experience in New York. It’s definitely a tough balance, but it’s one that we continue to push and work together and we need to continue to get more athletes in the business world.
I’m not ready to be in the work force, yet,” Onwualu continues with a laugh. “I still have some football to play, which I’m pretty excited about. It was a great experience. I loved the environment. I can definitely see myself doing that, but it doesn’t beat playing football for Notre Dame, and it doesn’t beat working out with my best friends, my teammates, every day, preparing to win the national championship.” I’m not ready for the Wall Street life just yet. Not many people get the opportunity that I had. I think more student-athletes definitely should do an internship.”
– By Curt Rallo
Football @NDFootball | 2020-21 Season in Review (1.15.21)
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The 20 most influential papers on posttraumatic stress
Posted on 22 March 2012 by Eva Alisic
Which papers have shaped your thoughts on traumatic stress and recovery? Which articles do you often refer to? These questions will be the starting point for the next #traumaresearch chat on Twitter in exactly a week (March 28th in the US, 29th in Australia; see your local time).
Meanwhile, I have had a look at which publications have been most influential in terms of citations. For the methods (e.g., I have excluded articles focused on measures), see below. These are the most cited papers, with links to free full-text pdfs or abstracts:
Kessler et al. (1995) Posttraumatic stress disorder in the national comorbidity survey. Archives of General Psychiatry. 3437 citations
Breslau et al. (1991) Traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder in an urban population of young adults. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1181 citations
Kendall-Tackett et al. (1993) Impact of sexual abuse on children: A review and synthesis of recent empirical studies. Psychological Bulletin. 981 citations
Ehlers & Clark (2000) A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 978 citations
Brewin et al. (2000). Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 976 citations
Hoge et al. (2004). Combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health problems, and barriers to care. New England Journal of Medicine 351. 965 citations
Resnick et al. (1993). Prevalence of civilian trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in a representative national sample of women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 887 citations
Breslau et al. (1998). Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in the community: The 1996 Detroit area survey of trauma. Archives of General Psychiatry. 824 citations
Sapolsky (2000). Glucocorticoids and hippocampal atrophy in neuropsychiatric disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry. 806 citations
Bremner et al. (1995). MRI-based measurement of hippocampal volume in patients with combat- related posttraumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry. 798 citations
Ozer et al. (2003). Predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder and symptoms in adults: A meta-analysis Psychological Bulletin. 726 citations
Galea et al. (2002). Psychological sequelae of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. New England Journal of Medicine. 713 citations
Campbell (2002). Health consequences of intimate partner violence. Lancet. 689 citations
McEwen (2000). The neurobiology of stress: From serendipity to clinical relevance. Brain Research. 661 citations
Heim et al. (2000). The potential role of hypocortisolism in the pathophysiology of stress-related bodily disorders. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 627 citations
Nolen-Hoeksema (1991). A Prospective Study of Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms After a Natural Disaster: The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 615 citations
Foa et al. (1991). Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in rape victims: A comparison between cognitive-behavioral procedures and counseling. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 571 citations
Helzer et al. (1987). Post-traumatic stress disorder in the general population: Findings of the epidemiologic catchment area survey. New England Journal of Medicine. 564 citations.
Bremner et al. (1997). Magnetic resonance imaging-based measurement of hippocampal volume in posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood physical and sexual abuse – A preliminary report. Biological Psychiatry. 549 citations
Rauch et al. (1996). A symptom provocation study of posttraumatic stress disorder using positron emission tomography and script-driven imagery. Archives of General Psychiatry. 534 citations
I knew only about half of this list…so I’ll have to catch up on some reading A number of articles describe the epidemiology of posttraumatic stress, while others are more theoretical in nature or review a body of literature. For me, I think the second and third types have been more influential than the first. I’ll do a specific search for papers on children and adolescents, and compare them with my personal list next week.
(Method: I did a search in Scopus (“posttraumatic stress” OR “post-traumatic stress” OR “traumatic stress” OR “post-trauma stress” OR “traumatised” OR “traumatized” OR “PTSD” in the title or abstract), had them listed according to number of citations and selected the papers that focused on posttraumatic mental health, excluding articles on instruments.)
This entry was posted in News & conferences and tagged posttraumatic stress, PTSD, research, trauma recovery by Eva Alisic. Bookmark the permalink.
4 thoughts on “The 20 most influential papers on posttraumatic stress”
murfomurf on 29 March 2012 at 09:22 said:
This paper is impressive and specific to trauma in indigenous Australians, a needy and important group. Laura M Hart1*, Anthony F Jorm1, Leonard G Kanowski1, Claire M Kelly1 and Robyn L Langlands2 (2009) Mental health first aid for Indigenous Australians: using Delphi consensus studies to develop guidelines for culturally appropriate responses to mental health problems. BMC Psychiatry, 9:47 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-47.
* Corresponding author: Laura M Hart lhart@unimelb.edu.au
1 Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
2 School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Eva Alisic on 29 March 2012 at 15:50 said:
Thanks Kay! For all, this is the link to the paper: http://bit.ly/GYevs2
David on 29 March 2012 at 15:46 said:
Not a paper…. Judith Herman’s “Trauma and Recovery” helped me enormously
That’s a beautiful, impressive book indeed, thank you for sharing! The link to the book on Amazon: http://amzn.to/16jd15
(I’ll try to ‘transport’/copy your and Kay’s comments to the list regarding most inspiring papers, so many people can see them there as well)
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How to Plan the Perfect Weekend in Chicago
Explore lesser-known spots on your next jaunt to the Windy City.
By Sarah Pike, Contributor July 20, 2016
By Sarah Pike, Contributor July 20, 2016, at 10:46 a.m.
Beyond its thriving dining, fashion, arts and music scenes, the Second City's architectural gems and under-the-radar enclaves are sure to charm you.(Getty Images)
The Windy City, with its diverse neighborhoods, architectural splendors, flourishing dining scenes and innovative cultural attractions in its 230 or so square miles, draws visitors far and wide. From world-class museums to thriving theater and music scenes, Chicago's multi-faceted art community is reason enough to visit. Tack on a seemingly endless list of outdoor sights, brand-name shops on the city's iconic Magnificent Mile and one-of-a-kind restaurants, and your Chicago vacation itinerary may seem overwhelming. Well, never fret: After you've crossed Chi-town's can't-miss attractions off your list, make your way to these under-the-radar gems for a weekend getaway to remember.
[See: The Best Summer Vacations of 2016.]
Embrace the Great Outdoors
Chicago offers much more than top-tier dining and shopping experiences. If you're planning a trip in spring, summer or fall, make sure to take advantage of the outdoors when you're in town – you'll be glad you did. Take a break from taking in the city sights to explore the Chicago River by canoe or kayak. With guided tours available through reputable outfitter Chicago River Canoe and Kayak, you don't have to be a pro to take part in a Chicago River adventure, and chances are, you'll get to see some wildlife too. If you would rather run, bike, swim or enjoy a leisurely coffee along the beach, Jane Addams Memorial Park, a quaint green space, is centrally located next to the Lakefront Trail, Navy Pier and Ohio Street Beach.
Pop into Cutting-Edge Galleries
Home to the famous Art Institute of Chicago, Chi-town is also home to plenty of local galleries – so many, in fact, you'll need much more than one afternoon for a proper Chicago art gallery crawl. While the Chicago Cultural Center might already be on your list of things to see while in Chicago, you may not realize everything the Center has to offer. Previously the central library building, the Chicago Cultural Center is home to two stained-glass domes and plenty of art exhibitions. The Center also hosts film screenings, performances and lectures – all with free options for the community. Meanwhile, the McCormick Gallery, which is known for its post-war abstract expressionist pieces showcases artwork from both contemporary and 20th-century artists. Past exhibitions have included the works of Samuel Feinstein, Vivian Springford and Robert Natkin.
[See: 10 Cheap Summer Vacation Destinations.]
Take a History Lesson
While you can learn quite a bit about Chicago's history with a guided tour, there are a few historic spots across the city you may not immediately think to check out. Political wonks shouldn't miss the opportunity to check out President Obama's campaign headquarters. The 11th floor of the Illinois Center along North Michigan Avenue was home to Obama's 2008 campaign office headquarters, while the entire first floor of One Prudential Plaza on East Randolph Street housed Obama's 2012 campaign headquarters. If you consider yourself a news junkie, head to Tribune Tower on North Michigan Avenue. From the exterior of the Tribune Tower, you'll find elements from a variety of historic sites from around the world. Some noteworthy fragments include pieces from Abraham Lincoln's tomb, the Sydney Opera House the World Trade Center and the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple.
Unleash Your Inner Bookworm
For those looking to browse through the novels lining well-stocked shelves, Chicago overflows with bookstores geared toward lit fans. After-Words' two floors of 70,000-plus new and used books is impressive, as are its entryway book displays. Meanwhile, Open Books is the only independent bookstore in the West Loop, and as a literacy nonprofit that provides reading and writing programs for thousands of students every year. Plus, Open Books' impact goes far beyond the West Loop neighborhood, as their programs serve students all over the city. Even better, all of the store's proceeds are distributed to literacy programs in Chicago.
[See: 16 Free Things to Do in the Top Affordable U.S. Destinations.]
Discover Under-the-Radar Restaurants
The dining choices are endless in Chicago, but two crowd-pleasing local haunts in particular are worth noting. Greek Islands, which is set in the popular Greektown neighborhood, first opened its doors in 1971, and has continued to cultivate strong roots in the city's food scene since its debut. With ingredients shipped directly from Greece, you can count on an authentic meal. Saganaki is a popular appetizer here, where servers joyfully shout "OPA!" as they bring out this flaming cheese treat to you. Meanwhile, Art Smith's farm-to-table inspired Blue Door Kitchen & Garden opened to the public in July 2016, but as already developed a loyal following. Formerly Oprah's personal chef, Smith named Blue Door Kitchen & Garden after Oprah's farm in Indiana, Blue Door Farm. You can still find Art's famous fried chicken here as well as Oprah's favorite hummingbird cake.
Sarah Pike, Contributor
Sarah Pike is a freelancer, adjunct professor and wanderlust sufferer. When she’s not writing, ... Read more
Tags: Chicago, travel, vacations
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Portray Jokes
I saw a cartoon portraying a politican like a goat
It was satyr.
What do Autism Speaks and colorblind people have in common?
They both badly portray a spectrum.
The official list of emojis for 2019 has been updated to include a drop of blood, which is meant to symbolize menstruation. Although, if tech companies really wanted to accurately portray the suffering caused by periods...
...they should use an emoji of a husband quietly masturbating in the bathroom.
Activists Sued for Copyright Violation after portraying Trump as Jafar in Aladdin Stage Show.
Judge says Pantomime to Tyrancy was Tantamount to Piracy.
I was really looking forward to Disney's portrayal of Rapunzel when Tangled first came out...
...but her hair was such a let down.
Several years ago, a group of artistic polymaths decided to mathematically represent different styles of painting.
Each of the polymaths was a leading figure in a different field of mathematics, and each pursued and studied a different style of painting. Together, they decided that if they co...
Coronavirus is serious business
I scoffed at how serious the Coronavirus was being portrayed.
Then I realized that I haven’t been invited to the Russian, Ukrainian, or Asian dating sites in my junk folder in weeks!
So there was this guy
So there was this guy, yeah?
He wakes up in the middle of the night, sees an angel standing at the foot of his bed.
Angel says, "Hey, man! Yeah... hate to tell you this, but, um... it's your, uh... time. Yeah."
Dude's all like, "Wait, what? Whaddya mean it's 'my time'?"
Two brothers, John, and Bob, who lived in America and were members of the communist party, decided to emigrate to the USSR.
Even though they didn't believe the American media's negative reports on the conditions in the USSR, they decided to exercise caution. John would go to Russia to test the waters. If they were right and it was a communist paradise, than John would write a letter to Bob using black ink. If, though, th...
North Korea's state media is very truthful
They accurately portray United States as a country where half of it is burning and half of it is drowning.
There was a wealthy Jew who owned a nail company. His only son had just graduated from college and the father wanted to get him involved in the company.
He initially farmed the young man out to each of the departments; first research & development, then manufacturing, then sales, and in each the son was a dismal failure. Determined to find a place for his offspring, the father decided that his son needed his own project.
So the father pla...
Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Steven Seagal decide to make and star in a movie about famous composers...
Bruce: "Okay guys, let's decide which musicians we'd like to portray"
Seagal: "Well, I guess I'll play Beethoven if you guys think that works"
Stallone: "that seems like a good fit. I think I'll be Mozart."
Willis: "Sounds good so far. I'd like to portray Brahms."
*Stall...
Today i realised that Kung Fu Panda was actually a very progressive movie
Not only is the protagonist such a minority that he is literally an endangered species, he is also portrayed by a Black man
Apparently there was a Problem with a request to put Trump's Face on Mount Rushmore
It seems granite isn't a dense enough substance to accurately portray his head
So there's two guys from Brooklyn.
Two guys from Brooklyn attend a special party in Manhattan. It's a costume party where you are supposed to come dressed up as your emotion. So this guy is dressed in all red because he's angry. Another dude is green, with envy, etc.
So the two guys from Brooklyn walk in. One of them is comple...
Since The Simpson's just reached the 600 episode milestone, I'd like to take a moment to remember it's importance to american history ...
Its unwaveringly realistic portrayal of the yellow people's disenfranchisement while pursuing the American Dream is a testament to our nation's tolerant spirit.
A tyrant decides to check on the patience of his people, so he decides to play a game... (Modified political joke)
(Just for the record, this joke I believe is from Arabic and is supposed to portray a certain nation, but I've modified it a little)
He tells his advisers to set up a roadblock in the entrance of the capital to see if anyone speaks up. Nobody does.
After a while, he orders his advisers...
Colonel Custer's widow [NSFW, language]
Heard this on the Sopranos, hopefully won't screw it up.
A few weeks after his death, Col. Custer's widow felt it necessary to commemorate her late husband. She found one of the best painters of the time and asked him to paint a mural of Custer's final moments. A month goes by and the paintin...
Comic-Con Mysteries Panel
A friend of mine went to Comic-Con in San Diego a few years back, and attended a panel on mystery books and movies. Authors and actors there, a large panel, nearly 20 people. Most of the cast of the Sherlock Holmes movies and a few Agatha Christie adaptation were there. One of the audience members a...
Austria, mid-1950s
Once upon a time in an Austrian elementary school, the children were preparing for the school play. This year it was about classical musicians. The teacher asked some students who they'd like to portray in the production. Hans wanted to be Mozart, Johan wanted to be Beethoven, and Karl wanted to be...
An artist is commissioned to create a painting...
portraying Colonel Custer's final thoughts before he died. After 6 months of work, the artist reveals the painting to the museum director.
To the director's dismay, it is a painting of a lake and fish with halos around their heads jumping out of the water. There are also Indians fornicating o...
Ze Magic Octopus (Story Length)
Sorry if its long, I heard it from some dude at guitar center so if I write it wrong I apologize
There was once a Man who traveled with the local fair, portraying his Magical Octopus.
One fair a little boy cam up and said "how is he magical?"
the man replied with " he can sing and p...
representdepictartinterpretdescribeimpersonatepresentillustratediscreditimitatedistinguishconvinceembarrassexposeassertreconciledepictionportraitcommendactplaypicturegraphicillustrationpicturesqueartworkrepainticonicartistportrayingrepresentationartyfrescopainterartisticpaintillustratorportrayedartistrypicgraphicalaestheticiconcollagetaxidermylatexportrayalartsyeaselmural
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Paragraph on Global Warming in English for Students
July 12, 2020 by Editorial Team Leave a Comment
Paragraph on Global Warming in 150 Words
The increase in average global temperature is called Global Warming. The people denying the change in climate argue that the slowdown in temperature rise though studies show that there has been an increase. Global Warming is an outcome of Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Green House Gases collecting and absorbing solar radiation that used to bounce off the surface. The increased heat also increases temperature affecting heatwaves and disturbing the weather.
The outcomes of disturbances in weather are; droughts, desertification, heavier or low rainfall, floods, landslides, melting glaciers, rise in Sea levels, new pests that destroy fisheries and agriculture, etc. The rapid change in the atmosphere is making it hard for a lot of species to adapt, which causes their extinction. The dramatic increase in temperature can burn down forests affecting flora and fauna and the communities that inhabit the forests. There is an urgent need for collectivised efforts to curb climate change.
The unusual and fast increase in Earth’s average temperature is called Global Warming. This increase has considerably been higher in the last century due to human intervention with nature. The release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been one of the primary reasons behind the increase in temperature. The Earth has experienced changes in temperature in the past, which wasn’t an outcome of climate change. In the past century, it has been a rapid and unchanged increase in temperature.
The increased consumption of fossils fuels has increased the concentration of greenhouse gases. The impact of Global Warming is much higher than just jump in temperature. It modifies the rainfall pattern, intensifies coastal erosion, lengthens seasons according to geography, the glaciers and ice caps are melting, and increases the range of chronic and infectious diseases. To be able to predict further changes in climate, scientists built models. These climate models are used to simulate the interactional responses of Ocean and Atmosphere. They predict an increase of around 2*C to 6*C by 21st Century.
Further, the melting of Ice Caps and Glaciers is also exposing dark ocean water during sunlight. The upsurge in water vapour is also alarming, as it is a potent greenhouse gas and also keeps temperature habitable for people. Due to the increase in temperature, Water vapour evaporates and moves from the surface to the atmosphere causing an increase in temperatures. Another affected area is that of clouds; they are responsible for cooling but also absorb infrared energy which affects their working. The change in the environment has also altered our lives.
We are likely to live an unhealthy life than that of our previous generations. The sustainability of Natural Resources is deterred due to climate change. It’s time that we think of the survival of the whole ecosystem.
Long Paragraph on Global Warming (600 Words)
The ongoing hiatus in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system is Global Warming. The rise in temperature plays an imperative role in climate change. There are records of change in temperature in the past. The increase in temperature in the last century has been drastic.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that human influence has been one of the dominant causes of Global Warming since the last 5-6 decades. One of the most significant social impacts has been the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The principal source of these gases is the burning of fossil fuels.
Effects of Global Warming
The extremes in temperature: the most obvious consequences are the rise in temperature around the world. The average temperature has seen an upscale of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) in the past decade. Since they started recording temperatures, 2016 has been the hottest year (NASA/NOAA).
Extremes in Weather Events: the change in weather can affect different places with varying geographies differently. The change occurring in weather causes Polar Jet stream; which makes the margin between warm equatorial air and cold North Pole air to move towards the south, which creates the disparity between weather conditions.
Melting of Icecaps: the quick change in temperature has caused the melting of icecaps, which forms a decrease in permafrost (Permanently frozen ground) by 10%. The decline in permafrost is dangerous as it can cause sudden land collapses or release microbes, which have been present on the surface for long.
Ocean acidification and Sea Levels: the melting of ice and sea-level rise is directly proportional. World Meteorological Organisation stated that the increase in sea level accelerates by 0.12 inches per year worldwide, which is much more than the average increase in the 20th century. The rise of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, this is absorbed by the Oceans, which in turn makes seawater more acidic.
Ways to curb Global Warming
Reduction in waste of water can go a long way in preserving resources. The heat required to treat water is a lot, and it increases carbon pollution. Shorter showers, or turning off the tap while brushing teeth can be of great help.
Buying better bulbs can help conserve energy. LED bulbs require over 80% less energy than conventional bulbs. They are also cheaper and don’t burn a hole in your pocket.
Buying fuel-efficient vehicles can be beneficially in both conserving energy and saving money. If all car’s meet 2025’s clean car standards, which implies that they run 54.5 miles per gallon.
Switching off the fans and lights and unplugging devices once charged can save a lot of energy. This can also help reduce the carbon footprint.
The use of vehicles should be minimized, and more people can take public transport, hence, reducing the waste of energy and control the increase in pollution.
The use of renewable energy instead of non-renewable energy is a mighty sustainable idea. The use of solar energy to power your homes can save up to 70% of the electricity a year, otherwise wasted.
The Earth cannot adapt to the fast-paced change, in its ecosystem, caused due to Global Warming. The conflict of interest between the environment and capitalism is causing a lot of damage to the Earth. It is time to take a step back, get habituated with sustainable ways and conserve non-renewable energy sources to lead a better life.
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Alex Trebek gave a candid speech ‘about coming together and being strong’ in one of his last ‘Jeopardy!’ episodes
Summary List PlacementThe final episodes of “Jeopardy!” starring longtime host Alex Trebek will air throughout the first full week of January.
The six-time Emmy Award-winning host died at the age of 80 on November 8 after battling pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed at Stage 4 in March 2019.
“Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards recently told Entertainment Weekly’s Tyler Aquilina that Trebek was “firm” about continuing to tape episodes amid the pandemic — once COVID-19-related safety precautions were put in place — and up until his death.
Richards said that the host returned to the studio after undergoing intestinal surgery to pre-film “Jeopardy!” 10 days before he died in his home surrounded by family and friends.
“I talked to him seven days before what would end up being his final taping session, and I said, ‘Alex, you’re barely up and around. We have a long way to go before you’re gonna be back in the studio taping,'” Richards told Entertainment Weekly. “He got very firm, which I loved, and he goes, ‘I’ll be there. Don’t you cancel anything.’ And sure as heck, he was. He was a warrior.”
Richards went on to say that he had “chills” during Trebek’s final taping session.
“I was watching him, going, ‘How is he doing this?’ He came in at a higher level than normal, and his normal was excellent,” Richards told Entertainment Weekly.
Richards added that during an episode that was part of Trebek’s final “Jeopardy!” filming session, the host gave an unscripted speech about the holidays.
“On that first episode, he walked out, and you’ll see it when it airs, he gives this amazing speech about the holidays and coming together and being strong and taking care of each other. And we didn’t know he was gonna do that; he just walked out and did it,” Richards said. “And you’ll see in the episode, we all started to clap, and there’s points in ‘Jeopardy!’ where you clap and there’s points in ‘Jeopardy!’ where you don’t; that’s not a normal spot.”
Trebek’s last pre-recorded episodes of “Jeopardy!” will air starting Monday through the first full week of January.
The show previously aired a selection of Trebek’s 10 best episodes during the weeks of December 21 and December 28. On Thanksgiving, the show aired a pre-recorded message of Trebek telling fans to “keep the faith.”
After the last pre-recorded episodes air, a rotating cast of interim guest hosts will take over the show in honor of Trebek’s legacy, the series previously announced. Former “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings will be the first guest host.
Read the full Entertainment Weekly interview here.
18 celebrities and icons we lost in 2020
‘Jeopardy!’ fans are remembering Alex Trebek and his most heartwarming moments from the game show
Alex Trebek pre-recorded a heartfelt Thanksgiving Day message for fans where he asked them to ‘keep the faith’
Champion contestant Ken Jennings will be the first to guest host ‘Jeopardy!’ following death of long-time host Alex Trebek
SEE ALSO: Insider is on Facebook
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Collected Works of Erasmus: Controversies, Volume 77
By Desiderius Erasmus, edited by Charles Trinkaus and Clarence H. Miller
Erasmus' controversies with French, Italian, Spanish, and German critics on theological, social, philological, educational, and other matters are contained in volumes 71-84 of the Collected Works. CWE 76 includes two of his most important disputes with Luther, A Discussion of Free Will and the first part of the Hyperaspistes (usually translated as 'protector' or 'shield-bearer'). Erasmus writes in response to Luther's The Enslaved Will and rebukes Luther for what he considers his high-handed arrogance and his insulting charge that Erasmus is an atheist. In CWE 76, Hyperaspistes 1 deals with a number of general considerations in approaching the question of free will. In CWE 77, Hyperaspistes 2 examines in detail the biblical passages put forth in defence of free will in A Discussion of Free Will and Luther's refutation of that defence in The Enslaved Will. In these two volumes of bitter dispute with Luther, Erasmus shows once again that he is a humanist in his theology and a theologian in this humanism.
Book 2 of Hyperaspistes is important not only for its role in the Reformation quarrel between Erasmus and Luther, but also for Erasmus' lengthy analysis of key passages from the Old and New Testaments.
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Romania: Revolt, indeed. But whose revolt and against who?
Romania – A series of relatively important demonstrations took place in the Romanian capital and some other provincial cities. About 50,000 people (according to the authorities) protested on February 1, 2017, against the new government appointed following the December elections. It is the most important demonstration since December 2014. Unprecedented, the President of the Republic, Klaus Iohannis, openly supports these demonstrations. Some speak of “tineriad”, recycling to the term “mineriad“, but this time referring not to minors but to young people, tineri. The writer Modeste Schwartz gives us his analysis of the events.
To eliminate from the outset any simplistic polemics: yes, a sizable portion of the political staff of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (in power since last December, in the form of the Grindeanu government) is “corrupt” – meaning: they are guilty of taking bribes, abuse of public funds, etc.) as is the entire Romanian political class – without exception! –, and as indeed is (as the Fillon affair now demonstrates) nearly the entirety of European political class. The self-proclaimed captain of the “crusade against corruption” that the European media is currently seeking to frame as a “youth revolution”, the 57-year-old Klaus Johannis (president of Romania), prior to his entry into politics, was a high school physics teacher in his hometown of Sibiu. At that time, a high school teacher in Romania earned less than 300 € / month. This same Johannis (of which evil tongues whisper that he would be the son-in-law of a former high-ranking officer of the communist secret police) owns seven houses in Sibiu (a prosperous tourist town, beautifully restored, where real estate prices are at a premium) and declared, while somehow keeping a straight face, having purchased them on income (otherwise undeclared …) he received from giving private lessons!
As for the new party “United we Save Romania” (USR), which presents itself as the great generational and cultural alternative (unfortunately, totally devoid of any real political program outside the famous “anti-corruption” mysticism), its charismatic leader, the French woman (married to a Romanian) Clotilde Armand, recently stated that she “regrets” having pocketed vast funds “for advisory activities” from the multinational Bechtel corporation, which built in Transylvania one of the shortest and most expensive highways in the history of construction.
Consequently, assuming that Romanians emerge from the political apathy which remains their majority attitude, one would expect “non-political” protests, demanding such changes as amending the constitution, a complete replacement of political personnel, direct democracy, or whatever. This is not the case: the 50,000 protesting “Romanian youth” (official figure, probably overestimated – but, would it be true: the government in place owes its legitimacy to … 4 million ballots – amounting to 80 voters for one protester …) demand explicitly, and increasingly violently and illegally, the fall (and even the banning) of the PSD; as for the alternative in power they are thinking of (during those incredibly rare occasions in which they do actually think), the presence in the ranks of the demonstrators of President Johannis (initially brought to power by the National Liberal Party – PNL, now the main party of the opposition) and USR leaders leaves little room for doubt. The “young, handsome, and free” (according to their own rhetoric) want to replace a corrupt political staff backed by a strong democratic majority by a corrupt political staff with barely any democratic base whatsoever. How can one begin to explain such dementia?
Given that:
Many of the protesters are indeed relatively young, deprived of historical awareness and socioeconomic knowledge by the shipwreck of the Romanian (and European) school system and merely follow alpha males and females from their associative surroundings to protests they often experience as street festivals, and which also provide them a golden opportunity to socialize, flirt etc.; and
Another portion of the demonstrators are NGO activists funded by the organizations of the Soros Galaxy and the political foundations that execute the dirty works of German diplomacy in Eastern Europe,
We see that the above question must be split in two, leading to the description of two sets of motivations:
With regard to sincere demonstrators: what can lead a significant fraction of a given age group to the degree of social masochism and self-hatred that drives a student to desire to overthrow the government that has just provided him with free use of the national train system, a future employee to demonstrate against the power that increased the base salary after a decade of austerity under the umbrella of IMF-Berlin, etc.? Why do Romanians hate themselves, and each other, that much?
Regarding the instigators, and especially their sponsors (i.e. primarily Germany and “Brussels”): why so much hatred? Why are they trying so desperately to bring down the Grindeanu government and the party led by L. Dragnea, at all costs, even though Trump’s victory seems to have deprived them of the secret ingredient (namely the discreet interventions of the secret services under CIA control) which, up until now, ensured the political success of street movements which, in Paris or London, would literally go unnoticed (being, as they are, so marginal and politically amorphous)? Why launch all their troops from the “civil society” in this uncertain battle, at the risk of permanently discrediting them in the event of failure, even though the PSD (which could have repeatedly launched a suspension procedure against Dragnea – and has not done so) seems to be willing to fight with their hands tied, or even to peacefully negotiate?
To answer the first question would require a short treatise on the history and anthropology of Romania, which I shall try to summarize in a later article. For the time being, let us confine ourselves to a very general conclusion: born and raised in a de facto colony where their political behavior (by vote or demonstration) has never had the slightest impact on the real conduct of their country and/or their living conditions, young Romanians literally do not know what politics is, and drool like Pavlov’s dogs to the provocations of professional civil society agitators to participate in these tribal rites of collective purification branded as anti-corruption street festivals.
Answering the second question, on the other hand, requires much less intuition, interpretation, concepts, and philosophy. Indeed, it is sufficient to be informed of the recent steps taken by the Grindeanu government, and of the program of government which it intends to implement in the coming months (which are all in the public domain, but carefully ignored by the Western-controlled Romanian press and almost all of the foreign press) to understand that the Reich-Chancellor Merkel simply cannot accept such a mutiny, or even condescend to negotiate with the mutineers, but requires exemplary punishment – if necessary, according to the methods tested in Kiev.
The Grindeanu government, before adopting those amnesty decrees (objects of much whining to the “young, handsome, and free”) which, contrary to what one reads here and there in the controlled press
were by no means its first measure (see below),
do not “legalize corruption” and do not exonerate all acts of corruption (they only institute a threshold of roughly 40,000€, and it seems, in particular, that the charges held against L. Dragnea are not covered by the amnesty) and
were absolutely necessary – since the PSD would be completely unable to govern with the gun of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (entirely following orders of its Western sponsors) pointed at their collective head,
the Grindeanu government, during the ten days that separated its recent inauguration from the passing of said decrees, did not rest. During this period of just over a week, it has taken significant measures, including:
raising the level of the minimum wage and retirement benefits, thereby nullifying the austerity measures adopted by the governments of the Băsescu presidency (notably the Boc government) under the diktats of the IMF, Berlin, and Brussels; and
announcing a tax exemption for wages of less than € 500 (yes: a month ago in Romania, an EU member state, many employees still paid taxes on wages of € 300 in cities where the rent of a room in a shared flat rarely costs less than 100 € – food prices in supermarkets being roughly at Hungarian levels, i.e. not far from those in Austria).
Not only do these two measures “set a bad example” for all southern and eastern European countries feeling the temptation to shake off the yoke of German ordo-liberalism and to turn to growth policies, but they directly affect the German capital. Germany (i.e. the Bavarian capital and its Austrian auxiliaries) has recently become the main external investor in Romania, followed by France, while the United States (still very present in the early 2000s) seemed, from the presidency of Obama and his Asia Pivot, to be passing the button. The high profitability of these investments (Romanian companies generally presenting a double rate of profit compared to the euro zone average) is mainly based on the unrestrained exploitation of a slave labor force (with a minimum wage precisely calculated in such a way as to allow the miserable survival of an individual without a family and with no rent to pay – the Romanians being, as most Eastern Europeans, usually owners of an apartment in poor condition redeemed from the state at the beginning of the 1990s), resulting in very low social and geographical mobility, an unprecedented demographic decline and the highest emigration rate of non-African countries in the world (higher than that of Syria – including the war period!).
So far, however, I think it would have stayed in the field of the negotiable: some tax gifts to the big German “investors” (like E.on Ruhrgas, who took control of the former state gas monopoly in Transylvania, charging German gas prices to the population for the gas it buys cheap… from Russia), and Munich would have calmed down, leaving as always the small fish and the French investors to pay the expenses of the new policy (the French, however, very present in retail, would not complain too loudly about Grindeanu seeking to add steroids to the purchasing power of the Romanian middle class …).
But here’s the thing: the odious PSD government also plans to create:
a Sovereign Development and Investment Fund (FSDI), such as in Norway, France, Saudi Arabia, etc., which would be fed by the profits of enterprises which remained under state ownership (profits? – this sounds so strange, given that previous governments have claimed that these were “bottomless holes” that should be urgently privatized …), and would serve in particular to endow Romania with the agribusiness links (processing, canning, bottling) it lacks between its enormous agricultural fertility and an internal market of 18 million consumers mostly convinced (rightly) that food produced in Romania is both healthier and more palatable than imported food.
Here, from the point of view of the colonial metropolis, one enters the domain of the non-negotiable. By such a measure, Romania simply plans to unilaterally challenge the status of an extractive colony (source of practically free raw materials and inexpensive migrant labor) assigned to it in the present world order, claiming – if not complete sovereignty, of which it does not have the military means – the status of a productive colony comparable to that of Hungary (where the average wage is about 50% higher, and which suffers less population bleeding to migration).
Thus, here’s who’s revolting right now: Germany, as a colonial metropolis, is revolting against the democratically elected government of Romania (regardless of its numerous charges of corruption – no more and no less than the previous ones or the following ones, or, indeed, those of Europe at large) and seeking to overthrow it by means of a putsch uniting the efforts of the German political foundations (F. Adenauer, F. Ebert, R. Luxemburg) with those of the Soros-financed “civil society” – which, this time , does not even bother to pretend to be apolitical or “trans-partisan”, brazenly calling to call back the government of former European Commissioner Dacian Cioloş, a “technocrat” never elected by anybody, imposed without a parliamentary majority by Johannis in 2014 as the result of a previous Bucharest “maidan”, and which has just been dismissed from power by a massive vote condemning its policy of the previous two years.
It must be said that the EU, now so vehement in its praise, had not facilitated Cioloş’s task: considering that it now controlled its Romanian plantation directly, the colonial metropolis had even decided to cut back a little more, as a result of which Cioloş’s record on the absorption of structural funds, for example, was even more catastrophic than the (notably bad) one of the previous governments. Here is the competent and virginal elite that the “young, handsome, and free” of A. Merkel and G. Soros are currently attempting to restore to power, in defiance of the popular vote. In the light of such developments, we can now consider as completed the EU’s transition (in its aims and methods) to a parasitic structure comparable to the infamous United Fruit Company in Latin America before the neo-Bolivarian revolutions. Death squads are not yet on the scene, but keep up the good work, Mr. Johannis: with effort, you can still become another Pinochet!
Modeste Schwartz
Tags: bucharestcorruptiondemonstrationgermanyiohannismerkelmineriadPSDrevoltRomaniatineriad
Former student at the École Normale Supérieure - rue d'Ulm, linguist, he is also translator and author. After more than fifteen years spent in Romania and Hungary, Modestes Schwartz specialized in the follow-up of Danubian politics.
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Cabinet approves revised cost estimate of North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project for six States for strengthening of the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution Systems
Homepage > Editorial > Cabinet approves revised cost estimate of North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project for six States for strengthening of the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution Systems
vedanga December 16, 2020 no responses
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the Revised Cost Estimate (RCE) of North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) at an estimated cost of Rs. 6,700 crore. This is a major step towards economic development of North Eastern Region through strengthening of Intra – State Transmission and Distribution systems.
The scheme is being implemented through POWERGRID, a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under Ministry of Power in association with six beneficiary North Eastern States namely, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura and is targeted to be commissioned by December 2021. After commissioning, the project will be owned and maintained by the respective North Eastern State Utilities.
The main objective of the project is Government commitment for the total economic development of North Eastern Region and to strengthen the Intra-State Transmission & Distribution Infrastructure in the North East Region.
Implementation of this scheme will create a reliable power grid and improve NER States’ connectivity to the upcoming load centers, and thus extend the benefits of the grid connected power to all categories of consumersof beneficiaries in North Eastern Region.
The scheme shall also increase the per capita power consumption of these States, and shall contribute to the total economic development of the North-Eastern Region.
Implementing agencies are hiring a considerable number of local manpower during their construction works, generating a lot of employment for skilled and unskilled manpower of North-Eastern Region.
Further after completion, additional manpower will be required for Operation & Maintenance of these newly created assets as per standard norms, generating considerable additional employment opportunities for North Eastern Region States.
The Scheme was initially approved in December 2014 as a Central Sector Plan Scheme of Ministry of Power and is being funded with the assistance of World Bank fund and by the Government of India through the Budget support of Ministry of Power on 50:50 basis (World Bank: Gol) except for the capacity building component for Rs 89 crore, which will be entirely funded by the Government of India (Gol).
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6 AI startups win $1.5 million in prizes at Nvidia Inception event
Dean Takahashi@deantak May 10, 2017 6:45 PM
Nvidia's Inception Award winners.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
Nvidia‘s GPU Technology Conference is all about highlighting companies using graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate artificial intelligence. To juice the ecosystem, Nvidia and its partners tonight gave away $1.5 million in prizes to the winner of the Nvidia Inception Awards for best AI startups.
The winners included hottest emerging startup Athelas, most disruptive startup Deep Instinct, and best social impact startup Genetesis. Each of these companies won a $375,000 prize, while $125,000 went to runners-up Focal Systems, Smartvid.io, and Bay Labs.
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Nvidia, which had $6.9 billion in revenues last year, counts more than 1,300 AI startups around the world as participants in its Nvidia Inception program. A couple of weeks ago, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang hosted a Shark Tank-style event called Nvidia Inception to find the best AI startups. Huang and a panel of judges listened to pitches from 14 AI startups across three categories.
Above: Nvidia cofounders Chris Malachowsky (left) and Jen-Hsun Huang.
“It’s because of you that we did all this,” Huang said during the ceremony. “We’re an emerging company too. We built a platform. That platform is only as helpful, successful, and valuable as what you do with it.”
He noted that Nvidia started in 1993 at the dawn of 3D graphics on the PC and it almost went out of business three times before going on to become the biggest surviving stand-alone graphics chip company.
“It’s really courageous what you do,” he said. “Being an entrepreneur and a creator, you put your face on that idea. I know exactly how that feels, and hopefully that feeling never leaves you.”
Cofounder Chris Malachowsky said, “We stood on the shoulders of giants. We incrementally improve what is out there. You guys are doing that on top of us. It’s really inspirational, and you will do the same for the next generation.”
The 14 finalists were filtered from the more than 600 contestants who entered the contest. The judges included Nvidia’s Huang; Gavin Baker, portfolio manager for Fidelity Investments; Tammy Kiely, global head of semiconductor investment banking at Goldman Sachs; Shu Nyatta, investor for the SoftBank Group; Thomas Laffont, senior managing director for Coatue Management; and Prashant Sharma, global chief technology officer for Microsoft Accelerator.
Above: Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at Nvidia.
Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at Nvidia, said in an interview with VentureBeat that the company decided to create a meaningful award to recognize the amazing work being done by AI startups. The three awards focus on the “hottest emerging startup,” the “most disruptive startup,” and the startup with the “most potential for social impact.”
I listened to the companies give their pitches to the judges. At the ceremony today, Kimberly Powell, senior director of business development, said it was a big job to filter so many companies.
About 100 startups entered the contest for best social innovation, where healthcare companies rose to the top. The social impact winner, Genetesis, has created a low-cost blood analysis test that uses graphics processing units (GPUs) to discern which chest pain patients are suffering heart attacks and which are not.
Other finalists in the social impact category were Lunit, which uses an AI-based tool to diagnose breast cancer and other diseases; Insilico Medicine, which uses AI for bio drug discovery; Sigtuple, which uses disease screening technologies through data-driven intelligence; and runner-up Bay Labs, which uses ultrasound and AI to make better diagnostic imaging possible.
Genetesis
Above: Kimberly Powell of Nvidia and Genetesis cofounders.
“This is really crazy because we started out as your classic dorm room startup,” said Peeyush Shrivastava, CEO of Genetesis, at the ceremony. “We as a company intend to save lives, improve quality, and improve efficiency in the hospital.”
Chest pain results in 10 million visits to the emergency room each year in the U.S. It’s a $6.6 billion a year problem, and the ER has a hard time distinguishing between pain that is cardiac-related and the 75 percent of cases that are not.
Genetesis is using deep learning, sensors, and physics to diagnose chest pain properly, said Shrivastava. Normally, you have to be hooked up to an electrocardiogram (EKG) machine. But its results aren’t conclusive, so you have to then go through a six-hour test known as troponin. Those results aren’t conclusive either, so you may have to do a couple more tests.
The whole process takes hours, and physicians often keep patients under observation for many more hours.
About 5 percent of patients are sent home with an undiagnosed heart problem, and 2 percent die at home. Meanwhile, there is about $494 million in inappropriate stress testing, Shrivastava said.
The company has created a test based on a biomagnetic imaging system that monitors the weak magnetic fields that naturally emanate from the chest. It generates a 3D map of the heart that can tell a doctor whether you are having a heart attack or not. A nurse or technician can evaluate a patient in a non-invasive way in 90 seconds. At the patient’s bedside, the doctor can determine if the patient will need a stent.
“We are taking on the global challenge of chest pain triage in the emergency room,” Shrivastava said.
The system uses GPU-accelerated AI to make the diagnosis, and the biomagnetic imaging can also be applied to other tests on brain, liver, and fetal conditions. The system can create thousands of 3D maps per patient with 1-millimeter resolution.
Genetesis has a data partnership with the Mayo Clinic. The startup was founded in Cincinnati in September 2013 and has about 15 employees. It has raised $1.9 million from Mark Cuban, CincyTech, Wilson Sonsini, Danmar Capital, and 43North.
Deep Instinct
Above: Eli David, chief technology officer of Deep Instinct.
Arjun Dutt, director of Inception, presented the award for the most disruptive AI startup. The nominees were runner-up Smartvid.io, which uses AI and computer vision to mine photos and videos for construction site risks; winner Deep Instinct, which uses AI to predict cyber security threats; Cape Analytics, which uses AI and computer vision to help insurance companies write policies for home owners; Konux, which is using AI to enable safe passage of trains on railroad tracks; and DigitalGenius, which uses AI to help companies with better customer service.
The company spent more than a year creating its software to run on Nvidia’s GPUs, and that turned out to be the smartest decision it made, said chief technology officer Eli David, during the ceremony.
Tel Aviv-based Deep Instinct is applying AI to the task of detecting malware. About 1 million new variants of malware are spread every day. Often, a new family of malware is only about 30 percent different from the code of something that came before. Many antivirus vendors focus on detecting known malware in a library, using reactive technology.
But Deep Instinct believes the better solution is deep learning, which can be used to detect unknown malware in real time. It doesn’t detect virus signatures, sandboxing of content, or heuristics. Instead, it only looks at the binary raw details of the file in question. And Deep Instinct doesn’t require frequent updates, said David. It trains the deep learning neural network on hundreds of millions of files. In short, it focuses on prevention, not reaction.
“We do not wait for the attack execution,” David said. “We protect against malware, anything from simple mutations up to nation-state attacks.”
The company built its own deep learning infrastructure from scratch, as it had to develop its own flavor of neural networks. The software runs efficiently on the combination of central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) and Nvidia’s CUDA software for running non-graphics software on graphics chips. The GPUs enable the company to do in a day what would take three months for a CPU.
Deep Instinct prunes 95 percent of the unnecessary processing threads so that it has a much smaller amount of data to analyze. The results are about 99 percent on detection rates, based on independent tests with its customers. By comparison, the competition gets about 80 percent detection.
Deep Instinct has a very low false-positive rate of about 0.1 percent, compared with 2 to 3 percent for a deep-learning rival, David said. And Deep Instinct only has to be updated every few months or so. The company started commercializing its software in 2016, and it expects to generate $10 million in revenue this year.
In 2018, it hopes to add a solution for traffic analysis, and it will expand to all other areas of cybersecurity over time. Rivals include companies like Cylance. Deep Instinct has 65 employes and has raised $50 million from Blumberg Capital, UST Global, CNTP, and Cerracap. The toughest problem is that people don’t understand what is in Deep Instinct’s “black box,” and they want to know how it works. But the company can easily demonstrate how it beats rivals at detecting the same problems, David said, and that usually convinces prospective customers.
Athelas
Above: Tanay Tandon, founder of Athelas
Jeff Herbst presented the award for the hottest emerging startup. Besides winner Athelas, the nominees included Deep Gram, which uses deep learning AI to recognize spoken words; Datalogue, which uses AI to clean up data before it has to be analyzed; and runner-up Focal Systems, which is using AI to automate checkout at retail and to help identify out-of-stock items.
Herbst joked that Athelas’ business plan is very similar to that of Theranos, the blood analysis company that crashed and burned in a fraud scandal.
“Try not to be Theranos,” he said as he handed the award to Tanay Tandon, founder of Athelas.
Tandon said that Athelas has made an inexpensive machine that is focused on just one of the most common types of blood tests.
Using computer vision and deep learning algorithms, Athelas has created a machine that looks at a drop of blood and identifies how many white blood cells it has, said Tandon.
“Blood is the window into someone’s health,” said Tandon. “The core of what makes it possible is deep learning.”
The imaging system has a patented flow test strip that can spread the drop out to a single cell layer. After it is scanned, the convolutional neural network goes to work on identifying what is in the sample. It can identify problems in a couple of minutes, and it can then tell you the results of the test much more quickly than current methods. It can detect white blood cell trends, leukemia, infections, inflammation, and other problems.
Athelas is going after a $50 billion market. The machine costs about $250 to make, and Athelas sells it for about $500. It can also generate about $5 in revenue per test. That is far less expensive than standard lab tests, which typically cost $30 to $50 each. Moreover, Tandon said, about $100 billion is wasted every year in treating diseases that are diagnosed late.
The company did a clinical trial with 350 patients, and it identified undetected leukemia in one patient. It is now doing about 100 tests per week with full accuracy, Tandon said. He hopes to ship about 10,000 machines by the end of the year.
The company has six employees, and it has raised $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator. The product has been clinically validated and is undergoing clearance from the Food and Drug Administration. Athelas (named after a healing plant in The Lord of the Rings) was formed in May 2016.
Over time, Athelas could expand the testing to other kinds of liquid analysis, such as urine. The company would like to focus on selling a subscription model with a monthly fee for a certain number of tests.
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What Ails the Press? It Ails Itself
May 24, 2011 by White House Chronicle 2 Comments
It was Thomas Carlyle who told us that Edmund Burke, in a parliamentary debate in 1787 on the opening of press coverage of the House of Commons, declared, “there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.”
In the context of Parliament, the other three estates would have been the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal and the Commons.
Burke's phrase stuck. More than two centuries later, the Fourth Estate is preserved, but is it powerful?
Here in Washington, it is losing respect rapidly. Today Burke, who was praising the independence of the reporters in ushering over two centuries of media standing up to authority, might wonder if he had overstated their zeal. Three and a Half Estates he might have decided.
The crisis in the media, as some of us believe, is not in the decline of newspapers, the shrinking of viewership for traditional television news, or the growth of partisan cable news, but rather in two other unrelated but dangerously coincidental trends.
The first of these is that the establishment in Washington now believes it doesn't need the media in the way that the media was believed to be needed traditionally. No longer do those hoping to influence Congress begin by selling their point of view to the media by lunching reporters, persuading editorial boards and courting columnists. Instead lobbyists go straight to Congress, where the game is to buy the votes they need with campaign contributions. Who needs the media to stir up popular support when the deed can be done with silver?
Gerald Cassidy, maybe the most successful K Street lobbyist of them all, lamented this change to me at lunch about 10 years ago. It has simply gotten worse.
Cassidy worried about the lack of public support for major legislation passed under lobby pressure. He also lamented how little time a lobbyist got with a member — how little time to dwell on the merits of a course of action.
Cassidy became a very wealthy man lobbying, but he yearned for a fair fight. The old-fashioned way, if you will.
This new state of affairs can be felt in the decline of interest in the general media by public relations firms who used to court every reporter in Washington. Now they “counsel” their clients; offer “strategic planning” and — oddly, as they take little notice of the media — a strange hybrid called “media training.” What media? Their other big new product is to keep reporters away from influential people: the people reporters need to talk to.
In case you think this is peculiarly a Washington phenomenon, it is not. At a recent meeting of the Association of European journalists in Maastricht, the Netherlands, speaker after speaker from country after country complained about those who allegedly are paid to facilitate press access in business and in government and instead wall off their masters.
The second downward trend is a pervasive pusillanimity that has gripped the media in the last several years. We allow ourselves to be segregated, corralled and de facto licensed.
At the White House, the press briefings are like feeding time for the dolphins at Sea World. We, the correspondents, sit around waiting for the keeper, press secretary Jay Carney, to bring in the dead fish. He throws most of it to the network correspondents, sitting grandly in the first two rows where they engage him in long conversations. Finally, Carney tosses some squid to the print reporters in the back of the room and an occasional minnow to the foreign press.
The problem is not that Carney does that but that we take it.
Likewise we can't walk without an escort to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, as we used to and a minder sits in on our interviews. And we take it.
The press conferences are rigged. Regular correspondents don't get to ask questions, just a predictable few — yes, those with the fishy breath from the front row.
Some old timers spoke up and lambasted the press at a meeting in Washington this week. Former Washington Post reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Haynes Johnson said, “It's all very stale, very structured, very pale.” Sid Davis, a former NBC bureau chief, said the press conferences look as though the correspondents are watching a funeral service.
And longtime NBC and ABC correspondent Sander Vanocur said, “You want to know what's wrong with the press? The press is what's wrong with the press.” — For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate
Filed Under: King's Commentaries Tagged With: Edmund Burke, English Parliament, Fourth Estate, Gerald Cassidy, Haynes Johnson, lobbying, press, public relations, Sander Vanocur, Sid Davis, Thomas Carlyle, White House press corps
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For Rainy DaysPhil Crothers2020-07-08T18:30:41+01:00
Things To Do on a rainy day near Wheeldon Trees Farm
There’s so much to do in the local area if the weather is a little more rainy than you would like…
Linda Winstanley2017-07-18T09:27:27+01:00
Activities for Families, Family Friendly, For Rainy Days, Heritage Sites, Historic Houses, Local Area, Museums & Galleries
Lyme Park A fine Italianate house in Disley, Cheshire, on the edge of the Peak District. Used by the BBC in their adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' - this is where Mr D'Arcy lived.
Sudbury Hall and the Museum of Childhood Once the home of the Vernon family, a fine and highly individual late 17th Century house between Derby and Uttoxeter. It also houses the recently re-opened 'Museum of Childhood'
Pooles Cavern
Activities for Families, Days Out, Family Friendly, For Rainy Days, Local Area, Museums & Galleries, Privilege Card
Take a tour down beneath the earth at Pooles Cavern to explore vast limestone caverns and stalactites that have hung in the chambers for millions of years. You can also walk through beautiful woodland trails for an amazing panoramic view of the Peak District.
Haddon Hall
Activities for Families, Family Friendly, For Rainy Days, Heritage Sites, Historic Houses, Local Area, Privilege Card
Dating from the 12th Century to the early 17th Century and probably the finest example of a fortified medieval manor house, Haddon Hall was restored in the 1920s, by the 9th Duke and Duchess of Rutland. As featured in many period films and TV dramas, Haddon provides a unique view of early English life and history.
Home to the Duke and Duchess of Deveonshire, Chatsworth has been hoem to 16 generations of the Cavendish family. Chatsworth is renowned for the quality of its art and landscape and with a reasonably priced Farm Shop Restaurant, it is a great day out for all the family.
Activities for Families, Family Friendly, For Rainy Days, Heritage Sites, Local Area
Why not enjoy a night out at the famous Buxton Opera House. There are concerts and performances all year round, including the International Festival each July.
Click on an image to check out the Tripadvisor review…
Brierlow Bar Bookstore
A veritable cornucopia – thousands of books and much more besides…
A great way to discover new interests – or re-discover old ones !
Buxton Swimming & Fitness Centre
Swim, gym – or fancy a sports massage ?
Dedicated indoor play areas for babies, toddlers and juniors 0-10 years – plus a tasty cafe…
Masson Mills Shopping Village
Five floors of… just about everything you could wish to browse and buy…
… and there’s a working textile museum.
All housed in a World Heritage Mill built by Sir Richard Arkwright…
Chatsworth House Farm Shop
Rated one of the best in England – stock up on some fantastic produce and come back to your cottage to cook up a feast…
The Spa at Losehill House
A great chill-out – and a fabulous restaurant as well
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Watch Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin Cover ‘Mississippi Queen’
Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin released the third in their Hannukah Sessions series of covers, celebrating the work of Jewish artists during the faith’s winter festival.
The Foo Fighters leaders and the band’s producer opened proceedings last week by performing the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” then followed it up with Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” The latest addition was Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen,” which can be seen below.
“Talk about making a mountain out of a mohel,” they said in a statement. “[N]amed Leslie Weinstein at his bris, the singer of our next band built a wailing wall of guitar as Leslie West. Check out our take on a track from Leslie’s monolithic band, Mountain.”
“I’m fucking this cup up so bad right now,” Grohl says of the container he’s using in place of a cowbell during the recording. Several YouTube viewers picked up on the line, leaving comments that included: “Dave Grohl is my favorite cup player,” “Dave knew he would be doing a disservice to the Jewish community, and to the song, if he didn't play the hell out of that cup,” and “I was searching for ‘1 Grohls 1 Cup’ and ended up here. Not mad about it.”
Mountain released “Mississippi Queen” in 1970, and it appeared on their debut album Climbing! The same year. It became their highest-charting single, reaching No.21, and it’s been covered a number of times over the past five decades, including Ozzy Osbourne’s 2005 version.
“The song’s got three chords,” West said of his composition in August 2020. “Any idiot can play it. I just happen to play it better than anybody!” He added: “[It] has just everything you need to make it a winner. You’ve got the cowbell, the riff is pretty damn good, and it sounds incredible. It feels like it wants to jump out of your car radio. To me, it sounds like a big, thick milkshake. It’s rich and chocolatey. Who doesn’t love that?”
Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin - ‘Mississippi Queen’
Mountain - ‘Mississippi Queen’
Top 100 Albums of the '90s
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Source: Watch Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin Cover ‘Mississippi Queen’
Filed Under: Dave Grohl
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Six Decades after the Korean Armistice: The U.N. Functions as Agency of Conflict in Korea
Christof Lehmann on 2013-07-20
Six decades after the armistice agreement that ended the Koran war, Korea remains a divided country. The continued division of Korea, an artifact of Japanese imperial ambitions in Asia, the second world war, the Korean war and the clash of the communist and capitalist blocks, and an artifact of US imperial ambitions in Asia which dwarf those of imperial Japan, is keeping one nation and one people bitterly divided.
Pitched against one another by U.S. hegemony, compatriots are ready for a mass bloodletting on the peninsula that would, in case the unthinkable happens, dwarf the unspeakable suffering of the Korean war.
Korea is a showcase of imperialist insanity and inhumanity. Korea is also a showcase that indicates, that the United Nations, as an instrument for peace, is so deeply infested with systemic problems, so dangerously arrogant in its foundations, and so criminally complicit in countless wars of aggression from Korea to Libya and beyond, that many analysts argue, that unless radical and comprehensive reform is being implemented within the end of this decade, the United Nations, then fully hedged as Global Empire of Evil, will not be safe to salvage, and it must then be dismantled for the sake of peace, justice and humanity.
Showcase Korea.
Over the recent years, the United Nations Security Council has adopted a series of resolutions on Korea. Purportedly the resolutions were adopted with the intention to safeguard peace and security on the Korean peninsula.
At the most basic level of analysis one recognizes the fact, that many of those resolutions on Korea, as it was the case with countless other resolutions, such as theUNSC Resolution 1973 (2011) on Libya, violate the principles and provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
Even the nearsighted observer observes, that justice, according to United Nations standards, is far from being blind.
This dangerous trend has become so deeply engraved into the fabric of the United Nations, that it has perverted the perception of the world´s general populations as well as the perception of those who are endowed with political and diplomatic powers and privileges. What has been perverted, are perceptions and concepts of normativity and normality in the interpretation and application of international law.
This trend has progressed to such a degree, that bending the law, based on scapegoating and positioning for geo-political benefit has become the order of the day. In other words, despotism has become the order of the day at the United Nations.
The sole factor that so far, to some degree, has slowed down the rise of one, global tyranny, and mitigated the effects is, that the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council do not always vote concurrently, that they, so to speak, secure “their own realm” or hegemony and thus slow the the progression. The others, that is the vast majority of the worlds populations and UN Member States, are at the mercy of appeasement under the pretense of partnership and hope.
Hope, that the one or the other of the big boys, of the bullies with the bombs, finds it opportune and suitable for his own geo-political ambitions and stratagems, to oppose the other bully´s perversion of international law and the powers that the big boys have granted to themselves when founding the “United Nations”.
This most dangerous state of affairs has become so “normal”, so “informally normative”, that that, what was supposed to be normal and normative is no longer rooted in the reality and actuality of politics and unrecognizable when it is compared to the letters and the purported spirit of documents such as the charter of the United Nations.
Perversion has become the order of the day and nobody, but the few, who are at the receiving end of this“perverted international justice” are paying any attention any longer.
Even the most basic analysis reveals a return to accepting that as normal, which has been shunned and abolished after a more than thirty year-long war in Europe brought unspeakable suffering and killed such large parts of European empires´ populations, that the emperors of old agreed, “never again”.
The Treaty of Westphalia enshrined the essence of these lessons once, but sadly not for all, into the Zeitgeist of humanity. That interference into the internal affairs of sovereign states is outlawed, because it inevitably leads to catastrophes. The Treaty of Westphalia later became the root principle on which the drafting of the Charter of the United Nations was based.
How “normal” it has become to pervert the provisions, which the Charter of the United Nations declares to benormative according to the new Zeitgeist, is showcased by a statement by Nobel peace laureate Dr. Henry Kissinger, who speculated, whether the principle of non-interference, enshrined in the UN Charter, would be applicable for the nations in the Middle East.
After all, so Kissinger, their borders have been arbitrarily drawn by the former colonial powers. It is also showcased by a response to Dr. Kissinger´s statement by the author of this present article.
UNSC Resolutions Pertaining Korea – Violations of International Law.
The UNSC Resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009) and 2094 (2013) which were adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, as well as Resolution 2087 (2013) are violations of international law. The resolutions contain provisions that:
Violate the sovereign rights of the Democratic Peoples´Republic Korea, DPRK, under the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (Space Treaty).
Arguments have been constructed and used against the DPRK, as if the launching of a satellite was comparable with the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, armed with nuclear warheads.
That, even though those nations who voted concurrently in favor of the resolution all have major arsenals of ICBM´s with a potential to murder the worlds population several times over.
There can be no misunderstanding, or claims that those nations would not have experts, who could have explained to their policy makers, that any ICBM requires
a) a reentry shield
b) a targeting mechanism activated at reentry
c) a warhead.
Even an amateur can recognize the difference between a satellite launch vehicle and an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile. It is not rocket science.
Violate the sovereign right to self-defense of the DPRK by attempting to ban legitimate nuclear activities of the DPRK, while these same activities are permitted in the case of permanent members of the UN security Council.
Legitimate activities by the DPRK are sanctioned with illegitimate sanctions which in and on themselves are violations of international law, based on the not legally valid reference to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, NPT. This is done, even though the DPRK has made use of its legitimate right to declare its withdrawal from the treaty on 10 January 2003.
The USA has countless times threatened the people of the DPRK with a nuclear attack and continues threatening. Not least during the annual military exercises in Korea. The USA is the only nation that has ever used nuclear weapons against a defenseless, civilian population, incinerating tens of thousands, and murdering and maiming hundreds of thousands more over generations.Attempt to create and apply double standards with regards to international law and the DPRK in violation of the Charter of the United Nations. Constructs are created and applied on the DPRK, which do not apply to any other sovereign nation, and which especially don´t apply for those permanent members of the UN Security Council.
All permanent UNSC members, the bullies with the bombs, claim for themselves the right to develop and use nuclear weapons as they see fit.
Weapons, which the United States, as the only nation ever, has used in anger against another nation, when it murdered tens of thousands and maimed millions for generations, by using them against the unprotected and utterly helpless, non-combatant civilian people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world must not forget that day of true infamy and horror.
Weapons, which the United States, time and time again has brandished as a nuclear stick, to threaten the DPRK and its government while it sponsors a resolution to for punitive action against an entire people, because the country develops that, what sadly is perceived as the only effective deterrent against a Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the Korean peninsula. A credible nuclear deterrence.
Weapons, which any of the permanent members of the UN Security Council possess, and which use by themselves they sanction as “normal”, because they themselves are in a situation that allows them to decide what is legitimate for them.
Specifically target the development of the DPRK´s economy, knowing that the compatibility of the North- and South- Korean national economies is one of the most important preconditions for a peaceful and just reunification of Korea; and knowing, that the sanctions are designed with the attempt to starve and impoverish the people of the DPRK by depriving them from the basic rights which the United Nations purportedly should safeguard, and that, with the specific intention to create inner political tensions as well as tensions between the North and the South of the divided country.
Korea is a United Nations Showcase
Six decades after the signing of the armistice that ended armed hostilities on the Korean peninsula, Korea shows that the United Nations is no longer safe to salvage, unless radical and comprehensive changes are made within the end of this decade.
The interference into the internal affairs of sovereign nations, the justification of sanctions and war of aggression under the pretense of a“responsibility to protect” must be brought to an end.
A system, in which the victors of the second world war have endowed themselves with primacy and supremacy over others cannot other than lead to conflict, tyranny or both.
The United Nations, as it stands today, is rapidly perverting into an institution, by which modo-colonialist powers attempt to sanction their abuse of not-so-privileged nations. Justice, national sovereignty and peace, must not be dependent on, whether one of the bullies finds it opportune to stand with a targeted nation in apparent solidarity or not.
Justice is not Justice unless it is blind, and even a blind man can see that there is no such thing as Justice with the United Nations today.
Even the International Criminal Court has degenerated into a globally criticized perversion of justice. A modo-colonial instrument of injustice in the hands of modo-colonialist masters and emperors. Its victims are not only Slobodan Milosevic or Laurent Gbagbo, Serbia and Ivory Coast, but the essence of humanity and justice, globally.
Sixty years after the Korean armistice, the people of Korea have deserved peace. Six decades after the end of the Korean war, the United Nations functions as agency of conflict. Korea is a United Nations showcase. United Nations Justice today is tyranny. We, humanity, cannot let this stand.
Dr. Christof Lehmann who is one of the frequent contributors for The 4th Media is the founder and editor of nsnbc. He is a psychologist and independent political consultant on conflict and conflict resolution and a wide range of other political issues. His work with traumatized victims of conflict has led him to also pursue the work as political consultant. He is a lifelong activist for peace and justice, human rights, Palestinians rights to self-determination in Palestine, and he is working on the establishment of international institutions for the prosecution of all war crimes, also those committed by privileged nations. On 28 August 2011 he started his blog nsnbc, appalled by misrepresentations of the aggression against Libya and Syria. In March 2013 he turned nsnbc into a daily, independent, international on-line newspaper. He can be contacted at nsnbc international at nsnbc.wordpress@gmail.com
http://nsnbc.me/2013/07/16/six-decades-after-the-korean-armistice-the-u-n-functions-as-agency/
UN General Assembly Resolution on Syria demonstrates why the UN Should be Abolished
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Tags: Conflict, Korea, peace, United Nations
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Dealing With Special Days and Holidays
Honoring on Memorial Day
Kathleen L. Flint
Recommend Kathleen's obituary to your friends
Plant A Tree for Kathleen Flint
Obituary of Kathleen L. Flint
Kathleen L. Flint Pine Bush, NY Kathleen Louise (Clark) Flint, 76, of Pine Bush, New York, died peacefully while holding her husband’s hand on January 5th, 2021 after a short hospital stay due to a sudden brain aneurysm. Kathleen was born on February 16, 1944 to Raymond Clark and Marjorie Wilson Clark in Brockport, New York. In high school, she worked at The Strand Theater operating the popcorn machine, enjoying the perks of free popcorn and movies. After graduating from Brockport High School, Kathleen worked at Taylor Instruments in Rochester, New York. Her colleagues there encouraged her to pursue her certification as an Radiologic Technician. After completing a year of study and earning her certification, she worked as a radiology technician at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, New York. It was there that her supervisor introduced her to her brother, Charles A. Flint, and after a year of dating, they were married in Brockport, New York on April 30, 1966. They would have celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary this April. During her lifetime, Kathleen worked as assistant Brownie Troop leader in Schenectady, NY; as a volunteer teaching assistant at Estes Park Elementary School in Estes Park, Colo; as a teaching assistant at Tiny Tots Day Care in Monroe, NY; as a volunteer at the Walden Humane Society, and as a tour guide during the Halloween season at Hodgson’s Farm in Walden, NY. Kathleen made her family her priority and excelled at supporting and encouraging all of her children and grandchildren through life’s difficult times. She was the most open-minded person you could ever meet, accepting everyone regardless of race, creed, religion, sexuality or past mistakes. She was predeceased by her parents, her five brothers (Raymond, Robert, Kenneth, William and David) and her sister (Patricia). She is survived by her husband, Charles A. Flint, her daughter Bethany Flint Ganley (and significant other James Waterman), her son David C. Flint, and her daughter Molly Mancuso (and significant other Cody Carroll). She was the best Mima and deeply loved by her grandchildren Christopher Ganley, Finnegan Flint, and Charlotte Carroll, as well as her step-grandchildren Madison, Jamie and Kenny Waterman. Additionally, she is survived by her sister-in-law Rosemary Flint of Spencerport, NY; brother-in-law William Marmon of Port Leydon, NY; sister-in-law Dorothy Clark of Brockport, NY and many nieces and nephews and their families. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in her honor to the Humane Society of Walden, 2489 Albany Post Road, Walden, NY 12586. A memorial service is not planned at this time. To leave an online condolence, please visit www.wmgaganfuneralhome.com
William M. Gagan Funeral Home Inc. - Proudly Serving Pine Bush, NY and all of our surrounding communities.
"A Reputation Built on Friendly and Caring Service."
Our funeral home is a independently owned and operated business. We are large enough to give our families the same service as the largest funeral homes around, yet we are small enough that each family receives the level of attention and care they deserve in their hour of need
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Big Bang Theory Cast And Crew Raise Over $5mil For Scholarships
22nd March, 2018
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 07: (L-R) Producer Chuck Lorre, actors Mayim Bialik, Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Allison Janney, Melissa Rauch, Simon Helberg, Kaley Cuoco and Kunal Nayyar attend The 41st Annual People's Choice Awards at Nokia Theatre LA Live on January 7, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
The cast of hit US sitcom The Big Bang Theory has established a scholarship for students studying science and maths at the University of California.
The Emmy-winning series features characters who are physicists and engineers.
Now the actors, in partnership with show co-creator Chuck Lorre’s Family Foundation, have set up a scholarship for aspiring scientists at the top Los Angeles institution.
Lorre’s organisation and nearly 50 of The Big Bang Theory crew and cast members, including Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, have raised more than $US4 million ($A5.23 million) for The Big Bang Theory Scholarship Endowment.
It will benefit 20 incoming undergraduate students in need of financial aid and looking to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at the university.
“We have all been given a gift with The Big Bang Theory, a show that’s not only based in the scientific community, but also enthusiastically supported by that same community,” Lorre said in a statement.
The partnership marks the first scholarship endowment created and funded by a television show at UCLA.
Even Mark's Jealous Of Annastacia Palaszczuk Meeting A Celeb
Remember “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo”?
How John Farnham got to record his hit “You’re The Voice"
Laurel, Gary & Mark remember radio legend Bert Robertson
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One of Denver's most devastating hailstorms happened 30 years ago
The hailstorm was Colorado's most damaging until 2017, and may have pushed a 13-year-old towards a career in weather.
Published: 4:41 PM MDT July 11, 2020
Updated: 2:13 PM MDT July 12, 2020
BOULDER, Colo. — On July 11, 1990, a thunderstorm gave Colorado a new definition of how bad a hailstorm could be.
The storm took a very unusual path, coming from the north and clinging to the west of Interstate-25 all the way to El Paso County. It hit peak intensity over the west Denver metro area.
Golf ball to baseball size hail slammed a large portion of the Denver area. Boulder, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Golden and Lakewood took the heaviest damage.
At the time, the $625 million in damage far surpassed a June 1984 storm, which was also in the Denver metro area, as Colorado's most damaging hailstorm.
When adjusted to 2020 dollars, the damage from the July 1990 storm stands at $1.23 billion, according to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association. That benchmark that would stand atop the list of Colorado's most damaging hailstorms until May 8, 2017, when a even more destructive storm caused $2.4 billion (adjusted for 2020) in damage.
That storm impacted Coloradans in many different ways, including a 13-year-old teenager who witnessed the storm from his home in Boulder. It may have inspired him to become a meteorologist.
“There was something unique about this storm, that kind of changed me a little bit," said Paul Schlatter who took a few quarter to half-dollar size hailstones to the shoulder while running for cover. "Seeing something that just looks so nasty and so unusual and that did so much damage. From that day on I knew I wanted to warn for those storms, and I knew I wanted to do it in Colorado.”
Schlatter, the son of a meteorologist, said he was already leading towards studying weather in college, but the July 1990 hailstorm certainly solidified those plans.
Credit: Paul Schlatter
Paul Schlatter as a teenager in Boulder. He said was always fascinated by Colorado Weather.
RELATED: Several tornadoes reported in northeastern Colorado Wednesday evening
He said experiencing that storm in person was a sight to behold, and he was even more taken when hearing what the storm had done to the rest of the city.
"There was so much hail, it just shredded every tree in its path," Schlatter said. "Cars in the path, forget it. They were totaled completely. Anything in the path did not fare well in that storm.”
He said 49 people were injured at the amusement park, including a friend from his baseball team.
"He was stuck on the sky-ride at Elitch Gardens when the power went out," said Schlatter. "Fortunately, the top of the awning protected his head and torso, but his legs got pummeled by golf ball size hail falling at 80 to 90 miles per hour."
His friend showed up for their baseball game the next day, but Schlatter said he wasn't running quite at full speed.
After that storm, Schlatter devoted his time to learning all there was to know about hailstorms. He earned his master’s in Meteorology at Oklahoma University and became an expert in radar analysis.
Schlatter was assigned to the National Weather Service office in Boulder, Colorado in 2016, after taking his first meteorologist job in the organization in 2003.
RELATED: Alamosa sets record high and record low temperature in the same day
Eventually he returned home to work at the National Weather Service in Boulder where he is now one of the meteorologists responsible for issuing warnings on storms like beast in 1990.
There he covers four million people, in 22 northeastern Colorado counties.
“That’s my passion. It’s getting the word out that a severe storm like this is coming," he said." I don’t think it gets any better than that for me. And how much I enjoy doing that for the citizens of Colorado.”
July has been historically a bad hail month for Colorado, but then again, what month hasn't?
The now most destructive storm happened in May. Four of the top 10 worst hailstorms in the state happened in June. The record largest hailstone ever recorded in our state fell in August last year. We typically say that a hailstorm like the one in July 1990, can happen any day between May 1, and the end of September, but there was even a rouge hailstorm on October 1, 1994 that still stands as the Colorado's 10th most destructive hailstorm.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Science is Cool
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Syracuse, New York, USA. 10th Feb, 2020. Stony Brook Seawolves celebrate following an NCAA womens lacrosse game against the Syracuse Orange on Monday, Feb, 10, 2020 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Stony Brook won 17-16. Rich Barnes/CSM/Alamy Live News
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Image ID: 2BEFY2B
acccollegelaxpressstony brooksyracuse orangewomen
Syracuse, New York, USA. 10th May, 2014. A student from the Syracuse University School of Architecture wears the words 'HIRE ME' on his graduation cap during the commencement ceremony for the School of Architecture at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. © Nicolaus Czarnecki/ZUMAPRESS.com/Alamy Live News
Maj. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, 10th Mountain Division (LI) and Fort Drum commanding general, presents a commander's coin to Robert Huni and his daughter Mary Ryan, during their visit Oct. 17 at Fort Drum, New York. Ryan, a North Syracuse resident and Syracuse Team Red, White and Blue member, ran the inaugural Memorial to Monument Run from Fort Drum to Watertown in September in honor of her father. (
Syracuse, New York, USA. 10th May, 2014. A student from the Syracuse University School of Architecture wears the words 'HIRE ME' on his graduation cap during the commencement ceremony for the School of Architecture at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/ZUMAPRESS.com/Alamy Live News
Maj. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, 10th Mountain Division (LI) and Fort Drum commanding general, shares some history at Memorial Park with Mary Ryan and her father Robert Huni during their visit Oct. 17 at Fort Drum, New York. (
Maj. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, 10th Mountain Division (LI) and Fort Drum commanding general, Robert Huni, Mary Ryan and Eric Wagenaar, deputy garrison commander, stand for a photo in front of the Military Mountaineer Monument in Memorial Park on Oct. 17 at Fort Drum, New York. Ryan and her father were invited to Fort Drum after she wrote about her experience running the Memorial to Monument Run in September. (
Syracuse, New York, USA. 10th Feb, 2020. Stony Brook Seawolves head coach Joe Spallina walks on the field prior to an NCAA womens lacrosse game against the Syracuse Orange on Monday, Feb, 10, 2020 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Rich Barnes/CSM/Alamy Live News
Syracuse, New York, USA. 10th May, 2014. A student from the Syracuse University School of Architecture celebrates receiving his diploma by taking a 'selfie' photograph with his classmates in the background during the commencement ceremony for the School of Architecture at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/ZUMAPRESS.com/Alamy Live News
Syracuse, New York, USA. 10th Feb, 2020. Stony Brook Seawolves players celebrate a goal during an NCAA womens lacrosse game against the Syracuse Orange on Monday, Feb, 10, 2020 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Stony Brook won 17-16. Rich Barnes/CSM/Alamy Live News
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Trace: • the_roaring_nineties
Boom and Bust: Seeds of Destruction
Miracleworkers, or Lucky Mistakes?
The All-Powerful Fed and Its Role in Inflating the Bubble
Deregulation Run Amok
The Banks and the Bubble
Tax Cuts: Feeding the Frenzy
Making Risk a Way of Life
Globalization: Early Forays
Toward a New Democratic Idealism: Vision and Values
Further Lessons on How to Mismanage the Economy
The Roaring Nineties, Joseph Stiglitz, London: Penguin, 2003
If wars, as Clemençeau famously said, are too important to be left to generals, economic development and global economic stability are too important to be left to the finance ministers and central bankers of the advanced industrial countries, and the international institutions they oversee, the World Bank and the IMF. Certainly that is the case if we want to create a more democratic and stable global system. –page 222
After the recession of 1990-91, the nineties were a decade of progressively more exuberant growth which reached extreme levels towards the end of the decade. When Clinton arrived in 1992 the economy was beginning a weak, jobless recovery, but before long jobs were being created: 10 million from 1993-97 and a further 8 million from 1997-2000. By April 2000 unemployment was down to 4 per cent for the first time in three decades, well below the supposed NAIRU of 6.0-6.2 per cent.1) But, especially in the latter stages, this was a classic bubble, resulting in a sudden crash during the course of 2000-02. The stock market crash and accompanying leap in unemployment from 3.8 to 6.0 per cent was followed by a spate of bankruptcies amid corporate scandal, including Enron and Arthur Anderson.
There were two broad reasons that the bubble was mismanaged, leading to the inevitable and destructive collapse:
A growing imbalance in the role of government: in the aftermath of Reagan and Bush I, the political landscape had moved decisively towards deregulation. The prevailing perception was that any removal of regulation would be good for the economy, that government no longer had a role to play in ensuring that markets had access to good information or limiting the risks being taken by market participants.
A search for growth without investment: under Reagan and Bush I, the gap between savings and investment had been continually growing (and continued to do so under Clinton, accelerating under Bush II). Voodoo economics (Reaganomics), which postulated that cutting taxes would raise tax revenues (by increasing economic activity and thus the tax base) pathetically failed to justify the tax cuts and consequential deficits opened up by Reagan and Bush I. The investment balance between the public and private sector suffered from the culture of downsizing government – investment in education and research dwindled whilst private in new technology enterprises increased vastly (which largely turned out eventually to be sheer waste) in an attempt to gain a 'first-mover advantage' in these markets.
To make things worse, this was a decade in which America was evangelically exporting the economic system which was on the brink of collapse, and the world was sharply divided between those areas that accepted this advice and joined the US in its collapse (especially Latin America and later on SE Asia) and those which ignored it and prospered (SE Asia early in the decade).
By this point in history, economics lay at the centre of politics and more or less determined a party's electability. Economic models now accurately predicted the results of most presidential elections based on economic variables alone (except in 2000, when they predicted a Gore landslide…). The Federal Reserve, an independent institution, now had a great deal of power over the central government – economic performance was at least as much down to the Fed's management as the government's, and yet the government bore the brunt of voters' reactions to the Fed's decision-making.
When Clinton entered office the double deficit was enormous, and the economy faced further problems: investment in education and research had dived and the economy was mostly surviving on the basis of past investments.
In the early eighties, the Volcker-headed Fed (reasserting the primacy of monetarism in inflation control) raised interest rates to 15 per cent to control inflation that was largely a result of oil price hikes. Inflation came down from 13.5 per cent in 1980 to 3.2 per cent in 1983, but unemployment soared to 9.7 per cent – highest level since the Great Depression. Further, the Savings and Loan (S&L) associations, banks which dealt mainly in home mortgages were devastated by the changes, since they leant mostly at fixed interest but borrowed at floating rates. The Reagan administration tried to cover up their problems by permitting them to invest more riskily in the hope that they would fluke their way out of trouble – in the knowledge that their failure would show up after the next election. Ultimately, Bush I was forced into a $100 billion bailout when deregulation and tax reductions on real estate lead to a bubble which burst in 1988. The high interest rates also made many foreign governments' debts unserviceable, leading to the 1980s debt crisis. The 1991 recession was ultimately a consequence of the bubble bursting, compounded by the Fed's reluctance to reduce rates quickly enough. Bush I blamed his failure to be reelected on Greenspan.
Clinton's presidency quickly descended into a narrow focus on bringing the deficit under control. Although advocated by evangelical conservatives, this seemed like an impossible strategy – reducing a government deficit hoping that this would stimulate a depressed economy (Clinton having been elected on a promise of “Jobs, jobs, jobsâ€�). But it worked. This was not a disproval of Keynesian economics, although it has been hailed as such by those with a vested interest in reducing the role of government. Rather, it was the result of an accident. When Clinton entered office, the S&Ls were still short of funds and thus unable to provide the loans needed to get the economy moving. However, in the aftermath of the collapse, S&Ls had been permitted to treat government bonds as a perfectly safe asset. This was an error: although the probability of default on long-term government bonds is low, they are nevertheless likely to gain or lose value violently, as interest rates alter. The reduction in regulation permitted the S&Ls to invest in these higher-yield bonds (higher yield because they incorporated a risk premium2) This was dangerous: if interest rates had risen, they'd have been in trouble again. But interest rates fell, recapitalising the S&Ls and giving them the funds they needed to increase lending. This lending was what the economy needed to recover.
So deficit reduction worked, but the process was complicated and unexpected – and inconveniently at odds with the beliefs and self-interest of powerful people and institutions, whose true agenda was to overturn Keynesian economics and/or to downsize the government.
Under Clinton, deficit reduction was pushed too far – the economy would have benefited more in the long term if more had been invested in education and healthcare, even if this had added to the national debt. The returns on these investments would have more than covered the future debt servicing they would have created. There is a real danger that the IMF and ECB take the need for deficit reduction too far. In general, there is a lack of appreciation for the importance of budget deficits both to assist a flagging economy and to ensure sufficient investments are made in education, research and healthcare which can ensure the long-term health of any national economy.
The Fed failed to act decisively to deflate the bubble, although it is clear that Greenspan already perceived that it existed in 1996, before the Standard and Poor index doubled between 1996 and 2000. There was concern that interest rates are too broad a policy instrument to be used to deflate a stock market bubble, and there is some truth in this. However, other instruments were available. For instance, Greenspan could have raised margin requirements – that is, how much stock can be bought with borrowed money. This requirement stood at 50 per cent (at least 50 per cent of any stock purchase must be made with cash, the remainder can be credit). Increasing this requirement would reduce demand. Extremist conservatives tend to dislike using new instruments of market control which have not been used in the past – margin requirements had stood stable since 1974.
The current religious consensus amongst central bankers that inflation ought to be the primary (if not exclusive) concern of monetary management is based on four assumptions, one with some scientific validity, three patently false:
It takes 6-12 months for monetary policy to be felt: so action must be taken in anticipation of inflation breaking out. This is true and important.
High inflation damages long-term economic growth: this has only ever been shown of countries with far higher rates than the US.
Inflation, once it begins, is very difficult to control: there is no evidence to suggest that inflation is 'runaway'; in contrast, it is more likely to be self-correcting – high inflation one quarter is more often followed by low inflation the next.
The costs of high inflation outweigh the benefits of increased growth: again, studies conducted by the Council of Economic Advisers and the Fed suggest the opposite.
But inflation is bad for Wall Street traders, of course – inflation would erode the value of bonds.
The desirability of neutrality of a central bank is highly questionable – there is a real conflict of interest between high and low inflation and interest rates. Low inflation and high interest rates tend to be better for Wall Street and the rich, whereas the typical worker paying off a mortgage can tolerate moderate inflation but will benefit from low interest rates (and of course low unemployment). These trade-offs ought properly to be in the political arena, debated by society and determined by elected representatives. Real questions can be asked about the Fed's institutional credibility – whether as an institution it truly serves society's needs as well as it might.
America's Federal Reserve Board represents a curious mixture: it is independent; and it is dominated by those from financial markets, and secondarily from business, with the voices of workers or consumers barely audible.
In the early 1990s, the Republicans pushed for a constitutional amendment which would limit expenditures to the level of tax revenues. Clinton resisted this, even though it would not have hurt him (but rather his successors, such as Bush II).
Deregulation of the telecommunications industry largely caused the bubble which burst at the turn of the century, wiping $2 trillion off the industry's market capitalisation. Existing regulation dated to 1934 and was clearly outdated: now there existed phone lines, alongside cable and satellite services, all vying for not only telecom services, but TV and broadband internet services. The 'last mile' of the telephone network had been tightly regulated, since this formed a natural monopoly; now all telecom companies were calling for complete deregulation, arguing that the different media could now compete with one another, keeping prices down. But it was a common fallacy that some competition was inevitably enough, whereas in fact competition between a few large firms would merely lead to an oligopolistic market in which each firm had some (though not complete) monopoly power. The companies themselves must have believed that there were supernormal profits to be earned – otherwise they would not have invested so much in lobbying for deregulation. In fact, there would be competition for the market, but not competition in the market – everyone believed there was a strong first-mover advantage and that the first to invest sufficiently and capture market share would enjoy a dominant position and the profits that accompany that.
Much of the US' regulation dates from the 1930s in a reaction to the massive failure of markets in the Great Depression. Faith in markets was largely restored in the 1960s and 70s, and as technology continued to evolve it became clear that the regulatory framework needed to be reviewed. But by the time Clinton took office, many efforts at deregulation, such as airlines and banks (attempted under Carter) had proven detrimental – competition in the airline industry could not be sustained (bigger companies used their financial resources to drive out smaller companies and new entrants) and the S&L debacle proved the problems with banking deregulation.
Corporate welfare was sticking point during the Clinton era. Every businessman that approached the Council of Economic Advisers for help believed the following:
Subsidies are bad for everyone but themselves,
Competition is good, except in their own industry, and
Openness and transparency are important, in every sector but their own.
In Clinton's attempts to balance the budget, corporate welfare was a natural target, but it proved impossible to make any progress.
The US Treasury violently opposed the idea, suggesting that the very vocabulary “corporate welfareâ€� smacked of class warfare, and that the attack on corporate welfare was inconsistent with the New Democratic pro-business image we were trying to create.
I saw the attack on corporate welfare as completely consistent with our attempt to forge a new philosophy, in which markets were at the centre. It was because I believed in markets that I thought we should be circumspect about subsidizing them. Such subsidies distort the ways resources get used.
They tried and failed to tackle the following issues:
Corporate jets do not pay charges that normal airliners pay in support of the costs of air traffic control. In this case, an attempt to privatise air traffic control would have equalised the charges – in this case, business argued strongly against privatisation.
Attempts were made to auction the electromagnetic spectrum, in order to raise revenue and force responsibilities on broadcasters such as providing educational programming and campaign time (which would hopefully have reduced the importance of funding in political campaigning). Obviously, the mainstream media hated the idea, making it politically impossible.
The most egregious case were tax breaks – effectively export subsidies, but not perceived as so because they were reductions in tax rather than being structured as subsidies.
We had long had multi-billion-dollar tax subsidies for exports, which so infuriated our trading partners that in 1998 they brought action before the WTO and won. Rather than abandoning the subsidy, we attempted to make it compatible with WTO rules.
A stock option is the right to buy a certain amount of stock at some future point for a fixed price. If the fixed price is beneath the market price, then the owner of the option exercises it and makes an instant profit. The opposite is a 'put', which is the right to sell a certain amount of stock at some future point for a fixed price. By diluting the existing stock, options always reduce the value of existing shares held by shareholders.
The significance of options is the way they are dealt with by corporate accounting. They are essentially ignored. Executives were given options (a financial asset with positive value), but this had no effect on the balance sheet or profit and loss – it was not counted as an expense or a liability. The accountants' regulatory body, the FASB3) tried to alter existing rules so as to make it clear to shareholders that when options were dispensed this had a real impact on the financial position of the company, but this proposal was blocked by industry, using the most specious arguments. And the impact was enormous – if the following companies had been required to acknowledge options then their profits would have fallen thus:
Microsoft: profits of $7.3 billion cut by a third,
Intel: profits of $1.3 billion cut to $254 million,
Yahoo!: losses increased from $93 million to $983 million.
The information was buried in footnotes; the market did not understand it and overvalued these companies massively as a consequence.
Options usually provide a poor incentive. In the nineties, when the stock market was rising in value generally, all executives were rewarded by options. Even bad performance was rewarded generously. Additionally, stock options create a strong incentive to temporarily inflate the current stock market value – which is easiest done through egregious misrepresentation in the company's accounts. Stock options encourage mendacity.
There was a further conflict of interest in the accounting industry. Firstly, auditors are employed by a firm to check their accounts to certify that they are accurate – the accountant is being paid by a client who is supposed to be held to account – a clear incentive to be sympathetic. But increasingly, accountants were taking on a dual role within a single firm, both as auditors and consultants. An accountancy firm, having looked over the books of a company, is in an ideal position to recommend changes – but often changes which help to deceive shareholders about the true position of the company (whilst not breaking any accountancy rules). In the US, there are strict rules governing the preparation of corporate accounts – which result in accountants doing whatever they possibly can within those rules (and blocking any proposed changes to make the rules any stricter). Elsewhere, there is usually no universal set of rules, but each auditing firm must sign off on the company accounts to declare that they are a true and accurate record of the company's financial position. In the nineties, this seemed like a more effective system which was being less openly abused.
Traditionally, there are two flavours of bank: commercial banks and investment banks. Commercial banks issue loans. Investment banks broker issues of bonds and stocks. Since the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, in the US these two types have been kept separate because of various potential conflicts of interest that might arise if they were done by the same organisation.
In the nineties, deregulation of the banking sector allowed the merger of the two types of banks, forming groups like J P Morgan Chase and Citigroup. Proponents of these mergers were not particularly consistent – they were supposed to generate economies of scope, but when challenged on the possibility of conflicts of interest, their advocates claimed that a Chinese wall would separate different operations (in which case, how is it possible to exploit economies of scope?).
Commercial banks have a strong interest in examining the long-term financial position of the companies they lend to – this scrutiny provides an important check on management profligacy, especially attempts by CEOs to artificially inflate short-term profits in order to temporarily push up share prices so as to exploit stock options. However, investment banks' motives are different. They serve two interest groups: the companies whose stocks and bonds they offer, and investors, who trust investment banks' recommendations of particular stock issues. In theory, an investment banks' analysts ought not to put a positive spin on the state of companies for whom they issue stock, because their reputations are at stake. In reality, there is a sharp asymmetry of information and they can often get away with it. This becomes particularly acute when an affiliated commercial bank can lend to a company whose stock they are issuing – it may be in the bank's interest to extend further questionable loans without much scrutiny in order to maintain or inflate the price of stock that they have issued. The most extreme case of this was Enron, whose banks continued to make highly questionable loans, partly because Enron's bankruptcy would inevitably reveal the banks' past indiscretions, so any means of reducing the likelihood of bankruptcy seemed attractive. Analysts talked up the prospects of companies that they knew would never make money. The most obvious way to combat this problem was greater openness – force analysts record of stock recommendations to be published along with their actual performance; obviously, this was sharply resisted by the banks. There is also a system of kickbacks in place: economists have long been unable to understand why stock prices typically rise rapidly directly after an IPO – surely this means that investment banks are systematically underpricing stock when they bring it to market. The answer appears to be that they undervalue stock in order to give a cash gift to those customers who they initially sell stock to. These preferential customers are often CEOs who have chosen their bank to handle their own company's stock issues. This is a means of stealing value from the shareholders of the company issuing stock and giving it to a CEO, who then return the favour by passing more business to the investment bank. Starting with Goldman Sachs on 4th May 1999, the large investment banks then went public, taking advantage of the bull stock market but protecting their executives from the long-run risks of their strategy.
Rational expectations theory has now been decisively challenged in three ways:
Informational asymmetry – rational expectations rely crucially on the assumption that all market participants know and believe the same things. These informational asymmetries are made far worse when those with more information (such as market analysts) do not have strong enough incentives to truthfully advise those with less (such as ordinary shareholders – and these incentives were made very much worse during the nineties).
Different participants have different fundamental beliefs about how the world behaves – different people use different models. Not only must everybody have rational expectations, but they must also all believe that everybody else has rational expectations.
Lastly, research is emerging that people are unable to process information rationally in these circumstances and systematically irrational phenomena are repeatably observed.
Business managers, unlike economists, have always been alert to the importance of irrationality. Marketing experts make their livings exploiting it. Insurance reps know they can sell coverage for low-probability events (rare forms of cancer, for instance) at premiums that far exceed the actuarial odds, because so many people are unable to resist a policy that costs but a few cents a day. Financial analysts too, tend to be shrewd students of irrationality and herd mentality.
Mergers offer a further case in which investment banks' incentives are poorly aligned. An investment bank that handles a merger always earns a sizeable commission, even if the merger turns out to destroy rather than add value. In fact, if the merger creates a less valuable company, then the investment bank is likely to be called in to handle the dismemberment of the company once it becomes clear. This explains why it is that mergers do not, on average, create value. It is always in the interests of the investment bank (and usually the CEOs, who will receive enormous bonuses or retirement packages for handling the merger) to argue that it will create value, since their income relies on this conclusion.
In 1980, Reagan had introduced a tax cut which he claimed would increase tax revenues. Supply-side economics, dubbed 'Voodoo Economics' by Reagan's VP Bush and 'Reagonomics' by various others, argued that a decrease in taxation would induce such large supply-side effects – labour force participation, savings, and the increase of hours and effort that workers would expend – that a surge in economic activity would more than offset the reduction in tax. In fact, the impact on these inputs was negligible, as the advocates of Reagonomics probably expected. It did, however, force cuts in social spending.
Although this field had been entirely discredited by Clinton's reign, there was one tax for which it was still thought to potentially work, primarily because of a distortionary accounting system. Capital gains tax is only paid when assets are liquidated, so at any one time a government has a pool of unrealised assets in the form of capital gains tax that will not be paid to government until the holder chooses to sell those assets.4) So, by reducing capital gains tax for a limited period, in effect offering a 'sale price' on capital gains, the government encourages early liquidation of these assets, increasing current revenue at the expense of future revenue. This is effectively a means of borrowing – although it is not widely perceived as such. It is also an immensely regressive form of tax break. And it is destabilising – it encouraged greater use of stock options by CEOs and for stockholders to sell and reinvest (more money than they would otherwise be able to) in stocks – both having the effect of feeding the bubble. It also motivated CEOs to manipulate current share price, since there was now greater value in artificially inflate share prices and selling shares than holding on to shares and pursuing long-run improvements in profitability.
As the Clinton years came to a close, I wondered: What message had we in the end sent through the changes that had been brought about in our taxes? What were we saying ot the country, to our young people, when we lowered capital gains taxes and raised taxes on those who earned their living by working? That it is better to make your living by speculation than by any other means. The New Economy – the innovations which continue to fuel that productivity growth and form the basis of this country's long-run strength – depend on advances in science, on researchers at universities and research labs, who work sixteen-hour days and more in the tireless search to try to understand the world in which we live. These are the people we should be rewarding and encouraging. Yet it was these people who were being more highly taxed, while those who speculated were taxed more gently While we talked about incentives, most of the tax giveaway had no incentive effect at all. While we were teaching our young people something about our national values, we were also teaching our young people another lesson in political hypocrisy, or, some might say, in the ways of the world.
There were many ways in which changes in the economic environment and government economic policy reduced the ability of individuals and the economy as a whole to manage risk effectively.
Although much hyped, the IT revolution has lead to continual improvements in productivity, which has its negative effects as well as positive. During downturns, productivity has continued to rise, increasing pressure on unemployment when the economy is most vulnerable to it. Simultaneously, the culture of American business has turned against 'labour hoarding' – that is, holding on to surplus labour during a recession in order to maintain the most able staff and to build loyalty between employer and employee so that the firm can reap the benefits of greater employee commitment when these are required. This culture may have been partially fuelled by CEOs' increased incentives to focus on the short-term financial position of the company, maintaining profitability by slashing workforces, even if this would have a negative long-term impact – and arguing that taking 'difficult decisions' such as making workers unemployed justified increased bonuses. This makes the economy more vulnerable to the business cycle – a minor slowdown in demand leads to a rapid surge in unemployment which itself increases the severity in the demand shortfall. Reduced job security increases anxiety which encourages consumers to cut back on consumption, especially when a recession begins, further exacerbating the problem.
During the 1990s, assumptions that the IT revolution would have a permanent effect on the growth of stock value allowed firms to make insanely optimistic projections of the growth of their pension funds. Firms are committed to paying their former and current employees pensions of a given value, and pay into a fund designed to provide these payments whilst employing these workers in order to meet their liabilities later. However, during the nineties they were permitted to assume that these funds, based on stock market investments, would grow at an absurd average rate of 9 per cent per annum. When the stock market crashed they not only much of the value of these funds being wiped out, but also the adjustment of projections of the growth of these funds, forcing them to sharply increase their contributions. Again, a further massive contraction in aggregate expenditure just as the economy was entering a downturn. And in many cases, firms' newly assessed pension liabilities were greater than their total assets.
Increased worker insecurity has made a broad transition from company-managed pensions to portable private pensions. Wall Street loves this idea, although the associated transaction costs are high – much higher than for the government-run Social Security programme.
Critics do not complain about the efficiency of the Social Security system; they simply cannot. The fact is that the public Social Security system is almost surely more efficient, in the key dimension of transaction costs, than any private system is likely to be. Of course, transaction costs to some (the beneficiaries who view it as bad) are income to others (those in Wall Street who would manage the privatised accounts). Wall Street likes transaction costs – the higher the better. Free market ideologues say that competition drives down fees to the minimum level of effectively to zero. Virtually nowhere has it succeeded in doing so.
Social Security invests exclusively in government bonds, so it is very low risk – ideal for a pension fund. Some argue that higher returns could be earned by investing in the stock market – if this is the case, the only agency large enough to do so without passing on the extra risk to pension-holders is the government. Stocks are vulnerable to sudden crashes – if this happens just before a pension-holder is due to retire then the value of his pension is destroyed, but government is in a position not to pass on this risk. Additionally, it would be of broad benefit for the government to issue bonds whose payout is adjusted for inflation. The market is currently unable to provide such assets. They would eliminate the need for private pension-holders to invest in the stock market to hedge against inflation – which is a risk for non-inflation-adjusted bond-holders. Moreover, this would reduce the cost to the government of its debt, since a risk premium would be paid for the security of an inflation-adjusted bond, which the government would essentially be in a unique position to hedge against. Wall Street hates the idea – in the UK, traders complain that nobody trades these bonds, they are merely held long-term until retirement – making them a bad prospect for bond traders. As goes Wall Street, so goes the Treasury.
Traditionally, the rather weak and blunt instrument of monetary policy is supported in its management of aggregate demand by various stabilisers – aspects of government taxation and spending that vary counter-cyclically so as to naturally stimulate the economy during a recession and reduce inflationary pressure during a boom. During the nineties these were broadly reduced, particularly benefits, further increasing the economy's vulnerability to the business cycle.
Negotiation between the US and other nations over economic treaties and agreements has a natural tendency to unfairness, given the imbalance of power. But equally importantly, unlike in the domestic arena, most interest groups in international trade negotiations (such as foreign populations and particularly vulnerable groups within those populations) have no effective power over the US government – the only interested party with a significant presence are US special interests.
This fact has shaped trade agreements over the last two decades. 'Free trade' has come to mean deregulation of financial markets (enabling Wall Street to gain a new dominance of overseas markets) and the protection of intellectual property (assisting American biotech and high-tech firms to get a firm grasp of foreign markets that could otherwise have used foreign IP without licenses, if they had followed the development model that America itself used in the nineteenth century to exploit European technologies). In contrast, free trade agreements do not cover industries such as construction and maritime5) – labour-intensive industries in which the developing world could potentially benefit from a liberalised international environment. Not only was the focus of trade liberalisation unbalanced, but sometimes liberalisation had negative knock-on effects in developing economies which provided ample reasons for them to be resisted. It is argued, for instance (although evidence is still inconclusive), that when international banks displace domestic rivals, there is a bias towards funding readily-comprehensible TNCs rather than providing credit on easy terms to small- and medium-sized domestic firms. Horrific US agricultural policy hardly needs to be mentioned: in industries such as cotton US subsidies artificially inflated world production (America accounts for one third of global production) forcing down the market price and depriving several African countries of between 1 and 2 per cent of GDP. Moreover, the US makes frequent efforts to circumvent those agreements that it has signed, using non-tariff means to protect various industries wherever it can get away with it.
The crises in Mexico, EA, Russia and LA provide further lessons. The IMF-US Treasury policies failed again and again. Huge bailouts failed to avert each crisis, failed even to prevent the depreciation of the currency in most cases. Emergency policies to hike interest rates and balance government budgets also failed to avert crises, but did exacerbate the ensuing depressions, increasing bankruptcies. Economies suffered, but the balanced budget and low exchange value depressed imports making foreign exchange surpluses available to service debts. Countries who ignored IMF-Treasury advice often escaped most lightly – particularly China who pursued an expansionary policy (in accordance with standard economic theory) and Malaysia who implemented capital controls allowing it to keep interest rates down and avoid the spate of bankruptcies that hurt other economies so badly – and leaving the government with a far smaller burden of debt.
Bailouts present two further problems:
the moral hazard involved encourages risky lending to firms or countries unlikely to be able to repay, and
speculation and speculative attacks are, in general, a zero-sum game – it is only when public institutions intervene to try to support a currency that it is possible for speculators as a group to gain – in this sense, a routine policy of publicly financing bailouts could be argued to be the only thing that makes speculation a profitable activity.
But too often, foreign financial instability of all forms is good for Wall Street – the investment banks who manage capital inflows and advise foreign governments how to manage those inflows also earn a windfall managing a sudden capital flight. The only situation in which Wall Street is not earning money is a situation of stable, long-term investment.
The international financial architecture also forces a certain degree of subsidy of the US by LDCs. LDCs are forced to hold reserves sufficient to support private sector debt, should short-term foreign debt not be rolled over. These reserves increase as the economy expands and as international lending increases. Governments must invest these reserves in low-interest dollar-denominated accounts, whilst corresponding amounts are being borrowed by the private sector from American banks at far higher interest rates (perhaps 2 per cent versus 18 per cent). Additionally, whilst most LDCs fight to retain an overall trade surplus at the behest of the IMF – against China and Japan's insistence on running a permanent surplus, the US becomes the 'deficit of last resort' – the nation that continually runs a deficit in order that all other countries can balance their budgets. The Treasury, through the IMF, more or less forces balanced budgets on developing countries, whilst running an enormous deficit at home.
The financial system allows the United States to live year after year far beyond its means, even as the US Treasury, year after year, lectures others on why they should not. And the total value of the benefits that the United States gets out of the current system surely exceeds, by a considerable amount, the total foreign aid that the United States provides. What a peculiar world…
The international financial structure urgently needs a recognised international procedure for dealing with national bankruptcy – the suspension and rescheduling of international debts, just as the US has for domestic corporations. It is also important to develop greater transparency requirements for offshore capital and hedge funds. The US is increasingly seen as highly hypocritical in the policies it forces on other countries – privatisation when it recognises the benefits of a public Social Security system at home; balanced budgeting when the Council of Economic Advisers under Clinton rejected a constitutional amendment which would have irrevocably committed the US to balanced budgeting; the extraction of debt servicing at all costs when it recognises the importance of systematised bankruptcy proceedings at home; forcing of central banks to focus exclusively on inflation when the importance of high employment is urgently felt in the management of the domestic economy; and evangelism of free markets abroad when the US has an advanced and subtle array of anti-trust legislation and regulation to ensure the efficient function of domestic markets. The US is generally – and accurately – perceived as pursuing an essentially mercantilist foreign economic policy designed primarily to benefit American special interests and the hostile perception of America that this fosters abroad is extremely dangerous in the long run.
Enron was a tangle of deception, both of the money that its leadership was stealing from its shareholders, and the deception of the stock market which lead to its overvaluation and concealment of its impending bankruptcy. The deceptions are complex, but some approximation of the key ones can be described:
Selling a commodity for future delivery, such as gas, to be paid for now, in reality creates a liability, not unlike a loan. But Enron was able to record these sales as current revenue, leaving the associated future liability off the books. Although the costs eventually appeared on the books when the gas had to be delivered, this could nevertheless continuously inflate apparent profits provided that the company (and volume of its transactions) is growing – in effect, the new loans being received are always greater than the old ones being paid off, creating a profit similar to a Ponzi scheme (a 'pyramid selling' scheme).
The next step is to create a subsidy – call it Raptor – to purchase the gas from Enron rather than selling to an external firm. Enron could then sell future delivery of gas to Raptor, recording the revenue, and then buy it back immediately afterwards, ensuring that no real transaction takes place. Again, the current revenue is recorded, the liability is not. In order to pay immediately for future delivery, Raptor has to borrow from banks – improving Enron's cash position without bank lending showing up in its accounts (essentially an undeclared bank loan).
If Raptor is owned by senior executives of Enron, then Raptor can also function as a means of siphoning money out of the company – the price at which Enron buys gas back from Raptor can be high enough to repay the bank loans with interest and still leave a healthy profit to Raptor's shareholders at the expense of Enron's shareholders.
Energy markets such as the electricity market form natural monopolies, and are thus usually structured as either
state-owned corporations, as traditionally throughout most of Europe,
free-market systems, as virtually nowhere in the world, or
as regulated private monopolies, as traditionally in the US.
Enron was heavily involved in the deregulation of the electricity market in California, moving from a regulated private monopoly to a deregulated 'competitive' system in which multiple electricity providers supplied the state grid and prices were free to move to balance demand and supply. Free-market ideologues claimed that this would lead to rapid reductions in the price of electricity; instead prices rose rapidly and continuously by eight times between April 1998 and 2001. Furthermore, the state experienced supply interruptions completely unfamiliar to the American market. Ultimately, the state had to intervene to dismantle the new system, at a cost to the taxpayer of approximately $45 billion. The market contained too few suppliers to be truly competitive, and the price inelasticity of demand made it especially vulnerable to restrictions in supply – in effect, the suppliers acted as a cartel to restrict supply and drive up prices. They did this by taking capacity offline 'for repair' and shipping electricity out of state. In contrast, Brazil managed deregulation much more effectively by fixing prices for existing sales – forcing companies to provide the same amount of electricity as in previous years to the same consumers at the same price, and only permitting the free market to operate at the margin of increases in demand – in which consumers have a much greater choice of whether or not to purchase additional supply and can realistically refuse to do so if prices are excessive (this component of demand is far more price elastic). Brazil's government was less dominated by the political influence of energy suppliers and more responsive to the anger of electricity consumers.
Enron has been widely criticised for its involvement in third world energy markets, especially for buying political influence both with third world regimes and the US administration, receiving billions in dollars in subsidies through export support and public insurance. The Dabhol II plant in India was a particularly egregious case, condemned by the World Bank as uneconomic, the Indian government agreed to a fixed price-quantity supply at well above the price at which domestic suppliers were selling electricity – at so high a price that corruption must have played a part, as well as the observed pressure from the US government. These types of fixed price-quantity agreements shift all of the project risk to the government and away from the private firm that is undertaking the investment – hardly the typical behaviour of a functioning free market. When the Indian government tried to cancel or amend the contract, important figures both in the Clinton and Bush II administrations (in the latter case Cheney's office) intervened directly to pressure the Indian government to honour its contract.
There was more than a little irony on the side of both [Enron CEO] Ken Lay and the US government: Enron, the seeming champion of free market economics, and Ken Lay, a severe critic of government, were so willing to receive government assistance – billions of dollars of loans and guarantees – that Lay made use of his friends in high places to push his firm, and then did all that he could to avoid taxes (with remarkable success). And America, especially US Treasury officials, was lecturing East Asia on crony capitalism, and then apparently practising it themselves.
Various myths gained credibility during the 1990s which will remain dangerous if they are not widely recognised as false, even though some were temporarily useful. Most have been at least touched on already, but they bear repetition:
Deficit reduction creates growth. This arose primarily from the US experience of simultaneous deficit reduction and recovery, but clearly flies in the face of everything that has been learnt about economics since the Great Depression. The dangers of trying to generalise on this experience are clear.
Wars are good for the economy. This is an anachronism: clearly there is no doubt that the Second World War was very important in American economic recovery, but this war involved full mobilisation of the economy. More recent wars, notably Gulf I, involving partial mobilisation are much more harmful. They create uncertainty (especially oil-price uncertainty in Middle-Eastern wars) and war expenditures crowd out other investments (since there is no longer support for substantially increased wartime taxation as happened during World War II).
Prosperity depends on heroes. There are two competing views of the world; one in which the arc of a nation's progress is primarily dependent on the leadership of those in charge; the other in which underlying forces are far more important, and if one leader is removed he will likely be replaced by somebody facing much the same pressures. Economists and other social scientists tend to favour the latter, as does Stiglitz. The danger of putting too much trust and faith in key figures (in the 1990s, Greenspan and Rubin) is that it deters us from seeing good policy as the key to success, and from pressing our leaders to enact better policies. Instead, if prosperity relies on the genius of our leadership, we ought to stand back and let them do their work – a much more dangerous course.
The inevitable efficiency of the invisible hand. Recent advances in economics have shown how narrow efforts to improve share price (especially in the short run) may not lead to efficiency, and further how an amoral pursuit of self-interest will not always create the most efficient market. In particular, the cost of writing and enforcing contracts is important. Traditional economic models assume this to be costless, but in fact most transactions are undertaken without explicit contracts because they would be too costly to write, and litigation to enforce contracts is extremely expensive. In light of this, a functioning market system relies heavily on the mutual trust of its participants – there may be short-run gains in violating this trust, but there will follow an enormous loss of economic efficiency if more general trust is lost. Once one firm has decided to act untrustworthily – by adopting dishonest accounting, for example – then market competition might drive its competitors to do likewise, resulting in a race-to-the-bottom rather than an optimal outcome.
The myth of finance. What is good for Wall Street may or may not be good for the economy in general – there should certainly be no assumption that Wall Street speaks for the general interest.
The myth that government intervention is always undesirable. Many of those who use this myth to push for greater deregulation and reduced taxation are highly dependent on government in the form of export subsidies and long-term research and development.
» The myth that lower taxes would unleash huge increases in savings and work effort has proved remarkably resistant to evidence. Reagan lowered taxes markedly, but neither savings nor work effort increased, and indeed, productivity growth hardly budged. Clinton raised taxes on the rich, and dire consequences did not emerge.
The myth of global capitalism. There is a clear double standard in the way that economists view government intervention in different areas of the world: interventions that are (perhaps reluctantly) conceded to be absolutely necessary at home (Social Security, Medicare, education, a central bank mandated to consider employment as well as inflation) are considered too extravagant by market fundamentalists abroad. Somehow 'American-style capitalism' is transmuted in the translation. In particular unregulated capital flows have proved very dangerous for developing countries – a danger to which the large US economy has far greater immunity.
The myth that American-style capitalism has 'triumphed'. During the bubble economy of the late 1990s, many in America perceived it as a final vindication that American-style capitalism had triumphed over Soviet state capitalism, but also over all other variants of the market system, particularly in Europe and Japan. The various errors involved in that line of thinking were very clearly highlighted during the collapse, but the gratification that the rest of the world found in America's fall from grace was heightened by American hubris before the fall.
» There are other countries which believe that their economic system is better, at least for them. They may have lower incomes, but they have more job and health security; they enjoy longer vacations, and lower stress may be reflected in longer lives. There is less inequality, less poverty, lower crime, a smaller fraction of the population spends a large part of their lives behind bars. There are choices, there are trade-offs.
In recent times, many two-party political systems seem to have collapsed into a single set of policies governed by 'motherhood-and-apple-pie values' advocated by all parties, who are reduced to arguing that they are merely more efficient managers than the other lot.
If we – Democrats and Republicans – are all for the middle class, if we are all for the market economy, unfettered by regulation, then what is it that separates the left from the right, the Democrats from the Republicans? What is it that Democrats stood for? Was it the end of politics… at least as far as the economy was concerned?
One could think of the two parties as two management teams, each claiming that they know better how to run the economy.
Stiglitz uses the term Democratic Idealism to describe a set of concrete policies which he believes ought to set the Democrats apart from the Republicans on the basis of more than merely being slightly less corrupted by special interests.
It is easy to list the aspects of Reaganite policy which Democratic Idealism opposes. Democratic Idealism hopes to restore an appropriate balance in government – in which government plays a legitimate role intervening in markets which would not function properly by themselves (such as education and pollution) as well as by regulating other markets (such as finance) so that they operate more efficiently. Although it is impossible to prove, it is widely suspected that theories of trickle-down and supply-side economics were never believed by those who advocated them – they were merely a cover for policies which would advance a fairly crude class warfare.
One of the key reasons for this collapse of all parties into a 'centre ground' is the success that the right has had in convincing the middle classes that their interests are much more closely aligned with those of the mega-rich than to those of the poor. Tax breaks which benefit the top 2 per cent of the income distribution almost exclusively are widely perceived as being in the interests of the middle class. The middle class has become much more sensitised to the danger of being 'robbed' by the poor than by the extremely rich – welfare is perceived to take money from the median voter, whereas corporate welfare somehow does not.
A quick summary of the practical policy prescriptions of Democratic Idealism:
Weakening government influence in some areas: eliminating agricultural subsidies, examining corporate bailouts (eg airlines) and practices that reduce competition (eg aluminium) much more carefully.
Strengthening government influence in others: increased protection for consumers (health and safety, and against monopoly power), protection for investors by improving regulation of accounting and finance, increased environmental protection, provision of insurance against risk that the market does not provide (eg against inflation and better unemployment insurance).
Democratic Idealism explicitly recognises that policies affect different groups differently, that it is normal for political decisions to have 'class implications' and that a free and open society must recognise these different gains and losses rather than pretend that every government programme is equally beneficial to all members of society (which is what simplistic and unsupported theories such as trickle-down economics try to suggest). Moreover Democratic Idealism considers social justice an important aim of society.
This is not the place to defend basic values of social justice. I shall merely assert: We should be concerned with the plight of the poor.
Stiglitz cites Rawls' Theory of Justice and the literature which followed it as an appropriate basis of such ideas. Social justice requires policies such as:
Equality of opportunity: eg providing pre-school education to those that cannot afford to pay for it, and good school meals as a way of ensuring all children have adequate nutrition.
Full employment: particularly through recognition that advanced societies (very much including Europe) focus too narrowly on inflation control.
» In much of Europe, the employment statistics are far more dismal than in America, and have been for a long time. Bu the solution requires more than just more “labour market flexibilityâ€� – which has become almost a code word for saying lower wages and less job security.
Intergenerational equity: we must recognise the right of future generations to inherit a world which is at least as liveable as the one that we have inherited, and that requires us to make significant changes to our economy to make it more sustainable.
America also needs urgent changes to its electoral system in order to reduce the influence of money.
Only a few extreme conservatices believe that individuals should be able to sell their vote…But indirectly, through the media, votes are bought and sold. People have to become informed, convinced to go to the trouble of voting, even taken to the voting booth, and all of this costs money. That is why campaign contributions are so important. But individuals, and even more so corporations that contribute, expect something in return. They are buying government support – not in the crass way that politicians may be bribed in some countries, yet the link between policy and money is unmistakable.
Campaign finance reform is therefore urgent – Clinton had the opportunity to make significant progress by forcing the media to carry political advertising for all parties for free, but could not force the legislation through (being strongly opposed by both the media and corporate donors).
The cause of individual rights in America have traditionally been seen as synonymous with constraining the role of government – by forcing the government to respect the individual's right to free speech, a free press, privacy and information about the government's activities. But there has been a growing recognition outside America that many individuals' rights that are becoming more important with growing affluence require active government intervention in the economy – economic rights to work, to free healthcare and education.
Outside the United States these rights are increasingly recognised: of what value is the freedom of speech to a man who is so starved that he can hardly speak, freedom of press to a woman who has not had an education and cannot read?
There is also a role for non-profit non-governmental organisations in the American economy, in cases where the government's special right of compulsion is not required but in which a for-profit corporation is likely to be exploitative or inappropriate. Private universities play an important role, and the markets for raisins, almonds and cranberries are dominated by cooperatives in the US – and cooperatives have a far greater role in other parts of the world, frequently proving to be as efficient or more efficient than for-profit competitors (eg grocery cooperatives in Sweden).
Individuals' development is influenced by the goals society sets for itself, and its central policy debate. However, there does seem to be an observable oscillation – from the selfless idealism of the 1960s anti-war, civil rights generation, through the frenzied greed of the 1980s and 90s and now emerging into an era in which selflessness is resurgent: applications for peace corps are rising again and graduates are choosing their employers on the basis of their perceived level of responsibility.
Internationally, the US needs to apply the principles of democratic consensus building that it claims to believe in, and stop seeking to use its dominant economic and military position to exploit its opportunity as global dictator.
[W]hile America often speaks of the “rule of lawâ€�, its pursuit of unilateralist policies reflects a rejection of the rule of law at the international level. It is in favour of global rules of the game, but worries that the WTO or the ICC might infringe its own sovereignty. In short, it is in favour of the rule of law, as long as the outcomes conform with what it wants. A moment's reflection should show that if the US worries about the infringement of its sovereignty by global institutions, how must other countries feel, and especially poor developing countries, who see the global institutions dominated by the US and other advanced industrial countries?
The globalisation of trade has advanced rapidly whilst political globalisation has lagged, leaving a vacuum in which global agreements (such as on climate change) require voluntary support that the US is unwilling to give whenever the issue at hand is not in the US' short term interest (or more accurately, in the interest of special interests within the US). A better division of issues to the global, national and local level is required, based on the fundamental nature of the issue at stake, rather than on the basis of perception of at which level some particular lobby has most influence.
In the US, conservatives have pushed for the delegation of responsibility for welfare to the states mainly, I believe, because they believe that the advocacy groups for the poor are not as strong at the state level as they are at the federal level, and at least in many states, this will imply cutbacks in the provision of welfare.
It is important to reframe global negotiations and agreements using concepts such as 'fairness', rather than narrow national (or special) interests. This should be motivated by our basic moral beliefs, and yet is probably in our long-term interests anyway, considering the potentially disastrous consequences of global resentment at American arrogance, hypocrisy and selfishness, including terrorism.
Bush II introduced massive tax cuts on entering office, primarily on share dividends. Most American shareholders hold shares in tax-exempt funds, so the major beneficiaries of these tax cuts were the very wealthy (including many in the administration itself). They were justified on two grounds. The first was as a Keynesian stimulation. This wasn't particularly plausible, as tax cuts to the wealthy are the least efficient way of pumping further money into the economy – increased expenditures, especially giving more money to state governments who were then having to scale back social spending to balance their budgets, or tax cuts for poorer sections of society would have been far more efficient stimulators. The second was a slight variation on Reagan's voodoo economics theory – that cutting tax on dividends would stimulate investment in stocks, leading to increases in share price, leading to greater investment by public companies. In the event none of this materialised, and there are reasons to be sceptical about each linkage of the logic. Particularly, the inevitable increase in the long-term federal budget deficit will force up long-term interest rates, curbing private sector investment – public sector borrowing will crowd out private sector investment. The cuts were extremely inequitable and fiscally irresponsible, rapidly turning Clinton's surplus back into a substantial deficit.
Bush II took almost no action on the corporate corruption that had badly damaged investor confidence in the American stock market (various members of the administration and those brought in to consider new regulation had been intimately involved in some of the worst scandals). Whilst Clinton had made some serious mistakes in managing globalisation (for example, blocking the inauguration of an Asian Monetary Fund to tackle the East Asian financial crisis in order to preserve American financial hegemony in the region) Bush II's errors were far more serious. He essentially rejected the rule of law, undermining every significant multilateral treaty that the global community attempted to pass (not least Kyoto, the ICC and the arms treaty), later to find the global community a little reluctant to support initiatives badly needed by the United States. After Clinton had worked out a framework under which agricultural subsidies could be phased out, Bush II promptly doubled them. Fiscal responsibility is now, rather absurdly, a centre-left position in American politics; fiscal profligacy is now a central tenet of Republicanism.
More generally around the world a greater recognition is required that there is a wide range of sensible economic policy packages, from which each population ought properly to choose that which is right for itself via the democratic process. The Washington Consensus is, in many respects, rejected by the US for domestic policy and it is hypocritical to pressure other countries to adopt policy which would not be countenanced at home. In Europe, the ECB has too narrow a focus on inflation, and a greater concern about employment is badly needed in order to reduce an unemployment level that has been far above America's for a long time. Labour market flexibility may be a part of the answer in certain areas, but it is certainly not the only policy which is required to reduce European unemployment.
In short, while in Europe there has been extensive discussion of convergence, that the countries should adopt similar if not identical rules, regulations, and practices, the Latin Americans are gradually realising that while they have thought that the reforms were leading them to converge to the kind of market economy found in the US, they were in fact not doing so. They were being forced to adopt a form of the market economy that might have been some conservative's dream, but did not comport to the reality of any successful democratic country. The failures are already apparent; the backlash has already begun. Market economies are not self-regulating, they are buffeted by shocks beyond their control, they are prone to manias and panics, to irrational exuberance and pessimism, to swindles and risk-taking that verges on gambling, and many of the costs of their mistakes and malfeasances are borne by society as a whole.
Non-accelerating (or more accurately, non-increasing) inflation rate of unemployment: the minimum rate of unemployment at which inflation is stable.
Long-term government bonds were yielding 8.14 per cent; treasury bills (safer) averaged only 5.4 per cent and rates on certificates of deposit were lower.
Financial Accounting Standards Board.
The situation is clouded slightly by the fact that capital gains tax is not paid if the holder passes these assets on in his will, but the effects of this are not important.
I don't really know what he means by this.
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Herb Childress Thinks Working Off the Tenure-Track is a Kind of Abusive Relationship
by P.D. Lesko
Our book reviewer has a copy of Herb Childress’s recently published book, The Adjunct Underclass: How America’s Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission and is at work on a piece about the latest foray into the genre of “Adj-Lit.” The genre was launched in the early-90s by Drs. Leslie and Gappa with their ground-breaking book, The invisible Faculty. In that book, the authors surveyed just under 1,000 part-time college faculty and wrote up their results. When released, the scholarship in the book caused a stir, because, as you might imagine, the book’s data pointed to the pressing need within higher education for work conditions to be drastically improved. In 1993 when the book was published, only about 35 percent of college faculty in the U.S. were part-timers.
The Invisible Faculty authors wrote this in 1993: “Is it realistic to expect that institutions will reduce the use of part-time or temporary faculty—that the ‘problem’ will be brought under control and eliminated? We could envision no scenario that would permit drastic changes in staffing practices.” How right they were and how wrong they were. The drastic changes which the two of them envisioned had to do with trimming the number of part-time faculty within higher education. I don’t think either Judith Gappa or David Leslie could have ever imagined that a quarter century later, the drastic change would be this: that 70 percent of college faculty in the U.S. work off the tenure-track in temporary appointments.
Enter Herb Childress. In 1996, he finished his dissertation and began searching for a tenure-track job. Childress writes, “I went on to sell furniture. I went on to measure the illumination of prison perimeter lighting and the duration of stay of juvenile offenders. I went on to a teaching postdoc at age 44.” He landed administrative positions in higher education. His wife had finished her Ph.D. in 1982, and taught in temporary faculty jobs until 2014. She had that luxury, because her husband, presumably, had a regular salary and benefits. But he wasn’t happy. Despite having full-time administrative positions, Childress desperately wanted to pursue teaching and scholarship. He writes, “I lost most of my 40s to what I can only refer to as a nervous breakdown. Grief will make you crazy, and I was impossible to live with.” He never got the relationship he wanted with higher education: he refers to his predicament as, “the grief of not finding a home in higher ed.”
I have many times over the past years written that faculty off the tenure-track need to set a professional clock and move on when the alarm goes off. Most recently, I published a piece titled, “Science May Have Found a Cure for the ‘Adjunct Syndrome.'” In a piece I wrote in 2013, I suggested that non-tenured teaching faculty who sought tenure-line faculty positions had to impose a time limit on their lives as non-tenured faculty. In that 2013 piece, I wrote: “There are adjunct activists who push for the fair treatment of the non-tenured. At base, however, the only person who decides in which direction a career goes is the individual. A graduate degree is a very valuable commodity. Colleges need to do a better job teaching people how to leverage one into a job that pays well. …[T]he underemployed need to do a better job of having more realistic job expectations.”
Herb Childress writes in 2019 that his academic career began in 1996, when Bill Clinton was president, with “high praise [for] and rapid publication” of his dissertation. Obviously it’s an important part of Childress’s story. He wasn’t just good, he was great, dammit, and he—even he—didn’t get what he wanted and, quite clearly in his mind, deserved. I’m not saying Childress’s frustrations, anguish and sadness aren’t real. What I am saying is that sometimes people don’t get what they want, deserve and, heck, are even promised. A Ph.D. is a qualification required for most tenure-line jobs at four-year research institutions. It’s not a guarantee of employment. It’s also important to remember that the majority of non-tenured faculty don’t have Ph.D.s.
The higher education media’s obsessive focus on the under-employment of people with Ph.D.s in higher education is yet another way the majority of non-tenured faculty are made invisible.
Herb Childress, however, argues that higher education is a serial abuser of people, an abuser to whom he has a fatal attraction, an addiction even. Without ever having had a taste of the tenure-line community in which he so desperately wanted to become a member, he was hooked. One might observe he was particularly vulnerable thanks to the promise associated with the publication of his dissertation. However, his answer to my rationalistic “alarm clock” advice is this: “Again, the rationalists might say that we should walk away, that we should refuse to support an industry that behaves as it does. But intellectual work is not solely rational. It is a form of desire. It is our identity. It is a community that we love, that does not love us back.” Childress goes on to make his point even clearer: “A life of contingency, like any life with an abusive partner, requires us to manufacture elaborate emotional defenses.”
I find his connection of addiction and abusive relationships to higher eduction’s employment of hundreds of thousands of non-tenured faculty spot on. In essence, Herb Childress has presented a credible psycho-social hypothesis for why (particularly full-time-part-time faculty) non-tenured faculty just don’t take their grad degree marbles and go shooting for cat’s eyes in some better, more satisfying game. The connection between addiction and abuse is called trauma bonding. Does this definition of trauma bonding sound familiar?
The intermittent reinforcement of love and affection the abuser gives is enough to keep the victim hooked. As Shannon Thomas, author of “Healing from Hidden Abuse” said: “When we’re looking for something that we want [a tenure-line job or just another semester of teaching], that we once had, which is a connection with somebody [money, status, employment], and they are playing cat and mouse where they are pulling it back and forth [offering one-semester contracts, firing adjunct faculty at the end of each semester], then the body really does become dependent on having that approval. It’s not all that dissimilar from being addicted to a drug.” [My language appears in brackets.]
Read that paragraph again.
People have a strong need to feel like they belong, but this means they may stay attached to unhealthy relationships. This is exactly how Herb Childress describes his relationship to higher education. Even though he achieved economic comfort, as he calls it, he is still tempted to answer the clarion call of a teaching position, even if it were to mean taking a 50 percent cut in pay.
Psychologists say it takes an average of seven tries to leave an abusive relationship. If Herb Childress’s self-insights are any measure, even after leaving, the severely addicted will be tempted to go back to higher education. Of course, not everyone suffers from Childress’s severe trauma bonding. I’ve read plenty of “take this job and shove it” essays and blog posts from adjunct and other non-tenured faculty who were sad to leave their students and their teaching careers, but who never looked back once they’d left.
According to Childress, this addiction-abuse cycle is killing the profession. I would argue that “the profession” is just fine, thank you. The self-proclaimed core of profession which consists of administrators, tenure-line and tenured faculty are still delighted to be paid the lion’s share of the billions of dollars allocated to instruction by our country’s colleges and universities each year. “The profession” is administered, spoken for and populated by self-serving, intellectual narcissists who ignore that the abuse-addiction cycle described by Herb Childress is crushing the confidence and the economic life out of the majority of the people who teach within the profession.
So has Herb Childress offered up a new strategy to be used by adjunct activists to make their struggles relevant to the public? Is the answer to the “adjunct problem” to point out to the mainstream media and draw general public’s attention to the emotional and economic suffering of adjunct faculty? Alas, the answer is still no. Herb Childress’s arguments, while valid and insightful, are akin to spitting into the wind while telling people there’s a storm a brewin’.
Americans have short political attention spans and they understand how higher education works just about as well as the average American understands how an internal combustion engine works. You put in the gasoline, press the accelerator and the car moves. You pay the tuition and take classes. Who cares about the pistons and rings or the crankshaft that turns the axel? That’s for the mechanics.
We are bombarded by a 24/7 news cycle filled with stories about the emotional, physical, and socio-economic abuse of children, women, men and families around the globe. The sorry “plight” of an adult with a graduate degree will never draw more concern than a child separated from her/his parents at the U.S. border, placed in a cage and, potentially, abused physically and/or sexually. That is horror worthy of protest.
Here’s what the average American thinks (70 percent of Americans have no college degree and 13 percent have no high school diploma): Teaching college (on a temporary one-year contract) is a fancy job. If faculty members (all of whom have graduate degrees) earn low pay and have no benefits, well, that’s crankshaft talk. Herb Childress can bemoan anything he wants. He’ll even sell some books.
However, history’s lessons are clear: The 99 percent, educationally, won’t ever stand up and protest for better treatment, pay and benefits for the 1 percent, educationally. That’s a fact.
adjunct faculty, David Leslie, Herb Childress, part-time faculty, The Adjunct Underclass: How America’s Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, The Invisible Faculty, University of Chicago Press
Did SEIU Break the Rules to Organize Non-Tenured Faculty at Elon U?
Book Review: Confessions of a Teacher Or, How to Be a Part-Timer
Texas Professors Wary of New Controversial Law
The Great Communicators? It is to LOL!
AAUP Calls for Placing Adjuncts On Tenure-Track
Vanessa Vaile says:
So when will your book reviewer finish his/her review?
Other reviews, interviews, author talks, https://herbchildress.com/media-links/
Latest, not on list, is Caprice Lawless’ at AAUP site, https://www.aaup.org/article/contingency-and-academic-ecosystem
So far this one has the feel as not being like the run of the quit lit sub-genre of adjunct stories. Well, I won’t know without taking the book out the box it’s been in for months and reading it.
Part-Time Faculty, Oceanography, Victor Valley College, Victorville, CA
Part-Time Faculty, Librarian, Victor Valley College, Victorville, CA
Part-Time Faculty, Political Science, Victor Valley College , Victorville, CA
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander: A person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. See also Indigenous Australians.
Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI): The ACFI is a resource allocation instrument. It focuses on the main areas that discriminate care needs among residents. The ACFI assesses core care needs as a basis for allocating funding.
Alzheimer disease: Alzheimer disease is the most common type of dementia, it is characterised by short-term memory loss, apathy and depression in the early stages. Onset is gradual and decline is progressive. This form is most common among older people with dementia, particularly among women.
Body Mass Index (BMI): The most commonly used method of assessing whether a person is normal weight, underweight, overweight or obese (see obesity). It is calculated by dividing the person's weight (in kilograms) by their height (in metres) squared; that is, kg ÷ m2. For both men and women, underweight is a BMI below 18.5, acceptable weight is from 18.5 to less than 25, overweight is from 25 to less than 30, and obese is 30 and over. Sometimes overweight and obese is combined, and is defined as a BMI of 25 and over.
burden of disease: Burden of disease is a modelling technique that combines multiple data sources to count and compare the total fatal and non‑fatal health loss from diseases and injuries in a population. Burden of disease quantifies the gap between a population's actual health and an ideal level of health in the given year. This gap is measured using the disability-adjusted-life-year or DALY. The more DALY associated with a disease or injury, the greater the burden. More than merely counting deaths and disease prevalence, the DALY takes into account age at death and severity of disease to count the years of healthy life lost from death and illness. It also attributes this burden to various risk factors.
cancer: Cancer refers to a diverse group of diseases in which some of the body’s cells can become defective, begin to multiply out of control, can invade and damage tissues around them and spread to other parts of the body, causing further damage.
cardiovascular disease: The term cardiovascular disease (CVD) is used to describe many different conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels. The most common and serious types of CVD in Australia are coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and heart failure.
cataracts: A cataract is a clouding of the clear lens in the eye and is a leading cause of vision impairment.
cerebrovascular disease: Cerebrovascual disease is any disorder that relates to the blood vessels that supply the brain and covering membranes. Most cases of cerebrovascular disease are due to stroke. Stroke occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked or bleeds and which can cause parts of the brain to die, resulting in impaired functioning or ability across a range of activities.
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Serious, progressive and disabling long-term lung disease where damage to the lungs, usually because of both emphysema and chronic bronchitis, obstructs oxygen intake and causes increasing shortness of breath. By far the greatest cause is cigarette smoking.
chronic kidney disease: Refers to all conditions of the kidney, lasting at least 3 months, where a person has had evidence of kidney damage and/or reduced kidney function, regardless of the specific cause.
community aged care: For the purposes of this report, community aged care refers to those services provided under the Home Car Packages program and the Commonwealth Home Support Program (and the preceeding programs).
coronary heart disease: Coronary heart disease is the most common form of heart disease (also known as ischaemic heart disease). It presents in two major clinical forms: acute myocardial infarction (commonly referred to as heart attack) and angina. Acute myocardial infarction is a serious and sudden life-threatening event that occurs when a blood vessel (or vessels) supplying the heart is suddenly blocked completely and risks damaging the heart and its functions. Angina is a temporary condition that occurs when the heart is unable to meet the body’s need for blood; for example, during increased exercise.
dementia: Dementia is a term that describes a syndrome associated with over 100 different diseases; it is not a single specific disease. It is characterised primarily by impairment of brain function across several possible domains, including language, memory, perception, personality and cognitive skills. The type and pattern of its development, and the severity of symptoms, can differ from individual to individual and according to the specific type of dementia; however, it is typically marked by gradual onset, which progresses over time and is irreversible.
dementia with Lewy bodies: Dementia with Lewy bodies accounts for up to 5% of cases and is associated with the development of abnormal cells, called Lewy bodies, in the brain. Characteristic symptoms include marked fluctuation in cognitive ability and visual hallucinations, as well as symptoms similar to Parkinson disease (for example, tremor and rigidity). Progression tends to be more rapid than Alzheimer disease.
diabetes: A chronic condition in which the body cannot properly use its main energy source, the sugar glucose. This is due to a relative or absolute deficiency in insulin, a hormone that is produced by the pancreas and helps glucose enter the body's cells from the bloodstream and then be processed by them. Diabetes is marked by an abnormal build-up of glucose in the blood, and it can have serious short- and long-term effects.
disability: Described by WHO as a concept of several dimensions relating to an impairment in body structure or function, a limitation in activities (such as mobility and communication), a restriction in participation (involvement in life situations, such as work, social interaction and education), and the affected person's physical and social environment. Described by the Oxford concise colour medical dictionary (1998) as 'a loss or restriction of functional ability or activity as a result of impairment of the body or mind'.
emphysema: A chronic lung disease where over-expansion or destruction of the lung tissue blocks oxygen intake, leading to shortness of breath and other problems.
frontotemporal dementia: Frontotemporal dementia is thought to account for about 5% to 10% of cases and is relatively more common in males with a younger onset of dementia. Early symptoms include personality and mood changes, disinhibition and language difficulties.
high blood pressure: The definition of high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) can vary but a well-accepted one is from the World Health Organization: a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or more or a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or more, or [the person is] receiving medication for high blood pressure.
homelessness: As defined by the ABS, a person is considered homeless if they do not have suitable accommodation alternatives and their current living arrangement:
is in a dwelling that is inadequate (is unfit for human habitation and lacks basic facilities such as kitchen and bathroom facilities)
has no tenure, or if their initial tenure, is short and not extendable
does not allow them to have control of, and access to space for social relations (including personal or household living space, ability to maintain privacy and exclusive access to kitchen and bathroom facilities).
Indigenous Australians: A person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. See also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
influenza: An acute contagious viral respiratory infection marked by fevers, muscle aches, headache, cough and sore throat.
informal carers: An informal carer is a person, such as a family member, friend or neighbour, who provides regular and sustained care and assistance to the person requiring support. Use of the adjective 'informal' does not imply that the care provided is thought to be casual or lacking in structure and process. Rather, it is a means of distinguishing the unpaid care provided by family, friends or neighbours from care provided by formal agencies or institutions, paid for by the receiver (possibly including government subsidies), or provided by (necessarily) trained professionals.
life expectancy: An indication of how long a person can expect to live, depending on the age they have already reached. Technically it is the average number of years of life remaining to a person at a particular age if age-specific death rates do not change. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth.
macular degeneration: The degeneration of an area at the centre of the retina that surrounds the fovea and is responsible for best central vision.
obesity: Marked degree of overweight, defined for population studies as a body mass index of 30 or over.
older Australians: In this report older Australians refers to Australians aged 65 and over, unless otherwise specified, where Indigenous data are reported ‘older Australians’ includes Indigenous Australians aged 50 and over.
permanent residential aged care: Permanent care provided to a person in an Australian Government-approved aged care home, including accommodation (bedding and other furnishings, meals, laundry, social activities), personal care (bathing/showering, toileting, dressing, eating, moving about), and nursing and allied health services if required.
pneumonia: Inflammation of the lungs as a response to infection by bacteria or viruses. The air sacs become flooded with fluid, and inflammatory cells and affected areas of the lung become solid. Pneumonia is often quite rapid in onset and marked by a high fever, headache, cough, chest pain and shortness of breath.
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): PTSD is a form of anxiety disorder in which a person has a delayed and prolonged reaction after being in an extremely threatening or catastrophic situation such as a war, natural disaster, terrorist attack, serious accident or witnessing violent deaths.
primary carers: A person who provides the most informal assistance, in terms of help or supervision, to a person with one or more disabilities, or aged 60 and over. The assistance has to be ongoing, or likely to be ongoing, for at least 6 months and be provided for one or more of the core activities (communication, mobility or self-care). Note, this definition applies to the ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers and may differ somewhat from other collections' definitions. See also informal carer.
Resident Classification Scale (RCS): The RCS was the previous mechanism for allocating Government subsidies to aged care providers for delivering care to residents. The RCS was replaced by the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) on 20 March 2008.
respiratory disease: Respiratory conditions affect the airways, including the lungs as well as the passages that transfer air from the mouth and nose into the lungs. They can be long lasting (chronic) or short term (acute) and can cause ill health, disability and death.
respite residential aged care: Temporary, short-term care in a residential aged care facility to support both older people and their carers to live at home for as long as possible.
severe or profound core activity limitation: A limitation where a person sometimes (severe) or always (profound) requires personal assistance or supervision with self care, mobility or communication.
stroke: When an artery supplying blood to the brain suddenly becomes blocked or bleeds. Often causes paralysis of parts of the body normally controlled by that area of the brain, or speech problems and other symptoms.
solar keratosis: A skin condition resulting from long-term exposure to the sun.
superannuation: Superannuation is money set aside over a person's lifetime to provide for their retirement. It can be accessed when a person reaches eligible age and/or retires. Access can be through pension payments or a lump sum.
tinnitus: The sensation of ringing or other sounds in the ears when there is no external source of sound.
type 2 diabetes: The most common form of diabetes, occurring mostly in people aged 40 or over, and marked by reduced or less effective insulin.
underemployed: Employed persons aged 15 years and over who want, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have. They comprise: people employed part-time who want to work more hours and are available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the 4 weeks subsequent to the survey; and persons employed full-time who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons (such as being stood down or insufficient work being available).
vascular dementia: Vascular dementia is generally considered to be the second most common type of dementia. It is caused by cerebrovascular conditions (for example, stroke). Symptoms in the early stages are similar to Alzheimer disease, but memory loss is not as great and mood fluctuations are more prominent. Physical frailty is also evident. Onset can be sudden. The course of the disease is less predictable than Alzheimer disease, with decline more likely to be stepwise.
volunteering: The provision of unpaid help, in the form of time, service or skills.
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World News Articles and Ezines
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Showing 151 to 175 of 500 Articles in World News.
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151. US General: IS Captures Heavy Weapons in Palmyra
Islamic State militants captured heavy military weapons, possibly including air defense equipment, when they retook the Syrian town of Palmyra from Syrian and Russian forces, according to the U.S. general leading the fight against the terror group. “I think they (Russia and Syria)… probably took their eye off the ball in Palmyra because they were so focused on Aleppo, and they didn't properly secure their gains,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend told Pentagon reporters via teleconference... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Carla Babb)
152. Egypt Freezes Media Company's Assets
The chairman of two independent Egyptian newspapers, including one of the country's only English-language papers, said Wednesday that the company's assets had been frozen for alleged ties to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, a charge he denied. The Muslim Brotherhood's activities were banned in 2013 after the army ousted Egypt's first freely elected President Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood following mass protests against his one-year rule. The government formed a... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
153. Trump Hotels Pulls Out of Rio Hotel Named in Criminal Probe
The Trump Organization said Wednesday it has pulled out of a hotel venture in Rio de Janeiro that is part of a criminal investigation in Brazil, with a Trump Hotels spokeswoman citing construction delays and differences in vision. The Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro, a beachfront property with 170 rooms near where the Olympic Park was located, was managed by the real estate company of President-elect Donald Trump, although no money from the Trump Organization was invested in the... ... (read more)
154. Putin Named ‘Most Powerful’ for Fourth Straight Year
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named the world’s most powerful man for 2016 by Forbes magazine, the fourth straight year he has won. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump came in second, according to the magazine, which issued its annual list Wednesday. "Russia's president has exerted his country's influence in nearly every corner of the globe," according to the business magazine. Forbes said the 64-year-old president “continues to get what he wants,” as he... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
155. Uzbekistan's New Leader Promises Major Government Reshuffle
Uzbekistan's new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, took the oath of office Wednesday, pledging to protect the legacy of his veteran predecessor Islam Karimov, but also signaling plans for a big shake-up of the government. Karimov, who died of a stroke in September, ruled the Central Asian nation of 32 million people for 27 years with a firm hand, brooking no dissent, keeping tight state control of the economy and steering an isolationist foreign policy. Mirziyoyev, who served as... ... (read more)
156. Teen Jackie Evancho Is First Singer Confirmed for Trump Inauguration
Classical crossover singer Jackie Evancho, who charmed TV audiences as a child on "America's Got Talent" six years ago, will sing the U.S. national anthem at the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump — the first performer to be announced for the ceremony. Trump's inaugural committee made the announcement Wednesday, saying Evancho, 16, "represents the best and the brightest of America." "I'm so excited. It's going to be awesome,"... ... (read more)
157. Ukraine Security Chief Calls for Better Cyber Defense Against Russia
A Ukrainian security chief said on Wednesday Ukraine needed to beef up its cyber defenses, citing a recent spate of attacks on government websites that he said originated in Russia. Over the past week, Ukraine's Finance and Defense ministries and State Treasury said their websites had been temporarily downed by attacks aimed at disrupting their operations. "These attacks were planned in advance and coordinated from a center based in the Russian Federation," the secretary... ... (read more)
158. Suspended Venezuela Tries to Crash S. American Trade Bloc Talks
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez failed to get into a meeting of the Mercosur trade bloc on Wednesday after threatening to enter through the window if necessary, despite her country being thrown out of the group this month. The meeting, at Argentina's foreign ministry in Buenos Aires, also grouped fellow South American nations Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay. "If they close the door to us we will, as our president [Nicolas] Maduro has said, go through the... ... (read more)
159. Trump's Transition Performance Rating Trails Predecessors: Poll
A new Gallup poll shows Donald Trump's efforts to transition into the U.S. presidency are rated lower than his past three predecessors during similar points in time. Americans are evenly split on the president-elect's handling of his transition to the White House, with 48 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving. President Barack Obama enjoyed a 75 percent approval rating during the same period in 2008. Sixty-five percent of Americans approved of George W. Bush's... ... (read more)
160. 2 Out of 3 Health Facilities in Nigeria's Borno Destroyed or Idle
Two-thirds of health facilities in Nigeria's Borno state - the center of the Boko Haram insurgency - have either been destroyed or ceased to function, according to a new report. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in its report Wednesday that at least 35 percent of the 743 medical facilities in the state are completely destroyed. It says of the surviving facilities, 31 percent are not functioning, mostly due to a lack of access because of insecurity. Other health... ... (read more)
161. Straight Talk Africa
Shaka Ssali hosts this call-in program that examines topics of special interest to Africans. ... (read more)
Author: VOA News
162. December 14, 2016
A look at the best news photos from around the world. ... (read more)
163. Nigerian Women's Soccer Team Protest at Unpaid Victory Bonuses
Nigeria's national women's soccer team, the Super Falcons, demonstrated outside parliament Wednesday to demand they receive unpaid bonuses for winning Africa's international championship an eighth time. More than a dozen members of the football team, decked out in the national colors of green and white and bearing placards, protested outside the National Assembly in the capital Abuja together with their supporters. The demonstrations came on the day President Muhammadu... ... (read more)
164. UN Official: S. Sudan on 'Brink of an All-out Ethnic Civil War'
South Sudan is “on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war which could destabilize the entire region,” the head of a team of U.N. investigators told the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday, describing a shattered country where children as young as 2 have been raped. Yasmin Sooka addressed the council at a meeting in Geneva requested by the United States as alarm grows about the rise of hate speech by South Sudanese officials and others as civil war grinds on. Tens of... ... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
165. New Law Would Reorganize VOA, Other US Government Broadcasters
Control over U.S. government international broadcasting will be consolidated under a powerful chief executive, under legislation expected to soon be signed by President Barack Obama. The changes were included as part of an annual defense funding bill, the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed last week by both houses of Congress. The bill restructures the leadership of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the U.S. government agency that supervises the Voice of... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (William Gallo)
166. Twitter Rolls Out Live Streaming
Not to be left behind by Facebook Live, Twitter Wednesday unveiled a new live streaming service. According to a post on the site’s blog, “You can create and Tweet live video from the Twitter app, powered by Periscope.” To broadcast, Twitter says you simply have to tap “Live” when composing a tweet. That will bring you to a “pre-broadcast” screen, where you can make sure the shot is right. When you’re ready, you hit “Go Live” so people can start watching you. Those... ... (read more)
167. Monitoring Group: Jihadists Manufactured Weapons Ahead of Mosul Offensive
In the months leading up to the assault on the Iraqi city of Mosul, Islamic State militants manufactured tens of thousands of mortar rounds, rockets, bombs and ammunition — part of an industrial-scale enterprise across the self-styled caliphate that’s been producing weaponry to a standard matching that of national armies, according to an arms monitoring group. The militants’ production system is characterized by firm quality control and high levels of technical precision. Managed... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Jamie Dettmer)
168. Africa 54
Vincent Makori heads up the reporting team to inform you about Africa, the U.S. and the world. ... (read more)
169. Democrats Want Trump to Dump his Stake in DC Hotel
Four Democrat congressmen are calling for President-elect Donald Trump to divest any stake he holds in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., before he takes office in January, citing a clause in the lease that forbids any elected official from profiting off the hotel. In a letter sent to the General Services Administration, the government agency that owns the hotel and leases it to Trump, the four Democrats say Trump would violate the lease the minute he is sworn in on... (read more)
170. Economists Predict Small US Interest Rate Climb
Top U.S. central bank officials are widely expected to raise the key interest rate slightly Wednesday, and investors are watching closely for clues about how much higher rates will go and how fast they will climb over the next year or so. Officials are likely to raise the key rate a quarter of a percent to a range between half- and three-quarters-of-one-percent. That is still very low by historic standards and is the first rate increase in a year. During the recession, the U.S. Federal... ... (read more)
171. Amazon Drone Makes First UK Delivery
Online retailer Amazon has completed its first delivery by drone. The drone delivered an Amazon Fire TV streaming device and a bag of popcorn Wednesday to a user in the Cambridge area of the United Kingdom. According to a tweet from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the delivery was made within 13 minutes of the order being placed. While successful, it may still be some time before delivery drones are widespread, as there are only two customers as part of its “Prime Air” trial. That... ... (read more)
172. Greenpeace Protesters Detained for Blocking EDF's Paris HQ
French police detained dozens of Greenpeace protesters Wednesday who were blocking the Paris headquarters of EDF, the public electricity company that operates the nuclear power plants in France. Officers were seen rappelling down the front of the EDF building to take down a big protest banner and lower down activists perched on the rooftop. Activists protesting the pro-nuclear policy of EDF had handcuffed themselves to heavy yellow barrels and lined up along the main... ... (read more)
173. Police: Notorious 86-Year-Old Jewel Thief Strikes Again
Police just outside Atlanta say a notorious 86-year-old jewel thief has struck again. Dunwoody police say Doris Payne was arrested Tuesday at a Von Maur department store. A police report says Payne put a $2,000 necklace in her back pocket and tried to leave the store. Authorities have said Payne has lifted pricey baubles from countless jewelry stores around the world in an illicit career that has spanned six decades. She was the subject of a 2013 documentary, "The Life and... ... (read more)
174. China Building Military Defense Structures on Artificial Islands
The Chinese government appears to have constructed several large military defense structures on artificial islands it built in contested areas of the South China Sea. Aerial photos published Wednesday in a report by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative show the build-up of large anti-aircraft guns and what appear to be smaller missile-defense systems on each of China’s outposts in the Spratly Islands. The group, which has been monitoring the military construction via satellite... ... (read more)
175. Afghanistan Continues to Fume over Russia’s Outreach to Taliban
Officials and lawmakers in Afghanistan continue to question and denounce Russia’s recent disclosure that it maintains “limited political” contacts with the Taliban. The ongoing session of the Afghan parliament has witnessed a heated debate on the issue, with some lawmakers condemning Russia’s outreach to the Islamist insurgency as “shameful” while others accusing Moscow of providing modern warfare to Taliban fighters. Lawmakers also criticized neighboring Iran for backing the... (read more)
Author: webdesk@voanews.com (Ayaz Gul)
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Actors/Models
Large Grid
.Mark Dyer known as Warrior King was born in Kingston Jamaica on July 27th 1979. He is a Jamaican reggae singer known within the Caribbean and internationally for his music that is focused on messages about education and uplifting women. Some of Warrior King's best known hits include "Virtuous Woman" (2001), "Hold Da Faith" (2005), "My Life" (2005), "Can't Get Me Down" (2005) and "Wanna Give You Love" (2009).
Warrior King's musical career began in high school where he performed in talent shows. At that time, he followed the musical style of reggae artiste Bounty Killer.
Over time, his style evolved eventually leading to his international chart topping single Virtuous Woman in 2001 (produced by Michael Johnson). In October 2001, this song was # 1 on the Jamaican reggae charts, as well as, the New York Top 30 Reggae Singles chart. In 2002, his debut album Virtuous Woman was released by VP Records and spent nine weeks on the Billboard.com charts. This album included the songs Hold Da Faith and Breath of Fresh Air. Many established producers in the reggae industry contributed to this album including Sheldon 'Calibud' Stewart (Sizzla Kalonji), Lion Paw (Luciano and Junior Kelly) and Penthouse (Buju Banton and Beres Hammond).
In 2005, he released another album called Hold Da Faith whose songs were on the charts for Jamaica's Weekly Countdown[8] and included singles such as My Life, Baby Girl, Education and Can't Get Me Down.[9] His music became known, not only in his native Jamaica, but also Tokyo, London and New York.[10] His 2009 album Love is in the Air featured the hit "Wanna Give You Love" which spent two weeks at the top of the Jamaica Music Countdown Top 25 Reggae Singles Chart.
In September 2011, he released a new album called Tell me how me Sound featuring songs such as Jah is the Only Oneand System is Crazy.
In 2001 when the hit "Virtuous Woman" became well known on the international reggae scene, The Jamaica Observerdeclared Warrior King "one of the artists who made a difference in 2001." In August 2010, Warrior King was recognized by the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Marcus Garvey Awards for his contribution to music.He continues to tour the world including Europe, South America and the United States. In April 2011, he completed a tour with renowned reggae singer Luciano, focused on raising funds for countries that recently suffered natural disasters such as Japan.
Warrior King was born in Kingston but moved to Clarendon, Jamaica during his early years. He went to ST Andrew Technical High School(Staths)and studied Human Rights and African Awareness at St. Andrew's Technical College, and then was a mechanical engineering student at the National Tool and Engineering Institute before he changed gears to pursue his musical career.[18] Warrior King is a devout follower of the Rastafarian faith and continues to use his music to reinforce messages about love, tolerance, education and upliftment...
Warrior King
Association with the Mark Miller Company
All My Dayz - Warrior King
For All Talents Who Would Like To Be Featured On This Website... Click Here
© By MAURICE MORRISONS MADD GRAPHICS/ARTASIGHT PRODUCTIONS AGENCY
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Supporting museums Art we've helped buy The Nativity
© V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum)
Jean Bourdichon
Sam Fogg
A single manuscript leaf depicting The Nativity on one side, and text on the other, from the Hours of Henry VII.
The Hours was originally richly decorated with over 20 full page miniatures. These are exceptionally large, and have painted frames similar to panel paintings. The artist worked in Tours during the late fifteenth century and was official court painter, succeeding Jean Fouquet. Although documented as a panel painter, designer of coins, stained glass and silver and gold plate, he is best known as a manuscript illuminator. The Nativity is thought to be the finest of the identified leaves from the Hours of Henry VII.
Henry VII of England; in England by late 17th century; Dr Alan Stevenson; Dr Christopher Kempster circa 1940; Sam Fogg Ltd.
Tempera on vellum
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born on:
I wish to receive a PDF file with the biography and portfolio of this artist.
Go to Online Gallery
1986 - Bachelor of Arts, Art History and Studio Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA).
awards(s):
2016 - The Fence selected artist.
2010 - Review Santa Fe participant.
2009 - Hasselblad Masters Finalist.
exhibition(s):
2019 - New Mexico Museum of Art, group show, Santa Fe (USA).
2019 - Surround Art Gallery, solo show, Moscow (Russia).
2019 - Dream House, group show, Moscow (Russia).
2019 - Kopon Fine Art, group show, Moscow (Russia).
2019 - PhotoLA, group show, Los Angeles (USA).
2018 - Fotofever Paris 2018 with Artistics Gallery, Paris (France).
2017 - PhotoEye Gallery, group show, Santa Fe (NM-USA).
2016 - PhotoEye Gallery, solo show, Santa Fe (USA).
2016 - Visionnaire Gallery, solo show, Milan (Italy).
2016 - Visionnaire Gallery, solo show, Bologne (Italy).
2014 - Le Méridien, solo show, Londres (England).
2014 - PhotoEye Gallery, solo show, Santa Fe (NM-USA).
2014 - H2A Gallery, solo show, Knokke (Belgium).
2014 - Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, group show, Londres (England).
2013 - Affordable Art Fair Singapour, group show, Singapour.
2013 - Affordable Art Fair Battersea, group show, Londres (England).
2013 - New Art, group show, Paris (France).
2012 - Doinel Gallery, solo show, Londres (England).
2012 - FotoFever, group show, Bruxelles (Belgium).
2012 - Art Beijing, group show, Pékin (China).
2012 - LineArt, group show, Ghent (Belgium).
2011 - Montreux Art Gallery, group show, Montreux (Switzerland).
2011 - Doinel Gallery, group show, Knokke (Belgium).
2009 - Dask Gallery, group show, Copenhagen (Denmark).
2009 - Matrix Fine Art, group show, New Mexico (USA).
2009 - Milk Studios, group exhibition, New York (USA).
2007 - Robin Rice Gallery, group exhibition, New York (USA).
2004 - Danforth Museum of Art, group exhibition, Framingham (USA).
"Wildlife", Prestel Publishing, England, 2014.
"Tiere vor der Kamera", Prestel Publishing, Germany, 2014.
opened up his studio to us. Watch the video of our visit to learn more about the artist's approach.
Video of Brad Wilson - Photographie | Artistics.com
Brad Wilson is an American artist who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He became widely acclaimed for his photographic series “Affinity”, which features studio portraits of wild animals.
His professional career began in New York City over 20 years ago where he worked as a commercial portrait photographer for magazines, book publishers, and design firms. In 2010, after feeling like much of his photography was becoming too routine and predictable, Brad Wilson stopped working with human subjects and started a new fine-art project with animals in the studio. The resulting series of images, entitled “Affinity”, immediately transcended the normal boundaries of wildlife or nature photography, and moved provocatively into a new realm of animal portraiture.
Brad Wilson’s powerful photographs represent a world that we, as humans, rarely inhabit – a world of instinct, intuition, and present moment awareness – a fully natural world, distinct from the increasingly urbanized and computerized modern landscape that surrounds us. Brad Wilson pulls us into this world with large, exquisitely detailed photographs, offering up a compelling feeling of intimacy and proximity seldom experienced. He intentionally removes all barriers and distractions so the animals depicted move vividly forward out of a deep black background to thoroughly reveal themselves and to challenge our notion of what it means to be human.
Brad Wilson has an obvious respect for the animals he photographs and says, “It’s an amazing and rare privilege to work with these animals, especially since many of them are seriously endangered and may soon disappear from the earth. I hope in some small way that these photographs can serve as worthy ambassadors for the species they depict, reminding us of our connection to the natural world and to the many compelling creatures that share the planet with us.” Indeed, the “Affinity” series makes it clear that we share our world with incredible creatures, as unique and complex as we are, and that we have an inherent interest in protecting them. However, the photographs achieve more than a mere awakening of our environmental consciousness. There is something else clearly visible in the intensely sharp eyes of these animals, something that echoes our own evolution. As we continue to develop a new human world, even more detached from the natural landscape around us, we create a pronounced feeling of isolation and separation. The photographs of Affinity remind us of quite the opposite - we are not alone, we are not separate, we are part of a beautifully rich and interconnected biodiversity of life.
Brad’s work has been widely published and exhibited around the world, and featured recently by Audubon, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, Vogue Italia, Paris Match, Vanity Fair Italy, CNN.
Bull #2, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
Eyelash Pit Viper #1, Albuquerque, NM, 2013
Giraffe #3, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
Green Anaconda #1, Albuquerque, NM, 2013
White Lipped Tree Viper #3, Albuquerque, NM, 2016
Zebra #7, Los Angeles, CA, 2016
African Elephant #1, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
Arctic Fox #1, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
Rhinoceros #2, Albuquerque, NM, 2013
Bull #3, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2018
Buffalo #3, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, 2019
Affinity - Birds
African Crowned Crane #1, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
Bald Eagle #1, St Louis, MO, 2012
Eurasian Eagle Owl #1, St Louis, MO, 2012
Great Horned Owl #1, Espanola, NM, 2011
Palm Cockatoo #1, Los Angeles, CA, 2016
Raven #2, Albuquerque, NM, 2013
Red Tailed Hawk #4, Albuquerque, NM, 2016
Scarlet Macaw #3, Albuquerque, NM, 2016
Seriema #1, Albuquerque, NM, 2013
Sun Conure #1, Albuquerque, NM, 2016
Western Screech Owl #1, Espanola, NM, 2011
White Cockatoo #1, Albuquerque, NM, 2016
Catalina Macaw #1, Albuquerque, NM, 2016
King Penguin #9, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, 2019
Flammulated Owl #5, Espanola, New Mexico, USA, 2018
Eurasian Eagle Owl #3, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, 2018
Raven #4, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, 2018
Spectacled Owl #2, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, 2018
Affinity - Felines
Black Leopard #2, Monterey, CA, 2014
Tiger #3, Los Angeles, CA, 2010
Cheetah #3, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
White Tiger #4, Los Angeles, CA, 2010
Tiger #9, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2018
Affinity - Monkeys
Capuchin Monkey #5, Monterey, CA, 2014
Chimpanzee #2, Los Angeles, CA, 2010
Mandrill #1, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Orangutan #1, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
Spider Monkey #1, Los Angeles, CA, 2011
Chimpanzee #9, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2018
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1. Trump to reimpose all Iran sanctions, with exemptions on oil imports
All U.S. sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal will be reimposed on Monday, however, "eight jurisdictions" will receive exemptions allowing them to continue to import Iranian oil in the short term, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said during a call with reporters on Friday.
Why it matters: This is the second and most significant round of sanctions to be reimposed on Iran, targeting its energy, financial and shipping sectors. The announcement both underlines the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" approach to Iran, and the degree to which it has divided the international community. Some Republican hardliners now believe Trump is going soft by not using all the tools at his disposal.
Between the lines: The reimposition of these sanctions was long expected, but one major question mark was whether Trump would cut Iranian banks off from SWIFT, the network for global financial transactions.
Politico's Eliana Johnson reports that national security adviser John Bolton favored doing so, but Mnuchin's more conservative position ultimately won out. She reports that some GOP hawks, including Ted Cruz, now want to pass legislation to cut Iran off from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).
It's a high-stakes debate. Mnuchin argued, per Johnson, that it was "necessary to keep humanitarian aid flowing into the country and to prevent a number of European nations, which opposed the U.S. exit from the Iranian nuclear deal, from forming an alternative network to SWIFT that could include Iran, Russia, China — and to which the U.S. would have no visibility."
The bottom line: Pompeo and Mnuchin said that their goal is to "change the behavior" of the Iranian regime, that the pressure in Tehran is already rising, and that it will only rise higher as they "aggressively enforce" the sanctions. Iran's posture, for now, seems to be to wait out the Trump regime and hope the winds in Washington begin to blow in a different direction soon.
Go deeper: Trump administration blinks on "zero" oil exports from Iran.
You’ve caught up. Now what?
Sign up for Mike Allen’s daily Axios AM and PM newsletters to get smarter, faster on the news that matters.
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Nanotechnology in Personalized Medicine
By Will SoutterAug 22 2012
As our ability increases to work with matter on the scale of nanometers, we are finding more and more applications for nanomaterials across a huge range of industries. The field of medicine will be amongst the most affected by the rise of nanotechnology, as it coincides with our increasing understanding of biology and medicine on the molecular scale.
Nanostructures, which are of a suitable size scale to interact directly with many biological structures and systems, are going to be a vital tool for physicians to gain better information about patient's bodies, and will allow them to work directly with the body to prevent and cure diseases.
Figure 1. Gold nanoparticles functionalized with DNA, RNA or protein strands can be used to deliver drugs to the place in the body where they are needed.
A major focus of nanomedicine research to date has been novel methods of targeted drug delivery using nanocapsules and functionalized nanoparticles. Nanoformulations of existing drugs can enable simpler administration, increased safety, or increased efficacy. There has also been a great deal of research interest in nano-enhanced diagnostic systems.
Nanoparticles and other nanostructured devices have been found to be more effective at detecting or quantifying disease markers than more conventional counterparts, particularly when looking for very small quantities of a chemical.
Antimicrobial surfaces and products using nanoparticles are also becoming more and more commonplace, in consumer products as well as in medical equipment such as catheters, dressings, and surgical tools. Silver nanoparticles, the most commonly used antimicrobial nanocoating, has been shown to be highly effective at destroying a range of bacteria and other microbes - much more effective than silver in its bulk form.
Figure 2. Tumor cells can be targeted using functionalized nanoparticles. The principles of personalized medicine can help to design the nanodrug to be as effective as possible for each patient.
Personalized medicine is a huge movement in the modern medical world. It aims to move away from the traditional practice of prescribing standard doses of standard drugs for a condition to every patient, and shifts the focus onto targeting the precise drug and dose required according to the patient's physiology.
This is achieved by detecting and tracking molecular biomarkers, which indicate the presence and level of activity of a particular biological system in a patient's body, whether inherent or foreign.
Nanotechnology: The Risks and Rewards
Nanotechnology and Developing Countries - Part 2: What Realities?
Using In Situ Liquid TEM to Characterize the Size, Shape and Composition of Nanomaterials
Another major part of the emerging field of personalized medicine is pharmacogenomics - analyzing the genetic makeup of the patient to determine whether a particular medication will be successful, or if it will have any adverse effects.
This is particularly important in cancer treatment, where the chemotherapy drugs used can be very damaging to healthy cells as well as cancerous ones, and the exact genetics of the tumor cells can vary widely between patients, and even between locations in one patient's body.
Nanotechnology Solutions for Personalized Medicine
Most of the recent developments in personalized medicine have been directed at better diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Cancer is one of the biggest killers, and existing treatments can usually only improve the patient's chances - an outright cure is very rare.
Personalization of the treatment of cancer is a promising way to increase our ability to fight cancer, however, without necessarily requiring discovery of a revolutionary breakthrough drug. By determining which drugs a particular patient will respond best to, and the correct dosage, the possibility of adverse side effects can be greatly reduced.
There are several ways in which nanotechnology can help with these developments - primarily by making the diagnostic processes simpler, quicker, or less invasive by requiring less tissue.
Genetic analysis is a crucial part of personalized medicine, particularly in cancer treatments where the genetic signals can be so varied. Techniques are being developed for high-throughput DNA sequencing using nanopores, to obtain genetic information from a patient so that targeted medication can be selected as rapidly as possible.
The unique electronic and mechanical properties of nanostructured carbon materials like carbon nanotubes and graphene very interesting as the active components of nanosensors, which can detect incredibly small concentrations of a biomarker - in some cases down to as little as a few molecules.
Many of these technologies can be combined into a "lab-on-a-chip" - a portable diagnostic device which will be able to run tests rapidly and without requiring a large sample of tissue or blood. These devices will be able to be used in GP's offices, or in remote locations, which will make a huge difference to the speed at which a definite diagnosis can be given - a crucial step for cancer patients, where their chances can depend very strongly upon how early treatment starts.
Graphene nanopores can be used to sequence DNA. The DNA can pass through the pores, preventing the flow of ions through the pore, resulting in a characteristic electrical signal.
This research was published in Nature in 2010.
This sort of technology will also have a huge impact as the concept of personalized medicine spreads to include the treatment of a broader range of diseases. A commercial lab-on-a-chip, capable of diagnosing diseases rapidly, and providing the physician with enough information about the patient's physiology to select the correct drugs and dosages, would transform the world of medicine completely.
As well as providing a wider range of drugs by introducing the concept of nanoformulations, nanotechnology is capable of providing medical professionals with a vastly greater set of diagnostic tools, with less invasive procedures, and more rapid results. This will help to usher in the new age of personalized medicine, where all the additional data about the patient can be leveraged to tune the treatment to their precise needs.
This will have a particularly strong impact in cancer treatment, where the chemotherapy drugs which will have the least adverse effects on the patient can be selected. Drug delivery systems using functionalized nanoparticles can also be used in tandem with the diagnostic techniques to improve targeting of drugs to particular parts of the body.
As with all aspects of nanomedicine, there is a complex regulatory minefield to navigate before these technologies can see public use. Targeted drug delivery systems must be shown to be safe and reliable enough, and diagnostic systems must demonstrate a sufficient degree of accuracy. However, the benefits available from exploitation of this technology should drive the process forwards, and new research is emerging all the time which strengthens the case for nanotechnology in medicine.
"Small is Beautiful: What Can Nanotechnology Do for Personalized Medicine?" - G.E. Marchant, Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine, 2009. DOI: 10.2174/187569209790112346
"Role of nanobiotechnology in developing personalized medicine for cancer" - K.K. Jain, Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2005. DOI: 10.1159/000319928
"Theranostic' Imaging Offers Means of Killing Prostate Cancer Cells Without Harming Other Healthy Cells" - John Hopkins Medicine
Soutter, Will. (2019, May 16). Nanotechnology in Personalized Medicine. AZoNano. Retrieved on January 16, 2021 from https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3078.
Soutter, Will. "Nanotechnology in Personalized Medicine". AZoNano. 16 January 2021. <https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3078>.
Soutter, Will. "Nanotechnology in Personalized Medicine". AZoNano. https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3078. (accessed January 16, 2021).
Soutter, Will. 2019. Nanotechnology in Personalized Medicine. AZoNano, viewed 16 January 2021, https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3078.
Graphene & Nanotubes
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Top 10 Most Affordable U.S. Housing Markets for Renting in 2021
#figuresfriday Home Sales & Prices Most Recent Articles
According to ATTOM Data Solutions’ newly released 2021 Rental Affordability Report, owning a median-priced three-bedroom home is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 63 percent of the U.S. counties analyzed.
The annual report noted this trend is occurring despite median home prices increasing more than average rents over the past year in 83 percent of those counties and rising more than wages in almost two-thirds of the nation.
ATTOM’s 2021 rental affordability analysis incorporated recently released fair market rent data for 2021 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics along with public record sales deed data from ATTOM in 915 U.S. counties with sufficient home sales data.
The analysis revealed the most populous counties where home prices are rising faster than rents are Los Angeles County, CA; Cook County (Chicago), IL; Harris County (Houston), TX; Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ and San Diego County, CA.
The analysis also named the largest counties where rents are rising faster than prices. Those areas included Kings County (Brooklyn), NY; Queens County, NY; New York County (Manhattan), NY, Bronx County, NY and Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), PA.
According to the report, renting the typical three-bedroom property requires at least a third of average weekly wages in 55 percent of the counties analyzed.
The report stated that the most affordable markets for renting are mostly in the South and Midwest, led by Roane County, TN (outside Knoxville) (18.4 percent of wages needed to rent); Benton County (Rogers), AR (20.7 percent); Madison County (Huntsville), AL (21.6 percent); Greene County, OH (outside Dayton) (22.5 percent) and Sullivan County (Kingsport), TN (22.6 percent).
In this post, we dig deeper into the data to uncover the complete list of the top 10 most affordable housing markets for renting in 2021. Rounding out the top 10 are: Harrison County, WV (23.0 percent); Rock Island County, IL (23.4 percent); Rhea County, TN (23.5 percent); Hancock County, OH (23.6 percent); and Sangamon County, IL (23.7 percent).
ATTOM’s 2021 rental affordability analysis also reported that the least affordable markets for renting are mostly in the West, led by Santa Cruz County, CA (82.9 percent of average wages needed to rent); Santa Barbara County, CA (68.7 percent); Marin County, CA (outside San Francisco) (67.9 percent); Park County, CO (outside Denver) (67.5 percent) and Kauai County, HI (66 percent).
In this post, we dig deeper into the data to uncover the complete list of the top 10 least affordable housing markets for renting in 2021. Rounding out the top 10 are: Monterey County, CA (65.5 percent); Honolulu County, HI (65.2 percent); Monroe County, FL (63.8 percent); Spotsylvania County, VA (63.4 percent); and Maui County, HI (63.2 percent).
ATTOM’s latest rental affordability report noted that wages are increasing more than average fair market rents in 81 percent of the markets analyzed, including Los Angeles County, CA; Cook County (Chicago), IL; Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ; San Diego County, CA and Orange County, CA (outside Los Angeles).
The report also noted that average fair-market rents are rising faster than average wages in 19 percent of the counties analyzed, including Harris County (Houston), TX; Tarrant County (Fort Worth), TX; Fresno County, CA; Pinellas County (Tampa), FL and Macomb County, MI (outside Detroit).
Want to learn more about rental affordability trends in your area? Contact us to find out how!
rental affordability
Christine Stricker is the senior marketing manager for ATTOM Data Solutions where she serves the primary media liaison for the premium property data provider. She is responsible for successfully driving ATTOM Data products, service and brand promise in the marketplace and instrumental in identifying opportunities and delivering effective strategies to generate results.
All posts by Christine Stricker
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Ford restarts engine production in Europe
To date, Ford is returning its employees to the British engine plant in Dagenham and to the Bridgend engine plant, as well as adjusting the operating mode.
Previously, Ford opened all its plants in Germany and in Spain. The two engine manufacturing plants in the UK were the last to remain closed due to an outbreak of coronavirus. However, to date, work in Essex and South Wales may be resumed.
As in all factories, this is done under strict conditions and at the maximum possible distance between employees. Where two employees work on the engine block, a plastic screen hangs between them. Each worker wears a mouth mask or other protective clothing. In addition, production is still not running at full capacity: office workers who are not yet needed at the workplace still work from home.
Various engines are being built at the Bridgend Motor Plant. Typically, around 1,700 employees work on assembling engines such as the 1.5 EcoBoost from Focus or the heart of the Fiesta ST. 1830 employees at the Dagenham engine plant assemble various TDCi diesels.
Australian Senator offers to buy Holden for $ 1
Nissan chief designer talks about Ariya electrocross
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Artist of The Day | Bharti Kher
Bharti Kher
An Absence of Assignable Cause
bindis on fiberglass
Bharti Kher is a contemporary British-Indian artist who works with painting, collage, photography, sculpture, and installation. Probing cultural misinterpretations with her work, Kher uses Hindu mythology and objects such as bindis (forehead decorations) as sculptural materials. The most famous example of this is in her The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (2006), which features a life-sized elephant made from fiberglass and ornamented with numerous white bindis. “The less you say about some of the works the better. I think you just have to experience it,” she has explained. Born in 1969 in London, United Kingdom to Indian parents, she studied painting and design at Newcastle Polytechnic. In 1992, Kher traveled to India where she met her future husband, Indian artist Subodh Gupta, and relocated there permanently shortly afterward. Over the following decades, through her sculptures and collages Kher has created hybrid beings that unite contradictions of gender, species, race, and social role. She currently lives and works in New Delhi, Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Tate Modern in London, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.
Courtesy of Bharti Kher, atnet.com
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Ion Dragoumis: 100 Years after His Assassination
7:00pm (Greece) 12:00pm (EDT)
American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Roderick Beaton
Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature at King’s College London
Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan
Doreen C. Spitzer Archivist at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Jenifer Neils
Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
The video of our webinar is now available in our video archive.
About the Webinar:
A diplomat, writer, philosopher, visionary, and revolutionary, Ion Dragoumis (1878–1920) is now a legendary figure in the Greek imagination because of his untimely death. On July 31, 1920, Dragoumis was killed in cold blood by political adversaries and drew his last breath on Kifisias Avenue, not far from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
To commemorate the centenary of Dragoumis' assassination, the American School's Archives has organized a major exhibition, "Ion Dragoumis: Between East and West. One Hundred Years After His Assassination," scheduled to open on October 15, 2020. For the first time, rare documents and photos from Dragoumis' personal papers will be showcased to the public. This rich family archive was donated to the American School in 1959 by Dragoumis' brother Philippos.
Join us for a virtual preview of the exhibition, followed by a lecture featuring Roderick Beaton, Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature at King's College London. Professor Beaton will discuss Dragoumis' identity politics in conjunction with Eleftherios Venizelos' Great Idea (Μεγάλη Ιδέα).
About the Speakers:
Roderick Beaton is Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature at King’s College London, where he taught from 1988 until 2018. Beaton is the author of many books and articles about aspects of the Greek-speaking world from the twelfth century to the present day, including George Seferis: Waiting for the Angel. A Biography (2003); Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution (2013), and Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (2019, now a Penguin paperback). He is completing an overview of Greek history from the Bronze Age to the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution in 2021, to be published in 2021 with the title The Greeks: A Global History. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA, 2013), a Fellow of King’s College (FKC, 2018), and Commander of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic, an award conferred on him by President Prokopios Pavlopoulos in September 2019.
Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan is the Doreen C. Spitzer Archivist of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Natalia studied archaeology at the University of Thessaloniki and Bryn Mawr College (Ph.D. 1993). In the past decade, she has also gained a reputation as an institutional historian writing about the history of American archaeology in Greece. To the lay audience, she is known through her blog, From the Archivist’s Notebook, which has featured more than 100 essays since she created it in 2013.
Jenifer Neils is the Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens—the first woman to hold that position in the School’s history. Before that, she was the Elsie B. Smith Professor in the Liberal Arts and the Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University. Neils has held a number of distinguished fellowships and has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University.
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By Laws & Regulations // Privacy Policy // Copyright 2021 American School of Classical Studies at Athens
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ASHG's members work with policymakers to raise global support for investment in basic research and scientific discovery. By advocating for and with members on issues important to the human genetics community, ASHG helps to advance the field in science, health, and society.
GINA is a federal law that protects against genetic discrimination in the workplace and through one’s health insurance. It also safeguards individual and family privacy of genetic information. Join ASHG in spreading the word about GINA and its importance for research.
Contact ASHG
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Region Archives
Potomac Region ASPRS Scholarship Winners
The Potomac Region is proud to share that three students from within the Potomac Region will be awarded ASPRS Scholarships at the national level. Congratulations on behalf of the region to each of these recipients. Please keep your eyes peeled for these outstanding students at GeoWeek in March and be sure to extend your congratulations on their achievements.
John O. Behrens Institute for Land Information (ILI) Memorial Scholarship
The 2020 John O. Behrens Institute for Land Information (ILI) Memorial Scholarship is award to Ms. Elizabeth Hanwell. Ms. Hanwell is a senior at West Virginia University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in environmental geoscience. She has demonstrated academic excellence in geospatial engineering technology and related math and science courses.
Ms. Hanwell has pursued four professional work internships that focused on generating, curating, and analyzing geospatial data and plans to explore graduate programs focused on Earth observation applied to hazard mapping and disaster response.
Ta Liang Memorial Award
The Ta Liang Memorial Award for 2020 is presented to Mohammad Abdul Qadir Khan. The selection was based on his academic achievements and awards, participation in a diversity of geospatial research projects, technical publications, planned program of research-related travel, and volunteer activities for youth and continuing education programs.
Mr. Khan is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Geospatial Data Science at the University of Delaware. He received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Physical Sciences at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST). His research focus is to advance the technology of Machine Learning coupled with satellite imagery and geospatial tools for addressing the global food security crisis and to provide current information of cropping practices and patterns at farm scale.
He is conducting his research in northeastern India, and will be travelling there during Spring/Fall 2020 to conduct field work to obtain information for crops grown in his study area. The field data will be used for image classification and accuracy assessment purposes. His research will advance our understanding of shifting cultivation patterns and cycles in the region based on biophysical factors and population dynamics in the region. Mohammed Abdul Qadir Khan is a truly deserving recipient of the 2020 Ta Liang Memorial Award.
Paul R. Wolf Memorial Scholarship
The 2020 Paul R. Wolf Memorial Scholarship is awarded to Lee Ann Nolan. Ms. Nolan is receiving this award in recognition of her outstanding academic credentials and her plans and enthusiasm to become an education professional in Surveying, Mapping, and Photogrammetry and related fields. Lee Ann is currently a Doctoral candidate (planned graduation August 2020) in Geography at the University of West Virginia-Morgantown.
Lee Ann Nolan has demonstrated a continued interest, dedication, enthusiasm, passion, and aptitude to become an education professional and has been recognized at all levels. Lee Ann’s career goal is to become a tenured teaching/research faculty member at a university, wishing to grow her skill set and continually learn with special interest in the area of UAV’s and drones.
Awards for Outstanding Papers, Professional Achievement, and Service activities are determined by committee selection; scholarships and academic awards are also determined by committee selection but are chosen from among current applications. For details on the application process, see the ASPRS website.
© 2020 ASPRS Potomac Region
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e-Edition Access
$25.00 for unlimited access
Print Subscriber Access
Weekly Editorial
Baxley, GA (31515)
A clear sky. Low 28F. Winds light and variable..
A clear sky. Low 28F. Winds light and variable.
Back story: Notorious “RBG”
Billy G. Howard
Sep 22, 2020 Updated Sep 22, 2020
A terrible reality grasped the nation last Friday when reports told the airwaves that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of gender equality, had succumbed to her cancer battle. The heralded “firebrand” passed away at age 87 due to complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas. Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio (NPR) reported Justice Ginsburg died at home in Washington, D.C. surrounded by family and friends.
The late Supreme Court Justice, born Joan Ruth Bader March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, NY unknowingly embarked upon a life riddled with challenges. Her elder sister, Marilyn, died of meningitis when just six years-old. Young Ruth attended public schools and always stood out as her mother, Celia Bader, directed she should always be a lady. For her, she’d noted, that meant be your own person; be independent.
In keeping with the nature of that challenge, even the death of her mother from cancer the day before she graduated high school, Ruth never allowed life to mandate her options. Bader went on to Cornell University on a full scholarship where she met Martin (Marty) Ginsburg.
They married shortly after she graduated and moved to Ft. Sill, Okla. for his military service. Gender discrimination only allowed Mrs. Ginsburg, regardless of her high score on the civil service exam, to work as a typist. Her becoming pregnant even resulted with the loss of that job.
The couple returned to the East Coast two years later and both attended Harvard Law School where Ruth Ginsburg was one of only nine women in a class of more than 500. There was one point the dean, reportedly, confronted the future legal eagle to question why she was taking up a place that “should go to a man.”
Like most challenges, Ginsburg overcame the adversities of discrimination and quickly emerged as an academic achiever, ahead of her husband. The onset of another challenge was in the process of the young wife’s attempts to manipulate an already busy schedule while caring for a toddler; Marty Ginsburg was diagnosed with testicular cancer. With that came numerous surgeries and aggressive radiation treatments which left Ruth seeing after her sick husband, a three year-old, her classes, and the law review.
That experience, she once informed, had taught her that sleep was a luxury. In the time of Marty’s illness, he wasn’t able to eat until late at night, after which, he’d dictate his senior class paper to her. With him finally getting back to sleep around 2 a.m., she would then take out her books and start reading to prepare for the next day’s classes.
Fortunately, Marty survived and graduated before going to work in New York when his wife, a year behind, transferred to Columbia and eventually graduated at the top of her law school class. Regardless of her academic achievements, law firms still had no interest in employing women. Ironically, when recommended for a Supreme Court clerkship, Ginsburg wasn’t even interviewed.
More difficult than being a woman during that time, Ginsburg later recalled, motherhood only added to the plight as male judges worried she’d be diverted by her “familial obligations.” It had been a mentor, law professor Gerald Gunther, who’d finally gotten her a clerkship in New York; committing to Judge Edmund Palmieri that he’d find a replacement if she wasn’t able to complete the work. Ginsburg, of course, went on to exceed all expectations as was typical of her nature. That was, perhaps, a pre-curser for the five ensuing bouts with cancer herself.
The late justice had the benefit of teaching at Rutgers Law School in 1963; having to hide her second pregnancy. Eventually, she’d become the first female tenured professor at Columbia Law School, and founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Those experiences were instrumental in compelling Ginsburg to become the catalyst for balance in laws related to gender equality long before ever being appointed to the land’s highest court by President Bill Clinton in 1993. Her accomplishments extend much farther than space will allow but I submit that, beyond the conflicts of party lines, America has lost a true icon. I could be wrong but it’s just something to consider.
To pose a question or share your opinion, you can reach B. G. Howard at bw3bh@yahoo.com or P. O. Box 8103, Jacksonville, FL 32239.
VIDEO: Baxley News-Banner's - News Channel
Appling County Pirates vs. Wayne County Yellow Jackets 10/9/2020
LINDA CAROL HAYES STRICKLAND
MARK ELLIOTT SELLERS
PATRICIA ANN REEVES
JEFF HARDEE
CHRISTINE JOHNSON BEECHER
RAYMOND BEASLEY
County, BOE receive additional $2.8 million in ad valorem taxes
Coach T retires
Carter chosen as MLK Parade Grand Marshal
AMY RENEE’ REESE
COVID-19 cases surge in Appling
LEGALS FOR 1-6-2021
baxleynewsbanner.com
Baxley, GA 31515
Email: mail@baxleynewsbanner.com
© Copyright 2021 Baxley News Banner, P.O Box 410 Baxley, GA
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The Last Ghost by Jamie Blake Blog Tour & Giveaway
The Last Ghost
by Jamie Blake
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Release Date: October 1st 2018
Summary: Christian Orland is dead, and everyone in his life is doing their best to understand what happened.
Especially Woe, the sixteenth Fatality, who knows that she was assigned the wrong case when she stopped his heart, but also knew she had to do it, or risk being destroyed herself.
Woe only handles expected death, and not many people expect to die in an accident. However, not many people have the history of Christian Orland. That history is now tormenting his brother Noah, the keeper of all of Christian’s dangerous secrets, his childhood friend Ellery, who he once swore he would love “until he died,” and his girlfriend Melissa, who can’t understand why she is the only person not haunted by ghosts.
Woe teams up with the Fatality who she thinks should have had Christian’s case, and the ghosts of Christian’s past to try to solve the mystery of how he ended up as her case. As they try to unravel some of Christian’s lies, they begin to uncover something far more sinister.
Together, the most important people in Christian’s life and death must work to restore order from the chaos his death caused in the lives of those who loved him, and in realms he could not imagine, before free will is lost forever.
Purchase Link: http://www.jamiecblake.com/books-1
The sixteenth Fatality was surprised to find herself on a bridge, but that was where her appointment book told her to go, and thus, that was where she went. Not that she had a choice either way, but she didn’t mind, she liked the order, the predetermination of things. Car after car drove by, and she watched them, looking closely, knowing all the while that they couldn’t see her. A little after eight in the morning, she noticed a car moving erratically on the bridge. She watched as the car seemed to spin, and then crashed through the wooden guard rail and into the water below. She looked over the edge of the bridge as the car; front end first, began to sink into the depths. She peered down the road, waiting for another car to come, some passerby to notice the broken guard rail, someone to help the passengers. After a few minutes passed, she began to wait for someone entirely different.
Knowing that too much time had gone by for there to be a legitimate chance of rescue, she floated down to where the car had entered the water, looking around expectantly for the twelfth Fatality to come and bring a life to an end. He didn’t come. She started to panic, aware of the pain the people in the car must feel. She felt the familiar pulse of the appointment book as the realization began to overtake her.
“This is wrong. This is not how it is supposed to be,” she murmured, as she dove into the water, passed through the passenger side door of the car, and gently took the right hand of the young man, unconscious and bleeding in the front seat. Her icy touch went up through the fingertips, up the arm, and across his chest as it stopped the faintly beating heart.
She pulled herself out of the water, dry, but still shivering, and walked back towards the bridge to wait. For a Fatality, she hated the process of death. She had heard that she did not have the glamorous part, that there were various other beings that could comfort humans. Beings whose presence was welcomed, as they said their last goodbyes, or made the pain stop. That was not her assignment. Eventually, sirens blaring, the rescue workers came, and it was with a dull throb that she realized they were already too late by the time that she got to the bridge that day.
She had three other appointments that morning, all in hospitals, which was where she normally lingered. She knew some of the other Fatalities who spent time in hospitals, but was not in the mood to socialize with them, to tell them about her terrible day. She never truly felt like one of them anyway. Instead, she knew where she had to go, she just didn’t want to visit that place.
Jamie Blake writes smart books for young adults and teens. Born in Massachusetts, she is the third of four sisters, which by literary tradition makes her the bookish one. Jamie earned degrees in literature at the University of Rochester and public policy at Cornell University. She was an elementary school teacher in North Carolina before moving to Upstate New York, where she lives with her family, including identical twin cats. The Last Ghost coming October 1, 2018 from 50/50 press is her first novel.
Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Instagram
Becky Richardson
My teenage granddaughters would love to read this.
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LSCPA softball season canceled because of coronavirus
March 16, 2020 Updated: March 16, 2020 6:52 p.m.
1of2 Show MoreShow Less
Lamar State College Port Arthur’s softball season and all NJCAA spring sports have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo taken Thursday 6/19/14 Jake Daniels.
Jake Daniels / Jake Daniels/Show MoreShow Less
The National Junior College Athletic Association’s decision to cancel all spring sports competition came as a shock to Lamar State College Port Arthur sophomore pitcher Britni Hunt and her teammates Monday afternoon.
“When I first got the news, my heart was honestly broken,” Hunt said. “It is my last season playing, so it was like a shock. I couldn’t believe it was actually happening.”
The NJCAA previously suspended all spring sports activity until April 3 because of the spread of coronavirus, but recent recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention motivated the association to outright cancel the remaining basketball championships and other spring sports seasons.
“In light of the progressive evolvement of the COVID-19 situation, the NJCAA has decided to end all competition for the remainder of the academic year,” Christopher Parker, NJCAA President & CEO, stated in a news release issued Monday. “As an association, the NJCAA exhausted all possible avenues to potentially postpone competition for both upcoming basketball championships and spring sport competition. We believe following the recommendations of the CDC is in the best interest of our member colleges and our student-athletes.”
The Seahawks were 3-12-1 through the early part of the season, but the team was looking forward to showing what they could do in conference play. LSCPA has 13 players on its roster, six of whom are sophomores playing in their second year of eligibility.
“This is a heartbreaking situation for our team and for all the teams out there who are impacted by this decision,” LSCPA head softball coach Vance Edwards said in a statement. “We were on the verge of starting conference play and we were going into that part of our season with a great deal of optimism.
“We’ve been discussing this with our players for the past week or so and although they are certainly disappointed that their season is over, they are a mature group of young adults and they understand why it has to be this way,” Edwards said. “It’s a sad situation because not only is every individual player affected but so are their parents, our fans, the coaching staff, game officials … the impact spans across a wide area.”
Hunt, a Port Neches-Groves graduate, was the No.1 starting pitcher for the Seahawks this season. In 46.2 innings, she had a 2-4 record with 48 strikeouts and a 4.05 ERA.
The NJCAA also announced spring sport student athletes who were enrolled at an NJCAA member college in 2020 would not be charged a year of eligibility.
Though the rule would allow Hunt and the rest of the sophomores another chance to play, student-athletes have other factors to consider.
“I’ve given that a lot of thought,” Hunt said. “My coaches are more than happy to have me back playing with them for one more year, but then again at Lamar-Port Arthur there’s only so much I can take before I move on to my four-year degree plan.
“It would be pointless to take more classes there, but then again I’d get a whole other year of playing the sport, so I’m still thinking about it,” she said. “I’m not really sure what I’m going to do yet, but I have time to decide.”
The NJCAA stated it will explore opportunities to expand allowable letters of intent for spring sports for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years under the recommendation of the NJCAA Eligibility Committee.
The season’s abrupt end left the Seahawks players shocked and disappointed. Softball season was scheduled to last until late April, but the cancellation of the season left 28 games unplayed.
“We never really got to show everybody what we could do as a team,” Hunt said. “We’re all just really upset that we never got to play as a team together.
“Our mindset as sophomores was to go in and play every game like it’s your last,” she said. “We just wanted to see how many games we could win and compete.”
thomas.scott@beaumontenterprise.com
Reach Thomas on
Thomas Scott is the sports editor for the Beaumont Enterprise.
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Exploration and Settlement
New France New Horizons: On French Soil in America
Map of New France
CA ANC NMC-51970
The discovery of the lands of New France occurred in several stages. Through the voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier, Newfoundland and the islands, the coast of Acadia and the tributaries of the St. Lawrence were well known in the 16th century. Then, starting from Québec and Montréal, Samuel de Champlain travelled up the Ottawa River to the Great Lakes. Explorations continued with new vigour with the establishment of the first permanent settlements. But the great attraction was the West: Étienne Brûlé reached Lake Superior in the early 1620s; Jean Nicollet reached Lake Michigan in 1634, after living many years among the Aboriginal peoples. In 1647, Père de Quen travelled up the Saguenay River to Lac Saint-Jean. A second wave of exploration took place in the last half of the 17th century with Daniel Greysolon Dulhut, Médard Chouart Des Groseilliers and Pierre Esprit Radisson, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, then René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle. In the 18th century, the La Vérendrye family reached the Great Plains of the West. With the voyages, maps became more accurate; some travellers, such as Louis Lom d'Ace de Lahontan and Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix, described the flora and fauna they encountered, as well as the customs of the various Aboriginal nations. These explorations had several goals: the discovery of the "Western Sea," the fur trade, the conversion of the Aboriginal peoples, and the search for minerals. The royal administration did not always support these bold and arduous undertakings. In a century and a half, the voyages brought about the discovery of an immense region of land.
Cartographic Compilation
Cartography of Discoveries
The Colonies of North America
The Advantages of Canada
The Voyage of Minet
The Western Sea
The Flora and Fauna
Cartographic transcription by Guillaume Delisle
FR CHAN Marine 6 JJ 75 portefeuille III
In 1606, Parisian lawyer, poet and playwright Marc Lescarbot accompanied one of his clients, Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt to Acadia. Curious about the country he saw on his travels, he recorded his impressions in his Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (1609), in which he also reported the discoveries of the two great explorers Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain. Through an analysis of Lescarbot's book and other published and manuscript travel narratives, the 18th-century geographer Guillaume Delisle drew up the final version of his Carte du Canada ou de la Nouvelle-France et des découvertes qui y ont été faites [Map of Canada, or New France, and of the discoveries that were made there].
Cartographic Compilation Document 1PDF Version 3.73 Mb
At first, North America was mapped by geographers from their cartography offices who, far from the terrain, tried to compile information from sources available in Europe. They often reconciled political boundaries with natural ones, given that both were equally imaginary or invented much of the time. Eventually, the creation of the position of King's geographer led to the gathering of more reliable information from explorers' reports and travel accounts. These new maps served as guides and maintained colonial expectations, despite their inaccuracy. However, the names given to new areas show a greater concern for royal patronage than for physical reality. Also, although Samuel de Champlain, missionaries, fur traders and other explorers had described the Great Lakes and the interior of the continent since 1616, it was not until 1703, with the work of Royal Cartographer Guillaume Delisle, that there was a more accurate representation of eastern North America. In the West, knowledge of the Pacific Coast progressed only as a result of Spanish and Russian explorations during the first half of the 18th century, and since the voyages of Vitus Bering were not taken into account before the 1750s, the representation of the strait between Asia and America remained imprecise. People still believed in a vast Western Sea and a navigable Northwest Passage. Overall, maps of this time defined the space known to European explorers, and gave it a certain reality in anticipation of future conquests.
Western part of Canada, or New France
Map of Canada or New France and the discoveries that were made there
Map of the new discoveries north of the Southern Sea
Description of New Netherlands and England and northern France
FR CAOM COL C11E 13 fol. 117-125vo
English, Dutch and French explorers found themselves shoulder to shoulder in North America. With the founding of Jamestown in 1607, Virginia became a prosperous tobacco-producing colony. In 1620, religious dissenters sailed from England on the Mayflower, landed at Cape Cod and founded Plymouth. Other settlements, such as Salem, sprang up in the neighbouring area. This was the beginning of New England. The Dutch founded Fort Orange in 1613 (later named Albany), and colonized the Hudson River Valley, which was a site for trade with the Iroquois. On May 4, 1624, the Walloon Peter Minuit disembarked from a Dutch boat on the island of Manhattan with a few families. He bought the island from its Aboriginal inhabitants in 1626, and named it New Amsterdam. The settlement was seized by the English in 1664, and renamed New York.
The Colonies of North America Document 1PDF Version 5.25 Mb
Description (by a Sulpician) of Canada
FR CAOM COL C11A 3 fol. 192-211
From the first French presence in Canada, exploration and the spread of Christianity were closely linked. Missionaries accompanied explorers and other individuals engaged in the fur trade. Sometimes, the explorers themselves were churchmen. Their precise accounts were usually very detailed geographical and ethnographical descriptions of the regions they traversed. They described the places (lakes, rivers, rapids, portages), towns, climate, resources (mines and fishing) and the advantages associated with them. They also gave accounts of the Aboriginal peoples, their way of life and their conversion to Christianity.
The Advantages of Canada Document 1PDF Version 12.31 Mb
Voyages in North America by Minet
CA ANC MG18-B19
In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette discovered and explored the Mississippi River. Jolliet was convinced that it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. Some years later in his diary, Jean-Baptiste Minet describes the explorations of René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle. In the first part, entitled Voiage fait du Canada par dedans les terres allant vers le Sud [Voyage of Canada's interior going south], Minet relates the descent of the Mississippi by Cavelier de La Salle and his companions during the years 1678 to 1682. The second part of his diary is entitled Journal de nostre voiage du golfe de Mexique [Journal of our voyage in the Gulf of Mexico]. It tells of La Salle's last expedition, from 1684 to 1687, in which he attempts to reach the Mississippi by way of the Gulf of Mexico. Minet recounts the events that took place up until his return to France in 1685. Imprisoned for more than a month as a deserter, Minet ended his diary with a series of accusations directed against the explorer.
The Voyage of Minet Document 1PDF Version 24.16 Mb
[Niagara Falls], 1697
CA ANC Collection Peter Winkworth R9266-2198
The first description of Niagara Falls, and an account of the explorers' "great fright" faced with the awe-inspiring spectacle, comes from Louis Hennepin, a Récollet missionary, who was with René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle on his expedition in 1679-1680.
The passage to the Western Sea was a constant preoccupation for explorers, who believed in the existence of a gulf that opened into the Pacific Ocean. Written reports on the subject were received at Court regularly and in great number, and in 1720, the King sent Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix to investigate. For a period of more than 20 years beginning in 1726, a family of Canadian explorers, the La Vérendryes, were dedicated to this single goal. For the expeditions that he had financed by merchants, Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye followed the information offered by the Aboriginal inhabitant named Ochaga. As he pushed on further, a number of fortified trading posts were built, from the shores of Lake La Pluie (Minnesota) to the Paskoya River (Saskatoon). La Vérendrye also attempted to pacify the Aboriginal nations encountered: Mandan, Prairie Cree, Assiniboine, Menominee and Fox. His sons pursued the quest to the foothills of the Rockies, near Pierre (North Dakota). It was discovered that high mountains stood between the plains and the ocean, and posed an obstacle. The English and French War brought an end to exploration, and the Western trading posts were abandoned.
Map copied from the one drawn by the savage Ochagach and others
Map of part of Lake Superior
Report concerning the discovery of the Western Sea
Project of the discovery of the Western Sea
On the discovery of a large river
Continuation of Sieur de La Vérandrie's report
The Western Sea Document 1PDF Version 17.68 Mb
The Western Sea Document 2PDF Version 1.26 Mb
Observations on the fauna of Canada
FR CHAN 127 AP 3 dossier 9
In addition to cartographic elements, descriptions of places and ethnographic observations, travel accounts often included a brief account of the flora and fauna. The earliest descriptions are approximate. Jacques Cartier often confused European and Canadian species. His particular interest in plants of economic value was shared by other explorers. They listed wood oils, plants with edible fruit or used by the Aboriginal population. All types of animals were of interest, but particularly those noted for their hides and pelts. Starting from the first voyages, specimens were brought back to Paris for the king's garden. In the 18th century, scientific knowledge was exchanged across the Atlantic: Michel Sarrazin, surgeon and naturalist, corresponded with the botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort; Jean-François Gaultier, king's doctor at Québec, corresponded with Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau. One of the Governors General of New France, Michel Barin de La Galissonière, was also a botanist and encouraged this type of research.
A naturalist who worked in the field as well as in the study, Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, Inspector General of the Marine and eminent member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, worked for many years on his Traité général des pêches et histoire des poissons qu'elles fournissent, a general treatise on fishing and a history on the fish it provides, published between 1769 and 1782. With its exotic fauna, such as walrus, seals, otters, beavers, whales, porpoises and wolverines, as well as its traditional cod, salmon, eels and sturgeon, New France provided Duhamel du Monceau with material for many observations, in which his accurate anatomical descriptions vied with the quality of the comparisons and images.
The great speckled loon from Newfoundland
Abridged excerpt from the memoires of Baron de Lahontan, no date
Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle-France
Description of the maidenhair fern and bloodroot
Hudson Bay porcupine
The Flora and Fauna Document 1PDF Version 5.51 Mb
Librarian and Archivist of Canada
Events, exhibitions and tours
TD Summer Reading Club
Resources for staying at home
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Jett Goldsmith
Jett Goldsmith is a writer and analyst from Denver, Colorado. He formerly co-founded the investigative reporting and geopolitical analysis outlet Conflict News, and writes at length on Ba'athist state structures and various actors within the Syrian conflict. He has bylines in various publications, including Middle East Eye. You can follow him on Twitter: @JettGoldsmith.
How Relevant to Syria is Syria’s Regime?
On October 31, 2016, the Turkish daily newspaper Yeni Şafak reported that Turkey and Russia signed a “landmark agreement” in northern Syria, ostensibly partitioning portions of the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Raqqa, Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor to a Turkish-backed assembly of “local elements” and FSA-aligned brigades.
This report is unconfirmed by independent sources – Yeni Şafak operates with a hardline pro-Erdoğan editorial stance, and the paper has been known for inventing stories in the past – but it reveals the new status quo which has conformed to the on-the-ground reality of conflict in Syria: the Assad regime is simply no longer central to the discussion.
This new reality may be difficult to parse for those who have identified the conflict as a simplistic portrayal of the Assad regime fighting against an opposition composed almost entirely of ISIS and Al-Qaeda militants. But that storyline, albeit pushed conveniently by state-run media outlets owned by Syria’s foreign backers, is almost entirely false.
On the side of the regime, most offensives are headed by a collection of loyalist militias and foreign, Iran-funded proxies. Hezbollah, which recently released a set of propaganda photos showing a parade of its American-made Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) in Syria, has lost more fighters to date in the Syrian war than it has in the entirety of its three-decade-long war with Israel. And as Rao Komar wrote for NOW Lebanon in November, pro-Assad proxy militias are becoming increasingly comprised of Pakistani and Afghan Shiite fighters from the furthest expanses of Iran’s influence.
This reality in which the regime wields little influence over its territory is reflected practically in policy discussions between change-makers on the ground in Syria. On November 7, 2016, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford reported that the United States had met with its Turkish counterparts in Syria, and agreed to develop a plan for “seizing, holding, and governing Raqqa” after Islamic State fighters are driven from the territory.
Turkey has recently backed FSA brigades and local militias in the fight, dubbed “Operation Euphrates Shield”, to drive ISIS from northern Syria, while the United States has relied heavily on the use of Kurdish YPG brigades integrated into the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Along these lines, most territory liberated by Turkey – particularly towns on the west bank of the Euphrates River, such as Qabbasin and Tel Rifat – has been handed over for governance to FSA forces, while much territory liberated by the SDF – such as the city of Manbij – has been ceded to YPG governance.
It’s likely that such a plan between Turkey and the United States would reflect a compromise between the two powers’ preferences for governance, a de facto partition of Syrian territory which will see the Syrian state’s grasp over its land and economy decline even further. When Turkey isn’t ceding territory to FSA militias, it is threatening the use of military force – in Al Bab, Afrin, Tel Abyad, Sinjar, and Tel Afar – a posturing which has rarely been met with any sort of response by the Assad regime.
None of the land captured by foreign-backed forces in northern Syria has been ceded to the Assad regime, nor does the regime have a practical capability to assert its desire to control this territory. As it stands, the Syrian Arab Army and its collection of fledgling loyalist and foreign militias barely has the capacity to govern its own territory – and though the most recent regime coalition offensive on the eastern portion of Aleppo city has been successful in seizing nearly the entirety of Aleppo from opposition forces, it has been bolstered by an intensive bombing campaign from Syria’s superpower patron state, the Russian Federation, as well as the IRGC’s wide-ranging network of proxy groups.
The proxy war for Syria
A rescue worker stands amid rows of dead bodies which had suffered Sarin exposure. Ghouta, Damascus, August 21, 2013
In the hours following the horrific Ghouta chemical attacks on August 21st, 2013, a German naval intelligence craft intercepted a communication between a high-ranking Hezbollah operative in Syria and an official at an unnamed Iranian embassy.
In the intercepted communication, the Hezbollah operative bemoaned Assad’s order to use sarin gas on a residential suburb of Syria’s capital city. “Assad had lost his temper and committed a huge mistake by giving the order for the poison gas use,” the Hezbollah operative was reported to have said.
In the recent Aleppo offensive in February of 2016, in which opposition forces headed largely by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham captured numerous strategic points involved in breaking the siege of eastern Aleppo city, alleged Hezbollah fighters were captured on video mocking the Syrian Arab Army for being effectively nonexistent. “We can’t find them anywhere,” one Hezbollah fighter says, perhaps referencing reported cases of SAA fighters fleeing from their positions – like in the heavily fortified military academy complex – in response to successful advances by opposition fighters.
These two instances are simply a slice of all the unheard chatter shared between fighters across the battlefield in Syria, but they capture the current state of Assad’s armed forces better than most: both involve foreign agents – fighting on behalf of Assad – speaking contemptuously of the regime they’re fighting for.
This deep sense of contempt held by regime coalition forces is also reflective of the group composition of these foreign, largely Iranian-backed militias.
In Iraq, Shiite militia fighters are being ferried to Syria by Iran, where their salaries are paid by the IRGC to fight on behalf of the Assad regime. In August of 2016, senior US military officials reported that Iran was paying the salaries of nearly 100,000 Shiite militia fighters – largely bannered under Hezbollah, or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) – fighting in Iraq.
In 2013, Al-Monitor reported that 14 Iranian-backed Shiite brigades were operating in Syria, with many comprised of foreign fighters from Iraq and (increasingly) Afghanistan. In January of 2016, the spokesman for the Iranian-established paramilitary Badr Brigades said that “[Iraqi] fighters, along with the Lebanese Hezbollah militants, have a great positive impact on the course of the war against IS in Syria.”
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba is another prominent force directing regime offensives, primarily in Aleppo. The group publishes frequent reports on its offensives in Syria, operates at least 3,000 fighters in Aleppo, and is a direct descendant of the similarly Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq. Despite both groups’ propagation of jihadist ideology, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba has frequently clashed with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in Syria; Iranian state media released footage in May of Hezbollah al-Nujaba fighters killing 23 JFS fighters (then known as Jabhat al-Nusra) in Khan Touman, Aleppo.
In fronts throughout the country, regime offensives are being led by loyalist militias. These militias often have little institutional connection to the Syrian Army beyond making use of its logistics framework, but are frequently led by pre-war shabiha with business and family connections to the Assad regime. Fighters for these groups are largely motivated by either pro-Assad and pro-Ba’athist ideology, or more often, by personal profit.
Despite this, pro-government militias have been hit with attrition on a similar – if smaller – scale to that of the Syrian Arab Army. An Ahrar al-Sham fighter from Latakia, who requested to remain anonymous, tells me he has witnessed numerous defections from the pro-regime National Defence Forces (NDF) to Ahrar al-Sham, one of the hegemons of the Syrian opposition.
He described a rendezvous between Ahrar al-Sham commanders and several fighters from the NDF who had attempted to defect. “Many of these men simply don’t want to fight, let alone fight revolutionaries,” he told me.
“Forced conscripts especially would often defect,” he said. “Men taken off the streets, hiding in homes along the coast and in Damascus… “
Assad or We Burn the Country
“Assad or we burn the country” graffiti spraypainted by regime loyalist forces in Homs, roughly 2013
And yet despite this reality of an increasingly fledgling regime presence in Syria, high-level diplomatic discussions have focused almost exclusively on one subject: the issue of what to do with Assad.
This is a strategy of diplomacy inherently doomed to fail, as localized regime loyalists have consistently proven that “Assad or we burn the country” is a slogan truly reflective of the regime’s core – those deeply committed to the Assads’ cult of personality will never accept a Syrian destiny controlled by anyone other than Assad.
And it is also a strategy of diplomacy inherently misdirected; despite the regime’s fierce, bloodthirsty defense of its “sovereign right” to rule Syria indefinitely, it possesses nowhere near the capacity to actually hold this stance. The Syrian Arab Army, once numbering in at nearly 625,000 active duty and reservist fighters, has been crippled by attrition, defections, and a constant siphon of knowledge and expertise. As defense policy analyst Tobias Schneider wrote in August for War on the Rocks:
“Following the swift collapse of its forces in the Battle for Idlib last year, President Bashar al-Assad had given a much publicized speech admitting the regime’s armed forces were suffering tremendous manpower shortages and would have to withdraw from certain fronts. Newspapers had been reporting for many months before of desperate conscription and recruitment efforts around the country. By late July, Assad appeared to crumble under the cumulative weight of years of slow attrition and defection, triggering a combined Russian and Iranian intervention seeking to reverse the regime’s fortunes.”
Schneider agrees with the common assessment that the Russian and Iranian intervention has provided a precipice for the regime to desperately maintain its slipping grip over Syria, but he also addresses the warlord-based economy which has emerged as a direct result of severe regime attrition:
“While much better supplied by the Syrian Arab Army’s still-standing logistics skeleton, the government’s fighting force today consists of a dizzying array of hyper-local militias aligned with various factions, domestic and foreign sponsors, and local warlords. […] Today, where briefing maps now show solid red across Syria’s western governorates, they ought to distinguish dozens and perhaps even hundreds of small fiefdoms only nominally loyal to Assad. Indeed, in much of the country, loyalist security forces function like a grand racketeering scheme: simultaneously a cause and consequence of state collapse at the local level.”
How did Syria reach the point of “hundreds of small fiefdoms” united, however loosely, under a delicately hung portrait of Bashar al-Assad? Despite repeated assurances by Assad that he will remain in power indefinitely, and a steady stream of Orwellian, “we’ve always been at war with Eastasia”-esque claims that Syria is in fact better off now than it was five years ago, it has become increasingly apparent to the outside observer that the Syrian state has degraded into a series of localized fiefdoms run as mini-mafia states.
But this system isn’t spontaneous; it didn’t manifest simply overnight amid an attrition of centralized state structures. The foundation for devolution into the sort of state which would make a Somali warlord blush has been laid since the earliest days of the Syrian Ba’ath Party, making Syria’s contemporary series of fiefdoms a simple reflection of the country’s pre-war socioeconomic system – a cronyist, corporatist, oligarchic system which has been shown to be heavily reliant on patronage, and only sustainable in the short term.
The Thugocracy
A Hafez al-Assad family portrait showcases his sons and daughter along with his wife, Aniseh Makhlouf
Syria’s delicate pre-war sociopolitical status has led, perhaps more than any other factor, to the current state of Syrian society. As Hafez al-Assad seized power in an intra-party coup dubbed the Corrective Movement, he imposed a system of economic fiefdom and patronage described by Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila al-Shami as having a heavy mix of proto-fascist and corporatist tendencies.
Pre-war businessmen and those crime lords sanctioned by Hafez himself – the shabiha – comprised a major portion of the tiny sphere of influence which controlled every aspect of Syrian society. Prominent families tied to the Assads by marriage, such as the Makhloufs and the Shalish family, were afforded contracts and business deals which allowed them to establish total dominance over Syria’s economy. As Bashar al-Assad engaged in a period of neoliberal reform after his father’s death, cronyists like Rami Makhlouf were afforded the ability to turn their grip over the Syrian economy into a stranglehold, consolidating entire economic sectors and state industries into family-owned-and-operated conglomerates like SyriaTel and Cham Holdings.
In effect, Bashar’s efforts at neoliberal reform in the early 2000s elevated the level of economic disparity in Syria from untenable to revolutionary – a sentiment further onset by the driving forces of rapid urbanization, and the worst drought the Middle East has seen since humans invented agriculture.
In order to remain loyal to a regime which could offer little but personal empowerment and petty cash, loyalists were granted a relatively high degree of autonomy, and were able to smuggle arms, traffick drugs, and terrorize Syrians with impunity. The term shabiha, which was coined by Syrians to refer to the state-sanctioned quasi-paramilitary groups founded by Hafez al-Assad in the 1980s to traffick drugs and engage in illegal economic activities, means “ghosts” – a reference to the shabiha’s apparent impunity from punishment.
Many of these pre-war cronyists, both those shabiha and the people like Rami Makhlouf who operate under the auspices of legitimate business affairs, are still active in the midst of Syria’s civil war. Many presently comprise the current warlord system of semi-autonomous militias and localized fiefdoms loyal to the regime, and in the wartime economy, these cronyists have managed to carve out a living roughly equivalent to the sort which they enjoyed prior to the outbreak of war.
In many instances, localized pro-Assad militias are led by robber-barons and opportunists who hail from the areas they purport to control; Sami Aubry, for example, used to operate nearly all of Syria’s amusement parks and entertainment centers, including Syria’s own off-brand franchise of “Chuck-E-Cheese”-styled restaurants. Now, he heads the National Defence Forces, one of the most prominent pro-regime militias active in Damascus and Aleppo.
It is this system which has led to the current state of affairs for the Assad regime: weakened, beset by attrition and economic peril, increasingly reliant on foreign backers and sectarian militias to secure its territorial endeavors.
And it has become increasingly important to apply this context to high-level diplomatic discussions on Syria: the regime is not, after all, a power broker in its own country. Hezbollah, Iranian-backed militias, and Russian airpower – in other words, foreign intervention – have ensured regime survival.
How a French Charity Built Ties with Pro-Assad Christian Militias
Unpublished OPCW Douma Correspondence Casts Further Doubt on Claims of ‘Doctored’ Report
Dying To Keep Warm: Oil Trade And Makeshift Refining In North-West Syria
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Home » Med-tech news and notes: Research group gets ISO certification
Med-tech news and notes: Research group gets ISO certification
Premier Research Group (London), an international pharmaceutical services company, said that its subsidiary, Premier Research Group SA, has earned ISO 13485:2003 certification in support of its global medical device operations.
ISO 13485:2003 is a stringent, globally-recognized standard for management systems for medical device manufacturers and service providers. Achieving ISO 13485:2003 certification provides Premier Research with a competitive edge to improve a product's time to market.
New partnerships for Vantage Oncology
Vantage Oncology (Manhattan Beach, California) said that it has completed seven new partnerships comprising 10 cancer treatment facilities in several new and existing markets. In addition, Vantage has secured a new $100 million credit facility that will support the company's continued growth.
Vantage now operates 31 centers in 11 states with its physician and hospital partners and is well positioned to continue its rapid national expansion.
"We are very pleased with our national expansion efforts," said Michael Fiore, CEO and co-founder of Vantage. "Since we began our operations just under six years ago, we have been building our infrastructure, enhancing our operating model, cultivating our relationships with high quality physician and hospital partners, and continuously strengthening our capital structure. The accomplishments of these past few months reflect the results of those efforts. We are now well positioned to continue this growth through new partnerships in both our existing and new regions. The acceptance of our partnership model and our focus on quality and advanced technology as we collaborate with our physician and hospital partners has been very positive. Our existing centers continue to expand and solidify their positions as leaders in their respective markets."
Vantage operates radiation oncology centers.
ALA reports lung disease increasing
According to the latest report by the American Lung Association (ALA; Washington), Lung Disease Data, death rates due to lung disease are currently increasing while death rates due to other leading causes of death such as heart disease, cancer and stroke are declining.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is expected to become the third-leading cause of death by 2020, laccording to the association.
"Every year, about 400,000 Americans die from lung disease," said Bernadette Toomey, president/CEO of the ALA. "With our report, Lung Disease Data, we hope to provide valuable information on lung disease to the public, especially to people who become ill and their family members who are caring for them."
ALA publishes Lung Disease Data to serve as a resource to the public, media, healthcare professionals, researchers and lung disease patients and their caregivers on the latest trends and research in lung disease, along with relevant facts and figures about some of the most common lung diseases in the U.S.
TomoTherapy closes Treatment Quality Challenge
TomoTherapy (Madison, Wisconsin), maker of the TomoTherapy Hi Art treatment system for advanced radiation therapy, reported the close of its Treatment Quality Challenge. The company had offered $250,000 to any U.S. cancer center that could surpass the quality of a helical TomoTherapy treatment plan using a single-rotation Varian RapidArc plan delivered in two minutes or less. The three-month program ended on June 30 without any entries.
"For TomoTherapy, the Challenge was a definite success," said Del Coufal, TomoTherapy's VP of marketing. "It generated strong support from customers and gave us the opportunity to let new audiences know that our focus is, first and foremost, on improving the quality of cancer care."
As the Hi Art system continues to mature, Coufal said there are several industry-leading innovations on the horizon. We expect to see improvement in overall patient throughput with an exciting new product moving through our development pipeline. It will be especially useful for the more routine case types. With this and future advances, it is clear that our next-generation, ring gantry platform can offer all the flexibility cancer centers demand."
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USS CARL VINSON CONDUCTS SOUTH CHINA SEA PATROL
The presence of US Navy Strike Group has the aim to provide the stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
USS Carl Vinson
This operational concept allows both numbered fleets to complement one another and provide the foundation of stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1, including Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 1's Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), and aircraft from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, began routine operations in the South China Sea, Feb. 18.
Prior to their operations in the South China Sea, ships and aircraft from within the strike group conducted training off the islands of Hawaii and Guam to maintain and improve their readiness and develop cohesion as a strike group. The strike group recently enjoyed a port visit to Guam and after departing the Marianas, conducted operations in the Philippine Sea.
"The training completed over the past few weeks has really brought the team together and improved our effectiveness and readiness as a strike group," said Rear Adm. James Kilby, commander, CSG 1. "We are looking forward to demonstrating those capabilities while building upon existing strong relationships with our allies, partners and friends in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region."
Vinson last deployed to the Western-Pacific in 2015 and conducted a bilateral exercise with the Royal Malaysian Navy and Royal Malaysian Air Force in the South China Sea. Vinson first operated in the South China Sea in 1983 and in total, has operated there during 16 previous deployments over its 35 year history.
While deployed, the Carl Vinson CSG will remain under U.S. 3rd Fleet command and control, including beyond the international dateline, which previously divided operational areas of responsibility for 3rd and 7th Fleets. Third Fleet operating forward offers additional options to the Pacific Fleet commander by leveraging the capabilities of 3rd and 7th Fleets. This operational concept allows both numbered fleets to complement one another and provide the foundation of stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
CVW-2 includes the "Black Knights" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 4, the "Blue Hawks" of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 78, the "Bounty Hunters" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 2, the "Blue Blasters" of VFA-34, the "Kestrels" of VFA-137, the "Golden Dragons" of VFA-192, the "Black Eagles" of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 113, the "Gauntlets" of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 136 and the "Providers" of Fleet Logistic Support Squadron (VRC) 30.
Source: Carrier Strike Group One Public Affairs
Photo credit: US Navy
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Ah Kin
Article Additional Info
Home Philosophy & Religion Ancient Religions & Mythology
Mayan religion
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ah-Kin
Ah Kin, (Mayan: “He of the Sun”), the regular clergy of the Yucatec Maya in pre-Columbian times. The Ah Kin are best known historically for their performance in the ritual sacrifice of victims, whose hearts were offered to the Mayan gods. The chief priest (Ah Kin Mai) served in the various capacities of administrator, teacher, healer, astronomer, adviser to the chief, and diviner. Priests specializing in prophecy were known as Chilans, but it is likely that Ah Kins and Chilans performed many of the same functions. Prophecy was aided by readings from hieroglyphic books and, possibly, by drug-induced visions. Couples contemplating marriage as well as civic leaders consulted the Ah Kin on the prospects of their undertakings. The office of Ah Kin was hereditary, passing from priests to their sons, but training was also extended to the sons of the nobility who showed inclinations toward the priesthood.
human sacrifice
Human sacrifice, the offering of the life of a human being to a deity. The occurrence of human sacrifice can usually be related to the recognition of human blood as the sacred life force. Bloodless forms of killing, however, such as strangulation and drowning, have been used in some cultures.…
Prophecy, in religion, a divinely inspired revelation or interpretation. Although prophecy is perhaps most commonly associated with Judaism and Christianity, it is found throughout the religions of the world, both ancient and modern. In its narrower sense, the term prophet (Greek prophētēs, “forthteller”) refers to an inspired person who believes that…
Priesthood, the office of a priest, a ritual expert learned in a special knowledge of the technique of worship and accepted as a religious and spiritual leader. Throughout the long and varied history of religion, the priesthood has been the official institution that has mediated and maintained a…
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Garry Winogrand (American, 1928-1984). Austin, Texas, 1974, printed 1978. Gelatin silver photograph, Sheet: 10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in. (27.8 x 35.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Donald T. Johnson, 81.260.25. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 81.260.25_PS9.jpg)
This text refers to these objects: 81.260.25; 81.260.22; 81.260.24
PORTFOLIO/SERIES From the portfolio: "Garry Winogrand"
ARTIST Garry Winogrand, American, 1928-1984
PUBLISHER Hyperion Press Ltd., New York
MEDIUM Gelatin silver photograph
DATES 1974, printed 1978
DIMENSIONS Sheet: 10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in. (27.8 x 35.2 cm) Image: 9 x 13 7/16 in. (22.9 x 34.1 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed in graphite verso lower left: "Garry Winogrand"
COLLECTIONS Photography
Garry Winogrand: Color
ACCESSION NUMBER 81.260.25
EDITION Edition: 62/100
CREDIT LINE Gift of Donald T. Johnson
RIGHTS STATEMENT © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
CAPTION Garry Winogrand (American, 1928-1984). Austin, Texas, 1974, printed 1978. Gelatin silver photograph, Sheet: 10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in. (27.8 x 35.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Donald T. Johnson, 81.260.25. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 81.260.25_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 81.260.25_PS9.jpg., 2019
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‘Disasters don’t discriminate’: Health officials push to protect communities of color from COVID-19
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — As lawmakers work to pass the next round of COVID-19 relief funding, health experts are pushing Congress to protect communities of color from the virus.
“I remain concerned that the coordination and the leadership isn’t there,” Georges Benjamin from the American Public Health Association said Friday.
It’s a strong call from the nation’s health care professionals, asking Congress to do more to protect vulnerable populations from COVID-19.
“We don’t have a national strategy of any kind,” said Leana Wen with George Washington University.
Witnesses who testified during Friday’s House Homeland Security hearing called for more testing, surveillance and overall care for communities of color that they say have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
“Disasters do not discriminate. However, people do,” Chauncia Willis with the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management said.
Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, who is also a registered nurse, asked about the dangers of disinformation being spread about the coronavirus and potential vaccines.
Benjamin said the misinformation is targeting specific areas.
“The flyers say ‘if you’re infected go to a synagogue, if you’re infected go to a minority community,’” he said.
The virtual hearing focused on the challenges minority communities are facing with access to help and what new dangers could be on the way.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) asked about the potential of her district facing the pandemic and a hurricane.
Benjamin said now is the time to prepare for that perfect storm.
“We gotta rethink and re-imagine how we’re going to protect people should we get hit with another hurricane,” he said.
Lawmakers hope to pass the next round of coronavirus relief funding in the next few weeks.
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The Christmas Music Top Ten Earners
Who wants a white Christmas when you can "make it rain"! A run down of the top Christmas music money men
It used to be the pop act dream ticket. Write a Christmas tune and you will have your pension plan sorted out. It was such a well known trope that Nick Hornby wrote a character in "About a Boy" who lived of the proceeds of his father's Christmas one hit wonder. In an attempt to answer the question whether it was possible to live a life of voluntary redundancy through the earnings of a Christmas song, financial services company Holborn Assets provide a handy top ten run down of the biggest Christmas song earners.
10: East 17 - Stay Another Day - £97,000 pa
There is a debate about whether this is even a Christmas song but it became a number one over Christmas 1994 and writer Tony Mortimer collects £ 97,000 annually from the royalties. It was understood to be a break up song but Mortimer revealed it was actually about his brother's suicide
Original music video
Tony Mortimer released this version with the Waltham Forest Youth Choir in December 2019 to raise money for CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) a leading charity on the issue of suicide and run an anonymous helpline and webchat.
Christmas Song World Cup performance
9. Cliff Richard - Mistletoe and Wine - £100,000 pa
A 1988 number one and part of an era that felt like Christmas belonged to Cliff. It has recently been voted the most hated Christmas song of all time which does not prevent it from collecting hefty rewards for the writer and performer of the track. The story behind the track is fascinating. Originally written for a musical called "Scraps" in 1976 intended as a socialist criticism of the middle class and a lack of empathy for the poor. Cliff took the socialism out and putting religion in and transformed it into a Christmas winner
8. The Pretenders - 2000 miles - £102,000 pa
Another mournful ballad, originally written about the death of the band's original guitarist James Honeyman-Scott. It only reached a modest number 15 in December 1983 but the tune features on most Christmas compilations and has gone on to be an evergreen popular Christmas tune even though it was never a hit.
7. Jona Lewie - Stop the Cavalry - £120,000 pa
This song was originally released in 1980 and reached number 3 being beaten by two re-released Lennon songs following his murder. Jona Lewie never intended it to be Christmas song but a reference to Christmas in one line and some warm brass arrangements it became considered a Christmas tune. He says the song sold between 3 and 4 million copies and Jona says he never needed a proper job because of it. The one song accounts for 50% of his lifetime earnings.
6. Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmas Time - £260,000 pa
Another Christmas offering that recently got banned from a international coffee shop playlist. McCartney performed all parts and played all instruments in the song and therefore all performance royalties as well as the writing royalties go directly to him. It has taken on a successful second revenue stream as it has been covered by many well established artists. It is believed to have earned McCartney £12 million!
5. Wham! - Last Christmas - £300,000pa
Written and produced by the late George Michael this Christmas stonker never made it to number one in 1984! The hit topped out at number two in the UK but topped other charts across Europe. All royalties were donated to the Ethiopian famine charity that year. The tune has been a constant favourite ever since and been regularly covered as well
4. Bing Crosby - White Christmas - £328,000 pa
Written by Irving Berlin in 1942 for the film of the same name it is the best selling Christmas song of all time and the world's best selling single with sales in excess of 50 million. A regular classic that gets constantly reinterpreted and covered by numerous artists.
3. Mariah Carey - All I want for Christmas is You - £376,000 pa
East 17's Stay Another Day pipped Mariah to the top spot in the UK in 1994 but she did triumph in several European countries. It has sold 16 milion copies since and is considered a modern Christmas classic. Carey co wrote it with Walter Afansieff in an astounding 15mins and originally was not convinced it was worthy of recording. The payback for 15 minutes work is breathtaking!!
2. The Pogues feat. Kirsty McColl - Fairy Tale of New York - £400,000 pa
Declared Britain's favourite Christmas song in 1992 and has been in the UK top twenty fifteen times since release in 1987. Considered an anti Christmas song by many it tells the story of a couple deep in vitriolic arguments and the lyrics are a series of exchanged insults. Jem Finer and Shane McGowan have earned an impressive annual wage for their efforts.
1. Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody - £500,000 pa
Wolverhampton 70's glam outfit Slade take the top spot. Written by Nodder Holder and his bass player Jim Lea it is the UK's highest earning Christmas tune since taking number one spot in 1973. The song describes a family Christmas day and tried to bring a note of hope and joy in a time of social unrest and uncertainty.
Nodder Holder has obviously been asked about the financial success of the song and he is quoted as saying "it was never designed to be ....[a pension plan]...but it has taken on a life of its own"
Christmas Song World Cup 2020
Remember: The Christmas Song World Cup voting is underway here
Kirsty MacColl
From the Halfway Line : FA Cup 3rd Round weekend - David against Goliath
Interesting Etymologies 9.1 : Games
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PSY 222 Comments
Psychology Fair
NU Psi Chi
Prior-posterior plots
False alarm rate
Factorial design graphs
burtthompson.net
Virtual Reality Treatment of Spider Phobia
Summary. In this study Carlin, Hoffman, and Weghorst (1997) describe how a case of spider phobia was treated using virtual reality. The client learns to deal with virtual spiders before moving on to the real thing. We present only some of the data from the original article. In addition to the fear of spiders measure, Carlin et al. used several other quantitative and qualitative measures that indicated a reduction in anxiety as treatment progressed. This study shows that it can be difficult to determine the effectiveness of a treatment from a single case, although that is what must be attempted is some instances.
Video. Scientific American Frontiers: Spiders! (1998, Season 9), Arachnophobia segment. The segment begins about 46 minutes into the program. You can show the entire segment, and ask students how one might go about evaluating the effectiveness of the treatment. The video shows how virtual reality treatment was used for an individual with spider phobia. The client describes how she behaved and felt before and after treatment. She had 12 hour-long treatment sessions over 3 months. The Arachnophobia video segment can be viewed online (as of August 2018).
Original Research. Carlin, A. S., Hoffman, H. G. & Weghorst, S. (1997). Virtual reality and tactile augmentation in the treatment of spider phobia: A case report. Behavior Research and Therapy, 35, 153- 158.
Design. Single subject, compared to scores of a group.
Statistical Analysis. One dependent measure was a 6-item questionnaire to measure fear of spiders, which was given before and after treatment (the total score could range from 6 to 42). The client's scores were also compare to the distribution of scores obtained from 280 college students. Before treatment, the client's fear-of-spiders score was 41, and after treatment it was 17.
Published Results. “Prior to treatment, only 1 undergraduate out of 280 had an equal or higher fear-of-spiders rating than the patient. After 12 sessions of VR desensitization treatment, the patient's fear rating dropped considerably. Twenty-nine percent of the 280 undergraduates tested (i.e. 80 students) now had equal or higher total fear-of-spider scores than the patient.” (p. 155- 156).
Published conclusions. “The present study shows that treatment of spider phobia in VR (a form of training) successfully transferred to the real world. Our clinical patient's fear of real spiders was abated by exposure to virtual spiders. Systematic desensitization with VR graded exposure was effective in reducing reported anxiety, and avoidance of real spiders.” (p. 156).
Table 1. Distribution of fear-of-spider scores in 280 college undergraduates (based on Figure 1 in Carlin et al.) for comparison to the patient's scores before and after treatment. Higher scores indicate more fear.
Score -- Frequency
42-45 -- 1
34-37 -- 12
6-9 -- 109
The Excel file for this activity contains the 280 separate cases in random order.
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Indian Act Exemption for Employment Income Guidelines
In these 1994 guidelines, the references to "Revenue Canada" and the "Department" can be read as meaning the Canada Revenue Agency.
If you work mostly on a reserve, see Guideline 1.
Proration Rule
If you and your employer live on a reserve, see Guideline 2.
If you work partly on a reserve, but either you or your employer lives on a reserve, see Guideline 3.
If you do non-commercial work for certain Indian organizations, see Guideline 4.
Employment-Related Income
Meaning of Terms Used
Section 87 of the Indian Act exempts from taxation the personal property of an Indian situated on a reserve. The courts have determined that, for the purposes of section 87 of the Indian Act, employment income is personal property. In the case of employment income earned by an Indian, therefore, what must be determined is whether the employment income is situated on a reserve. The courts have directed that connecting factors must be considered when making this determination. Revenue Canada, after receiving representations from interested Indian groups and individuals, has identified a number of connecting factors that can be used to determine whether employment income is situated on a reserve.
The location of the employment duties is a major connecting factor. However, the Department also recognizes that employees of bands, tribal councils, or organizations that operate on behalf of bands or tribal councils may perform most of their activities off reserve. For the employees, the connection to a reserve is that the employer is resident on a reserve and the Indian is employed in a non-commercial activity for the social, cultural, educational, or economic development of Indians who for the most part live on reserves.
With a view to assisting the Indian community, the Department has developed the following guidelines, incorporating the various relevant connecting factors, that describe the employment situations covered by section 87 of the Indian Act. The treatment of other income related to employment is also discussed.
THESE GUIDELINES ARE AN ADMINISTRATIVE TOOL TO ASSIST INDIANS IN DETERMINING WHETHER THEIR EMPLOYMENT INCOME IS EXEMPT OR NOT.
Most employment situations that are subject to the exemption from taxation are covered in this brochure. However, it should be noted that, when applying all the connecting factors, there may be unusual or exceptional circumstances where:
the income may not be taxable even though it does not fall within one of the guidelines; or
the income may be taxable even though it appears to fall within one of these guidelines.
If you have any questions about a particular situation, contact us toll free at 1-800-959-8281.
Guideline 1
WHEN AT LEAST 90% OF THE DUTIES OF AN EMPLOYMENT ARE PERFORMED ON A RESERVE, ALL OF THE INCOME OF AN INDIAN FROM THAT EMPLOYMENT WILL USUALLY BE EXEMPT FROM INCOME TAX.
Examples where exempt
Mr. A works as a mechanic for an automobile repair shop, performing his duties in a garage located on a reserve. The wages he receives are exempt because the duties are performed on a reserve.
Mr. B lives off reserve and works as a driver for a heating-oil supplier, performing almost all of his duties making deliveries to houses on a reserve. The wages he receives are exempt because more than 90% of the duties are performed on a reserve.
Ms. C works in an office on a reserve. Her duties include a daily drive into a nearby town where she does the banking for the business and picks up the mail and supplies for the business. The wages she receives are exempt, although she incidentally leaves the reserve in the course of carrying out her duties.
Example where NOT exempt
Mr. D works for a logging company that is not resident on a reserve, cutting trees under license on provincial Crown land. The wages he receives are taxable because the land does not form part of a reserve. (Note: Mr. D lives on a reserve, but this factor alone is not sufficient to connect the income to a location on a reserve.)
WHEN LESS THAN 90% OF THE DUTIES OF AN EMPLOYMENT ARE PERFORMED ON A RESERVE AND THE EMPLOYMENT INCOME IS NOT EXEMPTED BY ANOTHER GUIDELINE, THE EXEMPTION IS TO BE PRORATED. THE EXEMPTION WILL APPLY TO THE PORTION OF THE INCOME RELATED TO THE DUTIES PERFORMED ON THE RESERVE.
Mr. E lives off reserve and works for a government department, mostly at a location off reserve. He spends one-half day per week on a regular basis working in a clinic on a reserve. Since one- tenth of Mr. E's work is performed on a reserve, 10% of Mr. E's income from this employment is exempt.
Ms. F lives off reserve and works for a boys and girls club at a location off reserve. Each summer, Ms. F works for the club at a one-month camp operated on a reserve. The income Ms. F earns at the summer camp is exempt.
Mrs. G lives off reserve and works for a stationery store located off reserve. On rare occasions, Mrs. G delivers some of the store's goods to customers on reserve. None of her income is exempt. The trips to the reserve are merely occasional and are not a meaningful connecting factor.
THE EMPLOYER IS RESIDENT ON A RESERVE; AND
THE INDIAN LIVES ON A RESERVE;
ALL OF THE INCOME OF AN INDIAN FROM AN EMPLOYMENT WILL USUALLY BE EXEMPT FROM INCOME TAX.
Mrs. H works for a logging company that is resident on a reserve. Mrs. H lives on a reserve, but performs her duties at lumber camps located off the reserve. Her employment income is exempt from income tax because the place where she lives and the residence of her employer are factors connecting her income to a reserve.
Mr. I is a construction worker employed by a construction company that is resident on a reserve, to work on building sites that are not located on a reserve. Mr. I lives on a reserve, except for short periods each year when he lives near the construction sites. When away from the reserve, he retains his residence on the reserve where his family lives. Mr. I is exempt from income tax on his employment income because the place where he lives and the residence of his employer are factors connecting his employment income to a reserve.
Examples where NOT exempt
Ms. J lives on a reserve and works as an accountant at the head office of a bank located off reserve in a nearby city. The bank maintains a branch on Ms. J's reserve and arranges for her to be paid at that branch. Ms. J's employment income is taxable because the only substantive factor linking her employment income to a reserve is her residence which, without other substantial connecting factors, does not result in exemption. Payment on the reserve is viewed as a connecting factor of relatively little weight.
Mr. K is a construction worker employed by a corporation situated on a reserve. The corporation is an employment agency that makes employees available to work for clients that are not situated on a reserve, on building sites not located on a reserve. Mr. K lives on a reserve. The employment agency had an office on the reserve, but carried out very few of its business activities on the reserve. The guidelines would not apply in this case, and one must therefore do an analysis of the connecting factors. Mr. K's employment income is taxable because the residence of the employer in this case has little weight as a connecting factor. The only other substantive factor connecting Mr. K's employment income to a reserve is his residence, which is not sufficient to bring the employment income within the exemption.
MORE THAN 50% OF THE DUTIES OF AN EMPLOYMENT ARE PERFORMED ON A RESERVE; AND
THE EMPLOYER IS RESIDENT ON A RESERVE, OR THE INDIAN LIVES ON A RESERVE;
Ms. L lives on a reserve and works as a policewoman for an off-reserve employer. She performs more than one-half of her duties on reserve, and she has an additional connecting factor in that she lives on the reserve. Therefore, she is exempt on the whole of the employment income.
Ms. M lives off reserve in a town where she works in a restaurant owned by a corporation resident on a reserve. Once a week, she drives to the reserve to pick up the pay cheques for the restaurant staff. She is taxable on the whole of her employment income because the only factor connecting the income to a reserve is the residence of the employer and, without other connecting factors, this is not sufficient to confer the exemption.
THE EMPLOYER IS:
AN INDIAN BAND WHICH HAS A RESERVE, OR A TRIBAL COUNCIL REPRESENTING ONE OR MORE INDIAN BANDS WHICH HAVE RESERVES, OR
AN INDIAN ORGANIZATION CONTROLLED BY ONE OR MORE SUCH BANDS OR TRIBAL COUNCILS, IF THE ORGANIZATION IS DEDICATED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, OR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF INDIANS WHO FOR THE MOST PART LIVE ON RESERVES; AND
THE DUTIES OF THE EMPLOYMENT ARE IN CONNECTION WITH THE EMPLOYER'S NON-COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES CARRIED ON EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE BENEFIT OF INDIANS WHO FOR THE MOST PART LIVE ON RESERVES;
Mr. N works for the education department of a tribal council at an off-reserve location central to several reserves. Mr. N lives off reserve and the tribal council is resident on one of the reserves. Mr. N is exempt from income tax on his employment income because the duties he performs for the tribal council are connected to the reserves served by the council, and the employer is resident on a reserve.
Ms. O is a librarian working for a technical training institute operated by five Indian bands for Indians who live on reserve. The administrative office of the institute is on a reserve. Ms. O lives off reserve and works at an off-reserve location central to several reserves. Ms. O is exempt from income tax on her employment income because the duties she performs for the Indian organization that employs her are connected to the reserves served by the Indian organization, and the employer is resident on a reserve.
Mr. P works for an Indian organization providing child and family related services to members of a large number of bands with reserves scattered over a large area within a province. Some of these services are provided in the provincial capital, where Mr. P works, and the organization's administrative office is at an off-reserve location central to the bands served. However, the organization's directors, consisting of the band chiefs, meet at each reserve in rotation. Mr. P is exempt from income tax on his employment income because the duties he performs for the Indian organization that employs him are connected to the reserves served by the Indian organization, and the employer is resident on a reserve.
Ms. Q works for a company that is resident on a reserve and owned by a tribal council. The company exists to provide adequate low-cost housing on reserves and the company's property is for the most part on reserves. Ms. Q performs her duties at an off-reserve location central to several reserves. Ms. Q is exempt from income tax on her employment income because the duties she performs for the Indian organization that employs her are connected to the reserves served by the Indian organization, and the employer is resident on a reserve.
Mr. R works for an Indian organization that manages funds provided by the government to assist in planning for future education needs on reserves. His employer is resident on a reserve, but he works at a location off reserve. Mr. R is exempt from income tax on his employment income because the duties he performs for the Indian organization that employs him are connected to the reserves served by the Indian organization, and the employer is resident on a reserve.
Mr. S works for a commercial building supplies company that is owned by a tribal council and is resident on a reserve. He performs his duties off reserve and lives off reserve. Mr. S is taxable on his employment income because, although there is one factor, the residence of the employer, connecting the income to a reserve, this factor by itself is not sufficient to confer the exemption when the employer and the employee are active in the commercial mainstream of society.
Ms. T works for an Indian organization dedicated to organizing social programs for off-reserve Indians. The organization is located off reserve. Ms. T is taxable on her employment income because there are no factors connecting that income to a location on a reserve.
THE RECEIPT OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFITS, RETIRING ALLOWANCES, CANADA PENSION PLAN PAYMENTS, QUEBEC PENSION PLAN PAYMENTS, REGISTERED PENSION PLAN BENEFITS OR WAGE LOSS REPLACEMENT PLAN BENEFITS WILL USUALLY BE EXEMPT FROM INCOME TAX WHEN RECEIVED AS A RESULT OF EMPLOYMENT INCOME THAT WAS EXEMPT FROM TAX. IF A PORTION OF THE EMPLOYMENT INCOME WAS EXEMPT, THEN A SIMILAR PORTION OF THESE AMOUNTS WILL BE EXEMPT.
Mr. U has always lived on a reserve and, until recently, he worked as a labourer for an employer located on the reserve. Mr. U is currently unemployed and receives Unemployment Insurance benefits. Since the income from employment that entitled him to these benefits was not subject to income tax, the Unemployment Insurance benefits will not be subject to income tax.
Mrs. V worked for a public health office located in a city off reserve. Throughout her career, one-fifth of her annual employment income was exempt from income tax because she spent one day a week performing her duties at a clinic on a nearby reserve. Upon retiring, Mrs. V received a retiring allowance from her employer and started receiving Canada Pension Plan payments. One-fifth of her retiring allowance and one-fifth of her Canada Pension Plan payments will not be subject to income tax.
Employer is resident on a reserve
"Employer is resident on a reserve" means that the reserve is the place where the central management and control over the employer organization is actually located.
The central management and control of an organization is usually considered to be exercised by the group that performs the function of a board of directors of the organization. However, it may be that the real management and control of an organization is exercised by some other person or group. Generally, management and control is exercised at the principal place of business but it is recognized that this function may be legitimately exercised in a place other than the principal administrative office of the organization. It is a question of fact where the central management and control is exercised.
"Indian" means an Indian as defined for the purposes of the Indian Act.
Indian lives on the reserve
"Indian lives on the reserve" means the Indian lives on the reserve in a domestic establishment that is his or her principal place of residence and that is the centre of his or her daily routine.
On a reserve
"On a reserve" means on a reserve as defined for purposes of the Indian Act, including any settlements deemed to be reserves for purposes of the Indian Settlements Remission Order, and any other areas given similar treatment under federal legislation (for example, Category I-A lands under the Cree-Naskapi" (of Quèbec) Act).
Social, cultural, educational or economic development
"Social, cultural, educational or economic development" includes the provision of social services such as health care or counselling.
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Congress Makes Quiet Progress on Higher Education | The Report | US News | US News
Behind the scenes, Congress is making progress on revamping the Higher Education Act
By Lauren Camera, Education Reporter | Feb. 9, 2018, at 6:00 a.m.
Congress might be log-jammed, with all eyes focused on blockbuster issues like Russian interference with U.S. elections, ensuing FBI investigations, the latest looming government shutdown and a tight deadline for a legislative fix to protect from deportation the hundreds of thousands of young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
But under the radar a small group of lawmakers in the House and the Senate are pushing forward with serious proposals to overhaul the country’s higher education system – and they have the legislative track record and politicking chops to pull it off.
The Higher Education Act, the law that encompasses the entire federal student loan system and then some, hasn’t been updated in more than a decade. And White House officials and congressional GOP leaders see the overhaul as having broader economic implications – such as narrowing the skills gap to fill the more than 6 million job openings in the U.S..
Moreover, the effort comes as colleges and universities seek to redefine themselves in a rapidly changing market and become more affordable and accessible to increasing numbers of low-income applicants.
“The fact that they’re doing once-a-week hearings is an indication that this isn’t just some random thing that they want to look like they’re working on,” says Tamara Hiler, senior policy advisor and higher education campaign manager at Third Way. “I’ve been really, really surprised at the nuance of the questions that have been asked, which indicates to me how seriously they are taking this process.”
Calling the plays in the Senate are Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the ranking member, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Republicans control the Senate, but their advantage is slim and any bill that gets to the president’s desk will likely need the blessing of at least some Democrats.
So far, the pair has held five committee hearings this year alone – though they’ve broached the topic more than 20 times in the past four years, so have a foundation from which to draw. And while there is no formal proposal yet, the principled legislators have already proven once that they can thread the smallest of needles in crafting the long-overdue rewrite of No Child Left Behind just two years ago. Though some of that goodwill has wilted in the wake of the confirmation process of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, the how-to guide remains.
The House is also working on revamping the Higher Education Act, but it’s not taking the same bipartisan tack the Senate is. At the helm of that effort is Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chairwoman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, who shepherded a bill out of committee in December along party lines.The proposal included a host of non-starters for Democrats, including eliminating various federal grants and repayment programs, as well as regulations aimed at protecting student loan borrowers from for-profit colleges.
Foxx’s counterpart on the Democratic side, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., has slammed the proposal as “a partisan strategy” drafted behind closed doors, but should the two chambers conference their respective bills, Scott would be a key negotiator, as he was during the NCLB overhaul.
And while the House bill showcases the most conservative priorities in the process, there is consensus on a handful of issues that Senate lawmakers are hoping to take advantage of.
Nearly everyone agrees, for example, that the application for federal student aid should be simplified and shortened, and that applicants should be allowed to apply earlier in order to get a better understanding of costs. There’s bipartisan support for ideas that would allow students to earn credits by showing what they know, versus simply completing a certain number of course hours – an idea known as competency-based learning.
There’s even support on both sides of the aisle for more major changes, like paring down federal aid and repayments offerings to make it less confusing, and opening those federal aid purses to job training programs and others, like apprenticeships, aimed at filling the skills gap.
Even when it comes to accountability, it seems that both sides of the aisle have bent some, with Democrats acknowledging the issue extends beyond the for-profit sector, and Republicans, including Alexander, recognizing that quality and good data play an important role in affordability.
To be sure, the devil is always in the details and bipartisanship isn’t easily achieved.
“You can keep things appearing one way as long as there’s not legislative text on the table, but once there is bill text out there, you throw down your cards and people can see what you want to do,” says Ben Miller, senior director of postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress. “If the opening bid is super partisan, I think it would be hard to have it go very far.”
While not legislation, Alexander unveiled a 12-page white paper last week that included a host of specific policy ideas, some of which are non-starters for Democrats.
Take for instance, the proposal in Alexander’s White Paper to scrap what’s known as the “90/10 rule” – a provision that limits for-profit colleges to receiving no more than 90 percent of their revenues from federal student aid.
Republicans argue it unfairly targets the career college sector, but Democrats have been steadfast in their insistence that it protects veterans and service members who are disproportionately targeted by for-profit schools looking to boost their revenue.
Another big non-starter for Democrats is anything that smacks of eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which erases debt after 10 years for borrowers who go into public service careers, like teaching and law enforcement.
Republicans have also backed proposals, much to the chagrin of Democrats, that would nix various Obama-era regulations, including those aimed at reeling in bad actors in the for-profit sector and providing students who have been defrauded by them financial relief, as well as those meant to standardize across all institutions of higher education the value of a credit hour.
“I think you’d have a hard time getting 60 votes for any of those things,” Miller says.
Murray went so far as saying that Alexander’s pitch “would move us in the wrong direction and make it very clear we have some serious and tough issues to work through as we negotiate a comprehensive reauthorization of this important legislation.”
Murray, however, has her own wish list that doesn’t exactly appeal to Republicans, including, among many other things, a demand to tackle campus safety, including sexual assault, in any reauthorization.
“It does appear that there’s a lot of agreement from both sides for the reasons of what and why [they should reauthorize the law],” Hiler says. “There’s a very clear understanding of the problem, that things are really complicated, and that the outcomes aren’t as good as they should be. But the how is where things start to breakdown.”
The administration has been short on details about what it would prefer to see in a reimagined Higher Education Act. The administration’s first budget proposal included pitches to eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and pare down the current borrowing and repayment options to simply one grant and one loan, but that’s where the pitches end.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos herself has been mum on specifics as well.
She’s made successive calls for a “major shift” that prioritizes programs like apprenticeships over four-year college degrees – sentiments echoed last week when president Trump called for more “vocational” training during his State of the Union Address and followed that up with a pitch to lawmakers at the GOP retreat.
And in December, DeVos hosted a roundtable discussion where she heard from higher education industry leaders about ways to better align program offerings with the needs of local employers, to maintain quality as the number of workforce-focused programs increases and to get employers to trust applicant qualifications beyond a four-year degree.
Some congressional onlookers point to a short-staffed Education Department as one of the reasons why DeVos and her team have largely remained silent on the topic, while others say that’s just DeVos being principled in her belief that solutions shouldn’t come from the federal government.
[PHOTOS: The Big Picture – January 2018]
As she said at the roundtable discussion in December: “Government is not the best at finding new solutions to tough problems.”
While it’s unclear whether Congress will get a bill to the president’s desk this year given the shortened legislative window that comes with an election year, that’s the stated goal by lawmakers in both chambers. Foxx is waiting for leadership to call her bill to the floor of the House for a full chamber vote, while Alexander said Tuesday he hopes to have a bill ready for a vote early spring.
Even if the current momentum doesn’t produce legislation before the end of the year, legislative trackers say the process underway should make for a quick and tidy process next Congress.
“I’m confident we can work together and negotiate in good faith and get to a yes answer,” Murray said Tuesday during a committee hearing to Alexander, who replied, in turn, “I look forward to doing that, as we have before.”
Tag:Betsy DeVos, college, education, Higher Education Act, news, students
Reforms That Will Stand the Test of Time
Taking a cut of student’s future paychecks has Silicon Valley investors funding education — Quartz
Grand Canyon Sues U.S. Over Nonprofit Status Ruling
Biden to seek $15 minimum wage in COVID-19 proposal
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You are here: Home>War and peace>Bottesford Parish 1st World War Centenary Project>1st World War Service Biographies>Survivor biographies>Frederick William Gordon Johnson
Private 215049 Royal Air Force
Gordon Johnson is one of the men named on the Bottesford ‘church list’ of WW1 Servicemen. He is identified here as Frederick William Gordon Johnson, who in 1911 lived with his parents in Bottesford. He appears to have gone by the name Gordon, and the military record quoted here is for a G.W.F.Johnson, which is taken to be his name but with his three forename initials in reverse order.
No men named Gordon Johnson have been discovered birth and census records of the Bottesford area during the years before WW1. However, a Frederick William Gordon Johnson was born in 1899 and baptised in Bottesford on the 24th December, 1899. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Caroline Johnson. It is reasonable to consider that he is the man named on the ‘church list’.
In the 1911 census, the family is recorded at 4, Station Road Cottages, Bottesford. Here lived William Johnson, a 33 years old railway signalman born in Bottesford, his wife Elizabeth Caroline, 37 years old from Hull, their 11 years old son Frederick W.G. who was born in Doncaster, and their 3 years old daughter Daisy, who was born in Bottesford.
There are many records of men named G.Johnson, none of which could be shown to be the man from Bottesford. However, there is also one record for a G.W.F. Johnson. This could be the Bottesford man, on the basis that he evidently decided to go by the name Gordon Johnson rather than Frederick or William, as demonstrated by the name written on the ‘church list’. He may have taken this to the extent that he gave his name as G.W.F. Johnson when he enlisted.
G.W.F. Johnson is recorded on the RAF Muster Roll as Private 215049. The single-line record states that he was classified as a labourer, and had had the rank of AC1 with the RFC before being re-classified as Private 1 by the newly formed RAF. The date on which he is recorded as joining was the 15th December 1916. This is before the RAF was formed, and presumably refers to the date he joined the RFC as an AC1, which probably indicates an Air Cadet (trainee pilot or observer). He would have been only 16 when he joined up, but by 1918 when he was re-classified he would have been 18 years old.
No further information relating to this man has been found.
Gordon Johnson (now recorded as Frederick William Gordon) was married in 1921, at Basford, to Winifred E. Robinson. In the 1939 register, they are recorded living at 23 Atkinson Street, Peterborough, when Frederick was employed as a railway telegraph linesman.
Two records of the death of men named Frederick William G. Johnson or Frederick W.G. Johnson have been found. One died in Norwich in 1961, the other in Nottingham in 1995.
About Frederick William Gordon Johnson
RFC (3)
Probably remained in the United Kingdom
This account is based on the uncorroborated premise that F.W.G. Johnson from Bottesford was generally known as Gordon Johnson, and enlisted as G.W.F. Johnson for reasons that are unclear.
'Frederick William Gordon Johnson' also appears in
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Guide Price - £825,000
Dymock, Glouestershire
Lot 1: Farmhouse, farm buildings and 1.70 acres - £375,000
Lot 2: 58 acres of pasture, arable and amenity woodland - £450,000
For sale in two lots
Situation and Description
Little Woodend Farm is an attractive residential farm situated conveniently close to the M50 motorway. The main residence has been part modernised and extended. The farm has an attractive range of traditional red brick and stone farm buildings which offer scope for further development along side an existing modern farm building.
The land extends to 58 acres or thereabouts of productive arable and pasture land with a small area of amenity woodland. The land is contained within a ring fence and is capable of a full range of cropping. The farm is situated three miles from the small town of Newent which provides a good range of local amenities. More extensive amenities are available in the Cathedral City of Gloucester which is only 12 miles distant. The traditional market town of Ross on Wye is only 11 miles distant. The farm lies very close to the M50 which offers extensive motorway links into the Midlands and South Wales.
LOT 1 - The Farmhouse, Farm Buildings and 1.70 acres,
Lot 1 comprises Little Woodend Farmhouse, the range of modern and traditional farm buildings and an area of land extending to 1.70 acres. The property is accessed over a private driveway and the farmhouse and farm buildings occupy a rural location and offer a very private residence. The farmhouse is constructed of stone elevations under a tiled roof. The farmhouse has been part modernised with the exterior of the property nearly complete.
The interior of the property is in need of further work. The farmhouse does have first fixtures such as electric and plumbing in place in some of the rooms. The property has the benefit of double glazing and does offer a range of traditional features such as exposed beams and open fireplaces.
The potential purchasers have the opportunity to complete the modernisation of Little Woodend Farm to their own personal taste with the property offering potential to be an attractive residence once completed.
Little Woodend has a range of both modern and traditional farm buildings conveniently located a short distance away from the farm house. The traditional farm buildings offer future scope for further developments subject to the relevant consents being obtained. The property comprises an attractive red brick traditional barn in good condition which would lend itself to conversion and further development. The smaller stone outbuildings also have potential to be part of further development.
The modern farm building comprises a four bay steel portal framed covered yard and offers very useful livestock or machinery storage.
LOT 2: 58 Acres of Arable, Pastureland and Woodland
Lot 2 comprises the farm land at Little Woodend Farm, the land extends to 58 acres or thereabouts. The well farmed block of land is currently in pasture and arable cropping with all the land capable of arable cropping. The land is principally level to gently undulating and provides a rare opportunity to purchase such a block of land of this nature in West Gloucestershire.
The fields are good sized enclosures with roadside frontage onto the B4224. The land is in a ring fence and would be an ideal amalgamation for any nearby holding or as a stand alone block of land. The productive land has been improved in recent years and is now in prime condition with the added benefit of a small area of amenity woodland.
Timber and Sporting Rights
To be included within the freehold.
Fixtures and fittings
All fixtures and fittings are excluded from the sale unless specifically referred to within these particulars.
Ingoing Valuation
The farm is sold free of any ingoing valuation whatsoever and no allowance will be made to the purchaser in respect of dilapidations, if any.
We are not aware of any outgoings on the holding except for Council Tax and we believe the house is Band B.
Gloucestershire County Council Shire Hall, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TG
Plans, Areas and Schedules
These are based on the most recent Ordnance Survey Promap series and the areas are based on information provided by Rural Payments Agency. The purchaser(s) shall be deemed to have satisfied themselves as to the boundaries and area of land. any error or misstatement shall not annul the sale or entitle any party to compensation thereof.
The land has been registered for the BPS Scheme and Entitlements are included in the sale and will be transferred to the successful purchaser.
Restrictions, Wayleaves, Easements and Rights of Way
The property is sold subject to and with the benefit of all restrictions, way-leaves, easements and rights of way whether public or private or not disclosed.
A previous pipeline scheme has gone across some of the land and the relevant authority has retained an easement over that area of land.
The vendor will be responsible for cross compliance up until the date of completion. The purchaser will then become responsible for cross compliance the completion date and shall indemnify the vendor for any non-compliance for the calendar year and shall be responsible for any penalties or reductions in the vendors payment subsequently caused by any cross compliance matters.
The farm is sold freehold and vacant possession will be given at completion 28 days after exchange of Contracts. Vacant Possession will be given on the farmhouse and buildings and some of the land on completion. Approximately 30 acres of arable land is currently let on a cropping licence until 31st July 2019.
Method of Sale
The property is offered by Informal Tender and tenders are due on Monday, 16th July 2018 at 12noon.
All tenders to be received at the offices of the agents, Brightwells Ltd, The Mews, King Street, Hereford, HR4 9BX.
All prospective purchasers will need to supply us with two forms of ID:- photo ID (passport/driving licence) and address verification (utility bill/bank statement) to meet anti-money laundering regulations
Strictly by arrangement through the agents. .
Vendors Solicitors
Dee and Griffiths Solicitors, Hucclecote Court, 76 Hucclecote Road, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL3 3RU
Ref: Andrew Dee
Services and Considerations
Mains water is connected to the property. Drainage is to a private disposal system. It is not our company policy to test services and domestic appliances, and so we cannot verify if they are in working order.
From Ross on Wye take the M50 towards the Midlands. Turn off the M50 at Junction 3 and take the B4221 signposted Newent, follow that road for three miles into the town of Newent. At the Crossroads turn left onto the B4224 signposted Ledbury. Follow this road for approximately 2 miles. The entrance to Little Woodend Farm is on the right hand side of the road.
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Economics • News
Small businesses and sole traders left high and dry by UK coronavirus package
Breaking 20/03/2020 – UK economy has collapsed completely – UK Gov to pay people’s wages ow.ly/YYAY50yRiBL
UK Government has acted along the lines we suggested in this article and you can read our initial analysis of tonight’s announcement via the link above.
The UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced a £330bn loan package to allow companies to access loans, a business rates holiday, support for airlines in trouble and help for small firms without loss of income insurance. There will also be a £20 billion package of other support which remains undefined right now. There will also be a three-month mortgage holiday available to homeowners who have trouble meeting their payments due to the impact of coronavirus. On the face of it, this looks like a good start. However, the UK Government has a track record of targeting its bailout strategy at the wrong recipients. The banking crises bailout went solely to the banks and asset holders. As a result, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, and then we all had to pay for that bailout with a decade of austerity. The government neglected ordinary people during the banking crises and simply helped the banks. This time around it looks like they will repeat that mistake but also fail to adequately support small businesses and sole traders who will be amongst the worse hit.
Firstly, let’s recognise the fact that the UK Government doesn’t have easy access to £350 billion of funding. Therefore, as in 2009, the government will have to use Quantitative Easing (QE), the creation of new money, to pay for this support package. Secondly, the package provides cover for the government to bring in more austerity, a philosophy which matches the Conservative fiscal approach verbally (and somewhat falsely), abandoned in the run-up to the 2020 General Election. Finally, £330bn may seem like a huge sum. However, it is not going to be enough because they will also have to bail out the people, not just the banks and big corporations this time. You can read my thoughts on this in my article: “This time the people will need a bail-out”.
How coronavirus will damage the economy
We are in week one of radical social distancing measures. Already many people are experiencing drastic income reductions that will not be alleviated by standard business support mechanisms.
If you are working from home, do you need a dog walker or a cleaner? Are you still going to the dentist for teeth whitening or a check-up when you don’t need to? Are you going to get that eye test? What about going to the gym with those sweaty handlebars on the bike? That session with your personal trainer? Do you even want the joiner to come in and fix the door, or can you live with it for another month? Self-employed people are in trouble in a way that they were not during the banking crash.
That alone might be enough to cause a recession, but are you going to buy that designer jacket now? Are you booking a holiday? Are you going to the pub and out to restaurants much? Will you even be allowed to within the next few weeks? Airlines and holiday businesses are all in survival mode (death spiral might be more apt). As are pub and restaurant chains and any business that involves high touch customer contact, including dentists, chiropractors, tailors, the UK’s 15,000 personal trainers and business training providers. Taxi drivers will have no customers when the lockdown starts and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Some Examples on how other nations are approaching business support
The Dutch government is providing government funding to cover 75 per cent of the lost wages when peoples hours are cut. This is paid directly to the employee, with the employer covering the remainder. This is rumoured to be increased to 90% and for small and mid-sized businesses, where bank loans are used the government committing to repay up to 90 per cent of the money lent if the company is unable to repay. The government has also said it would provide further assistance for over a million self-employed people.
Norway has announced it was suspending fees and taxes for the airline industry, they will also pay all but the two first days of the salaries of employees temporarily laid off in a bid to improve small firms liquidity. the Norwegian Governement also said it would change corporate tax regulations so that loss making buisneses can re-allocate their losses to the previous years’ taxed surplus and thus get rebates. Norway will also reduce the number of days that employers are obliged to pay salary to workers at temporary lay-offs, from 15 to 2 days – presumably after the 2 days the governement picks up the tab.
The Danish Government has announced an aid scheme to compensate organisers for the damage suffered due to the cancellation of large events with more than 1,000 participants.
Some good initiatives but nothing spectacular and all very peacemeal. Each nation will have partuclar needs but an internationally coordinated effort and agreemenet on hw to respond would have a calming effect on markets and that should be a priority.
The problem with the UK approach
It seems that self-employed people are not going to be helped by this package and that’s a huge part of the economy left to fend for itself.
The UK Government (so far) is urging people not to go out. However, it is not ordering the closure of pubs, concerts etc. which means that some companies’ insurance packages won’t cover losses and more importantly it means that the UK Government isn’t responsible as it has not mandated actions that will lead to revenue loss.
A small to medium-sized business whose income collapses but still has to pay wages is likely to take out a Government-backed loan. Even at a low rate of interest, this company will be in a worse financial state than it was before the loan. A hotel that pays out £10k a month on wage costs takes out a £30k loan at 3%, but has no income for three months will not be able to pay back that loan. Yes, the hotel will have a rates holiday but likewise, how do you start paying again when you’ve had no income for months?
Unless the money is made in the form of grants and administered through councils, not banks, or that debt forgiveness for smaller businesses becomes an accepted part of the package, all the UK Government will have done is kick the mass insolvency problem a few months down the road.
The vast majority of the £350 billion will clearly go to large corporates in the form of a bailout that they will not need to pay back, airlines so they don’t go bust, and banks to underwrite the loans. It will not reach the ordinary people and will not really reach that many small businesses. Small and medium-sized businesses are a huge part of the economy and must be able to access the £350bn in line with the percentage of jobs they provide and that is 60% of all private-sector employment.
The UK Government doesn’t understand the economy and its purpose of sustaining society. They think they understand the finance sector, the stock markets and the city of London and that’s the focus of all their economic policies. Small to medium sized businesses are the backbone of the economy and they are going to be ill-served by this government.
Read my new book Scotland the Brief.
Coronavirus – This time the people will need a bail-out
Coronavirus – Useful information for Businesses in Scotland
News • Polls
New poll finds 56% support for independence
News • Politics • Westminster Mismanagement
Uncertainty Reigns as Westminster Fails to Offer...
Brendan None O'reilly says:
No help for building trade small one man traders
Not yet but we are asking for more help and I am confident that will happen.
Alex McCulloch says:
All countries, All governments globally have to print money and provide every adult human being with a Universal income from April to June (at least) Only cost about 50 trillion.
Then economy can just ‘pause’ rather than crash No need to pay off employees, slightly help poverty and create a foundation for a rebalance future
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Cambs Times > News > Business
Cafe vision for derelict building in Manea
Louise Hepburn
Plans have been submitted to convert a derelict building into a coffee shop in Manea. Image: Google Street View - Credit: Google Street View
A building which has been derelict in a Fenland village for at least 30 years could become a cafe, if given the go-ahead by planners.
Proposals have been submitted to convert the property at 29, High Street in Manea into a coffee shop.
The Design and Access Statement submitted alongside the plans explains the property requires “major structural works” some of which is considered “urgent”.
Sections will also need to be taken down and rebuilt including the front wall, the roof at the front of the building and part of the wall facing Park Street.
Materials such as bricks and roof tiles will be reused where possible, the report says.
The plans also propose the cafe will be set across two floors with an outside seating area. There will be two car parking spaces.
The proposed opening hours are Monday-Saturday between 8:30am and 4:30pm.
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DIRECTOR OF THE CASA BALTHASAR
Fr. Jacques serves as the Director of the Casa Balthasar and is the current President of the Balthasar-Speyr-Lubac Association. He has been intimately involved with the house since its original inception in 1991.
Born in Belgium in 1949, Fr. Jacques entered the Society of Jesus in 1967 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1979. He completed his university studies at Namur, Heidelberg, Louvain (degrees in philosophy and psychology), Brussels, and Rome (doctorate in dogmatic theology). Since 1985 he has lived in Rome, teaching systematic spiritual theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and working under then-Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Now retired from his work at the Gregorian and the CDF, Fr. Jacques is dedicated entirely to his role at the Casa Balthasar where he offers spiritual direction to the residents and guests making the Spiritual Exercises. Additionally, he makes himself available to researchers interested in our authors of reference.
Fr. Jacques has published various works and articles on H. U. von Balthasar and the spiritual sources of his thought, in particular St. Ignatius of Loyola and A. von Speyr, but also J. H. Newman, M. Blondel, and F. Ulrich.
For a list of articles by Fr. Servais, click here.
To view Fr. Servais' bibliography, click here.
To view a list of past conferences, speaking engagements, and other events, click here.
To contact Fr. Jacques, click here.
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Personality #33
Who is Robert Mapplethorpe? He is an American photographer whose work featured celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits, still-life flowers, and his most controversial work - the underground BDSM scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s of New York City. He was born on Monday November 4th 1946, in Floral Park, New York, United States.
Robert Mapplethorpe is gifted with natural leadership and the capacity to accumulate great wealth. He has great talent for management in all walks of life, especially in business and financial matters, where he contributes the greater vision, purpose, and long-range goals. He understands the material world, and intuitively knows what makes virtually any enterprise work. Business, finance, real estate, law, science (particularly history, archeology, and physics), publishing, and the management of large institutions are among the vocational fields that suit Robert best. He is naturally attracted to positions of influence and leadership, and politics, social work, and teaching are among the many other areas where his abilities can shine.
He possesses the ability to inspire people to join him in his quest, even when they are incapable of seeing what he sees. Therefore, those around Robert Mapplethorpe need his continual guidance, inspiration, and encouragement. Mapplethorpe is a good judge of character, which serves him well in attracting the right people that he can prod them then into action and direct them along the lines of his vision.
Robert's challenge in life is to understand that power and influence must be used for the benefit of mankind, and only for his personal gain. Otherwise, Robert Mapplethorpe is bound to suffer the consequences of greed and run the risk of losing it all. He must also learn to bounce back from failures and defeats. As with many greate visionaries, Mapplethorpe can be reckless for lack of attention to details. Thus, it is not unlikely for such personality to experience major reverses, including bankruptcies and financial failure. Robert Mapplethorpe, however, has the talent and the sheer guts to make more than one fortune, and build many successful enterprises.
Mapplethorpe is likely to mold a large family around him, and he is inclined sometimes to keep them dependent longer than necessary. However, Robert Mapplethorpe is not demonstrative in showing his love and affection. Also, Robert must be careful of becoming stubborn, intolerant, overbearing, and impatient. These characteristics may have been born early in his life, after suffering himself under a tyrannical parent or a family burdened by repressive religious or intellectual dogmas. More...
Robert Mapplethorpe tends to be quite adaptable, and he finds it easy to fit into most social set ups and vocational fields.
Learning to be wisely assertive is a major lesson to be taken by Robert Mapplethorpe throughout his life.
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Robert Mapplethorpe personality profile | © Copyright 2009-2021 Celebrities Galore and Master Numerologist Hans Decoz
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Home Visit Park History Frederick Law Olmsted, Architect of Central Park
Frederick Law Olmsted, Architect of Central Park
Olmsted spent his first two adult decades searching for a calling while remaining financially dependent on his father, a prosperous dry goods merchant and descendant of a prominent Puritan family in Hartford, Connecticut. (Raised a Congregationalist, Olmsted avoided organized religion in later years.) He was driven by a sense of duty but found pursuing a career for money distasteful. Because a case of sumac poisoning weakened his eyes, Olmsted's formal education -- a combination of common and boarding schools -- ended when he was eighteen.
While his brother and closest friends were attending Yale, he tried a year as a clerk in a New York dry goods house and another year at sea. Neither pursuit proved agreeable. In the mid-1840s he prepared for what he thought would be a suitable profession as a gentleman farmer by living and studying with several prominent agriculturalists, among them George Geddes, whose upstate New York farm had won the state agricultural society prize for exemplary management. When his father bought him farms first in Connecticut and then on Staten Island, Olmsted envisioned himself as a "country squire" with a responsibility to disseminate scientific knowledge and rural taste.
As a youth, Frederick Law Olmsted traveled through the New England countryside with his father, who admired rural scenery; and as a young gentleman farmer, he read the latest literature on art criticism (including Ruskin's Modern Painters), on horticulture, and on English landscape gardening. He wrote articles for Downing's Horticulturalist on pear and apple farming and another on the attractions of Liverpool's Birkenhead Park. With the rural improvement movement at its peak, he also helped organize an agricultural society on Staten Island for the promotion of rural tastes and scientific agriculture. But while Olmsted learned the art of landscape appreciation and the latest theories in rural improvement, he gained little experience in the work of design.
In the 1850s, Olmsted abandoned model farming for journalism, another field in which he hoped "to take up and keep a position as a recognized literateur, a man of influence in literary matters." Following a trip to England, he published Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England, which combined observations on the English social landscape with sentimental invocations of "Old England for ever! -- Amen." He took several journeys through the American South and sent a series of letters to the New York Times that formed the basis for his three influential books on southern mores and the economic conditions of slavery. In 1855 Olmsted became both a managing editor of Putnam's Magazine and a partner (again through his father's investment) in the publishing house of Dix and Edwards, which was publishing his second book. The Dix and Edwards firm became an early casualty of the 1857 depression. A family friend, Park Commissioner Charles Elliott, encouraged Olmsted to apply for the post of the park superintendent, and he did so.
All text from:
The Park and the People
Courtesy of Barbara Blackmar & Roy Rosenzweig
Greensward Plan Central Park History Frederick Law Olmsted
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CFP Board Censures Improper CFP Certificant Conduct
CFP Board Censures Improper CFP® Certificant Conduct
Washington D.C., September 28, 2009—Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. announces public disciplinary actions against the following individuals’ right to use the CFP® certification marks, effective immediately.
STATE NAME LOCATION DISCIPLINE
California Robert E. Barth Laguna Niguel Revocation
Colorado Rick D. VanVleet Fort Collins Revocation
Minnesota Christopher A. Root Edina Suspension
Nevada Richard C. Dergance Las Vegas Revocation
Ohio Kevin K. Kroskey North Royalton Letter of Admonition
Tennessee Edwin H. Jaffe Memphis Suspension
Public disciplinary actions taken by CFP Board, in order of increasing severity, include letter of admonition, suspension, and permanent revocation. A letter of admonition was issued to Kevin K. Kroskey. A suspension for six months was issued to Christopher A. Root, and a suspension for one year was issued to Edwin H. Jaffe. Revocations were issued to Robert Barth, Rick D. VanVleet, and Richard C. Dergance. The basis for each decision can be found in the attached report. Consumers may check on any planner’s disciplinary history and certification status with CFP Board at www.CFP.net/search.
CFP® - The Recognized Standard of Excellence for Personal Financial Planning
DISCIPLINARY ACTION REPORT
Letter of Admonition
Kevin K. Kroskey (North Royalton): In July 2009, following a hearing by CFP Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (“Commission”), CFP Board issued Mr. Kroskey a Letter of Admonition. This disciplinary action followed CFP Board’s investigation of two related matters: 1) In October 2002, Mr. Kroskey was convicted of a felony in federal court for Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“MDMA”), also commonly known as Ecstasy; and 2) Mr. Kroskey failed to report his conviction to the Ohio Department of Insurance within thirty days from the date of his conviction. In the first matter, Mr. Kroskey served 13 months in prison after being sentenced to 51 months imprisonment followed by three years of supervised probation. After serving one year of probation, Mr. Kroskey was discharged from probation due to his completion of ordered conditions and outstanding compliance. In the second matter, in October 2007, the Ohio Department of Insurance issued Mr. Kroskey a Notice of the Department’s intent to suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew his license as an insurance agent. The grounds for the action were Mr. Kroskey’s felony conviction and his failure to report the felony conviction within thirty days to the Superintendent of Insurance. In January 2008, a hearing was held by the Ohio Department of Insurance, and the Hearing Administrator subsequently issued a Report and Recommendation, which found that Mr. Kroskey had been rehabilitated and will continue to be licensed as an insurance agent in the State of Ohio. The Report also found Mr. Kroskey in violation of Ohio law for not reporting his felony conviction within thirty days of the disposition, and recommended a civil penalty of $500.00 and administrative costs of $250.00. The Commission determined that Mr. Kroskey’s conduct violated Rule 606(a) of CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and provided grounds for discipline pursuant to Articles 3(a) and 3(c) of CFP Board’s Disciplinary Rules and Procedures. In mitigation, the Commission considered the following factors: 1) Mr. Kroskey’s violation of Ohio law for late reporting of his felony conviction was due to his incarceration; 2) the conduct at issue took place when Mr. Kroskey was a college student, long before he began his financial services career, and does not reflect his current level of commitment to his profession and his community; and 3) Mr. Kroskey’s career has suffered and will continue to suffer due to his past conduct. The Commission cited no aggravating factors. Accordingly, the Commission admonished Mr. Kroskey with regard to the above-mentioned conduct.
Christopher A. Root (Edina): In July 2009, following a hearing by CFP Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (“Commission”), CFP Board suspended Mr. Root’s right to use the CFP® certification marks for six months. This discipline followed an investigation of two matters: 1) Mr. Root was the subject of a customer complaint; and 2) Mr. Root identified himself as a CFP® certificant prior to becoming certified. In September 2008, Mr. Root’s application for initial CFP® certification was reviewed by CFP Board. During a routine background check, CFP Board discovered a customer complaint filed against Mr. Root. In correspondence with CFP Board during its investigation, Mr. Root identified himself as a CFP® certificant, even though he had not been certified by CFP Board. The Commission found no violations in relation to the customer complaint. The Commission did find, however, that Mr. Root had identified himself as a CFP® certificant to CFP Board prior to becoming certified and that he failed to use the marks in compliance with the rules and regulations of CFP Board. Thus, the Commission determined that Mr. Root’s conduct violated Rule 601 of CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The Commission cited no mitigating or aggravating factors. Mr. Root’s suspension is effective from August 10, 2009 to February 10, 2010.
Edwin H. Jaffe (Memphis): In July 2009, following a hearing by CFP Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (“Commission”), CFP Board suspended Mr. Jaffe’s right to use the CFP® certification marks for one year following its investigation of an internal review Mr. Jaffe’s former employer initiated in January 2005 relating to his outside business activities. Mr. Jaffe’s employer found that he violated firm policies by failing to disclose or obtain firm approval for his outside business activities. Mr. Jaffe’s employer permitted him to resign. Mr. Jaffe later entered into a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (“AWC”) with NASD, now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”). In the AWC, Mr. Jaffe consented to the entry of findings that he participated in private securities transactions without providing his employer prior written notice of the proposed transactions. In the AWC, FINRA determined that Mr. Jaffe violated NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040. Pursuant to the AWC, Mr. Jaffe was fined $20,000 and suspended from association with any NASD member in any capacity for nine months. Mr. Jaffe failed to notify CFP Board of his suspension within ten calendar days of the date on which he was notified of the suspension, as required by Article 12.2 of CFP Board’s Disciplinary Rules and Procedures (“Disciplinary Rules”). The Commission found that Mr. Jaffe’s conduct violated Rules 406, 407(a), 606(a), 606(b) and 607 of CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and provided grounds for discipline pursuant to Articles 3(a) and 3(e) of CFP Board’s Disciplinary Rules. Mr. Jaffe’s suspension is effective from August 10, 2009 to August 10, 2010.
Robert E. Barth (Laguna Niguel): In July 2009, following review by CFP Board’s Appeals Committee, CFP Board permanently revoked Mr. Barth’s right to use the CFP® certification marks. The Appeals Committee heard the appeal of a July 2008 decision by CFP Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (“Commission”) to issue Mr. Barth a permanent revocation. The Commission’s decision followed its investigation of a grievance filed by his former client with CFP Board. After a hearing, the Commission found that Mr. Barth: 1) failed to secure any information about a client's needs and objectives; 2) comingled a client's funds in Mr. Barth’s business account; 3) failed to review and recommend changes to a client's living trust documents; 4) failed to return a client's documents; 5) charged a client inappropriately; 6) failed to disclose compensation arrangements to a client in writing; and 7) failed to act as a fiduciary on behalf of a client. As a result of its findings, the Commission determined that Mr. Barth’s conduct violated Rules 103(d), 103(e), 201, 202, 402(a), 405, 607, 610, 701, 702(a) and 703 of CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and provided grounds for discipline pursuant to Article 3(a) of CFP Board’s Disciplinary Rules and Procedures. Accordingly, the Commission issued a permanent revocation to Mr. Barth. Mr. Barth appealed the findings and discipline imposed by the Commission’s decision, which was affirmed by the Appeals Committee.
Rick D. VanVleet (Fort Collins): In July 2009, following a hearing by CFP Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (“Commission”), CFP Board permanently revoked Mr. VanVleet’s right to use the CFP® certification marks. This disciplinary action was based on the Commission’s findings that Mr. VanVleet operated a fraudulent investment scheme in violation of the laws of the State of Colorado. In March 2008, Mr. VanVleet was indicted by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office on five counts of securities fraud and two counts of theft over $15,000. The indictment alleged that Mr. VanVleet engaged in an investment fraud scheme where he sold promissory notes to investors and then failed to fulfill the obligations pursuant to the promissory notes. Mr. VanVleet pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, and all remaining charges were dropped. Pursuant to the guilty plea, Mr. VanVleet was sentenced to ten years in prison for operating a fraudulent investment scheme. Based on these findings of fact, the Commission determined that Mr. VanVleet’s conduct violated Rules 102, 201, 302, 406, 606(a), 606(b), and 607 of CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and provided grounds for discipline pursuant to Articles 3(a), 3(c) and 3(e) of CFP Board’s Disciplinary Rules and Procedures.
Richard C. Dergance (Las Vegas): In July 2009, following a hearing by CFP Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission (“Commission”), CFP Board permanently revoked Mr. Richard C. Dergance’s right to use the CFP® certification marks. This disciplinary action followed CFP Board’s investigation of a 2007 civil lawsuit and 2008 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) regulatory action related to Mr. Dergance’s 2003 sale to clients of $185,300 in investments in a 36-month real estate promissory note. The promissory note was offered by a broker-dealer for whom Mr. Dergance claimed he never worked. According to a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (“AWC”) agreement Mr. Dergance entered into with FINRA, he received $18,541 in total commissions related to the sale of the promissory notes. The promissory notes were not registered as securities at the time of the sales, and the clients were not customers of Mr. Dergance’s broker-dealer. Mr. Dergance did not give his broker-dealer prior written notice about the promissory note transactions with the clients. The other broker-dealer defaulted on the promissory notes for all of its investors. According to the AWC, Mr. Dergance was 1) issued a four-month suspension; 2) issued a $5,000 fine; and 3) ordered to disgorge a total of $18,541 in commissions plus interest to his clients. FINRA found that Mr. Dergance violated NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040. Mr. Dergance failed to file a response to the allegations in CFP Board’s Complaint, and after a July 2009 hearing, CFP Board deemed those allegations admitted. Accordingly, pursuant to Article 7.4 of the Disciplinary Rules and Procedures (“Disciplinary Rules”), CFP Board issued Mr. Dergance an Order of Revocation permanently revoking his right to use the CFP® marks. The Commission determined that Mr. Dergance’s conduct violated Rules 201, 302, 401(a) 406, 408 and 606(a) of CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and provided grounds for discipline pursuant to Articles 3(d), 3(e) and 3(f) of the Disciplinary Rules. The Commission identified no mitigating or aggravating factors.
Michael P. Shaw, Managing Director, Professional Review and Legal
Email: mshaw@CFPBoard.org
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ALUMNI 2011/2012
Topic: Managing the Unpredictable: The Future of Work and Education
ALUMNI 2011/2012AMO2020-12-22T11:29:08+00:00
Matthias Behre
Matthias is the CFO of a small company in south Moravia owned by the Siemens AG, Industry Sector. He started his career in 1992 at Siemens in Hamburg. On several stations in Germany and also abroad, he has built up his career as a commercial manager specializing in sales, governance functions, and compliance. Due to his current position, he has been facing cross-cultural Czech-German challenges. He applied for the CGYPP because it’s an interesting opportunity for him to get an insight into other social, political, cultural, and governmental perspectives outside his business environment, and it offers a cross-cultural collaboration. He also hopes to exchange experience with other interesting people.
Libor Boček
Libor works as the head of the Corporate Services at the E.ON Czech Group, the second largest energy company on the Czech market. Beside providing legal services for the E.ON Czech Group, he is also responsible for the follow-up developments in energy policy on the Czech market and within the EU to ensure the best position of the Group on the market. He graduated from the University of Brno in the German and Dutch languages and in Pedagogy. Prior to that, he studied Business Economy in Gmünd, Austria. By joining the CGYPP, he wants to deepen his understanding of the Czech-German business relations and to meet new interesting people.
Thomas Groll
Thomas is the Founder and Managing Director of “atraversa”, a startup company specialized in the development and implementation of intercultural integration concepts for international sports clubs and multinational companies. After he worked in Corporate and Investment Banking in Hamburg, he was employed as a Regional Business Manager/Executive Assistant at the UniCredit Group in Milan. He studied Business Administration and International Business in Passau and Florence, and held a post as a lecturer at the State University of Management in Moscow. He received his Ph.D. degree with a thesis on intercultural strategies of German expatriates in Czech Republic and Italy. By participating in the CGYPP, he hopes to engage in discussions with people of different professional backgrounds.
David Kocourek
David is currently a freelance economist who pursues his Ph.D. in economics at Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. He previously worked on the modeling of fiscal issues for Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany at OGResearch. Before that, he worked for the Czech National Bank, where he analyzed external economic issues important for the Czech economy. He hopes that CGYPP will provide different perspectives and become a platform to articulate and discuss his own ideas. He is looking forward to establish new friendships from both sides of the boarder.
Jan Krčmář
Jan Krčmář heads the Contact Office of the City of Vienna in Prague. He oversees the implementation of Vienna’s successful communications strategy. He is also responsible for Public Affairs and coordinates joint projects between the two town halls. He studied Political Science and History in Vienna and Prague, specializing in public perception of politics and policy. He has worked for several media and communications companies, such as Reuters or the New York Times. Jan joined the CGYPP to actively participate in the vital cross-border dialogue and to gain a new behind-the-scenes perspective on bilateral issues.
Jana Řehaková
Jana is the Head of Collateral Management of Local Credit Office in COMMERZBANK Aktiengesellschaft, Prague Branch in the Czech Republic. She is responsible for the preparation and the management of the collateral for the structured deals, and she also works with corporate and private clients. She studied law in Brno, acquired professional skills in the public sector, particularly from the legal screening negotiations by the European Commission in Brussels during the harmonization process before the Czech Republic joined European Union. She sees her participation in the CGYPP as a great opportunity to broaden her knowledge of miscellaneous professions. She also wants to deepen her understanding of current Czech-German relations.
Maria Schwille
Maria works as a project manager at IJAB – International Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany. There she is responsible for the coordination of international network projects. She studied European Studies in Magdeburg and Stockholm, and holds a Master’s degree in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges. She applied for the CGYPP because she hopes to get a deeper insight into the social and economic dimensions of the Czech-German relations.
Josef Šmíd
Josef has been a Human Resources business partner at Škoda Auto a.s. in Kvasiny, a member of the Volkswagen Automaker Group, since 2008. As an HR person, he is responsible for education, social relations, etc. He has been working for Škoda Auto since 2003. First he went through a training program, then he worked in production in different positions. He graduated from the Business and Management School at Brno University. He has applied to join the CGYPP to better understand the relationship between the Czech and Germanspeaking countries, and to extend his knowledge of the current opportunities.
Linda Štucbartová
Linda obtained BA from the Institute of international territorial studies of Charles University in Prague. She spent one year in Oxford, pursuing specialization in Hebrew and Jewish studies. She finished her studies by receiving a French equivalent of the MA at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Her working experience includes both the public and private sectors: She started her career as a Deputy Director, and later the Director of the Diplomatic Academy of the MFA, currently she is engaged in the private sector – she is the Learning and Development Director of the Czech ICT company Servodata. She teaches at the Anglo-American University and she is also the Head of Development at the ELAI. She is looking forward to exchanging ideas on the topic of adult education and training with regards to sharing the best practices and networking.
Michal Volf
Michal works as an architect at the office of Petr Hajek Architekti in Prague. He graduated from the Czech Technical University, Faculty of Architecture. During his studies, he won internships at the Technical University in Vienna, the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, and Kansas State University in the USA. As an architect, he worked in New York and in Vienna. He would like to contribute to changing the role of architecture, which he considers rather underrated. By joining the CGYPP, he intends to participate in a similar open-minded interdisciplinary discussion and in an exchange, which will expand the professional knowledge of all the participants.
Christina Wagner
Christina works at the Department for the Quality of Teaching of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Consequently, she is eager to see first-hand how Czech universities implement the Bologna reform. She studied Communication and Cultural Management in Friedrichshafen, and earned her first degree in American Studies, Government, and Psychology in Frankfurt and Worcester. Christina is looking forward to discussing what a university of the future will teach – and what life-long learning means for young European professionals.
Josefine Wallat
Josefine works at the German Embassy in Prague, where she heads the Cultural and Protocol Departments. She graduated from the Free University in Berlin, and received her Doctoral Degree in international relations from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining the German Foreign Office, her work experience included two years at the Foreign Policy Department of the Office of the Czech President Vaclav Havel. She was seconded from the Policy Planning Staff at the German Foreign Office to the Policy Planning Staff at the Czech Foreign Office in 2005. Before she came to Prague in 2010, she had served four years at the Commercial Section of the German General Consulate in Shanghai.
ALUMNI 2019
CGYPP is an international network for young experts, multipliers, movers and shakers from Germany and the Czech Republic.
The program is initiated and financed by the Czech-German Fund for the Future.
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Storage / Data Migration Services Escalate Storage Wars Across the Channel
Data Migration Services Escalate Storage Wars Across the Channel
By Michael Vizard | Print
The storage wars are about to get a lot more intense as it becomes easier to migrate data
Given the immense amount of scrutiny that IT storage budgets are getting it may come as little surprise that there is an intense amount of infighting going on these days between solution providers representing different storage vendors. But what may come as a surprise is how much easier it’s becoming for customers to switch storage vendors.
It used to be that the cost of switching storage vendors was not only high, but also risky. But thanks to the advent of storage virtualization and other related technologies the cost and risk of migrating from one storage vendor to another is dropping.
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) got the ball rolling on the storage virtualization front with the addition of a data migration capability to the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) that allows servers to communicate with HDS and a third-party storage system via an HDS controller at the same time.
According to Robert Basilio, vice president of hardware product management at HDS, the capability is critical for HDS solution providers looking to replace competitive offerings in a way that allows customers to make a gradual transition.
IBM then soon followed up with IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center, which according to Doug Balog, IBM vice president and storage business line executive within the IBM Systems and Technology Group, makes it easier to move data volumes not only between virtual machines, but also between storage vendors.
However, while HDS and IBM are using different approaches to migration using storage virtualization, the folks at Hewlett-Packard argue that’s the wrong approach to the problem all together. Tom Joyce, vice president of marketing, strategy and operations for HP Storage, says least expensive way to migrate data with little to no risk to leverage HP data federation software and storage routers and gateways to migrate data from third-party systems into either HP LeftHand or 3PAR storage systems.
What all this means is that data is not as tightly coupled to the underlying storage system as it used to be. That creates a lot of opportunity for solution providers in terms of acquiring new clients. It also creates some significant challenges in terms of holding on to clients they already have.
Given the massive amounts of data that IT organizations are being asked to manage, their interest in increasing utilization rates is particularly acute. Storage utilization rates are often in the range of 20 percent, which means there is a lot of underutilized capacity..
Customers would ideally like to consolidate much of that storage as long as the act of consolidating that data doesn’t have an adverse impact on application performance.
In general, customers are also starting to recognize that data is an asset that needs to be maximized in terms of its business value as opposed to being a burden that needs to borne. They’re still keenly interested in minimizing costs, but they are also looking for more sophisticated ways to analyze and manage that data. That means that data and storage management opportunities in the channel now go well beyond simply managing the allocation of bits and bytes.
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About CES
Directory / Class Websites
Social-Emotional Resources
/About Chatham Elementary School / CES Directory / Administrators
Mrs. Cynthia Crow, Principal
ccrow@bcsd5.org
Mrs. Cindy Crow has been named Principal at Chatham Elementary School. Mrs. Crow holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Education from Truman State University and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from William Woods University. In addition, she earned her Superintendent Certification from WIU. In her career, she has served as the Iles Elementary School (Quincy) Principal; Baldwin South Intermediate School (Quincy) Principal; and most recently, at Quincy Jr. High as the Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction.
About her chosen profession, Mrs. Crow says, “Each day for all of us is a chance to make a difference, and a school leader gets the privilege of doing so in a widespread mission field. Loving, learning, and leading with students, their families, and our staffers is an amazing gift for which I’m grateful. It doesn’t hurt that there is a lot of laughing along the way, if we’re doing it right.”
Mrs. Crow acknowledges the challenges that come with the profession of educating students as well: “The greatest challenges often reap the greatest rewards. Creating trusting relationships and open communication requires time and effort, and it allows us to overcome any challenges in our way. Our schools continue to become more diverse and the greatest challenge is helping every stakeholder find their place, use their voice, and determine how they will make a positive impact on our school, community, and world. It’s beyond amazing to get to fill the role of steward in this process.”
She is married to Jason, and has two full-grown sons, CJ and Dalton. On her own time, she enjoys traveling throughout the United States in search of the greatest thrill ride. In fact, she is a member of the National Roller Coaster Enthusiast Club! She is also a great lover of all things Christmas. Last year, she participated in the Las Vegas Santa Run where she donned a Santa suit and journeyed through downtown LV with thousands of other Santas. However, some of her favorite memories were from times spent around the card/game table with family and friends. Evenings often find her enjoying her furbabies - Josey and Marty.
Mr. Ben Kwedar, Assistant Principal
bkwedar@bcsd5.org
On July 1, 2020 Mr. Ben Kwedar will begin serving as an Assistant Principal at Chatham Elementary School. Mr. Kwedar previously served as an AP Government and Social Science teacher at Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School where he also coached softball and girls golf. Prior to that, he was a 5th and 6th Social Studies teacher at St. Thomas Grade School (Peoria Heights).
Mr. Kwedar is a 2009 graduate of Glenwood High School. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts in History, Minor in Secondary Ed. from the University of Illinois in 2013, and his Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Concordia University in Chicago in 2020. He made the University of Illinois’ Dean’s List all four years and had a 4.0 GPA in graduate school.
About his profession, he says, “The best part is the chance to build relationships with students, colleagues, and parents while helping to inspire students to achieve their full potential.” The most challenging aspect of the profession, he says, is preparing students for an ever-changing/21st Century workforce.
He is married to Emily, and enjoys attending Fighting Illini basketball and football games, traveling, and reading.
Mrs. Brittany Sitko, Special Education Coordinator
bsitko@bcsd5.org
Mrs. Brittany Sitko has taught fifth grade students for 15 years: first in Belleville, Illinois (2003-2006); and then at Glenwood Intermediate School (2006-2018).
Brittany, an SHG graduate, went on to earn her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from SIU-E, and her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from UIS where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.
She says what she enjoys most in her profession is being an advocate for her students and helping each one to achieve his or her greatest potential.
Brittany is married to Tyler, who is a firefighter for the Springfield Fire Dept. They have two daughters: Payton, age 10; and Madelyn, age 8. On her own time, she likes reading, exercising, and cheering for the Illini and the Cubs. She also loves to watch her girls do the activities they enjoy - softball, cheer, gymnastics, and basketball.
Community | Parents/Families | Students | Staff Portal | Foundation | Careers | Tech Help Desk | Contact
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Kate Hudson’s Net Worth & How She Earns Her Money
Becca Bleznak
Actress Kate Hudson continues to be best known for her film roles, but she has a lot more than that going for her. Hudson has grown up in Hollywood and has never really known a life outside of the spotlight. Obviously, this comes into play when calculating her net worth and earnings. Here’s what you need to know about Hudson including her famous family, and what she does to earn money.
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 17: Kate Hudson attends The Daily Front Row’s 5th Annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards at Beverly Hills Hotel on March 17, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
She comes from a show business family
Hudson, who recently celebrated her 40th birthday, isn’t just famous on her own: Her mother, Goldie Hawn, is an established actress known for films like Cactus Flower and Private Benjamin, both of which earned her Oscar nods. Hawn was married to former actor and comedian Bill Hudson, with whom she had two children: Oliver and Kate.
You may also recognize Hudson’s brother, Oliver, by face and name. He is known for his main cast status on series such as Rules of Engagement and Nashville. Oliver currently stars opposite The Of/fice’s Jenna Fischer on the sitcom Splitting Up Together.
Hudson considers this famous actor to be her father
It was almost a perfect photo…almost ♀️ @theoliverhudson (@sweetbabyjamie #seriousselfiegame )
A post shared by Kate Hudson (@katehudson) on Apr 20, 2019 at 5:30pm PDT
Though they share his last name professionally, Kate and Oliver don’t consider Bill to be their father. When Hudson was just three years old, her mother began dating actor Kurt Russell, and the two are still together.
Hudson has stated that she considers Russell to be her father. They even had the opportunity to act alongside one another in the 2016 film Deepwater Horizon, which she said brought her back to the time when she would watch her parents on movie sets as a kid.
She starred in the following movies
Though most actors tend to go back and forth between film and TV, Hudson has mostly stuck with the silver screen, aside from a couple of one-off projects and a small arc on Glee. The film that put her on the map as an actress is 2000’s Almost Famous, in which she played a passionate fan of a music group who accompanied them on tour.
Hudson began to make a name for herself in the world of romantic comedies with movies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Raising Helen. Though she has continued to act steadily, Hudson hasn’t been as big of a star when it comes to the big screen in recent years.
Here’s what she’s doing these days
My wishes came true Thank you for all the love today ❤️❤️ #ThisIs40
Right now, Hudson has a film, Blood Moon, in pre-production. However, it doesn’t appear as though she’s as focused on her acting career these days as she was in years past. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a lot going on.
Hudson has been focused on the world of fashion for a number of years. She recently launched an eco-friendly clothing line, Happy x Nature. Additionally, she is the co-founder of Fabletics, a subscription-based line of activewear, which has been around since 2013.
Of course, most of Hudson’s focus is on her family. She has three children: son Ryder with ex-husband Chris Robinson, son Bingham with ex-fiance Matt Bellamy, and daughter Rani Rose with current beau, Danny Fujikawa.
Kate Hudson’s net worth
Hudson’s net worth is up for debate. According to The Richest and Romper, her net worth as of April 2018 was approximately $38 million. However, The Richest’s information is clearly outdated, as it refers to Bellamy as her fiance. Celebrity Net Worth, on the other hand, updated its information and puts Hudson’s net worth at $80 million. This is likely due to the inclusion of her stake in Fabletics.
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Loan Guide
By Loan Expert Published 21st December 2017 Credit, Microfinance
Microfinance services provide a set of financial products to those excluded from the conventional or formal financial system 1 . They generally relate to the poor inhabitants of developing countries .
More generally, microfinance refers to a vision of the world in which “the maximum number of poor or assimilated households can have permanent access to a range of high-quality financial services adapted to their needs, including not only credit but also lending. savings, insurance and money transfers 2 “.
More narrowly, microfinance refers to a number of private or public institutions that claim to be microfinance.
In this article, microfinance institutions are often referred to as ” MFIs “.
Normally, banks do not provide financial services to customers with no minimum income. To manage a customer account, these same banks have to bear a fairly substantial fixed cost that does not depend on the amount of money involved. For example, the total profits generated by a hundred credits of 1,000 euros each is roughly equal to the profit generated by a credit of 100,000 euros, while the management of one hundred credits implies a hundred times more work and various expenses than the management of one. The same basic equation governs the economy of other financial services. There is a break-even pointassociated with the credit or depositwhich means that the bank loses money when it makes a transaction below a certain amount. The financial needs of the poor are generally below this threshold.
Moreover, the poor do not have enough goods that can be considered collateral , that is to say that can serve as collateral. Even when they own their land, they often have no title to it. This has been particularly well studied by the economist Hernando de Soto 3 . This implies that banks have virtually no recourse against defaulting borrowers .
From a more general point of view, it has long been accepted that the development of a prosperous national financial system is an important intermediate objective that can then serve as a catalyst for national economic development, which is the ultimate goal (see eg Alexander Gerschenkron , Paul Rosenstein-Rodan , Joseph Schumpeter , Anne Krueger , etc.). However, both the planning authorities of the States concerned and the international experts favor the development of the commercial banking sectorspecializing in operations involving large sums of money and often neglecting institutions that can provide services to households with limited means, even though these categories of households make up the largest part of the population.
Because of these difficulties, when the poor are forced to borrow, they often have to rely on their family or local lenders who charge very high interest rates. A synthesis of 28 studies of informal credit interest rates from 14 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa concludes that 76% of the interest rates charged by local lenders are above 10% per annum. months, and of these, 22% exceed 100% per month. These lenders usually charge for the poorest higher rates than the less poor 4 . While these lenders are often stigmatized and treated as usurers, their services are accessible, fast and very flexible when borrowers face problems. The hopes that we had of trying to eliminate them from the circuit proved to be unrealistic even in contexts where microfinance institutions were very active.
In the past, the visionary practices of some monks Franciscans who founded the xv th century of pawnshops exhibited Community guidelines. Also in Europe, in 1849, a Prussian mayor Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen , founded in the Rhineland the first cooperative savings and credit , an institution that offers savings services to poor working people and excluded from conventional banks. The savings collected make it possible to grant loans to other clients. These organizations are called mutualist. Mutualism including financial knows from 1941, a rather exceptional development in the Spanish Basque Country around the Mondragón cooperatives . Apart from the case of Mondragón, the organizations and institutions that develop on this basis in Europe and North America, then, after the Second World War in the countries of the South, focus on savings and offer few financial services. credit 5 .
In the 1970s, with Grameen Bank , Muhammad Yunus developed microcredit in Bangladesh and pioneered many other experiments around the world. Institutions are created to provide the poor with the means to create their livelihood and the tools to manage the associated risk, that is to say the normal financial services offered to the wealthiest classes 6 . The success of Grameen Banknow counting more than 7 million poor Bangladeshis as clients worldwide, in practice it has been difficult to recopy this experience. In countries where population densities are lower, it is much more problematic to combine the conditions of profitability to create services and local shops. Nevertheless Grameen has shown that not only the poor repay their loans, but they can pay high interest and that the institution can therefore cover its own costs 7 .
In the late 1980s, initiatives multiplied. In Latin America, the institutions providing urban credits begin to cover their costs without subsidy 8 . The Bolivian NGO PRODEM, created in 1986, decided to “spin off” its microfinance activities into a bank by creating Banco Solidario SA, better known as BancoSol . This is the emergence of a “microfinance industry 8 “.
Much progress has been made, but not all the problems have been solved, and the vast majority of the population earning less than one euro per day, especially in rural areas, still have no access to the sector. normal financial The microfinance sector has grown steadily until in 2007 $ 25 billion for all funds under the Microfinance 9 . It would take ten times longer to provide the poor capital they need 9 . The microfinance sector has experienced strong growth, to the point where it was questionable whether there was not a risk in allowing so much capital to flow to a sector that does not
Delimitation and principles
In principle, microfinance can encompass all approaches to increasing access or improving the quality of financial services that the poorest can use or that can be of any use to them. For example, the poor borrow from local lenders and similarly place their economies in the informal economy . As another example, they use charitable organizations to contract loans or benefit from a guarantee. They can also take advantage of the insurance offered by a nationalized company. They transfer money through traditional networks like Hawala. Or they bury their jewels in a secret cache, ask someone in their family to look after their finances, and raise chickens to save money for their wedding .
It is very difficult to draw a clear line between microfinance and similar activities. We can defend the position that a government that mandates a state bank to open accounts for low-income consumers, a lender who practices usury , or an association like Heifer International that allows the poorest to practice lending. farming and gardening for sustenance, all these different actors participate in microfinance. However, it is generally accepted that microfinance is not about distributing, but about giving the poorest ways to earn a living by giving them access to financial services.. It is also recognized that this problem of access is best addressed by adapting these financial institutions as much as possible to its beneficiaries and by developing the capacity of these institutions. In recent years, particular emphasis has been placed on the necessary diversity of microfinance institutions to meet the most diverse needs.
In 2004, some principles that sum up a century and a half of various practices were grouped together in a kind of manifesto by CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) and selected by the leaders of the G8 at the summit of June 10, 2004 : 6
1. The poor do not only need credit, but also means to invest their savings , insurance , and money transfer services.
2. Microfinance must provide benefits to poor households: raising standards of living , building wealth and guarantees to protect them from the upheaval they may face.
3. “Microfinance can pay for itself ” 11 , that is, it does not necessarily need external inputs. Subsidies from donors or the government are scarce and uncertain. Therefore, to reach more of the poor, microfinance must be self-sustaining.
4. Microfinance involves setting up permanent local institutions.
5. Microfinance also involves integrating the financial needs of the poor into a national financial system.
6. It is up to the government to make financial services possible, not necessarily to provide them 12 .
7. Donor funds should complement private capital, rather than replace them 12 .
8. “The critical bottleneck is the shortage of strong institutions and managers.” 12 Donors should focus on creative potential.
9. The cap on interest rates goes against the interests of the poor by preventing microfinance institutions from covering their costs, which blocks the provision of credit.
10. Microfinance institutions should measure and publish their financial and social performance.
Microfinance should not be confused with some forms of humanitarian action. It is preferable to provide subsidies to families in need as they are likely to be unable to generate the resources needed to repay a loan. This is a situation that can be found, for example in areas devastated by war or natural disaster .
Debates on the delimitation
Several types of debates emerged to clarify the boundaries of microfinance.
Microfinance advocates, both professionals and donors, often argue that the use of microcredit should be restricted to the production of goods or services, typically the creation or development of micro-enterprises . Private sector actors respond that the “fungibility” of money makes this restriction illusory, and that in any case it is not up to the rich to determine how the poor should use their money.
Perhaps because of Western prejudices about usury , the role of traditional local lenders has been denounced, especially in the nascent era of modern microfinance. As more and more people had access to the services of microcredit institutionsit became increasingly clear that the services of traditional lenders remained useful. Borrowers were willing to pay a high interest rate for services such as quick release of credits, confidentiality and flexibility of repayment deadlines. They saw no evidence of the benefits of lower interest rates if they were to pay the price by attending meetings or internships necessary to receive credit or by monthly dues. They also found it unpleasant to be forced into borrowing to start a business, whereas they had often borrowed for other reasons such as tuition and health fees or. The recent trend is to lend more legitimacy to lenders on the premise that the more competition among offers, the greater the diversity of services offered to the poor.
In the 1970s emerged a modern microfinance that sought priority solutions in the private sector. This was evident from the fact that in developing countries the constitution of state banks for the financing of the agricultural sector has been a complete failure. The argument that emerges from the classic compilation of Adams, Graham and Von Pischke 14 is that these banks actually went against the development objectives they were supposed to serve. In addition, jurisdictions in many countries may have different perspectives and continue to intervene directly in the microfinance market.
There was a long debate about the delicate trade-off between ” proximity ” – the ability of microfinance institutions to actually reach the poorest and most excluded and “sustainability” – -to say their ability to independently cover their operational costs for their customers at a given time, and if possible, the costs necessary for the expansion of their clientele 15 . Although it is generally accepted that microfinance practitioners should seek to achieve both of these goals, there is a very wide range of strategies, from BancoSol in Bolivia, which is part of a profit-seeking logic that is certainly minimalist. , untilBangladesh Rural Advancement Committee ) in Bangladesh that excludes profit. This debate between two orientations does not only affect each of the microfinance institutions, but also the governments engaged in the development of microfinance systems at the national level.
The so-called developed countries also need microfinance services. However, in developed economies, competition within the mainstream financial sector, combined with the diversity of financial institutions, provides access to financial services for the vast majority of the population. According to Cheryl Frankiewicz, attempts to transfer microfinance innovations from poor countries such as solidarity groups to rich countries would have met with only modest success. In France associations such as Association for the right to economic initiative (ADIE) are part of this trend.
Microfinance in developed countries: a way to fight against banking exclusion
The example of France
Microfinance is one of the means to fight against banking and social exclusion . In France in particular, microcredit is present in two forms:
the accompanied personal microcredit is a loan usually of less than € 3,000granted with a low interest rate (3.5% on average) the objective of which is to finance small projects (car, license, equipment …) carried by people whose resources do not allow them to claim a credit to consumption. Personal microcredit, also called social microcredit, differs from donation because even if it depends on the social situation of the borrower (unemployment, precarious contract …), it is a loan that must be repaid. In this, the borrower is empowered and revalorized: it is a relationship of trust that is established and especially autonomy: once the microcredit refunded, the borrower owes nothing “to society”.
The microcredit professional is a loan generally less than 25 000 € for people wishing to create or take over a business but whose resources are insufficient to qualify for a conventional loan. To benefit from a microcredit, the borrower must be accompanied by a specialized and competent support network such as: France Active , France Initiative , the Boutiques de Gestion or the Fondation du 2e Chance . These networks will help him to set up his project, to investigate his request for financing and to develop his activity. The main actor is ADIE (Association for the development of the economic initiative).
As Audencia microfinance researchers point out, “microfinance is part of the CSR commitments of most banks […] and there are strong economic reasons to enter the [banking] market through microcredit”. Microcredit is a means for banks to reach a solvent clientele, but until then in the margin of the banking sector. As recalled by the Inspection Générale des Finances, in a report made public in December 2009, the banks have the expertise and sufficient means to develop this activity in partnership with associations and local authorities.
For example: the ” Entrepreneurship in the Suburbs ” program set up by PlaNet Finance in the ZUS Sensitive Urban Zones with the aim of raising awareness among young people towards the creation of microenterprises and access to microcredit in banks near the area. For this PlaNet Finance has created a network of ADAM (Microentrepreneurs Detection and Support Associations) in order to identify and prepare potential autoentrepreneurs 16 .
Banks can be actors of microfinance in a direct way (this is the case of Savings Banks , Postal Bank , Credit Mutuel …) or indirectly (by financing MFIs like BNP Paribas , Banques Populaires). …)
The financial needs of the poor
In developing economies, and particularly in rural areas, many of the activities that would be considered in the developed world as part of the financial sector are not monetized , that is, these activities can be carried out without recourse to money. By definition, the poor have very little money. But it often happens that in their lives circumstances arise in which they need money or what money can buy.
In his book The Poor and Their Money , Stuart Rutherford draws up a typology of the needs for financial services 17 :
The needs of the life cycle such as weddings, funerals, births, education, housing, widowhood, old age.
Personal disasters such as illness and injury, unemployment, theft, harassment or death.
Disasters Environmental disasters such as fires, floods, cyclones and disasters resulting from human action as the war or destroyed 18 homes.
Opportunities to invest in job creation or business development, purchase of land or equipment, renovation of housing, stabilization of employment, which often involves paying bribes wine.
The poor are able to use their imagination to meet these needs, mainly through the creation and exchange of different forms of non-monetary goods. Money substitutes vary from one country to another, but they are typically cattle, grains, jewelery and precious metals.
According to Marguerite Robinson, the 1980s showed that “microfinance can provide large-scale assistance in a profitable way” and that in the 1990s, “microfinance begins to develop as an industry ” 19 . In the 2000s, the goal of the microfinance industry is to satisfy unmet demand on a large scale and to play a role in reducing poverty. While in recent decades much progress has been made in developing a viable microfinance sector, a number of issues remain to be addressed before the industry is able to massively meet global demand:
inappropriate subsidies;
inadequate regulation and supervision of microfinance institutions (MFIs) involved in the repository;
too few MFIs mobilize savings;
poor quality of MFI management;
institutional inefficiency;
need to expand the methodologies of rural microfinance.
The social impact social performance vs.
Social performance is defined by CGAP 20 as “the effective translation into practice of the social objectives / social mission of an institution, in accordance with recognized social values”. Social indicators are defined to assess social performance and are used by microfinance training organizations.
The social impact consists in measuring the effects of microfinance on customers, at the level of the income-generating activity of the client or his living conditions.
Impact studies concern three types of actors 21 :
Funders make impact studies for the efficient provision of funds.
Practitioners make impact studies to improve the services offered (quality or quantity).
Academics want to prove that microfinance has an influence on poverty reduction.
The limits of social impact measurement
The controversy about microfinance highlights the fact that there is no impact 22 but effects 23 . For example, it is difficult to correlate credit with the impact of its credits. Some recent studies conducted by several microfinance institutions such as Spandana in India or Al Amana seem to show that there is no profound transformation in the lives of clients as a result of access to microfinance 24 , 25 .
How the poor manage their money
According to Rutherford, the typical financial problem facing the poor is the accumulation of a large enough amount of money to be useful. Building your home may require putting various building materials in storage for years until there is enough to consider starting construction. The schooling of children can be financed by raising chickens: they must first be bought, then raised and put on sale as the deadlines fall (uniforms, bribes, etc.). ) because the amount is accumulated before the due dates: this money management strategy is called the ” a priori 26 savings ”
People often borrow to meet a need they can not afford. A poor family could borrow from parents to buy land or a lender to buy rice or an MFI to buy a sewing machine. Since these credits must be reimbursed by saving after having incurred the expenditure, we talk about savings after the event. Rutherford’s position is that microcredit is only half of the problem, and he thinks the bottom half is that the poor are borrowing to afford to save and build wealth. MFIs should finance their loans through savings accounts to help the poor cope with all the risks that threaten them.
Most needs are met by mixing savings and credit. A joint study by Grameen Bank and two other large MFIs in Bangladesh showed that for every euro loaned to clients for microenterprises in the rural non-farm sector, there were 2.5 from other sources, mainly the savings of their customers 27 in fact, we find the same tendency in the West where family businesses are funded primarily through savings, especially during the startup phase.
Recent studies have also shown that informal savings methods such as tontines are very unsafe. For example, the Wright and Mutesasira study in Uganda concluded that “those who have no choice but to save in the informal sector are almost forced to lose money, probably a quarter of the spared. » 28
Work like Rutherford’s, Wright’s, has led practitioners to question the traditional paradigm of microcredit. Poor people get out of poverty by borrowing, creating their microenterprise and increasing their income . The new paradigm attaches greater importance to the efforts of the poor to reduce their many vulnerabilities by increasing the share of their income that they retain to build wealth. While they need credit, they may find it as useful to borrow for their consumption as for microenterprise. A safe and flexible place to put your money and spend it in a timely manner is also important for managing your household and your family risks.
Microfinance provides access to financial autonomy. In fact, microcredit makes it possible to give poor people access to banking activities and allows banking inclusion. On the other hand, microfinance brings choices through decision-making powers. It brings a certain independence and autonomy that allow emancipation and therefore a breakthrough for women. If we focus on women, as Muhammad Yunus does, the contribution of microfinance is very positive. Women are a very good target because they are used to managing the family budget and make sure that there is money left at the end of the month for children. According to Yunus, microcredit has a more positive impact on them because they manage the budget, know the needs and educate the children. Women are more patient and would take less risk compared to return on investment. cf PlaNet Finance AwardsAna Lucia, who is a textile artisan in Brazil. “I started having my own money and I liked having my own money”! “Thought she was going to get married and depend on her husband all her life, who would not know anything about the world and would never benefit from her freedom.” Microcredit allows women to be independent of their husbands, fathers and earn their own source of income. This brings them “dignity” and true autonomy. Some economists even say that microcredit would lead them to invest more for their health or education and to reduce discrimination against women and girls. Some went so far as to suggest that by granting women access to capital, microcredit would help fight AIDS … (source Esther Duflo).
Another positive point is that Yunus has put an end to prejudices about the poor. Communities are poorly served by banks (women, ethnic minorities, patients: risk factor …). There is a mistrust and prejudice on the part of the banks to lend money to these people and vice versa , that is to say that these people are not very confident to go to the banks. There is a gap between the mentality of families and the formalism of banks (the seriousness of banks can impress people who have not done studies etc.); it is the problem of financial illiteracy (cf: Muhammad Yunus ) as a cause of self-exclusion. Mohammad Yunus thanks to Grameen bankand micro-loans has been successful in helping the poor without making them dependent. The fight against poverty does not need charity: it is enough to create the good opportunities that the poor will seize. This message is very seductive. It highlights the hidden human wealth and opportunities for these people that a microfinance would help unlock. In addition, the system works well. The repayment rate indicators are good. On average, people pay well. The default of payment represents only 2 and 3%.
A 2004 study attempted to identify alternative financial institutions in the developing world 29 . The authors, Christen, Rosenberg, and Jayadeva, account for 665 million customer accounts in 3,000 institutions that serve poorer populations than those served by commercial banks. In reality, only 120 million of these accounts are what is normally understood by an MFI. Of the others, 318 million are managed by savings banks, integrated into the postal services, 172 million by state banking institutions oriented towards agriculture or development and 35 million by financial cooperatives or credit unions.. The remaining 19 million accounts are managed by rural banks 30 .
It was in India that we find the largest concentration with 188 million accounts representing 18% of the total population. The Latin America and Caribbeanare particularly underserved, at least according to the study of Christen, Rosenberg and Jayadeva who only collect 14 million accounts corresponding to 3% of the population. Africa is at an almost equivalent level with 27 million accounts corresponding to 4% of the population. If we consider that most customers in the developed world use several accounts to manage their business, these figures show that a lot of work remains to be done for the microfinance movement. In general, and regardless of the geographical area considered, in the count of Christen, when considering the type of services provided, savings accounts are four times more numerous than credits 31 .
There is a wealth of detailed data on MFIs in the MicroBanking Bulletin . Thus, at the end of 2006, this review gave a panorama of 704 MFIs that served 52 million borrowers with a total outstanding credits of $ 23.3 billion and 56 million savers with a total of 15 deposits. , $ 4 billion. 70% of these clients were in Asia and 20% in Latin America 32 .
Studies that indicate how informal microfinance institutions such as tontines and informal associations that help people cope with expenses such as weddings, funerals and illnesses are not yet available. Many case studies have nevertheless been published which show that these structures are usually set up and managed by the poor with minimal external support operate in most countries of the developing world 33 .
Inclusive financial systems
The era of microcredit that began in the 1970s has given way to a less restrictive approach to financial systems . While microcredit has had some success for family-owned projects in urban and peri-urban areas, its development has been relatively weaker in areas of lower density. In addition, it seems doubtful that the microcredit movement has achieved one of its major objectives, which was to oust traditional lenders who currently charge interest rates of 10% per month.
The new approach to financial systems further recognizes the richness of centuries of microfinance history and the immense diversity of institutions serving the poor in today’s developing world. The new approach is also rooted in a growing awareness of the diversity of the needs of the poorest populations in terms of financial services and the diversity of their living and working conditions.
In his book The Creation of Financial Sectors Brigitte Helms distinguishes four categories of microfinance providers and advocates a pro-active strategy involving each of these categories to mobilize to the ideals of the microfinance movement 34 .
Informal providers of financial services
Included in this category are traditional lenders, pawnbrokers , savings collectors, purses 35 , tontines, ASCA and input supply shop . Because they are familiar with the people in their community where they live, these informal providers understand the financial context of their contacts and can offer them flexible, fast and personalized services. These services can also be expensive and the choice of financial products limited and very short term. As for savings, it is very risky and many savers are losing their money.
Mutual associations
These are self-help groups , credit unions , as well as a hybrid variety of structures such as financial services associations and CVECA (village self-managed savings and loan fund).). Like informal providers, these mutual associations are usually small, well-established structures at the local level, which implies that they will have a good knowledge of each other’s financial context and will be able to offer personalized and flexible services. As their managers are poor, the costs of operations will be low. On the other hand, these amateurs are not always very competent in the financial field and can panic when the economic situation gets darker or when the operations become too complex. As they are effectively mentored, they may be under the influence of one or two influential leaders and members may lose their money.
Illustration of an economy of scale : the increase of the production of Q towards Q 2 causes a decrease of the average unit cost of C towards C 1
The Microcredit Summit Campaign identified 3,133 NGOs in contact with 113 million clients at the end of 2005 36 . The largest of these NGOs are Grameen Bank and BRAC in Bangladesh , Prodem in Bolivia , and FINCA International , headquartered in Washington . Those NGOs that have developed around the world since 1975 have been very innovative in bank forms as the solidarity credit, village banks 37 and mobile banking 38. They managed to break the barriers that could prevent them from reaching the poorest populations. Nevertheless, with boards that do not necessarily represent capital or clients, they may suffer from weak governance and may become overly dependent on external donors. Other NGOs (such as ADA in Luxembourg) have the role of strengthening the autonomy and capacity of microfinance institutions but also supporting governments in their initiatives related to the microfinance sector. 39
Institutional Financial Structures
In this category, in addition to commercial banks, state-owned banks, agricultural development banks, savings banks, rural banks and non-bank financial institutions are classi fi ed and managed classically. offer a wide range of financial services and control networks of agencies that may extend beyond the borders of their country of origin.These institutions have nevertheless proved to be very reluctant to assume social missions and, because their cost per operation is high, they often can not offer their services to poor or excluded populations, and the increasing use of non-financial information 40 to measure the risks of certain loans, such asConsumer credit has been growing interest in these institutions for microfinance 41
With proper management and good supervision, each of these international structures can solve some of the problems of microfinance. For example, attempts have been made to link self-help groups with commercial banks and mutual networks to achieve economies of scale and to encourage the efforts of commercial banks to go ahead. small customers by integrating mobile banking and electronic payment technologies into their networks.
Criticisms of microfinance
Is it obvious that microfinance reduces poverty?
For many microfinance supporters, the evidence that microfinance is an effective tool in the fight against poverty is self- evident . This idea has been the subject of a number of criticisms 42 , 43 .
Sociologist Jon Westover found that much of the evidence for the effectiveness of microfinance in reducing poverty was based on anecdotal case studies. He sifted through 100 articles on the subject. Only six articles relied on fairly quantitative data to be representative. Among these six publications, one of them found that microfinance reduces poverty. Two others were unable to conclude that microfinance reduced poverty, although the authors attributed some positive effect to the program. The other three studies came to roughly the same conclusion:44 .
The Microfinance Guide by Boyé, Hajdenberg and Poursat, while recognizing that some studies have concluded that there is no impact or a negative impact, gives them little significance because of the low frequency of these results. . The authors of the guide note that several studies 45 carried out years apart and on different continents have shown that the action of MFIs is producing impressive results, both economically and with an impact on the level of income and the ability to save only socially, with effects on children’s schooling, access to care and housing improvement 46 .
High interest rate for microcredit
Criticism has also been raised about the high interest rates borrowers have to pay . In 2006, the average annual interest rate stood at 23.3% for a sample of 704 MFIs that agreed to submit their balance sheets to the MicroBanking Bulletin 47 . Muhammad Yunus spoke on this point in the 2007 edition of A World Without Poverty . For the founder of the Grameen Bank, MFIs that offer higher interest rates to 15% for loans in the long term , should be penalized.
These high interest rates can be explained by several factors:
High risks for small amounts (which explains why the people concerned are bank exclusives)
Personalized service based on proximity and commitment
The need for MFIs themselves to finance themselves with “traditional” banks
Increase in their own funds in certain cases
Good use of donor money?
The proper use of donor money has also been questioned. CGAP recently suggested that ” Much of the money spent is not used effectively, either because it hangs up on complicated funding mechanisms , or the money is turned over to partners. whose performance is not credible. In some cases, poorly designed programs have delayed the development of financial systems inclusive producing market distortions and diverting domestic commercial initiatives towards money cheap or free 48 . “
Exploitation of MFI beneficiaries?
MFI facilitators have also been criticized for not paying enough attention to the working conditions of poor households, particularly when borrowers become quasi-employees of MFIs to whom they sell handicrafts or agricultural products they occur. The willingness of MFIs to help borrowers diversify and increase their incomes has led to this type of relationship in several countries, notably in Bangladesh , where hundreds of thousands of borrowers actually work as employees for Grameen Bank’s commercial subsidiaries. BRAC. According to these critics, schedules, holidays, working conditions and safety would not be subject to any regulation.and controls to uncover abuses would be exceptional 49 .
Should we target the poorest?
Some of the microfinance programs have the specific objective of reaching poor people, sometimes even the “poorest”. Thus the poorest families could improve their situation through microfinance. This statement raised some questions 50 :
Do MFIs that claim to target the poorest really achieve their goals?
Is it not risky to indebt the poorest who will not have the repayment capacity?
Is it not better to target a less poor audience in order to create an economic dynamic that will indirectly benefit the poor?
If microfinance does not reach the poor, is it not likely to contribute to increased inequality ?
On these questions, the authors of the Guide to Microfinance offer some answers 51 :
Microfinance is not a suitable tool for reaching the poor, that is, “the poorest of the poor”.
Microfinance is relevant for very poor households, capable of economic initiatives, but the proposed financial services must be accompanied by additional services requiring sustainable subsidies .
It is among households just above the poverty line , but still vulnerable, that microcredit finds its full relevance.
Various scandals
Various scandals have shaken the world of microfinance, which highlights the possibility of drifts of this system and highlights the need for a real framework. The Mexican MFI Compartamos, which went public in 2010, was accused of enriching itself on the backs of the poorest. How, indeed, reconcile the interests of investors and those of micro entrepreneurs? How can microfinance reconcile financial performance with social performance? Another scandal concerns the Indian MFI SKS with a wave of suicides at 2 esemester 2010 committed by micro entrepreneurs in the Indian state of Andra Pradesh. Since there was no control, micro entrepreneurs could take out several loans from different MFIs, which is also known as cross-debt. The latter were unable to repay their loans. They borrow from one to repay the other and find themselves locked in the phenomenon of cavalry. In the end, unable to repay their various loans, they rely on loan sharks, an excuse knowing that microfinance aims to emancipate micro entrepreneurs from the dependence on usurers. After the entry into the SKS Bombay Stock Exchange on July 28, 2010, there was a general runaway. The number of beneficiaries jumped in this region from 250,000 in 2006 to 9.7 million at the end of 2010(Liberation, 2011) [ archive ] . Finally, critics denounce the way loan officers are paid: according to the number of customers in their portfolio and the rate of reimbursement of customers. This system may have led to a real harassment of loan officers towards their clients. In the case of SKS, the government of Andra Pradesh went so far as to promulgate a law heavily condemning the “harassment” of loan officers.
Personal microcredit
Green microfinance
Mortgages in France
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Deacon Louis Barone
Deacon Louis Francis Barone, 92, of Woodstock, died Oct. 23 at his home surrounded by his family. Deacon Barone was ordained in 1987 and served at St. Ansgar Parish, Hanover Park.
Born in Cicero, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1944, after graduating from high school. He graduated from the DePaul University School of Law in 1951.
In 1961, he married his wife, Joan Sweeney, now deceased. He served as a Hanover Park village trustee, village clerk and, for 12 years, village president. He also was active in the Illinois Municipal League and the Northwest Municipal Conference.
He was ordained a deacon after retiring from municipal government, serving in a variety of ministries at St. Ansgar, including as business manager. He started a village-wide food pantry and a police chaplain ministry.
He moved to Woodstock to live with his family after the death of his wife, and was active at St. Mary Parish there.
He is survived by his son, John Barone; daughter, Mary Ann Rizzo; three grandchildren; and a sister, Nancy Gray.
Deacon William D. Maune
Ordained in 1982
Deacon William D. Maune, 95, died Oct. 24. He was ordained for the Diocese of Rochester in 1982 and began serving at St. Irenaeus Parish, Park Forest, when he moved to Illinois in 1994.
Deacon Maune was a World War II veteran who served in the Army Air Corps as a ball gunner on a B-24 Liberator. He married his high school sweetheart, Winnie, on a furlough in 1944. After the war he worked as a steamfitter, an exterminator and then worked for Kodak. During his career at Kodak, he worked in New York; Chicago; Hartford, Connecticut; Boston and Rochester, New York, where he retired in 1982 to work full-time as a deacon.
He continued his work as a deacon at St. Irenaeus Parish until he retired in 2002, due to his blindness. He continued to serve as a eucharistic minister and volunteer at St. Irenaeus until his death.
He was predeceased by his wife, Winifred. He is survived by his children Bernadette Maune, Mary Fote, William Maune, Anne Bell and Joseph Maune; nine grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
Deacon Thaddeus Czarnecki
Deacon Thaddeus W. “Ted” Czarnecki, 86, died Oct. 26, He was ordained in 1977 and has served at Queen of the Rosary and St. Julian Eymard parishes in Elk Grove Village, where he lived for 59 years.
Deacon Czarnecki was a Navy veteran, a retired accountant/comptroller, served as coach and treasurer for Elk Grove Village Boys Baseball and was a former 10-year member and treasurer for the Lions Club of Elk Grove Village.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Geraldine; children Thaddeus Czarnecki, Karen J. Wolak and Kathleen M. Czarnecki; four grandchildren; and a brother, Leonard Scott.
Deacon Michael Monnelly
Deacon Michael Monnelly, 79, died Oct. 27. He was ordained in 1982 and and served at Queen of All Saints Basilica.
Born in Chicago, he grew up in St. Bonaventure Parish and attended DePaul Academy and, later Marquette University in Milwaukee. After serving in the armed forces, he worked as a systems analyst for IBM.
At Queen of All Saints, he enjoyed doing baptism preparation and baptisms. He was a member of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, and he taught computer skills to formerly incarcerated men at St. Leonard’s House.
He is survived by his wife, Louise; children Colleen Neary, Joellen Mendoza, Emily Monnelly and John Monnelly; 11 grandchildren; and siblings Patricia, Frank and Ed Monnelly.
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Case Profile
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Case Name Kosilek v. Nelson PC-MA-0039
Docket / Court 1:92-cv-12820 ( D. Mass. )
Additional Docket(s) 01-1185 [ 01-1185 ] Federal Court of Appeals
00-12455-MLW [ 00-12455 ] District of MA (U.S.)
State/Territory Massachusetts
Case Type(s) Jail Conditions
On November 11, 1992, a transgender inmate at the Bristol County Jail, serving a life sentence, filed a pro se lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the Sheriff of the Bristol County and others under 42 U.S.C. 1983. The plaintiff asked the court for both an ... read more >
On November 11, 1992, a transgender inmate at the Bristol County Jail, serving a life sentence, filed a pro se lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the Sheriff of the Bristol County and others under 42 U.S.C. 1983. The plaintiff asked the court for both an injunction ordering that she be provided with a sex reassignment surgery and damages, alleging that she was provided inadequate medical care for her serious medical need in violation of her constitutional rights. The medical need in question was severe Gender Dysphoria (GD), causing mental anguish to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff was later transferred to the Massachusetts Department of Corrections at Norfolk, MA. She filed a motion to amend her complaint to seek the same relief from DOC on February 8, 1993, which was granted on June 7, 1994. The case then proceeded for a long time on pre-trial discovery and motion practices.
On February 23, 1999, the plaintiff filed a motion to further amend to include the Commissioner of the DOC as a defendant, which was granted on March 4, 1999.
On September 12, 2000, the Court (Judge Mark Wolf) issued an order dismissing claims of damages against the Commissioner in his individual capacity, based on the doctrine of qualified immunity. The Court also issued a summary judgment for the Sheriff, as one of the defendants in the present case, dismissing all claims against him both in individual and official capacity. The Court cited qualified immunity of the Sheriff and lack of evidence to make out a claim of constitutional violation against him. Kosilek v. Nelson, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13355 (D. Mass. 2000). On October 4, 2000, the plaintiff filed an appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals against the summary judgment.
On February 27, 2001, the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order, retaining jurisdiction over the case, but remanding it to the District Court to give statement of reasons for its order on September 12, 2000.
On September 14, 2001, the Court (Judge Mark Wolf) issued an order denying the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment. The non-jury trial finally commenced on February 4, 2002.
At trial, counsel for the plaintiff represented that she was seeking an injunction requiring that she be provided with treatment in prison for GD consistent with the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care. More specifically, the plaintiff requested an order that the defendant retain a doctor who specializes in treating GD to evaluate the plaintiff, authorize that doctor to prescribe any treatment deemed appropriate, and provide the treatment prescribed by that doctor. That treatment could require hormone treatment therapy and sex reassignment surgery.
On March 22, 2002, the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a per curiam order affirming the summary judgment of the District Court (Judge Mark Wolf) on September 12, 2000 for the reasons stated in that judgment. Kosilek v. Nelson, 29 Fed. Appx. 621 (1st Cir. Mass. 2002).
Following the trial, the Court (Judge Mark Wolf) issued its judgment for the defendant on August 28, 2002. The Court did not find any violations of the Eighth Amendment by the Commissioner of the DOC. The Court found that the plaintiff's severe GD constitutes a serious medical need, for which she has not received adequate medical treatment. However, the Court found that the defendant was not deliberately indifferent to the substantial risk of serious harm to the plaintiff, as he did not appreciate the substantial risk posed to the plaintiff due to lack of medical qualifications and failing to make the inference necessary from the facts of the case, and also had legitimate security concerns, as well as concerns about political controversy. The Court did not issue an injunction or otherwise order the DOC to do something, but it expressed its expectations that the Commissioner would be put on notice of the plaintiff's serious medical need and provide adequate medical care for it. Kosilek v. Maloney, 221 F. Supp. 2d 156 (D. Mass. 2002).
The plaintiff filed her motion for attorney's fees on October 30, 2002, which was denied by the Court (Judge Mark Wolf) on September 11, 2003. This effectively ended the present case.
However, with the present case still ongoing, the plaintiff filed another pro se lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Corrections and its medical officers on December 12, 2000. The case is included in the database as Kosilek v. Spencer, PC-MA-0038. The allegations in that case were substantially similar to the present one, where the plaintiff argues that the DOC violated her constitutional rights by not providing her adequate medical care for her serious medical need. The present case's outcome bears substantial influence on the proceedings of the second case. The PC-MA-0038 case is still ongoing.
Zhandos Kuderin - 04/03/2014
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Cruel and Unusual Punishment
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Goals (e.g., for hiring, admissions)
Defendant-type
Jurisdiction-wide
Discrimination-basis
Gay/lesbian/transgender
Medical/Mental Health
Mental health care, general
Self-injurious behaviors
Plaintiff Type
Private Plaintiff
Government-run
Causes of Action 42 U.S.C. § 1983
Defendant(s) Massachusetts Department of Corrections
Plaintiff Description prevailing party in another lawsuit
Class action status sought No
Class action status granted No
Filed Pro Se Yes
Prevailing Party Defendant
Public Int. Lawyer Unknown
Nature of Relief None
Source of Relief None
Filed 11/11/1992
Case Closing Year 2002
Case Ongoing No
Case Listing PC-MA-0038 : Kosilek v. Spencer (D. Mass.)
See this case at CourtListener.com (May provide additional documents and, for active cases, real-time alerts)
Court Docket(s)
D. Mass.
08/05/2004 1:92-cv-12820-MLW
PC-MA-0039-9000.pdf | Detail
Source: PACER [Public Access to Court Electronic Records]
Memorandum and Order (2000 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 13355)
PC-MA-0039-0004.pdf | LEXIS | Detail
Source: LexisNexis
U.S. Court of Appeals
Opinion (29 Fed.Appx. 621)
PC-MA-0039-0003.pdf | WESTLAW| LEXIS | Detail
Memorandum and Order (221 F.Supp.2d 156)
PC-MA-0039-0002.pdf | WESTLAW| LEXIS | External Link | Detail
Source: Google Scholar
Memorandum and Order [ECF# 321]
show all people docs
Judges Lipez, Kermit Victor (First Circuit) show/hide docs
PC-MA-0039-0003
Lynch, Sandra Lea (First Circuit) show/hide docs
Selya, Bruce Marshall (FISCR, D.R.I., First Circuit) show/hide docs
Wolf, Mark Lawrence (D. Mass.) show/hide docs
PC-MA-0039-0001 | PC-MA-0039-0002 | PC-MA-0039-0004 | PC-MA-0039-9000
Plaintiff's Lawyers Chiasson-Aronoff, Jen Chase (Massachusetts) show/hide docs
Cohen, Frances S. (Massachusetts) show/hide docs
Kosilek, Michelle (Massachusetts) show/hide docs
Pyle, Jeffrey Jackson (Massachusetts) show/hide docs
Defendant's Lawyers Beauregard, Philip N. (Massachusetts) show/hide docs
Franco, Michael (Massachusetts) show/hide docs
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I am so PROUD of my father, he was interviewed via translator in the Washington Times Most recently, a dozen Cherokee speakers spent last year translating 150,000 modern English terms into Cherokee so people can use the language on Microsoft Office web apps including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote..
By Kristi Eaton – Associated Press – Friday, April 4, 2014
BRIGGS, Okla. (AP) – Mack Vann sits in the living room of his single-story home in rural Oklahoma with the television blaring, a news reporter giving details of the latest grisly crime to hit the state.
But the 83-year-old Vann doesn’t understand most of what the reporter is saying. Vann, who speaks only Cherokee, instead focuses on the visitors to his home, many of whom know only a few simple words of Vann’s Native American language.
“Osiyo,” he says to his new visitors, the Cherokee word for hello.
Vann is part of a fading population of American Indians in Oklahoma who speak only their Native American language, no English. Though Oklahoma was once known as Indian Country and ranks second in the nation in the number of Native American residents, many of the tribal languages are endangered or vulnerable to falling out of use.
That’s what makes Native Americans such as Vann, one of an estimated 50 Cherokee monolingual speakers in eastern Oklahoma, all the more interesting: They have somehow preserved their cultural identity through decades of pressure to assimilate, and now tribal language departments are turning to them to help keep their languages alive for future generations.
“They’re living treasures,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker says, “and it’s folks like him we bring in to pick their brains and say, ‘OK, what do you call the white oak tree? What do you call the other medicine trees? What’s the Cherokee word for them? What’s the old word for them?’ And the more we can pick their brains and the more the translation department can put it down, the more we can put it in not only hardback but on the web or a platform (and) the closer we’re coming to not even losing words.”
The Cherokee Nation has been at the forefront of language preservation. In the last few years, the tribe’s language department has worked to get the language added to Microsoft Windows 8, Google Gmail, and Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Most recently, a dozen Cherokee speakers spent last year translating 150,000 modern English terms into Cherokee so people can use the language on Microsoft Office web apps including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
To make all that happen, the tribe draws upon the knowledge of speakers such as Vann, a descendant of Andrew Ross, the brother of Cherokee Chief John Ross, who led thousands of Cherokees to Indian Country during their forced removal from the southeastern United States.
Vann, who grew up in Greasy, a predominantly Native American community in eastern Oklahoma, learned some English in school but dropped out after the fourth grade to help with the family farm and slowly lost the ability to speak it.
Now, he says, he’s too old to learn it. Instead, friends and family help him translate when he needs help. Vann, whose wife died several years ago, worked at the Cherokee Heritage Center for years and continues to sell handmade bows.
Speaking through a translator in the backyard of his Briggs home, Vann, a member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, says he would like more children to learn to speak Cherokee. He speaks with two young children on a regular basis in hopes of helping them learn the language.
“Everybody is just changing their ways and not really concentrating on our culture,” he says.
And as more tribal members like Vann age, it becomes increasingly important for tribes to preserve their vast cultural knowledge.
In January, the Chickasaw Nation, another large Oklahoma tribe, announced the passing of their last monolingual speaker, Emily Johnson Dickerson, 93. Dickerson, who died at her Ada home in late December, was among only about 70 fluent Chickasaw speakers.
“Emily Dickerson was a treasured elder who held the Chickasaw language and ways of life close to her heart,” Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby said in a statement. “This is a sad day for all Chickasaw people because we have lost a cherished member of our Chickasaw family and an unequalled source of knowledge about our language and culture.”
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Trust calls on Govt to suspend its plans for a new car park facility at Grand Parade
The Gibraltar Heritage Trust has criticised the manner in which the Government announced plans for a new car park facility in Grand Parade as well as the project itself, drawing immediate flak from the Government. The Trust calls on Government to suspend the further progression of “this above ground scheme” in the meantime and look to other options.”
The reaction from the Trust comes after the Government last week unveiled plans for a 900-space car park in Grand Parade, which the Heritage Trust said shows a “total disregard” for the historical value of the site and the meaning it has to different sectors of our community.
According to the GHT the scheme as proposed will “obliterate” a large open space which has heritage significance as a parade ground and site of military and community focus and activities as well as its importance in the setting of the Gibraltar Botanical Gardens- an important green area and amenity for Gibraltar.
Additionally, the Trust advised that the area was used as a burial ground well into the 18th Century so any development of the site would therefore need to factor in an archaeological excavation.
The GHT statement said the Trust was frustrated at what it term as “the inconsistencies where consultation is forthcoming and in the spirit of constructive criticism with the Government in some cases being robust in its defence of heritage principles, such as the MOD Gatehouse, and then in other instances rides roughshod over its own rules - Ince’s Hall street art - and procedures”.
“We hope that we will be proved wrong and proper procedures and sense will prevail in this case.”
The Trust further flagged how Grand Parade was proposed for listing within the schedules of the forthcoming Heritage Act, “a document which we are constantly told will be published ‘imminently’”.
In response the Government said it deeply regrets the tone of the statement issued by the Heritage Trust regarding the new development.
“It goes without saying that the Trust is free to take whatever position it wishes on this and on any issue,” the Government said in a statement.
No. 6 Convent Place added that the Trust have given the “unfortunate impression” that in recent times they are quicker off the mark to be critical of the Government than they are to acknowledge positive progress.
“There is clearly a need to maintain a right and proper balance between the two positions.”
The Government also claimed that it is not the first Government to propose the creation of more car parking spaces at Grand Parade.
“This is a policy in common between different administrations,” it said.
“The reason for this is that a Government has to balance conservation and development and sometimes the scales will tilt towards one side and on other occasions the balance will tilt to the other.”
The Trust added that it is not opposed to the provision of more parking in this area and that there will be significant public support for the provision of such.
But, it said, such large-scale schemes should come about as a result of wide scale consultation and with reference to a holistic planning scheme.
This scheme in particular has not been alluded to in any manifesto nor more importantly in the recently launched Sustainable Transport and Traffic Plan, the GHT said.
“Neither has there been any consultation of the Trust as a Statutory Consultee to the DPC prior to the announcement of the scheme.”
The Trust said the announcement of this scheme in this way shows a “total disregard” for the historical value of the site and the meaning it has to different sectors of the community.
“Why can’t the car park and proposed units be built below ground – subject to Environmental Impact Assessment findings and recommendations – and the open space be retained, landscaped, improved and kept as an open area?”
“Whilst the Trust sees the case for parking provision in this part of Gibraltar, it remains shocked at the manner with which the scheme was launched leading with the line that ‘the number of parking spaces at Grand Parade are set to double’.”
In doing so the Trust believes that the Government is “devaluing” the Planning System and processes it has worked so hard to bring to the public attention and the input of the professionals, NGOs and community members who work to improve standards and feed into the system on a daily basis.
GOVERNMENT RESPONDS
As it hit back at the Heritage Trust the Government said the tone of their statement is “particularly unfair” citing how it has “invested hugely in heritage projects all over Gibraltar”.
“This includes the refurbishment and beautification of Wellington Front, the continuing progress at the Northern Defence, which were abandoned and neglected for years on end, the restoration and relocation of the MOD gatehouse, and other heritage-sensitive projects elsewhere.”
“This will continue,” No. 6 said.
“However, what the Trust cannot pretend is that the whole of Gibraltar should come to a standstill and that this balance should always be tilted in their favour.”
The Government said it was unfortunate that the language used in the statement issued by the Trust has not been more measured, more moderate or more restrained.
“It does not reflect the spirit of constructive cooperation that has always existed between us.”
The Trust have taken objection both to the low-rise scheme itself and also to the manner in which the scheme was announced.
“They have got it completely wrong and have unfairly jumped to the wrong conclusions,” No. 6 said.
“Firstly, the Government announcement itself declared clearly in black and white that the “tabling of this project before the Development and Planning Commission will mark the formal start of the consultation process with all interested parties.”
“Therefore the comments made by the Trust in relation to the manner in which the scheme was launched, which made up the bulk of their criticism, is in truth totally without foundation.”
Secondly, the Government reiterated that Grand Parade is a car park and it is proposed that it will continue as a car park.
The fact that it was once used as a parade ground does not mean that it is still used as a parade ground, No. 6 said.
“This use ceased a long time ago.”
“Indeed, Casemates was once an army barracks, the leisure centre was a bastion, Lathbury Barracks was a barracks and a parade ground and the University is also housed in former military facilities.”
“It would have been practically impossible to develop these areas if successive Governments had adopted a fundamentalist approach to Heritage matters.”
“In fact, the construction of a low-rise car park in Grand Parade, which does include an underground level, should not be controversial precisely because it is an open area and there are no buildings of heritage significance.”
The Government added that it has been shocked by the tone and the language contained in the statement issued by the Heritage Trust which is both “unfair and uncalled for”.
“The Government considers that in this day and age it has a duty to deal with the historical parking problem faced by the residents of Alameda Estate, of Trafalgar House, and particularly those who live in the southern end of Main Street and the southern Upper Town precisely as identified in the STTP.”
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Creating social harmony through song
Songs / Stories
SONGWRITING SESSIONS BRING JOY TO INTERACTION DROP-IN
Citizen Songwriters have partnered with Action Foundation’s InterAction Drop-in at West End Library, Benwell, and Action Foundation’s Katie Bryson wrote this lovely piece! Katie writes…
“Music and singing are well known for boosting your well-being, so it’s been wonderful to welcome Sam and Wakanda from Citizen Songwriters to the InterAction Drop-in for a series of three songwriting workshops.
“Local musician Sam Slatcher runs Citizen Songwriters, a social enterprise which grew out of a refugee volunteer project that he was part of in Durham three years ago. He goes into communities, meeting people from different backgrounds and creates a space through music where people can feel like they can come together.
“It’s often not just refugees, but local residents, volunteers and people using the library – completely cross community.
Creating a safe space
“Sam told us: “We’ve had three sessions with InterAction, and each one has been very different, we’ve had a real mix of people every time – there’s always been about 6-12 people. A mix of gender and backgrounds.”
“The idea was to create a safe space in the first session with ice breaker activities, sparking conversation and allowing people to share, then in week two we encouraged people to share how they feel and what it’s like to live in Newcastle. And the third session was about creating something out of that we could reflect in the music.”
“In the final session we had the most musical of all our participants – we had someone who played the guitar, someone who could play piano, so I was able to get them to play the chords which freed me up to be able to interact and try and draw out people’s experiences.”
An angel in your life?
“It’s lovely because people also stay longer so they can get the chance to play the piano and guitar, and if nothing else it gives people an excuse to have a bit of fun and get access to instruments and be reminded of music from home.”
Sam said it’s important to show that there are people in the community who will listen and support the refugees and asylum seekers. Countering some of the narratives out there that people are unwelcome and unwanted when it’s actually the opposite.
This was palpable when the group were asked to share an example of when someone had showed them kindness. The Angel of the North was the inspiration – who is the angel in your life? Everyone wrote down their experiences and then Sam and Wakanda worked it all up into the lyrics of a totally original song.
In no time at all there was a simple melody and chord structure and we were all singing along to ‘An Angel in my Life’ – genuinely heart-warming stuff. Sam and Wakanda both have an infectious energy that brings the group together and the song to life all at once.
Freestyling musicians
At the end there was the chance for the group to just freestyle with the instruments if they fancied a play. A Mother and her 13-year-old daughter had come along – who turned out to be a pretty confident singer and keyboard player.
InterAction volunteer Amir wowed us all with his incredible classical guitar playing and said that it was lovely to get the chance to play as he’s still waiting for his guitar to be sent over from Iran.
Then finally Eli demonstrated his awesome rapping skills – banging out lyrics about his life as a refugee in Newcastle – just incredible to see everyone feeling comfortable enough to express themselves like that.
Sam is going to keep in touch with the people who have come along to the workshops and encouraging them to join in with his Stories of Sanctuaries project which brings all the musicians from the different workshops together to share their stories.
Article written by Katie Bryson, Action Foundation. The original article can be found here.
©2020 by Citizen Songwriters
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City of Noblesville, Indiana
The official government website for Noblesville, Indiana
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You are here: Home // Document Center// City Partners with J.C. Hart, Republic to Propose $47M Transformational Riverfront Mixed-Use Development
City Partners with J.C. Hart, Republic to Propose $47M Transformational Riverfront Mixed-Use Development
Mayor Jensen announced his support today for an exciting new project that would add residential living and commercial space to the downtown area along the White River.
J.C. Hart and Republic Development are proposing a $47.9 million mixed-use development along the east side of the White River in the 3.4-acre area that currently houses the Hamilton County Employee Parking Lot and McMillan's Auto Care. The large majority of project funding is from private capital, along with specified tax increment that is generated by the new development. City taxpayers and property tax funds are not pledged or at risk with the project.
“Our vision for this development is to provide diverse housing options across a wide demographic to both attract millennials, working professionals, and folks who are looking to downsize,” said John Hart, president of J.C. Hart. “We are partnering with Republic Development, who we have worked with on six other projects together, to create a unique residential and retail space that fits well into Noblesville’s one-of-a-kind downtown area.”
The development plans include four stories with the ground floor dedicated to 5,000 square feet of retail space. The residential portion will consist of approximately 219 high-end rental apartments with a price range of approximately $850 to $2,000 per unit.
“One of our city’s great assets is the White River and this project will bring people to the heart of our city and increase the vibrancy along the river,” Jensen said. “Investing in our downtown livability and quality of life attracts more talent to our community, which ultimately drives our economic development.”
Jensen added that the project includes roughly 295 garage parking spaces and 32 on-street parking spaces. This project, which brings in more diverse retail and housing options to Noblesville, supports Jensen’s policy pillars of economic development and downtown enhancement. The project also includes an outdoor sports and activity area, greenspace along the river, a pool and clubhouse, and many other modern amenities.
The project is a public-private partnership between the City of Noblesville and J.C. Hart and Republic Development, two firms that have a combined total of 85 years’ worth of business and development experience.
With this partnership, the city has now announced $135M in public-private partnerships in the first 11 months of the Jensen administration.
The project plan and economic development agreement will be presented to the Noblesville Common Council at an upcoming public meeting.
The development team plans on breaking ground on the project in late spring or early summer 2021, if approved.
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© 2021 City of Noblesville, Indiana
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Community Steeple Our Communication Starts Here
You are here: Home Politics There is a New Sheriff in Town at the Securities Exchange Commission
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There is a New Sheriff in Town at the Securities Exchange Commission
Published: Friday, 09 August 2013 22:48
Written by Roger Caldwell
The Security Exchange Commission is a federal regulatory agency that is designed to protect investors and eliminate insider trading, accounting fraud, and misleading information about securities. Stock market trading is a risky business and the SEC keeps things fair and transparent for large and small investors. Each year the SEC brings hundreds of civil enforcement actions against individuals and companies for violation of the securities laws.
President Obama nominated a tough former prosecutor Mary Jo White to head the Securities Exchange Commission. The choice drew praise from both Wall Street and reform advocates, and help clean up some of the insider trading in the markets. In 2009, Bernie Madoff was convicted of a 50 billion Ponzi scheme, and the SEC was obviously not doing its job.
The president is expecting a swift confirmation and it is expected Mrs. White will go after white collar crime aggressively. The stock market is experiencing record breaking profits and I doubt if the broken system can be fixed. White collar crime is considered doing business, and when someone or a business is caught dirty, behind closed doors the problem is straightened out with a fine.
Mary Jo White is part of the revolving door, where former SEC enforcement officials are “going to work for the very same firm they used to police,” says Bruce Kudson. In Mrs. White’s case, she is now going to police firms that she used to represent, and this could create some uncomfortable questions during her interview for confirmation.
Mrs. White represented HCA Holding, a healthcare provider in an insider trading investigation, and I would have to question if she could hold their feet to the fire if they had broken a rule. She also represented JPMorgan Chase & Company in major matters related to the financial crisis, and instead of being indicted for fraud; they were given funding to help clean up their financial shenanigans. It is obvious that she is a Wall Street friend, and she will look the other way when a major player breaks a law.
“We need to keep going after irresponsible behavior in the financial industry so that taxpayers don’t pay the price. I am absolutely confident that Mary Jo has the experience and the resolve to tackle these complex issues and to protect the American people in a way that is smart and in a way that is fair,” Obama said at a White House event to announce Whites’ nomination.
Mrs. White has also represented former Bank of America CEO Lewis over a civil lawsuit in connection with Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch and the revolving door keeps turning, and it looks like everyone is friends. I am sure that Mary Jo White is competent and capable, but I wonder how tough she will be on her friends.
It is too early to pass judgment on the SEC, but it was obvious that at times they have looked the other way on large successful companies breaking the law. In the last weeks, Steven Cohen’s company SAC Capital Advisors is being investigated for insider trading, and eight former employees have been charged with insider trading. All have pleaded guilty except two, but Mr. Cohen was not been charged.
It will be interesting to see if Mr. Cohen is charged with insider trading, because he owns one of the most successful hedge fund in the world. There is a new sheriff in town and she must be consistent, when there is wrongdoing and breaking the law. Time will tell if Mary Jo White has the courage and integrity to make fundamental changes in the operation of the SEC.
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Indiana could soon change way it draws reps' districts
Zach Osowski
Zach.Osowski@courierpress.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana lawmakers will decide next year if an independent commission should be in charge of redrawing the state's district maps after a study committee recommended the legislation be introduced.
Indiana could become the next state to move from having lawmakers redraw their own House, Senate and Congressional district boundaries to simply approving the new boundaries and letting a nine-member commission draw the lines. A special committee tasked with looking at redistricting recommended legislation move forward to establish the commission after two years of examining the issue.
The majority of the Interim Study Committee on Redistricting approved a draft calling for a nine-person redistricting commission. That commission would be responsible for holding hearings, collecting population data and drawing new districts every 10 years. The map designed by the commission would then be given to the Indiana General Assembly, which would simply vote yes or no on the new districts.
This is a change from the current method. The party in control of Indiana's General Assembly currently has a big say in what districts look like. Opponents of the current process say having parties in charge leads to gerrymandering, noncompetitive districts and low voter turnout.
"We need restore confidence that the system works," said Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson. "And this is a step in the right direction."
The recommendation means the proposed draft becomes a bill once the 2017 legislative session starts. If the bill passes, the commission would be set up in time to redraw maps following the 2020 Census.
Four party leaders -- the speaker and minority leader of the Indiana House and the president pro tempore and minority leader of the Indiana Senate -- would each get to pick one commission member. Those four committee members would then select four more members from a pool of 12 possible candidates. That pool of 12 would be comprised of three appointees from the chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court and three appointees from the presidents of Indiana University, Purdue University and Ball State University. Once the eight members are selected, they will pick a commission chair as the ninth member.
Not everyone on the committee was in favor of the approval. Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, said he hasn't been convinced there is a problem with the way the state currently draws boundaries.
"The higher level of concern that I have had all along, and it remains unanswered, is the question of 'What problem are we trying to solve?'" Hershman said.
Hershman said to just assume drawing boundaries ensures political victory is wrong and said races have more to do with candidates than boundaries. He, Sen. Pat Miller, R-Indianapolis, and Beverly Gard, a former Republican state senator, were the only committee members to vote against the proposed draft and the committee report. All three took issue with the fact that the committee passed amendments handed out the morning of the committee meeting and felt the proposed draft hadn't been properly vetted.
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High-tech session for Cowboys
Fri 19 Jun 2015, 05:11 PM
The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys have taken advantage of a session at one of the world’s leading sports science institutions on their trip to Canberra, ahead of Saturday's round 15 NRL clash with the Raiders.
The second-placed Cowboys spent Thursday afternoon at the Australian Institute of Sport's recovery centre after their long haul from Townsville, with unscheduled flight delays pushing back their arrival time in the nation’s capital by about 90 minutes.
Upon arriving at the Institute, the 22-strong Cowboys contingent – including returning State of Origin players Johnathan Thurston, Matt Scott, Michael Morgan and James Tamou – were put to work at the high-tech indoor running track, which is fitted with state-of-the-art motion capture technology along its length – followed by an icy dip in the recovery pools.
Cowboys head coach Paul Green said the club was grateful to the Institute for making the session possible, adding that proper recovery procedures were vital to his team being able to put out their best performances on the field.
“Getting to Canberra from Townsville is not easy, so access to these facilities is invaluable to us,” Green said.
The Cowboys have one more training session in Canberra before Saturday afternoon’s game.
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← Goffstown New Hampshire’s Actor and Writer: Richard Clark Backus (1945-Still Living)
No Goot! Its a New Hampshire Coot! →
New Hampshire: Celebrating the Manchester Public Library’s Centennial
1940-1950 photograph of the Manchester City Library, photo by Pete Caikauskas Sr.
Celebrations are in order for Manchester New Hampshire’s Public Library. The current building, originally called the Carpenter Memorial Library, is 100 years old on November 18, 2014 (using the dedication day of November 18, 1914 when 5,000 people assembled for its opening). However, the library history of Manchester goes much further back, when the area was part of the small village of Derryfield. Although the current library edifice is wonderful even today, an important part of its history would have to include people and events that appear earlier on Manchester’s timeline.
If we count back to the earliest library in old Manchester in 1795, we should now be celebrating 219 years; and if to the opening of the Manchester Athenaeum in 1844, then 170 years. Both of these early libraries were private, owned by groups of Manchester area people who pooled money and resources with subscription rights to use them. In addition to the libraries highlighted in this article, there were several other ‘reading rooms,’ in the city, hosted by a variety of groups and mostly closed except to members.
If we count back to the year that Manchester’s library first became public, then September 6, 1854 should be celebrated with an anniversary of 160 years. The Library is now already mid-way through its year of celebration, with a Library Foundation Gala on September 23rd, and an Open House on October 18th from 5-7 PM. The Manchester Historic Association has a holiday ornament depicting the library planned for sale.
— THE DERRYFIELD SOCIAL LIBRARY (1795-1833) —
Mr. Potter’s History of Manchester (NH) states that “in the latter part of 1795 the project of a social library was started by the inhabitants of Derryfield and vicinity.” An article entitled, The Derryfield Social Library, in Volume I, Part One of Manchester Historic Association Collections (1897), offers a more detailed early history, noting that this library was “owned” by its proprietors, each owning a share, so to speak, and paying an annual fee. Proprietors were able to sell their “right” to other persons. They bought their first books on January 4, 1796 “of E. Larken of Boston, at a cost of $32.94.” These books would have been mostly religious in nature, as were more of the early libraries, however mention is made of various histories, gazetteers, and other books being purchased. The library appears to have been kept at the homes of the Librarian-Clerk, or other convenient home of a member. An original group of forty-six incorporated in December 1799, Daniel Davis and Samuel P. Kidder being their spokesmen, having seventy-eight volumes in the library at the time. The list below includes all known members, and is valuable because it is also an indicator of some of the literate and more affluent members living in the area at this early time.
Although some histories state this group was comprised of “gentlemen,” that is not completely true. Though rare, a few women were early members of this social library. The list of all known social library members included: David Adams, John Adams, Robert Adams, Jesse Baker, Phineas Baley, Lieut. Hugh Boys (Bois), Jacob Chase, Nathaniel Connant, Ann E. Couch, Daniel Davis, Moses Davis, Samuel Davis, David Dickey, John Dickey, Capt. John Dwinell, Peter Emerson, Joseph Farmer Jr., William Farmer [transferd to John Gambel], David Flint, John Frye [sold his right to Aaron Seavey], John Gambel, John Goffe, James Griffin, Lieut. Daniel Hall, John Hall, Robert Hall, Samuel Hall, Philip Haseltine, Asa Haseltine [sold rights to his son Asa Haseltine], Capt. Moses Heseltine [sold his right to ‘leftenant hugh Boys of Manchester], Peter Hills, Isaac Huse, Samuel Jackson, Nathan Johnson, Samuel P. Kidder, Benjamin Leslie, George McAlester, Samuel McAllester, John G. Moor [sold interest to Moses Davis], Capt. Joseph Moor, Nathaniel Moor, Samuel Moore, The Widow Moor, Eliza A. Nutt, James Nutt, James Parker, John Perham, William Perham, Phineas Pettingill, Stephen Pingry, John Proctor, Elisha Quimby, John Ray, Lieut. Job Rowell, Reuben Sawyer, Aaron Seavey, Benj. F. Stark, John Stark, Widow Eliza (Elizabeth) Stark, Thomas Stickney, Ephraim Stevens, Ephraim Stevens Jr., Thomas Stickney, John Tufts, William Walker, Lieut. Amos Weston, David Webster, Israel Webster, Ephraim White, Ruben White, Stephen Worthley, David Young, and Jonathan Young.
LIBRARIANS OF THE DERRYFIELD SOCIAL LIBRARY:
Daniel Davis (1796-1797, 1799, 1801); William Farmer (1798, 1800); Samuel P. Kidder (1802); Samuel Moor Jr. (1802, 1805); Philip Heseltine Jr. (1803); Benjamin Leslie (1804); John G. Moor (1806); Mrs. Farmer (1807-1808); Amos Weston (1808-1810); Isaac Huse (1811); Moses Haseltine (1811); Robert Perham (1813-1814); John Dwinnell (1814-1821, 1823-1826); Samuel Jackson (1821; 1827); S.P. Kidder (Dec 1821-1822); Daniel Hall (December 11, 1826).
One has to remember how difficult life was in Derryfield at this time, and by 1833 the library is believed to have ended. According to William H. Huse in a paper read before the Manchester Historic Association in 1896, “in 1833 no annual meeting was held and the library was at an end, each proprietor appropriating such books as he chose.”
— MANCHESTER ATHENAEUM (1844-1854) —
No. 6, Union Building until 1854 when it was moved to Patten’s Block
(The Union Building was located at 898 Elm St. between Market and Merrimack Streets)
The Manchester Athenaeum organized Feb 19, 1844. It transferred its property to the city in 1854, and a public free library was thus founded with 3000 books.
The 1848 Manchester City Directory, page 168 shows the following advertisement:
MANCHESTER ATHENAEUM
Organized February 19th, 1844. Annual meeting, 1st Monday in May.
Situated No. 6, Union Building.
J.A. Burnham, President
Rev. W.H. Moore, Vice President
Directors: S.D. Bell, David Gillis, Daniel Clark
Treasurer: H. Foster
Secretary W.C. Clarke
Librarian: D. Hill
Persons can obtain shares at $14 each. Young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one, may be admitted to the privileges of the reading-room and library, by payment to the treasurer of one half the value of a share. Admission to the library and reading-room, $3 per year. The library contains 2200 volumes.
LIBRARIANS OF THE MANCHESTER ATHENAEUM:
1846-1852: David Hill (per the Manchester directories for those years)
1854: Dr. Sylvanus Bunton
— MANCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY —
1854-1871 No. 3, Patten’s Block, Elm Street
(Patten’s Block was 922-938 Elm Street, between Stark and Market Streets)
1871-1914 Franklin and Market Street
1914-today 405 Pine Street [see photograph at top]
1906 postcard of the Manchester City Library on Franklin Street–outside of building and inside reading room.
The Manchester City Library web site states that “In his inaugural address that year [1854] Mayor elect Frederick Smyth proposed the establishment of a free public library for all of Manchester’s citizens.” This was a great step away from the previously membership-based libraries to a library and reading room open to the public. In April of 1854 a ‘City Library’ is first mentioned in the Town of Manchester reports, and was appropriated $1,000. The Manchester Athenaeum book collection was officially transferred to the city on September 6, 1854. The library was still located in Patten’s block [Elm Street between Stark and Market Streets] when a fire broke out on February 5, 1856 that destroyed the building and almost all of the library’s book collection. [Besides the library, the fire destroyed three newspaper offices, at a lost of $75,000]. What books remained were taken to Smyth’s Block and from there to rooms in the Merchants’ Exchange.
Mrs. Eleanora Blood Carpenter, daughter of Aretas Blood, and wife of Frank P. Carpenter. The Manchester City (NH) Library was built in her memory.
In July of 1871, a city library building which cost $30,000, and located at Franklin and Market Streets, opened. The lot was given to the City by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. By the early 1900s, with the growth of the city, and an increased need for the library, even this building had been outgrown.
Elenora Blood Carpenter died 30 January, 1910. Her husband, Frank P. Carpenter who was the president of Amoskeag Paper Mill, and also a banker, offered to build a library building in her memory. The booklet printed about the dedication exercises states: “He secured the tract of land lying between Amherst and Concord Streets and fronting Pine Street, 300 feet facing the Concord Square [now called Victory Park] and extending to the rear 160 feet. On this site were some of the first houses erected in the early days of Manchester. These, together with others then standing, were removed to make way for the proposed Carpenter Memorial Library and the land thus cleared provided an ideal site.”
Frank P. Carpenter, son of David M. & Mary (Perkins) Carpenter. Merchant, manufacturer and Banker, born Chichester NH, resided Manchester NH.
The plans for the building were prepared by Mr. Edward L. Tilton of New York, assisted by Mr. Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb of Honolulu. They called for the erection of a building 150 feet long and 90 feet deep, constructed of white Vermont marble fronting on Pine Street. The foundation was prepared by the R.H. Howes Company of New York [a construction company owned by Ralph Holt Howes of New York City], and the contract for the construction of the building was let to F.G. Fearon & Co. of New York. The Renaissance style was adopted for the building, with Concord granite, and Botticino and Lastavena marble used in the construction. ‘The building was fire-proof with reinforced concrete floors and roof….The basement included a lecture room….The building is heated by a system of direct steam…The exterior is faced with white marble from the top of the cornice to the Concord granite base and steps. The roof is covered with Spanish shaped tile of a soft grey green tone….The marble key-block over the arched entrance represents an owl which, as Athena’s bird, symbolized Learning….Within its claws are branches of native oak and pine which may be interpreted as “Strength and Truth” grasped by “Learning,” a fitting key-block for the arch and good key to open the treasures within the building.’ [read more details here]
“Ground was broken in September 1912, and the corner-stone (a five-ton block of Concord granite, inscribed “A.D. 1913.”) was laid June 11, 1913. In its copper receptacle in the stone were placed records, newspapers of the day, coins, cloth of Manchester manufacture, and articles of historical interest and value.”
The dedication of the new Carpenter Memorial Library occurred on Wednesday afternoon, November 18, 1914, at two-thirty. Among the many speakers were Governor of New Hampshire Samuel D. Felker; City of Manchester Mayor Charles C. Hayes, and Library Chairman Edwin F. Jones. The Historical Society was “allowed for the present the use of two rooms for the security of their treasures.” The bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, by John Rogers, originally sat inside the library, but it was felt that it took up too much room. It was moved to in front of (the Burns Building at) Central High School.
Carpenter Memorial Library main desk, circa 1914.
LIBRARIANS OF MANCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY:
– Francis Brown Eaton (1825-1904) was the librarian from 1854 until October 1863, when he resigned.
– Marshall P. Hall was appointed in October 1863 and served until June 1865.
– Benjamin F. Stanton was librarian from June 1865 to April 1866 [He was the son of Rev. Charles F. & Betsey Stanton, and a printer and publisher of “Manchester Republican” located at 85 Merrimack Exchange in Manchester NH]
– Charles H. Marshall was librarian starting April 1866 to July 1, 1877. (He wrote the History of Candia NH in 1852)
– Mrs. Elizabeth H. “Lizzie” Davis was librarian from July 1, 1877 to June 30, 1878
– Mrs. Mary Jane (Adams) Buncher, elected librarian June 30, 1878. Served 15 years to 1893. [SEE additional biography below]
1930 Photograph of the Manchester City Library Staff. Group portrait of the Manchester City Library Staff showing twenty three women on the steps of the library. 1st row Addil Fitch; Miss Briggs; Winifred Woodward; Winifred Tattle?; Peggy Manchester. 2nd row— Miss Garrin; Marcella Cronin; Bea Fisher; Arlene Thorp; Jennie Lindquist; Lucille Chandonnet; Mary McClure. 3rd row— Emily Gile; Sue Fredrick. 4th row— Clay Constantine; Mary Russell; Miss Winchell, Librarian; and Miss Clement. MHA Photoprint Collection. Used with Permission.
– Miss Kate Emery Sanborn, elected librarian February 5, 1894. Left in 1897 following her marriage to another librarian, Gardner M. Jones
– Miss Florence Elizabeth Whitcher was librarian for 3 years from 1898-1901.
– Miss Flora Mabel Winchell, 35 years from December 1901-1936 [the Winchell Room of the Library is named for her].
– Miss Caroline Belle “Carrie” Clement from 1937-1955
– William T. Weitzel 1956-1958
– David Dorman 1959-1965
– John J. Hallahan, 25 years Library Director from 1966-1991
– John A. Brisbin, Library Director from October 1991 to January 2006
– Denise van Zanten, Library Director 2006-today
*****ADDITIONAL READING******
Carpenter Memorial Library: The Gift of Frank P. Carpenter to the City of Manchester, New Hampshire, a Memorial to His Wife, Elenora Blood Carpenter. Dedication Exercises, November 18, 1914 (Google eBook)
Life From The Roots: Manchester City Library (a wonderful blog article by Barbara Poole about the current Manchester City Library with many photographs added 19 Dec 2018).
— Mrs. Mary Jane (Adams) Buncher —
Mrs. M.J. Buncher, likeness from “Our Army Nurses. Interesting Sketches, Addresses, and Photographs of Nearly One Hundred of the Noble Women Who Served in Hospitals and on Battlefields During Our Civil War,” page 330. She served as librarian of the Manchester City Library from 1879-1839.
While researching this story, it became evident that Mrs. Mary Jane (Adams) Buncher was a woman of note, beyond her accomplishments at the Manchester City Library. Mary Jane Adams, daughter of Phineas & Sarah W. (Barber) Adams, was born about 1823 in Waltham MA and died 10 July 1895 in Nashua NH. She married 23 Nov 1848 at Manchester NH to James Buncher. He was born in Lowell MA.
Webster U.S. Hospital aka Webster General Hospital had been created in Manchester, New Hampshire, as a place to treat the ill and injured of the Civil War. The hospital was located on the fair grounds on Elm Street north of Webster Street. According to “The Granite States of the United States, Volume I, by James Duane Squires, Ph.D., “this was the only war-time U.S. Hospital to be established in the Granite State.” Mrs. Buncher was among the nurses who worked there.
Webster General Hospital, Manchester NH from Images from the History of Medicine (NLM)
In “Our Army Nurses, Interesting Sketches, Addresses, and Photographs, of Nearly One Hundred of the Noble Women who Served in Hospitals and on Battlefields During Our Civil War,” compiled by Mary A. Gardner Holland, 1895; page 330 to 334, Mrs. Buncher writes: “AGREEABLE to your request, I will try to give some account of the hospital to which I was called, and in which I served as a nurse during the last year of the war; or, from October, 1864, to September, 1865. In the fall of 1864 the hospitals along the frontier had become overcrowded, and a question arose in the minds of the public-spirited men of our State in regard to providing a hospital for the sick and wounded of our own State. Very little time was lost before a well- equipped United States building was established in Manchester, NH, receiving the name, “Webster Hospital.” It would accommodate six hundred patients, and during the time of its existence, sixteen hundred were admitted and cared for; quite a number from Maine and Massachusetts, as well as from New Hampshire. The working force consisted of Col. Alex. T. Watson, surgeon in charge, and seven or eight assistant surgeons, four medical cadets, and four stewards, five nurses, and an extra woman of all work. Four convalescent soldiers were detailed to render such assistance as we needed. Our assigned work was in the Extra Diet Department, and we were appointed by Miss Dix [i.e., Dorothea Dix]. The nurses were Mrs. Eliza P. Stone (deceased) and Mrs. Mary J. Buncher, of Manchester (sisters); Miss Mary J. Knowles, Miss Elizabeth J. Dudley, and Mrs. Moore (deceased). The responsibility rested more especially upon my sister and myself; the duties devolving upon us included the supervision of preparing the diet and stimulants for all the sick and wounded needing special care, visiting them, and administering such comfort and cheer as we could. The other nurses had their full share of the labor of love in preparing all the little delicacies for the sufferers, from whom we all received ample compensation in their grateful expressions of thankfulness. We saw much suffering bravely borne. Thirteen deaths occurred from various causes, — the first five of as many different nationalities. Those were very solemn occasions. Another sad scene came when the convalescents were sufficiently strong to return to the front; also, when more wounded ones were brought to us. But there were many pleasant things connected with our hospital life. The people of the city and state were deeply interested in the work. The pastors took turns in coming each Sabbath. The large “mess hall” was arranged for an audience room, and we had excellent discourses delivered there. The singing by the soldier boys was fine. Colonel Watson permitted them to have many kinds of amusement, in which all who were able participated. They frequently gave concerts of no mean order, to which many were invited from the city. The young ladies also gave a fair, and the proceeds were devoted to the purchase of a nice little library, which gave the men a good selection of books, and they were greatly appreciated. Colonel Watson always maintained the same strict discipline as was observed at the front: only special days were allowed for visiting; no one could enter or leave the grounds without a pass; and after the evening guard went on duty we could not go into any of the wards without giving the countersign. Gifts of all kinds sent to the sick ones were delivered at our quarters, to be dispensed according to the judgment of their physicians. Thanksgiving Day, I remember, a bountiful provision was made for all those who were able to partake. That year at Webster Hospital will ever remain a bright spot in memory, notwithstanding the many painful scenes we were called upon to witness; and I rejoice that I was permitted to share in the services rendered by so many noble-hearted women to the brave and heroic sufferers, the defenders of our beloved country. I possess many tokens of kind remembrance from those who were under our care,—letters, photographs, etc.,— and as the years go by, they seem more and more valuable. Quite a number of those who were then young men, now occupy very responsible positions. I have an excellent photograph of the hospital and grounds, taken before the buildings were removed. It was presented to my sister and myself by Colonel Watson, and I prize it very highly. My dear sister, Mrs. Eliza P. Stone, died seven years ago. Her experience at the hospital was identical with my own; but her sweet Christian character, and strong faith, impressed itself upon the hearts of many suffering and dying ones, and gave consolation to many in their hours of trial.”
–Mrs. M. J. Buncher.
182 Main Street, Nashua, N. H.
This entry was posted in History, New Hampshire Men, New Hampshire Women, Structures and tagged Adams, Anthenaeum, Aretas, Blood, Buncher, Carpenter, city, Civil War, Derryfield, Elenora, Frank, Frank P., Franklin Street, librarian, librarians, Library, Manchester, Manchester City Library, Manchester library, Manchester NH, Manchester Public Library, Mary Jane, memorial, New Hampshire, NH, nurse, Patten's Block, Pine Street, printer, public, social, Union Building, Victory Park. Bookmark the permalink.
1 Response to New Hampshire: Celebrating the Manchester Public Library’s Centennial
Sally Ayer Rossetti says:
I spent many many happy hours in the city library. I see my mothers cousin Jennie Linquist and her friend Arlene Thorpe the librarians photo ( all ladies then) Great piece on work, thank you.
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Centre for Policy Alternatives on 2 November, 2008
The Centre for Policy Alternatives Vs. Minister of Mass Media and Information (478/2008)
Categories: Public Interest Litigation submissions
In November 2008, a fundamental rights application was filed by CPA along with several Media Organizations seeking relief and effective redress in respect of the infringement of fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 10, 12(1),12(2) and 14(1)(a) of the Constitution. The Petitioners respectfully sought an interim order suspending the impugned regulation of Private Television Broadcasting Stations gazetted on October 10th2008 (Gazette (Extraordinary) No. 1570/35) under Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Act , No. 6 of 1982.
The Petitioners reiterated that the purpose of SLRC Regulations is the establishment of a new licensing regime pertaining to private television broadcasting stations and the monitoring and regulation of such broadcasting stations. The said Regulations do not, in any manner or form, relate to the issue of public security. Therefore they stated that the said SLRC Regulations does not fall within the ambit of “Law” as defined by Article 15(7), and is not a legitimate means by which the fundamental rights of the people guaranteed by article 14(1)(a) of the Constitution may be restricted in the interests of, inter alia, national security, public order and the protection of public health or morality.
CPA obtained leave to proceed and the case was mentioned on 2nd March 2009, and 2nd April 2009. The proceedings were terminated on 27th April 2009.
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In Tech Marketing Jobs, Women’s Successes Are Rarely Recognized
It’s no secret that there aren’t a lot of women in Silicon Valley and the tech industry in general. There is one exception — marketing and public relations. Though these women aren’t the people writing the code or building the chip, their role in the success of many tech companies is often crucial and overlooked.
A recent lawsuit in the valley highlights that problem. A couple of years ago a mobile dating app called Tinder entered a very crowded market for online match making. It required extra work to make women feel safe to sign up.
It helped to have a woman for that effort. Nick Summers, who profiled Tinder in Bloomberg Businessweek last year, says Tinder’s Vice President of Marketing Whitney Wolfe did the footwork.
“She went around the country visiting different sororities, promoted the app there at these different college campuses,” Summers says. Boosted by Wolfe’s marketing strategy, the number of Tinder users tripled at a crucial time in its history. “She made some very important contributions in making women feel safe in signing up for the app,” Summers says.
When Summers wrote his profile of Tinder, Wolfe wasn’t part of the story he was told. Instead, he heard about the supposed co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen. “They were very eager to make it seem as if they had done this all on their own,” Summers says.
But, then few weeks ago Wolfe sued the company for sexual harassment and discrimination. Wolfe had dated and then broken up with co-founder Mateen and after the breakup she claims he harassed her. Wolfe claims she was fired for complaining and had her co-founder title take away.
When he read about the lawsuit, Summers re-examined his previous reporting and wrote another article.
“That was an opportunity to go back and revisit this idea of creation myths,” says Summers, “and the way and the way that people, and in this case a woman … can be written out of the sort of stories that startups tell about themselves and the way they were born.”
The fact that Wolfe is a woman may be one reason she was written out of the story. Another may be that she’s in marketing and in many ways the people who do marketing by definition are there to tell someone else’s story.
Yet, if you look around the world of tech this where the women are. The Public Relations Society of America reports that 70 percent of professionals in the field are women. In Silicon Valley one of the most important PR and marketing firms was founded in the 1970s — Regis McKenna Inc.
Cathy Cook, who started at Regis McKenna in the early 1980s, says “it was pretty much 90 percent women.”
Cook says a lot of the men in the Valley used an unflattering term for all those women. “I’ve always believed it was some snarky reporter referring to all the women who worked at Regis McKenna as ‘Regettes,’ ” she says.
They were Regettes then; today they are often referred to in equally unflattering terms as “PR chicks.” They’ve made their way into pop culture, usually as air-headed women obsessed with clothes and parties like the characters on Comedy Central’s Kroll Show: PubLiZity.
But, Cook’s time at Regis McKenna proved to be a lesson that good marketing and PR can be more important than the best tech. Intel, a McKenna client in the early 1980s, dominated the market for microprocessors. Then, Motorola released a new chip that many thought was better.
“Companies were starting to use Motorola chips,” Cook says. “The truth was that although Intel had a lot of brilliant, brilliant pioneers working there, their technology probably wasn’t as competitive as it should be.”
Regis McKenna and Intel and came up with a campaign called Operation Crush. It was a feat of marketing. The campaign took the focus off the quality of the chip and put it elsewhere: “The service and customer support,” Cook says. “And I think the end of the discussion came sometime later when IBM chose the Intel microprocessor for its first PC.”
And that is how Intel got a lock on the PC industry that has lasted over 30 years. Many of the women who started as Regettes went on to found their own firms. Among them Melissa Waggener Zorkin co-founder of Waggener Edstrom, which handles almost all of Microsoft’s PR. Cook went to work for Steve Jobs at Next and then went off to Pixar.
Brooke Hammerling, the founder of Brew Media Relations, says she created her own firm because she got sick of a mix of dismissive tech guys and sexism inside of some companies.
“We were in the background very much,” she says, “where companies didn’t want to, certainly CEOs didn’t want to think that PR had anything to do with the success of the company and that their PR girls were sort of just there to write press releases.”
But in a world in which many tech startups are fighting for recognition in crowded markets, more investors like Deborah Jackson want marketing and PR built in from the ground up.
“It’s absolutely mission critical,” she says, “just as important as the technology. You really need both pieces in order for a company to be successful.”
Though Jackson and many women would like to see more diversity among the people who actually program and make the tech, they’d also like to see credit given to the contributions women are already making in the tech sector.
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Tickets sold and fans in the seats, along with local advertising, pay the bills for outfits such as the Blue Rocks.
STAYING READY: Delaware minor-leagues prep for season they hope comes
“We’ve been dreading this for a while, hoping it would be something different,” David Heller, Blue Rocks managing partner and CEO, said after the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues’ announcement Tuesday.
So while Major League Baseball teams are set to begin practicing in the next few days for a July 23-24 start to the delayed season, their farm teams will have none.
Kyle Hinton, the former Salesianum and University of Delaware pitcher, was likely to play for the Blue Rocks this year in his third professional season.
“It’s tough,” he said Tuesday. “We had a bunch of Zoom calls, and they told us to just be ready whenever if there was a possibility of anything happening, so it stinks.
“You work hard and train all offseason and go to spring training. I think I was only there for like two weeks and they sent us home and told us to be ready to come back shortly and, obviously, it got worse and worse.”
Hinton had been working out since at Titus Sports Academy inside the 76ers Fieldhouse with other area minor leaguers. More recently, he and fellow Kansas City farmhand Tyler Hill, the former Delaware Military Academy standout, have been training at Frawley.
The Blue Rocks are members of the Advanced Class A Carolina League, three steps from the major leagues, and affiliated with the Kansas City Royals. In 2019, the Blue Rocks won their fifth Carolina League championship but first since 1999.
BLUE-GOLD BOND: Player, buddy still connected after 30-plus years
Kansas City’s 60-man 2020 player pool includes 2019 Rocks such as pitchers Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic. The Royals are paying their minor leaguers their typical $400 weekly stipends through Aug. 31.
The Blue Rocks were reborn in 1993 with the opening of Daniel S. Frawley Stadium on the new Wilmington Riverfront.
An earlier Wilmington Blue Rocks minor league team had played in the Interstate League from 1940-52 at the since-razed Wilmington Ball Park at 30th Street and Gov. Printz Boulevard at the northern edge of the city. Those Blue Rocks had served the Philadelphia Athletics from 1940-43 and Phillies from 1944-52, including launching the Hall of Fame career of Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts.
The Blue Rocks are owned by Main Street Baseball, which Heller oversees. Main Street Baseball also owns the Quad Cities River Bandits (Advanced-A Midwest League/Houston Astros) in Davenport, Iowa; the Billings Mustangs (short-season Low-A Pioneer League/Cincinnati Reds) in Montana; and the Lowell Spinners (short-season Low-A New York-Penn League/Boston Red Sox) in Massachusetts.
The Wilmington franchise will have “no revenue” from the 2020 season, Heller said, with sponsorships and advertising carried over to 2021.
DREAM COME TRUE: Blue Hens' Sullivan signs with Phillies
“We’ll have a bunch of giveaways and a lot of Friday night fireworks,” he said of next season.
The Blue Rocks have seen the lowest attendance figures in their modern history the last three years, averaging 3,845 fans in 2017, 3,842 in 2018 and 3,731 in 2019. The last two still ranked third in the Carolina League and in the upper half of affiliated minor league baseball. The franchise record was 5,519 in 1995. The Blue Rocks last broke 5,000 in average attendance in 2001 (5,016).
The Blue Rocks’ website lists 25 front-office employees, though only about half are full time. There have been a few layoffs, Heller said.
About 175 seasonal employees, said Heller, work the Blue Rocks’ 70 annual home regular-season games in areas such as ticketing, grounds crew, security, concessions, entertainment and game-management positions.
Major League Baseball has proposed sweeping changes to Minor League Baseball in 2021, including a reduction in the number of affiliated farm teams to 120. There were 244 last year, including 45 Dominican rookie-level teams.
The first sign of the future came when June’s first-year-player draft was reduced from 40 to five rounds. And all other players were free agents able to be signed for a $20,000 maximum bonus, significantly reduced from the previous $125,00. The 2021 draft will reportedly expand to 20 rounds.
“We know the Blue Rocks will be back,” Heller said, “and we can’t wait to see everybody back at Frawley.”
Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.
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American Pharoah wins Triple Crown, ends 37-year drought
Dan Wolken
NEW YORK – American Pharoah became the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 and 12th overall to win horse racing's Triple Crown Saturday in the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.
American Pharoah finished 51/2 lengths ahead of Frosted while Keen Ice was third.
The 3-year-old colt by Pioneerof the Nile completed one of the most difficult feats in sports, leading wire to wire to win the third jewel of the Triple Crown. He earlier won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. The three races are run over a span of five weeks.
American Pharoah ended a streak of 13 horses that came to Belmont with a chance but could not successfully navigate the 11/2-mile race called the Test of the Champions on a track called Big Sandy.
Emotional trainer Bob Baffert said he wished his parents were there to see history being made. "I just feel like I have a very special horse," he said. "It wasn't me; it was the horse."
In accepting the winners' trophy, Baffert said, "I was really getting to dislike this trophy. It's caused me a lot of misery. I think it's owed to the fans of New York, who kept paying their money, showing up, hoping. ... I still can't believe it happened.
"I'm just blessed with a super 3-year-old by the name of American Pharoah. I couldn't be any happier."
His jockey, Victor Espinoza, was on two of those horses that failed – War Emblem and California Chrome last year – while Baffert came close three times previously without being able to close the deal.
"It's just unbelievable how things worked out," said Espinoza, who ran a near-perfect race. "I feel so good. I hope American Pharoah feels like me."
American Pharoah was bred by his owner, Ahmed Zayat, and ultimately fulfilled the promise he showed last year as horse racing's 2-year old champion and early this spring in a pair of dominant victories in Arkansas.
Though American Pharoah did not flash dominance in the Kentucky Derby – he struggled to accelerate around the far turn and had to wear down his rivals in the stretch to win by a length – his connections attributed it to the horse being spooked by noise and activity in the pre-race walkover and expending too much energy before being saddled.
His Preakness was another story altogether. An hour before the race, rain poured down on Pimlico, turning the track into a muddy soup. American Pharoah loved it, going wire-to-wire and dominating the field by seven lengths.
That performance built plenty of buzz for the Belmont, as Baffert maintained that his horse was showing no ill effects of the Triple Crown grind. American Pharoah looked strong in gallops over the Belmont track all week, as though he was eager to do more.
He did on Saturday.
A bay colt by Pioneerof the Nile-Littleprincessemma, by Yankee Gentleman. Owned by Zayat Stables LLC, trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Victor Espinoza.
Egyptian-born owner Ahmed Zayat bred the colt and put him up for sale before buying him back for $300,000. His name came courtesy of the family's online contest, in which a woman from Missouri submitted the winning moniker, but the misspelling of "Pharoah" wasn't noticed until the name was already official.
American Pharoah – his tail shortened after being bitten off on the farm as a youngster – became the first horse since Afleet Alex in 2005 to run in all three races and win the Belmont.
American Pharoah rallied in the stretch to beat Firing Line by a length in the Kentucky Derby. He won the Preakness in a driving rain. The heavy favorite broke fast out of the unfavorable No. 1 post, took control early and won easily by seven lengths. In the Belmont, he ran wire-to-wire victory to finish 5½ lengths ahead of Frosted.
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REVIEW: Beethoven's Fifth at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Wayne Lee Gay
| Classical Music |
Wayne Lee Gay | March 25, 2016 | 12:19pm
The Dallas Symphony and music director Jaap van Zweden indulge, this weekend, in the time-honored classical music programming tactic of matching a new, unfamiliar work with a standard box office cash cow — in this case, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
This strategy can, and often does, result in an odd evening in which a packed house fidgets through a piece of music they would just as soon not hear while waiting for their dose of Tchaikovsky or Beethoven after intermission. Thursday night at Meyerson Symphony Center, the result was a fascinating, engaging and meaningful program that not only made sense, but, judging from the enthusiastic audience reaction, was broadly satisfying to everybody on every level.
The evening opened with Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2, a work, which, while revered within the academic and professional musical establishment, has never gained much of a foothold with the larger audience in the way that other works from the middle 20th century have — for example, Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto or Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony.
Thursday night’s performance with Greek-born violinist Leonidas Kavakos made an impressively strong case for the work, however, from the hypnotically mysterious opening moments through the explosive modernisms and mood swings that follow. Kavakos, grimly business-like in demeanor on stage, serves this masterpiece up with a brilliant combination of technical perfection and intellectual insight.
After intermission, conductor Van Zweden and the orchestra got down to the business of the world premiere of Dutch composer John Borstlap’s evocative Solemn Night Music, a joint commission by the Dallas Symphony, Van Zweden and the Hong Kong Symphony. Completed just last year, the work could as easily have been written in 1905; its combination of stringent, involved counterpoint with arching lyricism and a fine sense of traditional orchestral color brought to mind Richard Strauss, with hints of Elgar and Mahler. Rather than just filling space on the program, Solemn Night Music provided a superb preface to the main draw of the evening, which followed immediately.
Beethoven’s Fifth is, well, Beethoven’s Fifth — possibly the most beloved and certainly one of the most well-known musical works ever created. One of my local colleagues previously used the word “electrifying” to characterize an earlier performance of this work by Van Zweden and the DSO, and I can’t think of a better way to describe what happens when this conductor takes on this work, combining a firm grasp of the architecture of the work with the constantly — and, after thousands of performances over two centuries — still arresting effects. Van Zweden very obviously exploited the thrill-power of one of the best horn sections in the world at key moments; let’s just hope he doesn’t take that unique asset of this orchestra with him to New York.
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High-tech cars join the fight against distracted driving
On behalf of Dana Watts
Texting while driving has been banned in Florida since October 2013, but as in other states with such bans, the law’s impact has been limited, and distracted driving crashes remain commonplace. In the near future, technology may play an increasingly significant role in keeping drivers focused and preventing accidents.
Distraction-detection systems
Some new technologies strive to reduce distracted driving accidents by interacting with drivers about their levels of attentiveness. General Motors, the nation’s largest vehicle manufacturer, recently announced that it is planning to equip half a million new vehicles with driver monitoring systems over the next few years. The technology uses automated cameras and computers to track drivers’ eyes and head position to detect when they may be paying too much attention to anything other than driving.
If the new sensors detect that a driver’s head or eyes are turned away from the road or rearview mirrors for longer than they should be, the system will notify the driver and suggest corrective action. In addition to detecting when a driver is texting or distracted by other activities such as eating or grooming, the monitors can also be used to discern when a driver may be drowsy or nodding off, thus preventing additional accidents by helping to ensure that drivers are awake and alert.
Car-to-car communication
Other new systems bypass drivers and allowing vehicles to communicate directly with one another about their traveling speed, location and potential hazards on the road ahead. These systems utilize onboard sensors and wireless technology to enable vehicles within a certain range to communicate at speeds of up to 10 exchanges per second.
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology addresses several of the most common accident types, in which texting and other distractions frequently play a role. These include intersection collisions, such as T-bone and left-turn accidents, which often occur when one driver fails to notice a traffic signal or approaching vehicle. They can also help prevent accidents in other situations, for instance when a vehicle is approaching a blind turns or driving in hilly areas, where even attentive drivers may be unable to see one another until the last moment. When a stalled vehicle, crash or other hazard occurs in situations with limited visibility, a few seconds of advance warning for oncoming drivers can potentially mean the difference between life and death.
The federal government has announced plans to make such systems mandatory in new vehicles in the years ahead, saying widespread adoption could help prevent 1,000 deaths and many more accidents each year.
Get legal advice after a crash
If you or a family member has been hurt in a crash, you may wish to speak with a personal injury lawyer about the situation. Oftentimes, injured crash victims are able to seek financial compensation through the civil legal system, potentially enabling them to recover their lost wages, medical bills and other damages stemming from the crash.
Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer
Dana Watts is a board certified civil trial lawyer by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization with more than 30 years of litigation experience. He also received an AV* peer review rating through Martindale-Hubbell. Learn More
Dana J. Watts Attorney at Law
1620 Main Street Suite 1
Sarasota Law Office Map
© 2021 Dana J. Watts Attorney at Law. All Rights Reserved.
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in association with Access/Middle East
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
If your email program has difficulty viewing this page, see web version.
To contact the Presidents Conference:
info@prescon.org
In-Depth Issue:
PA Pays Salaries of Aksa Brigades Members - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
Members of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades - the armed wing of Fatah - have begun receiving salaries of $200 per month from the new Palestinian Authority cabinet.
Romanian Intelligence Thwarted Iraqi Plots to Attack Israelis (Jerusalem Post)
Romania's intelligence service said Thursday it thwarted terrorist attacks planned by Iraq against Western and Israeli interests in Romania.
Ion Stan, a senior lawmaker who chairs a parliament committee overseeing the intelligence service, said the U.S. and Israeli embassies were among the targets.
The terrorist attacks were to be carried out with AG-7 grenade launchers provided by the head of the espionage office of the Iraqi Embassy in Bucharest.
Romanian authorities reacted at the time by declaring 10 Iraqi diplomats and 31 other people as persona non grata, expelling them or barring others from entering the country.
Documents found in Iraq's espionage headquarters after the war confirmed the information obtained by the Romanian intelligence service.
Lebanon Says It Foiled Terror Plot (CBS News)
Lebanon has arrested seven Lebanese and two Palestinians suspected of planning to attack the U.S. Embassy and kidnap cabinet ministers, a senior Lebanese security officer said Thursday.
The network planned to attack security and military centers in Lebanon and to kidnap government officials to bargain for the release of their detained comrades.
U.S. Investigating Al Qaeda Link in Iran - John Walcott (Philadelphia Inquirer)
U.S. intelligence officials said several al Qaeda leaders - including Saif al-Adel, who is wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and who might now be the group's third-ranking official, and Osama bin Laden's son Saad - had found refuge in Iran, where they remain active.
Several times recently, one U.S. official said, Osama bin Laden expressed frustration to his lieutenants in Iran that al Qaeda had struck no significant blows as the U.S. invaded Iraq.
Incitement Kills - Caroline B. Glick (Jerusalem Post)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said in an interview last week:
"Two guys with Pakistani origins who have nothing to do with us are so full of hatred that they are willing to commit suicide in order to kill Jews."
" This makes it abundantly clear how destructive the incitement campaign in Muslim lands against Israel and the Jewish people really is."
Comparing Israel in the Territories to France in Algeria - Herb Keinon (Jerusalem Post)
When he was foreign minister, Binyamin Netanyahu noted that the Europeans equated Israel's presence in the territories to France's colonialization of Algeria, forgetting that Israel's ties to Judea and Samaria go a bit deeper than France's 100-year connection to Algeria; that the Algerians never claimed Paris as their capital; and they certainly were never committed to wiping France off the map.
Soldiers Repatriated to Iraq Recall Torture in Iran Camps - William Booth (Boston Globe)
The last 59 Iraqi soldiers to be held in Iran, out of 60,000 captured in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, have just returned to Baghdad after having been imprisoned for more than two decades without communication with the outside world.
Useful Reference:
Political Cartoons on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict (Slate/MSN)
News Resources - North America and Europe:
Five Requests to Saudis Went Unheeded, U.S. Says
In the month before Monday's bombings in Riyadh, the U.S. asked Saudi Arabia on at least five separate occasions to deploy armed uniformed government guards around all Western targets of a possible terrorist attack, Bush administration officials said Thursday. Yet Saudi authorities did nothing to augment security at any of the sites, the administration officials said.
Administration officials said they were speaking out in order to prompt the Saudis to cooperate more closely in the investigation into the attack and other possible terrorist plots. American concerns about other attacks, possibly in the Middle East, Africa or Asia, had surged in recent days. (New York Times)
See also Did the Saudis Do Enough to Prevent Attack?
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef is widely regarded as one of the most powerful members of the Saudi royal family as a result of his 28-year-long reign over the Saudi security apparatus. His forces at times have shown no compunction about cracking down on internal dissidents and religious minorities, including engaging in arbitrary arrests, torture, and beheadings. But Nayef's willingness to move forcefully against al Qaeda and others linked to the group has been erratic, in part out of a stubborn refusal to acknowledge that the terrorist organization even has a presence in the kingdom. (MSNBC)
U.S. Expects More Strikes by Al Qaeda
The al Qaeda terrorist network, its leadership severely weakened by 19 months of counterterrorism operations, is seeking to prove that it is still viable by launching more attacks on U.S. interests abroad to capitalize on Monday's strikes in Saudi Arabia, intelligence and terrorism officials said yesterday. Some plans being detected by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies appear to have been in the works for months, if not longer, but are being brought to fruition quickly, they said. "They would like to do them all at the same time and have the whole world go up," one U.S. terrorism official said. "This is a very bad patch." U.S. counterterrorism experts are especially worried about the possibility of attacks against Americans and U.S. interests in Kenya and other parts of East Africa. (Washington Post)
At One Saudi Compound, Design, Luck Kept Blast Casualties Low
Unlike the two other Riyadh gated communities hit by terror blasts Monday night, the suicide bombers could not get past the gate at Jedawal and instead exploded their GMC covered pickup truck outside the facility. The blast killed two men in the truck and three associates standing outside with grenades strapped to their waists. The attackers also killed two security guards as they approached the gate. But no residents died. Jedawal is the fanciest of the three compounds, designed for people employed by companies such as Lockheed or Boeing that work with the Saudi air force. The facility has four towers manned by air force personnel with automatic weapons. And it has two layers of gates - 200 yards apart - the second layer including heavy steel gates with electronic locks. Five attackers shot the guards and lifted the first gate, a simple barrier operated by hand. But the noise from the attack alerted guards at the next gate. Using a code, they locked the electronically controlled metal gate - five inches of hollow steel - thereby blocking the second entrance. (Washington Post)
Nighttime Tank Charge Into Gaza Powder Keg
Lt. Col. Ron, commander of an IDF special forces battalion who also received training at Fort Benning, Ga., leads some of the army's more delicate missions in Gaza. "It's important just to hit the terrorists, not the civilians," he said before the raid. "Most of the time we succeed. But the terrorists sometimes use the women and children as human shields, and it makes our job very difficult." Israeli officials say that with Mr. Abbas still failing to act to stop the violence, they have no choice but to carry out raids such as this one, aimed at preventing Palestinian rocket fire. In Beit Hanun, in the northeast corner of Gaza, the militant Hamas movement used the lush orange groves there for cover when launching homemade rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot. "We want the people to understand that if they let the terrorists operate from their neighborhoods, we will be there," Ron said.
At 3 a.m., the column of armored vehicles encircled two houses the IDF said belonged to Hamas members accused of involvement in the rocket fire, and prepared to blow them up. Speaking in Arabic, a soldier on a megaphone told residents to get out of the two houses, as well as those nearby. But Beit Hanun, like many Palestinian communities, is awash in weapons, and the call was greeted almost immediately with bursts of gunfire from elsewhere in the neighborhood, prompting shooting exchanges that lasted 15 minutes. Palestinians also hurled grenades and set off two roadside bombs, the Israelis said. As the shooting died down, small bands of soldiers slipped into the two homes and the neighboring ones to confirm that they had been evacuated and to plant explosives. (New York Times)
Rice: Verify that Syria Has No WMD
Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security advisor, told reporters on Wednesday, "Syrian weapons of mass destruction programs have to be accounted for, and Syria should stand up and renounce those and make it possible to verify that they have given up any aspirations to weapons of mass destruction." The U.S.-Syrian relationship "is, frankly, a very difficult relationship and it is not one that is likely to improve without some major changes in Syrian behavior." (U.S. State Department)
News Resources - Israel, the Mideast, and Asia:
"Arafat Continues to Instruct His People to Conduct Attacks" - Ben Caspit (top front page headline)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will leave Sunday morning for the U.S. where he will meet President Bush and the heads of the American administration. Prior to that, on Saturday night, Sharon will meet with Abu Mazen for a "meeting on mutual demands." Amidst this, a senior officer of the IDF stated, "Arafat gives explicit instructions to conduct terrorist attacks and to escalate the situation on the ground." (Maariv-Hebrew)
Waqf Head: Non-Muslims Not Welcome on Temple Mount - Uri Ash
Non-Muslims are not welcome on the Temple Mount, the director of the Waqf (Muslim religious trust) said Thursday in response to a comment made Wednesday by Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, that the area would soon be opened to Jews for visits and prayer. The Waqf has denied non-Muslims access to the Mount since September 2000. Hanegbi said the government has no plans to alter the status quo with respect to the Temple Mount, but rather to return the situation to what it was prior to September 2000. (Ha'aretz)
Palestinians' Failure to Quell Terror Forces Israel to Act - Margot Dudkevitch
Israel had hoped to see changes on the ground and witness Palestinian security officials cracking down on the terrorist organizations and thwarting attacks against Israel. So far nothing has changed and despite the new cabinet, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat continues to remain in control, holding all the strings, handing down instructions to his cohorts in Fatah, and advising them when to escalate resistance operations against Israel. Terrorist elements on the ground perceive Arafat's orders as a green light to continue with their strategy of using violence as a means to gain their political aspirations. The recent escalation against Israeli communities and IDF positions in the Gaza Strip is also because the hard-core terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have opted to continue resistance against Israel, believing that Abbas's call to halt violence will lead to their downfall and humiliation. The Palestinians' failure to quell the terror has forced Israel to take the initiative and operate intensively to thwart terrorist activities under extremely complex conditions. (Jerusalem Post)
Lebanon Renews Pumping from Jordan River Tributary - David Rudge
Lebanon has reportedly reactivated the Wazzani pumping station after repairing flood damage caused by heavy winter rains. The pumps are once again taking water from the spring that feeds the Hatzbani River, one of the main tributaries of the Jordan River. (Jerusalem Post)
A Jewish State Means a Jewish Majority - Shimon Peres
For the "road map" to avoid becoming moribund even before it has had a chance of turning into a green light for the peace process, issues that have little chance of being resolved - such as the Palestinian "right of return" - must be removed from the road map agenda. Israel's position on this issue is unequivocal and backed by the whole of the Israeli political spectrum. If millions of Palestinian refugees are allowed to return to Israel, it will endanger the very foundations of a Jewish state. A Jewish state means a Jewish majority. And Israel will not commit political suicide.
The Palestinian government must without delay put into effect a plan to dismantle and disarm the various armed militias operating on the ground and consolidate matters of security under its sole authority. Unless this course of action is enforced, Hamas and Islamic Jihad will dictate the Palestinian agenda and foil its attempts to advance peace. A country disjointed by splintered authority cannot survive. Fighting terror is not a gift that the Palestinians are offering Israel. A terrorist - or even semi-terrorist - Palestinian state has no chance of seeing the light of day. But Israel must also fight the motives for terror. The Palestinian people will commit themselves fully to fighting terror only when it becomes clear to them that an end to terror will yield greater dividends than allowing it to continue. (Los Angeles Times)
The Saudis and the Roadmap - Dore Gold
Secretary Powell has made the Quartet roadmap the centerpiece of his Middle East policy. Yet the roadmap specifically demands that all Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, halt any support for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups during its first phase of implementation. It would be untenable to have Israel pull back from positions around Palestinian cities, while the Saudis write checks to Hamas so that it replenishes its stocks of weaponry and renews attacks on Israel at a later date. (National Review)
The Real Saudi Arabia - Stephen Schwartz
Among clerical hatemongers, Ayed al-Qarni, an adviser to Prince Abdel Aziz bin Fahd, the youngest son of King Fahd, stands out. Al-Qarni wrote a poem, repeatedly broadcast on Saudi media during the Iraq intervention, in which he declared, "Slaughter the enemy infidels and say there is but one God." This lyric was supplemented by an interview in the Future of Islam - a monthly issued by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth - for April 2003. Therein, al-Qarni proudly affirmed that he prays daily for America's destruction, and incited Saudis to cross the border to fight in Iraq, and to give money to support Saddam. (Wall Street Journal)
Mideast Peace Depends on Arafat Ouster - Michael Mandelbaum
The endlessly debated question of whether Sharon is genuinely committed to the eventual creation of a Palestinian state is beside the point. Polls show that a large majority of Israelis would like to end the conflict with the Palestinians, are willing to allow the establishment of such a state and would relinquish territory now controlled by Israel to make this possible if the Palestinians are, for their part, ready to accept and live peacefully beside Israel. What, then, will persuade the Israeli public that the Palestinians are prepared to end the conflict? A serious effort to put a stop to terror against Israel is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. The end of Arafat's almost 40-year reign as the Palestinian leader will also be required. Arafat is an unacceptable Palestinian leader to Israelis because he has used his position, despite the solemn commitment to peace that he made in the Oslo accords of 1993, to wage war against Israel. (Newsday)
An Alternative Regional Future - Moshe Arens
During the past year, the IDF has brought about a very substantial reduction in acts of terrorism. Letting the Palestinians complete the job may at first seem like an attractive option, until we remember that this has been tried before with disastrous results. Although the thought may cause heartburn in Amman, it should be remembered that Jordan is a Palestinian state in everything but name; that Judea and Samaria were annexed by Jordan after 1948 and remained an integral part of Jordan until the Six-Day War; and that Jordanian citizenship was bestowed on the population there. Establishing a second Palestinian state may not be the only alternative regional future. By including the Palestinians in Jordan and with Jordan being the partner for negotiations, it would certainly be easier to resolve problems such as border location and the status of Jerusalem. (Ha'aretz)
Roadmap to Hell - Melanie Phillips
The big issue is that Israel has not accepted the road-map, which all right-thinking people praise, and is therefore the main obstacle to peace. Israel is having to perform to a script penned by Kafka. It extends a tentative hand to people who persistently murder its citizens. As a result, still more Israelis get murdered. The international community fails to hold the Palestinian perpetrators to account and instead blames Israel for not accepting the road-map. Er...isn’t the road-map's very first requirement that the Palestinians "immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence"? The Palestinians regard the whole of Israel as occupied territory to be liberated. Their maps, their schoolbooks, their insignia - from flags to lapel buttons - draw the whole of Israel as Palestine. They want the Jews out. (Spectator-UK)
Weekend Features:
The Postwar Arab Blues - Charles Paul Freund
An Arabic dance track called "Longing Brought You to Me" hit Number 1 for the sixth consecutive week on the Beirut-based Top 20. What makes its continued success noteworthy is that the woman who performs it, a Kuwaiti singer named Nawal, recently took an interesting political risk. Even as nearly every other popular Arab singer was still bewailing U.S. "aggression" against the Iraqi people, Nawal publicly congratulated Iraqis on getting rid of Saddam, breaking with the pan-Arabist line on the war which had totally subsumed the region's pop culture, while not paying any price in popularity - suggesting that the region's long-rigid ideological binds may be loosening. (Reason)
Bad Reporting in Baghdad - Jonathan Foreman
The intensity of the population's pro-American enthusiasm in Baghdad is astonishing, and it continues unabated. But instead you read story after story about the supposed fury of Baghdadis at the Americans. Well, I've met hundreds of Iraqis during the past two weeks and I've never encountered any such fury. The women old and young flirt outrageously with GIs, lifting their veils to smile, waving from high windows, and shyly calling hello from half-opened doors. In addition, the museum looting is turning out to have been grotesquely exaggerated. (Weekly Standard)
Who Wants to Be a Martyr? - Scott Atran
As logical as the poverty-breeds-terrorism argument may seem, study after study shows that suicide attackers and their supporters are rarely ignorant or impoverished. Nasra Hassan, a Pakistani relief worker, interviewed nearly 250 aspiring Palestinian suicide bombers and their recruiters. "None were uneducated, desperately poor, simple-minded or depressed," she reported in 2001. Officials with the Army Defense Intelligence Agency who have interrogated Saudi-born members of al Qaeda being detained at Guantanamo Bay say that among these fundamentalists, especially those in leadership positions, a surprising number have graduate degrees and come from high-status families. Suicide attackers do not opt for paradise out of despair. (New York Times)
Jordan Breathes Sigh of Relief After Iraq War - Alan Sipress
Senior Jordanian officials say they have been vindicated for quietly supporting the U.S. military campaign in Iraq despite widespread opposition in Jordan. With passions over the conflict ebbing, the king has decided to proceed with parliamentary elections on June 17. Senior officials said the country's position has been enhanced because Jordan no longer has to fear a bullying Iraqi government. Yet they are concerned that Shiite Muslim clerics could take power in Baghdad, fueling the fortunes of Jordan's own Islamic militants. (Washington Post)
The Fall of the House of Saud - Robert Baer (Atlantic Monthly)
I served for twenty-one years with the CIA's Directorate of Operations in the Middle East, and during all my years there I accepted on faith my government's easy assumption that the money the House of Saud was dumping into weaponry and national security meant that the family's armed forces and bodyguards could keep its members - and their oil - safe.
If I had to pick a single moment when the House of Saud truly began to fall apart, it would be when Abdul Aziz ibn Saud's son Fahd, who has been king since 1982, suffered a near fatal stroke in 1995. Abdul Aziz, the youngest of Fahd's children, was the apple of his father's eye. What really worried some members of his family was that Abdul Aziz was funding radical Wahhabi causes and was gaining strength and popularity as a result. They had little doubt that money was going to clerics and causes that were associated with Osama bin Laden. Abdul Aziz hadn't rediscovered his faith, of course: he was courting favor with the Wahhabis because he knew he would need their support to become king.
The kingdom's mosque schools have become a breeding ground for militant Islam. Recent attacks in Bali, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kenya, and the United States, not to mention those against U.S. military personnel within Saudi Arabia, all point back to these schools - and to the House of Saud itself, which, terrified at the prospect of a militant uprising against it, shovels protection money at the fundamentalists and tries to divert their attention abroad.
The U.S. had known since 1994 that the Saudis were supporting Pakistan's nuclear development program, ultimately contributing upwards of a billion dollars. More recently, because Saudi law does not allow foreign agencies to directly question Saudi citizens, the FBI has not been allowed to interview Saudi suspects, including the families of the fifteen Saudi hijackers, about the 9/11 attacks.
Signs of impending disaster are everywhere, but the House of Saud has chosen to pray that the moment of reckoning will not come soon - and the U.S. has chosen to look away. So nothing changes: the royal family continues to exhaust the Saudi treasury, buying more and more arms and funneling more and more "charity" money to the jihadists, all in a desperate and self-destructive effort to protect itself.
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WikiLeaks: Hizbullah Can Fire 400-600 Rockets a Day in Next War - Yaakov Katz and Lahav Harkov (Jerusalem Post)
Hizbullah would likely shoot between 400 and 600 missiles a day into Israel during a future war, a senior Mossad official told a U.S. Congressional delegation to Israel in 2009, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable published on Sunday.
According to the Mossad official, 100 of the missiles will hit Tel Aviv.
Syria Rejects Israel Peace Report (UPI)
A Syrian official has refuted the Kuwait newspaper al-Rai report that Washington is secretly engaged in talks with Damascus to renew peace talks with Israel.
SANA, the state-run Syrian news agency, quoted a "well-informed Syrian source" calling the report "baseless and unfounded."
Repercussions from Israel's Natural Gas Find - Susan Kraemer (Green Prophet)
The Leviathan gas find tosses out Israel's previous relationship with the world. The biggest deep-water gas find in a decade has enough reserves to supply Israel's gas needs for 100 years.
Currently, 71% of Israel's electricity is fueled by imported Russian coal.
Coal plants are fairly easily converted to burn natural gas, as U.S. utilities have found. Israel can now easily and economically swap almost three-quarters of its current electricity portfolio to one with less than half the carbon cost.
With this find, Israel is not just energy independent, itself. But customers from throughout Asia are now wooing the formerly friendless nation, desperate for the last drops of fossil fuels.
Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes Surge in New York - Fredric U. Dicker (New York Post)
Hate crimes across New York state jumped 14% in 2009, led by an increase in attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, according to a report released Thursday by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Anti-Semitic incidents, which made up 37% of reported hate crimes, rose from 219 in 2008 to 251 in 2009.
The number of anti-Muslim incidents rose from 8 to 11.
Which Side Is the Tiny,Threatened Minority? - Uri Elitzur (Makor Rishon-Hebrew, 31Dec10)
We in Israel are 6 million Jews surrounded by 250 million Arabs, and beyond them a billion Muslims.
We are the tiny, threatened minority - and the Palestinians are an integral part of the vast, threatening majority.
Hamas Arrested 3,120 Fatah Loyalists in 2010 - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
In the past year alone, Hamas security forces in Gaza arrested 3,120 Fatah members and supporters.
Hamas also closed down 23 Fatah-affiliated institutions, including sports clubs and social organizations.
WikiLeaks: Israel Has Only 12-Minute Warning If Iran Attacks
Israel's army chief Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told a U.S. Congressional delegation he was preparing for a large war in the Middle East, probably against Hamas or Hizbullah, according to a WikiLeaks document dated November 15, 2009, quoted Sunday in Norway's Aftenposten. "I am preparing the Israeli army for a large-scale war, since it is easier to scale down to a smaller operation than to do the opposite." "The rocket threat against Israel is more serious than ever. That is why Israel is putting such emphasis on rocket defense," Ashkenazi said. Iran has some 300 Shihab rockets that can reach Israel and stressed that the Jewish state would have only between 10 and 12 minutes warning in case of an attack.
"Israel is on a collision course also with Hamas, which rules Gaza." "Hamas will have the possibility to bombard Tel Aviv, with Israel's highest population concentration." Israel next time will not accept "any restrictions on warfare in populated areas," and he insisted the army had never intentionally attacked civilian targets. (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Wants Nonstop Talks with Palestinians - Matti Friedman
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he's ready to sit down with the Palestinian president for continuous one-on-one talks until they reach a peace deal, in an apparent bid to breathe life into stalled Mideast peacemaking. Netanyahu says he is ready to discuss all "core" issues with Abbas. (AP)
See also Israel Says Direct Negotiations Best Path to Peace
Face-to-face negotiations are still the best path to peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Shahar Azrami said Saturday in response to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' call on Friday for the international community to come up with a new peace plan. "Israel has been quite adamant in the last few months in trying to get the Palestinians to sit with Israel around the negotiating table and only once this option is exhausted should we think about trying to reach new solutions." (AFP)
Christian Coptic Church Bombing in Alexandria, Egypt, Kills 21 - Borzou Daragahi and Amro Hassan
A devastating New Year's Day terrorist bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt that killed 21 people was the latest in a wave of violence against Christian communities in the Muslim world, some of which date back to antiquity. An Oct. 31 siege on a Baghdad church that killed 58 parishioners sparked a new Christian exodus from the Iraqi capital and the northern city of Mosul. About 1,000 families sought refuge in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish enclave afterward, according to the UN.
In an annual New Year's speech at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI said: "In front of the current threatening tensions, in front of especially the discrimination, tyranny and religious intolerance that today hit in particular the Christians, once again I deliver the pressing invite to not cave in to depression and resignation," adding that officials' "words are not enough" in confronting religious intolerance. "There must be a concrete and constant effort from leaders of nations."
Most Middle Eastern countries outside the Arabian Peninsula have sizable Christian communities, including the Maronites in Lebanon, Armenians in Iran, and the Orthodox in Syria. But their numbers have shrunk over the last century, experts say. Christians now account for less than 5% of the Middle East's population, down from 20%. (Los Angeles Times)
See also below Commentary: The Plight of the Copts - Editorial (Jerusalem Post)
Netanyahu: Israel Agreed to New Settlement Freeze But U.S. Retracted Offer - Jonathan Lis
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday that he had agreed to the U.S. suggestion of a three-month extension to the West Bank settlement freeze, but the Americans were the ones who retracted the offer. "The United States asked us to consider extending the freeze by three months, and the truth is that we were prepared to do so," he said. Netanyahu said that contrary to what was reported, it was not Israel but the "United States who decided against that direction, rightfully, in my opinion." "I told Obama that I am prepared to go with this to the cabinet and that I will be able to enforce the move, but then I received the surprising phone call from the Americans who said they no longer demand that Israel extends the freeze."
"The Americans were right in saying that the settlement freeze will lead to a dead end, in which we would have entered an endless path of settlement freezes." Netanyahu also said the Palestinians' attempts to pursue unilateral statehood will fail. "We are aware of their steps - even the [U.S.] Congress opposed these unilateral steps and it seems that the Americans will not be partners to a forced agreement." (Ha'aretz)
Two Arrested in Hamas Plot to Fire Rockets into Jerusalem Soccer Stadium - Anshel Pfeffer
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) has arrested Mussa Hamada and Basem Omri, two Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, suspected of plotting to fire rockets during a soccer game at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem on behalf of Hamas, it was revealed Sunday. Both suspects have allegedly been affiliated with terrorist activities organized by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood for a number of years. The two had scouted out the hills around the stadium to find a spot from which to launch the rockets and had been gathering information about security in the area. Hamada apparently met with other Islamist activists a number of times over the last few years in Saudi Arabia, where he acquired money and pistols. (Ha'aretz)
The Plight of the Copts - Editorial
Copts make up about 10% of Egypt’s 80 million populace. In September, Al-Jazeera TV broadcast a two-hour program called "Without Limits" that accused the Coptic Church of hiding Israeli weapons and ammunition in monasteries and churches, purportedly in preparation for a war "against the Muslims" that would lead to the creation of an autonomous Coptic state. The only evidence mustered to support these claims was an incident in mid-August in which the son of a priest in Port Said was falsely accused of smuggling weapons from Israel. The contraband turned out to be Chinese-made fireworks.
In state schools, textbooks represent Egypt as an exclusively Muslim state and include anti-Christian texts. In the summer of 2008, the Egyptian doctors syndicate, which has increasingly been taken over by Muslim Brotherhood activists, banned all organ transplants between Muslims and Copts. (Jerusalem Post)
See also Egyptian Lawyers Claim Israel Behind Copt Attack
A coalition of Egyptian lawyers accused Israel of being behind a terror attack in Alexandria that killed 21 members of the Christian Copt sect, Israel Army Radio reported Monday. (Jerusalem Post)
U.S. Appoints Ambassador to Syria - Charles Krauthammer
Syria is a regime that has been arming Hizbullah to the teeth, tens of thousands of rockets, violating every provision of the truce that was declared after the second Israel-Lebanon war, ally of Iran, essentially an enemy of the United States, undermining all our activities and infiltrating itself into Lebanon out of which it had been kicked in 2005. All of this is happening and what does the administration do? It sends an ambassador in return for absolutely nothing.
Obama had a dream that if he sweet-talked Assad he would get Syria to break its relations with Iran and Hizbullah and become an ally of the United States. It gave all kind of inducements. It was humiliated by Assad's response. He expressed contempt for these inducements. (Fox News)
See also A White House Clueless on Syria - Michael Young
A WikiLeaks cable, dated Feb. 2009, recounted a meeting with the French diplomatic troubleshooter and former ambassador to Syria Jean-Claude Cousseran, who "urged that Washington should 'get something tangible' from the Syrian regime. He cautioned that the Syrians were masters of avoiding any real concessions and were adept at showering visitors with wonderful atmospherics and delightful conversations before sending them away empty handed." This was very sound counsel, which Obama has basically ignored by dispatching Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford to Damascus for nothing tangible.
Cousseran also cautioned Washington against over-reaching: "If the U.S. were to aim for something too difficult, such as urging Syria to sever its ties to Hamas or Hizbullah, than it would get nowhere." Washington wants to engage Syria so that it will give up on alliances that the Syrians will never willingly surrender.
Obama should have sent Ford to Syria in exchange for a solid concession from Assad - perhaps Syrian acceptance of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, which Damascus has refused to sanction; or maybe Syrian consent to the return of direct negotiations with Israel. It made no sense for Obama to throw away a card he should have made Syria pay for. The writer is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut. (NOW Lebanon)
Talking to Hamas? - Increasing Expressions of Genocidal Intent by Hamas Leaders Against the Jews - Jonathan D. Halevi (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Over the last few years there has been a steady drumbeat of calls from leading figures in the international community for Israel to open a dialogue with Hamas.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence of a new pragmatism among the Hamas leadership, but only greater indications of a much harder line, which is expressed by its adoption of expressions of genocidal intent in its war against Israel and the Jewish people.
In a December 2010 booklet marking the 23rd anniversary of the establishment of Hamas, Mohammed Def, head of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, wrote: "We say to our enemies: you are going on the path to extinction, and Palestine will remain ours....You have no right to even an inch of it."
Ahmed al-Jaabari, the acting supreme commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, wrote: "Our eyes will...not be confined to the borders of Gaza. Our plan of struggle shall extend as always, sooner or later, to our entire plundered country....As long as the Zionists occupy our lands, only death or exile await them."
Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya told al-Hayat on November 11, 2010: "We retain our Islamic, Arab and Palestinian faith that Palestine will be returned to its inhabitants and Zionist existence will conclude....The Jews will have no right there, save for those who lived on Palestinian land prior to the First World War" (meaning that only Jews above the age of 96 will be permitted to live in Islamic Palestine).
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Bill to let bicyclists roll through stop signs…
NewsColorado News
Bill to let bicyclists roll through stop signs gains speed, but there are roadblocks ahead
Bill finding support in Denver’s biking community would mimic 35-year-old Idaho law
By John Wenzel | jwenzel@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: January 26, 2017 at 11:00 p.m. | UPDATED: January 31, 2017 at 4:30 p.m.
Bicyclists who roll through stop signs and red lights may infuriate drivers. But a “safety stop” bill in the state legislature would legalize the practice, and its supporters say it would make cycling in Colorado safer and more appealing.
Senate Bill 93, introduced Jan. 18 by Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, would permit a person riding a bike or “electrical-assisted bicycle” to pass through intersections without stopping if the rider “slows to a reasonable speed, yields to vehicles and pedestrians, and can safely proceed or make a turn.”
Bicyclists could also legally ride through — and make right turns at — red lights if they stop, look around and determine it’s safe to proceed.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
A cyclist makes his way down South Broadway on January 26, 2017 in Denver.
“For most people who drive and don’t ride a bike, absolutely nothing changes,” said Kerr, a bicyclist himself. “Cyclists can hear and see much better than somebody in a car. And studies done on this show that it’s actually safer overall for both cars and bikes to not sit there at intersections.”
Kerr’s bill is modeled after a 1982 Idaho law “where bikers are allowed to treat red lights as stop signs and stop signs as yield signs,” wrote Justin Fox in a Bloomberg News column.
A cyclist makes her way along 11th Avenue near Lincoln Street on Jan. 26, 2017 in Denver.
The law is commonly referred to in the biking community as the “Idaho stop” and is credited with reducing cycling-related injuries by 14.5 percent the year after it was implemented, with no change in fatalities, according to a 2010 study by Jason Meggs, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health.
“I’ve ridden Boise, Idaho, several times for work and stop-and-yield feels safer, so it’s very appealing to me,” said Ryan Schutz, executive director of Denver-based Bikes Together, a nonprofit that promotes cycling for transportation and health. “I don’t buy into this ‘us vs. them’ about people breaking the law, and I don’t think it institutionalizes that. There’s a state that’s been doing this for more than 20 years and it works.”
Supporters also say getting more people on bikes will play a big part in improving Colorado’s air quality and reinforcing the state’s healthy reputation.
January 5, 2021 CDOT kicks COVID stimulus money to projects across state; RTD hopes to reverse some layoffs
December 23, 2020 Denver’s shared streets program to continue into the new year, city officials say
December 21, 2020 Denver second-graders get new wheels thanks to Gates annual bike “BuildORama”
Schutz noted bike-sharing in Denver and across the state is “going up rapidly,” and that Denver exceeds federal air-pollution standards, so getting people on bikes and out of their cars is one of the cheapest, most immediate solutions.
“While we work to have a more inclusive infrastructure for all people bicycling and walking, this is a step to help traffic move safely and efficiently within our current system,” wrote Dan Grunig, executive director of Bicycle Colorado, a 25-year-old nonprofit advocacy group, in a Thursday blog post.
Opponents of the bill, including Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, said it would only encourage already unsafe behavior.
“I would go in the opposite direction and say there should be more enforcement for bicycles who violate red lights and stop signs,” said Cooke, vice chairman of the Senate transportation committee and a former Weld County Sheriff. “If you’ve driven any amount of time here in Denver, you know how dangerous it is when you do that — and (bicyclists) do that quite a bit. Bare minimum, I’d like to see some kind of immunity for vehicles that might hit the cyclists for doing something like this.”
In Colorado, Summit County, Breckenridge and other municipalities have already adopted similar laws. But Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulfur Springs — whose district encompasses some of those areas — is opposed to the bill, a Senate spokesman said. “On first read, he doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”
That’s a significant position given that Baumgardner is chairman of the transportation committee. However, biking advocates are already planning to turn out to forcefully support the bill when it gets its public hearing at the Capitol, scheduled for 2 p.m. Feb. 7.
“Coupled with the right education, this could be a great thing,” said Brad Evans, executive director of Denver-based Bike City. “Everyone’s already doing it, so why not defuse the problem? As a driver, I hate it when they do it, but that’s because it’s illegal, right? We’re playing on the same field here.”
Evans, who founded the Denver Cruiser Ride — a themed Denver biking event that attracts about 60,000 riders over 20 weeks each year — believes some in the biking community are likely to come out against the bill for safety reasons, preferring to focus on how bikes should be treated like cars. But Evans, who last summer also launched the Bikes Are Not Cars campaign, said this bill is a more realistic solution.
“Studies have proven over and over again that bicyclists and motorists are safer because of laws (like the ‘Idaho stop’),” said Evans, who plans to speak at the public hearing in support of the bill. “We need a different way of thinking about the conflict between bicyclists and cars, because it’s always the same old things. So what’s next?”
A 2016 study from DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development found that just “1 cyclist in 25 comes to a complete stop at stop signs, and 2 out of 3 go through red lights when there’s no cross traffic,” according to The Chicago Tribune. The study concluded by advocating for Chicago officials to adopt the Idaho stop.
“We do not typically get involved with policy, but our community is excited about it,” Bikes Together director Schutz said. “We’re not really the spandex crowd. We’re riding to get somewhere, and there are a lot of parts of town where, if you’re stopping at every stop as you should, it really slows you down.”
Updated Jan. 27, 2017 at 10:32 a.m. The following corrected information has been added to this article: Due to a photographer’s error, the location of one photograph was misreported. The cyclist was riding on 11th Avenue near Lincoln Street.
Andy Kerr
John Cooke (Politician)
John Wenzel | Entertainment Reporter
A&E reporter and critic-at-large John Wenzel has covered comedy, music, film, books, video games and other popular culture for The Denver Post for more than a decade.
jwenzel@denverpost.com
Follow John Wenzel jhnwenzel Follow John Wenzel @johnwenzel
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HomeSports NewsLiverpool James Miller Supports United In Manchester Derby
Liverpool James Miller Supports United In Manchester Derby
James Miller is willing to give up rivalries, history and opinions to become a Manchester United supporter for the first time in his 17 year professional career, as they take on Manchester City on Wednesday.
Liverpool presently lead Manchester City with two points at the top of the Premier League Table, with City having a game at hand that also happens to be the Manchester Derby.
Manchester City with be restored back at the top with a point lead, if they are able to defeat Manchester United At Old Trafford on Wednesday, with three games left for the season.
“First time in my life,” Milner said about his support for United this week.
“But I won’t be watching. It’s a bit of a waste of energy, willing the ball in the other goal.
“I can’t do anything about it. I’ll maybe put my phone away for a few hours and check it after. I’ve no idea what I’ll do, maybe go out for some food.”
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Delivered by FeedBurnerLiverpool have Huddersfield Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United To play, while Manchester City will after United play Burnley, Leicester City at Home and Brighton & Hove Albion on the final day.
Milner maintains that Manchester United isn’t the only challenging fixture in City’s run in and that any team, no matter their position on the League table could make things difficult.
“There’s three games left after that (United). People think United is a challenge, but it’s not the only one” he said.
“It’s an old cliche, but the Premier League is tough – whoever you play, teams battling at the bottom.
“Go back to QPR (when Milner won the title at Man City on the final day) and it’s not easy when you’re playing to win a league title.”
Liverpool retained their two point lead at the top of the table with a 2 – 0 victory over Cardiff City during the weekend, with Milner converting a late Penalty to score his seventh goal of the season.
Ted Cheeseman And Kieron Conway Battled To A Draw
Highlights : Son Scores Brace As Tottenham Beat Crystal Palace
Jose Ramirez vs. Maurice Hooker Unification Battle Official For July 27
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STL100: 100 Years of Flyness
Celebrating the centennial anniversary of St. Louis Lambert International Airport
A visionary who foresaw flying for the masses, Albert Bond Lambert, along with the Missouri Aeronautical Society, acquired the lease for 170 acres of farmland on June 18, 1920. Eight years, during the age of Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, and the New Deal, this land became one of the first municipally owned airports, known as Lambert-St. Louis Municipal Airport. It was the dawn of commercial air travel in St. Louis… the sky was the limit.
To celebrate the centennial of Lambert’s signing, St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) and Dovetail joined together to create an immersive, promotional program dubbed “Flyness!” “Flyness” (or the variation “to be fly”) is defined as stylish, posh, cool, amazing, awesome. Featuring the tagline “Celebrating 100 Years of Flyness”, the 100th anniversary campaign is not only an overview of the rich, important history and milestones of STL, but also a journey through time and history itself, which shows off where the airport has been, points to where it’s going, and celebrates just how “fly” they’ve been all along.
Tying the different decades together, the Dovetail team created a series of custom logos, each embodying an era of “Flyness”, to be used in videos and throughout the promotion. Through the use of archival STL photography and video, along with historical footage, Dovetail took a documentary-style approach to create and develop an entire campaign of messaging and imagery, starting with a long-form video that told the entire story of STL and its “Flyness” throughout the past 100 years of history. Based on the long-form video, Dovetail then produced a series of short, bite-sized versions for quick, easy sharing and viewing across all social media channels, each one focused on a decade or span of time in the history of STL.
Capabilities Utilized: Brand Strategy, Brand Experience, Broadcast & Video, Content & Interactive Storytelling, Design & Production
View more of our work
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Meet Dr. Jason Brooks
Are you living up to your true potential? Do you feel like you have more potential? You may be the best in your field—the best athlete, scholar, CEO, parent, mathematician, teacher, or mechanic. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still be better; you haven’t maximized your potential.
Close the gap between who you are and who you were meant to be. Mark Sanborn, leadership expert, speaker and bestselling author joins me to talk about his new life changing book, The Potential Principle
About my Guest:
Mark Sanborn
Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE, is president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea studio dedicated to developing leaders in business and in life. Mark is an international bestselling author and noted expert on leadership, team building, customer service and change.
Mark Sanborn graduated cum laude from The Ohio State University. In addition to his work as a business educator and author, Mark continues to be an active leadership practitioner, including having served as the president of the National Speakers Association.
Mark holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He was honored with the Cavett Award, the highest honor the NSA bestows on its members, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the speaking profession. Mark is also a member of the exclusive Speakers Roundtable, made up of 20 of the top speakers in America.
He has created and appeared in 20 videos and numerous audio training programs. His video series Team Building: How to Motivate and Manage People made it to the #2 spot for bestselling educational video series in the U.S.
Mark’s list of over 2400 clients includes Costco, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, FedEx, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, KPMG, Morton’s of Chicago, New York Life, RE/MAX, ServiceMaster, ESPN, GM, IBM, Avnet, Sandvik and John Deere.
Connect with Mark Sanborn at
www.marksanborn.com
www.potentialprinciple.com
Facebook: @marksanbornspeaks
LinkedIn: @marksanborn
Twitter: @mark_sanborn
© 2014 by Dr. Jason Brooks
Team@DrJasonBrooks.com
1050 Glenbrook Way, Suite 480
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Ann has expertise in the areas of planning and development and environmental law, and in particular with advising and dealing with local councils. She has conducted many and varied cases in the Land and Environment Court of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and taken matters on appeal to the New South Wales Court of Appeal and the High Court of Australia. Ann also has extensive experience in matters concerning Local Government law, administrative law, commercial law and contracts and property.
What our clients say about Ann...
Ann's breadth of legal expertise crosses a number of jurisdictions with particular specialisation in the areas of Local Government and Planning Law. It is in this sphere that Ann has, for many years, provided exceptional legal service to both her private and local government clients. Ann's legal acumen, professionalism and commitment to her clients is second to none. Allan Graham
Before joining Eakin McCaffery Cox Lawyers in 2013, Ann was a partner at Shaw, Reynolds, Bowen & Gerathy and then principal of JWAB Consulting Pty Ltd. She currently holds positions as Honorary solicitor for the Prince Henry Hospital Trained Nurses' Association Inc and Coast Centre for Seniors Inc.
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Should Schools Teach the Scientific Method? New Book Says Maybe Not
EdSurge Podcast
By Stephen Noonoo Aug 27, 2019
9george / Shutterstock
This article is part of the guide The EdSurge Podcast.
Think back to what you still remember from science class. No, there’s no need to strain your brain recalling the particulars of cellular mitosis or the periodic table. Instead, consider the idea that spanned any science class from biology to physics: the scientific method, the five-step process for analyzing problems, collecting data and coming to a well-supported conclusion.
But what if the scientific method is actually inaccurate—or at best reductive? What if spending so much time on this framework is giving students the wrong idea about how rigorous work is done by scientists?
That’s the unusual hypothesis being made by John Rudolph, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “How We Teach Science: What's Changed, and Why It Matters.”
We sat down with Rudolph to talk about the fascinating history of teaching the subject in the U.S., and why we’re still searching for the right approach.
Along the way he touched on the perils of teaching climate change in schools and why all those AP science classes might not be the best use of students’ time.
Listen to the discussion on this week’s EdSurge On Air podcast. You can follow the podcast on the Apple Podcast app, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play Music or wherever you listen. Or read a portion of the interview below, lightly edited for clarity.
EdSurge: Tell us a little bit about your book, which focuses quite a bit on the history of science.
Rudolph: I wrote an earlier book on the science education reform during the cold war, after Sputnik. The great thing about the postwar period is that scientists, with the atomic bomb and everything, have great archives of materials.
All these records and papers had been saved. Going through the letters of some of these scientists, there were some really rich conversations. As they began to look at what was going on in science classrooms, they zeroed in on the scientific method. They said, “What?” There is some very colorful language about the scientific method they teach in schools, and it caught my eye.
I'm thinking to myself, “There's something about the process of science—or how science is done that seems really important to them.” I began to look at how has the process of science or the scientific method been taught going back to when science first appeared in schools in the early 1800s to the present. And it turned out to be a really interesting story about tensions between professional educators and scientists who said, “No, that's not how science is done. This is how science is done,” and back and forth over the last 130 or 140 years.
It turns out there's a lot to be interested in—or concerned about—regarding how we teach the process of science to students.
What are some of those lessons from the past that can inform our present?
In the early or middle 1800s, science was brought in as an information subject—i.e., we should teach it because it’s a utilitarian, useful thing. Science was then taught as the facts of the world. Learn these facts, and you'll be able to do things. That was the justification for why it was in schools.
That shifted in the late 1800s, as these scientists came back from Europe. They said, students should work in laboratories and do science to learn science. That was the beginning of the laboratory method.
Once education grew and more students went to school, science education wasn’t for such a select group of students. It was for the masses. Along comes John Dewey who says science should be used in everyday life: He introduced what is commonly thought of as the scientific method. There's a problem, you gather evidence, you come to a conclusion.
It matters whether the method is something that students think anyone can do, or if it's something that’s just the province of experts in the scientific research fields. This was the challenge, the struggle that happened in the post-war period. The scientists said the five-step scientific method is not an accurate description of how science works, and it gives the public the impression that anybody can do science.
Another lesson is this notion that ever since that time period, there was always this view that the best way to teach science was to have students do science—this notion that science pedagogy should be the same thing as the process of science.
That's been problematic—as I show in the book—because almost no teachers, high school or middle school teachers, have actually done science. They’re not scientists. They've have no expertise in scientific research, and yet they're supposed to lead students through the process of science. They revert to teaching, almost by rote, these steps of a scientific method.
But if you take away students from doing science, is there a risk of making it inaccessible, considering you write in the book that you still need a lot of public support for science?
I don't think that I would argue that you take students away from doing science. I think that that shouldn’t be the only avenue to understanding science. I think there are larger things to learn about science—the big ideas, the theories, the way we think the world works. Part of that learning can come from the students doing science.
I think we need to broaden what we teach students about how science works.
Think about macro-evolutionary change. You don't do an experiment to demonstrate that. You gather indirect evidence. You make arguments from historical patterns in fossil data or biogeographic distributions. That’s a different way of doing science.
This is the problem we run into with climate change issues. There's not a way to easily demonstrate, “Oh, I can prove, through doing an experiment, that climate change is happening and humans are causing it.”
What I would argue for is having students participate or do some of these things but have a range of methods of science, and to understand that different phenomena use different types of scientific methodologies and techniques, and appreciate then that science is many things, not just one thing. I think that’s an important lesson to learn.
In the conclusion, you wrote that economic concerns also influenced what's being taught in science, and now there's a big push for college and career readiness. Can you talk about how that influences what's actually being taught in the classroom?
You have this push now with the Next Generation Science Standards. There's definitely a focus on wanting students to engage in the process of science. At the same time, just look at the world we live in, with the increase in income inequality and parents wanting to give their kids a leg up. So schools are all about, “Oh, we want to offer more science classes, more AP classes.”
You've got the pressure from state agencies, so you have states and districts focused on student achievement-test scores. When you look at students, they want to take X number of AP classes, not because they want to develop a deep understanding of what science is, but because they want to gather these credentials that’ll increase their admission chances to the elite colleges they want to get into.
It leads to a shift to focus on content knowledge because it’s easy to assess. It’s very difficult to test students’ understanding of how science works—the process of science.
Is teaching subjects like climate change going to be a hard sell in today's world, where there's something of a mistrust of science?
It's going to be a hard sell for a couple of reasons. There have been some studies done of how science teachers themselves understand climate change, and they don't always have a complete grasp of where that information has come from and how that science works. It's a challenge, always, to get from what the scientists know or what we think should be taught into classrooms across the country.
Then you have this false balanced treatment, where teachers sense the notion of: This is controversial; I need to be careful about what I say. A lot of times, the political authority and control comes from local school districts, and so those teachers need to be careful about how they approach these things. Otherwise kids go home and tell their parents. It’s the same problem we ran into with teaching evolution in the schools.
What can an individual teacher do to rethink science instruction and the way that it's taught in their classroom?
Take the population as a whole—all the students in your classes. Think about how many actually go to college, how many graduate from college and how many major in science. The numbers tail off quickly, and you get maybe 10 percent or fewer of those students that are sitting in class who are going to have any appreciable deep future in science.
What do you do with the other 80 or 90 percent of the students? You need to think of a different way of teaching science than thinking, “I need to prepare them for college science,” which typically ends up being a lot of content memorization.
I think teachers should do what they can to think about, “What does a citizen or a member of the general public need to understand?” And I think that has more to do with how science works than with the content of the scientific disciplines.
Stephen Noonoo (@stephenoonoo) is K-12 editor at EdSurge where he frequently works with contributing writers. Reach him at stephen@edsurge.com.
The EdSurge Podcast
The New Jim Code? Race and Discriminatory Design
By Rebecca Koenig
Can Anyone Be an Inventor? Why MIT’s Invention Education Officer Says Yes
By Emily Tate
Loophole—or Fraud? How Far Parents Go to Save on College
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New Consortium Hopes to Raise Profile of Rural Schools
By Diette Courrégé Casey — November 18, 2013 1 min read
An Idaho-based family foundation has launched a new consortium to identify best practices, support innovations, and research national trends in rural education.
The J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation has funded the new Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho. According to the consortium, the nation’s education reform movement has focused primarily on low-income urban students, and little has been done to advance the understanding of how to help rural schools’ diverse populations.
“Rural schools educate almost as many children as big city schools, but they haven’t received anything like the same level of attention from policymakers, the public, or educational innovators,” said Paul Hill, who will chair the consortium’s advisory group, in a statement. “I hope ROCI puts rural education on the map.”
Hill is a research professor at the University of Washington and founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. The advisory group will meet semi-annually to do research related to rural education.
The consortium has identified nine focus areas, and those include: rural education and federal policy; higher education access; school finance; innovations in technology; recruiting high-quality educators; policy and regulatory constraints; migration patterns and their effect; economic returns on investment in education; and rural charter schools.
The consortium plans to study rural Idaho programs that could be scaled nationally, but they also plan to reflect on rural issues nationwide. Its task force of nine education leaders from across the country will do its research.
“We believe rural schools can be a better place for innovation because of their close relationships with and support from the community, as well as their ability to mobilize and respond quickly to needs, but we want to know for sure,” said Jamie MacMillan, executive director of the Albertson Foundation, in a statement. “Our foundation’s board believes Idaho can be a national leader—a model in closing the achievement gap for students who might have disadvantaged backgrounds and circumstances.”
Diette Courrégé Casey
Diette Courrégé Casey formerly wrote for Education Week.
A version of this news article first appeared in the Rural Education blog.
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Emirates ID can be used as health insurance card
Published Wednesday, March 08, 2017
The Emirates ID is steadily consolidating its function as a one-stop source of multi-purpose transactions, something that has always been envisaged as its core purpose, said a UAE daily.
In an editorial on Wednesday, the Gulf News said, "As a primary means of personal identification and identity verification for all residents in the country, the Emirates ID now crosses one more milestone as it begins to replace the health insurance card for six insurance companies, to begin with. On Monday, the Dubai Health Authority announced the new move, projecting that eventually, all insurance companies will be aligned with this purpose.
The paper continued, "This is in keeping with the vision of the government that the Emirates ID will work as a facilitator of services and functions across the spectrum, thus leading to time-efficient processes. It is already in use for verification during transactions such as paying utility bills, fines, registering of vehicles, dealing with phone connections and internet use, as well as being used for immigration clearance at the airport. Some banks are also accepting the Emirates ID as a debit card and eventually, it is also primed to be used instead of a driving licence.
"With the latest symbiosis between the Emirates ID and health insurance, the authorities are ensuring that the organic progression of a smart government is on track. This integration of services has a double advantage, it enables the government to collate data on every resident across a range of fields making the national database invaluable in its function and it vastly enhances customer satisfaction as by using just one card, as opposed to carrying many pieces of plastic, they can conduct a range of transactions more speedily.
"In short, this increasing convergence of functions in Emirates ID is leading to a win-win situation."
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Jervoise Bay complex set to lift WA industry (Part 1)
On the shores of Cockburn Sound, just 25km south of Perth, one of the most remarkable development projects ever undertaken in Australia is rapidly taking shape. Even now, only months away from completion, it is arguable that many in industry are still not aware of how important the Australian Marine Complex at Jervoise Bay will be to them and to Western Australia.
Region > Australia
Put simply, Perth will soon have on its doorstep the largest marine engineering and fabrication complex in the country. Australian industry will have ready access to world-class infrastructure for the fabrication, assembly and maintenance of large scale components for domestic and international projects. One of the greatest impediments to local industry competing on the world stage will be removed.
Even before the selection last month of a preferred tenderer to manage the facility, smart companies have been incorporating it in their tendering for major projects and lining up to book space.
For a total investment of around $200 million, shared between the state and federal governments, Perth will have a facility that is predicted to generate $200 million of fabrication and engineering work a year. It is expected to create at least 1000 direct fulltime jobs as well as 2000-3000 indirect jobs in the support sector, on top of the numbers who will be employed on specific projects at the complex.
Much of the initial focus at the Jervoise Bay complex will be on the potential for the burgeoning oil and gas industry, such as the manufacture of offshore structures, gas processing facilities and the like. But the facility will be able to accommodate the manufacture of other large structures such as pressure vessels, ship fit-outs and many more uses – it’s likely that the facilities will be used over the coming years for projects that have not yet even occurred to those behind the development.
The new complex, built around the new Jervoise Bay Southern Harbour and covering a total of 180 hectares of waterfront and adjacent land, lies immediately south of the state’s world-famous Henderson shipbuilding precinct that includes the high speed aluminium ferry builder Austal Ships, luxury yacht builder Oceanfast and the Tenix maritime facility that builds a range of tugs, ferries, passenger catamarans and offshore support vessels.
Befitting the importance of the development, the work now being carried out and still to come at Jervoise Bay is on an impressive and awe-inspiring scale. When complete, what has been for the last decade an almost unused waterfront area will offer outstanding facilities for the fabrication and contracting industry –
* a fully serviced common user laydown area of 40ha (due for completion in December this year);
* a 3000 tonne capacity loadout wharf (September this year);
* an awesome assembly hall, the height of a 12 storey building, that moves on bogeys for under-cover work (March 2003); and
* associated 15,000t capacity heavy lift wharf (January 2003).
The assembly hall, measuring 80m by 80m, will have a 150t capacity portal crane with 50t auxiliary unit as well as two overhead cranes with 30m of internal clearance. The 40ha waterfront site will also have associated services and other facilities and 127m long wharf for the fitout and refit of large marine vessels, and on the land side a heavy, wide load road network leading to other metropolitan and regional industrial centres.
Dredging and breakwater construction already completed has created a 10m deep channel and sheltered harbour with a maximum depth of 12.7m suitable particularly for heavy lift ships, semi-submersibles and barges.
Backing the waterfront area will be a new industrial estate comprising 1ha to 10ha “super lots” for related industries and, in subsequent stages, a specialised technology park and skills training centre that will provide facilities for high technology research, development and training support for the many industries that will be using the complex.
Altogether, the Australian Marine Complex will cover more than 500ha. Ross Marshall, the project director for the joint WA Department of Industry and Technology/LandCorp project, believes there is nothing else quite like it in the world. It is certainly the only common-user fabrication complex of its size that is government owned and operated, running under a strictly open-access regime.
“This is one of the few complexes around the world that is not owned by a company that is trying to get work for itself,” Marshall said. “Our focus at Jervoise Bay will be to get work for everybody.”
Since the first workers moved onto the site in November 2000, the project has proceeded with remarkable smoothness. Phil Harlow, the Jervoise Bay project manager (Sinclair Knight Merz), said the project had passed many of its risk hurdles on schedule and within budget.
Sinclair Knight Merz, the international engineering, planning and project management group, has been involved in the project since 1998, initially providing engineering advice before being appointed as the project manager in October 1999.
The initial contracts were for the creation of an island breakwater and dredging of the channel that will allow ships of up to 150,000 deadweight tonnes capacity in ballast. Ships will approach the harbour from the south, utilising a series of channels that links to the Port of Fremantle’s Outer Harbour area at Naval Base-Kwinana.
The dredging was carried out by Dredeco using the trawler suction dredge Orwell for the channels and the cutter suction dredge Wombat in the harbour basin. The work was done to a tight deadline for environmental reasons – no dredging was permitted in summer because of the risk of stimulating algal blooms. In addition, silt curtains were used to prevent silt escaping from the dredging site into the seagrass areas in the southern part of Cockburn Sound.
One of the vital issues for development of the Jervoise Bay site was protection for the harbour. The lack of protection from ocean swells severely limited the viability of the offshore facilities wharf – the sheet pile wharf was built originally by John Holland for Woodside’s North Rankin platform but has been rarely used in recent years.
Part 2 continued tomorrow.
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Contact EJN Secretariat
Home > News > COVID-19 - Provisional changes in the area of international judicial cooperation in response to the pandemic.
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Convention of 29 May 2000 on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between the Member States of the European Union
Council Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA on 13 June 2002 on joint investigation teams (JIT)
Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA of 13 June 2002 on the European Arrest Warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States
Council Framework Decision 2009/299/JHA of 26 February 2009 amending Framework Decisions 2002/584/JHA, 2005/214/JHA, 2006/783/JHA, 2008/909/JHA and 2008/947/JHA, thereby enhancing the procedural rights of persons and fostering the application of the principle of mutual recognition to decisions rendered in the absence of the person concerned at the trial
Council Framework Decision 2003/577/JHA of 22 July 2003 on the execution in the European Union of orders freezing property or evidence
Council Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA of 24 February 2005 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to financial penalties
Council Framework Decision 2006/783/JHA of 6 October 2006 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to confiscation orders
Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA of 27 November 2008 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal matters imposing custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty
Council Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA of 27 November 2008 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments and probation decisions with a view to the supervision of probation measures and alternative sanctions
Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA of 26 February 2009 on the organisation and content of exchange of information extracted from the criminal record between Member States
Council Framework Decision 2009/829/JHA of 23 October 2009 on the application, between Member States of the European Union, of the principle of mutual recognition to decisions on supervision measures as an alternative to provisional detention.
Council Framework Decision 2009/948/JHA of 30 November 2009 on prevention and settlement of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings
2011/99/EU: Directive on the European Protection Order of 13 December 2011
2014/41/EU: Directive regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters of 3 April 2014
Regulation (EU) 2018/1805 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 on the mutual recognition of freezing and confiscation orders
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EU Presidency
02/12/2020 - - EJN
COVID-19 - Provisional changes in the area of international judicial cooperation in response to the pandemic.
Several Member States have imposed strict restrictions to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Therefore, in an effort to continue with the cross-border investigations and to ensure the most efficient response, several EU Member States have taken measures in the area of international cooperation in criminal matters. The EJN Secretariat is compiling this information and making it accessible for the EJN Contact Points and other Judicial authorities under the Covid-19: judicial cooperation area.
UNODC Compilation: Communications from Central Authorities around the world on the health Crisis caused by COVID-19 for measures related to the application of non-EU legal instruments – update ongoing. Last updated 02 December 2020
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Performances by Shruti Haasan, Taba Chake, Prateek Kuhad and more on the DEWAR’S Stage to double up the fun at BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender
It’ll also host live gigs by Lifafa, Rashmeet Kaur and Popchu in this year’s digital edition
The DEWAR’S Stage is all set to double up the happiness at India’s happiest music festival – BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender, this weekend. The brand is no stranger to putting together immersive music experiences with artists across genres and schools of music, as showcased in its beloved and critically acclaimed DEWARISTS. In this year’s virtual edition of BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender, it’ll showcase artists and sounds across indie folk, dance, electronica, pop, Sufi and more, keeping up with its legacy.
Headlined by singer and actress, Shruti Haasan, the DEWAR’S Stage will also host performances by dance/electronica sensation Lifafa, and the beloved songwriter and singer, and DEWARISTS sensation courtesy his track with Ankur Tewari, ‘Dil Beparvah,’ Prateek Kuhad. Taba Chake, the multilingual singer-songwriter, fingerstyle guitar player, performer and dreamer from Doimukh, a small town in Arunachal Pradesh will also be performing on the DEWAR’S Stage alongside musician Popchu.
Singer-songwriter, Prateek Kuhad said, “The first time I played with my band at NH7 Weekender was in Pune in 2013-14 on The Dewarists Stage. Fond memories and looking forward to celebrating with everyone virtually!”
“I have always wanted to be a part of the BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender family. After so many years, finally it has happened now, and it feels great! It is a festival like no other in our country. The next stop will be to perform live at one of their amazing stages, once the world goes back to normal. I am also thrilled to be performing on the DEWAR’S stage as they always have an incredibly well-curated line up. They have done it again this year. I will be performing alongside some of the best artists in the world. Super excited for the 5th and the 6th of December!” said Taba Chake, on his first performance on DEWAR’S stage and at the festival.
Sharing her excitement to perform at the festival,Shruti Haasan said, “Really happy to be playing at a time like this and with nh7 most of all! It’s beautiful to see all the musicians even if it’s virtually and I feel so thankful to be able to perform and share my music!”
“We’ve had the privilege and great joy of hosting some of the country’s biggest musicians, as well as unique new sounds, genres and tracks by indie artists on the DEWAR’S stage. We’ve also hosted the most engaged audiences, not only through the music but also gourmet food and Highball experiences at The Doers Club doubling the joy. The DEWAR’S arena has always received an overwhelming response, with audiences jamming together, and this year, as we bring some of the most beloved artists to the viewers across the country in this digital avatar, more people will get a chance to tune in, and we couldn’t be happier to put this together!” said Vijay Dev,Consumer Marketing Lead – Whiskies at Bacardi
The virtual edition will give audiences a chance to tune in to the best of indie across indie folk, dance, electronica and more from the comfort of their homes on the 4th and 5th December.
Viewers can get the tickets on PayTM Insider to attend this year’s virtual BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender and check @nh7 as well as #DoubleIsBetter on Instagram to get all the latest updates.
Drumcode announces all-night event in Scotland
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Home News Costa de Almería Highly dangerous drug trafficking gang boss caught on Spain’s Costa Almeria
Highly dangerous drug trafficking gang boss caught on Spain’s Costa Almeria
Cathy Elelman
16 April 2020 @ 13:48
THE head of one of the most important criminal networks in Almeria is under arrest.
Police said 34-year-old CMGG was the leader of an organisation dedicated to drug trafficking on a large scale, and described him as “very violent” and “highly dangerous.”
Investigations into the Almeria-based group were launched last summer, revealing they were growing the drug in large amounts, as well as details of the criminal structure and who did what job.
In February’s ‘Operation Sinse,’ police made 15 arrests and seized 630 kilos of marihuana and €38,000 in cash in raids on nine properties. However, the 34-year-old gang boss managed to slip through the police net and his whereabouts were unknown.
Investigators had meanwhile concluded he was the one who pulled the trigger in a shooting in the provincial capital in early September, injuring a father and son. Police believe it has been a falling out between rivals over a claim on marihuana hidden on one of the organisation’s properties.
CMGG went everywhere armed, police said, and had the job of keeping an eye on the nine properties the criminals used as marihuana plantations and providing security to deter anyone from acting on suspicions about what was going on.
The nature of his work meant he was an elusive character, who continually changed his routine and operated under the assumption he was being watched 24 hours a day.
After two months of intensive and highly discreet police monitoring in different locations and at different hours of the day and night, the 34-year-old was detained in a property in the Cañada de San Urbano neighbourhood.
It also turned out that he had been keeping a woman with whom he’d been in a relationship with against her will, not letting her go outside alone.
When police went into the home he was living in they found a hiding space hidden under a pile of clothes and with access to a balcony.
When officers cuffed the suspect he did his best to fight them off, attacking a number of officers.
He is now in prison awaiting trial on charges of membership of a criminal gang, drug trafficking, defrauding the electricity supply, illegal ownership of a firearm, attempted homicide and illegal detention.
Previous articleWATCH VIDEO: Residents of Miraflores complex in Malaga Province sing from their balconies every night as Coronavirus pandemic grips the Costa del Sol
Next articleScorching Summers in Spain’s Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca May Slow Down The Coronavirus But It Won’t Eradicate It Completely
Cathy Elelman is the local writer for the Costa de Almeria edition of the Euro Weekly News.
Based in Mojacar for the last 21 years, Cathy is very much part of the local community and is always well and truly up on all the latest news and events going on in this region of Spain.
Her top goals are to do the best job she can informing the local English-speaking community, visitors to the area and the wider world about about the news in Almeria, to learn something new every day, and to embrace very new challenge this fast-changing world brings her way.
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Bill Winston Ministries
https://www.billwinston.org
Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, Dr. Winston was inspired and influenced for leadership by the numerous educators, scientists, and physicians who surrounded him as a youth, and by the historic aviation accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen who served as his role models. He is a graduate of the internationally known Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), in Tuskegee, Alabama, where Booker T. Washington’s and George Washington Carver’s legacies of leadership and invention permeated the environment.
Dr. Winston served for six years as a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, where his extraordinary achievements in aerial flight earned him The Distinguished Flying Cross, The Air Medal for performance in combat, and the Squadron Top Gun Award.
After completing his military service at the rank of captain, Dr. Winston joined the IBM Corporation as a marketing representative where his exceptional managerial and relational skills earned him several promotions. Before he resigned in 1985 to enter full-time ministry, he was a regional marketing manager in IBM’s Midwest Region.
He is the founder and senior pastor of Living Word Christian Center (LWCC), a multi-cultural, non-denominational church with more than 20,000 members located in Forest Park, Illinois, and Living Word Christian Center-Tuskegee, in Tuskegee, Alabama. LWCC has a broad range of ministries and related entities.
Dr. Winston is also the founder and president of the nationally accredited Joseph Business School (JBS), which teaches practical and biblical principles to empower adults to develop indispensable skills as successful entrepreneurs and business leaders. JBS is located in Forest Park, Illinois with partnership locations on five continents. The Joseph Business School also has an online program.
He is also the founder of Bill Winston Ministries (BWM), a partnership-based global outreach ministry. BWM produces the Believer’s Walk of Faith television and radio program reaching over 800 million households worldwide. Dr. Winston also has 882 national and international churches and ministries under his spiritual covering through Faith Ministries Alliance (FMA).
Dr. Winston’s ministry owns and operates two shopping malls, Forest Park Plaza, in Forest Park, and Washington Plaza in Tuskegee. He is also the founder and CEO of Golden Eagle Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) located at the historic Moton Field in Tuskegee.
billwinstonministries
Tweets by @DrBillWinston
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US and China reach phase one agreement!
Categories / Customs Brokerage, Freight Forwarding, International, Logistics News By Doug Meunier
After almost two years of ever-increasing tariff negotiations, the US and China have come to a preliminary “phase one” bilateral trade agreement. Key points of the agreement include agricultural exports from the US to China, intellectual property securities and both a reduction of current tariffs on the first three tranches of duties and a cancellation of the List 4B tariffs that were expected on December 15th. As it stands, there are a number of other issues to be hammered out as negotiations continue into the new year, but for now, it’s refreshing to see progress coming on the horizon.
China has agreed to purchase more than $200 billion in US goods over the next two years from manufacturing, energy and services. $50 billion of that figure is expected to come in the form of agriculture purchases in 2020, which has piqued analysts as that figure is more than twice the agriculture buys of China in 2017. Both sides have agreed to employ bilateral consultations to resolve disputes, including the removal of these tariff decreases in case the deal is not upheld.
Other parts include China easing pressure to hand over technology to access the Chinese market, an enhancement to China’s intellectual property protections and a promise by the Chinese government to not devalue their currency. While the notes are coming out regularly, we have not seen the actual agreement and must go by statements made from the USTR and other trade sources. Rumored to be more than 400 pages, there will be many more points to cover once it’s released. For now, it’s a good feeling that we didn’t face new tariffs on December 15th, and we’re awaiting the decrease on the first three lists which have caused havoc in markets as negotiations lingered.
Negotiations will proceed past the first phase will continue in the coming new year and as always, you can count on Everglory Logistics to have pertinent information ready. We’d like to wish all of our readers a very safe and happy holiday season! Thank you for making 2019 a great year for Everglory!
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Sundance Interview with Teeth Director Mitchell Lichtenstein
One of the films everyone was raving about at last year's Sundance Film Festival was the indie horror comedy Teeth. If you really need to be reminded about what the film involves, then why not: vagina dentata! A young girl in high school discovers she's got teeth "down there" and learns to use this to her advantage (guys and girls take note). A year ago at Sundance I caught up with the film's director, Mitchell Lichtenstein, and talked about all things Teeth and his inspirations, among many other things. Now a full year later just as the film is finally being released into movie theaters (on Friday, January 18th) and right before this year's Sundance kicks off, I present to you my interview with Mitchell Lichtenstein. Curious to know more about Teeth? I'm sure you are!
Mitchell Lichtenstein, who wrote and directed Teeth, is an up-and-coming indie filmmaker who prior to Teeth had only directed a short titled Resurrection. What I really love about movies like Teeth and directors like Mitchell is their very independent and free-spirited aspect. You'll see exactly what I mean later below when he talks about the freedom of using whatever actors he wanted, and it paid off, because in the end the film's star, Jess Weixler, won an Acting Award at Sundance. But besides all that, this is a fun, well-done, and hilarious horror comedy that I hope gains a cult following.
Is this your first time at Sundance?
Mitchell: Yes it is.
Are you enjoying it so far?
Mitchell: Oh, yea, it's been great. I'm not even quite aware that it's a film festival because I haven't had time to see anything except my movie, but after today I think I get a little time to really see what it is.
For the sake of those who aren't at Sundance, can you give a little explanation of the story of Teeth?
Mitchell: It's about a young women who discovers that she is anatomically unique. And that happens when her boyfriend gets violent with her and is 'punished' for it.
What was your reaction when you first heard that Teeth was accepted into the dramatic competition category here at Sundance?
Mitchell: Amazed. I was just amazed because we assumed it would go into the midnight, although I had higher aspirations for it. My focus of the movie is not on the gore and all that stuff, although I enjoy including that, but since we hadn't really shown it to anyone I was thrilled that [Sundance Programmers Geoffrey Gilmore] and [John Cooper] saw what else was in the movie. And their putting it into the competition kind of acknowledged that, I think. To be acknowledged in that way—and I really thought that they were seeing what the movie was, and so I'm so grateful for that. Because when you hear what the movie is about, most people would assume it's one thing, and it is that thing too [laughs]. But I think you have to approach it a different way once Sundance has blessed it with that competition.
Did you expect the buzz that's going around to be this big?
Mitchell: I didn't really think about it, I don't know. I guess, just the subject matter would get people talking, but I don't think people are talking just about the alarming subject, so if that's true, then I'm happy about that.
Have you heard any feedback so far from anyone at the fest?
Mitchell: Just you know, people… Women are coming up and saying that they think it's really an empowering thing and great. Because that was my intention, but as a man I'm not in a position to say I succeeded at that. So at least some people are saying that.
Yea, I've heard from some people that women have a lot stronger reaction to it or at least a differing opinion than men.
Mitchell: Yea. Although, [Jess Weixler], who plays Dawn, has had guys coming up on the street to her and going 'right on!' So I guess men are also… Yea, I don't know why! But they're getting off on it, too.
Did you have any inspiration behind the idea of the story and why you decided to make a film about vagina dentata?
Mitchell: Well I learned about this myth years ago in college, and it was just sort of percolating as the more I kind of read how there is such a pervasive myth in different cultures and different religions and then how other movies can be interpreted as referencing vagina dentata with more removed metaphors. And it seemed that by removing it to a further metaphor, like for example Aliens has been reviewed as being a vagina dentata reference, because it's a female monster and there's sort of teeth within teeth in there, and it's all happening within moist, dripping caves and tunnels.
And I thought, when you create a female monster, I think that comes from a male fear projected onto women. But if you go back to the original metaphor of a toothed vagina, then you're automatically, I think, showing that it says only something about men, and their attitude toward women. It doesn't have anything to do with the qualities of women. So I think it's interesting to go back to that and face that original metaphor. I don't think you could've done that in film until now just because of… I don't think people would show it.
There are a lot of horror aspects, comedic aspects, and various aspects in Teeth. Are there other films that you referenced for the various elements?
Mitchell: I'm sure subconsciously and just from what I've soaked up, but it really came out of: first, the 'what if' a girl had this condition, and then creating a character that did and the story came out of how she would deal with it. The mix of comedy and horror and stuff I think is just my aesthetic. But, I certainly recognize that Carrie is a model, because she learns about her power reaching puberty and it's connected to her sexuality and then it's a destructive power, but aimed toward people who, within the context of the movie, deserve it. But one big difference is that Carrie is destroyed in the end and Dawn will never be destroyed because she is not a monster. Carrie was a sympathetic monster but in this movie it's really not Dawn who is the monster.
How do you go about conveying the idea that she has vagina dentata without actually going down the pornographic realm of showing a 'snarling vagina' and using various aspects, like I remember there is scene where they're holding up the tooth. As the director, how do you convey this?
Mitchell: Well, we developed some pretty cringe-inducing [laughs] sounds for those moments. And then there was this great location outside of Austin, Texas, which is really what sold me on shooting down there, called Hamilton Pool. It's basically a big sink hole and the cliff above has a big overhang with real dental stalagmites, and it seemed so perfect as a way to show without showing this vagina dentata in nature, because that thing is formed by nature, it's a cave, it's a toothed lip. And as you say, the actual tooth that the coroner's talking about. That was just—I wanted to showing something physically related to that. But also all these movies, they must have the scene of the coroner talking to the police detective, so it's kind of tongue and cheek.
Now this just got picked up by Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company, so congratulations on that.
Mitchell: Thanks.
I was wondering, will you have to cut anything to get it down to an R level, or have there been any initial discussions on what the rating possibility will be.
Mitchell: Well we don't know what the rating thing would be, because we haven't submitted it, but I guess we kind of have to assume it would be above an R. And the reason I was thrilled to go with these guys, is that they were very enthusiastic about releasing it as it is. Other big places really had obligations to their company to release an R movie and I didn't want to do that.
I honestly think Lionsgate is the perfect choice. In watching this I'm thinking there is one company that needs to get this and it's Lionsgate, so I'm glad you're with them.
Mitchell: Yea, thanks!
[Update: Since this interview was completed, Lionsgate sold the distribution rights to Roadside Attractions and the film received an R rating for disturbing sequences involving sexuality and violence, language and some drug use.]
Can you explain a little bit about the casting process given there are a lot of little known actors, or better yet, how did you find these great actors and put them into this to create such a wonderful movie.
Mitchell: Well, Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee were they casting directors and we found everyone through them. But we were in a great position because it's completely independently financed we weren't required to use any name actors. I could just use the people that I loved. And that is really rare I think even in independent movies because there is almost always pressure to hire a name, especially if it's independent, because then that helps get it some attention. And luckily I didn't have to do that.
And Jess was just, I mean… It took a little—she was actually the first person that the casting directors thought of for the part, but reading the description or the script, she was weary of coming in and wouldn't come in, and finally she came in and read for a different part. And I just stopped her and said, you have to read this other part. She was trapped in the room so she had to read it [laughs]. And she was great. We had to just talk to her about my vision of the film and that it wasn't an exploitative thing and then she got on board and she was a great sport the whole way through.
Sort of as a wrap-up, now that you've got this done, is there anything else you have aspirations for working on in the future or any other projects?
Mitchell: Yea, I've written a couple of other scripts. They're very different. They're comedy-dramas or more pleasant.
Not as crazy as Teeth?
Mitchell: No, there's unfortunately no…
Well, I'd love to see you in the horror realm more often!
Mitchell: That would be fun! Well, there certainly is room for the continuing adventures of Dawn.
Sequels then, huh?
Mitchell: Yea. But, besides that, I've got other genre stuff. Not other genre stuff, but a little more stayed.
That reminded me, one last question about the end, where does she go from there? The car scene, what's next for her, does she conquer the world?
Mitchell: Well yea, that's the sequel. But she has to run off and she pretty much has to be in hiding because her deeds have now been discovered and there's lots more work for her to do [wink, wink].
Thank you to Mitchell Lichtenstein for the interview! As I'm getting ready to gear up and head out to Sundance again, Teeth is finally ready to hit theaters. Roadside Attractions is putting it out in theaters this upcoming Friday, January 18th, so check your local listings! You won't want to miss it!!
Find more posts: Indies, Interview
Reader Feedback - 8 Comments
Saw this in the fall at Starz Film Fest in Denver. Was hilarious and cringe inducing.
Heckle on Jan 15, 2008
vagina with teeth is kinda freaky
Darrin on Jan 15, 2008
Google "vagina dentata" for some related reading 🙂
avoidz on Jan 15, 2008
Isn't there a movie from the UK called "Angst" that has this same exact premise?
Dane on Jan 28, 2008
What a nice guy! Mitchell Lichtenstein is a very bright guy. I loved his work as an acotr too in films like The lords of discipline, Streamers (by Robert Altmann) and unforgettable The wedding banquet, by Ang Lee. I sincerely hope to see more of him as an actor or director in the future!
Mauricio on Apr 11, 2008
great concept, incredibly poor delivery. easily the worst film i have ever seen. completely cliched, poorly acted, and not funny at all.
anonymous on Oct 17, 2009
My Name is Vicki Carter Lemons, and I need to talk to anybody that will interview me, be cause I am the real Writer of TEETH, I have been trying to figure out how and who to talk to, I have a copy of the book, and I agree with the anonymous person, if they had wrote it like I had wrote it, should have been a Horror Movie, I gave my sister Regina Lewis Morris my book to be typed and ; never gotten it back and My Daughter went to Block Busters and saw it and I ask my sister about my book she said she never had it or never heard of it, My Mama told me to get it patten, but I wanted to wait til it was taped, I dont think its fair, that Mitchell Lichtenstein has got all the credit and the Money for whats mine, I have been trying to get in touch with the man Alex Billington the one that interviewed Mitchell, so I can tell what made me write it and ask me some questions, think about it what made him come up with a movie like that, I had reasons to write, My email for a interview is lemonsv62@gmail.com I have proof copies test the paper see how old it is, read the paper after seeing his version, Mitchell Lichtenstein is a BIG FAT LAIR ITS MY BOOK.
Vicki Carter Lemons on Jun 5, 2012
Ask anyone I know ITS MINE, sorry Mitchell did not write the book and it hurts to know hes getting credit for it, I tried writing Oprah went on her site join the book club trying to see if she could help me , Ive went on Dr. Phil site Im not giving up, I just cant give up, GOD KNOWS I WROTE THAT BOOK.
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Archived news (8)
News items published in the second half of 2017
The Times reported yesterday that a controlling interest in Forest Holidays (FH) has been bought by another private equity company, Phoenix Equity Partners. They will own just over 50% of FH with the rest held by LDC (part of Lloyd's Banking Group), FH's management and the Forestry Commission.
FH claimed that the private equity firm's investment would allow it to press ahead with developing at least 5 new sites over the coming five years. These will include two in Wales where they already have planning permission and one in the Scottish borders where an application has been submitted. Of course, all these sites are part of the Public Forest Estate and are likely to be developed on a 125-year lease.
In a memorably bullish statement FH's chief executive, referring to the company's planned expansion said: “The commission has one million hectares of forest in Great Britain so we’ve got plenty to keep us going for many years to come.”
What are the implications of this for Fineshade? It all depends on whether the Forestry Commission, in the face of so much opposition and despite strong counter arguments, still see Fineshade as a suitable site for this sort of holiday development. A scoping exercise was carried out during the summer of 2017 but we have been told that no decision has yet been taken about Fineshade's future. The threat to Fineshade Wood from an apparently revitalised Forest Holidays is greater than ever.
Forest Holidays sold in £110m deal
Wild Horizons is a society for young people aged 18-30 embarking on a career in wildlife conservation or with a general love of the natural world. Based in Rutland, members have the opportunity to be part of a wildlife-focused social network, while gaining knowledge and experience. They have access to mentors with a variety of expertise through connections with the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust and Rutland Natural History Society.
On Saturday members of the group joined some of the Friends of Fineshade for a walk to some of the less visited areas of the wood. The aim was to "See both the Wood and the Trees", looking at features of the wood itself and also some of the individual trees and wildlife. We discussed the way in which this publicly-owned forest is managed by the Forestry Commission, who have the tricky task of balancing its use for recreation, with the need to produce timber and foster biodiversity. We looked at a range of types of woodland: 45 year-old Corsican Pine plantations contrasting with true ancient woodland, old coppice coups, mature oak plantations, naturally regenerating areas, glades and managed rides. We talked about dormice and kites, grasses and deer. Lots of fungi were seen and the picture on the left shows the group enjoying the way some puffball fungi could be encouraged to puff out clouds of brown spores.
You can find out more about Wild Horizons here.
The latest expert naturalist to visit Fineshade was Steve Lane from Norfolk. Steve's particular expertise is identifying beetles and last week he showed us how, even during the winter, it's possible to find an enormous range and number of insects and other invertebrates. The picture shows Steve about to cut the top off a tussock. He then up-ended it over the sieve and knocked scores of tiny creatures out. Many could be identified there and then, while others were taken away to study under a microscope. There were ground beetles, rove beetles, springtails, millipedes, tiny snails, harvestmen, weevils and even a glow-worm larva. Many of the species have only Latin names and an enormous list was recorded during the day. All the records will be sent to the Northants Biological Records Centre and, of course, to the Forestry Commission's ecologists.
One of the joys of recording in Fineshade for naturalists like Steve is that the wood is very under-recorded, so you never know quite what will turn up. We welcome as much expert help as possible in our quest to uncover the full richness of biodiversity that is undoubtedly here.
Updated 13 December
Steve's list included 61 species of beetles. Of these four are Nationally Scarce, one may be the the first Northants record and one Steve himself had never seen before. There were also 8 spider species and 2 harvestmen. One of the latter is also Nationally Scarce and we found at three Fineshade locations. A total of 88 species for the day, almost all of which had not been recorded in Fineshade before.
Wild Horizons visit Fineshade
Another expert naturalist visits
Back in April the latest application by Forest Holidays and the Forestry Commission to build a holiday village in Delamere Forest was unanimously rejected by the local council. (Read about it here.) Almost exactly six months on, the company and FC say they are going to appeal against that decision. (Details in the Chester Chronicle here). A previous application had been ruled out by the then Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, on grounds that it was inappropriate development within the green belt.
Just as at Fineshade, there has been considerable local opposition to the plan. Local campaigner Nigel Gilding said "we should question the ethics of both Forest Holidays and certainly the Forestry Commission in their refusal to listen and abide by various democratic processes, including a four day public inquiry into the matter".
We wonder whether the decision to appeal at Delamere came about as part of the portfolio analysis of potential Forest Holidays sites being carried out this summer. (Details 16th May below) Or perhaps it is more to do with trying to impress potential bidders for Forest Holidays. (See 21 September ) Whatever the reasoning it is clear that once again the Forestry Commission's reputation is being tarnished by its association with Forest Holidays.
Forest Holidays launch an appeal at Delamere
If you've walked in Westhay Wood, the southern part of Fineshade during the past week you'll have certainly noticed that the verges of the main tracks have had their yearly trim. All the grassy rides have had their central section cut too. Early autumn, when most of the wild flowers are over, is certainly the best time to carry out this mowing. This is all part of the Forestry Commission's plan to manage the rides in this part of the wood for the benefit of wildlife.
In the winter of 2015-16 most of the rides in Westhay were widened. We wrote about this here (Three cheers for the Commission) and here (Westhay - too much, too fast). We had strong reservations about the method used, but "the principle of widening the rides was a very good one and will, no doubt, be to the long-term benefit of Fineshade’s wildlife." These widened rides are now to be re-cut on a four-year cycle, so later this year about a quarter of the rides will have their entire width cut once again.
You can see the Forestry Commission's video explaining their ride-management techniques here. And on the ground, in Fineshade, we can see these techniques being carried out and a more varied woodland landscape gradually taking shape.
Mowing the verges and rides
Forest Holidays (FH) has been put up for sale by its private equity owners. The company is largely owned by LDC, the private equity arm of the Lloyds Banking Group which acquired its stake in 2012. The Forestry Commission (FC) still retains a minority share (20%) in the company but, in the 2012 agreement there is a "drag and tag" clause which means that the FC would have to sell to the same bidders if LDC tell them to. If that happens FC would lose its place on the board of Forest Holidays and would have no influence at all over the management of the leased land - the Public Forest Estate.
So who might be interested in acquiring Forest Holidays, which now operates nine sites on the Public Forest Estate? Well it seems that Center Parcs may be interested, along with other private equity firms. (There are various news reports of the sale e.g. http://www.newsr.in/n/Business/75efe1pzy/Center-Parcs-vies-with-private-equity-firms-in.htm). Readers with very long memories may recall that, 25 or more years ago, Center Parcs were looking seriously at the possibility of acquiring Westhay Wood (the southern part of Fineshade) for one of their holiday camp locations.
What might be the implications for Fineshade of the sale of Forest Holidays? Will the new owners be even keener to exploit woodland areas with rich biodiversity such as Fineshade? It seems unlikely that they will be content to make money from the existing portfolio of nine sites, so small wonder that the Forestry Commission have been carrying out a national scoping exercise to create a new list of suitable sites for development. Perhaps FC have realised that there really are at least 15 reasons to take Fineshade off that list? It surely won't add to the value of the FH shares if buyers see that FC are including such an unsuitable site as Fineshade to the portfolio of potential sites. And, since FC must be keen to enhance the value of their own share-holding, you'd expect that Fineshade will no longer feature on that list. All may be revealed sooner or later - hopefully sooner, so that Fineshade Wood and its stakeholders can move out from under the dark threat of holiday development and into a brighter future.
For sale - Forest Holidays
The Forestry Commission is currently advertising an interesting business opportunity based at Fineshade - they are looking for "a learning partner to deliver curriculum-linked activities". More details are here on the FC website
This certainly exemplifies the changed economic climate in which the Commission is now forced to operate. In former years, it was specialist FC staff who were responsible for providing educational activities and support here, and the wooden camping shelters and the woodland itself were part of the freely available facilities for groups to use. Austerity-driven staff cuts have changed all that, so FC is now proposing to contract-out these activities and facilities. They will charge businesses for operating in this way on the public forest estate, so that there will be an income to the FC and, no-doubt, a profit for the business. And, of course, it is those experiencing the education, the consumers themselves, who will inevitably end up paying more. Or perhaps a not-for-profit organisation will come forward and seek a deal with the Commission?
Would this result in more and higher quality education? We certainly agree with FC that "Fineshade Wood offers a fantastic learning opportunity for people of all ages and abilities, combining hands-on education with ideas for active minds". But, and there is a caveat, there is still the threat that Fineshade may become a holiday camp for Forest Holidays. Prospective learning partners will, no doubt, expect clarity from FC about this - it is high time top FC managers removed this threat to Fineshade once and for all.
Education and Bushcraft
Wednesday 30th August
Tom Pursglove, MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, has always been keen to protect Fineshade Wood from inappropriate development by Forest Holidays. He wrote recently:
"Fineshade was incorrectly designated in the first place as being suitable for commercial development. The list of sites is being reviewed again this summer, meaning that the threat of development could be lifted once and for all, which would be fantastic news for Fineshade and our local area - something I wholeheartedly support."
This week Tom wrote to Ian Gambles, the Director of Forestry Commission England asking him to review our concerns and seeking a meeting to ensure that FC do indeed remove Fineshade from their list of sites for future commercial development. We very much look forward to seeing Mr Gambles' reply and are most grateful to Tom for his continuing support.
Intervention by our MP
A year ago the Rutland Natural History Society (RNHS) visit was cancelled because of the extreme heat. During this morning's visit there was very little sunshine so butterflies and crickets were not out in big numbers but, even so, the delightful Silver-washed Fritillaries were seen and a large colony of Roesel's Bush Crickets located by ace orthopterist, Phil Rudkin.
The group walked away from the main tracks in the open-access areas to the north of Fineshade Wood appreciating the different types of woodland habitat: true Ancient Woodland, plantation on Ancient Woodland, managed glades and regenerating former conifer plantation. The Gullets, with their swallow holes provoked great interest, but it was the open glades that provided most wildlife interest.
Members of RNHS had played an important part in opposing the Forest Holidays application, so they were pleased to see the impressive habitat still flourishing in Dumb Bob Spinney which would have been changed into a car park, children's playground, shop and reception area if the application had been approved.
Rutland Naturalists at Fineshade
Saturday 5th August
Butterfly Conservation at Fineshade
Today the local branch of Butterfly Conservation (BC) met at Top Lodge for a field trip led by Douglas Goddard, together with county recorder David James. (Details here)
This was a great opportunity to learn more about butterflies and to identify more of them. On last year's walk, 18 species were seen but this year there were 20. This included 2 Small Skipper, 12 Large Skipper, 1 Brimstone, 1 Large White, 3 Small White, at least 2 Purple Hairstreaks, 1 White-letter Hairstreak, 1 Brown Argus, 2 Common Blue, 5 Red Admiral, 1 Painted Lady, 2 Peacock, 2 Comma, , 4 Speckled Wood, 1 Marbled White, 7 Gatekeeper, 5 Meadow Brown, 5 Ringlet and 1 Small Heath. But the definite highlight was provided by 23 Silver-washed Fritillaries. David was even able to find some eggs of the fritillaries on the trunk of an ash tree.
A very small percentage of female Silver-washed Fritillaries emerge as a different form with olive-brown wings. Referred to as valezina this form is beginning to be seen in the south of Northants but never in Fineshade - until today when a specimen of this unusual form caused great delight.
Another exciting find was the first record of a Spotted Flycatcher in Fineshade this year. This is one of the priority species for the Back from the Brink Project and the newly appointed project officer, Susannah O'Riodan was there to see it too. So all-in-all a very successful morning!
It's hard to find words to describe the feelings of dismay when news reached us of the new fire started by someone inside the trunk of one of Fineshade's oldest trees. We've described the magnificent beech before here, and here. It stands on the King's Cliffe side of the wood and has occupied a special place in the memories of people in that village for hundreds of years.
Recently someone deliberately lighted a fire in the trunk of the tree, charring and enlarging the space that was there before. Many people in 'Cliffe have expressed their outrage at this act of mindless vandalism (see the Kings Cliffe Community Facebook page) and there are various suggestions as to how the tree can be made secure to save it from further damage. For the moment the Forest Commission have installed motion sensitive cameras with the aim of deterring and detecting any further criminal acts.
Desecration of "Cathedral Tree"
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