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July 14, 2014 by nataliedonna87 1 Comment
The unconscious mind enters a dreamscape world, set against the backdrop of a dystopian society in a post-apocalyptic world where a struggle exists between alien hybrids and humans. The edgy sweetness of a seductive and hypnotic female voice accompanied with electronic sounds and live instrumentation, and hauntingly powerful lyrics take us on a journey into this science-fiction like fantasy world filled with darkness and a land of “shadow”.
This imaginary dream world is the definitive music video “Shadow” from the ultramodern rock group, Auradrone, the brainchild of the highly versatile, Jon Mack, actress, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. A natural born performer, Mack began acting at the tender age of five on stage, before making her onscreen debut in 1999’s Emmy Award-winning biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (aka. Face of an Angel) starring Halle Berry, where she portrayed legendary Hollywood icon Ava Gardner. It was this breakout performance that launched Mack’s career. Having appeared in numerous films including Saw XI, Spiders 3D, Straight A’s opposite Luke Wilson, and 2012’s Playing For Keeps with Gerard Butler as a smitten housewife, the highly talented Mack proves that she is not a one-trick pony.
In 2007, having formed the “ever changing, ever evolving” Auradrone, the electronic rock group which is fronted by Mack herself, she has taken her career in the entertainment industry to a whole new level. Since forming Auradrone, Mack has gone on to release three albums beginning with the self-released debut album Whitelite Britelite in 2009,which received an overwhelming response, followed by the remix album Whitelite Britelite: Rehabilitated, and most recently Bleeding Edge (2011).
As talented as she is beautiful, Mack is indeed an enigmatic force when it comes to performing. In fact, Mack can be considered as the female equivalent of The Cure’s Robert Smith, a mantle which Mack proudly wears. She oozes sex appeal, charisma and a rock n’ roll attitude, through her tasteful lyrics and gritty, sensuous voice.
In an intimate and revealing interview from her studio in Los Angeles, Mack exudes an “aura” of inner peace, placidity, genuine warmth, authenticity, and true beauty both inside and out. Mack is truly a captivating, alluring and inspiring artist. As a multi-talented performer, it is Mack’s uniqueness and vision as a true artist that has ultimately put her on the “edge” of phenomenal success.
Natalie: Jon, it is clear that from a very early age that you were destined to be a performer. In fact, as a young child you taught yourself to sing and play guitar. Growing up, were there any creative influences, for example individuals, who inspired or motivated you to pursue your own artistic endeavours?
Jon: Yeah. First of all, I love David Bowie from the time that I was a little girl. I always liked how he was both an actor and a musician and a performer, and just this whole, you know, not just one thing, but an artist, a visionary. My mother was a big fan, so I grew up listening to him, and the whole experience of him. I think he was just amazing to me and he seemed so unique. So, I think he was the first one to really affect me that way, I would say. He comes to my mind right away. But [there’s] so many others. I mean, Bjork and people like this. I grew up on their music, and they always seemed so interesting and cutting-edge, and pushed the envelope, too. I think those kind of artists always inspired me.
Natalie: Having grown up on a small family farm in Rochester, Michigan and having no siblings, would you say that this ultimately encouraged you to find alternative means to entertain yourself? And as such, did being an only child lend itself to you finding creative means to express yourself?
Jon: I’d say for sure. Yes. That’s probably why I had that reaction right away, because it’s definitely a factor in it. It’s interesting, because when I was a child I didn’t realize how unusual the situation it was to grow up as an only child on a big piece of land. I was kind of very connected to the land. I didn’t grow up in the city, but I always wanted to move to the city. I think I had seen so much opportunity, and the energy and the buzz of the city always fascinated me. But I think that it was a very good time for me as a child, because I got to go into my mind and into my imagination a lot more. Especially nowadays, kids have so many more distractions. I think it’s easy as an artist to have that as a young person, to have that openness and vastness, because I think that it lets your personality come out more. So, I definitely think it plays in it too, for sure. I like that. I think there’s something to be said for that, living close to the land when you’re young. Nowadays it seems like it’s more rare. I think it’s a gift if you see it that way, for sure.
Natalie: Jon, your mother was an actress herself who worked as a theatre director. When you were only five years old, she cast you in your first play. Obviously at such a tender age, you may not recall a great deal from this experience. Do you perhaps remember how you felt about your very first experience in the spotlight?
Jon: I think from what I can remember, I think I loved it, you know, straight off the bat. Honestly, I don’t know. I think it just seemed natural to me, and it just seemed like an extension of playtime. Most of the time, when you’re a child doing plays you’re around older people. So, I enjoyed being around older people when I was very young. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s being an only child, you spend a lot of time with older people in general. But I just felt really natural with it, and I love the whole family feeling of doing theater, plays, especially being an only child. If you don’t have siblings, it’s the closest you’re going to get to that experience. So, to me it seemed like a really creative moment in time where people come together and they form a family, and they do, you know, this piece of art, whether it’s a play or music or something, but they’re there for this purpose. I grew up feeling that was a very loving space. My mother was a really wonderful teacher that brought that out of people. She had that ability to bring that openness from people, which is something that I admire very much. So, it felt very natural to me at a young age because of that.
Natalie: Jon, do you believe that if your mother had not introduced you to acting, would have inevitably chosen this career regardless?
Jon: Hmm…Maybe just because I think I always liked to feel like I was performing, and I’ve always been obsessed with cinema and films. I mean, that was just a natural thing on my end. My mother was more into theater, which I’ve always loved too. But my obsession with film, and then music came on its own. But I think I just loved anything creative and anything artistic. I think it was something that I was drawn to immediately. Even painting and dancing, and things like that. I was just very…I don’t know. I was a very right-brain child from the get-go. And maybe that was because I was an only child, and I had a mother who encouraged it. You know, in a sense I was allowed to be more free with it.
Natalie: So, you were a natural-born performer, in other words?
Jon: I think so. It’s funny, because in life I can be a bit reserved and shy sometimes. But I think in the moments when I need to, I think I actually do go there. I don’t know. It’s a beautiful expression.
Natalie: Jon, you studied at the prestigious Tisch School of Arts at New York University, where you earned a Bachelor’s degree in theatre and a minor in film. You then went on to study at the renowned Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles. How did the training and knowledge that you acquired at both Tisch and the Strasberg Institute shape you as an actor?
Jon: I think Tisch in general in New York and the Strasberg Institute shaped me a great deal, because it was my first time out of my small town in the big city of New York. It so like transformed me, in that sense of being from a tiny town to the biggest city in the world – one of the most powerful cities in the world, [with the] excitement and all of that. It’s great. It’s a beautiful city. I love New York. I got to meet all kinds of people from all over, you know, working with different perspectives.
And I started in experimental theatre, actually. I started there, and I was there for about a year, and then I switched over to Strasberg. And they’re two different schools of thought completely. One’s more performance art and [there was] people like William Dafoe. I always saw kind of counter-culture theater people where there, which was cool because I grew up in theatre which is different, which I like. But then Strasberg was all method acting and sense method, which is great. I think it’s good for film. That’s really good training for film. So, it was wonderful. I have a lot of good memories of New York and that time there. It’s one of my favorite places still.
Natalie: Are there any methods or techniques that left a distinct impression on you as an actor, and that you have been able to draw upon throughout your career?
Jon: Yeah. More than anything to be honest with you. Aside from all the training which is great and scene study, I think the best thing is to be in the present moment. And that’s meditation and breathing and all of that. Centeredness really helps any performer, especially with an actor having to be on the verge of that moment every time, [in being] natural and responsive. So, I think the best technique that anyone can learn, and [when] I look back and see my training, I think that a lot of it was based on mediative thinking, being really present. I think mediation, I can say as a general, aside from studying your craft and working with other actors and your scene work, is really powerful. That’s just my opinion, but I think it’s great.
Natalie: So, are you into the spiritual side of things?
Jon: Yes. I think especially in the arts, it pervades everything. It is everything. I mean, just to be creating any sort of art from an honest place, it comes from a spiritual place. Whatever people call it, it’s basically your core, your center. I think it’s very important for any artist in working on being genuine. It’s really cool.
Natalie: In 1999, you played Ava Gardener in the Emmy Award winning biopic, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge(aka. Face of an Angel) which starred Halle Berry. Your breakout performance as this legendary actress, marked your debut on the screen. Most recently, famous actresses Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts, in particular, have both been highly criticized for their respective portrays of two famous icons, Grace Kelly turned Princess Grace of Monaco and Princess Diana.
Jon, how difficult was it for you to be able portray the Hollywood starlet Ava Gardener?
Jon: Actually, I looked at it as a lot of fun because I think she’s one of these women that I always admired, and my mother loved her too. It’s funny. One of the most beautiful women, I thought. Very strong, powerful, ahead of her time. I was really young at the time, and I took it as a wonderful challenge to play her because it was at the beginning of her career. So, she was young and full of fire. Later on came that Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman. I think that it is hard. I see how hard it is for an actress to play an icon like that, like Marilyn Monroe or someone like that. I think I just looked at it as fun. I didn’t see it as hard. I mean, maybe now I think I would probably be more painstaking and nervous about it. Being so young at the time, I just went for it. But at the same time, you kind of have to go for it. It’s a double-edged sword when you’re playing a true life character, especially one who is so loved and adored. That’s not easy for an actor. But it’s challenging. It’s good, it’s fun.
Natalie: Did you feel added pressure to do her justice?
Jon: Absolutely. She’s a big pair of shoes to fill. I mean, she was quite a strong woman, opinionated woman, [who] stood up to Frank Sinatra, stood up to, you know, Mickey Rooney (laughs). She was ahead of her time. I wouldn’t say feminist, but in that vain of what people would consider as a strong archetype. And it was still, you know, the ‘50s. It was still a different mindset at the time, and a different country back then. But she was classy too, and that’s what I liked about her. She was the rashness with the class, kind of mind. She’s still one of the most interesting women to me, I think.
Natalie: How did you prepare for such a role?
Jon: I watched a lot of old movies, read her biography, did a lot of research. I love to do research. I actually enjoy it. It’s kind of like a project, so I took it on as a project. I was already familiar with her, but I did my research and watched as many movies as I could. I just read as much as I could.
Natalie: Jon, in your opinion, what do you believe it was about this breakout performance that ultimately launched your film career?
Jon: Well, the fact that I got to work with Halle Berry, I think was a big thing. She was just on the verge of her breakout in her career. And it was a great director, Martha Coolidge who’s done so many classic films. Really fun. It was a really well done HBO film, and I think HBO always has a certain prestige to it. I love many of their…whether it’s their made for TV films or their shows, HBO’s got some good stuff.
Natalie: Jon, you have appeared in many feature films such as the sixth instalment of the famous Saw franchise Saw XI, Spiders 3D, Straight A’s and 2012’s Playing For Keeps with Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel. Are you quite selective with the film projects that you choose?
Jon: I think so. I think I’m definitely more so now than ever, because I think it’s important to keep expanding and getting higher and higher and more challenging. And certain things you outgrow. I try to be very aware of what I accept. Yeah, I think that’s a good thing. I really love to do comedy, and love to explore that thing. I’ve done a lot of horror, disaster feature films which is fun. But I’m ready to explore more, maybe a comedic side such as that, [as well as] action thrillers. Some stuff like that. That’s where I’m at now.
Mack plays smitten housewife Connie alongside Gerard Butler in 2012’s Playing For Keeps
Mack as Holly in 2013’a Straight A’s with Luke Wilson and Christa Campbell
Natalie: When can we expect to see you on the screen next?
Jon: Well, I’m working on a film. We’re just about to start production now. We’re in pre-production. It’s called Kickback. So, we’re going to shoot that very soon. It’s got John Cusack in it. It’s gonna be quite a good film. I’m very excited about it. So, stay tuned (laughs).
Natalie: Sounds very exciting. Jon: Yeah. We’ll be shooting very soon. So, we’ll look at it in 2015.
Natalie: Jon, you are indeed a multi-talented performer. Not only are you a singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, but you are also the front woman for the electronic rock band Auradrone. How important has it been for throughout your very impressive career in the entertainment industry to be highly versatile?
Jon: Very important. I think it’s definitely a survival as an artist to be able to do more than one thing, and I know that a lot of actors are also musicians. In fact, nobody would expect. I think it’s part of being a creative person to do more than one thing. And also to keep yourself sane, because the life of an actor’s like, “Wow”. That sometimes can be unpredictable for anyone. There’s things that are out of your control. I feel like [you have] to take that energy in a positive way. I think a lot of actors do other things to channel that creativity. I think that it’s a survival coping mechanism.
Mack fronts ultramodern post rock electronic group, Auradrone
Natalie: What was the catalyst behind your decision to focus predominantly on a career in music, as opposed to acting in the past few years?
Jon: I think that it switches back and forth. I mean, really to do music you have to give it so much attention, especially when you’re writing songs and working on an album. It takes a lot of time and commitment and energy. So, I think it’s hard to really give your energy to both things at the same time right now. Like, I was writing songs this past year, about to release a new EP, and we’re playing shows again. But we’ve paired down the live set right now to a DJ set for the moment for the summertime, to kind of just get out there. We’re doing Comic Con. We’re performing on July 24th at Comic Con with Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance, and a few other really cool bands. So, that should be fun. We’re going to play at that show. So, it goes back and forth. You just have to give so much energy to one thing. And then when you’re working on a film, you’re just 100 percent there when you’re actually on the set working. So, it goes back and forth. Right now, I’ve just been harvesting this new music and just about to release that, and planning a new music video. There’s a lot of energy right now on our music, which is good.
Natalie: In your experience, was it harder for you to break into the music business compared to the acting industry?
Jon: I think so. Yes, in many ways I had to prove myself a lot with music, and I still feel that I’m always having to, especially being a female and coming into it, and learning how to produce on your own. I took no schooling for it. It was pretty much self-taught and just on necessity. And when you come into that world, you really have to gain respect with having a good prowess and just how you act with people. Your whole demeanour, especially when you’re a female. It’s still very much a boys’ world. It’s changing. But when I was coming up, it was mostly males. But it was good, because I learned a lot, and I got to watch what they were doing. I’m grateful for that, because I learned a great deal.
My other point being with the music industry, it’s changed so much lately. I think the last ten years, the music industry’s so different now because what’s happened with the internet now and artists, musicians having to make a living not from selling albums anymore, but from touring, merchandise and just being more inventive with packaging themselves. So, I think it really is harder now, and it has become harder versus a band that was coming up in the ‘80s, maybe the early ‘90s before everything switched over. So, the music business now has changed for an independent artist.
Natalie: Were you ever discouraged from pursuing it?
Jon: I think we all have our days where we feel discouraged, but nothing’s ever made me question why I do it or why I write music or why I love to do it. I think it’s just that I have to do it. It’s a natural feeling and tendency for me. I get a little crazy if I go too long without writing or doing something. I know that I can’t stay away from it too long. There are days where encouragement, is when you go back and listen to or you experience your work again, and you’re like, “Oh, okay. I feel good about this.” It kind of balances it out, I think.
Natalie: Acting and singing are both performance arts. In fact, both mediums can be considered as a form of story-telling. How has your acting background helped shape you as a musician, and do you find it easier or more difficult to tell a story through acting or music?
Jon: First part of the question: I think it’s definitely shaped me as a musician, primarily with performance whether it’s live or video or whatever. It’s something I’m comfortable with already, whereas I think a lot of musicians have struggled with that. A lot musicians can tend to be a little introspective and shy. It’s the stage-fright thing. I had the advantage of that a little bit. I mean still, you know, we all get nervous sometimes when we perform, but versus having crimpling stage-fright. I think that was definitely the advantage, being theatrical. Wanting my songs to be theatrical too, and tell a story more like a film. I kind of approach it more as that answer. I think that’s affected it as well, seeing it more cinematically than song-wise. I think it all kind of influences each other in many ways.
Natalie: Jon, do you believe that acting and music both complement one another? And if so, in what way?
Jon: Absolutely. I think for sure. Again, I think it’s all human expression, and I think they can always complement each other. Nowadays, especially with multimedia, everything’s blending. I mean, music videos are becoming films. [They’re] becoming art installations. Everything’s kind of coming into one, I think. It’s kind of an interesting time, with the internet and with the technology, that we’ll be able to blend everything together. So, I think the whole thing is that you can do it that way and complement each other automatically, for sure, just in the way that they make the experience more rich. It becomes more synesthetic, or it’s encompassing all of your senses and your abilities. Yeah, I think especially with acting and music, I mean they just go together. You’re acting out a song, you’re performing, or even when you’re thinking of writing a song, you’re in another space, you’re a character in it, some type of story. So, it sort of is like an acting thing. I think that’s why writing songs is very cathartic and good for you in many ways.
Natalie: Rock groups such as The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees, and Depeche Mode, all which produced what was coined as “New Wave Music”, can be credited as being highly influential on your music. Jon, what was it about the music of these famous groups that appealed to you most?
Jon: Well, I think a lot of it especially with The Cure, I mean the song-writing is so beautiful. I can always admire good song-writing, good lyrics, romantic sort of emotion, and the instrumentation was so lush. I think many people are influenced by bands, such as The Cure. They were also around when I was very young. Some of the earliest, modern music I heard, I think was very influential on me. And I think many other artists right now, they’re a big influence. I would say that it’s the song-writing first of all. Depeche Mode, synthesizers, everything like that. [With] Siouxsie and The Banshees, her voice was amazing. I think she was a big influence to me, because I mimed her singing and her style was very out there at the time. Sometimes you see someone do something different.
Natalie: Jon, how have you as a singer-songwriter and musician, been able to draw upon these influences in the creation of your own music?
Jon: Well, Auradrone’s ever-changing lately. It’s now evolving into a little more commercial style, a little less dark. So, I like to think it’s ever-changing, it’s ever evolving. But definitely. I mean, it’s got style and influences, some of the electronic and dance and all that. But now it’s going into a more cinematic, not pop, but like more mainstream sounds. It’s kind of an indie rock vibe still very much, but it’s not as dark or industrial as the other albums are. The sound is kind of evolving now. So, I think it can be something more [that] people can hear more on mainstream radio.
Natalie: Jon, Auradrone is regarded as an electronica post modern rock group. For those that may not be familiar with this genre or style of music, can you tell us a bit more about this?
Jon: I think nowadays, especially while I was also doing this project, I was interested in making it hybridized and fitting together, with technology and the old school way of thinking and actually playing instruments, which I think will never go away. I think humans need that. That’s a beautiful thing. But I think they have both kind of worked with each other in very interesting ways, and created different feelings and sounds that weren’t possible with just one or just the other. So, I think it’s really important for the sound. What’s important for me as an artist is to explore that, not just do one thing. I think I’ll always want to keep trying to explain that. I think it’s infinite what technology and you know, actually sonic instrumentation, whether it’s live instruments or drums or things like that versus just a drum machine, always make interesting things happen.
Actor Callum Blue appears with Auradrone’s Mack in the music video for “The Escape” from the Bleeding Edge (2011) album
Natalie: Jon, what drew you to electronic rock music, rather than let’s say regular rock music or country or pop, for instance? And has electronic rock always appealed to you?
Jon: Well, actually I do like rock, just simple rock music. I always been a fan of rock music, believe it or not. I did grow up on classic Fleetwood Mac, and bands like The Eagles, and you know, Led Zepplin. I mean, just from the time my parents listened to things. So, I do love rock music and I do love bands things like Queens of the Stone Age now. But I think I also love electronic music just from being a kid and just really loving dance. Loving anything to do with dance, growing up loving dance, so I think it was just natural to me to want to do that. I mean, I admire all kinds of music actually. There’s great music in any genre. I have great respect for that. And that’s the whole other side to me – the song-writing. A good song is a good song.
Natalie: Jon, what was your motivation or inspiration in the formation of Auradrone?
Jon: I’ve been doing, I guess you could say prototypes of Auradrone before Auradrone. A couple of projects, I was getting into the electronic thing more. I started doing rock as a singer, and that was the first genre I actually performed in. So, then I had a couple of other bands between my last band and then Auradrone, where it was more of me experimenting with doing demos, and like connecting with people and trying to see if we could work together and make something interesting. Sometimes it works, sometimes it didn’t. So, it was a lot of experimenting with that until I finally decided what Auradrone would sound like, which was around 2007, 2008, was where it needed to be.
Natalie: Jon, what ultimately sets Auradone apart from other electronic rock groups?
I think we all did something different as far as the vibe, the romanticism of the vibe. It’s not just straight up electronic, there’s some very lushness to it. There’s some bigness and romanticism, and there are just some of those qualities from the band’s religion from like The Cure. Things like that. It doesn’t just make it electronic dance. It’s got a little bit of an edge to it, where it can be listened to from across the board by people who do like to just listen to rock music versus anybody else who likes dance music. So, I think that it has that extra ability to reach a wider audience that way in a sense.
Natalie: Jon, what made you choose the name Auradrone for your band? Is there a story behind this?
Jon: It strangely enough came to me in almost like a dream or meditative state. I like the idea of these two boards together. That just sounded really good. Aura – the human aura. And then the drone. I don’t see it like a ship or anything. I see it like a continuous resonance, like a hum. So, it’s like a harmony. Just a nice sounding word. It just came to me, and it just stuck with me. It just sounded right for the music I was creating at the time. It just sort of fit with it. It sounded like, “Oh, like is what Auradrone would sound like,” I think. It kind of naturally occurred that way.
Natalie: The artist in you?!
Jon: Yes. Who’s ever up there, out there, in there, giving me little clues here and there (laughs).
Natalie: Auradrone can be perhaps described as today’s answer to The Cure and all that it represented. In fact, The Cure was one of your earlier musical influences. Jon, how does it feel to be likened to such an enigmatic rock group?
Jon: Incredible. I mean, again they’re just a huge influence on myself and probably an entire couple of generations of musicians. I think Robert [Smith] is incredible. I think the whole band is incredible, so it’s an honour if anybody compares us. If anybody gets that out of it, then fantastic. Then the music is doing what it intends to do, and I’m very happy with that.
Natalie: Jon, as the lead singer of Auradrone, what similarities and/or differences are there between your band and earlier electronic rock groups?
Jon: Probably it’s just in my blood, the stuff I listened to from the time I was a kid. So, maybe it will come out at certain times, especially with a band like Depeche Modeall, [which] we were talking about, will come out. Just from the time I was little, I listened to them, and they were some of the earliest electronic music I listened to. From the time that they came out, they were fresh. I was very young so it was a good combination. It comes out from time to time, I think. Not so much an imitation, but more of a homage, like in honour of the band. I think it happens with anything. If you really are influenced by someone, you’re gonna kind of run it through your system and have it come out some way in your work, too. So, that’s the beauty of it.
Natalie: In early 2009, your rock group Auradrone released their debut album, Whitelite Britelite which featured songs such as “AutoErotic”, “Appetite” and “Indigo Child”. Your songs can be described as a blend of tasteful lyrics, tantric sounds and rock n’ roll attitude, which essentially takes the listener on a fantastical journey.
Jon, what emotive responses did you intend your lyrics and music to create or instil in your audience?
Jon: [With] the first album, a lot of the songs on there are just like very dreamy, wishful like creating a dream world, creating a perfect escape world. And I think it was more about the texture, kind of like very close to My Bloody Valentine. Bands like that were very lush, like creating a dreamscape situation. Radiohead does that a lot. That album was probably trying to create that. There’s a lot of ideal thinking and sort of dreaminess going on in that album, the lyrics and everything, where there’s fantasy, dreamy or you know, other kinds of dreamy. There’s a lot of exploration with that. I think it draws a lot from that with that album. There’s a lot of space reference too, like outer space.
Natalie: Whitelite Britelite received an overwhelming response. Did you expect such a positive reception?
Jon: I always hope for it, but you never know. But yeah, I think it’s always great when you get that, for any artist. You don’t know how things are going to get received. Some of it’s favorable and some of it’s a blessing. It’s why we do what we do. We hope that it resonates with people and they enjoy it. It’s a good thing.
Natalie: What was your reason for releasing a remix of your debut album that same year with Whitelite Britelite: Rehabilitated?
Jon: A few DJ friends of mine offered to remix it, and I was like “Sure”. If someone wants to remix it, great. Go for it. I put a lot of really cool versions of the material, remixed and redone. It kind of happened. A lot of people at once decided to do remixes, so I said we have enough for an album, so we might as well put out a remix album. Again, for the dance aspect, to get it into clubs, get people enjoying it. So, that was it. I probably will do more remix albums, because they’re fun to do.
Natalie: Jon, having listened to your entrancing music, I must say that your voice has such a sensual quality to it. When you combine the allure of your voice with the electronic sounds of Auradrone, one almost becomes transfixed.
Jon, how do you use your undoubtable charm, sex appeal, charisma and talent to reach and ultimately have a profound impact on the masses?
Jon: Well, hopefully in the right way. I try not to use it, so it’s a distraction. But I think it’s all a part of the music, especially as a female performer, your femininity is very much going to be a part of your art and your craft. I think as a woman, as a performer it’s going to come into play. So, I like to look at it as a positive aspect. It’s the sensuality, the beauty. It’s strength and power conveyed versus just going for the cheap, obvious stuff. I like to shoot a little different way. Many female artists do it in the right way. They make it fun, but it is also strong and powerful. It’s just not those common dominators.
I think it’s a responsibility for any female artist. What you’re putting out there is really powerful, because it’s really influential. Whether it’s younger people or in general, it’s like you’re representing yourself. You’re a voice for many people, especially women. So, it’s your responsibility to put it out there in the right way. It’s just how I feel. But I think it’s very influential. It’s very much a part of who I am. My music is part of everything I do, so it’s definitely going to play into it.
Natalie: As a songwriter, you have written the lyrics to Auradrone’s songs. Jon, how does song-writing allow you as an artist to express yourself more freely, and essentially speak your own truth?
Jon: I think it’s a different language completely. I think song-writing is a whole other religion. It’s not so pocketed and conscious. I think it comes from a deeper place, and when you write a song you feel more freer to express things you wouldn’t say in every day conversation, or you can put yourself in other people’s shoes and perspectives too. You can tell a story about someone else from behind their eyes. It’s kind of like a narrative.I don’t know. Sometimes the lyrics come to me so mysteriously. Sometimes it’s like you’re telling your story, but sometimes I feel like you’re telling other people’s story too. So, it’s an interesting process.
Natalie: Jon, your third and most recent album Bleeding Edge was released in 2011 and featured tracks such as “Shadow”, “The Escape” and “Ricochet”. The album explores themes such as love, loss, and life. Many of the tracks have a dark, edgy, almost haunting vibe and feel to them.
What do you believe it is about dark themes, in particular, culminated with sex and power that seem to captivate and entrance individuals?
Jon: I think that’s always going to be there. The dark aspects of humanity are something that artists are always exploring, people are always questioning. We’re seeing it every day, whether it’s on the news or Facebook or wherever. It’s just a part of us that we are having to own and maybe examine. So, I think art is a perfect example catalyst for that, and I think that it’s a safe place to explore that too. Yeah, I think people relate to it, because of that. [And] because they feel like they can dive into art, whether it’s music or film, and explore that dark side of themselves, and it’s still safe.
Natalie: Would you describe writing and performing this type of music as some sort of dark pleasure, so to speak?
Jon: Sure. I think so (laughs). I don’t see why not. Definitely, yeah.
Natalie: Jon, would you say, that most human beings have a dark side, or are drawn to the dark side? And as such, how does your music allow an individual to explore their inner darkness?
Jon: I think we all definitely do have a dark side, and I think it’s just a part of us to want to explore it and be afraid of it at the same time. When I wrote the last album, it was interesting. It came out darker. Maybe it was because I was in a different space, darker space. I was going through some stuff with my mom and family, and her health. So, I think it was kind of affecting what I wrote energetically. But [when] I think about it, there’s also empowerment to the darkness, even in the lyrics there’s darkness but there’s also another side to the coin and finding strength with that.
And that’s why I’m even further exploring that now with the new material. I think that I’m more in that zone. I was kind of like getting there in the last album. It was more about bringing it away. It’s kind of why the image of the phoenix was on the cover. It’s shedding way, reborn sort of energy. So, I’m now more in the expansion stage. Yeah, I think the dark stuff was a natural process, because the first album was so light, it was different. It’s interesting. When I look at it, I can’t really predict it. I just know, looking at it in hindsight. But it’s interesting.
Natalie: With Bleeding Edge, the use of music videos for “Shadow” and “The Edge”, in particular, which feature notable actors such as Callum Blue, Brian Krause, and Tony Ward, leave such a distinct impression and impact on viewers.
Jon, how much creative input do you have in the production of these music videos? Do you contribute or do you leave it up to the director to best interpret the message behind Auradrone’s music?
Jon: Usually, I’m pretty involved, just because I feel like as an artist, you’re representing yourself and your work. I do love to collaborate with people, and I always love to hear ideas and you know, see if it’s something we can both jive with and it feels synergetic. I think that’s real important. But I mean, I love directors with great, strong ideas and really have it thought out, like you know, come from that aspect. I think that’s great. But [directors who] are also open to letting me give input. So, it’s a give and take. I don’t want to dominate the whole thing. I don’t want to dominate that. But I also want to have my creative input. Yeah, it’s definitely a balance.
Natalie: Obviously music videos are quite beneficial in showcasing an artist or band.
Jon, how has the use of sound and visual medium helped you to further amplify Auradrone’s message, and essentially the band’s image as one of today’s most influential electronic post-modern rock groups?
Jon: I think from the beginning it kind of went hand-in-hand, being the kind of music it is and was. I think it helped a lot, just kind of branding the whole vibe of the band. I don’t want to say genre, but it kind of put it into a certain genre right away, having the videos, having the vision, having the imagery – all of that together. With the release of the album, I think it all played together, pretty much as it should. And it continues to grow. So, I’m curious to see. Now we’re added lights. More and more lights, and more visuals to the live sets. So, it’s going to become more of that – that live experience. It will be fun.
Natalie: Jon, as the lead vocalist of Auradrone, do you find this more challenging to be the front-woman of a rock band as opposed to being an onscreen actor?
Jon: Definitely. I think they both have their challenges. Different challenges, but both have challenges. So, it’s hard to say which is more, but I think they switch often at times too. I think in order to do a good job or great job with anything, you have to give your all and really focus on it. And then challenges can arise, and then you know, you have to step by step take those challenges and overcome them.
Natalie: Jon, having started out as an actor, has this given you more confidence and self-belief to perform as the lead vocalist of Auradrone with conviction, and the ability to reach people on many levels?
Jon: I think definitely. Yeah. Definitely. That has helped.
Natalie: Jon, how has singing, song-writing and performing as musician brought fulfilment to your life, and in what ways?
Jon: It’s probably kept me sane, alive, you know to some degree (laughs). It’s made it more bearable at times, for sure. I couldn’t imagine life without it. So, it’s just hard to imagine.
Natalie: Jon, both you and your band Auradrone are currently in pre-production working on your next music video, as well as planning the highly anticipated release of an EP this northern summer.
Are you able to tell us a bit more about these upcoming projects, and what we can expect to see from Auradrone in the next coming months?
Jon: Yes. Well, look out for a new video. We have an exciting video with director Michael Sarner who’s done videos for Metallica, Blink-182, Nickelback. He’s shot some big bands. He’s great. And so, we’re about to shoot a video. By the end of summer, we’ll have a video ready.
Natalie: That sounds exciting.
Jon: Exciting. Yes. It’s a bit overdue. It’s going to be a new concept and everything. And of course, there’s the EP, so expect that out very soon as well, right before Fall. And live shows. We’ll be doing some more DJ shows. Hopefully, we’ll be leaving LA soon and heading out to Chicago or New York or something. I’ll be posting on the website periodically. So, definitely, definitely stayed tuned.
Natalie: Excellent. Some exciting stuff coming our way, for sure.
Jon: Yes.
Natalie: Recently, Auradrone has been performing live. In fact, you have an upcoming live performance at The Viper Room on July 21st. Jon, how exciting or exhilarating is it for you to perform in front of a live audience, where you are able to directly gauge their reaction?
Jon: It’s great. It’s the best. Live shows are the best. No complaints. I mean, it’s different when you have a CD, you don’t know how people are hearing it. But when you play live, you play a song, you see immediately how people react, whether it’s good or bad or indifferent. So, it’s exciting. I love being in front of an audience and just feeling that. It’s wonderful.
Natalie: Jon, what can we expect to see from your upcoming live performances?
Jon: I think I mentioned before, we’re adding some visuals. So, there’s going to be some cool visuals. We’ve got some exciting stuff coming up. So, stay tuned, for sure.
Natalie: Jon, when performing live, are you able to feed off of the audience’s energy?
Jon: Yes, for sure. I think that’s absolutely true. I think any musician does.
Natalie: Jon, does performing in a more intimate venue allow you to form a closer relationship with your fans, and if so, in what way?
Jon: I think it’s more one on one when you’re in an intimate venue versus a festival. The energy’s different. It feels more intimate. It feels like people are right there with the music versus a festival setting, where it’s more personal. But I think an intimate venue sounds great. You can really get more subtle with it. You can even do more ballads and things like that. Yeah, I like intimate settings too, and it’s great to see your audience right there. So, that’s nice.
Natalie: Jon, you mentioned that Auradrone will be hitting the road soon to Chicago, New York and other places in the United States. Can we expect an upcoming tour from Auradrone anytime soon?
Jon: We’re planning it. We’re hoping to. We’re in the talks for it right now, so I will definitely be letting people know as soon as we figure out our dates and where they will be. So, stay tuned.
Natalie: Jon, how has Auradrone been received internationally? Any countries, in particular?
Jon: Yeah. It’s gotten a good response from the UK, Germany, France, South America, some places in America, Brazil, places like that. Even India, believe it or not. So, I think it’s globally reached. We’ve got Australia, yeah (laughs). We’ve gotten a lot of good response in general, so that’s why I think I’m preaching so much to play in Australia, Europe and countries like that. I’m really eager to do it. It should be good. We’re working on it. We’re working on at least getting over to Europe soon.
Natalie: So, a lot of big things happening for both you and Auradrone?
Jon: Yeah, exactly.
Natalie: Jon, where you would like to see yourself in the next five years or so?
Oh, boy. Well, just healthy, happy, and successful as far as creating art. Having a nice life with the people I love. And always moving forward. I mean, it’s hard to say. I love the idea of starting projects. I’m getting more involved with production. So, getting more into production and facilitating projects, whether it’s film or music. I see myself doing that. And you know, helping out the environment and the planet as much as I can.
Natalie: Fantastic
Jon: In a nutshell (laughs).
Natalie: Do you have a mantra which you live by?
Jon: I think the Joseph Campbell mantra’s the best thing ever to “follow your bliss”. I think that’s the best mantra. No matter what situation it is, just listen to yourself and follow your bliss. What feels good inside, and really trust that feeling. I think that’s a big thing that artists forget to do. So, I try to remind myself to do that.
**PLEASE HELP SUPPORT AURADRONE’S CAMPAIGN TO FUND THEIR NEW MUSIC VIDEO “RECOVER” DIRECTED BY ACCLAIMED VIDEO DIRECTOR, MICHAEL SARNA**
JON’S PERSONAL MESSAGE TO FANS:
DEAR FANS Please contribute in any way if you can. We are doing our best to put together an amazing video and your help really matters!
Check out the page to see what perks are being offered for your contribution.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/auradrone-recover-music-video-directed-by-michael-saran
~Jon Mack / Auradrone
PLEASE HELP SUPPORT JON’S DEFENDING THE ENDANGERED PSA CAMPAIGN!
http://www.gofundme.com/dteprotect
Auradrone is an indie electronic-rock act that was formed by musician, actress and producer Jon Mack in 2007 with the goal of creating a project that explores the realm of multi-media and music while bringing to light important social causes.
Recently, Auradrone shot the first part of a music video for a song off their soon to be released album. The song titled “Weapon Of Choice” is intended not only be a music video but also a PSA (Public Service Announcement) to raise awareness about the slaughter and near extinction of many endangered species due to illegal poaching and trophy hunting.
We intend for this video to carry a strong message and bring to light this very serious threat to our planet.
We are seeking funds not only to complete one more day of filming but also to cover post-production costs and advertising.
Any additional funds raised will be donated to organizations such as WWF, Big Cat Rescue and SANParks Honorary Rangers; all of which are working to solve the poaching crisis by protecting and rehabilitating the innocents and educating the public on this alarming issue.
With less than less than 100 Amur Leopards, 3,200 Tigers, 29,000 Rhinos, 40,000 Elephants and 60,000 Orangutans left in the wild, it’s time for those of us who love these magnificent creatures to step up and do something before it’s too late. This is a global issue and one that could be a game changer for our entire planet.
We are truly passionate about protecting these innocent beings and appreciate your help no matter how great or small. Your contributions will give us the resources to not only carry out this important message but also to furnish much needed supplies to those in the field fighting for peace and justice so that our children and grandchildren will inherit a world worth saving.
~Jon Mack & Defending The Endangered
“Like” Defending the Endangered Project on Facebook
Jon’s IMDB Credits
Jon’s Official Facebook Page
Auradrone’s Official Website
Auradrone’s Official Facebook Page
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Acting, Actor, artist, Auradrone, composer, dance, electronica, Films, Hollywood, Jon Mack, Lee Strasberg Institute, music group, musician, performer, rock music, singer, song-writer, song-writing, Tisch School of the Arts, Viper Room
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Why Amazon (web services) and Dropbox need each other
Posted November 16, 2013 by Om Malik
Earlier this week, I stopped by at the offices of Dropbox, the San Francisco-based online storage and syncing service. It was quite amazing to walk through the company’s sprawling offices — the company now employs about 470 people. Five years ago, they were two guys — Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston — both MIT dropouts working on the service out of their studio apartment.
A few months later, they moved next door to me in a building in financial district and we would often catch up at our neighborhood Starbucks. Their relentless focus on making their service simple and invisible was a constant in pretty much any and every conversation.
That was then. The two-person startup today, according to sources close to the company, is rumored to be valued at more than $4 billion and is on its way to a billion dollars in revenue. It has about 200 million accounts and about 4 million of those are businesses.
Dropbox, like its peer Box.net, is a new breed of startups that live comfortably between consumer and corporate worlds. And a lot of their success can in part be attributed to Jeff Bezos and Amazon Web Services.
The Fast Startups
Almost a decade ago, I wrote a pair of stories in (the now defunct) Business 2.0 — The New Road to Riches and The Rise of the Insta-Company. The idea central to my thinking when writing those articles was that on-demand computing services, open source software and more standardized programing would make it easy to spin-up startups much more easily and at a much lower upfront spending. How it would happen and who would catalyze that change wasn’t clear.
What was a nebulous idea then is now a reality — a fact illustrated by the growth in the number of startups sprouting up around the world. Much of that startup mushrooming can be attributed to Amazon Web Services (AWS), which offers compute, storage and many other services on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Amazon, coincidentally hosted its annual developer conference re:Invent in Las Vegas this week, where more than 9,000 — the majority of them developers — were in attendance. A lot of folks don’t really comprehend the size and scope of AWS. This chart gives you a sense of how big Amazon web services has become.
AWS has over five times the compute capacity in use than the aggregate total of the other 14 providers.
AWS replaces an average of 400 servers per customer.
Amazon has lowered AWS prices 38 times since launching in 2006.
On Route to $10 Billion
Amazon Web Services as a business is growing much faster then most realize. Macquarie Securities estimates AWS revenues were around $2.044 billion in 2012. In 2013, they expect the revenues to jump to $3.47 billion and $5.9 billion in 2014. By 2015, less then 10 years after Amazon launched the S3 storage service, AWS will bring in about $9.02 billion in revenues according to their estimates.
But money really doesn’t the full impact of AWS. About four years ago, I sat down for an interview with Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon and talked about startups and AWS:
“With the cloud comes unconstrained thinking and willingness to tinker and experiment without worrying too much about cost. The cloud allows lot of businesses to scale aggressively. We are enabling a lot things in a way that will be long-term beneficial as it would help build more sustainable businesses using a lot less capital. The fact is that because of the cloud, today a young upstart can take market share without an incumbent having time to react.”
I had a ringside seat for the startup creation during the 1990s Internet boom and it was clear that in order for a web-based company to exist, the table stakes were about $2-to-$3 million. That money was spent on servers, storage systems, networking gear, database licenses and web server software. And that’s before taking into account the data center space rentals and bandwidth costs.
In short, if you didn’t have venture capitalists backing you, then getting going was a monumental task. A lot of that money went to line the pockets of Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, EMC, Dell and Compaq/HP.
Today, all it takes to hang up a shingle is the proverbial dollar and a dream. It’s more like a credit card, Amazon account and an idea. In Silicon Valley, it is fashionable to laud and celebrate the accelerators and new funding tools such as AngelList, but to be fair, none of those would have much to do had it not been for AWS.
The Psychological Edge
AWS’s impact on startup ecosystem is psychological. Instead of buying hardware and paying for software licenses, a whole generation of companies are growing up with the idea of paying monthly fees for infrastructure, based on usage and demands put on the infrastructure. The idea of buying hardware is anathema to many startups who have grown up with AWS. It continues to have an impact up and down the entire food chain. As far as I am concerned, Amazon is the truest cloud computing company.
Amazon’s rivals in the cloud business have focused all their energies on older companies who will have shift to the cloud. Of course, those big companies might have big budgets, but they change slower. New comers like Dropbox don’t have the legacy needs holding them back.
Amazon’s decision to woo Startups as initial customers has turned out to be astute — it has been able to attain scale much like the startups themselves. Just look at the growth of Dropbox and see how it loosely mirrors the growth of objects on Amazon’s S3 storage service.
Amazon has been smart to focus on new markets, whether it is online storage providers such as Dropbox or HPC-in-the-cloud services such as Cycle Computing. They are the ones who are cloud-native and have created infrastructure demand that is many times the legacy companies.
The other day I had coffee with an entrepreneur who said he is spending about $650 on Amazon to process about 100 million photos for his still in stealth-mode sentiment-gathering service. Many others are using it for genetic research. These new kind of cloud-intensive workloads are the reason why Amazon keeps growing faster than its rivals. Vogels calls these 21-century architectures.
More startups meant more usage, which drove down costs, which in turn has allowed the company to sell to others (including the government and large businesses) and at the same time lower the prices. The company says it has cut prices 38 times since launch. Lower prices means more customers, and more customers mean more economies of scale. Yes, this virtuous cycle is working for Amazon for now.
When I asked Dropbox CEO Drew Houston whether they will build their own data centers, he pointed out that they have a hybrid infrastructure which includes Amazon Web Services and there isn’t a need to change that. He is being pragmatic. That has to be music to the ears of Werner and his crew. Now all they have to do is keep attracting the next crop of startups built in the image of Dropbox, Uber and Airbnb.
To that end, Vogels ended his keynote at re:Invent 2013 by introducing five cool startups — Koality, SportsXcast, CardFlight, Nitrous.IO and Runscope.
Werner & A Decade of Amazon Cloud
Structure & the amazing rise of Cloud Computing
Who says startups are easy
Amazon UnPrimed
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UN political chief calls for dialogue to ease tensions in Venezuela; Security Council divided over path to end crisis
UN Photo/Manuel Elias
Wide view of the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Venezuela.
The top UN political official told the Security Council on Saturday that dialogue and cooperation were vital to ending the crisis in Venezuela, but during a contentious debate, Council members disagreed over the appropriate response to mass protests in the South American country and competing claims to the presidency.
“We must try to help bring about a political solution that will allow the country’s citizens to enjoy peace, prosperity and all their human rights,” Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under Secretary-General of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, urged the Security Council as she briefed an urgent meeting of the 15-member body on Saturday morning.
The meeting was requested late last week by United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the wake of days of political unrest in Venezuela, marked by popular protests that erupted on Wednesday after the leader of the opposition legislature, Juan Guaidó, declared himself interim president and called for fresh elections, a direct challenge to President Nicolás Maduro, who had been sworn in to a second term in office just two weeks earlier.
In a statement issued by his Spokesperson on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged parties to “lower tensions” in Venezuela and called for all relevant actors to commit to inclusive and credible political dialogue. Concerned by reports of casualties during demonstrations and unrest in and around the capital, Caracas, the UN chief also called for a transparent and independent investigation of those incidents.
Today, Ms. DiCarlo described the situation in Venezuela as “dire”, and as having both an economic and political dimension.
“The population is affected in a systemic way, nearly all 30 million Venezuelans are affected by hyperinflation and a collapse of real salaries; shortages of food, medicine and basic supplies; deterioration of health and education services; deterioration of basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, transport and urban services,” she told the Council.
Years of political strife boil over into street protests
Ms. DiCarlo went on to lay out the political landscape in the country since the parliamentary elections of December 2015, when the opposition won a large majority of seats in the National Assembly. Subsequently, the Supreme Court ruled that the Assembly was “in contempt” and that all its actions were “null and void”.
In 2017, a National Constituent Assembly was established through elections in which the opposition parties did not participate. The National Constituent Assembly took over key functions of the legislative branch and undertook a process of constitutional reform that remains inconclusive and is not recognized by the opposition parties.
Attempts to bring about political dialogue started as early as May 2016, through an initiative facilitated by three former leaders from the Dominican Republic, Panama and Spain, under the auspices of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
“Despite some initial progress, no concrete agreements were reached through this initiative, which was suspended by the beginning of 2017,” she said, adding that attempts to resume and continue dialogue faltered in February 2018 over a disagreement was the electoral calendar and guarantees to ensure free, transparent and credible elections.
Subsequently, the Government went ahead with presidential elections in May 2018. President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner over two other candidates. Most of the opposition did not participate in the elections or recognize the results. On 10 January, Nicolás Maduro was sworn in as President for a second six-year term.
On 23 January, large scale opposition protests culminated with Juan Guaidó, president of the opposition-led National Assembly, announcing that he did not recognize President Maduro or his Government.
“While the protests were largely peaceful, there were incidents of violence,” Ms. Dicarlo said, noting that according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, (OHCHR), credible local sources have reported that at least 20 people have died in the unrest. Many more have reportedly been reportedly injured and detained in violent incidents.
Call for a political solution
Recalling that the UN Secretary-General had offered his good offices to help resolve the crisis, Ms. DiCarlo stressed that the main concern is the well-being of the Venezuelan people and their ability to enjoy their full rights.
“The UN has been providing assistance, particularly in the areas of health and nutrition. And the Secretary-General had asked the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to establish a mechanism to support Venezuelans leaving the country.”
“There are divergent visions of what the future should hold for Venezuela. But we must all be guided, however, by the pursuit of the well-being of the Venezuelan people, and work together so that their needs are fully met,” she said.
Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State of the United States of America, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Venezuela.
A divided Security Council
Ms. DiCarlo’s call for cooperation and dialogue was echoed by many of the Council’s 15 members during the contentious debate that followed her briefing, even as speakers for the United States and Russia sparred over the path to end the crisis.
The US State Department on Wednesday ordered the departure from Venezuela of some non-emergency employees, following a decision by the Trump administration, and several other nations, to recognize Mr. Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful president.
President Maduro respoended by cutting diplomatic ties with the US.
Today, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the UN to recognize Mr. Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president, and declared: “Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem.”
But Russia’s UN Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, rejected that view saying the US was imposing its own “approaches and recipes” to resolve the problems on the ground in Venezuela. “This meeting is yet another attempt by the United States to affect regime change and [the Russian Federation] regrets that the UN Security Council has been drawn into such an unethical ploy.”
Vassily Alekseevich Nebenzia,Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations,addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Venezuela.
The two diplomats had faced off ahead of the meeting when the Council held a procedural vote on whether the session would even go forward, as ‘the situation in Venezuela’ is not an official item on the Council’s agenda.
But by a vote of nine in favour (Belgium, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Kuwait, Peru, Poland, United Kingdom, United States) to four against (China, Equatorial Guinea, Russian Federation, South Africa), with two abstentions (Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia), adopted the agenda item.
During the debate, French Ambassador Anne Gueguen said it was “entirely legitimate” that the Council considers the topic, as the crisis in Venezuela was spilling into neighbouring countries. France called for a political and negotiated solution to the crisis. “Mr. Maduro must understand that this is his last opportunity and he must take it,” she warned.
She said: “If elections are not announced in eight days, France is ready, along with the European Union, to recognize Mr. Guaidó as the interim President to trigger such a political process.” She urged authorities to refrain from the use of force against democratically elected officials, members of civil society and peaceful protestors.
Jorge Arreaza, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Venezuela.
Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, rejected what he saw as US attempts to interfere in his country’s affairs, as well as Mr. Guaidó’s presidential self-proclamation, which he deemed illegal.
He said the Trump administration was trying to build a physical wall on its border with Mexico, while also erecting an “ideological wall” and resurrecting Cold War strategies aimed at bringing misery to wider Latin America. Nonetheless, Caracas, he declared, would find its own way forward, without interference. “No Power […] can dictate to my country its destiny or its future.”
Venezuela|security council
Venezuela: Competing US, Russia resolutions fail to pass in Security Council
Venezuela’s needs ‘significant and growing’ UN humanitarian chief warns Security Council, as ‘unparalleled’ exodus continues
‘Protracted crisis’ in Venezuela leads to ‘alarming escalation of tensions': UN political chief
UN agencies launch emergency plan for millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants
A new plan to cover the urgent needs of millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, coordinated by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), was launched in Geneva on Friday.
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Baker Center Invites Students to Take the Policy Challenge
View all the posts from September 8, 2014
The Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy is launching its second annual student policy challenge.
Named in honor of the late senator, the Howard Baker Public Policy Challenge is open to UT undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines.
Students are encouraged to sign up to compete on teams that will develop policy recommendations and action plans to combat local and state issues. Students will be placed on teams with a faculty or community professional mentor based on common interests, expertise and complementary skills.
One winning team and two runners-up will be awarded $3,000 and $1,000 cash prizes, respectively, to further their policy initiatives.
The application deadline is Friday, September 12. Interested students can register online.
Nissa Dahlin-Brown, associate director of the Baker Center, said ideas were solicited from the community, but students can suggest their own too.
“For instance, the Metropolitan Drug Commission has asked for help concerning the increasing number of women abusing prescription opioids and the 2014 Tennessee law criminalizing women who have babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome,” she said. “And the Tennessee Department of Transportation has requested help with distracted drivers and with getting trucks off the roads to make roads safer, protect the environment and save money. We also have had requests to look at voting apathy, wage gap issues, failing infrastructure in Tennessee—and we are continuing to accept problems.”
Student teams will develop public policy legislation or initiatives that address the problem they are trying to solve, taking into account stakeholders, community leaders, budget, and jurisdictional restraints. Teams will compete in the semifinals in November by making five-minute presentations and providing two-page executive summaries of their problems and solutions. Judges will select five teams to advance to the finals in February, where they’ll provide 10- to 15-page policy briefs and ten-minute PowerPoint presentations.
If invited, the winning team will compete in the Penn National Challenge in March 2015.
Last year, the Baker Center debuted the policy challenge with “Equip the Strip!” Students researched and developed solutions for parking on the Cumberland Avenue Strip as part of the city of Knoxville’s Cumberland Avenue Corridor project. Students created an online survey that brought in more than 900 responses and hosted a Saturday workshop for sixty students.
The team’s final report can be read on the Baker Center website.
“The Howard Baker Public Policy Challenge is an excellent way to make an impact and help solve problems across the state. It can also be a resume builder and an incredible opportunity to learn real-world skills that will help students in the future,” Dahlin-Brown said.
For more information, e-mail policychallenge@utk.edu.
C O N T A C T :
Nissa Dahlin-Brown (865-974-8681, nissa@utk.edu)
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WEC: Porsche GT pilots aim for the world championship crown
Porsche GT pilots aim for the world championship crown
The season finale in the desert promises suspense from start to finish: At the six-hour race on the Bahrain International Circuit on 18 November, the title decisions in the GTE-Pro class of the Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC go down to the wire. The ninth and final round will be the last race entry for the Porsche 919 Hybrid.
GT-Team
Richard Lietz (Austria) and Frédéric Makowiecki (France) aim to wrap up an incredibly close and eventful season by securing the GT drivers’ title with the Porsche 911 RSR. Their prospects of claiming the crown in the first season of the newly developed race car from Weissach look good: Ranking second in the drivers’ classification, they are just two points behind the leaders and could take home the world championship crown by their own efforts. Also within reach of a world championship title is the Porsche GT Team, which currently lies second in the team classification. In Bahrain, the Porsche GT Team fields two 911 RSR in the fiercely competitive GTE-Pro class. Their toughest rivals in the fight for the world championship are Ferrari and Ford. Dempsey Proton Racing travels to the Kingdom at the Persian Gulf also holds title chances: The Porsche customer team is within striking distance of clinching the FIA World Endurance Trophy in the GTE-Am class with a 911 RSR.
The Porsche drivers
In Bahrain, four Porsche factory pilots and a Porsche Young Professional contest this season’s last WEC round. Richard Lietz (Austria) and Frédéric Makowiecki (France) share the cockpit of the #91 Porsche 911 RSR. Their team colleagues Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Kévin Estre (France) drive the 911 RSR with the starting number 92. In the GTE-Am class, Porsche customer teams field two 2015-spec 911 RSR: Dempsey Proton Racing has notched up two victories at the Nürburgring and in Mexiko so far this season with the Porsche Young Professional Matteo Cairoli (Italy), Christian Ried and Marvin Dienst (both Germany). Ben Barker and Michael Wainwright from Great Britain as well as Australian Nick Foster compete in the 911 RSR run by Gulf Racing.
Comments before the race
Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, Vice President Motorsport and GT Cars: “In Bahrain, an exciting WEC season comes to an end, the first for our new 911 RSR. Considering how close and fierce the competition in the GT categories were this year, it’s no surprise really that most of the title decisions have to wait until the finale. Our very clear focus for the final round is to provide Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki with all the support they need to win the race and secure the world championship title, which is awarded this year for the very first time in the GTE-Pro class. The first WEC win for the 911 RSR would also increase the chances for the Porsche GT Team to win the team classification. And, of course, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for our Dempsey Proton Racing customer team, who still has a chance to conclude a successful season by winning the FIA World Endurance Trophy.”
Marco Ujhasi, Director GT Factory Motorsports: “Racing in the heat of Bahrain is the ultimate test for the brakes. Those who have the right knack and manage to cope with the temperatures enjoy a huge advantage and have the best chances to be amongst the frontrunners. And the season finale in the desert also puts the tyres under incredible stress. However, as we’ve seen in the last few years, the brakes are the decisive factor.”
Drivers' quotes in the press release (see downloads).
The 911 RSR
LMP-Team
One of the most successful chapters in Porsche’s motorsport history comes to an end next Saturday: The first test version of the Class 1 Le Mans prototype was rolled out by an entirely new team at Porsche’s research and development center in Weissach back in 2013. The 919 Hybrid's power train concept was as innovative as it was brave, consisting of the most efficient combustion engine Porsche had ever built combined with two different energy recovery systems. Despite a difficult test period, 2014 saw the first positive results: four pole positions and the first race win. Since 2015 to date, the Porsche LMP Team has been phenomenally successful: three consecutive Le Mans outright victories plus three successive manufacturers’ world championship titles while Porsche 919 Hybrid drivers have won the drivers’ world championship title on three occasions.
When Porsche entered the LMP1 category for the 2014 season, this happened in the footsteps of Ferry Porsche’s philosophy, who established motorsport as the ultimate challenge and development cycle. The 2014 LMP1 technical regulations presented a tremendous challenge: It required hybrid technology from manufacturers and at the same time, penalized a high amount of recovered energy by limiting the fuel consumption; on top of that it left huge individual freedom on how to deal with these complex requirements. The Porsche engineers didn’t focus on existing race cars but made full use of the chance to create a revolutionary race car from scratch.
The free practice
In the first two free practice sessions for the last round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship Neel Jani (CH), André Lotterer (DE) and Nick Tandy (GB) came third and fourth respectively. The new world champions, Earl Bamber (NZ), Timo Bernhard (DE) and Brendon Hartley (NZ), finished in the same positions but in reverse order. Hartley clocked today’s fastest lap for the Porsche 919 Hybrid in 1:40.773 minutes. Two Toyotas topped the time sheets.
Saturday’s six-hour race at the 5.41 kilometre long Grand Prix circuit in the Kingdom’s desert will mark the end of an era. After three outright victories at the Le Mans 24-Hours and winning the world championships for drivers as well as for manufacturers in 2015, 2016 and 2017, Porsche pulls out of the Le Mans Prototype category. For its final race, the exceptionally successful race car has got a special livery: the red stripe carries the names of all the people that have contributed to this chapter of Porsche’s motorsport history. Furthermore, the fin indicates the #919tribute social media campaign. The nicest farewell wishes from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that use the hashtag will be published on the official Porsche homepage and in the LED strip light at the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen.
The first practice session was interrupted for 37 minutes due to circuit repairs and cleaning. Later the 919 Hybrid of Jani/Lotterer/Tandy had to pit for quick repairs after a shortcut in a loom required fixing. The second 90-minute session took place entirely in darkness in pleasant ambient temperatures of around 25 degrees Celsius. Shortly before the end of FP2, Bamber touched a LMP2 car but was able to drive back to the pits.
In its final six-hour race, the Porsche 919 Hybrid will once again drive from daylight into the night on Saturday, November 18, in Bahrain. The race will start at 16:00 hrs local time (14:00 CET), sun set is at 16:46 hrs. Unlike at Le Mans, the drivers don’t race only in the tunnel view of the car’s headlights. 5,000 floodlights illuminate the Formula One circuit which allows for worldwide online and TV coverage until the chequered flag.
The qualifying session for the Le Mans prototypes on Friday from 17:30 to 17:50 hrs local time also takes place in the dark.
The Porsche LMP Team after practice
Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “Back then we developed from zero a highly complex hybrid race car on a Formula One level. The early days were extremely demanding, especially as we had to set up the infrastructure, including new buildings, at the same time, plus assembling a team of 260 excellent people. The timing was really tight and the 2014 Le Mans race came way too early for us. But since then, we have managed maximum success. I’m incredibly proud of this team and I hope that we can conclude the era of the Porsche 919 Hybrid with a good race in Bahrain.”
Team Principal Andreas Seidl: “All in all it was a good first day for us. We managed to test all the set-up options we wanted to and tried the different tyre compounds on longer runs. We are not entirely happy yet with the cars’ balance and performance and want to try and make a step forward for tomorrow. In the first free practice session, we lost about 15 minutes with car number 1 when we had to fix a loom.”
The drivers' quotes in the press release (see downloads).
Access all Areas: Webber shows us inside the 919 Hybrid
The Porsche 911 RSR
The 911 RSR, developed on the basis of the high-performance 911 GT3 RS sports car, contested its first season in 2017. The suspension, body structure, aerodynamic concept, engine and transmission were all designed from scratch by Porsche Motorsport in Weissach for this season. Depending on the size of the restrictor, the motor, which is positioned in front of the rear axle, puts out around 375 kW (510 hp). Thanks to the large rear diffuser combined with a top-mounted rear wing, the level of downforce and the aerodynamic efficiency were significantly improved. It scored its maiden victory at the American IMSA SportsCar Championship race at Lime Rock on 22 July. The best results so far in this year’s Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC were second place at the rounds in Nürburgring, Austin, Fuji, and most recently at Shanghai.
The Porsche 919 Hybrid
The Porsche 919 Hybrid develops a system power of around 900 HP (662 kW) that comes from a compact two-litre turbo charged V4-cylinder (nearly 500 HP/368 kW) engine and two different energy recovery systems – brake energy from the front axle combined with exhaust energy. The combustion engine drives the rear axle while the electro motor boosts the front axle with an output of more than 400 HP (294 kW). This way the 919 accelerates with four-wheel drive and at the same time recuperates energy again from the exhaust system that otherwise would pass unused in to the atmosphere. The electrical energy that comes from the front brakes and the exhaust system is temporarily stored in a liquid-cooled lithium ion battery. Money can’t buy what Porsche has learnt from the 919 program for future road going hybrid and electric cars. Dimensions unknown before were discovered in, for example, the areas of combustion efficiency, battery and high voltage technology as well as energy recovery.
The 919 Hybrid
Balance of Performance (BoP)
The “Balance of Performance” applies to the GTE-Pro class of the WEC Sports Car World Endurance Championship as well as the GTLM class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. “BoP” was introduced by the FIA with the aim of achieving a level playing field for the different vehicle concepts, and thus ensuring balanced and fair races. The intention is that it should not make a fundamental difference if a vehicle is powered by a turbocharged or normally aspirated engine, or if the engine is mounted on the front axle or in front of the rear axle. The basic aerodynamic shape of the vehicles should also not play a decisive role.
After an initial grading by the FIA, the balance of performance is adjusted at the races by means of telemetry - not only using lap times, but also acceleration profiles and engine mappings. This data input is automatically analysed and incorporated into the “Balance of Performance”. The most frequently used means of adjusting the performance level is through adding or subtracting weight. In keeping with the rule-makers’ intention, the key to success on the racetrack is not about the individual potential of a vehicle, instead it’s about the performance of the drivers, the race strategy, a perfect setup or the skill of the team with their pit stops.
A distinctive feature of the six-hour race on the Bahrain International Circuit is that it starts in the heat of the afternoon and ends in the darkness and cooler temperatures of the late evening. The 5.407-kilometre racetrack with its 14 corners is located 30 minutes by car to the southwest of the capital Manama. In 2004, the track was purpose-built in the middle of the desert for Formula 1.
Thursday, November 16 2017
15:00-16:30 hrs 1st free practice
19:30-21:00 hrs 2nd free practice
11:20-12:20 hrs 3rd free practice
17:30-17:50 hrs Qualifying LMP1 & LMP2
Saturday, November 18 2017
16:00-22:00 hrs Race
TV and live streaming
The official WEC App can be downloaded free of charge with an extended (not free of charge) version available which includes full live streaming and full timing. The live stream is voiced by the FIA WEC TV team including live interviews from the pits.
The WEC races can be followed on various international TV channels in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North and South America as well as in the Middle East and Africa.
The WEC efficiency regulations limit the amount of energy that can be used per lap. On the 5.41 kilometres long lap of the Bahrain International Circuit, the Porsche 919 Hybrid can use 4.92 megajoule of electrical power from energy recovery systems and 1.907 litres/1.381 kg litres of petrol.
At normal race speed, the 919 Hybrid is due for refuelling after 31 laps.
Refuelling and changing tyres may only be done sequentially, not at the same time. Only four mechanics may work simultaneously when changing tyres and also may use only one wheel gun at a time. That takes a lot longer than in F1, for example.
The drivers are normally only changed when new tyres are needed.
These different types of tyres can be used: three different compounds of slick tyres for dry conditions, a hybrid tyre (no profile either but softer cover) for mixed conditions and wet weather tyres. Four sets of dry weather tyres are available per car for qualifying and the race, this is two sets less than in 2016.
A lap on the F1 track of the Bahrain International Circuit has nine right-handers and six left-handers. The longest straight is at the start-finish and measures 1.090 kilometres.
The circuit opened in 2004 and is located about 30 kilometres outside Bahrain’s capital of Manama. Over 30 islands in the Persian Gulf belong to the Kingdom. Its size is around 750 square kilometres and has a population of almost 1.5 million.
The Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC
Sports prototypes and GT vehicles contest the Sports Car World Endurance Championship (WEC) in four classes: LMP1 (eg. Porsche 919 Hybrid), LMP2, LMGTE-Pro (eg. 911 RSR) and LMGTE-Am (eg. 911 RSR model year 2015). They all compete together in one race but are classified separately.
All scores: http://www.fiawec.com/en/season/result
All results: http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com
911 GT3 RS: Fuel consumption combined 12.7 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 296 g/km
Bahrain: Free practice
Shanghai: Race (GT)
Shanghai: Race (LMP)
A look behind the scenes with Mark Webber
First day of practice in Bahrain: a demanding start to the final race weekend, press release, 11/16/2017, Porsche AG
Porsche pilots aim for the world championship crown, press release, 11/13/2017, Porsche AG
Grand finale in Bahrain – the Porsche 919 Hybrid’s last race, press release, 11/13/2017, Porsche AG
Good chances for Porsche GT Team in the world championship fight, press release, 11/15/2017, Porsche AG
WEC Finale – 6 Hours of Bahrain, Porsche 911 RSR, infographics, 2017, Porsche AG
Porsche Motorsports
Motorsports 07/06/2019
Redesigned 911 RSR expected to defend world championship
Porsche puts its faith in the brand-new 911 RSR to defend the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) title.
Pro-Am class win at the 24-hour marathon
Nürburgring 24 Hours: The Porsche 911 GT3 R No. 12 vehicle has won its class in the Pro-Am category.
Porsche customer team Project 1 declared class winners at Le Mans
The Porsche customer team Project 1 has won the GTE-Am class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (France).
Go for it: getting started with the Porsche Racing Experience
There’s no instruction manual for getting started in the world of motorsports. One possibility: Porsche Racing Experience.
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Defining the “Economic Sociopath”
November 1, 2009 By David Yamada in Business Ethics, economics, psychology and work Tags: Business Ethics, economics, psychology and work 2 Comments
Here’s a fascinating psychological take on our current economic crisis: Journalist and cultural historian Neal Gabler’s typical beat is the entertainment industry, but in a Boston Globe op-ed column titled “The Gaggle of Economics Sociopaths” (pay-walled link here), he turns his attention to the recession and the psychological dysfunction that has been driving it. He is among a growing number of thinking people who are asking questions such as:
How can bailed-out investment houses be doling out millions of dollars in bonuses to the very executives who help to create the meltdown in the first place?
How can the credit industry be raising interest rates on credit cards to unprecedented levels?
How can the financial services industry be devising new risky investment vehicles even after all that we’ve just been through?
In response, Gabler points to the rise of the “economic sociopath,” and he cites the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, used by psychologists and psychiatrists:
The manual describes a broad category called “antisocial personality disorder,’’ which includes those whom we commonly describe as sociopaths. According to the manual, this disorder manifests itself, among other ways, in “deceitfulness’’ as indicated by “conning others for personal profit or pleasure’’; “irresponsibility’’; and “lack of remorse as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.’’
One could easily make the case that Bernie Madoff, R. Allen Stanford, the subprime mortgage pushers, the derivatives dealers, and the rest of the Wall Street gang were all economic sociopaths who were actively hostile to the interests of the American people and wholly devoid of conscience.
Gabler’s thesis makes eminent sense. These folks knew the tragic endgame that was in sight, yet they squeezed everything they could from this economy until it imploded. Many of their victims — yes, victims — are suffering now; lives have been changed permanently for the worse. In the midst of all this, people who have profited mightily from that pain continue to devise new ways to inflict it.
Gabler expresses doubts about the effectiveness of stronger regulation as a long-term solution. I believe that beefing up the substance and enforcement of regulations is a start, but I agree that the problem goes deeper than that. Sociopaths are more common that you might think; one estimate says that 4 of out 100 people have sociopathic tendencies. Unfortunately, they appear to be disproportionately drawn to vocations such as high finance, where they can inflict wreckage in the name of entrepreneurship. How do you regulate that?
« Inspired and ReWIRED: How a TV star is becoming a change agent
When your job requires courage and sacrifice: Here’s to the Fighting 442nd »
A 2003 Canadian documentary, “The Corporation” also had a lot of references equating corporations to highly disturbed, pathologically dangerous persons.
http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm?page_id=312
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The awful necessity of the “business case” against workplace harassment and abuse
October 31, 2017 By David Yamada in Business Ethics, diversity and discrimination, leadership, social responsibility, workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse Tags: Business Ethics, diversity and discrimination, leadership, social responsibility, workplace bullying 11 Comments
The ongoing and very public torrent of stories and accusations of sexual harassment and abuse directed at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has prompted an endless stream of commentaries about sexual harassment in the workplace. For example, the Economist magazine weighed in on the bottom-line business impacts of unchecked sexual harassment:
The victims often suffer depression, anger and humiliation. Firms where harassment happens are eventually harmed, too. Mr Weinstein’s studio may be sued…. The company could even be destroyed by the scandal. Even if one leaves aside all moral arguments—which one should not—failing to deal with harassment is usually bad for business. Firms that tolerate it will lose female talent to rivals that do not, and the market will punish them. The costs of decency are trivial; the rewards to shareholders are large.
This is yet another version of the so-called “business case” against work abuse, in this instance sexual harassment. For those of us who have been addressing workplace bullying and mobbing behaviors, this rap sounds familiar. We are continually urged to make the business case against psychological abuse at work, including articulating its cost impacts and, whenever possible, assigning estimated monetary figures.
I understand that whenever abusive behaviors are prevalent in the workplace, it makes sense to point out the costs to the organization. However, I do so with an underlying slow burn. It means that it’s not enough to show that bullying, mobbing, and harassment can wreak havoc on an individual’s health, livelihood, and overall well being. It means that all too many CEOs, senior executives, and managers won’t take work abuse seriously until they understand the monetary costs to their organizations.
I’m a pragmatist. If it takes the “business case” against work abuse to get organizational leaders to care, I say let’s make it. But this sure doesn’t say much about the morals, ethics, and empathy of the executives who look the other way unless it hits them in their wallets and profit-and-loss statements. Human suffering alone is not enough for them; money, not decency, is what motivates them to act.
Thanks a million — and lots more to come!
October 24, 2017 By David Yamada in A Note from Your Host, media, work and technology, workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse Tags: media, work and technology, workplace bullying 16 Comments
I’m doing a quick little celebration here. Sometime over the past hour or so, this modest little blog recorded its one millionth “page view,” or “hit.” When I started Minding the Workplace some nine years ago, I had no idea whether it would endure or attract any interest. But thanks to you, my readers, what began as an opportunity to share some of my work and observations — mainly about workplace bullying and abuse — has grown into a more broad-ranging source of commentary about the experience of work and related topics.
Because of a packed schedule, I admit that I’m sort of gliding into this first million. During the past six months I’ve been extremely busy on matters that overlap with many topics raised on this blog. They include co-editing (with Dr. Maureen Duffy) a forthcoming two-volume book set, Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States and serving as the founding board chairperson of a new non-profit organization, the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence, launched over the summer and going operational online in January. These initiatives, along with a sea of other writing and organizational commitments, have caused me to post less frequently here.
That will change next year, as I plan to resume a more frequent blogging schedule. Among other things, I’m going to be drawing regularly from Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States and our more than two dozen contributors to offer snippets of commentary, research, and insight on work abuse. There’s so much in these two volumes that will be worth summarizing and discussing.
Of course, the world of work will continue to supply an ongoing stream of topics to write about, including cutting-edge research by scholars, compelling commentary by journalists and fellow bloggers, and real-life events and trends that demand our close attention.
I look forward to sharing this with you during the months and years to come!
Passion + mission + vocation + profession = “Ikigai”
October 23, 2017 By David Yamada in avocations, career planning, Creating Good Jobs, experience of work Tags: avocations, career planning, Creating Good Jobs, experience of work 2 Comments
Screenshot from businessinsider.com
Laura Oliver, writing for the World Economic Forum (via Business Insider), discusses the Japanese philosophy and practice of “ikigai” as “a way to live longer and better.” She explains:
While there is no direct English translation, ikigai is thought to combine the Japanese words ikiru, meaning “to live,” and kai, meaning “the realization of what one hopes for.” Together these definitions create the concept of “a reason to live” or the idea of having a purpose in life.
Oliver adds that according to experts, four key questions start us down the path toward the state of ikigai:
What do you love?
What are you good at?
What does the world need from you?
What can you get paid for?
Elusive combination
Okay, let’s be honest. Work and career opportunities that combine the answers to these four questions are not easy to obtain or create. We’re talking about the gold standard here. Nevertheless, if these inquiries can lead us to the best opportunities given current realities, then we’re better off for doing the exercise.
Unexpected difficulties
Furthermore, let’s acknowledge that what look like “dream jobs” from even the slightest distance can deteriorate into something much less in terms of reality. Many readers who have found this blog because of their experiences with workplace bullying, mobbing, or harassment can attest to that. So…the human side of our work environment may have a lot to do with ikigai, too, yes?
For those who have experienced the nasty side of work, perhaps the ikigai concept can help you think through your next options.
Skilled trades, too
In using the term “profession,” the graphic pictured above may suggest that ikigai has a white collar, professional bias. So let’s be sure to include skilled trades, among other things, as part of the mix. For example, take a look at this essay by Matthew Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft, which examines how deeply meaningful it can be to make a living via manual labor. (He later expanded the essay into a book by the same title, published in 2009.)
Avocations as an option
If that all-encompassing dream job proves to be elusive, then perhaps turning part of the dream into an avocation is an option. I’ve written about that possibility and how satisfying it can be, such as in this 2010 piece, “Embracing Creative Dreams at Midlife.”
Hat tip to Dr. Peggy Berry for the Business Insider article.
The “me too” campaign as both voice and trigger
October 17, 2017 By David Yamada in dignity at work and in society, diversity and discrimination, power & abuse in society, psychology and work Tags: dignity at work and in society, diversity and discrimination, power & abuse in society, psychology and work 2 Comments
When the New York Times broke the story that powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has quietly settled numerous sexual harassment claims against him going back decades (per this article by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey), it unleashed an ongoing storm of similar allegations against Weinstein and stories of the “casting couch” practices of the filmmaking industry. Not since the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas centering on Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment has this topic been so prominently in the mainstream news.
And now the forces of social media are weighing in, especially with a meme/hashtag campaign of “me too,” whereby (mostly) women are posting these two words on Facebook and other sites to proclaim that they, too, have experienced sexual harassment and abuse. Scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed over the past couple of days has conveyed a powerful message about the frequency and pain of these behaviors.
For some, it hasn’t been a difficult decision to type in “me too” and click “post.” But for many, many others, the “me too” campaign has been a triggering event at the same time it has provided an opportunity to be heard, causing them to relive their own experiences, which in some cases have been deeply traumatic.
There’s more that I want to write about the Harvey Weinstein story, but because it’s still developing, I will wait a bit. For now, however, let’s acknowledge that for many women, the question of whether to post two simple words to their Facebook page or Twitter feed has triggered conflicting emotions about voice, outrage, abuse, and victimization. Their ultimate decision is not ours to judge, either way. But if we care about dignity and equality in the workplace and in society overall, then we must understand why so many are saying “me too.”
Workplace bullying and mobbing stories: “Do you have a few hours?”
October 10, 2017 By David Yamada in workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse Tags: workplace bullying 5 Comments
…in about the time it takes to read this book
Countless public speaking appearances about workplace bullying have taught me that covering the essential basics about work abuse is doable in about 15 minutes or so. For many talks, I include a “Workplace Bullying 101” intro segment that quickly describes the most common bullying behaviors and their impacts on workers and organizations, as well as prevalence rates and a few other key pieces of information. As I go through this baseline description, I often see folks nodding their heads in recognition.
However, what I can’t do in the typical short presentation is adequately convey the twisted, sick, and utterly disturbing narratives of the worst individual bullying and mobbing experiences, where the abusive behavior has been ongoing, targeted, malicious, multidirectional, and often suggesting an absence of conscience on the part of the main perpetrator(s). In past blog posts, I have invoked terms to describe aspects of these behaviors — “crazy making,” “gaslighting,” “blitzkrieg,” “eliminationist,” and the like — but a standard entry of 300-750 words does not yield sufficient space to communicate the excruciating details of individual stories.
I have learned that some of the most compelling stories of work abuse often take hours to explain, even if the targeted individuals have been able to work through the resulting trauma so as to be able to share their experiences coherently. (See my 2016 blog entry, “Workplace bullying, psychological trauma, and the challenge of storytelling,” summarizing scientific research that explains why traumatized individuals may find it difficult or impossible to provide ordered narratives of their experiences.) You see, the complexities of certain bullying and mobbing situations often do not fit into neat, sequential, and linear start-to-finish storylines. There are digressions, subplots, and spin-offs along the way, and some of them are important toward comprehending the overall narrative. In fact, sometimes these little details provide the “OMG” moment of understanding the breadth and depth of the situation.
In trying to get to the essence of a story, many of us would prefer The Little Engine That Could over Moby Dick, at least if we’re stretched for time. I believe this is among the reasons why targets of bullying and mobbing who have committed their stories to paper have found that conventional book publishers are not very receptive to their work. Some have opted for the self-publishing route as an alternative. While these self-published narratives are uneven in quality, they are uniformly reflective of the writers’ courage in bringing them to publication.
Personally, I’m at a point where I’m not searching for more stories. Alas, the ones I’m closely familiar with have sufficiently informed my grasp on how virulent, heartless, and harmful these behaviors can be. I also realize that longer, detail-packed narratives of work abuse exceed the attention spans of most legislators, executives and managers, labor leaders, and other individuals who should be taking such mistreatment more seriously. That said, the true horror and destructiveness of severe bullying and mobbing at work cannot be known without absorbing the whole of individual stories. We have to find a better way to tell and share them.
Workplace bullying and mobbing: Abuse vs. conflict
October 2, 2017 By David Yamada in dispute resolution, power & abuse in society, workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse, workplace incivility Tags: dispute resolution, power & abuse in society, workplace bullying, workplace incivility 5 Comments
image courtesy of clipartfest.com
As I wrote in my previous post, Dr. Maureen Duffy and I are doing a final review of our forthcoming two-volume book set, Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States (ABC-CLIO, 2018), scheduled for publication in December. The process of re-reading 25 chapters featuring the work of over two dozen contributors highlights recurring themes for me. Among others, I keep coming back to this question: In terms of negative workplace interactions, what factors distinguish “conflict” from “abuse”?
You’ll find differences of opinion on this question among our learned contributors. For me, the distinction between workplace conflict and workplace abuse often boils down to two major factors, namely, (1) the intentions of the parties, and (2) the power relationships between the parties.
If a party’s main intention is to cause harm or distress to another (thus meeting a common legal definition of malice), then the situation is more likely to be an abusive one.
If the power relationships between the parties are significantly uneven due to some combination of internal hierarchy (e.g., supervisor vs. subordinate), numbers (e.g., many vs. one), personality matches (e.g., exploiting someone’s emotional vulnerabilities), and resources (organizational, financial, etc.), then the situation is more likely to be an abusive one.
If one side exhibits malicious intent and exercises a significant power advantage over the other, then the situation is very likely to be an abusive one. The combination of bad intentions and the ability to effectuate them can be overwhelming to the less-advantaged individual.
Here is where we find some of the sharper dividing lines between disrespect and incivility on one hand, and bullying and mobbing on the other. Of course, there are others, including repeated acts of aggression and the greater presence of serious health-harming effects with the latter.
If you’d like an illuminating comparison in terms of social relationships, consider spousal or domestic partnership relationships. It’s one thing for a couple not to get along, perhaps even to the point where the conflict has elevated to frequent disagreements and verbal and non-verbal aggression. It’s quite another for one party to continually subject the other to verbal and/or physical abuse in a one-sided show of aggression. (This illustration is among the reasons why I have long joined with others in believing that workplace bullying is more like domestic abuse than schoolyard bullying.)
Again, I’m simply sharing my thoughts on this topic as an ongoing response to reviewing the forthcoming book volumes. I’m sure that once these volumes are published, I’ll be drawing upon them frequently for more observations and insights.
Coming in December: “Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States”
October 1, 2017 By David Yamada in notable books, workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse Tags: notable books, workplace bullying 11 Comments
Dear readers, Dr. Maureen Duffy and I are going through the final galley proofs of our forthcoming two-volume book set, Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States (ABC-CLIO, 2018), scheduled for publication in December!
With over two dozen contributors (including a Foreword by Dr. Gary Namie of the Workplace Bullying Institute) and some 600 pages packed into two volumes, we believe this will be an important, comprehensive contribution to the growing literature on workplace bullying and mobbing, useful for scholars and practitioners alike. The project deliberately takes a U.S. focus in order to take into account the unique aspects of American employment relations.
From the publisher’s webpage for the book, here’s a quick rundown of the highlights:
“The first comprehensive, multi-contributor book on workplace bullying and mobbing grounded in American employee relations”;
“An ideal starting place for anyone seeking to better understand the breadth and depth of research on workplace bullying and mobbing in the United States”;
“Features contributions from leading researchers and subject-matter experts on workplace bullying and mobbing, including some who are founding members of the U.S. Academy on Workplace Bullying, Mobbing, and Abuse”; and,
“Summarizes and analyzes leading research for scholars and researchers in industrial/organizational psychology, clinical and counseling psychology, organizational behavior and communications, business management, law, and public health”.
With a $131 publisher’s retail price, this book set is aimed at academicians and practitioners who want an encyclopedic treatment of this topic, as well as specialized and general libraries.
We’ll be sharing more about the contents and our contributors during the weeks to come. In the meantime, we’re proud to reprint the following endorsements from valued colleagues:
Michael L. Perlin, Esq., Professor Emeritus of Law, New York Law School; Cofounder, Mental Disability Law and Policy Associates: “With each day that passes, the need for these volumes grows. This is a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary major work looking carefully at issues of workplace bullying and mobbing, asking hard questions, and offering a multifaceted agenda for interventions, law reform, and behavioral changes. It calls out for an infusion of much-needed dignity into our offices, factories, and universities. If only this were to be read in the White House. Bravo!”
Linda M. Hartling, PhD, Director, Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies: “Finally, a comprehensive, reader-friendly, research-based text examining the full spectrum of interpersonal cruelty that poisons productivity and creativity in the American workplace. This book is not only an essential resource for anyone who has experienced workplace bullying or mobbing, it is a vital guide for professionals at all levels seeking practical approaches to prevent, reduce, and reverse the risks of aggression in today’s hyper-competitive world of work.”
Loree Sutton, MD, US Army Ret. Brigadier General: “Bravo! In this two-volume book set, Maureen Duffy and David Yamada have provided a most timely and essential resource for policymakers, practitioners, advocates, employers, and workers seeking to advance and accelerate desperately needed changes affecting the health, wellbeing, civility, and productivity of American society. This pioneering work, representing the collective expertise of cutting-edge legal, employment, therapist, human resources, and public policy professionals, is destined to serve as the tipping point of our country’s awareness concerning the devastating impact of workplace bullying and mobbing. As importantly, the knowledge, insights, and strategies outlined in these volumes identify what each of us, inspired by the ‘fierce urgency of now,’ must do to create a workplace whose culture and contributions are imbued with dignity, pride, and respect for all.”
Suzanne L. Walker, MS, CCMHC, LCAS, LPC, American Mental Health Counselors’ Association (AMHCA) Current Past President: “As a seasoned mental health professional of 35 years providing clinical mental health and psychotherapy to scores of traumatized people, I never imagined that I would be ‘that person’: a victim of workplace bullying and discrimination for more than 13 months. My friends, family, and professional colleagues still have trouble understanding how workplace bullying could exist in the public sector despite scores of potential legal protections. This book is a critically needed, seminal piece of well-written and researched professional literature—long overdue and so desperately needed.”
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Home Culture Art & Design Banksy exhibition coming to Toronto in June
Banksy exhibition coming to Toronto in June
An unauthorized touring show of the British street artist's work is getting a four-week run on Sterling Road
by Kevin Ritchie
Martin Reis
Bansky graffiti popped up around Toronto in 2010.
A massive exhibition devoted to the work of street artist Banksy is coming to Toronto this summer.
The Art Of Banksy, an unauthorized touring show of more than 80 works, will open June 13 in a two-storey “raw space” at 213 Sterling Road.
According to a press release, Toronto “beat out both Athens and Stockholm” to host the show. The exhibition – primarily paintings – has previously traveled to Melbourne, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Auckland.
Concert promoter Live Nation and Starvox Exhibits are behind the Banksy show's Toronto run, which will last four weeks. Advance tickets go on sale via banksyexhibit.com on May 7 to American Express cardholders and to everyone else on May 12 at 10 am. A limited number of tickets will also be available onsite at 213 Sterling on June 13. Tickets are $35.
The English artist, activist and filmmaker, whose identity is a mystery, has become known globally for his whimsical, anti-establishment stencils in public spaces around the world. However, this exhibit apparently does not have his blessing.
Curated by London gallerist and the artist’s former business manager Steve Lazarides, the show is billed as the largest collection of Banksy works. All pieces are privately owned and will be returned to collectors once the show is over.
Lazarides had a falling out with his former client and prior to The Art Of Banksy's opening in Melbourne in 2016, he told Australian publication Broadsheet the exhibition would likely piss the artist off.
"We've been at loggerheads for years," he said. "He’s not the kind of guy who is ever going to do a retrospective."
The art featured in the show is valued at $35 million, according to the exhibit's website. Key works to be displayed include Balloon Girl, Flag Wall and Laugh Now.
Banksy last made a splash in Toronto when he created several pieces in city streets in 2010 as part of a promo tour for the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop.
Correction: May 7, 2018 An an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the exhibition will also take place in surrounding venues in the Lower Junction neighbourhood. This version has been updated.
art@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto
street art culture art Banksy This week in NOW
Kevin Ritchie
Kevin has worked in journalism for 20 years, first as a general assignment reporter before being sucked into the glamorous life that is arts and entertainment coverage. Kevin now contributes to music, tv, film and culture.
Read more by Kevin Ritchie
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Q&A WITH PATRICK EPINO, DIRECTOR OF MR. SADMAN
17 Nov Q&A WITH PATRICK EPINO, DIRECTOR OF MR. SADMAN
Posted at 23:29h in Interviews by Pacific Arts Movement
There was some buzz this summer surrounding Lee Tamahori’s film, The Devil’s Double. It was based on the true story of the body double of Saddam Hussein’s notoriously brutal and psychopathic son Uday. But just a few years ago, another film also told the story of a Hussein double. It was a decidedly smaller, quirkier, film that was one of three finalists considered for Independent Filmmaker Project’s first ever $50,000 finishing grant, and for which Patrick Epino was named one of 10 filmmakers to watch in 2009 by the film magazine The Independent. In the dark comedy Mr. Sadman, Epino fantasized about a fictional Hussein double, putting American ideas of identity under the microscope, while also utilizing the new norms of film distribution.
Mr. Sadman is set in 1990s Los Angeles against the backdrop of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Mounir, a middle-aged man who has made a career out of doubling as Saddam Hussein in pre-Gulf War Iraq. He is proud not only of this talent and the quasi fame that comes with it, but also of the man he mimics. But when he is unexpectedly let go from his job, a disillusioned and saddened Mounir decides to flee his country and start anew in L.A. There, we follow “Mo” on his somewhat neurotic journey through the wide landscape of American pop culture, from boba tea and fast food to basketball and Prince. While grieving the loss of his old life and also learning of his beloved dictator’s true evil nature, Mo befriends a struggling actor, swaps his old Saddam persona for other ones (such as Bruce Lee and Michael Jordan), encounters a myriad of characters and finds himself getting more lost than found. It’s as much a film about being an outsider as it is an observation of the American identity.
Mr. Sadman was filmed in 2009 and, with the exception of Tim Kang (The Mentalist), was comprised of a virtually unknown cast. It had a brief festival run, screening at the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival and Disorient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon, but never made its way to the general public via the traditional theatrical or home video distribution. In fact, like most other films these days that are self-distributed, it’s garnered most of its following through the internet and the viral power of social media. The film has a Facebook page and an iPhone app, and can also be downloaded for free at its website: www.mrsadman.com. The website also offers uniquely premium packages, such as the Digital Download Deluxe, which includes an HD download of the film and soundtrack for $9.99; The Dictator Pack for $59.99, which includes a personal Q&A with Epino; and the Dictator Deluxe Pack for $333.33, which includes a game of H.O.R.S.E. and a personal tour of Epino’s favorite east L.A. bars, where the H.O.R.S.E. loser buys the first round of drinks.
Born in San Francisco and raised in the bay area, Epino grew up in a Filipino-American household. And, although Mr. Sadman is not what you would think of as a typical Asian American film (at least, not one that deals with Asian American themes and issues), Epino insists it was both his American upbringing and the Filipino culture that had a lot to do with the story he wanted to tell. I chatted with Epino about Filipino culture, the American experience and self-distribution. He jokingly indicates that I will be receiving an invoice for the Dictator Pack Q&A.
PACIFIC ARTS MOVEMENT: HOW DID YOU GET INTO FILMMAKING? AND WERE YOUR PARENTS SUPPORTIVE OF YOUR CAREER CHOICE OR DID YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE TO GO A MORE PROFESSIONAL ROUTE?
PATRICK EPINO: I have a brother who is 18 months older, and he’s a doctor. And when I was going to college in Chicago, there were times when I thought about becoming a lawyer. But my folks were always super cool. I didn’t really get any pressure from [them]. As long as you found what you loved to do and did it as hard as you can, then they were happy with that. And they knew I was always a little bit out there [and] off kilter.
I studied sociology as an undergrad, and then I took a couple years to study design. Then I ended up getting into film school on a lark, because I thought about applying, and I had missed all the deadlines for the schools I wanted to go to, except for San Francisco State. So I was just going to do a practice run since their deadline [had not passed] and they took me. I finished the [MFA] program in two years and then moved to Los Angeles.
PAC ARTS: SO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DECISION TO MAKE THIS FILM. IT’S NOT WHAT YOU WOULD THINK OF AS TYPICALLY ASIAN AMERICAN.
EPINO: Mr. Sadman is essentially a movie about my American experience. I just had this idea about taking somebody that had this face of evil, per se, and then trying to make him a really sympathetic character. And essentially his experience throughout the movie is kind of what I think it means to be an American. [It’s] about how people are constantly looking for some kind of attention or adoration from external sources; how they put on different costumes all the time to fit in. To me it’s a movie about Americans and America. But also, Filipino culture, to a large extent, is a copy cat culture because of its history, being colonized by the Spanish and being run over by the Americans for so long. And that’s a big part of what I saw as well. A lot of people on face value just saw this silly premise and this farce. But for me it was critiquing a lot of what I saw growing up in myself and in other people and just taking that American experience to the nth degree. Because we all [grew] up idolizing different people. In the movie he becomes Prince and Bruce Lee and Michael Jordan and those were all people I looked up to at one point or another in my formative years, and even to some extent, when I was a grown man.
PAC ARTS: WHY THE SADDAM HUSSEIN DOUBLE? WHY NOT JUST ANY FOREIGNER LOOKING IN?
EPINO: I remember having a conversation about these doubles for all these various dictators, and at the time Saddam was still alive in 2003 and that’s when the first seed of the idea came. I just thought of a Saddam double, and then thought it’d be an interesting scenario if he lost his job and moved to L.A. and then he didn’t realize that Saddam was this bad guy. And then he tries to stop being Saddam but he doesn’t really know how to be anybody else so he does what everybody else does in America and in western society which is to hop off one persona and turn around and try to be something else.
PAC ARTS: IT’S INTERESTING, TOO, THAT YOU MADE THE CHARACTER A SILENT ONE.
EPINO: An earlier iteration of the story had him talking a whole lot. And then one day I really kind of pushed for this cipher thing, where he was just a face and you could imprint anything on him, and it automatically made him a little more innocent, a little bit more wide-eyed, a little bit more child-like, to the extent that you could buy him as a character. And this was before I even started casting, so I was imagining the real Saddam in my head being this really innocent guy. So when I took out all the dialogue, I thought ‘ok, this kind of works’ and then I just put some of his dialogue in other people’s mouths.
PAC ARTS: L.A. IS DEFINITELY ANOTHER CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE. WAS SETTING THE STORY IN L.A. AN INTENTIONAL CHOICE?
EPINO: Yeah, because I thought L.A. represented those things I was looking for, the taking on of one persona to the very extreme. It matched it better than anywhere else. If it were San Francisco or some other city, it probably wouldn’t have felt just right. And if it were New York City, it would’ve felt completely off for me. In the story, he doesn’t really want to be an actor, he just kind of falls into it, so L.A. definitely added to the idea of this guy coming here and taking on different personas.
PAC ARTS: YOU’VE SAID THAT YOUR INTENTION WAS TO AT LEAST PARTIALLY SELF-DISTRIBUTE THIS FILM. DID YOU ALWAYS SEE YOURSELF DOING THAT FOR YOUR FILMS AND WILL YOU ALWAYS GO THAT ROUTE?
EPINO: It’s always going to be something that I’m going to want the option to do. You never know. Markets and models are always changing and evolving. And I think right now it’s a really exciting time to try out ideas. A lot of people lament how the independent film world, and the film world in general, is changing and things aren’t how they used to be. I think people who came up in the 80s and 90s had this vision, this myth, of what being a filmmaker was. And you see a couple of successes and it barely existed for those people, and now it doesn’t exist at all. So it’s just something you have to adapt to. There’s just so much media nowadays to take people’s attention and that’s a good thing, to some extent. We’ll see how thatpans out with these kids that are coming up with even shorter attention spans than I had.
But you never come up thinking you’re going to self-distribute. The thing that’s changed so much in the last five years is just the opportunity out there. And I think people are learning to adapt. There’s just so many films out there nowadays. Fifteen years ago you had this blank canvas. You put a dot for every independent film, and there was still a lot of white space, but nowadays it’s just a completely colored canvas. Where’s the audience for those things? I personally think Hollywood films, as a lot of people feel, have staled, and they’re franchises and they’re not going to make a film unless it’s a book or a graphic novel or a remake. But for independent films … I say this about Asian American films, you see a lot of the same stuff over and over again with the same theme. And it’s almost like people don’t do their homework. I’m not saying that I do all the time, but you should know what’s been done and what’s out there so you don’t do exactly the same thing or so you can build upon somebody else’s work and take the dialogue and discourse and storytelling a little further. And it’s the same for independent films. You hear it more and more often, [that] it’s stale and it’s the same stuff. So where does it go from there? Especially if you’re asking for someone’s 85-90 minutes. So I just think there are other ways and it’s good to see technology changing things up a bit.
PAC ARTS: WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR ASPIRING FILMMAKERS?
EPINO: Tell the stories you want to tell and really embrace the tools around you. Moving images are relatively young compared to other mediums, and the format’s evolving faster and faster seemingly every day, so you can look at new technology as new weapons and your mastery of them as ways you can be more dangerous.
Epino’s next film project is called Be A Man, but most recently he has taken to YouTube, co-founding The National Film Society, alongside fellow filmmaker Stephen Dypiangco (Home Unknown, God of Love). NFS is a new media studio in which Epino and Dypiangco produce and distribute original short content, showcase amazing movies, interview talented artists and pretty much make fun of each other. In honor of Filipino American History Month in October, NFS recently highlighted awesome Filipino American actors, filmmakers and movies.
You can read more about Epino’s thoughts on self-distribution in a March 2011 article that appeared in Filmmaker Magazine. Sadly, Al No’mani, the Iraqi actor who portrayed Mo, passed away shortly after filming. Here’s a clip of No’mani on meeting the real Saddam in Iraq:
Epino’s friend, Goh Nakamura, who is featured on the Mr. Sadman soundtrack, recently starred in the Dave Boyle film Surrogate Valentine, which was the Centerpiece Film and the Grand Jury Award winner at this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival. Epino also makes an appearance in the film.
And I have yet to receive the invoice for the Q&A.
Pacific Arts Movement
Pacific Arts Movement presents Asian American Pacific Islander and Asian international media arts for San Diego residents and visitors in order to inspire, entertain and support a more compassionate society.
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Celebrating Wong Fu Productions
THE YOUNG AND THE YOUTUBE
By Vincent Pham
I must admit it was only four years ago when I first heard undergraduates at the University of Illinois – a university located in the middle of cornfields and pig farms – chatter about a group of YouTube media makers making the rounds of the college circuit. I wondered, “Who are these guys that captured the hearts and eyes of Midwest high school-turned-college-kids through the Internet?” Little did I know that Wong Fu Productions was well on their way to becoming modern day media pioneers.
In their ten-year tenure as Wong Fu Productions, these three digitally savvy and photogenically gifted men – Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang – have created and cultivated a media conglomerate, partnering with Far East Movement (who fly high like a G-6) to create the International Secret Agents, and teaming up YouTube stars like Kevin Wu (KevJumba) and Ryan Higa (Nigahiga). They co-opted their “nice guy” image and re-appropriated their own “awkwardness” to create their own Nice Guy Design line and Awkward Animal plush animals. At a time when traditional media was seeking to strengthen its grip in the digital realm, and when the Internet was slowly transitioning to a visual medium powered by widespread high-speed broadband, WFP operated proudly and visibly in the niche interstices of media, churning out short and long videos with Asian American men and women in the forefront, and converging media before media convergence was even a thing.
Yet, perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that Wong Fu started on the campus of UCSD, through class projects in the classrooms by the beaches and away from but within reach of the bright lights of Los Angeles, the center of mainstream media production and its entertaining yet cookie-cutter formulas. Perhaps the optimism of college youth and the cozy confines of a supportive college scene, combined with a burgeoning San Diego-based Asian American film festival and the exposure to intellectuals and media-makers speaking about Asian American media issues cultivated an environment ripe for three Asian American men to create, film, and distribute their own work. Or perhaps, simply, it was the right place, at the right time, with the right group of friends for YouTube stardom.
But it wasn’t that they were and are YouTube stars, but rather how they became YouTube stars. Ten years ago, these three slightly awkward Asian guys from UCSD uploaded a grainy music video of themselves onto their own personal internet server: a lip-synced performance of Justin Timberlake’s “Señorita.” Unabashedly confident, incredibly endearing, and fully engrossing, the video spread from inbox to inbox, from dorm room to dorm room, and from campus to campus on high-speed internet trails, making you feel that you were a part of their fun or that you could be just like them. In a way, they showed us what the Internet could be, transcending the exclusion of the quickly encroaching mainstream media and more inviting than the angry and often racist tweets of contemporary social media. They showed us that friends could create together, succeed together, and grow together with the whole world watching.
From grainy videos made for college assignments to slick, high-quality productions seen around the world, their YouTube stardom underscores the work and influence of these young men who, for the past ten years (an eternity in Internet time) have reshaped and reconfigured the mediascape and the representational terrain of Asian Americans. Whether folks barely know them or have followed them for ten years, WFP’s influence is best summarized by those kids in the Midwest, far away from the diverse shores of California, who, with only mobile phones and laptops, now have more than just the Bruce Lees and Long Duk Dongs, and can see before them ever-evolving stories in Wong Fu videos that serve as positive, guiding lights in an ever hostile mediascape.
Vincent Pham was assistant professor of Communication at California State University San Marcos, and the co-author (with Kent A. Ono) of Asian Americans and the Media. He is now assistant professor of Civic Communication and Media at Willamette University.
Read the full Q&A here, moderated by DANakaDAN
IT’S A WONG FU HOMECOMING!
Moderated by DANakaDAN
UCSD Price Center Theater
IT’S A WONG FU PARTY!
The Loft, UCSD
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Psycho-Pass 2 | Couldn’t live up to the hype.
OOCentral 3 weeks ago
The second season revolves around several changes. Technical wise, Production I.G. is no longer in charge of the project. Instead, we get Tatsunoko Production directed by Kiyotaka Suzuki. Secondly, the series only runs approximately half the length of the first season. That’s right. 11 episodes and apparently, the show is confident enough to craft a story based on the setup of the premise and what it has shown us from the first season. Make no mistake though, certain characters do make returns while new ones are added. Finally, there’s an absence of Shinya Kogami. There’s obvious reasons why he doesn’t appear in this sequel especially for fans who have seen the first season. In regards to these changes, this sequel brings a different picture to view.
From the start, the second season offers a story involving a new mysterious case. To end, it also adds a host of new characters as well as returning ones from the first season. Protagonist and inspector Akane Tsunemori returns after learning the truth about the Sybil System. Her choice is to obey the system by following a philosophy of doing the right thing is in her mind. Joining her includes Ginoza, Yayoi, and Shion as part of the new police unit. They also get some new helping hands including six new characters who plays a variety of roles in the second season. While the show still retains their state of duty, the season is left without Kagami, a man who dealt pivotal blows against the system. At the same time, the Sybil System itself reveals startling new revelations that may change the story forever.
The absence of certain characters is something that season 2 suffers from when it comes to expansive development. Fans who have become attached to Kogami will surely feel disappointed with his lack of presence. And to make it worse, we no longer have Makishima Shougo. He was a complex character with a dark personality and a difficult antagonist to replace. It’ll take time for people to get used to a guy like Kamui despite their similar dark personalities. Still, there’s also a mistake about the second season with the addition with Mika when it comes to her characterization. The first episode leaves no time to depict her character as someone who is literally a complainer desperately trying to defend the Sybil System. Her ignorance and opposition against her own boss Akane is something to that can be on the line of hair pulling annoyance. At some point of the show, it would come as no surprise if most viewers label Mika to be an idiot.
Despite the additions of such a foil character, the new season still has enough to keep fans involved and eagerly await each episode. I can say this with confidence as some episodes leaves off with thrilling cliffhangers after a built-up of events. It’s also easy to interpret the show that is shrouded in mystery with secrets and foreshadowing. There are also parts during the season as we witness Kamui commence with his plans in secret with hidden motives. It’s easy to tell that he is the type of man who is careful with his moves after he kidnaps and seemingly brainwashes Mizue Shisui, an inspector from Division 2. His smooth talking tells us that he is quite a manipulative character who uses words as his primary weapon to get people to join his side. Not only that but he seems to be personally interested in Akane, a contrast to Season 1’s Makishima Shougo where he is disappointed at her actions. Like I mentioned before, Akane fights on personal terms with her internal struggles as his friends, family, and comrades are put in danger. Season 2 exploits many points with twists of fate with a grim sense of purpose.
There are definitely some problems with the direction of the episodes in this season. In particular, one episode introduces a group of new characters from another unit; a direction that I feel as inappropriate with the lack of characterization already on the current roster. But let’s make this worse. This one particular episode turns into a sour blood fest after some choices are made based on the behavior of the Sybil System. And if you want to guess, Mika is as useless as ever while Akane herself does little to secure the problem. What we get in the end is nothing more than more exposition and graphic violence to add to the shock factor.
There’s also the situational ‘cat and mouse’ gimmick that returns in this season as the new police unit begins to hunt down Kamui. Guess who is Tom and who is Jerry. Still, the main part of the show’s problem revolves with Kamui’s methods to manipulate people. A part of his past connects with events of the present that deconstructs the way the Sybil System work. Unlike season 1 that is focused on the flaws of the system, it now becomes a shallow writing with terribly mishandled concept. Honestly, if that is the method that Kamui uses to manipulate people, then this season is doomed. You’ll have to watch it yourself to discover the stone cold truth.
Character relationships are of minimal impact and nothing on par with Akane and Kagami’s development from season 1. There are also strange twists thrown in revolving around with Tougane as well as Mika learns of a terrible fact. Otherwise, most of the other new characters lacks any depth with their characterization. Even Ginoza becomes less interesting despite his initial impressive introduction in this season. I say this with a potential romance angle that was doomed from the very start. Finally, don’t forget about Mika. Or perhaps, I think it should be in best of interests to forget her as much as possible since she is so focused on her own ideology. It’s hard for anyone to feel sorry for her to be honest.
Soundtrack is perhaps a stronger aspect of the sequel. While it doesn’t surpass season 1 in any way, there’s a good measure of coordinating the cryptic OP song to illustrate its themes. Not only that but the OST remains top notch during key moments in this season.
Anime Universe
Action, adventure, anime and manga, anime dub, anime girl, anime online, Anime Review, anime sub, Anime Universe, best anime, Cars, comedy, Dementia, Demons, download anime, drama, ecchi, fantasy, First Impressions, game, harem, Hentai, Historical, Horror, is it good?, Josei, Kids, magic, Martial Arts, mecha, Military, Movie Review, music, Mystery, new season, oocentral, Opinion, Otaku Central, Parody, Police, Psycho-Pass 2, PSYCHO-PASS サイコパス 2, Psycho-Pass Second Season, Psychological, Psychopath 2nd Season, Romance, Samurai, School, Sci-Fi, season 2, second season, seinen, Shoujo, Shoujo Ai, shounen, Shounen Ai, Slice of Life, space, Sports, Super Power, Supernatural, Thriller, top 10, Vampire, Worth Watching?, Yaoi, Yuri
Grisaia no Kajitsu | The Prequel to a better Second Season
Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken | Loved it
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Submitted by Ruby Sinreich on March 30, 2004 - 6:07am
The Independent Weekly ran a story by Fiona Morgan last week about the Orange County Democratic Party. They are experiencing an influx of Dean supporters which is giving the overall party a boost in organization and momentum.
As for Dean's mantra of "taking back the party," [Orange County Democratic Party Chair Barry] Katz says he would like to see it happen. "On a local level, re-establishing a party that exists independent of its candidates but exists to support its candidates, that's taking back the party. And that's what's happening in Orange County." - Independent Weekly, 3/17/04
Our county party also has a long platform addressing a number of important issues that the state party would probably rather us not mention, like the PATRIOT Act, suspicious voting machines, etc. I am really glad to see this kind of progressive activism in the party, and it almost makes me want to get involved. However, I have a dilemma.
In 1992 I was already quite skeptical of the party, but volunteered for the Clinton campaign anyway. What an amazing feeling it was to road trip up to his inuaguration with my friends and feel like a part of the winning team for a change. Then he turned his back on gays immediately and it was all downhill from there. The Democratic Party will probably never have my support, although I will continue to grudgingly vote for their state and national nominees.
However, I know Orange County is different. There are so many great people involved with the party here including most of our elected officials (especially Senator Kinnaird), and lots of folks working in their own precincts, and I want to support the work they're doing. Hence my dillemma: with the upcoming party convention in April and caucuses in July, you have to be a registered Democrat to play. Should I change my "U" to to a "D?"
Ruby Sinreich's blog
I urge you to join the
Submitted by Hairy Kerry (not verified) on November 30, 1999 - 1:00am
I urge you to join the Democratic Party. Our policies are craftily designed by trustworthy people whom you don't know, but theyunderstand that Bush is basically on the right path but going just a little too fast. So I urge you to join with us - we are heading straight for the same brick wall, but not at the reckless rate of speed that the Republicans are.
"U.S. Justice Department
Submitted by Ruby Sinreich (not verified) on November 30, 1999 - 1:00am
"U.S. Justice Department Approves N.C. Legislative Maps
Ruling Affirms July 20 Primary Date"
http://www.wral.com/news/2963819/detail.html
To me unaffiliated means
Submitted by ToddtheBlog (not verified) on November 30, 1999 - 1:00am
To me unaffiliated means unprincipaled.
That's funny, I don't think
That's funny, I don't think I've EVER been called "unprincipled" before!
Todd, has it occurred to you that there are more political philosophies and parties than the 2 or 3 recognized by the state?
Ruby You are clearly a
You are clearly a principled person. So join the party!
Ruby, has it ever occured to you that Democrats and Republicans control nearly every elected seat in federal, state, and local politics. Therefore, we either pick the party that comes closest to our beliefs, or throw votes away to Ralph Nader, etc. Doing the later is principled, but crazy.
I don't believe in many things affiliated with the Republican party, but I am still a Republican. Eg. I do not care a bit if gay people want to get married. They have some legal battles to win first.
I have to say, since I moved
Submitted by Brian R. (not verified) on November 30, 1999 - 1:00am
I have to say, since I moved to the triangle area I have been consistently impressed with quality of local progressive politics/activism. [Despite the neo-cons that surround us.] This area has allot to be VERY proud of.
I am especially inspired by the people working hard for justice. The advocacy in this part of the world really makes a difference locally and globally. Witnessing this has made me shed almost all of my apathy as it relates to change. I’ve seen disaster averted and lives improved. (Not all the time but hey, the world ain’t perfect.)
So in a gesture of giving back I’ll join the Democratic Party if you will Ruby. But I will reserve my right to bail if its leaders do stupid shit. Hopefully great people like Mark K will keep me in the fold.
Hey Ruby- Just a minor
Submitted by Tom (not verified) on November 30, 1999 - 1:00am
Hey Ruby- Just a minor correction, the caucus is in April, and the primary for everything other than President is in July. And YES you should join the Democratic Party!
The OrangeDems platform is
Submitted by Mark K. (not verified) on November 30, 1999 - 1:00am
The OrangeDems platform is an extraordinary document.
http://www.orangedems.com/
Our local party is also a great forum for debate on some of the most exciting and often controversial issues of the day from local government issues to state, national and US foreign involvement. (Precinct meetings and especially County and District Conventions)
It's too late to make your precinct meeting, which was held back on March 9th in most precincts.
Despite the occasional periods of disgust I have with some of our higher elected officials, I don't think the Dems are worthy of writing-off. Democrats from our community have played an important part in defining debates in the legislature and in congress. Without their voices, I shudder at the kinds of "compromises" that would have been reached by others in their absence.
I participate in local Democratic Party activities for all these reasons, the opportunity to meet with my neighbors for interesting discussions and debates, help draft platform planks to advance interests important to me and our community, and to help support and strengthen the voices of office holders from our area.
Ruby Sinreich
I was the founder, administrator, and chief editor of OrangePolitics until I retired from Orange County life in 2014.
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Ontario, the largest city in Malheur County, is on the Snake River near the Oregon state line. As the first city that people encounter when crossing into Oregon from Idaho on Interstate 84, Ontario has adopted the slogan "Where Oregon Begins."
Although Oregon Trail pioneers crossed the Snake River about fifteen miles south of Ontario (near present-day Nyssa), the town was not founded until 1883, when the area was still part of Baker County. In 1883, four residents of Baker City—William Morfitt, Daniel Smith, James W. Virtue, and Mary Richardson—claimed adjoining sections of desert land with the intention of platting a town. Part of Virtue's claim was deeded to the Idaho-Oregon Land Improvement Company, headed by Abraham Caldwell, who had the authority to establish a train station for the Oregon Short Line Railway, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad that eventually ran from Granger, Wyoming, to Portland. Those five individuals developed the town site of Ontario, which Virtue named in honor of his home province of Ontario, Canada.
In 1884, William Morfitt built the first frame building in Ontario and drew up a contract with the Nevada Ditch Company to supply the town with irrigated water. A post office was also established that year, with Morfitt as the first postmaster. Several stores opened in anticipation of the arrival of the Oregon Short Line, which was connected to Ontario in the winter of 1884-1885. Nearly all of the stock and wool shipments from eastern Oregon producers were shipped through Ontario, and its stockyard became the largest on the Short Line. By June 1899, the average daily value of shipments of cattle sent out of Ontario was $25,000, a strikingly high value (the equivalent of approximately $746,000 in 2016).
Malheur County was carved out of southern Baker County in 1887, and a fight ensued over where to locate the new county seat. Vale won over Ontario by popular vote in 1888. The question was presented to the electorate in multiple elections until 1913, when Ontario finally conceded defeat.
The Oregon legislature incorporated Ontario on February 11, 1899, and the town continued to grow and prosper throughout the twentieth century as a shipping and supply point for eastern Oregon. The town had 200 residents in 1890, a number that has increased in almost every census since then. The population in the 2010 census was 11,366.
In 1903, the town launched a salmon hatchery on Morton Island in the Snake River, which at the time still saw significant runs of salmon. As eastern Oregon developed, however, and a series of dams was constructed to supply water for agriculture, the hatchery failed after salmon were blocked from reaching it.
Ontario built a hospital in 1912, a city hall in 1913, fire and police department buildings, and a series of city parks during the interwar period, as well as a golf course in 1938. The town's first newspaper was the Atlas, followed by the Malheur Gazette and the Argus, which has been Ontario’s daily newspaper since 1900.
During World War II, Ontario came to national attention for welcoming Japanese Americans to settle in the region. The town's mayor, Elmo Smith (who would become the twenty-seventh governor of Oregon), said that since the government had determined that Japanese and Japanese Americans could not live on the coast, then “it appears downright cowardly to take any other stand than to put out the call, ‘Send them along; we'll cooperate to the fullest possible extent in taking care of them.’” Subsequently, Ontario's population of 134 Japanese Americans ballooned to a thousand during the war years, most of whom found jobs as agricultural workers during the wartime labor shortage. (Some incarcerated Japanese Americans also found work in Ontario when they were granted leave from Minidoka, the concentration camp in Idaho, to help the agricultural harvest in areas outside of the demilitarized zone.) A Japanese American Citizens League remains active in Ontario today, and the town has a sister city, Ōsakasayama, in Japan.
Agriculture continues to dominate Ontario’s industry, particularly russet potatoes, sugar beets, and onions. One of the town's primary employers is the Heinz Frozen Food Company, which annually produces over 600 million pounds of potato products and employs approximately a thousand people. Other major employers are the Snake River Correctional Institute, which opened in 1991 and holds 3,000 beds (the largest in Oregon), and Treasure Valley Community College, which opened in 1962 and serves approximately 7,500 students each year. The Four Rivers Cultural Center, a 10,000-square-foot museum and community space, celebrates the diverse settlement patterns in the Ontario region, including exhibits on Northern Paiutes, Basques, Japanese, Hispanics, and EuroAmericans.
Notable former residents of Ontario include Governor Elmo Smith; Charles C. Gossett, an Idaho senator (1945-1946) and governor (1945); Randall B. Kester, an associate justice on the Oregon Supreme Court (1957-1958); and novelist and poet Phyllis McGinley.
Oregon St., Ontario, 1910
Courtesy Oregon Hist. Soc. Research Lib., 003371
Nathan Pedersen
Barlow Road
Bend Amateur Athletic Club Gymnasium
Frank T. Johns (1889-1928)
Goodwillie House
Joseph (town)
Klondike Kate (1876-1957)
O'Kane Building
McArthur, Lewis. Oregon Geographic Names, 7th edition. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2003.
An Illustrated History of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Countes, with a Brief Outline of the Early History of the State of Oregon. Western Historical Publishing Company, 1902.
James W. Virtue (1837-1903)
As early as 1871, James William Virtue—one-time sheriff of Baker County—was recognized nationally for his expertise as a miner when President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him U.S. centennial commissioner. His charge was to help plan "an international exhibition of arts, manufactures, and products of the soil and mine," to ...
Japanese American Wartime Incarceration in Oregon
Masuo Yasui, together with many members of Hood River’s Japanese community, spent the evening of December 6, 1941, rehearsing the annual Christmas show at a local community center. Yasui, an Issei (first-generation immigrant from Japan) had traveled to America in 1903 at the age of sixteen and eventually settled in ...
Oregon Plan
The Oregon Plan, implemented in May 1942, led to the organization of the first Japanese American farm labor camp during World War II. The camp, in Malheur County, housed 350 Japanese Americans who had been incarcerated in Oregon by Executive Order 9066 in the months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor ...
Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978)
Phyllis McGinley, born in Ontario, Oregon, in 1905, was an award-winning poet and writer. A Pulitzer Prize winner, she was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in June 1965 and was one of only two poets (with Mark Van Doren) that year invited to the White House Festival of ...
The Snake River has its headwaters at an elevation of 8,200 feet on the Two Ocean Plateau, in the icy highlands of the Continental Divide in Wyoming. Roaring down the Idaho face of the Rockies, surging with snowmelt from the Yellowstone Plateau, the Snake cuts through deep, spectacular canyons ...
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8 Pillars of Health (Click the letters to explore more)
I Inflammation View all
N Nutrition View all
S Supplements View all
P Physical View all
I Immune System View all
R Rest View all
E Emotions View all
D Detoxification View all
[Podcast] Empowering You Organically Ep. 12: Sugar Addiction is REAL and What to Do About It!
Podcast Transcript
Jonathan: Thanks everyone for listening. We are doing another episode of Empowering You Organically. I am joined by my co-host, TeriAnn Trevenen.
TeriAnn: Hey everyone.
Jonathan: We also have our very special guest, Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson.
Susan: Hi.
Jonathan: TeriAnn, give us a quick bio of Dr. Susan.
TeriAnn: Sure. Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson lives in Rochester, New York, with her husband and three beautiful daughters. She is a New York Times best-selling author for her book, Bright Line Eating: The Science of Living Happy, Thin, and Free.
TeriAnn: She’s also the president of The Institute for Sustainable Weight Loss. She is the founder and CEO of Bright Line Eating, which is a company with an unprecedented track record for helping people lose all of their excess weight, and live in a right-sized body, long-term.
TeriAnn: She has a Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences, and she’s been teaching at the university level for 13 years. She has been a professor of psychology of eating and neuroscience of food addiction.
Jonathan: We coulda just said you’re really smart. And that would’ve covered a lot of that bit.
Susan: Okay, you want to hear something funny?
Jonathan: Do it.
Susan: I was on a Facebook Live, and some guy was like, “Tell us again about how you have your Ph.D., please.”
Susan: That was when I was realized there’s a fine line between stating your bio and trying to have some authority or whatever and going overboard with it. I’m really glad that you do the bios, TeriAnn, ’cause that would sound a little weird coming out of my mouth.
Jonathan: For those of you who haven’t listened to our first two episodes in season two, make sure you listen. We had Dr. Susan on for both of those, and we talked about some really phenomenal information. We talked about emotional eating and stuff that happens around the holidays. Our last episode we talked all about setting goals and Bright Line Eating, and really how to be successful this year with your weight loss, your getting healthy goals.
Jonathan: Today we are gonna talk about a topic that is very important to me, and that’s sugar addiction. I think that a lot of people really suffer from it. Whether they suffer from it on a very minor scale, to a very major scale. I know for me personally, one, I have a very addictive personality, to begin with. We’ve talked about how I smoked for 20 years, I’ve had challenges at times with drinking, with other drugs, and overall just addictive personality.
Jonathan: One thing that I know that I’m addicted to and that’s sugar. There’s no doubt about it. I actually eat a ketogenic diet now because it really helps with that, because it minimizes how much sugar, it minimizes all of that that I take. ‘Cause otherwise I enjoy it way too much.
Jonathan: So, what is sugar addiction? Talk to us about that. What exactly is a sugar addiction? And let’s define sugars, as well. It’s something with a keto diet, and people say, “Well I don’t eat carbs.” Well, why not? Vegetables are carbs, you should be eating those, and people are mistaking sugar and carbs and all of that.
Jonathan: Let’s start with identifying sugars.
Susan: Okay. Sure. I love how you use that word carb, and you know, there’s eye-rolling with the whole word carbs because it’s an unhelpful word. Jonathan, you and I have talked about this before.
Susan: I hate the word carbs, actually. There are two words that I’ve identified that I have a little, “I don’t like those words.” Diet and carbs. They’re unhelpful words for the same reason. Okay, I’m gonna use a fancy term. They obfuscate the meaningful distinctions. They cloud the issue. They don’t help, and so as soon as you’re using the word carb, you’re not thinking clearly about what matters and what doesn’t matter. ‘Cause the issue is not carbohydrate as a macronutrient. The issue is really food quality, food source. You want to be eating certain things that would be in the carbohydrate category. You want to be eating apples, and spinach, and carrots, things like that. And you don’t want to be eating donuts, and bagels, and tons of pasta.
Susan: Using the word carb is unhelpful. I think when most people say carb, they mean bread or something like that. But the real issue with bread is the flour. It’s the grinding down of the particle so that the digestive enzymes hit every surface area of that molecule really hard, and it absorbs into your bloodstream really fast, and then it causes a big dopamine rush in your addictive centers, and so forth.
Susan: When I talk about sugar, Jonathan, what I mean is anything added to your food to make it sweeter. That lumps into the same category, on purpose, things as disparate as high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, honey, molasses, stevia. And then all of the artificial sweeteners, aspartame, sucralose, all of ’em. The Sweet’N Low-
Jonathan: Stevia, erythritol, even [crosstalk 00:04:55], [inaudible 00:04:55], ones that have no glycemic index response, right?
Susan: Yes.
Jonathan: Like the stevia and erythritol. Anything that’s sweet to the tongue, correct?
Susan: Yes. Exactly. Other than whole, fresh, real fruit. Whole, fresh, real fruit. It’s gotta be fresh, and it’s gotta be whole, is fine. But fruit juice is not. And dried fruit is not. You gotta draw the line somewhere, and that’s where the line goes.
Susan: Now that reason that stevia and stuff like that, things that don’t have a blood sugar response, are out is that one of the major pathways for sugar addiction is actually from the sweet taste buds themselves, straight up to the addictive centers of the brain. So you don’t want to be adding anything to your food to make it sweeter.
Susan: That’s it. So when you say, “What’s sugar addiction?” Should we go there? Like what is it?
Jonathan: Absolutely.
Susan: I’m kinda laughing in my head, it’s like, sugar addiction is sugar addiction. It’s like you asked, “What’s cocaine addiction?” Well, it’s an addiction to cocaine.
Susan: Sugar addiction in the brain is the same as any other addiction. It’s essentially dopamine down-regulation in the addictive centers, mainly the nucleus accumbens. So the addictive centers are these areas in the brain, you get the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens. It’s a deep, primal, primitive area of the brain. If you think of your head like a cue ball, or whatever, it’s almost right in the middle. If you carry your neck up, your spine up, then you get to the brain stem, and then just a little bit above that, like an inch or two right above that, right in the core of your brain. We’re talking super old, super primitive areas, and their job is to give you enough oomph to get up and get what you need to get to survive.
Susan: It’s like yeah, sex, food, we gotta get us some of that. Otherwise, we’re just not living long enough to stick around here, and let alone have children, and pass on our genes.
Susan: So, there are certain things that are so necessary that it is incredibly required that our brain makes sure that we identify the availability, when it’s around, and we feel motivated to go get it.
Susan: Sugar addiction is like pornography addiction, in the sense that it’s become really widespread because we have substances in our environment that were manufactured to really hijack those brain centers. Like donuts? There’s no such thing out in the savanna. There is no such stimulus. It’s like a loop of pornography. There’s so access to any kinda of stimuli that are that intense out in natural conditions. They were manufactured in order to be pleasurable to a certain degree, and what it does is it floods those centers of the brain, the nucleus accumbens especially, with excess dopamine. The dopamine centers respond by down-regulating, thinning out, and then you’re fine because your brain’s now responding more normally, ’cause there are fewer receptors, and they’re not responding as well if you keep eating donuts. Now everything’s leveled out. But if you stop eating donuts, you got a problem. Now you have not enough dopamine on board, and you’re addicted. You gotta go get another hit to feel normal.
Susan: That’s essentially what sugar addiction is. On a brain scan, it looks the same as cocaine addiction, alcohol addiction. It actually looks a little worse, to be honest.
TeriAnn: What does it look like coming off of the sugar, just like other things that you’re addicted to in the brain?
Susan: If you look at a PET scan, or an fMRI, and you look at those areas of the brain, the way those scans look is they usually use a color scale from blue to green to yellow to orange to red, where the centers light up orange and red when they’re really on fire. A normal brain to normal stimuli will have some orange and red in the nucleus accumbens. A drug-addicted brain or a sugar-addicted brain won’t. Those dopamine receptors have been blown out.
Susan: So, you just don’t see much response there. That’s what they look like. They look bleak.
Jonathan: We’ve identified sugars, and we talk about sugar addiction. ‘Cause I personally feel like bread fit inside of that, for me, as I’m coming down off of my sugar high, I can eat a handful of rolls with butter on ’em and get that same-
Susan: Totally. That’ll do. Yup, totally. That’s a really important point, ’cause I’ve experienced this from 25 years now, essentially, of being in the weight loss, food addiction, space. People who don’t give up flour, won’t succeed. You can give up sugar, but you gotta give up flour, too. If you don’t think you have a problem with bread, and pasta, and those types of foods, wait ’til you give up sugar, and you’ll develop one because the brain will take it as a substitute for sure.
TeriAnn: Share what you shared in the first podcast we did about why on, like different flours. You even said coconut and almond. Why do you say no to it? I could say it, but I’ll let you say it.
Susan: All flour, yeah. It’s not an issue of is it whole grain or not. I know that whole grain flour is healthier. It’s got more nutrients, more fiber, than white flour. But that’s not the issue. The issue is the grinding down. I’ll actually share something that I didn’t share in the first podcast, brand new.
Susan: It’s a concept from Dr. Alan Christianson, who’s a good friend of mine. He said the way he describes this to his patients is, the difference between a whole food like rice, for example, and a flour like rice flour, from a metabolic standpoint, is the difference between on a hot summer day in Arizona, taking a big brick of ice, like a one foot square brick. A big brick of ice, and putting it out on the blacktop, on the driveway, to melt. It’ll melt. It’ll take a few hours, though.
Susan: Versus taking snow cone shavings, little shavings of ice, and sprinkling them on the blacktop. Well, they melt on contact. That’s what flour is, is sprinkling snow cone shavings into the digestive system, and it just absorbs like that, and you get the full force of the glucose, the fructose, whatever’s in that, hits the digestive system all at once.
Susan: It’s not an issue of gluten or any particular substance. It doesn’t matter if it’s coconut flour, almond flour, whole grain flour, gluten-free flour, rice flour, potato flour-
Jonathan: Even almond flour, even though it-
Susan: Even almond flour, yes. It’s a matter of surface area and digestive impact. It’s the processing of it that matters. Almonds are fine. Rice is fine. It’s like, okay, so here’s the best way of thinking about it. What is a drug? Jonathan, we’ve danced around the issue. I have a drug addiction background. You’ve mentioned, [inaudible 00:12:06], alcohol, drugs, whatever in your past. What is cocaine, Jonathan? Pop quiz.
Jonathan: What is cocaine? Well, I mean it-
Susan: It comes from where?
Jonathan: It comes from the cocaína plant.
Susan: The coca. Yeah.
Jonathan: Coca plant.
Susan: The coca leaf.
Jonathan: I lived in Panama, so we call it cocaína down there.
Susan: Oh, so you’re in the natural language. You’re like three steps ahead of me, okay.
Susan: Have you seen it? What does it look like? I’ve never seen it live. Is it like a bush or a shrub or?
Jonathan: I haven’t seen it grown. I did not go down into Colombia. I was going to. But yeah, it looks like a regular plant. It’s simple, it’s the leaf that they grind down, and they dehydrate, turn it into a powder. By the time we get it, it’s been cut with all kinds of other stuff, because of pure cocaine …
Susan: There’s a scientific journal article that’s been published that showed that chewing coca leaves is not addictive. They put ’em in their cheek there, the hikers in the Andes Mountains. It’s not addictive, apparently. It’ll make your cheek a little, tiny bit numb, and I think it gives you a-
Jonathan: Definitely gives you energy.
Susan: Gives you a little bit of a lift, maybe like the equivalent of drinking half a cup of caffeinated tea, or something. Nobody’s breaking into their grandmother’s house to steal a VCR to get more coca leaves. It’s not addictive. You take the inner-
Jonathan: VCR. I like that you said VCR, right? Did that just show our age when you said VCR?
Susan: I am so dating myself. I know. I know how old you are, too, I was just looking on your wall, your little thing that had you, I won’t say your birthday, but I saw it over there.
Jonathan: No worries. I just turned 40. I have no problem sharing.
Susan: Nice. I’m 44, so I’m your elder. Please act accordingly.
Jonathan: I will.
Susan: Lots of respect.
Jonathan: Don’t steal my VCR. I am just saying.
Susan: Back to the point. Drugs come from plants that have been modified in a certain way. Cocaine comes from taking those coca leaves, which are not addictive, taking the inner essence, and then refining and purifying it into a fine powder.
Susan: Heroin comes from poppies. You can eat poppies, sit in a field of poppies and eat them all day long, and not get high, and not get addicted. You get the substance into your blood stream. You will fail a urine test for opium. You will fail a drug test if you have eaten a bunch of poppies recently. But you didn’t get high off it, and you didn’t get addicted.
Susan: But if you take the inner essence of those poppies, and you refine and purify that into a fine, brown powder, you get heroin. So what we’re doing in our food supply these days is we’re taking these plants, we’re taking wheat, we’re taking beets, we’re taking corn, all wholesome, real foods. And we’re taking the inner essence, and then refining and purifying it down into fine, white powders, and we’re taking foods an turning them into drugs.
Susan: Research shows, according to some estimates, that sugar is eight times as addictive as cocaine. Eight times. Do you want to know the study that that one comes from?
Jonathan: Go for it.
Susan: Eight times. Just in case you want to know how screwed you are.
Jonathan: Thank you. Appreciate that.
TeriAnn: That’s promising.
Susan: Said from one sugar addict to another. I’m not putting you in any cage that I’m not in myself.
Susan: This study was done with rodents, and they took rats, and they injected them with intravenous cocaine over, and over, and over again ’til they were quivering cocaine addicts. Then they didn’t give them a hit for a few hours, so they wanted one. And then they gave them a choice between another hit of cocaine, which they were already addicted to, and some sugar, which they’d never had exposure to before. Cocaine or sugar. And they chose the sugar.
Susan: Not only did they choose the sugar, but when they redid the experiment with saccharine, Sweet’N Low, the pink packets, they preferred that, too.
Jonathan: Wow.
Susan: Over cocaine that they were already addicted to. Already physiologically needed in their system. Based on the strength of that response and some other things, based on how much shock organisms will withstand to get another hit. Like literally they put the little trough, the dispenser, over an electrocuted grid, and you turn up the voltage to see how much shock will they withstand to get a hit. You can measure addictiveness that way, too. Yeah. Sugar is like, to put it in the category of cocaine and heroin, it not only appropriate, it’s scientifically true. It just is. Sugar is right up there in terms of drug strength with heroin and cocaine and way beyond cigarettes, by the way, Mr. Former Smoker. Way beyond cigarettes. Way.
Jonathan: We put sugar in everything now. I mean, the fat-free movement that came in the [crosstalk 00:16:55] the late ’70s, early ’80s, and we’ve replaced all of the fats with sugars. I think there’s a lot of people addicted to sugar that don’t even realize or don’t even identify that they’re addicted to sugar.
Susan: But invite them to quit, and they’ll see.
Jonathan: That’s my exact point.
Susan: It’s like, whoa!
TeriAnn: Well, and it’s hard to-
Jonathan: How many kids are addicted to sugar? ‘Cause sugar is in everything.
TeriAnn: It’s hard. You read labels now, and people think they’re not getting sugar in certain foods, but they are. But they don’t know. They don’t even know.
Susan: But they are. 80%. 80% of the calories in the modern day supermarket are laced with added sugar — 80 %.
TeriAnn: I have a question for you. Earlier you talked about, not in this episode but in the first episode, we did with you, about stevia, erythritol, things like that. That’s still a no-no, even though it’s natural, not considered, “Sugar,” by a lot of people. Why is that a no? Can you talk about that a little bit?
Susan: Because it’s the extra sweet taste on the taste buds that connects directly to the addictive centers of the brain that releases that dopamine hit. If you want your brain to heal, you gotta stop putting the sweet taste on your tongue.
Jonathan: You know, when I was quitting smoking I had a lot of people say, “Well, why don’t you smoke an e-cig?” Or, “Why don’t you smoke a joint? Or do something like that?”
Jonathan: Just the motion of inhaling something would’ve triggered me. I don’t know that it’s the same, but I can relate it to that, that I can’t do anything that’s even remotely similar to, other than inhaling oxygen. But anything that felt like taking a hit of something would’ve instantly made me want to smoke again.
Susan: Now we’re gonna maybe wander off into some pretty deep research, but here’s what makes me and you, Jonathan, different from TeriAnn. We’re addictive, heavily. TeriAnn, are you addicted to anything, or you run on moderation naturally?
TeriAnn: Oh no, I have some things in my life.
Susan: You have some things.
TeriAnn: But I-
Jonathan: Work. She’s addicted to work; there’s no doubt.
TeriAnn: Work. For sure.
TeriAnn: Yeah, there’s definitely things. I don’t like to necessarily control other people. But I like a lot of control over my life. I would probably, to the point that it’s an addiction to control in my life. Things just so. Things a certain way. I could care less if your house looks just so. And it’s not so much about keeping up with people; it’s a feeling for me.
Jonathan: Little bit of OCD.
TeriAnn: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything being just so for me. I don’t care for you, I don’t care for him, I don’t care what Travis’ house looks like, or Alan’s house looks like, but I care what mine looks like.
Susan: Is it a problem? Do you do it to the point where you’re hurting yourself?
TeriAnn: No. No. There have been points in my life where yes, it did. It was like, I would do things just so that it was, you know, this way.
Susan: ‘Cause this is a separate topic now, but the whole thing of everyone’s addicted to something, or every excess is an addiction. I take issue with that. I have been really addicted to things, like sitting in a crack house for days upon days, smoking.
Susan: I feel like unless you’re harming yourself, knowing that you shouldn’t be, wishing you were doing it differently, with tears streaming down your face saying, “Why am I doing this to myself?” That’s an addiction. I’m doing it, and I can’t stop.
TeriAnn: Oh, for sure. There were points in my life, especially when hard things were going on, that the control was so strong that it was like, “Why do I have to do this all the time?”
Susan: Yeah. That’s it. Yeah.
TeriAnn: But it’s interesting when you talked in a previous episode about getting to a point where it’s a lifestyle, and you get control over things like that, and you realize it doesn’t have to be this way, and you get past that.
TeriAnn: It was definitely something that happened previously when there was a lot of stress in my life, but gaining control over that again. I’m definitely-
Susan: Control over the control?
TeriAnn: When you talk about your quiz, I’m not a ten on the quiz, but I’ve certainly had things in my life where I could fall back into that super easy if my life got stressful again. And now it’s a control thing for me, like everything being just so, and feeling like I’m stressed, and my life feels stressful, and my emotions feel chaotic if everything’s not just so. It can be crippling for me.
Susan: Totally. I get it.
Susan: So Jonathan and I are super addictive. You’re either low or moderate.
TeriAnn: Yup. For sure.
Susan: What’s different about how our brains work? What makes someone addictive?
Jonathan: They like to party? Oh no, sorry, I didn’t know that was a rhetorical question.
Susan: Well, yeah.
TeriAnn: Party with donuts if you’re talking about sugar.
Susan: We woulda had fun, back in the day. Just sayin’. Just sayin’. Back in the day.
Jonathan: This is 15 years ago for me, too, so yes I’m with ya.
Susan: What makes our brains different turns out to be this interesting thing. Researchers back in the day were doing basic behavioral experiments with rats in Skinner boxes. Basically, the rat presses the lever; they get food. There are like a million variants of this experiment.
Susan: They tried this experiment where a lever came down into the cage like it just came down in there, and then three seconds later the food came out into a dish. The rats picked this up super fast. Lever comes down; food’s coming out. They’re quick on that one. Easy.
Susan: What researchers didn’t expect is that when the lever came down, some rats ran right over to the food dish area, which made sense, they just sit there for the three seconds, wait for the food to come out. But some rats ran over to the lever, and nuzzled it, rubbed up against it like they loved the lever.
Susan: And researchers were like, “Why are they lovin’ on the lever? It’s the cue that the food is coming. But don’t they just want the food? Why do they love the lever for its own sake?”
Susan: So they started doing some variants where they would only let the food come out for a hot second, and then they’d suck it back up, and some of the rats would love the lever so much they’d actually miss the food. They’d miss the whole point because they were so into the lever. It turns out that addictive rats are the ones who love the lever. And the nation-addictable rats are the ones who run right over to the food and go, “Oh, there’s the cue that the food is there. I’m gonna go get the food.” They’re the sensible ones, they’re like, “Yup. Waitin’ for the food.”
Susan: The addictive ones are the ones who are lovin’ the lever. So what? The lever is the cue that the reward is coming. The rats were pulled toward that cue, almost to their own detriment, to the point where they would even miss their sustenance to be pulled toward that cue.
Susan: Now think about what it means in this society, to be pulled toward the cues that predict food rewards. Let’s say sugar rewards. If you’re pulled strongly, maybe even unconsciously, toward golden arches when you see them in the corner of your eye, like all of a sudden your car is driving that way.
Susan: If you’re walking down the hall of your school, ’cause you’re a teacher, and you catch a little glimpse of a Dunkin Donuts box, that pink box, through the window of the teachers’ lounge, and suddenly you’re pulled in that direction, and your friends are talking, and you’re like, “Oh,” and now you have a donut in your hand. You don’t even know how it happened.
Susan: If it’s Friday night, and you’re pulled toward the bar where the wings, and the beer, and the nachos are happening because it’s a certain time of day.
Susan: If you’re driving to work, and you’re pulled toward the Starbucks, and suddenly you’ve got a latte and a muffin in your hands. You can picture it, right? Our society is one long stretch of food cues. Time of day, smell, sights, TV commercials, on, and on, and on. If those cues themselves pull you with a force that’s magnetic, imagine the job of getting over sugar addiction, of losing weight. When it’s not just that you gotta eat fewer calories. It’s like, well you’ve gotta break all of those association. It’s a massive job.
Susan: So when you talked, Jonathan, about being really cognizant when you quit smoking of, “I’m not hanging out with people who smoke. And I’m not gonna put myself at a party on a Friday night. I’m gonna stay home.” You were aware of all the different cues that might undo you because they pull you harder than they pull other people — those cues.
Susan: That’s a little bit about what it is to be addictive. You’re pulled toward the cues to the degree that other people are not.
Jonathan: Absolutely … Yeah. And I agree with you. It still goes back; it’s amazing as others that listen to this take that journey to break that sugar addiction, of the challenge that they have ahead of them. It’s eight times more addictive than cocaine.
Jonathan: You talk about, I mean, we, I think about, you know, the holidays, and I think about having a cheat day on Christmas, just calling it a cheat day, and having sugar and candy with my daughters, and having that whole quote, unquote, fun day. Then the next day there were some of those treats left over but yet I want to go back to eating a ketogenic-style way of eating, which is what I prefer. But all I see is an M&M bag over here, you know, a little chocolate thing there. Some little thing there. That’s what I see, and it’s like you know, you almost want to, you just gotta throw it all out, or do something.
Susan: Did you eat them the day after?
Jonathan: No. No.
Susan: And how did you not?
Jonathan: Well, that’s willpower. But if they were there every day, it would be different. I don’t keep a lot of that stuff in the house, but I do still keep things. What I don’t keep is my weaknesses in the house as much.
Susan: I think of ourselves as we embark on this breaking the sugar addiction journey as having parts, and one of the parts is definitely the saboteur who whispers, “Just a little. Time for a cheat day. You deserve it. It’s been a long week. It’s your daughter’s birthday.” Whatever the whispers are. The first thing that the saboteur is gonna whisper is, “You can’t do that forever. That’s unrealistic. There’s no way. What about this event? What about this occasion?”
Susan: It’s basically like, it’s the most rudimentary move of the saboteur. It’s the first move. And so many of us fall for it. And we forget that life doesn’t show up as forever. Life always shows up as today. There is no such thing as all those days in the future. When we get there, it will be today.
Susan: So, all you need is a plan for handling today. You don’t need a plan for handling all of the infinities into the future. You will do just fine if all you have is a plan for today. The one day at a time thing, as trite as it sounds, and the saboteur will say, “Oh that’s some slogan. One day at a time. What does that mean? Come on. You’re never gonna not have any cookies ever.” It just goes right back into future tripping. But actually, the truth is, you can have the cookie tomorrow, Jonathan. You can have the gum in the future, and you can eat whatever you want at your daughter’s wedding. You just can’t eat sugar today.
Jonathan: Right.
Susan: You give me today, I’ll give you all those future days. How’s that for a trade?
Jonathan: It’s true. Listen, I get it from an intellectual side as well, ’cause smoking; there’s no way in the world right now that I would have a cigarette next week because it’s been a couple of months since I’ve had a cigarette.
Jonathan: I mean, it’s been over four-and-a-half years, so it’s just saying goodbye. That’s the thing with addiction, whether it’s cigarettes, or sugar, or coke, or heroin, or something like that. That’s a friend. That’s something that’s been there with you that we usually turn to at bad times, but we also turn to, to, to good times. It’s the same thing with sugar.
Susan: Oh, and we celebrate with food brilliantly, right? Big time.
Jonathan: That’s the thing I think a lot of people don’t grasp if they haven’t been addicted to smoking, and I don’t think a lot of people that are addicted to sugar, which I think a lot are, have not identified the fact that you’re saying goodbye to a friend. That’s what you need to do, is say goodbye to that friend.
Susan: There are layers to that grief, too. It’s really important to honor that. For a lot of us, food has been almost like a lover.
Jonathan: For sure.
Susan: I was an only child, raised in San Francisco by hippie parents who, you know, you would love this story, Jonathan. My parents were, they met in a hippie commune, and they were on acid, and they bought a motorcycle, and started traveling around the world. And I was conceived somewhere in Costa Rica, and they kept goin’. So, my mom was getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. They got down to Argentina, the southern tip of Argentina, the hocked the bike for plane fare back to the states.
Susan: Anyway, I was born in San Francisco, as an only child, and my parents got divorced, and then my mom settled just a few blocks away from Castro Street, so very gay neighborhood, the 1970s, 1980s. There were no kids in our neighborhood, ’cause it was before a time when gay couples could adopt kids, so I was the only kid in my neighborhood that I knew of.
Susan: There was a sadness in the neighborhood, ’cause my neighbors were dying of AIDS. They were dropping like flies … And I went to a school way across town on scholarship, but since I was a white kid, no one knew I was on scholarship. But I didn’t really fit in. They were rich, and two parents in the house, and very Leave It To Beaver-y.
Susan: And my parents worked hard. My dad was a cab driver. My mom ran this little shop in Fisherman’s Wharf and worked long hours. I was a latchkey kid. I was home alone after school every day. So I was by myself, in a neighborhood with no kids, on streets that weren’t safe to be out on, so I was just in the flat in San Francisco, and I turned to food. Food was my companion; it was my friend, it was the activity, it was what I was doing was making food.
Susan: I coulda made your Thanksgiving dinner when I was ten years old. With all the trimmings, every dish arriving at the table at the right time. I could bake pies; I could bake cookies, I could bake everything. Food was what got me through my childhood. When people say, “It’s hard to think about life without certain foods,” for some of us, foods are so woven into our identity.
Susan: I know there are people listening to this podcast that are like, “But you don’t understand. I bake.” Or, “I’m the person who brings the dishes to the potluck. It’s like my most”-
Jonathan: It’s their identity. It’s who they are.
Susan: Yeah. Exactly, exactly. So there is a grieving process of letting go of using food. I go over to some people’s houses, and they’ve got cookbooks lining, like floor-to-ceiling cookbooks. It’s food porn. But I also don’t want to paint it as just a bad thing. For some people, it’s their creative outlet.
Susan: So, there are layers to that grief and that letting go. I don’t bake anymore. I don’t. I’ve learned to be creative in other ways. But just in the same way that you had to make certain changes when you became a non-smoker, I had to make certain changes when I became a thin woman. I orient toward food differently. I’ve just changed.
Jonathan: We’ll replace it with other things, right? You replace it with stuff that’s healthier, that’s better. The smoking got replaced with other things, or whatever it is.
Susan: Totally. Totally.
Susan: I have a question for you Jonathan.
Jonathan: Yes.
Susan: Have you been intrigued by Bright Line Eating? Have you thought about trying it? What have you been thinking?
Jonathan: Absolutely. Since we’ve been doing more podcasts and getting to know you more, I’m absolutely intrigued. I want to dive deeper. We had you on the show. There’s a lot of things we do selfishly. We started Organixx, a supplement company so that we would have the best supplements, ’cause I wanted to take ’em, and I wanted my family to take ’em. We wanted the best supplements that were out there, and so that’s why we started a supplement company.
Jonathan: It’s why we’re doing a podcast, and why we’re having experts like you on, is because we want the best information from the best experts when it comes to things. So it’s something I was so excited about having you here for the new year, and to talk about sugar addiction, and to talk about eating, and talk about our relationships to food, and all of that, for selfish reasons. Knowing that if I did that, just like our supplements, I would help hundreds of thousands of other people. So, yes.
Susan: What do you think Bright Line Eating might bring into your world or give you that you don’t have now?
Jonathan: More structure around the eating. Yeah, more structure.
Susan: Totally. That’s a way that Bright Line Eating helps a lot of people. There’s so much confusion out there about what to eat and when. You’re busy. You’re a high functioning, get-it-done dude, right?
Susan: You got a lot going on, and to have the food nailed down, like done, handled. That feeling of days are ticking by, and you’re like, “Food? Check.” Like, ain’t no thang.
Susan: And to have that bar set so that you know where you are with respect to it. Not to say that every day you hit the bar, but the bar is set really clearly, and if you slide off track, you know exactly how you can look back and figure out why, and you know exactly the tweaks to make to get it back. Where there’s that level of precision and clarity. You probably have that precision and clarity in other areas of your life, right?
Jonathan: Sure.
Susan: Where you know exactly what you’re trying to hit.
Jonathan: Take out the guesswork, too, right?
Susan: Zero guesswork.
Jonathan: I look in my closet, every shirt in my closet is back. I don’t have to think about what I’m wearing today; it’s gonna be a black shirt. I know that: black shirt and either khaki shorts or jeans. I’m dead serious. That’s what I have in my closet.
Susan: It’s the Barack Obama gettin’ dressed approach.
Jonathan: It’s these decisions that you don’t want to have to make every time. Why don’t I just have something that’s done and set?
Susan: Yup. Bright Line Eating is that for food. Absolutely.
Susan: We were talking at the break here, just before the podcast happened we were just chillin’ out, and I was in your kitchen, and you’re like, “Oh, you’re weighing your food, and da-da-da.” And I was telling you to like, “I like to weigh 112 pounds. If I’m not 112 pounds, I like to make a tweak, and get right back there.”
Susan: There is something so special for a woman like me who just struggled with her weight her whole life. There are no words for how much I’ve struggled with my weight. There are no words. And to be able to just dial it in like that. Food, weight, handled. Not a problem. And then with it, of course, comes the self-confidence, and the mental clarity, and the lift in the mood that comes from eating the way we eat when we’re eating well. There are a million and one reasons to do it, you know. And then the ability to do it, ’cause Bright Line Eating provides the automaticity that makes it feel really free, and easy, and automatic, and handled.
Jonathan: With that said, I know we’re getting close to the end. I’ve gotta ask this question, ’cause again, I’m selfish, and it’s relevant to me, ’cause I have a two-year-old and four-year-old daughter who love the organic lollipops in the pantry right now.
Jonathan: How are you with your three daughters when it comes to sugar, and bread, and eating?
Susan: I feel like Bright Line Eating is not for all the people who need it. It’s for people who want it, and are willing to work it. And that means grown-ups who are making their own choices. It is not something for parents to force down their kids’ throats. There’s a problem with forcing our kids to eat a certain kind of way if we’re living in this society.
Susan: So, you wanna take your kids to some rural mountain commune in Oregon where all they got is tofu and kale around, and that’s all they’re going to be exposed to, then great. Feed your kids tofu and kale for the rest of their lives.
Susan: But if you’re gonna live here in this society, you cannot turn food into the forbidden fruit, because you will turn your kids into sneak eaters who hate you, and are craving every calorie outside the house, ’cause the food mommy and daddy-
TeriAnn: And go to the neighbor’s house and raid the pantry.
Susan: Exactly. So we as parents are in a very painful, almost unwinnable situation, where the reality is our kids are gonna get exposed to foods at birthday parties, at school, at Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, whatever. Just fill in the blank, occasion, party, religious observance, grandmother’s house, whatever.
Susan: The no sugar, no flour rules are not for parents to impose on their kids. But there are some rules that are really helpful. The rules are the division of responsibility. I didn’t come up with it. This is Ellyn Satter’s work. E-L-L-Y-N, S-A-T-T-E-R.
Interestingly, if you go to her website, buy her books, just fair warning, she doesn’t believe in sugar addiction, and she doesn’t believe in food addiction at all. I’ve talked with the woman, and just sayin’, she’s obese. I don’t agree with everything she says about adult eating, by any stretch. But she has a method for feeding kids that I think is genius, and it has worked so far for me with my own kids, and it solves all my nightmares when it comes to feeding kids — not all of ’em. But you know, it really is the linchpin.
Susan: So here are the rules. The division of responsibility. Are you ready?
Susan: As parents, we are responsible for when meals happen and what gets served. We are responsible for providing food. And then we become deaf, dumb, and blind, and we let our kids be responsible for whether and how much to eat from what’s provided.
Susan: So we do the providing, and they do the eating, and we hand off. So that means never commenting on, “Aren’t you gonna eat your vegetables? Take one bite of everything. You have to finish your food. Finish everything on your plate.” None of that.
Susan: You provided the meal, they get to eat from what’s on the table. If that means there was a pot of white rice, and there’s some butter over there, and they’re eating nothing but white rice and butter for the meal, fine. Their choice. They get to choose, okay? As a parent, your job is to provide meal structure, which is really important for developing brains and bodies. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and kids need snacks, too. Parents don’t, but kids need a mid-morning snack and a mid-afternoon snack.
Susan: You don’t short order cook, which means you got more than one kid and you’re serving whatever. You’re not making a grilled cheese sandwich for Sarah ’cause that’s all she’ll eat. No, no, no. You provide foods that are foods you feel comfortable serving from lots of different categories. We’re talking 1950s, Leave It To Beaver meals. There’s some vegetable on the table; there are some bread and butter on the table-
Jonathan: Some starch on the table, maybe some fruit, sure.
Susan: Exactly. Just think like, food from every category, and then your job’s over.
Susan: Now if you’re doing Bright Line Eating, it’s gonna be a lot easier, ’cause you’re eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and you’re feeding yourself meals with foods from every category, and all you gotta do is throw a big pot of starch on there, and put out from bread and butter, and it’s a meal. It’s a lot easier if you’re doing Bright Line Eating.
Susan: Parents often fall down because they’re not eating meals themselves, so how are they gonna feed kids meals? They’re grazing, catches, catch, canning their food all day long from drive-thrus and vending machines, and they don’t even know where their food’s coming, right? The first rule of thumb is your kids will grow up to eat as you eat. So make sure you’re feeding yourself well.
Susan: That’s how I feed my kids.
Jonathan: Love that. I think that’s a great way to end the episode, by the way. I love that idea that I need to provide the food, and I can provide healthy food, but then it’s on them. They’ll develop their own way of eating, and I need to lead by example.
Jonathan: I struggle right now, especially with two and a four-year-old. My two-year-old, she eats everything, so I’m not worried about her. But my four-year-old, it’s like, “You gotta eat this. Well, at least eat this.” It’s not enjoyable. I think that an emotional state matters when you eat, as well.
Susan: Totally. You don’t want to turn mealtimes into a battle, or an emotional battleground. You don’t.
Jonathan: Exactly.
Jonathan: Dr. Susan, this was wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us. Brightlineeating.com is your website. I know you’ve referenced some other things. You can always go to empoweringyouorganically.com. We will have the transcripts. We will have the show notes; we’ll have links to the book, and to every other thing that you’ve mentioned on here. We’ll have links to studies; we’ll have links to your website.
Jonathan: Is there anything else that you want to share before we close off here?
Susan: Yeah, one last thing, ’cause this podcast is on sugar addiction. I just wanna presence, and I just mentioned the name of someone who doesn’t believe in food addiction or sugar addiction. I want to just presence from a scientific perspective where that debate comes from, because it still is quote, unquote, debatable in science, whether food addiction or sugar addiction, exists. I just want to clear that up in people’s minds.
Susan: Sugar addiction is real, and it’s not debatable. The reason that people bicker about it is because we’ve got a bunch of people who are trained professionally in the treatment for bulimia and anorexia, for eating disorders, to believe that there are no bad foods. That you gotta, get over food rules, and food exclusions, and that the treatment, the way to health for someone who’s been anorexic or bulimic is to learn to eat all things, again.
Susan: There is not anyone who is a researcher or scientist in the field of addiction who does not believe that sugar addiction is real. You take anybody who studies the brain from an addiction standpoint and asks them, “Is there such a thing as sugar addiction?” And they will look you in the eye, and they will say, “Yes there is. And I can point to it on a brain scan. It’s right there.”
Susan: That’s where the controversy exists, is you’ve got psychologists who really are clinicians who treat eating disorders, whose skin crawls a little at the thought that we’re gonna try to tell people not to eat sugar, ’cause they want their bulimics and anorexics to stop thinking that certain foods are bad. But the reality is that certain foods are problematic for some brains. They really are. They’re like heroin, they’re like cocaine, they’re addictive, and for some people and an approach of abstinence is gonna be more helpful than any other approach.
Susan: I also really believe that different strokes for different folks. I don’t think Bright Line Eating is the solution for everybody. I don’t think Bright Line’s for sugar, or abstinence for sugar is right for everybody. I’m not looking to get sugar out of our food supply altogether, but I do think that we need to empower people to notice if they’re feeling like they’re addicted to sugar, it might be that not eating cookies is easier than trying to moderate and eat one cookie, ’cause the one cookie experiment never goes well for me, or lots of other people.
Susan: So I just wanted to clear that up, because a lot of people don’t realize that that’s where that so-called controversy comes from. It’s not controversial.
Jonathan: I’m glad you did. I’m not involved in that conversation much. I didn’t even know to ask that question. So I appreciate you clearing that up, and I think that if most people look in the mirror and ask themselves honestly, you know if they’re, have an addictive personality, are they addicted to sugar? They likely are. They can look at them like myself, and it’s the same thing around, “I’ll just have a few cigarettes as I quit down,” or, “I’ll just have a few cookies.”
Jonathan: It’s not gonna happen.
Susan: You can always try giving it up and notice yourself come down with flu-like symptoms, and shakes.
Jonathan: See what happens.
Susan: Yeah, see what happens.
Jonathan: See what happens. Give it up and see what happens.
Jonathan: Listen, as, with everything that we do on this podcast, it’s just to deliver you the information. You’re an adult. Make up your own mind. It’s not on me to tell you what to do. It’s not on Susan or TeriAnn to tell you what to do. It’s our job to deliver you the information the best way that we can, and then you have your own come to Jesus moment, and decide for yourself. Is that an issue for you? Is it not an issue for you? What stuff do you want to accept that we talk about? What stuff don’t you want to? You’re an adult.
Jonathan: So, do that. And I do encourage you though to do the research. Go to brightlineeating.com. Try it for a little while. Do your own research and don’t just make assumptions without trying it and being educated around it.
Jonathan: With all that said, I’m off my soapbox. Thank you guys both for being here. TeriAnn, thank you. Susan, thank you. And go to empoweringyouorganically.com for everything podcast-related. Thanks again.
TeriAnn: Thanks, everyone.
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Photos: NASCAR Daytona 500 practice, February 20, 2013
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Danica Patrick, of the number 10 car, exits her car to speak with crew members in the garage during practice for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Brian Blanco
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. returns to his garage during practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Danica Patrick drives the #10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in front of a group of cars during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Crew members push the #99 Fastenal Ford of Carl Edwards through the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Ryan Newman (L), driver of the #39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, talks with Mark Martin (R), driver of the #55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota, in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Ryan Newman, driver of the #39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, and crew members work on their car in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, talks to Jamie McMurray, driver of the #1 McDonald's Chevrolet, in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, sits in his car in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, pulls into the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
Kevin Harvick stands by his car before going out on the track during practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Trevor Bayne drives the #21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Jeff Gordon, left, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., talk outside the garage during practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drives the #17 Best Buy Ford during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
Clint Boywer talks to Jimmie Johnson, not shown, in his car in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Jimmie Johnson drives the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Brad Keselowski, right, talks to crew chief Paul Wolfe in the garage during practice for the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, sits in her car in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Dale Earnhardt Jr. drives the #88 National Guard Chevrolet during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Kasey Kahne (R), driver of the #5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, signs his autograph in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Marcos Ambrose, driver of the #9 Stanley Ford, sits in his car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Aric Almirola drives the #43 Smithfield Foods Ford during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Carl Edwards, driver of the #99 Fastenal Ford, sits in his car during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota, stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Clint Bowyer (R), driver of the #15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota, talks with Brad Keselowski (L), driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Danica Patrick (C), of the number 10 car, signs autographs for fans as she walks toward the garage area during practice for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Brian Blanco
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Paul Menard, driver of the #27 Menard's/Peak Chevrolet, stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Carl Edwards, driver of the #99 Fastenal Ford, sits in his car in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Honey Nut Cheerios Chevrolet, stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, signs an autograph in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
Dale Earnhardt Jr., crosses the start/finish line during a Daytona 500 NASCAR Spring Cup Series auto race practice Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Greg Biffle, driver of the #16 3M Ford, stands in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
Race fans watch NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Drives will attempt to qualify on Thursday for Sunday's running of the Daytona 500. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Denny Hamlin waits in his garage next to his car during practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Danica Patrick (L), driver of the #10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, talks Ryan Newman (R), driver of the #39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet, in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Greg Biffle (L), driver of the #16 3M FordMobil 1/Burger King, talks with crew chief Matt Puccia (R) in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: The helmet of Michael Waltrip, driver of the #26 Sandy Hook School Support Fund Toyota, sits on top of his car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Marcos Ambrose, driver of the #9 Stanley Ford, signs an autograph in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #17 Best Buy Ford, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Jamie McMurray, driver of the #1 McDonald's Chevrolet, stands in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 National Guard Chevrolet, looks on as crew members work on the car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Carl Edwards, driver of the #99 Fastenal Ford, signs autographs in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Brad Keselowski drives the #2 Miller Lite Ford during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #29 Budweiser Chevrolet, speaks with a crew member before practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Crew members push the Michael Waltrip, driver of the #26 Sandy Hook School Support Fund Toyota, through the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Team owner and NASCAR Hall of Famer Leonard Wood poses in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Carl Edwards, driver of the #99 Fastenal Ford, sits in his car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeff Gordon (L), of the number 24 car, plugs his ears with a crew member as a car starts in the garage during practice for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Brian Blanco
Tony Stewart drives out on the track during practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Tony Stewart climbs in his car preparing to go out on the track during practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 20: A view the Harley J. Earl Trophy during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, 2013 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
Categories: Motor Sports, Sports, Syndicated
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Trial and Error: The Supreme Court's Philosophy of Science
American Journal of Public Health, Forthcoming
The Coronado Conference: Scientific Evidence and Public Policy
34 Pages Posted: 12 Mar 2008 Last revised: 28 Apr 2008
See all articles by Susan Haack
Susan Haack
University of Miami - School of Law; University of Miami - Department of Philosophy
In Frye (1923) the D.C. Court upheld the exclusion of testimony of the results of a then-new blood-pressure deception test on the grounds that novel scientific testimony crosses the line between the experimental and the demonstrable, and so is admissible, only if it is sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field to which it belongs. Ignored for a decade, rarely cited for a quarter-century, over time the Frye test became increasingly influential, until by the early 1980s it had been adopted by 29 states.
In 1975, however, newly-enacted Federal Rules of Evidence had set a seemingly less restrictive standard: the testimony of a qualified expert, including a scientific expert, is admissible provided it is relevant (unless it is excluded, under Rule 403, on grounds of unfair prejudice, waste of time, or confusing or misleading the jury).
In 1992 proposals to tighten up the Federal Rules were before Congress. In 1993 the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Daubert -- the first case in its 204-year history where the central questions concerned the admissibility of scientific testimony. The Frye rule arose in a criminal case, and had for most of its history been cited in criminal cases; but Daubert was a tort action in which the trial court had relied on Frye in excluding the plaintiffs' experts' testimony that the morning-sickness drug Bendectin was teratogenic. So the Supreme Court was to determine whether the FRE had superseded Frye, and in particular how Rule 702 was to be interpreted.
Yes, Justice Blackmun wrote for the majority, the FRE had superseded Frye; but the Rules themselves require judges to screen proffered expert testimony not only for relevance, but also for reliability.
In dissent, however, pointing out that the word reliable nowhere occurs in the text of Rule 702, Justice Rehnquist anticipated difficulties over whether and if so how Daubert should be applied to non-scientific expert testimony; worried aloud that federal judges were being asked to become amateur scientists; and questioned the wisdom of his colleagues' readiness to get involved in philosophy of science. I think he was right to suspect that something was seriously amiss; in fact, what I shall have to say here might be read as an exploration, amplification, and partial defense of his reservations about that philosophical excursus.
Haack, Susan, Trial and Error: The Supreme Court's Philosophy of Science. American Journal of Public Health, Forthcoming; The Coronado Conference: Scientific Evidence and Public Policy. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=695341
Susan Haack (Contact Author)
University of Miami - School of Law ( email )
University of Miami - Department of Philosophy ( email )
Coral Gables, FL 33124-4670
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The Patriot Post® · Mothers — Living and Leaving a Legacy
By Robin Smith · Feb. 22, 2016 · https://patriotpost.us/articles/40819-mothers-living-and-leaving-a-legacy
The angry world of militant feminism was shaken recently by women leftists once embraced as models of their cause. In two recent cases, those women identified motherhood as a fulfilling purpose of womanhood. Cue (even more) feminist outrage.
Heads exploded as Grammy- and Academy Award-winning star Adele was described by Vogue magazine in the gifted singer’s own words, identifying her son as having given her purpose.
Oh, dear. Vogue, is hardly a publication that honors the personal sacrifice of females to nurture and love their children. Rather, Vogue regales narcissistic self-worship and pampering that glorifies the “life-sized Barbie” exterior with a special emphasis on one’s personal ambitions and success as the priority.
It was within the pages of the self-absorbed magazine that Adele made these earth-shattering statements referring to her three-year-old son: “I can’t have any other junk in my head to worry about as well. [Angelo] makes me very proud of myself. When I became a parent, I felt like I was truly living. I had a purpose, where before I didn’t. … My main thing is Mum, then it’s me, then it’s work. I think I had to take the right amount of time off to let people miss me. I just didn’t really know what I was going on about.”
“I am woman, hear me roar” is not the caption assigned to the photo of the cultural icon caressing her toddler son perched on her hip — a pose frequently taken by moms attempting to multitask.
You see, feminists apparently find the gratification of motherhood to be an existential threat to the movement populated by the elite of the angry Left and those looking for a cause versus a purpose.
Understand that if a star with universal adoration is to have implied that her life previous to motherhood was less than complete, the narrative that fuels feminism — especially for the pro-abortion crowd — has been severely impacted.
Remember when then-POTUS-candidate Barack Obama declared in 2008 he would never want one of his daughters to be “punished with a baby?” Oops. It seems Adele views the life yielded from creation’s work a blessing and reward, not a burden or “punishment.” Again, the end result of motherhood — a loved child who has been nurtured and shaped by a committed female adult — has far less value in the eyes of feminists than the liberated, unencumbered woman who espouses the death-dripping declaration of Margaret Sanger, birth-control activist and mother of Planned Parenthood: “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”
Meanwhile, just a few weeks back, mixed martial arts (MMA) champion and Ultimate Fighting Championship’s #1 female bantamweight boxer in the world, Ronda Rousey, shared on daytime talk TV her suicidal thoughts following an upset loss. Having been taken beyond the first round of a match for only the second time in her undefeated MMA career, a second-round blow to the head sent the female specimen of physical prowess to the mat in November 2015. The blow took a toll not just physically but psychologically.
In the arena, Rousey personified the potential of female physical power. Yet after her first and only defeat, her introspection left her initially unable to answer the question, “What am I anymore, if not this?”
Rousey recalled her post-fight encounter with her own value: “I was sitting there thinking about killing myself, thinking, ‘I’m nothing. What can I do any more? No one gives a s— about me any more.’ Then I looked up and saw my man Travis, and I thought, ‘I need to have his babies. I need to stay alive.’”
A modern-day warrior goddess like Athena, Rousey had been physically knocked flat by a rival in sport but her reality was shaken by a sudden awareness. The 29-year-old had allowed her significance to be defined through the lens of physical dominance and pop-culture entertainment value. With one blow to her head, she was no longer UFC Champion and, based on a twisted view of her own existence, contemplated suicide when she determined she offered no other purpose.
Yet sitting in the medical treatment room after the loss, the love of her boyfriend opened her eyes to the awareness of a feminine purpose beyond fighting. The vision of motherhood saved the life of a career giant who was the third-most searched person on Google in 2015.
A few realities regarding feminism are in order.
First, feminism hides behind the demands of “equality” when “sameness” is sought to eliminate any gender-based roles or societal rules. Despite the true and imperative value of women across the line of our world history, feminist women are determined to be the best man they can be, while undermining men at every turn.
Second, feminism serves to degrade women who don’t militantly embrace the angry perspective toward men as Neanderthals who know nothing more than oppression and physical aggression. Feminists certainly can’t abide the notion that a man and a woman form a complementary relationship — that is, one that together makes them complete and stronger than when alone.
Finally, in the case of both Adele and Rousey, feminism is fulfilling as long as you’re performance is on top; your externalities line up with a cultural substitute for self-fulfillment; and the frailties of humanity are in check. You see, feminism stresses the independence of the female and despises interdependence and collaboration of these complementary relationships with male counterparts.
“Mother” is a delineation of a woman who has not just conceived a child, but who has embraced the title of immeasurable societal value and purpose to her own life, the foundations of civilization and its very existence. A feminist exists within the confines of a movement that contrives value of women being less than their created purpose. Being a mother is living and leaving a legacy.
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EN | TH
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Prachatai English / Pick to Post / David Streckfuss: Lese majeste and monarchies /
David Streckfuss: Lese majeste and monarchies
Submitted on Sun, 2012-03-18 15:06
David Streckfuss's presentation as part of Democracy and Crisis in Thailand conference held at Chulalongkorn University on 9 March. [courtesy of Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT)]
See all clips of the event here.
I attempt answers to two sets of questions in this paper. The first is: How is it that many of the constitutional monarchies in Europe are also some of the most democratic countries in the world? What are these monarchies doing right? Or maybe better said, what are they not doing wrong?
The second is: Using the same metrics, how does the Thai monarchy stand up? And what does the answer tell us about the dynamics of the debate over the lese majeste law?
The first metric examines the position of the monarchy within the constitutional order in Europe. Including all but one, monarchs make a public oath to respect the constitution. Article 32 of the constitution of the Netherlands stipulates that: “…The King shall swear or promise allegiance to the Constitution and that he will faithfully discharge his duties. …” Article 19 of the Norwegian constitution reads: “As soon as the King, being of age, accedes to the government, he shall take the following oath before the parliament: ‘I promise and swear that I will govern the Kingdom of Norway in accordance with its Constitution and Laws; so help me God, the Almighty and Omniscient.’”
The second metric concerns the role of opinion polls. In 2010 and 2011, there were at least 10 opinion polls on the monarchy carried out by various Danish newspapers and polling organizations, 17 in Sweden, and 3 in Norway. In Denmark some of the questions asked were:
Should the queen abdicate or not, and when?
How well is the Queen performing her duties?
How are the performances of the Prince Consort and the Crown Prince?
Should the Queen have the power to approve laws or appoint the prime minister?
In Sweden, the questions were:
Should the king retire and abdicate in favor of the popular Crown Prince Victoria? (yes, 37% said yes, 45% said no)
Who is your favorite member of the royal family?
Which member of the royal family is best suited to become head of state?
How much confidence do you have in the king (39% said they did, 35% said they did not)
The function that polls serve is to remind the royal family that they are public figures and as such subject to public comment. Opinion polls help royal families know where they stand before their public, and to make adjustments.
The third metric is transparency in royal spending. As most use public funds, the monarchy, just as any other institution in society, is open to public scrutiny. In the chart, it can be seen that the public cost of monarchy in Luxembourg is $22 a year per person. The royal family of tiny Liechtenstein, on the other hand, pays all of its own costs. The relative burden of monarchy in relation to average income shows, for instance, that Spain is the most frugal and least burdensome cost-wise of the larger kingdoms. In comparison to Spain, the relative burden is 20 times greater in Norway. And for comparison’s sake, the cost of a head of state in non-royal Germany is the second-most economical.
In the past few years, monarchies in Europe have increasingly made their expenses open. Buckingham Palace, for instance, has become acutely aware that every pence of public money it spends will be scrutinized. A spokesperson for the palace recently argued that “Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family are a relative bargain for taxpayers” as it costs each a mere 66 pence per annum, the equivalent, the queen’s website reported, to “the cost of two pints of milk or a download to an iPod.” Transparency makes monarchies accountable.
The fourth metric is the use of the lese majeste law. It is useful first, though, to consider the legal status of European monarchs. Most of the constitutions in Europe’s monarchies afford special, if not sacred, status to its monarch. Norway’s constitution reads: “The King’s person is sacred; he cannot be censured or accused.” The real question really revolves around legal liability. Saying that the monarchy cannot be sued by private individuals or charged by the police is quite different from saying the monarchy cannot be criticized at all. In Europe, monarchs are free from legally liability, but not from criticism.
The lese majeste law in Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium is located in the section on the security of the state, with penalties ranging from two to five years. In Sweden and Denmark, though, the lese majeste provision is also linked to the normal defamation law which has a punishment of a fine or imprisonment for up to 4 months for minor infractions. For serious violations that are the product of “widespread bad faith” and lacking “reasonable grounds,” punishment can be raised to imprisonment for two years. Th elese majeste law only says that if such defamation is made against the monarch, the punishment can be doubled.
A number of countries also include an exclusion clause. In Denmark, exclusion from guilt in lese majeste comes from the exclusion for normal defamation in which there is no guilt when the truth of an accusation can be proved or for statements made “in good faith” or “in legitimate exercise of obvious public interest.” In Norway, the lese majeste law can be initiated “only by order of the King or with his consent.” In Denmark, the lese majeste law can only be used by order of the Ministry of Justice.
Having said this, it is important to note that the law is hardly ever used in the constitutional monarchies of Europe. Denmark apparently hasn’t used it since 1934. There have been a few cases in the Netherlands and Spain in the last number of years, but they resulted in fines or short jail terms.
The simple fact is that it is not in the interests of the monarchy to have a law used in its name. Frequent, or even occasional, use of the law may have grave implications and no doubt would appear on one of those often used and pesky opinion polls.
The fifth metric examines what constitutes treason. What I didn’t mention above is that the most frequent opinion poll question is whether the institution of monarchy should be retained, or whether it should be removed. Republican sentiment and debates of the merit of monarchy versus republic is a normal feature of any European constitutional monarchy. Republican parties and republican movements are not seen as attempts to “overthrow the monarchy.” It is doubtful that very many of the Norwegians, Swedes, or Spaniards who define themselves as monarchists label the other side as traitors. Republicans and monarchists alike are considered as good citizens.
Bad Swedish citizens are those who violate Section 1 of Chapter 8 of the Swedish penal code, those who, “with the intent that the form of government be overthrown by force of arms or other violent means.” They are guilty of High Treason. It is considered as a “crime against civil liberty,” for such actions endanger all citizen’s rights to “freedom of speech, assembly or association.” Treason is, in other words, an attempt to cripple the mechanisms of democracy. On the other hand, a peaceful movement to eliminate the institution of the monarchy through democratic means is not treason: it is merely democracy in action. Republicanism is taken as yet another way to express democratic aspirations.
That said, republicanism has not grown very significantly in any of the European constitutional monarchies. Within the last decade, the highest percentage of persons polled in any of the countries under review who preferred a republic was 28% in Sweden in 2010. Over a ten-year period, those favoring retention of the monarchy dropped from 85 per cent in 2000 to 80 per cent in 2005, and finally down to 58% in 2010. Certainly, it is a wake-up call for the Swedish royal family. But any change toward republicanism in Sweden or anywhere else in Europe is not imminent. And, as I have argued here, part of the secret of maintaining monarchies is not to do anything too terribly wrong.
The case has been made that constitutional monarchies have survived into the 21st century in Europe because monarchs have had to justify their existences in response to general practices necessary for the basic functioning of the public sphere—public accountability, transparency, and the freedom of cultural and political expression. It may not be so surprising, then, to discover that the constitutional monarchies of Europe are some of the freest societies in the world.
Turning to Thailand, the situation is quite different. For the first metric, there was a lot of fuss made when the Nitirat group suggested that the king make an oath before the parliament to respect the constitution, as is observed in Europe. The suggestion was taken as an affront. A prominent newspaper columnist said that the Nitirat group’s suggestion “offended ordinary people who strongly feel the group has crossed the line. Personally, I feel that the suggestion is insulting for our King to take an oath before MPs, many of whom have tainted backgrounds and questionable credibility.”
The result: the monarchy’s position in relation to the constitution remains unclear.
As for the second metric of opinion polls, well, obviously accurate polls are not possible with the existence of the lese majeste law.
For the third metric—transparency–Thailand actually does better than some of the European monarchies. If you can’t see the figures, don’t worry. $75 million is for royal projects, $20 million is for costs connected to acting as head of state, and $92 million for the Bureau of the Royal Household. The other $180 million or so is for a single activity: “Plan to uphold, protect, and maintain the institution of the monarchy,” divided between the prime minister’s office, the military, the public works department, and the police.
There might be other costs connected to the monarchy that don’t appear here. For instance, there are no funds specified in the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology dedicated to finding and blocking seditious websites. And of course the budget here doesn’t clear up any of the issues surrounding the Crown Property Bureau. It does help society to know that the budget for the monarchy has increased by 45% since 2005…
Predictably, the greatest difference between Europe and Thailand lies in its use of the lese majeste law. In Thailand, Section 8 of the constitution reads: “The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated. No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action.” This is interpreted in Thailand unconventionally as a blanket prohibition of criticism, and is linked to the lese majeste law.
Unlike Europe, the lese majeste law in Thailand admits no exceptions. There is no structural restraint, and certain individuals have lodged as many as 15 cases with the police. The punishment is greater than any lese majeste law seen in the world in the past few centuries. But mostly, whereas it is a rarely used, archaic remnant of a bygone era in Europe, in Thailand it is used with utter abandon.
As can be seen, the number of charges going before the lower court peaked in 2010, and dropped down to 85. This is still a far cry from the average 5 to 6 cases per year Thailand saw from the early 1990s to 2005. As a result, Thailand ranks well below many authoritarian monarchies in terms of press freedom.
In this paper, I was originally going to talk about the lese majeste law in terms of human rights. I was going to reject what the Thai government had claimed before the UN last year that “The right to freedom of opinion and expression is the bedrock of Thailand’s democratic society” or that “Thailand has strived to find a balance between protecting the monarchy, which is a main pillar of the nation’s identity and security, and the right of individuals to express their views.” Certainly, Thailand’s human rights record has been a disaster.
But instead I want to talk about the dynamic of the discourse that has come to surround the question of amending the lese majeste law. A number of academics and journalists have offered the view that the debate over the lese majeste law is like a collision between the sacred and the public sphere, between the rational and the religious.
Let’s review some statements made in the last few months. It began in court rulings where judges inserted a sort of statement of faith:
Thai Criminal Court, in refusing bail to a lese majeste suspect: “…under the severity of the charge and the case which is an act against HM the King, HM the Queen, and the Heir-Apparent, this is considered a severe issue and has effect on the Thai public.”
Thai Labor Court: “it can be seen that the spirit of the Thai nation is unlike the identity of other nations which is accepted or is known well to be that the Thai people respect and revere the king.”
A General: “Thailand owes its presence on the world stage and the respect it commands within the global community to the role of the monarchy. His Majesty the King has done nothing to harm the nation and everything to help it.”
The Same General: “…if you speak negatively of the monarchy, then I must speak negatively of you, because you refuse to see the good in Thailand. The nation respects the royal institution, and the Nitirat group–who say Section 112 stifles freedom of speech–is hurting people’s feelings.
A Senator: “Those who want Section 112 of the Criminal Code changed don’t actually want the law to be more lenient but their target is to allow people to insult, defame, create malice and cause the institution not to be tolerated.”
Thammasat University Law Alumni Club Leader: “Disciplinary probes should be launched against the lecturers as they have shown they do not have faith in democracy with the King as head of state.”
The King Prajadipok Institute’s Society’s alumni body: “This is not about laws, but about the faith.”
That’s right. It’s not about laws. It is about faith. Lese majeste has always been on the far end of the continuum of defamation-based laws. In fact, its original form was one of blasphemy. And in the reign of blasphemy, common truths have no place. In blasphemy trials, there is no argument about the veracity of what was said. The focus is on the insult of the sacred, the sacrilege, the hurt.
One side is talking about freedom of expression and legal principles. The other is talking about protection of a religion against blasphemous libel as embodied in the lese majeste law. It is not merely that the followers of the sacred royal cult don’t seem to be responding to those who want to amend the lese majeste law; they are speaking an entirely different language:
In a religious society where non-believers are hunted down and beaten, where can refuge be found except for in a humiliated silence?
Doesn’t this commentary on the right to freedom of expression and the right freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” really describe Thai society today:
No person may be subject to the impairment…on the basis of his or her actual, perceived or supposed opinions. All forms of opinion are protected, including opinions of a political, scientific, historic, moral or religious nature. [States may not] criminalise the holding of an opinion. The harassment, intimidation or stigmatisation of a person, including arrest, detention, trial or imprisonment for reasons of the opinions they may hold, constitutes a violation of [this] article….If a set of beliefs is treated as official ideology in constitutions, statutes, proclamations of ruling parties, etc., or in actual practice, this shall not result in any impairment of the freedoms under [this] article …nor in any discrimination against persons who do not accept the official ideology or who oppose it.”
In summary, the greatest difference between the European monarchies and Thailand comes down to treason. Treason in Europe is to use violence in suppressing the democratic aspirations and rights of citizens. In Thailand, treason has become heresy.
David Streckfuss
lese majeste
<p>http://facthai.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/a-comparison-of-modern-monarchies-dr-david-streckfuss/</p>
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“This is not a camp, it’s a prison!”
March 22, 2016 March 22, 2016 Benjamin Julian
Since yesterday, refugees arriving on the Greek islands have been detained to have them ready for deportation. They don’t know what’s happening to them, volunteers are mostly banned from assisting and the police doesn’t have instructions on how to register and manage the new arrivals. Now they must wait behind barbed wire fences, because Europe was in a hurry to stop them coming. The police doesn’t know how to take their asylum requests, which breaches the refugee convention, and the UNHCR has told the EU that the authorities have crossed a red line; it won’t deliver refugees to them anymore.
A photo taken by a refugee in the camp, shown to us on a smartphone screen. People are sleeping on pallets which have been covered with cardboard.
We went to the Vial hotspot in Chios today with biscuits and sanitary products, throwing them surreptitiously over the fence. People grappled for them and jumped after them. “We are hungry, especially the children,” one inmate told me. They get three meals a day, but there’s no shop or open kitchen for them if the food is insufficient.
Getting sanitary products and biscuits into the hotspot.
A social worker in the camp said nobody knew what to do, today had been a haze of stress and confusion. The army, who previously ran the camp, had left. Most NGOs had been thrown out. All procedures and even basic knowledge about where things like keys were kept disappeared with them.
When we asked what their thoughts about the future were, some refugees beamed and pointed in a random direction. “Germany!” they shouted happily. We tried to explain that the new EU-Turkish agreement made that extremely difficult and complicated. It was designed to stop them from doing exactly that. They would first of all have to apply for asylum in Greece. They looked at us in disbelief.
This was just the beginning of a long and heartbreaking discussion. We tried to tell them what we knew about their situation without inciting a riot, which would ruin their already slim chances of staying in Europe. But they were clearly disappointed, sad and angry.
They told us they got neither the opportunity nor permission to buy SIM cards, so they can’t keep in touch with their families, and they don’t have electricity and only a limited internet connection. They were not just imprisoned, but isolated.
That isolation was perfected when two policemen came in a pickup truck and asked us what we were doing. We told them we were talking with the refugees. The policemen told us to go away. We promised we’d come again with SIM cards, food and water. And the prisoners asked us to tell the world what was happening.
← Empty and refill (with more fences)
You are not supposed to be here →
One thought on ““This is not a camp, it’s a prison!””
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Reblogged this on faith56blog.
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A Party Called Rosie Perez Reclaims the Deep Latino Roots of New York Nightlife
Photo by Das Jeff. Courtesy of A Party Called Rosie Perez
By Caitlin Cruz | 2 years ago
Before they even knew each other, DJs Christian Mártir, Suce, and Laylo were always asked to play hip-hop and dancehall at parties around New York. The club nights were fun and fine and even enjoyable. But, as Laylo puts it, there was something missing. “There was always a point in the night where I wanted to hear a little bit of salsa or merengue and that never got played,” she says.
They kept running into each other. The club scene in the five boroughs, while thriving, can be small.
Mártir, Laylo, and Sucio eventually met up at a 2014 event billed “as a celebration of a legendary label, genre, and era of Latin music,” Laylo recalls. But it didn’t sit right with them. “We couldn’t understand the artists and the lineup if that’s what it was supposed to be about. We ended up having this conversation around getting really disheartened by what gatekeepers and record labels – and even the media to a certain extent – were billing as the ‘Future of Latin Music.’”
For their entire careers, the three DJs had watched the future, and even current status, of Latin music be determined by people who didn’t understand it.
“It seemed to be a gross misrepresentation of the music, of the culture, and really lacking all the heart, all the soul, and the essence of who we are. Even more insulting, it seems a lot of people – when they talk about the future of Latin music…[it’s] synonymous with making music that is acceptable for or palatable to white hipsters,” she said. “As if there aren’t young Latinos, as if there aren’t old Latinos, as if there aren’t middle-aged Latinos that all love this music and are connected to it — and are invested in moving it forward.”
It was the last straw. So the three friends decided to start throwing their own night in Brooklyn, and dubbed it A Party Called Rosie Perez. It was only supposed to be a one-time affair in 2015, but it was so successful that they decided to go monthly. They marked their first anniversary earlier this year.
The Rosie party combines their love for Latinx culture and honors a living legend at the same time. Its title is an attempt to be honest to the borough that hosts the party each month. What’s more Brooklyn than Rosie Perez? “When you go through her resume…From dancer to actress to producer to author to activist, when you think about that, why not? She’s alive; she’s here with us. We need to celebrate her,” Suce said. “We need to not wait until people are gone to celebrate them.”
When I ask if there was a question of ever calling the monthly something else, Laylo admitted she was initially hesitant about the name. “It’s a little bit of a sore spot for me because whenever I’m in predominantly white spaces, I always have people coming up to me saying, ‘Oh my god you sound like Rosie Perez.’ And I know they don’t mean it because they’re paying tribute to all that she is,” she said. “They mean it like, ‘You sound like a caricature.’” But she realized that’s precisely the reason to embrace the name: Rosie Perez represents a distinctly New York Latina experience that needs to be celebrated.
“I do identify as a black woman, as a Dominican woman and as a New Yorker; those are the biggest parts of my identity. In many ways, Rosie Perez represents that ability to be Afro-Latina, to be a New Yorker, to be from the hood, and be unapologetic about it. And to be authentic about it, and forge all kinds of new pathways for herself — not in spite of who she was but because of who she was,” Laylo said. “It’s perfect that the party is named after her.”
Each of the DJs is fiercely proud of their Latinx roots, and got into DJing as a way to preserve Latin music. Mártir was born in Puerto Rico and developed a love for b-boying and hip-hop when he was young in Miami. Laylo was born on the island, too. Suce and his family moved back to Puerto Rico when drugs started infiltrating the Lower East Side. As they came of age, each moved to New York and became politically involved. Laylo joined a collective of black and Latina women committed to community-centered political education. Their fundraisers were “basically be house parties,” but all the DJs were men. She and her friends bought some turntables to share, but she was the only one who stuck with it. Meanwhile, Suce is a longtime radio DJ.
At the parties, they are dedicated to bringing those roots to the dancefloor, but evolving them too. You’ll hear everything from radio rap to iconic Willie Colón records. “We play a lot of Latin music. There’s no Latino tokenism.” Laylo said. Christian usually opens the parties, while Laylo plays “pretty much anything from the African diaspora.” She has an affinity for music that captures “the fabric of New York dancefloors,” but it’s got to be more than just nostalgia, she adds. Meanwhile, Suce always plays vinyl. “Throughout the month, I’m going through records, but also things happen that refresh my set. When Phife Dawg passed, I did a Phife set.” When Donald Trump was elected, Laylo played YG and Nipsey Hussle’s “Fuck Donald Trump” at the next function.
For each of the DJs, it’s a space to reclaim and reaffirm the deep roots of Latinx music communities in New York. It seems like a tall order, until you’re out on the dance floor, vibing to seamless salsa and hip-hop blends. “We’re being erased from our own music and culture the same way we’re being erased from New York because of gentrification. All these things are very connected. I was really down for doing something that could be like, ‘No, that’s actually not the case. We’re not going out like that,’” she said.
Mártir says they hope to expand, maybe uptown. Even Puerto Rico, Laylo suggests. For now, on at least one night each month, A Party Called Rosie Perez provides a space to be Latinx, Black, and proud. Mártir says cultivating a community is the ultimate service of the Rosie party; the three friends are just using music as their tools for outreach. “It’s not about us,” Mártir says. “We’re there to serve our community. We’re there to serve our people.”
A Party Called Rosie Perez goes down once a month in New York City. Catch the next installment on May 13, 2017 at Louie & Chan.
hip hop, Merengue, nightlife, salsa. Monday, May 1, 2017 at 3:27 PM EDT May 1, 2017 by Caitlin Cruz
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DISSOLUTION OF STATUTORY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA
TRADEMARK REGISTRATION OFFICE IN LAGOS| TRADEMARK AGENT IN NIGERIA
HOW TO DISSOLVE CUSTOMARY MARRIAGE IN NIGERIA
In accordance with the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act (“the Act”), for a marriage to be dissolved by the High Court, it must be a statutory marriage evidenced by a Marriage Certificate. A statutory marriage is one celebrated under the Act and it confers jurisdiction of the Court to hear the petition for dissolution of marriage.
The law that governs matrimonial causes in Nigeria is the Marriage Act, the Matrimonial Causes Act 1970 and the Matrimonial Causes Rules 1983. These laws provide for the rules governing matrimonial matters, procedures and grounds relating to matrimonial causes. The Act provides that the court with jurisdiction that has authority to hear and determine matrimonial causes is the High Court of any State of the Federation as provided under the Section 2 of the Act. The action for dissolution of marriage is ordinarily instituted by a virtue of Petition filed by the person bringing the action called the Petitioner and the party who it is brought against that is called the Respondent. The Respondent replies to the filed petition by a way of Answer or Cross-Petition.
The law stipulates that a marriage under two (2) years cannot be dissolved; this is called the two-year rule. It is provided for under Section 30 of the Act, which states “subject to this section proceedings for a decree of dissolution of marriage shall not be instituted within two years after the date of the marriage except by the leave of court”.
Although to every rule there must be an exception. Consequently, in exceptional cases, a marriage under 2 years can be dissolved where the petitioner bringing the action for divorce can prove that exceptional hardship or that the case is one that involves exceptional depravity, which will be caused if the marriage is not dissolved, as it is provided for under Section 30 (3) of the Act. The court in determining the application for leave to institute proceedings of dissolution of the marriage under two years will consider the interest of any children of the marriage and question whether there would be any probability of a reconciliation between the parties before the expiration of the period of two years after the date of marriage.
It would be trite to state that before the court dissolves a marriage, the court has the duty to consider the possibility of parties reconciling as provided under the Section 11 of the Act. So before a court in Nigeria dissolves a marital union, it must be satisfied that there is no possibility of parties to reconcile. Sometimes the court may refer the parties to mediation for the sole purpose of possible reconciliation. But where after exploring the possibilities for reconciliation and the parties failed, the court will have no choice but to dissolve the marriage.
Ground for Dissolution of Marriage
The Act under Section 15 to 16 states the ground for dissolution of marriage and the particulars of fact upon which the grounds for dissolution of marriage can arise. The sole ground for instituting an action for dissolution of marriage in Nigeria is that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. What this means is that the reason for the petition is so severe that the marriage cannot be repaired.
It is further stated that for the court to hear a petition for the dissolution of marriage, the petitioner must satisfy the court of at least one or more of the facts stated below:
That the respondent has willingly and persistently refused to consummate the marriage. For this fact to be pleaded, the petitioner must prove that the respondent has failed to have sexual intercourse h he/she, but where it is proved that sex occurred even once, the marriage will be deemed consummated and therefore the petitioner cannot rely on this ground for divorce.
That since the marriage the respondent has committed adultery and the petitioner finds it intolerable to live with the respondent. For this fact to hold water in court, the petitioner must prove that not only does the other party commit adultery but he/she finds it unbearable to live with such infidelity.
That since the marriage the respondent has behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent.
That the respondent has deserted the petitioner for a continuous period of at least one year immediately preceding the presentation of the petition. The desertion means that the respondent has abandoned the matrimonial home without justification.
That the parties to the marriage have lived apart for a continuous period of at least 2 years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition does not object to the decree of dissolution being granted
That the parties to the marriage have lived apart for a continuous period of at least three years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition
That the other party to the marriage has for a period not less than one year failed to comply with a decree of restitution of conjugal right made under the Marriage Causes Act.
That the other party to the marriage has been absent from the petitioner for such time and in such circumstances has to provide reasonable grounds for presuming that he/ she is dead.
The action for dissolution of a statutory marriage can be brought under any one or more of the facts stated above before the court can make a decree for dissolution of marriage.
The decrees the High Court of the State can make are two orders called Decree Nisi and Decree Absolute. This means that the Decree Nisi is made first and this order gives the opportunity of the other party to appeal the decision of the court and the second order of Decree absolute is made 3 months after the first decree as provided under section 58 of the Act. The Decree Nisi is made absolute after 3 months where no appeal is made and there is no right to appeal the decision of the court after it has been made absolute.
The marriage is completely dissolved where the order of decree absolute is made. The effect of dissolving a statutory marriage is that a party to the marriage can marry again as if the marriage had been dissolved by death.
The process for a divorce in Nigeria is a very sensitive one and it is not easy for a marital union to be declared irretrievably broken down. For a statutory marriage to be dissolved, the court must be satisfied that the option for settlement has been explored unsuccessfully. If reconciliation failed then it is clear that the marriage has broken down irretrievably and then the court will grant a decree for the dissolution.
The fact listed above must be stated to prove that the marriage cannot be repaired and if possible documentary evidence should be provided for when instituting an action for dissolution of marriage.
By Family Law Department at Resolution Law Firm, Nigeria
PROCEDURE FOR NSITF REGISTRATION
HOW TO OBTAIN TEMPORARY WORK PERMIT IN NIGERIA
PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING ECOWAS RESIDENCE PERMIT IN NIGERIA
PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING ECOWAS PERMIT IN NIGERIA
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Top 15 Tropical Paradise Vacations
/ in Popular Destinations,Travel
/ tags Popular Destinations, travel
Dreamy beaches, silky warm seas, lush scenery, and endless sunshine: These are some of the top ingredients of the ideal tropical vacation. But each destination offers its own sultry charms. Some dazzle with their natural beauty. Others add cultural attractions to the mix, with exotic customs, architecture, and mouthwatering cuisine. A few offer eco-adventures and wildlife-rich wilderness, and some sleepy islands seem to take you back in time. Divers flock to thriving coral reefs, and surfers seek the perfect wave. It’s just a matter of finding the perfect fit.
From Asia to Australia and the US to the Caribbean, this list of 15 tropical paradise vacation hot spots covers some of the most beautiful islands in the world as well as ideas of fun things to do and destinations for all budgets, whether you’re seeking an over-the-water bungalow in Bora Bora or a bamboo hut on a Bali beach.
1. Bora Bora, Tahiti
Bora Bora is the quintessential South Pacific paradise. This lush and dramatically beautiful island in French Polynesia rises to a sharp emerald peak ringed by an azure lagoon. Clusters of coconut palms bristle along the beaches, and luxury bungalows perch over the crystal-clear waters, some with glass floor panels so you can peer into the thriving sea below. While Bora Bora scores top points for natural beauty, it also ticks the box if you’re seeking some cultural appeal.
The official language is French, and you can taste the Gallic influence in the gourmet cuisine. Add a bevy of fun water sports, kayak trips to tiny motu (islands), picturesque hiking trails, and adventures such as shark dives, and, it’s easy to see why many travelers rank pricey Bora Bora as a top honeymoon destination and the ultimate, once-in-a-lifetime place for the perfect tropical vacation.
2. Riviera Maya, Mexico
If you’re looking for beautiful beaches, culture, and zesty cuisine all wrapped up with an affordable price tag, the Riviera Maya (Mayan Riviera) in Mexico is a great choice. On the tip of the Yucatán peninsula, along the Caribbean coast, the Mayan Riviera encompasses the resort destinations of Cancún, Playa del Carmen, and the island of Cozumel. You don’t have to stay at a big bustling all-inclusive resort here, though you’ll find plenty fronting the long, postcard-worthy beaches.
Intimate boutique hotels and yoga retreats are also in the mix. Swimming with stingrays and dolphins, diving, snorkeling, and fishing are popular activities in the warm, clear waters, and culture vultures can explore the magnificent ancient ruins of Tulum, in a stunning setting above the turquoise Caribbean Sea, or Chichén Itzá, a few hours’ drive away from the resort strip.
Strung across the Indian Ocean southwest of India and Sri Lanka, the 26 natural atolls of the Maldives exude an almost surreal beauty due, in large part, to the luminous blue waters which surround them. If slipping into the crystal-clear, soul-warming sea is a top criteria for your perfect tropical vacation, this is the place to do it, as water comprises 99 percent of the Maldives. Paradoxically, it also threatens to inundate the shores of this low-lying island nation. Male’ is the capital city, but most visitors head straight out to one of the remote atolls, where luxury resorts and bone-white beaches fringed by aquamarine waters await.
Diving and snorkeling are world-class, and the Maldives is also a top surfing destination with the most popular surf spots in the North and South Male’ Atolls. Other popular activities here include swimming with manta rays and whale sharks as well as big-game fishing. With water being a focal point and so many islands to choose from, the Maldives is also the perfect candidate for a cruise vacation.
4. Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, with close ties to New Zealand, is a dream destination for would-be castaways. Blessed with a luminous aqua lagoon, lush peaks, sublime beaches bristling with palms, and some of the friendliest people in the South Pacific, Aitutaki ticks all the boxes for the perfect exotic tropical vacation. Rarotonga is the largest of the Cook Islands, and the main tourist gateway, but Aitutaki, a 45-minute flight away, is the jewel in the crown, and that’s saying plenty in an archipelago of 15 ravishing tropical isles. Swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, and fishing are all fantastic, and the island offers a window into the laid-back village life, which slows to a halt on Sundays for church services.
More than 20 motu (small islands) are sprinkled around the lagoon, and the small island of Tapuaetai (One Foot Island), in its southeast corner, is a popular excursion with a beautiful perspective of the lagoon. If you really want to splurge, opt for a luxurious over-the-water bungalow. From here, you can paddle to your own private motu, plonk down under a palm tree, and pretend you’re Robinson Crusoe for a day.
5. Kauaʻi, Hawaii
Called the Garden Isle, Kauaʻi is a tropical Eden, with lush rainforests, waterfalls, and spectacular green coastal peaks. A natural masterpiece of dramatic lava-sculpted landscapes, the island has a more laid-back vibe than its popular sister islands of Maui and Oahu. Though Kauai is known for being home to one of the rainiest places on earth, the island is comprised of several microclimates, and the area around touristy Poipu tends to be drier. Underwater, you’ll find colorful coral reefs, where turtles and tropical fish swim. On land, you can bask on golden beaches, admire the cloud-capped scenery from the cliffs above Hanalei Bay, hike among the velvety peaks of the breathtaking Nāpali Coast, and explore the deep and jungly 10-mile-long Waimea Canyon.
Tropical gardens, waterfalls, cute coastal towns, and fantastic surf breaks are other top tourist attractions. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself sharing the beach with slumbering monk seals; nature reigns here, and that’s a big part of the island’s allure.
6. The Mamanuca Islands, Fiji
If you’re dreaming of an idyllic South Seas islands bathed in sunshine, the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji fit the bill. A short boat ride from the gateway town of Nadi, this picture-perfect string of about 20 islands are popular for their gleaming palm-studded beaches, crystal-clear waters, and thriving coral reefs. When you first glimpse these tropical beauties, it’s easy to see why Survivor and the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away were filmed on islands in this chain. When choosing where to stay, your budget and interests will determine the best Fiji island for you.
Accommodation ranges from lively backpacker resorts to family-friendly hotels with thatched bures (traditional huts), and luxury hideaways like Vomo Island Resort, Likuliku Lagoon Resort, and the adults-only Tokoriki Island Resort. Popular mid-range resorts include Matamanoa Island Resort, Malolo Island Resort, Mana Island Resort, and Castaway Island. One of the planet’s top surf breaks, Cloudbreak, lies about a mile away from Tavarua Island Resort, but you can access this legendary break from other island resorts as well. Fijians love children, so this is also a fabulous destination for families with youngsters looking to relax.
7. St. Barts, The Caribbean
If you like the glittering jet-setter scene, private villas, and pretty beaches, French-influenced St. Barts should be top on your list. But it all comes at a price. A constant stream of visiting movie stars and mega-moguls means that accommodation and food costs more here than other destinations – especially during high season. However, in return, you’ll find beautiful blond beaches backed by green hills, world-class shopping and dining, and a cultural sophistication that many other tropical destinations lack. Like everywhere, low season offers great deals and all the beaches are public, so you can hide away in a private villa or boutique hotel and live the life of the rich and famous for less.
Besides basking on the beaches, shopping, and feasting on mouthwatering continental delicacies, popular activities here include snorkeling, diving, kite-surfing, kayaking, fishing, surfing, and sailing. The top beaches are Saline Beach, Gouverneur Beach, and Lorient, and the red-roofed capital of Gustavia is one of the prettiest towns in the Caribbean.
8. The Abacos, The Bahamas
Almost 300 kilometers east of Florida, the beautiful Abacos, in the Bahamas, offer some of the world’s best waters for boating and sailing. These peaceful Atlantic islands, also called the Out Islands or Family Islands, seem a world away from the crowded tourist strips of nearby Florida, with their secluded pine-fringed beaches; flourishing coral reefs; and sleepy fishing villages, where golf carts and boats are the main mode of transport. British Loyalists settled these islands, and you can witness this heritage in the cute and colorful colonial cottages lining the narrow streets.
Prime areas for a low-key vacations include cute Elbow Cay, with its famous candy-striped lighthouse; charming three-mile long Green Turtle Cay, which feels like stepping back in time to the old Bahamas; and Treasure Cay, on Great Abaco, with its ravishing white-sand beach lapped by waters in technicolor turquoise. Guana Cay, Walker’s Cay, and Man “O’ War Cay are other popular islands. Favorite pursuits include fishing, diving, snorkeling, relaxing, and chatting with the locals, and with miles of pristine beaches, it’s easy to find your own private patch of soft, white sand.
9. Ambergris Caye, Belize
Off the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula, Ambergris Caye in Belize is one of the country’s top tourist destinations and the largest of its 200 cayes. While its Caribbean beaches are generally better for fishing than swimming, thanks to their flourishing turtle grass flats, the magnificent Hol Chan Marine Reserve more than compensates with superb diving and snorkeling less than a half-mile from shore.
This underwater wonderland is part of the Belize Barrier Reef system, the second largest barrier reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Shark Ray Alley is a popular site, where divers can come face to face with nurse sharks and stingrays. Anglers also flock here to prowl the flats for bonefish and try their luck for permit, tarpon, snook, and barracuda.
Part of the island’s charm is its colorful town of San Pedro, where golf carts rule the streets and funky restaurants showcase fresh seafood and Mexican-inspired cuisine. Since the northern part of the island lies a stone’s throw from Mexico, the island has a strong Mexican influence, and many locals speak Spanish.
On the eastern side of the island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic is a top choice for budget-minded travelers, but this popular vacation destination is much more than glorious beaches and great-value resorts. Rich in history and culture, “DR,” as it’s called, also boasts some of the most diverse eco-systems in the Caribbean, with steamy jungles, deserts, mangroves, coral reefs, savanna, and soaring green peaks.
Venture away from the tourist strips of Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, La Romana, and Samaná, where all-inclusive resorts cluster along idyllic sweeps of palm-fringed beach, and you’ll discover a world of adventures. You can climb the highest peaks in the Caribbean, raft the white waters of the Río Yaque del Norte, hike to waterfalls through the steamy jungle, and bike through pine forests along alpine trails. Cultural attractions are also a highlight. The capital, Santo Domingo, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with charming colonial architecture and a fascinating history. But if you just want to bask on a beautiful beach, dive, swim, surf, and snorkel, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to do that, too.
11. Bali, Indonesia
For those seeking a tropical vacation with a spiritual side, Bali beckons with its mystical charm. Temples filled with fragrant incense; rice paddies glowing in the late amber sun; and the calm, gentle people of Bali add to this island’s irresistible allure. If you’re seeking a lively beach scene, with plenty of shops and restaurants, base yourself in busy Kuta or Seminyak, where you’ll also find fantastic surf beaches. Sanur is a great spot for families, with its gentle waves, and Ubud, in the lush hills away from the coastal hubbub, is the island’s emerald soul.
Bali is also known for its relatively affordable spa treatments, so you can pamper yourself without the sticker shock. Accommodation includes everything from cheap-as-chips hostels to luxury villas staffed with personal chefs and drivers. The neighboring volcanic island of Lombok is also a popular destination, with less development than its famous sister island.
12. Port Douglas, Australia
About an hour’s drive north of Cairns in Queensland, Port Douglas is an ideal destination for adventurous nature lovers. This upscale town has evolved from its humble origins as a snoozy fishing village into a popular tropical tourist resort and a handy base for reef trips and wilderness safaris. Two of the richest ecosystems in Australia lie a short hop from here: the Great Barrier Reef, with superb diving and snorkeling, and the Daintree Rainforest, part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Site, which tumbles to the reef-dappled waters of Cape Tribulation. The town’s leafy streets are lined with mango trees and palms, as well as a cluster of upscale shops, cafes, and art galleries, and its star feature is Four Mile Beach, a blond crescent of jungle-fringed sand.
Swimming is restricted here during marine stinger season (November through June), however it’s always a favorite spot for a stroll. Other prime tourist attractions include the Wildlife Habitat and the Bally Hooley Sugar Train, which chugs through sugar cane fields to Mossman. Fishing trips and northbound expeditions through the rugged landscape of the Cape York Peninsula are also popular. The winter season, from May through September, is the best time to visit, when temperatures are cooler and drier weather prevails.
13. The Andaman Coast, Thailand
The Andaman Coast is a convenient base for exploring the spectacular islands of the Andaman Sea. These lush limestone peaks rise from turquoise waters, creating one of the planet’s most striking seascapes. Famous isles include the Phi Phi Islands such as Ko Phi Phi Don, with its many resorts, and Ko Phi Phi Leh, where the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach was filmed. These islands are on the popular Phuket Day Trip circuit, but you can still find your very own peaceful patch of paradise if you venture further afield. Phang Nga Bay is home to more than a hundred of these emerald beauties, including the famous James Bond Island.
Popular areas to use as a base for exploring all this natural beauty are Krabi or popular Phuket, Thailand’s largest island. The dazzling scenery continues inland at Khao Sok National Park, where you can commune with elephants amid the jungle-cloaked peaks. Accommodation ranges from homestays and budget-priced beachfront bamboo shacks to luxury villa-style resorts perched on seas cliffs, but even high-end resorts tend to be more affordable here than other tropical destinations. This is a great choice if you’re looking for exotic culture, fiery food, and ravishing scenery that doesn’t break the budget. Try to avoid the southwest monsoon, which usually strikes the coast from the end of May through the middle of October.
14. The Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
On the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, the Nicoya Peninsula is a hot spot for surfers and eco-tourists, with its pockets of jungly forests and long beaches washed by perfect barrel breaks. Surfing can be great at any time of year. Prime tourist towns in the region include Tamarindo, the most developed town on the peninsula, with fantastic surfing for all skill levels at Playa Tamarindo, as well as a wide range of restaurants and hotels. It lures a colorful mix of fun-loving backpackers, surfers, families, and chilled-out expats.
Around Tamarindo you can snorkel, dive, horseback ride, zip line, and watch turtles nesting from October through March at nearby Playa Grande, one of Costa Rica’s most important nesting grounds for leatherback turtles. Upscale Santa Teresa in Mal Pais, along the peninsula’s southwest corner, is also known for its fantastic surf, as well as yoga retreats, organic eateries, and boutique hideaways. Other prime areas to consider are beautiful Nosara, backed by a tangle of green forest, Montezuma, and peaceful Samara, one of the peninsula’s least developed towns. Not far from these beach towns, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve protects one of the continent’s last unspoiled pockets of cloud forest.
15. Florida Keys
Home to the only coral reef in the United States, the Florida Keys offer a fun tropical fix, fantastic fishing, and a few pretty palm-lined stretches of sand. Trailing south of Miami for more than 110 miles to within about 90 miles of Cuba, the Keys are coral islands linked by causeways, so you can drive between them on the Overseas Highway, which runs from Key Largo south to Key West.
Top attractions include the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo, with great diving and snorkeling; Bahia Honda State Park, where you’ll find some of the prettiest beaches; and the legendary Key West, where an anything-goes mentality complements the colorful Caribbean-style cottages and rich Hemingway history. You can also visit the southernmost tip of the Unites States here. Islamorada proclaims itself the “sportfishing capital of the world,” with tarpon, bonefish, and permit to catch; and Marathon is also excellent for casting a line. Big-name fishing tournaments are held in the surrounding waters each year. While you’re here, try to sample some conch, a type of marine snail, as well as the famous key lime pie.
Source: planetware.com
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Andy Reid Frank Clark Tyreek Hill General news Sports Domestic assault Assault and battery Violent crime Crime Athlete contracts Sports transactions Sports business Violence in sports Violence Social issues Social affairs NFL football Professional football Football Television Media
Kansas City Chiefs Seattle Seahawks
The Latest: Chiefs defend Clark deal in wake of Hill case
FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2018, file photo, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark signs autographs following NFL football training camp, in Renton, Wash. The Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to acquire defensive end Frank Clark from the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for a first-round draft pick this year and a second-round pick in 2020. Almost immediately after word leaked of the trade on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, Clark and the Chiefs worked quickly to reach agreement on a five-year contract worth up to $105 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced by either team and was still pending a physical.(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on developments in the domestic abuse incident involving Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill (all times local):
The Kansas City Chiefs are defending their decision to give pass rusher Frank Clark a $105.5 million, five-year contract despite a history of domestic violence in the wake of a criminal investigation of wide receiver Tyreek Hill for his role in an alleged child abuse case.
Clark was acquired in a trade with Seattle this week, then given the largest contract in franchise history. But he arrives with off-the-field baggage from his time at Michigan, where Clark was kicked off the team his final season because of his case.
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach acknowledged "when a player of this magnitude comes in with a contract like this, he has a responsibility." Veach also insisted that Clark has done enough work in the Seattle community to show he has put his past behind him.
Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach says the franchise is still gathering information about a domestic violence investigation involving suspended wide receiver Tyreek Hill but that "we'll make the right decision when the time is appropriate."
Many are calling for the Chiefs to release their troubled star player.
Local prosecutors reopened their case against Hill on Friday, less than a day after a TV station aired a recording in which the star player and his fiancee, Crystal Espinal, discuss injuries to their 3-year-old son. Espinal claims that Hill was responsible for them in the recording.
Hill maintained his innocence in a statement issued Thursday, hours before the audio surfaced.
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid says a local prosecutor has reopened a domestic violence investigation involving suspended wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
Reid made the comment Friday as the Chiefs grappled with the fallout from a case involving one of their star players. Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe did not return a call seeking comment.
On Wednesday, Howe said he would not file charges against Hill or his fiancee, Cristal Espinal, even though his office believed a crime had occurred last month involving the couple's 3-year-old son. He said available evidence didn't establish who had hurt the child.
A day later, a TV station aired audio recording in which Hill and Espinal discuss injuries to their son. Shortly after that, the Chiefs suspended their two-time Pro Bowl player.
Police were called to the home of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill shortly after a television station aired an audio recording in which he and his fiancee discuss injuries to their 3-year-old son — a case that has gotten the star player suspended and focused attention on a prosecutor's decision not to file domestic abuse charges.
Several media outlets reported Friday that Overland Park police went to the home of Hill and his fiancee, Crystal Espinal, on Thursday night after receiving an anonymous call from someone worried about Espinal. According to the reports, Espinal was fine and officers were at the home for only a short time. A spokesman for Overland Park police didn't immediately return a call from The Associated Press.
Police were called to the home twice last month and determined the boy had been injured. On Wednesday, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said he would not file charges against Hill or Espinal even though his office believed a crime had occurred . He said available evidence didn't establish who had hurt the child.
The Chiefs have suspended Hill while the team looks into the developments. The NFL could also punish Hill under its personal conduct policy.
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Riley Bullough Sports NFL football Professional football Football
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans claim linebacker Riley Bullough off waivers
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have claimed linebacker Riley Bullough off waivers.
Bullough collected 13 tackles for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season while appearing in nine games and making three starts. The Bucs waived him Monday.
The Bucs had added Bullough as an undrafted free agent from Michigan State in 2017. He spent most of the 2017 season on Tampa Bay's practice squad before joining the Bucs' active roster for their final three games.
Bullough, who is 6-foot-2 and 228 pounds, had 214 tackles and 7 ½ sacks in 50 career games with Michigan State.
For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL.
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Home Dispatches How Nonviolence Succeeds
How Nonviolence Succeeds
by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan
The Arab Spring has made even more urgent the question of whether nonviolence can work against repressive regimes. The events of this year—breathtaking in their momentousness—have been maddeningly complicated. In two countries (Egypt and Tunisia), mainly nonviolent mass movements have succeeded in toppling autocracies. In another (Libya), the uprising had to arm itself—and be aided by outside intervention—before it ousted the country’s dictator. In yet others (such as Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain), the rebellions—varying combinations of peaceful protest and violence—have been stymied for now, at least.
So, what works better, nonviolent resistance or violent revolution? A new book by two scholars, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, attempts to answer this once and for all.
They analyzed an astonishing 323 campaigns over the past century. The book is an expansion of a paper that the authors wrote for the journal International Security in 2008 that caught the attention of many, since it was the first definitive study of its kind. (I cited the article in my book on Islam and nonviolence.)
“The most striking finding is that between 1900 and 2006, nonviolent resistance campaigns were nearly twice as likely to achieve full or partial success as their violent counterparts,” the authors write in their book.
Nonviolent resistance doesn’t have to manifest itself as people coming out in the streets in massive numbers. Rather, it “is just as likely to take the form of stay-aways, sit-ins, occupations, economic boycotts, and so forth,” the authors write. In their survey, Chenoweth and Stephan found that “the average nonviolent campaign has over 200,000 members—about 150,000 more active participants than the average violent campaign.” Of the twenty-five largest campaigns, twenty have been nonviolent, and of these a full 70 percent have been successes.
“When large numbers of people in key sectors of society stop obeying and engage in prolonged acts of social, political, and economic disruption, they may fundamentally alter the relationship between ruler and ruled,” they write. “If mass participation is associated with campaign success, then nonviolent campaigns have an advantage over violent ones.”
The reasons they give are many and convincing.
For one thing, “the moral, physical, informational, and commitment barriers to participation are much lower for nonviolent resistance than for violent insurgency,” they write. The low propensity of people to take part in an armed uprising is not surprising, since “actively joining a violent campaign may require physical skills such as agility and endurance, willingness to train, ability to handle and use weapons, and often isolation from society at large.”
For another, “loyalty shifts involving the opponent’s erstwhile supporters, including the security forces,” are more likely to occur during nonviolent upheavals, the authors argue.
“There is less room for negotiation, compromise, and power-sharing when regime members fear that even small losses of power will translate into rolling heads,” they write. “Campaigns that divide the adversary from its key pillars of support are in a better position to succeed. Nonviolent campaigns have a strategic advantage in this regard.”
International sanctions become part of the support system here, much more likely to be imposed in support of a nonviolent movement and much less available when revolutionaries are blowing up people. “A nonviolent campaign is 70 percent likelier to receive diplomatic support through sanctions than a violent campaign,” they calculate.
The advantages of nonviolence extend even after the change of regime, Chenoweth and Stephan contend, with groups that have come to power nonviolently being much more likely to respect democracy and civil liberties than violent uprisings.
“Victorious violent insurgencies often feel compelled to reestablish the monopoly on the use of force and therefore seek to purge any remaining elements of the state,” they write. “Because the insurgents used violent methods to succeed in gaining power, there will be fewer inhibitions against the use of violent methods to maintain power. Indeed, the capacity to do so may only increase.”
In some sense, the authors have subjected to statistical analysis the theories of Gene Sharp, an influential Boston-based proponent of nonviolent change, someone they cite a number of times. In his work, Sharp stresses the practical utility of nonviolence, deemphasizing the moral aspects of it. He asserts that for Gandhi, nonviolence was more of a pragmatic tool than a matter of principle, painting a picture that’s at variance with much of Gandhian scholarship.
Gandhi’s use of nonviolence “was pure pragmatism,” Sharp told me in an interview in 2006. “At the end of his life, he defends himself. He was accused of holding on to nonviolent means because of his religious belief. He says no. He says, ‘I presented this as a political means of action, and that’s what I’m saying today. And it’s a misrepresentation to say that I presented this as a purely religious approach.’ He was very upset about that.”
But what if nonviolence were shown not to work very well? Should the world abandon it as a strategy? You can argue on principle that what Chenoweth and Stephan prove is irrelevant. When people are weighing options about what route to take in battling oppression and injustice, however, surely they are thinking about the likely outcome. Chenoweth and Stephan’s findings will help them choose the right path.
The book has the shortcomings of a work derived from an academic paper. The first many chapters of the book are written in academese, and a reader’s appreciation of this portion will be directly correlated with his or her tolerance for this style. The book also includes a plethora of graphs and charts, many involving high-level statistical analysis, and many impenetrable sentences. (“A ‘negative radical flank effect,’ or spoiler effect, occurs when another party’s violence decreases the leverage of a challenge group,” goes one.)
The second half of the book is much more readable. It consists of detailed studies of four mass protests: the 1979 anti-Shah revolt in Iran, the First Intifada in Palestine, the movement in the Philippines that overthrew Marcos in 1986, and the failed pro-democracy uprising in Burma. Chenoweth and Stephan trace the genesis of these rebellions, their unfolding, the tactics used, and their eventual outcomes. There are interesting tidbits here. For instance, a Shah government official called Ayatollah Khomeini’s audio tapes “stronger than fighter planes.” And “over 97 percent of campaign activities reported by the Israeli Defense Force [in the First Intifada] were nonviolent.”
Here, Chenoweth and Stephan also attempt to answer difficult questions.
For instance, why did a mostly nonviolent mass movement in Iran give rise to a repressive fundamentalist regime? (The centering of the protests on the charismatic figure of Khomeini was the cause, they say.)
Why were the Palestinians unable to sustain a largely nonviolent uprising in the First Intifada? (The lack of strategic coherence and internal divisions within the movement doomed it, they assert.)
And, heartbreakingly, why has the Burmese opposition so far been unable to topple the ruling junta? (The failure to build large decentralized networks of protesters and to attract significant defections from the ruling clique are the reasons, they reply.)
Remarkably, the authors manage in the epilogue to incorporate the happenings in Egypt and Tunisia, which serve to further validate their point. “If these last several months have taught us anything, it is that nonviolent resistance can be a near-unstoppable force for change in our world, even in the most unlikely circumstances,” they state. Plus, the fact that Egypt has had a nonviolent transition means that it has a 30 percent possibility of becoming a functioning democracy, as compared with the “much closer to zero” chance it would have had if there had been a violent insurrection.
All of us dedicated to peaceful protest as a way to change the world can take heart from this book.
Amitabh Pal, the managing editor of The Progressive, is the author of the new book “ ‘Islam’ Means Peace: Understanding the Muslim Principle of Nonviolence Today” (Praeger).
Follow Amitabh Pal
Follow Amitabh Pal @amitpal on Twitter
Dispatches Activism Egypt Iran Palestine
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The Annals of Mathematical Statistics
Ann. Math. Statist.
Asymptotic Expansions Associated with Posterior Distributions
Richard A. Johnson
More by Richard A. Johnson
PDF File (1162 KB)
In this paper, an extension of the investigation of Johnson (1967b) is made by giving a larger class of posterior distributions which possess asymptotic expansions having a normal distribution as a leading term. Asymptotic expansions for the related normalizing transformation and percentiles are also presented. Before asymptotic expansions were treated rigorously, LaPlace (1847) gave an expansion for certain posterior distributions. The method used in this paper is a variation of his technique. Bernstein (1934), page 406, and von Mises (1964), chapter VIII, Section C, also treat special cases of these expansions. The conditions imposed are sufficient to make the maximum likelihood estimate strongly consistent and asymptotically normal. They also include higher order derivative assumptions on the log of the likelihood. As shown by Schwartz (1966), the posterior distribution may behave well even when the maximum likelihood estimate does not. However, we have not attempted to find the weakest assumptions under which the posterior distribution has an expansion. For general conditions under which the posterior distribution converges in variation to a normal distribution with probability one see LeCam (1953) and (1958) for the independent case and Kallianpur and Borwanker (1968) for Markov processes. In Section 2, we show that with probability one, the centered and scaled posterior distribution possesses an asymptotic expansion in powers of $n^{-\frac{1}{2}}$ having the standard normal as a leading term. The number of terms in the expansion obtained is two less than the number of continuous derivatives of the log likelihood. All terms beyond the first consist of a polynomial multiplied by the standard normal density. The coefficients of the polynomial depend on the prior density $\rho$ and the likelihood. The moments of the posterior distribution are shown to possess an expansion in Section 3. The following two sections present the normalizing transformation and percentile expansions. These last three expansions also apply for the case considered by Johnson (1967b) as does the information on the form of the terms in the expansion of the posterior distribution. To simplify the already heavy notation, these results are first proved for independent identically distributed random variables. The extension of all these results to the case of certain stationary ergodic Markov processes is immediate; Section 6 presents the necessary modifications. Throughout this paper, $\Phi$ and $\varphi$ will denote the standard normal cdf and pdf respectively. Also, $\mathbf{n}$ will be assumed to range over the positive integers; thus in some cases, the order of the error term in the expansion may be kept for smaller $n$ if the bounding constant is modified.
Ann. Math. Statist., Volume 41, Number 3 (1970), 851-864.
First available in Project Euclid: 27 April 2007
https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177696963
doi:10.1214/aoms/1177696963
links.jstor.org
Johnson, Richard A. Asymptotic Expansions Associated with Posterior Distributions. Ann. Math. Statist. 41 (1970), no. 3, 851--864. doi:10.1214/aoms/1177696963. https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177696963
The Institute of Mathematical Statistics
An Asymptotic Expansion for Posterior Distributions
Johnson, R. A., The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1967
Generalized Asymptotic Expansions of Cornish-Fisher Type
Hill, G. W. and Davis, A. W., The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1968
Asymptotic Expansions Associated with the $n$th Power of a Density
Asymptotically Most Powerful Tests in Markov Processes
Johnson, Richard A. and Roussas, George G., The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1969
Asymptotic normality with small relative errors of posterior probabilities of half-spaces
Dudley, R. M. and Haughton, D., The Annals of Statistics, 2002
Linear Functions of Order Statistics
Stigler, Stephen Mack, The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1969
On the asymptotic theory of new bootstrap confidence bounds
Pretorius, Charl and Swanepoel, Jan W. H., The Annals of Statistics, 2018
A System of Linear Differential Equations for the Distribution of Hotelling's Generalized $T_o^2$
Davis, A. W., The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1968
Sequential Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the Size of a Population
Samuel, Ester, The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1968
The Bernstein-Von Mises Theorem for Markov Processes
Borwanker, J., Kallianpur, G., and Rao, B. L. S. Prakasa, The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1971
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The Blum Center Takeover Manifesto
The Blum Center Take-over group calls for:
1) UC Berkeley Chancellor Dirks to publicly renounce Janet Napolitano.
2) For all those in solidarity to cancel classes tomorrow (Friday, Feb 14), and for people to build a strike in support of Napolitano’s resignation and for the democratization of the University.
3) Full amnesty for all those reclaiming campus space, including those who have taken the Blum Center.
Why we are taking the Blum Center:
Richard Blum, the primary funder and namesake of the Blum Center, represents and acts as a driving force of privatization and reorganization of the University of California system. As an investment banker, Blum profits from the fact that the UC is no longer funded primarily through the federal government. As a central figure in pushing away from federal subsidization of education, and therefore a completely affordable or free public education, Blum and other bankers and financiers on the board of regents--including Monica Lozano--have compelled the University to take out massive bonds from private banks to compensate for this lack of funding. Public funding is legally allowed to go to only educational resources bonds, and the tuition system that allow this process to happen can be used for whatever the regents want. In many cases, this money is tied to companies that these regents own. For example, Blum owns the equity management firm Blum Capital, which has massive investments in the companies that do all of the construction at the UC. To those who believe in a public and democratic education, this is seen as legalized fraud and corruption.
Blum and Janet Napolitano’s Special Relationship:
UC regent Richard Blum was central in proposing Janet Napolitano. Richard Blum’s record includes firing Robert Dynes in 2007, leading the search for Mark Yudof, and encouraging Yudof's resignation before overseeing the "search" for a new UC president. Although the Regents state that this was done through a headhunting agency, Blum was instrumental in making the final decision. We conclude that central decisions for filling the highest-ranking positions in the UC system continue to be made by those who stand to profit from privatization. Blum’s interest in keeping a business-as-usual that allows for massive profits for companies to which he has ties indicates Napolitano’s appointment as a means to continue this process of implementing policies of social control during her time in DHS.
Blum’s 12 year term as a UC regent ended in January. His reappointment by Jerry Brown for a second 12 year term this past January shows that the regents, like him, will continue to retain power unless there is a social response to this injustice.
The appointment of Napolitano exposes the undemocratic process by which the UC system makes decisions. In order to address this structural problem, we demand a restructuring of this process which includes: a) a campuses-wide election for all future UC regents and presidents; this includes having the ability to nominate, endorse, and campaign for candidates b) the power to impeach both UC presidents and regents c) a general democratization of the regents to include actual participation of students, faculty, and UC workers in the central decision making processes of the University.
We call on all students, faculty, and staff to join us, to take action in the coming days and weeks, and to demand the restructuring of the decision making process in our university system, so that we can make the promise of a public education a reality.
Posted by d at 5:31 PM 1 comment:
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Archive for the ‘Broadcasters’ Category
How Harry Caray survived near-fatal car accident
Posted in Broadcasters on November 4, 2013| 2 Comments »
In search of a late-night drink at a venerable St. Louis hotel, longtime Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray nearly was killed when struck by a car.
On Saturday afternoon, Nov. 2, 1968, less than a month after he had called the World Series between the Cardinals and Tigers, Caray did the broadcast of the Oklahoma State vs. Missouri football game at Columbia, Mo.
Afterward, he drove to St. Louis and, on a whim, decided to stop by and watch the NHL game between the Blues and North Stars. During the hockey game, Caray, who was estranged from his second wife at the time, called a friend and arranged to meet for dinner.
After dinner, unwilling to call it a night, Caray headed to the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, a landmark in St. Louis since the 1920s and a venue for music and shows. It was about 1:15 a.m., Sunday morning, Nov. 3, 1968, when Caray drove up to the hotel in the rain.
A regular at the Chase Park Plaza, Caray, 51, usually left his car with a parking attendant at the entrance, but, because of the rain, there was a backup of vehicles in the hotel driveway.
Impatient, Caray noticed an empty parking spot along the curb on the other side of the street, directly across from the hotel. He parked, exited the car and started to cross the busy street, Kingshighway.
Sent flying
Midway across, Caray told The Sporting News, “I turned to see if anything was coming from my left. The last thing I remember was, ‘Am I OK out here?’ ”
A car driven by Michael Poliquin, 21, a Vietnam War veteran from Overland, Mo., struck Caray. “He was knocked 40 feet in the air,” The Sporting News reported. “His shoes were found 25 feet south of the hotel and he landed 40 feet north.”
Poliquin, who hours earlier had been engaged to be married, told police he saw a pedestrian step into the street in midblock and wasn’t able to stop on the rain-slickened pavement, the Associated Press reported. Poliquin said Caray saw the car at the last moment and jumped in the direction the vehicle was skidding.
In his book “Holy Cow!,” Caray said, “I was lying in the street … in the pouring rain. People started to gather around. Many recognized me; all were afraid to touch me.
“A Goodwill truck came down Kingshighway. The driver saw a body in the street and … stopped his truck. When he saw I was just lying unattended to in the rain, he pulled a few burlap bags from the back of the truck and covered me with them _ keeping me warm and dry _ then just drove away. I think he saved my life.”
Taken to a hospital, Caray was treated for compound fractures of both legs, a broken right shoulder, a broken nose and facial cuts, the Associated Press reported.
“I had almost died on the street when the rainwater and blood nearly congested my lungs … I was extremely fortunate they didn’t have to amputate my left leg during surgery,” Caray said.
Police cited the driver of the car for failure to display a driver’s license and Caray was cited for crossing a street while not at an intersection, the Associated Press reported.
Initially, the only visitors permitted in Caray’s hospital room were family members and Robert Hyland, general manager of Cardinals flagship radio station KMOX, according to United Press International.
“We can’t keep Harry from talking,” Hyland said. “He’s full of spirit and already tired of being in the hospital. He’s been pestering the doctors to let him go back to work.”
The doctors informed Caray he would need to remain in the hospital until just before Christmas. Caray convinced hospital staff his recovery would progress if he could have lots of visitors.
“My room became headquarters for off-duty nurses, for kids who wanted to talk baseball, for all my friends,” Caray said. “At night they would send martinis down from the restaurant on the top floor, as well as specially prepared meals, so I didn’t have to eat the awful hospital food. After a while, it was like a nightclub in there. It got so I hated to leave.”
Upon Caray’s release, Cardinals owner Gussie Busch offered the broadcaster the use of Busch’s beach house near St. Petersburg, Fla. Caray recuperated there _ under the care of a male nurse, he said _ and was back in the Cardinals’ broadcast booth for the start of the 1969 season.
Previously: An inside look into the last game for Stan Musial
Willie McCovey and his legendary St. Louis home run
Posted in Broadcasters, Games, Hitters, Opponents on August 17, 2012| 11 Comments »
(Updated Oct. 31, 2018)
Before Mark McGwire, who played for the Cardinals from 1997-2001, another Big Mac, Willie McCovey of the Giants, hit the longest home run seen in St. Louis.
Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon has said the longest home run he has witnessed was hit by McCovey on Sept. 4, 1966, at St. Louis.
Leading off the third inning against Cardinals starter Al Jackson, McCovey hit a changeup that landed in the upper deck above the scoreboard in right-center field at Busch Memorial Stadium. The ballpark opened four months earlier, in May 1966.
Shannon was playing right field for the Cardinals that day and “had a good look” at McCovey’s home run. Shannon said he later asked McCovey (who had 521 career home runs in the major leagues) whether it was the longest ball he’d hit. “I don’t know if it was the longest,” Shannon said McCovey replied, “but it was the hardest.” Boxscore
The book “Baseball’s Ultimate Power: Ranking the All-Time Greatest Distance Home Run” had this description of McCovey’s St. Louis home run: “The ball was struck on a line drive trajectory that resulted in a 515-foot journey.”
The Cardinals’ 2005 Busch Stadium commemorative yearbook said many who witnessed McCovey’s blast will continue to regard it as the longest home run in that stadium’s history. “That may be the farthest hit anywhere,” Shannon said. “I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”
In the first inning, with the Cardinals using an infield shift against the left-handed slugger, McCovey bunted for a single. Asked by Jack Hanley of The San Mateo Times whether he got more pleasure from the bunt or from the mammoth home run, McCovey replied, “The more I think about it, the more I’m becoming convinced I get a bigger kick out of the bunt. It’s because, when you do the unexpected, the other fellow is completely surprised and it’s a trifle upsetting. The bunt can win a ballgame as much as a homer.”
(On Sept. 16, 1966, 12 days after his shot in St. Louis, McCovey hit a 505-foot home run off Mets starter Jack Fisher at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. It’s the longest home run hit at that stadium, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Boxscore)
Until McGwire arrived, Pirates first baseman Willie Stargell came closest to challenging McCovey’s home run for longest hit at Busch Memorial Stadium. On July 4, 1979, Stargell hit a slider from reliever Darold Knowles 510 feet into right-center field, above and to the right of the scoreboard. Boxscore
“That’s the longest home run I’ve ever seen hit in this ballpark by a left-hander,” Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez said to the Associated Press.
Said Stargell: “When I saw it go out, I saw (Knowles) flinging something like his cap. He was disgusted. It was a ball that Darold, I’m sure, got in an area he didn’t want. It was a nice, easy swing. I had no idea it was going that far.”
Nineteen years after Stargell’s shot, McGwire hit what officially is called the longest home run at Busch Memorial Stadium. The 545-foot home run on May 16, 1998, against the Marlins’ Livan Hernandez hit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sign in center field. For the remainder of the season, a giant Band-Aid marked the spot where the ball dented the sign. Boxscore
“It’s the best ball I’ve ever hit,” McGwire said. “I don’t think I can hit one better than that.”
Previously: No one hit more triples, as many home runs as Stan Musial
How Tim McCarver became a Cardinal at 17
Posted in Broadcasters, Games, Hitters on July 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »
(Updated June 8, 2019)
When Tim McCarver was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame on Aug. 26, 2017, it capped a career that began nearly 60 years earlier with the Cardinals.
In the 1950s, McCarver was a standout athlete at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, receiving football scholarship offers from schools such as Notre Dame, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, but professional baseball offered an immediate opportunity to earn an income for the catching prospect.
“Money was the deciding factor, plain and simple,” McCarver said in his 1987 book “Oh, Baby, I Love It.”
The best baseball offers came from the Yankees, Giants and Cardinals. The scout trying to sign McCarver for the Yankees was Bill Dickey, a Hall of Fame catcher. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dickey said McCarver is “a Yankees-type player” and told him, “We want you, Tim.”
“They were my No. 2 and a very close No. 2 to the Cardinals,” McCarver said to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
McCarver said the Yankees offered a $60,000 signing bonus and Dickey told him, “If you sign with the Yanks, I’ll take you along with me on a two-week fishing trip. We’ll talk about catching inside and out.”
However, the Cardinals’ offer of a $75,000 signing bonus and a guaranteed annual salary of $6,000 per year for five years convinced McCarver he should sign with them.
“I think I was swayed by the fact the Cardinals were only 290 miles away (from Memphis),” McCarver said to the Commercial Appeal. “That influenced me somewhat. Also, the Cardinals had given me a take-it-or-leave-it deal and that scared me to death. I was 17 years old.”
Super scout
With his parents in attendance, along with Cardinals farm director Walter Shannon and scout Buddy Lewis, McCarver signed the contract at his Memphis home on June 8, 1959. The $75,000 bonus was the largest given by the Cardinals, according to the Post-Dispatch.
The Cardinals “outbid at least nine other clubs for McCarver, whose high school batting average was .412,” the Post-Dispatch reported. McCarver also hit .390 for an American Legion team which won state and regional championships.
Lewis, a former big-league catcher for the Cardinals and Braves, scouted McCarver for four years and said, “Tim is the best young catcher I’ve ever seen.”
According to the Post-Dispatch, Lewis relentlessly pursued McCarver and “spent many an afternoon at the McCarver home, talking baseball, catching and lastly, but not least, telling the St. Louis Cardinals story.”
After signing the deal in the early morning before his father, a police lieutenant, went to work, McCarver said, “I am too excited for words, but I am happy that Mr. Lewis was the scout signing me, and I am thankful for the confidence expressed by the Cardinals.”
Quick rise
McCarver was sent to the Cardinals’ Class D minor-league affiliate at Keokuk, Iowa, of the Midwest League. He made his professional debut in the second game of a doubleheader at Waterloo, Iowa, on June 14, 1959, according to the Daily Gate City newspaper of Keokuk.
Years later, McCarver told the Commercial Appeal the home plate umpire in his professional debut was Brent Musburger, the future sportscaster. However, that wasn’t so. The home plate umpire was Bob Thompson and the base umpire was Chuck Wahl, research by the Daily Gate City showed. Musburger was the home plate umpire a week later, June 21, 1959, in a game McCarver caught for Keokuk at Michigan City, Ind. Musburger was the umpire in 11 games McCarver played for Keokuk, according to the Daily Gate City.
McCarver was hailed as Keokuk’s best catching prospect since Russ Nixon, who hit .385 for Keokuk in 1955 before embarking on a 12-year playing career in the majors. “The fans will love this kid,” Keokuk manager Frank Calo said. “If they think Russ Nixon had it, wait until they see this kid.”
Unfazed by professional pitching, McCarver hit .360 in 65 games for Keokuk. He committed 14 errors.
When Rochester (N.Y.) catcher Dick Rand dislocated a right index finger, McCarver was promoted to the Class AAA International League club to replace him. He hit .357 for Rochester in 17 games and made no errors.
In September 1959, three months after he had graduated from high school, McCarver, 17, was promoted to the Cardinals and joined the team in Milwaukee.
“When I arrived at the Cards’ team bus for the first time, I was nervous enough,” McCarver said. “I didn’t know these guys and I wanted to impress them.”
Major-leaguer
On Sept. 10, 1959, his first day in a big-league uniform, McCarver marveled from the dugout at being in the presence of two of his boyhood heroes, Stan Musial of the Cardinals and Hank Aaron of the Braves.
“So when Hank came to bat for the first time that day,” McCarver said, “I leaped from my perch in the Cardinals’ dugout and did what I always did when I listened to the Braves play the Cardinals. ‘Come on, Henry,’ I yelled. ‘Come on, Henry.’ The action seemed natural to me, but some of my teammates weren’t amused.”
In the ninth inning, with two outs, Bill White on second base and the Cardinals trailing by three, manager Solly Hemus sent McCarver to make his major-league debut as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Marshall Bridges.
“So there I was, younger than Musial’s own son, picking up a bat and advancing to the plate,” McCarver said. “As I stepped in to face Don McMahon, a veteran right-handed relief pitcher with a commanding fastball, my knees literally shook with fear.”
Quickly, McMahon got two strikes on McCarver. Then the teen swung at a curveball and lifted it to right field, where the game-ending catch was made by none other than Hank Aaron. Boxscore
The next day, Sept. 11, 1959, at Chicago against the Cubs, McCarver got his first big-league start at catcher. Batting in the No. 2 spot, he went 0-for-4 against Bob Anderson. The Cardinals’ starting pitcher was Bob Miller, 20. According to The Sporting News, Miller and McCarver formed the youngest battery in big-league history. Boxscore
To put that into comparative perspective, the combined ages of McCarver and Miller (37) were younger than the individual ages of two of their teammates, Musial (38) and George Crowe (38).
On Sept. 13, 1959, McCarver, batting leadoff, opened the game with his first big-league hit, a single against the Cubs’ Glen Hobbie. Boxscore
McCarver played in eight games for the 1959 Cardinals, hitting .167 (4-for-24).
Described by The Sporting News as “one of the finest catching prospects the Cardinals have brought up in many years,” McCarver had stints with St. Louis in 1960 and 1961, then spent all of 1962 in the minor leagues before earning the Cardinals’ starting catcher job in 1963.
In his 1991 book “On the Run,” speedster Maury Wills said Johnny Roseboro of the Dodgers and McCarver were the toughest catchers he saw during his playing career.
Previously: Tim McCarver: third Cards catcher to be named broadcasting’s best
How Jack Buck became broadcaster for Cardinals
Posted in Broadcasters, Games, Pitchers on June 17, 2012| 2 Comments »
In February 1954, Jack Buck was hired to join Harry Caray on the Cardinals broadcast team.
Caray was entering his 10th season as play-by-play voice of the Cardinals when Buck was chosen to join him after calling minor-league games for Rochester in 1953. Buck replaced former catcher Gus Mancuso as Caray’s broadcast partner.
Buck had been given a tryout in 1953, broadcasting a Cardinals-Giants regular-season game from New York. In his book, “That’s a Winner,” Buck said, “What stood out to me that day was how helpful some people were, like the Giants’ announcer, Russ Hodges. He gave me all the information I needed and offered a lot of encouragement.”
In April 1954, two months after Buck got the offer to join Caray on the broadcast team, Milo Hamilton, who had done television work in the St. Louis area for WTVI of Belleville, Ill., was hired “to handle commercials and color on road broadcasts,” meaning Buck’s work in the booth initially was limited to home games.
“(Hamilton) and I split time on the air,” Buck said. “Milo went on the road with Caray for the first half of the season. I did the scoring updates and commercials from the studio. We switched at the all-star break, and I went on the road, but didn’t have a lot to do because the broadcasts definitely were Harry’s. I did a couple of innings a game, and that was it.”
Caray didn’t get along with Buck and Hamilton. “It didn’t take me long to realize that Harry and I not only had different styles of announcing, we had different personalities and lifestyles,” Buck said. “Our relationship got off badly because he didn’t want me to get the job in the first place. He wanted the Cardinals to hire Chick Hearn, who at the time was a broadcaster in Peoria, Illinois (and eventually would become the voice of the NBA Lakers.)
“Harry didn’t get along with Milo any better than he got along with me at the time,” Buck said, “and we knew he wanted to get somebody else on the broadcast with whom he was more friendly. The man he wanted _ and got _ was Joe Garagiola.” (Hamilton was fired after the 1954 season and replaced by Garagiola.)
All three members of the Cardinals’ 1954 broadcast team would receive the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame for their career achievements. (Buck won the award in 1987; Caray in 1989; and Hamilton, 1992.)
Buck’s first regular-season Cardinals broadcast as an official member of the team was the 1954 season opener on April 13 at St. Louis. The Cubs beat the Cardinals, 13-4, behind the hitting of Clyde McCullough (4-for-5, two RBI) and Randy Jackson (three RBI). Paul Minner earned a complete-game win for Chicago. Among the Cardinals’ few highlights were solo home runs by Wally Moon and Stan Musial. Boxscore
“The most memorable event of my first season in St. Louis came on a Sunday afternoon, May 2, 1954, in a rain-delayed doubleheader against the Giants,” said Buck. “Stan Musial hit five home runs, three in the first game, two in the second, and might have had another with the longest ball he hit all day, but it was to straightaway center and was caught by Willie Mays. Caray was on the air for all five homers, and it was just as well. It used to bother him when he wasn’t on the air when something really big happened.” Game 1 and Game 2
Rick Horton: Bob Forsch was heart, soul of Cards’ staff
Posted in Broadcasters, Pitchers on February 1, 2012| 1 Comment »
(Updated April 14, 2015)
Pitchers Bob Forsch and Rick Horton were Cardinals teammates for four seasons (1984-87). During that time, the Cardinals won two National League pennants.
Horton turned 25 in 1984, the year he made his major-league debut with the Cardinals. Forsch was 34 that season.
In 15 years with the Cardinals, 1974-88, Forsch pitched two no-hitters and helped St. Louis win the 1982 World Series title. Here is how Forsch ranks among all-time Cardinals pitchers:
_ Third in wins (163), behind only Hall of Fame pitchers Bob Gibson and Jesse Haines.
_ Third in innings pitched (2,658.2).
_ Fifth in strikeouts (1,079).
_ Second in games started (401).
Forsch died Nov. 3, 2011, at age 61. In retirement, he had been a fixture at the yearly Cardinals Legends Camp at Jupiter, Fla. When I interviewed Horton (now a Cardinals broadcaster) at that camp Jan. 27, 2012, it was evident Forsch’s presence was missed. So, in honor of his teammate, I asked Horton to share his favorite Bob Forsch story.
Here is how Rick Horton responded:
After a game in Chicago, he and I got on the L train to get back to our hotel after a Cardinal win. We had a bunch of Cardinals fans, who had had a few too many Budweiser products, on the train with us and they were loving Bob, saying, “Bob you’re my favorite player” and they were just going bananas over the fact that they were on the L train with Bob Forsch.
At one point, a guy says to Bob, “We always wondered if your son played baseball.” And Bob said, “I have two daughters. I don’t have a son.” And the guy pointed at me and said, “Isn’t he your son?”
I’ll never forget that. I laughed so hard. Bob laughed so hard.
You couldn’t write a better script, because the next day, honest, was Father’s Day. So I went to the hotel gift shop and bought him a Father’s Day card and had it up in his locker the next day. And I did that for a number of years to follow, treating Bob as my Dad.
In some ways, more aptly, Bob was like an older brother for me, in terms of showing me the way, showing me the right things, keeping me away from the wrong things, encouraging what professionalism is all about. Anybody who played with him knew Bob as a professional.
As well-known as he is, I’d still say he’s the most underrated Cardinals pitcher in the last 75 years. When you look at the Cardinals record books, his name is all over that. He spanned two decades.
The two no-hitters almost condenses him too much, almost makes him to be that guy instead of a guy who was so much more than that. He won a World Series game, pitched in three World Series for the Cardinals and really was the heart and soul of the pitching staff, at least when I was there.
When we lost Bob as a teammate, we lost an awful lot of leadership. And when we lost him this past year, we lost a lot more than that.
Previously: Rick Horton: Adam Wainwright could win 20 this season
Previously: How Bob Forsch converted to pitching
An interview with Cardinals broadcaster Rick Horton
Posted in Broadcasters, Pitchers on January 30, 2012| 2 Comments »
Rick Horton, Cardinals broadcaster and former pitcher, says manager Mike Matheny is an outstanding leader and Adam Wainwright could win 20 for St. Louis this year.
Horton, entering his ninth season as a Cardinals broadcaster after pitching for St. Louis from 1984-87 and 1989-90, granted me an interview while taking a break from participating in the Cardinals Legends Camp at Jupiter, Fla. The tape-recorded interview was conducted Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, at Roger Dean Stadium. Horton, smart and personable, was generous with his time and thoughtful with his answers.
Q: Let’s go back to August of last season. Things looked bleak for the Cardinals. What do you think turned it around for them?
Rick Horton: A couple of things happened. One thing you can’t overlook is the trade of Colby Rasmus and getting the bullpen shored up by getting Marc Rzepczynski. Around the same time, the Cardinals got Rafael Furcal to play shortstop. So the defense for the Cardinals improved tremendously.
Defense matters. It’s an absolute fact that if you can’t catch the ball better than the rest, you’re going to lose games you shouldn’t lose. I don’t care how well you hit and how well you pitch. If you can’t catch the ball consistently and make some plays better than the other guy, especially up the middle, it’s really tough to win, and that’s been true in baseball forever.
The Cardinals became better up the middle when they had Furcal at shortstop and Jon Jay in center field, so I think that’s a big piece. And I think the bullpen all came together at the same time. They all kind of got into a flow and got onto a roll.
So the makeup of the team changed. That team always knew they were better than they were showing. When they started to show it, it just raised the bar for them in terms of their own expectations of how they could play.
Q: From a pitcher’s perspective, Game 5 of the Division Series, Chris Carpenter vs. Roy Halladay, a 1-0 victory for the Cardinals over the Phillies. How good was that?
Rick Horton: That’s the game I want to watch. People like offense. I like offense. But the game is more fun to me _ it’s more pure _ when it’s a 2-1 game or a 3-2 game, when every run matters and every decision that a manager makes is critical and every executed little thing matters more.
You get the bunt down in a 17-2 game in the third inning and nobody remembers and nobody cares. So the beauty of the bunt, the beauty of the hit-and-run or the stolen base or taking the extra base or hitting the cutoff man, all those little things about baseball become infinitely more important in a game when you have Carpenter and Halladay pitching.
Q: Game 6 turned out to be the greatest Cardinals comeback in a World Series, culminating with the walkoff home run by David Freese. Where were you for that game?
Rick Horton: For most of the game I was in the ballpark, going from place to place and preparing for the postgame show, which I was doing.
So about the seventh inning, I went to the outside part of the ballpark on the north side where they had set up where we were going to do our postgame set, right next to the ESPN set. I went to the set with Al Hrabosky and was prepared to do the postgame analysis of the Cardinals losing Game 6 of the World Series. We had monitors out there and were watching the last couple of innings. We were writing scripts and preparing conversation about how it was a good season but just didn’t finish well.
A minute before we’re about to go on and do the postgame wrapup of the Cardinals season, things got changed, our scripts got rewritten and baseball changed in a heartbeat for a lot of players, and lives changed in a heartbeat, including David Freese’s. The number of moments that happened from that seventh inning on, so many things critical to the Cardinals winning that game. Phenomenal.
I remember when it was over and we were trying to ad-lib new scripts now that the Cardinals had won it. The thing we kept talking about was you can’t condense Game 6 into a soundbite. I think our postgame show went about two hours and we probably had about two more hours we could have talked about.
Q: Were you surprised by manager Tony La Russa’s decision to retire or did you have an inkling?
Rick Horton: I did not have an inkling. At the time, it was a shock. But in retrospect I looked back at some things he’d said and some things I’d seen in him and I was less surprised. It seemed like he was a little more relaxed in the second half of the season. Of course, winning had something to do with that. But, even beyond that, I think there was a resignation to stop and smell the roses more. I could see evidence of that in the rearview mirror.
Q: Did Albert Pujols’ decision to leave the Cardinals surprise you?
Rick Horton: Yes, it did. But by a hair. I kind of had it 50-50 the whole time and I was going back and forth 60-40 both ways when I was asked about it all year long. When Tony decided to leave, that started swaying me 60-40 that Albert would go. But as the negotiations were going on I wasn’t sure another team was going to jump up and go to the level that would convince him to go elsewhere. I think had it (the money) been close he would have stayed in St. Louis. He loves St. Louis and St. Louis loves Albert.
If I’m in his shoes and somebody offers me a quarter of a billion dollars, we could all say, ‘I wouldn’t have taken it, I’d stay.’ Well, wait until that happens before you’re sure that you would say no. I hope history sees it as a guy who did what’s best for his career because five years from now he may be a DH anyway, so his value is much higher as an American League commodity than as a National League commodity.
And the way contracts work I think it was just the best business deal for him. It would not have been a good business deal for the Cardinals to pay him a quarter of a billion dollars for 10 years. Nothing against him, it just wouldn’t. Some would say it isn’t a good business deal for the Angels. Time will tell.
Q: Realistically, what can be expected this year from Adam Wainwright on his comeback from Tommy John surgery?
Rick Horton: He’s already throwing. He’s down here working out. He’s thrown some bullpens already. The doctors have said his elbow is more sound than it would be normally. So I don’t think there’s a real concern about reoccurrence.
Adam knows his mechanics well enough and he knows who he is as a pitcher well enough that I think he’s going to get back up on the bicycle and ride it. Some pitchers get hurt and they’re always feeling for their mechanics. He’s so consistent that I don’t think he’ll have any problem getting back to where he was.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins 20 games. I just wouldn’t.
Q: Jaime Garcia this year could become just the fourth Cardinals left-hander in the last 50 years to have three consecutive double-digit win seasons. As someone who has the perspective of a left-handed pitcher, where do you see Garcia’s career going?
Rick Horton: I see Garcia at a fork in the road. I don’t mean to imply that I think he’s got anything wrong with him. But I could see him going in two different directions.
I could see him escalating, because he’s got really good stuff. And I could see him getting something that clicks in that makes him go from good to great.
I could see him in that other part of that fork, becoming just an average-to-good left-hander who is productive. I don’t see him going south. But he could stay the same or he could go much better.
Inconsistencies in his pitching mechanics make him feel for the game a little bit, and there are times when it’s really easy for him and times when it’s hard. And there are times when he loses it, he loses it quickly and he doesn’t know how to get it back. So the negative things about him are things that he could fix and figure out and he may never go back there again. That’s possible and that’s what you hope for.
So I would say he has potential to be three notches higher than he is as a pitcher _ and he’s already good _ or he has the potential to be just a good big-league pitcher the rest of his career, which isn’t so bad.
Q: What is your take on Mike Matheny as Cardinals manager?
Rick Horton: Mike Matheny is an outstanding leader of men. I know him very well. He knows baseball. The style he is going to have as a manager and how he handles the things he’s going to have to handle is an unknown to everybody, including him. Because you don’t know until you’re in those shoes.
Every indication would be that he has the intellect, the baseball feel, the leadership ability to be able to handle the position and be good at what he does. I have a lot of confidence in him because I know him as a man. People like him, people will follow him.
Last year in spring training, Tony La Russa brought him in to this clubhouse and Mike Matheny gave a talk to the entire Cardinals team that Tony asked him to give and it was a 20-minute talk about what it means to be a professional player.
As people left that clubhouse _ media was not allowed in there _ one guy after another were coming up and going, “Holy cow. You would not believe how awesome that was.”
These are guys who have heard from five-star generals. They’ve heard from people before. They’re not naive about that. The coaches were saying the same thing. I remember Joe Pettini coming out and saying, “I’ve never heard anything like that.”
For people at spring training to be wowed at 9 o’clock in the morning is pretty impressive. But that’s the kind of guy Mike is. I wouldn’t call him overly dynamic, but he’s a man’s man, a leader and people respond to him.
Q: The Cardinals have a great tradition of ballplayers turning into top-notch broadcasters. Joe Garagiola. Bill White. Bob Uecker. Tim McCarver. Mike Shannon. I see you as the next in carrying on that legacy. Where do you see your career going?
Rick Horton: I appreciate you seeing me in that list of people. I don’t see myself that way. I see myself as a guy who gets the opportunity to talk about the team. I see myself as being more of a conduit to Cardinals fans. That’s where my equity is. That’s where my connection is.
I don’t really think bigger than that. I don’t really have a vision beyond that. I want to be good at what I’m doing. I want to keep getting better at what I’m doing.
The reason I’m doing it in the first place is the right people told me I should try it. And the right person was Jack Buck. He said, “You might want to get into this business.” When Jack Buck says it, you’ve got to try it.
I take it seriously but I don’t try to be serious in the way I do it. It’s a viewership responsibility for me to be a voice for the fans. It’s a pleasure to do it. Every day I get a chance to be a Cardinals broadcaster, it’s an honor.
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Sacred Symbolism & Body Art
Yvonne de Villiers February 1, 2016
Yvonne de Villiers was the visionary, co-founder and designer for Luna Guitars. Alex Morgan is a freelance designer based in the UK who partnered with Yvonne on many projects.
Yvonne’s Story
I was a stained glass artist for 30+ years. Since my designs were primarily in public places, it was crucial that they be an organic extension of both the architecture, as well as the people that inhabited each space. Because I often created glass for sacred spaces, many designs employed cultural or universal symbolism to please the eye, nourish the spirit and allow the viewer to forge an emotional connection to the building. I am a firm believer that energy follows intent, so I always aimed to bring as much attention to detail and authenticity as possible to every project. When I turned my eye to guitar design, I applied the same philosophy. With every instrument, it was my hope to enchant the eye, apprehend the heart, and foster connection. I view guitars as miniature sacred spaces and the relationship between a player and his or her instrument as a sacred equation…it is always an honor to be a small part of that equation.
In 2007, I was intrigued by the look and feel of laser-etched wood, as it was reminiscent of henna on skin. Subsequently, I envisioned an intricate henna design on a guitar soundboard using this relatively new technology. It was important to me that the design be genuine so I initially contacted Catherine Cartwright-Jones, a scholar in the field, who was preparing a dissertation on henna for her PhD at Kent State. Because she was too busy to take on the project, she providentially put me in touch with Alex Morgan and the rest is guitar history!
Alex immediately “got” the idea and the henna “Paradise” guitar was born, followed by many more designs drawing on henna and other indigenous ornamentation. Yvonne sits down for an exclusive Riff interview with Alex.
Y: What ignited your passion for design?
A: I’ve always made patterns and loved drawing. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t draw, even as a small child I made patterns all the time. I decided I wanted to be an artist when I was four years old so I think it’s always been part of who I am rather than just something that I do.
Y: What was your reaction when first asked to design a henna guitar?
A: It was a perfect moment, simply wonderful! I totally connected with the project, the intimacy of marrying the artwork to the musical instrument to create something strong and special for the musician. At that time I was working on a collection of Medieval Spanish henna patterns so the historical connection between that place and period and the origins of the guitar itself fell perfectly into place.
Y: Your designs have all been laser etched. What is your design process like to prepare the art for the guitar manufacturer? What tools do you use on a daily basis?
A: Drawing is a physical process so the tools you use do influence the end result. For me the creative process usually begins with a pencil, a very pointy pencil sharpened with a knife for preference! Finished ideas have to be translated to digital medium for manufacture, but I find it can be limiting to start with the computer. The pencil easily keeps pace with my thought process, visual notes can be generated and any that show promise can be worked up to a finished state for consideration. I really like working with laser etching as an artistic end point because it does not interfere with the voice of an instrument. Many other ways of applying decoration to the soundboard of a guitar would have a damping or dulling effect upon the sound quality.
Y: Why do you feel that players have been so attracted to instruments featuring body ornamentation?
A: Perhaps it’s the concept of the guitar as an extension of the body. Music and pattern are quite complementary art forms. I personally like the way they come together in guitar design to result in performance.
Y: Vicki Genfan is a TrueFire educator and your artwork graces her signature guitar. Where do you start and what is the process like when asked to create artwork of a personal nature for a musician?
A: The starting point is the artist for whom you are creating and what is important to them. A personal design has to be a good fit and shouldn’t be imposed upon them. It has to represent them in a way they can relate to. Vicki wanted to work with the Om symbol so that is where we began the journey adding other layers of meaning and symbolism as the idea developed. The Om symbol needed a framework of some kind to anchor it onto the canvas (guitar body) like a jewel in a setting. I began creating this element of the design by looking for a way to use a soft organic plant motif (as a frame as if growth were springing from the Om). Once the placement of the design was established I began to work out the detail of the foliage. It was important to me that we brought in some more layers of meaning in the artwork. Vicki suggested flames and we created a visual fusion of flames and foliage with one other. My daughter was reading a Russian folktale about the Firebird and this idea is woven into Vicki’s design both at the sound hole and also hinted at around the main motif. If the Firebird gives you a feather it will light the path and guide you safely home through the dark forest. It is a positive symbol of hope, a blessing and illumination.
Y: What kind of music do you like to listen to when you work?
A: If I’m working for a specific artist then I listen to their voice. Otherwise with a twelve year old in the house I don’t always get a choice about what I’m listening too.
Y: How would you describe your design style?
A: I’d try not to! People love to define everything, but for art I think defining it inevitably creates limitations and being an artist should be about trying new things and bringing your own voice to different applications and media without fear and self imposed boundaries.
Y: Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages in your work?
A: Yes I do :o) Sometimes I play with the symbolism of motifs, sometimes I just hide elements within a design as unexpected little surprises for anybody who really cares to study things in detail.
Y: What inspires you?
A: Inspiration comes from all sorts of things often when I’m not looking for it. It’s important to be open to the possibility of inspiration. If you believe you don’t have any ideas, then it will be so. I always carry a notebook around so I can jot down ideas that flit through my mind before they escape. Inspiration can be a place, a color, a person, a random chance comment, perhaps a song or a lyric, a piece of text, almost anything. I’m especially fond of superstitions, folklore and fairytales.
Y: Do you do anything special to get your “creative juices” flowing?
A: It’s helpful to look outside the box even when working on a very specific brief. I like to draw in threads of interest from many directions to bring something new or unexpected to a project.
You can see more of Alex’s work and contact her here:
http://www.spellstone.com
https://www.facebook.com/Spellstone
http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/spellstone
Yvonne de Villiers
Strumming Patterns You Must Know
Vicki Genfan June 12, 2019
Words to the Wise: Songwriting Perspectives
Brad Wendkos July 26, 2018
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Breadcrumb Breadcrumb
Biographical/
John D. Rockefeller 3rd
Trustees and Presidents
John D. Rockefeller 3rd (JDR 3rd) was born in New York City in 1906 to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (JDR Jr.), and his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. In the tradition of his father, JDR 3rd devoted his life to developing and aiding philanthropic work and had a profound impact in the growing field of philanthropy.
After graduating in 1929 with a B.S. in economics from Princeton University, JDR 3rd embarked on a world tour. His travels ended when he accepted a position with the Institute of Pacific Relations conference in Japan, which sparked his lifelong interest in foreign affairs.
Upon his return JDR 3rd began work in his father’s office in New York City, focusing primarily on the family’s established philanthropies. In 1928 he was appointed to the Bureau of Social Hygiene (BSH) and went on to serve terms as a board member or officer of several institutions, including the General Education Board (GEB), the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and the China Medical Board (CMB).
In 1942 JDR 3rd joined the Navy and served in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations where he helped to plan post-war policy regarding Japan. He served as a consultant during peace negotiations with the country and advised on issues of Japanese-American relations. Driven by a strong interest in Japanese culture and international relations, he revived the Japan Society in the 1950s and organized the Asia Society to facilitate international exchanges of culture and education.
JDR 3rd also believed in the importance of the arts and was influential in securing support for underfunded music, dance, and theatre projects. He was also a key figure in raising funds and promoting civic support for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In 1956 he became the Center’s first president.
His involvement with the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) started in 1929 and eventually led to an extended term as chairman of the Board of Trustees, from 1952 to 1971. His presence and interests were highly influential during his 47 years on the RF board. Inspired by his work with the BSH, JDR 3rd also encouraged support for research on population and birth control, efforts that culminated in his 1952 founding of the Population Council.
In 1971 JDR 3rd was made an honorary chairman of the RF, a title that he kept until his death in 1978. The papers of JDR 3rd, including records of many of his philanthropies, can be accessed by researchers at the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC).
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You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Committee Publications > All Select Committee Publications > Joint Select Committees > Human Rights > Human Rights
Joint Committee On Human Rights Fourth Report
3 International Organisations Bill
Date introduced to the House of Lords
Date introduced to the House of Commons
Current Bill Number
Previous Reports 24 November 2004
House of Lords 2
3.1 The International Organisations Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 24 November 2004. A statement has been made by Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean under section 19 (1) (a) of the Human Rights Act 1998 that, in her view, the provisions of the Bill are compatible with Convention rights. Explanatory Notes to the Bill have been published.[137] These do not contain any analysis of the Bill's human rights compatibility.
The Effect of the Bill
3.2 The Bill confers privileges and immunities from suit on a number of international organisations and bodies which operate in the UK, and certain individuals connected to those organisations and bodies. The organisations on which immunities are conferred by the Bill include the Commonwealth Secretariat (clause 1); the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT) (clause 2); the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) (clause 4); certain EU bodies (clause 5); the International Criminal Court (ICC) (clause 6); the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) (clause 7); and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITCLOS) (clause 8).
The Human Rights Implications of the Bill
3.3 Immunity from suit in UK courts engages the right to a fair hearing under Article 6 ECHR. Immunity from suit as provided for in the Bill might mean that, for example, employees of the organisations dealt with in the Bill would be unable to bring employment disputes before the UK courts.
3.4 Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects the right to have disputes concerning civil rights and obligations determined by a competent tribunal. Article 6 therefore guarantees a right of access to court in relation to such disputes.[138] This right includes not only the right to institute proceedings before the court, but the right to a determination of the merits of the claim. This right is not however, an absolute one, since the right of access to court by its nature requires regulation by the state.[139]
3.5 Therefore, procedural bars which prevent the full consideration of disputes are in certain circumstances permissible, where they pursue a legitimate aim and are proportionate to that aim.[140] In order for such limitations to be permissible, they must not impair the very essence of the right of access to court.[141]
3.6 In particular, the ECtHR accepts the need for immunity from suit of international organisations as a legitimate aim which may justify interference with Article 6 rights of access to court. Where an immunity from suit is based on clear rules of international law, its application in national law in a way that interferes with Article 6 rights cannot be regarded as arbitrary[142] but the existence of such international rules does not of itself absolve the state of its obligations to comply with rights under Article 6.[143] Any restriction of Article 6 rights arising from immunities from suit requires justification on the basis that it pursues a legitimate aim and is proportionate, and must be assessed in light of the particular circumstances of the case.[144]
3.7 In the case of Waite and Kennedy v Germany,[145] the ECtHR found that an immunity from suit of the European Space Agency in an employment dispute before the German courts constituted a proportionate interference with Article 6 rights. In that case, the finding that the interference was not arbitrary and pursued a legitimate aim was based in part on the existence of clear international rules making provision for the immunity, which had been implemented by the German national courts.[146] The finding that the interference was proportionate was based on the existence of reasonable alternative means to protect effectively the applicant's rights under the Convention, through an independent appeals board.[147] The existence of this mechanism meant that the very essence of the right of access to court had not been impaired.
3.8 In relation to a number of the organisations provided for in the Bill, immunity from suit is required by international agreements to which the UK is party, or to which it intends to become a party. This is the case in relation to EU bodies established under Title V and Title VI of the TEU.[148]
3.9 The conferring of immunities on certain persons connected with the ICC implements an obligation under the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court 2002.[149] The conferring of immunities on family members of the European Court of Human Rights in clause 7 of the Bill enables the UK to withdraw its current reservation to the Sixth Protocol to the General Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe.[150] The provisions in relation to ITCLOS permit the UK to ratify the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea.[151]
3.10 A number of the immunities conferred do not appear to be required by international legal obligations, however. This appears to be the case in relation to the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal. Although the Explanatory Notes observe that conferring more extensive immunities on these bodies and persons connected with them would "bring the Secretariat into line with a number of other international organisations based in the UK",[152] it is not clear that there is any international legal obligation in this regard, or in regard to the immunity from suit of CSAT and its members.
3.11 In relation to the OSCE, although the explanatory notes point out that the conferring of immunity follows the recommendations of the OSCE Ad Hoc Group of Legal and Other Experts, it is similarly unclear that there is any legal requirement to confer such immunity.
3.12 We have written to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office asking for confirmation of whether it is considered that each of the immunities conferred by the Bill is required by a rule of international law; and in any cases where there is no such requirement, the reasons why the department considers that the interference with Article 6 rights pursues a legitimate aim.[153]
3.13 We have also asked the Minister for clarification as to whether sufficient alternative avenues of redress are available to satisfy Article 6 rights of effective access to court in respect of each of the organisations dealt with in the Bill, and how these alternative mechanisms ensure that the very essence of the right of access to court is not impaired.
137 HL Bill 2-EN (Hereafter 'EN') Back
138 Golder v UK (1979-80) 1 EHRR 524 Back
139 ibid. Back
140 Fayed v UK(1994) 18 EHRR 393; Osman v UK (2000) 29 EHRR 245 Back
141 Waite and Kennedy v Germany, App. No. 26083/94 para. 59 Back
142 ibid., para. 57 Back
146 ibid., paras. 57 and 63 Back
147 Waite and Kennedy v Germany, App. No. 26083/94, paras. 68-69 Back
148 EN para. 7 Back
151 EN para. 10 Back
153 Appendix 3 Back
Prepared 24 January 2005
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The Catholic Services Appeal is an annual diocesan campaign to generate funds to accomplish the mission of the church in the world, the diocese, and the parish.
The Catholic Services Appeal has provided support locally for Catholic education, youth ministry, spiritual life, Catholic Charities and the ministries to the Hispanic and AfricanAmerican
communities. It supports national collections such as the retirement for women religious, Catholic University of America and the Catholic Communications Campaign. The CSA also supports Pope John Paul II’s charitable works.
Each parish is assessed a certain goal. All monies over and above the goal are returned to the parish for whatever use that is chosen.
Contact Jean Horwith at (219) 477-1046
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Lovett World Tour, 1908-1909
World Tour images by Carrington Weems
Looking forward over the steerage
Weems, Carrington
The Empress of Ireland ocean liner, looking across the steerage. Many people are standing on the deck of the ship. Original resource is a black and white photograph.
Weems, Carrington (photographer). "Looking forward over the steerage." (1908) Rice University: https://hdl.handle.net/1911/69500.
In 1908, the Rice Institute Board of Trustees sent their newly chosen President, Edgar Odell Lovett, on a world tour seeking out the best aspects of the leading colleges and universities. Dr. and Mrs. Lovett traveled in the company of their secretary, Mr. Carrington Weems, who took these photos to document their travels. They are images of places, more so than people. Dr. and Mrs. Lovett themselves are generally not featured. Each image has an image number that reflects the order in which it was taken on the trip, from number 1 (beginning in Canada and going east around the world) through number 338 (returning to the U.S. through California and ending in Texas), ranging in date from 1908-1909. The names of each image were recorded by Carrington Weems, with the only exception being a county name added in parenthesis when the place name was not present in Weems' original title.
Events; Ocean liners; Empress of Ireland (Steamship); Lovett, Edgar Odell, 1871-1957--Travel; William M. Rice Institute--Travel; More... Lovett World Tour (1908-1909) Less...
World Tour images by Carrington Weems [347]
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India is home to the world’s largest slave population (Yes, slavery still exists)
In the past, the desire for sugar drove the growth in slavery. Today, the global consumption of electronic goods is the primary culprit.
Catherine Armstrong, The Conversation
Oct 21, 2018 · 01:30 pm
In India, many people work as slave labour in the brick kiln industry | AFP
When we think of slavery, many of us think of historical or “traditional forms” of slavery – and of the 12 million people ripped from their West African homes and shipped across the Atlantic for a lifetime in the plantations of the Americas.
But slavery is not just something that happened in the past – the modern day estimate for the number of men, women and children forced into labour worldwide exceeds 40 million. Today’s global slave trade is so lucrative that it nets traffickers more than $150 billion each year.
Slavery affects children as well as adults
Debt bondage often ensnares both children and adults. In Haiti, for example, many children are sent to work by their families as domestic servants under what is known as the Restavek system – the term comes from the French rester avec, “to stay with”. These children, numbering as many as 3,00,000, are often denied an education, are forced to work up to 14 hours a day, and sometimes subjected to sexual abuse.
Slavery is not always based on race
Then, as now, race is not always the main reason for enslaving someone. In the past, those who were living in poverty, who did not have the protection of kinship networks, those displaced by famine, drought or war were often caught up in slavery.
In the United Kingdom, nail salons, restaurants, music festivals and farms have all been found to have people working in slavery. Victims of human trafficking come from all parts of the world and all walks of life. There isn’t just one type of modern day slavery, it takes many forms.
Your gadgets could be to blame
The demand for certain types of goods has propelled slavery’s numbers. In the past, the desire for sugar drove the growth in slavery. Now, the global consumption of electronic goods has exacerbated slavery in the Coltan mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many slaves or trafficked victims are often exploited in mining for gold, coltan, molybdenum, niobium, tin – which can be used in electronic goods sold around the world.
According to Save the Children, 5,000 to 6,000 young children work in the Coltan mining industry, surrounded by armed guards to prevent their escape. Much of the profit from this trade goes to fund ongoing militia warfare in Central Africa.
Traditional slavery still exists
Chattel slavery (where one person is the property of another) is illegal but still exists, especially in the West African country of Mauritania, where abolitionists’ efforts to stamp out the practice have been in vain.
The organisation Fight Slavery Now says that today at least 90,000 Mauritanians are the property of others while up to 6,00,000 men, women and children are in a bonded labour situation – up to 20% of the population.
India has most number of slaves globally
India has the highest number of slaves in the world, with estimates ranging from 14 million to 18 million people. In India, many people work as slave labour in the brick kiln industry – this includes women and children.
Now, as in the past, not all slaves are forced into slavery. Historically, some experienced such severe poverty that they had no choice but to sell themselves to be bound to another person. And similar cases still happen around the world today.
It involves global movement
Long distance movement is common in slavery of the past and the present. For West Africans in the premodern era, the journey across the Atlantic must have been unimaginable.
Today, labourers move around the world freely looking for work, but some end up caught in slavery-like situations. They are promised a good job with decent conditions and wages, but instead are trapped in a cycle of debt and despair, where they are bound to their employer with no chance of escape.
Many of the workers constructing the stadia for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 come from South Asia. Amnesty International says these workers often have their meagre wages docked unjustly, their passports seized, and they are forced to work in life-threatening conditions.
Slave soldiers fight in wars
One similarity between historic and modern slavery is the use of enslaved labour, especially children, in armies.
In recent years, at least 30,000 children have been abducted and forced to labour in the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony, in Northern Uganda.
Over four centuries ago, Christian children were valued as soldiers in the army of the Ottoman Empire. The children were taken from their homes, forced to convert to Islam and put to work in the military.
Slavery was never abolished
Today, an active abolition movement still exists. It applies lessons from the earlier abolition movement that ended the transatlantic slave trade – which recognised the importance of victim stories as a powerful tool to raise awareness.
Just as Africans such as Olaudah Equiano became part of the abolition movement in 18th-century London when they talked about their lives as slaves, so today, the benefit of encouraging survivors to share their stories is recognised.
In the 1790s, to persuade the British government to end slavery in the British Empire, female abolitionists organised boycotts of sugar that had been produced using slave labour and instead bought “fair trade” produce. Similarly, today, manufacturers and growers recognise that guaranteeing a product as fair trade – and free from slavery – will help their goods sell.
Slavery still exists in many forms today, and the impact it has on millions of people is no less devastating than in the past. Yet, ordinary people can use their power as consumers to combat modern slavery, simply by paying attention to what they buy, and raising awareness among their friends, family and colleagues.
Catherine Armstrong is lecturer in American History, Loughborough University.
This artile first appeared on The Conversation.
abolition movement
transatlantic slave trade
Chattel slavery
Indian workers, treated like slaves in the US, just won a $14 million lawsuit
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Comic-Con Photos : STITCHERS
Freeform Bringing SHADOWHUNTERS And STITCHERS To Comic-Con
STITCHERS Season 3 Episode 1 Photos Out of the Shadows
Photos : STITCHERS At WonderCon 2016
STITCHERS Review
Jerome Wetzel
Published on June 2, 2015
ABC Family’s newest show, STITCHERS, is a bit of a departure for them. A young woman with no awareness of time is recruited by a shady organization to be “stitched” into the memories of dead people to try to solve their murders or learn secrets that died with them. Surrounded by a group of intelligent geeks, the team is government-sanctioned, but deeply buried. Doesn’t sound like the typical, soapy fare for this channel, does it?
Yet, there is something so inherently familiar about Stitchers that I found myself googling the name to see if it was a remake of a program that aired a decade or two ago. I didn’t find anything, but perhaps these feelings come because the title is similar enough to Sliders, the basic structure of the cast is one oft-repeated in (not just sci-fi) procedurals, and the behavior and look of the lead character begs comparison to SyFy’s Continuum.
Despite the feeling that Stitchers may not be entirely original, I am enjoying it immensely, and not just because it exceeds my expectations of what this network can put out, being the best program they’ve aired since Kyle XY was canceled. The pacing is quick, the dialogue is fun, and while not going too deep, the performances are serviceable for the product. I can easily see myself watching this for at least a season.
STITCHERS stars former model Emma Ishta as Kirsten. Kirsten has trouble feeling emotions because she can’t tell when time is passing, giving no context to her life. This means she doesn’t know if she’s been in a room one minute, one hour, or one day, so she can’t make sense of how long she’s known a person. She is highly intelligent, so she uses math, logic, and clues to build herself frameworks of reference, but one is left wondering how she functions in society at all. Someone with any fewer brains could not.
Ishta is fantastic as Kirsten, though I don’t yet know if that’s because she’s a great actress or this role is just perfectly suited for her. She’s cold and hot at the same time, being stand-offish, but not unsympathetic, and stuffed into a skintight cat suit. To STITCHER’s credit, Kirsten doesn’t appreciate the get up and acknowledges this fact, even if her new team insist there’s a scientific reason behind it, poking fun at an old trope. Sexuality is present in this show, as it is in so many others, but it’s also part of the story, not just set dressing, which feels like a slight step up.
In the job, the boss is Maggie Baptiste (Salli Richardson-Whitfiel, Eureka), who is a very familiar type, being no-nonsense towards her team as she runs interference with the higher ups, straddling both worlds. Second in command seems to be Cameron Goodkin (Kyle Harris. The Carrie Diaries), who takes Kirsten under his wing. The head geek of those circling, mostly in the background, is Linus (Ritesh Rajan, The Last Airbender), who is a bit creepy in a lecherous sort of manner at the onset.
One could argue this ensemble echoes broadcast network procedurals, and there’s some truth to that. Comparing STITCHERS to say, Castle, Maggie is very much like Captain Gates, Cameron is a Beckett-type, and Linus is a combo of Ryan and Esposito, mostly Ryan, with Kirsten being the “out-there” type, even if she’s not much like Richard Castle on the surface.
What this means is, on paper, I shouldn’t like STITCHERS, as if you follow my reviews, I frequently complain about such repetitive formulas. Somehow, though, there’s a charm to this one, leaning heavily enough into its sci-fi genre to give it a pass, at least in the short-term. Should it be a total case-of-the-week, my love won’t last, but the story teed up for the second outing gives me hope that won’t be the case.
Also lending to its geek credit, STITCHERS has cast Allison Scagliotti as Kirsten’s roommate and classmate, Camille. It isn’t immediately apparent what role the Warehouse 13 star will serve in the show, but even if it’s just as someone to give Kirsten conflict at home, she works. My wish is that it will be more than that, Camille eventually stitched into the larger fabric. Yes, I know what I did there and I don’t apologize for it.
As you can probably tell, I like STITCHERS, and I recommend you give it a shot when it premieres this Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC Family. (The pilot is also already available to the public at: abcfamily.go.com/shows/stitchers)
Related Topics:ABC Family, Stitchers
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George Richard Ginnis Beddow
Born in 1881, George Richard Ginnis (known as 'Dick') was the eldest son of Richard George Beddow (also known as George) and Emma Beddow (nee Ruff). Richard and Emma were married in Nottingham in 1875 (Oct/Nov/Dec); she had been born in Nottingham but he originated from London. They were to have four children of whom only three survived childhood; Louisa Emma, George Richard Ginnis and Frederick Charles. In 1881 Richard and Emma were living at 55 Hunger Hill Road, Nottingham, with their two children Louisa (4) and George (3 months). Richard was working as a tinman. By 1891 they were living at 143 Dame Agnes Street, St Ann's, with Emma's widowed mother, Charlotte Ruff, who was the head of household. They now had three children, Louisa (14), George (10) and Frederick (7). They were still at the same address in 1901 but presumably Charlotte Ruff had either moved or died as her son-in-law was now head of household. He was now employed as a lamplighter and all three children were in work; Louisa as a music teacher (working at home), George a postman with the Post Office and Frederick a letter courier who joined the Post Office as a 'learner' the following year. Four years later in 1905 George married Lydia Harriet Quarton (marriage registered Apr/May/Jun). In 1911 they were living at 54 Teversal Avenue, Nottingham, with the first two of their four children, Edna Gladys (4, b. 13 August 1906) and Iris Ginnis (3, b. 8 February 1908). Also in the household was a boarder, Emily Mary Tharratt (24), a teacher of shorthand and typewriting. George and Lydia had two more children in 1912 and 1916; Kenneth Ginnis R (b. 7 May 1912) and Winifred M (b. 1916). The record of Probate in 1918 gives Lydia's address as 2 Sandon Street, Basford, Nottingham. George's parents and his unmarried sister, Louisa, whose occupation was given as 'housekeeper', were still living on Dame Agnes Street in 1911. George's mother died on 24 June 1911 at the age of 66 and his father in 1914 (Jan/Feb/Mar) age 62. George's brother, Frederick, served as a 322134 Sapper RE (postal clerk), attesting on 28 August 1915 and discharged from the Army on 14 December 1918. It does not appear that he served overseas; he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He had married in 1908 and he and his wife had a daughter, Kathleen Vera, born 1 June 1911. Tragically, Vera was to die at the age of seven of influenza and syncope on 10 November 1918, a month before her father was discharged from the army. Their sister, Louisa, (b. abt 1877), died unmarried in 1962 age 85. Lydia Harriet Beddow never remarried. She was still living at 2 Sandon Street in 1966 and she died in Nottingham two years later in 1968 aged 87 (b. 1881). Of George and Lydia's children: Edna Gladys married Kenneth W Thorndyke in 1940 and died in 1996 age 89, death registered in Exeter, Devon. Iris Ginnis married in 1935 (Thompson) and died in 1986 age 78. Kenneth Ginnis was appointed to the Post Office in Nottingham as a postman in August 1928. He married Carrie Henshaw in 1948. In 1966 he was living at 27 Stanford Street, New Basford; the same street as his mother. He died age 78 in 1991. Winifred was appointed to the Post Office at Nottingham DMO as a 'Wtg Asst.' in October 1933 and appointed a CO in September 1941. She married Donald A Kerr in 1949; he died in 1966 age 66. No record has been found of Winifred Kerr's death and she may have remarried as she was about 16 years younger than her husband.
He was appointed as a postman in 1900 at the General Post Office, Nottingham. He was still employed as a postman in 1911.
New Basford Nottingham
15th Bn The Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment)
He was reported missing on 3 May 1917 but his death was not confirmed until March the following year. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial (Bay 4). He qualified for the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Nottingham Evening Post notice (abridged), 11 March 1918: 'Beddow. Missing May 3rd 1917, now reported killed, Private GR Beddow (Dick), from his sister, Louie.' Probate: Beddow George Richard Ginnis of 2 Sandon-street New Basford Nottinghamshire private in HM Army died on or since 3 May 1917 in France Administration Nottingham 23 April [1918] to Lydia Harriet Beddow widow. Effects £129. Probate: Beddow Emma of 143 Dame Agnes-street Nottingham (wife of Richard George Beddow) died 24 June 1911 Probate Nottingham 9 October [1911] to Frank Ruff auctioneer. Effects £357.
Nottingham and District Post Office Staffs War Memorial as GRG Beddow
Radford - All Souls Parish and District Virtual War Memorial as George Richard Beddow
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show All catalogue raisonné (1) exhibition catalogue (8)
pictorial boards
other special feature[s]
Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller : The Killing Machine and Other Stories 1995 - 2007
Janet Cardiff, George Bures Miller, J. W. Dunne, Bartomeu Marí, Jorge Luis Borge, Jeannie R. Lee, Ralf Beil, Philip K. Dick, Robert Jourdain, Julio Cortázar, Christy Lange, Franz Kafka
Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held at Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, February 2 - May 1, 2007. Traveled May 20 - August 26, 2007. Essays by J. W. Dunne, Bartomeu Marí, Jorge Luis Borge, Jeannie R. ... [details]
Ostfildern / Barcelona / Darmstadt, Germany / Spain / Germany: Hatje Cantz / MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona / Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, 2007
21 x 16.9 cm.
Joan Jonas, Timelines : Transparencies in a Dark Room
Joan Jonas, Bartomeu Mari, Katya Garcia-anton, Gregory Volk
Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, September 19, 2007 - January 7, 2008. Edited by Bartomeu Mari, Katya Garcia-anton, and Gregory Volk. [details]
Barcelona / Geneva, Spain / Switzerland: Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) / Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, 2007
Ian Wilson : The Discussions
Ian Wilson, Anne Rorimer
Catalogue raisonné of Ian Wilson's undocumented discussion-based works from the period 1968-2008. published in conjunction with shows held at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, October 4, 2008 - March 8, 2009; Mamco, Musée d'art contemporain de Genève, February 24 - May 24, 2009; MACBA, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, May 14 - September 2009. ... [details]
Eindhoven / Barcelona / Geneva, Netherlands / Spain / Switzerland: Van Abbemuseum / MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona / MAMCO, Musée d'art contemporain de Genève, 2008
[156] pp.
untitled [Stanley Brouwn]
Stanley Brouwn
Artists' book published in conjunction with show held at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, January 22 - April 17, 2005. Traveled to MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain, June 22, 2005 - September 25, 2005 ; and CAAC - Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain, April 12, 2005 - May 3, 2006. ... [details]
Eindhoven / Barcelona, Netherlands / Spain: Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven / MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2005
wrappers with dust jacket
Vinyl Records and Covers by Artists, A Survey
Guy Schraenen, Vito Acconci, Terry Allen, Laurie Anderson, Carl Andre, David Antin, John Armleder, Art & Language, John Baldessari, Hugo Ball, Robert Barry, Joseph Beuys, Black Flag, Barbara Bloom, Bob & Bob, Christian Boltanski, Geore Brecht, Marcel Broodthaers, Chris Burden, Daniel Buren, David Byrne, John Cage, Hanne Darboven, Marcel Duchamp, Brian Eno, John Gibson, John Giorno, Philip Glass, Jon Hendricks, Mick Jagger, Allan Kaprow, Joseph Kosuth, Martin Kippenberger, Sol LeWitt, George Maciunas, Christian Marclay, Ned Sublette, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Raymond Pettibon, Edward Ruscha, Richard Serra, Michael Snow, Lawrence Weiner
Large-scale exhibition catalogue for show held August 21 - November 27, 2005 in Bremen; May 16 - October 1, 2006; and traveling to Museu Serralves, Porto, Autumn 2007. Exhibition and catalogue indexes over 3,000 records and record covers by artists published from 1950s through 2004. ... [details]
Bremen / Barcelona, Germany / Spain: Neues Museum Weserburg / Museu d'Art Contemporani, 2005
Blinky Palermo, Gloria Moure, Ángel González, Anne Rorimer
Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held December 3, 2002 - February 16, 2003. "Peter Heisterkamp, AKA Blinky Palermo, is, perhaps, the artist who best summarizes the contemporary history of painting as a constant expansion of what is pictorial as well as an impulse to reunite reality with drawing, tracing, and color. ... [details]
Barcelona, Spain: MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona / Actar, 2003
flexible illustrated boards
Peter Friedl : Travail 1964 - 2006
Peter Friedl, Jean-Pierre Rehm, Mieke Bal, Richard Foreman, Lucinda Childs, Roger M. Buergel, Norman M. Klein
Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held June 30 - September 16, 2007. Catalogue incorporates texts by Peter Friedl, Jean-Pierre Rehm, Mieke Bal, Richard Foreman, Lucinda Childs, Roger M. ... [details]
Barcelona, Spain: MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2007
Raymond Pettibon : Plots Laid Thick
An psudo-exhibition catalogue / artist's book based on Pettibon's drawings, artists' books, and other graphic works incorporating film scripts from his videos "Sir Drone" and "The World is Watching : Weatherman '69. ... [details]
Barcelona, Spain: Museu d'Art Contemporani (MACBA) / Actar, 2002
paper boards with dust jacket
Public Space / Two Audiences : Works and Documents from the Herbert Collection
Annick and Anton Herbert, Diedrich Diederichsen, Anne Rorimer, Hans-Jochen Müller, Manuel J. Borja-Villel, Peter Pakesch, Carl Andre, Giovanni Anselmo, Art & Language, John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Marcel Broodthaers, Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, Jean-Marc Bustamante, André Cadere, Hanne Darboven, Jan Dibbets, Luciano Fabro, Gilbert & George, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Douglas Huebler, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Mario Merz, Reinhard Mucha, Bruce Nauman, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gerhard Richter, Edward Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Thomas Schütte, Robert Smithson, Niele Toroni, jan Vercruysse, Didier Vermeiren, Lawrence Weiner, Franz West, Ian Wilson
Collection catalogue published on the occasion of two exhibitions at MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, February - April 2006. Traveled to Kunsthaus Graz, June - September 2006. Essays by Diedrich Diederichsen, Anne Rorimer, Hans-Jochen Müller, Manuel J. ... [details]
Barcelona / Graz, Spain / Austria: MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona / Kunsthaus Graz, 2006
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Costumes from NY Theaters Find New Life on Other Stages
In a vast, subterranean space in New York City, three flights down from the largest sound stage east of Hollywood, 80,000 costumes await their return to the limelight.
This is the TDF Costume Collection, run by the not-for-profit Theater Development Fund. The clothing and accessories have been donated from Broadway, Off Broadway, opera, film, and regional productions. And they are all available for rent, but not to anyone, says collection director Steven Cabral.
“We’re not renting for Halloween, and we’re not renting for parties with food or liquids where something could happen to the costume. But if you’re doing something that seems of an artistic nature in some way, we’re going to be able to rent to you.” And, he notes, there’s a little bit of everything in the collection – from medieval suits of armor to outfits from the 1920’s to modern ball gowns.
He says TDF got into the costume business in the mid-1960s, when the Metropolitan Opera was about to move into a new home in Lincoln Center. “They had [costumes for] 22 full operas that they knew that they would not be taking with them, but they didn’t want to just toss away. So TDF took on all of these old productions from the Met, and began to, at a very, very, very inexpensive rate, rent out these costumes.”
High school, college and community theater groups, movie production companies and TV shows have all taken advantage of the incredible variety of costumes in the collection. Opera companies can find whatever they need here.
Cabral points out a gown from a Met production of Lucia di Lammermoor, which was once shipped to an opera company in the Midwest. Cabral recalls a phone call he got later from the company director, who told him, ‘You had one of my singers in tears last night.’
“The person being fitted for this costume was a young opera singer,” he says, “and when she saw the costume, and saw that it had the Metropolitan Opera label, and it said wedding scene, and it said Beverly Sills. The young woman broke down because she couldn’t believe that she was so fortunate to not only wear Metropolitan Opera, but to wear something owned by Beverly Sills.”
Costumes from the Met are built to last, so when they arrive, they go into a small room of “special stock.” After these costumes have seen their share of use, they’re moved into “regular stock.” And once they start looking shabby, they might go into the “distressed” section. Or they could go straight to the semi-annual bag sale, where Cabral says there’s a set price for everything you can stuff into one bag.
“And the rule is, we just don’t ever want to see the costume again.”
Because there’s always a new crop of donations waiting for space on the TDF racks.
ІМІ: у жовтні 25 разів порушили права журналістів
НСЖУ зафіксувала 5 випадків фізичної агресії проти журналістів у жовтні
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Tiger Woods’ Victory in Masters a Win for Golf Business
Tiger Woods’ victory at the Masters golf tournament on Sunday, his first major victory since 2008, is expected to lift sales for sponsors, broadcasters and golf courses lucky enough to host a tournament with Woods playing.
The competition put the 43-year-old back on top of a sport he helped transform 25 years ago.
“Tiger sells golf,” says Eric Smallwood, president of Apex Marketing Group, a Michigan analytics firm. Apex found that Nike earned $22.5 million worth of brand exposure just from Woods’ final round, with Nike’s “Swoosh” logo splashed on his hat, shirt, pants and shoes. Nike stock was up about one percent on Monday.
Tournament broadcaster CBS Corp saw a ratings bump.
Based on preliminary data, the final round of Sunday’s tournament was the highest-rated morning golf broadcast since 1986, when CBS started collecting that data. The tournament, which is usually broadcast in the afternoon, was rescheduled to the morning because of weather.
CBS has the rights to the PGA Championship in May and expects prices for advertising time that is still available to rise as a result of Woods’ Masters victory, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The golf demographic is wealthier and better-educated than other sports fans, so TV ratings are valued more highly because hey’re more apt to turn into sales, even of big-ticket items, said Neal Pilson, president of Pilson Communications and former president of CBS Sports.
“Historically, events where Tiger Woods is on leaderboards on Sunday generated 30 to 40 percent higher ratings in the United States for those tournaments,” Pilson said.
Makings of a comeback
Woods was a 20-year-old prodigy when he turned pro in 1996.
Less than a year later he was ranked No. 1 in the world. He struck lucrative endorsement deals — including a five-year, $40 million deal with Nike — and golf experienced a surge in popularity.
Then Woods’ personal life collapsed and with it, his brand.
In 2009, after the news of multiple infidelities, he lost endorsement deals with companies like AT&T and Accenture. Other sponsors, such as Procter & Gamble’s Gillette and Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets, kept their contracts with Woods but stopped using him in marketing.
Four back surgeries later, Woods continued to suffer professionally and in the public eye. In 2017 police arrested him for driving under the influence; he pleaded guilty to reckless driving and entered a program for first-time offenders.
In 2018, Woods began a professional comeback that culminated at Sunday’s Masters. After his victory, Nike, which stood behind Woods throughout his darker years, posted an ad on its website titled “Tiger Woods: Same Dream.”
“In sports you have heroes, villains and underdogs,” said Benjamin Hordell, founder of digital marketing and advertising firm DXagency. “Tiger has lived all of it. That’s amazing from a storytelling perspective. People will root against him, but they’re watching.”
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would award Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Aretha Franklin Makes History With Posthumous Pulitzer Win
Americans, Frequent Visitors to Notre Dame, Begin Fundraising Efforts
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About Marketing Department
As President Trump’s inauguration took place, it was always going to be interesting to follow what happens on twitter, given his enthusiasm for twitter use.
In June 2013, the White House social media team registered @potus as a new twitter account of the President Of The United States, in addition to President Obama’s own twitter account @barackobama that he had since he joined twitter in March 2007.
A few months earlier, in January 2013, the Office of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, had registered @flotus (for First Lady Of The United States) as the official account the Office of the First Lady. Similarly, this was in addition to Michelle Obama’s own twitter account that was registered in November 2011.
Immediately after the swearing in President Donald Trump today, before he could finish his 15-minutes inauguration speech, the @potus and @flotus accounts were handed over to Trump and Melania.
Interestingly, during the transition, all tweets were cleared and the account registration dates were reset to today.
The followers were reset as well but grew exponentially immediately after the reset, particularly for @potus. By the time President Trump finished his speech, the @potus account already had 3.64 million followers while @flotus was at 8022 followers. Knowing the US propensity for regulating information, all the contents that has been reset has probably been archived in some way.
Both Trump and Melania will now be dual tweeting from their personal accounts and the official accounts. They have both had personal accounts from January 2010 for @melanietrump and March 2009 for @realDonaldTrump.
President Obama’s use of twitter had been modest, relative to President Trump’s. Even though Obama had had his personal twitter account two years longer than Trump, he had 15 400 tweets compared to Trump’s 34 300. Obama’s twitter remain lower even when combined with the 352 tweets from the @potus account, in the three and a half years he has been using it.
However, while he had almost half of Trump’s tweets, Obama still had 4 times more followers, 80 million, compared to Trumps 20 million followers.
It will be interesting to observe how the accounts will be used henceforth. Vintage Trump is likely to continue with his fiery use of twitter that is an unrestrained, which although unorthodox for a person in his new position, but does have its benefits, as evidence by how some of the big US companies have reacted to his tweets in the past 2 months.
As a relatively new platform, there has not been many such transitions on twitter, and other social media platforms. It thus presents a lesson for practitioners and clients alike on how to handle official accounts that are opened in the name of official titles people hold in organizations, which will be a topic for another day.
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Isende impi yobandlululo - Isiqephu 1 (0)
Remarks by Bayanda Mzoneli on the launch of the book titled All in a Galz Life written by Gugu Ndima – 30 November 2012 @ Constitution Hill, Jhb (0)
Conversation with a good friend on Zimbabwean Permits (0)
THE WIDER SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JUDGEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ON THE “NKANDLA MATTER” (0)
Beyond academic criteria (0)
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Record number of volunteers apply for Tokyo 2020
suposh Sharma
25-Jan-2019 12:27:PM
Just over a year and a half is remaining for the sports’ biggest extravaganza to take place & Tokyo 2020 organizers have revealed that over 200,000 people have applied to be volunteers at next year's Olympic Games, far exceeding their expectations for the extravaganza.
A total of 204,680 people from Japan and overseas had applied to the program, said the organizers who initially had hoped for 80,000 volunteers.
That deadline lapsed last Friday (January 18), with Tokyo 2020 announcing the overall figure had risen to 204,680. The number includes both Japanese and foreign applicants, as well as those with visual impairment.
"The total number of applicants rose sharply just prior to last month's deadline following a flood of last-minute applications, with the final number including applications from those with a visual impairment whose deadline was extended to 18 January." Tokyo 2020 spokesperson said.
The age of applicants reportedly ranges from teenagers to those in their 80s. A total of 64 percent are female, while the same percentage are Japanese.
"A significant number of young people have applied, and the relatively large number of non-Japanese applicants highlights the strong level of global interest in the Tokyo 2020 Games," Tokyo 2020 spokesperson added.
Orientation for overseas applicants will be held via video call between March and July, with training to follow from June 2020. The Olympic Games are due to begin on July 24 next year, while the Paralympics are scheduled to get underway on August 25.
Suposh Sharma, keenly follows Hockey, Athletics, and other Olympic sports. He also has a penchant for writing humour and is an avid traveller
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Making History in Iran
Farzin Vejdani
Published online: May 2015
The Practice of Misuse
Raymond Malewitz
Unexpected Alliances
Young-a Park
Mediterranean Enlightenment
Francesca Bregoli
Published online: January 2015
Poetic Force
Architects of Austerity
Aaron Major
Published online: September 2014
Common Knowledge?
Dariusz Jemielniak
The Expanding Spaces of Law
Irus Braverman and others
Islam in the Balance
Lawrence Rubin
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Balance Sheet: The Iraq War and U.S. National Security
John S. Duffield and Peter J. Dombrowski
Political Science, American Politics
The last six years have witnessed a virtually unending debate over U.S. policy toward Iraq, one that is likely to continue well into the new administration and perhaps the next, notwithstanding ... More
The last six years have witnessed a virtually unending debate over U.S. policy toward Iraq, one that is likely to continue well into the new administration and perhaps the next, notwithstanding recent improvements on the ground. Too often, however, the debate has been narrowly framed in terms of the situation in Iraq and what steps the United States should take there next, leaving the broader impact of the war on American interests largely overlooked. Ultimately, though, the success and failure of the war will have to be judged in terms of its overall contribution to U.S. national security, including those repercussions that extend far beyond the borders of Iraq. This book addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive evaluation of the consequences of the Iraq war for the national security of the United States. It examines both how the war has advanced or retarded the achievement of other important goals of U.S. national security policy and its impact on the ability of the United States to pursue its security interests now and in the future. Individual chapters address such issues as the war on terror, nuclear non-proliferation, stability in the Middle East, the health of the U.S. military, America's standing in the world, and U.S. public opinion. By doing justice to the full range of stakes involved, the book not only reframes the debate over the Iraq war but provides a foundation for future U.S. policymaking toward Iraq and beyond.Less
Balance Sheet : The Iraq War and U.S. National Security
John S. DuffieldPeter J. Dombrowski
The last six years have witnessed a virtually unending debate over U.S. policy toward Iraq, one that is likely to continue well into the new administration and perhaps the next, notwithstanding recent improvements on the ground. Too often, however, the debate has been narrowly framed in terms of the situation in Iraq and what steps the United States should take there next, leaving the broader impact of the war on American interests largely overlooked. Ultimately, though, the success and failure of the war will have to be judged in terms of its overall contribution to U.S. national security, including those repercussions that extend far beyond the borders of Iraq. This book addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive evaluation of the consequences of the Iraq war for the national security of the United States. It examines both how the war has advanced or retarded the achievement of other important goals of U.S. national security policy and its impact on the ability of the United States to pursue its security interests now and in the future. Individual chapters address such issues as the war on terror, nuclear non-proliferation, stability in the Middle East, the health of the U.S. military, America's standing in the world, and U.S. public opinion. By doing justice to the full range of stakes involved, the book not only reframes the debate over the Iraq war but provides a foundation for future U.S. policymaking toward Iraq and beyond.
Keywords: Iraq, United States, national security, war on terror, nuclear non-proliferation, Middle East, U.S. military, public opinion, policymaking
Better Safe Than Sorry: The Ironies of Living with the Bomb
Michael Krepon
Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
In 2008, the iconic doomsday clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistswas set at five minutes to midnight—two minutes closer to Armageddon than in 1962, when John F. Kennedy and Nikita ... More
In 2008, the iconic doomsday clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistswas set at five minutes to midnight—two minutes closer to Armageddon than in 1962, when John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev went eyeball to eyeball over missiles in Cuba. We still live in an echo chamber of fear, after eight years in which the Bush administration and its harshest critics reinforced each other's worst fears about the Bomb. And yet, there have been no mushroom clouds or acts of nuclear terrorism since the Soviet Union dissolved, let alone since 9/11. The worst fears still could be realized at any time, but this book argues that the United States has never possessed more tools and capacity to reduce nuclear dangers than it does today—from containment and deterrence to diplomacy, military strength, and arms control. The bloated nuclear arsenals of the Cold War years have been greatly reduced, nuclear weapon testing has almost ended, and all but eight countries have pledged not to acquire the Bomb. Thus, despite wars, crises, and Murphy's Law, the dark shadows cast by nuclear weapons can continue to recede. The book believes that positive trends can continue, even in the face of the twin threats of nuclear terrorism and proliferation that have been exacerbated by the Bush administration's pursuit of a war of choice in Iraq based on false assumptions. It advocates a “back to basics” approach to reducing nuclear dangers, reversing the Bush administration's denigration of diplomacy, deterrence, containment, and arms control.Less
Better Safe Than Sorry : The Ironies of Living with the Bomb
In 2008, the iconic doomsday clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistswas set at five minutes to midnight—two minutes closer to Armageddon than in 1962, when John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev went eyeball to eyeball over missiles in Cuba. We still live in an echo chamber of fear, after eight years in which the Bush administration and its harshest critics reinforced each other's worst fears about the Bomb. And yet, there have been no mushroom clouds or acts of nuclear terrorism since the Soviet Union dissolved, let alone since 9/11. The worst fears still could be realized at any time, but this book argues that the United States has never possessed more tools and capacity to reduce nuclear dangers than it does today—from containment and deterrence to diplomacy, military strength, and arms control. The bloated nuclear arsenals of the Cold War years have been greatly reduced, nuclear weapon testing has almost ended, and all but eight countries have pledged not to acquire the Bomb. Thus, despite wars, crises, and Murphy's Law, the dark shadows cast by nuclear weapons can continue to recede. The book believes that positive trends can continue, even in the face of the twin threats of nuclear terrorism and proliferation that have been exacerbated by the Bush administration's pursuit of a war of choice in Iraq based on false assumptions. It advocates a “back to basics” approach to reducing nuclear dangers, reversing the Bush administration's denigration of diplomacy, deterrence, containment, and arms control.
Keywords: bomb, Bush administration, Cold War, nuclear weapons, arms control, containment, nuclear terrorism, Soviet Union, United States, diplomacy
Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey
Sultan Tepe
Political Science, Comparative Politics
The global rise of political religion is one of the defining and most puzzling characteristics of current world politics. Since the early 1990s, religious parties have achieved stunning electoral ... More
The global rise of political religion is one of the defining and most puzzling characteristics of current world politics. Since the early 1990s, religious parties have achieved stunning electoral victories around the world. This book investigates religious politics and its implications for contemporary democracy through a comparison of political parties in Israel and Turkey. While the politics of Judaism and Islam are typically seen as outgrowths of oppositionally different beliefs, the author's comparative inquiry shows how limiting this understanding of religious politics can be. Her cross-country and cross-religion analysis develops a unique approach to identifying religious parties' idiosyncratic and shared characteristics without reducing them to simple categories of religious/secular, Judeo-Christian/Islamic, or democratic/antidemocratic. The author shows that religious parties in both Israel and Turkey attract broad coalitions of supporters and skillfully inhabit religious and secular worlds simultaneously. They imbue existing traditional ideas with new political messages, blur conventional political lines and allegiances, offer strategic political choices, and exhibit remarkably similar political views. The book's findings will be especially relevant to those who want to pass beyond rudimentary typologies to better assess religious parties' capacities to undermine and contribute to liberal democracy. The Israeli and Turkish cases open a window to better understanding the complexities of religious parties. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that the characteristics of religious political parties—whether Jewish, Muslim, or yet another religion—can be as striking in their similarities as in their differences.Less
Beyond Sacred and Secular : Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey
The global rise of political religion is one of the defining and most puzzling characteristics of current world politics. Since the early 1990s, religious parties have achieved stunning electoral victories around the world. This book investigates religious politics and its implications for contemporary democracy through a comparison of political parties in Israel and Turkey. While the politics of Judaism and Islam are typically seen as outgrowths of oppositionally different beliefs, the author's comparative inquiry shows how limiting this understanding of religious politics can be. Her cross-country and cross-religion analysis develops a unique approach to identifying religious parties' idiosyncratic and shared characteristics without reducing them to simple categories of religious/secular, Judeo-Christian/Islamic, or democratic/antidemocratic. The author shows that religious parties in both Israel and Turkey attract broad coalitions of supporters and skillfully inhabit religious and secular worlds simultaneously. They imbue existing traditional ideas with new political messages, blur conventional political lines and allegiances, offer strategic political choices, and exhibit remarkably similar political views. The book's findings will be especially relevant to those who want to pass beyond rudimentary typologies to better assess religious parties' capacities to undermine and contribute to liberal democracy. The Israeli and Turkish cases open a window to better understanding the complexities of religious parties. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that the characteristics of religious political parties—whether Jewish, Muslim, or yet another religion—can be as striking in their similarities as in their differences.
Keywords: political religion, world politics, religious parties, electoral victories, religious politics, democracy, political parties, Israel, Turkey, Judaism
Beyond the Euromaidan: Comparative Perspectives on Advancing Reform in Ukraine
Henry E. Hale and Robert W. Orttung (eds)
This book examines the prospects for advancing reform in Ukraine in the wake of the February 2014 Euromaidan revolution. It examines six crucial areas of reform: identity-memory divides, corruption, ... More
This book examines the prospects for advancing reform in Ukraine in the wake of the February 2014 Euromaidan revolution. It examines six crucial areas of reform: identity-memory divides, corruption, constitution, judiciary, patrimonialism and the oligarchs, and the economy. On each of these topics, the book provides one chapter that focuses on Ukraine’s experience and one chapter that examines the issue in the broader context of other international practice. Placing Ukraine in comparative perspective shows that many of the country’s problems are not unique and that other countries have been able to address many of the issues currently confronting Ukraine. The chapters provide an in-depth analysis of Ukraine’s challenges and describe the difficulties Ukrainians will have in overcoming the numerous obstacles to reform. As with the constitution, there are no easy answers, but careful analysis shows that some solutions are better than others. Ultimately, the authors offer a series of reforms that can help Ukraine make the best of a bad situation. The book stresses the need to focus on reforms that might not have immediate effect, but that comparative experience shows can solve fundamental contextual challenges. Finally, the book shows that pressures from outside Ukraine can have a strong positive influence on reform efforts inside the country.Less
Beyond the Euromaidan : Comparative Perspectives on Advancing Reform in Ukraine
This book examines the prospects for advancing reform in Ukraine in the wake of the February 2014 Euromaidan revolution. It examines six crucial areas of reform: identity-memory divides, corruption, constitution, judiciary, patrimonialism and the oligarchs, and the economy. On each of these topics, the book provides one chapter that focuses on Ukraine’s experience and one chapter that examines the issue in the broader context of other international practice. Placing Ukraine in comparative perspective shows that many of the country’s problems are not unique and that other countries have been able to address many of the issues currently confronting Ukraine. The chapters provide an in-depth analysis of Ukraine’s challenges and describe the difficulties Ukrainians will have in overcoming the numerous obstacles to reform. As with the constitution, there are no easy answers, but careful analysis shows that some solutions are better than others. Ultimately, the authors offer a series of reforms that can help Ukraine make the best of a bad situation. The book stresses the need to focus on reforms that might not have immediate effect, but that comparative experience shows can solve fundamental contextual challenges. Finally, the book shows that pressures from outside Ukraine can have a strong positive influence on reform efforts inside the country.
Keywords: Ukraine, Reform, Identity, Corruption, Constitutions, Judiciary, Oligarchs, Patrimonialism, Economics
Britain and the Bomb: Nuclear Diplomacy, 1964-1970
David James Gill
Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Drawing on primary sources from both sides of the Atlantic, Britain and the Bomb explores how economic, political, and strategic considerations have shaped British nuclear diplomacy. The book ... More
Drawing on primary sources from both sides of the Atlantic, Britain and the Bomb explores how economic, political, and strategic considerations have shaped British nuclear diplomacy. The book concentrates on Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s first two terms of office, 1964-1970, which represent a critical period in international nuclear history. Wilson’s commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and his support for continued investment in the British nuclear weapons program, despite serious economic and political challenges, established precedents that still influence policymakers today. The continued independence of Britain’s nuclear force, and the enduring absence of a German or European deterrent, certainly owes a debt to Wilson’s handling of nuclear diplomacy more than four decades ago. Beyond highlighting the importance of this period, the book explains how and why British nuclear diplomacy evolved during Wilson’s leadership. Cabinet discussions, financial crises, and international tensions encouraged a degree of flexibility in the pursuit of strategic independence and the creation of a non-proliferation treaty. The book shows us that British nuclear diplomacy was a series of compromises, an intricate blend of political, economic, and strategic considerations.Less
Britain and the Bomb : Nuclear Diplomacy, 1964-1970
Drawing on primary sources from both sides of the Atlantic, Britain and the Bomb explores how economic, political, and strategic considerations have shaped British nuclear diplomacy. The book concentrates on Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s first two terms of office, 1964-1970, which represent a critical period in international nuclear history. Wilson’s commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and his support for continued investment in the British nuclear weapons program, despite serious economic and political challenges, established precedents that still influence policymakers today. The continued independence of Britain’s nuclear force, and the enduring absence of a German or European deterrent, certainly owes a debt to Wilson’s handling of nuclear diplomacy more than four decades ago. Beyond highlighting the importance of this period, the book explains how and why British nuclear diplomacy evolved during Wilson’s leadership. Cabinet discussions, financial crises, and international tensions encouraged a degree of flexibility in the pursuit of strategic independence and the creation of a non-proliferation treaty. The book shows us that British nuclear diplomacy was a series of compromises, an intricate blend of political, economic, and strategic considerations.
Keywords: Harold Wilson, Britain, Nuclear Weapons, Diplomacy, Cold War, Non-Proliferation Treaty
Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments: U.S. Crisis Management in South Asia
Moeed Yusuf
This book is the first to theorize third party mediation in crises between regional nuclear powers. Its relevance flows from two of the most significant international developments since the end of ... More
This book is the first to theorize third party mediation in crises between regional nuclear powers. Its relevance flows from two of the most significant international developments since the end of the Cold War: the emergence of regional nuclear rivalries; and the shift from the Cold War’s bipolar context to today’s unipolar international setting. Moving away from the traditional bilateral deterrence models, the book conceptualizes crisis behavior as “brokered bargaining”: a three-way bargaining framework where the regional rivals and the ‘third party’ seek to influence each other to behave in line with their crisis objectives and in so doing, affect each other’s crisis behavior. The book tests brokered bargaining theory by examining U.S.-led crisis management in South Asia, analyzing three major crises between India and Pakistan: the Kargil conflict, 1999; the 2001-02 nuclear standoff; and the Mumbai crisis, 2008. The case studies find strong evidence of behavior predicted by the brokered bargaining framework. They also shed light on several risks of misperceptions and inadvertence due to the challenges inherent in signaling to multiple audiences simultaneously. Traditional explanations rooted in bilateral deterrence models do not account for these, leaving a void with serious practical consequences, which the introduction of brokered bargaining seeks to fill. The book’s findings also offer lessons for crises on the Korean peninsula, between China and India, and between potential nuclear rivals in the Middle East.Less
Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments : U.S. Crisis Management in South Asia
This book is the first to theorize third party mediation in crises between regional nuclear powers. Its relevance flows from two of the most significant international developments since the end of the Cold War: the emergence of regional nuclear rivalries; and the shift from the Cold War’s bipolar context to today’s unipolar international setting. Moving away from the traditional bilateral deterrence models, the book conceptualizes crisis behavior as “brokered bargaining”: a three-way bargaining framework where the regional rivals and the ‘third party’ seek to influence each other to behave in line with their crisis objectives and in so doing, affect each other’s crisis behavior. The book tests brokered bargaining theory by examining U.S.-led crisis management in South Asia, analyzing three major crises between India and Pakistan: the Kargil conflict, 1999; the 2001-02 nuclear standoff; and the Mumbai crisis, 2008. The case studies find strong evidence of behavior predicted by the brokered bargaining framework. They also shed light on several risks of misperceptions and inadvertence due to the challenges inherent in signaling to multiple audiences simultaneously. Traditional explanations rooted in bilateral deterrence models do not account for these, leaving a void with serious practical consequences, which the introduction of brokered bargaining seeks to fill. The book’s findings also offer lessons for crises on the Korean peninsula, between China and India, and between potential nuclear rivals in the Middle East.
Keywords: brokered bargaining, third party mediation, nuclear crisis behavior, nuclear deterrence, crisis management, unipolarity, India, Pakistan, United States, South Asia
Chinese Hegemony: Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East Asian History
Feng Zhang
This book explores the strategic and institutional dynamics of international relations in East Asian history when imperial China was the undisputed regional hegemon. It draws on both Chinese and ... More
This book explores the strategic and institutional dynamics of international relations in East Asian history when imperial China was the undisputed regional hegemon. It draws on both Chinese and Western intellectual traditions to develop a relational theory of grand strategy and fundamental institutions in regional relations. The theory is evaluated with three case studies of Sino-Korean, Sino-Japanese, and Sino-Mongol relations during China’s early Ming dynasty (1368-1424). The book argues that early Ming China and its neighbors adopted a variety of grand strategies in their interactions, including both instrumental strategies and strategies with a distinct Confucian expressive rationality. The strategic patterns showed that expressive rationality embodying Confucian relational affection and obligation was an essential, though not dominant, feature of regional relations. This finding challenges the Eurocentric International Relations literature that has little conception of expressive rationality. Providing an institutional analysis of the early-Ming East Asian international society of Chinese hegemony, the book also challenges the venerable tribute system paradigm in the traditional historical as well as the more recent International Relations literatures. Contemporary policy implications are suggested by outlining ethical relationalism as a critical and normative theory to critique contemporary Chinese foreign policy and assess the strategic impact of China’s rise.Less
Chinese Hegemony : Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East Asian History
This book explores the strategic and institutional dynamics of international relations in East Asian history when imperial China was the undisputed regional hegemon. It draws on both Chinese and Western intellectual traditions to develop a relational theory of grand strategy and fundamental institutions in regional relations. The theory is evaluated with three case studies of Sino-Korean, Sino-Japanese, and Sino-Mongol relations during China’s early Ming dynasty (1368-1424). The book argues that early Ming China and its neighbors adopted a variety of grand strategies in their interactions, including both instrumental strategies and strategies with a distinct Confucian expressive rationality. The strategic patterns showed that expressive rationality embodying Confucian relational affection and obligation was an essential, though not dominant, feature of regional relations. This finding challenges the Eurocentric International Relations literature that has little conception of expressive rationality. Providing an institutional analysis of the early-Ming East Asian international society of Chinese hegemony, the book also challenges the venerable tribute system paradigm in the traditional historical as well as the more recent International Relations literatures. Contemporary policy implications are suggested by outlining ethical relationalism as a critical and normative theory to critique contemporary Chinese foreign policy and assess the strategic impact of China’s rise.
Keywords: grand strategy, international institutions, Chinese hegemony, relationalism, expressive rationality, tribute system, Chinese foreign policy, China’s rise, East Asian international relations
Cities, Business, and the Politics of Urban Violence In Latin America
Eduardo Moncada
This book argues that the interaction between urban political economies and patterns of armed territorial control shape the nature and trajectory of the ways in which developing world cities confront ... More
This book argues that the interaction between urban political economies and patterns of armed territorial control shape the nature and trajectory of the ways in which developing world cities confront the challenge of urban violence. The study introduces business as a pivotal actor in the politics of urban violence, and shows that private sector mobilization can either support or subvert state efforts to stem and prevent urban violence and, more broadly, urban governance. The effects that private sector mobilization have on the institutional outcomes of the politics of urban violence are contingent on how business communities are institutionally configured within cities and the nature of their relations with political actors and parties. A focus on city mayors finds that the degree to which politicians rely upon clientelism to secure and maintain power weighs heavily on whether they favor responses to violence that perpetuate or weaken exclusionary local political orders. The book builds a new typology of patterns of armed territorial control within cities, each of which poses challenges and opportunities for sustaining distinct political projects in response to urban violence. To demonstrate the framework’s analytic utility the book develops subnational comparative analyses of variation in the institutional outcomes of the politics of urban violence across Colombia’s three principal cities –Medellin, Cali, and Bogota –and over time within each. The analysis shows that the politics of urban violence is a powerful new lens on the broader question of who governs in major developing world cities.Less
This book argues that the interaction between urban political economies and patterns of armed territorial control shape the nature and trajectory of the ways in which developing world cities confront the challenge of urban violence. The study introduces business as a pivotal actor in the politics of urban violence, and shows that private sector mobilization can either support or subvert state efforts to stem and prevent urban violence and, more broadly, urban governance. The effects that private sector mobilization have on the institutional outcomes of the politics of urban violence are contingent on how business communities are institutionally configured within cities and the nature of their relations with political actors and parties. A focus on city mayors finds that the degree to which politicians rely upon clientelism to secure and maintain power weighs heavily on whether they favor responses to violence that perpetuate or weaken exclusionary local political orders. The book builds a new typology of patterns of armed territorial control within cities, each of which poses challenges and opportunities for sustaining distinct political projects in response to urban violence. To demonstrate the framework’s analytic utility the book develops subnational comparative analyses of variation in the institutional outcomes of the politics of urban violence across Colombia’s three principal cities –Medellin, Cali, and Bogota –and over time within each. The analysis shows that the politics of urban violence is a powerful new lens on the broader question of who governs in major developing world cities.
Keywords: cities, business, violence, urban, Colombia, mayors, clientelism, territorial control, political order, subnational
Coercion, Survival, and War: Why Weak States Resist the United States
Phil Haun
This book considers why with its tremendous military advantage the United States so often fails to coerce much weaker states. The answer frequently resides in the large asymmetry in power which ... More
This book considers why with its tremendous military advantage the United States so often fails to coerce much weaker states. The answer frequently resides in the large asymmetry in power which provides the United States a high probability of victory in a brute force war. The resultant high expected outcome from war introduces an incentive to leverage coercive demands upon a weak adversary, concession to which threaten the survival of the state, its regime, or its regime leadership. Perceiving its survival at stake an opponent will resist, so long as it has the means to do so. Theoretically, to avoid signaling costs, a powerful challenger should only choose coercive strategies likely to succeed. In practice, however, as in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, U.S. leaders may first seek United Nations Security Council resolutions to lower the diplomatic and political costs for brute force war. Coercion may also fail when interests are so limited that the United States cannot continue to make its threats credible as in 1986 following the El Dorado air raid against Libya. In other cases, as in Bosnia and Kosovo, coercion eventually succeeded, but not before coercive diplomacy failed as the United States placed the prestige of NATO at stake over non-vital interests.Less
Coercion, Survival, and War : Why Weak States Resist the United States
This book considers why with its tremendous military advantage the United States so often fails to coerce much weaker states. The answer frequently resides in the large asymmetry in power which provides the United States a high probability of victory in a brute force war. The resultant high expected outcome from war introduces an incentive to leverage coercive demands upon a weak adversary, concession to which threaten the survival of the state, its regime, or its regime leadership. Perceiving its survival at stake an opponent will resist, so long as it has the means to do so. Theoretically, to avoid signaling costs, a powerful challenger should only choose coercive strategies likely to succeed. In practice, however, as in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, U.S. leaders may first seek United Nations Security Council resolutions to lower the diplomatic and political costs for brute force war. Coercion may also fail when interests are so limited that the United States cannot continue to make its threats credible as in 1986 following the El Dorado air raid against Libya. In other cases, as in Bosnia and Kosovo, coercion eventually succeeded, but not before coercive diplomacy failed as the United States placed the prestige of NATO at stake over non-vital interests.
Keywords: coercion, asymmetric power, brute force, coercive diplomacy, survival, signaling costs, credibility, demands, threats, air power
Constructing Cassandra: Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947-2001
Milo Jones and Philippe Silberzahn
The CIA was created in 1947 in large part to prevent another Pearl Harbor. On at least four dramatic occasions, the Agency failed at this task: prior to in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the ... More
The CIA was created in 1947 in large part to prevent another Pearl Harbor. On at least four dramatic occasions, the Agency failed at this task: prior to in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Iranian revolution of 1978, the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There has been no shortage of studies to understand how such failures happened. Until now, however, none of the explanations proffered has been fully satisfying, and sometimes competing explanations have been mutually incompatible. In contrast, this book proposes a unified, coherent and rigorous theory of intelligence failure built on culture and identity. Crucially, the book takes a systematic look at Cassandras - people who offered strategic warning, but were ignored, to show that surprises could be anticipated. As the first post-positivist study of intelligence failure, the book views intelligence analysis as permeated by social facts, and thus firmly in the grip of the identity and culture of the intelligence producer, the CIA. As a consequence, it can present novel model of surprise that focuses on the internal make-up the CIA, including the identities of analysts, the corporate identity of Langley as a whole, and the Agency's organizational culture. It suggests that by examining the key features of the Agency's identity and culture, we can arrive at a holistic, unified understanding of the intelligence failures that resulted in dramatic strategic surprises.Less
Constructing Cassandra : Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947-2001
Milo JonesPhilippe Silberzahn
The CIA was created in 1947 in large part to prevent another Pearl Harbor. On at least four dramatic occasions, the Agency failed at this task: prior to in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Iranian revolution of 1978, the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There has been no shortage of studies to understand how such failures happened. Until now, however, none of the explanations proffered has been fully satisfying, and sometimes competing explanations have been mutually incompatible. In contrast, this book proposes a unified, coherent and rigorous theory of intelligence failure built on culture and identity. Crucially, the book takes a systematic look at Cassandras - people who offered strategic warning, but were ignored, to show that surprises could be anticipated. As the first post-positivist study of intelligence failure, the book views intelligence analysis as permeated by social facts, and thus firmly in the grip of the identity and culture of the intelligence producer, the CIA. As a consequence, it can present novel model of surprise that focuses on the internal make-up the CIA, including the identities of analysts, the corporate identity of Langley as a whole, and the Agency's organizational culture. It suggests that by examining the key features of the Agency's identity and culture, we can arrive at a holistic, unified understanding of the intelligence failures that resulted in dramatic strategic surprises.
Keywords: CIA, intelligence failure, strategic surprise, collapse of the USSR, Iranian revolution, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cassandras, Usama bin Ladin, surprise attack, intelligence reform
Constructing International Relations in the Arab World
Fred H. Lawson
This book explores the emergence of an anarchic states-system in the twentieth-century Arab world. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalist movements first considered ... More
This book explores the emergence of an anarchic states-system in the twentieth-century Arab world. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalist movements first considered establishing a unified regional arrangement to take the empire's place and present a common front to outside powers. But over time, different Arab leaderships abandoned this project and instead adopted policies characteristic of self-interested, territorially limited states. In the explanation of this phenomenon, the book shifts attention away from older debates about the origins and development of Arab nationalism and analyzes instead how different nationalist leaderships changed the ways that they carried on diplomatic and strategic relations. It situates this shift in the context of influential sociological theories of state formation, while showing how labor movements and other forms of popular mobilization shaped the origins of the regional states-system.Less
This book explores the emergence of an anarchic states-system in the twentieth-century Arab world. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalist movements first considered establishing a unified regional arrangement to take the empire's place and present a common front to outside powers. But over time, different Arab leaderships abandoned this project and instead adopted policies characteristic of self-interested, territorially limited states. In the explanation of this phenomenon, the book shifts attention away from older debates about the origins and development of Arab nationalism and analyzes instead how different nationalist leaderships changed the ways that they carried on diplomatic and strategic relations. It situates this shift in the context of influential sociological theories of state formation, while showing how labor movements and other forms of popular mobilization shaped the origins of the regional states-system.
Keywords: states-system, Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalist movements, unified regional arrangement, empire, Arab leaderships, territorially limited states, Arab nationalism, nationalist leaderships, strategic relations
Contested Embrace: Transborder Membership Politics in Twentieth-Century Korea
Jaeeun Kim
The incongruity between territory, citizenry, and nation has long preoccupied students of international migration, nationalism, and citizenship, including the state’s transborder relationship with ... More
The incongruity between territory, citizenry, and nation has long preoccupied students of international migration, nationalism, and citizenship, including the state’s transborder relationship with its “external” members (e.g., emigrants, diasporas, and ethnonational “kin”). This book is a comparative, historical, and ethnographic study of the complex relationships among the states in the Korean peninsula, colonial-era Korean migrants to Japan and northeast China and their descendants, and the states in which they have resided. Despite a widespread and quasi-primordial belief in Korean ethnic nationhood, the embrace of these transborder coethnic populations by the Japanese colonial state and the two postcolonial states (North and South Korea) has been shifting and recurrently contested. Through analyses of transborder membership politics in the colonial, Cold War, and post-Cold War periods, the book explores under what circumstances and by what means the colonial and postcolonial states have sought to claim (or failed to claim) certain transborder populations as “their own,” and how transborder Koreans have themselves shaped the making, unmaking, and remaking of transborder ties as they have sought long-distance membership on their own terms. Extending the constructivist approach to nations/nationalisms and the culturalist/cognitive turn in recent theorizing on the modern state to a transnational context, it demonstrates that being a “homeland” state or a member of the “transborder nation” is not an ethnodemographic fact, but an arduous and revocable political achievement, mediated profoundly by the historically evolving and mutually interlinked bureaucratic practices of the state.Less
Contested Embrace : Transborder Membership Politics in Twentieth-Century Korea
The incongruity between territory, citizenry, and nation has long preoccupied students of international migration, nationalism, and citizenship, including the state’s transborder relationship with its “external” members (e.g., emigrants, diasporas, and ethnonational “kin”). This book is a comparative, historical, and ethnographic study of the complex relationships among the states in the Korean peninsula, colonial-era Korean migrants to Japan and northeast China and their descendants, and the states in which they have resided. Despite a widespread and quasi-primordial belief in Korean ethnic nationhood, the embrace of these transborder coethnic populations by the Japanese colonial state and the two postcolonial states (North and South Korea) has been shifting and recurrently contested. Through analyses of transborder membership politics in the colonial, Cold War, and post-Cold War periods, the book explores under what circumstances and by what means the colonial and postcolonial states have sought to claim (or failed to claim) certain transborder populations as “their own,” and how transborder Koreans have themselves shaped the making, unmaking, and remaking of transborder ties as they have sought long-distance membership on their own terms. Extending the constructivist approach to nations/nationalisms and the culturalist/cognitive turn in recent theorizing on the modern state to a transnational context, it demonstrates that being a “homeland” state or a member of the “transborder nation” is not an ethnodemographic fact, but an arduous and revocable political achievement, mediated profoundly by the historically evolving and mutually interlinked bureaucratic practices of the state.
Keywords: transborder membership politics, diaspora/homeland, nationalism/transnationalism, colonial migration, Cold War, state’s symbolic power, Korea, Japan, China
Continuity Despite Change: The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America
Matthew E. Carnes
This book explains why Latin America’s pattern of protective labor regulation has been surprisingly resistant to fundamental reform over the course of the last century, especially during the period ... More
This book explains why Latin America’s pattern of protective labor regulation has been surprisingly resistant to fundamental reform over the course of the last century, especially during the period of intense pressure from globalization. It develops a theory based on two factors – the skill distribution in the economy and the organizational capacity of labor – to explain the remarkable continuity in national-level labor codes. It argues that where workers have mid- to high-level skills and sufficient leadership or ties to political parties, they can be most effective in forming coalitions that preserve or increase the protectiveness of labor legislation. Where unskilled labor predominates, and where ties to political parties are weak, labor regulation is less developed and less protective. This theory is tested in two ways. First, the book takes a quantitative approach, conducting a systematic analysis of the determinants of 23 different labor law provisions in 18 Latin American countries over the period from the 1980s to the 2000s. Second, it employs a longer-term qualitative historical analysis to trace out labor law development and attempted reform over the last century in three representative countries: one which had highly developed protections for individual workers, but whose laws fragmented collective action by unions (Chile), one which provided only narrow protection of individual workers but accorded unions significant freedom (Peru), and one that was strongly protective of both individual workers and the unions that represented them (Argentina).Less
Continuity Despite Change : The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America
This book explains why Latin America’s pattern of protective labor regulation has been surprisingly resistant to fundamental reform over the course of the last century, especially during the period of intense pressure from globalization. It develops a theory based on two factors – the skill distribution in the economy and the organizational capacity of labor – to explain the remarkable continuity in national-level labor codes. It argues that where workers have mid- to high-level skills and sufficient leadership or ties to political parties, they can be most effective in forming coalitions that preserve or increase the protectiveness of labor legislation. Where unskilled labor predominates, and where ties to political parties are weak, labor regulation is less developed and less protective. This theory is tested in two ways. First, the book takes a quantitative approach, conducting a systematic analysis of the determinants of 23 different labor law provisions in 18 Latin American countries over the period from the 1980s to the 2000s. Second, it employs a longer-term qualitative historical analysis to trace out labor law development and attempted reform over the last century in three representative countries: one which had highly developed protections for individual workers, but whose laws fragmented collective action by unions (Chile), one which provided only narrow protection of individual workers but accorded unions significant freedom (Peru), and one that was strongly protective of both individual workers and the unions that represented them (Argentina).
Keywords: Latin America, labor laws, skills, unions, organization, politics, reform, globalization
Creating Military Power: The Sources of Military Effectiveness
Risa A. Brooks and Elizabeth A. Stanley (eds)
This book examines how societies, cultures, political structures, and the global environment affect countries' military organizations. Unlike most analyses of countries' military power, which focus ... More
This book examines how societies, cultures, political structures, and the global environment affect countries' military organizations. Unlike most analyses of countries' military power, which focus on material and basic resources—such as the size of population, technological and industrial base, and gross national product (GNP)—this volume takes a more expansive view. Its overarching argument is that states' global environments and the particularities of their cultures, social structures, and political institutions often affect how they organize and prepare for war, and ultimately impact their effectiveness in battle. The creation of military power is only partially dependent on states' basic material and human assets. Wealth, technology, and human capital certainly matter for a country's ability to create military power, but equally important are the ways a state uses those resources, and this often depends on the political and social environment in which military activity takes place.Less
Creating Military Power : The Sources of Military Effectiveness
This book examines how societies, cultures, political structures, and the global environment affect countries' military organizations. Unlike most analyses of countries' military power, which focus on material and basic resources—such as the size of population, technological and industrial base, and gross national product (GNP)—this volume takes a more expansive view. Its overarching argument is that states' global environments and the particularities of their cultures, social structures, and political institutions often affect how they organize and prepare for war, and ultimately impact their effectiveness in battle. The creation of military power is only partially dependent on states' basic material and human assets. Wealth, technology, and human capital certainly matter for a country's ability to create military power, but equally important are the ways a state uses those resources, and this often depends on the political and social environment in which military activity takes place.
Keywords: societies, cultures, political structures, global environment, military organizations, basic resources, population size, industrial base, gross national product, combat effectiveness
The Crisis of Democratic Representation in the Andes
Scott Mainwaring, Ana Maria Bejarano, and Eduardo Pizarro Leongomez (eds)
The essays in this book analyze and explain the crisis of democratic representation in five Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. In this region, disaffection with ... More
The essays in this book analyze and explain the crisis of democratic representation in five Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. In this region, disaffection with democracy, political parties, and legislatures has spread to an alarming degree. Many presidents have been forced from office, and many traditional parties have fallen by the wayside. These five countries have the potential to be negative examples in a region that has historically had strong demonstration and diffusion effects in terms of regime changes. The book addresses an important question for Latin America as well as other parts of the world: Why does representation sometimes fail to work?Less
The essays in this book analyze and explain the crisis of democratic representation in five Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. In this region, disaffection with democracy, political parties, and legislatures has spread to an alarming degree. Many presidents have been forced from office, and many traditional parties have fallen by the wayside. These five countries have the potential to be negative examples in a region that has historically had strong demonstration and diffusion effects in terms of regime changes. The book addresses an important question for Latin America as well as other parts of the world: Why does representation sometimes fail to work?
Keywords: democratic representation, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, democracy, political parties, legislatures, regime changes
The Cultivation of Resentment: Treaty Rights and the New Right
Jeffrey R. Dudas
Political Science, Political Theory
This is an examination of how grassroots conservative activists use rights discourse to pursue their political goals. It argues that conservative activists engage in frequent and sincere ... More
This is an examination of how grassroots conservative activists use rights discourse to pursue their political goals. It argues that conservative activists engage in frequent and sincere mobilizations of rights talk—a discourse that includes accusations that socially marginal Americans are seeking un-American, “special” rights that violate the nation's commitment to equal rights. The book finds that such rights talk is central both to the identities of conservative activists and to the broad appeal of modern New Right politics. However, through an in-depth case study of opposition on the Indian treaty rights, it establishes that the impact of conservative rights talk is ultimately ambiguous. While conservative rights discourse effectively expresses the nationalistic resentment that saturates New Right politics, it deflects critical scrutiny from the actual causes of that resentment. By tracing the interplay of rights and resentment, this book adds new insight to the prevailing scholarship on law and politics, which typically overlooks the importance of rights discourse for conservative politics.Less
The Cultivation of Resentment : Treaty Rights and the New Right
This is an examination of how grassroots conservative activists use rights discourse to pursue their political goals. It argues that conservative activists engage in frequent and sincere mobilizations of rights talk—a discourse that includes accusations that socially marginal Americans are seeking un-American, “special” rights that violate the nation's commitment to equal rights. The book finds that such rights talk is central both to the identities of conservative activists and to the broad appeal of modern New Right politics. However, through an in-depth case study of opposition on the Indian treaty rights, it establishes that the impact of conservative rights talk is ultimately ambiguous. While conservative rights discourse effectively expresses the nationalistic resentment that saturates New Right politics, it deflects critical scrutiny from the actual causes of that resentment. By tracing the interplay of rights and resentment, this book adds new insight to the prevailing scholarship on law and politics, which typically overlooks the importance of rights discourse for conservative politics.
Keywords: conservative activists, rights talk, socially marginal Americans, equal rights, New Right politics, Indian treaty rights, nationalistic resentment, conservative politics, law, rights discourse
Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency
Thomas H. Johnson and Barry Zellen (eds)
The examination of wars and conflicts of the twenty-first century immediately draws one to their culture and sectarian dimensions. The contributors to this volume reflect on the following fundamental ... More
The examination of wars and conflicts of the twenty-first century immediately draws one to their culture and sectarian dimensions. The contributors to this volume reflect on the following fundamental questions; where and how is culture important in a national security and foreign policy context? Is cultural understanding important, or is it merely a fad? What constitutes cultural data? What frameworks should be used to analyze culture? What are the challenges of cultural data collection and application? Part I (encompassing chapters’ one through three) examines the theory to methodology of culture and conflict. Two formal intelligence disciplines, Cultural intelligence (CULINT) and ethnographic intelligence (ETHINT), and their incorporation into existing joint intelligence infrastructure are examined. Part II (encompassing chapters four through ten) takes us from methodology to practice, and addresses some of the lessons of Afghanistan. Here, the authors frame Taliban’s successful expansion into Pastuhn areas and the critical role religious authorities’ play in Afghanistan’s present conflict. The IO assessment tool is depicted, illustrating its various uses, most importantly, the ability to quantify the success or failure of an operation. This book draws on the research, analysis’s, and experiences of its scholars’ to conclude that the success of a country intending to invade and occupy another is in large part dependent on its fundamental knowledge and sensitivity to the relevant cultural processes and dynamics.Less
The examination of wars and conflicts of the twenty-first century immediately draws one to their culture and sectarian dimensions. The contributors to this volume reflect on the following fundamental questions; where and how is culture important in a national security and foreign policy context? Is cultural understanding important, or is it merely a fad? What constitutes cultural data? What frameworks should be used to analyze culture? What are the challenges of cultural data collection and application? Part I (encompassing chapters’ one through three) examines the theory to methodology of culture and conflict. Two formal intelligence disciplines, Cultural intelligence (CULINT) and ethnographic intelligence (ETHINT), and their incorporation into existing joint intelligence infrastructure are examined. Part II (encompassing chapters four through ten) takes us from methodology to practice, and addresses some of the lessons of Afghanistan. Here, the authors frame Taliban’s successful expansion into Pastuhn areas and the critical role religious authorities’ play in Afghanistan’s present conflict. The IO assessment tool is depicted, illustrating its various uses, most importantly, the ability to quantify the success or failure of an operation. This book draws on the research, analysis’s, and experiences of its scholars’ to conclude that the success of a country intending to invade and occupy another is in large part dependent on its fundamental knowledge and sensitivity to the relevant cultural processes and dynamics.
Keywords: Culture and conflict, counterinsurgency, cultural intelligence (CULINT), ethnographic intelligence (ETHINT), ethnographic collection, open-source intelligence (OSINT), communications intelligence (COMINT), Pastuhn, shura, pashtunwal
The Dual Executive: Unilateral Orders in a Separated and Shared Power System
Michelle Belco and Brandon Rottinghaus
The president serves dual roles in the political system: one who “commands” by pursuing his or her agenda using unilateral orders and one who “administers” and who works to continue proper government ... More
The president serves dual roles in the political system: one who “commands” by pursuing his or her agenda using unilateral orders and one who “administers” and who works to continue proper government function, often with the support of Congress. In a reassessment of the literature on unilateral power, this book considers the president’s dual roles during the stages of the policy-making process. Although presidents may appear to act “first and alone,” the reality is often much different. Presidents act in response to their own concerns, as well as assisting Congress on priorities and the need to maintain harmonic government function. The authors find support for both the model of an aggressive president who uses unilateral orders to push his or her agenda, head off unfavorable congressional legislation, and selectively implement legislation, and they find support for a unifying president who is willing to share management of government, support Congressional legislative efforts, and faithfully implement legislation. At the same time, presidents self-check their actions based on the ability of Congress to act to overturn their orders, through a shared sense of responsibility to keep government moving and out of respect for the constitutional balance. The shared nature of unilateral orders does not preclude an active president, as presidents remain strong, central actors in the political system.Less
The Dual Executive : Unilateral Orders in a Separated and Shared Power System
Michelle BelcoBrandon Rottinghaus
The president serves dual roles in the political system: one who “commands” by pursuing his or her agenda using unilateral orders and one who “administers” and who works to continue proper government function, often with the support of Congress. In a reassessment of the literature on unilateral power, this book considers the president’s dual roles during the stages of the policy-making process. Although presidents may appear to act “first and alone,” the reality is often much different. Presidents act in response to their own concerns, as well as assisting Congress on priorities and the need to maintain harmonic government function. The authors find support for both the model of an aggressive president who uses unilateral orders to push his or her agenda, head off unfavorable congressional legislation, and selectively implement legislation, and they find support for a unifying president who is willing to share management of government, support Congressional legislative efforts, and faithfully implement legislation. At the same time, presidents self-check their actions based on the ability of Congress to act to overturn their orders, through a shared sense of responsibility to keep government moving and out of respect for the constitutional balance. The shared nature of unilateral orders does not preclude an active president, as presidents remain strong, central actors in the political system.
Keywords: president, unilateral, Congress, legislation, constitution
Dynasties and Democracy: The Inherited Incumbency Advantage in Japan
Daniel M. Smith
Democracy is supposed to be the antithesis of hereditary rule by family dynasties. And yet “democratic dynasties” continue to persist in democracies around the world. They have been conspicuously ... More
Democracy is supposed to be the antithesis of hereditary rule by family dynasties. And yet “democratic dynasties” continue to persist in democracies around the world. They have been conspicuously prevalent in Japan, where more than a third of all legislators and two-thirds of all cabinet ministers in recent years have come from families with a history in parliament. Such a high proportion of dynasties is unusual and has sparked concerns over whether democracy in Japan is functioning properly. This book introduces a comparative theory to explain the causes and consequences of dynasties in democracies like Japan. Members of dynasties enjoy an “inherited incumbency advantage” in all three stages of a typical political career: selection, election, and promotion. However, the nature and extent of this advantage, as well as its consequences for elections and representation, varies by the institutional context of electoral rules and candidate selection methods within parties. In the late 1980s, roughly half of all new candidates in Japan’s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party were political legacies. However, electoral system reform in 1994 and subsequent party reforms have changed the incentives for party leaders to rely on dynastic politics in candidate selection. A new pattern of party-based competition is slowly replacing the old pattern of competition based on localized family fiefdoms.Less
Dynasties and Democracy : The Inherited Incumbency Advantage in Japan
Democracy is supposed to be the antithesis of hereditary rule by family dynasties. And yet “democratic dynasties” continue to persist in democracies around the world. They have been conspicuously prevalent in Japan, where more than a third of all legislators and two-thirds of all cabinet ministers in recent years have come from families with a history in parliament. Such a high proportion of dynasties is unusual and has sparked concerns over whether democracy in Japan is functioning properly. This book introduces a comparative theory to explain the causes and consequences of dynasties in democracies like Japan. Members of dynasties enjoy an “inherited incumbency advantage” in all three stages of a typical political career: selection, election, and promotion. However, the nature and extent of this advantage, as well as its consequences for elections and representation, varies by the institutional context of electoral rules and candidate selection methods within parties. In the late 1980s, roughly half of all new candidates in Japan’s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party were political legacies. However, electoral system reform in 1994 and subsequent party reforms have changed the incentives for party leaders to rely on dynastic politics in candidate selection. A new pattern of party-based competition is slowly replacing the old pattern of competition based on localized family fiefdoms.
Keywords: democratic dynasties, political institutions, parties, incumbency advantage, inherited incumbency advantage, electoral system, candidate selection, Japan, Liberal Democratic Party
Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development
Sunila S. Kale
Political Science, Political Economy
Throughout the twentieth century, electricity was considered to be the primary vehicle of modernity, as well as its quintessential symbol. In India, electrification was central to how early ... More
Throughout the twentieth century, electricity was considered to be the primary vehicle of modernity, as well as its quintessential symbol. In India, electrification was central to how early nationalists and planners conceptualized Indian development, and huge sums were spent on the project from then until now. Yet despite all this, sixty-five years after independence, nearly 400 million Indians have no access to electricity. Electrifying India explores the political and historical puzzle of uneven development in India's vital electricity sector. In some states, nearly all citizens have access to electricity, while in others fewer than half of households have reliable electricity. To help explain this variation, this book offers a regional and historical perspective on the politics of electrification of India as it unfolded in New Delhi and three Indian states: Maharashtra, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh. In those parts of the countryside that were successfully electrified in the decades after independence, the gains were due to neither nationalist idealism nor merely technocratic plans but rather to the rising political influence and pressure of rural constituencies. In looking at variations in how public utilities expanded over a long period of time, this book argues that the earlier period of an advancing state apparatus from the 1950s to the 1980s conditioned in important ways the manner of the state's retreat during market reforms of the 1990s.Less
Electrifying India : Regional Political Economies of Development
Throughout the twentieth century, electricity was considered to be the primary vehicle of modernity, as well as its quintessential symbol. In India, electrification was central to how early nationalists and planners conceptualized Indian development, and huge sums were spent on the project from then until now. Yet despite all this, sixty-five years after independence, nearly 400 million Indians have no access to electricity. Electrifying India explores the political and historical puzzle of uneven development in India's vital electricity sector. In some states, nearly all citizens have access to electricity, while in others fewer than half of households have reliable electricity. To help explain this variation, this book offers a regional and historical perspective on the politics of electrification of India as it unfolded in New Delhi and three Indian states: Maharashtra, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh. In those parts of the countryside that were successfully electrified in the decades after independence, the gains were due to neither nationalist idealism nor merely technocratic plans but rather to the rising political influence and pressure of rural constituencies. In looking at variations in how public utilities expanded over a long period of time, this book argues that the earlier period of an advancing state apparatus from the 1950s to the 1980s conditioned in important ways the manner of the state's retreat during market reforms of the 1990s.
Keywords: India, electricity, politics, political economy of market reform, development, market reform, energy, rural electrification, irrigation
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Wasseim Alsati: A father’s despair, love and hope
From Checkpoint, 5:09 pm on 15 April 2019
(Warning: Distressing content)
The father of a five-year-old girl who suffered brain damage after being shot at the Al Noor mosque believes his daughter would be dead if he had not lifted her up just as the gunman fired.
Speaking for the first time since the mosque massacre - a month ago today - Christchurch barber Wasseim Alsati said he would always take Alen for a fluffy and two marshmallows on Friday mornings, and then take her home before prayers - but that day they went to the mosque together.
Mr Alsati was released from hospital two days ago but is living at Ronald McDonald house while Alen remains in Auckland's Starship Hospital.
Listen to this report duration 17′ :32″
Listen to this report
In the interview he speaks of his experience during the attack, the bystanders who helped him and Alen, the nurse who helped him visit his daughter in the hospital and the desire to continue to live in Christchurch.
"The amount of love and support ... from people that I never met in Auckland and Christchurch; and gifts. No, we are going back to Christchurch, we've got a home and we call it New Zealand."
He wanted to also say a special thanks to Inspector Naila Hassan and the family who looked after his three other children while he was unconscious in hospital and his wife was at this daughter's bedside.
He said he thought she was doing much better.
"I've got hope. All New Zealand prayed for my daughter: Muslims, Christians, Buddhists. Everybody.
"I do believe in God. I do believe in miracles. I do believe that she will get better."
Christchurch Terror Attacks
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AST PAPERS:
The Challenges of Erdogan’s Turkey (7 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AST_3-7-18-Challenges-of-Erdogans-Turkey-P13.pdf
Turkey Must Ensure Freedom of Religion under Its Jurisdiction (4 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AST_2-20-18_Freedom-of-Religion_P12.pdf
Critical Speech by Kati Piri Delivered in European Parliament Plenary, Joint Debate on Turkey (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AST_2-7-2018_Kati-Piris-speech-in-EP-Plenary-Turkey-P11.pdf
Oppression of Supporters of the Hizmet Movement in Turkey and Abroad (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AST_2-1-2018_oppression-of-supporters-of-the-hizmet-movement-in-turkey-and-abroad_P10-1.pdf
Severity of Human Rights Violations in Turkey & Support to Turkish Migrants and Refugees (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_1-25-2018_SEVERITY-OF-HUMAN-RIGHTS-VIOLATIONS-IN-TURKEY-SUPPORT-TO-TURKISH-MIGRANTS-AND-REFUGEES_P9.pdf
How The Supporters Of The Hizmet Movement Suffer From Persecutions By The Turkish Government? (6 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_1-25-2018_HOW-THE-SUPPORTERS-OF-THE-HIZMET-MOVEMENT-SUFFER-FROM-PERSECUTIONS-BY-THE-TURKISH-GOVERNMENT_P8.pdf
Human Rights Watch’s Report Shows the Severity of Human Rights Violations in Turkey (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_1-22-2018_HUMAN-RIGHTS-WATCH’S-REPORT-SHOWS-THE-SEVERITY-OF-HUMAN-RIGHTS-VIOLATIONS-IN-TURKEY_P7.pdf
The Freedom House concludes Turkey is no more a free country. What is next? ( 3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_Turkey_is_no_longer_free_country_what_is_next.pdf
Persecution of Women and Children in Turkey (7 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Persecution-of-women-and-children.pdf
Instructions for the Practice of Immigration Act 28 – NORWAY CASE ( 3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Norvec-Asylum.pdf
Erdogan’s Government Established Political Control over Turkish Judiciary and Selective Application of Law ( 5 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Political-Control-over-Turkish-Judiciary-and-Selective-Application.pdf
Freedom of the Net 2017 (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Freedom-of-the-Net-2017.pdf
Türkiye Develetinin Resmi Vakfı Maarif Üzerinden Afrika’da Yürütülen Gasp ve Karalama Kampanyası (16 sayfa)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/AST_7-29-18_REPORT11_Maarif-uzerinden-gasp.pdf
Erdogan’s Long Arms Abroad and Recommendations to Governments (22 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/AST_7-28-18_REPORT10_Erdogans-long-arms-abroad.pdf
Reports on the Human Rights Record of Turkey (8 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/AST_Newsletter7_July-2018.pdf
The Last Exit Before Illegal Legality: Snap Elections in Turkey as the Final Step on the Road to Authoritarianism (16 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AST_5-7-18_REPORT9_Last-Exit-Before-Illegal-Legality.pdf
Turkey’s New Normal: Torture and Ill-Treatment (8 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AST_4-30-18-REPORT8_Torture-and-Ill-Treatment.pdf
Turkey Must Ensure Freedom of Religion Under its Jurisdiction (11 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AST_4-11-18-REPORT7_Freedom-of-Religion.pdf
Turkish Government’s New Strategy: Request Extradition of Hizmet Sympathizers Using Fabricated Documents And False Claims (15 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AST_3-30-18-REPORT6_Turkish-Governments-New-Strategy.pdf
Türk Hükümetinin Yeni Hamlesi: Yurtdışında Bulunan Hizmet Gönüllülerinin Sahte Belge ve Gerçek Dışı İddialarla İadeleri Talebi (15 pages) (TÜRKÇE)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AST_3-30-18_REPORT6_Turk-Hukumetin-Yeni-Hamlesi.pdf
Erdogan’s Tool to Take Over Hizmet Schools Illegally: The Maarif Foundation (8 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AST_3-5-18_REPORT5_REPORT-ON-MAARIF-FOUNDATION.pdf
Women’s and Children’s Rights are Under Attack in Turkey (8 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_1-28-18_REPORT4_WOMEN’S-AND-CHILDREN’S-RIGHTS-ARE-UNDER-ATTACK-IN-TURKEY.pdf
Comparative Analysis of Different Countries’ Approaches Towards Turkish Asylum Seekers Linked to the Gulen Movement (12 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_12417_REPORT5_ASYLUM_GULEN_CASES-1.pdf
European Court Of Human Rights Should Reconsider Judicial Independence In Turkey Before Referring Cases To Domestic Authorities (8 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ECHR-Turkey-Report.pdf
“I Cannot Say We Are Absolutely Safe, Even Abroad” Report On The Current And Possible Threats Supporters Of The Gulen Movement Face Abroad (15 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_Report_Threats_Gulen-Movement.pdf
POSITION PAPERS:
Name: Turkish Family Drowned in Aegean Sea Escaping from Erdogan’s Regime (4 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AST_Maden-Family-Position-Paper.pdf
Regarding Women and Children in Turkish Prisons (2 pages)
tp://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AST_Letter-Regarding-Women-and-children-in-Prison.docx
Teachers in Afghanistan (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_Letter_Teachers_in_Afghanistan-2.docx
The Recent Statutory Decree No. 696 And The Demise Of Rule Of Law In Turkey (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_Letter_Decree_Representatives.docx
Urgent Appeal regarding Turkish Teachers abducted in Afghanistan (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_Letter_Urgent-Appeal-regarding-Turkish-Teachers-in-Afghanistan.docx
Authorities Must Take All The Necessary Steps For The Protection Of Hizmet Participants (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_Letter_Threats_Gulen-Movement.docx
Concern at the rejection of nearly 25,000 applications from post-coup victims in Turkey (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AST_Sample-Statement-for-ECtHR.docx
Raise awareness about the drowned Maden family (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AST_Sample-Statement-for-Maden-Family.docx
Raise awareness about the victims of Erdogan regime (1 page)
AST_Letter_ Raise-awareness-about-the-victims-of-Erdogan-regime
Women rights violations in Turkey (1 page)
AST_Letter_Women-rights-violations-in-Turkey
Raise awareness about the women rights violations (1 page)
AST_Letter_Raise-awareness-about-the-women-rights-violations
UN Statement on Turkey: Turkey must lift state of emergency restrictions for credible elections to take place (2 pages)
UN_Statement_Turkey_Turkey-Must-Lift-State-of-Emergency
HRF Statement on wrongful arrest of Turkish nationals and deportation to Turkey (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/HRF_Letter-on-Kosovo-Arrests-Final.pdf
UN Statement on Turkey: UN report details extensive human rights violations during protracted state of emergency (4 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/UN_Statement_on_Turkey-UN-report-details-extensive-human-rights-violations-during-protracted-state-of-emergency-4-pages.pdf
The Cape Law Society expresses concern with widespread arrests and detention of judges and lawyers in Turkey (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Cape-Law-Society-Expresses-Concern-With-Wide-Spread-Arrests-And-Detention-Of-Judges-And-Lawyers.pdf
UN statement on Turkey: UN expert says deeply concerned by rise in torture allegations (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/UN_Statement_Experts-deeply-concerned-by-rise-in-torture-allegations.pdf
United Nations Human Rights Council Joint Statement (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Joint-Statement_Turkey-UNHRC_Final.pdf
At Least 3 Victims Drowned While Trying to Cross Meriç/Evros River (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AST_Statement-Abdurrezzak-Family.pdf
696 Sayili KHK Ve Hukuk Devletinin Çöküşü (TÜRKÇE) (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_696-sayılı-KHK-ve-hukuk-devletin-çöküşü.pdf
Statement On Statutory Decree No. 696 And The Demise Of Rule Of Law ( 3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Statutory-Decree-No.-696-and-The-Demise-of-Rule-of-Law.pdf
Statement On Missing Teachers In Afghanistan (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_Statement_Teachers_in_Afghanistan.pdf
Statement on Human Rights Day (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AST_Statement-on-Human-Rights-Day.pdf
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN TURKEY BY NUMBERS:
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Children (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Children.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Women (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Women.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Journalists (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Journalists.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Eduation System, Academics & Teachers (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Education-System-Academics-and-Teachers.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Kurdish People (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Kurdish-People.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Judges & Prosecutors (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-JudgesProsecutors.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Other Civilians (3 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Other-Civilians.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Media (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Media.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Health Care Workers & Doctors (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Health-Care-Workers-Doctors.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Military & Police (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Military-Police.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Rule of Law (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Rule-of-Law.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Purge (2 pages)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Purge.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Prisons (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Prisons.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Non-Governmental Organizations (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Non-Governmental-Organizations.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Deaths (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Deaths.pdf
Human Rights Violations in Turkey by Numbers: Miscellaneous (1 page)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Human-Rights-Violations-in-Turkey-by-Numbers-Miscellaneous.pdf
Brain Drain in Turkey prepared by Academics at Risk
https://prezi.com/umggzjsxac4j/copy-of-brain-drain/
AST’s Human Rights Violations in Turkey Art Contest 2018 Booklet (Turkish) (18 slides)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AST_Art-Contest-Pictures-and-Comments-Turkish.pdf
Persecution of Women in Post-coup Turkey (38 slides)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AST_presentation_Persecution-of-women-in-Turkey.pdf
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AST_presentation_Persecution-of-women-in-Turkey.pptx
Persecution in Turkey after December 2013 (33 slides)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AST_Flyer13_Persecution-in-Turkey-after-December-2013.pdf
Prison Conditions For Women and Children in Turkey (13 slides)
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_Women-Children-in-Prison.pdf
https://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AST_Women-Children-in-Prison.pptx
INSTAGRAM PICTURES (Human Rights Violations):
https://www.instagram.com/silencedturkey
Your ticket for the: Documents
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1.25 oz 2015 Canadian Bison Silver Coin
Added 1.25 oz 2015 Canadian Bison Silver Coin
The 2015 1.25 oz Canadian Bison silver coin is the first 1.25 oz silver coin ever produced! The coin was produced with precisely machined radial lines around the outside of the reverse, while the obverse features the radial lines throughout.
The obverse features the Susanna Blunt effigy of Queen Elizabeth II along with an increased face value of $8 reflecting the increased silver content in this coin.
The reverse features a buffalo that appears to be in a full run across the prairies, with a ridge of hills in the background. The coin's purity is stamped on the prairies, along with the artists initials.
This unusual coin has a very heavy hand-feel due to the added quarter ounce of silver. It retains the same diameter as other RCM silver coins, but is thicker than 1 oz silver coins.
Condition Some Milk Spots
Obverse Susanna Blunt effigy of Queen Elizabeth II and the words "Elizabeth II 8 Dollars" and the artist's initials
Reverse Image of a running bison on a grassy plain and the words "Canada 2015 Fine Silver 1 1/4 oz Argent Pur 9999" and the artist's initials
Legal Tender CAD 8
Designer Susanna Blunt (obverse), Claude D'Angelo (reverse)
Some Milk Spots
Susanna Blunt effigy of Queen Elizabeth II and the words "Elizabeth II 8 Dollars" and the artist's initials
Image of a running bison on a grassy plain and the words "Canada 2015 Fine Silver 1 1/4 oz Argent Pur 9999" and the artist's initials
Susanna Blunt (obverse), Claude D'Angelo (reverse)
1.25 oz 2015 Canadian Bison Silver Coin The 2015 1.25 oz Canadian Bison silver coin is the first 1.25 oz silver coin ever produced! The coin was produced with precisely machined radial lines around the outside of the reverse, while the obverse features the radial lines throughout. The obverse features the Susanna Blunt effigy of Queen Elizabeth II along with an increased face value of $8 reflecting the increased silver content in this coin. The reverse features a buffalo that appears to be in a full run across the prairies, with a ridge of hills in the background. The coin's purity is stamped on the prairies, along with the artists initials. This unusual coin has a very heavy hand-feel due to the added quarter ounce of silver. It retains the same diameter as other RCM silver coins, but is thicker than 1 oz silver coins.
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Like many of the ideas pursued by CRL over the years, the SIM Network was created to meet a need. Also like many CRL pursuits, its growth, direction, and success were driven by the very people who belonged to it.
Fran Clark, who nurtured the early growth of the network, remembers the hunger for knowledge among practitioners in the learning disabilities field that led to the creation of the SIM Network. People were reading about the work of what was then the Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities. Word was getting out. “They were calling. They were wanting things,” Fran said. “They would ask us to speak at conferences and want more. It was a relentless pushing and pulling from the field, sometimes faster than we wanted. “We couldn't do it at all. We just physically couldn't go everywhere we needed. People wanted things faster. People wanted to build those networks—California, and Iowa, and then Florida, and Arkansas on the heels of that. They were wanting to get going quickly in their states. There was no way that we could do all of that, so we had to build the resources.”
From discussions about how to meet that need, the fledgling SIM Network emerged. In 1983, a group of 15 professionals made a commitment to work together to put validated instructional methods in the hands of teachers. Planning meetings typically involved small groups of interested individuals. “We were up in this little room way up in the top of the union,” Fran said of one early meeting. “Participants were mostly people who had either been doctoral students and who had worked with the kinds of concepts that Don (Deshler) was including in his courses, or they were people who had worked with developing some of the strategies and field testing them. “At that point, there were people who were interested in bringing strategies to places, but there was no formal title of strategies trainer.
“It's really been something to see the size of the group grow and to see it expand. We were just very few in the beginning. As more states were interested and we began to build those projects, the numbers began to grow pretty rapidly.” To bolster the capacity of the new network, IRLD began offering “potential trainer” workshops in 1986. With the growth of the network came a new need: Ways to support the work of network members and keep them up-to-date on new research findings and products. “We started holding training meetings initially at conferences where many of our people would be attending anyway,” Fran said. “I think the first one was at CEC in Chicago. “We were expecting 70 or 80 people, and of course I had made the room reservation long distance. We get there and it’s a room that is long and narrow, set up theater style. “The three people who went to lunch with me can tell you that I was distraught because that wasn't the kind of environment we wanted for the meeting. We worked that through and reset the room. But they remember. I was quite distraught at lunch.
“As the years went on, we decided that was difficult to do because it took our group away from the conference. Then, we started doing the meetings here in Lawrence in the summer because a lot of people from other states wanted to come to Lawrence. They wanted to see Lawrence, and they wanted to see the institute—when it was only offices to see. “One year, when we had a big meeting, we sent somebody to KC to bring back barbecue for everybody for lunch. The halls smelled like barbecue for weeks after that.”
Despite some missteps and false starts in those early days, the dedicated educators who are members of the SIM network persevered. “We saw a lot of changes occur over time,” Fran said. “It's really interesting to sit back and look as other people talk about doing training for other programs. “I think the concept of the training network is what has really helped SIM expand. If we had only relied on the staff at the center to do the training and to spread the word, there's no way that we could have had the impact that the trainers in the field have had. “The development of the model itself couldn't have happened without those people because they have contributed ideas, they have asked the tough questions that drove the research and the building of the network.
“We've been able to draw to the Center a group of people with extremely strong commitments from out in the field and from all over the country. I think that's probably the greatest strength. It truly has been an inclusive model in terms of research and involving people in the field in the research just as we talk about involving students with exceptionalities in the general education program.”
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Simon J. Evnine
A Personal Website
Books and Papers
Published Papers (Philosophy)
Unpublished Papers (Philosophy)
Non-Philosophy Papers
The Batman Meme Project: An Overview
The Parergon: The Batman Meme Project Blog
The Mysterious Barricades
The Piece and its Title
Translations of Fabrizio de André
La città vecchia
Delitto di paese
Monti di Mola
Volta la carta
Translation of Cecco Angiolieri
François Couperin’s piece for harpsichord Les Barricades Mystérieuses has caught the imagination of many. In these pages I discuss the piece and its title and gather its echoes in music, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, the visual arts, film, and performance.
François Couperin’s piece for harpsichord, Les Barricades Mystérieuses (the original spelling seems to have been Les Baricades Mistérieuses – now all four possible combinations of these two variants seem to be employed) was published in 1717, as the fifth piece in his VIth Ordre de Clavecin in B flat major. Written in the arpeggiated style brisé (broken style) or style luthé of a lute piece, the work is in rondeau form. As David Tunley notes, the piece employs a variant of the traditional romanesca in the bass, though here in quadruple, rather than the usual triple, time (François Couperin and ‘The Perfection of Music,’ Ashgate, 2004, p. 116). A detailed harmonic analysis of the piece is given by the composer Philip Corner.
While the piece itself is haunting and beautiful, its effect has surely been enhanced by its mysterious title. Couperin gave most of his harpsichord pieces titles. This practice stemmed from “the music of Chambonnières and the earliest works of the French ‘clavecinists’ who, in turn, had borrowed the habit from the lutenists of the late sixteenth century” (David Tunley, Couperin, BBC, 1982, p. 79). (There is, in fact, a harpsichord piece called Les Baricades (or Les Barricades) by Chambonnières himself. What does his title mean? I have seen nothing addressing this question.) Some of Couperin’s pieces are named after people or types of people, some indicate something the music is supposed to represent. A few of the names, however, remain mysteries to us. David Tunley adds that “even in their own days these same pieces might well have appeared enigmatic to all but a handful of the composers’ circle” (ibid., p. 82-3). Such appears to be the case with Les Barricades Mystérieuses. As far as I am aware, there is absolutely no direct evidence to illuminate the meaning of Couperin’s title. Anything offered as an interpretation is more or less well-founded speculation.
A piece by Pascal Tufféry offers what I find an extremely plausible hypothesis. The other pieces in Couperin’s VIth ordre are all of a bucolic or agricultural nature. Against that setting, Tufféry links the rhythm of the piece to the stamping out of the grapes to make wine. “Barrique” means barrel and “barriquade” is used in the name of a contemporary organization of viticulturalists in France. The association of wine with the mysteries of Bacchus accounts for the epithet “mystérieuses” in the title.
One sometimes sees suggestions that the mysterious barricades of Couperin’s title are either women’s eyelashes or women’s underwear, or chastity belts. Neither of these hypotheses is very plausible (the music itself surely makes the ribaldry of the second suggestion out of place) and there is no evidence I am aware of to support them in the least. In one place (a Youtube of a performance of the piece by Philippe Radault), it is claimed in addition that the use of the expression to refer to women’s eyelashes was distinctive of “les précieuses,” the witty and educated women who populated the salons of the 17th century. I have found no evidence of this.
In ‘The mirror of human life’: Reflections on François Couperin’s Pièces de Clavecin by Jane Clark and Derek Connon (Redcroft, King’s Music, 2002), Jane Clark links the VIth ordre to a divertissement staged by one of Couperin’s patrons, the Duchesse Du Maine in 1714. The entertainment was called Le Mystère ou les Fêtes de l’Inconnu (The Mysterious One or the Celebrations of the Unknown One). In the performance, the King’s musicians and Marguerite-Louise Couperin (François’ sister) wore masks, emphasizing the mysterious presence celebrated by the divertissement, possibly the exiled Stuart James III. Clark suggests that the barricades mistérieuses may refer to these masks (p. 67-8). With regard to another piece, La Misterieuse, in the XXVth ordre, Clark suggests a possible reference to the Duchesse Du Maine’s interests in freemasonry.
Wilfrid Mellers also wonders if there is a link to a divertissement though in tandem with another approach to understanding the name, that it refers to some technical features of the piece itself. Mellers suggests that the piece is “one of Couperin’s technical jokes, the continuous suspensions in the lute style being a barricade to the basic harmony; and this may link up with the illusory devices in a masque decor. Barricades has its modern sense after 1648, but if the harmonic ambiguities might be described as ‘revolutionary’ in the context of baroque orthodoxies, the tone of the music remains, even in its mystery, impeccably aristocratic” (François Couperin and the French Classical Tradition, new version, London, Faber and Faber, 1987, pp. 400-2). I am not aware of other cases in which Couperin’s titles reflect technical features of the music they name, but the approach is not altogether implausible. Some have suggested that the constant syncopation of the piece makes of the bar lines themselves “mysterious barricades”. (Perhaps this is also what Mellers is referring to.) Others point to the fact that in playing the piece, one’s hands are ‘barricaded’ in more or less one place. Finally, in what strikes me as a very plausible suggestion linking the title of the piece to features of the music itself, the harpsichordist Luke Arnason (whose performance you can hear above) offers the following (written for this website):
The title Les Barricades Mystérieuses is probably meant to be evocative rather than a reference to a specific object, musical or otherwise. Scott Ross, in a master class filmed and distributed by Harmonia Mundi, likens the piece to a train. This clearly cannot have been the precise image Couperin was trying to convey, but it is easy to hear in Les Barricades the image of a heavy but fast-moving object that picks up momentum. In that sense, the mysterious barricades are perhaps those which cause the “train” to slow down and sometimes stop. The piece could almost be seen as a catalogue of the effects that can cause an energetic line (the piece is marked vivement) to do slow down or stop naturally and elegantly: through the imperfect and perfect cadences at the end of each couplet, the cadence resulting in a unison E flat in the third couplet, the introduction and modification of sequences in both the treble and bass (third couplet), and through some of the more “unexpected” harmonies like the diminished D chord in the first couplet. This hypothesis seems to fit in with the pedagogical aims of Couperin’s music, since the composer presents himself as something of a specialist in building sound through legato, style luthé playing. It might also explain the placement of the piece [in the ordre at the beginning of the second volume]. Though the title does not appear to be in keeping with the pastoral register of the rest of the ordre, it is emblematic of Couperin’s compositional and pedagogical style, and in that sense very much belongs at the head of the second book. Moreover, it seems to form a set with the following piece, Les Bergeries. This latter piece, though more melodic than Les Barricades, set in a higher register and more bucolic in feeling, is also an exercise in using a repetitive motif (in this case a left hand ostinato evocative of the musette) to build sound without seeming mechanical or repetitive. Both Les Barricades Mystérieuses and Les Bergeries, then, are exercises in building (and relaxing) sound and momentum elegantly. It is unfortunate, then, that so many harpsichordists play both pieces in such a relentless fashion, disregarding Couperin’s rather obvious invitations to slow down and, in my mind, the very spirit of the pieces.
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What’s going on? Toxic pesticides found in the estuary of California’s most pristine river
The four circles represent where the state Water Board found toxicity in streams feeding the Smith River estuary. The glowing circle is at the mouth of Rowdy Creek — one of the Smith’s two most important salmon streams — where state scientists discovered “acute reproductive toxicity.”
What’s perhaps most dumbfounding about such a high level of toxic pesticide use is exactly where they are applied: At the richest and most vulnerable reach of one of the world’s cleanest rivers. Superlatives describing the Smith River watershed, which is located in the far northwestern corner of California, are inexhaustible and in no way overstated. The Smith is unique among coastal rivers in the United States, and there are few watersheds like it remaining in the world’s temperate zones. The Smith River anchors the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion, one of the most biologically intact, and important, large and untrammeled ecosystems left in the world. The Klamath-Siskiyou provides high quality habitat for endangered species even while ecosystems up and down the West Coast of the United States continue to be degraded by human activity. And it’s stunningly beautiful.
Mouth of the Smith River.
The Smith is the only major undammed river in California, and it anchors the coastal heart of the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion, one of the oldest, largest and wildest temperate ecosystems in North America.
Given that the Smith River is among the healthiest salmon and steelhead rivers on the West Coast of the United States, the toxicity finding is shocking. Still, no state or federal agency has taken action to stop the pesticide loading, despite near constant admonishments from the offices of Siskiyou Land Conservancy. Residents of the small town of Smith River (pop. 2,000), which is surrounded by Easter lily fields, are also at risk from pesticides, as a recent health survey distributed by Siskiyou Land Conservancy made clear.
In 2014 the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released its long awaited draft Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast (SONCC) Coho Recovery Plan. What the Smith River chapter of the Coho Recovery Plan makes clear is that Coho numbers are plummeting not just in the region’s mostly beleaguered watersheds, but on the pristine Smith as well. The Recovery Plan lists the Smith River’s Coho salmon population as a “high extinction risk.” This despite the fact that the majority of the 719-square-mile watershed is in excellent condition, relative to other streams in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Where the Smith’s salmonid habitat is not excellent, according to the Recovery Plan, is at the estuary. And it’s the estuary that might best serve Coho salmon, especially juveniles as they flush from their native tributaries often to spend an entire year in fresh water before migrating to sea.
Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
The Recovery Plan notes that “restoration of the Smith River estuary … is imperative. … Agricultural run-off needs to be addressed to reduce the concentration levels of pesticides reaching the Smith River and its tributaries. … Of particular concern is the lily farming that occurs on the floodplain. One study showed that intense use of pesticides between 1996 and 2000 by lily farmers led to high levels of chemicals including carbofuran, chlorothalonil, diurin, disulfoton, and pentachloronitrobenzene. [The authors should also have listed metam sodium and 1,3-Dichloropropene. Also, pentachloronitrobenzene is no longer used on the Smith River.] Recent testing in the lower Smith River has revealed copper concentrations that may have acute toxic effects and impair olfaction and reproduction of coho salmon (North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (NCRWQCB) 2011). The current level of chemical contamination is a high risk for juvenile salmonids (Bailey and Lappe 2002).”
It was Siskiyou Land Conservancy’s Bailey-Lappe (CETOS) study that initiated scrutiny of pesticides at the estuary, and the “recent testing” noted above came only after several years of continual pressure by SLC on the State Water Board to conduct the tests.
Siskiyou Land Conservancy supports farmers, lily growers included. If analyses of pesticide use and their effects on the Smith River estuary show a need to transition toward less chemically-intensive agricultural practices, then we are committed to assisting lily growers do so without impacting their livelihoods. Already Siskiyou Land Conservancy has inquired with Congressman Jared Huffman’s office about securing Farm Bill funding to assist with any such transition. Like the lily growers, many of whom can be found on their days off fishing the Smith, we are in this for the long haul. Together we can protect the Smith River’s vital salmonid habitat.
Get Involved protect the Smith River from Pesticides
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Tag Archives: story within story
Ooh, plot device!
Some of you know that I’m a pretty critical reader.
Some of you are chuckling at my gift for understatement.
It’s been many years since I started reading fiction with the intention of learning how to write. The longer this goes on, the more I learn. The more I can see. The more OMFG pickier I become.
To the point where I’m actually a really good editor. Not only can I see snags, but I can see what to do about them and make suggestions.
To the point where I’m so jammed up about doing anything wrong that it’s hard to work.
But that can be for another whiny-ass post. This is about something else, actually.
[insert audible relief sighs here]
I’m reworking some of the first act of Heroes Under Siege this week and it’s getting better, so I wanted to talk about something I learned about Act 1.
Back to me being the super critical reader.
I hate the beginnings of lots of books.
Not the first lines or the first scenes, but the slog-fest that the first few chapters become. And I’m not just talking about self-pub here, there are plenty of trad books that leave me wondering when we’re going to start getting this story started.
But Susan, according to the rules of story architecture to which you claim to ascribe (OMG, whose butt am I talking out of right now?), the story really doesn’t become The Story until the First Plot Point at the end of Act 1. Act 1 is setup and introduction of all the elements we need to know about. What. Do. You. Expect?
There are a lot of things that can and do go wrong in Act 1– with some regularity, but one of the things I long for when reading is to feel like I’m being led by a competent hand. And that’s something that may be hard to explain.
Sometimes it’s obvious when it’s not happening. Like those books where information just keeps getting dumped on you because it’s important to the author that you know this stuff so she can use it later. But the author hasn’t found a way to make it important and interesting to you now, so you kind of want to claw your eyes out and go all stabbity on the narrator.
Or when you find yourself aimlessly wandering about through descriptions and scenes of actions that don’t seem to connect, and you’re thinking, OMG what the hell does this all mean and is this EVER Going Anywhere??
So a few months ago I was reading Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone. There was a first act that really pulled me right through. I remember enjoying it so much that I actually said to Kait, “This. This is how it’s done.”
Wait? How was it done?
So I had to sit back and think about that, and there’s a device which I think worked…
(First there was a prologue. And it was an excellent prologue. Attached me right to those characters as a children. Great job there. But that wasn’t what pulled me through act 1 so easily. That was just a part of what was done right.)
The characters had a goal from Chapter 1.
See, I think this is the thing that I responded to.
But wait! You can’t go introducing the story goal in chapter 1! That doesn’t happen until–
I didn’t say story goal. Did I say story goal? Pipe down.
In chapter one, years after the prologue, the main character, Alina, is on the march with her military unit. They’re going to a place where they can cross the Fold in order to get somewhere else, and this crossing will be fraught with danger. (And, as Tigger says, you just can’t argue with a word like fraught.)
So I knew where we were going! I don’t know why that would be such a relief to me, but it just was.
In terms of structure, I’d say that the crossing of the Fold contained the inciting incident. What happened there, what Alina did there, started a sequence of events that led to the First Plot Point and dragged her into the next phase of the story.
Despite knowing where we were going (wherever the crossing point was) and why (to cross the Fold because the leaders said we have to), I still had plenty of questions to keep me interested in the story. I was getting a lot of worldbuilding information, but because there was already a story going on, there was something to hang that on, so it wasn’t just floating about in the atmosphere.
A novel is often comprised of stories within a story. This “getting to the Fold” mini-plot was a very small portion of the whole, but it grounded all the introductory material, gave it a purpose in the now of the reader.
So. There’s something I saw and why I think it worked. If your act 1 is like Alice’s slow fall down a rabbit hole filled with floating worldbuilding paraphernalia, there’s an idea for you.
Now get off the Internets and go write something.
Tagged as act 1, author, books, Heroes 'Til Curfew, Heroes Under Siege, Hush Money, indie publishing, Leigh Bardugo, mini plot, paranormal, plot devices, romance, sequel, Shadow and Bone, story architecture, story structure, story within story, superheroes, Susan Bischoff, Talent Chronicles, teen fiction, writer, YA, young adult
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TASA Public Lectures are designed as significant public events that aim to foster a positive public perception of sociology as a profession and to create links between sociologists and the broader community. They aim to showcase sociological scholarship, provide a forum for communication between TASA members, and they are also an important opportunity to promote sociology in your community.
Apocalypse now? The global antibiotics
Antibiotic Resistance flyer
The Bundlr on this topic can be viewed here.
18CSociology
18CSociology flyer
Indigenous child sexual abuse: who is responsible for effecting change? July 25th, Mabo Room of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Sport: Scandal, Gender and the Nation (Charles Byrnes Room at Parramatta Town Hall on September 12, 5:30pm – 7:30pm)
Let’s Talk: The changing face of Australian Migration and Multiculturalism (November 28, Monash – Caulfield)
TASA Public Lecture 1
What’s Wrong with Television: Media Narratives of Economic Crisis
Associate Professor Ron Jacobs, State University of New York
The Australian Cultural Sociology Thematic Group in Association with Thesis Eleven Drawing on his new book The Space of Opinion, Ronald Jacobs discusses the differ-ences between newspaper and television narratives about the economic crisis. Jacobs shows how newspaper commentaries focused on economic corruption and the need for financial regulation, while television overwhelmingly focused on political corruption, align-ing closely with the party positions of the political field. In general, cases of economic cri-sis offer strong evidence for the important role that newspapers play for improving the quality of mediated deliberation, at least compared to television. They also show why the presence of academic voices improves the quality of mediated public debate. June 13th, 2011 Full details here
Governing Conduct in the Age of the Brain
The podcast is now available.
Hosted by: the Department of Sociology & Social Policy and the Biopolitics of Science Research Network, University of Sydney
Venue: Law School Foyer, Sydney University, 6 – 7.30 pm, 15 November.
Presenter: Professor Nikolas Rose
Presenter biography (brief):
Nikolas Rose is the James Martin White Professor of Sociology, Convenor of the Department of Sociology and Director of the BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has published widely across: the sociology of psychiatry; the social and political history of the human sciences; the genealogy of subjectivity; the history of empirical thought in sociology, and on the changing rationalities and techniques of political power. His extensive body of work has been translated into ten languages. He is co-editor of BioSocieties: an interdisciplinary journal for social studies of neuroscience, genomics and the life sciences.
Abstract Are developments in the neurosciences transforming our conceptions of what it is to be a human being, and if so, how, in what ways, and with what consequences? And with what implications for the social and human sciences? It is far too early to reach any definitive diagnosis: investigations into the brain and nervous system can be traced back many centuries, but neuroscience is barely fifty years old. We need to be wary of suggestions that we are in the midst of epochal transformations. Yet it is hard to ignore the pervasiveness of references to the brain and neuroscience in our own times, the growth of research and scientific publishing, the scale of public and private investment in this research, the frequency of popular accounts of new discoveries about the brain in the mass media and in books written for a mass market. In this lecture, I argue that a number of mutations – conceptual, technological, economic and biopolitical – have enabled the neurosciences to leave the enclosed space of the laboratory and gain traction in the world outside. In the course of these mutations, the human brain has come to be anatomised at a molecular level, understood as plastic, and mutable across the life-course, exquisitely adapted to human interaction and sociality, and open to investigation at both molecular and systemic scales in a range of novel experimental setups. This has generated a sense of human neurobiology as not merely setting the conditions for the lives of human beings in societies, but also as shaping those social lives in all manner of ways that are not amenable to consciousness. Yet this is not ‘neuroreductionism’, and persons are not understood as determined by their neurobiology, or reduced to mere puppets of their brains. I will give some examples of the ways in which neurobiological knowledges are becoming technological, and reshaping some of the ways in which we are governed by others, and govern ourselves in practices from child rearing to the criminal justice system. It is right to be sceptical of the excitable claims of the popularisers of neuroscience, and the naïve enthusiasm of those who see this new knowledge of the brain as providing solutions to socio-political and cultural ills from lack of social mobility to crime control. Yet a recognition of this neurobiological transformation of our sense of what it is to be human should not be feared, for it opens many pathways for the productive transformation of the human sciences themselves.
The 2010 Public Lecture was co-hosted by ANU Sociology and the TASA Environment and Society Thematic Group, and addressed “How do we manage terrestrial animals and aquatic biodiversity on private land?” Unlike previous Public Lectures, there were 3 speakers, and only one of them was a sociologist. They included Ms Deb Kerr (from the National Farmers’ Federation), Professor Stephen Dovers (Director of the Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU) and Professor Stewart Lockie (Sociology, ANU). The speakers highlighted the critical importance of biodiversity, which has been overshadowed by climate change in recent years. There was a full lecture theatre, and a lively question and answer session afterwards. Highlights from the lecture can be found in Nexus 22:3
You can Listen to Professor Kerry Carrington’s 2009 lecture and you can View the PowerPoint slides. Emeritus Professor Riaz Hassan’s 2009 lecture is available in Word (124kb ) and Pdf (200kb).
Humanitarianism: the power of the gift – Presented by Prof. Michael Humphrey
Hosted by the University of Sydney
Date: Tuesday 30 September 2008
Time: 5.30 – 7.00 pm (Refreshments after lecture)
Venue: The University of Sydney, Refectory, The Holme Building (A09)
RSVP: admin@tasa.org.au by Monday, 22nd September.
Directions: http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/largemap00a.html – (Holme Building – Map Ref 14D – near Parramatta Rd Footbridge)
The Lecture:
In reaction to the Burmese government’s resistance to allow humanitarian aid and agencies to provide relief to the mass victims of cyclone Nargis PM Kevin Rudd declared we should ‘bash the doors down diplomatically’ to persuade the Burmese regime to let us fulfill our humanitarian obligations towards innocent Burmese victims. The PM expressed a widespread revulsion at the Burmese government’s rejection of humanitarian help, the rejection of a life preserving gift.
In this lecture Michael Humphrey explores the limits of the contemporary global politics of victims and therapeutic intervention and looks at the relationship between events of suffering, victims and political legitimacy.
Michael Humphrey is Chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. He has published widely on the themes of the Islam in the West, the anthropology of globalisation, political violence and terrorism, human rights and reconciliation. A major theme is his work has been the relationship between the individual, collectivities and the state. His current research is on contemporary human rights politics and democratisation in Argentina and South Africa and globalised Islam and transnational governmentality.
Invited Guests Include:
Sydney members of The Australian Sociological Association
The Australia Burma Community Development Network
Sydney Anglicans
Sydney Burma Network
Australian Coalition for Democracy in Burma
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies – University of Sydney
The Sydney Centre for International Law (SCIL) – University of Sydney
The Australian Human Rights Centre (AHRC) – UNSW
A formal invitation was created for the 2008 Public Lecture.
Professor Andy Bennett
Growing old disgracefully? Popular music and the ageing fan
Hosted by Griffith University (Centre for Public Culture and Ideas),
the lecture is being held in
Ship Inn Function Room, Griffith University QCA Campus, South Bank
on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 5.00pm-6.30pm.
TASA members are invited to join colleagues from the Griffith University and the TASA Executive for refreshments at:
6.30 – 7.30pm, Ship Inn Function Room, Griffith University QCA Campus, South Bank
The sociological study of popular music is now an established sub-discipline of the field. Significantly, however, in charting the cultural significance of popular music much sociological work continues to prioritise youth. In this public lecture, Andy Bennett draws on his recent ethnographic work with hippies, punks and dance music fans now in their forties and fifties as a means of both readdressing the dominant focus on youth and exploding popular stereotypes of ageing music fans as being driven primarily by nostalgia.
Utilising cultural sociological perspectives framed around issues of lifestyle, fragmented culture and reflexive modernity, Bennett examines how long term personal investment in a particular music style has influenced ageing fans’ lifestyles and shaped their biographies in relation to issues such as body image, employment, peer and family relations, and political and / or spiritual outlook. Bennett will then go on to consider the implications of his research findings for broader debates centring around issues of ageing and cultural participation in the context of late modernity.
Brief Biography of Presenter:
Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology at Griffith University and Deputy Director of the University’s Centre for Public Culture and Ideas. He is author of Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity and Place (2000), Cultures of Popular Music (2001), Culture and Everyday Life (2005) and Growing Old Disgracefully? Popular Music Fandom and Ageing (forthcoming). He is a Faculty Associate of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University, an Associate of PopuLUs, the Centre for the Study of the World’s Popular Musics at Leeds University, and a member of the Board for the European Sociological Association Network for the Sociology of the Arts. He serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals Cultural Sociology, Leisure Studies, Perfect Beat and Music and Arts in Action .
RSVP September 17 to j.jones@griffith.edu.au or phone Jill Jones on 07 3735 7338.
The 2007 TASA AGM will be held in The Ship Inn Function Room , Griffith University QCA Campus, South Bank, Brisbane from 3.00pm-4.30pm Tuesday 25 September. More information is available for members click here.
There has been a change to the venue and time for The Australian Sociological Association public lecture and AGM.
The AGM will be at 3.30pm-5.00pm in the State Library of South Australia (same venue as previously).
The Public Lecture has moved to a larger venue and will now be held at:
5.30pm – 7.00pm, Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia
Professor Anthony Elliott
Extreme Reinvention: the Rise of Makeover Culture
TASA members are invited to join colleagues from the Flinders Sociology Department and the TASA Executive for refreshments at:
7.00pm – 8.00pm, Restaurant, Art Gallery of South Australia
Please email sociology@flinders.edu.au or ring Gillian Keightley on 08 8201 2026 to confirm your attendance (or RSVP)
at the Public Lecture (and refreshments) with this revised time and venue.
TASA Public Lecture 2006
is being presented by
on the topic of
Hosted by the Flinders University Sociology Department,
Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia
On Tuesday September 26, 2006 at 5.30pm – 7.00pm
In this provocative public lecture on the social consequences of makeover culture, Anthony Elliott investigates what drives people to demand instant self-reinvention – from plastic surgery to online therapy, from compulsive consumerism to the self-help movement. He argues that we are witnessing the emergence of a “new individualism”, and outlines a novel sociological perspective on people’s emotional experiences of globalization.
The lecture will focus on the debate over globalization, with particular stress on the consequences of global transformations for the self and identity. Contesting mainstream explanations that view today’s craze for reinvention as a result of the cult of celebrity, Elliott argues that an “ambient fear of globalism” haunts the new individualisms surfacing in the polished, expensive cities of the West. Surviving the new individualism, he suggests, is central to the tasks of a public sociology.
Brief Biography:
Anthony Elliott is Professor of Sociology at Flinders University . He was formerly Chair of Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury , UK . Professor Elliott’s writings have been translated in ten languages, and his recent books include Critical Visions: New Directions in Social Theory (2003), Social Theory Since Freud (2004), Subject to Ourselves (2nd Edition, 2004) and, with Charles Lemert, The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization (2005).
RSVP to sociology@flinders.edu.au OR Gillian Keightley on 08 8201 2026
The 2006 TASA AGM will be held in the The Institute Building , State Library of SA, Adelaide from 3.30pm-5.00pm Tuesday 26 September. More information is available for members click here.
2005 TASA Public Lecture Archive
The 2005 TASA public lecture was presented by Professor Michael Gilding, Sociology, Swinburne University. Read Professor Gilding’s lecture report in Nexus 17:3
Biotechnology, Public Policy and Public Opinion
The University of Melbourne
Public Policy Theatre
234 Queensberry Street
2007 TASA Public Lecture
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Marvel’s Avengers developed by Crystal Dynamics, in collaboration with Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix takes inspiration from both the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as the original Marvel comics featuring the Avengers to bring a brand new story to life. The initial trailer footage shows off parts of the game taking place on A-Day, a disastrous day in San Francisco which was meant to celebrate the Avengers and instead led to the death of Captain America and their possible disbanding.
As described by Square Enix’s official press release:
“Marvel’s Avengers invites players to live their Super Hero dreams. Outstanding storytelling and an ever-expanding universe come together in the definitive Avengers gaming experience. Master extraordinary abilities, customize a growing roster of Heroes, assemble into teams of up to four players, and defend the Earth from escalating threats.
Marvel’s Avengers begins at A-Day, where Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Thor are unveiling a hi-tech Avengers Headquarters in San Francisco — including the reveal of their own helicarrier powered by an experimental energy source. The celebration turns deadly when a catastrophic accident results in massive devastation. Blamed for the tragedy, the Avengers disband. Five years later, with all Super Heroes outlawed and the world in peril, the only hope is to reassemble Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Marvel’s Avengers features a cinematic story, complete with the high-octane action that Crystal Dynamics is known for. Featuring regular content updates, the game will take players on an epic journey delivered over multiple years.
“We’ve assembled world-class developers from across the industry to bring players on an unforgettable journey,” said Ron Rosenberg, Head of Studio at Crystal Dynamics. “To ensure a truly heroic experience for all players, we’re announcing that our narrative will be delivered over multiple years, with no random loot boxes or pay-to-win scenarios. Every new Super Hero and region will be delivered to players at no additional cost if you own the core game. This is just the beginning of what we’ve got in store for our fans.””
RP - Rating Pending
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‘No Plans’ to Change Marvel’s Avengers Character Designs Despite Fan Backlash
Square Enix E3 2019 – New Marvel Avengers Trailer Released
Marvel’s Avengers Gameplay Details Leaked, Will Include Co-op Mode
Marvel’s Avengers Will Be Revealed On Square Enix Live E3 2019
Everything We Learned About Marvel’s Avengers at E3 2019
No media posts about this game.
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That's All I've Got to Say
Essays and Other Rambling by Chris Meadows
Bent out of Shape
Date: April 4, 2009Author: Chris Meadows 0 Comments
There has been a great deal of controversy in recent months over the casting choices for the movie version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The fact that most of the protagonists were cast white and Asians were reserved for the villains has many Asian-Americans and their supporters “bent” out of shape given that the characters were very clearly of Asian ethnicity in the original animated show (although they were mostly voiced by white actors).
I posted my own views about the controversy in my LiveJournal back in January. I thought that the casting directors had just picked the best available actors or actresses for the job, and they had all simply happened to be Caucasian. But since then, my views have evolved.
I’ve seen some evidence that suggested the directors intentionally set out to cast the film Caucasian. For example, the original casting call was for actors who were “Caucasian or any other ethnicity,” which suggests they were looking for Caucasians first and anything else second.
And I’ve heard the song “Nobody’s Asian in the Movies,” from the “Commentary: The Musical” commentary track to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which sums up pretty clearly the state of Asian casting in the modern film industry. An Airbender movie could have been a great chance to change that, casting ethnic Asian actors in leading roles. But apparently it was not to be.
It has come out recently that one of the producers of the Airbender movie, Frank Marshall, has a Twitter account. He has been posting tweets about the production status of the movie. Naturally, some overzealous fans took that as an opportunity to start deluging him with demands for an explanation.
So, today Marshall tweeted the following:
Our vision for the movie is of ONE world, made up of four Nations, influenced and inspired by the Asian undertones of the series. This world will have an ethnically diverse cast that represents many different heritages and cultures from all corners of the globe.
On the surface, this sounds like a reasonable response, all very politically correct. It’s certainly in line with the way that some of the earlier casting calls for extras requested people to show up in whatever ethnic garb they had, be it kimonos or lederhosen. They want to make the show more “ethnically diverse” so that all ethnicities from the real world are represented, not just Asian.
The problem is, the world of the Avatar animated series is not “ethnically diverse” (or at least, not as much so as the real world). It is based strictly on the Asian subsets of our world (with just a few notable exceptions such as those leaf-wearing swampbenders).
In diversifying the ethnicity of the cast for the movies, they are not faithfully adapting the show—and they are getting rid of one of the things that made the animated show so great to begin with. The animated series’s strong focus on Asian culture was one of the things that made it stand out.
It feels to me like the producers made up this “ethnic diversity” stuff to justify the casting decision they’d already made—to have their cake and eat it too. They want to keep the “Asian undertones” but cast white people in the main roles because white people are safe. They don’t want to worry about non-Asians staying away from an all-Asian movie.
Of course there are many white Avatar fans, but the producers have to worry about attracting a wider audience than just fans. They’re pouring $250 million into Airbender. That’s an awful lot of movie ticket sales just to break even.
And in the end, I’m…disappointed. I’ll still go see the movie anyway. I’m not going to protest, or write a letter, or sign the petition, or call Marshall ugly names. But I’m sad that Hollywood couldn’t manage to transcend its usual way of doing business for once and get an adaptation right.
Technorati Tags: Avatar,Airbender,Aang,Frank Marshall,caucasian,Asian,controversy,racebending,Dr. Horrible
Published by Chris Meadows
TeleRead Editor and Senior Writer Chris Meadows has been writing for TeleRead--except for a brief interruption--since 2006. Son of two librarians, he has worked on a third-party help line for Best Buy and holds degrees in computer science and communications. He clearly personifies TeleRead's motto: "For geeks who love books--and book-lovers who love gadgets." Chris lives in Indianapolis and is active in the gamer community. View all posts by Chris Meadows
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© 2019 That's All I've Got to Say
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You are here » Home » 2019-06-16 » All about Social Media Solutions this week of June 16th, 2019
All about Social Media Solutions this week of June 16th, 2019
Social Media Solutions is a subject that interests many people. You are in the right place if you want to know more about Social Media Solutions. For the week of June 16th, we are pleased to provide you all that is good to know about Social Media, specifically Social Media Solutions
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Visit the best websites that will give you the information needed about Social Media Solutions from the links recommended by search engines and social medias. Many news are also available below for you to be aware of everything that is happening in the world about Social Media Solutions. Finally, view the most popular or recently published videos, photos, images and illustrations related to Social Media and "Social Media Solutions".
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That's all we have for now, come back here next Sunday for new resources on Social Media Solutions.
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Category: Fareham, Gosport and Portsmouth
Southsea Seafront consultation closes on the 27 August
22 Aug 2018 24 Aug 2018 ~ SPS Admin ~ Leave a comment
The Southsea Coastal Scheme have had well over a thousand survey responses so far – but still want more.
You can view the consultation materials here. There is scheme visualisation on YouTube here with audio description. If you visited their events and want to jump straight to the survey, you can find it here.
Once the feedback has been analysed, a cross-party working group at Portsmouth City Council will review the evidence and make a decision on which options to take forward. The Southsea Coastal Scheme will hold further public exhibitions in early November, before seeking planning permission towards the end of this year. Residents will again be able to give feedback to the council at this stage.
The consultation closes at 11.59pm on Monday 27 August 2018.
Portsmouth welcomes ‘Victoria of Wight’
The new Wightlink ferry for the Portsmouth-Fishbourne route arrived in Portsmouth Harbour today having left the shipyard in Turkey on Monday July 16. She’s been towed through the Mediterranean and north across the Bay of Biscay by the specialist offshore support vessel Amber II. ‘Victoria of Wight‘ can carry up to 178 cars and more than 1,000 passengers. Powered by ‘hybrid energy’ from a combination of batteries and conventional engines.
Consultation program for Southsea Coastal Scheme
16 Jun 2018 1 Jul 2018 ~ SPS Admin ~ Leave a comment
The Southsea Coastal Scheme is responsible for delivering new flood defences along 4.5km of seafront, from Old Portsmouth to Eastney. Their aim is to create new defences that protect te heritage of the seafront whilst reducing the risk of flooding to over 8000 homes and businesses in Southsea for the next century. The work will transform the seafront for future generations alongside protecting the heritage that is so important to the people of Portsmouth.
The Southsea Coastal Scheme team are going to be out and about across the city in July holding a new series of consultation events on our emerging designs. These will be held at a number of locations around Portsmouth and Southsea during July 2018. For details please take this link.
Solent Protection Society Celebrates 50 Years
23 May 2006 29 Jun 2018 ~ SPS Admin
Solent Protection Society celebrated its 50th anniversary with a lunch for over 140 people at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes on 19th May.
Members and guests including Chris Huhne, MP for Eastleigh and Peter Viggers, MP for Gosport, heard the Society’s former President, Maldwin Drummond, a founder member of Solent Protection, talk about the Society’s work since its inception in 1956, including the successful opposition to an oil refinery in the Hamble River, a nuclear power station at Newtown River and an oil fired power station at Fawley.
More recently Solent Protection Society worked with other organisations and associations to oppose successfully the Container Ship Port at Dibden Bay and larger ferries on the route between Lymington and Yarmouth.
The Society continually monitors planning, development and pollution matters in the Solent area and, as a result of a successful campaign in 2004/05, reached an understanding with oil companies operating in Solent waters that they will use only double hull tankers, significantly diminishing the possibility of an oil spill in the Solent.
Mr Peter Nicholson, who became Solent Protection Society’s President last November, said that there were even more challenges for the Society in the future including the pressure for more development, the demand for more marina space, the importance of developing sustainable energy programmes and, in particular the Society is keeping a close eye on developments with the Government’s Marine Bill which is now pending.
Solent Protection has put forward a proposal for a Marine National Park in the Western Solent and has recently commissioned a research project on the subject, the results of which will be available later this year.
Referring to the proposed Marine National Park, Mr Nicholson said: “If properly set up this must make sense although many people will be afraid that it will simply bring with it increasing levels of bureaucracy and management by civil servants with no relevant local experience. It will need careful planning to be successful and existing harbour authorities will probably be reluctant to support any proposal like this, but the Department of the Environment has reacted quite favourably so far to our paper on the matter and we expect to hear more in the autumn.”
Call for West Solent Marine National Park
9 Mar 2006 29 Jun 2018 ~ SPS Admin
The West Solent, a beautiful and busy waterway which stretches from Lepe Beach to The Needles, is under ever growing and conflicting pressures.
Popular with tourists, walkers, boating and watersport enthusiasts and fishermen, the Western Solent is also used by some commercial shipping, as well as the ferry service from Lymington to Yarmouth.
The Solent Protection Society is mounting a campaign to make the West Solent a Marine National Park, balancing its use for recreation with the conservation of its setting, its wildlife, fisheries and archaeological remains.
Professor Gerald Smart, representing the Society, says “We have drawn up a report that looks at the problems, and how the multitude of interests might best be co-ordinated by a partnership of mainly local organisations, in line with Marine National Parks in other parts of the world. We hope that our ideas will get a lot of support”.
There is a huge growth of interest in conservation of sea areas, and the Society hope that the Government’s proposed Marine Bill may allow Marine National Parks to be officially designated and funded.
Solent Protection Society is consulting widely on the report.
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Tag: Portsmouth Harbour
‘Big Lizzie’ sets sail for the first time from Portsmouth Harbour
2 Nov 2017 14 Aug 2018 ~ SPS Admin
On Monday lunchtime, October 30th, the future HMS Queen Elizabeth made her first exit from Portsmouth Harbour watched by a large crowd of local residents and families of crew. Previous attempts to squeeze through the harbour entrance between the ‘Still and West’ and the Haslar shore had been postponed due to high winds – winds in excess of 15 knots.
City Deal takes a £400 million step forward
10 Nov 2013 28 Jun 2018 ~ SPS Admin
The Daily Echo reports that a £400 million deal to redevelop Portsmouth and Southampton is due to be finalised any day now.
Inevitably, investment on this scale will transform city skylines. It seems likely that the long awaited Royal Pier redevelopment would be one of the priority projects. If that improves traffic flow in that part of Southampton, and allows greater public access to the waterfront, then it is to be welcomed.But SPS will try to make sure that such developments do not detract from the amenity value of the Solent.
£3.75m for Portsmouth Historic boatbuilding project
This grant from the Lottery Heritage Fund is reported by the BBC H2O show. The centre will open its doors to the public and begin training in April 2015, run buy the naval base trust and a new branch of the International Boatbuilding Training College (IBTC). Congratulations to them.
It should be a fascinating place to visit, not unlike the Hermione exhibition in Rochefort (France) where they are building a full scale frigate. There one can see an old foundry fashioning ironwork, a joiners shop making gigs, ships wheels, gun carriages, and spars. If the new facility is anything like as good as Rochefort, it will add greatly to he depth of the Portsmouth heritage experience.
Perhaps we should all campaign for equivalent support for the Cowes Classic Boat Museum which may face an uncertain future because of the redevelopment of E Cowes.
Park and Sail in Portsmouth
A new park and ride ferry service from the Portsmouth International port to Gunwharf Quay has been so successful that an additional boat has been added. Is this a trend that could be copied eksehere in the Solent?
£5m grant for HMS Victory -video
BBC H2) show tweeted
BBC HANTS: VIDEO: HMS Victory awarded £5m funding: The government has announced it is to invest a further … http://bbc.in/19bubey
Important historic buildings of the Solent
In this second article of an occasional series about different faces of the Solent (the first was Solent Birds) the focus will be on important and historic buildings of The Solent and its shores.
For ease of orientation the area will be divided into four sections: The West Solent between Hurst Castle and Southampton Water; The East Solent between Southampton Water and Selsey Bill; The Isle of Wight shoreline; Structures in the sea.
The aim will be to highlight these buildings with a short description of each, to illustrate the rich architectural heritage of the area.
West Solent
The Solent Way begins with Hurst Castle.
Hurst Castle: This is a Tudor Castle built by Henry VIII in the 16th century, as protection against the threat from the French. It consists of a 12-sided central tower with 3 rounded bastions. It is owned by English Heritage and is open to the public.
Pylewell Park: This is a late Georgian stucco mansion, just East of the Lymington River, with grounds running down to The Solent. It was initially held by the notable Catholic Weld family, as a second home to Lulworth Castle. It is now the private home of the Lord Teynham and his family.
Palace House Beaulieu: Though strictly not on the Solent shore, it is close the banks of the Beaulieu River and is accessible to shallow drafted boats at high water. Palace House was built in 1870, but the Abbey Church dates from the 13th century. The entire Beaulieu Estate, the home of Lord Montagu, includes the villages of Buckler”s Hard and Beaulieu, 20 farms/smallholdings, the river bed, and covers 8,000 acres, of which 2,000 are woodland.
Luttrell’s Tower: This is an interesting 18th century folly, which stands on top of the cliff, 1/2 mile West of Hillhead. It was here that Marconi carried out some of his first transmissions to the Isle of Wight.
Calshot Castle: This is a circular blockhouse with a 3 storey central keep, erected by Henry VIII in 1540 and is situated on land at the end of Calshot Spit.
East Solent
The Solent Way continues across Southampton Water.
Wool House: This is an imposing medieval building on the North West of the Town Quay in Southampton. It now houses the Maritime Museum, which tells the story of Southampton’s dockside and the ships that used it.
Mayflower Monument: This is a needle shaped monument to the West of the Wool House, which records the fact that religious dissenters set sail for the New World in 1620.
Tudor House Museum: This is a 15th century grand building situated on Bugle Street near the Town Quay. It houses an impressive display of local treasures.
St Michael’s Church: This is situated opposite the Tudor House Museum. It was built in the 12th century while the spire dates from 1732.
Netley Castle: This is a stone Tudor style mansion that was built in the 1880s. It stands on the site of an original fort, built at the time of Hurst Castle. It has been a convalescent home since the war.
Royal Thames Yacht Club: This, the oldest yacht club in England, is situated at Warsash. The Buckingham Palace Household YC also uses it.
Fort Gillkicker: This perches on the shoreline at Gillkicker Point. It was built in 1859 as one of Lord Palmerston’s 20 land forts and 4 sea forts, to render Portsmouth impregnable; ‘Palmerston’s Follies’. It now houses a Royal Naval observation post.
Portsmouth Cathedral: This is situated in Old Portsmouth, close to the harbour wall. It dates back to a Norman Chuch built in the 1180s and has strong links with the Royal Navy.
The Square and Round Towers of Portsmouth Harbour Wall: These fine old stone marks date from 1418, built to defend the old naval harbour.
Clarence Pier Southsea: This was built in 1861 to enhance the pleasures of the upper middle classes with their bathing machines in Victorian times.
Southsea Castle: This castle dates from 1544, although the arms over the main entrance are those of Charles II, who had the fort strengthened. It now houses the D-Day Museum, opened 40 years after the Normandy Landings.
Fort Cumberland: This is the finest example of an 18th century defence work, with its bastions arranged in the shape of a five-pointed star. It is situated between Portsea Island and Langstone Harbour.
The Isle of Wight
The Solent heritage tour now crosses to the North Island shore, starting in the West.
The Needles Battery Emplacement: This was built in 1861 and equipped with 7 inch Armstrong rifled breechloaders, as defence against the French and Germans. It was regularly upgraded, until finally after a 15-year spell testing the British space rocket, Black Knight, it was closed in 1971. It was purchased by the National Trust in 1975 and full restoration completed in 1981. It is now open to the public.
Forts Albert and Victoria: These battlements were built between 1852 and 1855. Albert has been converted to flats and Victoria is part of the Fort Victoria Entertainment Park.
Yarmouth Castle: This was built in 1545 by Henry VIII and had a square keep and three sides facing the sea. It was still in use up to 1870 and is now used as a Coastguard’s Lookout.
Cowes Castle: This is yet another of Henry VIII defences against the French, built in 1539. It is now the home of the Royal Yacht Squadron and its cannon is only fired at five-minute intervals to start yacht races.
Norris Castle: This grand house was built in 1790 with the appearance of a castle but not the strength. It is on the site of the original East Cowes Castle.
Osborne House: Osborne House is situated 1 mile south east of Cowes and 1/2 mile from the Solent shore. The house was purchased by Queen Victoria in 1845. Prince Albert supervised the re-building of the house as an Italianate Villa and it became the favourite home of the Royal Couple. They both died there, Albert in 1861 and Victoria in 1901, since when it has changed little. It stands in a thousand acres of grounds and is now a national treasure open to the general public and probably the Isle of Wight’s most popular tourist attraction.
The Solent Waters
The heritage tour concludes by entering the sea.
The Spithead Forts: These forts were built in the 1860s to protect Portsmouth from sea bombardment. Horse Sands, No Man’s Land and St Helens Forts were built between 1865 and 1880, and Spitbank was started 2 years later. Horse Sands and No Man’s Land are identical at 200 feet in diameter and fully armour plated. The other two are slightly smaller at 150 feet with iron plating on the front only. The foundations are 20-30 feet under the water on sandbanks. Spitbank is open from April to October. The other three are privately owned.
The Nab Tower: This unusual looking structure, a few miles to the South East of Bembridge, started life during the first world war as an antisubmarine defence system. However when the armistice was signed in 1918, it was not fully completed. So it was decided to use the 92 feet tall metal cylinder (costing 1m) sitting on a concrete raft, to replace a lightship marking the Nab Rock. The concrete raft (189ft × 150ft) was flooded and sunk on a shingle bank near the Nab Rock. It used to be manned by a crew of 4 but is now fully automated.
Thus it can be seen what an interesting and varied range of historic buildings are to be found in the Solent area. Not surprisingly most of these are related to the defence of our Royal Naval Base at Portsmouth. This heritage is just one of the aspects of the Solent which The Solent Protection Society seeks to protect and preserve.
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The Funniest Viral April Fools' Pranks of All Time
By Megan McCluskey
April Fools’ Day is right around the corner, which means it’s time to gear up to play a few pranks on your unsuspecting friends and family (or at least prepare for them to play one on you).
But if you find yourself lacking inspiration as March draws to a close, it’s always helpful to take a look back at the best gags others have managed to pull off over the years — especially when they’ve been hilarious enough to land a coveted spot in the annals of viral Internet fame.
Check out five of the funniest viral April Fools’ pranks of all time below.
John Stamos’ Netflix freakout:
Netflix took celebrity pranking to a whole new level in 2016 by first releasing a fake trailer for a biopic documentary about the man, the myth, the legend that is John Stamos before “leaking” a video of the actor unleashing his anger over the gag at the company’s office. Of course, it turned out Stamos was in on the whole thing.
Katie Couric takes a tumble:
James Corden may be one of the kings of late night comedy but even he fell for Katie Couric’s fake fall down the Late Late Show stairs. Although most of the credit should probably go to Couric’s stunt double for pulling off that vicious-looking spill.
Punk’d NBA style:
Golden State Warrior Andre Iguodala partnered with Lyft in 2016 to hilariously trick teammate Festus Ezeli into thinking he was being released from the team right before the playoffs. Unfortunately, this prank became a bit retroactively awkward when Ezeli left the Warriors to sign with the Portland Trail Blazers just a few months later.
The Rickrolling heard around the world:
Riffing off the one of the most well-known YouTube pranks ever, the video sharing site took advantage of April Fools’ Day 2008 by linking all the featured videos on its homepage to Rick Astley’s swaggy “Never Gonna Give You Up” 1987 music video — a practice commonly referred to as Rickrolling.
Math class gets technical:
In 2015, Matthew Weathers, a math professor at Biola University, arranged an amusing — and elaborate — gag for his class involving a botched trigonometry lesson and some impressive live-action technology tricks. The video has garnered nearly 15 million views on YouTube to date.
Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com.
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Philip Pullman Has Made a Career Building New Worlds. He’s Not Done Yet
Lewis Khan for TIME
By Dan Stewart
When Philip Pullman was 10 years old, he witnessed a vision that has stayed with him ever since. The year was 1956, and he was living in South Australia, where his stepfather was a pilot with Britain’s Royal Air Force. The River Murray floods that year had left huge parts of the region underwater, and he remembers being driven out to see it. “It was astonishing,” the 70-year-old British author says now. “It was an immense mass, as wide as the sea, of gray water whipped up by a cold wind. The power of it. It was an impression that never left me.”
It’s this memory that inspired the flood at the center of La Belle Sauvage, the first volume of the Book of Dust, Pullman’s new trilogy set in the universe of his fantasy series His Dark Materials. Released between 1995 and 2000, the three novels that launched the franchise entered the canon of young-adult fiction and, alongside the Harry Potter series, stands as an early example of the cross-generational appeal of the genre. In 2003, Pullman’s fellow Brits voted the entire trilogy their third favorite book of all time, after The Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice.
His Dark Materials is mostly set in a parallel universe where the supernatural is everyday; ageless witches exist alongside warrior polar bears; and every human has a “daemon,” a kind of spirit animal with which it shares a soul. The books also wrestle with weighty metaphysical themes, influenced by the poetry of William Blake and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The villains are the forces of organized religion, and the heroes seek to challenge and overturn the order of the monotheistic universe. The final book ends with Pullman’s heroine, Lyra, unwittingly restaging the fall of man and setting out to create a “Republic of Heaven,” a principled democracy rather than a dictatorship under the authority of God.
These heretical themes saw the books condemned by church groups in the U.S., especially after the 2007 movie adaptation of the first volume, The Golden Compass, brought them wider attention. In the following two years the trilogy was among the country’s most frequently challenged books, according to the American Library Association, as anxious parents attempted to have it removed from public and school libraries. “Atheism for kids,” the Catholic League announced in 2007, “that is what Philip Pullman sells.”
In person, Pullman doesn’t seem much like a threat to the moral order. He strikes an avuncular, professorial figure at home in his low-ceilinged cottage just outside of Oxford. But there’s a streak of eccentricity too. While he was writing La Belle Sauvage, he vowed not to cut his hair until he was finished. “It was superstition,” he says, “or a bargain with the muse or something. ‘If I don’t cut my hair, this book will be all right.’” He still has the hair, he says, stashed away in a Ziploc bag. “I’m going to give it to the Bodleian Library,” he adds, referring to the University of Oxford’s research library.
The fury over His Dark Materials has worn away over the years, and the letters Pullman once regularly received from readers telling him he was going to hell seldom come anymore. He sounds rather disappointed to report that “clearly, no evident evil has sprouted from its presence in the world for 20 years. There’s nothing they can point to and say, This man ought to be burned at the stake.”
Despite the presence of a biblical-style flood in its second half, there’s little to object to in La Belle Sauvage, which comes out on Oct. 19. Where the first trilogy traverses worlds to question the fundamentals of existence, this prequel shrinks the canvas to tell a more simplistic story about “the dangers of what Blake called single vision,” Pullman explains, “a narrow, dogmatic point of view that excludes every other angle of vision but what it deems to be true.”
Set about a decade before the events of the original trilogy, La Belle Sauvage tells the story of Malcolm, the 11-year-old son of an innkeeper in Oxford. In between helping out at his dad’s pub and riding the city’s canals in the beloved canoe that gives the book its title, Malcolm is introduced to a baby, Lyra, who is being looked after by an order of nuns at a nearby priory. Over the course of the novel, set almost entirely in Oxfordshire, it falls to Malcolm to protect Lyra from the forces threatening her—not just the rising floodwaters but also the various agents of a tyrannical church, or “Magisterium,” now growing in power.
In the book’s first half Pullman delves into the authority the Magisterium has accumulated over this alternative version of Britain. It’s a grim vision of totalitarianism: dissenters are “disappeared” or forced to go into hiding. Scientists must carry out their work in secret. A sinister youth organization turns schoolkids into informers. The historical parallels with the Spanish Inquisition and the Soviet Union are unmistakable, but Pullman says similar forces still exist today. “In the Middle East, and in isolated pockets of Western Europe, we see people, especially young men, who love the idea of an absolute answer to everything,” he says. “That cast of mind has not very often acquired political power, but when it does it’s absolutely murderous.”
Eventually the flood comes, transporting Malcolm into more fantastical territory as he, Lyra and teenage companion Alice travel through a mysterious, shadowy world inspired by British folklore. As an influence, Pullman cites The Secret Commonwealth, a treatise written by Scottish clergyman Robert Kirk in the early 1690s on the world of fairies, witchcraft and second sight. “I’m fascinated by that world,” he says. “And it’s the complete opposite of the world that science tells us about.”
Although Pullman is an admirer of writers about science, he believes they are as susceptible to the dangers of a “single vision” as politicians or zealots. “They might say X is nothing more than Y,” he says, “or love is nothing more than the excitation of neurons in the brain, for example. I would much rather say love is the excitation of neurons in the brain, among other things. And we’re not truly seeing it unless we see all of those things. And that is something Lyra and Malcolm will have to learn.”
Lyra plays little more than a passive role in this book, being only a few months old. But the next book—titled The Secret Commonwealth—will visit her 20 years later. “She’s going to be an undergraduate and her own woman, and she’s going to have the beginnings of an adult’s preoccupations,” Pullman says. “And, um, there will be trouble.” He hints that it will be partly set in Central Asia and that there will be a “bit of a surprise” in store about Lyra’s connection to a major character in La Belle Sauvage.
There’s more of Pullman’s work on the horizon. The BBC is developing a television adaptation of the first trilogy penned by Jack Thorne, the playwright responsible for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The Golden Compass was an infamous box-office flop, and while Pullman won’t be drawn out about that, he does say he feels his work is better suited to the small screen. “The thing about a movie is that you’ve got to distill 12 to 13 hours of story into 120 minutes, and, of course, you can’t do it because you have to leave things out,” he says. “The great advantage of the new world of long-form television is that you can allow the time for a story to develop.”
The new world of television has also given us Game of Thrones, another epic series of books set in a parallel fantasy universe and made into a very successful HBO show. Is he a fan? “Not really my sort of thing,” Pullman says. “I don’t watch or read very much fantasy.” He considers himself a realist more than a fabulist, a fact that might surprise ardent Pullmaniacs obsessed with the universe he has built.
In fact, he says, the driving force behind his choice of genre is less a desire to build new worlds than a simple reluctance to explore this one. “It’s because I’m a lazy bastard,” he jokes. “Too idle to get up off my backside and do any research in the real world.” Pullman is similarly humble when I ask what he wants the reader to take away from this new book, what that great flood inspired by a childhood vision really means. “The meaning of the book is never just what the author thinks it is. It’s a great mistake to rely on the author to tell you,” he says. “We don’t know. The meaning is only what emerges when the book and the reader meet.”
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President Trump's Decision on Jerusalem Welcomed by Evangelical Voters, Pro-Israel Groups and Major Donors
By Alana Abramson
Updated: December 7, 2017 2:52 PM ET
President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was welcomed by evangelical voters, pro-Israel organizations and some of his biggest donors.
Though many Middle East experts warned that the decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital could inflame tensions in the area, Trump’s decision to follow-through on his campaign pledge was praised in other quarters.
The Zionist Organization of America released a lengthy statement hailing the move as “historic, moral and just.” The Republican Jewish Coalition took out a full-page ad in the New York Times expressing similar sentiments, offering continued support for his presidency.
“President Trump has acted with moral clarity,” the ad reads. “The bond between the U.S. and Israel is strong and after eight years of the Obama administration, the days of daylight between our nations are over.”
Polls show that most Americans oppose moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem — 63% in one recent national poll. But evangelical Christians, who overwhelming supported Trump in the 2016 election, back the move, although more narrowly, with 53% supporting it in the same poll.
Shibley Telhami, a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution and “Professor, and Director of the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll and a critic of the decision, noted that presidents from both parties have pledged to move the embassy for years but never followed through. He said it’s not clear that Trump would have been hurt among the evangelical community if he hadn’t gone ahead, especially since he’s worked on other priorities for them.
“None of them would have abandoned him if he hadn’t taken this stance because he’s given them so much more,” he said.
Trump’s decision was also popular with small group of major donors who backed his presidential campaign.
Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a supporter of the embassy move who backs both the Zionist Organization and the Republican Jewish Coalition and, along with his wife Miriam, is also a major donor. He donated at least $20 million to a super PAC designed to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, and $5 million to Trump’s inauguration committee.
So is Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, who donated $5 million in 2016 to a super PAC that backed Trump’s candidacy, and, like Adelson, sits on the Republican Jewish Coalition board of directors, and Elliott Broidy, a venture capitalist who was National Vice Chairman of the Trump Victory Campaign during the campaign and Vice Chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. A representative for Adelson did not respond to repeated requests for comment, and a representative for Marcus declined to comment. The sentiment however, according to a Republican operative with close ties to the Jewish community, is that any pressure put on Trump is nowhere near comparable to what congressional Republicans were facing on tax reform.
“I think everyone was confident the President one day would do it and they’re very happy and impressed it happened now,” Broidy told TIME on Wednesday. He said that he had been in touch with Trump, but not on this specific issue, but that he had spoken with people who were unhappy that the President did not make this announcement six months ago. “It’s one issue of many that matters to me .. I am happy he followed through on his campaign pledge.”
Matt Brooks, Executive Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said his entire organization — including members of his Board of Directors — have frequently been in touch with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, as well as key members of his Middle East policy team, including Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, the Representative for International Negotiations, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
“We never miss a chance in talking to administration folks, also the Republican friends in the house and the Senate and the Governors [about] how important the recognition of Jerusalem is in moving our embassy,” Brooks said. “It comes up in many of the conversations we have.”
Still, Telhami, who said he has spoken with White House advisers conducting the negotiations, said Trump didn’t simply act to please his donors.
“When you consider the strategic consequences, Adelson alone cannot possibly explain the outcome,” he explained. “He still has three years to go in his first term, so even if Adelson wasn’t happy about a delay, Trump had plenty of time and opportunity to placate him.”
A Republican operative had similar sentiments. “Clearly there are a lot of people the president admires but is this a bone he’s throwing to certain donors? Not at all? Were there people who have access to the president who were able to make a case for these issues and reinforce them? Absolutely. But the fact that he’s doing this for his donors couldn’t be farther from the truth.”
The timing of Trump’s announcement was fortuitous, coming on the eve of Thursday’s White House Hanukkah Party, where hundreds of Jewish leaders are expected to be in attendance — and will likely praise Trump for his decision.
“It’s going to be overwhelming, it’s going to be appropriately so,” said Brooks of the event. “The speech today by this president was probably one of the most historic and consequential speeches on Israel by any U.S. president ever.”
“Anything they felt frustrated about — it will be instantly forgotten,” said the Republican operative with close ties to the Jewish community. “He will be genuinely loved in that room for doing this.”
Write to Alana Abramson at Alana.Abramson@time.com.
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Home / About The Globe / Globe to Broadway
Productions with Globe origins that have gone on to Broadway
Tony Nominations/Awards (** = Winner)
Meteor Shower - by Steve Martin. Directed at the Globe by Gordon Greenberg, a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre. Meteor Shower had its world premiere at The Old Globe July 30–September 18, 2016. Broadway previews, directed by Jerry Zaks, began at the Booth Theatre November 1, 2017, with opening night on November 29.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Amy Schumer
Bright Star - Music and book by Steve Martin and music and lyrics by Edie Brickell, based on an original story by Martin and Brickell. Directed by Walter Bobbie; choreography by Josh Rhodes. Bright Star was developed and had its world premiere at The Old Globe September 13 – November 2, 2014. Pre-Broadway engagement at The Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater, December 2, 2015- January 10, 2016. Broadway previews began at the Cort Theatre February 25, with opening night March 24, 2016.
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) written for the theatre: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
Best Book of a Musical: Steve Martin
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Carmen Cusack
Best Orchestrations: August Eriksmoen
Allegiance - Music and lyrics by Jay Kuo; book by Marc Acito, Jay Kuo, and Lorenzo Thione. Directed by Stafford Arima; choreography by Andrew Palmero. Produced at the Globe September 7 – October 28, 2012, opened on Broadway October 6, 2015.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder - Book by Robert L. Freedman; music by Steven Lutvak; lyrics by Freedman and Lutvak. Directed by former Old Globe Co-Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak; choreography by Peggy Hickey; a co-production with Hartford Stage. Produced at Hartford first, then the Globe March 8 – April 14, 2013, opened on Broadway November 17, 2013.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Jefferson Mays
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Bryce Pinkham
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Lauren Worsham
Best Book of a Musical: Robert L. Freedman**
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) written for the theatre: Music: Steven Lutvak and Lyrics: Robert L. Freedman & Steven Lutvak
Best Orchestrations: Jonathan Tunick
Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Alexander Dodge
Best Costume Design of a Musical: Linda Cho**
Best Direction of a Musical: Darko Tresnjak**
Best Musical**
A Catered Affair - Book by Harvey Fierstein; music & lyrics by John Bucchino; directed by John Doyle. Produced at the Globe in 2007; Broadway opening: April, 2008.
Best Actress: Faith Prince
Best Actor: Tom Wopat
The Times They Are A-Changin’ - Conceived, directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp to the music of Bob Dylan. Produced at the Globe in 2006; Broadway debut in 2006.
Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! - Book & lyrics by Timothy Mason; music by Mel Marvin; directed by Jack O'Brien. Produced at the Globe 1998-present; Broadway debut in 2006.
Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life - Book by Terrence McNally; directed by Graciela Daniele. Produced at the Globe in 2005; Broadway opening on December 11, 2005.
Best Actress: Chita Rivera
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Book by Jeffrey Lane; music & lyrics by David Yazbek; directed by Jack O’Brien. Produced at the Globe in 2004; Broadway opening in March, 2005.
Best Actor: Norbert Leo Butz **
Best Actor: John Lithgow
Best Actress: Sherie Rene Scott
Best Featured Actress: Joanna Gleason
Best Director: Jack O’Brien
Best Score: David Yazbek
Best Book of a Musical: Jeffrey Lane
Best Choreography: Jerry Mitchell
Best Orchestrations: Harold Wheeler
Best Lighting: Kenneth Posner
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All – By Martin Tahse; directed by Don Scardino. Produced at the Globe in 2003; Broadway opening in 2004.
Julius Caesar - By William Shakespeare; directed by Daniel Sullivan. Produced at the Globe in 2003; Broadway opening in 2005.
Imaginary Friends - By Nora Ephron; music by Marvin Hamlisch; lyrics by Craig Carnelia; directed by Jack O’Brien. Produced at the Globe in 2002; Broadway opening in 2002.
The Full Monty - By Terrence McNally; music & lyrics by David Yazbek ; directed by Jack O’Brien. Produced at the Globe in 2000; Broadway opening in 2000.
Best Actor: Patrick Wilson
Best Featured Actor: Andre De Shields
Best Featured Actor: John Ellison Conlee
Best Featured Actress: Kathleen Freeman
Best Book of a Musical: Terrence McNally
Getting and Spending - By Michael J. Chepiga; directed by John Tillinger. Produced at the Globe in 1998; Broadway opening in 1998.
Play On! - Conceived & directed by Sheldon Epps; book by Cheryl L. West; music by Duke Ellington. Produced at the Globe in 1996; Broadway opening in 1997.
Best Actress: Tonya Pinkins
Best Orchestrations: Luther Henderson
Getting Away with Murder - By Stephen Sondheim & George Furth; directed by Jack O’Brien. Produced at the Globe in 1995 (as The Doctor Is Out); Broadway opening in 1996.
Damn Yankees - By George Abbott and Richard Adler (Revival); directed by Jack O’Brien. Produced at the Globe in 1993; Broadway opening in 1994.
Best Featured Actor: Jarrod Emick **
Best Actor: Victor Garber
Best Choreography: Rob Marshall
Best Musical Revival
Redwood Curtain - By Lanford Wilson; directed by Marshall Mason. Produced at the Globe in 1993; Broadway opening in 1993.
Best Actress: Debra Monk **
Best Scenic Design: John Lee Beatty
Best Lighting Design: Dennis Parichy
Two Trains Running - By August Wilson; directed by Lloyd Richards. Produced at the Globe in 1991; Broadway opening in 1992.
Best Featured Actor: Larry Fishburn ** (now Laurence)
Best Featured Actor: Roscoe Lee Brown
Best Featured Actress: Cynthia Martells
Best Play: August Wilson
Jake's Women - By Neil Simon; directed by Jack O’Brien. Produced at the Globe in 1990; Broadway opening in 1992.
Best Actor: Alan Alda
The Piano Lesson - By August Wilson; directed by Lloyd Richards. Produced at the Globe in 1989; Broadway opening in 1990.
Best Actor: Charles S. Dutton
Best Featured Actress: S. Epatha Merkerson
Best Featured Actor: Rocky Carroll
Best Director: Lloyd Richards
Rumors - By Neil Simon; directed by Gene Saks. Produced at the Globe in 1988; Broadway opening in 1989.
Best Featured Actress: Christine Baranski **
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone - By August Wilson; directed by Lloyd Richards. Produced at the Globe in 1988; Broadway opening in 1988.
Best Featured Actress: L. Scott Caldwell **
Best Featured Actor: Delroy Lindo
Best Featured Actress: Kimberleigh Aarn
Best Featured Actress: Kimberly Scott
Into the Woods - By Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine; directed by James Lapine. Produced at the Globe in 1987; Broadway opening in 1988.
Best Actress: Joanna Gleason **
Best Score: Stephen Sondheim **
Best Book of a Musical: James Lapine **
Best Actor: Robert Westenberg
Best Director: James Lapine
Best Choreographer: Lar Lubovitch
Best Costume Design: Ann Hould-Ward
Best Lighting Design: Richard Nelson
Best Scenic Design: Tony Straiges
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Trust Me! I Know What I’m Doing! (Writer’s Workshop)
John Holton Writer's Workshop February 9, 2017 2 Minutes
One of the reasons I love Mary so much is that she understands my sense of humor. At first, she didn’t get it, but it progressed swiftly from her understanding my jokes to telling my jokes to thinking like me.
One of the areas where she demonstrates this is TV shows. I was on the road one week, and when I called home she said, “There’s this show you just have to see!” The next week, when I was home, we watched it together, and she was right. The show?
Sledge Hammer!
The show starred David Rasche as Sledge Hammer (son of Jack and Armen), a not-too-bright and borderline psychotic police detective who carried a .44 Magnum (which he named Gun and to which he would talk on occasion). Sledge was based on Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” character and was created by producer and director Alan Spencer. Evidently, when Spencer first shared the idea with network executives, they all rejected it, one going so far as to ask Spencer to get a psychological evaluation. However, after the executives saw the last Dirty Harry movie (1983’s Sudden Impact), they thought it might find an audience.
Sledge’s partner was a woman named Dori Doreau, played by the beautiful Anne-Marie Martin, wife (now ex-) of Michael Crichton. She was the more sensible of the two of them, although shortly into the pilot episode she showed she could be just as crazy and violent as her partner. Their long-suffering and often-exasperated boss was Captain Trunk, played by Harrison Page, who would later play Rear Admiral Morris, a military judge, on the show JAG.
Originally, Sledge’s catchphrase was “I’m crazy, but I know what I’m doing!” ABC, the network that bought the show, balked at that, so it was changed to “Trust me, I know what I’m doing!” When he’d say that line, often along with drawing his pistol, you knew he didn’t know what he was doing, and the result was going to be disastrous. He never actually shot anyone, except for once, and that was off-camera and was said to be “an accident.”
Some of the humor of the show came from references to other shows and places. For example, in one show they had to solve the murders of Elvis impersonators, so Sledge enrolls himself in the Famous Elvis Impersonators’ School. This was accompanied by a slide featuring The University of Chicago with the caption “Famous Elvis Impersonators’ School.” On another episode, there was the following exchange between Sledge and Dori:
Sledge: When am I on?
Dori: You follow a guy from Dallas & precede a guy from Miami.
Sledge: Between Dallas & Miami… what a terrible place to be!
This was a reference to the show’s time slot, opposite CBS’s Dallas and NBC’s Miami Vice.
The show lasted two years and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Ms. Martin retired from acting shortly after to raise and show Icelandic horses, but Rasche and Page are still working and evidently good friends.
Many episodes of the show can be found on YouTube. I think you’ll find them funny. Trust me.
(Kat’s prompt was “Write a blog post inspired by the word: trust,” though I don’t think this was what she had in mind…)
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22 thoughts on “Trust Me! I Know What I’m Doing! (Writer’s Workshop)”
simplegirl74 says:
This really sounds like something the hubby would enjoy. I am going to pass it along to him. “Trust me, I know what I am doing.” is something the hubby says LOL not always does it end well either.
Hope he likes it! I think he will…
jowensauthor says:
I watched that on TV when I was little, it was hilarious! My brother even picked up the DVD set of it a while back, and he still enjoys it as much now as he did back then.
It’s classic comedy, kind of like “Police Squad.” There was some great network TV in the Eighties and Nineties.
I feel like my mother watched that show. There’s something familiar about it.
It was a funny show, though I doubt it would make it to the air in this day and age.
jenessamullen says:
I’ve never heard of this show. I think I’ll pass it on to my husband, it seems like something he would enjoy. Thanks for sharing.
I think just about all the episodes are on YouTube. I’m sure he’d enjoy it.
I watched it and haven’t thought about it in years. Time to go watch an episode or two as I think that was on in my early teens and I found it funny as hell.
It was on from 86-88, so yeah, you would have been 11 and 12. Close enough. Perfect parody that I’m sure wouldn’t make it to production these days.
I watched that trailer, and it looks vaguely familiar, but I don’t think I ever really watched it. Betcha my husband’s watched it, though. Trust me.
Ask him. He probably remembers it if he saw it.
Kip says:
Good one John
You know you have married the right person when they go from “understanding your jokes to telling your jokes to thinking like you.”!
I’m not familiar with the show but will check it out. Thank you for sharing.
It’s pretty crazy, but still funny, and there wasn’t anything really objectionable about it. I think you’ll like it.
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mamaslosinit says:
I love that Mary just GETS it…lol! That is true love!
When you find yourself repeating jokes that your spouse tells, you know you’re really onto something. It’s a slippery slope from there.
That show looks like the sort of thing my son would love. I will have to steer him to it.
Elaine Alguire (@elainea) says:
Yeah, we were too busy watching Dallas at my parents’ house (being Texans and all). 😉
Those were the days of the big nighttime soap operas. CBS ran “Dallas,” then “Falcon Crest,” remember that one?
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The Story Behind THE MORONI DECEPTION, by Jack L. Brody
thedarkphantom / October 2, 2012
The first story is that to a certain extent, writing a novel started out as somewhat of an economic decision. I’d written screenplays for a number of years and had made several half-hearted attempts at a novel, but I’d always found it so much harder than writing a screenplay, probably because at the time, I was much more of a movie guy and I’d seen so many films that the script formula was sort of pre-coded into my writing DNA. So each time I had attempted to start a novel before, I’d always found it so different and so much harder, that I tended to give up pretty easily. The thing, though, that I kept seeming to run into with my screenplays, was the old Catch-22– that to sell a screenplay you have to have an agent, and to get an agent you have to have sold a screenplay. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but in my attempt to navigate around this agent obstacle, I sent my very best screenplay directly to two different director/producers. Both wound up “borrowing” very large and significant portions of this screenplay and went on to make two different movies about 10 years apart. The good part, I guess, was I got to see quite a bit of my work up on the big screen. The bad part, however, was that I never saw the first dime or any credit, which could have been my entry finally into the film world. The second film even went on to take in over $100 million, which was sadly ironic, because I had always jokingly referred to that script as my “$100 million dollar screenplay.” Those repeated episodes really kind of took the wind out of my sails, and so I thought, “Maybe the next time I need to try to write a novel,” believing that it would possibly be easier to find an agent who could represent my remaining screenplays.
As far as The Moroni Deception coming about, I had several inspirations. What sparked the initial idea for the novel was after reading Jon Krakauer’s “Under The Banner of Heaven.” From reading it, I got a brief education about the history and founding of the LDS Church– although I should point out that most of the modern day stuff his book also dealt with, largely had to do with one of the LDS’s rather extreme polygamous offshoots–more the “Warren Jeffs” branch of the Mormon family tree. After I saw how much potential there was for weaving in some of the more interesting elements as part of a novel, I did about a year and half’s worth of research before I ever wrote the first word–other than taking copious notes. I guess I should also mention that the other thing that actually led me to having an interest in reading Krakauer’s book, because I’m not normally a big non-fiction reader, was an episode of “South Park.” Like a lot of people, I had never really given the religion that much thought, and had always just kind of thought of it as one of the lesser know Protestant denominations. But the South Park episode, “All About Mormons,” actually did spark my initial interest in examining the religion much closer, because from what they had about the history of the LDS Church in the episode, it just kind of sounded like they were making it up, as they’re prone to do sometimes, at least by exaggerating things for effect. I’m here to tell you, though, they weren’t really that far off. And, of course, coincidentally, the South Park creators then went on to write and produce The Book of Mormon show on Broadway.
Lastly, I think it bears worth mentioning, since you did ask about what the story behind the novel was, but the plot has almost completely changed from the way it started out. I recognize a few things from the original story– a few scenes and a few characters–but the original plot started out with an FBI agent, and I guess you might call him a “rogue agent,” since he was launching his own investigation into the mysterious death of his girlfriend/lover who had broken away, or escaped from a fundamentalist, polygamist offshoot of the LDS Church. He then suspects that for some reason she was murdered by them. Somewhere along the line, and I can’t even quite remember the metamorphosis of the thing, but the FBI agent became a New York Times reporter, and a Mormon candidate for President became his person of interest. The latter part, I’m thinking likely came about as result of Gov. Romney running for the first time back in 2008, probably right around the time I came across the “White Horse Prophecy,” and that just started some sort of percolation of an entirely different story into a whole other direction.
Jack Brody is a writer, ex-military, and an avid traveler. After his Army stint and then deciding to pass on law school, he went to film school, wrote screenplays, and held a number of jobs which ran from everything to working for a newspaper for one day, to film production, to then going into real estate (with at least five others along the way). He’s fascinated by history, politics, and architecture, all of which play a part in his novels (yes, he already has two more in the works). When not writing, he can often be found hiking with his two faithful dogs, occasionally breaking out the old BMW bike for a ride though the mountains, or playing volleyball or bar trivia with his friends. He divides his time between his home in the Southern Appalachians and wherever his passport will take him. After reading Jon Krakauer’s bestselling “Under the Banner of Heaven,” he was inspired to undertake a full year of research in preparation for the novel. Taking what he’d learned, along with a bit of imagination, the result was the conspiracy thriller, The Moroni Deception.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0093CDLSE
B& N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-moroni-deception-jack-l-brody/1112755708
Website: http://www.themoronideception.com
Read the first chapters: http://www.themoronideception.com
October 2, 2012 in Uncategorized. Tags: conspiracy, Fiction, jack l. brody, latter day saints, mitt romney, mormon, mormon history, Mystery, new york times, presidential election, salt lake city, the davinci code, the girl with the dragon tattoo, Thriller
The Story Behind ‘Easy as Pie at Bobby’s Diner’ by Susan Wingate
The Story Behind A Wanted Man by Robert Parker
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December 7, 2016 July 3, 2019 / studentfilmreview / Leave a comment
Last year Inside Out blew everyone away with its stunning effects and inventive premise. Then The Good Dinosaur came out in the second half of 2015 and did not live up to the high standards set before it. This year Zootropolis wowed the audience and received praise for its narrative and story elements. Now Moana is stepping into the void left by The Good Dinosaur. Does it fail like last time or does it continue a good year for Disney?
Moana stars Auli’i Cravahlo, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Rachael House and Temuera Morrison and is directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The film follows Moana (Cravahlo), a chieftains daughter, who must set off across the ocean to find demigod Maui (Johnson) and help recover the “heart of the sea”.
The animation and design, like all Disney films, is superb. The film is set on a chain of Polynesian islands with Moana and Maui sailing between them. The islands look superb with the water being a highlight. I know it sounds odd to praise the water, but it’s one of the hardest things to animate and here it’s almost photorealistic. Polynesian culture has been heavily researched and is used throughout the film with artwork, tattoos, and traditional dances in almost every frame. It’s a setting that’s underused in films (it has only small similarities to Lilo and Stich) and it looks beautiful.
Moana as a Disney “princess” is also quite a developed character. Voiced by newcomer Auli’i Cravahlo (say it how you spell it), she breaks the mould for women in the Disney pantheon despite rehashing elements of Mulan’s and Pocahontas’ character. Moana’s not the omni-competent badass of Brave or the ditzy, naïve damsel of Tangled. She makes mistakes, learns from people around her, and eventually saves the day, with not a prince figure ever gracing the screen to marry her and whisk her off into the sunset. She’s not even a princess, which the film comments upon with a series of meta-jokes. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson does his usual thing as Maui, a demigod who Moana must enlist to help her quest. He’s oafish and workshy, wanting to just rest on his title of demigod rather than do anything heroic. His body is covered in tattoos, some of which come alive and argue with him throughout the film. They soon become a reoccurring sight gag as they run from one side of his body to the other, trying to keep his attention.
The music is a mixed bag. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foa’i (the former of Hamilton fame) some songs are absolute belters while others are forgettable or boring. Moana’s main theme is an excellent powerful ballad in the same vein as “Just Around The Riverbend” or “Let it Go”. It may not reach the huge popularity of Frozen‘s hit wonder, but you will definitely hear it in the coming months. The two final songs are quiet and emotional and give a nice change after the Broadway-style of the others. The rest are not going to be classics in my opinion, with the worst involving a cringe-worthy song by a giant crab. All the songs continue the Polynesian feel with chanting, pipes, and drums backing up the powerful voices and is a refreshing change from Disney’s usual musical tastes.
The only real fault I can find with Moana is the script. The story is a standard Disney adventure, but the interactions between the characters aren’t up to par. With lines like, “I will tell you my story…in song format,” it seems that the script needed to go through a few more rewrites before filming started. Plot points arrive quick and are dismissed even quicker, sometimes just for a one-off joke. Most of it seems a bit rushed.
In the end, Moana is a middle of the road offering. The animation, characters and (half of) the music are well worth the trip to the cinema, but a weak story and script don’t make it any better than passable.
Score: 6/10 Flourishes of brilliance with some minor faults.
Finding Dory Review
July 29, 2016 / studentfilmreview / 1 Comment
Oh for goodness sake, let the sequels end! “But this is different,” I hear you say, “it’s Disney/Pixar”. And yes, before they became the super-media conglomerate that eats up every single other piece of entertainment, Disney and it’s younger creator Pixar crafted some excellent contained movies. Which they are now soiling with unnecessary add-ons like Cars 2 and Monsters University (admit it, you completely forgot they made Monsters University). But let’s dive in (pun intended) once again for Finding Dory.
Finding Dory stars Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence and Ed O’Neill and is directed by Andrew Stanton. The film follows on one year after the events of Finding Nemo, when Dory (DeGeneres) remembers her parents, she sets off to find them, with Marlin (Brooks) and Nemo (Rolence) in tow.
While I was on-board for the sequel, the story is rather boring. In Finding Nemo, Marlin was unsure of how to reach Nemo, and that’s what made the story exciting. In the sequel, we are pointed to exactly where Dory’s parents are at the beginning of the film, so it just gets tiresome after the fourth or fifth time Dory goes in the wrong direction. Even in a 90 minute film, this feels like extraordinary padding. To the end of the film I was really getting angry at the drudging story, but then during the final twenty minutes, the film pays off for one beautiful scene, before heading back to trudging boredom for the finale. And sure, it’s nice to go back to these characters, but there aren’t many memorable new ones. But stick around until the very end credits and you may see some familiar faces.
The film is a lot lighter on jokes than previous Pixar films, and most of the good ones were shown during the trailers. The majority come from the duo of Dominic West and Idris Elba as a pair of “geezer” sea lions (who were shown, but only one moment), who switch from stretching out in the sun to barking at trivial things. They are one of the funniest things in the film but are only in the film at the very beginning and at the very end.
Since the whole film is set at an aquarium, you would think that you would get some lovely shots of thousands of fish swimming around the giant tanks. Sadly not so. We may get one or two fleeting glimpses of shots similar to the school run at the start of Nemo, but most of Finding Dory is set in bland white corridors and darkened storage facilities. With Pixar being one of the biggest animation houses, I would really want for something a bit more stimulating than nondescript buildings.
Maybe Pixar spent the entire budget on the short film before, called Piper. It’s another animal based story, of a small bird learning how to hunt for food in the sea. It’s almost photo-realistic, like a nature documentary, but with some silly human qualities added to the birds to make them more relatable I guess.
But I can’t deny, the music is what pushes the film along. Thomas Newman returns once again, and basically does the same thing he did for Nemo. It’s sad when the best thing about the new film is something that was perfected back in 2003, but it’s great to hear Newman’s signature style in a cinema sound system.
To finish, Finding Dory was just like every other sequel this year, really, REALLY not needed. And Dory continues the trend of Pixar properties of having a really good first film and a quite boring second attempt (Toy Story being the only exception). I would say let’s learn from our mistakes, but heck, we’re all going to go watch Incredibles 2 aren’t we?
Score: 5/10 Fleeting moments of greatness, let down by a wilting story.
The Jungle Book Review
April 15, 2016 April 20, 2016 / studentfilmreview / 4 Comments
With Cinderella last year and Beauty and the Beast next year, it seems Disney is set on remaking their well-known animated classics into live-action. I along with many others, were sceptical if those stories would work through the change. But Cinderella proved me wrong, so now I’m pretty excited about the new films. The newest film to be adapted is the 1967 The Jungle Book. Does the film still work at nearly 50 years old?
The Jungle Book stars Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o and newcomer Neel Sethi and is directed by Jon Favreau. Based on the books by Rudyard Kipling, the film follows young child Mowgli (Sethi) as he has to leave the jungle for fear that tiger Shere Khan (Elba) will kill him.
First off, the animation is superb. While I talked about the attention to detail in Disney’s earlier Zootropolis, it was mainly cartoon versions of animals. Here it’s more like a nature documentary. The animals of the jungle howl and roar and they stalk their prey through the forest with an amazing sense of realism. The environments help. They look photo-realistic and the CGI creations merge with the live-action sections of the film.
The cast is what makes it though. Several strong voices, each giving a top performance. They are so many more than the ones I’ve listed already, Scarlett Johansson (as the now female Kaa, who isn’t in it as long as the original), Christopher Walken as King Louis and Giancarlo Esposito as Akela. Even original Spiderman director Sam Raimi gets a small cameo. It’s a great list and it gets you invested in the film. You don’t care that animals are talking, because they sell the hell out of it. I wasn’t too impressed with Neel Sethi as Mowgli, (he’s better than most child actors, but that isn’t saying much) but seeing as it’s his first film I feel like going easy on him.
The film obviously has to tip it’s hat to the original 1967 version, but it’s in these moments that it lost me. Sure the songs are what have kept the film a well-loved classic for so long, but they feel out of place here. Christopher Walken’s rendition is laughably awful (while adding new lyrics) and Murray and Sethi’s version of Bare Necessities doesn’t have anything on the original. It works a lot better when it deviates from the first film. Kaa’s new version of hypnosis is clever update of the 60s psychedelic wavy lines, and the new design King Louis, as a 12-foot gigantopithecus (a now extinct type of ape) is a sight to behold; he’s no longer the swinging and jiving jazz singer we knew. Hands down, the build up and reveal of the Ape King, as well as the following action scene around his palace is one of the best scenes in the film and will become a standout of Disney’s catalogue. And no, there are no vultures bearing similarities to a certain Liverpool band in this version.
The film as moved from a U rating to a PG. I guess it comes with the territory, with the more life-like creatures and with fighting being a major theme of the story, The Jungle Book is skewing to a much more darker sense. The violence is mostly off-screen or is hidden, but the tone is less child-friendly than the 1967 version. The man-hating Shere Khan (who Idris Elba gives a great sense of menace) has an evil presence over the film, as well as the entire King Louis section, it has a much more intense feel than the original. If you are worried whether you kid will be scared by the prospect of a realistic tiger jumping at them, have a look at the trailer. The trailer does a good job of setting the general tone of the film. If you think that they can deal with it then go for it. Just be prepared for angry tigers and panthers jumping at the camera.
Score: 9/10 A great adaptation and remake that changes the feel for the better.
Zootropolis Review
March 27, 2016 / studentfilmreview / 3 Comments
After the runaway hit of Frozen back in 2013 and their collaboration with Pixar on last year’s smash Inside Out, it was going to be a big ask for Disney to top themselves in 2016. Their new film, Zootropolis is out this week, so how does it compare to what some people are considering to be the best in Disney’s line-up?
Zootropolis stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba and JK Simmons and is directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore. Zootropolis (also known as Zootopia in other places) follows Judy Hopps (Goodwin), the first rabbit police officer to be hired in the city of Zootropolis. She has to team up with the fox con-artist Nic Wilder (Bateman) to solve a missing mammal’s case.
The film has a great cast, with the previously mentioned Idris Elba and JK Simmons, but also has great actors and comedians in the smaller roles. Octavia Spencer, Jenny Slate and Tommy Chong are good actors, and a small role for Shakira as a singing gazelle, but the standouts are Goodwin and Bateman. The main duo have a great chemistry as Hopps and Wilder and bounce off each other well in the downtime between them.
As usual with Disney films, the animation is one of the film’s strong points. All of the characters in the film are mammals, and while they are not photo-realistic, the attention to detail is superb. You can make out the individual hairs of Hopps and Wilder (who bears an uncanny resemblance to a previous Disney fox) and each animal’s animation structure makes it a joy just to watch them move around the film’s sets.
The city of Zootropolis is nicely designed, even though we don’t get to see a lot of it. It calls to mind Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis, with high skyscrapers and bridges connecting them all together. The city is split between different climates; the arctic tundra, the desert and the rainforest. Throughout the film we travel to the different sections of the city and just like the animation, it all looks grand.
The jokes are good, but I feel that Zootropolis might be found to be boring by its younger audience. I was in a packed theatre, filled with both kids and adults, but on average the adults were laughing more than the kids. The slapstick was enough to set the kids laughing, but these were few and far between. Of course, with Disney you get your adult aimed jokes; we get a spectacular Godfather spoof with a possum who looks like a rodent version of Marlon Brando, a sly dig at Frozen‘s inescapable hit song (now I’ve reminded you of it, it’s going to be in your head for a while) and a Breaking Bad reference (complete with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman), but every time I found myself thinking, “kids won’t get this reference”.
Come to think of it, I think it might only be the anthropomorphic animals that make it kids based. Zootropolis has PG rating for “mild threat” and even at points it made me jump. Several big predators turn “savage” and start attacking other smaller animals, clawing them and leaving them with scars, and even nearly killing some. I know that Disney is seen as a kids company, but it’s great when they go dark and they definitely go further out than they have before in Zootropolis.
Just like previous Disney films, Zootropolis takes an overarching theme and litters the film with subtext. I won’t spoil the main points but the film would be a treat to analyse; feminism, transgender themes, immigration and race are all explored within the film. Disney likes to touch upon topical subjects and transposes them to an animated feature for it to be easily taken in by an audience and just like the older Disney films, Zootropolis will make you think long and hard on its themes after you leave the cinema.
In the end, Zootropolis is good. It isn’t on an Inside Out level of greatness and it might bore the younger viewers, but it does stand up on its own as a good film.
Score: 8/10 A solid Disney entry. Just be wary of taking viewers who might be too young for it.
January 31, 2015 December 6, 2015 / studentfilmreview / 1 Comment
Despite being part of The Walt Disney Company for just about half a decade, this is the first time (that I can recall at least) Disney has set about creating a feature film using Marvel characters in Disney’s visual style. And, as usual Disney has knocked it right out of the park.
Big Hero 6 is based on the Marvel comic of the same name, but after doing some research it seems that the adaptation is as loose as….well, other superhero films (although those will be getting closer to original source material now that Disney has the rights to the major characters.). The story in BH6 is about a young boy called Hiro, voiced by Ryan Potter, who at age fourteen is already constructing small robots that would rival the stuff being built by scientists who spend their entire lives dedicated to the craft. After a terrible accident (no spoilers in here) Hiro finds himself in possession of a robot called Baymax, voiced by Scott Adsit, a machine designed specifically for nursing. But when Hiro finds clues that connect both the aforementioned accident to a science project that he was previously working on which is now being used by a super-villain, Hiro sets of with a War Machine-esque Baymax and a collection of diverse nerds-turned-superhero friends to stop the bad guy.
But even with a set up as basic as it gets (Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne anyone?) Disney gets to give us one of what will be a year of great films. The big action set pieces are given their part to play in the film (brilliant as they are) but it’s the dialogue-heavy parts of the story that give the story some weight, with a confused Baymax trying to help an emotionally distraught Hiro because it’s in his programming to not stop until the patient in his care is back to their usual self. The film doesn’t shy away from the two big M’s in storytelling either, morality and mortality, with the former being an integral part of the end of the first major action set piece.
The supporting cast are characterised well, even if they do not have as much screen time as our two leads. Comedians Damon Wayans Jr. and TJ Miller fill out supporting roles Of Wasabi and Fred respectively, with the latter being a superhero geek with a room full of superhero memorabilia. Disney once again nails the balance of humorous and annoyance (see Olaf from Frozen) with these two, without either dropping into Jar Jar Binks levels of irritation. These two characters, along with Genesis Rodriquez’s manic science girl Honey Lemon, offer the films consistent laughs, however as with many jokes in Disney films, a fair few will be going over the younger viewer’s heads and straight for the adults accompanying them, with an extended “drunk” sequence involving Baymax being a highlight of the film.
Even with these well defined characters, the stand out secondary of the film is Jamie Chung’s GoGo, a woman of few words apart from the occasional cry of “Woman Up!” is essentially a Disney-fied version of Chung’s Miho in Sin City 2. The real meat of the film though is Hiro and Baymax, whose conversations and interactions feel like a blossoming friendship, with conversations taking place in the latter part of the film nearly reducing me to tears.
My only complaint with the film is its length. Unlike the slow-moving Baymax, the film hurtles towards the conclusion of the story like a freight train, leaving me, while thoroughly entertained, feeling like I had missed out on what could have been some brilliant additional scenes. I wanted to see the cast use their superpowers more, I wanted to see the gang working at school, as well as more of the city called San Fransokyo, a depiction of San Francisco by way of Japan. Hopefully Disney will add these in two the definitive sequel, but it would have been nice to see them here.
As with all Disney films, this one comes with its own short film, titled Feast, which is about a human romance from the view of a pet dog, who is obsessed with food. This little film joins other gems such as Paper Man and The Blue Umbrella in being a sweet story that you’ll want to watch again. And as with all Marvel films, this one comes with a cameo of Stan Lee himself, which veteran Marvel viewers will get a kick out of.
In conclusion, Big Hero 6 is well worth your time. Whether you are a child, teenager or accompanying adult, there is a range of jokes and story points that will resonate with people on every level.
Score: 9/10, A solid Disney superhero film, who’s only fault is not lasting long enough.
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Dealing with difficult subjects as Christian artists
March 3, 2018 thebisonnews ARTS Leave a comment
By Kendra Johnson, Arts Editor (Courtesy photo/The Bison)
Christian artists often find themselves faced with difficult subject matters and struggling to find ways of responding that are honest, safe and bring glory to God.
It can be easy to fall into the trap of simply avoiding difficult subjects and condemning the arts as sinful.
However, engaging with difficult subjects and ideas is important for Christians.
“I often point out to Christian artists and readers that Philippians 4:8 says ‘whatever things are true’ not ‘whatever things are pleasant,’” professor of literature and English, Dr. Benjamin Myers, said.
“Either, one, we just say that’s terrible and we walk away and not have any involvement in it, or two, we engage the conversation robustly because we understand truth and beauty from a Christian perspective and we’re not afraid to talk about those things,” dean of the college of fine arts, Dr. Christopher Mathews, said.
According to the OBU Mission Statement, “OBU transforms lives by equipping students to pursue academic excellence, integrate faith with all areas of knowledge, engage a diverse world, and live worthy of the high calling of God in Christ.”
In order for students to learn to “integrate faith with all areas of knowledge” and “engage a diverse world,” students must interact with ideas and subject matter that challenges them in the form of mental work, but also in the form of emotional or spiritual growth.
Students may find themselves studying songs or plays that were written by artists with vastly different, atheist, or anti-Christian views.
“I think by and large– not a hundred percent of the scripts that are out there – but by and large, the greatest number of scripts that are out there should be allowed in the context of a Christian liberal arts institution, at least at the level of a dramatic reading or something,” Mathews said.
“Because we need to understand what’s there; we need to be preparing others for the world of what’s out there. Now there may be many of those that we would not feel comfortable with producing, but at the same time the text may be things that we not only need to read at a cursory [level] but we need to try to wrestle with what the characters were feeling and try to understand what’s going on, at least at that level.”
At other times, students may need to study or perform works that deal with themat-ic elements such as sexual assault, racism, violence or situations that involve their own vulnerabilities. All of these risks are applicable to acting students.
“For actors, it’s very much everything that person is as a human is on display, not just their body, their physical, their face, their stance, their posture, but also there is an emotional commitment,” assistant professor of theatre Matthew Caron said.
“Acting is a very vulnerable craft, you know. They’re creating relationships on stage that can sometimes potentially feel real even though they’re not, you know, so there’s just a lot of risk for an actor to go out there and embody a character and do all of those things that need to happen to create a credible and compelling performance.”
Yet artists can maintain safety, both spiritually and emotionally, if they are thoughtful in the way they approach these situations.
Rather than ignoring difficult subjects, they can actively seek the appropriate Christian response.
“In poetry engaging a diverse world can often mean trying to understand the experiences of people who have different viewpoints or experiences than you do. It can also mean giving honest expression to human experience,” Myers said. “The Psalms are a wonderful model of this.”
When students seek out what they have in common with an artist’s work, even if they disagree with it, they can expand their knowledge of the human condition.
“Art of all kinds should reach toward beauty, but it can’t get to beauty without engaging reality truthfully and meaningfully,” Myers said. “This is as true of The ‘Lord of the Rings’ as it is of more realistic work. Redemption is beautiful, but you can’t see redemption without really seeing the need for it. That takes honesty. In this, the artistic path is a lot like the path to salvation.”
Studying challenging works as Christian artists requires students to actively engage in their faith in a way that they might not have done otherwise.
“Some of these risks have the benefit of keeping us before God on a regular basis,” Mathews said. “Lord, you’ve called me into a profession. Lord I believe that you have a desire and a plan for me in that profession. But I also know that that profession is going to cause me to interact with people that will potentially be harmful for me internal or external, or interact with subjects. And so, I need to daily come before you for wisdom in how I interact with that, for the courage to draw a line if I must do that and to separate for myself, for the courage to continue going if I must do that. But I’m going to regularly come before [God] for guidance in wisdom for how I do that.”
Another important aspect of maintaining safety is open, honest communication. For this to work, both the faculty and the students have to deliberately choose to discuss any concerns or difficulties that might arise during the creative process.
As students learn, they can also be encouraged to find their own boundaries, through safe practice, and classroom work, and then learn to communicate their boundaries clearly and openly.
“The thing I think is about being aware of your own boundaries and not being afraid to communicate that,” Caron said. “And that’s what I mean by creating a safe environment. So that if, you know, Jack and Jill are doing an exercise together. Jill can say to Jack ‘okay we’re doing this exercise but I want you to know it makes me really uncomfortable when people touch my shoulders, you know, I just want you to know that.’ And then Jack’s response is ‘okay I’m not gonna touch your shoulders.’ And then Jill has to trust that Jack’s gonna do that. Jack is not going to accidentally touch her shoulders because that betrays Jill’s trust and then once you betray that trust with the two actors then creating any kind of relationship on stage becomes that much more difficult because the actors don’t trust each other.”
OBU classes and activities encourage trust by creating an atmosphere that allows open, faith-based discussing of all aspects of life.
Christian artists can face the challenges of the art world they live in by learning to communicate in a way that is filled with grace and empathy and is firmly grounded in technique and a solid understanding of their faith
Fine ArtsKendra Johnsonmaking art in difficult subjectsoklahoma baptist university
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Next Post: Madison Crow’s senior art show “The Ripple Affect” in Art Building now
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Doomsday Predictions and Prophecies
Cont. from Page 2
The world was all revenge and thou hadst said, "It is a seething sea." Earth had no room for walking, air was ambushed by the spears. The stars began to fray and time and earth washed hands in mischief.
Firdausi (10th century Persian poet)
Biblical Proportions
An Old Testament scripture known as the Book of Ezekiel lays out a detailed prophecy for the end of the world, one centered on Israel and the Middle East. The precursor for the better-known prophecy of John of Patmos, Ezekiel's vision differs in some respects. Instead of the"mark of the beast", Ezekiel talks about a "mark of God" that differentiates survivors of the coming Judgement Day from the damned.
"Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst". As for why a doomsday is necessary: "Look, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom; she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but did not help the poor and the needy. So they were haughty and committed abominations before Me."
Plagues, natural disasters, wars and wanton violence augur the approaching day of Armageddon.
"On the day of wrath every precious thing will be useless. They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord." After a major armed conflict in which many undefended cities are attacked, God says: "With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and all his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone.
Of course, it's the New Testament's Book of Revelation that remains the most famous vision of apocalypse in the western world. Before his death in 1727, Sir Isaac Newton made a prediction that the battle of Armagedon would take place in the year 2060 A.D. Dr Stephen Snobelen of the University of King's College in Nova Scotia is credited with uncovering the prediction, which he found in a set of Newton papers initially hidden from scholars.
John, the youngest apostle of Jesus, wrote Revelation while in exile on the island of Patmos, in the Mediterranean Sea. In his vision, he watches as seven seals are broken on scrolls which contain a detailed prophecy for the future.
Having just referred to a written document, the story strangely shifts gears into a docu-drama, as John says he sees four horsemen ride into civilization, bringing troubles with which to vex humanity. The first horse carries the anti-christ, who's dressed in white and initially endears himself to civilization before making a global power grab.
The second horseman wears red and brandishes a sword. He's generally identified by theologians as a relentless warmonger spreading conflict and violence around the world. The third horseman is draped in black and carries a balance in one hand. "A day's wages for a loaf of bread" John hears him say, which is generally interpreted as a reference to economic collapse and famine.
The fourth horseman, dressed in ashen garments, is accomapnied by Hades, the god of the underworld. Some theologians think he symbolizes plague and pestilence. Others suggest he's packing a cocktail of super-volcanoes, tsunamis and massive earthquakes.
John also mentions a star in his prophecy. Called "Wormwood", it falls from the heavens. (This seems to parallel the Hopi Prophecy description of a "dwelling place in the sky" crashing down in what onlookers view as a blue star.)
When the sixth seal of the scroll is broken, the battle of Armageddon starts queueing up.
"Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. "
For those who survive the impact of all these catastrophes, a golden age will follow, according to Revelation. The claim dovetails with the prophecies of non-western cultures, all of whom seem to agree on this point. John's vision even anticipates the psychological trauma in store for those who survive the long siege.
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."
Revelation states that prior to mankind's unraveling, a new nation of Israel will emerge and Herod's temple will be rebuilt in its original location at Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The first of these two predictions was realized in 1948. As for the second, a mosque currently occupies the Temple Mount and no plans for replacing it are on the table.
Hindu and Zoroastrian Prophecies
According to Hindu philosophy, we humans have experienced a recurring succession of four "yugas", or world ages, called Krita, Treta, Dwápara, and Kali. Krita is the equivalent of the Golden Age in other cultures, while Kali roughly translates to "The Degenerate Age." Kali Yuga is the current age, beginning when Krishna died around 3100 B.C. (This date is close to the beginning of the Maya Long-Count Calendar, which is 3114 B.C.) According to the Mahabharata, Kali Yuga will end with a mass extinction, followed by a new golden age for those who manage to survive:
"Towards the end of those thousands of years constituting the four yugas and when the lives of men become so short, a drought occurs extending for many years. Then men and creatures endowed with small strength and vitality, becoming hungry, die by thousands.
And then seven blazing suns, appearing in the firmament, drink up all the waters of the earth... while the fire called Samvarataka, impelled by the winds, appeareth on the earth that hath already been dried to cinders... Penetrating through the earth and making its appearance in the nether regions also, that fire begets great terror..."
Occupying present-day Iran, the Zoroastrian culture may have been older the Hindus, but scholars disagree about the exact time frame. According to a text called the Zand-i Vohuman Yasht :
"At the end of thy tenth hundredth winter...the sun is more unseen and more spotted; the year, month, and day are shorter; and the earth is more barren; and the crop will not yield the seed; and men ... become more deceitful and more given to vile practices. They have no gratitude.
"Honorable wealth will all proceed to those of perverted faith...and a dark cloud makes the whole sky night..and it will rain more noxious creatures than winter."
Next topic: Evidence of Past Doomsdays
See also: World Ages and Their Demise
Doomsday Guide Home
Copyright 2009-2014 TheCityEdition.com
"Edgar Cayce and Understanding the Prophecy of 2012." by John Van Auken.
Tunnels & Chambers Under the Great Sphinx
Edgar Cayce' s Association for Research and Enlightenment
Edgar Cayce readings cited
The Astral World - Cayce Predictions
"The Maya Katun Prophecies." By Bruce Scofield.
"What are the living Maya saying about 2012?"
The Dialogue with Asclepius
Avesta -- Zoroastrian Archives
The Mahabharata
Sacred-texts.com
The Hopi Prophecy
Prophecy of St Malachy From Catholic-pages.com
Prophecy of Ezekiel
Newton: The Dark Heretic video
Black Elk's Vision
End Times Prophecies From Crystal Links.
Book of the Hopi (1963) by Frank Waters.
Keepers of the Ancient Knowledge : The Mystical World of the Q'ero Indians of Peru. By Joan Parisi Wilcox
The Mayan Prophecies (1995) by Adrian Gilbert and Maurice Cotterell.
Serpent in the sky: the high wisdom of ancient Egypt (1993) by John Anthony West
The Sphinx Mystery (2009) by Robert and Olivia Temple
The Orion Prophecy (2001) by Patrick Geryl and Gino Ratinckx.
Racing Towards Armageddon (2007) by Michael Baigent
DVDs and TV Programs
History Channel The Seven Signs of the Apocalypse, 2012: End of Days, and the series The Nostradamus Effect.
DVD - The Mysterious Origins of Man: Rewriting Human History (1996) Based on the book Forbidden Archaeology.
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North Sea oil industry cost UK taxpayers £400m last year, and counting
Simon Evans
Carbon Brief
| 5th April 2017
Total tax received from the North Sea oil and gas sector 1968-2017, not adjusted for inflation. Includes petroleum revenue tax, ringfence corporation tax, supplementary charge, royalty and gas levy. Figure for 2016-17 covers 11 months to February 2017. Source: HM Revenue and Customs table 11.11 and monthly tax summary. Chart by Carbon Brief, using Highcharts.
The whole idea of North Sea oil was to make Britain rich, writes Simon Evans. At least that's how it all began. But now ... it cost UK taxpayers a massive £396 million a year in tax breaks and subsidies to keep the industry alive last year. And there's no reason to think that's going to turn around any time soon.
North Sea firms received a net tax payment of £24m in the 2015/16 tax year. In the current tax year to date, they received £420m, suggesting the net tax position is getting worse.
The North Sea oil and gas sector became a net drain on the UK's public finances for the first time in 2016, Carbon Brief analysis shows.
In total, the sector received £396m in 2016, net of tax payments. This is the first year that the North Sea industry has cost the exchequer more than it has contributed.
Carbon Brief analysis of a second set of figures, published last week, shows oil majors BP, ExxonMobil and Shell were the largest recipients of taxpayer funds during 2014 and 2015.
Each has received hundreds of millions of pounds to cover the costs of decommissioning old oil and gas fields.
North Sea legacy
Since the government passed the Continental Shelf Act in 1964, billions of barrels of oil and gas have been extracted from reserves under the North Sea.
Now, some of the largest fields are coming to the end of their life. The rigs, pipelines and other infrastructure built to exploit them must be safely decommissioned. Cleaning up this legacy will cost an estimated £47bn out to 2050, according to the UK's Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
Companies can reclaim tax paid in previous years, in order to cover this spending. Oil prices are still far below recent highs and the government has introduced generous tax breaks, worth £2.3bn, designed to encourage new investment in the North Sea.
Meanwhile, estimates of the total cost of decommissioning are highly uncertain, with the OGA giving a range of plus or minus 40% on its £47bn figure. One 2016 study said taxpayers could face a £75bn bill. Other studies have speculated that the costs could wipe out all future North Sea tax revenues, potentially damaging the economic case for Scottish independence.
As the Financial Times noted in January, the North Sea industry "risks becoming a net drain on UK resources as it enters its sunset years."
But now it's crunch time!
Having reached highs of £12bn revenue in some years, this moment has already arrived, with the North Sea for the first time becoming a net drain on the public finances and costing £0.4bn (£396m) in calendar year 2016. Future revenues are uncertain, see below. Either way, the sector is no longer the cash cow chancellors have come to expect over the past several decades.
It's worth adding that, in total, the sector has contributed in the region of £190bn in tax revenues since the 1960s (see chart, above right). Note that this figure has not been adjusted for inflation. After accounting for inflation, estimated revenues are even larger; a Financial Times article puts them at £330bn.
The largest recipients of taxpayer funds are revealed in separate government figures, published last week. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, now in its second year, details payments between government and the oil, gas and mining sectors in the UK.
The latest figures, covering calendar year 2015, show a broadly similar pattern to last year's data. In total, across the two years, the top net recipients of public cash are BP, ExxonMobil and Shell (see chart, above right).
The top five recipients (BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Talisman Sinopec and Hess) were paid a net total of more than £1.1bn across 2014 and 2015, Carbon Brief analysis shows.
Tax forecast
In terms of future tax receipts, the outlook for the oil and gas sector appears as uncertain as next year's oil price - or the total cost of decommissioning.
For a number of years, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) continually downgraded its forecasts for the North Sea tax take. This reflected a combination of new tax reliefs introduced by former chancellor George Osborne, and the falling oil price.
By March 2016, the OBR was forecasting that the oil and gas sector would be receiving a net payment of £1bn per year from UK taxpayers, for five years from 2016-17.
Later in 2016, the OBR started to revise upwards its forecasts for UK oil and gas revenues, as oil prices recovered from lows of $30 per barrel. The most recent March 2017 estimates show the sector contributing a net £4.5bn over five years, instead of the £5bn cost seen in March 2016 (see chart, above right).
Note that the latest OBR forecast is one third lower than its November 2016 estimate. This is because of a change in methodology regarding how much capital expenditure could be offset against future taxes, as well as the fall in the pound.
Dr Simon Evans is policy editor at Carbon Brief, covering climate and energy policy. He holds a PhD in biochemistry from Bristol University and previously studied chemistry at Oxford University. He worked for environment journal The ENDS Report for six years, covering topics including climate science and air pollution.
This article was originally published by Carbon Brief (CC BY-NC-ND).
Other articles on Carbon Brief by Simon Evans.
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Death toll rises to 359 in Sri Lanka bombings, more arrested
April 24, 2019 by - 4 min read
The death toll from the Easter suicide bombings in Sri Lanka rose to 359 and more suspects have been arrested, police said Wednesday.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility and released images that purported to show the seven bombers who blew themselves up at three churches and three hotels Sunday in the worst violence this South Asian island nation has seen since its civil war ended a decade ago.
The government has said the attacks were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists in apparent retaliation for the New Zealand mosque massacre last month but has said the seven bombers were all Sri Lankan. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said investigators were still working to determine the extent of the bombers’ foreign links.
Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara said Wednesday morning that 18 suspects were arrested overnight, raising the total detained to 58. The prime minister had warned on Tuesday that several suspects armed with explosives were still at large.
The Islamic State group has lost all the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria and has made a series of unsupported claims of responsibility around the world.
Sri Lankan authorities have blamed a local extremist group, National Towheed Jamaar, whose leader, alternately known as Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary speeches online.
The IS group’s Aamaq news agency released an image purported to show the leader of the attackers, standing amid seven others whose faces are covered. The group did not provide any other evidence for its claim, and the identities of those depicted in the image were not independently verified.
‘Weakness’ in security system
Meanwhile, in an address to parliament, Ruwan Wijewardene, the state minister of defence, said “weakness” within Sri Lanka’s security apparatus led to the failure to prevent the nine bombings.
“By now it has been established that the intelligence units were aware of this attack and a group of responsible people were informed about the impending attack,” Wijewardene said. “However, this information has been circulated among only a few officials.”
In a live address to the nation late Tuesday, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena said he also was kept in the dark on the intelligence about the planned attacks and vowed to “take stern action” against the officials who failed to share the information. He also pledged “a complete restructuring” of the security forces.
Military personnel stand guard on a main road near the president’s house in Colombo, three days after a string of suicide bomb attacks. (Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)
Wijewardene said the government had evidence that the bombings were carried out “by an Islamic fundamentalist group” in retaliation for the March 15 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 people, although he did not disclose what the evidence was.
The office of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern issued a statement responding to the Christchurch claim that described Sri Lanka’s investigation as “in its early stages.”
“New Zealand has not yet seen any intelligence upon which such an assessment might be based,” it said. An Australian white supremacist, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, was arrested in the Christchurch shootings.
Word from international intelligence agencies that National Towheed Jamaar was planning attacks apparently didn’t reach the prime minister’s office until after the massacre, exposing continuing turmoil in Sri Lanka’s government.
A block on most social media since the attacks has left a vacuum of information, fuelling confusion and giving little reassurance the danger had passed.
Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could unleash instability and he vowed to “vest all necessary powers with the defense forces” to act against those responsible.
Baby Joseph Gomez, 64, father of St. Anthony’s Shrine blast victim Berlington Joseph Gomez, 33, mourns next to the coffins of his son, grandson and daughter-in-law, at his house in Colombo. (Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images)
The history of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, a country of 21 million including large Hindu, Muslim and Christian minorities, is rife with ethnic and sectarian conflict.
In the nation’s 26-year civil war, the Tamil Tigers, a powerful rebel army known for using suicide bombers, had little history of targeting Christians and was crushed by the government in 2009. Anti-Muslim bigotry fed by Buddhist nationalists has swept the country recently.
In March 2018, Buddhist mobs ransacked businesses and set houses on fire in Muslim neighbourhoods around Kandy, a city in central Sri Lanka that is popular with tourists.
After the mob attacks, Sri Lanka’s government also blocked some social media sites, hoping to slow the spread of false information or threats that could incite more violence.
Sri Lanka has no history of Islamic militancy. Its small Christian community has seen only scattered incidents of harassment.
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Raising a Nobel Peace Prize winner: Ziauddin Yousafzai on being Malala's dad
Cows and climate change: A closer look
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Team Penske Inks Contract Extension with Joey Logano, Ya think?
on September 25, 2014 September 29, 2014
TEAM PENSKE EXTENDS AGREEMENT WITH JOEY LOGANO
Winning NASCAR Driver Enjoying Career-Best Season in 2014
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (September 25, 2014) – Team Penske announced today that it has signed multiple-race winner and 2014 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup contender, Joey Logano, to a contract extension.
Under the new multi-year agreement, Logano will continue behind the wheel of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) and the No. 22 Discount Tire / Hertz Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) for Team Penske.
“Joey Logano has been everything we hoped he would be, both as a driver and as a representative of our organization and for our partners,” said Roger Penske. “He continues to put points on the board for us and the continuity and chemistry he has developed within the team has been terrific. We believe he can be a leader and championship-level driver for Team Penske for years to come.”
Already a seven-year NASCAR veteran, the 24-year-old has proven to be an elite driver. Throughout the course of his career, Logano has produced seven NSCS wins and 21 NNS victories. Since joining Team Penske at the start of the 2013 NASCAR season, Logano has enjoyed the best two-year stretch of his young career, earning five NSCS wins and three NNS victories.
The native of Middletown, Conn., has earned a spot in his second-consecutive Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2014. His four NSCS wins – at Texas Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway – reflect a career high in race victories for one season. Those wins, along with a career best 12 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes through the season’s first 28 races driving the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion, helped Logano earn the fifth seed to begin the Chase playoff format. In addition to his success this season, Logano helped Team Penske secure the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship with three series wins.
“I am fortunate and excited to be a part of Team Penske for the foreseeable future,” said Logano, currently ranked second in the Chase standings after his victory last weekend at New Hampshire. “Mr. Penske gives us everything we need to keep our eye on the prize and compete for wins and championships. I think that is clear by the number of wins we have across the board this year. I’m fortunate to represent great companies like Ford, Shell-Pennzoil, AAA, AutoTrader.com, Discount Tire, Hertz and all of the great partners we have here at Team Penske. I think our best years are in front of us for sure.”
Joey Logano, Team Penske
Previous Article Clinch Scenarios For Dover International Speedway
Next Article The Final Lap Weekly #325 NASCAR Radio Podcast – Landon Cassill / Dover Chase Preview
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Hartnell Deserves All The Credit For All Star Season
By Justin Johnson January 28th, 2012
Scott Hartnell’s big year can easily be attributed to things other than him by short sighted people. However, the biggest reason for Hartnell’s success this season is well, Scott Hartnell. While no one is arguing that Hartnell has a couple of extremely talented linemates, we haven’t seen this version of Scott Hartnell prior to the 2011-12 season.
Hartnell is easily having the best year of his career. He currently has 25 goals and 19 assists for 44 points in 48 games with an outstanding +18 on the season. He has shown much more discipline as far as taking dumb penalties.
Scott Hartnell is in the midst of a career season (Tom Turk/THW)
While it’s easy for many people to point to the talent Hartnell plays with and compare him to Kevin Stevens, there is something very different about Scott Hartnell this year. Hartnell seemed to be lacking confidence at times at the end of last year and earlier this season, but he turned things around and did it the right way. That’s the reason so many people were outspoken and upset about Hartnell’s initial exclusion from the All Star Game.
Hartnell could have let the early season criticism bother him, but he didn’t. He could have trashed the coach when his ice time was cut sometimes to under 10 minutes a game earlier in the season, but he didn’t. He did all of his talking on the ice.
So many coaches always tell their players who complain about playing time to show them how serious they are on the ice, field, etc. Few players do. They usually just quit on the team and complain and try to get leverage through the media. He didn’t.
Hartnell handled his early season struggles and differences with the coach behind closed doors and on the ice. He did with class and respect in an era where those are qualities that are hard to find.
Claude Giroux battled a concussion this year and Jaromir Jagr has missed a bunch of time with groin and calf issues. Hartnell has battled hard and continued doing what he’s been doing all year: Crashing the net, and making life miserable for goalies. Hartnell has logged over 20 minutes of ice time in 3 out his last 6 games before the All Star Break.
“Hartsy” is oozing with confidence. #Hartnelldown no more in the minds of the Flyers and their fans. Scott Hartnell is an All-Star. Hartnell’s an All-Star who wasn’t even Mr. Irrelevant in the all star draft. Scott’s an All-Star who deserves every bit of this.
The player who couldn’t escape trade rumors for the past couple of seasons is now well worth the $4.2 million cap hit on the Flyers payroll.
Take it all in, Scotty. The Scott Hartnell the Flyers thought they were signing back in 2007 has entered the building.
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Gap Group Ltd
Since the company was founded in 1969 as Gordon Anderson Plant, GAP has offered its customers value for money, exceptional service and peace of mind.
Managing Directors Douglas and Iain Anderson have continued their father’s legacy and the company now employs over 1000 people in 94 depots covering the length and breadth of the UK.
Mr. Joe Ward
Excavator Hire in UK
Edinburgh Road, ML7 5DT Shotts
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Tags: disney, Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean
Removing Johnny Depp From Pirates of the Caribbean Will Apparently Save Disney $90M
Ali Haider January 1, 2019
Johnny Depp is getting out of the way for the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean reboot. Disney has already confirmed that they want to have a fresh start so it is unlikely that he will return for any future entry, but this also has some financial motivation behind it.
Pirates of the Caribbean movies are always expensive to develop when it comes to their budget. The production cost escalates due to filming on the sea and there are other costs involved as well, which also include the salary of Johnny Depp and other cast and crew members.
Forbes has an article up which suggests that Disney will save as much as $90M by removing Johnny Depp from the upcoming reboot. While the movies still make a lot of money, their success is getting smaller in the domestic market with most of the money generating from the international market with a lower box office return to the studio. This means that Disney ends up losing some money if the budget is high, and the movies average out roughly $200 million with At World’s End, at one point, becoming one of the most expensive movies produced in Hollywood.
Johnny Depp is still getting some huge roles, more recently in Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald, which is a Harry Potter spin-off. The sequel didn’t do that well despite having a star-studded cast and the Harry Potter brand behind it, so this is going to be another franchise that might face some changes for the next entry.
Ali Haider
Ali Haider loves to dabble in multimedia projects. He has a passion for editing and managing YouTube videos and loves writing in his spare time.
A Quiet Place Sequel Will Show How This World Looks From “Another Perspective”
The Punisher Season 2 Release Date Confirmed By Netflix
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The Illusion of Suffering
By Kenneth James Michael MacLean
How can anyone make sense of events on this planet? If you read the New York Times and listen to National Public Radio here in the U.S – two news sources that are thought by many to be impeccable — it's just business as usual. None of the important issues are ever discussed: issues such as the imminent bankruptcy of the United States, the technology hidden in the black programs that, if released, could change the face of our planet, the disclosure of extraterrestrial contact with the governments of the earth, and the draining of the treasury by the secret "intelligence" budget (which is never disclosed even to the President or Congress).
On this planet there is a hidden, shadow government composed of corporations that are associated with defense contracting and the worldwide intelligence community. Events are that are portrayed publicly often have little or no relationship to reality.
For example, those of you old enough to remember Ronald Reagan's "SDI" (Strategic Defense Initiative) were told that it was supposed to be a space-based system set up to hit incoming Russian missiles. Billions and billions of dollars were allocated to set it up. But the real reason it was set up was (is) to knock down incoming ETVs (extra-terrestrial vehicles) so that the idiots in charge of this rogue black program could reverse-engineer the technology. (Of course if you actually say that to people, they will think you are crazy. But truth really is stranger than fiction).
Remember Sept 10, 2001? When the then Secretary of Defense (er, War) Donald Rumsfeld went on national TV and said that the Defense Department had "lost" 2.3 TRILLION dollars? And remember what happened the day after that? Yeah that's right, 9/11. But of course these two events, which happened right after the other, were just coincidental, right? When I presented these "coincidental" facts to my Toastmasters group in a speech, the comments afterwards were "interesting conspiracy theory."
In that news conference Rumsfeld also admitted that the DoD cannot track over 25% of what it spends. This was a tacit admission of the drain of public funds into the "black hole" of the corporate shadow government. (The media just say, "the DoD is inefficient," and jokes are made about it. But this is to dismiss a very, very important red herring). The defense budget is about a trillion every year, so that means around $250 billion of our money is disappearing without being accounted for.
The disclosure issue, ETs, and the exotic technology hidden away in the "black" programs are intimately related. These issues are at the very core of the problems on our planet. We live, right now, in an unsustainable civilization based on crude, scarce, and polluting fossil fuels, when there is technology available in these hidden programs which can literally take clean energy directly from the fabric of space and mitigate to a great degree the fighting and squabbling over oil and other fossil fuels that is the basis for international foreign policy, and which causes undue suffering for the people of this planet.
People in Congress KNOW about this, but can do nothing about it. John Podesta, Obama's former Chief of Staff and advisor, announced that he has been unable to secure disclosure of "the UFO files." An article on this can be found at Dr. Steven Greer's website here.
These issues are portrayed in the corporate-controlled media as either kooky space cadets talking about frivolous and mentally deranged issues (for we are alone in the universe, of course, and even if we weren't, only crazy people talk about this stuff), or it's portrayed, as in the Yahoo News article, as irrelevant fascination with things that have no relation to current events. When, in fact, these topics are at the very heart of our problems. The sequestering of this exotic technology is causing so much unnecessary suffering for human beings on this planet, which is the topic of my message this month.
Susan Sarandon's character in the baseball movie Bull Durham said: "the world is a simple place for those not cursed with self-awareness." That's how people can dismiss the fact that 2.3 trillion dollars (as of 9/10/2001) was stolen from the public treasury here in the U.S. It's a figure that is so huge it defies description, yet no one ever even mentions it. And where did that money go? It went into the bowels of the shadow government. For projects like SDI, and to fund lots of other black programs hidden from the public, some of these initiatives which support the so-called "War on Terrorism" and the nutsoid agenda of endless war that wastes the resources of our planet and that keeps half the human race in abject poverty.
These conditions lead to a whole lot of unnecessary human suffering.
I used to try to convince people that if we would only open our eyes a little, we the people could elect new representatives who might press for change. Or at least increase the knowledge of the public about the conditions that lead to unnecessary human suffering. Because with knowledge comes the ability to recognize when events are going in the wrong direction.
But I learned that you can't talk to people intelligently about this stuff. The eyes of people glaze over and they get uncomfortable. It's like a bunch of people are staggering around in a darkened room with a stampeding 25,000 pound elephant in the middle of it, but no one is talking about it or even acknowledging its existence. Somehow, we've been convinced that to talk about the bedrock issues behind current events makes you a lunatic. It's very effective psychology to convince people that to investigate this stuff is to make you a fringe "conspiracy theorist."
I recognized a while back that the broad population of the United States has literally been brainwashed. The definition of brainwashing is an indoctrination process which results in "an impairment of autonomy, an inability to think independently, and a disruption of beliefs and affiliations. In this context, brainwashing refers to the involuntary re-education of basic beliefs and values." (From the Wikipedia article, "Mind control.") This is a good definition because it refers to a "reeducation of basic beliefs and values."
Here in the U.S., the corporate-controlled media simply lie, or frame the news to support the endless war agenda. In Ann Arbor, where we have the highest percentage of college graduates in the country, this phenomenon is very prevalent. The most brainwashed people are those who read the New York Times and listen to NPR. As a home-services contractor I have worked for these people for over 30 years, I have been in their homes, I have talked extensively with them. I myself was one of them until about 25 years ago. I used to read the NYT six days a week, and dutifully listened to NPR, confident that I was getting the "real story" (because of course NPR isn't like those other stupid networks, which don't tell us the truth. When in reality the framing of the news on NPR is the same as on those networks). Until I finally woke up and realized that the stories in the NYT and on the "news" were simply repeating, over and over and over again, and the important, deeper issues, were being ignored.
(Don't get me wrong, I listen to some great NPR programs, but the news they broadcast is no different than the major networks).
When I realized this it was like someone hit me over the head with a baseball bat. I realized, in a flash of insight, that the actors changed but the stories were the same. I'm not going to marshal all the arguments in support of this, because I don't want to bore you. You can figure it out for yourself. But the upshot of it was that I began to look behind the scenes and to try to find explanations for the irrationality behind the events on this planet.
I have never accepted the status quo. I was born with the awareness that the commonplace life I was born into was just a play, an act, and that behind these commonplace events was an underlying reality that was hidden from us. That behind the "veil" was a much more profound and spiritual aspect of existence. Later, I figured out that life on earth was a game to see if the human race could get beyond the commonplace material reality that is presented to each of us upon birth, when our consciousness enters these human bodies, which interpret reality so solidly for us. The game, in short, is to see whether we are bright enough to look beyond the very, very compelling illusion that "you only go around once," the illusion that all there is is the body, and the care of and enhancement of material existence.
We are supposed to be bright enough to see past that.
The game of life has been designed, assuming that we can see past the obvious – that the body is just something to experience and have fun with. This is so obvious that it wasn't even written into the rules of the game! It was just assumed that we would all know this, and some of us do. But if you don't know it, you can't even play the game of life effectively. By effectively I don't mean making a lot of money and running over people who get in your way and being what this adolescent culture calls a "success." I mean living life deeply and understanding what you are doing here on this planet.
We're supposed to be able to recognize that kernel of divinity and spirituality each one of us has, and to come together to realize our full potential as individuals, and as a species. Otherwise, we become biological automatons, easily manipulated. What I'm saying is that the game of life doesn't even start until you become self-aware enough to understand you are an immortal, native state being having a physical experience. When you understand that, things begin to fall into place. And when you don't, you experience a lot of unnecessary misery and suffering. Once you have the rules of the game, the game is much easier to play! Dear reader, the message is that there is NO purpose to suffering. That's what I finally understand after 63 years on the planet. I know, I've heard the theory that we come here to earth precisely to experience something other than the complete bliss we experience as native state beings, but I now understand that's a load of crap.
There is no point to suffering. Ever. You don't learn any "lessons" from feeling like shit. You don't get brownie points for going through hell, or overcoming self-imposed obstacles. The ONLY lesson you learn from suffering is that it's better to feel good. You don't get ANY valuable experience from suffering – because all you learn when you suffer enough and hit rock bottom is to discover what you already knew before you came here – that you are an immortal, divine spirit. That's what guys like Neal Donald Walsch and Eckhart Tolle, and probably a lot of other people, have realized as well.
OK, so if there's no point to suffering, then what are we doing here, the human race, in this degraded state (compared to where we could be)? Well, we talked about this a couple of months ago. I said that if there is a divine plan, I sure as hell don't know what it is, because all of the versions of the divine plan I have ever heard of involve suffering, or moving out of some degraded state into a higher state of awareness. But this is nuts, because we already knew that before we incarnated!!! Every human being ALREADY IS in a higher state of awareness, because we are all aspects of an immortal, universal consciousness. As the British say, "that's enough to be going on with."
That's what I meant when I said earlier that the game of life doesn't really begin until you wake up to this. Everything else is just illusory – the chasing after money and power and influence and success without self awareness is just . . . fake. And the realization of who you are isn't hard – it's the easiest thing in the world. You just have to step back and think about yourself and the world and your place in it for five minutes. This awareness is sitting right there in front of you, just like the 25,000 pound elephant.
There is only one mind in the universe, and every life form is an aspect of that awareness. That awareness is bright enough to have created the universe and everything within it. It is an awesome, almost incomprehensible level of intelligence, which every single individual is an aspect of. That universal mind isn't stupid enough to subject beings to a whole bunch of suffering, just to figure out what it already knows.
So then, what's the point of life on planet earth? Here's the amazing answer I got: suffering is just a state of mind. In other words, even in harsh environments like earth, where the awareness of spirit and of self of the collective consciousness is very low, the idea is to simply experience. Suffering only happens when you resist the experience. In other words, suffering – even acute physical suffering like a painful, terminal disease – is purely and only a state of mind. All health problems can be overcome by simply getting a new attitude.
It's instructive to read (genuine) stories of people who have had (genuine) near death experiences, or NDEs (not the trolls who are looking for attention who post b.s. to these NDE sites). Often, in these experiences, the person was terminally ill, with no hope of recovery. After their NDE, they were miraculously cured. In other words, recognizing their spiritual "source" and connecting with that energy produced an almost instantaneous miracle cure in their physical bodies. But all that really happens in an NDE is that the person's resistance to their lives completely vanishes. When their resistance went to zero, their bodies instantly healed, their problems went away, their lives were rebooted. That should tell you something about the default condition of the universe!
Now, I am not the first guy to understand this. It's even the idea behind charismatic Christianity, you know, the people who believe that the earth was created 6,000 years ago. Even those guys understand this profound truth! — that it's possible to heal instantly, to be forgiven instantly, and find a new life, or be "reborn."
All suffering is an illusion, based on a state of mind that says, "you have to fight what you don't want." Suffering is caused by resistance to life.
That's it, ladies and germs, that's the secret. The endless war paradigm has convinced us, (at least in the U.S.) that fighting is the most honorable solution to any problem. This single idea is responsible for all of the resistance to life's events, and creates all the suffering on the planet.
We are here to experiencean interesting and challenging environment. It's supposed to be FUN, or at least DIFFERENT, but it's not supposed to be miserable! Life on earth was never intended to involve prolonged suffering. It's only when we got the idea that resisting or fighting something was the way to handle it – itself an insane idea when you look at it – that suffering and pain and misery and all of the other ills on this planet became more and more prevalent, more vibrationally established.
Now some people will say, "That's absurd. Life evolved on earth from a primitive state of cavemen just fighting the environment to survive. So resistance to life is natural." Nope. Even if it were true that back in the dawn of history life was tough,, there is no excuse for that attitude today. The human race has knowledge and technology that can change the face of this planet is a very short time. Moreover, this civilization is not the first one on earth. There have been many more before this one, which resulted in our having to start over. But when we "start over," that's just a physical reboot – the karma, the old belief systems, are still there in the planetary grids to be worked through. Karma is just stored energy from past events – and it doesn't just go away — until we work through it.
That's what the human race is doing on the planet right now in 2015.
These catastrophic past events may have resulted from sudden climate change, or, like Atlantis, a destruction of the society due to a war. But the common denominator of all climate change – including meteors hitting the earth, which is supposed to be how life on earth was destroyed 60 million years ago – is always about consciousness and resistance. The weather, the state of your health, the state of society, the creation of war and conflict, ALL of it is dependent on the level of resistance. Consciousness affects EVERYTHING, and the orientation of consciousness affects the quality of life.
The unwanted events on our planet occur because we, the people, have been resisting what we don't want, and have taken our eyes off the truth that we are here simply to experience without resisting or fighting those experiences. Yes, there is a shadow government of crazies whose goal is world domination and control. Yes, there IS evil on the planet, destructive psychopaths do exist. But these people are a very small minority of the population – a couple of percent, maybe even smaller. We the people have all of the power in our hands to turn the consciousness of humanity around. We don't need permission from religious leaders or governments or "experts" promoted by the mass media.. Most of these jokers are there to "frame" messages to support the status quo, or to get you to resist something "bad" or unwanted.
The only weapon evil, or the "dark side" has, is to make you believe something different than you really are!
But we don't have to be dumb enough to do that. And we don't need technology, or esoteric knowledge, or establish organizations to fight the status quo, because the turning around of consciousness is thought-based. It can be accomplished simply by lowering resistance to life.
So from now on, I am simply going to go through life and accept everything I see. I used to think this was impossible, because I always look beyond the commonplace to find the hidden truth. And when you do that you become more and more aware of the duality, both the dark side and the light side. It's HARDER to live here if you have spiritual awareness, because you can see more and more what's wrong! But now that I am aware of the game and the trap, I'm going to avoid that trap. What I'm saying is that I am not going to delusionally accept that evil is perfectly OK. I'm just not going to RESIST it anymore. And, according to the Law of Attraction, all of it should just disappear from my life, if I can lower my resistance to zero.
From the Spiritual Wisdom Newsletter by Ken MacLean. Ken is freelance writer and researcher who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Since childhood, Ken has been thinking about the Big Picture and how to increase spiritual understanding in the world. His book, The Vibrational Universe, is a detailed and practical explanation of consciousness, the five universal principles, and how to use them in daily life. Underlying science, metaphysics, politics, and human relationships is the vibrational universe concept.
It turns out that the universe has been designed to directly interface with your thoughts and your intent. If you are unaware of this user interface, however, you are like a person who tries to use a complicated computer program without having any idea how the menus work! The Vibrational Universe describes the universe's simple but powerful interface in clear, easy to understand language and with plenty of examples from real life.
Understanding this concept enormously simplifies the complexities of life, and explains the sometimes mysterious workings of human relationships. It also explains phenomena like karma, coincidence, and ESP. The Vibrational Universe (and its accompanying Movie on DVD) clarifies the relationship between thought, consciousness, and the "real world."
Here are three free ebooks from Ken MacLean, for you to download...
The Story of Interview with Spirit by Kenneth J. M. MacLean and Neil Longley
Neil interviews Ken, who channels his spirit guides. What emerges is based around the fundamental truth that a human being is an immortal spirit temporarily associated with a physical body. When you really understand this, it brings a feeling of certainty, personal power, and confidence. This interview literally brings that truth alive!
The Basics of Manifestation by Kenneth J. M. MacLean
How do you get what you want? It's so easy to think and dream, but how do you translate those dreams to reality? Why do some people get what they want easily, and others have such a hard time? Here, at last, is an explanation of manifestation that makes sense, that you really can apply to transform your life.
The Law of Attraction Explained by Kenneth J. M. MacLean
The Law of Attraction states that 'like attracts like.' But what does this mean and how does it apply to situations in life? The Law is your obedient servant and always matches you up with your true vibration. Your work is to align your thoughts with your desires. When this happens, you will notice an inner excitement, and a desire to get into action. Those actions will be lined up with the goal, and will proceed along the path of least resistance. Manifestation must inevitably follow.
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Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) Given Consensus Rating of “Buy” by Analysts
Posted by Joseph Casey on Jul 14th, 2019
Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the twenty-four brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have given a hold recommendation and fifteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $43.14.
Several analysts recently commented on the stock. SunTrust Banks reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Whiting Petroleum in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Capital One Financial cut shares of Cimarex Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. ValuEngine cut shares of Acceleron Pharma from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Bank of America set a $54.00 price objective on shares of Fortis and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of to an “overweight” rating and set a GBX 400 ($5.23) price objective for the company in a research note on Friday.
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A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Whiting Petroleum in the 4th quarter valued at about $23,869,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Whiting Petroleum by 71.3% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,524,537 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $57,280,000 after buying an additional 1,051,214 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Whiting Petroleum by 190.1% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,134,062 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $29,644,000 after buying an additional 743,087 shares in the last quarter. Schneider Capital Management Corp grew its position in Whiting Petroleum by 270.4% during the first quarter. Schneider Capital Management Corp now owns 640,217 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $16,735,000 after buying an additional 467,376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP purchased a new position in Whiting Petroleum during the first quarter worth about $8,724,000. Institutional investors own 99.70% of the company’s stock.
Shares of WLL stock traded down $0.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $17.38. The stock had a trading volume of 3,901,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,782,628. Whiting Petroleum has a fifty-two week low of $15.40 and a fifty-two week high of $55.17. The firm has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.07 and a beta of 2.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.76.
Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The oil and gas exploration company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.36). Whiting Petroleum had a return on equity of 2.98% and a net margin of 13.22%. The firm had revenue of $389.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $421.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.92 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 24.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Whiting Petroleum will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
About Whiting Petroleum
Whiting Petroleum Corporation engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas primarily in the Rocky Mountains region of the United States. The company sells its oil and gas production to end users, marketers, and other purchasers.
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Also called the Emerald island, Ireland is said to have no snakes because Saint Patrick had driven them out. That probably explains to some extent why there is such devotion to this saint above all else. And celebrating the saint’s day is now a global affair so long as there are Irish.
And green is the color that symbolizes the Irish, along with the clover. It is said that you are in luck if you find a 5-leaf clover, better than catching the leprechaun!
It was late in 2003 that we decided that one of the places we want to journey to would be Ireland. For a long time, the history of the island was painful. As all small nations go, if you are not strong enough you live by the graces of your stronger neighbors.
In total, we spent 11 days joining a group that included not just a few Irish Americans, out to seek their roots and to understand how is it that their forebears would leave for the Americas. Just as the migrants to Singapore did…
Like the rest of the British isles, the emerald island is subject to the influence of the north Atlantic currents. Compared to similar latitudes, it is “warmer” (its relative), and because of that – is ice/snow free most of the year. At most the mountains get snow, but it probably does not show up or last long in the lower altitudes. It also means one thing = wet weather, as you will see from our photos.
Capital to Capital
Arriving in Dublin, we only had a short day to stroll the centre of town. So there wasn’t much in the way of viewing the heritage of the city except door hunting. You see, if you wander along the Georgian townhouses, you will find unique and ornately decorated doorways and porticos. Many of these are 18th century homes of the gentry. Some of them have elaborate door knocks as well. Fun to collect your own series of the portico photos.
Then it was off on a drive through the Carlingford Lough to Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland. It was a real pity that we did not self drive, as it would had been an experience to make a pit stop diversion along the way.
Arriving Belfast, we had expected the city to be a little muted, but this was not to be. We took the local bus to the Odyssey center to pick up our usual Hardrock T-shirts, but they were out of stock!
Surprisingly the city is not that crowded (perhaps it was weekday) and we easily found places for dinner (of all place Chinese food at the Red Panda).
A day with the giants
Driving along the Antrim coast, we are headed to the place where legendary giants are said to have created a walkway for themselves. This “Giants’ causeway” is located on the northern end of the island. Large basalt columns, shaped into rod like hexagonal shape lines the coastline. A world heritage site, there are 6 major features to look out for when visiting, though we only examined three:
The organ. From afar, it does look like a church’s organ. These rocks were left after the last ice age when the sea levels receded.
Foot or boot depending on who you ask. Said to be a size 93.5, the giant who left this behind must have been in a hurry!
The Grand Causeway looks like a stairway stops short at the shoreline…maybe if we walked there we might be magically transported to another realm…
We were warned not to walk out onto the black rocks for they are wet and slippery and quite some tourists had been swept out to sea when the weather turned inclement! They probably ventured too far out towards the sea anyway for our comfort.
Starting from the visitor center, you can either walk down to the shoreline or take the coach for £1pp (this was more than 12 years ago). We suggest you take the small coach at least for the return. It’s quite a walk.
The Antrim coast has really some spectacular scenery. Plunging cliffs of rock line the coast for many miles. Unfortunately, with a packaged tour we did not have the time to stop. It is highly recommended to do a self drive and spend more time here.
Onward to London-Derry, a town that was historically besieged by violence and counter violence between the protestants and catholics. We had arrived on a Sunday and everything’s closed. And so we spent nearly 2 hours walking along the old city walls and local cathedral.
It’s a nice town, but relatively quiet. So we pressed on with a drive up to Celtic fort of Grian’an Ailigh, overlooking most of the peninsula. But the fort itself was no more and mainly just foundational stone. The views here illustrate the position’s importance.
More was to come as we drove up to Inishowen via Buncrena. Our destination : Malin Head. We made only a brief stop here at the real northern tip of the island, as the weather is unpredictable and it began to really pour, making it really difficult to stay out due to the wind and rain.
Actually, it has been an interesting two days. We have been driving across Ireland, crossing over from the republic to the UK and back in repeated fashion – nary a hoot about customs. Now for those who say there’s the schengen treaty, we remind that the UK retains passport control even for incoming EU nationals. Try not bringing your passport when you cross from France to the UK.
Our next stop is back in Northern Ireland (technically the UK), to visit the Ulster American folk museum. It is an open-air museum and chronicles the life and history of the emigration of Irish people in the 19th century.
Many houses and buildings had been brought here from all over Ireland. In addition, there is also a collection of buildings that show how life was like in the 18th – 19th century in the new world (the United States).
You can spend a whole day exploring the entire area and enjoy the features of the museum. We were lucky with the weather, as the rain and clouds were placed on hold while we were in the museum.
In what appears like a prairie, a wild hare sits, camouflaged somewhat by the ground and grass. The Irish emigration had begun much earlier, but in the 19th century was exacerbated due to the great potato blight and subsequent famine of the 1850s. The Irish Diaspora now number more than the population in Ireland itself!
More country scenes
As we drive to the western end of the island, the emerging scenery gets prettier. We had passed the table like mountains of Enniskillen and made our way further southward.
Now we are in the 12 bends of the Connemara national park, a region where the gaelic language remains well practiced. Our guide told us that students of the Irish language frequently live here for a time to practice their acquired linguistic skills.
Exceptionally beautiful scenery today of the mountains, lakes and inlet sea. The weather being a rare sunny one, brings out the color and vibrancy of the land.
We made a brief stop at Kylemore abbey, located on the shores of Pollacapall lough. This is the location of the Benedictines from Belgium.
Specifically for the nuns of the religious order. It is interesting that this location was chosen – perhaps it is the inaccessible nature that made it ideal for the religious ladies to seek refuge here for a life of quiet solitude. To be honest, it is a really quiet location except for the sounds of the elements and the birds.
In the evening, we joined an optional dinner to Dunguaire castle. Located in the Galway peninsula, the small castle served as residence to the Martyns family. Just before we had our dinner we were entertained by a harpist in the reception, where we sipped hot wine. This was a strong local brew and should be taken with caution! Remember that they make whiskeys here in Ireland.
The evening was interesting. We had dinner using cutlery and crockery from medieval times. Even the “servants” used pottery from that era to serve the hot food onto our plates. At the same time, we had ballads sprouting poetry and playing music even as we dined. In fact, the guests were encouraged to participate. One of our tour mates was made the “King”. He declared the banquet begun and had to act like the lord of the castle. We enjoyed ourselves so much that it was well past 10pm when we left for our hotel. Past closing time!
Little cottages
Stopping at the little village of Adare is like stepping back in time. The row of thatched roof houses look like the ones in the Cotswolds. These are now converted into souvenir shops selling: Irish wool clothing, leather bags made from local tanneries etc catering to us tourists.
Muckross house is a 19th century mansion built in the Tudor style with 65 rooms on the shores of Lough Leane. Eventually acquired by a Californian magnate, the house and its 11,000 acres of land was donated to the Irish republic in 1932.
However Killarney is our destination where we set out on a “ring of Kerry” drive along the coast. As we set out for our drive, the rains began to come beating and it got really misty.
We could not see beyond the fog and the trip was a total loss. Well once again, we can blame it on the typical Irish weather! Thus be prepared for disappointment as such.
Romancing the stone(s)
Driving through the country roads, we came up to Blarney castle. There is a dark side to this castle which have its dungeons and had served as a fortress in the days of Norman rule in Ireland.
In fact, Blarney is typical in its design – influenced by the Normans, who were made landed peers by the English King. They were known as the “Marcher lords” – Margraves who controlled frontiers and kept out unwanted heathens…
But then people come here for something else and we doubt anyone cared.
The Blarney stone is supposed to impart the gift of the gab to whoever that kisses it! To do that you must first scale up the castle. We decided to give the kissing a miss, as you need to lie on your back and stick your head out the edge of the castle! Hopefully still supported by the plank on which you are lying on.
It is quite a flight of stairs to surmount and there was a long queue to the Blarney stone. Some of our tour members spent the entire time of our visit queuing. So, no gift of gab for the both of us! But the castle is quite scenic but it was extremely crowded.
Following this we continued on to Waterford, the home of crystal (stone?) making in Ireland.
Rounding up the trip was the drive back to Dublin. But not before stopping at Kilkenny castle.Built as one of the strong keeps by the Normans in the 12th century, its enormous defense towers and walls served as the residences of the Butler family for well over 500 years.
Unfortunately, as favor turned against the family, the castle was sold to the people of the city for a mere £50 in 1967!
Since then it had been restored and opened to the public. Fascinating to know that the Earl who gave away the castle actually bought land in front of the castle to ensure nothing can be built in front of it. This, to give unobstructed view of the castle to all.
And this ended our road trip on the emerald island. Ireland has more than 84,000km² of greens, lakes and rolling hills. It has produced one of the world’s largest diaspora despite its size. It had emerged as a “tiger” economy and re-emerged from the more recent great recession.
These folks are a hardy lot. Come here to see how they tick.
3 thoughts on “Ireland, Emerald Island”
Lisa B says:
Looks like you saw QUITE a bit of Ireland! Great blog, very fun. You are adventurers!
melcoo says:
Wow, that was a great trip, most tourists only fly into Dublin and head down the south of the country, you really packed in a lot in 11 days. You got some lovely photos despite the weather been so changeable on your trip. I love the Ulster American folk park, I visited there years ago on a school tour and want to go back again.
Many thanks for liking our Irish story!
Yes it sure was a full trip of Ireland and you are right it is a shame not to have covered more than Dublin. The weather was varying throughout but we were lucky to have gotten some good days. Our favorite is the Giant’s causeway but we only had 2 hours there.
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The Jetty of Boulogne-sur-Mer
Edouard Manet, 1868
Edouard Manet (1832 - 1883), Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1868
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the BankGiro Loterij, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Mondriaan Fund, the Rabobank, the Rembrandt Association, with the additional support from the Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds, the VSB Foundation and the Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This harbour scene shows a view of the northern French resort of Boulogne-sur-Mer, where Edouard Manet sketched the jetties and the holidaymakers in the summer of 1868. He took the sketches back to his Paris studio, where he used them to compose this painting. What seems at first sight like a spontaneous snapshot has, therefore, been painstakingly constructed.
The azure water and strolling figures create a vivid impression of a summer's day at the seaside. The painting’s greatest appeal, however, lies in the way the jetties are depicted: they bisect the picture plane horizontally, while the mast of the sailing boat moored between them does the same vertically. The taut lines and abrupt cropping create a bold composition, for which Manet might have drawn inspiration from Japanese prints.
Manet was viewed in Vincent van Gogh’s time as one of the most important contemporary artists. Although Van Gogh considered his work ‘very original’, he did not count Manet ‘among the very best of this century’, he wrote in February 1884.
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Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the BankGiro Loterij, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Mondriaan Fund, the Rabobank, the Rembrandt Association, with the additional support from the Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds, the VSB Foundation and the Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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iOS 9 review: 5 reasons you should upgrade
Mark Sullivan@thesullivan September 15, 2015 3:00 PM
Apple’s latest and greatest mobile operating system, iOS 9, is now available. This isn’t just any Apple OS. It’s the brains inside Apple’s most popular and profitable products, it’s mobile product, especially the iPhone.
IOS 9 is a collection of new features and functions that bring Apple devices back into parity with mobile devices on the Android side of the world. For instance, one of the main attractions in iOS 9 is multi-tasking and split-screen functionality, things that have existed in other mobile OSs for some time.
Similarly, as you will read below, iOS 9’s personal assistant Siri is getting smarter, and learning some of the tricks we’ve already seen performed by the Google Now personal assistant.
And iOS 9 can be seen as a look into Apple’s vision for mobile computing in the future. IOS 9 will be the last full release of the OS until we see iOS 10 next year. The Apple OS has to offer something more than just parity with Android.
So there are some good reasons for upgrading to the new OS. It’s a free, over-the-air upgrade for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users. (See the graphic at the bottom of this story for the full list of compatible devices.)
Siri gets smarter
One of the marquee improvements in iOS 9 is Siri’s progress in the direction of Google Now. The personal assistant has become better at learning about you and anticipating searches or functions based on your habits and location, as well as the time of day.
Siri’s user interface has also changed. It now resembles Siri on the Apple Watch, with undulating lines appearing at the bottom of the screen while it’s listening to you. The personal assistant, I discovered, also has six different voice sounds. You can choose a male or female voice with American, Australian, or British accents. I chose female and British to make Siri sound even more intelligent.
One of Siri’s more useful improvements is the ability to search through your photos. If you’re like me, you’ve become more interested in taking pictures as the cameras on phones have improved. I suddenly have a lot of photos. Thankfully, Siri has gotten smart enough to search them by time and place stamp, as in the below search and result.
One thing I thought we were going to get with iOS 9 (and still might, I suppose) is the ability to wake Siri up with the “Hey Siri” command even when the device is sleeping. You can do this on Android phones with Google Now. But, at least in my preview version of the OS, the phone still has to be powered on for that to work.
Siri came up with the answer to a question about my favorite sports team’s last game.
I pointed to this restaurant in Maps, and asked Siri to set a reminder for me. Siri set up the reminder without any problem, and I imagine it will work when I get home tonight.
IOS 9 contains a very cool new feature that attempts to help you identify an unknown person calling your phone.
When an unknown person (or bot) calls, the OS searches through your email for names that might be associated with the phone number calling. When it finds a possible match, it says “Maybe [person’s name]” underneath the phone number on the screen.
The new search screen
Swipe right from the left edge of the screen on an iPhone or iPad, and you’ll see the handy new search screen. The screen has a search bar at the top, and is pre-populated with your most frequently used contacts and apps. It suggests places near your current location that might be useful — like coffee shops or gas stations.
These suggested locations could end up being very helpful, especially if you’re in an unfamiliar place. I found that most of the suggested places checked out, and were good suggestions. However, at the top of the list of nearby gas stations in downtown San Francisco was Pacific Gas & Electric Service Center, which, in spite of its name, isn’t a proper gas station, just a big, ugly tan building on Folsom Street.
Searching through photos is easier
Now, at the bottom of your photo roll, all your photos are represented by small thumbnails that you can move from side to side. When you see the one you want, you simply touch it and the full-sized image appears.
Multi-tasking on the iPad
Lots of iPad (and iPhone) users have been screaming for multi-tasking, and on the iPad, at least, iOS 9 delivers. In simple terms, iOS 9 lets iPad users open two separate apps at the same time. It does this in three ways — Slide Over, Split View, and Picture in Picture.
Slide Over lets you swipe left from the right side of the screen to bring in a narrow view of a messaging, calendar, or map app at the right side of the screen. The slide-out pane isn’t wide enough for a lot of browsing functionality, but it’s enough to look up a word or concept while composing an email in the main screen.
Split View lets you run two apps at once on the two halves of the screen. You can move the dividing line to adjust the relative size of either app. This is useful when you truly need to jump back and forth between two apps to get your stuff done. In the example below I was researching a foreign country, and I wanted to be able to immediately relate the facts I found in the browser to specific locations on a map.
The new OS allows you to overlay an (iTunes) video on another app so that you can keep an eye on a live event you may be watching. This can also be useful when you’re supposed to be building a spreadsheet and messaging with co-workers, but just can’t stand to turn off Space Ghost.
However, when I tried to split the screen between the YouTube or Netflix video app and Maps, the OS would not let me keep the video playing while in Split View.
The News app is cool
With iOS 9, this is what the For You section of the News app on my iPhone looks like:
The content is chosen based on the content type and favorite publications I chose while setting up the app. And, yeah, you have to scroll past a few ads. Is there an in-ad ad-blocker app for that? I guess not.
Here is the presentation of the content in the News app on the larger screen of the iPad.
When you choose one of the stories, you see a magazine-like presentation that can make even CNN look stylish.
Already stylish publications like Vanity Fair look very sharp.
If you have one of these devices you can upgrade . . .
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In 2012, HM Government launched the 10 Steps to Cyber Security guide to encourage organisations to consider their cyber security measures, and to ascertain whether organisations thought they were managing their cyber risks sufficiently. The guide was extremely well received, and raised awareness within company boards and amongst senior executives. Business leaders were encouraged to take ownership of their cyber risks and to build them into their overall corporate risk management regime.
Whilst the initiative gained good traction, HM Government’s analysis of continuing cyber attacks, and feedback from the cyber security industry at large, was that a number of security controls were still not being implemented effectively. This posed a concern for HM Government. With a remit to tackle cyber crime and a desire to make UK one of the most secure places in the world to do business in cyberspace, it was clear to HM Government that further initiatives were required.
The adoption of an organisational standard for cyber security was therefore seen as the next step on from the 10 Steps to Cyber Security guide. The rationale behind this was that it would enable organisations and their customers and partners, to have greater confidence in their ability to measure and reduce basic cyber risks, as they would be independently assessed, where necessary.
HM Government, together with industry, instigated a call for evidence on a preferred organisational standard in cyber security. Concluding in November 2013, the feedback received was that none of the existing standards for cyber security met the requirements, and that industry was prepared to help HM Government develop something more appropriate. The new requirements have now been embedded in the Cyber Essentials scheme.
The Cyber Essentials scheme is a cyber security standard, which organisations can be assessed and certified against. It identifies the security controls that an organisation must have in place within their IT systems in order to have confidence that they are addressing cyber security effectively and mitigating the risk from Internet-based threats.
The scheme focuses on the following five essential mitigation strategies within the context of the 10 Steps to Cyber Security guide.
Boundary Firewalls and Internet Gateways
Secure Configuration
It provides organisations with clear guidance on implementation as well as offering independent certification for those who want it.
Whilst providing a basic but essential level of protection, the Cyber Essentials scheme enables organisations that believe they are practicing robust cyber security to benefit by making this a unique selling point thereby enabling business. Upon certification, they can then demonstrate to their customers that their data is adequately protected and that they take cyber security seriously.
The first stage in the certification process is to decide which level to certify against – Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus
Cyber Essentials – organisations complete a self-assessment questionnaire which is reviewed by an external Certifying Body
Cyber Essentials Plus – tests of an organisation’s systems are carried out by an external Certifying Body
Both Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus include a questionnaire which relates to security controls and the secure configuration of an organisation’s computing resources. CREST Certifying Bodies also conduct a remote technical assessment at Cyber Essentials aimed at validating elements of the questionnaire.To find out more about how we can help your business achieve Cyber Essentials Accreditation, please email enquiries@venturecybersecurity.com.
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from Women Around the World and Women and Foreign Policy Program
Women Around the World: This Week
Women-cry-funeral-burundi-violence-conflict
Blog Post by Guest Blogger for Rachel Vogelstein
Wars and Conflict
Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering January 15 to January 21, was compiled by Anne Connell and Becky Allen.
Gang rape in Burundi Late last week, the human rights chief of the United Nations (UN) called for an investigation into new reports of atrocities—including gang rape of women by government forces—in the small central African country of Burundi. A United Nations Security Council delegation, including U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, headed there on Wednesday amid concerns about worsening violence. To date, 13 cases of systematic gang rape of women during searches of their homes have been reported. This number likely represents only a fraction of the total number of such attacks. First-hand reports of the rapes suggest that violence perpetrated by government forces in Burundi—which began as a crackdown on political protest—is taking on an increasingly ethnic dimension.
Closing the gender gap in Iceland For the past six years, Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s international ranking of countries with the strongest indicators of gender equality, part of WEF’s annual Global Gender Gap Report. This week, Saadia Zahidi, head of the WEF’s gender equality campaign, projected that Iceland would be the first country to eliminate the gap entirely, according to the tracker’s measures. The country has had a female president or prime minister for twenty of the last fifty years. A voluntary quota system has boosted women’s representation in politics at the local, regional, and the national levels. Icelandic women’s participation in the workforce is the highest in the world (88 percent), while subsidized access to high-quality childcare has enabled a steady birthrate of two children per woman. Gender gaps in access to healthcare and education are nonexistent. Even so, advocates and policymakers say there is work to be done to address the disparities that remain, including a persistent gender gap in pay.
Female genital mutilation in Liberia The prevalence rate of female genital mutilation (FGM) of young girls has risen in the Twah River Administrative District in Nimba County, Liberia. An estimated 66 percent of all Liberian girls undergo genital cutting, which leads to complications including bleeding and infection, organ damage, sterility, recurring urinary tract infections, birth complications, fistula, and death. Though the practice is outlawed in Nimba County, the local leadership claims not to have the tools necessary to deter it. Members of the country’s gender ministry as well as advocacy groups have expressed strong support for a federal ban, but the administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been uncharacteristically quiet on the issue. Many neighboring countries in West Africa—Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Niger, Togo, and, as of summer 2015, Nigeria—have already passed national legislation banning FGM.
Five Questions on #MeToo in Pakistan: Nighat Dad
The Post-Presidential Legacy of Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan
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Fossil Find Is First Evidence Of Arctic Hyenas – Dead Things
An artist’s rendering of ancient Arctic hyenas belonging to the genus Chasmaporthetes, now known to have roamed Canada’s Yukon Territory. (Credit: Julius T. Csotonyi)
You might associate hyenas with Africa’s sprawling savannas, but the animals were once right at home above the Arctic Circle.
Modern hyenas generally stick to Africa. (A decreasing number of one species, the striped hyena, can be found on the edges of southwestern Asia.) However, back in the day, various now-extinct species roamed much of the world. For example, fossils from the ancient hyena genus Chasmaporthetes have been found from Morocco to Mongolia to Mexico.
The Hyena That Ran With It
Chasmaporthetes, sometimes called the “running hyena,” lacked the hunched posture of modern hyenas. It more likely resembled a small, lean wolf. The animal would have been efficient at chasing game, though its bone-crushing jaws also would have come in handy for munching and crunching carrion.
This particular genus of hyena started running around more than 5 million years ago. It disappeared from the fossil record about 750,000 years ago, possibly outcompeted by canids expanding into new territory.
You might be wondering how and when Chasmaporthetes, which likely evolved in Eurasia, made it to the New World — the only hyena known to do so. Researchers have long assumed it made the trip via Beringia, the landmass that once stretched from Siberia to what’s now Alaska.
Beringia’s biggest claim to fame dates back to the Last Glacial Maximum, about 18,000 years ago, the last time sea levels were low enough to expose the area. Back then, bands of humans headed east from Siberia, either along Beringia’s resource-rich Pacific coast or following herds of large game inland, eventually ending up in the New World.
But, like many other expanses of land around the world, Beringia was high and dry more than once.
In the last 20-plus million years, Beringia has come and gone multiple times due to changing sea levels. Many land animals, including various species of horse and bear, have crossed the region without getting their paws wet.
(Eurasian-American species migration also occurred well before that, during the millions of years the landmasses were smooshed together in a supercontinent, no land bridge needed.)
The Ageless Old Crow
The thing about Beringia: Researchers know it’s the only plausible route between Eurasia and the Americas for terrestrial animals, but it’s tough to find the smoking gun that establishes a species passed through, and when it did so.
It’s not for lack of fossils. Numerous sites in northern Canada and Alaska have yielded fantastic finds, including an Arctic tyrannosaur. But some of the most fossilferous sites, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, come with a built-in headache.
Old Crow Basin, for example, is one of four large interior lowland areas along Beringia’s eastern edge. Over millions of years, sediment accumulated in Old Crow and the other basins, preserving a rich record of flora and fauna.
During the Last Ice Age, however, expanding ice sheets changed the flow of regional rivers, and they carved new routes across the basins. The force of the water cut into all those layers of fossil-rich rock, exposing a lost world of plants and animals ready for modern paleontologists to find.
Sounds great, right? Well, yes and no.
Tens of thousands of fossils have been found in the Old Crow region in the last century or so, representing more than 80 species. Alas, nearly all of them turned up piecemeal, jumbled together, washed downstream from their original resting place.
Context is everything in paleontology: Without knowing which layer of rock a fossil came from, it’s tough to date it. Other details get lost as well. A full skeleton preserved in situ can provide a wealth of info about the animal’s anatomy, lifestyle, ecological niche and even cause of death. That same animal’s remains, disarticulated into a rib bone here and a humerus there, may be impossible to classify at all.
The teeth turned up in Yukon Territory’s Old Crow River region, among tens of thousands of fossils recovered there in the last century. (Credit: Duane Froese/University of Alberta)
Sink Your Teeth Into This
Which brings us to a couple of teeth found in Old Crow Basin more than 40 years ago. One tooth turned up in 1973, the other four years later.
Based on the general ages of local rock layers that have not yet eroded, researchers place the age of the teeth between 12,000 and 1.4 million years. It’s likely the teeth are at least 850,000 years old, and possibly closer to 1.4 million years, but that’s about as specific as the team will get.
Like the vast majority of fossils pulled from the earth, the teeth sat unstudied in a museum for decades. They attracted some interest, because they appeared to belong to carnivores, a relatively rare find in Old Crow, but only recently did they get a full-on analysis.
The results are pretty exciting.
One of the “running hyena” fossil teeth, collected in 1977 from Canada’s Yukon Territory. (Credit: Grant Zazula/Government of Yukon)
The authors of a new study devoted to the teeth classify them as belonging to the genus Chasmaporthetes, providing that “smoking gun” fossil: Hyenas once roamed the Canadian Arctic, traveling from Eurasia into the Americas.
The teeth move the range of Chasmaporthetes northward in the Americas by about 2,500 miles. Prior to the Old Crow discovery, the northernmost American sites for the animal were in northern Mexico and Florida. Meanwhile, the Old World Chasmaporthetes site nearest to the Arctic find is 4,000 miles away, in Mongolia.
Finding just two isolated teeth makes it impossible to be sure of the species, but they’re most similar to the chompers of C. ossifragus, also known as the American hyena. The authors note, however, that the teeth may belong to a previously unknown species. Finding more pieces of it as they sift through the fossil booty of Old Crow may result in the classification of an entirely new species. The Beringian hyena has a nice ring to it.
The research appears today in Open Quarternary.
« It’s Pollinator Week and we’re all a-buzzzz! – Citizen Science Salon
Understanding Microsleep — When Our Minds Are Both Asleep and Awake – The Crux »
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Somaliland: Social Housing Project
An ILO-backed social housing project has been launched in Somaliland with the aim of providing affordable and environment-friendly homes to 1,800 families returning from Ethiopia.
Below are extracts from an article published by IRIN:
Abdi Hassan's new stone house is one of 60 that have mushroomed in the Koosar and Aden Saleban areas of Burao town, in the […] republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia.
The two-roomed units are low-cost and part of a project that started in 2003 targeting 1,800 families - returnees from Ethiopian refugee camps who remained displaced in Burao, Togdeer region. The community initiative was supported by the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) and other partners.
"When we returned from Ethiopia, we came to live here because we had nowhere else to go. We had no land or house elsewhere," Hassan said. "The permanent houses protect us from the strong winds and the rains that have become more common nowadays."
Working through village committees, the ILO and its partners have expanded their activities to include a range of technically simple projects that benefit the returnees, such as brick-making and road upgrading.
"The committees are put in charge of the resources, with communities providing contributions mainly in the form of labour," said Abdikarim Egeh, ILO programme officer. "This creates a sense of local ownership of the projects."
The initiative is also addressing rampant unemployment by involving community members in labour-intensive projects where an unskilled labourer is paid US$3 per day and skilled labourers are paid $8. Women too participate in some of the projects.
"It is a way of putting money in people's pockets," said Andrea Berloffa, field officer with the European Union.
Egeh said the money was being channelled back into the community, with most people establishing petty trades from the income. Community contracting was also stimulating economic growth by improving market access due to the upgrading of roads; such as the Ali-haydh road in the Awdal region - one of the main transit routes to Djibouti.
The ILO is also involved in environmental - water and soil conservation - projects, as well as small and medium enterprises. According to officials, its community contracting initiatives have been especially successful within rural settings.
However, there are challenges, especially relating to sustainability. According to the country programme manager for Somalia/Somaliland for Oxfam GB, Peter Kisopia, there is a need for capacity-building to ensure sustainability once supporting organisations leave.
"We should build skills to improve project management sustainability by balancing infrastructure development with that of skilled manpower," Kisopia said.
"There is a need to prepare communities to sustain infrastructure such as roads; otherwise this ends up being a waste of money. If you dig a road and there is no proper maintenance it becomes an erosion path," he added.
The challenge is even greater in a situation where there is no functional local authority or the government lacks the funds to sustain the projects, as in Somaliland.
"There is a need for small-scale projects that are locally sustainable and that communities are comfortably able to sustain," he said, "In my opinion, helping 20 or 30 families get out of poverty is a better approach."
The head of UN World Food Programme's Hargeisa sub-office, Amadou Samake, said follow-up was needed "because even if you give the local people the skills to manage a project, this will not be sustainable without funds".
Admittedly, there was a need for an exit strategy when the project ended, but with a proper follow-up mechanism in place, he added.
Environmental questions
Gathered at a stake-holder meeting on 25 June in Burao, the beneficiaries were excited to be moving into their new houses but suggested they should be made bigger.
"The two-roomed houses are still insufficient due to the large size of an average Somali family," Abdi Hussein Said, the governor of Burao told the gathering.
Alongside him, Mohamed Jama Farah, director-general of the ministry of environment and pastoral development in Somaliland, called for programmes that also considered the environment. "The environment here is very fragile and there is rampant cutting down trees for charcoal production for export, especially to Yemen," he said.
"There is also insufficient ground cover to hold water and prevent erosion, leading to recurrent floods, which destroy people's livelihoods," he added.
Many at the meeting agreed with him, saying most of the problems facing the communities were associated with environmental and climatic conditions and needed to be urgently addressed.
They cited recurrent drought and flooding, which they said had led to destitution and loss of livelihoods.
Kisopia said this called for disaster preparedness and mitigation through the development of early warning systems - something that could not be done in two or three years. "There is a need for long-term commitment," he said.
Somaliland: President Visits African Countries to Foster Trade and International Recognition
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Unrepresented Women: Women in Peacebuilding
Somaliland: Egyptian Delegation Visits to Discuss Bilateral Relations
Somaliland: Possible Establishment of Diplomatic Relations with Kenya
Somaliland: Heavy-weight Delegation of EU and UK Representatives Met With Authorities in Hargeisa
Somaliland: Environmentalist Discovers New Aloe Species
More Somaliland news »
Somaliland:WS on the Case of Somaliland
Somaliland and The Issue of International Recognition
More Somaliland publications »
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Current 2018 Main Ed. (1/14/2019); Titles 1 to 4 2012 Ed. and Supplement V (1/12/2018) 2012 Ed. and Supplement IV (1/6/2017) 2012 Ed. and Supplement III (1/3/2016) 2012 Ed. and Supplement II (1/5/2015) 2012 Ed. and Supplement I (1/16/2014) 2012 Main Ed. (1/15/2013) 2006 Ed. and Supplement V (1/3/2012) 2006 Ed. and Supplement IV (1/7/2011) 2006 Ed. and Supplement III (2/1/2010) 2006 Ed. and Supplement II (1/5/2009) 2006 Ed. and Supplement I (1/8/2008) 2006 Main Ed. (1/3/2007) 2000 Ed. and Supplement V (1/2/2006) 2000 Ed. and Supplement IV (1/3/2005) 2000 Ed. and Supplement III (1/19/2004) 2000 Ed. and Supplement II (1/6/2003) 2000 Ed. and Supplement I (1/22/2002) 2000 Main Ed. (1/2/2001) 1994 Ed. and Supplement V (1/23/2000) 1994 Ed. and Supplement IV (1/5/1999) 1994 Ed. and Supplement III (1/26/1998) 1994 Ed. and Supplement II (1/6/1997) 1994 Ed. and Supplement I (1/16/1996) 1994 Main Ed. (1/4/1995)
<< Previous TITLE 26 / Subtitle A / CHAPTER 1 / Subchapter A / PART IV / Subpart B / § 30C Next >>
26 USC 30C: Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit Text contains those laws in effect on July 16, 2019
From Title 26-INTERNAL REVENUE CODESubtitle A-Income TaxesCHAPTER 1-NORMAL TAXES AND SURTAXESSubchapter A-Determination of Tax LiabilityPART IV-CREDITS AGAINST TAXSubpart B-Other Credits
Jump To: Source CreditReferences In TextAmendmentsEffective DateSavings Provision
§30C. Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit
(a) Credit allowed
There shall be allowed as a credit against the tax imposed by this chapter for the taxable year an amount equal to 30 percent of the cost of any qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property placed in service by the taxpayer during the taxable year.
(b) Limitation
The credit allowed under subsection (a) with respect to all qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property placed in service by the taxpayer during the taxable year at a location shall not exceed-
(1) $30,000 in the case of a property of a character subject to an allowance for depreciation, and
(2) $1,000 in any other case.
(c) Qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property
For purposes of this section, the term "qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property" has the same meaning as the term "qualified clean-fuel vehicle refueling property" would have under section 179A if-
(1) paragraph (1) of section 179A(d) did not apply to property installed on property which is used as the principal residence (within the meaning of section 121) of the taxpayer, and
(2) only the following were treated as clean-burning fuels for purposes of section 179A(d):
(A) Any fuel at least 85 percent of the volume of which consists of one or more of the following: ethanol, natural gas, compressed natural gas, liquified natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, or hydrogen.
(B) Any mixture-
(i) which consists of two or more of the following: biodiesel (as defined in section 40A(d)(1)), diesel fuel (as defined in section 4083(a)(3)), or kerosene, and
(ii) at least 20 percent of the volume of which consists of biodiesel (as so defined) determined without regard to any kerosene in such mixture.
(C) Electricity.
(d) Application with other credits
(1) Business credit treated as part of general business credit
So much of the credit which would be allowed under subsection (a) for any taxable year (determined without regard to this subsection) that is attributable to property of a character subject to an allowance for depreciation shall be treated as a credit listed in section 38(b) for such taxable year (and not allowed under subsection (a)).
(2) Personal credit
The credit allowed under subsection (a) (after the application of paragraph (1)) for any taxable year shall not exceed the excess (if any) of-
(A) the regular tax liability (as defined in section 26(b)) reduced by the sum of the credits allowable under subpart A and section 27, over
(B) the tentative minimum tax for the taxable year.
(e) Special rules
For purposes of this section-
(1) Reduction in basis
For purposes of this subtitle, the basis of any property for which a credit is allowable under subsection (a) shall be reduced by the amount of such credit so allowed (determined without regard to subsection (d)).
(2) Property used by tax-exempt entity
In the case of any qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property the use of which is described in paragraph (3) or (4) of section 50(b) and which is not subject to a lease, the person who sold such property to the person or entity using such property shall be treated as the taxpayer that placed such property in service, but only if such person clearly discloses to such person or entity in a document the amount of any credit allowable under subsection (a) with respect to such property (determined without regard to subsection (d)). For purposes of subsection (d), property to which this paragraph applies shall be treated as of a character subject to an allowance for depreciation.
(3) Property used outside United States not qualified
No credit shall be allowable under subsection (a) with respect to any property referred to in section 50(b)(1) or with respect to the portion of the cost of any property taken into account under section 179.
(4) Election not to take credit
No credit shall be allowed under subsection (a) for any property if the taxpayer elects not to have this section apply to such property.
(5) Recapture rules
Rules similar to the rules of section 179A(e)(4) shall apply.
(6) Reference
For purposes of this section, any reference to section 179A shall be treated as a reference to such section as in effect immediately before its repeal.
(f) Regulations
The Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.
(g) Termination
This section shall not apply to any property placed in service after December 31, 2017.
(Added Pub. L. 109–58, title XIII, §1342(a), Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 1049 ; amended Pub. L. 109–135, title IV, §§402(k), 412(d), Dec. 21, 2005, 119 Stat. 2615 , 2636; Pub. L. 110–172, §6(b), Dec. 29, 2007, 121 Stat. 2479 ; Pub. L. 110–343, div. B, title II, §207(a), (b), Oct. 3, 2008, 122 Stat. 3839 ; Pub. L. 111–5, div. B, title I, §§1123(a), 1142(b)(3), 1144(b)(2), Feb. 17, 2009, 123 Stat. 325 , 331, 332; Pub. L. 111–312, title VII, §711(a), Dec. 17, 2010, 124 Stat. 3315 ; Pub. L. 112–240, title IV, §402(a), Jan. 2, 2013, 126 Stat. 2337 ; Pub. L. 113–295, div. A, title I, §161(a), title II, §§218(b), 221(a)(34)(B), Dec. 19, 2014, 128 Stat. 4023 , 4035, 4042; Pub. L. 114–113, div. Q, title I, §182(a), Dec. 18, 2015, 129 Stat. 3072 ; Pub. L. 115–123, div. D, title I, §40404(a), Feb. 9, 2018, 132 Stat. 148 ; Pub. L. 115–141, div. U, title IV, §401(b)(3), Mar. 23, 2018, 132 Stat. 1201 .)
Section 179A as in effect immediately before its repeal, referred to in subsec. (e)(6), means section 179A of this title as in effect before it was repealed by Pub. L. 113–295, div. A, title II, §221(a)(34)(A), Dec, 19, 2014, 128 Stat. 4042 , effective Dec. 19, 2014.
2018-Subsec. (e)(6), (7). Pub. L. 115–141 redesignated par. (7) as (6) and struck out former par. (6) which related to special rule for property placed in service during 2009 and 2010.
Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 115–123 substituted "December 31, 2017" for "December 31, 2016".
2015-Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 114–113 substituted "December 31, 2016" for "December 31, 2014".
2014-Subsec. (e)(1). Pub. L. 113–295, §218(b), amended par. (1) generally. Prior to amendment, text read as follows: "The basis of any property shall be reduced by the portion of the cost of such property taken into account under subsection (a)."
Subsec. (e)(7). Pub. L. 113–295, §221(a)(34)(B), added par. (7).
Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 113–295, §161(a), substituted "placed in service after December 31, 2014." for "placed in service-
"(1) in the case of property relating to hydrogen, after December 31, 2014, and
"(2) in the case of any other property, after December 31, 2013."
2013-Subsec. (g)(2). Pub. L. 112–240 substituted "December 31, 2013" for "December 31, 2011.".
2010-Subsec. (g)(2). Pub. L. 111–312 substituted "December 31, 2011." for "December 31, 2010".
2009-Subsec. (d)(2)(A). Pub. L. 111–5, §1144(b)(2), substituted "section 27" for "sections 27 and 30B".
Pub. L. 111–5, §1142(b)(3), struck out ", 30," before "and 30B".
Subsec. (e)(6). Pub. L. 111–5, §1123(a), added par. (6).
2008-Subsec. (c)(2)(C). Pub. L. 110–343, §207(b), added subpar. (C).
Subsec. (g)(2). Pub. L. 110–343, §207(a), substituted "December 31, 2010" for "December 31, 2009".
2007-Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 110–172, §6(b)(1), reenacted heading without change and amended introductory provisions generally. Prior to amendment, introductory provisions read as follows: "The credit allowed under subsection (a) with respect to any alternative fuel vehicle refueling property shall not exceed-".
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 110–172, §6(b)(2), reenacted heading without change and amended text generally. Prior to amendment, text read as follows:
"(1) In general.-Except as provided in paragraph (2), the term 'qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property' has the meaning given to such term by section 179A(d), but only with respect to any fuel-
"(A) at least 85 percent of the volume of which consists of one or more of the following: ethanol, natural gas, compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, or hydrogen, or
"(B) any mixture of biodiesel (as defined in section 40A(d)(1)) and diesel fuel (as defined in section 4083(a)(3)), determined without regard to any use of kerosene and containing at least 20 percent biodiesel.
"(2) Residential property.-In the case of any property installed on property which is used as the principal residence (within the meaning of section 121) of the taxpayer, paragraph (1) of section 179A(d) shall not apply."
2005-Subsec. (d)(2)(A). Pub. L. 109–135, §412(d), substituted "regular tax liability (as defined in section 26(b))" for "regular tax".
Subsec. (e)(2). Pub. L. 109–135, §402(k), inserted at end "For purposes of subsection (d), property to which this paragraph applies shall be treated as of a character subject to an allowance for depreciation."
Pub. L. 115–123, div. D, title I, §40404(b), Feb. 9, 2018, 132 Stat. 148 , provided that: "The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to property placed in service after December 31, 2016."
Pub. L. 114–113, div. Q, title I, §182(b), Dec. 18, 2015, 129 Stat. 3072 , provided that: "The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to property placed in service after December 31, 2014."
Pub. L. 113–295, div. A, title I, §161(b), Dec. 19, 2014, 128 Stat. 4023 , provided that: "The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to property placed in service after December 31, 2013."
Amendment by section 218(b) of Pub. L. 113–295 effective as if included in the provision of the Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109–58, title XIII, to which such amendment relates, see section 218(c) of Pub. L. 113–295, set out as a note under section 30B of this title.
Amendment by section 221(a)(34)(B) of Pub. L. 113–295 effective Dec. 19, 2014, subject to a savings provision, see section 221(b) of Pub. L. 113–295, set out as a note under section 1 of this title.
Pub. L. 112–240, title IV, §402(b), Jan. 2, 2013, 126 Stat. 2337 , provided that: "The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to property placed in service after December 31, 2011."
Pub. L. 111–312, title VII, §711(b), Dec. 17, 2010, 124 Stat. 3315 , provided that: "The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to property placed in service after December 31, 2010."
Pub. L. 111–5, div. B, title I, §1123(b), Feb. 17, 2009, 123 Stat. 325 , provided that: "The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008."
Amendment by section 1142(b)(3) of Pub. L. 111–5 applicable to vehicles acquired after Feb. 17, 2009, see section 1142(c) of Pub. L. 111–5, set out as an Effective and Termination Dates of 2009 Amendment note under section 24 of this title.
Amendment by section 1144(b)(2) of Pub. L. 111–5 applicable to taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2008, see section 1144(c) of Pub. L. 111–5, set out as an Effective and Termination Dates of 2009 Amendment note under section 24 of this title.
Pub. L. 110–343, div. B, title II, §207(c), Oct. 3, 2008, 122 Stat. 3840 , provided that: "The amendments made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to property placed in service after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 3, 2008], in taxable years ending after such date."
Pub. L. 110–172, §6(e), Dec. 29, 2007, 121 Stat. 2481 , provided that:
"(1) In general.-Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, the amendments made by this section [amending this section and sections 41, 45J, 4041, 4042, 4082, and 6430 of this title, and enacting provisions set out as a note under section 6430 of this title] shall take effect as if included in the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 [Pub. L. 109–58] to which they relate.
"(2) Nonapplication of exemption for off-highway business use.-The amendment made by subsection (d)(3) [amending section 4041 of this title] shall apply to fuel sold for use or used after the date of the enactment of this Act [Dec. 29, 2007].
"(3) Amendment made by the safetea–lu.-The amendment made by subsection (d)(2)(C)(ii) [amending section 4082 of this title] shall take effect as if included in section 11161 of the SAFETEA–LU [Pub. L. 109–59]."
Amendment by section 402(k) of Pub. L. 109–135 effective as if included in the provision of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109–58, to which such amendment relates, see section 402(m)(1) of Pub. L. 109–135, set out as an Effective and Termination Dates of 2005 Amendments note under section 23 of this title.
Pub. L. 109–58, title XIII, §1342(c), Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 1051 , provided that: "The amendments made by this section [enacting this section and amending sections 38, 55, 1016, and 6501 of this title] shall apply to property placed in service after December 31, 2005, in taxable years ending after such date."
Savings Provision
For provisions that nothing in amendment by Pub. L. 115–141 be construed to affect treatment of certain transactions occurring, property acquired, or items of income, loss, deduction, or credit taken into account prior to Mar. 23, 2018, for purposes of determining liability for tax for periods ending after Mar. 23, 2018, see section 401(e) of Pub. L. 115–141, set out as a note under section 23 of this title.
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CineMarter
Aftermath - Arnold Schwarzenegger Can't Do This
Matthew Parkinson | 8 Apr 2017 12:00
CineMarter - RSS 2.0
Directed by Elliott Lester. Produced by Darren Aronofsky, Peter Dealbert, Randall Emmett, Scott Franklin, George Furla, and Eric Watson. Written by Javier Gullon. Release date: April 7, 2017.
Have you ever watched a movie and thought that a different actor was probably pitched the screenplay, rejected it for one reason or another, and therefore we got the one who wound up accepting it instead? That's the feeling I came away from with Aftermath, which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger. The role screams for Liam Neeson - right down to Maggie Grace having a do-nothing supporting role - except for the fact that the protagonist needs assistance from a journalist to track down his target. If you've seen his last decade of work, Neeson characters do things on their own; they don't need help. So, Schwarzenegger, who is no longer a significant box office draw or much of a credible action star, was called in to try to show off his acting chops, whatever those may be, in a direct-to-VOD dreary drama.
Schwarzenegger's character, Roman, is eagerly awaiting a flight to arrive. His wife and pregnant daughter are on board. When he arrives at the airport, he is taken aside and told that there was an accident, the airplane crashed, and that there's a really good chance that nobody survived. We then switch perspectives, focusing on air traffic controller Jake (Scoot McNairy), who after a series events (some of which were out of his control) winds up contributing to the plane crash - there was a mid-air collision between two planes.
The rest of the film follows both men and how they deal with the grief. One, Roman, who lost his family, and the other, Jake, who helped cause the deaths of dozens of people. Roman wants an apology from the airline and eventually Jake - hence the enlistment of the journalist I mentioned earlier - while Jake falls into a deep depression and eventually has his entire life upended.
That's ... pretty much the entire film, honestly. The last 20 minutes literally cover 10 years of the characters' lives and try pay off the previous hour of sadness, grief, guilt, and depression, but it doesn't really feel like it fits, honestly. This is a true story, and these events happened - names, places, and some facts have been changed, but the main points happened - but there's something that happens in the last 20 minutes that comes out of nowhere, seems like the beginning of a different story, and then we zoom through the consequences and ramifications, ignoring one of the key themes, and just getting to the end for a final eye-rollingly silly scene.
Aftermath is a dull, dreary drama that wants to get somewhere and say something but doesn't know how, resulting in a film with a late-game tonal shift and a feeling of pointlessness after it's all over.
Basically, you've got this heavy, focused movie about the different ways people deal with tragedy, and then you turn it into something else. I mean, yeah, it happened, and yeah, it can work like that in real life, but thematically and structurally it doesn't fit the movie. After all, real life can't skip 10 years at a time; it would actually deal with what happens, instead of skimming over them. And with this sharp jump in time and the final scene, we're left coming away from Aftermath with a simple question: "What was the point of watching this?" Follow-up question: "Why should we care about any of it?"
Part of that comes from the lack of depth and purpose that comes from the first 2/3 of the film. When we follow Roman, we mostly just watch Arnold Schwarzenegger stare at the ground, contemplatively, and sometimes spout something that might sound deep but isn't really. Meanwhile, Jake has his life turned upside down and nothing more - his story comes to its conclusion before there's any payoff to that. It's just all so pointless - the type of drama that wants to be about something but doesn't seem to know how to do it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger can no longer (often) believably pull off the action hero role, so he's trying to do some "serious" acting with films like this and Maggie - man, remember Maggie? Anyway, he's only rarely good at it, and this isn't one of those times. Seriously, it feels as if 80% of his screen time is just him staring down at the ground, looking somewhere between sad and perplexed. Maybe that's why a later action feels so odd - there's no transition to a breaking point or any indication that he's undergoing any internal changes; he's got one facial expression. Scoot McNairy does better, but unfortunately gets a shafted story. None of the supporting actors even register.
Aftermath is a dull, dreary drama that wants to get somewhere and say something but doesn't know how, resulting in a film with a late-game tonal shift and a feeling of pointlessness after it's all over. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the wrong lead actor for the role, the story doesn't fit into the 90-minute time frame - at least, not the way it's been framed and paced here - and it ends with a scene too silly to take seriously. It's disappointing.
Bottom Line: Aftermath is a bad drama that can't get us to care about its relentless sadness.
Recommendation: Aftermath went direct-to-VOD for a good reason. There's little reason to rent it.
If you want more of Matthew "Marter" Parkinson, you can follow him on the Twitter @Martertweet.
matthew parkinsonaftermatharnold schwarzeneggercinemarterelliott lesterjavier gullonmaggie gracemovies and tvreviewscoot mcnairy
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*School Shootings, the Lockdown, and an Aside on Masculinity
Posted on May 22, 2018 by Vinay Lal
Part II of The Passions of a March–and of Gun Culture
Mass shootings have taken place at schools, university campuses, entertainment venues, nightclubs, churches, shopping complexes, and even army camps. No venue is entirely safe; the gunman can strike anywhere and at any time of his choosing. It is important to underscore the fact that the mass killer is overwhelmingly male. Homicidal killings by women account for about 10-13% of the total in the United States, but mass shootings by women are even rarer. Indeed, women account for less than 8% of homicides by firearms; when they do wield firearms, they seldom if ever carry assault or automatic rifles. What passes for “research” these days will doubtless establish the fact that a majority of mass killers have been known to harbor considerable resentment towards women; among serial killers, who may be distinguished from mass killers, a considerable number in the United States have been known to target prostitutes. One might argue that sex workers make for easier targets: they are generally single, placed by the very nature of their work in compromising situations, and they may not be missed by family members or friends. Their murder goes undetected for days, weeks, even months on some occasion. We do not know what kind of funerals they receive, if any, and if mourners are present. But this would be a benign reading of the serial killer’s fondness for sex workers as targets, since the serial killer is just as likely, and of course without any trace of irony, to see himself as an emissary of God sent to rid the world of sin and wickedness. The sexual promiscuity of women is particularly bothersome to them. Mass killers, for their part, are commonly described as sexually frustrated: a few, in recent killings, have even been found to hold to the view that they ought to have sexual rights to any number of women of their choosing. Women, that is, owe them sex; or, to put it differently, the right to women is construed as their entitlement.
Though this aspect of mass shootings is infrequently mentioned in press reports, the profiles of mass killers point to the problem, which perhaps has not been adequately addressed by any civilization and remains the most potent locus of violence in the US, of masculinity. It is not necessary, in ruminating about this matter, to entertain clichés about rifles as phallic objects, or, more persuasively, speak at length of the fondness of mass killers for heroic, military-style undertakings with assault rifles. We are, and are not, in Dr. Strangelove universe: our last scene need not be the cowboy astride the nuclear rocket, riding it to its climatic explosion in the enemy’s womb, but there is a ‘strange love’ that informs the mass killer’s worldview. One of the more recent words to have insinuated its way into the English dictionary is incel, short for involuntary celibate. The word describes the man who is celibate, but not by choice; his celibacy arises from the humiliating rejection to which he has been subjected by one or more women. It is these women who deny him the sex which he views as his unquestionable entitlement. Incel is now more than a word, and is more akin to a movement—everything becomes a movement in the United States, for those who care to observe—with an arch priest, or a reigning philosopher. It is not certain whether Nikolas Cruz was an incel, but the Santa Fe killer, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, appears to fall in that category. One of his ten victims was a young 17-year old woman who, to cite media reports, “spurned” him repeatedly; according to her mother, the young woman “had four months of problems from this boy”, and “he kept making advances on her, and she repeatedly told him no.”
Survivors of shootings are always inclined to ask, ‘why me?’ The killer may strike anywhere and anyone at will: there may be ‘signs’ that, in retrospect, that should have been noticed by parents, siblings, friends, school authorities, and others, but neither an uncanny ability to read signs nor sheer mindfulness can do anything to bring predictability to acts of terrorism. That is one kind of arbitrariness; let me return, however, to the question of the school as a venue of mass shootings, even as the reader is urged to keep in mind that many other venues besides schools have been targeted by mass killers. A shooting at a school has a poignancy that is all its own: whatever the conceptions of childhood in a given culture, and howsoever traumatic childhood may have been rendered for some by warfare, street violence, or sexual abuse, some notion of the innocence of children persists across cultures. A school, moreover, is a place of learning, and thus of growth and development; it carries with it the insignia of a sanctuary and a refuge from the storms of life. The vulnerability of children is greater as they place their security and well-being in the hands of those who are empowered to act on their behalf. It is for these reasons that school shootings seem particularly horrifying, even to those who have no children of their own, or who harbor no special affection for children.
Santa Fe High School shooting, 18 May 2018. Source: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/santa-fe-high-school-shooting
A recent Washington Post study has established that since the school shooting on 20 April 1999 at Columbine, Ohio, where teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide, over 187,000 children have been caught in the hail of fire, or exposed to gun violence, across schools in the United States. The study notes that shootings where there were no casualties, except to the perpetrators of violence, are excluded from the count; suicides are similarly excluded, as are shootings at schools and colleges. According to the Post study, the shootings led to at least 130 deaths, and twice that number were injured; however, the study does not include, in its tally of those who were “exposed” to violence, a much greater number of school children who were informed by teachers that the school was going into “lockdown” since a threat had been received. Reports of such lockdowns, when the anonymous tip of a threat turns out to be a hoax, make it to the local community newspaper, but no reasonable calculation of how students’ lives are upended can be made.
An unannounced school lockdown drill conducted by Homeland Security, 2014. Source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/152045-2014-03-15-homeland-security-conducts-unannounced-school-lockdown-drill.htm
On April 4th, to take one illustration, Menlo-Atherton High School, which is located in one of the country’s wealthiest districts, home to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and tycoons, went into lockdown in the late morning after Atherton police received a possible unspecified threat against the school. A photograph of a 15-year old boy at the school brandishing a firearm was found on social media. Students were sequestered in locked rooms and the lockdown was lifted two hours later. This lockdown would not have come to my attention but for the fact that the daughter of someone who is very close to my family is a student at this school. The incident did get reported in the local newspaper, though the day when such an incident does not get reported at all may not be very far into the future; indeed, had the school been located in a poor district, there is every likelihood that the school lockdown would not at all have been “news”.
(to be continued)
This entry was posted in American Society and Culture, Terrorism and Its Politics, The Politics of Culture and tagged Columbine shooting, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, incel, Incel Rebellion, mass killers as males, Menlo-Atherton school district, Nikolas Cruz, school as sanctuary, school lockdown, serial killer vs mass killer, US school shootings, women and homicides by Vinay Lal. Bookmark the permalink.
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Pingback: *Iconic Sites of Activism: “The March” and the NRA Lobby | Lal Salaam: A Blog by Vinay Lal
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Next: UPDATE: House Dems Override GOP Objections, Rules To Allow Speaker To Refer Trump's Tweets As Racist
President Trump Is Correct -- Study Shows 90% Of Administration Media Coverage Is Negative
Timothy Meads | @Timothy__Meads | July 29, 2018
President Donald J. Trump unloaded today on the mainstream media for contributing to the dilapidated state of trust in America's institutions and his administration, saying that 90% of the coverage was negative, which has put the lives of many at risk.
The 90% figure is corroborated by two studies, one taken in 2017 and one taken in 2018, conducted by the Media Research Center which "studied all broadcast evening news coverage of the President from January 1 through April 30, and found 90 percent of the evaluative comments about Trump were negative — precisely the same hostile tone we documented in 2017."
As noted MRC's Richard Noyes, President Trump's approval ratings actually increased during 2018. In order to conduct the study, MRC "examined all 1,065 network evening news stories about President Trump and top members of his administration during the first four months of this year. The coverage totaled a whopping 1,774 minutes, or roughly one-third of all evening news airtime."
The Washington Post recently noted that number may be inflated, citing two polls that showed only 62% of media coverage of President Trump is negative. Still far higher than his predecessors. But, it is unclear whether that polling included news coverage of any member of the administration as well.
President Trump's torrent of tweets come after announcing this morning that he met with A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of the New York Times, to discuss fake news and rhetoric.
A.G. Sulzbegrer released a statement, saying, “I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous...I told him that although the phrase ‘fake news’ is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists ‘the enemy of the people,’” Mr. Sulzberger continued. “I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.”
But, as Rich Noyes notes, "There’s no precedent for a President receiving such a sustained level of negative press over such a long period of time. The fact that the public has become more favorable towards the President in this environment is the latest sign that the media watchdog’s bite isn’t as menacing as their bark suggests."
And So It Begins...House Democrat Will Defy Party Leaders & File Articles Of Impeachment Against Trump
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Beth Baumann | July 16, 2019
Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Has Died
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Matt Vespa | July 16, 2019
UPDATE: Dr. Wen Reveals Why She Was Fired From Planned Parenthood
Cortney O'Brien | July 16, 2019
Oh, So Maybe That’s Why Trump Decided To Take A Swipe At Ocasio-Cortez And Her Crew
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Aspden - Power From Ice - The Thermoelectric Regenerator (1997)
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ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO.
POWER FROM ICE: THE THERMOELECTRIC REGENERATOR
HAROLD ASPDEN, 1997
Contents Section Title PART I: Introduction The Impossible Dream? Review of the Nernst Effect The First Strachan-Aspden Invention Conclusion PART II: Introduction Preliminary Observations Solid-State Magneto-Hydrodynamic Power Skin Effect Segregation The Magnetic Inductively-Coupled Device Nernst Effect in Relation to Eddy-Currents Experimental Invesigations Discussion Appendix I ***** page 1 3 7 13 15 16 16 21 25 26 30 33 36 38
Introduction This Energy Science Report is one of a series concerned with new energy technology and the fundamental energy science that is involved. In this series of ten such reports this is listed as No. 3. Its first version was dated June 4th 1994 but made available in confidence only to sponsors interested in funding development. It concerns onward progress on the project of the StrachanAspden invention, the subject of Report No. 2. The invention as demonstrated proved that it was possible to take energy from melting ice and run an electric motor by tapping into the heat flow drawn from the prevailing ambient background as it migrated through the device to reach and so melt the ice. The device was remarkably efficient, also in its reverse operation mode, in which it froze water upon input of electricity. The invention is seen as the basis for future non-polluting refrigeration and noiseless airconditioning as well as providing a solid-state, maintenance-free technology for generating electric power. At the time the initial version of this Report was written the author was intent on pursuing the research himself, co-inventor Scott Strachan having abandoned further work on the project. For some mysterious reason all of the operative devices he constructed had worked well for a period of months but then deteriorated rapidly and ceased to function. As this author saw the problem, a funded university project and even corporate research involvement committed to discovering the reason for this failure was needed, given the importance of the underlying discovery. In the event, though corporate interest had been aroused, that interest depended upon the sustained ability to demonstrate operation. Scott Strachan reverted to his research pursuits on laser devices, whilst this author, whose primary interest concerned power generation by a new type of magnetic motor was diverted by success in August 1994 in winning a U.K. government research award on that latter project. In these circumstances at this time, October 1996, the author is endeavouring now to complete both this Energy Science Report No. 3 and also Energy Science Report No. 9, which relate, respectively, to the thermoelectric project as now seen in retrospect and the status of the research on the motor. Admittedly also the author has been stimulated into completing this Report No. 3 by the very recent publication of a book entitled The Coming Energy Revolution by Jeane Manning (ISBN 0-89529-713-2) Avery Publishing Group, Garden City Park, New York. It was at pages 124-128 that there was reference to the Strachan-Aspden device. Reference to that book will show that I had speculated that it might be a combination of heat and vibration that had progressively affected the device's electrical storage capacity and so interfered with its operation. However, as this Report will explain, I have now formed a different opinion, based on some of my early background research experience with ferromagnetic steel laminations that are tough enough to withstand such effects. Much of what I am now introducing in this Report will explain why any bimetallic laminar structure involving a ferromagnetic substance must have a tendency to polarize magnetically when
HAROLD ASPDEN, 1997 ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO. 3
subjected to periodic temperature changes and that is, in my opinion, the true cause of failure in the three Strachan-Aspden devices tested. To remedy the defect all one then has to do is make provision for `degaussing' the bimetallic laminar structure. The bimetallic feature is an essential limitation in the claims of the main U.S. patent on this device (U.S. Patent No. 5,288,336). The reason is that it expedites the entry of heat into the body of the device and that can make a very substantial difference by reducing its physical size for a given power output. Hopefully, with this insight for solving our earlier problem now put in proper perspective, the publication of this Report will rekindle interest in corporate and academic laboratories who will now see purpose in mounting research to apply this technology commercially. In this regard the author, who will be 69 years of age before year end 1996, will be able to act in a consultancy capacity and assist in such endeavour. Rather than making this work a complete rewrite of the original 1994 version of Report No. 3, it is intended, following this brief introduction, to present as PART I an informal overview of the underlying invention and suggest a new way by which the technology can be harnessed. Furthermore, since the author now knows why the original devices failed after a few months of operation and since the remedy is so very simple, that will be explained at the outset. Part II of the Report will be the more formal account of the technological subject matter as contained in the 1994 version. The latter has not been edited, save in that its list of contents has been merged with those of PART I and it will seem incomplete. It was the version in note form which was intended to brief would-be sponsoring research interests. It left open questions which the onward experimental research would need to resolve. It will, however, serve a purpose and though much of the material will no doubt need to be discarded in the light of developments it will, it is hoped, inspire effort to explore different options until the best solution is found. *****
As part of this Introduction it will be helpful to summarize the patent position as it stands at the time this Report is published (namely in February 1997). For cost reasons during our period of concern about overcoming the defect encountered, certain patent applications, particularly in Japan and Europe have been abandoned. However, with confidence restored, the following patents are now to be regarded as available for acquisition by parties interested in developing the technology for commercial application. This Report, together with Report No. 2, plus the patent specifications identified below and some further patents that will be listed only on request, constitute the briefing material which is available. Enquiries of a commercial nature concerning the patents should be addressed to Dr. Harold Aspden, Sabberton Publications, P.O. Box 35, Southampton SO16 7RB, England, the publishers of this Report. U.S. Patent No. 5,065,085 U.S. Patent No. 5,288,336 U.S. Patent No. 5,376,184
The Impossible Dream? I am going to describe something which physicists will declare to be impossible and then I am going to explain in simple scientific terms why I believe many of those physicists will see the need to retract and pay attention. I am a physicist myself, by professional qualification and by vocation, with an academic research background in electrical engineering, though my working career has been in that field of corporate management concerned with inventions and patents dealing with technology rooted in electronics and magnetism. I would not therefore be writing the words which follow without being sure of my ground. Imagine that in your dreams you catch a glimpse of a house of the mid 21st century and notice that in its cellar there is a rather curious elongated structure that you can best describe as pipework. You suspect it is a heater or air-conditioning unit. The owner of the house explains its function and how it works. Firstly, the main pipe section is composed of steel or nickel, according to whether the air flow through it is hotter or colder than the exposed outer surface of the pipe. Peripheral to the pipe is a unit described as a pump. It is a heat pump, a mid-21st century model. It does what heat pumps are supposed to do and does it rather well. It is quiet and efficient. It requires an input of electricity and it pumps heat. It can pump 100 joules of heat between two temperatures, one ambient and one 30 degrees C above or below ambient, and do that with an intake of 15 joules of electricity. Physicists know that is possible because it fits within the Carnot efficiency limitations imposed on heat engines and knowledge of 19th century technology explains how it works. It is very familiar territory to those expert in thermodynamics. Now, about that pipe. Here again, in history, going now into the latter part of the 19th century, there was the discovery of a phenomenon by which heat flow through a metal could generate electricity. Assuming the heat flow was through the walls of a long pipe, it needed a magnetic field directed along the length of the pipe to promote the setting up of an electric field, or EMF (electromotive force, otherwise expressed as a voltage), the latter being directed at right angles to both the magnetic field and the direction of heat flow. So, you see, if we magnetize the pipe along its length any heat flowing through its pipe walls, that is between its outer surface and its inner bore, will set up circulating electric current inside the pipe. Now, if you use your imagination, you can see that here is something physicists discovered over one hundred years ago (in 1886), a fascinating way in which to convert heat into electricity, but if you, the reader, are a physicist, have you ever heard of this before? I know about it because it was mentioned at page 592 of a book I was given on 20th December 1945 because I had won that year's `Physics Prize' awarded at my school. The few words on that page 592 did not refer to tubes of circular section. They referred to experiments on metal sheets, but I knew how to roll a metal sheet to form a tubular pipe and so here was a book I have had in my possession for more than 50 years and it told me that it had been known for some 60 years before then that heat could convert directly into electricity merely by flowing through metal!
Of course, now assuming you, the reader, are an engineer, you will say that electric current flowing in the pipe is not doing anything but turning back into heat, so there is a no-win situation. On the other hand, if you are a physicist, you will say that it is a thermoelectric effect and such effects are notoriously very weak and so can offer nothing of practical importance. However, that book of mine that I won in 1945 included a table of data, backed by references, which showed that at the dawn of the 20th century it was known that in steel as much as 16.6 volts could be set up by a temperature gradient of one degree C per cm if the magnetic field strength was 10,000 gauss. That magnetic field is less than half of the saturation field strength in steel. In nickel the direction of the electric field is reversed, but the voltage induced can be as high as 35.5 volts in such a field, though that is nearly double the saturation condition of nickel. Either way, whether we use steel or nickel, we are involved here with the prospect of generating 16.6 volts per cm. of path within a steel or nickel pipe magnetized close to saturation, given a heat flow rate through the section of pipe corresponding to a one degree of temperature drop per cm. It never occurred to me when I first came to browse through that book given to me as a school prize that it contained technological information of such importance to the world's energy future. Instead, I became indoctrinated in the principles governing physics, which say that it is impossible to convert heat into useful work except in compliance with the laws of thermodynamics. A pipe with one degree temperature difference between its outside and inside could not be even one per cent efficient in converting heat into electricity according to those laws. I am now a wiser being and it took me nearly half a century to acquire that wisdom and become a law breaker. One cannot argue with the facts of Nature and it was to be experimental discovery that obliged me to shift my ground, realising that Nature herself has not seen fit to comply with the wishes of whoever decided to formulate that Second Law of Thermodynamics. You see, when heat flows through metal it is carried by electrons in the main and some is transferred by atoms vibrating into one another. Those electrons, which are shed by atoms, get deflected by a magnetic field and can get reabsorbed into other atoms part way along their journey through the metal. Once locked inside an atom the electron can even migrate back in the opposite direction to the heat flow. After all, there is no net current flow in the heat transport direction, so the electrons have to go the other way too. However, in the latter motion they are paired with an atomic nucleus and so the magnetic forces acting on them are unable to move charge laterally with respect to magnetic field and heat flow. It is as if the electrons are girls in a barn dance and can go one way freely but, in migrating the other way, they have to hold hands in swinging around a boy, but they can progress from boy to boy transferring their hand hold. In their forward free motion they do not bang into the wall at the end of the barn, because some boy or other captures them and sets them into the sequence of their reverse motion. So those heat-carrying electrons seldom travel all the way through the pipe section before shedding their heat and producing that lateral EMF. To comply with the Second Law of Thermodynamics they all need to go from the higher temperature towards the lower temperature at the pipe surface, but they are not completing that journey. They never see the lower temperature. Instead, they are deflected to confront a back EMF and it absorbs their energy very efficiently, indeed with a near-to-100% efficiency. There is no such thing here as the physicists `Carnot' criterion. All there is is a temperature gradient governing the heat flow rate. So our mid 21st century homes will have pipework in their basements which use nickel or steel pipes and be designed to have heat flowing through their pipe walls. How then do we provide that heat input? Well, you have been given the answer to that question, we use the heat pump accessory already mentioned. We feed in 15 joules of electricity to generate 100 joules of heat
flow through the pipe walls and we convert most of that 100 joules into electricity which we use to supply the 15 joules input and to deliver the rest to meet our domestic needs. There is energy conservation because there is net cooling in that basement appliance and we will need to let heat flow in from the atmosphere somehow to keep the balance, but the result is a cold basement and a warm house or an air-conditioned cool house with a hotter climatic condition outside. If you see this as `perpetual motion' and so impossible then stay in the 20th century and skip the future, because you choose to ignore what Nature has on offer. If you are shaking your head, as an engineer, and still thinking about how that electric current circulating around the tubular pipe form can get out and into your wire circuits then read on. First, let me go back to those school days of mine once again. I was taught physics at a time before our student-time absorbing computer age began and so could learn a little more about oldfashioned subjects, such as ships having magnetic compasses and why ships needed `degaussing'. I want you to imagine that steel pipe mentioned above as being, in effect, a ship structure during fabrication. I was told that when a ship was made it would tend to become magnetized because of the hammering and rivetting on its steel plates which vibrated the magnetism in the steel to cause it to turn into the direction of the Earth's own magnetic field. The ship became weakly magnetized, enough to affect the reading of a ship's compass and that magnetism could not be eliminated. One had to compensate for it in some way by putting magnets close to the compass. Furthermore, my school years of learning physics being World War II years, I was told that the magnetism of a ship could attract magnetic mines set floating on the sea by the enemy and so the ship had to be `degaussed' by using currents flowing around parts of the vessel. Yet, when I took up my Ph.D. research (1950-53) on the subject of how there were anomalous excess losses occurring in electrical sheet steels as used in power transformers, I directed much of my attention to examining how mechanical stress affected those losses. I can say, quite categorically, that my research experience assured me that mechanical stress and vibrant stress would reduce, rather than increase, residual magnetism. However, I was not sufficiently enlightened as to question what I had been taught and it was of no importance to me how ships became magnetized during construction. Indeed, nor was I sufficiently enlightened at that time as to see the connection between my research and page 592 of that school book I mentioned. I went through three years of Ph.D. research on the subject of anomalous eddy-current loss in electrical steel, losses involving heat generation, without it occurring to me or the professorial supervision I received, that heat itself could be a regenerative electrical factor in enhancing those losses. There were two dominant factors, not mentioned as such, but inherent in our instinct by training, namely that in the absence of both a bimetallic structure and a temperature differential there could be no regenerative effects and, further, that any strengthening of a magnetic field meant enhancement of resistivity. As a result the whole emphasis of interest was centred on how waveforms were distorted during the alternating cycles of magnetization, owing essentially to nonuniformities attributable to the domain structure inside a magnetic material. Here the lay reader should understand that inside nickel or iron there are everywhere regions fully magnetized to saturation and all we do when we `magnetize' is to turn some of those around in their direction of polarization. This is why it makes sense to imagine that vibration can produce magnetization. However, I am now suggesting here that the ship lying in its fixed position relative to the Earth's magnetic field during its construction is far more susceptible to the effects of temperature changes than to workmen's percussion tools banging on the ship's bodywork. Heat flow through
its steel plates, transversely with respect to the Earth's magnetic field, will set up current flow around the body section of the ship. This will itself set up a magnetizing field along the length of the ship, one way as the ambient conditions warm up and the other way as they cool down. Each day there is a cycle of change and it becomes interesting to ask if this thermal cyclic can build up the gradual magnetic polarization of the vessel. At this point I will jump way ahead to refer to our invention, the Strachan-Aspden thermoelectric device. It was demonstrated repeatedly by using ice to cool its working surface and deliver electrical output and then by putting in electrical power to show the equally-amazing rapid regeneration of ice on that same surface. Internally the device operated by electrical current oscillations at quite high frequencies but these were not oscillations of the magnetized state. However, by its nature the device would be subject to some magnetic changes as the temperature cycled. Now presumably it takes hundreds of days of climatic heating and cooling before a ship acquires its full measure of magnetization. Equally, it would seem that a hundred or so sequential cycles of heating and cooling between the temperature of ice and a warm room occur before the evident deterioration of the operation of the Strachan-Aspden device is registered. Accordingly, I make the observation that it would seem that the thermal cycling is a factor which polarizes its magnetic state. Comprising, as it does, a thin film ferromagnetic material (nickel), its full polarization would destroy its operability. The principle on which it works requires the domains in each nickel layer to be fairly equally apportioned as between one orientation and the opposite orientation, because the transverse current flow, which is a.c. seeks passage through one or other form of polarized domain according to its flow direction. It chooses the one offering negative resistance and if such passage is denied then there is no regenerative conversion and simply loss. By considering the problem of ship's magnetism one can then understand our problem with the Strachan-Aspden device, the subject of Energy Science Report No. 2 and Part II of this Report No. 3. It needs little imagination to see that, just as for the ship, we simply need to provide for that `degaussing' process. How to implement this effectively will depend upon the specific assembly plan for the main thermoelectric devices, which will need some adaptation to incorporate the controlled degaussing feature. In the development stage, if not in the final product, the incorporation of some diagnostic sensing circuitry which can be used to monitor the unwanted polarization will be necessary to provided the feedback control which keeps the device in a healthy state. Such issues are matters for consultation with commercial developers who decide to exploit this thermoelectric technology and will not be addressed in this summary Report. However, concentrating on the underlying function of the thermoelectric power generator, let us go back to our mid-21st century house and that pipework in the basement. We still need to explain how it produces electricity that we can extract and use. One initial question that will interest some readers is how this topic relates to that reference I made to something that eluded me in my years of Ph.D. research. I was researching the question of why eddy-currents in electrical sheet steels could generate as much as six times the loss expected from accepted theory. It did not occur to me that heat flow from the steel laminations could regenerate EMFs that would cause the current to be far greater than the value determined by resistance and normal Faraday induction. My research clearly demonstrated that the loss anomaly was progressively eliminated as the steel became more and more polarized. By this I mean the ratio of the actual eddy-current loss to the theoretical loss. In other words, it was the fact that the magnetic domain regions in my transformer steel provided a optional current path through the metal, one that is obstructive for thermal reasons and one that aids current flow, also for thermal reasons, that created the anomaly.
It vanished once those domains had been polarized so as to eliminate enough of those that aided current flow. So, if our mid-21st century basement air-conditioning unit is to generate a net output of electrical power, we must avoid that regenerative eddy-current syndrome in its pipework. We do that by laminating the pipe assembly and avoiding its closed conductive sectional form and the laminations are provided, not because we seek to use alternating magnetic induction, as in a power transformer, but rather because we want to set up the non-linear thermal gradient and avoid a mismatch of thermally-induced EMFs which would otherwise promote unwanted current circulation. The circumferential magnetic field effects are thwarted by introducing a break in the circuit path and tapping off the current flow by diverting into a battery which becomes charged or into a load circuit such as a motor or an electric heater in another room. Hopefully, given a modest pipe radius plus a high enough heat throughput rate we should be able to develop a normal cell voltage for this purpose. Given a steel pipe of radius 5 cm. and wall thickness 1 cm. with a 20,000 gauss magnetic flux density along its length, one degree C of temperature drop between its inner and outer surfaces corresponds to a thermal induction of 1,000 V. That, at least, is the theoretical result using empirical data for the relevant thermoelectric coefficient as listed in that book mentioned above. I have verified the source data by tracking back to the original research reference [H. Zahn, Ann. der Phys., 14, p. 886 (1904) and 16, p. 148 (1905)]. Of course, working with a 30 degree C air temperature difference, it is unlikely that even a one degree C drop of temperature through metal can be set up, owing to the limited heat transfer rate across the pipe surface, but one fiftieth of this seems not unreasonable in a thick-walled pipe giving 20 volts output from each pipe section. Six sections connected in series would deliver 120 V d.c. Such, at least, is the prospect ahead and I would urge interest in this subject by those having a corporate interest in developing new technology for the world's energy needs of tomorrow. Now, the above pages have been written without referring to any supporting illustrations because I wanted the message in my words to register. The diagrams now follow and then the remainder of this Part I discourse will deal with two separate topics. The second of these is more specifically concerned with the use of bimetallic thin film layered structures of the kind which featured in the main Strachan-Aspden invention, the subject of US Patent No. 5,288,336. The other topic deals with a theme which has been left aside so far, namely the subject of the secondary, in fact the first Strachan-Aspden invention, as disclosed in US Patent No. 5,065,085. The latter invention will be addressed first, but after the pictorial review. Review of the Nernst Effect Referring to Fig. 1, if heat flow in a metal is depicted by the wavy line, and dT/dz represents temperature gradient, with B representing a magnetic field in the x direction, then there is an electric field of strength E in the mutually orthogonal y direction, given by: E = N(B)dT/dz Here N is the Nernst coefficient and it may be positive or negative, according to the choice of metal. In a sense this phenomenon is akin to the better-known Hall Effect, where a field E is generated in the y Figure 1
direction by the passage of an electric current in the z direction, given a magnetic field B in the x direction. In the Hall Effect we know that the power transferred to that E field arises because the current overcomes a back EMF, the magnetic field B being a mere deflecting agency, just as a railroad track deflects a locomotive but does no work itself. Energy is conserved at all times. However, in the case of the Nernst Effect, although there is also energy conservation, we are setting up an electric field which can deliver electrical power output and the heat input is the only energy source available. The Hall Effect, apart from some small resistance loss, is 100% efficient and, since the Nernst Effect is concerned with temperature gradient, rather than absolute temperature, we have a straight analogy with the Hall effect and so can expect that near-to-100% conversion efficiency. There are only two problems. One is understanding why electricity is generated with no electric current in the heat flow direction and the other is in devising a physical structure that will let heat flow one way while we take off electric current delivered by that E field in a direction at right angles to the heat flow. Heat conduction and electrical conduction tend to share a common path! To resolve the first problem, note that it is well accepted that most of the heat conducted through a metal is carried by electrons. The magnetic field will surely not act on heat as such. It asserts forces on the flow of free electrons carrying that heat. Note that I have used the word `free', because electrons can move through metal in two ways. They can travel freely with little restraint or they can migrate as members of the electron families seated in the outermost shell of the atoms comprising the metal. The electrons in the latter state will, as they move from atom to atom, be subjected to the usual deflecting magnetic forces, but they are held in their quantum states by the succession of atoms in their path and those forces so far as they arise from their transfer from atom to atom are thereby absorbed by the crystals forming the solid body of the metal. Imagine, therefore, that the free electrons transport heat in the z direction and that that heat has the form of kinetic energy which is used, upon deflection in the B field, to stack the electrons up sideways in the x direction against the back EMF of the resulting E field. There will be some back EMF set up in the z direction as well and this must encourage the bound atomic electrons to migrate from atom to atom against the z-direction heat flow. The net result is the slowing down of the electrons carrying heat and the transfer of that heat energy into electric potential that allows the E field to deliver power. The full line (curved, with arrow) in Fig. 2 depicts the free electron path, transverse to the E field (linear in direction of arrow) and the B field (direction normal to the page). The electron flow can be arrested as the electrons are reabsorbed by the atoms and then, as they belong to overlapping electron shells of adjacent atoms, they can migrate back to their starting point. There is no current Figure 2 passing through the metal, shown in Fig. 2 as a solid layer located between and electrically, but not thermally, insulated from the faces of two heat sink plates. By applying different temperatures to the two plates there is a resulting temperature gradient in the metal and, given the B field, the E field follows as a consequence of the Nernst Effect. The positive or negative polarity of the Nernst coefficient poses an interesting question, but its answer need be no more mysterious than the orthodox `positive holes' as referred to in the theory of semiconductors. It is simply a question of mobility of the charge carriers and understanding the quantum-electrodynamic attributes of electrons in motion. It suffices here to let Fig. 3 serve as a
guide as to how `bound' electrons can migrate through a metal without developing an E field. They are moving around the orbits in their atomic shells and they are distributed in energy bands which govern their relative freedom. From the statistical mix of their activity in transporting heat and the building of concentrations of free electrons which set up the E field effects, they somehow contrive to reveal to us the phenomenon which is termed the Nernst Effect. Sadly, technologists have not exploited this phenomenon, even though it has enormous practical potential. The reason is two-fold. Firstly, they are given scientific training which says that the second law of thermodynamics reigns supreme and, secondly, as engineers, they seem to have lacked the necessary imagination. I Figure 3 am mindful that it was not in a book on physics or one on engineering that I saw this subject properly addressed. It was a book on Physical Chemistry written by Walter J. Moore, Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University. My copy was the third edition published in Great Britain in 1956 by Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd., but the original 1950 edition was published by Prentice-Hall Inc., New York. The words which I now quote were on p. 85: "The laws of thermodynamics are inductive in character. They are broad generalizations having an experimental basis in certain human frustrations. Our failure to invent a perpetual-motion machine has led us to postulate the First Law of Thermodynamics. Our failure ever to observe a spontaneous flow of heat from a cold to a hotter body or to obtain perpetual motion of the second kind* has led to the statement of the Second Law. The Third Law of Thermodynamics can be based on our failure to attain the absolute zero of temperature." Note that the laws are not the word of God, but a consequence of man's experience and frustration at trying to replicate something following God's example, because the creation of the universe introduced perpetual motion into our environment and, indeed, in our own composition, a system of atoms, each of which involves electrons kept in a state of motion, even when the atom as a whole comes to rest at that supposedly non-achievable zero temperature on the absolute scale. Having mentioned God, I should say that I believe we can only go so far in our understanding of God's creation as to reach the point where we face questions such as "What is space?", "What is energy?", "What set that energy in motion in space?", "What came before?" and "What follows as destiny?" The human race is a life-form on one planet amongst the numerous astronomical bodies forming that universe and our immediate concern is survival based on a deeper understanding of the energy conversion processes governed by those laws of thermodynamics. However, if those man-made laws are wrong then we need to revise them before we finally accept the inevitable decline in our energy fortunes. Although Professor Moore said that the failure to invent a perpetual motion machine had meant human frustration and resulted in the First Law of Thermodynamics, I must ask how Professor Moore would view the Moving Sculpture which we are told was seen on Norwegian TV as an exhibit by its creator Reidar Finsrud. It is mentioned in the July 1996 issue of the Utah publication `New Energy News'.
____________________________________________________________________________ * Perpetual motion of the second kind is the continuous extraction of useful work from the heat of our environment, whereas perpetual motion of the first kind is the production of work from nothing at all. ____________________________________________________________________________ A steel ball weighing 2 lb. runs around a 25" circular aluminium track and rolls towards the pole faces of a horseshoe magnet suspended by a lever and pivot system just above the track and ahead of the approaching ball. As the ball gets close to the magnet it encounters a ramp linked to that lever system and the weight of the ball in riding over the ramp displaces it downwards to lift the magnet sufficiently so that the ball can roll on and pass underneath it. The magnet imparts a forward drive force as it attracts the ball and it needs less energy to lift the magnet clear of the ball than is gained from the magnet when in its lowered position. The report states "A working model has been running for over one month in full public view in Norway". Now, given that this is a genuine account of a real machine, we confront the reality of perpetual motion. On the face of it, the First Law of Thermodynamics has been disproved, but I remind the reader of those words above from that 1956 edition of the book by Professor Moore, "The laws of thermodynamics are inductive in character." What that means is that the laws are not `proved' 100%, because they are worded so generally as to extend far beyond the immediate experimental circumstances which have been taken as their basis, but that one seems able to predict from them what may happen if applied to hitherto untested circumstances. Now, from that year 1956, I have been declaring to whoever was willing to listen that the setting up of a magnetic field by the process we call `induction' sheds energy into space (even vacuous space) as heat, where it is dispersed by merger with the omnipresent vacuum energy activity of the aether. I have urged recognition that the aether becomes polarized by reacting and so is conditioned to shed its own energy when we demagnetize that field. So, if you regard that aether energy as heat, whether at zero temperature absolute or at 2.7 Kelvin, the cosmic background temperature of space, then you can see how `thermodynamics' gets into the act. In the latter case the inductive process is a mysterious exercise of influence by an electrical current in a circuit, as it somehow affects energy transfer across space to where a secondary circuit is located. My inductive powers then tell me that, for energy to go from A to B via empty space C, I cannot say space is empty if energy is to be conserved according to the first law of thermodynamics. Then, if space is not empty, since space is open terrain not assigned to the exclusive use of the energy source at A, I ask if that space could pool energy in transit from a multiplicity of sources. In that case I would hesitate before ridiculing the possibility that energy shed by A may arrive at B supplemented by an excess of thermodynamic energy drawn from C. Now, if you do not like to think about space in this context and you choose to regard the aether as non-existent, then that process of electromagnetic induction means an exchange of energy with something that does not exist and so the process cannot occur, according to the First Law of Thermodynamics as a statement of perpetual motion of the first kind. Yet, we have built electrical technology on the discovery of electromagnetic induction, building on the recorded experience of Michael Faraday. If you choose to regard the aether as existing but describe it as a field then you are playing with words and have defined aether as something other than simply an energy medium. In that case would you say that a field has a temperature? It is difficult to see where `thermodynamics'
comes into play unless we have heat. Physicists speak of entropy, which is a word expressing something far more mysterious than what I understand by the word aether. Entropy is heat degraded by temperature, it being Q/T, a quantity of heat Q divided by temperature T. We shed energy into empty space by heat radiation and we say that entropy always increases, but yet we do not say that that emptiness of space has a temperature. In other words, most scientists who refer to thermodynamics and entropy, really do not know what they are talking about and, certainly, they could never believe that the Norwegian Moving Sculpture mentioned above is anything other than a trick aimed to deceive. When one then considers the Second Law of Thermodynamics there is even greater confusion, because one needs two temperatures to account for heat flowing to a greater entropy state as it converts into useful work, but always needing to find a cooler destiny. Does that Norwegian perpetual motion machine run on heat? It cannot, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, unless we feed in some heat at a temperature higher than ambient. So, what can the Third Law of Thermodynamics tell us? We can never attain absolute zero of temperature! Well, why should we want to do that anyway and, if we did, how far might we get? Professor Moore in that book which dates back more that forty years states: "In 1950, workers in Leiden reached a temperature of 0.0014 Kelvin." They did that by a process of demagnetization. In telling this story Professor Moore reaches his conclusion which is that: "The Third Law of Thermodynamics will, therefore, be postulated as follows: It is impossible by any procedure, no matter how idealized, to reduce the temperature of any system to the absolute zero in a finite number of operations." Yet, I recall a recent mention of researchers at M.I.T. having achieved a temperature that was a low as a few billionths Kelvin, and so presume that, whatever purpose there was in devising the Third Law, it is hardly important technologically. Now, I really have little patience with scientists who tell me I cannot do something or other owing to one or other of the laws of thermodynamics. Each of those laws involves `small print' and needs scrutiny to see what is meant by the `let-out' clauses. In enforcing those laws one has always to adapt their interpretation to the `case law' on which they were founded, the experience of the past. However, we must accept that we are inevitably destined to experience new discoveries as technology advances. To come to the point about what is disclosed above by reference to Figs. 2 and 3, does an electron in motion have a temperature and is that temperature different from that of the metal conductor in which the electron transports heat? Scientists can refer to Fermi energies and temperatures of electrons that can run into millions on the centigrade scale but they will not accept the possibility of using electron flow conveying heat in metal as a means for breaching the laws of thermodynamics. This Report faces up to that issue and challenges the Second Law of Thermodynamics by the facts of experiment, just as that `Moving Sculpture' in Norway challenges the First Law of Thermodynamics unless one sees the aether as an energy source in its own right. There seems no point in challenging the Third Law of Thermodynamics, because, as it is worded above, it merely says that there is a final line to be drawn between what is measurable in terms of temperature and what is not measurable and that we can only reach that line by taking one step at a time. An atom, the centre of mass of which is at rest, has zero temperature, even though its component electrons and nucleus remain in motion. A free electron moving through a metal at
what is virtually zero absolute temperature, might still be said to have a temperature. As such it has the capacity to do useful work. If we can extract some of its energy by slowing it down and it can get recharged by being drawn periodically into the quantum world of an absorbing atom, then there is scope for technological advantage which breaches the laws of thermodynamics. The free electron can be deflected by a magnetic field. It can act in concert with other free electrons to set up mutual inductance electromagnetically, which is a thermodynamic process shedding heat. Our task is to see how we can use magnetism to our advantage and, though Report No. 9 in this Energy Science series concerns tapping energy from the aether, our horizon in this Report No. 3 is more modest in seeking only to tap the ambient heat resource of our environment. We will defy the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but do so by harnessing a phenomenon discovered by Nernst, whose name is closely associated with that Third Law of Thermodynamics. However, we will not be doing anything in breach of that Third Law. Experiments using the Strachan-Aspden devices already tested show cooling to minus 40 degrees C from an environmental temperature of a normal laboratory and that is sufficient to challenge the Second Law of Thermodynamics and gave basis for useful technology. Unfortunately, I cannot see a way in which to build a Moving Sculpture which can demonstrate this process, but it may help to portray something along the following lines. Refer to Fig. 4. Imagine that steel ball to run down the slight incline of a straight track, where the incline represents a temperature gradient. Then suppose the track is curved through a right-angle at a low level so as to deflect the ball and cause it use its kinetic energy by rolling up a steeper but short incline. The ball represents the electron and the deflecting track represents the action of a magnetic field. Now, if the ball is set free at the top of the main track and given a starting velocity it will have enough energy, not only to reach the same height in climbing the branching track, but it will crash into other such balls that got there ahead and try to push them out of the way. Happily we provide a power-driven conveyor system by Figure 4 which a ball reaching that position can be carried back to the start position before being release again to start the ball rolling once more. That power-driven conveyor system is shown in Fig. 4. The conveyor is the zero-point activity of that microscopic quantum world of electron motion in the bound states within the atoms forming the metal conductor. The balls will circulate around that system and allow us to extract some of their energy just before they board that conveyor system, just as surely as conduction electrons are set free from host atoms of a metal and are reabsorbed by those atoms, even though they have spent some of their energy. This is an ongoing process whether or not the metal has a uniform temperature, but we need to set up a temperature differential (T to T* in Fig 4) so as to create that track which allows the applied magnetic field to serve as a deflecting influence. The temperature difference is needed to initiate the electron flow which allows us to relate this to what is shown in Fig. 1. In referring to the way in which electrons have two ways of spending their time, one where they roam free in gliding past atoms as they wander through a conductor and one where they have found lodging inside at atom, we are discussing something real and active in the world of physics. This is not imagination. It is a physical system in which energy exchanges processes occur on an ongoing basis without suffering any restraints imposed by the laws of thermodynamics. Why, one
may wonder, is there not a law of thermodynamics which declares that a body at a uniform temperature cannot sustain activity in which there is any ongoing changes of state as between its component parts? Such a law would not be contrary to our experience of what we see in our environment. All we can `see' inside the microdomains of a solid metal conductor using electron microscopes and the like is evidence of a crystal structure and a state of order, but yet we have not adopted a law of thermodynamics which says that there is no ongoing activity exchanging energy states in that conductor. Without such a law I am free to ask what happens when an atom with a single vacancy in its electron lodging capacity moving one way collides with an electron moving the opposite way and absorbs it. Obviously, it becomes a neutral non-ionized particle of matter and we know from Newton's laws of mechanics how to interpret momentum and the resulting energy deployment. However, Newtonian mechanics also do not tell us what happens to the magnetic inductance energy that the system had before the collision, owing to opposite polarity electric charge travelling in opposite directions, but yet does not have immediately after that collision. Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that the atom before collision had the same mass as the electron before collision, then Newtonian theory tells us that both particles could come to rest momentarily before separating again by moving in opposite directions with the same relative velocity. We have then full conservation of energy because the net electric current has reversed direction and so the self-inductance energy of this two-charge system is unchanged. Go further and allow for the atom having a normal mass much greater than the electron. Now, even with the electron having high speeds governed by the Fermi-Dirac statistics, the speeds of the atoms at normal room temperature will inevitably result in energy being transferred to those electrons by those collisions. Heat latent in the motion of atoms will transfer to the electrons, but the effect of current and the field reaction associated with inductance can play a role which ensures that the energy added to the electrons is not lost as heat but deployed in motion that sustains the overall level of that current. In short, there can be a superconductive state owing to the regeneration of spent heat as it converts into electricity which can be harnessed. Therefore, as we see superconductivity develop and come into use in room temperature applications, so we will have another route available for breaching the accepted laws of thermodynamics, but the immediate task is to describe the technology which exploits the Nernst Effect. The First Strachan-Aspden Invention It is possible to combine three different metals to form a composite conductor which operates in a magnetic field so as to convert heat into electricity, without being subject to the Carnot efficiency limits. It is even possible to generate alternating current as output, which means that it can be extracted through a transformer coupling at an elevated voltage. Consider Fig. 5. There are three metals Cu, Ni and Zn bonded together in the manner shown. The wavy line indicates the passage of heat, its direction being transverse to the direction in which electric current oscillates. A magnetic field is applied in the third orthogonal direction. The magnetic field acts on the nickel to polarize it sufficiently, say to about 80% saturation. Figure 5
When current flows to the left it favours passage from Ni to Cu, owing to the fact that there is Peltier cooling at the junction between the nickel and the copper. When current flows in the reverse direction, to the right, it flows from Cu to Zn and from Zn to Ni, cooling at the first junction and heating at the second. Of itself, this Peltier action of cooling and heating is productive of heat overall, meaning that the a.c. current will result in conversion of electricity into heat, which is not of special interest. However, that heat flow through the nickel plays an important role by virtue of the Nernst Effect. When current flows to the left much of it flows through the full body of the nickel sector. In travelling transversely with respect to both a magnetic field and a temperature gradient the current is aided by an induced E field. There is additional cooling in the nickel. When current flows in the reverse direction it is opposed by that same E field in the nickel induced by the temperature gradient, which is why it flows through the zinc instead. It finds passage into the nickel only at the extremity of the nickel sector. As a result, the overall effect can be a Nernst cooling which far outweighs the Peltier heating and that means that we can generate a.c. from the heat flowing into this metal structure. Note that with astute use of thermal insulation over the Cu section and on the left hand portion of the Zn as well as on the right hand edge surface of the Zn section and underside of the Ni section, the heat flow can be guided along the required path. This is sufficient to explain the principle of operation implemented in what is a fairly robust design, but one demanding the external application of strong magnetic fields (as by use of permanent magnets), a mutually orthogonal flow of heat. It needs some confidence to go to the trouble of building such a device but there is little complication in circuit design if the an a.c. power source is used as input and the load circuit is itself an electrical resistor which represents a load for test purposes. The initial prototype design could aim to take an input of heat at, say, 30oC and allow its passage through the device to a cold heat sink at !10oC. Now, if you have understood what has already been said about the Nernst Effect you will know that the temperature gradient promotes heat inflow to the device and that we use magnets to deflect that energy so that, instead of reaching the output to the cold heat sink, much of that energy is converted to augment the electrical power in the load circuit. Temperature, as such, meaning an absolute measure in Kelvin does not feature in the coefficient governing the Nernst Effect and so one could expect, say, 50% of that heat to convert to electricity that can reach the load. So now suppose that you can demonstrate this, guided by what is disclosed to you here in this Report and also in Energy Science Report No. 2, and consider how you might develop the prototype to the next stage. This involves using a reversed heat engine, such as a vapour compression machine. A coefficient of performance of 6 can be expected for the above temperatures, meaning that for every joule of electrical input there is 6 joules of cooling. Yet, at the 50% conversion efficiency rate of the Nernst device, this would mean a heat input of 12 joules from the 30oC heat sink. As augmented electrical circuit power we would generate 6 joules of electricity from the heat absorbed in transit. Of that, we can feed the 1 joule back to the reversed heat engine to sustain its operation. There is margin here for a good measure of operational losses, but a significant net power gain delivered as electricity is seemingly quite feasible, with other spin-off benefits if we wish to use the device for heating purposes as well. To keep the energy books balanced there has to be a matching external inflow of heat energy at 30oC equal to that delivered as electrical power. The logical source for that heat is the ambient atmosphere and so, if that temperature is lower in value, then the engine must be designed and set to operate between different temperature limits.
Conclusion There is one point at this stage that warrants comment. So much is said about the First Law of Thermodynamics by those not involved in the real technology of the thermodynamic field, everyone quoting it as a statement of something that says it is impossible to do what we have described above. However, Thermodynamics was one of the five final examination subjects I took in my honours level university degree. It was in engineering and involved extensive practical testing of many different heat engines. The Heat Engines textbook we used was written by the Director of the Engineering Laboratories of that university. In his words, the First Law of Thermodynamics "may be stated as follows: Heat and mechanical work are mutually convertible." To me, that is implicit in the thermo and dynamics expressions, just as if we refer to electrodynamics we are discussing the conversion of electric to mechanical work and vice versa. In mechanics generally, which embracing heat as the kinetic energy of the molecules in the heated fluid, there has to be compliance with the laws of action and reaction and `perpetual motion' is ruled out on that count. In electrodynamics generally, as is well known from the accepted theory of the interaction force between two isolated charges in motion, there can be out-of-balance forces. These signify energy exchange with the inductive field environment. In my above account concerning the Nernst Effect I am referring not to the motion of molecules as conveyers of heat, but electrons moving freely as discrete charges, these being the primary carriers of heat through metal. The magnetic field effect harnessed puts the action discussed outside the realm of thermodynamics and brings it into the field of electrodynamics. The latter is a subject I have researched far more than thermodynamics and the motor research, the subject of other Energy Science Reports in this series builds on that research background. Whatever the expert and academic background of the reader, the interdisciplinary nature of the subject I am discussing here cannot be ignored by assuming that someone else will be able to fault my claims. If I am deemed to be wrong, there is need to prove me wrong, not just assume I am wrong, because, if I am right, then the technology is indispensable in the onward quest to solve our energy needs. As a starter, one ought to begin by explaining an observed fact evident from the Strachan-Aspden devices as demonstrated. Though we do not have an operational unit any longer, there is a video record of operation. They were bimetallic assemblies of symmetrical construction as between the two heat sinks. When operating in Peltier mode to generate a heat difference with electrical power input along a transverse path parallel to the planes of the heat sinks, it should have been a 50:50 chance at switch on, whether heat sink A cooled or heat sink B cooled, as the other heated. That transverse path was through the planes of Ni-Al metal layers, stacked between those heat sinks. Yet, in every test witnessed, there was always cooling of the exposed heat sink, whereas the other heat sink was a metal base on which the electric circuitry was mounted, which meant that any excess power generated was dissipated as circuit current heating. The logical answer, as I see it, is that there was a cooling process supplementing and indeed overriding the Peltier Effect, and that cooling, I submit, can only be the Nernst Effect cooling which I have discussed at length above. *****
NOTE THAT THE REMAINDER OF THIS REPORT IS A TEXT DATING FROM A 1994 VERSION AND IT STANDS ON ITS OWN, SEPARATE FROM PART I ABOVE, EXCEPT THAT THERE HAS BEEN ADJUSTMENT OF THE FIGURE REFERENCES TO PROVIDE CONTINUITY OF SEQUENCE.
Introduction This is the third of a series of reports which are intended to serve as a technical briefing helpful in the evaluation of invention rights by expert opinion more familiar with conventional technology. The subject matter concerns thermoelectricity and ferromagnetism as applied in a novel combination aimed at a fundamentally new technique for converting heat and electricity using a solid state apparatus. It is foreseen that the technology proposed will allow the efficient generation of electricity on a scale that can serve as a main power supply based on non-polluting heat sources that need not necessarily be nuclear in form. The same technology is also seen as a substitute for CFC refrigeration and air conditioning systems. The background to what is here described is the demonstrated research prototype devices built by John Scott Strachan and incorporating principles which are the subject of patent rights of which this author and Strachan are co-inventors. Both Strachan and the author are independent in a research sense, meaning that the project work reported is not the work of research in a corporation or institutional laboratory. The physics involved in the invention is somewhat challenging and, in the light of established doctrines and practice, not easily understood without a special briefing. Indeed, without such a briefing as this, comment by experts on the technical viability of the technology, notwithstanding its demonstrable features, could impede the assessment task confronting technical advisors to those corporations we hope to interest in the needed R&D that the technology warrants. This Report No. 3 sets out to explore a new aspect of the technology and is supplemental to ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT No. 2 which is really a packaged assembly of prior reports and patent information covering the earlier activity on the Strachan-Aspden invention. The latter Report plus a demonstration of the working device in its refrigeration and power generation modes, as shown also in a video record, have been the basis in our efforts to engender interest by those who can take the R&D forward. This Report aims to point researchers in the direction which this author perceives as being the most promising from a product development point of view. However, in the absence of documented legal agreements, the Report should in no way be deemed to confer any implied free right of use in connection with what is disclosed, as proprietary rights are reserved, as by prior patent filing. Preliminary Observations The prototype demonstration devices all had a working core assembled from strips cut from an electrically polarised polymer sheet that formed the substrate for a very thin bimetallic surface coating of nickel and aluminium. The relevant features from a functional viewpoint are: (a) (b) (c) (d) The fact that the nickel is ferromagnetic. The fact that the two metals have contact interface that can intercept heat flow confined to the plane of the material. The fact that, in being very thin, the metal, when transporting heat, could operate with fairly high temperature gradients in the metal. The fact that the substrate was a heat insulator and a space filler separating the conductive metal films and so ensuring that losses by heat flow between hot and cold heat sinks were minimal. The fact that, in lending itself to assembly in a structure that became a series-parallel plate capacitor, we could excite electrical oscillations
transverse to the bimetallic junction interface plane, which meant that Peltier EMFs were directed in the line of current flow and such flow was through metal over an area of large cross-section which meant virtual elimination of I2R loss. (f) The fact that the two metals were opposite in electrical character, meaning that their charge and heat carriers were of different electrical polarities, a feature which, by virtue of the Thomson Effect, means that in-plane current flowing and circulating between the hot and cold sides of the device derived its power directly from heat throughput and did not drain the electrical power fed by the Peltier EMF. The fact that the device functioned as it was designed to function with a.c. as the transverse input-output form of power, because the Thomson current could divert the flow between hot and cold junction sides of the device according to the reversals of current polarity.
What we did not know is the design scope for increasing the thickness of the laminar metal in the device and whether the use of an a.c. operating frequency measured in tens of kilohertz was essential. It seemed from our earlier research that we needed that frequency activity to prevent a kind of lock-in effect forming super-cold spots in the Peltier-cooled portions of the junction interface or one needed a prevalent magnetic field which, by Lorentz force effects, could promote a shifting or displacement of the current flow traversing a junction. Strachan had suspected that there were oscillations developing in his d.c. experiments on thermocouples subjected to strong permanent magnet fields. Furthermore, and having regard to certain other early experiments that were performed on thick metal assemblies subjected to high temperature operation, but operating at power frequency, we may well have neglected the role of the Nernst Effect in interpreting the performance data in our high frequency capacitor coupled devices. It is noted that it was the Nernst Effect which this author saw as the crucial factor in the operation of the three metal device that became the subject of our U.S. Patent No. 5,065,085 (corresponding U.K. Patent No. 2,225,161). However, Strachan in his funded experimental work concentrated attention on the form of device that was so impressive in generating power from ice and in freezing water with electric battery power input using that capacitor assembly and the subject of those other patents remained undeveloped. It may be noted also that the whole foundation of the cooperation between Strachan and myself was our correspondence and exchanges some time even before we first met en route to a 1988 Canadian symposium on clean energy. Those exchanges concerned the prospect of fabricating thermocouples by laminar thin film assemblies, virtually almost as a book-binding operation, and particularly our findings that magnets have a significant effect on the way thermocouple junctions perform. A practical problem which confronted Strachan was that a great deal of effort was needed to cut and assemble hundreds of tiny pieces of polymer film in a way which avoided short-circuits between adjacent metal films and yet allowed connections to be made linking into what was a combined series-parallel capacitor structure. In being of small size, meaning limited power rating, there was then the task of designing and connecting an electronic circuit that could develop the necessary oscillations and take off power without interposing obstructive circuit contact and threshold potentials, whilst, to get adequate current flow through the series-connected sections of the capacitor, resonant operation at high electrical stress in the polymer dielectric was necessary.
Indeed, the manual assembly problem and circuit design exposed, in a sense, Strachan's Achilles' heel and it was this that precluded extensive onward diagnostic testing based on building several test structures using different design parameters, eg. choice of metal combination, metal film thickness and substrate material. There were other factors too, mainly arising from the route Strachan had followed in his earlier corporate research employment, which had involved the bonding of stacks of the polymer film in a structure which was acoustically tuned to set up mechanical vibrations for a medical application. That project had encountered operational difficulties owing to delamination and the assembly technique, though tedious, had evolved to overcome that problem whilst still needing excessive care to avoid electrical end-shorting as the bonded film components were cut to size. In testing the structures assembled for that project Strachan had found that spurious electrical effects were overloading his test circuits and that there were instabilities that could be stimulated, seemingly by static charge, heat or mere physical displacement associated with manual handling. Another problem, concerning the later thermoelectric research, was that there was some uncertainty, at least in Strachan's mind, as to whether the piezoelectric properties of the polymer were contributing in some way, even though this seemed to be ruled out of significance by the a.c. operation. My assumption on this was that the heating and cooling that accompanies cycles of voltage potential would compensate one another. There simply had to be an operational asymmetry from a functional point of view if net heating and net cooling were to link with the highly efficient electrical energy exchange that was in evidence. It was only late in 1992, stimulated by a new funding sponsor interested in the power generation applications, that Strachan about measuring the magnetic field that was of necessity produced in the thin film by the Thomson Effect current circulation. His findings were of such an unexpected nature that he then stated we need have no more circuit switching problems. He became convinced that we were dealing with a phenomenon in the metal and not one in the polymer dielectric. Thermodynamics Limited, which was the vehicle through which the patent rights were to be exploited, was granted an option to acquire rights under the U.K. patents which allowed the contractual arrangement with the sponsor and the R&D appraisal funding was passed on by subcontract to Strachan's laser-orientated venture Optical Metrology Limited. Strachan's research findings were then covered by Thermodynamics Limited filing a U.K. patent application on 6th February 1993, but since then no further progress has been made and no information forthcoming from that project. In the event, therefore, though this patent application was officially published as GB 2,275,128 it was not taken further and so became abandoned. However, it is of relevance to this Report to summarize the scientific nature of the above discovery and, no doubt, more information will eventually be forthcoming from research endeavour of others now interested in that subject. In this connection, it must be stressed that, although we believe the phenomenon of interest is occurring in the metal, it is clear that there are some advantages in using the polymer PVDF because, in the form used, it has a strong electric polarization which allows one to control the cyclic changes of very strong electric fields at the interface with a metal film. This had a quite remarkable effect on the magnetic polarization developed in nickel but only when a temperature gradient was present in the plane of the film. The main thrust of this Report, which does not concern polymer features, is the onward research now needed to fabricate a product version, based on this author's own independent research findings, and this requires some discussion of the Nernst Effect.
What will be described below is a way of building a `solid-state magneto-hydrodynamic power generator' that has features which allow one to probe heat-to-electric-power energy conversion efficiencies not hitherto believed possible in a thermo-electric power converter. The Nernst Effect in thermoelectricity is one for which a temperature gradient in a metal in the z direction will, in the presence of a magnetic field acting in the x direction, produce an EMF in the y direction. The polarity of this EMF can be positive or negative according as to whether the heat transport is propagated by charge carriers which are of positive or electric polarity. The effect arises by analogy with the high power plasma technology involving thermal activation of ion flow in a magneto-hydro-dynamic (MHD) generator. In simple terms the magnetic field acts as a catalyst in asserting the usual Lorentz force action and causing the ions to be deflected from the z direction to the y direction. Heat is thereby deployed into an orderly electrical form which means that if electrical power is taken off in the y direction there is cooling and heat flow in the z direction loses temperature at an accelerated rate. In practical terms, of course, the problem is one of taking the electrical power off in the y direction without losing heat through the current conductor leads. In a MHD generator this poses little problem because of the plasma is transported at high speed and the heat is not merely that of conduction in a static gaseous medium. This eliminates the contest between metal conduction of heat and electricity that one finds in normal Nernst Effect devices. The Strachan-Aspden configuration is abnormal in this sense because the heat flow contest is between a polymer and the bimetallic laminations and the polymer, as a dielectric, transports electric current by Maxwell displacement processes which are unrelated to heat conduction. Now, what was the late-1992 experimental discovery? It may have been illusory, a kind of ghost action related to magnetostriction in nickel and the Villari Effect, by which a stress induced piezoelectrically in the substrate polymer and subject to applied heat conditions was affecting the polarization of the nickel. On the other hand, it could come to be regarded as a new thermoelectric effect, ranking alongside those of Seebeck, Peltier, Thomson, Nernst, Ettinghausen and Leduc, all of which are different and yet somehow related phenomena. The discovery indicated that the application of a thermal gradient in the z direction combined with the application of an EMF producing a potential drop through the dielectric interfacing with the metal and perhaps communicated into the metal in the y direction will spontaneously affect a magnetic polarisation in the x direction. On the face of it, the experiment showed that a powerful magnetic field could be switched on and off in the x direction by regulating that EMF and no significant electrical power input was needed. Strachan proved this by feeding the control signal through a very high resistance and we saw this as amounting to a kind of solid-state grid-control device by which a powerful magnetic field could be switched on and off, even at a frequency measured in tens of kilohertz. What was needed was the heat input setting up that temperature gradient. It was on this basis that the above-referenced patent application was filed, because one could see this as a way forward for converting heat input into electrical output via magnetic induction based on the use of transformer principles. However, with no useful detailed measurement data adequate at this time to determine the true nature of the action, this writer has been left in a quandary on this issue. Whereas the basic Nernst Effect is the use of magnetism as a mere catalyst in converting heat into electricity and vice versa, we had here sight of the possibility of using a controlling electric field as a mere catalyst in regulating energy exchange as between heat and magnetic induction power output. The latter represents control, modulation, operation at a power frequency
and voltage output governed by the turns on a inductively-coupled winding, all of which is good news for commercial exploitation. This finding by Strachan must be researched further, in the light of the fact that the discovery was made using very thin film metal on the polymer substrate, and Strachan's later attempts to replicate the control action in a unit assembled from metal sheet stock were also successful, though only partially so when the metal thickness exceeded 10 microns. The research was abandoned before he had performed enough diagnostic testing of the phenomenon and given enough attention to magnetic inductive coupling problems in his test rig. One remains in doubt, therefore, as to whether or not it may be possible to exploit the above discovery in a heat pump or in fully operative heat to electricity converter. This is where this author decided to get involved directly on an independent experimental venture which has, however, been of minimal scope so far owing to the problem of setting up a home laboratory facility with no external funding source. My objective was to see through a form of experiment where heat gradients are established in bimetallic laminations by inductive in-feed of eddy-currents. That might seem the wrong way to go about the research, bearing in mind that one seeks to avoid loss and have heat transfer supplied via external heat sinks, but the physics of the internal eddy-current heating action can be quite revealing. Also, I had become mindful of the fact that research on cold fusion had proved unrewarding as soon as `expert' verification had involved extra care in keeping temperature constant in a test calorimeter. This, I had interpreted as a recipe for choking off the action, in that it might require a temperature gradient in the host metal cathode used in cold fusion to set up the electric nucleating charge effects that could initiate the reaction. So, my feelings were that there was sense in our thermoelectric situation in feeding heat into the metal to set up the initial temperature gradients which could act as a switch-on trigger in activating the Nernst Effect. Accordingly, with this preliminary commentary, I draw attention to the reference to my thermoelectric research reported at pp. 21-30 of ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO. 1 which gave me confidence in the energy regeneration potential possible from use of the Nernst Effect in the manner of the Strachan-Aspden invention. ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO. 2 gives the full background of record concerning the 1988-1993 activity on the Strachan-Aspden invention. This Report concerns therefore what this author now sees as the most promising way forward, presented as part of an overall project, but the general effort, as funded by future sponsoring interests, still ought to proceed on several parallel investigations to ensure we do know the best route to expediting commercial development. There are four separate research avenues warranting such exploration and, in retrospect, the first, which involves use of polymers, is the one that seems to be the most difficult but yet it is the one used by Strachan in all three demonstrated prototypes. The reason is that the evidence of an anomalous thermoelectric effect presented itself as unexpected spin-off from the prior research performed by Strachan for the medical application. That, fortuitously, upon special development, made it possible to table a demonstration of something that was quite tantalizing but somewhat ahead of the understanding of the true physics involved. However, in being linked to the polymer feature, that predisposed research effort in a way that has thwarted rapid progress. Strachan's full report on this background technology is an Appendix to ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO. 2. The four research routes can be summarized as: 1) The development of thin-film polymer-based devices replicating the design features of the three prototype devices already built by Strachan and all of which functioned
well. Strachan has not run the two devices designed to work in refrigeration mode much below !40o C and the object should be to see how low one can take the temperature in view of the cryogenic possibilities. Strachan has avoided upper temperatures beyond that of water under normal pressure, because the polymer substrate properties would deteriorate and he relies on that for the capacitor activation. Here, however, one can see the potential for using polymers which are electrically conductive but heat resistive, i.e. not exploiting their dielectric capacitative properties, and that certainly warrants full scale R&D investigation. 2) Effort on developing the design embodied in the magnetically activated thick metal structure disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 5,065,085 (U.K. Patent No. 2,225,161). Test results on this have not been documented by Strachan but he reported that he had in fact done tests which were successful and it was on that basis that the subject patent applications were filed. Flame heat was apparently used as input and that promises something of interest to higher temperature needs of the power generating industry. There should be effort to explore the `discovery' of the electric field control further, first from the pure verification aspect of this as a new scientific 'effect' and then as an application study to understand if the principle can be built into a practical heatelectricity transformer device. If that proves impractical it is important to know the reason why. There should also be an experimental investigation based on the theme now to be discussed in the remainder of this Report, which aims directly at a regenerative action by which heat is converted into electricity. The prospect in sight here is not just the generation of main power from heat, but the refrigeration features that are entailed in the same process.
Solid-State Magneto-Hydrodynamic Power It is assumed at this stage that the reader will have access to the detailed description of the Strachan-Aspden technology as described in ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO. 2, it being the sole objective now to develop the research theme (4) of the above list. In order to focus the attentions of industrial interests it seems best to outline at this stage the anticipated constructional form of a possible product. The core design would seem to be one having two planar metal heat transfer surfaces bounding an internal assembly. A temperature differential between these two surfaces is associated with heat flow through laterally-disposed metal rib-like connections within the structure. Some means for electrical activation of a cross-current flow transverse to the heat flow direction is then needed inside the panel unit thus formed. The latter could, as simple logical alternatives, be couplings or connections that are either capacitative, directly conductive (through heat insulating polymer) or magnetically inductive, whichever is the most effective and reliable as well as viable on price considerations. This description, however, presents a quite ingenious way of using the conductive coupling without the design limitations of capacitance coupling. It has the merit of also being the most expeditious research route for this author in present circumstances, pending developments on the conductive polymer front.
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In outlining this specific product form, this author is relying on his assumption that it is the Nernst Effect that can be exploited by a special combination of design features and it is important, therefore, to give a solid physical scientific basis for that assumption. This is based on a logical consideration of the problem of harnessing the Nernst Effect and, more particularly, upon an experiment. The experiment is that discussed below under the heading Nernst Effect in Relation to Eddy-Currents. The logical theme is that of the following argument. A conventional MHD generator feeds heat into an ionised gas by combustion leading to ionisation. The gas is caused to flow along a channel subjected to a lateral magnetic field. This deflects positive ions one way and negative ions the other way, causing them to develop a back EMF across the side electrodes, which EMF acts against their motion in the direction of deflection and slows them down. In cooling they have transferred energy into electric potential that feeds a current drawn off from those electrodes. This process is subject to the Carnot efficiency limitation, because the gas has a temperature and as much gas flows as output as enters as input, losing temperature on the way. The Carnot efficiency concerns the amount of heat energy extracted as electricity in relation to heat input, but that gas emerging as waste heat at a lower temperature carries away the energy that cannot be converted into electricity. Note that the Peltier Effect or Seebeck Effect have a Carnot limitation because here the relevant action occurs at a junction interface between two metals having a contact potential set up between them. Here there is a circulating current confined to the metal circuit, but the crossing of the current at the hot junction interface results in a cooling because the current is produced by an EMF proportional to the contact potential (Peltier EMF) at the higher temperature. All that power is transferred into electricity which goes around the circuit, not as heat, but as electrical action. The current, unfortunately, has to cross the other cooler junction and so it has to allow much of that electrical power to come back into the thermal picture and go to waste by producing heat related to that cooler junction temperature. This is what brings the Carnot energy conversion efficiency restriction into play. Then, there is the Thomson Effect by which the very presence of a temperature gradient, even in a single metal substance, results in heat flow conveyed by electric charge carriers. These are like the ionised gas in the MHD generator. They do not escape from the metal but if two metals work together, one conveying negative charge and the other positive charge, with that heat flow, so the action can occur to transfer heat whilst the process complies with the Carnot criteria. It is here that a discerning scientist might ask whether one can arrest the flow of heat in a metal by applying a back EMF. The answer is negative, but the answer is not to be found in textbooks. The reason, undoubtedly, is that heat flow is a shared and collective action involving all free charge present in a metal, whereas the moment one applies an EMF to a metal there is an unstable effect and a current discharge that drives electrons against the heat flow by allowing some to group into a fast-moving filamentary flow. This is seen as accounting for the `cold-spot' effects occurring at the cooled thermoelectric junction, as discussed in an Appendix to ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO. 2. Now, let us consider the Nernst Effect. Here there is a temperature gradient, which means a flow of heat energy carried by free electric charge in metal. In iron or nickel this becomes subject to the magnetic action present in all the microscopic domains, but we will simply consider that, owing to the ferromagnetic nature or iron or nickel, we can set up a strong magnetic field transverse to that heat flow.
This is nothing other than a solid-state MHD scenario which suggests a Carnot limitation on performance. However, consider here what it is that is carrying that heat. It is the electrons or positive holes and we need to ask how these are affected in transit between the hot and cold sides of the metal host conductor. Firstly, they are deflected by the usual Lorentz forces to set up the EMF transversely in the metal. That means cooling as energy feeds into electric potential. Secondly, is there a difference between this and the MHD generator? Yes, there is, because once an ion in the MHD generator has cooled by delivering the electrical output, that ion merges with other gas ions that are all flowing with it along the channel towards the exhaust end of the generator and it can acquire no further energy able to generate more electricity without depriving another ion from asserting that role. In the metal, on the other hand, there are atoms vibrating about 'rest' positions in the structure that act as mediators in the thermal exchanges. This means that the heat shed by an electron can be promptly replenished while still in the hot zone, replenished by a source that does not itself have to move on to the lower temperature region. Note here that when an electron is deflected by the magnetic field to set up that transverse EMF it knows only the local temperature. It cannot just shed an amount of heat energy that leaves it at the temperature at the cooler end of the system. Indeed, it may be brought to rest in a thermal sense and have to merge with the environment by picking up heat which implies conservation of `cold' in the process. If energy and heat can be conserved, so can `cold', meaning that, if the electron has shed its heat by the Nernst Effect, it will need some action at the low temperature end of the system to bring the Carnot regime into this scenario. Yet, as the electrons reach the end of their passage through the metal and the magnetic field they are still subject to same heat-to-electrical transfer action because the Nernst Effect is still active so long as some heat is flowing. The result of this is that the Nernst Effect becomes a function of temperature gradient and not temperature as such. The temperature gradient is a measure of the relevant electric current flow as carried by 'free' charge. Heat flow carried by electrons in passage through a strong transverse magnetic field and subject to a high temperature gradient will then develop an EMF which, if allowed to feed current, will, in turn, develop a cooling effect which has no regard to the absolute temperature except to the extent that the heat content per electron is determined by that temperature. If one assumes that an electron giving up its heat energy to set up a Nernst potential loses only a proportion of that energy and recovers none in its onward passage to lower temperature regions in the metal, then one can logically argue that the Carnot efficiency factor applies as in the MHD generator. However, this seems not to be a correct physical picture of the true events occurring with the Nernst Effect. Indeed, it seems one can think in terms of a near 100% efficiency of heat-to-electricity energy conversion, just as the operation of Lorentz-related electrodynamic forces in electrical machines operate at near to 100% efficient mechanical energyto-electricity conversion. This author submits, particularly in the light of the experiments described in this Report, that the facts support the logic of this challenging argument and this, therefore, gives us a route forward to an energy technology that has enormous implications. The only question we really face from a practical point of view in performing an experimental test is the task of deciding how to cause heat to flow one way through a metal whilst we take off electric current in a transverse direction without diverting heat flow in the same direction. This assumes that we can set up a magnetic field at right angles to both, which is clearly very possible.
Having considered this at some length and in the hope of exploiting that unwanted heat generated, if it is confined to the region where it can still do useful work, the author has devised the following structure expressly to perform the thermoelectric power conversion using the Nernst Effect. Skin Effect Segregation In order to get current to traverse a metal in the y direction with heat flow in the z direction and a magnetic field in the x direction, one can provide a metal interface between metals A and B across the xz plane and feed a.c. current through the structure in the y direction in a way which restricts the current flow to a metal surface of the A metal, whereas heat flow in the same direction is spread over the cross-section of the conductor and not subject to such a restriction. Then that heat flow can enter metal B from metal A at a position in metal B behind the current traversal position. This means that the heat entering metal B can then turn to flow in the z direction transverse to that current in the y direction. The way to do this at normal power frequencies is to provide a rather thick highpermeability ferromagnetic conductor as metal A with metal B being a very thin ferromagnetic conductor. The current-heat segregation arises from eddy-current skin effect in metal A and, in traversing a thin section of metal B, the current will choose a flow path that is through a single ferromagnetic domain in metal B in which the magnetic polarization is transverse to the heat flow path and the current flow path and also in the direction that causes the Nernst Effect to develop a forward EMF. An experimental test rig by which to verify this action is depicted in Fig. 6(a) and Figs. 6(b) to (h) apply to its operating principle. Referring first to Fig. 6(f) the intention, for operation in the power generating mode drawing on heat supplied through a duct intermediate two panel structures in Fig. 6(a), is to cause heat to enter a thick metal heat sink layer of a ferromagnetic material coextensive with the surface of the duct. Then the heat flow is guided through 50 micron (0.002 inch) steel film which greatly reduces the thermally conductive cross-section and so results in a steep temperature gradient in that film. If much of this heat can be removed at entry into the film owing to a thermoelectric action there will then only by a small residual heat flow of much reduced temperature gradient left to provide direction for that flow towards the other heat transfer interface. To use the Nernst Effect to discharge this cooling function one needs, firstly, a strong magnetic field, then, secondly, a flow of heat and, thirdly, a route for current flow, all mutually orthogonal. This means that one must contrive a way of ensuring that the heat flow does not automatically assume the same path as the current. How can we separate heat flow and current flow in a common metal structure without having the current flow through a capacitative gap in the metal? Consider Fig. 6(d). Here a thick steel rod is shown to have an external current circuit which is arranged to magnetize the rod along its axis. One can set up a temperature differential along that axis and have heat flowing through the rod distributed uniformly over its cross-section. If now the current is a.c. and the rod has a high magnetic permeability and is thick in relation to that frequency, eddy-current skin effects will confine the current to a section close to the perimeter surface of the rod. Most of the heat will then enter the rod along a path that is different from that of the current. Should that rod be cooled in some way from the outside, as with the Fig. 6(f) representation, that small amount of heat loss will require heat to be diverted radially, and so orthogonally, with respect to any d.c. magnetic field along the rod axis and with respect to the induced skin current.
In this scenario one would have heat converting into electricity by Nernst Effect cooling, but all that would occur would be enhancement of the eddy-loss as the current escalates and the skin-effect becomes even more restrictive. Heat would be regenerated and there would simply be anomalous eddy-current effects, a phenomenon actually found in normal transformer sheet steels, but one that has not been understood by the academic establishment. The way forward is to consider now Fig. 6(e). Here, the circuit loop is an elongated parttubular thick ferromagnetic core and it is presumed that the a.c. current is supplied in the manner shown. In this case, the eddy-current skin effect is not on the outside of the core. The current is concentrated at the inside surface. The reason is that the current follows the path of least resistance and it would rather flow around a thin metal path embracing what is mainly an air core than around the highly inductive ferromagnetic core as well. This configuration allows us to intercept the EMFs that are developed by the Nernst Effect, because they constitute `forward' EMFs assisting flow, meaning that, if we can conceive heat action bringing about electrical current oscillations in a converter which incorporates the principles being described. Now, rather than providing a special magnetizing winding for producing a powerful magnetic field in the metal and then contriving the heat transfer interfaces inside that winding, it seems best to make use of the intrinsic domain magnetism in a core comprising thin steel film. Refer now to Fig. 6(b). Here, several such films or laminations are shown to be sandwiched between two steel bars. The bars form an energy route for heat which is to flow through the steel laminations and be bled off through those laminations to seek a cooler heat sink at their extremities. A conductive metal, which need not be ferromagnetic, in between the base section of the laminations merely serves to provide the conductive path makes their connection. Looking at a single lamination, one can see from Fig. 6(c) how the saturation magnetic flux in the domains can be directed. The dots and crosses denote arrow directions as pointers indicating the magnetic flux orientation. Any current passing transversely though the lamination will be aided by the intervening non-magnetic highly conductive metal to guide it through the domain which offers least resistance. Going one way through a domain will develop a back Nernst EMF and going the other way will develop a forward Nernst EMF. According to its polarity the current will always choose a route through a domain which offers a forward Nernst EMF. There will always be cooling if there is an orthogonal temperature gradient. This is shown in Figs. 6(g) and 6(h), with the skin effect serving to separate the heat flow path (broken lines) and the current flow path (full lines). The domain pattern in the thin film, whether in nickel or iron, which have different polarity Nernst Effects, will always govern the current flow and contribute to cooling. Note that, by using thick steel bars to provide the heat sink spacer members, the heat can flow freely to the entry into the domains in the film. The skin effect, even if such that current is confined to what is effectively a 10% section of the thick steel bar, will only suffer the resistance losses that relate to flow in that restricted section, but set alongside the power generated by the Nernst Effect cooling action, this is a quite small loss and it merely regenerates heat input. The only loss as such is that of heat conducted to the remote secondary heat exchange interface. Thus, in Fig. 6(a), the structure shows how current circuit connections can be made to link with a transformer core and other windings coupled to external circuits. The bold lines indicate a thin layer of electrical insulation, which still allows passage of heat, it being necessary to avoid the short-circuiting of the power generated. The rib-like connecting films can, in functional terms, be left floating in a cooling medium with no assembly for the secondary heat exchange interface.
An inert gas blown across the fins thus formed would serve as the means for assuring the temperature gradient which activates the main cooling function drawing on heat supplied to the inner duct. *********** THE ABOVE TEXT WAS WRITTEN IN MARCH 1994 WITH A VIEW TO INCORPORATING A SECTION HERE WHEN A PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT ON THE ABOVE LINES HAD BEEN PERFORMED. IN THE EVENT THE EXPERIMENT WAS DEFERRED PENDING COMPLETION OF THE EXPERIMENT REPORTED IN THE NEXT SECTION. *********** The Magnetic Inductively-Coupled Device Whereas the above description concerns a electrically-conductive coupling between separate compartmented sections of a thermoelectric power converter and uses a transformer coupling externally to bring together the power generated from heat in each metal film current crossing, one can see scope for building a version which relies directly on a magnetic inductive coupling in each cell of the structure. In effect, this involves building a transformer within each compartment. This is shown in Fig. 11 of a recently filed patent application. (See Appendix I on page 37). The device would comprise internally a series of longitudinal compartments each containing a slender rod-like magnetic core. A winding on the core would provide the circuit by which input or output a.c. is fed through all such windings connected in series and possibly through an isolating transformer. The heat transfer problems of the outer bounding metal surfaces and their design will not be discussed as these are familiar terrain for those involved in the relevant industries and this is not intended to be part of a business proposal for setting up a manufacturing venture. Noting that the bimetallic metal circuit linked by each ferromagnetic core is virtually a shortcircuit, the reader will understand that very little EMF has to be induced to set up the internal current circulation. That said, the cross-section and operating magnetic flux density can be quite small, even though the design aims to take off substantial current by transformer action. A very close coupling as between the heat-driven primary circuit and the secondary as output winding is then essential and that is assured by the enclosed compartment feature which provides a conductive housing along the whole length of the ferromagnetic cores. The latter do not need flux closure structure in small product applications, because being very long in relation to their sectional dimensions, they have very little demagnetizing effect and such inductance as does exist is to the good, because it will serve to smooth out the loading as between the several cores. *********** THE TEXT JUST PRESENTED WAS WRITTEN IN MARCH 1994 BEFORE THE AUTHOR'S OWN EXPERIMENTS ON THIS CORE SYSTEM WITH MULTIBIMETALLIC-LAMINAR STACKS WERE PERFORMED. TWO SUCH EXPERIMENTS ARE NOW REPORTED BELOW. ***********
(a) First Experiment Two ferrite-cored transformer units were used, each having a primary input winding and a secondary output winding, arranged side by side and parallel-connected to feed a common shortcircuit single turn tertiary winding, the latter comprising strips of aluminium through the cores bridging external stacks of multi-laminar metal composed of alternate layers of 50 micron steel shim and electrolytically tinned sheet steel of 200 micron thickness. There were about 140 layers of steel in each of the two stacks and the thin layers of tin provided electrical contact between them and separated the current flow paths through the magnetic domains in the steel. In principle, current flow in the primary induces an EMF in the tertiary winding which, given a temperature gradient in the bimetallic stacks, should develop a negative resistance owing to the Nernst Effect. This should cause current to flow augmenting the action of the primary current in overcoming the reaction set up by a load current. Hopefully, heat input to the bimetallic stacks would then result in electrical power output from the secondary windings whilst the power supplied to the primary winding would be mainly reactive in sustaining the magnetization. The result of the experiment was that a comparison of power input versus power output from the secondary indicated that the transformers were functioning as if the tertiary single turn winding did not even exist! It did not seem to draw any short-circuit current that could effect the operation and did not contribute any thermoelectric current to the output, so far as could be judged. However, no heat input was applied and there was little point in making that provision, given that the current flow through the bimetallic stack and on which the experiment relied was not in evidence. Since ferrite cores were used in the transformers it was possible to connect a capacitor to tune the input impedance to unity power factor and run on secondary load at an audio frequency so as to explore the possibility that the short-circuit path was obstructing current flow owing to it having a high self-inductance. A resonance at 12 kHz was observed, but energy accounting in this state revealed no thermoelectric anomaly, albeit with no heat input. It was evident that there was some unexpectedly high resistance effect in the short-circuit path through the bimetallic stack, sufficient to restrict the transformer action to interplay between the primary and secondary windings, inasmuch as the short-circuit tertiary winding embraced both of those windings. Yet, the very existence of the changing core magnetic flux should still produce EMF in that circuit through the bimetallic stacks. It was decided to establish just how much of the action could be conveyed through that bimetallic stack circuit, by constructing new apparatus, the subject of the second experiment. (b) Second Experiment Here two 100 VA 50 Hz power transformers were coupled to form a unit with a primary winding on one and a secondary winding on the other, the coupling being through a single turn circuit through two copper bars linking two stacks of about 200 steel laminations, with intervening tin coating, which formed the secondary output from the first transformer and the primary input to the second. The power finding its way through this system would have to involve current flow through the bimetallic stacks. Tests were performed which, again, confirmed that the current circuit through the laminations was sufficiently resistive to preclude any chance of a thermoelectric gain, at least with a modest heat input, though, again, no provision for that was made at this preliminary diagnostic stage.
The two transformers and their windings were identical and so, in voltage terms at 50 Hz, the no load secondary output voltage should be reasonably close to the no-load primary input voltage, if the common coupling circuit through the bimetallic stacks could function to carry sufficient current to supply the magnetization needs of the second transformer. The first test gave the following data: Primary 50 V 100 V 150 V 200 V 250 V Secondary 0.111 V 0.227 V 0.349 V 0.493 V 0.640 V
Prior to this, the input transformer of this identical pair was tested to determine its no-load magnetizing input current. The standard rating at 240 V by the manufacturer of the kits from which the transformers were assembled was 120 mA. The following test data apply: Voltage 10 20 30 40 50 100 150 200 240 250 Current 0.80 mA 1.39 mA 1.88 mA 2.40 mA 3.02 mA 6.19 mA 12.58 mA 53.8 mA 121.8 mA 154.0 mA
It was clear from this that something significant was obstructing this 50 Hz current flow through the bimetallic stack. It was possible, from the symmetry of the apparatus, to test the d.c. resistance of the two stacks as if they were parallel connected rather than series connected. A current of 96 mA gave a potential drop of 2.5 mV, corresponding to a parallel resistance of 0.026 ohms and a series circuit resistance of 0.104 ohms. When tested at 340 mA the potential drop was 9.3 mV, meaning a loop circuit resistance of 0.109 ohms. The problem now was that, having passed some d.c. through the bimetallic stack, there was the possibility that some circular in-plane magnetic polarization had taken place in the steel laminations, possibly affecting the inductance to a.c. current flow. Accordingly, and also because the d.c. might have affected contact resistance, the primary to secondary voltage ratio was again measured, with the following improved results: Primary 20 V 40 V 80 V
Secondary 7.57 V 11.22 V 13.61 V
120 V 140 V 180 V 240 V
14.30 V 14.69 V 14 83 V 14.95 V
To make sense of these results, it is noted that at 240 V, the rated induced EMF per turn of the transformer is 0.37 V and to feed enough magnetizing current to develop reaction flux corresponding to 14.95 V in a magnetizing winding the above magnetization current data show that about 1.20 mA will suffice in the 240/0.37 number of turns. This translates into a magnetizing current of 0.78 A generated in the stack loop with a 0.37 V signal. The impedance of the loop is 0.47 ohms at 50 Hz. This is rather curious. If the current flow is resisted by the contact potentials in the bimetallic stack then one would expect the increasing induced EMF as the input volts range from 80 V to 240 V to cause a progressively increasing current flow, whereas the data suggest a saturation effect. Something is limiting the current. That loop current of 0.78 A passes through 400 junctions from steel to tin interleaved with 400 junctions from tin to steel. It could therefore be that the Peltier heating and Peltier cooling at each junction pair sets up sufficient temperature differential in the current flow direction for a limiting current situation to develop which overrides any hope of exploiting the Nernst Effect. Remember that in the dielectric stack assembly built by Strachan there was thermal separation between adjacent junctions in the transverse current direction through the stack and this thermal isolation of junctions could well be essential. In this author's own experiments with a transformer assembled from bimetallic laminations [See Energy Science Report No. 1] the laminations are insulated from each other as in a conventional transformer and so the close dual junction crossing does not occur in that situation either. To sum up, at 0.109 ohms, we have a higher d.c. resistance than is expected when 0.34 A flows through the loop circuit. The 50 Hz a.c. impedance at 0.78 A is 0.47 ohms, which seems enormous for a stack path through metal conductor of about 2 sq. cm cross section and 10 cm length linked by copper bars of 20 cm length and 0.5 sq. cm section. Even allowing for the selfinductance attributable to the high permeability of steel, that permeability would have to be truly enormous to account for the 0.47 ohm impedance at 50 Hz. Accordingly, the author is inclined to suspect that the Peltier effect of two closely adjacent junctions in the current flow path is defeating the scope for tapping the Nernst Effect, but, whatever the cause, it seems logical to abandon attempts to build a through-conductor metal coupling between laminations in the bimetallic stack. This causes attention now to turn to the alternative of harnessing the Nernst Effect by virtue of its interaction with eddy-currents in transformer laminations. ********* Nernst Effect in Relation to Eddy-Currents It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the way in which eddy-currents are induced in a sheet steel lamination as used in a power transformer. The cyclic oscillations of the magnetic field cause an EMF to be induced in any circuit conductor wrapped around the core. This is why power can be taken off from the secondary
winding. Given then that the steel laminations are of metal and that they share in carrying that magnetic flux oscillation, each lamination experiences a small circuital EMF internally and this causes a circulating current flow around what is a short-circuit path. As a result there is a loss which is termed `eddy-current' loss. This loss is small in comparison with the power that can be transferred between primary and secondary windings by the transformer action, but yet it can be significant and the design reduces such loss to a minimum by using steels which have higher resistivity and laminations which are small in thickness. The loss can be avoided by use of ferrites but commercial power transformers are subject to other design criteria related to size and I2R losses and steel laminations offer the best design option. It so happens that this author devoted three years Ph.D. research effort to the study of anomalous eddy-current losses in sheet steels (1950-1953) and is aware of the fact that there has been little progress in the further understanding aspects of those anomalous losses since that period. Indeed, not many academics working in electrical engineering today even know that there is a loss anomaly. Yet, under certain circumstances, the loss, as observed experimentally, can amount to a tenfold increase over what theory based on Ohm's law prescribes. Moreover, as this author's research verified, the momentary values of the loss factor (experiment versus theory) varies significantly around the magnetization loop and in dependence upon mechanical stress and d.c. polarization. From the viewpoint of this Report the introduction of heat by eddy-current induction as a way of testing a thermoelectric action is an interesting proposition, because adjacent laminations in a transformer are electrically insulated from one another and this must, in some measure, mean that the eddy-current heating and hysteresis loss as well will involve thermal conduction in plane in the laminations. This is what we have in the Strachan-Aspden thermoelectric device, but whereas heat flows from one side of a laminar assembly to the other in that device, the flow is from the centre outwards in the transformer. Now, in spite of the fact that the writer, as an undergraduate, had in his possession a textbook on physics which includes a very extensive section on thermoelectricity and does explain all the named `Effects' mentioned above, it did not at any time in that later Ph.D. research era occur to him as relevant to study thermoelectric action in the conventional transformer core. One thinks of thermoelectricity as being something involving two metals and, if one does ponder the single metal situations where heat gradients apply, the effect of an a.c. magnetic field oscillating at 50 Hz or 60 Hz can hardly be expected to develop a non-cancelling thermoelectric action. The heat energy cycling at such frequencies by sequential cooling and heating in equal measure will, one might presume, not do much to the temperature profile in a steel lamination and so any heat that is produced by magnetization loss is seen simply in that light as being mere energy wastage and having no thermoelectric implications. What the writer completely overlooked, even though professing expert insight into eddycurrent phenomena, though well knowing that magnetic domains in ferromagnetic crystals are a factor in enhancing losses, was something that is now blindingly obvious. It has taken the diagnostic testing of our Strachan-Aspden devices to turn the essential key by seeing reason to challenge the way we accept that d.c. electric current flow in metals is uniformly distributed over the conductor cross-section, whilst a.c. current flow might experience some surface concentration as a function of frequency. Suppose that the flow is carried by electrons and ask the question as to whether electrons can convey current if they all share the action equally at every instant or if they find it easier to
carry current by getting in line one behind the other and all moving together. In short, for a given limited current flow, may it not be that filamentary current surges can occur by electrons taking turn in joining a team and forming sporadic fast-moving surges, whilst those left out of such teams enjoy freedom from the current transport task? If this is seen as `no more than an idea' I invite readers to wonder why there is something magical about a current of 19 amps. This is a level of current at which current discharges in certain plasma type experiments divide into separate filaments. It happens also to be the current carried by a flow of electrons, lined up one behind the other, with each electron moving forward past a check point every time, as it were, that the whistle blows, assuming that the frequency is that we associate with the Compton wavelength of the electron. Current flow through a metal could well involve short-lived filamentary surges comprising discontinuous elementary circuit elements of a momentary 19 amp strength. What we measure might seem to be a continuous mere milliamp current uniformly distributed over the metal crosssection, but what may be happening inside that metal is something else. It is for this reason that in the earlier research on the Strachan-Aspden thermoelectric device it was concluded that the a.c. activation is what precluded cold-spots forming at junction interfaces. The transport of current across the Peltier cooled junction in a metal as opposed to in a semiconductor would obviously act to cool the metal in the very limited territory of that junction and that means enhancement of electrical conductivity owing to that supercooled region. There is every reason then to believe that with d.c. operation the formation of a filamentary flow would cause the filament to lock into one junction spot. Effectively the spot would cool until it nearly was at the temperature of the remote Peltier heated junction and that would mean that d.c. thermocouples composed of base metals, such as aluminium and nickel, would have very poor thermoelectric power properties. With a semiconductor the cooling usually tends to increase resistivity and that would drive the filament away to a path of lower resistance and so preclude that cold-spot locking. Now, keeping in mind that current flow may be filamentary and that currents like to follow the paths of least resistance, consider that steel transformer lamination and suppose we apply a strong d.c. magnetic field plus a relatively weak a.c. field which puts some eddy-current heating into the lamination. We then have a situation where, by the Nernst Effect a temperature gradient on one side of the lamination will interact with the d.c. magnetic field to produce an EMF directed through the thickness of the lamination. Similarly on the other side, because heat flow is in the opposite direction, we have a Nernst EMF directed the other way through the thickness of the lamination. This is a recipe for setting up a current circulation in the lamination that is not an eddycurrent but a d.c. current flow. Now, depending upon the polarity of the Nernst Effect for the metal, such current would either act to strengthen the d.c. field or would act to suppress that field. In one case, the action would, in theory, mean an escalation of the d.c. field strength. In other words, unless there is something that qualifies what is being described, a ferromagnetic lamination could conceivably become a bistable element, polarized overall in one direction or the other and lock in to that state by virtue of the controls we exercise on heat gradients. Note that nickel and iron have opposite polarity Nernst coefficients and so one or other should meet the specified criteria. The phenomenon suggested is, however, is something that I believe can rightly be declared as `contrary to experience' and therefore unlikely. However, it means that we have to explain now
why it does not occur and so, since I did not argue the filamentary current case, in developing that polarization theme, I will now reexamine the question assuming filamentary current flow. To proceed, take note that in truth the steel lamination comprises magnetic domains all of which are magnetized to saturation in one or other of the three orthogonal axes in its crystals. Imagine that the Nernst Effect is at work setting up those circuital EMFs but pose the question as to which magnetic field direction really governs the action, because any externally applied d.c. field is not going to affect much the strength of the local magnetic field in the domains which happen to be momentarily occupied by the filamentary current. Consideration then shows that the filamentary current flow will, if the `hypothesis' holds, always choose a path through a domain having the magnetic polarization in a direction which corresponds to cooling since this is the path of least resistance, indeed of negative resistance. In short there could be a net cooling effect if the ohmic losses arising from in-plane current flow are less than the Nernst power action that is generated. Indeed, such a scenario would be one that escalates because the heating in the central region of the lamination would enhance the temperature gradient as that heat is conducted back to the edges and, in effect, the action would be selfregenerating and run continuously with no intervention from outside. If the applied field were an a.c. field the action would see the filamentary current direction reverse, it having then the phase of the eddy-currents, but in physical terms it would be as if the resistivity of the steel lamination had, in effect and overall, reduced virtually to zero. To summarize the position, either one accepts the filamentary current hypothesis or one does not. If it is not accepted, then one has the problem of explaining why a steel lamination in a transformer does not virtually convert into a permanent magnet. Also one cannot then explain the very high thermoelectric EMFs which we measured for Al:Ni junctions using a.c. activation, because there is then no reason why the very much lower d.c. thermoelectric power of record in reference data should not apply to the a.c. embodiments. That also leaves us with a problem. If it is accepted, then one can predict a very high anomalous eddy-current loss under circumstances where the lamination thickness is small enough to imply single domains over that thickness. The issue is intimately associated with the exploitation of the Nernst Effect as a cooling process because the interaction of our external controls and the internal current circulation inside the metal lamination can greatly enhance the scope for practical energy conversion. Experimental Investigations The objective of the experimental investigations can be set in context if one refers to a vector diagram showing the normal operation of a power transformer on load and on no load. The focus of attention is the eddy-current induced in a single lamination as normally used in a transformer. The current flow parallel with the surface of the lamination is subject to resistance and that flow accounts for virtually all of the eddy-current loss, whereas the flow of current at the edges and transverse to the main flow makes the short crossing of the thickness of the lamination and will take the path of least resistance. A lamination that has a 200 micron thickness is one in which single magnetic domains could well span the full thickness, meaning that a current which has, near those edges of the lamination, to flow from one side to the other can do that by passage through that single lamination. This contrasts with the main flow parallel with the surface, in that the latter has no choice but to travel
through the succession of domains in its path which have polarizations first one way and then the other way. Given that the temperature gradient in the lamination will normally be confined to flow in the plane of the lamination and across its width as opposed to its length, that makes it orthogonal with the current crossing the thickness and with the magnetic polarization of some of the domains. That current can choose a domain for which the Nernst Effect asserts a cooling action to give an EMF impetus to the current flow. In summary, therefore, we see that the Nernst Effect in a thin transformer lamination will drive eddy-currents as if it introduces a negative resistance in the eddy-current loop circuit, given the natural heating that occurs anyway with the presence of magnetization loss. The question at issue is how this Nernst Effect can be represented on a vector diagram showing transformer core operation and the answer to this is that it amounts to a forward EMF driving a current in anti-phase with the back EMF and so amounting to a magnetomotive force (MMF). It may now be realised that there are interesting considerations when one makes a comparison between the on-load operation of a transformer and the no-load operation of a transformer. Remember, however, that, without the temperature gradient, there is no Nernst Effect. Provided, therefore, we operate the transformer on load and try to avoid the no-load situation, which aggravates loss owing to the Nernst Effect, there is special advantage from a power generation point of view in accentuating the Nernst Effect by incorporating the bimetallic lamination feature. This transfers heat in a way which can sustain the thermal gradient and allow the transformer to provide more output electrical power than needed as input, by virtue of the Nernst cooling action which draws on the external heat source. In its own curious way, this on-load-no-load distinction between the magnetization loss action in a transformer can account for the lack of concern about the eddy-current anomaly by transformer design engineers. The loss anomaly is there to be seen if one tests the no-load properties but transformers are so efficient when operating on load that one need not worry about it at all. However, if the subject under discussion in this Report becomes a technological reality, the transformer that accentuates the Nernst Effect by using thinner bimetallic laminations will bring that eddy-current anomaly more to our attention. ******* At the time of writing this Report the author has encountered the problem that the same test device, albeit after a lapse of time and following some spurious testing involving connecting a capacitative load across the secondary winding, has exhibited operation in a different mode when comparison is made with the initial tests. It is therefore of interest to explain first the test protocol and objective of the experiment, but to facilitate latter analysis this will be done from two viewpoints related to the two different temperature profiles that might be set up in a lamination. The laminations were bimetallic and of Fe:Ni composition. See Energy Science Report No. 1 for description of the test apparatus and results. Assumption I The temperature profile from edge to edge of a lamination is deemed to be of the kind shown in Fig. 7(a). This assumes that the heat flow by normal conduction through metal is from right to left and that any excess heat generated by eddy-currents is mainly shed on the left hand edge of the lamination. We do not consider the thermoelectric current circulation owing to the Peltier and Thomson Effects at this stage, though their action would affect the heat deployment.
Assumption II The temperature profile from edge to edge of a lamination is symmetrical as if eddy-current heating occurs normally and heat flows to both outside edges. This is shown in Fig. 7(b). Now, by having Fe and Ni as the two metals in the lamination, both having opposite Nernst coefficients, Figure 7 we will examine the action where there is a rapid change of temperature. The heat flow in these regions crosses the strong saturation fields in successive magnetic domains and this induces Nernst EMFs which will set up microscopic current circulation around loops through adjacent domains. This is a parasitic action that does not interfere with the main eddycurrent effect; it feeds on heat produced by self-cooling and the energy books balance as part of the natural thermal equilibrium inside the ferromagnetic metal. However, we have a circulating loop of eddy-current that changes from a clockwise to an anticlockwise current flow and vice versa at the power supply frequency. This current, regardless of direction will always follow the path of least resistance, which is the one through the forwardly directed Nernst EMFs in the domains which have the polarization direction giving the forward EMF. In other words, but only deriving from where the temperature gradient profile is steep, there will be substantial cooling adding power to drive that eddy-current and there will be ohmic I2R heating in the mid-range where the current flow is, in any case, not transverse to the temperature gradient. By the Assumption I temperature profile, this means that the eddy-currents will enhance the temperature gradient on the left hand side of the lamination and merely feed the balancing heat as a build-up on the left-hand side, so preserving the profile. By the Assumption II temperature profile, the Nernst Effect action will be to take heat from the sides of the lamination and feed it to the centre, so preserving that form of temperature profile. Conceivably we have a bistable thermal situation sustained by the eddy-current action. In both cases, however, the Nernst Effect will have enhanced the current flow as if the resistivity of the lamination has been reduced. Indeed, the eddy-current flow will be enormous and, even though heat is merely moving around a loop by virtue of the Nernst Effect, there is added input of energy needed from the external induction source because the superimposed action has reduced the path resistance. It is as if a resistor R is fed by current from two sources I from A and Io from B. When we work out the loss this suggests (I+Io)2R but source A contributes I2R plus IoI2R/(I+Io) and source B contributes (Io)2 plus I(Io)2R/(I+Io), whereas the latter is matched by an internal cooling effect. We still have to feed in extra power from source A. That extra power is anomalous eddy-current loss. From an experimental viewpoint it is then of interest to find which situation, temperature profiles I or II apply, given that we can check our theory by examining the level of that eddycurrent anomaly observed.
Now, let us consider the Peltier Effect as superimposed on this situation. The eddy-current component seems to have no relevance because the oscillations mean heating and cooling in balance, though one could suspect that an overall added heating effect might apply if the Peltier EMF exceeds the Nernst EMF and the Peltier activity is biased towards heating. For the temperature profile of Assumption I there will be a d.c. current circulation which will partially polarize the state of magnetism in the lamination as a whole. For the temperature profile of Assumption II there will be no overall d.c. polarization but there could be two d.c. current loops, one clockwise and one anticlockwise, whereby one half of the lamination is biased in one direction and the other half is biased in the other direction. Any such d.c. effect, in either case, will limit the range of flux change as evidenced by a BH loop test. In the first case of assumption I, the loop will be displaced. So, in mounting the experiment, the writer was just curious to see what happened and was expecting the assumption I scenario. The plan was to build a test rig with no provision for asymmetrical heat exit from the test specimen and then rebuild with the eddy-currents generating heat but with one core edge insulated from heat egress and the other having a cooling facility. This latter version of the experiment has not yet been implemented and it may, indeed, be facilitated by co-operation with an institutional laboratory, should such assistance be proffered by sponsors. The report on the initial experiment, some of which was recently published, as in the Australian magazine NEXUS (pp. 48-51, February-March 1994 issue), has also been presented and in its updated form in ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT NO. 1, the findings suggest that the test device is bistable and can be made to work in either assumption I or assumption II mode. Discussion The tests just reported tell this author that the Nernst Effect, if exploited in thin ferromagnetic laminations, having surface provision for guiding conduction current through single domains selected naturally by `path of least resistance' action, and having a temperature gradient that is in-plane in the lamination, will serve as a very efficient cooling device. The findings reported in the test conforming with assumption I are very exciting in that, given confirmation by further experiment, there is reason to believe that a self-generating action is possible. It may even be that we can feed heat into a transformer implementation and with a controlling primary input get the main power from the secondary. This combines refrigeration and power generation, not just as variants on the same technology, but as one and the same, though to get main power generation on a kW per unit weight of apparatus basis one will need to force-feed heat energy input. The technology needed on the basis of the reported experiments is one of intercepting the `eddy-current' flow and that is essentially what we see in a power transformer, because the secondary windings are circuits in which eddy-current flow if the output connections are shorted. We simply need to incorporate a secondary winding that can react inductively to the `eddy-current' circuit or include the Nernst activated elements into that secondary circuit directly. These issues, therefore, become design questions that involve R&D of a proprietary nature and it is submitted that this ENERGY SCIENCE REPORT has served its purpose of introducing prospective development interests to the potential of the technology outlined above. The technology is destined to provide a very effective route to converting heat into electricity and, since the principles of operation depend upon temperature gradients and not absolute temperature in Kelvin, there is no Carnot factor to limit performance. There is therefore,
with some internal heat recyling, clear scope for a near to 100% conversion of heat into electrical power and at least refrigeration prospects down to 77K, where the warm superconductor regime offers future promise.
HAROLD ASPDEN 15 MARCH 1994
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Cryptic Carvings Along Lawrence Brook
Posted on March 2 2015 by Mark and Mark
It is often the case that when the past speaks to us in the modern world, its messages are written in stone. Sometimes these voices from long ago provide a record of a lost and forgotten civilization. Trying to decipher the hidden meanings can be as frustrating as trying to piece together a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces, and doing so without the benefit of a picture to work from.
The fact is that we just don’t know for sure the meaning of many of these cryptic inscriptions which have been handed down to us through the misty veils of time. Some will undoubtedly be forever shrouded in mystery, and continue to be the subjects of speculation and conjecture for generations to come.
Located on the New Brunswick embankment of Weston Mill Pond, a slow moving section of the Lawrence Brook, can be found strange symbols carved into the red sandstone that back to 1876. Nobody to date has been able to decode them. The etched symbols look like letters of some kind, but do not seem to be of any known language. Weird NJ met up with Mark Nonestied of the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission, who took us along the path that leads to the mystery symbols, and filled us in on what he thinks they might be.
“The carvings are very fine. Obviously they knew what they were doing,” Nonestied said. We noticed the similarity in the carving style to many of the gravestones from the era when these inscriptions were made. This, along with the fact that the riverside cliffs showed obvious signs of being quarried at one time, lead us to speculate that the chiseling graffiti artists were perhaps tombstone carvers by trade.
There are other carvings along the brook that depict skulls and crossbones, and other messages from the 19th century, including the words “Red Rover,” the name of a popular pirate novel of the time. Nonestied noted that the town of East Brunswick also got into the graffiti business.
“In 1976, the East Brunswick Bicentennial Commission added their insignia to these rocks, but they had a hard time digging into the shale.”
Upon reaching the site, Nonestied said that there might be a simple explanation of the symbols, but that secret will be forever kept by the carvers.
“Maybe it says ‘Drink At Jacob’s Tavern,’” we mused.
“The names carved above the symbols were New Brunswick residents. They were found in some census records. But why they did this no one knows.”
“The ‘Red Rover’ carvings are on the New Brunswick side and rather difficult to get to. You’ll see their names again, and a skull and crossbones, but not these symbols.” Nonestied noted, referring to the mysterious letter-like code.
These ancient carvings have withstood the test of time, weather, and the re-damming of the river. What the symbols signify will most likely remain a mystery for the ages.
You can read more about other curious carvings found around the state in Weird NJ magazine, “Your Travel Guide to New Jersey’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets,” which can be found on newsstands throughout the state and on the web at www.WeirdNJ.com.
Photos © Weird NJ / Mark Moran
This entry was posted in Ancient Mysteries, Stories and tagged east brunswick, hieroglyphics, middlesex county, mystery, new brunswick, Petroglyphs, rune, stones. Bookmark the permalink.
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5-Year-Old Brings 22 Packets of Crack Cocaine to Philadelphia Day Care
posted by R.J. Johnson - @rickerthewriter - May 15, 2019
Police in Philadelphia are investigating how a 5-year-old boy managed to bring 22 bags of crack cocaine to a day care center this week.
The 5-year-old's stash was discovered after a teacher's aide at St. Cyprian Children's Center noticed a bulge in the boy's pocket around 9:20 a.m. Tuesday. That's when the aide found a plastic baggie containing the individually wrapped baggies. The aide confiscated the bag and turned it over to the director of the center who immediately called police.
The boy was reportedly told by his father, who lives in Upper Darby, to leave the bag in his pocket and not take it out, NBC News reported.
According to a statement from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the staff at the children's daycare are fully cooperating with authorities.
"The aide reported the matter to an administrator, who immediately called 911. Police responded to the call and determined the substance in the bag to be crack-cocaine," the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said in a statement. "Law enforcement secured the bag and removed it from the premises. Staff and administration from the Children’s Center have cooperated fully with police during the course of their investigative work throughout the day and will continue to do so. Information regarding this matter was communicated to all families served by the Children’s Center earlier today. We are grateful to the Philadelphia Police Department for their swift response and their ongoing partnership with us in maintaining safe environments for the children and young people entrusted to the care of the Church and her various ministries."
The drugs were not passed out to any of the other children. No injuries were reported.
Photo: Sy. Cyprian Children's Center/Facebook
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HomeWritingEssay
Uncertain Future – Part XI – High Value Protection
June 9, 2016 June 9, 2016 Jon Essay, Military, Technology, Terrorism Business, Military, Private military contractors, warfare
High Value Body Guards and Military Contractors
Executive security is the industry of protection for VIP and High Value Individuals. While this includes those who specialize in shuttling primped up primadonna starlets like Justin Beiber from show to show, unharassed by throngs of fans, there is a much deeper need for experienced, battle ready security teams.
Due to the attention grabbing nature of these massive catastrophes, many other acts of overt criminal activities have grown in practice, but go relatively unnoticed by those not engaged in foreign policy news. First among these is the threat of kidnapping. While assassination or general acts of terror surely rank high on the list, kidnapping has a special role to play in the story of international chaos that exists today and which will continue in the future.
To understand why this is, one needs to understand how criminal empires and murder crazed caliphates primarily get funding. According to documents discovered following a raid of a prominent ISIS leader [56], the organization is funded massively through the use of kidnapping with the purpose of ransom. CNN and Business Insider investigate further to show the staggering amounts of money generated by these tactics [57] and the rationale for why the act of kidnapping is really such a good idea for such criminal and terrorist organizations. [58]
The kidnapping of Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa rattled the international press for this reason. This time, however, it wasn’t for the sheer barbarity that their fellow news agents were experiencing, (those attempting to report the news in the region are a favorite flavor of victim for the Islamic State, along with female humanitarian aid workers [59]) but the magnitude of the ransom being demanded. The Islamic State demanded of the government of Japan $200 million for their safe return. Like so many others, this negotiation broke down and both were eventually beheaded in brutal fashion.
ISIS’ rationale seems similar to other terror groups: Kidnappings help raise money and, if ransoms aren’t paid, make a point, such as the groups are not to be messed with and even civilians are in danger.
$200 million is sizable demand and one which could drastically help fund the operations of the terrorist organization, which is currently already expanding its reach internationally as its borders shrink locally. While these two did not turn a profit, others did. The French have denied that they have paid ransoms [60], but according to a New York Times Report [61]they succeeded in buying back the freedom of kidnapped Frenchman from the Islamic State from ISIS. A second group working for a french nuclear firm were also freed by an al Qaeda affiliate in return for money. In perhaps the greatest coup for the terrorist state, 49 captives of Turkish origin were returned, seemingly for no reason at all to Ankara. Those following the report, myself among them, strongly suspect a major payoff for their safe and uneventful return [62]. There are other reports of three hundred Christians being charged more than $30 million for their release. One victim gave in an interview with New York Magazine that his captors forced him to call his family and a friend while he was being tortured, in hopes that his anguished screams would move them to pay the ransom money. [63] [64]
“We were blindfolded and chained, and every day they would torture us,” he said. “They would come in, one at a time, and electrocute us or beat us with anything they could find.”
“But they didn’t kill me because they wanted to ransom me. One time, they made me speak to my family on the phone as they were electrocuting me. Then, they made me call a friend, who told them he would pay.”
However, the practice of criminal kidnapping for profit is not limited to the ISIS threat. Moving to the Gulf of Aden and Somalia in one last example, one only has to recount the story of Captain Phillips. [65]There, Somali pirates attempted to take an American vessel hostage along with its crew. This practice has become common in the narrow straits between Iran and the Horn of Africa. Massive ships with massive shipments worth billions are capable of attracting huge payouts to the pirates and the warlords who control them from the mostly European companies who control them. In the case of Phillips, though, the problem wasn’t solved by a financial transaction so much so as the extremely potent delivery of precision fire from the muzzle of US Navy SEAL Snipers.
Regardless of the success of the Phillips case, piracy and kidnapping for ransom are not going away. In fact, seeing the financial and propaganda potential for such violations, the value of making such attacks has prompted many, many more. This, perhaps, has only been exacerbated by the American shift in policy that some would say encourages the practice by providing a means for private individuals to pay the ransoms of their friends and families, thus encouraging more like kind kidnappings.
Having said all of this, it is no longer safe for most Westerners to travel to the Middle East, and the growing troubles of the region are only spreading more and more throughout the Islamic world, as millions sympathetic to the ideals of the Al Qaeda and the Islamic State begin to copy their tactics and methods. Still, people still have business to do, so Westerners are still going to go there. This leads to the need for private military contractors (PMCs).
Mention of the practice of PMCs is one that elicits fear and suspicion in most people unfamiliar with how they are actually used. Often, they can’t be mentioned without imaginations of secret mercenary black helicopter events and Orwellian fears of off the books private armies. In all honesty, very few such companies are used for anything other than bodyguards for individuals of extremely high value in the region, rather than elite soldiers willing to kill for the highest dollar. The US State department often contracts with these companies to provide a greater level of security than they can do otherwise with the military for their foreign dignitaries and ambassadors, and the CIA for their foreign case officers. This is outlined well in the opening chapters of the new book 13 Hours – The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi. The book begins by detailing the lives of the contractors involved, both professional and personal. All of those in the book possessed varied military experience, some US Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and Marines. They may have in their experience sets Master’s Degrees in Criminal Justice, stints as the local police chief, or run warrants as bail bondsmen, and PIs stateside. Other PMCs may come from more diverse backgrounds; internationals with the French Foreign Legion, British SAS, and any number of other places and backgrounds. When I was deployed to Iraq, one team which frequented our Entry Control Point in Al Anbar Province had team members that came from as far off as South Africa, Romania, and Singapore, lead by an English Special Air Service soldier.
For the CIA and State Department, the go to is the Global Response Staff, an open secret of an organization created after the attacks on September 11th, 2001. The GRS gathers together teams of the best and most experienced operators from within the United States military with the knowledge and experience to be able to covertly guard its most valuable assets anywhere on the globe. What distinguishes these individuals from the common military they appear to be is the benefits package. Some PMCs today take in over $150,000 annually for their work overseas, on average, around three to five times what they could have expected in any given military career doing much harder work. Why they are useful is their flexibility and potency. Small teams deployed to a city can easily intertwine with the area, and adapt to cover any target that needs their level of protection. They can do this, however, without the massive overhead of the slow moving US military and sticking out like a sore thumb in places where Americans already have a hard enough time blending in. While these men (and women) and their skills don’t come cheap, they come without the prohibitive costs of deploying an entire unit of Marines or Army soldiers, which could rank in the millions, assuming an entire base doesn’t need to built for the task.
As Benghazi itself showed, the need for these individuals does still exist, and the threat of kidnapping, assassination, extortion, and any number of nefarious concerns may confront high value individuals at any time. This is why operators, such as those working with the Global Response Staff or other private military contractors will be in extremely high demand by foreign dignitaries of all nations, local government leaders, spies, journalists, and corporate executives who travel abroad, all doing business in places where business has to be done. These are the types of people who don’t want to be recorded in orange jumpsuits, a propaganda tool for murder fiends across the world. What this also means is that over the next twenty years, PMC operators of every brand and color will be in such high demand that they pop up literally everywhere important people can be seen in places where bad things often happen. What’s more, many will be more than the sum of high paid former Special Forces operators. They will be homegrown and specialized to their tasks through courses like the various Executive Protection [66] [67] courses that exist and under instruction by companies such as the American security services training company Academi [68]or the European Security Academy [69]. Both of these firms provide, alongside their training, mission support in the form of human resources, planning, and operational support. Remember that these people aren’t accountants, get creative and realize that that means more or less exactly what you think it does.
The big change we will see as a result of this will be rather undemocratic shift in politics across the world. As the means of terrorism continues to grow, the need for higher and higher priced body guards to handle the threat will make some very rich people very safe, while leaving many others with little more than a prayer. In the end, expect to never see another photo again of any person of worth in a critical conflict area of the world without a dedicated staff of very skilled warfighters at their sides and at the ready.
Of course, this causes us to ask a very important question, where are all these extremely well paid and well trained operators going to come from?
Uncertain Future – Part X -Private Security Companies
June 6, 2016 June 29, 2016 Jon Current Events, Essay, Future, Military, News, Technology, World Politics Business, G4S, Private Security Companies, Securitas
Beyond the need for standard training, which will introduce a new vocabulary and the mindset to go with it, is traditional security, which is getting a remarkably untraditional makeover. Companies today are forming which are consolidating the need for security. Less and less often are you seeing security divisions within companies which are not in the business of providing security. Instead, the role of security guard for most companies is often filled by an agent of companies which specialize in the outsourcing of such skillsets. What this means for the future is that we won’t see the old mall cops drifting around on their segways, whose only real talents don’t actually center on tactics and prevention, but on finding a job where they are being paid to stand there.
Instead, these jobs are going to be going more and more to the larger security companies who specialize in the role. Soon, we will likely see a time where all private security for public places, such as malls, workplaces, and schools, all wear an inconspicuous similar uniform labeled with the same logo throughout. Instead of working directly for the companies that employ them, they will be contracted in, all centrally trained and networked with their other satellite offices and local police, all working under a centralized headquarters somewhere in the city, or perhaps across the globe. One such example is Sweden’s Securitas, a logo known throughout the West.
A recent article followed Securitas and the year it has had [53]. According to the Association for Financial Professionals, Securitas experienced “a sharp rise in profits for 2015 amid an increased threat of terrorism and the European migrant crisis.”
Net profit for the full-year rose by 18 percent to 2.44 billion kronor (258 million euros, $288 million), or eight percent excluding currency effects.
Sales climbed by 15 percent to 80.8 billion kronor.
In Europe, sales rose by eight percent to 37.5 billion for 2015 and by 11 percent in the fourth quarter, bolstered by the November 13 attacks in Paris and the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants in Europe.
The company earnings report cites the increased need for security services owed to terrorism alerts and the refugee situation has impacted organic sales growth in Western Europe, mostly in countries like France, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. They also reported a similar rise in Turkey, a country which has welcomed around two million Syrian refugees and saw numerous terrorist attacks within the last year. Securitas also saw a 24 percent increase in North American sales, as well.
Securitas isn’t alone, however. Spain’s Prosegur has a healthy share of the European public security market along with an American based security firm G4S. G4S started becoming more known for its role as the principal security provider for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, a significant role ever since the Munich massacre where eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed. They have also been called by some the largest company you’ve never heard of [54], since they maintain the third largest corporate workforce of any company Earth (660,000 employees) and are considered (loosely) by some to be the largest private military that has ever existed. [55]
While training for you and me will be mandated behavior to attempt to control and mitigate threats, and very large, very structured private security companies will provide for the broader public to help prevent the dangers, another tier of security will create a phenomenon never before seen – the million dollar bodyguard.
Uncertain Future – Part IX – Physical Security
June 2, 2016 May 25, 2016 Jon Essay, Future, Military, News, Technology, Terrorism Security
Changing gears from cyber security to the tangible world, 2015 saw one of bloodiest years on record since the end of World War II. Terrorism that originated in Middle Eastern conflicts has spread out and is beginning to become commonplace in Europe and even starting to appear, yet again, in the United States. The Charlie Hebdo and November 2015 Paris Attacks, along with a third attempt foiled by the presence of American military veterans rocked Europe as the world mourned for them. In the US, a similar, though far less attack, took place in San Bernardino, California. Between these three major attacks, around 160 people were killed. This, however, pales in comparison to the world-wide effects of terrorism. In total, there were nearly 400 terrorist attacks around the world that we know of [51]. In that, it is likely that more than ten thousand people lost their lives in acts of pure terror. I say pure terror, not to add drama to the point, but to differentiate these acts from the similar acts of violence. Acts of warfare, kidnapping, and social strong-arming are being ignored, as their practice has exploded in the last decade to unestimatable levels.
How this will affect the world in the next twenty years is that people, meaning nations, firms, and individuals, will be taking greater steps towards ensuring their own safety in the event of attack. For many, this will see annual trainings being required at many workplaces and schools. Many are already doing this. In another answer, I described how the last decade of terror and threat of “active shooters” has led to new methods and tactics aimed at empowering the individual victim to better deal with theses threats in a way that mitigates their danger, or when cornered in the worst case scenario, confront and attempt to neutralize the attackers. One such training program is ALICE, controversial in that it actually coaches victims of an active shooter incident to fight back as a very last. [52]
Uncertain Future – Part VIII -Cyberwarfare
June 1, 2016 May 25, 2016 Jon Essay, Future, Military, Technology, United States, World Politics Cyberwar, War, warfare
According to the Rand Corporation, [35] Cyber warfare involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization to attack and attempt to damage another nation’s computers or information networks through, for example, computer viruses or denial-of-service attacks. RAND research provides recommendations to military and civilian decisionmakers on methods of defending against the damaging effects of cyber warfare on a nation’s digital infrastructure because, when nations involve themselves in the acts of cracking, all bets are off. As previously mentioned, even massive companies like Sony can be leveled by a national attack. Second, we have to ask what counts as warfare? Can it really be an act of war if no one can possibly die from it? Does it matter that this was an American company? Does it change things that it is American citizens? What does retaliation look like? The truth is, we don’t have a lot of answers for this right now, but where it might lead to is nerve racking.
Joel Brenner, a Senior Counsel at the National Security Agency, in his book America the Vulnerable, focuses on the subject of cyber warfare. He speaks at length about the vulnerabilities to the United States, some already proven and some hypothetical. One threat we may one day face which he poses, comes in the form of an attack on our infrastructure. An attack centered on the Los Angeles powergrid could hold half the West Coast hostage. A similar attack against the DOD or VA could publish every scrap of data on over 22 million veterans for the whole world to see. What’s worse, he showed how capabilities already exist that could do this.
He continues in his book to describe the threat posed by China. China is a special case in that, besides a cyber warfare branch of the People’s Liberation Army [36], China also has the added asset of tens of thousands of nationalistic, “Patriot Hackers”. These individuals form a community of cracker groups which focus on exploiting all international information vulnerabilities from corporate, to military, and even personal. This core group of international hackers has been responsible for countless patent thefts and billions in lost research and development to the benefit of Chinese corporations, but is also responsible for compromising classified information worldwide. China’s hacker community is distinctly different from that of nations like the United States, which, if a pattern could be set, would be better described as anarchistic and anti-government (remember Anonymous), and even those in Russia, who are much more geared to cyber crime for profit. China’s hackers, instead work together alongside, or at least to the benefit of, China’s national government. All this while still be officially “unaffiliated” with the government for diplomatic and legal reasons. Effectively, the Chinese have a clandestine cyber national guard, growing in capabilities and there isn’t really a thing the world can do about it.
In fact, the largest breach of security for information in an American database last year didn’t come from someone hacking some corporation to turn a quick profit. It came from China. [37] Last year, the Office of Personnel Management discovered that information over 21 million victims had slipped into hacker’s hands. [38]The attack lasted over a year and included some 19 million people who applied for government security clearances and the information pertaining to their background checks, along with 1.8 million spouses, friends, and family members. To throw gasoline onto the fire, another 5.6 million fingerprint files of federal employees may have been lost [39], as well.
Moving Westward, Russia is a concern, as well. Having lost much of their technological edge in the last twenty years, they’re working to reclaim lost ground. Currently, when one thinks of Russian hackers, they are probably thinking of internet fraud and child pornography. Over the last few years, however, their capabilities have attempted to close the gap. Recently, in their ongoing conflict between Ukraine, Russian hackers were able to shutdown major sections of the Ukrainian power grid. [40]More concerning, however, is Russia’s attempts to control the media through the very bottom up. Called The 50 Ruble Army, Russia has copied a Chinese tactic to start employing professional commenters, people who scroll the internet commenting on content that weighs negatively against Russia with links to pro-Russian content, articles, and propaganda. [41] (Oh, yeah. Did I forget that about China, too? [42])If you speak about Russia long enough, you’ll see these guys.
But Russia and China aren’t the only concern in cyberwarfare. What’s surprising many, is the capabilities of players that weren’t normally seen in traditional spheres of computing capability. In 2011, by all accounts, Iran was able to steal a United States CIA stealth drone, literally out of the sky. [43]
According to Iranian sources, they were able to capture the US drone by “spoofing” the onboard GPS system. After technicians were able to hack into the drone, they broke the link with the systems remote controllers. From this point, according to the Iranian source, they simply told the drone to land in on an Iranian base, believing it to be its home in Afghanistan. [44]Quite frankly, if any part of that story is true, that is a real head scratcher for the Americans. More so than that, given the relatively unharmed state of the drone, at least from the pictures, it very well could be true. As far back as 2012, the concept of GPS spoofing was a proven concept by researchers at the University of Texas. [45]Given the resources of an entire nation, it wouldn’t surprise me terribly if they figured it out faster than a single American college.
Granted, the loss of our drone rattled many, but it wasn’t the first attack in the Iran/American Cyber War. Nor would it be the last.
Let’s take a step back to the 1980’s. Russia had poor abilities to produce microchips and the soviets worked to steal technology from the West, decades aheads of them technologically speaking. Because of a defector, the United States was able to know what it was Soviet spies were after. The Americans allowed flawed microprocessors to be stolen and their programs copied. These were made so well that they passed an initial inspection, only break down chemical and manufacturing facilities and overpower turbines in the Trans-Siberian pipeline. When soviet spies stole plans for gas-line pumps, they were unaware that it was intentionally designed to pump with much more pressure than the pipes were ever meant to handle. William Safire of the New York Times in 2004 was the first to break this story 25 years later. In his words, “The result was the most monumental, non-nuclear explosion and fire, ever seen from space.”
Fast forward a few decades.
In January 2010, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency visiting the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran noticed that centrifuges used to enrich uranium gas were failing at an unprecedented rate. The cause was a complete mystery—apparently as much to the Iranian technicians replacing the centrifuges as to the inspectors observing them.
Five months later a seemingly unrelated event occurred. A computer security firm in Belarus was called in to troubleshoot a series of computers in Iran that were crashing and rebooting repeatedly. Again, the cause of the problem was a mystery. That is, until the researchers found a handful of malicious files on one of the systems and discovered the world’s first digital weapon.
Stuxnet, as it came to be known, was unlike any other virus or worm that came before. Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it escaped the digital realm to wreak physical destruction on equipment the computers controlled.
WIRED senior staff writer Kim Zetter [46]
A piece of code began showing itself around which became known as the Stuxnet virus, made famous for its approach to disabling Iranian nuclear refinement operations. Brenner describes why Stuxnet was so incredible. It was a worm, a self-replicating virus, which utilized not just one, but four previously unknown vulnerabilities in Microsoft operating systems to spread itself throughout a worldwide infection. Once spread, it sought out particular Siemens centrifuges, like those used by the Iranians to refine Uranium, and bring them down. This virus baffled engineers for months, unaware that random system outages were really the result of advanced sabotage efforts from outside the country. What it showed was the threat to even extremely powerful and well defended military systems were possible via online attack. More perplexing, the Stuxnet virus, Brenner postulates, could have only have been created by one of a very few groups who would have had the technological capability to create it, that being the national governments of either United States, Russia, China, Israel, or one of a few members of the European Community. It goes way beyond the capability of the midnight hacker savant or the college computer science nerd out for kicks. This was deliberate and ingeniously engineered attack conducted by nations.
Enter: The US Cyber Command. All the necessary ingredients are in place for the possibility of cyber-threats from other nations, or even cyber-terrorism. For all intents and purposes, the United States built them. For that reason, the United States military created the US Cyber Command. On June 23, 2009, the Secretary of Defense directed the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command to establish a sub-unified command, United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). Full Operational Capability (FOC) was achieved Oct. 31, 2010. The Command has three main focus areas: Defending the Department of Defense’s Intelligence assets, providing support to combatant commanders for execution of their missions around the world, and strengthening our nation’s ability to withstand and respond to cyber attack. I couldn’t find a video. I don’t think they want me talking about it.
Many speculate that either the US Cyber Command, or some other third party affiliate with the CIA, or even companies like Hacking Team to have created the Stuxnet virus, in conjunction with allies in Israel. As of yet, US Cyber Command has only once, very recently admitted ever taking part in any offensive actions. In the fight to retake Mosul, Iraq US forces are working with allies in the region to stop ISIS on the ground, in the air, and via the web. [47]
Meanwhile, U.S. forces are waging a cyber offensive to cut or spy on ISIS communications in Mosul. Carter said cyber attacks are being used “to interrupt [and] disrupt ISIL’s command and control, to cause them to lose confidence in their networks, to overload their network so that they can’t function, and do all of these things that will interrupt their ability to command and control forces there, control the population and the economy.”
While this is the first admitted time the US Cyber Command has officially been used in an act of cyber warfare, it will certainly not be the last. Along with this, many fear a future where it is needed. In an answer on a similar vein, I was once asked how vulnerable the US Naval fleet was to attack.
Future state-on-state conflict, as well as conflicts involving non-state actors such as al-Qaida, would increasingly be characterised by reliance on asymmetric warfare techniques, chiefly cyber-warfare, Chipman said. Hostile governments could hide behind rapidly advancing technology to launch attacks undetected. And unlike conventional and nuclear arms, there were no agreed international controls on the use of cyber weapons.
“Cyber-warfare [may be used] to disable a country’s infrastructure, meddle with the integrity of another country’s internal military data, try to confuse its financial transactions or to accomplish any number of other possibly crippling aims,” he said. Yet governments and national defence establishments at present have only limited ability to tell when they were under attack, by whom, and how they might respond.
The US Defence Department’s Quadrennial Defence Review, published this week, also highlighted the rising threat posed by cyber-warfare on space-based surveillance and communications systems.”On any given day, there are as many as 7 million DoD (Department of Defence) computers and telecommunications tools in use in 88 countries using thousands of war-fighting and support applications. The number of potential vulnerabilities, therefore, is staggering.” the review said.
“Moreover, the speed of cyber attacks and the anonymity of cyberspace greatly favour the offence. This advantage is growing as hacker tools become cheaper and easier to employ by adversaries whose skills are growing in sophistication.” [48]
Some of those vulnerabilities are forehead-smackingly simple, once you know where to look. “You can walk around any ship, most aircraft, and you can find either USB ports or serial ports that were put there for maintenance,” said Leigher. “They were done for good engineering reasons” — to download diagnostic data, for example — “but the engineer wasn’t thinking about computer security.” What if an enemy agent undercover as a contractor or even as a civilian on a good-will tour slipped a virus-loaded thumb drive into one of those ports? What if the bad guy simply tricked a sailor into doing it for him? [49]
U.S. computer experts playing the part of foreign hackers managed to shut down all communications among the U.S. Pacific fleet, and could have shut down the entire western half of the U.S. power grid. [50]
In that answer, given everything we know about the numerous breaks in our defenses, the capabilities of hackers across the globe, and the outdated systems of much of our Navy, it is plausible a group of hackers which are well enough organized and with enough backing, could compromise our carrier’s systems. It is possible that infected equipment could be installed on the ships themselves, since it is economically impossible to produce all the technologies built for these ships in government controlled factories, nor even, all in the United States. Foreign manufacturing produces gateway points for hardware to be slipped in with infected files that could then reproduce throughout the vessel’s internal secured networks and systems. If this were to happen, it is possible that these ships could be brought down through their own control systems, locking up, halting their communications, melting down their reactors, crashing them into the rocks or even city docks, or just causing them to float dead in the water defenseless against enemy attack and unable to protect us here at home.
Uncertain Future – Part VII – State Sponsored Cracking
May 31, 2016 May 25, 2016 Jon Current Events, Essay, Future, Military, News, Technology, Terrorism, World Politics China, hacking, North Korea, Sony, The Interview
Now that we have thoroughly made it clear that there is no place left safe on the internet for the common individual, or even major corporations and government organizations, what about the governments themselves? What role do they play in this story.
To begin with, let’s talk about Hacking Team. Hacking Team is a company out of Milan that deals in “offensive intrusion and surveillance” capabilities. This includes the ability to monitor communications of internet users, decipher encrypted files and emails, record Skype and VoIP phone calls, as well as remotely activate microphones and cameras on the devices they target. Their primary clients include governments and major corporations, including a few governments with shady human rights records. Basically, they are the most terrifying conspiracy theories on the internet come to life.
Hacking Team are leaders in the growing industry to help governments hack in ways that make the rest of this article look like child’s play. The Hacking Team gives its clients, through use of their Da Vinci and Galileo platforms the ability to do everything from keystroke logging, GPS tracking on cell phones, and extracting wifi passwords, among many other capabilities. [31] Perhaps most interesting is their ability to steal data on local accounts, contacts and transaction histories by decrypting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency wallet files. [32]The tools they use, or rather sell, have been used by governments to… well… you’ve seen the movies. Before you start getting up in arms, you might want to check their previous clients, regimes such as Sudan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, and have been accused of being used against activists and protesters in Morocco, Syria, the United Arab Emirates. [33]They even basically serve as the intelligence agency of the Uganda. Some of those relationships landed them in hot water with the UN. To make matters even more frightening, the Italian company maintains two satellite offices within the United States, one in Annapolis and another in Washington DC. That shouldn’t lead people think this relationship buys the US anything though, since Hacking Team is suspected of selling tools to clients in Turkey who used it on a woman in the US [34]and is now suspected of selling their technology to Syria, as well.
What’s put Hacking Team in the news now? Perhaps unsurprisingly at this point, they too were also hacked in 2015. At some point their network was breached and published online – over 400 gigabytes of data. Like I said before, no one is safe.
Hacking Team’s fate, while ironic, only served to open the eyes of millions to existence of real companies whose only profession is equipping governments with the tools to break down any wall, crack any password, end any online uprising, and own our digital lives. For an example, let’s start with something small, like a foreign government hacking into a major American company to determine what media Americans and the rest of the world were allowed to see.
You know, I’ve always wondered if any of the “A movie they don’t want you to see,” advertisements were ever real. Turns out, there was one that absolutely was. In late 2014, Sony pictures planned to release a movie about a talk show host invited to North Korea. Oh, and he tries to assassinate the dictator. It was an okay movie, but honestly, not something you would watch twice on purpose. Where things went terribly, horribly wrong was when Sony pictures suddenly pulled the movie. In the weeks leading up to the release, the North Korean government expressed their “disapproval” of the film. With its ending scene depicting the violent death of their glorious leader, the North Koreans demanded the movie never show… or else. Whatever, we’re Americans, or sort of. Sony Pictures was in America at least. What are they really going to do, bomb us?
No, they didn’t bomb anyone. Instead, what they did was hack Sony Pictures. In that breach, they stole data that included personal information about Sony Pictures employees and their families, e-mails between employees, information about executive salaries at the company, copies of then-unreleased Sony films, and other information. They threatened to release the information, which any of it could have been deadly to the company, from its employee’s information to scripts of movies that haven’t been made. What happened next?
Sony pulled the film.
Not long after, popular demand, and there was a lot of us who now demanded to see this movie, made it available for streaming. Eventually, we were all able to get our fill of the death of the most infamous man alive, but it cost us. The Guardian called the event a massive defeat on American soil and the message was received, international government sponsored hackers can scare Americans into doing whatever they want.
It pissed us off as it introduced a new word into our collective lexicon: Cyberwarfare.
Uncertain Future – Part VI – If the Feds Aren’t Safe, What Makes You?
May 30, 2016 May 30, 2016 Jon Essay, Future, News, Technology, Terrorism, United States, US Politics Breach, CIA, hacking, US Politics
Ok, so maybe various versions of making people look bad on the internet aren’t nearly as terrifying as legitimate terrorism, but what about the presence of true cybercrime, those who use the internet with no agenda for reform, no desire for publicity, and who 99% of the time, you never knew existed? What about when the threats aren’t out to make you think about some subjective moral wrongdoing, but steal your money and ruin your life. What’s really scary is that no one is safe – quite literally no one. Not even the director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
A group of young hackers, using rather unsophisticated methods, broke into the CIA Director John Brennan’s personal email. So that we are all aware, the director of the CIA is the guy in charge of all US spies and one would thing be well beyond the reach of hackers… especially a group of teenagers. Much to the chagrin of the US government, he really wasn’t. This one, however, wasn’t really his fault. The method the hackers used was to implement a tactic that predates modern computing by only a few thousand years. They pretended to be people they weren’t, tricked a Verizon worker and got Brennan’s email password changed the old fashioned way… by lying. The term they used is “social engineering”. While they didn’t find much, they did find were some documents important to him. Then they bragged about it on Wired. While all of us think this one is hilarious, if a story turns up about a few of these kids turning up missing in a couple of years when no one remembers their antics… don’t say this wasn’t foreseeable.
The same group were responsible for this breach also targeted the FBI… because they are just ballsy I guess… and broke into portals used by police and federal agents to share intel. The site is also used to book suspects, and while it isn’t known how much was taken, hundreds of thousands of users may be vulnerable, many already being leaked following the hack.
2015 saw attack after attack like these, and some of the most massive breaches to internet security the world has yet seen, all with little other incentive than stealing money, stealing information, and extortion. Like my fictional spy from the future, there are many who profit heavily from the information you keep secret. Over the course of the last year, it is estimated that some 70% of the US population experienced some form of cyber attack and over 2.1 billion internet users worldwide. In a Verizon Study of 90 Security breaches, there were 285 million data exposures. Unsurprisingly, attacks are getting much more advanced, with hackers sometimes using multiple attacks simultaneously to succeed in a breach, such as malware, brute force, and SQL injection. Furthermore, 74% of the attacks were external, meaning that 26% were executed from within the companies we are trusting with our data. [21]In a related vein, but just as disturbing, we are now seeing more breaches being discovered by employees than outsiders. Traditionally, these sorts of attacks were discovered by feds or other companies detecting the irregularities. [22] Now, it is much more likely that when you’re breached, you’ll be the first to know… which for some of us, isn’t that comforting.
Depending on how you look at this, it could either be welcome news or utterly terrifying. On the one hand, this means that internal security is at least able to grow to the point that they become aware of their own breaches. On the other hand, it means that the number of breaches, and all the possible avenues of failure have become so numerous, that no government agency can possibly be aware of the threats anymore, let alone protect us from them.
The next troubling discovery, this one from the 2014 report, was exactly how big the hacking business is. In spite of the whole last section of activities by groups such as Anonymous, malicious hackers working with financial motives still account for some 60% of cyber crime. Corporate spying, those seeking intellectual property and trade secrets accounted for some 25% (up from previous years). Those hackers who were not set on serious crimes (you know, for the lulz) or hacktivists with some ideological agenda, in spite of all the news, accounted for next to nothing. [23]That means that in spite of internet hacktivists publicised achievements, the vast majority of illicit attacks happen for no other reason than to rob of us of something precious.
Some of the biggest of these hits last year:
Excellus Blue Cross/Blue Shield – 10 million records lost including names, birth dates, social security numbers, mailing addresses, financial accounts, and claims information [24]
Anthem Health Insurance – Access to 80 million current and former customers names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and income data [25]
Experian – 15 million T-Mobile customers names, addresses, birth dates, drivers’ license ID numbers, and passport numbers. Encrypted Social Security numbers were also stolen, which may provide some measure of safety, but the company warned that encryption may have been compromised [26]
Scottrade – 4-6 million customers contact details compromised [27]
CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and Costco – millions of customers’ credit card, email, postal addresses, phone numbers, and passwords. [28]
Donald Trump’s hotel chain – many thousands of guests’ credit card data [29]
Several people probably noticed that last line and thought to themselves, “Ha, that will show the asshat.” Well, we need to think about that one again, don’t we? Who was hurt by the breach at Trump hotels? Innocent people. Really think about who these people are who are hurt; people who slept at a place. Imagine yourself, really just you, getting a hotel anywhere in the world, never really thinking about the guy whose name is on the side of the exterior wall and if one day he may potentially run for President of the United Freaking States. No, you just slept in a place and now your information is floating around the internet by people who are trading it for money. So to those who are getting their lulz right now from finding out that the “Orange carpeted clown” got pwned (“laughing hard at the misfortunes of Donald Trump” for those not accustomed to the vernacular of the lower internet), you’re real a-holes.
To illustrate this point, as shown already, some the biggest breaches didn’t steal money directly. The big payoff was information. Hackers who can get access to data about real people, not just one, but millions of people at a time, are the biggest scores in the illicit industry of online invasion. Stealing a whole database with customer or employee names, birthdays, SSNs, or any other useful private information can open the door for those people to be targeted later for individual attacks. These attacks may be for money, or they can be for more information, perhaps even national secrets, incriminating information for blackmail, or worse. Often, this information is collected and merged into larger databases, where users are profiled and where that which is stolen can be used against them in some of the most terrifying ways imaginable later… like a hack on the Internal Revenue Service.
The IRS is a common target of hacking. As the central collection agency for all taxes of all people of the United States, it is one of the largest gold mines ever created. In 2015 it suffered the largest breach in its history. It acknowledged that hackers had gained access to view more than 300,000 previous tax returns. They did this through a tool made available by the IRS called “Get Transcript”. Get Transcript allows users to view old returns. The safety in this system is that it requires numerous layers of identifying information to access Get Transcript and view those old returns. The types of information needed: names, social security numbers, birthdates, addresses – the very same items stolen from the other hacks mentioned above. This means that the hackers were able to make one of the largest internet heists in history, only through access of stolen information, gathered, collected, and organized by other hackers in a cyber black market where your information is the most valuable and most traded commodity there is.
Relying on personal information — like Social Security numbers, birth dates and street addresses — the hackers got through a multistep authentication process. They then used information from the returns to file fraudulent ones, generating nearly $50 million in refunds. [30]
That means that each of the victims were hacked not once, but twice. The big takeaway from the 2015 IRS Hack is that there is growing evidence of the existence of something we are all afraid of. Databases out there that are growing day by day, where cells of each of our data are collected and merged without our permission or our knowledge, and that these databases are being traded by people across the world, with no good intention for us. This leads many to believe in a future decades from now which has no secrets, where all of our information is direct and open to the public. For those of us with bank accounts, street addresses, or children, that’s not the idealistic image of an open society that some would paint. The fact is, we live in a state of danger everyday because of the secrets we entrust to others. In the next few decades, for companies to remain viable, they are going to have to prove they can be trusted with our information. More so than this, if we ever want to feel safe again, perhaps the most valuable enterprise in the future of internet security might not be the next guy who is able to steal our information, but the first guys who figure out how to get it back.
Uncertain Future – Part V – Hactivism
May 26, 2016 May 26, 2016 Jon Essay, Future, News, Technology Anonymous, Ashley Madison, hacking
Having said that, there is more power to the open internet than you think. Your private information, while important to you for reasons shown in the previous section, is very little compared to what organized groups with an agenda are really after – complete system change. These groups have proven the means to bring down massive sites and even fight terrorism. Of course, they have also cost thousands of innocent people their personal information, destroyed companies, and ruin marriages, along with more than a few lives.
To begin, one needs to look into the (perfectly named) Ashley Madison Affair [13]. Ashley Madison was and is the internet’s largest website for cheating. Literally, that’s all they do is help people who are married cheat on one another. After a savvy campaign including talk shows and clever advertising, one which brought tons of open scorn, but just enough silent attention to keep the profits rolling in, a group calling themselves, “The Impact Group” decided they weren’t amused with the salacious shenanigans. The Impact Group researched Ashley Madison and found it to be under the ownership Avid Life Media, which also owns other hookup sites like Cougar Life and Established Men, which they claimed supported prostitution and human trafficking. When Ashley Madison reported that they offered a service to completely delete the accounts of users no longer interested in their services, the Impact Group moved out to show that this service wasn’t all it was cracked out to be. 37 million disclosed users later and the site which sold itself on discretion, was in the midst of its worst nightmare.
The impact group is only one such online Robin Hood alliance which exists. Others out there have proven themselves time and time again to be able to affect change, either through direct action, or the threat of it via hacking individuals, corporations, and even governments. One such group calls itself, aptly enough, Anonymous.
Wikipedia describes Anonymous as a loosely associated international network of activist and hacktivist entities. A website nominally associated with the group describes it as “an Internet gathering” with “a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives”.
To understand them further, a group of users of various internet forums Reddit and 4Chan, all functioning under anonymous user names began coordinating efforts towards various political and social agendas. Conversation in the all anonymous sites would form, ranging on the spectrum of enlightened social commentary and debate, to outright bigoted hate groups. Within these conversations, like minded leaders would collectively pool resources, and take the conversation into a more private level.
To use a metaphor, the internet is a single massive room where everyone is screaming to be heard. The chaos and confusion that follows allows a small group to gather by a wall, completely visible to anyone who were to look, and speak openly to where anyone could listen, but their voices still lost because of the constant noise of internet traffic, entertainment, and news. In these “private open sessions” the leader groups came to a consensus of some action which should be taken. Among them were many who were legitimately talented crackers, the term for internet hackers with malicious intents. Their skills, along with a few who just executed their wishes, were able to achieve some crazy results. From here, the cell would plan an operation, in their parlance, and if successful disintegrate back into the crowed. From there, they may join a new operation, or never be heard from again. For this, they describe their movement as “leaderless.”
In the beginning operations or “attacks” ranged on the low end with benign acts of internet weirdness, such as the when hundreds of Anons gathered in an online Finnish Hotel with identical black avatars, forming swastikas and closing down the pool due to “fail and AIDS”. A bit higher up were a few high profile “operations” including attacks on the Church of Scientology, Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, various international copywriting offices, Paypal, and eventually Sony’s Playstation Network.
The group’s preferred method of attack were a series of well-publicized publicity stunts and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS). A DDoS attack is one in which an asset is bombarded with fake traffic, slowing down the service or bringing them down all together. Consider a telethon for kids with cancer or adopting puppies. A version of a DDoS attack (by seriously mean people) would be hundreds of people who all collectively call in with prank calls, tying up all the operators, thus making it impossible to actually take real donations. On the internet, this is done through special programs written to cause a single normal device, such as the phone or computer you are reading this article on, to send false traffic to a website with its spare processing power in the background. Your devices are actually quite powerful and the spare processing power can generate a lot of worthless traffic for the receiver. This is often compounded through the use of botnets, programs which control many devices, sometime thousands, with or without their owner’s consent, all generating traffic to bring down the target websites or online assets. Technically, this attack is harmless, unlike uploading a malicious computer virus, as all effects end the moment the attack stops. The servers go back to operating as normal, no harm done… except for the millions lost through down time and breaches in their security.
Of course, this is all extremely illegal. Many anonymous members found that their movements weren’t as secretive as they believed. Various Anons were jailed or suffered massive fines for their infractions. Sadly, many of the people who suffered the most were not leaders in the movements, or operations, but people who didn’t understand the risks and were just acting under instructions from other Anons more versed in what could go wrong. One example of this is Dmitriy Guzner [14], a 19 year old American given a one year prison sentence for attacking a protected computer. It was around this time that Anonymous truly began evolving in an attempt to be more than just internet pranksters. Seeing many hauled off to long prison stays saw the movement break into various camps; namely those motivated for ideological reasons and those seeking to provoke for entertainment, ie. trolls for the lulz.
Following this period of internal rebranding, and backed by energy gained through the Occupy Wall Street Movement [15], there was some realistic clout to those who participated in the online actions. Brought together by the idealistic sides of Anonymous, operations became more complex, as legitimately talented media experts, artists, videographers, and yes, more hackers, were able to add their capabilities to spread their message and their actions. In the next few years their major operations were more focused and even altruistic. Charitable actions included events like #OpOkand Operation Safe Winter, as well as attempts to intervene in what they viewed as unlawful police brutality, attacking the KKK, and taking down child pornagraphers[16]. Most recently, in an attempt to fight back against the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism and Middle East born terrorism, operations like #OpSaudi and#OpISIS, sought to disrupt funding for the Islamic State and their vast online propaganda presence. According to some reports, as many as 20,000 accounts on Twitter of ISIS affiliates and recruiters have been brought down [17], as well as the hundreds of websites, and the releasing of ISIS recruiter’s personal information including their home address. [18]
While many question Anonymous as nothing but a bunch of unaccountable internet pranksters with various and chaotic agendas, others are impressed by their power and the complexity their operations are taking, if for no other reason, than the attention they are able to garnish for their causes and themselves. Others, however, aren’t happy with what they are considering a virtual lynch mob. Some are leaving the group for its rather chaotic history of attacking innocent people, which have included people in the random databases Anons have gained access to, as well as anyone who speaks badly about Anonymous. [19]
“When I started with Anon I thought I was helping people but over the past few months things inside anon have changed,” the hacker said in a statement posted to the Web. “I am mostly talking about AntiSec and LulzSec. They both go against what I stand for (and what anonymous says they stand for). Antisec has released gig after gig of innocent peoples information. For what? What did they do? Does anon have the right to remove the anonymity of innocent people?
At least one commentator went so far as to consider them the living embodiment of George Orwell’s thought police from his classic science fiction 1984. [20]There thinking anything against the Party was deemed a criminal act – a “thoughtcrime”, which brought about arrest and rehabilitation (read that as torture) under the Thought Police.
1984 is considered a definitive cautionary tale, but what makes Orwell’s masterpiece particularly terrifying is how close 2015 mimics Orwell’s dystopian fiction. You see it in hacktivist groups like Anonymous, commentary shows like The Hannity Show, and online across social networks, the Thought Police has become a reality. If you are outside of their thinking, you become Public Enemy #1 and must be destroyed.
What this means for businesses and organizations is yet another threat to security which has to be accounted for. No one knows when something they do, or some policy they have, will catch the attention of Anonymous, or any other major group of like minded internet anarchists to bring about action in numbers that the government can’t actually do much about. You never know what kind of vulnerability you have until 10,000 angry hackers start inspecting the cracks in your walls.
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IOM: Data Protection Day 2016
IOM today (28/1) marks Data Protection Day, as one of the first international organizations to have taken significant steps to ensure data security in recent years. IOM handles the personal data of hundreds of thousands of people on a regular basis.
For example, IOM’s Human Trafficking Database alone hosts data of more than 45,000 cases and personal data from around 5,000 to 6,000 victims of human trafficking are collected annually.
Registrations are also done in countries around the world, particularly for the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), which in 2015 registered over 200,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and over 750,000 in South Sudan.
Aware of the importance of handling such data in a responsible way, respecting beneficiaries’ rights and bearing in mind IOM’s interests, the organization issued its Data Protection Principles in May 2009, which were further elaborated in its Data Protection Manual.
With this policy, IOM seeks to provide institutional safeguards in line with international law and best standards for handling personal data of IOM beneficiaries, providing a framework for the collection, use, storage, disclosure and disposal of personal data.
The objective of the Principles and the Manual is to respect privacy of IOM’s beneficiaries, meet their expectations in terms of handling of their personal data, protect the integrity and confidentiality of their personal data and prevent unnecessary and inappropriate disclosure.
At an organizational level, the Principles aim to provide comprehensive institutional safeguards for the handling of personal data, and enhance understanding of core concepts and international data protection standards.
Nowadays, considering the huge and continuous flow of personal data and the risks this can entail for the persons concerned, as well as to the organization itself, ensuring appropriate safeguards to protect the data is a must. IOM is committed to further strengthening its data protection policy. This will benefit the organization and its beneficiaries.
By having a sound policy on data protection, IOM’s reputation and credibility among beneficiaries, Member States, donors and other partners can be reinforced. Consolidating IOM’s commitment toward the protection of personal data and the responsible handling of non-personal data allows building trust towards the organization, which will be essential to strengthen IOM’s relationships with its various internal and external stakeholders.
For IOM’s beneficiaries, strengthening IOM’s data protection policy will contribute to preventing inappropriate disclose of their personal data and risks derived from it, as well as protecting the integrity and confidentiality of their information.
With its comprehensive data protection policy, IOM stands at the forefront of data protection among international organizations. Today, on Data Protection Day, IOM celebrates and reiterates its commitment to maintaining high standards in data protection.
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Civitavecchia to Sicily Ferry
Civitavecchia to Sicily ferry information:
There are currently 2 ferry routes connecting Civitavecchia and Sicily, with services from Civitavecchia to Palermo and Termini Imerese. On average, there are a combined number of 6 crossings per week between Civitavecchia and Sicily, which are operated by Grandi Navi Veloci. The shortest crossing is to Termini Imerese and takes around 14 hours, while the longest crossing is to Palermo and takes approximately 15 hours.
The above information is a basic summary on the services between Civitavecchia and Sicily. We recommend using our Ferry Search to find live ferry information and the latest prices.
About Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia (meaning "ancient Town") took the brunt of the two World Wars because of its strategic importance as a Roman Port and in the due course most of the city's archaeological treasures and old buildings were destroyed.
But, some of the interesting sites that still remain are the 16th century Fort Michelangelo and the Piazza Leandra along with some interesting hot spring baths from the Roman times. Civitavecchia Ferry Port has access to the most important national and European road and rail networks.
About Sicily
Sicily is a popular destination with tourists from all over the world who flock to Sicily's beautiful beaches and stunning views. Experience all that Sicily has to offer, from Arab-influenced architecture to the imposing Mount Etna.
Civitavecchia to Sicily
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The Active Adult Guide to Northwest Phoenix Spring Training Games
Selected Post
by Maddy Crozier on February 20th, 2019
Both the Padres and Royals call northwest Phoenix home for the spring. (Image via Shutterstock.com)
The metropolitan Phoenix area hosts the Cactus League, the spring training league for several Midwestern and West Coast Major League Baseball teams. Fifteen teams participate in the Cactus League at several different ballparks across the region, with four teams calling northwest Phoenix home.
The Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers play at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, while the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners play at Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria.
From the end of February to the end of March, baseball fans from around the country can watch their favorite teams play in stadiums across Phoenix. If you’re making the trip to northwest Phoenix to see these teams play, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know to attend their spring training games, plus some 55+ communities to see while you’re there. If you’re staying in the area, take a look at our guide to southwest Phoenix spring training games, too.
Surprise Stadium - Surprise
Surprise Stadium is a modern complex with plenty of unique food options to try. (Image via Random9Thought)
Located in Surprise, Arizona, Surprise Stadium opened in 2002 and seats 10,714 people. The ballpark is located at the Surprise Recreation Campus athletic facility that also features 12 baseball fields and an 8-acre multi-purpose field.
Inside the stadium, fans can find quotes from Babe Ruth, George Will, Bob Lemon, Bryant Gumbel, Red Smith, and Humphrey Bogart. The lower deck concourse also features plaques that commemorate the greatest players and managers from the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals as well as local community heroes.
Another unique feature of this stadium is the surplus of people in yellow shirts that baseball fans see at spring training games. They are the Surprise Sundancers, the official spring training volunteer organization of the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers. This registered non-profit organization consists of over 750 members.
Who Plays Here
Surprise Stadium is the spring training home of the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers. Both teams opened the Surprise Stadium in 2003 as the first and only MLB teams to train there.
The Rangers and the Royals will open and close their spring training seasons with games against each other. The teams play head-to-head on Saturday, February 23 to start the season and then on Sunday, March 24 to end the season. The teams play each other twice more during spring training, with games on Monday, March 11 and Thursday, March 14.
The Royals play 32 Cactus League games in 2019, with 17 in Surprise and 15 on the road. The team has two off days scheduled for March 4 and March 18. The Rangers play 33 Cactus League games in 2019, with 18 in Surprise and 15 on the road. The team has one off day scheduled for March 13.
With its location approximately 45 minutes northwest of Downtown Phoenix, baseball fans have plenty of options to drive to the stadium. From Downtown Phoenix, take Interstate-10 west to SR-303. Then take Bell Road to Bullard Avenue and look for the stadium in half a mile.
From the northwest valley, take SR-303 south to Bell Road. Take Bell Road to Bullard Avenue and look for the stadium in half a mile. From the southwest valley, take 1-10 East to SR-303. Then take Bell Road to Bullard Avenue and look for the stadium in half a mile.
The nearest international airport is the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, about 40 miles away. From the airport, take 1-10 West to Route 303 North. Take the Bell Road exit and turn right on Bullard Avenue. For those who want to use Uber or Lyft, the airport has plenty of pick-up locations.
When driving, follow the signs to park in one of the lots outside of the center field entrance.
How Much Are Tickets?
Ticket prices range from around $8 to $45. Baseball fans on a budget can find the least expensive tickets in the lawn, which range from $8 to $12, and the outfield reserve in Sections 121-124, which range from $15 to $20.
Plaza seats in Sections 117-120 range from $20 to $25 and infield seats in Sections 113-116 range from $25 to $25. The higher price range of $45 can put you in the lower premium seats behind home plate. Ticket prices may vary depending on the day’s game and how far in advance tickets are purchased.
What Else Do I Need To Know Before I Go?
Both the Rangers and Royals have played in Surprise Stadium since 2003. (Image via Shutterstock.com)
Parking at the Surprise Recreation Campus is free, but make sure to arrive early for the best spots. Gates open 90 minutes prior to the start of games. The practice fields open to the public each morning at 9:30 with free admission. In fact, the best chance for fans to add to their autograph collections is to come early and catch the players on the back practice fields during morning workouts.
Surprise Stadium prohibits coolers, backpacks, and open containers. The stadium allows any bags smaller than 16 inches by 16 inches by 8 inches. Fans can also bring in a clear, sealed one-liter water bottle, single-serving juice boxes, and food in clear, sealed bags.
Fun Ballpark Fare
Surprise Stadiums brings baseball fans all of the traditional concessions that they know and love, as well as some modern fare. A handful of specialty concession stands can be found on the concourse down the left field line. The concession stands offer a rotating selection of specialty dishes, plus its regular fan favorites.
Popular choices include funnel cakes, cheesesteaks, and barbecue sandwiches. Fans might also want to try the roasted corn, puffy tacos, fried pork tenderloin sandwiches, and elephant ears. French fries come both wavy and curly. A cool shaved ice “snowie” in over 30 flavors is a great way to cool off.
What To Do Before & After Games
If you have a few hours before or after a game, you might want to check out the things to do in the surrounding area. The nearby Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium, and Safari Park, has one of the largest collections of exotic animals in Arizona.
Those who want to spend time outdoors can enjoy horseback riding, hiking, biking, and RV camping at the White Tank Mountain Regional Park just over 11 miles away. Just 12 miles southeast, the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley features over 75,000 square feet of adults-only fun with five restaurants and more.
Nearby Away Game Destinations
The closest spring training ballpark to Surprise Stadium is the Peoria Sports Complex where the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners play just about 10 miles away. The Royals play the Mariners at the Peoria Sports Complex on Monday, March 11 and the Padres on Saturday, March 16. The Rangers face the Mariners at Peoria on Tuesday, February 26 and return to play the Padres on Thursday, March 7.
Fans can also drive about 13 miles to the nearby Camelback Ranch Stadium where the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers train.
Nearby 55+ Communities
The active adult community located closest to Surprise Stadium is Sun Village, which is just one-and-a-half miles from the stadium. This gated 55+ community of 1,382 homes features a 47,000 square-foot clubhouse called the Sun Village Community Center. This active adult community provides its residents with services that include a hair salon and a full-service restaurant, plus an unbeatable location for the biggest Cactus League fans.
With 16,900 homes, Sun City West offers large scale active adult living for 55+ residents who want reasonably priced homes and luxurious amenities. This community features the largest activity center in Arizona, the R.H. Johnson Center, which contains 118,000 square feet of amenities under one roof. Sun City West boasts three additional amenity centers, nine golf courses, and nine restaurants.
Del Webb’s Sun City Grand welcomes 45+ residents into this community with a lower age restriction and 9,802 homes. The community’s four championship golf courses, called Cimarron, Desert Springs, Granite Falls North, and Granite Falls South, all take their designs from PGA Hall-of-Famer Billy Casper and renowned golf course architect Greg Nash. Additional outdoor amenities include swimming pools, tennis courts, and pickleball courts.
The age-restricted Arizona Traditions community contains 1,768 homes with access to a desirable line-up of amenities. Residents have access to a 20,400 square-foot clubhouse that includes a 700-person ballroom, library, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. The on-site Arizona Traditions Bar serves drinks and food in a sports bar setting. Outdoors, the amenities continue with three pools, a softball field, and biking trails.
Peoria Sports Complex - Peoria
Peoria Sports Complex provides plenty of fun for visitors. (Image via Dirk Hansen)
The Peoria Sports Complex opened in 1994 with a capacity of 12,224. The baseball complex consists of its main baseball stadium, Peoria Stadium, and twelve practice fields. Its location in Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, puts it within reach for many local and visiting baseball fans. The Peoria Sports Complex was the first MLB spring training facility in the country shared by two baseball teams.
Both the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners host their spring training seasons at Peoria Sports Complex. The stadium has hosted these two MLB teams for the Cactus League since it opened in 1994. Both teams are also leased to train there through 2034.
The Padres kick off their spring training season against the Mariners on Saturday, February 23. The Padres play the White Sox at home the following day on Sunday, February 24. San Diego plays 31 Cactus League games in the 2019 season, with 15 in Peoria and 16 on the road.
The team has two off days scheduled for March 11 and March 21. They will play its final two games at home against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, March 23 and the Chicago Cubs on Sunday, March 24.
The Mariners start their season a few days earlier with two games against the Oakland Athletics. The Mariners face the A’s on Thursday, February 21 away and Friday, February 22 at home. Then, the Mariners will play their home-stadium neighbor the Padres on Sunday, February 24.
The Mariners play 24 Cactus League games in this spring training season, with 15 in Peoria and 9 on the road. The team is not playing games in Arizona on March 4, 14-18 and 20 because they will head to Japan for a special preseason series. Mariners spring training end with their two final games on Thursday, March 21 against the Cincinnati Reds and Friday, March 22 against the Los Angeles Angels.
Peoria Sports Complex is located at 16101 N. 83rd Avenue in Peoria. Driving south, take I-17 S to AZ-101 Loop West. Then take exit 14 for Bell Road. Driving north, take I-10 W to AZ-101 Loop North. Take exit 12 for Thunderbird Road.
The nearest international airport, the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, is just 30 miles away. From the airport, take I-10 W to AZ-101 Loop North. Take exit 12 for Thunderbird Road. The airport also provides plenty of opportunities to take an Uber or a Lyft.
Ticket prices range from approximately $9 to $35. The least expensive seats on the lawn range from $9 to $11 depending on the game. Bleacher seats run around $16, while infield box seats cost around $30. The cost varies depending on the game of the day as well as how far in advance tickets are purchased.
Shaded seating can be found in the club seat Sections 305-308 and upper box Sections 309-219. Additional shading seating includes Upper Box Sections 200-215, 217, and 219, Rows HH and above.
Children under 3 do not require a ticket.
Whether you want something adventurous or just a simple hot dog, Peoria Sports Complex has it. (Image via Shutterstock.com)
Parking costs $5 for all personal vehicles. RV parking is $10. Buses carrying groups are not charged for parking. The Practice Field gates open at approximately 9 a.m. during spring training, while the gates at Peoria Stadium typically open 90 minutes prior to game time.
The Peoria Sports Complex offers several theme nights for added fun. February 24 and March 3, 20, and 23 will be Kids Days. Children 8 to 12 can take the field with a player, announce a batter, or sing the seventh-inning stretch, with one activity per child, subject to availability. After the game, every child can run the bases. Just visit guest services up to one hour before the first pitch on game day to register for an activity.
February 25 and March 6, 9, and 21 will be Dog Days, where fans can sit on the lawn with their dog at the game. A $5 dog admission ticket can ensure entry for your furry friend, and all proceeds will be donated to the Arizona Humane Society. Water troughs will be provided.
Even when the Mariners are out of town for a special preseason series, fans can still watch their favorite team. Enjoy a pair of $1 admission games to watch the top minor league prospects of the Mariners and Padres go head-to-head in the stadium. Plus, the first 1,000 fans through the gates will receive a surprise giveaway item.
Cracker jacks, hot dogs, popcorn, and more classic baseball fare can all be found at Peoria Sports Complex, but the concessions don’t end there. At the Taste of the Cactus League stand behind home plate, fans can find luxurious meals like salmon Caesar salad and Baja fish tacos for the home teams, along with rotating dishes that represent the cities of away teams.
The Power Alley station also provides unique dining choices, including gyros and burritos. A specially priced kids meal of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a hot dog with chips and a soda can be found at the concession stand by the wiffle ball field.
In between spring training games, baseball fans can explore the surrounding Peoria area.
Across from the stadium, Arrowhead Towne Center features plenty of shops and restaurants. Additional entertainment options close by include Arizona Broadway Theater and AZ Ice Peoria.
Nearby, Peoria Eighty Three, or P83, is the city’s cultural gateway to entertainment opportunities, outdoor recreation, and shopping. One of the attractions in the area is Modern Round, a virtual shooting lounge complete with state-of-the-art technology and a full restaurant and bar. Local restaurants include Osaka P83 Teppanyaki & Sushi and Revolu Modern Taqueria and Bar.
The closest spring training ballpark to Peoria Sports Complex is Surprise Stadium where the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers play. The Mariners play the Royals at Surprise Stadium on Saturday, March 2. The Padres play three games at Surprise Stadium during their spring training season. The Padres face the Royals on Thursday, February 28 and Sunday, March 10, with a game against the Rangers on Sunday, March 3.
Fans can also drive about 12 miles south to the nearby Camelback Ranch Stadium where the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers train.
Some of the most famous active adult communities in the Phoenix area are located near Peoria Stadium, so a trip for spring training might be an ideal time to explore these 55+ communities that you have to see to believe.
The active adult community nearest to Peoria Stadium is Westbrook Village, a well-established community of 3,910 homes. Residents of Westbrook Village appreciate the community's proximity to the 101 Loop for convenient access to everything Phoenix has to offer. Desirable amenities include two amenity centers, a Fine Arts & Learning Center, and two restaurants.
Just six miles away from the stadium, the 55+ community Ventana Lakes includes 1,701 homes surrounded by nine well-stocked lakes, several waterfalls, and walking trails. Outdoor amenities include courts for tennis, bocce, and volleyball and four swimming pools. A full-time activities director schedules monthly bus trips as well as additional events.
One of Arizona’s most famous active adult communities, Sun City, is also nearby. This Del Webb 55+ community of 27,492 homes was the first active adult community in the state and in the country, so it set the standard for age-restricted resort-style living. The community boasts one of the highest rates of golf holes per capita of any active adult community in the country. Additional amenities include seven recreation centers, a performing arts theatre, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and much more.
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Addleshaw Goddard bolsters GCC Construction practice with new hires
Addleshaw Goddard has bolstered its GCC Construction practice with three new hires, growing the market-leading team to nine specialist lawyers.
Further consolidating AG's status as one of the largest and most active Construction practices in the region, the new hires will be based in the Firm's Oman and Dubai offices.
Joining the Oman office as a Managing Associate, experienced litigator Nic Henrikson has acted for a range of construction and insurance sector entities, including: principals, major contractors, blue chip insurers and government entities. Previously at top tier Australian firm, Minter Ellison, Nic acted on some of the largest construction adjudications to date in Queensland.
With a breadth of contentious and non-contentious experience, James Macdonald and Luke Johnson will join AG's Dubai office as Associates. Joining from Eversheds, Luke specialises in advising Contractor and Employer clients across the UK and GCC and his experience includes: adjudications, mediations, litigation and negotiated settlements covering issues such as design defects and changes, delay claims, late payment issues, final accounts and termination. Most recently working in-house for a major regional contractor, James has been in the GCC for nine years, and has advised government bodies, contractors and subcontractors on public works projects, mixed use developments, ports, shopping malls and airports.
Head of the GCC Andrew Greaves, commented: "We continue to advise a full spread of clients across the region and we are proud that we are able to continue to strengthen our position in the market and attract quality lawyers to our team.
Nic, James and Luke have impressive skill-sets, which will enable us to continue to enhance our sector focus and compliment the investment we have already made into our UAE construction practice."
With work spanning the entire GCC, AG's construction team regularly advises government bodies, developers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants, suppliers and funders on a broad range of matters, and has appeared in all the major centres for International Arbitration. The team has a market-leading position in the Transport and Energy sectors.
Major project conception and dispute resolution the Construction team has advised on include:
Leading the team that advised the successful bidder upon the award of a 29 year concession agreement relating to the design, build, finance, operation and maintenance of district cooling services on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi;
Providing the Main Contractor, in relation to 5 residential towers at the Pearl Development (Qatar), valued in excess of US$ 500 million, legal and strategic advice, in relation to a number of complex construction law issues including design, variations, delay, extension of time, liquidated damages, defective works and termination.
Drafting an ad hoc co-operation agreement in relation to a new build maintenance & work shop facility for the Sheraton Park Project (US$ 100 million) as part of the Integrated Rail Network in Qatar;
Acting for a contractor in a DIAC arbitration for a AED 2.8 billion claim against a developer. The project concerned the construction of a large sports and leisure facility in Dubai;
Advising an Abu Dhabi based EPC Contractor in relation to a US$ 120 million dispute arising out of the design and construction of a tank farm facility in Fujairah;
Acting for a KSA-based EPC Contractor in pursuing a substantial multi-million dollar claim against a regional engineering company for defective workmanship relating to a major oil and gas installation;
Advising a major Abu Dhabi based EPC contractor in relation to a US$ 60 million dispute arising out of the engineering, design, construction and testing of a floating oil rig constructed in Abu Dhabi
Our GCC presence comprises offices in Dubai, Doha and Muscat and our lawyers are all long-term residents in the region.
AG bolsters GCC Construction Litigation Practice to become one of the largest in the region
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Qatar Co-Hosts DC Party to Celebrate Media Freedom Just Ten Days After Closing Doha Centre for Media Freedom
On 26 April 2019, Qatar co-hosted a party in Washington DC to “celebrate the importance of media freedom and integrity,” despite its own lack of such freedoms. Jassim Bin Mansour al-Thani, a media attaché for the Qatari embassy, commented that “Qatar treats media in Qatar and around the world with respect” and “believes firmly in a strong, fair, and independent press.” This party took place only ten days after the Qatari government shut down the Doha Centre for Media Freedom. Al-Thani claimed that, while the Doha Centre is closed, Qatar will continue to “invest heavily in initiatives to protect journalists and promote media freedom,” and legislation to protect media from censorship is “in its final stages.”
Qatari authorities arbitrarily closed the Doha Centre for Media Freedom – a non-profit organization intended to work for press freedom and quality journalism in Qatar, the Middle East, and the world – on 16 April 2019. The Doha Centre offered several programs such as emergency assistance for journalist, as well as training. The Centre established in 2008 by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, and the arbitrary closure of the Doha Centre raises concerns about freedom of expression in Qatar.
The Doha Centre was seen a beacon of hope in a region plagued by the onslaught of public freedoms as well as the killing of several journalists, but faced its own set of issues. The Doha Centre received full funding from the Qatari government, which therefore resulted in restrictions on its professional coverage of human rights against journalists and violations occurring in Qatar and other Gulf countries. All published media was carefully watched, and corresponded to the direction of the higher authorities. Due to large oversight, the government turned the Doha Centre into a tool for state-led propaganda rather than a defender of rights, including freedom of expression.
Over the past couple of years, the Doha Centre has faced internal conflicts concerning the lack of freedom to write about domestic issues. In 2009, Qatari officials sought to stop the Centre’s head of research, Hajar Smouni, from traveling to Bahrain for talks with Sheikh Mai AlKhalifa about reforming press laws. The Centre’s former director, Robert Menard, criticized restrictions on Smouni as “unacceptable.” Smouni’s travel ban was eventually lifted, but not in time for her to make it to the meeting. Furthermore, criticism of the Qatari ruling family was not allowed. Menard stressed that Qatari officials “never wanted an independent centre, one that was free to express its views without being limited by political or diplomatic considerations, one that was free to criticise Qatar itself.” The credibility of the paper was questioned since journalists were never able to comment on the problems in the country that it was based out of.
According to the 2018 report by Freedom House , Qatar’s press freedom status is described as not being free. Print and broadcast media are heavily influenced by leading families and are subject to state-censorship. Journalists practice self-censorship and can face possible jail sentences for defamation. Doha News, an English-language website, has been blocked in Qatar for not having the required operating permits and also for being known to report on issues in the region that are not favorable to the government.
Although Qatar’s constitution guarantees the right to expression and opinion, several laws have been put in place to restrict this right. The provision of the Penal Code and the 2014 cybercrime law criminalize the spreading of “false news” on the internet and provides for a maximum of three years in jail for anyone who posts online content that “violates social values or principles.” The penal code calls for a maximum of five years in prison for criticizing the emir. Qatari authorities used this law to to detain a journalist from Doha News after writing an article about a man convicted of a serious criminal offence in 2015.Additionally, in 2013, Mohamed at-Ajami, a poet, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the basis of his poetry criticizing the Qatari ruling family and other Arab rulers. He has since been pardoned and released. A Qatari attorney described the penal code and the cyber crime law as “like a knife held close to the necks of writers, activists and journalists.”
Qatar’s involvement in a party supporting free press is incredibly ironic considering its ongoing suppression of free expression and censorship of the media. The arbitrary closure of the Doha Centre comes as no surprise with Qatar’s history of restrictive press. The Doha Centre, once viewed as a beacon of hope, is just another victim to the repressive censorship system put in place by Qatar.
Tia Jackson is an advocacy intern with ADHRB
Tags: freedom of expression Human Rights Qatar
ADHRB, FIDH, and OMCT Submit Joint Submission to Saudi Arabia’s 3rd Universal Periodic Review
ADHRB, PEN, and CPJ Submit Joint Submission to Saudi Arabia’s 3rd Universal Periodic Review
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ADHRB, CIVICUS, and ESOHR Submit Joint Submission to Saudi Arabia’s 3rd Universal Periodic Review
A Summary of ADHRB’s Engagement at HRC41
Profiles in Persecution: Ali Husain AlAali
Former Bahraini Member of Parliament Osama Muhana al-Tamimi Faces Continued Harassment
US State Department Keeps Bahrain on Tier 1 in 2019 TIP Report, Ignoring Concerns
UPDATED: Nicki Minaj Backs Out of Saudi Arabia Performance Amid Pressure from Human Rights Groups
Advocacy Al-Wefaq arbitrary detention Arms Sales Bahrain Bahraini Activists BICI Report Campaigns Children & Youth Congress Death Penalty Democracy Events Featured freedom of expression free expression Free Press Free Speech GCC Human Rights Human Rights Council Husain Abdulla Joint Statements Kuwait Nabeel Rajab Newsletter Prisoners Prisoners of Conscience Qatar religious freedom reprisals Saudi Arabia Sheikh Ali Salman Sheikh Isa Qassim statement Statements torture UAE UN Unfair Trials United Nations UPR US State Department Women's Rights yemen
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Mastered the “art of the deal”
There’s no question Todd Mirolla is a keen strategist with a global perspective on business transactions. But it’s his uncanny ability to see four or five decisions ahead that catapults him to the top of the list for business owners seeking legal representation. Todd has mastered the “art of the deal” and is highly sought after for it.
Todd Mirolla is now of counsel with the firm, after 32 years of full-time practice. Todd concentrates his practice on mergers and acquisitions, business entity formation and operations, employment law, intellectual property creation and preservation, financing transactions and real property transfers.
Receiving both his B.A. (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and J.D. degrees from the University of Southern California, he has more than 32 years of business transactions experience in a wide array of matters.
The matters handled by Todd involve a diverse array of legal issues and business needs. He has served clients with issues involving healthcare, hotel and shopping center development, Internet start-ups, outdoor advertising, wineries, copyright disputes, technology licensing, complex financings and international joint ventures. These matters have been handled throughout the United States and in foreign countries as distant as China, Korea and Italy.
Following is a representative sampling of the types of matters Todd has addressed:
Represented the fifth largest billboard company in the United States in all aspects of its legal representation, including the implementation of a national roll-up strategy that involved the acquisition of more than 60 separate entities over a four year period, resulting in the ultimate sale of the client’s business entities for more than $610 million.
Represented a series of hotel ownership and hotel management companies in the acquisition and sale of more than 35 hotel and resort properties throughout the United States, with transaction values in excess of $50 million.
Representation of a shopping center development company in the acquisition, financing and divestiture of community shopping centers throughout the Western United States, including Hawaii.
Representation of a national Christian retail marketing group comprised of more than 240 member stores in all aspects of corporate operations, including intellectual property development and protection.
Representation of the world’s top-ranked professional cycling team.
Representation in all legal matters affecting an internationally-recognized entity with more than 1,200 employees providing educational services to persons with learning disabilities in 38 centers in the United States and the United Kingdom, including the development and preservation of intellectual property assets throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Regular representation of healthcare entities with mergers, acquisitions and compliance.
Regularly represents business entities in financing transactions, including domestic and foreign syndicated financing instruments providing credit facilities in excess of $250 million annually.
Representation of more than 300 start-up entities in all aspects of business planning, entity formation, financing and business counseling.
Regular representation of entrepreneurs seeking to market unique products or services.
Regular representation of numerous non-profit foundations and other charitable organizations in formation and operational issues, including a foundation providing international support for children with learning disabilities.
Lecturing and speaking to professional organizations and business groups on a regular basis on a variety of topics, including employment law issues, intellectual property matters, venture capital financing and corporate compliance.
Todd serves on the Board of Directors of Founders Community Bank. He is a former Adjunct Professor of Business Law at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California.
Todd’s Practice Groups
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23 May, 2014 - 23:50 aprilholloway
Burnt remnants of ancient city found from era of the Mahabharata
In May last year, archaeologists in India unearthed evidence of a 2,500-year-old planned city in Tarighat, Chhattisgarh, complete with water reservoirs, roads, seals and coins, buried 20ft below the ground, in a discovery billed as India’s biggest archaeological find in recent memory. Now at the same site, researchers have found remnants of a “gutted settlement” which had been completely devastated by a huge fire in around the 2 nd century BC, according to a new report in the Deccan Chronicle . The discovery adds to the mystery of the ancient site, as archaeologists try to piece together its ancient past.
Excavations at Tarighat over the last year have revealed that it was a rich trading centre where its residents enjoyed an affluent lifestyle. Female terracotta figurines recovered from the site, indicate that women were fond of different hairstyles and rich costumes. In total, twelve different hair styles were identified among the figurines. In addition, numerous Indo-Greek coins were discovered, along with more than 15 varieties of beads found in large number in almost 2,000 unusual sizes, styles and shapes, which suggests that Chhattisgarh served as a significant bead manufacturing centre. Pendants, ornaments, bangles of gold, silver and copper have also been unearthed from site which had to be placed under supervision of department guards.
Some of the artifacts recovered at the site. Photo source .
The archaeological site spreads over five acres and experts now believe that it is one of the earliest urban trading centres in the country. The Tarighat site provides evidence of four continuous cultural sequences including the Gupta period (sixth century AD), Satavahan period (third century AD), Kushan period (1st-2nd century AD) and early history period (1st-2nd century BC).
“These were among the most interesting times in early India,” said Abhijit Dandekar, an archaeologist at the Deccan College, Pune. “It was the end of the period of the 16 mahajanapadas (loosely translated to great kingdoms) when the Mahabharata was supposedly set, and the beginning of the Maurya empire. There’s very little known about urban structures in this period, in regions spanning modern-day Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.”
The facts surrounding the great fire which destroyed much of the settlement are unknown, but researchers are hoping that further excavation work, which given the extent of the site may take another 5 – 10 years, will help unravel the mystery.
Featured Image: Excavation in progress at Tarighat archaeological site in Chhattisgarh. Credit: Deccon College
By April Holloway
Tarighat
ancient city
archaeology news
April Holloway is a Co-Owner, Editor and Writer of Ancient Origins. For privacy reasons, she has previously written on Ancient Origins under the pen name April Holloway, but is now choosing to use her real name, Joanna Gillan.
Joanna... Read More
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angieblackmon wrote on 25 May, 2014 - 23:40 Permalink
i've been very interested in the mahabarata for a while now. i'd like to get my hands on a copy and read it! :)
love, light and blessings
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Anime Expo Hosts The Promised Neverland, Made in Abyss Voice Actresses
The Promised Neverland director to also attend July event
The official website for Anime Expo announced on Thursday that The Promised Neverland anime's director Mamoru Kanbe and voice actresses Sumire Morohoshi , Maaya Uchida , and Mariya Ise will attend the convention as guests. They will participate in a panel alongside English dub voice actresses Erica Mendez , Jeannie Tirado , and Laura Stahl .
The Promised Neverland premiered on January 10. Aniplex of America streamed the anime on Crunchyroll , Hulu , Funimation , and HIDIVE as it aired in Japan. Adult Swim 's Toonami block premiered The Promised Neverland anime on April 13. The show's second season will premiere in 2020.
Sentai Filmworks also announced on Thursday that it will host a "Voices of the Abyss: Meet the Made in Abyss Seiyuus" panel at Anime Expo, and will host voice actresses Miyu Tomita (Riko), Mariya Ise (Reg), and Shiori Izawa (Nanachi) as guests at the panel. The voice actresses' appearances at the event will include fan interactions, autograph signings, and a behind-the-scenes look at their performances in the Made in Abyss anime franchise.
The 13-episode television anime series based on Akihito Tsukushi 's Made in Abyss manga premiered in Japan in July 2017. Sentai Filmworks licensed the series and released it on Blu-ray Disc on October 23. The English-subtitled version of the show streamed in the United States on Amazon 's Anime Strike service, and HIDIVE streamed the series outside of the United States. The dub is also streaming on HIDIVE .
The anime inspired a two-part compilation film series. Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn ( Made in Abyss: Tabidachi no Yoake ), the first film, opened in Japan on January 4. Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight ( Made in Abyss: Hōrō Suru Tasogare ), the second film, opened in Japan on January 18. Sentai Filmworks screened both films in the United States in March and May.
Gekijōban Made in Abyss: Fukaki Tamashii no Reimei (Made in Abyss the Movie: Dawn of the Deep Soul), a new anime film in the franchise, will open in Japan in January 2020.
This year's Anime Expo will take place from July 4 to 7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Sources: Press release, Anime Expo
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Home » Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1) (Paperback)
Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1) (Paperback)
Special Order - Usually 1-5 Days
Young Adult - The subject matter of Scythe is both troubling and intriguing. In a world where there is no more disease or hunger or war, Citra and Rowan are chosen as apprentices to a scythe - the only person sanctioned to glean/manage the population - and neither wants the job. In the course of training, they are pitted against each other with life and death consequences. A thrilling Prinz Honor book by Neal Shusterman!
— From Karen's Staff Favorites
Two teens must learn the “art of killing” in this Printz Honor–winning book, the first in a chilling new series from Neal Shusterman, author of the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology.
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.
Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.
Scythe is the first novel of a thrilling new series by National Book Award–winning author Neal Shusterman in which Citra and Rowan learn that a perfect world comes only with a heavy price.
Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. Scythe, the first book in his newest series, Arc of a Scythe, is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. Visit Neal at StoryMan.com and Facebook.com/NealShusterman.
"Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman's dark tale thrusts realistic, likeable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions. A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning."
— Kirkus Reviews
"Shusterman is no stranger to pushing boundaries. Scythe owes an obvious debt to Unwind (2007) and its
sequels, and this succeeds as a sort of shadow companion to Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy: instead
of exploring the ways in which men are monsters, this deals in what happens to men when there are no
monsters. When our reach does not exceed our grasp, when comfort is more easily obtained than struggle,
when our essential humanity doesn’t burn out but becomes slowly irrelevant, what becomes of us?
Readers will find many things in these pages. Answers to such unsettling questions will not be among
them."
— Maggie Reagan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: November 28th, 2017
Series: Arc of a Scythe
Maximum Grade Level: 12
Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Death & Dying
Young Adult Fiction / Action & Adventure
Kobo eBook (November 21st, 2016): $9.99
Hardcover (November 22nd, 2016): $19.99
Compact Disc (September 5th, 2017): $19.99
MP3 CD (June 13th, 2017): $9.99
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Iran Pulse
Tehran’s biggest annual cultural event held amid ‘paper crisis’
Parto Shariatmadari April 23, 2019
The biggest annual cultural event in the Iranian capital kicks off amid a paper crisis and a controversy over rentierism tarnishing the publishing industry.
Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images
A young girl and her mother look at books at the 21st annual Tehran International Book Fair in Tehran, Iran, May 4, 2008.
Organizers of the 32nd Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) have set the stage for the Iranian capital's greatest annual cultural event, despite the ongoing paper crisis that has afflicted domestic publishers, and the devastating recent floods that led to the closure of dozens of libraries across the country.
The 10-day TIBF will, nonetheless, kick off April 24 in Tehran's Mosalla prayer ground, and members of the TIBF's policy-setting council have picked the motto "Reading is ability" for the high-profile cultural event. But how costly is reading in sanction-stricken Iran?
In an Iranian New Year (Nowruz) meeting with the Publishers' Board of Directors, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi called for "creative ideas to boost the publication economy." The minister who stressed that the fair should be used as "an opportunity to make people hopeful about the future" is certainly aware of the challenges currently facing the creators of books at every level.
Expensive paper
Some publishers seem to be fed up with what they describe as the "paper mafia" and the insufficient support they receive. Kamran Sharafshahi, the director of Tajalimehr publication, recently announced that his publishing company would not take part in the book fair. "Sadly, due to the sharp rise of the price of paper, film, zink and other publishing expenses, we decided not to participate," he said in an interview. He said the situation of the market has badly affected the quantity of new books, sometimes reducing the number to a mere "20 copies" in each edition. "We cannot survive under the circumstances," he noted.
Meanwhile, some informed observers believe that the TIBF provides a last chance for consumers to buy books at reasonable prices. In a post published days ahead of the TIBF inauguration, writer Ehsan Rezaee called on book lovers to rush to the fair since, despite "the unusual price of paper and subsequently of books, the books will be still offered at former [subsidized] prices."
Providing books at "subsidized prices" is one of the several measures the government has adopted in the aftermath of the return of US sanctions to cushion the rising price of paper for consumers and producers alike. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which is the host of the book fair, succeeded last year in including paper on the Central Bank of Iran’s list of subsidized goods. The government also formed "a paper workgroup" to supervise the fair distribution of subsidized paper among publishers. The workgroup, however, has reportedly faced "some resistance" and has been criticized for failing to curb irregularities. More recently, ahead of the fair, the Ministry of Culture increased book vouchers it provides for university students and seminarians by 50% (compared to last year's quota). But the step is merely a drop in the bucket as the total value of the vouchers for students is 1.5 million rials ($35.7) and for lecturers 2 million rials ($47.6).
How did the crisis start?
Iran entered what is now commonly described as a "paper crisis" in the first half of 2018, when it turned out that several importers who had received subsidized foreign currency to purchase paper were "either unknown" in the business, or nonexistent, suggesting major rent-seeking. This was revealed after the Central Bank of Iran published the list of such importers in the early summer of 2018. One thing led to another and soon the price of paper skyrocketed. Some newspapers reduced the number of their pages or were simply shut down, and numerous publishing companies and those involved in the industry found themselves on the brink of bankruptcy. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance tried to control the problem by supervising the allocation of subsidized paper, but critics of the government believed that the ministry did not have the right mechanism to take effective measures. In January 2019, Tehran's police chief reported the arrest of "a group of 16 people who had imported over 30 tons of paper at a subsidized price and stockpiled it."
Iran's current paper crisis seems to be yet another consequence of the country's economic problems after the reimposition of US sanctions. As in similar situations, the government introduced subsidized foreign currency to assist the struggling publishers, but, in the absence of strong supervision, the policy opened the way for increasing rentierism and corruption.
Recently, a group of publishers in a letter to government officials called for domesticizing the production of paper. They asked the government to make efforts to achieve self-sufficiency, adding that fundamental investment in the production of paper is the only way to resolve the crisis. The request, however, was made while, according to some reports, "due to the shortage of raw materials, the only paper factory active in the country has been operating at just one-fifth of its capacity over the past few months."
Other criticisms
Regardless of paper problems, some publishers are for various reasons against the TIBF. They either refrain from participating or only participate partially. Some, like the head of Ghatreh Publication, Bahram Fayyazi, believe that the selling of books at the TIBF is ruinous for booksellers. These publishers maintain that the TIBF provides a chance for consumers to buy most of what they need for a year and it leaves them no motivation to spend money on books at other times.
There are also those who doubt the cultural impact of the TIBF, like prominent literary critic and translator Mir Jalaleddin Kazzazi. In a recent interview with ISNA, Kazzazi said, "A book fair should be influential and leave a lasting impact. Once it ends, you should be able to clearly see its continuing and dynamic influence on the domain of books, readers, book promotion and anything dealing with books. But this is not the case with the TIBF."
Censorship is another bone of contention. On April 20, members of the Association of Writers of Tehran Province lodged a protest with the minister of culture. The writers criticized the "ban on the distribution of a number of fiction and nonfiction books in the TIBF" and stressed that they were against "any form of illegal censorship (either prior or after the publication)" of books.
Despite its shortcomings, the TIBF is still attractive enough to inspire a love-hate relationship, even with some of its strongest critics. It is an undying source of hope for a great number of publishers and writers who look forward to it, and sometimes they save their literary hits to be unveiled or reach fans during the event. Even Kazzazi, who is an expert on the world-renowned classic Persian poet, Ferdowsi, will have several books this year at the TIBF. There are also others who expect to promote products and win recognition from elite readers for their commitment to an often thankless profession.
The TIBF organizers have said that 140,000 foreign titles will be showcased, and publishers from about 30 countries will participate. The guest of honor of the fair, however, will be China, with 4,000 titles and 78 publishers taking part in the fair. In recent years, works by a few Iranian writers, including the award-winning Houshang Moradi Kermani, have been translated into Chinese. Now one has to see if China's status as guest of honor will lead to any strong appearance of Chinese writers in Iran's book market, which has been traditionally dominated by translations of English-speaking writers.
TIBF officials also announced that during the event, "a network of book-reading promoters" will be collecting donations of books for people in flood-stricken areas. Visitors can hand their offerings to the team, which consists of over 1,000 volunteer groups and campaigners operating in the venue.
Found in: Cultural heritage, Sanctions
Parto Shariatmadari is an Iranian freelance journalist and literary translator living in the UK.
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Efforts under way to restore Babylon's glory
After decades of war and neglect, efforts launched to restore glory of ancient Iraqi site.
20 Feb 2012 19:53 GMT
The whims of a dictator, war, and salt water erosion have all contributed to the deterioration of one of the wonders of the ancient world in Iraq.
Babylon, built about 3,879 years ago, suffered under the weight of Saddam Hussein's 1980s emulation of King Nebuchadnezzar, building his own palace on top of Babylon's north palace. The weight of modern stones, concrete, and erosion caused by new salt water canals near the ancient palace have caused great damage to the site.
The structural and environmental impact of Saddam's palace coupled with poor attempts at restoration twice kept Babylon from being recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site.
During the US occupation, the ancient city was home to US and Polish troops whose trucks and helicopters further damaged the one-time centre of astronomy, science, and culture.
Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reports from Baghdad on efforts to restore this wonder of the ancient world.
SOURCE: Aljazeera
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